| Fort Claiborne | |
|---|---|
| Perdue Hill, Alabama in United States | |
 Historic marker for Fort Claiborne | |
  Fort Claiborne  Fort Claiborne | |
| Coordinates | 31°32′28″N87°30′46″W / 31.54111°N 87.51278°W |
| Type | Stockade fort |
| Site information | |
| Owner | Private |
| Controlled by | Private |
| Open to the public | No |
| Site history | |
| Built | 1813 |
| Built by | United States Army |
| In use | 1813-1816 |
| Battles/wars | Creek War |
Fort Claiborne was a stockade fort built in 1813 in present-day Monroe County, Alabama during the Creek War. [1]
In the fall of 1813, General Thomas Fluornoy commanded General Ferdinand Claiborne to advance up the Alabama River from Fort Stoddert with seven hundred men in response to a request from General Andrew Jackson. The fort was originally planned to supply Jackson in an assault on Pensacola, but this assault was never carried out. Claiborne began building a fort on Weatherford's Bluff in November 1813 and named it Fort Claiborne. Fort Claiborne consisted of a 200-square foot stockade with three blockhouses and a half-moon battery and was completed by the end of the month. [2] The battery faced the Alabama River so as to protect the fort from an amphibious assault. [3] In a letter to Jackson, Claiborne described the fields around the fort site to provide "imence [sic] crops of corn and pumpkins". [4] While constructing the fort, Claiborne's soldiers harassed the Red Sticks' communications with the Spanish in Pensacola. [5] On November 28, Colonel Gilbert C. Russell and the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment arrived at Fort Claiborne, bringing the cannon for the fort battery and swivel guns. [6] Major Thomas Hinds and a Captain Jones also attacked and killed Red Stick warriors in the surrounding area. [4]
In December 1813, General Claiborne wrote General Jackson that he planned to carry out an offensive against the Red Sticks. [7] Prior to the offensive, Claiborne sent spies to Pensacola who reported back that British forces had not landed in Pensacola but were anchored offshore. [8] On December 13, Claiborne's force set out for the Creek encampment Holy Ground (located in modern Lowndes County) to the tune of "Over the Hills and Far Away". The force consisted of the 3rd U.S. Regiment, Mississippi Territory volunteers, a cavalry battalion, local militia under the command of Samuel Dale (who were originally at Fort Madison), and Choctaw warriors under the command of Pushmataha. [9] On December 23, 1813, the Battle of Holy Ground was fought. After the battle, the American forces returned to Fort Claiborne. General Claiborne returned to his home in Natchez due to illness and Colonel Russell was placed in command of Fort Claiborne. [10]
After the Battle of Holy Ground, Colonel Russell planned to attack multiple Creek villages on the Cahaba River, but the expedition was unable to be carried out due to logistical difficulties. [11] Russell hoped to avoid using civilian contractors to supply the expedition, so he ordered Captain James Dinkins to construct two bateau to transport supplies and reinforcements and rendezvous at the mouth of the Cahaba. The boats took seventy soldiers and sixty-nine barrels of supplies and were outfitted with makeshift armor. One boat was armed with a swivel gun. After leaving Fort Claiborne on February 1, 1814, Russell's force was joined by a company of soldiers under the command of Lieutenant Joseph M. Wilcox. The combined forces reached the rendezvous point where they planned to meet Dinkins, but Dinkins never arrived. Wilcox and five other soldiers were sent to find Dinkins but were attacked by Creek warriors. Russell returned to Fort Claiborne on February 18. After his return, Dale's militia was disbanded. Russell planned another expedition up the Alabama River to Hickory Ground with a fleet of boats and Chickasaw and Choctaw warriors, but this expedition was never carried out. [12]
Prior to the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, Colonel Russell was expected to bring supplies up the Alabama River to combine forces with General Jackson from Fort Williams and Colonel Homer Milton from Fort Decatur and meet at Hickory Ground. Russell commanded five hundred troops of the 3rd Regiment and expected to be reinforced by seven hundred to eight hundred Mississippi Territory militia members. [13] Jackson instead deviated from the original plan conceived by General Thomas Pinckney and Russell never rendezvoused with the remaining forces. [14] After the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, Pinckney took over command of Fort Jackson and commanded Colonel Milton and the 39th Infantry Regiment to bring Colonel Russell and the 3rd Infantry Regiment to Fort Jackson from Fort Claiborne. [15]
Jackson planned to have West Tennessee troops transferred from Fayetteville, Tennessee to Fort Claiborne to oppose any offensive of British forces based in Pensacola. [16]
