Jean Lafitte fights for the British at New Orleans?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Lafitte

OK, is there any way that Lafitte could've thrown in his lot with the Brits instead of supporting the US ? Could NO have fallen without the input of Lafitte & his seasoned pirates ?

Further, what poss PODs would be required for there to have been say a full-scale US naval & Marine assault against Barataria along similar lines as the Tripoli campaign against the Barbary Pirates ?
 
I had this happening in the Black Hawk Up TL where multiple divergences produced a moderate British victory in the War of 1812. One of the divergences was Jackson dying in one of his duels.

I had the British returning New Orleans for other concessions one of which was small British protectorate for LaFitte at Barataria. Postwar Lafitte develops Galveston and becomes an ally of Tecumseh who survived the war and became the ruler of an Indian protectorate west of the Mississippi. It is Lafitte's artillery that helps Tecumseh defeat Iturbide during his Mexican incursion.
 
OTL, the Brits pressed, begged Lafitte to join them. The Americans refused him and insulted him and attacked his forces, and then finally deigned to let him join them.

I suspect that he really was on the US side, and that him joining the Brits has to be a very low order of probability.

Tom_b, thanks for the heads up on your old TL.
 
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