General Gaines to Colonel Clinch.
HEADQ'RS, FORT MONTGOMERY,

Mississippi Territory, May 23, 1816. SIR: Your letters up to the 9th instant have been received. The British agent, Hambly, and the Little Prince and others, are acting a part which I have been at a loss for some time past to understand. Are they not endeavoring to amuse and divert us from our main object? Their tricks, if they be so, have assumed a serious aspect, and may lead to their destruction; but we have little to apprehend from them. They must be watched with an eye of vigilance. The post near the junction of the rivers, to which I called your attention in the last month, must be estab-lished speedily, even if we have to fight our way to it through the ranks of the whole nation.

The surveyors have commenced laying off the land to be sold and settled, and they must be protected. The force of the whole nation cannot arrest your movement down the river on board the boats, if secured up the sides with two-inch plank, and covered over with clapboards; nor could all the nation prevent your landing and constructing a stockade work, sufficient to secure you, unless they should previously know the spot at which you intended to land, and had actually assembled at that place previous to or within four hours of your landing;, but your force is not sufficient to warrant your march to the different villages, as suggested, by land. The whole of your force (except about forty men, or one company, for the defence of Fort Gaines) should be kept near your boats and supplies until the new post shall be established. You may then strike at any hostile party near you, with all your disposable force; but even then you should not go more than one or two day's march from your fort.

If your supplies of provisions and ammunition have reached you, let your detachment move as directed in my letter of the 28th of last month. You can venture to move with twenty-five days' rations, but you should order a supply to the agency, or Fort Gaines, where a boat should be built, and held in readiness to send down, in case any accident should prevent or delay the arrival of a supply which I have ordered from New Orleans.

I enclose you an extract of a letter containing an arrangement for the supply by water, and have to direct that you* will provide a boat, and despatch it with an officer and fifty men to meet the vessels from New Orleans, as soon as you are advised of their being on the river. One of your large boats will answer the purpose, provided you

*Thirty thousand rations have been ordered from New Orleans up the Appalachicola, and Commodore Patterson requested to send a convoy of one or two gun-vessels.

have no barge or keel-boat. Should the boats meet with opposition at what is called the Negro fort, arrangements will immediately be made for its destruction; and for that purpose you will be supplied with two eighteeen-pounders and one howitzer, with fixed ammunition, and implements complete, to be sent in a vessel to accompany the provisions. I have, likewise, ordered fifty thousand musket cartridges, some rifles, swords, &c. Should you be compelled to go against the Negro fort, you will land at a convenient point above it, and force a communication with the commanding officer of the vessels below, and arrange with him your plan of attack. Upon this subject you shall hear from me again, as soon as I am notified of the time at which the vessels will sail from New Orleans.

With great respect and esteem, &c.
EDMUND P. GAINES,
Major General com❜g.

Lt. Col. D. L. CLINCH,
or Officer com'g on the Chatahoochee.

General Gaines to Commodore Patterson.

FORT MONTGOMERY, May 22, 1816. SIR: By a letter I have received from Lieutenant Colonel Clinch, commanding a battalion of the 4th regiment of infantry on the Chatahoochee, I learn that, in the early part of the present month, a party of Indians surprised and took from the immediate vicinity of his camp two privates sent out to guard a drove of beef cattle purchased for the subsistence of the troops. The cattle, amounting to thirty head, were also taken. The Indians were pursued forty-five miles, on a path leading to St. Mark's, but, being mounted, and having travelled all night, escaped with their prisoners and booty.

This outrage, preceded by the murder of two of our citizens, Johnson and McGaskey, by Indians below the lines, and followed by certain indications of general hostility, such as the war dance, and drinking war physic, leaves no doubt that we shall be compelled to destroy the hostile towns.

The detached situation of the post which I have ordered Lieutenant Colonel Clinch to establish near the Appalachicola will expose us to great inconvenience and hazard in obtaining supplies by land, particularly in the event of war, as the road will be bad, and the distance from the settlement of Georgia near one hundred and fifty miles.

Having advised with the Commander-in-Chief of the division upon this subject, I have determined upon an experiment by water, and for this purpose have to request your co-operation; should you feel authorized to detach a small gun-vessel or two as a convoy to the boats charged with our supplies up the Appalachicola, I am persuaded that, in doing so, you will contribute much to

the benefit of the service, and accommodation of my immediate command in this quarter. The transports will be under the direction of the officer of the gun-vessel, and the whole should be provided against an attack by small arms from shore. To guard against accidents, I will direct Lieutenant Colonel Clinch to have in readiness a boat sufficient to carry fifty men, to meet the vessels on the river and assist them up.

