all armed and equipped at their own expense. All of them were taken with him, lest their ardour should be damped by sending any of them to their homes; and Jackson, in a general order published at Nashville, promised to be a father to the whole of them. The army marched through the ice and snow to Natchez, where General Jackson was instructed to remain until he received further orders. Meanwhile, the prospect of immediate war in that quarter had disappeared, and an order was issued by the secretary of war, directing General Jackson to dismiss the troops under his command from service, and to take measures for delivering every article of the public property in his possession to General Wilkinson. When this order reached his camp, there were one hundred and fifty men on the sick list, fifty-six of whom were unable to raise their heads. Besides, none of the troops were possessed of sufficient funds to pay their way home. Along with the general order, came a letter from General Wilkinson, who feared an intention on the part of Jackson to supersede him in the command. In his epistle, Wilkinson informed General Jackson that he might still perform a very acceptable service by encouraging the recruiting service among the soldiers under his command. There have not been wanting those, who, dispassionately examining the connection between the orders of the secretary and the letters of Wilkinson, have supposed the apprehensions of the latter, in regard to precedence in rank, to furnish the key to the action of the government.

To comply with the order of the secretary, the general would have been obliged to leave his sick without medicines or tents, and to discharge the remainder, in a strange country, where they would probably be forced into the regular service, or fall victims to vice and disease. He remembered the promise which he had given to his troops in Nashville, and he determined to obey the order only so far as it accorded with that promise. A recruiting officer was found near his encampment: he threatened him with a drumming out of the camp unless he departed.

The general then issued an order to the troops, informing them of his determination not to abandon them, but to lead them all back to their country and their friends. His kind conduct animated the whole body, and almost all the sick became so much better, that the detachment was in better health on its return to Nashville than it had been when it set out.

Though he had felt hurt at the treatment which he had received from the secretary, yet his indignation against Hull was so great, that he wrote to Washington on his way home, offering to increase the force under his command, and to continue his march to Malden.

This offer was not accepted, but the secretary attempted to explain away the imputation of injustice to the Tennessee volunteers, and the government sanctioned the conduct of the general, and relieved him from the pecuniary responsibilities which he had incurred for his troops.

The Creek Indians, who had been induced to join the great Indian confederacy, organized by Tecumseh and his brother, the Shawnee Prophet, commenced hostilities against the western settlements in the early part of the year 1812. The outrages they committed attracted the attention of the general government, and the governor of Tennessee was directed to detail a body of the militia of his state, to be in readiness for active service. The first attack of real war was made by the Indians on Fort Mims, situated in the Tensaw settlement, in the territory of Mississippi. The fort contained one hundred and fifty men, under Major Beasley, with as many more members of families who had sought safety there. Of the whole number, but seventeen escaped from the indiscriminate slaughter to bring intelligence of the outrage to other parts of the country. The people of Tennessee prepared to take up arms for the purpose of avenging this outrage, and General Jackson advised that a large force should be immediately marched into the heart of the Creek country. Four thousand of the militia were called out by the legislature.

On the 7th of October, General Jackson took command of the troops at Fayetteville. There he received an express from Colonel Coffee, informing him that the Creek chiefs were marching with the main body of their warriors towards the frontiers of Tennessee. Apprehensive of failure on the part of the contractors to supply provisions for the West Tennessee troops under his command, he had requested Generals Cocke and White, who commanded those from the eastern part of the state, to send breadstuffs to his army by the Tennessee river. But when he reached that stream, on the 12th of October, no supplies from above had been received. He waited there for it a week, employed in disciplining his army, which somewhat exceeded two thousand men. A friendly chief of the Creek tribe had erected a fort for his own defence, which was threatened with destruction by the advancing enemy, and he therefore sent to Jackson for assistance. The general marched on the 19th with hardly a week's provisions on hand, for Thompson's Creek, determined to proceed to the Ten Islands, on the Coosa river, near which the enemy was concentrating.

