Okla-homey
1/8/2008, 07:02 AM
January 8, 1815 Jackson leads troops to victory at New Orleans
http://aycu28.webshots.com/image/9187/2003512829336270122_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2003512829336270122)
188 years ago, on this day in 1815, US Major General Andrew Jacksonand his troops win the decisive Battle of New Orleans in the waning moments of the War of 1812.
http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/5954/annorleans0mg.jpg
A rag-tag American force comprised of regular troops, militia and even a group of Jean Lafitte's pirates (aargh!) fought a seasoned British force, which was fresh from European Napoleanic battlefields, to a stand-still.
Although the war had officially ended two weeks earlier with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent, news of the treaty had not yet reached the United States from Europe, and scattered military clashes between the British and the Americans continued.
After a three-year struggle against superior British land and naval forces, the outnumbered American Army, Marines, assorted militia troops and Jean Laffite's pirates succeeded in preventing the British from gaining a foothold in the southern territories of Louisiana and western Florida.
http://aycu09.webshots.com/image/7808/2004521276506853665_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2004521276506853665)
As an aside, a little more about Jean Laffite is in order. Laffite turned down an offer from a Royal Navy captain to join the Brits in the ongoing War of 1812. Instead, he offered his troops to Governor William Claiborne, received a huffed refusal, and ended up being welcomed into the rag-tag American army by Andrew Jackson.
http://aycu33.webshots.com/image/7032/2000329197882137799_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000329197882137799)
Jean Laffite. No one really knows where he was born or died. He probably was not a Creole, and many historians believe he was of French birth.
For the great battle of January 8 1815, he provided the flints and the gunpowder from his stolen stores in Barataria. With Jackson's force, his marksmen helped to trounce the advancing British army on that wintry battle morning. Armed with a pardon for his whole company, Laffite walked the streets of New Orleans a free man for a year or so afterwards.
http://aycu03.webshots.com/image/8842/2000364549540795016_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000364549540795016)
Laffite's signature. Note the two "F's" and one "T". His name is usually misspelled, even by the US government.
http://aycu32.webshots.com/image/8511/2000308097570179754_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000308097570179754)
Even after his pardon, law-abiding was not to Laffite's liking. He left the city to found a community of smugglers at Galveston and a new base for "privateering." After the federal government got serious and blew him out of Galveston, he turned to the Yucatan and was never heard from again after the middle 1820s.
http://aycu09.webshots.com/image/8848/2003536395849747088_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2003536395849747088)
Captain Crunch's arch-nemisis Jean LaFoote. No relation to Jean Laffite
A Brtitish officer named George Glieg wrote down a first-person account of the hardships of their campaign around New Orleans. Gleig was a captain with the British 85th Foot. He describes the British camp at Pine Island which was used as a base of operations at Lake Borgne during the New Orleans campaign.
Near the end, Gleig makes reference to the men of the British West Indies regiments who suffered enormously in the cold and wet December weather. They had left their islands with only light uniforms and were unprepared for the chilling rain and frost. They perished in scores.
In short, nature was working against the Brits, thus improving the odds of Jackson's success
"Than this spot, it is scarcely possible to imagine any place more completely wretched. It was a swamp, containing a small space of firm ground at one end, and almost wholly unadorned with trees of any sort or description. There were, indeed, a few stinted firs upon the very edge of the water, but these were so diminutive in size, as hardly to deserve a higher classification than among the meanest of shrubs. The interior was the resort of wild ducks and other water-fowl; and the pools and creeks with which it was intercepted abounded in dormant alligators.
"Upon this miserable desert the army was assembled, without tents or huts, or any covering to shelter them from the inclemency of the weather; and in truth we may fairly affirm, that our hardships had here their commencement. After having been exposed all day to a cold and pelting rain, we landed upon a barren island, incapable of furnishing even fuel enough to supply our fires. To add to our miseries, as night closed, the rain generally ceased, and severe frosts set in; which congealing our wet clothes upon our bodies, left little animal warmth to keep the limbs in a state of activity; and the consequence was, that many of the wretched negroes, to whom frost and cold were altogether new, fell fast asleep, and perished before morning.
"For provisions again, we were entirely dependent upon the fleet. There were here no living creatures which would suffer themselves to be caught; even the water-fowl being so timorous, that it was impossible to approach them within musket shot. Salt meat and ship biscuit were, therefore, our food, moistened by a small allowance of rum; fare which, though no doubt very wholesome, was not such as to reconcile us to the cold and wet under which we suffered."
http://img475.imageshack.us/img475/176/andrewjackson6ej.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Andy is big in New Orleans, he has his own square. The statue was not hurt by the storm or harmed during the post-Katrina loot-o-rama.
