// Workers AI · dad joke modeWho's Eli Hammond? Hammer-time Eli.
Eli Hammond | |
|---|---|
 "Sir, Agreeable to your order of July 2. I Ramoved all the intruders of the Cherokee Lands with Stock etc. Burnt about one thousand Houses and abut fifteen hundred Afective men was Driven into the State of Tennessee that nither Support Government with thire arms nor property." (Eli Hammond to Andrew Jackson, August 28, 1814) | |
| Born | March 16, 1764 |
| Died | January 26, 1842 (aged 77) |
| Known for | "Indian fighter" in wars against the Chickamauga Cherokee and Redstick Creeks; association with Andrew Jackson |
Eli Hammond (March 16, 1764–January 26, 1842) was an early settler of Tennessee and Alabama in the United States who is best known today for his association with 7th U.S. President Andrew Jackson. He fought the Chickamauga Cherokee in the 1790s and served as an officer with Jackson's Tennessee militia in the Creek War. John Spencer Bassett described him as "a very efficient soldier under Jackson in 1813."[1] He also fought on Jackson's side in a famous Nashville tavern brawl. He moved to Madison County, Alabama, around 1817 where he raised a large family, and became a plantation owner outside of Huntsville.[2]
Life and career
[edit]Hammond was a North Carolinian who had moved west to Davidson County, Tennessee. He was involved in an attack on a Cherokee (Tsalagi, ᏣᎳᎩ) village in 1793 when "he was one of a small group of volunteers to form a retaliating group against the Indians in Tennessee. Led by a man the natives called the Fool Warrior, Abraham Castleman, the six men dressed like Indians and crossed into prohibited territory near Will's Town. They attacked the surprised Indians, killing several, and making good their own escape, untouched."[3] Another account describes him as "the Indian fighter" and associates him with the 1794 Nickajack Expedition.[4]
He was said to have "lived in the family of Gen. Jackson some years."[2] In 1799, his name was promoted by John Sevier "at Andrew Jackson's suggestion" as a worthy recipient of upcoming possible political appointments.[5] In April 1813 he owned a horse that had been sired by Andrew Jackson's Truxton.[6] In July 1813 Hammond wrote to Tennessee governor Willie Blount urging military action against the Red Sticks, stating that "whites were being murdered, corn and cattle were being destroyed, and hundreds of 'friendly' Creeks [Muscogee, Mvskoke] were fleeing to the Cherokees for protection."[7] At age 49 he was party to the Jackson-Benton brawl of 1813 in September: "Captain Eli Hammond and Stokley Hays went after Jesse, who tried to stave off his attackers with his bare hands while Hays tried to stab him and Hammond beat him on the head. Jesse managed to get his pistol out to shoot Hays but the gun misfired."[8]
He served in the Creek War subconflict of the War of 1812, having "formed his own company of Mounted Rangers from Huntsville. They joined Andrew Jackson as the General's army passed through town on the way to the battle of Horseshoe Bend. He became Lt. Colonel Hammond by the time of the assault on Pensacola in 1814."[3] He was key to the American action at the Battle of Tallusahatchee on November 3, 1813, under command of John Coffee, as "Captain Eli Hammond's company of rangers, in front of [Col. John Alcorn's cavalry regiment], made a charge at the village to draw the Creeks out from cover and then quickly retreated while Alcorn's men continued to march around the village until they linked with the left wing. The village now being completely surrounded, the men dismounted and charged the trapped Creeks, who 'fought as desperately as ever men did upon earth,' according to one witness."[9]
