hose days,
being barred out. All sick and disabled men were sent home, and the
non-combatants weeded out so thoroughly that only one man was left in
camp who could beat the ordinary calls on the drum. At length, about the
middle of March, a sufficient supply of food was at hand and the final
advance began.

Meanwhile, the hostile Creeks had made themselves a stronghold at a
place fifty-five miles to the south. Here was a bend of Tallapoosa
River, called, from its shape, Tohopeka, or the "Horseshoe." It was a
well-wooded area, about one hundred acres in extent, across whose neck
the Indians had built a strong breastwork of logs, with two rows of
port-holes, the whole so well constructed that it was evident they had
been aided by British soldiers in its erection. At the bottom of the
bend was a village of wigwams, and there were many canoes in the stream.

Within this stronghold was gathered the fighting force of the tribe,
nearly a thousand warriors, and in the wigwams were about three hundred
women and children. It was evident that they intended to make here their
final, desperate stand.

The force led against them was two thousand strong. Their route of
travel lay through the unbroken forest wilds, and it took eleven days to
reach the Indian fort. A glance at it showed Jackson the weakness of the
savage engineering. As he said, they had "penned themselves in for
destruction."

The work began by sending Colonel Coffee across the river, with orders
to post his men opposite the line of canoes and prevent the Indians from
escaping. Coffee did more than this; he sent swimmers over who cut loose
the canoes and brought them across the stream. With their aid he sent
troops over the bend to attack the savages in the rear while Jackson
assailed them in front.

The battle began with a fierce assault, but soon settled down to a slow
slaughter, which lasted for five or six hours,--the fierce warriors, as
in the former battles, refusing to ask for quarter or to accept their
lives. Their prophets had told them that if they did they would be put
to death by torture. When the battle ended few of them were left alive.
On the side of the whites only fifty-five were killed and about three
times as many wounded.

This signal defeat ended forever the power of the Cree nation, once the
leading Indian power of the Gulf region. Such of the chiefs as survived
surrendered. Among them was Weathersford, their valiant half-breed
leader. Mou