P
claim that he shot the great Shawnee leader. In 1836
Johnson will lead a successful vice-presidential cam-
paign with the slogan “Rumsey Dumsey/Rumsey
Dumsey/Colonel Johnson killed Tecumsey.”
After Tecumseh’s death, the confederacy he
built will quickly crumble. With it will end all hope
for any continued large-scale Indian resistance to
white settlement east of the Mississippi River.
1814March 27
The Creek War ends with the Battle of
Horseshoe Bend.
After a series of skirmishes with the Red Stick Creek
(see entries for JULY 17, 1813, and for AUGUST 30,
1813), some 5,000 regular and volunteer troops led
by Andrew Jackson descend on the village of Toho-
peka, on a peninsula in a horseshoe-shaped bend in
the Tallapossa River in present-day eastern Alabama.
As the troops surrounded the Red Stick stronghold,
Cherokee scouts fighting with the Americans steal
canoes the Red Sticks have left on the riverbank to
help them flee in case of attack.
“I am in your power: do with
me what you please. I am a
soldier. I have done the white
people all the harm I could. I
have fought them, and fought
them bravely. If I had an army,
I would yet fight, and contend
to the last. But I am done—my
people are all gone—I can do
no more than weep over the
misfortunes of my nation.”
—Red Stick Creek leader
Red Eagle on surrendering
to Andrew JacksonAided by White Stick Creek, Choctaw, and
Cherokee warriors, Jackson’s men kill nearly 800 Red
Sticks, while the survivors retreat to the villages of
their Seminole relatives in Spanish Florida. The de-
feat effectively ends the Red Sticks’ war against the
United States and earns Jackson acclaim as an Indian
fighter. (See also entry for AUGUST 9, 1814.)August 9The Treaty of Fort Jackson forces Creek
land cession.
With their defeat at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend
(see entry for MARCH 27, 1814), the Creek are
compelled to sign a peace treaty with the U.S. gov-
ernment at Fort Jackson, in what is now Alabama.
The terms of peace are punishing: the Creek sign
away more than 22 million acres in present-day
southern Georgia and central Alabama. The ceded
tract includes lands of both the Red Stick Creek,
who had battled against the U.S. Army, and the
White Stick Creek, who were allies of the United
States during the conflict.December 24The Treaty of Ghent ends the War of 1812.
In the Treaty of Ghent, the British acknowledge that
the United States owns all lands south of the Great
Lakes and promises not to aid its former Indian al-
lies in the region. The treaty ends the War of 1812
(see entry for JUNE 19, 1812) and spells disaster for
the Indians in the East. With the defeat of the Brit-
ish, they lose the military support and supplies they
would need to continue to resist American settle-
ment of their lands.1815January 8Andrew Jackson emerges a hero from the
Battle of New Orleans.
Unaware that the War of 1812 ended two weeks
earlier with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent (see