gia had a force in the field under General Floyd. General Claiborne was acting at the head of troops from Louisiana and Mississippi. This Indian war had a local character and was outside the federal operations, although in the end it had a great effect upon them. Up to this time little had been known at Washington of Jackson, save that he had been a friend of Burr, an enemy of Jefferson, and that he had just acted in a somewhat insubordinate manner at Natchez, reflecting on the administration and winning popularity for himself.

The Creek war1 was remarkable for three things: (1) the quarrels between the generals, and the want of concert of action; (2) lack of provisions; (3) insubordination in the ranks. Partly on account of the lack of provisions, for which he blamed General Cocke (as it appears, unjustly), Jackson fell into a bitter quarrel with his colleague and junior officer. The lack of provisions, and consequent suffering of the men, was one cause of insubordination in the ranks, but the chief cause was differences as to the term of enlistment.

The

enlistment was generally for three months, and constant recruiting was necessary to keep up the army in the field. A great deal of nonsense has been written and spoken about pioneer troops. Such troops were always insubordinate 2 and home

1 See Eaton's Jackson and Pickett's Alabama. On Tecumseh and the Prophet see Smithsonian Rep. 1885, Pt. ii. p. 200. The Prophet is described there as a vain sneak.

2 See descriptions of Kentucky militia in Kendall's Autobio

sick, and very dependent for success on enthusiasm for their leader and a prosperous course of affairs. For these reasons the character of the commander was all-important to such an army. On three occasions Jackson had to use one part of his army to prevent another part from marching home, he and they differing on the construction of the terms of enlistment. He showed very strong qualities under these trying circumstances. He endured delay with impatience, but with fortitude, and without a suggestion of abandoning the enterprise,1 although he was in wretched health all the time. He managed his soldiers with energy and tact. He understood their dispositions. He knew how to be severe with them without bringing them to open revolt, and he knew how to make the most efficacious appeals to them.

In the conduct of the movements against the enemy his energy was very remarkable. So long as there was an enemy unsubdued Jackson could not rest, and could not give heed to anything else. Obstacles which lay in the way between him and such unsubdued enemy were not allowed to deter him. This restless and absorbing determination to reach and crush anything which was hostile was one of the most marked traits in Jackson's characgraphy, 124, 131, and description of a muster and training in 2 Lambert's Travels, 192. The western soldiers of this period resemble very closely the colonial troops of 60 or 70 years before.

1 To Governor Blount, who proposed that he should retire from the expedition, Jackson wrote a strenuous remonstrance, even an admonition. Eaton's Jackson, 101.

ter. It appeared in all his military operations, and he carried it afterwards into his civil activity. He succeeded in his military movements. This gave him the confidence and adherence of his men. The young men of the State then hastened to enlist with him, and his ranks were kept well filled, because one who had fought a campaign with him, and had a story to tell, became a hero in the settlement. Jackson's military career and his popularity thus rapidly acquired momentum from all the circumstances of the case and all the forces at work. He was then able to enforce discipline and obedience, by measures which, as it seems, no other frontier commander would have dared to use.

On the 14th of March, 1814, he ordered John Wood to be shot for insubordination and assault on an officer. This was the first of the acts of severity committed by Jackson as a commanding officer, which were brought up against him in the presidential campaigns when he was a candidate. Wood was technically guilty. He acted just as any man in the frontier army, taught to reverence nobody and submit to no authority, would have acted under the circumstances. If it had not been for the great need of enforcing discipline, extenuating circumstances which existed would have demanded a mitigation of the sentence. Party newspapers during a presidential campaign are not a fair court of appeal to review the acts which a military commander in the field may think necessary in order to maintain discipline. Jackson

showed in this case that he was not afraid to do his duty, and that he would not sacrifice the public service to curry popularity.

At the end of March, Jackson destroyed a body of the Creeks at Tohopeka, or Horse-Shoe Bend, in the northeast corner of the present Tallapoosa County, Alabama. With the least possible delay he pushed on to the last refuge of the Creeks, the Hickory Ground, at the confluence of the Coosa and Tallapoosa, and the Holy Ground a few miles distant. The medicine men, appealing to the superstition of the Indians, had taught them to believe that no white man could tread the latter ground and live. In April the remnant of the Creeks surrendered or fled to Florida, overcome as much by the impetuous and relentless character of the campaign against them as by actual blows. Fort Jackson was built on the Hickory Ground. The march down through Alabama was a great achievement, considering the circumstances of the country at the time. Major-General Thomas Pinckney, of the regular army, came to Fort Jackson, April 20th, and took command. He gave

to Jackson's achievements the most generous recognition both on the spot and in his reports. April 21, 1814, the West Tennessee militia were dismissed, and they marched home.

The Creek campaign lasted only seven months. In itself considered, it was by no means an important Indian war, but in its connection with other military movements it was very important.

Tecumseh had been killed at the battle of the Thames in Canada, October 5, 1813. His scheme of a race war died with him. The Creek campaign put an end to any danger of hostilities from the southwestern Indians, in alliance either with other Indians or with the English. It was henceforth possible to plan military operations and pass through the Indian territory without regard to the disposition of the Indians. This state of things had been brought about very summarily, while military events elsewhere had been discouraging.

This campaign, therefore, was the beginning of Jackson's fame and popularity, and from it dates his career. He was forty-seven years old. On the 31st of May he was appointed a major-general in the army of the United States, and was given command of the department of the South. He established his headquarters at Mobile in August, 1814. That town had been occupied by Wilkinson, April 13, 1813. There were fears of an attack either on Mobile or New Orleans. English forces appeared, and took post at Pensacola. Jackson naturally desired to attack the enemy where he found him. The relations of the parties must be borne in mind.1 Spain was a neutral and owned Florida, but the boundaries of Florida were in dispute between Spain and the United States. Jackson would not have been a southwestern man if he had not felt strongly about that dispute. We have seen that one of Jackson's first thoughts, 2 See page 35.

1 See page 23.