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CHAPTER IV
THE HOSTILE CREEKS OR RED STICKS PROVE WILY FOES—DIFFICULTY OF
PENETRATING INTO AN UNFAMILIAR WILDERNESS REMOTE FROM ANY
BASE OF SUPPLIES—WHILE THE WAR Is IN PROGRESS, JUDGE PETER
EARLY SUCCEEDS GOVERNOR MITCHELL AT THE HELM—ON His OWN
INITIATIVE, GOVERNOR EARLY ADVANCES MONEY TO MOVE THE IDLE
TROOPS AT FORT HAWKINS—THIS PROMPT ACTION DEMANDED BY NE
CESSITY AND JUSTIFIED BY RESULTS—GENERAL FLOYD CROSSES THE
CHATTAHOOCHEE RIVER—FORT MITCHELL—THE BATTLE OF AUTOSSEE
—GENERAL FLOYD WOUNDED—THE BATTLE OF CHALLIBEE—THE
CREEK INDIANS SUBDUED—ON AUGUST 9, 1814, THE TREATY OF FORT
JACKSON Is SIGNED—COL. DANIEL APPLING—His GALLANT EXPLOIT
AT SANDY CREEK—THE STATE OF GEORGIA AWARDS HIM A SWORD—
DYING WITHOUT HEIRS, THIS TROPHY Is PRESERVED BY THE STATE—
GENERAL JACKSON NEXT CROSSES INTO FLORIDA—ON THE TERRITORY
OF SPAIN, I-!E THROWS DIPLOMACY TO THE WINDS—INTERNATIONAL
COMPLICATIONS—THE BLACKSIIEAR ROAD—JACKSON DRIVES THE
BRITISH FROM PENSACOLA AND STARTS FOR NEW ORLEANS WHERE, ON
JANUARY 8, 1815, HE WINS A GLORIOUS VICTORY OVER THE SEASONED
VETERANS OF PACKENIIAM—SOME OF THESE AFTERWARDS FOUGHT
UNDER WELLINGTON AT WATERLOO—MEANWHILE THE TREATY OF
GHENT Is SIGNED—THE WAR ENDS.
NOTE : THE DEATH OF CAPT. SAMUEL BUTTS.
With determined frontiersmen organized under such leaders, tiie
suppression of the Creek uprising was only a question of time; but
the hostile Red Sticks were moved by a stern hatred of the whites. They
possessed both courage and endurance and they knew every trail
through the swamps. There were few of the settlers who had ventured
far into this forbidden stretch of wilderness, occupied by the Creeks;
and it was not an easy matter for an army to move through an
unbroken forest. More than one victory was scored by the invading
columns; but each of the leaders was in turn forced to make a hasty
retreat to his base of supplies; and without decisive results the year
1813 drew to an end.
Meanwhile Governor Mitchell, having completed his second term of
office, Judge Peter Early, formerly a member of Congress, afterwards
a judge of the Ocmulgee Circuit, was called to the executive helm.
Judge Early was a native of Virginia, On the floor of Congress he
had displayed abilities of a high order, reflecting luster upon himself
and upon the state of his adoption; but while a man of thought he was
likewise a man of action. In his inaugural address, delivered Novem-
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