re: Dirty Shirts, Nuns, Pirates, and Old Hickory: The Battle of New Orleans

Learned some things
I didn't know.
—that’s what learning is, my friend.
PS— The Brits absolutely would have kept New Orleans. Their commander Packenham had an appointment in hand to become the British governor of LA and an enormous staff of servants and officials waiting in Jamaica to help him rule.

Last year, we visited the Shiloh battlefield, which was very nice, there was a bookstore and an exhibit center, and different battlefield tours. Very nice.
We also stopped off at Brice's Crossroads, which is administered by the state, and it was less impressive.

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
We fired our guns and the British kept a-comin'
There wasn't 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 a 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
We stood behind our cotton bales and didn't say a thing
We fired our guns and the British kept a-comin'
There wasn't 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
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 our squirrel guns and gave 'em
Well, we fired our guns and the British kept a-comin'
There wasn't 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
Yeah, they ran through the briers 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
On 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 cannonballs 'n' powdered his behind
And when we touched the powder off, the gator lost his mind
We fired our guns and the British kept a-comin'
There wasn't 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
Yeah, they ran through the briers 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
On down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico
Hut, two, three, four
Sound off, three, four
Hut, two, three, four
Sound off, three, four
Hut, two, three, four
Hut, two, three, four

There's a nice visitor center and cemetery at Corinth.

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Strictly my opinion, but I don’t believe the British would have stopped there. If New Orleans falls, I think the ultimate intention of the British would be to turn the young USA back into British colonies.

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I'm sure there were some Brits who wanted exactly that, but I doubt it was going to happen. Their chances were largely blown when the Creeks attacked Fort Mimms. That massacre put Jackson and two other armies in the field and the Creeks couldn't handle all that. The Brits had been urging them to wait until they could supply, train, and send troops to help them, but the (Redstick) Creeks wouldn't wait and jumped the gun.

But with New Orleans, the Brits could have checked the expansion of the US and have a very valuable asset.

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This article lost me in the second paragraph when he says the battle was "unnecessary." The Treaty of Ghent hadn't been ratified and we were still at war. And the British were not acquiescing in the validity of the Louisiana Purchase. Had they taken New Orleans there is a chance that they would not have given it back



Very true. Id say there’s a better than 50% chance they’d try to keep New Orleans and all of the original Louisiana Territory.

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... the majority of the people have no idea of how extremely important winning the Battle of New Orleans is and was ...

no idea

Reasons go back even before the Revolutionary War and if you knew you would be totally amazed of how it all progressed. You have to remember that half of the true facts have been ommited or revamped to possibly protect some very powerful families of that time period.
But Andrew Jackson knew from the get-go
He won the war then years later became president.
Do you realize what one of the first things he did when he became president?
He paid off the ENTIRE national debt
This was to prevent any bank, any one person to owned any part of the Louisiana Purchase as a marker of debt.
The Louisiana Purchase was owned by "we the people of the United States of America".

This was a great read, as you said, I learned some things I didn’t know, and I was once married to a Chalmation that grew up off Packenham Avenue.

... I apologize for veering off topic ...

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This was a great read, as you said, I learned some things I didn’t know, and I was once married to a Chalmation that grew up off Packenham Avenue.

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Imagine being General Packenham, brother in law to the Duke of Wellington, and your claim to fame is having a street in Chalmette named for you. I think there is a run down mobile home park out there that bears his name too.