Well, tommorow I leave for the frozen north, and what better final flag friday here than to show a few landmark flags I will miss driving by every day. First is this pair, the foreground one at Kingsland Park and the tall one at the police station.
The tall one from the other side.
And this large flag, at the Freedom Self Storage in St Marys near the base.
I always love to see a little patriotism on my way to work in the morning. I do hope I can find some in the liberal north!
Ok, so I set out with some more time to kill the other day, and got a strange hit and miss day. My first effort was to go out to Dover Bluff in northern Camden County to find the ruins of the old Spanish Mission. Well, after exploring for a while where the map said it was, I came to the conclusion that it must be on the property of the exclusive Dover Bluff Club. Nuts. Have I mentioned my pet peeve yet about historic sites on private property? So on the way back I stopped at the Ella Park cemetery and added it to FindaGrave.
Names here are Anderson, Browning, Clark, Copeland, Dowling, Dukes, Nelson, Poindexter, Wasson, Whitehead, and Wilson.
Next I went west to find the site of the old Camden County Seat at Jeffersonton. I wandered around where it was supposed to be but... the town is completely gone! There is nothing left to even show that it existed! Also I've never seen so many people concerned about trespassing. Every other tree on every road around there had a no trespassing or keep out sign. Geez, what's so great about that area? Anyway, on the way out I found the Tompkins cemetery and decided to add it as well. If anyone is reading this who is near this cemetery, it could really use a caretaker! Many of the graves are worn, or buried, or just plain neglected. Several of them I had to dig out the stone to find any inscription, and there are also several unmarked graves. If anyone has information on these, I would greatly appreciate it. Names here are Banks, Black, Blake, Brown, Butler, Cerold, Corley, Crum, Dessaw, Dunham, Edward, Green, Harris, Hill, Hunley, Ingram, James, Johnson, Kight, Lawrence, Lockley, Lollar, Mainor, Maynor, McCain, McKinnon, Merrow, Painter, Pasely, Perry, Powell, Reed, Tillman, Toney, and Wilkerson.
So the other day I had a few hours to kill and decided to go cemetery hopping. First up was back to Oak Grove, this time to find the Hudson/Pottle family for one of my FindaGrave friends. This one was very easy to find because they are old enough to be on the cemetery directory, and they are right next to the gazebo. Pictured here is the family plot with Harriet Pottle Hudson, Sarah Pottle, Joseph Pottle and Mary Chrichton.
Here is the First Presbyterian Church cemetery in St Marys. It only has these three people in it: John Wood, Laleah Wood, and Jane Wood Pratt.
This is Miller Cemetery, out near Point Peter. I had found it once before by accident, and decided now to come add it to Findagrave. Buried here are: Pharabea Bryson, Elizabeth Miller DuBose, John DuBose, Mary DuBose, Harriet Eubert, Absalom Jackson, Francis Jackson, Mary Miller, Thomas Miller, Josephine Lovell Rival, and Max Rival.
Next up is Carlton Cemetery in Kingsland. Bigger, but still small enough for me to add all the names to FindaGrave. These surnames are here: Balkom, Branecky, Carleton, Colson, Cooner, Davis, Dunaway, Fennell, Gillette, Green, Haddock, Hoffman, Horne, Nichols, Rigdon, Seals, Sweatt, Teston, Williams, and Windgate. Know anybody?
Finally, here is Sheffield Cemetery, on the former Sheffield Plantation near our house. Buried here are Ammons, Blount, Cook, Cooner, Crow, Harris, McGuire, Miley, Pickering, Pounds, Sheffield, Stafford, Stover, and Westbrook. 
Any Navy wife in Kings Bay should be able to tell you that the place to watch the submarines go in and out is Fort Clinch. Located on the Cumberland Sound, this is where the subs pass between Amelia Island, Florida and Cumberland Island, Georgia on their way to the open ocean. Back in 2005, I decided I wanted to see what this transition looked like from the outside, so we went down to Fort Clinch when the other crew came in. Here are some pictures from that day. We begin with the Coast Guard helicopter sweeping the area long before the sub shows up.
Here one of the Navy guard boats clears a curious fishing boat away from the area.
Now the entourage appears
USS Maryland, SSBN 738
Personel topside
Now the sub bends north around Cumberland Island towards the Kings Bay Sub base
So in the good tradition of touring books, here is another excellent example. To The Sea is one of several books written by Jim Miles specifically for the Civil War. This book covers the march of Sherman's army from Atlanta to Savannah through Georgia. The unique feature of this series is how it's set up. The books have two sections, a history and a touring section. The history section is a highly detailed but easy to follow description of the people, places, and events involved in the campaign. Then after ensuring the rader has a thorough understanding of the campaign, the author gives a detailed auto tour along the major campaign routes, with side tours through cities and parks. The tours covers battle sites, historic homes and other buildings that were involved, monuments, and other interesting sites. The author also pays special attention to describing differences in the locations between 1864 and today. This series is a must have for any Civil War buff, or for any history chaser living in or near a major Civil War campaign. To The Sea can be found on Amazon here, and many of the others in the series can be found here.
