THE

CHAPTER II.

TO THE BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS.

HIS work has now brought the life of Jackson in meagre outline to the point where he was to change from civil to military employment. It would be pleasant and profitable to go more minutely into the relation of incidents-especially profitable for the reason that few prominent men have ever been so largely influenced by daily experience. Some men seem to be evolved by natural processes, by thought and study; and would develop to greatness in a monastery or a cave. Others are formed from without, by the force of circumstances and the attrition of events. Jackson belonged to the latter class; he was an a posteriori man. It is, however, only possible to touch here and there a salient point in his earlier life, selecting, as far as possible, those which are characteristic of the man, and typical of the influences which combined to form the rugged outlines of his character.

When Madison, having for four years struggled with the policy left him by Jefferson, until the United States had become an object of contempt abroad, and the administration had earned the displeasure even of its own party at home, when, after all this, as a condition for re-election, Madison yielded to those who demanded a stronger government, war was regarded as inevitable. When came the declaration of war, Jackson at once offered his service with that of two thousand five hundred volunteers. It was considered that the enemy was likely to make New Orleans an objective point, and Jackson moved in that direction, at the same time assuring the secretary of war, that neither he nor his men had any constitutional scruples, and that they were prepared to push the campaign to any extremity, even to the planting of the American flag at St. Augustine.

Reaching Natchez, Jackson opened his campaign by a quarrel with his old enemy, General Wilkinson, upon a question of rank. Thomas H. Benton served under Jackson and, thinking his commander in the wrong, so declared, thus producing a breach which was never fairly healed. Some one

said, during Jackson's lifetime, that, if he met an enemy at the gate of heaven, he would keep St. Peter with the latch in his hand, while he had it out." This rencontre left Jackson in a frame of mind none too amiable, and his temper was not sweetened by the fact that he received orders from the war department that, as no attack upon New Orleans was immediately apprehended, he should disband his troops and dismiss them to their homes. He was eager for action, and the order was in itself a sore disappointment. Then, too, no provision was made for pay, rations, or transportation, and this careless dismissal of his troops, so far from their homes, enraged him. He did not long hesitate as to his course, but pledged his own credit for boats and supplies, and kept his organization until he reached the district in which his troops had been raised, then disbanded them. This was probably an act of impulsive generosity on his part, yet it could not have served him more admirably, had he been a Cæsar. The men who formed his command never forgot this kindness, and it laid the first substantial foundation for the unbounded and unthinking popularity which still survives, and the almost superstitious love and veneration in which his name is to-day held by a large section of the American people. The war department later ordered that the men receive pay and rations, and Thomas H. Benton, overlooking his quarrel, procured an appropriation from Congress, reimbursing Jackson. This promising overture for a reconciliation, was rendered ineffective by subsequent events. Jesse Benton, a brother of Thomas, became involved in a quarrel; a challenge and duel followed, and Jackson acted as second of Benton's antagonist. From this circumstance gossip arose; Thomas Benton made some injurious remark about Jackson, and the latter publicly threatened to horsewhip him. The three, Jesse and Thomas Benton, and Jackson, met in a hotel in Nashville; words led to blows, blows to shots, and Jackson retired from the scene with a bullet in his shoulder. Thus was another violent act added to the list which would at this day hopelessly ruin a politician, if it did not earn him, instead of office, the punishment of the law.

Shortly after the rencontre with the Bentons, and while Jackson's wound still confined him to his bed, came information of the massacre of whites at Fort Mims, Alabama, which began the Creek war. Tecumseh, the able and wily chief, had determined upon allying the Indians for a general war upon their common enemy. The beginning of the war of 1812 gave him not inspiration or incentive, but opportunity. He saw in it the chance of uniting the Indians from Canada to the Gulf, and, either by alliance with England, or by an independent movement, while the Americans were engrossed in the contest with their civilized enemy, sweep them back, and recover the country which they occupied. Tecumseh's death prevented the forming of an alliance or the waging of a common war, but the Creeks, by their massacre at Mims, began a war, serious in its immediate effects, and which promised disastrous results for the future. Alabama was almost deserted by

settlers; Georgia, Tennessee, and the Carolinas were alarmed, and immediate preparations were made for aggression and defense.

The character of the

On three occasions Jack

Jackson chafed in his sick-bed that he could not at once take part in the enterprise; he concerted with General Cocke, the junior major-genera! of the state, the measures to be taken in the emergency, and, at the earliest moment, joined his forces in the field. The campaign, like every extended enterprise, attempted with pioneer militia-was attended by the double difficulty of defeating the enemy, and of keeping coherent a raw, undisciplined, insubordinate and homesick army. Sumner has been quoted as saying some severe things concerning Jackson; he gives him much credit for the conduct of this war, saying: commander was all important to such an army. son had to use one part of his army to prevent another part from marching home, he and they differing on the construction of the terms of enlistment. He showed very strong qualities under these trying circumstances. He endured delay with impatience, but with fortitude, and without a suggestion of abandoning the enterprise, although he was in wretched health all the time. He knew how to be severe with them, without bringing them to open revolt, and he knew how to make the most efficacious appeals to them. In conduct of movements against the enemy, his energy was very remarkable. So long as there was an enemy unsubdued, Jackson could not rest, and could not give heed to anything else. Obstacles which lay in the way between him and his unsubdued enemy, were not allowed to deter him. This restless and absorbing determination to reach and crush anything hostile, was one of the most marked traits in Jackson's character. It appeared in all his military operations, and he carried it afterward into his civil activity."

