SW0142 Battle of New Orleans Defeat Proved Disastrous for Seminole

Seminole Wars Authority

Here’s a little known fact: A Seminole was responsible for the request that brought the British military into the Gulf Coast region during the War of 1812 and set the stage for the famous Battle of New Orleans. [see video series here: https://twoeggflorida.com/1812 or https://youtu.be/t7_dfEWBNYc] Then Chief Thomas Perryman was the Seminole.

You remember that battle, right? General Andrew Jackson and a ragtag force established impregnable defensive positions at New Orleans and whacked back the British on January 8, 1815. Someone later made a hit single about it in the 1950s, too. I chanted that one as an Army cadence decades later while marching in formation up and down the square.

It was a decisive tactical, operational, and strategic American victory. Tactical since the Americans held the field. Operational since they thwarted British attempts to take New Orleans and thus control of the Mississippi River as part of what we might call the New Orleans battle campaign. And strategic because, well, you’ll just need to keep listening as historian Dale Cox returns to provide the perspective.

Dale discusses how the American victory nearly led the Congress to reject the peace treaty – and how that might have been a strategic disaster for the Americans. The British were secretly hoping for that outcome. Why? Dale explains why. Also, how if the British had won the battle and overall campaign, their Parliament may very well have rejected the peace treaty as well – or demanded substantial revisions before ratifying it and thereby ending the war. Westward expansion might have been stopped dead in its tracks in the Mississippi River Delta had the British prevailed. As it was, this battle ensured the peace treaty would be ratified and that its provisions would prevail. The most pressing of these for our studies is that it meant the British left the region and left their Native American allies behind to fend for themselves with the Americans. That spelled bad news for the Seminole.

No image exists for Thomas Perryman and his grave is unmarked. His biographical entry is sketchy. Below, The TwoEggTV video feature series is on Roku and other streaming services and at https://twoeggflorida.com/1812 or https://youtu.be/t7_dfEWBNYc

Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Fla.

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