rovisions on his advance movement.

Under such circumstances Jackson ran a great risk in marching farther
into the Indian country. Yet the exigency was one in which boldness
seemed necessary. A reverse movement might have brought the Indians in
force on the settlers of Tennessee, with sanguinary results. Keeping his
foragers busy in search of food, he moved steadily southward till the
Coosa River was reached. Here came the first encounter with the savages.
There was a large body of them at Tallushatches, thirteen miles away. At
daybreak on the morning after the Coosa was reached the Indian camp was
encircled by Colonel Coffee with a thousand men. The savages, taken by
surprise, fought fiercely and desperately, and fell where they stood,
fighting while a warrior remained alive. All the prisoners were women
and children, who were taken to the settlements and kindly treated.
Jackson himself brought up one of the boys in his own family.

Four days afterward news came that a body of friendly Creeks, one
hundred and fifty in number, were at Talladega, thirty miles away,
surrounded by a thousand hostile Indians, cut off from their
water-supply and in imminent danger of annihilation. A wily chief had
dressed himself in the skin of a large hog, and in this disguise passed
unsuspected through the hostile lines, bringing his story to Jackson
twenty-four hours later.

At that moment the little army had only one day's supply of food, but
its general did not hesitate. Advancing with all the men fit to move,
they came within hearing of the yelling enemy, and quickly closed in
upon them. When that brief battle ended two hundred of the Indian braves
lay dead on the field and Colonel Coffee with his horsemen was in hot
pursuit of the remainder. As for the rescued Indians, their joy was
beyond measure, for they had looked only for death. They gathered around
their preserver, expressing their gratitude by joyful cries and
gestures, and gladly gave what little corn they had left to feed the
hungry soldiers.

The loss of the whites in this raid was fifteen men killed and
eighty-six wounded. The badly wounded were carried in litters back to
Fort Strother, where the sick had been left, and where Jackson now fully
expected to find a full supply of food. To his acute disappointment not
an ounce had arrived, little in the shape of food being left but a few
half-starved cattle. For several days Jackson and his staff ate nothing
but tripe witho