A Brutal Reckoning by Peter Cozzens

Author:Peter Cozzens [Cozzens, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2023-04-25T00:00:00+00:00

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Colonel Russell’s fiasco marked the end of army operations staged from the Mississippi Territory. Neither would the Choctaws contribute much more to the war effort. Apart from Pushmataha’s ardent contingent, the Choctaws proved half-hearted allies. Most, at least, resisted repeated Red Stick entreaties to switch sides. Governor Blount of Tennessee and Andrew Jackson had been the first American officials to recognize the need to obtain if not the active cooperation, then at least the neutrality of the northeastern Choctaws, over whom Pushmataha exercised no influence. In late September 1813, the former Choctaw agent John McKee, who retained the confidence of both that tribe and the neighboring Chickasaws, traveled from Nashville at Old Hickory’s behest to confer with both peoples. Should conditions appear favorable, McKee was to lead them against a presumably fortified Red Stick village on the Black Warrior River and clear Jackson’s right flank.

Establishing himself at the lower Black Warrior River plantation of John Pitchlynn, the capable U.S. interpreter for the Choctaws, McKee spent three months wrangling with the northeastern Choctaws, whose cunning leader, Chief Moshulitubbee, stalled until certain the Americans could prevail before committing to fight for them. He made repeated demands of McKee for powder, lead, and supplies. The harried emissary shuttled between Mobile and Pitchlynn’s place with the requested munitions, which never seemed to suffice. In mid-December, McKee lost patience and threatened to tell General Jackson that Moshulitubbee was an enemy.

Moshulitubbee and his Choctaws took notice. Aware that Jackson had thrashed the Red Sticks at Tallushatchee and Talladega, they wanted no trouble with Old Hickory. Word of Claiborne’s destruction of the Holy Ground removed any doubts they had about siding with the Americans. They even pledged to fight those of their warriors who had joined the Red Sticks on the Black Warrior River. The Chickasaws, who had made innumerable excuses for their inaction, also promised Jackson that they not only would put to death any Red Sticks who entered their nation but also would contribute two hundred warriors to the Choctaw expedition, which John McKee was to command. On January 12, 1814, a satisfied McKee set out with Moshulitubbee and four hundred Choctaw warriors to scour the Black Warrior River. Eight days later they entered the Red Stick village, its occupants having absconded. McKee burned the place and then turned back. The tardy Chickasaws joined him on the return march, content to have proven their fidelity to the Americans without the need to shed blood.[7]

With McKee’s brief raid—consequential only for compelling the previously noncommittal Choctaws and Chickasaws to take sides in the war—the curtain closed on combat in the western part of the Red Stick country. A decisive blow against the Red Sticks would have to come from the north or east—and soon. American prospects, however, were mixed. As will be seen, Andrew Jackson’s army had unraveled from a variety of causes, including chronic food shortages, debate over enlistment expirations, and the need to provide for families back home. What remained of his command huddled in camp at the northern margins of the Red Stick country.

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