Beschreibung:

JACKSON, Andrew. Manuscript document signed ("Andrew Jackson Major Genl Comdg"), authorizing payment to a "free girl of colour for work in the military hospital, "Hospital, New Orleans," 3 March 1815. 1 page, folio (12¼ x 8 7/16 in.), browning along edges and at folds. IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS, JACKSON CERTIFIES THE PAYMENT OF A 'FREE GIRL OF COLOUR' EMPLOYED IN THE HOSPITAL Less than two months after Jackson's dramatic victory on the battlefield at New Orleans, he certifies the payment of a worker at the hospital tending the sick and wounded from that battle. The pay warrant specifies that "Rosina, a free girl of colour," is to be paid "for 1 months service as a washwoman in the Hospital for Genl. Coffee's Brigade of T.V. [Tennessee Volunteers]...$10 a month...the lowest price at which, under existing circumstances, washwomen could be procur'd...Colonel William Peat will pay to Rosina ten Dollars." The document has been countersigned by the director of the hospital, David Kerr and by John Walker. Rosina, to signify receipt of her salary, has added her mark. At New Orleans, Jackson commanded a motley 4,700-man army composed of volunteers, militia, free blacks and freebooters of Jean Laffite. British General Packenham's attack on January 15 was decimated by accurate American fire. General Coffee's brigade, the one concerned in the present document, occupied a key position in Jackson's line and played an integral role in the victory. The seventy American casualties of the battle were subsequently treated in battlefield hospitals already occupied by numerous comrades stricken with climate-induced diseases.