Fort Wool Cherokee Internment Fort

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

Ft. Wool was located at New Echota on the Federal Road in present-day Gordon County. The fort site itself is located on private property south of the Park and is not open to the public. The military post evolved from a temporary encampment of Tennessee Volunteers in 1836 into a more substantial post with a log blockhouse, two storehouses and barracks for two companies of Georgia Militia in 1838.

The occupation of New Echota had apparently continued uninterrupted from the time Cherokees established their capital, courthouse, council house, printing press, mission station/school, stores, and residences around 1818, until the military abandoned its headquarters and the property was taken over by winners of the state lottery in the late summer, 1838. The numbers of people living at New Echota dramatically increased during the removal period, particularly as Ft. Wool became the headquarters for the Middle Military District.

Cherokees lived at New Echota as late as 1837. The Cherokee National Committee, which included New Echotan Elias Boudinot, met with state commissioners and a likely site was one of the public buildings at New Echota. In June 1837, Boudinot and his family emigrated with John Ridge’s party. Other well-known residents such as missionary Samuel Worcester had already left. In the fall of 1836, however, Cherokees were still using the council house for church and other gatherings.lxxxi

In July 1836, new occupiers arrived. From his headquarters in Athens, Tennessee, Gen. John E. Wool ordered Capt. Vernon of the East Tennessee Volunteers to march to and select a suitable encampment at New Echota.lxxxii The location of his campsite has not been determined. In accord with the treaty provisions, an agent was appointed to distribute rations to the indigent Cherokees and rations were also provided for the troops.lxxxiii Also in July, former governor Wilson Lumpkin received a letter from President Jackson appointing him commissioner to examine all Cherokee claims and perform all duties pertaining to the office. He and his secretary, Col. William H. Jackson, arrived at New Echota in September.lxxxiv Later, they were joined by Commissioner John Kennedy. To pay the claims they approved, the commissioners ordered the delivery of thousands of dollars, which came under military guard down the Federal Road from Athens, Tennessee. It is hard to imagine the removal military, former Georgia governor, claims commissioners, and displaced Cherokees living together in the most difficult period of Cherokee history.

Construction.
Lumpkin’s record of his work as commissioner contains useful information about the appearance of New Echota. In a letter to Lewis Cass, dated Sept. 9, 1836, Lumpkin wrote that repairs to the dilapidated buildings would be necessary in order to transact business.lxxxv The first military construction work (Oct.-Nov. 1836), undertaken at the order of Gen. Wool, was a reframing of the provision house intended for food that was to be distributed to “poor Cherokees.”lxxxvi In December an additional provision house was constructed, complete with a “hasp and steeple” for the door. Tools, hardware, and supplies for the provision houses--such as handsaws, augers, chisels, pad locks, measures, weights, ink bottles, butcher knives, ropes, books, and quires of paper--would have necessitated additional storage facilities and would likely have left archaeological traces. lxxxvii

Over the next few months, orders went out from Gen. Wool for thousands of pounds of beef, bacon, pork, and flour for troops and Cherokees, and for thousands of blankets and items of clothing for Cherokees. The literal business of removal surely proved profitable for some as loaded wagons traveled to New Echota, Coosawattee, and Blackburn’s Station (on the Federal Road in Forsyth County) with goods purchased from as near as next door and as far as New York. Interestingly, members of the Treaty Party such as Elias Boudinot and John Ridge were among those who sold food to the military for distribution to poor Cherokees.lxxxviii In November, Lt. Chas Hoskins was assigned to New Echota to take charge of the commissary, which was increasing in size and importance every day.lxxxix

In late 1836 and through 1837, numerous militia companies encamped at New Echota, but the first assigned and ordered to construct quarters was the company of Capt. William E. Derrick (ordered into service Nov. 14, 1836), followed soon after by Capt. Ezekial Buffington’s company (ordered into service Dec. 10, 1836).xc Both companies were raised from the Georgia militia. Since their winter barracks consisted of floored huts with officers’ quarters on the wings, they might have left archaeological traces as well as some of the hardware used in construction. By the beginning of 1837, orders had also been given for the erection of stables and an office for headquarters, this last to be constructed from council house materials. Hinges, locks, nails, and similar materials might still be discernible in the ground. The countryside around New Echota was rapidly being depleted of all supplies, making the post there the most expensive in the Army of the Cherokee Nation.xci

Commissioner Lumpkin and Gen. Wool found themselves in conflict over matters of authority, which perhaps accounts for the fact that Lumpkin seemed uncertain any repairs to the public buildings had been made.xcii By the end of January, however, military supplies must surely have warranted more construction or, at least, the full use of many surviving buildings. Orders went out for tens of thousands of musket cartridges and flints since all privates were to be furnished with arms, including pistols, pouches, and horns, as well as mess kits, tents, camp kettles, and monthly food rations. At least one hundred pounds of iron was ordered for horseshoes, indicating the presence of a blacksmith, whose shop could possibly be located archaeologically.xciii

Militia Appearance.
The clothing of the militia and regular army officers apparently differed considerably. While the regular army unquestionably wore standard uniforms, the militia seemed to lack them. Orders were given for each officer, non-commissioned officer, musician, and private to be comfortably clothed with at least one pair of good strong [?] shoes, two pairs of stockings, two pairs of pantaloons, a vest, two shirts, a coat, a stock, an overcoat, a blanket, and a decent hat or cap.xciv At one point, Gen. Wool expressed concern that the soldiers were too thinly clad for winter. More research on this question should prove fruitful and can provide us with an image of militia appearance.

Activities.
In February 1837 a Cherokee council held at New Echota for the distribution of annuity monies included more than one thousand people. Most Cherokees (1,269) attending the meeting voted for the money to be deposited with the second principal chief, who was strongly opposed to the treaty, rather than with the National Committee, comprised of members of the Treaty Party. Gen. Wool was sufficiently sobered by their vote, as well as by their resistance to the New Echota Treaty, to earnestly request the addition of a full regiment of U.S. Infantry.xcv He repeatedly wrote that the Cherokees were opposed to the treaty and remained unwilling to move. No written record has emerged to indicate where the thousands of Cherokees camped, ate, or assembled for the council or even for the distribution of rations, but the numbers of individuals camping on the grounds gives a sense of the scale and scope of activity at the old Cherokee capital.

Apparently New Echota remained unfortified as late as September 1837, and at that time Lumpkin considered the idea of fortifications “silly.” He claimed that no fortifications would ever be necessary at New Echota, as proposed by military leaders, and if at all necessary would be so only in places where the women and children of Georgia resided.xcvi Lumpkin’s dismissal of the idea of fortifications eight months before removal began underscores the speed with which preparations proceeded the following spring. New Echota was fortified by March 1, 1838 and soon after the post was called Ft. Wool. [xcvii]

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