"The Yellow Rose of Texas", 1836 (western folk)

There's a yellow rose of Texas
That I am going to see
No other fellow knows her
No other, only me
She cried so when I left her
It like to broke my heart
And if I ever find her
We never more will part

She's the sweetest rose of color
This soldier ever knew
Her eyes are bright as diamonds
They sparkle like the dew
You may talk about your dearest May
And sing of Rosa Lee
But the Yellow Rose of Texas
Is the only girl for me

Where the Rio Grande is flowing
And the starry skies are bright
She walks along the river
In the quiet summer night
She thinks if I remember
When we parted long ago
I promised to come back again
And never leave her so

Oh now I'm going to find her
For my heart is full of woe
And we'll sing the song together
That we sang so long ago
We'll play the banjo gaily
And we'll sing the song of yore
And the Yellow Rose of Texas
Shall be mine for ever more

**Special Note: These are not the lyrics that appear in modern versions of the song. The original lyrics were re-written to remove anything that could be considered racist.**

And now a little bit more of "unsolved history". This is one of those tunes, like the last one, that has been around so long that hardly anybody knows what it's really about or how it got started. Who was the Yellow Rose of Texas that we're still singing about??

This song is the unofficial state song of the State of Texas, and while the most famous copyrighted publication of the song is from New York, the cover of which states "Composed and Arranged Expressly for Charles H. Brown by J.K." in 1855, the tune was actually first found handwritten on a piece of paper from 1836. The next question is...what was going on in 1836 that somebody wrote a song about?

Many believe this story to be a legend, however there is much verifiable, historical data and discovery to indicate that while incidental details may be fuzzy, at least the basic story is completely true. The story actually begins in 1830 when wealthy entrepreneur James Morgan came to the geographic area we now call "Texas". Land was cheap and the west was being won by anyone who either had enough money to buy it, anyone who could fight better than another, and/or anyone who could get to it first and still manage to hold on to it. Morgan had the ability for all of that. He began forming partnerships with real estate speculators from New York with the intent of buying up the cheap land and starting a colony there. The only problem was that there was that the land did not belong to any American (to purchase it from) and that there was already a colony living there. It was owned and populated by Mexico, who did not take kindly to the idea of being ousted from their own territory.

To combat the uncooperativeness of the resident Mexicans, Morgan developed a scheme to constructively evict them ("constructive eviction" is a legal term for making the conditions of one's living or working space so unbearable that one leaves voluntarily and without confrontation). Morgan's plan was to systematically flood the region with non-Mexicans from the United States, which is exactly what he did. In 1835, he doubled his efforts by recruiting workers for his new settlement. One of those workers was an indentured servant by the name of Emily D. West.

Morgan owned a large plantation on the island of Bermuda. Historical evidence suggests that this is where Emily West was brought from. Emily West was mulatto who had extremely light colored skin despite her mixed ancestry. This gave her skin an almost white, yellowish type hue ("yellow" was the term given to all light-skinned persons of mixed race/color/ancestry until 1930 when it was removed as a descendency category on the U.S. Census). The territory of Texas had outlawed slavery, and so to get around the law, James Morgan converted all of his slaves in to 99-year indentured servants. It is believed that Emily volunteered to be indentured so that she could come to America and escape the persecution she experienced because of her mixed race.

The rest of the story goes like this: In 1836, found Texas in the middle of a war for independence from Mexico. James Morgan's new, fully operation colony, New Washington was located at the mouth of the San Jacinto River, which turned out to be a strategic military location. Morgan aided General Sam Houston and his men by providing food and supplies to them. Because of the prime location of the settlement, Houston's men could pilot their flatboats right up to Morgan's docks to be laded. Morgan's aide to Houston showed that he was a friend to Texas, and he was awarded a commission as a colonel. When Morgan went off to fight for Texas, he left Emily West in charge of the settlement and in charge of lading the military flatboats.

Mexican army commander General Santa Anna learned of New Washington's military aide operation. In an attempt to cut off this aide, he and his men stole up the San Jacinto River to capture Morgan and New Washington. To his surprise, he found a young woman lading the Texas flatboats. General Santa Anna had always thought of himself as a ladies' man, and he was immediately struck with Emily's beauty. Like any ladies' man would do (ha ha) he kidnapped Emily and her young helper named Turner. He coerced young Turner to tell him where Gen. Houston's men were camped. Before Emily's and Turner's forced removal from New Washington, Emily convinced the boy to escape. The boy ran to Gen. Houston's camp ahead of the Mexican scouts and warned the Texans of Gen. Santa Anna's impending arrival.

