The WAR OF 1812's enduring legacy is found in the etymology of the names of many of Alabama's counties.
Barbour County is named for James Barbour who was Governor of Virginia during the War of 1812. Barbour was called "The War Governor."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_BarbourBibb County was named after William Wyatt Bibb who was a U.S. Representative from Georgia to the 12th Congress which declared war on Great Britain in 1812. In 1813, Bibb was elected U.S. Senator from Georgia and served in the 13th Congress which met in its third session in Washington, D.C., in 1814 after the city was burned by the British. The 13th Congress also ratified the Treaty of Ghent which ended the war in 1815.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Wyatt_BibbBlount County is named after Willie Blount who as Governor of Tennessee sent Andrew Jackson and the Tennessee Militia to present day Alabama in October of 1813 after the Red Stick attack on Ft. Mims.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_BlountButler County is named after William Butler who served in the Georgia Militia during the War of 1812 and fought the Creeks during the Creek War of 1813-1814 under the leadership of General Floyd.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Butler_(militiaman)
Calhoun County was named after John C. Calhoun who in 1812 was a U.S. Representative from South Carolina & chairman of the powerful House Foreign Affairs Committee. On June 3, 1812, Calhoun's committee called for a declaration of war in ringing phrases. This episode spread Calhoun's fame nationwide.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_C._CalhounChambers County was named after Henry Chambers who served as surgeon on General Andrew Jackson's staff during the War of 1812.
http://encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/ArticlePrintable.jsp?id=h-2943Cherokee County was named after the Cherokee Indian Tribe. The Cherokees refused to go to war against the U.S. during the War of 1812. Approximately 400 Cherokees served under General Andrew Jackson in the Tennessee Militia during the War of 1812 and they participated in the Hillabee Massacre and fought at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend.
http://encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1087Choctaw County was named after the Choctaw Indian Tribe. The Choctaws refused to go to war against the U.S. during the War of 1812. Appoximately 150 Choctaws served under General Claiborne of the Mississippi Territory Militia during the Battle of Holy Ground.
http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1811Clarke County was named after General John Clarke who was appointed Major General of the Georgia Militia during the War of 1812 but his appointment occurred too late for him to serve in the field.
http://archive.org/stream/menofmarkingeorg02nort/menofmarkingeorg02nort_djvu.txtClay County was named after Henry Clay who served as Speaker of the House of Representatives and was the guiding spirit behind the "War Hawk" faction that pushed the declaration of war through the House and Senate in 1812. He also served as a peace commissioner and helped negotiate the Treaty of Ghent that ended the War of 1812.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_ClayCoffee County was named after General John Coffee who served under General Andrew Jackson in the Creek War and General Coffee commanded U.S. troops during the Battle of New Orleans.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_CoffeeColbert County was named after George Colbert who commanded 350 Chickasaw warriors as part of General Andrew Jackson's Tennessee Militia during the Creek War. Colbert went on to serve under Jackson in in the U.S. Army for the remainder of the War of 1812.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_ColbertConecuh County is named after the Conecuh River which was the area of present day Alabama where the Creek War began in 1813. The first battle of the Creek War was on Burnt Corn Creek which flows into the Conecuh River.
http://encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-3081Coosa County is named after the Coosa River which was the route General Andrew Jackson and his Tennessee Militia took after they crossed the Tennessee River and began fighting the Red Sticks in 1813. Ft. Strother near the Coosa River was Jackson's base of operations during the Creek War.
http://www.northamericanforts.com/East/alnorth.html#strotherCovington County is named after General Leonard Covington. Covington served in the
Northwest Indian War under
Anthony Wayne, where he distinguished himself at
Fort Recovery and the
Battle of Fallen Timbers and in the
War of 1812. Covington was mortally wounded in the
Battle of Crysler's Farm and died three days later at
French's Mills, New York.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_CovingtonCrenshaw County is named after Anderson Crenshaw who served as aide-de-camp to South Carolina Governor Alston during the War of 1812.
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=62016597Dale County is named after Sam Dale who participated in the first battle of the Creek War at Burnt Corn Creek and served during the entire War of 1812 up to the time he carried a message from Georgia in only eight days to General Jackson in Chalmette just before the Battle of New Orleans. His achievements during the War of 1812 gave him almost mythic status among Alabamians.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_DaleDallas County is named after Alexander Dallas who was appointed Secretary of the Treasury by President Madison in 1814. Dallas was faced with a bankrupt Treasury depleted by the War of 1812.
http://www.treasury.gov/about/history/pages/adallas.aspxElmore County is named after General John Archer Elmore. Elmore served in the War of 1812 as a Brigadier General of State Troops of Alabama.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Archer_ElmoreEscambia County is named after Escambia Creek which is a tributary of the Conecuh River. This is the area where conflict with the Red Sticks started at the Battle of Burnt Corn Creek at the beginning of the War of 1812.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Burnt_CornJackson County is named after General Andrew Jackson.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_JacksonJefferson County is named after President Thomas Jefferson. After the British burned the Library of Congress in 1814, Jefferson offered to sell Congress his own library of almost 6,500 books to replace the lost volumes.
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/jefferson/jefflib.htmlLauderdale County is named after James Lauderdale. In 1813, he joined a unit of cavalry militia under General
John Coffee. He later served under General
Andrew Jackson, and was wounded during the
Battle of Talladega in what was called the
Creek War. He was then commissioned as a colonel but died during the first
Battle of New Orleans in 1814.
