The Story of the Battle of New Orleans (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1915 edition. Excerpt: ... This author served in the battle of New Orleans and the parts of his book deal1ng with this conflict abound in curious and not ill-told anecdotes. As Parton says, the book has but one fault--you canr.ot believe a word it says, that is, implicitly. Nolte exaggerates and perverts and takes great joy in dwelling on the bravery of those who were his friends and supporters in a business way, and charges those who were in competition, with him in the business life of the city with every brand of cowardice known. That part of his memoir must necessarily be taken with a plentiful supply of salt. However, Nolte was the principal buyer and shipper of cotton then in New Orleans, so what he says regarding the use of cotton bales we must accept, and a perusal of the newspapers of that date bears out to a great degree what he says: "The use of cotton bales as an adjunct of field fortification was a failure," wrote Nolte. "Jackson adopted that plan because he was anxious to lose no time. He knew that in the city he could procure plenty of baled cotton for seven or eight cents a pound, the market then being at a standstill on account of the blockade and lack of freights. But it would take a day or two to bring it from the city. He was informed that not far from the camp, just in the rear of his position, lay a bark in the stream laden with cotton from Havana. The name of this vessel was the 'Pallas.' " (Nolte was in error here, newspapers of a later date, giving an account of a lawsuit, name the vessel as the "Sumatra.) "Her cargo consisted of 245 bales which I had shipped just before the invasion, and sixty-odd bales belonging to Senor Fernando Alzar, a Spanish cotton merchant of New Orleans" (277, as was brought out in the court proceedings). "The first I...