EARLY FORTS OF ALABAMA

Camp Albert G. Forse

Spanish American War Fort, Huntsville, Alabama

Named after Major Albert G. Forse, 1st U.S. Cavalry, who was KIA at San Juan Hill, July 1, 1898. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

As of November 10, 1898 there were 3 regiments of cavalry regulars and 4 regiments of infantry regulars at the camp. By December 29, 1898, only 1 regiment of cavalry and 2 of infantry remained. Two of the infantry regiments had been moved to Cuba. The February 11, 1899 Army and Navy Journalreported the camp was “rapidly dwindling” because of the troop departures. The camp was abandoned March 7, 1899 according to the March 8, 1899Huntsville Weekly Mercury.

A caption on a photo in the Huntsville-Madison County Public Library states: “Regular army soldiers camped on Monte Sano, 1898.” Monte Sano Mountain is on the east side of Huntsville.

According to Record, A Dream Come True, 1978, published by James Record, page 95: “The war ultimately brought about 14,000 soldiers to Huntsville, AL, mostly from the Tampa, Florida area. . . . The main body of soldiers arrived in August, 1898. During the stay of the soldiers, the ante bellum Robinson homestead on Meridian Pike, Oaklawn, along with the Sullivan Home on Greene and Randolph were turned into military facilities. Soldiers were stationed all over the city. The Fifth Ohio Cavalry was at Brahan Spring; the Sixty-Ninth New York nearby; the Tenth and Second Cavalry was at West Huntsville; and the Second Georgia was on the William Moore place. . . .
The Eighth Cavalry, Third Pennsylvania, Seventh Cavalry and Sixteenth Infantry were located on the Chapman Farm, while the Fifth Maryland Engineers and the First Florida were on the Steele place, where main headquarters were located, and the Second Brigade Hospital was located in Moore’s Grove. Others were in the College Grove near Randolph Street, and Calhoun Grove, as well as McCalley Grove. The Medical Supply House headquarters was on Holmes Street. Generals S. Coppinger and Joe Wheeler were successive commanders of the post, Camp Wheeler. When Wheeler assumed command, he changed the name to Camp Albert G. Forse.” The name change occurred by October 31, 1898.

The Brahan Spring camp was primarily a cavalry camp. Brahan Spring Park is currently located in south Huntsville.

General Coppinger’s headquarters was at the Steele home in east Huntsville. This house is located at 808 Maysville Road and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Robinson home mentioned above is also on the National Register and is located at 2709 Meridian.

Demobilization camp for 69th N.Y. Vol. Inf. Described in Empire State pages 144-151. The 69th’s camp was “about a mile west of the town in a beautiful farming valley.”

Source: www.usgennet.org

Abner Turner’s Fort

Turner’s Fort was some eight miles south and five west, in the west bend of the Tombigbee River, near the residence of Abner Turner. This fort was built of split pine logs doubled and contained two or three block-houses. Two or three miles distant, on the river, was a Choctaw reservation known as Turkey Town, called by the Choctaws “Fakit Chipunta,” Little Turkeys.

Camp Anniston

1862, Anniston. A Confederate camp and supply base.

Fort Armstrong

(1814), near Cedar Bluff
A temporary Federal post built during the First Creek War, probably located on what is now Williamson Island in Weiss Lake (Coosa River). Garrisoned mostly by Cherokee Indians. According to local tradition, this site was used by the British as a supply base during the American Revolution.

Fort Bainbridge

Fort Bainbridge, believed to be named in honor of naval captain William Bainbridge, was a military supply fort located along the Federal Road on what is today the county line between Macon and Russell counties in Alabama. It was either constructed in late 1813 or early 1814 by Georgia troops under the command of Colonel Homer V. Milton or General John B. Floyd in an effort to protect the supply route from Fort Hull to Fort Mitchell. Fort Bainbridge was built in the style of a bastion fort with eight outcroppings.

Captain Kendall Lewis, along with his Creek chief father-in law, Big Warrior, operated a tavern as a stagecoach stop about 400 yards west of Fort Bainbridge, which stayed open under the care of Lewis’ widow until at least 1836.[4] During his return tour, the Marquis de Lafayette stayed at the Lewis Tavern for his first night in Alabama.[5] The site of the fort also lies along naturalist William Bertram’s four-year journey through the Southern United States, during which he documented the flora, fauna and Native Americans of the area.

Today, it remains unmarked and its legacy lies in a small unincorporated community, Boromville, that developed from it.

Wikipedia contributors, “Fort Bainbridge,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia (accessed May 5, 2019).

Fort Belleville aka Fort John Bell

A settlers fort located six miles from Fort Autrey.

Fort Browder

Approximately one mile south-southwest of here stood Fort Browder, a small wooden fortification built in 1836 for protection in the last war with the Creek Indians and named for Isham Browder, a prominent local planter. In 1861, the fort witnessed the formation of a Confederate infantry company known as the Fort Browder Roughs initially commanded by Captain Moses Worthington. The Roughs were subsequently enrolled as Company D, 15th Alabama Infantry. Of the 106 officers and men of Company D, 21 were killed in battle (including 1 captain and 2 lieutenants), 46 were wounded but survived, and 26 died of disease

Fort Bibb

Named for Alabama Territorial Governor William Wyatt Bibb, Fort Bibb was built in winter 1817-1818 to protect settlers from Creek Indian attacks. It was said to be a stockade enclosing Capt. James Saffold’s home at the Flats (Pine Flats). Col. Sam Dale helped strengthen in spring 1818 as he and his militia built Fort Dale 13-14 miles northeast on the Federal Road. These forts were Butler County‘s first election sites in 1820.

