Download or read book Fort Meade, 1849-1900 written by Canter Brown and published by University of Alabama Press. This book was released on 1995 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A civilian community coalesced at Fort Meade under the pressures of the Billy Bowlegs War of 1855-58. Quickly the village developed as a cattle industry center, which was important to the Confederacy until its destruction in 1864 by homegrown Union forces. In the postwar era the cattle industry revived, and the community prospered. The railroads arrived in the 1880s, bringing new settlers, and the village grew into a town. Among the new settlers were well-to-do English families who brought fox hunts, cricket matches, and lawn tennis to the frontier.