Fort Benjamin Hawkins
Encyclopedia
Fort Hawkins was a fort built in 1806-1809 in the historic Creek Nation by the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 government under President Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...

 and used until 1821. Built in what is now Georgia at the Fall Line
Fall line
A fall line is a geomorphologic unconformity between an upland region of relatively hard crystalline basement rock and a coastal plain of softer sedimentary rock. A fall line is typically prominent when crossed by a river, for there will often be rapids or waterfalls...

 on the east side of the Ocmulgee River
Ocmulgee River
The Ocmulgee River is a tributary of the Altamaha River, approximately 255 mi long, in the U.S. state of Georgia...

, the fort overlooked the sacred ancient earthwork
Earthworks (archaeology)
In archaeology, earthwork is a general term to describe artificial changes in land level. Earthworks are often known colloquially as 'lumps and bumps'. Earthworks can themselves be archaeological features or they can show features beneath the surface...

 mounds of the Ocmulgee Old Fields
Ocmulgee National Monument
Ocmulgee National Monument preserves traces of over ten millennia of Southeastern Native American culture, including major earthworks built more than 1,000 years ago by Mississippian culture peoples: the Great Temple and other ceremonial mounds, a burial mound, and defensive trenches...

, now known as the Ocmulgee National Monument
Ocmulgee National Monument
Ocmulgee National Monument preserves traces of over ten millennia of Southeastern Native American culture, including major earthworks built more than 1,000 years ago by Mississippian culture peoples: the Great Temple and other ceremonial mounds, a burial mound, and defensive trenches...

, and the Lower Creek Pathway. A trading settlement and later the European-American city of Macon, Georgia
Macon, Georgia
Macon is a city located in central Georgia, US. Founded at the fall line of the Ocmulgee River, it is part of the Macon metropolitan area, and the county seat of Bibb County. A small portion of the city extends into Jones County. Macon is the biggest city in central Georgia...

 developed because of the fort. During this period, the fort was important to the Creek Nation, the United States and the state of Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...

 for economic, military and political reasons.

The fort originally had a tall log palisade
Palisade
A palisade is a steel or wooden fence or wall of variable height, usually used as a defensive structure.- Typical construction :Typical construction consisted of small or mid sized tree trunks aligned vertically, with no spacing in between. The trunks were sharpened or pointed at the top, and were...

 surrounding a 1- 2 acres (8,093.7 m²) complex. It had living and working quarters as well as two blockhouses on diagonal corners. A replica of the southeast blockhouse was constructed in 1938 after an archeological survey excavations showed the appropriate site. It has become an icon of Macon. The Fort Hawkins Archeological Site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

 and is included within the boundaries of the Fort Hill Historic District
Fort Hill Historic District
Fort Hill Historic District is a historic district roughly on South Street from Lyman to Monroe in Northampton, Massachusetts.It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1989....

, also listed on the NRHP.

The Fort Hawkins Commission directed archeological excavations in 2005-2007, which found evidence of a second palisade on the site as well as several brick buildings. In addition, the work recovered nearly 40,000 artifacts, indicating a more complex history of Native American and European-American interaction than had been known. Historical research by the archeology team has also added to new knowledge about the fort, its characteristics and significance. In 2008 the Commission completed a Master Plan for development of the site, eventually to include reconstruction of the entire fort complex. It will display and interpret the thousands of artifacts found at the site, which represent the many tribes of American Indians
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...

 and pioneer European Americans whose lives met in the area through complex trading and living relationships. Excavations are continuing at the fort site.

History

Fort Hawkins was built by the United States in 1806 and through 1821, it was a place of "relatively great economic, military, and political importance." For the Creek Nation, it was a center of the deerskin trade with European Americans, who had a trading post or factory there, but for them it was most important as related to their sacred grounds at Ocmulgee Old Fields
Ocmulgee National Monument
Ocmulgee National Monument preserves traces of over ten millennia of Southeastern Native American culture, including major earthworks built more than 1,000 years ago by Mississippian culture peoples: the Great Temple and other ceremonial mounds, a burial mound, and defensive trenches...

. This continued to be a significant social and ceremonial center.

The US government used the fort as a military command headquarters on the southeastern frontier, "a major troop garrison and bivouac point for regular troops and state militia in several important campaigns, and a major trade factory for regulating the Creek economy." President Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...

 had forced the Creek Nation to cede its lands east of the Ocmulgee River
Ocmulgee River
The Ocmulgee River is a tributary of the Altamaha River, approximately 255 mi long, in the U.S. state of Georgia...

, except for the sacred Ocmulgee Old Fields
Ocmulgee National Monument
Ocmulgee National Monument preserves traces of over ten millennia of Southeastern Native American culture, including major earthworks built more than 1,000 years ago by Mississippian culture peoples: the Great Temple and other ceremonial mounds, a burial mound, and defensive trenches...

