they had taken the town and
fort before we got there. The next morning we started back toward old
Fort Mimms, where we remained two or three days until General Jackson
and the main army set out for New Orleans; while we, under the command
of Major Russell, turned south to attack the Indians on the Scamby
River.

At Fort Montgomery, about a mile and a half from old Fort Mimms, we
remained for some days, where we supplied ourselves pretty well with
beef by killing wild cattle, which had formerly belonged to the people
who had perished in the fort. At last we moved out on the Scamby River,
near which we camped a thousand men, of whom about two hundred were
Chickasaw and Choctaw Indians. The Indians had all along proposed to
cross the river, and thinking it might be well for them to do so, Major
Russell and I with fifteen other men went with them, and early the next
morning set out from the river bank. We soon came to a place where the
whole country was covered with water, and it looked like a sea. We
didn't stop for this, but just put in like so many spaniels and waded
on, sometimes up to our armpits, until we reached the pine hills about a
mile and a half away. Here we struck up a fire to warm ourselves, for
it was cold and we were chilled through. Again we moved on, keeping our
spies out; two to our left near the bank of the river, two straight
before us, and five others on our right.

We had gone in this way about six miles up the river, when our spies on
the left came to us, leaping about like so many old bucks, and informed
us that they had discovered a camp of Creek Indians and that we must
kill them. Here we paused for a few minutes, and the prophets pow-wowed
over their men awhile and then got out their paint and painted them all
according to their custom when going into battle. Then they brought
their paint to old Major Russell and said to him, that as he was an
officer he must be painted too. He agreed, and they painted him just as
themselves. We let the Indians understand that we white men would first
fire on the camp and then fall back so as to give the Indians a chance
to rush on them and scalp them. The Chickasaws marched on our left hand
and the Choctaws on our right, and thus we moved on till we came in
hearing of the camp. On nearer approach we found they were on an island,
and we could not get to them.

While we were chatting about this matter we heard some guns fired, and
in a very short time after a