Battle of Burnt Corn

On July 27, 1813, combatants clashed at Burnt Corn Creek, a site now situated in Escambia County, Alabama. This engagement marked the opening clash of the Creek War pitting American troops against a Muscogee faction called the Red Sticks. Before it became a war involving outside forces, the Creek War started as a rift within the Muscogee nation itself, sometimes called the Creek or Mvskoke people. One faction favored a unified tribal authority and partnership with the United States government, while their rivals, the Red Sticks, resisted the spread of American settlement and sought a return to older Muscogee customs and ways of life. Seeking arms and provisions to sustain their cause, a party of Red Sticks journeyed to Pensacola to negotiate with Spanish authorities.

As these Red Sticks made their way back, they fell into an ambush set by an assortment of fighters: volunteers from the Mississippi Territory, militiamen from nearby communities, and Muscogee of mixed European and native heritage. Surprise initially favored the attacking coalition, yet the Red Sticks rallied and ultimately pushed their opponents off the battlefield. Between ten and twelve Red Sticks perished in the fighting, along with the loss of most of the munitions and goods they had gathered in Spanish territory. Despite these losses, the Red Sticks emerged victorious once the combined American and militia force withdrew from the field.

While the clash itself carried minor strategic weight, it transformed what had been an internal Muscogee dispute into a wider struggle drawing in several nations, eventually folding into the regional dimensions of the War of 1812. Several men who fought at Burnt Corn would later take part in the assault on Fort Mims, a retaliatory strike the Red Sticks launched against American settlers. Conflict continued to unfold across the following year, reaching its climax at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, followed by the signing of the Treaty of Fort Jackson and, ultimately, the displacement of most Muscogee people from Alabama and Georgia.

Background

What became known as the Creek War, or alternatively the Red Stick War, first erupted as an internal conflict among the Muscogee Confederacy rather than a struggle against outsiders. The Muscogee people had long occupied territory spanning present-day Alabama, portions of western Georgia, and the northern reaches of Florida. Two main divisions defined the tribe: the Upper Towns, whose talwa (as towns were called in Creek) stretched along the Alabama, Tallapoosa, and Coosa Rivers, and the Lower Towns, situated along the Chattahoochee.

Benjamin Hawkins, serving as U.S. Indian agent, oversaw the creation of the Creek National Council, a centralized governing body that grew out of what had previously been loose gatherings of tribal chiefs known as micos. This council took to selling off tribal hunting grounds as a means of addressing Muscogee debts, a practice that stirred resentment throughout the tribe. Compounding matters, the old economic system built around hunting and trade was gradually giving way to farming and market agriculture. Because traditional sources of goods had dwindled, most Muscogee found themselves dependent on trade with either the American government or private companies like Panton, Leslie & Company, later reorganized as John Forbes and Company. At the same time, settlers from the United States pushed steadily onto Muscogee land, a trend accelerated once the Federal Road was built. Georgia laid claim to a portion of what had been Muscogee territory, though the bulk of modern Alabama still lay within Muscogee hands.

Tecumseh, the Shawnee leader, journeyed south in 1811 hoping to bring local tribes into his broader confederacy. His message resonated with many Muscogee, who likewise wished to push back against American expansion and restore older ways of life. Following councils with the Shawnee, a party of Muscogee warriors struck settlers near the Duck River in what is now Tennessee, killing them. In response, Hawkins pushed the National Council, headed by Big Warrior (also called Tustanagee Thlucco), to punish those responsible. Then, in January 1813, another wave of settler killings occurred, this time carried out largely by Upper Creek Muscogee. Once more Hawkins insisted on action, prompting the Council to dispatch a party of warriors under William McIntosh (Tustunnuggee Hutke) to deal with the offenders. This intervention broke with custom, since such matters had normally fallen to the individual talwa rather than the central council.

Opposition to the Council's move came from a faction known as the Red Sticks, named for the atássa, a traditional weapon painted red to symbolize war within Muscogee culture. This group began striking at Tukabatchee, the town where Big Warrior resided. In turn, Big Warrior directed attacks against Upper Towns residents loyal to the National Council, during which the Red Sticks also destroyed domesticated livestock belonging to their targets. Gradually the Red Sticks gained dominance over Upper Creek settlements, while those resisting their authority sought refuge among Lower Creek communities in the Chattahoochee Valley and the Tensaw District. Anticipating raids from the Red Sticks, settlers throughout the Mississippi Territory organized militias and volunteer regiments for their own defense. Mixed-blood Muscogee, many of whom had prospered by embracing American-style agriculture, saw their plantations targeted and destroyed by Red Stick forces.

Battle

The opening American assault caught the Red Sticks off guard entirely. Mounted troops charged forward, cutting down a Muscogee woman and an enslaved African man who had been trying to reach the American lines. The attackers lost one man in this initial clash but quickly seized between eight and ten pack horses belonging to the Red Sticks. For the next three-quarters of an hour or so, the two sides traded shots intermittently until the Red Sticks found themselves driven back into a stand of cane.

There the tide turned. The Red Sticks regrouped and opened fire on the Americans, who now found themselves exposed atop a pine ridge offering little natural cover. According to Colonel G. W. Creagh, who witnessed the engagement firsthand, Caller's men displayed scant enthusiasm for continued combat. Meanwhile Bailey's soldiers pressed the assault against the retreating Red Sticks, which left Caller's troops free to plunder captured supplies instead of fighting. This looting proved costly: McQueen and High-head Jim led their warriors in a strike against the distracted looters, scattering them from the field entirely. Fighting dragged on for roughly two more hours before Caller finally called for a withdrawal. Holding the line during this retreat fell to a small rearguard under Captains Dale, Bailey, and Benjamin Smoot, who absorbed the brunt of the Muscogee counterattack and bought time for the main force to escape. This phase of the battle claimed one more American life.

When the fighting finally ended, the toll on the Red Stick side stood at ten to twelve dead and eight or nine wounded, drawn from a fighting force numbering only sixty. The Americans, by contrast, counted two killed and roughly fifteen wounded. Notably, George Stiggins, a Muscogee of mixed blood who later chronicled his people's history, claimed the Red Sticks entered this fight with merely thirteen firearms among them, relying otherwise on traditional arms.