1813 Jackson–Benton brawl

American gun and knife fight July 2026 ly July 2026 Jackson–Benton brawl of 1813 File:Crop-contrast Image from Seba Smith's 1834 parodic biography of Andrew Jackson 17.jpg Caricature-style woodcut of seven men in period dress brandishing guns and knives "Dreadful Fracas Atween the Gineral and the Bentons at Nashvil", from The life of Andrew Jackson by Major Jack Downing (1834), a parodic biography attributed to Seba Smith 1813 09 04 Talbot's Hotel, Nashville, Tennessee, United States Andrew Jackson Thomas Hart Benton John Coffee Stockley D. Hays Jesse Benton Jr. Eli Hammond A gun fight and knife fight between several historically significant figures of the frontier-era U.S. South took place on September 4, 1813, at a tavern on the public square in Nashville, Tennessee. Future U.S. president Andrew Jackson and three of his Donelson kinsmen (John Coffee, Stockley D. Hays, and Sandy Donelson), fought future U.S. Senator Thomas Hart Benton and his brother Jesse Benton Jr. Horsewhipping was threatened. The parties variously stabbed, shot, and beat each another. Jesse Benton shot Jackson, leaving him with a serious shoulder injury. Jackson and T. H. Benton had previously been close, but were estranged as a result of the fight. They eventually reconciled, with Tom Benton acting as a crucial and insistent voice in defense of Jackson and Jacksonian policies in the U.S. Senate throughout the second quarter of the 19th century. Prologue To begin, Nashville merchant Jesse Benton Jr. had gotten involved in a duel with future Tennessee governor William Carroll that was, reportedly, several steps away from the original insult.1882-07-20 Old Time Duels – Some of the Thrilling Meetings on the Field of 'Honah' Around Nashville – Andrew Jackson's Famous Duel with Dickinson, Other Interesting Personal Encounters https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-tennessean-old-time-duels/163672810/ 2025-01-22 The Tennessean 4 7 2192 Nashville 1053-6590 6431386 n.a. Carroll slapped an officer who had insulted him in some way at a ball; according to historian Elbert B. Smith this was Littleton Johnson.Smith 1958 46 Johnson sent Carroll a duel challenge that was carried by a man named Pilcher; Carroll kicked Pilcher down the stairs for insulting him by bringing him the challenge from Johnson. Pilcher then challenged Carroll to a duel for kicking him down the stairs, which message he sent by medical doctor Boyd McNairy (brother to federal judge John McNairy, and slave trader and planter Nathaniel McNairy). When Boyd McNairy delivered the message to Carroll, the latter refused to duel Pilcher on the grounds that he was not enough of a gentleman to participate in a duel, and when McNairy offered to duel Carroll in Pilcher's place, Carroll said McNairy had been disqualified from dueling "because you were second in a duel and you made your man fire before the word was given". McNairy delivered the above information back to Pilcher, who then sent Jesse Benton as his messenger. Benton consulted with Andrew Jackson, who said that Carroll might as well duel Benton as anyone since it seemed like an inevitability anyway. Carroll and Benton dueled at a place called Sandy Bottom on June 14, 1813.Jackson 1984 408Mueller 2014 48 Jackson served as Carroll's second; John M. Armstrong served as Benton's second.Cheathem 2014 62 Carroll was hit in the thumb, and Benton took what Benton biographer Ken Mueller characterized as a "long, raking" gunshot wound to the buttocks, which was painful, embarrassing, and likely contributed to long-term health problems.Mueller 2014 48 According to a 1925 profile of Carroll, Jesse Benton's butt injury "was a source of much merriment and joke in Nashville".Golden 1925 13 alt=Refer to caption|thumb|War of 1812 campaign maps, including Jackson's campaigns 1813–1815 (Charles O. Paullin, 1932) While this was going on, future U.S. Senator from Missouri Thomas Hart Benton was in the capital city of the United States, Washington, D.C., trying to get assigned to a more active theater