. The fort was built at the fall line of the river, about a mile uphill, at the end of navigable water from the Low Country to the Piedmont. It was to be a point for the government's "civilization" of the Creek through introduction of European-American farming and cultural practices. To the north of the fort passed the Lower Creek Pathway, which was improved as part of the Federal Road
Federal Road
Federal Road may refer to one of the following:*Federal Road from Athens, Georgia to Chattanooga and Knoxville, Tennessee*Federal Road from Fort Wilkinson Federal Road may refer to one of the following:*Federal Road (Cherokee lands) from Athens, Georgia to Chattanooga and Knoxville,...

 to connect Washington, DC with the ports of Mobile, Alabama
Mobile, Alabama
Mobile is the third most populous city in the Southern US state of Alabama and is the county seat of Mobile County. It is located on the Mobile River and the central Gulf Coast of the United States. The population within the city limits was 195,111 during the 2010 census. It is the largest...

 and New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...

. This change encouraged the travel of many more troops, settlers and tourists to the area and encroached on the Creek Nation territory.

The fort was named for Benjamin Hawkins
Benjamin Hawkins
Benjamin Hawkins was an American planter, statesman, and United States Indian agent . He was a delegate to the Continental Congress and a United States Senator from North Carolina, having grown up among the planter elite...

, who was still serving as the General Superintendent of Indian Affairs (1796–1816) south of the Ohio River, as well as principal US Indian agent
Indian agent
In United States history, an Indian agent was an individual authorized to interact with Native American tribes on behalf of the U.S. government.-Indian agents:*Leander Clark was agent for the Sac and Fox in Iowa beginning in 1866....

 to the Creek. A former US Senator from North Carolina, Hawkins had been appointed by President George Washington
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...

 to deal with the Choctaw
Choctaw
The Choctaw are a Native American people originally from the Southeastern United States...

, Cherokee
Cherokee
The Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...

 and Chickasaw
Chickasaw
The Chickasaw are Native American people originally from the region that would become the Southeastern United States...

 in the larger territory, and helped gain years of peace between the Creek and European-American settlers. He married Lavinia Downs, a high-ranking Creek woman, and learned the language well. Their several children were born into her clan
Clan
A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, clan members may be organized around a founding member or apical ancestor. The kinship-based bonds may be symbolical, whereby the clan shares a "stipulated" common ancestor that is a...

. He wrote about the Creek and related societies.

The fort was used during US military campaigns of the War of 1812
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...

 against Great Britain. General Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson was the seventh President of the United States . Based in frontier Tennessee, Jackson was a politician and army general who defeated the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend , and the British at the Battle of New Orleans...

 visited the Fort and used it successfully as a staging area for the War of 1812's Battle of New Orleans
Battle of New Orleans
The Battle of New Orleans took place on January 8, 1815 and was the final major battle of the War of 1812. American forces, commanded by Major General Andrew Jackson, defeated an invading British Army intent on seizing New Orleans and the vast territory the United States had acquired with the...

, as well as the following Creek
Creek War
The Creek War , also known as the Red Stick War and the Creek Civil War, began as a civil war within the Creek nation...

 and Seminole
Seminole Wars
The Seminole Wars, also known as the Florida Wars, were three conflicts in Florida between the Seminole — the collective name given to the amalgamation of various groups of native Americans and Black people who settled in Florida in the early 18th century — and the United States Army...

 wars. After the frontier moved further westward, the military threat in inland Georgia essentially ceased. Through the treaties of 1825 and 1826 signed with the US, the Creek were forced to remove west of the Chattahoochee River
Chattahoochee River
The Chattahoochee River flows through or along the borders of the U.S. states of Georgia, Alabama, and Florida. It is a tributary of the Apalachicola River, a relatively short river formed by the confluence of the Chattahoochee and Flint Rivers and emptying into Apalachicola Bay in the Gulf of...

 the following year. The city of Macon was founded in 1823, and the Fort was decommissioned in 1828.

During the active years, Georgia used the fort as a state militia
Militia
The term militia is commonly used today to refer to a military force composed of ordinary citizens to provide defense, emergency law enforcement, or paramilitary service, in times of emergency without being paid a regular salary or committed to a fixed term of service. It is a polyseme with...

 headquarters and muster ground. It was a point of interaction with "the US Army, the Creek Nation, the Georgia militia and the Georgia government." The fort helped reinforce Georgia's western frontier until the state took control by getting the Creek removed to the west, and filling lands with European-American settlers.

Ancient cultures of indigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples are ethnic groups that are defined as indigenous according to one of the various definitions of the term, there is no universally accepted definition but most of which carry connotations of being the "original inhabitants" of a territory....

 had long settled near the river. Evidence of 17,000 years of continuous human habitation has been found at Ocmulgee National Monument
Ocmulgee National Monument
Ocmulgee National Monument preserves traces of over ten millennia of Southeastern Native American culture, including major earthworks built more than 1,000 years ago by Mississippian culture peoples: the Great Temple and other ceremonial mounds, a burial mound, and defensive trenches...

