December 24, 2018
Christmas Eve
Once upon a time, we set out on a roadtrip. That same day, the US government decided to behave like a load of immature adults with their heads up their butts...and shut down. Do you know what that means for a 16-day roadtrip that's planned most of it's activities around National Parks? We were greeted at Chalmette National Battlefield & Cemetery (which is an extension of Jean Lafitte National Historic Park) by a closed gate rather than a ranger tour. At least they left the pedestrian gate open...
{Tommy, Katie, Dancy, Samson, Thora}
Shad said, "Look, a crane!" I asked if he meant the bird or the construction behind it (not in picture). He laughed because he didn't even realize it. I think he meant the bird.
At the obelisk.
We walked around the obelisk reading all the plaques talking about each unit that was involved in the battle here at Chalmette Plantation. This battle took place during the War of 1812 and was a decisive victory lead by Andrew Jackson.
Oh, the Spanish moss! Beautiful, magical, but neither Spanish nor moss.
Beauregard house.
Okay, so here's how the battle kinda happened. I don't remember all the details, but basically, the American soldiers came and said, "Hey, can we camp here?" The Beauregards said, "Yeah, sure, that's fine." And then the army was like, "Mmm, we're gonna have a battle here, so let's take down the fences and chop down the farm fields that are in our way and let the British know to meet us here." And that's what happened. The Brits came and thought they could lick the Americans (those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it, right?), and were shocked when they were wrong (see previous parentheses). And the plantation was destroyed and the Beauregards went bankrupt and sold their house because they lost their livelihood for the year.
And so we learned what a plantation is, the damage thousands of troops can do on it, about destroying resources so enemies can't use them, and what a levee is. Saw ramparts ("You know kids, like 'O'er the ramparts we watched was so gallantly gleaming.'"). Also got to point out that the Star-Spangled Banner was written during this war.
Yes, this is the correct chronological order. We had to backtrack because we didn't want to walk across the swampy field.
I thought I took a picture, but I guess I didn't. About 20 yards beyond the house is the Mississippi River, shored up with a levee (Katie was so excited to see one in real life). There's a dock where the Creole Queen excursion boat was approaching. We quickly realized that there'd be a huge influx of people and we didn't want to be there for that. So we kept going on our way. At one point, someone (can't remember if it was a kid or me) turned back and saw all the people flooding into the park and yelled, "The British are coming! The British are coming! Run!" That got us going and was a fun game to play. "Shoot when you see the whites of their eyes."
Quick pic before the advancing British got too close.
{Samson, Katie, Thora, Shad, Dancy, Tommy}
Shad is really good at getting the kids to have fun with pictures.
Oh, there's the crane!
Fuzzy caterpillar.
The cemetery is quietly walled in on the left side of the battlefield. It's not all casualties from the Battle of New Orleans, but they are all military.
The kids learned what coins and rocks on headstones mean and to leave them be.
Some headstones are being consumed by this huge tree.
Normally in a cemetery, I'd be all over snapping all the headstones to upload to Find a Grave, but there just wasn't time. So instead, I played with other photography.
Dancy and I raced everyone else to the end of the cemetery (it's a long, narrow strip) to the monument. We won.
Shells everywhere.
White sycamore tree planted to symbolize peace.
Big leaf!
I said shells everywhere.
Then back out through the battlefield to the gate. This is a really well done battlefield preservation with plaques all over telling you what was going on at each position. What troops were there, who they were, where they came from, what they did during the battle. The earthworks are in place with cannon. The air is very clean, humid, and fresh coming from the Mississippi River right behind the house. The ground is swampy. Everything just felt so tangible experiencing the terrain and seeing how close the two sides were. And contrary to other places of death, this one was very peaceful and had good energy.
Finishing up with Katie saying, "Look, Mom! I'm a Newsie!"
#openthegatesandseizetheday
