Pam Keyes

Pam Keyes wrote a new post 10 years, 8 months ago

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 […]

Pam Keyes wrote a new post 10 years, 10 months ago

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 […]

Pam Keyes wrote a new post 11 years, 3 months ago

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 […]

Pam Keyes wrote a new post 11 years, 5 months ago

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 […]

Pam Keyes wrote a new post 11 years, 5 months ago

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. […]

Pam Keyes wrote a new post 11 years, 5 months ago

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 […]

Pam Keyes commented on the post, Eyewitness Report of Jean Laffite at Chalmette Battlefield 11 years, 5 months ago

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.

Pam Keyes wrote a new post 11 years, 5 months ago

Much 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 […]

Pam Keyes commented on the post, The Saga of Melita and the Patterson-Ross Raid at Barataria 11 years, 5 months ago

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 […]

Pam Keyes wrote a new post 11 years, 5 months ago

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 […]

Pam Keyes wrote a new post 11 years, 6 months ago

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 […]

Pam Keyes commented on the post, Cobbett the Body-Snatcher, or What Happened to Thomas Paine's Corpse 11 years, 6 months ago

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 […]

Pam Keyes wrote a new post 11 years, 7 months ago

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 […]

J-Hanna replied 10 years, 7 months ago

Wow, a bit macabre, but he would not be the first historical person to not have his body buried, or should I say exhumed.

Pam Keyes wrote a new post 11 years, 7 months ago

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 […]

Pam Keyes wrote a new post 11 years, 8 months ago

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 […]

Pam Keyes commented on the post, The Aurora Editor Snipes at Britain, Post War of 1812 11 years, 8 months ago

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, […]

Pam Keyes wrote a new post 11 years, 8 months ago

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 […]

Pam Keyes commented on the post, Jean Laffite and the Treaty of Ghent — Satirical Editorial of 1814 11 years, 8 months ago

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 […]

Pam Keyes wrote a new post 11 years, 8 months ago

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 […]

Pam Keyes wrote a new post 11 years, 8 months ago

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 […]

Pam Keyes

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