200 YEARS AGO TODAY, on Tuesday, February 21, 1815, about 1500 U.S. troops stationed at Mobile along with most of the town's citizens gathered near the bay shore south of town to witness the execution by firing squad of six Tennessee militiamen who had been convicted the past December by a court martial of inciting a mutiny. From his New Orleans headquarters, General Andrew Jackson ordered that they be shot. The troops lined up to form a three sided open square around the six condemned men with the open side toward the water. The six prisoners stood by their caskets which had been placed six feet apart and they were then shot by 36 riflemen commanded by Col. Gilbert Russell(for whom present-day Russell County, Alabama is named). General Jackson ordered this severe punishment to uphold military discipline but it would come back to haunt him years later in the form of the so-called "COFFIN BROADSIDES" which were handed out by incumbent John Quincy Adams' supporters during the 1828 Presidential Election. This campaign literature accused Presidential candidate Jackson of being a murderer.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffin_Handbills