Existing comment:
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 |