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 hostile Creeks, as we learnt yesterday from the Path Killer, are
assembling in great numbers within fifteen miles from Turkey Town.
Chenully, who is posted with the friendly Creeks in the neighborhood of
that place, it is feared will be destroyed before we can arrive to their
relief. In three days we shall probably have a fight. The general swears
he will neither sound a retreat nor survive a defeat.... We shall leave
this place with less than two days' provisions."
It seems almost incredible that a general should venture to advance into
an enemy's country, beginning the march with only provisions enough to
last his force for a day or two, and with no assurance, scarcely even a
hope, that provisions were likely to follow him; but this is what
Jackson did.
Coffee joined him on the march, bringing with him a few hundreds of
bushels of corn, and reporting that he had destroyed some Indian towns,
but had encountered none of the Indians. The corn was a mere handful
among the men and horses of the army, but cries for help were coming
every hour from the friendly Indians, whose situation at the Ten Islands
was desperate, and Jackson marched forward, trusting to chance for
supplies. He meant to fight first and find something to eat afterward.
As has been said, the army remained but one day at Fort Deposit, and
during that day constructed a fortress; but Jackson found time in which
to write an address to his men, whom he was now about to lead upon a
campaign in which they would encounter famine and hardships of the
sorest kind, as well as the savage enemy. They needed all the courage
that enthusiasm in the cause could give them, and the address was
designed to key them up, so to speak, to the pitch of their commander's
temper. The address read as follows:
"You have, fellow-soldiers, at length penetrated the country of your
enemies. It is not to be believed that they will abandon the soil that
embosoms the bones of their forefathers without furnishing you an
opportunity of signalizing your valor. Wise men do not expect, brave men
will not desire it. It was not to travel unmolested through a barren
wilderness that you quitted your families and homes, and submitted to so
many privations: it was to revenge the cruelties committed upon your
defenceless frontiers by the inhuman Creeks, instigated by their no less
inhuman allies; you shall not be disappointed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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