Hello everyone, and welcome back to the Northeast Georgia History Center's podcast. Then again, I am Marie Bartlett. And I am the director of the ADMA Ivester education center here. And today I have with me Eli Stansel, president of the Fort Daniels foundation. Thank you so much for being with us today.

Well, thank you for having me, Marie. I appreciate it.

We are very excited because next week, or even this week, depending on when you're listening, we have the War of 1812 home school day at the Northeast Georgia History Center, and Fort Daniels is having a special event on this coming weekend. Can you tell us a little bit more about the event?

Sure.

Also about Fort Daniels?

Sure, I'd love to. So as you spoke to, you're going to have the nice open house or the War of 1812 home school event. On that Saturday following the 21 October, we'll have the Fort Daniel open house. And Fort Daniel is a War of 1812 site in Georgia. It was built at the very corner of the United States, which at that time was kind of that part of Gwinnett County. The site was saved from the bulldozers in 2007 2008 and brought in professional archaeologists. And so through a team of archaeologists and historians, we've been able to actually outline the original fort footprint and dig up a number of artifacts that help interpret the site and likewise identify the starting point of the original Peachtree Road.

That is so cool. I have been able to go to Fort Daniels a couple of times now, and it's just so interesting to see the footprint of where the Fort would have been. And then also for that event that you're talking about, you have lots of really interesting historical demonstrations and craftspeople and reenactors, so it's always a good time.

Yeah, we very much enjoy featuring people that demonstrate skills you would have seen then. So the regular army, the militia, you'll have reenactors doing that usually have some genealogical societies because people tend to get excited and want to learn a little bit more about their history. Try to have people making hominy, usually a type of native skill craft there, as well as wool spinning. And one of the things that I think makes us unique is, as far as we know, we're the only active archaeological site in Georgia that identifies itself as a public park. So when we have these open houses, we always have a couple of units open, or at least one unit where people can get their hands dirty and practice archaeology with us. So we don't just turn everybody loose with shovels. We make sure we got professional archaeologists there. But we've never had one of these events that we haven't found at least a little something. So it's been everything from Spanish coins to flatware to silverware. We take it into the basement of the house that's on the premises, which we've converted into a lab and people get to see how you properly process artifacts and store them so that you can feature them at places like the Northeast Georgia History Center.

That is amazing. Perhaps we'll have to do a collaboration on an exhibit or something that would be really interesting.

Absolutely.

Now, can you tell us a little bit more about why there is a war of 1812 fort down here in Georgia? As you said, the corner of the United States at the time? Because when I think War of 1812, I think up north, I think the Great Lakes, I think about the burning of Washington, DC. I really don't think about Georgia. So can you tell us a little bit more about Georgia's role and why there is a fort here?

