Original text by Kathryn Braund, Auburn University Modified using www.rewordify.com

Paragraph 1 William Weatherford (ca. 1781-1824), many people would say is the best known Red Stick war leader in the of 1813-1814, was born around 1781 near the town of Coosada, an town of the Creek confederacy. Weatherford was born into the Wind clan, and through his extended family network (through his mother), was closely related to some of the most powerful and high-ranking Creeks of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, including Alexander McGillivray, whose mother was Weatherford’s grandmother. Raised as a high status Creek man in a bicultural family, Weatherford was exposed both to trade and plantation economy, which many of his family members including half-brother David Tate, supported. As a young man, Weatherford took on the leadership role expected from a young man of his family and status and distinguished himself in the usual pursuits of Creek men, including ball play, horsemanship, hunting, and training for warfare.

Paragraph 2 His first recorded public role came in 1801, when, with a group of young warriors, he helped seize William Augustus Bowles, a former Loyalist whose activities were strongly criticized by the Spanish, American, and Creek leadership. As a young man in the years leading up to the Creek War, he continued to trade in both deerskins and cattle.

Paragraph 3 In 1813, as civil war divided the Creek people, Weatherford assumed an active leadership role in Red Stick military efforts. Weatherford’s decision to join the is not well understood. Many of his relatives took the opposite side, and after the war, his relatives would claim that he only joined to control the violence of the movement. But available evidence points to his dedication to the Red Stick cause. He led the attack against the fort established at the home of Samuel Mims, referred to as Fort Mims. There on August 30, Red Stick leaders, Weatherford, the Far-off Warrior, and Paddy Walsh, and nearly 700 Creek warriors carried out a successful attack against the fort. The Territorial Volunteers stationed there were taken by surprise, and Red Stick Creeks quickly entered the fort around noon. Over the next four hours, the Red Sticks killed most of its defenders and civilian residents, about 250 people, and took at least 100 prisoners. The destruction of Fort Mims was the first significant action of the Creek War and changed the conflict from an Indian civil war into an American-Creek War as news of the killing of many people including women and children, whipped up feelings of revenge among the American group of citizens.

Paragraph 4 After the victory at Fort Mims, Weatherford continued to participate in the Red Stick war effort along the Alabama and Tallapoosa Rivers. He and the other Red Sticks established a fortified village at Econochaca, or “Holy Ground.” There, in late December 1813 Weatherford supervised the defense of the town against an attack by the General , who led the Third U.S. Infantry, Mississippi militia, and volunteers into the heart of the Creek Nation in retaliation for Fort Mims. As the American forces approached, warriors evacuated women and children, and then, along with freed African American slaves, defended the town before retreating and escaping. Weatherford escaped by leaping on horseback from a bluff into the amid a hail of gunfire.

Paragraph 5 Weatherford and the Red Stick war leaders then regrouped to face General John Floyd and his force of nearly 1,500 men, including militia and allied Creek Indians whose aims were Creek towns along the , especially the Red Stick stronghold at Autossee. After burning Autossee, Floyd’s forces established a strengthened position near Calabee Creek. Weatherford, along with other Red Stick leaders, rallied an estimated 1,300 warriors, but obvious differences in strategies led Weatherford to withdraw from the planned attack, which surprised the Georgians and caused large amounts of damage, killing 22 and wounding 150 of the allied force. Floyd’s troops were then forced to withdraw.

Paragraph 6 The action at Calabee seemingly ended Weatherford’s participation in the war until his famous surrender to General , who established headquarters at Camp Jackson on the site of the old French , after his loss of Upper Creeks at Horseshoe Bend. After his surrender, Weatherford cooperated with Jackson’s forces and convinced other Red Stick insurgents to surrender. He also participated in military actions against those who would not surrender.

Paragraph 7 As the insulted leader of the horrific action at Fort Mims, Weatherford might have expected to have been killed for his role in the war. Instead, his prominent family, many of whom fought against the Red Sticks, waged a rehabilitation campaign for him, celebrating his bravery and horsemanship, turning his famous leap from the cliff at Holy Ground and his peaceful surrender to Andrew Jackson into famous feats of heroic virtue. In letters and other forums, family members also stressed his supposed forced and reluctant participation in the conflict and claimed he left Fort Mims before the murder of women and children, by that way hoping to distance the heroic warrior from the deeds of war. More than that, his open cooperation with Jackson’s army at the end of the war, coupled with the protection of his family, calmed ideas of Weatherford as the “animal-like” warrior and promoted him as the noble leader who tried to serve his misguided people bravely and tried to restrain their excesses. After the war, under the protection of his prominent family, he lived as a plantation owner in south Alabama, distancing himself from tribal affairs. When he died in 1824, he was married to a Christian woman of mixed Indian family history and left sizeable property and slaves to his descendents.

Paragraph 8 Weatherford is nearly universally called Red Eagle by writers. The nickname has no basis in fact. According to a family friend, Thomas Woodward, Weatherford was known by two Creek names, Hoponika Fulsahi (Truth Maker) and Billy Larney, which translates as Yellow Billy. The name “Red Eagle” did not appear in print until the 1855 publication of A.B. Meek’s poem “The Red Eagle: A Poem of the South,” a lengthy romanticized tale based loosely on Weatherford and his bold and daring acts.