Even though Santa Anna was married to a woman in Mexico, he had a slight self-control problem. During his command he had also married a teenage captive from one of his Texan campaigns; however, his military duties had already separated him from her for two weeks. He felt that Emily would be an appropriate...er...substitute. In his excitement over Emily, despite the protests of his officers, Santa Anna ordered camp to be set up on the plains of the San Jacinto River. This left the Mexican army completely open to surveillance and attack. It didn't take long for Gen. Houston to move his men to attack Santa Anna. On the morning of August 21, Houston shinnied up a tree to spy on the Mexicans. There he saw Emily West preparing a fancy breakfast for Gen. Santa Anna, and he remarked to himself, "I hope that girl makes him neglect his business and keeps him in bed all day." Houston's men immediately launched a surprise attack on the Mexican army (though not so surprising to the high brass who had warned Santa Anna about this very thing). General Santa was literally caught with his pants down, and the official military report is that Santa Anna was seen running from the heat of the battle with his silk shirt open.

Emily West survived the battle and was returned to New Washington. James Morgan had not heard about the Battle of San Jacinto. When he returned to the settlement, Emily told him all about it. He was so impressed at her heroism that he immediately repealed her indenture and granted her a passport back to New York. Even after she left, Morgan made sure everyone heard about her contribution to Texas' victory. In 1956, William Bollaert published a story which was related to him by either Sam Houston or Col. Isaac N. Moreland, who Emily worked for after the Battle of San Jacinto, of a mulatto girl who kept Santa Anna in his tent all day and prevented him from rushing to the conflict. This is the only more modern documentation which is available to historians.


"Yellow Rose of Texas" - Jo Ann Castle

~information loaded from the following:

http://www.amaranthpublishing.com/yellow.htm
http://americanhistory.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_yellow_rose_of_texas
http://www.blackpast.org/?q=perspectives/yellow-rose-texas-ironic-origins-state-song

"The Battle of New Orleans" ("The 8th of January") - Johnny Horton, 1959 (country/bluegrass)

Well, in eighteen and fourteen we took a little trip
along with Colonel Jackson down the mighty Mississip.
We took a little bacon and we took a little beans,
And we caught the bloody British near the town of New Orleans.

We fired our guns and the British kept a'comin.
There wasn't nigh as many as there was a while ago.
We fired once more and they began to runnin'
down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.

Well, I see'd Mars Jackson walkin down the street
talkin' to a pirate by the name of Jean Lafitte
He gave Jean a drink that he brung from Tennessee
and the pirate said he'd help us drive the British in the sea.

The French said Andrew, you'd better run,
for Packingham's a comin' with a bullet in his gun.
Old Hickory said he didn't give a dang,
he's gonna whip the britches off of Colonel Packingham.

Well, we looked down the river and we see'd the British come,
and there must have been a hundred of 'em beatin' on the drum.
They stepped so high and they made their bugles ring
while we stood by our cotton bales and didn't say a thing.

Old Hickory said we could take 'em by surprise
if we didn't fire a musket til we looked 'em in the eyes.
We held our fire til we see'd their faces well,
then we opened up with squirrel guns and really gave a yell.

Well, we fired our cannon til the barrel melted down,
so we grabbed an alligator and we fought another round.
We filled his head with cannon balls and powdered his behind,
and when they tetched the powder off, the gator lost his mind.

We'll march back home but we'll never be content
till we make Old Hickory the people's President.
And every time we think about the bacon and the beans,
we'll think about the fun we had way down in New Orleans.

Well, they ran through the briars and they ran through the brambles
And they ran through the bushes where a rabbit couldn't go.
They ran so fast the hounds couldn't catch 'em
down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.

This song's original title is "The 8th of January". Traditionally, the tune is recognized as an American fiddle tune - a reel, to be precise. As such it is solely an instrumental tune; however, in 1936 a teacher from Arkansas found that using his guitar to teach history to his students had a profound effect on what they would remember about their lessons. (What a novel idea!) That teacher's name was Jimmy Driftwood. He took that American fiddle tune and wrote lyrics to it that would teach his students a lesson in American history - the war of 1812, specifically, the Battle of New Orleans. In 1959, Johnny Horton sang Jimmy's song and topped the charts with it. It remains at #28 of Billboard Music's All-Time Top 100 Songs and #1 on the Billboard's All-Time Top Country Songs list.

