05 - Indian Warfare

Chapter 5: Indian Warfare
This chapter details Crockett’s interactions and conflicts with Native American tribes, showcasing his role in frontier wars and his perspectives on these encounters. Summary by Dream Audiobooks

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter five of David Crockett, His Life and Adventures. This
is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
LibriVox dot org. Recording by Brett W. Downey. David Crockett,
His Life and Adventures by John S. C Abbott, Chapter five,

(00:24):
Indian Warfare. The army, upon its return to Fort Struther,
found itself still in a starving condition. Though the expedition
had been eminently successful in the destruction of Indian warriors,
it had consumed their provisions without affording them any additional supply.
The weather had become intensely cold, The clothing of the

(00:44):
soldiers from hard usage had become nearly worn out. The
horses were also emaciate and feeble. There was danger that
many of the soldiers must perish from destitution and hunger.
The regiment to which Crockett belonged had enlisted for sixty days,
their time had long since expired. The officers proposed to
Jackson that they and their soldiers might be permitted to

(01:06):
return to their homes, promising that they would immediately re
enlist after having obtained fresh horses and fresh clothing. Andrew
Jackson was by nature one of the most unyielding of men.
His will was law and must be obeyed right or wrong.
He was at that time one of the most profane
of men. He swore by all that was sacred that
they should not go, that the departure of so many

(01:27):
of the men would endanger the possession of the fort
and the lives of the remaining soldiers. There were many
of the soldiers in the same condition whose term of
service had expired. They felt that they were free and
enlightened Americans, and resented the idea of being thus enslaved
and driven like cattle at the will of a single man.
Mutinous feelings were excited. The camp was filled with clamor.

(01:50):
The soldiers generally were in sympathy with those who demanded
their discharge, having faithfully served out the term of their enlistment.
Others felt that their own turn might come, when they
too might be thus enslaved. There was a bridge which
it was necessary for the soldiers to cross on the
homeward route. The inflexible general, supposing that the regulars would
be obedient to military discipline, and that it would be

(02:11):
for their interest to retain in the camp. Those whose
departure would endanger all their lives placed them upon the
bridge with cannon loaded to the muzzle with grape shot.
They were ordered mercilessly to shoot down any who would
attempt to cross without his permission. In Crockett's ludicrous account
of this adventure, he writes, the general refused to let
us go. We were, however, determined to go with this.

(02:35):
The General issued his orders against it. We began to
fix for a start. The General went and placed his
cannon on a bridge we had to cross, and ordered
out his regulars and drafted men to prevent our crossing.
But when the militia started to guard the bridge, they
would holler back to us to bring their knapsacks along
when we came for they wanted to go as bad
as we did. We got ready and moved on till

(02:58):
we came near the bridge, where the general's men were
all strung along both sides. But we all had our
flints ready picked and our guns ready primed, that if
we were fired upon, we might fight our way through
or all die together. When we came still nearer the bridge,
we heard the guards cocking their guns, and we did
the same. But we marched boldly on and not a

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gun was fired, nor a life lost. When we had passed,
no further attempt was made to stop us. We went on,
and near Huntsville we met a reinforcement who were going
on to join the army. It consisted of a regiment
of sixty day volunteers. We got home pretty safely, and
in a short time we procured fresh horses and a
sply of clothing better suited for the season. The officers

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and soldiers ere long rendezvous again at Fort Deposit, personally
interested as every one was in subduing the creeks, whose
hostility menaced every hamlet with flames and the inmates of
those hamlets with massacre. Still, the officers were so annoyed
by the arrogance of General Jackson that they were exceedingly
unwilling to serve again under his command. Just as they

(04:02):
came together, a message came from General Jackson, demanding that
on their return they should engage to serve for six months.
He regarded an enlistment merely for sixty days as absurd.
With such soldiers, he justly argued that no comprehensive campaign
could be entered upon the officers held a meeting to
decide upon this question. In the morning, at drumbeat, they

