It began with the largest massacre of non-combatants by
Native Americans in United States history, and ended with the greatest number
of Native Americans killed in one day by the United States military. The Creek Indian War raged through 1813 and 1814,
but is now largely forgotten outside of Alabama.
In early 1813, war broke out between two factions of the Creek Nation in eastern Mississippi
Territory, what would eventually become the State of Alabama. One faction was made up of mixed and full
blood Creeks who had began to adopt a more European way of living, trading and
farming. The other faction, known as the
"Red Sticks" wanted a full return to the ways of their forefathers before
the coming of the white men. This
disagreement boiled into civil war among the Creeks, with both sides winning
and losing skirmishes in lower Alabama.
On August 30, 1813 a large band of Red Sticks attacked a ramshackle
stockade post called Fort Mims. By the
end of the day, approximately 500 men, women and children; whites, mixed
bloods, full bloods and black slaves, lay dead with the fort reduced to ashes.
Massacre at Fort Mims
Panic ensued through the white settlements in northern
Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee. For the
first time, the United States became involved in a Native American civil
war. The Tennessee militia marched into
Alabama to subjugate the Red Sticks. The
column under General Andrew Jackson was the most active and successful of the
American forces who marched against the Red Sticks. Several defeats, and inadequate supply lines
plagued Jackson and his men. In the
Spring of 1814 he was reinforced with a regiment of United States Regulars and
marched again towards the Red Stick strong hold on the Tallapoosa River. 199 years ago today, Jackson and his mixed
force of Tennessee Militia, US Regulars, friendly Creek Indians and Cherokee
allies attacked the Red Sticks at Horseshoe Bend.
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| Andrew Jackson |
By the end of the day, as many as 1,000 Red Stick warriors
lay dead. 350 Red Stick women and children were handed over to the Cherokee
allies as slaves. Red Stick resistance
ceased and the "Creek War" was over. One of Jackson's biographers described
Horseshoe Bend as "slow,
laborious slaughter." Jackson, in a letter to a fellow officer reported, "The carnage was dreadful." In
contrast, Jackson's army suffered only 50 killed and 154 wounded.
The victory at the Horseshoe won promotion of Jackson to
Major General of Volunteers in the United States Army. He later commanded US troops at the Battle of
New Orleans in a stunning one-sided defeat of a British invasion force. Jackson was catapulted to national Fame and
was elected President in 1828. His rise
as a national leader had its beginnings at Horseshoe Bend, Alabama.
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| The 39th US Infantry scales the palisades. From a diorama at the Horseshoe Bend NPS visitor's center. |
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| The sword of Major Lemuel Montgomery, 39th US Infantry. Montgomery was the highest ranking American officer killed at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. He had been an attorney in Nashville before the War of 1812. The city of Montgomery, Alabama was named for him. Courtesy Myers Brown, Tennessee State Museum |
Twenty Five years after the victory at Horseshoe Bend,
President Andrew Jackson would betray those Creek and Cherokee allies who helped him
win the Red Stick War, when he evicted them from their homes in Alabama and
Georgia and sent them on the Trail of Tears to the Indian Territory west of the
Mississippi River.
For more on Horseshoe Bend, I suggest this National Park Service video. This is shown at the NPS visitor center at the battlefield. I had the honor to help make this video (that's my cannon you will see in some scenes.) The film is narrated by Native American Hollywood actor, Wes Studie.
A three minute video on the battle produced by PBS.
