Fort Bainbridge was an earthen fort located along the Federal Road on what is today the county line between Macon and Russell counties in Alabama.[1] Fort Bainbridge was located twenty-five miles west of Fort Mitchell.[2]
History
Creek War
Fort Bainbridge was named in honor of naval captain William Bainbridge.[3][4] Fort Bainbridge was built in the style of a bastion fort with eight outcroppings. The bastions were surrounded by a ditch that was filled with pickets and the fort was entered by a drawbridge.[5] It was constructed in March 1814 by North Carolina militia under the command of General Joseph Graham in an effort to protect the supply route from Fort Hull to Fort Mitchell.[6] Captain Jett Thomas directed the fort's construction.[7] Fort Bainbridge allowed supply wagons to travel between Fort Mitchell and Hull in one-day intervals and was garrisoned by 100 to 300 troops.[8] Fort Bainbridge was garrisoned by Tennessee militia until July 31, 1814.[2]
Postwar
In 1820 on his North American tour, Adam Hodgson described Fort Bainbridge as being a "small stockaded mound".[7] Captain Kendall Lewis (who commanded Benjamin Hawkins' scouts), along with his Creek chief father-in law, Big Warrior, operated a tavern as a stagecoach stop about 400 yards west of Fort Bainbridge, which stayed open under the care of Lewis' widow until at least 1836.[9] During his return tour, the Marquis de Lafayette stayed at the Lewis Tavern for his first night in Alabama.[10]Prince Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach stayed at the Lewis Tavern on his 1826 travels through North America.[11] The site of the fort also lies along naturalist William Bartram's four-year journey through the Southern United States, during which he documented the flora, fauna and Native Americans of the area.[12] The fort site was later used as a plantation.[13]
Fort Bainbridge (located in the center) as portrayed in Henry Schenck Tanner's 1830 The Traveler's Pocket Map of Alabama.
Present
Today, it remains unmarked and its legacy lies in a small unincorporated community, Boromville, that developed from it.[14] Though unmarked, the location is known and the area has been damaged by relic hunters.[15]
Braund, Kathryn; Waselkov, Gregory; Christopher, Raven (2019). The Old Federal Road in Alabama. Tuscaloosa, Alabama: University of Alabama Press. ISBN978-0-8173-5930-0.
Braund, Kathryn E. Holland (2012). Tohopeka: Rethinking the Creek War & the War of 1812. Tuscaloosa, Alabama: University of Alabama Press. ISBN978-0-8173-5711-5.
Harris, W. Stuart (1977). Dead Towns of Alabama. Tuscaloosa, Alabama: University of Alabama Press. ISBN0-8173-1125-4.
Jackson, Andrew (1927) [Composed 31 July 1814]. Bassett, John Spencer (ed.). Correspondence of Andrew Jackson. Vol. 2. Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Institution of Washington.
Waselkov, Gregory; Christopher, Raven (April 2012). Archaeological Survey of the Old Federal Road in Alabama (Technical report). Montgomery, Alabama: Alabama Department of Transportation. Submitted by the Center for Archaeological Studies University of South Alabama.