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informed the soldiers of the conclusion that they had formed.
Quite unanimously. They decided that they would not go back
on a six month's term of service, but that each
soldier might do as he pleased. Crockett writes, I knowed
if I went back home, I wouldn't rest, for I
felt it my duty to be out, and when out,
I was, somehow or other, always delighted to be in

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the thickest of the danger. A few of us therefore
determined to push on and join the army. The number
I do not recollect, but it was very small. When
Crockett reached Fortstruther, he was placed in a company of
scouts under Major Russell. Just before they reached the fort,
General Jackson had set out on an expedition in a
southeasterly direction to what was called Horseshoe Bend on the

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Tallapoosa River. The party of scouts soon overtook him and
led the way. As they approached the spot through the
silent trails which threaded the wide solitudes, they came upon
many signs of Indians being around the scouts gave the
alarm and the main body of the army came up.
The scouts under Jackson amounted to about one thousand men.

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It was the evening of January twenty third, eighteen fourteen.
The camp fires were built, supper prepared, and sentinels being
carefully stationed all around to prevent surprise. The soldiers, protected
from the wintry wind only by the gigantic forest, wrapped
themselves in their blankets and threw themselves down on the
withered leaves for sleep. The Indians crept noiselessly along from

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tree to tree, each man searching for a sentinel, until
about two hours before day, when they opened a well
aimed fire from the impenetrable darkness in which they stood.
The sentinels were treated back to the encampment and the
whole army was roused. The troops were encamped in the
form of a hollow square, and thus were necessarily between
the Indians and the light of their own camp fires.

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Not a warrior was to be seen. The only guy
the Americans had in shooting was to notice the flash
of the enemy's guns. They fired at the flash, but
as every Indian stood behind a tree, it is not
probable that many, if any, were harmed. The Indians were
very wary not to expose themselves. They kept at a
great distance and were not very successful in their fire.

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Though they wounded quite a number, only four men were killed.
With the dawn of the morning they all vanished. General
Jackson did not wish to leave the corpses of the
slain to be dug up and scalped by the savages.
He therefore erected a large funeral pyre placed the bodies
upon it, and they were soon consumed to ashes. Some
lindens were made of long and flexible poles attached to

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two horses, one at each end, and upon these the
wounded were conveyed over the rough and narrow way. The
Indians thus far had manifestly been the victor's They had
inflicted serious injury upon the Americans, and there is no
evidence that a single one of their warriors had received
the slightest arm. This was the great object of Indian
strategy in the wars of civilization. A great general has

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ever been willing to sacrifice the lives of ten thousand
of his own troops, if by doing so he could
kill twenty thousand of the enemy, but it was never
so with the Indians. They prized the lives of their
warriors too highly. On their march, the troops came to
a wide creek which it was necessary to cross. Here
the Indians again prepared for battle. They concealed themselves so

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effectually as to elude all the vigilance of the scouts.
When about half the troops had crossed the stream, the
almost invisible Indians commenced their assault, opening a very rapid
but scattering fire. Occasionally a warrior was seen darting from
one point to another to obtain better vantage ground. Major
Russell was in command of a small rear guard. His

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soldiers soon appeared, running on almost breathless, to join the
main body, pursued by a large number of Indians. The
savages had chosen the very best moment for their attack.
The artillery men were in an open field surrounded by
the forest. The Indians, from behind stumps, logs, and trees,
took deliberate aim, and almost every bullet laid a soldier prostrate.

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Quite a panic ensued. Two of the colonels, abandoning their regiments,
rushed across the creek to escape the deadly fire. There
is no evidence that the Indians were superior in numbers
to the Americans, but it cannot be denied that the Americans,
though under the leadership of Andrew Jackson, were again out generaled.
General Jackson lost in this short conflict and killed and

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wounded nearly one hundred men. His disorganized troops at length
effected the passage of the Creek, beyond which the Indians
did not pursue them. Crockett writes, I will not say
exactly that the old general was whipped, but I think
he would say himself that he was nearer whip this
time than any other. For I know that all the
world couldn't make him acknowledge that he was pointedly whipped.

