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CHAPTER VIII DEFENSE AND RECONSTRUCTION, 1715-1732 The larger strategy of the southern frontier, as Carolinians constantly urged in England, was an imperial concern; but defense of the immediate border and reconstruction of the shattered Indian system were obviously provincial problems. To them much energy was devoted in the years which followed the Indian rising. On the whole the militia had served the province well, and it was continued after the Indian war substantially as organized by the acts of 1703 and 1707. In 1721 dragoons were added, and the patrols were absorbed into the militia.1 The chief result of the d'ebacle of 1715 was the creation of a new system of defenses for the southwestern border, deserted by the friendly Indians who had constituted its screen, exposed, indeed , to attack by those same Indians, now renegades. Frontier posts and rangers accordingly took the place of the sentry-towns of Palachacolas, Savannahs, Apalache, Yuchi, and Congaree. Some sort of traders' blockhouse had from early days overlooked the focus of the western trails at Savannah Town, and very early, indeed, there was an 'Oldfort' on the right bank near where Augusta later rose.2 It was apparently some such traders' strong-house that was garrisoned by the Cherokee -Creek expedition in the winter of 1715-1716. Soon, however , a new fort was constructed, appropriately named Fort Moore. This served both as garrison and trading-post for the supply of the inland tribes, and in 1717 was placed under the inspection of the Indian commissioners. In August, 1716, they instructed their factor to build the main storehouse within the 1 McCord (ed.), Statutes, IX, appendix, pp. 617, 625, 631. Smith, South Carolina as a Royal Province, chapter v. In 1708 Johnson and the council reported that the militia comprised some 950 whites in two foot-regiments, each of eight companies of about fifty men; an independent company of Huguenots, forty-five men; the governor's guard troop, forty men; and ten patrols, each of ten men, to hold the slaves in check, and in invasions to protect the women and children. There were also negro auxiliaries, for each militia captain was required by law 'to enlist, traine up and bring into the field for each white, one able Slave armed with a gun or lance.' Besides , there were the Indian allies (C.O. 5 :1264, P 82). 2 Above, p. 44. [ 187 ] 188 THE SOUTHERN FRONTIER body of the fort, and to provide a small trading-room for Indians in the outworks. 'I look upon Savano Garison,' the deputy-governor wrote at this time, 'as the key of our Settlement . It is the Storehouse where we lay our Arms, Ammunition and Necessaries for the Supply of the Cherikees, and other our Friendly Indians.'s From 1716 to 1725 Fort Moore was commanded by Captain Gerard Monger; he was succeeded by Major David Durham. Men for this and other garrisons on the frontier were drawn from the militia. So long as the public trade continued the province servants also made up part of its complement . The garrison was somewhat reduced in 1721, in the expectation that part of the King's independent company would be stationed there until they could proceed to the Altamaha. In 1724 and 1731 it was composed of a commander, a lieutenant , a sergeant, and twenty-four privates.4 As in the case of Fort King George efforts were made to strengthen the post by permanent settlement.5 A second logical location for a fort and factory in the upper country was at Congaree, near the site of Columbia, where the Catawba path branched off from the trail to the Cherokee via Ninety-Six. A post was projected in 1716, in keeping with Moore's promise to the Conjurer, but was not actually built until two years later. In December, 1717, the province authorized the payment of a captain and twelve privates 'for a garrison to be built at Congarees,' and Charles Russell was given command. In 1720 the garrison numbered twenty men. But its maintenance proved burdensome at a time when the cost of frontier defense was agitating the assembly, and in 1722 the council ordered its reduction. With the abandonment of Congaree Fort the inland defenses were confined to the line of the Savannah River.6 In the new system of Indian defense another position of considerable strategic value was the place long known as 'Pal3 Cooper (ed.), Statutes, II. 634, 696; III. 23-30...

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