The story of the pivotal struggle between the Creek Indians and an
insatiable, young United States for control over the Deep South--from
the acclaimed historian and prize-winning author of The Earth is
Weeping
The Creek War is one of the most tragic episodes in American history,
leading to the greatest loss of Native American life on what is now U.S.
soil. What began as a vicious internal conflict among the Creek Indians
metastasized like a cancer. The ensuing Creek War of 1813-1814 shattered
Native American control of the Deep South and led to the infamous Trail
of Tears, in which the government forcibly removed the southeastern
Indians from their homeland. The war also gave Andrew Jackson his first
combat leadership role, and his newfound popularity after defeating the
Creeks would set him on the path to the White House.
In A Brutal Reckoning, Peter Cozzens vividly captures the young
Jackson, describing a brilliant but harsh military commander with
unbridled ambition, a taste for cruelty, and a fraught sense of honor
and duty. Jackson would not have won the war without the help of Native
American allies, yet he denied their role and even insisted on their
displacement, together with all the Indians of the American South in the
Trail of Tears.
A conflict involving not only white Americans and Native Americans, but
also the British and the Spanish, the Creek War opened the Deep South to
the Cotton Kingdom, setting the stage for the American Civil War yet to
come. No other single Indian conflict had such significant impact on the
fate of America--and A Brutal Reckoning is the definitive book on this
forgotten chapter in our history.
