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The Battle of New Orleans: Andrew Jackson and America's First Military Victory (1999)

de Robert V. Remini

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349673,491 (3.63)14
The Battle of New Orleans was the climactic battle of America's "forgotten war" of 1812. Andrew Jackson led his ragtag corps of soldiers against 8,000 disciplined invading British regulars in a battle that delivered the British a humiliating military defeat. The victory solidified America's independence and marked the beginning of Jackson's rise to national prominence. Hailed as "terrifically readable" by the Chicago Sun Times, The Battle of New Orleans is popular American history at its best, bringing to life a landmark battle that helped define the character of the United States.… (mais)
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A brief but complete history of the 1814-1815 Battle of New Orleans, mostly focusing on Jackson and his troops, but with enough of the view from the other side to be balanced. I thought this was a good read and I enjoyed it. It has enough detail to be sufficient, but not too much to be boring. ( )
  Karlstar | May 6, 2022 |
This book details essentially all the events surrounding the Battle of New Orleans. A diverse rabble: Kentuckians in top hats, pirates and citizen soldiers banding together with a beat up the regular British Army. The focus is mostly on Andrew Jackson--some of the Brit generals are also mentioned. As always, the specifics of the battle are difficult without a map or some foreknowledge. ( )
  buffalogr | Mar 29, 2020 |
Robert Vincent Remini is the author of a number of biographies of early 19-century Americans, including Henry Clay, John Quincy Adams, and Joseph Smith. The Battle of New Orleans is the only one of his books I’ve read, but its quality and readability makes me want to read the others. As soon as I finish the other 800 or so unread books.

Remini subtitles this “Andrew Jackson and America’s First Military Victory”, (meaning that the United States of America didn’t exist yet for the Revolutionary War). This is a little arguable; you might make a case for the Constitution versus Guerriere.

But New Orleans was vitally important. It was a relatively new addition to American territory, and the locals were not exactly comfortable about that. It was the major port for most of American territory (area wise, not population wise; but it was easier to get Cincinnati products to the world through New Orleans than through New York). The US west of the Appalachians was a little uncomfortable about being in the US too. And this time the Americans would be fighting British regulars, victors over Napoleon, not Canadian militia – and Canadian militia had beat the snot out of the US Army or fought to bloody draws. Not looking good.

Further, the locals were uncomfortable with Jackson’s troops, who were Tennessee and Kentucky backwoodsmen looking more like rat catchers than soldiers (contemporary descriptions show that some even had coonskin caps). And the Tennesseans and Kentuckians were similarly uncomfortable with locals. Everybody was Catholic – not a Presbyterian to be seen. And the men wore perfume and kissed each other. And the women; well, OK, I expect they were comfortable with the women. And this krewe was supposed to keep off the British Army and Royal Navy?

Well, they did. There were a number of things in Jackson’s favor; the first of which was Andrew Jackson. Maybe the rest of the American army didn’t look like soldiers, but he did. And he was a pretty good politician, promptly issuing proclamations to the French, the Spanish, the Americans, the Free Colored, and everybody else with vague promises of wonderful stuff if they fought and quite clear promises of hellish disaster if they didn’t (Jackson didn’t keep any of the promises). And Jackson’s troops really were crack rifle shots (which in that day meant they could reliably hit a man-sized target 100 yards away, which was way better than you could do with a Brown Bess). And while the French didn’t like the Americans very much, they liked the English even less. And Jean Laffite turned up; Jackson initially had no use for “pirates and banditti” but came around. The climate was not salubrious (even though the fighting was done in the winter); one British lieutenant commented that he had “never known real rain before”. The Royal Navy was reluctant to try and get past the forts at the river mouth (Farragut did it without too much difficulty years later, but Farragut’s ships were powered). That left the army to march overland from Lake Borgne to the Mississippi River, then make a right turn and march along the bank (due to the way deltaic geography works, the river banks are the only place where it’s dry enough to march).

That last bears a little more comment. Just looking at map with no elevations or soundings, it seems like the British could have just sailed into Lake Pontchartrain, landed above the city, and marched to both cut off supplies from the north and assault New Orleans directly. The catches are several:

* Every spring the rivers rise, deposit sediment along the banks, and fall again. The original levees along the Mississippi were entirely natural, and are much higher than the surrounding countryside. So is the river itself, which is pretty freaky when your sitting in a riverfront café in New Orleans and have to look up to see an ocean-going vessel pass by.

* Those natural levees are the only dry spot around. Lesser channels – “bayous” in local parlance – drain the countryside. They have levees of their own. Everything else is swamp. The only way you can move a substantial body of men or supplies is on the river, or on a bayou, or along their banks. There is no overland travel. However, Bayou Bienvenu debouches into Lake Borgne, is deep and wide enough to take a ships boat full of supplies, and heads straight toward the Mississippi. The plan was then to row supplies up Bayou Bienvenu while the troops marched along the banks. When the bayou was no longer navigable it was but a short slog to the Mississippi; camp there, catch your breath, breakfast on bangers and mash, and stroll into New Orleans.

* Neither Lake Borgne nor Lake Pontchartrain is deep enough to take an ocean-going vessel. All the British troops and supplies had to be rowed in ships boats, and even then some of those ran aground. To go the additional distance to Lake Pontchartrain would have exhausted the boat crews, who were already putting in 14-hour days rowing. The additional distance to a suitable bayou draining into the lake would have started killing them (You could land anywhere along the lake shore; however, the only way to move inland from there was, again, along a bayou. Grant faced a similar problem years later at Vicksburg; just looking at the map it seems like he could have just swept around the city on the east and come at it from the rear. Couldn’t do it; made some attempts but got stuck in the swamps.)


