Historia Obscura | Site-Wide Activity https://www.historiaobscura.com/activity/ Activity feed for the entire site. Wed, 03 Oct 2018 01:43:11 +0000 https://buddypress.org/?v= en-US 30 hourly 2 5fddc09ffc4fd89b800d8d9077120ab7 Pam Keyes wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/?p=9018 Tue, 02 Oct 2018 00:58:57 +0000 A noise began from the back of the massive crowd, light at first, then swelling gradually as it spread, as the next speaker was introduced to the throng of some 6,000 present. The name of Major Davezac was […]

]]> 1864b19326cf92e56b0203ba648e0b03 Pam Keyes wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/?p=9010 Wed, 21 Feb 2018 21:42:18 +0000 Privateer-smuggler Jean Laffite’s active service at the Battle of New Orleans on Gen. Andrew Jackson’s line is firmly verified by eyewitness testimonies found in newly digitized pension records of the Nat […]

]]> 108c05879d6d6b90d879dd1d66395c86 Pam Keyes wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/?p=9006 Sun, 11 Feb 2018 21:56:35 +0000 Engineer-mapmaker, War of 1812 historian, architect and erstwhile secret agent Arsene Lacarriere Latour comes vibrantly to life in the new English translation of “A Visionary Adventurer, Arsene Lacarriere L […]

]]> e81c282b60b5294be69b5b09a91723d8 Pam Keyes wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/?p=8994 Sat, 18 Nov 2017 22:27:45 +0000  

Ethics meant everything to attorney John Dick, an Irish emigrant to New Orleans. He felt compelled in May 1813 to ensure everyone else knew that, too, even if it meant possibly provoking a duel with his […]

]]> 219b3878c4e93e15e943307de5d1be4d Pam Keyes wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/?p=8987 Fri, 07 Apr 2017 21:22:24 +0000 Privateer Jean Laffite, a hero of the Battle of New Orleans, took control of the Island of Galveston in a bloodless coup two hundred years ago this April 8, taking the small pirate base which had been used […]

]]> fc02a25e7aba6b69b065d4ff068f38f2 Pam Keyes wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/?p=8972 Sat, 17 Sep 2016 21:02:38 +0000 Spying, smuggling, and possibly abetting treasonous conspirators against the United States are not actions most historians would associate with explorer William Clark of Lewis and Clark 1803-1806 Expedition […]

]]> da017d8434b4bf9460cc5bd59341eab1 Pam Keyes wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/?p=8963 Wed, 18 May 2016 01:41:11 +0000  

Astonishingly, only one vote from a very young Tennessee state representative handed Thomas Jefferson the presidency of the United States in the 1800 Election.

The 25-year-old who cast that ballot was […]

]]> cb9b935ddbf16e4607454c8926047c39 Pam Keyes wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/?p=8935 Fri, 11 Mar 2016 19:33:11 +0000 When notorious Gulf Coast pirate William Mitchell came back from the dead in 1835, he looked like a zombie from Hell.

One-eyed, the man was covered with horrible scars, evidence of many deep and dangerous […]

]]> a535666fbf7d7b2ff22af16ab536410d Pam Keyes wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/?p=8923 Thu, 18 Feb 2016 18:06:12 +0000 Methodist missionary Daniel F. De Putron sought more adventure in his life, so in late spring of 1841 he bought a small schooner in New Orleans, got a sidekick of an affable Irishman with the nickname of […]

]]> 82dfa0213c7a6c6869765759f9dcd7bb Pam Keyes wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/?p=8918 Sat, 30 Jan 2016 23:56:55 +0000 Irish pirate Paddy Scott terrorized residents and visitors of the Mobile Bay area for some ten years over the 1820s and 1830s, earning himself national notoriety as that “vile pirate.” Oddly, no one now seem […]

]]> 95fcb47f7910dc0f77f0ce32eca312c6 Pam Keyes wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/?p=8907 Tue, 01 Dec 2015 05:37:32 +0000 At least part of the Jean Laffite journal collection at Sam Houston Regional Library at Liberty, Texas can be proven authentic through association with a portrait of Laffite never a part of the archives of […]

]]> 51e2d2ddef0bfef207be9929e9499e3a Pam Keyes wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/?p=8900 Thu, 19 Nov 2015 01:30:07 +0000 Life was good for the New Orleans business firm of Chew & Relf in the early 1800s: young partners Beverly Chew and Richard Relf controlled a virtual monopoly of the banking, shipping, trading, insurance, and […]