There were three stated causes for the War of 1812: 1.) Britain was at war with France and didn't like that the Americans were trading with the French, so they imposed a series of trade restrictions on the U.S.(which violated international law); 2.) Britain forcibly recruited U.S. citizens to fight France as soldiers of the Royal Navy (we were an independent country by now); and 3.) The British were giving military support to the Indians who offered armed resistance to the U.S.

The fiddle tune is called "The 8th of January" because it was on January 8, 1815 that The Battle of New Orleans. This was to be the final battle in the War of 1812.

To begin, on December 12, 1814, a British fleet had anchored in the Gulf of Mexico and was intent on seizing the city of New Orleans and the western territories. While an American gunboat flotilla prevented the British from accessing Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Borgne, these gunboats were soon overcome by 10,000 British troops in rowboats (each rowboat was equipped with a canon). The American flotilla had been vastly out numbered. Now free to move about the area, British General John Keane assumed command of the troops, and they set up their garrison on Pea Island, which is about 30 miles east of their military target, New Orleans.

On December 22, General Keane lead 1,600 of his men to the east bank of the Mississippi River, which was 12 miles from the city. There he camped, waiting for reinforcements. This was the critical mistake that would cost the British the battle, even before the battle had begun. At that time, the eastern bank of the Mississippi was undefended all the way to New Orleans. Instead of what should have been an ambush, the British decision to camp gave American General Andrew Jackson enough time to develop a plan. General Jackson sent 2,000 men to a position north of the British camp, which thwarted the British advance.

While the British advance was held at bay, the rest of General Jackson's men quickly built an earthworks, which they fortified with heavy artillery. When British General Edward Pakenham arrived on the battlefield, he was outraged to see the position into which his army had been put. He reconnoitered the earthworks, and after a brief meeting with his officers, decided that the only solution was to directly attack the earthworks. The British had expected a rag-tag band of poor, untrained American soldiers. They had also expected to quickly destroy the Americans. All that they really accomplished was to "poke" at what the Americans had affectionately dubbed "Line Jackson". With each British retreat and regroup, the Americans added more earth and more artillery. This lasted until the British guns literally ran out of ammunition, resulting in General Pakenham cancelling the attack. What he didn't know was that General Jackson's entire left line had cut and run; they were shooting at nobody.

On January 1, 1815, the core of the British Army arrived. They should have just stayed home. British General Pakenham ordered a new attack on the Americans: attack the earthworks and attack along the river. What happened next made them a laughing stock.

First, Royal Navy commander Alexander Cochran and his men built a dam in an attempted to divert the river's flow into a canal they had dug. The dam and the canal collapsed. The Mississippi is famous for its mud, perhaps beginning with this battle. The British sailors were forced to carry and tow the assault force boats through knee-deep Mississippi mud. They arrived at the battle 12 hours late.

Second, the British may not be strangers to fog, but when the city you're attacking is six feet below sea level, the fog you'll encounter in New Orleans has nothing to do with weather. The British thought they had gotten a break and advanced under the cover of the early morning fog. However, shortly after sunrise, when the fog dissipated (as is what happens almost daily in low-lying areas) they suddenly found themselves exposed...to a hail of American gunfire.

Third, call it a minor oversight, but British Lt.-Col. Thomas Mullins forgot to bring the ladders and fascines the British would need to scale the walls of the American bulwarks. Oops.

Because of all these failures, there was much confusion on the battlefield. British army General Pakenham was fatally wounded, which only added to the British chaos. General John Lambert quickly assumed charge and ordered a withdrawal. At the end of the day, the British forces suffered: 278 dead, 1186 wounded, 484 captured or missing. The American casualties amounted to: 13 dead, 39 wounded, and 19 missing. Even though a train with British reinforcements had arrived, General Lambert assessed his successes and losses of the day and decided that another attack on General Jackson and his earthworks was just too costly. British forces retreated altogether, boarded their ships and headed off for Biloxi, Mississippi.

Even before all of this happened, the Treaty of Ghent had been signed (on December 24). The city of Ghent is located across the Atlantic Ocean in Belgium. This was the treaty that ended the War of 1812; however, news of the treaty was a long time coming to American soil where the war was being fought. News of a peace treaty didn't reach the battle front until February of 1815.


"The Battle of New Orleans" (aka "The 8th of January") - Johnny Horton, 1959



~information reeled in, piece by piece via the Internet (in between power outages)