Historic marker placed at 31.83846666 -86.88248333. Marker is near Forest Home, Alabama, in Butler County. Marker is on Pineapple Highway, Alabama Route, 0.8 miles west of Bibb Road, County Road 5, on the right when traveling west. Forest Home AL 36030

The Butler Massacre
On March 20, 1818, Capt. William Butler, Capt. James Saffold, William Gardener, Daniel Shaw and John Hinson left Fort Bibb to meet Col. Sam Dale. They were attacked near Pine Barren Creek by Savannah Jack and his warriors. Gardener and Shaw were shot dead; Butler and Hinson wounded. Saffold and Hinson escaped on horseback to Fort Bibb, but Capt. Butler, thrown from his horse and left on foot, was killed by the Indians. Butler County was named in his honor.

Fort Bowyer / Fort Morgan

In the year 1813, on order of President Madison, Mobile Point from Spain by U.S. Regulars, under Gen. James Wilkinson, and militia, under Col. John Bowyer, a wood and earth stockade was quickly built. It was in the shape of a D and armed with cannon taken from Fort Charlotte in Mobile. It’s mission was to protect the entrance to Mobile Bay from the Gulf of Mexico.
Located on the east side of the entrance to Mobile Bay, Mobile Point, Baldwin County Alabama, 30 miles south of Mobile, Alabama.

Fort Bowyer was a short-lived earthen and stockade fortification that the United States Army erected in 1813 on Mobile Point, near the mouth of Mobile Bay in what is now Baldwin County, Alabama, but then was part of the Mississippi Territory. The British twice attacked the fort during the War of 1812. The first, unsuccessful attack, took place in September 1814 and led to the British changing their strategy and attacking New Orleans. The second attack, following their defeat at the Battle of New Orleans, was successful. However, it took place in February 1815, after the Treaty of Ghent had been signed but before the news had reached that part of America.

Between 1819 and 1834 the United States built a new masonry fortification, Fort Morgan, on the site of Fort Bowyer. Fort Morgan Historic Site lies at the end of Highway 180, twenty-two miles west of Highway 59 in Gulf Shores, Alabama. Visitors may take a self-guided tour of the fort and view a small museum, which contains a small exhibit interpreting Fort Bowyer’s role in the War of 1812. Four historical markers on the park’s grounds interpret the fort as well.

Source: Wikipedia contributors, “Fort Bowyer,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

Fort Carney (Josiah Carney’s Fort)

Also known as Fort Hawn, built by Josiah Carney, who settled on the River in 1809. Fort Carney housed about four hundred people. Located six miles south from Jackson, Alabama, in Clarke County, at Gullet’s Bluff, now called Carney Bluff, on the line of travel to Mount Vernon, Alabama.

History of Alabama, and Incidentally of Georgia and Mississippi:

Rumors of the advance of the Indians were rife, and were believed. In Clarke county—in the fork of the rivers—a chain of rude defences had hastily been constructed by the citizens, and were filled, to overflowing, with white people and negroes. One of these was at Gullet’s Bluff, upon the Tombigby, another at Easley’s station, and the others at the residences of Sinquefield, Glass, White and Lavier. They were all called forts. Two block-houses were also in a state of completion, at St. Stephens.

Catos Fort

Located on the west side of the Tombigbee River, five miles below Coffeeville, about a mile from the river.

Fort Charlotte (Fort Conde)

Located on the west bank of the Mobile River, Mobile County, Alabama, in the city of Mobile, Fort Conde was a classic 18th century brick and mortar square fort with large bastions on each corner, gunnery parapet, surrounding moat and outer earthworks. Built in the early 1700’s by Bienville, the French founder of Mobile. When the English captured the fort in 1763, the name was changed to Fort Charlotte in honor of George III’s Queen. Seventeen years later (1780) the Spanish took possession.

Fort Charlotte, called Fort Carlota by the Spanish, was the seat of Spanish
government in Mobile. The fort, located on the site of the French Fort Conde, had been a British outpost prior to Spain’s seizure of the area during the American Revolution. In an effort to secure possession of the disputed region of West Florida, General James Wilkinson seized the fort without a fight on April 13, 1813.

A reconstruction of Fort Conde today sits on the site of Fort Charlotte in downtown Mobile, Alabama. The fort features a museum focusing on the history of the site, and serves as a welcome center for the city of Mobile.

Chinnaby’s Fort

1813, Near Oxford
An old Creek Indian defense in Calhoun County. There is a difference of opinion as to its exact location. Drake states that in 1813 a friendly Creek chief named Chinnaby had a kind of fort at Ten Islands on the Coosa River, and to which his name was given. The map accompanying the Eighteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, however, places it at a point on the north side of Choccolocco Creek, and near the influx of the Wolfskull Creek.
References. – Gatschet, in Alabama History Commission, Report (1901), vol. 1, p. 395; Drake, Book of Indians (1848), p. 55; Bureau of American Ethnology, Eighteenth Annual Report (1899); pt. 2, map 1; Handbook of American Indians (1907), vol. 1, p. 272.

