This was James' regiment

COLONEL STEPHEN COPELAND
DESIGNATION: 3rd Regiment of Tennessee Militia
DATES: January 1814 - May 1814
MEN MOSTLY FROM: Overton, Smith, Wilson, Franklin, Warren, Bedford, and
Lincoln Counties
CAPTAINS: John Biler(Byler), John Dawson, William Douglass, William Evans,
Solomon George, William Hodges, John Holshouser, Alexander Provine, Richard
Sharp, George W. Still, James Tait, Moses Thompson, Allen Wilkinson, David
Williams.
BRIEF HISTORY:
There were approximately 660 men in this regiment. They were part of a brigade
led by General Thomas Johnson (the other regiment of Johnson's brigade was led
by Colonel R. C. Napier). Jackson's report of the Battle of Horseshoe Bend (27
March 1814) mentions that Copeland's regiment was held in reserve during this
engagement. But a part of the regiment saw action, as muster rolls show
casualties from this battle in the companies of Captains Moses Thompson and
Allen Wilkinson. Their line of march took them from Fayetteville (where they
were mustered into service), through Fort Deposit, Fort Strother, and finally to
Fort Williams.

From: "Regimental Histories of Tennessee Units During the War of 1812"

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Emuckfau and Enotochopco
(22 and 24 January 1814)
On the evening of 21 January 1814, Jackson and his volunteers (about 900 men)
camped within three miles of a Creek stronghold at Emuckfau Creek on the
Tallapoosa River. Around midnight, Jackson's spies reported that the Creeks were
aware of the American army's presence and were making preparations to attack.
Shortly before dawn of the 22nd, the Red Sticks struck the left and rear flanks
of Jackson's camp but were repulsed. At daylight, Jackson's troops charged the
retreating Creeks, killing scores of them. Jackson ordered General Coffee to
take a detachment to destroy the nearby Creek camp, but Coffee found the Creeks
too well fortified to assault (this was the same site that Jackson later
attacked at Horseshoe Bend).
About thirty minutes after Coffee's unit returned, the Creeks made a second
attack on Jackson's army by assailing the right wing as a feint for the main
attack on the left. Coffee counter-attacked with dismounted troops and was
wounded in the process (his aide and brother-in-law, Major Alexander Donelson,
was killed). On Jackson's left, Colonel William Carroll was ordered to repulse
the Creeks, which he managed to do successfully. Meanwhile, reinforcements came
to Coffee's aid and, once again, the Creeks were put to flight.
Jackson decided to march his beleaguered army back to Fort Strother and stopped
at Enotochopco Creek on 23 January, throwing up breastworks in anticipation of
another attack by the Red Sticks. The night passed uneventfully and, on the
morning of 24 January, Jackson resumed his march to Fort Strother. The army
moved in three columns: the regiment of Colonel Nicholas Perkins on the right;
the regiment led by Lieutenant Colonel Frederick Stump on the left; and Colonel
William Carroll commanding the rear. As the advance units of the army were
crossing Enotochopco Creek, the Creeks attacked the rear of Jackson's army. The
rear guard fled, spreading panic throughout the ranks, while Colonel Carroll was
left with a handful of men to stave off the attacking Red Sticks.
Lieutenant Robert Armstrong and a few members of his artillery company, known as
the "Nashville Volunteers," managed to maneuver their artillery piece to a small
eminence near the creek, where they fought off the Creeks in hand-to-hand
combat. Armstrong fell to the ground wounded, imploring his men to "save the
cannon." Several others fell beside him, but they bought valuable time for
Jackson to regroup.
Jackson and the already-wounded Coffee rallied the broken columns of the army as
small groups of men began to reach the artillery post. Captain John Gordon's
company of spies re-crossed the creek and bore down on the left flank of the
attacking Indians. The Creeks were finally routed and fled with Jackson's
pursuing army close behind, killing what retreating Creeks they could.
At both Emuckfau and Enotochopco, Jackson claimed to have killed 189 Creek
warriors, insisting that the figure was probably higher. American losses
amounted to twenty killed and seventy-five wounded (a complete list of American
casualties can be found in the Nashville Whig of 8 February 1814).
Jackson dismissed most of his army in February 1814, as new enlistments were
expected to take their place. Along with the new enlistees from East and West
Tennessee, a regular army unit, the 39th U.S. Infantry, under the leadership of
Colonel John Williams, was ordered to join Jackson. Jackson was ready to resume
the Creek campaign by mid-March, after amassing an army of about 5,000 troops
along with adequate supplies.
Jackson's renewed army left Fort Strother on 14 March 1814 and traveled sixty
miles to a point on the Coosa River, where a garrison was established and given
the name Fort Williams (in honor of Colonel John Williams). Preparations were
made to march about fifty miles in a southeasterly direction to the Creek
stronghold called Tohopeka (known to the whites as Horseshoe Bend).



