Fort Gilmer Cherokee Internment Site
Fort Gilmer
This article is adapted from "Cherokee Removal: Forts Along the Georgia Trail of Tears" by Sarah H. Hill.
Useful data about Ft. Gilmer has come from both the National Archives (especially the quartermaster’s records) and its branch at East Point, the National Archives Records Administration (the microfilm reels of the papers relating to the removal of Cherokees). Murray County Courthouse records are unusually complete regarding deeds and land transfers, and further research in those records may yield useful references. The land on which Ft. Gilmer is thought to have stood has remained intact and in the same family since the removal era. The Hemphill/Swanson family has been cooperative and interested in identifying the post’s exact location. Retired state employee Phil Hackney (a parks ranger with DNR) has lived and worked in the area many years and is well informed about pot hunting at the site.
Other local sources also were helpful. In 1988, Tim R. Howard led the Murray County History Committee to produce Murray County Heritage, a history that contains considerable material about early county conflicts between whites and Indians and a useful chronology of military developments in the county. While lacking new information about the post, the book will be of particular use in subsequent work that details the period when Indians were expelled from Georgia. The proximity of the Vann House and the Moravian mission at Spring Place resulted in abundant records about everything from weather to farming conditions in the vicinity where the post was later built.
Sometime in the 1950s, the Georgia Historical Commission erected a state marker near the likely site of Ft. Gilmer (Illustration 18. Fort Gilmer Historical Marker). The marker contains several egregious errors, including identification of the date of the New Echota Treaty as 1833 rather than 1835, the statement that there were “seven such forts” in the “Cherokee territory,” and the claim that Ft. Gilmer was the temporary headquarters of Winfield Scott. Replacing the marker with accurate Trail of Tears signage is imperative.
The site has been a target of pothunters for some time. Phil Hackney, who once encountered two Tennessee men leaving the site with metal detectors, said the site was well known and often visited by pothunters. One of the property owners once found a military buckle that dated to the removal period in a shop in a neighboring town. The shop owner said the buckle had come from Ft. Gilmer.
Ft. Gilmer stood on the Federal Road near the Cherokee town of Coosawattee, one of the largest, most populous, and longest-occupied towns in the Cherokee Nation, attributes that doubtless led to the post’s establishment. The settlement first came to the attention of Europeans in the sixteenth century when Spanish conquistadores identified the chiefdom of Coosa, then occupied by Muskhogean speakers. In the following two centuries the site became the Cherokee town of Coosawattee.
The town doubtless derived its name from the Coosawattee River, along which it extended on both sides for as much as five miles. Its southern terminus was the junction of the Coosawattee and Talking Rock Creek. The importance of the river, and perhaps the town as well, to the Cherokee Nation is evident from the fact that Coosawattee was also the name of one of the eight Cherokee Districts. The Federal Road ran the length of the town and, when it was first constructed in the early 1800s, some enterprising residents built a toll-gate across the thoroughfare.
