The Forgotten War that Made America

[corbe]

The Forgotten War that Made America

The overlooked Creek War set the tone for America to come.

Sean Durns
Oct 17, 2024
12:03 AM

“Any understanding of this nation has to be based on an understanding of the Civil War,” the late historian Shelby Foote observed. It “defined us as what we are, and it opened us up to what we became.” The American Civil War set the United States on the path to becoming a global force, but another clash, long forgotten, enabled America to become a continental power.

The Creek War is little known to most Americans today. In some respects, this is unsurprising. The conflict lasted a little more than a year and unfolded against the backdrop of another overlooked conflagration, the War of 1812. Yet, the war was key to forging both the American character and the United States itself. What began as an internecine struggle between Creek Indians made America what it is today.

“No other Indian conflict in our nation’s history so changed the complexion of American society as the Creek War,” the author Peter Cozzens observes in his new book, A Brutal Reckoning: Andrew Jackson, the Creek Indians, and the Epic War for the American South. It was, he notes, “the most pitiless clash between American Indians and whites in U.S. history.”

The Creek Confederacy’s loss ensured the end of their way of life. And the victory by U.S. forces, led by future president Andrew Jackson, gifted the United States with 22 million acres of land in Alabama and Georgia.

American policymakers at the dawn of the Republic confronted a security environment that is hard to imagine today. The United States as we now know it didn’t exist. The French, Spanish, and British had territorial and commercial holdings on the continent, with the latter two even possessing sizable military garrisons. By contrast, the United States didn’t possess a standing army and its new navy was a hodgepodge of ships. Many doubted whether the U.S., with its revolutionary form of government, would endure. Indeed, many of the European courts were betting otherwise.

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https://www.theamericanconservative.com/the-forgotten-war-that-made-america/

[PeteS in CA]

Jackson soon was the commanding general in the battle that added an exclamation point to the Treaty of Ghent. The Battle of New Orleans was fought after the treaty was signed, but before news of the treaty could reach New Orleans. It's an interesting speculation whether the British would have honored the treat had British force won the battle, but Jackson's win may have helped persuade the British of the wisdom of doing so. A two or three decades later, the (smaller) US Navy was assisting the RN's anti-slavery patrolling off west Africa, so the treaty did "stick".