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Aside from the greater war with Britain, a smaller war broke out in 1813 between two factions of the Creek Indians, who lived in Tennessee, Alabama and Florida. Divisions had been forming in the Creek Nation since the American Revolution when the Upper Creeks, based along the Alabama River in southern Alabama, had allied with the British, and the Lower Creeks, based near the current Alabama-Georgia border, had remained neutral. This schism had widened over the years as the Upper Creeks rejected cooperation with white settlers and tried to preserve their traditions, while the Lower Creeks recognized that victory was impossible in the long-term and accepted gradual assimilation by adopting farming. The faction that advocated preservation of the traditional way of life was called the Red Sticks because they painted their war clubs red, and they proved willing listeners when Tecumseh visited the Creeks in October 1811, hoping to persuade them to join his confederacy and declare war on all the white settlers. However, the division was also generational, since many of the Red Sticks were young, but the older chiefs feared the consequences of war with the whites and refused to join Tecumseh, while attempting to restrain the Red Sticks.

When a group of Red Sticks massacred several white settlers in February 1813, the senior chiefs decided to execute the guilty parties rather than hand them over to the local Indian agent, which soon led to a civil war between the two factions. The pro-white faction was outnumbered and sought aid from the American government, while the Red Sticks were being supplied by the Spanish in Florida, who were allied to Britain. On August 30, the Red Sticks forced their way into Fort Mims, a weak frontier fort located forty miles north of Mobile, Alabama. Over 250 whites and Indians died in a bloody frenzy, and less than forty people escaped the massacre.

What had been a minor conflict beneath the horizon of the American government suddenly became a crisis, but the federal army was busy fighting the British and their Indian allies along the Canadian border, so the militias of the southern states would have to deal with the situation on their own. Although both Mississippi and Georgia sent roughly a thousand men, Tennessee would supply the majority of the manpower. The governor of Tennessee ordered Major General Andrew Jackson of the West Tennessee militia and Major General William Cocke of East Tennessee to each raise 2,500 men.

Even though Jackson was recovering from injuries suffered during a public shootout following a duel, he threw himself into the campaign. His army left Tennessee in October and he built Forts Deposit and Strother to safeguard his supply line. At first the campaign went smoothly and Jackson won victories at Tallushatchee and Talladega in early November, but the short-term enlistments of his men meant that he would lose his army by January. In fact, as the supplies ran out in late November he had to rely on a mixture of personal charisma and threats on several occasions to resolve potential mutinies and convince the militia to remain until January. Furthermore, Cocke’s unwillingness to serve under Jackson meant that the force of East Tennessean militia moved so slowly that when the two armies finally linked up at Fort Strother in December the enlistments of Cocke’s men were almost up, so it appeared that Jackson would find himself alone in January. Worse, the force of Georgian militia and Cherokee had won one victory and then suffered such a heavy defeat in late January that the Georgians gave up the campaign. The Mississippi militia was also victorious in a battle but when the militia enlistments ended the men went home.

Fearing a repeat of the previous problems with enlistments that had plagued both his campaign and those of Georgia and Mississippi, when 850 inexperienced militiamen appeared on January 14, Jackson decided to use them immediately. Unfortunately, he chose to lead the army towards the Creek stronghold at Horseshoe Bend and survived a night attack on January 22 roughly thirty miles from the fort. However, General John Coffee’s cavalry had examined the defences at Horseshoe Bend and saw that the Creeks had fortified the only access on a 100 acre wide peninsula with a zig zag breastwork so that every direction of attack would face a crossfire. Since it would be suicide without experienced troops and more supplies, the army retreated to Fort Strother. A Red Stick attack during a river crossing on January 24 threatened to cause a rout among the inexperienced militia but Jackson rallied the rearguard, which enabled the troops to make it safely across the river.

