As you open a brochure from the Fort Hawkins Foundation, you’ll find the interesting fact that the defensive tower sits on the highest hill in Macon, Georgia. Almost half a decade before the War of 1812, the military post was established by President Thomas Jefferson and Indian Agent Col. Benjamin Hawkins. The Macon landmark follows a history of political warfare between the British and U.S., the Civil War, and even in the construction of Rose Hill Cemetery.
How can we connect the dots between the Fort and other events in America’s history?
Author, historian, and paranormal investigator Courtney McInvale explains while her expertise is centered between the battle of the Confederates and Union states, the War of 1812 left a pivotal trace in Georgia’s timeline.
“So the War of 1812, I always remind people, is actually America’s true war for independence. We credit the American Revolution with that, of course, with the 4th of July. It was the bulk of the battles, but it wasn’t definitive,” Mcinvale said.
Despite the American Revolution, the U.S. remained vulnerable to British rule. McInvale elaborates that one of America’s efforts to secure their region and assert their autonomy was through the initiative of outposts. These stockades allowed soldiers to feasibly assemble if threat occurred.
Meanwhile, tensions were high during America’s charge for independence, its expansion of land ownership led the Native Americans and British Empire to join forces.
“Fort Hawkins moves from protecting us from the British to protecting us from the Native Americans who had just lived basically across the street,” McInvale said.
The loss of their sacred land led Creek tribes to resort to violent resistance until General John Floyd’s rally of troops would cause them to retreat from their communities.
“And then the Native Americans are pushed out to, to Oklahoma, and then the South really starts to build, you know, it’s farmland, it’s plantations, it’s idea as a settlement,” McInvale said.
As the U.S. finally occupies the Northern and Southern states, the territories distinctly develop their own customs including differing opinions on slavery. The North relied on industrialization for their economic development with little access to agriculture the South so heavily profited from. More info:
The young independence of the U.S. would reveal itself internally vulnerable when The War Between the States broke in 1860, according to Civil War briefs.
“And the war doesn’t really enter Georgia for a couple of years. Fort Hawkins transforms into a state of ‘if the war is to come down here, then we become relevant,’” McInvale said.
The year, 1860, also marked the election of abolitionist Abraham Lincoln as president. His rise as president during a feud of slavery, would ultimately induce seven Southern states, including Georgia to secede from the U.S.
Shortly into his term, McInvale describes the Civil war would soon hit Georgia after the summer of the bloodiest Battle of Gettysburg.
“There’s a Georgia boy who is at Gettysburg. He’s from Macon and his dad was a wealthy politician. He thought his son was not doing much good and tells him to join the military,” McInvale said.
The infamous Georgia boy was Albert Iverson. His family’s wealthy background would allow him to attain the rank of a General. A petty man, as McInvale explains, will later face the tragic death of his wife and the responsibility as the only parental figure for their two daughters. As a resort, he drank his sorrows in alcohol.
Which would later leave the question of- had he recklessly ordered Confederate soldiers to march down the hills of Gettysburg? This decision would be known as the Iverson’s charge, a gruesome fate of execution for the Confederacy.
“One by one, they all fall face forward, hundreds, if not thousands of them in a matter of minutes,” McInvale said.
Following the aftermath of the bloody loss, Iverson would dishonorably return to Macon and live a quiet life with his daughters. That is, until, an opportunity arises for atonement when a Union General arrives in Middle Georgia seeking to release Union prisoners from the Andersonville war camp.
“He does get captured by General Iverson during his second attempt of raiding Georgia in fire. He is the only Union general to ever be captured and imprisoned,” Mcinvale said.
After he reinstated his redemption, Iverson would later travel from Macon and reside in Florida with his family.
As for the fallen soldiers of the Civil War, their bodies would return back to Middle Georgia to rest at the Rose Hill Cemetery.
Although the link isn’t linear, like McInvale describes it connects full circle given the crucial factor behind the burial ground’s construction. Rose Hill Cemetery was built with the old walls that belonged to Fort Hawkins.
“So it all connects and it’s all in a really weird way. It’s strange. But I think it also speaks to how definitive Civil War history really is to the south and to Macon,” McInvale said.
With the pieces of the puzzle aligning in place, Bibb County is revealed to have a significant impact on U.S. history.
“I think it’s a really neat transitional period. You’re connecting the revolution to the Native Americans to the Civil War and then to the most renowned cemetery in Macon,” McInvale exclaims.
Still standing atop Macon’s highest hill, Fort Hawkins bears silent testimony to the bloodshed behind America’s long road to independence. There are more to the details listed on local websites of Fort Hawkins origin.
