Red Sticks - Fort Mims Massacre

Fort Mims Massacre

Attacked by American militia while bringing back arms from Florida in 1813, the Red Sticks regrouped and defeated the troops at what became known as the Battle of Burnt Corn. While white militia had provoked the attack, frontier settlers and US officials became more alarmed about the Red Sticks' actions on the frontier.

Trying to reduce the influence of the Tensaw Creek in present-day southwestern Alabama, the Red Sticks decided to attack the garrison at Fort Mims in the Mississippi Territory (present-day Tensaw, Alabama). It was controlled by the Tensaw Creek. The historian Karl Davis interprets the attack as a punitive expedition specifically directed against the Tensaw, a group of Lower Creek who were "separated from core Creek values." Also at the fort were intermarried whites, and other settlers and their slaves from t the frontier, who had become alarmed after the battle at Burnt Corn. Davis does not believe the Fort Mims attacks was representative of the overall conflict between the Upper and Lower Towns. The fort was poorly guarded and the Red Sticks overwhelmed its defenses on 30 August 1813, killing most of the people who had taken refuge there.

Estimates of the number of settlers at Fort Mims at the time of the massacre vary from 300 or so to 500 (including whites, slaves, and Lower Creek.) Estimates of survivors have varied; at the most about three dozen have been claimed. Creek losses were heavy as well.