"Give me liberty or give me death!" Patrick Henry, 1775
With our country celebrating its semiquincentennial this week on July 4 --- with the passage of 250 years since the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776-- - I felt compelled to pen a pertinent piece. A Daughter of the American Revolution, whose Patriot ancestors fought for independence from Great Britain, I am particularly proud. And so is my husband Rodney who was granted admission (on his paternal side), a longtime goal of his, to the Sons of the American Revolution this very year. The time was ripe.
My better half and I have long pursued not only the history of our country but also our own. It hasn't hurt that our daughter has resided first in and then near Boston, since 2021. A golden opportunity, geographically, for our avid study of our country's origin. It began with a visit to the historic home of Paul Revere, an iconic Revolutionary War hero, in Boston. This exciting excursion detonated our memory of his infamous night ride, on the evening of April 18, 1775, and also the famous poem, chronicling it, written in 1860 by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow --- one which we learned and recited in grade school in Washington Parish, Louisiana.
Rodney and I eagerly continued with a tour of the Old North Church (on Salem Street) where parishioners Capt. John Pulling, Jr., and sexton Robert Newman displayed lanterns in the steeple to warn that the British were approaching by water. And the Old North Church's box pews, which were once private, were phenomenal.
From Boston, we ventured northwest catching the historic Battle Road which, a sensational six-mile trip, took us both to Lexington Common and Concord's North Bridge, to the Minute Man National Historical Park.
We all remember reading about the "Shot Heard 'Round the World.'" The famous phrase penned by Ralph Waldo Emerson in 1837 in the "Concord Hymn." The Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775, were the official start of the American Revolution. Notably, turned back by the American colonists and militia, the British suffered a costly retreat to Boston.
Over the course of several years, Rodney and I visited the Old South Meeting House where the Boston Tea Party had its origin, the Boston Tea Party Ships together with the museum, Faneuil Hall otherwise known as the Cradle of Liberty where protests against the British were held, the USS Constitution "Old Ironsides" which launched in 1797 is the oldest commissioned warship afloat, and Bunker Hill Monument where the first major battle took place in Charlestown on June 17, 1775. History buffs, Rodney and I walked the Freedom Trail in Boston more times than I can count. And while I could expound for days on our historic finds there, I would be remiss if I didn't, at this juncture, return closer to home.
But in this instance, for purposes of remembrance of our country's founding and the American Revolutionary War, I cannot make my geographic focus Washington Parish. Our founding settlers --- Dr. James White, John Bickham (my great-great-great-great-grandfather), Abner Bickham, William Bickham, John Corkern, William Phares, and William Vardiman, with their families --- arrived here in 1799. The American Revolution, a bitter conflict that lasted eight years, had ended with the Treaty of Paris signed on September 3, 1783.
Yet, I do not have to travel far from my Mandeville home, where Rodney and I have lived for more than thirty years, and not more than thirty-eight miles from my hometown of Franklinton, to find evidence of the Revolutionary War. The Battle of Lake Pontchartrain historic marker can be found on Lakeshore Drive in Mandeville. It reads as follows: "On October 16, 1779, the British living between 'Bayou La Combe and the River Tanchipaho,' surrendered to Captain William Pickles who had won a naval battle off this shore on September 10, 1779, and thereby ended the Revolutionary War in Louisiana."
I have long heard the story of how American Captain William Pickles and Lieutenant Pierre Rousseau together with a Spanish-American crew on the Navy Schooner Morris (according to Frederick S. Ellis in his book "St. Tammany Parish L'Autre Cote' Du Lac", the original Morris had been sunk by a hurricane on August 18, 1779), managed to capture the West Florida, the British armed sloop-of-war, in Lake Pontchartrain which at that time was part of British West Florida (which extended from the Apalachicola River in the east to the Mississippi River in the west). Captain Pickles flew a false British flag in order to get in proximity of the British frigate West Florida. A short, but violent, battle ensued with strong musket fire, and Lieutenant John Payne, the British commander, suffered fatal wounds with the crew of the Schooner Morris taking control of the West Florida.
This victory effectively removed the British as this was the last significant British vessel on Lake Maurepas and Lake Pontchartrain, giving the Spanish control over this area --- a goal of Spanish Governor Bernardo de Galvez's Gulf Coast campaign was to rid the lakes and Mississippi River of the British.
Digressing, Rodney and I recently returned from a journey that took us to Little Falls, Minnesota, where we viewed the majestic Mississippi River --- a place not all that far from its headwaters. And winding along its banks south through Wisconsin, we were cognizant of the importance of the mighty Mississippi, traversing our country through ten states from north to south, which cannot be underestimated either then or now.
Back to the account provided by Frederick S. Ellis in his wonderful "St. Tammany Parish" book, he informed that after landing on the north shore on September 21, 1779, Captain Pickles accepted the surrender of a certain number of British citizens who signed a surrender document dated October 16, 1779, declaring themselves "true and faithful Subjects to the United Independent States of North America." Of course, Galvez took control in Baton Rouge and Natchez followed by Mobile and Pensacola so West Florida became Spanish once again.
But the remarkable part, to Rodney and me, was the signature of Mary Smith, one of the nineteen persons and the only woman to sign the surrender. She was the widow of Morris Smith, a native of New York, who had received the very last of the British land grants, two hundred acres from King George III, on the lakefront of Lake Pontchartrain. While the official land grant was dated September 21, 1779, it appeared to have been initially granted on September 21, 1777. The map of said land grant has long hung on the wall of Rodney's office in our home for he is a direct descendant of Morris Smith (1740-1779). The lineage is as follows: Morris Smith, Margaret Smith, Mary Edwards, Jacob Wood, Lozane Wood, Emma Magee, Robert Hugh Bateman, Jr., Robert Carey Bateman, and Rodney Michael Bateman. For obvious reasons, this is not the line on which Rodney was admitted to the Sons of the American Revolution.
Back to the 250th Birthday of America the Beautiful - what a celebration our country shall have! Flags flying, fireworks booming, parades passing - patriotism galore. We are deeply grateful to our Patriots for our American independence and freedom. A blessed year, indeed!
