Already the fiery major
general was dreaming of a conquest of Florida. "You burn with
anxiety," ran a proclamation issued to his division in midsummer, "to
learn on what theater your arms will find employment. Then turn your
eyes to the South! Behold in the province of West Florida a territory
whose rivers and harbors are indispensable to the prosperity of the
western, and still more so, to the eastern division of our state....
It is here that an employment adapted to your situation awaits your
courage and your zeal, and while extending in this quarter the
boundaries of the Republic to the Gulf of Mexico, you will experience
a peculiar satisfaction in having conferred a signal benefit on that
section of the Union to which you yourselves immediately belong."
It lay in the cards that Jackson was to be a principal agent in
wresting the Florida, country from the Spaniards; and while there was
at Washington no intention of allowing him to set off post-haste upon
the mission, all of the services which he was called upon to render
during the war converged directly upon that objective.
Pages:
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41