Fort Claiborne

Located on the east side of the Alabama River at Weatherford’s Bluff, Claiborne, Monroe County, thirty-five miles north of Fort Mims. Built by General Claiborne in mid October, 1813 in ten days. A wooden stockade, two hundred feet square, defended by three block-houses and a half moon battery which commanded the river. Used as a staging area for the Battle of Holy Ground.

Camp Clark

Spanish American War Camp Camp Clark was named after Brigadier General Louis L. Clark, Alabama National Guard.
• Source (12) indicates that both the 1st and 2nd Ala. Vol. Inf. assembled at Camp Clark. Newspaper articles, however, indicate there were two camps, Clark and Johnston. Camp Clark was the camp of the 1st Ala. and Camp Johnston was the camp of the 2nd Ala. Camp Clark was established about May 1, 1898. Camp Johnston was first referred to in newspaper articles about May 10, 1898.
• “The Alabama volunteers are rendezvousing here rapidly, and by tomorrows’ sunset it is more than likely that the old brigade grounds on Alba’s pasture will present an appearance similar to the brigade encampments of the state guards formerly held there.” Mobile Daily Register, May 2, 1898 (extra edition), page 4. According to the May 2, 1898 Montgomery Advertiser, “Their camp has been located on the bay shore, where the usual brigade encampments of the Alabama National Guards have been held. It is situated in what is known as Albas pasture, about midway between Frascati and Monroe Park, two bayside resorts.” This site is currently industrial land in or near the Alabama State Docks. The camps were adjacent to each other southwest of the vicinity of intersection of Bay and Yeend Streets. The camp was close to the bay shore.

• The 3rd Ala. Vol. Inf., an all Black regiment also was organized and mustered in at Mobile, at the same campsite, after the 1st and 2nd Ala. left for Camp Coppinger. The May 25, 1898 Nashville Banner reported that the “white volunteers object to having the battalion of Negro troops encamped near them at Camp Clark, and the Negroes will not be sent to Mobile until the white troops move out to the brigade to which they have been assigned.” The May 30, 1898 New Orleans Daily Picayune indicates the 3rd Ala. was at the “Bay Shore Camp,” the same description of the camp site of the 1st and 2nd Ala. The September 6, 1898 New Orleans Times-Democrat identified the 3rd’s camp as Camp Johnston.

Camp Coffee

Old Camp Coffee is a camp in Bullock County Alabama. Old Camp Coffee is situated west of Norton and south of Whitesburg, and is west of Coffee Bluff (cliff).
Latitude: 34.5501° or 34° 33′ 0.3″ north
Longitude: -86.5667° or 86° 34′ west

Camp Coppinger

Spanish American War Camp, Mobile, Alabama.

The camp was informally named after Major General John J. Coppinger, initial commanding officer of the 4th Corps. Some newspaper articles refer to the camp as “Camp Mobile” in the early days after it was established.

The 4th Army Corps initially assembled at Mobile before going to Tampa. There were seven regiments of regular infantry camped in Mobile in early May, 1898, according to the May 7, 1898 Army and Navy Journal. Camp Coppinger was abandoned when the last regiment left about June 27, 1898.

The Spring Hill camp where the regulars mobilized was in the area between the Crichton and Spring Hill suburbs of Mobile, closer to Crichton. According to the Mobile Daily Register, April 20, 1898, page 5, “[t]he camp ground is bound on the north and east by Three-Mile creek, on the south by Stein’s creek and on the west by the Moffatt Road [U.S. Highway 98].”

A May 3, 1898 article in the San Francisco Chronicle refers to the 20th Inf. being at the “Spring Hill Camp” in Mobile.

The Alabama volunteers at Camps Clark and Johnson in Mobile moved to this camp beginning in late May, 1898.

Fort Crawford

Fort Crawford once provided defense for Alabama settlers in what is today East Brewton, Alabama. While the exact location of historic Fort Crawford is unknown, locals claim it once stood on the banks of Murder Creek near the present-day location of First Baptist Church in East Brewton. Fort Crawford was already abandoned in 1817.

Source: Wikipedia contributors, “Fort Crawford (Alabama),” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

Ft. Crawford Alabama Ghost Towns Part of the American History and Genealogy Project (AHGP) “Ghost Towns” Project

Fort Curney

Currys Fort

Fort Dale

Fort Dale (1818-1818) – A Militia Fort established in 1818 near Greenville, Butler County, Alabama. Named Fort Dale after Colonel Samuel Dale who directed its establishment. Abandoned as a fortification in 1818.Established in 1818 as a militia fort situated just north of present day Greenville, Alabama. Alabama Territorial Governor William Bibb directed Colonel Samuel Dale to establish a new fort on the Federal Road to strengthen the local defenses against hostile Indians. Abandoned as a fortification when hostilities ceased.
The site of the fort became the town of Fort Dale and the first county seat of Butler County.

