The Battle of New Orleans

Arrrgh!!

Two hundred years ago today what is considered by some the last battle of the War of 1812, or the Second American Revolutionary War, was fought in a low field along the Mississippi River a few miles outside of New Orleans, Louisiana. British General Edward Pakenham led a force of close to 11,000 British solider's sailors, and marines against General Andrew Jackson and a force of fewer than 5,000 men of mixed military background, including Choctaw Indians, Freemen of Color, the 7th & 44th U.S. Infantry, and most romantically Jean Lafitte's pirates.

The battle was the culmination of a series of attempts by the British to take the mouth of the Mississippi River delta and there by cut off the interior portion of the U.S. shipping and trading lanes. The British had landed on Louisiana soil several weeks before and were massing forces for a march into New Orleans from the east along the river. Gen. Jackson knew he was in a bad position, out numbered and out gunned by the British forces, and so he launched a night raid on their encampment on December 23rd. I do not think this raid was meant to dislodge the British, although Jackson certainly wold have accepted that outcome, but was instead meant to rile the British into early action against Jackson. Jackson's raid was I think an attempt to draw the British into a fight where Jackson chose the battlefield, rather than attempting to muster troops into an assault on the marching British Army and Marines.

Jackson chose a farm along the Mississippi just beyond English Turn. At the farm, Jackson built strong a defensive line stretching from the river to the marshy wood lands maybe a half a mile northeast. Across the river, he had a cannon battery aligned to fire into the river or the fields in front of his fortifications. The Americans were well defended their troops were mainly untrained volunteers.

The British army on the other hand were veterans of the Napoleonic War. They were well ready for a fight and had no expectation of easy victory or simple rout of the Americans. They knew well the effort that war took, and were prepared to make it.

Their plan was a good one. At dawn they would dispatch troops across the river and capture the lightly defended cannon battery. Once that was done they would begin the frontal assault on the American line, aided by cannon fire from across the river, that would basically fire into the read of the American line. Success seemed assured. Unfortunately for them the Mississippi River intervened, and the British crossing was delayed, partially abandoned and off-course. Not willing to risk jeopardizing the timing of a simultaneous cannon barrage and his own troops marching at the line Gen Pakenham began is assault before he heard those captured cannons fired.

Finally ladders!

The British forces made one other fatal error that could have swung the day. Lt.Col. Mullins, who was to lead the vanguard did not bring ladders to scale the American barricades. It is thought he may have done this on purpose in hope of being removed from the front of the assault and thus sparring his regiment the many casualties they would have faced charging first of the wall. In any case the delay crossing the field waiting for supplies caused the British troops to withstand cannon and rifle fire for much longer than anticipated and reuslted in the death of many officers.

Rough business

The battle was over by midday. The British assault force was in disarray and retreated. Gen. Pakenham and most of the commanders at the battle were dead. The American forces had held the assault of New Orleans at bay.

Three days later the remaining British forces gave up on trying to capture New Orleans, and by Jan 19th they had left Loisianna. The British though had not completely given up on their plans to reconquer America. They captured a fort in Mobile Bay and planned to attempt another assault on the Mississippi River Delta. News reached them in mid-February and the attack was called off.

Weeks later Napoleon would return from exile and the thought of continuing a war across the Atlantic seemed far less important. Lt.Col. Mullins would be court-martialed for his failure to be properly equipped during the assault.

There is a ton of stuff on line you can read or watch that will give you a more in depth history of the battle, and the implications it carried. There are a lot of New Orleanians who really hated Jackson despite his victory, and you can read about that stuff too. Best of all there will be a Drunk History in New Orleans which means you can see their version of events which will no doubt be the most memorable if not the most wholly accurate story.

Me giving the British two thumbs down at the Battle of New Orleans National Park