Jackson time to discover the wisdom in his mother’s advice about avoiding quarrels. While still recuperating from smallpox, he lived with his uncle Thomas Crawford, who also hosted a Captain Galbraith of the American army commissary. The captain possessed, by Jackson’s later account, “a very proud and haughty disposition,” which didn’t sit well with the boy. “He had a habit of telling anecdotes in which he always figured as the hero. He had a way of telling them that was ludicrous, and I could mimic him so closely that anyone in the next room would think Galbraith himself was talking. He was a Highland Scotchman, one of the few Whig”—that is, rebel—“Highlanders, and he had a broad Caithness brogue, which I could imitate perfectly. Finally, one day he happened to overhear me at this amusement, and took me to task for, as he put it, insulting a man so much older and so much superior; a man—or ‘mon,’ as he called it—who had so often risked his life for the country. Upon this I remarked that commissaries were not famous for risking their lives, and probably all the killing he had ever done was beef-critters and sheep to feed the real fighting men of the army.”
This enraged Galbraith, who threatened to horsewhip the boy. Jackson had defended his honor against a British combat officer—and bore the scars to prove it—and he refused to be chastised by an American mess master. “I immediately answered that I had arrived at the age to know my rights, and although weak and feeble from disease, I had courage to defend them, and if he attempted anything of that kind I would most assuredly send him to the other world.”
In later years, when Jackson acquired a reputation for dueling, his enemies exaggerated this affair into an attempted assassination, of an American army officer no less. Jackson dismissed such tales as ludicrous. “It was too foolish to talk about, merely a difficulty between a pompous man and a sassy boy.” Yet Jackson’s Uncle Thomas didn’t want any fights among the houseguests, and he made Jackson apologize for poking fun at the elder man. Jackson grudgingly complied. “But I never liked him and avoided him after that.”
J ackson left the Crawford house a short while later. The mature Jackson economized on truth when he said that his mother’s memory was his only starting capital in life. Not long after her death he learned that his paternal grandfather had died in Scotland and left him “three hundred or four hundred pounds sterling,” by Jackson’s recollection. This was no huge fortune—being equivalent to perhaps forty thousand dollars in the early twenty-first century—but it was far more than Jackson had ever seen or expected to call his own.
To claim the windfall he had to travel to Charleston. The British still occupied the city but rather less confidently than before, as the fighting had taken an unexpected turn. Cornwallis followed his successful campaign in the South with a foray into Virginia, where he hoped to corner Washington and end the war. But it was Washington—and his French allies—who did the cornering, pinning Cornwallis against the Chesapeake at Yorktown and compelling the surrender of his army. This hardly decided the overall contest between the United States and Britain; separate British forces still controlled New York, Charleston, and other parts of America, with reserves in Canada and the West Indies. But the Yorktown debacle caused the ministry in London to recalculate the balance between cost and benefit in continuing the war, and before long British diplomats were meeting in Paris with American envoys to negotiate terms of peace.
In December 1782, while the negotiations continued, the British evacuated Charleston. Jackson joined the small flood of refugees who returned to their homes upon the British departure. The city showed the effects of the occupation, yet even in its tattered condition it was the most exciting place Jackson
This enraged Galbraith, who threatened to horsewhip the boy. Jackson had defended his honor against a British combat officer—and bore the scars to prove it—and he refused to be chastised by an American mess master. “I immediately answered that I had arrived at the age to know my rights, and although weak and feeble from disease, I had courage to defend them, and if he attempted anything of that kind I would most assuredly send him to the other world.”
In later years, when Jackson acquired a reputation for dueling, his enemies exaggerated this affair into an attempted assassination, of an American army officer no less. Jackson dismissed such tales as ludicrous. “It was too foolish to talk about, merely a difficulty between a pompous man and a sassy boy.” Yet Jackson’s Uncle Thomas didn’t want any fights among the houseguests, and he made Jackson apologize for poking fun at the elder man. Jackson grudgingly complied. “But I never liked him and avoided him after that.”
J ackson left the Crawford house a short while later. The mature Jackson economized on truth when he said that his mother’s memory was his only starting capital in life. Not long after her death he learned that his paternal grandfather had died in Scotland and left him “three hundred or four hundred pounds sterling,” by Jackson’s recollection. This was no huge fortune—being equivalent to perhaps forty thousand dollars in the early twenty-first century—but it was far more than Jackson had ever seen or expected to call his own.
To claim the windfall he had to travel to Charleston. The British still occupied the city but rather less confidently than before, as the fighting had taken an unexpected turn. Cornwallis followed his successful campaign in the South with a foray into Virginia, where he hoped to corner Washington and end the war. But it was Washington—and his French allies—who did the cornering, pinning Cornwallis against the Chesapeake at Yorktown and compelling the surrender of his army. This hardly decided the overall contest between the United States and Britain; separate British forces still controlled New York, Charleston, and other parts of America, with reserves in Canada and the West Indies. But the Yorktown debacle caused the ministry in London to recalculate the balance between cost and benefit in continuing the war, and before long British diplomats were meeting in Paris with American envoys to negotiate terms of peace.
In December 1782, while the negotiations continued, the British evacuated Charleston. Jackson joined the small flood of refugees who returned to their homes upon the British departure. The city showed the effects of the occupation, yet even in its tattered condition it was the most exciting place Jackson
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