November 1, 2008
The War of 1812 was over.
A peace treaty between the warring countries, Great Britain and the United States, was signed in Ghent, Belgium on Christmas Eve, 1814 by the British and the American commissioners: minister to Russia (and future Secretary of State, U.S. Representative and President) John Quincy Adams, former U.S. Senator and U.S. Representative James A. Bayard, Sr., Speaker of the House (and future Secretary of State) Henry Clay, Minister to Sweden and Norway Jonathan Russell, and Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin [The eleven articles of the Treaty of Ghent declared that the US and Britain would go back to the status quo ante bellum, or the precise state of affairs as before the war began. On paper, it was as if the war had never been fought.] Most striking, London sent a group of lesser ministers whereas The United States dispatched some of its “heaviest hitters.” (Actually, at the outset, the US case didn’t look good.) [There’s a great “story in a story” about Henry Clay’s card parties breaking up at 5:00 a.m. as the puritanical John Q. Adams was getting up from bed to begin his morning devotional; there were several instances where Adams and Clay didn’t “play well together” while in Belgium.]
But…back to the war….
Neither General Edward Pakenham, commanding the British, nor Andrew Jackson, leading a defense of the southern U. S. city, received word hostilities had ended. In January of 1815, after rooting out pockets of resistance around New Orleans, the British turned their sights toward the main city. The Mississippi River emptied into the Gulf of Mexico at the city of New Orleans and as such the entire area was vital to the U. S. economy as a navigable waterway. Some of Pakenham’s troops were fresh from victory over Napoleon in Europe prior to entering the war in North America.
A fortification of the city, under Jackson’s direction, utilizing natural obstacles and blockades of barrels, bales and similar unorthodox materials, forced the British to employ, although quite large, essentially a single, one direction entry to the city, bounded on the sides by the river and marshy land, the Americans poised in wait. “Don’t shoot until you see the whites of their eyes,” (wait until the attackers are close, then fire like hell, like the Battle of Bunker Hill) allowed the Americans, a ragtag collection of army regulars, state militias, Indians, Cajuns and other civilians, to repulse the British. The skirmish proved to be utterly abysmal for the attacking Britons, who lost several high-ranking officers.
The “battle that didn’t need to be fought” was the worst and bloodiest engagement of the War of 1812 for England.
“I call that bold talk for a one-eyed fat man.”
“I want you to bury 'em for me. I'm in a hurry.”
“They're dead?”
“Well, I wouldn't want you to bury 'em if they wasn't.”
True Grit
To a ‘wishful thinker’ or excuses maker,
"If ‘ifs and buts’ was candy and nuts we'd all have a Merry Christmas."
Parting words,
"If I'm not back in 30 days, call the police."
Pitiful,
“She's just down right sorry.”
Long association,
“I been knowin’ him since he was knee-high to a grasshopper.”
Doing well physically,
“I’m finer than frog hair!'
“Calm down”,
“You go sit down ‘til you get over that duck fit.”
Behave!,
“I'm fixin’ to jerk a knot in your tail!"
Leveled,
“It’s flatter than a gander's arch.”
Shut the window,
“Would you close that new-monia hole?”
Physically large,
“She was so big it was easier to go over the top of her than around her.”
Quick,
“Boy, that was faster than a knife fight in a phone booth.”
Dry [extreme].
“It's drier than Happy Hour with Lemonade Lucy.”
(President Hayes’ teetotaler wife, Lucille, who served water, tea and lemonade at White House functions,.)
Social outcast,
“He’s lower than an egg-suckin’ dog.”
Time to get out of bed,
"Wake up, wake up, day's a-breakin' – yonder comes a hare with his tail a-shakin'.”
Unlikely,
“That’ll happen when pigs fly.”
A response to “When pigs fly”,
“There’ll be pork in the treetops come mornin’.”
“I am not asleep… I was just checking for holes in my eyelids.”
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