Battle Brief - We Caught the Bloody British: The Battle of New Orleans, 1814

In the closing months of the War of 1812, a large British army attacked American forces led by Maj. Gen. Andrew Jackson near New Orleans on January 8, 1815. Despite having Napoleonic War veterans in their ranks and Royal Navy support, the British were soundly defeated in what was the final major engagement of the conflict. Learn how U.S. troops and local militiamen won the battle for the American southwest with minimal losses and made Jackson a hero and eventually a United States president.

John R. Maass is a historian and educator at the National Museum of the U.S. Army. He received a BA in history from Washington & Lee University, and a PhD in early U.S. history from the Ohio State University. He served as an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve (80th Division). His most recent book is “The Battles of Spencer’s Ordinary and Green Spring, 1781” (2025).