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Show 140 LIFE OF GEN. JACKSON. CHAP. they had rendered important services, and adhered to v. him with great devotedness, in every vicissitude, and ~·throu gh every difficulty he had encountered, from the 1814' first commencement of the campaign. Although, from the high sense entertained of their· bravery and fidelity, he would have gladly retained them, yet he was too well convinced of the many sacrifices these young men had made, of the bravery they had displayed, and the patience with which they had submitted to those moments of scarcity, that had raised up discontents and mutiny in his camp, not to f~el a desire to grat~fy their wishes, and permit them, honourably, to retrre from a service, which they had already so materially benefited. A letter from Jackson to governor Blount, hereto· February. fore noticed, added to his own sense of the import-ance of the crisis, had induced him to issue an order, The mili- on the 3d, directing twenty-five hundred of the militia ~~1::;' out of the second division, to be detached, organized, and :.~n~~~~e equipped, in conformity to an act of congress, of the 6th of April, 1812. These were to perform a tour of three months, to be computed from the time of ren. dezvous, which was appointed to be on the 28th instant. He had also required general Cocke to bring into the field, under the requisition of the secretary at war, the quota he had been instructed to raise, at t~e opening of the campaign. This officer, who had lutherto created so many obstacles, still appeared to desire nothing more ardently than a failure of the can_tpaign. Although many difficulties were feigned, JO the execution of the -order, he was enabled to muster into servic; about two tl10usand, from his division. LIFE OF GEN. JACKSON 141 These, however, as well as those called out from West CHAP. Tennessee, were but indifferently armed. V. The thirty-ninth regiment, under colonel Williams~ . . ' 1814- also received orders to proceed to Jackson's head quar-ters, and act under his command, in the prosecution of the war. It arrived on the 5th or 6th of tl1e month, about six hundred strong. Most of the men were badly armed : but this evil was shortly afterwards remedied. !he quarter masters and contractors were already a~tlvely engaged, and endeavouring to procure provisl(; ms, and the necessary transportations, for the army_ The failures, in regard to former enterprises, are to be ascribed to these two departments ; to the con- ~~";'~~'! s~~mt endeavour of the contractors, io procure provi- pl ies. s1ons at a reduced price, in order to enhance their ?rofits, and to the fears which tl1ey entertained, lest, 1f t~ey should lay in a large store, it might spoil on the1r hands. Evils of this kind, growing out of the very nature of tl1e establishment, ought, long since, to have convinced the government of the proprie-ty of resorting to some other and better mode for supplying its armies, in times of war. The i;conveniences in the quarter master's department were indeed, less chargeable to them, than to causes the; could not control; for, to the extreme ruggedness of the way, over which wagons had to pass, was to be add-ed the real difficulty' in obtaining a sufficient number on the frontiers. That evils so severely felt . I futh~ . ·~~ r e uture, be avmded, every facility was alfurd-ed these two departments, that the requisition now madeu pon th em, mi-ght be promptly complied' with. |