The Battle of Horseshoe Bend, Alabama

Fought on March 27, 1814, in the rolling hills of Central Alabama, the Battle of Horseshoe Bend was one of the most important battles in American history and one of the most dramatic U.S. victories of the War of 1812.

For six months, the United States had been engaged in brutal combat with the "Red Stick" faction of the Creek Nation. The Red Sticks, so named because they displayed red warclubs or "sticks" in their towns, were a nativist group of Creeks who followed a religious movement developed by the Shawnee prophet, Tenskwatawa. The waged a civil war for control of the Creek Nation beginning in 1812, but began fighting the United States in 1813 after a party of Mississippi Territorial Militia attacked one of their supply trains at Burnt Corn Creek, Alabama.

The resulting conflict, remembered today as the Creek War of 1813-1814, was a part of the War of 1812. After two previous United States invasions of the Creek Nation turned back due to supply shortages and heavy fighting, Major General Andrew Jackson fought his way south into the heart of the nation with an army from Tennessee. On March 27, 1814, he attacked the Red Stick fortifications at Tohopeka ("Horse's Flat Foot" or "Horseshoe Bend") on the Tallapoosa River.

The resulting Battle of Horseshoe Bend forever broke the power of the Creek Nation. To learn more about the battle and see modern photographs of the battlefield, please visit our Horseshoe Bend Battlefield pages at: www.exploresouthernhistory.com/AlabamaHSB.