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 LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
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GREAT COMMANDERS 
 
 * * * * 
 
 GENERAL JACKSON 
 
 BY 
 
 JAMES PARTON 
 
 NEW YORK 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1892, 
 BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY. 
 
 A II rights reserved. 
 
 ESS 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 THE military life of Andrew Jackson lasted nine 
 years, of which about two years were passed in the field. 
 He was in no proper sense of the word a professional 
 soldier, and he resented the phrase "military chieftain " 
 which Henry Clay, knowing its irritating power, so 
 often applied to him. He was simply a Tennessee far 
 mer and militia-general who, when his country was in 
 vaded, led his neighbors and fellow-citizens to its de 
 fense. In doing this duty of a citizen he displayed 
 military talents which friends and foes agreed in pro 
 nouncing extraordinary. 
 
 His old comrade and friend, a near neighbor for half 
 a lifetime, the late Major William B. Lewis, a gentleman 
 competent to judge in such matters, used to say, as he 
 talked of the Creek and New Orleans campaigns, that 
 Andrew Jackson, in point of native military capacity, 
 was the peer of the great generals of the world Caesar, 
 Cromwell, Frederick, Bonaparte, or Wellington and in 
 support of this opinion he would adduce many curious 
 facts and traits that could be known only to an intimate 
 and confidential companion. 
 
 This was the judgment of a friend, though a friend 
 not blind to the limitations of his old commander. I 
 have before me the testimony of an enemy, one who had 
 personally felt the force of the stroke which General 
 Jackson s puissant arm could deal. As late as 1888 
 
 M25742 
 
vi GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 there were two survivors of the British army that in 
 vaded Louisiana in 1814 and took part in the action 
 of January 8, 1815. One of these was the late Earl 
 of Albemarle ; the other, Rev. George R. Gleig, who 
 was for many years chaplain -general to the British 
 forces, but served as a lieutenant of foot in the expe 
 dition against New Orleans. Mr. Gleig was the " sub 
 altern " whose excellent narrative of the expedition 
 is occasionally quoted in this volume. A short time 
 before his death he wrote thus to his American friend, 
 General James Grant Wilson, the editor of this series 
 of volumes : 
 
 " When I look back upon the means which General 
 Jackson adopted to cover New Orleans, and remember 
 the materials of which his army was composed, I can not 
 but regard his management of that campaign as one of 
 the most masterly of which history makes mention. His 
 night attack on our advanced guard was as bold a stroke 
 as ever was struck. It really paralyzed all our future 
 operations; for, though unsuccessful, it taught us to hold 
 our enemy in respect, and in all future movements to act 
 with an excess of caution. The use, also, which he made 
 of the river was admirable. Indeed, I am inclined to 
 think that to him the generals who came after him were 
 indebted for the perception of the great advantages to 
 which the command of rivers may be turned. And do 
 not let us forget that he had little else to oppose to 
 Wellington s veterans, fresh from their triumphs in Spain 
 and the south of France, except raw levies. Altogether 
 I think of Jackson as, next to Washington, the greatest 
 general America has produced." 
 
 To the last of his days and he lived to be past 
 ninety-one he retained these impressions unimpaired. 
 General Wilson, in conversation, would call the old 
 gentleman s attention to the brilliant achievements of 
 
PREFACE. yii 
 
 Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, and others, but could never 
 convince him that either of them showed military ca 
 pacity superior to that of the general who had given him 
 and his comrades such a world of trouble seventy years 
 before. 
 
 " No," he would say, " Jackson did everything that 
 could be done to repel an attack that ought to have 
 proved successful. His beating up our bivouac on the 
 night of our landing was a master stroke, and, had his 
 troops been such as yours became during your civil war, 
 he would have destroyed us." This is the judgment of 
 a soldier who saw and felt during some terrible weeks 
 what it is in war to have a real general in command on 
 the other side. 
 
 No one can carefully examine the record without dis 
 covering that Andrew Jackson possessed the indispen 
 sable qualities of a commanding general : in all circum 
 stances imperturbably brave ; confident in himself, but 
 open to suggestion and to argument ; bold when boldness 
 was wise, but as wary as an Indian until he saw his way 
 to victory clear ; vigilant, prompt, persistent, indefati 
 gable, and aware of the importance of little things. He 
 had for his soldiers the paternal feeling which we ob 
 serve in all the great generals, as we do also in the great 
 captains of industry ; yet he could be a stern and ruth 
 less disciplinarian. There is a passage in his farewell 
 address to the army in 1821 where he speaks of the 
 bounty-jumpers of his day, who found it " a source of 
 speculation to go from rendezvous to rendezvous, enlist 
 ing, receiving the bounty, and deserting, all the way 
 from Boston to New Orleans." The passage, if it had 
 been acted upon during the late war, would have saved 
 a vast amount of suffering and waste. 
 
 Two of his favorite maxims denote the soldier : " In 
 war, till everything is done, nothing is done"; and this 
 
v iii GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 also, "When you have a thing to do, take all the time 
 for thinking that the circumstances allow, but when the 
 time has come for action, stop thinking." 
 
 [THE last literary work of James Parton was the 
 preparation of this brief biography of General Jackson. 
 It was completed in August, 1891. Two months later, 
 a long career of literary industry was closed by his 
 death at the ripe age of seventy. An indefatigable 
 worker, he produced many valuable American biog 
 raphies, of which his earliest a Life of Horace Greeley 
 was perhaps the most popular. Although less am 
 bitious in scope than some of Mr. Parton s previous 
 volumes, his last work, like his first, presents a fair esti 
 mate of its subject, and seems free from the natural 
 tendency of biographers, which Macaulay sneeringly 
 designates "the disease of admiration." Altogether 
 the book appears to be a model miniature biography, 
 possessing throughout all the interest of a romance. 
 It would seem that this story of the career of the great 
 American commander can not fail to add to Mr. Parton s 
 literary reputation. EDITOR.] 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER PACE 
 
 I. PARENTAGE AND EDUCATION I 
 
 II. DURING THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR 7 
 
 III. HE STUDIES LAW, AND BECOMES A TENNESSEE 
 
 LAWYER .17 
 
 IV. IN PUBLIC LIFE, AND AS A MAN OF BUSINESS . . 25 
 V. DUEL WITH CHARLES DICKINSON . . . .33 
 
 VI. AT HOME 43 
 
 VII. IN THE FIELD 49 
 
 VIII. THE MASSACRE AT FORT MIMS 64 
 
 IX. THE CREEK COUNTRY INVADED 74 
 
 X. THE FINISHING BLOW 108 
 
 XI. MOBILE DEFENDED, AND THE ENGLISH DRIVEN FROM 
 
 PENSACOLA 124 
 
 XII. JACKSON AT NEW ORLEANS, AND APPROACH OF THE 
 
 BRITISH 144 
 
 XIII. NIGHT BATTLE OF DECEMBER 230 . . . .164 
 
 XIV. SHOVELS AND WHEELBARROWS 176 
 
 XV. SECOND ADVANCE OF THE ENGLISH .... 192 
 
 XVI. THE STH OF JANUARY 208 
 
 XVII. END OF THE CAMPAIGN 231 
 
 XVIII. COMMANDER OF THE SOUTHERN DEPARTMENT . . 249 
 XIX. A CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY .... 273 
 
 XX. INAUGURATION 281 
 
 XXI. TERROR AMONG THE OFFICE-HOLDERS . . . 287 
 
 XXII. THE SECOND TERM 297 
 
 XXIII. IN RETIREMENT 3*5 
 
 INDEX . 327 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 FACING 
 PAGE 
 
 General Jackson, from a Portrait by Longacre . Frontispiece 
 
 The Battlefield of New Orleans 144 
 
 Colonel Benton, from a Portrait by Fredericks . . .231 
 
GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PARENTAGE AND EDUCATION. 
 
 IN 1765, Andrew Jackson, the father of the Andrew 
 Jackson whose career we are about to relate, emigrated, 
 with his wife and two sons, from Carrickfergus, in the 
 north of Ireland, to South Carolina. His sons were 
 named Hugh and Robert; Andrew was not yet born. 
 In his native country he had cultivated a few hired 
 acres, and his wife had been a weaver of linen. Like 
 most of the inhabitants of the north of Ireland, he was 
 of Scottish origin ; but his ancestors had lived for five 
 generations in the neighborhood of Carrickfergus; 
 lowly, honest people, tillers of the soil and weavers; 
 radical Whigs in politics, Presbyterians in religion. He 
 was accompanied to America by three of his neighbors, 
 James, Robert,- and Joseph Crawford, the first-named of 
 whom was his brother-in-law. The peace between 
 France and England, signed two years before, which 
 ended the " old French War " the war in which Brad- 
 dock was defeated and Canada won had restored to 
 mankind their highway, the ocean, and given an impulse 
 to emigration from the Old World to the New. From the 
 north of Ireland large numbers sailed away to the land 
 of promise. Five sisters of Mrs. Jackson had gone, or 
 were soon going. Samuel Jackson, a brother of Andrew, 
 
2 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 afterward went, ,an\d;Stab ; lished himself in Philadelphia, 
 wh.ere he k>ng .lived, a respectable citizen. Mrs. Suffren, 
 a daughter of another brother, followed in later years, 
 and settled in the city of New York, where she has liv 
 ing descendants. 
 
 The party of emigrants from Carrickfergus land 
 ed at Charleston, and proceeded without delay to the 
 Waxhaw settlement, a hundred and sixty miles to the 
 northwest of Charleston, where many of their kindred 
 and countrymen were already established. This settle 
 ment was, or had been, the seat of the Waxhaw tribe of 
 Indians. 
 
 A proof of the poverty of Andrew Jackson is this : 
 the Crawfords, who came with him from Ireland, bought 
 lands near the center of the settlement, on the Waxhaw 
 Creek itself lands which still attest the wisdom of their 
 choice ; but Jackson settled seven miles away, on new 
 land, on the banks of Twelve Mile Creek, another branch 
 of the Catawba. The place is now known as " Pleasant 
 Grove Camp Ground," and the particular land once oc 
 cupied by the father of General Jackson is still pointed 
 out by the old people of the neighborhood. 
 
 For two years Andrew Jackson and his family toiled 
 in the Carolina woods. He had built his log-house, 
 cleared some fields, and raised a crop. Then, the father 
 of the family, his work all incomplete, sickened and 
 died : his two boys being still very young, and his wife 
 far advanced in pregnancy. This was early in the 
 spring of 1767. 
 
 The bereaved family of the Jacksons never returned 
 to their home on the banks of Twelve Mile Creek, but 
 went from the churchyard to the house, not far off, of 
 one of Mrs. Jackson s brothers-in-law, George McKemey 
 by name, whose remains now repose in the same old 
 burying-ground. A few nights after there was a swift 
 
PARENTAGE AND EDUCATION. 
 
 3 
 
 sending of messengers to the neighbors, and a hurrying 
 across the fields of friendly women ; and before the sun 
 rose a son was born, the son whose career and fortunes 
 we have undertaken to relate. It was in a small log- 
 house, in the province of North Carolina, less than a 
 quarter of a mile from the boundary-line between North 
 and South Carolina, that the birth took place. Andrew 
 Jackson, then, was born in Union County, North Caro 
 lina, on the i5th of March, 1767. 
 
 General Jackson always supposed himself to be a 
 native of South Carolina. " Fellow-citizens of my native 
 State ! " he exclaims, at the close of his proclamation to 
 the nullifiers of South Carolina; but it is as certain as 
 any fact of the kind can be that he was mistaken. The 
 clear and uniform tradition of the neighborhood, sup 
 ported by a great mass of indisputable testimony, points 
 to a spot in North Carolina, but only a stone s-throw 
 from the line that divides it from South Carolina, as the 
 birthplace of Andrew Jackson. 
 
 In the family of his Uncle Crawford, Andy Jackson 
 (for by this familiar name he is still spoken of in the 
 neighborhood) spent the first ten or twelve years of his 
 life. Mr. Crawford was a man of considerable substance 
 for a new country, and his family was large. He lived 
 in South Carolina, just over the boundary-line, near the 
 Waxhaw Creek, and six miles from the Catawba River. 
 The land there lies well for farming ; level, but not flat ; 
 undulating, but without hills of inconvenient height. 
 The soil is a stiff, red clay, the stiffest of the stiff and the 
 reddest of the red ; the kind of soil which bears hard 
 usage, and makes the very worst winter roads anywhere 
 to be found on this planet. Except where there is an 
 interval of fertile soil, the country round about is a 
 boundless continuity of pine woods, wherein to this day 
 wild turkeys and deer are shot, and the farmers take 
 
4 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 their cotton to market in immense wagons of antique 
 pattern, a journey of half a week, and camp out every 
 night. As evening closes in, the passing traveler sees 
 the mules, the negro driver, the huge covered wagon, 
 the farmer, and sometimes his wife with an infant, 
 grouped in the most strikingly picturesque manner, in 
 an opening of the forest, around a blazing fire of pine 
 knots that light up the scene like an illumination. In 
 such a country as this, with horses to ride, and cows to 
 hunt, and journeys to make, and plenty of boys, black 
 and white, to play with, our little friend spent his early 
 years. 
 
 In due time the boy was sent to an " old-field school," 
 an institution not much unlike the roadside schools in 
 Ireland of which we read. The Northern reader is per 
 haps not aware that an " old field " is not a field at all, 
 but a pine forest. When crop after crop of cotton, with 
 out rotation, has exhausted the soil, the fences are 
 taken away, the land lies waste, the young pines at 
 once spring up and soon cover the whole field with a 
 thick growth of wood. In one of these old fields the 
 rudest possible shanty of a log house is erected, with a 
 fireplace that extends from side to side and occupies a 
 third of the interior. In winter the interstices of the 
 log walls are filled up with clay, which the restless 
 fingers of the boys make haste to remove in time to admit 
 the first warm airs of spring. An itinerant schoolmas 
 ter presents himself in a neighborhood ; the responsi 
 ble farmers pledge him a certain number of pupils, and 
 an old-field school is established for the season. Read 
 ing, writing, and arithmetic were all the branches taught 
 in the early days. 
 
 But Mrs. Jackson had more ambitious views for her 
 youngest son. She aimed to give him a liberal education, 
 in the hope that he would one day become a clergyman in 
 
PARENTAGE AND EDUCATION. 5 
 
 the Presbyterian Church. It is probable that her con 
 dition was not one of absolute dependence. The tradi 
 tion of the neighborhood is, that she was noted the coun 
 try round for her skill in spinning flax, and that she 
 earned money by spinning to pay for Andrew s schooling. 
 It is possible, too, that her relations in Ireland may 
 have contributed something to her support. 
 
 Andy was a wild, frolicsome, willful, mischievous, 
 daring, reckless boy ; generous to a friend, but never 
 content to submit to a stronger enemy. He was passion 
 ately fond of those sports which are mimic battles ; 
 above all, wrestling. 
 
 If our knowledge of the school-life of Jackson is 
 scanty, we are at no loss to say what he learned and 
 what he failed to learn at school. He learned to read, 
 to write, to cast accounts little more. If he began, as 
 he may have done, to learn by heart, in the old-fashioned 
 way, the Latin grammar, he never acquired enough of 
 it to leave any traces of classical knowledge in his mind 
 or his writings. In some of his later letters there 
 may be found, it is true, an occasional Latin phrase of 
 two or three words, but so quoted as to show igno 
 rance rather than knowledge. He was never a well-in 
 formed man. He never was addicted to books. He 
 never learned to write the English language correctly, 
 though he often wrote it eloquently and convincingly. 
 He never learned to spell correctly, though he was a 
 better speller than Frederick II, Marlborough, Napoleon, 
 or Washington. Few men of his day, and no women, 
 were correct spellers. 
 
 He was nine years old when the Declaration of In 
 dependence was signed. By the time the war approached 
 the Waxhaw settlement, bringing blood and terror with 
 it, leaving desolation behind it, closing all schoolhouses, 
 and putting a stop to the peaceful labors of the people, 
 
6 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 Andrew Jackson was little more than thirteen. His 
 brother Hugh, a man in stature if not in years, had not 
 waited for the war to come near his home, but had 
 mounted his horse a year before and ridden southward 
 to meet it. He was one of the troopers of that famous 
 regiment to raise and equip which, its colonel, William 
 Richardson Davie, spent the last guinea of his inherited 
 estate. Under Colonel Davie, Hugh Jackson fought in 
 the ranks of the battle of Stono, and died, after the ac 
 tion, of heat and fatigue. His brother Robert was a 
 strapping lad, but too young for a soldier, and was still 
 at home with his mother and Andrew when Tarleton 
 and his dragoons thundered along the red roads of the 
 VVaxhaws, and dyed them a deeper red with the blood 
 of the surprised militia. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 DURING THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR. 
 
 IT was on the 29th of May, 1780, that Tarleton, with 
 three hundred horsemen, surprised a detachment of 
 militia in the Waxhaw settlement and killed one hun 
 dred and thirteen of them, and wounded a hundred and 
 fifty. The wounded, abandoned to the care of the set 
 tlers, were quartered in the houses of the vicinity; the 
 old log Waxhaw meeting-house itself being converted 
 into a hospital for the most desperate cases. Mrs. 
 Jackson was one of the kind women who ministered to 
 the wounded soldiers in the church, and under that roof 
 her boys first saw what war was. The men were dread 
 fully mangled. Some had received as many as thirteen 
 wounds, and none less than three. For many days An 
 drew and his brother assisted their mother in waiting 
 upon the sick men; Andrew, more in rage than pity, 
 burning to avenge their wounds and his brother s death. 
 
 Tarleton s massacre at the Waxhaws kindled the 
 flames of war in all that region of the Carolinas. Many 
 notable actions were fought, and some striking though 
 unimportant advantages were gained by the patriot 
 forces. Andrew Jackson and his brother Robert were 
 present at Sumter s gallant attack upon the British 
 post of Hanging Rock, near Waxhaw, where the patriots 
 half gained the day, and lost it by beginning too soon 
 to drink the rum they captured from the enemy. The 
 Jackson boys rode on this expedition with Colonel 
 
3 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 Davie, a most brave, self-sacrificing officer, who, as we 
 have said, commanded the troop of which Hugh Jackson 
 was a member when he died, after the battle of Stono. 
 Neither of the boys was attached to Davie s company, 
 nor is it likely that Andrew, a boy of thirteen, did more 
 than witness the affair at Hanging Rock. 
 
 This Colonel Davie, Hugh Jackson s old commander, 
 was the man, above all others who led Carolina troops 
 in the Revolution, that the Jackson boys admired. He 
 was a man after Andrew s own heart swift but wary, 
 bold in planning enterprises but most cautious in exe 
 cution, sleeplessly vigilant, untiringly active one of 
 those cool, quick men who apply mother-wit to the art 
 of war ; who are good soldiers because they are earnest 
 and clear-sighted men. So far as any man was General 
 Jackson s model soldier, William Richardson Davie, of 
 North Carolina, was the individual. 
 
 The boys rejoined their mother at the Waxhaw 
 settlement. On the i6th of August, 1780, occurred the 
 great disaster of the war in the South, the defeat of 
 General Gates. The victor, Cornwallis, moved three 
 weeks after, with his whole army, toward the Waxhaws; 
 which induced Mrs. Jackson and her boys once more 
 to abandon their home for a safer retreat north of the 
 scene of war. 
 
 In February, 1781, the country about the Waxhaws 
 again being tranquil, because subdued, Mrs. Jackson, 
 her sons, and many of her neighbors returned to their 
 ravaged homes. Andrew soon after passed his four 
 teenth birthday, an overgrown youth, as tall as a man, 
 but weakly from having grown too fast. Then ensued 
 a spring and summer of small, fierce, intestine warfare 
 a war of Whig and Tory, neighbor against neighbor, 
 brother against brother, and even father against son. 
 Without detaining the reader, with a detail of the 
 
DURING THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR. g 
 
 Revolutionary history of the Carolinas, I yet desire to 
 show what a war-charged atmosphere it was that young 
 Andrew breathed during this forming period of his life, 
 especially toward the close of the war, after the great 
 operations ceased. 
 
 The people in the upper country of the Carolinas 
 little expected that the war would ever reach settlements 
 so remote, so obscure, so scattered as theirs; and it 
 did not for some years. When at last the storm of war 
 drew near their borders, it found them a divided people. 
 The old sentiment of loyalty was still rooted in many 
 minds. There were many who had taken a recent and 
 special oath of allegiance to the king, which they con 
 sidered binding in all circumstances. They were High 
 landers, clannish and religiously loyal, who pointed to 
 the text, " Fear God and honor the king," and over 
 looked the fact that the biblical narrative condemns the 
 Jews for desiring a kingly government. There were 
 Moravians and Quakers, who conscientiously opposed 
 all war. There were Catholic Irish, many of whom 
 sided with the king. There were Protestant Scotch- 
 Irish, Whigs and agitators in the old country, Whigs and 
 fervent patriots in the new. There were placeholders, 
 who adhered to their official bread and dignity. There 
 were trimmers, who espoused the side that chanced to 
 be strongest. The approach and collision of hostile 
 forces converted most of these factions into belligerents, 
 who waged a most fierce and deadly war upon one an 
 other, renewing on this new theatre the border wars of 
 another age and country. 
 
 The time came when Andrew and his brother began 
 to play men s parts in the drama. Without enlisting in 
 any organized corps, they joined small parties that went 
 out on single enterprises of retaliation, mounted on their 
 own horses and carrying their own weapons. 
 
I0 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 The activity and zeal of the Waxhaw Whigs coming 
 to the ears of Lord Rawdon, whom Cornwallis had left 
 in command, he dispatched a small body of dragoons to 
 aid the Tories of that infected neighborhood. The Wax- 
 haw people, hearing of the approach of this hostile force, 
 resolved upon resisting it in open fight, and named the 
 Waxhaw meeting-house as the rendezvous. Forty Whigs 
 assembled on the appointed day, mounted and armed, 
 and among them were Rober^and Andrew Jackson. In 
 the grove about the old church these forty were waiting 
 for the arrival hourly expected of another company 
 of Whigs from a neighboring settlement. The British 
 officer in command of the dragoons, apprised of the ren 
 dezvous by a Tory of the neighborhood, determined to 
 surprise the patriot party before the two companies had 
 united. Before coming in sight of the church, he placed 
 a body of Tories wearing the dress of the country far 
 in advance of his soldiers, and so marched upon the de 
 voted band. The Waxhaw party saw a company of 
 armed men approaching, but, concluding them to be 
 their expected friends, made no preparations for defense. 
 Too late the error was discovered. Eleven of the forty 
 were taken prisoners, and the rest sought safety in flight, 
 fiercely pursued by the dragoons. The brothers were 
 separated. Andrew found himself galloping for life and 
 liberty by the side of his cousin, Lieutenant Thomas 
 Crawford, a dragoon close behind them, and others 
 coming rapidly on. They tore along the road awhile, 
 and then took to a swampy field, where they came soon 
 to a wide slough of water and mire, into which they 
 plunged their horses. Andrew floundered across, and on 
 reaching dry land again looked round for his compan 
 ion, whose horse had sunk into the mire and fallen. He 
 saw him entangled, and trying vainly to ward off the 
 blows of his pursuers with his sword. Before Andrew 
 
DURING THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR. Ir 
 
 could turn to assist him the lieutenant received a severe 
 wound in the head, which compelled him to give up the 
 contest and surrender. The youth put spurs to his 
 horse and succeeded in eluding pursuit. Robert, too, 
 escaped unhurt, and in the course of the day the brothers 
 were reunited, and took refuge in a thicket, in which 
 they passed a hungry and anxious night. 
 
 The next morning the pangs of hunger compelled 
 them to leave their safe retreat and go in quest of food. 
 The nearest house was that of Lieutenant Crawford. 
 Leaving their horses and arms in the thicket, the lads 
 crept toward the house, which they reached in safety. 
 Meanwhile, a Tory traitor of the neighborhood had 
 scented out their lurking-place, found their horses and 
 weapons, and set a party of dragoons upon their track. 
 Before the family had a suspicion of danger, the house 
 was surrounded, the doors were secured, and the boys 
 were prisoners. 
 
 A scene ensued which left an impression upon the 
 mind of one of the boys which time never effaced. Re 
 gardless of the fact that the house was occupied by the 
 defenseless wife and young children of a wounded sol 
 dier, the dragoons, brutalized by this mean partisan 
 warfare, began to destroy, with wild riot and noise, the 
 contents of the house. Crockery, glass, and furniture 
 were dashed to pieces, beds emptied, the clothing of 
 the family torn to rags ; even the clothes of the infant 
 that Mrs. Crawford carried in her arms were not spared. 
 While this destruction was going on, the officer in com 
 mand of the party ordered Andrew to clean his high 
 jack-boots, which were well splashed and crusted with 
 mud. The boy replied, not angrily, though with a cer 
 tain firmness and decision, in something like these words : 
 
 " Sir, I am a prisoner of war, and claim to be treated 
 as such." 
 
12 
 
 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 The officer aimed a desperate blow at the boy s head 
 with his sword. Andrew broke the force of the blow 
 with his left hand, and thus received two wounds one 
 deep gash on his head and another on his hand, the 
 marks of both of which he carried to his grave. The 
 officer, after achieving this gallant feat, turned to Rob 
 ert Jackson and ordered him to clean the boots. Robert 
 also refused. The valiant Briton struck the young man 
 so violent a sword-blow upon the head, as to prostrate 
 and disable him. 
 
 Andrew was ordered to mount, and to guide some of 
 the party to the house of a noted Whig of the vicinity 
 named Thompson. Threatened with instant death if he 
 failed to guide them aright, the youth submitted, and 
 led the party in the right direction. A timely thought 
 enabled him to be the deliverer of his neighbor instead 
 of his captor. Instead of approaching the house by the 
 usual road, he conducted the party by a circuitous route, 
 which brought them in sight of the house half a mile 
 before they reached it. Andrew well knew that, if 
 Thompson was at home, he would be sure to have some 
 one on the lookout, and a horse ready for the road. On 
 coming in sight of the house he saw Thompson s horse, 
 saddled and bridled, standing at a rack in the yard, 
 which informed him both that the master was there and 
 that he was prepared for flight. The dragoons dashed 
 forward to seize their prey. While they were still some 
 hundreds of yards from the house, Andrew had the de 
 light of seeing Thompson burst from his door, run to his 
 horse, mount, and plunge into a foaming, swollen creek 
 that rushed by his house. He gained the opposite shore, 
 and, seeing that the dragoons dared not attempt the 
 stream, gave a shout of defiance and galloped into the 
 woods. 
 
 The elation caused by the success of his stratagem 
 
DURING THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR. j^ 
 
 was soon swallowed up in misery. Andrew and Robert 
 Jackson, Lieutenant Thomas Crawford, and twenty other 
 prisoners, all the victims of this raid of the dragoons 
 into the Waxhaws, were placed on horses stolen in the 
 same settlement and marched toward Camden, South 
 Carolina, a great British depot at the time, forty miles 
 distant. It was a long and agonizing journey, especially 
 to the wounded, among whom were the Jacksons and 
 their cousin. Not an atom of food nor a drop of water 
 was allowed them on the way. Such was the brutality of 
 the soldiers, that when these miserable lads tried to scoop 
 up a little water from the streams which they forded, to 
 appease their raging thirst, they were ordered to desist. 
 
 At Camden their situation was one of utter wretch 
 edness. Two hundred and fifty prisoners in a contracted 
 inclosure drawn around the jail ; no beds of any descrip 
 tion ; no medicine ; no medical attendance, nor means of 
 dressing the wounds ; their only food a scanty supply 
 of bad bread. They were robbed even of part of their 
 clothing, besides being subject to the taunts and threats 
 of every passing Tory. The three relatives, it is said, 
 were separated as soon as their relationship was discov 
 ered. Miserable among the miserable ; gaunt, yellow, 
 hungry, and sick ; robbed of his jacket and shoes ; ig 
 norant of his brother s fate; chafing with suppressed 
 fury, Andrew passed now some of the most wretched 
 days of his life. Ere long the smallpox a disease un 
 speakably terrible at that day, more terrible than chol 
 era or plague has ever been broke out among the 
 prisoners, and raged unchecked by medicine and unal- 
 leviated by any kind of attendance or nursing. The sick 
 and the well, the dying and the dead, those shuddering 
 at the first symptoms and those putrid with the disease, 
 were mingled together; and all but the dead were 
 equally miserable. 
 
I4 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 For some time Andrew escaped the contagion. He 
 was reclining one day in the sun, near the entrance of 
 the prison, when the officer of the guard, attracted, as it 
 seemed, by the youthfulness of his appearance, entered 
 into conversation with him. The lad soon began to 
 speak of that of which his heart was full the condition 
 of the prisoners and the bad quality of their food. He 
 remonstrated against their treatment with such energy 
 and feeling that the officer seemed to be moved and 
 shocked, and, what was far more important, he was in 
 duced to ferret out the villainy of the contractors who 
 had been robbing the prisoners of their rations. From 
 the day of Andrew s remonstrance the condition of the 
 prisoners was ameliorated ; they were supplied with 
 meat and better bread, and were otherwise better cared 
 for. 
 
 Andrew s spirits sank under this accumulation of 
 miseries, and he began to sicken with the first symptoms 
 of the smallpox. Robert was in a condition still worse. 
 The wound in his head had never been dressed, and had 
 not healed. He, too, reduced as he was, began to shiver 
 and burn with the fever that announces the dread dis 
 ease. Another week of prison life would have probably 
 consigned both these boys to the grave. But they had 
 a friend outside the prison their mother, who at this 
 crisis of their fate strove with the might of love for 
 their deliverance. Learning their forlorn condition, this 
 heroic woman went to Camden, and succeeded, after a 
 time, in effecting an exchange of prisoners between a 
 Waxhaw captain and the British general. The Whig cap 
 tain gave up thirteen soldiers whom he had captured in 
 the rear of the British army, and received in return the 
 two sons of Mrs. Jackson and five of her neighbors. When 
 the little family were reunited in the town of Camden, 
 the mother could but gaze upon her boys with astonish- 
 
DURING THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR. I5 
 
 ment and horror so worn and wasted were they with 
 hunger, wounds, and disease. Robert could not stand, 
 or even sit on horseback, without support. 
 
 The mother, however, had no choice but to get them 
 home immediately. Two horses were procured. One 
 she rode herself. Robert was placed upon the other, 
 and held in his seat by the returning prisoners to whom 
 Mrs. Jackson had just given liberty. Behind the sad 
 procession poor Andrew dragged his weak and weary 
 limbs, bareheaded, barefooted, without a jacket, his 
 only two garments torn and dirty. The forty miles of 
 lonely wilderness that lay between Camden and Waxhaw 
 were nearly traversed, and the fevered lads were expect 
 ing in two hours more to enjoy the bliss of repose, when 
 a chilly, drenching, merciless rain set in. When this oc 
 curred, the smallpox had reached that stage of develop 
 ment when, after having raged within the system, it was 
 about to break out in those loathsome sores which give 
 vent to the disease. The boys reached home and went 
 to bed. In two days Robert Jackson was a corpse and 
 his brother Andrew a raving maniac. A mother s nurs 
 ing, medical skill, and a constitution sound at the core, 
 brought the youth out of this peril, and set him upon the 
 way to slow recovery. He was an invalid for several 
 months. 
 
 In the summer of 1781 a great cry of anguish and 
 despair came up to Waxhaw from the Charleston prison- 
 ships, wherein, among many hundreds of other prisoners, 
 were confined some of the sons of Mrs. Jackson s sisters, 
 and other friends and neighbors of hers from the Wax- 
 haw country. Mrs. Jackson had seen at Camden what 
 prisoners of war may suffer. She had also seen what a 
 little vigor and tact can effect in the deliverance of pris 
 oners. Andrew was no sooner quite out of danger than 
 his brave mother resolved to go to Charleston (distant 
 
j6 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 one hundred and sixty miles) and do what she could for 
 the comfort of the prisoners there. The tradition of the 
 neighborhood now is that she performed the entire jour 
 ney on foot, in company with two other women of like 
 mind and purpose. It is more probable, however, and 
 so thought General Jackson, that these gallant women 
 rode on horseback, carrying with them a precious store 
 of gifts and rural luxuries and medicines for the solace 
 of their imprisoned relatives, and bearing tender mes 
 sages and precious news from home. Protected by 
 being unprotected, they reached Charleston in safety, 
 gained admission to the ships, emptied their hearts and 
 saddle-bags, and brought such joy to the haggard pris 
 oners as only prisoners know when women fr om home 
 visit them. 
 
 And there the history of this expedition ends. This 
 only is further known of it, or will ever be : While stop 
 ping at the house of a relative, William Barton by name, 
 who lived two miles and a half from Charleston, Mrs. 
 Jackson was seized with the ship fever, and, after a 
 short illness, died, and was buried on the open plain 
 near by. 
 
 And so Andrew, before reaching his fifteenth birth 
 day, was an orphan ; a sick and sorrowful orphan ; a 
 homeless and dependent orphan. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 HE STUDIES LAW, AND BECOMES A TENNESSEE LAWYER. 
 
 CORNWALLIS surrendered at Yorktown on the igth 
 of October, 1781. Savannah remained in the enemy s 
 hands nine months, and Charleston fourteen months 
 after that event ; but the war, in effect, terminated then, 
 North and South. The Waxhaw people who survived 
 returned to their homes, and resumed the vocations 
 which the war had interrupted. 
 
 With returning health returned the frolicsome spirit 
 of the youth, which now began to seek gratification in 
 modes less innocent than the sportive feats of his school 
 boy days. Several Charleston families of wealth and 
 social eminence were living in the neighborhood, waiting 
 for the evacuation of their city. With the young men 
 of these families Jackson became acquainted, and led a 
 life with them, in the summer and autumn of 1782, that 
 was more merry than wise. He was betrayed by their 
 example and his own pride into habits of expense, which 
 wasted his small resources. That passion for horses, 
 which never left him, began to show itself. He ran 
 races and rode races, gambled a little, drank a little, 
 fought cocks occasionally, and comported himself in the 
 style usually affected by dissipated young men of that 
 day. 
 
 In December, 1782, to the joy and exultation of all 
 the Southern country, Charleston was evacuated, and 
 its scattered Whig families were free to return to their 
 
!g GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 homes. Andrew, finding the country dull after the de 
 parture of his gay companions, suddenly resolved to 
 follow them to the city. He mounted his horse, a fine 
 and valuable animal that he had contrived to possess, 
 and rode to Charleston through the wilderness. There, 
 it appears, he remained long enough to expend his slen 
 der stock of money and run up a long bill with his 
 landlord. He was saved from total ruin by a curious 
 incident, which is thus related by one who heard it from 
 himself : " He had strolled one evening down the street 
 and was carried into a place where some persons were 
 amusing themselves at a game of dice, and much betting 
 was in progress. He was challenged for a game by a 
 person present, by whom a proposal was made to stake 
 two hundred dollars against the fine horse on which 
 Jackson had come to Charleston. After some delibera 
 tion he accepted the challenge. Fortune was on his side ; 
 the wager was won and paid. He forthwith departed, 
 settled his bill next morning, and returned to his home. 
 My calculation, said he, speaking of this incident, * was 
 that, if a loser in the game, I would give the landlord 
 my saddle and bridle, as far as they would go toward 
 the payment of his bill, ask a credit for the balance, and 
 walk away from the city ; but being successful, I had 
 new spirits infused into me, left the table, and from that 
 moment to the present time I have never thrown dice 
 for a wager. " 
 
 Upon the return of the young man to the home 
 of his childhood he evidently took hold of life more 
 earnestly than he had done before. He made some at 
 tempts, it is said, to continue his studies. Three entirely 
 credible informants testify that Andrew Jackson was a 
 schoolmaster at this period of his life. Nothing is more 
 certain than that part of the small cash capital upon 
 which he started in his career was earned amid the hum 
 
HE STUDIES LAW. ! 9 
 
 and bustle of an old-field school. It is the more certain, 
 as the uniform tradition of the Waxhaw country is that 
 he was a very poor young man, who inherited nothing 
 from his father, because his father had nothing to leave. 
 The tradition at Charlotte is, that when young Andrew 
 attended Queen s College he often passed down the 
 street to school with his trousers too ragged to keep 
 his shirt from flying in the wind. 
 
 For a year certainly, and probably for two years, 
 after Andrew s return from Charleston he remained in the 
 Waxhaw country, employed either in teaching school or 
 in some less worthy occupation. Peace was formally 
 proclaimed in April, 1783. Some time between the 
 proclamation of peace and the winter of i784- 85, Andrew 
 Jackson resolved upon studying law. In that winter he 
 gathered together his earnings and whatever property 
 he may have possessed, mounted his horse again, and 
 set his face northward in quest of a master in the law 
 under whom to pursue his studies. He rode to Salis 
 bury, North Carolina, a distance of seventy-five miles 
 from the Waxhaws. 
 
 At Salisbury he entered the law office of Mr. Spruce 
 McCay, an eminent lawyer at that time, and in later 
 days a judge of high distinction, who is still remembered 
 with honor in North Carolina. 
 
 In one of the back streets of this old town, on the 
 lawn in front of one of its largest and handsomest man 
 sions, close to the street and to the left of the gate, 
 stood, in 1858, a little box of a house fifteen feet by six 
 teen, and one story high. It was built of shingles, 
 several of which had decayed and fallen off. This little 
 decaying house of shingles was the law office of Spruce 
 McCay when Andrew Jackson studied law under him 
 at Salisbury, in 1785 and 1786. The mansion behind it 
 stands on the site of the house in which Mr. McCay 
 
2Q GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 lived at the time, and the property is still owned and 
 occupied by a near connection of his, who has preserved 
 the old office from regard to his memory. 
 
 Our student completed his preparation for the bar in 
 the office of Colonel John Stokes, a brave soldier of the 
 Revolution, and afterward a lawyer of high repute, from 
 whom Stokes County, North Carolina, took its name. 
 Colonel Stokes was one of those who fell covered with 
 wounds at the Waxhaw massacre in 1780, and may 
 have been nursed in the old meeting-house by Mrs. 
 Jackson and her sons. Before the spring of 1787, about 
 two years after beginning the study of the law, Andrew 
 Jackson was licensed to practice in the courts of North 
 Carolina. He was twenty years of age when he com 
 pleted the preliminary part of his education at Salis 
 bury. He had grown to be a tall fellow. He stood 
 six feet and an inch in his stockings. He was remark 
 ably slender for that robust age of the world, but he 
 was also remarkably erect, so that his form had the 
 effect of symmetry without being symmetrical. His 
 movements and carriage were graceful and dignified. 
 In the accomplishments of his day and sphere he ex 
 celled the young men of his own circle, and was re 
 garded by them as their chief and model. He was an 
 exquisite horseman, as all will agree who ever saw him 
 on horseback. Jefferson tells us that General Washing 
 ton was the best horseman of his time, but he could 
 scarcely have been a more graceful or a more daring 
 rider than Jackson. From early boyhood to extreme 
 old age he was the master and friend of horses. 
 
 He was far from handsome. His face was long, thin, 
 and fair ; his forehead high and somewhat narrow ; his 
 hair, reddish-sandy in color, was exceedingly abundant, 
 and fell down low over his forehead. The bristling hair 
 of the ordinary portraits belongs to the latter half of his 
 
HE STUDIES LAW. 21 
 
 life. There was but one feature of his face that was not 
 commonplace his eyes, which were of a deep blue, and 
 capable of blazing with great expression when he was 
 roused. 
 
 The truth is, this young man was one of those who 
 convey to strangers the impression that they are "some 
 body"; who naturally, and without thinking of it, take 
 the lead ; who are invited or permitted to take it as a 
 matter of course. 
 
 Finding no opportunity to practice his profession 
 in the old settlements, young Jackson resolved to join 
 a large party of emigrants bound for that part of the 
 Western country which is now the State of Tennessee, 
 but which was then Washington County, North Caro 
 lina. John McNairy, a friend of Jackson s, had been 
 appointed judge of the Superior Court for that vast 
 region, and Jackson was invested with the office of 
 solicitor, or public prosecutor, for the same district. 
 This office was not in request, nor desirable. It was, 
 in fact, difficult to get a suitable person to accept an 
 appointment of the kind, which was to be exercised in 
 a wilderness five hundred miles distant from the pop 
 ulous parts of North Carolina, and where the office of 
 prosecutor was sure to be unpopular, difficult, and dan 
 gerous. Thomas Searcy, another of Jackson s friends, 
 received the appointment of clerk of the court. Three 
 or four more of his young acquaintances, lawyers and 
 Others, resolved to go with him and seek their fortune 
 in the new and vaunted country of the West. The party 
 rendezvoused at Morganton in the spring or early sum 
 mer of 1788, mounted and equipped for a ride over the 
 mountains to Jonesboro, then the chief settlement of 
 East Tennessee, and the first halting-place of companies 
 bound to the lands on the Cumberland River. 
 
 The judge and his party remained several weeks at 
 3 
 
22 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 Jonesboro, waiting for the assembling of a sufficient 
 number of emigrants, and for the arrival of a guard 
 from Nashville to escort them. Nashville is one hundred 
 and eighty-three miles from Jonesboro. The road ran 
 through a gap in the Cumberland Mountains, and thence 
 entered a wilderness more dangerously infested with 
 hostile Indians than any other portion of the Western 
 country, not even excepting the dark and bloody land 
 of Kentucky. 
 
 Before the end of October, 1788, the long train of emi 
 grants, among whom was Mr. Solicitor Jackson, reached 
 Nashville, to the great joy of the settlers there, to whom 
 the annual arrival of such a train was all that an arrival 
 can be a thrilling event, news from home, reunion with 
 friends, increase of wealth, and additional protection 
 against a foe powerful and resolute to destroy. 
 
 The settlement grew apace, however. When Jack 
 son arrived, the stations along the Cumberland may 
 have contained five thousand souls or more. But the 
 place was still an outpost of civilization, and so exposed 
 to Indian hostility that it was not safe to live five miles 
 from the central stockade a circumstance that influ 
 enced the whole career and life of our young friend the 
 newly-arrived solicitor. 
 
 When young Jackson reached the settlement he 
 found the Widow Donelson living there in a blockhouse, 
 somewhat more commodious than any other dwelling in 
 the place; for she was a notable housekeeper, as well as 
 a woman of property. With her then lived her daughter 
 Rachel and her Kentucky husband, Lewis Robards. 
 
 The presence of the young lawyer at Nashville was 
 most opportune. The only licensed lawyer in West 
 Tennessee was engaged exclusively in the service of 
 debtors, who, it seems, made common cause against the 
 common enemy, their creditors. Jackson came not as a 
 
HE STUDIES LAW. 23 
 
 lawyer merely, but as the public prosecutor, and there 
 was that in his bearing which gave assurance that he was 
 the man to issue unpopular writs and give them effect. 
 
 In the four terms of 1794 there were three hundred 
 and ninety-seven cases before the same court, in two 
 hundred and twenty-eight of which Jackson acted as 
 counsel. And during these and later years he practiced 
 at the courts of Jonesboro, and other towns in East 
 Tennessee. 
 
 In the year 1791 the prosperous young solicitor, after 
 a courtship of an extraordinary character, was married 
 to Mrs. Rachel Robards, the daughter of that brave old 
 pioneer, John Donelson. 
 
 As Tennessee prospered (and it prospered rapidly 
 after the Indians were subdued, in 1794), the district 
 attorney could not but prosper with it. The land records 
 of 1794, 1795, J 79 6 > an d J 797 show that it was during 
 those years that Jackson laid the foundation of the large 
 estate which he subsequently acquired. Those were the 
 days in which a lawyer s fee for conducting a suit of no 
 great importance might be a square mile of land, or, in 
 Western phrase, a " six-forty." Jackson appears fre 
 quently in the records of the years named as the pur 
 chaser and assignee of sections of land. He bought six 
 hundred and fifty acres of the fine tract which afterward 
 formed the Hermitage farm for eight hundred dollars 
 a high price for that day. By the time that Tennessee 
 entered the Union, in 1796, Jackson was a very extensive 
 landowner, and a man of fair estate for a frontiers 
 man. 
 
 The office of public prosecutor, held by Andrew 
 Jackson during the first seven or eight years of his resi 
 dence in Tennessee, was one that a man of only ordinary 
 nerve and courage could not have filled. It set in array 
 against him all the scoundrels in the Territory. Those 
 
24 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 were the times when a notorious criminal would defy 
 the officers of justice, and keep them at bay for years at 
 a time; when a district attorney who made himself too 
 officious was liable to a shot in the back as he rode to 
 court ; when two men, not satisfied with the court s 
 award, would come out of the court-house into the pub 
 lic square and fight it out in the presence of the whole 
 population, judge and jury, perhaps, looking on ; when 
 the public prosecutor was apt to be regarded as the man 
 whose office it was to spoil good sport and interfere be 
 tween gentlemen. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 IN PUBLIC LIFE, AND AS A MAN OF BUSINESS. 
 
 IN November, 1795, tne Governor of the Territory 
 announced, as the result of a census ordered by the Legis 
 lature, that Tennessee contained seventy-seven thousand 
 two hundred and sixty-two inhabitants, of whom ten 
 thousand six hundred and thirteen were slaves. He 
 therefore called upon the people to elect delegates to 
 a convention for making a Constitution, and named Jan 
 uary n, 1796, as the day for their assembling at Knox- 
 ville. The convention met accordingly, fifty-five mem 
 bers in all, five from each of the eleven counties. The 
 five members sent from Davidson County were John 
 McNairy, Andrew Jackson, James Robertson, Thomas 
 Hardeman, and Joel Lewis. 
 
 The State was promptly organized. A Legislature 
 was elected, and " Citizen John Sevier," we are officially 
 informed, was chosen the first Governor. On the ist of 
 June, 1796, Tennessee became the sixteenth member 
 of the confederacy. Three presidential electors were 
 chosen, who cast the vote of the State for Jefferson and 
 Burr. As yet, Tennessee was entitled to but one mem 
 ber of the House of Representatives. Early in the fall 
 of 1796 Andrew Jackson was elected by the people to 
 serve them in that honorable capacity. Soon after for 
 the journey was a long one, and more difficult than long 
 he mounted his horse and set out for Philadelphia, 
 distant nearly eight hundred miles. 
 
2 6 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 The member from Tennessee reached Philadelphia 
 at one of those periods of commercial depression to 
 which the country has always been liable. The finan 
 cial reader is aware that the suspension of specie pay 
 ments by the Bank of England, which lasted twenty-two 
 years, began in February, 1797, about two months after 
 Jackson s arrival in Philadelphia. 
 
 On the third day of the session, a quorum of the 
 Senate having reached Philadelphia, and both Houses 
 being assembled in the Representatives chamber, Jack 
 son saw General Washington, an august and venerable 
 form, enter the chamber and deliver his last speech to 
 Congress; heard him recommend the gradual creation 
 of a navy for the protection of American commerce in 
 the Mediterranean against the pirates of Algiers ; heard 
 him modestly almost timidly suggest that American 
 manufactures ought to be at least so far encouraged 
 and aided by Government as to render the country inde 
 pendent of foreign nations in time of war ; heard him 
 recommend the establishment of boards of agriculture, 
 a national university, and a military academy ; heard 
 him mildly object to the policy of paying low salaries to 
 high officers, to the exclusion from high office of all but 
 men of fortune ; and heard him denounce the spoliations 
 of our commerce by cruisers sailing under the flag of 
 the French Republic. 
 
 At that day it was customary for each House to pre 
 pare, and in person deliver, a formal reply to the Presi 
 dent s opening speech. An address was drawn up which 
 concluded with a series of paragraphs highly eulogistic 
 not merely of the retiring President but of his adminis 
 tration. The more radical Democrats, of whom Jackson 
 was one, objected, and, after two days animated discus 
 sion, Edward Livingston brought the debate to an end 
 by distinctly moving to strike out the words, " wise, 
 
IN PUBLIC LIFE, AND AS A MAN OF BUSINESS. 2] 
 
 firm, and patriotic administration ", and to insert in 
 their place, " your firmness, wisdom, and patriotism." 
 The question was taken on Mr. Livingston s amend 
 ment, and decided in the negative. The whole address 
 was then read with the slight amendments previously 
 ordered, and the question was about to be submitted as 
 to its final acceptance, when Mr. Thomas Blount, of 
 North Carolina, demanded the yeas and nays, in order 
 that posterity might see that he did not consent to the 
 address. The yeas and nays were then taken, with this 
 result : For accepting the address, sixty-seven votes ; 
 against its acceptance, twelve. The following gentle 
 men voted against it : Thomas Blount, Isaac Coles, Wil 
 liam B. Giles, Christopher Greenup, James Holland, An 
 drew Jackson, Edward Livingston, Matthew Locke, 
 William Lyman, Samuel Maclay, Nathaniel Macon, and 
 Abraham Venable. 
 
 Jackson s vote on this occasion merely shows that in 
 1796 he belonged to the most radical wing of the Jeffer- 
 sonian party, the * Mountain " of the House of Repre 
 sentatives. 
 
 On Thursday, December 29, 1796, the member from 
 Tennessee first addressed the House. In 1793, while 
 Tennessee was still a Territory under the Federal Gov 
 ernment, General Sevier, induced thereto by extreme 
 provocation and the imminent peril of the settlements, 
 led an expedition against the Indians without waiting 
 for the authorization of the General Government. One 
 of those who served on this expedition was a young 
 student by the name of Hugh L. White, afterward judge, 
 senator, and candidate for the presidency. Young 
 White killed a great chief, the Kingfisher, in battle. 
 After the return of the expedition it became a question 
 whether the Government would pay the expenses of an 
 expedition which it had not authorized. To test the 
 
28 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 question, Hugh L. White sent a petition to Congress 
 asking compensation for his services. On the day 
 named above the subject came before the Committee of 
 the Whole House, when a report on Mr. White s petition, 
 from the Secretary of War, was read. The report re 
 counted the facts, and added that it was for the House 
 to decide whether the provocation and danger were 
 such as to justify the calling out of the troops. Where 
 upon " Mr. A. Jackson," in a few energetic remarks, 
 defended the claims of his fellow-citizens. The debate 
 continued for a considerable time, Jackson occasionally 
 interposing explanations, and replying to the objections 
 of members. The result of his exertions was, that the 
 subject was referred to a select committee of five, Mr. A. 
 Jackson chairman ; who reported, of course, in favor of 
 the petitioner, and recommended that the sum of twenty- 
 two thousand eight hundred and sixteen dollars be ap 
 propriated for the payment of the troops, which was 
 done. 
 
 The member from Tennessee did not again address 
 the House of Representatives. His name appears in the 
 records thenceforth only in the lists of yeas and nays. 
 
 Congress adjourned on the 3d of March, and An 
 drew Jackson took a final farewell of the House, for at 
 the war session of the following summer he did not ap 
 pear. His conduct in the House of Representatives was 
 keenly approved by Tennesseeans. 
 
 A vacancy in the Senate of the United States occur 
 ring this year, Andrew Jackson received the appoint 
 ment, and returned to Philadelphia in the autumn gf 
 1797, a Senator. 
 
 In April, 1798, Senator Jackson asked and obtained 
 leave of absence for the remainder of the session. He 
 went home to Nashville, and immediately resigned his 
 seat in the Senate. 
 
IN PUBLIC LIFE, AND AS A MAN OF BUSINESS. 29 
 
 Early in the year 1798, then, Andrew Jackson re 
 turned to his home on the banks of the Cumberland, a 
 private citizen, and intending to remain such. But it 
 seems he could not yet be spared from public life. Soon 
 after his return to Tennessee he was elected by the Legis 
 lature to a seat on the bench of the Supreme Court of 
 the State a post which he said he accepted in obedience 
 to his favorite maxim, that the citizen of a free com 
 monwealth should never seek and never decline public 
 duty. The office assigned him was next in considera 
 tion, as in emolument, to that of Governor ; the Govern 
 or s salary being seven hundred and fifty dollars a year, 
 and the judge s six hundred. He retained the judgeship 
 for six years, holding courts in due succession at Jones- 
 boro, Knoxville, Nashville, and at places of less im 
 portance, dispensing the best justice of which he was 
 master. 
 
 It was while Jackson was judge of the Supreme Court 
 of Tennessee that his feud with Governor Sevier came to 
 an issue. First, there was a coolness between the two 
 men ; then altercations ; then total estrangement ; then 
 loud, recriminating talk on both sides, reported to both ; 
 then various personal encounters, of which I heard in 
 Tennessee so many different accounts that I was con 
 vinced no one knew anything about them. At last, in 
 the year 1801, Jackson gained an advantage over Sevier 
 which was peculiarly calculated to wound, disgust, and 
 exasperate the impetuous old soldier, victor in so many 
 battles. Sevier was then out of office. The major-gen 
 eralship of militia was vacant, and the two belligerents 
 were candidates for the post, which at that time was 
 keenly coveted by the very first men in the State. Nor 
 was it then merely an affair of title, regimentals, and 
 showy gallopings on the days of general muster. There 
 were then Indians to be kept in awe, as well as constant 
 
3 o GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 rumors and threatenings of war with France or England. 
 The office of major-general was in the gift of the field 
 officers, who were empowered by the Constitution to se 
 lect their chief. The canvassings and general agitation 
 which preceded the election on this occasion may be im 
 agined. The day came. The election was held. There 
 was a tie, an equal number of votes being cast for Jack 
 son and Sevier. In such a conjuncture the Governor of 
 the State, being, from his office, commander-in-chief of 
 the militia, had a casting vote. Governor Roane gave 
 his vote for Jackson, who thus became the major-gen 
 eral, to the discomfiture of the other competitor. 
 
 Jackson, as we have seen, accepted the judgeship of 
 the Supreme Court, intending to carry on the business 
 of a merchant, and to snatch time enough between his 
 courts to make an occasional journey to Philadelphia 
 for the purchase of a fresh supply of goods. For a 
 while all went well with him; but eventually came the 
 crash and panic of 1798 and 1799. Notice was for 
 warded to Jackson to provide for the payment of the 
 notes with which he had bought his stock of goods. 
 This was a staggering blow, not only because the 
 amount of the loss was large, but because the notes 
 had to be paid in money real money, money that was 
 current in Philadelphia which, of all commodities, was 
 the one most scarce in the new States of the far West. 
 To the honor of Andrew Jackson be it recorded, that 
 each of these large notes was paid, principal and in 
 terest, on the day of its maturity. 
 
 Andrew Jackson was a man singularly averse to any 
 thing complicated, and of all complications the one un 
 der which he was most restive was debt. So, about the 
 year 1804, he resolved upon simplifying or "straighten 
 ing out " his affairs and commencing life anew. He re 
 signed his judgeship. He sold his house and improved 
 
IN PUBLIC LIFE, AND AS A MAN OF BUSINESS. 3! 
 
 farm on Hunter s Hill. He sold twenty-five thousand 
 acres, more or less, of his wild lands in other parts of 
 the State. He paid off all his debts. He removed with 
 his negroes, to the place now known as the Hermitage, 
 and lived once more in a house of logs. He went more 
 extensively into mercantile business than ever. 
 
 Jackson was now a man with many irons in the fire. 
 First, there was his farm, cultivated by slaves, superin 
 tended by Mrs. Jackson in the absence of her lord. The 
 large family of slaves, one hundred and fifty in number, 
 of which he died possessed, were mostly descended from 
 the few that he owned in his storekeeping days. He 
 was a vigilant and successful farmer. To use the lan 
 guage of the South, " He made good crops." He was 
 proud of a well-cultivated field. Every visitor was in 
 vited to go the rounds of his farm and see his cotton, 
 corn, and wheat, his horses, cows, and mules. He had 
 also a backwoodsman s skill in repairing and contriv 
 ing, and spent many a day in putting an old plow in 
 order or finishing off a new cabin. 
 
 On his plantation he had a cotton gin, a rarity at 
 that day, upon which there was a special tax of twenty 
 dollars a year. The tax-books of Davidson County show 
 that in 1804 there were but twenty-four gins in the 
 county, of which Andrew Jackson was the owner of one. 
 This cotton gin served to clean his own cotton, the cot 
 ton of his neighbors, and that which he took in exchange 
 for goods. 
 
 General Jackson s fine horses were also a source of 
 profit to him. At that period a good horse was among 
 the pioneer s first necessities and most valued posses 
 sions; and to this day the horse is a creature of far 
 more importance at the South, where every one rides 
 and must ride on horseback, than at the North, where 
 riding is the luxury of the few. 
 
32 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 Soon after Jackson left the bench he set off for a 
 tour in Virginia, then universally renowned for her breed 
 of horses, with the sole object of procuring the most 
 perfect horse in the country. The far-famed Truxton 
 was the result of this journey Truxton, winner of many 
 a well-contested race and progenitor of a line of Trux- 
 tons highly prized in Tennessee to this hour. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 DUEL WITH CHARLES DICKINSON. 
 
 THE Revolutionary War introduced among the people 
 of rustic America the practice of resorting to arms for 
 the settlement of quarrels. Every man who had worn a 
 sash or even shouldered a musket in that contest seems 
 to have hugged the delusion that he was thenceforth 
 subject to the code of honor. He retained the title and 
 affected the tone of a soldier. I call it affectation, be 
 lieving that no man with Saxon blood dominant in his 
 veins ever yet fought a duel without being distinctly 
 conscious that he was doing a very silly thing. Yet 
 there never existed a people so given to dueling and 
 other domestic battling as the people of the South and 
 West from 1790 to 1810. In Charleston, about the year 
 1800, we are told, there was a club of duelists, in which 
 every man took precedence according to the number of 
 times he had been " out " so difficult was it for the 
 duelists to support the reproaches of their own good 
 sense. " I believe," says General William Henry Harri 
 son, " that there were more duels in the Northwestern 
 army between the years 1791 and 1795 than ever took 
 place in the same length of time, and among so small a 
 body of men as composed the commissioned officers of 
 the army, either in America or any other country." 
 
 As late as 1834, Miss Martineau tells us there were 
 more duels fought in the city of New Orleans than there 
 are days in the year " fifteen on one Sunday morning " ; 
 
34 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 "one hundred and two between the ist of January and 
 the end of April." 
 
 In the interior settlements, if dueling was rarer, fight 
 ing of a less formal and deadly character was so com 
 mon as to excite scarcely any notice or remark. It was 
 taken for granted, apparently, that whenever a number 
 of men were gathered together for any purpose what 
 ever there must be fighting. The meetings of the Legis 
 lature, the convening of courts, the assemblages out of 
 doors for religious purposes, were all alike the occa 
 sion both of single combats and general fights. " The 
 exercises of a market day," says the Rev. Mr. Milburn, 
 " were usually varied by political speeches, a sheriff s 
 sale, half a dozen free fights, and thrice as many horse- 
 swaps." 
 
 Let most of the old Jacksonian quarrels pass into 
 oblivion. Some of them, however, were of such a na 
 ture, and are so notorious, that they can not be omitted 
 in any fair account of his career. We have now arrived 
 at one of these. The series of trivial and absurd events 
 which led to the horrible tragedy of the Dickinson duel 
 events which, but for that tragic ending, would be noth 
 ing more than amusing illustrations of the manners of a 
 past age now claim our attention. 
 
 For the autumn races of 1805, a great match was ar 
 ranged between General Jackson s Truxton and Captain 
 Joseph Ervin s Plowboy. The stakes were two thousand 
 dollars, payable on the day of the race in notes, which 
 notes were to be then due; forfeit, eight hundred dollars. 
 Six persons were interested in this race : on Truxton s 
 side, General Jackson, Major W. P. Anderson, Major Ver- 
 rell, and Captain Pryor ; on the side of Plowboy, Captain 
 Ervin and his son-in-law, Charles Dickinson. Before 
 the day appointed for the race arrived Ervin and Dick 
 inson decided to pay the forfeit and withdraw their 
 
DUEL WITH CHARLES DICKINSON. 
 
 35 
 
 horse, which was amicably done, and the affair was sup 
 posed to be at an end. 
 
 About this time a report reached General Jackson s 
 ears that Charles Dickinson had uttered disparaging 
 words of Mrs. Jackson, which was with Jackson the sin 
 not to be pardoned. Dickinson was a lawyer by profes 
 sion, but, like Jackson, speculated in produce, horses, 
 and, it is said, in slaves. He was well connected, pos 
 sessed considerable property, and had a large circle of 
 gay friends. He is represented as a somewhat wild, dis 
 sipated young man, yet not unamiable, nor disposed 
 wantonly to wound the feelings of others. When excited 
 by drink, or by any other cause, he was prone to talk 
 loosely and swear violently, as drunken men will. He 
 had the reputation of being the best shot in Tennessee. 
 Upon hearing this report, General Jackson called on 
 Dickinson and asked him if he had used the language 
 attributed to him. Dickinson replied that if he had, it 
 must have been when he was drunk. Further explana 
 tions and denials removed all ill feeling from General 
 Jackson s mind, and they separated in a friendly manner. 
 
 A second time, it is said, Dickinson uttered offensive 
 words respecting Mrs. Jackson in a tavern at Nashville, 
 which were duly conveyed by some meddling parasite 
 to General Jackson. Jackson, I am told, then went to 
 Captain Ervin and advised him to exert his influence 
 over his son-in-law, and induce him to restrain his 
 tongue and comport himself like a gentleman in his 
 cups. "I wish no quarrel with him," said Jackson; "he 
 is used by my enemies in Nashville, who are urging him 
 on to pick a quarrel with me. Advise him to stop in 
 time." It appears, however, that enmity grew between 
 these two men. In January, 1806, when the events oc 
 curred that are now to be related, there was the worst 
 possible feeling between them. 
 
36 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 Deadly enmity existing between Jackson and Dickin 
 son, a very trivial event was sufficient to bring them 
 into collision. A young lawyer of Nashville, named 
 Swann, misled by false information, circulated a report 
 that Jackson had accused the owners of Plowboy of pay 
 ing their forfeit in notes other than those which had 
 been agreed upon notes less valuable because not due 
 at the date of settling. General Jackson, in one of his 
 letters to Mr. Swann, went out of his way to assail 
 Charles Dickinson by name, calling him " a base pol 
 troon and cowardly talebearer," requesting Swann to 
 show Dickinson these offensive words, and offering to 
 meet him in the field if he desired satisfaction for the 
 same. Upon reading the letter, Dickinson published a 
 card which contained these words : 
 
 " I declare him, notwithstanding he is a major-gen 
 eral of the militia of Mero district, to be a worthless 
 scoundrel, a poltroon and a coward a man who, by 
 frivolous and evasive pretexts, avoided giving the satis 
 faction which was due to a gentleman whom he had in 
 jured. This has prevented me from calling on him in 
 the manner I should otherwise have done, for I am well 
 convinced that he is too great a coward to administer 
 any of those anodynes he promised me in his letter to 
 Mr. Swann." 
 
 Jackson instantly challenged Dickinson. The chal 
 lenge was promptly accepted. Friday, May 30, 1806, 
 was the day appointed for the meeting ; the weapons, 
 pistols; the place, a spot on the banks of the Red River, 
 in Kentucky. 
 
 The place appointed for the meeting was a long day s 
 ride from Nashville. Thursday morning, before the 
 dawn of day, Dickinson stole from the side of his young 
 and beautiful wife, and began silently to prepare for the 
 journey. 
 
DUEL WITH CHARLES DICKINSON. 
 
 37 
 
 He mounted his horse and repaired to the rendezvous 
 where his second and half a dozen of the gay blades of 
 Nashville were waiting to escort him on his journey. 
 Away they rode, in the highest spirits, as though they 
 were upon a party of pleasure. Indeed, they made a 
 party of pleasure of it. When they stopped for rest or 
 refreshment, Dickinson is said to have amused the com 
 pany by displaying his wonderful skill with the pistol. 
 Once, at a distance of twenty-four feet, he fired four 
 balls, each at the word of command, into a space that 
 could be covered by a silver dollar. Several times he 
 cut a string with his bullet from the same distance. It 
 is said that he left a severed string hanging near a tavr 
 ern, and said to the landlord, as he rode away, " If Gen 
 eral Jackson comes along this road, show him that ! " 
 
 Very different was the demeanor of General Jackson 
 and the party that accompanied him. His second, Gen 
 eral Thomas Overton, an old Revolutionary soldier, 
 .versed in the science and familiar with the practice of 
 dueling, had reflected deeply upon the conditions of the 
 coming combat, with the view to conclude upon the 
 tactics most likely to save his friend from Dickinson s 
 unerring bullet. For this duel was not to be the amus 
 ing mockery that some modern duels have been. This 
 duel was to be real. It was to be an affair in which 
 each man was to strive with his utmost skill to effect the 
 purpose of the occasion disable his antagonist and 
 save his own life. As the principal and the second rode 
 apart from the rest, they discussed all the chances and 
 probabilities with the single aim to decide upon a course 
 which should result in the disabling of Dickinson and 
 the saving of Jackson. The mode of fighting which 
 had been agreed upon was somewhat peculiar. The 
 pistols were to be held downward until the word was 
 given to fire ; then each man was to fire as soon as he 
 4 
 
3 8 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 pleased. With such an arrangement it was scarcely pos 
 sible that both the pistols should be discharged at the 
 same moment. There was a chance, even, that by ex 
 treme quickness of movement one man could bring 
 down his antagonist without himself receiving a shot. 
 The question anxiously discussed between Jackson and 
 Overton was this : Shall we try to get the first shot, or 
 shall we permit Dickinson to have it ? They agreed, at 
 length, that it would be decidedly better to let Dickin 
 son fire first. 
 
 Jackson ate heartily at supper that night, convers 
 ing in a lively, pleasant manner, and smoked his evening 
 pipe as usual. Jacob Smith remembers being exceed 
 ingly well pleased with his guest, and, on learning the 
 cause of his visit, heartily wishing him a safe deliverance. 
 Before breakfast on the next morning the whole party 
 mounted and rode down the road that wound close 
 along the picturesque banks of the stream. The 
 horsemen rode about a mile along the river, then 
 turned down toward the river to a point on the bank 
 where they had expected to find a ferryman. No ferry 
 man appearing, Jackson spurred his horse into the 
 stream and dashed across, followed by all his party. 
 They rode into the poplar forest two hundred yards or 
 less, to a spot near the center of a level platform or 
 river bottom, then covered with forest, now smiling with 
 cultivated fields. The horsemen halted and dismount 
 ed just before reaching the appointed place. Jackson, 
 Overton, and a surgeon who had come with them from 
 home walked on together, and the rest led their horses 
 a short distance in an opposite direction. 
 
 " How do you feel about it now, general ? " asked 
 one of the party, as Jackson turned to go. 
 
 " Oh, all right," replied Jackson, gayly ; " I shall 
 wing him, never fear." 
 
DUEL WITH CHARLES DICKINSON. 
 
 39 
 
 Dickinson s second won the choice of position, and 
 Jackson s the office of giving the word. The astute 
 Overton considered this giving of the word a matter of 
 great importance, and he had already determined how 
 he would give it if the lot fell to him. The eight paces 
 were measured off and the men placed. Both were 
 perfectly collected. All the politenesses of such occa 
 sions were very strictly and elegantly performed. Jack 
 son was dressed in a loose frock-coat, buttoned carelessly 
 over his chest and concealing in some degree the ex 
 treme slenderness of his figure. Dickinson was the 
 younger and handsomer man of the two. But Jackson s 
 tall, erect figure, and the intensity of his demeanor, it 
 is said, gave him a most superior and commanding air, 
 as he stood under the tall poplars on this bright May 
 morning, silently awaiting the moment. 
 
 " Are you ready ? " said Overton. 
 
 " I am ready," replied Dickinson. 
 
 " I am ready," said Jackson. 
 
 The words were no sooner pronounced than Overton, 
 with a sudden shout, cried, using his old-country pro 
 nunciation : 
 
 " FERE ! " 
 
 Dickinson raised his pistol quickly and fired. Over- 
 ton, who was looking with anxiety and dread at Jackson, 
 saw a puff of dust fly from the breast of his coat, and 
 saw him raise his left arm and place.it tightly across his 
 chest. He is surely hit, thought Overton, and in a bad 
 place, too. But no ; he does not fall. He raised his 
 pistol. Overton glanced at Dickinson. Amazed at the 
 unwonted failure of his aim, and apparently appalled at 
 the awful figure and face before him, Dickinson had un 
 consciously recoiled a pace or two. 
 