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I know I was mighty glad when it was over
and the savages quit us, for I began to think
there was one behind every tree in the woods. Crockett,
having served out his term, returned home, but he was
restless there, having once experienced the excitements of the camp.
His wild, untrained nature could not repose in the quietude
of domestic life. The conflict between the United States and

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a small band of Indians was very unequal. The loss
of a single warrior was to the Creeks irreparable. General
Jackson was not a man to yield to difficulties. On
the twenty seventh of March eighteen fourteen, he drove twelve
hundred Creek warriors into their fort at Tohopeka. There they
were surrounded so that escape was impossible, and the fort

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was set on fire. The carnage was awful. Almost every
warrior perished by the bullet or in the flames. The
military power of the tribe was at an end. The remnant,
utterly dispirited, sued for peace. Quite a number of the
Creek warriors fled to Florida and joined the hostile Indian
tribes there. We were at this time involved in our

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second war with Great Britain. The government of our mother
country was doing everything in its power to rouse the
savages against us. The armies in Canada rallied most of
the northern tribes beneath their banners. Florida at that time
belonged to Spain. The Spanish government was nominally neutral in
the conflict between England and the United States, but the

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Spanish governor in Florida was in cordial sympathy with the
British officers He lent them all the aid and comfort
in his power, carefully avoiding any positive violation of the
laws of neutrality. He extended very liberal hospitality to the
refugee Creek warriors, and in many ways facilitated their co
operation with the English. A small British fleet entered the

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mouth of the Appalachicoa River and landed three hundred soldiers.
Here they engaged vigorously in constructing a fort and in
summoning all the surrounding Indian tribes to join them in
the invasion of the Southern States. General Jackson, with a
force of between one and two thousand men, was in
northern Alabama, but a few days March north of the
Florida line. He wrote to the Secretary of War in

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substance as follows. The hostile Creeks have taken refuge in Florida.
They are there, fed, clothed, and protected. The British have
armed a large force with munitions of war, and are
forifying and stirring up the savages. If you will permit
me to raise a few hundred militia, which can easily
be done, I will unite them with such a force

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of regulars as can easily be collected and will make
a descent on Pensacola and will reduce it. I promise you,
I will bring the war in the South to a
speedy termination, and the English influence with the savages in
this quarter shall be forever destroyed. The President was not
prepared thus to provoke war with Spain. By the invasion
of Florida, Andrew Jackson assumed the responsibility. The British had

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recently made an attack upon Mobile, and being repulsed, had
retired with their squadron to the harbor of Pensacola. Jackson
called for volunteers to march upon Pensacola. Crockett roused himself
at the summons, like the war horse who snuffs the
battle from afar I wanted, he wrote, a small taste
of British fighting, and I suppose they would be there.

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His wife again entered her tearful remonstrance. She pointed to
her little children in their lonely hut, far away in
the wilderness, remote from all neighborhood, and entreated the husband
and the father not again to abandon them. Rather unfeelingly,
he writes, the entreaties of my wife were thrown in
the way of my going, but all in vain, for
I always had a way of just going ahead at

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whatever I had a mind. To many who have perused
this sketch thus far may inquire with some surprise, what
is it which has given this man such fame as
is even national. He certainly does not develop a very
attractive character, and there is but little of the romance
of chivalry thrown around his exploits. The secret is probably

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to be found in the following considerations, the truth of
which the continuation of this narrative will be continually unfolding.
Without education, without refinement, without wealth or social position, or
any special claims to personal beauty. He was entirely self possessed,
and at home under all circumstances. He never manifested the

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slightest embarrassment. The idea seemed never to have entered his
mind that there could be any person superior to David Crockett,
or any one so humble that Crockett was entitled to
look down upon him with condescension. He was a genuine democrat.
All were in his view equal, and this was not
the result of thought of any political or moral principle.

