 |
| THE STARS AND STRIPES OF THE WAR OF 1812 |
The Star Spangled Banner was written during the War of 1812, which is sometimes called "the second war of American independence." It was an awful war, that the new nation barely survived. A war in which even the then-new Presdent's House was burned by the British when they took the capital of Washington, DC.
Francis Scott Key, author of the poem that much later was set to music and became our national anthem, was a prisoner on a British man-o'-war when he penned it. Ended primarily by diplomatic maneuvers and groveling before our former masters, one of the few bright spots for the Americans was Andrew Jackson's brilliant victory at New Orleans, and that after the war was officially ended.
Audaciously, the Monroe Doctrine was declared by America almost as an afterthought to the war: a doctrine that successfully helped keep European despots out of the Western Hemisphere for two centuries, until the present administration declared it an anachronism; an act of betrayal for which we will pay a great price in patriots blood at some future time.
Our national anthem is a poignant poem, written with hope, when little hope was to be found, except in the proud stripes and bright stars still waving in the "dawn's early light."To make matters even more ridiculous, the poem was married to an old drinking song that is almost impossible to sing unless one is half in the bag. But, nobody ever said freedom, democracy and human rights were easy tunes to cary, either.
No matter how bad things seem to be, keep your eyes on that flag, and keep your powder dry, in case we have to take another little trip somewhere.
Back in 1959, I and my young friends sang the following popular song along with the juke box in our neighborhood bar. Things weren't going so well then, either.
THE BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS
by Johnny Horton, 1959
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.
[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' on
Down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.
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 the bugles ring.
We stood by our cotton bales and didn't say a thing.
[Chorus]
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 with squirrel guns and really gave 'em ... well
[Chorus]
Yeah, 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 that the hounds couldn't catch 'em
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 cannon balls, and powdered his behind
And when we touched the powder off, the gator lost his mind.
[Chorus]
Yeah, 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 that the hounds couldn't catch 'em
Down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.
No comments:
Post a Comment