Birmingham state herald., 1897-01-03
AT AN OLD FORT MAJ. CLEM ExhumeS the Remains of a Rev.
 oIutionary Soldier. BODY ENTIRELY DECAYED But What Little of the Remains Were Found
 Major CIem Sent to
 Mobile, Ala.

Atlanta Constitution.
 Maj. John A. Glenn, of this city, has but
 recently returned from a trip to Fort Jackson, near Wetumpka, Ala, where he went for the purpose of disinterring the remains of the soldiers who had been buried there during the years 1714 and 1874, and reinterring them in the national cemetery at Mobile. w Major Clem was ordered to perform | this duty by Major-General Miles, and the scenes which he saw at the fort were
 r far different from those which were en- | acted there in the early days of its exist ence. He found the ruins of what was | once one of the most formidable and we'll
 l manned posts in the country. It has been
 l abandoned since 1874, and has conse- | quently become so decayed and over l grown with weeds and brush that one l might pass within a few hundred yards l of it and never suspect that he was near fort.
 The graveyard too, which was once well-kept and carefully tended by the comrades of those who had fallen in bat | tie, has been neglected, and the graves | that were once green with grass and fra l grant with the smell of flowers are now l sunken and overgrown with weeds, while
 l the slimy reptile has his home among
 l what was once the headstones of the | graves, but which are now nothing more l lHdn CTuUnDnnB pleCcS Ol SlOHc.
 1 Those farmers of that section of the
 l country whose lands extend over the old l fort grounds and the graveyard have | carefully refrained from going too near | while doing their blowing for fear of dis
 l turbing the graves of the dead. The 1 grounds, however, occupy large part of
 l their property, and, wishing to utilize it, | they wrote to the secretary of war, in 1 forming him of the condition of the fort and telling him of the graves that were | there. Upon receiving this letter the sec
 | retary of war delivered it to Major-Gen- eral Miles, and he in turn gave it to Ma | jor Clem, with instructions for him to proceed to the cemetery in question and | remove the bodies of those who were | there inferred to the national cemetery at | Mobile.
 The only way in which Major Clem could tell where the graves were situated was by the sunken ground. Upon taking the dirt out of them he found that every thing, even the bones, had decayed, ex- cept in one grave. In that grave he found only a piece of skull, which he brought with him to this city, and then sent it to Mobile, where it was reinterred. The piece of skull was what was left of | the remains of General McChesney who l died and was buried in the fort just be- | fore its abandonment in 1914. He was probably the last man that was ever in- tered there, and if only piece of his skull was found it is needless to say that the OIneTS nave lO1lS SlHCe ucCdyCus General McChensey was one of the he- roes of the war of 1872. He fought all | through the war and died a natural | death at its close. While he was an offi-- cer in high rank, he was not in command
 | of the fort, that responsibility being on 1 the shoulders of General Thomas Pinck- ney who was also a veteran warrior Of 1 great renown. General McChesney died
 | and was buried about the year 1874.
 l About the same time Fort Jackson was l abandoned, but 1t was thought that 1t would soon be used again, and for this | reason his remains, as we'll as the re- 1 mains of the others who were buried | there, were never removed.
 Fort Jackson is one of the most fa-
 nous places in the history of this coun-
 l try, having been for many years and | during many wars the scene of several | treaties and conflicts both with the In- l dians and with foreign nations. It Is | located on the east bank of the Coosa river, about four miles above it's junction | with the Tallapoosa, and four miles be- | low the present town of Wetumpka near the southern extremity of Fillmore county, Alabama.
 It was originally established in TIA
 by the French, under the name of Fort | Alabama, but the name was changed
 l at later date to Fort Toulouse, in com
 | pliment to the Compte de Toulouse, ad-
 miral of France, and who, as head of naval affairs of the kingdom, was at that
 | time director of the colonies It was
 | maintained by the French for the follow
 | ing half century with small garrison,
 l and played an important part in the ad-
 l mnistration of the colony.
 | In 1722 the garrison being tortured by
 1 famine, mutinied, and after killing the | commandant, pillaged the fort and start l ed for the coast, but the news of the mu- | tiny had spread and the mutineers were | pursued, captured and punished the l leaders losing their lives and the others l being punished in other ways. The post was then regarrisoned and maintained | as an outpost for many years under a succession of commandants and frequent | changes of garrison.
 In 1757 it was commanded by Capt. Montberant, with eighty men, who was succeeded, in 1759, by d'Aubant who was formerly adjutant at Mobile, and he by l the Chevalier d'Ernville, and the latter by the Chevalier Lavnoue, who being called upon under the terms of treaty of Feb. 18, 8,1763, to turn over the fort to the English, spiked his cannon and broke off their trunions, and having thoroughly dismantled the work, threw all the prop erty into the river and embarked his men for Mobile
 The following year detachment of English troops were sent up the river to occupy Fort Toulouse but in a very short time it was evacuated and soon fell into rapid decay. The old fort was then left to the mercy of the wild beatsts, and was not occupied again until the latter part of the war of 1912. It remained unoccupied during the revolutionary war and was apparently forgotten, for when 1t was again used it was discovered by chance On the 17th of April, 1874, few days after the battle of Horseshoe Bend, Gen. eral Andrew Jackson in command of the United States forces, while in search of 8 resting place for his army, came upon the peninsula once occupied by old Fort Toulouse. The trenches made by the French were cleaned out and stockaded work with blockhouses erected on the site, to which was given the name of Fort Jackson, in honor of the hero who was himself at the time in command of the forces. Here he received the surrend- er of the Creek chief, Weatherford, and his warriors.
 On the goth of April, during the same year, Major General Thomas Pinckney assumed command of the fort and all of the troops from Tennessee and South Carolina then engaged in the war, and it became the seat of military operations in Alabama as well as the point where a treaty of peace was signed on the 9th