Having, though almost destitute of food, reached the Coosa river, General Coffee was ordered to cross it on the 2d of November, and with five hundred men of his brigade, attack and destroy the town of Tallushatchee. The hostile Creeks there collected hailed with joy the approach of their opponents. Mingling their savage yells and war-whoops with the noise of drums, they charged the advanced companies with an almost supernatural fury. But their onset was bravely received, and they were compelled to retreat, fighting until they got within their buildings, where an obstinate conflict ensued, the Indians resisting when unable to stand, and neither asking nor receiving quarter. One hundred and eighty-six were killed, and eightyfour women and children taken prisoners. General Coffee lost five killed and forty-one wounded. At the Ten Islands General Jackson established a post called Fort Strother, and sent an express requiring the troops from East Tennessee to march

forthwith to his assistance. A runner from Talladega, a fort of the friendly Indians, thirty miles distant, informed him that the enemy had encamped before it in great numbers, and would certainly destroy it unless he afforded immediate assistance. He despatched a messenger to General White, ordering him to reach Fort Strother in the course of the ensuing night, and protect it in his absence. Leaving there the sick and wounded, he marched instantly for Talladega. He found the enemy posted within a quarter of a mile of the fort, apparently in great force. The action was as warm as it was short. In fifteen minutes the Indians were seen fleeing in every direction, but the fight was maintained with spirit and effect as well after the flight as before. The pursuit terminated when the enemy gained the mountains, three miles distant. Nearly eleven hundred Indians were engaged in this action: two hundred and ninety-nine were left dead on the ground, and many were probably killed in the flight and not found. Almost all of them were wounded, and many afterwards died.

Meanwhile, Jackson had learned that in compliance with an order from General Cocke, the East Tennessee troops under White had marched to Chataugan Creek, leaving the feeble garrison at Fort Strother unprotected. Added to this, the want of provisions prevented him from following up his victory, compelling him to retire while the enemy recovered from their consternation, and reassembled their forces. When he reached the fort, he found that no provisions had been forwarded since his departure, and even his private stores, on which he and his staff had hitherto subsisted, had been exhausted by the wounded and sick. The only support afforded to the army was a scanty supply of indifferent beef, taken from the enemy, or purchased from the Cherokees. Suffering as much from hunger as his men, General Jackson repaired to the bullock-pen, and there selected from the offal what he was pleased to call a very comfortable repast. Another example of patience and suffering was afforded to his murmuring soldiers by the patriotic general dur

ing this campaign. A soldier perceived the general sitting beneath a tree, busily engaged in eating something, while the rear of the army was coming up. Half starved himself, and believing that the officers, and Jackson particularly, were well supplied, he came boldly up to him, stated his condition, and demanded a share of the general's feast. "I will willingly share with you what I have," said the general, offering him some of the acorns which he had found beneath the tree, and which he said was the best and only fare he had. The astonished soldier retired to report to his companions the fact that the general fed himself with acorns, and to urge them henceforth to bear the sufferings which he nobly shared without complaint. But though the privations which Jackson suffered failed to move him, he felt much concern for his army, and continually exerted himself to remove their sufferings.

But discontent and a desire to return home gradually spread through the camp, and revolt at length began to show itself openly. The officers and soldiers of the militia determined to leave the camp, and drew up early one morning to carry their design into execution; but they found the volunteers prepared to prevent their progress, and force them to return to their old position in the camp. The firmness of their general was too much for them; they abandoned their purpose and retired to their quarters. The volunteers, however, were equally disaffected with the militia; they had opposed the mutineers only to escape suspicion, and really wished them success. Supposing that the general could find no means to prevent their desertion in a body, they determined to march off on the next morning. Words fail to express their confusion and astonishment, when they found the very militia whom they had yesterday forced into their quarters, prepared to execute a similar office for them to-day. They carried the play through, and returned in good order to their former position.

General Jackson at length agreed to march homeward, if the expected supplies were not received within two days. They