Probably the most important battle ever fought after a war ended occurred on January
8, 1815. Thousands of British troops, including regiments that had distinguished
themselves in the Napoleonic Wars and elite units of Royal Marines, were
shattered by murderous fire from make-shift
American breastworks manned by U.S. Volunteers, Regular Army, local militia (including units of Freemen),
U.S. Navy gunners, and pirates
under the command of Major General Andrew Jackson. The Battle
of New Orleans was a devastating, bloody
defeat for the British and a stunning
American victory.
Most Americans know little about the
battle, and much of that is wrong based on two Cecil B. DeMille epics—The
Buccaneer in 1938 with Fredric
March as Jean Lafitte and the
1958 remake with Yul Brenner as Lafitte and Charlton Heston as General Jackson—or as
the rollicking yarn in the 1959 #1 hit record The Battle of New Orleans by Johnny Horton and written by Arkansas
folk singer Jimmy Driftwood.
The sleeve of Johnny Horton's single The Battle of New Orleans--the #1 pop and country hit of 1959.
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On December 24, 1814 diplomats in Ghent signed a treaty ending the War of 1812.
Despite recent victories including the capture
and burning of the American capital Washington by
the very same troops that would be thrown into battle at New Orleans, the terms of the peace treaty were
essentially a wash—largely an
agreement to return to territorial
boundaries and possessions as
they were before the war. The British did promise to evacuate a string of forts
across the Northwest Territories from Ft. Detroit to Mackinac
Island and to withdraw their support from Native tribes waging war against settlers
across the frontier. But the Americans failed to win promises to end forced impressment of
American seamen, ostensibly the main
cause of the war.
But there was no way to get word to
the forces destined to collide at New Orleans.
Admiral Alexander Cochrane was in overall command of the British fleet and invasion forces after the successful attack and burning of Washington, D.C.
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Admiral Alexander Cochrane had disembarked a force of 11,000 Red Coat Regulars, Royal
Marines and sailors on December 23 after American
gunboats defending the approaches to the city on Lake Borgne were overwhelmed on December 16. An advance guard of 1,800 British troops
reached the shores of the Mississippi River about 9 miles south of the
city.
Jackson had arrived at New Orleans
from Mobile on November 30 after being appointed a Major General in the
Regular Army and placed in command of the military district encompassing most
of the lower South. His promotion from the commanding General of the Tennessee
Militia and of the U.S. Volunteers raised for the Creek War was a
recognition of his success in that bloody campaign against a faction of the Creek Nation. He found former New
York City Mayor Edward Livingston, who had fled to the southern city to avoid legal woes at home, was
organizing militias of local residents—French and Spanish Creoles,
Americans, Freemen, and even slaves.
Jackson had rallied the city and began to prepare a defense.
A New Orleans Free Men of Color Militia company and Chocktaw native allies served with distinction on the American line.
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In need of men and guns, Jackson
reluctantly agreed to allow the pirates of Barataria led by the legendary
buccaneer Jean Lafitte to
join his forces in exchange for a pardon
and amnesty from Louisiana
Governor William Claiborne. Lafitte did not personally command men in
the battle. He remained at Jackson’s headquarters and provided
information on the land and intelligence
on British movements. His brother
in law, Dominique You, organized three batteries of artillery among the privateers and smugglers and his
accurate, withering fire, in the battle were later commended by Jackson
himself.
Jean Lafitte and his brother-in-law Dominic You who actually commanded the pirate guns on the line with devastating results to the British.
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Ascertaining correctly that without shallow draft skiffs the British could
not launch an assault on the city, Jackson began fortifying a narrow strip of
land at Chalmette Plantation where he expected the British would have to
advance between the Mississippi River on their left and an impassable swamp on the right. He
was using soldiers and slaves procured from nearby plantations to build barricades of barrels and lumber from
the city and bales of cotton dug into the mud.
Jackson was working on the defenses
when he got word of the British advance on December 23. In typical aggressive manor, the General declared
“By the Eternal they shall not sleep on our soil.” He organized and
personally led a night assault on by
1,800 men against the ill-conceived British bivouac, taking them by surprise and inflicting serious
casualties. He then fell back to his defensive line and resumed
fortifications.
