Red Eagle and the Wars With the Creek Indians of Alabama.Eggleston, George Cary
History
Red Eagle and the Wars With the Creek Indians of Alabama.
Eggleston, George Cary
Creek War, 1813-1814; Weatherford, William, approximately 1780-1824
"The fiends of the Tallapoosa will no longer murder our women and
children, or disturb the quiet of our borders. Their midnight flambeaux
will no more illumine their council-house or shine upon the victim of
their infernal orgies. In their places a new generation will arise who
will know their duty better. The weapons of warfare will be exchanged
for the utensils of husbandry; and the wilderness, which now withers in
sterility and mourns the desolation which overspreads her, will blossom
as the rose and become the nursery of the arts. But before this happy
day can arrive other chastisements remain to be inflicted. It is indeed
lamentable that the path to peace should lead through blood and over the
bodies of the slain; but it is a dispensation of Providence, and perhaps
a wise one, to inflict partial evils, that ultimate good may be
produced.
"Our enemies are not sufficiently humbled; they do not sue for peace. A
collection of them await our approach, and remain to be dispersed.
Buried in ignorance, and seduced by the false pretences of their
prophets, they have the weakness to believe they will still be able to
make a decided stand against us. They must be undeceived, and made to
atone their obstinacy and their crimes by still further suffering. Those
hopes which have so long deluded them must be driven from their last
refuge. They must be made to know that their prophets are impostors, and
that our strength is mighty and will prevail. Then, and not till then,
may we expect to make with them a peace that shall be permanent."
Ten days after the battle of the Horse Shoe the army again advanced, the
men carrying provisions in their haversacks as before. A long march
brought them to the confluence of the Coosa and Tallapoosa rivers, where
a junction with the southern army was effected and supplies were
abundant.
There Jackson established his camp and fortified it. The force of Creeks
which he had expected to strike had dispersed, and there was now nowhere
a body of Indians for him to march against or fight. His presence with a
strong army, well supplied with food and able to maintain itself there
in the very heart of the nation, did the rest. Seeing the utter
hopelessness of contending further with such an army so commanded, and
hearing through friendly Indians, who were sent out for the purpose,
that Jackson wished to make peace, the savages rapidly flocked to his
camp and surrendered themselves.
Peter McQueen, Josiah Francis, and several other chiefs fled to Florida,
but the greater number of the Creek leaders preferred to sue for
Jackson's clemency.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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