This is another cache in my series honoring President Andrew Jackson, our 7th President. He called his newly built home, The Hermitage, and when a community built up around his plantation, the area took the name of his home, Hermitage.
This is an easy park and grab. BYOP. This area was known as Clover Bottom, adjacent to the Stones River. A race track was built here, and President Jackson was part owner in 1805. He trained his horses at this race track, including Thruxton, his prized Virginia born racehorse. A disagreement concerning a fee for a race between Thruxton and the horse Ploughboy, led to an argument which escalated to insults regarding Jackson's wife. In the end Jackson challenged Dickinson to duel. Because Dickinson, age 25, had the reputation of being a good marksman, friends of Jackson, then aged 40, advised him to let Dickinson fire first in the hope that the first shot would not be fatal and Jackson could then take his time to return a shot.
On the morning of the duel, Dickinson did indeed strike first, striking Jackson in the chest. Jackson struggled but was able to hit Dickinson in the abdomen, and that wound proved to be fatal. Jackson’s doctors were afraid that they would kill him by trying to remove the bullet, and with the wound never completely healing and causing Jackson chronic discomfort, the bullet remained lodged near the future president’s heart for the rest of his life. Many people criticized Jackson for killing Dickinson, but Jackson never apologized for the duel.
If you enjoy the story to give context to the cache, the location, and the name, and why I brought you here, please award a favourite point. That tells me to place more caches in sites with an interesting history. Thanks in advance.