…remind them of this.
I was recently reading “Andrew Jackson and the Miracle of New Orleans” by Brian Kilmeade and Don Yeager. The War of 1812 was going badly for the Americans. The British had burned the White House, and a huge contingent of British troops was in Louisiana planning to march north in conquest.
Against them stood future President and then Major General Andrew Jackson, and a ragtag assembly comprised largely of citizen militia. Jackson would later be called a racist, but he had assembled a motley crew of whites, African-Americans, Native Americans and Creoles, all of which he made sure were paid the same.
They mixed regular battlefield strategies with the guerrilla warfare tactics that had so well served the Colonials in the Revolutionary War. The Brits still marched forward in orderly lines…but the Americans used tactical cover, skilled marksmanship, and their own rifles.
At one point in the pivotal battle of New Orleans, the authors gave an example of deadly American marksmanship: “Just minutes into the battle, according to one Kentucky rifleman, ‘the smoke was so thick that everything seemed to be covered up in it.’ But the woodsmen, armed with .38 caliber long rifles (the barrels were forty-two inches long) kept firing with deadly accuracy. Half-hidden in the dense cypress vegetation, their loaded their guns with balls and buckshot. Their fire was nearly constant and, according to one Louisiana merchant watching down the line ‘the whole right of the British column was mowed down by these invisible riflemen.’”
And, “Back at the Rodriguez Canal, said one soldier, the scene was ‘a sea of blood.’ The illusion resulted from hundreds of red uniforms obscuring the stubble of last year’s sugarcane crop. The letting of blood had indeed been great leaving an unfathomable number of dead and dying soldiers prostrate on the Chalmette Plain. In some places the bodies were so numerous that it seemed possible to walk without ever touching the ground for a distance of perhaps two hundred yards.”
The authors concluded, “General Jackson and his multiethnic, multigenerational army made up of people from every American social class and occupation had come together to do what Napoleon had failed to do: destroy the finest fighting force in the world.” The American victory at the Battle of New Orleans, the turning point that saved the United States from defeat, was owed in great part to armed citizens and their skillfully-wielded personal weapons.
In point of fact, the Battle of New Orleans did not contribute to ending the War of 1812. The Treaty of Ghent, which ended the war, was signed on December 24, 1814 (Christmas Eve – “Peace on Earth, goodwill toward men…”). This was 15 days before the Battle of New Orleans was fought (January 8, 1815).
So, the War was already over when this battle was fought. Due to slow communications, the military forces in New Orleans did not know that a battle was unnecessary. The Treaty of Ghent was formally ratified, by the Senate, on February 16, 2015 which (officially) brought matters to a close. See this link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_New_Orleans
While the Battle of New Orleans did not contribute to ending the war, it allowed the war to end on a “high note” for America. No doubt it was a big boost to American morale especially given the numerous defeats early in the war.
In the long term, it could be viewed as a negative event for America. This battle made Andrew Jackson famous and helped him to (a) become President and (b) help found the Democrat Party. Given the train of negatives flowing from Jackson’s administration (Trail of Tears, War with Mexico, etc.) and given the constant negative influence of the Democrat Party in American History (support for slavery, civil war, KKK, Jim Crow, Corrupt big city governments and unions, the centralization of power in Washington, the Welfare State, the Rise of the Deep State, etc.), I can’t help but think it would have been better (in the long run) for the British to have defeated Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans.
Thanks for that bit of history. I have always said that at least for myself, I prefer to be correct instead of being “right”. I hope that I always show that when commenting online. My ego is as big as anyone else’s, but not so big that I cannot learn and change, if shown the facts.
That being said, I will do the right thing and check the information for myself, via first hand facts. We always owe it to ourselves to try and be right. No doubt Mas feels the same way, and will check the facts for himself. Like you said though, it did do much for the pride of American’s to know that they did have the “right stuff” to hang with the nation that they had already fought a war to escape their heavy hand.
Be well and have a safe and prosperous autumn season.
Good on the history, but you missed the entire point of the article as stated in the title. It was about the effectiveness of a citizen militia against an established army.
Improvise. Overcome. Adapt. Oorah!
AR = AMERICA’S RIFLE
Correct about the timing but wrong about much else. The Democrat Party in that era was the conservative party. The progressives were the Whigs with their focus on “internal improvements” and national banking The northern and southern branches split over slavery with the northern faction becoming the Republicans while the southern faction eventually drifted toward the Democrats. Toward the end of the Grant administration, the Republicans gradually became conservative. The Democrats pushed toward populism in this era with William Jennings Bryan but did not become leftist until Wilson. Wilson was a stone racist, however, and was comfortable with the Jim Crow regime in the South. The Democrats invented themselves again during the LBJ years. Meanwhile, the Republicans became wishy-washy which persisted until the coming of Reagan and resumed under Bush until Trump came down the escalator.
Reagan talked a good game but started America marching off of the cliff.
He got both parties comfortable with huge deficit spending leading to massive devaluing of the US dollar and gave the game away with his horrible immigration amnesty deal.
Thanks to Reagan and the rest of the right’s refusal to do anything about illegals because big business liked the cheap labor the democrats have been able to elect a new people that support their big government, anti freedom policies.
The 2A will not survive long in “majority minority” America.
In this day and age, one would use guerilla tactics in aquiring larger weapons; belt fed machine guns to aquire vehicle mounted weapons, HMGs, TOW missiles, and larger 20, 30 or even 40mm cannons to use to capture APC/Vs used to capture artillery used to capture tanks and on and on.
Just look how Afghanistan used captured British armaments to defeat the Brits, they used captured Soviet wespons to defeat them and more recently, US inventorys/ weapons that were actually left behind for the ANA,( NOT the Taliban contrary to popular belief) which virtually evaporated upon U.S. exit, much like the South Viets did.
So in conclusion, WE wont be engaging tanks and planes with small arms.