In 1814, as part of the War of 1812 General Andrew Jackson led a series of battles against a faction of the Creek Nation called the 'Red Sticks' who opposed both land cessions to settlers and assimilation into the Anglo-American culture. On March 27, 1814 in what is known as the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, Jackson led a troop of over 3000 men including allied Cherokee and Creek warriors up a steep hill near Tehopeka to begin a new attack on a Red Stick fortification. After sending 1300 men to surround the Creek village, Jackson had launched a barrage of artillery that caused very little damage due to the extensive log-and-dirt fortifications built by the Red Sticks. General Jackson then ordered a bayonet charge to engage the Red-Sticks in hand-to-hand combat. With the help of troops from General John Coffee who had recently arrived, the Americans won a decisive battle where 800 of the 1000 Red Stick warriors were killed, Jackson and Coffee lost just under 50 men with an additional 154 wounded.
As a result of Battle of Horseshoe Bend, the Creek tribes signed the Treaty of Fort Jackson (also known as the Treaty with the Creaks) and were forced to cede their remaining 23 million acres of their territory in Alabama and Georgia to the United States Government. The land-cession requirement was designed to pay for what Jackson cited as an "unprovoked" war waged by the Creeks including the Fort Mims attack leading to the Battle of Talluschatchee. The cession of land was also part of a larger strategy to take away prime hunting grounds and push the Creeks toward an agrarian lifestyle. Due to the intense desire of Americans to avenge the massacre at Fort Mims, there was great public support for the treaty. On the other hand, there were a few who saw it as too harsh because it took almost 8 million acres of land from tribes allied with America. This decisive victory freed up General Jackson and his troops to move further west where he would defeat the British forces at the Battle of New Orleans.
President James Madison, in his 1814 annual address touted Major-General Jackson's "bold and skillful operations" to "[subdue] the principal tribes of hostile savages, and, by establishing a peace with them". Madison did not share the details of the treaty with Congress in this address, but simply stated that the victory followed the "American standard". Based upon earlier words in his address, I believe he meant "unfading laurels," and "progressive discipline of the American soldiery". It was a moment of pride comparing the American soldier to that of the British who had just defeated the great Napoleon of France.
"On our southern border victory has continued also to follow the American standard. The bold and skillful operations of Major-General Jackson, conducting troops drawn from the militia of the States least distant, particularly Tennessee, have subdued the principal tribes of hostile savages, and, by establishing a peace with them, preceded by recent and exemplary chastisement, has best guarded against the mischief of their cooperations with the British enterprises which may be planned against that quarter of our country. Important tribes of Indians on our northwestern frontier have also acceded to stipulations which bind them to the interests of the United States and to consider our enemy as theirs also."http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29456
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Horseshoe_Bend_(1814)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Fort_Jackson
http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-3026
http://www.stateoftheunionhistory.com/2016/10/1813-james-madison-battle-of.html
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/Diorama_of_breaching_the_stockade_P9230238.JPG
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