John Coffee

At 61 years old, John Coffee physical status not available right now. We will update John Coffee's height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, and measurements.

Coffee was a merchant, land speculator, and enslaver. He was considered to be the most even-tempered and least selfish of Jackson's lifelong friends. Described as a big awkward man, careless of dress, and slow of speech, Coffee was also said to be kindly, tactful and wise. In 1800, he traded a 14-year old enslaved girl named Susana for 175 pecks of salt in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri. Susanna would question his kindness, tactfulness, and wisdom.

In early 1806, Coffee challenged Nathaniel A. McNairy to a duel for publishing derogatory statements about Jackson. The duel took place on March 1, 1806, over the Tennessee line in Kentucky. McNairy unintentionally fired before the "word", wounding Coffee in the thigh. In return, McNairy offered to lay down his pistol and give Coffee an extra shot. The weapons used in this duel were also used in the Jackson-Dickinson duel on May 30, 1806.

At the beginning of the War of 1812, Coffee raised the 2nd Regiment of Volunteer Mounted Riflemen, composed mostly of Tennessee militiamen (and a few men from Alabama). In December 1812, Governor Willie Blount had called out the Tennessee militia in response to a request from General James Wilkinson and the U.S. Secretary of War. Under Jackson's command, Coffee led 600 men in January 1813 to Natchez, Mississippi Territory, via the Natchez Trace. They reached it in advance of the rest of the troops, who traveled via flatboats on the major rivers.

After the two groups reunited in Natchez, Wilkinson and the U.S. government disbanded Jackson's troops. They returned to Nashville, reaching it on May 18, 1813.

On September 4, 1813, Coffee was involved in the Andrew Jackson– Benton brother's duel in Nashville. He knocked Thomas Benton down a flight of stairs after Benton failed to assassinate Jackson.

In October 1813, the 2nd Regiment was combined with Colonel Cannon's Mounted Regiment and the 1st Regiment of Volunteer Mounted Gunmen to form a militia brigade of mounted infantry. Coffee was promoted to brigadier-general and placed in command.

Coffee led his brigade, which included free blacks and Native American warriors from allied Southeast tribes, at the 1814-15 Battle of New Orleans. They played a key role in holding the woods to the east of the British column. Coffee's brigade was the first to engage the British, by firing from behind the trees and brush.

Jackson chose General Coffee as his advance commander in the Creek War (concurrent with the War of 1812), during which he commanded mostly state militia and allied Native Americans. Under Jackson, Coffee led his brigade at the Battle of Tallushatchee, the Battle of Talladega, and the Battles of Emuckfaw and Enotachopo Creek, where he was seriously wounded; and at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. At the latter, the allied forces conclusively defeated the Red Sticks, traditionalists of the Creek Nation who were allied with the British.

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