Interview

HISTORY
THE BATTLE OF
NEW ORLEANS
which greatly increased their chance of success. General Pakenham decided
to cross the Mississippi river and overwhelm the thin line of defense. Their
plan was simple. They would construct ladders from bundled sticks to
get past the ramparts. There was only one problem however. The British
had forgotten to bring their ladders so an easy task of climbing a ladder
got a whole lot harder. The British had two forces that were to meet up
and overwhelm the Americans but the secondary force on the west side of
the Mississippi was delayed so the main force had to attack without them
to take advantage of the early morning fog. As the British army of more
than 10,000 walked across, the badly out numbered U.S. rag tag army were
crammed behind narrow fortifications prepared to fight.. Even though the
Americans were outnumber 4,000 to 10,000, the British made easy targets
marching across a quarter mile of open ground wearing bright suits, and
marching in perfect rhythm like “civilized” men. When the firing started,
the British army started falling like dominoes. The two most senior British
Generals were killed along with general Pakenham. Before he died he
told his successor not to retreat. The man was obviously not a lunatic like
Pakenham and gave the order to retreat. In the end, the Americans killed
were 8 and 13 wounded; The British on the other hand had well over 2,000
killed or wounded and more than 100 captured.
By: Brian Tamjdi
8 th Grade
The battle of new Orleans was a major victory for the
Americans. Even though it was after the war, the British
thought they could go walking into the United states
and claim what they wanted. The British wanted New Orleans
back, so they decided to go and claim it not long after a treaty
was signed between the United states and Great Britain. When
the people in New Orleans found out about this, they turned
to Andrew Jackson for help. When Jackson arrived in the late
fall of 1814, he brought his own army along to help. He also
recruited freed African American slaves and the militia of New
Orleans to help fight. When the British arrived on December
23rd, two American officers came running to Jackson to give
him the news. That night, Jackson launched a surprise attack on
the British camp. After the attack, the British were so surprised
that they delayed their attack plans giving the American army
time to recreate. Jackson retreated 3 miles to the Chalmette
plantation on the banks of the Rodriguez canal which was
basically a big ditch. Here, Jackson’s men constructed a 3/5 mile
long rampart. It was the perfect position too because they had
the rampart up front, the Mississippi river to the right and the
cypress swamp to their left. As General Pakenham prepared
to attack, the Americans dug trenches and settled into their
surroundings.
On December 28th, the British tried to break through the
American defenses but were turned back with the help of a
ship called the Louisiana stationed to the right of the troops.
Four days later, the British tried to bombard the Americans
with their artillery but once again were turned back. On
January 4th , 1815, the British received a fresh supply of troops
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