Stunning Archaeological Discovery made in Chattahoochee, Florida

 

Nicolls' Outpost interpretive panel
at River Landing Park in
Chattahoochee, Florida.

Archaeologists find complete War of 1812 fort in a Chattahoochee Park!

Advanced technology deployed for the first time in North America has produced stunning results in Chattahoochee, Florida. A team of scientists led by Dr. Mary Glowacki, PhD, of Pre-Columbian Archaeological Research Group, Inc., a 501(c)3 nonprofit contracted by the City of Chattahoochee, have revealed the entire outline of Nicolls' Outpost or "Fort Apalachicola". 

As explained in Dale Cox's book Nicolls' Outpost: A War of 1812 Fort at Chattahoochee, Florida, the fort was built by the British in 1814-1815. It was to serve as a "jumping off" point for one wing of a planned invasion of the State of Georgia. Lt. Col. Edward Nicolls of His Majesty's Royal Marines would lead a column from the head of the Apalachicola River up the Flint River against the Georgia frontier and the state capital in Milledgeville, while a second British force advanced up the coast from Cumberland Island to Savannah. 

The War of 1812 ended as Nicolls was assembling a column that included thousands of British Royal and Colonial Marines; the 5th West Indian Regiment from Jamaica; and Seminole, Miccosukee, Yuchi, and Red Stick Creek warriors in late February 1815. The Colonial Marines were composed largely of free Black men who had self-liberated from slavery, while the Native Americans had spent months training in light infantry tactics at Nicolls' Outpost and its sister post, the Fort at Prospect Bluff (later called "Negro Fort" by American officials).

Outline of the fort at
River Landing Park in
Chattahoochee as determined
by the new project.

The end of the war cancelled a looming a battle with an outgunned U.S. force under Col. Benjamin Hawkins that was camped a few miles above the forks of the Chattahoochee and Flint Rivers (today's Lake Seminole) in what is now Seminole County, Georgia. Each side saluted the other and Hawkins withdrew his fighters with relief. 

The role of Nicolls' Outpost, however, was not yet over. Col. Nicolls assembled a large gathering of American Indian leaders there for an important council on March 10, 1815. Important chiefs and warriors representing most of the towns of today's Seminole Tribe of Florida and Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida marked a treaty that day requesting continued independent relations with Great Britain. More significantly, the document represented the first time that so many representatives of towns that eventually became part of today's federally recognized Seminole and Miccosukee Tribes committed to remain free and independent in Florida, and to mutually defend each other if attacked. 

The exact date on which the fort was evacuated by the British is not known, but Lt. Col. Nicolls reported to a Spanish officer that a handful of soldiers were still there as late as April 1815. The British withdrew from the Apalachicola River in late May, so the evacuation date was probably around the end of April or beginning of May 1815.

The fort was later mentioned in U.S. Army reports as the site where Seminole, Miccosukee, and Maroon (self-liberated Black fighters) forces achieved the first Native American victory of the Seminole Wars during the Scott Battle on November 30, 1817.

To learn more about the archaeological discovery and the remarkable technology that made it possible, enjoy this video from Two Egg TV:

 

Also of interest is this acclaimed Two Egg TV documentary on the Fort at Prospect Bluff, sister post to Nicolls' Outpost:

"By the Advice of the Indians"

A sketch of Econchattimico's
town drawn in 1838.

Rufus Ballard's farm at Econchattimico's Reserve

by Dale Cox

Jackson County, Florida - American Indians and white settlers were not on the best of terms in Florida in the spring of 1838. U.S. soldiers and state troops fought bloody battles against Seminole and Miccosukee warriors in Central and South Florida, while Creek bands from Alabama proved equally elusive and deadly for white forces west of the Suwannee. 

Caught in the middle were the Apalachicolas. Called Seminoles by some historians and Lower Creeks by others, these Indians had lived along the lower Chattahoochee and Apalachicola Rivers since at least the 1760s. Treated with by the United States Government as a separate tribe at this stage of their history, they were concentrated by 1838 on two reservations in today's Jackson County. The two tracts were all that remained of four reserves established for the followers of the chiefs Econchattimico, Yellow Hair, Vacapachasse, John Blunt, Davey, Cochrane, and Neamathla under the terms of an amendment to the Treaty of Moultrie Creek in 1823.

Signature page of the Treaty of Pope's
Store (near today's Sneads).
National Archives

Blunt and his followers along with those of Davey and Cochrane gave up their lands by signing the Pope's Store Treaty in 1833 ahead of their voluntary relocation to Texas. Some of Yellow Hair's and Vacapachasse's people went with them. 