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It was a part of his nature which belonged to him,
without any volition, like his stature or complexion. This is
one of the rarest qualities to be found in any man.
We do not here condemn it or applaud it. We
simply state the fact. In the army he acquired boundless
popularity from his fun making qualities. In these days he
was always merry. Burst of laughter generally greeted Crockett's approach

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and followed his departure. He was blessed with a memory
which seemed absolutely never to have forgotten anything. His mind
was an inexhaustible storehouse of anecdote. These he had ever
at command. Though they were not always, indeed were seldom
of the most refined nature, they were none the less
adapted to raise shouts of merriment in cabin and in camp.

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What Sidney Smith was at the banqueting board, in the
palatial saloon, such was David Crockett at the camp fire
and in the log hut. If ever, in want of
an illustrative anecdote, he found no difficulty in manufacturing one.
His thoughtless, kindness of heart and good nature were inexhaustible.
Those in want never appealed to him. In vain he
would even go hungry himself, that he might feed others

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who were more hungry. He would, without a moment's consideration,
spend his last dollar to buy a blanket for a
shivering soldier, and without taking any merit for the deed,
would never think of it again. He did it without
reflection as he breathed. Such was the David Crockett, who,
from the mere love of adventure, left wife and children
in the awful solitude of the wilderness to follow General

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Jackson in a march to Pensacola. He seems fully to
have understood the character of the General, his merits, and
his defects. The main body of the army, consisting of
a little more than two thousand men, had already commenced
its march when Crockett repaired to a rendezvous in the
northern frontiers of Alabama, where another company was being formed
under Major Russell. Soon to follow. The company numbered one

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hundred and thirty men and commenced its march. They forded
the Tennessee River at mussel Shoals, and marched south unmolested,
through the heart of the chalk Taw and Chickasaw nations,
and pressed rapidly forward. Two or three hundred miles until
they reached the junction of the tom Beckby and Alabama
rivers in the southern section of the state. The main
army was now but two days march before them. The

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troops thus far had been mounted, finding sufficient grazing for
their horses by the way, but learning that there was
no forage to be found between there and Pensacola, they
left their animals behind under a sufficient guard at a
place called cut Off, and set out for the rest
of the march, a distance of about eighty miles on foot.
The slight protective works they threw up pier they called

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Fort Stoddard. These light troops, hardy men of iron nerves,
accomplished the distance in about two days. On the evening
of the second day, they reached an eminence, but a
short distance out from Pensacola, where they found the army encamped,
not a little to Crockett's disappointment, he learned that Pensacola
was already captured. Thus he lost his chance at having

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a small taste of British fighting. The British and Spaniards
had obtained intelligence of Jackson's approach and had made every
preparation to drive him back. The forts were strongly garrisoned,
and all the principal streets of the little Spanish city
were barricaded. Several British war vessels were anchored in the
bay and so placed as to command with their guns

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the principal entrance to the town. Jackson, who had invaded
the Spanish province unsanctioned by the government, was anxious to
impress upon the Spanish authorities that the measure had been
reluctantly adopted on his own authority as a military necessity,
and that he had no disposition to violate their neutral rights,
but that it was indispensable that the British should be

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dislodged and driven away. The pride of the Spaniard was roused,
and there was no friendly response to this appeal. But
the Spanish garrison was small and united with the English fleet,
could present no effectual opposition to the three thousand men
under such a lionhearted leader as General Jackson. On the
seventh of January, the general opened fire upon the foe.

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The conflict was short. The Spaniards were compelled to surrender
their works. The British fled to the ships the guns
were turned upon them. They spread sail and disappeared. Jackson
was severely censured at the time for invading the territory
of a neutral power. The final verdict of his countrymen
has been decidedly in his favor. It was supposed that

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the British would move for the attack of Mobile. This
place then consisted of a settlement of about one hundred
and fifty houses. General Jackson, with about two thousand men,
marched rapidly for its defense. A few small, broken bands
of hostile yet despairing Creeks fled back from Florida into
the wilds of Alabama. A detachment of nearly a thousand

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men under Major Russell were sent in pursuit of these
fleas among the mountains Kroc had made part of this expedition.
The pursuing soldiers directed their steps northwest, about one hundred
miles to Fort Montgomery on the Alabama, just above its
confluence with the tom beckby about twelve miles above Fort Stoddard.
Not far from there was Fort Mims, where the awful

