The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-02-14

ment has been largely fostered by | such societies as the Colonial Danes will give it. The old fort Is partly I hidden by a clump of trees and it's silence is the silence of the grave. The cemetery half a mile away in which there once slept men and off, eers of, Jackson's army Is no more 1 quiet than the old fort and the huge Indian mound near by, dumb memor- ies of vanished orders and days that are passed.
 The piece of land on which the fort is located belongs to Judge w. P. Gaddis of Wetumpka and 1t adioins the Crommelin plantations. Both Judge Gaddis and the members of the Crommelin family have manifested a sensitive and lively interest in the old fort and It's preservation. They watch zeaIously for all souve-. mfrs and many have been found about the fort and at some expense attempts have been made to save the remain ing ruins from the blow or from cats tie loose on the range. <No house Is nearby; the aloftness of the place, it's solitude is impressive when 1t re- calls suddenly as a contrast the me- mories that this spot was once the center of life and activity in Middle Alabama.
 4no AOTL when lb was OftBiudlly built was more than four miles above the junction of the TaIlapoosa and the Coosa although the two rivers curved Into the plateau on which the fort is located until there were less than two hundred yards distance be- tween them. But in the flood of 1886 the Tallapoosa cut a new channel and the junction was made in sight of the fort and not far from it.
 The remains of this day are defi- mite and tangible. I do not doubt Aut that any engineer familiar with Qualifications could. with but little trouble restore the fort as it was MT. Hamilton gives an excellent descrip- ton of the remains of the fort, so plain and true that we must believe that he visited the site, although he does not say SO in his book Mir. Hamilton is of the opinion that the part which now remains is only one of the four bastions. But to a lay man unlearned in fort construction 1t would seem that the greater part of it is yet marked out in the hollows ditches and depression.
 Built of Logs.
 Built of logs and dirt the fort as 1t is today. after two centuries must necessarily bear but slight resembl-
  skilled French engineers left upon the Coosa Bluff. But those remains are fully 250 feet across. This much is sunk beneath the edge of the fort on which the logs were originally placed and this much of it would give ample room for the garrison of thirty men which the records say was maintain ed there.
 The depression which marks the site of the fort is much in the shape of an hour glass. with It's rear to the Coosa and its front to the Talla- poosa. The English had they come, 1 would have come by the Tallapoosa. 1 The sides of the fort are broken in- to angles much in the shape of the | prongs of a star. Much of the face of the fort has been destroyed by a | culvert through which the waters of | rains have run in all these | years.
 The most striking feature of what now endures of the ruins of the | stronghold is a cireular hole near the | coosa side of the fort. This circular | depression marks the old magazine and about 1t to this hour of the Twen- tieth Century are to be found some of | the old brick with which 1t was built and with which the powder l and shot of Marchand's mem site is further protected by | an encircling wall of dirt, separating | 1t from the walls or any part of the | fort Summed up, it may be said the | remains of the fort are much more | distinct. clear cut and comprehensive han could be expected of e dirt