Andy, never tell a lie......

Near this spot is buried Elizabeth Jackson
Mother of President Andrew Jackson
She gave her life cheerfully for
the Independence of her country
on an unrecorded date in Nov, 1791
And to her son Andy this advice:
"Andy, never tell a lie,
nor take what is not your own,
nor sue for slander,
settle those cases yourself."

During the Revolutionary War, 14 year old Andrew Jackson and his older brother Robert were captured by British soldiers in the Battle of Hanging Rock. The officer in command ordered Jackson to clean his boots. Jackson refused. The officer raised his sword to strike a violent blow at the boy's head. Jackson ducked and threw up his left hand. "It was cut to the bone, and a gash on his head left a white scar that Andrew Jackson carried through a long life that profited little to England or any Englishman."

Jackson's mother persuaded the British to release her boys, but by this time both had contracted smallpox. Jackson's mother and his critically ill brother rode horseback on the 45 mile journey home. Andrew walked barefoot and without a jacket, despite a driving rain the last day of the trek. Robert died two days later. Andrew was delirious and in mortal danger. Over several months, he slowly recovered. When Andrew seemed out of danger, his mother left to nurse prisoners of war in Charleston, but contracted cholera there and died.

I spotted this marker while taking a shortcut through the College of Charleston campus.