Fort Decatur

Located in Milstead, Macon County, Alabama. A War of 1812 militia fort established in 1814 near Milstead, Macon County, Alabama. Established in March 1814 on the east bank of the Tallapoosa River by Colonel Homer Y. Milton and Carolina Volunteer Militia. John Sevier, Tennessee’s first governor, died at the fort 24 Sep 1815 while arbitrating a boundary dispute between Georgia and the Creek Nation. He was buried at the fort and reburied at Knoxville in 1888. Abandoned in 1815.
Lat: 32.45222 Long: -85.87667

Citation:La Tourette, John. Map of the State of Alabama and West Florida. Montgomery, 1856

Fort Deposit

Built by General Andrew Jackson in September 1813 as a main base for his army.Located at the southern most point of the Tennessee River in Marshall County, Alabama near the present city of Guntersville, Alabama.

Fort Easley (Easley’s Fort)

This stockade was built in 1813 on a small plateau containing about three acres and located on Wood’s Bluff on the Tombigbee River in Clarke County. On the side next to the river the bluff is almost a perpendicular wall, there is a large spring of water flowing from it’s side. This steep plateau made the stockade a naturally strong position. The fort was evacuated after the Fort Mims massacre.

EASLEy’s Fort was on the Tombigbee river, in section eleven, township eleven, range one west, at what is now called Wood’s Bluff. The bluff was
named after its former owner Major Wood, an officer in the battle of Burnt Corn. The fort was about one hundred yards above the bluff landing, on an elevated level tract of land, a small plateau, which contained about three acres. On the side next to the river the bluff is nearly perpendicular, “a bold spring of water flowing from its side,” and above and below the fort the descent is quite abrupt making the position naturally strong. The fort was named from an early resident, “an old and prominent citizen,” who had four sons, Warham, Samuel, Rhode, and Edward or Ned.

Credit:; Clarke County, Alabama, and its Surroundings by Timothy Horton Ball Grove Hill, AL, USA: n.p., 1882

Camp Falkner

(1898), Birmingham
A Spanish-American War muster-out camp for state troops. Located in the East Lake area.

Fort Glass

Located on the eastern boundary of Clarke County Alabama, 225 yards south of Fort Madison. Small wooden stockade built by Zachariah Glass and his neighbors. It’s dimensions were 60 yards by 40 yards, rectangular in shape. During August 1813 was occupied by Colonel Carson’s Regiment of two hundred mounted men.

Fort Gullett

Four miles soiuyth of Jackson, a fort was built in 1813 as defense against the Indians, and in 1812 Fort Cata was built near the present Coffeeville. Then there was Fort Curry and Fort Ensley, all built within this period in Clarke County. Redoubt Pass and Landrum’s Fort, Fort Lavier, and Fort Madison, Mott’s Fort and Fort Sin;quefield, Turner’s Fort, and Fort White were other defenses built at the time. However, Fort Gullett, 4 miles sount of Jackson, was a Confederate fortification built on a pioneer fort for protection of the salt well and works nearby. The fort was erected to keep Federal gunboats from coming up the Tombigbee River (Fort Hawn is the same as Gullett’s Bluff).

Source: Congressional Record Appendix July 29, 1965

Fort Hampton

Fort Hampton (1809-1817) – A U.S Army fort established by Colonel Reuben J. Meigs in 1809, west of Athens in Limestone County, Alabama. Named Fort Hampton after Brigadier General Wade Hampton. Abandoned in 1817. Established to protect Chickasaw Indian lands from settler encroachment. Two companies of soldiers were garrisoned there until the Indian lands were ceded to the U.S. Government 1816.

Lat: 34.8083333 Long: -87.2125

Fort Harker

Fort Harker, located near Stevenson, Alabama, was a military fortification built by the Union Army during the American Civil War. Constructed in the summer of 1862 by soldiers and freed slaves of the Army of the Cumberland, the fort helped secure strategic railroad lines to ensure the free movement of Union troops and supplies in southeastern Tennessee and northeastern Alabama. Union General William Rosecrans established his headquarters at Fort Harker in July, 1863, from where he directed a successful campaign against the position of Confederate General Braxton Bragg in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The fort would be abandoned after the war and fall into disrepair. After restoration, the site became a city park in 1985.

Camp Hilary A. Herbert

Spanish American War Camp, Montgomery, Alabama

Named for a former Secretary of the Navy. Herbert was an officer in the 8th Alabama Infantry during the Civil War.

Camp Herbert was the muster out camp for the 2nd Ala. Vol. Inf. from September 17 to October 31, 1898. The regiment was on furlough during most of the period.

The camp was at Riverside Park in the north part of the city. The camp was likely in the southeast part of the park. This was a very popular park around the turn of the century but no longer exists. It was on the east bank of the Alabama River west of the L&N Railroad tracks with the north boundary being approximately where 4th Street would be located if it extended west across the tracks and the south boundary being approximately where Fowler would be located if it extended west across the tracks.

Fort Hull

Fort Hull was constructed in January of 1814 to serve as a supply base for General John Floyd’s army. John Floyd (1769-1839) played an important military role in the Mississippi Territory (particularly what is now present-day Alabama) by leading troops in the battles of Autossee and at Calabee Creek during the Creek War of 1813-14.f

Colonel Homer V. Milton assumed command of the post once Floyd retreated back to Georgia following the Battle of Calabee Creek. The fort site is currently unmarked, and located on private property off County Road 45 in central Macon County, Alabama.