 " Great God ! " he faltered, " have I missed 
 him ? " 
 
4 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 " Back to the MARK, sir ! " shrieked Overton with his 
 hand upon his pistol. 
 
 Dickinson recovered his composure, stepped forward 
 to the peg, and stood with his eyes averted from his an 
 tagonist. All this was the work of a moment, though it 
 requires many words to tell it. 
 
 General Jackson took deliberate aim and pulled the 
 trigger. The pistol neither snapped nor went off. He 
 looked at the trigger, and discovered that it had stopped 
 at half-cock. He drew it back to its place and took 
 aim a second time. He fired. Dickinson s face blanched ; 
 He reeled ; his friends rushed toward him, caught him in 
 their arms, and gently seated him on the ground, lean 
 ing against a bush. They stripped off his clothes. The 
 blood was gushing from his side in a torrent. The ball 
 had passed through the body, below the ribs. Such a 
 wound could not but be fatal. 
 
 Overton went forward and learned the condition of 
 the wounded man. Rejoining his principal, he said, 
 He won t want anything more of you, general," and 
 conducted him from the ground. They had gone a hun 
 dred yards, Overton walking on one side of Jackson, 
 the surgeon on the other, and neither speaking a word, 
 when the surgeon observed that one of Jackson s shoes 
 was full of blood. 
 
 "My God! General Jackson, are you hit? "he ex 
 claimed, pointing to the blood. 
 
 "Oh! I believe," replied Jackson, "that he has 
 pinked me a little. Let s look at it. But say nothing 
 about it there," pointing to the house. 
 
 He opened his coat. Dickinson s aim had been 
 perfect. He had sent the ball precisely where he sup 
 posed Jackson s heart was beating. But the thinness of 
 his body and the looseness of his coat combining to de 
 ceive Dickinson, the ball had only broken a rib or two 
 
DUEL WITH CHARLES DICKINSON. 4 j 
 
 and raked the breast-bone. It was a somewhat painful, 
 bad-looking wound, but neither severe nor dangerous; 
 and he was able to ride to the tavern without much in 
 convenience. Upon approaching the house he went up 
 to one of the negro women who was churning and asked 
 her if the butter had come. She said it was just coming. 
 He asked for some buttermilk. While she was getting 
 it for him she observed him furtively open his coat and 
 look within it. She saw that his shirt was soaked with 
 frlood, and she stood gazing in blank horror at the sight, 
 dipper in hand. He caught her eye, and hastily but 
 toned his coat again. She dipped out a quart measure 
 full of buttermilk and gave it to him. He drank it off 
 at a draught ; then went in, took off his coat, and had 
 his wound carefully examined and dressed. That done, 
 he dispatched one of his retinue to Dr. Catlett, to in 
 quire respecting the condition of Dickinson, and to say 
 that the surgeon attending himself would be glad to 
 contribute his aid toward Mr. Dickinson s relief. Polite 
 reply was returned that Mr. Dickinson s case was past 
 surgery. In the course of the day General Jackson sent 
 a bottle of wine to Dr. Catlett for the use of his patient. 
 
 But there was one gratification which Jackson could 
 not, even in such circumstances, grant him. A very old 
 friend of General Jackson writes to me thus: "Although 
 the general had been wounded, he did not desire it 
 should be known until he had left the neighborhood, 
 and had therefore concealed it at first from his own 
 friends. His reason for this, as he once stated to me, 
 was, that as Dickinson considered himself the best shot 
 in the world, and was certain of killing him at the first 
 fire, he did not want him to have the gratification even 
 of knowing that he had touched him." 
 
 Poor Dickinson bled to death. 
 
 General Jackson s wound proved to be more severe 
 
42 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 and troublesome than was at first anticipated. It was 
 nearly a month before he could move about without in 
 convenience, and when the wound healed it healed 
 falsely ; that is, some of the viscera were slightly dis 
 placed, and so remained. Twenty years after, this for 
 gotten wound forced itself upon his remembrance, and 
 kept itself there for many a year. 
 
 It is not true, as has been alleged, that this duel did 
 not affect General Jackson s popularity in Tennessee. 
 Jt followed quick upon his feud with Governor Sevier, 
 and both quarrels told against him in many quarters 
 of the State. And though there were large numbers 
 whom the nerve and courage which he had displayed 
 in the duel blinded to all considerations of civilization 
 and morality, yet it is certain that at no time between 
 the years 1806 and 1812 could General Jackson have 
 been elected to any office in Tennessee that required 
 a majority of the voters of the whole State. Beyond 
 the circle of his own friends, which was large, there 
 existed a very general impression that he was a violent, 
 overbearing, passionate man. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 AT HOME. 
 
 BETWEEN the fighting of this bloody duel and the 
 beginning of the War of 1812 there is not much to re 
 late of General Jackson. A few incidents and anecdotes 
 of his private life may detain us a moment from the stir 
 ring scenes of his military career. 
 
 He removed, as we have before related, from Hunt 
 er s Hill, about the year 1804, to the adjoining estate, 
 which he named the Hermitage. The spacious mansion 
 now standing on that estate, in which he resided during 
 the last twenty-five years of his life, was not built until 
 about the year 1819. A square, two-story blockhouse 
 was General Jackson s first dwelling-place on the Her 
 mitage farm. This house, like many others of its class, 
 contained three rooms one on the ground floor and 
 two upstairs. To this house was soon added a smaller 
 one, which stood about twenty feet from the principal 
 structure, and was connected with it by a covered pas 
 sage. This was General Jackson s establishment from 
 1804 to 1819. 
 
 In an establishment so restricted General Jackson 
 and his good-hearted wife continued to dispense a most 
 generous hospitality. A lady of Nashville told me that 
 she has often been at the Hermitage in those simple old 
 times, when there was in each of the four available 
 rooms not a guest merely but a family; .while the 
 young men and solitary travelers who chanced to drop 
 
44 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 in disposed of themselves on the piazza, or any other 
 half shelter about the house. " Put down in your book," 
 said one of General Jackson s oldest neighbors, " that 
 the general was the prince of hospitality; not because 
 he entertained a great many people, but because the 
 poor, belated peddler was as welcome as the President 
 of the United States, and made so much at his ease that 
 he felt as though he had got home." 
 
 On May 29, 1805, Colonel Burr, then making his first 
 tour of the Western country, visited the thriving frontier 
 town of Nashville. Throughout the West Burr was re 
 ceived as the great man, and nowhere with such distinc 
 tion as at Nashville. People poured in from the adjacent 
 country to see and welcome so renowned a personage. 
 Flags, cannons, and martial music contributed to the 
 Mat of his reception. An extemporized but superabun 
 dant dinner concluded the ceremonies, in the course of 
 which Burr addressed the multitude with the serious 
 grace that usually marked his demeanor in public. Could 
 Jackson be absent from such an ovation Jackson, who 
 had been with the great man in Congress, and worked 
 in concert with him for Tennessee ? On the morning of 
 this bright day General Jackson mounted one of his 
 finest horses and rode to Nashville, attended by a servant 
 leading a milk-white mare. In the course of the dinner 
 General Jackson gave a toast, " Millions for defense, 
 but not one cent for tribute!" and when Colonel Burr 
 retired from the apartment General Overton proposed 
 his health to the company. General Jackson returned 
 home at the close of the day, accompanied by Colonel 
 Burr, who was to be his guest during his stay in that 
 vicinity. Burr remained only five days at the Hermit 
 age, but promised to make a longer visit on his return. 
 
 On August 6, 1805, Burr visited the Hermitage 
 again on his return from New Orleans, as he had prom- 
 
AT HOME. 
 
 45 
 
 ised. Of this visit, which lasted eight days, we have 
 no knowledge except that derived from Burr s diary : 
 "Arrived at Nashville on the 6th August. For a week 
 I have been lounging at the house of General Jackson, 
 once a lawyer, after a judge, now a planter; a man of 
 intelligence, and one of those prompt, frank, ardent 
 souls whom I love to meet. The general has no chil 
 dren, but two lovely nieces made a visit of some days, 
 contributed greatly to my amusement, and have cured 
 me of all the evils of my wilderness jaunt. If I had 
 time I would describe to you these two girls, for they 
 deserve it. To-morrow I move on toward Lexington." 
 There is no doubt as to the topic upon which Colonel 
 Burr and General Jackson chiefly conversed on this oc 
 casion. There was but one topic then in the Western 
 country the threatened war with Spain. 
 
 Colonel Burr returned to the East. Months passed, 
 during which Jackson and Burr occasionally corre 
 sponded. 
 
 In September, 1806, three months after the duel with 
 Dickinson, Colonel Burr was again the guest of General 
 Jackson. On this occasion he had brought to the West 
 ern country, and left on Blennerhassett Island, his daugh 
 ter Theodosia, intending never again to return to the 
 Eastern States. He was in the full tide of preparation 
 for descending to the lower country. The morning 
 after his arrival at the Hermitage, General Jackson, on 
 hospitable thoughts intent, wrote to a friend in Nash 
 ville the following note : "Colonel Burr is with me ; he 
 arrived last night. I would be happy if you would call 
 and see the colonel before you return. Say to General 
 O. that I shall expect to see him here on to-morrow with 
 you. Would it not be well for us to do something as a 
 mark of attention to the colonel ? He has always been 
 and is still a true and trusty friend to Tennessee. If Gen- 
 
4 6 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 eral Robertson is with you when you receive this, be 
 good enough to say to him that Colonel Burr is in the 
 country. I know that General Robertson will be happy 
 in joining in anything that will tend to show a mark of 
 respect to this worthy visitant." 
 
 After a stay of a few days Colonel Burr left Ten 
 nessee to take up the threads of his enterprise in Ken 
 tucky and Ohio. 
 
 October passed by. On the 3d of November, Gen 
 eral Jackson, in his character of business man, received 
 from Burr some important orders : one for the building, 
 on Stone s River, at Clover Bottom, of five large boats, 
 such as were then used for descending the Western rivers, 
 and another for the gradual purchase of a large quantity 
 of provisions for transportation in those boats. A sum 
 of money, in Kentucky bank-notes, amounting to three 
 thousand five hundred dollars, accompanied the orders. 
 General Jackson, nothing doubting, and never reluctant 
 to do business, took Burr s letter of directions and the 
 money to his partner, John Coffee, and requested him to 
 contract at once for the boats and prepare for the pur 
 chase of the provisions. Coffee proceeded forthwith to 
 transact the business. I notice, also, that Patton Ander 
 son, one of Jackson s special intimates, was all activity 
 in raising a company of young men to accompany Burr 
 down the river. I observe, too, that Anderson s ex 
 penses were paid out of the money sent by Burr to Jack 
 son ; at least, in the account rendered to Burr by Jackson 
 and Coffee at the final settlement there is an item of 
 seven hundred dollars cash paid to Anderson. Anderson 
 succeeded in getting seventy-five young men to enlist in 
 his company. 
 
 It was not until the icth of November, a week after 
 the receipt of Burr s orders and money, that General 
 Jackson, according to his own account, began to think 
 
AT HOME. 
 
 47 
 
 there might be some truth in the reports which attrib 
 uted to Burr unlawful designs reports which he had 
 previously regarded only as new evidences of the malice 
 of Burr s political enemies and his own. 
 
 But about the date mentioned, while General Jack 
 son and his partners were full of Burr s business, a 
 friend of Jackson s visited the Hermitage, who succeeded 
 in convincing him that some gigantic scheme of iniquity 
 was on foot in the United States a conspiracy for the 
 dismemberment of the Union and that it was possible, 
 nay, almost probable, that Colonel Burr s extensive 
 preparations of boats, provisions, and men had some 
 connection with this nefarious plan. The President s 
 proclamation, denouncing Burr, soon followed. 
 
 It fell to the lot of General Jackson, as commanding 
 officer of militia, to take the lead in the measures de 
 signed to procure the arrest of Burr and his confeder 
 ates. The general made great exertions to accomplish 
 this object, but Burr had gone beyond pursuit. It was 
 widely believed at the time that General Jackson was 
 involved in the unlawful part of Burr s schemes, but 
 there was not the slightest ground for such a belief, and 
 nothing can be more complete than the chain of testi 
 mony that establishes his innocence. A few months 
 later we find him at Richmond, whither he had been 
 summoned as a witness in the trial of Burr. There he 
 harangued the crowd in the Capitol Square, defending 
 Burr, and angrily denouncing Jefferson as a persecutor. 
 He made himself so conspicuous as Burr s champion at 
 Richmond, that Mr. Madison, the Secretary of State, 
 took offense at it, and remembered it to Jackson s dis 
 advantage five years later, when he was President of the 
 United States, with a war on his hands. For the same 
 reason, I presume, it was that Jackson was not called 
 upon to give testimony upon the trial. Burr, it seems, 
 
48 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 was equally satisfied with Jackson. Blennerhasset, in 
 that part of his diary which records his prison intervi-ews 
 with Burr, says : " We passed to the topics of our late 
 adventures on the Mississippi, in which Burr said little, 
 but declared he did not know of any reason to blame 
 General Jackson, of Tennessee, for anything he had done 
 or omitted. But he declares he will not lose a day after 
 the favorable issue at the Capitol (his acquittal) of 
 which he has no doubt to direct his entire attention to 
 setting up his projects (which have only been suspended) 
 on a better model, in which work, he says, * he has 
 even here made some progress. " Jackson, on his part, 
 went all lengths in defense of Burr ; nor was it possible 
 for him to support any man in any other way. Toward 
 Wilkinson, whom he regarded as the betrayer of Burr, 
 his anger burned with such fury, that if the two men had 
 met in a place convenient the meeting could hardly 
 have had any other result than a " difficulty." 
 
 About the year 1809 it chanced that twins were born 
 to one of Mrs. Jackson s brothers, Savern Donelson. 
 The mother, not in perfect health, was scarcely able to 
 sustain both these newcomers. Mrs. Jackson, partly to 
 relieve her sister and partly with the wish to provide a 
 son and heir for her husband, took one of the infants, 
 when it was but a few days old, home to the Hermitage. 
 The general soon became extremely fond of the boy, 
 gave him his own name, adopted him, and treated him 
 thenceforth, to the last hour of his life, not as a son 
 merely but as an only son. This boy was the late 
 Andrew Jackson, inheritor of the general s estate and 
 name, master of the Hermitage until it became the 
 property of the State of Tennessee. A few years later 
 another little nephew of Mrs. Jackson s, the well-known 
 Andrew Jackson Donelson, became an inmate of the 
 Hermitage, and was educated by General Jackson. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 IN THE FIELD. 
 
 AT the beginning of the War of i&i2 there was not a 
 militia general in the Western country less likely to re 
 ceive a commission from the General Government than 
 Andrew Jackson. There were unpleasant traditions and 
 recollections connected with his name in Mr. Madison s 
 Cabinet, as we know. 
 
 There were those, however, who were strongly con 
 vinced that General Jackson was the very man, of all 
 who lived in the valley of the Mississippi, to be intrusted 
 with its defense. Aaron Burr thought so for one. He 
 had just returned to New York, after his four years 
 exile, when the war began. " I know," said Colonel 
 Burr, " that my word is not worth much with Madison ; 
 but you may tell him from me that there is an unknown 
 man in the West, named Andrew Jackson, who will do 
 credit to a commission in the army if conferred on him." 
 This remarkable prediction of what was soon verified, 
 and proof of Burr s knowledge of the then obscure indi 
 vidual he recommended to notice, occurred before Gen 
 eral Jackson had probably ever heard a volley of mus 
 ket balls, or performed any part to indicate his future 
 military distinction. 
 
 It was General Jackson s promptitude in tendering 
 his services and the services of his division, and that 
 alone, which softened the repugnance of the President 
 and his Cabinet. The war was declared on the i2th of 
 
50 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 June. Such news is not carried, but flies, and so may 
 have reached Nashville by the 2oth. On the 25th, Gen 
 eral Jackson offered to the President, through Governor 
 Blount, his own services and those of twenty-five hun 
 dred volunteers of his division. A response to the dec 
 laration of war so timely and practical could not but 
 have been extremely gratifying to an administration 
 (never too confident in itself) that was then entering 
 upon a contest to which a powerful minority was op 
 posed, and with a presidential election only four months 
 distant. The reply of the Secretary of War, dated July 
 nth, was as cordial as a communication of the kind 
 could be. The President, he said, had received the ten 
 der of service by General Jackson and the volunteers 
 under his command " with peculiar satisfaction." " In 
 accepting their services," added the Secretary, " the 
 President can not withhold an expression of his admira 
 tion of the zeal and ardor by which they are animated." 
 Governor Blount was evidently more than satisfied with 
 the result of the offer; he publicly thanked General 
 Jackson and the volunteers for the honor they had done 
 the State of Tennessee by making it. 
 
 Thus we find General Jackson s services accepted by 
 the President before hostilities could have seriously be 
 gun. The summer passed, however, and the autumn 
 came, and still he was at home upon his farm. 
 
 After Hull s failure in Canada, fears were entertained 
 that the British would direct their released forces against 
 the ports of the Gulf of Mexico, particularly New Or 
 leans, where General James Wilkinson still commanded. 
 On October 2ist the Governor of Tennessee was re 
 quested to dispatch fifteen hundred of the Tennessee 
 troops to the re-enforcement of General Wilkinson. 
 On November ist Governor Blount issued the requisite 
 orders to General Jackson, who entered at once upon 
 
IN THE FIELD. .5! 
 
 the task of preparing for the descent of the river with 
 his volunteers. 
 
 The loth of December was the day appointed for 
 the troops to rendezvous at Nashville. The climate of 
 Tennessee, generally so pleasant, is liable to brief periods 
 of severe cold. Twice within the memory of living per 
 sons the Cumberland has been frozen over at Nashville, 
 and as often snow has fallen there to the depth of a 
 foot. It so chanced that the day named for the assem 
 bling of the troops was the coldest that had been known 
 at Nashville for many years, and there was deep snow 
 on the ground. Such was the enthusiasm, however, of 
 the volunteers, that more than two thousand presented 
 themselves on the appointed day. The general was no 
 less puzzled than pleased by this alacrity. Nashville 
 was still little more than a large village, not capable of 
 affording the merest shelter to such a concourse of sol 
 diers who, in any weather not extraordinary, would 
 have disdained a roof. There was no resource for the 
 mass of the troops but to camp out. Fortunately, the 
 quartermaster, Major William B. Lewis, had provided a 
 thousand cords of wood for the use of the men a quan 
 tity that was supposed to be sufficient to last till they 
 embarked. Every stick of the wood was burned the 
 first night in keeping the men from freezing. From 
 dark until nearly daylight the general and the quarter 
 master were out among the troops, employed in provid 
 ing for this unexpected and perilous exigency seeing 
 that drunken men were brought within reach of the fire, 
 and that no drowsy sentinel slept the sleep of death. 
 
 The extreme cold soon passed away, however, and 
 the organization of the troops proceeded. In a few days 
 the little army was in readiness : one regiment of cav 
 alry, commanded by Colonel John Coffee, six hundred 
 and seventy in number ; two regiments of infantry, four- 
 
52 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 teen hundred men in all, one regiment commanded by 
 Colonel William Hall, the other by Colonel Thomas H. 
 Benton. Major William B. Lewis, the general s neighbor 
 and friend, was the quartermaster. William Carroll, a 
 young man from Pennsylvania, a new favorite of the 
 general s, was the brigade inspector. The general s aide 
 and secretary was John Reid, long his companion in the 
 field, afterward his biographer. The troops were of the 
 very best material the State afforded planters, business 
 men, their sons and grandsons a large proportion of 
 them descended from Revolutionary soldiers who had 
 settled in great numbers in the beautiful valley of the 
 Cumberland. John Coffee was a host in himself a 
 plain, brave, modest, stalwart man, devoted to his chief, 
 to Tennessee, and to the Union. He had been recently 
 married to Polly Donelson, the daughter of Captain 
 John Donelson, who had given them the farm on which 
 they lived. 
 
 On the yth of January all was ready. The infantry 
 embarked, and the flotilla dropped down the river. Colo 
 nel Coffee and the mounted men marched across the 
 country, and were to rejoin the general at Natchez. " I 
 have the pleasure to inform you," wrote Jackson to the 
 Secretary of War just before leaving home, " that I am 
 now at the head of 2,070 volunteers, the choicest of our 
 citizens, who go at the call of their country to execute 
 the will of the Government, who have no constitutional 
 scruples, and, if the Government orders, will rejoice at 
 the opportunity of placing the American eagle on the 
 ramparts of Mobile, Pensacola, and Fort St. Augustine, 
 effectually banishing from the Southern coasts all British 
 influence." 
 
 Down the Cumberland to the Ohio ; down the Ohio 
 to the Mississippi ; down the Mississippi toward New 
 Orleans ; stopping here and there for supplies ; delayed 
 
IN THE FIELD. 
 
 53 
 
 for days at a time by the ice in the swift Ohio ; ground 
 ing a boat now and then ; losing one altogether the 
 fleet pursued its course, crunching through the floating 
 masses, but making fair progress, for the space of thirty- 
 nine days. 
 
 The weather was often very cold and tempestuous, 
 and the frail boats afforded only an imperfect shelter ; 
 but all the little army, from the general to the privates, 
 were in the highest spirits, and burned with the desire 
 to do their part in restoring the diminished prestige of 
 the American arms ; to atone for the shocking failures 
 of the North by making new conquests at the South. 
 On the i5th of February, at dawn of day, they had left 
 a thousand miles of winding stream behind them, and 
 saw before them the little town of Natchez. The fleet 
 came to. The men were rejoiced to hear that Colonel 
 Coffee and his mounted regiment had already arrived in 
 the vicinity. 
 
 Here General Jackson received a dispatch from Gen 
 eral Wilkinson requesting him to halt at Natchez, as 
 neither quarters nor provisions were ready for them at 
 New Orleans, nor had an enemy yet made his appear 
 ance in the Southern waters. Wilkinson added, that he 
 had received no orders respecting the Tennesseeans, 
 knew not their destination, and should not think of 
 yielding his command " until regularly relieved by su 
 perior authority." Jackson assented to the policy of re 
 maining at Natchez for further instructions; but with 
 regard to General Wilkinson s uneasiness on the ques 
 tion of rank he said, in his reply, "J have marched with 
 the true spirit of a soldier, to serve my country at any 
 and every point where service can be rendered," and 
 " the detachment under my command shall be kept in 
 complete readiness to move to any point at which an 
 enemy may appear, at the shortest notice." So, at 
 5 
 
54 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 Natchez, the troops disembarked, and, encamping in a 
 pleasant and salubrious place a few miles from the 
 town, passed their days in learning the duties of the 
 soldier. 
 
 The month of February passed away and still the 
 army was in camp, employed in nothing more serious 
 than the daily drill. No one knew when they were to 
 move, where they were to go, nor what they were to do. 
 The commanding general was not a little impatient, and 
 even the more placid Colonel Coffee longed to be in 
 action. 
 
 At length, on a Sunday morning toward the end of 
 March, an express from Washington reached the camp, 
 and a letter from the War Department was placed in the 
 general s hands. We can imagine the intensity of feel 
 ing with which he tore it open and gathered its purport, 
 and the fever of excitement which the news of its arrival 
 kindled throughout the camp. The communication was 
 signed " J. Armstrong." Eustis, then, was out of office. 
 Yes, he left the department February 4th, and this let 
 ter was written by the new Secretary two days after. 
 But its contents ? Was it the perusal of this astounding 
 letter that caused the general s hair to stand on end, and 
 remain forever after erect and bristling, unlike the quills 
 upon the fretful porcupine ? Fancy, if you can, the de 
 meanor, attitude, countenance, of this fiery and gener 
 ous soldier, as he read and re-read, with ever-growing 
 wonder and wrath, the following epistle : 
 
 " SIR : The causes of embodying and marching to 
 New Orleans the corps under your command having 
 ceased to exist, you will, on the receipt of this letter, 
 consider it as dismissed from public service, and take 
 measures to have delivered over to Major-General Wil 
 kinson all the articles of public property which may 
 
IN THE FIELD. 
 
 55 
 
 have been put into its possession. You will accept for 
 yourself and the corps the thanks of the President of 
 the United States." 
 
 Dismissed without pay, without means of transport, 
 without provision for the sick ? How could he dismiss 
 men so far from home, to whom, on receiving them 
 from their parents, he had promised to be a father, and 
 either to restore them in honor to their arms, or give 
 them a soldier s burial ? 
 
 His resolution was taken on the instant never to dis 
 band his troops till he had led them back to the borders 
 of their own State ! The very day on which the order 
 arrived the general issued the requisite directions for 
 the preparation of wagons, provisions, and ammunition. 
 On the next day he dispatched letters, indignant and 
 explanatory, to the Secretary of War, to Governor 
 Blount, to the President, and to General Wilkinson. He 
 attributed the strange conduct of the Government to 
 every cause but the right one its own inexperience, and 
 the difficulty of directing operations at places so remote 
 from the seat of Government. 
 
 At the last moment came the orders of the Govern 
 ment (which ought to have accompanied the order to 
 disband) directing the force under General Jackson to 
 be paid off, and allowed pay and rations for the journey 
 home. It was too late. The general was resolved, 
 whatever might betide, to conduct the men back to their 
 homes, in person, as an organized body. " I shall com-- 
 mence the line of march," he wrote to Wilkinson, " on 
 Thursday, the 25th. Should the contractor not feel 
 himself justified in sending on provisions for my in 
 fantry, or the quartermaster wagons for the transporta 
 tion of my sick, I shall dismount the cavalry, carry them 
 on, and provide the means for their support out of my 
 
ij6 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 private funds. If that should fail, I thank my God we 
 have plenty of horses to feed my troops to the Tennes 
 see, where I know my country will meet me with ample 
 supplies. These brave men, at the call of their country, 
 voluntarily rallied round its insulted standard. They 
 followed me to the field. I shall carefully march them 
 back to their homes. It is for the agents of the Govern 
 ment to account to the State of Tennessee and the whole 
 world for their singular and unusual conduct to this de 
 tachment." 
 
 This resolve of his to disobey his Government for 
 their sakes, and the manner in which he executed that re 
 solve, raised his popularity to the highest point. When 
 the little army set out from Natchez for a march of five 
 hundred miles through the wilderness, there were a hun 
 dred and fifty men on the sick list, of whom fifty-six 
 could not raise their heads from the pillow. There were 
 but eleven wagons for the conveyance of these. The 
 rest of the sick were mounted on the horses of the offi 
 cers. The general had three excellent horses, and gave 
 them all up to the sick men, himself trudging along on 
 foot with the brisk pace that was usual with him. Day 
 after day he tramped gayly along the miry forest roads, 
 never tired, and always ready with a cheery word for 
 the others. They marched with extraordinary speed, 
 averaging eighteen miles a day, and performing the 
 whole journey in less than a month; and yet the sick 
 men rapidly recovered under the reviving influences of 
 a homeward march. " Where am I ? " asked one young 
 fellow who had been lifted to his place in a wagon when 
 insensible and apparently dying. " On your way home ! " 
 cried the general, merrily; and the young soldier began 
 to improve from that hour, and reached home in good 
 health. 
 
 On approaching the borders of the State the general 
 
IN THE FIELD. 
 
 57 
 
 again offered his services to the Government to aid in, 
 or conduct, a new invasion of Canada. His force, he 
 said, could be increased if necessary, and he had a few 
 standards wearing the American eagle that he should be 
 happy to place upon the enemy s ramparts. But the de 
 sired response came not ; and so, on the 22d of May, the 
 last of his army was drawn up on the public square of 
 Nashville waiting only for the word of command to dis 
 perse to their homes. 
 
 The troops were dismissed, exulting in their com 
 mander, and spreading wide the fame of his gallant and 
 graceful conduct. " Long will their general live in the 
 memory of the volunteers of West Tennessee," said the 
 Nashville Whig, a day or two after the troops were dis 
 banded, " for his benevolent, humane, and fatherly treat 
 ment of his soldiers. If gratitude and love can reward 
 him, General Jackson has them. It affords us pleasure 
 to say that we believe there is not a man belonging to 
 the detachment but what loves him. His fellow-citizens 
 at home are not less pleased with his conduct. We 
 fondly hope his merited worth will not be overlooked 
 by the Government." 
 
 These events were not regarded at Washington in 
 the light they were at Nashville. The " Government " 
 came very near making up its mind to let the general 
 bear the responsibilities which he had incurred. Colonel 
 Benton says : " We all returned ; were discharged ; dis 
 persed among our homes, and the fine chance on which 
 we had so much counted was all gone. And now came 
 a blow upon Jackson himself the fruit of the moneyed 
 responsibility which he had assumed. His transporta 
 tion drafts were all protested returned upon him for 
 payment, which was impossible, and directions to bring 
 suit. This was the month of May. I was coming on to 
 Washington on my own account, and cordially took 
 
58 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 charge of Jackson s case. Suits were delayed until the 
 result of his application of relief could be heard. I ar 
 rived at this city. Congress was in session the extra 
 session of the spring and summer of 1813. I applied to 
 the members of Congress from Tennessee ; they could 
 do nothing. I applied to the Secretary of War ; he did 
 nothing. 
 
 " Weeks had passed away, and the time for delay was 
 expiring at Nashville. Ruin seemed to be hovering over 
 the head of Jackson, and I felt the necessity of some 
 decisive movement. I was young then, and had some 
 material in me perhaps some boldness, and the occa 
 sion brought it out. I resolved to take a step, charac 
 terized in the letter which I wrote to the general as an 
 appeal from the justice to the fears of the Administration 
 I remember the words, though I have never seen the let 
 ter since. I drew up a memoir, addressed to the Secretary 
 of War, representing to him that these volunteers were 
 drawn from the bosoms of almost every substantial family 
 in Tennessee ; that the whole State stood by Jackson in 
 bringing them home ; and that the State would be lost 
 to the Administration if he was left to suffer. It was 
 upon this last argument that I relied all those founded 
 on justice having failed. 
 
 " It was on a Saturday morning, June i2th, that I 
 carried this memoir to the War Office and delivered it. 
 Monday morning I came back early to learn the result 
 of my argument. The Secretary was not yet in. I spoke 
 to the chief clerk (who was afterward Adjutant-General 
 Parker), and inquired if the Secretary had left any an 
 swer for me before he left the office on Saturday. He 
 said No, but that he had put the memoir in his side- 
 pocket the breast-pocket and carried it home with 
 him, saying he would take it for his Sunday s considera 
 tion. That encouraged me gave a gleam of hope and 
 
IN THE FIELD. 
 
 59 
 
 a feeling of satisfaction. I thought it a good subject 
 for his Sunday s meditation. Presently he arrived. I 
 stepped in before anybody to his office. 
 
 " He told me quickly and kindly that there was 
 much reason in what I had said, but that there was no 
 way for him to do it ; that Congress would have to give 
 the relief. I answered him that I thought there was a 
 way for him to do it : it was, to give an order to Gen 
 eral Wilkinson, Quartermaster-General in the Southern 
 Department, to pay for so much transportation as Gen 
 eral Jackson s command would have been entitled to if 
 it had returned under regular orders. Upon the instant 
 he took up a pen, wrote down the very words I had 
 spoken, directed a clerk to put them into form, and the 
 work was done. The order went off immediately, and 
 Jackson was relieved from imminent impending ruin 
 and Tennessee remained firm to the Administration." 
 
 Meanwhile, General Jackson was drawn, much against 
 his will, into a " difficulty " with Jesse Benton, a broth 
 er of Colonel Thomas H. Benton, who had just ren 
 dered him so important a service. He had even served 
 as second in a duel between Colonel Carroll and Jesse 
 Benton, in which Benton had been wounded. It hap 
 pened, too, that Colonel Benton heard this strange news 
 at the most unfortunate moment. He had completed 
 his business at Washington, had sent on to Tennessee 
 the news of his great success, and was about to return 
 home, when he heard of this duel, and heard, too, that 
 General Jackson had gone to the field not as his 
 brother s friend but as the second of his brother s an 
 tagonist ! Soon came wild letters from Jesse, so narrat 
 ing the affair as to place the conduct of General Jackson 
 in the worst possible light. Officious friends of the Ben- 
 tons, foes to Jackson and to Carroll, wrote to Colonel 
 Benton in a similar strain, adding fuel to the fire of his 
 
60 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 indignation. Benton wrote to Jackson denouncing his 
 conduct in offensive terms. Jackson replied, in effect, 
 that before addressing him in that manner Colonel Ben- 
 ton should have inquired of him what his conduct really 
 had been not listened to the tales of designing and in 
 terested parties. Benton wrote still more angrily. He 
 said that General Jackson had conducted the duel in a 
 11 savage, unequal, unfair, and base manner." On his 
 way home through Tennessee, especially at Knoxville, 
 he inveighed bitterly and loudly, in public places, against 
 General Jackson, using language such as angry men did 
 use in the Western country fifty years ago. 
 
 Jackson had liked Thomas Benton, and remembered 
 with gratitude his parents, particularly his mother, who 
 had been gracious and good to him when he was a " raw 
 lad " in North Carolina. Jackson was therefore sin 
 cerely unwilling to break with him, and manifested a 
 degree of forbearance which it is a pity he could not 
 have maintained to the end. He took fire at last, threw 
 old friendship to the winds, and swore by the Eternal 
 that he would horsewhip Tom Benton the first time he 
 met him. 
 
 On reaching Nashville Colonel Benton and his 
 brother Jesse did not go to their accustomed inn, but 
 stopped at the City Hotel, to avoid General Jackson, 
 unless he chose to go out of his way to seek them. 
 This was on the 3d of September. In the evening of the 
 same day it came to pass that General Jackson and 
 Colonel Coffee rode into town, and put up their horses 
 as usual, at the Nashville Inn. 
 
 The next morning, about nine, Colonel Coffee pro 
 posed to General Jackson that they should stroll over 
 to the post-office. They started. The general carried 
 with him, as he ordinarily did, his riding-whip. He also 
 wore a smallsword, as all gentlemen once did, and as 
 
IN THE FIELD. 6 Z 
 
 official persons were accustomed to do in Tennessee as 
 late as the War of 1812. As they drew near they ob 
 served that Jesse Benton was standing before the hotel 
 near his brother. On coming up to where Colonel Ben- 
 ton stood, General Jackson turned suddenly toward him, 
 with his whip in his right hand, and, stepping up to him, 
 said : 
 
 "Now, you d d rascal, I m going to punish you. 
 
 Defend yourself! " 
 
 Benton put his hand into his breast-pocket and 
 seemed to be fumbling for his pistol. As quick as light 
 ning Jackson drew a pistol from a pocket behind him, 
 and presented it full at his antagonist, who recoiled a 
 pace or two. Jackson advanced upon him. Benton 
 continued to step slowly backward, Jackson close upon 
 him, with a pistol at his heart, until they had reached 
 the back door of the hotel and were in the act of turning 
 down the back piazza. At that moment, just as Jackson 
 was beginning to turn, Jesse Benton entered the passage 
 behind the belligerents, and, seeing his brother s danger, 
 raised his pistol and fired at Jackson. The pistol was 
 loaded with two balls and a large slug. The slug took 
 effect in Jackson s left shoulder, shattering it horribly. 
 One of the balls struck the thick part of his left arrn^ 
 and buried itself near the bone. The other ball splin 
 tered the board partition at his side. The shock of the 
 wounds was such that Jackson fell across the entry and 
 remained prostrate, bleeding profusely. 
 
 Coffee had remained just outside, meanwhile. Hear 
 ing the report of the pistol, he sprang into the entry, 
 and, seeing his chief prostrate at the feet of Colonel 
 Benton, concluded that it was his ball that had laid him 
 low. He rushed upon Benton, drew his pistol, fired, and 
 missed. Then he " clubbed " his pistol, and was about 
 to strike, when Colonel Benton, in stepping backward, 
 
62 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 came to some stairs of which he was not aware and fell 
 headlong to the bottom. Coffee, thinking him hors de 
 combat, hastened to the assistance of his wounded gen 
 eral. 
 
 Faint from the loss of blood, Jackson was conveyed 
 to a room in the Nashville Inn, his wound still bleeding 
 fearfully. Before the bleeding could be stopped, two 
 mattresses, as Mrs. Jackson used to say, were soaked 
 through, and the general was reduced almost to the last 
 gasp. All the doctors in Nashville were soon in at 
 tendance, all but one of whom, and he a young man, 
 recommended the amputation of the shattered arm. 
 " I ll keep my arm," said the wounded man, and he kept 
 it. No attempt was made to extract the ball, and it 
 remained in the arm for twenty years. The ghastly 
 wounds in the shoulder were dressed, in the simple 
 manner of the Indians and pioneers, with poultices of 
 slippery elm and other products of the woods. The 
 patient was utterly prostrated with the loss of blood. 
 It was two or three weeks before he could leave his bed. 
 
 After the retirement of the general s friends the 
 Bentons remained for an hour or more upon the scene 
 of the affray, denouncing Jackson as an assassin, and a 
 defeated assassin. They defied him to come forth and 
 renew the strife. Colonel Benton made a parade of 
 breaking Jackson s smallsword, which had been dropped 
 in the struggle and left on the floor of the hotel. He 
 broke it in the public square, and accompanied the act 
 with words defiant and contemptuous, uttered in the 
 loudest tones of his thundering voice. The general s 
 friends, all anxiously engaged around the couch of their 
 bleeding chief, disregarded these demonstrations at the 
 time, and the brothers retired, victorious and exulting. 
 
 Shortly after the affray Colonel Benton went to his 
 home in Franklin, Tennessee, beyond the reach of 
 
IN THE FIELD/ 63 
 
 " Jackson s puppies." He was appointed lieutenant- 
 colonel in the regular army, left Tennessee, resigned his 
 commission at the close of the war, emigrated to Mis 
 souri, and never again met General Jackson till 1823, 
 when both were members of the Senate of the United 
 States. Jesse Benton, I may add, never forgave General 
 Jackson, nor could he ever excuse his brother for for 
 giving the general. Publications against Jackson by 
 the angry Jesse, dated as late as 1828, may be seen in 
 old collections of political trash. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE MASSACRE AT FORT MIMS. 
 
 AUGUST 30, 1813, was the date of this most terrible 
 event. The place was a fort, or stockade-of-refuge, on 
 the shores of Lake Tensaw, in the southern part of what 
 is now the State of Alabama. 
 
 One Samuel Mims, an old and wealthy inhabitant of 
 the Indian country, had inclosed with upright logs an 
 acre of land, in the middle of which stood his house, a 
 spacious one-story building, with sheds adjoining. The 
 inclosure, pierced with five hundred portholes three 
 and a half feet from the ground, was entered by two 
 heavy, rude gates, one on the eastern, and one on the 
 western side. In a corner, on a slight elevation, a 
 blockhouse was begun but never finished. When the 
 country became thoroughly alarmed by the hostility of 
 the Indians, the inhabitants along the Alabama River, 
 few in number and without means of defense, had left 
 their crops standing in the fields and their houses open 
 to the plunderer, and had rushed to the blockhouses 
 and stockades, of which there were twenty in a line of 
 seventy miles. The neighbors of Mr. Mims resorted to 
 his inclosure, each family hastening to construct within 
 it a rough cabin for its own accommodation. 
 
 As soon as the fort for fort it was called was suffi 
 ciently prepared for their reception, Governor Claiborne, 
 of New Orleans, dispatched one hundred and seventy- 
 five volunteers to assist in its defense, under the com- 
 
THE MASSACRE AT FORT MIMS. 65 
 
 mand of Major Daniel Beasley. Already, from the neigh 
 borhood, seventy militiamen had assembled at the fort, 
 besides a mob of friendly Indians^and one hundred and 
 six negro slaves. Upon taking the command, Major 
 Beasley, to accommodate the multitude which thronged 
 to the fort, had enlarged it by making a new line of 
 picketing sixty feet beyond the eastern end, but left 
 the old line of stockades standing, thus forming two in- 
 closures. 
 
 On the morning of the fatal day, though Major 
 Beasley had spared some of his armed men .for the de 
 fense of neighboring stations, Fort Mims contained five 
 hundred and fifty-three souls a mass of human beings 
 crowded together in a flat, swampy region, under the 
 broiling sun of an Alabama August. Of these, more 
 than one hundred were white women and children. 
 
 Many days had passed long, hot, tedious days 
 and no Indians were seen. The first terror abated. 
 The higher officers, it seems, had scarcely believed at 
 all in the hostile intentions of the Creeks, and were 
 inclined to make light of the general consternation. At 
 least, they were entirely confident in their ability to 
 defend the fort against any force that the Indians could 
 bring against it. The motley inmates gave themselves 
 up to fun and frolic. A rumor would occasionally come 
 in with alarming news of Indian movements, and for a 
 few hours the old caution was resumed, and the men 
 would languidly work on the defenses. But still the 
 hourly scouts sent out by the commander could discover 
 no traces of an enemy, and the hot days and nights still 
 wore away without alarm. 
 
 On August 29th, two slaves, who had been sent out to 
 watch some cattle that grazed a few miles from the fort, 
 came rushing breathless through the gate, reporting that 
 they had seen twenty-four painted warriors. A general 
 
66 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 alarm ensued, and the garrison flew to their stations. A 
 party of horse, guided by the negroes, galloped to the 
 spot, but could neither find Indians nor discover any of 
 the usual traces of their presence. Upon their return 
 one of the negroes was tied up and severely flogged for 
 alarming the garrison by what Major Beasley supposed 
 to be a sheer fabrication. The other negro would also 
 have been punished but for the interference of his mas 
 ter, who believed his tale; at which interference the 
 major was so much displeased that he ordered the gen 
 tleman, with his large family, to leave the fort on the 
 following morning. Never did such a fatal infatuation 
 possess the mind of a man intrusted with so many hu 
 man lives. 
 
 The 3oth of August arrived. At ten in the morning 
 the commandant was sitting in his room writing to 
 Governor Claiborne a letter (which still exists) to the 
 effect that he need not concern himself in the least re 
 specting the safety of Fort Mims, as there was no doubt 
 of its impregnability against any Indian force whatever. 
 Both gates were wide open. Women were preparing 
 dinner. Children were playing about the cabins. Sol 
 diers were sauntering, sleeping, playing cards. The 
 owner of the frightened negro had now consented to his 
 punishment rather than leave the fort, and the poor fel 
 low was tied up expecting soon to feel the lash. His 
 companion, who had been whipped the day before, was 
 tending cattle at the same place where again he saw, 
 or thought he saw, painted warriors ; and, fearing to be 
 whipped again if he reported the news, he fled to the 
 next station some miles distant. 
 
 All this calm and quiet morning, from before day 
 light until noon, there lay, in a ravine only four hundred 
 yards from the fort s eastern gate, one thousand Creek 
 warriors, armed to the teeth, and hideous with war-paint 
 
THE MASSACRE AT FORT MIMS. 67 
 
 and feathers. Weathersford, the crafty and able chief 
 tain, had led them from Pensacola, where the British 
 had supplied them with weapons and ammunition, to 
 this well-chosen spot, where they crouched and waited 
 through the long slow morning, with the devilish pa 
 tience with which savages and tigers can wait for their 
 prey. So dead was the silence in the ravine that the 
 birds fluttered and sang as usual in the branches above 
 the dusky, breathing mass. Five prophets with black 
 ened faces, with medicine-bags and magic rods, lay 
 among them, ready at the signal to begin their incanta 
 tions and stimulate the fury of the warriors. 
 
 At noon a drum in the fort beat to dinner. Officers 
 and men, their arms laid aside, all unsuspicious of dan 
 ger, were gathering to the meal in various parts of the 
 stockade. That dinner-drum was the signal which 
 Weathersford had cunningly chosen for the attack. At 
 the first tap the silent ravine was alive with Indians, 
 who leaped up and ran in a tumultuous mass toward 
 the eastern gate of the devoted fort. The head of the 
 throng had reached a field one hundred and fifty yards 
 across that lay before the gate, had raised a hideous 
 whoop, and were streaming across the field, before a 
 sentinel saw or heard them. Then arose the terrible cry, 
 "Indians! Indians! and there was a rush of women 
 and children to the houses, and of men to the gates and 
 portholes. Major Beasley was one of the first at the 
 gate, and made a frantic attempt to close it; but sand 
 had washed into the gateway, and ere the obstruction 
 could be removed the savages poured in, felled the com 
 mander to the earth with clubs and tomahawks, and 
 ran over his bleeding body into the fort. He crawled 
 behind the gate, and in a few minutes died, exhorting 
 his men with his last breath to make a resolute resist 
 ance. At once the whole of that part of the fort which 
 
68 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 had been lately added, and which was separated from 
 the main inclosure by the old line of pickets, was filled 
 with Indians, hooting, howling, dancing among the dead 
 bodies of many of the best officers and men of the little 
 garrison. The poor negro, tied up to be whipped for 
 doing all he could to prevent this catastrophe, was 
 killed as he stood waiting for his punishment. 
 
 The situation was at once simple and horrible. Two 
 inclosures adjoining, with a line of portholes through 
 the log partition one inclosure full of men, women, 
 children, friendly Indians and negroes, the other filled 
 with howling savages, mad with the lust of slaughter; 
 both compartments containing sheds, cabins, and other 
 places for refuge and assault; the large open field with 
 out the eastern gate covered with what seemed a count 
 less swarm of naked fiends hurrying to the fort; all 
 avenues of escape closed by Weathersford s foresight 
 and vigilance ; no white station within three miles, and 
 no adequate help within a day s march; the comman 
 dant and some of his ablest officers trampled under the 
 feet of the savage foe such was the posture of affairs at 
 Fort Mims a few minutes after noon on this dreadful day. 
 
 The garrison, partly recovering their first panic, 
 formed along the line of porthole s and fired some 
 effective volleys, killing with the first discharge the 
 five prophets who were dancing, grimacing, and howl 
 ing among the assailants in the smaller inclosure. 
 These men had given out that they were invulnerable. 
 American bullets were to split upon their sacred per 
 sons and pass off harmless. Their fall so abated the 
 ardor of the savages that their fire slackened, and some 
 began to retreat from the fort. But new crowds kept 
 coming up, and the attack was soon renewed in all its 
 first fury. 
 
 The garrison, with scarcely an exception, behaved as 
 
THE MASSACRE AT FORT MIMS. 69 
 
 men should do in circumstances so terrible and desper 
 ate. One Captain Bailey took the command after the 
 death of Major Beasley, and infused the fire of his own 
 indomitable spirit into the hearts of the whole com 
 pany, adding an example of cool valor to encouraging 
 words. The garrison maintained a ceaseless and de 
 structive fire through the portholes and from the 
 houses. It happened more than once that, at a si 
 multaneous discharge through a porthole, both the 
 Indian without and the white man within were killed. 
 Even the boys and some of the women assisted in the 
 defense ; and few of the women gave themselves up to 
 terror while there remained any hope of preserving the 
 fort. Some of the old men broke holes in the roof of 
 the large house and did good execution upon the sav 
 ages outside of the stockade. The noise was terrific. 
 All the Indians who could not get at the portholes to 
 fight seemed to have passed the hours of this horrible 
 day in dancing round the fort, screaming, hooting, and 
 taunting the inmates with their coming fate. 
 
 Amid scenes like these three hours passed, and still 
 the larger part of the fort remained in the hands of the 
 garrison, though many a gallant soldier had fallen, and 
 the rooms of the large house were filled with wounded 
 men and ministering women. The heroic Bailey still 
 spoke cheerily. He said that Indians never fought long 
 when they were bravely met ; they would certainly 
 abandon the assault if the garrison continued to resist. 
 He tried to induce a small party to make a sortie, fight 
 their way to the next station, and bring a force to attack 
 the enemy in the rear. Failing in this, he said he would 
 go himself, and began to climb the picketing, but was 
 pulled back by his friends, who saw the madness of the 
 attempt. About three o clock the Indians seemed to 
 tire of the long contest. The fire slackened, the howl- 
 
70 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 ings subsided, the savages began to carry off the plun 
 der from the cabins in the lesser inclosure, and hope 
 revived in many a despairing heart. But Weathersford 
 at this hour rode up on a large black horse, and, meet 
 ing a throng of the retreating plunderers, upbraided 
 them in an animated speech, and induced them to return 
 with him to the fort and complete its destruction. 
 
 And now fire was added to the horrors of the scene ! 
 By burning arrows and other expedients the house of 
 Mr. Mims was set on fire, and soon the whole structure, 
 with its extensive outbuildings and sheds, was wrapped 
 in flames; while the shrieks of the women and children 
 were heard, for the first time, above the dreadful din 
 and whoop of the battle. One after another the smaller 
 buildings caught, until the whole inclosure was a roar 
 ing sea of flame, except one poor corner, where some 
 extra picketing formed a last refuge to the surviving 
 victims. Into this inclosure hurried a crowd of women, 
 children, negroes, old men, wounded soldiers, trampling 
 one another to death all in the last agonies of mortal 
 terror. The savages were soon upon them, and the 
 work of slaughter fierce, unrelenting slaughter began. 
 Children were seized by the feet and their brains dashed 
 out against the pickets. Women were cut to pieces. 
 Men were tomahawked and scalped. Some poor Span 
 iards, deserters from Pensacola, were kneeling along the 
 pickets, and were tomahawked one after another as 
 they knelt. Weathersford, who was not a savage, but 
 a misguided hero and patriot, worthy of Tecumseh s 
 friendship, did what Tecumseh would have done if he 
 had been there : he tried to stop this horrid carnage. 
 But the Indians were delirious and frantic with the love 
 of blood, and would not stay their murderous hands while 
 one of that mass of human victims continued to live. 
 
 At noon that day, as we have seen, five hundred and 
 
THE MASSACRE AT FORT MIMS. fi 
 
 fifty-three persons were inmates of Fort Mims. At sun 
 set, four hundred mangled, scalped and bloody corpses 
 were heaped and strewed within its wooden walls. Not 
 one white woman, not one white child, escaped. Twelve 
 of the garrison, at the last moment, by cutting through 
 two of the pickets, got out of the fort and fled to the 
 swamp. A large number of the negroes were spared by 
 the Indians and kept for slaves. A few half-breeds 
 were made prisoners. Captain Bailey, severely wounded, 
 ran to the swamp, and died by the side of a cypress 
 stump. A negro woman, with a ball in her breast, 
 reached a canoe on Lake Tensaw and paddled fifteen 
 miles to Fort Stoddart, and bore the first news of the 
 massacre to Governor Claiborne. Most of the men who 
 fled from the slaughter wandered for days in the swamps 
 and forests, and only reached places of safety, nearly 
 starved, after many a hair-breadth escape from the In 
 dians. Some of them were living forty years ago, from 
 whose lips Mr. A. J. Pickett, the historian of Alabama, 
 gathered most of the particulars which have been briefly 
 related here. 
 
 The garrison sold their lives as dearly as they could. 
 It is thought that four hundred of Weathersford s band 
 were killed and wounded. That night the savages, ex 
 hausted with their bloody work, appear to have slept 
 near the scene of the massacre. Next day they returned 
 to bury their dead, but, fatigued with the number, gave 
 it up and left many exposed. Ten days after, Major 
 Kennedy reached the spot with a detachment of troops 
 to bury the bodies of the whites, and found the air dark 
 with buzzards, and hundreds of dogs gnawing the bodies. 
 In two large pits the troops, shuddering now with horror 
 and now fierce for revenge, succeeded at length in bury 
 ing the remains of their countrymen and countrywomen. 
 Major Kennedy said in his report : " Indians, negroes, 
 
72 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 white men, women, and children, lay in one promiscuous 
 ruin. All were scalped, and the females of every age 
 were butchered in a manner which neither decency nor 
 language will permit me to describe. The main build 
 ing was burned to ashes, which were filled with bones. 
 The plains and woods around were covered with dead 
 bodies. All the houses were consumed by fire except 
 the blockhouse and a part of the pickets. The soldiers 
 and officers with one voice called on Divine Providence 
 to revenge the death of our murdered friends." 
 
 Such was the massacre at Fort Mims. The news 
 flew upon the wings of the wind. From Mobile to the 
 borders of Tennessee, from the vicinity of New Orleans 
 almost to the coast of Georgia, there was felt to be no 
 safety for the white man except in fortified posts; nor 
 certain safety even in them. In the country of the Ala 
 bama River and its branches, every white man, woman, 
 and child, every friendly half-breed and Indian, hurried 
 to the stockades or fled in wild terror toward Mobile. 
 " Never in my life," wrote an eyewitness, " did I see a 
 country given up before without a struggle. Here are 
 the finest crops my eyes ever beheld made and almost 
 fit to be housed, with immense herds of cattle, negroes, 
 and property, abandoned by their owners almost on the 
 first alarm." Within the stockades diseases raged, and 
 hundreds of families, unable to get within those inclos- 
 ures, lay around the walls, squalid, panic-stricken, sick, 
 and miserable. Parties of Indians roved about the 
 country rioting in plunder. After burning the houses 
 and laying waste the plantations, they would drive the 
 cattle together in herds, and either destroy them in a 
 mass or drive them off for their future use. The horses 
 were taken to facilitate their marauding, and their camps 
 were filled with the luxuries of the planters houses. 
 Governor Claiborne, a generous and feeling man, was 
 
THE MASSACRE AT FORT MIMS. 73 
 
 at his wits end. From every quarter came the most 
 urgent and pathetic demands for troops. Not a man 
 could be spared, for no one knew where next the exult 
 ant savages would endeavor to repeat the catastrophe 
 of Fort Mims; and in the best-defended forts there 
 were five non-combatants to one soldier. For some 
 weeks of the autumn of 1813 it really seemed as if the 
 white settlers of Alabama, including those of Mobile 
 itself, were on the point of being exterminated. 
 
 The news of the massacre at Fort Mims was thirty- 
 one days in reaching New York. It is a proof how oc 
 cupied were the minds of the people in the Northern 
 States with great events, that the dread narrative ap 
 peared in the New York papers only as an item of war 
 news of comparatively small importance. The last pro 
 digious acts in the drama of Napoleon s decline and fall 
 were watched with absorbing interest. The news of 
 Perry s victory on Lake Erie had just thrilled the nation 
 with delight and pride, and all minds were still eager 
 for every new particular. Harrison s victory on the 
 Thames over Proctor and Tecumseh soon followed. The 
 lamentable condition of the Southern country was there 
 fore little felt at the time beyond the States immediately 
 concerned. Perry and Harrison were the heroes of the 
 hour. Their return from the scene of their exploits was 
 a continuous triumphal /#*. 
 
 In a room at Nashville, a thousand miles from these 
 splendid scenes, lay a gaunt, yellow-visaged man, sick, 
 defeated, prostrate, with his arm bound up and his 
 shoulders bandaged, waiting impatiently for his wounds 
 to heal and his strength to return. Who then thought 
 of him in connection with victory and glory ? Who sup 
 posed that he, of all men, was the one destined to cast 
 into the shade those favorites of the nation, and shine 
 out as the prime hero of the war? 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE CREEK COUNTRY INVADED. 
 
 THERE must have been swift express riding in those 
 early days of September, and as stealthy as swift through 
 the Indian country ; for, on the i8th of the month, nine 
 teen days after the massacre, we find the people of 
 Nashville assembled in town meeting to deliberate upon 
 the event, the Rev. Mr. Craighead in the chair. 
 
 The news of the massacre produced everywhere in 
 Tennessee the most profound impression. Pity for the 
 distressed Alabamans, fears for the safety of their own 
 borders, rage against the Creeks, so long the recipients 
 of governmental bounty, united to inflame the minds of 
 the people. But one feeling pervaded the State. With 
 one voice it was decreed that the entire resources and 
 the whole available force of Tennessee should be hurled 
 upon the savage foe, to avenge the massacre and deliver 
 the Southern country. 
 
 A striking narrative of the proceedings of the Legis 
 lature on this occasion, and of the nerve, vigor, and 
 resolution of the prostrate Jackson, lies before me, from 
 the pen of Mr. Enoch Parsons, then a member of the 
 Senate of Tennessee. " I arrived at Nashville," says 
 this gentleman, " on the Saturday before the third Mon 
 day in September, 1813. I found in the public square a 
 very large crowd of people, and many fine speeches were 
 making to the people, and the talking part of a war was 
 never better performed. I was invited out to the place 
 
THE CREEK COUNTRY INVADED. 
 
 75 
 
 where the orators were holding forth, and invited to 
 address the people. I declined the distinction. The talk 
 ing ended, and resolutions were adopted, the substance 
 of which was that the enlightened Legislature would con 
 vene on the next Monday, and they would prepare for 
 the emergency. 
 
 "The Legislature was composed of twenty Senators 
 and forty Representatives, some of them old, infirm men. 
 As soon as the Houses were organized, at my table I 
 wrote a bill, and introduced it, to call out three thousand 
 five hundred men, under the general entitled to com 
 mand, and place them in the Indian nation, so that they 
 might preserve the Mississippi Territory from destruc 
 tion and prevent the friendly Indians from taking the 
 enemy s side, and to render service to the United States 
 until the United States could provide a force. The bill 
 pledged all the revenue of the State for one hundred 
 years to pay the expense, and authorized the Governor 
 to borrow money from any source he could, and at the 
 lowest rate he could, to defray the expenses of the cam 
 paign. The Secretary of State, William G. Blount, Major 
 John Russell, a Senator, and myself, signed or indorsed 
 the Governor s note for twenty thousand dollars, and 
 the old patriotic State Bank lent the money which the 
 note called for. 
 
 "At this time General Jackson was lying, as he had 
 been between ten and twenty days, with the wounds re 
 ceived in the battle with the Bentons and others, and 
 had not been out of his room, if out of his bed. The 
 Constitution of the State would not allow the bill to be 
 come a law until it had passed in each House three times 
 on different days. The bill was therefore passed in each 
 House on Monday, and lay in the Senate for Tuesday. 
 
 "After the adjournment of the Houses on Monday, 
 as I passed out of the Senate-chamber, I was accosted 
 
76 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 by a gentleman and presented with General Jackson s 
 compliments and a request that I should see him forth 
 with. I had not been to his room since my arrival. I 
 complied with his request, and found he was minutely 
 informed of the contents of the bill I had introduced, 
 and wished to know if it would pass ; and said the news 
 of the introduction of the bill had spread all over the 
 city, and that it was called the War Bill or Parsons Bill. 
 I assured the general it would pass, and on Wednesday 
 would be a law, and I mentioned that I regretted very 
 much that the general entitled to command, and who all 
 would desire should command the forces of the State, 
 was not in a condition to take the field. To which 
 General Jackson replied : 
 
 " The devil in hell he is not ! 
 
 " He gritted his teeth with anguish as he uttered these 
 words, and groaned when he ceased to speak. I told 
 him that I hoped I was mistaken, but that I did not be 
 lieve he could just then take the field. After some time 
 I left the general. Two hours afterward I received fifty 
 or more copies of his orders, which had been made out 
 and printed in the meantime, and ordered the troops to 
 rendezvous at Fayetteville, eighty miles on the way, 
 on Thursday. At the bottom of the order was a note 
 stating that the health of the commanding general was 
 restored. 
 
 " That evening, or the next day, I saw Dr. May, 
 General Jackson s principal physician, and inquired of 
 him if he thought General Jackson could possibly march. 
 Dr. May said that no other man could, and that it was 
 uncertain whether, with his spunk and energy, he could ; 
 but that it was entirely uncertain what General Jackson 
 could do in such circumstances. 
 
 " I felt much anxiety for the country and for the 
 general ; and when the general started which was, I 
 
THE CREEK COUNTRY INVADED. 
 
 77 
 
 think, on the day before the law passed Dr. May went 
 with him and returned in three or four days: I called 
 on Dr. May, upon his return, and inquired how the gen 
 eral had got along; whereupon the doctor stated that 
 they had to stop the general frequently and wash him 
 from head to foot in solutions of sugar of lead to keep 
 down inflammation ; and that he was better, and he and 
 his troops had gone on ! The Legislature then prefixed 
 a supplemental bill to suspend all actions in which the 
 volunteers were concerned in the courts until their re 
 turn." 
 
 There, reader, you have ANDREW JACKSON the ex 
 planation of his character, of his success, of his celebrity. 
 If any one inquires of you what manner of man Andrew 
 Jackson was, answer him by telling Mr. Parsons s story. 
 
 The 4th of October was the day named in the gen 
 eral s orders for the rendezvous at Fayetteville, a village 
 near the northern borders of Alabama. Ten days be 
 fore the day of rendezvous he dispatched his old friend 
 and partner, Colonel Coffee, with his regiment of five 
 hundred horse, and such mounted volunteers as could 
 instantly join, to Huntsville, in the northern part of 
 Alabama, to restore confidence to the frontier. Hunts 
 ville is a hundred miles or more from Nashville. On 
 the 4th of October the energetic Coffee had reached the 
 place, his force increased to nearly thirteen hundred 
 men, and volunteers, as he wrote back to his com 
 mander, flocking in every hour. 
 
 The day named for the rendezvous at Fayetteville 
 was exactly one month from that on which the com 
 manding general received his wounds in the affray with 
 the Bentons. He could not mount his horse without as 
 sistance when the time came for him to move toward the 
 rendezvous. His left arm was bound and in a sling. He 
 could not wear his coat-sleeve; nor, during any part of 
 
78 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 his military career, could he long endure on his left 
 shoulder the weight of an epaulet. Often, in the crisis 
 of a manoeuvre, some unguarded movement would send 
 such a thrill of agony through his attenuated frame as 
 almost to deprive him of consciousness. It could not 
 have been a pleasant thought that he had squandered 
 in a paltry, puerile, private contest, the strength he 
 needed for the defense of his country. Grievous was 
 his fault, bitter the penalty, noble the atonement. 
 
 Traveling as fast as his healing wounds permitted, 
 General Jackson reached Fayetteville on the yth of 
 October, and found that less than half of the two thou 
 sand men ordered out had assembled. But welcome 
 tidings from Colonel Coffee awaited him. Hitherto he 
 had chiefly feared for the safety of Mobile, and had 
 anticipated a long and weary march into southern Ala 
 bama. He now learned from Colonel Coffee s dispatch 
 that the Indians seemed to have abandoned their design 
 upon Mobile, and were making their way, in two parties, 
 toward the borders of Georgia and Tennessee. This 
 was joyful news to the enfeebled but fiery commander. 
 " It is surely," he wrote back to Coffee the same even 
 ing, " high gratification to learn that the Creeks are so 
 attentive to my situation as to save me the pain of 
 traveling. I must not be outdone in politeness, and will 
 therefore endeavor to meet them on the middle ground." 
 
 A week was passed at Fayetteville in waiting for the 
 troops, procuring supplies, organizing the regiments, 
 and drilling the men; a week of intense exertion on the 
 part of the general, to whom congenial employment 
 brought daily restoration. . 
 
 At one o clock on Monday, the nth of October, an 
 express dashed into camp with another dispatch from 
 Colonel Coffee announcing the approach of the enemy. 
 The order to prepare for marching was given on the in- 
 
THE CREEK COUNTRY INVADED. 
 
 79 
 
 stant. A few minutes later the express was galloping 
 back to Coffee s camp, carrying a few hasty lines from 
 Jackson, to the effect that in two hours he would be in 
 motion with all his available force. Before three he had 
 kept his word the army was in full career toward 
 Huntsville. Excited more and more, as they went, by 
 rumors of Indian murders, the men marched with such 
 incredible swiftness as to reach Huntsville, thirty-two 
 miles from Fayetteville, by eight o clock the same even 
 ing ! It is hard to believe that an army could march six 
 miles an hour for five hours, but the fact is stated on 
 what may be considered the authority of General Jack 
 son himself. At Huntsville it was found that the news 
 of the rapid approach of the Indians was exaggerated. 
 The next day, therefore, the force marched leisurely to 
 the Tennessee River, crossed it, and toward evening came 
 up with Colonel Coffee s command, encamped on the 
 south side of the river. 
 
 So far all had gone well. There they were, twenty- 
 five hundred of them, in the pleasant autumn weather, 
 upon a high bluff overlooking the beautiful Tennessee, 
 all in high spirits, eager to be led against the enemy t 
 There were jovial souls among them. David Crockett, 
 then the peerless bear-hunter of the West (to be member 
 of Congress by and by, to be national joker, and to 
 stump the country against his present commander), was 
 there with his rifle and hunting-shirt, the merriest of the 
 merry, keeping the camp alive with his quaint conceits 
 and marvelous narratives. He had a hereditary right 
 to be there, for both his grandparents had been murdered 
 by Creeks, and other relatives carried into long cap 
 tivity by them. Merriment, meanwhile, was far from 
 the heart of the general. Grappling now with the 
 chronic difficulty of the campaign, he was torn with im 
 patience and anxiety. 
 
g GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 Twenty-five hundred men and thirteen hundred 
 horses were on a bluff of the Tennessee, on the borders 
 of civilization, about to plunge into pathless woods, and 
 march, no one knew how far, into the fastnesses and 
 secret retreats of a savage enemy ! Such a body will 
 consume ten wagon-loads of provisions every day. For 
 a week s subsistence they require a thousand bushels of 
 grain, twenty tons of flesh, a thousand gallons of whisky, 
 and many hundredweight of miscellaneous stores. As 
 semble, suddenly, such a force in the most populous 
 county of Oregon, as Oregon now is, and it would not 
 be a quite easy matter, in the space of seventeen days, 
 to organize a system of supply so that the army could 
 march thirty miles a day into the forest and be sure of 
 finding a day s ration waiting for them at the end of 
 every day s march. Colonel Coffee, moreover, had been 
 encamped for eight days upon the bluff, had swept the 
 surrounding country of its forage, and gathered in 
 nearly all the provisions it could furnish. All this 
 General Jackson had expected, and hither, accordingly, 
 he had directed the supplies from East Tennessee to be 
 sent. 
 
 The contractor had abundant provisions, and in 
 stantly set about dispatching them. " I believe," wrote 
 General Cocke (commander of the forces of East Ten 
 nessee) to Jackson, on the 2d of October, "a thousand 
 barrels of flour can be had immediately. I will send it 
 on to Ditto s Landing (Jackson s camp) without delay." 
 To the river s side they were sent promptly enough. 
 But the Tennessee, like most of the Western rivers, is not 
 navigable in its upper waters in dry seasons, and the 
 flour which General Jackson expected to find awaiting 
 him at Coffee s bluff was still hundreds of miles up the 
 river, " waiting for a rise." His whole stock at present 
 amounted to only a few days supply. To proceed 
 
THE CREEK COUNTRY INVADED. gl 
 
 seemed impossible. Nor was the cause of the delay ap 
 parent to him, since the Tennessee, where he saw it, 
 flowed by in a sufficient stream. Chafing under the en 
 forced delay, like a war-horse restrained from the charge 
 after the trumpet has sounded, he denounced the con 
 tractor and the contract system, and even General Cocke, 
 who, zealous for the service, had gone^far beyond the 
 line of his duty in his efforts to forward the supplies. 
 
 But General Jackson did better things than these. 
 Perceiving now, only too clearly, that this matter of 
 provisions was to be the great difficulty of the campaign, 
 he sent back to Nashville his friend and quartermaster, 
 Major William B. Lewis, in order that he might have 
 some one there upon whose zeal and discretion he could 
 entirely rely, and who would do all that man could do 
 for his relief. Colonel Coffee, with a body of seven 
 hundred mounted men, he sent away from his hungry 
 camp to scour the banks of the Black Warrior, a branch 
 of the Tombigbee. He gave the infantry who remained 
 as hard a week s drilling as ever volunteers submitted 
 to. Order arose from confusion ; discipline began to 
 exert its potent spell, and the mob of pioneer militia 
 assumed something of the aspect of an army. While 
 he was thus engaged, a friendly chief (Shelocta) came 
 into camp with the news that hostile Creeks in a con 
 siderable body were threatening a fort occupied by 
 friendly Indians near the Ten Islands of the Coosa. 
 The route thither lying in part up the Tennessee, 
 Jackson resolved, with such provisions as he had, to go 
 and meet the expected flotilla, and, having obtained 
 supplies, to strike at once into the heart of the Indian 
 country and relieve the friendly fort. He lived, during 
 these anxious days, with an eye ever on the river, heart 
 sick with hope deferred. 
 
