In the spring of 1806, Andrew Jackson and Charles Dickinson had a series of disagreements. The disagreements ended in a duel between Jackson and Dickinson in which Dickinson died.
One argument concerned a horse race scheduled between Jackson’s horse Truxton and a horse owned by Joseph Erwin named Ploughboy. Dickinson was married to Erwin’s daughter.
Ploughboy was not able to run in the race as planned. According to the pre-race agreement, Erwin was supposed to pay Andrew Jackson a forfeit fee of $800. Jackson and Erwin and Dickinson disagreed about how the forfeit money was to be paid.
In the midst of the trouble about the horse race, Dickinson publicly said insulting things about Jackson’s wife Rachel. Jackson found out about this. He demanded and received an apology from Dickinson.
Then, Dickinson heard that Jackson was criticizing his father-in-law for not paying the forfeit on the horse race correctly. Various retorts between Jackson and Dickinson’s friends went back and forth. Finally Dickinson wrote a statement that was published in a Nashville newspaper calling Jackson a coward and other bad names.
