The Ghosts of Horseshoe Bend

In this thoroughly researched study, historian Justin Weiss explores the evolving 200-year legacy of the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. The conflict, which pitted U.S. forces under the command of General Andrew Jackson against a militant offshoot of the Creek Confederacy, known as the Redsticks, ranks as the single most staggering loss of life in the annals of American Indian warfare. Today, however, the battle remains a largely obscure and often unheard of event. Lost in the shadowy details of the War of 1812 and erased from the epic narrative of national expansion, today's Horseshoe Bend stands in stark contrast to the celebrated and well-known victory of the past. What was once glorified as a touchstone of American masculinity, hailed as a high-water mark by the proponents of Manifest Destiny, and found worthy of preservation as a national park by the federal government, now cuts the figure of a "cold blooded massacre" shunned by schoolbooks and passed over by professors. This research explores what happened after the smoke cleared at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. It is a story about the production of history, the power of the past, and the malleability of the American mind.