On March 20, 1818, Capt. William Butler, Capt. James Saffold, William Gardener, Daniel Shaw, and John Hinson left Fort Bibb to meet Col. Sam Dale and were attacked near Pine Barren Creek by Savannah Jack and his warriors. Gardener and Shaw were shot dead, Butler and Hinson were wounded, and Saffold and Hinson escaped on horseback to Fort Bibb, but Butler, thrown from his horse and left on foot, was killed. Butler County was named in his honor. Fort Bibb, named for Alabama Territorial Governor William Wyatt Bibb, was built in the winter of 1817-1818 to protect settlers from Creek Indian attacks and was said to be a stockade enclosing Capt. James Saffold's home at the Flats, or Pine Flats. Col. Sam Dale helped strengthen Fort Bibb in spring 1818 while he and his militia built Fort Dale 13-14 miles northeast on the Federal Road. In 1820, these forts were Butler County's first election sites.