| OCR Text |
Show 90 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [ ETH. ANN. 19 chee, under Mcintosh, another half- breed chief, were friendly, and acted with the Cherokee and the Americans against their own brethren. It is not our purpose to give a history of the Creek war, but only to note the part which the Cherokee had in it. The friendly Lower Creeks, under Mcintosh, with a few refugees from the Upper towns, operated chiefly with the army under General Floyd which invaded the southern part of the Creek country from Georgia. Some friendly Choctaw and Chickasaw also lent their assistance in this direction. The Cherokee, with some friendly Creeks of the Upper towns, acted with the armies under Generals White and Jackson, which entered the Creek country from the Tennessee side. While some hundreds of their warriors were thus fighting in the field, the Cherokee at home were busily collecting provisions for the American troops. As Jackson approached from the north, about the end of October, 1813, he wns met by runners asking him to come to the aid of Path-killer, a Cherokee chief, who was in danger of being cut off by the hostiles, at his village of Turkeytown, on the upper Coosa, near the present Center, Alabama. A fresh detachment on its way from east Tennessee, under General White, was ordered by Jackson to relieve the town, and successfully performed this work. White's force consisted of one thousand men, including four hundred Cherokee under Colonel Gideon Morgan and John Lowrey. 1 As the army advanced down the Coosa the Creeks retired to Tallasee-hatchee, on the creek of the same name, near the present Jacksonville, Calhoun county, Alabama. One thousand men under General Coffee, together with a company of Cherokee under Captain Richard Brown and some few Creeks, were sent against them. The Indian auxiliaries wore headdresses of white feathers and deertails. The attack was made at daybreak of November 3, 1813, and the town was taken after a desperate resistance, from which not one of the defenders escaped alive, the Creeks having been completely surrounded on all sides. Says Coffee in his official report: They made all the resistance that an overpowered soldier could do- they fought as long as one existed, but their destruction was very soon completed. Our men rushed up to the doors of the houses and in a few minutes killed the last warrior of them. The enemy fought with savage fury and met death with all its horrors, without shrinking or complaining- not one asked to be spared, but fought as long as they could stand or sit. Of such fighting stuff did the Creeks prove themselves, against overwhelming numbers, throughout the war. The bodies of nearly two hundred dead warriors were counted on the field, and the general reiterates that " not one of the warriors escaped." A number of women and children were taken prisoners. Nearly every man of the Creeks had a bow with a bundle of arrows, which he used after the i Drake, Indians, pp. 395- 396,1880; Pickett, Alabama, p. 556, reprint of 1896. |
