An Unlikely Army of Militia and Pirates Shocked the World by Defeating the British Army at the Battle of New Orleans

When Andrew Jackson arrived in New Orleans in winter 1814, diplomats were already negotiating peace. But neither the Louisianans he commanded nor the British troops advancing on them were wise to such peacemaking—and New Orleans was in trouble.

The United States had declared war on Great Britain back in June 1812, a few decades after winning independence in 1783. The U.S. aimed to stop the Royal Navy’s continued interference in American trade and seafaring and conquer remaining British territory in North America. The war was mostly fought around the Great Lakes and in Canada, but conflict wasn’t restricted to the north. British forces burned Washington, D.C. in August 1814, then attempted to capture Baltimore, losing at Fort McHenry. Now, much farther south, the Royal Navy was closing in on New Orleans.

At this time, the future seventh president was serving in the U.S. Army. Born in 1767, he was a British-hating orphan who came of age during the American Revolution. He loathed the British with good reason: Not only was he imprisoned by them, suffering starvation, disease and a sword slash to his face, but his entire family perished during the Revolution. After the war, Jackson moved to Tennessee and conducted a political career, but by 1812, he was back in the military.

Jackson actually spent most of the War of 1812 fighting not the British, but Native Americans. His infamous treatment of Indigenous peoples would tarnish his reputation in the history books, but at the time, most regarded him as an immensely effective combat leader. After defeating the Creek peoples in Alabama in 1814, he was promoted to major general and made his way south to the headquarters of the Army’s seventh district: New Orleans.

New Orleanians—a diverse population including Italian, Spanish, French and Portuguese immigrants, as well as enslaved and free African Americans—were terrified of a British invasion. The port city’s inhabitants had heard of British war atrocities, as historian Ronald J. Drez told Louisiana Public Broadcasting in 2015. When Jackson came, says Drez, “The whispered word [spread] throughout the city” that a savior had arrived.

Jackson worked to unite and calm New Orleanians through a public speech, saying that no British enemy soldier would enter their city, “unless over my dead body.” For the first time in the United States, Jackson declared martial law—military control of the citizenry—proclaiming, “Those who are not for us are against us.”

Louisiana Governor William Claiborne had warned that the city’s fragmented populace was unlikely to be a “ready fighting force.” But Jackson’s forceful organization proved effective, and he assembled an eclectic group of U.S. troops, Tennessee and Kentucky frontiersmen, Louisiana militiamen, New Orleans businessmen, free Black men, Choctaw Indigenous men, sailors and even pirates to stave off the British.

On the morning of January 8, 10,000 British troops attacked Chalmette, just outside of New Orleans. In 30 minutes, they were shot into oblivion by Jackson’s ragtag army. The British suffered about 2,000 casualties, while the Americans suffered 250.

As one American soldier later recalled, “When the smoke had cleared and we could obtain a fair view of the field, it looked at first glance like a sea of blood. It was not blood itself, but the red coats in which the British soldiers were dressed. The field was entirely covered in prostrate bodies.”

The British commander suffered fatal wounds during the battle, and his body was shipped home in a barrel of rum. Jackson, on the other hand, exited the battle having earned the loyalty of Louisianans, the nickname “Old Hickory” and a reputation that would help make him president in 1829.

The Battle of New Orleans was Britain’s last attempt to regain a stronghold in America. From that day on, Drez notes, the United States ascended on the world’s stage, while the British Empire began a slow decline.

Sonja Anderson | READ MORE

Sonja Anderson is a writer and reporter based in New York City.