of the ongoing War of 1812, and lobbying on behalf of Jackson.Mueller 2014 45, 47 Earlier in the year, Jackson had launched, by riverine flotilla, the fruitless Natchez expedition of Tennessee militiamen called up by governor Willie Blount, intending to assist the U.S. regular army in the lower Mississippi River valley, but without any specific order from the U.S. Department of War or budget appropriation from the United States Congress. He was rebuffed and stalled by general James Wilkinson, and in February 1813, the "corps under your command" was "dismissed from public service", per message of Secretary of War John Armstrong.Parton 1860a 373, 377–388Cheathem 2014 60–61 Jackson was ordered to surrender any "public property" to Wilkinson, but Jackson "flatly refused" to transfer his men to Wilkinson's command and determined to "lead them home on his own responsibility."Smith 1958 45–46 To "lead them home on his own responsibility," he had borrowed 1,000 1813 from merchant banker James Jackson to buy beef, cornmeal, and flour for the troops on the Natchez Trace home to Nashville, and to rent wagons with draymen to haul the sick.Jackson Andrew https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89098137946&seq=353 Correspondence of Andrew Jackson, Volume 1, to April 30, 1814 Carnegie Institution of Washington 303 en Bassett John Spencer John Spencer Bassett 1926 In the conclusion of one recent researcher, "Few men would remember Washington or James Jackson's names ... [but] had the Tennessee bankers refused the General's request, large numbers of Tennessee Volunteers would have suffered, and many more would have died."Turnbow Tony Hardened to Hickory: The Missing Chapter in Andrew Jackson's Life n.pub. 388 of 682 2018 978-0-692-08752-7 Thus, to recoup the $1,000 he needed to repay James and Washington Jackson, Andrew Jackson sent Benton to petition the U.S. government for reimbursement.Mueller 2014 48 Fighting words and fight 300 border:none; 1/2 Davidson County Courthouse and Nashville Inn and City Hotel in 1831.jpg Cyrus T. Brady - Andrew Jackson bio - page 253.jpg Detail of map of Nashville Tennessee in 1854.jpg As they appeared in 1831, Nashville Inn, Davidson County Courthouse, and the City Hotel; diagram of Nashville's courthouse square from the "Duels and Quarrels" chapter of C. T. Brady's The True Andrew Jackson (1906); detail of 1854 Nashville map, showing the town's early hotels and location of the courthouse square on the Cumberland River Refer to caption left When T. H. Benton got back to Nashville from Washington, and discovered that Jackson had aided someone who shot his brother, while he had been endeavoring on Jackson's behalf, a sequel conflict erupted.Mueller 2014 48–49 He wrote Jackson that he thought the Carroll–Benton duel had been conducted in a "savage, unequal, unfair, and base manner."Smith 1958 46 In the words of historian and Jackson biographer Robert V. Remini, "Now a fierce guardian of his fame and image, Jackson had become extremely sensitive to public criticism. The trouble with Benton, Jackson said, was his inability to keep his mouth shut."Remini 1977 183–184 The Fort Mims massacre took place in the lower Alabama section of Mississippi Territory on August 30, 1813.Kanon 2014 67 (This event would begin the Red Sticks War in earnest, and ultimately result in Jackson imposing the crushing Treaty of Fort Jackson on the mus Mvskokvlke, or Creek Confederacy.)Kanon 2014 108–110 Five days later, on September 4, 1813, Jesse Benton shot Andrew Jackson, and per Mark Cheathem, Jackson biographer and editor of the presidential papers of Martin Van Buren, Jackson's nephew Stockley D. Hays "nearly killed" Jesse Benton.Cheathem 2014 62–63 It was a Saturday when the Benton brothers fought Jackson, Hays, Alexander "Sandy" Donelson (another nephew), and John Coffee (an in-law, Jackson's long-time business partner, and, shortly, American general commanding troops in several critical engagements of the Creek War), at Talbot's Hotel (later the City Hotel) in Nashville. The Nashville