Fort Carney was a stockade fort built in 1813 in present-day Clarke County, Alabama during the

Creek War The Creek War (1813–1814), also known as the Red Stick War and the Creek Civil War, was a regional war between opposing Indigenous American Creek factions, European empires and the United States, taking place largely in modern-day Alabama ...

(part of the larger

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It bega ...

History

Creek War

After Red Stick warriors began attacking settlers in the area, many families joined together to create protective stockades. Josiah Carney, who moved to Clarke County in 1809 from

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

, began building a stockade in 1813 at Carney's Bluff. Carney's Bluff was later known as Gullett's Bluff. Fort Carney was also known as Fort Hawn or Fort Gullett. The fort site was located six miles south of Jackson on the road from Jackson to Mount Vernon. Sources differ on the number of occupants of Fort Carney.

Albert J. Pickett Albert James Pickett (Anson County, North Carolina, August 13, 1810 — Montgomery, Alabama, October 28, 1858) was a planter and lawyer in Autauga County, Alabama. He is known as Alabama's first historian, having published a two-volume history of ...

reported 390 individuals occupied Fort Carney, while Timothy H. Ball stated that it only contained "a few occupants". Sixty members of the 8th Regiment Mississippi Militia occupied Fort Carney. Prior to the Fort Mims massacre, it was reported that Red Stick warriors examined Fort Carney but decided to attack Fort Mims instead. Fort Powell was a stockade fort located three miles south of Fort Carney at Oven Bluff. After the Fort Mims massacre, settlers from Fort Powell moved to Fort Carney before moving to Mount Vernon. Jeremiah Austill, who gained fame for his participation in the

Canoe Fight The Canoe Fight was a skirmish between Mississippi Territory militiamen led by Captain Samuel Dale and Red Stick warriors that took place on November 12, 1813 as part of the Creek War. The skirmish was fought largely from canoes and was a vic ...

, stopped at Fort Carney on his ride from

Fort Madison Fort Madison is a city and a county seat of Lee County, Iowa, United States along with Keokuk. Of Iowa's 99 counties, Lee County is the only one with two county seats. The population was 10,270 at the time of the 2020 census. Located along the ...

to Fort Stoddert. Austill volunteered for the seventy-five mile ride to request additional protection for the occupants of Fort Madison.

American Civil War

During the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

, a Confederate fort named Fort Gullett was built on the site of Fort Carney. Fort Gullett was built in 1862 to protect the nearby

salt well A salt well (or brine well) is used to mine salt from caverns or deposits. Water is used as a solution to dissolve the salt or halite deposits so that they can be extracted by pipe to an evaporation process, which results in a brine or dry produ ...

s. Fort Gullett also served to prevent Federal gunboats from traveling up the Tombigbee River. The fort was abandoned in the later years of the Civil War.

References

Sources

* * * * * * * {{cite book, last=Windham , first=Kathryn Tucker, authorlink=Kathryn Tucker Windham, title=Alabama, One Big Front Porch, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hozNwPLWFEIC&pg=PA165, year=2007, publisher=NewSouth Books , location=Montgomery, Alabama, isbn=978-1-58838-219-1, pages= Pre-statehood history of Alabama Buildings and structures in Clarke County, Alabama Carney Carney American Civil War forts Alabama in the American Civil War Creek War