RED EAGLE'S BIRTH AND BOYHOOD.
William Weatherford, the Red Eagle, was born in the Creek country, and
born a chieftain. The exact date of his birth is not known, but as he
was a man of about thirty or thirty-five years of age when the Creek war
broke out in 1813, his birth must have occurred about the year 1780. He
is commonly spoken of in books, and especially in books that were
written while a feeling of intense antipathy to him continued to exist,
as the son of a Scotch pedler, or the son of a Georgia pedler, the
phrase carrying with it the suggestion that Red Eagle was a man of
contemptible origin. This was not the case. His father was a Scotch
pedler, certainly, who went to the Creek country from Georgia, but he
was by no means the sort of person who is suggested to our minds by the
word pedler. He was a trader of great shrewdness and fine intellectual
ability, who managed his business so well that he became rich in spite
of his strong taste for the expensive sport of horse-racing.
Besides this, men usually have two parents, and Red Eagle was not an
exception to this rule. If he was the son of a Scotch pedler from
Georgia, he was also the son of an Indian woman, who belonged to the
dominant family of the Wind; that is to say, she was a princess, her
rank among the Creeks corresponding as nearly as possible to that of a
daughter of the royal house in a civilized monarchy.
Red Eagle's connection with persons of distinction did not end here. He
was the nephew of the wife of Le Clerc Milfort, the Frenchman mentioned
in a former chapter, who, after a twenty years' residence among the
Creeks, returned to France and received a brigadier-general's commission
at the hands of Napoleon. Red Eagle was the nephew, through his mother,
of Alexander McGillivray, a man of mixed Scotch, French, and Indian
blood, who by dint of his very great ability as a soldier, a ruler of
the Creeks, and a wily, unscrupulous diplomatist, made a prominent place
for himself in history. He was commissioned as a colonel in the British
service; later he became a commissary of subsistence in the Spanish
army, with the rank and pay of colonel; and finally he received from
Washington an appointment as brigadier-general, with full pay. He is
described by Mr. A. J. Pickett, in his History of Alabama, as "a man of
towering intellect and vast information, who ruled the Creek country for
a quarter of a century." Another writer says that Alexander McGillivray
"became the great chief or emperor, as he styled himself, of all the
confederate Muscogee tribes;" and adds, "He was a man of the highest
intellectual abilities, of considerable education, and of wonderful
talents for intrigue and diplomacy. This he exhibited conspicuously
through the period of the American Revolution, in baffling alike the
schemes of our countrymen, both Whig and Tory, of the Spaniards in
Florida, of the British at Mobile, and of the French at New Orleans, and
by using them simultaneously for his own purposes of political and
commercial aggrandizement. A more wily Talleyrand never trod the red war
paths of the frontiers or quaffed the deceptive black drink at sham
councils or with deluded agents and emissaries."
Reading these descriptions of the character and abilities of his uncle,
knowing how shrewd a man his father was, and remembering that his mother
was a member of that family of the Wind who had for generations managed
to retain for themselves the foremost place in the councils and
campaigns of their warlike race, we may fairly assume that Red Eagle
came honestly by the genius for intrigue and for command which brought
distinction to him during the Creek war. He may fairly be supposed to
have inherited those qualities of mind which fitted him to be a leader
in that fierce struggle, and as a leader to hold his own surprisingly
well against greatly superior numbers of good troops, commanded by
Andrew Jackson himself.
When Charles Weatherford, the Scotch trader from Georgia, married the
sister of General Alexander McGillivray, or Emperor Alexander
McGillivray, as he preferred to be called, he acquired by that alliance
a measure of influence among the Creeks which few men even of pure
Muscogee blood could boast. This influence was strengthened as his
shrewdness and the soundness of his judgment made themselves apparent in
the councils of the nation. More especially he made himself dear to the
hearts of the Creeks by his skill in managing their diplomatic relations
with the Spanish authorities in Florida, and the American agents.
In all this, however, the wily Scotchman served himself while serving
the nation, and he rapidly grew to be rich. He lived, literally as a
prince, at his home on the eastern bank of the Alabama River, on the
first high ground below the confluence of the Coosa and Tallapoosa
rivers.
Here he built for himself a home, and, still retaining his interest in
commerce, set up a trading house. His love of horse-racing has already
been mentioned, and now that he was a man of wealth and consequence it
was natural that he should indulge this taste to the full. He laid out a
race-track near his trading house, and devoted a large share of his
attention to the business of breeding fine horses. Even in thus
indulging his passion for horse-racing, however, Charles Weatherford was
shrewd enough to make the sport contribute to his prosperity in other
ways than by means of profitable gambling. He so managed the races as to
attract his neighbors, principally the Alabamas, to his place of
business, and so secured to himself their trade, which would otherwise
have gone to the traders on the opposite side of the river, in the
village of Coosawda.
Here William Weatherford was born, the son of the wealthiest man in that
part of the country, and by inheritance a chief of the ruling family of
the nation. He had for tutors no less competent men than his two uncles,
Alexander McGillivray, and the accomplished Frenchman Le Clerc Milfort.