Fort Jackson

Wooden Stockade with blockhouse, built on the remains of the French Fort Toulouse (built in 1717) on April 17, 1814. At this site Red Stick Chief William Weatherford (Red Eagle) surrendered. On August 1, 1814 a general convention of the chiefs of the entire Creek Nation occurred with General Andrew Jackson to hear the final terms of the surrender and end of the Creek War. This surrender was signed on August 9, 1814.
Located at the junction of the Coosa and Tallapoosa Rivers, Elmore County, Alabama; 4 miles southwest of Wetumpka, Alabama and 180 miles northeast of Mobile, Alabama.

Camp Johnston

Spanish American War Camp, Mobile, Alabama

Probably named after Joseph F. Johnston, who was governor of Alabama during Spanish American War. The other possibility is Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston.

This was the muster in camp “near” Mobile for the 2nd Ala. Vol. Inf. Abandoned about June 24, 1898. Muster in and recruiting camp established in the Mobile suburbs in May, 1898 according to source (8). This camp was adjacent to Camp Clark, the camp of the lst Ala. Vol. Inf.

The June 17, 1898 New Orleans Times-Democrat refers to Camp Johnston as the “beautiful camp on the side of Mobile Bay” and that the location is “near Monroe Park.”

Landrums Fort / Mott’s Fort

A Creek War fort was built here in 1812 around the home of John Landrum. It was also the site of the first meeting of the county court which met in 1813 while Clarke County was still a part of the Mississippi Territory. These two wooden stockades were located eleven miles west from Fort Sinquefield; on section eighteen, township eight, range two east. Clark County, Alabama.
Turn off Co. Rd. 3 at the Winn Fire Station. Marker will be on left next to Berry’s Chapel A.M. Zion Church. N31°40’04.1”W087°54’42.2”

Fort Lavier

Built near the residence of Captain Lawson Lavier, who traded with the Choctaw Indians. Location not known.

Fort Leslie

Fort Leslie (1813-1814) – A Creek Indian War Fort established in 1813 near Talladega, Talladega County, Alabama. Named Fort Leslie after Alexander Leslie Jr.. Abandoned as a fortification in 1814. Also known as Leslie’s Station, Leslie’s Post, Fort Lashley, and Lashley’s Fort.

Established in the fall of 1813 by Alexander Leslie, Jr., a half blood Creek Indian, who built the fort around his home. The site was located about a mile from Talladega’s present day Court Square, on a knoll about 400 feet east of Fort Lashley Avenue, Hwy 21.

In November 1813, a number of non-hostile Creeks sought refuge in Fort Lashley, which then was surrounded by some 1,000 hostile Red Sticks Creeks, who demanded their surrender. When General Andrew Jackson was informed of the situation he assembled an army of 1,200 infantry and 800 cavalry who surrounded the hostiles on 9 Nov 1813. The Battle of Talladega casualties were 15 militiamen killed and about 299 Red Sticks killed.

Ft Louis de la Mobile

Fort Likens

(1838), Barry Springs
A Federal circular log stockade in “Brown’s Lower Valley” (Broomtown Valley) used for the Cherokee Removals on the “Trail of Tears”. Located near the springs on Mill Creek. No remains. The nearby Richard Barry log house (1838) was destroyed by fire in 1970. The Cherokee County Historical Society erected a marker here in the mid 1970s. Actual site is private property.
Historic Marker

Fort Lovell

(1838), near Cedar Bluff
A Federal log stockade near “Turkey Town“, used for the Cherokee Removals on the “Trail of Tears”. Probably located on what is now Williamson Island in Weiss Lake (Coosa River). No remains.

Fort Madison

Located about ten miles east of Jackson, Clarke County, and Alabama. Six miles west of the Alabama River and ten miles east of Jackson, Alabama. About 55 miles north of Mobile, Alabama. Exact location: North-east corner of section one, township six, range three east of the St. Stephens meridian, on the water-shed line, which was then the eastern boundary of Clarke County.

Established during the Creek War (War of 1812) and commanded by Captain Sam Dale and Evan Austill. Choctaw chieftan Pushmataha often visited here.

Built around August 1813. During the Creek War was occupied by settlers. Wooden stockade, square in shape, 60×60 yards, about an acre of ground. A trench three feet in depth was dug around the outside and the bodies of pine trees cut about fifteen feet in length were placed perpendicularly in the trench side by side, making thus a wall of pine wood twelve feet in height. Portholes were cut at convenient distances so as to enable the defenders to look out, and in case of an attack to fire upon the besiegers. It was lighted at night by means of the abundant “pine-knot” placed upon scaffolds, covered with earth, when used would light up the area with a powerful white light.

Located in the center of a large Fort Madison neighborhood. First store located due east, six miles on the Alabama River in 1812. First gristmill located four miles north in 1812. First cotton gin located two miles north in 1813. Surrounded by the first plantations in the area.

