GENERAL ANDREW JACKSON (1767-1845)

Book: The Beginner's American History

Chapter: XXIV | General Andrew Jackson

Author: D. H. Montgomery

Andrew Jackson and the War of 1812; his birthplace; his school; wrestling-matches; firing off the gun.

The greatest battle of our second war with England—the War of 1812—was fought by General Andrew Jackson.

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He was the son of a poor emigrant who came from the North of Ireland and settled in North Carolina*. When Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence in 1776, Andrew was nine years old, and his father had long been dead. He was a tall, slender, freckled-faced, barefooted boy, with eyes full of fun; the neighbors called him "Mischievous little Andy."

He went to school in a log hut in the pine woods; but he learned more things from what he saw in the woods than from the books he studied in school.

He was not a very strong boy, and in wrestling some of his companions could throw him three times out of four; but though they could get him down without much trouble, it was quite another thing to keep him down. No sooner was he laid flat on his back, than he bounded up like a steel spring, and stood ready to try again.

He had a violent temper, and when, as the boys said, "Andy got mad all over," not many cared to face him. Once some of his playmates secretly loaded an old gun almost up to the muzzle, and then dared him to fire it. They wanted to see what he would say when it kicked him over. Andrew fired the gun. It knocked him sprawling; he jumped up with eyes blazing with anger, and shaking his fist, cried out, "If one of you boys laughs, I'll kill him." He looked as though he meant exactly what he said, and the boys thought that perhaps it would be just as well to wait and laugh some other day.

*He settled in Union County, North Carolina, very near the South Carolina line. Mecklenburg Court House is in the next county west of Union County.

Tarleton's attack on the Americans; how Andrew helped his mother.

When Andrew was thirteen, he learned what war means. The country was then fighting the battles of the Revolution. A British officer named Tarleton came suddenly upon some American soldiers near the place where young Jackson lived. Tarleton had so many men that the Americans saw that it was useless to try to fight, and they made no attempt to do so. The British should have taken them all prisoners; but, instead of that, they attacked them furiously, and hacked and hewed them with their swords. More than a hundred of our men were left dead, and a still larger number were so horribly wounded that they could not be moved any distance. Such an attack was not war, for war means a fair, stand-up fight; it was murder: and when the people in England heard what Tarleton had done, many cried Shame!

There was a little log meeting-house near Andrew's home, and it was turned into a hospital for the wounded men. Mrs. Jackson, with other kind-hearted women, did all she could for the poor fellows who lay there groaning and helpless. Andrew carried food and water to them. He had forgotten most of the lessons he learned at school, but here was something he would never forget.

Andrew's hatred of the "red-coats"; Tarleton's soldiers meet their match.

From that time, when young Jackson went to the blacksmith's shop to get a hoe or a spade mended, he was sure to come back with a rude spear, or with some other weapon, which he had hammered out to fight the "red-coats"* with.

Tarleton said that no people in America hated the British so much as those who lived where Andrew Jackson did. The reason was that no other British officer was so cruel as "Butcher Tarleton," as he was called. Once, however, his men met their match. They were robbing a farm of its pigs and chickens and corn and hay. When they got through carrying things off, they were going to burn down the farm-house; but one of the "red-coats," in his haste, ran against a big hive of bees and upset it. The bees were mad enough. They swarmed down on the soldiers, got into their ears and eyes, and stung them so terribly that at last the robbers were glad to drop everything and run. If Andrew could have seen that battle, he would have laughed till he cried.

*Red-coats: this nickname was given by the Americans to the British soldiers because they wore bright red coats.

Dangerous state of the country; the roving bands.

Andrew knew that he and his mother lived in constant danger. Part of the people in his state were in favor of the king, and part were for liberty. Bands of armed men, belonging sometimes to one side, and sometimes to the other, went roving about the country. When they met a farmer, they would stop him and ask, 'Which side are you for?' If he did not answer to suit them, the leader of the party would cry out, Hang him up! In an instant one of the band would cut down a long piece of wild grapevine, twist it into a noose, and throw it over the man's head; the next moment he would be dangling from the limb of a tree. Sometimes the band would let him down again; sometimes they would ride on and leave him hanging there.

Playing at battle; what Tarleton heard about himself.

Even the children saw and heard so much of the war that was going on that they played at war, and fought battles with red and white corn,—red for the British and white for the Americans.

