High Levels of Fascination

The Battle of Horseshoe Bend

People portray high levels of fascination for war. It is considered to be one of the most popular subjects of history. This fascination of war has manifested itself in the American field rapidly in the devotion of numerous civil war historians. However, the war study aspiration is different from the involved fighting enthusiasm. The following narrates the events and significance of the Horseshoe Bend Battle.

The Americans launched several campaigns against the Red Sticks. Andrew Jackson launched a campaign that turned out victorious. It involved combination of warriors of the Lower creek, Cherokee and the 39th US Infantry attacking the Red Sticks' camp at the Horseshoe Bend (Sandler, 383). The Red Sticks' camp was led by Menawa and 1000 warriors of whom approximately a third had a rifle or a musket. The Red Sticks Camp had built a fortified wall for protection hoping that it would stop the attackers or at minimum holdup the attackers enough for the escape of children and women in the camp across the river.

The events of the battle took place on 27th March, 1814. Although William Weatherford, commonly referred to as the "Red Eagle", was not present, over one thousand creek warriors assembled at the barricade crossing the peninsula's neck (Holland, 83). In Tohopeka village, there consisted another five hundred children and women. Under the leadership of chief Menawa, the upper creek Indians (the Red Sticks) fought bravely though lost in the end. The war was fuelled by the Red Sticks' support of Britain and unrest of white settlers' encroachment of their land.

Major General Jackson divided his command into two, led by John Coffee and himself. Brigadier General Coffee led allied warriors and militia downstream. He moved upstream after crossing the river, surrounded Tohopeka at the Tallapoosa bank and cut off the Red Sticks' lines of retreat. On the other side, General Jackson attacked the fortified wall using two artilleries, to crack it but failed. During the American guns' firing time, three Cherokee warriors from the Coffee's division crossed the river by swimming , stole a number of canoes belonging to the Red Sticks and used them to cross Lower Creek warriors and other Cherokee warriors to attack the Red Sticks' camp from behind; they burnt numerous buildings.

On seeing smoke from rear, Jackson commanded his fighters to enter the camp. Among the first fighters to cross the fortified wall was Sam Houston who eventually got arrow-wounded in the shoulder. The Red Sticks fought a progressively desperate battle against the