Sure. So kind of stems from the old adage that your enemy's enemy is your friend. Well, to the people living in the frontiers of Georgia and pushing know to the edges of this new land, they're encroaching on the Creek Nation. Within the creek Nation, there's actually an internal civil war going on at the time. So you have the Redstick Creeks, which are kind of the northern branch of the Creek Nation. They want to kind of continue that pan Indian alliance that they want to push a lot of the European settlement. Now, the lower creeks kind of taking the Benjamin Hawkins route of incorporating themselves into European farming traditions, towns and things like that. So there's a conflict within now that leaves the frontier completely exposed. And of course, we're fighting Great Britain at the time. They don't have the troops and the ability to send all that commitment over to fight the US. All across their territory. So obviously they focus on the Northeast, where they have interest in Canada, but they're able to funnel goods and materials through Spanish Florida up to the Redstick Creeks. And there's documentation in a number of the Creek and Cherokee letters that talk about the creeks threatening to raid the frontiers of Georgia up to and beyond the Hog Mountain, which is exactly where Fort Daniel gets placed. So the governor of the state of Georgia executes an order in 1813 that says ten to 20 miles along the frontier of Georgia, build forts. We're fortunate that at UGA in the Coleman collection, there happens to be a letter from General Allen Daniel that instructed his subordinates how to build a particular fort, the fort that was eventually named for him, fort Daniel. And that gave us the size and dimensions. And the idea was here there would be a string of forts along the frontier that would prohibit the Redstick Creeks from attacking. The US. Army actually took that one further when it came to Fort Daniel at the time, as they tried to supply Andrew Jackson as he was marching down through kind of the center of what would become Alabama, Mississippi, they had to essentially leave Macon, which was Fort Hawkins, and cross every river with wagons and move that supplies all the way over to him. And it was very tedious, a lot of exposure as you think about crossing all those rivers. So the US. Army then changed their plans and began shipping goods via wagon to Fort Daniel and then had the US. Army, the 43rd Regiment, guided by some engineers, to cut a road from Fort Daniel to the Chattahoochee River, where they built another fort called Fort Peachtree. And they would move these supplies this way up to Fort Daniel, completely under u. S. Protection because it's in the US. And then a short distance to march to Fort Peachtree. Now, the area that we can now call fort Peachtree is known as Atlanta, but it was right on the Chattahoochee, and the road that they cut crossed no rivers or streams. So old Peachtree Road is the remnants of that road, and it doesn't cross a creek or stream, which is great when you're talking about a wagon. So they moved all these goods by wagon to Fort Daniel into Fort Peachtree, loaded them boats and were able to float it down the river. And that way they could be much more protected and have a better ease of supplying. Jackson and so all this comes to fruition and all the goods are starting to move. And then Andrew Jackson wins at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend and eliminates the Redstick Creek threat. So it's a very short but exciting time period in the war of 1812, and why the fort was built at.

That particular place, that is fascinating. And it's so wonderful that you were able to preserve this fort and this site. Can you tell us a little bit about the formation of the Fort Daniels foundation and how you came to preserving this site?

Absolutely. So originally this site was zoned, as I said, in about 2006 seven, it was actually put up for sale, and it was going to be zoned to be a strip mall. And the only thing that most people knew was there was a historical marker out on the street. The sale actually fell through, and a couple of local citizens just frankly dug in their own pockets, hired an archaeologist and went door knocking and said, can we dig in your backyard? Which is not something most people hear. The homeowner was kind enough to let us do so and cleared away. This is where I learned about archaeology, is it's not? A bobcat pushing trash out of the way. It's called mechanical removal. And so they moved all the Kudzoo and sticks, and then in about 15 or 20 minutes time began finding artifacts. So began mapping it out. Using that paper from the UGA archives, we were able to know the size and the shape we were looking for, use ground penetrating radar to identify that really help outline the fort, and then took our findings to Gwinnett County. And Gwinnett County at the time, sat down talked about it, used some sploss money and actually purchased the fort site and the adjacent land so that it would be forever preserved as a park. So we were able to avoid the development and the loss of historic site, and we were able to identify it. And then since then, the story just continues to grow and is always in history. You always find some new, some nuance, something that changes the interpretation. So as we go along, we just find more and more and we're able to identify and tell even bigger pieces of the story.

That's wonderful. Can you share with us some of your favorite artifact finds from the site?

Oh, yes, absolutely. So my all time favorite that has been found on the site is a coin that's know, and it looks about the size of a Kennedy half dollar, very roughly stamped. It's Spanish, and it's a Spanish silver rial minted in Mexico that was on the site. And when you think about the US. At this time, we're not that far removed from the revolution. And so the idea of the central government creating currency and putting that out there is not something that most people are in favor of. So a lot of the means of exchange is by some other fiat currency or hard currency like that. And this just shows that here's this silver Spanish coin in what we all, everybody would have assumed was solid English territory. No, it's made its way up somewhere, probably from western Florida to the Fort Daniel site. So that's my all time favorite. A lot of the occurring artifacts that really help date this fort tend to be the flatware that we see. So when you think about plates and things of that nature, when you find a piece or two and it doesn't take a big fragment, but if you have a little bit that has some of the decor around the edge. There have been so many solid, long term studies and in depth studies that people can date that and say, this plate was made between 1780 and 18 two, and it came from this place. And that helps us identify, well, this is the type of plate that would have been there. So those are a couple of very telling things that are there, along with all the traditional flatware and some of the chippings off of projectile points people commonly call arrowheads, and the little tailings from where they were casting bullets over the fire there. But the coin was by far my all time favorite.

