These Indians now believed all that Tecumseh had said; they began to attack the white people, and they killed a great number of them.
10 Tecumseh: see paragraph [203].
| GENERAL JACKSON AND THE INDIAN CHIEF. |
[216. Jackson conquers the Indians; the "Holy Ground"; Weathersford and Jackson; feeding the starving.]—General Jackson marched against the Indians and beat them in battle. The Indians that escaped fled to a place they called the "Holy Ground.", They believed that if a white man dared to set his foot on that ground he would be struck dead as if by a flash of lightning. General Jackson and his men marched on to the "Holy Ground," and the Indians found that unless they made peace they would be the ones who would be struck dead by his bullets.
Not long after this, a noted leader of the Indians, named Weathersford, rode boldly up to Jackson's tent. "Kill him! kill him!" cried Jackson's men; but the general asked Weathersford into his tent. "You can kill me if you want to," said he to Jackson, "but I came to tell you that the Indian women and children are starving in the woods, and to ask you to help them, for they never did you any harm." General Jackson sent away Weathersford in safety, and ordered that corn should be given to feed the starving women and children. That act showed that he was as merciful as he was brave.
[217. The British send war-ships to take New Orleans; the great battle and the great victory.]—These things happened during our second war with England, or the War of 1812. About a year after Jackson's victory over the Indians the British sent an army in ships to take New Orleans.
General Jackson now went to New Orleans, to prevent the enemy from getting possession of the city.
About four miles below the city, which stands on the Mississippi River,[11] there was a broad, deep ditch, running from the river into a swamp. Jackson saw that the British would have to cross that ditch when they marched against the city. For that reason he built a high bank on the upper side of the ditch, and placed cannon along the top of the bank.
Early on Sunday morning, January 8th, 1815, the British sent a rocket whizzing up into the sky; a few minutes afterward they sent up a second one. It was the signal that they were about to march to attack us.