FRONTIERSMAN AND SOLDIER 243 



The war with Great Britain renewed Tecumseh's op- 

 portunity, and his services to the enemy were extremely 

 valuable until his death in the battle of the Thames. 

 Tecumseh's principal ally in the South was a half-breed 

 Creek chieftain named Weathersford. On the shore 

 of Lake Tensaw, in the southern part of what is now 

 Alabama, was a stockaded fortress known as Fort 

 Mimms; there many of the settlers had taken refuge. 

 On the 3oth of August, 1813, this stronghold was 

 surprised by Weathersford at the head of one thousand 

 Creek warriors, and more than four hundred men, 

 women, and children were most atrociously massacred. 

 The news of this dreadful affair aroused the people of 

 the Southwest to vengeance; men and money were 

 raised by the state of Tennessee ; and, before he had 

 fully recovered from the wound received in the Benton 

 affray, Jackson took the field at the head of twenty-five 

 hundred men. Now for the first time he had a chance 

 to show his wonderful military capacity, his sleepless 

 vigilance, untiring patience, and unrivalled talent as a 

 leader of men. The difficulties encountered were for- 

 midable in the extreme. In that frontier wilderness the 

 business of the commissariat was naturally ill managed, 

 and the men, who -under the most favourable circum- 

 stances had little idea of military subordination, were 

 part of the time mutinous from hunger. More than 

 once Jackson was obliged to use one-half of his army 

 to keep the other half from disbanding. In view of 

 these difficulties the celerity of his movements and the 

 force with which he struck the enemy were truly mar- 

 vellous. The Indians were badly defeated at Tallasa- 

 hatchee and Talladega. At length, on the 2yth of 

 March, 1814, having been reenforced by a regiment 



