The Battle Of New Orleans Reconsidered
Curtis Manning
Curtis Manning
The Battle of New Orleans Reconsidered arose organically from the rich
heritage of St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana. The same land that was
witness to the Battle of New Orleans would also spawn a unique and
vibrant culture known for close-knit families, good food, refineries and
the activities centered around the bountiful wetlands.
Academic cultural offerings were rare when the Nunez History Lecture
Series began in 2001. Some folks at Nunez Community College, the only
institution of higher education in the Parish, decided to tell the
stories of the people of St. Bernard and Louisiana, hoping that a
handful of others might also be interested. After 14 seasons of over 100
lectures and an average attendance of over 100 people, the Lecture
Series is still finding new stories to tell.
A natural outgrowth of the Lecture Series was to feature a more
detailed treatment of the second most important historical event in St.
Bernard Parish history, the Battle of New Orleans. And the College was
the natural place since the battlefield was in sight of the campus on a
clear day. However, the plans for the first Symposium were delayed by a
few years when the most important historical event in St. Bernard
Parish history, Hurricane Katrina, left six feet of water across the
Nunez campus and up to seventeen feet of water across the rest of the
Parish.
By January of 2013, the first Battle of New Orleans Historical
Symposium was held at the College, with the audience likely sitting in
the exact spot that soldiers mustered for the Battle. Once the
Symposium became established and successful, the only nagging problem
was the ephemeral nature of the knowledge being created. With some of
the most passionate and knowledgeable speakers in the nation, it just
seemed natural to expand and preserve the great information being
presented.
So in a labor of love, many of the top lecturers agreed to put pen
to paper and tell the story of the Battle of New Orleans in greater
detail. The result is The Battle of New Orleans Reconsidered
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