The Life of Andrew Jackson

by Robert V. Remini

Of the two sick boys, Robert was clearly critical. He could neither stand nor sit on horseback without support. So Elizabeth procured two horses, strapped the dying Robert on one and rode the other herself. Poor Andrew had to walk the forty-five miles home barefoot and without a jacket. On the last leg of the journey a driving rain drenched them. Somehow, with a will born of desperation, Elizabeth got her children home. Two days later Robert was dead and Andrew in mortal danger. For days the boy was delirious. But the devotion and nursing skill of his mother eventually brought him around, although it was a slow recovery and stretched over several months. Then, when Andrew seemed finally out of danger, Elizabeth decided to go to Charleston, a distance of 160 miles, to nurse prisoners of war held in prison ships in the harbor, among whom were two of her nephews. She contracted cholera in Charleston while tending the sick aboard the prison ships and died shortly after her arrival.