31To James Madison from Martin Van Buren, 15 March 1820 (Madison Papers)
Daniel D. Tompkins (1774–1825) was governor of New York, 1807–17, and vice president of the United States, 1817–25. A strong supporter of JM’s administration and the War of 1812, Tompkins bolstered his state’s war effort with his personal fortune but bitterly disappointed JM by refusing the president’s offer to become secretary of state in 1814 (
32To James Madison from Alexander Tunstall, 10 May 1820 (Madison Papers)
Charles K. Mallory (1781–1820) was a Virginia legislator and lieutenant governor of the state during the War of 1812. In 1814 JM appointed him customs collector of Norfolk and Portsmouth, and he held this post until his death (
33To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 17 May 1820 (Madison Papers)
Robert Barraud Taylor (1774–1834) was a Norfolk lawyer, a veteran of the War of 1812, and a member of the original board of visitors of the University of Virginia, serving from 1819 to 1822 (Tyler,
34To James Madison from Joseph Wheaton, 1 July 1820 (Madison Papers)
For Wheaton’s detailed reports of his experiences during the War of 1812, see his letters to JM of 10, 23, 29, and 31 Dec. 1812, 3 and 8 Jan., 10, 12, and 26 Feb., 26 Apr., and 1 May 1813 (
35To James Madison from Andrew Ramsay, 5 August 1820 (Madison Papers)
George Graham (ca. 1772–1830) was a veteran of the War of 1812 from Dumfries, Virginia, who served as chief clerk in the War Department, 1814–18. In 1818 he was sent as a special agent to Texas. He was president of the Washington branch of the Second Bank of...
36To James Madison from Jacob De La Motta, 7 August 1820 (Madison Papers)
...in Savannah, Georgia, but spent most of his life in Charleston, South Carolina. He received his medical education in Philadelphia and held a commission as surgeon in the U.S. Army during the War of 1812. He was active in local politics and was a contributor to the scientific and literary discourse of his time. Among the many community and charitable organizations of which he was a member...
37To James Madison from Andrew Ramsay, 30 August 1820 (Madison Papers)
The Rev. William Hawley (d. 1845) was a veteran of the War of 1812 who served as the second rector of St. John’s Church in Washington from 1817 until his death (Van Horne,
38To James Madison from Charles Pinckney, 2 September 1820 (Madison Papers)
...17, 1819–25, and 1827–29, and in the U.S. Senate, 1825–27. A powerful voice for the Republican party during the first Jefferson administration, Randolph openly opposed JM for president in 1808 and opposed the War of 1812. He briefly served as U.S. minister to Russia in 1830 (Bruce,
39To James Madison from Edmond Kelly, 26 September 1820 (Madison Papers)
David Trimble (1782–1842), born in Virginia and educated at the College of William and Mary, was a War of 1812 veteran and a Kentucky Republican who served in the U.S. House of Representatives, 1817–27 (
40To James Madison from Francis Corbin, 13 November 1820 (Madison Papers)
John Minor (1761–1816) was a lawyer and veteran of the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, who made his home at Hazel Hill in Fredericksburg (Tyler,
41To James Madison from John Tayloe, 1 December 1820 (Madison Papers)
on the route between Washington and Aquia Creek near Fredricksburg. The $40,000 ship was built in New York under the direction of Robert Fulton in 1813 but owing to the War of 1812 did not make its maiden voyage until 1815. Competition with the Alexandria and Norfolk Steam Boat Company drove the Potomac company out of business in 1822 (Donald G. Shomette,
42To James Madison from William Thornton, 20 January 1821 (Madison Papers)
..., in the U.S. Senate, 1819–1829, and as vice president of the United States, 1836–40. He supported the Madison administration, and raised two regiments of mounted volunteers, commanding troops in several engagements during the War of 1812, including the Battle of the Thames, where he is said to have killed Tecumseh (
43To James Madison from Edmond Kelly, [post–20] February 1821 (Madison Papers)
John Floyd (1783–1837) of Jefferson County, Virginia (now West Virginia), was educated at Dickinson College and studied medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. A veteran of the War of 1812, Floyd served in the U.S. House of Representatives, 1817–29, and as governor of Virginia, 1830–34 (Sobel and Raimo,
44To James Madison from James Monroe, 19 May 1821 (Madison Papers)
...1831) of Dinwiddie County, Virginia, served in the Virginia House of Delegates, 1797–1801 and 1813–15, and in the state Senate, 1804–8. He was a major general in the state militia during the War of 1812 and served briefly in the U.S. House of Representatives, 1818–19. He was appointed U.S. marshal for the eastern district of Virginia in April 1821. He died in a riverboat accident on the...
