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Show 144 LIFE OF GEN. JACKSON. CHAP. thcrlo shamefully neglected. Every expedient ha? V. been tried, to urge them to a compliance of .the _obh· ...,....,.._, gations they were under to their government ; until the 1814• present, none had proved effectual. In one of his let· ters, about this time, the general remarks : " I have no doubt, but a combination has been forme~, to starve us out, and defeat the objects of the campru~; but M'Gee ought to have recollected that he ha~ diS· appointed and starved my army once; and now, m re· turn it shall be amply provided for, at his expense. At this point, he was to have delivered the ratio~s,and whatever they may cost, at this place, he w~l be required to pay : any price that will ensure therr ~elivery I have directed to be given." The supplymg an ar1~y by contractors, he had often o~jected_ to, as highly exceptionable and dangero~s. H1s m_mutor~ on this subject, was his own expenence." D1sappomt· ment, mutiny, and abandonment by h1s troops.' when in the full career of success, and an unnecessarily pro· tracted campaign, were among the evils already ~xpe· rienced, and ~vhich he wished, if possible, to be 111 fu· ture avoided. Under these and other circumstances, which seemed to involve much more serious consequences, the ~neral had but little repose or quietness. Every thing was work.m g .m opposi.t i·o n to h"I S w1· s1 1 es. The East Tennessee brif'":lde, under the command of Dohe~, having been in~tructed to halt, until adequate supplies should be received at head quarters, had already ma· nifested many symptoms of revolt, and was with much difficulty restrained from returning immediately home. Added to their own discontents, and unwillingness to liFE OF GEN. JACKSON. 145 temainin service, much pains had been taken by a per- CHAP. sonage high in authority, to scatter dissension amongst..,:_ lhem, and to persuade them, that they had been im- 1814• properly called out, and without sufficient authority;- ·that the draft was illegal, and that they were under no necessity to serve. Arguments like these, urged by a man of standing, were well calculated to answer the Conduct e_nd desired ; what the governing motive was, that gave ;~,~;J!' rise to a course of conduct so strange, is difficult to be Cock•. imagined ; none was ever avowed, ru1d certainly none can be given, that \viii account for it satisfactorily. On the morning that general Doherty was about to pro· ceed to head quarters, he was astonished to find a beat-ing up for volunteers, to abandon his camp, and return home. Notwithstanding all his efforts to prevent it, one hundred and eighty deserted. His surprise was -still greater, on learning, that a captain from Carter ·cou~ty, had been instructed by major general Cocke, that m the event of his marching back any number of the troops, he would take upon himself to discharge them, on their return to Knoxville. Before this, Cocke had been at the camp of Doherty, and had, by differ-tnt means, attempted to excite mutiny and disaffection among the troops. As a reason for being unwilling to go with them in comma11d, he stated, that they would be placed in a situation which he disliked to ~ention, _and one which his feelings would not enable h1m to Witness: that they were going out to be pla- ~ed under the command of general Jackson, who would Impose on them the severest trials, and where they Would have to encounter every privation and suffering. He re(lresented, that at head quarters the~e was not a T |