Battle of New Orleans
Theater of War St. Lawrence / Lake Champlain 1. Sacket's Harbor - 1. Lacolle Mills - Lake Ontario - Ogdensburg - New York - 2. Sacket's Harbor - Châteauguay - Chrysler's Farm - 2. Lacolle Mills - Fort Oswego - Big Sandy Creek - Plattsburgh
Niagara Theater of War
Queenston Heights - Frenchman's Creek - George - Stoney Creek - Beaver Dams - Black Rock - Fort Niagara - Buffalo - 1st Fort Erie - Chippewa - Lundy's Lane - 2nd Fort Erie - Cook's Mill
Detroit
Theater of War Tippecanoe - Fort Mackinac - Dearborn - Detroit - Fort Harrison - Fort Wayne - Wild Cat Creek - Mississinewa - Frenchtown - Fort Meigs - Fort Stephenson - Lake Erie - Thames River - Longwoods - Prarie du Chien - Rock Island Rapids - Mackinac Island - Malcom's Mills
Chesapeake
Theater of War Craney Island - St. Michaels - Chesapeake - Bladensburg - Washington - Caulk's Field - North Point - Baltimore
South Theater of War
Creek - 1. Fort Bowyer - Fayal - Pensacola - Lake Borgnes - New Orleans - Fort St. Philip - Fort Peter - 2. Fort Bowyer
The Battle of New Orleans took place on January 8, 1815, a few kilometers outside New Orleans in the US state of Louisiana . The British defeat against US troops under Andrew Jackson , who later became the 7th President of the United States of America , was the last great battle of the British-American War and occurred two weeks after the Ghent Peace Treaty was signed .
prehistory
In December 1814, British troops under Major General Edward Michael Pakenham landed on the lower Mississippi River in Louisiana. The opposing American forces under Andrew Jackson (a colonel in the regular army and general in the Tennessee militia ) were outnumbered by the British. Because of this, they only offered hesitant resistance at the beginning. It was not until Chalmette, only three miles from New Orleans, that the British encountered an American line of defense, and it was here that Jackson launched a local counterattack. He managed to hold up the British advance and gain time to get his artillery into position and complete his fortifications. On New Years Day, 1815, the British vanguard encountered Jackson's well-developed position for the first time. The Americans held out, and Pakenham decided to wait for the rest of his 10,000-strong force. In addition to regular British troops, these also included some Native Americans and soldiers from the West Indian colonies.
course
On the morning of January 8th, Pakenham had completely assembled his army and ordered the Americans to attack. Jackson was outnumbered and expected the attack with 4,000–6,000 men at his disposal, including a group of pirates under Jean Laffite , some Choctaw Indians and troops from Haiti and New Orleans. The British went head-on in a classic, multi-unit combat formation against the American fortifications, as was currently common in Europe by means of line tactics , and were brutally beaten three times. Since they lacked ladders, they could not climb the American earthworks and were shot down in rows in the open country.
Pakenham was fatally wounded in the third attack. He ordered his successor, General John Lambert , to continue the fight, but Lambert eventually withdrew. The British Army had lost a total of 2,700 men and the Americans lost 71 men.
consequences
Shortly after the battle, both sides learned that the peace treaty of Ghent had been signed on December 24, 1814. This did not end the war, however, because the treaty still had to be ratified by both sides, which only happened on February 17, 1815. The victory itself was celebrated across the United States and made Andrew Jackson a hero. His reputation for defeating the British Army helped him in his efforts to become President of the United States a few years later.
Reception in popular culture
The American fiddle melody The 8th of January , which is said to have been composed around 1815, recalls the story of the battle of January 8, 1815 . The original name "Jackson's Victory" was later no longer used because Jackson's reputation had been damaged and no one should be reminded of the person of Jackson by the title of this melody. It was only much later, in 1936, that the American James Corbitt Morris wrote the lyrics to the melody , as a high school teacher he wanted to bring his students closer to American history through such texts. In the fifties he became known under the name "Jimmy Driftwood" and published his own record in 1957, but it was not very successful. The 1959 version by Johnny Horton in the USA and at the same time the very successful version by Lonnie Donegan in Europe were much more successful . The Les Humphries Singers used the template for their best-known hit Mexico in 1972 .
Web links
- Map of the battlefield
- Shelene C. Roumillat: The Glorious Eighth of January , at knowlouisiana.org, accessed February 10, 2017.
- John Kendall: The Battle of New Orleans (= Chapter 6 of his History of New Orleans , Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago and New York 1922), accessed February 10, 2017.
- Text and genesis of the song (English)
- Wikisource: The English before New Orleans , from the journal “The Abroad”, 1828.