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The Battle of Horseshoe Bend (also known as ''Tehopeka'', ''Tohopeka'', ''Cholocco Litabixbee'', or ''The Horseshoe''), was fought during the War of 1812 in the Mississippi Territory, now central Alabama. On March 27, 1814, United States forces and Indian allies under Major General Andrew Jackson〔(Creek War: Horseshoe Bend )〕 defeated the Red Sticks, a part of the Creek Indian tribe who opposed American expansion, effectively ending the Creek War. ==Background== The Creek Indians of Georgia and the eastern part of the Mississippi Territory had become divided into two factions: the Upper Creeks (or Red Sticks), a majority who opposed American expansion and sided with the British and the colonial authorities of Spanish Florida during the War of 1812; and the Lower Creek, who were more assimilated into the Anglo culture, had a stronger relationship with the U.S. Indian Agent Benjamin Hawkins, and sought to remain on good terms with the Americans. The Shawnee leader Tecumseh visited Creek and other Southeast Indian towns in 1811–1812 to recruit warriors to join his war against American territorial encroachment. The Red Sticks, young men who wanted to revive traditional religious and cultural practices, were already forming, resisting assimilation. They began to raid American frontier settlements. When the Lower Creek helped U.S. forces to capture and punish leading raiders, the Lower Creek were punished in turn by the Red Sticks. In 1813, militia troops intercepted a Red Stick party returning from obtaining arms in (Spanish colonial) Pensacola. While they were looting the material, the Red Sticks returned and defeated them, at what became known as the Battle of Burnt Corn. Red Sticks' raiding of enemy settlements continued; and in August 1813 they attacked Fort Mims, in retaliation for the Burnt Corn attack. After the Fort Mims massacre, frontier settlers appealed to the government for help. Since Federal military forces were committed to waging the War of 1812 against Great Britain, the governments of Tennessee, Georgia, and the Mississippi Territory organized militia forces, which together with Lower Creek and Cherokee allies, fought against the Red Sticks. Andrew Jackson and his forces won the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in 1814.〔Susan K. Barnard, and Grace M. Schwartzman, "Tecumseh and the Creek Indian War of 1813–1814 in North Georgia," ''Georgia Historical Quarterly,'' Fall 1998, Vol. 82 Issue 3, pp 489–506〕 Horseshoe Bend was the major battle of the Creek War, in which Jackson sought to "clear" the Mississippi Territory for American settlement. He commanded an army of Tennessee militia men, which he had turned into a well-trained fighting force. Added to the militia units were the 39th United States Infantry and about 600 Cherokee, Choctaw, and Lower Creek, fighting against the Red Stick Creek warriors. After leaving Fort Williams in the spring of 1814, Jackson's army cut its way through the forest to within six miles (10 km) of Chief Menawa's Red Stick camp ''Tehopeka'', near a bend in the Tallapoosa River called "Horseshoe Bend"—located in what is now central Alabama, east of present-day Alexander City. Jackson sent General John Coffee with the mounted infantry and the Indian allies south across the river to surround the Red Sticks' camp, while Jackson stayed with the rest of the 2,000 infantry north of the camp.〔Robert Remini, ''Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Empire, 1767-1821,'' (1977) ch. 13〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Battle of Horseshoe Bend (1814)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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