Archaeological Survey of the Old Federal Road in Alabama

14 Walter Lowrie and Walter S. Franklin, editors, American State Papers, Class VII: Post Office Department(Washington, DC: Gales and Seaton, 1834), 28. See Briggs-Stabler Papers, MS 147, Mississippi Territorial Survey,Section IIIc, Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, MD [hereafter MDHS].15 Clarence Edwin Carter, editor, The Territorial Papers of the United States, vol. 5, The Territory of Mississippi,1798-1817 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1937), 306-307.16 Lowrie and Franklin, ASP, Post Office, 35-36. Quotes from Briggs to Thomas Jefferson, October 2, 1804, inBriggs-Stabler Papers, MS 147, Mississippi Territorial Survey, Section IIIc, MDHS.17 Ibid., 36-38. Quotes from Briggs-Stabler Papers, MS 147, Mississippi Territorial Survey, Section IIIc, MDHS,asfollows: Briggs to Thomas Jefferson, October 2, 1804 (“journey,” “horses,” “red people”); Briggs to Jefferson,November 26, 1804 (“Nathaniel Christmas”).18 Ibid., 37.19 Ibid., 37. Quotes from Briggs-Stabler Papers, MS 147, Mississippi Territorial Survey, Section IIIc, as follows:Briggs to Thomas Jefferson, October 2, 1804 (“About 2 miles”); Briggs to Jefferson, November 26, 1804(“southeasternmost projection”); September 26, 1804 entry in Survey Notebook (“S.S.W. of the Town”).In his journal, A Sketch of the Creek Country in the years 1798 and 1799, Benjamin Hawkins described the subagencyat Point Comfort: “Near one of the bluffs [south of Tuckaubatchee] there is a fine spring, and near it abeautiful elevated situation for a settlement. These hills westwardly are terminated by a small branch and the flatland spreads out for one mile. Below this branch ¼ of a mile is the residence of Oche Haujo (Mr. [Alexander]Cornells), and ½ mile still lower the public establishment; thence two miles to the mouth of Colebehatche…. At thepublic establishment there is a smith’s shop, a dwelling house and kitchen built of logs, and a field well fenced. Andit is the contemplation of the agent, to have a public garden and nursery”; Grant, Letters, Journals and Writings ofBenjamin Hawkins, I:291-292.20 Additionally, Briggs mentioned staying at the house of Nathaniel Christmas, which he said was 2 miles above theconfluence, so his reference to the mouth of the river seem unambiguous.21 Thomas Jefferson to A. J. Dallas, February 26, 1816, in Briggs-Stabler Papers, MS 147, Mississippi TerritorialSurvey, Section IIIc, MDHS. Briggs’s field notebook contains several pages of calculations made at the Flint RiverAgency and at Point Comfort. His night-time observations of the altitudes of several stars, including Lyra, Pollux,Rigel, α Orionis [Betelgeuse], α Aquila [Altair], Arcturus, and Aldebaran, indicated his chronometer ran around 10minutes slow. For a wonderful modern treatment of the longitude problem, see Dava Sobel, Longitude (New York,NY: Walker & Co., 1995).22 Charles J. Kappler, compiler and editor, Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties, vol. 2, Treaties (Washington, DC:Government Printing Office, 1904), 85-86.23 See Wheaton Papers, No. 4, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia, Athens, GA.24 Ibid.25 Quoted in Southerland and Brown, The Federal Road, 29.26 Grant, Letters, Journals and Writings of Benjamin Hawkins, 549.27 Not in 1803, as surmised by Southerland and Brown, The Federal Road, 95; Thompson 1991:611.28 Grant, Letters, Journals and Writings of Benjamin Hawkins, 561.29 Ibid., 568.30 Minutes of a Survey of the Indian Path or Road East of Alabama leading to or near the Fork or Junction of theCoosa and Tallapoosa, from thence by the Same Path to Highwassee, by Lt. John R. N. Luckett, Baldwin County,Mississippi Territory, September 12th, 1810; Record Group 77, National Archives and Records Administration,Washington, DC. Southerland and Brown, The Federal Road, 34.31 Luckett Field Survey Records, Record Group 77, National Archives.32 Grant, Letters, Journals and Writings of Benjamin Hawkins, 570.33 Anonymous, “From the Georgia Journal,” New-York Herald 924 (November 24, 1810):3.34 Grant, Letters, Journals and Writings of Benjamin Hawkins, 574-575, 577-578, 581, 590-591, 597, 599.35 From the Georgia Journal, March 25, 1812, in Grant, Letters, Journals and Writings of Benjamin Hawkins, 602.36 Peggy Dow, Vicissitudes in the Wilderness; Exemplified in the Journal of Peggy Dow, 5th edition (Norwich, CT:William Faulkner, 1833), 59-60.37 Ibid., 61-62; May Ida Chase, The Old Federal Road in Alabama, MA thesis, Department of History (Birmingham,AL: Birmingham-Southern College, 1936), 51-52.38 Grant, Letters, Journals and Writings of Benjamin Hawkins, 497-498.39 Ibid., 605.40 Ibid.49