General Edward Pakenham commanded the land forces in the campaign against New Orleans--battle hardened British regulars and Royal Marines.
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The British were stunned by the
assault. The next day, December 24 the land commander, General
Edward M. Pakenham arrived. He was outraged at the precarious
position in Cochrane had placed his troops. He saw immediately that an
advance along the river would expose his troops to murderous fire. He
proposed an attack up the undefended Chef Menteur Road instead, but was
over ruled by Cochrane, who had contempt
for American military ability after his easy
victories in Maryland, and insisted that if Pakenham did not attack with
the army, he would take the line by himself with Marines and sailors and let
the Army, “bring up the baggage.”
Pakenham ordered a strong probing reconnaissance on December 28, but by
that time the earthworks along the Rodriguez Canal were nearing
completion. The reconnaissance raids were easily repulsed and confirmed Pakenham’s fears. The next day the
Americans began digging in artillery behind the line. Jackson installed
eight batteries. His guns included one 32-pound gun, three 24-pounders,
one 18-pounder, three 12-pounders, three 6-pounders, and a 6-inch (150 mm) howitzer. He also sent two big 24-pounders and two
12-pounders across the river under the command of Navy Commodore Daniel
Patterson to provide covering fire
on his flank.
On New Year’s Day Pakenham
and Cochrane unleashed an intense three hour artillery barrage against
the American earthworks, now called Line
Jackson. The American guns responded. There was some damage to
the earthworks and three guns were destroyed. Green troops holding the left of the line by the swamp actually broke and ran under the salvos—although
the British commanders never knew it. A planned follow up assault was
called off when the British ran out of
ammunition at hand without creating substantial breached in the defense.
Still leery, Pakenham decided to
delay his attack until his full effective force of more than 8,000 troops were
brought up. Meanwhile Jackson continued to reinforce his earthworks and
batteries. On January 8 the British general was ready. His battle
plan called for his main force to advance in two columns against the American
defenses. The column on the left, next to the River, was commanded by Major
General John Keane and a brigade under Major General Samuel Gibbs attacked
on the right next to the cypress swamp. Another brigade under Major
General John Lambert was held in reserve.
But the key to the success of the operation was an attack on Commodore Patterson’s battery across the river. Colonel William Thornton and 850 men were to cross the river hours before the main assault and quickly close in on the battery, hopefully taking it by surprise. They were then to turn the guns and rake Jackson’s line from the flank, which would have had devastating consequences. But Thornton and his men were delayed. A canal dug by Royal Navy sailors to expedite the attack collapsed and the men had to drag their boats through the mud to get to the river. The attack began 12 hours late, almost at the same time the two main columns began to advance on the east side of the river. Although Thornton would eventually succeed in taking Patterson’s battery, it was too late to be put to use—the main battle was already lost.
A panoramic view of the British assault on the American Breastworks by Jean Hyacinthe de Ladotte who served with the New Orleans militia in the battle.
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The main assault began before day
break under cover of a thick fog. But when the sun came up, the fog
burned off and the columns were exposed to the American artillery.
British senior officers were bravely, if foolhardily, leading the attack from
the van, most on horseback and fully exposed to the withering fire. One
by one they went down killed or wounded creating confusion. As the attack
on the right struggled to the canal in front of the American lines, it was
discovered that the scaling ladders and fascines—bundles of sticks and straw to be laid down to create firm
footing on swampy ground—had been forgotten. As the troops next to the
swamp floundered, their commander, Gibbs was killed.
Seeing the distress of the other column, Keene led an oblique maneuver over the open ground between the columns with a regiment. Brave, but foolhardy, the maneuver exposed his troops to prolonged devastating fire. Keene was severely injured.
Seeing the distress of the other column, Keene led an oblique maneuver over the open ground between the columns with a regiment. Brave, but foolhardy, the maneuver exposed his troops to prolonged devastating fire. Keene was severely injured.
Colonel Rennie, in command of the remaining troops in the left column led
by a Highland regiment by the river, did manage to capture a forward
American redoubt. But the American 7th Infantry, a Regular
Army outfit, emerged from the line and counter-attacked. Within half an
hour Rennie was dead, most of his troops dead or injured the redoubt was
recaptured.
