Fort Mims massacre

Fort Mims massacre
Part of Creek War
The Battle
Date August 30, 1813 Location 35 to 40 miles north of Mobile, Alabama near Bay Minette, Alabama Result Red Stick victory
Belligerents
Red Stick Creek	United States
Commanders and leaders
Peter McQueen William Weatherford	Daniel Beasley Dixon Bailey
Strength
750-1,000warriors	265 militia, Fort Mims
Casualties and losses
~50 killed, unknown wounded	517 killed, unknown wounded, Fort Mims severely damaged

The Fort Mims massacre occurred on 30 August 1813, when a force of Creek people, belonging to the "Red Sticks" faction under the command of Peter McQueen and William Weatherford "Red Eagle", his cousin by marriage, killed hundreds of settlers, mixed-blood Creeks, and militia at Fort Mims. Fort Mims was a stockade with a blockhouse surrounding the house and outbuildings of settler Samuel Mims, located about 35 miles north of present-day Mobile, Alabama.

Background

After the start of the Creek Civil War, settlers north of Mobile, Alabama, particularly mixed-blood Creeks from the Lower Towns, began to take refuge with the American settlers in the stockades of Fort Mims. About 517 settlers, including 265 armed militia, were gathered at Fort Mims, which was located about 35 to 45 miles (50–70 km) north of Mobile on the eastern side of the Alabama River.

Upon learning that Peter McQueen's party of Red Sticks were in Pensacola, Florida to acquire arms from the Spanish, Major Daniel Beasley, Captain Dixon Bailey, and Colonel Caller, led a force to intercept the warriors. They ambushed the Red Sticks in the Battle of Burnt Corn. While the US forces were looting the Red Sticks' pack trains, the warriors returned and drove off the Americans.

Andrew Jackson, who had a previous relationship with Weatherford, convinced Weatherford that the people at Fort Mims were going to return to kill the Redstick women and children. He hoped to establish grounds for a new war that he would lead and eliminate his political rival Samuel Mims. Samuel Mims sheltered mixed race individuals and slaves. Jackson justified his actions to the Southern Elite with overt racism. Red Eagle (Weatherford) agreed to take part in the Red Sticks' retaliatory attack on Fort Mims, in the hope of preventing a slaughter of the women and children. He sought revenge on his personal enemy, Captain Dixon Bailey. Captain Bailey was a mixed-race Creek, born in Auttose, who had been educated at Philadelphia under the provisions of the Treaty of New York of 1790.

Alabama Historical Association Fort Mims marker.

Alarm

On August 29, 1813, two African-American slaves who were tending cattle outside the stockade reported that "painted warriors" were in the vicinity. But, mounted scouts from the fort found no signs of the war party. Beasley had the second slave flogged for raising a "false alarm".

The Attack

Major Beasley, the commander, had claimed that he could "maintain the post against any number of Indians", but historians believe the stockade was poorly defended. At the time of the attack, the East gate was partially blocked open by drifting sand. According to anecdotal evidence, the gate was open "...when the officers all got drunk and were playing cards and left the gate open, and it rained and washed the sand in the gate so it could not be shut and Father left with Mother and the children, and the Indians killed all that stayed."

The attack occurred the next day during the mid-day meal, when no US scouts were out. The Red Sticks rushed the fort and tomahawked Beasley, who was trying to close the blocked gate.

Inside Fort Mims looking at the west wall and gate.

The Red Sticks took control of the gun loopholes and the outer enclosure. Under Captain Bailey, the settlers held the inner enclosure and fought on for a time. The Red Sticks set fire to a house in the center, which spread to the rest of the stockade.

The warriors forced their way into the inner enclosure and, despite the attempts of Weatherford, massacred most of the mixed-blood Creek and white settlers. A total of 500 people died, and the Red Sticks took 250 scalps. They spared the lives of most of the slaves to take them as their own. About 36 people escaped, including Bailey, who was mortally wounded.

Aftermath

The Red Sticks' victory at Fort Mims spread panic throughout the Southeastern United States frontier, and settlers demanded governmental action. The massacre marked the transition from a civil war within the Creek tribe (Muskogee) to a war between the United States and the Red Stick warriors of the Upper Creek Nation.

Since Federal troops were occupied with the northern front of the War of 1812, Tennessee, Georgia, and the Mississippi Territory mobilized their militias to move against the Upper Creek towns that had supported the Red Sticks' cause. After several battles, the victory of the state militias under Colonel Andrew Jackson at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend ended the Creek War.

Today the Fort Mims site is maintained by the Alabama Historical Commission.

See also

• Tombigbee District
• List of massacres in Alabama
• Mississippi Rifles {155th Infantry MNG}

References

• Owsley, Jr., Frank L. "The Fort Mims Massacre," Alabama Review 1971 24(3): 192-204
• Henry Adams History of the United States of America During the Administrations of James Madison (Library Classics of the United State, Inc. 1986), pp. 780-781 ISBN 0-940450-35-6
• "Creek War" in Heidler, David Stephen and Heidler, Jeanne T. Encyclopedia of the War of 1812, Santa Barbara, Calif. : ABC-CLIO, 1997. ISBN 978-0-87436-968-7
• John K. Mahon The War of 1812 (University of Florida Press 1972) pp. 234-235 ISBN 0-8130-0318-0
• John Ehle, Trail of Tears The Rise and Fall of the Cherokee Nation (Anchor Books Editions 1989), p. 105 ISBN 0-385-23954-8
• Andrew Burstein The Passions of Andrew Jackson (Alfred A. Kopf 2003), p. 99 ISBN 0-375-41428-2
• "Weatherford, William (Lamouchattee, Red Eagle)" in Thrapp, Dan L. Encyclopedia of Frontier Biography: in Three Volumes Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press, 1991. OCLC 23583099
• Gregory A. Waselkov A Conquering Spirit: Fort Mims and the Redstick War of 1813-1814 (University of Alabama Press, 2006) ISBN 0-8173-1491-1

External links

• Fort Mims Restoration Association
• Fort Mims - official site at Alabama Historical Commission
• A map of Creek War Battle Sites, PCL Map Collection, University of Texas at Austin.
• "A Drawing of Fort Mims"
• "The Story: A Short History of the Ft. Mims Massacre of 1813 during the Creek Indian War, Canerossi
• Site about the Creek War including accounts, letters, etc.
• "Fort Mims Massacre", Encyclopedia of Alabama