The Hunters of Kentucky, also called The Battle of New Orleans and Half Horse or Half Alligator, was a song written in 1821 to commemorate Andrew Jackson

Andrew Jackson

Andrew Jackson was the seventh President of the United States . Based in frontier Tennessee, Jackson was a politician and army general who defeated the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend , and the British at the Battle of New Orleans...

's victory over the British at the Battle of New Orleans

Battle of New Orleans

The Battle of New Orleans took place on January 8, 1815 and was the final major battle of the War of 1812. American forces, commanded by Major General Andrew Jackson, defeated an invading British Army intent on seizing New Orleans and the vast territory the United States had acquired with the...

. In both 1824 and 1828 Jackson used the song as his campaign song during his Presidential campaigns.

Origin

Hunters of Kentucky was written in 1821 by Samuel Woodworth

Samuel Woodworth

Samuel Woodworth was an American author, literary journalist, playwright, librettist, and poet.-History:...

, whose fame rest on Hunters and another poem that was turned into the song (The Old Oaken Bucket). One-fourth of Jackson's men at the Battle of New Orleans were from Kentucky. It was sung the way Irish singers told stories in narrative form, and performed to the tune of Ally Croker and The Unfortunate Miss Bailey.

It was first sung in New Orleans in 1822 by Noah M. Ludlow. When Ludlow first performed the song, the audience was filled with boatmen who had floated down the Mississippi River

Mississippi River

The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...

 from Kentucky; they refused to let him leave the stage until he sang it two more times.

Use

Throughout the term of Andrew Jackson, Hunters of Kentucky proved to be a popular song, and Jackson used it for his 1828 campaign. This is ironic as Jackson's "fieriest rival", Henry Clay

Henry Clay

Henry Clay, Sr. , was a lawyer, politician and skilled orator who represented Kentucky separately in both the Senate and in the House of Representatives...

, was the one from Kentucky

Kentucky

The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...

; Jackson was actually from Tennessee

Tennessee

Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...

, near Nashville

Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...

.

Due to a copy of the song being depicted on the front cover of Davy Crockett's Almanack of Wild Sports in the West, it is thought that Hunters of Kentucky might have been sung during the Texas War of Independence, but this is speculation as no other evidence supports the song being sung during that conflict. However, Americans who entered Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 in 1837 and 1838 did sing the song..

Hunters of Kentucky propagated various beliefs about the war. One of them was calling the Pennsylvania Rifle the Kentucky Rifle

Long rifle

The American longrifle , better known as the Kentucky rifle was described best by Captain John G. W. Dillin in the dedication to his seminal 1924 book, The Kentucky Rifle:...

. Another was crediting the riflemen with the victory of the Battle of New Orleans, when it could be said it was Jackson's artillery that was actually responsible for the win. Finally, one stanza said that the British planned to ransack New Orleans, which was unlikely to happen..

Lyrics

Ye gentlemen and ladies fair

Who grace this famous city,

Just listen, if you’ve time to spare,

While I rehearse a ditty;

And for the opportunity

Conceive yourselves quite lucky,

For ‘tis not often that you see

A hunter from Kentucky.

REFRAIN:

Oh Kentucky, the hunters of Kentucky!

Oh Kentucky, the hunters of Kentucky!

We are a hardy, free-born race,

Each man to fear a stranger;

Whate’er the game, we join in chase,

Despising toil and danger.

And if a daring foe annoys,

Whate’er his strength and forces,

We’ll show him that Kentucky boys

Are alligator

Alligator

An alligator is a crocodilian in the genus Alligator of the family Alligatoridae. There are two extant alligator species: the American alligator and the Chinese alligator ....

 horses.

REFRAIN

I s’pose you’ve read it in the prints,

How Packenham attempted

To make old Hickory Jackson wince,

But soon his scheme repented;

For we, with rifles ready cock’d,

Thought such occasion lucky,

And soon around the gen’ral flock’d,

The hunters of Kentucky.

REFRAIN

You’ve heard, I s’pose, how New-Orleans

Is fam’d for wealth and beauty—

There’s girls of ev’ry hue, it seems,

From snowy white to sooty.

So Packenham he made his brags,

If he in fight was lucky,

He’d have their girls and cotton bags,

In spite of old Kentucky.

REFRAIN

But Jackson he was wide awake,

And was not scar’d at trifles,

For well he knew what aim we take,

With our Kentucky rifles:

So he led us down by Cypress

Taxodium

Taxodium is a genus of one to three species of extremely flood-tolerant conifers in the cypress family, Cupressaceae...

 swamp,

The ground was low and mucky;

There stood John Bull

John Bull

John Bull is a national personification of Britain in general and England in particular, especially in political cartoons and similar graphic works. He is usually depicted as a stout, middle-aged man, often wearing a Union Flag waistcoat.-Origin:...

 in martial pomp,

And here was old Kentucky.

REFRAIN

A bank was rais’d to hide our breasts,

Not that we thought of dying,

But that we always like to rest,

Unless the game is flying.

Behind it stood our little force,

None wished it to be greater,

For ev’ry man was half a horse,

And half an alligator.

REFRAIN

They did not let our patience tire,

Before they show’d their faces;

We did not choose to waste our fire,

So snugly kept our places.

But when so near we saw them wink,

We thought it time to stop ’em,

And ’twould have done you good, I think,

To see Kentuckians drop ’em.

REFRAIN

They found, at last, ’twas vain to fight,

Where lead was all their booty,

And so they wisely took to flight,

And left us all the beauty.

And now, if danger e’er annoys,

Remember what our trade is;

Just send for us Kentucky boys,

And we’ll protect ye, ladies.

REFRAIN

Reference in Popular Culture

This song was covered in the musical

Musical theatre

Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...

 Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson

Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson

Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson is a rock musical with music and lyrics written by Michael Friedman, and a book by its director Alex Timbers.The show is a comedic Wild West rock musical about the founding of the Democratic Party...

as the closing number.