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How Tennessee Became the Volunteer State
THE BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS
New Orleans, 1815
Herbert Morton Stoops
Tennessee first earned the nickname "Volunteer State" during the War of 1812 when 2,000 Tennesseans volunteered to fight under the command of Tennessee Militia General Andrew Jackson. Those soldiers made up the main part of Jackson's army that destroyed the British forces at the Battle of New Orleans on January 8, 1815. This was a overwhelming show of resolve and determination displayed by a ragtag force of local and state militia, regular U. S. troops, free men of color, native americans and even pirates. This volunteer spirit would continue in the state and a generation later, when the U. S. Secretary of War requested 2,800 infantrymen from TN to fight in the Mexican War, thirty thousand Tennesseans enlisted for service.
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