Fort Stoddert

{{Short description|U.S. colonial fort (1799–1814) in present-day Mount Vernon, Alabama}}

{{Infobox military installation

| name = Fort Stoddert

| location = Mount Vernon, Alabama

| nearest_town =

| country = United States

| image = File:Fort Stoddert.jpg

| caption = Rough outline of Fort Stoddert from United States General Land Office survey map

| type = Stockade fort

| coordinates = {{coord|31|05|22|N|87|58|03|W|display=inline,title}}

| gridref =

| image_map =

| image_mapsize =

| image_map_alt =

| image_map_caption =

| pushpin_map = USA Alabama #USA

| pushpin_mapsize = 220

| pushpin_map_alt =

| pushpin_map_caption =

| pushpin_relief =

| pushpin_image =

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| built = 1799

| used = 1799–1814

| builder = United States Army

|demolished=

|condition=

|ownership= Private

|open_to_public= No

|controlledby= Private

|garrison=

|current_commander=

|commanders=

|occupants=

|battles= Creek War

|events=

}}

File:Mobile River.JPG, looking northward from the site of Fort Stoddert.]]

Fort Stoddert, also known as Fort Stoddard,{{cite gnis|156833|Old Fort Stoddard Mount Vernon Landing}} was a stockade fort in the U.S. Mississippi Territory, in what is today Alabama. It was located on a bluff of the Mobile River, near modern Mount Vernon, close to the confluence of the Tombigbee and Alabama Rivers. This location was just north of what was then the international boundary line between the new United States and Spanish-held West Florida. As a border fort, Fort Stoddert served as the southwestern terminus of the Federal Road which ran through Creek lands to Fort Wilkinson in Georgia.

The fort, built in 1799, was named for Benjamin Stoddert, the secretary to the Continental Board of War during the American Revolution and Secretary of the Navy during the Quasi War.Barlow Genealogy. [http://www.barlowgenealogy.com/Resources/OldFederalRoad.html "Old Federal Road: Georgia to Alabama"]. Retrieved May 4, 2005 Fort Stoddert was built by the United States to keep the peace by preventing its own settlers in the Tombigbee District from attacking the Spanish in the Mobile District.{{cite book |title=The Federal Road through Georgia, the Creek Nation, and Alabama, 1806–1836 |last=Southerland |first= Henry deLeon |author2=Brown, Jerry Elijah |year=1989 |publisher=University of Alabama Press |location=Tuscaloosa, Alabama |isbn=0-8173-0443-6 |pages=33–35 }} It also served as a port of entry and was the site of a Court of Admiralty.{{cite web |title=Fort Stoddert |url=https://jmb005.wixsite.com/creekwarandwarof1812/fort-stoddert |website=The Creek War and the War of 1812 |access-date=10 February 2021}}

While under the command of Captain Edmund P. Gaines, Aaron Burr was held as a prisoner at the fort after his arrest at McIntosh in 1807 for treason against the United States. In July 1813, General Ferdinand Claiborne brought the Mississippi Militia to Fort Stoddert as part of the Creek War.{{cite book |title=Dead Towns of Alabama |last=Harris |first=W. Stuart |year=1977 |publisher=University of Alabama Press |location=Tuscaloosa, Alabama |page=51 |isbn=0-8173-1125-4 }} The 3rd Infantry Regiment was commanded by General Thomas Flournoy to Fort Stoddert following the Fort Mims massacre.{{cite book |last1=Weir, III |first1=Howard |title=A Paradise of Blood: The Creek War of 1813–14 |date=2016 |publisher=Westholme |location=Yardley, Pennsylvania |isbn=1-59416-270-0 |page=196}} The site declined rapidly in importance after the capture of Mobile by the United States in 1813 and the establishment of the Mount Vernon Arsenal in 1828.

A post office operated under the name Fort Stoddart from 1804 to 1829.{{cite web | url=https://www.postalhistory.com/postoffices.asp?task=display&state=AL&county=Mobile&searchtext=&pagenum=2 | title=Mobile County | publisher=Jim Forte Postal History | accessdate=28 July 2020}} The first newspaper in Alabama, The Mobile Centinel, was published weekly at Fort Stoddert from 1811 to 1813.{{cite news |title=On this day in Alabama history: State’s first newspaper was published |url=https://alabamanewscenter.com/2018/05/11/day-alabama-history-states-first-newspaper-born/ |accessdate=29 July 2020 |work=Alabama News Center |date=11 May 2018}}