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Show TlieMas s acre at Fort Mims J 1 v.', 1 -! '1'" i fl -IL'J-- " .(v-8-1 - V i - . ,.! . : ; i r ,) ... , V k O' 7 ' x : t : 1 7 . I 1 .,- ,i ' .' v', A --irt Mim-" h "Weatherford and General Jdckoon j I- - . . . .-. j-. '. '. ,0 . . , ' Vs!Vv r l"K "'. wi.rw Mill, or.li-r.-i1 the two tieirroea 1 N l tl k 1 fur musiim to uiu.li nliirui iiiihuik tlit) The Attack at the G3te H A -' J 1 ''u' ' '' ' ' f ''' ,,f I 7 f n..- 'i " upon IU-!iNlty h!in tint lilltTiinl h'c nf nll'iw- By ELf.'.O SCOTT WATSON .' . ', lug lln- puiiMniii-m t. In- inct.-.! out or loavlnx j 'V ' tin- f..rt. S.i tin- ni-t iImv, A m lift 'AD. Hih (iwncr INK lll-M.Ki:i. AM. TVVI'NTY , " , ,...,,..,.., ,,,.,,, ,, ,, u.,f..rt.i.....e TV r a V-'- .'ml, tl.or,. ..,vrr..,t ; . , f , ,..k ,, tl...t to' I J 01se l, ""rM' l"''h:"'s ' '. C'W . 1:, -for., tlm l.l..li, ,-oul.l ,.!: tl. i I 1 "' l'": " - . .' 'W ,,r,-,.,o of for.-,, of ,nr ti n., ).'-, , r,-.-k t, f j s-,!" ' ,"a :'" '; :"r"i I" , . , warrior llrr,n11ini; fort :, ,1. v.-r.-l. V J Auut!o:i hSior.N. ..s I!.,. . ) l'.,.-!,v U n.l.l to Inn,- ., tli.-m l!rM ,,.!. .ausMor :t Tort M.n.s. AI.i.. I. ' ' . ' !.o,it.i',l! "lt-,1.:,:,. ! t.,.11,,,,.:- In- .laslo-.l towar.1 X-JTTa: A'-ur.st is'.:!. l . :i la :.n.l " " ' t!,e fat wl.l.-l. t.a.l car.-l..,-lv 1-U n TSw" frvk ar;.rs l:!1,!,r t!... l,-:u:,r- . . t, ., r,r.l. Tl..- c..l,..,.,.i,.t'..r t.m.l.. a gsrrison of more that. :,. h.t,'S. t:a!f l.r.v.U I ; , ' -Ji r 1 r .. . 1 :M It ,,.! k,,.t It J;;.t BuJ n.vrvvs niul loft uioro tl.an l.alf of tluia U. ' Z l..s ,.,.fli for tl... fir.t ..f tl,.- Mta.-l.-r to ...l, ! ''-Hl!. , ... ) ' " It I'U. !.. Inirl tla-inx-lv.-n ti; II. -a-!. -v, rut Mm i Th mm:N.r of k:i!o,l at Kort M:t I... ...-v.-r W ' ' '' ,'.on Itl, t!.-!r t..mal. k n.,.1 r.,M, Into tl... fort, tt-n aooi'.rarr'.v .h-.rra'.h'.ivl. lv.rrrLt n'.i!!.or.i:. t i-' ' . .'II . . ' , ,- , ' 1 1... I..-M ii.-.tu.-iit Mia:.' torr.-nt i-.iir.- l In I ..... , , , , . , , t Jj I t hr.-ii' i t o" o;-.'ti rat." mo i :i'!..'. to:ir. t he ivith the iToiHuuh-raiuo of rr.iahlf OMilnuv .'..ic- - 11 ... . , ,, . , , th.e mr.uhor at . . l.::t even ta.M'.i this . . ' r ' - , ' , ... ... i . , m . . V trull, a hrh t i. v .'ol I a louiif.n;. f..r jto lowest P;r.re. It i:;ve the tnue'.y at tort M.ta V ' f ' . ... . , . i i i WAV, ,' MTT t.-. ti. n n:nint th' I "t id at kiii. M.iiiv of ...,11. . t h.-iii .-re k. .- I n tl. out.-r ciir ..sure hut the than acr of the other I:t.!:ati ina-a.-ros whose VV ..... . . , XNyJ other r.'trrat.-l through the lito-r k'.'ite, x'.Mlulnf.l stor.e are fa:n!l!ar to most Airerhau. It hut n t! 1 tuoin.tei tl... wal'H to .lof.-tnl the In- lVfere J'.sousslns the affair at Kort Mans anJ General AnOfCW JacKSOn lo-r ln. h ,'.r.-. Kori-e of the f.i.'ror h!.-h i".MKe It un'one tu oi:r .. . - . . ; 4 By ELf.'.O SCOTT WATSON ' INK Ul'MK!:i AM" TVVI'NTY o:irs ao tlr.s tnoiuh there o.'rurrr.i I 0!,t w"r'. l"':hai.s the . VI w ort ... hi I'oint of l.uuii.rrs k I J slain . . . lu.t.au i:;:ii.t.s lu Atuerioan I:!M,... That was i!e s'.ar.hier at Tort M.ms, A hi.. :. Attif.st el'. IMX I'.'l. a t:i..n:iii. I'rerk warr.or um.I.t the lea.!, r-lfkVA r-lfkVA sh:. of Ch'.rf 1:,n1 Ihule. or VV .1-fgyA: .1-fgyA: 1 1;.1: We.i'.herfor.l. o rr hrhue.i the garrison of tuoie th.a'a .'i1"-. wli.trs. half hr.r.N BuJ negroes niul left la. .re thin l.aif of th.ai ile.Hi!. The mm:Nr of k.he.l at Kort M:m has. i.ever teon aoei'.rare'.y le:er:ii!:'.t.l. l;f.erei:t author. tie give variiu.; tuures. raiuii; from ..'. to 4."