| BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS. |
| MONUMENT TO GENERAL JACKSON AT NEW ORLEANS. |
Just before the fight began General Jackson walked along among his men, who were getting ready to defend the ditch. He said to them, "Stand to your guns; see that every shot tells: give it to them, boys!" The "boys" did give it to them. The British soldiers were brave men; they had been in many terrible battles, and they were not afraid to die. They fought desperately; they tried again and again to cross that ditch and climb the bank, but they could not do it. The fire of our guns cut them down just as a mower cuts down the tall grain with his scythe.[12] In less than half an hour the great battle was over; Jackson had won the victory and saved New Orleans. We lost only eight killed; the enemy lost over two thousand.[13] We have never had a battle since with England; it is to be hoped that we never shall have another, for two great nations[14] like England and America, that speak the same language, ought to be firm and true friends.
11 See map in paragraph [218].
12 Scythe (sithe).
13 Killed and wounded.
14 Nations: a nation is a people born in the same country and living under the same government; as the American nation, the French nation, the English nation.
[218. We buy Florida; General Jackson made President of the United States; the first railroad.]—After the battle of New Orleans General Jackson conquered the Indians in Florida, and in 1819 we bought that country of Spain, and so made the United States much larger on the south.[15] This was our second great land purchase.[16]
| The light parts of this map show the extent of the United States in 1819, after we had bought and added Florida. The black and white bars in the northwest show that the ownership of the Oregon country was still in dispute between the United States and Great Britain. |