NEW ORLEANS, BATTLE OF

On the morning of 8 January 1815, a sea of red coats rushed toward the American lines defending New Orleans. Within a few short hours the extent of General Andrew Jackson's victory over the British was clear. Americans sustained a mere 6 casualties with an additional 7 wounded. The British troops under the command of Sir Edward Michael Pakenham suffered upwards of 2,500 deaths and injuries, with Pakenham among the dead. The victory was the greatest in the nation's brief history and sparked a rampant nationalism that helped to erase the rather pathetic American military record during the War of 1812. The battle also launched Andrew Jackson to overnight stardom. Known as a rough-and-tumble Indian fighter, the

general suddenly became the people's hero. Most historians agree that the gates of New Orleans led Jackson directly to the White House. His popularity was second only to George Washington's.

The actual "battle" of New Orleans was in reality the final assault in a larger campaign. The British had arrived secretly via a bayou leading from Lake Borgne and positioned themselves just miles below the city. Jackson engaged in a risky night attack on 23 December, and the two armies exchanged considerable cannon fire on New Year's Day. The 8 January battle was the last attempt to break through Jackson's line, which ran from the edge of the Mississippi River on the west to an impenetrable cypress swamp on the east. Pakenham knew that the advance guard had chosen a horrible logistical position with absolutely no possibility to engage in a flanking maneuver, but nevertheless attempted to carry the day through sheer force of numbers. Hurling against Jackson's ragtag army thousands of Britain's famed Peninsular veterans, the men who had defeated Napoleon, Pakenham hoped that a well-coordinated attack under the cover of a dense fog would carry his troops to victory. American cannon under the direction of Jean Lafitte's notorious pirate "banditti" proved the British general wrong.

The soldiers on both sides of the engagement were awestruck at the level of carnage. A largely militia army had soundly defeated Europe's greatest fighting force. Many Americans, including Jackson, viewed the victory as a sign of Providence and an acknowledgment that freemen fighting in defense of liberty were equal to the armies of monarchs and despots.

Perhaps the most ironic aspect of the battle is that it occurred after the Ghent peace negotiations had been signed on Christmas Eve 1814. The war did not officially end until the U.S. Senate and British Parliament ratified the agreement in February, however; thus, the battle did occur during the official war. In many respects the history of the War of 1812 would have been quite different had the New Orleans victory never occurred. The battle certainly allowed America to hold its head high even though the nation's capital had been burned in August 1814. Moreover, though historians disagree on this point, there is some argument to be made that had the British taken New Orleans they would have kept it. They had never been terribly pleased with the Louisiana Purchase and officers for an entire civil government were on board their warships.

See alsoGhent, Treaty of; Jackson, Andrew; War of 1812 .

bibliography

Pickles, Tim. New Orleans 1815: Andrew Jackson Crushes the British. Oxford: Osprey, 1993.

Reilly, Robin. The British at the Gates: The New Orleans Campaign in the War of 1812. New York: Putnam, 1974.

Remini, Robert V. The Battle of New Orleans: Andrew Jackson and America's First Military Victory. New York: Viking, 1999.

Matthew Warshauer