]]> 3e154cf3c022c22380239383949d1a58 Pam Keyes commented on the post, The Letter That Tried to Scuttle the Baratarians' Pardon http://www.historiaobscura.com/the-letter-that-tried-to-scuttle-the-baratarians-pardon/#comment-6063 Sat, 10 Oct 2015 15:24:55 +0000 Poindexter seems to have been quite jealous of Livingston’s close attachment to Jackson during the campaign against the British, particularly the fact that Livingston basically wrote every public speech Jackson […]

]]> 2743176214fcb0ad1414a865360fd861 Aya Katz commented on the post, The Letter That Tried to Scuttle the Baratarians' Pardon http://www.historiaobscura.com/the-letter-that-tried-to-scuttle-the-baratarians-pardon/#comment-6062 Sat, 10 Oct 2015 13:50:37 +0000 Excellent article! I think that there are two points that Poindexter entirely missed: 1) the Barararians were not pirates and 2) they could not have been allowed to serve in the Battle of New Orleans had the […]

]]> cfcee1f5a8a8e1cacda451fef6097d02 Pam Keyes wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/the-letter-that-tried-to-scuttle-the-baratarians-pardon/ Sat, 10 Oct 2015 02:52:26 +0000 Thumbnail 

If George Poindexter had been Sec. of War or President during the end of the War of 1812, the Laffites and Baratarians would never have been pardoned for their service and assistance to General Andrew […]

]]> c93dd6bf53da265a9702b3ab109748e0 Pam Keyes wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/john-dicks-letter-to-monroe-honoring-the-baratarians/ Tue, 04 Aug 2015 18:07:07 +0000 Thumbnail 

John Dick, US District Attorney for Louisiana in 1815, was a man with a conscience, a strong devotion to what was fair and just, even when it conflicted with an earlier opinion that he had fostered. He […]

]]> 793150df9aeef24b1ca94e681159db92 Pam Keyes wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/nathaniel-pryor-the-unsung-veteran-of-the-battle-of-new-orleans/ Wed, 04 Mar 2015 05:24:28 +0000 Thumbnail

 

 

Among the American soldiers in the Battle of New Orleans, Capt. Nathaniel Pryor is one whose name shows up in no histories of that great battle. Oddly, Capt. Pryor, who served in the 44th Infantry […]

]]> 72042776cc5de81850e395eb4750dd04 J-Hanna commented on the post, The Spy Who Led the British to the Back Door of New Orleans in 1814 http://www.historiaobscura.com/the-spy-who-led-the-british-to-the-back-door-of-new-orleans-in-1814/#comment-5047 Mon, 12 Jan 2015 22:23:16 +0000 Interesting history lesson, and genealogy one as well.

]]> cf9bf80be65292d3afaba535a39d5c85 Pam Keyes wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/the-spy-who-led-the-british-to-the-back-door-of-new-orleans-in-1814/ Sun, 11 Jan 2015 01:04:08 +0000 Thumbnail

Because he was multilingual and adept at spying, the 23-year-old Capt. Robert Cavendish Spencer, an ancestor of the current British royal family, was one of the most valuable assets the British forces had […]

]]> 7a7360b45bd397c6944ea7c6c2e0e385 Aya Katz commented on the post, The Last Battle of Chalmette http://www.historiaobscura.com/the-last-battle-of-chalmette/#comment-5007 Wed, 07 Jan 2015 14:22:56 +0000 This was a very enjoyable read, giving a glimpse into the politics of the day. I found it especially amusing that Story felt that anyone opposing his plan might be an “alien-hearted American.” Did he perhaps mean […]

]]> 7754c92f68fa2d7971166aecbd8295c6 Pam Keyes wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/the-last-battle-of-chalmette/ Mon, 05 Jan 2015 23:54:12 +0000 Thumbnail

The last battle of Chalmette was fought by genteel ladies wielding fountain pens, not swords, in 1935 as the site of the US triumph over the British was in the process of becoming a national historical park. […]

]]> 4ef804971ba6ad6ff889599baa80cc1c Governor commented on the post, An Interview with Pam Keyes about Jean Laffite http://www.historiaobscura.com/an-interview-with-pam-keyes-about-jean-laffite/#comment-4922 Fri, 02 Jan 2015 01:22:21 +0000 Hi, Theo. The original French language Journal of Jean Laffite, together with accompanying documents, is owned by the Sam Houston Regional Library in Liberty, Texas. I got my photocopy from them. I do not know of […]

