Creek War

The Creek War, 1813 to 1814

The Creek War was fought in 1813 and 1814 in the Old Southwest, chiefly across what is now Alabama. It began as a civil conflict within the Creek Nation, between the traditionalist Red Sticks and the Creeks allied with the United States, and widened into war with American militia and volunteers after the Red Stick attack on Fort Mims in August 1813. Through the autumn and winter, American columns under commanders including Andrew Jackson struck the Red Stick towns at Tallushatchee, Talladega and the Holy Ground, and the war was decided in March 1814 at Horseshoe Bend on the Tallapoosa. The settlement that followed is set out below.

Results

The signing of the Treaty of Fort Jackson took place on August 9, 1814, when Jackson compelled leaders from both the Upper and Lower Creek towns to put their names to the document. Even though Creek chiefs who had stood alongside Jackson in battle voiced their objections, the tribe was made to surrender 21,086,793 acres, roughly 85,335 square kilometers, encompassing about half of what is now Alabama along with a portion of southern Georgia. This land went to the United States government. The conflict had functioned largely as an internal struggle among the Creek people, yet Jackson made no distinction between the Lower Creek who had allied with him and the Red Sticks who had opposed him. He seized territory belonging to both groups, justifying this by pointing to what he viewed as necessary for American security. Among the ceded territory was 1.9 million acres, or about 7,700 square kilometers, that the Cherokee Nation also claimed as hunting grounds, despite the Cherokee having fought on the American side throughout the war.

Once the Red Sticks had been brought to heel, Jackson redirected his attention toward the Gulf Coast, where the broader War of 1812 continued. Acting without official orders, he crossed into Spanish Florida and pushed a British force from Pensacola, a town that had served as a supply hub for the Red Sticks (as seen at the Battle of Burnt Corn Creek) and for the Corps of Colonial Marines stationed at Prospect Bluff. Not long after, on January 8, 1815, he handed the British a defeat at the Battle of New Orleans.

Between 1816 and 1817, tensions kept flaring along the frontier separating American territory from Spanish Florida, producing episodes like the fighting at the Negro Fort and Fowltown along with what became known as the Scott massacre. Jackson launched a second invasion of Spanish Florida in 1818, pursuing Red Stick leaders who had taken refuge there, in what history remembers as the First Seminole War.

These military successes propelled Jackson into national prominence, and he would go on to win the presidency in 1829, becoming the nation's seventh chief executive. During his time in office, he pushed for the Indian Removal Act, which Congress passed in 1830. This legislation permitted the negotiation of treaties exchanging land and providing annuity payments, while also granting authority to forcibly relocate southeastern tribes to designated Indian Territory beyond the Mississippi River, a campaign of displacement that history has come to recognize as the Trail of Tears.

Written by Aubrey Research, drawing on the Wikipedia article for the Creek War.

Where these engagements were fought

All 14 are placed on the map. Select a marker to see the engagement.

Documented engagements

Plus 6 further documented engagements in the Creek War record.

Engagements and locations are compiled from published sources: American Battlefield Protection Program (NPS) (public domain (U.S. federal record), boundary survey); Wikidata (structured data, CC0); Wikipedia (text rewritten and cited as a reference, CC BY-SA 4.0).