This text was obtained via automated optical character recognition.
It has not been edited and may therefore contain several errors.

---

)
)
ance to those of Coffee. One eyewitness remarked that they were ?as fine looking men as any we ever saw, and a considerable part of them (were) well armed, with muskets and rifles.?12 Another observer noted that they ? ?have come forward with that promptitude which has heretofore characterized the state .... They are generally provided with arms, etc. at their own expense.?13
Six days after they gathered in Nashville, the troops embarked on boats for New Orleans. The main diversion offered the Tennesseans during the slow, tedious trip down the Cumberland, Ohio and Mississippi rivers was the daily drilling which Carroll and his two subordinates, Brigadier Generals Thomas Coulter and Bird Smith, gave the recruits. There had been no time for training prior to their hasty departure.
Enroute the militiamen were cheered when they overtook a New Orleans-bound keelboat laden with muskets. Thomas L. Servoss, a prominent Natchez businessman, was responsible for this fortunate occurrance. While visiting New York during the summer of 1814, he was informed by a government official that New Orleans was considered the likely site for a British invasion. Concerned for his family?s welfare, Servoss had left for home immediately. At Pittsburg he boarded one of two keelboats headed for New Orleans with large quantities of arms and ammunition. Experienced in navigation himself and familiar with the route, Servoss prevailed upon the captain to depart earlier than was scheduled. By doing so, Servoss unintentionally insured that Carroll?s troops were fully armed before their trip was completed.14
12
)
)
General William Carroll, later governor of Tennessee as here portrayed, was only 26 years old during the Battle of New Orleans, where he demonstrated the same courage and intelligence he had shown at Horseshoe Bend. Portrait in Tennessee Historical Society.
13