In 1823, the Baptists opened a mission and school at Coosawattee, under the direction of London-born Thomas Dawson and his wife. When the mission became a preaching station as well, the Coosawattee residents often gathered for services at the home of one of the Cherokee Nation’s wealthiest and most influential members, Judge John Martin. Martin also sent one of his children to the Baptist mission school.cxcii The Baptist missionary from the Valley Towns, Evan Jones, visited Coosawattee on numerous occasions and usually stayed at Martin’s home.cxciii When Dawson was persuaded to leave Coosawattee for the Valley Town mission the following year, Martin offered to pay the ABCFM for another teacher. In spite of the Baptist initiatives, however, missionary Butrick referred to Coosawattee as “that dark place,” a reliable indication of the community’s continuing cultural conservatism.cxciv
Coosawattee remained on the Baptist preaching circuit even after the school and mission closed (five months after its opening), and in the summer of 1836, Evan Jones found a great increase of interest in conversion. More than 20 Cherokees were baptized, some in Talking Rock Creek, in 1836-37. In 1838, the pace accelerated. Convert and missionary Jesse Bushyhead baptized 47 fellow Cherokees in May, 10 days before removal began.cxcv
While Martin, with 69 slaves and 315 acres of improved land, was unquestionably the wealthiest Cherokee at Coosawattee, his neighbor John Adair Bell was also affluent and influential. A member of the Treaty Party and
signer of the treaty, Bell owned a two-story house, store house, smoke house, shuck house, corn cribs, stables, a dairy, slaves, and more than 100 acres of improved land.cxcvi In 1836, Bell became the disbursing or issuing agent for “poor and destitute Cherokees” in Coosawattee. He traveled to Calhoun, Tennessee to pick up rations made available by the federal government and was ordered to use the distribution as an opportunity to impress upon the recipients the necessity of complying with the treaty. Agent Albert Lenoir at New Echota told him which Cherokees were allowed to receive rations.cxcvii
An estimated 600 Cherokees lived at Coosawattee at the time of removal.cxcviii Moreover, hundreds of Creeks had taken refuge in or near Coosawattee and a few other Cherokee settlements after they were forced from their homes in Georgia. One of the military’s earliest initiatives at Coosawattee was the capture of refugee Creeks living there.
In 1977, construction was completed on Carter’s Dam, the highest earth-filled dam east of the Mississippi.cxcix Impounding the waters of the Coosawattee River, the dam created Carter’s Lake, which flooded the site of Coosawattee Town.
Military Occupation.
The military occupation of Coosawattee began in late March 1837, when Capt. William Derrick was ordered there from New Echota to capture runaway and refugee Creeks. One of John Bell’s female slaves served as interpreter for Derrick, who was instructed to treat the Creeks humanely if they surrendered willingly.cc Subsequently, Derrick was order to tell the Coosawattee Cherokees that any who helped the Creeks escape or otherwise avoid capture would be “taken forthwith and emigrated to Arkansas.”cci Bell and Walter Sanders (also spelled Saunders) were expected to be of assistance to Derrick in his endeavors.
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Useful data about Ft. Gilmer has come from both the National Archives (especially the quartermaster’s records) and its branch at East Point, the National Archives Records Administration (the microfilm reels of the papers relating to the removal of Cherokees). Murray County Courthouse records are unusually complete regarding deeds and land transfers, and further research in those records may yield useful references. The land on which Ft. Gilmer is thought to have stood has remained intact and in the same family since the removal era. The Hemphill/Swanson family has been cooperative and interested in identifying the post’s exact location. Retired state employee Phil Hackney (a parks ranger with DNR) has lived and worked in the area many years and is well informed about pot hunting at the site.
Other local sources also were helpful. In 1988, Tim R. Howard led the Murray County History Committee to produce Murray County Heritage, a history that contains considerable material about early county conflicts between whites and Indians and a useful chronology of military developments in the county. While lacking new information about the post, the book will be of particular use in subsequent work that details the period when Indians were expelled from Georgia. The proximity of the Vann House and the Moravian mission at Spring Place resulted in abundant records about everything from weather to farming conditions in the vicinity where the post was later built.
Sometime in the 1950s, the Georgia Historical Commission erected a state marker near the likely site of Ft. Gilmer (Illustration 18. Fort Gilmer Historical Marker). The marker contains several egregious errors, including identification of the date of the New Echota Treaty as 1833 rather than 1835, the statement that there were “seven such forts” in the “Cherokee territory,” and the claim that Ft. Gilmer was the temporary headquarters of Winfield Scott. Replacing the marker with accurate Trail of Tears signage is imperative.
The site has been a target of pothunters for some time. Phil Hackney, who once encountered two Tennessee men leaving the site with metal detectors, said the site was well known and often visited by pothunters. One of the property owners once found a military buckle that dated to the removal period in a shop in a neighboring town. The shop owner said the buckle had come from Ft. Gilmer.
