Peace. Only the medal for bravery still remained as a reminder of the failed attack on New Orleans. And daily work… for that was now more arduous. So many were missing.

The battle, they said, had been superfluous. Unfortunately, the news of a long-since-concluded peace had arrived too late. But what did ‘too late’ mean? They hadn’t waited for it long enough. That’s what it meant.

The ship was now on its way to England. During the first weeks they still talked about their defeat. Five and a half thousand British against four thousand Americans. But in blindly running against them, the British lost two thousand men at the start, while the Americans, thanks to their secure fortifications, lost only thirteen, and those only because they broke out and wanted to become heroes.

What Franklin had to say about this was amply expressed by his silence. To talk about the senselessness of a battle was to attribute sense to war itself. Then, too, he was still very weak. ‘A few hidden deserters and some contraband,’ one of them said, ‘were not worth a war with the Americans.’ That person could actually imagine aims that might have been worth it.

~ Sten Nadolny, The Discovery of Slowness