Established as a supply camp by General Andrew Jackson in September 1813 on the banks of Big Wills Creek, Camp Wills was the place where Jackson directed the first campaign of the Creek War and promoted Colonel John Coffee to Brigadier General and Captain Newton Cannon to Colonel on 24 September 1813. The victory of this army at Horseshoe Bend in 1814 led the Creek Indians to cede thousands of acres of land to the United States and opened the way for the formation of the Alabama Territory in 1818 and the State of Alabama in 1819.