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[Illustration: William Trousdale, who became governor of Tennessee, was a dashing young lieutenant under Andrew Jackson at New Orleans. Portrait in Tennessee Historical Society.]
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There were, of course, many individual acts of heroism performed by Tennesseans, some of which, fortunately, have been recorded. John Donelson, Coffee’s brother-in-law, captured an important British officer, Major Mitchell. Lieutenant William Trousdale, himself destined for later fame as governor of Tennessee, was in the company which captured a major, two lieutenants, and thirty privates. The intrepid Trousdale barely escaped while leading a charge against the British who were entrenched behind a fence and a river levee. Having already leapt upon the fence, Trousdale glanced behind him only to discover to his dismay that the company had been ordered to retreat, leaving him alone in the enemy’s fire. He scrambled down from the fence and escaped back to his lines amid a hall of bullets.
Again, as at Horseshoe Bend, the excellent teamwork of Jackson and Coffee was evident. Coffee’s troops bore the brunt of fire and, as disciplined fighting men, had carried the fight to the enemy. Their outward simplicity concealed the marrow of the born soldier, willing—perhaps eager—to endure any personal hardship to gain his mission. Governor William C. C. Claiborne of Louisiana noted this quality and wrote that the “Tennessee troops equal the high expectations which were formed of them; nor is it possible for men to display more patriotism, firmness in battle, or composure under fatigue and privations.”[25] It was evident that even after the December 23 engagement, the British were still inclined to underestimate American ability in massed battle array. It is just as well as they reasoned from a faulty premise and lacked the benefit of Latour’s estimation:
General Coffee’s Tennesseans, those modest and simple sons of nature, displayed that firm composure which accompanies and indicates true courage.... Instinctively valiant, disciplined without having passed through the formal training of reviews and garrison maneuvers, they evinced on this memorable night, that enthusiasm, patriotism, and a sense of a just cause, which were of far more avail than scientific tactics. The heroes of Wellington, who boasted of their military tactics and disciplined valor, were often doomed by woful (sic) experience, to appreciate the prowess of those warlike sons of the western country.[26]