Washington sentinel. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1855, 1855-03-03

toi ouc year. anu 10 DC called INTO service Wnen
some emergency should require it. Here was
chance. knew that Jackson could raise
Generals command, and trusted to events for
him to be called out, and felt that one year
was more than enough for him to prove him
self | drew up plan, rode thirty miles to his
house that same raw day in February-rain,
hail. sleet, wind, and such roads as we then had
there in winter, deep in rich mud and mixed
with ice. arrived at the Hermitage, a name
1 then but little known, at nightfall and found
him solitary, and almost alone, but not quite !;
Tor It was the evening, mentioned III the
Thirty Years View when found him with
the lamb and the child between his knees. /
laid the plan before him. He was struck with
it, adopted 1t, acted upon it. We began to
raise volunteer companies. Whilst this was
going on an order arrived from the War De-
partment to the Governor Willie Blount) to
detach fifteen hundred militia to the Lower
Mississippi, the object to meet the British then
expected to make an attempt on New Orleans.
The Governor was friend to jackson and to
his country. He agreed to accept his three
thousand volunteers instead Of the fifteen hun.
dred draughted militia. He issued an address
to his division. / galloped to the muster
grounds and harangued the young men. The
success was ample. Three regiments were
completed-Cofee, William Hall, Benton, the
colonels-and III December, 1872, we descended
the Cumberland and the Mississippi in a feet
of fat-bottomed boats and landed at Natchez.
There we got the news that the British would
not come that winter, great disappointment
and fine chance lost.
| We remained in camp, six miles from
| Natchez, waiting Interior orders. In March they
came-not orders for further service, or even
to return home. but to disband the volunteers
where they were. The command was positive,
| in the name of the President and by the then
Secretary of War, General Armstrong well
remember the day-Sunday morning, the 18th
day of March, 1913. The first knew Of it
was message from the General to come to
him at his tent; for though, as colonel of regi-
ment, had ceased to be aid, yet my place had
not been filed, and was sent for as much as
ever. He showed me the order, and also his
character, in his instant determination not to
obey it, but to lead his volunteers home. He
had sketched severe answer to the Secretary
| of War, and gave it to me to copy and arrange
the matter of it. 1t was very severe. | tried
4 hard to get some parts softened, but impossi,
BILE. have never seen that letter since, but
would know it if should meet it in any form,
any where, without names. / concurred with
the General in the determination to take home
our young troops. He then called "councHi
of the field officers, as he called it, though
there was but little Of the council in it, the
only object being to hear his determination
and take measures for executing it. The Off.
GERS were unanimous in their determination to
support him but it was one of those cases in
which he would have acted not only without,
but against "couacH'
The officers were unanimous and vehement
| their determination q q much 90 a q tho IL
eral was HIMSELF for the volunteers we're com
| posed of the best young men of the country
farmers sons, themselves clever young men,
| since filling high offices in the State and the
Federal Observation-Disclosures to these Off
GERS by their fathers, in full confidence that they
would act a fathers part by them; and the
recreant thought Of turning them loose, on the
lower Mississippi, five hundred miles from
home, without the means Of getting home, and
| a wilderness and Indian tribes to traverse, did
not find a moments thought in any ones
bosom. To carry them back was the instant
and indignant determination; but great diff.
culties were in the way. The cost of getting
back three thousand men under such circum-
stances must be great; and here Jackson's
character showed itself again. We have all
heard Of his responsibilities--his readiness TO
assume political responsibility when the public
service required it. He was now equally ready
totake responsibility of another kind-moneyed
responsibility, and that beyond the whole extent
of his fortune? He had no military chest, not
q dollar of public money, and three thousand
men we're not 10 be conducted five hundred
miles through wilderness country and Indian
tribes without a great outlay Of money.
Wagons we're wanted and many Of them for
transport of provisions, baggage. and the
! sick. frnn Ha
had no money to hire teams; he impressed
and ut the end Of the service gave drafts
upon the quartermaster general of the south
ern department General Wilkinson 81 for the
amount. The wagons we're ten dollars day,
coming and going. They we're numerous 1t
was service oftwo months; the amount to be
incurred was great. He incurred it, and as
will be seen, at imminent risk. Of his own ruin.
This assum ption on the Generals part met the
first great difficulty; but there we're lesser DIFF.
fcuties, still serious, to be surmounted. The
troops had received no pay clothes and shoes
were worn out men were in no condition for
a march so loag and so exposed. The officers
had received no pay, did not expect to need
money, had made no provision for the unex-
pected contingency Of large demands upon their
own pockets to enable them TO do justice to their
men. But there was patriotism outside Of the
camp as well as within. The merchants OF
Natchez put their stores at our disposition /:
take what we needed pay when convenient at
Nashville. will name one among these pa.
triotic merchants-name him because he be-
longs to class now struck at, and because
do not ignore friend when he is struck. Wash.
ington jackson was the one l mean-Irish by
birth, American by choice, by law, and feeling,
and conduct. / took some hundred pairs shoes
from him for m and other 80 III
and proclaim it here that patriotic men of
foreign birth may see that there are plenty
! Of Americans to recognize their merit, to name
them with honor in high places, and to give
them the right hand OF friendship when they
are struck at.
We all returned, were discharged, dispersed
among our homes, and the fine chance on
which we had SO much counted was all gone.
And now came blow upon Jackson himself,
the fruit Of the moneyed responsibility which
he had assumed. His transportation drafts