Camp McClellan

United States Army Camp, located 5 miles north of Anniston which was founded in 1917. Upon the agreement of the citizens of Anniston to furnish land, water mains, electric lights, etc., the government of the United States agreed to locate a military camp at that point, where soldiers were to be trained for participation in World War I.
The 29th Division consisting of the headquarters troop; the military police; two brigades of infantry; three regiments of artillery; sanitary trains; French motor battery; field signal battalion; engineer regiment; engineer trains; ammunition and supply trains were trained at Camp McClellan before embarking in May for France.
A remount station, No. 309, was maintained, and a base hospital was constructed with a capacity of 1,256 beds. The Southern and Louisville and Nashville railways had sidings which led into the camp.
The Red Cross, Knights of Columbus, Salvation Army, War Camp Community service and Hostess Houses gave places for amusement and entertainment.
The American Library Association maintained a library known as Camp McClellan Library.
Camp McClellan was renamed to Fort McClellan in 1929 and was the training ground for half a million soldiers during World War II.
References. – Manuscripts in the files of Alabama Department of Archives and History.

Compiled in 1921 by Thomas McAdory Owen, LL.D.:

United States Army Camp, located 5 miles north of Anniston which was founded in 1917. Upon the agreement of the citizens of Anniston to furnish land, water mains, electric lights, etc., the government of the United States agreed to locate a military camp at that point, where soldiers were to be trained for participation in World War I.
The 29th Division consisting of the headquarters troop; the military police; two brigades of infantry; three regiments of artillery; sanitary trains; French motor battery; field signal battalion; engineer regiment; engineer trains; ammunition and supply trains were trained at Camp McClellan before embarking in May for France.
A remount station, No. 309, was maintained, and a base hospital was constructed with a capacity of 1,256 beds. The Southern and Louisville and Nashville railways had sidings which led into the camp.
The Red Cross, Knights of Columbus, Salvation Army, War Camp Community service and Hostess Houses gave places for amusement and entertainment.
The American Library Association maintained a library known as Camp McClellan Library.
Camp McClellan was renamed to Fort McClellan in 1929 and was the training ground for half a million soldiers during World War II.

McGrews Fort

Located in the corner of section one, township seven, range one west, about three miles north of Fort St. Stephens, in Clark County, Alabama; five miles north and eighteen west from Fort Madison.

This wooden stockade enclosed nearly two acres. Some of the palisades post were still in place as late as 1879, and around the fort locality was an old field. Here two brothers, William McGrew and John McGrew, British royalists and refugees, made an early settlement near the Tombigbee River. McGrew’s Reserve, an old Spanish grant, was a landmark in Clarke County for many years. They were known to have become exemplary Americans.

Fort Mims

Located 35 miles northeast of Mobile, Alabama, in Baldwin County, Alabama, a ¼ quarter mile from the east bank of the Tensaw River. Built in July 1813, as a wooden stockade, square in shape, enclosing nearly an acre, with a protected blockhouse on the Southwest corner, with two large gates – one on the west wall and the other on the east wall. Stormed and taken by the Creeks on August 30, 1813.

Fort Mitchell

Fort Morgan

Fort Montgomery

Located two miles north of Fort Mims site, 37 miles northeast of Mobile, Alabama, in Baldwin County, Alabama, near the east bank of the Tensaw River. Built in the fall of 1814 by Colonel Thomas H. Benton. This was the staging and assembly area for General Jackson’s army for the attack on Spanish Pensacola, Florida. General Andrew Jackson gathered a force at the fort before moving on Pensacola in November of 1814. Later, the fort was occupied by troops under Major Uriah Blue while conducting raids against Red Sticks.

The site of Fort Montgomery is just west of Highway 59 in Baldwyn County, Alabama, about two miles southeast of Fort Mims. The site is unmarked.

Camp Montpelier

(1817 – 1820), near Little River
A Federal camp located seven miles northeast of Fort Montgomery, ten miles from the Alabama River, at the old townsite of Montpelier. Also known as Camp Montpelier and Fort Montpelier in different sources.

Fort Okfuskee

Fort Payne

(1835 – 1836, 1838, 1864), Fort Payne
A Federal stockade used for the Cherokee Removals on the “Trail of Tears”. Located at the Willstown Mission (built 1823) for the Cherokee. The ruins of the original log house (torn down in 1946) that was within the stockade remain on private property at the end of 4th Street SE off of Gault Ave.. A marker is located in City Park.

The CSA later built a small fort here to guard saltpeter works.

Fort Pierce

Located two miles southeast of Fort Mims. Small wooden stockade built by the Pierce brothers, William and John of New England during the late 1700’s.

Camp Pollard

(1862) – 1865)

A a substantial Confederate military training camp, north of town to protect the railroad lines. Also engaged as observation and suppy depot along the railroad. Established in May 1862 after the evacuation of Pensacola. t also was referred to as Camp Tattnall for Capt. John R. F. Tattnall, who commanded the camp.

Powell’s Fort

Powell’s Fort was a settlers’ fort located about three miles south of Fort Carney,near Oven Bluff (Latitude: 31.3618345°N Longitude: -87.8872201°W). The families of John McCaskey, of James Powell, of John Powell, and about three others, were in this small fort distant a mile from the river. After the fall of Fort Mims these families went to Carney’s Fort and then to Mt. Vernon.

Rankins’s Fort

This was a large wooden stockade and the most western of the river group of forts.
Located in Washington County, Alabama. Housed about five hundred and thirty people.

Fort Serof

Spanish outpost built by group from the Luna colony at Santa Maria de Ochuse. Believed to be located near Fort Morgan.

