Tohopeka: Rethinking the Creek War and the War of 1812

by Kathryn H. Braund (Editor), Kathryn H. Braund (Introduction), Susan M. Abram (Contribution by), Kathryn H. Braund (Contribution by), Robert P. Collins (Contribution by)

Overview

Tohopeka contains a variety of perspectives and uses a wide array of 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and documentary and archaeological records fills in details, adds new information, and helps disabuse the reader of outdated interpretations.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

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780817357115
Publisher:	University of Alabama Press
Publication date:	07/30/2012
Edition description:	First Edition, First Edition
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	15 - 18 Years

About the Author

Kathryn E. Holland Braund is Hollifield Professor of Southern History at Auburn University. She is the author of Deerskins and Duffels: The Creek Indian Trade with Anglo-America, 1685−1815 and coeditor of Fields of Vision: Essays on the “Travels” of William Bartram and William Bartram on the Southeastern Indians.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations

Foreword: A Deliberate Passion by Marianne Mills

Preface by Jay Lamar

Acknowledgments

Introduction by Kathryn E. Holland Braund

1. Causalities and Consequences of the Creek War: A Modern Creek Perspective by Robert G. Thrower

2. Thinking outside the Circle: Tecumseh's 1811 Mission by Gregory Evans Dowd

3. "A Packet from Canada": Telling Conspiracy Stories on the 1813 Creek Frontier by Robert P. Collins

4. Red Sticks by Kathryn E. Holland Braund

5. Before Horseshoe: Andrew Jackson's Campaigns in the Creek War Prior to Horseshoe Bend by Tom Kanon

6. Cherokees in the Creek War: A Band of Brothers by Susan M. Abram

7. Horseshoe Bend: A Living Memorial by Ove Jensen

8. Fort Jackson and the Aftermath by Gregory A. Waselkov

9. "We Bleed Our Enemies in Such Cases to Give Them Their Senses": Americans' Unrelenting Wars on the Indians of the Trans-Appalachian West, 1810-1814 by John E. Grenier

10. "Where All Behaved Well": Fort Bowyer and the War on the Gulf, 1814-1815 by David S. Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler

11. Archaeology, Geography, and the Creek War in Alabama by Craig T. Sheldon Jr.

12. Digging Twice: Camps and Historical Sites Associated with the War of 1812 and the Creek War of 1813-1814 by James W. Parker

Afterword: The Western Muscogee (Creek) Perspective by Ted Isham

Appendix 1: Current Preservation Status of Major Creek War/War of 1812 Sites in Alabama

Appendix 2: Known and Potential Archaeological Sites in Alabama

Bibliography

Contributors

Index

Editorial Reviews

"[…] Tohopeka offers compelling analyses and uses new evidence to show how a localized Creek civil war had enormous implications for the course of American history."
—The Journal of Southern History


"An interesting, interdisciplinary collection of essays on a timely topic,quite readable by the non-specialist."—Robbie Ethridge, coeditor of Light on the Path: The Anthropology and History of the Southeastern Indians
 


“Tohopeka is an important and timely volume that offers fresh insights into the War of 1812 and overlapping Creek War. As a whole, the book busts many long-held myths and alters our most basic interpretations of the southern conflicts.”—Andrew K. Frank, author of Creeks and Southerners: Biculturalism on the Early American Frontier and editor of Early Republic: People and Perspectives

From the Publisher