The Creek Indians, who allied themselves with the British forces, began attacks on white settlements in eastern and central Alabama and western Georgia. Indians from the Upper Creek Towns, known as Red Sticks, who resented the encroachment onto their lands, sought aggressively to reduce influences upon their tribal unions and wished to return their society to a traditional way of life in culture and religion. In September 1813, in response to the threats and to quell the Red Stick rebellion, General John Floyd was ordered to command Federal troops who were assembled at Camp Hope on the Ocmulgee River. These forces constructed forts in a defensive line along the Federal Road from the Ocmulgee River to the Alabama River. A stronghold, Fort Mitchell, was erected on the west bank of the Chattahoochee River. In November 1813, Floyd and his men waged an overwhelming offensive, the Battle of Autossee. Autossee was located on the east bank of the Tallapoosa River and was one of the most populated towns of the Creek Nation. The men were to strike at daybreak and encircle the town, thereby blocking the Indians’ escape. Scouts discovered a second town just a few yards downstream, forcing Floyd to change tactics and divide his regiments. The attacks by both sides were fierce but the Red Sticks suffered the greatest casualties. Indian men, women and children were shot, stabbed by bayonets, bombarded with volleys of fire, and burned to death in their own houses. Both Indian villages were completely destroyed. Charles Rinaldo Floyd, who at age sixteen accompanied his father, later described at the battle's aftermath: "The Indians never repair the desolation of a town; so Autossee has been deserted ever since the battle, except by wolves and ravens; and the skeletons of the slain are still bleaching amidst the ruins".