Inn (earlier Talbot's Tavern) had been founded around the turn of the century by William Terrell Lewis and was always patronized by Jackson, Lewis' business associate and friend of long acquaintance, so Jackson opponents (such as the latter-day Whigs) usually stayed elsewhere, across the public square. On a visit to central Nashville the Bentons had deliberately stayed elsewhere than the Nashville Inn to avoid encountering Jackson, but in the words of Benton biographer and historian E. Smith, "Jackson unhesitatingly assumed the role of aggressor by following Jesse into the hotel", horsewhip in hand, since he had promised to horsewhip Thomas Hart Benton for the perceived insult.Smith 1958 45 Remini recounted that Jackson and Coffee approached the tavern where they knew the Bentons were staying, and, "Both Bentons were waiting, their pistols loaded with two shots each. As Jackson came abreast of Thomas he suddenly turned toward him, brandished his whip, and cried, 'Now, you damned rascal, I am going to punish you. Defend yourself.Remini 1977 184 Jesse Benton got the better of Jackson, slipping around the back and shooting him in the arm while Jackson had held a gun to his brother's head, leaving Jackson with his left arm and a shoulder shredded.Mueller 2014 49 Jackson biographer Sean Wilentz says of the brawl and Jackson's injuries that, "The fracas left Jackson with a serious pistol wound in the shoulder, from which he nearly died."Wilentz Sean Andrew Jackson 2005 Times Books 13 978-0-8050-6925-9 https://archive.org/details/andrewjackson00wile/page/n13/mode/2up?q=brawl Sean Wilentz thumb|alt=Broadside on yellowed paper with two columns of printed text|This 1828 anti-Jackson handbill reprinted the text of Thomas Hart Benton's 1813 post-brawl statement According to the footnotes of Tom Kanon's history of Tennessee military participation in the War of 1812: "Four other pistols were fired in quick successionone by Jackson at Benton, two by Benton at Jackson, and one by John Coffee at Thomas Bentonbut Jackson was the only one hit. Then daggers were drawn."Kanon 2014 213–214 n. 28 Coffee and Donelson jumped in and stabbed future Senator Benton five times.Smith 1958 45 Hays stabbed Jesse Benton with a knife concealed within a cane, while Eli Hammond beat J. Benton about the head,Kanon 2014 213–214 n. 28 but "a large and strong button which broke Hays' blade saved Jesse from being perforated. Jesse placed the muzzle of his remaining pistol against Hays' chest and pulled the trigger, but in a fair exchange of mishaps, the charge failed to explode."Smith 1958 45 James Sumner intervened on behalf of the Bentons, helping them driving off Hays and Donelson.Mueller 2014 50 Jackson's urgent need for medical attention ended the fight, and per Smith, T. H. Benton "sealed the victory by breaking Jackson's sword across his knee in the public square".Smith 1958 47 Benton later pamphleteered about the brawl, explaining his side of the story.Mueller 2014 50–51 Aftermath Every physician in Nashville treated Jackson's injuries,Parton 1860a 394 at either the Nashville Inn,Remini 1977 185 or at Dr. McNairy's house.1909-10-03 Nashville's Famous Guest House https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-tennessean-nashvilles-famous-guest/201272674/ 2026-07-09 The Tennessean 27 Caroline McNairy, McNairy's daughter, later claimed the scene was a "sad spectacle ... He lay in the large parlour and by the help of ropes suspended from the ceiling, he was lifted and enabled to rest by change of position."Mahoney Nell Savage 1951-04-01 Boyd McNairy, Physician and Host 2026-07-09 The Nashville Tennessean Magazine 44 335 The Tennessean Part 2 of 3 https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-tennessean-boyd-mcnairy-physician-a/201273386/ 11 (Dr. McNairy eventually became a dedicated proponent of the anti-Jacksonian Whig Party in Tennessee.)Murphy James Edward Spring 1971 Jackson and the Tennessee Opposition https://www.jstor.org/stable/42623203 Tennessee Historical Quarterly 30 1 50–69 42623203 0040-3261 The