Young Weatherford evinced the best capacity for acquiring knowledge, but
it was only such knowledge as he wanted to acquire. Caring nothing about
reading and writing, he refused to learn to read and write, and no
persuasions would overcome his obstinacy in this particular. He took
pains, however, to acquire the utmost command of the English language,
partly because it was useful to him as a means of communication with the
Americans, and partly because he found that command of a civilized
tongue gave him a greater force in speaking his native Creek language,
and it was a part of his ambition to be distinguished for eloquence in
council. He learned French, also, but less perfectly, and acquired
enough of Spanish to speak it in ordinary conversation. He travelled,
too, for improvement, making several journeys while yet a boy to Mobile
and Pensacola, picking up as he went whatever information there was to
acquire.
He thus became in an important sense an educated man. He could not read
or write, it is true; but it is probable that Homer was equally
ignorant, and not at all certain that Hannibal or Richard Coeur de
Lion, great commanders as they were, were much better scholars.
The chief function of education is to train the mind, and the chief
difference between the educated man and one who is not so is that the
mind of the one has been trained into a state of high efficiency while
that of the other has not. Reading and writing offer the shortest roads,
the simplest means, to this end; but they are not the only ones, and if
Red Eagle had little or no knowledge of letters, he had nevertheless an
active intellect, trained under excellent masters to a high degree of
efficiency, and hence was, in the true sense of the term, a man of
education.
In his tastes and instincts this son of a Scotchman was altogether an
Indian. He devoted himself earnestly to the work of acquiring the
knowledge of woodcraft and the skill in the chase which his people held
in highest esteem. He was a notable huntsman, a fine swimmer, a tireless
walker. He was a master marksman, alike with the bow and with the rifle.
He was passionately fond of all athletic sports, too, and by his skill
in them he won the admiration--almost the worship--of all the youth of
his nation. He was the fleetest of foot of all the young men who ran
races in the Creek villages, and his fondness for the sports of his
people was so great that he was never absent from any gathering of the
young men for contests of strength, activity, or skill, however distant
the place of meeting might be. He was their chief by right of his
accomplishments, as well as by inheritance as the son of Sehoy the
princess. Especially in the great Creek game of throwing the ball--a
game which closely resembled a battle between hundreds of men on each
side, and one in which success was achieved only by great personal
daring and endurance added to skill, bones being broken frequently in
the rude collisions of the opposing forces, and men being killed and
trampled under foot not infrequently--the young Red Eagle was an
enthusiastic and successful player.
While yet a little child, Red Eagle showed that he had inherited his
father's love for horses, and his persistence in riding races, breaking
unruly colts, and dashing madly over the roughest country on the back of
some one of his father's untamed animals, gave him the finest skill and
most consummate grace of a perfect horseman. An old Indian woman who
knew the young chief in his youth, telling of his daring, his skill, and
his grace as a horseman, said, "The squaws would quit hoeing corn, and
smile and gaze upon him as he rode by the corn-patch."
All these things added to Red Eagle's popularity with the old and young
of his nation, and the daring and enthusiasm which he showed in the
sports of his people were exercised frequently in their service. In the
wars of the Creeks with neighboring nations, the Choctaws and the
Chickasaws, and in their campaigns on the borders of Tennessee, Red
Eagle distinguished himself for courage, tireless activity, and great
skill in warfare, even before he had reached manhood, so that when his
growth was fully gained he was already a man of the widest and most
controlling influence among the Creeks, by reason both of his birth and
of his achievements.
His popularity was enhanced doubtless by the beauty of his face and the
comeliness of his person, for all the writers who have described Red
Eagle, and all the men of that time who have given oral accounts of him,
agree in telling us that he was a singularly handsome man, with
brilliant eyes, well-cut features, shapely limbs, and imposing presence.
That nothing which could help him to influence and power might be
lacking, Red Eagle was gifted with eloquence at once stirring and
persuasive. His natural gift had been cultivated carefully, and, as we
have seen in a former chapter, he adroitly hoarded his power in this
respect, taking care not to weaken the force of his oratory by making
it cheap and common. He would not speak at all upon light occasions.
While others harangued, he sat silent, permitting decisions to be made
without expressing any opinion whatever upon the matters in dispute. It
was only when a great occasion aroused deep passions that Red Eagle
spoke. Then his eloquence was overwhelming. He won his audience
completely, and bent men easily to his will. He knew how to arouse their
passions and to play upon them for his own purposes. Opposition gave way
before the tide of his speech. His opponents in debate were won to his
views or silenced by his overwhelming oratory; and he who was his
people's commander in the field was no less certainly their master in
the council on all occasions which were important enough to stir him to
exertion. He had vices, certainly, but they were the vices of his time
and country, and there is no sufficient evidence that he carried them to
excess, while his retention of physical and intellectual vigor afford
the strongest possible proof of the contrary.