Rare News...rampant rumors..continuous uncertainty.
Fear was a constant companion in those days.
As Abe’s mother pounded corn to make meal for bread, she was
watching the woods and the river. Would savage Creek warriors come running from
the woods across the meadow to her cabin? Would she have enough warning to run
and find a hiding place for she and her babies in the woods?
As she fetched water in heavy buckets from the Sinte Bogue
she glanced up the slow moving stream. Would she look up one day to see war
canoes coming down the creek? So far the Creeks had been reluctant to cross the
Tombigbee into Choctaw territory. But how long would that last? Would they
gather for all out war against the Choctaw as well as the American settlements?
As she cooked the midday meal and fed her babies she must
have thought about her neighbors and relatives, several miles away. How were
their families? Was everyone safe? With so many men away in the militia, and so
many farms abandoned for the stockades, how would they manage to raise enough
food to eat? Or would they live long enough to see another winter? Would her sweet
babies grow to become men, or would their lives be cut short by a Red Stick
tomahawk?
She weighed her few options. Would it be safer to leave
their home and take shelter in one of the simple stockade forts that had been
hastily constructed by the men in the district? She had heard from other women
that the crowded stockades were full an abundance of rough mannered men who
spent their time there drinking and partying. She wouldn’t want to be there
amongst them unless there were other women she knew there as well. What were her friends doing? Most people
thought the west side, the Choctaw side of the river, was safe; in fact some
families from the east of the Tombigbee had crossed over with their families to
set up temporary refugee camps in tents, assuming this would be better than the
potential threat they faced on the east banks….where the Creeks resided.
Would it be safer to
hide her children amongst the Choctaw children in the village? Or should she
travel with them now and go to Womack Hill and stay with the Womack and Coleman
relatives there? She expected that her husband, Richard, would provide the
answers for her. But right now, like most of the men who were not very old or
too young to carry a long rifle, he and his brothers were off training with the
militia.
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| Tecumseh |
In
the fall of 1811, Tecumseh and his brother, the prophet, had come to rouse up
the Creeks. Thank goodness Pushmataha and the Choctaw had stood up against him, or the
settlers would all be dead by now. Some of the Creeks, though, listened, and
their local prophet, Josiah Francis, stirred up a group of “Red Stick” warriors
to prepare to fight those who would not return to traditional Indian ways.
Rumors went around that when Tecumseh returned to his home, he would give a
sign that the time had come for the Indians to revolt and then he would “stamp
his foot” and the earth would rumble and shake. And sure enough, a great
shooting star appeared in the sky, night after night, and was called
“Tecumseh’s Comet.” Then, in
mid-December, the worst happened. The earth truly trembled and shook in a way
that terrified everyone- Indian and white alike. It was like the end of the
world had come. Lights flashed from the ground, and thunder shook the sky. And
this happened again in January and in February. Those who believed in the
prophesy attributed it to Tecumseh. This was a powerful omen… so powerful that
whole villages were destroyed….so powerful that they say the Mississippi River
actually ran backwards. Who would not be afraid?? Perhaps it was the end of the
world. (1)
The Red Sticks were greatly empowered by these signs. Their
numbers grew….and they seemed more and more ready to attack the fragile
settlements of the Tombigbee and Tensaw regions.
And it is true that terrible things soon transpired.
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