細節
JACKSON, ANDREW. President. Autograph document signed ("Andrew Jackson Major General") to an unnamed "Assistant Deputy Quarter Master" [Captain Robert Andrews], Head-quarters [near Natchez, Miss.], 14 March 1813. One page, folio, slight staining at lower margin, browned at extreme edges from old mat.
OLD HICKORY'S DEFIANT MARCH FROM NATCHEZ TO NASHVILLE
An imperious order without salutation, written at a crucial and difficult point in Jackson's public career. When the United States declared war on Great Britain, Jackson was commissioned a Major General of Volunteers by Tennessee Governor Blount and in January 1813 he and some 2,000 men traveled down the Mississippi towards New Orleans, where General Wilkinson was in command. To Jackson's great frustration, Wilkinson ordered Jackson to halt at camps about Natchez. After weeks of inactivity, John Armstrong, the Secretary of War, wrote to Jackson on 5 February to inform him that, because of policy changes in Washington, he was dismissed from his command, and ordered to disperse his volunteers and return any government property held by his men. Jackson, outraged at the suggestion he summarily abandon his volunteers in their wilderness camps, angrily refused to obey the Secretary's order and determined to personally lead his men on the difficult and dangerous overland trek from Natchez back to Nashville. The present letter is to the Quartermaster department at Cantonment Washington (later re-named Fort Dearborn, now in Adams County, Mississippi).
"The Assistant Deputy Qr. Master for this Department, will immediately furnish Twenty one Waggons, with Horse Teams, to each, to transport the Baggage and sick of my Detachment to the Tennessee Line. Also lay in at different points on the road, sufficient Supplies for those Teams, and for the Cavalry, composing part of my Detachment. You will delay no time in complying with this order, as I have just received orders from the Secretary of War requiring me to march from this Country directly. In addition to the above you will furnish one Waggon to transport the General's Baggage and his suit. The number of Waggons and Teams must be had by Thursday next, as the nature of my orders compels me to March on that day...."
As Jackson's biographer records: "Ironically, the disastrous journey to Natchez and back proved a personal triumph for Jackson...In organizing the march Jackson had to accomodate 150 men on the sicklist, of whom 56 could not sit upright...And there were only eleven wagons....For many, it was a long, difficult, painful journey that they would never forget. Jackson ordered his officers to turn their horses over to the sick, and he surrendered his own three horses for this duty " (Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Empire, 1977, p.178-179). The march lasted almost a month and did much to solidify Jackson's support among Tennesseans and frontier Americans.
OLD HICKORY'S DEFIANT MARCH FROM NATCHEZ TO NASHVILLE
An imperious order without salutation, written at a crucial and difficult point in Jackson's public career. When the United States declared war on Great Britain, Jackson was commissioned a Major General of Volunteers by Tennessee Governor Blount and in January 1813 he and some 2,000 men traveled down the Mississippi towards New Orleans, where General Wilkinson was in command. To Jackson's great frustration, Wilkinson ordered Jackson to halt at camps about Natchez. After weeks of inactivity, John Armstrong, the Secretary of War, wrote to Jackson on 5 February to inform him that, because of policy changes in Washington, he was dismissed from his command, and ordered to disperse his volunteers and return any government property held by his men. Jackson, outraged at the suggestion he summarily abandon his volunteers in their wilderness camps, angrily refused to obey the Secretary's order and determined to personally lead his men on the difficult and dangerous overland trek from Natchez back to Nashville. The present letter is to the Quartermaster department at Cantonment Washington (later re-named Fort Dearborn, now in Adams County, Mississippi).
"The Assistant Deputy Qr. Master for this Department, will immediately furnish Twenty one Waggons, with Horse Teams, to each, to transport the Baggage and sick of my Detachment to the Tennessee Line. Also lay in at different points on the road, sufficient Supplies for those Teams, and for the Cavalry, composing part of my Detachment. You will delay no time in complying with this order, as I have just received orders from the Secretary of War requiring me to march from this Country directly. In addition to the above you will furnish one Waggon to transport the General's Baggage and his suit. The number of Waggons and Teams must be had by Thursday next, as the nature of my orders compels me to March on that day...."
As Jackson's biographer records: "Ironically, the disastrous journey to Natchez and back proved a personal triumph for Jackson...In organizing the march Jackson had to accomodate 150 men on the sicklist, of whom 56 could not sit upright...And there were only eleven wagons....For many, it was a long, difficult, painful journey that they would never forget. Jackson ordered his officers to turn their horses over to the sick, and he surrendered his own three horses for this duty " (Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Empire, 1977, p.178-179). The march lasted almost a month and did much to solidify Jackson's support among Tennesseans and frontier Americans.