BGuthrie Photos: AL -- Horseshoe Bend Natl Military Park

AL -- Horseshoe Bend Natl Military Park:

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. HORSE_161107_011.JPG: In Memory of The Upper Creek Warriors who died in combat with United States Forces during the Battle of Horseshoe Bend March 27, 1814.
2. HORSE_161107_015.JPG: In Memory of the soldiers and Indian allies who died in combat with the Upper Creek Indians during the Horseshoe Bend Campaign in the Creek War of 1813-1814
3. HORSE_161107_025.JPG: Horseshoe Bend National Military Park The park offers activities designed to commemorate the events that occurred here on March 27, 1814. The Battle of Horseshoe Bend ended the Creek Indian War and added nearly 23 million acres of land to the United States. For Maj. Gen. Andrew Jackson the victory led to national fame and a successful bid for the Presidency of the United States. Stop at the visitor center for information on daily activities, special events, hiking, fishing, and canoeing on the Tallapoosa River.
4. HORSE_161107_030.JPG: The best way to see the park is to drive the 3-mile auto tour road. Stops along the way mark significant events of the battle.
5. HORSE_161107_032.JPG: Who Were the Creek? Originally the name "Creek" referred only to Muskogee Indians living near Ochese Creek in central Georgia. Over time the name spread to include all Muskogee people along the rivers of present-day Georgia and Alabama. At one time the region held as many as 60 Creek towns. An early visitor to Creek country wrote: "The smallest of their towns have from 20 to 30 houses... the largest contain 150 to 200...These houses stand in clusters...irregularly distributed up and down the banks of rivers...each cluster of houses contains a clan, or family of relations, who eat or live in common. Each town has a public square, hothouse, and yard near the center of it..." Although the 1814 Battle of Horseshoe Bend ended the Creek War, the Creek continued to live along the Tallapoosa River. In 1836 the Muskogee people were forcibly moved west to Indian Territory, what is now Oklahoma. Learn more about the people who lived here by walking the 2.8-mile Battlefield Nature Trail. Who Were the Red Sticks? By 1813 the Creek confederation of towns had split into two factions: one favored cooperation with the United States government, the other hoped to limit American expansion within their traditional homeland. The more militant faction became known as the Red Sticks, they painted their war clubs red, a color symbolizing war. The Red Sticks fought Andrew Jackson here at Horseshoe Bend. Jackson used the split in Creek society to his advantage, pitting allied Creek and Cherokee warriors against the Red Sticks.
6. HORSE_161107_036.JPG: The British divided Creek towns into two geographic groups: the Lower Towns along the Chattahoochee, Flint, and Ocmulgee Rivers; and the Upper Towns along the Tallapoosa, Coosa, and Alabama Rivers.
7. HORSE_161107_041.JPG: The Creek traded deerskins for guns, ammunition, metal tools, beads, and woven cloth. By the 1760s the Creek supplied the British with as many as 200,000 deerskins annually.
8. HORSE_161107_051.JPG: A Bloody Contest Horseshoe Bend National Military Park Any officer or soldiers who flies before the enemy-shall suffer death. With these harsh words, Maj. Gen. Andrew Jackson marched his soldiers 52 miles from the Coosa River to Horseshoe Bend and a bloody contest with the Red Sticks. His battle map shows how he positioned his troops early that Sunday morning, March 27, 1814. In the field before you-in 1814 a forest of pine, oak, and hickory-Jackson's troops prepared for battle. A half mile ahead stood a log barricade, with the Red Sticks behind it awaiting Jackson's advance. The barricade, built by the Red Sticks, sealed off the horseshoe bend in the Tallapoosa River and protected their village, Tohopeka, which included 350 women and children. The war started in 1813 as a civil war within the Creek confederation of towns. A portion of the population, known as Red Sticks, rebelled against the Creek national council, a group generally seeking to accommodate rather than challenge American expansion. The Creek civil war quickly developed into a large conflict involving Georgia, Tennessee, and the Mississippi Territory. As Maj. Gen. Andrew Jackson pushed south with his Tennessee army, Red Sticks from several towns sought refuge here at Horseshoe Bend. Jackson, determined to succeed where previous campaigns had been indecisive, marched his soldiers two and half days through the forest to this ground.
9. HORSE_161107_054.JPG: Jackson's map of Horseshoe Bend, which he prepared for his official report after the battle, shows the Tallapoosa River, the Red Sticks' village of Tohopeka, and their protective barricade. 1: Coffee's Cavalry 2: Cherokees 3: Indian Village 4: High Grounds 5: Breast Works 6: Loland 7: Advanced guard 8: Hill and Artillery 9: Regulars 10: Waggpon Pack Borres and wounded in center 11: Col. Copeland 12: E. Ten. Militia 13: Col. Cheatham 14: Rear Guard
10. HORSE_161107_056.JPG: Menawa, known as the Great Warrior, was the principal Red Stick war leader during the battle. Andrew Jackson's victory at Horseshoe Bend led to national fame, and ultimately, the Presidency.
