Betrayal on Wakulla River

Betrayal on Wakulla River. . , Creek Devastation , By 1813 a tragic civil war between Lower Creeks and Upper Creeks (Red Sticks) at Horseshoe Bend (Alabama) brought famine to the Red Sticks. Their leader was Hillis Hadjo, or Prophet Josiah Francis. He followed a prophetic movement that predicted doom if the white man's way was followed. He led his family away from Alabama into Spanish Florida. He established Francis Town on the of the Wakulla River and his family moved there in 1816. , Creek National Divide , There was no unity between the Creeks or the United States and Spanish Florida. A southern border between these two countries was established in 1795. It was a line on paper. South of the line the Americans referred to the Creeks as Seminoles. The Creeks were segregated into Upper Creeks (Alabama) and Lower Creeks (Georgia). Lower Creeks included the mixed-blood Kennards allied through marriage with the Hitchiti tribe (near Albany, GA). , United States Allies , Among hundreds of Lower Creeks joining Andrew Jackson's U.S. Army operation in 1818 into Spanish Florida were John and Willam Kennard. Jackson wanted to destroy Upper Creeks/Seminoles. They had established a large community along the border with the United States called Miccosukee. , In 1818 U.S. General Andrew Jackson briefly took control of the Spanish Fuerte San Marcos de Apalache at the end of the Wakulla River. Billy, an enslaved person belonging to William Kennard, betrayed Prophet Francis's whereabouts to Jackson. Francis was lured to the fort. Jackson ordered him hanged on April 18, 1818, believing he was a British sympathizer. Afterwards Jackson and his army rested at the Kennard place here at Wakulla Spring before to Pensacola.