Econchattimico and John Walker - the latter chief replacing the deceased Yellow Hair - traded some of their lands for peace with their white neighbors before major fighting erupted in Florida in December 1835. It did not do them much good.

As tensions increased, slavecatchers and land speculators prowled around the edges of the two remaining reserves. The former hoped to drag away Black Apalachicolas to sell into slavery. The latter looked for opportunities to convince white neighbors that Econchattimico and John Walker intended violence. The presence of these interlopers caused real problems. 

Even as white neighbors of the reservations marched onto Indian lands and disarmed Econchattimico while slavecatchers dragged away free Black Apalachicolas to sell into slavery, the Native people living on the reserves engaged in a remarkable act of mercy. They extended a helping hand to a white man who was being treated horribly by his own people. [1]

The individual's name was Rufus Ballard. He was not a wealthy man and he was getting along in years - at least for that day and age - and after living in Florida for more than one decade he had been stiffed by the powerful Apalachicola Land Company. If you are not familiar with the Apalachicola Land Company, it owned the lands previously known as the Forbes Purchase. Those same lands comprise much of today's Apalachicola National Forest:

[Y]our memorialist came to this Territory in the year 1828, with a view to amend his fortunes, and provide a competency for old age, availing himself of the liberal laws of the liberal laws of the United States in regard to frontier settlers; and. . . it was a proceeding attending with much privation and hardship, in consequence partly of the wildness of the country, being far remote from civilization, and its occupancy by several tribes of Indians. [2]

American Indian chief as
seen on the Apalachicola River
during the early 1800s.
University of West Florida

Among those "tribes of Indians" was the band of Pascofv (Pascofa), a Creek war chief who came with his people from Alabama to Florida in 1836-1837 after they were attacked by a band of white allows while waiting in a concentration camp to travel the "Trail of Tears" to what is now Oklahoma. Attacked again at the Battle of Hobdy's Bridge as they made their way south to Florida, Pascofv's followers now occupied hidden camps between the Apalachicola and Ochlockonee Rivers from which they carried on a bloody war for survival with white troops.

Ballard, however, had a worse enemy - the Apalachicola Land Company:

And your memorialist would further respectfully represent that that not knowing of any adverse claim, he originally settled on the Forbes' Purchase, the lines then not being run out: and that by the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, he found that after years of hard labor he was compelled again to enter the wilderness and make unto himself a new home. [3]

The home and small farm that Rufus Ballard lost to the Apalachicola Land Company was not a big one. He had hacked a clearing from the wilderness and built a little cabin by his own labor and it was there that he and his wife, Emily, started raising a family of six children. The company did not care and he could not afford the elevated price that it asked for the land that he had improved with his own sweat and blood.

Homeless and unsure of where to go or what to do with his family, Ballard received an unexpected invitation. Econchattimico and his people wanted these poor white people to come and make their home on their reserve:

...[B]eing thus ousted, by the advice and invitation of those who had known him many years, he was induced, in May 1838, to settle on the reserve of lands provided for the Indian Chief Econchattomico, and his tribe, beleiving that it would soon be abandoned by them, as, in fact, it was in the Fall of that year: Your Memorialist made this settlement by the advice of the Indians, and no objection has ever been made on that account. [4]

Rufus Ballard's 1844
Petition for Relief.
State Archives of Florida/
Memory Collection

From this document deep in the State Archives of Florida emerges a remarkable story. Econchattimico and his people knew that their days in the land of their ancestors were numbered. Despite the promises afforded them by the U.S. Government under the Treaty of Moultrie Creek and the amendment to the Treaty of Pope's Store, they would soon be forced to leave their Florida homes. Soldiers were coming with muskets and bayonets to enforce the will of the white people that they be driven west of the Mississippi.

And yet, as their greatest tribulation loomed before them, the Red Ground chief and his followers invited a poverty-stricken family of homeless white friends to come and live with them.

The Apalachicolas of Econchattimico and John Walker were "removed" from their own land by future U.S. President Zachary Taylor's troops a few months later. The Ballard family watched as their American Indian friends were driven aboard the steamboat Rodney to begin the long Trail of Tears to what is now Oklahoma. 

The family continued to farm the 12-acres given it by Econchattimico and slowly reestablished itself. One more crisis developed when the former chief's lands were surveyed prior to being opened for public sale and it was found that the tiny Ballard farm lay in fractional section 16. Under the U.S. Government's surveying system, the 16th section of each township was to be reserved for sales to benefit educational purposes. Ballard and his family once again were found to be living illegally on lands they could not claim.

