USA > Tennessee > Old times in Tennessee, with historical, personal, and political scraps and sketches > Part 17
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The term of service of a large portion of Gen. Jackson's army had expired, or was about to expire, and feeling the necessity of additional forces to supply the places of those going out of the service, he wrote to Gov. Blount calling his attention to the im- portance of ordering a new levy of two thousand five hundred men. Gov. Blount did not issue a call for additional troops, but wrote to Gen. Jackson expressing a doubt as to his authority to do so. On receiving this letter, Gen. Jackson wrote to Gov. Blount the best and most patriotic letter of his life. It was better than even his veto of the United States Bank bill, which was a blow aimed at the money power of the United States. When the good of his country demanded it, Gen. Jackson assumed the re- sponsibility, law or no law. When other men weakened and despaired, he gained new determination and power. The last straw that broke the camel's back, stiffened and made strong the back of Old Hickory. Among other things, he wrote to Gov. Blount: "Your country is in danger. Apply its resources to its defense. Can any course be more plain ? Do you, my friend, at such a moment as the present, sit with your arms folded and
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your heart at ease, waiting a solution of your doubts and a defi- nition of your powers ? Do you wait for special instructions from the Secretary of War, which it is impossible for you to receive in time for the danger that threatens? How did the venerable Shelby act under similar circumstances, but by no means so crit- ical? Did he wait for orders to do what every man of sense knew, what every patriot felt to be right ? He did not, and yet highly and justly did the Government extol his manly and ener- getic conduct, and how dear his name became to every friend of his country." Gov. Blount was a true patriot, and he reconsid- ered his former position, and issued his proclamation for two thousand five hundred volunteers. It took considerable time to secure this number, to organize them, and then march to the re- lief of Gen. Jackson. Meantime Jackson had sent Col. Wm. Carroll and Gen. Roberts to Tenneseee to raise volunteers, and they secured about one thousand to serve for two and three months. These recruits were hurried on to Jackson's headquar- ters at Fort Strother, where they arrived January 15, 1814. Gen. Jackson was impressed with the importance of immediate action. A decisive blow at an early moment would exert a de- moralizing influence upon the enemy. His force consisted of the volunteers under his command, the old veterans whose term of service had expired but who had volunteered again, and the raw recruits who had just come to hand. With this force he moved from Fort Strother, and met the enemy at Emnefaw, where, after a fierce and sanguinary engagement, he gained one of the most brilliant victories of the campaign. A few days afterward, on his return to Fort Strother, he was attacked with great vehe- mence by the Indians at Enotachopco. Here a portion of his army was repulsed, but he succeded in rallying the men, and leading them in a charge which told with fearful effect upon the enemy. The cannon was made to do effective execution upon the enemy, until the gallant Lieut. Armstrong fell. It was then handled by Constantine Perkins and Craven Jackson, the gun- ners, most efficiently. In the confusion, the rammer was lost, and one of these men rammed the balls down with a musket, while the other picked the touch-hole with a ramrod. In rally- ing his broken column, Gen. Jackson performed a most difficult feat, for seldom is a routed army rallied and brought back to the
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charge and to victory and glory, as on this occasion. The same feat was performed by Washington at the battle of Trenton. Each by gallant and fearless hearing, stopped a rout, and hurled the fleeing forces upon their pursuers with such effect that they themselves became the pursuers. Perhaps no man has ever lived, except Washington in the one case and Jackson in the other, who could thus have turned the tide of battle and snatched victory from the jaws of defeat.
In these two battles, Col. Carroll, Gen. Coffee, Col. Higgins, Col. Sitler, Gen. Johnson, father of Posmaster General Cave Johnson, Col. Cheatham, Capt. Elliott, Capt. Perkins, Capt. Quarles, Capt. Hamilton, A. Donelson, the aid of Gen. Coffee, Constantine Perkins, Lieut. Armstrong, Bradford, and McGavock (the three last of whom fell while firing the cannon), greatly dis- tinguished themselves, and efficiently contributed to the glory of these victories. The gallant Donelson, Hamilton, Quarles, and Bird Evans fell in these actions, with many others killed and wounded.
