Andrew Jackson was born in poverty near the North Carolina and South Carolina border and became a lawyer after receiving some private education. He fought in the Revolutionary War as a teenager and was taken prisoner. As a general in the War of 1812, he led American forces to victory at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. Although he won the popular vote in 1824, Jackson lost the presidency to John Quincy Adams. He ran again in 1828 and became the seventh president of the United States, serving from 1829 to 1837.