son replied, that his conduct, and the consequences to which it might lead, had been deliberately weighed, and well considered, and that he was prepared to abide the result, whatever it might be. Wilkinson had previously given orders to his officers, to recruit from Jackson's army; but they were advised, on their first appearance, that those troops were already in the service of the United States, and that, thus situated, they should not be enlisted; and that General Jackson would arrest, and confine, the first officer who dared to enter his encampment with any such object in view.

The quarter-master, having been ordered to furnish the necessary transportation for the conveyance of the sick and the baggage to Tennessee, immediately set about the performance of the task; but, as the event proved, without any intention to execute it. Still he continued to keep up the semblance of exertion; and, on the very day before that which had been appointed for breaking up the encampment and commencing the return march, eleven wagons arrived there by his order. But early the next morning, when every thing was about to be packed up, he entered the encampment, and discharged the whole. He was grossly mistaken, however, in the man he had to deal with, and had now played his tricks too far to be able to accomplish the object, which, without doubt, he had been intrusted to effect. Disregarding their dismissal, so evidently designed to prevent marching back his men, General Jackson seized upon the wagons, yet within his lines, and compelled them to proceed in the transportation of his sick. Among them was a young man, reported by the surgeon to be in a dying condition, whom it was useless to remove. "Not a man shall be left who has life in him," said the general. The young man was lifted into a wagon, in a state of torpor, and wholly insensible. The melancholy march commenced; and the general, with parental solicitude, passed along the train, taking special care that the invalids, in position and appliances, should have every comfort of which their situation was susceptible. With peculiar anxiety, he watched the apparently dying youth, as he was jostled by the movements

of the wagon. At length the young man opened his eyes, and the next instant exclaimed, "Where am I?"

"On your way home, my good fellow," replied the general, in a cheering tone. The effect was electric; he improved from that moment, and in a few weeks the general had the pleasure of restoring him, in good health, to his family and friends. It deserves to be mentioned, that the quarter-master, as soon as he received directions for furnishing transportation, had despatched an express to General Wilkinson; and there can be little question, that the course of duplicity he afterwards pursued, was a concerted plan between him and that general, to defeat the design of Jackson, compel him to abandon the determination he had formed, and, in this way, draw to the regular army many of the soldiers, who would be driven to enlist. In this attempt they were fortunately disappointed. Adhering to his original purpose, General Jackson successfully resisted every stratagem of Wilkinson, and marched the whole of his division to the section of country whence they had been drawn, and dismissed them from service, in the spring of 1813.

In addition to the philanthropic act we have just detailed, General Jackson gave up his own horses to the sick, and, trudging along on foot, submitted to all the privations that were endured by the soldiers. It was at a time of the year when the roads were extremely bad; and the swamps along their route were deep and full; yet, under these circumstances, he gave his troops an example of . patience and endurance of hardship that lulled to silence all complaints, and won for him additional respect and esteem. On arriving at Nashville, he communicated to the president of the United States the course he had pursued, and the reasons that had induced it. If it had become necessary, he had sufficient grounds on which he could have justified his conduct. Had he suffered General Wilkinson to have accomplished what was clearly his intention, although it was an event which might, at the moment, have benefited the service, by adding an increased strength to the army, yet the example would have been of so serious and exceptionable a character, that in

jury would have been the final and unavoidable result. Whether the intention of thus forcing these men to enlist. into the regular ranks, had its existence under the direction of the government or not, such would have been the universal belief; and all would have felt a deep abhorrence, at beholding the citizens of the country drawn off from their homes under pretence of danger; while the concealed design was, to reduce them to such necessity, at a distance from their residence, as to compel them to an act which they would have avoided under different circumstances. His conduct, exceptionable as it might at first appear, was, in the end, approved, and the expenses incurred were directed to be paid by the government. General Armstrong, the secretary of war, by whom the cruel and unfeeling order was issued, was soon after severely censured, and forced to resign his seat in the cabinet, on account of his culpable neglect to provide suitable means of defence for the city of Washington. The reputation of General Wilkinson, who had been appointed to supplant Jackson, was also tarnished, by his unfortunate operations in Canada, during the campaign of 1814.

CHAPTER IV.

1813. Depredations committed by the Creeks on the borders of Ten. nessee and Kentucky-Attack on Fort Mimms-Preparations for war-Jackson calls out the volunteers and militia-Address to the troops Takes the field-Enforces strict military discipline-Rapid march to Huntsville-Delay in forwarding supplies-Thwarted in his movements by General Cocke-Jealousy of the latter-Scarcity of provisions-Efforts of Jackson to procure supplies-Address to the soldiers on entering the enemy's country-Arrival at the Ten Islands-Difficulty with the contractors-Destitute_condition of the army-Battle of Tallushatchee-Humanity of JacksonHis adoption of an Indian boy. 1813.

THE repose of General Jackson and his volunteers was of short duration. They had scarcely reached their homes, when the Indian nations scattered over the territory composing the states of Alabama and Mississippi, made incursions into Tennessee and Kentucky, and committed the most savage murders and cruelties. The frontier settlements were constantly harassed by their depredations, and one atrocious act of barbarity followed so closely on another, that the inhabitants began to fear the worst from the revengeful spirit which Tecumseh, and his brother, the prophet, who were secretly aided and encouraged by the English government, had aroused in the breasts of their followers. The Creek Indians, residing in the vicinity of the Coosa and Tallapoosa rivers, were the most hostile and vindictive of all the tribes. Having collected a supply of ammunition, from the Spaniards at Pensacola, a party of their warriors, numbering about seven hundred men, commanded by Weatherford, a distinguished chief of the nation, made an attack on Fort Mimms, situated in the Tensaw settlement, in the territory of Mississippi. The fort was occupied by Major Beasley, with a force of one hundred and fifty men, and a large number of women

and children who had sought shelter and protection. The assault was commenced on the 30th of August, 1813, and proved to be successful. A most dreadful slaughter took place. Mercy was shown to none; neither age nor sex were respected; and the same stroke of the tomahawk often cleft mother and child. But seventeen of the whole number of persons in the fort made their escape.

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As soon as the intelligence of this monstrous outrage reached Tennessee, the authorities of that state took immediate measures to chastise the perpetrators. All eyes were instinctively turned towards General Jackson, who, though suffering severely from a fractured arm, promptly responded to the orders of his government by calling out the militia and volunteers. In his proclamation, he made a special appeal to those who had accompanied him to Natchez, to join him on this occasion. He pointed out the imperious necessity that demanded their services, and urged them to be punctual. Already," said he, "are large bodies of the hostile Creeks marching to your borders, with their scalping-knives unsheathed, to butcher your women and children: time is not to be lost. We must hasten to the frontier, or we shall find it drenched in the blood of our citizens. The health of your general is restored-he will command in person." In the mean time, until these troops could be collected and organized, Colonel Coffee, with the force then under his command, and such additional mounted riflemen as could be attached at a short notice, was directed to hasten forward to the neighborhood of Huntsville, and occupy some eligible position for the defence of the frontier.

The 4th of October, which was the day appointed for the rendezvous, having arrived, and the general not being sufficiently recovered to attend in person, he forwarded by his aid-de-camp, Major Reid, an address, to be read to the troops, in which he pointed out the unprovoked injuries they were called upon to redress, in the following eloquent and stirring appeal:

"We are about to furnish these savages a lesson of admonition; we are about to teach them that our long forbearance has not proceeded from an insensibility to wrongs,