Gen. Coffee was wounded in the battle of Emucfaw, and was carried from the field on a litter. When the battle of Enotachopco became hot and the tide turned against the Americans, he mounted his horse and rushed into the thickest of the fight, and with Col. Carroll aided Gen. Jackson in rallying his broken and fleeing columns to the charge again. In this he imitated the example of the French Field Marshal who had been wounded in battle. While lying in his tent, the battle was renewed, and hearing the roaring of the cannon and the rattle of the musketry, he had him- · self lashed to his horse and sped away into the hottest of the fight, and cheered the French army on to victory and glory.
We must now hasten to Tohopeka, the Indian name of the Horse Shoe, where Gen. Jackson and his army met the combined forces of the Creeks, and achieved a victory which broke the back-bone of their power, and restored security to the country from Indian depredations. After the victories I have hastily sketched, Gep. Jackson marched his victorious troops back to the Tennessee river, their term of service having expired. Here he bade them farewell in an address congratulating them upon the gallant services rendered their country, and they left him with the grateful feelings which soldiers entertain for a General who has
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led them to the field of conflict and to victory. From all quar- ters of the State-from East, Middle, and West Tennessee-vol- unteers under the new levy ordered by Gov. Blount were hasten- ing to the standard of the great General. The patriotic heart of Judge Hugh L. White impelled him to leave the bench of the Supreme Court, and hurry through the wilderness to interview Gen. Jackson. He found him in the woods, almost alone, brav- ing danger in the various forms which Indian ingenuity could in- vent. Learning from him the situation and danger that menaced the settlements along an extended frontier, Judge White returned to East Tennessee, and his eloquent voice was heard urging the people of that section to take up arms and rush to the aid of Jackson and his little band of devoted soldiers, who were periling their lives in the defense of helpless women and children. The talented and patriotic John Williams was in command of the thirty-ninth regiment, United States Army, then in East Tennes- see, under orders to march to New Orleans. Judge White pre- vailed on him to disobey these orders and join Jackson with as little delay as possible. This he did, and rendered the most im- portant service in the great battle of the Horse Shoe. Appre- ciating the imminent danger in that quarter, he acquiesced in Judge White's suggestion, and his conduct in this matter was ap- proved by the Government.
My uncle, Maj. Josephus H. Conn, raised a battalion of volun- teers in Sumner county. Captains Scurry, Scoby, and Elliott, who had but recently returned from survice under Gen. Jackson, each raised a company and again left their homes and families, amid the acclamations of the citizens, to aid the intrepid hero who was bearing aloft the victorious flag of his country in the Indian territory. I shall never forget the impression their leav- ing for the scene of hostilities made upon my youthful mind. There were friends and neighbors, young men and old, taking upon themselves the hazards of a soldier's life to do battle for their country and for the protection of their neighbors and their families. The leave-taking of these gallant men as they parted from relatives and friends, was most affecting, and can never be forgotten by those who witnessed the scene. Young William Trousdale, who afterwards greatly distinguished himself, and was honored with the highest office within the gift of the people of
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"Tennessee, was a member of one of these companies. These gallant sons of old Sumner earned the gratitude of a grateful people for the efficient services they rendered in the battle of the Horse Shoe, the storming of Pensacola, and on the glorious field of Chalmette. Among others, Gen. Coffee's old brigade of mounted men, and a troop of mounted East Tennesseeans, reinforced the General, who now had with him five thousand as brave men as ever trod a battle-field. The various divisions of this army were at Fort Strother. After detailing a sufficient force to gaarison the various forts and to keep open his commu- nication with the State, Gen. Jackson moved with two thousand men, provided with provision for twenty days, and two cannon, and arrived at Tohopeka on the 27th of March, 1814. The Creeks had assembled here in large force, intent upon dealing a heavy blow upon the invading army. It was naturally a strong position, being a bend in the Tallapoosa river, in the form of a horse shoe, and about three hundred yards across the neck of the peninsula, or at what may be called the points. It contained about one hundred acres, and was covered with a heavy growth of forest trees. A strong breat-work of logs of immense strength, pierced with two rows of port-holes, had been built across this neck. The line of defense was so drawn that an approaching enemy would be exposed both to a direct and a raking fire. Be- hind the breast- work was a mass of logs and brushwood, such as Indians delight to fight from. The Indians had prepared a large number of canoes, which they had placed along the banks of the river, so as to possess the means of retreat in case of disaster. Within this extensive and strong fortification were assembled nearly one thousand warriors and about three hundred women and children. When the army arrived in front of this fort, some of the most famous of the Indian prophets were performing their incantations in order to incite the warriors to deeds of valor, for they well knew that it would require desperate fighting to repel and defeat an army already flushed with victory achieved over them on other fields. Perceiving at a glance that the Indians had simply penned themselves up for slaughter, Gen. Jackson's first measure was to send Gen. Coffee, with all the mounted men and friendly Indians, to cross the river two miles below, where it was fordable, and to occupy a position on the opposite bank, so
