Fort Newnan Cherokee Internment Site
Cemetery at Fort Newnan = junction of Highway 136 and Antioch Church Road, Blaine, GA
This article is adapted from "Cherokee Removal: Forts Along the Georgia Trail of Tears" by Sarah H. Hill.
Construction.
The records found to this point do not include any information about possible construction at Ft. Newnan. The proper name of the post, however, indicates that it was fortified, and since the company assigned to the post was mounted, we can also assume they built stables. The company may not have needed huts since they arrived after winter had passed, but at this point we have no way to confirm or deny the possibility. In light of the number of letters relating to supplies, we can assume the company had considerable storage facilities.
Supplies.
Subsistence stores were shipped from Ft. Cass to Ft. Newnan as early as March, although we have no details regarding amounts or kinds.ccxli By late April, it was apparent that the post could not obtain adequate forage. Mays had been able to purchase only 1,600 bushels of corn, which came from a site some 30 miles away.ccxlii In early May, Mays had only 500 to 600 bushels or corn and scarcely more fodder, primarily because all forage in the area was purchased by John J. Field for Ft. Hetzel.ccxliii
The scarcity of forage in the area, which may have been the result of the long occupancy of the nearby mission as well as the tavern, confirmed the wisdom of linking the posts for the distribution of supplies.
In late June, Mays wrote that he had no invoice for the 1,070 pounds of iron he had received, an amount that seems extraordinarily high.ccxliv In preparation for the sale of the public stores at Ft. Newnan, Campbell wrote from Dahlonega on June 29 that he planned to arrive at Ft. Newnan on Wednesday, July 4.ccxlv The subsequent correspondence indicates that Ft. Newnan’s occupancy lasted from March 1-July 4, or no more than four months.
Prisoners.
Other than the July 2 report from Capt. Dodson that he had arrived at Ft. Newnan to convey prisoners to Ft. Cass, no documentation has been found of the number of Cherokees removed by Dorsey’s company.
SOURCES:
ccxxiii Charles O. Walker, Cherokee Footprints Vol. 2 (Canton, GA: Industrial Printing, 1989), 18.
ccxxiv Shadburn, Cherokee Planters, 196-97. Two of George’s slaves, Daniel and Nanny, had converted to Christianity, probably by Baptist missionary Elisha Battle: see Robert G. Gardner, Cherokees and Baptists in Georgia (Atlanta: Georgia Baptist Historical Society, 1989), 64 n. 11.
ccxxv Walker, Cherokee Footprints Vol. 1, 133.
ccxxvi Robert G. Gardner, Cherokees and Baptists in Georgia (Atlanta: Georgia Baptist Historical Society, 1989), 136-37.
ccxxvii Shadburn, Cherokee Planters, 189-98.
ccxxviii NARA RG 393 m1475 r1 fr 0504.
ccxxix July 15, 1825, Hugh Montgomery to the Sec. of War, in Shadburn, Unhallowed Intrusion, 536.
ccxxx NA RG 92 Entry 350 Box 2, Vol. 2.
ccxxxi NA RG 92 Entry 350 Box 2 Vol. 2 260.
ccxxxii NA RG 92 Entry 352 Box 6.
ccxxxiii NA RG 92 Entry 352 Box 3.
ccxxxiv NA RG 92 Entry 350 Box 2.
ccxxxv NARA RG 393 m1475 r1 fr 0209-11.
ccxxxvi NARA RG 393 m1475 r1 fr 0651-53.
ccxxxvii NARA RG 393 m1475 r1 fr 0752-54.
ccxxxviii NARA RG 3993 m1475 r1 fr 0749-51.
ccxxxix NARA RG 393 m1475 r1 fr 0860-62.
ccxl NARA RG 393 m1475 r1 fr 0854-55. A Capt. N.
P. Dodson belonged to Lindsay’s regiment of Tennessee Mounted Volunteers.
ccxli NA RG 92 Entry 350 Box 2 Vol. 2 232.
ccxlii NA RG 92 Entry 352 Box 3.
ccxliii NA RG 92 Entry 350 Box 2 Vol. 2 280.
ccxliv NA RG 92 Entry 352 Box 3.
Construction.
The records found to this point do not include any information about possible construction at Ft. Newnan. The proper name of the post, however, indicates that it was fortified, and since the company assigned to the post was mounted, we can also assume they built stables. The company may not have needed huts since they arrived after winter had passed, but at this point we have no way to confirm or deny the possibility. In light of the number of letters relating to supplies, we can assume the company had considerable storage facilities.
Supplies.
Subsistence stores were shipped from Ft. Cass to Ft. Newnan as early as March, although we have no details regarding amounts or kinds.ccxli By late April, it was apparent that the post could not obtain adequate forage. Mays had been able to purchase only 1,600 bushels of corn, which came from a site some 30 miles away.ccxlii In early May, Mays had only 500 to 600 bushels or corn and scarcely more fodder, primarily because all forage in the area was purchased by John J. Field for Ft. Hetzel.ccxliii The scarcity of forage in the area, which may have been the result of the long occupancy of the nearby mission as well as the tavern, confirmed the wisdom of linking the posts for the distribution of supplies.
In late June, Mays wrote that he had no invoice for the 1,070 pounds of iron he had received, an amount that seems extraordinarily high.ccxliv In preparation for the sale of the public stores at Ft. Newnan, Campbell wrote from Dahlonega on June 29 that he planned to arrive at Ft. Newnan on Wednesday, July 4.ccxlv The subsequent correspondence indicates that Ft. Newnan’s occupancy lasted from March 1-July 4, or no more than four months.
Prisoners.
Other than the July 2 report from Capt. Dodson that he had arrived at Ft. Newnan to convey prisoners to Ft. Cass, no documentation has been found of the number of Cherokees removed by Dorsey’s company.