The Battle of New Orleans Revisited

 In 1924 an interesting account of St. Tammany Parish history was printed in the St. Tammany Farmer newspaper by an area resident calling himself Wildwood. This particular article was part of the "100 Years Ago In Covington" column regularly run in the paper at that time, one which discussed a wide range of topics. 

In these two articles the events sandwiched between the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 and Gen. Jackson's victory at the Battle of New Orleans in 1815 are shown to be of critical importance. Here is the first article:

ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO IN COVINGTON.

St. Tammany Farmer Nov. 29, 1924

(By Wildwood)

History tells us that Spain by reason of discovery and settlement once possessed much of the territory embraced by the Southern States of Alabama, Florida and Louisiana. The name given to Spain's possessions was the "Province of Florida. The geographical subdivisions of Louisiana now known as St. Tammany, Washington, St. Helena, Livingston and Tangipahoa parishes were at one period the boundaries of this Spanish "Province of Florida," and were long designated as the "Florida Parishes."

At one time Spain ceded part of the Province to Great Britain to whom the country belonged until the close of the war between that country and the United States in 1815, when Great Britain's claims were ceded to the United States by treaty of peace. About this time the American government purchased from Spain the remainder of the Province of Florida. In 1810, while all the region was still under Spanish domination an interesting event occurred that lights up a page in the history of Louisiana. 

Many native Americans had settled in the Florida Parishes and becoming tired of foreign rule they rose en masse, formed the "Free State of Florida," marched to Baton Rouge and defeated in battle the troops of the Spanish governor. The patriotic aim of these Americans was to be annexed to the United States and this came about peaceably a few years later.

In the early part of the last century when Congress and President Madison bought the territory from France known as "Louisiana," this name was applied to the section now comprised by the Central States and those that adjoined. This was the historic "Louisiana Purchase,' while the State of Louisiana was subsequently formed and admitted into the Union.

Battle of New Orleans

Herein is an outline of the past political status of the country that embraces St. Tammany parish:

Among the events that stand out prominently in the period of the past the conflict of the British and American armies on January 8th, 1815, near New Orleans, is notable to a high degree. Both in the Battle of New Orleans and the one at Baton Rouge, the patriot men of the Florida Parishes performed their duty.

The old account book told about is of historical value that warrants preservation.

A company of Louisiana State Militia, under Capt. John K. Goff, attached to General DeClouet's regiment, fought with Andrew Jackson and won a victory. Scores of these old names printed I venture to remark could be found on the roster of Capt. Goff's company, among them Morgan, Evans, Stafford, whom I have been told about. 

One of these, Ethelred Stafford, I can recall as a visitor to my boyhood home in New Orleans, when he took dinner one day during the time of the Civil War. This veteran was then an old man but active enough to get around and enjoy a good laugh.

Curiously enough I have found among these names from out of the past that of Noble Butler. When 1 was a boy at school in New Orleans years ago, I remember that the author of the grammar then used in the schools was Noble Butler, A. M., L. L. D. Were these two related in some way? Perhaps so, since a line contingent of representative American names in here offered. Farmers, artisans, teachers, and others who came from older states of the Carolinas, Georgia, Kentucky and Tennessee to settle here. Of what absorbing interest would be a recital of the story of St. Tammany parish around 1817.

The half cent figures in the price of many articles of merchandise entered in the 1817 account book (which has caused the editor to wonder what became of the half cents when settlement was made with country merchant. If I am not mistaken a silver coin of the value of 12 1/2 cents circulated in those days.

This piece of money was called a "bit," and though the coin long since passed out of circulation, the name still remains in some parts as when 25 cents is spoken of as "two bits" and 50 cents as "four bits."

Throughout the whole of the Florida Parishes many of the worthy names listed are still familiar to-day borne by descendants who look back with pride on their sturdy pioneer ancestry. The lives that were lived out in other days these, too, had their hopes and fears, their joys and sorrows, their romance and reality. The log house in the wilderness, the open hearth of the kitchen, where the good housewife prepared the welcome meal; the spinning wheel, the flickering light of the candle dip and a subtle touch tug at the heartstrings.

Slidell, La., Nov. 16, 1924.

Additional information about the Battle of New Orleans and the Louisiana Purchase was provided by the following 1902 article in the St. Tammany Farmer. It tells of the incredible importance of the victory in the Battle of New Orleans, the diplomatic trickery surrounding the entire affair, and flaws in the Louisiana Purchase which Britian was planning to exploit. The fate of the United States hung in the balance, and only Jackson's victory on the Chalmette battlefield prevented a national catastrophe. 