At the battle of Cowpens Colonel William Washington* fought on the American side, and Tarleton got badly whipped and had to run. Not long afterward he happened to see some boys squatting on the ground, with a lot of corn instead of marbles. They were playing the battle of Cowpens. A red kernel stood for Tarleton, and a white one for Colonel Washington. The boys shoved the corn this way and that; sometimes the red would win, sometimes the white. At last the white kernel gained the victory, and the boys shouted, "Hurrah for Washington—Tarleton runs!"

Tarleton had been quietly looking on without their knowing it. When he saw how the game ended, he turned angrily away. He had seen enough of "the little rebels,"* as he called them.

*Colonel William Washington was a relative of General George Washington.

*Rebels: this was the name which the British gave to the Americans because we had been forced to take up arms to overthrow the authority of the English king, who was still lawfully, but not justly, the ruler of this country. Had he been a just and upright ruler, there would probably have been no rebellion against his authority at that time.

Andrew is taken prisoner by the British; "Here, boy, clean those boots"; the two scars.

Not long after our victory at Cowpens, Andrew Jackson was taken prisoner by the British. The officer in command of the soldiers had just taken off his boots, splashed with mud. Pointing to them, he said to Andrew, Here, boy, clean those boots. Andrew replied, Sir, I am a prisoner of war, and it is not my place to clean boots. The officer, in a great passion, whipped out his sword and struck a blow at the boy. It cut a gash on his head and another on his hand. Andrew Jackson lived to be an old man, but the marks of that blow never disappeared: he carried the scars to his grave.

The prisoners in the yard of Camden jail; seeing a battle through a knot-hole.

Andrew was sent with other prisoners to Camden, South Carolina, and shut up in the jail-yard. There many fell sick and died of small-pox.

One day some of the prisoners heard that General Greene—the greatest American general in the Revolution, next to Washington—was coming to fight the British at Camden. Andrew's heart leaped for joy, for he knew that if General Greene should win he would set all the prisoners at liberty.

General Greene, with his little army, was on a hill in sight Of the jail, but there was a high, tight board fence round the jail-yard, and the prisoners could not see them. With the help of an old razor Andrew managed to dig out a knot from one of the boards. Through that knot-hole he watched the battle.

Our men were beaten in the fight, and Andrew saw their horses, with empty saddles, running wildly about. Then the boy turned away, sick at heart. Soon after that he was seized with the small-pox, and would have died of it if his mother had not succeeded in getting him set free.

Mrs. Jackson goes to visit the American prisoners at Charleston; Andrew loses his best friend; what he said of her.

In the summer Mrs. Jackson made a journey on horseback to Charleston, a hundred and sixty miles away. She went to carry some little comforts to the poor American prisoners, who were starving and dying of disease in the crowded and filthy British prison-ships in the harbor. While visiting these unfortunate men she caught the fever which raged among them. Two weeks later she was in her grave, and Andrew, then a lad of fourteen, stood alone in the world.

Years afterward, when he had risen to be a noted man, people would sometimes praise him because he was never afraid to say and do what he believed to be right; then Jackson would answer, "That I learned from my good old mother."

Andrew begins to learn a trade; he studies law and goes west; Judge Jackson; General Jackson.

Andrew set to work to learn the saddler's trade, but gave it up and began to study law. After he became a lawyer he went across the mountains to Nashville, Tennessee. There he was made a judge. There were plenty of rough men in that part of the country who meant to have their own way in all things; but they soon found that they must respect and obey Judge Jackson. They could frighten other judges, but it was no use to try to frighten him. Seeing what sort of stuff Jackson was made of, they thought that they should like to have such a man to lead them in battle. And so Judge Andrew Jackson became General Andrew Jackson. When trouble came with the Indians, Jackson proved to be the very man they needed.

Tecumseh and the Indians of Alabama; Tecumseh threatens to stamp his foot on the ground; the earthquake; war begins.

We have already seen how the Indian chief Tecumseh went south to stir up the red men to make war on the white settlers in the west. In Alabama he told the Indians that if they fought they would gain a great victory. I see, said Tecumseh to them, that you don't believe what I say, and that you don't mean to fight. Well, I am now going north to Detroit. When I get there I shall stamp my foot on the ground, and shake down every wigwam you have. It so happened that, shortly after Tecumseh had gone north, a sharp shock of earthquake was felt in Alabama, and the wigwams were actually shaken down by it. When the terrified Indians felt their houses falling to pieces, they ran out of them, shouting, "Tecumseh has got to Detroit!"

