Transcendence of the Swamp
The Myths of Roscoe Kelly | Chapter II - The Nation's First Strains | Story 2
Curator’s Note:
In December 1814, the city of New Orleans suffocated under the threat of invasion. The British, their aggression buoyed by their successful campaign in Washington, had turned their sights on New Orleans and the opportunity to cut off the flow of international trade into the United States and starve the fledgling Nation. (Jenkins, 1988). In this heavy, humid climate, General Andrew Jackson had sent envoys to the Crescent City to track down the elusive and mysterious privateer Jean Lafitte and cajole him to the U.S. cause. (Chartrand, 2005). As we dive into the historical record of this time, certain familiar notes and harmonies reveal themselves. It appears that, unbeknownst to Jackson, a secret envoy keeping an old promise to a president’s memory also traveled to New Orleans. (Cavendish, 1814; Thompson, 1814; Beauregard, 1815; Deschamps, 1815; Vance, 1815; Dubois, 1940).
The city seethed with the clamor of war preparations and the pervasive fear of British invasion. This cacophony of human discord severely battered Roscoe Kelly; his ethereal form, already stretched thin by the distance from his Ghost Orchid fields, wavered precariously in the city’s frenetic pulse. Alone, too far for Lani or the Swamp Dog to accompany him, he had journeyed here to honor his promise to Washington to support the young Nation’s ideals of freedom and self-determination. Jean Lafitte, a cunning privateer now an essential American ally, was already bound by Roscoe’s midnight visitation, which had sealed the alliance Jackson’s envoys had invited earlier. Yet, even with Lafitte secured, Roscoe’s own energy, so sensitive to the collective zeitgeist, remained profoundly diminished, and his subtle music and presence struggled to pierce the overwhelming din of war.
Amidst the mounting chaos, a group of gens de coleur libres, literally: free people of color—families of mixed French and African heritage—desperately sought passage out of the City. Fearing enslavement by the Americans or conscription by the British, they navigated a small fleet of overloaded pirogues into the labyrinthine bayous, hoping to escape both the immediate military conflict and the broader philosophical ones by disappearing into the cloister of the swamp. In their bid for blessed anonymity, they happened through a particularly fragrant stretch of Bayou Barataria where they saw sunlight interacting with the mist to form an ethereal glow.
Roscoe watched the pirogues, sensing the families’ despair as they unknowingly drifted perilously close to a British scouting party lurking just beyond a bend in the bayou. He strained, his ethereal form battling against the din of coming war, but he could not fully materialize, could not sound a direct warning. Clenching his fiddle, he poured his diminished essence into its strings. An urgent melody began to resonate from the mist-shrouded reeds, not loud, but sharp and piercing, intended to apprehend the attention of a group of Lafitte’s Baratariens on sentry duty in the bayous.
Downstream, a small boat commanded by Pierre Deschamps, a Baratarien of French and African descent, navigated the complex channels. The sharp fiddle scratch in the air drew Deschamps’ attention. He had been with Lafitte last night when the ethereal swamp spirit had approached the privateer, and he well remembered the seriousness of Lafitte’s tone when he recounted the visitation to Deschamps. So, he quickly pointed the prow of the vessel towards the source of the sound. A patch of mist erupted from the dense reeds ahead then flashed along the surface of the water heading upstream. Deschamps followed.
The mist glided effortlessly through winding channels that Deschamps, for all his bayou knowledge, was not familiar with. The fiddle’s urgent call continued, a thread drawing Deschamp deeper into the labyrinth. As his skiff rounded a sharp bend, the scene snapped into stark relief: a small fleet of overloaded pirogues, their occupants huddled in silent terror, was hopelessly entangled in thick reeds. Just beyond them, barely visible through the morning haze, a British scouting skiff, its red-coated soldiers with muskets at the ready, was closing in. Deschamps now understood the signal. This was no mere distraction; this was a spell woven to illicit immediate intervention.
Deschamps acted without hesitation. With a roar that echoed across the water, he barked orders to his small crew. “Cut them off! Through the reeds!” His Baratariens responded with swift efficiency. Their shallow-draft vessel darted with surprising speed, emerging from the dense foliage to flank the British skiff. A chaotic melee erupted, brief and decisive. Muskets cracked and cutlasses flashed. As the powder smoke cleared, Deschamps’ men, masters of close quarters, had overwhelmed the redcoats. As the British remnants fled in disarray, Deschamps’ men swiftly disentangled the frightened families’ pirogues and guided them towards a hidden passage that would lead them to Lake Pontchartrain. From there, they could make their way to the protection of an Acadian migrant whose conscience had led him to Quakerism, Elias Arcaneaux, at his precarious Mandeville Circle, established before growing anti-Quaker sentiment in the “developed” South forced Arcaneaux toward the frontier of Florida.
Roscoe Kelly, spent, allowed his form to unravel. The faint shimmer that had guided Deschamps now diffused into the humid air, the last notes of fiddle music fading back to the ancient buzz of the bayou. Roscoe had pushed his weakened essence beyond its limits. The wailing discord of nations at war had taxed him but, in Lafitte’s men, Roscoe knew the light of freedom and justice continued to burn. His energy now began the slow return to the nurturing heart of the Florida Everglades.
References
Beauregard, Monsieur Henri. Letter to Governor Claiborne. January 2, 1815. Louisiana State Archives, Executive Correspondence, New Orleans, LA.
Cavendish, Lieutenant Colonel Arthur. British Military Report, 85th Regiment of Foot. December 27, 1814. British National Archives, War Office Papers, Kew, UK.
Chartrand, Dr. Genevieve L. The Privateer and the General: Jean Lafitte’s Strategic Legacy at New Orleans. State University Press, 2005.
Deschamps, Pierre “Le Corbeau.” Captain’s Log. Entries dated December 26, 1814 – January 1, 1815. Lafitte Privateer Collection, Maritime Museum of Louisiana, Baton Rouge, LA.
Dubois, Madame Eloise. Oral history transcription recounted to Dr. Andre Breaux, 1940. New Orleans Folklore Project, State University Special Collections, Baton Rouge, LA.
Jenkins, Dr. Alistair R. Forging a Nation: Military Campaigns of the War of 1812. U of M Press, 1988.
Thompson, Lieutenant Josiah. Journal Entry. December 28, 1814. Aboard the USS Louisiana. U.S. National Archives, Naval Records, Washington D.C.
Arcaneaux, Elias. “Completing the Circle.” Document dated March 21, 1815. Concord Pointe Friends Settlement Records, Mandeville, LA.
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