New Savannah was a settlement that began in about 1740, when the colony of Georgia was still under the control of the British Crown. At that time, it was an indian trading post located in the area where Butler Creek flows into the Savannah River. This is about 14 river miles south of downtown Augusta, Georgia.
Because of the hot, sandy loam soil that is present throughout the floodplains, tobacco was the moneymaking crop of choice for the local planters. After the American Revolutionary War, settlers from Virginia and North Carolina came to the area and set up tobacco inspection warehouses so that the farmers of the Central Savannah River Area could transport their tobacco to New Savannah, get it inspected and approved, then load it onto boats to make the 215 river mile journey to the port city of Savannah, Georgia.
The method of transporting the tobacco from the farms to New Savannah included the rolling of what were called hogshead barrels down the dirt paths, either by man or horse. Each barrel packed with tobacco weighed 1,000 to 1,200 lbs. For this reason, it was not feasible to have them loaded onto wagons, plus the weight of the wagons on the poor colonial roadways would result in getting stuck in the mud and soft soil.
In 1789, the Tobacco Road was constructed for the express purpose of having a good flat road to roll the barrels to New Savannah. The road extended far to the north of Augusta, traveling high above the flood plains and not crossing a single stream. It is still a major thoroughfare today through South Augusta, serving commercial as well as residential properties. The construction of Bush Field (now the Augusta Regional Airport) in 1941 forever cut off Tobacco Road from New Savannah, and Fort Gordon ened its pathway to the NW.
As the years went on, tobacco was eventually replaced by king cotton in the early 1800s as the more lucrative crop. Cotton also didn't require an inspection. As a result, the inspection station at New Savannah became obsolete and the community basically ceased to exist, a similar fate that befell the Petersburg community in present-day Elbert County.
All that remains of New Savannah today is the small cemetery which is located on the grounds of the New Savannah Bluff Lock and Dam Park. You can read the specifics on the colonial burial ground in the first photo. The back of the historical marker includes a layout of the graves and the names of those interred.
