Andrew Jackson and the Miracle of New Orleans

by Brian Kilmeade

  On the radio, I constantly need flexibility for interviews, specials, and appearances, and my support team is endlessly patient and professional. Led by Alyson Mansfield, who helps me beyond radio as my coordinating producer, Eric Albeen, Peter Caterina, and Aaron Spielberg round out the radio A team.

  Finally, to my wife and children, I can never thank you enough. My wife, Dawn, the most patient and supportive woman in the world, I know this book took time away from our family. I am forever grateful for your willingness to shoulder more of the responsibilities while I am researching, writing, or traveling for what has become, during its production, a kind of second full-time job. To Bryan, Kirstyn, and Kaitlyn, I deeply appreciate your understanding and even your enthusiasm for this work. May you someday be as blessed as I am to have a family that encourages you to similarly pursue your interests and passions.

  Andrew Jackson and the Miracle at New Orleans is a story of a highly factionalized society coming together at a time of crisis and uniting their skills, valor, and spirit for the sake of preserving this nation. I can think of no message more timely or important. Jackson led the way, but it was the willingness of the ordinary citizens—soldiers, militiamen, civilians, outlaws—who carried out his vision. Despite the vast differences in language, ethnicity, national origin, race, social class, and countless other factors, the people who defended New Orleans recognized that what united them was stronger than what divided them. This story is a testament to Americans’ willingness to reach out across lines and come together to protect our beautiful liberty. Perhaps no moment in American history better encapsulates our national motto: E pluribus unum. Out of many, one.

  NOTES

  PROLOGUE

  1.Parton, Life of Andrew Jackson, vol. 1 (1861), p. 89.

  2.Quoted in Groom, Patriotic Fire, p. 37.

  CHAPTER 1: FREEDOMS AT RISK

  1.Andrew Jackson to Thomas Monteagle Bayly, June 27, 1807.

  2.Parton, Life of Andrew Jackson, vol. 1 (1861), p. 133.

  3.Benton, Thirty Years’ View (1854), vol. 1, p. 736.

  4.Andrew Jackson, Proclamation to the Tennessee Militia, March 7, 1812.

  5.“Jackson’s Announcement to His Soldiers,” November 14, 1812.

  6.Thomas Jefferson to Robert R. Livingston, April 18, 1802.

  CHAPTER 2: HOW TO LOSE A WAR

  1.Henry Clay, speech to Senate, February 22, 1810.

  2.Thomas Jefferson to William Duane, August 4, 1812.

  3.William Eustis to Henry Dearborn, July 9, 1812.

  4.John Randolph, speech to Congress, December 10, 1811, in Annals of Congress, 12th Congress, 1st Session, p. 447.

  5.Quoted in Groom, Patriotic Fire, p.166.

  6.Andrew Jackson to Willie Blount, July 3, 1812.

  7.Andrew Jackson, quoted in Remini, Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Empire (1977), p. 170.

  8.“The Departure from Nashville, a Journal of the Trip Down the Mississippi,” in Jackson, Correspondence of Andrew Jackson, vol. 1. (1926), pp. 256–71.

  9.John Armstrong to Andrew Jackson, February 5, 1813.

  10.James Madison to Robert R. Livingston and James Monroe, April 18, 1803.

  11.John Armstrong to Andrew Jackson, February 5, 1813.

  12.Andrew Jackson to John Armstrong, March 15, 1813.

  13.“Jackson’s Announcement to His Soldiers,” November 14, 1812.

  14.Andrew Jackson to Felix Grundy, March 15, 1813.

  15.Andrew Jackson to James Wilkinson, March 22, 1813.

  16.Andrew Jackson to James Madison, March 15, 1813.

  17.Andrew Jackson to Rachel Jackson, March 15, 1813.

  18.Nashville Whig, quoted in Remini, Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Empire (1977), p. 180.

  19.Parton, Life of Andrew Jackson, vol. 1 (1861), p. 382.

  CHAPTER 3: THE MAKING OF A GENERAL

  1.Groom, Patriotic Fire (2006), p. 38.

  2.Charles Dickinson, May 21, 1806, in Correspondence of Andrew Jackson, vol. 1 (1926), p. 143.

  3.Parton, Life of Andrew Jackson, vol. 1 (1861), p. 387.

  4.Thomas Hart Benton to Andrew Jackson, July 25, 1813.

  5.Parton, Life of Andrew Jackson, vol. 1 (1861), p. 394.

  6.Griffith, McIntosh and Weatherford (1988), p. 111.

  7.Andrew Jackson to the Tennessee Volunteers, September 24, 1813.

  8.Reid and Eaton, Life (1817), p. 33.

