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Battle of Horseshoe Bend

32°58′56″N 85°44′07″W / 32.98222°N 85.73528°W / 32.98222; -85.73528

For the later battle, see Battle of Horseshoe Bend (1832).

The Battle of Horseshoe Bend (also known as Tohopeka, Cholocco Litabixbee, or The Horseshoe), was fought during the War of 1812 in the Mississippi Territory, now central Alabama. On March 27, 1814, United States forces and Indian allies under Major General Andrew Jackson[2] defeated the Red Sticks, a part of the Creek Indian tribe who opposed American expansion, effectively ending the Creek War.

Legacy[edit]

The battlefield is preserved in the Horseshoe Bend National Military Park.[13]


Two currently active battalions of the Regular Army (2nd and 3rd Battalions of the 7th Infantry Regiment) perpetuate the lineage of the old 39th Infantry Regiment, which fought at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend.

In fiction[edit]

Eric Flint has written a series of alternate history novels, Trail of Glory, that begin with the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. In Flint's version, Houston is only lightly wounded in the battle, allowing him freedom to develop his career, in turn facilitating the author's objectives.


The main character of Paulette Jiles' novel News of the World, 'Captain' Jefferson Kyle Kidd, has a backstory that includes fighting as a youth of 16 in this battle under Jackson.

Andrew Burstein, (2004). 1812: The War That Forged a Nation. New York: Harper Perennial. ISBN 978-0-06-053112-6.

Borneman, Walter R.

Steve Rajtar, Indian War Sites, (McFarland and Company, Inc., 1999)

Robert Remini, Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Empire, 1767–1821 (1977) ch. 13

Holland, James W. "Andrew Jackson and the Creek War: Victory at the Horseshoe Bend," Alabama Review, Oct 1968, Vol. 21 Issue 4, pp 243–275

Kanon, Thomas. "A Slow, Laborious Slaughter": The Battle of Horseshoe Bend," Tennessee Historical Quarterly, March 1999, Vol. 58 Issue 1, pp 2–15

Remini, Robert V. Andrew Jackson and His Indian Wars (2001), ch 4

National Park Service's Teaching with Historic Places.

"The Battle of Horseshoe Bend: Collision of Cultures"

PCL Map Collection at the University of Texas at Austin.

A map of Creek War Battle Sites

Archived 2014-12-15 at the Wayback Machine, Encyclopedia of Alabama

"Battle of Horseshoe Bend"

Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society, Volume 4, 1921, pp. 7–156

Mrs. Dunham Rowland, "The Mississippi Territory in the War of 1812"

"If you visited Horseshoe Bend Battlefield today"