In 1811 the Shawnee chief Tecumseh conducted a mission to the Creek Nation in Alabama. He urged the Creeks to throw off the white culture that many had adopted and return to the ancient traditions of their people. Many Creeks heeded Tecumseh's call, while others resisted. A civil war broke out among the Creek Nation in 1812, almost the same time the war between the United States and Great Britain began. The traditionalist faction, known as the Red Sticks, occasionally carried their war to the white settlers living on the frontiers, including forays into Tennessee. In August, 1813, Red Sticks attacked and captured Fort Mims in Southern Alabama, slaughtering 250 men, women and children. This massacre galvanized the Southern States, and Tennessee sent an expedition of Tennessee Militia under the command of Major General Andrew Jackson to destroy the Red Stick menace.

In early October, the Tennessee troops rendezvoused at Fayetteville, encamped near four ancient oak trees. The camp was named Camp Blount after the governor who called the troops into service. On the 7th of October Jackson arrived at Camp Blount, his arm in a sling recovering from a wound received in a fight in Nashville several weeks before.

Tennessee mounted troops under the command of General John Coffee moved south into Alabama. A scouting patrol by private David Crockett of the 2nd Regiment Volunteer Mounted Riflemen indicated that a large number of Creek warriors were headed toward Coffee's position. Crockett's report caused Jackson to remove the balance of the Tennessee army from Fayetteville to Huntsville, Alabama, from which point he moved south into the Creek Nation to carry the war to the Red Sticks. A series of battles were fought culminating in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in March, 1814.

The Fayetteville physician, Dr. Charles McKinney, with his needed medical skills, accompanied Jackson's army. Horseshoe Bend saw slaughter on a large scale. Nearly 900 Creek warriors died, breaking the back of the Red Stick movement. Casualties among the Tennessee's numbered 47 dead and 159 wounded, with another 23 dead and 47 wounded among Tennessee's Cherokee and Creek allies. One of the wounded tended by Dr. McKinney was a 21 year old Ensign Sam Houston of the 39th U.S. infantry Regiment. Houston's wounds, an arrow to thigh and two muskets balls in the shoulder, were very serious and believed by the doctor to be fatal.

Dr. McKinney returned to build a successful medical career in Fayetteville, where his descendants still reside and still practice medicine today. General Jackson went on to defeat the British at New Orleans, and in 1828 was elected the 7th President of the United States. Ensign Sam Houston recovered from his wounds, was elected the 7th governor of Tennessee in 1827, and in 1836 became President of the Republic of Texas. Crockett would pass through Camp Blount once again, this time as a Sergeant in Major Russell's Battalion of Tennessee Mounted Gunmen, to assist Jackson in the taking of Mobile prior to his defense of New Orleans. Crockett was later elected to the State legislature and to the U.S. Congress. He would cross paths again with both Jackson and Houston, becoming the bane of Jackson's presidency, and later helping make Houston's presidency possible and securing Texan independence by giving his life at the Alamo.

In August, 1813 the Creek civil war expanded beyond the borders of the Creek Nation, when the traditionalists faction, known as the Red Sticks, captured Fort Mims, (in today's Alabama), and slaughtered about 250 inhabitants without regard for age or gender. As a result, the government of Tennessee called for 3,500 volunteers to muster under the command of Major General Andrew Jackson.