 On the iQth of October the camp on the bluff broke 
 
82 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 up. Three days of marching, climbing, and road-cut 
 ting, over mountains before supposed to be impassable, 
 brought the little army to Thompson s Creek, a branch 
 of the Tennessee, twenty-two miles above the previous 
 encampment. To his inexpressible disappointment, he 
 found there neither provisions nor tidings of provisions. 
 In circumstances so disheartening and unexpected most 
 men would have thought it better generalship to retreat 
 to the settlements and wait in safety while adequate 
 arrangements were made for the support of the army. 
 No such thought appears to have occurred to the gen 
 eral. Retreat at that moment would have probably 
 tempted the enemy to the frontiers of Tennessee, and 
 covered them with fire and desolation. Jackson halted 
 his force at Thompson s Creek, and while his men were 
 employed in throwing up a fort to be used as a depot 
 for the still expected provisions, he sat in his tent for 
 three days writing letters the most pathetic and implor 
 ing. He wrote to General Cocke and Judge Hugh L. 
 White, of East Tennessee; to the Governors of Tennes 
 see and Georgia; to the Indian agents among the Chero- 
 kees and Choctaws; to friendly Indian chiefs; to Gen 
 eral Flourney, of New Orleans ; to various private friends 
 of known public spirit appealing to every motive of in 
 terest and patriotism that could influence men, entreat 
 ing them to use all personal exertions and public au 
 thority in forwarding supplies to his destitute army. 
 " Give me provisions," was the burden of these eloquent 
 letters, " and I will end this war in a month." " There is 
 an enemy," he wrote, "whom I dread much more than I 
 do the hostile Creeks, and whose power, I am fearful, I 
 shall be first made to feel I mean the meager monster 
 FAMINE. I shall leave this encampment in the morning 
 direct for the Ten Islands, and thence, with as little delay 
 as possible, to the junction of the Coosa and Tallapoosa; 
 
THE CREEK COUNTRY INVADED. 83 
 
 and yet I have not on hand two days supply of bread- 
 stuffs." 
 
 Colonel Coffee soon after joined the general. In 
 twelve days he had marched two hundred miles, burned 
 two Indian towns, collected three or four hundred bush 
 els of corn, and returned to the Tennessee without hav 
 ing seen a hostile Indian. Runners still arriving from 
 the Ten Islands with entreaties from the friendly Indians 
 for relief, Jackson, with two days supply of bread and 
 six of meat, resolved to march, and depend for subsist- 
 ance upon chance and victory. Leaving Fort Deposit 
 on the 25th of October, the general marched southward 
 into the enemy s country as fast as the state of his com 
 missariat permitted ; halting when his corn quite gave 
 out ; marching again when he procured a day s supply ; 
 sending out detachments to burn villages and find hid 
 den stores; writing letter after letter imploring succor 
 from the settlements ; always resolute, always in sus 
 pense. On one of these days, Colonel Dyer, who had 
 been sent out with a detachment of two hundred men, 
 returned to camp with twenty-nine prisoners and a con 
 siderable supply of corn, the spoils of a burned village. 
 Other slight successes on the march served to keep the 
 men in good spirits, but were not sufficient to lift for 
 more than a moment the load of care that rested upon 
 the heart of the general. A week brought the whole 
 force, intact, to the banks of the Coosa, within a few 
 miles of the Ten Islands, near which, at a town called 
 Talluschatches, it was now known, a large body of the 
 Indians had assembled. 
 
 Talluschatches was thirteen miles from General 
 Jackson s camp. On the 2d of November came the wel 
 come order to General Coffee (he had just been pro 
 moted) to march with a thousand mounted men to de 
 stroy this town. Late in the same day the detachment 
 
84 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 were on the trail, accompanied by a body of friendly 
 Creeks wearing white feathers and white deers tails, to 
 distinguish them from their hostile brethren. The next 
 morning s sun shone upon Coffee and his men preparing 
 to assault the town. 
 
 On the evening of the same day, General Coffee, hav 
 ing destroyed the town, killed two hundred of the enemy, 
 and buried five of his own men, led his victorious troops 
 back to Jackson s camp, where he received from his 
 general and the rest of the army the welcome that brave 
 men give to brave men returning from triumph. Along 
 with the returning horsemen, joyful with their victory, 
 came into camp a sorrowful procession of prisoners, all 
 women or children, all widows or fatherless, all helpless 
 and destitute. They were humanely cared for by the 
 troops, and soon after sent to the settlements for main 
 tenance during the war. 
 
 On the bloody field of Talluschatches was found a 
 slain mother still embracing her living infant. The 
 child was brought into camp with the other prisoners, 
 and Jackson, anxious to save it, endeavored to induce 
 some of the Indian women to give it nourishment. 
 "No," said they, "all his relations are dead; kill him 
 too." This reply appealed to the heart of the general. 
 He caused the child to be taken to his own tent, where, 
 among the few remaining stores, was found a little brown 
 sugar. This, mingled with water, served to keep the child 
 alive until it could be sent to Huntsville, where it was 
 nursed at Jackson s expense until the end of the cam 
 paign, and then taken to the Hermitage. Mrs. Jackson 
 received it cordially ; and the boy grew up in the family, 
 treated by the general and his kind wife as a son and 
 favorite. 
 
 It was General Jackson s turn next. Thirty miles 
 from his encampment on the Coosa stood a small fort, 
 
THE CREEK COUNTRY INVADED. 85 
 
 into which, as before intimated, a party of one hundred 
 and fifty-four friendly Creeks had fled for safety. The 
 site of this fort is now covered by part of the town of 
 Talladega, the capital of Talladega County, Alabama, a 
 thriving place of several thousand inhabitants, situated 
 on a branch of the Coosa, in the midst of beautiful 
 mountain scenery. This region was, at the time of 
 which we are now writing, literally a howling wilderness ; 
 for, while General Coffee was returning in triumph from 
 Talluschatches, more than a thousand hostile Creeks 
 suddenly surrounded the friendly fort and invested it so 
 completely that not a man could escape. With only a 
 small supply of corn, and scarcely any water, outnum 
 bered seven to one, and unable to send intelligence of 
 their situation, the inmates of the fort seemed doomed 
 to massacre. The assailants appear to have comported 
 themselves on this occasion in the manner of a cat sure 
 of her mojuse. They whooped and sported around their 
 prey, waiting for terror or starvation to save them the 
 trouble of conquest. 
 
 Some days passed. The sufferings of the belea 
 guered Indians from thirst began to be intolerable. A 
 noted chief of the party resolved upon making one des 
 perate effort to escape and carry the news to Jackson s 
 camp. Enveloping himself in the skin of a large hog, 
 with the head and feet attached, he left the fort, and 
 went about rooting and grunting, gradually working 
 his way through the hostile host until he was beyond 
 the reach of their arrows; then, throwing off his dis 
 guise, he fled with the swiftness of the wind. Not know 
 ing precisely where General Jackson was, he did not 
 reach the camp till late in the evening of the next day, 
 when he came in, breathless and exhausted, and told his 
 story. 
 
 This was on the yth of November, four days after 
 7 
 
86 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 the affair of Talluschatches, during which the general 
 and the troops had been busy in erecting a fortification, 
 or depot, which was named Fort Strother. The army 
 was still, as it had been from the beginning of the cam 
 paign, only a few days removed from starvation. Con 
 tractors had been dismissed, new ones appointed, more 
 imploring letters written, and every conceivable effort 
 made, and yet no system had been devised to overcome 
 the inherent difficulties of the work. To the general s 
 other embarrassments was now added the care of the 
 considerable number of wounded and sick, many of 
 whom could not be moved. There was one encouraging 
 circumstance, however. The troops from East Tennes 
 see, under Major-General Cocke and Brigadier-General 
 White, had at length reached the vicinity, and a force 
 under General White was expected to join the next day, 
 and so bring with them some supplies. So General 
 White himself had written. Jackson, at the moment 
 when the messenger from the beleaguered fort arrived, 
 was in his tent closing his reply to the coming general, 
 to whom he imparted the new intelligence and an 
 nounced his intentions with regard to it, adding that he 
 depended upon him (General White) to protect his camp 
 during his own absence from it. 
 
 Relying with the utmost possible confidence upon 
 General White s arrival, Jackson, with his usual prompti 
 tude, issued orders for his whole division, except a few 
 men to guard the post and attend the sick, to prepare 
 for marching that very evening. He had taken the res 
 olution to rush to the relief of the friendly Creeks, justly 
 supposing that the massacre of such a body, within so 
 short a distance of an American army, would intimidate 
 all the friendly Indians, and tend to unite the Southern 
 tribes as one man against the United States. 
 
 At one o clock in the morning of November 8th, 
 
THE CREEK COUNTRY INVADED. gjr 
 
 eight hundred horsemen and twelve hundred foot, under 
 command of General Jackson, stood on the bank of the 
 Coosa, one mile above Fort Strother, ready to cross. 
 The river was wide, but fordable for horsemen. Each of 
 the mounted men, taking behind him one of the infantry, 
 rode across the river and then returned for another. 
 This operation consumed so long a time that it was 
 nearly four o clock in the morning before the whole force 
 was drawn up on the opposite bank prepared to move. 
 A long and weary march through a country wild and 
 uninhabited brought them about sunset within six miles 
 of Talladega. There the general thought it best to halt 
 and give repose to the troops, taking precautions to 
 conceal his presence from the enemy. 
 
 There was no repose for the general that night. Till 
 late in the evening he remained awake, receiving reports 
 from the spies sent out to reconnoitre the enemy s posi 
 tion, and making arrangements for the morrow s work. 
 At midnight an Indian came into the camp with a dis 
 patch from General White, announcing, to Jackson s 
 inexpressible astonishment and dismay, that, in conse 
 quence of positive orders from General Cocke, he would 
 not be able to protect Fort Strother, but must return 
 and rejoin his general immediately. No other explana 
 tion was given. Jackson was in sore perplexity. To 
 go forward, was to leave the sick and wounded at Fort 
 Strother to the mercy of any strolling party of savages. 
 To retreat, would bring certain destruction upon the 
 friendly Creeks, and probably the whole besieging force 
 upon his own rear. In this painful dilemma he resolved 
 upon the boldest measures and the wisest to strike the 
 foe in his front at the dawn of day, and, having deliv 
 ered the inmates of the fort, hasten from the battlefield 
 to the protection of Fort Strother. 
 
 Before four in the morning the army was in full 
 
88 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 march toward the enemy. A sudden and vigorous at 
 tack soon put to flight the besieging host, and set free 
 the loyal Creeks, whose delight at their escape is de 
 scribed to have been affecting in the extreme. Besides 
 being nearly dead from thirst, they were anticipating an 
 assault that very day, and had no knowledge of Jack 
 son s approach until they heard the noise of the battle. 
 Fifteen minutes after the action became general the sav 
 ages were flying headlong in every direction and falling 
 fast under the swords of the pursuing troops. The de 
 livered Creeks ran out of the fort, and, having appeased 
 their raging thirst, thronged around their deliverer, tes 
 tifying their delight and gratitude. The little corn that 
 they could spare the general bought and distributed 
 among his hungry men and horses. He had left Fort 
 Strother with only provisions for little more than one 
 day, and the supply obtained from the Creeks amounted 
 to less than a meal for his victorious army. 
 
 The dead honorably buried, and the wounded placed 
 in litters, the troops marched back to Fort Strother the 
 day after the battle. They arrived tired and hungry, 
 yet fondly hoping that in their absence some supplies 
 had been collected. Not a peck of meal, not a pound 
 of flesh had reached the fort, and they found their sick 
 and wounded comrades as hungry as themselves. It 
 was a bitter moment. The general was in an agony of 
 disappointment and apprehension. The men, though 
 returning from victory, murmured ominously. Until 
 this day the general and his staff had subsisted upon 
 private stores procured and transported at his own ex 
 pense. Before leaving for Talladega he had directed 
 the surgeons to draw upon these if necessary for the 
 maintenance of the sick, and upon his return he found 
 that all had been consumed except a few pounds of bis 
 cuit. These were immediately distributed among the 
 
THE CREEK COUNTRY INVADED. 
 
 8 9 
 
 hungry applicants, not one being reserved for the gen 
 eral. Concealing his feelings and assuming a cheerful 
 aspect, he went among the men and endeavored to give 
 the affair a jocular turn. He went with his staff to the 
 slaughtering-place of the camp and brought away from 
 the refuse there the means of satisfying his appetite, 
 declaring with a smiling face that tripe was a savory 
 and nutritious article of food, and that for his part he 
 desired nothing better. For several days succeeding, 
 while a few lean cattle were the only support of the 
 army, General Jackson and his military family subsisted 
 upon tripe, without bread or seasoning. 
 
 Jackson soon saw the effect of his brilliant success 
 at Talladega. The Hillabee warriors, who had been 
 defeated in that battle, at once sent a messenger to Fort 
 Strother to sue for peace. Jackson s reply was prompt 
 and characteristic. His Government, he said, had taken 
 up arms to avenge the most gross depredations, and to 
 bring back to a sense of duty a people to whom it had 
 shown the utmost kindness. When those objects were 
 attained the war would cease, but not till then. " Upon 
 those," he continued, "who are disposed to become 
 friendly, I neither wish nor intend to make war, but 
 they must afford evidences of the sincerity of their pro 
 fessions; the prisoners and property they have taken 
 from us and the friendly Creeks must be restored; the 
 instigators of the war, and the murderers of our citizens, 
 must be surrendered ; the latter must and will be made 
 to feel the force of our resentment. Long shall they 
 remember Fort Mims in bitterness and tears." 
 
 The Hillabee messenger, who was an old Scotchman, 
 long domesticated among the Indians, departed with 
 Jackson s reply. It was never delivered. Before the 
 message reached the Hillabees an event occurred which 
 banished from their minds all thought of peace, chang- 
 
90 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 ing them from suppliants for pardon into enemies the 
 most resolute and deadly of all the Indians in the South 
 ern country. General White, of East Tennessee, totally 
 unaware of the state of feeling among the Hillabees, 
 nay, supposing them to be inveterately hostile, marched 
 rapidly into their country, burning and destroying. On 
 his way he burned one village of thirty houses, and 
 another of ninety-three. The principal Hillabee town> 
 whence had proceeded the messenger to Jackson asking 
 peace, and whither that messenger was to return that 
 day, General White surprised at daybreak, killed sixty 
 warriors, and captured two hundred and fifty women and 
 children. Having burned the town, he returned to Gen 
 eral Cocke, supposing that he had done the State some 
 service. 
 
 The feelings of the Hillabee tribe may be imagined. 
 This, then, is General Jackson s answer to our humble 
 suit ! Thus does he respond to friendly overtures ! 
 They never knew General Jackson s innocence of this 
 deed. From that time to the end of the war it was 
 observed that the Indians fought with greater fury and 
 persistence than before, for they fought with the blended 
 energy of hatred and despair. There was no suing for 
 peace, no asking for quarter. To fight as long as they 
 could stand, and as much longer as they could sit or 
 kneel, and then as long as they had strength to shoot an 
 arrow or pull a trigger, were all that they supposed re 
 mained to them after the destruction of the Hillabees. 
 
 " An army, like a serpent, goes upon its belly," 
 Frederick of Prussia used to say. " Few men know," 
 Marshal MacMahon is reported to have remarked after 
 one of the Italian battles, " how important it is in war 
 for soldiers not to be kept waiting for their rations, and 
 what vast events depend upon an army s not going into 
 action before it has had its coffee." 
 
THE CREEK COUNTRY INVADED. 91 
 
 We left General Jackson at Fort Strother, giving out 
 his last biscuit to his hungry troops and appeasing his 
 own appetite with unseasoned tripe. Then followed 
 ten long weeks of agonizing perplexity, during which, 
 though the enemy was unmolested by the Tennessee 
 troops, their general appeared in a light more truly 
 heroic than at any other part of his military life. His 
 fortitude, his will, alone saved the campaign. His burn 
 ing letters kept the cause alive in the State ; his example, 
 resolution, activity, and courage preserved the conquests 
 already achieved, and prepared the way for others that 
 threw them into the shade. The spectacle of a brave 
 man contending with difficulties is one in which the 
 gods were said to take delight. Such a spectacle was 
 exhibited by Andrew Jackson during these weeks of 
 enforced inaction. 
 
 Hunger, that great tamer of beasts and men, is pre 
 cisely the enemy against which amateur soldiers are 
 least able to contend. Lounging and dozing about the 
 camp, unable to make the slightest attempt against the 
 foe, their first love of adventure satisfied, desirous to 
 recount their exploits to friends at home, pining for the 
 abundance they had left, anxious for their farms and 
 families, and angered at the supposed neglect of the 
 State authorities and contractors, the troops became dis 
 contented, and began to clamor for the order to return 
 into the settlements. Jackson s force consisted of two 
 kinds of troops, militia and volunteers. It seemed at 
 first a proof of the safety of the purely voluntary prin 
 ciple that it was among the militia that the discontents 
 took quickest root ; the pride of the volunteers keeping 
 them firm in their duty after the militia were resolved 
 to abandon theirs. It is said, however, that some of 
 the volunteers who, from their having accompanied the 
 general on his fruitless march to Natchez, were looked 
 
9 2 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 upon as the veterans of the army, were not the last to 
 join the malcontents, nor the most moderate in express 
 ing their feelings. These men spoke with a kind of 
 oracular authority, which had influence with the younger 
 soldiers. Some of the officers, too, overcome by that 
 bane and blight of republican virtue, the lust of popu 
 larity, secretly sided with the men and fomented their 
 mutinous disposition. In secluded places about the 
 camp, by the watch fires at night, wherever a group of 
 hungry soldiers were together, they talked of their 
 wrongs, of the uselessness of remaining where they 
 were, and how much better it would be for the army to 
 return home for a while, and finish the war under better 
 auspices at a more convenient season. 
 
 In circumstances like these revolt ripens apace. Ten 
 days of gnawing hunger and inaction at Fort Strother 
 brought all the militia regiments to the resolution of 
 marching back in a body to the settlements, with or 
 without the consent of the commanding general, and a 
 day was fixed upon for their departure. Jackson heard 
 of it in time. On the designated morning the militia 
 began the homeward movement ; but they found a lion 
 in the path. The general was up before them, and had 
 drawn up on the road leading to the settlements the 
 whole body of volunteers, with orders to prevent the 
 departure of the militia, peaceably if they could, forcibly 
 if they must. The militia, in this unexpected posture 
 of affairs, renounced their intention, and, obeying the 
 orders of the general, returned to their position and 
 their duty. 
 
 It soon, appeared, however, that the volunteers were 
 as much chagrined and disappointed at the success of 
 this movement as the militia, and, ere night closed in, 
 resolved themselves to depart on the following day. 
 The general, apprised of their intention, was again early 
 
THE CREEK COUNTRY INVADED. 
 
 93 
 
 in the field. Imagine the surprise of the volunteers 
 when, on taking the projected line of march, they found 
 drawn up in hostile array to prevent them the very 
 militia whose departure they had frustrated the day 
 before ! The militia stood firm, and the volunteers, not 
 without some grim laughter at this practical revolt, 
 returned to their stations. The cavalry, however, hav 
 ing petitioned the general for permission to retire to 
 Huntsville long enough to recruit their famished horses, 
 promising to return when that object was accomplished, 
 were allowed to leave. Jackson remained in the wilder 
 ness with his thousand infantry, now sullen and enraged, 
 and rapidly approaching the point of downright mutiny. 
 As was his wont in every crisis, the general tried the 
 effect of a patriotic address. Inviting the officers of all 
 grades to his quarters, he first laid before them the let 
 ters last received from Tennessee, which gave assurance 
 that a plentiful supply of provisions was already on the 
 way, and that measures were in operation which would 
 insure a sufficiency in future. He then delivered a warm 
 and energetic speech, extolling their past achievements, 
 lamenting their privations, and urging them still to per 
 severe. The conquests they had already made, he said, 
 were of the greatest importance, and the most dreadful 
 consequences would result from abandoning them. "To 
 be sure," said he in conclusion, " we do not live sumptu 
 ously, but no one has died of hunger, or is likely to 
 die ; and then, how animating are our prospects ! Large 
 supplies are at Deposit, and already are officers dis 
 patched to hasten them on. Wagons are on the way ; 
 a large number of beeves are in the neighborhood, and 
 detachments are out to bring them in. All these re 
 sources can not fail. I have no wish to starve you 
 none to deceive you. Stay contentedly ; and if supplies 
 do not arrive in two days, we will all march back to- 
 
g4 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 gether, and throw the blame of our failure where it 
 should properly lie. Until then we certainly have the 
 means of subsisting; and if we are compelled to bear 
 privations, let us remember that they are borne for our 
 country, and are not greater than many, perhaps most, 
 armies have been compelled to endure. I have called 
 you together to tell you my feelings and my wishes. 
 This evening think on them seriously, and let me know 
 yours in the morning." 
 
 The officers returned to their quarters and consulted 
 with the troops. On this occasion, whether from a spirit 
 of rivalry or the sense of duty, the militia proved more 
 tractable than the volunteers ; for, on the return of the 
 officers to Jackson s tent, the officers of the volunteer 
 regiments reported that nothing short of an immediate 
 return to the settlements could prevent the forcible de 
 parture of their men ; but the militia officers declared 
 the willingness of their troops to remain long enough to 
 ascertain whether supplies could be obtained. " If they 
 can," said they, " let us proceed with the campaign ; if 
 not, let us be marched back to where they can be pro 
 cured." 
 
 The general thought it best to take both bodies at 
 their word. He sent one regiment of volunteers to meet 
 the coming provisions, ordering them to return with them 
 as an escort. The other volunteer regiment, shamed by 
 the superior fortitude of the militia, agreed to stay two 
 days longer; and thus the general gained a brief respite 
 from his torturing solicitude. These departing volun 
 teers were the very men whom Jackson had refused to 
 abandon at Natchez, even at the command of the Gov 
 ernment, and for whose safe return he had pledged and 
 risked his fortune. That they should have been the first, 
 in his sore perplexity, to abandon him, was an event 
 which gave him the most acute mortification. 
 
THE CREEK COUNTRY INVADED. 
 
 95 
 
 The two days passed. No provisions arrived. The 
 militia demanded the prompt fulfillment of the general s 
 promise. He was now in the dilemma that Columbus 
 would have been in if land had not been descried in three 
 days. Overwhelmed with despondency, he lifted up his 
 hands and exclaimed, after long brooding over his situa 
 tion, " If only two men will remain with me, I will never 
 abandon the post ! " One Captain Gordon replied, in a 
 jocular manner, "You have one, general; let us see if 
 we can not find another." He set about seeking volun 
 teers, and, aided by the general s staff, soon obtained 
 the names of one hundred and nine men who agreed to 
 remain and defend the fort. Rejoicing at this result, 
 the general left Fort Strother in their charge, and 
 marched himself, with the rest of the troops, toward 
 Fort Deposit, upon the explicit understanding that, hav 
 ing met the expected provisions, and having satisfied 
 their hunger, they were to return with the provision 
 train to Fort Strother and proceed against the enemy. 
 It was to insure the performance of this engagement 
 that he commanded them in person. 
 
 Away they marched, haggard and hungry, but in 
 high spirits, and praying Heaven that they might not 
 meet the coming supplies so desperate was their desire 
 to return home. To Jackson s inexpressible joy, and to 
 the dismay of his troops, they had not marched more 
 than twelve miles before they saw approaching them a 
 drove of one hundred and fifty cattle. Halt, kill, and 
 eat, was the word. The slaughtering, the cooking, and 
 the devouring were quickly accomplished; and the army, 
 filled with beef and valor, felt itself able to cope even 
 with General Jackson. To return to Fort Strother was 
 the furthest from their thoughts. When the order to 
 return was given, the general himself was not in the 
 immediate presence of the troops, and the order was not 
 
96 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 obeyed. One company moved off on the homeward 
 road, had gone some distance, and were about to be 
 followed by others, when word was brought to Jackson 
 of the mutiny. Followed by his staff and a few faithful 
 friends, he galloped in pursuit, and came by a detour to 
 a part of the road a little in advance of the deserters, 
 where he found General Coffee and a small force. Form 
 ing these across the road, he ordered them to fire upon 
 the deserters if they should persist in their attempt to 
 leave. On coming up, the homesick gentlemen gave 
 one glance at the fiery general and the opposing force, 
 and fled precipitately to their stations. 
 
 The manner, appearance, and language of General 
 Jackson on occasions like this were literally terrific. 
 Few common men could stand before the ferocity of his 
 aspect and the violence of his words. On the present 
 occasion, I presume that the mutineers were put to 
 flight as much by the terrible aspect of the general as 
 by the armed men who were with him. We can fancy 
 the scene Jackson in advance of Coffee s men, his 
 grizzled hair bristling up from his forehead, his face as 
 red as fire, his eyes sparkling and flashing; roaring out 
 with the voice of a Stentor and the energy of Andrew 
 Jackson, "By the immaculate God ! I ll blow the damned 
 villains to eternity if they advance another step ! " 
 
 Trusting that the men would now do their duty, the 
 general went among them, leaving General Coffee and 
 his own staff to proceed with the preparations for de 
 parture. He found almost the whole brigade infected 
 and on the point of moving toward home. Upon the 
 instant, he resolved to prevent this or perish in the path 
 before them. He seized a musket and rode a few paces 
 in advance of the troops. His left arm was still in a 
 sling. Leaning his musket on his horse s neck, he swore 
 he would shoot the first maa that attempted to proceed. 
 
THE CREEK COUNTRY INVADED. 
 
 97 
 
 Meanwhile, General Coffee and Major Reid, suspecting 
 that something extraordinary was occurring, ran up, and 
 found their general in this attitude, with the column of 
 mutineers standing in sullen silence before him, not a 
 man daring to stir a foot forward. Placing themselves 
 by his side, they awaited the result with intense anxiety. 
 Gradually a few of the troops, who were still faithful, 
 were collected behind the general, armed, and resolved 
 to use their arms in his support. For some minutes the 
 column of mutineers stood firm to their purpose, and it 
 only needed one man bold enough to advance to bring 
 on a bloody scene. They wavered, however, at length 
 abandoned their purpose, and agreed to return to their 
 duty. It afterward appeared that the musket which 
 figured so effectually in this scene was too much out of 
 order to be discharged ! 
 
 The troops were not in the highest spirits nor in the 
 most amiable humor as they marched back to Fort 
 Strother that afternoon. Yet they marched back, and 
 the frontiers were still safe. Jackson did not return 
 with them, but proceeded to Fort Deposit, to inspect 
 that post and personally hasten forward supplies. Pro 
 digious exertions were now put forth. Major Lewis 
 surpassed himself. Two hundred pack-horses and forty 
 wagons were taken into service by him. From this 
 time the operations of the army were not seriously im 
 peded by the want of supplies. News now came that 
 the measures so hastily adopted by the State of Tennes 
 see had been approved by the Government at Washing 
 ton, and that the whole force employed had been re 
 ceived into the service of the United States. Jackson 
 rejoined his division in high spirits, and was rejoiced to 
 find that the works at Fort Strother had been vigorously 
 carried on in his absence. Nothing seemed now to op 
 pose the successful prosecution of the war. A few swift 
 
98 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 marches, a few well-fought engagements, and the troops 
 might return home, the general thought, to receive the 
 applause of the State and the nation. Ordering General 
 Cocke to join him at Fort Strother, with the troops 
 from East Tennessee, he expected nothing but to renew 
 the contest upon their arrival. 
 
 But the general was reckoning without his army. 
 The volunteers, penetrated with the spirit of discontent, 
 soon provided themselves with a new argument for 
 abandoning the service. The first days of December 
 were now passing. It was on the loth of December, 
 1812, that these volunteers had entered into service, 
 engaging, as they said, to serve one year. They ac 
 cordingly made no secret of their intention to leave the 
 camp on the loth of December, 1813. But they were 
 now reckoning without their general, who recalled to 
 their recollection that they had engaged to serve one 
 year in two ! They had been subject to the call of the 
 Government for a year, but for more than half of that 
 period they had been at home, pursuing their own af 
 fairs. Nothing short, maintained the general, of three 
 hundred and sixty-five days of actual service in the 
 field could release them from their obligation before the 
 loth of December, 1814. 
 
 Such was the new issue between the general and the 
 volunteers. It was warmly argued, with the inevitable 
 effect of confirming each in the opinion that accorded 
 with his desire. The general was clear in the belief that 
 he was in the right ; but he seems, from the beginning 
 of this contest, to have seen that it was useless to at 
 tempt new enterprises unless seconded by the alacrity 
 of his men. Therefore, while firmly resisting the de 
 parture of the troops, he saw the necessity of procuring 
 new levies from the State, and to this object devoted his 
 energies. General Roberts, Colonel Carroll, and Major 
 
THE CREEK COUNTRY INVADED. 
 
 99 
 
 Searcy, officers high in his confidence, were dispatched 
 to Tennessee to hasten the assembling of a new army ; 
 while Jackson wrote letter upon letter to influential 
 friends, urging them to aid the cause by personal 
 efforts. 
 
 But to raise a new force and march it a hundred and 
 fifty miles into the Indian country was necessarily a 
 work of considerable time, during which we see the gen 
 eral some of his best officers away recruiting, and his 
 right arm, General Coffee, sick at Huntsville contend 
 ing almost alone with a fractious soldiery. Defeated 
 in their previous attempts at forcible departure, these 
 men now tried to move their commander by argument 
 and entreaty. A formal letter from one of the colonels, 
 which Jackson received a few days before the dreaded 
 loth of December, expressed the feelings of the troops. 
 It made known to him that the whole body of volun 
 teers retained the unalterable opinion that they would 
 be entitled to a legal release on the loth. " They 
 therefore look to their general, who hokiS their confi 
 dence, for an honorable discharge on that day, and 
 that in every respect he will see that justice be done 
 them." 
 
 An appeal like this was harder for a man of Jack 
 son s cast of character to resist than armed mutiny. 
 He had no choice but to resist it. It was essential to 
 the safety of the frontiers that these men should remain 
 in service, at least until they could be relieved by other 
 troops. Jackson s reply to this letter was moderate and 
 unanswerable. 
 
 " The moment," said he, 4< it is signified to me by 
 any competent authority, even by the Governor of 
 Tennessee, to whom I have written on the subject, or 
 by General Pinckney, who is now appointed to the 
 command, that the volunteers may be exonerated from 
 
100 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 further service, that moment I will pronounce it with 
 the greatest satisfaction. I have only the power of pro 
 nouncing a discharge not of giving it in any case ; 
 a distinction which I would wish should be borne in mind. 
 Already have I sent to raise volunteers, on my own re 
 sponsibility, to complete a campaign which has been so 
 happily begun, and thus far so fortunately prosecuted. 
 The moment they arrive and I am assured that, fired by 
 our exploits, they will hasten in crowds on the first intima 
 tion that we need their services they will be substi 
 tuted in the place of those who are discontented here. 
 The latter will then be permitted to return to their 
 homes, with all the honor which under such circum 
 stances they can carry along with them. But I still 
 cherish the hope that their dissatisfaction and com 
 plaints have been greatly exaggerated. I can not, must 
 not believe, that the * Volunteers of Tennessee, a name 
 ever dear to fame, will disgrace themselves, and a 
 country which they have honored, by abandoning her 
 standard as mutineers and deserters; but should I be 
 disappointed, and compelled to resign this pleasing hope, 
 one thing I will not resign my duty. Mutiny and 
 sedition, so long as I possess the power of quelling them, 
 shall be put down ; and even when left destitute of this, 
 I will still be found in the last extremity endeavoring 
 to discharge the duty I owe my country and myself." 
 
 The afternoon of the Qth ended. The frenzy of the 
 men to return was such that they were determined not 
 even to wait for the morning, but to march at the very 
 moment their last day s service had been rendered. Jack 
 son was in his tent, not anticipating a movement that 
 evening, when an officer suddenly entered and informed 
 him that the whole brigade was in mutiny and prepar 
 ing to march off in a body. He dashed upon paper the 
 following order: "The commanding general being in- 
 
THE CREEK COUNTRY INVADED. IOI 
 
 formed that an actual mutiny exists in the camp, all 
 officers and soldiers are commanded to put it down. 
 The officers and soldiers of the First Brigade will with 
 out delay parade on the west side of the fort, and await 
 further orders." 
 
 He further ordered the artillery company, with their 
 two small pieces of cannon, to take position in front and 
 rear, and the militia to be drawn up on an eminence 
 commanding the road upon which the volunteers in 
 tended to march. These orders were obeyed with sur 
 prising alacrity, for Jackson was now in that mood that 
 men felt it perilous to resist. The general mounted his 
 horse and rode up to the line of volunteers, as they 
 stood along the western side of the fort, silent, sullen, 
 and determined. He broke at once into an impassioned 
 yet not angry address. He praised their former good 
 conduct. He dwelt upon the disgrace that would fall 
 upon themselves and their families if they should carry 
 home with them the name of mutineers and deserters. 
 Never should they do it but by passing over his dead 
 body ! He would do his duty at any cost ; ay, even if 
 he perished there before them, dying honorably at his 
 post. "Re-enforcements," said he, " are preparing to 
 hasten to my assistance; it can not be long before they 
 arrive. I am, too, in daily expectation of receiving in 
 formation whether you may be discharged or not. 
 Until then you must not and shall not retire. I have 
 done with entreaty ; it has been used long enough ; I 
 will attempt it no more. You must now determine 
 whether you will go or peaceably remain. If you still 
 persist in your determination to move forcibly off, the 
 point between us shall soon be decided." 
 
 He paused. No one answered ; no one moved. " I 
 demand an explicit answer," said the general. There 
 was still no response. He ordered the artillerymen to 
 
102 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 be ready with their matches, himself remaining in front 
 of the mutineers and within the line of fire. The men 
 now evidently hesitated. Whispers ran along the line 
 recommending a return to duty. Soon the officers stepped 
 forward and assured the general that the troops were 
 willing to remain at the fort until the arrival of re-en 
 forcements, or of the answer to General Jackson s in 
 quiries respecting their term of service. The men were 
 dismissed to their quarters, and the general was once 
 more victorious. 
 
 Jackson had triumphed only so far as to secure the 
 presence of the men at the post. He now made an effort 
 to restore his army to contentment. The near approach 
 of General Cocke having strengthened his position, he 
 resolved to permit the homesick brigade to march to 
 Tennessee, there to be dismissed or retained as the Gov 
 ernor should decide. 
 
 General Cocke reached Fort Strother on the i2th of 
 December with his division of two thousand men. Jack 
 son learned, however, that the term of service of more 
 than half of this body was on the very point of expiring, 
 and that none of them had longer than a month to serve. 
 Nor were any of them provided with clothing suitable 
 for a winter campaign. Retaining eight hundred of 
 these troops, who owed still a month s service, Jackson 
 ordered General Cocke to march the rest of his division 
 back to the settlements, there to dismiss them, and to 
 enroll a new force, properly provided, and engaged to 
 serve six months. He addressed the departing troops, 
 entreating them to join the new army as soon as they 
 had procured their clothing, and return to him and aid 
 in completing the conquest of the enemy. 
 
 These were dark days for General Jackson. Every 
 thing went wrong. The return of so many troops, bear 
 ing with them the feelings they did, giving out that, 
 
THE CREEK COUNTRY INVADED. 103 
 
 after enduring privations, gaining victories, and holding 
 the savages in check for two months, they had been re 
 fused an honorable dismissal and sent home almost in 
 disgrace, threw a damper upon the efforts to raise new 
 men and spread discontent among those already engaged. 
 Even the horsemen of General Coffee, who had been 
 allowed to leave Fort Strother for a while to recruit 
 their horses at home, could not be induced to return to 
 duty. Assembling at the call of the gallant Coffee, they 
 heard the tale of the returning troops, caught their spirit, 
 and became mutinous, riotous, and unmanageable. At 
 length they broke away in a tumultuous mass toward 
 home. General Coffee galloped in pursuit, accompanied 
 by the eloquent Blackburn, and both addressed the fugi 
 tives with all the persuasive energy of which they were 
 capable. But in vain. Nearly to a man the cavalry 
 brigade rode away, rioting and wasting as they went, 
 and were seen as an organized body no more. 
 
 Affairs were little better at Jackson s own camp. He 
 had fourteen hundred men at Fort Strother, of whom 
 eight hundred would be free to return home in four 
 weeks. The remaining six hundred were militia who 
 had been called out upon the receipt of the news of Fort 
 Mims, by an act of the Legislature which, most unfor 
 tunately, did not specify any time of service. Three 
 months, said the militia, is the term established by King 
 Precedent. By no means, replied Jackson ; the omission 
 in the act must be supplied by the phrase for the war. 
 The militia were summoned, he maintained, for the pur 
 pose of avenging Fort Mims and conquering a lasting 
 peace. These objects accomplished, the work for which 
 the troops were engaged would be done, and they would 
 be entitled to an honorable discharge ; but not till then. 
 
 Here were the elements of new discontents and new 
 mutinies. The three months would expire on the 4th of 
 
GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 January, and already the latter half of December was 
 gliding away. Thus, in two weeks Jackson was threat 
 ened with the loss of six hundred of his troops, and in 
 four weeks the remaining eight hundred would certainly 
 depart. The campaign was falling to pieces in every 
 direction. Jackson s military career seemed about to 
 close in disgrace, and the glory of the Tennessee volun 
 teers to be extinguished forever. But this was not all. 
 Disaster menaced every assailable portion of the South 
 west. Letters came from General Pinckney, the chief 
 in command in that region, ordering General Jackson to 
 hold all his posts, since it had become a matter of the 
 first national importance to deprive the British of their 
 Indian allies. 
 
 How anxiously, in such circumstances, General Jack 
 son looked for news from Tennessee may be imagined. 
 Help from that quarter alone could save him, and that 
 help he had implored from Governor Blount, who alone 
 could grant it. The expected dispatch from Nashville 
 reached Fort Strother at length, and proved to be a 
 most disheartening response to Jackson s entreaties. 
 The Governor feared to transcend his authority. Hav 
 ing called out all the troops authorized by Congress and 
 the Legislature, what could he do more ? The campaign 
 had failed, he said, and he advised General Jackson to 
 give up a struggle which could have no favorable issue, 
 and return home ; to wait until the General Government 
 should provide the means requisite for carrying on the 
 war with vigor. 
 
 Not for one instant did Jackson concur in this view 
 of the situation. He was of that temper which gained 
 new determination from other men s despair. The last 
 ounce stiffened his back, but did not break it. He went 
 to his tent and wrote to the Governor the best letter he 
 ever wrote in his life one of those historical epistles 
 
THE CREEK COUNTRY INVADED. 105 
 
 which do the work of a campaign in rolling back the tide 
 of events. This eloquent epistle convinced and roused 
 Governor Blount. He forthwith ordered a new levy of 
 twenty-five hundred men to rendezvous at Fayetteville 
 on the 28th of January, to serve for three months, and 
 authorized General Cocke to obey Jackson s order for 
 raising a new division of East Tennesseeans. The as 
 pect of affairs in the State was immediately changed. 
 The noise of preparation was everywhere heard. There 
 was a furbishing of arms and a tramp of marching men 
 in all quarters of the State. In a few days the honor 
 able scruples of the Governor were completely set at 
 rest by a dispatch from the Secretary of War, which more 
 than covered all he had done, and sanctioned any fur 
 ther requisition of men which he might deem necessary. 
 If Jackson could but hold his position a few weeks 
 longer, there was every prospect of his being able once 
 more to act with efficiency. 
 
 From the middle of December to the middle of Jan 
 uary General Jackson was called upon to endure every 
 description of mortification and difficulty known to bor 
 der warfare. On the 4th of January his six hundred 
 militia, in spite of warning and entreaty, and after scenes 
 of violence similar to those already related, marched 
 homeward. On the i4th, the eight hundred of General 
 Cocke s division, whose term of service then expired, 
 were earnestly besought to remain, if only for twenty 
 days. The savages were in motion again, and threat 
 ened the frontiers of Georgia. Jackson implored these 
 men to make one excursion into the enemy s country, to 
 strike one blow at them, for the purpose of at least 
 diverting or dividing their force and giving an easier 
 victory to the Georgia troops. But no ; their minds 
 were set resolutely homeward, and away they marched, 
 leaving him with a mere handful of men to guard the 
 
I0 6 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 post. Moreover, the new recruits could not be induced 
 to engage for six months. Colonel Carroll, rather than 
 bring back no men, had enlisted a body of horse for 
 two months only, and General Roberts returned with 
 infantry engaged for three. These men General Jack 
 son was obliged to accept, or be left alone in the 
 wilderness. 
 
 On the i$th of January, then, we find the general at 
 Fort Strother with nine hundred raw recruits, who had 
 come out with the expectation of making a single raid 
 into the Indian territory and then to return to narrate 
 their exploits and draw their pay. Such troops it is 
 dangerous to keep in inaction for a single week. The 
 regular levies from Tennessee could not be expected for 
 a month to come. The necessity of striking a blow at 
 the exulting enemy was pressing. In these circum 
 stances, Jackson, with the daring prudence that charac 
 terized his career, resolved upon instant action, and 
 gave the order to prepare for marching against the 
 foe. 
 
 " On the evening of the 2oth I encamped at Enota- 
 chopco, a small Hillabee village about twelve miles from 
 Emuckfau. Here I began to perceive very plainly how 
 little knowledge my spies had of the country, of the sit 
 uation of the enemy, or of the distance I was from them. 
 The insubordination of the new troops, and the want of 
 skill in most of their officers, also became more and 
 more apparent. But their ardor to meet the enemy was 
 not diminished, and I had sure reliance upon the guards, 
 and upon the company of old volunteer officers, and 
 upon the spies, in all about one hundred and twenty-five. 
 My wrshes and my duty remained united, and I was de 
 termined to effect, if possible, the objects for which the 
 excursion had been principally undertaken. 
 
 " On the morning of the 2ist I marched from Enota- 
 
THE CREEK COUNTRY INVADED. JQJ 
 
 chopco as direct as I could for the bend of the Talla- 
 poosa, and about two made a swift incursion into the 
 enemy s country, during which hard blows were dealt 
 them, keeping the restless men loyal to their duty, and 
 prepared the way for the next and decisive operations 
 of the war." 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE FINISHING BLOW. 
 
 THE excursion over, and the new levies from Tennes 
 see approaching, Jackson dismissed his victorious troops, 
 whose term of service was about to expire. He bade 
 them farewell in an address abounding in kind and flat 
 tering expressions; and they left him feeling all that 
 soldiers usually feel toward the general who has led 
 them to victory. 
 
 The return of these troops, animated by such senti 
 ments, gave a new impetus to the cause in Tennessee, 
 and fired the troops who were on their way to the seat 
 of war with new zeal. From all quarters came volun 
 teers, hurrying toward the standard of the successful gen 
 eral, whose prospects now brightened with every day s 
 dispatches. On the 3d of February came news that two 
 thousand East Tennesseeans were far on their way to 
 join him. A day or two after, a dispatch informed the 
 general that nearly as many West Tennessee troops had 
 reached Huntsville and waited his orders. On the 6th 
 marched into Fort Strother the Thirty-ninth Regiment of 
 United States infantry, six hundred strong, under Colo 
 nel Williams a most important acquisition. Into this 
 regiment one Sam Houston had recently enlisted as a 
 private soldier, and made his way to the rank of ensign 
 the same Sam Houston who was afterward President of 
 Texas and Senator of the United States. 
 
 In addition to this re-enforcement, there came in, 
 
THE FINISHING BLOW. 109 
 
 soon after, a part of General Coffee s old brigade of 
 mounted men, and a troop of dragoons from East Ten 
 nessee. The Choctaw Indians now openly joined the 
 peace party, and asked orders from General Jackson. 
 There was no lack of men of any description. Long 
 before February closed Jackson was at the head of an 
 army of five thousand men, all within a few days march 
 of Fort Strother, waiting only till the general could accu 
 mulate twenty days rations to march in and strike, as 
 they hoped, a finishing blow at the enemy. 
 
 Six weeks of intense labor on the part of the general 
 and his army were required to complete the preparations 
 for the decisive movement. The middle of March had 
 arrived. The various divisions of the army were assem 
 bled at Fort Strother, and the requisite quantity of pro 
 visions had been accumulated. A system of expresses 
 had been established for the conveyance of information 
 to General Pinckney and Governor Blount. With much 
 difficulty, one man had been found competent to beat 
 the ordinary calls on the drum, and this one drum was 
 the sole music of the army. Deducting the strong 
 guards to be left at the posts already established, the 
 force about to march against the enemy amounted to 
 about three thousand men. 
 
 The attention of the reader is now to be directed to 
 a remarkable " bend " of the river Tallapoosa, about 
 fifty-five miles from Fort Strother, the scene, for so many 
 weeks, of General Jackson s strenuous endeavors. 
 
 The Tallapoosa and the Coosa are the rivers which 
 unite in the southern part of Alabama and form the 
 Alabama River. The bend of which we speak is about 
 midway between the source and the mouth of the Talla 
 poosa. It occurs where the stream is no fordable during 
 the spring rains, but is not wide enough to present a 
 serious obstacle to an Indian swimmer. From the shape 
 
IIO GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 of this peninsula the Indians called it Tohopeka, which 
 means horseshoe. It contains a hundred acres of land, 
 since a cotton field. The neck, or isthmus, is about 
 three hundred and fifty yards across. The ground rises 
 somewhat from the edge of the water. It was a wild, 
 rough piece of ground, abounding in places which would 
 afford covert to an Indian warrior. At the time of which 
 we write the surrounding country for a hundred miles 
 or more was a nearly unbroken wilderness of forest, 
 swamp, and cane, marked only by the trail of wild beasts 
 and the "trace " of wild men. As well from its situation 
 as its form this place was entitled to be styled the heart 
 of the Indian country. 
 
 Here it was that the evil genius of the Creeks 
 prompted them to assemble the warriors of all the tribes 
 residing in that vicinity, to make a stand against the 
 great army with which, their runners told them, General 
 Jackson was preparing to overrun the Indian country. 
 The long delays at Fort Strother had given them time 
 to prepare for his reception, and they had improved that 
 time. Across the neck of the peninsula they had built 
 (of logs) a breastwork of immense strength, pierced with 
 two rows of port-holes. The line of defense was so 
 drawn that an approaching enemy would we exposed 
 both to a direct and a raking fire. Behind the breast 
 work was a mass of logs and brushwood, such as Indians 
 delight to fight from. At the bottom of the peninsula, 
 near the river, was a village of huts. The banks of the 
 river were fringed with the canoes of the savage garri 
 son, so that they possessed the means of retreat as well 
 as of defense. The greater part of the peninsula was 
 still covered with the primeval forest. Within this ex 
 tensive fortification were assembled about nine hundred 
 warriors of various Creek tribes, and about three hun 
 dred women and children. 
 
THE FINISHING BLOW. Iir 
 
 The Indian force was small to defend so extensive a 
 line of fortification. But a variety of circumstances 
 conspired to give the savage garrison confidence : such 
 as the impregnable strength of the breastwork, its pecul 
 iar construction, the facilities afforded in the interior of 
 the bend for the Indian mode of fighting, the partial 
 successes gained by the Indians at Emuckfau and Eno- 
 tachopco of which they continually boasted, averring 
 that they had made " Captain Jackson " run and, above 
 all, the positive and reiterated predictions of their proph 
 ets. Three of the most famous of the prophets were 
 there, performing their incantations day and night, and 
 keeping alive that religious fury which had played so 
 great a part in previous battles. And besides, in case 
 the breastwork was carried and the bend overrun, how 
 easy to rush to the canoes and paddle across the river, 
 laughing at their baffled assailants as they vanished into 
 the woods on the opposite shore ! So thought the 
 Creeks. 
 
 Jackson was eleven days in marching his army the 
 fifty-five miles of untrodden wilderness that lay between 
 Fort Strother and the Horseshoe Bend of the Tallapoosa. 
 Roads had to be cut, the Coosa explored, boats waited 
 for and rescued from the shoals, high ridges crossed, 
 Fort Williams built and garrisoned to keep open the line 
 of communication, and numerous other difficulties over 
 come, before he could penetrate to the vicinity of the 
 bend. It was early in the morning of March 2yth that, 
 with an army diminished by garrisoning the posts to 
 two thousand men, he reached the scene and prepared 
 to commence operations. 
 
 Perceiving at one glance that the Indians had sim 
 ply penned themselves up for slaughter, his first meas 
 ure was to send General Coffee with all the mounted 
 men and friendly Indians to cross the river two miles 
 
112 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 below, where it was fordable, to take a position on the 
 bank opposite the line of canoes, and so cut off the re 
 treat. This was promptly executed by General Coffee, 
 who soon announced by a preconcerted signal that he had 
 reached the station assigned him. Jackson then planted 
 his two pieces of cannon one a three, the other a six- 
 pounder upon an eminence eighty yards from the near 
 est point of the breastwork, whence, at half-past ten in 
 the morning, he opened fire upon it. His sharpshoot 
 ers also were drawn up near enough to get an occasional 
 shot at an Indian within the bend. A steady fire of can 
 non and rifles was kept up in front for two hours with 
 out producing any hopeful beginning of a breach in the 
 breastwork. The little cannon balls buried themselves 
 in the logs or in the earth between them without doing 
 decisive harm. The Indians whooped in derision as 
 they struck and disappeared. 
 
 Meanwhile General Coffee, not content to remain in 
 active, hit upon a line of conduct that proved eminently 
 effective. He sent some of the best swimmers among 
 his force of friendly Indians across the river to cut 
 loose and bring away the canoes of the beleaguered 
 Creeks. That done, he used the canoes for sending over 
 a party of men under Colonel Morgan, with orders first 
 to set fire to the cluster of huts at the bottom of the 
 bend, and then to rush forward and attack the Indians 
 behind the breastwork. 
 
 This was gallantly done. The force under Jackson 
 soon perceived from the smoke of the burning huts and 
 from the rattling fire behind the breastwork that Gen 
 eral Coffee was up and doing. Soon, however, that fire 
 was observed to slacken, and it became apparent that 
 Morgan s force was too small to do more than distract 
 and divide the attention of the assailed. This, however, 
 alone was an immense advantage. Jackson s men saw 
 
THE FINISHING BLOW. 113 
 
 it and clamored for the order to assault. The General 
 hesitated many minutes before giving an order that 
 would inevitably send so many of his brave fellows to 
 their account, and the issue of which was doubtful. The 
 order came at length, and was received with a general 
 shout. 
 
 The Thirty-ninth Regiment, under Colonel Williams, 
 and the brigade of East Tennesseeans, under Colonel 
 Bunch, marched rapidly up to the breastwork and de 
 livered a volley through the port-holes. The Indians 
 returned the fire with effect, and, muzzle to muzzle, the 
 combatants for a short time contended. Major L. P. 
 Montgomery, of the Thirty-ninth, was the first man to 
 spring upon the breastwork, where, calling upon his men 
 to follow, he received a ball in his head and fell dead 
 to the ground. At that critical moment young Ensign 
 Houston mounted the breastwork. A barbed arrow 
 pierced his thigh ; but, nothing dismayed, this gallant 
 youth, calling his comrades to follow, leaped down 
 among the Indians and soon cleared a space around him 
 with his vigorous right arm. Joined in a moment by 
 parties of his own regiment, and by large numbers of the 
 East Tennesseeans, the breastwork was soon cleared, 
 the Indians retiring before them into the underbrush. 
 
 The wounded ensign sat down within the fortification 
 and called a lieutenant of his company to draw the ar 
 row from his thigh. Two vigorous pulls at the barbed 
 weapon failed to extract it. In a fury of pain and im 
 patience Houston cried, " Try again, and if you fail 
 this time I will smite you to the earth ! " Exerting all 
 his strength the lieutenant drew forth the arrow, tearing 
 the flesh fearfully, and causing an effusion of blood that 
 compelled the wounded man to hurry over the breast 
 work to get the wound bandaged. While he was lying 
 on the ground under the surgeon s hands the general 
 
114 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 rode up, and, recognizing his young acquaintance, or 
 dered him not to cross the breastwork again. Houston 
 begged him to recall the order, but the general repeated 
 it peremptorily and rode on. In a few minutes the en 
 sign had disobeyed the command and was once more 
 with his company in the thick of that long hand-to-hand 
 engagement which consumed the hours of the afternoon. 
 
 Not an Indian asked for quarter, nor would accept 
 it when offered. From behind trees and logs, from 
 clefts in the river s banks, from among the burning huts, 
 from chance log-piles, from temporary fortifications, the 
 desperate red men fired upon the troops. A large num 
 ber plunged into the river and attempted to escape by 
 swimming, but from Coffee s men on one bank and 
 Jackson s on the other a hailstorm of bullets flew over 
 the stream, and the painted heads dipped beneath its 
 blood-stained ripples. The battle became at length a 
 slow, laborious massacre. From all parts of the penin 
 sula resounded the yells of the savages, the shouts of 
 the assailants, and the reports of the firearms, while the 
 gleam of the uplifted tomahawk was seen among the 
 branches. 
 
 Toward the close of the afternoon it was observed 
 that a considerable number of the Indians had found a 
 refuge under the bluffs of the river, where a part of the 
 breastwork, the formation of the ground, and the felled 
 trees gave them complete protection. Desirous to end 
 this horrible carnage, Jackson sent a friendly Indian to 
 announce to them that their lives should be spared if 
 they would surrender. They were silent for a moment, 
 as if in consultation, and then answered the summons 
 by a volley which sent the interpreter bleeding from the 
 scene. The cannon were now brought up and played 
 upon the spot without effect. Jackson then called for 
 volunteers to charge, but the Indians were so well posted 
 
THE FINISHING BLOW. 115 
 
 that for a minute no one responded to the call. Ensign 
 Houston again emerged into view on this occasion. Or 
 dering his platoon to follow, but not waiting to see if 
 they would follow, he rushed to the overhanging bank 
 which sheltered the foe and through openings of which 
 they were firing. Over this mine of desperate savages 
 he paused and looked back for his men. At that mo 
 ment he received two balls in his right shoulder ; his arm 
 fell powerless to his side, he staggered out of the fire 
 and lay down totally disabled. His share in that day s 
 work was done. 
 
 Several valuable lives were afterward lost in vain en 
 deavors to dislodge the enemy from their well-chosen 
 covert. As the sun was going down, fire was set to the 
 logs and underbrush, which overspread and surrounded 
 this last refuge of the Creeks. The place soon grew too 
 hot to hold them. Singly, and by twos and threes, they 
 ran from the ravine, and fell as they ran before the fire 
 of a hundred riflemen on the watch for the starting of 
 the game. 
 
 The carnage lasted as long as there was light enough 
 to see a skulking or a flying enemy. It was impossible 
 to spare. The Indians fought after they were wounded, 
 and gave wounds to men who sought to save their lives, 
 for they thought that if spared they would be reserved 
 only for a more painful death. Night fell at last, and 
 recalled the troops from their bloody work to gather 
 wounded comrades and minister to their necessities. It 
 was a night of horror. Along the banks of the river, 
 all around the bend, Indians the wounded and the un 
 hurt were crouching in the clefts, under the brushwood, 
 and in some instances under the heaps of slain, watch 
 ing for an opportunity to escape. Many did escape, 
 and some lay until the morning, fearing to attempt 
 it. One noted chief, covered with wounds, took to the 
 
H6 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 water in the evening and lay beneath the surface, draw 
 ing his breath through a hollow cane until it was dark 
 enough to swim across. He escaped, and lived to tell 
 his story and show his scars many years after to the his 
 torian of Alabama, from whom we have derived the in 
 cident. In the morning, parties of the troops again 
 scoured the peninsula and ferreted from their hiding- 
 places sixteen more warriors, who, refusing still to sur 
 render, were added to the number of the slain. 
 
 Upon counting the dead, five hundred and fifty-seven 
 was found to be the number of the fallen enemy within 
 the peninsula. Two hundred more, it was computed, 
 had found a grave at the bottom of the river. Many 
 more died in the woods attempting to escape. Jackson s 
 loss was fifty-five killed and one hundred and forty-six 
 wounded, of whom more than half were friendly Indians. 
 The three prophets of the Creeks, fantastically dressed 
 and decorated, were found among the dead. One of 
 them, while engaged in his incantations, had received a 
 grapeshot in his mouth, which killed him instantly. 
 
 One would have expected General Jackson to pause 
 in his operations after such an affair as that of the 
 Horseshoe. Nothing was further from his thoughts. 
 " In war," his maxim was, " till everything is done 
 nothing is done." On the morning after the battle he 
 began at once to prepare for a retrograde movement as 
 far as Fort Williams, the fort which he had built on his 
 march from Fort Strother. He had brought with him 
 into the heart of the wilderness but seven days pro 
 visions. Before pushing his conquests further, it was 
 necessary both to procure supplies and place his long 
 train of wounded in a place of safety and comfort. He 
 was up betimes, therefore, and passed a busy morning. 
 His dead were sunk in the river, to prevent their being 
 scalped by the returning savages. Litters were prepared 
 
THE FINISHING BLOW. 
 
 117 
 
 for the wounded. A brief, imperfect account of the 
 battle was dispatched to General Pinckney. Before the 
 sun was many hours on his course all things were in 
 readiness, and the army set out on its return. 
 
 Five days march brought them to Fort Williams. 
 There the wounded were cared for, the friendly Indians 
 dismissed, and the troops publicly thanked, praised, and 
 congratulated. The praise of the general was the theme 
 of every tongue. 
 
 Provisions were not too abundant there in the wilder 
 ness, and supplies were brought in with incredible diffi 
 culty and toil. Jackson s next object was to form a 
 junction with the southern army at the confluence of 
 the Coosa and Tallapoosa, the holy ground of the 
 Creeks, which their prophets told them no white man 
 could tread and live. He had been assured by General 
 Pinckney that as soon as the junction of the two armies 
 was effected all difficulty with regard to provisions would 
 be at an end, as superabundant supplies had been pro 
 vided by the General Government. Moreover, it was on 
 this holy ground that the only body of Creeks that still 
 maintained a hostile attitude were assembled. For five 
 days the troops rested from their labors at Fort Williams ; 
 then they set out on their march through the pathless 
 wilderness, leaving behind wagons and baggage, each 
 man carrying eight days provisions upon his back. 
 Floods of rain, converting swamps into lakes, rivulets 
 into rivers, creeks into torrents, retarded their progress, 
 and gave the Indians time to disperse. The latter days 
 of April, however, found the troops on the holy ground, 
 where a junction with part of the southern army was 
 effected. 
 
 But the war was over. The power of the Creeks was 
 broken ; half their warriors were dead, the rest were 
 scattered and subdued in spirit. Fort Mims was indeed 
 9 
 
U8 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 avenged. Jackson s amazing celerity of movement, and 
 particularly his last daring plunge into the wilderness, 
 and his triumph over obstacles that would have deterred 
 even an Indian force, quite baffled and confounded the 
 unhappy Creeks. Against such a man they felt it vain 
 to contend. The general had no sooner reached the 
 holy ground and procured for his tired and hungry men 
 the supplies they needed, than the chiefs began to come 
 into his camp and supplicate for peace. His reply to 
 them was brief and stern. They must give proof, he 
 said, of their submission, by returning to the north of 
 his advanced post Fort Williams. There they would 
 be treated with, and the demands of the Government 
 made known to them. 
 
 In a few days fourteen of the leading chiefs had 
 given in their submission and taken up their sorrowful 
 march toward the designated place. Those of the fallen 
 tribe who despaired of making terms, and those whose 
 spirit was not yet completely crushed, fled into Florida, 
 and there sowed the seed of future wars. 
 
 With the establishment of Fort Jackson in the holy 
 ground, at the confluence of the two rivers, General 
 Jackson s task was nearly done. For a few days he was 
 busy enough in receiving deputations of repentant and 
 crestfallen chiefs, and in sending out strong detach 
 ments of troops to scour the country in search of hostile 
 parties, if any such still kept the field. No hostile parties 
 were found. The friendly Creeks, however, gave some 
 trouble by their excess of zeal. Attributing the calam 
 ities brought upon their tribe to the massacre at Fort 
 Mims, they were bent upon putting to death every man 
 that had taken part in that scene of horrors. Bodies 
 and single individuals of the hostile portion of the tribe 
 were waylaid and killed by roving companies of their 
 own countrymen. A war of extermination would have 
 
THE FINISHING BLOW. 
 
 ensued, had not General Jackson, in his decisive manner, 
 announced that any of the friendly party who should 
 molest a Red Stick after he had surrendered and while 
 he was obeying the orders of the general, should be 
 treated as enemies of the United States. This stayed 
 the work of blood, and the Indians continued to repair 
 to the northern part of Alabama, which had been assigned 
 for their temporary residence. Fort Jackson completed 
 the line of posts which separated them from the hos 
 tile Indians, the hostile British, and the sympathizing 
 Spaniards of Florida. 
 
 In the beginning of May, 1814, a few days after the 
 news of the battle of the Horseshoe reached Wash 
 ington, a brigadier-generalship fell vacant, which the 
 President was induced to offer to General Jackson, 
 Before it was known whether the offer would be ac 
 cepted, the unhappy misunderstanding between the Sec 
 retary of War and General William Henry Harrison 
 resulted in the resignation of that brave officer and 
 honest gentleman. Whether it was the haste of the Sec 
 retary to shelve an officer disagreeable to him, or the 
 growing eclat of Jackson s victories, or both of these 
 causes together, that induced the Government to accept 
 the resignation and offer the vacancy to Jackson, is a 
 matter of no importance now. Jackson received the 
 offer of the brigadiership ; and while he was consider 
 ing the question of acceptance or rejection, the mail of 
 the day following brought him the second offer, which 
 he accepted promptly and gladly. It was a reward which 
 he desired and felt to be due to his standing and services. 
 The National Intelligencer of May 31, 1814, contained 
 the announcement in the usual form : 
 
 " Andrew Jackson, of Tennessee, is appointed major- 
 general in the army of the United States, vice William 
 Henry Harrison, resigned." 
 
120 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 The emoluments of his new rank were of importance 
 to General Jackson, for he was by no means a rich man 
 in 1814. The pay of a major-general in the army of the 
 United States was twenty-four hundred dollars a year, 
 with allowances for rations, forage, servants, and trans 
 portation, that swelled the income to an average of 
 about six thousand five hundred dollars. It was never 
 less than six thousand dollars. The Legislature of Mis 
 sissippi Territory, about the same time, voted General 
 Jackson a sword, which was the first of the many simi 
 lar gifts bestowed upon him during his military career. 
 
 It is worthy of remark, in view of succeeding events, 
 that no less than six generals had stood between Jackson 
 and the likelihood of his being intrusted with the de 
 fense of the Southwest. First, General Wilkinson was 
 transferred from New Orleans to the Northwest, where 
 his failure was signal. Next, Brigadier-General Hamp 
 ton resigned. Third, Major-General William Henry 
 Harrison resigned. Fourth, General Flourney, who suc 
 ceeded Wilkinson at New Orleans, resigned. Fifth, Gen 
 eral Howard, of Kentucky, who was dispatched to suc 
 ceed Flourney, died before reaching his post. Sixth, 
 General Gaines, sent from Washington in haste when 
 the first alarm for New Orleans was felt by the Adminis 
 tration, did not arrive till all was over. And all these 
 singular and unexpected changes occurred within the 
 space of a very few months. 
 
 The effects of Jackson s eight months service upon 
 his health were permanently injurious. In reading of 
 his exploits we figure to ourselves a man in the enjoy 
 ment of the full tide of health. How different was the 
 fact ! From the moment of his being wounded in the 
 affray with the Bentons to the close of the war he was 
 so much an invalid that a man of less strength of will 
 would probably have yielded to the disease and spent 
 
THE FINISHING BLOW. 121 
 
 his days in nursing it. Chronic diarrhoea was the form 
 which his complaint assumed. The slightest imprudence 
 in eating or drinking brought on an attack, during 
 which he suffered intensely. While the paroxysm lasted 
 he could obtain relief only by sitting on a chair with his 
 chest against the back of it and his arms dangling for 
 ward. In this position he was sometimes compelled to 
 remain for hours. It often happened that he was seized 
 with the familiar pain while on the march through the 
 woods at the head of the troops. In the absence of 
 other means of relief he would have a sapling half sev 
 ered and bent over, upon which he would hang with his 
 arms downward till the agony subsided. The only 
 medicine that he took, and his only beverage then, was 
 weak gin and water. The reader is therefore to banish 
 from his imagination the popular figure of a vigorous 
 warrior galloping in the pride of his strength upon a 
 fiery charger, and put in the place of it a slight, attenu 
 ated form, a yellowish, wrinkled face, the dark-blue eyes 
 of which were the only feature that told anything of the 
 power and quality of the man. In great emergencies, it 
 is true, his will was master, compelling his impaired body 
 to execute all its resolves. But the reaction was terrible 
 sometimes, days of agony and prostration following an 
 hour of anxiety or exertion. He gradually learned in 
 some degree to manage and control his disease. But 
 all through the Creek war and the New Orleans cam 
 paign he was an acute sufferer, more fit for a sick-cham 
 ber than for the forest bivouac or the field of battle. 
 There were times, and critical times, too, when it seemed 
 impossible that he could go on. But at the decisive 
 moment he always rallied, and would do what the de 
 cisive moment demanded. 
 
 General Jackson rested from his labors three weeks. 
 As soon as his acceptance of the major-generalship 
 
122 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 reached Washington he was ordered to take command 
 of the Southern Division of the army, if division it could 
 be called, which consisted of three half-filled regiments. 
 He was ordered to halt, on his way to the Southern 
 coast, long enough to form a definite treaty with the 
 Creeks, or rather to announce to them the terms upon 
 which the United States would consent to a permanent 
 peace. Colonel Hawkins, who had been the agent for 
 the Creeks since the days of General Washington, was 
 associated with the general in this business. On the 
 loth of July, General Jackson, with a small retinue, 
 reached the holy ground once more, the place appointed 
 for meeting the chiefs, where he assumed the command 
 of the troops and prepared to begin the negotiation. 
 
 The instructions from the Secretary of War set forth 
 that terms were to be dictated to the Creeks as to a 
 conquered people. The commissioners were to demand, 
 first, an indemnification for the expenses incurred by 
 the United States in the prosecution of the war, by such 
 a cession of land as might be deemed an equivalent ; 
 secondly, a stipulation on the part of the Creeks that 
 they would cease all intercourse with any Spanish garri 
 son or town, and not admit among them any agent or 
 trader who did not derive his authority or license from 
 the United States; thirdly, an acknowledgment of the 
 right of the United States to open roads through the 
 Creek territory, and to establish such military posts and 
 trading-houses as might be necessary and proper ; and, 
 lastly, the surrender of the prophets and instigators of 
 the war. 
 
 An outline of a treaty in accordance with these prin 
 ciples was promptly submitted by the commissioners to 
 the council of chiefs; an engagement being added that, 
 in consideration of the destitute condition of the tribe, 
 supplies would be furnished by the United States until 
 
THE FINISHING BLOW. 
 
 123 
 
 the maturity of the next crop. After a delay of a whole 
 month in negotiation the treaty was signed by the chiefs 
 and the commissioners, and General Jackson, accompa 
 nied by his staff and a few troops, directed his steps 
 toward Mobile. Rumors of the great British expedi 
 tion against New Orleans already alarmed the South 
 ern country. British troops, indeed, were already in 
 Florida. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 MOBILE DEFENDED, AND THE ENGLISH DRIVEN FROM 
 PENSACOLA. 
 
 IT may have surprised the reader that a commander 
 so remarkable for celerity of movement as General Jack 
 son should have lingered a whole month at the junction 
 of the Coosa and Tallapoosa, concluding a treaty with 
 the Creeks. But that was by no means his principal 
 employment there, as shall now be shown. 
 
 All that summer he had had a watchful and fre 
 quently a wrathful eye on Florida. That the flying 
 Creeks should have been afforded a refuge in that prov 
 ince first moved him to anger, for it was the nature of 
 Andrew Jackson to finish whatever he undertook. He 
 went, as Colonel Benton often remarked, for " a clean 
 victory or a clean defeat." As long as there was any 
 where on earth one Creek maintaining an attitude of hos 
 tility against the United States, he felt his work incom 
 plete, and regarded any man or Governor as an enemy 
 who gave that solitary warrior aid and comfort. Being 
 a man with less of the spirit of the circumlocution office 
 in him than any other individual then extant a man, in 
 fact, with not a shred of red tape in his composition the 
 impulse of his mind was to march straight into the heart 
 of Florida and extinguish the hostile remnant of the 
 Creeks without more ado. That, however, was a meas 
 ure of which he was not yet ready to assume the whole 
 responsibility. 
 
