The Cordele dispatch. (Cordele, Ga.) 19??-1971, 1916-09-27
History of Old Fort
Early

rOTl EdIIy Was eISClSu uulHS Wv
ernor Peter Early's administration by
General David Blackshear, the brave
Indian fighter, who used this fort all
| through the Indian war of 1872, Many
deeds of valor in which General
| BIackshear's brave men participated,
can be traced to these stirring days
of the old fort.
Fort Early was strong stockade
fort; built especially for Indian war
fare and was situated on the East side
of Flint river, six miles below the
junction of Cedar Creek and Flint
river in the present county of Crisp.
Well did this old fort Withstand war
and weather as some few years later,
we again see much activity in and
around this fortified site.
On February 80, 1918 we find Gen
eral Andrew Jackson and two regi-
ments of soldiers occupying Fort Early
having been sent thither by the Sec
rotary of War to aid General Gaines
in quelling depredations continually
being made upon the whites by the
hostile Seminole Indians. The Semi
noles lived in Florida, and had been
reinforced by a band of Creek Indians
from Georgia called Red Sticks, who
had absolutely refused to recognize the
treaty made at Fort Jackson in which
the Creeks had coded a large portion
of their territory to the whites. These
RED Sticks" under the leadership of
the Seminoles, would frequently in
wade the southern frontier of Georgia,
pillaging, stealing and numbering the
white settlers. 1t was this trouble
which caused the secretary of war to
order General Jackson from Nashville
with two regiments of soldiers to join
General Gaines on the southern from
tier.
General Jackson commenced his
march from Fort Hawkins (Macon) to
Hartford (Hawkinsville) and from
thence to Fort Early, passing right
through the TERRITORY where the city
of Cordele now stands. This march
was most adventurous one. All
along the route many encounters with
the Indians took place in which thrill
ling acts of bravery are attributed to
Jackson and his men. Finally Fort
Early was reached with the army in
almost famished condition.
Already Captain Leigh had been or
dered out from Hartford with packs of
provision for Jackson's army. On Jan
uary %, 1918, Maj Franklin E. Heard,
by order of General Glascock pro !
ceeded with a few men to meet Capt.
Leigh and aid him in carrying the pro-
visions through to Fort Early. When
Cedar Creek was reached six miles
from Fort Early, halt was made as
the stream was quite swollen, making
it difficult to cross and the growth so
thick on the other side it seemed al
most impenetrable Capt. Leigh and
Private Samuel Lofts insisted on
crossing the stream any way. Maj.
Heard insisted it would be too danger
GUS. but to no avail These two brave
soldiers plunged into the stream and
lust as they crossed to the opposite
side were shot dead from ambush by
lurking Indians. Maj Heard imme-
diately withdrew to some small breast
works near by, and defended himself
until he could get message to Cen
eral tGlascock, who speedily sent for
ward re-inforcements. The Indians
we're successfully repealed and Maj.
Heard and his few men proceeded to
Fort Early with the provisions so anX-
iously awaited by Jackson's hungry
men,.
This skirmish at Cedar creek ended
the attacks of the Creek Indians upon
the white in south Georgia.
No trace of old Fort Early now re-
mains, the site having been identified
by old settlers who remembered the
Fort before it's decay. Some of the
breastworks however, still remain.
Fort Early site is about ten miles
from Cordele near Warwick, on what
is now the G. H. Raines plantation.