Jackson, after leaving a garrison at a new fort which he constructed on the Coosa, about half way to the Horse-shoe, had somewhat less than three thousand effectives.[367] With these he camped, on the evening of March 28, about six miles northwest of the bend, and the next morning advanced to attack it. “Determined to exterminate them,” he reported,[368] he detached Coffee with the mounted force of seven hundred men and six hundred friendly Indians[369] to surround the bend, along the river bank, while Jackson himself with all his infantry took position before the breastwork. At half-past ten o’clock he planted his cannon about two hundred yards[370] from the centre of the work, and began a rapid fire of artillery and musketry, which continued for two hours without producing apparent effect. Meanwhile the Cherokee allies swam the river in the rear of the Creek warriors, who were all at the breastwork, and seizing canoes, brought some two hundred Indians and whites into the Horse-shoe, where they climbed the high ground in the rear of the breastwork and fired on the Creeks, who were occupied in defending their front. Jackson then ordered an assault on the breastwork, which was carried, with considerable loss, by the Thirty-ninth regiment, in the centre. The Creeks sought shelter in the thickets and under the bluffs, where they were hunted or burned out, and killed. “The slaughter was greater than all we had done before,” wrote Coffee; it was continued all day and the next morning. When the Horse-shoe had been thoroughly cleared, five hundred and fifty-seven dead bodies were counted within the bend; many were killed in the river, and about twenty were supposed to have escaped. According to Coffee, “we killed not less than eight hundred and fifty or nine hundred of them, and took about five hundred squaws and children prisoners.” The proportion of squaws and children to the whole number of Indians showed the probable proportion of warriors among the dead. “I lament that two or three women and children were killed by accident,” reported Jackson.[371] Jackson’s loss was chiefly confined to the Thirty-ninth regiment and the friendly Indians, who were most actively engaged in the storm. The Thirty-ninth lost twenty killed and fifty-two wounded. Among the severely wounded was Ensign Samuel Houston, struck by an arrow in the thigh. The major and two lieutenants were killed. The Cherokees lost eighteen killed and thirty-five wounded. The friendly Creeks lost five killed and eleven wounded. The Tennessee militia, comprising two thirds of the army, lost only eight killed and fifty-two wounded. The total loss was fifty-one killed and one hundred and forty-eight wounded.