These Indians now believed all that Tecumseh had said; they began to attack the white people, and they killed a great number of them.

Jackson conquers the Indians; the "Holy Ground"; Weathersford and Jackson; feeding the starving.

General Jackson marched against the Indians and beat them in battle. The Indians that escaped fled to a place they called the "Holy Ground.", They believed that if a white man dared to set his foot on that ground he would be struck dead as if by a flash of lightning. General Jackson and his men marched on to the "Holy Ground," and the Indians found that unless they made peace they would be the ones who would be struck dead by his bullets.

Not long after this, a noted leader of the Indians, named Weathersford, rode boldly up to Jackson's tent. "Kill him! kill him!" cried Jackson's men; but the general asked Weathersford into his tent. "You can kill me if you want to," said he to Jackson, "but I came to tell you that the Indian women and children are starving in the woods, and to ask you to help them, for they never did you any harm." General Jackson sent away Weathersford in safety, and ordered that corn should be given to feed the starving women and children. That act showed that he was as merciful as he was brave.

The British send war-ships to take New Orleans; the great battle and the great victory.

These things happened during our second war with England, or the War of 1812. About a year after Jackson's victory over the Indians the British sent an army in ships to take New Orleans.

General Jackson now went to New Orleans, to prevent the enemy from getting possession of the city.

About four miles below the city, which stands on the Mississippi River, there was a broad, deep ditch, running from the river into a swamp. Jackson saw that the British would have to cross that ditch when they marched against the city. For that reason he built a high bank on the upper side of the ditch, and placed cannon along the top of the bank.

Early on Sunday morning, January 8th, 1815, the British sent a rocket whizzing up into the sky; a few minutes afterward they sent up a second one. It was the signal that they were about to march to attack us.

Just before the fight began General Jackson walked along among his men, who were getting ready to defend the ditch. He said to them, "Stand to your guns; see that every shot tells: give it to them, boys!" The "boys" did give it to them. The British soldiers were brave men; they had been in many terrible battles, and they were not afraid to die. They fought desperately; they tried again and again to cross that ditch and climb the bank, but they could not do it. The fire of our guns cut them down just as a mower cuts down the tall grain with his scythe. In less than half an hour the great battle was over; Jackson had won the victory and saved New Orleans. We lost only eight killed; the enemy lost over two thousand*. We have never had a battle since with England; it is to be hoped that we never shall have another, for two great nations* like England and America, that speak the same language, ought to be firm and true friends.

*Killed and wounded.

*Nations: a nation is a people born in the same country and living under the same government; as the American nation, the French nation, the English nation.

We buy Florida; General Jackson made President of the United States; the first railroad.

After the battle of New Orleans General Jackson conquered the Indians in Florida, and in 1819 we bought that country of Spain, and so made the United States much larger on the south. This was our second great land purchase.

Ten years after we got Florida General Jackson became President of the United States. He had fought his way up. Here are the four steps: first the boy, "Andy Jackson"; then "Judge Jackson"; then "General Jackson"; last of all, "President Jackson."

Shortly after he became the chief ruler of the nation the first steam railroad in the United States was built (1830). From that time such roads kept creeping further and further west. The Indians had frightened the white settlers with their terrible war-whoop. Now it was their turn to be frightened, for the locomotive whistle* could beat their wildest yell. They saw that the white man was coming as fast as steam could carry him, and that he was determined to get possession of the whole land. The greater part of the Indians moved across the Mississippi; but the white man kept following them and following the buffalo further and further across the country, toward the Pacific Ocean; and the railroad followed in the white man's track.

*The first steam railroad built in the United States extended from Baltimore to Ellicott's Mills, Maryland, a distance of twelve miles. It was opened in 1830. It forms a part of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.

Summary

Andrew Jackson of North Carolina gained a great victory over the Indians in Alabama and also in Florida. In 1815, in our second war with England, General Jackson whipped the British at New Orleans, and so prevented their getting possession of that city. A few years later we bought Florida of Spain.

After General Jackson became President of the United States the first steam-railroad was built in this country. Railroads helped to settle the west and build up states beyond the Mississippi.