Major General Adams from the War of 1812

I've been riding at Horse Camp for years and then about three years ago my daddy mentions to me that along one of the FS roads there's a grave of a general from the War of 1812. Really? Cool! So, I start looking for it. Last winter my daddy tries to steer me to it over the cell phone (it's amazing how good Verizon's coverage is way out there in the woods along the river), but I can't find it, even with his directions and no leaf cover. He kept saying the second trail after the deer stand at the top of the hill along the river, but even though we rode up and down that trail many times, we couldn't find it.

Today we meet out there again and JoAnna says that she wants to ride to the FS road and look for it again. I shrug and say "why not?" It's a gorgeous day with temps in the low 50s, a bit windy, but that gorgeous, blue sky with nary a cloud that winter brings. Asia is feeling fine and I'm wearing just the right amount of clothes that I'm not too hot or chilly and even though she acts a bit whacky in the first 20 minutes, she settles down and we enjoy the ride.

After an hour we get to the FS road and decide to canter. The bad weather that came through last week left the main trail too muddy for anything faster than a trot, but the dirt road we're now on is very sandy and drains well, so we take off and it quickly turns into a gallop, but that's fine, too. We walk, trot, canter our way to the end of the FS road, which is maybe a bit over a mile and goes up and down and winds through some planted pines and then hit Smith Mill Church Rd and turned around. As we got close to where we thought it might be, we slowed to a walk and guess what? WE FINALLY FOUND IT! It's only about 40 feet off the trail, but someone has flagged a new trail into the grave site and the marker is easy to see. We were just going too fast before and also, I think the marker must have been fallen over all these years because it was held up with rocks. Someone has put some pretty tacky, plastic edging around the circumference of the grave, too.

"Major General David Adams, commander of the 5th division, of the War of 1812, Subdivided into two Brigades which included the following Counties.
1st Brigade Commanded by Brigadier General Thomas J. Hamilton
Jasper, Jones
2nd Brigade Commanded by Brigadier General David Blackshear
Twiggs, Pulaski, Telfair, Laurens, Wilkinson"

It's very hard to read and I had a twitchy mare to hold onto, so I didn't get to spend much time deciphering it. I could tell that he died in 1830 and he was sixtysomething years old. He was a major general in the War of 1812, which around here is known mostly as the Creek Indian Wars.

I had Bucky take a picture of me and Asia. (I need to teach her about framing shots so Asia's bum isn't cut off next time. ;)




And here we have Bucky on Saber and JoAnna on Starman behind General Adams' grave.

It's like winning the scavenger hunt! I just love what I find out in the woods. Oh, and Asia jumped in the trailer going and coming with no angst and yay! I really did win today's jackpot. Glee!