The Creek War of 1813–14 began as a civil war among the Creek people. At the time, the United States was fighting a larger conflict, the War
of 1812, and the U.S. government and its military became heavily involved in the Creeks’ war, too.
Creek background
The Creek Confederacy was an alliance of independent tribes formed for
protection against attacking Northern tribes long before Europeans arrived on the continent. Creek Indian groups lived throughout presentday Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina. As Europeans settled in
North America, the Creek found themselves living in territories claimed
by the Spanish, French, and English. English traders frequently married
Creek women. The children of these mixed marriages, who understood
both European and Creek culture, often rose to positions of leadership
in the tribal groups.
A portion of the Creeks became allies of the British during the
American Revolution (1775–83). When the war was over, the new U.S.
government forced the Creek tribes that had sided with England to give
up some of their land. An agent was appointed to push them to adapt to European ways. A hostile split developed between two Creek factions:
the Lower Creek or White Sticks, who were willing to cooperate with the
U.S. government, and the Upper Creek or Red Sticks, who were not.
Red Sticks v. White Sticks
Most Red Sticks lived in central Alabama. They were highly influenced
in 1813 by a visit from Shawnee chief Tecumseh (c. 1768–1813), who
preached anti-Americanism, resistance to further encroachments by the
whites, and unity among the Native American tribes. In February 1813,
a small party of Red Sticks traveling along the Ohio River massacred two
families of settlers. The U.S. government demanded that the Creek turn
over the murderers. Instead of handing them over to the federal agents,
the White Stick chiefs decided to execute the murderers themselves.
Their decision ignited civil war between the Creeks.
The Red Sticks immediately conquered several lower towns within
the Creek Nation. The lower towns had taken conscious steps to assimilate into (become part of) white culture by raising domesticated animals, farming, and using spinning looms. The Red Sticks destroyed
everything that seemed to have come from the white man: domesticated
animals, pots and pans, and homespun cloths. The only objects from the
white culture they kept were guns and steel blades.
Red Sticks vs. the United States
The first clashes between Red Sticks and U.S. soldiers took place when
a group of soldiers stopped a party of Red Sticks returning from Florida
in July 1813. The Red Sticks had received arms from the Spanish governor in Florida. The Battle of Burnt Corn that followed broadened the
Creek Civil War to include American forces.
On August 30, 1813, the Red Sticks sacked and burned an American
stockade, Fort Mims, on the Alabama River, killing more than 350
Americans and pro-white Indians. Soon U.S. forces were assembled in
Tennessee, Georgia, and Mississippi. General Andrew Jackson
(1767–1845) led the principal attack against the Red Sticks with a force
of Tennessee soldiers aided by White Stick Creek and pro-white
Cherokee. Jackson vigorously pursued the Red Sticks, sacking the Indian
village of Tallasahatchee and crushing a Creek force at Talladega. Another
U.S. force of Georgians and White Stick Creek attacked the Creek village of Auttosee on the Tallapoosa River, burning the village and killing 200
Creek. At the Battle of Econochaca in northern Alabama in December
1813, Mississippi volunteers burned the village of Red Stick leader
William Weatherford, also known as Red Eagle (1780–1824).
On March 27, 1814, Jackson almost wiped out the Red Stick forces
at the Horseshoe Bend of the Tallapoosa River in eastern Alabama,
killing an estimated 850 or 900 warriors and taking 500 women and
children as prisoners. This defeat effectively broke the power of the Red
Sticks. Many fled to join the Seminole Indians in Florida. The White
Sticks, despite having aided Jackson in the war, were compelled to sign
the Treaty of Fort Jackson in 1814. Under the terms of the treaty, they
were forced to cede to the United States more than twenty million acres
in the present states of Georgia and Alabama.