bleeding reportedly soaked through two mattresses.Moser Edward P. The White House's Unruly Neighborhood 2019 46 McFarland 978-1-4766-3693-1 https://books.google.com/books?id=5SDCDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA46 July 12, 2026Remini 1977 185Mueller 2014 50 Attending doctors recommended amputation. According to his first major biographer, James Parton, Jackson told the assembled physicians, "I'll keep my arm."Kirk Cooper William Lauderdale, General Andrew Jackson's Warrior 1983 Gale / Cengage Learning 73 I'll keep my arm.James E. Medley Studies in Battle Command 1995 21 https://books.google.com/books?id=ZVoWQNIH73cC&pg=PA17 IV - Andrew Jackson's Iron Will in the Creek War, 1813–1814 DIANE 978-1-4289-1465-0 Parton 1860a 394Remini 1977 185Mueller 2014 50 Benton's bullet, which "lay against the bone of the left arm",Remini 1977 185 remained in Jackson's body until 1832, when it was removed by U.S. Navy surgeon Thomas Harris.Cheathem 2014 150 Benton's bullet and Charles Dickinson's bullet, lodged in Jackson's left lung since their 1806 duel, may have contributed to "significantly elevated" levels of lead in two samples of Jackson's hair, which were tested in the 1990s by four researchers curious about whether the bullets and the 19th-century treatment regimens for Jackson's various chronic ailments might have resulted in a lead-poisoned U.S. president.Deppisch Centeno Gemmel Torres 1999 570 The bullet was said to be "flattened by contusion on bone and hackled on the edge".Deppisch Centeno Gemmel Torres 1999 571 The researchers reported that since Benton's bullet "shattered" Jackson's left shoulder, "contact with synovial fluid in joint space is highly likely", which would increase the exposure to lead subsequent to a projectile injury, and "bony sequestrum, implying osteomyelitis, was sloughed from this wound in 1814 and presented as a memento to Jackson's wife".Deppisch Centeno Gemmel Torres 1999 571 Jackson reported "improved health" following the 1832 operation by Harris.Deppisch Centeno Gemmel Torres 1999 571 thumb|left|alt=Alabama River watershed map hand-drawn in blue ink on what is now very brittle and damaged paper|"General Jackson's campaign against the Creek Indians 1813 & 1814", showing the Muscle Shoals of the Tennessee River and the Alabama River watershed News of the Fort Mims massacre reached Nashville on September 12.Kanon 2014 56 In October, Jackson took command of 2,500 Tennessee militiamen and a group of Jackson-aligned Muscogee warriors.Cheathem 2014 64 Jackson sent aide John S. Reid to Fayetteville, Tennessee, to address the gathering force.Parton 1860a 425 As described by Parton in 1860, in volume one of his three-volume biography of Old Hickory, "He could not mount his horse without assistance when the time came for him to move toward the rendezvous. His left arm was bound and in a sling. He could not wear his coat-sleeve; nor, during any part of his military career, could he long endure on his left shoulder the weight of an epaulette."Parton 1860a 425 On October 11, 1813, Jackson departed Fayetteville for the war, heading toward Huntsville.Parton 1860a 427–428Braund 2012 176 Kanon, writing in Tohopeka: Rethinking the Creek War and the War of 1812, describes Jackson as living with "constant physical pain" during the Creek War and beyond.Braund 2012 106 Kanon argues, "Historians should not be too quick in dismissing the fact that Jackson suffered from severe diarrhea and dysentery throughout the war, not to mention a bullet he carried in his left arm from a gunshot received during a fracas in Nashville prior to embarking on the campaign."Braund 2012 106 Sandy Donelson served as an aide-de-camp to Coffee during the Creek War.1848-12-02 Died - Mary Purnell Donelson https://www.newspapers.com/article/nashville-union-and-american-died-mary/165155504/ 2025-02-10 Nashville Union and American 21848-12-04 Mary Purnell Donelson obituary (continued) https://www.newspapers.com/article/republican-banner-mary-purnell-donelson/164045733/ 2025-01-27 Republican Banner 3 Donelson