Jackson justified every military movement by making it successful; men hastened to enlist under him, because they deemed him invincible; his name went out through the United States with a new significance and a new eclat. He hanged a man for a technical offense, in a case where clemency might not have been amiss; his army but respected him the more; the odd affection they had for the man, who was their master as well as their general, was not one whit lessened.

He defeated the enemy at Tohopeka, Alabama; he followed him to the Hickory Ground and the Holy Ground, near the junction of the Coosa and the Tallapoosa rivers. The savages believed no white man could follow them to this Holy Ground, deeming it a charmed place of refuge. They found their mistake; Jackson followed them hotly, cruelly; they were beaten on the Hickory Ground; driven from the Holy Ground; the survivors fled into Florida, and the war was over. Fort Jackson was built on the Hickory Ground, and the good behavior of the Creeks was assured, for a time at least. The Tennessee militia was dismissed April 10, 1814, after a campaign of only seven months, which had contributed very largely to the

reputation of General Jackson, who would else have remained, in the estimation of the country, nothing more than a prominent local politician and a leading militia commander.

As a result of the new recognition, Jackson was, on the 21st day of May, 1814, appointed a major-general in the army of the United States, with command of the army of the south, and established his headquarters at Mobile, as there was renewed fear that either that place or New Orleans would be attacked by the British. The enemy did, in fact, soon appear, and took post at Pensacola, thus raising, at the very outset of the southern campaign, the question of the relations of Spain to the combatants. Pensacola was within Spanish territory, and Spain was ostensibly a neutral, yet by thus giving harbor to the enemies of the United States, she seemed almost to invite retaliation. Jackson's personal feelings were opposed to any consideration of Spanish rights; he only wished a pretext such as was then furnished, to move against Spain as an enemy. His army was, however, a small one, and very ill supplied with the necessaries of war. Hence he curbed his impatience, long enough to send north, representing his own condition and the state of affairs, and requesting of the secretary of war reinforcements and instructions. That was the darkest time of the war; the British troops had even then captured the city of Washington, and destroyed the public buildings; neither reinforcements nor instructions came, though the secretary of war wrote a letter in which he told Jackson that before any violation of the neutrality of Spanish territory, it must be clear that British occupancy of Florida was with the privity and consent of Spain. This letter Jackson never received.

On the 15th of September, the British, as a preliminary of an assault upon Jackson's main position, attacked Fort Bowyer, upon Mobile point, but were repulsed with loss, retreating to Pensacola. This was enough for Jackson, who at once advanced upon the latter place, with three thousand men; he attacked it with characteristic energy, and with his usual success. The Spanish surrendered the forts held by them, while the English blew up their fort and departed. His double object, -the dislodgment of the British and the punishment of the Spanish, being thus accomplished, Jackson made a rapid retrograde movement to Mobile, fearing a second attack at that point. Not remaining long, he removed his army and his headquarters to New Orleans, where he arrived December 2, 1814.

The condition of affairs at that point was especially discouraging; there were no arms, no supplies; no public spirit. Not the slightest preparation had been made for defense. Jackson's first act was to proclaim martial law; his next, in logical sequence, to impress men,-soldiers and sailors-arms, stores, and whatever private property he deemed necessary for the purposes of war. During the month of December the British appeared upon the coast, as expected. Had they come but a few days sooner,-or had they

found opposed to them, a man less active and indefatigable, New Orleans, the key to the south, would inevitably have fallen into their hands. Their first movement was to attack, with their flotilla of forty-three vessels, the five American gunboats on Lake Borgne. These were captured, almost as a matter of course. Then an advance was begun toward the city. Jackson adopted the policy that ruled him, in civil and in military affairs, throughout his life; that of aggression. On the 22d day of December he threw forward a force of two thousand men to attack the enemy. The first collision occurred on the morning of the 23d, at a point about nine miles below the city. The British first had two thousand five hundred men in action, but soon increased this number to nearly five thousand. The battle was an extremely hot one, and when, after nearly two hours of close fighting, the American force was withdrawn to its works, five miles nearer the city, it was with a decided advantage. The British loss in this action was four hundred killed, wounded, and prisoners; that of the Americans twenty-four killed, one hundred and fifteen wounded, and seventy-four prisoners. After the retirement of the Americans the enemy advanced and entrenched within easy shot of their works, and a tremendous artillery duel followed, which, like every rapidly succeeding incident of the short contest in that immediate quarter, seemed to be almost miraculously favorable to the Americans, the British works being battered almost into ruins, while those behind which lay Jackson's men, constructed as they were, of mingled earth and cotton bales, were scarcely injured. On the 8th of January, 1815, the English made a general assault upon the American works. Under Jackson's orders his men reserved their fire until the enemy was quite upon them; then fired a well aimed and deadly volley from their rifles, which threw the enemy into hopeless confusion, compelled his retirement, and won the battle. The British lost two thousand killed, wounded, and missing, including the three senior officers of the army; Jackson lost but seven killed and six wounded.

Thus ended the posthumous battle of New Orleans, in many respects an anomaly in warfare: a decisive battle, it was won after the conclusion of a peace; the victors were less in number than the vanquished; they escaped almost without loss, while the carnage in the ranks of the enemy was terrible; they were raw, undisciplined levies, commanded by a man of the smallest experience, and arrayed against veterans fresh from victory over the greatest of soldiers, under the command of the grand old "Iron Duke." No one had dared hope for a victory in the south; succeeding defeats,—the loss of Detroit; the sacking of Washington; the blockading of the coast, had accustomed the people to disaster, and the news from New Orleans, coming almost simultaneously with the tidings of the peace, created a revulsion, and there can be little doubt that the majority of the people in the United States were glad that the tardy announcement of the result at Ghent,