The New Battle of New Orleans

As we head south from Tennessee to New Orleans, it’s cool to know about our historic connection with this great American city. In 1814 General Andrew Jackson marched Tennesseans south along the Mississippi River to fight off the British during the War of 1812. They’d already burned Washington an were planning to capture New Orleans.

When Tennesseans were asked to volunteer, ten times the requested number stepped forward. That’s where the Tennessee Vols got their name. Anyway, when the Americans encountered the British outside of New Orleans, they attacked at night, backed off, and dug in. This group of citizen soldiers was a real ragtag bunch too. There was U.S. Army, New Orleans militia, freed black Haitian slaves, and long hunters from Tennessee and Kentucky. Oh, and there were pirates. Real pirates, led by John Lafitte, whose bar/blacksmith shop is still in the French Quarter. Jackson’s forces were outnumbered two to one.

Jackson and his men waited until they “saw the whites of their eyes” and opened up with field artillery fired a a low angle. The redcoats were slaughtered. The cannon shells skipped across the swamp water, ripping holes in the British lines and saving the city from invasion.

You know the square in New Orleans where President Bush made his speech promising to rebuild? That’s Jackson Square, named for our Tennessee General who saved the city along with the pirate Lafitte. There’s even a statue of Jackson, jauntily waving his hat atop a rearing horse. The only other copy is in Nashville, outside the state capitol.

So here we come again — a bunch of Tennesseans riding south to help out the Crescent City. Of course this battle may take a little longer to win…