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♪ (Tom Gregory) The plains of Chalmette, south of New Orleans.

January 8th 1815.

Two nations in opposition.

Two armies, unevenly matched.

♪ A violent half an hour later, a victor emerges from the fog.

And one nation becomes united.

♪ It's been two hundred years... two centuries... since that Fierce battle was waged here.... on this site... in Chalmette in St. Bernard Parish in south Louisiana.

It was here where a stunning victory firmly bonded the independence of a young nation and its diverse elements It was here that the so called 'rag tag' force of fighting men, assembled by one of America's heroes, Andrew Jackson, Shattered the fighting forces that had defeated Napoleon... the mighty British military.

Perhaps the most misunderstood military engagement in our history; the battle of New Orleans was a battle for the destiny of the United States of America.

Here the on the plains of Chalmette, destiny was manifested in The battle of New Orleans: A meaningful victory.

♪ ♪ Misunderstood.... Today's historians say it's time to correct that.

The Americans fought to defend their homes and families but also to preserve their independence which a defeat would have threatened because America was still at war with Britain.

On the 8th of January 1815, The war of 1812 was not over.

A treaty had been signed at Ghent.

But it was not yet ratified.

And New Orleans was a coveted prize.

[harmonica music] (Tom Gregory) The city's location on the Mississippi River made it invaluable for trade.

And it was the reason that President Thomas Jefferson jumped at the opportunity to purchase the Louisiana Territory and the city of New Orleans from French Emperor Napoleon for 15 million dollars in 1803.

Now an American city, the population began to see some changes.

The population of New Orleans right around 1814, so just before the Battle of New Orleans was about 20,000... it was probably evenly split between whites and blacks.

It had been largely settled by French and Spanish people from Europe.

And many of those people, when they had children, their children were referred to as Creoles.

You also had a sizable foreign French population who had immigrated not only from France, but also from San Domain, what we call Haiti today.

So it was a very cosmopolitan, very polyglot society.

What starts to happen around the time of the Louisiana Purchase is that you get people from other parts of the United States coming to New Orleans.

So many entrepreneurs, came to New Orleans to make their fortunes.

This was one of the most strategic points in the United States, one of the greatest ports in the United States.

New Orleans was really sort of somewhat unique in that it had a three-caste system.

You had whites, and you had slaves, and then you had a class that was in-between that.

And many of those people were uh, free people of color.

(Jason Wiese) The free color population was pretty substantial here.

It was a city of fear at that time.

we had experienced a near slave rebellion in 1811.

(Jason Wiese) So there was a lot of concern that there might be another uprising of the enslaved population of Louisiana.

(Tom Gregory) A revolution in Haiti added to the uneasiness and to the city's population.

Between about 1809 and 1810 you had this huge influx of um, Haitian refugees (John Magill) Essentially doubling the city's population but it reinforced the French culture of New Orleans and with the war of 1812 would those French individuals stand up and support the United States.

(Joyce Miller) One of the things to keep in mind is that when Louisiana became a state in 1812 just two months before the war broke out, so they really, even though they had been a territory for about a decade, in some sense they weren't fully Americanized.

(John Magill) I think there were a number of Americans who felt that Louisianans would not stand up and fight for the United State (Tom Gregory) And that's what the British were counting on.

(Joyce Miller) Well the British had sent an intelligence agent in about 1813.

(Jason Wiese) Captain James Stirling had reconnoitered the coast of Louisiana and the belief that was expressed by Captain Sterling is that the ties between these people and the rest of the United States are not strong.

(Joyce Miller) And that kind of gave the British the idea that if they were to invade New Orleans, that the population might actually welcome them with open arms.

(Marcia Kavanaugh) The British were looking for supports since the U.S. and Great Britain were again at war... some call it the forgotten War... the war of 1812.

♪ The whole Revolutionary War to the British people.

"How could this happen?"

It's a huge embarrassment.

(Ron Chapman) After the heels of the American Revolution and you have the Napoleonic wars breaking out.

And America's caught on the horns of a dilemma.

One half of the country is supporting England; the other half is supporting France.

Both of them are interrupting our shipping.

The British for their part decide to attack Napoleon by building a blockade.

And you can build ships, but where do you find sailors?

So they start taking American sailors off of American ships and impressment.

Which is basically kidnapping.

Finally the United States says, "That's enough," and they declare war.

(Jason Wiese) There were a variety of arguments for declaring war on Great Britain.

You had seizures of American ships and cargos on the high seas.

You had isolated attacks, by Native American tribes on white settlers.

Some people believe that those attacks were incited by British agents operating in the southeast.

In fact the view in Europe was that the Americans were taking advantage of the fact that Britain was fighting Napoleon to try to capture the British colony of Canada (Jason Wiese) There were some prominent persons in the United States who felt that Canada would be a very wonderful addition to uh, the territory of the United States.

So that formed part of the calculus for declaring war.

(Tim Pickles) So as far as Britain was concerned, the War of 1812 was not about free trade and sailors' rights, it was about, we want to finally kick the British out of North America.

Didn't go that well, did it?

(Ron Drez) The British, they really want to get back to North America and can't do that until Napoleon is taken care of.

(Tim Pickles) We are fighting Napoleon.

We want to end the war in America.

We do not wish to continue a war there.

It's got no profit for us.

After Napoleon's defeated, and abdicates, and sent to Elba, they have this massive army and Navy, that they ship it over to the United States, This meant that the British could concentrate on America.

