Fort Campbell - Vestiges of the Trail of Tears in Georgia
Forsyth County GA

Possible site of Fort Campbell. "just west of Scudder’s and on the north side of the Federal Road." Image source: Cherokee Removal: Forts Along the Georgia Trail of Tears. pg. 51.

This article is adapted from "Cherokee Removal: Forts Along the Georgia Trail of Tears" by Sarah H. Hill.

Of the few located sources with information about Ft. Campbell, the most useful was the quartermaster’s reports at the National Archives in Washington, the collection of Cherokee removal records at the National Archives Records Administration in East Point, Georgia, and the correspondence of Gov. Gilmer housed at the Georgia Department of Archives and History. Ft. Campbell was in the Middle Military District commanded by Gen. Eustis. As with other Georgia posts east of Ft. Wool, data remains limited.

Two residents of Forsyth County are considered particularly knowledgeable about Cherokee history, county historian Don Shadburn and Cherokee descendent Lucian Lamar Sneed. Both believe Ft. Campbell was located at the junction of Forsyth, Lumpkin, and Cherokee counties, placing it just west of Scudder’s and on the north side of the Federal Road.

Scudder’s, Camp Eaton, and Camp Gilmer.
Jacob Scudder owned a stand on the Federal Road that played a part in the military history of the Cherokee Nation in Georgia prior to removal. In late May, 1830, Gov. George Gilmer requested help from the federal government in protecting the gold mines that were discovered in the late 1820s. With the approval of President Jackson, the Secretary of War sent two companies of the 4th regiment to establish a post at a strategic location in the Cherokee Nation. Capt. Francis Brady’s company arrived soon after and constructed a fort of logs on a hill near Scudder’s inn. The post included a blacksmith shop, barracks, stables, and buildings for storage and other purposes. The location of Camp Eaton, as it was called, is identified on the 1832 survey maps on lots 302, 202, 246, and 347. The withdrawal of federal troops began in October of the same year.cclxxxi

In December, Scudder replied to Gilmer’s request to station the Georgia Guard at Camp Eaton and included a brief description of the post. There were eight rooms in a line occupying 20 square feet. Four rooms lacked floors and parts of a chimney, but planks for the floors were left in Scudder’s charge. Several outbuildings remained, some of which contained corn and fodder that Scudder purchased from the departing quartermaster. Apparently, there was also a guardhouse. cclxxxii

In January 1831, militia Col. John W. A. Sanford and his subaltern, Col. Charles H. Nelson, arrived with voluntary recruits and began repairing the barracks. The Georgia Guard remained at the renamed Camp Gilmer until the following October, and Scudder was under contract to supply their provisions. While stationed at Camp Gilmer, the Guard’s most notorious act was the arrest and temporary confinement of missionaries Elizur Butler and Samuel Worcester.cclxxxiii Gov. George Gilmer later described Nelson as “a man of lawless violence.”cclxxxiv

Jacob Scudder was a white man who moved with his wife and toddler son into the Cherokee Nation around 1815. He had just been discharged from service in the War of 1812, where he served in the company commanded by Nehemiah Garrison, who was later associated with the possible location of Ft. Buffington. Scudder carried on an active trade with Indians and whites at his stand near the crossing of the Alabama and Federal Roads in the Hightower community. In 1827, he was named postmaster. After several years of pressure from the Cherokee Nation, which objected to the competition from white-owned businesses, Scudder moved to the east of Hightower, but remained in the Cherokee Nation.cclxxxv

Following the 1831 survey of Cherokee lands and the 1832 creation of Forsyth County, elections were held in Scudder’s home for the new representatives to the Georgia General Assembly, and he was elected to the Georgia Senate. The state subsequently employed him to identify land lots abandoned by Indians and to survey Floyd County in the Cherokee Nation. By the end of his life, Scudder was one of the largest landowners and slaveholders in Forsyth County. His son, Alfred, married a woman of Cherokee descent in 1833, making Alfred, as well as his children, citizens of the Cherokee Nation.cclxxxvi In short, Jacob Scudder and his public stop would have been well known among whites as well as Cherokees at the time of removal. Establishing a post very near his stand would have been sensible, and would have provided the quartermaster with a resource when needed.

Camp Eaton/Gilmer and Scudder’s remain important to the history of Indian removal for several reasons. Many sources mistakenly list Camp Eaton or Camp Gilmer as a removal stockade. Others confuse Camp Gilmer in Forsyth County with Fort Gilmer in Murray County, miss-identifying both the date and the facility. Some sources refer to Fort Eaton or even Fort Scudder. Trail of Tears markers placed at the appropriate sites in Georgia will be an invaluable source of education for all.

Scudder’s inn was in the Hickory Log District of the Cherokee Nation, in the upper Piedmont physiographic province between the Chattahoochee and the Etowah rivers. Local Cherokees lived on river tributaries including Settendown (sometimes spelled Setting or Sitting Down), Baldridge, Young Deer, Vickery, and Big Creeks. Nearby Cherokee communities included Hightower, Frogtown, and Ducktown. In anticipation of removal, Capt. James Word reported that some 500 Cherokees lived within “the limits” of Ft. Campbell, usually considered a ten-mile radius.cclxxxvii With proximity to the Federal and Alabama Roads as well as major water routes, Hightower attracted a number of grog shops at the time of removal. Capt. Word reported that several persons were keeping “their little shops” where they sold “intoxicating liquor” to the Indians as well as “powder and lead.”cclxxxviii

Military Occupation.
In early April, Lt. Mackay notified Lt. Hetzel that Capt. Jones was to be mustered in at New Echota and sent to Scudder’s, but Jones then disappears from the post’s records (although he may be the same Thomas S. Jones who was commander at Ft. Hoskins, Spring Place, Murray County).cclxxxix By mid-May, Capt. James A. Word of Campbell County was in command of the mounted company of 74 men stationed at Ft. Campbell.ccxc It is likely the post, like the county, was named for Duncan G. Campbell, who negotiated the 1825 Treaty of Indian Springs ceding all Creek land in Georgia. Whether the company at the post was aware of the irony or intended it cannot be known.

A single letter from Word to James Mackay contains an unusual amount of data about his company, the process of removal, and the environs. When Word traveled to the surrounding Cherokee towns to read Gen. Scott’s address to resident Cherokees, he was accompanied by a Cherokee named Charles Crittenden, who served as his interpreter. His two lieutenants, Berry L. Watts (or Waits) and Martin D. Rogers, each visited one of the towns on behalf of Word.ccxci On June 9, Rogers escorted the prisoners to Ft. Wool and on to Ross’s Landing, and the company returned to New Echota on June 30 for payment and mustering out.ccxcii

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