Williams Family History

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Captain Isaac Williams and His Grandchildren Pioneers of Lawrence County, Indiana By Ben & Alice Dixon

CAPTAIN ISAAC, FIGHTING QUAKER

The War of 1812 The Captain's Journal Official Records

CAPTAIN ISAAC AND THE WAR OF 1812

The tradition, handed down from goodness-knows-where, that our Isaac Williams was a Soldier of the Revolution, was badly shattered when we invaded the Quaker records of North Carolina. He was born in 1779 -- hardly soon enough to be fighting for the cause of Independence. The fact of a staunch Quaker family background seemed to preclude any military service whatever.

Still, the Lost Creek Meeting disowned him, for undesignated cause. Why was that? If he had married out of unity or contrary to discipline, the minutes would surely so stated. How simple it would have been for him to condemn his conduct and secure reinstatement.

On the other hand, if he attended musters, or participated in riotous conduct (and what musters on that far frontier were less than riotous?), he would have been dropped unceremoniously, without commence. And, if he were a good provider for his family, and otherwise a good citizen and member of the community, no good Quaker clerk would want to complicate the record of his dismissal with catty remarks.

So it must have been. For adequate proof of his fighting proclivities is found in a worn and faded journal kept by him showing service in our second war with England. The book is the property of his grand daughter, Mrs. Cornelia (Aunt Nelia) Jones, of Williams, Indiana. From this ancient log, Mrs. Beulah Thompson has extracted some items of potent interest to the family history.

Among them is the return of arms and rations for a company of draftees out of Sevier county, Tennessee, for the month of January, 1814. The return indicates that Capt. Isaac Williams received fifty drafted militiamen from that county at a camp on Little Pigeon, and outfitted them with rifles and shotguns which were also drafted from citizens of Sevier. The outfit included sixteen firing pieces from Capt. Isaac's own private arsenal. After outfitting, he marched the company approximately 100 miles to the Hiawassee Garrison, located probably at the Big Spring, in present Meigs county. Enroute, his men were mustered in at Kingston, as a unit of Col. Samuel Bunch's regiment.

Information from the journal was translated into four pages of data (CF: The Old Journal, Post). Copies were forwarded to the County Clerk at Sevierville, the East Tennessee Historical Society at Knoxville, and the Adjutant General’s Office at Nashville, with a request for clarifying information. The County Clerk informed us that Sevier’s court house with all records had burned over 100 years ago. (Incident ally, the same thing happened to the records of adjacent Cooke county.) To date no information on our inquiry has come from the Historical Society.

But the Adjutant General's Office did itself proud for the Williams Clan. Col. A. F. Carden, Tennessee National Guard, the Chief of War Records, contributed that which makes a hungry family historian suffer with delight. He found that Captain Isaac Williams had nearly two years of active field duty with Tennessee forces during the War of 1812. He commanded not only a company of drafted infantry, but also two companies of volunteer dragoons -- one of mounted infantry, and one known as the "special battalion of mounted gunmen". His data included an alphabetical list of all of the men who served in these three units, with their ratings and dates of enlistment.

The analytical study of these records, plus the data of the old journal, and a synthesis of this material with the known facts of the campaign against the Creek Indians, enables us to present the family with a fairly complete and accurate report on Grandfather Isaac's military service.

Isaac Williams and Amelia Gibson were married May 1, 1801. He was disowned June 20th following. We cannot be certain that he was not "churched" because of this marriage. But we are sure that he did not seek reinstatement for some very excellent reason. That reason may have been his affinity for "musters".

In the year that he was married and disowned, Andrew Jackson became the Major General of Tennessee Militia. We do not know what, if anything at all, was the relation of Quaker Isaac Williams to General Andrew Jackson during the ensuing twelve years. But we do know that as young Isaac reared his family he taught the boys how to shoot. By January 1814 he had built himself a family arsenal to the status of a young fortress with fifteen rifles and a shotgun. We know also that Captain Williams led three outfits into the field, 1813-15, under Old Hickory's command. And we know that he named his son, born June 5, 1814, on the heels of his return from the Creek campaign, Andrew Jackson Williams.

Word of the Fort Mimms Massacre of August 30, 1813, found the General flat on his back at Nashville. He was trying to recover from the effects of two lead slugs in his shoulder recently received in a tavern brawl. Three hundred and fifty people (some reports say more then 500) were housed in this frontier fort on the Alabama River. Soldiers, settlers, women, children -- all were butchered indiscriminately by hostile Creeks under Chief Weathersford, the Red Eagle.

Only a few escaped. The frontier blazed with preparations for revenge. Georgia, South Carolina, Mississippi Territory, Tennessee and the U.S.Army buzzed with military ardor. Tennessee called out 4000 troops Sept. 25, 1813: 2500 militia and 1500 volunteers.

Capt. Isaac may already have been under arms at Shelbyville with a company of mounted infantry. The archives tell us that he made a forced march of 102 miles from that place to Huntsville, Ala., where his company was mustered into Col. Newton Cannon's dragoon regiment of the 24th. This regiment was a part of Col. John Coffee's cavalry brigade, which played a key part in the entire campaign.