]]> 7d3823b9e298ab048a957f2964e88fff Pam Keyes wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/pattersons-mistake-the-battle-of-lake-borgne-revisited/ Tue, 30 Dec 2014 00:55:00 +0000 Thumbnail

American Commodore Daniel T. Patterson made the single biggest mistake of the Louisiana portion of the War of 1812 when he deployed almost all of his naval force to patrol and spy along the coastal area of […]

]]> d1d462e89fc0147b12a7489b6a909324 Pam Keyes commented on the post, Eyewitness Report of Jean Laffite at Chalmette Battlefield http://www.historiaobscura.com/eyewitness-report-of-jean-laffite-at-chalmette-battlefield/#comment-4750 Sun, 21 Dec 2014 23:59:28 +0000 Yes, I wish the author of the account would have signed his letter, but his note that Butler also was aware of the fact of Laffite’s service is significant.

]]> 3426f4c0e653e8475ec088f9d3a52e27 Aya Katz commented on the post, Eyewitness Report of Jean Laffite at Chalmette Battlefield http://www.historiaobscura.com/eyewitness-report-of-jean-laffite-at-chalmette-battlefield/#comment-4749 Sun, 21 Dec 2014 23:51:02 +0000 I’m glad you found this proof from a contemporary who was there. It should take care of any doubts anyone may have entertained during the current spate of revisionism. It also fits in with what the Journal of Jean […]

]]> 42b0e6061cff167d9bb325f2830bd0ad Pam Keyes wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/eyewitness-report-of-jean-laffite-at-chalmette-battlefield/ Sun, 21 Dec 2014 23:02:20 +0000 ThumbnailMuch has been made this past year over just exactly where Jean Laffite was during the battles against the British in December, 1814, and Jan. 1815, particularly regarding Jackson’s line at Chalmette. Here is what […]

]]> a0019d3fbb22bb266093bbe712ed7aef Pam Keyes commented on the post, The Saga of Melita and the Patterson-Ross Raid at Barataria http://www.historiaobscura.com/the-saga-of-melita-and-the-patterson-ross-raid-at-barataria/#comment-4701 Fri, 19 Dec 2014 00:55:03 +0000 ADDENDA: There is a fascinating postscript to the story of the Melita, as after writing this article, I discovered the name of the ship was among the vessels Jean Laffite said were his, in the Journal of Jean […]

]]> d80c494e7288842f07448392e3e8aecf Pam Keyes wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/the-saga-of-melita-and-the-patterson-ross-raid-at-barataria/ Mon, 15 Dec 2014 18:04:47 +0000 Thumbnail
A series of unfortunate events plagued Joseph Martinot, supercargo of the Carthagenian merchant schooner Melita. First, he had been stymied in his attempt to enter the Mississippi and arrive at New Orleans by […]

]]> 47683061803fb23ea4f5365531d9cf04 Pam Keyes wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/the-case-of-the-spanish-prize-ship-at-dauphin-island/ Mon, 08 Dec 2014 05:05:52 +0000 Thumbnail

Capt. Nicholas Lockyer of HMS Sophie was furious when he gave the order to weigh anchor just off Grande Terre island on Sept. 4, 1814. He and his fellow British officers had been released a couple of hours […]

]]> 838befb03b45adf9b10a0d9e1280ca0b Aya Katz commented on the post, Andrew Jackson's Fine and the Place of Martial Law in American Politics http://www.historiaobscura.com/andrew-jacksons-fine-and-the-place-of-martial-law-in-american-politics/#comment-4384 Fri, 21 Nov 2014 21:11:47 +0000 That’s an interesting observation. So from the standpoint of a disinformation campaign it worked.

