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Biographical Note

U. S. settlers, Spanish citizens, British agents, and Creek Natives who had migrated southward following the Creek War of 1813-1814 in Alabama, clashed in West Florida. Andrew Jackson, regardless of the international border, burned Native villages, hanged two British subjects, Robert Ambrister and Alexander Arbuthnot, and captured St. Marks and Pensacola. Known as the First Seminole War, Jackson's actions brought international repercussions and caused problems for him for years afterwards.

Jackson was born in such obscurity on March 15, 1767, that two States claim his birthplace, though he himself stated that he had been told it was in Waxhaw settlement in South Carolina. He attended the "old field" school and the academy of Doctor Humphries. During the Revolutuion he was captured by the British and confined in the stockade at Camden, S. C. He was left as an orphan at fourteen years of age and worked for a time in a saddlers shop and afterward taught school. He studied law in Salisbury, N. C. and was admitted to the bar in 1787 and commenced practice in McLeanville, North Carolina, comprising what is now the State of Tennessee, in 1788, and located in Nashville, Tenn., in October 1788. He was a delegate to the convention to frame a Constitution for the new State, held in Knoxville in January 1796.

Jackson was Governor of Florida from March 10 to October 6, 1821 (his commission ran until December 31, 1821, but he left Florida on October 6); declined the position of Minister to Mexico and again was elected to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1823, to October 14, 1825, when he resigned. Jackson was the unsuccessful Democratic candidate for President in 1824. He was elected President of the United States in 1828 and reelected in 1832 and served from March4, 1823 to March 3, 1837. He retired to the "Hermitage," where he died June 8, 1845, and was buried in the garden on his estate.

Upon the admission of Tennessee as a State into the Union he was elected as a Democrat to the Fourth Congress and served from December 5, 1796, to March 3, 1797. He was elected to the United States Senate for the term commencing March 4, 1797, and served from September 26, 1797, until his resignation in April 1798. He was elected judge of the State Supreme Court of Tennessee and served from 1798 to July 24, 1804. He moved to the "Hermitage," near Nashville, and engaged in planting and in mercantile pursuits. He served in the Creek War of 1813. He was a Major General of Volunteers 1812-1814. A commissioned Brigadier General in the United States Army April 19, 1814, and Major General May 1, 1814. Jackson led his army to New Orleans, where he defeated the British on January 8, 1815, and received the thanks of Congress and a gold medal by resolution of February 27, 1815. Jackson commanded an expedition which captured Florida in 1818.