Wilcox County's namesake was killed by Indians 206 years ago today

Today – Jan. 15 – marks the 206^th anniversary of one of the most significant incidents in the history of Wilcox County – the killing of U.S. Army Lt. Joseph Morgan Wilcox.

In January 1814, Wilcox was a 23-year-old lieutenant assigned to the U.S. Army’s 3^rd Infantry Regiment, which had been sent to the Mississippi Territory as part of the Creek Indian War of 1813-1814. A native of Connecticut who graduated at the top of his West Point class in 1812, Wilcox seemed destined for greatness, but his military career was literally cut short when he was killed in present-day Wilcox County on Jan. 15, 1814. His death was so monumental that when Alabama became a state in 1819, Wilcox was memorialized by having Wilcox County named in his honor.

The most-detailed account of Wilcox’s death that I’ve ever read comes from an old book by Willis Brewer called “Alabama: Her History, Resources, War Record and Public Men from 1540 to 1872.” According to Brewer, Wilcox was part of a regiment and two companies of volunteers who had been sent from Fort Claiborne in present-day Monroe County to the Cahaba River to drive Indians out of that area. A large Army barge of supplies had been sent up the river to meet these soldiers, but the barge never made it to its prearranged rendezvous point on the Cahaba River.

When the barge didn’t show up on time, Wilcox and five other men were sent down the Cahaba River in a canoe to check on its whereabouts. When they arrived at the confluence of the Cahaba and Alabama rivers, they still hadn’t encountered the supply barge, so they set off down the Alabama River to continue their search. On the evening of the second day of their trip, Wilcox and his men were captured by Indians.

According to Brewer, this encounter with Indians happened out in the river, and two of Wilcox’s men managed to escape the canoe, swim to shore and flee. The Indians took possession of Wilcox’s canoe and continued down the river with the soldiers as their prisoners. A short time later, the barge that Wilcox had been sent to find came into contact with the canoe full of Indians and prisoners.

The Indians “fearing to lose their prisoners, butchered and scalped them, at the sandbar at the mouth of Pursley Creek,” Brewer wrote. “And the unfortunate Wilcox and his party were in the last agonies of death when the barge reached the canoe.”

The barge returned to Fort Claiborne with the remains of Wilcox and his men, and they were buried there with military honors. The exact location of Wilcox’s remains today is up for debate. Some sources say that he was exhumed and reburied in the historic Camden Cemetery, where he has a headstone. Others say that even though he has a headstone in Camden, he’s actually buried in an unmarked grave somewhere at Claiborne.

In the end, I’d like to hear from anyone in the reading audience with more information about Wilcox and his death. I’d especially like to hear from anyone with more details about his exhumation and reburial in Camden. It would be nice to have proof that his body was actually moved to Camden and to lay this small local mystery to rest.