What they are trying to do is to make devastating raids on the coast making the war very expensive for the American government and the American people.

(Ron Chapman) So that's when the war gets hot and heavy.

And they start operations here for serious.

You know, and that's when you have the burning of Washington.

You have Fort McHenry in Baltimore operation.

But they're unable to subdue Fort McHenry.

And, of course, there's the famous story of the Star Spangled Banner flying over the Fort.

[star spangled banner] (Jason Wiese) The British, unable to subdue Fort McHenry and capture Baltimore, uh retire to the Chesapeake and look for uh, another target that can take the United States out of the war.

And that target was Louisiana and the very important port of New Orleans.

(female #1) The British are interested in New Orleans because of its location at the mouth of the Mississippi River.

And realize that if they are able to control this port, they can control the river activity and control access to the interior of the U.S. (Tim Pickles) Britain uh, of course saw Louisiana as a very, very important place on the map.

However, it didn't belong to Britain.

Nor did it belong to the United States.

The United States had gained it through the braking of the Treaty of San Ildefonso by Napoleon.

To quote John Randolph of Roanoke who spoke in-in the uh, U.S. House, "we have bought stolen goods from a known highwayman."

And that is exactly what Britain thought.

That's what the Spanish thought.

(Shelene C.Roumillat) Spain does not believe in the validity of the Louisiana Purchase.

And the British, also don't believe in the validity of the Louisiana Purchase and would much rather prefer Louisiana be in the hands of Spain.

(Tim Pickles) Of course it would be wrong to say that Britain had never had eyes on Louisiana, or rather, the city of New Orleans.

However, at this particular time in history, Britain is a solid ally of Spain.

So, you know, Britain is part of the community of world governments.

You know, you don't just go off and grab stuff because you feel like it.

Unless you are Napoleon, of course ♪ (Ron Drez) Great Britain says, "it is also time "to reestablish ourselves into North America... "and here's what we'll do .

"We'll go in there and we'll "-we'll attack and nullify this Louisiana Purchase "because it never belonged to the United States to begin with.

"France was the burglar selling stolen goods.

"And the only way to do that is to overwhelm the army.

Seize New Orleans, and have a 10,000 men British force there."

(Ron Chapman) And a major operation, expedition is planned where they're gathering people from Halifax, and Europe and everything down into Negril Bay, Jamaica for a Gulf invasion, into the whole Gulf region.

And that's where the Battle of New Orleans comes in.

It's not just the Battle of New Orleans, that's what a lot of people mistake and they say, "Oh the Battle of New Orleans "was fought after the treaty was signed and it was just one little battle."

It was a campaign for the Southeast.

(Tim Pickles) The idea was to uh, prepare an expedition that could come and attack the south, and uh, continue the campaign um, up the Mississippi River.

(Tom Gregory) A British force 10,000 strong turns its sights on New Orleans even before the arrival from London of the assault leader, Major General Edward Pakenham.

For the Americans, Major General Andrew Jackson of the 7th U.S. military district...

He scores his first win against the British at a fort in Mobile which hinders the British invasion strategy.

(Ron Chapman) Mobile to me is incredibly important.

And uh, and it goes back to the Andrew Jackson.

And he builds the fort there.

The British decided they're going to take that fort.

If they were able to succeed, and then take Mobile, they could have taken their entire army inland.

Floated down the river after cutting it off and taking the city of New Orleans before Jackson was even there.

(Jason Wiese) Andrew Jackson very famously gets word there are British officers in Pensacola, so he invades Pensacola.

(Ron Chapman) He's like a wild man!

He occupies Pensacola.

Takes Pensacola and drives the British out.

Now they don't have a land base.

(Tim Pickles) Almost immediately after the failure to capture Fort Bowyer, the plan changes.

And the idea is to go direct to New Orleans through the bayous.

(Tom Gregory) The British head for New Orleans around the same time Andrew Jackson arrives in the city, early December 1814.

Jackson pledges to the people that he will drive their enemies into the sea or perish in the effort.

The British meanwhile are trying to find their way through the Louisiana swamps and bayous.

(Ron Chapman) They they drop anchor around Chandeleur Island.

That's where the water's deeper.

They can't go inside the islands cause it's too shallow for their ships.

(Jason Wiese) They were looking at any possible way to get troop boats in and land those troops.

The Americans were known to have, gun ships that were patrolling Lake Borgne and the pass into Lake Pontchartrain.

And the British flotilla had to deal with these gun boats in order to clear the land to land troops.

(Ron Chapman) That's when they run across Captain Catsby Jones with his Gunboats.

His five gunboats.

You have the famous battle of Lake Borgne.

(Jason Wiese) A large volunteer rowing barges from the fleet.

Fought an action with them and captured all five American gun boats.

(Ron Chapman) Now they're in occupation of Lake Borgne.

Jackson knows he's there but he doesn't know where they are going to go.

(Jason Wiese) Jackson's looking around and he's seeing uh, a city that in the best of times would be a challenge to defend.

He immediately sets to work in doing what he can to-to make it difficult for the British.

so he gives an order for all of the bayous leading to the city to be obstructed with felled trees and whatnot.

Jackson ordered all the bayous closed but Bayou Bienvenue was not blocked.

Why?

(Tom Gregory) And that's the question Jackson posed to Gabriel Villere, the son of the future Governor of Louisiana and militia General Jacques Villere, who was surprised when the British showed up at the Villere Plantation.

