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Creek War - TPR's In Focus - August 12, 2026 · In Focus with Carolyn Hutcheson

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  Support comes from the Wiregrass Archives at Troy University's Dothan
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  campus, identifying and preserving historical documents and photographs for
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  research related to the Wiregrass region. More information at
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  troy.edu/wiregrassarchives.
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  From Troy Public Radio, this is In Focus,
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  and I'm Carolyn Hutcheson. The Battle of Horseshoe Bend led
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  to Alabama becoming a state. And one of the key figures in that
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  story was Andrew Jackson.
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  Dr. Kathryn Braund is a well-known historian and author
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  of the book Mapping Conquest: The Battle Maps of Horseshoe
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  Bend. She joins us as we look ahead to a
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  special event commemorating the broader history of Alabama.
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  Dr. Katherine Braun, welcome back to Troy Public Radio.
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  Thank you for having me, Carolyn. You and I have known each other
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  for years, so we're on a first-name basis. There is an important
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  symposium coming up. On August 22nd, the annual
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  Horseshoe Bend National Military Park Symposium will take
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  place at Auburn University at Pebble Hill Center for the
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  Arts and Humanities, and the event is open to the public, and we
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  have 4 speakers lined up. Katherine, Mapping Conquest:
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  The Battle Maps of Horseshoe Bend is about a pivotal
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  moment in Alabama's history. Why was it so
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  important? The Battle of Horseshoe Bend was the last
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  and largest battle of the Creek Indian War that
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  took place in 1813 and ended in 1814.
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  The war was one of the largest, if not the largest battle
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  between United States troops and Native Americans in American
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  history. On that battlefield on March 27th,
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  1814, nearly 1,000 Red
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  Stick Creeks were killed. This was an overwhelming
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  American victory. It ended the Creek
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  War, and the price of losing that war was
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  the loss of over 21 million acres of land that
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  went to the U.S., and this is the beginning of the Alabama
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  territory and quickly statehood because
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  all that land that they lost was primarily in the state
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  of Alabama and was immediately opened up to settlement.
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  I want to refer to a part of your book that says the most important
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  question about this battle is one that
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  maps do not address. Why did the Creeks choose
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  to fortify that place? Was there spiritual
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  significance to the site, as some have asked?
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  When you stand at Horseshoe Bend, it is chilling to look at
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  that battle site. Why did the Creeks think they were protected?
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  This is a question we really can't answer. We can only speculate.
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  At the very end of 1813 is a massive
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  invasion of the Creek country by troops from Tennessee.
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  We're not talking about battles in which only armies clash.
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  We're talking about what do you do with a civilian population?
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  You can either get on the run or you can try to defend yourselves.
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  We do know these Creek towns started coming together
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  in places they viewed as being defensible
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  so they could defend civilian population. If you go to
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  Coorsubend, in that wonderful, beautiful flat
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  bend of the river, that is where the civilian population
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  was housed in a village Tahopakah. There were
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  many women and children there, and the Red Stick Creeks who were trying to defend
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  their families began to build this massive wall in
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  front of this village between the sides of the river,
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  enclosing the horseshoe bend for protection.
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  Tahopakah means fortification in the Muscogee language.
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  It was an incredible feat of military engineering,
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  and I believe that the idea they had was
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  that if assaulted, they would be able to defend that wall,
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  and if not, the idea was to put their civilian
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  populations in canoes and evacuate. Why didn't
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  that plan work? The real problem was they
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  did not anticipate the numbers that Andrew Jackson would bring
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  with him. He had 3,000 men and
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  was able to totally encircle that bend and prevent the
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  escape of most noncombatants. Why didn't
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  the people who were behind the barricade realize that they
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  were vulnerable from the side of the river? That is
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  a million-dollar question. This little spot of land was across
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  the river, the Tallapoosa, from a town that had been burned,
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  Nyoka. It was believed to be a place that
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  this massive barricade could defend. It was
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  just simply a miscalculation, I think. But when you
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  have horsemen surrounding the bend and then a 2-pronged
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  attack, one from the rear as the Cherokees and others crossed
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  the river and began attacks in the village, as well as the U.S.
