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The Creeks Indians were located in the parts of Georgia and Alabama.  Tecumseh had traveled among them trying to stir up and Indian uprising, with mixed result.  The Spanish in Florida also tried to create trouble for the Americans.   The Red Sticks were the most militant of the Creeks and the Spanish offered to arm them.  Peter McQueen a Stick leader of mixed blood went to Pensacola to receive arms and ammunition.  When American settlers learned of this they organized a militia to intercept McQueen, which they did in a running gun battle that began on July 27, 1813.   This battle set the frontier afire, and exposed settlers gathered together in make shift stockades.  One of those stockades was Ft Mims about 60 miles north of Mobile By late August the stockade had 17 buildings surrounded by a wood wall.  There were between 300 and 550 people in the fort including militia under the command of Major Beasley.

Beasley did not take the threat of a Creek attack seriously, and did not spend enough efforts in preparing a defense.  On August 29^th Red Stick warriors led by Chief Red Eagle otherwise known as William Weatherford, began an attack on the fort.   The attack continued for four hours,  hundreds of Creeks were killed, but when the battle was over nearly all of the Americans had been massacred.  The massacre sealed the fate of the Red Stick.  The US would have no choice but respond with overwhelming force.