Captain James Craig of the West Tennessee militia commanded Fort Claiborne from October to December 1814. [17]
Due to its location, the construction of Fort Claiborne effectively put an end to Creek attacks in the southern part of their original territory. [18]
Fort Claiborne was not located on the Federal Road, but was connected to it by a spur road that began at Burnt Corn. [19]
William Weatherford lived for a time at Fort Claiborne after local settlers in the area (who were angered at Weatherford over the Fort Mims massacre) forced him to leave his plantation. [20]
In 1816, the community of Claiborne was founded near the site of the fort and soon engulfed the fort and surrounding area. [21]
A post office operated under the name Fort Claiborne from 1815 to 1822. [22] The first postmaster of Fort Claiborne was John Watkins. [19]
Nothing remains at the site of Fort Claiborne today, but a historical marker notes its approximate location. [23] A stone monument erected by the Alabama Society of Colonial Dames was placed near the site in 1939. [24]
The 3rd and 4th Regiments of East Tennessee Militia and the 1st and 2nd Regiments West Tennessee Militia were stationed at Fort Claiborne at various times. [25]
The Creek War, was a regional conflict between opposing Native American factions, European powers, and the United States during the early 19th century. The Creek War began as a conflict within the tribes of the Muscogee, but the United States quickly became involved. British traders and Spanish colonial officials in Florida supplied the Red Sticks with weapons and equipment due to their shared interest in preventing the expansion of the United States into regions under their control.
Fort Stoddert, also known as Fort Stoddard, was a stockade fort in the U.S. Mississippi Territory, in what is today Alabama. It was located on a bluff of the Mobile River, near modern Mount Vernon, close to the confluence of the Tombigbee and Alabama Rivers. It served as the western terminus of the Federal Road which ran through Creek lands to Fort Wilkinson in Georgia. The fort, built in 1799, was named for Benjamin Stoddert, the secretary to the Continental Board of War during the American Revolution and Secretary of the Navy during the Quasi War. Fort Stoddert was built by the United States to keep the peace by preventing its own settlers in the Tombigbee District from attacking the Spanish in the Mobile District. It also served as a port of entry and was the site of a Court of Admiralty. While under the command of Captain Edmund P. Gaines, Aaron Burr was held as a prisoner at the fort after his arrest at McIntosh in 1807 for treason against the United States. In July 1813, General Ferdinand Claiborne brought the Mississippi Militia to Fort Stoddert as part of the Creek War. The 3rd Infantry Regiment was commanded by General Thomas Flournoy to Fort Stoddert following the Fort Mims massacre. The site declined rapidly in importance after the capture of Mobile by the United States in 1813 and the establishment of the Mount Vernon Arsenal in 1828.
The Fort Mims massacre took place on August 30, 1813, during the Creek War, when a force of Creek Indians belonging to the Red Sticks faction, under the command of head warriors Peter McQueen and William Weatherford, stormed the fort and defeated the militia garrison. Afterward, a massacre ensued and almost all of the remaining mixed Creek, white settlers, and militia at Fort Mims were killed. The fort was a stockade with a blockhouse surrounding the house and outbuildings of the settler Samuel Mims, located about 35 miles directly north of present-day Mobile, Alabama.
Fort Williams was a supply depot built in early 1814 in preparation for the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. It was located in Alabama on the southeast shore where Cedar Creek meets the Coosa River, near Talladega Springs.
Gilbert Christian Russell was an American military officer who served during the Creek War. Born in Virginia, Russell moved to Alabama as a young man. In 1809, Russell was serving as commandant of Fort Pickering when Meriwether Lewis spent two weeks there on his trip to Washington, D.C. Russell and Lewis became friends, and Russell attempted to accompany Lewis on the remainder of his journey but Russell's superiors denied his request. During the Creek War, he was the commander of the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment of the United States Army. His soldiers reinforced General Ferdinand Claiborne at Fort Claiborne and on December 13, 1813, the combined forces launched an invasion at the core of the Creek Nation which culminated in a victory over the Creek at the Battle of Holy Ground. After the Battle of Holy Ground, Russell planned an unsuccessful attack on Red Stick villages located on the Cahaba River. After the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, Russell and the 3rd Infantry were transferred from Fort Claiborne to Fort Jackson. Russell County, Alabama was named in his honor.