The death of General Pakenham.
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Two main assaults on the right were
repulsed as grape shot tore through the ranks. Pakenham was un-horsed and killed. A handful of troops did reach the American
breastworks, where they were mauled.
With all of their senior commanders out of commission and with no orders to
either renew the attack or retreat, the men stayed on the field, most of them in formation, as they were ripped to pieces by American fire. After an additional 20 minutes of slaughter Lambert
finally came up and took command. He saw that the situation was
hopeless, despite getting word that the cross-river battery had finally been
taken, and ordered a general retreat.
It was not only a humiliating battlefield loss, it was
costly. That day the British reported 2,042 casualties with 291 killed
including Pakenham and Gibbs, 1,267 wounded including Keane, and 484 captured
or missing. By contrast Jackson’s command had 71 casualties with 13 dead; 39
wounded and 19 missing.
The next day, January 9, Cochrane
began a naval attack on Fort St. Philip which protected New Orleans from
an amphibious assault from the Gulf
of Mexico via the Mississippi River. The American garrison held out for
ten days. Discouraged, Cochrane finally decided to sail away from New Orleans, his prize denied him.
By the time they sailed away on
February 5, the British losses for the whole New Orleans campaign were 386
killed, 1,521 wounded and 552 missing, a casualty rate of nearly 20%—twice the 10% losses that define being decimated.
Cochrane, however, wasn’t
done. On February 12 he attacked and captured Ft. Brower at the
entrance to Mobile Bay. He was preparing an assault on the port city
when word finally arrived of the peace treaty. Reluctantly, he
re-embarked his troops and sailed for home. Which was probably a good
thing for him. The aggressive Jackson was preparing an overland march from New Orleans and
planned to lay siege to the British in Mobile and destroy the Army there.
Had things gone differently, treaty
or no treaty, the British would have been hard to dislodge form New Orleans,
and would have had little impetus to speedily abide by provisions in the treaty
calling for the evacuation of the forts in the Northwest Territories or suspend
aid to native tribes. In fact, since the treaty never mentioned the
disposition of territory in the southwest or American claims to the Louisiana
Territory, they could have claimed that they were not required to surrender
the key port city at all.
As long as the British held New
Orleans, they could effectively strangle
American Western expansion because new settlers on the frontier could find
no way to get their crops and goods to market. The British could hold out
there, but the Americans would be compelled to raise a new army and attempt to
retake the city overland in a new war. Alternatively they could use the
city as a bargaining chip for other concessions—perhaps continued sway over
those northern forts, or a surrender to American claims on the Pacific
Coast.
America, except for grumpy, Federalist
New England, wildly celebrated the victory. It boosted national moral after the humiliating defeat at
Washington, and helped begin to forge a new sense of nationalism. With
New Orleans secure and the British out of the Northwest—although it took nearly
two years for them to evacuate all of those forts—western expansion was
guaranteed. Within thirty years all of the land east of the Mississippi
would be settled and prosperous and the trans-Mississippi
West including Arkansas, Missouri, and Iowa would cease to be
frontier. Eastern Native American tribes, with the exception of the Seminole
in Florida and a few small, scattered bands would be either destroyed
or brutally relocated to Indian
Territory on lands west of the Missouri. As the New Englanders
had feared, much of the expansion came with the creation of new slave states
and territories. The power of the South was enhanced and sectional tensions over the extension of slavery and other issues
would become an open sore.
Not the least of the outcomes of the
Battle was the rise in fortunes of the victorious commander. Andrew
Jackson was hailed as a hero.
He would go on to other adventures, including unauthorized forays in Spanish Florida. After being
defeated in 1828 by John Quincy Adams by a vote in the House of
Representatives to break an Electoral College failure to elect a President
in the multi-candidate election,
Jackson would go on to win two terms
in the White House on the crest of a wave of Democratic populism.
As President he would simultaneously vigorously prosecute the Indian Removal
policy while defying Southern attempts to assert the power to nullify
national law.
And all of that was plenty of
consequence for a battle without a war.
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