Fort Stoddert

Fort Stoddert, also known as Fort Stoddard,^[1] was a stockade fort in the U.S. Mississippi Territory, in what is today Alabama. It was located on a bluff of the Mobile River, near modern Mount Vernon, close to the confluence of the Tombigbee and Alabama Rivers. It served as the western terminus of the Federal Road which ran through Creek lands to Fort Wilkinson in Georgia. The fort, built in 1799, was named for Benjamin Stoddert, the secretary to the Continental Board of War during the American Revolution and Secretary of the Navy during the Quasi War.^[2] Fort Stoddert was built by the United States to keep the peace by preventing its own settlers in the Tombigbee District from attacking the Spanish in the Mobile District.^[3] It also served as a port of entry and was the site of a Court of Admiralty.^[4] While under the command of Captain Edmund P. Gaines, Aaron Burr was held as a prisoner at the fort after his arrest at McIntosh in 1807 for treason against the United States. In July 1813, General Ferdinand Claiborne brought the Mississippi Militia to Fort Stoddert as part of the Creek War.^[5] The 3rd Infantry Regiment was commanded by General Thomas Flournoy to Fort Stoddert following the Fort Mims massacre.^[6] The site declined rapidly in importance after the capture of Mobile by the United States in 1813 and the establishment of the Mount Vernon Arsenal in 1828.^[3]

Fort Stoddert
Mount Vernon, Alabama in United States
Rough outline of Fort Stoddert from United States General Land Office survey map
Fort Stoddert Show map of Alabama Fort Stoddert Show map of the United States
Coordinates	31°05′22″N 87°58′03″W / 31.08944°N 87.96750°W / 31.08944; -87.96750
Type	Stockade fort
Site information
Owner	Private
Controlled by	Private
Open to the public	No
Site history
Built	1799
Built by	United States Army
In use	1799–1814
Battles/wars	Creek War

The Mobile River, looking northward from the site of Fort Stoddert.

A post office operated under the name Fort Stoddart from 1804 to 1829.^[7]

The first newspaper in Alabama, The Mobile Centinel, was published weekly at Fort Stoddert from 1811 to 1813.^[8]

References

1. "Old Fort Stoddard Mount Vernon Landing". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.
2. Barlow Genealogy. "Old Federal Road: Georgia to Alabama". Retrieved May 4, 2005
3. Southerland, Henry deLeon; Brown, Jerry Elijah (1989). The Federal Road through Georgia, the Creek Nation, and Alabama, 1806–1836. Tuscaloosa, Alabama: University of Alabama Press. pp. 33–35. ISBN 0-8173-0443-6.
4. "Fort Stoddert". The Creek War and the War of 1812. Retrieved 10 February 2021.
5. Harris, W. Stuart (1977). Dead Towns of Alabama. Tuscaloosa, Alabama: University of Alabama Press. p. 51. ISBN 0-8173-1125-4.
6. Weir, III, Howard (2016). A Paradise of Blood: The Creek War of 1813–14. Yardley, Pennsylvania: Westholme. p. 196. ISBN 1-59416-270-0.
7. "Mobile County". Jim Forte Postal History. Retrieved 28 July 2020.
8. "On this day in Alabama history: State's first newspaper was published". Alabama News Center. 11 May 2018. Retrieved 29 July 2020.