The Battle of Holy Ground, or Battle of Econochaca, was a battle fought on December 23, 1813, between the United States militia and the Red Stick Creek Indians during the Creek War. The battle took place at Econochaca, the site of a fortified encampment established in the summer of 1813 by Josiah Francis on a bluff above the Alabama River, in what is now Lowndes County, Alabama. It was one of three encampments erected by Red Stick Creeks that summer. In addition to the physical defenses, Creek prophets performed ceremonies at the site to create a spiritual barrier of protection. Hence the Creek name "Econochaca," loosely translated as holy ground, but properly translated as sacred or beloved ground.
Fort Strother was a stockade fort at Ten Islands in the Mississippi Territory, in what is today St. Clair County, Alabama. It was located on a bluff of the Coosa River, near the modern Neely Henry Dam in Ragland, Alabama. The fort was built by General Andrew Jackson and several thousand militiamen in November 1813, during the Creek War and was named for Captain John Strother, Jackson's chief cartographer.
Ferdinand Leigh Claiborne was an American military officer most notable for his command of the militia of the Mississippi Territory during the Creek War and the War of 1812.
Fort Bainbridge was an earthen fort located along the Federal Road on what is today the county line between Macon and Russell counties in Alabama. Fort Bainbridge was located twenty-five miles west of Fort Mitchell.
Fort Decatur was an earthen fort established in March 1814 on the banks of the Tallapoosa River as part of the Creek War and the larger War of 1812. The fort was located on the east bank of the Tallapoosa River, near the modern community of Milstead. Fort Decatur was also located near the Creek town of Tukabatchee. It was most likely named for Stephen Decatur.
Fort Armstrong was a stockade fort built in present-day Cherokee County, Alabama during the Creek War. The fort was built to protect the surrounding area from attacks by Red Stick warriors but was also used as a staging area and supply depot in preparation for further military action against the Red Sticks.
Fort Easley was a stockade fort built in 1813 in present-day Clarke County, Alabama during the Creek War.
Fort Glass was a stockade fort built in July 1813 in present-day Clarke County, Alabama during the Creek War.
Fort Hampton was a collection of log buildings and stables built in present-day Limestone County, Alabama, on a hill near the Elk River. It was named for Brigadier General Wade Hampton by Alexander Smyth, and once complete in the winter of 1810 both men visited the site. The fort was originally built to deter Americans from settling in Chickasaw territory, then was garrisoned during the War of 1812. Later, it was used for United States governmental functions prior to being abandoned.
Fort Hull was an earthen fort built in present-day Macon County, Alabama in 1814 during the Creek War. After the start of hostilities, the United States decided to mount an attack on Creek territory from three directions. The column advancing west from Georgia built Fort Mitchell and then clashed with the Creeks. After a pause in operations, the column from Georgia continued its march and built Fort Hull. The fort was used as a supply point and was soon abandoned after the end of the Creek War.
Fort Leslie was a stockade fort built in present-day Talladega County, Alabama, in 1813 during the Creek War. After the Creek War began, protective stockades were built by settlers and Creeks who were allied with the United States to protect themselves from hostile Creek attacks. Fort Leslie was the focal point of the Battle of Talladega but was soon abandoned after the end of the Creek War.
Fort Madison was a stockade fort built in August 1813 in present-day Clarke County, Alabama, during the Creek War, which was part of the larger War of 1812. The fort was built by the United States military in response to attacks by Creek warriors on encroaching American settlers. The fort shared many similarities to surrounding stockade forts in its construction but possessed a number of differences in its defenses. The fort housed members of the United States Army and settlers from the surrounding area, and it was used as a staging area for raids on Creek forces and supply point on further military expeditions. Fort Madison was subsequently abandoned at the conclusion of the Creek War and only a historical marker exists at the site today.
Fort Montgomery was a stockade fort built in August 1814 in present-day Baldwin County, Alabama, during the Creek War, which was part of the larger War of 1812. The fort was built by the United States military in response to attacks by Creek warriors on encroaching American settlers and in preparation for further military action in the War of 1812. Fort Montgomery continued to be used for military purposes but in less than a decade was abandoned. Nothing exists at the site today.
Fort Pierce, was two separate stockade forts built in 1813 in present-day Baldwin County, Alabama, during the Creek War, which was part of the larger War of 1812. The fort was originally built by settlers in the Mississippi Territory to protect themselves from attacks by Creek warriors. A new fort of the same name was then built by the United States military in preparation for further action in the War of 1812, but the fort was essentially abandoned within a few years. Nothing exists at the site today.
CMH Pub 74-4