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as to cut off retreat should the Indians attempt to escape in that direction. Coffee soon announced by a concerted signal that he had reached the point assigned him, and then Jackson planted his cannon upon an eminence about eighty yards from the breast- work, and opened fire, which was kept up for two hours without doing any material damage to the strong log-wall. Meantime Gen. Coffee sent some of the most expert swimmers among the friendly Indians across the river, who cut loose and brought away the canoes of the beleaguered Creeks, in which he trans- ported a portion of his force, nnder command of Col. Morgan, to the side of the river occupied by the Indians, landing in the rear of where the fight was going on. This force set fire to a cluster of huts at the lower end of the bend, and opened fire upon the Indians behind the breast-work, and then they retreated across the river. This had the desired effect of distracting the Indians and dividing their attention, which was of immense advantage to Gen. Jackson. The General then gave the order to charge the breast-work, which was received with a general shout. The thirty-ninth regiment, under Col. Williams, and the brigade of East Tennesseeans, under Col. Bunch, marched rapidly up and delivered a volley through the port-holes, when a desperate strug- gle for the mastery ensued. Maj. L. P. Montgomery, of the thirty-ninth regiment, was the first man to spring upon the breast- work, where, calling upon his men to follow him, he received a ball in his head and fell dead to the ground. At this critical moment a rising star in the person of Ensign Sam. Houston burst forth in brilliant scintillations. As he mounted the breast-work a barbed arrow pierced his thigh; but, nothing dismayed, the gallant youth, calling his comrades to follow, leaped down among the Indians, and soon cleared a space around him with his vig- orous right arm. Joined in a moment by parties of his own reg- iment, and by large numbers of the East Tennesseeans, the breast- work was soon cleared, the Indians retiring before them into the underbrush. The wounded Ensign sat down within the fortifi- cation, and called a Lieutenant of his company to draw the arrow from his thigh. Two vigorous pulls at the barbed weapon failed to extract it. In a fury of pain and impatience, Houston cried, "Try again, and if you fail this time, I will smite you to the earth !" Exerting all his strength, the Lieutenant drew forth the
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arrow, tearing the flesh fearfully, and causing an effusion of blood that compelled the wounded man to hurry over the breast-work to the surgeon to get his wound bandaged. While he was lying on the ground under the surgeon's hands, Gen. Jackson rode up, and recognizing his young acquaintance, ordered him not to cross the breast-work again. Houston begged him to recall the order, but the General repeated it peremptorily, and rode on. In a few minutes the patriotic young Ensign had disobeyed the command, and was once more with his company in the thick of that long hand-to-hand engagement. Toward the close of the afternoon it was observed that a considerable number of Indians had taken refuge under the bluffs, where they were completely protected. They refused to listen to terms of peace, and as they could not be dislodged, Jackson called for volunteers to charge them. For a minute no one responded, when Ensign Houston ordered his platoon to follow, but not waiting to see if they would follow, rushed to the overhanging bank, which sheltered the foe, and through openings of which they were firing. Over this mine of desperate savages he paused and looked back for his men. At that moment he received two balls in his right shoulder; his arm fell powerless to his side; he staggered out of the fire, and was borne from the place totally disabled. Several valuable lives. were afterwards lost in vain endeavors to dislodge the enemy from their well-chosen covert. As the sun was going down, fire was set to the logs and underbrush, which overspread and surrounded this last refuge of the Creeks. The place soon grew too hot for them, and as they came out were shot down by riflemen watching for them. Although defeated at every point, the Indians refused to surrender, and were either slaughtered in the fort or shot by the soldiers, who occupied both banks, while attempting to swim the river, as a large number did. The carnage lasted as long as there was light enough to see a skulking or flying Indian. There were found after the battle five hundred and fifty-seven dead In- dians on the peninsula, while it was computed that two hundred were slain in the river, and many more died in the woods at- tempting to escape. This was a disastrous blow to the Indians; it was, indeed, the finishing stroke, for it completely broke the power of the Creek nation. With the downfall of that fierce and haughty tribe, commenced the wane of the red men of America.