MOBILE DEFENDED. 125 
 
 While on his way from the Hermitage to Fort Jack 
 son, a rumor reached his ears that a British vessel was 
 at Appalachicola landing arms for distribution among 
 the Indians. His first act, therefore, on arriving at the 
 treaty ground, was to select, by the aid of Colonel Haw 
 kins, some trustworthy Indians to send to Appalachicola 
 to ascertain what was going on there. Before they re 
 turned, a piece of very tangible evidence of the truth of 
 the rumor reached him in the form of a new musket of 
 English manufacture, which had been given to a Creek 
 of the peace party by a friend of his at Appalachicola 
 only a week before. We can imagine the feelings and the 
 manner of Jackson as he handled, examined, and des 
 canted upon this shining weapon. The owner of the 
 musket, upon being questioned, stated that a party of 
 British troops was at Appalachicola, giving out arms 
 and ammunition to all the hostile Indians that applied 
 for them. 
 
 In fifteen days the friendly Indians returned to Fort 
 Jackson, confirming the testimony of the new musket and 
 its proprietor. Soon came rumors that a large force of 
 British were expected at Pensacola, and at length posi 
 tive information of the landing of Colonel Nichols, of 
 the welcome he had received from the Spanish governor, 
 and of his extraordinary proceedings. 
 
 " Florida must be ours," was thenceforth the burden 
 of General Jackson s secret thoughts, communicated 
 only to two or three of his most confidential officers. 
 " Florida must be ours," was the burden of his letters 
 to the Secretary of War. " If the hostile Creeks," he 
 wrote to the Secretary, " have taken refuge in Florida, 
 and are there fed, clothed, and protected ; if the British 
 have landed a large force, munitions of war, and are 
 fortifying and stirring up the savages, will you only say 
 to me, Raise a few hundred militia, which can be quickly 
 
126 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 done, and, with such regular force as can be conveniently 
 collected, make a descent upon Pensacola and reduce 
 it ? If so, I promise you the war in the South shall have 
 a speedy termination, and English influence be forever 
 destroyed with the savages in this quarter." 
 
 The answer of Secretary Armstrong to this letter 
 whether from accident or design will never be known 
 was six months on its way from Washington to the hands 
 of General Jackson. It reached him at New Orleans 
 when the campaign and the war were over. It gave him 
 all the authority he desired. 
 
 " If this letter," he would say in after-years, "or any 
 hint that such a course would have been even winked at 
 by the Government, had been received, it would have 
 been in my power to have captured the British shipping 
 in the bay. I would have marched at once against Bar 
 rancas and carried it, and thus prevented any escape. 
 But, acting on my own responsibility against a neutral 
 power, it became essential for me to proceed with more 
 caution than my judgment or wishes approved, and con 
 sequently important advantages were lost which might 
 have been secured." 
 
 Colonel Nichols, taking no precautions whatever to 
 conceal his designs, but rather courting publicity, Gen 
 eral Jackson was kept well informed of what was tran 
 spiring in Florida. Early in September it was noised 
 about in Pensacola, and soon reported to General Jack 
 son, that Colonel Nichols had hostile designs upon Mo 
 bile. The general s mind from that moment was made 
 up. He would dally no longer with a Secretary of War 
 two months distant ; he would take the responsibility ; 
 he would fight the Southern campaign himself as best he 
 could, orders or no orders. Already he had written to 
 the Governors of Tennessee, Louisiana, and Mississippi, 
 urging them to complete the organization of their militia, 
 
MOBILE DEFENDED. 
 
 127 
 
 " for," said he, " there is no telling when or where the 
 spoiler may come." " Dark and heavy clouds," he said 
 in another letter, "hover around us. The energy and 
 patriotism of the citizens of your States must dispel 
 them. Our rights, our liberties, and free Constitution 
 are threatened. This noble patrimony of our fathers 
 must be defended with the best blood of our country ; 
 to do this, you must hasten to carry into effect the 
 requisition of the Secretary of War, and call forth your 
 troops without delay." 
 
 On the pth of September, Colonel Butler, Jackson s 
 adjutant-general, who had been sent to Tennessee to 
 hasten the organization of the new levies in that State, 
 received the welcome order from Jackson to call out the 
 troops and march them with all dispatch southward 
 toward Mobile. The call was obeyed with even greater 
 alacrity than that of the last year, when the massacre of 
 Fort Mims was to be avenged. General Coffee was 
 promptly in the field once more. Such was the eager 
 ness of the Tennesseeans to share a campaign with 
 General Jackson, that considerable sums, ranging from 
 thirty to eighty dollars, were paid for the privilege of 
 being substitutes for those who could not go. On the 
 appointed day two thousand men appeared at the ren 
 dezvous, well armed and equipped, ready to march with 
 General Coffee, four hundred miles, to the scene of ex 
 pected combat. At the same time a small body of re 
 cruits for the regular army set out from Nashville 
 toward Mobile. Colonel Butler, as soon as he had 
 completed his business in Tennessee, hurried forward 
 to conduct to the same place the forces stationed at the 
 posts which had been established during the late Creek 
 war. 
 
 Mobile was an insignificant village of a hundred and 
 fifty houses when Jackson arrived there to defend it, 
 
I2 8 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 in the latter part of August, 1814. Like Pensacola, it 
 derived whatever importance it had from the bay at 
 the head of which it was situated, and the great river 
 system of which that bay is the outlet. 
 
 When General Jackson reached Mobile he found it 
 little better prepared for defense against any but an In 
 dian foe than if war were unknown to the civilized part 
 of mankind. There were some blockhouses and stock 
 ades in the town, but no structure that could resist 
 artillery. Nor, indeed, was there need of any, for the 
 place was to be defended or lost at Mobile Point, thirty 
 miles down the bay. If Colonel Nichols and Captain 
 Percy had touched at the Point on their way to Pensa 
 cola and landed two hundred men there, they would 
 have given General Jackson much more trouble than 
 they did. There was nothing to hinder their doing so 
 at the time. 
 
 To Mobile Point Jackson repaired soon after his ar 
 rival at Mobile. There he found the remains of the 
 fortification, then called Fort Bowyer, though the name 
 has since been changed to Fort Morgan. Incomplete, 
 and yet falling into ruin, without a bomb-proof, and 
 mounting but two twenty-four pounders, six twelves, 
 and twelve smaller pieces, it was plain that Fort Bowyer 
 was Mobile s chance of safety. It had been untenanted 
 for a year or more, and contained nothing of the means 
 of defense except cannons and cannon-balls. For the 
 information of unprofessional readers, it is enough to 
 say that the fort was a semicircular structure, with such 
 additional outworks as were necessary to enable it to 
 command the all-important channel, the peninsula, and 
 the open sea. It was surrounded by a ditch twenty feet 
 wide. Its weak point was similar to that by which Fort 
 Ticonderoga was once taken it was overlooked by 
 some tall hillocks of sand within cannon range. 
 
MOBILE DEFENDED. 1 29 
 
 Into this fort General Jackson, with all haste, threw 
 a garrison of one hundred and sixty men, commanded 
 by Major Lawrence, of the Second Regiment of United 
 States Infantry, as gallant a spirit as ever stood to his 
 country^ defense. A large proportion of the little gar 
 rison were totally ignorant of gunnery, and had to learn 
 the art by practicing it in fighting the enemy. The first 
 twelve days in September were employed by them in 
 repairing the essential parts of the fortification, while 
 General Jackson was busy on shore dispatching provis 
 ions and ammunition, and counting over and over again 
 the days that must elapse before he could reasonably 
 expect the arrival of re-enforcements. 
 
 No signs of an enemy appeared until the morning of 
 the i2th of September, when an out-sentinel came run 
 ning in with the report that a body of British marines 
 and Indians had landed on the peninsula, within a few 
 miles of the fort. Colonel Nichols, it afterward ap 
 peared, was the commander of this detachment, which 
 consisted, according to American writers, of one hun 
 dred and thirty marines and six hundred Indians; ac 
 cording to James, the English historian, of sixty marines 
 and one hundred and twenty Indians. Captain Wood 
 bine commanded the Indian part of this force. Toward 
 evening of the same day four British vessels of war hove 
 in sight and came to anchor near the coast, six miles 
 from the Point. These proved to be the Hermes, Cap 
 tain Percy, twenty-two guns; the Sophia, in command 
 of Captain Lockyer, eighteen guns ; the Carron, twenty 
 guns; and the Childers, eighteen guns the whole under 
 the command of Captain Percy. 
 
 Night fell upon the fleet, the land force, and the anx 
 ious garrison, without any movement having been at 
 tempted on either side. The garrison slept upon their 
 arms, every man at his post. 
 
GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 The next day a reconnoitering party approached 
 within three quarters of a mile and then retired. A little 
 after noon Colonel Nichols drew a howitzer, the only one 
 he had with him, behind a mound seven hundred yards 
 from the fort. He fired three shells and a cannon-ball, 
 which splintered a piece of timber that crowned part of 
 the rampart, but did no other damage. The garrison, 
 without being able to see the enemy, fired a few shots 
 in the direction of the mound. Under cover of other 
 sand-hills Nichols then withdrew his party to a point a 
 mile and a half distant, where he appeared to be throw 
 ing up a breastwork. Three well-aimed shots from the 
 fort again dispersed the party and drove them beyond 
 range, within which they did not return that day. Later 
 in the afternoon several small boats put off from the 
 ships, and attempted to sound the channel near Mobile 
 Point. A few discharges of ball and grape drove them 
 off also, and they returned to the ships. Night again 
 closed in upon the scene, and the garrison again went 
 to sleep upon their arms, encouraged and confident. 
 
 On the following morning, as soon as it was light 
 enough to discern distant objects, the enemy was seen at 
 the same place, still engaged, as it seemed, in throwing 
 up works, the ships remaining at their former anchorage. 
 As the morning wore away without any further move 
 ment, Major Lawrence, concluding that the enemy de 
 signed to take the fort by regular approaches, thought 
 it most prudent to send an express to General Jackson, 
 informing him of the enemy s arrival and asking a re-en 
 forcement. It so chanced that Jackson had set out on 
 that very morning to visit the fort, and had sailed to 
 within a few miles of it when he met the boat bearing 
 Major Lawrence s message. Back to Mobile he hurried, 
 his bargemen straining every nerve. He reached the 
 town late at night, where he instantly mustered a body 
 
MOBILE DEFENDED. 131 
 
 of eighty men, under the command of Captain Laval, 
 hurried them on board a small brig, and saw them off 
 toward Mobile Point before he left the shore. At the 
 fort the whole day passed in inaction. Night came on 
 apace, and once more the beleaguered garrison lay upon 
 their arms, wondering what the morrow would bring 
 forth. 
 
 Day dawned upon the i5th of September. Straining 
 eyes from the summit of the fort sought to penetrate 
 the morning mist. Gradually the low, dark line of the 
 enemy s bivouac, and then the dim outline of the more 
 distant ships, became visible. There they were, un 
 changed from the day before. Are we to have another 
 day, then, of puzzle and inactivity ? As the morning 
 cleared it was observed that there was an unwonted stir 
 and movement among the enemy. There was a march 
 ing hither and thither upon the peninsula ; boats were 
 passing and repassing between the shore and the ships ; 
 and all those nameless indications were noticed which 
 announce that something absorbing and decisive is on 
 foot. There is a magnetism in the very air on such oc 
 casions which conveys an intimation of coming events 
 to the high-strained nerves of belligerent men. Still, 
 hour after hour passed on, and the ships lay at an 
 chor, and the busy troops upon the shore made no 
 advance. 
 
 An hour before noon the wind, which had been fresh, 
 fell to a light breeze, favorable for a movement of the 
 squadron. The ships now weighed anchor and stood 
 out to sea; the little garrison looking out over the ram 
 parts and through the portholes. For nearly three 
 hours the ships beat up against the light wind, away 
 from the fort, till they were hull down in the blue gulf. 
 Have they given it up, then, without a trial ? At two 
 o clock in the afternoon they were observed to tack, get 
 
132 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 before the wind, and bear down toward the fort in line 
 of battle, the Hermes leading. The suspense was over. 
 They were going to attack ! 
 
 Then Major Lawrence, in the true spirit of a clas 
 sical hero, called his officers together to concert the 
 requisite measures. " Don t give up the Fort ! " was 
 adopted as the signal for the day, and it did but express 
 the unanimous feeling of the garrison. The officers, 
 while agreeing to defend the fort as long as it was tena 
 ble, defined also the terms upon which alone the sur 
 vivors should surrender. These were the words of their 
 resolution, deliberately concluded upon while the fleet 
 was approaching, and the force on the peninsula was 
 preparing for simultaneous attack : 
 
 " That in case of being, by imperious necessity, com 
 pelled to surrender (which could only happen in the last 
 extremity, on the ramparts being entirely battered down 
 and the garrison almost wholly destroyed, so that any 
 further resistance would be evidently useless), no capit 
 ulation should be agreed on unless it had for its funda 
 mental article that the officers and privates should retain 
 their arms and their private property, and that on no 
 pretext should the Indians be suffered to commit any 
 outrage on their persons or property; and unless full 
 assurance were given them that they would be treated 
 as prisoners of war, according to the custom established 
 among civilized nations." 
 
 The officers ratified this resolution by an oath, each 
 man solemnly swearing to abide by it in any and every 
 extremity. Now, every man to his post, and don t give 
 up the fort ! 
 
 At four o clock the Hermes came within reach of the 
 fort s great guns. A few shots were exchanged with 
 little effect. One by one the other vessels came up and 
 gave the garrison some practice at long range, but no 
 
MOBILE DEFENDED. 
 
 great harm was done them. At half past four, Captain 
 Percy, like the gallant sailor that he was, ran the Hermes 
 right into the narrow channel that leads into the bay, 
 dropped anchor within musket shot of the fort, and 
 turned his broadside to its guns. The other vessels fol 
 lowed his brave example, and anchored in the channel 
 one behind the other, all within reach of the long guns 
 of the fort, though considerably more distant from them 
 than the Hermes. 
 
 Then arose a thundering cannonade. Broadside 
 after broadside from the ships ; the fort replying by a 
 steady, quick fire, that was better and better directed as 
 the fight went on. Meanwhile Captain Woodbine, from 
 behind a bluff in the shore, opened fire from his how 
 itzer ; but a few shots from the fort s south battery 
 silenced him, and compelled him for a time to keep his 
 distance. 
 
 For an hour the firing continued on both sides with 
 out a moment s pause, the fleet and the fort enveloped 
 in huge volumes of smoke, lighted up by the incessant 
 flash of the guns. At half past five the halyards of the 
 Hermes s flag were severed by a shot, and the flag fell 
 into the fire and smoke below. Major Lawrence, think 
 ing it possible the ship might have surrendered, ceased 
 his fire. A silence of five minutes succeeded, at the 
 expiration of which a new flag fluttered up to the mast 
 head of the commodore s ship, and the Sophia, that lay 
 next her, renewed the strife by firing a whole broadside 
 at once. In the interval every gun in the fort had been 
 loaded, and the broadside was returned with a salvo that 
 shook the earth. A most furious firing succeeded, and 
 continued for some time longer without any important 
 mishap occurring on either side. 
 
 At length a shot from the fort a lucky shot indeed 
 for the little garrison cut the cable of the Hermes. 
 10 
 
GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 The current of the channel in which she lay caught her 
 heavy stern and turned her bow-foremost to the fort, 
 where she lay for twenty minutes, raked from bow to 
 stern by a terrible fire. At this time it was that the 
 flag-staff of the fort was shot away. The ships, it is to 
 be presumed, either because they did not perceive the ab 
 sence of the flag, or because they knew the cause of its 
 absence, redoubled their firing at the moment; while 
 Captain Woodbine and his whooping savages, supposing 
 the fort had surrendered, ran up to seize their prey. A 
 few discharges of grape drove the Indians howling back 
 behind the hillocks out of sight, and another flag, fast 
 ened hastily to a sponging-rod, was raised above the 
 ramparts. 
 
 The Hermes, totally unmanageable, her decks swept 
 of every man and everything, drifted slowly along with 
 the current for half a mile and then ran aground. Still 
 exposed to the fire, and damaged in every part by the 
 hail of shot she had received, it was impossible either to 
 save or fight her. Captain Percy therefore got out his 
 wounded men, transferred them to the Sophia, set his 
 ship on fire, and abandoned her to her fate. Then the 
 Sophia, which was also severely crippled, contrived with 
 difficulty to get out of range. The two other vessels, 
 which were not seriously harmed, hoisted sail and de 
 parted to their old anchorage off the coast. The fort 
 guns continued to play upon the Hermes till dark, 
 when the fire burst through her hatches and lighted 
 up the scene with more than the brilliancy of day. 
 At eleven o clock she blew up, with an explosion that 
 was heard by General Jackson at Mobile, thirty miles 
 distant. 
 
 When the next day dawned, Nichols, Woodbine, ma 
 rines and Indians, had vanished from the peninsula. 
 The three vessels were still in sight, but early in the 
 
MOBILE DEFENDED. 
 
 135 
 
 afternoon they weighed anchor, stood to sea, and were 
 seen no more. 
 
 Then the heroic little garrison came forth exulting 
 from their battered walls, surveyed the scene of the late 
 encounter, and reckoned up their victory. Four of their 
 number lay dead within the fort; four others were 
 wounded in the battle ; six men had been injured by 
 the bursting of some cartridges. Both of the great 
 twenty-four pounders were cracked beyond using. Two 
 guns had been knocked off their carriages ; one had 
 burst ; one had been broken short off by a thirty-two- 
 pound ball. The walls of the fort showed the holes and 
 marks of three hundred balls, and the ground about the 
 fort was plowed into ridges. Though but twelve pieces 
 had been brought to bear upon the fleet, the stock of 
 cannon-balls had been diminished by seven hundred. 
 The wreck of the gallant Hermes lay near by, her guns 
 visible in the clear water of the channel. 
 
 The garrison was ignorant, as yet, of the name, the 
 force, and the loss of the enemy. They knew not 
 whence they had come, whither they were gone, nor how 
 soon they might return in greater numbers to renew the 
 attack. In the course of the day, two marines, deserters 
 from the party under Colonel Nichols, came in and gave 
 the garrison all the information they desired. They re 
 ported the British loss at one hundred and sixty-two 
 killed and seventy wounded. This was an exaggeration. 
 The real loss of the English, as officially given by them 
 selves, was thirty-two killed and forty wounded. Among 
 the wounded was Colonel Nichols himself, who lost an 
 eye in one of his reconnoiterings. The deserters stated 
 that the ships had returned to Pensacola, leaving the 
 marines and Indians to march back to the same place 
 as best they could. 
 
 After the defense of Fort Bowyer, General Jackson 
 
GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 had to endure six weeks of most intolerable waiting. 
 Nothing could be done before the arrival of the troops 
 from Tennessee. To the tedium of delay was added a 
 torturing uncertainty with regard to the nature, the ex 
 tent, and the proximity of the impending danger. If a 
 powerful expedition should arrive, which rumor with a 
 thousand tongues foretold, to which so many probabili 
 ties pointed, New Orleans was open to its approach, and 
 Fort Bowyer, with its battered ramparts and cracked 
 guns, could make but a poor and brief resistance. It is 
 not surprising that during these weeks the chronic mal 
 ady under which the general suffered should have given 
 him many a pang, and frequently laid him prostrate for 
 many successive hours. His attenuated form and yel 
 low, haggard face struck every one with surprise who 
 saw him then for the first time. 
 
 On the 25th of November came at length an ex 
 press from General Coffee, announcing his arrival on 
 the Mobile River with an army of twenty-eight hun 
 dred men. The next day Jackson joined him and took 
 the command. Including the troops led by General 
 Coffee, the garrison of Mobile, a body of mounted 
 Mississippians, and a small number of Creek Indians, 
 General Jackson found himself, by the ist of November, 
 in command of an army of four thousand men, of whom 
 perhaps one thousand were troops of the regular serv 
 ice. A large proportion of the volunteers, not less 
 than fifteen hundred, were mounted. It is mentioned, as 
 a signal proof of their zeal in the service, that they 
 willingly left their horses to pasture on the Mobile 
 River, and served as infantry during the subsequent 
 operations, forage being scarce on the way they were 
 next to go. 
 
 General Jackson had resolved, without waiting for 
 any further development of the enemy s plans, to " rout 
 
MOBILE DEFENDED. 137 
 
 the English out of Pensacola," as he was wont to ex 
 press it. The press and the people of the Southern 
 States had been clamoring for this with increasing vehe 
 mence and unanimity ever since they had heard of the 
 landing of Colonel Nichols. Jackson was nothing loath. 
 In the whole range of military enterprise no expedition 
 could have been suggested which he would have under 
 taken with so keen a zest as a march upon Pensacola. 
 The treasure-chest being empty, Jackson was compelled 
 to purchase supplies partly with money of his own and 
 partly on the credit of the Government. On the 3d of 
 November, rations for eight days having been distrib 
 uted, he marched, with three thousand men, unencum 
 bered with baggage, toward Pensacola, and halted, on 
 the evening of the 6th, within a mile and a half of the 
 place. 
 
 Not less prudent than impetuous on great occa 
 sions, Jackson immediately sent forward Major Piere, 
 of the Forty-fourth Infantry, with a flag, to confer 
 with Governor Maurequez. He was ordered to give 
 a friendly and candid explanation of the object of Gen 
 eral Jackson ; which ,was, not to make war upon a neu 
 tral power, nor to injure the town, nor needlessly to 
 alarm the subjects of the Spanish king, but merely to 
 deprive the enemies of the United States of a refuge and 
 basis of offensive operations. Major Piere was also to 
 demand the immediate surrender of the forts, which 
 General Jackson pledged himself to hold only in trust, 
 and to restore uninjured as soon as the present peril of 
 the Gulf ports was passed. 
 
 As the major approached Fort St. Michael, bearing 
 the flag of truce, he was fired upon ; upon which he re 
 tired and reported the fact to the general. Jackson 
 then rode forward, and discovered, upon inspecting the 
 fort, that it was garrisoned both by British and Spanish 
 
138 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 troops, though only the Spanish ensign now floated from 
 the flagstaff. Ordering the troops to bivouac for the 
 night, he resolved on the following day to storm the 
 town. Upon reflecting, however, that the firing upon 
 the flag was probably the work of the English part of 
 the garrison, he made another attempt in the course of 
 the evening to reach the Governor and bring him to 
 terms. A Spanish corporal had been taken on the 
 march, to whom Jackson now intrusted a message to 
 the Governor, asking an explanation of the insult to 
 the flag. Late in the evening the corporal returned 
 with a verbal communication from the Governor, to the 
 effect that he was powerless in the hands of the British, 
 who alone had been concerned in firing upon the flag 
 of truce, and that he would gladly receive any over 
 tures the American general might be pleased to make. 
 Jackson, rejoicing in the prospect of a bloodless and 
 speedy success, at once dispatched Major Piere again to 
 the town, who was soon in the Governor s presence 
 performing his mission. Jackson had hastily written a 
 letter to Maurequez, summing up his demands and pur 
 poses in his brief, decisive way. "I come," said he, 
 " not as the enemy of Spain ; not to make war, but to 
 ask for peace ; to demand security for my country, and 
 that respect to which she is entitled and must receive. 
 My force is sufficient, and my determination taken, to 
 prevent a future repetition of the injuries she has re 
 ceived. I demand, therefore, the possession of the Bar 
 rancas, and other fortifications, with all your munitions 
 of war. If delivered peaceably, the whole will be re 
 ceipted for and become the subject of future arrange 
 ment by our respective governments ; while the prop 
 erty, laws, and religion of your citizens shall be re 
 spected. But if taken by an appeal to arms, let the 
 blood of your subjects be upon your own head ! I will 
 
MOBILE DEFENDED. 
 
 139 
 
 not hold myself responsible for the conduct of my en 
 raged soldiers. One hour is given you for deliberation, 
 when your determination must be had." 
 
 The Governor left Major Piere alone and consulted 
 with his officers. He returned after a short absence, 
 and said, apparently with reluctance for the man was 
 in a sore strait between two and cared only for the 
 preservation of his town that the terms proposed by 
 General Jackson could not be acceded to. In the small 
 hours of the morning Major Piere returned to the gen 
 eral and reported the Governor s answer. 
 
 " Turn out the troops! " was Jackson s sole commen 
 tary upon the events of the night. 
 
 An hour before daylight the men were under arms 
 and ready to advance. They had slept upon the main 
 road leading into the town, a road commanded by Fort 
 St. Michael, and exposed to the full force of a cannon 
 ade of seven British men-of-war that lay at anchor in 
 the harbor. But let the general himself state the events 
 of the morning : 
 
 "On the morning of the 7th," he wrote to Governor 
 Blount a few days after, " I marched with the effective 
 regulars of the Third, Thirty-ninth, and Fourth Infantry, 
 part of General Coffee s brigade, the Mississippi dra 
 goons, and part of the West Tennessee regiment, com 
 manded by Lieutenant-Colonel Hammonds (Colonel 
 Lowry having deserted and gone home), and part of 
 the Choctaws, led by Major Blue, of the Thirty-ninth, 
 and Major Kennedy, of Mississippi Territory. Being 
 encamped on the west of the town, I calculated they 
 would expect the assault from that quarter, and be 
 prepared to rake me from the fort, and the British 
 armed vessels, seven in number, that lay in the bay. 
 To cherish this idea, I sent out part of the mounted 
 men to show themselves on the west, while I passed 
 
GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 in rear of the fort, undiscovered, to the east of the 
 town. When I appeared within a mile, I was in full 
 view. My pride was never more heightened than in 
 viewing the uniform firmness of my troops, and with 
 what undaunted courage they advanced, with a strong 
 fort ready to assail them on the right, seven armed 
 vessels on the left, strong blockhouses and batteries 
 of cannon in their front ; but they still advanced with 
 unshaken firmness, and entered the town, when a bat 
 tery of two cannon was opened upon the center column, 
 composed of regulars, with ball and grape, and a shower 
 of musketry from the houses and gardens. The battery 
 was immediately stormed by Captain Laval and his com 
 pany, and carried, and the musketry was soon silenced 
 by the steady and well-directed fire of the regulars." 
 
 In storming the battery, Captain Laval fell severely 
 wounded, but the troops pressed forward into the town 
 and took a second battery before the party posted in it 
 could more than three times reload. There was still 
 some firing from behind houses and garden walls, when 
 the Governor, in utter consternation, ran out into the 
 streets bearing a white flag to find the general. He 
 came up first with Colonel Williamson and Colonel 
 Smith, commanding the dismounted troops, to whom he 
 addressed himself with faltering speech, entreating 
 them to spare the town, and promising to consent to 
 whatever terms the general in command might propose. 
 Jackson, who had halted for a moment at the spot where 
 Captain Laval had fallen, soon rode up, and, hearing 
 what had occurred, proceeded to the Governor s house, 
 where he received in person the assurance that all the 
 forts should be instantly surrendered. 
 
 Hostilities ceased. Owing to what General Jackson 
 styled " Spanish treachery," but probably to the confu 
 sion and bewilderment that prevailed, and the con- 
 
MOBILE DEFENDED. 
 
 141 
 
 sequent misunderstanding of orders, or perhaps to the 
 irresolution of the Governor and his desire to stand ex 
 cused in the eyes of his English friends, the forts were 
 not instantly surrendered. More than once in the course 
 of the day, Jackson, exasperated at the delay, was about 
 t open fire upon them; but one by one the forts were 
 given up, and late in the evening the town was fully his 
 own the town, but not the port which was far more 
 important. Fort Barrancas, six miles distant, which 
 commanded the mouth of the harbor, was in the hands 
 of the English, and gave complete protection to their 
 fleet. Maurequez had given a written order for its sur 
 render, addressed to the nominal commandant, and 
 Jackson was prepared to march, with the dawn of the 
 next day, to receive it if the order were obeyed ; to carry 
 it by storm if it were not. 
 
 He was still in hopes that by the prompt seizure 
 of Fort Barrancas he could catch the British fleet as 
 in a trap, and either force it to surrender, or do it 
 terrible damage if it should attempt to escape. But 
 before the dawn of day a tremendous explosion was 
 heard in the direction of the mouth of the harbor ; 
 then another explosion, not so loud; and, a few sec 
 onds later, a third. There was little doubt what had 
 occurred. Early in the morning a party that was sent 
 out to reconnoiter returned with the intelligence that 
 Fort Barrancas was a heap of ruins, and that the British 
 vessels had disappeared from the bay. Colonel Nichols, 
 Captain Woodbine, the garrison, and some hundreds of 
 friendly Indians had gone off with the ships, leaving 
 their friend Maurequez to settle with the American 
 general as best he could. 
 
 The sudden departure of the British fleet was not 
 less alarming than disappointing to the general. Whither 
 had they gone ? The most probable supposition was 
 
I 4 2 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 that they were hastening away to attack Fort Bowyer 
 and capture Mobile in the absence of the troops. To 
 retain Pensacola, in the circumstances, was equally need 
 less and impossible. Sending off a dispatch to warn 
 the garrison of Fort Bowyer of their danger, the gen 
 eral at once prepared to evacuate the town and fly to 
 the defense of Mobile. The next morning he was in 
 full march. Not a man had been lost. Less than 
 twenty of the troops had been wounded, of whom Cap 
 tain Laval alone was obliged to be left behind to the 
 care of Governor Maurequez. The gallant captain re 
 ceived every attention which his situation required. He 
 recovered from his wound, and was living, in 1859, an 
 honored citizen of Charleston, to tell the story of his 
 own and his general s exploits. 
 
 Jackson waited in the vicinity of Mobile for ten days 
 in expectation of the arrival of Colonel Nichols. That 
 officer did not appear, and from the top of Fort Bowyer 
 no approaching fleet was descried. At length came in 
 telligence that Nichols, Woodbine, and their Indians 
 had been landed at Appalachicola, where they were 
 fortifying a position in all haste. Against them Jackson 
 dispatched a body of troops and friendly Creeks, under 
 Major Blue, who, after many remarkable adventures 
 and some severe fighting, drove the savages into the 
 interior and Colonel Nichols from the peninsula. 
 
 General Jackson, now freed from apprehension for 
 the safety of Mobile, could direct all his thoughts to 
 the defense of New Orleans. He left Mobile in com 
 mand of General Winchester, of the regular army. Fort 
 Bowyer was still intrusted to the brave Major Lawrence. 
 General Coffee was ordered to move by easy marches 
 toward New Orleans, choosing the roads and the course 
 that promised the best forage. On the 22d of No 
 vember, the general, without any escort but his staff, 
 
MOBILE DEFENDED. 
 
 mounted horse and rode off in the same direction. He 
 had a journey before him of a hundred and seventy 
 miles, over the roads of the early years of the century. 
 Riding a little more than seventeen miles a day, he ar 
 rived within one short stage of New Orleans on the ist 
 of December, 1814. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 JACKSON AT NEW ORLEANS, AND APPROACH OF THE 
 BRITISH. 
 
 NEW ORLEANS was all unprepared for defense against 
 a powerful foe. When the first rumor of the approach 
 ing invasion reached the city, Edward Livingston, the 
 leading lawyer of the State, caused a meeting of the 
 citizens of New Orleans to be convened at Tremoulet s 
 coffee-house, to concert measures for defense. The 
 meeting occurred on the i5th of September, 1814. Upon 
 taking the chair, Livingston presented a series of spirited 
 resolutions, breathing union and defiance, and supported 
 them by a speech of stirring eloquence. They were 
 passed by acclamation. A Committee of Public Defense, 
 nine in number, with Edward Livingston at its head, was 
 appointed, and directed to prepare an address to the 
 people of the State. The publication of the address, 
 and the gift of a saber to the commandant of Fort Bow- 
 yer, were the only acts of the Committee of Public De 
 fense that I find recorded. It may have induced the 
 formation of new uniformed companies of volunteers; 
 it may have stimulated the militia to a more vigorous 
 drill; it may have induced the Governor to convene the 
 Legislature ; but its main effect was upon the feelings 
 and the fears of the people. 
 
 On the 5th of October the Legislature, in obedience 
 to the summons of Governor Claiborne, assembled at 
 New Orleans. Factious, and incredulous of danger, it 
 
Q W 
 
 ~ T 
 
JACKSON AT NEW ORLEANS. 145 
 
 did nothing, it attempted nothing, for the defense of the 
 city. Disputes of the most trivial character engrossed 
 the minds of the members. All had some fear of an 
 insurrection of the slaves. Every man had his scheme 
 or his system of measures, which he knew would save 
 the city if it were adopted; but none could bring any 
 plan to bear, or get all the opportunity he wanted for 
 making it known. In a word, there was no central 
 power or man in New Orleans in whom the people suffi 
 ciently confided, or who possessed the requisite lawful 
 authority to call out the resources of the State and di 
 rect them to the single object of defeating the expected 
 invader. There was talent enough, patriotism enough, 
 zeal enough. The uniting man alone was wanting a 
 man of renown sufficient to inspire confidence a man un 
 known to the local animosities, around whom all parties 
 could rally without conceding anything to one another. 
 
 Jackson has come ! There was magic in the news. 
 Every witness testifies to the electric effect of the gen 
 eral s quiet and sudden arrival. There was a truce at 
 once to indecision, to indolence, to incredulity, to fac 
 tious debate, to paltry contentions, to \vild alarm. He 
 had come so worn down with disease and the fatigue of 
 his ten days ride on horseback that he was more fit for 
 the hospital than the field ; but there was that in his 
 manner and aspect which revealed the master. That 
 will of his triumphed over the languor and anguish of 
 disease, and every one who approached him felt that 
 the man for the hour was there. 
 
 He began his work without the loss of one minute. 
 The unavoidable formalities of his reception were no 
 sooner over than he mounted his horse again and rode 
 out to review the uniformed companies of the city. 
 These companies consisted of several hundred men, 
 the Mite of the city merchants, lawyers, the sons of 
 
I 4 6 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 planters, clerks, and others, who were well equipped, and 
 not a little proud of their appearance and discipline. 
 The general complimented them warmly, addressed the 
 principal officers, inquired respecting the numbers, his 
 tory, and organization of the companies, and left them 
 captivated with his frank and straightforward mode of 
 procedure. 
 
 Returning to his quarters, the general summoned the 
 engineers resident in the city, among others Major 
 Latour, afterward the historian of the campaign. The 
 vulnerable points and practicable approaches were ex 
 plained and discussed, and the readiest mode of defend 
 ing each was considered and determined upon. Every 
 bayou connecting the city with the adjacent bays, and 
 through them with the Gulf of Mexico, was ordered to 
 be obstructed by earth and sunken logs, and a guard to 
 be posted at its mouth to give warning of an enemy s 
 approach. It was determined that the neighboring 
 planters should be invited to aid in the various works 
 by gangs of slaves. Young gentlemen pressed to head 
 quarters offering to serve as aides to the general. Ed 
 ward Livingston, whose services in that capacity had 
 been previously offered and accepted, was with the gen 
 eral from the first, doing duty as aide-de-camp, secretary, 
 translator, confidential adviser, and connecting link gen 
 erally between the commander-in-chief and the hetero 
 geneous multitude he had come to defend. Never before, 
 in the space of a few hours, did such a change come over 
 the spirit of a threatened and imperiled city. The work 
 to be done was ascertained and distributed during that 
 afternoon and evening; and it could be said that, before 
 the city slept, every man in it able and willing to assist 
 in preparing for the reception of the enemy, whether by 
 mind or muscle, had his task assigned him, and was 
 eager to enter upon its performance. 
 
JACKSON AT NEW ORLEANS. 147 
 
 The demeanor of General Jackson on this occasion 
 was such as to inspire peculiar confidence. It was that 
 of a man entirely resolved, and entirely certain of being 
 able, to do what he had come to do. He never admitted 
 a doubt of defeating the enemy. For his own part he 
 had but one simple plan to propose, nor would hear of 
 any other : to make all the preparations possible in the 
 time and circumstances ; to strike the enemy wherever, 
 whenever, and in what force soever, he might appear ; 
 and to drive him back headlong into the sea, or bring 
 him prisoner to New Orleans. A spirit of this kind is 
 very contagious, particularly among such a susceptible 
 and imaginative people as the French Creoles a people 
 not wise in council, not gifted with the instinct of legis 
 lation, but mighty and terrible when strongly com 
 manded. The new impulse from the general s quar 
 ters spread throughout the city. Hope and resolution 
 sat on every countenance. 
 
 Jackson was up betimes on the following morning, 
 and set out in a barge, accompanied by aides and engi 
 neers, to see with his own eyes the lower part of the 
 river. The principal mouth of the Mississippi was natu 
 rally but erroneously the first object of his solicitude, 
 and he had dispatched Colonel A. P. Hayne from Mobile 
 to the Balize, to ascertain whether the old fort there 
 commanded the mouth of the river, and whether it could 
 be made available for preventing the entrance of a hos 
 tile fleet. Colonel Hayne reported it useless. Some 
 miles higher up the river, however, at a point where the 
 navigation was peculiarly difficult, was Fort Philip, 
 which it was supposed, and the event proved, could be 
 rendered an impassable barrier to the enemy s ships. 
 Thither Jackson repaired. He perceived the immense 
 importance of the position, and, with the assistance of 
 Major Latour, drew such plans and suggested such al- 
 
I 4 8 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 terations of the works as made the fort entirely equal 
 to the defense of the river. The stream, as every one 
 knows, is narrow and swift, and presents so many obsta 
 cles to the ascent of large vessels, that an enemy unpro 
 vided with steamboats would scarcely have attempted 
 to reach New Orleans by the river even if no fort was 
 to be passed. Jackson returned to the city after six 
 days absence, with little apprehension of danger from 
 that quarter. 
 
 Desirous of seeing everything for himself, he pro 
 ceeded immediately upon a rapid tour of inspection 
 along the borders of Lake Pontchartrain and Lake 
 Borgne, those broad, shallow bays which afford to the 
 commerce of New Orleans so convenient a back gate. 
 He visited every bayou and fortification, suggesting ad 
 ditional works and stimulating the zeal of the people. 
 He had then completed the first survey of his position, 
 and, upon the whole, the result was assuring. He 
 thought well of his situation. At least, he had little fear 
 of a surprise. 
 
 Let us take one glance at the lake approaches to 
 the Crescent City before we proceed. Lake Pontchar 
 train is land-locked, except where a narrow strait con 
 nects it with Lake Borgne. That strait was defended 
 by a fortification which, it was hoped, was capable of 
 beating off the enemy. But not by that alone. Lake 
 Borgne, too shallow for the admission of large seagoing 
 vessels, would be crossed by the enemy, if crossed at all, 
 in small coasting craft or ships boats. Accordingly, on 
 that lake Commodore Patterson had stationed a fleet of 
 gunboats, six in number, carrying in all twenty-three 
 guns and one hundred and eighty-two men, the whole 
 under the command of Lieutenant Thomas Ap Catesby 
 Jones. Lieutenant Jones was ordered to give prompt 
 notice of the enemy s coming, and if threatened with 
 
JACKSON AT NEW ORLEANS. 149 
 
 attack to retire before the enemy and lead him on to 
 the entrance of the strait that led into Lake Pontchar- 
 train, and there anchor and fight to the last extremity. 
 With the peculiar advantages of position which the place 
 afforded, it was confidently expected that he would be 
 able to defeat any force of small craft that the enemy 
 were likely to have at command. 
 
 It is evident that Lake Pontchartrain was universally 
 regarded at the time as the most natural and obvious 
 means of reaching the city, and the gunboats were 
 chiefly relied upon for its defense. Upon them, too, the 
 general mainly relied for the first information of the 
 enemy s arrival. If the gunboats failed, the fort upon 
 the strait was open to attack. If the gunboats failed, 
 the vigilance of the pickets at the mouths of the bayous 
 was the sole safeguard against a surprise. If the gun 
 boats failed, Lake Borgne offered no obstacle to the 
 approach of an enemy except its shallowness and its 
 marshy shores. If the gunboats failed, nothing could 
 hinder the enemy from gaining a foothold within a very 
 few miles of the city, unless the sentinels should descry 
 their approach in time to send ample notice to the gen 
 eral. While the gunboats continued to cruise in the 
 lake the city had a certain ground of security, and could 
 sleep without fear of waking to find British regiments 
 under its windows. 
 
 But where was the army with which General Jackson 
 was to execute his design of hurling into the Gulf of 
 Mexico the invading host ? Let us see what forces he 
 had and what forces he expected. 
 
 The troops then in or near New Orleans, and its sole 
 defenders as late as the middle of December, were these : 
 Two half-filled, newly raised regiments of regular troops, 
 numbering about eight hundred men ; Major Planche s 
 high-spirited battalion of uniformed volunteers, about 
 ii 
 
150 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 five hundred in number; two regiments of State militia, 
 badly equipped, some of them armed with fowling-pieces, 
 others with muskets, others with rifles, some without 
 arms, all imperfectly disciplined; a battalion of free 
 men of color. The whole amounted to about two thou 
 sand men. Two vessels of war lay at anchor in the 
 river, the little schooner Carolina and the ship Louisi 
 ana, neither of them manned, and no one dreaming of 
 what importance they were to prove. Commodore Pat 
 terson and a few other naval officers were in the city, 
 ready when the hour should come, and, indeed, already 
 rendering yeoman s service in many capacities. General 
 Coffee, with the army of Pensacola, was approaching 
 the city by slow marches, contending manfully with an 
 inclement season, swollen streams, roads almost impass 
 able, and scant forage. He had three hundred men, 
 nearly a tenth of his force, sick with fever, dysentery, 
 and exhaustion. But he was coming. General Carroll, 
 burning with zeal to join his old friend and commander, 
 had raised a volunteer force in Tennessee early in the 
 autumn, composed of men of substance and respecta 
 bility, and, after incredible exertions and many vexa 
 tious delays, had got them afloat upon the Cumberland. 
 The State had been so stripped of arms that Carroll s 
 regiment had not a weapon to every ten men. So many 
 men had gone to the wars from Tennessee, that Peter 
 Cartwright, that valiant son of the Methodist Church 
 militant, found his congregations thin and his ingather 
 ings of new members far below the average. " So many 
 of our members," he says, "went into the war, and 
 deemed it their duty to defend our common country 
 under General Jackson." An extraordinary rise of the 
 Cumberland, such as seldom occurs in November, en 
 abled General Carroll to make swift progress into the 
 Ohio, and thence into the Mississippi, where another 
 
JACKSON AT NEW ORLEANS. 151 
 
 piece of good fortune befell him, so important that it 
 may almost be said to have saved New Orleans. He 
 overtook a boat-load of muskets, which enabled him to 
 arm his men and drill them daily in their use on the 
 roofs of his fleet of arks. 
 
 Two thousand Kentuckians,. under General Thomas 
 and General Adair, were also on their way down the 
 Mississippi the worst provided body of men, perhaps, 
 that ever went fifteen hundred miles from home to help 
 defend a sister State. A few rifles they had among them, 
 but no clothing suitable for the season, no blankets, no 
 tents, no equipage. Besides food, they were furnished 
 with just one article of necessity, namely, a cooking- 
 kettle to every eighty men ! In a flotilla of boats 
 hastily patched together on the banks of the Ohio, they 
 started on their voyage, carrying provisions enough for 
 exactly half the distance. They were agreeably disap 
 pointed, however, in their expectation of living a month 
 on half rations, by overtaking a boat loaded with flour, 
 and, thus supplied, they went on their way ragged but 
 rejoicing. 
 
 Such was General Jackson s situation, such the pos 
 ture of affairs in New Orleans, such the means and pros 
 pects of defense, on the i4th of December : two or 
 three thousand troops in the city ; four thousand more 
 within ten or fifteen days march ; six gunboats on Lake 
 Borgne ; two armed vessels on the river ; a small garri 
 son of regulars at Fort St. Philip ; another at the fort 
 between the two lakes ; the obstruction of the bayous 
 still in progress ; the citizens hopeful and resolute, most 
 of them at work, every man where he could do most for 
 the cause ; the general returning to his quarters from 
 his tour of inspection. 
 
 At the western extremity of the island of Jamaica 
 there are two headlands, eight miles apart, which inclose 
 
GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 Negril Bay, and render it a safe and convenient anchor 
 age. It was the rendezvous of the British fleet designed 
 for the capture of New Orleans. November 24, 1814, was 
 the day appointed for its final inspection and review pre 
 vious to its departure for Lake Borgne. A fleet of fifty 
 armed vessels, many of them of the first magnitude, 
 covered the waters of the bay, and the decks of the ships 
 were crowded with red-coated soldiers. The four regi 
 ments, numbering, with their sappers and artillerymen, 
 three thousand one hundred men, who had fought the 
 battle of Bladensburg, burned the public buildings of 
 Washington, and lost their general near Baltimore the 
 summer before, were on board the fleet. Four regiments, 
 under General Keane, had come from England direct to 
 re-enforce this army. Two regiments, composed in part 
 of negro troops, supposed to be peculiarly adapted to the 
 climate of New Orleans, had been drawn from the West 
 Indies to join the expedition. The fleet could furnish, if 
 required, a body of fifteen hundred marines. General 
 Keane found himself, on his arrival from Plymouth, in 
 command of an army of seven thousand four hundred 
 and fifty men, which the marines of the fleet could swell 
 to eight thousand nine hundred and fifty. The number 
 of sailors could scarcely have been less than ten thou 
 sand, of whom a large portion could, and did, assist in 
 the operations contemplated. 
 
 Here was a force of nearly twenty thousand men, a 
 fleet of fifty ships carrying a thousand guns, and per 
 fectly appointed in every particular, commanded by 
 officers some of whom had grown gray in victory. And 
 this great armament was about to be directed against 
 swamp-environed New Orleans, with its ragged, half- 
 armed defenders floating down the Mississippi, or march 
 ing wearily along through the mire and flood of the Gulf 
 shores, commanded by a general who had seen fourteen 
 
JACKSON AT NEW ORLEANS. 153 
 
 months service and caught one glimpse of a civilized 
 foe. The greater part of General Keane s army were 
 fresh from the fields of the Peninsula, and had been led 
 by victorious Wellington into France, to behold and 
 share in that final triumph of British arms. To these 
 Peninsular heroes were added the Ninety-third High 
 landers, recently from the Cape of Good Hope, one of the 
 " praying regiments " of the British army, as stalwart, as 
 brave, as completely appointed a body of men as had 
 stood in arms since Cromwell s Ironsides gave liberty 
 and greatness to England. Indeed, there was not a 
 regiment of those which had come from England to 
 form this army which had not won brilliant distinction 
 in strongly contested fields. The elite of England s 
 army and navy were afloat in Negril Bay on that -bright 
 day of November when the last review took place. 
 
 The day after the review, the Tonnant, the Ramilies, 
 and two of the brigs weighed anchor and put to sea. 
 The next morning the rest of the fleet followed. 
 
 Three weeks of pleasant sailing in those tropical seas 
 brought the fleet to the entrance of Lake Borgne, the 
 shallowness of which forbade its near approach. The 
 American gunboats were descried, and it was seen at 
 once by the British admiral that offensive operations 
 were impossible as long as that little fleet commanded 
 the lake. A force of fifty large open boats, containing 
 a thousand men, under Captain Lockyer, were dispatched 
 from the British fleet against the gunboat flotilla. A 
 dead calm prevented its retreat, and there was no re 
 source but to fight, in the open lake, this great arma 
 ment. A most gallant and resolute defense was made 
 by Lieutenant Jones and the men under his command ; 
 but nothing could avail against a force so overwhelm 
 ingly superior, and the little fleet was compelled to sur 
 render. 
 
154 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 This obstacle removed, the British commander pre 
 pared to transport his army across the broad expanse of 
 the lake to the vicinity of New Orleans, a distance of 
 eighty miles. An advance party of sixteen hundred men 
 found their way unobserved to the mouth of the Bayou 
 Bienvenu, a sluggish creek about twenty miles below 
 the city. This spot had early attracted the attention 
 of General Jackson. It was, and is, a lonely, desolate 
 place, resorted to only by fishermen and tourists. A 
 little colony of Spanish fishermen had built a few rude 
 huts there for their accommodation during the fishing 
 season. A picket, consisting of a sergeant, eight white 
 men, and three mulattoes, had been stationed in the vil 
 lage by General Villere, a planter of the neighborhood, 
 to whom Jackson had assigned jthe duty of guarding the 
 spot. No one anticipating danger in that quarter, the 
 picket gradually relaxed their vigilance. Two British 
 officers, Captain Spencer of the Carron and Lieutenant 
 Peddie of the army, disguised in blue shirts and old tar 
 paulins, landed without exciting suspicion, bought over 
 the Spanish fishermen and their boats, rowed up the 
 bayou, reached the firm land along the banks of the 
 great river, and drank of its waters. Having carefully 
 noted all the features of the scene, questioning the ne 
 groes and others whom they met, they returned to Pine 
 Island, whence they guided the advance of the British 
 army to the fatal plain. 
 
 It is denied by all American writers that the picket 
 at the fisherman s village was surprised in the manner 
 stated by English historians. Mr. Alexander Walker, 
 who collected his information from the men themselves, 
 gives this account of what transpired on the night of the 
 landing : 
 
 " Nothing occurred to attract the notice of this picket 
 until about midnight on the 22d, when the sentinel on 
 
JACKSON AT NEW ORLEANS. 155 
 
 duty in the village called his comrade and informed him 
 that some boats were coming up the bayou. It was no 
 false alarm. These boats composed the advanced party 
 of the British, which had been sent forward from the 
 main body of the flotilla, under Captain Spencer, to re- 
 connoiter and secure the village. 
 
 " The Americans, perceiving the hopelessness of de 
 fending themselves against so superior a force, retired 
 for concealment behind the cabin, where they remained 
 until the barges had passed them. They then ran out 
 and endeavored to reach a boat by which they might 
 escape; but they were observed by the British, who ad 
 vanced toward them, seized the boat before it could be 
 dragged into the water, and captured four of the picket. 
 Four others were afterward taken on land. Of the four 
 remaining, three ran into the canebrake, thence into the 
 prairie, where they wandered about all day, until, worn 
 down with fatigue and suffering, they returned to the 
 village, happy to surrender themselves prisoners. One 
 only escaped, and after three days of terrible hardships 
 and constant perils, wandering over trembling prairies, 
 through almost impervious canebrakes, swimming bay 
 ous and lagoons, and living on reptiles and roots, got 
 safely into the American camp." 
 
 Having effected a landing, the British army, led 
 by General Keane himself, began a slow and toilsome 
 march toward the city. An English officer describes the 
 advance in a highly interesting manner. " It was not," 
 he says, " without many checks that we were able to 
 proceed. Ditches frequently stopped us by running in a 
 cross-direction too wide to be leaped, and too deep to 
 be forded ; consequently, on all such occasions, the 
 troops were obliged to halt till bridges were hastily con 
 structed of such materials as could be procured and 
 thrown across. Having advanced in this manner for 
 
156 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 several hours, we at length found ourselves approaching 
 a more cultivated region. The marsh became gradually 
 less and less continuous, being intersected by wider spots 
 of firm ground ; the reeds gave place by degrees to 
 wood, and the wood to inclosed fields. Upon these, 
 however, nothing grew, harvest having long ago ended. 
 They accordingly presented but a melancholy appear 
 ance, being covered with the stubble of sugar cane, 
 which resembled the reeds which we had just quitted in 
 everything except altitude. Nor as yet was any house 
 or cottage to be seen. Though we knew, therefore, that 
 human habitations could not be far off, it was impossible 
 to guess where they lay or how numerous they might 
 prove ; and as we could not tell whether our guides 
 might not be deceiving us, and whether ambuscades 
 might not be laid for our destruction as soon as we 
 should arrive where troops could conveniently act, our 
 march was insensibly conducted with increased caution 
 and regularity. 
 
 " But in a little while some groves of orange trees 
 presented themselves, on passing which two or three farm 
 houses appeared. Toward these our advanced companies 
 immediately hastened, with the hope of surprising the 
 inhabitants and preventing any alarm from being raised. 
 Hurrying on at double-quick time, they surrounded the 
 buildings, succeeded in securing the inmates, and capt 
 ured several horses; but, becoming rather careless in 
 watching their prisoners, one man contrived to effect 
 his escape. Now, then, all hope of eluding observation 
 might be laid aside. The rumor of our landing would, 
 we knew, spread faster than we could march, and it only 
 remained to make that rumor as terrible as possible. 
 
 "With this view, the column was commanded to 
 widen its files and to present as formidable an appear 
 ance as could be assumed. Changing our order in 
 
JACKSON AT NEW ORLEANS. 157 
 
 obedience to these directions, we marched not in sec 
 tions of eight or ten abreast, but in pairs, and thus con 
 trived to cover with our small division as large a tract 
 of ground as if we had mustered thrice our present num 
 bers. Our steps were likewise quickened, that we might 
 gain, if possible, some advantageous position where we 
 might be able to cope with any force that might attack 
 us; and, thus hastening on, we soon arrived at the main 
 road which leads directly to New Orleans. Turning to 
 the right, we then advanced in the direction of that town 
 for about a mile, when, having reached a spot where it 
 was considered that we might encamp in comparative 
 safety, our little column halted, the men piled their arms, 
 and a regular bivouac was formed. 
 
 " The country where we had now established our 
 selves was a narrow plain of about a mile in width, 
 bounded on one side by the Mississippi and on the other 
 by the marsh from which we had just emerged. Toward 
 the open ground this marsh was covered with dwarf-wood, 
 having the semblance of a forest rather than a swamp ; 
 but on trying the bottom it was found that both charac 
 ters were united, and that it was impossible for a man 
 to make his way among the trees, so boggy was the soil 
 upon which they grew. In no other quarter, however, 
 was there a single hedgerow or plantation of any kind, 
 excepting a few apple and other fruit trees in the gar 
 dens of such houses as were scattered over the plain, the 
 whole being laid out in large fields for the growth of 
 sugar cane, a plant which seems as abundant in this 
 part of the world as in Jamaica. 
 
 " Looking up toward the town, which we at this time 
 faced, the marsh is upon your right and the river upon 
 your left. Close to the latter .runs the main road, fol 
 lowing the course of the stream all the way to New Or 
 leans. Between the road and the water is thrown up a 
 
GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 lofty and strong embankment, resembling the dikes in 
 Holland, and meant to serve a similar purpose, by means 
 of which the Mississippi is prevented from overflowing 
 its banks, and the entire flat is preserved from inun 
 dation. But the attention of a stranger is irresistibly 
 drawn away from every other object to contemplate the 
 magnificence of this noble river. Pouring along at the 
 prodigious rate of four miles an hour, an immense body 
 of water is spread out before you, measuring a full mile 
 across and nearly a hundred fathoms in depth. What 
 this mighty stream must be near its mouth I can hardly 
 imagine, for we were here upward of a hundred miles 
 from the ocean." 
 
 The spot upon which, at noon on the 23d of Decem 
 ber, the British advance halted and stacked their arms 
 was eight miles below the city, and, at the moment of 
 the halt, General Jackson had received no intimation 
 even of the landing of an enemy. If General Keane 
 had pushed on, he could have taken New Orleans with 
 out firing a shot ; for, although General Coffee and Gen 
 eral Carroll had reached the town, the troops under 
 their command were so widely scattered in and above 
 the city that an adequate force could not have been as 
 sembled in time to resist the onset of the foe. 
 
 But mark : " One man contrived to effect his escape," 
 records the British officer whose narrative we have 
 quoted above. How many a gallant life hung upon the 
 chances of that one man s capture ! The individual in 
 vested with such sudden and extreme importance was 
 young Major Gabriel Viller6, the son of General Villere", 
 a Creole planter, upon whose plantation the British were 
 then halting. Major Villerd it was who had stationed 
 the picket at the mouth of the bayou by which the 
 English troops had gained the banks of the Mississippi, 
 and stood now upon the high-road leading to the prize 
 
JACKSON AT NEW ORLEANS. 159 
 
 they were in search of, and within a few miles of it. He 
 made all haste to New Orleans, joined on his way by two 
 friends, and proceeded to headquarters. Judge Walker 
 thus relates their interview with the general : " During 
 all the exciting events of this campaign Jackson had 
 barely the strength to stand erect without support ; his 
 body was sustained alone by the spirit within. Ordinary 
 men would have shrunk into feeble imbeciles or useless 
 invalids under such a pressure. The disease contracted 
 in the swamps of Alabama still clung to him. Reduced 
 to a mere skeleton, unable to digest his food, and unre- 
 freshed by sleep, his life seemed to be preserved by 
 some miraculous agency. There, in the parlor of his 
 headquarters in Royal Street, surrounded by his faithful 
 and efficient aides, he worked day and night, organizing 
 his forces, dispatching orders, receiving reports, and 
 making all the necessary arrangements for the defense 
 of the city. 
 
 " Jackson was thus engaged at half past one o clock 
 p. M. on the 23d of December, 1814, when his attention 
 was drawn from certain documents he was carefully 
 reading by the sound of horses galloping down the 
 streets with more rapidity than comported with the or 
 der of a city under martial law. The sounds ceased at 
 the door of his headquarters, and the sentinel on duty 
 announced the arrival of three gentlemen who desired 
 to see the general immediately, having important intelli 
 gence to communicate. 
 
 " Show them in, ordered the general. 
 
 " The visitors proved to be Mr. Dussau de la Croix, 
 Major Gabriel ViHere", and Colonel de la Ronde. They 
 were stained with mud, and nearly breathless with the 
 rapidity of their ride. 
 
 " * What news do you bring, gentlemen ? eagerly 
 asked the general. 
 
GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 " Important! highly important! responded Mr. de 
 la Croix. The British have arrived at Villere s planta 
 tion, nine miles below the city, and are there encamped. 
 Here is Major Villere, who was captured by them, has 
 escaped, and will now relate his story. 
 
 "The major accordingly detailed in a clear and per 
 spicuous manner the occurrences we have related, em 
 ploying his mother tongue, the French language, which 
 De la Croix translated to the general. At the close of 
 Major Viller6 s narrative the general exclaimed : 
 
 " By the Eternal, they shall not sleep on our soil ! 
 
 " Then courteously inviting his visitors to refresh 
 themselves, and sipping a glass of wine in compliment to 
 them, he turned to his secretary and aides, and remarked : 
 
 " * Gentlemen, the British are below ; we must fight 
 them to-night ! " 
 
 Jackson proceeded to act as though everything had 
 occurred exactly as he had anticipated. General Coffee s 
 brigade was still encamped near the spot where they had 
 first halted, four or five miles above the city. Major 
 Blanche s battalion was at the Bayou St. John, two miles 
 from headquarters. The State militia, under Governor 
 Claiborne, were on the Gentilly road, three miles away ; 
 the regulars were in the city, but variously disposed. 
 General Carroll and his Tennesseeans appear to have 
 been still in the boats that brought them down the river. 
 Commodore Patterson, too, was some distance off. 
 General Jackson dispatched a messenger to each of the 
 corps under his command, ordering them with all haste 
 to break up their camp and march to positions assigned 
 them General Carroll to the head of the upper branch 
 of the Bienvenu, Governor Claiborne to a point farther 
 up the Gentilly road, which road leads from the Chef- 
 Menteur to New Orleans ; the rest of the troops to a 
 plantation just below the city. Commodore Patterson 
 
JACKSON AT NEW ORLEANS. 161 
 
 was also sent for and requested to prepare the Carolina 
 for weighing anchor and dropping down the river. 
 
 These orders issued, the general sat down to dinner 
 and ate a little rice, which alone his system could then 
 endure. He then lay down upon a sofa in his office 
 and dozed for a short time. Before three o clock he 
 mounted his horse and rode to the lower part of the 
 city, where then stood Fort St. Charles, on ground now 
 occupied by the Branch Mint Building.. Before the 
 gates of the fort he took his station, waiting to see the 
 troops pass on their way to the vicinity of the enemy s 
 position and to give his final orders to the various 
 commanders. Drawn up near him was one of the two 
 regiments of regulars, the Forty-fourth Infantry, Col 
 onel Ross, mustering three hundred and thirty-one mus 
 kets. Around the general were gathered his six aides 
 Captain Butler, Captain Reid, Captain Chotard, Ed 
 ward Livingston, Mr. Davezac, and Mr. Duplessis. The 
 other regiment of regulars, the Seventh Infantry, Major 
 Piere, four hundred and sixty-five muskets, had already 
 marched down the road to guard it against the enemy s 
 advance. With them were sixty-six marines, twenty- 
 two artillerymen, and two six-pounders, under Colonel 
 McRea and Lieutenant Spotts, of the regular artillery. 
 Captain Beal s famous company of New Orleans rifle 
 men, composed of merchants and lawyers of the city, 
 were also below, defending the high-road. A cloud of 
 dust on the levee and the thunder of horses feet soon 
 announced to the expectant general the approach of 
 cavalry. Colonel Hinds, of the Mississippi Dragoons, 
 emerged from the dust-cloud, galloping at the head of 
 his troop, which he led swiftly by to its designated 
 post. Coffee with his Tennesseeans was not far behind. 
 Halting at the general s side, he conversed with him for 
 a few minutes, and then, rejoining his men, gave the 
 
1 62 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 word, " Forward at a gallop ! " and the long line of back 
 woodsmen swept rapidly past. Next came into view a 
 party-colored host on foot, at a run, which proved to be 
 Major Planch^ s fine battalion of uniformed companies. 
 "Ah!" cried Jackson to his aide Davezac, "here come 
 the brave Creoles." They had run all the way from the 
 Fort St. John, and came breathless into the general s 
 presence. In a moment they too had received their 
 orders, and were again in motion. A battalion of col 
 ored freemen, under Major Dacquin, and a small body 
 of Choctaw Indians, under Captain Jugeant, arrived, 
 halted, passed on, and the general had seen his available 
 force go by. The number of troops that went that after 
 noon to meet the enemy was twenty-one hundred and 
 thirty-one, of whom considerably more than half had 
 never been in action. 
 
 The commanders of the different corps had all re 
 ceived the same simple orders : to advance as far as the 
 Rodriguez Canal, six miles below the city and two 
 miles above the ViHere* plantation, there to halt, take 
 positions, and wait for orders to close with the enemy. 
 The Rodriguez Canal was no more than a wide, shallow 
 ditch, which extended across the firm ground from the 
 river to the swamp. 
 
 The last corps of the army had disappeared in the 
 distance, and still the general lingered before the gates 
 of Fort St. Charles, looking, with a slight expression of 
 impatience on his countenance, toward that part of the 
 river where the sloop of war Carolina was anchored. 
 He saw her at length weigh her anchor and move slowly 
 down the stream. She had been manned within the 
 last few days, and well manned, as it proved, though 
 some of her crew only learned their duty by doing it. 
 Captain Henly commanded the little vessel. Commo 
 dore Patterson, however, was in no mood to stay in New 
 
JACKSON AT NEW ORLEANS. 163 
 
 Orleans on such a night, and so went in her to the scene 
 of action. 
 
 The general had no sooner seen the Carolina under 
 way, than he put spurs to his horse, and galloped down 
 the road by which the troops had gone, followed by 
 all his staff except Captain Butler. Much against his 
 will, Captain Butler was appointed to command in the 
 city that night. It was four o clock in the afternoon 
 when the Carolina left her anchorage, and General 
 Jackson rode away from before the gates of Fort St. 
 Charles. The day was Friday. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 NIGHT BATTLE OF DECEMBER 230. 
 
 Four o clock in the afternoon. Most of the Ameri 
 can troops have reached the Rodriguez Canal ; others 
 are coming up every moment. They are all on or near 
 the high-road which runs along the river s bank. The 
 Second Division of the British army, consisting of the 
 Twenty-first, the Forty-fourth, and the Ninety-third 
 Highlanders, is nearing the fishermen s village at the 
 mouth of the Bayou Bienvenu. The party in advance 
 is quiescent and unsuspecting on and about the Villere 
 plantation. General Keane and Colonel Thornton are 
 pacing the piazza of the Viller mansion, Keane satisfied 
 with his position, Thornton distrusting it. 
 
 Half past four. The first American scouting party, 
 consisting of five mounted riflemen, advance toward the 
 British camp to reconnoiter. They advance too far, and 
 retire with the loss of one horse killed and two men 
 wounded. The first blood of the land campaign is shed; 
 Thomas Scott, the name of the first wounded man. Ma 
 jor Blanche s battalion of Creole volunteers are now be 
 ginning to arrive. 
 
 Five o clock. The general is with his little army, 
 serene, confident. He believes he is about to capture 
 or destroy those red-coats in his front, and he communi 
 cates some portion of his own assurance to those around 
 him. First, Colonel Hayne, inspector-general of the 
 army, shall go forward with Colonel Hinds s hundred 
 
NIGHT BATTLE OF DECEMBER TWENTY-THIRD. ^5 
 
 horsemen, to see what he can of the enemy s posi 
 tion and numbers. The hundred horsemen advance; 
 dash into the British pickets; halt while Colonel Hayne 
 takes a survey of the scene before him; wheel, and 
 gallop back. Colonel Hayne reports the enemy s 
 strength at two thousand. But what are these printed 
 bills stuck upon the plantation fences? 
 
 " LOUISIANIANS ! REMAIN QUIET IN YOUR HOUSES. 
 YOUR SLAVES SHALL BE PRESERVED TO YOU, AND YOUR 
 
 PROPERTY RESPECTED. WE MAKE WAR ONLY AGAINST 
 
 AMERICANS! " 
 
 Signed by General Keane and Admiral Cochrane. 
 A negro was overtaken by the returning cavalrymen, 
 with printed copies of this proclamation upon his person, 
 in Spanish and French. Twilight deepens into dark 
 ness. It is the shortest day of the year but two. The 
 moon rises hazy and dim, yet bright enough for that 
 night s work, if it will only last. The American host is 
 very silent silent, because such is the order; silent, 
 because they are in no mood to chatter. The more 
 provident and lucky of the men eat and drink what 
 they have, but most of them neither eat nor hunger. 
 As the night drew on the British watch fires, numerous 
 and brilliant, became visible, disclosing completely their 
 position, and lighting the Americans the way they were 
 to go. 
 
 Six o clock. The general-in-chief has completed his 
 scheme, and part of it is in course of execution. It was 
 the simple old backwoods plan of cornering the enemy ; 
 the best possible for the time and place. Coffee, with 
 his own riflemen, with Beale s New Orleans sharp-shoot 
 ers, with Hinds s dragoons, was to leave the river s side, 
 march across the plain to the cypress swamp, turn down 
 toward the enemy, wheel again, attack them in the flank 
 and crowd them to the river. With General Coffee, as 
 12 
 
!66 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 guide and aide, went Colonel de la Ronde, the proprietor 
 of one of the plantations embraced in the circle of oper 
 ations. A circuitous march of five miles, over moist, 
 rough, obstructed ground, lay before General Coffee, 
 and he was already in motion. Jackson, with the main 
 fighting strength of the army, was to keep closer to the 
 river and open an attack directly upon the enemy s 
 position ; the artillery and marines upon the high-road ; 
 the two regiments of regulars to the left of the road ; 
 Planche s battalion, Dacquin s colored freemen, Jugeant s 
 Choctaws still farther to the left, so as to complete the 
 line of attack across the plain. The Carolina was to 
 anchor opposite the enemy s camp, close in shore, and 
 pour broadsides of grape and round shot into their 
 midst. From the Carolina was to come the signal of 
 attack. Not a shot to be fired, not a sound uttered, 
 till the schooner s guns were heard. Then, Coffee, 
 Planche, regulars, marines, Indians, negroes, artillery, 
 Jackson, all advance at once, and girdle the foe with 
 fire! 
 
 Half past six. The Carolina arrives opposite Gen 
 eral Jackson s position. Edward Livingston goes on 
 board of her, explains the plan of attack, communicates 
 the general s orders to Commodore Patterson, and re 
 turns to his place at the general s side. " It continuing 
 calm," says the commodore in his official dispatch, " got 
 out sweeps, and a few minutes after, having been fre 
 quently hailed by the enemy s sentinels, anchored, veered 
 out a long scope of cable, and sheered close in shore 
 abreast of their camp." The commodore s "few min 
 utes" was three-quarters of an hour at least, according 
 to the other accounts. He had more than two miles 
 to go before reaching the spot where he " veered out the 
 long reach of cable " itself an operation not done in 
 a moment. 
 
