The Surrender of Chief RedEagle continued

"How dare you show yourself to my tent after murdering the women and children at Fort Mimms". " I had directed that you be brought to me confined; had you appeared to me in that way I should have known hoe to treat you". 

Chief RedEagle replied: "I am in your power  - do with me as you please. I am a soldier. I have done the white people all of the harm that I could: I have fought them and fought them bravely. If I had an army I would yet fight, and I contend to the last: but I have none: my people are all gone. I can do no more than weep over the misfortunes of my nation."  "General Jackson I am not afraid of you. I fear no man for I am a Creek warrior. I have nothing to request of myself; you can kill me if you desire. But I beg you to send for the women and children of the war party, who are now starving in the woods. Their cribs have been destroyed by your people, who have driven them to the woods without an ear of corn. I hope that you will send out parties, who will safely conduct them here, in order that they may be fed. I exerted myself in vain to prevent the massacre of the women and children at Fort Mimms. I am now done fighting. The Red Sticks are nearly all killed. If I could fight any longer I would most heartedly do so. Send for the women and children they never did you any harm. But kill me, if the white man wants it done.

General Jackson replied: " I will not ask that you lay done your arms and become peaceable. The terms of which your nation can be saved, and peace restored has already been disclosed; in this way and none other, can you obtain safety. I you want to continue to fight you are at liberty to leave and rejoin your war party. If later you are captured under those circumstances you will pay for your crimes with your life."

Chief RedEagle replied: " I want peace, and relief for the suffering and deprivation of my people. But, I may well be addressed in such language now. There was a time when I had a choice and could have answered you, I have none now even hope has ended. Once I could animate my warriors to battle but I cannot animate the dead. My warriors can no longer hear my voice. Their bones are at Talledega, Tallushatchee, Emuchfaw, and Tohepeka. I have not surrendered myself thoughtlessly. Whilst there were chances of success I never left my post, nor supplicated peace. But, my people are gone and I now ask it for my nation and myself. On the miseries and misfortunes brought upon my country, I look back with the deepest sorrow, and wish to avert even greater calamities.  If I would have been left to contend with the Georgia army I would have raised corn on one bank of the river and fought them on the other; but, your people have destroyed my nation. You are a brave man I rely on your generosity.

You will exact no terms from a conquered people, but such as they should accede to: whatever it may be it would now be madness and folly to oppose. If they oppose you will find me among the sternest enforcers of obedience. Those who would still hold out can be influenced only by a mean spirit of revenge; and to this they must not and shall not sacrifice the remnant of their country. You have told us were we must go and be safe. This is a good talk and my nation ought to listen to it. They shall listen to it"

A crowd had gathered outside the generals tent. When RedEagle was finished talking the soldiers started yelling. " Kill him, Kill him, Kill him" This made the General made and he ordered them to silence. 

Then he Jackson stated:  "Any man who would kill such a man as this would rob the dead"

(Griffith 130; Phillips 78-90; Kobokov 91)

Jackson invited Weatherford to have some brandy with him. Chief RedEagle gave him a deer he had killed on the way to the fort. The war wasn't completely over there were still those who resisted. But for William Weatherford ( Chief RedEagle) it was.  Some of the resisters even moved to Florida to live with the other Creek Indians the Seminole. They would later fight in the Seminole Indian wars. Chief Weatherford  was later given a pardon by Andrew Jackson and given a land grant  of 640 acres in Alabama. He died in 1824 in Baldwin County Alabama. He spent the remainder of his life in peace with the white man. There were five Creek Indian families total that were given land grants. Only one of these grants still remains in Indian hands and today it is the site of the Poarch Creek Indians. 

Here is an interesting bit of history that most people do not know including most historians. The phrase " Lord willing if the Creek don't rise" does not have anything to do with a storm and creek waters rising.  It has its root in the early 1800's and it was found in reference to the Creek Indian attacks after the destruction  Fort Mimms. 

Works Cited

Woodward, Thomas S. Woodward's reminiscences of the Creek or Muscogee Indians.: contained in letters to friends in Georgia and Alabama, 1845.

Griffith, Benjamin W. Jr.  McIntosh and Weatherford Creek Indian Leaders. Tuscaloosa and London: U of Alabama Press. 1988.

Akers, Frank Herman Jr. The Unexpected challenge:  The Creek War of 1813 - 1814. Diss. Duke U. 1975. Ann Arbor Mich. ,1975.

Green, Michael D.  The Creeks a Critical Bibliography. Indiana U Press. 1979

Horan, James D.  The Mckinney - Hall Portrait Gallery of American Indians. New York ,Crown ,1972.

O'Brien, Sharon  American Indian Tribal Government. U of Oklahoma Press, 1991

Nabokov, Peter. The Native American Testimony. U of Oklahoma Press, 1991

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