McCoys, Buchanans, and Murphys aplenty. The new tribernwas essentially an amalgam of several Anglicized Celtic peoplesrn—Scots, Irish, and Scotch-Irish—with a good dose of Englishrnand some German thrown in. When the Indians slaughteredrna few isolated farm families here and there, they thoughtrnthat the bloody carnage would have the desired effect of intimidatingrnthe rest of the tribe into retreating east of the Appalachians.rnThe Indians had no idea what they had done.rnThey had aroused a fury that would not be spent in a day or twornof raiding. They had ignited an infrared rage that would not berndissipated until their own tribes had been destroyed. Theyrnwere shocked that the warriors of this new tribe followed themrnfor weeks, for months, for hundreds of miles to wreak vengeancernor rescue captives. This was not how the game wasrnplayed. The Indian knew when to quit. The white man didrnnot.rnPerhaps if the Indians had understood the music of the newrntribe, they might have realized that they were not just playingrnwith fire—they were playing with a fire of white-heat intensityrnand power. The tribe’s jigs and reels were rousing, to be sure,rnbut the melancholy airs said more about the people—dark,rndeep, poignantly beautiful melodies played on the strings ofrnfiddles, carrying the people away to a distant land, long ago.rnThe melodies tapped into the deepest recesses of the soul, recallingrnthe thoughts, losses, passions, triumphs, defeats, desires,rninjustices, and dreams of generations of the tribe. Best not tornprovoke people who created such melodies.rnAndrew Jackson was a member of this new tribe. His parentsrnand two older brothers had immigrated to the Americanrncolonies in 1765 from Carrickfergus in the northeast cornerrnof Ireland. He was born two years later in the Waxhawrnfrontier region on the border of North and South Carolina. Hisrnfather died shortiy before he was born. When the British armyrnreached the western Carolinas in 1780, the 13-year-old Jacksonrnjoined other rebel frontiersmen in fighting the Redcoats. Thernnext year, he was captured by the British. He rightly thought ofrnhimself as a prisoner of war and refused when ordered to shinernthe boots of a British ofticer. The officer responded by whackingrnJackson across the face with a saber. Although suffering arndeep gash which would leave a scar for life, the young lad wasrnonly strengthened in his resolve. His mother and two olderrnbrothers died as a result of British maltreatment.rnJackson went on to become a frontier lawyer, judge, politician,rnfarmer, militia commander, and U.S. Army general beforernbecoming President. Along the way, he performed feats ofrnlegendary proportions, among them his duel with CharlesrnDickinson. Dickinson was an extraordinary pistol shot, famousrnthroughout Tennessee. Nonetheless, Jackson challenged himrnto a duel over remarks Dickinson had made about Mrs. Jackson.rnOn the way to the field of honor, Dickinson warmed uprnby putting four rounds into a target from the prescribed duelingrndistance. The four bullet holes could be covered with a silverrndollar. He then cut a string at the same distance with a singlernshot. The demonstration was meant to unnerve Jackson, butrnthe iron-willed frontiersman had already decided upon an unusualrnstrategy. He would not hurry his own shot and would allowrnDickinson to fire first. Then, if still alive and in a conditionrnto return fire, he would take slow and carefiil aim before shooting.rnThe duel proceeded with all customary formalities, and,rnwith the men standing ten paces apart, the command to firernwas given. Dickinson quickly leveled his pistol and fired. Thernbullet hit Jackson in the chest, narrowly missed his heart, andrndamaged one of his lungs. Somehow he remained standingrnperfectly straight, ignored the pain, and carefully trained hisrnpistol on Dickinson. The pistol cracked, and a bullet tore intornDickinson, mortally wounding him. As Dickinson lay dying,rnJackson strode from the field as if Dickinson’s shot had missed.rnHe did not want to give the dying man the satisfaction of knowingrnthat his round had found its mark. Although Dickinsonrnwould never know it, the bullet remained lodged next to Jackson’srnheart and caused him pain for the rest of his life.rnJackson was the first President not to have come from thernplanting gentry of Virginia or the New England establishment.rnHe was a Scotch-Irish frontiersman, and he became a symbolrnfor Americans of the I9th century. He was self-made, roughhewn,rndecisive, independent, fierce, deadly, and courageous.rnHe did not know how to take a step backward. He took risks.rnHe made mistakes. He failed, and he triumphed. He foughtrnRedcoats, redskins, and duels. Jackson embodied the spirit ofrnhis tiibe and the spirit of the age.rnMost 19th-century frontiersmen were versions of AndrewrnJackson. They went by the names John Colter, Hugh Glass,rnJed Smith, Tom Fitzpatrick, Joe Walker, Kit Carson, IkernHumphreys, Peter O’Riley, John Mackay, William Cody,rnRichard King, Lee McNelly, Granville Stuart, Charles Goodnight,rnJoe McCoy, James Butler Hickok, Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson,rnMarcus Daly, and thousands of others. Sometimes theyrnwent bad, or, at least, they became outiaws. They went by thernnames Jesse James, Cole Younger, William Bouncy, JohnrnWesley Hardin, Clay Allison, Tom Horn, Bob Dalton, BillrnDoolin, Tom McCarty, Butch Cassidy, and hundreds of others.rnFor good or ill, this was the tribe that swept across NorthrnAmerica to the Pacific. These were the men who accompaniedrnLewis and Clark, who planted iron traps in the beaverrnstreams of the Rockies, who stood shoulder-to-shoulder at thernAlamo, who took the overland trail to Oregon and California,rnwho worked the deposits of the Mother Lode, who grazed theirrncattle on the Great Plains. As the 19th century wore on, therntribe was joined by new arrivals from Europe—mainly fromrnIreland and Germany and, later, on the northern Plains, fromrnScandinavia—but the tribe’s essential nature had already beenrnwell established: Courage was admired above all else; deathrnwas preferable to dishonor; if challenged, a man was expectedrnto stand and fight; a man’s word was his bond; great deferencernwas paid to women; the innocent were protected; God had destinedrnthe tribe to inherit the continent.rnThese principles were absorbed by members of the tribernfrom childhood on, although boys and girls and men and womenrnmanifested them in different ways. Women most often expressedrntheir courage in devotion to duty, enduring hardshiprnwithout complaint, perseverance, sacrifice for their children,rnand the willingness to make yet another trek to a new frontier.rnThe first woman to cross overland to California was NancyrnKelsey. She and her husband and her infant daughter werernmembers of the Bidwell party, which set out for California inrn1841 from Sapling Grove in eastern Kansas. The party had therngood fortrme to fall in with the great mountain man Tom Fitzpatrickrnand a group of missionaries that he was leading to Oregon.rn”Broken Hand,” as the Indians called Fitzpatiick,rnsmoothed the way for the Bidwell party all the way to SodarnSprings in southern Idaho. At that point, the trail to Californiarn14/CHRONICLESrnrnrn