11. HORSE_161107_074.JPG: Futile Escape Horseshoe Bend National Military Park "I ordered [Lt. Jesse] Bean to take possession of the Island below, with forty men, to prevent the enemy's taking refuge there...as many of the enemy did attempt their escape...but not one were landed-they were sunk by [Lt.] Beans command ere they reached the bank." -- Gen. John Coffee, Tennessee Militia Maj. Gen. Andrew Jackson sent Gen. John Coffee and 1,300 men to surround Horseshoe Bend here on the banks of the Tallapoosa River. Jackson hoped Coffee's 700 Tennessee mounted riflemen and 600 Cherokee and Lower Creek warriors could close off all avenues of escape for the Red Sticks. Coffee ordered Lt. Jesse Bean and 40 mounted riflemen to wait on what is now called Bean's Island, in front of you. As Jackson's army attacked the Red Sticks, Bean's men aimed their rifles across the river, shooting any Red Stick attempting to swim to safety through the cold waters of the Tallapoosa. "[The] Tallapoosa might truly be called a River of blood for the water was so stained that at 10 O'clock at night it was very perceptibly bloody so much that it could not be used." -- Lt. Alexander McCulloch, Tennessee Militia
12. HORSE_161107_100.JPG: While the Long Roll Was Beating Horseshoe Bend National Military Park "I never had such emotions as while the long roll was beating...It was not fear, it was not anxiety or concern of the fate of those who were so soon to fall but it was a kind of enthusiasm that thrilled through every nerve and animated me with the belief that the day was ours without adverting to what it must cost us... " -- Maj. John Reid, Tennessee Militia While General Coffee's men took position across the Tallapoosa River, Major General Jackson stationed his remaining soldiers here, in front of the Red Stick's log barricade (marked by the white posts). In this field about 1,400 of Jackson's 2,000 men were Tennessee Militia; 600 were regulars from the 39th U.S. Infantry Regiment. On both sides the tension built while cannon-shot slammed into the barricade. At 12:30 p.m. the drums beat the long roll announcing the order to charge. The army surged forward. Drummers like Americus Hammock, one of several African American soldiers with Jackson, echoed the pounding hearts of the men as they advanced into battle. The Tennessee militia, preparing for battle, wore homespun clothing dyed blue or brown for uniformity. Most carried muskets and bayonets.
13. HORSE_161107_105.JPG: Charge! Horseshoe Bend National Military Park "Having maintained for a few minutes a very obstinate contest, muzzle to muzzle, through the port-holes, in which many of the enemy's balls were welded to the bayonets of our musquets, our troops succeeded in gaining possession of the opposite side of the works. The event could no longer be doubtful... " -- Maj. Gen. Andrew Jackson, Tennessee Militia After a two-hour cannon bombardment of the Red Sticks' barricade, Maj. Gen. Jackson discovered that some of the Gen. Coffee's Creek and Cherokee warriors had crossed the Tallapoosa and attacked the Red Sticks from the rear. Realizing his enemy was surrounded, Jackson gave the order for his men to charge the barricade at 12:30 p.m. For a few brief but bloody minutes the fighting raged. Warriors and soldiers desperately struggled to control the barricade, shooting, hacking, and stabbing with muskets, tomahawks, and bayonets. Overwhelmed by numbers and firepower, the Red Sticks fell back to the river's banks. Many attempted to escape by crossing the Tallapoosa only to be shot by Coffee's men stationed on the opposite side. Regulars of the 39th U.S. Infantry, wearing dark blue coats and gray trousers, attack the barricade.
14. HORSE_161107_112.JPG: Designed for Defense Horseshoe Bend National Military Park "...[The Creek] had erected a breast-work, of greatest compactness and strength-from five to eight feet high, and prepared with double rows of port-holes very artfully arranged...an army could not approach it without being exposed to a double and cross fire from the enemy who lay in perfect security behind it." -- Maj. Gen. Andrew Jackson, Tennessee Militia The Red Sticks-a militant branch of Creek society-built the 400-yard-long barricade (breast-work) of dirt and pine logs. Stretching from bank to bank across the horseshoe bend of the Tallapoosa River, the barricade protected Tohopeka, their temporary village. On a dreadful March afternoon in 1814, the barricade exploded with action. Nearly 1,000 Red Stick warriors bravely fought General Jackson's army here. About a third of the warriors carried muskets. The others used bows and arrows, knives, tomahawks, and war clubs. The Red Sticks shaped the barricade into a shallow "U' to trap attackers in a deadly crossfire. Sharpened stakes protruded from the front to keep attackers from scaling the wall. Creek warriors fighting against the United States were called Red Sticks because they painted their war clubs red, a color symbolizing war. Traditionally, Creek men painted their faces, arms, and chests black or red before going into battle.
15. HORSE_161107_122.JPG: Jackson Trace This stone marks the terminus of the route traced through the wilderness by Jackson's army during the Horseshoe Bend campaign.
16. HORSE_161107_125.JPG: Jackson Trace Horseshoe Bend Erected 1914
17. HORSE_161107_128.JPG: Major Lemuel P. Montgomery "He Acted With The Greatest Gallantry" -- March 27, 1814 -- Leading the charge on the Indian defenses, Major Montgomery fell while storming the log barricade, Horseshoe Bend was his first battle. But the 28 year old Tennessean already a distinguished lawyer, was among the most promising of Jackson's officers.
