New Orleans
In late December 1814 the British landed a force of 8,000 veteran troops along the banks of the Mississippi River, intent on taking the city and port of New Orleans. An advance guard of British troops on the eastern side of the river were attacked by units of Jackson’s army on the night of December 23, after which Jackson located his army along the Rodriguez Canal, fortifying the position. When the British army commander, General Edward Pakenham, arrived on the battlefield on Christmas Day he was enraged at the position his army had been led into, and ordered a probing attack on the American defenses.
It is a myth that the Battle of New Orleans was a single day encounter in which the British Army marched into the massed rifle and musket fire of the entrenched Americans. The British made several attempts to flank Jackson’s position, on both land and water. On New Year’s Day Pakenham ordered an artillery bombardment of the American line, with the heaviest concentration of fire on the left of Jackson’s position as a prelude to an infantry assault. British guns pounded the Americans all until they ran out of ammunition before the infantry could be brought up for an assault.
A week later, after several additional skirmishes and raids conducted by both sides, Pakenham ordered the main assault against Jackson’s position, in two columns supported by artillery and Congreve rockets. A flank attack across the Mississippi against one of Jackson’s artillery batteries was to precede the advance of the main columns. The flank attack failed to reach its objectives due to British inexperience with Mississippi mud and currents, but the main assault went on as scheduled. The British attack began in the early morning darkness of January 8, 1815. As the British troops moved forward they met withering fire from Jackson’s positions.
Both Pakenham and his second in commanded were mortally wounded during the assault. Casualties among the British officers were high and many units, in the absence of orders whether to advance or withdraw, were shot to pieces as they stood on the field. The British absorbed more than 2,100 killed and wounded in the battle, and another 500 taken prisoner. Edward Pakenham, brother in law to the Duke of Wellington and a decorated veteran of the Peninsula War, died on the battlefield. After the British withdrew outside the range of Jackson’s guns, they remained in place for several days before withdrawing.
The Battle of New Orleans was not the last battle of the War of 1812, as is commonly believed. Another British force seized Fort Bowyer near Mobile and a besieging British force failed to take Fort St. Philip after a ten day siege. But New Orleans was the United States greatest land victory of the war. Jackson’s army suffered 333 killed, wounded, or missing during the campaign against New Orleans, compared to the more than 2,400 British casualties. New Orleans gave the Americans reason to consider themselves the victors of the War of 1812, having prevailed in its biggest engagement.