Fort Shackleford

Camp Shipp

Spanish American War Camp, Anniston, Alabama

Named for Lt. William E. Shipp of the 10th Cavalry who was KIA on July 1, 1898 near Santiago, Cuba. He is buried at Lincolnton, North Carolina.

The camp was established after the war on September 3, 1898 and existed through January, 1899. The 2nd Infantry was there until mid-March, 1899. There were five regiments of state volunteers there throughout much of the winter. A February 28, 1899 report published in the March 11, 1899 Army and Navy Journal stated “Camp Shipp is fast disintegrating” because of all the departures of troops.

From a photograph description of Camp Shipp in the Alabama Room collection of the Anniston Public Library: “Encampment formed at Blue Mountain after the Spanish American War. [Blue Mountain is in the north part of Anniston.] … At the end of the Spanish-American War in August, 1898, and with a final peace settlement still in the future, the U.S. Army deemed it unwise to muster out troops and needed a suitable site to quarter a large reserve force. Anniston was chosen. … Camp Shipp was located in the vicinity of Union Foundry in West Anniston.”

From Gates, The Model City of the New South, Strode Publishers, Inc., 1978, pages 140-143: “The well-drained hill just west of the American Pipe and Foundry Company was designated as the location for General Royal T. Frank’s headquarters and the first regiment. … As additional troops from the Third Tennessee and Fourteenth New York arrived, the camp spread to the hills north and east of the Hercules Pipe Company. Parades were held on the grounds of the old Anniston Inn, which was a college. … Noble Street was dotted with hastily erected tents used as restaurants for the thriving business of Camp Shipp soldiers. [Noble Street runs north and south almost through the entire city on present day maps.] … The medical facilities were the pride of the camp. In the first two months in Anniston, 636 patients were treated, with only 20 deaths reported. The hospital had been moved from Chickamauga, where an outbreak of illness was attributed to infected wells, flies, and unskilled nurses. A War Investigating Committee thoroughly inspected the hospital in October and noted considerable improvement since removal to Anniston. … By late October, several changes were made for the coming of winter. Each soldier was issued two blankets and a heavy overcoat. Every three tents were consolidated with added wooden floors and boxed sides. Wooden kitchens, mess halls, and a new division hospital were built. … Annistonians hoped that Camp Shipp would be permanent. By the end of January, however, troops began to move out. Some were discharged, some regiments were sent on to Cuba, and the 300 camp mules were ordered to Manila. … The last patient was discharged and the hospital closed in March. Even the building was removed.”

The Alabama winter was not pleasant. A February 14, 1899 report in the February 25, 1899 Army and Navy Journal indicates temperatures had reached 14 degrees below zero and that “life in tents is not what one might call comfortable.”

Source: www.usgennet.org

Fort Sinquefield

Located about ten miles north of Fort Madison, on the western side of Bassett’s Creek, Clark County, Alabama. Exact location: section thirteen, township eight, range three east. One mile northeast of Whatley, Alabama and about 65 miles north of Mobile, Alabama. Hwy 84 E on Fort Sinquefield Road is the site of an attack on settlers by Creek warriors during the Creek War. Made famous by Isaac Hayden who saved many settlers by leading a charge outside the fort with a pack of barking dogs.

A wooden stockade with a block-house built on a table-land 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. A spring supplied the fort with water is to the southwest, in one of the deep valleys, 275 yards away. The Creeks attacked this fort but was unable to take it.
Ninety feet distant from the stockade ground, in a northwest direction, are some graves. A few yards eastward of the forts location is supposed to be an old burial place, although the graves were not distinct in 1879.

Fort St Stephens

Located on the west bank of the Tombigbee River, on a high bluff, Washington County, Alabama, about 67 miles north of Mobile, Alabama. Established by the French about 1714, held afterwards by the Spanish, who made a settlement there about 1786, given up by the Spaniards to the Americans in 1799. Considered by the Creeks impregnable.

It is on the Banks of the Tombigbee River and situated on a high bluff that the Choctaw Indians called Hobucakintopa. In 1803 the Choctaw Trading House was established at Saint Stephens and the Choctaw Agency in 1805. The post was active in the deerskin trade, back when a “buck” was worth a dollar. Saint Stephens became the territorial capital in 1817.

Fort Stoddard

Located on the west bank of the Mobile River, Mobile County, Alabama, four miles due east of Mount Vernon, Alabama and 30 miles north of Mobile Alabama. Established by United States troops in July of 1799. This was a Stockade and bastion type. Port of entry into the United States where the Court of Admiralty was held. In 1804 Captain Schuyler of New York was commander of the post of eighty men, Lt. Edmund P. Gaines, Lt. Reuben Chamberlain paymaster. Duties were exacted on imports and exports, (In 1807 Natchez, Mississippi planters paid for Kentucky flour at $4.00 a barrel, the same flour brought through Spanish Mobile, and brought up the river to Ft. Stoddart cost the Tombigbee planters sixteen dollars a barrell.

Fort Strother

(1813 – 1814), near Ohatchee
Built by General Andrew Jackson in October of 1813 as an advanced supply base.
Located at the junction of the Coosa River and Canoe Creek in St. Clair County Alabama on the east end of Hines Mountain, about ten miles southwest of the present city of Gadsden, Alabama.