Realizing that he faced a dangerous enemy, he waited until he had enough men to guarantee victory before returning to the field. Fortunately, he was reinforced by additional militia units and a regiment of regular troops in February. After a month of training, Jackson led an army of 2,700 infantry and cavalry, supported by 600 friendly Indians, mostly Cherokee, to assault Horseshoe Bend on March 27. The surprisingly solid nature of the defensive fortifications resisted a two hour long bombardment by two cannon, which convinced Jackson and his officers that the Creeks were receiving professional advice from either the British or the Spanish. After a diversionary attack by General Coffee with the mounted infantry and Indian allies was launched against the rear to destroy the canoes kept for a retreat, the main force stormed the barricades. The initial assault was stalled until ensign Sam Houston led a charge that broke through, although he was badly wounded. The slaughter that followed eliminated the threat of the Creek nation and ended the war. More than eight hundred Red Stick warriors died and another two hundred escaped by swimming across the river and making their way to Spanish Florida.

Three thousand Creeks, roughly 15% of the population, had lost their lives during the war. Furthermore, they were forced to surrender half of their land, roughly three-fifths of Alabama and one fifth of Georgia, which included the territory of both Upper and Lower Creeks, even Creeks who had fought with the Americans. The final treaty was signed on August 9. This victory won Jackson the nickname Sharp Knife from the Creeks and promotion to major general in the regular army and command of the military district of Tennessee, Louisiana and the Mississippi Territory.

However, the British had begun arming Creeks and Seminoles who were based in Spanish controlled Florida, so Jackson invaded with 4,000 men, including several hundred Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians. A message was sent to Washington seeking permission, but he left before he could receive a reply. Fearing that the British would attempt to capture Mobile, Alabama in order to have a more convenient base from which to supply their Indian allies, Jackson reinforced Fort Bowyer at Mobile. As a result, a British attack on September 12 was easily repelled, which was the final proof of British intentions to invade through Mobile, so Jackson led his army into Florida. Pensacola, the main Spanish settlement in Florida, was protected by Fort St. Rose and Fort St. Michael but the two forts were intended to face an attack from the west, therefore a dawn attack from the east on November 7 took the defenders completely by surprise. In fact, the battle was so short that the British and their Indian allies were unable to support the Spanish, and chose to abandon their base the following day. Having accomplished his objective, Jackson promptly led his army back to Mobile, where he found a letter waiting for him from the government forbidding him to enter Spanish territory. He was also ordered to New Orleans in order to prepare for an expected British effort to capture the city.

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Further Reading:

Andrew Jackson and His Indian Wars-Robert V. Remini, New York: Penguin, 2002.

As the title says, the book gives a brief history of Andrew Jackson’s life and shows how much of that life was spent fighting Indians. He grew up on the frontier where fear of Indian raids was ever-present, the British used Indian allies to terrorize the rebels during the American Revolution, he participated in retaliatory raids against the Cherokee when he was a young lawyer in Nashville, and he gained fame for his ruthless campaign against the Red Sticks during the Creek War (1813-1814), While not whitewashing Jackson’s actions, Remini strives to present the context in which those actions took place. Like most people of the time, Jackson viewed Native Americans as savages and had spent most of his life fighting to enable white settlers to advance into Indian lands. As a result, it should not come as a surprise that he continued that approach when he became president, especially since he was following in the footsteps of presidents such as Adams and Jefferson, who had regularly pressed Indian tribes to sign over lands for settlement. At the same time, Jackson enforced treaties with Indians but since he never recognized Indians as the equal of whites, and knew that white settlers would continue to illegally enter Indian lands, he felt the best solution was to move the Indians as far away from whites as possible.

The Battle of New Orleans: Andrew Jackson and America’s First Military Victory-Robert V. Remini, New York: Penguin Books, 2001.

Remini has written numerous books on the Jacksonian era, therefore he has an excellent grasp of the material, which enables him to provide an extremely clear and concise explanation of the events leading up to the battle for New Orleans and Jackson’s surprising victory. The author actually retraced the British army’s route through the swamps to reach New Orleans in order to better understand the ordeal, which is probably why the book has very good maps. Unlike many writers who simply present the order of a battle and tally up the casualties on both sides, Remini shows how the participants were affected by the resulting carnage.

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