..) xvith the preivuuleranre of rohahle eU!o!uv .hie lr.S the r.tr.nhor at -:V. l'ut even taking this lowest P;r.re. It gives the tra;e'.y at Kort M.ta the Jouht.'ul ilishr.etion of teiug r.iurti worse than any of the other Itul'an tuasa.-r.-s whose stories are familiar to raost Aa'.erh'at.s. T.efere iliseussin the affair at Kort Mims a:ij Bi'M of the fai-tors whirl) tauke It U!i!.;ue In our tistory. It might we'.l to Co:. si. lor tlrst the vorj rrassarre" an.l lanv luarruratelv that worJ !s usevl ty u:rst Atr.er'.ear.s. Kor lr.statire they refer to the annihilation of "'aj !. VV. J. Ket-ternian Ket-ternian anJ hia conr.r.auil on I vrerr.her -1. as the "Ketterii'.an Massarre" or the "Kort l'hll Kearney Massarre" at: 1 to the Katt'e of t! e Little Lit-tle T.ig Horn, fought June -o, lTj, as the "Custer "Cus-ter Massarre." The late Cyrus Towr.setu! I'.ra'Iy In his "Indian "In-dian Fights arol Kighters" In c.ounaT.tir.g on this says: "Kettern:an ar.J Custer atta.k.-l the lu-li-ans anJ fought rlesrately until they an.l tr.rlr luen were all ki'.le-l. I ca.il that a 'hattle.' not a .massacre.' When an Ir. li.in war party ra! lr-1 A settlement or overwhelmed a train or mur lere! children anJ wou.en, that. I think, was a 'massacre'; 'mas-sacre'; but these two Instances were not." Much the same r'as..ning applies to the ca'.ieJ "Dale Massacre" .luring the 5-mlnole war. On December 2. lsi.t. Mai. Kranris 1- Iuole of the Fourth Infantry, who had s.-t out from Kort Brook In Florida with a force of 110 oth.-rrs and Icen to co-o;rate with another .hca 'hmmt from Fort King In a punitive eip-e-I tion against Osceola's Osce-ola's Semlnoles. was amhushed near the VVithla-cooehee VVithla-cooehee river and fought hravely until all hut four were killed. In this case all of the slain "were soldiers l-oaring arms so It seems hardly fair to call It a "massarre." Somewhat different are the cases of the "Cherry "Cher-ry Valley Massacre" and the "Wyoming Valley Massacre" durlnc the Herniation. At Chrrry Valley Val-ley 32 non-combatants, men, women and children, chil-dren, were slain by the Indians and Tories who also killed 13 Continental soldiers of the garrison gar-rison at Fort Alden and their commander. Col. Ichabod Alden, whose negligence and Incompetence Incompe-tence was mainly responsible for the tragedy there. At Wyoming Valley It was a case of an armed force, about 50 Continentals and some 2.V) soldiers enrolled as militia, taking the P.eld against the eDemy, Tories and Indians, being defeated and suffering a loss of approximately 300 killed In action or slaughtered by the Indians In-dians after being taken prisoners and disarmed. In that respect (the killing of prisoners) It was a "massacre." But despite the exaggerations and myth-making of the early historians of the Wyoming Valley affair who painted It as a "diabolical "di-abolical slaughter of both sexes and every age," modern historical research has established the tact that only one man, a British deserter, was put to death after the surrender of Forty Fort and that there was no "massacre" of non-combatants. To three other historic affairs, the term "massacre" "mas-sacre" may be Justly npplied. One of them was the "Fort William Henry Massacre" In 1757 when some 50 soldiers, women and children of the English garrison were slaughtered by the Indians after the surrender of the fort to the French before Montcalm, the French commander, could restrain the ferocity of the savages. Another An-other was the "Fort Dearborn Massacre" In 1S12 when the Pottawatomies, after Capt. Nathan Nath-an Heald had evacuated the fort, attacked the