Wednesday War Stories ~ The Battle of New Orleans, 8 January 1815

Brant Guillory, 8 January 2025

The last battle of a war being fought after the peace treaty is signed is not nearly as uncommon as you think, and in 1815, the fledgling United States scored a rare land victory in the War of 1812 during one of them.

The Battle of New Orleans was fought in January of 1815, about 5 miles from what was then the center of the city (where the French Quarter butts up against the Mississippi River) and what is today consumed by the inevitable urban sprawl.  The British attempt to capture New Orleans started along the coast, with a brief naval skirmish that cleared the way for an overland approach to city, but the British were hampered by ships that were ill-suited to the shallower waters of the bayous around the city.  This limited the British ability to quickly move and mass their forces and contributed to the Americans’ ability to prepare their defense, a necessity given their inferior numbers.

Images from the Library of Congress unless otherwise noted

Preliminary actions ahead of the battle included a pre-Christmas raid on the British camp, where General Jackson couldn’t even wait for Christmas Day to wreck a perfectly passive encampment, and a British “reconnaissance-in-force”¹ on the defensive line the US had established along the Rodriguez Canal.  Both sides deployed naval guns dismounted from their vessels. The British did so because their ships couldn’t travel that far upriver; the Americans because their ships had been sunk or chased off.  The final “pre-battle” engagement saw the two sides play cannon tennis for several hours on New Year’s Day, lobbing shells at each other.  While in no way decisive, the preponderance of the damage was absorbed by the British artillery, who lost most of their batteries.

As the battle started, it might’ve been one of the craziest mis-matches in order-of-battle history
The Brits were well-stocked with veterans of the Napoleonic Wars in their battalions that all belonged to varying “Regiment{s} of Foot” or the West Indies Regiment, and even had some of the 14th Light Dragoons present, in addition to the dismounted naval crews manning their guns.  They numbered around 8000 total.

The Americans countered with around 5700 troops, including the US 7th and 44th Infantry; militia from Louisiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi²; both Lacoste’s and Daquin’s Free Men of Color (companies of riflemen); the City Rifles; a group of native Americans known as “Jugeant’s Choctaw’s” detached from Pushmata’s command; a handful of Marines from the disabled warships; some random folks who rode up to the battle and were mislabeled as “Dragoons” and (depending on the source) credited as the 1st US Dragoons, the Feliciana Dragoons, and/or the Mississippi Dragoons³; and – I swear I’m not making this up – a bunch of pirates⁴ manning three of the artillery batteries along the Rodriguez Canal.
You know how people sometimes joke about drawing random seat numbers for some fan to join their team on the field during a football game?  To suggest that General Jackson pulled the military equivalent of that wouldn’t be altogether inaccurate. Even that list of forces probably oversells how organized they were, considering a non-trivial percentage of the militiamen from Kentucky arrived unarmed, and several regiments were left wanting for logistical support in their haste to New Orleans.

The actual engagement started with the British approach the night of 7 January ahead of their attack on the 8th.  Depending on the nature of the storyteller, this approach could be characterized as British arrogance, Cajun good fortune, British incompetence, a comedy of errors, and/or excellent US positioning.  As often is the case, the truth is some combination of all of the above.  The collapse of a freshly-dug canal limited the British mobility of their rowboats, delivering only about 1/3 of their expected manpower to the left flank attack along the riverbank opposite General Jackson’s main line.  The actions along this flank – on both sides of the river – were focused on seizing the remaining American cannons, which was necessary due to the loss of theirs the previous week.  Although the US militiamen on the right bank of the river were chased away, they were able to damage their cannons, denying their usage to the British.

The main assault on “Line Jackson” – the defensive line of the Rodriguez Canal – was a similar disaster.  A mixture of ill-preparation (failing to properly locate & secure their ladders and other assault gear), convoluted march sequence, a fog that lifted while they were marching across an open field, and an inability to reinforce any successes on the field doomed the British assault to failure.  Since the dawn of the Continental Army, the Americans had steadily developed a reputation for blasting high volumes of accurate firepower downrange, and the Battle of New Orleans was no exception.  Devastating musket and cannon fire from their defensive earthworks shattered repeated British attempts to storm the defensive line along the canal, until the British finally ran out of cohesive formations, ammunition, senior leaders⁵, gumption, and tea.

click image to really enlarge

The end results of the limited campaign included a British withdrawal from the American Gulf Coast, an increased profile for General Andrew Jackson, a consolidation of American power along the mouth of the Mississippi reinforcing the territorial gains of the Louisiana Purchase, the esprit-de-corps and triumph of a can-do American spirit that brought together one of the wackiest orders of battle ever fielded by the US, and damn good 1960s-era gimmick song.

 

The anniversary of the battle was a US national holiday for about 35 years, and historians have noted that although the battle had little overall military significance in the War of 1812, it did allow the Americans claim a level of battlefield success in the war that’s probably undeserved given their embarrassing performances in Canada.
The battle’s result has been variously credited with ending the New England-based Federalist Party as a force in American politics, elevating General Jackson to mythical status, demonstrating that the British volley-&-bayonet doctrine could be defeated, elevating Jean Lafitte to demi-god status⁶, and confirming the US belief that mass volumes of accurate firepower can solve pretty much any problem.

There are plenty of online resources for learning more about the Battle of New Orleans.

• Documentary from Louisiana Public Broadcasting
• The American Battlefield Trust
• The Army Historical Foundation
• The White House Historical Association
• The Louisiana Exhibit Museum
• The Historic New Orleans Collection

For individual battles, there are few book series that can compare to the overviews offered by Osprey Books.  Their book on the overall campaign contextualizes the operational environment as well as the individual personalities that played key roles, especially for the Americans.  The LSU Press also has a collection of essays that approaches the battle, as well as the ways in which it survives in popular myth, through the viewpoints of multiple historians.  For a British viewpoint on the battle – an understandably rare thing – The British at the Gates is a solid and well-regarded option.

 

Want to game it out?  There’s a couple of options, but not nearly as many as you might expect.

	Andrew Jackson’s Battles was the included game in S&T 346, and the Battle of New Orleans is one of those battles.
	Battle for the Bayous is over 25 years old and damned hard to find.  It was published by Liberty Games, who only got 3 games out the door.  The map also covers way, way more terrain than you should need for this battle.
	New Orleans, 1815 is a 1976 game from Challenge Games and also pretty hard to find.  It’s a pretty basic 1970s-era design that’s wholly unremarkable other than it was one of the first games on the battle.
	The Battle of New Orleans from War Spawn Games is a print-&-play game that includes solitaire and co-op options, but for the latter, you’re playing the Brits trying to see who gets their butts kicked the least.
	Wargame Design Studio has a New Orleans scenario included in their War of 1812 game, even though the subtitle is “The Conquest of Canada”.  I guess using Cajuns who were kicked out of Canada by the Brits after the 7 Years War / F&I War is close enough?

There’s also a C&C Napoleonics scenario that was published on the web that uses the Portuguese blocks to sub in for the Americans.

 

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1. which was really just a pretty weak attack
2. some of them organized into battalions with actual numeric designations, and some just named after their commanders (Gray’s, Slaughter’s, and Mitchusson’s)
3. none of whom actually fought as dragoons in the fight
4. from Jean Lafitte’s “privateer” crews
5. no joke, something like 8 of the top 11 ranking British officers died on the battlefield or shortly thereafter of the wounds they sustained, including the top 3, during the assault
6. although being portrayed by Yul Brynner in a movie has much the same effect