The Creek War of 1813 and 1814

XVIII. Battle of the Holy Ground

236 THE CREEK WAR. Fort Madison. The canoe fight was ready to go into American history along with Perry's victory on Lake Champlain gained two months before.* Of the three men engaged in this conflict, from whose hands one only, of the eleven at first seen in the canoe, escaped, some further notice may justly be given. Of James Smith but little seems to be known. He was born in Georgia, was a pioneer settler in the river region, is described as a very brave and daring man, and is credited with having" contributed very materially to the success of the canoe engagement." He removed to East Mississippi and there died. Of SamuelDale, known as Oaptain Dale and then General Dale, abundant material for a life record exists. He was evidently a remarkable man. A brief abstract of events in his life is all that can here begiven. Claiborne, with some flowers of rhetoric, has written his life very fully. He was born in Virginia in 1772. In 1784 his father removed to Georgia and occupied a farm near the Creek Indians. In a few years his father and mother both died leaving to him the care of seven children younger than him- *The nearest parallel to the (Janoe Fight which I have found occurred near the opening of the "Pe9uod War." John Gallup was sailing on the Connecticut "in hIS little shallop of twenty tons," with one man and two boys, when he discovered John Oldham's pinnace off Block Island, which the Indians had lately captured, and fourteen of them were on the deck. Martyn says, "Pilgrim Fathers," •'Then one of the most remarkable instances of gallantry recorded in the annals of border warfare occurred." Gallup steered directly for the l)innace, with a. fresh wind, struck it "atem foremost, nearly upset it," and six frightened Indians "jumped overboard and were drowned." He did the same thing again. and four more jumped and sank. Four only remained. Re drowned two of these and two finally escaped. Whether the Connecticut River action or the Alabama River action displayed the more daring, the reader must judge.T .R.B. THE GANOE FIGHT. 237 self. He became a trader among the Indians, then a guide and mover of families to the river settlements. Before the" Creek War" he himself removed to the Alabama River region. After that war he held JOice not a little. In 1816 he was a member of the convention to divide the Territory. In 1817 he was a. member of the Alabama Territorial Assembly. He represented Monroe county, which for some time extended west of the Alabama to the water-shed, in the years 1819, 1820, 1821; 1823, 1824; 1825, 18~M, 1829. In 1824 he was a member of the committee to escort Gen. La Fayette to Alabama's capital. The Alabama Legislature conferred on him the rank of brigadier general. In 1830 he was appointed by the Secretary of War one of the commissioners to remove the Choctaws. In 1831 he removed to Mississippi . In 1836 he represented Lauderdale county. He died at Daleville, Mississippi, in May, 1841. Such were some of the positions held by the man who suggested and led the oanoe fight. He is represented as havingdeolared that in every hour of danger he was oheered by a firm trust in God. [36) Jeremiah Austill, known as Major Austill in all the later years of his life, was also a much more than ordinary man. Born in South Carolina in 1794, spending several years of his youth among the Cherokees, when eighteen years of age he oame with his father's famUy into the Mississippi Territory . After the Creek war closed he became a clerk at St. Stephens, in the store of his unole, Colonel David Files, then Quarter Master for the army· After the death of his uncle, in 1820, he became Deputy Marshal. He removed to Mobile and was !38 THE OREEK W.AR. appointed Clerk of the Oourt of Mobile. He was also appointed city weigher. He represented Mobile in the state legislature. In 1824 he commenced business as commission merchant. In 1837, in that great financial crash, he closed, having then four hundred customers, and findi.ng himself involved in a loss amounting to one hundred and seventy thousand dollars. He reasoned in regard to his customers from his knowledge of Indian character , but he...