The Creek War of 1813 and 1814

Introduction

COPYRIGHT. 1895, BY H. B. HALBERT AND T. II BALL. PREFACE WHEN this work was oommenoed, several years ago, it was not expected that it would beoome in size what it has grown to be. It was then expeoted only to give faots in regard to the Oreek war as oonneoted with the white settlers in what is no\v South Alabama, giving espeoially a fuller aooount of the attaok on Fort Sinquefield with other gathered reminisoenoes and traditions. But when large libraries were examined and many historioal works were oonsulted, and so little that was really reliable oould be found in regard to that border war, and its real beginning seeming to be altogether unknown to Northern writers, it was thought best to make thorough researoh and to prepare a somewhat voluminous work for the sake of those, or for the use of those, who, in years to oome~ in the North as well as in the South, might justly be expected to be interested in a work as full, and, in some respects, as minute in details, as this. If, therefore, any readers should think that some of the chapters, as those in regard to Tecumseh and Fort Mims, are more full than was needful, or that, in some others, too many personal, biographical inoidents and sketches or notes are given, let them please bear in mind that the work is designed for more than one class of readers; let the more critical charitabl.y trust that there will be some readers interested in the minute details and the apparent PREFAOE. digressions; and let all who may read rest assured that the authors have, with the idea of different classes of readers before their minds, endeavored faithfully to obtain and impartially to present historic truth. November 19, 1894. Well may the inhabitants of Alabama, espeoially, say in regard to the Red meo, "Though 'mid the forests where the1 roved, There rings no hunter's shout, Yet their names are on our waters, And we may not wash them out;" for well, of the Indian tongue, as speaking in the flowing waters, does an Alabama poet say, .. 'Tis heard where CHATTAHOOCHEE pours His yellow tide along; It sounds on TALLAPOOSA'S r.hores, And COOSA swells the song; Where lordly ALABAHA sweeps, The symphony remains; And young CAHAWBA proudly keepa The echo of its strains; Where TUSCALOOSA'S waters glide, From stream and town 'lis heard, And dark TOMBECXBu'S winding tide Repeatsthe olden word; Afar, where Nature brightly wreathed Fit Edens for the free, Along TUSCUMBIA'S bank 'tis breathed, By stately TENNESSEE; And south, where, from CONECUB'S springs, ESCAMBtA'S waters steal, The ancient melody still rings,From TUSAW and MOBlLlll." INTRODUCTION. THIS work proposes to give as accurate an account as can now be obtained from written and printed records, from traditions, and from personal observation, of that portion of American history known as the Creek War of 1813 and 1814:. Of these Creek Indians says BREWER, author of a history of Alabama: "In 1813 and 1814 they waged the bloodiest war against the whites anywhere recorded in the annals of the United States." Says MEEK, one of Alabama's talented orators and poets: "Time as it passed on and filled these solitudes with settlers, at last brought the most sanguinary era in Alabama history." And PIOKETT, recognized as Alabama's leading historian, says: "Everything foreboded the extermination of the Americans in Alabama, who were the most isolated and defenseless people imaginable ." The reader who comes to our "Conclusion" may be disposed to change BREWER'S statement; but he will not question the statements of PICKETT and MEEK. But this work does not propose to give in full that part of the conflict waged in the Indian country which broke the power of the fierce Muscogees j but rather that part which has not been as yet so fully given, connected with the white settlers in what is now South Alabama. This portion of our ...