>> I was leafing through the Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable
>recently
>> and came across (you guessed it) an entry for Press Gang. To paraphrase,
>> Press Gang was the name given to naval parties that travelled around
>seizing
>> men for military service.
It was the British practice of this custom which led to the 1812 - 1814
war between the United States and Britain. British Naval ships were
stopping US merchant ships on the high seas, and impressing US citizens
into the British Navy. The British argued that since US citizens had been
born British subjects, that they still had to perform their obligatory
British military service. Needless to say, this argument didn't hold much
sway with Americans, who declared war on Britain to put an end to
impressment.
The War of 1812, as it is known here in the States, is notable for
several occurences. In early September, 1814, the British burned
Washington pretty much to the ground. The White House and the US Capitol
Building were severely damaged. After burning Washington, they headed
north to Baltimore, where their attack on the city was thwarted on land,
and more notably, at sea, as Ft. McHenry, which guards the Inner Harbor
of Baltimore, did not surrender. The US National anthem, The Star
Spangled Banner, was written by someone who witnessed the US flag still
flying over Ft. Mchenry the morning after the fort endured a fierce all
night bombardment.
The other famous battle of that war was the Battle of New Orleans, where
the Americans, under General (later President) Andrew Jackson, won a
victory over the British, a week or two AFTER the war had ended with the
signing of the Treaty of Ghent. News travelled slowly between hemispheres
in those days!
That was the second and last war between the US and Britain, though there
was much unpleasantness which resulted from British support of the
Confederacy during the US Civil War, 1861-1865. Britain had a great
interest in Confederate cotton, and didn't particularly care for the
welfare of Union merchants, whose manufactured goods competed with those
of British industry. The British thus allowed Confederate Naval / pirate
ships to operate out of British ports. The most notable, the CSS Alabama,
did great damage to US shipping between the States and Europe. After the
war, the US demanded, and received, reparations from Britain for all of
the goods destroyed by Confederate raiders which had operated out of
British ports.
I know this has nothing really to do with Press Gang, but I thought
someone might be interested.
-Chris
--
T H E P R E S S G A N G M A I L I N G L I S T
By default, pressing 'reply' will send mail back to the list, not
to the author of the message you're replying to.
To unsubscribe, mail "unsubscribe" to "pressgang-request@lists.yoyo.org"
|