raisers, was heavy; and by 1812 the great triangular area between the
Alabama and the Tombigbee, as well as extensive tracts along the upper
Tombigbee and the Mobile, was quite fully occupied. The heart of the
Creek country was the region about the Coosa and Tallapoosa rivers,
which join in central Alabama to form the stream which bears the
State's name. But not even this district was immune from encroachment.

The Creeks were not of a sort to submit to the loss of their lands
without a struggle. Though Tecumseh, in 1811, had brought them to the
point of an uprising, his plans were not carried out, and it remained
for the news of hostilities between the United States and Great
Britain to rouse the war spirit afresh. In a short time the entire
Creek country was aflame. Arms and ammunition the Indians obtained
from the Spaniards across the Florida border, and Colonel Edward
Nicholls, now stationed at Pensacola as provisional British Governor,
gave them open encouragement. The danger was understood not only among
the people of the Southwest but in Washington. Before plans of defense
could be carried into effect, however, the war broke out, and the
wretched people who had crowded into the flimsy stockade called by
courtesy Fort Mims were massacred.

Hardly had the heap of ruins, ghastly with human bodies, ceased to
smolder before fleet riders were spreading the news in Georgia, in
Louisiana, and in Tennessee. A shudder swept the country. Every
exposed community expected to be attacked next. The people's demand
for vengeance was overmastering, and from north, west, and east
volunteer armies were soon on the march. Tennessee sent two quotas,
one from the eastern counties under General John Cocke, the other from
the western under Andrew Jackson. When the news of the disaster on the
Mobile reached Nashville, Jackson was lying helpless from wounds