“exceeded in atrocity and barbarity” – Alabama State Quarter Coin

Today, the Alabama State Quarter Coin remembers the battle and the events leading up to the attack of 202 years ago.

In Volume III of the 1906 version of the Harper’s Encyclopædia of United States History, the editors included the Battle at Econochaca.

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Marching from Fort Deposit, in Butler county, Ala. (December, 1813), General Claiborne, pushing through the wilderness nearly 30 miles with horse and foot and friendly Choctaw Indians, arrived near Econochaca, or Holy Ground, a village built by Weathersford upon a bluff on the left bank of the Alabama, just below Powell’s Ferry, Lowndes co., in an obscure place, “city of refuge ” for the wounded and dispersed in battle, fugitives from their homes, and women and children.

No path or trail led to it. It had been dedicated to this humane purpose by Tecumseh and the Prophet a few months before, and the Cherokees had been assured by them that, like Auttose, no white man could tread upon the ground and live.

There the Indian priests performed their incantations, and in the square in the centre of the town the most dreadful cruelties had already been perpetrated. White prisoners and Creeks friendly to them had been there tortured and roasted.

On the morning of Dec. 23 Claiborne appeared before the town.

At that moment a number of friendly half-bloods of both sexes were in the square, surrounded by pine-wood, ready to be lighted to consume them, and the prophets were busy in their mummery. The troops advanced in three columns.

The town was almost surrounded by swamps and deep ravines, and the Indians, regarding the place as holy, and having property there of great value, though partially surprised, prepared to fight desperately.

They had conveyed their women and children to a place of safety deep in the forest.

By a simultaneous movement, Claiborne’s three columns closed upon the town at the same moment.

So unexpected was the attack that the dismayed Indians broke and fled before the whole of the troops could get into action. Weathersford was there.

The Indians fled in droves along the bank of the river, and by swimming and the use of canoes they escaped to the other side and joined their families in the forest.

Weathersford, when he found himself deserted by his warriors, fled swiftly on a horse to a bluff on the river between two ravines, hotly pursued, when his horse made a mighty bound from it, and the horse and rider disappeared under the water for a moment, when both arose, Weathersford grasping the mane of his charger with one hand and his rifle with the other. He escaped in safety.

Econochaca was plundered by the Choctaws and laid in ashes. Fully 200 houses were destroyed, and thirty Indians killed. The Tennesseeans lost one killed and six wounded.

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Another book, Alabama, Her History, Resources, War Record, and Public Men, From 1540 to 1872, published in 1872, Willis Brewer described more of the background behind the battle.

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In October, 1812, the Shawnee chief, Tecumseh, came among the Muscogees to incite them to hostilities against the whites. He was the emissary of the British, with whom the federal government was at war. The Spaniards at Pensacola and Mobile had already bred ill-feeling among them against the whites, and the fiery eloquence of Tecumseh precipitated the conflict. It began by a series of outrages on immigrants and settlers.

Spain being the ally of Britain, the United States were apprehensive that the ports of that power on the Gulf would be used by the British. Accordingly, Gen. Wilkerson moved from New Orleans with a considerable force, and obliged the Spanish garrison of Fort Charlotte, Mobile, to capitulate, April 13, 1813. Thus was the soil of Alabama rescued from European domination.

The first engagement in the war with the Creeks or Muscogees was on Burnt Corn creek, in the present county of Conecuh. Col. Caller, with 180 armed settlers from the vicinity of St. Stephens, attacked double that number of the enemy, who were returning from Pensacola with ammunition and supplies. Though surprised in their bivouac, the savages rallied and repulsed the whites, the mass of whom acted discreditably.

Apprehensive of attacks on their exposed homes, the settlers abandoned them and sought safety in the stockades with which the country now became dotted.

A month after the fight at Burnt Corn, Aug. 30, 1813, Fort Mimms, a stockade defense near the east bank of the Alabama, in the present county of Baldwin, was surprised at midday by one thousand warriors, led by Weatherford, Peter McQueen, and the prophet Francis.

In the fort were 245 men under arms, commanded by Major Daniel Beasley of the volunteers from the Natchez country; and 308 women and children, negroes, and friendly Indians. A heroic defense was made, but, unprepared and overpowered, the men were slain in fight, and the non-combatants were butchered in a revolting manner.

Less than fifty escaped, and the fort was left a smoking ruin. It exceeded in atrocity and barbarity any massacre that has ever occurred within the limits of the United States.

Almost simultaneously the savages fell upon the settlers in “the fork,” and killed twelve persons near Fort Sinquefield. These frightful deeds of blood filled the whole frontier country with consternation, and thrilled the Southern States with horror.

The intelligence reached Gov. Blount and Gen. Jackson in Nashville, by a dispatch from Mr. George S. Gaines, near St. Stephens. Such was the energy of these officers and the patriotism of the people of Tennessee, that, within forty days from the date of the disaster at Fort Mimms, Gen. Jackson reached Huntsville with nearly two thousand volunteers. Crossing the Tennessee, he established Fort Deposit on the elbow of that river.

Nov. 3, Gen. Coffee made a reconnaissance in force of the Indian town of Tallaseehatchee, in the present county of Calhoun. The conflict was brief but bloody, and all the warriors were killed — 186 in number. “We have retaliated for Fort Mimms,” wrote Jackson to Gov. Blount.

Jackson moved southward to the Ten Islands, and, on the north bank of the Coosa, constructed Fort Strother.

November 9, he surrounded the savages again at the town of Talladega, and routed them with much slaughter. The Indians left two hundred and ninety-nine warriors dead on the field, while the loss of the whites was fifteen killed and eighty wounded.

Gen. White’s brigade of East Tennesseans captured and destroyed the town of Hillabee, November 18, killing sixty warriors. They made but little resistance, as they were negotiating with Gen. Jackson, who lay on the other side of the mountains. “We lost not a drop of blood,” said White in his report to Gen. Cocke, and Fort Mimms was again avenged.

Georgia was also aroused by the fearful character of the pending struggle. A brigade of her sons, and a body of friendly Creeks, were sent across the Chattahoochee, under Gen. Floyd. Erecting Fort Mitchell on the Chattahoochee, he proceeded into the hostile territory.

Attacking the town of Autossee, in the present county of Macon, he routed the savages with a loss to them of two hundred men. He then fell back to Fort Mitchell for supplies.

With an increased force he again approached the arena of the war. At Calabee creek, January 27, 1814, he was assailed by the savages, and though he repulsed them with considerable loss, his army suffered severely. He again retired to Fort Mitchell, and the Georgians took no further active part in the struggle.

The operations on the lower Alabama were, meantime, of a predatory character. Col. McGrew had been worsted and killed in a skirmish on Barshi creek, Oct. 4, and the far-famed Canoe Fight occurred Nov. 12.

However, Gen. Claiborne moved up from that quarter with about one thousand men, and a body of Choctas, and, Dec. 23, 1813, assaulted the town of Econochaca, which was situated on the Alabama, in the present county of Lowndes.

The savages were routed, and their town destroyed, but the loss on each side was light. The severity of the weather compelled Claiborne to fall back to Fort Claiborne.

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The Alabama State Quarter Coin shows beside an 1826 map of the state with the Alabama River, Fort Mimms and Fort Claiborne highlighted.

Alabama State Quarter Coin