The Battle of New Orleans engendered a sense of nationalism among Americans--after all, the fledgling nation had now beaten back the British empire twice in 30 years, first during the American Revolution and then in the War of 1812.
http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/3166/anduntitled8jz.png
Andy on our moolah
Pride over the victory effectively ended the growing pains of political divisiveness that had plagued the United States at the beginning of the war. Winning the Battle of New Orleans not only helped the United States maintain its newly won independence and increased patriotic sentiment, it turned Jackson into a national hero and paved the way for his ascent to the presidency in 1828.
http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/8550/1jackson4dk.jpg
Ol' Hickory was the toast of the continent after winning in New Orleans. He sat for this portrait afterwards.
Jackson, independent, resourceful and tough, epitomized the national image of the American frontiersman. Early in the War of 1812, he earned the grudging respect of his soldiers, and the nickname “Old Hickory,” when he refused an order to disband his troops in Mississippi and instead marched them back to their base in Tennessee.
His bold leadership, humble background and relentlessness inspired the ragtag American Army at New Orleans. His image as a citizen-soldier and common man contributed to Jackson’s nationwide popularity*.
British losses were approximately 700 killed and 1,400 wounded; American losses amounted to only eight killed and 13 wounded. The victory obviously had no impact on the outcome of the war, but it was a major confidence builder for the American military and the nation.
http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/6690/andmgjacksonlateportraitx3504m.jpg
Only known photographic image of Jackson -- made late in his life.
* Note: Jackson does not enjoy a sterling reputation among the Five Tribes of Oklahoma. His cold, merciless and unconstitutional treatment of the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Cherokee, Seminole and Muscogee (Creek) during the period leading to their forced removal from their ancient homelands is the stuff of legend. Under well-settled principles of Federal Indian law, only Congress can make treaties with Indian tribes (not generals, and not state governments) which enjoy inherent sovereign rights arising from their "domestic dependent nation" status. Notwithstanding this fact, Jackson illegally enforced a brutal policy based on his notions of "might makes right" in order to clear these southeastern tribes from lands desired by white speculators and plantationers.
One of the biggest hits of 1959 was this little ditty:
Well, in eighteen fourteen we took a little trip
along with Colonel Jackson down the mighty Mississip.
We took a little bacon and we took a little beans,
And we caught the bloody British near the town of New Orleans.
We fired our guns and the British kept a'comin.
There wasn't nigh as many as there was a while ago.
We fired once more and they began to runnin'
down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.
Well, I see'd Mars Jackson walkin down the street
talkin’ to a pirate by the name of Jean Laffite
He gave Jean a drink that he brung from Tennessee
and the pirate said he’d help us drive the British in the sea.
The French said Andrew, you’d better run,
for Packingham’s a comin’ with a bullet in his gun.
Old Hickory said he didn’t give a dang,
he’s gonna whip the britches off of Colonel Packingham.
We fired our guns and the British kept a'comin.
There wasn't nigh as many as there was a while ago.
We fired once more and they began to runnin'
down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.
Well, we looked down the river and we see'd the British come,
and there must have been a hundred of 'em beatin' on the drum.
They stepped so high and they made their bugles ring
while we stood by our cotton bales and didn't say a thing.
Old Hickory said we could take 'em by surprise
if we didn't fire a musket til we looked 'em in the eyes.
We held our fire til we see'd their faces well,
then we opened up with squirrel guns and really gave a yell.
We fired our guns and the British kept a'comin.
There wasn't nigh as many as there was a while ago.
We fired once more and they began to runnin'
down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.
Well, we fired our cannon til the barrel melted down,
so we grabbed an alligator and we fought another round.
We filled his head with cannon balls and powdered his behind,
and when they tetched the powder off, the gator lost his mind.
We’ll march back home but we’ll never be content
till we make Old Hickory the people’s President.
And every time we think about the bacon and the beans,
we’ll think about the fun we had way down in New Orleans.
We fired our guns and the British kept a'comin,
But there wasn't nigh as many as there was a while ago.
We fired once more and they began to runnin'
down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.
Well, they ran through the briars and they ran through the brambles
And they ran through the bushes where a rabbit couldn't go.
They ran so fast the hounds couldn't catch 'em
down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.
We fired our guns and the British kept a'comin.
But there wasn't nigh as many as there was a while ago.