18. HORSE_161107_131.JPG: Lemuel Purnell Montgomery Alabama Major 39 U.S. Inf, March 27, 1814 Placed by Tohopeka Chapter D.A.R. 1933
19. HORSE_161107_133.JPG: Major Lemuel P. Montgomery "He Acted With The Greatest Gallantry" -- March 27, 1814 -- Leading the charge on the Indian defenses, Major Montgomery fell while storming the log barricade, Horseshoe Bend was his first battle. But the 28 year old Tennessean already a distinguished lawyer, was among the most promising of Jackson's officers.
20. HORSE_161107_142.JPG: Gun Hill Here at 10:30 on the morning of March 27, 1814, General Jackson quickly emplaced his single battery, one 3-pounder and one 6-pounder. He immediately opened a lively but ineffective fire on the center of the sturdy log barricade. After his Indian allies entered the peninsula stronghold from the rear, he ordered a frontal assault on the stubborn wall.
21. HORSE_161107_149.JPG: Here on the Horseshoe Battleground General Andrew Jackson and his brave men broke the power of the Creek Indians under Chief Minewa March 29 1814 Erected by the Congress of the United States
22. HORSE_161107_161.JPG: Tohopeka in Flames Horseshoe Bend National Military Park In this meadow 350 women and children, sheltered in the village of Tohopeka, listened to the sounds of battle drifting back from the barricade 1,000 yards away. Alarmed, they watched as enemy Cherokee and Lower Creek warriors crossed the river, cutting off all hope for escape. In minutes Tohopeka, their only refuge, was in flames. The village under attack, may have included as many as 300 log huts, which resembled simple log cabins. Tohopeka meant fort or fence in the Muskogee (Creek) language. "In this bend the warriors from Oakfuskee, Oakchaya, New Youka, Hillabees, the Fishponds, and Eufala towns, apprised of our approach, had collected their strength. Their exact number cannot be ascertained; but it is said, by the prisoners we have taken, to have been a thousand...We took about three hundred and fifty prisoners, women and children and three warriors." -- Maj. Gen. Andrew Jackson, Tennessee Militia
23. HORSE_161107_169.JPG: With Deer Tails in Their Hair Horseshoe Bend National Military Park On the morning of the battle, Maj. Gen. Andrew Jackson's Indian allies surrounded the lower portion of Horseshoe Bend. The Cherokee were positioned across the river from where you stand; the Lower Creek were farther upriver to your left. Hearing distant cannon fire, Cherokee and Lower Creek warriors swam across the river, stole Red Stick canoes from this bank, and took them back to the other side. Hundreds of Indians---adorned with deer tails---then canoed across, a few at a time, to attack the village of Tohopeka behind you. Jackson's Allies Prior to Horseshoe Bend, Jackson ordered his Cherokee and Lower Creek allies to wear white deer tails in their hair or headdress to distinguish them from the Red Sticks. Although the Upper Creek and the Lower Creek were both part of the Creek confederation of towns, the Lower Creek lived closer to and had developed stronger relationships with Americans in Georgia. Many of the Lower Creek and Cherokee supported the United States in fighting against the Red Sticks; they joined Jackson's army hoping to secure rights to tribal lands and to gain financial support.
24. HORSE_161107_174.JPG: Jackson's Allies Prior to Horseshoe Bend, Jackson ordered his Cherokee and Lower Creek allies to wear white deer tails in their hair or headdress to distinguish them from the Red Sticks. Although the Upper Creek and the Lower Creek were both part of the Creek confederation of towns, the Lower Creek lived closer to and had developed stronger relationships with Americans in Georgia. Many of the Lower Creek and Cherokee supported the United States in fighting against the Red Sticks; they joined Jackson's army hoping to secure rights to tribal lands and to gain financial support.
25. HORSE_161107_184.JPG: Armadillo crossing
26. HORSE_161107_195.JPG: Notice about Potentially Hazardous Wildlife This is a national park where native plants and animals are protected. Please take caution in protecting yourself from ticks, mosquitos, poisonous snakes and poisonous plants such as poisonous oak. You can decrease your risk of tick bites and exposure to poisonous plants by staying on the marked trail. It is important that you check yourself for ticks after being in the woods and properly remove any ticks from yourself or clothing immediately.
27. HORSE_161107_203.JPG: The High Ground Horseshoe Bend National Military Park "[The] high ground which extended about mid-way from the breastwork to the river was in some manner open, but the declivity and flat which surrounded it was filled with fallen timber, the growth of which was very heavy, and had been so arrayed that every tree afforded them... a communication or cover to the next, and so on to the river bank..." -- Col. Gideon Morgan, Cherokee Regiment Throughout the afternoon of Mach 27th this area was the scene of brutal and deadly close combat. The Red Sticks planned to use this high ground as a key battle position-their second line of defense. Here they gathered fallen trees to provide cover in the event of a fighting retreat from their first line, a log barricade, or breastwork, positioned behind you. But Cherokee and Lower Creek warriors allied with Andrew Jackson attacked them from behind, crossing the river and pushing through the village, burning huts as they passed. Once they gained this ground the Red Sticks were trapped and forced to fight to the last or attempt escape to the river. After a day of hunting, Creek men return to Tohopeka. In the fall of 1813, Upper Creek families from nearby towns gathered for protection in this bend of the Tallapoosa River.
