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The Battle of Horseshoe Bend was fought during the War of 1812 in central Alabama. On March 27, 1814, United States forces and Indian allies under General Andrew Jackson defeated the Red Sticks, a part of the Creek Indian tribe inspired by the Shawnee leader Tecumseh, effectively ending the Creek War.
History[edit]
The award was first presented in 1935 by the Downtown Athletic Club in Manhattan, New York, a privately owned recreation facility near the site of the former World Trade Center. It was first known simply as the DAC Trophy. The first winner, Jay Berwanger, was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles but declined to sign for them. He never played professional football for any team. With the death of John Heisman in 1936, the trophy was renamed in his honor. Larry Kelley, the second winner of the award was the first person to win it as the "Heisman Trophy."<ref> [[cite web |url=http://www.heisman.com/history/heisman-trophy.html |title=Heisman Trophy |publisher=heisman.com |accessdate=2008-01-06 ]]
The first African American player to win the Heisman was Ernie Davis of Syracuse. Tragically, he too never played a snap in the NFL, as he was diagnosed with leukemia shortly after winning the award, and died in 1963.
Because of damage to the Downtown Athletic Club's facilities following 9/11, the award ceremony was moved to the New York Marriott Marquis in Times Square. After the Downtown Athletic Club declared bankruptcy in 2002, the Yale Club assumed the presenting honors at its facility in 2002 and 2003. The ceremony moved to the Hilton New York in 2004 and as of 2005, is held at the Nokia Theatre in Times Square. The Heisman Trophy's new home, the Sports Museum of America, is expected to open in 2008.
The Heisman Trophy is currently manufactured by MTM Recognition in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.[citation needed]
In 1966, former Florida player Steve Spurrier relinquished his Heisman before he had a chance to display it. Upon receiving his trophy, the Florida Gator quarterback presented the award to university president Dr. J. Wayne Reitz so that the award could be shared by Florida students and faculty. The magnanimous gesture was so moving that Florida's student government raised funds to purchase a replacement for Spurrier. From that point on, the Downtown Athletic Club has issued two trophies to winners, one to the individual and one to the school.
Battle[edit]
On March 27 at 10:30 a.m., Jackson began an artillery barrage which consisted of two cannons firing for about two hours. Little damage was caused to the Red Sticks or their fortifications. Coffee's Cherokees and cavalry began crossing the river and fought the Red Sticks on their rear.
Jackson then ordered a bayonet charge. The infantry charged the breastworks surrounding the camp and caught the Red Sticks in a cross fire. Sam Houston (the future governor of Tennessee and Texas) served as a third lieutenant in Jackson's army. Houston was one of the first to make it over the log barricade alive and received a wound from a Creek arrow that troubled him the rest of his life.
The battle raged for about five hours. Roughly 550 Red Sticks were killed on the field, while many of the rest were killed trying to cross the river.[citation needed] Future United States Senator John Eaton wrote "This battle gave a death blow to [the enemy's] hopes, nor did they venture, afterwards, to make a stand... In this action, the best and bravest of their warriors were destroyed".
Chief Menawa was severely wounded but survived and led only about 200 of the original 1,000 warriors across the river and into safety among the Seminole tribe in Spanish Florida. To obtain an accurate body count, Tennesseans cut the tip of dead Creeks' noses off.[citation needed] A few soldiers cut long strips of skin from the Indians' bodies to make bridle reins for their horses.[citation needed]
Results[edit]
On August 9, 1814, Andrew Jackson forced the Creeks to sign the Treaty of Fort Jackson. Despite protest of the Creek chiefs who had fought alongside Jackson, the Creek Nation ceded 23 million acres (93,000 km²)—half of Alabama and part of southern Georgia—to the United States government. Even though the Creek War was largely a civil war between the Creeks, Andrew Jackson saw no difference between the Creeks that had fought with him and the Red Sticks that fought against him. 1.9 million acres (7,700 km²) of the 23 million acres (93,000 km²) Jackson forced the Creeks to cede was claimed by the Cherokee Nation who had allied with the United States.
This victory, along with the Battle of New Orleans, gave Andrew Jackson the popularity to win election as President of the United States in 1828.
The battlefield is preserved in the Horseshoe Bend National Military Park.
Further reading[edit]
- Steve Rajtar, "Indian War Sites" (McFarland and Company, Inc., 1999)
- John Ehle, Trail of Tears The Rise and Fall of the Cherokee Nation (Anchor Books Editions 1989), pg 117-121 ISBN 0-385-23954-8
- Andrew Burstein The Passions of Andrew Jackson (Alfred A. Knopf 2003), p. 105-106 ISBN 0-375-71404-9
External links[edit]
- See The Battle of Horseshoe Bend: Collision of Cultures for a lesson about the Battle of Horseshoe Bend from the National Park Service's Teaching with Historic Places.
- A map of Creek War Battle Sites from the PCL Map Collection at the University of Texas at Austin.
