Untitled - the Digital Library of Georgia

464 GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS
three in Telfair arid four in Pulaski—all on its exposed northern and
western border.
Depredations were constant. But the first real skirmish occurred
at Burnt Corn in Lower Alabama, where the Creeks repulsed an attack
of badly organized frontiersmen.
Fort Minis, 011 the Alabama River, witnessed the first horrors of an
Indian massacre. On August 30, 1813, a body of Creeks numbering
1,000 warriors made a descent upon the fort at high noon. It was an
unexpected assault and before the little garrison could barricade its
doors the Indians were upon them, with the dreaded war-whoop. No
quarter was given, and in less than half an hour there was scarcely a
man left to tell the woeful tale. Over 300 lives were brutally sacrificed
in this bloody carnival. All who took refuge within the stockade for
protection, including many women and children, perished. Says a
well-known historian: *
"At Fort Mims, near the point where the Alabama and Tombigbee
form the Mobile, five hundred and fifty-three men, women and children
were pent up in an ill-planned enclosure, defended by a small force
under an incompetent though courageous officer named Beasley. On
the morning of August 30, 1813, Beasley was writing to his superior,
General Claiborne, that he could hold the fort against any number of
the enemy. At that very moment a thousand warriors lay hidden in a
ravine but a few hundred yards from the open gate of the stockade.
Their principal leader was William Weatherford, 'the Red Eagle,' a
half-breed of much intelligence and dauntless courage. At noon, when
the drums beat the garrison to dinner, the Indians rushed to the attack.
At the end of the hot August day there remained of the fort but a smol
dering heap of ruins, ghastly with human bodies. Only a handful of
the inmates escaped to spread the horrible news among the terrified
settlers. Swift runners set off eastward, westward, and northward, for
help. A shudder ran over the whole country. The Southwest turned
from the remoter events of the war in Canada to the disaster at home.
'The Creeks!' 'Weatherford!' 'Fort Mims!' were the words on every
body 's lips.''
But this affair at Fort Mims was only the signal for a general up
rising among the Indians. Both the Creeks on the west and the Semi-
noles oil the south were involved in this murderous conspiracy against
the white settlements. To avenge the frightful holocaust at Fort Mims,
a body of Georgia troops pursued the red-handed demons into the swamp
arid for seven days, without food or shelter, camped in the depths of the
wilderness, exposed to hidden perils. But the Indians escaped.
Meanwhile, under a call from the secretary of war, 3,600 Georgia
troops were mobilized at Fort Hawkins, on the Ocmulgec River, directly
opposite the present C. r of Macon. This was the strongest fortification
011 the exposed frontier. It had been constructed in 1806, under the
personal supervision of Col. Benjamin ITawkins, the Indian agent
for whom it was named. Gen. John Floyd was put in command of
these militia troops, much to the disappointment, it is said, of Gen.
John Clark, who aspired to this position. At the head of a column of
'Life of Andrew Jackson," W. a. Brown, 48-49.