«No sutler will be suffered to sell spirituous liquors to any soldier, without permission in writing from a commissioned officer, under the penalties prescribed by the rules and articles of war.

"No citizen will be permitted to pass the chain of sentinels after retreat-beat in the evening, until reveille in the morning. Drunkenness, the bane of all orderly encampments, is positively forbidden, both in officers and privates: officers, under the penalty of immediate arrest; and privates, of being placed under guard, there to remain until liberated by a courtmartial.

"At reveille-beat, all officers and soldiers are to appear on parade, with their arms and accoutrements in proper order. "On parade, silence, the duty of a soldier, is positively commanded.

No officer or soldier is to sleep out of camp, but by permission obtained."

These rules, to those who had scarcely yet passed the line that separates the citizen from the soldier, and who had not yet laid aside the notions of self-sovereignty, had the appearance of too much rigor; but the general well knew that the expedition in which they were embarked involved much hazard, and that, although such lively feelings were manifested now, yet when hardships pressed, these might cease. He considered it much safer, therefore, to lay before them at once the rules of conduct to which they must conform; believing that it would be more difficult to drive licentiousness from his camp than to prevent its entrance.

Impatient to join his division, although his health was far from being restored, his arm only beginning to heal, the general in a few days afterward set out for the encampment, and reached it on the 7th of October, 1813. Finding on his arrival that the requisition was not complete, either in the number of men or the necessary equipments, measures were instantly taken to remedy the deficiency. Orders were directed to the several brigadiers in his division to hasten immediately their respective quotas, fully equipped for active operation.

Circumstances did not permit him to remain at this

place long enough to have the delinquencies complained of remedied, and the ranks of his army filled. Colonel Coffee had proceeded with his mounted volunteers to cover Huntsville, and give security to the frontiers, where alarm greatly prevailed. On the night of the 8th a letter was received from him, dated two days before, advising that two Indians, belonging to the peace party, had just arrived at the Tennessee river from Chinnaby's fort, on the Coosa, with information that the war party had despatched eight hundred or a thousand of their warriors to attack the frontiers of Georgia; and, with the remainder of their forces, were marching against Huntsville, or Fort Hampton. In consequence of this intelligence, exertions were made to hasten a movement. Late on the following night another express arrived, confirming the former statement, and representing the enemy, in great force, to be rapidly approaching the Tennessee. Orders were now given for preparing the line of march, and by nine o'clock the next day the whole division was in motion. They had not proceeded many miles, when they were met with intelligence that Colonel Gibson, who had been sent out by Coffee to reconnoitre the movements of the enemy, had been killed by their advance. A strong desire had been manifested to be led forward; that desire was now strengthened by the information just received; and it was with difficulty their emotions could be restrained. They accelerated their march, and before eight o'clock at night arrived at Huntsville, a distance of thirty-two miles. Learning here that the information was erroneous which had occasioned so hasty a movement, the general encamped his troops; having intended to march them that night to the Tennessee river, had it been confirmed. The next day the line of march was resumed. The influence of the late excitement was now visible in the lassitude which followed its removal. Proceeding slowly, they crossed the Tennessee at Ditto's landing, and united in the evening with Colonel Coffee's regiment, which had previously occupied a commanding bluff on the south bank of the river. From this place, a few days afterward, Jackson detached Colonel Coffee with seven hundred men to scour the Black Warrior, a stream running from the north-east, and

emptying into the Tombigbee; on which were supposed to be settled several populous villages of the enemy. He himself remained at this encampment a week, using the utmost pains in training his troops for service, and laboring incessantly to procure the necessary supplies for a campaign, which he had determined to carry directly into the heart of the enemy's country. Towards the latter object, his industry had been employed and his attention invariably directed, from the time the expedition was projected.

