The Secretary of War, John C. Calhoun, ordered General Gaines to remove Neamathla and his followers from this land. A road was cut from Fort Gaines, on the north. Additional support from Mobile was on its way up the Apalachicola River. When General Gaines and troops from Fort Gaines arrived at Fort Scott on November 19, 1817, he ordered Major Twiggs to go to Fowltown and bring back Neamathla and his leading men. Twiggs left November 20 and reached Fowltown (the third Fowltown) the next morning. While shots were exchanged, called by some the first shots of the Seminole War, neither side scored a victory. The Americans failed to capture Neamathla, but his tribe of Mikasuki abandoned the land the U.S. claimed did not belong to them. Another clash took place on November 23. A blockhouse named Fort Hughes was built in modern Bainbridge, Georgia, close to Fowltown.
