USA > Mississippi > School history of Mississippi; for use in public and private schools > Part 9
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149. Attack on Fort Sinquefield .- On September 1, 1813, two days after the massacre at Fort Mims, twelve women and children were murdered and a house was robbed near Fort Sinquefield. While the sad inmates of the fort were burying those who had been slain the day before, the savages, after trying in vain to get between them and the fort, made a desperate assault on the fort itself. This battle resulted in the loss of one man and one woman in the fort and the death of a large number of savages.
150. Choctaws and Chickasaws Help the Americans .- In the latter part of September, a body of Choctaws and Chickasaws made an expedition against the Creeks and burned their deserted town situated at the Falls of the Black Warrior. Early in October, 1813, Pushmataha (push ma tä'hä), an influential Choctaw chief, and one hundred and thirty-five of his warriors joined the American army at Fort St. Stepliens.
151. Pushmataha .- This celebrated warrior was made lieutenant-colonel of the army of the United States in 1813. He was then about forty-eight years of age, and had been a warrior of prominence in his nation for more than a quar- ter of a century.
When the Creeks invited the Choctaws to meet them in a council in July, 1813, near the present town of Pushma- taha, in Alabama, they tried in every way to induce the Choctaws to unite with them, but it is said that Pushmataha spoke the greater part of two days trying to persuade the Creeks not to undertake the war. In September he assem- bled his nation in a great council, at which over five thou- sand Choctaws were present. He made an eloquent speech, in which he said :
" You know Tecumseh. He is a bad man. He came through our nation, but he did not turn our heads. He went among the Muscogees, and got many of them to join
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WAR WITH CREEK INDIANS AND THE BRITISH
him. You know the Tensaw people; they were our friends. They played ball with us. They sheltered and fed us, when- ever we went to Pensacola. Where are they now? Their bodies rot at Sam Mims' place. The people at St. Stephens have also been our friends. The Muscogees intend to kill them, too. They want soldiers to defend them." He here drew his sword and, flourishing it, added : " You can all do as you please. You are all free men. I dictate to none of you. But I shall join the St. Stephens people. If you have a mind to follow me, I will lead you to glory and to victory." A warrior rose up, slapped his hand upon his breast, and said : " I am a man! I am a man! I will follow you !"
Pushmataha enlisted four companies of Choctaws and reported at St. Stephens for duty a few days later. He was made lieutenant-colonel, and was treated with the respect due his rank. The Americans had a high regard for his ability, and considered the Indian General, as they called him, a valuable ally. In 1824 he visited Washington in company with the most celebrated men of his nation to see the great White Father. After his arrival he heard that General Lafayette was there on a visit to the United States and expressed a desire to see this great hero of the Revolu- tion. After a long conversation the celebrated chief said to him at parting: " We have heard of you in our distant villages, we longed to see you, we have come, we have taken your hand. For the last time we look on the face of the great warrior whose fathers were the friends of our fathers. We go; it is the last time we shall meet ; we shall both soon be in the land of shadows." These closing words were strangely true; for the great chief died a few days after they were uttered. His last words were: "When I am dead, fire the big guns over me." This request was carefully observed, and his remains were buried " amid the roar of artillery and the music of muffled drums." His
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last words were carved upon his tomb. " Thus closed the career of one," says Claiborne, " who in civilized life would have adorned the Senate, and been regarded by posterity as we now regard the heroes of antiquity; a man of the noblest attributes, who had it in his power to depopulate our territories, but whose arm was always extended for the protection of the whites."*
152. The Canoe Fight .- One of the most remarkable feats of bravery in the history of the Southwest was the celebrated canoe fight which occurred (1813) on the Ala- bama River. In this fight three men in a frail dugout
THE CANOE FIGHT
attacked and killed nine Indian warriors in a large canoe. The leader of the attacking party was General Sam Dale, the daring frontierman, whose services in war and in peace
* Claiborne's Mississippi, pp. 514-515; Claiborne's Life of Sam Dale; Hamilton's Colonial Mobile, pp. 343, 370, 371; Halbert's Creek War Incidents in Transactions of Alabama Historical Society, Vol. II., pp. 95-119; McKenny and Hall's American Indiana.
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have won for him an honored place in the history of Mis- sissippi.
