Andrew Jackson’s Rough Start with Kentucky
Throughout the War of 1812, the Commonwealth of Kentucky carried more than its weight in combat, and suffered an enormously disproportionate burden of the casualties. Of the 556,622 total Americans in the war, Kentucky contributed 25,705 men—4.6 percent. Astoundingly, of the 1,876 Americans killed in battle, 1200 (a whopping 64 percent) were from Kentucky. Over 400 Kentuckians died in the Battles of Frenchtown in January 1813 and in the ensuing River Raisin Massacre against the wounded prisoners. It is not surprising Kentucky produced so many military men in light of the martial skills required to settle the frontier, and the Spartan lifestyle it celebrated. However, its zeal for glory in the early years did not always correspond with well-trained or well-equipped soldiers.
As the War of 1812 raged on into late 1814, multiple intelligence sources indicated the British were preparing to capture New Orleans to control the entry to the Mississippi River. As part of the national response, Kentucky Governor Isaac Shelby produced 2,256 men across three regiments, including the 13th Regiment commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Presley Gray from Gallatin County. Among the 721 men in Gray’s Regiment was twenty-four-year-old Sergeant William D. Stewart—Joseph B. Stewart’s father. The 13th set out for war in November without weapons or ammunition, and arrived in New Orleans just four days before the battle. They were still so poorly equipped that they had to rely on the residents of the city to scavenge additional weapons.
Amidst America’s stunning final victory at New Orleans, the 13th Regiment was a notable exception, which was forced to retreat from the right bank of the Mississippi after suffering thirty casualties. As General Jackson complained in his official report, “The Kentucky reinforcements, of whom so much was expected, ingloriously fled, drawing after them, by their example, the remainder of the forces.” The acting commander of the Kentucky forces, Brigadier General John Adair, protested that General Jackson’s report ignored the Kentucky militia’s success on the left bank of the river, and that the Louisiana militia had also fled, despite being behind fortified entrenchments. Adair maintained a grudge against Jackson, and according to legend the two generals arranged to meet on the Kentucky-Tennessee line to settle their grievances the old-fashioned way. Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed.
Given the fallout from the Battle of New Orleans, the mood in Kentucky was decidedly cool towards Jackson’s first presidential run in 1824. His open letter to Kentucky retracting his criticism of its militia did little to mend the Commonwealth’s wounded pride, and he lost to Henry Clay—the eminent Kentucky lawyer and senator who was easily the state’s most celebrated citizen—by over 45 percent of the state vote. Although Jackson won the most Presidential Electoral votes, he did not receive the majority required. The House of Representatives elected John Quincy Adams for president in what Jackson deemed a “Corrupt Bargain.” Jackson specifically accused Clay, who became Secretary of State under President Adams, of influencing the congressional vote.
During Adams’s presidential term, the Democratic-Republican Party split into the National Republican Party under Adams and the Democratic Party under Jackson. Four years later, the mood had shifted in the former general’s favor in his second run for the presidency. But Kentucky, at least initially, retained its cold shoulder. As the pro-Adams Commentator of Frankfort noted in late January 1828:
“The idea of conferring the most important civil office in our government upon an individual as a reward for his military services, (and this is the grounds upon which a large proportion of his friends support him) we deem absurd and fraught with danger to the Republic.”
(Clay would later use the same line of reason, unsuccessfully, against Zachary Taylor, the hero of the Mexican American War, in the Whig Party nomination of 1848.)
As Jackson continued to accuse Henry Clay of corruption, Gallatin County established a committee for the “purpose of disseminating correct information in detecting falsehood” in support of President Adams. Among the committee members were William D. Stewart and several of his fellow veterans from the 13th. In fairness to Jackson, President Adams’s supporters spread their fair share of falsehoods. In fact, rumors and personal attacks caused so much anguish with Jackson’s wife, Rachel, that the torment probably killed her.
Ultimately, Jackson won the Kentucky vote by nearly eight thousand votes, and in 1829 became the first populist president of the young nation. He was also the first president not born in Virginia or Massachusetts.
Learn more about Kentucky’s experience in the Battle of New Orleans in the upcoming book Almost in Reach of Fame: Joseph B. Stewart, the Bourbon Giant who Chased Lincoln’s Assassin and Caught Scandal.
Sources:
Anderson Chenault Quisenberry, Kentucky in the War of 1812 (Frankfurt, 1915).
Zachary F. Smith, The Battle of New Orleans Including the Engagements between the Americans and the British, the Indians, and the Spanish which led to the Final Conflict on the 8th of January, 1815 (Louisville, 1904).
Daniel S. Durrie, A Genealogical History of the Holt Family in the United States (Albany, 1864).
“Gallatin County Meeting,” Commentator (Frankfurt, Kentucky), Jan. 26, 1828, p. 3.
Jon Meacham, American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House (New York, 2008).