“Remember Fort Mims!” General David Blackshear shouted
to the men of the Georgia Militia under his command. He knew that the imagery
of innocent women and children being massacred by the Creek Red Sticks in
Alabama would be a powerful motivator for people who lived within the shadow of
the Creek Nation.
2 “Governor Early has ordered us to march sixty miles
into the wilderness and destroy all of the camps where the Seminoles have
assembled to attack our state and our people,” he continued. “Men, we must
protect the good people of our state from what happened to those poor folks in
Alabama,” he explained.
3 Burwell Camp remembered how horrified he had been
when he’d first heard about what had happened at Fort Mims. It was, after all,
the thing which had given him the courage to answer his state’s call in the
first place. “I can’t imagine that happening to Elizabeth and the children,” he
thought.
4 Since then, however, General John Floyd had led the
Georgia Militia to decisive victories over the Creeks at Autosee and Chalibee.
General Jackson had also achieved an overwhelming victory over the Red Sticks
at Horseshoe Bend, and the immediacy of the threat from Great Britain’s Indian
allies had seemed to fade away.
5 Nevertheless, the war with Britain had continued in
the interim; and news that the British had captured and burned Washington D.C.
in August alarmed folks across the nation, even in distant Georgia. Moreover,
Governor Early had received a request from the Secretary of War for three and a
half thousand men to reinforce General Andrew Jackson in defending Mobile
against an expected attack there by the British.
6 Burwell Camp was one of the men who had been drafted
by the state in order to supply that need. “You are ordered to appear at Fort
Hope as soon as possible,” the notice had read. In response, he had promptly
grabbed his rifle and coat, kissed Elizabeth, hugged his little ones and
scurried out the door.
7 Now he was standing here at Fort Hope on the edge of
a hostile wilderness, and the mission of the forces under General Blackshear’s
command had changed dramatically. A few days ago, the general had received a
message from General McIntosh informing him of an expected attack by the
Seminoles across the Ocmulgee frontier and ordering him to make this foray
against them.
8 In preparation for the campaign, General Blackshear
had ordered the construction of a flatboat to ferry his troops across the
Ocmulgee River. However, when the general and his troops reached the river,
they discovered that the boat had not been built. “We didn’t have the tools we
needed,” the men complained. As a consequence, the general and his men did not
cross the river until the end of December.
9 “I thought we was gonna be fightin Injuns, I didn’t
know I was gonna be swingin an axe all day!” Burwell complained. He wasn’t the
only one complaining. Still, by the end of the first week in January, the road
was progressing into the wilderness. And, although they hadn’t seen large
numbers of Indians, the men had worked hard to carry out their orders and had
done so without the benefit of adequate food and provisions.
10 Then another dispatch arrived from Governor Early
and General McIntosh ordering them to abandon their project against the
Seminoles. “Hawkins has informed us that the threat from the Seminoles has
abated,” the letter explained. “Damn Hawkins to hell and back!” the general
roared to his aides. “I doubt there were any Seminoles there to begin with,” he
snorted.
11 “Men, it looks like we will finally be joining
General Jackson’s forces in the defense of Mobile,” Blackshear told them. “At
least, I ain’t gonna be choppin wood no more,” Burwell muttered. “Yeah, but
Mobile sure is a long way from home,” one of his buddies replied.
12 A few days later, however, yet another dispatch
arrived from the governor. “British ships have been spotted off of our coast,
and they have landed soldiers on Cumberland Island,” the letter explained.
“This crisis has compelled me to change your orders from General McIntosh and
insist that you march your men to defend Georgia’s coast with all of the haste
that you can muster,” it concluded.
13 As a consequence, without being adequately
resupplied or provisioned, the now miserable militia began their march toward
the coast. Their progress, however, was impeded by streams of refugees who were
fleeing the British.
14 Then, the hand of fate intervened yet again.
General Blackshear and his forces would never see action against the British.
15 In early February, news arrived of General
Jackson’s victory over the enemy at New Orleans. A few weeks later, Blackshear
and his men learned that the Treaty of Ghent had actually ended the war before
they had crossed the Ocmulgee in December.
16 Burwell and the other men of the militia were
officially discharged early the following month. “Maybe we can finally have a
little peace and quiet now,” Burwell told his buddy before heading for home.
17 Now these are the generations of Burwell Camp:
18 Burwell married Elizabeth Moore, and they had a son
named William Louis.
19 William Louis married Leah Daniel, and they had
children: Thomas, Nancy, Martha, Mary, Lida, Seaborn and William.
20 Mary Camp married William Monroe Hendrix, and they
had children together.
21 Seaborn Camp married William’s sister, Susan
Hendrix. Nancy Camp married Samuel Rigsby, and they were the ancestors of
Roscoe Isaac York.
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