General Jackson, hardly able to mount his steed, took command of the troops on October 7th. On the 12th he marched them 32 miles from Fayetteville to Huntsville. Mounted troops had already cut a road through the wilderness to Ditto's Landing on the Tennessee. Jackson moved there on the 19th. On the 22nd he moved 22 miles further to Thompson Creek. There he establoshed Fort Deposit as a supply base.

By the 29th he had crossed the Coosa Mountains and reached the Coosa River at Ten Islands -- 50 miles further into the wilderness. Enroute, Coffee's men had burned two Indian villages and confiscated 300 bushels of corn. At Ten Islands Jackson planned an attack on the village of Tallasahatchee. The battle took place November 3rd, with Coffee's Brigade delivering a smashing victory over Weatherford's Creeks. For five Tennessee dead and 42 wounded, Red Eagle swapped Old Hickory 84 prisoners and over 200 dead braves!

The General built another fort at Ten Islands and called it Fort Strother. It became his base of operations. Spies came from Talladega with word that Red Eagle was concentrating warriors there, to wipe out this friendly village. Jackson fell upon the hostiles November 9th. His attack accounted for another 200 of Red Eagle's braves. Among the sixteen dead and 86 wounded whites were three dragoons of Capt. Isaac’s company. One died within a few days, two in December.

After this brief campaign Old Hickory had a world of trouble with mutineers. Contractors had failed to deliver food stores. The army was fighting on an empty stomach. A private complained to the General that he was hungry. “So am I”, said Old Hickory, "but I will divide my ration with you." He took from his pocket a handful of acorns and split the ration with G.I.Joe. He had already given his own private commissariat to the hospital.

We can only guess how hungry Isaac Williams and his mounted infantry were on that campaign. Then half the army attempted mutiny because of hunger, it is not likely the other half was well fed. In the month of November there were three serious attempts at mutiny; another in December. On December 12th Jackson dismissed the volunteers. The Governor ordered him to bring the army home.

But Old Hickory ignored the order. "If but two loyal men will stand by me," he said, "I will hold what we have gained." Said Colonel Coffee, "I will be one of them." Among the faithful few who remained with their General were Isaac Williams and his trusted dragoons. Governor Blount send two regiments of 60-day men (including Davy Crockett; with his coonskin cap!) to relive them. As a Christmas Greeting, the General released the Williams company on December 25th, 1813.

Capt. Isaac had hardly reached home for a festive New Year celebration before Governor Blount called him up again. He took command of a company of drafted East Tennessee Militia from Sevier county. On January 10, 1814, this company was mustered into Col. Samuel Bunch's regiment at Kingston. By easy stages, Williams marched his men to the Hiawassee Garrison, some 100 miles down the Tennessee from Sevier.

Beyond Hiawassee we cannot follow him. His journal carries him five days further to the end of January. But the chirography is too dim to decipher. Nor is there any clue in the company roll. He must have been at Fort Strother by February 6th, when Col. John Williams arrived with Ensign Sam'l Houston and the 39th US Infantry. Doubtless his company was present, too, on March 14th, and was paraded to witness the execution of Private John Wood, court-martialed and shot for insubordination.

Doubtless, also, he marched on the 18th, when the General set out for Horseshoe Bend on the Tallapoosa River. There Red Eagle and his braves -- the last fighting remnant of hostile Creeks -- were fortified at an impregnable site, ready to repel all attack. The Indian name of this place was Tohopeka. But in Indian lore it is synonymous with bitter, dismal defeat. For, on that day, March 27, 1814, the Red Eagle's fighting warriors were liquidated to a man. Then the day was done, the Creek War was ended.

Red Eagle made his last stand with an army of nearly 1000 braves. Over 200 were drowned trying to escape. Over 100 were missing. There were 557 corpses counted "dead on the field"; no prisoners. Jackson lost 55 killed and 146 wounded. There were no casualties in Captain Isaac Williams's company of East Tennessee Militia.

The General now occupied the "Hickory Ground" -- soil sacred to the Indian, where no paleface theretofore had dared to tread! And across the Alabama River from this spot he erected a new strategic fort. General Pinckney of South Carolina insisted on naming it Fort Jackson in the General's honor. Here the now docile hostles came in to make their peace. Here the Red Eagle buried his tomahawk.

The troops were ordered home April 21st. They arrived in Nashville in May, to receive their coveted dismissal. The War Department celebrated a famous anniversary (April 19th: Battle of Lexington) by commissioning Old Hickory a Brigadier of the regular army. Still greater honors were ahead. When he got to Nashville a Major General's commission awaited him. On May 28th, 1814, he was given command of the Southern Military District.