(Ron Chapman) You have the image, of Gabriel Villere on his porch with his feet on the rail drinking a cup of coffee, and all of a sudden you see this red uniforms passed on either side of him.

He jumps to his feet in panic, runs into the house, opens up the back door, and there's Colonel Thornton with a drawn sword saying "you're now my prisoner."

(Tom Gregory) Villere would not remain a prisoner for long, with the British occupied with their plans for conquest, he jumps out a window.

(Jason Wiese) Villere managed to escape his captors, and make his way to New Orleans and raise the alarm that the British had landed in force down river of the city (Ron Chapman) Of course, Jackson arrests Villere because the first question he asks him is how did they get there if the bayous were blocked.

"Well I didn't block the bayou."

"Arrest that man."

(Jason Wiese) Gabriel Villere was court-martialed But eventually Gabriel Villere is acquitted.

(Tom Gregory) The British begin moving troops to Bayou Bienvenue, their route to the Mississippi river that will take them to the road to New Orleans.

But it's a slow, difficult trip (Jason Wiese) From the front line, back to the British fleet was a linear distance of about 80 miles.

(Tim Pickles) You're bringing everything in boats... you have this great long row from the fleet.

(Jason Wiese) which, you know, depending on which way the wind is blowing, it could be an eight hour row.

(Ron Drez) They don't have enough boats to bring 'em all in at once.

They're going to come in three waves.

It's going to amount to a force of about 7,500 to 8,000 men.

The first group lands at nine o'clock in the morning on December the 23rd.

(Tom Gregory) Jackson is wary... of the impending assault.. and the reliability of the people to take up arms.

He declares martial law.

(Jason Wiese) That was an unprecedented move for an American General.

The first time martial Law had been declared in that sense in it -in the United States.

(Tom Gregory) He also needs a fighting force.

(William Hyland) Governor Claiborne sent out an appeal, requesting the citizens to bring, not Only themselves, but their own weapons to fight against the British.

(Ron Chapman) He had his Tennesseans that he had been fighting with in the Indian Wars with him.

He had Kentuckians coming down.

Free people of color.

Slaves, Choctaw Indians.

(Jason Wiese) He also raised or allowed to be raised, uh, two battalions of free colored men.

Uh, which a lot of people down here had trouble with.

But Jackson recognized immediately that he needed every able-bodied men who could fire a weapon and who was willing to stand up in defense of New Orleans and the United States.

Free men of color from Treme backslash Quarter and the free men of color from Daquin's group from San Domain, had well over 400 soldiers in each group.

In addition, an additional 300 from the outlying parishes who came down to fight as well.

He had businessmen.

Beale's riflemen were just a bunch of businessmen.

So, it was a strange hodge-podge-patchwork quilt of people.

But the one thing they held in common was that they weren't going to let their land be invaded.

Plus you also had the Baratarians, you know, you can't forget them.

Good old Jean Lafitte and Dominique You.

♪ (William Hyland) It's no question that the Baratarians were a force to be reckon with economically.

(Ron Drez) The Lafittes were down there selling their goods like you would at Walmart.

Everybody was going down to Barataria Bay to buy.

(William Hyland) The Baratarians were very successful as privateers.

Some styled them pirates.

(Tim Pickles) Who knows how to move through the bayous, Lafitte and his men do.

(Tom Gregory) Both the British and the Americans sought Lafitte's help.

He choose the Americans.

(Jason Wiese) Jackson, in spite of his reluctance to ally himself with criminals.

Uh, what he called hellish banditti.

He does decide to accept the help of the Baratarians, because they have a couple of things that he knows that he needs.

The Baratarians provided a lot of supplies that Jackson needed to carry out the battle.

But probably the more important thing they provided was flint.

(Jason Wiese) They also had men who knew how to fire artillery guns.

You know, heavy cannon.

There were a lot of artillery officers among the Lafittes and they manned the American artillery at -at Chalmette field which was decisive.

(Tom Gregory) It was a diverse group Jackson had to depend upon.

He wasted no time in taking action to defend New Orleans.

(Jason Wiese) As soon as he got the word that the British were committed to a -a certain approach from down river um, he very quickly gathered his forces and uh, made the attack on that first night of the 23rd, December.

(Ron Chapman) It's a full attack on the Brits right off the bat.

It knocks them on their heels.

They weren't expecting us.

It's a very bloody affair.

(Jason Wiese) Um, it's a very chaotic and confusing fight.

Uh, the visibility isn't very good um from the powder smoke.

There was a lot of confusion where American and British forces were getting mixed up as one side would overrun the other's position.

(Ron Chapman) It reaches a point where nobody can tell one from the other, so Jackson withdraws to Line Jackson (Ron Drez) By that time Jackson's come out and got off the first jab.

And then digs in on his line which he never abandons.

(Jason Wiese) Jackson and his men fall back to the Chalmette Plantation.

And begin to fortify the upriver bank of the drainage canal.

Called the Rodriguez Canal.

(Ron Chapman) Jackson saw it as a geographic line.

So he got on the other side of it and started digging the canal out, and sticking the mud on the other side.

And this was a continuing process from December 23rd all the way 'till January 8th.

He had anybody with a shovel in the city, slaves, businessmen, anybody.

(Tom Gregory) The front is now defined in the plantation dotted landscape of what is now St. Bernard Parish.

