Thanks for correcting my typo above. However, here's one more correction. The date in the first verse, 2nd line should be "twenty-sixth" rather than "eighteenth." One wants to be historically accurate in these ballads. ;-)

Our friend of our from New Orleans has found two newspaper articles which document this voyage and explain that the ultimate destination of the alligators was the National Centennial at Philadelphia, evidently for some kind of exhibit. One wonders what happened to the gators afterwards...

Cheerily,
Charlie Ipcar

Fixed -Joe-