Gathering Leaves

Probably the most famous incident involving the long delay of time it took for news to travel in the days before the telegraph allowed for almost instantaneous transmission of messages was the Battle of New Orleans. This lengthy battle fought between American and British forces in the swamps outside of New Orleans, Louisiana began on December 23, 1814 and ended on January 15, 1815; with the main battle taking place on January 8. However, the War of 1812 officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent on the 24^th of December and yet news that the war had ended in late December didn’t reach New Orleans until late February.

In the early 19^th century the American south was largely undeveloped and most of the white population along with their black slaves was concentrated along the coast near cities such as Savannah, Mobile, and New Orleans. Native American tribes such as the Cherokee and Creek were in possession of western Georgia, and most of Alabama and Mississippi.

When the War of 1812 began most of the early engagements between the Americans and the British took place along the upper Eastern seaboard and in the Great Lakes region along the border between the US and Canada. In March of 1813, US forces captured the port of Mobile in what was then West Florida and in the spring of 1814, the Creeks in Alabama supported by the British began to engage US forces under the command of General Andrew Jackson in what has become known as the Creek War of 1814. By the late summer of 1814 the Southern states of Georgia and Louisiana were in alarm that British forces operating from their base at Pensacola in Spanish West Florida were stirring up trouble with the Native American tribes in the Mississippi territory and the Georgia frontier.

In 1814, my ggg-grandfather, David Dobbs was 22 years old and began military service  as a 3rd Lieutenant in the 4th Regiment of the Georgia Militia under command of Colonel David Booth. In September of 1814, the Governor of Georgia received a request from the US War Department to send 2,500 troops of the Georgia militia to Fort Hawkins on the Ocmulgee river which was near present-day Macon, Georgia to provide support and reinforcements for General Andrew Jackson who was currently en-route to Mobile in response to British and hostile Indian activity in the west Florida region. A regiment detached from Major-General Daniel’s division, commanded by Col. David S. Booth arrived at Fort Hawkins sometime in November along with other units of the Georgia militia. These militia units were divided up between Major-General John McIntosh and Brigadier-General David Blackshear and the plan was for McIntosh to proceed west to Fort Mitchell on the Chattahoochee River in present-day Alabama. While Blackshear was to take his units south to Hartford in Pulaski county Georgia where he was to cross the Ocmulgee River and then proceed about 40 miles west to the Flint River. There were reports of a Seminole uprising and British activity there north of the Spanish colony of Florida.

It is not known for certain if David Dobbs was with Blackshear forces who had to literally cut a road through the wilderness to get to the Flint River, or whether he was with McIntosh forces in Alabama. Yet it does appear more likely that he was part of a force of the Georgia militia that was sent to provide support of Jackson’s effort to stop another British invasion of the US which was expected at either Mobile or New Orleans. A letter from General McIntosh to General Blackshear dated 9 January 1815, states:

"I have sent a battalion from this [camp west of Chattahoochee], under Col. Booth, to the Tallapoosa [probably to Fort Jackson near Wetumpka, Alabama], with all the artificers I could collect, to build boats to take us down that river, and the Alabama to the Mobile, with our provisions, – considering this mode as the best I could adopt under existing circumstances, being informed that provisions are not to be had in that quarter, and the want of wagons to convey them any other way compels this alternative."

The purpose of sending more troops down to Mobile was to provide support for General Jackson. McIntosh already knew that a large British force was threatening New Orleans, but what he did not know was that the Battle of New Orleans had already been fought and won by the US the day before he wrote this letter.

General Blackshear began preparations to march his forces from Hartford on the Ocmulgee River to the Seminole settlements on the Flint River, a distance of 41 miles, on the 14^th December, but the whole of his command was not able to leave Fort Hawkins until the 31^st, having waited two weeks for a road to be cleared, and did not arrive at the Flint River until the 6^th of January; meaning that his troops were only able to travel five miles a day. By the time Blackshear arrived at the Flint River he was receiving conflicting orders from his commanders due to delays in communication.

One set of orders told Blackshear to proceed with his original mission to subdue the Seminoles, another set of orders instructed him to return east to Fort Hawkins and then proceed west to Alabama to link up with General McIntosh, and finally a third set of orders on January 19^th came from the Governor directing Blackshear to proceed east to the Georgia sea-coast where British troops had been seen landing on the outer islands. Blackshear and his men did not learn of the American victory at the Battle of New Orleans until they arrived back at Fort Hawkins on February 4^th and no one in the south, including the British had yet heard the news that the war had actually ended six weeks before. By the time Blackshear’s army reached the coast around the 13^th, the British had left the area. The news of the war’s end arrived in Savannah on the 14^th and did not reach Blackshear until after the 25^th of February – two months after the treaty had been signed in Belgium.

Eventually the Georgia militia made it down to Mobile. A letter from Major General McIntosh at Fort Decatur, dated January 22, 1815, to General Blackshear ordering him to proceed to Mobile, compliments Colonel Booth and his men in building boats for transportation down the Tallapoosa and Alabama Rivers to Mobile. The last major engagement of the now ended war occurred on the 12^th of February when American forces surrendered Fort Bowyer at the mouth of Mobile Bay to the British; only for all to learn of the peace treaty two days later from an arriving British warship.

After the War of 1812, David Dobbs continued service in the Georgia militia, was promoted to Major and shortly afterward to Colonel, the rank he held throughout the remainder of his life. He was a founder and on the board of trustees for Georgia Military Institute (GMI) from its inception in 1851 to at least 1857.

(This has been part 2 of a 4 part series regarding communications and transportation in the 19^th century)