Andrew Jackson

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Andrew Jackson : biography

15 March 1767 – 08 June 1845

Jackson defeated the Red Sticks at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in 1814. US forces and their allies killed 800 Red Stick warriors in this battle, but Jackson spared the chief Red Eagle, a mixed-race man also known as William Weatherford. Sam Houston and David Crockett served under Jackson in this campaign. After the victory, Jackson imposed the Treaty of Fort Jackson upon both the Upper Creek enemies and the Lower Creek allies, wresting twenty million acres (81,000 km²) in present-day Georgia and Alabama from all the Creek for European-American settlement. Jackson was appointed Major General after this action.

Jackson’s service in the War of 1812 against the United Kingdom was conspicuous for bravery and success. When British forces threatened New Orleans, Jackson took command of the defenses, including militia from several western states and territories. He was a strict officer but was popular with his troops. They said he was "tough as old hickory" wood on the battlefield, and he acquired the nickname of "Old Hickory". In the Battle of New Orleans on January 8, 1815, Jackson’s 5,000 soldiers won a decisive victory over 7,500 British. At the end of the battle, the British had 2,037 casualties: 291 dead (including three senior generals), 1,262 wounded, and 484 captured or missing. The Americans had 71 casualties: 13 dead, 39 wounded, and 19 missing.Remini, Robert V. (1999). The Battle of New Orleans. New York: Penguin Books. p. 285

Constitutional Crisis

Jackson ordered the arrest of U. S. District Court Judge Dominick Hall in March, 1815, after the judge signed a writ of habeas corpus on behalf of a Louisiana legislator that Jackson had arrestedSee, e.g., Martin, François-Xavier The History of Louisiana, from the Earliest Period, Vol. 2 p. 387-495 (New Orleans, 1829), http://books.google.com/books?id=209UAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=martin’s+history+of+louisiana&hl=en&sa=X&ei=V1fVUa3hAsquqAGIxoGACw&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false . Louis Louaillier had written an anonymous piece in the New Orleans newspaper, challenging Jackson’s refusal to release the militia, after the British ceded the field of battleSee, e.g., Warshauer, Matthew, Andrew Jackson and the Politics of Martial Law, Univ. of Tenn. Press, 2006, p. 32 ff. Jackson had claimed the authority to declare martial law over the entire City of New Orleans, not merely his "camp."See, e.g., The Appeal of Louis Louaillier, Sen., Against the Charge of High Treason, (New Orleans), 1827 http://books.google.com/books?id=4bbU68Z1knEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=louis+louaillier&hl=en&sa=X&ei=I4_UUb2-L5Hg8AS9yoHwDQ&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAA After ordering the arrest of a Louisiana legislator, a federal judge, a lawyer and after intervention of Joshua Lewis (judge), a State Judge, who was simultaneously serving under Jackson in the militia, and who also signed a writ of habeas corpus against Jackson, his commanding officer, seeking Judge Hall’s release, Jackson relented. See, e.g., Eaton, Fernin, For Whom the Drone Tolls or What if Andrew Jackson had Drones at the Battle of New Orleans, A Bit of Bicentennial Mischief, http://academia.edu/3701970/For_Whom_the_Drone_Tolls_or_What_if_Andrew_Jackson_Had_Drones_at_the_Battle_of_New_Orleans–A_bit_of_Bicentennial_Mischief

Civilian authorities in New Orleans had reason to fear Jackson. But they fared better than did the six members of the militia whose executions, ordered by Jackson, would surface as the Coffin Handbills during his 1828 Presidential campaignSee, e.g., http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2008661734/. Nonetheless, Jackson became a national hero for his actions in this battle and the War of 1812. He received the Thanks of Congress and a gold medal by resolution of February 27, 1815. Alexis de Tocqueville later commented in Democracy in America that Jackson "…was raised to the Presidency, and has been maintained there, solely by the recollection of a victory which he gained, twenty years ago, under the walls of New Orleans."