National Park Service Ocmulgee Mounds U.S. Department of Interior Ocmulgee Mounds NHP

Fort Hawkins U.S. Military Outpost

FORT Fort Hawkins was built in 1806 overlooking the ancient Indian Mounds at what ESTABLISHED was then known as the Ocmulgee Old Fields (today Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park). The land that the fort was constructed on belonged to the (Creek) Confederacy, but the 1805 Treaty of Washington granted the United States the authorization to construct the fort as well as a horse trail to Mobile, Alabama across the Creeks land.

The fort was named for Benjamin Hawkins. During the Revolutionary War, Hawkins had served as an interpreter for General Washington and in 1789 he served as a Senator for one term. He was held in high esteem by President who appointed Hawkins to negotiate the Treaty of Colerain with the Creek Indians in 1795. Later he accepted an offer to be the principal agent of Indian Affairs South of the , and was active in arranging treaties and handling other matters incident to the territorial expansion of the United States. (BENJAMIN HAWKINS)

THE FORT’S The fort consisted of two large center of each sidewall with their walls CONSTRUCTION blockhouses connected by a strong forming part of the stockade. The buildings stockade made of hewn timbers, with were used for soldiers’ quarters, storage portholes for muskets at each alternate of provisions, as well as to store goods and post. The stockade enclosed an area of 4 hides of the Indian trade. The officers’ acres. The blockhouses were located at the quarters stood in the center of the fort Southeast and Northwest corners of the surrounded by oak trees, for shade. The rectangular stockade. Both blockhouses remainder of the fort’s interior, and over were built with an above-ground basement 90 acres outside the stockade wall were of stone blocks, surmounted by two cleared of undergrowth and large trees, stories of hewn logs and topped with a to prevent surprise attacks and for clear watchtower. Inside the stockade were observation. four long houses, made of logs, one in the

THE After the First Treaty of Washington was Fort Hawkins at this time was the principal IMPORTANCE signed in 1805, between the United States depository for army supplies and rations OF THE FORT and the Creek Indians, the for troops involved in the and became the southwestern boundary of the the Indian Wars (Creeks and Seminoles). United States. During the war of 1812 with In February of 1818, General Jackson with Great Britain and the Creek Indian War 1,000 volunteers arrived at Fort of 1813 - 1814, Fort Hawkins was used for Hawkins to await the arrival of 900 the rendezvous and disposition of troops. militiamen and a number of friendly Creek In October of 1814, over 2,500 militiamen Indians on their way to fight the Seminoles were organized and equipped at the fort to in the First Seminole War. join General at Mobile in Alabama. Some of the soldiers saw duty in The last great assembly of Indians at the the Seminole uprisings in South Georgia. fort occurred in 1817, when 1,400 Creeks THE gathered to receive annuities from the IMPORTANCE government. Each U.S. treaty provided OF THE FORT payment of such annuities in return for (CONTINUED) ceding the ownership of Indian land. By 1818, Anglo-Americans began settling on the lands around the fort. A ferry was built across the river. Within three years, the settlement name was changed from Fort Hawkins to “Newtown”. In 1821, the Creeks signed a treaty giving up their lands between the Ocmulgee and Flint Rivers, and shortly afterwards the city of Macon was laid out on the west side of the Ocmulgee River. In 1826, the Ocmulgee Old Fields, the land on which Fort Hawkins sat, was also ceded along with all remaining Creek land within the (CREEK INDIANS LEAVING FORT HAWKINS) boundaries of Georgia.

DEACTIVATION At the end of 1818, General Edmund Local developers acquired the land AND FALLING Gaines used the fort as headquarters for embracing the fort in 1828. Gradually the INTO DISREPAIR the Eastern Section of the U.S. Army’s buildings fell into disrepair and by 1879 Division of the South. During his stay only the southeast blockhouse remained, Gaines closed several frontier forts and it was later sold to Henry Jones who including Fort Hawkins. After 1819, the relocated it to Main Street to use as a barn fort was not garrisoned. until it burned down.

BLOCKHOUSE In 1938, through the efforts of the the original wood timbers. During the REPLICA Chapter of the reconstruction, archaeology conducted at Daughters of the American Revolution, the site revealed the location and extent of and with the Works Progress the stockade walls and corner blockhouses. Administration, a replica of Fort The excavations uncovered many everyday Hawkins’ southeastern blockhouse was items used by the fort’s inhabitants. The reconstructed on the exact location of the City of Macon currently maintains the original, using some of the original stones structure and it is occasionally opened to in the basement section. The upper floors the public. are made of concrete formed to simulate

(BLOCKHOUSE IN 1879) (BLOCKHOUSE IN 2020)

EXPERIENCE YOUR AMERICA™