Little Egypt Heritage Articles Stories of Southern Illinois (c) Bill Oliver 01 June 2003 Vol 2 Issue: #22 ISBN: pending Good Evening Ladies and Gentlemen of Little Egypt, Which is better, listening or reading? Both compliment each other! Driving to my part time work, I listen to a Canadian Windsor PBS radio program. On Friday past, the DJ mentioned a bit of news that a man, at an unverified age of 125 years, was growing a second set of adult teeth. Something to look forward to! <G> Family history is a catalyhst to further study. One of the family stories that floated in my Mother's family was that the brother of my third great grandmother Ames had his heel shot off in the War of 1812. After many years of reading, I discovered that indeed she had a brother who did indeed receive a wound in the heel in the War of 1812. Now, I live within "spittin'" distance of one of the sites of a decisive battle in our second War for Independence [1812]. That is a war, much like the Korean "conflict", that gets little mention ... it is a "forgotten" war, so to speak. True, it gets a nodding mention, here and there. This week while making contact with a "new" [very distant] cousin, I began reading casually through material I have accumulated over many years on this family. It was refreshing to recall that this family probably first appeared in Maryland, then Virginia, then what is now West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and finally southern Illinois [or, at least my branch]. In that process were these words: "The father served in the war of 1812, was in several hard fought battles, that of the Horse Shoe Bend being one of them." Whoa!! Another War of 1812 participant ... and, a third great grandfather, at that. That set me off to my personal library, the public library and the internet! The first important thing that grew in my consciousness was the idea that the War of 1812 was not just fought north and east of Fort Wayne, Indiana. It was also fought in the very deep south. Living in the area where the Battle of Fort Meigs was fought, and just up the street from Fort Miamis, the memory of the Battle of New Orleans had faded. Even the term "red sticks" conjured up only a wisp of memory pointing to the Indian Chief Tecumseh. Down in Alabama, along the Tallapoosa River there is a place where the river nearly doubles back on itself and is called, Horse Shoe Bend. On the morning of 27 March 1814 an army of some 3,000 men, under the command of Major General Andrew Jackson, Tennessee Militia, attacked some 1,000 Upper Creek "aboriginals", in what was the culminating battle of the Creek War of 1813-14. This battle and war is considered a part of the War of 1812. The short version is that on that morning, Red Eagle was not present, but more than 1,000 Creek warriors and 500 women and children were in Horse Shoe Bend. The women and children were located in the toe of the horseshoe in the village named Tohopeka. The presiding Chief [Menawa] and the Red Sticks [term for the Upper Creeks] fought a decisive battle in which Chief Menawa and the prophet Minahee hoped to be victorious. Jackson's army was made up of the East and West Tennessee Militia, the US Army's 39thRegiment, and some 500 Cherokee and 100 Lower Creek. Jackson surrounded the toe of the horseshoe to prevent reinforcements and/or retreat. The Creek formed a barricade made of earth and logs that crossed the neck of the peninsula in such a way that "a force approaching would be exposed to a double fire, while they lay entirely safe behind it." [words of Andrew Jackson] Though Jackson had two cannon, they were ineffective against the earth work barrier, so after two hours the effort was abandoned. Meanwhile, being quite independent in their thinking and actions, the Indian "allies" of the Americans decided to swim the 120 or so yards across the river. They "appropriated" the canoes of the Creek there and transported the mixed force of Native Americans and Tennessee Militia to the peninsula toe. They burned the village and captured the women and children. When Jackson saw the smoke of the burning village he decided that a risky assault of the breastworks, while the attention of the Creek was drawn to their rear, was in order. Historians say that he knew that if the assault failed it could destroy his army, but chose this action. The fighting was reported as "ferocious". Fighting was "muzzle to muzzle" along the breastwork. The superior number of Jackson's forces eventually overwhelmed the Red Stick warriors in hand to hand combat. As so often happens in war, once the outcome was predictable, the battle turned into a slaughter. The American and Allied forces killed as many Upper Creek as they could. More than half of the warriors were killed that day. Some reports say that in attempting to escape, 250 to 300 more warriors drowned or were shot trying to cross the river. Though only 49 Tennessee Militiamen died that day, more than 150 more were wounded and many of those mortally. The Allies lost fewer than a reported dozen warriors. Years later, one of the survivors of the battle, wrote that "The sun was going down, and it set on the ruin of the Creek nation. Where, but a few hours before a thousand brave [warriors] had scowled on death and their assailants, there was nothing to be seen but volumes of dense smoke over the corpses of painted warriors, and the burning ruins of their fortifications." That veteran, then 21 years of age, was Ensign Sam Houston, later governor of Tennessee and president of the Republic of Texas. The resulting treaty ceded almost 20 million acres of Creek territory. Later during the great pressure of the US Government to force the Creek to sell their remaining half to settlers, William McIntosh, a mestizo chief, who attempted to sell the US that remaining land was sentenced to be executed by the Creek council. Menawa, who survived his injuries at Horseshoe Bend, had regained a position of leadership among the nation, led the party which carried out that sentence. This did not halt the flow of settlers into the Creek country. After becoming President in 1829, Jackson decided to follow the Indian Policy favored by most Southerners to move the Nations west of the Mississippi. The resulting march we are all familiar with. All of the Creek did not give up and move across the Mississippi. Some went to live and fight in Florida with the Seminole in the Second Seminole War [1835-42]. The US Supreme Court, in 1831, upheld the Cherokee land titles, but the Jackson Administration ignored this ruling and forced the five Nations to move. Janet Piccola wrote a website which lists the 78 graves in the Indian War of 1812 Cemetery, which is not located on Horseshoe Bend Military Park, and is reported to be in sad shape due to vandalism. Her site pleads for those interested to contact her. Wado, Bill -=- Other sites worth visiting: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/SOIL http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/ILMASSAC http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ne/state/BillsArticles/LittleEgypt/intro.html