Section 16, Township 5 North, Range 7 West
in Econchattimico's Reserve
showing the site of Ballard's Farm (labeled here as
(Fryday's Field) on a land plat from 1844.

This time, Rufus Ballard was frustrated beyond reason. The lands did not even belong to the United States but to the Native American chief Econchattimico when he settled on them. Why should he be driven from his home and cast out into the wilderness once more? He was given the little farm he now possessed by its original owners and he felt entitled to keep it, no matter what a surveyor said.

Ballard petitioned Florida's Territorial Legislative Council in 1844 and this time reason prevailed. One year before Florida became a state, the Council agreed that the family could keep their 12-acres so long as they paid a preemptive fee of $1.25 per acre. After all, the government must have its due. [5]

The site of the Ballard farm is now under the waters of Lake Seminole.

References:

[1] For a history of Econchattimico's Reserve, please see Cox, Dale, The History of Jackson County, Florida: The Early Years, Bascom: Old Kitchen Books, 2008.

[2] Ballard, Rufus. Petition of Rufus Ballard Requesting Pre-Emption Rights on Land that He Settled, circa 1844. 1844 (circa). State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory. <https://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/348856>, accessed 8 April 2024.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Draft of an Act for the Relief of Rufus Ballard, 1844. 1844. State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory. <https://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/348748>, accessed 8 April 2024.

Archaeology & History mark Seminole War Battle Anniversary

Today marks the 203rd anniversary of the Scott Battle of 1817. The first Native American victory of the Seminole Wars, this engagement took place on the bank of the Apalachicola River at what is now River Landing Park in Chattahoochee, Florida. Click play above to learn more about the battle and a new archaeology project that is aimed at finding key evidence from the battlefield itself!

109 dead in 31 days: The 1918 Spanish Influenza at Florida State Hospital

Dozens rest in forgotten graves at Chattahoochee, Florida.

by Dale Cox

A surviving wooden grave marker at Florida State Hospital
Cemetery No. 3 in Chattahoochee, Florida.

As America deals with a growing COVID-19 or coronavirus pandemic, mention is often made of the terrible Spanish Influenza of 1918. 

The flu struck in the early fall of that year, sickening entire communities in as few as 48-hours. The pandemic was especially deadly in military camps, prisons, and other places where large numbers of people lived in close proximity. At the Florida Industrial School for Boys in Marianna, for example, 264 of the 267 students were incapacitated in less than two days (please see The Pandemic of 1918 at Marianna's School for Boys).

At Florida State Hospital in Chattahoochee, things were even worse.

Florida State Hospital as it appeared in 1918. The old brick
building and its tower were part of the original Apalachicola
Arsenal complex around which the hospital developed.

Cemetery records for Cemetery No. 3 at the facility show that 109 people died in October 1918 alone. This number does not include patients who were buried elsewhere or staff members who fell ill and lost their lives. [1]

Considerable evidence shows that the deadly influenza was spread through North Florida by a special "relic train." The train traveled on the railroad from Jacksonville west through Florida to Pensacola, stopping in Tallahassee, Quincy, Marianna, and elsewhere:

     The United States Government War Relic Train was at Quincy this morning from 7:30 to 9:30, and quite a large number of people from both the city and county viewed the wonderful exhibits sent out by the government to bring home to the people the closeness of the great struggle.

     Captain L.M. Dixon, lieutenant H.B. Smith and Private, Gabriel Rubino, were the main speakers and entertained the audience with patriotic appeals. There were quite a number of catchy songs by other parties in the government train, which were enjoyed very much by the audience.

     Chairman Wilson, of the Liberty Loan Committee, aided by his fellow members, worked among the audience, securing pledges for the Liberty Loan. [2]

The paddlewheel steamboat Amos Hayes at the railroad bridge
over the Apalachicola at Chattahoochee (River Junction),
Florida. The "relic train" crossed here on Oct. 5, 1918.

The train's journey through Gadsden and Jackson Counties took place on October 5, 1918. People began to fall ill and die almost as soon as it passed.

In Tallahassee, for example, medical authorities reported the spread of the deadly illness less than 48-hours after the train's visit but noted there was no cause for alarm. Before another 24-hours passed, however, people were dying in the city, and the mayor ordered all public places to close their doors.

Quincy developed cases almost simultaneously with Tallahassee. Chattahoochee and Marianna followed just hours later.

At Florida State Hospital, the doctors and nurses were overwhelmed with deathly ill patients. Available statistics show that patients began to die on October 6, 1918, and the death toll soared in the days that followed.

The Administration Building of Florida State Hospital was
the original officer's quarters of the Apalachicola Arsenal.