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The long struggle for the possession of the Western World was ended forever ; a continent changed owners, and peace and secur- ity were restored to that mighty tide of emigration that was roll- ing westward. In his congratulatory address to his victorious army, Gen. Jackson says, among other things: "The fiends of Tallapoosa will no longer murder our women and children or disturb the quiet of our borders. The midnight flambeaux will no longer illumine their council-houses, or shine upon the vic- tims 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 deso- lation which overspreads her, will blossom as the rose and become the nursery of the arts."
Most of the Creek warriors who escaped these disastrous bat- tles, made their way to Florida, then under the dominion of Spain, leaving their starving women and children to whatever fate might befall them. William Weatherford, the great chief of the Creeks, and the master-spirit of this war against the Ameri- cans, displayed a manhood not excelled by any conquered chief that history records. Instead of fleeing the land of his fathers, leaving the weak and helpless women and children to the mercy of the whites, as well as those wounded in the battles recently- fought, he determined to unite his destiny with that of the rem- nant of his tribe, then outcasts and wanderers in their own land. Weatherford's father was a shrewd and sagacious trader, who ex- patriated himself and cast his fortunes with the Creek Indians, among whom he lived and died. He married a full-blooded In- dian woman, and William Weatherford was an issue of this mar- riage. The white and red blood in equal parts ran through his veins, and he exhibited all the shrewdness of the white man, with the cunning of the Indian.
The General Government had treated the Creeks with more liberality than any of the Indian tribes. Schools had been in- augurated among them, and their people had been instructed in agriculture and the useful arts, and, beside, they were paid large annuities. They were much further advanced in civilization than other tribes. Weatherford had received a liberal practical education ; was a map of strong native intellect, of commanding
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person, distinguished above the chiefs of his nation for dauntless courage, and great activity of mind as well as body; first in the chase and first in all the athletic sports of his people; pandering to the Indian tastes, sagacious in council, and the very first in war. He was a tall man, standing six feet two inches in his moccasins, and well proportioned; copper color, coarse black hair, high cheek-bones, thin nose and lips, round, bull-dog jaws, cold and piercing black eyes; a long, hollow, thin foot, clean, bony ankles, and a leg and body the perfection of the sculptor's ideal. His noble bearing and distinguished address indicated that he was one of nature's great men, a chief born to fame, and ranking with Logan, America's friend, and Tecumseh, America's hereditary foe. Weatherford had long lived in peace with the United States, but the fires that slumbered in his breast were aroused by the encroachments which the Americans had from time to time made upon the Indian territory, and now this fire was fanned into a flame by the stirring eloquence of Tecumseh, who portrayed as a terrible reality the wrongs inflicted upon the Indians by the pale faces, and called upon the braves of every tribe and nation to rally at the battle-call to strike a decisive blow upon the invading whites, and thus redress their wrongs and vindicate their rights. The United States was then engaged in a war with England. The disasters that had befallen our arms at Detroit and Queenstown had exerted a powerfully de- pressing influence upon our people, and that was regarded as the most propitious time for a general rising of the red men. Weatherford yielded to the eloquent appeals of Tecumseh, and consented to the proposed confederacy of the various Indian tribes on this continent, and the tomahawk, the bow, and the rifle were borne aloft by his warriors to do the bloody work ap- portioned them. With great secrecy, Weatherford planned the investment of Fort Mims, and led in person the charge on that place. Again and again were his forces repulsed, and each time would he reform his broken columns, and with a desperate bravery lead them to the charge, until finally he carried the fort. He was afterwards attacked by Gen. Claiborne with a force of one thousand men. Weatherford fought with terrible desperation, gaining an occasional advantage, but was finally compelled to retreat, pusued by Claiborne's troops. While most of his men
