Alexander City Tallapoosa Alabama United States

The splintering of the Creek Nation along progressive and nativist lines has roots dating back to the eighteenth century, but had come to a head after 1811.

Red Stick militancy is a response to the economic and cultural crises in Creek society caused by the adoption of Western trade goods and culture.

From the sixteenth century, the Creek had formed successful trade alliances with European empires, but the drastic fall in the price of deerskins from 1783 to 1793 had made it more difficult for individuals to repay their debt, while at the same time the assimilation process had made American goods more necessary.

The Red Sticks particularly resist the civilization programs administered by the U.S. Indian Agent Benjamin Hawkins, who has stronger alliances among the towns of the Lower Creek.

Some of the "progressive" Creek had begun to adopt American farming practices as their game disappeared, and as more Anglo settlers assimilated into Creek towns and families.

Leaders of the Lower Creek towns in present-day Georgia include Bird Tail King (Fushatchie Mico) of Cusseta; Little Prince (Tustunnuggee Hopoi) of Broken Arrow, and William McIntosh (Tunstunuggee Hutkee, White Warrior) of Coweta.

Before the Creek War and the War of 1812, most US politicians had seen removal to the West as the only alternative to the assimilation of native peoples into Euro-American culture.

The Creeks, on the other hand, have blended their own culture with adopted trade goods and political terms, and have no intention of abandoning their land.

The Americanization of the Creeks is more prevalent in western Georgia among the Lower Creeks than in Upper Creek Towns, and comes from internal and external processes.

The U.S. government's and Benjamin Hawkins' pressure on the Creeks to assimilate stands in contrast to the more natural blending of cultures that comes from a long tradition of cohabitation and cultural appropriation, beginning with white traders in native country.

Many of the most prominent Creek chiefs at the beginning of the Creek War are "mixed-bloods" like William McGillivray and William McIntosh (who are on opposing sides of the Creek Civil War).

The Shawnee leader Tecumseh, who had united tribes in the Northwest (Ohio and related territories) to fight against U.S, settlers after the American Revolutionary War, had come to the Southeast to encourage the peoples to join his movement to throw the Americans out of native territories.

In 1811, Tecumseh and his brother Tenskwatawa had attended the annual Creek council at Tukabatche, one of the four mother towns of the Muscogee Creek confederacy.

Tecumseh had delivered an hour-long speech to an audience of five thousand Creeks as well as an American delegation including Hawkins.

Although the Americans had dismissed Tecumseh as non-threatening, his message of resistance to White encroachment had been well received among Creek and Seminole, particularly among more conservative, traditionally-minded elders and young men.

Mobilization of recruits to Tecumseh's cause had been bolstered by the Great Comet of 1811 and the New Madrid earthquakes of 1811–12, which had been taken as evidence of Tecumseh's supernatural powers.

The war party had rallied around prophets who had traveled with Tecumseh, and remained in the Creek nation, as well as newly converted Creek religious leaders.

Peter McQueen of Talisi (now Tallassee, Alabama); Josiah Francis (Hillis Hadjo) (Francis the Prophet) of Autaga, a Koasati town; and High-head Jim (Cusseta Tustunnuggee) and Paddy Walsh, both Alabamas, are among the spiritual leaders responding to rising concerns and the prophetic message.

The militant faction of Creek stands in opposition of the Creek National Council's official policies, particularly in regard to foreign relations with the United States.

The rising war party had begun to be called Red Sticks at this time (in Creek culture red 'sticks' or war clubs symbolize war while white sticks represent peace).

There are a few limited native attacks on settlers in 1812 and early 1813, but Hawkins does not believe that the disruption in the Creek Nation or the increasing war dances are causes for concern.

In one instance in February 1813, a small war party of Red Sticks, led by Little Warrior, had been returning from Detroit when they killed two families of settlers along the Ohio River.

Hawkins demands that the Creek turn over Little Warrior and his six companions, standard operating procedure between the nations up to this point.

Creeks who do not support the war become targets for the prophets and their followers, and begin to be murdered in their sleep or burned alive.

Warriors of the Prophets' party also have begun to attack the property of their enemies, burning plantations and destroying livestock.

The first major offensive of the civil war is the Red Stick attack on the Upper Creek town, and seat of the Council, at Tuckabatchee on July 22, 1813.

A war party of "friendly" Creek in Georgia, organized under William McIntosh, Big Warrior, and Little Prince, attack one hundred and fifty Uchee warriors who are traveling to meet up with Red Stick Creeks in the Mississippi Territory.

After this offensive in the beginning of October 1813, the party burns a number of Red Stick towns before retiring to Coweta.

Jackson's army, after leaving Fort Williams in the spring of 1814, cuts its way through the forest to within six miles (ten kilometers) of Chief Menawa's Red Stick camp Tehopeka, near a bend in the Tallapoosa River called "Horseshoe Bend"—located in what is now central Alabama, twelve miles (nineteen kilometers) east of present-day Alexander City.

Jackson sends General John Coffee with the mounted infantry and the Indian allies south across the river to surround the Red Sticks' camp, while Jackson stays with the rest of the two thousand infantry north of the camp.

Added to the militia units are the 39th United States Infantry and about six hundred Cherokee, Choctaw, and Lower Creek, fighting against the Red Stick Creek warriors.