Fort Carney was a stockade fort built in 1813 in present-day

Clarke County, Alabama Clarke County is a County (United States), county located in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Alabama. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 23,087. The county seat is Grove Hill, Alabama, Grove Hill. T ...

, during the

Creek War The Creek War (also the Red Stick War or the Creek Civil War) was a regional conflict between opposing Native American factions, European powers, and the United States during the early 19th century. The Creek War began as a conflict within th ...

(part of the larger

War of 1812 The War of 1812 was fought by the United States and its allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom and its allies in North America. It began when the United States United States declaration of war on the Uni ...

History

Creek War

After

Red Stick Red Sticks (also Redsticks, Batons Rouges, or Red Clubs)—the name deriving from the red-painted war clubs of some Native American Creek—refers to an early 19th century traditionalist faction of Muscogee Creek people in the Southeastern Uni ...

warriors began attacking settlers in the area, many families joined together to create protective stockades. Josiah Carney, who moved to Clarke County in 1809 from

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

, began building a stockade in 1813 at Carney's Bluff. Carney's Bluff was later known as Gullett's Bluff. Fort Carney was also known as Fort Hawn or Fort Gullett. The fort site was located six miles south of

Jackson Jackson may refer to: Places Australia * Jackson, Queensland, a town in the Maranoa Region * Jackson North, Queensland, a locality in the Maranoa Region * Jackson South, Queensland, a locality in the Maranoa Region * Jackson oil field in Durham, ...

on the road from Jackson to

Mount Vernon Mount Vernon is the former residence and plantation of George Washington, a Founding Father, commander of the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War, and the first president of the United States, and his wife, Martha. An American landmar ...

. Sources differ on the number of occupants of Fort Carney. Albert J. Pickett reported 390 individuals occupied Fort Carney, while

Timothy H. Ball Timothy Horton Ball (February 16, 1826 – November 8, 1913) was an American historian, missionary, preacher, author, and teacher. He is known for writing ''The Creek War of 1813 and 1814.'' The book is a well-known source for Choctaw and Creek ...

stated that it only contained "a few occupants". Sixty members of the 8th Regiment Mississippi Militia occupied Fort Carney. Prior to the

Fort Mims massacre The Fort Mims massacre occurred on August 30, 1813, at a fortified homestead site 35-40 miles north of Mobile, Alabama, during the Creek War. A large force of Creek Indians belonging to the Red Sticks faction, under the command of Peter McQue ...

, it was reported that Red Stick warriors examined Fort Carney but decided to attack Fort Mims instead. Fort Powell was a stockade fort located three miles south of Fort Carney at Oven Bluff. After the Fort Mims massacre, settlers from Fort Powell moved to Fort Carney before moving to Mount Vernon.

Jeremiah Austill Jeremiah Austill (August 10, 1794 – December 8, 1879) was an American politician, planter and soldier who served in the Alabama Militia during the Creek War, in which he participated in a skirmish that became known as the Canoe Fight. After t ...

, who gained fame for his participation in the Canoe Fight, stopped at Fort Carney on his ride from

Fort Madison Fort Madison is a city in and a county seat of Lee County, Iowa, Lee County, Iowa, United States along with Keokuk, Iowa, Keokuk. Of Iowa's 99 counties, Lee County is the only one with two county seats. The population was 10,270 at the time of ...

Fort Stoddert Fort Stoddert, also known as Fort Stoddard, was a stockade fort in the U.S. Mississippi Territory, in what is today Alabama. It was located on a bluff of the Mobile River, near modern Mount Vernon, close to the confluence of the Tombigbee and ...

. Austill volunteered for the seventy-five mile ride to request additional protection for the occupants of Fort Madison.

American Civil War

During the

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

, a Confederate fort named Fort Gullett was built on the site of Fort Carney. Fort Gullett was built in 1862 to protect the nearby

salt well A salt well (or brine well) is used to mine salt from caverns or deposits. Water is used as a solution to dissolve the salt or halite deposits so that they can be extracted by pipe to an evaporation process, which results in either a brine or a d ...

s. Fort Gullett also served to prevent Federal gunboats from traveling up the

Tombigbee River The Tombigbee River is a tributary of the Mobile River, approximately 200 mi (325 km) long, in the U.S. states of Mississippi and Alabama. Together with the Alabama, it merges to form the short Mobile River before the latter empties i ...

. The fort was abandoned in the later years of the Civil War.

References

Sources

* * * * * * * {{cite book, last=Windham , first=Kathryn Tucker, authorlink=Kathryn Tucker Windham, title=Alabama, One Big Front Porch, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hozNwPLWFEIC&pg=PA165, year=2007, publisher=NewSouth Books , location=Montgomery, Alabama, isbn=978-1-58838-219-1, pages= Pre-statehood history of Alabama Buildings and structures in Clarke County, Alabama Carney Carney American Civil War forts Alabama in the American Civil War Creek War