James Gadsden

Colonel James Gadsden (May 15, 1788 – December 26, 1858) was a United States Army officer, diplomat, and businessman after whom the Gadsden Purchase is named, pertaining to land which the United States bought from Mexico, and which became the southern portions of Arizona and New Mexico. James Gadsden served as Adjutant General of the U.S. Army from August 13, 1821 to March 22, 1822. Between 1853 and 1856, he served as the U.S. Minister to Mexico. He was known commonly as General Gadsden, although he never had a rank above colonel.

Little is known about the life of Gadsden, especially his early life. It is known that he was born in Charleston, South Carolina, during 1788, and that he was grandson of the American Revolutionary War hero Christopher Gadsden, for whom the Gadsden flag was named. It is also known that Gadsden earned his bachelor's degree from Yale University in Connecticut, completing this degree in 1806. In university, he was a member of the debating and secret society, Brothers in Unity. One of his siblings, John Gadsden, served two terms as the Mayor of Charleston, and another sibling, Christopher Edwards Gadsden, was the fourth Episcopal Bishop of South Carolina.

Gadsden joined the United States Army in December 1812. He served as a commissioned officer commanded by General Andrew Jackson, who was later elected president in 1828. He served as secretary for Jackson-led negotiations for a treaty with the Chickasaw in 1816.

Gadsden served under Jackson during the War of 1812 and First Seminole War. He played a role in protecting the southern U.S. border from Native Americans and maroons based in Spanish Florida. As part of this effort, Jackson directed Gadsden, a member of the Army Corps of Engineers, to build a fort on the Prospect Bluff site. Jackson subsequently named it Fort Gadsden. Gadsden also helped to establish Fort Brooke with George Mercer Brooke at the site of the present-day city of Tampa, Florida. He was appointed Adjutant General in August 1821, but this appointment was not confirmed by the Senate, causing it to expire the following year.

Gadsden next decided to quit the U.S. Army, and became a planter in Florida; he served in the Florida Territorial Legislature. Gadsden was appointed as a commissioner during 1823 to help with the organization and the expulsion of most of the Seminole Indian Tribe from their homes in Florida and southern Georgia, along the Trail of Tears to land reservations that had been reserved for them in what is now Oklahoma.

Years later Gadsden County, Florida, was named in his honor, and also the city of Gadsden, Alabama, and the town of Gadsden, Arizona.