was shot in the head and killed at the Battle of Emuckfaw Creek, four months after the brawl, on January 22, 1814.Coffee 1901 179Remini 1977 207Braund 2012 116 Eli Hammond organized a horse-mounted ranger regiment that contributed substantially to the American victories in least two Creek War battles, Tallusahatchee, and Tohopeka in the horseshoe bend of the Tallapoosa River.Jackson 1991 56Kanon 2014 75 In 1830, 17 years after the fight, President Jackson communicated to still another nephew (there were dozens), "I intend to [do] something for [nephew Stockley D. Hays] as soon as it can be with propriety, but you know, under such a pressure for office, how hard it is to get a connection in, without great censure."Jackson 2010 538 President Jackson's endeavors for Hays triggered a long-running political battle with Davy Crockett, U.S. Representative from Tennessee, and George Poindexter, U.S. Senator from Mississippi, complete with charges of nepotism and abuse of the patronage system, and Congressional investigations that found evidence of corrupt land speculation by federal officers responsible for the public lands.Shockley Megan Taylor Fall 1997 King of the Wild Frontier vs. King Andrew I: Davy Crockett and the Election of 1831 https://www.jstor.org/stable/42627359 Tennessee Historical Quarterly 56 3 158–169 0040-3261 42627359Miles Edwin A. February 1958 Andrew Jackson and Senator George Poindexter https://www.jstor.org/stable/2955285 The Journal of Southern History 24 1 51–66 10.2307/2955285 2955285 subscription In the immediate aftermath of the fight, T. H. Benton is supposed to have written to a friend, "I am literally in hell here ... the meanest wretches under heaven to contend withliars, affidavit-makers, and shameless cowards."Armstrong James L. https://archive.org/details/reminiscencesore00arms/page/7/mode/1up Reminiscences, or, An extract from the catalogue of General Jackson's "juvenile indiscretions" between the ages of 23 and 60 s.n. State Library of Pennsylvania, Internet Archive 1828 7Parton 1860a 395Remini 1977 186 T. H. Benton and Jackson reconciled on the eve of the 1824 presidential campaign and were ever after the closest of political allies.Smith 1958 45, 106Mueller 2014 112–113 "Old Bullion" Benton aided Jackson in smashing Nicholas Biddle's bank, and he was largely responsible for expunging Jackson's Senate censure.Smith 1958 106 Jesse Benton supported Treasury Secretary William H. Crawford for president in 1824 and anyone but Jackson thereafter, publishing detailed public letters criticizing Jackson's alleged corruption and enumerating his perceived character flaws.Smith 1958Eriksson 1925 243Harlan 1948 20, 26 On the occasion of the 1828 presidential election, Benton declared, "I often told my brother, in 1813, that God was angry with Jackson for his crimes and permitted his attempt to assassinate us on the very spot where I now sit, in order to make us the instrument of his punishment."Cheathem 2014 110–111 According to an 1873 history of Memphis, Tennessee, in 1828, Jackson and Jesse Benton had a second fight, at the Bell Tavern on the Chickasaw Bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River, and on that occasion Benton was beaten.Davis James D. 1873 History of Memphis Memphis, Tenn. Hite, Crumpton & Kelly, Printers rc01001309 loc.gdc/scd0001.0014649738A 1434204877 12194813W https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uva.x000086596&seq=144&q1=Benton 2025-01-11 125–130 en In 1836, J. Benton and fellow Jackson opponent Davy Crockett traveled together toward the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, but Benton peeled off at the last minute to recruit more bodies to garrison the Texian stockade, and thus avoided Crockett's fate of being killed by the Mexican Army.Wiener 2024 David Crockett in Texas: His Search for New Land Allen J. Texas A&M University Press College Station, Texas 153, 224–225 9781648432163 2024027570 1470868357 129646 book 1836-05-07 From Texas https://www.newspapers.com/article/south-branch-intelligencer-from-texas/162463384/ 