153. Battle of the Holy Ground .- After much hesitation General Claiborne's request for permission to advance into the Creek territory was granted by his superior officer at Mobile. General Claiborne determined to attack the enemy in their stronghold, known as the Holy Ground, situated on the Alabama River about one hundred and twenty miles northeast of Fort Claiborne. Although some of the officers objected to undertaking such an expedition, they received his final decision without complaint. General Claiborne himself said that many whose term of service had expired, and who had not received a dollar of their back wages, volunteered for the expedition, and cheerfully moved to their places in the line. These brave men were exposed in the swamps and canebrakes to the winter weather; were without tents, warm clothing, shoes or food; were nine days without meat, and lived chiefly on parched corn, but they won an important battle, and endured without a mur- mur the hardships of the service.
The Holy Ground was the place of refuge for the Creeks in this war. It was the home of the principal prophets of the nation, and the Indians believed that no enemy could enter its sacred limits without falling dead. It was called the " Grave of White Men."
On December 23, 1813, the Americans, in company with Pushmataha and his warriors, attacked this stronghold. After making a desperate resistance those who were still living fled in dismay, leaving behind them much booty, to the delight of Pushmataha's warriors. Among other things was found a letter from the Spanish governor at Pensacola, congratulating the Creek chiefs on the victory at Fort Mims, and a tall pole on which were three hundred scalps that had been taken by the Creeks in that massacre.
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The army returned to Fort Claiborne, and the Mississippi volunteers, who had served longer than the time for which they had volunteered, were mustered out of service, with eight months' pay due them. They then began their weary journey to their homes on the Pearl, the Amite, and the Mississippi, without having received a cent of pay. Push- mataha and his brave warriors were also mustered out and returned to their homes, singing their savage war song and dancing their scalp dance in every Choctaw village through which they passed.
154. Other Campaigns of the War .- While this war was raging in the Territory of Mississippi, other campaigns were being conducted against the same enemy by General Floyd and General Jackson. The battle of the Holy Ground practically put an end to the fighting in Southern Alabama. The struggle was continued, however, on other fields in this Territory, with results even more fatal to the brave warriors of the Creek nation. After the bloody battle of Horse Shoe Bend (March 27, 1814), the war ceased, and the enemy was forced to sign a treaty which gave to the United States a large part of their land, and thus opened to immigration that part of the Territory of Mississippi which embraces half of the present area of Alabama.
155. Mississippians in the War of 1812 .- In 1814 Colonel Thomas Hinds, with his battalion of Mississippi dragoons, was ordered to join General Jackson, who had just gained a great victory over the Creeks at Horse Shoe Bend. General Jackson then advanced into Spanish territory in order to dislodge the British troops under General Paken- ham and the Indian refugees from the Creek War, who were then at Pensacola by the consent of the Spanish gov- ernor. He captured Pensacola, forcing the British to withdraw, and the Indians to flee to the woods. Feeling
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assured that the British would make an attack upon New Orleans, General Jackson then started for the defence of that city and ordered Colonel Thomas Hinds' Mississippi Dragoons to join him there. This order was promptly obeyed, and the Mississippi troops reported for duty at New Orleans (December 23, 1814).
General Pakenham had gone to Ship Island, where he had ordered the British warships in the Gulf to join him, for the purpose of making an attack on New Orleans. He built a number of small boats, with which to pass over the shallow waters of the lakes, and, leaving his men-of-war in the harbor of Ship Island, advanced toward New Orleans (December 12th). He was met at the entrance of Lake Borgne by five small gunboats, which had been sent out by General Jackson, and the battle of Lake Borgne followed. The British captured the gunboats, went across Lake Borgne, and landed on its western shore just below New Orleans.
156. Battle of New Orleans .- On January 8, 1815, a battle was fought on the field of Chalmette,* resulting in a great victory for the Americans. In a report of this fight, General Jackson said: "The cavalry from the Mississippi Territory, under their enterprising leader, Major Thomas Hinds, was always ready to perform every service which the nature of the country enabled him to execute. The daring manner in which they reconnoitred the enemy on his lines excited the admiration of one army and the astonishment of the other." Captain James C. Wilkins, at the head of a company of Natchez riflemen, reached the scene of conflict after the battle had begun, but rendered valuable service. We are told that the citizens of Wilkinson county went in such large numbers to defend New Orleans that the county
* Claiborne's Mississippi, pp. 342-346; Goodspeed's Memoirs. Vol. I., p. 181.