With General Cocke, who commanded the division of East Tennessee militia, an arrangement had been made the preceding month, in which he had engaged to furnish large quantities of bread-stuff at Ditto's landing. The facility of procuring it in that quarter, and the convenient transportation afforded by the river, left no doubt on the mind of Jackson but that the engagement would be punctually complied with. To provide, however, against the bare possibility of a failure, and to be guarded against all contingencies that might happen, he had addressed his applications to various other sources. He had, on the same subject, written in the most pressing manner to the Governor of Georgia, with whose forces it was proposed to act in concert; to Colonel Meigs, agent to the Cherokee nation of Indians; and to General White, who commanded the advance of the East Tennessee troops. Previously to his arival at Huntsville, he had received assurances from the two latter that a considerable supply of flour for the use of his army had been procured, and was then at Hiwassee, where boats were ready to transport it. From General Cocke himself, about the same time, a letter was received, stating that a hundred and fifty barrels of flour were then on the way to his encampment; and expressing a belief that he should be able to procure, and forward on immediately, a thousand barrels more. With pressing importunity he had addressed himself to the contractors, and they had given him assurances, that on his crosssing the Tennessee they would be prepared with twenty day's rations for his whole command; but finding, on his arrival at Ditto's, that their preparations were not in such forwardness as he had been led to expect, he was compelled for a time to suspend any active

and general operations. Calculating, however, with great confidence, on exertions which he had been promised should be unremitting, and on the speedy arrival of those supplies, descending the river, which had been already unaccountably delayed, he hoped in a few days to be placed in a situation to act efficiently. While he was encouraged by these expectations, and only waiting their fulfillment that he might advance, Shelocta, the son of Chinnaby, a principal chief among the friendly Creeks, arrived at his camp, to solicit his speedy movement for the relief of his father's fort, which was then threatened by a considerable body of the war party, who had advanced to the neighborhood of the Ten Islands, on the Coosa. Influenced by his representations, and anxious to extend relief, Jackson, on the 18th, gave orders for taking up the line of march on the following day, and notified the contractors of this arrangement, that they might be prepared to issue immediately such supplies as they had on hand; but to his great astonishment, he then, for the first time, was apprised of their entire inability to supply him while on his march. Having drawn what they had in their power to furnish, amounting to only a few day's rations, they were deposed from office, and others appointed, on whose industry and performance he believed he might more safely rely. The scarcity of his provisions, however, at a moment like the present, when there was every appearance that the enemy might be met, and a blow stricken to advantage, was not sufficient to wave his determination already taken. The route he would have to take to gain the fort, lay for a considerable distance up the river: might not the boats, long expected from Hiwassee, and which he felt strongly assured must be near at hand, be met with on the way? He determined to proceed; and having passed his army and baggage-wagons over several mountains of stupendous size, and such as were thought almost impassable by footpassengers, he arrived on the 22d of October at Thompson's creek, which empties into the Tennessee, twenty-four miles above Ditto's. At this place he proposed the establishment of a permanent depot, for the reception of supplies, to be sent either up or down the river. Disappointed in the hopes with which he had ventured on his march, he remained here several

days, in expectation of the boats that were coming to his relief. Thus harrassed at the first onset by difficulties wholly unexpected, and which, from the numerous and strong assurances received, he could by no means have calculated on; fearing, too, that the same disregard of duty might induce a continuance, he lost no time in opening every avenue to expedient, that the chances of future failure might be diminished. To General Flournoy, who commanded at Mobile, he applied, urging him to procure bread-stuff, and have it forwarded up the Alabama by the time he should arrive on that river. The agent of the Choctaws, Colonel M'Kee, who was then on the Tombigbee, was addressed in the same style of entreaty. Expresses were despatched to General White, who, with the advance of the East Tennessee division, had arrived at the Look-out mountain, in the Cherokee nation, urging him by all means to hasten on the supplies. The assistance of the Governor of Tennessee was also earnestly besought. To facilitate exertion, and to assure success, every thing within his reach was attempted: several persons of wealth and patriotism in Madison county, were solicited to afford the contractors all the aid in their power; and to induce them more readily to extend it, their deep interest immediately at stake was pointed to, and their deplorable and dangerous situation, should necessity compel him to withdraw his army, and leave them exposed to the mercy of the savages.

While these measures were taking, two runners from Turkeytown, an Indian village, despatched by Path-killer, a chief of the Cherokees, arrived at the camp. They brought information that the enemy, from nine of the hostile towns, were assembling in great force near the Ten Islands; and solicited that immediate assistance should be afforded the friendly Creeks and Cherokees in their neighborhood, who were exposed to imminent danger. His want of provisions was not yet remedied; but distributing the partial supply that was on hand, he resolved to proceed, in expectation that the relief he had so earnestly looked for would in a little while arrive, and be forwarded to him. To prepare his troops for an engagement, which he foresaw was soon to take place, he thus addressed them: