It was a disastrous affair from beginning to end and it was melancholy indeed to listen to the details of all the misfortunes, which had happened to many of those who we had seen in health and strength a few hours before.
A British Eyewitness at the Battle of New Orleans
The Memoir of Royal Navy Admiral Robert Aitchison, 1808–1827
edited by Gene A. Smith
The bygone Age of Sail comes alive in this 1850s memoir, taking readers around the world and into battle through the eyes of a young Scottish naval officer.
A British Eyewitness at the Battle of New Orleans
HNOC 2004
softcover • 5½ x 8½" • 160 pp.
17 color images; 24 b&w
ISBN 978-0-917860-50-8
$15.95
Robert Aitchison’s memoir, penned in the late 1850s, offers readers a glimpse of the bygone Age of Sail. Rampant warfare raged across Europe and the Americas in the early nineteenth century—Napoleon schemed for world domination, colonized nations rose up in revolt, and Britain and the United States met, for the final time, on the battlefield as enemies. Aitchison—a young Scottish naval officer who dodged alligators, shipwrecks, and a musket shot all before his twentieth birthday—could well have become another nameless casualty of the War of 1812. But he survived to memorialize his youthful exploits in the Mediterranean, off the coast of New England, and on the plains of Chalmette, where the Battle of New Orleans finally brought the war to a close.
Robert Aitchison’s memoir, penned in the late 1850s, offers readers a glimpse of the bygone Age of Sail. Rampant warfare raged across Europe and the Americas in the early nineteenth century—Napoleon schemed for world domination, colonized nations rose up in revolt, and Britain and the United States met, for the final time, on the battlefield as enemies. Aitchison—a young Scottish naval officer who dodged alligators, shipwrecks, and a musket shot all before his twentieth birthday—could well have become another nameless casualty of the War of 1812. But he survived to memorialize his youthful exploits in the Mediterranean, off the coast of New England, and on the plains of Chalmette, where the Battle of New Orleans finally brought the war to a close.
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