Fort Mitchell Site | |
A reconstruction of the stockade and a blockhouse. | |
Nearest city | Fort Mitchell, Alabama |
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Coordinates | 32°21′07″N85°01′18″W / 32.35194°N 85.02167°W Coordinates: 32°21′07″N85°01′18″W / 32.35194°N 85.02167°W |
Built | 1813 |
NRHP reference No. | 72000178 |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | June 13, 1972 [1] |
Designated NHL | June 21, 1990 [2] |
Fort Mitchell Historic Site is a park and an archaeological site in Fort Mitchell, Alabama, that was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1990. [2] The park features a reconstruction of the 1813 stockade fort that was an important United States military post in the Creek War, a museum with exhibits about the fort's history, and a collection of historic carriages, a restored 19th-century log home, and a visitor center. [3]
The Chattahoochee Indian Heritage Center has a ceremonial flame memorial to the Creek nation. Interpretive panels recount the history of the Creek War of 1836 and the subsequent forced removal of the Creek peoples along the Trail of Tears. The memorial is located adjacent to Fort Mitchell Historic Site. [3]
The site also features historic burial grounds.
Fort Mitchell Historic Site represents three different periods of relationships of the Creek nation with the United States. The first Fort Mitchell, built in 1813 as an outpost during the Creek War and War of 1812, represents the military aspect of Manifest Destiny. It was named for David Brydie Mitchell, a governor of Georgia. The United States defeated the Red Sticks of the Creek Indian Nation, who comprised the majority of the population and had opposed American expansion in their territory. The Creek in defeat were forced to cede 21 million acres 85,000 km²) of land in 1814 in Georgia and Alabama, affecting the Lower and the Upper Towns.
The second represents the Indian Factory, a trading post staffed by the assistant US Indian agent appointed by the government beginning in 1817, when the post was transferred from Fort Hawkins in Georgia. The trading factory operated until about 1820. A post office was operated here from 1818 to 1820 as well.
In 1821 Col. John Crowell was appointed by US President James Madison as US Indian agent to the Creek, to replace David Brydie Mitchell, who was pushed out for a scandal related to illegal smuggling of African slaves. John's brothers Thomas and Henry Crowell accompanied him to set up the agency. By 1825, Thomas was operating a tavern near the fort. That year, the US Army rebuilt the fort and staffed it with a garrison of the Fourth Infantry until 1840, after Indian Removal of the late 1830s. [4]
The last period represents the Federal government's attempt to live up to its treaty obligations, including payment of annuities and supplies, recognition of sovereignty and other elements since the 19th century.[ clarification needed ] Fort Mitchell was garrisoned during the Second Creek War (1836), which occurred in Alabama as the state tried to regulate Creek land allotments and freedom. [4] After this, most Creek in Alabama were forcibly relocated to Indian Territory. Those who stayed in the state had to give up tribal membership; they were considered state and US citizens. [2]
In 1971 professional archeological excavations were undertaken at the former fort, of which only ruins remained. Among the findings were gravesites, remains of a hospital, the old fort, outbuildings, offices, barracks, and storage rooms. The Alabama Archaeological Association published a 1974 report. In 1990 the site was designated as a National Historic Monument. [4]
In 1987 the Department of Defense established the Fort Mitchell National Cemetery on this site for interment of United States veterans from the Southeast and Gulf Coast.
The Muscogee, also known as the Muskogee, Muscogee Creek, MvskokeCreek, Mvskokvlke, or the Muscogee Creek Confederacy in the Muscogee language, are a group of related indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands. Their original homelands are in what now comprises southern Tennessee, all of Alabama, western Georgia and part of northern Florida.
The Creek War (1813–1814), also known as the Red Stick War and the Creek Civil War, was a regional war between opposing Creek factions, European empires and the United States, taking place largely in today's Alabama and along the Gulf Coast. The major conflicts of the war took place between state militia units and the "Red Stick" Creeks.
Fort Hawkins was a fort built in 1806–1810 in the historic Creek Nation by the United States government under President Thomas Jefferson and used until 1824. Built in what is now Georgia at the Fall Line on the east side of the Ocmulgee River, the fort overlooked the sacred ancient earthwork mounds of the Ocmulgee Old Fields, now known as the Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park, and the Lower Creek Pathway. A trading settlement and later the city of Macon, Georgia, developed in the area prior to the construction of the fort, with Scottish fur traders being in the area as early as the 1650s. Later, the fort would become important to the Creek Nation, the United States, and the state of Georgia for economic, military, and political reasons.
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New Echota was the capital of the Cherokee Nation in the Southeast United States from 1825 to their forced removal in the late 1830s. New Echota is located in present-day Gordon County, in northwest Georgia, 3.68 miles north of Calhoun. It is south of Resaca, next to present day New Town, known to the Cherokee as Ustanali. The site has been preserved as a state park and a historic site. It was designated in 1973 as a National Historic Landmark District.
Fort Mitchell National Cemetery is one of the 130 United States National Cemeteries, located in Fort Mitchell, Alabama, adjacent to the state-owned and operated Fort Mitchell Park. It has interred approximately 5,000 individual since it officially opened its 280-acre (110 ha) site in 1987. It serves as a national cemetery in Federal Region IV, to serve veterans residing in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, and Mississippi.
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William Augustus Bowles (1763–1805), also known as Estajoca, was a Maryland-born Loyalist officer during the American Revolution, and later English adventurer and organizer of Native American attempts to create their own state outside of the control of the United States, Spain, or Great Britain.
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David Brydie Mitchell was an American politician in Georgia who was elected in 1809 as governor of the state, serving two terms. He was elected again in 1815 for one term.
Fort Mitchell is an unincorporated community in Russell County, Alabama, United States. The settlement developed around a garrisoned fort intended to provide defense for the area during the Creek War (1813–14).
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Fort Toulouse, also called Fort des Alibamons and Fort Toulouse des Alibamons, is a historic fort near the city of Wetumpka, Alabama, United States, that is now maintained by the Alabama Historical Commission. The French founded the fort in 1717, naming it for Louis-Alexandre de Bourbon, comte de Toulouse. In order to counter the growing influence of the British colonies of Georgia and Carolina, the government of French Louisiana erected a fort on the eastern border of the Louisiana Colony in what is now the state of Alabama.
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