In December 1814, during the waning days of the War of 1812, over eighteen thousand British soldiers and sailors landed in southern Louisiana and prepared for an assault on New Orleans. The British had complete naval supremacy, and their troops were battle-hardened veterans of the Napoleonic Wars. The defenders were an ad hoc assemblage of Louisiana militiamen, New Orleans free men of color, Caintuck National Guardsmen, and, famously, a smattering of outlaws led by the notorious Jean Lafitte.

The British were (or so they believed) better armed, better equipped, trained, and they had the clear advantage of numbers. The Royal Navy guaranteed control of the waters, allowing them to land troops anywhere they wished. The British general was an experienced and respected officer who expected to brush aside the Louisianians with ease and take control of the city and, by extension, the entire Mississippi River. Instead they were frustrated, bloodied, stymied, and sent home in disgrace.

Today as I crossed Rampart Street, so named because it was once the site of the fortifications defending this city in its early days, I watched as a new stream of red-clad invaders poured into New Orleans. Just as in 1815, they are representatives of an oppressive foreign polity -- whether George III and the Divine Right of Kings or Saban and the Process, their reigns are based on devotion to authoritarianism and, at times, an apparent propensity for mental illness. These invaders too believe they are better trained and better prepared, and although they come armed with Rivals stars and not smoothbore muskets, they too have the advantage of numbers

There are parallels on our side as well. These Tigers, too, are a diverse group of Louisiana natives, holdover Frenchmen, free men of New Orleans, and Caintucks from the Appalachian frontier. Even (or so it is rumored) an outlaw or two. We even have a Claiborne (compare).

Our field general, again, is a transplant from parts north who arrived here best known for his victories in the Indian Territories, but whose name is now inextricably linked with his successes in the State of Louisiana. In the conventional wisdom, both are considered inferior leaders to their maroon-jacketed opponents; both have made a career of proving the conventional wisdom wrong. By this time tomorrow Alabama – like the British, bruised, beaten, and embarrassed -- will be on its way back to Tuscaloosa knowing it has inexorably ceded the SEC West to the Tigers of LSU. Perhaps, in their honor, we will rename the 10/12 interchange in Slidell "Gump Turn."

At the same time, the upcoming victory, like our victory in January 1815, is something of a sideshow. Just as the Treaty of Ghent some weeks earlier had already settled the War of 1812, so too the Tigers’ thrilling win in November, on our opponent’s home territory, established, without any shadow of a doubt, that the true national champion has already been decided. But victory in the Battle of New Orleans proved to both sides that any English designs of superiority over the American continent were dead, and our victory tonight shall hammer home to Alabamans that any dreams of reasserting dominance over the SEC are a thing of the past. Like the British, theirs is a crumbling empire, reliant on memories of past glories and unable to realize that a new superpower has arisen.

I leave you with a quote from General Jackson to the citizens of Louisiana, dated December 15, 1814, with some minor alterations for the present day (it even sounds like something Miles would say ):

quote:
The major-general commanding has, with astonishment and regret, learned that great consternation and alarm pervade your city. It is true the enemy is on our coast and threatens an invasion of our territory, but it is equally true, with union, energy, and the approbation of heaven, we will beat him at every point his temerity may induce to set foot upon our soil. The general, with still greater astonishment, has heard that [Alabama] emissaries have been permitted to propagate seditious reports among you, that the threatened invasion is with a view of restoring the [SEC] to [the Tide], from a supposition that some of you would be willing to return to [the Curley Hallman era.] Believe not such incredible tales… it is the vital enemy of your country, the common enemy of mankind, the highway robber of the world that threatens you… and every bosom which glows with patriotism and virtue [and want], will be inspired with indignation, and pant for the arrival of the hour when we shall meet and revenge those outrages against the laws of civilization and humanity.

Be confident, Tiger fans. Through our fortitude, through our passion, through our resilience, and with the timely intercession of Our Lady of Prompt Succor -- victory will once again be ours.

God bless the State of Louisiana.

God bless of City of New Orleans.

And Geaux Tigers.

This post was edited on 1/9/12 at 12:55 pm