While Madison may have been hesitant to take this precarious step, most people— white settlers and Creeks alike—living in the Mississippi Territory were overjoyed.
Indeed, the same newspapers that carried Madison’s war notice also brought news from the frontier. “We are persuaded that the American Government have [sic] issued positive orders to take possession of the town and fort of Mobile,” a correspondent from Ft. Stoddard wrote, “by capitulation, if possible; but case of the commander refusing to capitulate, it will be taken by force.” After years of standing on the knife’s edge of war, swords were fi nally drawn, and war had fi nally come. No one knew for certain what would happen next. White settlers hoped this martial action meant that the confusion and anxiety surrounding lands claims in and around the Mobile Bay would at last favorably end. Hostile Creeks hoped that the British would provide arms and material support as they girded for war against a common foe. As seems the case in most wars, fools and adventurers on both sides dreamed a swift road to glory. No one could say how the Spanish in Florida might respond to new provocation, but if their recent actions in the Panhandle were any indication, they would not go quietly.