retreating Americans among the sand hills of Lake Michigan and killed 26 regular soldiers, 12 militia, a frontiersman, two women and 12 children, a total of 53. The third was the "River Raisin Massacre" In 1812 when after the Battle Bat-tle of Frenchtown the British commander, Proctor, Proc-tor, by falling to provide adequate protection for some 30 wounded American prisoners allowed al-lowed them to fall victims to the scalping knives of his Indian allies. But lest It be thought that the slaughter of whites by Indians were the only "Indian massacres," mas-sacres," let us remember what took place at Gnaddenhutten In Ohio In 17S2: at Sand Creek In Colorado In ISGd and at Wounded Knee creek In South Dakota in 1S90. Those were cases of an "Indian massacre" In which the white men were the murderers and Indian men, women and children were the victims. To return now to the massacre at Fort MInu It will be seen from the foregoing that the toll of death there was greater than that at any other "massacre" of whites by the Indians, especially espe-cially If that term Is limited to the killing of The pi j n of Fort Mirni, shown abov. wit found among th mjnutcripta of General Clal-borna Clal-borna and flrat publnhed by Pickett In hn "Hi-tory "Hi-tory of Alabama." Th reference fguraa ara aa follows: 1. Blockhouae; 2. Picketa cut away by the Indiana; 3. Guards' station; 4. Guardhouse; 5. Western gate, but not up; 6. Western gate, shut when attacked by the Indiana who cut a hole through It to enter; 7. Captain Baltey'a house: 8. Steadham'e house; 9. Mra- Oyer's house; 10. Kitchen; 11. Captain Mime" house; 12. Randon's house; 13. Old gateway, open; 14, 15, 16 and 17. Orhcere' tenta; 18. Captain Jack'a house; 19, 20 and 21. Portholes taken by In-diana; In-diana; 22. Major Beasiey'a cabm; 23. Captain Jack'a company; 24. Captain Midd'eton'e com-pany; com-pany; 25. Where Beasley fell; 28. Eastern gate, where the Indiana entered. t - r.on con.hatau's. Another factor which mnk.-s the tragedy at Kort Minis unl.ue Is the fart that the "Indian l.-ad.-r" In ti ls n;as-a,-re had more white l 1 I In his reins than did the two "white leaders" In command of the defenders of the fort 1 That Indian leader was William We.atherford. son of Charles Weatherford. a Scotch trader, who had married a half-slater of Alexander McGllllvray. the principal chief of the Creeks who had been a I'.ritish colonel during the Revolution Rev-olution and later became a brigadier general In the t'nlted States army. This Alexander Mc-Olllivray Mc-Olllivray w.ib the son of Igtrhian MrC.ilUvray, another Scotch trader, who had married Seh.oy Marchnnd, who In turn was the daughter of a French captain named Marchand and a Creek Indian woman. So In the veins of William Weatherford Weath-erford ran Scotch, French and Creek Indian blood and geneologlcal experts have figured out that he was seven-eighths white and one-eighth Indian. But that one-eighth was enough to give him the name of "Ited Eagle" or "Red Warrior" among the Creeks, whose war chief he became when the "Red Sticks." or war party among the Creeks, cast their fortunes with the confederacy confed-eracy of the great Shnwnee chief, Teeumseh, and rallied to the cause of the I'.ritish at the outbreak of the War of 1S12. For many years there had lived near Lake Tensaw In Alabama a wealthy man named Samuel Sam-uel Minis, half-Creek and half-white. His house was a large and substantia! wooden building of one story, with several outbuildings. Around these was built a stockade enclosing about an acre. On the southwest corner a block-house was