Fort Mims, Alabama
The bloody attack on Fort
Mims prompted the attack on
the Creek Nation by three U.S.
armies.
Site of Holy Ground
The Red Stick town of Holy
Ground was the seat of the
Prophet Josiah Francis and
the scene of an important
battle.
ExploreSouthernHistory.com - The Creek War of 1813-1814
ExploreSouthernHistory.com - The Creek War of 1813-1814
The Creek War of 1813-1814 in Alabama, Georgia & Florida
Generals of the Creek War
The Red Stick leader Menawa (left)  and Major
General Andrew Jackson (right), both pictured here
later in life, fought each other at the Battle of
Horseshoe Bend, Alabama.
Historic Sites of the Creek War
On July 27, 1813, the Mississippi Territorial
Militia intervened in a civil war that had been
raging within the Creek Nation in Alabama
and Georgia. The militia's attack on a Creek
supply train at Burnt Corn Creek in Alabama
brought the United States into a bloody
conflict that would be remembered as the
Creek War of 1813-1814.

The civil war among the Creeks had started
as a result of a religious explosion among
certain factions of the nation during the winter
of 1812-1813. Led by the Prophet Josiah
Francis, thousands of Creek warriors
became followers of the teachings of the
Shawnee Prophet  Tenskwatawa.

The movement's main goal was the return of
Native American peoples to their traditional
lifestyles and the disavowal of anything
associated with the whites. These beliefs
quickly put Francis' followers, called Red
Sticks because of the red war clubs they
displayed in their villages, at odds with the
Big Warrior and other traditional leaders of
the Creek Nation. The latter individuals
favored the "civilization" program promoted by
U.S. Indian Agent Benjamin Hawkins.

The Red Sticks retaliated for the attack at
Burnt Corn Creek by launching an attack of
their own against Fort Mims, a frontier
stockade in South Alabama. Hundreds of
men, women and children died in the fall of
Fort Mims and outraged citizens across the
South blamed the Creeks for starting a war
against the whites.

Three American armies took the field against
the Red Sticks and severe fighting followed.
The climactic Battle of Horseshoe Bend took
place on the Tallapoosa River on March 27,
1814. Led by the war chief Menawa, the main
fighting force of the Red Sticks was beaten by
the much larger army of Andrew Jackson.
More than 800 warriors died in the fighting
and the military power of the Creek Nation
was forever broken.

The prophet and several thousand of his
surviving followers fled to Spanish Florida
where they soon allied with the British who
were then engaged in the War of 1812
against the Americans. The rest of the nation
was forced to sign the Treaty of Fort Jackson,
which required them to surrender hundreds
of thousands of acres of land to the United
States as reparations for the cost of the war.
The area included large parts of the modern
states of Alabama and Georgia.
To learn more about historic sites dating
from the Creek War of 1813-1814, please
follow the links below:
Battle of Horseshoe Bend
The 1814 battle on the
Tallapoosa River was the
climactic engagement of the
Creek War of 1813-1814.
Fort Jackson, Alabama
The Creek War of 1813-1814
ended here with the signing
of the Treaty of Fort Jackson,
which cleared the way for
white settlement of vast areas
of Alabama and Georgia.
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Copyright 2012 by Dale Cox
All rights reserved.

Last Update: July 28, 2012
Sites of the Creek War