We fired once more and they began to runnin'
down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.
http://img342.imageshack.us/img342/8146/insane7zo0yj.jpg
http://aycu28.webshots.com/image/9187/2003512829336270122_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2003512829336270122)
188 years ago, on this day in 1815, US Major General Andrew Jacksonand his troops win the decisive Battle of New Orleans in the waning moments of the War of 1812.
http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/5954/annorleans0mg.jpg
A rag-tag American force comprised of regular troops, militia and even a group of Jean Lafitte's pirates (aargh!) fought a seasoned British force, which was fresh from European Napoleanic battlefields, to a stand-still.
Although the war had officially ended two weeks earlier with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent, news of the treaty had not yet reached the United States from Europe, and scattered military clashes between the British and the Americans continued.
After a three-year struggle against superior British land and naval forces, the outnumbered American Army, Marines, assorted militia troops and Jean Laffite's pirates succeeded in preventing the British from gaining a foothold in the southern territories of Louisiana and western Florida.
http://aycu09.webshots.com/image/7808/2004521276506853665_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2004521276506853665)
As an aside, a little more about Jean Laffite is in order. Laffite turned down an offer from a Royal Navy captain to join the Brits in the ongoing War of 1812. Instead, he offered his troops to Governor William Claiborne, received a huffed refusal, and ended up being welcomed into the rag-tag American army by Andrew Jackson.
http://aycu33.webshots.com/image/7032/2000329197882137799_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000329197882137799)
Jean Laffite. No one really knows where he was born or died. He probably was not a Creole, and many historians believe he was of French birth.
For the great battle of January 8 1815, he provided the flints and the gunpowder from his stolen stores in Barataria. With Jackson's force, his marksmen helped to trounce the advancing British army on that wintry battle morning. Armed with a pardon for his whole company, Laffite walked the streets of New Orleans a free man for a year or so afterwards.
http://aycu03.webshots.com/image/8842/2000364549540795016_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000364549540795016)
Laffite's signature. Note the two "F's" and one "T". His name is usually misspelled, even by the US government.
http://aycu32.webshots.com/image/8511/2000308097570179754_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000308097570179754)
Even after his pardon, law-abiding was not to Laffite's liking. He left the city to found a community of smugglers at Galveston and a new base for "privateering." After the federal government got serious and blew him out of Galveston, he turned to the Yucatan and was never heard from again after the middle 1820s.
http://aycu09.webshots.com/image/8848/2003536395849747088_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2003536395849747088)
Captain Crunch's arch-nemisis Jean LaFoote. No relation to Jean Laffite
A Brtitish officer named George Glieg wrote down a first-person account of the hardships of their campaign around New Orleans. Gleig was a captain with the British 85th Foot. He describes the British camp at Pine Island which was used as a base of operations at Lake Borgne during the New Orleans campaign.
Near the end, Gleig makes reference to the men of the British West Indies regiments who suffered enormously in the cold and wet December weather. They had left their islands with only light uniforms and were unprepared for the chilling rain and frost. They perished in scores.
In short, nature was working against the Brits, thus improving the odds of Jackson's success
"Than this spot, it is scarcely possible to imagine any place more completely wretched. It was a swamp, containing a small space of firm ground at one end, and almost wholly unadorned with trees of any sort or description. There were, indeed, a few stinted firs upon the very edge of the water, but these were so diminutive in size, as hardly to deserve a higher classification than among the meanest of shrubs. The interior was the resort of wild ducks and other water-fowl; and the pools and creeks with which it was intercepted abounded in dormant alligators.
"Upon this miserable desert the army was assembled, without tents or huts, or any covering to shelter them from the inclemency of the weather; and in truth we may fairly affirm, that our hardships had here their commencement. After having been exposed all day to a cold and pelting rain, we landed upon a barren island, incapable of furnishing even fuel enough to supply our fires. To add to our miseries, as night closed, the rain generally ceased, and severe frosts set in; which congealing our wet clothes upon our bodies, left little animal warmth to keep the limbs in a state of activity; and the consequence was, that many of the wretched negroes, to whom frost and cold were altogether new, fell fast asleep, and perished before morning.
"For provisions again, we were entirely dependent upon the fleet. There were here no living creatures which would suffer themselves to be caught; even the water-fowl being so timorous, that it was impossible to approach them within musket shot. Salt meat and ship biscuit were, therefore, our food, moistened by a small allowance of rum; fare which, though no doubt very wholesome, was not such as to reconcile us to the cold and wet under which we suffered."
http://img475.imageshack.us/img475/176/andrewjackson6ej.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Andy is big in New Orleans, he has his own square. The statue was not hurt by the storm or harmed during the post-Katrina loot-o-rama.