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=39012155Lawrence County is named after James Lawrence. James Lawrence (October 1, 1781 – June 4, 1813) was an
American naval officer. During the
War of 1812, he commanded the
USS Chesapeake in a
single-ship action against
HMS Shannon (commanded by
Philip Broke). He is probably best known today for his
dying command "Don't give up the ship!", which is still a popular naval
battle cry, and which was invoked by
Oliver Hazard Perry's personal battle flag, adopted to commemorate his dead friend.
[1][2]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_LawrenceLowndes County is named after
William Jones Lowndes (1782-1822), a lawyer, planter and statesman from South Carolina was a United States Congressman from that State (1811-1822) and an earnest supporter of the War of 1812. Henry Clay called him the wisest man he had ever known in the Congress.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Lowndes_(congressman)
Macon County is named after Nathaniel Macon who was a U.S. Representative from North Carolina who was an advocate of THE WAR OF 1812.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathaniel_MaconMadison County is named after James Madison who was President of the United States during the War of 1812.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_MadisonMarshall County is named after Chief Justice John Marshall who presided over the US Supreme Court during the War of 1812.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_MarshallMobile County was named after Mobile Bay. The port of Mobile and the portion of present day Mobile County below Ellicott's Line (the first U.S. Southern Boundary) was the only territory to come into the possession of the U.S. as a consequence of The War of 1812.
http://independentmonitor.blogspot.com/2011/10/walter-i-want-to-thank-you-so-much-for.htmlMonroe County was named after James Monroe who held the critical roles of
Secretary of State and the
Secretary of War under President
James Madison DURING THE WAR OF 1812.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_MonroeMontgomery County was named after Lemuel P. Montgomery who was killed in the
Battle of Horseshoe Bend on March 27, 1814.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemuel_P._MontgomeryPerry County was named after Oliver Perry who at his request was given command of United States naval forces on
Lake Erie during the
War of 1812. U.S. Secretary of the Navy
Paul Hamilton had charged prominent merchant seaman
Daniel Dobbins with building the American fleet on
Presque Isle Bay at
Erie,
Pennsylvania, and Perry was named chief naval officer.
[1][2][9] On September 10, 1813, Perry's command fought a successful
fleet action against a task force of the
Royal Navy in the
Battle of Lake Erie. It was at the outset of this battle that Perry famously said, “If a victory is to be gained, I will gain it.”
[10] Initially, the exchange of gunfire favored the British. Perry's
flagship, the
USS Lawrence, was so severely disabled in the encounter that the British commander,
Robert Heriot Barclay, thought that Perry would surrender it, and sent a small boat to request that the American vessel pull down its flag. Faithful to the words of his
battle flag, "DON'T GIVE UP THE SHIP" (a paraphrase of the dying words of Captain
James Lawrence, the ship's namesake and Perry's friend),
[11][12] Perry ordered the crippled Lawrence to fire a final
salvo and then had his men row him a half-mile (0.8 km) through heavy gunfire to transfer his command to the
USS Niagara. Once aboard, Perry dispatched the Niagara's commander, Captain
Jesse Elliot, to bring the other schooners into closer action while he steered the Niagara toward the damaged British ships. Breaking through the British line, the American force pounded Barclay's ships until they could offer no effective resistance and surrendered. Although he had won the battle aboard the Niagara, he received the British surrender on the deck of the recaptured Lawrence to allow the British to see the terrible price his men had paid.
[10] Perry's battle report to General
William Henry Harrison was famously brief: "We have met the enemy and they are ours; two ships, two brigs, one schooner and one sloop."
[11]This was the first time in history that an entire British naval squadron had surrendered, and every captured ship was successfully returned to Presque Isle.
[13] Although the engagement was small compared to Napoleonic naval battles such as the
Battle of Trafalgar, the victory had disproportionate strategic importance, opening
Canada up to possible invasion, while simultaneously protecting the entire
Ohio Valley.
[2][14] The loss of the British squadron directly led to the critical
Battle of the Thames, the rout of British forces by Harrison's army, the death of
Tecumseh, and the breakup of his Indian alliance.
[13]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Hazard_PerryPickens County is named after Andrew Pickens who was a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives 1800-1812 and declined the nomination for governor of South Carolina during THE WAR OF 1812.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Pickens_(congressman)
Pike County was named after Zebulon Pike who was killed in present day Toronto, Ontario, during the War of 1812.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zebulon_PikeRandolph County was named after John Randolph who was a U.S. Representative from Virginia during THE WAR OF 1812.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Randolph_of_RoanokeRussell County was named after Gilbert C. Russell who was the commander of the 3rd regiment of the United States Army in present day Alabama during THE WAR OF 1812. His soldiers reinforced
Fort Claiborne and, in December 1813, launched an invasion of the core of the
Creek Nation which culminated in his victory over the Creek around the village known to the American soldiers as Holy Ground Town.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_C._RussellShelby County was named after Isaac Shelby who was Governor of Kentucky during the War of 1812. He accomplished so much during the war that he was awarded a Congressional Gold Medal.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_ShelbyTalladega County was named after The Battle of Talladega which was a fought between the
Tennessee militia and the
Red Stick Creek Indians during THE WAR OF 1812.
Tallapoosa County was named after the Tallapoosa River. A curve in the Tallapoosa River gave the BATTLE OF HORSESHOE BEND its name.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Horseshoe_Bend_(1814)
Wilcox County was named after John Wilcox who was tomahawked and scalped by a group of Creek warriors near the
Alabama River on January 15, 1814.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_M._Wilcox