Jackson moves his headquarters to the McCarty plantation.

The Chalmette plantation will be ground zero where Jackson is building Line Jackson.

His main defense against a seasoned British military.

I can't imagine the British sailors.

What they went through, because every soldier, every canon ball, every canon, every bit of food, had to be put on boats and rowed all the way up to Bayou Bienvenue.

then drag through the marsh and brought to the front.

Furthermore temperatures were incredibly low.

People were freezing out there.

I mean, their uniforms were covered with frost.

It was cold.

The British and the Americans were dug into their positions.

Literally.

The British digging canals to float men and supplies, the Americans to build a defensive barrier and deepen the canal in front of it.

(Ron Chapman) This wasn't just a little grass knoll.

He built something serious and he was building it the whole time.

As the British were marching toward New Orleans uh you had the river on one side, you had swamps on the other side.

It was like a funnel of death that they were going into.

(Tom Gregory) On Christmas day December 25th the land assault commander arrives, Major General Edward Pakenham.

The day before, the Treaty of Ghent is signed to end the War of 1812.

(Ron Drez) Pakenham comes here with a second set of orders in his pocket.

One of these secret orders says "Pay no attention "to rumors of preliminary peace treaty being signed in Gent .

Seize New Orleans, We'll tell you when to stop."

(Tim Pickles) When Pakenham first arrived, um, he was in a bit of a dilemma because he rode towards the battlefield, looked at the defense works.

And he knew how expensive that could be in the lives of men.

(Jason Wiese) The first order of business was to take care of the USS Carolina, which had been bombarding the British camp, uh, constantly day and night, uh, since the night of the 23rd.

And then Pakenham, uh organized his army for a reconnaissance force.

Basically an all-out, coordinated march up river, [cannon fire] so that was their first good look at Jackson's defense.

(Tim Pickles) The so-called reconnaissance in force where Pakenham loses one, and Jackson wins one, is that he probes the line.

The Americans aren't breaking, but also, they are not inflicting anything like the casualties that he has -he's expected.

So Pakenham thinks, "my God, this is this is amazing.

Ok, call everybody back, we'll have a serious attack later."

(Jason Wiese) He gave the order for the army to retire back down river.

Unfortunately, one of his officers, Robert Rennie spied a weakness in Jackson's wall on the swamp side that he believed could be exploited to uh, overrun Jackson's position.

And he was probably right.

We know that Jackson also saw that as a weakness and immediately gives orders for his uh, breastwork to be extended into the swamp.

In addition to the fortification at at the Chalmette plantation, a large artillery battery was created on the west bank directly across the river from his position, (Tim Pickles) On the first of January there is a battle, sort-of, which is known as the artillery duel, the British knock out a couple of American guns.

The Americans knock out a couple of British guns.

But, remember, we have this great long distance that all the ammunition has to be rowed.

One by one, the British guns begin to fall silent.

Again, the British army is compelled to retire down river.

Um, British moral is suffering.

Edward Pakenham knows he's in a a terrible position.

he's hemmed in between the river and the swamp.

He has to go forward.

And the only way out is forward to New Orleans.

(Tim Pickles) And Pakenham is there thinking, "well, we have to attack, but how do I do that?"

(Ron Chapman) That's when he comes up with the idea of going to west bank.

(Tim Pickles) And what the plan is, is to send a brigade of troops across the river at night to take out the American positions on the West Bank.

(Jason Wiese) He conceives of a two-pronged attack on Jackson's line at Chalmette.

A main assault that will hit the middle of Jackson's line.

Another column will attack on the riverside of Jackson's line.

There's a forward gun battery there.

Just preceding it, uh, a force was planned to be landed on the west bank where it would quickly move up river and capture that battery on the west bank and again turn those guns on Jackson's line.

(Tom Gregory) The noise from the battlefield rattles the city.

So do rumors that Jackson has threatened to blow up the legislature.

(Ron Chapman) Some of the legislature are talking about capitulating with the British.

Because they don't want the city destroyed, they don't believe that Jackson can hold back 14,500 soldiers.

Plus Jackson didn't just have line Jackson, he had line Dupree and line Montreal behind it.

So he was prepared to, if he lost here in Chalmette, to step back to the next line of defense, and then fight in the suburbs.

And that's what had the Creoles upset, they thought he was plenty capable of burning the city rather than let the Brits have it.

(Jason Wiese) A lot of people didn't think that Jackson and his improvised force of militia volunteers and regulars could stand up against this large invasion force of experienced British soldiers.

So there was a lot of apprehension on the parts of people.

(female #2) The city is very nervous.

It's very nerve-racking.

If you read, and when you read about how nervous everyone is.

"What is going to happen, and how do we defend the city?"

♪ (Marcia Kavanaugh) Pakenham prepares to implement his plan of attack.

With him are his commanding officers... General John Keane, Major General Samuel Gibbs, Colonel William Thornton, Colonel Robert Rennie, Lt.

Colonel Thomas Mullins.

And in reserve General John Lambert.

And a fighting force of nearly 8,000 strong, including Marines and sailors.

Ready to repel the British advance was General Andrew Jackson's cobbled together force of nearly 5,200 hundred men ranging from regular troops to volunteer militia, freemen of color battalions, Beale's Rifles from New Orleans and Tennessee and Kentucky riflemen, Choctaw Indians and Baratarian pirates.

Pakenham is poised to strike but the timing of his battle plan is crucial.

