Frontier Fort From Revolutionary War Found in Ga.

AP via ABC News ^ | May 5, 2013 | RUSS BYNUM

[Pharmboy]

SAVANNAH, Ga. May 5, 2013 (AP) Less than two months after British forces captured Savannah in December 1778, patriot militiamen scored a rare Revolutionary War victory in Georgia after a short but violent gunbattle forced British loyalists to abandon a small fort built on a frontiersman's cattle farm.

More than 234 years later, archaeologists say they've pinpointed the location of Carr's Fort in northeastern Georgia after a search with metal detectors covering more than 4 square miles turned up musket balls and rifle parts as well as horse shoes and old frying pans.

The February 1779 shootout at Carr's Fort turned back men sent to Wilkes County to recruit colonists loyal to the British army. It was also a prelude to the more prominent battle of Kettle Creek, where the same patriot fighters who attacked the fort went on to ambush and decimate an advancing British force of roughly 800 men.

The battles were a blow to British plans to make gains in Georgia, the last of the original 13 colonies, and other Southern settlements by bolstering their ranks with colonists sympathetic to the crown.

[Pharmboy]

Nice find. Always like to report on news about the under-reported RevWar in the South.

[Pharmboy]

Photo from Oregon Live provided by Lamar Inst.

In this Feb. 17 photo provided by the LAMAR Institute, archaeologists from the nonprofit LAMAR Institute use metal detectors to search for artifacts from a small Revolutionary War fort in Wilkes County in northeast Georgia. Dan Elliott, the team’s leader, says the group found a dozen musket balls and rifle parts that revealed the location of Carr’s Fort, a small frontier outpost where patriot militiamen drove out British loyalists during a gunbattle in February 1779. Elliott says his team from the nonprofit LAMAR Institute found the location of Carr’s Fort in February after a month of searching and confirmed their discovery with return trips in March and April.

The RevWar/Colonial History/General Washington ping list

[moovova]

“... took refuge inside the fort when the community was in danger because either the British were coming or the Indians were coming.”

And folks nowadays are scared of a little boy chewing a gun shape out of a Poptart.

Great article, BTW.

[Old Sarge]

Always like to report on news about the under-reported RevWar in the South.

Agreed. I'm guilty of it, myself. Most everyone remembers King's Mountain and Cowpens, and the exploits of Francis Marion. But not much beyond that.

Always good to read!

[Pharmboy]

Yes...one reason many of the northern battles get the ink is that General Washington was present, e.g., Brooklyn, White Plains, Trenton, Princeton, Monmouth, Brandywine. If he had been at, say, Cowpens or Guilford Court House, we would have learned more about those in school.

Now, the kids hardly learn anything about the RevWar. Just awful since the libs took over education.

[Pan_Yan]

Always like to report on news about the under-reported RevWar in the South.

What are you talking about?

Everyone knows the "Period of Colonial Dissatisfaction" started with Occupy Boston and made a grassroots civil rights march down to Virginia where French Peacekeepers helped Washington and Cornwallis reach a mutual understanding of their differences and learn to be inclusive.

In other words there were no southern rednecks involved.

[MrFred]

Boom Baby!

[Pharmboy]

Indeed. Rednecks from the south and north were the backbone of the militias and Continental Army.

[commish]

Too bad the detecting wasn’t done by the boys from Diggers. I can just see KG falling face first in the creek after screamin “I FOUND REV!!!!”

[Pan_Yan]

My brother did an extensive family history going back 11 generations in some places. Quite a few members of the colonial army included, and with the exception of one oddball marrying a girl from Connecticut not a Yankee in the bunch.

[Oatka]

Now, the kids hardly learn anything about the RevWar. Just awful since the libs took over education.

I will joke with the clerks at the checkout counters, whether in box stores or mom and pop shops. Usually it's a historical play on the amount I have to pay, or receive in change. i.e. change of $10.66 = Battle of Hastings, $14.92 = Columbus in America, etc.

Last experience:
"That'll be $17.76."
"Ah, a famous date in history."
"Whut's that?"
"The birth of our country."
"Kewel!"

I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

[Pharmboy]

Well, not a lot of movement back then between north and south. People stayed where their ancestors settled...and even now, to a degree.

[Lazamataz]

I will joke with the clerks at the checkout counters, whether in box stores or mom and pop shops. Usually it's a historical play on the amount I have to pay, or receive in change. i.e. change of $10.66 = Battle of Hastings, $14.92 = Columbus in America, etc.

I do that with future dates:

"That'll be $20.14."
"Ah, a famous date in the future."
"Whut's that?"
"The year Obama seized power and dismissed the Congress and Senate."
"Kewel!"

Or

"That'll be $20.17."
"Ah, a famous date in the future."
"Whut's that?"
"The year death camps started operating in America to kill Christians, whites, and conservatives."
"Kewel!"

[Pharmboy]

Well, here's, arguably, the top redneck from the RevWar, Daniel Morgan. Although born in NJ, he is considered a son of VA and WV. One of the toughest guys of his day. Washington met him during the French and Indian War and they struck up an important friendship.

[Oatka]

I do that with future dates:

I'll have to try that - historical connections don't pop up that often.

[afraidfortherepublic]

Thanks for the article and the ping. In approximately what part of GA is this fort located? I only visit GA when visiting my son and his family in Aiken, SC which is located near Augusta.

[afraidfortherepublic]

My family must not have followed the pattern, then, as they roamed all over the place. My father’s family started out in VA in 1609 and opened KY after the Rev. War on land grants received for the patriarch’s service. Eventually my grandfather who was in MO by then (after the Civil War had dried up opportunities in the South) made his way to CA by building churches in small towns, working his way West. He’d take a church contract and complete it, and my grandmother would give birth to a baby, so all my aunts and uncles were born in different states until my father came along in Long Beach, CA.

On my mother’s side, my great grandfather left home at 18 (he was a half-orphan) and headed west to Oregon during the years of the Border Wars. I have a diary he kept for his firs couple of hears. He looked for gold, invested in land, felled trees, split logs, built barns, and attended every frontier dance held in the 1860s, and mourned the loss of a particular sweetheart who married another. Eventually he married, and his bride died, leaving him a 10 year old and an adopted baby. He went back to MO and married a cousin and eventually settled in CA.

The original patriarch on my mother’s side came from Sweden in 1632 (settling in PA) and made the trip twice, bringing a wife the 2nd time. His descendants populated the middle and southern states.

I think it is amazing how far these early settlers traveled, seeking their fortunes and a peaceful place to raise their families.

[Pharmboy]

Oh yes...the country sure went west from early times, as your family history attests. However, the north/south and south/north route (other than the great African American south—> north migration in the early 20th century) were not often used.

[SunkenCiv]

GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach	join list or digest view topics view or post blog bookmark post a topic subscribe
Thanks Pharmboy. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.

[Kenny Bunk]

in re Connecticut, from my Maine Mother-in-Law:

Lookin' right at me she says, "Ayuh, seems to me, once you get south 'o' Hartford, (i.e.," haht-fud") the people seem to get rather stupid. Ayuh."

At the time I was living in Norwalk.