warriors too highly.

On their march the troops came to a wide creek, which it was necessary
to cross. Here the Indians again prepared for battle. They concealed
themselves so effectually as to elude all the vigilance of the scouts.
When about half the troops had crossed the stream, the almost invisible
Indians commenced their assault, opening a very rapid but scattering
fire. Occasionally a warrior was seen darting from one point to
another, to obtain better vantage-ground.

Major Russel was in command of a small rear-guard. His soldiers soon
appeared running almost breathless to join the main body, pursued by a
large number of Indians. The savages had chosen the very best moment
for their attack. The artillery-men were in an open field surrounded by
the forest. The Indians, from behind stumps, logs, and trees, took
deliberate aim, and almost every bullet laid a soldier prostrate. Quite
a panic ensued. Two of the colonels, abandoning their regiments, rushed
across the creek to escape the deadly fire. There is no evidence that
the Indians were superior in numbers to the Americans. But it cannot be
denied that the Americans, though under the leadership of Andrew
Jackson, were again outgeneralled. General Jackson lost, in this short
conflict, in killed and wounded, nearly one hundred men. His
disorganized troops at length effected the passage of the creek, beyond
which the Indians did not pursue them. Crockett writes:

"I will not say exactly that the old General was whipped. But I think
he would say himself that he was nearer whipped this time than any
other; for I know that all the world couldn't make him acknowledge that
he was pointedly whipped. I know I was mighty glad when it was over,
and the savages quit us, for I began to think there was one behind
every tree in the woods."

Crockett, having served out his term, returned home. But he was
restless there. Having once experienced the excitements of the camp,
his wild, untrained nature could not repose in the quietude of domestic
life. The conflict between the United States and a small band of
Indians was very unequal. The loss of a single warrior was to the
Creeks irreparable. General Jackson was not a man to yield to
difficulties. On the 27th of March, 1814, he drove twelve hundred Creek
warriors into their fort at Tohopeka. They were then surrounded, so
that escape was impossible, and the fort was set on fire. The carnage
was awful. Almost every warrior peris