Show The e Massacre massacre at fort mims alk ar ma i let R 1 4 Is W TOW III I 1 ja air T A 22 4 0 6 r fort weatherford and general jackson the te atta attack ck at the gate by E elmo el MO SCOTT WATSON NE HUNDRED AND TWENTY years ago tills this month there occurred one of tile the worst perhaps the worst in point of 0 cumbers slain indian massacres in american history that was vas the slaughter at fort mims ala on at august SO 30 1813 when a thousand I 1 creek warriors under the leader OJ ship of chief red eagle or wai 1 l ham weatherford overwhelmed tho the garrison of more than BOO whites half breeds and negroes and left more than half of them dead the number dumber of killed at fort mims has never been accurately determined different authorities give varying figures ranging from to with the preponderance of reliable evidence placing the number at rut put even taking this lowest figure it gives the tragedy at fort mims the doubtful distinction of being much worse than any of the other indian massacres whose stories are familiar to most americans before discussing the affair at fort mims and some of the factors chich make it unique in our history it might be well uell to consider first the word massacre and how inaccurately that word Is used by most americans for instance they refer to the annihilation of capt W J fetterman and his command on december 21 BB as the fetterman massacre or the rort fort phil kearney massacre and to the battle of the little big horn fought june 25 as the custer massacre the late cyrus townsend brady in ills his indian fights and fighters in commenting on tills this says gays betterman Tet ret terman and ouster custer attacked attached the andl indians and fought desperately until they and kneir men were all killed I 1 call that a battle not a massacre when an indian war party rat raided ded a settlement or overwhelmed a train or murdered children and women that I 1 think was a massacre but these two instances were not much inch the same reasoning applies to the so called dade massacre during the seminole war on december 28 1836 maj francis L dade of the fourth infantry who had set out from fort brook in florida with a force of officers and men to operate cooperate co with another detachment from fort king in a punitive expedition against osce olat olas Semi seminoles noles was ambushed near the wathla coochee boochee river and fought bravely until all but four were killed in this case all of the slain were soldiers bearing arms so it seems hardly fair to call it a massacre somewhat different are the alie cases of the cherry valley massacre and the wyoming valley massacre during the revolution at cherry vai valley 32 noncom non com tan ts men women and ahn dren were slain by the indians and tories who also killed 10 16 continental soldiers of the garrison at fort alden and their commander col ichabod alden whose negligence and incompetence was mainly responsible for the tragedy there at wyoming valley it was a case of an armed force about 50 continentals Continent als and some soldiers lold lers enrolled as militia taking the field against the enemy tories and radians indians being defeated and suffering buffering a loss of approximately killed in action or slaughtered by the indians 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 abo abol lical leal slaughter of both sexes and every age modern historical research has established the fact that only one man a british deserter was put to death after the surrender of forty fort and that there was no massacre of noncom non com batanus ba tants to three other historic affairs the term imas massacre may be justly applied 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 was the fort dearborn massacres massacre in when the after capt naab heald had evacuated the fort attacked the retreating americans among the sand hills bills of lake michigan and killed 28 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 buttle battle of frenchtown French Frerich town the british commander proctor by falling failing to provide adequate protection for some 30 wounded american prisoners allowed 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 let us ua remember what took placa nt at in ohio in 1782 at sand creek in colorado in 1861 and at wounded knee creek in south dakota in 1890 those were cases of ao an indian massacre in which the white men ere the murde murderers mur decera Cers and indian men women and children were the victims to return now to the massacre at fort mini it will be seen from the fore foregoing that the toll of death there was greater than that at any other massacre of whites by the indians espe trally if that term in 1 limited to the killing of P G general andrew Jacy jackson sori the plan of fort mims shown above was found among the manuscripts of general caal borne and first published by pickett in his history of alabama the reference figures are as follows 1 blockhouse 2 pickets cut away by the indians 3 guards station 4 guardhouse 5 western gate but not up 6 western gate shut when attacked by the indians who cut a hole through it to enter 7 captain balleys Balle yc house 8 Stead hams house 9 mrs dyers house 10 kitchen 11 captain mims house 12 randols Ran dons house 13 old gateway open 14 15 16 and 17 officers tents 18 captain jacks house 19 20 and 21 portholes Port holes taken by indians 22 major beasleyy Bea cabin 23 captain jacks company 24 captain middletons Midd Middle letona tons company 25 where beasley fell 26 eastern gate where the indians entered non combatants another factor which makes the tragedy at fort mims unique Is the fact that the indian leader in tills this massacre had more white blood in his veins than did the two 1 white leaders in command of the defenders of the fortl fort that indian leader was william weatherford son of charles weatherford a scotch trader who had married a half sister of alexander mcgillivray the principal chief of the creeks who had been a british colonel during the revolution slid and later became a brigadier general genera in the united states army this alexander me mc Cill ivray was the son of lachlan mcgillivray McGilll another scotch trader who had married sehoy marchand who in turn was the daughter of a french captain named marchand and a creek indian woman so in the veins of william weatherford ran scotch french and creek indian blood and ge experts have figured out that he was seven eighths white and one englith indian but that one eighth was enough to give him the name of red eagles eagle or red warrior among the creeks whose war chief he became when nhen the red or war party among the creeks cast their fortunes nith the confederacy of the great shawnee chief tecumseh and rallied to the cause of the british at the outbreak of 0 the war of 1812 for many years there had lived near lake tensaw in alabama a wealthy man named samuel mims halt half creek and halt half white ills houte houge was a large and substantial wooden building of one