Failure to oppose a British landing at Bayou Bienvenu was Jackson’s major mistake of the campaign, but since it ended well nobody’s complaining.

Jackson was surprised by the British move, but the Brits pulled a Gallipoli and just set up camp; if they had pressed on toward the city it would have developed differently. That gave Jackson time to organize an attack. The American luck held – a night attack coordinated with naval support should have be way too complicated to pull off. The Carolina, manned mostly by Laffite’s pirates, pulled up and anchored alongside the levee, to British bemusement until it began pouring broadsides into the camp. Simultaneously the infantry showed up and also began shooting up everything that moved (quite a few friendly fire casualties in this one). When the sun came up, the British were still in possession of their camp but had taken the worst of it in terms of casualties. They had also been given notice that they would just not stroll into New Orleans and “fill their pockets”.


General Pakenham arrived after the battle and was pretty disconcerted; he considered withdrawing and trying somewhere else. Admiral Cochrane, the overall commander, was completely contemptuous of the Americans (having presided at “the Bladensberg Races” which ended in the capture and burning of Washington) and said “If the Army shrinks from the attack here, I will bring up my sailors and marines from the fleet. We will storm the American lines and march into the city. Then the soldiers can bring up the baggage.” Always a bad idea to be dissin’ your enemy; even worse to be dissin’ your friends.


Pakenhham had never seen anything like the troops opposing him; they had the “appearance of snipe and rabbit hunters beating the bushes for game”. His first orders were to dispose of the Carolina, which was done quickly and efficiently; the British had brought up shot furnaces and set her on fire with their second round. The crew all escaped across the river, however. In the meantime, Jackson had been busy constructing a series of parallel defensive lines, and his troops were amusing themselves by picking of British sentries.


Over the next few days, the British conducted a whole series of assaults on the American line. None of them came remotely close to success. The nearest thing was an artillery duel on January 1, 1814. The British had spent New Year’s Eve building emplacements and opened up with a violence that momentarily disorganized the Americans (“Oh, if we had charged at that instant!” lamented a British officer). They didn’t though, and the Americans started shooting back. Once again, Laffite’s pirates were prominent; but a lot of the locals turned out to be expatriate Napoleonic artillery officers and were pretty good at their work too. To the considerable surprise of both parties, even though outclassed in both number of guns and weight of shot, the Americans won. Remini notes that the battle was fought almost naval style – the British attempting to use volume of fire to smash the American rampart; while the Americans (well, they were mostly French) took the time to aim, fire ranging shots, and picked the enemy gunners and guns off one by one.


That led to the battle on January 8 1815. It was like the Jimmy Driftwood song. At the end, two thirds of the assaulting forces were casualties, including Generals Pakenham, Keane, and Gibbs. One British Colonel was found face down at the rampart – the Kentuckians debated over who had brought him down. One commented “Turn him over and see if there’s a bullet hole over his left eyebrow”. There was. (It should be noted that it was a different story on the west bank: the Americans there were routed by a British bayonet charge. But the British didn’t follow up and the Americans reformed). New Orleans threw a party.


Remini notes that, in theory, New Orleans would have been given back to the US by the Treaty of Ghent; but also notes that its possession just might have made the British rethink that, and certainly would have given them a stronger negotiating position. The original British stand was “each side keeps what it holds” which would have left the British with Maine and Michigan and the US with a little bit of Ontario around Niagara Falls. The British apparently didn’t have much use for either Maine or Michigan, and backed off to status quo ante belum. But their additional possession of New Orleans might have made quite a bit of difference. Further, the American victory at New Orleans was supposedly of considerable use in convincing the Spanish to part with Florida. The US might look very different if Jackson hadn’t won.


This reads like a novel; Remini isn’t quite in the same class as Shelby Foote but he’s pretty close. My paraphrasing of the account doesn’t do justice to the original. I’m up for his other books. Hmm; I wonder if there’s anything of the original battlefield left. I haven’t been to New Orleans in decades; might be time for a history/geomorphology trip to the area. Should be dried out by now. ( )
  setnahkt | Dec 20, 2017 |
This book details essentially all the events surrounding the Battle of New Orleans. It starts off with discussing Jackson’s victories against the Native Americans in Spanish Florida. Remini then articulately details the beginning of the Battle of New Orleans, from the earlier skirmishes to the battle at Lake Borgne, which the Americans lost. He also details the night attack the Americans launched against the British prior to actual battle. And, of course, with striking detail Remini discusses the actual battle in great detail. He even shows a plethora of maps for those unfamiliar with it.

I disagree with Remini’s claim that this was America’s first actual victory because he discounts the many victories prior. He claims this was a different type of victory because they surrendered in the other battles, but this one was different. I think he is misusing the word victory to support his position.

This book is significant for students considering its importance and relevance to where we live. We, in St. Bernard Parish, live less than ten minutes away from one of the most important battles in American history, and the last major battle on American soil, and the last battle against the English. If I were teaching high school, I would have my students read the entire text or I would read excerpts from it to them. ( )
  Chrisdier | Apr 25, 2012 |
Battle ancestors took part in ( )
  MarianneAudio | Aug 22, 2020 |
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The Battle of New Orleans was the climactic battle of America's "forgotten war" of 1812. Andrew Jackson led his ragtag corps of soldiers against 8,000 disciplined invading British regulars in a battle that delivered the British a humiliating military defeat. The victory solidified America's independence and marked the beginning of Jackson's rise to national prominence. Hailed as "terrifically readable" by the Chicago Sun Times, The Battle of New Orleans is popular American history at its best, bringing to life a landmark battle that helped define the character of the United States.

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