and into
his pocket, drew out some acorns, and courteously invited the man to
share his dinner.

Jackson was disposed to blame General Cocke for the trouble about
supplies, because Cocke had undertaken to obtain supplies in Knoxville
for both commands; but it seems clear now that Cocke was not to blame.
Soon after the battle of Talladega Jackson's feeling against Cocke was
strengthened. The warriors of the Hillabee towns, a part of the Creek
Confederacy, sent a messenger to Jackson to sue for peace. He gave them
his terms, and the messenger was returning to the Hillabees when General
White, of Cocke's command, ignorant of what was going on, marched upon a
Hillabee town, killed many of the warriors, and captured the women and
children. Jackson, grieved and enraged at a blunder which probably
prolonged the war and certainly made it fiercer, was easily persuaded
that Cocke, his inferior officer, was trying to win laurels for
himself, and in the end his anger led him to do grave injustice to a man
who appears to have been faithful and honorable.

And now for ten weeks the will of Andrew Jackson was tried to the
uttermost. His starving troops were constantly on the verge of mutiny.
The command was made up of two classes,--the militia, called into
service against the Indians, and the volunteers, who had first enlisted
for the expedition down the Mississippi. The militia, disheartened,
started for Tennessee. Jackson drew up the volunteers across their
pathway, and drove them back to camp. Then the volunteers, in their
turn, prepared to move northward, and he stopped them with the militia.
The mounted men were permitted to go to Huntsville to get food for their
horses, and most of them went on to their homes. The infantry, sullen
and distrustful, were kept in camp only by the promise that in two days
supplies would come from Nashville, whither Jackson was sending letter
after letter to stir up the authorities. At the end of two days nothing
had come. A few brave men volunteered to defend the camp while with the
rest the general marched northward in search of food. The supplies soon
came in sight, and the men were fed; but now they refused to go back to
camp, and again turned northward. Jackson, with Coffee and a handful of
others, threw himself in front of them, and with blazing eyes and
dreadful oaths cowed them into obedience. Again they threatened mutiny,
and once more, alone, on horseback, a musket in his hand, his disable