On the morning of 8 January 1815 a British army under General Sir Edward Pakenham attacked the American line below New Orleans. In about two hours the assault was broken, Pakenham was dead and the British had lost some 2,000 men, against American losses counted in dozens. The war was already formally over on paper: the Treaty of Ghent had been signed on 24 December 1814, but it had not been ratified and the news had not reached Louisiana.
The British target
In late 1814 a British fleet and army sailed into the Gulf of Mexico to take New Orleans, the port that controlled the mouth of the Mississippi. General Andrew Jackson, commander of the Seventh Military District, took charge of the city's defense in December 1814. When the British appeared near Lake Borgne east of the city, he declared martial law, Britannica writes, and called on every able-bodied man and weapon in the area. After several smaller clashes from late December onward, both sides prepared for a full assault.1
Jackson's army was strikingly mixed. The National Park Service lists regular infantry of the 7th and 44th Regiments, Tennessee and Kentucky militia, Louisiana militia companies from New Orleans, two battalions of free men of color, a company of Choctaw warriors, a detachment of US Marines and the Baratarian privateers of Jean Lafitte. They held a line of earthworks behind the Rodriguez Canal on the Chalmette Plantation, running from the Mississippi to a swamp, with cannon batteries protected by logs, earth and mud covered cotton bales.2
The assault of 8 January
Britannica puts Jackson's force on the east bank at some 4,000 men and the British army at about 8,000. The National Park Service handbook gives about 4,000 Americans on the line against an attacking force of about 5,400, and notes that reliable figures do not exist. The British attacked at daylight, signaled by rockets. The 44th Foot, which was supposed to carry the fascines and ladders needed to cross the ditch and climb the wall, went forward without them, and the main column under General Samuel Gibbs was caught in the open by artillery and rifle fire. It broke in less than half an hour.3
Pakenham was hit while trying to rally his men and died on the way to the rear. Gibbs was mortally wounded and General John Keane was badly wounded. On the west bank of the Mississippi a smaller force under Colonel William Thornton routed the American militia. Neither success changed the result. General John Lambert, now in command, withdrew the army. The infantry fighting lasted no more than about two hours.4
How many fell
The British losses are usually given as about 2,000 killed, wounded and missing. The American Battlefield Trust gives 285 killed, 1,265 wounded and 484 missing or captured. The National Park Service handbook cites a British report of nearly 2,000 and an American estimate of 2,600. American losses on 8 January were very small: Britannica gives fewer than 65 casualties, the Park Service handbook 7 killed and 6 wounded on Jackson's line, and the American Battlefield Trust 13 killed, 39 wounded and 19 missing or captured.5
The full story of the campaign is in our article on the Battle of New Orleans.
A battle after the peace
British and American negotiators had signed the Treaty of Ghent on 24 December 1814. Under its terms the war ended only when both governments had ratified it, so the fighting in Louisiana was legal and the outcome still mattered. The treaty reached Washington and was ratified in mid-February 1815; the National Park Service gives 15 February, other accounts 16 February.6
Britannica notes that the battle did not change the outcome of the war, but it gave Jackson the support that later carried him to the presidency in 1828. His life is covered in our article on Andrew Jackson.7
Also on this day
- 1676: Battle of Stromboli. A French fleet under Abraham Duquesne fought a Dutch and Spanish fleet under Michiel de Ruyter near the Aeolian Islands during the Franco-Dutch War.