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had to require some of the men to remain at home for police purposes.
This was only one of the many battles in which the troops from Mississippi (2,500 or 3,000 in number) took part in this war against England.
Summary
1. When the war between the United States and England began in 1812, Tecumseh conceived the idea of enlisting the help of the Indians with the latter country, thus destroying the power of the United States. The Creek and the Seminole Indians, who had received ammunition from the Spanish authorities at Pensacola, were attacked at Burnt Corn Creek, where the first battle of the war was fought in 1813.
2. The massacre by the Indians of over five hundred men, women, and children at Fort Mims (August 30, 1813) greatly alarmed the white people of the Mississippi Territory, and caused a large number of soldiers to hasten to the scene of hostilities.
3. An attack was made by the savages on Fort Sinquefield (September 2, 1813), which resulted in the loss of one man and one woman in the fort and in the death of a large number of Indians.
4. In the latter part of September, 1813, the Choctaws and Chickasaws made an expedition against the Creeks, and early in the following month one hundred and thirty-five Choctaw warriors under the command of Pushmataha joined the American forces at Fort St. Stephens.
5. On December 23, 1813, the Americans and Choctaws attacked and destroyed the Holy Ground of the Creeks, who fled in dismay. This victory practically put an end to the fighting in the southern part of the Mississippi Territory.
6. A battalion of Mississippi troops under Major Thomas Hinds participated in the attack on Pensacola and in the defence of New Orleans.
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CHAPTER XVII
PROGRESS OF THE TERRITORY OF MISSISSIPPI (1798-1817) =
157. Early Roads of Mississippi .- For some time the Territory of Mississippi was hindered in its development because of the lack of good roads. The western part of the country was reached by travelers from other parts of the United States almost entirely by way of the Mississippi River and its eastern tributaries. As the ascent of these streams was very slow and laborious before the invention of the steamboat, the means for getting from Mississippi to other parts of the Union were very bad. Overland travel, by way of the Indian paths or trails, leading through the wilderness held by savages, was scarcely less inviting to the traveler who wished to go from Mississippi to Tennessee or Georgia. In 1801 the United States made treaties with the Choctaws and Chickasaws by which an important road, the Natchez Trace, was opened for the safe passage of travelers through their country. This road, which connected Natchez with Nashville, Tennessee, is the most historic thoroughfare in Mississippi. It was originally an Indian trail, and for many years after this treaty was little more than a bridle-path. It was a post- road as early as 1796 or 1797. At that time the post was due in Natchez ten days and four hours after leaving Nash- ville.
This road ran through or near the present towns of Washington, Port Gibson, Raymond, Clinton, Kosciusko, Houston, and Pontotoc, and crossed the Tennessee River a few miles below Muscle Shoals.
The settlements on the Tombigbee were more cut off from the outside world than were those on the Mississippi,
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being separated from the latter by the Choctaws, from Georgia by the Creeks, from Tennessee by the Cherokees, and from the Gulf by the Spaniards. By a second treaty with the Indians another trail, leading from Knoxville to the Tombigbee, was widened into a road, thus making traveling easier. A third road was opened (1805) from Milledgeville, Georgia, to Natchez by way of St. Stephens and Monticello. In 1807 this route was widened into a wagon road, and soon became the chief thoroughfare for immigrants coming from Georgia to the eastern and central parts of Mississippi. It was called the "Three Chopped Way," from the method of blazing the trees from Natchez to Georgia. The United States post passed over it every three weeks. .
In accordance with an act of Congress, passed April 27, 1816, a thoroughfare, known as "Jackson's Military Road," was built through Mississippi (page 148). It extended from Madisonville, Louisiana, to a point twenty-one miles north of the Tennessee River, which it crossed near the Muscle Shoals. The work, which was done under the direction of the War Department, occupied a period of over two years (June, 1817, to January, 1820). This road, parts of which are still in use, proved to be of great benefit to the State.
