HISTORY

January 8, 1815
Battle of New Orleans

By a small river, called the Somme, in northern France, the British army gathered its forces in the mud and made elaborate preparations for a coordinated attack. The only problem was that the Germans knew they were coming and had time to prepare their defenses. The result was not pretty. Over 100 year earlier the British faced the same problem half a world away . . . and had similar results.

With six days to prepare, Jackson had built walls thirteen to 20 feet thick. In addition a redoubt was built in front of this wall right next to the river. The wall, mostly made of mud was impervious to British artillery and had several locations along it parameter that housed artillery emplacements. In front of the wall was low lying open ground with no cover for the advancing British troops.

Gen. Pakenham had planned to have a rocket fired from the West bank as soon at that attack had driven off the Americans and spiked their guns. The rockets glow would be the signal for the all out attack on Jackson's line. With the failure of the crossing, Pakenham directed his officers to start the attack on the American left, away from the river, crossing the open field on a diagonal.

Up until this point Jackson's letters indicate that he was still wondering form which direction the British would attack. Perhaps he couldn't imagine that the British would be kind enough to launch a frontal attack against the Rodriques Canal position. Finally, Jackson, watching British troops from the second floor of a nearby plantation home could see the English building ladders. He correctly determined that January 8th would be the day he would be attacked.

Crossing an Open Field

The attack began under the cover of a heavy fog that obscured the assembly of the British troops and the beginning of their advance, but once the redcoats were within grapeshot range the fog lifted, leaving the troops total exposed. Rather than retreating and suffering fire to their rear, they advanced with almost no chance of success.

Even avoiding the artillery fire from the river, the British took blistering casualties. British troops after the battle complained about seeing only the barrels of the American guns and not even being able to see them look over the top of the fortifications to shot them. The result was not favorable; most American accounts describe looking out across a field of dead and broken bodies. No British unit managed to breach the main defenses. Those few that did reach the wall were shot by sharpshooters.

Oddly enough it was along the river that the British had some success. One company of men did manage to capture the redoubt next to the Mississippi River, but a determined counterattack by the 7th US Regiment left almost the entire company dead or wounded.

Only the west bank assault carried any American positions, driving off the poorly armed defenders, and capturing the guns on that bank, but by then the main attack had already been broken and the fall of the batteries on the west bank had no effect on the outcome of the battle as a whole.

The real problem with the Battle of New Orleans for the British was the high losses in senior officers. Pakenham himself was killed as was Gen. Gibbs and numerous other British officers. By the middle of the battle most British units were simply standing in the open being blasted apart by the American defenders waiting for orders that never came. In the end, Gen. Lambert took over command and ordered a withdrawal.

Even Jackson, who was well known for his dislike of the English, was appalled by their losses . . . and impressed by their discipline under such a hail of fire.

American fire was so hot and heavy that British officers had to make several attempts to get to the American lines under a flag of truce to arrange for the removal of their dead and wounded from the field. Their first attempts were driven back by American musket fire.

Jackson, however, did not see the attack as over. He made immediate plans to launch a counterattack on the west bank of the Mississippi to retake the positions captured by the British on January 8th.

The British position on the West bank was clearly untenable. Only 150 men of the 780 man brigade managed to actually cross the river. They had no artillery with them and no artillery ammunition to use with the American guns. After a review by staff officers informing Gen. Lambert that 2,000 men would be required to hold the position, Lambert ordered a withdrawal. The end result was that Jackson's troops were able to retake the position without firing a shot.

Jackson's initial report listed only 15 casualties as a result of the battle, however, the actual number was slightly over 300, but British casualties were well over 2,500. In context, that puts American casualties at 6% of those engaged and British at 25%. But it's important to realize where those casualties took place within the battle. Most of the American casualties took place on the Western side of the Mississippi, only 13 occurred as a result of the main British assault. In contrast, most of the British casualties happened to those in the two leading brigades on the east side . . . representing roughly 67% of each brigade's strength. Officer losses were even more serious: three out of four generals and eight colonels. Little wonder that it was decided not to renew the attack on January 11th.