45To James Madison from Joseph Gales Jr., 22 June 1821 (Madison Papers)
The U.S. Army in the War of 1812: An Operational and Command Study
46To James Madison from Mathew Carey, 26 June 1821 (Madison Papers)
U.S. Army in the War of 1812
47To James Madison from Edmond Kelly, [ca. 17] July 1821 (Madison Papers)
John Cleves Symmes Jr. (1780–1829), a former U.S. Army captain and veteran of the War of 1812, proposed in 1818 the idea that the earth was “hollow, and habitable within,” and promoted his theory vigorously until his death (Duane A. Griffin, “Hollow and Habitable
48To James Madison from Benjamin Drake, 6 November 1821 (Madison Papers)
Tecumseh (1768–1813), of Creek and Shawnee heritage, fought U.S. forces in the Ohio country during the 1790s. During the War of 1812, Tecumseh and his brother, the Prophet, projected an Indian confederacy, allied their forces with the British, and participated in a number of battles. Tecumseh was killed at the Battle of the Thames (
49To James Madison from John O. Lay, 12 January 1822 (Madison Papers)
Lawrence Taliaferro Dade (1785–1842), a veteran of the War of 1812, represented Orange County, Virginia, in the Virginia House of Delegates, 1808–19, and in the state senate, 1819–32. He later moved to Owensboro, Kentucky, where he died (Hayden,
50To James Madison from Peter Minor, 12 January 1822 (Madison Papers)
...–1851) was a Maryland lawyer who JM appointed U.S. agent at Annapolis for dealing with the British mail-packets under flags of truce, and also agent for the exchange of prisoners, soon after the War of 1812 began. In 1813 JM appointed him U.S. Navy purser at Baltimore, and in 1816, postmaster of that city, a position he held for twenty-three years. Skinner was editor and publisher of...
51To James Madison from John Williams, 21 January 1822 (Madison Papers)
...moved to Knoxville, Tennessee, where he began to practice law in 1803. He served in the U.S. Army as a captain, 1799–1800, and as colonel of the U.S. Thirty-Ninth Infantry during the War of 1812, when he took part in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. He was attorney general of Tennessee, 1807–8, and represented his state in the U.S. Senate, 1815–23. President Adams appointed him chargé d’...
52To James Madison from Thomas P. McMahon, 30 January 1822 (Madison Papers)
Thomas P. McMahon (ca. 1791–1831), a veteran of the War of 1812, who resigned from the U.S. Army in 1818, was a son of Irish-born horticulturalist, Bernard McMahon (d. 1816), who had established a nursery and seed business in Philadelphia and who nurtured and sold seeds...
53To James Madison from Thomas Cramer, 4 March 1822 (Madison Papers)
A Guide to Virginia Militia Units in the War of 1812
54To James Madison from William Smith, 31 March 1822 (Madison Papers)
William Smith (d. 1856), a captain in the Virginia militia and a veteran of the War of 1812, amassed a plantation that at his death comprised 1,500 acres and fifty-eight slaves. In 1843 he built a brick mansion on the plantation, which was situated to the northwest of Montpelier (Calder Loth, ed.,
55To James Madison from Horace C. Story, 8 April 1822 (Madison Papers)
Horace Cullen Story (1792–1823), the brother of associate Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story, was a graduate of Harvard College (1811) and a veteran of the War of 1812. A lieutenant in the U.S. Corps of Engineers, Story was superintending the construction of fortifications at Fort St. Philip at Plaquemine in Louisiana at the time of his death (Perley Derby, comp., “Elisha Story...
56To James Madison from James Monroe, 12 May 1822 (Madison Papers)
Daniel Bissell (1769–1833) served as a fifer in the American Revolution and joined the First U.S. Infantry in 1788. He rose to the rank of brigadier general in the U.S. Army during the War of 1812 and was retained in the army on the peace establishment in 1816 as
Encyclopedia of the War of 1812
57To James Madison from William Taylor, 19 July 1822 (Madison Papers)
James Long (ca. 1793–1822), a veteran of the War of 1812, and a onetime merchant in Natchez, launched a filibustering expedition into Mexico from Nacogdoches, where he had declared an independent Texas republic with himself as president on 23 June 1819. In 1820 he joined forces with José Trespalacios...
58To James Madison from Benjamin L. Lear, 14 December 1822 (Madison Papers)
Isaac Hull (1773–1843) was a naval officer who served in the Barbary Wars and the War of 1812. Promoted to captain in 1806, he commanded the frigates
59To James Madison from George W. Spotswood, 17 February 1823 (Madison Papers)
...(d. 1844) of Orange County, Virginia, was commissioned a midshipman in the U.S. Navy in 1799 and dismissed in 1803. He served as a lieutenant in the Virginia militia during the War of 1812. His request for a position at the University of Virginia was eventually answered and he spent the years 1825 to 1829 as a hotel-keeper there. He left Charlottesville and settled first in Charleston, then...
60To James Madison from Peter Perpignan, 26 February 1823 (Madison Papers)
...at 356 North Front Street, Philadelphia, and whose home was in the Northern Liberties section of the city. He was active in Democratic–Republican politics and his Masonic Lodge, and served in the Pennsylvania state militia during the War of 1812 (Philadelphia