Battle of Horseshoe Bend
(27 March 1814)
The Creeks occupied an hundred-acre section of land in the U-shaped bend of the
Tallapoosa River, fortified by an elaborately-constructed breastwork of logs
that reached from one side of the river to the other. Behind the fortifications
were nearly a thousand warriors and a village, located at the bend of the river,
of their families. The fact that the Creeks did not remove the women and
children from the site, as was their custom prior to battle, indicated either
that they felt secure behind the fortifications or that the battle would be a
fight to the finish.
Jackson's force, after leaving adequate troops to man the various forts in the
territory, amounted to about 3,000 men. The army reached Tohopeka in the early
morning hours of 27 March. General Coffee and his brigade of mounted gunmen,
along with a contingency of Cherokees and allied Creeks, were dispatched to
cross the Tallapoosa about three miles below Tohopeka in order to surround the
Creeks and prevent any chance of escape. Jackson marched the bulk of the army to
the front of the Creek stronghold. Around 10:30 a.m. Jackson's two artillery
pieces began to fire at the fortified wall of the Creek breastworks, but the
cannonade proved to be ineffective. By noon, Jackson determined that the works
would have to be taken by storm.
At about the same time, impatient Cherokees under Coffee began to swim the
Tallapoosa to capture the canoes the Creeks intended to use as a means of
escape. Using the captured canoes, the Cherokees and some of Coffee's men
managed to cross the river and assail the Creeks from the rear.
Jackson's assault on the breastworks, led by the 39th U.S. Infantry and
Tennessee militia, proved successful after a brief, but severe, contest. As the
Creeks found themselves being attacked from the front and behind, the
fortifications they had placed so much faith in became their graveyard. The
battle soon took on the aspects of a massacre as the Creek warriors asked for no
quarter and fought with savage desperation. The slaughter continued until
nightfall and, at the end of the day, 557 Red Sticks lay prostrate on the field
of battle. Hundreds more were killed by Coffee's men as they tried to make their
escape by crossing the Tallapoosa River. In all, nearly 900 warriors are said to
have perished in what is considered to be the most devastating defeat of Native
Americans in North American history. The official tally of American casualties
was 32 killed and 99 wounded -- the friendly Indians lost 23 killed and 47
wounded. A list of American killed and wounded can be found in the Nashville
Whig (11 May 1814).
After the defeat at Horseshoe Bend, bands of starving Creeks surrendered
themselves during the spring and summer of 1814. In August 1814, the Treaty of
Fort Jackson forced the Creeks to forfeit over 20,000,000 acres of land to the
United States in retribution for the Creek War. The fact that much of this land
was taken from Creeks that had allied themselves with American troops during the
war made no difference to the land-hungry frontier populace. Within five years
white settlers overran the region and the state of Alabama was formed. The
demise of the Creek Nation had begun.
As a reward for his success in the Creek War, Jackson was commissioned a major
general in the regular army (May 1814). After concluding negotiations with the
Creeks, he turned his attention to the regions of Mobile and Pensacola. Mobile,
lately in possession of the United States, was a possible point for the British
to launch a campaign against New Orleans. Pensacola, in the Spanish-held
province of West Florida, became a place of refuge for the remnants of the Red
Sticks who sought arms and supplies from the Spanish and/or British to renew
hostilities against the Americans. Great Britain planned to use the renegade
Creeks to harass the southern frontier, thus keeping American forces occupied,
while operations against New Orleans were conducted. Jackson's victory at
Horseshoe Bend stymied these plans, but there were still enough fugitive Creeks
in Florida to warrant Jackson's attention. His concern was heightened when the
British, along with Red Stick allies, made an attempt to capture Fort Bowyer at
Mobile Point in mid-September 1814. Although the attack was repulsed, it
provided an excuse for Jackson to move against Spanish Pensacola, where the
British task force originated.



From: "Regimental Histories of Tennessee Units During the War of 1812" from the Tennessee State Archives.

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