Patients continued to die in large numbers through the second and third weeks of October. The youngest, oldest, and weakest went first. By the end of the month, it was all but over. The death toll dropped just as suddenly as it had risen. Only the graves remained to tell the story.

Influenza surged again in November-December 1918, bringing even more deaths and more burials.

Cemetery No. 3 is one of several such burial grounds on and around the hospital and was the one in use in 1918. It is in the woods near Mosquito Creek and is not maintained although it is on state property. Hurricane Michael toppled trees there and damaged remaining grave markers, most of which were made of wood and bore only numbers to identify the unfortunate people interred there. The victims of the 1918 pandemic, with hundreds of other forgotten souls, rest in silence and neglect.

It is now impossible to identify who is buried in most of the graves, but the cemetery ledgers indicate that the following people died at the hospital in October 1918. Deaths before October 5 were likely of other causes.

DEATHS AT FLORIDA STATE HOSPITAL

October 1-31, 1918

1.      Acuff, Miss Clara                      Age 26             WF                   10/16/1918

2.      Albritton, John                         Age 22             WM                 10/4/1918

3.      Alderman, Britt                        Age 25             WM                 10/11/1918

4.      Allen, Rollie                             Age 8               BM                  10/17/1918

5.      Almy, Lillie                              Age 27             WF                   10/20/1918

6.      Arnau, Eugene                          Age 34             WM                 10/7/1918

7.      Ash, Joe                                   Age 23             BM                  10/23/1918

8.      Bailey, W.L.                             Age 71             WM                 10/9/1918

9.      Baker, Mrs. Charlotte                Age 38             WF                   10/21/1918

10.   Baldwin, Peter                          Age 66             WM                 10/5/1918

11.   Beauchamp, Miss Minnie          Age 20             WF                   10/21/1918

12.   Bellamy, Frank                         Age 13             BM                  10/15/1918

13.   Bennett, Coley                          Age 17             WM                 10/20/1918

14.   Berry, Walter                            Age 25             M                     10/24/1918

15.   Brown, Alice                            Age 39             BF                    10/7/1918

16.   Brown, Jacob                            Age 60             BM                  10/18/1918

17.   Bryant, Annie                           Age 29             BF                    10/15/1918

18.   Bustin, Mrs. Elizabeth               Age 47             WF                   10/20/1918

19.   Butler, Julia                              Age 40             BF                    10/14/1918

20.   Cason, Gertrude                        Age 38             BF                    10/14/1918

21.   Chasen, Samuel                        Age 54             WM                 10/6/1918

22.   Cobb, E.C.                                Age 50             WM                 10/8/1918

23.   Davis, George                           Age 40             BM                  10/5/1918

24.   Demps, Gussie                          Age 24             BF                    10/16/1918

25.   Dingham, Ella                           Age 28             WF                   10/15/1918

26.   Unknown                                 Age                  WM                 10/1918

27.   Ellis, Daniel                              Age 18             BM                  10/12/1918

28.   Ferguson, Fronia                       Age 30             BF                    10/19/1918

29.   Francis, C.W.                            Age 51             WM                 10/11/1918

30.   Francis, George                         Age 34             BM                  10/14/1918

31.   Franklin, Thomas                      Age 75             WM                 10/15/1918

32.   Gaross, Maria                           Age 74             WF                   10/8/1918

33.   Golding, John                           Age 15             WM                 10/17/1918

34.   Goosby, Ida                              Age 47             BF                    10/8/1918

35.   Green, Polly Ann                      Age                  WF                   10/28/1918

36.   Hall, Rachel                              Age 75             BF                    10/16/1918

37.   Harin, Will                               Age 31             BM                  10/12/1918       

38.   Harrell, Willie                           Age 41             WM                 10/15/1918

39.   Harris, W.                                 Age                  BF                    10/12/1918

40.   Hill, James Palmer                    Age 25             WM                 10/14/1918

41.   Hinkley, Lewis                          Age 21             WM                 10/7/1918

42.   Holmes, Eliza                           Age 50             BF                    10/20/1918

43.   Horn, J.B.                                 Age                  WM                 10/4/1918

44.   Hutchinson, M.T.                      Age 39             WM                 10/3/1918

45.   Isaac, Marinda                          Age 3               BF                    10/2/1918

46.   Jenson, Arthur                          Age                  WM                 10/17/1918

47.   Johnson, Jim                             Age 37             BM                  10/31/1918

48.   Johnson, Robert                        Age 26             BM                  10/10/1918

49.   Jones, Charles                           Age                  BM                  10/19/1918

50.   Kelly, Gladys                            Age 23             BF                    10/13/1918

