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After the massacre at Fort Mims, Gen. Andrew Jackson assembled an army of 2,500 Tennessee militia. Jackson began marching into Alabama to combat the Red Stick Creeks. Jackson's troops began to construct Fort Strother along the Coosa River.
The Creek village of Tallushatchee, which laid 15 miles away from the fort, contained a sizeable force of Red Stick warriors . Jackson ordered his friend and most trusted subordinate, Gen. John Coffee to attack the village.
Coffee took about 1,000 dragoons and arrived at the village on November 3, where he divided his brigade into 2 colums which encircled the town.
Two companies ventured into the center of the circle to draw out the Indians. The trap worked and the Indians attacked, but were forced to retreat back into the buildings of the village. Coffee closed the circle in on the trapped warriors. The legendary frontiersman Davy Crockett, serving in the Tennessee militia, commented "we shot them like dogs".
The Battle of Tallushatchee was the first real battle between American forces and Red Sticks during the Creek War. A week later, Jackson inflicted another serious defeat on the Red Sticks at the Battle of Talladega.