The article begins with an overview of the Louisiana Purchase and the 100th anniversary celebration being planned by a special commission in 1902. It then explores earlier reports of what President Jackson said about the negotiations leading to the Purchase. 

Here is the text of the article:

TALK WITH JACKSON

Great General's Comments on the Battle of New Orleans

Old Hickory's Wonderful Victory Meant Much More to the United States Than Most Historians Have Supposed.

[Special Washington Letter.]

The Louisiana Purchase commissioners are making considerable progress in their work, as shown by official and unofficial communications from the chairman of the board to eminent gentlemen in this city. The exposition will be a notable one, not only because of its general excellence, but because of the historic incidents thus commemorated. 

Concerning those events the writer has come into possession of some facts which are not generally known. While folks are celebrating the anniversary of the battle of New Orleans, this is an opportune time to talk of the events which led up to that battle.

On December 15, 1802, President Thomas Jefferson notified our Congress that Louisiana had been ceded to France. There was great excitement throughout the country and in Congress. After much persuasion and the exercise of limitless diplomacy, Jefferson induced the congress to permit him to send James Monroe to Paris with an appropriation of $2,000,000 for the purpose of negotiating for the purchase of Louisiana from Napoleon.

With the cooperation of Minister Livingston, at Paris, Mr. Monroe successfully conducted the negotiations, so that the cession was concluded April 30, 1803; a little more than four months after the congress was first notified of the cession from Spain to France. When it is remembered that it required almost a month to cross the ocean; that there were no cable or telegraphic means of communication; no telephones; no street cars, and that all negotiations were necessarily conducted in person, it must be conceded that the work was done as speedily as it was well done.

Flaws in Louisiana Purchase

After the treaty had been negotiated, M. Barbe Morbois, the head of the treasury of France, called the attention of Napoleon to some technical flaws in the wording of the treaty, and suggested that the American commissioner be recalled for the purpose of making corrections, but Napoleon said: "No. Let the flaws remain, so long as we only are aware of them. Later on, those flaws may be pointed out by one of my generals, at the head of an army corps."

The great military miracle, Napoleon, never had opportunity to take advantage of that flaw. Great Britain, however, a few years later, undertook to capture New Orleans, and with it the entire grand territory of Louisiana. It will sound strange to many, but it is a fact that there would be no Louisiana purchase commissioners today preparing to celebrate the expansion under Jefferson's administration if it had not been for Jackson's success at the Battle of New Orleans.

Only a thin American line of soldiers that day stood between British conquest and American integrity. Cotton bales played a great part in saving "the land of cotton" from a separation of greater danger to our national integrity than would have been the separation sought 40 years ago.(referring to the Civil War.)

It is a singular historical fact, by the way, that when the battle was fought at New Orleans, on January 6, 1815, Gen. Packenham and Gen. Jackson, the American commander, were not aware that on December 24 previously plenipotentiaries representing Great Britain and the United States had met at Ghent and had signed a treaty of peace, so that the war was practically over, although that treaty was not ratified by the United States senate until February 17, 1815.

And now we come to a historical anecdote of interest and value. Augustus C. Buell, now with Cramps at Philadelphia, was for many years one of the ablest and most capable newspaper men in our country. In 1875 Mr. Buell interviewed the late Goy. William Allen, of Ohio, at his home near Chitlicothe, for a St. Louis daily newspaper. 

In that interview, after discussing current political affairs, Gov. Allen said: "Shortly after the admission of Arkansas to statehood, I, being a member of congress, called at the White House. Gen. Jackson—he always preferred to be called general, rather than Mr. President, so we always addressed him by his military title — Gen. Jackson invited me to lunch with him. No sooner were we seated than he said: 'Mr. Allen, let us take a little drink to the new star in our flag—Arkansas." 

"This ceremony having been duly observed, the general said: 'Allen, if there had been disaster instead of victory at New Orleans, there would never have been a state of Arkansas. Did you know that?

"This, of course, interested me greatly, and I asked: 'Why do you say that, general?

Treaty of Ghent

"Then he said that If Packenham had taken New Orleans the British would have claimed and held the whole Louisiana purchase. But I said: 'You know, Gen. Jackson, that the Treaty of Ghent, which had been signed 15 days before the battle, provided for the restoration of all territory, places and possessions taken by either nation from the other during the war, with certain unimportant exceptions.'

