First War    
Young John Horse experienced the war firsthand in April during "the stiffest fight of the campaign" when Jackson and his Creek allies raided the settlements on the Suwannee. On April 16, Jackson and a contingent of Creeks under Chief William McIntosh descended on the Seminole allies at Bowlegs' Town. The Seminole Indians, stationed on the far side of the river, were able to melt away before the attack. About 300 blacks, however, were caught on the wrong side and forced to fight a rearguard action. Though outnumbered four-to-one, the blacks delayed the Americans long enough for their families to be ferried to safety. John Horse and his mother, like other survivors of the attack, were presumably transported over the river in rafts lashed together from logs.
  
Sources:
Mahon 25, ASPFR 4: 584, Wright Creeks 206, Mulroy 16, Brown
"Sarrazota". The presumption that John Horse and his mother were still living at the Suwannee settlements at the time of the attack comes from Porter Black 29 based on Porter's interviews with Black Seminole descendants in the 1940s.
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Part 1, Early Years: l
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