Brooks: Diplomacy and the Borderlands


 Now the broader aspects of the war were to be seen in the Brit-
ish encirclement plan and scheme of attacking the United States
on all its Indian frontiers. The same Tecumseh who had stirred the
Northwest incited the Creeks to battle. And prodded further by
the attack of the Tennessee volunteers on their allies, the Seminoles
of East Florida, the Indians of the confederation went on the war-
path in August, 1813-only to bring upon themselves swift and
sure retribution.
 Fort Mims, near the junction of the Alabama and Tombigbee
rivers, and inside the certain limits of the United States, was the
focus of the Indian attack. Several hundred persons were killed
by the braves, enough to incite the already militant and land-
avaricious Westerners. Jackson's Tennessee volunteers readily ac-
cepted the gage of battle, and were led by him through a victorious
winter campaign. By the treaty signed at Fort Jackson (an estab-
lishment at the junction of the Coosa and Tallapoosa rivers) in
August, 1814, the Creeks were forced to surrender two-thirds of
their lands.
 Jackson, fortifying himself with the widely circulated charges of
 Spanish support of the Indians, continued into the territory of "the
 Dons," as he called them. By this time a British fleet under Cap-
 tain W. H. Percy had brought Major Nicholls with a force of
 marines, who established themselves at Pensacola for the Gulf
 campaign. While Jackson awaited more Tennessee troops at Mo-
 bile, a United States force successfully defended Fort Bowyer, at
 the mouth of Mobile Bay." Jackson, on his own responsibility,
 without instructions from Washington, then marched eastward to
 Pensacola, which he took by storm on November 7. Thence he re-
 turned to Mobile, and soon set out on the campaign which ended
 in his brilliant defense of New Orleans against the veterans of
 Wellington's army, January 8, 1815.
 After the signing of the Treaty of Ghent, the British finally cap-
 tured Fort Bowyer. However, under the treaty, no British seizures
 were to be maintained and, despite Spanish efforts, no change was
 made in the southern boundaries. During the war, nevertheless
 West Florida's occupation by the United States was made com-
 plete and permanent. Although theoretically there was no settle-
 ment of the West Florida controversy, actually there was no
 of rare occurrence.