2026-07-09 South Branch Intelligencer 2 Romney, Virginia n.a. VI 46 Harper William See also List of violent incidents involving Andrew Jackson List of duels in the United States Bibliography of Andrew Jackson Jonathan Thompson (lawyer) Pursuit of Andrew Jackson for debts References Sources yes 33em Braund 2012 Tohopeka: Rethinking the Creek War and the War of 1812 University of Alabama Press 978-0-8173-5711-5 Kathryn E. Holland Tuscaloosa 2012005530 809411101 17284 book Cheathem 2014 Mark R. Andrew Jackson, Southerner Louisiana State University Press 978-0-8071-5099-3 Baton Rouge, Louisiana 2012049695 858995561 26506 book Coffee April 1901 John Letters from Gen. Coffee https://www.jstor.org/stable/42657529 The American Historical Magazine 6 2 174–190 John Coffee 42657529 2333-8970 Deppisch Centeno Gemmel Torres 1999-08-11 Ludwig M. Jose A. David J. Norca L. Andrew Jackson's Exposure to Mercury and Lead: Poisoned President? http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?doi=10.1001/jama.282.6.569 JAMA en 282 6 569–571 10.1001/jama.282.6.569 10450719 0098-7484 subscription Eriksson January 1925 Erik McKinley Official Newspaper Organs and the Campaign of 1828 https://www.jstor.org/stable/42637502 Tennessee Historical Magazine 8 4 231–247 42637502 2333-9012 Golden Gabriel Hawkins April 1925 William Carroll and His Administration https://www.jstor.org/stable/42637999 Tennessee Historical Magazine Tennessee Historical Society 9 1 9–30 42637999 2333-9012 Harlan Louis R. March 1948 Louis R. Harlan Public Career of William Berkeley Lewis https://www.jstor.org/stable/42620964 Tennessee Historical Quarterly 7 1 3–37 42620964 0040-3261 Jackson Andrew https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_jackson/5/ The Papers of Andrew Jackson, Volume II, 1804–1813 1984 University of Tennessee Press 978-0-87049-441-3 Moser Harold 10.7290/utp3038 Macpherson Sharon 79015078 Knoxville Jackson 1991 Andrew https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_jackson/4/ The Papers of Andrew Jackson, Volume III, 1814–1815 University of Tennessee Press 978-0-87049-650-9 3 Moser Harold 10.7290/utp9085 Hoth David Macpherson Sharon Reinbold John Jackson 2010 Andrew 3 https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_jackson/9/ The Papers of Andrew Jackson, Volume VIII, 1830 University of Tennessee Press 978-1-57233-715-2 Feller Daniel 10.7290/utp6455 Coens Thomas Moss Laura-Eve Kanon Tom Tennesseans at War, 1812–1815: Andrew Jackson, the Creek War, and the Battle of New Orleans University of Alabama Press 2014 2013049815 Tuscaloosa 9780817318291 900093586 30812 book Mueller 2014 Senator Benton and the People: Master Race Democracy on the Early American Frontier Ken Cornell University Press Ithaca, New York 9781501757556 Early American Places 83601 book 1203952026 Parton 1860a James James Parton Life of Andrew Jackson, Volume 1 https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008586015 New York Mason Brothers 3897681 11016613 2519658W Remini 1977 Robert V. Robert V. Remini Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Empire, 1767–1821 Harper & Row 978-0-8018-5912-0 New York 77003766 1145801830 Smith February 1958 Elbert B. Elbert B. Smith 'Now Defend Yourself, You Damned Rascal!' Catton Bruce Bruce Catton Illustrated by Marshall Davis https://www.americanheritage.com/now-defend-yourself-you-damned-rascal IX 2 44–48, 106 American Heritage 0002-8738 1479963 en External links October 12, 1824 Nashville Gazette, extra. Refuting Jesse Benton's pamphlet attacking General Andrew Jackson https://teva.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15138coll33/id/335 Tennessee Virtual Archive en 43134_01 Cox Debie Oeser Nashville History: The City Hotel https://nashvillehistoricalnewsletter.com/2021/10/15/nashvilles-city-hotel/ Nashville Historical Newsletter October 15, 2021 Category:1813 in Tennessee Category:19th century in Nashville, Tennessee Category:Andrew Jackson Category:Dueling in the United States Category:Feuds in the United States Category:September 1813