Christian, and consist of the following vessels: schooner Semilante, laden with ordnance; schooner General Pike, laden with provisions.

Enclosed you will receive the best account I can give you, from the information I have received of the negro fort upon the Appalachicola. Should we meet with opposition from that fort, it shall be destroyed; and, for this purpose, the commanding officer above will be ordered to prepare all his disposable force to meet the boats at or just below the fort, and he will confer with the commanding officer of the gun-vessels upon the plan of attack.

I am, with great consideration and esteem, your obedient servant,

EDMUND P. GAINES,
Major General by brevet.

Com. D. T. PATTERSON,
U. S. Navy, New Orleans station.

No. 31.

Commodore Patterson to Lieutenant Commandant Crawley.

NEW ORLEANS, June 19, 1816. SIR: The enclosed copy of a letter from Major General Gaines, commanding the United States military forces in the Creek nation, fully informs you of his situation, and his expectation of immediate commencement of hostilities on the part

of those Indians.

In consequence of the information contained in that letter, I have promised the convoy therein requested; you will therefore take under your command gun-boat No. 149, and, with that letter for your guide, convoy the transports with ordnance, provisions, &c., up the Appalachicola and Chatahoochee, to such point or points as may be required, if practicable. Should you meet with opposition from the negro fort, situated, as stated in the letter, on the former river, the military commanding officer will have orders to destroy it, in which you will co-operate; the plan of attack to be concerted between yourself and him: the transports will be under your direction entirely.

In the event of hostilities between the Indians and the United States, you will, if practicable, afford any aid with your vessels in your power to the army. Remain in that river, and co-operate with them, until it shall be necessary to return here for provisions; but, if you cannot aid them in their operations, you will then return immediately, bringing with you the transports.

The transports will rendezvous at the Pass

you have cause to expect opposition, you will wait her arrival before you attempt to pass it. Very respectfully, &c.

DANIEL T. PATTERSON. Lieut. Com. CHARLES E. CRAWLEY, U. S. cutter Fox.

No. 22.

Commodore Patterson to J. Loomis.

NEW ORLEANS, June 19, 1816. SIR: The enclosed despatch for Lieutenant Commandant Crawley is transmitted under cover to you, lest he might not arrive at the Pass Christian by the time the transports laden with ordnance, provisions, &c., mentioned to you verbally when here, shall arrive, and be ready to proceed to their place of destination; in which case, you will consider them as addressed to you, and act accordingly; in that event, you will take under your command gunboat No. 154, together with the transports, and proceed in execution of

these instructions.

In the performance of the duties therein pointed out, it will be necessary to act with vigor and judgment; and you will refrain from any act of hostilities against the Spanish force, or violation of their rights and laws. You will make no delay in your departure from the Pass Christian, after the arrival there of No. 154 and the transports. Very respectfully, &c.

DANIEL T. PATTERSON.

Sailingmaster JAIRUS LOOMIS,

Com'g U. S. gunboat No. 149.
No. 23.

J. Loomis to Commodore Patterson.
UNITED STATEs gun-vessel, No. 149,

Bay St. Louis, August 13, 1816. SIR: In conformity with your orders of the 24th of June, I have the honor to report that, with this vessel and No. 154, Sailingmaster James Bassett, I took under convoy the schooners General Pike and Semilante, laden with provisions and military stores, and proceeded for Appalachicola river; off the mouth of which we arrived on the 10th July. At this place I received despatches from Lieutenant Colonel Clinch, commanding the fourth regiment United States infantry, on the Chatahoochee river, borne by an Indian, requesting me to remain off the mouth of the river until he could arrive with a party of men to assist in getting up the transports; desiring me,

also, to detain all vessels and boats that might attempt to descend the river.

On the 15th, I discovered a boat pulling out of the river, and, being anxious to ascertain whether we should be permitted peaceably to pass the fort above us, I despatched a boat with an officer to gain the necessary information; on nearing her, she fired a volley of musketry into my boat, and immediately pulled in for the river; I immediately opened a fire on them from the gun-vessels, but with no effect.

