Acceptive Behavior In Andrew Jackson's War

Jackson started his military career after leaving West Point, a very prestigious military academy. Jackson was a brand new officer when the U.S. went to war with Mexico. He arrived at Uncle Cummins’s on Monday, July 20, 1846. A request from the colonel of the militia to take command for a muster parade. Jackson relied with “No” he said to the colonel “I would probably not understand your orders”(Vandiver). Nevertheless he was pressed into acceptance. He soon found himself in trouble. The colonel found himself in trouble. The colonel gave an improper command, and the strict discipline of West Point forbade any improvisation, so Jackson’s company marched off the parade ground and straight through the town. The lieutenant’s explanation was illuminating and characteristic: He was obeying orders(Vandiver).
Two days after his arrival at Weston, Jackson’s orders arrived. The department required the your lieutenant to proceed to Fort Columbus, Governor's Island, New York, to report to Capt. Francis Taylor, First Artillery. On Thursday , July 23, Jackson deported for New

The operations of Company K, he wrote Laura, “consisted principally in bombarding and cannonading which surrender.” His behavior was that of a veteran as he moved from gun to gun and supervised the salvoes. His behavior under fire attracted notice throughout the siege. Jackson confided to his sister that while engaged in one artillery exchange, “a cannon ball came in about five steps from me.” An academy classmate who watched Jackson at one point in the bombardment stated the “Old Jack” was “as calm in the midst of a hurricane of bullets as though he were on dress parade at West Point.(Robertson)” The Virginian was with Harvey Hill during one stage of the siege. Legend has it that the two officers were asleep in their tent when an enormous shell from the Castle of San Juan de Ulua ripped through the shelter. Providentially, neither man was