On 8 January 1815 a mixed American army under Major General Andrew Jackson, fighting from a strong line of earthworks, threw back a British frontal assault on New Orleans. The attack was cut to pieces by American guns and rifles; the British suffered around two thousand casualties, including their commander, General Sir Edward Pakenham, while American losses were only a few dozen. The battle made Jackson a national hero and, though it was fought after the peace treaty was signed, it became a symbol of American defiance.
At the end of the War of 1812 a British army arrived to seize New Orleans and the mouth of the Mississippi. Waiting for them was Andrew Jackson, a hard, determined general with a patchwork force of regulars, militia, free Black soldiers, frontiersmen and even pirates. What followed was one of the most one-sided battles in American history.
Part of The greatest battles in American history · Before: The Battle of Baltimore and Fort McHenry
The last battle of a war
The War of 1812 between the United States and Britain was grinding to a close when a British expedition sailed for the Gulf Coast to take New Orleans, the key to the Mississippi. Command of the American defence fell to Major General Andrew Jackson, who threw together every fighting man he could find.
Jackson's line
Jackson chose a strong position on the Chalmette plain below the city, with the Mississippi on one flank and a swamp on the other1, and dug in behind a canal and a rampart of earth.1 His mixed force, regulars, Tennessee and Kentucky riflemen, Louisiana militia, free men of color, Choctaw allies and Jean Lafitte's Baratarian pirates2, waited behind the works with massed artillery.
The assault
On the morning of 8 January the British attacked head-on across open ground1. Jackson's guns and rifles tore the advancing columns apart. The attackers, brave but exposed, were shot down in rows; General Pakenham was killed trying to rally them.1 Within a short time the assault collapsed3, having cost the British around two thousand men against a few dozen Americans.
Fought after peace was signed
In a famous irony, the battle took place after the Treaty of Ghent had already been signed in Europe in December 18144, though it had not yet been ratified, so the war was not legally over, and news had not yet reached America. The victory did not change the treaty, but it electrified the young country5, wiped away the humiliations of the war, and launched Andrew Jackson toward the presidency.
