THE CRUSHING OF THE CREEKS

United States War Department Report.

THIS official communication was sent by Governor William Schley, of Georgia, on October 7, 1836, to two Federal commissioners, Alfred Balch and T. Hartley Crawford, who were in Georgia for the purpose of fixing the blame for the Creek War and to determine what future ac-lion the United States government ought to take. Some of the Creek Indians had joined the United States forces against the Seminoles, while others had begun raiding Georgia and Alabama towns and villages.

Defeated by Government and State troops under Generals Scott and Sanford, nearly 25, 000 Creek were removed to the Arkansas River in 1837, less than 800 being left behind. The Government tried to Christianize and civilize them, but they fiercely refused either missionaries or schools; especially Christianity which was scorned by them as the religion of their negro slaves.

I HAVE the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 3d instant, in which you request me to communicate to you, as commissioners on the part of the United States to inquire into the causes of the recent Creek hostilities, such information as I may have, and which may be communicated consistently with my ideas of propriety and public duty, in regard to the causes of these hostilities, the time when the aspect of things on the Chattahoochee became alarming, the time when the means of meeting reasonable anticipations of danger to the white population of Alabama and Georgia were resorted to by the State and General Governments, and what these means were.

Of the causes which led to the Creek War I know nothing, and can, therefore, only give you my opinion, with the reasons on which it is founded.

The great majority of the Creek Indians are idle, dissolute vagrants, many of whom had, for a long time, been subsisting on provisions stolen, mostly from the people of Georgia living on and near the Chattahoochee. They were in the daily practice of crossing the river, stealing cattle, horses, hogs, corn, and such other articles as they wanted. If the people thus robbed objected, or attempted to resist or punish them, they would add murder to their other crimes. Many of them were in a state of starvation, and had no means of obtaining subsistence, except by depredations on the property of the white people. In the prosecution of their unlawful purpose they were sometimes detected, and in the conflict which ensued, some of each party were occasionally killed. A state of bad feeling was the consequence on both sides, and, with the Creeks ripened into a determination to revenge the death of their guilty comrades. They were, moreover, determined not to emigrate to Arkansas; and believed that, in the moment of panic and consternation produced by their hostilities, they could escape to Florida with the booty they could obtain from the murdered and fleeing inhabitants.

These, in my opinion, were some of the causes which produced the Creek War.

Public opinion has, in some sections of the State, assigned, as a principle cause of hostilities, the frauds which are alleged to have been committed on the Creeks in the purchase of their lands. Of this I know nothing, and have no evidence on which to form an opinion. I cannot, therefore, either affirm or deny the truth of the report.

The predatory incursions of the Creeks into Georgia kept up a constant excitement in the counties on and near the Chattahoochee, which produced repeated calls on the Executive of the State for protection. In the month of January last, arms and ammunition were sent to the counties thus annoyed, and in each a corps of twenty men was formed and called into service as spies to watch the movements of the Indians, and give notice of their conduct to the commanding officer of the county, or to chastise and drive them off, if their numbers were not too great.

These companies were kept in service until about the tenth of March, when they were superseded by a small battalion of mounted men, consisting of about two hundred, under the command of Major John H. Howard. This force was placed on the Chattahoochee, eighteen miles below Columbus, with instructions to patrol the country; and it had the effect to tranquilize the frontier until early in the month of May, when the Creeks commenced open active hostilities by murdering the white people and burning their towns and property, and carrying away such booty as they could procure.

The first notice I received of this state of things on the frontier was contained in a communication from the honorable John Fontaine, Mayor of Columbus [Georgia], dated on the 9th day of May, and received at the Executive office on the 11th. On the 12th I sent to Columbus one six-pound field piece and all the small arms remaining in the arsenal, and wrote to the Secretary of War, giving him information of the situation of the people in that quarter, and the general hostility of the Indians. On the 13th I issued an order inviting volunteers to march to the scene of danger, and used all the exertions in my power to bring to the field a competent force, and furnished them with munitions of war.

The troops began to arrive on the frontier the last of May, and the first company was mustered into the service on the 2d or 3d of June, as well as I now recollect.

Previous to this, however, the militia of the neighborhood had been called out for temporary protection, and until the army could be assembled. The troops, as fast as they arrived and could be provided with arms, etc., were placed at different points on the river below Columbus, to prevent the escape of the enemy to Florida. The number of Georgia troops that flocked to the standard was between four and five thousand, besides which there was a considerable number of regular troops. But most of the Georgians were without arms, and, consequently, were not in a condition to go in search of the hostile Indians, until about the 18th or 20th of June, when the troops received arms and took up the line of march under Generals Scott and Sanford.