ar, a general Indian war came on which raged with
especial violence in middle and southern Alabama. The Indians fought
desperately, but General Jackson managed to conquer them thoroughly.
He was empowered by the government to make a treaty with them and he
insisted that they should make a treaty which they could not help
keeping. He made them give up a large part of their land, and so
arranged the boundaries as to make the Indians powerless for further
harm.

The Indians hesitated a long time before they would sign the treaty,
but it was Jackson's way to finish whatever he undertook, and not
leave it to be done over again. As the people of the border used to
say, he "left no gaps in the fences behind him," and so he insisted
upon the treaty and the Indians at last signed it. Meantime, however,
a great many of the Indians, and among them several of their most
savage chiefs had escaped to Florida, which was then Spanish
territory.

Jackson remained at his camp in southern Alabama through the summer of
1814 bringing the Indians to terms. During the summer it became
evident that the British were preparing an expedition against Mobile
and New Orleans, and Jackson was placed in command of the whole
southwest, with instructions to defend that part of the country. This
was all very well, and very wise, too, for there was no man in the
country who was fitter than he for the kind of work he was thus called
on to do; but there was one very serious obstacle in his way. He had
his commission; he had full authority to conduct the campaign; he had
everything in fact except an army, and it does not require a very
shrewd person to guess that an army is a rather important part of a
general's outfit for defending a large territory. He called for
volunteers and accepted any kind that came. He even published a
special address to the free negroes within the threatened district and
asked them to become soldiers, a thing that nobody had ever thought of
before.

The boys in the southwest were strong, hearty fellows, used to the
woods, accustomed to hardship and not afraid of danger. Many of them
had fought bravely during the Indian war, and when Jackson called for
volunteers, a good many of these boys joined him, some of them being
mere lads just turning into their teens.

Sam Hardwicke, was noted all through that country for several reasons.
In the first place he was a boy of very fine appearance and unusual
skill in all the things which