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massacre had taken place, which opened the Creek War. There
were many cattle grazing in the vicinity of the fort
at the time of the massacre, which belonged to the garrison.
These animals were now running wild. A thousand hungry men
gave them chase. The fatal bullets soon laid them all low,
and there was a great feasting and hilarity in the
camp the corrals was much promoted by the arrival that

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evening of a large barge which had sailed up the
Alabama River from Mobile with sugar, coffee, and best of all,
as the soldiers said, worst of all, as humanity cries,
with a large amount of intoxicating liquors. The scene presented
that night was wild and picturesque in the extreme. The
horses of the army were scattered about over the plain,

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grazing upon their rich herbage. There was wood in abundance near,
and the camp fires for a thousand men threw up
their forked flames, illumining the whole region with almost the
light of day. The white tents of the officers, the
varied groups of the soldiers running here and there in
all possible attitudes. The cooking and feasting, often whole quarters
of beef roasting on enormous spits before the vast fires,

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afforded a spectacle such as is rarely seen. One picture
instantly arrested the eye of every beholder. There were one
hundred and eighty six friendly Chickasaw and Choctaw Indians who
had enlisted in the army. They formed a band by
themselves under their own chiefs. They were all nearly naked,
gorgeously painted and decorated with the very brilliant attire of

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the warrior, with crimson colored plumes and moccasins and leggings,
richly fringed and dyed in bright and strongly contrasting hues.
These savages were in the enjoyment of their greatest delight,
drinking to frenzy and performing their most convulsive dances around
the flaming fires. In addition to this spectacle which met
the eye, there were sounds of revelry which fell almost

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appallingly upon the ear. The wide expanse reverberated with bacconal
songs and drunken shouts and frenzied war whoops. These were
all blended in an inextricable clamor with the unrefined eminently
and in a considerable degree, with the most refined noise
is one of the most essential elements of festivity. Thousand
men were making all the noise they could in this

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midnight revel. Probably never before since the dawn of Creation
had the banks of the Alabama echoed with such a
clamor as in this great carouse, which had so suddenly
burst forth from the silence of the almost uninhabited wilderness.
This is the poetry of war. This it is which
lures so many men from the tameness of ordinary life
to the ranks of the army. In such scenes, Crockett,

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bursting with faun, the incarnation of wit and good nature,
was in his element. Here he was chief. All did
him homage. His pride was gratified by his distinction. Life
in his lonely hut with his wife and children seemed
in comparison, too spiritless to be endured. The Alabama here
runs nearly west. The army was on the south side

(21:29):
of the river. The next day, the Indians asked permission
to cross to the northern bank on an exploring expedition.
Consent was given, but Major Russell decided to go with them,
Taking a company of sixteen men, of whom Crockett was one,
It crossed the river and encamped upon the other side.
Seeing no foe and encountering no alarm. They soon came
to a spot where the winding river, overflowing its banks,

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spread over a wide extent of the flat country. It
was about a mile and a half across this inundated meadow.
To journey around it would require a march of many miles.
They waited the meadow. The water was very cold, often
up to their armpits, and they stumbled over the rough ground.
This was not the poetry of war, but still there
is a certain degree of civilization in which the monotony

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of life is relieved by such adventures. When they reached
the other side, they built large fires and warmed and
dried themselves. They were in search of a few fugitive
Indian warriors, who, fleeing from Pensacola, had scattered themselves over
a wilderness many hundred square miles in extent. This pursuit
of them by a thousand soldiers seems now very foolish,

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but it is hardly safe for us, seated by our
quiet firesides, and with but a limited knowledge of the circumstances,
to pass judgment upon the measure. The exploring party consisted,
as we have mentioned, of nearly two hundred Indians, and
sixteen white men. They advanced very cautiously. Two scouts were
kept some distance in the advance, two on the side

