The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1883-07-28
THE CHARGE OF THE HOUNDS.
An Incident of the Creek War.

A terrible bit of news was carried
from mouth to mouth through the re-
gion that is now Alabama at the begin
ming of September, 1918. The country
was at that time in the midst of the sec
ond war with Great Britain, and for a
long time the British agents had been
trying to persuade the Creeks--a pow
erful nation of half-civilized but very
war-lke Indians who lived in Alabama
to Join in the war and destroy the
white settlements in the Southwest.
For some time the Greeks hesitated
and it was uncertain what they would
do. But during the summer of 1873
they broke out in hostility, and on the
3Oth of August their great leader,
Weatherford, or the Red Earle, as they
| called him, stormed Fort Minis, the
strongest fort in the Southwest. He
took the fort by surprise, with thou
sand warriors behind him, and after five
hours of terrible fighting destroyed it,
killing above five hundred men, women
and children.
This was the news that startled the
settlers in the region where the Alabama
and Tombgbce Rivers come together.
| 1t was certain, after such massacre as
that, that the Indians meant to destroy
| the settlements, and kill all the white
! people without mercy.
In order to protect themselves and
their families the settlers built rude forts
! by setting timbers endwise in the
ground, and the people hurried to these
! places for safety. Leaving their homes
to be burned, their crops to be destroyed,
and their cattle to be killed or carried
| hxrt ha In hn oft love hn,t tl,v
! got together whatever food they could.
and took their families into the nearest
forts.
One of the smallest of these stockade
forts was called SinQuefield. 1t stood
! in what is now called Clarke County,
Ala, and, as that region was very thin
! ly settled, there were not enough men
to make a strong force for the defense of
the fort. But the brave farmers and
hunters thought they could hold the
place, and SO they took their families
there as quickly as they could. ed
Two families, numbering seventeen
persons, found it was not easy to 90 to
Sinqucfield on the I'd of September, and
so, as they were pretty sure that there
were no Indians in their neighborhood
they made up their minds to stay one
more night at house few miles from
the fort. That night they were attacked
and all but five of them were killed.
Those who got away carried the news
of what had happened to the fort, and a
party was sent out to bring in the
bodies.
The next day all the people in Fort
Sinquefield went out to bury their dead
friends IN a valley at some little dis
lance from the fort, and, strange as it
seems, they took no arms with them.
Believing that there were no Indians
near the place, they left the gates of the
fortress open, and went out in body
without their guns.
AS matter of fact, there was large
body of Indians not only very near
them, but actually looking at them all
the time. The celebrated Prophet
Francis was in command, and in his sly
way he kept as near the fort as posi-
bic to look for a good chance to attack
it. Making his men lie down and
crawl like snakes, he had reached
point only a few hundred yards
from the stockade without alarm.
ing the people; and now while they
stood around the graves of their friends
without arms to defend themselves with
a host of their savage enemies lay look
ing at them from the grass and bushes
on the hill.
AS soon as he saw the right moment
had come, Francis sprang up with /
savage war-cry, and at the head of hi,
warriors made a dash at the gates. He
had seen that the men outside were un
armed, and his plan was To get to the
gates before they could reach them
and thus get all the people OF the place
at his mercy in an open field and with
out arms to fight with.
The fort people were quick to see
, what his purpose was, and the men hur
ried forward with all their might, hop
ing to reach the fort before the savage
could get there. By running at the tol
of their speed they did this, and CLOSED
! the gates in time to keep the indians
out But to their horror they then saw
that their wives and children were shu
out too. Unable to run so fast as tn,
men had done, the women and chill
> dren had fallen behind, and now the In
5 dams were between them and the gates
a Seeing that he had missed his chanc,
of getting possession of the fort, Franci
turned upon the women and children
with savage delight in the thought Q
p butchering these helpless creatures i
the signt of their husbands, fathers an,
brothers.
1t was a moment of terror. Their
were not half enough white men in tn
/ fort to master so large force of In
! dams, and il there had been it was cas-
to see that by the time they could &c
their rifles and 60 to the rescue itwoul