Playing a big part in keeping things in rhythm for the British... the Mississippi river.

(Tim Pickles) Thornton will take his brigade at midnight across the river and capture the American positions.

The idea being that he will be in position with the American artillery first thing in the morning when Pakenham will signal the main attack.

The main attack will consist of two columns.

One column advancing down the river road.

The other column advancing, hugging the edge of the swamp.

General Gibbs is going to command the main column of attack.

And there is one other character in this.

Lt.

Colonel Thomas Mullins of the 44th Foot, It was his job, his regiment's job to collect the ladders and fascines that were to be used by the main attack column.

It would be true to say that it was what used to be called the forlorn hope.

In other words, the people doing it had a very good chance of being killed.

The system was this, bundles of, in this case, sugar cane, could be thrown into Rodriguez Canal to fill it in.

Then you put the ladders on top of the-the those bundles.

And that gets the British attackers onto the American fortifications and hopefully over it.

The problem was that Mullins completely lost his nerve.

When the time for the advance came, he'd gone to the wrong place.

By the time he went back and got the ladders and fascines, the columns were moving, the attack was happening, and he was not in his correct position.

One of the things that happened was that a cut through the levee that was intended to enable the British troop transports to carry the detachment to the west bank.

That canal collapsed.

(Ron Chapman) so in a mad rush, they grab what boats they can, drag 'em up, throw 'em in the water, and now Thornton's left with 600 men instead of 1400 men.

Significant difference.

So there was a long delay in getting the detachment across the river to the west bank.

(Ron Chapman) It's foggy.

So Thornton takes his men and pushes out across the river as they push off, the current takes the boats and brings them down river.

(Jason Wiese) Apparently the speed of the current of the river was not adequately accounted for.

(Tim Pickles) The suggestion is made to Pakenham, "look with all of this that's going wrong, why don't we just wait."

And Pakenham has the great line, " I will wait my plans no longer."

He has told Thornton on the other side of the river, when you take that position, you send up a signal rocket, that will be my signal to attack.

And he waits.

And he waits.

So Thornton, when he gets to the West Bank, he realizes that this is the calculated time that he was supposed to send the rocket up.

And he is not even near the first position.

So he doubles his men towards the first position.

And what happens?

The people behind the barricade just run away.

(Ron Chapman) You have this image of this silhouette from Pakenham seeing the boats go off in the fog, waiting for the sound of guns across the river when the fog starts to dissipate, and spots battery is on the American side, he sees what looks like a red line of British soldiers, so he opens fire.

When he opens fire, game on.

Pakenham fires off two congreve rockets, which is a single- signal for attack.

The British begin their attack.

So now you have two different battles taken place.

One's on the East bank, one on the west bank.

Rennie, when he gets to the forward readout, he takes it.

He raises the sword and says, "The day is ours," when Beale's riflemen shoot him and kill him.

That takes him out and most of his officers.

Gibbs, with his charge, is expecting Mullins to show up with the ladders and fascines.

Mullins has no desire to do this.

He's a young officer, he's got his wife in the fleet.

He thought he was going to have a romantic Christmas with his wife in New Orleans.

So when the battle begins, Gibbs lines his men up, they're getting attacked viciously by the Americans.

He calls Pakenham forward.

Pakenham Organizes a second assault, but they're just obliterated.

(Tim Pickles) Gibbs himself, is riding around almost demented with rage.

And on-one of the last things he was heard to shout was, "Colonel Mullins, "if I survive 'till tomorrow, "I will see you hanging from one of these trees."

And he is shot dead.

While that's taking place, then Keen sees what's happening over here, he sends his men across, he gets shot.

The British troops were old school in the sense that they moved forward in these columns.

The American lines were able to just unload everything on them.

(Jason Wiese) You had very tight clusters of men, formed up into a column.

They were disciplined.

They were trained to stand their ground, not move until given the order, uh, and they really paid the price.

And probably the most famous example of that uh, would be the 93rd Southern Highlanders.

[bagpipes] The Highlander regiment was given an order to halt However, that officer is shot dead before he can give his next order, so the men of the 93rd stood there at, in near point-blank range.

Getting mowed down by the dozens.

And as men would fall, they would close up ranks in a very disciplined way.

Just getting slaughtered until an officer could be sent up from the rear to give them the order to retire.

And they did so with their colors held high.

The Jackson line, the American line was set-up into eight different batteries.

And each battery had about one-to-three cannons, or guns as we call them.

[cannon fires] In addition to each of the big guns.

The frontiersmen and the Louisiana militiamen were armed with muskets.

[muskets firing] The other advantage the Americans had was, there were several back-up lines behind the front lines.

So once each frontiersmen, or uh, soldier holding a musket ran out of ammunition, there was an immediate replacement.

[muskets firing] The frontiersmen were all very well trained hunters.

And even though they didn't have military issued riffles, they were using their own hunting rifles, most of them.

There were also some pretty skilled marksmen amongst the Baratarians.

And Dominique You and Ronaldo Beluche commanded battery #3 and kind of helped Jackson's tactical goals with the- with the battle.

(Marcia Kavanaugh) While his men helped with the artillery battle, Jean Lafitte was not on line Jackson.

In fact, it's not certain where he was while the battle raged.

However the location of one of Jackson's troops is well documented.

And he was just a boy.

(Alvin Jackson) Jordan Bankston Noble the most talked about person of African ancestry uh, during the Battle of New Orleans, was born sometime between 1800 and 1803.