  9.Crockett, Narrative of the Life of David Crockett (1834), p. 88.

  10.John Coffee, Official Report, November 3, 1813, in Parton, Life of Andrew Jackson, vol. 1 (1861), p. 437.

  11.Parton, Life of Andrew Jackson, vol. 1 (1861), p. 439.

  12.Andrew Jackson to Rachel Jackson, November 4, 1813.

  13.Quoted in Remini, Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Empire (1977), p. 193.

  14.Andrew Jackson to Willie Blount, November 11, 1813.

  15.Crockett, Narrative of the Life of David Crockett (1834), p. 92.

  CHAPTER 4: A RIVER DYED RED

  1.John Borlase Warren to Lord Melville, November 18, 1812.

  2.Matthew D. Cooper, quoted in Owsley, Struggle for the Gulf Borderland (1981), p. 69.

  3.Colonel William Martin to Andrew Jackson, December 4, 1813.

  4.Reid and Eaton, Life (1817), p. 84.

  5.Andrew Jackson to the First Brigade, Tennessee Volunteer Infantry, December 13, 1813.

  6.Andrew Jackson to Rachel Jackson, December 29, 1813.

  7.Andrew Jackson to Willie Blount, December 29, 1813.

  8.See Pickett, History of Alabama, vol. 2 (1851), pp. 324–25, and Griffith, McIntosh and Weatherford (1988), pp. 129–31.

  9.Reid and Eaton, Life (1817), p. 136.

  10.“Report of Jackson to Governor Blount,” March 31, 1814.

  11.John Coffee to Andrew Jackson, April 11, 1814.

  12.Andrew Jackson, “General Order,” March 24[?], 1814.

  13.Andrew Jackson to Rachel Jackson, April 1, 1814.

  14.Reid and Eaton, Life (1817), p. 165. Variant versions of Jackson and Weatherford’s meeting are found in Pickett, History of Alabama, vol. 2 (1851), pp. 348–52, and in Royall, Letters from Alabama (1830), pp. 17–19, as recounted by one of Jackson’s subalterns in 1817 to Anne Royall, whom some consider to be the first American woman journalist.

  15.Reid and Eaton, Life (1817), p. 166.

  16.Ibid., pp. 166–67.

  17.Major John Reid, quoted in James, Life of Andrew Jackson (1933), p. 172.

  18.Attributed to Andrew Jackson in Woodward, Woodward’s Reminiscences of the Creek (1939), p. 102.

  19.John Armstrong to James Madison, May 14, 1814.

  20.Andrew Jackson to Rachel Jackson, August 5, 1814.

  21.American State Papers, Military Affairs, vol. 1, p. 379.

  22.Ingersoll, Historical Sketch of the Second War, vol. 1 (1853), pp. 197–200.

  CHAPTER 5: THE BRITISH ON OFFENSE

  1.Crété, Daily Life in Louisiana (1978), p. 61.

  2.Times (London), April 27, 1814.

  3.Albert Gallatin to James Monroe, June 13, 1814.

  4.Henry Clay to James Monroe, August 18, 1814.

  5.Letter fragment of August 13, 1814, cited in James, Life of Andrew Jackson (1933), p. 184. See also letter of August 8, 1814, reprinted in Latour, Historical Memoir (1816, 1999), pp. 184–85.

  6.Andrew Jackson to Robert Butler, August 27, 1814.

  7.Andrew Jackson to William C. C. Claiborne, August 30, 1814.

  8.Andrew Jackson to Robert Butler, August 27, 1814.

  9.Although the story of the Lafitte-Lockyer encounter has been told many times in different ways (including by Lafitte himself many years
later in his less-than-reliable Journal), perhaps the best and most authoritative version appeared shortly after the Battle of New Orleans in Latour, Historical Memoir (1816, 1999), pp. 24ff. See also James, Life of Andrew Jackson (1933) and “Napoleon, Junior” (1927).

  10.Walker, Jackson and New Orleans (1856), p. 41.

  11.Edward Nicholls to Jean Lafitte, August 31, 1814, in Latour, Historical Memoir (1816, 1999), appendix III, pp. 186–87.

  12.Jean Lafitte to Jean Blanque, September 4, 1814, in ibid., appendix V, p. 189.

  13.Jean Lafitte to William C. C. Claiborne, September 4, 1814, in ibid., p. 191.

  CHAPTER 6: JACKSON UNLEASHED

  1.Tatum, “Major H. Tatum’s Journal” (1922), p. 55.

  2.Andrew Jackson to James Monroe, September 17, 1814.

  3.Kouwenhoven and Patten, “New Light on ‘The Star Spangled Banner’” (1937), p. 199.

  4.James Madison, “A Proclamation,” September 1, 1814.

