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A trading post named Leslie’s Station in Talladega was once a fierce battle site

(Updated with the Newspaper article from 1813)

BATTLE OF TALLADEGA

The Battle of Talladega was an engagement between Gen. Jackson’s army and a body of hostile Creeks, who were attempting to reduce what was known as Leslie’s Station.Creek war map

Located in the old Indian Town of Talladega

This was a trading post at the old Indian town of Talladega, situated on a hill about a quarter of a mile southwest of the big spring, and near the present town of Talladega.Talladega battle of sign

It was named after Alexander L. Leslie, the half  Indian son of Alexander F. Leslie, a Scots Indian countryman in the Creek nation. The station was occupied by 17 white men and about 120 friendly Creeks, under the leadership of Jim Fife and Chinnabee.

Leslie built a stockade just above the spring to protect the friendly Indians from the ” red sticks” in 1813.

These Indians had refused to join the hostiles, and in consequence, they were attacked by them and driven into the stockade at Fort Strother, with an army badly in need of rations.

The latter surrounded the defense with a largely superior force and had reduced the inmates to extremities when a messenger bore to Gen. Jackson, who had just arrived at Ten Islands, an urgent request for aid. Jackson at once put his troops in motion and marched to within six miles of the place Nov. 8, 1813.

On the morning of November 9, his intrepid Tennesseans moved upon the Indian forces from the common center. The Indians fought bravely and repulsed Robert’s militia brigade, but they, in turn, were beaten back by fresh troops. The Tennesseans, under Jackson and his courageous lieutenants, pressed steadily forward. The Indians gave way and numbers escaped though Jackson’s lines. Many were pursued and shot down as they ran. The battle lasted scarcely more than an hour and a half.

Click to See Newspaper article about this battle from 1813 Battle of Talladega Nashville_Whig_16_

For miles around, the woods were filled with dead and wounded Indians.

Two hundred and ninety-nine were wounded on the battlefield proper, and there were doubtless many others that were not located. Jackson’s losses were 15 killed and 80 wounded.

The forces of Gen. Jackson consisted of about 2,000 men, infantry and mounted, while the Indians had about 1,000. The garrison in the fort was thus relieved.  Jackson’s dead were buried on the field. In recent years, the Talladega chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, had their remains removed to the city cemetery, where they were reinterred, and a handsome monument erected in commemoration of their valor. battle of talladega monument

Read more at Battle of Talladega

On the morning of November 10, Jackson’s army returned to Fort Strother, where it remained for a number of days, resting and preparing for further advance.

 

SOURCES

  • Pickett, History of Alabama (Owen’s ed., 1900), pp. 554-555; Parton, Life of Jackson (1861), vol. 1, pp. 440-446; Buell, History of Jackson (1904), vol. 1, pp. 306-310; Eaton, Life of Jackson (1824), pp. 57-63; (Eaton) Memoirs of Jackson (1848), pp. 50-55; Frost, Pictorial Life of Jackson (1846), pp. 139-147; Jenkins, Life of Jackson (1852), pp. 69 73; Colyar, Life and Times of Jackson (1904), vol. 1, pp. 129-130.
  • Brewer’s Alabama History

See Newspaper article from 1813 Battle of Talladega Nashville_Whig_16_Nov_1813_Battle_Talladega

ALABAMA REVOLUTIONARY WAR SOLDIERS VOLUME I (REVOLUTIONARY WAR SOLDIERS IN ALABAMA Book 1)  

The soldiers in this volume are JAMES CALDWELL, JOHN YOUNG, CAPT. ANTHONY WINSTON, WILLIAM SANDERS, CAPTAIN WILLIAM ARMISTEAD, WILLIAM WICKER, BRYANT ADAMS, WILLIAM PULLEN, GEORGE AGNEW, JOHN WEBSTER, ROBERT WESTON, GEORGE TAYLOR, GOV. JOHN SEVIER, JAMES ROBERTSON, HARRISON NICHOLSON, JAMES MCCRORY, DAVID MURRAY, CHARLES LITTLETON, DAVID LINDSAY, EPHRAIM KIRBY, JOHN WADE KEYES, COL. JOSEPH HUGHES, SAMUEL TOWNSEND, JOHN TOWNSEND, HENRY TOWNSEND, and ANDREW TOWNSEND

 

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49 comments

  1. Have really enjoyed reading the recent Indian Wars stories. I have a personal connection to Fort Mims Massacre

    1. I’m glad you enjoyed them.

  2. Its very bad what they did to the Indians and their familys…Its very sad…….and it continues to this day,

  3. Gee, I wonder why they were always so “hostile”?

  4. I can’t blame the Indians being hostile. I would be too if someone was trying to take away my land and move me off to a reservation.

    1. Who gave them the land? It was a claim supported old tribe oral history but other than that it was not their to keep.

    2. Greg Sallas you obviously are ignorant to the facts. GOD gave the land to them. This land was inhabited and cared for by the natives (Indians). The natives were often hunted down as if they were scavengers. When they were dead or forced into slavery the land was then claimed by those “bullies.” Besides if it wasn’t theirs to keep, please explain how the survivors were pushed on the reservations and left with no tax liability. I mean you need to get real man. The same could happen to you one day and I guess it would only be oral history from you!

      1. Madam,
        You are ignorant of facts. The Indians took the land from previous occupants. People have taken land from others throughout history. It is the way of the world, right or wrong. If you want to bath in self hate for what your ancestors did, have at it. I am proud of mine. England is a great example. Angles and Saxons took it from the Celts, Norman’s took it from Angles and Saxons, now there is fight with the Moslems. Ask the Isrealies if they will give Is real back to the Palestinians.

