John R. Coffee (June 2, 1772 – July 7, 1833) was an American planter of English descent, and a state militia brigadier general in Tennessee.

While president, Jackson appointed Coffee as his representative, along with Secretary of War John Eaton, to negotiate treaties with Southeast American Indian tribes to accomplish removal to the west of the Mississippi River and extinguish their land claims.

Coffee negotiated the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek of 1830 with the Choctaw, by which they ceded their lands.

Described as a big, awkward man, careless of dress, and slow of speech, Coffee was also said to be kindly, tactful, and wise.

[citation needed] In 1800, he traded a 14-year-old enslaved girl named Susana for 175 pecks of salt in Ste.

[2] In early 1806, Coffee challenged Nathaniel A. McNairy to a duel for publishing derogatory statements about Jackson.

[citation needed] At the beginning of the War of 1812, Coffee raised the 2nd Regiment of Volunteer Mounted Riflemen, composed mostly of Tennessee militiamen (and a few men from Alabama).

In December 1812, Governor Willie Blount had called out the Tennessee militia in response to a request from General James Wilkinson and the U.S. Secretary of War.

Coffee and his troops collected 300 bushels of corn, burned the village town, and withdrew to join the main American body.

A small detachment of mounted Americans led by Captain Hammond moved into plain view and opened fire.

At dawn, a strong force of Red Sticks camped 3 miles (4.8 km) away and attacked Jackson's position but were driven off after about thirty minutes.

Because of the difficulty of the earlier crossing of the Emuckfaw Creek, Jackson took a longer route back to Fort Strother.

The Red Stick base was on a peninsula semi-surrounded by a river with the only land exit at a narrow, slim neck.

But John Coffee, his mounted men, and pro-American Indians had snuck around successfully to the rear of the Red Stick camp and opened heavy fire.

The Red Sticks behind the front breastwork diverted much of their troops to the rear to combat Coffee's combined force of mounted men and Indians.

As the militia and regulars overran the front, the Red Sticks fled to the river rear, being shot down by Coffee's mounted riflemen on the outside bank.

Wounded Red Stick warriors hiding in the underbrush were dispatched with bayonets and tomahawks.

Some 300 women and an unknown number of children were marched toward Fort Talladega to be enslaved by Cherokee and friendly Creeks loyal to the American cause.

Andrew Jackson adopted an orphaned Creek child whose parents had been killed at the Battle of Tallusahatchee; the baby was named Lyncoya.

Coffee led his brigade, which included free blacks and Native American warriors from allied Southeast tribes, at the 1814-15 Battle of New Orleans.

As payment for his service in the War of 1812, Coffee was granted 2,000 acres of land in Murfreesboro, TN, which he later deeded to his sister Mary.

Jackson worked toward the removal of Southeast Native American tribes to lands west of the Mississippi River.

He appointed Coffee as his representative, along with Secretary of War John Eaton, to negotiate treaties to accomplish extinguishing Native American land claims and their removal.

Coffee negotiated the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek of 1830 with the Choctaw by which they ceded their Southeastern lands.

The Natchez Trace Parkway bridge across the Tennessee River near Florence, Alabama, is also named after Coffee.

To date, he has been found to have signed his name only as John Coffee in the original papers examined.