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  Army attacking from the front and the barricade,
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  it was pretty hopeless. Were there any places in
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  that barricade that showed a vulnerability?
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  That is one thing the little manuscript maps reveal,
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  and that's what my book really focuses on, these manuscript
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  maps drawn largely by officers who were on the site of
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  the battle. A sally port in that massive
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  wall barricade— if you go to the park, you will see wonderful
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  paintings of Americans climbing over this tall wall
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  to get to the Red Sticks, but there was also a break in the
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  wall. That is how some of the American combatants got through.
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  One of my favorite maps actually calls it out. He specifically
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  says this is the sally port, which was a small avenue through
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  which a man could just pass. Katherine, remind us why the
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  Cherokees sided with the Americans. The Creek Nation
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  itself was allied with the United States in this effort, but the Cherokees
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  did it to prove their loyalty to the United States.
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  Individual men did it because it was a way to express
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  yourself as a warrior, to gain honor. I've heard it
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  said that at Horseshoe Bend, Andrew Jackson made his
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  national reputation. Indeed he did, and he only
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  became more famous after his victory at New Orleans in
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  the War of 1812, but he was given that command after this stunning
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  victory at Horseshoe Bend. The Creek War
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  of 1813 and the War of 1812 are not the
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  same conflicts, but they're concurrent, and when Jackson
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  and those Tennesseans had this massive victory against the
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  Creek Indians at Horseshoe Bend, he immediately became a national
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  hero, hailed for his military genius, if you will,
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  and we know he did that at New Orleans as well. How many people participated
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  in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend on both sides? We know
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  that Jackson had about 3,000 troops.
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  There were about 1,000 Red Sticks. There were women and children
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  there. Hundreds were killed, and some were captured
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  and enslaved by the Cherokee and by some Americans.
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  Conservatively, there were 4,000 people at that site that day,
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  and when you take into account the enslaved people that the Americans brought with
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  them that we have virtually no record of, but we know they were there.
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  When you think about the men who were able to escape
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  the slaughter, the Red Sticks, the women and children who likely
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  were evacuated before the battle, we're talking at least 4,000
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  people. So it was a massive battle site. Katherine, you've used
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  the term Red Stick Creeks. Who were they?
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  The Red Stick Creeks were a faction of the Upper
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  Creek Nation who raised the red stick of war against
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  their own leadership. They were insurgents, and the reason
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  we call them Red Sticks, as they were called in the 19th century, the Red
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  Clubs, is that when you were about to declare war as a Creek
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  Indian, you would prepare a club to be used in
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  war and then raise it up and symbolically declare war,
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  and it would be painted red with the blood of your enemies. So that is
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  a red stick. A symbolic way to declare war.
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  Remind us one more time about the Memory and Meaning in
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  the Creek War Symposium, Saturday, August 22nd.
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  If you look at the Friends of Horseshoe Bend Facebook
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  page or the Horseshoe Bend National Military Park Facebook
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  page, you can get all the information. The event will be
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  9 AM until noon at the Auburn University Center
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  for the Arts and Humanities, Pebble Hill. It is free,
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  open to the public, and refreshments will be served. Well,
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  I want to thank you for your visit today. And again, your book,
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  Mapping Conquest: The Battle Maps of Horseshoe
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  Bend. It is a beautiful book, and thank you so much. Well, thank you
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  for having me, Carolyn. That was Dr. Katherine Braun. Horseshoe Bend
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  National Military Park is located in Daviston,
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  Alabama. Thanks for joining us for In Focus,
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  which is a podcast wherever you get your podcasts.
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  I'm Carolyn Hutcheson, and this is Troy Public
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  Radio.