"Less than fifteen miles from Fort Strother lay the Creek village of Tallushatchee, where a large body of Red Sticks had assembled. Jackson ordered General John Coffee, along with a thousand mounted men, to destroy the town. On the morning of 3 November 1813, Coffee approached the village and divided his detachment into two columns: the right composed of cavalry under Colonel John Alcorn and the left under the command of Colonel Newton Cannon. The columns encircled the town and the companies of Captain Eli Hammond and Lieutenant James Patterson went inside the circle to draw the Creeks into the open. The ruse worked. The Creek warriors charged the right column of Coffee's brigade, only to retreat to their village where they were forced to make a desperate stand. Coffee's army overpowered the Creeks and quickly eliminated them. Coffee commented that "the enemy fought with savage fury, and met death with all its horrors, without shrinking or complaining: no one asked to be spared, but fought as long as they could stand or sit." One of the Tennessee soldiers, the legendary David Crockett, simply said: "We shot them like dogs." The carnage ended in about thirty minutes. At least 200 Creek warriors (and some women) lay dead and nearly 100 prisoners, mostly women and children, were taken. American losses amounted to five killed and about forty wounded. Shortly after Coffee's detachment returned to Fort Strother, Jackson received a plea for help from a tribe of allied Creeks at Talladega, who were besieged by a contingency of Red Sticks. Jackson responded to the call by mobilizing an army of 1,200 infantry and 800 cavalry and set out for the Creek fort at Talladega, arriving there in the early morning of 9 November. Using the same tactics that had worked at Tallushatchee, Jackson surrounded the town with a brigade of militia under General Isaac Roberts on the left and a brigade of volunteers led by General William Hall on the right. A cavalry detachment, under Colonel Robert Dyer, was held in reserve and an advance unit, led by Colonel William Carroll, was sent in to lure the Red Sticks out into the open. When the Creeks attacked the section of the line held by Roberts' brigade, the militia retreated allowing hundreds of warriors to escape. The gap was quickly filled by Dyer's reserves and Roberts' men soon regained their position. Within fifteen minutes the battle was over. At least 300 Creeks perished on the battlefield while American losses amounted to fifteen killed and eighty-six wounded. Jackson marched his troops back to Fort Strother to attend to his wounded and obtain desperately needed supplies. Prior to the Battle of Talladega, Jackson had expected to rendezvous with an army from East Tennessee under the command of Major General John Cocke. However, jealousy and rivalry between the two divisions of the state prevented the hoped-for junction of the two forces. Cocke, in need of supplies for his own army, felt that joining Jackson would only make the supply situation worse (supply problems plagued the Tennesseans throughout the Creek War). Cocke insisted that his army seek its own "glories in the field."

Category: Pre-Civil War