David Crockett (41 page)

13
Russell H. Caldwell,
Reelfoot Lake Remembered
(Union City, TN: Caldwell’s Office Outfitters, Inc., 2005), 24.

14
Lake County Tennessee Historical Society,
History and Families
,
Lake County Tennessee, 1870–1992
(Paducah, KY: Turner Publishing, 1993), 14.

15
Remini,
Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Empire
, 188.

16
Buddy Levy,
American Legend: The Real-Life Adventures of David Crockett
(New York: Berkley Books, 2005), 38–39.

17
Ibid.

18
Richard Boyd Hauck,
Davy Crockett: A Handbook
(Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1982), 19.

19
H. W. Brands,
Andrew Jackson: His Life and Times
(New York: Anchor Books, 2006), 192.

20
Ibid., 194.

21
Ibid., 195.

22
Ibid.

FIFTEEN • “WE SHOT THEM LIKE DOGS”

1
Crockett,
Narrative
, 73.

2
Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., general ed.,
The Almanac of American History
(New York: Bramhall House, 1986), 197.

3
Crockett,
Narrative
, 71–72.

4
Ibid.

5
Ibid., 73.

6
Petersen,
David Crockett, The Volunteer Rifleman
, 14.

7
Ibid.

8
From “Regimental Histories of Tennessee Military Units During the War of 1812,” prepared by Tom Kanon, Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville, Tennessee.

9
Family Histories: Franklin County Tennessee, 1807–1996
(Winchester, TN: Franklin County Historical Society, 1996), 14.

10
Remini,
Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Empire
, 191.

11
Webb,
Born Fighting
, 188.

12
Brands,
Andrew Jackson: His Life and Times
, 188–90.

13
Ibid., 196.

14
Crockett,
Narrative
, 75.

15
Ibid.

16
Crockett,
Narrative
, 82.

17
James Parton,
The Life of Andrew Jackson, in Three Volumes
(New York: Mason Brothers, 1860), vol. 1, 427–29. The journalist James Parton wrote this book less than fifteen years after Andrew Jackson’s death. It is considered the first scholarly biography of the seventh president, although Parton said that even after years of study, instead of discovering the real Jackson, he found only an enigma.

18
Crockett,
Narrative
, 85–86.

19
Petersen,
David Crockett, The Volunteer Rifleman
, 18.

20
Ibid., 19.

SIXTEEN • RIDING WITH SHARP KNIFE

1
Petersen,
David Crockett, The Volunteer Rifleman
, 20.

2
House of Strother Newsletter, February 1991, vol. 3, no. 1, 10.

3
Petersen,
David Crockett, The Volunteer Rifleman
, 20.

4
Benson John Lossing,
The Pictorial Field-Book of the War of 1812
(New York: Harper & Brothers, 1868), 764.

5
Petersen,
David Crockett, The Volunteer Rifleman
, 20.

6
Crockett,
Narrative
, 92.

7
Ibid., 92–93.

8
Ibid., 93.

9
Andrew Burstein,
The Passions of Andrew Jackson
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2003), 93.

10
Remini,
Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Empire
, 227, 383–84.

11
Petersen,
David Crockett, The Volunteer Rifleman
, 22.

12
Lossing,
Pictorial Field-Book
, 766. According to Lossing, Jackson shared in his soldier’s privations and also ate acorns to sustain life.

13
Crockett,
Narrative
, 93.

14
Shackford,
David Crockett: The Man and the Legend
, 27.

15
Brands,
Andrew Jackson: His Life and Times
, 212.

16
Petersen,
David Crockett, The Volunteer Rifleman
, 24.

SEVENTEEN • “ROOT HOG OR DIE”

1
A. J. Langguth,
Union 1812: The Americans Who Fought the Second War of Independence
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006), 284.

