The Fort Mims Massacre occured on 30 August 1813 when a force of Red Sticks under Peter McQueen attacked a group of settlers and militia in Fort Mims.
Background
At the start of the Creek Civil War, settlers north of Mobile began to take refuge in stockades. About 550, including 175 armed militia, were gathered at Fort Mims, located about 35 to 45 miles above Mobile on the eastern side of the Alabama River. On learning learning that Peter McQueen's party was in Pensacola obtaining arms from the Spanish, Major Daniel Beasley and Captain Dixon Bailey led a disorganized force to intercept the Red Sticks. The resulting confrontation is known as the Battle of Burnt Corn.
Immediately after Burnt Corn, Peter McQueen gathered a party of about 800 warriors to avenge the deaths of the Red Sticks. McQueen and William Weatherford, one his strongest allies learned that their enemies Beasley and Bailey were at Fort Mims.
The Battle
Although Beasley, the commander, maintained that he could "maintain the post against any number of Indians," the stockade was poorly defended and, at the time of the attack, one of the two gates was partially blocked open by drifting sand.
On the 29th of August 1813, two Negro slaves, who were tending cattle outside the stockade, reported that painted warriors were in the vicinity. However mounted scouts from the fort found no signs of the war party, and Beasley had the second slave flogged for raising a false alarm.
The attack occurred the next day during the mid-day meal when no scouts were out. The Red Sticks rushed the fort and tomahawked Beasley, who was trying to close the gate. They seized the loopholes and the outer enclosure. The whites under Dixon Bailey held the inner enclosure and fought on for a time. However, the Red Sticks finally set fire to a house in the center, which spread to rest of the stockade. The warriors then forced the inner enclosure and massacred most of the whites, taking 250 scalps. Most of the Negros were spared to be slaves. About 15 persons escaped, including Bailey, who was mortally wounded.
Results
This massacre marked the transition from a civil war within the Creek (Moscoge) to a war between the United states and the Red Stick warriors of the Upper Creek. When the news of the massacre spread, Tennessee, Georgia, and Mississippi mobilized militia to move against the Upper Creek towns that supplied the Red Sticks.
References
- Henry Adams "History of the United States of America During the Administrations of James Madison" (Library Classics of the United State, Inc. 1986), pp. 780-781 ISBN 0940450356
- John K. Mahon "The War of 1812" (University of Florida Press 1972) pp. 234-235 ISBN 0813003180
- Robert Leckie "The Wars of America" (Harper and Rowe 1968), p. 275 ISBN 0060125713