"'Yes, of course,' he replied. 'But the minutes of the conference of Ghent, as kept by Mr. Gallatin, represent the British commissioners as declaring in exact words:

""'We do not admit Bonaparte's construction of the laws of nations. We cannot accept it in relation to any subject matter before us."'

"'At that moment,' pursued Gen. Jackson. 'none of our commissioners knew what the real meaning of these words was. When they were uttered the British commissioners knew that the Packenham expedition had been decided upon. Our commissioners did not know it. Now, since I have been chief magistrate, I have learned from diplomatic sources of the most unquestionable authority that the British ministry did not intend to permit the treaty of Ghent to apply to the Louisiana purchase at all. 

"The whole corporation of them — Pitt, the Duke of Portland, Grenville, Percival, Lord Liverpool and Castlereagh — denied in toto the legal right of Napoleon to sell Louisiana to us, and they held, therefore, that we had no right to that territory. So, you see, Allen, that the words of Mr. Goulburn, burn on behalf of the British commissioners, which I have quoted from Albert Gallatin's minutes of the conference, had a far deeper significance than our commissioners could penetrate. 

"Those words were meant to lay the foundation for a claim on the Louisiana purchase, entirely external to the provisions of the treaty of Ghent. In that way the British government was signing the treaty with one hand in front, while, with the other hand behind its back, it was dispatching Packenham's army to seize the fairest of our possessions.

"'You can also see, my dear William (having once or twice during the luncheon toasted the new star) 'you can also see what an awful mess such a situation would have caused if the British programme had been carried out in full. But Providence willed otherwise. All the tangled web that the cunning of English diplomats could weave around our unsuspecting commissioners at Ghent was torn to pieces and soaked with British blood in half an hour at New Orleans, by the never-missing rifles of my Tennessee and Kentucky pioneers. 

"And that ended it. British diplomacy could do wonders, but it couldn't provide against such a contingency as that. The British commissioners could throw sand in the eyes of ours at Ghent, but they could not avert the cold lead that my riflemen sprinkled in the faces of their soldiers at New Orleans. Now, Allen, you have the whole story. Now you know why Arkansas was saved at New Orleans.' "

There is a chapter of British soldiery and British diplomacy which it were well to have incorporated in our school histories. Gen. Packenham had a force of 14,000 men of all arms, and was on his way to New Orleans to overwhelm the thin American line, while the British commissioners were blandly preparing a treaty of peace—preparing it in a manner as dilatory as possible but carefully inserting the clause of treachery and unfairness.

Fortunately for the American cause, Gen. Packenham underestimated the fighting capacity of Jackson and his riflemen. Of the 14,000 men under his command Gen Packenham only took into the battle 5,601, the remaining troops were disposed guarding roads and making demonstrations along the river. 

But 5,601 British soldiers would have been sufficient to triumph over Jackson's 1,500, if they had been ordinary militia. But every man under Jackson's command was a sharpshooter. Every time a trigger was drawn a British soldier felt the lead. The slaughter was so appalling and so rapid and so unexpected that veteran British soldiers fled from the plain of Chalmette panic stricken, and many of them collapsed with nervous prostration. They were as brave men as Great Britain ever sent Into battle, but they never met with

such foemen.

So, when we are celebrating the anniversary of that battle, and toasting "Old Hickory," and while great preparations are being made for the celebration of the Centennial of the Louisiana Purchase, it is well for us to remember that American soldiery under Jackson cemented and riveted the diplomacy by which Jefferson acquired that magnificent empire beyond the Mississippi. 

SMITH D. FRY

St. Tammany Farmer

March 1, 1902

End of article

The St. Tammany Parish claim to fame in this historical drama is that General Jackson and some of his men came through Covington and Madisonville on their way to the scene of the battle in Chalmette. 

A historical marker in Covington at the end of Columbia Street

A historical marker on the Madisonville riverfront

To view the original article, click on the image below to make it larger. 

Although the "Florida Parishes," of which St. Tammany is one, were not officially included in the Louisiana Purchase, residents of the area wanted to be a part of the United States and successfully fought against the prevailing Spanish government and declared themselves to be a free and independent Republic of West Florida in 1810. The United States annexed the Florida Parishes shortly thereafter, much to the relief of many of the area's residents (although some of them wanted to remain a free and independent republic.)

Historical market in front of the tourist commission office

Links of interest:

Letter Found in Rafters 100 Years Later

The 72 Day Republic

Republic of West Florida Claims Examined

Major Tatum's Whirlwind Tour Through St. Tammany