Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-12-18
BY GEORGE CREEL.

Il was In 17SO that merclleSs
Bana stre Tarleton swept
through the Carolinas with fire
A and sword. bringing his atroci-
ties to a fit climax by the
Waxhaw massacre. when 113 Ameri.
cans were butchered and as many
more left upon the ground, hacked
and bullet-riddled.
Among the women who crept from
cave and thi1ket to tend the wounded
was the Widow jackson. One son
had died I'm defense of his country the
year before. and. in her ministering
progress from body to body. she was
followed by Andrew and Robert. the
two boys that remained.
Fierce anger was mixed with the
general horror. for the patriots had
been engaged in a pariey at the mo-
ment of attack, and the Spartan
mother made no objection when her
bantlings took service with Davies
wild partisans.
Hard were the days that followed
Tory treachery aiding British arms
and then came a black morning when
the youngsters were captured along
with others in the fierce fighting at
Waxhaw church.
"Clean my boots.' rasped an officer.
reckoning small Andrew Jackson TO
the mental task.
His face as red as his unruly hair,
and his blue eyes burning, the H.
year.old boy proudly answered that
he had been taken In fair fight, and
demanded the treatment due pris-
oner of war. With an oath the
Briton brought his sword down, but
Andrew, throwing up his arm. escaped
with no worse than a cut that SCARED
him for life.
Tying their prisoners so East that
some of the buckskin throngs bit to
the bone, the British carried them to
Camden and threw them into stock
AIDED pest holes, where they died lie
flies from starvation and smallpox.
The agonizsds mother, fiinging her.
self at the feet of Lord Rawdon.
brought about an exchange that gave
her back her eve lambs. but Robert
lied as they reached the humble cabin.
and Andrew lay at deaths door
through weary weeks.
No sooner was the boy we'll than the
heroic widow hurried to Charleston,
where imprisoned relatives and friends
suffered in the hulks: but yellow FEVER
struck her down while she nursed the
left alone in the world, could not even
find her grave that he might sob out
his aching heart upon It.
In the hour OF this Waxhaw LADS
travail. little Rachel Donelson SCI
forth on the swift waters of the Hol.
ston as though to keep an appoint.
nef1t made in Heaven. Her father was
one OF the sturdy immigrants farms
into the wilderness to found the settle.
ment of Nashville. and as he gripped
his long rife at sight of painted ny
ures slipping through the forest, MS
brown-skinned. fearless daughter took
the helm,
WHEN jackson. by that time sue
w cessful lawyer. came to the Ten.
nessee village, it was to this girl OF
the frontier that he gave his deafness
love.
Elizabeth jackson and Rachel Donel-
son--these two women were the great
cornpelling forces in Andrew Jackson's
life. niolding it. driving it. owning It.
until that gaunt body broke under the
strain of exi1austing passions.
Loving the soil and the peace OF his
mia ntati0u. IL was the memory or his
mothers sufferings that sent him. so
white.hot. against the British in 1872,
that he might lift slandered wife to
heights far above her traducers was
largely the cause Of his entry into pol
itics.
At every point in his two terms as
President of the United States. his
deep and abiding alteration of these
dead women is seen as guiding In.
nuence more powerful than any other
consideration.
What need to go tediously into the
details of poor Hachefs tragedy:
Marrying Louis Richards, an unpleas-
ant Young Kentuckian, she had left
him because Of his cruelties. Unable
to force her return. he brought suit
for divorce In far-off Virginia, and
took pains to send word to Nashville
that it had been granted.
jackson, in love with tie delightful,