begun but never completed and there were two large gates In the center of the east and the west sides of the stockade. Such was Fort MIms Into which settlers from the surrounding country began to gather when the Creeks, under Weatherford, went on the warpath war-path early In 1S13. At first Fort MIms had a garrison gar-rison of 10 soldiers, commanded by Lieutenant Osborne, and some 70 militia commanded by Capt. Dixon Bailey, a half breed. To aid In their defense Gen. F. L. Claiborne, the United States military commander of the territory, sent 175 volunteers, commanded by MaJ. Daniel Heasley, another half-breed, who assumed the position of commandant. Soon afterwards Genernl Claiborne visited the post and ordered Beasley to complete the blockhouse block-house and strengthen the defenses of the fort as much as possible. Beasley was a brave man but a poor commander and he allowed the work on the fort to lag after many rumors of the approach ap-proach of the enemy turned out to be false alarms. So the blockhouse was never completed and except at night no sentries were posted. The people In the fort, some 550 In number, were soon to pay a bitter price for the negligence of their commander. On August 29, 1S13, two negroes who had been herding cattle In the woods came rushing back to the fort with the news that they had seen a large body of Indians approaching. The foolish commander not only refused to heed the warn ing hut, worse Mill, ordered Ihe two tiegroea tloeeed for (itusiiig h.i iiiurti lilnrui among tliu people In the fort. The owner of one of the n.-I'rui'i n.-I'rui'i refused to iillmv this to he dune, whereupon where-upon I'.easley gae h E in tin, itllernal Ive of allowing allow-ing the punishment to he niete.) out or leaving j the fort. So the n.-M day, August 110, the owner Here. Ie.1 to l'.i-n sley'a ileliilind lllid t he u II f ort u 11 lit e blark was tied to n post. l'.nt before the whipping could take place, the pre-. me of n force of more tl.nn I,i") reek warriors hlirruni!l!ig the fort wag .1 . sro ered. r.ea!ey U ki!.1 to haw H-eii them hrst and. .hunting "ll.. I. aim I Indian:" he dashed toward the i-aM gate which had been rareles-ly loll open with no one on guard. The cniihaiider mnde a ile-pera!.. ..fl..rt to close the huge gate before ti e . a mu.'.-i r. arhed It hut the wind had I .Wiled against It iiiol kept It open J;;t long enough for the I!rt of the ntta. l.ers to puh : It burl., hurl theuiselies u; Lea-ley, rut him I clow a w 1: li their t. una ha w ki and ru-h It do the fort, i 'Ihe i.rt in. .in. -ut a saiage torrent pound In I through the open gale nnd da!..-.! toward the ; Harl'.rd nold'era who ran... tumbling out of their I tent In whi. h th. y l ad I n lounging f.r pro I te.ii. n ngninst the lot midday kuii. M.iiiv of th.-ui w.-re killed in the out.-r enclosure but the other retreated through the Inner gate, slammed It shut nnd inoui.ied the walls to defend the Inner In-ner lnrlos'ire. K..r a short time there was a .!-;, ernle fght j nt surh rlos-. rpnirt. rs that soiii'i ! rues nn Indian and a sold. or bring their guns through the fame porthole would kill .-a. h other ai mulianeously. I'.ut under the leadership of Lalby. upon whom the command devolved a't.-r Ib-asiey's death, the defenders of the fort put up s o b a Morn resistance resist-ance that a't-r three hours of f . r. e fighting the Indians began to draw oT and plunder the hous.-e outvd the ft... k ole. At this point Weatherford, riding a magnificent j bla.k horse, appeared to lead hia men forwnrd In another atta. k. This time there w as no hold-Irg hold-Irg In check the savage tide The Indiana cut their way through the west gale. They forced the east gate and poured over the south wall. The defenders fought d.