The Battle of New Orleans engendered a sense of nationalism among Americans--after all, the fledgling nation had now beaten back the British empire twice in 30 years, first during the American Revolution and then in the War of 1812.
http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/3166/anduntitled8jz.png
Andy on our moolah
Pride over the victory effectively ended the growing pains of political divisiveness that had plagued the United States at the beginning of the war. Winning the Battle of New Orleans not only helped the United States maintain its newly won independence and increased patriotic sentiment, it turned Jackson into a national hero and paved the way for his ascent to the presidency in 1828.
http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/8550/1jackson4dk.jpg
Ol' Hickory was the toast of the continent after winning in New Orleans. He sat for this portrait afterwards.
Jackson, independent, resourceful and tough, epitomized the national image of the American frontiersman. Early in the War of 1812, he earned the grudging respect of his soldiers, and the nickname “Old Hickory,” when he refused an order to disband his troops in Mississippi and instead marched them back to their base in Tennessee.
His bold leadership, humble background and relentlessness inspired the ragtag American Army at New Orleans. His image as a citizen-soldier and common man contributed to Jackson’s nationwide popularity*.
British losses were approximately 700 killed and 1,400 wounded; American losses amounted to only eight killed and 13 wounded. The victory obviously had no impact on the outcome of the war, but it was a major confidence builder for the American military and the nation.
http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/6690/andmgjacksonlateportraitx3504m.jpg
Only known photographic image of Jackson -- made late in his life.
* Note: Jackson does not enjoy a sterling reputation among the Five Tribes of Oklahoma. His cold, merciless and unconstitutional treatment of the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Cherokee, Seminole and Muscogee (Creek) during the period leading to their forced removal from their ancient homelands is the stuff of legend. Under well-settled principles of Federal Indian law, only Congress can make treaties with Indian tribes (not generals, and not state governments) which enjoy inherent sovereign rights arising from their "domestic dependent nation" status. Notwithstanding this fact, Jackson illegally enforced a brutal policy based on his notions of "might makes right" in order to clear these southeastern tribes from lands desired by white speculators and plantationers.
One of the biggest hits of 1959 was this little ditty:
Well, in eighteen fourteen we took a little trip
along with Colonel Jackson down the mighty Mississip.
We took a little bacon and we took a little beans,
And we caught the bloody British near the town of New Orleans.
We fired our guns and the British kept a'comin.
There wasn't nigh as many as there was a while ago.
We fired once more and they began to runnin'
down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.
Well, I see'd Mars Jackson walkin down the street
talkin’ to a pirate by the name of Jean Laffite
He gave Jean a drink that he brung from Tennessee
and the pirate said he’d help us drive the British in the sea.
The French said Andrew, you’d better run,
for Packingham’s a comin’ with a bullet in his gun.
Old Hickory said he didn’t give a dang,
he’s gonna whip the britches off of Colonel Packingham.
We fired our guns and the British kept a'comin.
There wasn't nigh as many as there was a while ago.
We fired once more and they began to runnin'
down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.
Well, we looked down the river and we see'd the British come,
and there must have been a hundred of 'em beatin' on the drum.
They stepped so high and they made their bugles ring
while we stood by our cotton bales and didn't say a thing.
Old Hickory said we could take 'em by surprise
if we didn't fire a musket til we looked 'em in the eyes.
We held our fire til we see'd their faces well,
then we opened up with squirrel guns and really gave a yell.
We fired our guns and the British kept a'comin.
There wasn't nigh as many as there was a while ago.
We fired once more and they began to runnin'
down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.
Well, we fired our cannon til the barrel melted down,
so we grabbed an alligator and we fought another round.
We filled his head with cannon balls and powdered his behind,
and when they tetched the powder off, the gator lost his mind.
We’ll march back home but we’ll never be content
till we make Old Hickory the people’s President.
And every time we think about the bacon and the beans,
we’ll think about the fun we had way down in New Orleans.
We fired our guns and the British kept a'comin,
But there wasn't nigh as many as there was a while ago.
We fired once more and they began to runnin'
down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.
Well, they ran through the briars and they ran through the brambles
And they ran through the bushes where a rabbit couldn't go.
They ran so fast the hounds couldn't catch 'em
down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.
We fired our guns and the British kept a'comin.
But there wasn't nigh as many as there was a while ago.
We fired once more and they began to runnin'
down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.
http://img342.imageshack.us/img342/8146/insane7zo0yj.jpg