Battle of New Orleans

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History -- Military History -- List of battles
Battle before: Battle of Horseshoe Bend

Conflict

War of 1812

Date

January 8 1815

Place

Chalmette, Louisiana

Result

Decisive U.S. victory

Combatants
United Kingdom	United States
Commanders
Sir Edward Pakenham	Andrew Jackson
Strength
11,000- 14,500	4000-6000
Casualties
2,036	71

In The Battle of New Orleans of the War of 1812, the United States forces defeated the British on January 8, 1815.

In December of 1814 British forces under Major General Sir Edward Pakenham landed along the lower Mississippi River. At first they met with only minor skirmishes of resistance. The Americans, led by General Andrew Jackson, set up defensive positions at Chalmette, Louisiana, some 5 miles below the city of New Orleans. The first British troops reached the American position on January 1, and in an exchange of artillery fire the Americans held their ground. Packenham decided to wait for his entire force of over 10,000 men to assemble before launching an attack. On the 8th he ordered 3 large assaults on the American positions, all of which were cut down by American fire, Packenham himself being mortally wounded in the 3rd attack. The British had fought bravely but suffered defeat because ladders needed to scale the defenses the Americans were in were never brought forward to the soldiers. All the British infantry could do was to stand out in the open and be shot by the Americans behind defenses that the British could not assault, even so, some of the raw Americans fled when British troops got too near the defenses. On the opposite side of the river the British easily defeated the Americans. The British withdrew having suffered a loss of 2,036 men, while the Americans lost but 71.

Unknown to both parties the war was already officially over, the peace treaty having been signed in Ghent December 24, 1814. The Battle, nonetheless, had historic consequences. In the hypothetical realm, it has been speculated that had the British been in control of the key port of New Orleans they would have attempted to use this to get additional concessions from the United States. In the realm of certainty, the victory was celebrated with great enthusiasm in the United States, and gave Andrew Jackson the reputation of a hero which propelled him to the Presidency.

External links

The popular song Battle of New Orleans was written in 1958 by a high school teacher named Jimmy Driftwood as a means to teach history to his students, to old fiddle tune called The 8th of January, the date of the battle. It took off on the pop charts in 1959