Andrew Jackson | Writing Wings

The Battle of New Orleans was a series of engagements fought from December 24, 1814 through January 8, 1815 and was the final major battle of the War of 1812. American combatants, commanded by Major General Andrew Jackson, prevented an invading British Army, commanded by General Edward Pakenham, and Royal Navy, commanded by Admiral Alexander Cochrane, from seizing New Orleans as a strategic tool to end the war. New Orleans was a vital seaport considered the gateway to the United States’ newly purchased territory in the West. If it could seize the Crescent City, the British Empire would gain dominion over the Mississippi River and hold the trade of the entire American South under its thumb.

Americans believed that a vastly powerful British fleet and army had sailed for New Orleans (Jackson himself thought 25,000 troops were coming), and most expected the worst. The victory, leading a motley assortment of militia fighters, frontiersmen, slaves, Indians and even pirates came after weathering a frontal assault by a superior British force, and inflicting devastating casualties along the way.

1815 painting of the battle by participant Jean Hyacinthe de Laclotte of the Louisiana Militia based on his memories and sketches made at the site.

New Orleans boosted the reputation of Andrew Jackson and helped to propel him to the White House. The anniversary of the battle was celebrated as a national holiday for many years, and continues to be commemorated in south Louisiana.

The Treaty of Ghent was signed on December 24, 1814 (but was not ratified by the US Government until February 1815), and hostilities would continue in Louisiana until January 18 when all of the British forces had retreated, finally putting an end to the Battle of New Orleans

From December 25, 1814, to January 26, 1815, British casualties during the Louisiana Campaign, apart from the assault on January 8, were 49 killed, 87 wounded and 4 missing. Thus, British casualties for the entire campaign totalled 2,459: 386 killed, 1,521 wounded, and 552 missing. American casualties for the entire campaign totalled 333: 55 killed, 185 wounded, and 93 missing.

Further Information:

http://www.history.com/topics/battle-of-new-orleans

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_New_Orleans

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A is for Anishinaabe ~ B is for Brock ~ C is for Coloured Corps ~ D is for Detroit ~ E is for Erie ~ F is for First Nations ~ G is for Ghent ~ H is for Harrison ~ I is for Impressment ~ J is for Jackson ~ K is for Key ~ L is for Lundy’s ~ M for Madison

The brainchild of Arlee Bird, at Tossing it Out, the A to Z Challenge is posting every day in April except Sundays (we get those off for good behaviour.) And since there are 26 days, that matches the 26 letters of the alphabet. On April 1, we blog about something that begins with the letter “A.” April 2 is “B,” April 3 is “C,” and so on. Please visit other challenge writers.

My theme is ‘The War of 1812’, a military conflict, lasting for two-and-a-half years, fought by the United States of America against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, its North American colonies, and its American Indian allies. The Memoirs of a British naval officer from the war is central to my novel “Seeking A Knife” – part of the Snowdon Shadows series.

Further reading on The War of 1812:

http://www.eighteentwelve.ca/?q=eng

http://www.history.com/topics/war-of-1812

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/the-war-of-1812-stupid-but-important/article547554/

http://www.shmoop.com/war-1812/

http://www.pbs.org/wned/war-of-1812/essays/

Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) gained national fame through his role in the War of 1812 and became the seventh President of the United States (1829–1837).

He was born near the end of the colonial era, somewhere near the then-unmarked border between North and South Carolina, into a recently immigrated Scots-Irish farming family of relatively modest means. During the American Revolutionary War Jackson’s family supported the revolutionary cause, and he acted as a courier. He later became a lawyer, and in 1796 he helped found the state of Tennessee. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, and then to the U.S. Senate. In 1801, Jackson was appointed colonel in the Tennessee militia, which became his political as well as military base.

As a major general in the War of 1812, Jackson commanded U.S. forces in a five-month campaign against the Creek Indians, allies of the British. Aided by other Native American nations such as the Cherokee and Choctaw, the decisive American victory in the Battle of Tohopeka (or Horseshoe Bend) in Alabama in mid-1814 ended the campaign, Jackson then led American forces to victory over the British in the Battle of New Orleans (January 1815). The win, which occurred after the War officially ended, but before news of the Treaty of Ghent had reached Washington, elevated Jackson to the status of national war hero.

Jackson in 1824, painting by Thomas Sully

Nominated for president in 1824, Jackson narrowly lost to John Quincy Adams. Jackson’s supporters then founded what became the Democratic Party. Nominated again in 1828, Jackson crusaded against Adams and the “corrupt bargain” between Adams and Henry Clay that he said cost him the 1824 election. Building on his base in the West and new support from Virginia and New York, he won by a landslide.

For some, his legacy is tarnished by his role in the forced relocation of Native American tribes living east of the Mississippi. Despite the assistance of nations such as the Cherokee and Choctaw in the Creek Campaign, as President he supported, signed, and enforced the 1830 Indian Removal Act, which relocated a number of native tribes to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Jackson

http://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/andrew-jackson

PREVIOUS A TO Z POSTS:

A is for Anishinaabe ~ B is for Brock ~ C is for Coloured Corps ~ D is for Detroit ~ E is for Erie ~ F is for First Nations ~ G is for Ghent ~ H is for Harrison ~ I is for Impressment