Most convenient brief account of the war. Recent and impartial.
NAVAL ACTIONS OF THE WAR OF 1812
By James Barnes
Popular and well illustrated.
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THE OPEN LETTER
THE BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS
If the telegraph had been in existence a century ago, the battle of New Orleans would not have taken place. It was unique in history as a battle fought after a war was over. And it was the only real victory won by the land forces of America in the War of 1812. It was one of the most conclusive battles in history, and a brilliant demonstration of the military ability of Andrew Jackson. General Jackson believed in preparedness. During the second year of the War of 1812 he learned that the British planned to invade Louisiana, so he concentrated troops four miles below New Orleans in a line of entrenchments a mile in length, extending from the Mississippi River far into the swamp, making both ends impassable. Jackson had 3,500 expert marksmen at his command. They were a strange mixture of men, including long-limbed, hard-faced backwoodsmen, Portuguese and Norwegian seamen, dark-skinned Spaniards and swarthy Frenchmen, besides about 1,000 militiamen selected from the Creoles of Louisiana. They were a rough and violent lot. Theodore Roosevelt characterizes them as: "Soldiers who, under an ordinary commander, would have been fully as dangerous to themselves and their leaders as to their foes. But," he adds, "Andrew Jackson was of all men the one best fitted to manage such troops. Even their fierce natures quailed before the ungovernable fury of a spirit greater than their own; and their sullen, stubborn wills were bent before his unyielding temper and iron hand."