The Creek War and the War of 1812

The War of 1812 included attacks against American Indians by the United States on the nation's western and southern borders. The American Indian tribes south of the Appalachians played an important role in the War of 1812, and American Indian resistance to European-American expansion intensified into the Creek War. European-American historians often discuss the Creek War as part of the War of 1812 between the United States and Great Britain, as tribal tensions were exacerbated during this war.

Origins of the Creek War

The Creek War (1813–1814), also known as the "Red Stick War," began as a civil war within the Creek (Muscogee) nation. A faction of younger men from the Upper Creek villages, known as "Red Sticks," sought aggressively to return their society to a traditional way of life, culturally and religiously. Red Stick leaders such as William Weatherford (Red Eagle), Peter McQueen, and Menawa were all allies of the British. They clashed violently with other Creek chiefs over European-American territorial encroachment. 

Before the Creek Civil War, in February of 1813, Tecumseh, leader of the Shawnees, came to the Southeast to encourage the Creek to join his movement to throw the European-Americans out of American Indian territories. After the Revolutionary War, Tecumseh had united tribes in the Northwest (including Ohio and related territories) to fight against U.S. settlers. Many of the Upper Creek were influenced by the prophecies of Tecumseh's brother, Tenskwatawa, which, echoing those of their own spiritual leaders, predicted the extermination of the European Americans. 

The Red Sticks aggressively resisted the civilization programs administered by the U.S. Indian Agent, Benjamin Hawkins, who had stronger alliances among the Lower Creek. Lower Creek towns had been under more pressure from European-American settlers in present-day Georgia and had been persuaded to cede land for hunting grounds in 1790, 1802, and 1805. However, European settlers had ruined the hunting, and as the wild game disappeared, the Creek began to adopt American farming practices. 

In February of 1813, a small war party of Red Sticks, returning from Detroit and led by Little Warrior, killed two families of settlers along the Ohio River. Benjamin Hawkins learned of this, and demanded that the Creek turn over Little Warrior and his six companions to the U.S. government. Instead of complying, old Creek chiefs, led by Big Warrior, decided to execute the war party themselves. This decision ignited civil war in the Creek Nation. In the months that followed, warriors of Tecumseh's party began to attack the property of their enemies, burning plantations and destroying livestock.

United States Involvement

U.S. forces became involved in the conflict by attacking a Creek party in present-day southern Alabama at the Battle of Burnt Corn. After Burnt Corn, U.S. Secretary of War John Armstrong notified General Thomas Pinckney that the United States was prepared to take action against the Creek Nation. Further, if Spain were found to be supporting the Creeks, a strike against Pensacola (in Spanish Florida) would occur.

Although Jackson's mission was to defeat the Creek and expand U.S. territory, his larger objective was to move south, build roads, and stage an attack on Pensacola. He faced two problems, however: logistics and short enlistments. When Jackson began his advance, the Tennessee River was low, making it difficult to move supplies, and there was little forage for his horses. Jackson spent the next month building roads and training his force. In mid March, he moved against the Red Stick force concentrated on the Tallapoosa at Tohopeka (Horseshoe Bend).

Horseshoe Bend and the Treaty of Fort Jackson

The war ended after Jackson commanded a force of combined state militias, Lower Creek, and Cherokee to defeat the Red Sticks at Horseshoe Bend. The Battle of Horseshoe Bend, which occurred on March 27, was a decisive victory for Jackson, effectively ending the Red Stick resistance. On August 9, 1814, Andrew Jackson forced headmen of both the Upper and Lower Towns of Creek to sign the Treaty of Fort Jackson. Despite protests from the Creek chiefs who had fought alongside Jackson, the Creek Nation was forced to cede 23 million acres of land—half of Alabama and part of southern Georgia—to the United States government. Jackson recognized no difference between his Lower Creek allies and the Red Sticks who fought against him, forcing both to cede their land.

Creek land cessions

This map illustrates the land the Creek ceded after the Creek Wars, consisting of half of Alabama and part of southern Georgia.

The Battle of New Orleans

With the Red Sticks subdued, Jackson turned his focus on the Gulf Coast region in the War of 1812. On his own initiative, he invaded Spanish Florida and drove a British force out of Pensacola. The Battle of New Orleans took place on January 8, 1815; it was the final major battle of the War of 1812 and is widely regarded as the greatest American land victory of the war. American forces, commanded by Major General Andrew Jackson, defeated an invading British Army intent on seizing New Orleans and the vast territory the United States had acquired with the Louisiana Purchase. 

Due to slow communication, word of the Treaty of Ghent, which had been signed on December 24, 1814, and called for the end of the war, had not yet reached New Orleans. Andrew Jackson had distinguished himself in the war by defeating the Creek before invading Florida in May of that year. After taking Pensacola, he moved his force of Tennessee fighters to New Orleans to defend the strategic port against British attack.

On January 8, 1815 (despite the official end of the war), a force of battle-tested British veterans of the Napoleonic Wars attempted to take the port. Jackson’s forces devastated the British, killing more than 2,000. New Orleans and the vast Mississippi River Valley had been successfully defended, ensuring the future of American settlement and commerce. The Battle of New Orleans immediately catapulted Jackson to national prominence as a war hero, and in the 1820s, he emerged as the head of the new Democratic Party. United States nationalism soared after the victory at the Battle of New Orleans. In 1818, Jackson again invaded Florida, where some of the Red Stick leaders had fled, in an event known as the "First Seminole War."