JACKSON
JACKSON
metic. His oldest brother, Hugh, joined the
patriot army and after the battle of Stono, S.C.
in which he took part, was taken sick and died.
His mother, on May 39, 1780, when Tarleton sur-
prised the Waxhavv settlement and killed 113 and
wounded 150 of the patriot soldiers who opposed
him, ministered to the dead and dying, and
Robert and Andrew there first saw the horrors
of actual war. At the battle of Hanging Rock
they rode with Col. William Richardson Davie
and received from him their first lessons in mili-
tarj' tactics. When Cornwallis entered Waxhaw
settlement in September, 1780, Mrs. Jackson took
lier two boys to Charlotte, returning to their liome
the next year. In the series of sanguinary con-
flicts between the patriot army and the Tories
and British soldiers, Andrew and Robert were
often called out to stand guard, and Andrew
Jackson there imbibed liis bitter prejudice against
the mother country. The two brothers were cap-
tured and carried to Camden, S.C, where they
were robbed of their clothing and nearly starved.
While confined in the stockade, Andrew, by look-
ing through a knot hole, witnessed the battle of
Hobkirk's Hill, April 24, 1781, and saw the army
of General Greene driven from the place. His
mother soon after effected an exchange of pris-
oners with the British general, thus rescuing her
two sons and five of her neighbors in exchange
for thirteen British soldiers, and she carried her
boys, stricken with the yellow jaundice, forty
miles through the lonely forest to Waxhaw,
where Robert died, and Andrew, after several
months' nursing, recovered. When his mother
could leave him she set out on horseback to
Charleston, one hundred sixty miles distant,
to succor and try to save the starving patriots
confined in the prison ships, among whom, were
several of her own kin, and after distributing to
them the dainties carried in her saddle bags, she
took the ship fever and died at the house of
William Barton, a relative. Andrew was thus
left an orphan when fourteen years old, his two
brothers and his brave mother martyrs to the
cause of freedom, through British cruelty as prac-
tised in the war of the Revolution. When he
recovered from his protracted illness he worked
as a saddler, and soon became interested with
the young men, refugees from Charleston, in
horse-racing, gambling, cock-fighting and drink-
ing. When Charleston was evacuated, his com-
panions returned to their homes and Andrew soon
followed them to the southern metropolis, riding
a fine horse, liis only worldly possession except a
small sum of money. He staked his horse against
$200 at a game of dice, and won, and taking tbe
money he paid his debts and immediately returned
to his home, resolved never again to throw dice
for a wager. He conducted a school at Waxhavv
Church for two years, and studied law with
Spruce McCay in Salisbury, N.C., 1785-88, after
an unsuccessful application to enter the law
office of Col. Waightstill Avery at Morganton
in 1784. While at Salisbury, where he boarded
at the Rowan house, he indulged freely his
passion for horse-racing, hunting and cock-
figliting. He completed his preparation for the
bar under Col. John Stokes, was licensed to prac-
tise in the courts of North Carolina in 1787, and
lived for a short time in Martinsville, Guilford
county, N.C., where he was a constable and as-
sisted in a store in 1788. He became solicitor
for the western district of North Carolina and
journeyed to Nashville by way of Jouesboro,
then the chief settlement in the western district,
a town founded ten years before, and when
Jackson arrived there in 1788, boasting a new
court-house. He reached Nashville, then the out-
post of civilization, near the end of October, 1788,
and in April following Washington was in-
augurated President of the United States. Jack-
son found a home with the widow of Col. John
Donelson, a North Carolina pioneer settler of the
place, who lived in a block-house, the largest in
the settlement, and here he met Rachel (Donel-
son) Robards, the married daughter of his host-
ess. His business as a lawyer and public prose-
cutor became immediately lucrative and exten-
sive, and he attended every coui"t held in the
state, and was the first lawyer to practise in
many of the counties, reaching the distant points
on horseback through forests beset by savages.
He was married to Mrs. Robards at Natchez,
Miss., in the fall of 1791, returned to Nashville
with her, and they lived in the neighborhood of
her mother's home. Captain Robards had pro-
cured an act leading to a divorce from his wife
from the legislature of Vii'ginia, in the winter of
1790-91, but the legislature had not completed the
divorce, referring it to the courts. Neither Mrs.
Robards nor Mr. Jackson knew that the legislature
had not absolutely granted the divorce till after
their marriage, and on obtaining knowledge of the
act of the court of Mercer county, on Sept. 27, 1793,
a licence was obtained, and the marriage ceremony
was performed a second time at Nashville, in
January, 1794, and their social standing was in
no way affected by the incident. On Oct. 10,
1791, he was elected a trustee of Davidson
academy, afterward the University of Nashville,
in place of Col. William Polk, removed, and
sei-ved till 1805. While attending court at Joues-
boro, he peremptorily challenged Col. Waightstill
Avery, while the two were tryiiig a case in court,
and after giving the case to the jury, they met
in a hollow field north of the court-house, after
sundown. Following the code, both fired, but
neitiier was hurt, and thev shook hands satis-
