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Show 124 LU'E OF GEN. JACKSON. CHAP. Every preparation was now made, to hasten an ac! V. complishment of the objects in view. The whole ~eRective force consisted, at this time, by the reports, 1814' of little more than nine hundred men, :md was, in reality, below that number. Being addressed by the general, on the occasion; on the 15th, the mounted troops commenced their march, and moved to W ehogee creek, three miles from the fort. Jackson, with his staff, and the artillery company, joined them next morning, at tl1at place, ·and continued the line of march to Talladega, where about two hundred fri.endly Indians, Cherokees and Creeks, badly armed, and much discouraged at the weakness of his force, were added to his numbers, without in· creasing much his strength. Seldom, perhaps, has there been an expedition undertaken, fraught with greater peril than this. A thousand men, entirely unacquainted with the duties of the field, were to be marched into the heart of an enemy's counl:ry, without a single hope of escape, but from victory, and that victory not to be expected, but from the wisest precaution, and most determined bravery. Although so pregnant with danger, to march was the only alterna· tive that could be prudently adopted. No other could afford a diversion favourable to general Floyd, who was advancing with the army from Georgia, or give favourable results to the campaign, without which it must soon have been abandoned, for want of men to prosecute it. Another reason rendered such a move· ment pro ·er, and indispensable. The officer com· manding at Fort Armstrong had received intelligence, on which was placed the utmost reliance, that the war· LIFE OF GEN. JACKSON. 125 riors, from fourteen or fifteen tow11s on the Tallapoosa, CHAP. were about to unite their forces, and attack that place; IV. ~which, for the want of a sufficient garrison, was in a 1814. weak and defenceless situation. Of this, general Jack-son had been advised. The present movement, above all others, was best calculated to preyent the execution of such a purpose, if it were in truth intended. On Expedireaching Talladega, he received a letter from the :;~inst commandant at Fort Armstrm1g, confirmatory of the the Infirst infornmtion iliat had been obtained, and which left doans. it no longer a matter of doubt, but an attack would be waged against that depot. One also from general Pinckney, by express, arrived, advising him that Floyd, on the lOth instant, would move from Coweta, and in ten days thereafter, establish a position at Tuckabat-chee ; and recommended, if his force would allow him to ·do no more, that he should advance against such of the enemy's towns, as might be within convenient dis-tance; that, by having his troops employed, he might keep disafl:ection from his ranks, and be, at tl1e same time, serviceably engaged in harassing the enemy. If, therefore, he could have hesitated before, there was now no longer any room to do so. By an expeditious movement, he might save Fort Armstrong, and render an essential service to general Floyd, by detaching a part of the clans destined to proceed against him. The force which might act against either, was understood to be then collected in a bend of the Tallapoosa, near the mouth of a creek called Emuckfaw, and tl1ither he determined, by the nearest route, to direct his course. As he progressed on ilie march, a want of ilie necessary knowledge in his pilots, of subordination in his |
