Maggie's Farm

General Brainfart Jackson fought in the Civil War, as a brigadier general in the army of Major General Jubilation T. Cornpone, best known for Confederate debacles such as "Cornpone's Retreat", "Cornpone's Disaster", and "Cornpone's Rout."

http://www.lil-abner.com/other.html

They were fine cities until ruined by a political party that began in the Irish enclaves of Massachusetts, proudly known as --I kid you not --the "Know Nothings".

The British force attacking New Orleans was the usual splendid Royal Navy --but the landing infantry had a hard several-days day slog-march up the river through a very spooky swamp, before it even got anywhere near the city. The troops were neither trained nor equipped nor informed for the degree of terrain hostility --which the Americans took full advatage of, harrying invisibly, especially at night, when the encamped British were fire bombed and hoodwinked and kept awake for the three days before the actual fight commenced.

Full on disaster, including failed direct frontal attacks against entrenched breastworks, was the result created at general staff level and rooted in a great underestimation of the un-uniformed irregulars defending.

Thud, Steve: You'd both enjoy

http://battleofneworleans.org/park.htm

--the table of contents is right there mid-page, and "What if the Americans had lost?"

http://battleofneworleans.org/park.htm#what

...is very good with quick sketches of vast alt. history scenarios. Y'all are right, that had the ''accidental'' battle been British-won, nothing would have stopped them from taking the river and making the Gulf a Canadian lake.

Had they won the BoNO --and THEN allowed Ghent to stop the Empire from eating the globe-changing low fruit, the British Empire would not have ever been the British anything.

Re the ''inward turn'' brought about via the combination of the muddled outcome of the sea war and the decisive outcome of the land war (more properly seen Chesapeake Bay to Gulf of Mexico as a frontier war for the sea/land approaches), where the Empire was left to Rule the Waves, the USA was left to turn to the Indian hostiles and treaty-wise Waive the Rules.

PS, a Longstreet-like element in the British command wanted to land at Mobile Bay, then march overland to the Mississippi and New Orleans, picking up Creek indian warriors all along the way. Creeks needed the wampun, and were bitter over having just lost 23 million acres of Creek territory to the Americans in the Red Stick War of 1813-15.

This would've put a large mixed British/Creek force in Jackson's rear to split his defense forces before a lighter more mobile landing below New Orleans. But the British commander Packenham, doing a Lee to Longstreet at Gettysburg, doing a Napoleon to Ley at Waterloo, opted for the frontal 'shock & awe' attack, one shot for all the marbles.