NIGHT BATTLE OF DECEMBER TWENTY-THIRD, ify 
 
 Seven o clock. The night has grown darker than 
 was hoped. Coffee has made his way across the plain. 
 Behind a ditch separating two plantations he is dis 
 mounting his men. Cavalry could not be employed 
 upon such ground in the dark. Leaving the horses 
 in charge of a hundred of his riflemen, he is about to 
 march with the rest to find and charge the enemy. He 
 has still a long way to go, and wants a full hour, at 
 least, to come up with them. General Coffee, a man 
 of few words, and intent on the business of the hour 
 delivers an oration in something like these words : 
 
 " Men, you have often said you could fight ; now is 
 the time to prove it. Don t waste powder. Be sure of 
 your mark before firing." 
 
 Half past seven. The first gun from the Carolina 
 booms over the plain, followed in quick succession by 
 seven others the schooner s first broadside. It lays 
 low upon the moist delta a hundred British soldiers, as 
 some compute or guess. Jackson hears it, and yet 
 withholds the expected word of command. Coffee 
 hears it too soon, but he makes haste to respond. The 
 English division then landing at the fishermen s village 
 hear it and hurry tumultuously toward the scene of ac 
 tion, and the boats go back to Pine Island with the 
 news. New Orleans hears it. A great crowd of women, 
 children, old men, and slaves, assembled in the square 
 before the State House, see the flash and listen to the 
 roar of the guns. 
 
 Other broadsides follow, as fast as men can load. 
 And yet, strange to say, the people on board the terrible 
 schooner knew nothing all that night of the effect their 
 fire produced ; knew not whether they had contributed 
 anything or nothing to the final issue of the strife. 
 Commodore Patterson simply says : " Commenced a 
 heavy (and, as I have since learned, most destructive) 
 
!68 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 fire from our starboard battery and small-arms, which 
 was returned most spiritedly by the enemy with con- 
 greve rockets and musketry from their whole force, 
 when, after about forty minutes of most incessant fire, 
 the enemy was silenced. The fire from our battery was 
 continued till nine o clock upon the enemy s flank while 
 engaged in the field with our army, at which hour ceased 
 firing, supposing, from the distance of the enemy s fire 
 (for it was too dark to see anything on shore), that they 
 had retreated beyond the range of our guns. Weighed 
 and swept across the river, in hopes of a breeze the next 
 morning, to enable me to renew the attack upon the 
 enemy should they be returned to their encampment." 
 
 So much for the Carolina. What she did, we know. 
 But I defy any living being to say with positiveness and 
 in detail what occurred on shore. The contradictions 
 between the British and American accounts, and between 
 the various American narratives, are so irreconcilable, 
 that the narrator who cares only for the truth pauses 
 bewildered and knows not what to believe. But exact 
 ness of detail is not important in describing this unique 
 battle. A more successful night attack, or one that 
 more completely gained not the object proposed but 
 the objects most necessary to be gained, was never 
 made. That fact alone might suffice. Yet, let us peer 
 into the thickening darkness, and see what we can dis 
 cern of the credible, the probable, and the certain, bor 
 rowing other people s eyes when our own fail. 
 
 Jackson opened his attack with curious deliberation. 
 He waited patiently for the Carolina s guns. And when 
 the thunder of her broadside broke the silence of the 
 night, he still waited. For ten minutes, which seemed 
 thirty, he let the little schooner wage the combat alone, 
 hoping to fix the attention of the enemy exclusively 
 upon her. 
 
NIGHT BATTLE OF DECEMBER TWENTY-THIRD. 169 
 
 Then " FORWARD ! " 
 
 Down, the high-road, close to the river, with the 
 Seventh Regiment, the artillery, and the marines, Jackson 
 advanced. A light breeze from the river blew over the 
 plain the smoke of the Carolina s incessant fire, to which 
 was added a fog then beginning to rise from the river. 
 Lighted only by the flash of the guns and the answering 
 musketry and rockets, the general pushed on, arid had 
 approached within less than a mile of the British head 
 quarters, when the company in advance, under Lieuten 
 ant McClelland, received a brisk fire from a British out 
 post lying in a ditch behind a fence near the road. 
 Colonel Platt, quartermaster-general, who was with this 
 company, ran to the front, and, seeing the red-coats by 
 the flash of their own guns, cried out : 
 
 " Come out and fight like men, on open ground ! " 
 
 Without giving them time to comply with this invita 
 tion, he poured a volley into their midst, and kept up an 
 active fire for four or five minutes. The British picket 
 gave way, and over the fence leaped Platt s company, 
 and occupied the post they had abandoned. This was 
 the first success of the battle, but it was very short. In 
 a few minutes a large party of British, two hundred it 
 is said, came up to regain their lost position, and opened 
 a fire upon the victorious company. Its gallant com 
 mander, Lieutenant McClelland, fell dead ; Colonel Platt 
 was wounded ; a sergeant was killed ; several of the 
 men were wounded, and it was going hardly with the 
 little band. In the nick of time, however, the two 
 pieces of cannon were placed in position on the road 
 and began a most vigorous fire, relieving the advanced 
 company, and compelling the enemy to keep his distance. 
 A second time the Americans were successful, for a 
 moment. Soon a formidable force of British came up 
 the road, and opened fire upon the artillerymen and 
 
1 70 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 marines, evidently designing to take the guns. The 
 marines recoiled before the leaden tempest. The horses 
 attached to the cannon, wounded by the fire, reared, 
 plunged, became unmanageable, and one of the pieces 
 was overturned into the ditch by the side of the road. 
 It was a moment of frightful and nearly fatal confusion. 
 Jackson dashed into the fire, accompanied by two of his 
 aides, and roared out with that startling voice of his : 
 " Save the guns, my boys, at every sacrifice ! " 
 The presence of the general restored and rallied the 
 marines as another company of the Seventh came up, 
 and the guns were "protected," says Major Eaton 
 which probably means drawn out of danger. All this 
 was the work of a very few minutes. The other com 
 panies of the Seventh and the whole of the Forty- 
 fourth, were meanwhile engaged in a miscellaneous, de 
 sultory, indescribable manner. 
 
 General Coffee, though the signal came a little too 
 early for him, was in the thick of the fight sooner 
 than he had expected. Having reached the Villere* 
 plantation, he wheeled toward the river and marched 
 in a widely extended line, each man to fight, in the 
 Indian fashion, on his own account. He expected to 
 come up with the enemy near the river s bank, and 
 would have done so if the Carolina had begun her fire 
 half an hour later. The enemy, however, had then had 
 time to recover from their confusion, to abandon the 
 river, and to form in various positions across the plain. 
 General Coffee had not advanced a hundred yards from 
 the swamp before he was astonished to find himself in 
 the presence of the British Eighty-fifth. "A war of 
 duels and detachments " ensued, with varying fortune; 
 but the deadly and unerring fire of Coffee s cool rifle 
 men, accustomed from of old to night warfare with 
 Indians, acquainted with all the arts of covert and 
 
NIGHT BATTLE OF DECEMBER TWENTY-THIRD. 
 
 I/I 
 
 approach, was too much for the British infantry. From 
 orange grove, from behind negro huts, the Eighty-fifth 
 slowly retired toward the river, until at length they took 
 post behind an old levee near the high-road. Bayonets 
 alone could dislodge them thence, and the Tennesseeans 
 had no bayonets. Coffee, too, retired to cover, and sent 
 to the general for orders. 
 
 Captain J. N. Cooke, a British officer, who wrote a 
 narrative of this unexampled campaign, gives a lively 
 picture of the battle at the time when Coffee was fight 
 ing his way across the plain : " Lumps and crowds of 
 American militia, who were armed with rifles and long 
 hunting-knives for close quarters, now crossed the 
 country, and by degrees getting nearer to the head 
 quarters of the British, they were met by some com 
 panies of the rifle corps and the Eighty-fifth Light In 
 fantry ; and here again such confusion took place as 
 seldom occurs in war the bayonet of the British and 
 the knife of the American were in active opposition at 
 close quarters during this eventful night, and, as pro 
 nounced by the Americans, it was rough and tumble. 
 
 " The darkness was partially dispelled for a few mo 
 ments now and then by the flashes of firearms, and 
 whenever the outlines of men were distinguishable the 
 Americans called out, Don t fire we are your friends ! 
 Prisoners were taken and retaken. The Americans were 
 litigating and wrangling, and protesting that they were 
 not taken fairly, and were hugging their firearms, and 
 bewailing their separation from a favorite rifle that they 
 wished to retain as their lawful property. 
 
 " The British soldiers, likewise, hearing their mother 
 tongue spoken, were captured by this deception ; when 
 such mistakes being detected, the nearest American re 
 ceived a knock-down blow, and in this manner prisoners 
 on both sides, having escaped, again joined in the fray, 
 
Ij 2 GENERAL JACKSON. . 
 
 calling out lustily for their respective friends. Here were 
 fighting and straggling flashes of fire darting through the 
 gloom like the tails of so many comets. 
 
 "At this most remarkable night encounter the British 
 were fighting on two sides of a ragged triangle, their 
 left face pounded by the fire from the sloop and their 
 right face engaged with the American land forces. Hal- 
 len was still fighting in front at the apex. 
 
 " At one time the Americans pushed round Hallen s 
 right and got possession of the high-road behind him, 
 where they took Major Mitchell and thirty riflemen 
 going to his assistance. But Hallen was inexorable, and 
 at no time had more than one hundred men at his dis 
 posal ; the riflemen coming up from the rear by twos 
 and threes to his assistance when he had lost nearly half 
 his picket in killed and wounded. And behind him was 
 such confusion, that an English artillery officer declared 
 that the flying illumination encircling him was so unac 
 countably strange, that had he not pointed his brass 
 cannon to the front at the beginning of the fight he 
 could not have told which was the proper front of battle 
 (as the English soldiers were often firing one upon the 
 other, as well as the Americans), except by looking to 
 ward the muzzle of his three-pounder, which he dared 
 not fire from the fear of bringing down friends and foes 
 by the same discharge, seeing, as he did, the darkness 
 suddenly illuminated across the country by the flashing 
 of muskets at every point of the compass." 
 
 Such were the scenes enacted on the plains of the 
 delta in the evening of December 23, 1814, for about 
 the space of an hour and a half. 
 
 Nine o clock. The Carolina, as we have seen, ceases 
 her fire. The Second Division of English troops has 
 arrived and mingled in the battle, more than repairing 
 the casualties of the night in the English army. The 
 
NIGHT BATTLED OF DECEMBER TWENTY-THIRD. 173 
 
 fog, rising from the river, has spread densely over the 
 field, first enveloping Jackson s division, which was near 
 est the river, then rolling over the entire plain. The 
 general has heard nothing of General Coffee since he 
 parted with him at six o clock. He concludes now to 
 suspend all operations till the dawn of day. Coffee s 
 messenger finds the general at length, and departs with 
 an order for General Coffee to withdraw his men from 
 the field and rejoin the right wing with all dispatch. 
 
 Ten o clock. The American troops have retired, and 
 are spread over the plain a mile or more from the scene 
 of conflict. The wounded, all of them that can be found, 
 are brought in and conveyed toward the city. The in 
 habitants of New Orleans have learned enough of the 
 issue of the fight to allay their apprehensions of imme 
 diate danger ; but women still sit at home or flit about 
 the streets in an agony of suspense to learn something 
 of the fate of fathers, husbands, and brothers. The ar 
 rival of British prisoners is noised about, cheering all 
 but those who have staked more than life in the contest. 
 General Jackson has as yet no thought but to renew 
 the battle the moment it is light enough to find the foe, 
 and to that end sends a dispatch to General Carroll, 
 who is guarding the city from attack from above, order 
 ing him, if no sign of an enemy has appeared in that 
 quarter, to join the main body instantly with all his 
 force. 
 
 The battle over, we can reckon up its cost, while the 
 troops, reassembled, are eagerly narrating their several 
 adventures or performing sad duties to wounded com 
 rades and the dead. The British have lost to-night, ac 
 cording to General Keane s official report, forty-six killed, 
 one hundred and sixty-seven wounded, and sixty-four 
 prisoners and deserters. Lieutenant De Lacy Evans, 
 afterward member of Parliament, and more recently one 
 
GENERAL JACKSON, 
 
 of the heroes of the Crimea, was among the wounded. 
 The American loss was killed, twenty-four; wounded, 
 one hundred and fifteen ; missing, seventy-four. 
 
 One o clock in the morning. Silence reigns in both 
 camps. There have been occasional alarms during the 
 night and some firing, enough to keep both armies on 
 the alert. Noise of an approaching host from the city 
 is heard soon after one, which proves to be General 
 Carroll and his men, who have marched down with Ten- 
 nesseean swiftness. But Jackson has changed his mind. 
 British deserters have brought information of the arrival 
 of re-enforcements to General Keane s army, and of still 
 further forces to arrive on the morrow. Is it prudent 
 to risk the campaign and the city upon an open fight 
 between twenty-five hundred raw troops without bayo 
 nets and six or seven thousand disciplined British soldiers 
 who have bayonets and know how to use them ? That 
 question, argued around the general s bivouac at mid 
 night, admitted of but one answer. It was resolved, then, 
 in the midnight council on the fog-covered field, to re 
 tire at daybreak to the old position behind the Rodriguez 
 Canal, there to throw up whatever line of defense might 
 be possible and await the enemy s attack. The two 
 men-of-war shall anchor off the levee and cover the 
 high-road with their guns. If necessary, the levee shall 
 be pierced and the plain between the two armies flooded. 
 Hinds s dragoons, who could not join in the night battle, 
 shall hold the position between the two armies and con 
 ceal the contemplated movements. 
 
 Slowly, very slowly, the hours of darkness wore away. 
 " The night," says Nolte, " was very cold. Wearied by 
 our long march and standing in the open field, we all 
 wanted to make a fire, and at length, at the special re 
 quest of our major, permission to kindle one was ob 
 tained. Within twenty minutes we saw innumerable 
 
NIGHT BATTLE OF DECEMBER TWENTY-THIRD. 
 
 175 
 
 watch fires blazing up in a line extending like a crescent 
 from the shores of the Mississippi to the woods, and 
 stretching far away behind the plantations of Villere", 
 Lacoste, and others occupied by the English, on whose 
 minds, as well as on our own, the impression must have 
 been produced that Jackson had many more troops 
 under his command and near the spot than any one had 
 supposed." 
 
 The fires were not lighted too soon, for in the fight 
 many of Coffee s men had thrown away their long coats 
 and stood shivering through the night in their shirt 
 sleeves. Indeed, both brigades of Tennesseeans were in 
 sorry plight with regard to clothes when they arrived, 
 and few came out of the battle with a whole garment. 
 There will be busy sewing-circles to-morrow in New 
 Orleans, seasoned with tales of the brave deeds done by 
 the ragged heroes of the night battle. And all over the 
 field shall wander, after dawn, Tennesseeans hunting up 
 lost coats, lost tomahawks and knives, lost horses, and, 
 alas ! lost comrades, cold forever, for whom there will 
 be proud mourning in the log-houses of Tennessee. 
 " These poor fellows," wrote a British officer, who with 
 General Keane walked over part of the field, " presented 
 a strange appearance. Their hair, eyebrows, and lashes 
 were thickly covered with hoarfrost or rime, their blood 
 less cheeks vying with its whiteness. Few were dressed 
 in military uniforms, and most of them bore the appear 
 ance of farmers or husbandmen. Peace to their ashes ! 
 They had nobly died in defending their country." 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 SHOVELS AND WHEELBARROWS. 
 
 THE Rodriguez Canal was an old mill race partly 
 filled up and grown over with grass. In the early days 
 of the colony the planters built their mills on the levee, 
 and obtained water power by cutting canals from the 
 river to the swamp, through which poured an abundant 
 flood during the periodical swellings of the river. The 
 Rodriguez Canal crossed the plain where the plain was 
 narrowest ; and this circumstance it was that rendered 
 the position chosen by General Jackson for his line of 
 intrenchments the best which the vicinity afforded. 
 
 Daylight dawned. The fog slowly lifted. Never 
 was the light of day welcomer to the longing sons of 
 men. The earliest light found the main body of Jack 
 son s army in their former position behind the canal. 
 Everything that New Orleans could furnish in the shape 
 of spade, shovel, pickaxe, crowbar, wheelbarrow, cart, 
 had been sent for hours before, and the first supplies 
 began to arrive almost as soon as the men were ready 
 to use them. Now let there be such digging, shoveling 
 and heaping up of earth as the Delta of the Mississippi, 
 or any other delta, has never seen since Adam delved ! 
 
 The canal was deepened and the earth thrown up on 
 the side nearest the city. The fences were torn away, 
 and the rails driven in to keep the light soil from falling 
 back again into the canal. Soft palms, which had never 
 before handled anything harsher than a pen, a fishing- 
 
SHOVELS AND WHEELBARROWS. 177 
 
 rod, or a lady s waist, blistered and bled, and felt it not. 
 Each company had its own line of embankment to throw 
 up, which it called its castle, and strained every muscle 
 in friendly rivalry to make it overtop the castles of the 
 rest. 
 
 The nature of the soil rendered the task one of pe 
 culiar difficulty. Dig down three feet anywhere in that 
 singular plain and you come to water. Earth soon be 
 came the scarcest of commodities near the lines, and 
 had to be brought from far, after the first hours. An 
 idea occurs to an ingenious French intellect. Cotton 
 bales ! The town is full of cotton ; and lo ! here, close 
 to the lines, is a vessel laden with cotton, waiting for a 
 chance to get to sea. The idea, plausible as it was, did 
 not stand the test of service. The first cannonade 
 knocked the cotton bales about in a manner that made 
 the general more eager to get rid of them than he had 
 been to use them. Some of the bales, too, caught fire 
 and made a most intolerable and persistent smoke, so 
 that, days before the final conflict, every pound of cot 
 ton was removed from the lines. A similar error was 
 made by the enemy, who, supposing that sugar would 
 offer resistance to cannon balls equal to sand, employed 
 hogsheads of sugar in the formation of their batteries. 
 The first ball that knocked a hogshead to pieces and 
 kept on its destructive way unchecked, convinced them 
 that sugar and sand, though often found together, have 
 little in common. 
 
 During the 24th the entire line of defense, a mile 
 long, was begun, and raised in some places to a height 
 of four or five feet. The work was not interrupted by 
 the enemy for a moment, nor was there any alarm or 
 sign of their approach. Before night two small pieces 
 of cannon were placed in position on the high-road. 
 
 In the course of the morning Major Latour was 
 
1 78 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 ordered to cut the levee at a point one hundred yards 
 below the lines. The water rushed through the open 
 ing and flooded the road to the depth of three feet. A 
 day or two after, an engineer was sent below the British 
 camp to let in the water behind them, so as to render 
 their position an island. If the river had been as high 
 as it occasionally is in December, and always is in the 
 spring, the campaign would have had a ludicrous and 
 bloodless termination, for nearly the whole plain could 
 have been laid under water, and the enemy would have 
 found no sufficient resting-place for the soles of so many 
 feet. It chanced, however, that the rise of the river at 
 this time was only temporary. The water soon fell to 
 the level of the road; and the piercing of the levee 
 really aided the English, by filling up and rendering 
 more navigable the creeks in their rear, by which their 
 supplies were brought up. For a day or two only the 
 flooding of the road was serviceable in giving an appear 
 ance of security to the lines near the river. 
 
 Early in the morning the Carolina, from her anchor 
 age opposite the British camp, and the Louisiana, from 
 an advantageous position a mile above, played upon the 
 enemy whenever a red-coat showed itself within range. 
 General Keane found himself, to his astonishment, be 
 sieged ! Not a column could be formed upon the plain, 
 which was torn up in every direction by the Carolina s 
 accurate and incessant fire. Never was an army more 
 strangely, more unexpectedly, more completely para 
 lyzed. They could do absolutely nothing but cower 
 under embankments, skulk behind huts, lie low in dry 
 ditches, or else retire beyond the reach of that terrible 
 fire which they had no means of silencing or answering. 
 
 And on this busy Saturday the day before the best 
 day of the Christian year while such events as these 
 were transpiring on the Delta of the Mississippi, what a 
 
SHOVELS AND WHEELBARROWS. 
 
 179 
 
 different scene was enacting at Ghent, three thousand 
 miles away ! In Senator Seward s Life of John Quincy 
 Adams we read : " Mr. Todd, one of the secretaries of 
 the American commissioners, and son-in-law of Presi 
 dent Madison, had invited several gentlemen, Americans 
 and others, to take refreshments with him on the 24th 
 of December. At noon, after having spent some time in 
 pleasant conversation, the refreshments entered, and 
 Mr. Todd said : It is twelve o clock. Well, gentlemen, 
 I announce to you that peace has been made and signed 
 between America and England. In a few moments, 
 Messrs. Gallatin, Clay, Carroll, and Hughes entered, 
 and confirmed the annunciation. This intelligence was 
 received with a burst of joy by all present. The news 
 soon spread through the town, and gave general satis 
 faction to the citizens. At Paris the intelligence was 
 hailed with acclamations. In the evening the theatres 
 resounded with cries of * God save the Americans ! " 
 
 Had there then been an Atlantic telegraphic cable ! 
 
 The light of Christmas morning found the English 
 army disheartened almost to the degree of despair. " I 
 shall eat my Christmas dinner in New Orleans," said Ad 
 miral Cochrane on the day of the landing. The remark 
 was reported by a prisoner to General Jackson, who said, 
 " Perhaps so ; but I shall have the honor of presiding at 
 that dinner." As usual when affairs go wrong, the gen 
 eral in command was the scapegoat. By every camp fire, 
 in every hut, at every outpost, the conduct of General 
 Keane was severely criticised. 
 
 Though discouragement was the habitual feeling of 
 the British troops from the night of the 23d until the 
 end, yet an event on this Christmas morning occurred 
 which for the time dispelled the prevailing gloom. This 
 was the arrival in camp, to take command of the troops, 
 of Major-General Sir Edward Pakenham, and with him, 
 
I So GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 as second in command, Major-General Samuel Gibbs, 
 besides several staff officers of experience and distinc 
 tion. In a moment hope revived and animation reap 
 peared. General Pakenham, the brother-in-law of the 
 Duke of Wellington, a favorite of the duke and of the 
 army, was of north of Ireland extraction, like the an 
 tagonist with whom he had come to contend. Few sol 
 diers of the Peninsular War had won such high and 
 rapid distinction as he. At Salamanca, at Badajos 
 wherever, in fact, the fighting had been fiercest there 
 had this brave soldier done a man s part for his coun 
 try, often foremost among the foremost. He was now 
 but thirty-eight years of age, and the record of his 
 bright career was written all over his body in scars. 
 Conspicuous equally for his humanity and for his cour 
 age, he had ever lifted his voice and his arm against 
 those monstrous scenes of pillage and outrage which 
 disgraced the British name at the capture of the strong 
 holds of Spain ; hanging a man upon one occasion upon 
 the spot, without trial or law, and thus, according to 
 Napier, " nipping the wickedness in the bud." 
 
 General Pakenham inherited General Keane s errone 
 ous information respecting Jackson s strength. Keep 
 ing this fact in view, his first measure seems judicious 
 enough. To blow the Carolina out of the water was 
 General Pakenham s first resolve. Till that is done he 
 thinks no movement of the troops is possible. With in 
 credible toil, nine fieldpieces, two howitzers, one mortar, 
 a furnace for heating balls, and a supply of the requisite 
 implements and ammunition, were brought from the 
 fleet and dragged to the British camp. By the evening 
 of the 26th they have all arrived, and are ready to be 
 placed in position on the levee as soon as darkness 
 covers the scene of operations and silences the Caro 
 lina s exasperating fire. The little schooner lay near 
 
SHOVELS AND WHEELBARROWS. jgl 
 
 the opposite shore of the river, just where she had 
 dropped her anchor after swinging away from the scene 
 of the night action of the 23d. There she had re 
 mained immovable ever since, firing at the enemy as 
 often as he showed himself. A succession of north 
 erly winds and dead calms rendered it impossible 
 for Captain Henly to execute his purpose of getting 
 nearer the British position, nor could he move the vessel 
 higher up against the strong current of the swollen 
 Mississippi. In a word, the Carolina was a fixture, a 
 floating battery. What is very remarkable, considering 
 the great annoyance caused by the fire of this schooner, 
 she had but one gun, a long twelve, as Captain Henly 
 reports, which could throw a ball across the river. 
 
 The headquarters of General Jackson were now at a 
 mansion-house about two hundred yards behind the 
 American lines. From an upper window of this house, 
 above the trees in which it was embosomed, the gen 
 eral surveyed the scene below : the long line of men at 
 work upon the intrenchments; Hinds s dragoons ma 
 noeuvring and galloping to and fro between the two 
 armies ; the Carolina and Louisiana in the stream vom 
 iting their iron thunder upon the foe. With the aid of an 
 old telescope lent him by an aged Frenchman, which 
 appears to have been the only instrument of the kind 
 procurable in the place, he scanned the British position 
 anxiously and often. He was surprised, puzzled, and 
 perhaps a little alarmed at the enemy s prolonged inac 
 tivity. What could they be doing down there behind 
 the plantation houses ? Why should they, unless they 
 had some deep scientific scheme on foot, quite beyond 
 the penetration of backwoodsmen, allow him to go on 
 strengthening his position day after day, without the 
 slightest attempt at molestation ? 
 
 It was not in the nature of Andrew Jackson to wait 
 13 
 
1 82 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 long for an enemy to attack. Too prudent to trust his 
 raw troops in an open fight with an army twice his num 
 ber, it occurred to him on the afternoon of the 26th 
 that there might be another and a safer way to dis 
 lodge them from their covert ; at least, to disturb them 
 in the development of whatever scheme they might be 
 so quietly concocting. He sent for Commodore Patter 
 son. Upon the arrival of the commodore at headquar 
 ters, a short conference took place between the naval 
 and the military hero. Then the gallant commodore 
 hurries off to New Orleans. His object is to ascertain 
 whether a few of the merchant vessels lying idle at the 
 levee can not be instantly manned, and armed each with 
 two thirty-two-pounders from the navy yard ; and if they 
 can, to set them floating down toward the British posi 
 tion, where, dropping anchor, they shall join in the 
 cannonade, and sweep the plain from side to side with 
 huge, resistless balls. No plantation houses, no negro 
 huts, no shallow ditches, no attainable distance will then 
 avail the invading army. 
 
 Commodore Patterson could not succeed in his er 
 rand in time ; but he bore in mind the general s hint, 
 and in due time acted upon it in another way with 
 effect. 
 
 At dawn of day on the 2yth the American troops 
 were startled by the report of a larger piece of ordnance 
 than they had yet heard from the enemy s camp. The 
 second shot from the great guns placed by the British 
 on the levee during the night, white hot, struck the Car 
 olina, pierced her side and lodged in the main hold un 
 der a mass of cables, where it could neither be reached 
 nor quenched. And this was but the prelude to a furi 
 ous cannonade, which sent the bombs and hot balls 
 hissing and roaring about her, penetrating her cabin, 
 knocking away her bulwarks, and bringing down rigging 
 
SHOVELS AND WHEELBARROWS. 
 
 183 
 
 and spars about the ears of the astonished crew. Cap 
 tain Henly replied as best he could with his single long 
 twelve, while both armies lined and thronged the levee, 
 watching the unequal combat with breathless interest. 
 
 No, not breathless. As often as the schooner was 
 hit, cheers from the British troops rent the morning air; 
 and whenever a well-aimed shot from the Carolina drove 
 the British gunners for a moment under the shelter of 
 the levee, shouts from the Americans applauded the de 
 voted crew. General Jackson was at his high window 
 spying the combat. Perceiving from the first how it 
 must end, he sent an emphatic order to Lieutenant 
 Thompson, of the Louisiana, to get that vessel out of 
 range if it was in the power of man to do it. General 
 Pakenham stood on the levee near his guns cheering on 
 the artillerymen. 
 
 Half an hour of this work was enough for the Caro 
 lina. " Finding," says Captain Henly, in his report to 
 Commodore Patterson, with the blunt pathos of a sailor 
 mourning for the loss of his vessel, "that hot shot were 
 passing through her cabin and filling-room, which con 
 tained a considerable quantity of powder, her bulwarks 
 all knocked down by the enemy s shot, the vessel in a 
 sinking condition, and the fire increasing, and expecting 
 every moment that she would blow up, at a little after 
 sunrise I reluctantly gave orders for the crew to aban 
 don her, which was effected with the loss of one man 
 killed and six wounded. A short time after I had suc 
 ceeded in getting the crew on shore I had the extreme 
 mortification of seeing her blow up." 
 
 The explosion was terrific. It shook the earth for 
 miles around ; it threw a shower of burning fragments 
 over the Louisiana, a mile distant ; it sent a shock of 
 terror to thousands of listening women in New Orleans; 
 it gave a momentary discouragement to the American 
 
1 84 GENERAL JACKSON.. 
 
 troops. The English army, whom the schooner s fire 
 had tormented for four days, raised a shout of exulta 
 tion, as though the silencing of that single gun had re 
 moved the only obstacle to their victorious advance. 
 
 But the Louisiana was still above water, and appar 
 ently as immovable as the Carolina had been. Upon 
 her the British guns were immediately turned. To avail 
 himself of a light breeze, or intimation of a breeze, 
 from the east, Lieutenant Thompson spread all his sails. 
 But against that steady, strong, deep current it availed 
 not even to slacken the ship s cable. Red-hot balls fell 
 hissing into the water about her, and a shell burst upon 
 her deck, wounding six of the crew. " Man the boats ! " 
 cried the commander. A hundred men were soon tug 
 ging at the oars, struggling as for more than life to tow 
 the ship up the stream. She moved ; the cable slack 
 ened and was let go ; still she moved slowly, steadily, 
 and ere long was safe out of the deadly tempest, at 
 anchor under the western shore opposite the American 
 lines. 
 
 Then cheer upon cheer saluted the rescued ship. 
 The English soldiers heard the cheers as they were 
 " falling in " three miles below. Every trace of discour 
 agement was gone from both armies. The British now 
 formed upon the open plain without let or hindrance. 
 The Americans could coolly estimate the success of the 
 cannonade at its proper value. They had lost just one 
 available gun and saved a ship which, at one broadside, 
 could throw eight twelve-pound balls a mile and a half. 
 That was the result of a cannonade for which the British 
 army had toiled and waited a day and two nights. 
 
 If the English had directed their fire first upon the 
 Louisiana, they could have destroyed both vessels. How 
 astonishing that any man standing where General Pa- 
 kenham stood that morning could have failed to perceive 
 
SHOVELS AND WHEELBARROWS. 185 
 
 a fact so obvious ! The Louisiana had only to go a mile 
 up the river to be out of danger. Half a mile made her 
 comparatively safe. The Carolina was fully two miles 
 below the point of safety. The half hour expended 
 upon the schooner would have blown up the ship, and 
 then at their leisure they could have played upon the 
 smaller vessel. And even if Captain Henly had slipped 
 his cable and dropped down the stream past the Brit 
 ish camp, the vessel would have been as effectually 
 removed as she was when her burning fragments float 
 ed by. 
 
 The 27th was a busy day in the American lines. 
 They were still far from complete, and every man now 
 felt that their strength would soon be put to the test. 
 In the course of the day a twelve-pound howitzer was 
 placed in position so as to command the high-road. 
 In the evening a twenty-four was established farther to 
 the left, and early next morning another twenty-four. 
 The crew of the Carolina hurried round to the lines to 
 assist in serving these guns, and on the morrow the 
 Baratarians were coming down from Fort St. Johns to 
 lend a powerful hand. The two regiments of Louisiana 
 militia were added to the force behind the lines. All 
 day long the shovel and the spade are vigorously plied ; 
 the embankment rises ; the canal deepens. The lines 
 nearest the river are strongest and best protected, and, 
 besides, are concealed from the view of an approaching 
 foe by the buildings of the Chalmette plantation, a quar 
 ter of a mile below them. These buildings, which have 
 served hitherto as the quarters of Hinds s dragoons, will 
 protect the enemy more than they protect us, thinks the 
 general, and orders them to be fired when the enemy 
 advances. It proved to be a mistake, and the order, 
 luckily, was only executed in part. Far to the left, near 
 the cypress swamp, the lines are weakest, though there 
 
!86 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 Coffee s Tennesseeans had worked as Coffee s Tennes- 
 seeans could work to make them strong. 
 
 The morning of the 28th of December was one of 
 those perfect mornings of the Southern winter to enjoy 
 which it is almost worth while to live twenty degrees too 
 near the tropic of Cancer balmy, yet bracing; brilliant, 
 but soft ; inviting to action, though rendering mere ex 
 istence happiness enough. The golden mist that her 
 alded the sun soon wreathed itself away and vanished 
 into space, except that part of it which hung in glitter 
 ing diamonds upon the herbage and the evergreens that 
 encircled the stubble-covered plain. The monarch of 
 the day shone out with that brightness that neither daz 
 zles nor consumes, but is beautiful and cheering merely. 
 Gone and forgotten now were the lowering clouds, the 
 penetrating fogs, the disheartening rains that for so 
 many days and dreary, fearful nights had hung over the 
 dark delta. The river was flowing gold. " The trees," 
 we are told, " were melodious with the noisy strains of 
 the ricebird, and the bold falsetto of that pride of South 
 ern ornithology, the mocking-bird, who here alone con 
 tinues the whole year round his unceasing notes of 
 exultant mockery and vocal defiance." 
 
 Music more noisy and more defiant salutes the rising 
 sun the rolling drum and ringing bugle, namely, that 
 call twelve thousand hostile men to arms. This glorious 
 morning General Pakenham is resolved to have at least 
 one good look at the wary and active foe that for five 
 days has given pause to the invading army, and has not 
 yet been so much as seen by them. With his whole 
 force he will march boldly up to the lines, and, if for 
 tune favors and the prospect pleases, he will leap over 
 them into New Orleans and the House of Lords. A 
 grand reconnoissance is the order of the day. 
 
 The American general has not used his telescope in 
 
SHOVELS AND WHEELBARROWS. 
 
 vain ; he is perfectly aware that an early advance is in 
 tended. Five pieces of cannon he has in position. The 
 crew of the Carolina, under Lieutenant Crawley and 
 Lieutenant Norris, Captain Humphrey and his artillery 
 men, are ready to serve them. Before the sun was an 
 hour on his way, Jackson s anxious glances toward the 
 city had been changed into expressions of satisfaction 
 and confidence by the spectacle of several straggling 
 bands of red-shirted, bewhiskered, rough and desperate- 
 looking men, all begrimed with smoke and mud, hurry 
 ing down the road toward the lines. These proved to be 
 the Baratarians under Dominique You and Bluche, who 
 had run all the way from the Fort St. John, where they 
 had been stationed since their release from prison. They 
 immediately took charge of one of the twenty-four- 
 pounders. And, what is of far more importance, the 
 Louisiana, saved yesterday by the resolution and skill 
 of Lieutenant Thompson, is ready at a moment s warn 
 ing to let out cable and swing round so as to throw her 
 balls obliquely across the plain. And all this is hidden 
 from the foemen, who will know nothing of what awaits 
 them till they have passed the plantation houses of 
 Chalmette and Bienvenu, only five hundred yards from 
 the lines! 
 
 General Jackson was not kept long in suspense. The 
 spectacle of the British advance was splendid in the ex 
 treme. " Forward they came," says the author of * Jack 
 son and New Orleans, " in solid columns, as compact 
 and orderly as if on parade, under cover of a shower 
 of rockets and a continual fire from their artillery in 
 front and their batteries on the levee. It was certainly 
 a bold and imposing demonstration, for such, as we are 
 told by British officers, it was intended to be. To new 
 soldiers like the Americans, fresh from civic and peace 
 ful pursuits, who had never witnessed any scenes of real 
 
1 88 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 warfare, it was certainly a formidable display of military 
 power and discipline. Those veterans moved as steadily 
 and closely together as if marching in review instead of 
 in the cannon s mouth. Their muskets, catching the 
 rays of the morning sun, nearly blinded the beholder 
 with their brightness, while their gay and various uni 
 forms, red, gray, green, and tartan, afforded a pleas 
 ing relief to the winter-clad field and the sombre objects 
 around." 
 
 Thus appeared the British host to the gazing multi 
 tude behind the American lines ; for the author of the 
 passage quoted learned his story from the lips of men 
 who saw the sight. The British " Subaltern " tells us 
 how the American lines looked to the advancing army, 
 and what reception greeted it: "Moving on in merry 
 mood, we advanced about four or five miles without the 
 smallest check or hindrance, when at length we found 
 ourselves in view of the enemy s army, posted in a very 
 advantageous manner. About forty yards in their front 
 was a canal, which extended from the morass to within 
 a short distance of the high-road. Along their line were 
 thrown up breastworks, not indeed completed, but even 
 now formidable. Upon the road, and at several other 
 points, were erected powerful batteries; while the ship, 
 with a large flotilla of gunboats [no, sir no gunboats], 
 flanked the whole position from the river. 
 
 " When I say that we came in sight of the enemy, I 
 do not mean that he was gradually exposed to us in such 
 a manner as to leave time for cool examination and re 
 flection. On the right, indeed, he was seen for some 
 time; but on the left, a few houses built at a turning in 
 the road entirely concealed him ; nor was it till they had 
 gained that turning, and beheld the muzzles of his guns 
 pointed toward them, that those who moved in this 
 direction were aware of their proximity to danger. But 
 
SHOVELS AND WHEELBARROWS. 189 
 
 that danger was indeed near, they were quickly taught ; 
 for scarcely had the head of the column passed the 
 houses, when a deadly fire was opened from both the 
 battery and the shipping. That the Americans are ex 
 cellent marksmen, as well with artillery as with rifles, we 
 have had frequent cause to acknowledge; but perhaps 
 on no occasion did they assert their claim to the title of 
 good artillerymen more effectually than on the present. 
 Scarce a ball passed over or fell short of its mark, but 
 all striking full into the midst of our ranks occasioned 
 terrible havoc. The shrieks of the wounded, therefore, 
 the crash of firelocks, and the fall of such as were 
 killed, caused at first some little confusion ; and what 
 added to the panic was, that from the houses beside 
 which we stood bright flames suddenly burst out. The 
 Americans, expecting this attack, had filled them with 
 combustibles for the purpose, and directing against them 
 one or two guns loaded with red-hot shot, in an instant 
 set them on fire. The scene was altogether very sub 
 lime. A tremendous cannonade mowed down our ranks 
 and deafened us with its roar, while two large cha 
 teaux and their out-buildings almost scorched us with 
 the flames, and blinded us with the smoke which they 
 emitted. 
 
 " The infantry, however, were not long suffered to 
 remain thus exposed, but, being ordered to quit the 
 path and to form line in the fields, the artillery was 
 brought up and opposed to that of the enemy. But the 
 contest was in every respect unequal, since their artillery 
 far exceeded ours both in numerical strength and weight 
 of metal. The consequence was that in half an hour 
 two of our field-pieces and one field mortar were dis 
 mounted ; many of the gunners were killed ; and the 
 rest, after an ineffectual attempt to silence the fire of 
 the shipping, were obliged to retire. 
 
GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 " In the meantime the infantry, having formed line, 
 advanced under a heavy discharge of round and grape 
 shot, till they were checked by the appearance of the 
 canal. Of its depth they were of course ignorant, and 
 to attempt its passage without having ascertained 
 whether it could be forded might have been productive 
 of fatal consequences. A halt was accordingly ordered, 
 and the men were commanded to shelter themselves as 
 well as they could from the enemy s fire. For this pur 
 pose they were hurried into a wet ditch, of sufficient 
 depth to cover the knees, where, leaning forward, they 
 concealed themselves behind some high rushes which 
 grew upon its brink, and thus escaped many bullets 
 which fell around them in all directions. 
 
 " Thus fared it with the left of the army, while the 
 right, though less exposed to the cannonade, was not 
 more successful in its object. The same impediment 
 which checked one column forced the other likewise to 
 pause, and, after having driven in an advanced body of 
 the enemy and endeavored without effect to penetrate 
 through the marsh, it also was commanded to halt. In 
 a word, all thought of attacking was for this day aban 
 doned, and it now only remained to withdraw the troops 
 from their present perilous situation with as little loss 
 as possible. 
 
 " The first thing to be done was to remove the dis 
 mounted guns. Upon this enterprise a party of seamen 
 was employed, who, running forward to the spot where 
 they lay, lifted them, in spite of the whole of the enemy s 
 fire, and bore them off in triumph. As soon as this was 
 effected, regiment after regiment stole away not in a 
 body, but one by one under the same discharge which 
 saluted their approach. But a retreat thus conducted 
 necessarily occupied much time. Noon had therefore 
 long passed before the last corps was brought off, and 
 
SHOVELS AND WHEELBARROWS. 
 
 IQI 
 
 when we again began to muster twilight was approach 
 ing." 
 
 What a day for the heroes of the Peninsula and the 
 stately Ninety-third Highlanders ! lying low in wet 
 ditches, some of them for seven hours, under that re 
 lentless cannonade, and then slinking away behind 
 fences, huts, and burning houses, or even crawling 
 along on the bottom of ditches, happy to get beyond 
 the reach of those rebounding balls, that " knocked 
 down the soldiers," says Captain Cooke, " and tossed 
 them into the air like old bags." And what a day for 
 General Jackson and his four thousand, who saw the 
 magnificent advance of the morning, not without mis 
 givings, and then beheld the most splendid and impos 
 ing army they had ever seen sink, as it were, into the 
 earth and vanish from their sight ! This reconnoissance 
 cost General Pakenham a loss of fifty killed and wounded. 
 The casualties on the American side were nine killed and 
 eight wounded. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 SECOND ADVANCE OF THE ENGLISH, 
 
 GENERAL PAKENHAM had seen the American lines. 
 The inference he drew from the sight was that the way 
 to carry the American position was to make regular ap 
 proaches to it, as to a walled and fortified city. 
 
 During the last three days of the year 1814 the 
 British army remained inactive on the plain, two miles 
 below the American lines and in full view of them, 
 while the sailors were employed in bringing from the 
 fleet thirty pieces of cannon of large caliber, with which 
 to execute the scheme that had been resolved upon. By 
 the evening of the 3ist of December the thirty pieces o-f 
 cannon from the fleet (twenty long eighteens and ten 
 twenty-fours) had reached the British camp. All that 
 day the Americans had been amused with a cannonade 
 from a battery erected near the swamp, under cover of 
 which parties of English troops attempted, but with 
 small success, to reconnoiter the American position. As 
 soon as it was quite dark operations of far greater im 
 portance commenced. " One half the army," says a 
 British officer, "was ordered out and marched to the 
 front, passing the pickets, and halting about three 
 hundred yards from the enemy s line. Here it was re 
 solved to throw up a chain of works; and here the 
 greater part of this detachment, laying down their fire 
 locks, applied themselves vigorously to their tasks, 
 while the rest stood armed and prepared for their de- 
 
SECOND ADVANCE OF THE ENGLISH. ig-^ 
 
 fense. The night was dark, and our people maintained 
 a profound silence ; by which means not an idea of what 
 was going on existed in the American camp. As we 
 labored, too, with all diligence, six batteries were com 
 pleted long before dawn, in which were mounted thirty 
 pieces of heavy cannon ; when, falling back a little way, 
 we united ourselves to the remainder of the infantry, 
 and lay down behind the rushes in readiness to act as 
 soon as we should be wanted." 
 
 The second Sunday of this strange mutual siege had 
 come round. The light of another New-Year s day 
 dawned upon the world. 
 
 The English soldiers had not worked so silently dur 
 ing the night upon their new batteries but that an occa 
 sional sound of hammering, dulled by distance, had been 
 heard in the American lines. The outposts, too, had sent 
 in news of the advance of British troops, who were busy 
 at something, though the outposts could not say what. 
 The veterans of the American army that is, those who 
 had smelt gunpowder before this campaign gave it as 
 their opinion that there would be warm work again at 
 daybreak. 
 
 Long before the dawn the dull hammering ceased. 
 When the day broke, a fog, so dense that a man could 
 discern nothing at a distance of twenty yards, covered 
 all the plain. Not a sound was heard in the direction 
 of the enemy s camp, nor did the American sentinels 
 nearest their position hear or see anything to excite 
 alarm. At eight o clock the fog was still impenetrable, 
 and the silence unbroken. As late even as nine the 
 American troops, who were on slightly higher ground 
 than the British, saw little prospect of the fog breaking 
 away, still less of any hostile movement on the part of 
 the foe. The veterans begin to retract their opinion. 
 We are to have another day of waiting, think the younger 
 
GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 soldiers, the gay Creoles not forgetting that the day was 
 the first of a new year. 
 
 The general, conceding something to the pleasure- 
 loving part of his army, permitted a brief respite from 
 the arduous toil of the week, and ordered a grand review 
 of the whole army, on the open ground between the 
 lines and his own headquarters. To-day, too, for the 
 first time in several days, the Louisiana remained at her 
 safe anchorage above the lines, and a large number of 
 her crew went ashore on the western bank and took 
 post in Commodore Patterson s new battery there. But 
 this was not for holiday reasons. A deserter came in 
 the night before and informed the commodore that the 
 enemy had established two enormous howitzers in a 
 battery on the levee, where balls were kept red hot for 
 the purpose of firing the obnoxious vessel the moment 
 she should come within range again. So the commo 
 dore kept his vessel safe, landed two more of her great 
 guns, and ordered ashore men enough to work them. 
 
 Toward ten o clock the fog rose from the American 
 position and disclosed to the impatient enemy the scene 
 behind the lines. A gay and brilliant scene it was, 
 framed and curtained in fog. " The fog dispersed," re 
 marks CaptainHill, " with a rapidity perfectly surprising ; 
 the change of scene at a theatre could scarcely be more 
 sudden, and the bright sun shone forth, diffusing warmth 
 and gladness." " Being at this time," says the Subaltern, 
 "only three hundred yards distant, we could perceive all 
 that was going forward with great exactness. The dif 
 ferent regiments were upon parade, and, being dressed 
 in holiday suits, presented really a fine appearance. 
 Mounted officers were riding backward and forward 
 through the ranks, bands were playing, and colors float 
 ing in the air in a word, all seemed jollity and gala." 
 The general in chief had not yet appeared upon the 
 
SECOND ADVANCE OF THE ENGLISH. 195 
 
 ground. He had been up and doing before the dawn, 
 and was now lying on a couch at headquarters, before 
 riding out to review the troops. 
 
 In a moment how changed the scene ! At a signal 
 from the central battery of the enemy, the whole of 
 their thirty pieces of cannon opened fire full upon the 
 American lines, and the air was filled with the red glare 
 and hideous scream of hundreds of Congreve rockets ! 
 As completely taken by surprise as the enemy had been 
 on the night of the 23d, the troops were thrown into 
 instantaneous confusion. " The ranks were broken," 
 continues the Subaltern, " the different corps, dispersing, 
 fled in all directions, while the utmost terror and dis 
 order appeared to prevail. Instead of nicely dressed lines, 
 nothing but confused crowds could now be observed ; 
 nor was it without much difficulty that order was finally 
 restored. Oh, that we had charged at that instant ! " 
 
 The enemy, having learned which house was the 
 headquarters of the general, directed a prodigious fire 
 upon it, and the first news of the cannonade came to 
 Jackson in the sound of crashing porticoes and out 
 buildings. During the first ten minutes of the fire one 
 hundred balls struck the mansion, but, though some of 
 the general s suite were covered with rubbish, and Colo 
 nel Butler was knocked down, they all escaped and made 
 their way to the lines without a scratch. 
 
 The Subaltern is mistaken in saying that the troops 
 fled in all directions. There was but one direction in 
 which to fly either to safety or to duty ; for, on that occa 
 sion, the post of duty and the post of safety were the 
 same, namely, close behind the line of defense. For ten 
 minutes, however, the American batteries, always before 
 so prompt with their responsive thunder, were silent, 
 while the troops were running in haste to their several 
 posts. 
 
GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 Ten guns were in position in the American lines, be 
 sides those in the battery on the other side of the river. 
 Upon Jackson s coming to the front, he found his artil 
 lerymen at their posts, waiting with lighted matches to 
 open fire upon the foe as soon as the dense masses of 
 mingled smoke and mist that enveloped their batteries 
 should roll away. " Jackson s first glance," as Mr. 
 Walker informs us, " when he reached the line, was in 
 the direction of Humphrey s battery. There stood this 
 right arm of the artillery, dressed in his usual plain 
 attire, smoking that eternal cigar, coolly leveling his 
 guns and directing his men. 
 
 " * Ah ! exclaimed the general, all is right. Hum 
 phrey is at his post, and will return their compliments 
 presently/ 
 
 "Then, accompanied by his aides, he walked down 
 to the left, stopping at each battery to inspect its condi 
 tion, and waving his cap to the men as they gave him 
 three cheers, and observing to the soldiers : 
 
 " Don t mind those rockets; they are mere toys to 
 amuse children. 
 
 Captain Humphrey soon caught a glimpse of the 
 British batteries structures of narrow front and slight 
 elevation, lying low and dim upon the field; no such 
 broad target as the mile-long lines of the American 
 position. Adjusting a twelve-pounder with the utmost 
 exactness, he quietly gave the word, and the firing 
 from the American lines began. The other batteries 
 instantly joined in the strife. The British howitzers on 
 the levee and the battery of Commodore Patterson on 
 the opposite bank exchanged a vigorous fire. For the 
 space of an hour and a half a cannonade so loud and rapid 
 shook the delta as had never before been heard in the 
 Western world. Imagine fifty pieces of cannon, of large 
 caliber for that day, each discharged from once to thrice 
 
SECOND ADVANCE OF THE ENGLISH. 
 
 a minute; often a simultaneous discharge of half a 
 dozen pieces ; an average of two discharges every 
 second ; while plain and river were so densely covered 
 with smoke that the gunners aimed their guns from 
 recollection chiefly, and knew scarcely anything of the 
 effect of their fire. 
 
 Well aimed, however, were the British guns, as the 
 American lines soon began to exhibit. Most of their 
 balls buried themselves harmlessly in the soft, elastic 
 earth of the thick embankment. Many flew over its 
 summit and did bloody execution on those who were 
 bringing up ammunition, as well as on some who were 
 retiring from their posts. Several balls struck and near 
 ly sunk a boat laden with stores that was moored to the 
 levee two hundred yards behind the lines. The cotton 
 bales of the batteries nearest the river were knocked 
 about in all directions, and set on fire, adding fresh vol 
 umes to the already impenetrable smoke. One of 
 Major Planche s men was wounded in trying to extin 
 guish this most annoying fire. A thirty-two-pounder in 
 Lieutenant Crawley s battery was hit and damaged. 
 The carriage of a twenty-four was broken. One of the 
 twelves was silenced. Two powder-carriages, one con 
 taining a hundred pounds of the explosive material, blew 
 up with a report so terrific as to silence for a moment 
 the enemy s fire and draw from them a faint cheer. 
 And still the lines continued to vomit forth a fire that 
 knew neither cessation nor pause, until the guns grew so 
 hot that it was difficult and dangerous to load them. 
 And after an hour and a half of such work as this no 
 man in Jackson s army could say with certainty whether 
 the English batteries had been seriously damaged. 
 
 It was nearly noon when it began to be perceived 
 that the British fire was slackening. The American 
 batteries were then ordered to cease firing, for the guns 
 14 
 
GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 to cool and the smoke to roll away. What a scene 
 greeted the anxious gaze of the troops when at length 
 the British position was disclosed ! Those formidable 
 batteries, which had excited such consternation an hour 
 and a half before, were totally destroyed, and presented 
 but formless masses of soil and broken guns, while the 
 sailors who had manned them were seen running from 
 them to the rear ; and the army that had been drawn up 
 behind the batteries, ready to storm the lines as soon 
 as a breach had been made in them, had again ignomin- 
 iously " taken to the ditch." 
 
 Those hogsheads of sugar were the fatal mistake of 
 the English engineers. They afforded absolutely no 
 protection against the fire of the American batteries, the 
 balls going straight through them and killing men in 
 the very center of the works. Hence it was that in 
 little more than an hour the batteries were heaps of 
 ruins, and the guns dismantled, broken, and immovable. 
 The howitzers, too, on the levee, after waging an active 
 duel with Commodore Patterson on the other side of the 
 river, were silenced and overthrown by a few discharges 
 from Captain Humphrey s twelve-pounders. Nothing 
 remained for the discomfited army but to make the best 
 of their way to their old position, and so incessant was 
 the American fire during the afternoon that it was only 
 when night came that all the army succeeded in with 
 drawing. 
 
 The British loss on the ist of January was about 
 thirty killed and forty wounded ; the Americans, eleven 
 killed and twenty-three wounded. Most of the American 
 slain were not engaged in the battle, but were struck 
 down a considerable distance behind the lines while they 
 were looking on as mere spectators. 
 
 The cotton error was quickly repaired. Every bale 
 of that delusive material was removed from the works 
 
SECOND ADVANCE OF THE ENGLISH. 
 
 and its place supplied with the^black, and spongy soil of 
 the delta, which the Sunday cannonade had shown to 
 be a perfect defense, the balls sinking into it out of 
 sight without shaking the embankment. The lines were 
 strengthened in every part and new cannon mounted 
 upon them. Work was continued upon the second line, 
 a mile and a half in the rear. Even a third line of 
 defense was marked out and begun, still nearer the 
 city. On the opposite bank of the river the old works 
 were repaired and strengthened, and new ones com 
 menced. 
 
 What the enemy would attempt next, was a mystery, 
 which General Jackson anxiously revolved in his mind 
 and strove in all ways to penetrate. Monday, Tuesday, 
 Wednesday, Thursday passed away, and still the hostile 
 army made no movement which gave the American gen 
 eral a clew to their design, if design they had. Strong 
 men and weak men, good men and men less good, are 
 all alike liable to the error of judging others by them 
 selves. During these days, therefore, Jackson inclined 
 to the opinion that his lines would not again be attacked, 
 and so wrote to the Secretary of War. While apparently 
 bending all his energies to the sole object of strengtheri- 
 ing his position, his mind was racked with fear of beipg 
 surprised in another quarter. How natural such an 
 idea ! If thirty pieces of cannon could not penetrate 
 the lines, what could? If, on the ist of January, the 
 American position was found impregnable, could it be 
 deemed less so after three thousand men had worked 
 upon it for nearly a week ? Two attempts having sig 
 nally and ignominiously failed, would any general risk 
 his army and his reputation upon a third ? 
 
 On Wednesday morning, January 4th, the long- 
 looked for Kentuckians, twenty-two hundred and fifty 
 in number, reached New Orleans. Seldom has a re- 
 
20O GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 enforcement been so anxiously expected ; never did 
 the arrival of one create keener disappointment. They 
 were so ragged that the men, as they marched shivering 
 through the streets, were observed to hold together their 
 garments with their hands to cover their nakedness; 
 and, what was far worse, because beyond remedy, not 
 one man in ten was well armed, and only one man in 
 three had any arms at all. It was a bitter moment for 
 General Jackson when he heard this, and it was a bitter 
 thing for those brave and devoted men, who had fondly 
 hoped to find in the abundance of New Orleans an end of 
 their exposure and destitution, to learn that the general 
 had not a musket, a blanket, a tent, a garment, a rag, to 
 give them. A body of Louisiana militia, too, who had 
 arrived a day or two before from Baton Rouge, were in 
 a condition only a little less deplorable. Here was a 
 force of nearly three thousand men, every man of whom 
 was pressingly wanted, paralyzed and useless from want 
 of those arms that had been sent on their way down the 
 river sixty days before. It would have fared ill, I fear, 
 with the captain of that loitering boat if he had chanced 
 to arrive just then, for the general was wroth exceed 
 ingly. Up the river go new expresses to bring him down 
 in irons. They bring him at last, the astonished man, 
 but days and days too late. The old soldiers of this 
 campaign mention that the general s observations upon 
 the character of the hapless captain, his parentage, and 
 upon various portions of his mortal and immortal frame, 
 were much too forcible for repetition in print. 
 
 The Legislature of Louisiana and the people of New 
 Orleans behaved on this occasion with prompt and noble 
 generosity. Major Latour records what was done by 
 them and by the people for the relief of the destitute 
 soldiers: "Within one week twelve hundred blanket 
 cloaks, two hundred and seventy-five waistcoats, eleven 
 
SECOND ADVANCE OF THE ENGLISH. 2 QI 
 
 hundred and twenty-seven pairs of pantaloons, eight 
 hundred shirts, four hundred and ten pairs of shoes, and 
 a great number of mattresses were made up, or purchased 
 ready made, and distributed among our brethren in arms 
 who stood in the greatest need of them." 
 
 The enemy, meanwhile, had recovered their spirits 
 and increased their numbers. Two regiments, the Sev 
 enth and Forty-third Infantry, numbering together seven 
 teen hundred, under General John Lambert, had arrived 
 from England, infusing new life into the disheartened 
 army, and raising its force to seven thousand three 
 hundred men. General Pakenham had formed a bold 
 and soldierlike design, for the execution of which the 
 whole army was preparing, and the camp was alive with 
 expectation. The "chained dog" would at length get 
 at his enemy and growl no more. " The new scheme," 
 says the Subaltern, " was worthy, for its boldness, of 
 the school in which Sir Edward had studied his profes 
 sion. It was determined to divide the army : to send 
 part across the river, who should seize the enemy s 
 guns and turn them on themselves, while the remainder 
 should at the same time make a general assault along 
 the whole intrenchment. But before this plan could be 
 put into execution it would be necessary to cut a canal 
 across the entire neck of land from the Bayou de Cati 
 line to the river, of sufficient width and depth to admit 
 of boats being brought up from the lake. Upon this 
 arduous undertaking were the troops immediately em 
 ployed. Being divided into four companies, they labored 
 by turns, day and night; one party relieving another 
 after a stated number of hours, in such order as that the 
 work should never be entirely deserted. The fatigue 
 undergone during the prosecution of this attempt no 
 words can sufficiently describe ; yet it was pursued with 
 out repining, and at length, by unremitting exertions, 
 
202 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 they succeeded in effecting their purpose by the 6th of 
 January. 
 
 The lines, then, were to be stormed ! The vital 
 clause of the scheme was that which contemplated the 
 carrying of the works on the western bank first, and the 
 turning of Commodore Patterson s great guns upon the 
 back of Jackson s lines. Let that be done, and the lines 
 are untenable and will require little storming. If that 
 is not done, or not done in time, the storming of the 
 lines will be a piece of work such as British soldiers 
 have seldom attempted. The naked bodies of the 
 troops will have to encounter that before which sugar 
 hogsheads and earthworks crumbled to pieces in an 
 hour ! 
 
 It was not till Friday evening, the 6th of the new 
 year, that General Jackson began to so much as suspect 
 the enemy s design. On that day Sailing-Master John 
 son, who was posted at the Chef-Menteur, seeing a small 
 English brig on her way from the fleet to the Bienvenu, 
 laden, as he supposed, with supplies for the British army, 
 darted out upon her with three boats and captured her 
 and ten prisoners. From these prisoners the American 
 general learned one important fact that the enemy was 
 deepening and prolonging a canal across the plain. 
 Then their plan began to dawn upon Jackson s mind. 
 Early the next morning Commodore Patterson walked 
 behind the levee of the western bank to a point directly 
 opposite the British position, and spent several hours 
 there in watching their movements. Upon his return 
 the general no longer doubted that in a very few days 
 or hours he would have to resist a simultaneous attack 
 on both sides of the river. The bustle in the enemy s 
 camp, and the forward state of their preparations, indi 
 cated that ere the sun of another Sunday had appeared 
 above the horizon they might be upon him. 
 
SECOND ADVANCE OF THE ENGLISH. 203 
 
 On Saturday afternoon Jackson was much at his 
 high window at headquarters observing the enemy s 
 movements. He had done what he could do to prepare 
 for them, and little then remained but to await the 
 result. He had been showing the lines to his old friend 
 General Adair, of Kentucky, and asking his opinion of 
 them. 
 
 " Well," said Jackson to Adair, after they had gone 
 the rounds, "what do you think of our situation ? Can 
 we defend these works, or not ? " 
 
 " There is one way," replied the Kentuckian, " and 
 but one way, in which we can hope to defend them. We 
 must have a strong corps of reserve to meet the 
 enemy s main attack, wherever it may be. No single 
 part of the lines," continued Adair, " is strong enough 
 to resist the united force of the enemy. But with a 
 strong column held in our rear, ready to advance upon 
 any threatened point, we can beat them off." 
 
 This was an important suggestion. Jackson adopted 
 General Adair s idea. " He agreed," says Adair, " that 
 I should act with the Kentuckians as a reserve corps, 
 and directed me to select my own ground for en 
 campment, to govern my men as I thought most 
 proper, and that I would receive no orders but from 
 himself." 
 
 And off to town gallops Adair on the general s own 
 white horse, to prevail on the veteran guard to lend him 
 some of their muskets for three days only; so that he 
 was able to employ several hundreds of his troops in 
 that important service. 
 
 Such was the position of affairs on Jackson s side of 
 the river. On the western bank the prospect was less 
 promising. Commodore Patterson was there, and he 
 had spent the week in arduous labor ; but all his exer 
 tions had been directed toward the annoyance of the 
 
204 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 enemy on the other side of the river, not to the defense 
 of his own position. As late as Wednesday morning 
 nothing had been done to prepare for an attack on the 
 western bank. " During the 2d and 3d," wrote Commo 
 dore Patterson to the Secretary of the Navy, " I landed 
 from the ship and mounted, as the former ones, on the 
 banks of the river, four more twelve-pounders, and 
 erected a furnace for heating shot, to destroy a number 
 of buildings which intervened between General Jack 
 son s lines and the camp of the enemy, and occupied by 
 him. On the evening of the 4th I succeeded in firing 
 a number of them and some rice-stacks by my hot shot, 
 which the enemy attempted to extinguish notwith 
 standing the heavy fire I kept up, but which at length 
 compelled them to desist. On the 6th and yth I erected 
 another furnace, and mounted on the banks of the river 
 two more twenty-four pounders, which had been brought 
 up from the English Turn by the exertions of Colonel 
 Caldwell, of the drafted militia of this State, and brought 
 within and mounted on the intrenchments on this side 
 the river one twelve-pounder. In addition to which, 
 General Morgan, commanding the militia on this side, 
 planted two brass six-pound field-pieces in his lines, 
 which were incomplete, having been commenced only on 
 the 4th. These three pieces were the only cannon on 
 the lines. All the others, being mounted on the bank 
 of the river, with a view to aid the right of General 
 Jackson s lines on the opposite shore, and to flank the 
 enemy should they attempt to march up the road lead 
 ing along the levee, or erect batteries on the same, of 
 course could render no aid in defense of General Mor 
 gan s lines. My battery was manned in part from the 
 crew of the ship and in part by militia detailed for 
 that service by General Morgan, as I had not seamen 
 enough to fully man them." 
 
SECOND ADVANCE OF THE ENGLISH. 205 
 
 On Saturday afternoon, upon Commodore Patterson s 
 reporting to General Jackson what he had observed at 
 the enemy s camp, it was determined to send over the 
 river, to re-enforce General Morgan, a body of Kentuck- 
 ians. Colonel Davis and four hundred of those troops 
 were detailed for that purpose. At seven o clock in the 
 evening, after a day of hard duty, during which they 
 had only once broken their fast, Colonel Davis and his 
 men marched from the lines toward New Orleans, where 
 they were to receive their arms and cross the river by 
 the ferry. At the city it was found that only two hun 
 dred muskets, and those old and defective, could be pro 
 cured. Only two hundred men, therefore, crossed the 
 river. It was two o clock before they reached the west 
 ern shore. Fatigued, hungry, and chilled to the bone 
 with long waiting, they formed upon the levee, and set 
 out for General Morgan s position. Over a road miry 
 from the recent rains, walking sometimes knee-deep in 
 mud and water, the Kentuckians made their way, and 
 reached Morgan s soon after four o clock in the morn 
 ing, as unfit for any duty involving danger and exertion 
 as can be imagined. 
 
 Even with this re-enforcement General Morgan s 
 command amounted to no more than eight hundred and 
 twelve men, all militia, all badly armed, posted behind 
 works upon which four hundred men had labored for 
 three days. Jackson should have spared a few com 
 panies of regulars for this side of the river, which had 
 suddenly become so important ; although, for his own 
 lines, he had but three thousand two hundred men, 
 against an army which he supposed to consist of twelve 
 thousand disciplined troops. With another day of prepa 
 ration and clear insight into the enemy s design he 
 would have done something effectual for the western 
 bank. It was too late then. The days of preparation 
 
2o6 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 were numbered were passed. Fare with him as it 
 might to-morrow, he could do no more. 
 
 Nolte tells us that Commodore Patterson, on his way 
 from headquarters to his post on the other side of the 
 river, said to him as he passed, " I expect you will see 
 some fun between this and to-morrow." Nolte adds 
 that only himself and a few others knew what was ex 
 pected. But when, soon after dark, the noise of prepa 
 ration in the British camp grew louder and came nearer, 
 there could not have been much doubt in the lines that 
 another most unquiet Sunday was in reserve for them. 
 There was much silent preparation in Jackson s camp ; 
 a cleaning of arms, a counting out of cartridges and 
 adjustment of flints, and a careful loading of muskets 
 and rifles. Beside the thirty-two-pounder was heaped 
 up a bushel or two of musket balls and fragments of 
 iron, enough to fill the piece up to the muzzle, and 
 which will fill it up to the muzzle if the enemy come to 
 close quarters. Jackson walks slowly along the lines 
 just before dark. He wears the look of a man whose 
 mind is wholly made up, and who clearly knows what he 
 will do in any and every case. He stops occasionally 
 to see that the stacked muskets are all loaded, and says 
 to Planches men, as he goes along their part of the 
 lines, " Don t fire till you can see the whites of their 
 eyes ; and if you want to sleep, sleep upon your arms." 
 
 Mishap befell the party of British under Colonel 
 Thornton, who were detailed for the attack on the west 
 ern bank. The water, owing to the fall of the river, 
 was so low in the canal that it was not until eight hours 
 after the appointed time of embarking that enough boats 
 were launched into the Mississippi to convey across one 
 third of the designated force. Instead of fourteen hun 
 dred men, only four hundred and ninety-eight went over. 
 Instead of embarking immediately after dark, it was 
 
SECOND ADVANCE OF THE ENGLISH. 2 O/ 
 
 nearly daybreak before they reached the opposite bank. 
 Instead of landing directly opposite the British position, 
 the swift, deceptive current swept them down a mile and 
 a half below it. But this little band, thus balked and 
 delayed, was led by a soldier, Colonel W. Thornton, the 
 most daring and efficient man in the British army. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE 8TH OF JANUARY. 
 
 AT one o clock on the morning of this memorable 
 day, on a couch in a room of the McCarty mansion- 
 house, General Jackson lay asleep in his worn uniform. 
 Several of his aides slept upon the floor in the same 
 apartment, all equipped for the field. A sentinel paced 
 the adjacent passage. Sentinels moved noiselessly 
 about the building, which loomed up large, dim, and 
 silent in the foggy night, among the darkening trees. 
 Most of those who slept at all that night were still 
 asleep, and there was as yet little stir in either camp to 
 disturb their slumbers. 
 
 Commodore Patterson was not among the sleepers. 
 Soon after dark, accompanied by his faithful aide, Shep 
 herd, he again took his position on the western bank of 
 the river, directly opposite to where Colonel Thornton 
 was struggling to launch his boats into the stream, and 
 there he watched and listened till nearly midnight. He 
 could hear almost everything that passed, and could see 
 by the light of the camp fires a line of red-coats drawn 
 up along the levee. He heard the cries of the tugging 
 sailors as they drew the boats along the shallow, caving 
 canal, and their shouts of satisfaction as each boat was 
 launched with a loud splash into the Mississippi. From 
 the great commotion, and the sound of so many voices, 
 he began to surmise that the main body of the enemy 
 were about to cross, and that the day was to be lost or 
 
THE EIGHTH OF JANUARY. 209 
 
 won on his side of the river. There was terror in the 
 thought, and wisdom too; and, if General Pakenham 
 had known all that we now know, the commodore s sur 
 mise would have been correct. Patterson s first thought 
 was to drop the ship Louisiana down upon them. But 
 no; the Louisiana had been stripped of half her guns 
 and all her men, and had on board, above water, hun 
 dreds of pounds of powder, for she was then serving as 
 powder-magazine to the western bank. To man the 
 ship, moreover, would involve the withdrawal of all the 
 men from the river batteries, which, if the main attack 
 were on Jackson s side of the river, would be of such 
 vital importance to him. 
 
