1813.

JACKSON AT THE SOUTHWEST.

389

pushed to accomplish the greatest things first, nor impossibilities at all. This shaggy and muscular son of the mountains, who abhorred conventionalities, despised shams, and trusted his own vigorous judgment more than that of the sages, had enjoyed little educational advantage, military or civil, being full of illiteracy, so to speak, as a hickory is of knots; but, on the other hand, he possessed a sound military instinct, ambition, a mastiff's courage and pertinacity, readiness of resources, a rugged humor, and a considerable experience of men, gained from the honorable posts of congressman and frontier judge. Though choleric and harsh, resentful when angry, and liable to err, he could originate and in heart showed himself generous and compassionate.

Dec., 1812.

Mar., 1813.

Jackson's tender of service when the war broke out elicited thanks only at first, and, as with General Harrison, it seemed the recognition of Western popularity, of a recruiting capacity most essential to the Union after Hull's surrender, that brought him into prominence. Fifteen hundred Tennessee volunteers being called out to aid Wilkinson, in 1812, in the protection of the Gulf ports, two thousand assembled at Nashville in response, on the bitterest of winter days, and under Jackson hastened to Natchez. One of Armstrong's first orders as Secretary of War was to have these troops dismissed at that distant post, five hundred miles from their homes; the new plan being, as we have seen, to dispense with volunteers in favor of regulars. Wilkinson's recruiting officers made ready their nets; but defying his superior and all attempts to enlist his soldiers into other regiments, Jackson marched the Tennessee volunteers home again, nor disbanded them until they were drawn up once more on the public square at Nashville, where he had taken command. This act of disobedience might have ruined an officer of less nerve, for Jackson's transportation orders were at first dishonored; but to his fiery remonstrance the administration yielded, and a mollifying letter was dispatched by Armstrong.*

May.

The occupation of the Floridas had been a matter of serious

* Lossing's War of 1812, 742; Parton's Jackson.

1812.

concern to the United States in connection with the present war. An insurrection breaking out in East Florida, Amelia Island with Fernandina sought the protecMar.-Apr. tion of our flag. Unless the United States Government seized upon East and West Florida there was reason to fear that England would make their ports a base for offensive operations. On the other hand were scruples against annexing the Spanish possessions forcibly, at the risk of injuring the American cause in the eyes of Europe, besides exasperating Northern peace men who had remonstrated against such a course. Gallatin having, prior to his departure, earnestly pressed these latter views, it was determined not to clog the Russian mediation with respect to East Florida, and orders of evacuation were issued accordingly,* but of West Florida, to which the United States had steadily asserted title under the Louisiana purchase, full possession was kept, a possession already gained through the surrender of the Spanish fort at Mobile,—a post of great strategic importance, feebly garrisoned, which Wilkinson captured without bloodshed.†

May, 1813.

April 15.

But while this government, under stress of necessity, took full jurisdiction of a soil whose rightful ownership had long been pressed upon Spain as a subject for friendly adjustment, and with the utmost delicacy and firmness, British and Spanish emissaries across the borders were artfully stimulating the Southern Indians to make war upon the United States. The Creeks, peaceful settlers hitherto upon the Alabama, were thus seduced from their long friendship. Tecumseh, when making his tour of the Southern tribes in the autumn of 1812, had impressed these, together with the Seminoles of Florida and Georgia, by his burning eloquence and the fame of his heroic exploits. To their credulous minds appeared, after his depar ture, miraculous attestations. A comet appeared in the sky; it was the blazing arm of Tecumseh, his signal for war. The shock of an earthquake was felt in December; and this was

*See Monroe Correspondence, May, 1813.

† Congress in confidential session, 1812-13, authorized the Executive action concerning the Floridas. 5 Niles's Register, suppl.

1813-14.

THE CREEK WAR.

391

the stamp of Tecumseh's angry foot, as a warning to disbe lievers in his divine mission. It was woe to the infatuated Creeks from the day they took the war-path, divided in their own councils as they were, and environed by white settlements, constantly growing; while the Choctaws and Chickasaws, neighbors who had refused to listen to the charmer, separated them by a barries more formidable than great rivers from Tecumseh's distant warriors. But fanaticism fights with supernatural allies; arms and supplies, moreover, were furnished by a British squadron in the Gulf, co-operating with the Spanish governor at Pensacola. The excited savages, with dance and incantation, approached Fort Mims, an American stockade work east of the Alabama River, and ten miles above its junction with the Tombigbee; whither the alarmed whites had hastily fled from the surrounding country. A horAug. 30. rid massacre ensued, lasting from noon until sunset. The main buildings of the fort were laid in ashes. Out of 550 persons surprised in this slaughter-pen, 400 were slain or roasted to death; neither woman nor child was spared.

Sept.

