The 8th of January

The United States tried to take advantage, of a Britain engaged with Napoleon, to expand militarily. With mostly failed endeavors: Canada repulsed an invasion and the District of Columbia was attacked and the Executive Mansion burned, the man who commanded that campaign, Admiral George Cockburn, would later be Napoleon's jailer at St. Helena.

After the peace treaty was signed, but a month before the news reached the field, Andrew Jackson, a man without military training, commanded a great victory over a superior force at New Orleans on the 8th of January 1815. A fiddle tune, which came to be called, Jackson's Victory, and later, The 8th of January, was played.

James Corbett Morris was born in Mountain View, Arkansas. Nicknamed Driftwood as an infant [remember we are talking Arkansas here] grew up within a lively musical culture. His father was a local folk singer, and his grandfather gifted him a carved fiddle by his own hand. Jimmy graduated Arkansas Teachers College and taught history to the disinterested. He came to write the song, Battle of New Orleans, to teach his high schoolers history in 1941. The tune he used was The 8th of January. This was before Summerhill and inquiry, discovery and other John Dewey folderal. He blended his talents with historical accuracy and poetic creativity. After a time he came to notice in Nashville and his first album, Newly Discovered Early American Folk Songs, came out in 1958. Johnny Horton heard Driftwood's song, on the radio in 1959, and went on to cover it and reached number one with his version. Jimmy Driftwood went on to a successful musical career.

Battle of New Orleans

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
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 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 hell.

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.
_________
* words in bold sometimes censored