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escaped, he only escaped being captured or slain by leaping his horse from a bluff into the Alabama river, a distance of about twenty feet. He and his horse sank to the bottom, but they rose again, Weatherford with his rifle in one hand and the reins of the bridle in the other. The horse swam to the opposite bank, and he and his gallant rider soon disappeared .in the thick forest. The next we see of Weatherford, he is engaged in battle with Gen. Floyd at Cahaba creek. He made the attack before day, and surprised Floyd's army. After a very severe engagement, Weatherford was repulsed and forced to retire; but he still hov- ered around, and Floyd deemed it prudent to retreat, and that night Weatherford slept on the field of battle. He fought Gen. Coffee at Tallapoosa, but disdained to beg for quarter. He fought Gen. Jackson at Talladega, and did not retreat until the field was covered with dead and wounded. He fought Jackson at Emucfau. Three times did his brave warriors charge Jack- son's line, and the old hero was put to his trumps to whip him. He fought Jackson at Enotachopco, where he broke the Gen- eral's lines, and but for the lion courage of Jackson and some of his daring officers, would have won the day. He fought until more than half his warriors were slain, and most of the remain- der had fled to Florida. He could fight no longer, for the good and sufficient reason that he had neither men nor resources with which to fight. The record shows him to be a great captain, second only to Tecumseh as a brave and sagacious leader, a dash- ing partisan, and an enemy to be dreaded upon the war-path. He knew that his life would be put in most imminent peril by a surrender, being at the head of the war party, while the opinion prevailed with Gen. Jackson and his army that he sanctioned and encouraged the terrible massacre of Fort Mims. His con- science and the facts acquitted him of this horrible butchery. Still, a surrender was inevitable. He had no men with which to fight, and would not flee the land of his fathers. He was im- pelled to submit to the personal danger attending a surrender, in order to save the lives of the abandoned and perishing women and children of his broken tribe. The scene that occurred in making this surrender-the interview with Gen. Jackson and the speech of Weatherford-was one of the most sublime inci- dents of the war. Weatherford mounted his favorite horse, and
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armed with his rifle, directed his course toward Gen. Jackson's camp. At the confluence of the Coosa and Tallapoosa, a deer crossed his path, which he shot, and threw across his horse. He then reloaded his gun, as the historian of Alabama says, to kill the Big Warrior, a chief of the peace party. When he arrived at the picket lines, he inquired for Gen. Jackson, and was con- ducted to his tent. Here he was recognized by the chief of the peace party, who remarked, "Ah! Bill Weatherford, have we got you at last !" Weatherford replied, " You infernal traitor, . if you give me any insolence I will shoot you down in the pres- ence of the General." Gen. Jackson approached Weatherford hastily, and exclaimed, in true Jacksonian style, "How dare you to ride up to my tent after murdering the women and children at Fort Mims?" Weatherford's reply, as recollected by those who heard it, was as follows: "Gen. Jackson, I am not afraid of you. I fear no man, for I am a Creek warrior. I have nothing to request in behalf of myself. You can kill me if you desire. 'But I come to beg you to send for the women and children of the war party, who are now starving in the woods. Their fields and cribs have been destroyed by your people, who have driven them to the woods without an ear of corn. I hope that you will send out parties who will conduct them safely here, in order that they may be fed. I exerted myself in vain to prevent the mas- sacre of the women and children at Fort Mims. I am now done fighting. The Red Sticks are nearly all killed. If I could fight you longer, I would most heartily do so. Send for the women and children. They never did you any harm. But kill me, if the white people want it done."
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