Many of these missions were maintained throughout the 1600s until the Spanish retreat from the area during the 1680s. In 1698, the French settled Biloxi thus creating the colony of Louisiana. Soon they were anxiously colonizing neighboring areas, Mobile in 1702 and New Orleans in 1718. In 1717 they built Fort Toulouse in northern Alabama in an attempt to expand their empire eastward, guard against British encroachments, and establish diplomatic alliances with the area's Natives, especially the Creek Indians. Also, the French coveted the Altamaha river with waters that stretched for miles across the southeast and emptied into the Atlantic about one hundred miles north of Florida. The French valued it for its appeal as a conduit of transportation to the Atlantic. These developments helped launch the French strategy of imperial encirclement, a plan to contain British colonies along the eastern coast and ultimately "choke" them out. Forced to choose sides, the Southeastern Native Americans were drawn into this international power struggle. The many tribes were most familiar with the land and its rivers and, in many instances, held the potential to tip the balance of power into one nation's favor.

All too aware of this, the Europeans were eager to establish loyalty from the Indians, and they fought to extend their influence and control over various Indian tribes throughout the Southeast.
With the threat of French and Spanish imperialism, and the unpredictability of Indian alliances and loyalty, the British grew anxious over the security of their southern colonies. By 1720 South Carolinian colonists and officials, fearing enemy attacks, began clamoring for some sort of protection along their southern borders.
The following year Fort King George was built along the Altamaha River under the direction and leadership of Colonel John "Tuscarora Jack" Barnwell. Given that rivers were the only source of transportation in this remote frontier, he chose the location in order to guard access to the river and prevent any foreign intrusions into the area. The fort consisted of a blockhouse, soldiers' barracks, officers' quarters, and a guard house which doubled as a hospital, all made from cypress timbers and planks cut and processed by sawyers Barnwell brought with him.
The garrison that manned the fort was known as His Majesty's Independent Company of Foot. Most of them were mustered for service from England. Though Colonel Barnwell and Governor Francis Nicholson of South Carolina had requested "robust" young soldiers to garrison Fort King George, instead they were sent a company of "invalids" from the Royal Hospital at Chelsea in England.
Invalids, as they were referred to then, were products of a system in England devoted toward the welfare of elderly, infirm, or maimed soldiers from the British Regular Army

This system dated back to 1681 and provided government subsidized hospital care and pensions for these seasoned veterans. In time, invalids were divided into in-pensioners and out-pensioners. By the early seventeen hundreds, as domestic and foreign conflicts once again began to surface in England, the out-pensioner invalids were put back in service . However, these out-pensioner invalids were given lighter duties such as guarding prisoners of war, attending the sick, and securing small forts or towns.
As the British-American colonies expanded in the 1600s, conflicts with neighboring powers and Natives began to increase and, consequently, the need for military provisions and reinforcements were in demand. In 1719, a Regiment of Invalids was created from among the out-pensioners in England and was to be broken up into twenty-five Independent Companies. Most of these men were formed into the 41st Regiment of Foot and sent to Portsmouth to serve under Colonel Edmund Fielding.

However, a small fraction of them, arriving in May, 1721, were ordered sent to Port Royal, South Carolina to render service unto that province. The company consisted of 100 privates and several officers with Governor Nicholson serving as Captain. Later, in 1721, Colonel Barnwell was named commander-in-chief of the garrison and Fort King George.
It was a tough ride over to the New World for these soldiers upon the ships Mary and Carolina.On their way about half of them contracted scurvy, most likely as a result of their general debilitation combined with a poor diet. Many of them were heavy drinkers as well. As a result of their condition, the men had to spend a lengthy period recovering in a hospital at Port Royal, South Carolina after their arrival there in Spring of 1721. They did not make it down to Fort King George until nearly a year later in 1722. I find no record of hostilities with the Spanish taking place at the fort.The garrison was known as His Majesties Independent Company and was stationed here. The ensuing years brought the garrison tremendous hardships from disease, malnutrition, heat, biting insects threats by the Spanish and the Indians, and the fear of the unknown.

The garrison withdrew back to South Carolina in 1727 , but two lookouts kept watch there to warn of any invaders crossing the Altamaha. The fort was abandoned in 1732.

Darien city, seat (1818) of McIntosh county, southeastern Georgia, U.S. It is situated near the mouth of the Altamaha River on the Atlantic coast, about 20 miles (32 km) north of Brunswick. The site, near Fort King George, was settled in 1736 by Scottish Highlanders recruited by General James Oglethorpe under John McIntosh Mohr, who called the place New Inverness and established Fort Darien (named for Darien, the location of a former Scottish colony in Panama occupied the fort site) They immediately set about building temporary thatched huts that served as their housing. A conjectural replica of this village can be visited on site. Later that summer, Oglethorpe decided to move the settlement a short distance upriver to a higher bluff where he ordered Fort Darien to be built.

Saw milling on the Altamaha Bluff began when Colonel Barnswell's sawyers cut cypress timber into planks for the construction of Fort King George. It grew into a large-scale industry for Darien in the early 1800s. Although saw milling ceased during the Civil war, the mills were`reactivated by 1870 and continued until 1925

. After the War of 1812, the demand for cotton, rice, and lumber from upriver plantations and forests initiated an economic boom. The Bank of Darien, chartered in 1818, became one of the state's largest banks. The economy slumped in the late 1830s, and the bank closed in the early 1840s. The Civil War, particularly Sherman's powerful sweep to the sea went through Savannah and of course through Fort Mcalister a short distance north of Fort King George. The town of Sunbury was set ablaze to inform the Northern Fleet that the area had been secured.

During the American Civil War, Union forces burned the city to the ground in an amphibious attack in June 1863. The city was rebuilt after the war, the economy fueled by a demand for timber and the arrival of the railroad in the early 1890s. The city's economy is now centered on fishing, seafood processing, and retail trade. Several wetland preserves and research facilities are located nearby on the coast, including Wolf Island National Wildlife Refuge, Sapelo Island National Estuarine Research Reserve, and the University of Georgia Marine Institute (also on Sapelo Island). Inc. town,

The fort was a typical small triangle shaped European field fortification. Surrounded by a moat on two sides and the north branch of the Altamaha River on the third, the fort's main defense was a 26 foot-square blockhouse. A log palisade stood in the moat to deter enemy soldiers and Indians from storming the fort from the landslide. Behind the palisade stood a parapet consisting of earthworks, firing walls and firing steps.

The gabled blockhouse had three stories: a powder, ammunition, and supply magazine on the lower level, a gun room on the second floor with cannon ports in the walls for firing on enemy boats attacking by river, and a third-floor gun room with a look-out post hovering above. A barracks, officer's quarters, and several smaller structures stood within the fort.

The present fort is an authentic tic replication of the original. Unfortunately, saw milling activities located on the site throughout the 19th Century destroyed any remains of the original fort. With the help of information painstakingly retrieved from the South Carolina archives by local historian Bessie Lewis during the 1930s, the fort has been reconstructed to its original appearance. Adjoining the fort is one of the oldest British military cemeteries in the Southeastern United States. It contains 65 graves including 15 marked as the final resting place of British soldiers who once served at the fort.