In The Flow of Time – February 7, 2025
Major Savary made it into the story. He. Is. Awesome. Oh, and an immigrant to boot. The first Black man to achieve the rank of Major in the US Military.
FACTS
I’ve researched. The chaos of battle being what it is, no one knows in detail what happened at the Battle of New Orleans, the rout of the British that made America a world power.
Some say Savary’s men never fired a shot. Being Black they weren’t trustworthy and were held in reserve. But the odds are he was on the line, he saw opportunity, seized it, and won the day, leading a battalion of free men of color. General Andrew Jackson believed that the rout began when one of Savary’s men killed British Commanding General Pakenham on the field of battle.
A white man named Daquin was the nominal commander and not present at the battle. René is a French white planter, commander of the Saint Charles Troop of Horse, who is offended by Savary’s behavior. Both are historical figures, but the action here is fiction.)
FICTION
A Black officer from Daquin’s battalion stands on top of the rampart, exposed. He raises an arm, rallies men, then disappears over the top. He emerges beyond the canal, muddy and alive. Two hundred men of color follow him into the open, scrambling over the ramparts, abandoning protected positions.
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Savary has regrouped his men. Without uniforms, their dirty clothes are camouflage. They run at a crouch, lie prone among the dead. They bound in stages across a field where they do not belong.
René sees the tactical truth. The enemy’s flank is undefended. Mounted officers urge the attack heedlessly forward. Savary’s militiamen open fire from out of nowhere, from a place where they should not be. British officers fall from their horses, one after another. Leaderless, the attack fails. It hasn’t been thirty minutes since it all began.
René watches Savary return, commanding an ordered withdrawal. Men of color, wet and muddy, scale the ramparts, resuming places temporarily occupied by René’s troops. The British do not harry, they are concerned with getting off the field. They leave behind a sea of red, the uniforms of the thousands who cannot retreat.
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https:/www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/savary-joseph/
