COLONEL: John Coffee
- DATES: December 1812 – April 1813
- MEN MOSTLY FROM: Rutherford, Davidson, Dickson, Robertson, Smith, Sumner, Williamson, and Wilson Counties.
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CAPTAINS: John Baskerville, Thomas Bradley, John W. Byrn, Blackman Coleman, Robert Jetton, Charles Kavanaugh, Alexander McKeen, Michael Molton, David Smith, Frederick Stump, and James Terrill.
BRIEF HISTORY:
This regiment of cavalry joined Jackson’s forces at Natchez in early 1813. The strength of the regiment was approximately 600 men. While the bulk of Jackson’s troops traveled by boat to Natchez, Coffee’s mounted men went overland after rendezvousing near Franklin, Tennessee in mid-January 1813. The officers of this regiment were considered to be the elite citizens of their counties.
Many of the men in this regiment later became part of the unit led by Colonels Alcorn and Dyer during Jackson’s first campaign into the Creek territory in the fall of 1813. John Coffee was a wealthy landowner in Rutherford County and a one-time business partner of Andrew Jackson. Coffee was married to Rachel Jackson’s niece, Mary Donelson (they named two of their children Andrew and Rachel).