For nearly a decade and a half, Fort Stoddert stood as a physical manifestation of American efforts to establish control of a pivotal frontier region. Located on the banks of the Mobile River some thirty miles north of the city of Mobile near what was at the time the boundary between the United States and Spanish West Florida, the outpost was constructed in 1799 but abandoned shortly after the Creek War of 1813-14.

During its short life, the post became a hub for a number of events which figured prominently in the story of southwest Alabama’s early American history. It stood as a center for governmental administration of a newly-acquired region; a nerve center for international diplomacy; a vital link in a nascent cross-country transportation and communication network; a beachhead for American settlement and expansion in the region in which it lay; and an anchor point in plans for defense of the large swath of the Mississippi Territory it served.

Despite this incredible legacy, until now no history of the fort has ever been written. This book attempts to use Fort Stoddert and the events in which it played a major role as a lens through which to tell the story of a consequential epoch of development and organization of one of Alabama’s oldest American-controlled areas.