Fort Sinquefield

Fort Sinquefield was about ten miles north of Fort Madison, on the western side of Bassett’s Creek, a large stream of water for a creek, on section thirteen, township eight, range three east, a smaller stockade built very much in the same manner.

It was about five miles south-east from the present town of Grove Hill, formerly called Macon, the county seat of Clarke County. This fort stood on a tableland or height of ground extending for a mile north and south. Eastward is a gentle slope which terminates finally in the Bassett’s Creek valley. Westward are deep valleys and narrow, between large, high ridges of land. No actual hill is within miles of this locality, yet the ascent from the valleys to the top of the ridges or table, might be called going up hill. The spring which supplied this stockade with water is south of west, in one of the deep valleys, distant two hundred and seventy-five yards.

“Ninety feet distant from the once stockaded ground, in a northwest direction, are some graves. A few rods eastward of the fort ground is supposed to be an old burial place, although here the traces of the graves were not distinct in 1879. One of the principal highways of Clarke County runs directly by this locality, but, as it has been for many years a family home, no traces of the stockade outlines can be found here which are still so distinct at Forts Glass and Madison.