Jump to content

Battle of New Orleans

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 86.8.105.64 (talk) at 09:58, 17 December 2006. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

For other uses of the name, see Battle of New Orleans (disambiguation)
Battle of New Orleans
Part of the War of 1812
File:BattleofNewOrleans.jpg
Battle of New Orleans by Herbert Morton Stoops
DateJanuary 8 1815
Location
Chalmette, Louisiana
Result American victory (after the peace treaty had already been signed)
Belligerents

United Kingdom

United States
Commanders and leaders
Sir Edward Pakenham†
John Lambert
Alexander Cochrane		 Andrew Jackson
Strength
8,000 men 3,500-4,000 men
Casualties and losses
385 killed
1,186 wounded
484 captured		 13 killed
58 wounded
30 captured

The Battle of New Orleans, also known as the Battle of Chalmette Plantation, took place on January 8, 1815, at the end of the War of 1812, when British forces defeated the United States. The Treaty of Ghent, which ended the war, had been signed—though not ratified—over two weeks earlier, but the news had not yet reached the Southern front. The battle therefore had no bearing on the outcome of the war.

Move to engagement

On December 13, 1814, a British fleet commanded by Vice Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane arrived off the Louisiana coast. In a brief but violent naval battle on Lake Borgne, 53 British rowing boats armed with bow-chasers overwhelmed five American dinghies protecting the waters near New Orleans.

A few days later, the British forces under Major General Sir Edward Michael Pakenham landed along the lower Mississippi River. At first, they met with only minor resistance. The Americans, led by Andrew Jackson (a colonel in the United States Army and a Major-General of the Tennessee militia), set up defensive positions at Chalmette, Louisiana, some five miles (8 km) downriver from New Orleans. Jackson, because he needed time to get his artillery into position, decided to immediately attack the British.

On the night of December 23, Jackson led a three-pronged attack on the British Army camp which lasted until early morning. After capturing some equipment and supplies, the Americans withdrew to New Orleans suffering 24 killed, 115 wounded and 74 missing or captured while the British claimed their losses as 46 killed, 167 wounded, and 64 missing or captured.

This stalled the British advance long enough for the Americans to bring in their heavy artillery and establish earthworks along a portion of the east bank of the Mississippi River. On Christmas Day, Pakenham arrived on the battlefield and ordered a reconnaissance-in-force against the American earthworks protecting the roads to New Orleans. On December 28, groups of British troops made probing attacks against the American earthworks.

When the British withdrew, the Americans began construction of artillery batteries to protect the earthworks which were then christened “Line Jackson”. The Americans installed seven batteries which included one 32-pound gun, three 24-pounders, one 18-pounder, three 12-pounders, three 6-pounders and a 6-inch howitzer. Jackson also sent a detachment of men to the west bank of the Mississippi to man two 24-pounders and two 12-pounders from the grounded warship Louisiana.

The main British army arrived on January 1, 1815, and attacked the earthworks using their artillery. An exchange of artillery fire began which lasted for three hours. Several of the American guns were destroyed or knocked out which included the 32-pounder, a 24-pounder and a 12-pounder, and some damage was done to the earthworks. But the Americans held their ground. The British guns ran out of ammunition, which led Pakenham to cancel the attack. Pakenham decided to wait for his entire force of over 8,000 men (which included Native American members of the Hitchiti tribe, led by Kinache, and several hundred black soldiers from the British West Indies colonies) to assemble before launching his attack.

Battle

Map of the battle.

In the early morning of January 8, Pakenham ordered a two pronged assault on the American position: one attacking the west flank across the Mississippi, and one directly against the main American line.

The attack began under a heavy fog, but as the British neared the main enemy line, the fog suddenly lifted, exposing them to withering artillery fire. The British, armed only with muskets effective at close range, tried to close the gap, but discovered that the ladders needed to cross a canal and scale the earthworks had been forgotten. As a result, most of their senior officers were killed or wounded, and the British infantry could do nothing but stand out in the open and be mown down by a combination of muskets and grapeshot from the Americans.

There were three large, direct assaults on the American positions, but all were repulsed. Pakenham was fatally wounded in the third attack when he was hit by grapeshot on horseback while 500 yards from the earthworks. General John Lambert assumed command upon Pakenham's death and ordered a withdrawal, despite the fact that Pakenham had ordered Lambert to continue the battle.

The British had suffered a loss of nearly 2,000 dead, wounded or taken prisoner; while the Americans only had 13 dead, with 58 wounded. The only British success was across the Mississippi, where a 700-man detachment attacked and overwhelmed the American line on the west bank of the river. But when they saw the defeat and withdrawal of their main army on the east back, they decided to withdraw also, taking some American prisoners and a few cannon with them.

United States forces at the time of the battle were between 3,500 and 4,500. This detachment was composed of U.S. Army troops (Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Louisiana Militia), U.S. Marines, U.S. Navy sailors, Barataria pirates, Choctaw Indian warriors, and free black soldiers. Major Gabriel Villeré commanded the Louisiana Militia, and Major Jean-Baptiste Plauché headed the New Orleans uniformed militia companies.

Throughout the battle, the Americans were greatly aided by the famed Jean Lafitte and his group of pirates. Lafitte's men joined the Americans because the pirating in the seas south of Louisiana had largely been ignored by the U.S. government since the pirates mostly attacked the Spanish and other pirates. Lafitte's men wore red shirts as their uniform, which caused much confusion in the British ranks, who were also clothed in red. Some pirates came down from General Jackson's ramparts and merged with the British ranks, thus allowing them to kill small pockets of isolated British troops before the British would realize that there was an intruder.


Aftermath

Andrew Jackson commanding American troops. Engraving by H. B. Hall after W. Momberger.

Unknown to both armies, the end of the war had been negotiated with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent on December 24, 1814. However, by the terms of the treaty, the war was not officially over until the treaty was ratified on February 17, 1815, and proclaimed the following day. In some circles it is postulated that the battle may not have been completely pointless. This is because it has been speculated that had the British been in control of the key port of New Orleans, they would have attempted to use this to seek additional concessions from the United States. However this is a somewhat fallacious argument since the British government had already ratified the treaty. A comparison is with the Battle of the Saintes in the American Revolutionary War, which did have an effect, since it actually affected peace negotiations.

With the defeat of the British Army and the death of Pakenham, Lambert decided that despite reinforcements and the arrival of a siege train to besiege New Orleans, continuing the battle would be too costly. Within a week, all of the British troops had redeployed onto the ships and sailed away to Biloxi, Mississippi, where the fleet captured Fort Bowyer on February 12. But the next day, the frigate Brazen arrived with the news of the peace treaty that had been signed which ended the war nearly two months earlier. The British fleet then abandoned Biloxi and sailed back to its base in the West Indies.

The victory was celebrated with great enthusiasm in the United States and gave Andrew Jackson the reputation of a hero, which later propelled him to the Presidency.

See also

References

  • Remini, Robert V. The Battle of New Orleans: Andrew Jackson and America's First Military Victory. Viking Penguin, 1999. ISBN 0-670-88551-7
  • Pickles, Tim New Orleans 1815; Osprey Campaign Series, #28. Osprey Publishing, 1993.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Battle_of_New_Orleans&oldid=94863308"