CONTENTS:

Introduction by J. J. Hooper
"...a brave, rough, warm-hearted man, of fine intellectual endowments, a 
most sagacious judge of character, extensive knowledge of Creek Indian 
history, manners and character -- with an indomitable will and a sturdy 
self-reliance, which spoke for itself in his tall, sinewy form and 
strongly-marked, expressive face."


PART 1
  May 2, 1857
  "I knew the spot where Montgomery stands before any white man ever
  thought of locating there." 

  December 9, 1857
  "I was the founder of Tuskegee. I selected the place for the county
  site, or place for the court house, in 1833. I built the first house on
  that ridge..." 

  Dec. 24, 1857
  "Col. Pickett is correct, as to the Alabama Town being just below 
  Montgomery, for I was at it when they lived there, and it was called 
  Esanchatty, from the red bluffs on which a portion of Montgomery is 
  built." 

  Jan. 10, 1858
  "Indians in almost every instance learn our language quicker than we
  learn theirs, particularly our pronunciation."

 
PART 2
  March 21, 1858
  "And it is equally as shameful as true, that other Christian nations
  have followed the example of Spain, with the natives of this and other
  countries; wherever the Bible (which was seldom applied right) failed,
  the musket and bayonet were resorted to."
 
  March 25, 1858
  "The gentleman says there is a marked resemblance in their laws with 
  regard to marriages that the children of Israel were not allowed to take 
  wives among other nations, and such was the law among Indians...But, if 
  such law ever existed, it was repealed long before my time; and if he
  will travel among them, and see the number of half-breeds of whites,
  negroes, and all others that have mixed, and will say that the law has
  not been repealed, I am certain that he will have the candor to admit
  that it has been grossly violated, at least."
 
  April 2, 1858
  "So soon as Col. Hawkins learned that Lott was murdered, he sent
  Christian Limbo, a German, to Cowetaw, to see Billy McIntosh, a half-
  breed chief."
 
  April 25th, 1858
  "The Uchees contended as long as they lived in the country that they 
  could, man to man, whip the Creeks. And in Gen. Floyd's night fight,
  their leader, Timpoochy Barnard, fought much better than the friendly
  Creeks. With equal numbers they could beat the Creeks at a ball play,
  for I have seen them do it often."
 
  June 13, 1858
  "While at this breastwork, one night, by a campfire, I listened to
  Elijah Moseley inquiring into his brother's motives for leaving a white
  family and making his home among a tribe of savages. Bob's reply was, as
  well as I now recollect, that there was no false swearing among Indians."
 
  From the Columbus (Ga.) Sun
  "An Indian, on foot, running, crying out, at the top of his voice, 
  "Captain Jackson, Captain Jackson." As he passed us, we pointed to Old 
  Hickory, who soon dispatched a company of Tennessee mounted men to aid 
  Mcintosh. The battle was finished ere they reached him."
 
  June 16, 1858
  "Mrs. Stuart was taken almost lifeless as well as senseless, and was a 
  captive until the day I carried her to your camp. After taking her from 
  the boat, they (the Indians) differed among themselves as to whose slave 
  or servant she should be. An Indian by the name of Yellow Hair said he 
  had many years before been sick at or near St. Mary's, and that he felt
  it a duty to take the woman and treat her kindly, as he was treated so
  by a white woman when he was among the whites."


PART 3 
  June 21, 1858
  "I see in your history, for the first time I ever heard of such a thing, 
  that Alexander McGillivray was an educated man. That's new to me as it 
  would have been to himself, could he have been shown it in his day. The 
  letters purporting to have been written by him which appear in the
  History of Alabama, are well written, and show conclusively that they
  emanated from no ordinary man. But could the author of those letters and
  McGillivray to whom they are ascribed, look back, they could say that
  the world is yet as credulous as in their time."
 
  July 8, 1858
  "The entry of Gen. LaFayette into Alabama, was the most imposing show I 
  witnessed while I lived in the State."
 
  August 12, 1858
  "Fable is fable, and history is history and those men thought it best to 
  mix them as they were writing for a people not unlike many of the
  present day -- who never look into books unless it is for pictures and
  the marvelous yarns it contains."
 