2
Ibid., 284–85.

3
Ibid., 285.

4
Finger,
Tennessee Frontiers
, 234.

5
Ibid.

6
Remini,
Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Empire
, 216–17.

7
Ibid., 217.

8
Petersen,
David Crockett, The Volunteer Rifleman
, 32.

9
Remini,
Andrew Jackson and the Course of the American Empire
, 219.

10
Ibid., 226.

11
Ibid., 231.

12
Finger,
Tennessee Frontiers
, 235.

13
Ibid.

14
Remini,
Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Empire
, 21.

15
Ibid., 232–33.

16
Crockett,
Narrative
, 101.

17
Ibid.

18
Petersen, 33.

19
Ibid.

20
Crockett,
Narrative
, 102.

21
Ibid.

22
Ibid., 103.

23
Petersen,
David Crockett, The Volunteer Rifleman
, 35, 37.

24
Crockett,
Narrative
, 106.

25
Ibid., 107.

26
Ibid., 109–10.

27
Ibid., 115.

28
Several sources and dictionaries credit Crockett with having introduced this idiomatic expression in his published autobiography in 1834. It was used in many parts of the country well prior to that date.

29
Crockett,
Narrative
, 120.

30
Ibid., 122.

EIGHTEEN • CABIN FEVER

1
Crockett,
Narrative
, 123.

2
Ibid.

3
Ibid., 123–24.

4
Petersen,
David Crockett, The Volunteer Rifleman
, 43.

5
Crockett,
Narrative
, 124–25.

6
Walter J. Daly, M.D., “The ‘Slows,’ The Torment of Milk Sickness on the Midwest Frontier,”
Indiana Magazine of History
102 (March 2006): 29.

7
Ibid., 30–31.

8
Ibid., 34. One of the most characteristic symptoms of the sickness was an offensive odor to the patient’s breath, often so strong that it could be detected on entering a frontier cabin.

9
Crockett,
Narrative
, 125.

10
Ibid., 125–26.

11
Jones,
Crockett Cousins
, 24.

12
Crockett,
Narrative
, 126.

13
Shackford,
David Crockett: The Man and the Legend
, 34.

14
Old Buncombe County Genealogical Society,
Old Buncombe County Heritage Book,
vol. 2 (Winston-Salem, NC: Hunter Publishing Co., 1981), 289.

15
Crockett,
Narrative
, 126.

16
Ibid., 127.

17
Petersen,
David Crockett, The Volunteer Rifleman
, 47.

18
Ibid.

NINETEEN • A TINCTURE OF LUCK

1
Crockett,
Narrative
, 118–20.

2
Van Zandt County Genealogical Society, Canton, TX,
www.txgenweb3.org/txvanzandt/vzgs.htm
.

3
Franklin County, TN, Will Book, 1808–1847, Folder 036 A, Franklin County Courthouse Annex, Winchester, TN. Frances T. Ingmire,
Franklin County, Tennessee, Abstracted Wills, 1808–1875
(St. Louis: Frances Terry Ingmire, 1984), 27–28. David signed the document, but his brother John was unlettered and left his mark. Besides the Crocketts, a local man named John W. Holder was the third witness to the signing of the Van Zandt last will and testament. Jacob Van Zandt Sr. died January 6, 1818. One of his grandsons and the son of Jacob Jr., Crockett’s hunting mate, was Isaac Van Zandt, born in Franklin County in 1812. He went on to become an important political leader in the Republic of Texas, died of yellow fever while campaigning for governor in 1847, and had a Texas county named in his honor. Another descendant—Townes Van Zandt—became one of the premier Texas musicians during the 1970s and 1980s. Townes died at his Tennessee home of either a heart attack or a blood clot following hip surgery on New Year’s Day 1997, the same date that his idol, Hank Williams, died of a heart attack in 1953.

4
Crockett,
Narrative
, 127.

5
Ibid., 127–28. Tuscaloosa, AL, Tuscaloosa County, Alabama Department of History & Archives, Montgomery, AL,
www.archives.state.al.us/counties/tuscaloo.html
. Incorporated in 1819, just one day after Alabama became a state, Tuscaloosa served as the state capital from 1826 until 1846.

6
Ibid.

7
Crockett,
Narrative
, 128.

8
Sonia Shah, “Resurgentmalaria.com,” www.resurgentmalaria.com/americas, 2006. This Web site, hosted by investigative journalist Sonia Shah, provides history, background, new technology, and other information about the disease.

9
Crockett,
Narrative
, 129.

10
Ibid.

11
Ibid., 130.

12
Ibid.

13
Ibid., 131–32.

14
Ibid., 132.

TWENTY • “ITCHY FOOTED”

1
Jones,
Crockett Cousins
, 23.

2
Brands,
Andrew Jackson: His Life and Times
, 314–15.