Good Morning...New Orleans Saved

[Okla-homey]

January 8, 1815: Battle of New Orleans


Battle of New Orleans. The bad guys wore red. The good guys fired from behind hastily dug earthworks augmented with cotton bales which make pretty good fortifications

194 years ago today, Andy Jackson leading US regulars, militiamen and some pretty unsavory cats gathered up from the jails, bars, whorehouses and bayous in and around NOLA (including pirate leader Jean Lafitte,) crushed an invading British force outside New Orleans.

The war with Britain had already ended when the Treaty of Ghent was signed on Christmas Eve 1814. This battle occured a full two weeks after the war had officially ended...because word of peace had not yet made it to New Orleans(....or the postman was drunk -- which is entirely possible in "The Big Easy.")

The British marched against New Orleans, hoping that by capturing the city they could separate Louisiana from the rest of the United States. Pirate Jean Lafitte, however, had warned the Americans of the attack, and the arriving British found militiamen under General Andrew Jackson strongly entrenched at the Rodriquez Canal.

Jackson had ordered a breach in the levee allowing the river to flood the field in front of his hastily built fortifications turning it into a muddy quagmire which slowed and complicated the British assaults.



In two failed assaults, the 7,500 British soldiers under Sir Edward Pakenham were unable to penetrate the U.S. defenses, and Jackson's 4,500 troops, many of them expert marksmen from Kentucky and Tennessee, decimated the British lines. In half an hour, the British had retreated, General Pakenham was dead, and nearly 2,000 of his men were killed, wounded, or missing. U.S. forces suffered only eight killed and 13 wounded.



Although the battle had no bearing on the outcome of the war, Jackson's overwhelming victory elevated national pride, which had suffered a number of setbacks during the War of 1812. The Battle of New Orleans was also the last armed engagement between the United States and Britain.

[Boomer_Sooner_sax]

And was it worth it? I say no

Also, wasn't there a song about this battle?

[BlondeSoonerGirl]

Yep. Johnny Horton.

In 1814 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 in the town of New Orleans.

[Chorus:]
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' on
Down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.

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 the bugles ring.
We stood by our cotton bales and didn't say a thing.

[Chorus]

Old Hickory said we could take 'em by surprise
If we didn't fire our muskets 'til we looked 'em in the eye
We held our fire 'til we see'd their faces well.
Then we opened up with squirrel guns and really gave 'em ... well

[Chorus]

Yeah, 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 that the hounds couldn't catch 'em
Down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.

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 we touched the powder off, the gator lost his mind.

[Chorus]

Yeah, 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 that the hounds couldn't catch 'em
Down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.

[TUSooner]

First - I am offended! As a former postman in New Orleans, I am compelled to point out that I ALMOST HARDLY EVER delivered the mail drunk !!

Second - I have to repeat this annual story. Because my daughters' High School is Ursuline Academy, I hear it every year, so you can too. The Ursuline nuns at the convent & school back in 1815 prayed to Our Lady of Prompt Succour (just about the ultimate Roman Catholic thing, represented by the BVMary holding Baby Jesus, with both wearing shiny gold crowns) to spare the city. It was spared British rule, which arguably shows that one must be careful for what one prays.



Before Katrina, prayers were made again to OLPS, and - VOILA - the British again failed to invade the city.
Sorry, that's as lame this year as it always has been.


Anyway, there's a big OLPS Mass today as on each January 8.

[SoonerJack]

I remember this Good Morning from years past, too. But TU, somehow I missed your story re: Our Lady of Prompt Succour. Interesting.

[TUSooner]

I remember this Good Morning from years past, too. But TU, somehow I missed your story re: Our Lady of Prompt Succour. Interesting.

Maybe it only seems to me like I have posted that every year.
I know I have posted it before, but maybe on some other occasion. Or perhaps it's just really forgettable.

[Sooner04]

Lots of people bash and put down New Orleans, mostly because of bad feelings left over from the '04 Sugar Bowl. I'm not one of them.

I'm a bit of a history buff, and I hold a degree in history from the University of Oklahoma. I've made one trip to New Orleans, and it was for that wretched Sugar Bowl. I was cussed by LSU fans, and my girlfriend-now wife-was cussed by LSU fans. They were the rudest, most obnoxious jackasses I've ever had the misfortune of encountering.

That said, the city of New Orleans was amazing. Walking through the Quarter, wondering what historical figures had taken the very same steps. It just amazed me. I enjoyed every single minute of it.

Watching the waters pour in from Katrina was one of the saddest things I've ever seen. I'm glad to see the city is still in the process of bouncing back. America needs New Orleans. Way too much of our history is down there for us to simply write the place off.

[TUSooner]

Lots of people bash and put down New Orleans, mostly because of bad feelings left over from the '04 Sugar Bowl. I'm not one of them.

I'm a bit of a history buff, and I hold a degree in history from the University of Oklahoma. I've made one trip to New Orleans, and it was for that wretched Sugar Bowl. I was cussed by LSU fans, and my girlfriend-now wife-was cussed by LSU fans. They were the rudest, most obnoxious jackasses I've ever had the misfortune of encountering.

That said, the city of New Orleans was amazing. Walking through the Quarter, wondering what historical figures had taken the very same steps. It just amazed me. I enjoyed every single minute of it.

Watching the waters pour in from Katrina was one of the saddest things I've ever seen. I'm glad to see the city is still in the process of bouncing back. America needs New Orleans. Way too much of our history is down there for us to simply write the place off.

Thanks for that. I could not agree more about LSU's fans. They are simply ***holes, with few exceptions. They are much more docile afteer a loss.

My love-hate affair with New Orleans is not a secret. Some aspects of living here are disgusting. Other times you wonder why anybody would ever want to live anywhere else. The city is like an oyster the half shell - raw, a bit risky, and not for the faint-hearted, but delicious in its own way.

I was walking down the street the other day and saw the former US District Courthouse where Andy Jackson was held in contempt for refusing to lift martial law after the battle.

[12]

I was walking down the street the other day and saw the former US District Courthouse where Andy Jackson was held in contempt for refusing to lift martial law after the battle.

Did you tip them a $10 bill?