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nearest the river, and five on their right. In this world,
they had moved along about six miles when the two
spies in front came rushing breathlessly back with the tidings
that they had discovered a camp of Creek Indians. They
halted for a few moments while all examined their guns
and their priming and prepared for battle. The Indians went
through certain religious ceremonies, and getting out their war paint,

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colored their bodies anew. Then they came to Major Russell
and told them that as he was to lead them
in battle, he must be painted too. He humored them
and was painted in the most approved style of an
Indian warrior. The plan of battle was arranged to strike
the Indian camp by surprise when they were utterly unprepared
for any resistance. The white men were cautiously to proceed

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in the advance and pour in a deadly fire to
kill as many as possible. The Indians were then taking
advantage of the panic to rush in with tomahawk and
scalping knife and finish the scenes according to their style
of battle, which spared neither women nor children. It is
not pleasant to record such a measure. They crept along,
concealed by the forest and guided by the sound of pounding,

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till they caught sight of the camp. A little to
their chagrin, they found that it consisted of two peaceful wigwams,
where there was a man, a woman, and several children.
The wigwams were also on an island of the river,
which could not be approached without boats. There could not
be much glory won by an army of two hundred
men routing such a party and destroying their home. There

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was also nothing to indicate that these Indians had even
any unfriendly feelings. The man and women were employed in
bruising what was called briar root, which they had dug
from the forest for food. It seems that this was
the principal subsistence used by the Indians in that vicinity.
While the soldiers were deliberating what next to do, they
heard a gun fired in the direction of the scouts

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at some distance on the right, followed by a single
shrill war whoop. This satisfied them that if the scouts
had met with a foe it was indeed wore on
a small scale. There seemed no need for any special caution.
They all broke and ran towards the spot from which
the sounds came. They soon met two of the spies,
who told the following not very credible story, but one

(25:03):
highly characteristic of the times. As they were creeping along
the forest, they found two Indians who said they were
creeks out hunting. As they were approaching each other, it
so happened that there was a dense cluster of bushes
between them, so that they were in a few feet
of meeting before either party was discovered the two spies
were chalktaws. They advanced directly to the Indians and addressed

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them in the most friendly manner, stating that they had
belonged to General Jackson's army, but had escaped and were
on their way home. They shook hands, kindled a fire,
and sat down and smoked in apparent perfect cordiality. One
of the creeks had a gun, the other had only
a bow and arrows. After this friendly interview, they rose
and took leave of each other, each going in opposite directions.

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As soon as their backs were turned, and they were
but a few feet from each other. One of the
Chalktaws turned round and shot the unsuspecting Creek who had
the gun. He fell dead without a groan. The other
Creek attempted to escape, while the other chalk tall snapped
his gun at him repeatedly, but it missed fire. They
then pursued him, overtook him, knocked him down with the

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butt of their guns, and battered his head until he
was also motionless in death. One of the chalktalls, in
his frenzied blows, broke the stock of his rifle. They
then fired off the gun of the Creek who was killed,
and one of them uttered the war whoop, which was
heard by the rest of the party. These two savages
drew their scalping knives and cut off the heads of
both their victims. As the whole body came rushing up,

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they found the gory corpses of the slain with their
dissevered heads near by. Each Indian had a war club
with these massive weapons. Each savage, in his turn, gave
the mutilated heads a severe blow. When they had all
performed this barbaric deed, Crockett, whose peculiar type of good
nature led him not only to desire to please the savages,

(26:49):
but also to know what would please them, seized a
war club, and in his turn smote with all his
strength the mangled, blood stained heads. The Indians were quite delighted.
They gathered round him with very expressive grunts of satisfaction,
and patting him upon the back, exclaimed, good wayer, good wayer.
The Indians then scalped the heads, and, leaving the bodies unburied,

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the whole party entered a trail which led to the
river near the point where the two Wigwams were standing.
As they followed the narrow path, they came upon the
vestiges of a cruel and bloody tragedy. The moldering corpses
of a Spaniard, his wife, and four children lay scattered around,
all scalped. Our hero Crockett, who had so valiantly smitten

(27:31):
the dissevered heads of the two creeks who had been
so treacherously murdered, confesses that the revolting spectacle of the
whites scalped and half devoured caused him to shudder. He writes,
I began to feel mighty ticklish along about this time,
for I knowed if there was no danger then there
had been, and I felt exactly like there still was.

