Final installment of a multi-part series on the Creek War, in particular the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, which marks its 200^th anniversary this year.

The Battle of Burnt Corn ushered in the Creek War of 1813-14 on July 27, 1813. The battle took place in an as yet undisclosed location in present day Escambia County, Ala.

The fighting involved Red Stick Creek leaders, including Peter McQueen, who had just obtained powder and shot from the Spanish in Pensacola. As a result of the attack and burning of plantations owned by Sam Moniac and James Cornells, news of the Creek expedition to Pensacola filtered back to the Mississippi Militia and officer Col. James Caller. At that point a militia party was organized by Caller and marched out of Washington County in order to halt the return of the Red Sticks with their ammunition cache.

The resultant battle between the militia and the Red Sticks laid the foundation for subsequent fighting that culminated with the Creek defeat at Horseshoe Bend. Initially the militia took the upper hand in the fight, driving the Indian band away. The militia quickly broke off their attack as they began to loot the Red Stick camp.

In response, the Indians counter-attacked and chased the soldiers from the field of battle. Afterward, the encounter on the trail from Pensacola inspired the Indians in their more noted attack on Fort Mims one month later.

The engagement at Fort Mims serves as a microcosm of the Creek War. The massacre, as it is referred, took the lives of more than 250 settlers who had sought refuge from the growing hostilities in a small stockade that surrounded the Samuel Mims home on the east bank of Tensaw Lake.

The fighting that ensued pitted whites, Indians and those of mixed blood (many of whom were related) against one another. It was this great loss of life that prompted immediate action from the U.S. government. Tennessean Andrew Jackson and a force of Tennessee militia were sent to avenge those who were lost at Fort Mims and to put an end to the fighting once and for all.

In the spring of the following year Jackson, in command of a force of 3,000 militia, soldiers from the U.S. 39^th Infantry and Indians (600 Cherokee and 100 Lower Creek), marched on the Red Stick fortifications in the Horseshoe Bend area of the Tallapoosa River. The succeeding battle of March 27, 1814 was a bloody affair that ended any Red Stick hopes of reigning in the advance of whites into the traditional Creek lands.

At Horseshoe Bend, the 1,000 warriors led by Menawa had constructed a log and dirt barrier in preparation to meet the attack of the American force. Jackson’s strategy focused on surrounding the Red Sticks’ defenses, cutting off any hope of retreat. He then proceeded with a frontal assault on the 400 yards of breastworks put in place by the Red Sticks.

To complete his plans, Jackson sent his Indian warriors across the Tallapoosa to a point behind the Horseshoe Bend site. These men, under the command of Gen. John Coffee, swam the river, retrieved canoes and then led an offensive into the rear of the Red Stick camp.

Meanwhile, Jackson ordered the frontal strike on the Red Stick defenses. The Infantry of the U.S. 39^th successfully breached the log and dirt breastwork after a long artillery barrage softened up the position. This attack put the Red Stick warriors on the run.

In the ensuing chaos, many of the fleeing Red Sticks attempted to swim the Tallapoosa to perceived safety.  Waiting on them, however, were many of Coffee’s men who shot them as they tried to swim to safety. Of the 1,000 estimated Red Stick warriors, more than 500 died within the fortifications with another 300 killed while attempting escape.

Ultimately, Horseshoe Bend became both the birth and the death of an era. It became the ruin of the traditional Creek way of life in the South while signaling the beginning for expansion into Alabama by thousands of settlers and traders. The demographics of the region changed dramatically and at exceptional speed.

In only five years following the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, Alabama became a state, and the wilderness that had long been a part of the region soon became a distant memory.