The death of Mrs. Jackson’s mother, Rachel Stockley Donelson, which, according to a marker erected a few years ago by members of the Donelson family, occurred in 1794, was offered in the first edition of the present work as another reason that Andrew and Rachel Jackson had gone into a home of their own. This seems to be in error. As far as the writer knows at present, the date of her death has not been established. However, it was after October 2, 1800. (See pp. 491-92, General Jackson’s Lady, by Mary French Caldwell.)
The Nickajack expedition was noteworthy, not only for the success of its immediate objects, but also for its effectiveness in bringing a lasting peace to the frontiers, and for the fact that it was conducted in defiance of the Federal government. The territorial governor, William Blount, in a letter to General Knox, Secretary of War, written in Knoxville, October 2, 1794, recites the sufferings of the inhabitants in the “district of Mero” and tells of depredations which took place while the frontiersmen were on their way to the Cherokee Lower Towns—Nickajack, Running Water, and others of lesser importance.
“While Major Ore was out against the Lower Town,” he wrote, “the Indians continued their depredations against the district of Mero. On the night of the fourteenth September, the Indians pulled up a part of the stockading of Morgan’s station, and took out a valuable gelding tied to his dwelling house. The sixteenth of the same month, a woman on Red river near Major Sharp’s was killed by the Indians. The same day a party of Indians fired upon five men near Mr. Andrew Jackson’s, on the south side of Cumberland river, killed one man, and wounded two; among the latter is Mr. John Bosley. The same party burned the houses of John Donnelson and the widow Hayes. From the nearness of the time, and the distance of the situation, within which the above injuries were committed, there must have been three parties of Indians.” (Indian Affairs, Vol. I, page 663.)
The Nickajack expedition began on September 8, 1794, so at the time that these depredations took place the settlement was in an unprotected condition. Since before the Civil War Andrew Jackson’s participation in this campaign has been a matter of dispute. The historian Ramsey, in his Annals of Tennessee, said that he served as a private; but Putnam, in his work on Middle Tennessee, basing his statement on the word of men who participated in the expedition, declares that he did not go. Putnam is followed by Parton and, since both of them have so vehemently denied that he had a part in it, this position has been almost generally accepted.
Ramsey based his statement on papers of Willie Blount, half brother of the territorial governor, who, at the time was secretary of the territory, and was later himself governor of Tennessee. Both Putnam and Parton have failed to take into consideration the importance of Blount’s testimony—or, perhaps, did not have access to his papers. A letter which should settle the controversy permanently has been recently acquired by the state historian and librarian, Mrs. John Trotwood Moore. This letter, written to General Jackson on January 4, 1830, by Willie Blount, states:
“I have by me the rough draft of sundry letters, from me to you, none of which have yet been either copied or mailed: they relate to things gone bye, & so, no matter whether they are ever sent or not: they speak only of the pleasurable feelings I experience in the knowledge I possess of the motives and conduct in the various promotions of my friend yourself and the result of your efforts since the battle of Nickajack, commanded by Orr: where, as Sampson Williams says, our friend, the Mountain Leader, the friend of man, was at that never to be forgotten good days work, in which you lent an active useful hand, that gave peace to our frontier, never to be forgotten by me.”
It is fitting that this letter should be published for the first time in a volume on the Hermitage, for it is an interesting contribution to the incomplete records of Andrew Jackson’s early career in Tennessee. It is not strange, of course, that these records should be scant. Jackson was too young, too busy, and too completely unaware of the greatness which awaited him to have an interest in preserving personal records of this early period. Certainly his acquaintances could not have seen in the tall, slender, red-haired young attorney a future president and a great general.
Many disconnected court records may be found. A few of his account books survive and some of his letters have escaped oblivion; but, for the most part, the records of his early military activities, his mercantile business, and his land deals are incomplete. It is impossible to quote in detail from the court records of his land deals—that would require a separate volume. It is possible to show from them, however, that when he owned both the Hunter’s Hill and Hermitage tracts, his holdings in the Hermitage neighborhood totaled something like 1,200 acres. The extent of his land fluctuated from time to time with his changing fortunes. For instance he sold the Hunter’s Hill tract in 1804, bought it back at a later period of prosperity, and sold it again under financial pressure. At his death he held a plantation in Mississippi, as well as his Hermitage estate and adjoining lands bought from the heirs of Savern Donelson.
The Hermitage estate, as described by Andrew Jackson himself on September 30, 1841 (Bassett, Correspondence of Andrew Jackson, Vol. VI, p. 125) was as follows:
“The following is the boundery of my Hermitage track and its appendages, viz, Beginning at a stake, Andrew Jacksons South East corner, on Major A. J. Donelsons west boundery line and Mrs. Wards North East corner, running line thence North Eight east with A. J. Donelson to a post oak near A. J. Donelsons gate, then West to the turn pike road, then with the turn pike road to the old road leading to James Saunders ferry, thence North with A. J. Donelsons line to an ash and Locust, then East with his line to a black oak, thence North with his line to the North boundery line of Hugh Hays premption, thence West with the old preemption line to a stone, the North West corner of Hugh Hays preemption thence south with this preemption line, passing a walnutt corner, (the South West and North West corner of said Hugh Hays, and Nathaniel Hays preemption) continued South with said N. Hays line to the mouth of the lane leading to Wm. Donelsons to a cedar stake, the North east corner of Savern Donelsons 640 acres that he died seized of and the South east corner of William Donelsons land, thence West along the old line to a cedar stake, corner to A. Jackson and William Donelson, thence down the meanders of a branch to a stone corner, thence south with Wm. Donelsons line, passing his corner, and with T. Dodsons line to a white ash at Dodsons fence, then East with Dodsons line, and Mrs. Wards line to an Elm, then North with Mrs. Wards line to a dogwood, Andrew Jacksons corner, thence East to the beginning, containing in all nine hundred and sixty acres. I send you the exterior boundery of my whole tract....”