[StBernard] Battle of Lake Borgne Anniversary Observance

[Westley Annis]

The 199th anniversary of the Battle of Lake Borgne will be celebrated
Saturday, December 14th, 2013 on a vessel provided for the occasion by Pat
Pescay, Crew Boats Incorporated.  The boat will leave from Crew Boats
Incorporated wharf off Paris Road.

 

The Battle of Lake Borgne was the opening military engagement in the
campaign for control of New Orleans.  The British Naval fleet had appeared
in the Gulf of Mexico during the summer of 1814, creating alarm along the
Gulf Coast of the United States.  Pensacola was the capitol of West Florida,
still a Spanish colony in 1814-1815.  The British had cartographically
documented the approaches to the mouth of the Mississippi River, the course
of the Mississippi River, the City of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast in the
late 1760s.  Spain had acquired Louisiana west of the Mississippi River and
the Isle of Orleans in the 1760s and, cognizant of British plans for control
of the the Mississippi River Valley, embarked upon a colonization program
settling thousands of colonists from the Spanish mainland and the Canary
Islands and Acadian refugees in Louisiana.  The British invasion of
1814-1815 was the realization of a threat anticipated by the Spaniards
almost a half-century before the Battle of New Orleans.

 

Thomas ap Catesby Jones was in command of the American flotilla which
engaged the British Expeditionary naval force December 14th, 2014.  Fierce
hand-to-hand fighting ensued between the Americans and the British.  At the
end of the day, despite the most valiant American efforts, the British naval
contingent that consisted of more than two dozen vessels fully manned with
sailors and Royal Marines overwhelmed a vastly inferior American naval force
consisting of only six vessels and significantly fewer sailors.  After
leading American military forces in defeat, Jones received great recognition
for his heroic stand against the British and went on to a distinguished
career in the American Navy.  The American loss nevertheless helped to delay
British landfall in the New Orleans region, granting more time to
successfully prepare to defend Louisiana and the Mississippi Valley against
the British Expeditionary Force.

 

Former Parish Historian Frank Fernandez first started the observance of the
Battle of Lake Borgne anniversary in 1969 as a program of The St. Bernard
Historical Society.  The St. Bernard Historical Society perpetuated the
anniversary observance over many decades.    The St. Bernard Historical
Society and St. Bernard Parish Government cooperate with Anthony Fernandez
and Pat Pescay in this annual observance.  December 14, 2014 will mark the
200th anniversary of the Battle of Lake Borgne.