In 1814 we took a little trip, along with...

Photo by D.B. King via Flickr, thank you!

....Colonel Jackson!

Andrew Jackson, long before he was US President, saved New Orleans during the War of 1812 in the famous Battle of New Orleans. The city loves this equestrian statue commemorating Jackson's salute to his troops, scultped in the 1850s by Clark Mills. It was the first statue of a rearing horse in the Americas, and it still hasn't toppled off its pedestal. It is one of the oldest equestrian statues in America and is the centerpiece of lovely Jackson Square, also named for the colonel, which is the green heart of the French Quarter. (Just look for the mule carriages and the fortune tellers and the tarot readers and the street musicians and the artists who hang their work on the wrought iron fence. Yes! that's the place!)

You'll see lots of images of this equestrian statue all over New Orleans. So far, no one has come up with a name for the horse. Apparently, Jackson was quite a horseman and rode several while he was in New Orleans. He preferred racehorses and even owned a racetrack back home in Tennessee!

Just a colonel from Tennessee in 1814, Jackson rode into an impossible situation. His men--who included Choctaws, pirates, freed African Americans, and slaves--were out-numbered two to one. They positioned themselves behind barricades of cotton bales, and lost only eight men, to the British death toll of 2000.

In 1959, a high school principal wrote a song to teach his students about the battle. It won a Grammy Award that year, as recorded by Johnny Horton, and I think we all sang it as kids but may not have understood the words. So here you go:

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.

(sing along with the chorus)

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,

he's gonna whip the britches off of Colonel Packingham.

(repeat chorus)

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).

(repeat chorus)

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.

(repeat chorus)

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.

(chorus)

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.

(end)

What the song doesn't tell you is that the war had ended two weeks earlier, but Jackson hadn't received word yet.

There's something about the gesture of Jackson doffing his hat to the city of New Orleans that makes it such a great symbol. This photo is by David Paul Ohmer, via Flickr. Thanks, David!