Battle of New Orleans' Ephraim Brank-- Part 9: "The Ballad of Ephraim Brank"

Ephraim McLean Brank

Even though the British officer evidently took Ephraim Brank to be a man of the frontier, and one used to hard living, Brank actually lived in a very comfortable house in Greenville.

He was promoted to lieutenant after the battle.  The very spot he stood upon at the Battle of New Orleans is not known as Line Jackson was completely dismantled.

"The Ballad of Ephrain Brank" was composed in his honor.

--Brock-Perry

Battle of New Orleans' Ephraim Brank-- Part 8: That British Killer

As the British soldiers got closer to Line Jackson, the battlefield increasingly became shrouded with smoke and they felt great pleasure in knowing at least they were also could not be seen by Brank.

One of their officers described Ephrain Brank as "...a tall man standing on the breastworks, dressed in linsey-woolsey, with buckskin leggings and a broad-brimmed hat that fell around his face almost concealing his features.

"He was standing in one of those picturesque graceful attitudes peculiar in those natural men dwelling in forests."

--Brock-Perry

The Battle of New Orleans' Ephraim Brank-- Part 5: Standing at "Line Jackson"

Ephraim Brank was one of several Kentukians in Andrew Jackson's hodge-podge army made up of Louisiana, Tennessee and Kentucky militiamen, frontiersmen, regular soldiers, sailors, Marines, free blacks, Indians, local volunteers, inmates from city jails and pirates, who stood to fight a larger force of trained British soldiers intent on capturing New Orleans in January 1815.

They dug in behind the 15-foot wide, 8 feet deep, 3,010 foot long Rodriguez Canal running from a swamp to the Mississippi River at Chalmette.

From this line, Jackson's men had a clear line of fire and called their position Line Jackson.  Their works consisted of dirt, barrels of sugar, cotton bales and timbers.

--Brock-Perry