Besides it getting made into a country folk song, the Battle of New Orleans has largely been forgotten. Which is a shame, because rarely has such a motley crew of fighters—US soldiers, US sailors, American backwoodsmen, American Indians, Frenchmen, free Blacks, American militia, hat-makers and blacksmiths and grocery store clerks and probably some others—able to withstand the mighty British Army. The same British Army that had just finished off Napoleon. The fact that Andrew Jackson was able to successfully defend the entire Gulf of Mexico, from Florida to Louisiana, by beating back a land invasion in the swamps below New Orelans is why The Battle of New Orleans is a battle you might not know, but should.
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