After a series of skirmishes with the Red Stick Creek (see entries for JULY 17, 1813, and for AUGUST 30, 1813), some 5,000 regular and volunteer troops led by Andrew Jackson descend on the village of Toho-peka, on a peninsula in a horseshoe-shaped bend in the Tallapossa River in present-day eastern Alabama. As the troops surrounded the Red Stick stronghold, Cherokee scouts fighting with the Americans steal canoes the Red Sticks have left on the riverbank to help them flee in case of attack.
“I am in your power: do with me what you please. I am a soldier. I have done the white people all the harm I could. I have fought them, and fought them bravely. If I had an army, I would yet fight, and contend to the last. But I am done—my people are all gone—I can do no more than weep over the misfortunes of my nation.”
—Red Stick Creek leader Red Eagle on surrendering to Andrew Jackson
Aided by White Stick Creek, Choctaw, and Cherokee warriors, Jackson’s men kill nearly 800 Red Sticks, while the survivors retreat to the villages of their Seminole relatives in Spanish Florida. The defeat effectively ends the Red Sticks’ war against the United States and earns Jackson acclaim as an Indian fighter. (See also entry for AUGUST 9, 1814.)
The Treaty of Fort Jackson forces Creek land cession.
With their defeat at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend (see entry for MARCH 27, 1814), the Creek are compelled to sign a peace treaty with the U. S. government at Fort Jackson, in what is now Alabama. The terms of peace are punishing: the Creek sign away more than 22 million acres in present-day southern Georgia and central Alabama. The ceded tract includes lands of both the Red Stick Creek, who had battled against the U. S. Army, and the White Stick Creek, who were allies of the United States during the conflict.
The Treaty of Ghent ends the War of 1812.
In the Treaty of Ghent, the British acknowledge that the United States owns all lands south of the Great Lakes and promises not to aid its former Indian allies in the region. The treaty ends the War of 1812 (see entry for JUNE 19, 1812) and spells disaster for the Indians in the East. With the defeat of the British, they lose the military support and supplies they would need to continue to resist American settlement of their lands.
World History