Jordan Bankston Noble was a slave.

Though mention as member of the Seventh, there are no documents to support that.

He, however was General Jackson's drummer boy in a Seventh Infantry uniform.

He was noted for his famous long drum-rolling reveille.

Which is critically important because most generals use the drummers to give signals to their troops as to what their movements should be.

So his role is not to be minimized He was very brave and didn't waiver.

After the Battle of New Orleans, Jordan Bankston Noble became Jordan again and was sold into slavery for the third time.

(Jason Wiese) Edward Pakenham saw that the battle was faltering.

He rode forward to take command personally, to lead from the front.

Um, he was rallying his men to renew their assault when he was knocked off of his horse, probably by a- a round of grapeshot.

How do we know it was grapeshot and he wasn't picked off by some coonskin-wearing chap with the squirrel gun?

Because he is hit three times at exactly the same time.

(Jason Wiese) Uh, apparently his leg was badly mangled, his staff quickly found him another horse.

He climbed back aboard, but was soon shot a second time and those wound proved to be fatal.

(Tim Pickles) we've now got Gibbs dead, we've now got Gibbs dead, we have Pakenham dead, Colonel Thornton, he is seriously wounded.

Rennie is dead.

John Keen has been seriously wounded.

The only British officer on his feet, is, John Lambert, who is in command of the column of reserve which is in the center of the field.

(Marcia Kavanaugh) The constant rumble of artillery only increases the fear and worry among people in the city.

They turn to prayer.

They look to the city's apostolic vicar, Father Dubourg, the Ursuline nuns, and some special spiritual guidance and strength from above.

(Emilie Leumas) The night of January the 7th, all of the sisters as well as the women, and the children come to the chapel that was part of the Ursuline Convent here in the French Quarter.

The men, any one who has the ability to bear arms has gone to the battlefield.

Our Lady of Prompt Succor, is placed on the alter.

And they start a night vigil of prayer.

In the morning, Father Dubourg begins to say mass, the battle is raging on.

They can feel the concussions down the river.

There's reports of the building shaking.

During communion a messenger runs in and yells, "Victory is ours."

And at that point the entire community sings the Te Deum, the prayer that we say in thanks giving and gratitude thanking God for helping the men on the battlefield.

For the battle to have been won in less than two hours is part of the miracle of what we talk about for Our Lady of Prompt Succor.

So the east bank collapses.

Some estimates within 15 to 20 minutes.

So they retreat.

Thornton though is driving ahead.

Jackson's ecstatic.

He says, "I can't believe this, this is a splendid victory" , and then he starts hearing the pop-pop-pop of guns and artillery across the river.

He and Arcenne de la Tour look across the river and what they see totally shocks 'em.

The American troops, the Kentuckians and the French and all the rest of 'em are running away from the British (Jason Wiese) The attachment tasked with the assault on the West Bank finally did reach their objective which was the American battery which they charged with bayonets and drove the uh, Louisiana and Kentucky militia from their defensive positions.

When Andrew Jackson looked across to the West Bank, he wasn't thinking, "great, we've beaten the British, they've gone."

He looked across there and said, "My God, we've lost."

Because he realized that he didn't have right wing anymore.

He didn't have a right flank.

(Ron Chapman) American lines collapse-collapse-collapse collapse-collapse- collapse-collapse all the way 'till you get to Line Gervais which is the very last line of defense at Algiers Point.

If we could push these guys out the way, we've won this thing.

Because I have Algiers Point.

I can start shooting rockets and congreve rockets, and I can start shooting canons into the French Quarter.

Well Thornton works his way back across the river, asks to see Pakenham, he's dead.

Asks to see Gibbs, he's dead.

Asks to see Keen, he might as well be dead.

He's in pretty bad shape.

What about Rennie?

He's dead.

What about Wilkinson?

He's dead.

The command structure's totally taken out.

The only guy left is the guy named Lambert who is in charge of the reserves.

He's overwhelmed at the carnage.

He doesn't know what to do.

Thornton was begging Lambert to send him reinforcements Lambert refused.

He was so shaken, he ordered a withdrawal.

(Ron Chapman) And all of a sudden, Jackson hears a bugle.

He looks down river and there's three British officers.

One with a white flag, one with a bugle, So he sends one of his guys down to talk to them.

The guy comes back with a note, "I want to talk terms."

Signed Lambert.

General Jackson received the note from General Lambert, read it, and said, "Who the Hell is Lambert?"

He had no idea that Pakenham was dead until he got that note saying, you know, "we would like to care for our wounded "and remove our dead, John Lambert, commanding his majesty's forces."

(Ron Chapman) And that's when Jackson suddenly realizes, "My God, the entire officer core is gone."

Alright, I'll meet with him.

So he meets with Lambert.

And Lambert says, "Look, I'll like to have a cease fire".

So Jackson agrees.

And he looks at Lambert, he says, "but all bets are off on the west bank.

It's on."

And Lambert looks at him and says, "I'll withdraw."

(Tim Pickles) Lambert actually snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

It was a terrible, terrible price the British had paid, but they could have still won had Lambert not withdrawn from the West Bank.

(Ron Chapman) Jackson immediately reinforces the west bank.

Pushes Patterson's battery further down the river across from the Villere Plantation.

Starts opening fire on the British while they're in the camp and tormenting them all the way 'till January 18th when they sneak away.

