British Governor,
gave them open encouragement. The danger was understood not only among
the people of the Southwest but in Washington. Before plans of defense
could be carried into effect, however, the war broke out, and the
wretched people who had crowded into the flimsy stockade called by
courtesy Fort Mims were massacred.

Hardly had the heap of ruins, ghastly with human bodies, ceased to
smolder before fleet riders were spreading the news in Georgia, in
Louisiana, and in Tennessee. A shudder swept the country. Every
exposed community expected to be attacked next. The people's demand
for vengeance was overmastering, and from north, west, and east
volunteer armies were soon on the march. Tennessee sent two quotas,
one from the eastern counties under General John Cocke, the other from
the western under Andrew Jackson. When the news of the disaster on the
Mobile reached Nashville, Jackson was lying helpless from wounds
received in his fight with the Bentons. But he issued the necessary
orders from his bed and let it be known with customary vigor that he,
the senior major general, and no one else, would lead the expedition;
and though three weeks later he started off with his arm tightly
bandaged to his side and a shoulder so sore that it could not bear the
pressure of an epaulette, lead the expedition he did.

About the middle of October the emaciated but, dogged commander
brought his forces together, 2700 strong, at Huntsville and began
cutting his way across the mountains toward the principal Creek
settlements. His plan was to fall suddenly upon these settlements,
strike terror into the inhabitants, and force a peace on terms that
would guarantee the safety of the frontier populations. Supplies were
slow to arrive, and Jackson fumed and stormed. He quarreled
desperately, too, with Cocke, whom he unjustly blamed for
mismanagement. But at last he was able to emerge on the banks of the
Coosa and build a stockade, Fort Strother, to serve as a base for the
campaign.

During the months that followed, the intrepid leader was compelled to
fight two foes--his insubordinate militiamen and the Creeks. His
command consisted partly of militia and partly of volunteers,
including many men who had first enlisted for the expedition down the
Mississippi. Starvation and disease caused loud murmurings, and after
one or two minor victories had been won the militiamen took it into
their heads to go back home. Jackson drew up the volun