. Historically, American Indian peoples from the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Muskogee, Choctaw and Seminole nations; ethnic European Americans from England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

, and Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

; and African-descended peoples originally speaking numerous languages from a variety of ethnic cultures of West Africa
West Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries and an area of approximately 5 million square km:-Flags of West Africa:...

, are all represented at the fort. Nearly 40,000 artifacts
Digital artifact
A digital artifact is any undesired alteration in data introduced in a digital process by an involved technique and/or technology.-Possible causes:...

 from trading and residence have been found in 21st-century archeological excavations at the fort site.

Preservation, reconstruction and excavation

From 1928 the Daughters of the American Revolution
Daughters of the American Revolution
The Daughters of the American Revolution is a lineage-based membership organization for women who are descended from a person involved in United States' independence....

 and the Macon Kiwanis Club began fundraising to create a replica of one of the blockhouses to memorialize the fort. In 1933 the government began archaeological excavations at the Ocmulgee Old Fields, supported by workers and funding of the US Works Progress Administration
Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration was the largest and most ambitious New Deal agency, employing millions of unskilled workers to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads, and operated large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects...

 (WPA) under President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...

 during the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

. In 1936, one of the archeologists, Gordon R. Willey, did enough work at Fort Hawkins to establish the original footprint of the southeast blockhouse. Construction of a replica of the blockhouse was done as a WPA project in collaboration with the DAR, and was completed in 1938. Some of the original stones were recovered to be used in the basement section. The upper floors were made of concrete formed to simulate the original wood timbers, intended to be more durable at a time of uncertain funding for historic work.

Because historical records had been destroyed when Washington, DC was burned during the War of 1812, in 1971 the city authorized limited archaeological excavation to establish the original dimensions of the fort. An area of the excavation revealed many ceramic artifacts, remnants of English-American styled dishes used by residents, dated from c. 1779-c. 1834. In 1977 the Fort Hawkins archeological site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

 (NHRP).

The City of Macon acquired the historic site in 2002, with help from the state's Greenspace Program and funds from the Fort Hawkins Commission and the Peyton Anderson Foundation. After redevelopment, the city and Commission plan to use the fort site as a greenspace park and a historical center of the city. The southeast blockhouse, which is occasionally opened to the public, has become an icon of the city. Archeologists were concerned that construction of the Fort Hawkins Grammar School and a road on part of the site in the mid-twentieth century had destroyed the archeological record. Since 2005, archeological excavations at the fort site have shown that extensive artifacts and stratigraphy
Stratigraphy
Stratigraphy, a branch of geology, studies rock layers and layering . It is primarily used in the study of sedimentary and layered volcanic rocks....

 have survived and can be interpreted.

From 2005-2007, in a cooperative project supported by the city, the Fort Hawkins Commission (est. 1990), the Society for Georgia Archaeology, and the LAMAR Institute, the archaeologist Daniel T. Elliott led a team in extensive excavations of the fort site. The work revealed evidence of two forts having been constructed there. The final fort had several brick buildings and only one of wood, making it a more substantial complex than originally thought by the limited historical descriptions. In 2007 additional palisades were found, and research indicates it is likely the outer area was built from 1809-1810 by the US Army's Regiment of Rifles.

By creating a public website for the fort and the archeological work, the Commission and Society for Georgia Archeology have done extensive education on the finds already. They have also used numerous public venues to educate a variety of audiences about the fort, its role as a military and economic center, and its many peoples.

In addition, the team recovered nearly 40,000 artifacts from the fort era (1806–1821), which show the complex lives of the different peoples on the American frontier. This evidence has shown a more complex and significant history at the fort than previously known. It has provided evidence that the fort was more important than earlier understood, and the artifacts must be studied and interpreted. The Fort Hawkins Commission developed a Master Plan in 2008 for the site, which includes development to reconstruct the entire 1.4 acre (5,700 m²) complex.

Another field season of excavation is planned for October 2011 under Daniel T. Elliott. It will concentrate on the west wall of the former stockade.

Recognition

  • 1977, Fort Hawkins Archeological Site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places
    National Register of Historic Places
    The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

    (NRHP).
  • 1993, Fort Hawkins is included in the Fort Hill Historic District
    Fort Hill Historic District
    Fort Hill Historic District is a historic district roughly on South Street from Lyman to Monroe in Northampton, Massachusetts.It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1989....

    , listed on the NRHP.
  • 2002, a State Highway Marker was erected at the fort.
  • 2007, Fort Hawkins was featured in Georgia's Archeology Month program, capped by a weekend celebration at the fort.

External links

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