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the mountains were left at the mercy of Tarleton's and Rawdon's bands
of redcoats and their Tory supporters. Twice the Waxhaw settlement was
ravaged before the patriots could make a stand. Young Jackson
witnessed two battles in 1780, without taking part in them, and in the
following year he, a brother, and a cousin were taken prisoners in a
skirmish. To the day of his death Jackson bore on his head and hand
the marks of a saber blow administered by a British lieutenant whose
jack boots he refused to polish. When an exchange of prisoners was
made, Mrs. Jackson secured the release of her two boys, but not until
after they had contracted smallpox in Camden jail. The older one died,
but the younger, though reduced to a skeleton, survived. Already the
third brother had given up his life in battle; and the crowning
disaster came when the mother, going as a volunteer to nurse the
wounded Waxhaw prisoners on the British vessels in Charleston harbor,
fell ill of yellow fever and perished. Small wonder that Andrew
Jackson always hated the British uniform, or that when he sat in the
executive chair an anti-British feeling colored all of his dealings
with foreign nations!

At the age of fourteen, the sandy-haired, pockmarked lad of the
Waxhaws found himself alone in the world. The death of his relatives
had made him heir to a portion of his grandfather's estate in
Carrickfergus; but the property was tied up in the hands of an
administrator, and the boy was in effect both penniless and homeless.
The memory of his mother and her teachings was, as he was subsequently
accustomed to say, the only capital with which he started life. To a
natural waywardness and quarrelsomeness had been added a heritage of
bitter memories, and the outlook was not bright.

Upon one thing the youth was determined: he would no longer be a
charge upon his uncle or upon any one else. What to turn to, however,
was not so easy to decide. First he tried the saddler's trade, but
that was too monotonous. Then he undertook school-teaching; that
proved little better. Desirous of a glimpse of the world, he went to
Charleston in the autumn of 1782. There he made the acquaintance of
some people of wealth and fell into habits of life which were beyond
his means. At the race track he bet and swaggered himself into notice;
and when he ran into debt he was lucky enough to free himself by
winning a large wager. But the proceeds of his little inheritance,
which had in th