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Julian Williams | all galleries >> Julian Williams's Galleries >> Old Jacksonville, Ga.- Where History Lives > Cenotaph Place Of Three Generals
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Cenotaph Place Of Three Generals

Here in the quietness and beauty of the Jacksonville Cemetery, in the northeast corner, under two oak trees, is Cenotaph Place Of Three Generals to honor three men who had strong connections with Jacksonville, Ga. From left to right: General John Clark, Rev. War, who owned a plantation next to where Blockhouse Church sits (he was later Governor of Georgia); Gen. John Coffee, War of 1812, who built the Coffee Road with Thomas Swain (from Jacksonville, Ga. to Tallahassee, Fl.); General Mark Willcox, Indian Wars, who was also a co-founder of the Georgia Supreme Court. As a youth, he was shot by the Indians at Breakfast Branch but was rescued by Nat Statham (see that story in the Articles of Old Jacksonville, Ga.). A sign on Highway 441 lets travelers know of the existence and location of Cenotaph Place.


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Frank V. Coffee 28-Dec-2007 04:06
My ancestor, Gen. John E. Coffee of Georgia (1782-1836), is understandably often confused with his first cousin Gen. John A. Coffee of Tennessee (1792-1833). The Tennessee Coffee, by far the more famous, was Andrew Jackson's best friend, comrade in arms who is often thought to have been the strategic genius behind the Battle of New Orleans, and married (1809) Mary Donelson, Rachel Jackson’s niece. Coffee, who played no role in Jackson's presidential career (although he did go to Washington during the nullification crisis in 1833, just before his death), left Nashville and, as part of a land speculation project, moved to Alabama and founded the city of Florence where he died 7 July 1833.

John E. Coffee of Georgia, just as much a Jackson partisan as his cousin,
named the town where he settled Jacksonville and served in the US Congress
during both terms of the Jackson administration. He fought with Jackson in
the Seminole wars in Florida and was also Agent for Indian Affairs for the
State of Georgia. The military supply road which he built from his home in
Jacksonville, Georgia, to present-day Madison, Florida, is still known as
The Old Coffee Road. Following his death in 1836 and the final clearance of
the Indians in 1838 (Trail of Tears), most of his family moved down the
Coffee Road and settled in Madison where many remain to this day. My
grandfather Christopher Columbus Coffee, Jr., was born in Madison but lived
most of his life in Jacksonville, Florida, where I was born.

In the 1920s some ignorant busybody DAR ladies, conflating the history of
the two generals, had the remains of my ancestor dug up (he was buried on
his Jacksonville plantation) and re-interred in McRae, 20 miles to the
north, where they erected an elaborate marker which claims that Gen. John E.
Coffee of Georgia was a member of the Tennessee Volunteers and took part in
the Battle of New Orleans!