  September 16, 1858
  "I received a letter the other day from my worthy friend, the Knight of 
  the HorseShoe. I speak nothing but the truth when I say that I am truly 
  glad to hear that he is still living and in good health. I hope he may 
  live as long as suits his convenience. I don't know that I would care if 
  he could live a thousand years, and die rich, so that.I could be left to 
  administer his estate."

  October 20, 1858
  "For what I am now going to write, I will no doubt be censured by some. 
  But what need I care, for I am now old, and it will not be long before I 
  appear at a place where a life time of truth will be worth more to me
  than all the good or bad opinions entertained of me by those I leave
  behind." 


PART 4
  October 31, 1858
  "Some time in April 1814, on the West bank of the Pinchong, now in 
  Montgomery county, Ala., and by a camp fire, I heard [William]
  Weatherford relate the following particulars about the Creek war..."

  November 3, 1858
  "Mrs. McGirth raised one son, called James, who was killed at Fort Mims, 
  and she and her daughters were saved by Jim Boy. I lived long with them 
  both; often have I heard them talk it over, when both were sure to get 
  drunk, if whiskey could be had."

  November 27, 1858
  "The Captain gave a general invitation to the citizens of Claiborne to 
  attend a party on board the boat. I, with many others, both male and 
  female, attended the party. We danced on the hurricane deck. The fiddler 
  was one Tom Paxton, who played for me when I taught the first dancing 
  school that was ever taught in Montgomery county."


PART 5
  APPENDIX

  Feb 23, 1858
  Letter to General woodward from Alabama historian Albert J. Pickett.

  Feb. 27, 1858
  "A war of extermination was waged by the Creeks against the Yemasses,
  and finally, at Tallahassee, the last of the warriors were killed -- but
  about a thousand of the young Creek warriors took sweet-hearts among the
  Yemassee girls, and saved them from death."

  Letter from J. W. K. published in The Montgomery Mail

  Nov. 24, 1858
  J. G. Klinck's first-hand account of the founding and naming of
  Montgomery.

  Dec 8, 1858
  "Jesse Evans was considered the best fist-fighter of his size, in his
  day. Organ Tatum and Ben Ward had the first fist-fight I ever heard of,
  in Montgomery county. Tatum bit off a piece of Ward's nose."

  Dec 13, 1858
  "I never saw the inside of a College but once, and that was but for a
  few minutes, as I only went in to help another boy carry out his trunk,
  which he was unable to carry himself."


PART 6
  Dec. 20, 1858
  "While in South Carolina, he became acquainted with my grandmother, who 
  was his second wife. And it is the blood of that grandmother which
  courses through my veins, that in early life tempted me to quit what the
  world terms civilized and christian man."

  Dec 25, 1858
  "This is Christmas--a day in early life that I waited with impatience
  for its appearance; but it now seems to come and go so fast that it
  differs little from any other day with me, as all come in such quick
  succession as to admonish me that, live as long as I may, that I am to
  witness the return of but few more Christmases."



INTRODUCTION

Most of the letters which are contained in this little volume were written 
by Gen. Woodward, without any idea of their being presented to the public 
in this form. Indeed, the first two, addressed to his friend Mr. Hanrick, 
were not expected to be published, at all; but being casually shown to the 
writer of this introduction, he solicited and obtained them for insertion 
in the columns of the Montgomery Mail, believing that their contents would 
prove attractive to a large class of readers who feel much interest in all 
that concerns the early history of the State. Subsequently, Gen. Woodward 
was kind enough to contribute to the "Mail," (with which the undersigned 
is connected as senior editor), a number of letters containing much 
valuable matter relative to the history, customs, &c., of the Creek 
Confederacy of Indian tribes. About the same time, friends of his caused 
the publication, in the Columbus Sun and Union Springs Gazette, of several 
letters written by Gen. W. to them. All these letters, replete as they 
were with incidents and descriptions of a most interesting character, 
found favor with the public; and the undersigned was frequently applied to 
for copies of them, which it was impossible to supply. This suggested to 
him the idea of publishing the whole in a form convenient both for 
preservation and reference. He therefore immediately wrote to Gen. 
Woodward asking his consent to his having the letters collectively 
published. It was with some difficulty that this consent was obtained, as 
Gen. Woodward alleged that his want of early education and the inaccuracy 
of his style unfitted him to appear before the public as a writer of 
historical sketches. He only yielded, at length, to the argument that he 
alone, perhaps, of living men, possessed a knowledge of the many 
interesting facts and traditions he had acquired during an intercourse of 
nearly half a century with the Indian tribes of the South-west. These 
facts are stated in justice to Gen. Woodward and with the view of 
disarming the hypercritical, who might be disposed to be severe upon the 
homely but effective phraseology with which the General's interesting 
narrations are clothed.