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The white soldiers leading the Indians continued their course until
they reached the river. Following it down, they came opposite
the point where the Wigwams stood upon the island. The
two Indian hunters who had been killed had gone out
from this peaceful little encampment. Several Indian children were playing around,
and the man and woman whom they had before seen
were still beating their roots. Another Indian woman was also

(28:14):
their scene. These peaceful families had no conception of the
disaster which had befallen their companions, who were hunting in
the woods. Even if they had heard the report of
the rifles, they could only have supposed that it was
from the guns of the hunters firing at game. The
evening twilight was fading away. The whole party was concealed
in a dense cane brake which fringed the stream. Two

(28:36):
of the Indians were sent forward as a decoy, a
shameful decoy to lure into the hands of two hundred warriors,
an unarmed man, two women, and eight or ten children.
The Indians picked out some of their best marksmen and
hid them behind the trees and logs near the river.
They were to shoot down the Indians, whom others should
lure to cross the stream. The creek, which separated the

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island from the mainland, was deep, but not so wide,
but that persons without much difficulty could make themselves heard
across it. Two of the Indians went down to the
river side and hailed those at the Wigwams, asking them
to send a canoe across to take them over. An
Indian woman came down to the bank and informed them
that the canoe was on their side, that two hunters
had crossed the creek that morning and had not yet returned.

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These were the two men who had been so inhumanely murdered.
Immediate search was made for the canoe, and it was
found a little above the spot where the men were hiding.
It was a very large, buoyant birch canoe, constructed for
the transportation of a numerous household with all their goods
and such game as they might take. This they loaded
with warriors to the water's edge, and they began vigorously

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to paddle over to the island. When the one solitary
Indian man there saw this formidable array approaching, he fled
into the woods. The warriors landed and captured the two
women and their little children, ten in number, and conveyed
their prisoners with the plunder of the wigwams, back across
the creek to their own encampment. This was not a
very brilliant achievement to be a acomplished by an army
of two hundred warriors, aided by a detachment of sixteen

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white men under Major Russell. What finally became of these
captives we know not. It is gratifying to be informed
by David Crockett that they did not kill either the
squaws or the papooses. The company then marched through the
silent wilderness a distance of about thirty miles east to
the Conaca River. This dream and its picturesque windings through
a region where even the Indians seldom roved, flowed into

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the Scambia, the principal river which pours its floods swollen
by many tributaries, into Pensacola Bay. It was several miles
above the point where the detachment struck the river that
the Indian encampment to which the two murdered men had
alluded was located. But the provisions of the party were exhausted.
There were scarcely any game to be found. Major Russell

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did not deem it prudent to march to the attack
of the encampment until he obtained a fresh supply of provisions.
The main body of the army, which had remained in Florida,
moving slowly about without any definite object, waiting for something
to turn up, was then upon the banks of the Scambia.
Colonel Blue was in command. David Crockett was ordered to
take a light birch canoe and two men won a

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friendly Creek Indian and paddled down the stream about twenty
miles to the main camp. Here he was to inform
Colonel Blue of Major Russell's intention to ascend the Kanaka
to attack the creeks, and to request the Colonel immediately
dispatched some boats up the river with the needful supplies.
It was a romantic adventure, descending in the darkness that
wild and lonely stream, winding through the dense forest of

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wonderful exuberance of vegetation. In the early evening he set out.
The night proved very dark. The river, swollen by recent rains,
overflowed its banks and spread far and wide over the
low bottoms. The river was extremely crooked, and it was
with great difficulty that they could keep the channel, But
the instinct of the Indian guide led them safely along