]]> af15e4710e03bd9540b40087e5f70fb0 Aya Katz commented on the post, Andrew Jackson's Fine and the Place of Martial Law in American Politics http://www.historiaobscura.com/andrew-jacksons-fine-and-the-place-of-martial-law-in-american-politics/#comment-4382 Fri, 21 Nov 2014 18:41:00 +0000 Thanks, Pam, for providing the extra information of why it was that the entry of spies into the city could not be prevented by the imposition of martial law. The flints and powder provided by the Laffites were […]

]]> cc53dc2528e0654d66b0eab929f7c192 Aya Katz wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/andrew-jacksons-fine-and-the-place-of-martial-law-in-american-politics/ Fri, 21 Nov 2014 14:13:17 +0000 Thumbnail 

Andrew Jackson resented mightily the fine imposed on him by Judge Dominick Hall in New Orleans in 1815 for contempt of court. At the very end of his life, with death approaching, Jackson campaigned for […]

]]> 017f8fbed9cf0d68260acff69933f772 Pam Keyes commented on the post, Cobbett the Body-Snatcher, or What Happened to Thomas Paine's Corpse http://www.historiaobscura.com/cobbett-the-body-snatcher-or-what-happened-to-thomas-paines-corpse/#comment-4303 Sun, 16 Nov 2014 00:01:44 +0000 How fascinating! But if the graveyard of the church has been cleared, where did all those burials go? They would have been re-interred elsewhere, right? The mystery continues, but I hope Paine’s bones did finally […]

]]> 13a83f431c8a9c1ed6b50d1e057f5b8f Pam Keyes wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/cobbett-the-body-snatcher-or-what-happened-to-thomas-paines-corpse/ Mon, 27 Oct 2014 04:03:59 +0000 Thumbnail

Even  before Thomas Paine  had died, at least one of his “friends” had designs on acquiring his skull.

John Wesley Jarvis,  an artist who was a close associate of the  author of “Common Sense,” asked Paine […]

]]> c2febe993a9100016d058bd3bef27c20 Pam Keyes wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/the-poison-pen-duels-of-william-duane-and-peter-porcupine/ Thu, 16 Oct 2014 04:42:33 +0000 Thumbnail 

 

Some eight thousand  times a day, six days a week,  pressmen  cranked the heavy wooden press of the Weekly Aurora newspaper  of Philadelphia. They were printing platens of tiny type on the Aurora’s […]

]]> 68621c5ace5966f3d3e0e5d952fe9ace Governor wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/talk-at-laffite-society-meeting-october-14-2014/ Sun, 12 Oct 2014 13:48:44 +0000 ThumbnailThere will be a talk about the effect of the changing laws about privateering on the career of Jean Laffite  October 14, 2014 at 6 pm at the Laffite Society Meeting at the Meridian Towers in Galveston, […]

]]> 267bf615f32015ce6e529b0ebc62a61c Pam Keyes wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/laffite-talk-at-battle-of-new-orleans-historical-symposium-jan-10-2015/ Sun, 05 Oct 2014 19:55:26 +0000 Thumbnail 

Get your travel plans ready now for the Third Annual Battle of New Orleans Historical Symposium slated Jan. 9 and 10,  2015,  at Nunez Community College Auditorium at Chalmette, La., near the Jean Lafitte […]

]]> 51becde75f588c3763321bc60b51f6a7 Pam Keyes commented on the post, The Aurora Editor Snipes at Britain, Post War of 1812 http://www.historiaobscura.com/the-aurora-editor-snipes-at-britain-post-war-of-1812/#comment-3716 Tue, 30 Sep 2014 18:29:53 +0000 I believe Jackson was one of the avid readers of the Weekly Aurora, and there certainly had to have been some sort of connection to editor Duane, considering when Jackson became president, he named Duane’s son, […]

]]> aa0247bb373bd7d9974b9bca50b5605f Aya Katz commented on the post, The Aurora Editor Snipes at Britain, Post War of 1812 http://www.historiaobscura.com/the-aurora-editor-snipes-at-britain-post-war-of-1812/#comment-3715 Tue, 30 Sep 2014 16:03:41 +0000 This is quite interesting. The phrasing “the savage, who had never known the restraints of civilized life. and the pirate, who had broken the bonds of society, were alike the subjects of British conciliation” […]

]]> 82abf1318d4dda209d50c5aa29debf3a Pam Keyes wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/the-aurora-editor-snipes-at-britain-post-war-of-1812/ Tue, 30 Sep 2014 01:56:58 +0000 Thumbnail

With one of those quill pens he so often had wielded to acidulously attack targets in his Weekly Aurora newspaper at Philadelphia, Editor William Duane  reflected at length in March 1815 about the Causes and […]

]]> a7aae94664028527eb47134eeb459598 Jerilee Wei commented on the post, Jean Laffite and the Treaty of Ghent -- Satirical Editorial of 1814 http://www.historiaobscura.com/jean-laffite-and-the-treaty-of-ghent_a-satirical-editorial-of-1814/#comment-3659 Tue, 23 Sep 2014 22:04:04 +0000 Thanks for the delightful perspective that certainly shows there wasn’t just one perspective.

