teers across the
mutineers' path and drove them back to the camp. Then the volunteers
started off, and the militia had to be used to bring them back! At one
time the furious general faced a mutinous band single-handed and,
swearing that he would shoot the first man who stirred, awed the
recalcitrants into obedience. On another occasion he had a youth who
had been guilty of insubordination shot before the whole army as an
object lesson. At last it became apparent that nothing could be done
with such troops, and the volunteers--such of them as had not already
slipped away--were allowed to go home. Governor Blount advised that
the whole undertaking be given up. But Jackson wrote him a letter that
brought a flush of shame to his cheek, and in a short time fresh
forces by the hundreds, with ample supplies, were on the way to Fort
Strother. Among the newcomers was a lank, angular-featured
frontiersman who answered to the name of Sam Houston.

After having been reduced for a short period to one hundred men,
Jackson by early spring had an army of five thousand, including a
regiment of regulars, and found it once more possible to act. The
enemy decided to make its stand at a spot called by the Indians
Tohopeka, by the whites Horseshoe Bend, on the Tallapoosa. Here a
thousand warriors, with many women and children, took refuge behind
breastworks which they believed impregnable, and here, in late March,
Jackson attacked with a force of three thousand men. No quarter was
asked and none given, on either side, and the battle quickly became a
butchery. Driven by fire from a thicket of dry brush in which they
took refuge, the Creek warriors were shot down or bayoneted by the
hundreds; those who plunged into the river for safety were killed as
they swam. Scarcely a hundred survived. Among the number was a youth
who could speak a little English, and whose broken leg one of the
surgeons undertook to treat. Three stalwart riflemen were required to
hold the patient. "Lie still, my boy, they will save your life," said
Jackson encouragingly, as he came upon the scene. "No good," replied
the disconsolate victim. "No good. Cure um now, kill um again!"

The victory practically ended the war. Many of the "Red Sticks," as
the Creek braves were called, fled beyond the Florida border; but
many--among them the astute half-breed Weathersford, who had ordered
the assault on Fort Mims--came in and surrendered. Fort Jackson, built
in the river fork, be