The Battle of New Orleans

Here’s a curious little story about the teaching of history in this country that is so steeped in its own history. Sometime, way back in the 1970’s, Susan and I were discussing American history when I made some remark about the War of 1812. Susan, who is well educated and very well read, had never heard of it. I explained what happened and hit the highlights: the siege of Baltimore and the writing of the Star Spangled Banner, the burning of the White House in Washington and the battle of New Orleans and Andy Jackson. We speculated that this war had been left out of her education because the British didn’t win. Two in a row against the Yanks would have been would have a bit of education too far.

According to Wikipedia, “Johnny Horton's 1959 version is the best-known recording of the [Battle of New Orleans], which omits the mild expletives and much of the historical references of the original. Horton also recorded an alternative version for release in British Commonwealth countries which did not have unfavourable lyrics concerning the British: the word "British" was replaced with "Rebels", along with a few other differences.” Lonny Donegan, of Skiffle Group fame, also recorded the song in England using almost the same lyrics as Horton’s American version.

Now days, the song comes up on Radio 4 every couple years, and guess what, it’s always the Horton British version with Rebels instead of British who ran though the brambles.