Untitled - the Digital Library of Georgia

470 GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS
To the American frontiersmen who achieved this victory at New
Orleans and to the gallant Tennessean who led them, we offer an admir
ing salute, for these men of the forest, trained only in the backwoods of
America, had vanquished an army of veterans, trained by the one man
in all Europe who was soon to defeat the great Napoleon.
DEATH OF'CAPT. SAMUEL BUTTS.—Capt. Samuel Butts was a gallant officer of'the
state militia. He lost his life in the battle of Challibee, on. January 27, 1814,
while leading a fearless charge against the Indians. It was during the second war
for independence, when the savage tribes on the frontier, instigated by the British,
rose in arms against the whites. Maj.-Gen. John Hoyd, at the head of the state
troops, undertook to complete his victory over the Indians in the battle of Autogsee
by penetrating into the country of the Upper Greeks. News came to him that certain
bands of savages had fortified a town on the Tallapoosa River, in what is now the
State of Alabama and he was. marching thither. When the troops halted for the
night within fifteen or twenty miles of the town, they went into camp only to be
aroused before daybreak by the unexpected appearance of the Indians. To quote a
writer of the period: "The darkness of the hour, the covert afforded the Indians
by a thick forest of pines, the total want of breastworks, the surprise which the first
yell of the savages occasioned, and the estimated numerical superiority of the enemy's
force, were well calculated to put the courage of the militia to a severe test; but not
a platoon faltered. In less than fifteen minutes every hostile Indian but the dead
and dying had fled from the battle field.'' Captain Butts fell, in the thickest of
the fight, shot through the abdomen, and the country lost a gallant soldier and a true
patriot. Captain Butts was a native of Virginia, in which state he was born on
November 24, 1777. But he came to Georgia in early life, settling first in Hancock
and then in Jasper. He was for some time engaged successfully in mercantile
pursuits; and when, at the outbreak of hostilities, the Legislature of Georgia advanced
a sum of money to General Floyd with which to purchase needed supplies for the
army, he placed this sum in the hands of Captain Butts, who promptly executed the
commission.—'' Georgia's Landmarks, Memorials and Legends," L. L. Knight,
Vol. I.