 Revolving such thoughts in his anxious mind, Com 
 modore Patterson hastened back to his post, again ob 
 serving and lamenting the weakness of General Morgan s 
 line of defense. All that he could do in the circum 
 stances was to dispatch Mr. Shepherd across the river 
 to inform General Jackson of what they had seen and 
 what they feared, and to beg an immediate re-enforce 
 ment. Informing the captain of the guard that he had 
 important intelligence to communicate, Shepherd was 
 conducted to the room in which the general was sleeping. 
 
 " Who s there ? " asked Jackson, raising his head as 
 the door opened. 
 
 Mr. Shepherd gave his name and stated his errand, 
 adding that General Morgan agreed with Commodore 
 Patterson in the opinion that more troops would be re 
 quired to defend the lines on the western bank. 
 
 " Hurry back," replied the general, as he rose, " and 
 tell General Morgan that he is mistaken. The main at 
 tack will be on this side, and I have no men to spare. 
 He must maintain his position at all hazards." 
 
 Shepherd recrossed the river with the general s an 
 swer, which could not have been very reassuring to 
 
2io GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 Morgan and his inexperienced men, not a dozen of 
 whom had ever been in action. 
 
 Jackson looked at his watch. 
 
 " Gentlemen," said he to his dozing aides, "we have 
 slept enough. Rise. I must go and see Coffee." 
 
 The order was obeyed very promptly. Sword-belts 
 were buckled, pistols resumed, and in a few minutes the 
 party were ready to begin the business of the day. 
 There was little for the American troops to do but to 
 repair to their posts. By four o clock in the morning, 
 along the whole line of works, every man was in his place 
 and everything was ready. A little later General Adair 
 marched down the reserve of a thousand Kentuckians to 
 the rear of General Carroll s position, and, halting them 
 fifty yards from the works, went forward himself to join 
 the line of men peering over the top of the embankment 
 into the fog and darkness of the morning. The position 
 of the reserve was fortunately chosen. It was almost 
 directly behind that part of the lines which a deserter 
 from Jackson s army had yesterday told General Paken- 
 ham was their weakest point ! And the deserter was half 
 right. He had deserted on Friday, before there had 
 been any thought of the reserve, and he omitted to 
 mention that Coffee and Carroll s men, over two thou 
 sand in number, were the best and coolest shots in the 
 world. 
 
 Not long after the hour when the American general 
 had been roused from his couch, General Pakenham, 
 who had slept an hour or two at the Villere mansion, 
 also rose, and rode immediately to the bank of the river, 
 where Thornton had just embarked his diminished force. 
 He learned all that the reader knows of the delay and 
 difficulty that had there occurred, and lingered long 
 upon the spot listening for some sound that should indi 
 cate the whereabouts of Thornton. But no sound was 
 
THE EIGHTH OF JANUARY. 2 II 
 
 heard, as the swift Mississippi had carried the boats far 
 down out of hearing. Surely Pakenham must have 
 known that the vital part of his plan was for that morn 
 ing frustrated. Surely he will hold back his troops from 
 the assault until Thornton announces himself. The 
 story goes that he had been irritated by a taunt of Ad 
 miral Cochrane, who had said that if the army could 
 not take those mud-banks, defended by ragged militia, 
 he would do it with two thousand sailors armed only 
 with cutlasses and pistols. And, besides, Pakenham be 
 lieved that nothing could resist the calm and determined 
 onset of the troops he led. He had no thought of wait 
 ing for Thornton, unless perhaps till daylight. 
 
 Before four o clock the British troops were up and in 
 the several positions assigned them. 
 
 What was the humor of the troops ? As they stood 
 there performing that most painful of all military 
 duties, waiting, there was much of the forced merriment 
 with which young soldiers conceal from themselves the 
 real nature of their feelings. But the older soldiers 
 augured ill of the coming attack. Colonel Mullens, of 
 the Forty-fourth, openly expressed his dissatisfaction. 
 " My regiment," said he, " has been ordered to execu 
 tion. Their dead bodies are to be used as a bridge for 
 the rest of the army to march over." 
 
 And, what was worse, in the dense darkness of the 
 morning he had gone by the redoubt where were de 
 posited the fascines and ladders, and marched his men 
 to the head of the column without one of them. Whether 
 this neglect was owing to accident or design concerns us 
 not. For that and other military sins Mullens was after 
 ward cashiered. Colonel Dale, too, of the Ninety-third 
 Highlanders, a man of far different quality from Colonel 
 Mullens, was grave and depressed. 
 
 "What do you think of it ? " asked the physician of 
 
212 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 the regiment, when word was brought of Thornton s de 
 tention. 
 
 Colonel Dale made no reply in words. Giving the 
 doctor his watch and a letter, he simply said, " Give 
 these to my wife ; I shall die at the head of my regi 
 ment." Soon after four, General Pakenham rode away 
 from the bank of the river, saying to one of his aides, 
 " I will wait my own plan no longer." 
 
 He rode to the quarters of General Gibbs, who met 
 him with another piece of ominous intelligence. " The 
 Forty-fourth," Gibbs said, " had not taken the fascines 
 and ladders to the head of the column ; but he had sent 
 an officer to cause the error to be rectified, and he was 
 then expecting every moment a report from that regi 
 ment." General Pakenham instantly dispatched Major 
 Sir JohnTylden to ascertain whether the regiment could 
 be got into position in time. Tylden found the Forty- 
 fourth just moving off from the redoubt, " in a most ir 
 regular and unsoldierlike manner, with the fascines and 
 ladders. I then returned," adds Tylden in his evidence, 
 " after some time, to Sir Edward Pakenham, and reported 
 the circumstance to him; stating that by the time which 
 had elapsed since I left them they must have arrived at 
 their situation in column." 
 
 This was not half an hour before dawn. Without 
 waiting to obtain absolute certainty upon a point so im 
 portant as the condition of the head of his main column 
 of attack, the impetuous Pakenham commanded, to use 
 the language of one of his own officers, " that the fatal, 
 ever-fatal rocket should be discharged as a signal to 
 begin the assault on the left." A few minutes later a 
 second rocket whizzed aloft, the signal of attack on the 
 right. 
 
 Daylight struggled through the mist. Soon after six 
 o clock both columns were advancing at the steady, 
 
THE EIGHTH OF JANUARY. 213 
 
 solid, British pace to the attack ; the Forty-fourth no 
 where, straggling in the rear with the fascines and lad 
 ders. The column soon came up with the American 
 outposts, who at first retreated slowly before it, but 
 soon quickened their pace and ran in, bearing their 
 great news, and putting every man in the works in 
 tensely on the alert, each commander anxious for the 
 honor of first getting a glimpse of the foe and opening 
 fire upon him. 
 
 Lieutenant Spotts, of battery number six, was the first 
 man in the American lines who descried through the fog 
 the dim red line of General Gibbs s advancing column, 
 far away down the plain close to the forest. The thun 
 der of his great gun broke the stillness. Then there 
 was silence again, for the shifting fog, or the altered 
 position of the enemy, concealed him from view once 
 more. The fog lifted again, and soon revealed both 
 divisions, which with their detached companies seemed 
 to cover two thirds of the plain, and gave the Americans 
 a repetition of the military spectacle which they had 
 witnessed on the 28th of December. Three cheers from 
 Carroll s men. Three cheers from the Kentuckians be 
 hind them. Cheers continuous from the advancing col 
 umn, not heard yet in the American lines. 
 
 Steadily and fast the column of General Gibbs 
 marched toward batteries numbered six, seven, and 
 eight, which played upon it at first with but occasional 
 effect, often missing, sometimes throwing a ball right 
 into its midst and causing it to reel and pause for a 
 moment. Promptly were the gaps filled up ; bravely 
 the column came on. As they neared the lines the 
 well-aimed shot made more dreadful havoc, " cutting 
 great lanes in the column from front to rear," and 
 tossing men and parts of men aloft, or hurling them 
 far on one side. At length, still steady and unbroken, 
 15 
 
214 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 they came within range of the small arms, the rifles 
 of Carroll s Tennesseeans, the muskets of Adair s 
 Kentuckians, four lines of sharpshooters, one behind 
 the other. General Carroll, coolly waiting for the right 
 moment, held his fire until the enemy were within two 
 hundred yards, and then gave the word " Fire ! " 
 
 At first with a certain deliberation, afterward in 
 haste, always with effect, the riflemen plied their terrible 
 weapon. The summit of the embankment was a line of 
 fire, except where the great guns showed their liquid, 
 belching flash. The noise was peculiar and altogether 
 indescribable a rolling, bursting, echoing noise, never 
 to be forgotten by a man that heard it. Along the whole 
 line it blazed and rolled ; the British batteries shower 
 ing rockets over the scene ; Patterson s batteries on the 
 other side of the river joining in the concert. 
 
 The column of General Gibbs, mowed by the fire of 
 the riflemen, still advanced, Gibbs at its head. As 
 they caught sight of the ditch some of the officers cried 
 out : 
 
 " Where are the Forty-fourth ? If we get to the 
 ditch, we have no means of crossing and scaling the 
 lines!" 
 
 " Here comes the Forty-fourth ! Here comes the 
 Forty-fourth ! " shouted the general ; adding in an under 
 tone, for his own private solace, that if he lived till to 
 morrow he would hang Mullens on the highest tree in 
 the cypress wood. 
 
 Reassured, these heroic men again pressed on in the 
 face of that murderous fire. But this could not last. With 
 half its number fallen, and all its commanding officers 
 disabled except the general, its pathway strewed with 
 dead and wounded, and the men falling faster and faster, 
 the column wavered and reeled (so the American rifle 
 men thought) like a red ship on a tempestuous sea. At 
 
THE EIGHTH OF JANUARY. 215 
 
 about a hundred yards from the lines the front ranks 
 halted, and so threw the column into disorder, Gibbs 
 shouting in the madness of vexation for them to re-form 
 and advance. There was no re-forming under such a fire. 
 Once checked, the column could not but break and re 
 treat in confusion. 
 
 Just as the troops began to falter, General Paken- 
 ham rode up from his post in the rear toward the head 
 of the column. Meeting parties of the Forty-fourth run 
 ning about distracted, some carrying fascines, others 
 firing, others in headlong flight, their leader nowhere to 
 be seen, Pakenham strove to restore them to order, and 
 to urge them on the way they were to go. 
 
 " For shame ! " he cried bitterly ; " recollect that you 
 are British soldiers. This is the road you ought to 
 
 take ! " pointing to the flashing and roaring in 
 
 front. 
 
 Riding on, he was soon met by General Gibbs, who 
 said: 
 
 " I am sorry to have to report to you that the troops 
 will not obey me. They will not follow me." 
 
 Taking off his hat, General Pakenham spurred his 
 horse to the very front of the wavering column, amid a 
 torrent of rifle-balls, cheering on the troops by voice, 
 by gesture, by example. At that moment a ball shat 
 tered his right arm, and it fell powerless to his side. 
 The next, his horse fell dead upon the field. His aide, 
 Captain McDougal, dismounted from his black Creole 
 pony, and Pakenham, apparently unconscious of his 
 dangling arm, mounted again, and followed the retreat 
 ing column, still calling upon them to halt and re-form. 
 A few gallant spirits ran in toward the lines, threw 
 themselves into the ditch, plunged across it, and fell 
 scrambling up the sides of the soft and slippery breast 
 work. 
 
2i6 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 Once out of the reach of those terrible rifles, the 
 column halted and regained its self-possession. Lay 
 ing aside their heavy knapsacks, the men prepared for a 
 second and more resolute advance. They were encour 
 aged, too, by seeing the Highlanders marching up in 
 solid phalanx to their support with a front of a hundred 
 men, their bayonets glittering in the sun, which had 
 then begun to pierce the morning mist. At a quicker 
 step, with General Gibbs on its right, General Paken- 
 ham on the left, the Highlanders in clear and imposing 
 view, the column again advanced into the fire. A fear 
 ful slaughter ensued ! There was one moment, when 
 that thirty-two-pounder, loaded to the muzzle with mus 
 ket balls, poured its charge at point-blank range right 
 into the head of the column, literally leveling it with 
 the plain laying low, it was afterward computed, two 
 hundred men. The American line, as one of the British 
 officers remarked, looked like a row of fiery furnaces! 
 
 The heroic Pakenham had not far to go to meet his 
 doom. He was three hundred yards from the line when 
 the real nature of his enterprise seemed to flash upon 
 him, and he turned to Sir John Tylden and said : 
 
 " Order up the reserve." 
 
 Then, seeing the Highlanders advancing to the sup 
 port of General Gibbs, he, still waving his hat, but wav 
 ing it now with his left hand, cried out : 
 
 " Hurrah ! brave Highlanders ! " 
 
 At that moment a mass of grapeshot, with a terrible 
 crash, struck the group of which he was the central 
 figure. One of the shots tore open the general s thigh, 
 killed his horse, and brought horse and rider to the 
 ground. Captain McDougal caught the general in his 
 arms, removed him from the fallen horse, and was sup 
 porting him upon the field, when a second shot struck 
 the wounded man in the groin, depriving him instantly 
 
THE EIGHTH OF JANUARY. 217 
 
 of consciousness. He was borne to the rear and placed 
 in the shade of an old live-oak ; and there, after gasping 
 a few minutes, yielded up his life without a word, happily 
 ignorant of the sad issue of all his plans and toils. 
 
 A more painful fate was that of General Gibbs. A 
 few moments after Pakenham fell Gibbs received his 
 death-wound, and was carried off the field writhing in 
 agony and uttering fierce imprecations. He lingered 
 all that day and the succeeding night, dying in torment 
 on the morrow. Nearly at the same moment General 
 Keanewas painfully wounded in the neck and thigh, and 
 was also borne to the rear. Colonel Dale, of the High 
 landers, fulfilled his prophecy, and fell at the head of 
 his regiment. The Highlanders, under Major Creagh, 
 wavered not, and advanced steadily, but too slowly, 
 into the very tempest of General Carroll s fire, until 
 they were within one hundred yards of the lines. There ? 
 for cause unknown, they halted and stood, a huge and 
 glittering target, until five hundred and forty-four of 
 their number had fallen, then broke and fled in horror 
 and amazement to the rear. The column of General 
 Gibbs did not advance after the fall of their leader. 
 Leaving heaps of slain behind them, they, too, forsook 
 the bloody field, rushed in utter confusion out of the fire, 
 and took refuge at the bottom of wet ditches and behind 
 trees and bushes on the borders of the swamp. 
 
 But not all of them ! Major Wilkinson, followed by 
 Lieutenant Lavack and twenty men, pressed on to the 
 ditch, floundered across it, climbed the breastwork, and 
 raised his head and shoulders above its summit, upon 
 which he fell, riddled with balls. The Tennesseeans and 
 Kentuckians defending that part of the lines, struck 
 with admiration at such heroic conduct, lifted his still 
 breathing body and conveyed it tenderly behind the 
 works. 
 
2i8 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 " Bear up, my dear fellow," said Major Smiley, of 
 the Kentucky reserve; "you are too brave a man to 
 die." 
 
 " I thank you from my heart," whispered the dying 
 man. " It s all over with me. You can render me a 
 favor ; it is to communicate to my commander that I 
 fell on your parapet, and died like a soldier and a true 
 Englishman." 
 
 Lavack reached the summit of the parapet unharmed, 
 though with two shot-holes in his cap. He had heard 
 Wilkinson, as they were crossing the ditch, cry out : 
 
 " Now, why don t the troops come on ? The day is 
 our own." 
 
 With these last words in his ears, and not looking 
 behind him, he had no sooner gained the breastwork 
 than he demanded the swords of two American officers, 
 the first he caught sight of in the lines. 
 
 " Oh, no," replied one of them ; " you are alone, 
 and therefore ought to consider yourself our prisoner." 
 
 Then Lavack looked around, and saw what is best 
 described in his own language : 
 
 " Now," he would say, as he told the story afterward 
 to his comrades, "conceive my indignation, on looking 
 round, to find that the two leading regiments had van 
 ished as if the earth had opened and swallowed them 
 up." 
 
 The earth had swallowed them up, or was waiting to 
 do so, and the brave Lavack was a prisoner. Lieuten 
 ant Lavack further declared that when he first looked 
 down behind the American lines he saw the riflemen 
 " flying in a disorderly mob," which all other witnesses 
 deny. Doubtless there was some confusion there, as 
 every man was fighting his own battle, and there was 
 much struggling to get to the rampart to fire, and from 
 the rampart to load. Moreover, if the lines had been 
 
THE EIGHTH OF JANUARY. 219 
 
 surmounted by the foe, a backward movement on the 
 part of the defenders would have been in order and 
 necessary. 
 
 Thus, then, it fared with the attack on the weakest 
 part of the American position. Let us see what success 
 rewarded the enemy s efforts against the strongest. 
 
 Colonel Rennie, when he saw the signal rocket as 
 cend, pressed on to the attack with such rapidity that 
 the American outposts along the river had to run for it, 
 Rennie s vanguard close upon their heels. Indeed, so 
 mingled seemed pursuers and pursued that Captain 
 Humphrey had to withhold his fire for a few minutes, 
 for fear of sweeping down friend and foe. As the last 
 of the Americans leaped down into the isolated redoubt 
 British soldiers began to mount its sides. A brief hand- 
 to-hand conflict ensued within the redoubt between the 
 party defending it and the British advance. In a sur 
 prisingly short time the Americans, overpowered by 
 numbers and astounded at the suddenness of the attack, 
 fled across the plank and climbed over into safety be 
 hind the lines. Then was poured into the redoubt a 
 deadly and incessant fire, which cleared it of the foe in 
 less time than it had taken them to capture it ; while 
 Humphrey, with his great guns, mowed down the still 
 advancing column, and Patterson, from the other side of 
 the river, added the fire of his powerful batteries. 
 
 Brief was the unequal contest. Colonel Rennie, Cap 
 tain Henry, Major King, three only of this column, 
 reached the summit of the rampart near the river s edge. 
 
 " Hurrah, boys ! " cried Rennie, already wounded, as 
 the three officers gained the breastwork, " hurrah, boys ! 
 the day is ours." 
 
 At that moment Beale s New Orleans sharpshooters, 
 withdrawing a few paces for better aim, fired a volley, 
 and the three noble soldiers fell headlong into the ditch. 
 
220 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 That was the end of it. Flight, tumultuous flight some 
 running on the top of the levee, some under it, others 
 down the road, while Patterson s guns played upon them 
 still with terrible effect. The three slain officers were 
 brought out of the canal behind the lines, when, we are 
 told, a warm discussion arose among the Rifles for the 
 honor of having " brought down the colonel." Mr. 
 Withers, a merchant of New Orleans, and the crack shot 
 of the company, settled the controversy by remarking: 
 
 " If he isn t hit above the eyebrows, it wasn t my 
 shot." 
 
 Upon examining the lifeless form of Rennie it was 
 found that the fatal wound was indeed in the forehead. 
 To Withers, therefore, was assigned the duty of sending 
 the watch and other valuables found upon the person of 
 the fallen hero to his widow, who was in the fleet off 
 Lake Borgne. Such acts as these made a lasting im 
 pression upon the officers of the British army. When 
 Washington Irving was in Paris, in 1822, Colorel Thorn 
 ton, who led the attack on the western bank, referred 
 to the sending back of personal property of this kind in 
 terms of warm commendation. 
 
 A story connected with the advance of Colonel Ren- 
 nie s column is related by Judge Walker : " As the de 
 tachments along the road advanced, their bugler, a boy 
 of fourteen or fifteen, climbing a small tree within two 
 hundred yards of the American lines, straddled a limb 
 and continued to blow the charge with all his power. 
 There he remained during the whole action, while the 
 cannon balls and bullets plowed the ground around him, 
 killed scores of men, and tore even the branches of the 
 tree in which he sat. Above the thunder of the artillery, 
 the rattling of the musketry fire, and all the din and 
 uproar of the strife, the shrill blast of the little bugler 
 could be heard; and even when his companions had fallen 
 
THE EIGHTH OF JANUARY. 2 2I 
 
 back and retreated from the field he continued true to 
 his duty and blew the charge with undiminished vigor. 
 At last, when the British had entirely abandoned the 
 ground, an American soldier passing from the lines cap 
 tured the little bugler and brought him into camp, where 
 he was greatly astonished when some of the enthusiastic 
 Creoles, who had observed his gallantry, actually em 
 braced him, and officers and men vied with each other 
 in acts of kindness to so gallant a little soldier." 
 
 The reserve, under General Lambert, was never or 
 dered up. Major Tylden obeyed the last order of his 
 general, and General Lambert had directed the bugler 
 to sound the advance. A chance shot struck the bugler s 
 uplifted arm and the instrument fell to the ground. The 
 charge was never sounded. General Lambert brought 
 forward his division far enough to cover the retreat of 
 the broken columns and to deter General Jackson from 
 attempting a sortie. The chief command had fallen 
 upon Lambert, and he was overwhelmed by the unex 
 pected and fearful issue of the battle. 
 
 How long a time elapsed between the fire of the first 
 American gun and the total rout of the attacking col 
 umns ? Twenty-five minutes ! Not that the American 
 fire ceased or even slackened at the expiration of that 
 period. The riflemen on the left and the troops on the 
 right continued to discharge their weapons into the 
 smoke that hung over the plain for two hours. But in 
 the space of twenty-five minutes the discomfiture of the 
 enemy in the open field was complete. The battery 
 alone still made resistance. It required two hours of a 
 tremendous cannonade to silence its great guns and 
 drive its defenders to the rear. 
 
 The scene behind the American works during the fire 
 can be easily imagined. One half of the army never 
 fired a shot. The battle was fought at the two extremi- 
 
222 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 ties of the lines. The battalions of Planch^, Dacquin, 
 and Lacoste, the whole of the Fourty-fourth regiment, 
 and one half of Coffee s Tennesseeans, had nothing to 
 do but to stand still at their posts and chafe with vain 
 impatience for a chance to join in the fight. The bat 
 teries alone at the center of the works contributed any 
 thing to the fortunes of the day. Yet that is not quite 
 correct. " The moment the British came into view, and 
 their signal rocket pierced the sky with its fiery train, 
 the band of the Battalion d Orleans struck up Yankee 
 Doodle, and thenceforth throughout the action it did 
 not cease to discourse all the national and military airs 
 in which it had been instructed." 
 
 When the action began, Jackson walked along the 
 left of the lines, speaking a few words of good cheer to 
 the men as he passed the several corps. 
 
 " Stand to your guns. Don t waste your ammunition. 
 See that every shot tells. Let us finish the business to 
 day." 
 
 Such words as these escaped him now and then, the 
 men not engaged cheering him as he went by. As the 
 battle became general, he took a position on ground 
 slightly elevated, near the center, which commanded a 
 view of the scene. There, with mind intensely excited, 
 he watched the progress of the strife. When it became 
 evident that the enemy s columns were finally broken, 
 Major Hinds, whose dragoons were drawn up in the 
 rear, entreated the general for permission to dash out 
 upon them in pursuit. It was a tempting offer to such 
 a man as Jackson. But prudence prevailed, and the re 
 quest was refused. 
 
 At eight o clock, there being no signs of a renewed 
 attack, and no enemy in sight, an order was sent along 
 the lines to cease firing with the small arms. The gen 
 eral, surrounded by his staff, then walked from end to 
 
THE EIGHTH OF JANUARY. 223 
 
 end of the works, stopping at each battery and post and 
 addressing a few words of congratulation and praise to 
 their defenders. It was a proud, glad moment for these 
 men when, panting from their labor, blackened with 
 smoke and sweat, they listened to the general s burning 
 words and saw the light of victory in his countenance. 
 With particular warmth he thanked and commended 
 Beale s little band ok riflemen, the companies of the 
 Seventh, and Humphrey s artillerymen, who had so gal 
 lantly beaten back the column of Colonel Rennie. 
 Heartily, too, he extolled the wonderful firing of the 
 divisions of General Carroll and General Adair, not for 
 getting Coffee, who had dashed out upon the black 
 skirmishers in the swamp and driven them out of sight 
 in ten minutes. 
 
 This joyful ceremony over, the artillery, which had 
 continued to play upon the British batteries, ceased their 
 fire for the guns to cool and the dense smoke to roll off. 
 The whole army crowded to the parapet and looked 
 over into the field. What a scene was gradually dis 
 closed to them ! That gorgeous and imposing military 
 array, the two columns of attack, the Highland phalanx, 
 the distant reserve all had vanished like an apparition. 
 Far away down the plain the glass revealed a faint red 
 line still receding. Nearer to the lines " we could see," 
 says Nolte, "the British troops concealing themselves 
 behind the shrubbery, or throwing themselves into the 
 ditches and gullies. In some of the latter, indeed, they 
 lay so thickly that they were only distinguishable in the 
 distance by the white shoulder-belts, which formed a 
 line along the top of their hiding-place." 
 
 Still nearer, the plain was covered and heaped with 
 dead and wounded, as well as with those who had fallen 
 paralyzed by fear alone. " I never had," Jackson would 
 say, " so grand and awful an idea of the resurrection as 
 
224 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 on that day. After the smoke of the battle had cleared 
 off somewhat I saw in the distance more than five 
 hundred Britons emerging from the heaps of their 
 dead comrades all over the plain, rising up, and still 
 more distinctly visible as the field became clearer, com 
 ing forward and surrendering as prisoners of war to our 
 soldiers. They had fallen at our first fire upon them 
 without having received so much as a scratch, and lay 
 prostrate as if dead until the close of the action." 
 
 The American army were appalled and silenced at 
 the scene before them. The writhings of the Bounded, 
 their shrieks and groans, their convulsive and sudden 
 tossing of limbs, were horrible to see and hear. Seven 
 hundred killed, fourteen hundred wounded, five hundred 
 prisoners, were the result of that twenty-five minutes 
 work. Jackson s loss was eight killed and thirteen 
 wounded. Two men were killed at the left of the lines, 
 two in the isolated redoubt, and four in the swamp pur 
 suing the skirmishers. 
 
 General Jackson had no sooner finished his round of 
 congratulations, and beheld the completeness of his vic 
 tory on the eastern bank, than he began to cast anxious 
 glances across the river, wondering at the silence of 
 Morgan s lines and Patterson s guns. They flashed and 
 spoke at length. Jackson and Adair, mounting the 
 breastwork, saw Thornton s column advancing to the 
 attack, and saw Morgan s men open fire upon them vig 
 orously. All is well, thought Jackson. 
 
 " Take off your hats and give them three cheers ! " 
 shouted the general, though Morgan s division was a 
 mile and a half distant. 
 
 The order was obeyed, and the whole army watched 
 the action with intense interest, not doubting that the 
 gallant Kentuckians and Louisianians on that side of the 
 river would soon drive back the British column, as they 
 
THE EIGHTH OF JANUARY. 
 
 themselves had just driven back those of Gibbs and 
 Rennie. These men had become used to seeing British 
 columns recoil and vanish before their fire. Not a 
 thought of disaster on the western bank crossed their 
 elated minds. 
 
 Yet Thornton carried the day on the western bank. 
 Even while the men were in the act of cheering, General 
 Jackson saw with mortification, never forgotten by him 
 while he drew breath, the division under General Mor 
 gan abandon their position and run in headlong flight 
 toward the city. Clouds of smoke soon obscured the 
 scene, but the flashes of the musketry advanced up 
 the river, disclosing to General Adair and his men the 
 humiliating fact that their comrades had not rallied, but 
 were still in swift retreat before the foe. In a moment 
 the elation of General Jackson s troops was changed to 
 anger and apprehension. 
 
 Fearing the worst consequences, and fearing them 
 with reason, the general leaped down from the breast 
 work and made instant preparations for sending over a 
 powerful re-enforcement. At all hazards the western 
 bank must be regained. All is lost if it be not. Let but 
 the enemy have free course up the western bank, with a 
 mortar and a twelve-pounder, and New Orleans will be 
 at their mercy in two hours ! Nay, let Commodore Pat 
 terson but leave one of his guns unspiked, and Jackson s 
 lines, raked by it from river to swamp, are untenable ! 
 All this, which was immediately apparent to the mind of 
 General Jackson, was understood also by all of his army 
 who had reflected upon their position. Indeed, by ten 
 o clock in the morning the British were masters of the 
 western bank, although, owing to the want of available 
 artillery, their triumph for the moment was a fruitless 
 one. On one of the guns captured in General Morgan s 
 lines the victors read this inscription : " Taken at the 
 
226 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 surrender of Yorktown, 1781." In a tent behind the 
 lines they found the ensign of one of the Louisiana 
 regiments, which still hangs in Whitehall, London, bear 
 ing these words : " Taken at the battle of New Orleans, 
 Jan. 8th, 1815." 
 
 General Lambert, stunned by the events of the morn 
 ing, was morally incapable of improving this important 
 success. And it was well for him and for his army that 
 he was so. Soldiers there have been who would have 
 seen in Thornton s triumph the means of turning the 
 tide of disaster and snatching victory from the jaws of 
 defeat. But General Lambert found himself suddenly 
 invested with the command of an army which, besides 
 having lost a third of its effective force, was almost 
 destitute of field officers. The mortality among the 
 higher grade of officers had been frightful. Three ma 
 jor-generals, eight colonels and lieutenant-colonels, six 
 majors, eighteen captains, and fifty-four subalterns, were 
 among the killed and wounded. In such circumstances, 
 Lambert, instead of hurrying over artillery and re-en 
 forcements, and marching on New Orleans, did a less 
 spirited but a wiser thing: he sent over an officer to 
 survey General Morgan s lines, and ascertain how many 
 men would be required to hold them. In other words, 
 he sent over an officer to bring him back a plausible ex 
 cuse for abandoning Colonel Thornton s conquest. And 
 during the absence of the officer on this errand the Brit 
 ish general resolved upon a measure still more pacific. 
 
 General Jackson, meanwhile, was intent upon dis 
 patching his re-enforcement. It never for one moment 
 occurred to his warlike mind that the British general 
 would relinquish so vital an advantage without a desper 
 ate struggle, and accordingly he prepared for a desper 
 ate struggle. Organizing promptly a strong body of 
 troops, he placed it under the command of General 
 
THE EIGHTH OF JANUARY. 
 
 Humbert, a refugee officer of distinction who had led 
 the French revolutionary expedition into Ireland in 
 1798, and was then serving in the lines as a volunteer. 
 Humbert, besides being the only general officer that 
 Jackson could spare from his own position, was a soldier 
 of high repute and known courage, a martinet in disci 
 pline, and a man versed in the arts of European warfare. 
 About eleven o clock the re-enforcement left the camp, 
 with orders to hasten across the river by the ferry at 
 New Orleans and march down toward the enemy, and, 
 after effecting a junction with General Morgan s troops, 
 to attack him and drive him from the lines. Before 
 noon Humbert was well on his way. 
 
 Soon after midday, some American troops who were 
 walking about the blood-stained field in front of Jack 
 son s position perceived a British party of novel aspect 
 approaching. It consisted of an officer in full uniform, 
 a trumpeter, and a soldier bearing a white flag. Halt 
 ing at the distance of three hundred yards from the 
 breastwork, the trumpeter blew a blast upon his bugle, 
 which brought the whole army to the edge of the para 
 pet, gazing with eager curiosity upon this unexpected 
 but not unwelcome spectacle. Colonel Butler and two 
 other officers were immediately dispatched by General 
 Jackson to receive the message thus announced. After 
 an exchange of courteous salutations, the British officer 
 handed Colonel Butler a letter directed to the American 
 commander-in-chief, which proved to be a proposal for 
 an armistice of twenty-four hours, that the dead might 
 be buried and the wounded removed from the field. 
 The letter was signed " Lambert," a device, as was con 
 jectured, to conceal from Jackson the death of the Brit- 
 ish general in command. 
 
 The sprinkling of Scottish blood that flowed in Jack 
 son s veins asserted itself on this occasion. Time was 
 
228 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 now an all-important object with him, since Humbert 
 and his command could not yet have crossed the river, 
 and Jackson s whole soul was bent on the regaining of 
 the western bank. 
 
 "Lambert?" thought the general. "Who is Lam 
 bert ? " 
 
 Major Butler was ordered to return to the flag of 
 truce, and to say that Major-General Jackson would be 
 happy to receive any communication from the com- 
 mander-in-chief of the British army ; but as to the letter 
 signed " Lambert," Major-General Jackson, not know 
 ing the rank and powers of that gentleman, must beg to 
 decline corresponding with him. 
 
 The flag departed, but returned in half an hour with 
 the same proposal, signed " John Lambert, commander- 
 in-chief of the British forces." Jackson s answer was 
 prompt and ingenious. Humbert, by this time, he 
 thought, if he had not crossed the river, must be near 
 crossing, and might, in a diplomatic sense, be considered 
 crossed. Jackson therefore consented to an armistice 
 on the eastern bank, expressly stipulating that hostili 
 ties were not to be suspended on the western side of the 
 river, and that neither party should send over re-en 
 forcements until the expiration of the armistice! 
 
 When this reply reached General Lambert he had 
 not yet received the report from the western bank, and 
 was still in some degree undecided as to the course he 
 should pursue there. With the next return of the flag, 
 therefore, came a request from Lambert for time to 
 consider General Jackson s reply. To-morrow morning, 
 at ten o clock, he would send a definite answer. The 
 cannonade from the lines continued through the after 
 noon, and the troops stood at their posts, not certain 
 that they would not again be attacked. 
 
 Early in the afternoon the officer returned from his 
 
THE EIGHTH OF JANUARY. 229 
 
 inspection of the works on the western bank, and gave 
 it as his opinion that they could not be held with less 
 than two thousand men. General Lambert at once sent 
 an order to Colonel Gubbins to abandon the works, and 
 to recross the river with his whole command. The order 
 was not obeyed without difficulty, for by this time the 
 Louisianians, urged by a desire to retrieve the fortunes 
 of the day and their own honor, began to approach the 
 lost redoubts in considerable bodies. 
 
 With what alacrity Commodore Patterson and Gen 
 eral Morgan then rushed to their redoubts and batteries ; 
 with what assiduity the sailors bored out the spikes of 
 the guns, toiling at the work all the next night ; with 
 what zeal the troops labored to strengthen the lines; 
 with what joy Jackson heard the tidings, may be left to 
 the reader to imagine. 
 
 The dead in front of Jackson s lines, scattered and 
 heaped upon the field, lay all night a spectacle of hor 
 ror to the American outposts stationed in their midst. 
 Many of the wounded succeeded in crawling or tottering 
 back to their camp. Many more were brought in behind 
 the lines and conveyed to New Orleans, where they 
 received every humane attention. But probably some 
 hundreds of poor fellows, hidden in the wood or lying 
 motionless in ditches, lingered in unrelieved agony all 
 that day and night, until late in the following morning. 
 As soon as it was dark, many uninjured soldiers, who 
 had lain in the ditches and shrubbery, rejoined their 
 comrades in the rear. 
 
 The news of the great victory electrified the nation, 
 and raised it from the lowest pitch of despondency. All 
 the large cities were illuminated in the evening after the 
 glad tidings reached them. Before the rejoicings were 
 over came news still more joyful that the commission 
 ers at Ghent had signed a treaty of peace. The war was 
 16 
 
230 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 at an end. A courier was promptly dispatched from 
 Washington to New Orleans to convey to General Jack 
 son the news of peace. Furnished by the postmaster- 
 general with a special order to his deputies on the route 
 to facilitate the progress of the messenger by all the 
 means in their power, he traveled with every advantage, 
 and made great speed. He left Washington on the i5th 
 of February, thirty-eight days after the battle. He has 
 a fair month s journey before him, which he will perform 
 in nineteen days. 
 

 
 
 
 

CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 END OF THE CAMPAIGN. 
 
 How pleasant it would be to dismiss now the con 
 queror home to his Hermitage, to enjoy the congratula 
 tions of his neighbors and the plaudits of a nation whose 
 pride he had so keenly gratified ! His work was not 
 done. The next three months of his life at New Orleans 
 were crowded with events, many of which were delight 
 ful, many of which were painful in the extreme. 
 
 The trials of the American army, so far as its pa 
 tience was concerned, began, not ended, with the vic 
 tory of the 8th of January. The rains descended and 
 the floods came upon the soft delta of the Mississippi, 
 converting both camps into quagmires. Relieved of 
 care, relieved from toil, yet compelled to keep the field 
 by night and day, the greater part of the American 
 army had nothing to do but endure the inevitable 
 miseries of the situation. Disease began its fell work 
 among them malignant influenza, fevers, and, worst 
 of all, dysentery. Major Latour computes that during 
 the few weeks that elapsed between the 8th of January 
 and the end of the campaign, five hundred of Jackson s 
 army died from these complaints a far greater number 
 than had fallen in action. While the enemy remained 
 there was no repining. The sick men, yellow and gaunt, 
 staggered into the hospitals when they could no longer 
 stand to their posts, and lay down to die without a 
 murmur. 
 
232 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 For ten days after the battle the English army re 
 mained in their encampment, deluged with rain and 
 flood, and played upon at intervals by the American 
 batteries on both sides of the river. They seemed to 
 be totally inactive. They were not so. General Lam 
 bert, from the day of the great defeat, was resolved to 
 retire to the shipping. But that had now become an 
 affair of extreme difficulty, as an English officer ex 
 plains : 
 
 " In spite of our losses," he says, " there were not 
 throughout the armament a sufficient number of boats 
 to transport above one half of the army at a time. If, 
 however, we should separate, the chances were that 
 both parties would be destroyed ; for those embarked 
 might be intercepted, and those left behind would be 
 obliged to cope with the entire American force. Be 
 sides, even granting that the Americans might be re 
 pulsed, it would be impossible to take to our boats in 
 their presence, and thus at least one division, if not 
 both, must be sacrificed. 
 
 " To obviate this difficulty, prudence required that 
 the road which we had formed on landing should be 
 continued to the very margin of the lake, while appear 
 ances seemed to indicate the total impracticability of 
 the scheme. From firm ground to the water s edge was 
 here a distance of many miles, through the very center 
 of a morass where human foot had never before trod 
 den. Yet it was desirable at least to make the attempt ; 
 for if it failed we should only be reduced to our former 
 alternative of gaining a battle or surrendering at dis 
 cretion. 
 
 " Having determined to adopt this course, General 
 Lambert immediately dispatched strong working par 
 ties, under the guidance of engineer officers, to lengthen 
 the road, keeping as near as possible to the margin of 
 
END OF THE CAMPAIGN. 233 
 
 the creek. But the task assigned to them was burdened 
 with difficulties. For the extent of several leagues no 
 firm footing could be discovered on which to rest the 
 foundation of a path, nor any trees to assist in forming 
 hurdles. All that could be done, therefore, was to bind 
 together large quantities of reeds and lay them across 
 the quagmire, by which means at least the semblance 
 of a road was produced, however wanting in firmness 
 and solidity ; but where broad ditches came in the way, 
 many of which intersected the morass, the workmen 
 were necessarily obliged to apply more durable materials. 
 For these, bridges composed in part of large branches, 
 brought with immense labor from the woods, were con 
 structed, but they were, on the whole, little superior 
 in point of strength to the rest of the path, for, though 
 the edges were supported by timber, the middle was 
 filled up only by reeds." 
 
 It required nine days of incessant and arduous labor 
 to complete the road. The wounded were then sent on 
 board, except eighty who could not be removed. The 
 abandoned guns were spiked and broken. In the even 
 ing of the i8th the main body of the army commenced 
 its retreat. "Trimming the fires," continues the Brit 
 ish officer, "and arranging all things in the same order 
 as if no change were to take place, regiment after regi 
 ment stole away, as soon as darkness concealed their 
 motions ; leaving the pickets to follow as a rear guard, 
 but with strict injunctions not to retire till daylight 
 began to appear. As may be supposed, the most pro 
 found silence was maintained ; not a man opening his 
 mouth except to issue necessary orders, and even then 
 speaking in a whisper. Not a cough or any other noise 
 was to be heard from the head to the rear of the col 
 umn ; and even the steps of the soldiers were planted 
 with care, to prevent the slightest stamping or echo." 
 
234 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 With an ignominious wallow in the mire (" the whole 
 army," as another narrator remarks, " covered with mud 
 from the top of the head to the sole of the foot ") the 
 Wellington heroes ended their month s exertions in the 
 delta of the Mississippi. They were in mortal terror of 
 the alligators, it appears, whose domain they had in 
 truded upon. "Just before dark, on the night of the re 
 treat," says Captain Cooke, " I saw an alligator emerge 
 from the water and penetrate the wilderness of reeds 
 which encircled us on this muddy quagmire as far as 
 the eye could reach. The very idea of the monster 
 prowling about in the stagnant swamp took possession 
 of my mind in a most forcible manner ; to look out for 
 the enemy was a secondary consideration. The word 
 was, * Look out for alligators ! Nearly the whole night 
 I stood a few paces from the entrance of the hut, not 
 daring to enter, under the apprehension that an alligator 
 might push a broad snout through the reeds and gobble 
 me up. The soldiers slept in a lump. At length, being 
 quite worn out from want of sleep, I summoned up 
 courage to enter the hut, but often started wildly out 
 of my feverish slumbers, involuntarily laying hold of 
 my naked sword, and conjuring up every rustling noise 
 among the reeds to be one of those disgusting brutes, 
 with a mouth large enough to swallow an elephant s 
 leg." 
 
 The retreat was so well managed (General Lambert 
 was knighted for it soon after) that the sun was high in 
 the heavens on the following morning before the Amer 
 ican army had any suspicion of the departure of the 
 enemy. And when it began to be suspected, some fur 
 ther time elapsed before the fact was ascertained. Their 
 camp presented the same appearance as it had for many 
 days previous. Sentinels seemed to be posted as before, 
 and flags were flying. The American general and his 
 
END OF THE CAMPAIGN. 235 
 
 aides, from the high window at headquarters, surveyed 
 the position through the glass, and were inclined to 
 think that the enemy were only lying low, with a view 
 to draw the troops out of the lines into the open plain. 
 The veteran General Humbert, a Frenchman, surpassed 
 the acuteness of the backwoodsmen on this occasion. 
 Being called upon for his opinion, he took the glass and 
 spied the deserted camp. 
 
 "They are gone," said he, with the air of a man who 
 is certain. 
 
 " How do you know ? " inquired the general. 
 
 The old soldier replied by directing attention to a 
 crow that was flying close to what had been supposed to 
 be one of the enemy s sentinels. The proximity of the 
 crow showed that the sentinel was a " dummy," and so 
 ill-made, too, that it was not even a good scarecrow. 
 The game was now apparent, yet the general ordered 
 out a party to reconnoiter. While it was forming, a 
 British medical officer approached the lines, bearing a 
 letter from General Lambert, which announced his de 
 parture, and recommended to the humanity of the Amer 
 ican commander the eighty wounded men who were 
 necessarily left behind. There could now be little doubt 
 of the retreat, but Jackson was still wary, and restrained 
 the exultant impetuosity of the men, who were disposed 
 at once to visit the abandoned camp. Sending Major 
 Hinds s dragoons to harass the retreat of the army, if it 
 had not already gone beyond reach, and dispatching his 
 surgeon-general to the wounded soldiers left to his care, 
 the general himself, with his staff, rode to the enemy s 
 camp. He saw that they had indeed departed, and 
 that his own triumph was complete and irreversible. 
 Fourteen pieces of cannon were found deserted and 
 spoiled, and much other property, public and private. 
 For one item, three thousand cannon balls were picked 
 
236 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 up on the field and piled behind the American ramparts 
 by the Kentuckian troops. 
 
 The general visited the hospital and assured the 
 wounded officers and soldiers of his protection and care 
 a promise which was promptly and amply fulfilled. " The 
 circumstances of these wounded men," says Mr. Walker, 
 " being made known in the city, a number of ladies rode 
 down in their carriages with such articles as were deemed 
 essential to the comfort of the unfortunates. One of 
 these ladies was a belle of the city, famed for her charms 
 of person and mind. Seeing her noble philanthropy and 
 devotion to his countrymen, one of the British surgeons 
 conceived a warm regard and admiration, which subse 
 quent acquaintance ripened into love. This surgeon 
 settled in New Orleans after the war, espoused the 
 Creole lady whose acquaintance he had made under 
 such interesting circumstances, and became an esteemed 
 citizen and the father of a large family." Dr. J. C. Kerr 
 was the hero of this romantic story. He lived until 
 within these few years. A son of his was that Victor 
 Kerr who was executed at Havana with General Lopez 
 and Colonel Crittenden in 1851 his last words, "I die 
 like a Louisianian and a freeman ! " 
 
 Two days later the main body of the American troops 
 returned to New Orleans. " The arrival of the army," 
 says Major Latour, who saw the spectacle, " was a tri 
 umph. The noncombatant part of the population of 
 New Orleans that is, the aged, the infirm, the matrons, 
 daughters, and children all went out to meet their de 
 liverers, to receive with felicitations the saviors of their 
 country. Every countenance was expressive of grati 
 tude; joy sparkled in every feature on beholding fathers, 
 brothers, husbands, sons, who had so recently saved the 
 lives, fortunes, and honor of their families by repelling 
 an enemy come to conquer and subjugate the country. 
 
END OF THE CAMPAIGN. 237 
 
 Nor were the sensations of the brave soldiers less lively 
 on seeing themselves about to be compensated for all 
 their sufferings by the enjoyment of domestic felicity. 
 They once more embraced the objects of their tenderest 
 affections, were hailed by them as their saviors and de 
 liverers, and felt conscious that they had deserved the 
 honorable title. How light, how trifling, how inconsider 
 able did their past toils and dangers appear to them at 
 this glorious moment ! All was forgotten, all painful 
 recollections gave way to the most exquisite sensations 
 of inexpressible joy." 
 
 A few days after the return of the army the general 
 went in state to the cathedral. " A temporary arch," 
 continues Major Latour, " was erected in the middle of 
 the grand square, opposite the principal entrance of 
 the cathedral. The different uniformed companies of 
 Planches battalion lined both sides of the way, from 
 the entrance of the square toward the river to the 
 church. The balconies of the windows of the city hall, 
 the parsonage house, and all the adjacent buildings, 
 were filled with spectators. The whole square and the 
 streets leading to it were thronged with people. The 
 triumphal arch was supported by six columns. Among 
 those on the right was a young lady representing Justice, 
 and on the left another representing Liberty. Under 
 the arch were two young children, each on a pedestal, 
 holding a crown of laurel. From the arch in the middle 
 of the square to the church, at proper intervals, were 
 ranged young ladies representing the different States 
 and Territories composing the American Union, all 
 dressed in white, covered with transparent veils, and 
 wearing a silver star on their foreheads. Each of these 
 young ladies held in her right hand a flag inscribed with 
 the name of the State she represented, and in her left a 
 basket trimmed with blue ribbons and full of flowers. 
 
238 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 Behind each was a shield suspended on a lance stuck in 
 the ground, inscribed with the name of a State or Terri 
 tory. The intervals had been so calculated that the 
 shields, linked together with verdant festoons, occupied 
 the distance from the triumphal arch to the church. 
 
 " General Jackson, accompanied by the officers of 
 his staff, arrived at the entrance of the square, where he 
 was requested to proceed to the church by the walk pre 
 pared for him. As he passed under the arch he received 
 the crowns of laurel from the two children, and was con 
 gratulated in an address spoken by Miss Kerr, who rep 
 resented the State of Louisiana. The general then 
 proceeded to the church, amid the salutations of the 
 young ladies representing the different States, who 
 strewed his passage with flowers. At the entrance of 
 the church he was received by the Abbe Dubourg, who 
 addressed him in a speech suitable to the occasion, and 
 conducted him to a seat prepared for him near the altar. 
 A Te Deum was chanted with impressive solemnity, and 
 soon after a guard of honor attended the general to his 
 quarters, and in the evening the town, with its suburbs, 
 was splendidly illuminated." 
 
 The day and night were given up to pleasure, both 
 by the soldiers and the people. The next day discipline 
 resumed its sway. The Tennessee troops were encamped 
 on their old ground above the city. New troops kept 
 coming by squads and companies, and the boat load of 
 arms arrived for them. The general addressed himself 
 to the task of rendering the country secure against a 
 second surprise, in case the enemy should attempt a 
 landing elsewhere. New works were ordered in exposed 
 localities. New Orleans was saved, but the Southwest 
 was still the country menaced, and it was not to be sup 
 posed that the British fleet and army, re-enforced by a 
 thousand new troops, would retire from the coast with- 
 
END OF THE CAMPAIGN. 
 
 239 
 
 out an attempt to retrieve the campaign. Not a thought, 
 not the faintest presentiment of immediate peace, oc 
 curred to any one. The question was not whether the 
 enemy would make a new attempt, but whether New 
 Orleans or Mobile would be its object. 
 
 For the first three weeks after the triumphal return 
 of the army to New Orleans little occurred to disturb 
 the public harmony. Martial law was rigorously main 
 tained, and all the troops were kept in service. The 
 duty at the lines and below the lines was hard and dis 
 agreeable, but, whatever murmurs were uttered by the 
 troops, the duty was punctually performed. The mor 
 tality at the hospitals continued to be very great. The 
 business of the city was interrupted in some degree by 
 the prevalence of martial law, and still more by the re 
 tention in service of business men. But so long as 
 there was no whisper of peace in the city, the restraint 
 was felt to be necessary, and was submitted to without 
 audible complaining. During this interval some pleas 
 ant things occurred, which exhibit the general in a favor 
 able light. 
 
 On February 4th, Edward Livingston, Mr. Shepherd, 
 and Captain Maunsel White were sent to the British 
 fleet to arrange for a further exchange of prisoners, and 
 for the recovery of a large number of slaves, who, after 
 aiding the English army on shore, had gone off with 
 them to their ships. They were charged also with a 
 less difficult errand. General Keane, when he received 
 his wounds on the 8th of January, lost on the field a 
 valuable sword, the gift of a friend. He stated the cir 
 cumstance to General Jackson, and requested him to 
 restore the sword. It was an unusual request, thought 
 the general, but he complied with it, adding polite wishes 
 for General Keane s recovery. General Keane acknowl 
 edged the restoration of the sword in courteous terms. 
 
240 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 Mr. Livingston returned to New Orleans with the 
 news of peace on the ipth of February. The city was 
 thrown into joyful excitement, and the troops expected 
 an immediate release from their arduous toils. But 
 they were doomed to disappointment. The package 
 which Admiral Malcolm had received contained only a 
 newspaper announcement of peace. There was little 
 doubt of its truth, but the statements of a newspaper 
 are as nothing to the commanders of fleets and armies. 
 To-check the rising tide of feeling, Jackson, on the very 
 day of Livingston s return, issued a proclamation, stat 
 ing the exact nature of the intelligence, and exhorting 
 the troops to bear with patience the toils of the cam 
 paign a little longer. "We must not," said he, " be 
 thrown into false security by hopes that may be de 
 lusive. It is by holding out such that an artful and in 
 sidious enemy too often seeks to accomplish what the 
 utmost exertions of his strength will not enable him to 
 effect. To place you off your guard and attack you by 
 surprise is the natural expedient of one who, having ex 
 perienced the superiority of your arms, still hopes to 
 overcome you by stratagem. Though young in the 
 1 trade of war, it is not by such artifices that he will 
 deceive us." 
 
 This proclamation seems rather to have inflamed than 
 allayed the general discontent. Two days after the re 
 turn of Livingston a paragraph appeared in the Louisi 
 ana Gazette to the effect that " a flag had just arrived 
 from Admiral Cochrane to General Jackson, officially 
 announcing the conclusion of peace at Ghent between 
 the United States and Great Britain, and virtually re 
 questing a suspension of arms." For this statement 
 there was not the least foundation in truth, and its ef 
 fect at such a crisis was to inflame the prevailing ex 
 citement. Upon reading the paragraph Jackson caused 
 
END OF THE CAMPAIGN. 241 
 
 to be prepared an official contradiction, which he sent 
 by an aide-de-camp to the offending editor, with a written 
 order requiring its insertion in the next issue of the 
 paper. 
 
 This was regarded by the rebellious spirits as a new 
 provocation. 
 
 In this posture of affairs some of the French troops 
 hit upon an expedient to escape the domination of the 
 general. They claimed the protection of the French 
 consul, M. Toussard. The consul, nothing loath, hoisted 
 the French flag over the consulate, and dispensed certifi 
 cates of French citizenship to all applicants. Naturalized 
 Frenchmen availed themselves of the same artifice, and 
 for a few days Toussard had his hands full of pleasant 
 and profitable occupation. Jackson met this new diffi 
 culty by ordering the consul and all Frenchmen who 
 were not citizens of the United States to leave New Or 
 leans within three days, and not to return to within one 
 hundred and twenty miles of the city until the news of 
 the ratification of the treaty of peace was officially 
 published! The register of votes of the last election 
 was resorted to for the purpose of ascertaining who 
 were citizens and who were not. Every man who had 
 voted was claimed by the general as his " fellow-citizen 
 and soldier," and compelled to do duty as such. 
 
 This bold stroke of authority aroused much indigna 
 tion among the anti-martial law party, which on the 3d 
 of March found voice in the public press. A long arti 
 cle appeared anonymously in one of the newspapers, 
 boldly but temperately and respectfully calling in ques 
 tion General Jackson s recent conduct, and especially 
 the banishment of the French from the city. Here 
 was open defiance. Jackson accepted the issue with a 
 promptness all his own. He sent an order to the editor 
 of the Louisiana Courier, in which the article appeared, 
 
242 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 commanding his immediate presence at headquarters. 
 The name of the author of the communication was de 
 manded and given. It was Mr. Louaillier, a member of 
 the Legislature, a gentleman who had distinguished him 
 self by his zeal in the public cause, and who had been 
 particularly prominent in promoting subscriptions for 
 the relief of the ill-clad soldiers. Upon his surrendering 
 the name the editor was dismissed. 
 
 At noon on Sunday, the 5th of March, two days after 
 the publication of the article, Mr. Louaillier was walk 
 ing along the levee, opposite one of the most frequented 
 coffee-houses in the city, when a Captain Amelung, com 
 manding a file of soldiers, tapped him on the shoulder 
 and informed him that he was a prisoner. Louaillier, 
 astonished and indignant, called the bystanders to wit 
 ness that he was conveyed away against his will by 
 armed men, A lawyer, P. L. Morel by name, who wit 
 nessed the arrest from the steps of the coffee-house, ran 
 to the spot, and was forthwith engaged by Louaillier to 
 act as his legal adviser in this extremity. Louaillier was 
 placed in confinement. Morel hastened to the residence 
 of Judge Dominick A. Hall, of the District Court of the 
 United States, to whom he presented, in his client s 
 name, a petition for a writ of habeas corpus. The judge 
 granted the petition, and the writ was immediately 
 served upon the general. Jackson instantly sent a file 
 of troops to arrest the judge, and, before night, Judge 
 Hall and Mr. Louaillier were prisoners in the same 
 apartment of the barracks. 
 
 So far from obeying the writ of habeas corpus, Gen 
 eral Jackson seized the writ from the officer who served 
 it and retained it in his own possession, giving to the 
 officer a certified copy of the same. Louaillier was at 
 once placed on his trial before a court-martial upon 
 the following charges, all based upon the article in the 
 
END OF THE CAMPAIGN. 
 
 243 
 
 Louisiana Courier: Exciting to mutiny; general mis 
 conduct ;. being a spy; illegal and improper conduct; 
 disobedience to orders; writing a willful and corrupt 
 libel against the general; unsoldierly conduct; viola 
 tion of a general order. 
 
 Nor were these the only arrests. A Mr. Hollander, 
 partner in business of our friend Nolte, expressed him 
 self somewhat freely in conversation respecting Jack 
 son s proceedings, and suddenly found himself a pris 
 oner in consequence. 
 
 On Monday, March 6th, the day after the arrest of 
 Louaillier and Judge Hall, the courier arrived at New 
 Orleans who had been dispatched from Washington 
 nineteen days before to bear to General Jackson the 
 news of peace. He had traveled fast by night and day, 
 and most eagerly had his coming been looked for. His 
 packet was opened at headquarters and found to con 
 tain no dispatches announcing the conclusion of peace, 
 but an old letter, of no importance then, which had been 
 written by the Secretary of War to General Jackson 
 some months before. It appeared that in the hurry of 
 his departure from Washington the courier had taken the 
 wrong packet. The blank astonishment of the general, 
 of his aides, and of the courier, can be imagined. The 
 only proof the unlucky messenger could furnish of the 
 genuineness of his mission and the truth of his intelli 
 gence was an order from the Postmaster-General requir 
 ing his deputies on the route to afford the courier bear 
 ing the news of peace all the facilities in their power for 
 the rapid performance of his journey. In ordinary cir 
 cumstances this would have sufficed. But the events of 
 yesterday had rendered the circumstances extraordinary. 
 The general resolved still to hold the reins of military 
 power firmly in his hands. New Orleans was still a camp, 
 and Judge Hall a soldier. 
 
244 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 Jackson wrote, however, to General Lambert on the 
 same day, stating precisely what had occurred, and in 
 closing a copy of the Postmaster-General s order, " that 
 you may determine," said the general, " whether these 
 occurrences will not justify you in agreeing, by a cessa 
 tion of all hostilities, to anticipate a happy return of 
 peace between our two nations, which the first direct in 
 telligence must bring to us in an official form." 
 
 The week had nearly passed away. Judge Hall re 
 mained in confinement at the barracks. General Jackson 
 resolved on Saturday, the nth of March, to send the judge 
 out of the city and set him at liberty, which was done. 
 
 Brief was the exile of the banished judge. The very 
 next day Monday, March i3th arrived from Washing 
 ton a courier with a dispatch from the Government an 
 nouncing the ratification of the treaty of peace, and 
 inclosing a copy of the treaty and of the ratification. 
 Before that day closed the joyful news was forwarded 
 to the British general, hostilities were publicly declared 
 to be at an end, martial law was abrogated, and com 
 merce released. "And in order," concluded the gen 
 eral s proclamation, "that the general joy attending this 
 event may extend to all manner of persons, the com 
 manding general proclaims and orders a pardon for all 
 military offenses heretofore committed in this district, 
 and orders that all persons in confinement under such 
 charges be immediately discharged." 
 
 Louaillier was a prisoner no longer. Judge Hall re 
 turned to his home. On the day following, the impatient 
 militia and volunteers of Tennessee, Kentucky, Missis 
 sippi, and Louisiana were dismissed with a glorious 
 burst of grateful praise. 
 
 I shall not dwell upon the subsequent proceedings of 
 Judge Hall. March 22d, in the United States District 
 Court, on motion of Attorney John Dick, it was ruled 
 
END OF THE CAMPAIGN. 245 
 
 and ordered by the court that " the said Major-General 
 Andrew Jackson show cause on Friday next, the 24th of 
 March, instant, at ten o clock A. M., why an attachment 
 should not be awarded against him for contempt of this 
 court, in having disrespectfully wrested from the clerk 
 aforesaid an original order of the honorable the judge 
 of this court for the issuing of a writ of habeas corpus in 
 the case of a certain Louis Louaillier, then imprisoned 
 by the said Major-General Andrew Jackson, and fof de 
 taining the same. Also, for disregarding the said writ of 
 habeas corpus when issued and served, in having impris 
 oned the honorable the judge of this court, and for 
 other contempts, as stated by the witnesses." 
 
 General Jackson appeared in court attended by a 
 concourse of excited people. He wore the dress of a 
 private citizen. " Undiscovered amid the crowd," Ma 
 jor Eaton relates, " he had nearly reached the bar, when, 
 being perceived, the room instantly rang with the shouts 
 of a thousand voices. Raising himself on a bench and 
 moving his hand to procure silence, a pause ensued. He 
 then addressed himself to the crowd, told them of the 
 duty due to the public authorities, for that any impro 
 priety of theirs would be imputed to him, and urged, if 
 they had any regard for him, that they would on the 
 present occasion forbear those feelings and expressions 
 of opinion. Silence being restored, the judge rose from 
 his seat, and remarking that it was impossible and un 
 safe to transact business at such a moment and under 
 such threatening circumstances, directed the marshal to 
 adjourn the court. The general immediately interfered, 
 and requested that it might not be done. * There is no 
 danger here; there shall be none. The same arm that 
 protected from outrage this city against the invaders of 
 the country, will shield and protect this court or perish 
 in the effort. 
 17 
 
246 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 "Tranquillity was restored, and the court proceeded 
 to business. The district attorney had prepared and 
 now presented a file of nineteen questions to be answered 
 by the prisoner. * Did you not arrest Louaillier ? * Did 
 you not arrest the judge of this court ? Did you not 
 seize the writ of habeas corpus ? 4 Did you not say a 
 variety of disrespectful things of the judge? These 
 interrogatories the general utterly refused to answer, 
 to listen to, or to receive. He told the court that in 
 a paper previously presented by his counsel he had ex 
 plained fully the reasons that had influenced his con 
 duct. That paper had been rejected without a hearing. 
 He could add nothing to that paper. Under these cir 
 cumstances, said he, I appear before you to receive the 
 sentence of the court, having nothing further in my de 
 fense to offer. " 
 
 Whereupon Judge Hall pronounced the judgment of 
 the court. It is recorded in the words following: " On 
 this day appeared in person Major-General Andrew 
 Jackson, and, being duly informed by the court that an 
 attachment had issued against him for the purpose of 
 bringing him into court, and the district attorney hav 
 ing filed interrogatories, the court informed General 
 Jackson that they would be tendered to him for the pur 
 pose of answering thereto. The said General Jackson 
 refused to receive them, or to make any answer to the 
 said interrogatories. Whereupon the court proceeded to 
 pronounce judgment; which was, That Major-General 
 Andrew Jackson do pay a fine of one thousand dollars 
 to the United States. " 
 
 The general was borne from the courtroom in tri 
 umph; or as Major Eaton has it, "he was seized and 
 forcibly hurried from the hall to the streets, amid the re 
 iterated cries of Huzza for Jackson ! from the immense 
 concourse that surrounded him. They presently met a 
 
END OF THE CAMPAIGN. 247 
 
 carriage in which a lady was riding, when, politely tak 
 ing her from it, the general was made, spite of entreaty, 
 to occupy her place. The horses being removed, the car 
 riage was drawn on and halted at the coffee-house, into 
 which he was carried, and thither the crowd followed, 
 huzzaing for Jackson and menacing violently the judge. 
 Having prevailed on them to hear him, he addressed 
 them with great feeling and earnestness; implored them 
 to run into no excesses ; that if they had the least grati 
 tude for his services, or regard for him personally, they 
 could evince it in no way so satisfactorily as by assent 
 ing, as he most freely did, to the decision which had just 
 been pronounced against him." 
 
 Upon reaching his quarters he sent back an aide-de 
 camp to the courtroom with a check on one of the city 
 banks for a thousand dollars. And thus the offended 
 majesty of the law was supposed to be avenged. 
 
 It is not to be inferred, from the conduct of the 
 people in the courtroom, that the course of General 
 Jackson in maintaining martial law so long after the 
 conclusion of peace was morally certain, was generally 
 approved by the people of New Orleans. It was not. 
 It was approved by many, forgiven by most, resented by 
 a few. An effort was made to raise the amount of the 
 general s fine by a public subscription, to which no one 
 was allowed to contribute more than one dollar. But 
 Nolte tells us (how truly I know not) that, after raising 
 with difficulty one hundred and sixty dollars, the scheme 
 was quietly given up. He adds that the courtroom on 
 the day of the general s appearance was occupied chiefly 
 by the special partisans of the general. 
 
 On the 6th of April General Jackson and his family 
 left New Orleans on their return to Tennessee. On ap 
 proaching Nashville the general was met by a procession 
 of troops, students, and citizens, who deputed one of 
 
248 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 their number to welcome him in an address. At Nash 
 ville a vast concourse was assembled, among whom were 
 many of the troops who had served under him at New 
 Orleans. The greatest enthusiasm prevailed. Within 
 the courthouse Mr. Felix Grundy received the general 
 with an eloquent speech, recounting in glowing periods 
 the leading events of the last campaigns. The students 
 of Cumberland College also addressed the general. The 
 replies of General Jackson to these various addresses 
 were short, simple, and sufficient. 
 
 And so we dismiss the hero home to his beloved 
 Hermitage, there to recruit his impaired energies by a 
 brief period of repose. He had been absent for the 
 space of twenty-one months, with the exception of three 
 weeks between the end of the Creek War and the begin 
 ning of the campaign of New Orleans. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 COMMANDER OF THE SOUTHERN DEPARTMENT. 
 
 FOUR months rest at the Hermitage. In the cool 
 days of October we find the general on horseback once 
 more, riding slowly through Tennessee, across Virginia, 
 toward the city of Washington the whole journey a tri 
 umphal progress. At Lynchburg, in Virginia, the peo 
 ple turned out en masse to greet the conqueror. A num 
 ber of gentlemen rode out of town to meet him, one of 
 whom saluted the general with an address, to which he 
 briefly replied. Escorted into the town on the yth of 
 November, he was received by a prodigious assemblage 
 of citizens and all the militia companies of the vicinity, 
 who welcomed him with an enthusiasm that can be im 
 agined. In the afternoon a grand banquet, attended by 
 three hundred persons, was served in honor of the gen 
 eral. Among the distinguished guests was Thomas Jef 
 ferson, then seventy-two years of age, the most revered 
 of American citizens then living. His residence was 
 only a long day s ride from Lynchburg, and he had 
 come to join in the festivities of this occasion. The toast 
 offered by the ex-President at the banquet at Lynchburg 
 has been variously reported, but in the newspapers of the 
 day it is uniformly given in these words: " Honor and 
 gratitude to those who have filled the measure of their 
 country s honor." General Jackson volunteered a toast 
 which was at once graceful and significant : " James 
 Monroe, late Secretary of War " graceful, because Mr. 
 
250 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 Monroe was a Virginian, a friend of Mr. Jefferson, and 
 had nobly co-operated with himself in the defense of 
 New Orleans; significant, because Mr. Monroe was a 
 very prominent candidate for the presidency, and the 
 election was drawing near. 
 
 To horse again the next morning. Nine days riding 
 brought the general to Washington, which he reached 
 in the evening of November lyth. He called the next 
 morning upon the President and the members of the 
 Cabinet, by whom he was welcomed to the capital with 
 every mark of cordiality and respect. His stay at Wash 
 ington, I need not say, was an almost ceaseless round of 
 festivity. A great public dinner was given him, which 
 was attended by all that Washington could boast of the 
 eminent and the eloquent. He was lionized severely at 
 private entertainments, where the stateliness of his bear 
 ing and the suavity of his manners pleased the gentle 
 men and won the ladies. And this was to be one of the 
 conditions of his lot thenceforward to the end of his life. 
 He was the darling of the nation. Nothing had yet oc 
 curred to dim the luster of his fame. His giant popu 
 larity was in the flush of its youth. He could go no 
 where without incurring an ovation, and every movement 
 of his was affectionately chronicled in the newspapers. 
 
 General Jackson was to remain in the army ! Upon 
 the conclusion of peace with Great Britain the army was 
 reduced to ten thousand men, commanded by two major- 
 generals, one of whom was to reside at the North and 
 command the troops stationed there, and the other to 
 bear military sway at the South. The generals selected 
 for these commands were General Jacob Brown for the 
 Northern division, and General Andrew Jackson for the 
 Southern, both of whom had entered the service at the 
 beginning of the late war as generals of militia. Gen 
 eral Jackson s visit to Washington on this occasion was 
 
COMMANDER OF THE SOUTHERN DEPARTMENT. 251 
 
 in obedience to an order, couched in the language of an 
 invitation, received from the Secretary of War soon after 
 his return from New Orleans ; the object of his visit be 
 ing to arrange the posts and stations of the army. The 
 feeling was general at the time that the disasters of the 
 War of 1812 were chiefly due to the defenseless and un 
 prepared condition of the country, and that it was the 
 first duty of the Government, on the return of peace, to 
 see to it that the assailable points were fortified. " Let 
 us never be caught napping again " ; " In time of peace 
 prepare for war," were popular sayings then. On these 
 and all other subjects connected with the defense of the 
 country the advice of General Jackson was asked and 
 given. His own duty, it was evident, was first of all to 
 pacify, and if possible satisfy, the restless and sorrowful 
 Indians in the Southwest. The vanquished tribe, it was 
 agreed, should be dealt with forbearingly and liberally. 
 The general undertook to go in person into the Indian 
 country and remove from their minds all discontent. 
 He did so. 
 
