Creek War 1813: Deerskin Debt, Fort Mims and Jackson's Betrayed Allies

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The Creek War of 1813 to 1814 began as a civil war inside the Muscogee Nation. The deerskin trade collapsed between 1783 and 1793 as European wars cut demand and overhunting thinned the herds, and towns fell into debt to trading houses. The Lower Creeks near Georgia moved toward American farming, while the Upper Creeks resisted. U.S. agent Benjamin Hawkins pressed a civilization program that pushed men to plow, women to spin cotton indoors, and families to fence private plots. After Tecumseh spoke to a large Creek council in 1811, the Great Comet and the New Madrid earthquakes fed a religious revival, and the Red Sticks began killing assimilationist leaders and slaughtering cattle and pigs.

The U.S. was drawn in after territorial militia ambushed Red Sticks returning from Pensacola with Spanish powder at Burnt Corn in July 1813, then broke ranks to loot and were routed. In August, Peter McQueen and William Weatherford attacked Fort Mims, where a gate was stuck open by drifting sand, and 400 to 500 people were killed. Andrew Jackson's Tennessee militia nearly dissolved from starvation and expiring enlistments until regulars and Cherokee and Lower Creek allies helped win at Horseshoe Bend in March 1814. At Fort Jackson that August, Jackson took more than 21 million acres, including land of the Creeks who fought beside him and 1.9 million acres belonging to the Cherokee.

• Drought left the Tennessee River too low for Jackson's supply boats.
• Jackson ordered the arrest of Major General John Cocke of the East Tennessee militia, suspecting him of stirring up rebellion.
• At one low point Jackson's invasion force shrank to about 100 effective men.
• At Horseshoe Bend, Cherokee and Lower Creek warriors swam the Tallapoosa and took Red Stick canoes to attack from the rear.
• As president, Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which drove out the same allies who had fought for him.