28. HORSE_161107_210.JPG: They Fought to the Last Horseshoe Bend National Military Park By dark, more than 800 Red Stick warriors were dead and at least 350 women and children were prisoners. Jackson's army suffered 154 men wounded and 49 killed. The Battle of Horseshoe Bend effectively ended the Creek Indian War. Five months later, with the Treaty of Fort Jackson, the Creeks ceded to the United States nearly 23 million acres of land in what is now Alabama and Georgia. "No other evening will come, bringing to [my] eyes the rays of the setting sun upon the home [I have] left forever!" -- Menawa, Red Stick warrior, as he left his home on the Tallapoosa River. Although wounded seven times, Menawa escaped the slaughter at Horseshoe Bend. He regained his health and continued to play a prominent role in Creek society. Like most of the Creek people, Menawa was forced to leave his homeland under the terms of the Indian Removal Act in the 1830s. "The enemy although many of them fought to the last with that kind of bravery which desperation inspires, were at length entirely routed and cut to pieces. The whole margin of the river which surrounded the peninsular was strewed with the slain...The battle may be said to have continued with severity for about five hours; but the fighting and the slaughter continued until it was suspended by the darkness of the night." -- Maj. Gen. Andrew Jackson, Tennessee
29. HORSE_161107_219.JPG: Although wounded seven times, Menawa escaped the slaughter at Horseshoe Bend. He regained his health and continued to play a prominent role in Creek society. Like most of the Creek people, Menawa was forced to leave his homeland under the terms of the Indian Removal Act in the 1830s.
30. HORSE_161107_246.JPG: Horseshoe Bend National Military Park The park offers activities designed to commemorate the events that occurred here on March 27, 1814. The Battle of Horseshoe Bend ended the Creek Indian War and added nearly 23 million acres of land to the United States. For Maj. Gen. Andrew Jackson the victory led to national fame and a successful bid for the Presidency of the United States. Stop at the visitor center for information on daily activities, special events, hiking, fishing, and canoeing on the Tallapoosa River.
31. HORSE_161107_249.JPG: Who Were the Creek? Originally the name "Creek" referred only to Muskogee Indians living near Ochese Creek in central Georgia. Over time the name spread to include all Muskogee people along the rivers of present-day Georgia and Alabama. At one time the region held as many as 60 Creek towns. An early visitor to Creek country wrote: "The smallest of their towns have from 20 to 30 houses... the largest contain 150 to 200...These houses stand in clusters...irregularly distributed up and down the banks of rivers...each cluster of houses contains a clan, or family of relations, who eat or live in common. Each town has a public square, hothouse, and yard near the center of it..." Although the 1814 Battle of Horseshoe Bend ended the Creek War, the Creek continued to live along the Tallapoosa River. In 1836 the Muskogee people were forcibly moved west to Indian Territory, what is now Oklahoma. Learn more about the people who lived here by walking the 2.8-mile Battlefield Nature Trail. Who Were the Red Sticks? By 1813 the Creek confederation of towns had split into two factions: one favored cooperation with the United States government, the other hoped to limit American expansion within their traditional homeland. The more militant faction became known as the Red Sticks, they painted their war clubs red, a color symbolizing war. The Red Sticks fought Andrew Jackson here at Horseshoe Bend. Jackson used the split in Creek society to his advantage, pitting allied Creek and Cherokee warriors against the Red Sticks.
32. HORSE_161107_252.JPG: Harold Banks Canoe Trail
33. HORSE_161107_255.JPG: The British divided Creek towns into two geographic groups: the Lower Towns along the Chattahoochee, Flint, and Ocmulgee Rivers; and the Upper Towns along the Tallapoosa, Coosa, and Alabama Rivers.
34. HORSE_161107_258.JPG: The Creek traded deerskins for guns, ammunition, metal tools, beads, and woven cloth. By the 1760s the Creek supplied the British with as many as 200,000 deerskins annually.
35. HORSE_161107_266.JPG: Horseshoe Bend Battle Ground 12 miles north There on March 27, 1814 General Andrew Jackson commanding U.S. forces and friendly Indians, broke the power of the Creek Confederacy.
Wikipedia Description: Battle of Horseshoe Bend
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Battle of Horseshoe Bend was fought during the War of 1812 in central Alabama. On March 27, 1814, United States forces and Indian allies under General Andrew Jackson defeated the Red Sticks, a part of the Creek Indian tribe inspired by the Shawnee leader Tecumseh, effectively ending the Creek War.

