Natchez Expedition

{{Short description|Ineffectual troop movement, War of 1812}}

File:Andrew Jackson's flotilla descending the Mississippi.jpg

File:War_of_1812_campaign_maps_from_Paullin_1932_-_Atlas_of_the_historical_geography_of_the_United_States.jpg

The Natchez Expedition was a fruitless American troop movement of the southwestern theater of the War of 1812. Mustered in December 1812, volunteer militiamen departed Tennessee for the Natchez District of Mississippi Territory in January 1813.{{Cite book |last=Bunn |first=Mike |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5MBPEQAAQBAJ&pg=PA1817&dq=%22natchez+expedition%22+1813&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi199Sx0uqMAxW2Be8CHS1mCBMQ6AF6BAgMEAM#v=onepage&q&f=false |title=Settling the Mississippi Territory: The Origin of Two States |last2=Williams |first2=Clay |date=2025-03-04 |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |isbn=978-1-5402-6609-5 |language=en}} Major General commanding Andrew Jackson communicated his goals for the use of the troops the United States Department of War in a message of late 1812: "I am now at the head of 2,070 volunteers, the choicest of our citizens...if the government orders, will rejoice at the opportunity of placing the American eagle on the ramparts of Mobile, Pensacola, and Fort St. Augustine, effectually banishing from the southern coasts all British influence."

As told by the Natchez Trace Parkway historians, "When organized and ready to start on the journey, the total force consisted of 2,070 men—two regiments of infantry and a corps of cavalry under Col. John Coffee. The latter took the land route over the Natchez Trace, while the infantry, under Jackson, went by river. On February 17, 1813, the troops which had come by water disembarked and marched to the cantonment at Washington, where they were met by the cavalry under Coffee."{{Cite web |title=United States Congressional serial set 10450. |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b3996180&seq=95&q1=1813 |access-date=2025-04-22 |website=HathiTrust |pages=82–83 |language=en}}

The men were dismissed by the War Department in April 1813 as superfluous to requirements. After they arrived, General James Wilkinson (who had been entangled with Jackson before, during the Burr conspiracy and treason trials) ordered them to go back home as they were not needed. The official orders to disband were:

"War Department, February 6, 1813. [to Major General Andrew Jackson] Sir: The causes of embodying and marching to New Orleans the corps under your command having ceased to exist, you will, on the receipt of this letter, consider it as dismissed from public service, and take measures to have delivered over to Major General Wilkinson all the articles of public property which may have been put into its possession. You will accept for the corps the thanks of the President of the United States."

Jackson marched them back up the Natchez Trace, which is said to be when people first started calling him Old Hickory.{{Cite web |title=Tennessee Department of State: Tennessee State Library and Archives |url=https://sharetngov.tnsosfiles.com/tsla/history/military/tn1812.htm |access-date=2025-04-22 |website=sharetngov.tnsosfiles.com}} Jackson borrowed $1,000 from James Jackson to pay for wagons to haul the sick and provision them with cornmeal, flour, and beef.{{Cite book |last=Jackson |first=Andrew |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iHolAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA303&dq=%22orders+to+execute+at+maldon%22+jackson&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiO7dGv3-qMAxXTh-4BHQ25Bq8Q6AF6BAgGEAM#v=onepage&q&f=false |title=Correspondence of Andrew Jackson: to April 30, 1814 |date=1926 |publisher=Carnegie institution of Washington |pages=303 |language=en}} After they returned to Nashville, Jackson sent young Thomas Hart Benton (later to become a U.S. Senator from Missouri known as "Old Bullion" Benton) to negotiate for reimbursement.{{Cite web |title=“Now Defend Yourself, You Damned Rascal!” |url=https://www.americanheritage.com/now-defend-yourself-you-damned-rascal |access-date=2025-04-22 |website=AMERICAN HERITAGE |language=en}} While Benton was away in Washington, D.C, hustling to get an appropriation to cover Jackson's expenses, his brother Jesse Benton got shot in the butt in a ridiculous affair of honor, and Tom Benton blamed Jackson. Shortly thereafter the Jackson accosted the Benton brothers at a Nashville tavern and the Bentons, Jackson, John Coffee, Stockley D. Hays, and Alexander Donelson threw down, complete with punching, knifing, and gunfire. Jesse Benton shot Jackson in the shoulder. Thomas Hart Benton reconciled with Jackson years later and eventually became his legislative ally in bank smashing. Jesse Benton and Andrew Jackson never came to terms.

The commanders were:

• Andrew Jackson, Major General, commanding
• John Coffee, cavalry regiment colonel
• William Hall, infantry regiment colonel
• Thomas H. Benton, infantry regiment colonel
• William B. Lewis, major and quartermaster
• William Carroll, brigade inspector
• John Reid, Aide and Secretary to the General

Thomas Jones Hardeman, namesake of Hardeman County, Tennessee, was also a quartermaster of Jackson's troops.{{Cite web |title=Guide to Tennessee historical markers |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uva.x030796624&seq=95&q1=Natchez |access-date=2025-04-22 |website=HathiTrust |language=en}} Jackson's chaplains on this expedition were Revs. James Gwin and Learner Blackman.{{Cite web |title=Reliable and religious : U.S. Army chaplains and the War of 1812 / Kenneth E. Lawson |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.31210020806129&seq=150&q1=%22Natchez+Expedition%22 |access-date=2025-04-22 |website=HathiTrust |page=144 |language=en}} Blackman kept a journal of the expedition which has been preserved and is a valuable primary source on the personalities involved.{{Cite journal |last=Phelps |first=Dawson A. |date=1953 |title=The Diary of a Chaplain in Andrew Jackson's Army: The Journal of the Reverend Mr. Learner Blackman—December 28, 1812-April 4, 1813 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/42621154 |journal=Tennessee Historical Quarterly |volume=12 |issue=3 |pages=264–281 |issn=0040-3261}} Described as an "abortive" outing, the trip "nonetheless established Jackson as a military leader," and ultimately served as preparation for the Creek War against the Red Sticks following the Fort Mims massacre in August 1813. With the Natchez Expedition, the 46-year-old Jackson had "now entered upon the military career for which he thought himself fitted by nature and for which he ardently wished."{{Cite web |title=Andrew Jackson and early Tennessee history / by S.G. Heiskell v.2. |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hx4lvk&seq=62&q1=%22Natchez+expedition%22 |access-date=2025-04-22 |website=HathiTrust |page=329 |language=en}}