Jackson, known for his fiery temper, had fought several duels. As an angry twenty-two-year-old, he had issued a challenge over a minor courtroom disagreement, but both duelists had fired harmlessly in the air, realizing their argument was not worth dying for.1 The more serious matter of a slander to Rachel Jackson’s honor had led Jackson to an armed face-to-face with the sitting governor of Tennessee, John Sevier, in 1803.
