Peter McQueen
Peter McQueen (c. 1780 – 1820) (
The Red Sticks were defeated by Colonel
Early life and education
Peter McQueen was the son of a high-status Creek woman and a Scots Highlander
Because the Creek culture was
Career
Influenced by the thought of the
Conflicts rose between the Upper Creek towns and the Lower Creek, who had adopted more European-American ways, in part by their locations closer to European Americans, where interaction occurred more frequently. Some of the Lower Creek became wealthy by developing individual plantations, acquiring enslaved African Americans, and operating businesses. Tensions between the factions began developing into violence in the spring of 1813. The Red Sticks began to attack plantations of their enemies, destroying both crops and livestock.[1]
That July, McQueen commanded a party of Red Sticks who went to Spanish Florida to procure arms. On their return to present-day Alabama, they were ambushed by territorial militia and scattered. The Red Sticks regrouped and defeated the militia who were looting their packs, at what became called the Battle of Burnt Corn. European-American settlers on the frontier became alarmed and started spending more time in fortified settlements.
The next month, in August 1813, McQueen took part in the attack on
Together with numerous other Red Stick warriors, McQueen later faced Colonel
Altogether in the Creek War nearly 3,000 Creek died, many of the Upper Towns were destroyed, and the Upper Creek lost much of their stores of food, threatening them with starvation that winter. The prophet's people had slaughtered livestock in the early days of the conflict; later one side and another had destroyed more livestock, as well as stored foods. As they had planted hardly any crops during 1813-1814, they suffered severely from shortages and want.[2]
Defeated by Jackson's forces, many surviving Red Stick warriors, including McQueen, retreated south into central Florida (see Angola, Florida).
References
- James O'Brien and Sean Michael O'Brien, In Bitterness and Tears: Andrew Jackson's Destruction of the Creeks and Seminoles (2003)