Archaeological Survey of the Old Federal Road in Alabama

wake of murders of members of the Ogle and Stroud families by a band of disaffected Creek Indians.Panic swept through the American population newly settled along the Federal Road, and among theCreeks who remained on treaty reserves outside the Creek Nation, particularly the extended families ofthe Baileys and McGirths. In a letter from Lt. Colonel Gilbert Russell to Governor Bibb, probably datingto late March 1818, Dale is said to have organized a fatigue party of militia to complete “a little stockadewith two blockhouses at diagonal angles.” 6This fort and Fort Bibb were garrisoned by territorial volunteer militia called up Governor Bibbto protect settlers in this part of the state, while detachments of the 8th U.S. Infantry Regiment stationedat Fort Crawford and allied Choctaw warriors conducted sweeps of the Conecuh valley and elsewheresearching for the militant Creeks, without much effect. The number of troops present at this fort isuncertain and it seems to have been garrisoned intermittently. Troops were stationed there from April tomid-June, when they were mustered out. In a letter to the Secretary of War, acting Governor Hitchcockwrote, “The recent success of General Jackson has not given perfect security to the Frontier on the road toGeorgia, there being now a considerable number of disaffected Creeks who will be able to commitdepredations for some time should the forces at Fort Dale and the Pine Barren be withdrawn.” ByNovember Fort Dale was said to be evacuated and “the country was at peace & quiet & people movingin.” 7Long after the danger of strife between Redstick Creeks and Americans had passed, the vicinityof the fort continued to attract settlement and retained the name Fort Dale. A post office operated therefrom October 1818 until at least 1829. 8According to John Buckner Little’s 1885 history of Butler County, the fort sat atop “a small hill,near a spring, now known as the old Poplar Spring, in the neighborhood of Oak Grove Church.” Littlefurther related, concerning the site of the fort after its abandonment, that “Colonel A. T. Perry entered theland on which the fort was built, and lived there several years, finally selling it to Joseph Hartley, whocame from Putnam County, Georgia, January 15, 1825. Hartley built a good house of logs, which weresawed with a whipsaw, and cleared a large field around the fort.” 9 Gerald Johnson related to us a familylegend that his great-grandfather dismantled the notched logs from the old fort and built his home fromthem; around 1900, some of those logs were reused onplace to build a chicken barn thatstill stands(Figure 6-16). The half V-notched logs are certainly old andare in remarkably good condition where they have been protected from the elements under sheds attachedto either side of the barn. However, the logs look sawn rather than hewn and may derive from Hartleys’ca. 1825 log house rather than from the fort. In either case, they are among the oldest structural remains in150