of children "when connected with a white man". Hawkins further observed that even wealthy traders were nearly as "inattentive" to their mixed-race children as "the Indians"; Benjamin Griffith argues that Hawkins failed to understand the closer relationship that children in Creek culture had with their mother's eldest brother, closer than with their biological father, because of the importance of the clan structure. Chief of Coweta, William McIntosh, was a leader of the Lower Creek. During the Creek War he opposed the Red Sticks and sided with the Americans instead. He joined Andrew Jackson as a Major who was impressed with him. Because he was half-white and in Jackson's eyes "civilized" he was able to gain Jackson's trust and when Gorgians attacked friendly Creek settlements only McIntosh's complaints made it to the government. His actions in the Creek War mainly joining Jackson alienated him after the war was over in Creek society. By supplying long rifles in trade, England was one of the principal nations (with Spain) that helped and encouraged Native Americans to fight against America, mainly as a diversionary tactic. Most of their influence with the tribes flowed from the Great Lakes region. That was until Tecumseh visited the Upper Creeks and convinced them to make war against the United States. When incomplete reports of the Creek War reached Vice Admiral Sir Alexander Forrester Inglis Cochrane he was impressed. Though he did not know the Creek where in a civil war and that other tribes like the Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Cherokee joined the Americans. He wanted to strike the gulf coast and wanted to use the Indians as a diversion from the Canadian theater. He sent Captain Hugh Pigot who anchored by the mouth of the Apalachicola river on May 10, 1814. They proceeded to give the Indians arms and a small British attachment of men. Pigot then reported to his superiors that he could have as much as 2,800 Creek and Seminoles trained in 8 to 10 weeks. This report would eventually lead to the battle of New Orleans six months later. The time in question was one of increasing pressure on Creek territory by European American settlers. The Creek of the Lower Towns, who were closer to the settlers and had more mixed-race families, had already been forced to make numerous land cessions to the Americans. The Red Stick War, more commonly called the Creek War (1813–1814),