Jackson’s Oak – can you imagine the stories it could tell?

Jackson’s Oak is located in Historic Village Point Preserve in Daphne, Baldwin County, Alabama.

This giant tree, which is 95 feet tall, with a circumference of 28 feet, was a landmark in the eighteenth century: it is shown as a survey line marker in the original Spanish Land Grant survey map of 1787.

Jackson’s Oak” in Baldwin County, Alabama, where Andrew Jackson stood to address his troops on the way to New Orleans in 1814

Alabama State Archives

ca. 1930

In 1814, General Andrew Jackson marched from New Orleans and bivouacked his 3000 soldiers here en route to Pensacola.

Legend states that Jackson climbed the limbs of this magnificent oak draped with graceful silvery moss to rally his bedraggled troops with a speech. Protection and preservation of this magnificent live oak is a top priority of the City of Daphne and the Village Point Foundation.

The following transcribed story about Jackson’s Oak and the Village was

written and compiled by Francois Ludgere Diard March 24, 1939

is from a Vacation Visit to the two principal ghost towns in Baldwin County, Alabama

Federal Writers Project (Alabama State Archives)

Your Vacation in Alabama

The vacationist can have a pleasant stay by parking his car and trailer near the noted “Jackson’s Oak. It has a limb spread of 125 feet and stands at the avenue of ancient oaks two miles north of Daphne. It was here as tradition has it that General Andrew Jackson had his camping ground in his march to Pensacola in the War of 1812, and is called by the natives “Jackson’s Oak.” It is really a wonderful tree to see, as well as those of lesser size standing there also. The story that General Jackson climbed the tree and addressed his troops from one of its large limbs has been told in detail for a hundred years, and portions of the speech are sometimes quoted, but Colonel Landers of the Army College, visiting the scene with many military records to back him up, expressed doubt if the thing happened. The Mobile Advertiser, however, of Tuesday, April 22, 1856, gives a strong reference to this historical happening.

Standing on the site of an obliverated (sic) bayshore town termed “The Village,” these stately oaks have seen history in the making. Indians, French, Confederate and Union forces, as well as local militia, have all held councils, sought enemies or camped beneath their spreading limbs. “The Village,” which is three miles south from the Bridgehead, is termed like Blakeley one of the deadest of all dead towns in Alabama. Historian Hamilton writing of “The Village,” says, “Many people had summer residents across the bay at the place called the “Village, and lower at Howard’s, at Montrose, where British troops were once encamped, and at Point Clear, jutting into the bay, was built a hotel which became a favorite resort of Mobile during the summer. These places were reached by steamboats from town.

“The Village” waned in popularity before the Civil War and became a resort of some wild people who were law unto themselves. It has long been a deserted village, though occupying a beautiful site overlooking the bay and having a fine beach of clear sand at its front. But the glory of “The Village” old as its oaks, some of which are 200 years old and over, has come to us as part of the history of South Alabama.

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About Donna R Causey

Donna R. Causey, resident of Alabama, was a teacher in the public school system for twenty years. When she retired, Donna found time to focus on her lifetime passion for historical writing. She developed the websites www.alabamapioneers and www.daysgoneby.me All her books can be purchased at Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble. She has authored numerous genealogy books. RIBBON OF LOVE: A Novel Of Colonial America (TAPESTRY OF LOVE) is her first novel in the Tapestry of Love about her family where she uses actual characters, facts, dates and places to create a story about life as it might have happened in colonial Virginia. Faith and Courage: Tapestry of Love (Volume 2) is the second book and the third FreeHearts: A Novel of Colonial America (Book 3 in the Tapestry of Love Series) Discordance: The Cottinghams (Volume 1) is the continuation of the story. . For a complete list of books, visit Donna R Causey