Memoirs of the Generals, Commodores and other Commanders, who distinguished themselves in the American army and navy during the wars of the Revolution and 1812, and who were presented with medals by Congress for their gallant services

by Thomas Wyatt

GEN. E. P. GAINES.

Edmund Pendleton Gaines was born in the county of Culpepper, Virginia, on the 20th of March, 1777. His father, James Gaines, served in the latter part of the revolutionary war at the head of a company of volunteers, and having removed with his family to the north-west border of North Carolina, he was soon after chosen a member of the legislature of that state. He was the nephew of Edmund Pendleton, for many years presiding judge of the Court of Appeals, in Virginia, and one of those illustrious statesmen whose services were most prominent in the cause which produced a Washington, and enrolled the names of Jefferson, Madison, Randolph and Mason, among the most distinguished in the annals of American history. To the early affectionate solicitude and pious care of a highly gifted mother, may be imputed the strict integrity, and devoted sense of duty, which have always distinguished the subject of this memoir; to whose prudence and excellent example he acknowledges himself indebted for the high sense of honor and rectitude which have been his support amid the trying and eventful scenes of his life.

At the close of the war of independence, his father returned to his estate in North Carolina, consisting of some hundred acres. He, like most of his neighbors, had lost his money in the form of valueless continental bills. In these circumstances, at this period, all classes were more or less involved.

Edmund, now in his thirteenth year, assisted his father in the toils of agriculture. His heart became early imbued with the pleasures which result from the performance of duties, and his health invigorated by such wholesome exercise.

About this period, his father removed his family to Sullivan county, (afterwards the eastern part of Tennessee,) in the immediate vicinity of which the Cherokee Indians were constantly committing depredations. With these Indians the United States were at that time, and continued to be for several years afterwards, at war. Surrounded by hostilities, our hero’s thoughts now actually turned to arms, and he employed his leisure hours in the study of such military works as were within his reach. By the time he was fourteen, he had acquired such skill in the management of the rifle, as to excel most of his young associates. At the age of eighteen, he was elected lieutenant of a rifle company of volunteers, which was raised at that time as a terror to the Cherokees, who were a continual annoyance to the neighborhood. In January, 1799, he was appointed an ensign, and attached to the sixth United States regiment, and ordered on duty in the recruiting service. In the following year the sixth regiment was disbanded, and Ensign Gaines was transferred to the fourth infantry, as second lieutenant.

In 1801, Colonel Butler, who commanded the fourth regiment, was instructed to select the subalterns of that regiment best qualified for making a topographical survey from Nashville to Natchez, for the location of a military road.

He appointed Lieutenant Gaines, who, in the performance of this duty, and in the survey of certain Indian boundary lines, near the Choctaw nation, was engaged until the winter of 1804. In that year, Spain having refused to withdraw her troops from the military posts of Mobile and Baton Rouge, and deliver up the country lying between the island of Orleans and the rivers Iberville, Mississippi and Perdido, as a part of Louisiana, the President of the United States determined to appoint a military collector of the customs, for the district of Mobile, and appointed Lieutenant Gaines to that office.

He accordingly was stationed at Fort Stoddart, thirty-six miles north of the town of Mobile, in the confident expectation of sooner or later having the honor of taking possession of the disputed territory. In 1806, in addition to the duties hitherto assigned to him, Lieutenant Gaines was appointed postmaster, and also agent to the postmaster-general, with authority to suspend all postmasters and mail contractors who were in any wise aiding persons supposed to be engaged in the machinations of Colonel Burr. In the interim, he was promoted to a captaincy. Captain Gaines, as commandant of Fort Stoddart, was authorized to employ such of the United States troops as should be deemed necessary for the protection of the mail, and inspectors of the revenue between the city of Orleans and Athens, Georgia, then a wilderness of nearly six hundred miles in extent. Having performed the arduous duties of this situation to the perfect satisfaction of his government, for nearly five years, Captain Gaines determined to retire from the army, and engage in the profession of the law. But the increased probability of a war with England, for a time suspended this resolution. He at length decided upon asking for leave of absence.

In this interval he commenced the practice of law, in the counties of Washington and Baldwin, Mississippi territory; but scarcely had he completed his first year’s practice, when war was declared against Great Britain, and Captain Gaines joyfully resumed his sword, never again to abandon it as long as his country should need his services.

In the war which followed, it will be seen that our hero was among the most steadfast in the performance of every arduous duty.