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through overhanging boughs and forest glooms, until a little before
midnight they reached the camp. There was no time to
be lost. Major Russell was anxious to have the supplies
that very night despatch to him, lest the Indians should
hear of their danger and should escape. But Colonel Blue
did not approve of the expedition. There was no evidence
that the Indian encampment consisted of anything more than a

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half a dozen wigwams, where a few inoffensive savages with
their wives and children, were eking out a half starved
existence by hunting, fishing, and digging up roots from the forest.
Did not seem wise to send an army of two
hundred and sixteen men to carry desolation and woe to
such humble homes. Crockett was ordered to return with this
message to the major military discipline then, and there was

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not very rigid. He hired another man to carry back
the unwelcome answer in his place. In the light canoe.
The three men rapidly ascended the sluggish stream just as
the sun was rising over the forest. They reached the
camp of Major Russell. The detachment then immediately commenced its
march down the River Scambia and joined the main body
at a point called Miller's Landing. Here, learning that some

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of the fugitive Indians were on the eastern side of
the stream, a mounted party was sent across, swimming their horses,
and several Indians were hunted down and shot. Soon after this,
the whole party, numbering nearly twelve hundred in all, commenced
a toilsome march of about two or three hundred miles
across the state to the Chattahoochee River, which constitutes the
boundary line between southern Alabama and Georgia. Their route led

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through pathless wilds. No provisions of any importance could be
found by the way. They therefore took with them rations
for twenty eight days, but their progress was far more
slow and toilsome than they had anticipated. Dense forces were
to be threaded where it was necessary for them to
cut their way through almost tropical entanglement of vegetation. Deep

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and broad marshes were to be waited where the horses
sank almost to their saddle girths. There were rivers to
be crossed which could only be forded by ascending the
banks through weary leagues of wilderness. Thus, when twenty eight
days had passed and their provisions were nearly expended, though
they had for some time been put upon short allowance,
they found that they had accomplished but three quarters of

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their journey. Actual starvation threatened them. But twice in nineteen
days did Crockett taste of any bread. Despondency spread its
gloom over the half famished army. Still they toiled along,
almost hopeless, with tottering footsteps. War may have its excitements
and its charms, but such a march as this of
woebegone emaciate skeleton bands, is not to be counted as

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among wars, pomps and glories. One evening, in the deepening twilight,
when they had been out thirty four days, the Indian scouts,
ever sent in advance, came into camp with the announcement that,
at the distance of but a few hours march before them,
the Chattahoochee River was to be found, with a large
Indian village upon its banks. We know not what reason
there was to suppose that the Indians inhabiting this remote

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village were hostile, But, as the American officers decided immediately
upon attacking them, we ought to suppose that they on
the ground had sufficient reason to justify this course. The
army was immediately put in motion. The rifles were loaded
and primed, and the flints carefully examin that they might
not fall into ambush unprepared. The sun was just rising

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as they cautiously approached the dune village. There was a
smooth green meadow a few rods in width on the
western bank of the river, skirted by the boundless forest.
The Indian wigwams and lodges of varied structure were clustered
together on this treeless grassy plain in much picturesque beauty.
The Indians had apparently not been apprized of the approach

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of the terrible tempests of war about to descend upon them. Apparently,
at that early hour they were soundly asleep. Not a man,
woman or child was to be seen, silently screened by
thick woods. The army formed in line of battle, the
two hundred Indian warriors, rifle in hand and tomahawk at belt,
stealthily took their position. The white men took theirs at

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a given signal. The war whoop burst from the lips
of the savages, and the wild halloo of the backwoodsmen
reverberated through the forest as both parties rushed forward in
impetuous charge. We were all so furious. Wright's crockt that
even the certainty of a pretty hard fight could not
have restrained us. But to the intense mortification of these

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valiant men, not a single living being was found as
food for bullet or tomahawk. The huts were all deserted
and despoiled of every article of any value. There was
not a skin, or an unpicked bone, or a kernel
of corn left behind. The Indians had watched the march
of the foe, and with their wives and little ones,
had retired to regions where the famishing army could not

(36:27):
follow them. End of chapter recording by Brett Downey.