men being brave volunteer soldiers from that State. Harrison, who had marched too late for the relief of Winchester, took post at the "rapids of the Maumee. Near the entrance of the Maumee into Lake Erie, he built Fort Meigs, and here Proctor held him in siege until late in the spring, when twelve hundred Kentuckians came to his relief. But at least onehalf of these brave fellows fell into a snare prepared by Tecumseh, and were captured. A fuller narration of these interesting events will be found in another volume of this work.

At the outset of the war Tecumseh, the great savage Demosthenes, with his brother, the Prophet, visited the Indians on the entire western border, extending his mission to the tribes on the Gulf, setting forth his grand scheme of general savage alliance. He was only too successful, and before joining his northern warriors, the Creeks, then believed to be twenty-five thousand strong, and other Southern tribes were plotting against the whites.

The Spanish governors at Mobile and Pensacola had been suspected of aiding the British in driving these Indians into hostility to the United States, and a corner of Louisiana was still held by the Spaniards. Although both branches of Congress had Democratic majorities, in the Senate especially the hands of the Executive were closely tied, the members of the President's own party often siding with the anti-war members against the execution of his desires. Congress finally, however, authorized the President to take possession of the territory in question. Accordingly General Wilkinson, then in command in Louisiana, was ordered to proceed to Mobile with Commodore Shaw's

little fleet, and on the 15th of April, 1813, the Spanish Governor surrendered old Fort Condé, and the territory east of the Perdido River, which had been claimed under the Louisiana treaty, came fully into the possession of the United States. But this did not put an end to Spanish and English intrigues with the Indians. It was quite apparent that they were bent on hostilities. Several block-houses were built on the Alabama River, and into these many of the neighboring whites were forced to gather for safety. On the 30th of August, 1813, the Indians fell upon one of these places, Fort Mimms, and after a severe conflict in which sixty of the savages were killed, nearly all of the inmates of the fort, three or four hundred, were killed or burned alive. Shortly after this massacre the Legislature of Tennessee took steps for raising thirty-five hundred men and means to equip and support them, to prosecute the war against the Creek Indians. This force was placed at the disposal of Andrew Jackson in whom Tennessee had the honor of discovering a soldier of merit, if not the most able of the war. Congress soon afterwards adopted this army and its general, and assumed the $200,000 the Legislature had appropriated for its support.

Jackson lost little time in preparation, and on the 3d of November, one of his detachments under Colonel Coffee fell upon one of the Tallusatchee towns, consisting of two hundred warriors, and killed or captured all of them; and four days later Jackson himself attacked the Indians at Fort Talladega on the Coosa River, and slew about three hundred of them. General White on the 18th of the same month also gained a victory over the Indians.

General Floyd on the 29th of November fell upon Autosse on the Tallapoosa River, the most important and most sacred of the Creek towns, and here was fought one of the most desperate battles of the war, resulting in the defeat of the Indians and destruction. of the town.

During the following winter the Indians were defeated in several engagements, and finally in April, 1814, at the junction of the Coosa and Tallapoosa, Jackson found the savages strongly intrenched, after the style of civilized warfare, and in a severe battle defeated them, and completely broke their power, compelling them shortly to sue for peace.

These events will be found more fully set forth in another volume of this work.

CHAPTER XXII.

WAR OF 1812-MR. MADISON'S FIFTH ANNUAL MESSAGECONGRESS IN THE WINTER OF 1813.

N the 6th of December, 1813, Congress again

the following April.

continuing only to the 18th of

The President now sent to Congress his

FIFTH ANNUAL MESSAGE.

December 7, 1813.

"FELLOW-CITIZENS OF THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: "In meeting you at the present interesting conjuncture, it would have been highly satisfactory if I could have communicated a favorable result to the mission charged with negotiations for restoring peace. It was a just expectation, from the respect due to the distinguished sovereign who had invited them by his offer of mediation, from the readiness with which the invitation was accepted on the part of the United States, and from the pledge to be found in an act of their legislature for the liberality which their plenipotentiaries would carry into the negotiations, that no time would be lost by the British government in embracing the experiment for hastening a stop to the effusion of blood. A prompt and cordial acceptance of the mediation on that side was the less to be doubted, as it was of a nature not to submit rights or pretensions on either side to the decision of an umpire, but to afford merely an opportunity, honorable and desirable to both for discussing, and if possible adjusting them for the interest of both.

"The British cabinet, either mistaking our desire of peace for a dread of British power, or misled by other fallacious calculations, has disappointed this reasonable anticipation. No communications from our envoys having reached us, no information on the subject has been received from that source. But it is known that

the mediation was declined in the first instance, and there is no evidence, notwithstanding the lapse of time, that a change of disposition in the British councils has taken place or is to be expected.

"Under such circumstances, a nation proud of its rights and conscious of its strength has no choice but an exertion of the one in support of the other.

"To this determination the best encouragement is derived from the success with which it has pleased the Almighty to bless our arms both on the land and on the water.

"While proofs have been continued of the enterprise and skill of our cruisers, public and private, on the ocean, and a new trophy gained in the capture of a British by an American vessel-of-war, after an action giving celebrity to the name of the victorious commander, the great inland waters on which the enemy were also to be encountered have presented achievements of our naval arms as brilliant in their character as they have been important in their consequences.

"On Lake Erie, the squadron under the command of Captain Perry having met the British squadron of a superior force, a sanguinary conflict ended in the capture of the whole. The conduct of that officer, adroit as it was daring, and which was so well seconded by his comrades, justly entitles them to the admiration and gratitude of their country, and will fill an early page in its naval annals, with a victory never surpassed in luster, however much it may have been in magnitude.

"On Lake Ontario, the caution of the British commander, favored by contingencies, frustrated the efforts of the American commander to bring on a decisive action. Captain Chauncey was able, however, to establish an ascendency on that important theater, and to prove by the manner in which he effected every thing possible that opportunities only were wanting for a more shining display of his own talents and the gallantry of those under his command.

"The success on Lake Erie having opened a passage to the territory of the enemy, the officer commanding the northwestern army transferred the war thither, and rapidly pursuing the hostile troops, fleeing with their savage associates, forced a general action which quickly terminated in the capture of the British and dispersion of the savage force.

"This result is signally honorable to Major-General Harrison, by whose military talents it was prepared; to Colonel Johnson