 It is not possible to overstate his popularity in his 
 own State. He was its pride, boast, and glory. Tennes- 
 seeans felt a personal interest in his honor and success. 
 His old enemies either sought reconciliation with him or 
 kept their enmity to themselves. His rank in the army, 
 too, gave him unequaled social eminence; and, to add to 
 the other felicities of his lot, his fortune now rapidly in 
 creased, as the entire income of his estate could be added 
 to his capital, the pay of a major-general being suffi 
 cient for the support of his family. He was forty-nine 
 years old in 1816. He had riches, rank, power, renown, 
 and all in full measure. 
 
 But in 1817 there was trouble again among the In 
 dians the Indians of Florida, the allies of Great Britain 
 during the War of 1812, commonly known by the name 
 
252 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 of Seminoles. Composed in part of fugitive Creeks, who 
 scouted the treaty of Fort Jackson, they had indulged 
 the expectation that on the conclusion of peace they 
 would be restored by their powerful ally to the lands 
 wrested from the Creeks by Jackson s conquering army 
 in 1814. This poor remnant of tribes once so numerous 
 and powerful had not a thought, at first, of attempting 
 to regain the lost lands by force of arms. The best testi 
 mony now procurable confirms their own solemnly reit 
 erated assertions that they long desired and endeavored 
 to live in peace with the white settlers of Georgia. All 
 their " talks," petitions, remonstrances, letters, of which 
 a large number are still accessible, breathe only the wish 
 for peace and fair dealing. The Seminoles were drawn 
 at last into a collision with the United States by a chain 
 of circumstances with which they had little to do, and 
 the responsibility of which belongs not to them. 
 
 Fourteen miles east of Fort Scott, in Georgia, but 
 near the Florida line, on lands claimed by the United 
 States under the treaty of Fort Jackson, was a Seminole 
 village called by the settlers Fowltown. The chief of 
 this village of forty-five warriors was supposed to be, 
 and was, peculiarly embittered against the whites. The 
 red war-pole had been erected by his warriors, around 
 which they danced the war-dance. The Fowltown chief 
 was resolved to hold his lands, and resist by force any 
 further encroachments, and had said as much to Colonel 
 Twiggs, the commandant of Fort Scott. " I warn you," 
 he said to Colonel Twiggs, early in November, "not to 
 cross, nor cut a stick of wood, on the east side of the 
 Flint. That land is mine. I am directed by the powers 
 above and the powers below to protect and defend it. I 
 shall do so." A few days after, General Gaines arrived 
 at Fort Scott with a re-enforcement of regular troops, 
 when the talk of the Fowltown chief was reported to 
 
COMMANDER OF THE SOUTHERN DEPARTMENT. 253 
 
 him. General Gaines," to ascertain," as he said, " whether 
 his hostile temper had abated," had previously sent a 
 runner to the chief to request him to come to him at 
 Fort Scott. The chief replied : " I have already said to 
 the officer commanding at the fort all I have to say. I 
 will not go." 
 
 General Gaines immediately detached a force of two 
 hundred and fifty men, under command of Colonel Twiggs, 
 with orders " to bring to me the chief and his warriors, 
 and, in the event of resistance, to treat them as enemies." 
 
 On the morning of November 2ist, before the dawn 
 of day, the detachment reached Fowltown. The war 
 riors fired upon the troops without waiting to learn their 
 errand. It could not be expected to occur to the be 
 nighted Seminole mind that a large body of troops, 
 arriving near their town in the darkness of a November 
 morning, could have any but a hostile errand. The fire 
 of the Indians, which was wholly without effect, was 
 " briskly returned " by the troops, when the Indians took 
 to flight, with the loss of two men and one woman killed, 
 besides several wounded. Colonel Twiggs entered and 
 searched the abandoned town. Among other articles 
 found in the house of the chief were a scarlet coat of the 
 British uniform, a pair of golden epaulets, and a certifi 
 cate in the handwriting of Colonel Nichols, declaring 
 that the Fowltown chief had ever been a true and faith 
 ful friend of the British. Colonel Twiggs took post near 
 the town, erected a temporary stockade, and waited for 
 further orders. Shortly afterward the town was burned 
 by General Gaines himself. 
 
 The die was cast. The revenge of the Seminoles for 
 this seizure of Fowltown and the slaughter of its war 
 riors and the woman was swift, bloody, and atrocious. 
 
 Nine days after, a large open boat, containing forty 
 United States troops, seven soldiers wives, and four lit- 
 
254 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 tie children, under command of Lieutenant Scott, of the 
 Seventh Infantry, was warping slowly up the Appalachi- 
 cola River. They were within one mile of reaching the 
 junction of the Chattahoochee and Flint, and not many 
 miles from Fort Scott. To avoid the swift current, the 
 soldiers kept the boat close to the shore. They were 
 passing a swamp densely covered with trees and cane. 
 Suddenly, at a moment when not a soul on board sus 
 pected danger, for not an Indian nor trace of an Indian 
 had been seen, a heavy volley of musketry from the 
 thickets within a few yards of the boat was fired full 
 into the closely compacted party. Lieutenant Scott and 
 nearly every man in the boat were killed or badly 
 wounded at the first fire. Other volleys succeeded. The 
 Indians soon rose from their ambush and rushed upon 
 the boat with a fearful yell. Men, women, and children 
 were involved in one horrible massacre, or spared for 
 more horrible torture. The children were taken by the 
 heels and their brains dashed out against the sides of the 
 boat. The men and women were scalped, all but one 
 woman, who was not wounded by the previous fire. 
 Four men escaped by leaping overboard and swimming 
 to the opposite shore, of whom two only reached Fort 
 Scott uninjured. Laden with plunder, the savages re-en 
 tered the wilderness, taking with them the woman whom 
 they had spared. In twenty minutes after the first 
 volley was fired into the boat, every creature in it but 
 five was killed and scalped, or bound and carried off. 
 
 The Seminoles had tasted blood, and thirsted like 
 tigers for more. Still haunting the banks of the river, 
 they attacked, a few days later, a convoy of ascending 
 boats, under Major Muhlenberg, killing two soldiers and 
 wounding thirteen. For four or five days and nights the 
 boats lay in the middle of the stream, immovable, for 
 not a man could show himself for an instant above the 
 
COMMANDER OF THE SOUTHERN DEPARTMENT. 255 
 
 bulwarks without being fired upon. With difficulty, and 
 after great suffering on the part of the sick and wounded, 
 the fleet was rescued from its horrible situation by a 
 party from Fort Scott. 
 
 Before the year closed Fort Scott itself was threat 
 ened. A desultory and ineffectual fire was kept up upon 
 it for several days. The garrison, being short of provis 
 ions, and forming a most exaggerated estimate of the 
 numbers of the enemy, feared to be obliged to abandon 
 the post. This was war indeed. The Government at 
 Washington was promptly informed of these terrible 
 events by General Gaines, who advised the most vigor 
 ous measures of retaliation. It chanced that, just before 
 these dispatches reached Washington, the Secretary of 
 War, Mr. John C. Calhoun, not anticipating serious 
 trouble from the Indians, had sent orders to General 
 Gaines to proceed to Amelia Island. General Gaines 
 was accordingly compelled to leave the frontiers at a 
 time when his presence there was most needed. The 
 Government, fearing the effect at such a moment of the 
 absence of a general officer from the scene of hostilities, 
 resolved upon ordering General Jackson to take com 
 mand in person of the troops upon the frontiers of 
 Georgia. 
 
 On the 22d of January, General Jackson and his 
 " guard " left Nashville amid the cheers of the entire 
 population. The distance from Nashville to Fort Scott 
 is about four hundred and fifty miles. In the even 
 ing of March gth, forty-six days after leaving Nashville, 
 he reached Fort Scott with eleven hundred hungry men. 
 No tidings yet of the Tennessee troops under Colonel 
 Hayne ! There was no time to spend, however, in wait 
 ing or surmising. The general found himself at Fort 
 Scott in command of two thousand men, and his whole 
 stock of provisions one quart of corn and three rations 
 
256 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 of meat per man. There was no supply in his rear, for 
 he had swept the country on his line of march of every 
 bushel of corn and every animal fit for food. He had 
 his choice of two courses only : to remain at Fort Scott 
 and starve, or to go forward and find provisions. It is 
 not necessary to say which of these alternatives Andrew 
 Jackson selected. " Accordingly," he wrote, " having 
 been advised by Colonel Gibson, quartermaster-general, 
 that he would sail from New Orleans on the i2th of Feb 
 ruary with supplies, and being also advised that two 
 sloops with provisions were in the bay, and an officer 
 had been dispatched from Fort Scott in a large keel-boat 
 to bring up a part of their loading, and deeming that 
 the preservation of these supplies would be to preserve 
 the army, and enable me to prosecute the campaign, I 
 assumed the command on the morning of the loth, 
 ordered the live stock to be slaughtered and issued to 
 the troops, with one quart of corn to each man, and the 
 line of march to be taken up at twelve meridian." 
 
 It was necessary to cross the swollen river, an oper 
 ation which consumed all the afternoon, all the dark 
 night succeeding, and a part of the next morning. Five 
 days march along the banks of the Appalachicola past 
 the scene of the massacre of Lieutenant Scott brought 
 the army to the site of the old Negro Fort on Prospect 
 Bluff. On the way, however, the army, to its great joy, 
 met the ascending boat-load of flour, when the men had 
 their first full meal since leaving Fort Early, three 
 weeks before. Upon the site of the Negro Fort, General 
 Jackson ordered his aide, Lieutenant Gadsden, of the en 
 gineers, to construct a fortification, which was promptly 
 done, and named by the general Fort Gadsden, in honor, 
 as he said, of the " talents and indefatigable zeal " of the 
 builder. No news yet of the great flotilla of provisions 
 from New Orleans. " Consequently," wrote the general, 
 
COMMANDER OF THE SOUTHERN DEPARTMENT. 257 
 
 " I put the troops on half rations, and pushed the com 
 pletion of the fort for the protection of the provisions 
 in the event of their arrival, intending to march forth 
 with to the heart of the enemy and endeavor to subsist 
 upon him. In the meantime I dispatched Major Fan 
 ning of the corps, of artillery, to take another look into 
 the bay, whose return on the morning of the 23d brought 
 the information that Colonel Gibson, with one gunboat 
 and three transports and others in sight, were in the bay. 
 On the same night I received other information that no 
 more had arrived. I am therefore apprehensive that 
 some of the smaller vessels have been lost, as one gun 
 boat went to pieces, and another, when last spoken, had 
 one foot of water in her." 
 
 The Tennessee volunteers did not arrive, but had 
 been heard from. " The idea of starvation," wrote Gen 
 eral Jackson, " has stalked abroad. A panic appears to 
 have spread itself everywhere." Colonel Hayne had 
 heard that the garrison of Fort Scott were starving, and 
 had passed into Georgia for supplies, despite the willing 
 ness of the men " to risk the worst of consequences on 
 what they had to join me." General Gaines, however, 
 joined the army at Fort Gadsden, though in sorry plight. 
 " In his passage down the Flint," explains Jackson, " he 
 was shipwrecked, by which he lost his assistant adjutant- 
 general, Major C. Wright, and two soldiers drowned. 
 The general reached me six days after, nearly exhausted 
 by hunger and cold, having lost his baggage and cloth 
 ing, and being compelled to wander in the woods four 
 days and a half without anything to subsist on, or any 
 clothing except a pair of pantaloons. I am happy to 
 have it in my power to say that he is now with me, at 
 the head of his brigade, in good health." 
 
 Nine days passed, and still the general was at Fort 
 Gadsden waiting for the great flotilla. It occurred to 
 
258 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 him that possibly the Governor of Pensacola might have 
 opposed its ascent of the river or molested it in the bay. 
 He wrote a very polite but very plain letter to the Gov 
 ernor on the 25th of March. "I wish it to be distinctly 
 understood," he observed, "that any attempt to inter 
 rupt the passage of transports can not be viewed in any 
 other light than as a hostile act on your part. I will not 
 permit myself for a moment to believe that you would 
 commit an act so contrary to the interests of the King 
 your master. His Catholic Majesty, as well as the Gov 
 ernment of the United States, is alike interested in 
 chastising a savage foe who have too long warred with 
 impunity against his subjects as well as the citizens of 
 this republic, and I feel persuaded that every aid which 
 you can give to promote this object will be cheerfully 
 tendered." 
 
 The Governor in due time replied that he would per 
 mit the transports to pass this time, on condition of their 
 paying the usual duties, but never again. " If extraordi 
 nary circumstances," he concluded, " should require any 
 further temporary concessions, not explained in the 
 treaty, I request your Excellency to have the goodness 
 to apply in future, for the obtaining of them, to the 
 proper authority, as I, for my part, possess no power 
 whatever in relation thereto." 
 
 Before the day closed on which the general wrote his 
 plain letter to the Governor of Pensacola he had the 
 pleasure of hearing that the provision flotilla had arrived, 
 and of welcoming to Fort Gadsden its commanding offi 
 cers, Colonel Gibson of the army and Captain McKeever 
 of the navy. He was writing a dispatch at the time to 
 the Secretary of War, which he hastened to close with this 
 most gratifying intelligence : " I shall move to-morrow," 
 he said, " having made the necessary arrangements with 
 Captain McKeever for his co-operation in transporting 
 
COMMANDER OF THE SOUTHERN DEPARTMENT. 259 
 
 my supplies around to the Bay of St. Marks, from which 
 place I shall do myself the honor of communicating with 
 you. Should our enemy attempt to escape with his sup 
 plies and booty to the small islands, and thence to carry 
 on a predatory warfare, the assistance of the navy will 
 prevent his escape." 
 
 General Jackson on the following day was in full 
 march toward St. Marks. He left Fort Gadsden on the 
 26th of March, was joined by one regiment of Tennes- 
 seeans on the ist of April, and on the same day had a 
 brush with the enemy. A " number " of Indians, we are 
 told in the official report, were discovered engaged in 
 the peaceful employment of " herding cattle." An attack 
 upon these dusky herdsmen was instantly ordered. One 
 American killed and four wounded, fourteen Indians 
 killed and four women prisoners, were the results of this 
 affair. The army advanced upon the town to which the 
 herdsmen belonged, and found it deserted. " On reach 
 ing the square, we discovered a red pole planted at the 
 council house, on which was suspended about fifty fresh 
 scalps, taken from the heads of extreme age down to the 
 tender infant, of both sexes; and in an adjacent house 
 those of nearly three hundred men, which bore the ap 
 pearance of being the barbarous trophies of settled 
 hostility for three or four years past."* 
 
 General Gaines continued the pursuit on the follow 
 ing day, and gathered a prodigious booty. " The red 
 pole," says the adjutant s report, " was again found 
 planted in the square of Fowltown, barbarously deco 
 rated with human scalps of both sexes, taken within the 
 last six months from the heads of our unfortunate citi 
 zens. General Mclntosh, who was with General Gaines 
 
 * These scalps were doubtless the accumulation of many years and 
 of previous wars. The Seminoles had not taken ten scalps since the 
 War of 1812, exclusive of those of Lieutenant Scott s party. 
 
2 6o GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 routed a small party of savages near Fowltown, killed 
 one negro and took three prisoners, on one of whom was 
 found the coat of James Champion, of Captain Cum- 
 ming s company, Fourth Regiment of Infantry, who was 
 killed by the Indians on board of one of our boats 
 descending the river to the relief of Major Muhlenburg. 
 The pocket-book of Mr. Leigh, who was murdered at 
 Cedar Creek on the 2ist of January last, was found, 
 in Kinghajah s town, containing several letters ad 
 dressed to the deceased, and one to General Glascock. 
 About one thousand head of cattle fell into our hands, 
 many of which were recognized by the Georgia militia 
 as having brands and marks of their citizens. Nearly three 
 thousand bushels of corn were found, with other articles 
 useful to the army. Upward of three hundred houses 
 were consumed, leaving a tract of fertile country in ruin, 
 where these wretches might have lived in plenty but for 
 the vile machinations of foreign traders, if not agents." 
 On the 6th of April the army reached St. Marks, and 
 halted in the vicinity of the fort. The general sent in 
 to the Governor his aide-de-camp, Lieutenant Gadsden, 
 bearing a letter explanatory of his objects and purposes. 
 He had come, he said, " to chastise a savage foe, who, 
 combined with a lawless band of negro brigands, had 
 been for some time past carrying on a cruel and unpro 
 voked war against the citizens of the United States." 
 He had already met and put to flight parties of the hos 
 tile Indians. He had received information that those 
 Indians had fled to St. Marks and found protection 
 within its walls ; that both Indians and negroes had pro 
 cured supplies of ammunition there; and that the Span 
 ish garrison, from the smallness of its numbers, was un 
 able to resist the demands of the savages. " To prevent 
 the recurrence of so gross a violation of neutrality, and 
 to exclude our savage enemies from so strong a hold as 
 
COMMANDER OF THE SOUTHERN DEPARTMENT. 2 6l 
 
 St. Marks, I deem it expedient to garrison that fortress 
 with American troops until the close of the present war. 
 This measure is justifiable on the immutable principle of 
 self-defense, and can not but be satisfactory, under exist 
 ing circumstances, to his Catholic Majesty the King of 
 Spain." 
 
 The Governor replied that he had been made to un 
 derstand General Jackson s letter only with the greatest 
 difficulty, as there was no one within the fort who could 
 properly translate it. He denied that the Indians and 
 negroes had ever obtained supplies, succor, or encour 
 agement from Fort St. Marks. On the contrary, they 
 had menaced the fort with assault because supplies had 
 been refused them. With regard to delivering up the 
 fort intrusted to his care, he had no authority to do so, 
 and must write on the subject to his Government. Mean 
 while he prayed General Jackson to suspend his opera 
 tions. " The sick your Excellency sent in," concluded 
 the polite Governor, " are lodged in the Royal Hospital, 
 and I have afforded them every aid which circumstances 
 admit. I hope your Excellency will give me other oppor 
 tunities of evincing the desire I have to satisfy you. I 
 trust your Excellency will pardon my not answering you 
 as soon as requested, for reasons which have been given 
 you by your aide-de-camp. I do not accompany this 
 with an English translation, as your Excellency desires, 
 because there is no one in the fort capable thereof, but 
 the before-named William Hambly proposes to translate 
 it to your Excellency in the best manner he can." 
 
 This was delivered to General Jackson on the morn 
 ing of the yth of April. He instantly replied to it by 
 taking possession of the fort ! The Spanish flag was 
 lowered, the Stars and Stripes floated from the flagstaff, 
 and American troops took up their quarters within the 
 fortress. The Governor made no resistance, and indeed 
 18 
 
2 62 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 could make none. When all was over, he sent to General 
 Jackson a formal protest against his proceedings, to 
 which the general briefly replied : " The occupancy of 
 Fort St. Marks by my troops previous to your assenting 
 to the measure became necessary from the difficulties 
 thrown in the way of an amicable adjustment, notwith 
 standing my assurances that every arrangement should 
 be made to your satisfaction, and expressing a wish that 
 my movements against our common enemy should not 
 be retarded by a tedious negotiation. I again repeat 
 what has been reiterated to you through my aide-de 
 camp, Lieutenant Gadsden, that your personal rights 
 and private property shall be respected, that your situa 
 tion shall be made as comfortable as practicable while 
 compelled to remain in Fort St. Marks, and that trans 
 ports shall be furnished, as soon as they can be obtained 
 to convey yourself, family, and command to Pensacola." 
 
 Alexander Arbuthnot, a Scotch trader among the In 
 dians, was found within the fort, an inmate of the Gov 
 ernor s own quarters. It appears that on the arrival of 
 General Jackson he was preparing to leave St. Marks. 
 His horse, saddled and bridled, was standing at the gate. 
 General Jackson had no sooner taken possession of St. 
 Marks than Arbuthnot became a prisoner. " In Fort St. 
 Marks," wrote General Jackson, " an inmate in the fam 
 ily of the Spanish commandant, an Englishman by the 
 name of Arbuthnot was found. Unable satisfactorily to 
 explain the object of his visiting this country, and there 
 being a combination of circumstances to justify a sus 
 picion that his views were not honest, he was ordered 
 into close confinement." 
 
 For two days only the army remained at Fort St. 
 Marks. Suwanee, the far-famed and dread Suwanee, 
 the town of the great chief Boleck, or Bowlegs, the 
 refuge of negroes, was General Jackson s next object. 
 
COMMANDER OF THE SOUTHERN DEPARTMENT. 263 
 
 It was one hundred and seven miles from St. Marks, 
 and the route lay through a flat and swampy wilderness, 
 little known and destitute of forage. On the 9th of 
 April, leaving a strong garrison at the fort, and supply 
 ing the troops with rations for eight days, the general 
 again plunged into the forest the white troops in ad 
 vance, the Indians, under General Mclntosh, a few miles 
 in the rear. 
 
 The army made slow progress, wading through ex 
 tensive sheets of water ; the horses starving for want of 
 forage, and giving out daily in large numbers. Late in 
 the afternoon of the third day the troops reached a 
 u remarkable pond," which the Indian guides said was 
 only six miles from Suwanee town. " Here," says the 
 general, " I should have halted for the night had not six 
 mounted Indians (supposed to be spies), who were dis 
 covered, effected their escape. This determined me to 
 attempt by a forced movement to prevent the removal 
 of their effects, and, if possible, themselves from cross 
 ing the river, for, my rations being out, it was all-im 
 portant to secure their supplies for the subsistence of 
 my troops." At sunset, accordingly, the lines were 
 formed, and the whole army rushed forward. 
 
 But the prey had been forewarned. A letter from 
 Arbuthnot to his son had reached the place and had 
 been explained to Bowlegs, who had been ever since 
 employed in sending the women and children across the 
 broad Suwanee into those inaccessible retreats which 
 render Florida the best place in the world for such 
 warfare as Indians wage. The troops reached the vicin 
 ity of the town, and in a few minutes drove out the 
 enemy and captured the place. The pursuit was con 
 tinued on the following morning by General Gaines ; 
 but the foe had vanished by a hundred paths, and were 
 no more seen. 
 
264 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 In the evening of April lyth the whole army en 
 camped on the level banks of the Suwanee. In the 
 dead of night an incident occurred which can here be 
 related in the language of the same young Tennessee 
 officer who has already narrated for us the capture of 
 the chiefs and their execution. Fortunately for us, he 
 kept a journal of the campaign. This journal, written 
 at the time partly with a decoction of roots and partly 
 with the blood of the journalist* for ink was not attain 
 able lay for forty years among his papers, and was 
 copied at length by the obliging hand of his daughter 
 for the readers of these pages. "About midnight of 
 April i8th," wrote our journalist, " the repose of the 
 army, then bivouacked on the plains of the old town 
 of Suwanee, was suddenly disturbed by the deep-toned 
 report of a musket, instantly followed by the sharp 
 crack of the American rifle. The signal to arms was 
 given, and where but a moment before could only be 
 heard the measured tread of the sentinels and the low 
 moaning of the long-leafed pines, now stood five thou 
 sand men, armed, watchful, and ready for action. The 
 cause of the alarm was soon made known. Four men, 
 two whites and two negroes, had been captured while at 
 tempting to enter the camp. They were taken in charge 
 by the guard, and the army again sank to such repose 
 as war allows her votaries. When morning came it was 
 ascertained that the prisoners were Robert C. Ambrister, 
 a white attendant named Peter B. Cook, and two negro 
 servants Ambrister being a nephew of the English gov 
 ernor, Cameron, of the Island of New Providence, an ex- 
 lieutenant of British marines, and suspected of being 
 engaged in the business of counseling and furnishing 
 munitions of war to the Indians in furtherance of their 
 
 * Mr. J. B. Rodgers, of South Rock Island, Tennessee. 
 
COMMANDER OF THE SOUTHERN DEPARTMENT. 265 
 
 contest with the United States. Ignorant of the situa 
 tion of the American camp, he had blundered into it 
 while endeavoring to reach Suwanee town to meet the 
 Indians, being also unaware that the latter had been 
 driven thence on the previous day by Jackson." 
 
 Ambrister was conducted to St. Marks and placed in 
 confinement, together with his companions. The fact 
 that through Arbuthnot the Suwanee people had es 
 caped, thus rendering the last swift march comparatively 
 fruitless, was calculated, it must be owned, to exasperate 
 the mind of General Jackson. 
 
 The Seminole War, so called, was over, for the time. 
 On the 2oth of April the Georgia troops marched home 
 ward to be disbanded. On the 24th, General Mclntosh 
 and his brigade of Indians were dismissed. On the 25th, 
 General Jackson, with his Tennesseeans and regulars, 
 was again at Fort St. Marks. It was forty-six days 
 since he had entered Florida, and thirteen weeks since 
 he left Nashville. 
 
 General Jackson, on his homeward march, halted at 
 the fortress of St. Marks, to decide the fate of the 
 prisoners Ambrister and Arbuthnot. He had deter 
 mined to accord them the indulgence of a trial, and now 
 selected for that purpose a " special court " of fourteen 
 officers, who were ordered to " record all the documents 
 and testimony in the several cases, and their opinion as 
 to the guilt or innocence of the prisoners, and what pun 
 ishment, if any, should be inflicted." 
 
 At noon on the 28th of April the court convened. 
 The members were sworn, and Arbuthnot was arraigned. 
 The charges brought against him were three in number. 
 First charge : Exciting the Creek Indians to war against 
 the United States. Second charge : Acting as a spy, 
 aiding and comforting the enemy, and supplying them 
 with the means of war. Third charge : Exciting the 
 
2 66 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 Indians to murder and destroy William Hambly and 
 Edmund Doyle, and causing their arrest with a view to 
 their condemnation to death and the seizure of their 
 property, on account of their active and zealous exer 
 tions to maintain peace between Spain, the United 
 States, and the Indians, they being citizens of the 
 Spanish Government. 
 
 The evidence adduced was of two kinds, documentary 
 and personal. The letters and papers that were found 
 on board the prisoner s schooner were all submitted to 
 the court. They proved that the prisoner had sympa 
 thized with the Seminoles; that he had considered them 
 an injured people; that he had written many letters en 
 treating the interference in their behalf of English, 
 Spanish, and American authorities ; that he had given 
 them notice of the approach of General Jackson s army, 
 and advised them to fly ; that he had on all occasions 
 exerted whatever influence he possessed to induce the 
 Indians to live in peace with one another and with their 
 neighbors. 
 
 Arbuthnot in his defense called the captain of his 
 vessel, who testified that no arms had been brought to 
 the province by the prisoner, and but small quantities 
 of powder and lead; and that Ambrister had seized the 
 prisoner s schooner and used it for purposes of his own. 
 Arbuthnot s address to the court at the conclusion of 
 the trial was respectful, calm, and able. He commented 
 chiefly upon the hearsay character of the evidence. The 
 " trial " over, the prisoner was removed, and the court 
 deliberated. Two thirds of the court concurred in the 
 following opinion and sentence : " The court, after ma 
 ture deliberation on the evidence adduced, find the 
 prisoner, A. Arbuthnot, guilty of the first charge, and 
 guilty of the second charge, leaving out the words 
 * acting as a spy ; and, after mature reflection, sentence 
 
COMMANDER OF THE SOUTHERN DEPARTMENT. 2 6/ 
 
 him, A. Arbuthnot, to be suspended by the neck until 
 he is dead." 
 
 Ambrister was next arraigned. He was accused of 
 aiding and comforting the enemy, and of " levying 
 war against the United States," by assuming command 
 of the Indians and ordering a party of them " to give 
 battle to an army of the United States." It was proved 
 against Ambrister that he had come to Florida to " see 
 the negroes righted " ; that he had captured Arbuthnot s 
 schooner, plundered his store, and distributed its con 
 tents among his negro and Indian followers; that he 
 had written to New Providence asking that arms and 
 ammunition might be sent to the Indians; and that he 
 had sent a party to " oppose " the American invasion. 
 The last-named fact was proved by a sentence in one of 
 his own letters to the Governor of New Providence. " I 
 expect," wrote Ambrister, March 20, 1818, " that the 
 Americans and Indians will attack us daily. I have 
 sent a party of men to oppose them." 
 
 The prisoner made no formal defense, but merely 
 remarked that, " inasmuch as the testimony which was 
 introduced in this case was very explicit, and went to 
 every point the prisoner could wish, he has nothing fur 
 ther to offer in his defense, but puts himself upon the 
 mercy of the honorable court." 
 
 The honorable court pronounced him guilty of the 
 principal charge, and sentenced him to be shot. But we 
 are told that, " one of the members of the court request 
 ing a reconsideration of his vote on the sentence, the 
 sense of the court was taken thereon and decided in the 
 affirmative, when the vote was again taken, and the 
 court sentenced the prisoner to receive fifty stripes on 
 his bare back, and to be confined with a ball and chain 
 to hard labor for twelve calendar months." 
 
 The trials, which began at noon on the 26th, termi- 
 
268 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 nated late in the evening of the 28th, when the proceed 
 ings of the court were submitted to the commanding gen 
 eral. On the following morning, before the dawn of 
 day, General Jackson and the main body of his army 
 were in full march for Fort Gadsden. He left at St. 
 Marks a garrison of American troops. The following 
 order with regard to the court and the prisoners it had 
 tried, issued just before his departure, was dated 
 
 "CAMP, FOUR MILES NORTH OF ST. MARKS, April 2(), l8l8. 
 
 " The commanding general approves the finding and 
 sentence of the court in the case of A. Arbuthnot, and 
 approves the finding and first sentence of the court in 
 the case of Robert C. Ambrister, and disapproves the 
 reconsideration of the sentence of the honorable court 
 in this case. 
 
 " It appears, from the evidence and pleading of the 
 prisoner, that he did lead and command within the terri 
 tory of Spain (being a subject of Great Britain) the In 
 dians in war against the United States, those nations 
 being at peace. It is an established principle of the laws 
 of nations that any individual of a nation making war 
 against the citizens of any other nation, they being at 
 peace, forfeits his allegiance and becomes an outlaw and 
 pirate. This is the case of Robert C. Ambrister, clearly 
 shown by the evidence adduced. 
 
 " The commanding general orders that brevet Major 
 A. C. W. Fanning, of the corps of artillery, will have, 
 between the hours of 8 and 9 o clock, A. M., A. Arbuth 
 not suspended by the neck with a rope until he is 
 dead, and Robert C. Ambrister to be shot to death, agree 
 ably to the sentence of the court." 
 
 The sentences of the general were immediately exe 
 cuted. It is difficult to characterize aright this deplor 
 able tragedy. Arbuthnot was put to death for acts every 
 
COMMANDER OF THE SOUTHERN DEPARTMENT. 269 
 
 one of which was innocent, and some of which were emi 
 nently praiseworthy. Even Ambrister s fault was one 
 which General Jackson himself would have been certain 
 to commit in the same circumstances. He sent a party 
 to " oppose " the invasion of the province ; and even his 
 seizure of Arbuthnot s schooner seems to have been done 
 to provide his followers with the means of defense. 
 Arbuthnot was convicted upon the evidence of men who 
 had the strongest interest in his conviction. And who 
 presided over the court ? Was it not General Gaines, 
 whose treatment of the Fowltown warriors, first arrogant 
 and then precipitate, was the direct cause of the war and 
 ail its horrors ? 
 
 Of all the men concerned in this tragedy, General 
 Jackson was perhaps the least blameworthy. We can 
 survey the transaction in its completeness, but he could 
 not. He carried out of the War of 1812 the bitterest 
 recollections of Nichols and Woodbine, who had given 
 protection, succor, and honor to the fugitive Creeks. A 
 train of circumstances led him to the conclusion that 
 Arbuthnot and Ambrister were still doing the work in 
 Florida that Nichols and Woodbine had begun in 1814. 
 He expressly says, in one of his dispatches, that at the 
 beginning of his operations he was " strongly impressed 
 with the belief that this Indian war had been excited by 
 some unprincipled foreign agents," and that the Semi- 
 noles were too weak in numbers to have undertaken the 
 war unless they had received assurances of foreign 
 support. Woodbine had actually been in Florida the 
 summer before, brought thither by Arbuthnot. To the 
 " machinations " of these men General Jackson attrib 
 uted the massacre of Lieutenant Scott, and considered 
 them equally guilty. They were at length in his power, 
 and he then selected fourteen of his officers to examine 
 the evidence against them. After three days investiga- 
 
GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 tion those officers brought in a verdict that accorded ex 
 actly with his own previous convictions, as well as with 
 the representations of men who surrounded his person 
 and had an interest in confirming his impressions. 
 
 This is not a justification, for it is not permitted to 
 any man to make mistakes of the kind that costs human 
 lives. The execution of Ambrister had some slight 
 shadow of justice, but that of poor Arbuthnot had none, 
 and the violent death of that worthy old man must re 
 main a blot upon the memory of Andrew Jackson. The 
 executions created in England such general and extreme 
 indignation that nothing but the prudence of the minis 
 try prevented a war between the two countries. At home 
 these sad events were little understood, and after a de 
 bate of a whole month upon them in Congress the con 
 duct of the general was approved. 
 
 In 1821, when Florida, after some years of negotia 
 tion, was ceded to the United States, General Jackson 
 was appointed Governor of that Territory by President 
 Monroe. He accepted the appointment, resigned his 
 commission in the army, and set out on his journey. 
 Delays vexatious but unavoidable occurred in the de 
 livery of the province, and even after he had taken pos 
 session the Governor was in the worst possible humor. 
 Mrs. Jackson, who accompanied her fiery lord on this 
 occasion, wrote home in August : " There never was a 
 man more disappointed than the general has been. In 
 the first place, he has not the power to appoint one of 
 his friends ; which, I thought, was in part the reason of 
 his coming. But far has it exceeded every calculation ; 
 it has almost taken his life. Captain Call says it is equal 
 to the Seminole campaign. Well, I knew it would be a 
 ruining concern. I shall not pretend to describe the toils, 
 fatigue, and trouble. Those Spaniards had as lieve die 
 as give up their country. He has had terrible scenes. 
 
COMMANDER OF THE SOUTHERN DEPARTMENT. 271 
 
 The Governor has been put in the calaboose, which is a 
 terrible thing, really." Yes, the Spanish Governor, Colo 
 nel Callava, who of all the governors of Pensacola was 
 by far the most agreeable and the most respectable 
 character, had indeed been put into the calaboose. He 
 was a Castilian, of a race akin to the Saxon, of light 
 complexion, a handsome, well-grown man, of dignified 
 presence and refined manners. If an angel from heaven 
 had appeared to General Jackson in the guise of a Span 
 ish governor he would not have liked him, so rooted 
 was his prejudice against Spanish governors. And that 
 Spanish governor from heaven would have found it diffi 
 cult to so far forget or overlook what General Jackson 
 had formerly done in Florida as to regard the general 
 with an entirely friendly eye. The presence, therefore, 
 of Colonel Callava in Pensacola particularly after what 
 had occurred previous to the surrender furnished the 
 material for a grand explosion, provided the Governor 
 and the ex-Governor should by any accident come into 
 collision. 
 
 We need not dwell upon the details of this affair, 
 which was more ludicrous than tragic. In a few months 
 General Jackson resigned his office and resumed the life 
 of a planter on the fertile shores of the Cumberland 
 River. He reached the Hermitage November 3, 1821, 
 unspeakably disgusted with his brief exercise of civil 
 authority. He was then fifty-four years of age. Already 
 he had lived, as it were, two lives. He had first assisted 
 to subdue the Western wilderness, and then taken the 
 lead in defending it. He had first broken the power of 
 the Southern Indians, and then, by a series of treaties, 
 regulated the terms upon which they were to live in 
 neighborhood with the conquering race. He had first 
 won by his diligence and skill a fair private estate, and 
 then acquired, by his valor and conduct in war, national 
 
272 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 renown and intense popularity. He might well think 
 that he had done his part, had borne his share of private 
 and public burdens, and might now, with impaired health 
 and strength, sit down under his own vine and fig-tree 
 and rest. That such was his sincere desire and real in 
 tention there are sufficient reasons to believe. Civil 
 service he appears always to have accepted unwillingly, 
 and resigned gladly. Nothing but a summons to the 
 field ever completely overcame his reluctance to leave 
 his happy home ; and now that the aspect of the world 
 was such as to promise a lasting peace to his country, 
 he had, doubtless, no thought but to pass his remaining 
 days in the pleasant labors of his farm and the tranquil 
 enjoyment of his home. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 A CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY. 
 
 THE presidential campaign of 1824 was the least in 
 structive one that ever occurred, because it was the 
 most exclusively personal. But it was far from being 
 the least exciting. The long lull in the political firma 
 ment had given every one a desire for a renewal of the 
 old excitements, and there was everywhere an eager 
 buzz of preparation. During the last three years of Mr. 
 Monroe s second term the great topic of conversation 
 throughout the country was, Who shall be our next 
 President ? Five candidates were frequently mentioned, 
 each of whom had devoted partisans : William H. Craw 
 ford, of Georgia, Secretary of the Treasury ; John Quincy 
 Ajdams, Secretary of State; John C. Calhoun, Secretary 
 of War ; Henry Clay, Speaker of the House of Repre 
 sentatives ; De Witt Clinton, Governor of New York 
 all strong, able, and popular men. But the name of 
 Jackson had no sooner been presented to the nation by 
 the Legislature of Tennessee, than it was discovered that 
 his popularity was about to render him a most formida 
 ble competitor. To promote his presidential prospects 
 his friends caused him to be elected to the Senate of the 
 United States. Pennsylvania soon seconded his nomi 
 nation, and most of the Southern States showed a strong 
 inclination to support him. Mr. Calhoun withdrew his 
 own name in favor of the victor of New Orleans, and 
 consented to stand for the vice-presidency. The pros- 
 
274 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 pects of General Jackson were further improved by Mr. 
 Crawford being stricken with paralysis, which totally 
 prostrated him, and, in effect, narrowed the contest to 
 Adams and Jackson. 
 
 John C. Calhoun was elected Vice-President by a 
 great majority. He received 182 electoral votes out of 
 261. All New England voted for him except Connecti 
 cut and one electoral district of New Hampshire. Gen 
 eral Jackson received thirteen electoral votes for the 
 vice-presidency, and was the choice of two entire states 
 for that office Connecticut and Missouri. 
 
 Now for the presidency. Mr. Adams was the choice 
 of seven States, General Jackson of eleven States, Mr. 
 Clay of three States, Mr. Crawford of three States. Still 
 no majority. The population of the United States in 
 1820 was about nine and a half millions. The popula 
 tion of the three States which gave a majority for Mr. 
 Clay was 1,212,337. The population of the three States 
 which preferred Mr. Crawford was 1,497,029. The popu 
 lation of the seven States which gave a majority for Mr, 
 Adams was 3,032,766. The population of the eleven 
 States which voted for General Jackson was 3,757,756. 
 It thus appears that General Jackson received more 
 electoral votes, the vote of more States, and the votes 
 of more people, than any other candidate. Add to these 
 facts that General Jackson was the second choice of 
 Kentucky, Missouri, and Georgia, and it must be ad 
 mitted that he came nearer being elected by the people 
 than any other candidate. He was, moreover, a gaining 
 candidate ; every month added to his strength. 
 
 The result was not known in all its details when the 
 time came for Senator Jackson to begin his journey to 
 Washington in the fall of 1824. That he was confident, 
 however, of being the successful candidate, was indicated 
 by Mrs. Jackson s accompanying him to the seat of gov- 
 
A CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY. 
 
 275 
 
 eminent. They traveled in their own coach-and-four, I 
 believe, on this occasion. The opposition papers, at 
 least, said so, and descanted upon the fact as an evidence 
 of aristocratic pretensions ; considering it antidemocratic 
 to employ four horses to draw a load that four horses 
 sometimes could not tug a mile an hour, and were a 
 month in getting to Washington. 
 
 The people having failed to elect a President, it de 
 volved upon the IJouse of Representatives, voting by 
 States, each State having one vote to elect one from the 
 three candidates who had received the highest number 
 of electoral votes. A majority of States being necessary 
 to an election, some one candidate had to secure the 
 vote of thirteen States. The great question was to be 
 decided on the pth of February, 1825. 
 
 The result, when announced by the tellers, surprised 
 almost every one surprised many of the best-informed 
 politicians who heard it. Upon the first ballot, Mr. 
 Adams received the vote of thirteen States, which was a 
 majority. Maryland and Illinois, which had given 
 popular majorities for Jackson, voted for Adams. Ken 
 tucky, Ohio, and Missouri, which had given popular ma 
 jorities for Clay, voted for Adams. Crawford received 
 the vote of four States Delaware, North Carolina, 
 Georgia, and Virginia. General Jackson, for whom 
 eleven States had given an electoral majority, received 
 the vote of but seven States in the House. 
 
 Was General Jackson, indeed, so heartily acquiescent 
 in his defeat as he seemed to be ? He was disappointed 
 and indignant, believing that he had been defrauded of 
 the 2rj^dncjj)y j^mi^^ 
 and_Mr. Clay. In UjisJ)e^JJjrejiejjJ_Ja^ 
 died. His partisans took up the cry, and made it the 
 crTTe? ground of opposition to Mr. Adams s adminis 
 tration. 
 
276 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 General Jackson was renominated for the presidency 
 by the Legislature of Tennessee before Mr. Adams had 
 served one year. The general resigned his seat in the 
 Senate, and entered heartily into the schemes of his 
 friends. His popularity, great as it was before, seemed 
 vastly increased by his late defeat, and by the belief, in 
 dustriously promulgated, that he had been cheated of 
 the office to which the people desired to elevate him. 
 
 The campaign of 1828 opened with a stunning flour 
 ish of trumpets. Louisiana, like New York, was a 
 doubtful and troublesome State. In 1827 the Legis 
 lature of Louisiana, which had refused to recognize 
 General Jackson s services in 1815, invited him to re 
 visit New Orleans, and unite with it in the celebration 
 of the 8th of January, 1828, on the scene of his great 
 victory. 
 
 The reception of General Jackson at New Orleans 
 on this occasion was, I presume, the most stupendous 
 thing of the kind that had ever occurred in the United 
 States. Delegations from States as distant as New York 
 were sent to New Orleans to swell the tilatol the demon 
 stration. "The morning of the auspicious day," wrote 
 an eyewitness, " dawned upon New Orleans. A thick 
 mist covered the water and the land, and at ten o clock 
 began to rise into clouds ; and when the sun at last 
 appeared, it served only to show the darkness of the 
 horizon threatening a storm in the north. It was at 
 that moment the city became visible, with its steeples, 
 and the forest of masts rising from the waters. At that 
 instant, too, a fleet of steamboats was seen advancing 
 toward the Pocahontas, which had now got under way, 
 with twenty-four flags waving over her lofty decks. 
 Two stupendous boats, lashed together, led the van. The 
 whole fleet kept up a constant fire of artillery, which 
 was answered from several ships in the harbor and from 
 
A CANDIDATE FOR T H J: PRESIDENCY. 277 
 
 the shore. General Jackson stood on the back gallery 
 of the Pocahontas, his head uncovered, conspicuous to 
 the whole multitude, which literally covered the steam 
 boats, the shipping, and the surrounding shores. The 
 van which bore the Revolutionary soldiers and the rem 
 nant of the old Orleans Battalion passed the Pocahontas, 
 and, rounding to, fell down the stream, while acclama 
 tions of thousands of spectators rang from the river to 
 the woods and back to the river. 
 
 " In this order the fleet, consisting of eighteen steam 
 boats of the first class, passed close to the city, direct 
 ing their course toward the field of battle. When it was 
 first descried, some horsemen only, the marshals of the 
 day, had reached the ground ; but in a few minutes it 
 seemed alive with a vast multitude, brought thither on 
 horseback and in carriages, and poured forth from the 
 steamboats. A line was formed by Generals Planche* 
 and Labaltat, and the committee repaired on board the 
 Pocahontas, in order to invite the general to land and 
 meet his brother-soldiers and fellow-citizens. I have no 
 words to describe the scene which ensued." 
 
 The festivities continued four days, at the expiration 
 of which the general and his friends re-embarked on 
 board the Pocahontas and returned homeward. 
 
 The campaign now set in with its usual severity. Gen 
 eral Jackson was accused of every crime, offense, and im 
 propriety that man was ever known to be guilty of. His 
 whole life was subject to the severest scrutiny. Every 
 one of his duels, fights, and quarrels was narrated at 
 length. His conn^ctJQnjffiiLh Aaron Burr was t of course^ 
 a. favorite theme. The mil : tary executions which he 
 had ordered were all recounted.* John Binns, of Phila- 
 
 * On February 21, 1815, in an open place near the (then) village of 
 Mobile, the execution occurred of six militiamen, officers and privates, 
 
 19 
 
2/8 GEN E1 AL JACKSON. 
 
 delphia, issued a series of handbills, each bearing the 
 outline of a coffin-lid, upon which was printed an in 
 scription recording the death of one of these victims. 
 Campaign papers were first started this year. One, en 
 titled We the People, and another, called The Anti-Jack 
 son Expositor, were particularly prominent. The con 
 duct of General Jackson in Florida during his governor 
 ship of that Territory was detailed. 
 
 The number of electoral votes in 1828 was two hun 
 dred and sixty-one. One hundred and thirty-one was a 
 majority. General Jackson received one hundred and 
 seventy-eight ; Mr. Adams, eighty-three. 
 
 In all Tennessee, Adams and Rush obtained less 
 than three thousand votes. In many towns every vote 
 was cast for Jackson and Calhoun. A distinguished 
 member of the North Carolina Legislature told me that 
 he happened to enter a Tennessee village in the evening 
 of the last day of the presidential election of 1828. He 
 found the whole male population out hunting, the object 
 of the chase being two of their fellow-citizens. He in 
 quired by what crime these men had rendered them 
 selves so obnoxious to their neighbors, and was in 
 formed that they had voted against General Jackson ! 
 The village, it appeared, had set its heart upon sending 
 up a unanimous vote for the general, and these two 
 voters had frustrated its desire. As the day wore on, 
 the whisky flowed more and more freely, and the result 
 was a universal chase after the two voters, with a view 
 
 convicted by a court-martial of " mutiny." A body of troops number 
 ing fifteen hundred were drawn up to witness the scene ; the men were 
 blindfolded, and each man knelt upon his coffin. Thirty-six soldiers 
 were detailed for the purpose, six to fire at each. The sentence was 
 duly carried out, and for several years the country was excited over the 
 event, and much adverse criticism of General Jackson found expression 
 in the newspapers. EDITOR. 
 
A CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY. 
 
 2/9 
 
 to tarring and feathering them. They fled to the woods, 
 however, and were not taken. 
 
 The news of General Jackson s election to the presi 
 dency, I was informed by Major Lewis, created no great 
 sensation at the Hermitage, so certain beforehand were 
 its inmates of a result in accordance with their desires. 
 Mrs. Jackson quietly said : 
 
 "Well, for Mr. Jackson s sake, I am glad; for my 
 own part, I never wished it." 
 
 The people of Nashville, greatly elated by the suc 
 cess of their general, resolved to celebrate it in the 
 way in which they had long been accustomed to cele 
 brate every important event in his career. A banquet 
 unparalleled should be given in honor of his last tri 
 umph. The day appointed for this affair was the 23d 
 of December, the anniversary of the night battle below 
 New Orleans. General Jackson accepted the invitation 
 to be present. Certain ladies of Nashville, meanwhile, 
 were secretly preparing for Mrs. Jackson a magnificent 
 wardrobe, suitable, as they thought, for the adornment 
 of her person when, as mistress of the White House, she 
 would be deemed the first lady in the nation. She was 
 destined never to wear those splendid garments. 
 
 For four or five years the health of Mrs. Jackson 
 had been precarious. She had complained occasionally 
 of an uneasy feeling about the region of the heart; and, 
 during the late excitements, she had been subject to 
 sharper pains and palpitation. She died December 22d, 
 late in the evening. Her husband was shocked and 
 grieved beyond expression. It was long, as I was as 
 sured by her favorite servant Hannah, before he would 
 believe that she had really breathed her last. 
 
 The sad news reached Nashville early on the morn 
 ing of the 23d, when already the committee of arrange 
 ments were busied with the preparations for the gen- 
 
28O GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 eral s reception. " The table was well-nigh spread," 
 said one of the papers, " at which all was expected to be 
 hilarity and joy, and our citizens had sallied forth on 
 the morning with spirits light and buoyant, and counte 
 nances glowing with animation and hope, when suddenly 
 the scene is changed: congratulations are turned into 
 expressions of condolence, tears are substituted for 
 smiles, and sincere and general mourning pervades the 
 community." 
 
 General Jackson never recovered from the shock of 
 his wife s death. He was never quite the same man 
 afterward. It subdued his spirit and corrected his 
 speech. Except on occasions of extreme excitement, 
 few and far between, he never again used what is com 
 monly called " profane language," not even the familiar 
 phrase, " By the Eternal." There were times, of course, 
 when his fiery passions asserted themselves; when he 
 uttered wrathful words; when he wished even to throw 
 off the robes of office, as he once said, that he might 
 call his enemies to a dear account. But these were rare 
 occurrences. He mourned deeply and ceaselessly the 
 loss of his truest friend, and was often guided in his do 
 mestic affairs by what he supposed would have been her 
 will if she had been there to make it known. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 INAUGURATION. 
 
 HAGGARD with grief and watching, "twenty years 
 older in a night," as one of his friends remarked, the 
 President-elect was compelled to enter without delay 
 upon the labor of preparing for his journey to Washing 
 ton. His inaugural address was written at the house of 
 Major Lewis, near Nashville. But one slight alteration 
 was made in this document after the general reached 
 the seat of government. Before leaving home, the 
 general drew up a series of rules for the guidance of his 
 administration, one of which was that no member of his 
 Cabinet should be his successor. The party left Nash 
 ville on a Sunday afternoon about the middle of January. 
 The journey to Washington every one knows what it 
 must have been. The complete, the instantaneous ac 
 quiescence of the people of the United States in the 
 decision of a constitutional majority was well illustrated 
 on this occasion. The steamboat that conveyed the 
 general and his party down the Cumberland to the Ohio 
 and up the Ohio to Pittsburg a voyage of several days 
 was saluted or cheered as often as it passed a human 
 habitation. At Cincinnati it seemed as if all Ohio, and 
 at Pittsburg as if all Pennsylvania, had rushed forth to 
 shout a welcome to the President-elect. Indeed, the 
 whole country appeared to more than acquiesce in the 
 result of the election. 
 
 The day of the inauguration was one of the brightest 
 
282 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 and balmiest of the spring. Mr. Webster, in his comic 
 manner, remarks: "I never saw such a crowd here 
 before. Persons have come five hundred miles to see 
 General Jackson, and they really seem to think that the 
 country is rescued from some dreadful danger!" The 
 ceremony over, the President drove from the Capitol to 
 the White House, followed soon by a great part of the 
 crowd who had witnessed the inauguration. Judge 
 Story, a strenuous Adams man, did not enjoy the scene 
 which the apartments of the " palace," as he styles it, 
 presented on this occasion. " After the ceremony was 
 over," he wrote, "the President went to the palace to 
 receive company, and there he was visited by immense 
 crowds of all sorts of people, from the highest and most 
 polished down to the most vulgar and gross in the 
 nation. I never saw such a mixture. The reign of 
 King Mob seemed triumphant. I was glad to escape 
 from the scene as soon as possible." 
 
 Soon after General Jackson arrived at the seat of 
 government he informed Edward Livingston, of Louisi 
 ana, that Mr. Van Buren was the foreordained Secretary 
 of State of the incoming Administration, and offered 
 him the choice of the seats remaining. Mr. Livingston, 
 just then elected to the Senate, preferred his senatorship 
 to any office in the Government except the one already 
 appropriated. In distributing the six great offices, Gen 
 eral Jackson assigned two to the North, two to the West, 
 and two to the South. 
 
 Mr. Van Buren accepted the first place without hesi 
 tation, resigned the governorship of New York after 
 .holding it seventy days, and entered upon his duties at 
 Washington three weeks after the inauguration. Samuel 
 D. Ingham, of Pennsylvania, was appointed to the second 
 place in the Cabinet that of Secretary of the Treasury. 
 John H. Eaton, Senator from Tennessee, was appointed 
 
INAUGURATION. 283 
 
 Secretary of War. General Jackson was, from the first, 
 determined to have in his Cabinet one of his own Ten 
 nessee circle of friends, and Mr. Eaton was the one 
 selected. The Navy Department was assigned to John 
 Branch, for many years a Senator from North Carolina. 
 John Macpherson Berrien, of Georgia, was appointed 
 Attorney-General. William T. Barry, of Kentucky, was 
 appointed Postmaster-General. Such was the first Cab 
 inet of the new President. With the exception of Mr. 
 Van Buren, its members had no great influence over the 
 measures of their chief, and play no important part in 
 the general history of the times. 
 
 No sooner had General Jackson announced the names 
 of the gentlemen who were to compose his Cabinet, than 
 an opposition to one of them manifested itself of a 
 peculiar and most virulent character. Mr. Eaton, the 
 President s friend and neighbor, was the object of this 
 opposition, the grounds of which must be particularly 
 stated, for it led to important results. A certain Wil 
 liam O Neal kept at Washington for many years a large, 
 old-fashioned tavern, where members of Congress in 
 considerable numbers boarded during the sessions of 
 the national Legislature. William O Neal had a daughter, 
 sprightly and beautiful, who aided him and his wife in 
 entertaining his boarders. Peg O Neal, as she was called, 
 was so lively in her deportment, so free in her conversa 
 tion, that, had she been born twenty years later, she 
 would have been called one of the " fast " girls of Wash 
 ington. 
 
 When Major Eaton first came to Washington as a 
 Senator of the United States, in the year 1818, he took 
 board at Mr. O Neal s tavern, and continued to reside 
 there every winter for ten years. He became acquainted, 
 of course, with the family, including the vivacious and 
 attractive Peg. When General Jackson came to the city 
 
284 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 as Senator in 1823, he also went to live with the O Neals, 
 whom he had known in Washington before it had become 
 the seat of government. For Mrs. O Neal, who was a 
 remarkably efficient woman, he had a particular respect. 
 Even during his presidency, when he was supposed to 
 visit no one, it was one of his favorite relaxations, when 
 worn out with business, to stroll with Major Lewis across 
 the "old fields " near Washington to the cottage where 
 Mrs. O Neal lived in retirement, and enjoy an hour s 
 chat with the old lady. Mrs. Jackson, also, during her 
 residence in Washington in 1825, became attached to 
 Mrs. O Neal and to her daughter. 
 
 In the course of time Miss O Neal became the wife 
 of Purser Timberlake, of the United States Navy, and 
 the mother of two children. In 1828 came the news 
 that Mr. Timberlake, then on duty in the Mediterranean, 
 had cut his throat in a fit of melancholy, induced, it was 
 said, by previous intoxication. On hearing this intelli 
 gence, Major Eaton, then a widower, felt an inclination 
 to marry Mrs. Timberlake, for whom he had entertained 
 an attachment quite as tender as a man could lawfully 
 indulge for the wife of a friend and brother-mason. He 
 took the precaution to consult General Jackson on the 
 subject. "Why, yes, major," said the general, "if you 
 love the woman, and she will have you, marry her, by all 
 means." Major Eaton mentioned, what the general well 
 knew, that Mrs. Timberlake s reputation in Washington 
 had not escaped reproach, and that Major Eaton him 
 self was supposed to have been too intimate with her. 
 " Well," said the general, " your marrying her will dis 
 prove these charges, and restore Peg s good name." 
 And so, perhaps, it might, if Major Eaton had not been 
 taken into the Cabinet. 
 
 Eaton and Mrs. Timberlake were married in January, 
 1829, a few weeks before General Jackson arrived at the 
 
INAUGURATION. 285 
 
 seat of government. As soon as it was whispered about 
 Washington that Major Eaton was to be a member of 
 the new Cabinet, it occurred with great force to the 
 minds of certain ladies, who supposed themselves to be 
 at the head of society at the capital, that in that case 
 Peg O Neal would be the wife of a Cabinet minister, 
 and, as such, entitled to admission into their own sacred 
 circle. 
 
 From the moment the scandal reached his ears the 
 new President made Mr. Eaton s cause his own. He 
 sent a confidential agent to New York to investigate one 
 of the stories. He wrote so many letters and statements 
 in relation to this business that Major Lewis, who lived 
 in the White House, was worn out with the nightly toil 
 of copying. The entire mass of the secret and confi 
 dential writings relating to Mrs. Eaton, all dated in the 
 summer and autumn of 1829, and most of them originally 
 in General Jackson s hand, would fill about one hundred 
 and sixty of these pages. And besides these, there was 
 a large number of papers and documents not deemed 
 important enough for preservation. General Jackson, 
 indeed, brought to the defense of Mrs. Eaton all the fire 
 and resolution with which, forty years before, he had 
 silenced every whisper against Mrs. Jackson. He con 
 sidered the cases of the two ladies parallel. His zeal 
 in behalf of Mrs. Eaton was a manifestation or conse 
 quence of his wrath against the calumniators of his wife. 
 At length the President of the United States brought 
 this matter before his Qabinet. The members of the 
 Cabinet having assembled one day in the usual place, 
 the accusers were brought before them, when the Presi 
 dent endeavored to demonstrate that Mrs. Eaton was 
 < as chaste as snow." Whether the efforts of the Presi 
 dent had or had not the effect of convincing the ladies 
 of Washington that Mrs. Eaton was worthy of admission 
 
286 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 into their circle, shall in due time be related. Upon a 
 point of that nature ladies are not convinced easily. 
 Meanwhile, the suitors for presidential favor are advised 
 to make themselves visible at the lady s receptions. 
 A card in Mrs. Eaton s card-basket is not unlikely to be 
 a winning card. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 TERROR AMONG THE OFFICE-HOLDERS. 
 
 IT is delightful to observe with what a scrupulous 
 conscientiousness the early Presidents of this republic 
 disposed of the places in their gift. Washington de 
 manded to be satisfied on three points with regard to an 
 applicant for office : Is he honest ? Is he capable ? Has 
 he the confidence of his fellow-citizens ? Not till these 
 questions were satisfactorily answered did he deign to 
 inquire respecting the political opinions of a candidate. 
 Private friendship between the President and an appli 
 cant was absolutely an obstacle to his appointment, so 
 fearful was the President of being swayed by private 
 motives. " My friend," he says, in one of his letters, " I 
 receive with cordial welcome. He is welcome to my 
 house and welcome to my heart ; but, with all his good 
 qualities, he is not a man of business. His opponent, 
 with all his politics so hostile to me, is a man of busi 
 ness. My private feelings have nothing to do in the 
 case. I am not George Washington, but President of 
 the United States. As George Washington, I would do 
 this man any kindness in my power ; as President of the 
 United States, I can do nothing." The example of 
 General Washington was followed by his successors. 
 
 Up to the hour of the delivery of General Jackson s 
 inaugural address it was supposed that the new Presi 
 dent would act upon the principles of his predecessors. 
 In his former letters he had taken strong ground against 
 
288 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 partisan appointments, and when he resigned his seat in 
 the Senate he had advocated two amendments to the 
 Constitution, designed to limit and purify the exercise of 
 the appointing power. One of these proposed amend 
 ments forbade the re-election of a President, and the 
 other the appointment of members of Congress to any 
 office not judicial. 
 
 The sun had not gone down upon the day of his 
 inauguration before it was known in all official circles 
 in Washington that the "reform " alluded to in the in 
 augural address meant a removal from office of all who 
 had conspicuously opposed, and an appointment to office 
 of those who had conspicuously aided, the election of 
 the new President. The work was promptly begun. 
 Colonel Benton will not be suspected of overstating the 
 facts respecting the removals, but he admits that their 
 number, during this year (1829) was six hundred and 
 ninety. His estimate of six hundred and ninety does 
 not include the little army of clerks and others who 
 were at the disposal of some of the six hundred and 
 ninety. The estimate of two thousand includes all who 
 lost their places in consequence of General Jackson s 
 accession to power ; and, though the exact number can 
 not be ascertained, I presume it was not less than two 
 thousand. Colonel Benton says that of the eight thou 
 sand postmasters, only four hundred and ninety-one 
 were removed ; but he does not add, as he might have 
 added, that the four hundred and ninety-one vacated 
 places comprised nearly all in the department that were 
 worth having. Nor does he mention that the removal 
 of the postmasters of half a dozen great cities was 
 equivalent to the removal of many hundreds of clerks, 
 bookkeepers, and carriers. 
 
 In the eagerness of his desire to "stand by his 
 friends," the President was brought into collision with the 
 
 
TERROR AMONG THE OFFICE-HOLDERS. 289 
 
 Bank of the United States, a truly imposing and powerful 
 institution in 1829. Its capital was thirty-five millions. 
 The public money deposited in its vaults averaged six 
 or seven millions ; its private deposits, six millions more ; 
 its circulation, twelve millions; its discounts, more than 
 forty millions a year ; its annual profits, more than three 
 millions. Besides the parent bank at Philadelphia with 
 its marble palace and hundred clerks, there were twenty- 
 five branches in the towns and cities of the Union, each 
 of which had its president, cashier, and board of direct 
 ors. The employees of the bank were more than five 
 hundred in number, all men of standing and influence, 
 all liberally salaried. In every county of the Union, in 
 every nation on the globe, were stockholders of the 
 Bank of the United States. One fifth of its stock was 
 owned by foreigners. One fourth of its stock was held 
 by women, orphans, and the trustees of charity funds 
 so high, so unquestioned was its credit. Its bank notes 
 were as good as gold in every part of the country. 
 From Maine to Georgia, from Georgia to Astoria, a man 
 could travel and pass these notes at every point with 
 out discount. Nay, in London, Paris, Rome, Cairo, Cal 
 cutta, or St. Petersburg, the notes of the Bank of the 
 United States were worth a fraction more or a fraction 
 less than their value at home, according to the current 
 rate of exchange. They could usually be sold at a 
 premium at the remotest commercial centers. It was 
 not uncommon for the stock of the bank to be sold at a 
 premium of forty per cent. The directors of this bank 
 were twenty-five in number, of whom five were appoint 
 ed by the President of the United States. The bank 
 and its branches received and disbursed the entire rev 
 enue of the nation. At the head of this great establish 
 ment was the once renowned Nicholas Biddle. 
 
 General Jackson had no thought of the bank until 
 
2QO GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 he had been President two months. He came to Wash 
 ington anticipating but a single term, during which the 
 question of rechartering the bank was not expected to 
 come up. The bank was chartered in 1816 for twenty 
 years, which would not expire until 1836, three years 
 after General Jackson hoped to be at the Hermitage 
 once more, never to leave it. The first intercourse, too, 
 between the bank and the new Administration was in 
 the highest degree courteous and agreeable. A large 
 payment was to be made of the public debt early in the 
 summer, and the manner in which the bank managed 
 that affair, at some loss and much inconvenience to 
 itself, but greatly to the advantage of the public and to 
 the credit of the Government, won from the Secretary of 
 the Treasury a warm eulogium. 
 
 But while this affair was going on so pleasantly, 
 trouble was brewing in another quarter. Isaac Hill, 
 from New Hampshire, then Second Comptroller of the 
 treasury, was a great man at the White House. He had 
 a grievance. Jeremiah Mason, one of the three great 
 lawyers of New England, a Federalist, a friend of Daniel 
 Webster and of Mr. Adams, had been appointed to the 
 presidency of the branch of the United States Bank at 
 Portsmouth, New Hampshire much to the disgust of 
 Isaac Hill and other Jackson men of that State. Isaac 
 Hill desired the removal of Mr. Mason, and the appoint 
 ment in his place of a gentleman who was a friend of 
 the new Administration. 
 
 Mr. Hill caused petitions to be addressed to the 
 directors of the bank, in which Mr. Mason was accused 
 of partiality, haughtiness, mismanagement, and his re 
 moval demanded. Mr. Biddle went himself to Ports 
 mouth, where he spent six days in investigating the 
 charges, and satisfied himself that they were groundless. 
 He informed the Secretary of the Treasury, who had 
 
TERROR AMONG THE OFFICE-HOLDERS. 
 
 2 9 I 
 
 addressed him on the subject, that the directors would 
 not remove a faithful servant for political reasons. So 
 the Bank of the United States triumphed over Isaac Hill 
 and the Administration. It was a dear victory. 
 
 Near the close of the new President s first message 
 was the famous passage which sounded the first note of 
 war against the United States Bank : " The charter of 
 the Bank of the United States expires in 1836, and its 
 stockholders wiW most probably apply for a renewal of 
 their privileges. In order to avoid the evils resulting 
 from precipitancy in a measure involving such impor 
 tant principles and such deep pecuniary interests, I feel 
 that I can not, in justice to the parties interested, too 
 soon present it to the deliberate consideration of the 
 Legislature and the people. Both the constitutionality 
 and the expediency of the law creating this bank are 
 well questioned by a large portion of our fellow-citi 
 zens; and it must be admitted by all that it has failed 
 in the great end of establishing a uniform and sound 
 currency." 
 
 The Senate retorted by rejecting the nomination of 
 Isaac Hill to the second comptrollership of the Treas 
 ury, which the President amended by causing Mr. Hill 
 to be elected Senator from New Hampshire. Many 
 other nominations were rejected, and the great bank in 
 many ways frustrated and defied the President. After 
 years of loud and vehement strife, the rechartering of 
 the United States Bank was prevented by him, and it 
 ceased to exist as a national institution. 
 
 Congress met on the yth of December, 1829. Such 
 was the strength of the Administration in the House of 
 Representatives, that Andrew Stephenson was re-elected 
 to the speakership by one hundred and fifty-two votes 
 out of one hundred and ninety-one. This Congress, 
 however, came in with the Administration, and had been 
 
292 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 elected when General Jackson was elected. This was 
 the session signalized by the .great debate between Mr. 
 Hayne and Mr. Webster, the first of many debates upon 
 nullification. 
 
 It had been a custom in Washington, for twenty 
 years, to celebrate the birthday (April isth) of Thomas 
 Jefferson, the apostle of democracy. As General Jack 
 son was regarded by his party as the great restorer and 
 exemplifier of Jeffersonian principles, it was natural that 
 they should desire to celebrate the festival, this year, 
 with more than usual tclat. It was so resolved. A 
 banquet was the mode selected ; to which the President, 
 the Vice-President, the Cabinet, many leading members 
 of Congress, and other distinguished persons, were in 
 vited. When the regular toasts were over, the President 
 was called upon for a volunteer, and gave it : " Our Fed 
 eral Union : It must be preserved." 
 
 Mr. Calhoun gave the next toast : " The Union : 
 Next to our liberty the most dear : may we all remember 
 that it can only be preserved by respecting the rights of 
 the States, and distributing equally the benefit and bur 
 den of the Union." 
 
