Date Posted:06:50:24 03/31/07 Sat Author: Paul_G Author Host/IP: c-68-83-87-141.hsd1.de.comcast.net / 68.83.87.141 Subject: Re: Stop it! This is sacrilege! In reply to:
Carl
's message, "Re: Stop it! This is sacrilege!" on 18:49:23 03/30/07 Fri
>The troops at the battle of New Orleans weren't
>Wellington's veterans at all. The actual British
>standing army never made it to American shores during
>that war. I also fail to see how a batlle taking
>place after the American's pleaded for peace can
>change the outcome in the eyes of the people. Had
>they decided to continue the war off that, and the
>full force of British regualars arrived, we'd be
>seeing a much smaller USA today and an even bigger
>Canada.
"His opponent was General Sir Edward Pakenham, who led 7500 men - a large number of them experienced veterans from the Peninsular War."
Because of this, The Battle of New Orleans had an immense propaganda effect in the eyes of the people. Until then, they felt that they would have no chance at all of beating a real force of British regulars. In fact, Andrew Jackson was elected president largely because of the fact that he commanded the US troops there.
To Britain, it was a very minor footnote to the Napoleonic era, but over here it's one of the more famous battles in American history.
There's no doubt that Britain COULD have done much more over here if they had given America more attention. But they didn't. So the war ended with pretty much everything staying the same... that sounds like a draw to me.
