Fort Mims was a frontier stockade near

Tensaw, Alabama.



There is an old saying in the South, "The

Good Lord willing and the Creeks don't rise."

The phrase has nothing to do with running

streams, but instead is a flashback to the

days of the

Creek War of 1813-1814

and,

particularly, the Red Stick attack on Fort

Mims, Alabama.



Fort Mims was a rough log stockade

constructed in 1813 around the home of

Samuel Mims, an early settler of Baldwin

County, Alabama. The powerful Upper

Creeks of Central Alabama were not

particularly hostile towards Mims and his

neighbors. Many, in fact, were related to the

early settlers and Creek warriors often traded

with and visited Mims and other residents of

the Tensaw settlements.



This "live and let live" attitude changed,

however, when a civil war broke out in the

Creek Nation. On one side were the Red

Sticks, followers of a nativistic religion taught

by the Alabama Prophet Josiah Francis. They

believed in a return to native ways and a

rejection of white society and culture.

Opposing them were the principal leaders of

the nation, including the Big Warrior, who

lived very much according to the white plan of

"civilization" for the Creeks.



The war did not immediately threaten white

settlements around the fringes of the nation.

In fact, it was an action by the settlers them-

selves that brought the war to their own

doorsteps. In July of 1813, a rough and

tumble band of territorial militia attacked a

Red Stick supply train at Burnt Corn Creek,

Alabama. Blood was drawn and the families

of the killed and wounded Red Sticks swore

vengeance on their white neighbors.



That vengeance came on August 30, 1813,

when Red Stick warriors attacked a woefully

unprepared Fort Mims. Hundreds of men,

women and children had gone to the fort for

safety after the debacle at Burnt Corn Creek.

By the time the battle was over, more than

250 of them were dead.



The Battle of Fort Mims, also known as the

Fort Mims Massacre, began as the people of

the fort were gathering for their noon meal.

The main gates of the fort were open and

there was a general lack of concern about

the possibility of an attack.



Hundreds of Red Stick warriors, led by the

famed Creek warrior William Weatherford,

suddenly stormed from the woods

surrounding the fort and rushed the open

gate and walls.



The alarm was spread and the men of the

fort grabbed their weapons and rushed to

beat back the attack. Major Daniel Beasley,

the commander of the fort, was killed as he

tried to close the gate.



The battle raged throughout the afternoon.

Despite their initial surprise, the occupants of

the fort fought bravely, as did the Red Stick

attackers. Finally, however, Fort Mims fell.

