An English force moved to bring Georgia into the English domain in the summer of 1721, when 50 Carolinians under Colonel John Barnwell fought rain, sickness, hostile Indians, and the sticky heat to erect a rude stockade on the north bank of the Altamaha. This structure consisted of a blockhouse 26 feet square with crude earthworks five to six feet high forming a right triangle with the blockhouse and defending the land side of the fort. Within the triangle lay the bark and thatch huts used as living quarters for Barnwell’s men. The Carolinians serving at the blockhouse [Fort King George] “mocked and reviled” their stockade as a “frontier improvisation,” yet this “improvisation” on the desolate Georgia coast almost became the cause for an international conflict. (Tepaske GSF)