Patriotic Fire
by Winston Groom
Published by Vintage Press
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Reviewed by Jeff Foster
(Historical/Military genre)
America stands on the brink of extinction, Maine has all but seceded from the Union, Washington D.C. has been sacked and lies in ruins, an amphibious invasion force has made its way around Florida and is in the Gulf of Mexico. Where it will land and continue to punish America, no one knows. There are only two men and one army left in the south that can take the field against overwhelming odds--a crotchety old Indian fighter named Andrew Jackson and a pirate cum privateer named Jean Lafitte.
Patriotic Fire is not a novel about some future war with an as yet unknown foe. It is in my estimation, the best and most thoroughly researched documentation of the events that led up to the battle that changed lives forever in the bayous south of New Orleans in the winter months of 1814.
The British, fresh from their victories over the armies of Napoleon all across the peninsular Portugal and Spain, and much of southern France, were at the time the premier land-fighting force on the face of the earth.
They found themselves in a debacle once the Admiralty and its commander on the scene, Admiral Cochrane, decided that New Orleans was the next logical target. This has become one of those moments in history--that if a single aspect of the events of this battle had not taken place--America as we know it today would be a very different place indeed.
Winston Groom has chronicled the events of the war of 1812 in such a fashion as to provide to the reader an engaging and entertaining recollection of the personalities of brawling, dueling, unbending Andrew Jackson and smuggling business man, turned patriot, Jean Laffite. He details each to such an extant that there is little you won't know about them. He provides footnotes for clarity and an index for quick reference. This is everything you want in an historical biography of the men and the places and events that make up America's "Second War of Independence."
NOTE: In 1994 Winston Groom wrote Conversations with the Enemy, nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. He also wrote Better Times Than These in 1978, but is best known for writing Forrest Gump in 1986 (and subsequent Gump books).
Armchair Interviews says: Fantastically written, funny at times, and horrific in its detail in others. Every American should know where we came from. Patriotic Fire will tell them.