Posted on 01/08/2011 7:45:49 AM PST by SES1066
If you read about the Siege of Badajoz, from the Peninsular War, which General Pakenham and his troops came from, you will see that there were times that these head-on assaults did win, even against dug-in troops, in this case French. Yes there were tremendous casualties but the objectives were accomplished. Of course every battle is different and the same tactics that win in one place can do you in in another.
Narrative by Jimmy Driftwood:
After the Battle of New Orleans, which Andrew Jackson won on January the 8th eighteen and fifteen, the boys played the fiddle again that night, only they changed the name of it from the battle of a place in Ireland to the Eighth of January.
Years passed and in about nineteen and forty-five an Arkansas school teacher slowed the tune down and put words to it and that song is The Battle Of New Orleans and I will try to sing it for you.
(*Note -- two minor revisions were made for classroom use)
Well, in eighteen and 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 Lafitte [pronounced La-feet]
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, [damn]
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 [em h*ll].
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.
Bang ping!
Bookmarked.
Thanks SES1066, good stuff!
Useless trivia: The ‘hounds’ in the song were not hounds at all... They were the Catahoula Cur, a mixed breed of Greyhound and Mastiff brought by Spanish Explorers years before.
Cool, good looking dogs for sure. Not recommended unless your ‘yard’ is acreage...
The Battle of New Orleans was a foregone conclusion. The ladders were too short to scale the walls and there wern’t enough of them in any case, so all the British could do was march forth bravely and get shot down. Had the war continued longer, Packenham would probably have done his country a favour by getting himself killed in that battle, because the man was clearly an idiot.
It is notable however, that his successor John Lambert (who ordered a retreat in defiance of Packenham’s dying orders), won the last significant engagement of the war by taking Fort Bowyer just before a planned attack on Mobile, Alabama, which was cancelled when news of the treaty arrived...
As for the war of 1812, anyone who has watched Sharpe will know that the riflemen were an important component of the British Army by this time, with many light companies being equipped with the Baker Rifles as well as the 5th battalion the 60th Regiment, which fought in the Americas during the War of 1812, as well as an entire regiment, the 95th Rifles....
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