During the war of 1812, the Creek Nation split into different factions. One of these factions was the "Red Sticks", a nativist group that opposed both the land cessions to settlers and assimilation into the Anglo-American culture. They were called "Red Sticks" because they raised the "red stick of war". In August of 1813, the "Red Sticks" stormed Fort Mims near present-day Mobile, Alabama and massacred all the white settlers and the militia at Fort Mims. In response, General Andrew Jackson assembled an army of 2,500 Tennessee militia and marched into Mississippi Territory to combat the Red Stick faction of the Creek nation. While Jackson's troops began to construct a fort along the Coosa River, he sent his most trusted subordinate, General John Coffee to attack the village of Tallushatchee.
On November 3, General Coffee led 900 cavalry to the village and divided his brigade into two columns encircling the village. Then two companies made their way to the center of the town to draw out the warriors. When the warriors attacked, they were forced to retreat back into the village where they were trapped by General Coffee's men when he closed the circle in on them. In all, 186 warriors were killed including many women and Children. Coffee lost only 5 men and 41 wounded. Among the Tennessee militia was the Legendary Frontiersman Davy Crockett who captured the event in his memoirs and commented, "We shot 'em down like dogs". Another soldier Richard Keith Call recalled the carnage of the battle field after the "hour of danger had passed". Call described the gory scene including individual cabins where they found up to 10 dead bodies, including dead mothers who clasped their dead child to the breasts. He contrasted the excitement of battle where passion and vengeance could make demons to that of the tears shed for the carnage afterwards. Richard Keith Call wrote in his journal, "I remember an instant of a brave young soldier, who after fighting like a tiger until the engagement was over, fainted at the sight of the blood he had helped to spill."
General Jackson was dismayed by the lopsided American victory and was moved by one of the Creek children orphaned by the battle. Jackson arranged to have the 10 month old cared for and sent to Huntsville where he paid for his immediate care. The Jackson family later adopted him into the Jackson family and he lived with them in their Tennessee home.
President James Madison wrote about the battle in his 1813 annual address to Congress where he described the "martial zeal" of General Coffee's men and their success on a "well-planned enterprise" against a "body of hostile savages". There was no mention of the carnage or the vengeance, rather Madison solely focused on the "gallant command of General Coffee' and the success of battle. While internally, Madison must have been moved by the carnage, but outwardly he seemed to excuse it because of the accepted belief that the enemy was a "body of hostile savages". Nevertheless, the battle was an important one. It was the first victory against the Creek Nation, and helped to sway the leaders of many Creek towns to join the Americans in the greater War of 1812.
"The progress of the expedition, as far as is yet known, corresponds with the martial zeal with which it was espoused, and the best hopes of a satisfactory issue are authorized by the complete success with which a well-planned enterprise was executed against a body of hostile savages by a detachment of the volunteer militia of TN, under the gallant command of General Coffee, and by a still more important victory over a larger body of them, gained under the immediate command of Major-General Jackson, an officer equally distinguished for his patriotism and his military talents."http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29455
http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-2350
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tallushatchee
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Mims_massacre
https://www.floridamemory.com/fpc/memory/collections/rkcall/rkcall_journal_transcript.pdf
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9f/Pictorial_life_of_Andrew_Jackson_%281847%29_%2814596197969%29.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/Pictorial_life_of_Andrew_Jackson_%281847%29_%2814779720351%29.jpg
No comments:
Post a Comment