In 1816, the US Congress granted money to an ambitious national project: The Third System of fortifications. The first system was begun in 1794 due to fears of war in Europe, and 21 locations were given small, mostly earthwork fortifications. The Second System was begun in 1808 out of fear of a war with Britain. Several more were built, but many went unfinished. In the War of 1812, Baltimore's Fort McHenry prevented a British invasion (and inspired the National Anthem,) while an undefended Washington DC was invaded and burned. The Third System was born from this war and the desire to never have an American city be invaded as Washington had been. 42 sites on both coasts were eventually given these new forts, boasting the latest earth and masonry designs. Famous examples of Third System forts are Fort Monroe, Virginia, Fort Point, California, Fort Jefferson, Florida, Fort Independence, Massachusetts, Fort Pulaski, Georgia, and Fort Sumter, South Carolina. Fort Clinch, on Amelia Island, Florida, is one of these forts.
Begun in 1847, the fort was a late comer to the scene, and featured a two wall earth and masonry design. It was named for General Duncan Lamont Clinch, a hero of the Seminole Wars and later Representative for Georgia. The fort's construction was slow, and by 1860, only one third of the wall and two bastions were completed. With little to defend and no regular garrison, the fort was quietly taken by Confederates in 1861. 
The Confederates, however, already strained for resources and manpower, did not do any work on the young fort. Soon, they began to realize that Florida had much the same problem as the rest of the Confederacy: Too much coastline to defend against the massive Union Navy and invading armies. One by one Confederate forts from Virginia to Texas fell into Union control, and on March 3, 1862 the Confederate defenders left Fort Clinch. The Union quickly took back control of the fort and the 1st New York Volunteer Engineers worked to complete it. 
The near destruction of Fort Pulaski in 1862, coupled with the pile of rubble in Charleston Harbor that used to be Fort Sumter, convinced both sides (and the rest of the world) that the days of brick fortifications were numbered. Forts under construction by both sides were often completely redesigned to be partially of fully earthen, to deaden the impact of the new rifled canon. A major success story of this is Fort McCallister, near Savannah. Fort Clinch had massive amounts of earth piled over the top of its interior casements and inner wall. 
But the fort was still doomed. The end of the war in 1865, and the lessons learned about modern fortification resulted in a cessation of construction on the fort in 1867. While the walls, bastions, and other defensive features were mostly complete, other things such as the Officer Housing, seen above, were not finished. The officers of the fort had been staying in homes out in town, and their housing had not been seen as a major priority.
Another interesting unfinished feature comes as a result of Fort Sumter. The forts had originally been designed with traditional, large barracks buildings, such as the one above, that loomed over the fort walls. The bombardments of Fort Sumter had proven this was a bad idea, as they provided easy targets that were quickly destroyed, often resulting in injuries and collateral damage. So at Fort Clinch they had begun to construct barrack rooms along the inner wall of the fort, sheltered from enemy fire. These were not completed and their beginnings can be seen around the fort's inner wall today.
In 1898 the war with Spain prompted a quick fortification of many key locations around the US. Many old Third System forts were re-used by a simple addition of a larger, concrete gunmount. Fort Clinch was no exception, and its example can be seen on the right of the photo above. This is also a good depiction of the fort's design, with the outer wall and bastion clearly visible, and the earthen mound covering the inner walls behind them.
Fort Clinch performed its final duty in World War II, as a Coast Guard surveillance and communication post. After the war it returned to the State of Florida, who had been in charge of it since 1935 when it was developed into a state park.
The story of Fort Clinch is ultimately one of "nothing happened here." Its guns were never fired in anger, and the closest true battle was that of Olustee, Florida, many miles to the west. Sandwiched on the border of two enemy states, it was one of many outposts that eventually formed a death ring around the Confederacy, starving them of supplies and revenue. Built across from Cumberland Island to defend the vital sea ports of Fernandina, Florida and St Marys, GA, it fulfilled its mission of controlling the Cumberland Sound that granted access from these ports to the ocean.
But each fort that is preserved today has something unique that makes it special. Whether it be a battle, or a special design, or another historical event. Fort Clinch is amazing because of how it is preserved. Walking into it is like stepping into the spring of 1864. The fort and those who work there are made to have the appearance of this isolated Union outpost still under construction. 
Looking out over the forest and beaches surrounding the fort, it is easy to imagine the apprehension of a garrison deep in enemy territory, afraid of what might happen to them if they leave the fort, or of a possible attack by a determined enemy. It may not be the scene of a major battle, or have a song inspired by it, or even held a famous prisoner, but if you come here with an awe for those whose bravery made this fort possible, you will realize what a special place this truly is.
