The Battle Of New Orleans
(James Morris) As performed by Johnny Horton
In 1814 we took a little trip
Along with Colonel Jackson down the mighty Mississip
We took a little bacon and we took a little beans
And we caught the bloody British in the town of New Orleans
We fired our guns and the British kept a-comin'
There wasn't nigh as many as there was a while ago
We fired once more and they began to runnin'
On down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico
We looked down the river and we seen the British come
And there must have been a hunnerd of 'em beatin on the drum
They stepped so high and they made their bugles ring
We stood beside our cotton bales 'n' didn't say a thing
We fired our guns and the British kept a-comin'
There wasn't nigh as many as there was a while ago
We fired once more and they began to runnin'
On down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico
Old Hickory said we could take 'em by surprise
If we didn't fire our muskets till we looked 'em in the eye
We held our fire 'till we seed their faces well
Then we opened up the squirrel guns and really gave em
Well we
Fired our guns and the British kept a-comin'
There wasn't nigh as many as there was a while ago
We fired once more and they began to runnin'
On down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico
Yeah they ran through the briars and they ran through the brambles
And they ran through the bushes where a rabbit couldn't go
They ran so fast that the hounds couldn't catch 'em
On down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico
We fired our cannon till the barrel melted down
So we grabbed an alligator and we fought another round
We filled his head with cannonballs and powered his behind
And when we touched the powder off the gator lost his mind
We fired our guns and the British kept a-comin'
There wasn't nigh as many as there was a while ago
We fired once more and they began to runnin'
On down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico
Yeah they ran through the briars and they ran through the brambles
And they ran through the bushes where a rabbit couldn't go
They ran so fast that the hounds couldn't catch 'em
On down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico
Along with Colonel Jackson down the mighty Mississip
We took a little bacon and we took a little beans
And we caught the bloody British in the town of New Orleans
We fired our guns and the British kept a-comin'
There wasn't nigh as many as there was a while ago
We fired once more and they began to runnin'
On down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico
We looked down the river and we seen the British come
And there must have been a hunnerd of 'em beatin on the drum
They stepped so high and they made their bugles ring
We stood beside our cotton bales 'n' didn't say a thing
We fired our guns and the British kept a-comin'
There wasn't nigh as many as there was a while ago
We fired once more and they began to runnin'
On down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico
Old Hickory said we could take 'em by surprise
If we didn't fire our muskets till we looked 'em in the eye
We held our fire 'till we seed their faces well
Then we opened up the squirrel guns and really gave em
Well we
Fired our guns and the British kept a-comin'
There wasn't nigh as many as there was a while ago
We fired once more and they began to runnin'
On down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico
Yeah they ran through the briars and they ran through the brambles
And they ran through the bushes where a rabbit couldn't go
They ran so fast that the hounds couldn't catch 'em
On down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico
We fired our cannon till the barrel melted down
So we grabbed an alligator and we fought another round
We filled his head with cannonballs and powered his behind
And when we touched the powder off the gator lost his mind
We fired our guns and the British kept a-comin'
There wasn't nigh as many as there was a while ago
We fired once more and they began to runnin'
On down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico
Yeah they ran through the briars and they ran through the brambles
And they ran through the bushes where a rabbit couldn't go
They ran so fast that the hounds couldn't catch 'em
On down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico
Strange to think of it now, but this song was often played on the radio station that my parents listened to when I was growing up - and my brothers and I loved when it would come on. What is it about kids that we loved the militaristic snare drum and the hup two three four that would set us to marching around the kitchen and singing along with Johnny Horton's slightly rockabilly voice? I hadn't thought of The Battle of New Orleans in a long, long time, but when I was participating in a Mud Girl Run on the weekend, wading through waist-high puddles and crawling through a mud field under cargo netting, my mind rotated between being in boot camp and running through briars and brambles; dodging through the bushes where the rabbits couldn't go. I thought of this song then (with an ironic grin on my face) so I'm preserving it here now. A final thought on the song itself: I didn't realise that this was about a battle in the War of 1812, and as a Canadian who identifies with the British side in that conflict (Canada was but a British colony back then), I guess I shouldn't have been so gleeful to sing about the Brits (of which there wasn't nigh as many as there were a while ago) being chased down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico. Then again, it's not like anyone ever wrote a catchy tune about us burning down the White House; we sang and marched along to what the DJs played. Onward.
Some time after Christmas, some women at the gym started talking about doing the Mud Girl Run again this year, and they asked me and Rudy if we'd be interested in coming along, too. I thought it would be fun to have a challenge to prepare for, so after some cajoling, Rudy agreed to give it a try. The best part of the whole challenge was this group effort - the run itself (a 5k obstacle course in which the vast majority of the obstacles involve mud in some form) is totally noncompetitive - and despite the coaches from the gym running off ahead of us for their own purposes, Rudy and I jogged along with a core group that all helped each other when the pits were too steep and slippery to climb out of, or when the obstacles were high and some encouragement was called for.
The weather was perfect - it was supposed to be cool and perhaps rainy, and it was simply warm and cloudy - none of the obstacles proved to be more than we could handle, and it felt good in the end to have challenged ourselves like this. We eventually ran into the coaches again - they had almost finished the course but came back for photo ops and to cross the finish line and get our medals as a complete group - and that felt fine and appropriate, too.
Talk now is about how we should get our act together in time to get matching shirts for the whole group when we go again next year, and if we're still going to the gym in another year, I'd imagine we'd be doing Mud Girl again.