Mr. Hamilton has forcibly said that "the daring of hunters and pioneer explorers baptized these ways in blood and enriched them with romance, while the toilsome jour- neys of our immigrant fathers moving families and belong- ings to a southern clime, in search of happier homes and fortunes, should make these ways sacred to remotest generations."*
158. Methods of Traveling and of Moving .- As overland immigrants and travelers were forced to adapt themselves
*Transactions of Alabama Historical Society. Vol. II., pp. 39-56.
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to the roads, only two methods of travel were possible at an early date. These were on foot and on horseback. It is said that Kentucky boatmen, returning home on foot after selling out their flatboats and cargoes in New Orleans or Natchez, often made wagers to beat the post to Nash- ville, and generally won. Walking Johnson, the greatest pedestrian of his day, beat the post between Natchez and Nashville three times. Alexander Wilson,* who made a trip over this road from Nashville to Natchez (1810), said that he met every day from forty to sixty boatmen returning from Natchez and New Orleans. While these roads were bridle-paths immigrants were forced to move by means of pack-horses.
Rolling hogsheads were also frequently used. They were filled with the clothing and other things to be carried, and to them were attached shafts or poles in the same way as to tobacco hogs, ads. They were drawn by horses or by oxen.
The roads were finally widened so as to permit the passage of wagons. This method of moving was attended by many difficulties. One pioneer said that upsets and breakages were his daily experience, and that long before he reached the end of his journey he wished that he had not been born.t A traveler who passed over the Natchez Trace on horseback as late as 1810, says that the difficulties he had encountered could not be imagined by those who had never passed over the road.
During the territorial period there were no public con- veyances for carrying travelers except by water. There was not a stage line in the entire Territory. One was
*Alexander Wilson was the great father of American Orni- thology.
+ Hamilton's Early Roads of Alabama, in Transactions of Alabama Historical Society, Vol. II., pp. 39-56.
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established early in the century between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, but was stopped because it did not pay.
159. River Communication .- Natchez was the great center of trade in Mississippi during the territorial period. Governor Claiborne, in writing to the secretary of state from that place in 1801, says: "The river front here is thronged with boats from the west. Great quantities of flour and other products continually pass."
In 1803 the value of this great water way was consider- ably reduced by many spiteful regulations of the Spanish governor of Louisiana. In December of that year Gov- ernor Claiborne wrote that 'American products are per- mitted to be received by vessels lying in the middle of the stream at New Orleans, but the landing of produce is strictly forbidden.' He wrote again the following year that there were many vessels lying at New Orleans in the stream waiting for freight and several on their way to Natchez to load with cotton. After the purchase of Louis- iana by the United States, these drawbacks to commerce on the Mississippi no longer existed, and that river developed into a great thoroughfare of trade. Previous to 1813 the American settlers on the Tombigbee chafed under the regulations of the Spanish government upon their only water outlet to the Gulf. These regulations greatly hindered the progress of that part of the Territory .* In 1813 and 1814 the British interfered very much with the commercial development of the Territory by stationing warships outside of ports on the Gulf to keep vessels from coming in or going out.
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The year ISII marks a new era in the history of trans- portation on the Mississippi River. In the latter part of
* Claiborne's Mississippi, pp. 223, 243.
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this year the " New Orleans," the first steamboat* that was ever launched on western waters, descended the Ohio and the Mississippi from Pittsburg to the city after which it had been named. At Natchez it was greeted by hundreds .of spectators, and took on passengers and its first freight. For three years it ran regularly between Natchez and New Orleans, making a trip down stream in three days and returning in four. It cost $38,000 and cleared $20,000 for its owners the first year. It was sunk in the winter of 1814 while engaged in carrying reinforcements and supplies to General Jackson's army at New Orleans. By this time, however, three other steamboats were running regularly on the Mississippi. Through the efforts of Mr. Poindexter, Congress forbade the city of New Orleans " from exacting any tax or duty on vessels, boats, or other craft descending the River Mississippi." A drawback to the prosperity of Mississippi in common with that of many other States was
* Before the invention of the steamboat, flatboats and keel- boats were principally used for carrying produce to market. The first of these were called "Kentucky boats," or "arks," and" resembled the arks seen among children's toys. They were built only for the down stream voyage, the cost of construction being about twenty dollars. At the end of the voyage they were sold for lumber. The roofs were slightly curved to turn off the rain. Large oars or paddles were used to direct their course while they floated with the current. They were used not only to carry horses, hogs, cattle, etc., to market, but to transport the families, domestic animals, fowls, etc., of the immigrants who settled along the river. The keel-boat was a long, slender boat of small draught. It was propelled by oars, sails, setting poles, etc. In high water it was frequently carried upstream by means of " bush-whacking" or pulling the bushes that stood along the margin of the river. Pine rafts, scows, or " sheds," and pirogues were also used by immigrants and travelers. See Gould's Fifty Years on the Mississippi, pp. 189-199; also Goodspeed's Memoirs of Mississippi, Vol. I., p. 63.
