Tohopeka: Rethinking the Creek War and the War of 1812

by Marianne Mills (Foreword), Ted Isham (Afterword), Jay Lamar (Preface)

Tohopeka contains a variety of perspectives and uses a wide arrayof evidence and approaches, from scrutiny of cultural and religious practices to literary and linguistic analysis, to illuminate this troubled period.

 Almost two hundred years ago, the territory that would become Alabama was both ancient homeland and new frontier where a complex network of allegiances and agendas was playing out. The fabric of that network stretched and frayed as the Creek Civil War of 1813−14 pitted a faction of the Creek nation known as Red Sticks against those Creeks who supported the Creek National Council.  The war began in July 1813, when Red Stick rebels were attacked near Burnt Corn Creek by Mississippi militia and settlers from the Tensaw area in a vain attempt to keep the Red Sticks’ ammunition from reaching the main body of disaffected warriors. A retaliatory strike against a fortified settlement owned by Samuel Mims, now called Fort Mims, was a Red Stick victory.  The brutality of the assault, in which 250 people were killed, outraged the American public and “Remember Fort Mims” became a national rallying cry.

 During the American-British War of 1812, Americans quickly joined the war against the Red Sticks, turning the civil war into a military campaign designed to destroy Creek power. The battles of the Red Sticks have become part of Alabama and American legend and include the famous Canoe Fight, the Battle of Holy Ground, and most significantly, the Battle of Tohopeka (also known as Horseshoe Bend)—the final great battle of the war. There, an American army crushed Creek resistance and made a national hero of Andrew Jackson.

New attention to material culture and documentary and archaeological records fills in details, adds new information, and helps disabuse the reader of outdated interpretations. 
Contributors
Susan M. Abram / Kathryn E. Holland Braund/ Robert P. Collins / Gregory Evans Dowd /John E. Grenier / David S. Heidler / Jeanne T. Heidler / Ted Isham / Ove Jensen / Jay Lamar /Tom Kanon / Marianne Mills / James W. Parker / Craig T. Sheldon Jr. / Robert G. Thrower / Gregory A. Waselkov

Genres: American History, War, Essays, Native American, History

336 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2012

Reviews

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Several essays do a very good job explaining the 1813-1814 Creek War, the causes and results. Each chapter is by a different author known as an expert in history, archaeology, or Native studies. Several long-held myths are examined and deconstructed. If you want to really understand what happened with the Creek War, this book is almost like a college course on examining the Creek War. Highly recommended.

[Jim Gallen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read “Tohopeka” in preparation for a book club. It consists of twelve essays by multiple authors chronicling the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, the defeat of the Creek Indians that opened the Southeast to white settlement. Topics include casualties and consequences from the Creek viewpoint and the description of the Red Sticks, the Creek warriors so named, probably because of the weapons they carried.

Like many Indian wars, the sides were not as clearly distinct as would be expected today. What started as a Creek Civil war over accommodation or resistance to white settlement saw Cherokee, the Creeks’ sometime ally, sometime enemy, fighting with the Americans. A massacre of Americans at Fort Mims generated a cry for retribution that was answered by militia under the Command of General Andrew Jackson. Jackson’s victory set dispersal of Indians to Florida and along the Trail of Tears in motion. Later chapters of this book address Americans’ Unrelenting War on the Indians of the Trans-Appalachian West, 1810-1814, forts, archeology and geography of battle sites. The portion I appreciated the most was David and Jeanne Heidler’s essay on “Fort Bowyer and the War on the Gulf.814-1815” for its ability to tie American, Indian and British campaigns in the Gulf region into the broader war story extending to New Orleans and beyond.

Being a collection of essays, this incorporates the views of several scholars into a loosely connected work I recommend it for readers with a general knowledge of the Creek War who want to extend the ken.

[Josh Liller · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up from the Horseshoe Bend NMP gift shop. It's a collection of essays about the Creek War of 1813-1814 and other aspects of the War of 1812 in what is now Alabama.

This is one of the best essay collections I've ever read. While there is a bit more overlap between essays than your typical essay collection, there's a lot of really good content here. I've read about the Creek War before, but always in context of the War of 1812. These essays give a much better analysis of the conflict as a Creek civil war that the USA intervened in. I had never previously heard of the Battle of Burnt Corn Creek; I thought the war started at Fort Mims. The essays also avoid being Jackson-centric. One of the essays is even written by a modern Creek.

My favorite essay was about Fort Bowyer (the predecessor to Fort Morgan) which normally gets skimmed over in War of 1812 studies. My least favorite was the one about archaeology, which just seemed to be dull writing.

The book has some illustrations, but they're often historic maps that I found hard to read. Each essay has extensive endnotes.

Highly recommended to anyone interested in the Creek War or War of 1812.

[Walter Knapp · Rating 4 out of 5]

The final battle of the Creek Civil War.