  5.Latimer, 1812: War with America (2007), p. 331.

  6.Andrew Jackson to John Rhea, October 11, 1814.

  7.Andrew Jackson to James Monroe, October 10, 1814.

  8.Reid and Eaton, Life (1817), p. 221.

  9.Charles Cassiday to Andrew Jackson, September 23, 1814.

  10.González Manrique to Andrew Jackson, November 6, 1814.

  11.“From Our Ministers at Ghent,” Niles’ Weekly Register, October 15, 1814.

  12.Adams, Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, vol. 3 (1874), p. 45.

  13.Albert Gallatin to James Monroe, August 20, 1814.

  14.Albert Gallatin to William Crawford, April 21, 1814.

  15.Henry Clay to James Monroe, October 26, 1814, in Papers of Henry Clay, vol. 1 (1959), p. 996.

  16.James Monroe to Andrew Jackson, October 10, 1814.

  CHAPTER 7: TARGET: NEW ORLEANS

  1.Edward Codrington to his wife, November 12, December 10, 1814, quoted in Mahon, “British Command Decisions” (1965), p. 54.

  2.Carter, Blaze of Glory (1971), pp. 87–88.

  3.Alexander F. I. Cochrane to Earl Bathurst, July 14, 1814, reprinted in Crawford, ed., Naval War of 1812 (2002), p. 131.

  4.[Gleig], Narrative of the Campaigns of the British Army (1821), p. 240.

  5.Adams, War of 1812, p. 223.

  6.Andrew Jackson to James Monroe, November 20, 1814.

  7.Andrew Jackson to Rachel Jackson, November 15, 1814. The medicament prescribed was a mix of calomel and the Mexican herbal jalap, which, like other purgatives in a time of primitive medicines, tended to induce vomiting or diarrhea.

  8.Andrew Jackson to Rachel Jackson, February 21, 1814.

  9.Walker, Jackson and New Orleans (1856), p. 13.

  10.Ibid., p. 15.

  11.Reilly, British at the Gates (1974), p. 210.

  12.Hatcher, Edward Livingston (1940), p. 123.

  13.Hunt, Memoir of Mrs. Edward Livingston (1886), pp. 52–53; James, Life of Andrew Jackson (1933), p. 204.

  14.Andrew Jackson to James Brown, February 4, 1815.

  15.Tatum, “Major H. Tatum’s Journal” (1922), pp. 96–97.

  16.Latour, Historical Memoir (1816, 1999), p. 48.

  17.Tatum, “Major H. Tatum’s Journal” (1922), p. 99.

  18.Latour, Historical Memoir (1816, 1999), p. 59.

  CHAPTER 8: LOSING LAKE BORGNE

  1.[Gleig], Narrative of the Campaigns of the British Army (1821), p. 247.

  2.Daniel Patterson to Andrew Jackson, quoted in McClellan, “Navy at the Battle of New Orleans” (1924), p. 2044.

  3.Latour, Historical Memoir (1816, 1999), p. 50.

  4.Andrew Jackson to James Monroe, December 10, 1814.

  5.B. E. Hill, quoted in Latimer, 1812: War with America (2007), p. 376.

  6.Lossing, Pictorial Field-Book of the War of 1812 (1868), p. 1026.

  7.Alexander Cochrane, quoted in Carter, Blaze of Glory (1971), p. 123.

  8.Thomas ap Catesby Jones to Daniel T. Patterson, March 12, 1815, reprinted in Latour, Historical Memoir (1816, 1999), p. 213.

  9.Ibid., p. 214.

  10.Carter, Blaze of Glory (1971), p. 126.

  11.Thomas ap Catesby Jones to Daniel T. Patterson, March 12, 1815, reprinted in Latour, Historical Memoir (1816, 1999), p. 214.

  CHAPTER 9: THE ARMIES ASSEMBLE

  1.Walker, Jackson and New Orleans (1856), p. 153.

  2.Quoted in Parton, Life of Andrew Jackson, vol. 2 (1861), p. 56.

  3.Tatum, “Major H. Tatum’s Journal” (1922), p. 106.

  4.Heaney, Century of Pioneering (1993), p. 380n16.

  5.Andrew Jackson to W. Allen, quoted in Remini, Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Empire (1977), p. 254.

  6.Tatum, “Major H. Tatum’s Journal” (1922), p. 105.

  7.“Jackson’s Address to the Troops in New Orleans,” December 18, 1814.

  8.[Gleig], Narrative of the Campaigns of the British Army (1821), p. 260.

  9.Aitchison, British Eyewitness at the Battle of New Orleans (2004), p. 61.

