Sink or Be Sunk!: The Naval Battle in the Mississippi Sound That Preceded the Battle of New Orleans

Sink or Be Sunk!: The Naval Battle in the Mississippi Sound That Preceded the Battle of New Orleans by LA Violette, Paul Estonza. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780967393636.

Sink or be Sunk details an almost unknown yet important aspect of the Battle of New Orleans, the last major engagement of the War of 1812. In the waters of the Mississippi Sound in the early winter of 1814, five small American gunboats stood between a British armada of ships loaded with 10,000 of "Wellington’s finest" troops and their invasion of the newly acquired Louisiana and Mississippi territories. This is the story of five critical action-packed days. Days during which the five gunboats held off the British invasion force and gave General Jackson the needed time to finalize his preparation of the defenses of New Orleans. Paul Estronza La Violette tells this true story from both the British and American perspectives using letters and documents from the participants to flesh out the almost forgotten action. La Violette is well equipped to delve into the history of what took place. He has been a military oceanographer for more than forty years with the US Navy and Mississippi State University. He has done his marine research in almost all of the world’s oceans, spending most of his time in the Arctic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea and, more recently, the Gulf of Mexico and Mississippi Sound. His extensive research for the book included using side-scan sonar to map the debris field of the nearly two hundred year old battle.