Battle of Horseshoe Bend
32°58′56″N 85°44′07″W / 32.98222°N 85.73528°W
Battle of Horseshoe Bend | |
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Part of Dadeville , Alabama | |
Result | Decisive U.S. & allied Native American victory |
James Neill
~700 cavalry,
unknown artillery
Native American: ~600 warriors
206 wounded[1]
47 killed
159 wounded
Native American:
23 killed
47 wounded[1]
The Battle of Horseshoe Bend (also known as Tohopeka, Cholocco Litabixbee, or The Horseshoe), was fought during the
Background
This section needs additional citations for verification. (March 2014) |
The
The Shawnee war leader Tecumseh visited Creek and other Southeast Indian towns in 1811–1812 to recruit warriors to join his war against American territorial encroachment. The Red Sticks, young men who wanted to revive traditional religious and cultural practices, were already forming, resisting assimilation. They began to raid American frontier settlements. When the Lower Creek helped U.S. forces to capture and punish leading raiders, the Lower Creek were punished in turn by the Red Sticks.
In 1813, militia troops intercepted a Red Stick party returning from obtaining arms in (Spanish colonial)
After the Fort Mims massacre, frontier settlers appealed to the government for help. Since Federal military forces were committed to waging the War of 1812 against Great Britain, the governments of Tennessee, Georgia, and the Mississippi Territory organized militia forces, which together with Lower Creek and Cherokee allies, fought against the Red Sticks.
After leaving
, and Lower Creek, fighting against the Red Stick Creek warriors.American Forces
West Tennessee Militia: Major General Andrew Jackson[4]
Brigade | Regiments and Other |
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Headquarters
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Doherty's Brigade
Brigadier General George Doherty |
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Johnson's Brigade
Brigadier General Thomas Johnson |
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Coffee's Brigade
Brigadier General John Coffee |
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Battle
On March 27, 1814, General Andrew Jackson led troops consisting of 2,700 American soldiers, 500 Cherokee, and 100 Lower Creek allies up a steep hill near Tehopeka. From this vantage point, Jackson would begin his attack on the Red Stick fortification.[6] At 6:30am, he split his troops and sent roughly 1,300 men to cross the Tallapoosa River and surround the Creek village. Then, at 10:30 a.m., Jackson's remaining troops began an artillery barrage which consisted of two cannons firing for about two hours. Little damage was caused to the Red Sticks or their 400-yard-long, log-and-dirt fortifications.[6] In fact, Jackson was quite impressed with the measures the Red Sticks took to protect their position. As he later wrote:
It is impossible to conceive a situation more eligible for defence than the one they had chosen and the skill which they manifested in their breastwork was really astonishing. It extended across the point in such a direction as that a force approaching would be exposed to a double fire, while they lay entirely safe behind it. It would have been impossible to have raked it with cannon to any advantage even if we had had possession of one extremity.[7]
Soon, Jackson ordered a bayonet charge. The 39th U.S. Infantry, led by Colonel John Williams,[8] charged the breastworks and engaged the Red Sticks in hand-to-hand combat. Sam Houston (the future statesman and leader of Texas) served as a third lieutenant in Jackson's army. Houston was one of the first to make it over the log barricade alive and received a wound from a Creek arrow that troubled him for the rest of his life.[3]
Meanwhile, the troops under the command of General John Coffee had successfully crossed the river and surrounded the encampment. They joined the fight and gave Jackson a great advantage. The Creek warriors refused to surrender, though, and the battle lasted for more than five hours. At the end, roughly 800 of the 1,000 Red Stick warriors present at the battle were killed.[9] In contrast, Jackson lost fewer than 50 men during the fight and reported 154 wounded.
After the battle, Jackson's troops allegedly made bridle reins from skin taken from Indian corpses, conducted a body count by cutting off the tips of their noses, and sent their clothing as souvenirs to the "ladies of Tennessee."[10]
Chief Menawa was severely wounded but survived; he led about 200 of the original 1,000 warriors across the river and toward safety, to join the Seminole tribe in Spanish Florida.
Results
On August 9, 1814, Andrew Jackson forced the Creek to sign the
Capture of Pensacola, Battle of New Orleans
After the battle, Jackson sent his friend and trusted scout,
This victory, along with that at the Battle of New Orleans, greatly contributed to Jackson's favorable national reputation and his popularity. He was well known when he ran successfully for President in 1828.
Legacy
The battlefield is preserved in the Horseshoe Bend National Military Park.[13]
In fiction
Eric Flint has written a series of alternate history novels, Trail of Glory, that begin with the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. In Flint's version, Houston is only lightly wounded in the battle, allowing him freedom to develop his career, in turn facilitating the author's objectives.
The main character of Paulette Jiles' novel News of the World, 'Captain' Jefferson Kyle Kidd, has a backstory that includes fighting as a youth of 16 in this battle under Jackson.
Notes
- ^ a b Borneman p.151
- ^ a b "Creek War: Horseshoe Bend". Archived from the original on 2015-09-06. Retrieved 2012-09-25.
- ^ a b Robert Remini, Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Empire, 1767–1821, (1977) ch. 13
- ^ Tennessee Unites during War of 1812
- ^ ISBN 9780665291364.
- ^ a b Mackenzie, George. "The Indian Breastwork in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend: Its Size, Location, and Construction". National Park Service. Archived from the original on 2019-07-12. Retrieved 16 July 2012.
- ^ Jackson, Andrew. "The Jackson Papers". Library of Congress.
- ^ Samuel G. Heiskell, Andrew Jackson and Early Tennessee History (Nashville: Ambrose Printing Company, 1918), pp. 356–359.
- ^ Heidler, p. 135
- ^ Ronald Takaki, A Different Mirror, (Little, Brown 1993), p. 85
- ^ Ehle p. 123
- ^ "Captain John Gordon, of the spies". archive.org. Retrieved 2016-12-13.
- ^ "If you visited Horseshoe Bend battlefield today". 27 March 2014. Retrieved March 16, 2018.
References
- Andrew Burstein, ISBN 978-0-06-053112-6.
- Steve Rajtar, Indian War Sites, (McFarland and Company, Inc., 1999)
- Robert Remini, Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Empire, 1767–1821 (1977) ch. 13
Further reading
- Holland, James W. "Andrew Jackson and the Creek War: Victory at the Horseshoe Bend," Alabama Review, Oct 1968, Vol. 21 Issue 4, pp 243–275
- Kanon, Thomas. "A Slow, Laborious Slaughter": The Battle of Horseshoe Bend," Tennessee Historical Quarterly, March 1999, Vol. 58 Issue 1, pp 2–15
- Remini, Robert V. Andrew Jackson and His Indian Wars (2001), ch 4
External links
- "The Battle of Horseshoe Bend: Collision of Cultures", National Park Service's Teaching with Historic Places.
- A map of Creek War Battle Sites, PCL Map Collection at the University of Texas at Austin.
- "Battle of Horseshoe Bend" Archived 2014-12-15 at the Wayback Machine, Encyclopedia of Alabama
- Mrs. Dunham Rowland, "The Mississippi Territory in the War of 1812", Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society, Volume 4, 1921, pp. 7–156
- "If you visited Horseshoe Bend Battlefield today"