  10.[Gleig], Narrative of the Campaigns of the British Army (1821), pp. 261–62.

  11.Ibid., p. 262.

  12.Walker, Jackson and New Orleans (1856), pp. 138–39n.

  13.Andrew Jackson to James Monroe, December 27, 1814.

  14.Latour, Historical Memoir (1816), p. 71.

  15.Andrew Jackson to Major Reynolds, December 22, 1814.

  16.Earl Bathurst to Edward Pakenham, October 24, 1814.

  17.Walker, Jackson and New Orleans (1856), p. 111.

  18.Thomas Shields and Robert Morrell to Daniel T. Patterson, January 14, 1815, reprinted in Latour, Historical Memoir (1816, 1999), p. 219.

  19.Keane, “A Journal of the Operations Against New Orleans,” reprinted in Wellington, Supplementary Despatches, vol. 10 (1863), p. 395.

  20.Ibid., p. 397.

  21.[Gleig], Narrative of the Campaigns of the British Army (1821), pp. 277–78.

  22.Walker, Jackson and New Orleans (1856), pp. 150–51; see also James, Life of Andrew Jackson (1933), p. 820n55.

  23.Walker, Jackson and New Orleans (1856), p. 161.

  24.Ibid., p. 157.

  CHAPTER 10: THE FIRST BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS

  1.[Gleig], Narrative of the Campaigns of the British Army (1821), p. 279.

  2.Keane, “A Journal of Operations Against New Orleans,” reprinted in Wellington, Supplementary Despatches, vol. 10 (1863), pp. 396–97.

  3.Parton, Life of Andrew Jackson, vol. 2 (1861), p. 84.

  4.Cooke, Narrative of Events (1835), pp. 190–91.

  5.Ibid.

  6.Ibid.

  7.[Gleig], Narrative of the Campaigns of the British Army (1821), p. 286.

  8.Davis, Pirates Lafitte (2005), pp. 214–15.

  9.[Gleig], Narrative of the Campaigns of the British Army (1821), p. 286.

  10.Walker, Jackson and New Orleans (1856), p. 171.

  11.Latour, Historical Memoir (1816, 1999), p. 83.

  12.Thomson, Historical Sketches of the Late War Between the United States and Great Britain (1817), p. 351.

  13.Cooke, Narrative of Events (1835), p. 195.

  14.[Gleig], Narrative of the Campaigns of the British Army (1821), p. 292.

  15.Quoted in Groom, Patriotic Fire (2006), p. 141.

  16.Ibid., p. 294.

  17.[Gleig], Subaltern in America (1833), p. 219.

  CHAPTER 11: THE DEFENSIVE LINE

  1.Andrew Jackson to William Claiborne, December 24, 1814.

  2.Daniel Patterson to the secretary of the navy, December 29, 1814, reprinted in Latour, Historical Memoir (1816, 1999), p. 233.

  3.H
istorical and Archaeological Investigations at the Chalmette Battlefield (2009), pp. 48–49.

  4.John Donelson, quoted in Parton, Life of Andrew Jackson, vol. 2 (1861), p. 102.

  5.Walker, Jackson and New Orleans (1856), p. 213.

  6.[Gleig], Narrative of the Campaigns of the British Army (1821), pp. 301–2.

  7.Surtees, Twenty-Five Years in the Rifle Brigade (1833), p. 356.

  8.Walker, Jackson and New Orleans (1856), p. 201.

  9.Brands, Andrew Jackson (2005), pp. 272–73.

  10.Cooke, Narrative of Events (1835), p. 203.

  11.Remini, Battle of New Orleans (1999), p. 89.

  12.General Keane to General Pakenham, December 26, 1814, reprinted in James, Full and Correct Account of the Military Occurrences of the Late War, vol. 2 (1818), p. 531.

  13.Walker, Jackson and New Orleans (1856), p. 212.

  14.Dickson, “Artillery Services in North America in 1814 and 1815” (1919), p. 98.

  15.Smith, Autobiography, vol. 1 (1902), p. 228.

  16.Edward Livingston to Andrew Jackson, December 25, 1814.

  17.Walker, Jackson and New Orleans (1856), p. 226.

  18.Ibid., p. 227.

  19.[Gleig], Narrative of the Campaigns of the British Army (1821), p. 309.

  20.Andrew Jackson to John McLean, March 22, 1824.

  21.Latour, Historical Memoir (1816, 1999), p. 12.

  22.Surtees, Twenty-Five Years in the Rifle Brigade (1833), p. 363.

  23.Latour, Historical Memoir (1816, 1999), p. 95.

  24.Reid and Eaton, Life (1817), pp. 326–27.

  25.Smith, Autobiography, vol. 1 (1902), n.p.