ge of his whole history.

Hugh, Robert, and Andrew, were now the widow's hope and treasures; Hugh
and Robert were her main dependence in working their little farm, and
Andrew, never a very robust person, was early sent to the best schools
in the neighborhood, and much care taken by his mother to have him at
least educated for a profession--the ministry. This resolve was more
perhaps decided upon from the naturally stern, contemplative, and fixed
principles of young Jackson; as at the early age of fifteen, he was by
nature well prepared for the scenes being enacted around him, and in
which, even those young as himself, were called upon to take an active
part. This was in the days of the revolution, when the weak in numbers
of this continent were about to try the _experiment_ of living free and
independent, and establish the fact that royalty was an imposition and a
humbug, only maintained by arrogance and pomp at the point of the
bayonet.

The British had begun the war--already had the echoes of "Bunker Hill,"
and the smell of "villainous saltpetre," invaded and aroused the quiet
dwellers in the woods and wilds of South Carolina, and the chivalric
spirit that has ever characterized the men of the Palmetto state, at
once responded to the tocsin of _liberty_. It was with no slight degree
of sorrow and aching of the mother's heart, that she saw her two sons,
Hugh and Robert, shoulder their muskets and join the Spartan band that
assembled at Waxhaw Court-house. But she blessed her children and gave
up her holy claim of a mother's love, for the common cause of the infant
nation.

Cornwallis and his army crossed the Yadkin, Lord Rawden, with a large
force, took the town of Camden, and began a desolation of the adjacent
country. Being apprised of a "rebel force" in arms at Waxhaw, he
immediately dispatched a company of dragoons, with a company of
infantry, to capture or disperse the "rebels." About forty men,
including the two boys Jackson, were attacked by these veterans of the
British army, but aided by their true courage, a good cause, and perfect
knowledge of the country, they gave the invaders a hot reception, and
many of the enemy were killed; and not until having made the most
determinate resistance, and being overwhelmed by the great majority of
the opposing forces, did these patriots retreat, leaving many of their
friends dead upon their soil, and eleven of their number prisoners in
the hands of the British. It was