51.   Kennedy, Miss Jennie               Age 30             WF                   10/24/1918

52.   Kensler, Mary                           Age 43             BF                    10/7/1918

53.   Larcus, Rebecca                        Age 46             BF                    10/14/1918

54.   Lee, Charles                             Age 56             BM                  10/10/1918

55.   Lee, John                                 Age 34             WM                 10/8/1918

56.   Lee, Mary Jane                         Age 45             WF                   10/24/1918

57.   Lender, Mrs. Belle                    Age 51             WF                   10/20/1918

58.   Logan, Jim                               Age 59             WM                 10/7/1918

59.   Mathis, Mrs. Maud                    Age 34             WF                   10/20/1918

60.   Medino, Patrick                        Age 33             WF?                 10/8/1918

61.   Mercer, Mrs. Nancy                  Age 82             WF                   10/20/1918

62.   Milam, Benjamin B.                  Age 32             WM                 10/6/1918

63.   Miller, Moses                            Age 15             BM                  10/19/1918

64.   Moody, John B.                        Age                  WM                 10/12/1918

65.   Moondeck, George                    Age                  WM                 10/31/1918

66.   Moore, Mrs. Maggie                  Age 34             WF                   10/19/1918

67.   Moore, Maxie                           Age 25 or 30     BM                  10/14/1918

68.   Neel, James Edward                  Age 14             WM                 10/25/1918

69.   Parker, Sam                              Age 27             BM                  10/18/1918

70.   Pettington, Livingston               Age 28             BM                  10/16/1918

71.   Pinkston, Albert                        Age                  WM                 10/30/1918

72.   Potts, Carl                                 Age 18             WM                 10/21/1918

73.   Price, W.M.M.                          Age 51             WM                 10/16/1918

74.   Reed, Sarah                              Age 40             WF                   10/31/1918

75.   Richards, Willie                        Age 24             BF                    10/19/1918

76.   Richardson, Emily                    Age 29             BF                    10/17/1918

77.   Richardson, Jefferson                Age 31             BM                  10/12/1918       

78.   Ridditt, Mary                            Age 25             WF                   10/12/1918

79.   Robertson, Alderman                Age 44             WM                 10/14/1918

80.   Russ, Maude                             Age 17             BF                    10/26/1918

81.   Russell, D.S.                             Age 27             WM                 10/10/1918

82.   Saunders, Thomas                     Age 36             WM                 10/10/1918

83.   Seabury, Charles N.                  Age 80             WM                 10/25/1918

84.   Sharp, John                              Age 46             BM                  10/14/1918

85.   Sheronse, Olin                          Age 35             WM                 10/17/1918

86.   Smith, Lillie Mae                      Age 16             BF                    10/3/1918

87.   Stephens, Christopher C.           Age 36             BM                  10/17/1918

88.   Stephens, Josephine                  Age 51             BF                    10/17/1918

89.   Stephens, Mary                         Age 31             BF                    10/15/1918

90.   Sumler, Charles                        Age                  BM                  10/11/1918

91.   Taylor, Annie                           Age 25             BF                    10/15/1918

92.   Thomas, Henry                         Age 44             BM                  10/8/1918

93.   Thomas, Martha                        Age 49             BF                    10/24/1918

94.   Truluck, William                       Age 40             BM                  10/19/1918

95.   Wade, Albert                            Age 21             BM                  10/10/1918

96.   Walker, Dennis                         Age 24             BM                  10/26/1918

97.   Ward, Gus                                Age 36             BM                  10/11/1918

98.   Warren, Major                          Age                  BM                  10/20/1918

99.   Washington, George                  Age 73             BM                  12/15/1918

100.                    Webster, Pinkie                         Age 17             BF                    10/23/1918

101.                    Wheeler, Mary                          Age 36             BF                    10/22/1918

102.                    Whitehurst, John                      Age 52             WM                 10/11/1918

103.                    Whitehurst, Lillie May              Age 18             WF                   10/18/1918

104.                    Wiggins, Emma                        Age 17             BF                    10/19/1918

105.                    Williams, Fannie                       Age 40             BF                    10/15/1918

106.                    Williams, Henry                        Age 68             BM                  10/14/1918

107.                    Williams, J.H.                           Age 56             BM                  10/6/1918

108.                    Williams, Lula                          Age 43             BF                    10/15/1918

109.                    Williams, Spencer                     Age 37             BM                  10/20/1918

REFERENCES:

[1] Cemetery Ledgers, Florida State Hospital.

[2] Pensacola Journal, October 5, 1918.