Background:

Although having nothing to do with the British or Canadians, the battle is considered part of the War of 1812. More specifically, it was the major battle of the Creek War, in which Andrew Jackson sought to "clear" Alabama for American settlement. General Jackson was in command of an army of West Tennessee militia, which he had turned into a well-trained fighting force. To add to these militia units was the 39th United States Infantry and about 600 Cherokee and Lower Creek Indians fighting against the Red Stick Creek Indians. After leaving Fort Williams in the spring of 1814, Jackson's army cut its way through the forest to within 6 miles (10 km) of Chief Menawa's Red Stick camp near a bend in the Tallapoosa River, called "Horseshoe Bend," in central Alabama. Jackson sent General John Coffee with the mounted infantry and the Indian allies south across the river to surround the Red Sticks camp, while Jackson stayed with the rest of the 2,000 infantry north of the camp.

Battle:

On March 27 at 10:30 a.m., Jackson began an artillery barrage which consisted of two cannons firing for about two hours. Little damage was caused to the Red Sticks or their fortifications. Coffee's Cherokees and cavalry began crossing the river and fought the Red Sticks on their rear.

Jackson then ordered a bayonet charge. The infantry charged the breastworks surrounding the camp and caught the Red Sticks in a cross fire. Sam Houston (the future governor of Tennessee and Texas) served as a third lieutenant in Jackson's army. Houston was one of the first to make it over the log barricade alive and received a wound from a Creek arrow that troubled him the rest of his life.

The battle raged for about five hours. Roughly 550 Red Sticks were killed on the field, while many of the rest were killed trying to cross the river. Future United States Senator John Eaton wrote "This battle gave a death blow to [the enemy's] hopes, nor did they venture, afterwards, to make a stand... In this action, the best and bravest of their warriors were destroyed".

Chief Menawa was severely wounded but survived and led only about 200 of the original 1,000 warriors across the river and into safety among the Seminole tribe in Spanish Florida. To obtain an accurate body count, Tennesseans cut the tip of dead Creeks' noses off. A few soldiers cut long strips of skin from the Indians' bodies to make bridle reins for their horses.

Results:

On August 9, 1814, Andrew Jackson forced the Creeks to sign the Treaty of Fort Jackson. Despite protest of the Creek chiefs who had fought alongside Jackson, the Creek Nation ceded 23 million acres (93,000 km�)—half of Alabama and part of southern Georgia—to the United States government. Even though the Creek War was largely a civil war between the Creeks, Andrew Jackson saw no difference between the Creeks that had fought with him and the Red Sticks that fought against him. 1.9 million acres (7,700 km�) of the 23 million acres (93,000 km�) Jackson forced the Creeks to cede was claimed by the Cherokee Nation who had allied with the United States.

This victory, along with the Battle of New Orleans, gave Andrew Jackson the popularity to win election as President of the United States in 1828.

The battlefield is preserved in the Horseshoe Bend National Military Park.
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