    3. why is it always the indians were the hostiles? they were just defending their lands.. from the invaders….who were bigger savages than the indians ever thought about being….and greg sallas they were living on this land for centuries so yeah it was theirs.

      1. It was not theirs if they could not hold it. This nation, the US, will not be ours if we can’t hold it.

    4. why andrew jackson was ever considered some kind of hero is a mystery….he was a total asshole….and responsable for mass murder …in the trail of tears fiasco….one of the biggest blights in american history

    5. No man grew up out of the ground and took rights to the land. The Indians didn’t consider the land owned until there was a threat of losing the earth they called home. They were treated terribly. History is now History and it can not be changed, we can only study it. My 5 great grandmother was Indian, my Ross family were related to John Ross, white chief of the Cherokee nation who’s wife died in the trail of Tears. My ancestors from Europe fought in those wars to gain Indian Territory and a few killed by Indians. I’m proud of my Indian heritage, but I’m also proud of my soldier ancestors who fought for what they believed was right. My point? Many people have no idea of their families heritage or what role they played in the history of losing their homeland and freedoms as the Indians did or building our country as the migrants did. Putting blame on events that happened so long ago changes nothing. History is only to be studied.

    6. Don’t forget history repeats itself.

  5. Joyce your right. We take their land and bring sickness and death. Yet they were hostile???

  6. History is written by the winner’s. Wish I could hear the “hostile’s version.

  7. The “hostile” version is much different. This map is also incorrectly marked. Tallasahatchie is south of Talladega. As well as ft williams was on the Eastern side of the Coosa river.

  8. The Indians saw the land as a gift to take care of and use for food and shelter. I think they own it as they had lived on it long enough for it to be theirs. Try reading Bury my heart at Wounded Knee ! No matter how many ways we spin it, I will never believe we did the Indians right. Andrew Jackson, especially, was cruel to them. We can be patriotic and still admit our country is not perfect. I do not believe our constitution said to take all the land you can get by killing.

    1. Jackson was no more perfect than any president we’ve had. He hated Indians, yet when he found a baby Indian boy left alone on the battlefield, he and Rachel raised him as their own. He saved a lot of lives in the war of 1812 at the battle of New Orleans when he defeated the British. He definitely not the worst president we’ve had.

  9. Interesting map; last time I checked, Ft Deposit was south of Montgomery and nowhere near the Tennessee River.

    1. The Ft. Deposit on the map is a different Ft. Deposit from the one in Lowndes Couny. This one in Marshall County only existed during the Creek War.

  10. It’s really sad. There’s always another side to the story. Look how the land has/is being mistreated. There is alot of greed feeding the destruction.

  11. It’s sad that history has always been written to favor the writers even when the writers were savaged beast. The bible says that the devil comes to steal, kill and destroy. There are some people who have caused so much havoc on this earth and wrote the story to make it seem that everyone else is the perpetrator.

  12. No man grew up out of the ground and took rights to the land. The Indians didn’t consider the land owned until there was a threat of losing the earth they called home. They were treated terribly. History is now History and it can not be changed, we can only study it. My 5 great grandmother was Indian, my Ross family were related to John Ross, white chief of the Cherokee nation who’s wife died in the trail of Tears. My ancestors from Europe fought in those wars to gain Indian Territory and a few killed by Indians. I’m proud of my Indian heritage, but I’m also proud of my soldier ancestors who fought for what they believed was right. My point? Many people have no idea of their families heritage or what role they played in the history of losing their homeland and freedoms as the Indians did or building our country as the migrants did. Putting blame on events that happened so long ago changes nothing. History is only to be studied.

  13. These were not battles they were massacers, so tired of lies.

  14. “Hostile” Creeks. Nope, the hostiles were Gen Jackson and his murdering crew.

    1. Exactly. I wish the Creeks had won. This was their land.

  15. Unfortunately, history is always written by the winner from their perspective.

  16. Sadly, we seem never to learn from our history….for good or bad…it teaches us the error of our ways!

  17. […] Source: A trading post named Leslie’s Station in Talladega was once a fierce battle site | Alabama Pioneer… […]

  18. Lol “hostile” creeks… who wouldn’t be hostile while getting murdered and having your land stolen. #whitewash

    1. Indeed. Jackson was a homicidal lunatic.

    2. The issue is that Leslie was Lashley was Easely was Hamilton – Alexander Hamilton of York. Killed by Aaron Bur who was duly arrested down in the Natchez to the South caught near McIntosh Alabama and brought to Mount Vernon – E.P Gaines owned the property across the river from Mount Vernon Alabama.

      Done.

    3. Nothing good comes out of getting conqured, so I guess we just give all the land back , y o u brain washed shit

      1. There always has to be someone whose ignorance can only express himself with profanity.

    4. How do you own land that was never yours ? #ignorance

    5. Daniel Steel you invade,murder.then claim it as yours.

  19. Pathetic Picture – I pray Andrew Jackson is burning in hell. This is genocide. And in honor of those Native Creeks – this picture should be removed from this site. It is very offensive to those of us who have Native ancestors.

  20. That’s kinda what happened I’ve actually done a lot of research and mapping of the campaign to eradicate the hostile Indians after the massacres of burnt corn and fort mims

  21. I guess it depends on presepectives about who were hostiles,and who was’ent.

  22. Much wrong has been done to innocents by those who thought they were right or were just mean or greedy-I will never know which. We cannot and should not forget history good and bad. Sad times these were and I cannot justify nor correct the bad.

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