One or two of the letters addressed to the late lamented Col. Albert J. 
Pickett, who did his State so much service and himself so much credit by 
his elaborate History of Alabama, were never seen by that gentleman. They 
were received for publication by the writer of this, about the time of 
Col. Pickett's last illness. In one of his letters in this volume, Gen. 
Woodward pays a sincere tribute to the memory of his old friend. In the 
same letter, he speaks his admiration of and regard for two other 
prominent Alabamians, lately deceased: ex-Gov. Arthur P. Bagby, and Col. 
Charles McLemore, of Chambers county.

It is more than twenty years since the writer first saw and knew Gen. 
Woodward. His personal acquaintance with him was but slight; yet he knew 
well his reputation in East Alabama, as a brave, rough, warm-hearted man, 
of fine intellectual endowments, a most sagacious judge of character, 
extensive knowledge of Creek Indian history, manners and character -- with 
an indomitable will and a sturdy self-reliance, which spoke for itself in 
his tall, sinewy form and strongly-marked, expressive face. A 
discriminating observer, at that time, would have selected him out of a 
thousand, as the man most fertile in resources, most indomitable in the 
execution of his plans, and possessing in the highest degree the physical 
qualities most needed in the emergencies and hardships of a semi-Indian 
life. His exterior was rough, his manners military and at times abrupt, 
but those who knew him best, were well aware that he had a heart large 
enough for any deed of real benevolence. The presuming or pretentious he 
mercilessly flayed with a biting sarcasm, of which he was master; and many 
anecdotes are told, illustrative of his powers of repartée. But to the 
weak and unprotected, he was and is invariably considerate and kind. In 
proof of this, it may be mentioned here, that when he learned thro' Col. 
Banks, of Columbus, Ga., that Mrs. Dill, (whom he and others rescued from 
the Indians in Florida, in 1818,) was still living at or near Fort Gaines, 
he immediately transmitted, thro' the writer of this, a sum of money to 
Col. Banks, for the relief of the old lady's necessities.

Few men have had better opportunities for studying the Indian character 
and investigating their customs, than Gen. Woodward. Very early in life, 
as appears from two autobiographical letters which were received at so 
late a day as to compel their insertion in the Appendix to this little 
volume, he was brought into contact with the Red Man; and, stirred by the 
Indian blood in his own veins, he studied his character and traditions 
lovingly and earnestly. His early appointment to the command of a body of 
friendly Indians, in time of war, proves that he was considered to know 
them and to have influence over them.

As to the consideration in which Gen. Woodward was held by his superiors, 
it is not improper to state that the writer of this has now in his 
possession an original letter from Gen. Jackson, speaking of Gen. W., as 
"a brave, intrepid and gallant soldier." It bears date, "Nashville, 
September 30, 1819."

It is a matter of great regret to the writer, that many errors have 
unavoidably crept into the publication. The difficulty of decyphering 
Indian and other proper names has been the chief cause.

In conclusion, the writer of this would remark, that he believes that the 
unpretending pages which follow contain a very great deal of matter of 
high historical value to the people of Alabama and Georgia. For that 
reason, he has taken the trouble to collect such of the Letters as had 
been published previously and to induce Gen. Woodward to write others. For 
the task of arranging, pruning, etc., he has had neither time nor health; 
but he trusts that even in their present crude form, they may effect much 
good, in the correction of several popular errors and in familiarising our 
people with the later history of those tribes that have recently departed 
from our borders.

Montgomery, Ala., Jan. 15, 1859.
J. J. HOOPER.