While the Northern gaze was fixed upon Perry and the Canadian operations, this Fort Mims massacre startled from their security the Mississippi and Gulf inhabitants like a sudden musketry in the rear. A cry came up for help from the Southern border, and Tennessee, with her eager volunteers, instantly responded, pledging this time the faith of the State in advance of arrangements with the War Department. General Jackson, the earliest officer to take the field, soon became the chief personage in a vigorous invasion of the Creek country, which lasted until the spring of 1814. With that indiscretion in campaign plans common to their race the victorious Indians, instead of turning back to threaten Mobile and regain a base of supplies, had advanced from the ruins of Fort Mims northward. Our East and West Tennessee troops united opportunely in the Upper Alabama region, and drove back the foe, defeating the Creeks in several bloody encounters. They were joined by a Mississippi column, and at the battle of the Horseshoe the power of the Creek nation was finally broken, and the few crestfallen warriors of the tribes who sur

1814. March 27.

vived sued as suppliants for peace.* The grim conqueror, who had shown no quarter in fight, proved lenient in the hour of victory, sparing, because of a manly demeanor, Weathersford himself, the half-breed who commanded the Creeks at the Fort Mims massacre; and taking into his own family to be nursed and reared like a son, an Indian babe, who had been picked up on the battlefield, lying by his dead mother's side.

1813. Feb. 24.

(4.) Naval Operations on the Seaboard.-Important victories were gained off the coast in 1813, but the American navy could not maintain the unvarying success of the former year. Our hero and victim on the deep was the lion-hearted James Lawrence. Left, during the winter, by Commodore Bainbridge, in South American waters, Captain Lawrence, while cruising along the coast in command of the Hornet, 18, encountered the British brig-of-war Peacock, 18, a vessel but slightly inferior in men and metal. The vessels passed within half-pistol-shot of each other, delivering their broadsides; then, after a skilful manœuvre, the American vessel bore down on the British with so furious a blaze of fire that in fifteen minutes the Peacock struck her colors, and hoisted the signal of distress, her mainmast falling,-and then went suddenly down, carrying to the bottom nine of her own crew and three of the boarding party from the Hornet. Lawrence, who showed humane generosity to his prisoners, March 25. sailed for home, and in a month cast anchor at the Brooklyn navy yard.

Promoted for his valor, and assigned to the command of the Chesapeake at Boston harbor, Lawrence received his deathwarrant in the next engagement. Among the British blockaders of the Halifax squadron was the Shannon, a sound frigate, having an emulous and brave commander, Captain Broke. Lawrence was challenged to fight the Shannon with the Chesapeake, outside Boston light, ship to ship. The Chesapeake had among sailors the repute of an unlucky vessel; nor had Law

*Lossing's War of 1812, 738-782.

† Lossing's War of 1812.

1813.

THE CHESAPEAKE AND SHANNON.

393

rence time to train well his crew, some of whom were mutinous; but, nothing daunted, he accepted Broke's challenge, and the vessels proceeded to the open bay. The June 1. battle began with heavy broadsides late in the afternoon; and the Chesapeake, crippled in the helm, soon fell foul of the Shannon's forechains, and lay exposed to a raking fire. The vessels being lashed together, Lawrence's orders imperfectly passed; and Lawrence himself, fatally wounded, and borne below, Broke took quick advantage of the situation, and pressed his boarders forward to victory. The crew of the Chesapeake made a disorderly resistance; but in fifteen minutes' time from the first broadside the British held possession of the ship, sword in hand, and the captors, hauling down the stars and stripes, ran up the British ensign with their own hands, and sailed with their prize for Halifax, bearing the American commander, who died of his wounds on the way.

Nothing showed more convincingly the change of feeling that Englishmen had experienced within a year than their wild exultation over this the first and solitary exploit of the British navy during the present war. That insolent disdain, such as the British officers had shown who planted foot upon the Chesapeake's deck on the occasion of its first misfortune, might well point a contrast to the present triumph; for Broke had challenged Lawrence as a becoming foeman, and Lawrence's burial on hostile soil was attended with the honors of a vanquished hero. It was now America's turn to despond, until Perry's victory restored the public confidence. On Erie, it might be said, that the spirit of the brave Lawrence fought once more triumphantly; for Perry's flagship bore the name of Lawrence, whose last order, "Don't give up the ship," was lettered upon the intrepid Perry's battle-flag, and this time, though under the greatest hazard, was executed.

The Chesapeake and Shannon affair was the last great naval duel of this war. Lesser seaboard encounters occurred, however, both in 1813 and 1814, though with alternating success. The American sloop-of-war Argus was captured by the Pelican, while destroying merchantmen off the English coast. The British brig Boxer, 14, on the other hand, whose flag had been nailed to the mast, surren

Aug. 13.

Sept. 4.