The expedition began at Fort Pierce, where Powell and his men boarded onto boats and shipped down the Atlantic coast of Florida until they landed at Jupiter Inlet on January 15, 1838.
After marching 5 miles (8.0 km) inland along the Loxahatchee River, Powell's troops were suddenly fired upon by Seminole warriors.
Powell ordered his men to charge, and the Seminoles fell back into a dense cypress swamp where they made a determined stand.
As Powell's troops advanced towards the swamp, they began to take many casualties as they were put under heavy rifle fire from the Seminole warriors.
Jesup had a force of about 1,500 men: 600 dragoons (2nd Dragoons under Lieutenant Colonel William S. Harney), 400 artillerymen (part of the 3rd Artillery Regiment under Colonel Lemuel Gates), 400 Tennessee Militiamen (under Major William Lauderdale), 100 Alabama Militiamen, and 35 Lenape Indian scouts.
[4] The Seminoles facing Jesup would utilize the same defensive tactics they used a month earlier at the Battle of Lake Okeechobee, such as cutting the sawgrass in front of their position to give them a better view of the enemy, and putting notches in the trees to steady their rifles.
Jesup's dragoons and infantry advanced towards the Seminole position, with support fire from cannons and Congreve rockets.
[4] After holding the U.S. troops off long enough for their women, children, and elderly to safely evacuate, the Seminole warriors withdrew deeper into the Everglades.
General Jesup complained in his report that the battle was "productive of no results",[5] and that it only caused the Seminoles to disperse further into the Everglades, making it harder for the U.S. troops to catch them.
Chief Abiaka and the Seminoles would move south to Broward County, where they would be pursued again by U.S. troops at the Battle of Pine Island Ridge.
In the 1980s, numerous avocational archaeologists, not all of them working together, concluded Jesup's battle occurred in Jupiter Farms along the Loxahatchee River Northwest Fork around and south of Indiantown Road (SR 706).