Read Online Jacksonland: A Great American Land Grab by Steve Inskeep - Free Book Online

Weatherford saved them the trouble by boldly marching into Jackson’s camp alone, gaining an audience with the general, and frankly admitting that he was surrendering only because he had no troops left. Jackson was so impressed that he let Weatherford go free.
    Weatherford’s surrender became part of the mythology of the Creek War, a moment of closure in the later style of Lee at Appomattox. The reality was different. The comparison would be better if, after GeneralLee surrendered in 1865, other Confederate soldiers retreated into the hills and fought on for many years. That was roughly what happened with the Red Stick rebels in 1814. They were devastated at the Horseshoe but not eliminated. Weatherford was virtually the only rebel leader who surrendered. Others fled southward through the woods, crossing the border to Spanish Florida, where they were soon receiving arms and supplies from British ships offshore. These rebels would emerge to conduct raids on white settlers for many years.
    The refusal of most Red Sticks to give up caused some awkwardness when Jackson organized peace talks in July, at Fort Jackson, under the shade of his marquee. The Creeks were dignified and had no reason to be hostile. Nearly all were Jackson’s allies, for the enemies had not come. This proved no obstacle for Jackson. He demanded land from all the Creeks, enemies and allies alike. The cession he dictated was roughly in the shape of the letter “L.” The horizontal leg ran along the whole length of the border with Florida, and cut off the Creeks from any possible contact with Spanish territory. The vertical leg rose through the center of what is now Alabama, and cut off the Creeks from tribes and white settlers farther west. Aside from strategic considerations, the region to be surrendered consisted of twenty-three million acres of saleable real estate.
    One account records the Creek leader Big Warrior rising to remind Jackson that he had gone into battle
against
the Red Sticks. “I made this war, which has proved so fatal to my country, that the treaty entered into a long time ago with father Washington might not be broken. To his friendly arm I hold fast.” But Washington’s friendly arm was long gone, and Jackson had instructions from Washington, DC. The chiefs could accept his terms or flee to Florida. When, on August 6, Big Warrior appealed for a settlement to be delayed until the Red Sticks were actually defeated, Jackson wrote the Creek leaders a letter. He said his land grab was necessary to separate loyal Creeks from Red Sticks.
    Brothers—You say, that when they are all conquered, we will settle—that the war is not over.
I answer—we know the war is not over—andthat is one reason why we will run a line between our friends and our enemies. . . . The safety of the United States and your nation requires, that enemies must be separated from Friends. . . . Therefore we will run the line—our friends will sign the treaty.
    Jackson was making peace not with enemies but with friends, and was warning Big Warrior that if he failed to sign, he would cease to
be
a friend. The chiefs yielded, marking Jackson’s first great step in the removal of the Indians from the Southeast. The Creeks once had been the most powerful and most centrally located of the region’s native nations. Now they were isolated, and their power was destroyed.
    After the sad Creek chiefs approved the Treaty of Fort Jackson on August 9, 1814, their war was largely over. Jackson’s would continue. Rewarded for his victory with a permanent major generalship in the U.S. Army, he rebuilt his force again over the summer, accepting more recruits, putting down more mutinies, and having more soldiers shot. Running desperately short of funds to supply his troops, he wrote for help tofriends in Nashville, who appealed to a bank for $50,000. He briefly invaded Spanish Florida, chasing British troops, and then arrived at New Orleans in time for the main British