Fort Daniel and the Georgia Frontier

Fort Daniel and the Georgia Frontier. . [Left panel] , Present day Northwest Georgia was a very different place in the late 1700s. Due to conflict with the region's Creek and Cherokee people, white settlers constructed small forts to protect themselves along treaty boundaries. One of these locations, called Fort Daniel, is now the site of ongoing archaeological research in Gwinnett County., [Caption] Map highlighting the location of the Cherokee nation., [Right panel] , Originally known simply as “the fort at Hog Mountain,” it sat at the southern boundary of Cherokee hunting grounds. Historians discovered a letter written on October 21, 1813, by Major General Allen Daniel, commander of the Fourth Division of the Georgia Militia. He wrote that the fort at Hog Mountain needed to be rebuilt to ensure better protection for the militia against attackers. Construction on Fort Daniel was completed later that year. That letter, along with circumstantial evidence, led researchers to believe that the original fort was built sometime around 1805., Just after the fort was rebuilt, construction began on a road to connect Fort Daniel with the new fort just built in the Creek town of Standing Peachtree. Now known as Old Peachtree Road, it was originally used to transport war supplies brought down by boat on the Chattahoochee River from settlements further upstream., Captions (clockwise from top left)
. Letter communicating need for repairs to the existing fort in Hog Mountain. , . The Knox Plan for the construction of frontier period forts. , . Artifacts discovered at the Fort Daniel Archaeological Site. , . Drawing of a fort according to the Knox Plan. Courtesy of Jim and Natalia D'Angelo