Was there some request or protocol or something for Pakenham’s body to be returned to England? Or was sending him back in a pickling barrel a sign of contempt? If so, I find that to be revolting behavior and it would certainly knock my opinion of Jackson down several pegs.
In the tv series revolution it appeared that putting an officers body in a barrel with pickling fluid was how officer’ s bodies were returned to England. Regular soldiers bodies were buried in America.
In the late summer of 1780, General Charles Cornwallis, the British southern commander, gained a strong upper hand following the battle of Camden, which left the patriots in tatters. As Cornwallis marched towards the Waxhaws, a yearlong battle of attrition began. After a small engagement near Waxhaw, Jackson and his remaining brother, Robert, hid in the house of their relative, Thomas Crawford. British dragoons discovered the two–thus beginning a nearly fatal chapter of Jackson's life. Upon discovering the two Jackson boys, the British detachment began to destroy the house, tearing apart furniture and breaking windows.
The prisoners cowered in the living room until the British commander ordered Andrew to clean the mud from the soldiers' boots. Jackson refused, replying, "Sir, I am a prisoner of war and claim to be treated as such." In an angry response, the soldier raised his sword and swung at the boy's head. Jackson managed to deflect part of the blow with his left hand, but he received a serious gash on his hand and another on his head–two scars of British ire that Jackson would bear for the rest of his life. When Robert also refused to clean the boots, he was sent staggering across the room by a blow from the officer's sword.
Jackson was 13 years old in 1780. Read more about his RevWar history at the link above.
A badge of honor, I think. The Brits did that with their own Lord Nelson. (just conjecture here) I imagine that sending the commander back "pickled" was a way of making sure that he had not deserted and to settle all insurance claims. The ordinary blokes were left to lay where they died, or were buried at sea. After Lord Nelson was returned to England in a barrel he received a full state funeral.
I don’t mean to besmirch the character of Old Hickory any more than has been done down through the years, but from my bad memory of just that one book, I believe it was his own idea. And further, the man’s wife was actually onboard the ship. I think she had come along to enjoy the slapping down of the pesky and uncouth Americans. Keep in mind that Old Hickory bore the scar on his face from a British officers saber, going back to his youth. When the Brits showed up in their ships, Jackson said, “they will not sleep one night on American soil!”
The body of our own John Paul Jones was interred in a lead casket filled with alcohol & buried in Paris. More than a century later archaeologists located the coffin, in 1905.
The body was so well preserved that it was positively identified & John Paul Jones got a formal military funeral at Annapolis.
A wealthy Frenchman who had admired Jones paid for the preserving process so that his remains would eventually be returned in honor to the U.S.
He would have to be preserved for the several week voyage back to Britain.
When John Paul Jones was located by the US search in Paris ( 114 years after his death at age 45) during the good Roosevelt’s administration he was found buried in an airtight lead coffin filled with alcohol and was thus preserved.
Upon being brought back to the US aboard the cruiser Brooklyn, when approaching the coast, Jones got escorted by three more cruisers and seven battleships. Would have been worth seeing.
Returning a body in a pickle barrel was the only way to ship a body in the days before embalming. Remember the time it took to sail across the Atlantic in those days.
It was common for high ranking officers to be returned to their homeland in that fashion back then. Lower ranked officers and enlisted men were burried where they fell.
Hopefully you now have your answer, thanks to some very astute fellow posters. I would much prefer that it knock your opinion of ME down several pegs than your opinion of Andrew Jackson.
Already answered here. But I will also add that General Ross was killed at North Point approaching Baltimore and was likewise pickled and sent to Halifax (IIRC latter). It was a very serious approach to help preserve bodies.