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Tough Teddy and Old Hickory: America’s Most Badass Presidents

Khalid Elhassan December 4, 2024 14 min

Tough - An 1828 woodcut of the Andrew Jackson vs Charles Dickinson duel — An 1828 woodcut of the Andrew Jackson vs Charles Dickinson duel. Wikimedia

18. A Serious Beef Against the British

Tough - Andrew Jackson's refusal to polish a British officer's boots got him slashed with a sword — Andrew Jackson’s refusal to polish a British officer’s boots got him slashed with a sword. Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage

Andrew Jackson began his ass kicking career during the American Revolution, when he enlisted in his local militia at age thirteen. A year later, a fourteen-year-old Jackson defiantly refused to shine a British officer’s shoes. He got slashed with a sword across his face and hand as a result. That left the future president with a burning hatred of the British, and he paid them back in spades at the Battle of New Orleans in 1815. There, forces led by Jackson killed, wounded, and captured about 2500 British, while suffering only 300 casualties of their own.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.