New Orleans, Battle

New Orleans, Battle of

(1815) Battle between the U.S. and Britain during the War of 1812. Late in 1814 a British fleet of more than 50 ships commanded by Gen. Edward Pakenham (1778–1815) sailed into the Gulf of Mexico and prepared to attack New Orleans. Gen. Andrew Jackson, commander of the U.S. Army of the Southwest, which consisted chiefly of militiamen and volunteers, fought the British regulars who stormed their position on Jan. 8, 1815. His troops were so effectively entrenched behind earthworks and the British troops so exposed that the fighting was brief, ending in a decisive U.S. victory, a British withdrawal, and the death of Gen. Pakenham. The battle was without military value, since the Treaty of Ghent ending the war had been signed in December, but the news had been slow to arrive. The victory nevertheless raised national morale, enhancing Jackson's reputation as a hero and preparing his way to the presidency.

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New Orleans, Battle of

(April 24–25, 1862) Naval action in the American Civil War. A Union squadron of 43 ships led by David Farragut entered the Mississippi River below New Orleans and breached the chain cables stretched across the river as a defense. The 3,000 Confederate troops under Mansfield Lovell withdrew northward and the city fell. The Union army under Benjamin Butler entered the city on May 1 and began an occupation that lasted until the end of the war. The loss of New Orleans was a major blow to the Confederacy.