Russell Lands History

Including

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4, 2020

Battle of Horseshoe Bend

The End of the Creek Nation

By Peggy Jackson Walls and Laura Dykes Oliver

Images of America Alexander City, 2011

In the early 1800s, pioneers who made their way into the area now known as Alexander City encountered Creek Indians living in scattered villages alongside rivers and streams.  A few traders and backwoodsmen lived in notched log cabins and among Indians often residing in similar structures.  A few Cherokee lived among them, but the land predominantly belonged to the Creek Nation.  Travelers were required to carry passports for safe passage through the Indian Territory.  The Creek Confederacy was divided into the Upper Creeks, who lived along the Coosa and Tallapoosa Rivers, and the Lower Creeks, who lived predominantly along the lower Chattahoochee and Tallapoosa River.

 

The Creeks fished in the streams and hunted in nearby forests.  They planted corn, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, and field peas.  Wild plants, berries, and roots served as both food and medicine.  Women sewed deerskin into clothing and moccasins to protect family members against the elements of sun, rain, and wind.  The clothing, blankets, and skins were bartered with early traders, such as Scotsman Robert Grierson, who lived with his Creek wife, Sinnuge, on their plantation in the Hillabees.  The Grierson plantation included Creek families and slaves who worked in the fields to grow and harvest food for the Grierson family and the Hillabee tribes.  Henry Towns was the last trader in the Hillabees.  After the Indians were removed, Towns joined the settlers.

 

During the Indian Wars of 1813-1814, Robert Grierson rode to Talladega to gain amnesty for the Hillabee tribes.  Gen. Andrew Jackson granted Grierson’s request, but before he could return to the Hillabees, a group of Tennessee militia passing by the village and commanded by Gen. James White attacked, killed, or captured many of the inhabitants.  The massacre was mainly of women, children and old men, since the younger men were away on a hunting foray into the forest.  The Hillabee Massacre on November 18, 1813, embittered the Creeks and strengthened the warriors’ resolve to attack and destroy the homes and lives of encroaching white settlers.

 

There were conflicts, such as the Battle of Enitachopco, on January 24, 1814, when Creeks attacked General Jackson, causing him to withdraw to Fort Strother.  But the decisive encounter was the Battle of Horseshoe Bend on March 27, 1814, when Gen. Andrew Jackson and 3, 300 men attacked 1,000 Creeks at Tohopeka.  Jackson’s troops sustained few casualties, while at least 800 Creeks were killed in battle.  The overwhelming defeat of the Creeks at Horseshoe Bend broke the power of the Creek Nation.  In 1819, Alabama declared statehood, absorbing the 23 million acres of Creek land relinquished in 1814 through the Treaty of Fort Jackson.

 

The state was heir to the Indian place names, such a Hillabee, Enitachopco, Tallapoosa, Coosa, and even the name Alabama.  The names serve to remind each generation of the Indian Wars of 1813-1814, the smaller skirmishes that took place before the Indian Removal Act in 1832, and the final tragic Trail of Tears march to the Native Americans’ new home in the West.

 

 

Russell Lands History

Including

A Greatly Expanded Version

4, 2020

Russell Lands History

Including

A Greatly Expanded Version

4, 2020

Russell Lands History

Including

A Greatly Expanded Version

4, 2020