-'perately from house to bouse while the ro's were burning over their head. Minis' hou-e. In whlrh a large number of women nnd children ha 1 taken refuge, was set on fire and there they perl-h.-d mis-Taldy. J In a short time the wh.de enclosure except the north bastion was In the hands of the enemy who killed every per-..n on whom they could lay their hands. Weather 'ord. nppalle.) by the murderous frenry of his follower, tried In vain to restrain them. I'.ut he had unleashed a tempest of savagery sav-agery which neither he nor any o:her chief could have controlled that .1 it. The Creeks swept forwnrd for-wnrd against the bastion nnd captured It. About a doren s.-ldlers tore openings through the palisade pali-sade and managed to coape. I'.ut the rest were slaughtered, fighting desperately to the last. The only ones who were spared were some negroes who were carried away aa slaves by the Creeks. Afterwards the fort was burned to the ground and the bodies of all the slain were left lying nn-burled nn-burled on the ground. "For desperation In defense, de-fense, persistency In attack and absolute courage on the part of both parties, the affair was. and remains, almost without parallel," writes one historian. The usual "wave of horror and Indignation" which throughout the course of our history "sw-ept the country" after every major calamity In Indian warfare, from St. Clair's defeat to the Custer battle, resulted In a stern determination to punish the Creeks. So Gen. Andrew Jackson took the field and hegnn the campaign which, after several hard fought battles, resulted In the breaking of the power of the Creeks on the bloody Meld of Tohopeka or the "Great Horseshoe Horse-shoe Bend" of the Alabama river. A short time later Jackson raised bis flag over Fort Toulouse which was rechrlstened Fort Jackson. Jack-son. There one day a tall, light-colored Indian walked Into Jackson's headquarters. "General Jackson?" he Inquired. "Yes." "I am Bill Weatherford." Then, In the words of an eye-witness the following fol-lowing conversation took place. Said the Indian leader: "I am come to give myself up. I can oppose op-pose you no longer. I have done you much Injury. In-jury. I should have done you more but my warriors war-riors are killed. I am In your power. Dispose of me as you please." "You are not," said the general, "In my power. I had ordered you brought to me In chains. But you have come of your own accord. You see my camp, you see my army, you know my object I would gladly save yon and your nation, but you do not even ask to be saved. If you think you can contend against me In battle go and head your warriors." "Ah," said Weatherford, "well may such language lan-guage be addressed to me now. There was a time when I could have answered you. I could animate ani-mate my warriows to battle; but I cannot animate ani-mate the dead. General Jackson. I have nothing to request for myself. But I beg you to send for the women and children of the war party, who have been driven to the woods without an ear of corn. They never did any harm. But kill me, If the white people want It done." Whereupon Jackson gave his promise to help the women and children and William VVoather-foru, VVoather-foru, the Indian lender who was seven-eighths white man, strode from the tent "vanishing from the view of the astonished soldiery, and from history, u not entirely graceless figure.'' ( by Wsatern Newspaper Unloa.) |