Work their way through the bayous.

Get back on their ships and sail for Dauphin Island.

[snare drum playing] (Ron Chapman) The carnage.

It's just absolutely incredible.

(Tom Gregory) Estimates tally American casualties over the weeks of fighting at under 400 with around a dozen lives lost during the main assault.

British casualties totaled more than 2,000 with hundreds of men dying on the bloody battlefield at Chalmette plantation.

(Ron Chapman) When the bodies start coming in on carts, and on barges, people are terrified because they figured, "God, what a horrible thing."

They're worried about their relatives, you know, their fathers, sons, brothers, cousins, what-have-you.

And then they discover that there's only 13 Americans down.

It's all British soldiers.

You know, and so the Creole women start taking care of them.

A lot of free women of color start taking care of, a lot of these British never leave.

After the battle, the people of New Orleans were actually very helpful in treating both sides.

(Shelene C.Roumillat) The Ursuline nuns transform their lodgings into a temporary hospital for the sick and wounded.

Many of whom were British.

(Polly Rolman-Smith) After the battle, many of mortally wounded were just buried on the battlefield.

And the soil was not conducive for burying people.

It was very marshy and wet.

So a lot of the bodies actually emerged from the soil later.

It was pretty ghastly site.

The head officers, such as General Pakenham were actually, their bodies were disemboweled and they were put in casks of rum to ship back to England.

(Ron Chapman) Basically to preserve them, so they can send them back to England for proper burial.

And as one American passed a comment, "Well at least he left in good spirits."

(Jason Wiese) The last British troops are re-embarked uh, around the 29th, or 30th of January.

So it took weeks to get every everyone, off of Louisiana soil.

(Tim Pickles) The British commanders pulled away from New Orleans, and said "Well that didn't work, let's go back to plan A," sail back to Mobile bay, and this time, they captured Fort Bowyer, (Ron Chapman) So it actually ended this War of 1812 on a British victory at Fort Bowyer.

(Tim Pickles) And it was actually two days after the capture of Fort Bowyer, that official news arrived that a peace treaty had been signed at Ghent.

(Tom Gregory) In New Orleans Jackson is hailed as a hero.

(Emilie Leumas) After the battle was over, Andrew Jackson asks Dubourg to plan a celebration for the city.

And on January 23rd, they have a grand celebration at the cathedral.

(Shelene C.Roumillat) There is this elaborate, you know, beautiful public display that is erected in um, the Place d'Armes, Jackson Square.

They only forces that are positioned in an official capacity to greet the general, are the white Creole forces that had fought.

And so from the beginning, the battle's commemoration is um, a racially exclusive public event.

And it remained that way for the next 36 years.

(Tom Gregory) But it wasn't all praise for General Jackson.

Jackson refuses to repeal martial law because the war isn't technically over.

And so, he made the uh, the troops stay and defend the position well into February when they were at the point where they wanted to go home and celebrate.

There was a local person who wrote a column in the newspaper, a letter to the newspaper uh, criticizing Jackson for not repealing martial law.

And he was promptly thrown in jail by Jackson.

And then the judge, whose name was Dominique Hall, he said, "well you're not sending this guy to jail without a fair trial."

And then he got thrown in jail as well.

(Jason Wiese) After martial law has been lifted.

Judge Hall summoned Jackson to his court and Jackson was found to be in contempt of court and fined $1,000 which was an enormous amount of money in those days.

Years later congress, refunded the money.

(Tom Gregory) The treaty of Ghent is officially ratified February 16, 1815.

Assured that peace is at hand, Andrew Jackson leaves New Orleans in March, a national hero.

There's very little in Andrew Jackson's background that I think would have predicted uh the heights that he would achieve as a military hero in this country.

(Joyce Miller) One of the biggest sort of long-term results of the Battle of New Orleans is certainly that Jackson became this national heroic figure, and was ultimately um, propelled to be, into the presidency.

In many ways, his presidency marked a shift in the United States from a more aristocratic leaders to this common man.

The country looked at Jackson, as a symbol of this new American.

The rise of the common man, he was the symbol of that.

And this was very powerful.

(Tom Gregory) Andrew Jackson still remains triumphantly on guard over New Orleans, in the main square that bears his name.

After the battle the port of New Orleans is once again bustling.

The landscape of St. Bernard forever changed.

Especially hard hit, the owner of Chalmette plantation, Ignace De Chalmette.

(William Hyland) Chalmette traveled to the plantation, saw everything destroyed and it was more than he could live with.

He returned home that night, had what was called then a fit of apoplexy, which today we would call a stroke and died.

Of all the major sugar planters in St. Bernard, at the time of the Battle of New Orleans, most all of them were ruined and lost their plantations within ten to thirteen years of the battle.

The battle of New Orleans was celebrated nationally for decades.

That changed after the Civil War.

So did the belief in its significance.

It began to be referred to as unnecessary, after the fact, meaningless... after all, a treaty had been signed before the battle.

(Jason Wiese) Well let's be clear, the Treaty of Ghent was indeed signed on Christmas Eve of 1814 in Ghent, uh, in the Netherlands.

That does not mean that the war was over.

The war was not over because any treaty does not take effect at the moment it is signed by the delegates who go and negotiate it.

That is only the first step in a process.

Now the Treaty of Ghent was ratified, but even then, the war wouldn't end until the ratified copies were formally exchanged by duly appointed representatives of both governments.

