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Troop, J. G. Richardson captain and the Amite Troop, in all about 200 men.
Dunn captain?
In his General Orders issued at Liberty, Governor Holmes said:
The commander-in-chief has witnessed with the utmost satisfaction the alacrity shewn by the cavalry in repairing to the standard of their country upon his call for their services. The corps is composed of men in whose patriotism and courage their fellow citizens must have the utmost confidence. Not soldiers from compulsion, or from necessity, they have placed themselves in the front ranks of danger to oppose a savage foe now threatening our country with destruction and devastation.
The battalion was composed of the very pick of the young manhood of the Mississippi Territory and notwithstanding the estimate placed on it by General Flournoy, commanding at Mobile, it was destined to take a leading part in the story of Jackson?s Coast Campaign against the British. It was organized by order of Governor David Holmes for immediate use on the frontier to meet the Indian situation.
The cavalry were sent forward with the 3rd United States Infantry, which had been largely recruited by volunteers from the Mississippi Territory. Governor Holmes in a message that followed their arrival in the war zone announced that ?the arrival of these troops renders the entire force on the eastern frontier efficient and reputable.?
The infantry furnished by the Mississippi Territory were to cooperate when necessary with Jackson?s army composed of East and West Tennessee troops and United States infantry. Later, Governor Holmes sent another regiment under the gallant Colonel Nixon.*1 ' Two more companies were sent to this regiment in February, 1814,
of these Irish immigrants in Mississippi. Henry S. Foote had it that he was bom in Virginia. Kempe succeeded Benjamin Farrar as Captain of the Adams troop of horse and won distinction in the New Orleans campaign, not long after which he died, leaving several children. Says Foote: ?Among the daughters who sprang from him was a Mrs. Howell, of whom, I am told, Mrs. Jefferson Davis is the daughter?.
Kempe, who became a colonel of cavalry, died at Natchez in i8ao, leaving a numerous family of sons and daughters. One of the daughters, as Foote said married William B. Howell, of Natchez, son of an old revolutionary officer and governor of New Jersey. Campbell wrote of these families, ? What a clutch of tme blues there will be between the blood of Howell and Kempe.? See Encyclopedia of Mississippi History.
Colonel Nixon was born in Virginia and after living some years in South Carolina removed in 1809 to the Mississippi Territory. He was among the first to offer his services in defence of his country. During the Creek War, Colonel Nixon at the head of a considerable force scoured the swamps of the Perdido and other streams and killed and captured many Indians. After he had accomplished all he could, he marched to the head of the Perdido, where he divided his command, sending Major William Peacock with the troops of the 39th to the boat yard on
Mississippi Territory in War of 1812?Rowland.	57
from Colonel Neilson?s regiment (Amite County) and Captain Rapalje?s company from Washington. When the term of enlistment expired in April, 1814, the regiment was immediately recruited. Oil March 20, 1814, the Governor wrote to the colonel of the 3rd United States Infantry: ?I have ordered six companies of infantry to be drafted and marched to the eastern frontier as expeditiously as possible.? To Colonel Nixon the Governor wrote: ?These six companies with the two that marched under the command of Major Swayze and as many more as can be prevailed upon will form your command.? Though the Territory was sparsely settled every man who could bear a gun, as Governor Holmes noted in a message, was in the service at some period of the campaign in the South against the British.32
After the arrival of Major Hinds with his troop of horse, General Claiborne continued to throw his forces with the utmost confidence against the Indians. It was to the chivalrous, adventure-loving Dragoons that the latter entrusted the whole territory, employing the gallant troop of horse to scour the country in pursuit of the roving bands of Indians who were menacing the white settlements.
General Jackson addressed a letter to Governor Holmes in which he thanked him for the promptitude with which he assembled and marched this body of troops, especially commending the fine appearance of the Dragoons. Made up of the sons of the first families of the Mississippi Territory, the troopers bore themselves a trifle arrogantly but cheerfully and almost lightly amidst every privation and hardship.
Their haughty and self-confident air and manner did not meet with the approbation of the commander of the district at Mobile. Seeking military glory through adventure and chafing under restrictions, the
Lake Tensaw, while he marched the remainder of his command to Fort Claiborne. He was an excellent officer and served to the end of the war. He was a member of the convention that formed the first constitution of the State of Mississippi, and was, afterwards, frequently a state senator. He died in Pearlington, Mississippi, in 1824. He was a large, fine-looking man, with fair complexion, and was very popular.
"Jefferson Davis, President of the Southern Confederacy, writing of this period many years later said: ?	.	.	.	. When news came of the approach of the
British army to attack New Orleans, the sons of Wilkinson County went in such numbers to defend the city, that the county court held a draft to keep a certain proportion of the men at home, for police purposes. The records of the County probably contain the particulars of the event, of which I have only the recollection of what a child would hear."