General Andrew Jackson’s base of operations during the First Creek War. Located four miles west of town on the Coosa River opposite Charchee Creek. The palisaded fort was 100 yards square enclosing eight hospital huts, a supply house, and 25 tents, as well as a large hog pen. Built after the Battle of Tallassahatchee, and before the Battle of Talladega. A stone marker (1913) was erected by the D.A.R..

Fort Warren

In 1816 Colonel Richard Warren constructed Fort Warren near Pine Orchard [approximately 6 miles north of Burnt Corn] for protection of settlers and travelers. Many settlers from Conecuh & Monroe Counties took refuge in this fort during the many Indian uprisings.

Camp Wheeler

Spanish American War Camp, Huntsville, Alabama

The camp was established in August 1898 and named after Major General Joseph Wheeler by Major General J.J. Coppinger on August 15, 1898. Wheeler was the second commanding general of the Fourth Corps.

It was renamed Camp Albert G. Forse when General Wheeler assumed command of the camp.

Fort White

(1813), near Grove Hill
A settlers’ stockaded fort located northeast of town. Abandoned after the attack on Fort Mims.

FORT WHITE was a short distance northeast of Grove Hill, on what became afterwards the Alston place, now the residence of Elijah P. Chapman.

Credit: www.clarkemuseum.com

Camp Winn

Confederate Camp, Shelby, Alabama

(1862 – 1865), near Shelby
A CSA training camp was established at the Shelby Springs Hotel and Spa (1839). The hotel itself was taken over as a military hospital in 1865. The resort reopened in 1869, but was closed in 1915. The site is now a cattle ranch off of AL 25.

Fort Tombeche

Fort Tombecbe (Fort de Tombecbé), also spelled Tombecbee and Tombeché, was a stockade fort located on the Tombigbee River near the border of French Louisiana, in what is now Sumter County, Alabama. It was constructed under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville in 1736-37 as trading post about 270 miles (430 km) upriver from Mobile, on an 80-foot (24 m) limestone bluff.

Source: Wikipedia contributors, “Fort Tombecbe,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

Fort Toulouse

Turner’s Fort

Located eight miles south and five miles west of Fort Easley, in the West Bend Community two miles east of the Tombigbee River near the residence of Abner Turner, or about 72 miles north of Mobile, Alabama. Three miles distant, on the Tombigbee River was the Choctaw reservation known as Turkey Town.

This fort was built of split pine logs doubled and contained two or three block-houses. The Turner, Thornton, Pace and other families used this fort for protection.

Fort Tyler

Located on Alabama-Georgia border, it was site of one of last Civil War battles (April 16, 1865) to take place east of Mississippi.

The site of the Civil War-era Fort Tyler is seen on the outskirts of Lanett, Alabama in Chambers County. The fort was built between Lanett and West Point, Georgia, to defend the bridge crossing the Chattahoochee RIver. It was the last Confederate fort to be taken during the Battle of West Point on April 16, 1865.

Fort White

A small wooden stockade built a short distance northeast of the present Grove Hill, Clark County, Alabama

Fort Williams

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 met the Coosa River, near Talladega Springs. The original site was submerged under Lay Lake with the 1914 construction of the Lay Dam 14 miles downstream.

Fort York

Sources

E Book Lossing’s The pictorial field-book of the war of 1812; or, Illustrations, by pen and pencil, of the history, biography, scenery, relics, and traditions of the last war for American independence by Lossing, Benson John, 1813-1891

E Book HISTORY of ALABAMA AND INCIDENTALLY OF GEORGIA AND MISSISSIPPI, FROM THE EARLIEST PERIOD. BY Albert James Pickett

E Book THE CREEK WAR OF 1813 AND 1814 By H. S. HALBERT and T. H. BALL, Chicago, Illinois: Donohue & Henneberry; Montgomery, Alabama. White, Woodruff & Fowler 1895; and a facsimile reproduction by University of Alabama Press, May 30, 1995.^[5]

E Book Andrew Jackson : the gentle savage by Karsner, David, 1889-1941 Published 1929

E Book Red Eagle and the Wars With the Creek Indians of Alabama. by George Cary Eggleston

E Book Life and times of Gen. Sam Dale, the Mississippi partisan (1860) Author: Claiborne, J. F. H. (John Francis Hamtramck), 1809-1884

E Book A view of West Florida, embracing its geography, topography, &c. with an appendix, treating of its antiquities, land titles, and canals, and containing a map, exhibiting a chart of the coast, a plan of Pensacola, and the entrance of the harbor. by John Lee Williams. Published 1827 Library of Congress

E Book A concise natural history of East and West-Florida– Bernard Romans. “Concise Natural History can be placed firmly in the genre of colonial promotional literature. Romans’s book was an enthusiastic guide aimed at those seeking to establish modest holdings in the region:”^[6]

E Book The journal of Andrew Ellicott In 1796, George Washington commissioned Ellicott as the U.S. representative on the commission for the survey of the border between the Spanish territories in Florida and the United States ^[7]

Alabama Trails, War of 1812, Forts

Alabama Trails, War of 1812, Bibliography

Tennessee.Gov War of 1812 Regiments

Military Roads in the Florida Parishes of Louisiana Powell A. Casey

Find A Grave Memorial Stone at Ft. Mims

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