 It was supposed, at the time, that the toast offered 
 by the President was an impromptu. On the contrary, 
 the toast was prepared with singular deliberation, and 
 was designed to produce the precise effect it did pro 
 duce. Major Lewis favors the reader with the following 
 interesting reminiscence : " This celebrated toast, The 
 Federal Union: It must be preserved, was a cool, de 
 liberate act. The United States Telegraph, General 
 Duff Green s paper, published a programme of the pro 
 ceedings for the celebration the day before, to which the 
 general s attention had been drawn by a friend, with the 
 suggestion that he had better read it. This he did in 
 the course of the evening, and came to the conclusion 
 
TERROR AMONG THE OFFICE-HOLDERS. 293 
 
 that the celebration was to be a nullification affair alto 
 gether. With this impression on his mind, he prepared 
 early the next morning (the day of the celebration) three 
 toasts, which he brought with him when he came into his 
 office, where he found Major Donelson and myself read 
 ing the morning papers. After taking his seat he handed 
 them to me and asked me to read them, and tell him 
 which I preferred. I ran my eye over them and then 
 handed him the one I liked best. He handed them to 
 Major Donelson also, with the same request, who, on 
 reading them, agreed with me. He said he preferred 
 that one himself, for the reason that it was shorter and 
 more expressive. He then put that one into his pocket, 
 and threw the others into the fire. That is the true his 
 tory of the toast the general gave on the Jefferson birth 
 day celebration in 1830, which fell among the nullifiers 
 like an exploded bomb ! " 
 
 The year 1829 had not closed before General Jackson 
 was resolved to do all that in him lay to secure the elec 
 tion of Mr. Van Buren as his successor to the presidency. 
 Nor did that year come to an end before he began to 
 act in furtherance of the project. "All through the 
 summer and fall of 1829," writes Major Lewis, " Gen 
 eral Jackson was in very feeble health, and in December 
 of the same year his friends became seriously alarmed 
 for his safety. It occurred to me that General Jackson s 
 name, though he might be dead, would prove a powerful 
 lever, if judiciously used, in raising Mr. Van Buren to 
 the presidency. I therefore determined to get the gen 
 eral, if possible, to write a letter to some friend, to be 
 used at the next succeeding presidential election (in case 
 of his death), expressive of the confidence he reposed 
 in Mr. Van Buren s abilities, patriotism, and qualifica 
 tions for any station, even the highest within the gift of 
 the people. He accordingly wrote a letter to his old 
 
 20 
 
294 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 friend Judge Overton, and handed it to me to copy, with 
 authority to make such alterations as I might think 
 proper. After copying it (having made only a few ver 
 bal alterations) I requested him to read it, and, if satis 
 fied with it, to sign it. He read it, and said it would do, 
 and then put his name to it, remarking as he returned 
 it to me : 
 
 " If I die, you have my permission to make such use 
 of it as you may think most desirable. " 
 
 The letter to Judge Overton contained these words : 
 " Permit me here to say of Mr. Van Buren, that I have 
 found him everything that I could desire him to be, and 
 believe him not only deserving my confidence but the 
 confidence of the nation. Instead of his being selfish 
 and intriguing, as has been represented by some of his 
 opponents, I have ever found him frank, open, candid, 
 and manly. As a counselor, he is able and prudent; re 
 publican in his principles, and one of the most pleasant 
 men to do business with I ever saw. He, my dear friend, 
 is well qualified to fill the highest office in the gift of the 
 people, who in him will find a true friend and safe de 
 pository of their rights and liberty." 
 
 Judge Overton, I believe, never knew the purpose 
 for which this letter was written. The copy retained 
 was signed by General Jackson and placed among the 
 secret papers of Major Lewis, where it reposed until 
 copied for the readers of these pages. 
 
 A new man was summoned to the councils of the 
 President Lewis Cass, Governor of the Territory of 
 Michigan, who was installed as head of the Department 
 of War in July. The vacant attorney-generalship was 
 conferred upon Mr. Roger B. Taney, then Attorney- 
 General of Maryland, afterward the Chief Justice of the 
 Supreme Court of the United States. Mr. Taney was a 
 lawyer of the first distinction in his native State. He 
 
TERROR AMONG THE OFFICE-HOLDERS. 295 
 
 was one of the Federalists who had given a zealous sup 
 port to General Jackson in 1828. 
 
 At the next session of Congress the Senate confirmed 
 the nominations of Edward Livingston, Louis McLane, 
 Levi Woodbury, Lewis Cass, and Roger B. Taney, to 
 their respective places in the Cabinet. Not so the nomi 
 nation of Mr. Van Buren to the post of British minister. 
 Mr. Calhoun, at that time, in common with most .of the 
 opposition, attributed to the machinations of Mr. Van 
 Buren his rupture with the President and the dissolution 
 of the Cabinet. Mr. Clay and Mr. Webster were of the 
 opinion that it was Mr. Van Buren who had induced the 
 President to adopt the New York system of party re 
 movals. The leaders of the Senate resolved upon the 
 rejection of Mr. Van Buren. 
 
 The rejection secured Mr. Van Buren s political for 
 tune. His elevation to the presidency, long before de 
 sired and intended by General Jackson, became from 
 that hour one of his darling objects. The "party," 
 also, took him up with a unanimity and enthusiasm that 
 left the wire-pullers of the White House little to do. 
 Letters of remonstrance and approbation, signed by in 
 fluential members of the party, were sent over the sea to 
 Mr. Van Buren, who soon found that his rejection was 
 one of the most fortunate events of his public life. 
 
 The last important act of President Jackson s first 
 term was his veto of the bill to recharter the United 
 States Bank, which he accompanied by a message_pf 
 singulax_e^ectiyejnifiss. Concerning the financial and 
 legal principles laid down in this important document 
 financiers and lawyers differ in opinion. The office of 
 the present chronicler is to state that the bank-veto 
 message of President Jackson came with convincing 
 power upon a majority of the people of the United 
 States. It settled the question. It was the singular 
 
296 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 fortune of the bank-veto message to delight equally the 
 friends and foes of the bank. The opposition circulated 
 it as a campaign document ! Duff Green published it in 
 his extra Telegraph, calling upon all the opponents of 
 the Administration to give it the widest publicity, since 
 it would damn the Administration wherever it was read. 
 The New York American characterized it thus: "It is 
 indeed and verily beneath contempt. It is an appeal of 
 ignorance to ignorance, of prejudice to prejudice, of the 
 most unblushing partisan hostility to the obsequiousness 
 of partisan servility. No man in the Cabinet proper will 
 be willing to share the ignominy of preparing or ap 
 proving such a paper." 
 
 Nicholas Biddle himself was enchanted with it, for 
 he thought it had saved the bank by destroying the 
 bank s great enemy. " You ask," he wrote to Henry 
 Clay, " what is the effect of the veto ? My impression 
 is, that it is working as well as the friends of the bank 
 and of the country could desire." 
 
 The result of the election astonished everybody. 
 Not the wildest Jackson man in his wildest moment had 
 anticipated a victory quite so overwhelming. Two hun 
 dred and eighty-eight was the whole number of electoral 
 votes in 1832. General Jackson received two hundred 
 and nineteen seventy-four more than a majority. Mr. 
 Van Buren, for the vice-presidency, received one hun 
 dred and eighty-nine electoral votes forty-four more 
 than a majority. 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 THE SECOND TERM. 
 
 THE triumphant re-election of General Jackson in 
 1832 was a sore disappointment to Mr. Calhoun, and to 
 his friends the "nullifiers " of South Carolina. 
 
 The War of 1812 left the country burdened with a debt 
 of one hundred and thirty millions of dollars, and blessed 
 with a great number of small manufactories. The debt 
 and the manufactories were both results of the war. By 
 cutting off the supply of foreign manufactured articles, 
 the war had produced upon the home manufacturing in 
 terests the effect of a prohibitory tariff. To pay the in 
 terest of this great debt, and occasional installments of 
 the principal, it was necessary for the Government to 
 raise a far larger revenue than had ever before been col 
 lected in the United States. The new manufacturing in 
 terests asked that the duties should be so regulated as 
 to afford some part of that complete protection which 
 the war had given it. The peace, that had been wel 
 comed with such wild delight in 1815, had prostrated 
 entire branches of manufacture to which the war had 
 given a sudden development. 
 
 Among those who advocated the claims of the manu 
 facturers in the session of i8i5~ i6, and strove to have 
 the protective principle permanently incorporated into 
 the revenue legislation of Congress, the most active, the 
 most zealous, was John C. Calhoun, member of the 
 House of Representatives from South Carolina. He 
 
298 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 spoke often on the subject and he spoke unequivocally. 
 Mr. Clay, who was then the friend, ally, and messmate 
 of Mr. Calhoun, admitted that the Carolinian had sur 
 passed himself in the earnestness with which he labored 
 in the cause of protection. One of his arguments was 
 drawn from the condition of Poland at the time. " The 
 country in Europe " said he, " having the most skillful 
 workmen, is broken up. It is to us, if wisely used, more 
 valuable than the repeal of the Edict of Nantes was to 
 England. She had the prudence to profit by it ; let us 
 not discover less political sagacity. Afford to inge 
 nuity and industry immediate and AMPLE PROTECTION, 
 and they will not fail to give a preference to this free 
 and happy country." 
 
 The protectionists, led by Messrs. Clay and Calhoun, 
 triumphed in 1816. In the tariff bill of 1820 the princi 
 ple was carried further, and still further in those of 1824 
 and 1828. But about the year 1824 it began to be 
 thought that the advantages of the system were enjoyed 
 chiefly by the Northern States, and the South hastened 
 to the conclusion that the protective system was the 
 cause of its lagging behind. There was, accordingly, a 
 considerable Southern opposition to the tariff of 1824, 
 and a general Southern opposition to that of 1828. In 
 the latter year, however, the South elected to the presi 
 dency General Jackson, whose votes and whose writings 
 had committed him to the prindj^e_pf protection. South 
 ern politicians felt that the general, as a Southern man, 
 was more likely to further their views than Messrs. 
 Adams and Clay, both of whom were peculiarly devoted 
 to protection. 
 
 As the first years of General Jackson s administration 
 wore away without affording to the South the " relief " 
 which they had hoped from it, the discontent of the 
 Southern people increased. Circumstances gave them a 
 
THE SECOND TERM. 
 
 2 99 
 
 new and telling argument. In 1831 the public debt had 
 been so far diminished as to render it certain that in 
 three years the last dollar of it would be paid. The 
 Government had been collecting about twice as much 
 revenue as its annual expenditures required. In three 
 years, therefore, there would be an annual surplus of 
 twelve or thirteen millions of dollars. The South de 
 manded with almost a united voice, that the duties 
 should be reduced so as to make the revenue equal to 
 the expenditure, and that, in making this reduction, the 
 principle of protection should be, in effect, abandoned. 
 Protection should thenceforth be " incidental " merely. 
 The session of i83i- 32 was the one during which South 
 ern gentlemen hoped to effect this great change in the 
 policy of the country. The President s message, as we 
 have seen, also announced that, in view of the speedy 
 extinction of the public debt, it was high time that Con 
 gress should prepare for the threatened surplus. 
 
 The case was one of real difficulty. It was a case 
 for a statesman. To reduce the revenue thirteen mil 
 lions, at one indiscriminate swoop, might close half the 
 workshops in the country. At the same time, for the 
 United States to go on raising thirteen millions a year 
 more than was necessary for carrying on the govern 
 ment would have been an intolerable absurdity. 
 
 Mr. Clay, after an absence from the halls of Congress 
 of six years, returned to the Senate in December, 1831 
 an illustrious figure, the leader of the opposition, its 
 candidate for the presidency, his old renown enhanced 
 by his long exile from the scene of his well-remembered 
 triumphs. The galleries filled when he was expected to 
 speak. He was in the vigor of his prime. He never 
 spoke so well as then, nor as often, nor so long, nor 
 with so much applause. But he either could not or 
 dared not undertake the choking of the surplus. What 
 
300 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 wise, complete, far-reaching measure can a candidate for 
 the presidency link his fortunes to ? He wounded, with 
 out killing it ; and he was compelled, at a later day, to 
 do what it had been glorious voluntarily to attempt in 
 1832. He proposed merely that "the duties upon arti 
 cles imported from foreign countries, and not coming 
 into competition with similar articles made or produced 
 within the United States, be forthwith abolished, except 
 the duties upon wines and silks, and that those be re 
 duced." After a debate of months duration, a bill in 
 accordance with this proposition passed both Houses, 
 and was signed by the President It preserved the pro 
 tective principle intact; it reduced the income of the 
 Government about three millions of dollars; and it in 
 flamed the discontent of the South to such a degree 
 that one State, under the influence of a man of force, be 
 came capable of nullification. 
 
 The President signed the bill, as he told his friends, 
 because he deemed it an approach to the measure re 
 quired. His influence, during the session, had been 
 secretly exerted in favor of compromise. The President 
 thought that the just course lay between the two ex 
 tremes of abandoning the protective principle and of 
 reducing the duties in total disregard of it. 
 
 Here was the opportunity of the nullifiers. A con 
 vention of the people of South Carolina met at Colum 
 bia, November 19, 1832, which passed an "ordinance" 
 declaring that the tariff law of 1828, and the amendment 
 to the same of 1832, were "null, void, and no law, nor 
 binding upon this State, its officers or citizens," and that 
 no duties enjoined by that law or its amendment shall 
 be paid, or permitted to be paid, in the State of South 
 Carolina, after the first day of February, 1833." 
 
 The message of the new Governor indorsed the acts 
 of the convention in the strongest language possible. 
 
THE SECOND TERM. 
 
 301 
 
 "I recognize," said Governor Hayne, "no allegiance as 
 paramount to that which the citizens of South Carolina 
 owe to the State of their birth or their adoption." He 
 said more : " If the sacred soil of Carolina should be 
 polluted by the footsteps of an invader, or be stained 
 with the blood of her citizens, shed in her defense, I 
 trust in Almighty God that no son of hers, native OP 
 adopted, who has been nourished at her bosom, or been 
 cherished by her bounty, will be found raising a parri 
 cidal arm against our common mother." 
 
 The Legislature instantly responded to the message 
 by passing the acts requisite for carrying the ordinance 
 into practical effect. The Governor was authorized to 
 accept the services of volunteers, who were to hold 
 themselves in readiness to march at a moment s warn 
 ing. The State resounded with the noise of warlike 
 preparation. Blue cockades with a palmetto button in 
 the center appeared upon thousands of hats, bonnets, 
 and bosoms. Medals were struck ere long, bearing this 
 inscription : " John C. Calhoun, First President of the 
 Southern Confederacy." The Legislature proceeded 
 soon to fill the vacancy created in the Senate of the 
 United States by the election of Mr. Hayne to the gov 
 ernorship. John C. Calhoun, Vice-President of the 
 United States, was the individual selected, and Mr. Cal 
 houn accepted his seat. He resigned the vice-presi 
 dency, and began his journey to Washington in Decem 
 ber, leaving his State in the wildest ferment. 
 
 The President baffled and brought to naught the mis 
 guided men who originated and sustained this alarming 
 complication. General Winfield Scott was quietly or 
 dered to Charleston, for the purpose, as the President 
 confidentially informed the collector, "of superintend 
 ing the safety of the ports of the United States in that 
 vicinity." Other changes were made in the disposition 
 
302 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 of naval and military forces, designed to enable the 
 President to act with swift efficiency if there should be 
 occasion to act. If ever a man was resolved to accom 
 plish a purpose, General Jackson was resolved on this 
 occasion to preserve intact the authority with which he 
 had been intrusted. Nor can any language do justice to 
 the fury of his contemptuous wrath against the author 
 and fomenter of all this trouble. 
 
 Congress met on the 3d of December, 1832. Mr. 
 Calhoun had not reached Washington, and his intention 
 to resign the vice-presidency was not known there. The 
 message reveals few traces of the loud and threatening 
 contentions amid which it was produced. The troubles 
 in South Carolina were dismissed in a single paragraph, 
 which expressed a hope of a speedy adjustment of the 
 difficulty. 
 
 While Congress was listening to this calm and sug 
 gestive message, the President was absorbed in the prep 
 aration of another document, and one of a very different 
 description. A pamphlet containing the proceedings of 
 the South Carolina Convention reached him on one of the 
 last days of November. It moved him profoundly; for 
 this fiery spirit loved his country as few men have loved 
 it. Though he regarded those proceedings as the fruit 
 of John C. Calhoun s ambition and resentment, he rose 
 on this occasion above personal considerations, and con 
 ducted himself with that union of daring and prudence 
 which had given him such signal success in war. He 
 went to his office alone, and began to dash off page after 
 page of the memorable proclamation which was soon to 
 electrify the country. He wrote with that great steel 
 pen of his, and with such rapidity, that he was obliged 
 to scatter the written pages all over the table to let them 
 dry. A gentleman who came in when the President had 
 written fifteen or twenty pages, observed that three of 
 
THE SECOND TERM. 
 
 303 
 
 them were glistening with wet ink at the same moment. 
 The warmth, the glow, the passion, the eloquence of 
 that proclamation were produced then and there by the 
 President s own hand. 
 
 To these pages were added many more of notes and 
 memoranda which had been accumulating in the Presi 
 dential hat for some weeks, and the whole collection was 
 then placed in the hands of Mr. Livingston, the Secre 
 tary of State, who was requested to draw up the proc 
 lamation in proper form. Major Lewis writes to me: 
 " Mr. Livingston took the papers to his office, and in 
 the course of three or four days brought the proclama 
 tion to the general, and left it for his examination. After 
 reading it, he came into my room and remarked that Mr. 
 Livingston had not correctly understood his notes; there 
 were portions of the draft, he added, which were not in 
 accordance with his views, and must be altered. He 
 then sent his messenger for Mr. Livingston, and pointed 
 out to him the passages which did not represent his views, 
 and requested him to take it back with him and make 
 the alterations he had suggested. This was done, and, 
 the second draft being satisfactory, he ordered it to be 
 published. I will add that, before the proclamation was 
 sent to press to be published, I took the liberty of sug 
 gesting to the general whether it would not be best to 
 leave out that portion to which, I was sure, the State- 
 rights party would particularly object. He refused. 
 " Those are my views, said he with great decision of 
 manner, and I will not change them nor strike them 
 out. " 
 
 This celebrated paper was dated December n, 1832. 
 The word proclamation does not describe it. It reads 
 more like the last appeal of a sorrowing but resolute 
 father to wayward, misguided sons. Argument, warn 
 ing, and entreaty were blended in its composition. It 
 
304 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 began by calmly refuting, one by one, the leading posi 
 tions of the nullifiers. The right to annul and the right 
 to secede, as claimed by them, were shown to be incom 
 patible with the fundamental idea and main object of 
 the Constitution, which was " to form a more perfect 
 Union." That the tariff act complained of did operate 
 unequally was granted, but so did every revenue law 
 that had ever been or could ever be passed. The right 
 of a State to secede was strongly denied. " To say that 
 any State may at pleasure secede from the Union, is to 
 say that the United States are not a nation." The in 
 dividual States are not completely sovereign, for they 
 voluntarily resigned part of their sovereignty. " How 
 can that State be said to be sovereign and independent 
 whose citizens owe obedience to laws not made by it, 
 and whose magistrates are sworn to disregard those laws, 
 when they come in conflict with those passed by an 
 other?" 
 
 Finally, the people of South Carolina were distinctly 
 given to understand that, in case any forcible resistance 
 to the laws were attempted by them, the attempt would 
 be resisted by the combined power and resources of the 
 other States. For one word, however, of this kind, there 
 were a hundred of entreaty. " Fellow-citizens of my 
 native State," exclaimed the President, "let me not only 
 admonish you, as the First Magistrate of our common 
 country, not to incur the penalty of its laws, but use 
 the influence that a father would over his children whom 
 he saw rushing to certain ruin. In that paternal lan 
 guage, with that paternal feeling, let me tell you, my 
 countrymen, that you are deluded by men who are either 
 deceived themselves or wish to deceive you. * 
 
 Such were the tone and manner of this celebrated 
 proclamation. It was clear in statement, forcible in 
 argument, vigorous in style, and glowing with the fire of 
 
THE SECOND TERM. 305 
 
 a genuine and enlightened patriotism. The proclama 
 tion was received at the North with an enthusiasm that 
 seemed unanimous, and was nearly so. The opposition 
 press bestowed the warmest encomiums upon it. Three 
 days after its appearance in the newspapers of New 
 York, an immense meeting was held in the Park for the 
 purpose of stamping it with metropolitan approval. 
 Faneuil Hall, in Boston, was quick in responding to it, 
 and there were Union meetings in every large town of 
 the Northern States. In Tennessee, North Carolina, 
 Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Missouri, Louisiana, and 
 Kentucky the proclamation was generally approved as 
 an act, though its extreme Federal positions found many 
 opponents. 
 
 In South Carolina, however, it did but inflame the 
 prevailing excitement. The Legislature of that State, 
 being still in session, immediately passed the following 
 resolution : 
 
 " Whereas, The President of the United States has 
 issued his proclamation, denouncing the proceedings of 
 this State, calling upon the citizens thereof to renounce 
 their primary allegiance, and threatening them with mili 
 tary coercion, unwarranted by the Constitution and 
 utterly inconsistent with the existence of a free State : 
 Be it, therefore, 
 
 "Resolved, That his Excellency the Governor be re 
 quested forthwith to issue his proclamation, warning 
 the good people of this State against the attempt of the 
 President of the United States to seduce them from 
 their allegiance, exhorting them to disregard his vain 
 menaces, and to be prepared to sustain the dignity and 
 protect the liberty of the State against the arbitrary 
 measures proposed by the President." 
 
 Governor Hayne issued his proclamation according 
 ly, and a most pugnacious document it was. When the 
 
306 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 proclamation reached Washington, the President forth 
 with replied to it by asking Congress for an increase of 
 powers adequate to the impending collision. The mes 
 sage in which he made this request, dated January 16, 
 1833, gave a brief history of events in South Carolina 
 and of the measures hitherto adopted by the Admin 
 istration ; repeated the arguments of the recent procla 
 mation and added others ; stated the legal points 
 involved, and asked of Congress such an increase of 
 executive powers as would enable the Government, if 
 necessary, to close ports of entry, remove threatened 
 custom-houses, detain vessels, and protect from State 
 prosecution such citizens of South Carolina as should 
 choose or be compelled to pay the obnoxious duties. 
 
 Mr. Calhoun was in his place in the Senate-chamber 
 when this message was read. He had arrived two weeks 
 before, after a journey which one of his biographers 
 compares to that of Luther to the Diet of Worms. He 
 met averted faces and estranged friends everywhere on 
 his route, we are told ; and only now and then some 
 daring man found courage to whisper in his ear, "If you 
 are sincere, and are sure of your cause, go on, in God s 
 name, and fear nothing." Washington was curious to 
 know, we are further assured, what the arch-nullifier 
 would do when the oath to support the Constitution of 
 the United States was proposed to him. " The floor of the 
 Senate-chamber and the galleries were thronged with 
 spectators. They saw him take the oath with a solem 
 nity and dignity appropriate to the occasion, and then 
 calmly seat himself on the right of the chair, among his 
 old political friends, nearly all of whom were now ar 
 rayed against him." 
 
 After the President s message had been read, Mr. Cal 
 houn rose to vindicate himself and his State, which he 
 did with that singular blending of subtlety and force, 
 
THE SECOND TERM. 
 
 307 
 
 truth and sophistry, which characterized his later efforts. 
 He declared himself still devoted to the Union, and said 
 that, if the Government were restored to the principles 
 of 1798, he would be the last man in the country to ques 
 tion its authority. 
 
 A bill conceding to the President the additional 
 powers requested in his message of January i6th was 
 promptly reported and finally passed. It was nicknamed, 
 at the time, the "Force Bill," and was debated with the 
 heat and acrimony which might have been expected. As 
 other measures of Congress rendered this bill unneces 
 sary, and it had no practical effect whatever, we need 
 not dwell upon its provisions nor review the debates 
 upon it. It passed, by majorities unusually large, late in 
 February. 
 
 The ist of February, the dreaded day which was to 
 be the first of a fratricidal war, had gone by, and yet no 
 hostile and no nullifying act had been done in South 
 Carolina. How was this ? Did those warlike words 
 mean nothing? Was South Carolina repentant? It is 
 asserted by the old Jacksonians that one citizen of 
 South Carolina was exceedingly frightened as the ist of 
 February drew near, namely John C. Calhoun. The 
 President was resolved, and avowed his resolve, that the 
 hour which brought the news of one act of violence on 
 the part of the nullifiers, should find Mr. Calhoun a pris 
 oner of state upon a charge of high treason. And not 
 Calhoun only, but every member of Congress from South 
 Carolina who had taken part in the proceedings which 
 had caused the conflict between South Carolina and the 
 General Government. Whether this intention of the 
 President had any effect upon the course of events, we 
 can not know. It came to pass, however, that, a few 
 days before the ist of February, a meeting of the lead 
 ing nullifiers was held in Charleston, who passed resolu- 
 
308 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 tions to this effect : That, inasmuch as measures were 
 then pending in Congress which contemplated the re 
 duction of duties demanded by South Carolina, the 
 nullification of the existing revenue laws should be post 
 poned until after the adjournment of Congress ; when 
 the convention would reassemble, and take into con 
 sideration whatever revenue measures may have been 
 passed by Congress. The session of 1833 being the 
 " short " session, ending necessarily on the 4th of March, 
 the Union was respited thirty days by the Charleston 
 meeting. 
 
 Which of these two bills was most in accordance with 
 Mr. Calhoun s new opinions ? Which of them could he 
 most consistently have supported ? Not Mr. Clay s. 
 Yet it was Mr. Clay s bill that he did support and vote 
 for ; and Mr. Clay s bill was carried by the aid of his 
 support and vote. 
 
 Mr. Calhoun left Washington, and journeyed home 
 ward post-haste, after Congress adjourned. Traveling 
 night and day by the most rapid public conveyances, he 
 succeeded in reaching Columbia in time to meet the 
 convention before they had taken any additional steps. 
 Some of the more fiery and ardent members were dis 
 posed to complain of the Compromise Act, as being only 
 a halfway, temporizing measure ; but when his explana 
 tions were made, all felt satisfied, and the convention 
 cordially approved of his course. The nullification or 
 dinance was repealed, and the two parties in the State 
 abandoned their organizations and agreed to forget all 
 their past differences. So the storm blew over. 
 
 One remarkable result of the pacification was that it 
 strengthened the position of the leading men of both 
 parties. The course was cleared for Mr. Van Buren. 
 The popularity of the President reached its highest 
 point. Mr. Calhoun was rescued from peril, and a de- 
 
THE SECOND TERM. 309 
 
 gree of his former prestige was restored to him. The 
 collectors of political pamphlets will discover that, as 
 late as 1843, he still had hopes of reaching the presi 
 dency by uniting the South in his support and adding to 
 the united South Pennsylvania. With too much truth 
 he claimed, in subsequent debates, that it was the hostile 
 attitude of South Carolina which alone had enabled Mr. 
 Clay to carry his compromise. 
 
 Mr. Clay, as some readers may remember, won great 
 glory at the North by his course during the session of 
 1833. He was received in New York and New England, 
 this year, with that enthusiasm which his presence in the 
 manufacturing States ever after inspired. The warmth 
 of his reception consoled him for his late defeat at the 
 polls, and gave new hopes to his friends. But the Colos 
 sus of the session was Daniel Webster, well named then, 
 the expounder of the Constitution. In supporting the 
 Administration in all its anti-nullification measures, he 
 displayed his peculiar powers to the greatest advantage. 
 The subject of debate was the one of all others the most 
 congenial to him, and he rendered services then to his 
 country to which his country in 1860 recurred with grati 
 tude. " Nullification kept me out of the Supreme Court 
 all last winter," he says in one of his letters in 1833. 
 He mentions, also, that the President sent his own car 
 riage to convey him to the Capitol on one important oc 
 casion. After the adjournment he visited the great 
 W T est, where he was welcomed with equal warmth by the 
 friends and the opponents of the Administration. 
 
 When all was over, General Jackson wrote that letter 
 to the Rev. A. J. Crawford, of Georgia, which later 
 events rendered the most celebrated of all his writings. 
 May i, 1833, is the date of this famous production: 
 
 " I have had," wrote the President, " a laborious task 
 here, but nullification is dead, and its actors and courtiers 
 
 21 
 
3 io GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 will only be remembered by the people to be execrated 
 for their wicked designs to sever and destroy the only 
 good Government on the globe, and that prosperity and 
 happiness we enjoy over every other portion of the 
 world. Hainan s gallows ought to be the fate of all 
 such ambitious men who would involve the country in a 
 civil war, and all the evils in its train, that they might 
 reign and ride on its whirlwinds and direct the storm. 
 The free people of the United States have spoken, and 
 consigned these wicked demagogues to their proper 
 doom. Take care of your nullifiers you have among 
 you. Let them meet the indignant frowns of every man 
 who loves his country. The tariff, it is now well known, 
 was a mere pretext. Its burdens were on your coarse 
 woolens; by the law of July, 1832, coarse woolens was 
 reduced to five per cent for the benefit of the South. 
 Mr. Clay s bill takes it up, and closes it with woolens at 
 fifty per cent, reduces it gradually down to twenty per 
 cent, and there it is to remain, and Mr. Calhoun and all 
 the nullifiers agree to the principle. The cash duty and 
 home valuation will be equal to fifteen per cent more, 
 and after the year 1842 you will pay on coarse woolens 
 thirty-five per cent. If this is not protection, I can not 
 understand it. Therefore, the tariff was only the pre 
 text, and disunion and a Southern confederacy the real 
 object. The next pretext will be the negro or the slavery 
 question" 
 
 Not content to let the Bank of the United States 
 peacefully die upon the expiration of its charter in 1836, 
 the President resolved in 1833 to remove from it the 
 public money, and thus sever its connection with the 
 Government. The sub-Treasury had not yet been 
 thought of, or only thought of. The complete divorce 
 which that simple expedient effected between bank and 
 State came too late to save the country from four years 
 
THE SECOND TERM. 3!! 
 
 of most disastrous "experiment." The plan proposed in 
 1833 was, instead of depositing the public money in the 
 Bank of the United States and its twenty-five branches, 
 to deposit it in a similar number of State banks. We 
 can not wonder that every member of the Cabinet ex 
 cept two, besides some important members of the 
 kitchen cabinet and a large majority of the President s 
 best friends, opposed it from the beginning to the end. 
 
 The measure occurred to the President while he was 
 conversing, one day early in the year 1833, with Mr. 
 Blair, of the Globe, who hated the bank only less than 
 the President himself did. " Biddle," said Mr. Blair, 
 " is actually using the people s money to frustrate the 
 people s will. He is using the money of the Government 
 for the purpose of breaking down the Government. If 
 he had not the public money he could not do it." 
 
 The President said, in his most vehement manner: 
 " He sha n t have the public money ! I ll remove the de 
 posits! Blair, talk with our friends about this, and let 
 me know what they think of it." 
 
 The deposits were removed accordingly, and the pub 
 lic money was placed in the State banks all over the 
 country. These State banks, as a Senator remarked, 
 "soon began to feel their oats." The expression is 
 homely, but not inapt. The extraordinary increase in 
 the public revenue during the next two years added im 
 mense sums to the available capital of those banks, and 
 gave a new and undue importance to the business of 
 banking. Banks sprang into existence like mushrooms 
 in a night. The pet banks seemed compelled to extend 
 their business, or lose the advantage of their connec 
 tion with the Government. The great bank felt itself 
 obliged to expand, or be submerged in the general infla 
 tion. It expanded twelve millions during the next two 
 years. All the other banks expanded, and all men ex- 
 
312 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 panded, and all things expanded. Many causes con 
 spired to produce the unexampled, the disastrous, the 
 demoralizing inflation of 1835 and 1836; but I do not 
 see any escape from the conclusion that the inciting 
 cause was the vast amounts of public treasure that, dur 
 ing those years, were u lying about loose " in the deposit 
 banks. General Jackson desired a currency of gold and 
 silver. Never were such floods of paper money emitted 
 as during the continuance of his own fiscal system. He 
 wished to reduce the number and the importance of 
 banks, bankers, brokers, and speculators. The years 
 succeeding the transfer of the deposits were the golden 
 biennium of just those classes. In a word, his system, 
 as far as my acquaintance with such matters enables me 
 to judge, worked ill at every moment of its operation, 
 and upon every interest of business and morality. To 
 it, more than to all other causes combined, we owe the 
 inflation of 1835 and 1836, the universal ruin of 1837, 
 and the dreary and hopeless depression of the five years 
 following. 
 
 In November, 1836, General Jackson beheld the con 
 summation of his most cherished hopes in the election 
 of Mr. Van Buren to the presidency. 
 
 Signs of coming revulsion in the world of business 
 were so numerous and so palpable during this year that 
 it is wonderful so few observed them. The short crops 
 of 1836 and the paper inflation had raised the price of 
 the necessaries of life to a point they had never reached 
 before, and have never reached since. Flour was sold 
 in lots, at fifteen dollars a barrel ; in single barrels, at 
 sixteen ; in smaller quantities, at eighteen. The grow 
 ing scarcity of money had already compelled manufac 
 turers to dismiss many of their workmen ; and thus, at 
 a moment when financiers cherished the delusion that 
 the country was prosperous beyond all previous example, 
 
THE SECOND TERM. 
 
 313 
 
 large numbers of worthy mechanics and seamstresses 
 were suffering from want. 
 
 To the last day of his residence in the presidential 
 mansion General Jackson continued to receive proofs 
 that he was still the idol of the people. The eloquence 
 of the opposition had not availed to lessen his general 
 popularity in the least degree. We read of one enthu 
 siastic Jacksonian conveying to Washington, from New 
 York, with banners and bands of music, a prodigious 
 cheese as a present to the retiring chief. The cheese 
 was four feet in diameter, two feet thick, and weighed 
 fourteen hundred pounds twice as large, said the Globe, 
 as the great cheese given to Mr. Jefferson on a similar 
 occasion. The President, after giving away large masses 
 of his cheese to his friends, found that he had still more 
 cheese than he could consume. At his last public recep 
 tion he caused a piece of the cheese to be presented to 
 all who chose to receive it an operation that filled the 
 White House with an odor that is pleasant only when 
 there is not too much of it. Another ardent lover of the 
 President gave him a light wagon composed entirely of 
 hickory sticks with the bark upon them. "Another pre 
 sented an elegant phaeton made of the wood of the old 
 frigate Constitution. The hickory wagon the general 
 left in Washington, as a memento to his successor. The 
 Constitutional phaeton he took with him to the Hermit 
 age, where I saw it, faded and dilapidated, in 1858. 
 
 The farewell address of the retiring President was 
 little more than a r/sumJ of the doctrines of his eight , 
 annual messages. /The priceless value of the Union ; 
 the danger to it 01 sectional agitation ; the evils of a 
 splendid and powerful government ; the safety and ad 
 vantages of plain and inexpensive institutions ; the 
 perils of a surplus revenue; the injustice of a high 
 tariff ; the unconstitutionality of that system of internal 
 
314 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 improvements which the Maysville veto had checked; 
 the curse of paper money ; the extreme desirableness of 
 a currency of gold and silver were the leading topics 
 upon which the President descanted. " My own race," 
 said he, " is nearly run ; advanced age and failing health 
 warn me that before long I must pass beyond the reach 
 of human events, and cease to feel the vicissitudes of 
 human affairs. I thank God that my life has been spent 
 in a land of liberty, and that he has given me a heart to 
 love my country with the affection of a son. And, filled 
 with gratitude for your constant and unwavering kind 
 ness, Ibid^y_ou_ajast and affectionate farewell." 
 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 IN RETIREMENT. 
 
 GENERAL JACKSON was seventy years of age when 
 he retired from the presidency. He was a very infirm 
 old man, seldom free from pain for an hour, never for a 
 day. Possessed of a most beautiful and productive farm 
 and a hundred and fifty negroes, he yet felt himself to 
 be a poor man on his return to the Hermitage. " I re 
 turned home," he writes to Mr. Trist, " with just ninety 
 dollars in money, having expended all my salary, and 
 most of the proceeds of my cotton crop ; found every 
 thing out of repair ; corn, and everything else for the 
 use of my farm, to buy ; having but one tract of land 
 besides my homestead, which I have sold, and which has 
 enabled me to begin the new year (1838) clear of debt, 
 relying on our industry and economy to yield us a sup 
 port, trusting to a kind Providence for good seasons 
 and a prosperous crop." 
 
 During the next few years he lived the life of a 
 planter, carefully directing the operations of his farm, 
 enjoying the society of his adopted son and his amiable 
 and estimable wife. They and their children were the 
 solace of his old age. 
 
 The commercial disasters of 1837 and the depression 
 that succeeded had not seriously inconvenienced General 
 Jackson, with his magnificent farm and his hundred and 
 fifty negroes. He repeatedly expressed the opinion that 
 no one failed in that great revulsion who ought not to 
 
GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 have failed. Not the faintest suspicion that any measure 
 of his own had anything to do with it ever found lodg 
 ment in his mind. He laid all the blame upon Biddle, 
 paper money, and speculation. In 1842, when business 
 men began once more to hope for prosperous seasons, 
 and the country awoke from its long lethargy, General 
 Jackson became an anxious and embarrassed man through 
 the misfortunes of his son. Money was not to be bor 
 rowed in the Western country even then, except at an 
 exorbitant interest. He applied, in these circumstances, 
 to his fast friend, Mr. Blair, of the Globe, who was then 
 a man of fortune. Ten thousand dollars was the sum 
 which the general deemed sufficient for his relief. Mr. 
 Blair not only resolved on the instant to lend the money, 
 but to lend it on the general s personal security, and to 
 make the loan as closely resemble a gift as the general s 
 delicacy would permit it to be. Mr. Rives desired to 
 share the pleasure of accommodating General Jackson, 
 and the loan was therefore made in the name of Blair 
 and Rives. Upon reading Mr. Blair s reply to his appli 
 cation, the old man burst into tears. He handed the 
 letter to his daughter, and she, too, was melted by the 
 delicate generosity which it revealed. General Jackson, 
 however, would accept the money only on conditions 
 which secured his friends against the possibility of loss. 
 Not long after these interesting events, further relief 
 was afforded General Jackson by the refunding of the 
 fine which he had paid at New Orleans, in 1815, for the 
 arrest of Judge Hall, and for refusing to obey the writ 
 of habeas corpus issued by him. The fine was originally 
 one thousand dollars, but the accumulated interest 
 swelled the amount to twenty-seven hundred. Senator 
 Linn, of Missouri, introduced the bill for refunding the 
 money, and gave it an earnest and persevering support. 
 In the House the measure was strenuously supported by 
 
IN RETIREMENT. 
 
 317 
 
 Mr. Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois, and Mr. Charles J. 
 Ingersoll, of Pennsylvania, to both of whom General 
 Jackson expressed his gratitude in the warmest terms. 
 The bill was passed in the Senate by a party vote of 
 twenty-eight to twenty Mr. Calhoun voting with the 
 friends of the ex-President; in the House, by one hun 
 dred and fifty-eight to twenty-eight. 
 
 The religious tendencies of General Jackson were 
 strengthened by the example of his wife, and much more 
 by her affecting death at the moment when he needed 
 her most. He gave her his solemn promise to join the 
 church as soon as he had done with politics, and the 
 letters which he wrote during his presidency to members 
 of his own family abound in religious expressions. The 
 promise which he made to his wife he remembered, but 
 did not strictly keep. In August, 1838, he wrote to one 
 who had addressed him on the subject : " I would long 
 since have made this solemn public dedication to Al 
 mighty God, but knowing the wickedness of this world, 
 and how prone men are to evil, that the scoffer of re 
 ligion would have cried out, Hypocrisy ! he has joined 
 the church for political effect, I thought it best to post 
 pone this public act until my retirement to the shades of 
 private life, when no false imputation could be made 
 that might be injurious to religion." He passed two or 
 three years, however, " in the shades of private life " 
 before he performed the act referred to in this letter. 
 
 In 1842 he fulfilled the promise he had made to his 
 wife, and joined the Presbyterian Church, Rev. Dr. 
 Edgar, of Nashville, performing the ceremony at the 
 little brick edifice on the Hermitage farm. Dr. Edgar 
 informed me that the usual questions respecting doc 
 trine and experience were satisfactorily answered by the 
 candidate. Then there was a pause in the conversation. 
 The clergyman said, at length : 
 
318 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 " General, there is one more question which it is my 
 duty to ask you. Can you forgive all your enemies ?" 
 
 The question was evidently unexpected, and the 
 candidate was silent for a while. 
 
 " My political enemies," said he, " I can freely for 
 give ; but as for those who abused me when I was serv 
 ing my country in the field, and those who attacked me 
 for serving my country doctor, that is a different 
 case." 
 
 The doctor assured him that it was not. Christianity, 
 he said, forbade the indulgence of enmity absolutely 
 and in all cases. No man could be received into a 
 Christian church who did not cast out of his heart every 
 feeling of that nature. It was a condition that was 
 fundamental and indispensable. After a considerable 
 pause the candidate said that he thought he could for 
 give all who had injured him, even those who had as 
 sailed him for what he had done for his country in the 
 field. 
 
 From this time to the end of his life General Jack 
 son spent most of his leisure hours in reading the Bible, 
 biblical commentaries, and the hymn-book, which last 
 he always pronounced in the old-fashioned way, hime- 
 book. The work known as " Scott s Bible " was his 
 chief delight ; he read it through twice before his death. 
 Nightly he read prayers in the presence of his family 
 and household servants. 
 
 Great was the joy of General Jackson at the election 
 of Mr. James K. Polk in 1844. In a field adjoining the 
 Hermitage he entertained two hundred guests at dinner, 
 in honor of the event. His anxiety, however, on the 
 subject of the annexation of Texas appeared to increase 
 rather than diminish after the election. On the first 
 day of the last year of his life he wrote a long letter 
 to his friend Blair, urging him to use all his influence 
 
IN RETIREMENT. 
 
 319 
 
 to induce Congress to act with promptitude in the 
 matter. 
 
 The well-known correspondence between Commo 
 dore Elliot and General Jackson, with regard to the 
 sarcophagus of the Roman emperor, occurred in the 
 spring of the last year of the general s life. "Last 
 night," wrote the blunt sailor [March 18, 1845], "I 
 made something of a speech at the National Institute 
 (Washington, D. C), and have offered for their accept 
 ance the sarcophagus which I obtained in Palestine, 
 brought home in the Constitution, and believed to con 
 tain the remains of the Roman Emperor Alexander 
 Severus, with the suggestion that it might be ten 
 dered you for your final resting-place. I pray you, 
 general, to live on in the fear of the Lord ; dying the 
 death of a Roman soldier ; an emperor s coffin awaits 
 you." 
 
 The general replied: "With the warmest sensations 
 that can inspire a grateful heart, I must decline accept 
 ing the honor intended to be bestowed. I can not con 
 sent that my mortal body shall be laid in a repository 
 prepared for an emperor or a king. My republican feel 
 ings and principles forbid it; the simplicity of our sys 
 tem of government forbids it; every monument erected 
 to perpetuate the memory of our heroes and statesmen 
 ought to bear evidence of the economy and simplicity 
 of our republican institutions, and the plainness of our 
 republican citizens, who are the sovereigns of our 
 glorious Union, and whose virtue is to perpetuate it. 
 True virtue can not exist where pomp and parade are 
 the governing passions; it can only dwell with the 
 people the great laboring and producing classes that 
 form the bone and sinew of our confederacy. I have 
 prepared an humble depository for my mortal body 
 beside that wherein lies my beloved wife, where, with- 
 
320 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 out any pomp or parade, I have requested, when my 
 God calls me to sleep with my fathers, to be laid." 
 
 During the first six years after his retirement from 
 the presidency, General Jackson s health was not much 
 worse than it had usually been in Washington. Every 
 attack of bleeding at the lungs, however, left him a 
 little weaker than he had ever been before, and his re 
 covery was slower and less complete. During the last 
 two years of his life he could never be said to have 
 rallied from these attacks, but remained always very 
 weak, and knew few intervals, and those very short, of 
 relief from pain. A cough tormented him day and 
 night. He had all the symptoms of consumption. One 
 lung was consumed entirely, and the other was dis 
 eased. Six months before his death, certain dropsical 
 symptoms, which had threatened him for years, were 
 painfully developed. The patience which he displayed 
 during those years of dissolution sometimes approached 
 the sublime. No anguish, however severe, however pro 
 tracted, ever wrung from this most irascible of men a 
 fretful or a complaining word. 
 
 He saw the light of Sunday morning June 8th 
 a still, brilliant, hot day. He had been worse the day 
 before, and Dr. Esselman had remained all night at the 
 Hermitage. " On Sunday morning," writes Dr. Essel 
 man, "on entering his room, I found him sitting in his 
 armchair, with his two faithful servants, George and 
 Dick, by his side, who had just removed him from his 
 bed. I immediately perceived that the hand of death 
 was upon him. I informed his son that he could survive 
 but a few hours, and he immediately dispatched a serv 
 ant for Major William B. Lewis, the general s devoted 
 friend. Mr. Jackson informed me that it was the gen 
 eral s request that, in case he grew worse, or was thought 
 to be near his death, Major Lewis should be sent for, as 
 
IN RETIREMENT. 
 
 321 
 
 he wished him to be near him in his last moments. He 
 was instantly removed to his bed, but before he could be 
 placed there he had swooned away. His family and ser 
 vants, believing him to be dead, were very much alarmed 
 and manifested the most intense grief ; however, in a 
 few seconds reaction took place, and he became con 
 scious, and raised his eyes, and said : My dear children, 
 do not grieve for me; it is true, I am going to leave 
 you; I am well aware of my situation; I have suffered 
 much bodily pain, but my sufferings are but as nothing 
 compared with that which our blessed Saviour endured 
 upon that accursed cross, that we might all be saved 
 who put our trust in him. He first addressed Mrs. 
 Jackson (his daughter-in-law), and took leave of her, re 
 minding her of her tender kindness manifested toward 
 him at all times, and especially during his protracted ill 
 ness. He next took leave of Mrs. Adams (a widowed 
 sister of Mrs. Jackson, who had been a member of the 
 general s family for several years), in the most kind and 
 affectionate manner, speaking also of her tender devo 
 tion toward him during his illness. In conclusion, he 
 said, My dear children, and friends, and servants, I 
 hope and trust to meet you all in heaven, both white 
 and black. The last sentence he repeated both white 
 and black, looking ato them with the tenderest solicitude. 
 With these words he ceased to speak, but fixed his eyes 
 on his granddaughter, Rachel Jackson (who bears the 
 name of his own beloved wife), for several seconds." 
 
 Major Lewis arrived about noon. " Major," said the 
 dying man, in a feeble voice, but quite audibly, " I am 
 glad to see you. You had like to have been too late." 
 The crowd of servants on the piazza, who were all day 
 looking in through the windows, sobbed, cried out, and 
 wrung their hands. The general spoke again: "What 
 is the matter with my dear children ? Have I alarmed 
 
322 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 you ? Oh, do not cry. Be good children, and we will 
 all meet in heaven." 
 
 These were his last words. He lay for half an hour 
 with closed eyes, breathing softly and easily. Major 
 Lewis stood close to his head. The family were about 
 the bed, silently waiting and weeping. George and the 
 faithful Hannah were present. Hannah could not be 
 induced to leave the room. " I was born and raised on 
 the place," said she, " and my place is here." At six 
 o clock the general s head suddenly fell forward and was 
 caught by Major Lewis. The major applied his ear to 
 the mouth of his friend, and found that he had ceased to 
 breathe. He had died without a struggle or a pang. 
 Major Lewis removed the pillows, drew down the body 
 upon the bed, and closed the eyes. Upon looking again 
 at the face, he observed that the expression of pain which 
 it had worn so long had passed away. Death had restored 
 it to naturalness and serenity. The aged warrior slept. 
 
 Two days after, he was laid in the grave by the side 
 of his wife, of whom he had said, not long before he 
 died, " Heaven will be no heaven to me if I do not meet 
 my wife there." All Nashville and the country round 
 about seemed to be present at the funeral. Three thou 
 sand persons were thought to be assembled on the lawn 
 in front of the house, when Dr. Edgar stepped out upon 
 the portico to begin the services. The preacher related, 
 with impressive effect, the history of the late religious 
 life of the deceased, and pronounced upon his character 
 an eloquent but a discriminating eulogium. A hymn 
 which the general had loved concluded the ceremonies. 
 The body was then borne to the garden and placed in 
 the tomb long ago prepared for its reception. " I never 
 witnessed a funeral of half the solemnity," wrote a spec 
 tator at the time. The tablet which covers the remains 
 bears this inscription : 
 
IN RETIREMENT. 323 
 
 GENERAL 
 
 ANDREW JACKSON, 
 
 BORN ON THE I5TH OF MARCH, 1767, 
 
 DIED ON THE STH OF JUNE, 1845. 
 
 When the news of the death of General Jackson 
 reached Washington, the President of the United States 
 ordered the departments to be closed for one day; and 
 Mr. Bancroft, the Secretary of the Navy and Acting Sec 
 retary of War, directed public honors to be paid to the 
 memory of the ex-President at all the military and naval 
 stations. In every large town in the country there were 
 public ceremonies in honor of the deceased, consisting 
 usually of an oration and a procession. In the city of 
 New York the entire body of the uniformed militia, all 
 the civic functionaries, the trades and societies, joined 
 in the parade. The record of the solemnities performed 
 in the city of New York, in honor of Andrew Jackson, 
 forms an octavo volume of three hundred and three 
 pages. Twenty-five of the orations delivered on this 
 occasion, in various towns and cities, were published in 
 a volume entitled " Monument to the Memory of Gen 
 eral Andrew Jackson." 
 
 Thus lived and died Andrew Jackson, the idol of his 
 party, often the pride and favorite of his country. His 
 best friends could not deny that he had deplorable faults, 
 nor his worst enemies that he possessed rare and dazzling 
 merits. He rendered his country signal services, and 
 brought upon the government of that country an evil 
 which it will be extremely difficult to remedy. No man 
 will ever be quite able to comprehend Andrew Jackson 
 who has not personally known a Scotch-Irishman. More 
 than he was anything else, he was a north-of-Irelander 
 
324 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 a tenacious, pugnacious race ; honest, yet capable of 
 dissimulation; often angry, but most prudent when most 
 furious ; endowed by nature with the gift of extracting 
 from every affair and every relation all the strife it can 
 be made to yield; at home and among dependents, all 
 tenderness and generosity; to opponents, violent, un 
 generous, prone to believe the worst of them ; a race 
 that means to tell the truth, but, when excited by anger 
 or warped by prejudice, incapable of either telling, or 
 remembering, or knowing the truth; not taking kindly 
 to culture, but able to achieve wonderful things without 
 it : a strange blending of the best and the worst qualities 
 of two races. Jackson had these traits in an exagger 
 ated degree : as Irish as though he were not Scotch ; as 
 Scotch as though he were not Irish. 
 
 It was curious that England and America should 
 both, and nearly at the same time, have elevated their 
 favorite generals to the highest civil station. Welling 
 ton became Prime Minister in 1827; Jackson, President 
 in 1829. Wellington was tried three years, and found 
 wanting, and driven from power, execrated by the peo 
 ple. His carriage, his house, and his statue, were pelted 
 by the mob. Jackson reigned eight years, and retired 
 with his popularity undiminished. Wellington was not 
 in accord with his generation, and was surrounded by 
 men who were, if possible, less so ; while Jackson, be 
 sides being in sympathy with the people, had the great 
 good fortune to be influenced by men who had learned 
 the rudiments of statesmanship in the school of Jefferson, 
 
 Autocrat as he was, Andrew Jackson loved the peo- 
 pie, the common people, the sons and daughters of toil, 
 as truly as they loved him, and believed in them as they 
 believed in him. He had a perception that the toiling 
 millions are not a class in the community, but are the, 1 
 community. He felt that government should exist only 
 
 JJn 
 
IN RETIREMENT. 
 
 325 
 
 for the benefits of the governed; that the strong are 
 strong only that they may aid the weak ; that the rich are 
 rightfully rich only that they may so combine and direct 
 the labors of the poor as to make labor more profitable to 
 the laborer. He did not comprehend these truths as they 
 are demonstrated by philosophers, but he had an intuitive 
 and instinctive perception of them. And in his most 
 autocratic moments he really thought that he was fight 
 ing the battle of the people, and doing their will while 
 baffling the purposes of their representatives. If he had 
 been a man of knowledge as well as force, he would have 
 taken the part of the people more effectually, and left / 
 to his successors an increased power of doing good, in-/ 
 stead of better facilities for doing harm. 
 
 The domestic life of this singular man was blameless. 
 He was a chaste man at every period of his life. His 
 letters, of which many hundreds still exist, contain not 
 a sentence, not a phrase, not a word, that a girl may 
 not properly read. A husband more considerately and 
 laboriously kind never lived. As a father he was only 
 too indulgent; his generosity to his adopted children 
 was inexhaustible. To his slaves he was master, father, 
 physician, counselor, all in one; and though his over 
 seers complained that he was too lenient, yet his steady 
 prosperity for so many years, and the uniform abundance 
 of his crops, seem to prove that his servants were not 
 negligent of their master s interest. He had a virtuous 
 abhorrence of debt, and his word was as good as his 
 bond. In all his private transactions, from youth to 
 hoary age, he was punctiliously honest. 
 
 Most of our history for the last hundred years will 
 not be remembered for many centuries ; but perhaps 
 among the few things oblivion will spare may be some 
 outline of the story of Andrew Jackson the poor Irish ^ 
 immigrant s orphan son ; who defended his country at 
 
 22 
 
326 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 New Orleans, and, being elected President therefor, kept 
 that country in an uproar for eight years; and, after 
 being more hated and more loved than any man of his 
 day, died peacefully at his home in Tennessee, and was 
 borne to his grave followed by the benedictions of a 
 large majority of his fellow-citizens. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Ambrister, Robert C. f Indian 
 trader, captured by Jackson, 
 264 ; trial and execution of, 
 266-268. 
 
 Arbuthnot, Alexander, Scotch 
 trader at Fort St. Marks, ar 
 rested by Jackson, 262 ; accused 
 of treachery, 263; trial and ex 
 ecution of, 266-268. 
 
 Bailey, Captain, succeeds Major 
 Beasley in command of Fort 
 Mims, 69 ; death of, 71. 
 
 Beasley. Major Daniel, commander 
 ot Fort Mims, 65-68. 
 
 Benton, Colonel Thomas H., his 
 statement of Jackson s first mili 
 tary service under the United 
 States, 57-59 ; is involved in a 
 " difficulty " with Jackson, 60- 
 62 ; appointed lieutenant-colonel, 
 United States Army, 62 ; re 
 signs at close of War of 1812, 63. 
 
 Benton, Jesse, has a " difficulty " 
 with Jackson, 59. 
 
 Burr, Aaron, visits Jackson at the 
 Hermitage, 44-46 ; his opinion 
 of Jackson, 48 ; arranges with 
 Jackson for supplies and trans 
 portation, 46 ; his unlawful de 
 signs made public, 47 ; Jackson 
 
 issues order for arrest of, 47 ; 
 defended by Jackson, 47. 
 
 Calhoun, John C., Vice-President 
 United States, tariff reformer, 
 298 ; advocate of nullification, 
 300 ; counsels moderation, 308. 
 
 Coffee, Colonel John, business 
 partner of, and cavalry com 
 mander under Jackson, 51-55 ; 
 present at affray between Jack 
 son and the Bentons, 61-63 ; 
 commanding brigade in Creek 
 campaign (1813), 78-86; chastises 
 enemy at Talluschatches, 84 ; 
 attacks the Creeks at the Horse 
 shoe, 112-116 ; arrival at Mobile 
 of, 136 ; marches to New Or 
 leans, 142 ; commands in night 
 attack on British, 170. 
 
 Cooke, Captain John N., British 
 army, account of night affair at 
 New Orleans, 171 ; describes 
 British retreat after battle of 
 New Orleans, 234. 
 
 Crockett, David, serves under 
 Jackson as scout, 79. 
 
 Dale, Colonel, commanding British 
 regiment, his presentiment at the 
 battle of New Orleans, 212. 
 
328 
 
 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 Davie, Colonel William Richard 
 son, 6 ; Jackson boys serve 
 under, 8. 
 
 Dickinson, Charles, duel with 
 Jackson, 33-42. 
 
 Donelson, Andrew Jackson, 
 nephew educated by Jackson, 
 43. 
 
 Eaton, Major John H., Secretary 
 of War, 283 ; involved in social 
 complications, 282. 
 
 Eaton, Mrs., 283-285. 
 
 Gadsden, Fort, erected by Lieu 
 tenant James Gadsden, of Jack 
 son s staff, 256 ; Jackson awaits 
 supplies at, 257. 
 
 Gaines, General Edmund P., Unit 
 ed States Army, punishes the 
 Seminoles, 259. 
 
 Ghent, the Treaty of, 179. 
 
 Gibbs, General Samuel, commands 
 British troops at New Orleans, 
 1 80, 214 ; death of, 217. 
 
 Gleig, Rev. George R., comments 
 on Jackson s management of the 
 New Orleans campaign, vi ; de 
 scribes the appearance of Jack 
 son s forces before battle of New 
 Orleans, 188 ; describes opening 
 of the battle, 194. 
 
 Harrison, William H., resigns his 
 
 commission as major-general, 
 
 119. 
 Hayne, Isaac, Governor of South 
 
 Carolina, announces his views 
 
 on State rights, 301. 
 Henly, Captain, commands United 
 
 States steamship Louisiana at 
 
 New Orleans, 183 ; his report to 
 
 Commodore Patterson, 183. 
 Houston, Sam, private soldier 
 
 under Jackson, 108 ; stoicism 
 
 when wounded, 113. 
 Humbert, General, commanding 
 
 troops under Jackson at New 
 
 Orleans, 227. 
 Humphrey, Captain, commanding 
 
 American artillery at New 
 
 Orleans, 196. 
 
 Jackson, Andrew, nephew and 
 heir of General Jackson, 48. 
 
 Jackson, Hugh, brother of Andrew 
 Jackson, 6. 
 
 Jackson, General Andrew, mili 
 tary capacity, v-vii ; tribute of a 
 British officer, vi, vii ; his favor 
 ite maxims ; parentage, I ; his 
 father s poverty, 2 ; birthplace, 
 3 ; education, 4-7 ; an " old- 
 field school," 4 ; boyish charac 
 teristics, 5 ; not a well-informed 
 man, 5 ; takes part in the Rev 
 olutionary War, 7-16 ; a broth 
 er killed at Hanging Rock, 7 ; 
 rides with Davie s regiment as a 
 volunteer, 8 ; his Carolina neigh 
 bors, 9 ; he joins a partisan band 
 of " Whigs," 10 ; his first en 
 counter with the British, 10 ; a 
 prisoner of war, n ; resents an 
 insult, II ; wounded, 12 ; out 
 wits his captors, 12 ; sufferings 
 in captivity, 13-15 ; attacked 
 by small-pox, 15 ; is exchanged 
 and returns home, 15 ; an orphan, 
 16 ; curious turn of fortune, 18 ; 
 becomes a schoolmaster, 18; stud 
 ies law, 17-20; office in which 
 
INDEX. 
 
 329 
 
 he studied law, 19 ; licensed 
 to practice law, 20 ; personal 
 appearance at twenty, 20 ; a 
 Tennessee lawyer, 22 ; moves to 
 Nashville, 22 ; public prosecutor, 
 23 ; marriage, 23 ; acquire- real 
 estate, 23 ; delegate to Constitu 
 tional Convention, 25 ; elected 
 to Congress from Tennessee, 25; 
 horseback ride of eight hundred 
 miles to take his seat, 25 ; Wash 
 ington s last address to Congress 
 opposed by, 27 ; addresses the 
 House, 28 ; appointed Senator 
 in 1797, and resigns in 1798, 28 ; 
 elected Judge of the Supreme 
 Court of Tennessee, 29 ; the 
 Jackson-Sevier feud, 29 ; major- 
 general of militia, 30 ; a man of 
 business, 30 ; failure and re 
 habilitation, 31 ; the Hermitage, 
 31, 40 ; "a man with many 
 irons in the fire," 31 ; " Trux- 
 ton," 32 ; " the code " in the 
 South, 1790-1810, 33 ; duel with 
 Dickinson, 33-42 ; effect on his 
 popularity, 42 ; his generous 
 hospitality, 44 ; meets Aaron 
 Burr, 44 ; his opinion of Burr, 
 45 ; agrees to furnish supplies 
 and transportation to Burr, 46 ; 
 arrests Burr, 47 ; defends Burr, 
 47 ; adopts a nephew, 48 ; ten 
 ders services of his division to 
 the General Government, 49 ; 
 accepted by President Madison, 
 50 ; ordered to re-enforce Gen 
 eral Wilkinson, 50 ; rendezvous 
 of his troops at Nashville, 51 ; 
 intense cold and exposure of his 
 command, 51 ; composition of 
 
 his staff, 52 ; reports progress to 
 War Department, 52 ; asked to 
 halt at Natchez by Wilkinson, 
 53 ; command relieved from 
 further duty by Secretary of 
 War, 54 ; his action in an em 
 barrassing position, 56 ; decides 
 to march command back to 
 Tennessee, 56 ; commendation 
 from the press, 57 ; Colonel 
 Benton s statement, 58 ; has a 
 " difficulty " with Jesse Benton, 
 59 ; bitter correspondence with 
 Thomas H. Benton, 60 ; severely 
 wounded, 61 ; massacre at Fort 
 Mims, 64 ; militia of Tennessee 
 called out to protect frontier, 74 ; 
 insists upon taking the command, 
 76 ; he surmounts great difficul 
 ties in mobilizing his troops, 77- 
 80 ; adopts Indian infant found 
 on battle-field, 84 ; Indian scout s 
 disguise, 85 ; attacks Indians 
 near Fort Strother, 87 ; they sue 
 for peace, 89 ; his response, 89 ; 
 privations of the troops, 91 ; 
 symptoms of revolt, 92 ; address 
 to his soldiers, 93 ; quells a 
 mutiny, 101 ; he strikes a finish 
 ing blow at the Creeks, 108-117 ; 
 appointed major-general in the 
 army, 119 ; his sudden good 
 fortune, 120 ; impaired health, 
 121 ; negotiates treaty with the 
 Creeks, 123 ; defends Mobile, 
 124 ; drives the British from 
 Florida, 125 ; his ultimatum to 
 the Spanish Governor, 139 ; re 
 port of operations, 140 ; capture 
 of Fort Barrancas, 141 ; marches 
 upon New Orleans, 143 ; prep- 
 
330 
 
 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 arations to defend the city 
 against the British, 145 ; organi 
 zation of local forces by, 150 ; 
 composition of his forces to meet 
 the British, 151 ; strength of 
 forces opposed to, 152; meets 
 the enemy half-way, 161 ; night 
 battle, December 23d, 165 ; the 
 British proclamation to " Louisi- 
 anians," 165; shovels and wheel 
 barrows, 176 ; he reconnoitres 
 British position, 181 ; advance 
 of the British, 187 ; second ad 
 vance of Pakenham s troops, 
 192 ; arrival of Kentuckian re- 
 enforcements for, 199 ; forlorn 
 condition of those troops, 200 ; 
 generosity of citizens of New 
 Orleans, 204 ; the 8th of Janu 
 ary, 208 ; end of the campaign, 
 231 ; enters city of New Or 
 leans in triumph, 238 ; issues 
 proclamation to his army, 240 ; 
 orders French consul and others 
 to leave the city, 241 ; conflict 
 with the civil authorities of 
 Louisiana, 242 ; arrival of Gov 
 ernment courier with news of 
 peace, 243 ; notifies British com 
 mander, 244 ; appears in court 
 under habeas corpus, 245 ; sen 
 tenced to pay a fine, 246 ; re 
 turns to Nashville, 248 ; pro 
 ceeds to Washington, 249 ; vis 
 ited by Jefferson, 249 ; is re 
 tained as major-general in re 
 organization of the army, 250 ; 
 popularity of, 251 ; ordered to 
 take the field against the Semi- 
 noles, 255 ; occupies the Span 
 ish fort St. Marks, 6i ; ar 
 
 rests Arbuthnot as a suspicious 
 character, 262 ; captures Am- 
 brister, tries and executes these 
 men, 266-268 ; resigns from the 
 army and becomes Governor of 
 Florida, 270 ; imprisons Span 
 ish Governor of Pensacola, 271 ; 
 resigns office, 271 ; candidate for 
 President, 273 ; visits Washing 
 ton, 274 ; defeated by Adams, 
 275 ; revisits New Orleans, 276 ; 
 magnificent reception, 276 ; bit 
 ter political campaign of 1828, 
 277 ; elected President, 279 ; 
 death of his wife, 279 ; inaugu 
 ration of, 282 ; announces his 
 Cabinet, 282 ; Eaton-O Neal af 
 fair, 285 ; wholesale removals 
 from office, 288 ; incident of 
 United States Bank, 289; his 
 toast at Jefferson s dinner, 292 ; 
 indorses Van Buren, 294 ; ve 
 toes United States Bank Bill, 
 595 ; re-election to presidency, 
 297 ; sends General Scott to 
 Charleston to thwart nullifiers, 
 302 ; issues proclamation, 303 ; 
 letter to a friend on the crisis, 
 309 ; advocates new financial 
 policy, 311 ; extraordinary popu 
 larity of, 313 ; farewell address 
 of, 314 ; in retirement, 315 ; 
 Congress refunds fine imposed 
 by New Orleans court upon, 
 
 317 ; joins Presbyterian Church, 
 
 318 ; corresponds with Com 
 modore Elliott, 319 ; last hours 
 of, 320 ; public demonstration 
 at death of, 323. 
 
 Jackson, Mrs. Elizabeth, the moth 
 er of Jackson, 4 ; her devotion 
 
INDEX. 
 
 331 
 
 to her sons and efforts to re 
 lease them, 14-16 ; her patriot 
 ism, 16 ; her death, 16. 
 Jones, Lieutenant Thomas Ap 
 Catesby, U. S. Navy, placed in 
 charge of gunboat off New Or 
 leans, 148 ; surrenders to Brit 
 ish, 153. 
 
 Keane, General John, command 
 ing British advance at New Or 
 leans, 153-156 ; description of 
 the march, 156-158. 
 
 Kennedy, Major, reports the ap 
 pearance of Fort Mims after 
 massacre, 71. 
 
 Lambert, General John, succeeds 
 to command of British forces af 
 ter battle of New Orleans, 226 ; 
 falls back on his ships, 232. 
 
 Latour, Major A. Lacarriere, de 
 scribes return of the American 
 troops to New Orleans after the 
 battle, 236. 
 
 Lawrence, Major William, Second 
 U. S. Infantry, gallant defense 
 of Fort Morgan by, 129. 
 
 Lewis, Major William B., his 
 opinion of Jackson s military 
 characteristics, v ; quartermas 
 ter of Jackson s Tennessee mili 
 tia (1812), 52. 
 
 McCay, Spruce, with whom Jack 
 son began the study of law, 
 19. 
 
 Mims, Fort, scene of Indian mas 
 sacre, 1813, 64 ; news of massa 
 cre at, 72 ; action of Tennessee 
 Legislature, 75. 
 
 Mims, Samuel, owner of the build 
 ing called " Fort Mims," 64. 
 
 Mullens, Colonel, commands For 
 ty-fourth Regiment (British) at 
 New Orleans, 211. 
 
 New Orleans, operations of Jack 
 son prior to battle of, 150 ; land 
 ing of the British, 154 ; ladies 
 visit field-hospitals after battle 
 of, 236 ; the American army re 
 turns to, 237. 
 
 Overton, General Thomas, sec 
 onds Jackson in Dickinson duel, 
 37-40. 
 
 Pakenham, General Sir Edward, 
 takes command of British forces 
 before New Orleans, 180 ; forms 
 new plan of campaign, 201 ; his 
 operations on the 8th of Janu 
 ary, 212 ; death of, 216. 
 
 Parsons, Enoch, Senator, describes 
 effect of Fort Mims massacre in 
 Nashville, 74. 
 
 Patterson, Commodore, U. S. Navy, 
 commands fleet in vicinity of 
 New Orleans, 148 ; co-operates 
 with troops in night attack, 166 ; 
 reports operations, 204. 
 
 Reid, John, aide-de-camp, secre 
 tary and biographer of Jack 
 son, 52. 
 
 Robards, Mrs. Rachel, marries 
 Andrew Jackson, 23. 
 
 Scott, Lieutenant, Seventh U. S. 
 Infantry, attacked by Seminoles, 
 254- 
 
332 
 
 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 Shelocta, Indian scout during 
 Jackson s (1813) Creek cam 
 paign, 81. 
 
 Stokes, Colonel John, with whom 
 Jackson completed his prepara 
 tion for the bar, 20. 
 
 Thornton, Colonel W., command 
 ing British detachment at New 
 Orleans, 206. 
 
 Villere, Major Gabriel, notifies 
 
 Jackson of the enemy s approach 
 to New Orleans, 159. 
 
 Weatherford, chief of the Creek 
 Indians, 67 ; leads attack on 
 Fort Mims, 70. 
 
 Wilkinson, General James, U. S. 
 Army, instincts Jackson to halt 
 militia at Natchez, 53. 
 
 Wilson, General James Grant, cor 
 respondence and conversations 
 with Chaplain-General Gleig, 
 vi, vii. Note on the author, viii. 
 
 THE END. 
 
3fc3K5 
 /86&J 
 
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