Bashi Skirmish | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Part of the Creek War | |||||||
Approximate location of Bashi Skirmish. Fort Easley (spelled Easely) and Bashi Creek are located at the top of the map. [1] | |||||||
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
Creek | United States | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Unknown | Colonel William McGrew † | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
Unknown | ~25 | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
None Documented | ~4 killed 1 missing Several wounded |
The Bashi Skirmish in the Creek War was fought in what became Failetown, Alabama. [2] A Clarke County historical marker which stands on Woods Bluff Road between Alabama 69 and Cassidy Hill marks the location of the incident [3] which resulted in the death of 4 Americans. [4]
The exact date of this skirmish is not clear but it is believed to have occurred in early October 1813. [4] At least one source puts it at October 4, 1813. [2]
A group of 25 white horsemen led by Colonel William McGrew left St. Stephens traveling towards Fort Easley. [5] The company was proceeding towards a stream called Bashi Creek that flows into the Tombigbee River a mile or two north of Wood's Bluff when they suddenly found themselves among concealed Creek warriors. [4] They were ambushed after a turkey tail was raised above a log by one of the concealed Creek, giving the signal for attack. [4] The Indians who had guns instantly fired from their places of concealment and McGrew who had taken part in the Battle of Burnt Corn was killed along with Edmund Miles, Jesse Griffin and Captain William Bradbury. [4] [6] David Griffin was reported missing and presumed dead; his body was never found. [4]
Clarke County is a county located in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Alabama. As of the 2020 census, the population was 23,087. The county seat is Grove Hill. The county's largest city is Jackson. The county was created by the legislature of the Mississippi Territory in 1812. It is named in honor of General John Clarke of Georgia, who was later elected governor of that state.
Blountsville is a town in Blount County, Alabama, United States. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 1,684.
Red Sticks —the name deriving from the red-painted war clubs of some Native American Creek—refers to an early 19th century traditionalist faction of Muscogee Creek people in the Southeastern United States. Made up mostly of Creek of the Upper Towns that supported traditional leadership and culture, as well as the preservation of communal land for cultivation and hunting, the Red Sticks arose at a time of increasing pressure on Creek territory by European American settlers. Creek of the Lower Towns were closer to the settlers, had more mixed-race families, and had already been forced to make land cessions to the Americans. In this context, the Red Sticks led a resistance movement against European American encroachment and assimilation, tensions that culminated in the outbreak of the Creek War in 1813. Initially a civil war among the Creek, the conflict drew in United States state forces while the nation was already engaged in the War of 1812 against the British.
Philip Reed was a United States Senator representing Maryland from 1806 to 1813.
The Fort Mims massacre took place on August 30, 1813, during the Creek War, when a force of Creek Indians belonging to the Red Sticks faction, under the command of head warriors Peter McQueen and William Weatherford, stormed the fort and defeated the militia garrison. Afterward, a massacre ensued and almost all of the remaining mixed Creek, white settlers, and militia at Fort Mims were killed. The fort was a stockade with a blockhouse surrounding the house and outbuildings of the settler Samuel Mims, located about 35 miles directly north of present-day Mobile, Alabama.
Failetown is a ghost town in Clarke County, Alabama, United States.
Fort Strother was a stockade fort at Ten Islands in the Mississippi Territory, in what is today St. Clair County, Alabama. It was located on a bluff of the Coosa River, near the modern Neely Henry Dam in Ragland, Alabama. The fort was built by General Andrew Jackson and several thousand militiamen in November 1813, during the Creek War and was named for Captain John Strother, Jackson's chief cartographer.
The Choctaw Corner is a former Native American boundary location near the modern border between Clarke and Marengo counties in Alabama, United States. It was established as the northernmost terminus for a mutually agreed upon boundary line between the Choctaw and Creek peoples during the Mississippi Territory period. This boundary line, now known as the “Old Indian Treaty Boundary,” starts at the Alabama River cut-off in southernmost Clarke County and follows a northward path through the county along the drainage divide between the Tombigbee and Alabama rivers to the Choctaw Corner, then turns ninety degrees to the west and follows the modern county-line between Clarke and Marengo to the Tombigbee River.
The Tombigbee District, also known as the Tombigbee, was one of two areas, the other being the Natchez District, that were the first in what was West Florida to be colonized by British subjects from the Thirteen Colonies and elsewhere. This later became the Mississippi Territory as part of the United States. The district was also the first area to be opened to white settlement in what would become the state of Alabama, outside of the French colonial outpost of Mobile on the Gulf Coast. The Tombigbee and Natchez districts were the only areas populated by whites in the Mississippi Territory when it was formed by the United States in 1798.
Bashi Creek, also historically known as Bashai Creek, is a tributary of the Tombigbee River in northern Clarke County in Alabama.
The Battle of Autossee took place on November 29, 1813, during the Creek War, at the Creek towns of Autossee and Tallasee near present-day Shorter, Alabama. General John Floyd, with 900 to 950 militiamen and 450 allied Creek, attacked and burned down both villages, killing 200 Red Sticks in the process.
Henry Sale Halbert was an American historian. He is known for writing The Creek War of 1813 and 1814. The book is a well known source for Choctaw and Creek Indian history.
Timothy Horton Ball was an American historian, missionary, preacher, author, and teacher. He is known for writing The Creek War of 1813 and 1814. The book is a well-known source for Choctaw and Creek Indian history.
Fort Carney was a stockade fort built in 1813 in present-day Clarke County, Alabama during the Creek War.
Fort Easley was a stockade fort built in 1813 in present-day Clarke County, Alabama during the Creek War.
Fort Glass was a stockade fort built in July 1813 in present-day Clarke County, Alabama during the Creek War.
Fort Landrum was a stockade fort built in 1813 in present-day Clarke County, Alabama during the Creek War. The fort was located eleven miles west of Fort Sinquefield. Fort Landrum, like many other forts built around the same time, was built in response to Red Stick attacks on settlers in the surrounding area.
Fort Madison was a stockade fort built in August 1813 in present-day Clarke County, Alabama, during the Creek War, which was part of the larger War of 1812. The fort was built by the United States military in response to attacks by Creek warriors on encroaching American settlers. The fort shared many similarities to surrounding stockade forts in its construction but possessed a number of differences in its defenses. The fort housed members of the United States Army and settlers from the surrounding area, and it was used as a staging area for raids on Creek forces and supply point on further military expeditions. Fort Madison was subsequently abandoned at the conclusion of the Creek War and only a historical marker exists at the site today.
Fort Pierce, was two separate stockade forts built in 1813 in present-day Baldwin County, Alabama, during the Creek War, which was part of the larger War of 1812. The fort was originally built by settlers in the Mississippi Territory to protect themselves from attacks by Creek warriors. A new fort of the same name was then built by the United States military in preparation for further action in the War of 1812, but the fort was essentially abandoned within a few years. Nothing exists at the site today.
Bashi Skirmish.