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thus removed. Two years later the legislature of Louisiana attempted to give the sole right of steamboat transportation on the river to one company, but this was defeated by a ruling of the Supreme Court (1817). Immediately after this, steamboat companies were organized at Natchez and
PRIMITIVE LOG HOUSE
at other places, and a new impulse was given to transporta- tion on the Mississippi.
160. Manufacturing .- During the territorial period agri- culture was almost the only industry of the people along the Mississippi River. In 1812 there were only one card- ing machine, 22 mills with 807 spindles, and 1,330 private looms at work in the Territory. These made annually 342,472 yards of cotton, 450 yards of linen, and 7,898 yards
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of woollen cloth. There were also at that date ten tanneries, six distilleries, and one tin-shop in the Territory. The first sawmill in Mississippi was erected in 1807, near the town of Washington by Eleazer Carver, a gin-wright. Hats were made at Union Town, in Jefferson county, at an early date. They were generally traded to the settlers for raccoon skins .*
161. Agriculture .- Along the Mississippi there were many large plantations upon which cotton was cultivated, largely by slave labor. In 1799 Sir William Dunbar wrote that he had cultivated this product with great success, and that it was by far the best paying crop that had ever been raised in this country. Two years later Governor Claiborne wrote: 'I have heard it said by our business men that the total sales of cotton this season will exceed $700,000, a large revenue for a people whose numbers are about 9,000, of all ages and colors. Labor is more valuable here than elsewhere in the United States, and industrious people soon get rich.'t Bermuda grass was introduced when Cowles Mead was acting-governor of the Territory.
The inhabitants of the eastern part of Mississippi were engaged chiefly in stock-raising. They raised immense herds of cattle, which lived entirely upon the coarse grass and reeds that grew abundantly among the tall long-leafed pines and along the small creeks and branches in this section. Through these almost endless pine forests the deer were numerous and the canebrakes full of bears. The inhabitants, therefore, combined the pursuits of hunt- ing and stock-raising.#
* Goodspeed's Memoirs of Mississippi, Vol. I., pp. 175-188; Vol. II., p. 104.
t Claiborne's Mississippi, p. 223.
# Spark's (W. H.) Memories of Fifty Years, p. 331.
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162. Frontier Life .- The typical frontier settler in Mis- sissippi, as elsewhere, was " the man of the axe and rifle." He lived with his wife and his swarming children on a big tract of wooded land, perhaps three or four hundred acres in extent, and far removed from all other settlers. Of this domain not more than eight or ten acres were cleared and in cultivation. Here he lived a life of rugged yet independ- ent ease, using his rifle to add to his slender stock of food got from the badly cultivated soil. His home was a log cabin, with only one room, or at most two, and a loft .*
163. Slavery .- In 1800 Sir William Dunbar wrote to David Ross, a prominent and wealthy man of Richmond, Virginia, as follows :
' With regard to the condition of slaves, there is no country where they are better treated. They are supplied with summer and winter clothing of good materials, heavy blankets, and hats, and shoes. This is a fine country for stock, and it is easy to ration our hands with plenty of pork and beef. They are often allowed to raise hogs for them- selves, and every thrifty slave has his pigpen and henhouse. They have as much bread, and usually as much milk and vegetables, as they wish, and each family is allowed a lot of ground, and the use of a horse for raising melons, potatoes, etc. In the cotton-picking season all they gather over the usual task they are rewarded for. They have no night work, and are provided with comfortable quarters and the unrestricted use of fuel. . . Slavery can be defended, perhaps, only on the ground of expediency, yet where it exists, and where the slaves so largely outnumber the whites, you must give almost absolute power to the master. If this principle be not admitted the alternatives are insurrection, with all its horrors, or emancipation, with all its evils.'
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