94 MYTHS (PK THE CHEUoKEK [kth..ixn.19 



noil upon a .slioht rise within oiulity yiird.s of the fortification. He tlien 

 directed a heavy cannonade iijion the center of the breastwork, while 

 the rifles and nmsliets kept up a galling- lire upon the defenders when- 

 ever they showed themselves behind the logs. The breastwork was 

 very strongly and conijiactly built, from live to eight feet high, with a 

 double row of portholes, and so planned that no enemy could approach 

 without being- exposed to a crosslire from those on the inside. After 

 about two houi's of cannonading- and rifle fire to no great purpose, 

 "Captain RusseU's company of spies and a party of the Cherokee 

 force, headed in' their gallant chieftain, Colonel Richard Brown, and 

 conducted by the brave Colonel Morgan, crossed over to the peninsula 

 in canoes and set fire to a few of their ])uilding-s there situated. They 

 then advanced with great gallantry towai'd the breastwork and com- 

 menced firing upon the enemy, who lay liehind it. Finding that this 

 force, notwithstanding the determination they displayed, was wholly 

 insufficient to dislodge the enemy, and that General Coffee had secured 

 the opposite banks of the river, I now determined on taking possession 

 of their works }jy storni." ' 



Coffee's official report to his commanding officer states that he had 

 taken seven hundred mounted troops and about six hundred Indians, 

 of whom five hundred were Cherokee and the rest friendly Creeks, 

 and had come in behind, having directed the Indians to take position 

 secreth' along- the bank of the river to prevent the enemy crossing, as 

 already noted.' This was done, but with fighting going on so near at 

 hand the Indians could not remain quiet. Continuing, Coffee says: 



The firing of your cannon and small arms in a short time became general and 

 heavy, which animated our Indians, and seeing about one hundred of the warriors 

 and all the squaws and children of the enemy running about among the huts of the 

 ■village, which was open to our view, they could no longer remain silent spectators. 

 While some kept up a tire across the river to prevent the enemy's approach to the 

 bank, others plunged into the water and swam the river for canoes that lay at the 

 other shore in considerable numliers and brought them over, in which crafts a num- 

 ber of them emliarked and landed on the bend with the enemy. Colonel Gideon ■ 

 Morgan, who conunan<led the Cherokees, C'aiitain Kerr, and Caiitain ^^'illiam Rus- 

 sell, with a part of his company of spies, were among the first that crossed the river. 

 They advanced into the village and very soon drove the enemy from the huts up 

 the river bank to the fortified works from which they were fighting you. They 

 pursued and continued to annoy during your whole action. This movement of my 

 Indian forces left the river bank unguarded and made it necessary that I should send 

 a part of my line to take jio-ssession of the river bank.-' 



According to the official report of Colonel Morgan, who commanded 

 the Cherokee and who was himself severeh^ wounded, the Cherokee 

 took the places assigned them along the bank in such regular order 



'Jackson's report to Governor Blount, March 31, 1814, in Fay and Davison, Slietches of the War, 

 pp.2S3.254,181S. 

 2 General Coffee's report to General Jackson, April 1, 1814, ibid., p. 257. 



