FRONTIERSMAN AND SOLDIER 245 



any ordinary man groaning in bed, besides that for 

 most of the time his left arm had to be supported in 

 a sling. His pluck was equalled by his thoroughness. 

 Many generals after victory are inclined to relax their 

 efforts ; not so Jackson, who followed up every success 

 with furious persistence, and whose admirable maxim 

 was that in war " until all is done nothing is done." 



On the 3ist of May, 1814, Jackson was made major- 

 general in the regular army, and was appointed to 

 command the Department of the South. It was then a 

 matter of dispute whether Mobile belonged to Spain 

 or to the United States. In August Jackson occupied 

 the town and made his headquarters there. With the 

 consent of Spain the British were using Florida as a 

 base of operations, and had established themselves at 

 Pensacola. Jackson wrote to Washington for per- 

 mission to attack them there, but the government was 

 loath to sanction an invasion of Spanish territory 

 until the complicity of Spain with our enemy should 

 be proved beyond cavil. The letter from Secretary 

 Armstrong to this effect did not reach Jackson. The 

 capture of Washington by the British prevented his 

 receiving orders and left him to act upon his own re- 

 sponsibility, a kind of situation from which he was never 

 known to flinch. On September 14 the British advanced 

 against Mobile, but in their attack upon the outwork, 

 Fort Bowyer, they met with a disastrous repulse. They 

 retreated to Pensacola, whither Jackson followed them 

 with three thousand men. On the yth of November he 

 stormed that town. His next move would have been 

 against Fort Barrancas, six miles distant, at the mouth 

 of the harbour. 



By capturing this post he would have entrapped the 