As we have seen, the records of the campaign reveal that Isaac Williams was a fighting comrade of two other famous frontiersmen in the Creek War: Davy Crockett and Sam Houston. Crockett was one of the 60-day volunteers who came to Old Hickory's aid in December 1813 --when mutineers nearly ruined him and Capt. Isaac was among the few whc sustained. Sam Houston, an ensign of the 39th US Infantry, played a conspicuous role in the Battle of the Horseshoe, March 27th, 1814.

Captain Isaac stayed at home long enough this time to plant a crop of corn and lay it by before he was called up again. In September he took command at Shelbyville of a separate battalion of mounted gunmen the largest of his three companies. It was recruited for six months' service in Major William Russell's battalion of Col. Robert Dyer's First Regiment of Tennessee Mounted Gunmen. This organization was a part of Coffee's Cavalry Brigade in Carroll's Tennessee Division. It played a prominent part in the New Orleans campaign.

Family tradition has given us no hint that Captain Isaac was at New Orleans. But we are firm in the belief that he marched with his regiment in Coffee's Brigade. General Jackson left Fayetteville for Mobile on September 15th. On the 28th the mounted gunmen marched 25 miles from Shelbyville to Fayetteville to muster in. It is reasonable to suppose that they speedily followed their general to Mobile and that they participated in the Florida campaign.

Old Hickory arrived at New Orleans November 22nd. There was an action at Lake Borgne, December 14th. Coffee's Brigade arrived on the 20th. It had come 800 miles through the wilderness to Baton Rouge, over the “Old Spanish Trail.” Then, by a forced march of 150 miles, it reached New Orleans in two days. Coffee's Brigade and Col. Dyer's Dragoons played leading roles in the battles of December 23rd and January 8th 1815.

For a mind's eye picture of Captain Isaac and his troopers, let us peruse T. Walker’s delightful description of this famous battle unit:

“Coffee's Brigade had performed the remarkable and tedious march from Fort Jackson, on the Alabama, around the lake, to the Mississippi River, which they reached by the old Spanish road, at Sandy Creek, a few miles above Baton Rouge. Hastening to this town, Coffee found there a messenger from Jackson,...directing him to push forward with all rapidity, leaving his sick and baggage at Baton Rouge.

“Coffee immediately selected all his strong men and horses, and with them started for New Orleans at a brisk trot. In two days he reached the suburbs of the city, having in that time marched 150 miles with men and animals who had just performed a wearisome journey of 800 miles through a wilderness. There is no march to equal this in the history of modern warfare. Encamping on the Avart plantation, just above the city, Coffee rode to town to report to Jackson.

“It was a warm meeting between the two gallant soldiers who had shared so much perils and hardships.... Coffee was a man of noble aspect, tall and herculean in frame, yet not destitute of a certain natural dignity and ease of manner. Though of great height and weight, his appearance on horseback, mounted on a fine Tennessee thoroughbred was striking and impressive.

“Coffee brought with him less than 800 men. They were, however, admirable soldiers who had been hardened by long service, possessed remarkable endurance, and that useful quality of soldiers, of taking care of themselves in any emergency. They were all practiced marksmen, who tough nothing of bringing down a squirrel from the top of the loftiest trees with their rifles.

“Their appearance was not very military. In their long woolen hunting shirts of dark or dingy color, and copperase-dyed pantaloons, made at home -- both cloth and garments -- by their wives, mothers and sisters, with slouching wool hats, some composed of the skins of raccoons and foxes, the spoils of the chase -- to which they were addicted almost from infancy -- with belts of untanned deerskin in which were stuck hunting knives and tomahawks, with their long unkempt hair and unshorn faces, Coffee’s men were not calculated to please the eye of the martinet, or one accustomed to regard neatness and primness as essential virtues of the good soldier.”

***

During the battle of the 8th of January, some Britishers succeeded in getting mired in a swamp, and they were captured by Coffee’s men. Says Walker, again: The Tennesseeans astonished the Britons by their squirrel-like agility with which they jumped from log to log, and their alligator like facility of moving through the water, brushes, and mud. Some of the prisoners.... were of the West India Regiment” and thought that “they were captives of men or their own color and blood, deceived by the appearance of the Tennesseeans who, from their constant esposure...and their long unacquaintance with the razor... were certainly not fair representative of the Caucasian race. The unfortunate red-coated Africans soon discovered their captors to dance jabs in mud a foot deep.”

The memorable and decisive Battle of New Orleans occurred January 8th, 1815 -- a battle fought after the war ended! The flower of Field Marshal Weellington’s Army under Pakenham was wiped out by Old Hickory’s backwoodsmen from Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi. It is utterly fantastic, but the British, with some 7000 men engaged, lost 700 killed, 1400 wounded, and 500 prisoners. The Americans lost a total of eight killed and thirteen wounded.

***

Can you imagine Capt. Isaac slithering through a Louisiana swamp, with a platoon of black Jamaicans dancing Juba before him? His Separate Battalion of Mounted Gunmen was discharged March 27th. The war was over. The Creeks were tamed. The Red Coats war vanquished. The new boy named Andrew Jackson was almost a year old. And Captain Isaac Williams had a farm and a family to care to for.