Jackson was irritated with him in February 1814, as Hammond and his horse-mounted fighters had gone home. Jackson wrote a letter accusing Hammond of abandoning his duty, reminding him of the chain of command, and ordering him to muster his troops back to Madison County, Mississippi Territory, leave them in command of Abram Maury, and report to Jackson at Fort Strother.[10] On February 17, Jackson wrote to John Coffee, "Capt Hammonds has been with me and I presume regrets his attachment to those vipers, who has been attempting to destroy his benefactors—I expect he will attend to his duty better, or I will arrest him[.]"[11] There was also an ongoing conflict regarding custody of pack horses.[12] In Coffee's letter of April 1, 1814, reporting to Jackson on the Battle of Horseshoe Bend (Tohopeka), he wrote that, "Captain Hammonds company of Raingers took post on the river bank on my right and during the whole engagement kept up a continued and destruc tive fire on those of the enemy that attempted to escape into the River and killed a very large proportion of those that were found dead under the bank above as well as many others sunk under water[.]"[13]In August 1814, Hammond reported to Jackson about "removal of intruders from Cherokee lands."[14]
According to his obituary Hammond officially relocated to Huntsville in 1817.[2] In 1820 a forger in Huntsville, Alabama, signed Hammond's name, among others, to get "his note," valued at $6,000, "discounted."[15] Hammond was politically a Democrat and supported the candidacy of James K. Polk in 1839.[16]
Death and legacy
[edit]He died at age 77 in 1842, and is buried in the Hammond-Bouldin Cemetery in Madison County in northern Alabama.[2][17][18] His wife was Mary Owen, and they had nine children together, including "Benjamin [who] became a physician and married in succession three daughters of Capt. William and Susan Routt...When Eli (Senior) died, Ferdinand became Executor of his estate—800 acres in the northwestern part of [Madison] county. In 1844 Ferdinand as executor sold the land to his brother Arthur for $1. The next year, Arthur sold 361 acres of the land back to Ferdinand for $100. Ferdinand also obtained a government land patent signed by his father's friend, President Andrew Jackson in 1835."[17]
References
[edit]- ↑ Jackson, Andrew; Bassett, John Spencer (1926). Correspondence of Andrew Jackson. [Carnegie Institute of Washington, Publication no. 371 ... Papers of the Department of historical research]. Vol. 1. Up to April 30, 1814. Washington, D.C.: Carnegie institution of Washington. p. 55.
- 1 2 3 4 "Obituaries". The Democrat. Huntsville, Alabama. February 5, 1842. p. 3. Retrieved 2026-08-02.
- 1 2 Rohr (1999), p. 18.
- ↑ DeWitt (1916), p. 276 n. 16.
- ↑ Rohr (1999), p. 14.
- ↑ "Sporting Intelligence". The Clarion and Tennessee Gazette. Nashville, Tennessee. April 27, 1813. p. 4. Retrieved 2026-08-02.
- ↑ Kanon (2014), p. 66.
- ↑ Kanon (2014), pp. 213–214 n. 28.
- ↑ Kanon (2014), p. 75.
- ↑ Jackson (1991), pp. 22–23.
- ↑ Jackson (1991), p. 33.
- ↑ Jackson (1991), pp. 413, 417, 419–420.
- ↑ Jackson (1991), p. 56.
- ↑ Jackson (1991), p. 452.
- ↑ Rohr (1999), p. 7.
- ↑ "Public Meeting". The Democrat. Huntsville, Alabama. August 24, 1839. p. 3. Retrieved 2026-08-02.
- 1 2 Rankin, John P. (February 11, 2008). "Captain Eli Hammond: A Vintage Vignette". Huntsville History Collection. Retrieved 2026-08-02.
- ↑ "The Alabama Historic Cemetery Register" (PDF). Alabama Historical Commission. Montgomery. July 2, 2022. p. 62.
Sources
[edit]- DeWitt, John H. (December 1916). "Letters of General John Coffee to His Wife, 1813–1815". Tennessee Historical Magazine. 2 (4): 264–295. ISSN 2333-9012. JSTOR 44698718.
- Kanon, Tom (2014). Tennesseans at War, 1812–1815: Andrew Jackson, the Creek War, and the Battle of New Orleans. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press. ISBN 9780817318291. LCCN 2013049815. OCLC 900093586. Project MUSE book 30812.
- Rohr, Nancy (Summer–Fall 1999). "The News from Huntsville, 1820". The Huntsville Historical Review. 26 (1) 1: 3–23. ISSN 1048-3152. OCLC 7993191 – via University of Alabama in Huntsville Digital Commons.
- Jackson, Andrew (1991). Moser, Harold; Hoth, David; Macpherson, Sharon; Reinbold, John (eds.). The Papers of Andrew Jackson, Volume III, 1814–1815. University of Tennessee Press. doi:10.7290/utp9085. ISBN 978-0-87049-650-9.