Faith and Fate: The Battle of New Orleans [pp. 365-376]

FAITH AND FATE.
in the selection condemned, and the preference of the government approved even in our day; or rather I have heard it said
that Arbre Rouge, some ten or twelve miles above the mouth of
the Maachac, would have been a more eligible selection than the
ground on which New Orleans is at present."
"So have I," said Col. Heartall, "but I am of a different opinion. But one solitary advantage would have been gained, the
escape now and then of a partial overflow, against many counterbalancing disadvantages. The city would have been further
removed from connection and commerce with the Lakes which
lie to the east, as also from the Gulf, increasing thereby the
distance of navigation by the river from the Balize, and the alternative or rather cumulative expense of towage or lighterage.
No vessel of heavy tonnage ever could have reached Arbre
Rouge through Lake Maurepas, the River Amite, and the Bayou
Manchac, even before the mouth of the Bayou was closed; and
as to health I have remarked that the prevalence of epidemics
at New Orleans is not more frequent or fatal, considering the
difference of population, than at Arbre Rouge."
"England, I should think," said Hamilton, "firom her recent
demonstration, has a proper appreciation of the advantages of
the position of New Orleans."
"Had!" said Colonel Heartall; "Her mind has perhaps
changed, the grapes, at the recent tasting, having proved slightly acid."
"The Battle of Chalmette is not an agreeable souvenir to English pride, I should think," said Monsieur G. "The English
memory, individual and national, is a strange faculty, indeed a
psychological anomaly, if it may be judged by a strange eclecticism of habit. It rejects every thing disagreeable, and retains
only things gratifying to the national vanity, or promotive of
the comfort or interest of the Englishman. It retains a lively
impression of national triumph, but no impression whatever of
national disaster, resembling in this respect the eyes and ears of
Catherine de Medicis, which could be blind and deaf, or otherwise, at pleasure."
" Perhaps," said Major D., "the brilliant victory of the Eighteenth of June exerted such an influence over the memory, as
looking at the sun produces on the sight, disqualified it for retaining an impression of objects less luminous or more obscure."
The Creoles shrugged their shoulders at this sally, and one of
them remarked that "the victory of Mont St. Jean- was as much
the result of English gold, as of Monseigneur Villainton's valor
or skill as a general."
"The Battle of New Orleans," said CoL Heartall, "in any
point of view, whether regard be had to the action itself, or its
results, is a more brilliant event in history than the Battle of
Waterloo. It was not a mere contest between militia and regulars, but between the rawest of militia, militia never before min
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