RED EAGLE AS AN ADVOCATE OF WAR--THE CIVIL WAR IN THE CREEK NATION.
We have called Tecumseh a wily politician, and in whatever he undertook
his methods were always those of the political manager. He was quick to
discover the temper of individuals as well as of bodies of men, and he
was especially shrewd in selecting his agents to work with him and for
him. He was not long in picking out Red Eagle as the man of all others
likely to draw the Creeks into the scheme of hostility. Red Eagle's
tastes and temper, as we have already seen, were those of the savage. He
was a rich man, and had all the means necessary to the enjoyment of
those sports and pastimes which he delighted in; but above all else he
was an Indian. He looked upon the life of the white men with distaste,
and saw with displeasure the tendency of his people, and more especially
of his half-breed brothers, to adopt the civilization which he loathed.
Moreover, he cherished a special hatred for the Americans--a hatred
which his uncle and tutor, General McGillivray, had sedulously instilled
into his mind in his boyhood; and this detestation of the Americans had
been strengthened by the British and Spanish at Mobile and Pensacola,
during his frequent visits to those posts. His favorite boast was that
there was "no Yankee blood in his veins."
Besides his prejudice, Red Eagle's judgment taught him to fear the
encroachments of the Americans, and men are always quick to hate those
whom they fear. Red Eagle saw with genuine alarm that the white men were
rapidly multiplying in the Tombigbee country, and he knew that the
Americans had made acquisitions of new territory which would still
further invite American emigration into the neighborhood of the Creek
Nation. All this he saw with alarm, because he was convinced that it
boded ill to his people. With many others he feared that the race which
held black men in a state of slavery would reduce red men to a similar
condition as soon as their own numbers in the country should be great
enough to render resistance useless. Convinced of this, Red Eagle
believed that it was the part of wisdom to make a fight for freedom
before it should be forever too late.
Tecumseh, finding in the young chief a man of the highest influence in
the nation, whose prejudices, fears, and judgment combined to make him
an advocate of war, took him at once into his councils, making him his
confidant and principal fellow-worker. Red Eagle eagerly seconded
Tecumseh's efforts, and his influence won many, especially of the young
warriors, to the war party in the nation. His knowledge of the Creeks,
too, enabled him to suggest methods of winning them which his visitor
would not have thought of, probably. One of these was to work directly
upon their imaginations, and to enlist their superstition on the side of
war through prophets of their own, who, by continuous prophesyings,
could do much to counteract the influence of the older Creek chiefs,
most of whom were attached to the Americans, and being well-to-do were
opposed to war, which might lose them their houses, lands, cattle, and
negro slaves. The possession of property, even among partly savage men,
is a strong conservative influence always.
Acting upon Red Eagle's hint, Tecumseh directed his prophet to "inspire"
some Creeks with prophetic powers. The first man selected for this
purpose was wisely chosen. He was a shrewd half-breed named Josiah
Francis, a man whose great cunning and unscrupulousness fitted him
admirably for the business of "prophet."
The prophet of the Shawnees took Francis to a cabin and shut him up
alone for the space of ten days. During that time the inspiring was
accomplished by the Shawnee, who danced and howled around the cabin, and
performed all manner of rude gesticulations. At the end of the ten days
he brought the new prophet forth, telling the people that he was now
blind, but that very soon his sight--which may be said to have been
taken away to be sharpened--would be restored to him, so improved that
he could see all things that were to occur in the future.
Francis, of course, lent himself willingly to this imposture, and
consented to be led about by the Shawnee prophet, stepping like a blind
man who fears to stumble over obstacles. Suddenly he declared that he
had received his vision, duly made over, with modern improvements and
prophetic attachments.
Francis used his new powers both directly and by proxy in the interest
of the war party, creating many other prophets to help him, among them
Sinquista and High Head Jim; and the diligence with which all these
workers for war carried on their prophesyings, pleadings, and
speech-making increased the numbers of the war party, and added to the
ill-feeling, which was already intense, between the Creeks who wished
to make war and those who sought to keep the peace. The Creek nation was
ripe for a civil war--a war of factions among themselves; it only needed
a spark to create an explosion, and the spark was not long in coming, as
we shall see.
Tecumseh, having secured so good a substitute for himself in Red Eagle,
felt that his own presence was no longer needed in the Creek country. He
accordingly took his departure for the north by a circuitous route, in
order that he might visit the tribes on the Missouri River and in
Illinois, and stir them up to hostility. He took with him the Creek
chief Little Warrior, and thirty men of the nation. These Creeks
accompanied him in all his wanderings until they reached Canada, where
they remained a considerable time, receiving attentions of the most
flattering kind from British officers and from the secret agents of the
British. Upon their departure for the return journey, they were provided
with letters which directed the British agents at Pensacola to provide
the Creeks with arms and ammunition in abundance.
On their way back they committed an outrage which, although it had no
direct bearing upon the quarrel among the Creeks at home, proved in the
end to be the beginning of that civil war which grew into a war with the
whites. In the Chickasaw country they murdered seven families, and
making a prisoner of a Mrs. Crawley, carried her with them to their own
country. This outrageous conduct was at once reported by the Chickasaw
agent to Colonel Hawkins, the agent for the Creeks, and he immediately
demanded the punishment of its perpetrators. Under the compact which
existed between the Creeks and the government, the chiefs of the tribe
were bound to comply with this demand, upon pain of bringing the
responsibility for the misdeed upon the nation, and as we have said the
majority of the chiefs were anxious to fulfil their duties and thus to
preserve peace. Accordingly, a council of friendly chiefs determined to
arrest Little Warrior's band and punish them. They sent two parties of
warriors to do this, one under command of Chief McIntosh, and the other
led by Captain Isaacs. These forest policemen speedily accomplished
their mission, pursuing and fighting the offenders until all of them
were put to death. This was in the spring of 1812.