Then, and only then did the War of 1812 officially end.

More than a month after the Battle of New Orleans.

(Ron Drez) We had the story right for the first hundred years.

Uh, obviously we were celebrating this great January the 8th feast day, for lack of a better word.

And then suddenly revisionism crept into it.

With the revisionist history came now only that the peace treaty had been signed and therefore the war was over, therefore the battle was useless.

It degenerated down to the British actually won the war.

Why did they win the war?

Well they win the war, won the war because the United States failed to conquer Canada.

Canada was-was never a- an objective, was never a cause of war.

It became a goal once we were in the war.

Even if you read about it in books, "oh it was fought after the treaty was signed.

"It was a footnote to history.

"It never should have happened.

Terrible waste, no big deal."

People don't really know how important it was.

That the Louisiana Purchase was handling- hanging in the balance.

Control of the Mississippi River was hanging in the balance.

I mean, the implications for this thing are just astounding.

What could have happened had the British won.

Historians have debated or a long time whether if the British had won the battle, would they have stuck by the terms of the Treaty of Ghent and left?

Or would they have stayed?

I think the likeliest scenario in the case of a victory in New Orleans was that they would have turned the colony over to- back to the Spanish.

We would have truly been confined between the river and the Eastern seaboard, like both Napoleon and the British wanted to do.

(Eberhard L. Faber) The victory at New Orleans, made American possession of Louisiana, permanent.

In a way that it hadn't been.

Up until that point.

From Louisiana Purchase in 1803, to the victory on January 8th of 1815.

There's always doubt.

Whether this is really going to remain, part of the United States.

(Jason Wiese) Andrew Jackson's victory, once and for all seems to settle the question of who owns and controls the Mississippi valley.

(Ron Chapman) It forever set the United States on a path to globalism.

After the War of 1812, after this Louisiana Purchase is no longer in question, we are now on a path to what Jefferson had always called manifest destiny.

(Tom Gregory) The battle also silenced opponents of the war, the Louisiana Purchase, and the Union.

(male #2) Senator Timothy Pickering who was the senator from Massachusetts who was actually hoping that the British would be victorious because he wanted to split New England off from the rest of the country.

It started not in 1815, but in 1804 right after the Louisiana Purchase.

And so these New Englanders recognized that the Louisiana Purchase was going to uh, change the geographic shape of the union and give a lot more political power to a part of the country that wasn't their part of the country.

The Massachusetts Federalists did not want these people into their republic.

these people spoke French they were Roman Catholic.

You had a large number of free blacks compared to the rest of the country.

America being controlled by these Westerners was a nightmare for this republic that was based on Puritan values.

(Eberhard L. Faber) So the Hartford Convention is a collection of federalists who have decided to go to Washington and deliver an ultimatum saying, "We don't want to be in the Union anymore unless certain conditions are met."

And the war was going badly so they felt they had a chance of being heard.

But what happened was the Hartford Convention delegates arrived in Washington.

And just a few days later, news arrives of this tremendous victory by Andrew Jackson.

In New Orleans.

So instead of uh, kind of triumphantly getting their demands met, they left Washington their tail between their legs and the Hartford Convention uh, became sort of a badge of shame for years thereafter.

It really put an end to this first you know flirtation with secession.

It was a climactic battle.

Few battles ever rise to that uh-uh that level.

Just think back recently into World War 2, Normandy was a climactic battle.

Midway was a climactic battle.

One obvious way in which the Battle of New Orleans was enormously significant was its emotional meaning for Americans.

As having, reaffirmed American independence.

For Southerners it also had an extra meaning.

As a vindication of slave society.

The Battle of New Orleans kind of cemented us into the union.

In a lot of ways it made us think that we were Americans.

It also had this galvanizing effect on Americans just in terms of self image.

And people put an enormous amount of importance and value on the example of the Battle of New Orleans.

(Joyce Miller) Winning the Battle of New Orleans shaped United States culture for certainly the next 50 years.

It helped shaped the national identity.

And really it's- it's changed the course of American history because of that.

If the Louisiana Purchase was America's first encounter with diversity I think the Battle of New Orleans was a test of that diversity.

and, and, and uh, and what we saw is that it was diversity at it best.

After the Louisiana Purchase, people had all these suspicions about Louisiana not being American enough.

It's kind of ironic that the sense of our national pride you know, came in large measure from uh, the plains of Chalmette.

♪ There might be some differences of opinion among historians about the intent of the British and what might have happened if they had won the battle.

But there is no disputing that a major win was scored here in Chalmette a victory won by Jackson's dirty shirts, army regulars, Barataria pirates, Louisiana militia, New Orleans Creoles, freemen of color and the enslaved.

This collective triumph set the course for a young and expanding country.

It also defined the nation's identity.

These diverse people came together for one cause, and in doing so made the Battle of New Orleans a meaningful victory.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ (announcer) Major funding made possible by the Arline and Joseph Meraux Foundation.

Dedicated to improving the quality of life in St. Bernard Parish.

And implementing innovative strategies to create lasting positive change for the entire community.

Support for WYES and this program provided by The Historic New Orleans Collection.

A museum, research center, and publisher dedicated to preserving our area's distinctive history and culture.

Details on current exhibitions, books, and programs available at www.hnoc.org The Battle of New Orleans: a Meaningful Victory is made possible by the WYES Producers Circle.

A group of generous contributors dedicated to the support WYES' local productions.

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