‘WE NOW SHOT THEM LIKE DOGS’
All through the sweltering night of Aug. 30, 1813, beneath a dim crescent moon, Red Eagle had quietly mobilized upward of 700 warriors in the tall grass around “Fort” Mims—certainly an exaggerated designation for the flimsy stockade surrounding the blockhouse, cabins and barns of wealthy planter Samuel Mims. In Creek country some 40 miles northeast of Mobile, Mississippi Territory—in what would soon become Alabama Territory—Mims’ stronghold had become the only place of refuge for American settlers, their slaves and their mixed-blood Creek friends after war had erupted in the summer of 1813 between the Upper Creeks and the United States. On being defeated by the Creeks farther east at Burnt Corn Creek that July 27, territorial militiamen had retreated in disarray, leaving the Alabama frontier defenseless.
Major Daniel Beasley had but 140 militiamen under his command to protect the nearly 300 refugees crammed into the 1-acre stockade. The major was remarkably casual concerning the peril they faced. When warned by a slave on August 29 about an approaching Creek war party, he dismissed the report and had the poor man tied to a post in the middle of the stockade and flogged. The next day when Red Eagle sent his warriors storming forward at noon—surprising the defenders during their midday meal—Beasley was among the first to fall as he moved to close the gate he had so carelessly allowed to be left open. The settlers retreated into the larger cabins and set up a stiff defense, but Red Eagle had his warriors unleash a torrent of flaming arrows on them. Those who fled outside were quickly clubbed to death, while the rest were burned alive. Red Eagle reportedly tried to halt the slaughter, but he found it difficult to restrain his warriors. He managed to protect only a few dozen slaves and a handful of women and children, while the Creeks razed the fort and tortured captured soldiers to death. It was all over by late afternoon.
That day of horror marked the most decisive victory by the Creeks in their war with the Americans. It also
