Hermitage, Decemb. 26th 1837~ Dear Sir, Your letter of the 29th ult. has been before me some days - and my answer postponed from various causes beyond my control until now - I therefore proceed to reply to your request. After referring to the case of the old Volunteers of Tennessee raised by me under the act of Congress of February and July 1812 &c &c, you ask. will I state when the Troops were discharged at Columbia Tenn was it not with an understanding that they were to hold themselves in readiness to await the orders of the Government if call'd again to enter the service of their Country under their engagements v. When War was declared by the United State against Great Britain in 1812 - a law was passed by congress authorizing the President of the u.states to raise 50.000 men by voluntary enlistment - who should be bound for two years, and to render one years actual service within the two, for which they were to be engaged - under these laws of February 6th and July 6th 1812 - being there Major Genl in the State of Tennessee, I raised these crops had them regularly instated, and thro the Governor of the State made a tender of their services to the President of the U Statesc for tender of service was duly accepted by the President thro the Secry of War in the following Language. War Department July 11th 1812~ Sir I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 25th of June - The tender of service by Genl Jackson and the volunteers under his command is received by the President with peculiar satisfaction, and in accepting their services, he cannot withhold an expression of his admiration of the zeal and order by which they [strikeout] [inserted: are] animated. Signed W Eustice On the 11th of November 1812 I was call'd upon by the order of Governor Blount, in conformity with the orders of the then [2] Secretary of War to call out the Volunteers to meet at Nashville to receive their Commissions and to be fully organized by selecting their Regimental staff-preparitory to their March to New Orleans for the defence of the lower Mississippi, to which point we had been ordered - thus organized - we were ordered to rendesvouse on the 10th of Decemb. 1812 - and to decend to the Lower Mississippi. From the above date our engagement for two years commenced, to serve within which, one year before we could be discharged under our engagements; We decended the Mississippi river, halted at Natchez, [struck: and] at the request, and on the advice of Genl Wilkinson, there to await further orders from the Secretary of War, - contrary to all our expectations, on the 14th of March 1873 I received from the Secry of War the order of which the following is a copy War Department 5th January 1813~ Sir The causes for embodying and marching to New Orleans the corps. under your command having ceased to assist, you will on receipt of this letter consider it as dismissal from public service and take measures to have delivered over to Majr Genl Wilkinson, all articles of public property which may have been put into its possession. Sign'd John Armstrong The flattering manner with [strikeout] which our services had been accepted of, and the prompt manner with which we had obeyed the orders of our Government, and marched to the defence of the Lower Mississippi, an inhospitable clime, -eight hundred miles from our homes - and having to return thro a savage wilderness - our sick deprived of every comfort - and covering - and the men of their arms necessary for their defence - without money and without supplies - The volunteers under the acts of Congress being - when discharged entitlled to their arms and equipments, my feelings were aroused to a due sense of the injustice done us, and I at onc,e determined, on my own means and responsibility, that I would return these brave and patriotic volunteers, (thus cruelly abandoned [3] by their Government,) to their country, families and homes, and thereby preserve them from destruction which must have awaited them, if left thus destitute in that insalubrious clime; I therefore marched those brave and Patriotic men back to Tennessee and restored them to their homes & families - When we reached Columbia (Tenn) the law under which they were raised gave to the Volunteers when regularly discharged their muskets and equipments; and the order of the Secretary of War being a dismissal from public service & not a discharge from our engagements under the Law - I gave the Volunteers at Columbia (T) the discharge you refer to, that in case they were not again ordered into service within the two years for which they were engaged, to secure to them all benefit under the Law and their arms and equipments - but under the express pledge and understanding that they should hold themselves in readiness to finish their engagements if call'd upon again by the Government within the term of the two years for which we were engaged; I had written to President Madison on the 15th. of March - bringing to his view in a proper manner and feeling, the cruelty exercised to us by the dismissal so far from home, and without providing for our sick, on return march, but depriving us by the order of dismissal of all public supplies. - I received his answer on the 24th. of March at Nashville which gave rise to my order to which you allude - (a copy is enclosed) from which (order) and all other acts, it is plain that they were considered as bound under their engagements to hold themselves in readiness to march promptly on the requirement of the Government, if made before the expiration of two years from the time of their first being mustered into service; They were raised under a positive law, and there was no pwer, except in Congress to discharge them from that positive legal obligation until they had served one whole year, or that the two years had expired within which we had bound ourselves to the service of one; [4] These are the facts, and when the volunteers were again called for under my order of the 19th. of September 1813, the prompt obedience gave full evidence of their understanding of their dismissal from public service and of my discharge, to hold themselves in readiness, - for on the 26th. of September agreeable to my orders they were again all in the field with but few absentees - which shows them to have been in a state of readiness, from the promptitude with which they marched to fulfill their engagement. - Should there be any other facts you wish to be informed of, I will with pleasure furnish them; In equity those brave volunteers are entitled to full pay and rations for the whole time they were held in readiness from their dismissal at Columbia until called into service again in September 1813 - In conclusion - justice to those brave men I must remark, that after they returned home under some of their officers, and were discharged - many of them joined that brave and Patriotic officer Genl Caffee, and continued in service until the close of the War, and nobly sustained the Eagles of their Country in the memorable defence at New Orleans, and merited and received as a reward - the grateful thanks of their Government. respectfully yours Andrew Jackson Major John P. Hickman - I served with General Jackson during the campaign of 1812 '13 as his Brigade Inspector, and agree fully in the statements made above by him. Nashville, January 18. 1839~ Wm: Carroll