I have been here several times, but this will probably be the last. This place also is special to me because it was here that I first tried my hand at history volunteer work. I came down here for a few weekends to be a volunteer tour guide and "living historian," and did really enjoy it. But I quickly found that with doing that in addition to my job, there was simply no time to do other things, such as seeing other places. (And this was before I had a kid!) The picture above, taken on this latest visit to the fort, is my favorite I have taken here. The downside is that the clouds that day made many of the photos dark or grainy, but the plus side was that I got some spectacular sky effects in other photos. Fort Clinch is one of very few things I will miss down here.
This is a photo from the first time we came here shortly after arriving in Georgia in 2004.
And here is the fort seen from the beach, in 2005
I don't like to sound stuffy or better-than-though or anything, but have you ever been to a historic place and you run into someone who clearly has never even cracked open a history book, or is just clueless in general? Usually they can be found toting around their kids saying things like "this fort is where President Lincoln was shot" or "this canon was used against Al Quida in 2002" or something like that. Anyway, we encountered one of those here. In one of the fort's rooms was a board with several REPLICA 1860's papers, such as the one above. Some even had dates and signatures on them. We heard a group of people looking at them saying "Wow, I can't believe they just left these up here! Why has nobody ever tried to take one? How have they survived all these years?"
Another of the replica papers, this one taken in 2004.
Even as a newlywed, the wife had her own ways to enjoy history....
Ok, setting off on another Find a Grave adventure, I arrived here at the Burnt Fort Church in northwest Camden County. Turns out Burnt Fort had a pretty interesting history. Back before the Revolution, when Florida was Spanish territory, the area that is now south Georgia was considered "off limits" by both Britain and Spain, in order to avoid another war. At the time, Georgia' southern border was the Altamaha River, where Darien is, and Florida's northern border was the St John's River, where modern day Jacksonville is. In 1755, a man from Virginia by the name of Edmond Gray, came to Georgia and was elected to represent Augusta. He opposed the requirement of 50 acres of land for the franchise of land granting. He proposed that the property should be evaluated by its value, not merely its size. The proposal failed, and Gray took his followers to start the community called New Hanover on the Satilla River. The community began on the northern side of the river, in what is now Charlton County. Because the settlement was in neutral territory, they were not considered to be part of any colony, British or Spanish. Having loyalties to the British, the settlers wrote appeals to both Georgia and South Carolina, to be annexed by one of them. However, England would not recognize the settlement for fear of war with Spain. The Spanish offered to let the settlers move to the St John's River and establish trade with the Natives there. Gray informed Governor Ellis of Georgia of the offer, and Ellis, in turn gave license for them to trade with the Natives at there current location. Although he was rebuked by the GA Board of Trade, the clear violation of the neutral territory angered the Spanish, so they sent a company of soldiers to order them to leave New Hanover. Gray replied that they would do what their superiors told them to do. However, New Hanover was considered an embarassment to the British, and both Georgia and South Carolina commisioned representatives to order the settlers to leave. the representatives, James Edward Powell (GA) and Major Henry Hyrnes (SC) met at Savannah on Jan 26, 1759 and went to New Hanover. Gray was then ordered to leave in 28 days. Gray himself and Ephraim Alexander had been given another offer by the Spanish to set up a trading post on the St Marys River, and so intended to leave. Not all of the settlers were so willing. Because of this, Powell and Hyrnes were ordered to destroy the town, which they carried out. After this episode, the name of New Hanover disapeared, but the settlers did not. They stayed, and the name Burnt Fort began to be used.
The first evidence of a church at Burnt Fort is a deed from 1872, well after the community had become a great logging area. Though it is called several names through the years, it was a place where all denominations worshiped. It remained in use until 1947, when the community, and church attendance declined dramatically. the church was abandoned and by 1960 it had completey collapsed. In 1976, nearby residents decided to bring back the Burnt Fort Chapel, and on September 4, 1977 the newly re-built church opened.
Looking inside through the windows
This is Camden County's only remaining one-room school, located next to the Burnt Fort Chapel.
This is the Burnt Fort Cemetery
And here is my query, the Hopkins family. This one was really easy because of the small cemetery and large family marker. But due to the size of the cemetery, I decided to just photograph all the graves to add to the website. Because of that, I will not be adding them here as I have previously done. However, the cemetery can be found of Find a Grave here, and I have added all of them there. And just so you know, I will list the surnames I found and documented here:
Ok, so its not a flag, but I think it fits the spirit of Flag Friday. This is the Kingsland watertower (one of several, actually.) I saw a photographic oppurtunity and I took it! Mwah ha ha!!!
Ok peeps, one more Cumberland post, I swear! Since, as usual, the Wife had the good camera, she got some good shots that I didn't with my poor little point-and-shoot. I figgered I would share them with y'all (yall's? yalls's? yallsss's? I'm not good with my Southern speak yet!) And if you want to know more about the stuff on here, read through the last few posts. It's all in there somewehere. Above is the Dungeness Mansion ruins, from the shadowed side.
Remains of a pier near Point Peter
Why hello there....
Dungeness viewed from the water
You Bubbleheads should recognize this as a "de-magnetizer."
Remains of the Carnegie's Pool Hall
No shelter- Sand
Look... we haven't killed each other yet!
