RED EAGLE BEFORE FORT MIMS.
Now that it was determined that General Claiborne should not invade the
Creek country and crush Weatherford before that chieftain's forces
should be fully gathered and fully armed, there was nothing for General
Claiborne to do but wait the attack of his Indian adversary with what
patience he could, taking care to neglect no precaution which might help
to secure safety. He visited all the forts one after another, inspected
them, and gave minute and careful instructions for their strengthening,
everywhere cautioning their commanders to beware of surprise, and to
avoid the danger of falling into careless habits. He knew the Indians
well, and knew that they would seek with great care to make their first
attack unexpectedly, and also that they would bring as heavy a force as
possible to bear upon the point of attack. He knew the temper of the
militiamen too, and seems to have specially feared that they would be
lulled into a dangerous feeling of security by delay and by repeated
false alarms.
Against all of these dangers this thoroughly capable commander
continually cautioned his subordinate officers to whom he committed the
command of the several forts. Had his warnings been duly heeded, a
result far different from that which we shall have to record would have
followed.
Having delivered his orders, General Claiborne went to the most exposed
point, a small fort about sixty miles further into the Indian country,
confidently believing that Red Eagle would make his first attack there,
with a view of freeing the country of white men before making a decided
advance against any of the forts near the confluence of the two rivers.
In this he erred, as the event showed, but the error was one which no
foresight or judgment could have avoided. Red Eagle was a bold and a
shrewd warrior, and when he was free to choose his time and place of
attack, as he was at this time, it was simply impossible to conjecture
with accuracy where or when he would strike. He was like the lightning,
dealing his blows without a hint, in advance, of their object. General
Claiborne having no means of ascertaining what his adversary would do,
and no chance to guess, simply went to the front as a brave commander
should.
Meantime Major Beasley soon began to neglect proper precautions. He left
the new blockhouse and the new line of picketing unfinished, although he
had idle men in plenty who could have completed them with very little
effort. The accounts which have been given of the life in the fort
indicate that the commander was utterly wanting in the first
qualification of an officer for command--namely, a due regard for
discipline. He had raw troops under his command--troops whose efficiency
as soldiers would have been more than doubled during those days of
inaction and waiting if daily or twice daily drills had been ordered and
anything like discipline or military order maintained. That a commander
intrusted with the charge of so important a fort, especially with the
lives of so many helpless women and children committed to his care,
should have neglected so good an opportunity to convert his raw recruits
into drilled and disciplined soldiers, would scarcely be credible if the
fact were not fully attested.
Instead of improving the precious days of waiting in this way, Major
Beasley wholly relaxed the reins of discipline. The men gave themselves
up to roystering, card-playing, and uproarious fun-making.
About this time a negro, whom Weatherford had captured near McGirth's
plantation, escaped, and, making his way to Fort Mims, informed Major
Beasley of the whereabouts of the Indian force, telling him also that
the Indian chieftain had made careful inquiries about this particular
fort, its strength, the number of persons in it, and other details, his
anxiety about which indicated his purpose to attack the post. Major
Beasley sent out scouting parties; but as they discovered no Indians in
the neighborhood he appears immediately to have relapsed into his former
state of listlessness. He did not respect his enemy, as Claiborne had so
earnestly warned him to do. The men, calling the negro from McGirth's
plantation a liar, returned to their frolics and their idleness.
Red Eagle, wiser than his enemy, respected him, and advanced so
cautiously that he actually placed his army within striking distance of
the fort without Beasley's knowledge, and concealed his men so adroitly
that Beasley's scouting parties failed to discover them. Beasley was as
brave a man as Red Eagle, but Red Eagle had the other qualities of a
soldier--sagacity, caution, tireless watchfulness--which Beasley lacked;
in a contest between the two as commanders, Red Eagle was Beasley's
master. One day, while Red Eagle was thus hovering about the fort,
watching it as a cat watches its prey, two negroes, who had been
guarding some cattle, ran in great terror to the fort, and reported that
they had seen Indians in the immediate neighborhood. Major Beasley at
once sent a body of horsemen under command of Captain Middleton to
ascertain the facts of the case. Captain Middleton, accompanied by the
negroes, went to the spot where they said they had seen the savages;
finding no Indians there, Captain Middleton, who appears to have thought
that Indians are like trees, staying in one place, returned to the fort
and reported that a false alarm had been given. The poor negroes were
denounced as liars, and one of them was flogged for having given a false
alarm. The other was saved for a while by the intercession of his
master, but he was afterward arraigned again, his master's consent
having been gained by Major Beasley's threat to expel him and his family
from the fort if he persisted in his refusal; and it is upon record that
when the fort was attacked the negro was standing tied, and awaiting his
flogging.
This incident is mentioned here in illustration of the unaccountable
folly of Major Beasley. The writers who have recorded the facts of this
officer's behavior have touched them as lightly as possible, sparing him
probably because he fought manfully and fell at his post at last; but it
is impossible to regard his conduct with any thing like respect or even
patience. His carelessness was a crime, and history must condemn it as
such. Charged with the duty of defending an important post, he neglected
the most essential measures of defence; intrusted with the lives of more
than five hundred persons, he carelessly, criminally, permitted them to
be butchered. We have already seen that he neglected discipline in the
fort; he neglected also to surround the fort, as he should have done,
with a cordon of picket-guards, who might have been so placed that ample
warning would have been given of the approach of the enemy. Instead of
that, he actually subjected the negroes who gave warning to ignominious
punishment, and, most incredible thing of all, permitted the gates of
the fort to stand open until the accumulation of sand at their base
rendered it impossible to shut them promptly!
The alarm given by the negroes was given on the 29th day of August. The
next morning the negro who had been flogged was again sent out to guard
the cattle, and his companion was detained to receive his punishment.
Meantime Red Eagle lay within a few hundred yards of the fort, at the
head of a thousand warriors. While Major Beasley was using his authority
to compel the negro's master to consent to the infliction of the
penalty, Red Eagle and his men were quietly watching the fort, looking
in at the open gate and making ready to destroy the garrison. The negro
who had been whipped again saw the Indians, he being where a
picket-guard ought to have been; but he was afraid to report the fact
lest he should be whipped again, and so between his fear of the Indians
on the one hand and of Major Beasley's peculiar notions of discipline on
the other, the poor fellow determined to flee to another fort, two or
three miles east of Fort Mims. No alarm was given, therefore. Nobody in
the fort suspected Red Eagle's presence or prepared to meet his assault.
Nobody shut the gate. Nobody did any thing, in short, which ought to
have been done, or any thing which indicated that this was a fort, or
that its commander knew that a war existed or was likely to exist
anywhere on earth. Worst of all, Red Eagle lay there watching his prey
like a tiger, and seeing just how matters stood. The able commander of
the red men knew his business and attended to it. His plan was formed,
his men were ready, and he only awaited the coming of the right moment
to spring upon his unsuspecting prey. It was nearly noon, and it was the
most critical hour of the war.
[Illustration: FORT MIMS (INTERIOR).]