FRONTIERSMAN AND SOLDIER 241 



the presidency. He was considered unfriendly to Madi- 

 son's administration, but this did not prevent him from 

 offering his services, with those of twenty-five hundred 

 men, as soon as war was declared against Great Britain 

 in 1812. Late in that year, after the disasters in the 

 Northwest, it was feared that the British might make 

 an attempt upon New Orleans, and Jackson was ordered 

 down to Natchez at the head of two thousand men. He 

 went in high spirits, promising to plant the American 

 eagle upon the ramparts of Mobile, Pensacola, and St. 

 Augustine, if so directed. On the 6th of February, as it 

 had become evident that the British were not meditat- 

 ing a southward expedition, the new Secretary of War 

 Armstrong sent word to Jackson to disband his troops. 

 This stupid order reached the general at Natchez 

 toward the end of March, and inflamed his wrath. 

 He took upon himself the responsibility of marching 

 his men home in a body, an act in which the govern- 

 ment afterward acquiesced, and reimbursed Jackson for 

 the expense involved. During this march Jackson 

 became the idol of his troops, and his sturdiness won 

 him the nickname of " Old Hickory," by which he was 

 affectionately known among his friends and followers 

 for the rest of his life. 



It was early in September, 1813, shortly after his 

 return to Nashville, that the affray occurred with 

 Thomas Benton, growing out of an unusually silly 

 duel in which Jackson, with more good nature than 

 discretion, had acted as second to the antagonist of 

 Benton 's brother. The case was one which a few 

 calm words of personal explanation might easily have 

 adjusted. But the facts got misrepresented, and both 

 men lost their tempers before arriving at correct views 



