Chapter 2 Summary and Analysis

"I Could Have Shot Him" picks up Jackson's story during the Revolutionary War. Hard-pressed to defend settlers beyond the mountains, the British retrench and raise taxes. British troops commit a "massacre" in Boston (1770) and retaliate when Bostonians dump tea (1773); Americans summon a "Continental Congress," fighting erupts (1775), and the colonies declare independence (1776). Jacksonian mythology has young Andrew reading the Declaration of Independence publicly in Waxhaw. Americans are divided about separating from Britain. Both sides know that if the war grows too expensive, London could "cut its losses and withdraw," so British commanders seek a swift conclusion by turning it into a civil war. In the South, where Tory (loyalist) sentiments are strongest, Lord Cornwallis faces the rebels. Falling on a force at Monck's Corner, Lt. Col. Tarleton orders his "green jackets" to violate the rules of war by slaughtering those who try...