Born in 1757, John Adair grew up in the upland Waxhaws region of South Carolina. He was a schoolmate of Andrew Jackson and the two were fated to cross paths in later years, in the War of 1812 and in political affairs of the times. Adair served in the Revolutionary army as a boy of 17 and in Indian Campaigns in 1791 and 1794. He married a prominent low country South Carolinian, Catherine Palmer. Together, they took their family, which eventually included...