Mount Vernon, along with nearby Fort Stoddert on the banks of the Mobile River, served as the central command center for military actions in the Tensaw region during the Creek War. It was also a place of refuge for
settlers who fled their homes in the wake of the attack on Fort Mims. The outpost at Mount Vernon had been constructed shortly before the outbreak of the Creek War approximately four miles west of Fort Stoddert in a
supposedly more healthy location. The site later became the location of a federal arsenal, and operated as a military post until the 1890s.

The site of the Mount Vernon Cantonment lies on the grounds of the Searcy Hospital in the modern community of Mount Vernon in northeastern Mobile County, Alabama. An historic marker interpreting the site’s history as a federal arsenal stands along County Road 96 on the hospital grounds.