Justice being satisfied, the Creeks might now have remained at peace
with the whites if they had joined the older chiefs in wishing to do
so; but unfortunately that which placated the whites only served to
incense the war party among the Creeks against both the whites and the
peaceful men of their own nation. Murders and other outrages occurred
frequently. The men of the war party became truculent in their bearing,
and matters were in a ferment throughout the nation. The prophets
prophesied, and the orators made speeches denouncing the "peacefuls," as
they called the Creeks who opposed war, as bitterly as they did the
whites. The Alabamas were especially violent, probably in consequence of
their close neighborhood with Red Eagle, whose influence over them was
almost without limit. They committed outrages especially designed to
force the beginning of war, among other things killing a mail-carrier,
seizing the United States mail and carrying it to Pensacola, where they
robbed the bags of their contents.
Big Warrior, who had stood so firmly against Tecumseh's threats, still
held out, but he was now thoroughly aroused. He invited the chiefs of
the war party to a council, but they scorned to listen to his pleas for
a hearing. Failing to bring them to him, he sent a messenger to them
with his "talk," which was in these words: "You are but a few Alabama
people. You say that the Great Spirit visits you frequently; that he
comes in the sun, and speaks to you; that the sun comes down just above
your heads. Now we want to see and hear what you have seen and heard.
Let us have the same proof, then we will believe. You have nothing to
fear; the people who did the killing on the Ohio are put to death, and
the law is satisfied."
This was a perfectly sensible, logical, reasonable talk, and for that
reason it angered the men to whom it was sent. Men in a passion always
resent reason when it condemns them or stands in the way of their
purposes. The Alabamas answered Big Warrior's sensible proposition by
putting his messenger to death. Thus the civil war among the Creeks, for
it had become that now, went on. The peaceful Indians remained true to
their allegiance, and fought their hostile brethren when occasion
required, although they did what they could to avoid collisions with
them.
In such a time as that even civilized men become disorderly, and the
hostile Creeks grew daily more and more turbulent. They collected in
parties and went upon marauding expeditions, sometimes sacking a
plantation, sometimes murdering a party of emigrants, sometimes making a
descent upon the dwellings of peaceful Creeks, and doing all manner of
mischief.
The long-threatened war between the United States and Great Britain had
been formally declared in the year 1812, and it was now the spring of
1813. The Americans at the beginning of the war had asserted their title
to the town and harbor of Mobile, which, although a part of the
territory ceded many years before to this country by the French, had
until now been held by the Spanish. The affair was so well managed that
the place was surrendered without bloodshed and occupied by the American
forces; but its surrender served to increase the hostility of the
Spanish in Florida, and although we were nominally at peace with Spain,
the Spanish authorities at Pensacola, who had already done much to stir
up Indian hostilities, lent themselves readily to the schemes of the
British. During the latter part of August, 1812, they went so far as to
permit a British force to land at Pensacola, take possession of the fort
there, and make the place a base of military operations against us.
From the very beginning of the troubles the Indians had maintained
communication with Pensacola, and parties of them went thither
frequently to procure arms and ammunition, which were freely furnished.
It was with one of these parties, on their return from Pensacola, that
the first battle of the Creek war was fought. Of that we shall hear in
another chapter. Meantime it is worth while to explain how the plans of
the war party were discovered in time to save many lives.
A friendly half-breed, McNac by name, was driven from his home by one of
the petty marauding parties spoken of a few pages back, and his cattle
were carried to Pensacola by the marauders, and sold. After hiding in
the swamps for some time, McNac at last ventured out at night to visit
his home and see precisely what damage had been done. He was unlucky
enough to meet High Head Jim at the head of a party of hostile Indians,
and as there was no chance of safety either in flight or fight, McNac
resorted to diplomacy, which in this case, as in many others, meant
vigorous lying. He declared that he had abandoned his peaceful
proclivities, and had made up his mind to join the war party. McNac
appears to have had something like a genius for lying, as he succeeded
in imposing his fabrications upon High Head Jim, who, suspicious and
treacherous as he was, believed McNac implicitly, and confided to him
the plan of the hostile Creeks. This plan was to kill Big Warrior,
Captain Isaacs, McIntosh, Mad Dragon's Son, and the other friendly
chiefs, before going finally upon the war-path, and, having thus
deprived the friendly Creeks of their leaders, to compel them to join in
the war upon the Americans. Then, High Head Jim said, the war would
begin by simultaneous attacks upon the various settlements. Having
exterminated the whites upon their borders, they were to march in three
columns against the people of Tennessee, Georgia, and Mississippi,
receiving assistance from the Choctaws and the Cherokees.
McNac bore this information at once to the intended victims, and thus
enabled them to secure their safety in various ways; but the civil war
increased in its fury. The hostile bands still confined themselves as
yet chiefly to attacks upon the peaceful members of their own nation,
destroying their houses, killing or driving off their cattle, and
stealing whatever portable property they possessed.
Colonel Hawkins still hoped for peace, rather unreasonably, it must be
confessed, and avoided interference as far as possible; but he extended
protection to Big Warrior, and with the assistance of a force of
friendly Creeks rescued that chieftain and escorted him to a place of
safety.
In such a state of affairs, of course, a collision between the whites
and the Indians was inevitable, and when it came, as will be related in
the next chapter, the Creek war of 1813 was begun.