That's a really cool one just to hold in your hand something that, you know, someone else 100 years ago, 200 years ago, held in their hand. And maybe that was a special coin to them as well. How did they get that Spanish coin here in northeast Georgia at the time? It has such stories behind it, all of these artifacts. As we're talking, I'm beginning to wonder, do we know how long the fort was used for when it was abandoned or fell into disrepair, because obviously the fort itself is not there. We have the archaeological footprint of it. But do we know exactly what happened to the fort?

Yeah, so kind of as mentioned earlier, the more you dig both in the archives and on site, you find out more information. And so when we first began this research, we knew the fort was there during the War of 1812. So you're talking a very limited time frame. 1812, 1815, something like that. Well, the state of Georgia is going to keep track of their money. And so I spent some time at the state archives and we found the vouchers where they had contracted to supply the men at the fort with food, with forge for their horses. And likewise, we found the roster for the men that served in the fort and the dates they served. So we're able to essentially say that the fort construction began somewhere around September of October of 1813. And it looks like by the last records that we're able to come across that by the end of 1814, beginning 1815, was the last time that it was used as a military installation. So honestly, really, maybe only a year. One mystery always uncovers another, though. And so in all that digging, in one of the letters where it talks about building the fort there, and this is, of course, an 1813 letter, one of the officers makes mention of, yeah, we're having to rebuild the fort on the old fort site at Hog Mountain because the old fort was rotten and decrepit. Well, that told us that although we're looking at Fort Daniel and we're searching for this War of 1812 fort, something was built, some type of military installation was built there before, and that it was common knowledge to the Georgia militia as to where this fort was and it was placed on the same site. So we're looking at what would have been that time period of the Okoni Wars, probably 1790, late 1780s, that there probably was another installation there. We haven't even gotten to uncover all those details yet, but the 1812 piece probably just a little over a year. But there obviously was a fort established there on that site ahead of time that we're still digging more information on.

Oh, wow. That's so interesting. Goes back even farther. I love unraveling historical mysteries. That's one of the fun things about research.

Absolutely.

So what would you want our listeners to take away from this talk about the War of 1812 and, of course, Fort Daniels and Georgia's involvement in that war?

I'd say it not just about 1812 and Georgia and Fort Daniel, but even a bigger picture. We too often in history books get caught up in reading the chapter and you answer the three questions at the back and you fill in the multiple choice test and away you you know, people. Glad I didn't have to take another history class. I guess what I would say is takeaway is anytime you see a roadside marker or you see something neat or you get the chance, pull over and read it. I'd love for that to be fort Daniel, that you come in and you want to become part of the foundation, dress up in wool and shoot guns with us. But there is a story to everything out there, and this is a reflection of people, their past, their choices. And when you get in their point in time and you see why they made the decisions they made, it really puts a different context onto things. So I think that's what I have people take away is stop and read the marker and learn a little bit.

That's wonderful. And we hope that our listeners will come out to our war of 1812 homeschool day at the northeast Georgia history center and, of course, your special event that following Saturday at fort Daniels. Thank you so much for being with us today, and we'll see you next week.

All right. Thank you again. I appreciate it.

Then again is a production of the northeast Georgia history center in Gainesville, Georgia. Our podcast is edited by Andrews Giles. Our digital and on site program are made possible by the ada may ioster education center. Please join us next week for another episode of then again.