Civil War Articles by Julian WilliamsUntangling The Two General John Coffees
This article was compiled by Julian Williams.
It is difficult to "walk in another's shoes" unless you have been down the path the other trod. When we try to picture a character in history it is with scant information and blurry eye that we see his image. It is also with absence of a sense of "how things were at the time." Another thing that confounds people is the fact that many people had the same or similar names back then. They liked to name their children for the fathers (or grandfathers or uncles or whomever). This was the case of John R. Coffee (Tennessee) and John E. Coffee (Georgia). So, we continue along our route to untangle the confusion which exists as to the identity of these two great gentlemen.
As far as we can tell, General John R. Coffee (1772-1833) of Tennessee, and later of Alabama, was one of Andrew Jackson's most trusted friends. Shortly after the death of his father, Joshua, Coffee moved with his mother from Prince Edward County, Virginia, to a place a little above Nashville, Tennessee. This move was to be of great importance to John R. Coffee and his family because it was from this proximity that he came to know and appreciate the controversial character named Andrew Jackson. He also became quite intimate with some of the others in the family, especially a pretty girl named Mary Donelson, niece of Rachel Donelson, Andrew Jackson's wife. He married her and thus became, not only a trusted lieutenant of Andrew Jackson, but part of the family.
Down at Jacksonville, Georgia, another man named John Coffee was also preparing to be a great military leader and Congressman. His name was John E. Coffee (1782-1836) and his father was Peter, Jr., brother of Joshua (who was father of Tennessee John Coffee). Like his first cousin, Tennessee John, Georgia John was also born in Prince Edward County, Virginia. But his family moved not to Tennessee, but to Georgia, around Hancock County (near Old Powelton around 1800), then John moved to Jacksonville, Georgia, around 1807. This was about the same time John Willcox moved to Georgia - finally settling in Telfair County, a few miles up the river from John Coffee.
Coffee's plantation lay about 3 or 4 miles east of Jacksonville, Georgia, between the river road and the Ocmulgee River. It might have extended beyond those boundaries (above the road). Remaining vestiges of this plantation would be the grave from which his remains were supposedly removed nearly 100 years after his death and his boat landing which is still called Coffee's Bluff or Coffee's Landing. And speaking of remains - we always wondered what in the world became of Mrs. John Coffee's remains? Did they leave her down there in the swamp all by herself while they carried her husband to McRae? The answer to that is indeed an interesting story itself and we will get to that tidbit of history a little later.
Back to John Coffee of Tennessee. John Coffee was a big man, physically, for his day. The charisma of the man, even to Old Hickory (Jackson), seemed to reside in part in his gigantic proportions. When Coffee died in 1833, none other than his close friend, Andrew Jackson, wrote this remarkable epitaph for General Coffee's tombstone:
"Sacred to the Memory of General John Coffee Who departed this life 7th day of July 1833 Aged 61 years
As a husband, parent and friend, he was affectionate, tender and sincere. He was brave, prompt, and skillful general; a distinguished and sagacious patriot; an unpretending, just and honest man, To complete his character, religion mingled with these virtues her serene and gentle influence, and gave him that solid distinction among men which detraction cannot sully, nor the grave conceal.
Death could not do more than to remove so excellent a being from the theater he so much adorned in this world, to the bosom of God who created him , and who alone has the power to reward the immortal spirit with exhaustless bliss.
He was 6 ft. 3 inches tall, weighed 250 pounds and was a man of fine and commanding presence."
Dictated at the Tennessee State Library and Archives at Nashville, Tenn, Oct. 12, 1973 and transcribed at Oxford, Miss. Jan 4, 1974.
As epitaphs go, I don't suppose you could have one finer than that - Andrew Jackson did think a lot of General John Coffee. He said on another occasion:
"He is a great general, but he doesn't know it."
John Coffee was about as unassuming and unpretentious as you'll find. One person approached him, it is said, and told Coffee that he was a hero, with all his actions and acclaim from the Creek Indian wars and his great involvement with the victory at New Orleans. John Coffee looked at him at said, "Oh, I wasn't a hero. I just happened to be there."
And Andrew Jackson was glad "he just happened to be there!"
But the war was not really where General Coffee wanted to be. A look at some letters he wrote his beloved wife, Mary, tells us where his heart was:
"I hope to enjoy the remainder of my life with you in quiet."
On April 18, 1814, writing "from the junction of 'Coosey and Tallapoosey', --- I shall be able to return home and remain in quiet with you, and enjoy the blessings of private and social life, the remainder of my life."
On October 22, 1814, from Camp Gaines, located 15 miles below St. Stephen, he wrote:
"I look forward with solicitude to the time of discharge when I can return home and join you in the sweet enjoyment of domestic life, The more I experience of public life, the less I apprise it, and the more I appreciate the enjoyment of a quiet fireside in society of an affectionate wife and darling child, and I think I can with propriety say, this will be the last campaign I shall ever make, having satisfied my anxiety when I relieved this country, ..."
But, New Orleans and the settling of the treaties with the Indians were still ahead for John Coffee. He would find no rest until the end.
But he mused about home, where homes were built, the personalities of those who lived in them, and the world around him.
One writer tells us this interesting tidbit about John Coffee riding up to the Hermitage, Andrew Jackson's home. Coffee was not overly impressed with the location of the Hermitage, notwithstanding the fact that it was a fine structure:
"In the morning the two of them rode over from Coffee's house at Sugar Tree Hill to the Hermitage. -- but Coffee, as always, studied the crops, greeted the slaves by name, reflected for the ten-thousandth time what a mistake the General had made to build the Hermitage at the bottom of a hill slope, where the rain could collect, instead of at the top of the hill like anybody else. But Rachel had wanted her house there, nearer a spring, she said, and the General had built his home for Rachel. Coffee spurred his horse through the narrow gate on the right, reserved for riders in single file."
General Jackson loved Rachel. But he had a special place in his heart for John Coffee. The big man was a great one, - "he just doesn't know it."
Credits:
C.T. (Chris) Trowell for info on General John E. Coffee and General John R. Coffee;
Max Byrd for "Jackson";
Ann Carswell for letters of and notes on Gen. Mark Willcox;
The Coffees (Internet);
Willcox Family History by Martha Albertson;
Telfair History (1807-1987);
info furnished by Gertrude Wilcox Williams and Diane Williams Rogers and others.