On the 17th, at 5 A. M. I manned and armed a boat with a swivel and musketry and four men, and gave her in charge of Midshipman Luffborough, for the purpose of procuring fresh water, having run short of that article. At 11 A. M Sailingmaster Bassett, who had been on a similar expedition, came alongside with the body of John Burgess, ordinary seaman, who had been sent in the boat with Midshipman Luffborough ; his body was found near the mouth of the river, shot through the heart. At 4 P. M. discovered a man at the mouth of the river on a sand bar, sent a boat and brought him on board; he proved to be John Lopaz, ordinary seaman, the only survivor of the boat's crew sent with Midshipman Luffborough. He reports that, on entering the river, they discovered a negro on the beach near a plantation; that Mr. Luffborough ordered the boat to be pulled directly for him; that on touching the shore he spoke to the negro, and directly received a volley of musketry from two divisions of negroes and Indians, who lay concealed in the bushes on the margin of the river; Mr. Luffborough, Robert Maitland, and John Burgess were killed on the spot; Lopaz made his escape by swimming, and states that he saw the other seaman, Edward Daniels, made prisoner. Lopaz supposed there must have been forty negroes and Indians concerned in the capture of the boat.

On the 20th of July, I received, by a canoe with five Indians, despatches from Colonel Clinch, advising that he had arrived with a party of troops and Indians at a position about a mile above the negro fort, requesting that I would ascend the river and join him with the gun

vessels.

He further informed me that he had taken a negro bearing the scalp of one of my unfortunate crew to one of the unfriendly Indian chiefs. On the 22d, there was a heavy canonading in the direction of the fort. On the 23d, I received a verbal message from Colonel Clinch, by a white man and two Indians, who stated that Colonel Clinch wished me to ascend the river to a certain bluff, and wait there until I saw him. Considering that, by so doing, a narrow and crooked river, from both sides of which my decks could be commanded, and exposed to the fire of musketry, without enabling me to act in my own defence, and also that something like treachery might be on foot, from the nature of the message, I declined acting, retained the white man and one of the Indians as hostages, and despatched the other, with my reasons for so doing, to Col. Clinch, stating that his views and communica

tions to me in future must be made in writing, and by an officer of the army.

Lieutenant Wilson and thirteen men joined me on the 24th, to assist in getting up with the transports; he likewise informed me that Col. Clinch had sent the canoe the day before.

On the 25th, I arrived with the convoy at Duelling bluff, about four miles below the fort, where I was met by Colonel Clinch; he informed me that, in attempting to pass within gunshot of the fortifications, he had been fired upon by the negroes, and that he had also been fired upon for the last four or five days, whenever any of his troops appeared in view. We immediately reconnoi tred the fort, and determined on a site to erect a small battery of two eighteen pounders to assist the gun-vessels to force the navigation of the river, as it was evident from their hostility we should be obliged to do.

On the 26th the Colonel began to clear away the brushwood for the erection of the battery; he, however, stated to me that he was not acquainted with artillery, but that he thought the distance was too great to do execution. On this subject we unfortunately differed totally in opinion, as we were within point-blank range; he, however, ordered his men to desist from further operations; I then told him that the gun vessels would attempt the passage of the fort in the morning, without his aid. At 4 a. m., on the morning of the 27th, we began warping the gun vessels to a proper position; at 5, getting within gunshot, the fort opened upon us, which we returned, and, after ascertaining our real distance with cold shot, we commenced with hot, (having cleared away our coppers for that purpose,) the first one of which, entering their magazine, blew up and completely destroyed the fort. The negroes fought under the English jack, accompanied with the red or bloody flag.

This was a regularly constructed fortification, built under the immediate eye and direction of Colonel Nicholls, of the British army; there were mounted on the walls, and in a complete state of equipment for service, four long twenty-fourpounder cannon; four long six-pounder cannon; one four-pounder field-piece, and a five and a half inch brass howitzer, with three hundred negroes, men, women, and children, and about twenty Indian warriors of the renegado Choctaws; of these, two hundred and seventy were killed, and the greater part of the rest mortally wounded, but three escaped unhurt; among the prisoners were the two chiefs of the negroes and Indians. On examining the prisoners, they stated that Edward Daniels, ordinary seaman, who was made prisoner in the boat on the 17th July, was tarred and burnt alive. In consequence of this savage act, both the chiefs were executed on the spot by the friendly Indians.