Ft. Gilmer stood on the Federal Road near the Cherokee town of Coosawattee, one of the largest, most populous, and longest-occupied towns in the Cherokee Nation, attributes that doubtless led to the post’s establishment. The settlement first came to the attention of Europeans in the sixteenth century when Spanish conquistadores identified the chiefdom of Coosa, then occupied by Muskhogean speakers. In the following two centuries the site became the Cherokee town of Coosawattee.
The town doubtless derived its name from the Coosawattee River, along which it extended on both sides for as much as five miles. Its southern terminus was the junction of the Coosawattee and Talking Rock Creek. The importance of the river, and perhaps the town as well, to the Cherokee Nation is evident from the fact that Coosawattee was also the name of one of the eight Cherokee Districts. The Federal Road ran the length of the town and, when it was first constructed in the early 1800s, some enterprising residents built a toll-gate across the thoroughfare.
In 1823, the Baptists opened a mission and school at Coosawattee, under the direction of London-born Thomas Dawson and his wife. When the mission became a preaching station as well, the Coosawattee residents often gathered for services at the home of one of the Cherokee Nation’s wealthiest and most influential members, Judge John Martin. Martin also sent one of his children to the Baptist mission school.cxcii The Baptist missionary from the Valley Towns, Evan Jones, visited Coosawattee on numerous occasions and usually stayed at Martin’s home.cxciii When Dawson was persuaded to leave Coosawattee for the Valley Town mission the following year, Martin offered to pay the ABCFM for another teacher. In spite of the Baptist initiatives, however, missionary Butrick referred to Coosawattee as “that dark place,” a reliable indication of the community’s continuing cultural conservatism.cxciv
Coosawattee remained on the Baptist preaching circuit even after the school and mission closed (five months after its opening), and in the summer of 1836, Evan Jones found a great increase of interest in conversion. More than 20 Cherokees were baptized, some in Talking Rock Creek, in 1836-37. In 1838, the pace accelerated. Convert and missionary Jesse Bushyhead baptized 47 fellow Cherokees in May, 10 days before removal began.cxcv
While Martin, with 69 slaves and 315 acres of improved land, was unquestionably the wealthiest Cherokee at Coosawattee, his neighbor John Adair Bell was also affluent and influential. A member of the Treaty Party and signer of the treaty, Bell owned a two-story house, store house, smoke house, shuck house, corn cribs, stables, a dairy, slaves, and more than 100 acres of improved land.cxcvi In 1836, Bell became the disbursing or issuing agent for “poor and destitute Cherokees” in Coosawattee. He traveled to Calhoun, Tennessee to pick up rations made available by the federal government and was ordered to use the distribution as an opportunity to impress upon the recipients the necessity of complying with the treaty. Agent Albert Lenoir at New Echota told him which Cherokees were allowed to receive rations.cxcvii
An estimated 600 Cherokees lived at Coosawattee at the time of removal.cxcviii Moreover, hundreds of Creeks had taken refuge in or near Coosawattee and a few other Cherokee settlements after they were forced from their homes in Georgia. One of the military’s earliest initiatives at Coosawattee was the capture of refugee Creeks living there.
In 1977, construction was completed on Carter’s Dam, the highest earth-filled dam east of the Mississippi.cxcix Impounding the waters of the Coosawattee River, the dam created Carter’s Lake, which flooded the site of Coosawattee Town.
Military Occupation.
The military occupation of Coosawattee began in late March 1837, when Capt. William Derrick was ordered there from New Echota to capture runaway and refugee Creeks. One of John Bell’s female slaves served as interpreter for Derrick, who was instructed to treat the Creeks humanely if they surrendered willingly.cc Subsequently, Derrick was order to tell the Coosawattee Cherokees that any who helped the Creeks escape or otherwise avoid capture would be “taken forthwith and emigrated to Arkansas.”cci Bell and Walter Sanders (also spelled Saunders) were expected to be of assistance to Derrick in his endeavors.
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