Archaeological Survey of the Old Federal Road in Alabama

He also complained Fort Stoddert did not have proper buildings for a court or a land office, and thesettlement there was desolate and impoverished. He further pointed out the unreliability ofcommunication with the rest of the country. Perhaps the strength of Kirby’s arguments prompted officialsin Washington to contemplate creation of a post road to the southwestern territories. A few weeks afterKirby’s untimely death, Postmaster General Grainger ordered the establishment of post offices at St.Stephens and Fort Stoddert. Judge Harry Toulmin, Kirby’s replacement, would assume the role of localpostmaster at Fort Stoddert in January 1805. 7From 1806 to 1811, the period of active efforts to establish the Federal Road, at first as a postalroute and then as a military wagon road, Fort Stoddert and its garrison proved essential. In December1805, Postmaster Granger requested Lt. William Piatt at Fort Stoddert to explore the “most eligible route”for the proposed road. Such a formal survey did not occur until 1810 when Lt. John R. N. Luckett madean attempt, reaching Pintlala before he and his men were stopped by a large force of indignant Creekwarriors. A similar effort led by Lt. Edmund Gaines was likewise intercepted by Creeks as he attemptedto survey and open a road, later called Gaines’ Trace, northward from St. Stephens toward the MuscleShoals region. Diplomatic negotiations mollified Creek leaders (although, significantly, not the Creekpopulace) sufficiently to permit the army to complete the wagon road in 1811. Captain Matthew Arbuckleof the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment commanded the road construction party from Fort Stoddert that met acorresponding party from the east on November 30 to finish the road. 8Fort Stoddert hosted an important event in the intellectual development of the region: publicationfrom May 23, 1811 to June 6, 1812 of The Mobile Centinel, first newspaper in what would become thestate of Alabama (Figure 3-10). Judge Harry Toulmin had hoped to publish the Mobile Mercury, orTombigbee and Alabama Advertiser in St. Stephens in 1810. Success eluded Toulmin and a year laterJohn B. Hood of South Carolina and Samuel Miller of Tennessee brought a printing press overland fromChattanooga to the Alabama River, then downstream to Fort Stoddert, with the intention of publishingtheir newspaper in Mobile. When international politics at the outbreak of the War of 1812 moved moreslowly than they anticipated, and Mobile remained in Spanish hands, the two experienced newspapermenproduced the first issue of The Mobile Centinel with an editorial hopefully anticipating their relocation tothe city in short order. In fact, the newspaper folded before Mobile became part of the United States. 9In the 1840s George S. Gaines reminisced to historian Albert Pickett about life at the fort duringits first decade, when he was government factor at nearby St. Stephens and his brother was stationed atFort Stoddert. “The Barracks were comfortable frame Houses. The Fort was established immediately onthe river bank just above the present Arsenal landing. In 1805 two companies were there ... under61