The beginning of the battle
The cannon were the first to fire, but the redcoats closed up their shattered ranks, and moved on. Those lines of red! How splendid and terrible they looked! The Americans gave three cheers. "Fire!" rang out along the line. The breastworks were instantly a sheet of fire. Along the whole line it blazed and rolled. No human being could face that fire. The British soldiers broke and fled.
ANDREW JACKSON
From a painting by Thomas Sully which hangs in the rooms of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia
The battle in earnest
The victory after the treaty
Once more they rallied, led by General Pakenham, a relative of the great Duke of Wellington. But who could withstand that fire? Pakenham was slain, and again his troops fled. The battle was over. The British had lost two thousand six hundred men and the Americans only twenty-one! This victory was won after peace had been made between England and America. A ship was then hurrying to America with the glad news.
Jackson a hero
Everywhere the people rejoiced greatly over the victory of New Orleans. Jackson was a great hero, and wherever he went crowds followed him, and cried out, "Long live the victor of New Orleans!"