The dead town of New Savannah began ''circa'' 1740 as a

Chickasaw The Chickasaw ( ) are an indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands. Their traditional territory was in the Southeastern United States of Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee as well in southwestern Kentucky. Their language is classified as ...

village on the

Savannah River The Savannah River is a major river in the southeastern United States, forming most of the border between the states of South Carolina and Georgia. Two tributaries of the Savannah, the Tugaloo River and the Chattooga River, form the norther ...

, at the mouth of Butler Creek below Augusta. Stories as to the circumstances vary, but in any case some portion of the Horse Creek Chickasaws under Squirrel King moved across the river and founded the town from which they farmed, hunted and scouted until the Revolutionary War. In 1757, CPT Daniel Pepper estimated the population there as "seventy Gun Men" (Milling 1940:196). After the Revolution, New Savannah became a

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

inspection. Tobacco leaf grown at local farms was packed into large hogshead barrels, and rolled to the town to obtain the official quality inspection necessary for its marketing. Sealed and quality-branded hogsheads were then loaded onto pole boats for transport to the seaport and market at

Savannah, Georgia Savannah ( ) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia and is the county seat of Chatham County, Georgia, Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the Kingdom of Great Br ...

215 river miles downstream. Augusta's Tobacco Road still exists by that name and, according to ''Georgia Place-Names'', was laid out in 1789. The tobacco market waned in the very early 19th century and, with that, the commercial existence of New Savannah. (Note that the similarly named and somewhat contemporaneous

Savannah Town, South Carolina Savannah Town, South Carolina is a defunct settlement that was located in the colonial years on the Savannah River below the Fall Line in present-day Aiken County. In the 1670s the Westo had a village here, but they were displaced by the Savannah ...

was located by Fort Moore several miles upstream.)

Geography

New Savannah was located at 33°22'21"N, 81°56'45"W (NAD83/WGS84), at the mouth of Butler Creek about 14 river miles downstream of

Augusta, Georgia Augusta ( ), officially Augusta–Richmond County, is a consolidated city-county on the central eastern border of the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. The city lies across the Savannah River from South Carolina at the head of its navig ...

. Aside from a nearby cemetery, nothing remains of the original site, which is located within New Savannah Bluff Lock and Dam Park.

External links

TopoQuest topographic mapCarte de la Partie Sud by Rigobert Bonne, 1782
showing town as 'N. Savannah ou Chicasoue'

References

* pp. 174–183 * pp. 190–191 and 229-234 * * pp. 187–202
Henry Schenk Tanner, A New Map of South Carolina with its Canals, Roads & Distances from Place to Place along the Stage & Steam Boat Routes, 1833
showing river miles as encountered by original travellers and prior to Corps of Engineers improvements {{Chickasaw Geography of Richmond County, Georgia Ghost towns in Georgia (U.S. state) Chickasaw 1740 establishments in the Thirteen Colonies