Jackson Wins Battle of New Orleans After War Signed
The battle was fought two weeks after the Treaty of Ghent officially ended the War of 1812, but news traveled slowly in 1815. Andrew Jackson assembled a ragtag force of regulars, militia, free Black soldiers, Choctaw warriors, and Jean Lafitte's pirates behind cotton-bale fortifications along the Rodriguez Canal. When British General Pakenham ordered a frontal assault across open ground, American riflemen cut down over 2,000 redcoats in less than thirty minutes. British casualties outnumbered American losses roughly seventy to one. The victory had no effect on the war's outcome, already settled by treaty, but it transformed Jackson into the most famous man in America and launched him toward the presidency. The battle also killed the Federalist Party, whose opposition to the war now looked treasonous.
January 8, 1815
211 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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