📅 On This Day in Military History
1 event across history
In the culminating battle of the Creek War — a conflict intertwined with the War of 1812 — Andrew Jackson led a combined force of U.S. regulars, militia, Cherokee, and Lower Creek warriors against the Red Stick Creek fortification at Horseshoe Bend on the Tallapoosa River. The Red Sticks had constructed a formidable barricade of logs across the neck of a horseshoe-shaped river bend. Jackson's artillery breached the walls while his Cherokee allies swam the river and attacked from behind. The result was a slaughter: over 800 Red Stick warriors were killed in the most decisive defeat ever inflicted on a Native American nation on the continent.
Horseshoe Bend effectively ended the Creek War and destroyed Red Stick Creek power. The subsequent Treaty of Fort Jackson forced the Creeks to cede 23 million acres of land. The battle launched Andrew Jackson onto the national stage as America's greatest military hero, setting him on the path to the presidency.
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