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Show UOONEY] BATTLE OF HORSESHOE BEND 1814 95 that no part was left unoccupied, and the few fugitives who attempted to escape from the fort by water " fell an easy prey to their vengeance." Finally, seeing that the cannonade had no more effect upon the breastwork than to bore holes in the logs, some of the Cherokee plunged into the river, and swimming over to the town brought back a number of canoes. A part crossed in these, under cover of the guns of their companions, and sheltered themselves under the bank while the canoes were sent back for reenforcements. In this way they all crossed over and then advanced up the bank, where at once they were warmly assailed from every side except the rear, which they kept open only by hard fighting. 1 The Creeks had been fighting the Americans in their front at such close quarters that their bullets flattened upon the bayonets thrust through the portholes. This attack from the rear by five hundred Cherokee diverted their attention and gave opportunity to the Tennes-seeans, Sam Houston among them, cheering them on, to swarm over the breastwork. With death from the bullet, the bayonet and the hatchet all around them, and the smoke of their blazing homes in their eyes, not a warrior begged for his life. When more than half their number lay dead upon the ground, the rest turned and plunged into the river, only to find the banks on the opposite side lined with enemies and escape cut off in every direction. Says General Coffee: Attempts to cross the river at all points of the bend were made by the enemy, but not one ever escaped. Very few ever reached the bank and that few was killed the instant they landed. From the report of my officers, as well as from my own observation, I feel warranted in saying that from two hundred and fifty to three hundred of the enemy was buried under water and was not numbered with the dead that were found. Some swam for the island below the bend, but here too a detachment had been posted and " not one ever landed. They were sunk by Lieutenant Bean's command ere they reached the bank." 8 Quoting again from Jackson- The enemy, although many of them fought to the last with that kind of bravery which desperation inspires, were at last entirely routed and cut to pieces. The battle may be said to have continued with severity for about five hours, but the firing and slaughter continued until it was suspended by the darkness of night. The next morning it was resumed and sixteen of the enemy slain who had concealed themselves under the banks. 8 It was supposed that the Creeks had about a thousand warriors, besides their women and children. The men sent out to count the dead found five hundred and fifty- seven warriors lying dead within the inclosure, and Coffee estimates that from two hundred and fiftv to 1 Colonel Morgan's report to Governor Blount, in Fay and Davison, Sketches of the War, pp. 268, 259 1815. ' Coffee's report to Jackson, ibid., pp. 257,266. 3 Jackson's report to Governor Blount, ibid., pp. 256,256. |