2.The northern states were more concerned with the infamous “Orders of Council” passed by the British Government permitting that nation’s navy to search any United States ship on the pretense of looking for English deserters, and forbidding any intercourse between France and America. The firing on the American frigate Chesapeake in the summer of 1807 by the British warship Leopard for the former vessel’s refusal to be searched, brought the two countries dangerously close to war, and Federalist apathy was almost swept away by an aroused public opinion.

3.Charles B. Brooks, The Siege of New Orleans. (Seattle, 1961), 12. Jackson assumed command of the Military District on May 28.

4.Enroute to Mobile, Jackson on August 10 concluded a peace treaty with the Creeks, requiring that tribe to reside on lands bordered by the Coosa River to the west, the Chattahoochee in the east, and to the south, by a line running east and west. It was thought that the Creeks and Seminoles would thus be separated, and contact broken with British agents. John H. DeWitt, “General James Winchester, 1752-1826,” in Tennessee Historical Magazine I (1915), 183.

5.Coffee was born in Prince Edward County, Virginia, June 2, 1772, and died at his home “Hickory Hill” near Florence, Alabama, July 7, 1833. Migrating to Tennessee in 1798 with his widowed mother, Coffee became a successful merchant and surveyor. In 1809 he married Mary Donelson. Their farm on Stone’s River in Rutherford County was 10 miles from the Hermitage. “Letters of General John Coffee to His Wife, 1813-1815,” in Tennessee Historical Magazine, II, (1916), 264-65. Coffee’s granddaughter, Eliza Croom Coffee, described him as possessing a commanding appearance with brilliant black eyes and a dark skin. “His expression,” she wrote, “was quiet and serious, but not sad, and showed deep thought. His manners were courteous and gentle.” Eliza Croom Coffee, “Sketch of the Life of General John Coffee,” Florence, Alabama, 1897 (Script in Manuscript Collection, Tennessee Historical Society, Tennessee State Library and Archives.)

6.Nashville Whig, September 21, 1814, p. 3.

7.John Coffee to Mary Donelson Coffee, Camp Gaines, October 22, 1814, in Tennessee Historical Magazine, II (1916), 285-86.

8.C. S. Forester, “Victory of New Orleans,” in American Heritage VIII, (1957), 8.

9.N. Floyd McGowin, “Some Aspects of Waning British Influence in the Middle Gulf Region,” in The Alabama Review, IX (1956), 166-67.

10.Born near Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, March 3, 1788, Carroll came to Nashville in 1810 to open a mercantile store. His fondness for studying military tactics endeared him to Andrew Jackson, then Major General of the Second Tennessee Division encompassing West (now Middle) Tennessee. When Jackson resigned in 1813 to command the United States Army in defense of the Southern frontier, Carroll received the appointment. Later, as Governor of Tennessee, Carroll distinguished himself for his frugality and business acumen.

11.Nashville Clarion, November 1, 1814, p. 3.

12.The Clarion and Tennessee State Gazette, November 22, 1814, p. 3.

13.Nashville Whig, November 16, 1814, p. 3.

14.Nashville Daily Gazette, November 10, 1858, p. 2. As the story goes, all of the Tennessee troops, including those of Coffee, were fully armed by December 21. The second keelboat, however, did not arrive until some time after the battle of January 8, leaving the Kentuckians, who arrived January 4, only partially armed.

15.John Coffee to Mary Donelson Coffee, Sandy Creek, December 15, 1814, in Tennessee Historical Magazine, II (1916), 289. The line of march was almost parallel to the sea coast, about 40 or 50 miles from the Gulf.

16.Edward Larocque Tinker, Creole City, Its Past and Its People (New York, 1953), 45-46. Jackson’s relationship to the legislature was so strained that, after the battle, that body refused to pass a resolution of commendation for the general’s services.

17.John Coffee to Mary Donelson Coffee, December 15, 1814, in Tennessee Historical Magazine, II (1916).

18.John Coffee to Andrew Jackson, December 17, 1814, Andrew Jackson MSS., Manuscript Division, Tennessee State Library and Archives.

19.McGowin, op. cit., 167.

20.Major A. Lacarriere Latour, Historical Memoir of the War in West Florida and Louisiana (Philadelphia, 1816), 88; Eliza Croom Coffee.

21.Benson L. Lossing, The Pictorial Field-Book of the War of 1812 (New York, 1869).

22.Latour, op. cit., 99.

23.John Coffee to Mary Donelson Coffee, New Orleans, January 20, 1815, in Tennessee Historical Magazine, II (1916), 289-90. See also J. A. Trousdale, “A History of the Life of General William Trousdale,” in Tennessee Historical Magazine, II (1916), 123-24.

24.Nashville, Whig, January 11, 1815, p. 3. Of interest is the fact that Lauderdale County, Alabama, where John Coffee later made his home, is named after Colonel James Lauderdale.

25.Ibid.

26.Latour, op. cit., 107.

27.Going down the river the following six plantations comprised the principal theater of action: Macarty, Chalmette, Bienvenu, De la Ronde, Lacoste, and Villere.

28.John Spencer Bassett, (ed.), Major Howell Tatum’s Journal (Northampton, Massachusetts, 1921), 115-16. One other man, presumed dead, was wounded, but arose three times and endeavored to escape under a heavy discharge of musketry. He was finally rescued by Major John W. Simpson, Captain Barbee Collins, and two privates.

29.Eliza Croom Coffee, op. cit.

30.Ibid.

31.Ibid.

32.Nashville Whig, January 25, 1815, p. 2. This information was taken from a letter sent by an officer to a Nashville friend and reprinted in the Whig.

33.Rossiter Johnson, A History of the War of 1812-1815 (New York, 1882), 344.

34.“A Contemporary Account of the Battle of New Orleans by a Soldier in the Ranks,” in The Louisiana Historical Quarterly, I (1926), 15.

35.John Coffee to Mary Donelson Coffee, New Orleans, January 20, 1815, in Tennessee Historical Magazine, II (1916), 290.

36.Ibid.

37.Stanley Clisby Arthur, The Story of the Battle of New Orleans (New Orleans, 1915), 247.

38.John Coffee to Mary Donelson Coffee, New Orleans, January 30, 1815, in Tennessee Historical Magazine, II (1916), 291.

39.Latour, op. cit., Appendix, clxxxv.