Fort Montgomery (Baldwin County (near Tensaw), Alabama)

Baldwin County (near Tensaw) · Alabama · War of 1812, Creek War, First Seminole War

Quick BriefFort Montgomery was a stockade fort built in August 1814 in Baldwin County, Alabama, during the Creek War, which was part of the War of 1812. Colonel Thomas Hart Benton and the 44th Infantry Regiment constructed it on Holmes Hill near present-day Tensaw. Named for Lemuel P. Montgomery, an officer killed at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, the fort served as a supply base for Jackson's further military action. Abandoned within a decade, nothing exists at the site today.

History & Significance

After the Treaty of Fort Jackson, General Andrew Jackson dispatched a large force to protect settlers around the Mobile and Alabama Rivers and prepare for further War of 1812 operations, with a detachment under General John Coffee marching down the Federal Road. Built in a star shape with 14-foot-high log walls, a moat, and a three-story blockhouse covered with hard logs and pine tar, the fort became a critical staging point.

Jackson established his headquarters there after the occupation of Pensacola, and by January 1815, it became headquarters for the newly organized 7th Infantry. Major Uriah Blue used the fort as his base while hunting remaining Red Stick warriors in the Escambia and Yellow Rivers region.

After the War of 1812's conclusion, Red Stick warriors continued attacking settlers with Seminoles, prompting the establishment of Fort Crawford from Montgomery as a new outpost. The fort's role shifted from active military operations to supply functions, and archaeological investigations by Jefferson Davis Community College, funded by the Alabama Historical Commission, recovered military artifacts including buttons likely from the reorganization of Army units in March 1815.