story with several out buildings around these was built a stockade enclosing about an acre on the southwest corner a blockhouse block house was begun hut but never completed and there were two large gates in the center of 0 the east and the west sides of the stockade such was fort mims mima into which hieb settlers from the surrounding country began to gather when the creeks under weatherford went on the war path early in 1813 at first port fort mims had a garrison of IG soldiers Bol diers commanded by lieutenant osborne and some 70 militia commanded by capt dixon daxon balloy balley a halt half breed to aid in their defense gen F L claiborne the united states military commander of the territory sent volunteers commanded by maj daniel beasley another halfbreed half breed who assumed the position of commandant soon afterwards general claiborne visited the post and ordered beasley to complete the blockhouse and strengthen the defenses of the ort fort as much as possible beasley was a brave man but a poor commander and he allowed the work on the tort fort to lag after many rumors of the approach of 0 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 tort fort some gome in number were soon to pay a bitter price for the negligence of their commander on august 29 1813 two negroes who had been herding cattle battla la in the woods came rushing back to the fort with the news that they had seen a large body of indians approaching the foolish cort nander not only to hew the warn ing but worse still ordered the two negroes flogged for causing so BO much alarm among the people in the fort the owner of one of the negroes refused to allow this to be done whereupon beasley gave film the alternative of allowing the punishment to he be meted out or leaving the fort so the next day august 30 the owner acceded to beasleyy lien Bea demand and the black was tied to a post hut but before the whipping could take place the presence of a force of more than 1000 creek warriors surrounding the tort fort was discovered beasley Is said to have seen them first and shouting indians t indians Indian sl he dashed toward the east gate which had been carelessly left open with no one on guard the commander made a desperate effort to close the huge gate before the yelling savages reached it but the wind had drifted sand against it and kept it open just long lone enough for the first of the attackers to push it back hurl themselves upon beasley cut him down with their tomahawks and rush into the tort fort the next nest moment a savage torrent poured in through the open gate and dashed toward the startled soldiers who came tumbling out of their tents in which they had been lounging for protection against the hot midday sun many of them were killed in the outer enclosure but the others retreated through the inner gate slammed it shut and mounted the walls to defend the inner inclosure for a short time there was a desperate fight rt at such close quarters that sometimes an indian lind and a soldier firing their guns through the same game porthole would kill each other simultaneously but under tile the leadership of ralley balley upon whom the command devolved after beasleyy Bea death the defenders of the fort put up such a stern resistance that after three boors of herce fierce fighting the indians began to draw oft off and plunder the houses outside tile the stockade at this point weatherford riding a magnificent black horse app ap erred to lead his men forward in another attack this time there was no holding in check the savage tide the indians cut their way through the west gate they forced the east gate and poured over the south wall the defenders fought desperately from house t to 0 house while the he roofs were burning over their head bead mims house in which a large number of women and children had taken refuge was set on fire and there they perished miserably in a short time the whole enclosure except the north bastion was in the hands bands of the enemy who killed every person on whom they could lay their hands weatherford appalled by the murderous frenzy of his followers tried in vain to restrain them but he had unleashed a tempest of savagery which neither he nor any other chief could have controlled that day the creeks swept forward against the bastion and captured it about a dozen soldiers tore openings through the palisade and managed to escape but the rest were slaughtered fighting desperately to the last the only ones who were spared were ere some negroes who mho were carried away as slaves by the creeks afterwards the fort was bu burned arned to the ground and the bodies of all al the slain were left lying unburied on the ground for desperation in defense persistency in attack and absolute courage on the part of both parties the affair was and remains almost without parallel writes one bist historian orlan the usual wave of horror and indignation which throughout the course of our history swept the country after every major calamity in indian warfare from st clairs defeat to the ouster custer battle resulted in a stern determination to punish the creeks so gen andrew jackson took the field and began the campaign which after several hard fought battles resulted in the breaking of the power of the creeks on the bloody field of tohopeka Toh or the great norse horse shoe bend of the alabama river A short time later jackson raised his bis flag over rort fort toulouse which was re christened fort jackson there one day a tall light colored indian walked into jacksons Jackson 8 headquarters general jackson he inquired yes ses 1 I an am bill weatherford then in the words of an eyewitness eye witness the following conversation took place said the indian leader 1 I am come to give myself up I 1 can oppose you no do longer I 1 have done you much injury I 1 should have done you more but my warriors are killed I 1 am in your power dispose of roe me as you please you are not said the general in my power I 1 had bad ordered you brought to me in chains rut you have come of your own accord you see my camp you see my army you know my object I 1 would gladly save you and your nation but you do not even ask to he be saved if you think you can call contend against me in battle go and head bead your warriors ah said weatherford well may such language be addressed to me now there was a time when I 1 could have answered you I 1 could animate my warr marrlow lopo to battle but I 1 cannot animate the dead general jackson I 1 have nothing to request for myself but I 1 beg you to send for the women and children of the war party wh who ao have been driven to the woods without an ear of corn they never did any harm cut but L kill 1111 me it if the white people want it done whereupon jackson gave his promise to help the women and children and william the indian leader who ho was seven eighths white man strode from the tent vanishing from the view of the astonished soldiery and from history a not entirely graceless figure C by attra newspaper |