From the best information we could ascertain, there were 2,500 stands of musketry, with accoutrements complete; 500 carbines; 500 steel scabbard swords; 4 cases, containing two hundred pairs pistols; 300 quarter casks rifle powder; 762 barrels of cannon powder, besides a large quantity

of military stores and clothing that I was not able to collect any account of, owing to an engagement made by Colonel Clinch with the Indians, in which he promised them all the property captured, except the cannon and shot.

The property captured on the 27th July, according to the best information we could obtain, and at the lowest calculation, could not have been less than $200,000 in value; the remnant of the property, that the Indians did not take, was transported to Fort Crawford and to this place, an inventory of which I have the honor to transmit for your further information.

On sounding the river, I found it impassable for vessels drawing more than four and a half feet water; consequently, Colonel Clinch took the provisions from the General Pike into flats, and lightened the Semilante, so as to enable her to ascend the river as high as Fort Crawford. On the 3d August, after setting fire to the remaining parts of the fort and village, I left the river and arrived at this anchorage on the 12th

Commodore Patterson to the Secretary of the Navy

NEW ORLEANS, August 15, 1816.

SIR: It is with great satisfaction I do myself the honor to transmit herewith a copy of the report of operations of two gun-vessels, under the command of Sailingmaster Jairus Loomis, despatched at the request of Major General Gaines, commanding the United States army in the Creek nation, to convoy two transports, laden with ordnance stores and provisions, up the rivers Appalachicola and Chatahooche, to Fort Crawford, for the use of the army; as also copies of the Major General's letter to me, and of my instructions to Mr. Loomis.

You will perceive by Mr. Loomis's statement that the unprovoked and wanton aggression committed by a party of negroes on his boats, as also their hostile disposition and conduct to the army and the gun-vessels, and their approaching the fort, evinced in the strongest manner their intention to dispute his passage past their fort, and rendered it necessary to silence their fire and capture the fort. The very able manner and short time in which this was so effectually accomplished, with a force so very inferior, reflects the greatest credit upon Mr. Loomis and the officers and men under his command, the ninth shot and first hot one producing the explo

sion; and unless the fort had surrendered or been destroyed, it would have been impossible for the army to have received those supplies, of which they stood so much in need, and without which their operations against the hostile Indians must necessarily have been materially retarded, if not totally suspended; and it was from the very great importance, as detailed by General Gaines, that those stores and provisions should reach the army in safety, that I felt it a duty incumbent upon me, when thus called upon, to afford the requisite convoy for their protection.

The service rendered by the destruction of this fort, and the band of negroes who held it, and the country in its vicinity, is of great and manifest importance to the United States, and particularly those States bordering on the Creek nation, as it had become the general rendezvous for runaway slaves and disaffected Indians; an asylum where they were assured of being received; a stronghold where they found arms and ammunition to protect themselves against their owners and the Government. This hold being destroyed, they have no longer a place to fly to, and will not be so liable to abscond. The able manner in which this enterprise was conducted cannot but impress the hostile Indians also with a dread of our arms, and increase the confidence of those who are friendly; add to which, that the force of the negroes was daily increasing; and they felt themselves so strong and secure that they had commenced several plantations on the fertile banks of the Appalachicola, which would have yielded them every article of sustenance, and which would, consequently, in a short time have rendered their establishment quite formidable and highly injurious to the neighboring States.

The English union jack and red or bloody flags, under which they committed their unprovoked hostilities against the American flag, are in my possession, and I shall have the satisfac tion of forwarding them to the Department by the first safe conveyance. It appears very extraordinary, and remains with the English Government to explain the authority for their flag being thus hoisted by a band of outlaws, as also their officer, Colonel Nicholls, having placed so strong a work, and with so large a supply of arms, (most of which were perfectly new and in their cases,) ammunition, and every other implement requisite to enable the negroes and Indians to prosecute offensive operations against the United States-in possession of negroes, too, known to be runaways from the United States; and that, too, some time after peace had taken place,

Herewith is transmitted a copy of the inventory of the articles saved from the explosion, designating those furnished the army for public use, and those brought off and deposited here.

I regret extremely the loss of Mr. Luffborough, killed in the service, who, though much indisposed, and having sent in his resignation to the Department, very handsomely volunteered his services and accompanied the expedition, Mr.