]]> d89252fbbb7095274aa7d5ab5151c1e5 Pam Keyes commented on the post, Jean Laffite and the Treaty of Ghent -- Satirical Editorial of 1814 http://www.historiaobscura.com/jean-laffite-and-the-treaty-of-ghent_a-satirical-editorial-of-1814/#comment-3620 Thu, 18 Sep 2014 19:39:30 +0000 I just checked out articles in the Aurora for the weeks previous to the satire article re the Ghent business, and editor Duane discussed at length some of the preposterous demands of Great Britain in the September […]

]]> d8f03aca30aeeb6b114c79606d44e199 Aya Katz commented on the post, Jean Laffite and the Treaty of Ghent -- Satirical Editorial of 1814 http://www.historiaobscura.com/jean-laffite-and-the-treaty-of-ghent_a-satirical-editorial-of-1814/#comment-3618 Thu, 18 Sep 2014 13:52:39 +0000 This is very interesting, indeed! Does this mean that the general terms of the Treaty of Ghent were already known to the editors of the Aurora in November 1814, when it was only just signed December 24, 1814? In […]

]]> 853128ab638d48472f7a5113d603b4c8 Pam Keyes wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/jean-laffite-and-the-treaty-of-ghent_a-satirical-editorial-of-1814/ Thu, 18 Sep 2014 02:59:31 +0000 Thumbnail
While angling in the old newspaper archives, the following wonderfully  satirical editiorial about Jean Laffite and the War of 1812 Treaty of Ghent negotiations was discovered in the Nov. 11, 1814,  issue of the […]

]]> 8cd3818896726e7bad64dd0fa5752dd1 Aya Katz commented on the post, The First Battle of New Orleans Poem http://www.historiaobscura.com/the-first-battle-of-new-orleans-poem/#comment-3605 Tue, 16 Sep 2014 12:40:48 +0000 It is a grand poem, but no mention of the Baratarians and Laffite?

]]> d035c41cb851723b3eb4925f31aaed4a Pam Keyes wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/the-first-battle-of-new-orleans-poem/ Tue, 16 Sep 2014 02:41:19 +0000 Thumbnail
The following is believed to be the first poem written about the Battle of New Orleans, published in the New Orleans Gazette in either late February or early March 1815, and reprinted widely in newspapers […]

]]> b8607a1ee09c78135ef7201222c471e6 Jerilee Wei commented on the post, Was Your Ancestor A United States Sea Fencible? http://www.historiaobscura.com/was-your-ancestor-a-united-states-sea-fencible/#comment-3597 Mon, 15 Sep 2014 15:47:49 +0000 Yes. I would start with the wonderful Maryland Historical Society library in Baltimore and then move to the National Archives in DC.

]]> 6690cec95ed34050d8e85311e65366f0 Pam Keyes wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/capt-percys-folly-at-fort-bowyer/ Sun, 14 Sep 2014 16:38:26 +0000 Thumbnail  

Young British Capt. William H. Percy found himself in dire straits on the afternoon of  Sept. 15, 1814. His ship, the sixth rate class HMS Hermes, was mired for the second time that day on a sand bar in […]

]]> 66b857a10630fe5b4b62051c7c5c5101 Pam Keyes commented on the post, The British Visit to Laffite: A Study of Events 200 Years Later http://www.historiaobscura.com/the-british-visit-to-laffite-a-study-of-events-200-years-later/#comment-3550 Tue, 09 Sep 2014 19:31:13 +0000 Benjamin Latrobe, Barthelmy Lafon and Arsene Latour were all connected re architecture and the Laffites, and perhaps also with the Masons. I would go more into the answer to your question but currently I am […]

]]> 0c307f50330945cbc57b2367d958a4cf Jerilee Wei commented on the post, The British Visit to Laffite: A Study of Events 200 Years Later http://www.historiaobscura.com/the-british-visit-to-laffite-a-study-of-events-200-years-later/#comment-3540 Mon, 08 Sep 2014 16:17:07 +0000 Great article! I am also fascinated with Benjamin Latrobe who is said to have masterminded the waterworks of New Orleans in the early years. I’ve always wondered if he and Barthlemy Lafron interconnected in […]

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