eded down the river to New Orleans. But jealousies at
headquarters intervened, he was informed that New Orleans was in no
present danger, his force was disbanded and left to get back home as
best it could. Jackson, wild with rage, pledged his own resources to
furnish this transportation, but was afterwards reimbursed by the
government.

It was while he was getting his men back home again that Jackson
received the nickname of "Old Hickory," which clung to him all the rest
of his life, and which was really a good description of him. The story
also illustrates how it was that his men came to idolize him, and why it
was that he appealed so strongly to the common people. Jackson had three
good horses, on that weary journey, but instead of riding one of them
himself, he loaned all three to sick men who were unable to walk, and
himself trudged along at the head of his men.

"The general is tough, isn't he?" one of them remarked, glancing at the
tall, sturdy figure.

"Tough!" echoed another. "I should say he is--as tough as hickory!"

Jackson was lying in bed with a bullet in his shoulder, which he had
received in an affray with Jesse Benton, and also, no doubt, nursing his
chagrin over his treatment by the War Department, when news came of a
great Indian uprising in Alabama. The Creeks had gone on the warpath and
had opened proceedings by capturing Fort Mims, at the junction of the
Alabama and Tombigbee rivers, on August 30, 1813, and massacring over
five hundred people who had taken refuge there. Alabama was almost
abandoned by the whites, and Georgia and Tennessee at once rushed to her
relief by voting men and money to put down the Indians.

Jackson forgot wound and chagrin and took the field as soon as he was
able to stir. He at once quarrelled with the other officers; but his men
believed in him, though lack of food and the expiring of the short term
of enlistment created so much insubordination that, on one occasion, he
had to use half his army to prevent the other half from marching home.
His energy was remarkable; he pushed forward into the Creek country, cut
the Indians to pieces at Horseshoe Bend, and drove the survivors into
Florida. At the end of seven months, the war was over, and the Creeks
had been so punished that there was never any further need to fear them.

The campaign had another result--it established Jackson's reputation as
a fighter, and soon afterwards he was appointed a major-general in the
army