Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History
Benson Lossing, Ed.

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Gadsden, James 1788-1858

Statesman; born in Charleston, S. C., May 15, 1788; graduated at Yale College in 1806. After a short career in business, he entered the army, and was made lieutenant-colonel of engineers. During the War of 1812, with Great Britain, his service was marked with distinction, and when peace was concluded he became aide to General Jackson in the expedition to investigate the military defences of the Gulf of Mexico and the southwestern frontier. Soon after he was appointed, with Gen. Simon Bernard, to review the examinations, and rendered a separate report, in which he differed from General Bernard. In 1818 he was made aide-de-camp to General Jackson, with whom he participated in the campaign against the Seminole Indians. Later he went with Jackson to Pensacola, when the latter took possession of Florida, and was the first white man to cross that peninsula from the Atlantic to the Gulf. In 1853 he was minister to Mexico, and on Dec. 10 of that year negotiated a treaty by which a new boundary was made between the United States and Mexico. He died in Charleston, S. C., Dec. 25, 1858.