Fort Claiborne

Fort Claiborne was a stockade fort built in 1813 in present-day Monroe County, Alabama during the Creek War.[1]

This article is about the fort in Alabama. For the ghost town in Alabama, see Claiborne, Alabama.
Fort Claiborne
Location of Fort Claiborne located in the upper right of map
LocationMonroe County, Alabama
Nearest cityPerdue Hill
Coordinates31°32′28″N 87°30′46″W
BuiltNovember 1813
Location of Fort Claiborne in Alabama

History

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] While constructing the fort, Claiborne's soldiers harassed the Red Sticks communications with the Spanish in Pensacola.[4] 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.[5]

In December 1813, General Claiborne wrote General Jackson that he planned to carry out an offensive against the Red Sticks.[6] 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, and Choctaw warriors under the command of Pushmataha.[7] 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.[8]

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.[9] 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.[10]

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. Jackson instead deviated from the original plan conceived by General Thomas Pinckney and Russell never rendezvoused with the remaining forces.[11] 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.[12]

Due to its location, the construction of Fort Claiborne effectively put an end to Creek attacks in the southern part of their original territory.[13]

Fort Claiborne was not located on the Federal Road, but was connected to it by a spur road that began at Burnt Corn.[14]

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.[15]

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.[16]

A post office operated under the name Fort Claiborne from 1815 to 1822.[17] The first postmaster of Fort Claiborne was John Watkins.[14]

In 1816, the community of Claiborne was founded near the site of the fort and soon engulfed the fort and surrounding area.[18]

Nothing remains at the site of Fort Claiborne today, but a historical marker notes its approximate location.[19] A stone monument erected by the Alabama Society of Colonial Dames was placed near the site in 1939.[20]

References
  1. Mike Bunn; Clay Williams (1 July 2008). Battle for the Southern Frontier: The Creek War and the War of 1812. Arcadia Publishing Incorporated. p. 40. ISBN 978-1-62584-381-4.
  2. Pickett, Albert James (1878). History of Alabama, and Incidentally of Georgia and Mississippi, from the Earliest Period. Tuscaloosa, AL: Willo Publishing Company. p. 572.
  3. George Cary Eggleston (1878). Red Eagle and the Wars with the Creek Indians of Alabama. Dodd, Mead & Company. p. 215.
  4. Blackmon, Richard (2014). The Creek War 1813-1814 (PDF). Center of Military History. p. 25.
  5. Weir, III, Howard (2016). A Paradise of Blood: The Creek War of 1813-14. Yardley, Pennsylvania: Westholme. p. 276. ISBN 1-59416-270-0.
  6. Weir 2016, p. 284.
  7. Herbert James Lewis (26 June 2018). Alabama Founders: Fourteen Political and Military Leaders Who Shaped the State. University of Alabama Press. p. 27. ISBN 978-0-8173-5915-7.
  8. Weir 2016, p. 298.
  9. Mike Bunn (2019). Early Alabama: An Illustrated Guide to the Formative Years, 1798-1826. University of Alabama Press. p. 23. ISBN 978-0-8173-5928-7.
  10. Weir 2016, p. 383-90.
  11. Weir 2016, p. 392.
  12. Weir 2016, p. 446.
  13. Braund, Kathryn E. Holland (2012). Tohopeka: Rethinking the Creek War & the War of 1812. Tuscaloosa, Alabama: University of Alabama Press. p. 207. ISBN 978-0-8173-5711-5.
  14. Braund, Kathryn; Waselkov, Gregory; Christopher, Raven (2019). The Old Federal Road in Alabama. Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press. p. 42. ISBN 978-0-8173-5930-0.
  15. Weir 2016, p. 447.
  16. Kanon, Tom. "Regimental Histories of Tennessee Units During the War of 1812". Tennessee State Library and Archives. State of Tennessee. Retrieved 24 December 2020.
  17. "Monroe County". Jim Forte Postal History. Retrieved 27 December 2020.
  18. Harris, W. Stuart (1977). Dead Towns of Alabama. Tuscaloosa, Alabama: University of Alabama Press. p. 38. ISBN 0-8173-1125-4.
  19. Braund 2019, p. 128.
  20. Bunn, Mike; Williams, Clay. "The Canoe Fight". The Creek War and the War of 1812. Retrieved 22 January 2021.
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