The American Minute: Battle of New Orleans – Andrew Jackson “…the unerring hand of Providence shielded my men from the shower of balls, bombs, and rockets…”

500 men, women and children were massacred at Fort Mims, Alabama, just north of Mobile, on August 30, 1813, by the Red Stick Creek Indians.The British government supplied guns to these frontier terrorists.

Indians had been incited to riot and attack by rumors circulating that the British were paying cash for American scalps.

It was the largest Indian massacre in American history.

Colonel Andrew Jackson was sent to fight the Red Stick Creek Indians and defeated them at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, March 27, 1814.

The defeated Creeks ceded nearly half of Alabama to the U.S. Government.

Promoted to General, Andrew Jackson was sent 150 miles west to defend New Orleans from the British.

Though the War of 1812 was effectively over two weeks earlier with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent, December 24, 1814, news had not yet reached New Orleans.

On January 8, 1815, in the last battle of the War of 1812, nearly 10,000 battle-hardened British soldiers advanced under cover of dark, heavy fog.

They were intending to execute a surprise attack on General Andrew Jackson’s Tennessee and Kentucky sharpshooters, aided by French pirate Jean Lafitte and his men.

As the British neared, the fog suddenly lifted and the British were exposed in the open field.

The Americans opened fire.

Immediately, the commanding British officers were shot and the British forces were in confusion.

In the next half an hour, 2,042 British were killed or wounded.

Only 13 Americans were killed.

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Considered the greatest American land victory of the war, General Andrew Jackson wrote to Robert Hays, January 26, 1815, regarding the Battle of New Orleans:

“It appears that the unerring hand of Providence shielded my men from the shower of balls, bombs, and rockets, when every ball and bomb from our guns carried with them a mission of death.”

General Jackson told his aide-de-camp Major Davezac of his confidence before the Battle:

“I was sure of success, for I knew that God would not give me previsions of disaster, but signs of victory. He said this ditch can never be passed. It cannot be done.”

Andrew Jackson wrote to Secretary of War James Monroe, February 17, 1815:

“Heaven, to be sure, has interposed most wonderfully in our behalf, and I am filled with gratitude, when I look back to what we have escaped.”

The Treaty of Ghent was ratified by the U.S. Senate, February 16, 1815.

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The British had considered capturing Mobile, Alabama, but on February 26, 1815, Napoleon escaped from the Island of Elba and was reassembling his vast French army of 300,000.

All British troops had to immediately return to Europe to join the 68,000 strong force under Britain’s Duke of Wellington, together with the 50,000 troops under Prussian commander Gebhard von Blücher.

For the next one hundred days, events in Europe cascaded toward the massive Battle of Waterloo, where Napoleon was defeated and soon banished to the tiny Island of St. Helena in the South Atlantic.

Thankful that America maintained its independence during this time of global crisis, President James Madison proclaimed, March 4, 1815:

“…A day may be recommended to be observed by the people of the United States with religious solemnity as a Day of Thanksgiving and of Devout Acknowledgments to Almighty God for His great goodness manifested in restoring to them the blessing of peace.

No people ought to feel greater obligations to celebrate the goodness of the Great Disposer of Events and of the Destiny of Nations than the people of the United States.

His kind providence originally conducted them to one of the best portions of the dwelling place allotted for the great family of the human race.

He protected and cherished them under all the difficulties and trials to which they were exposed in their early days.

Under His fostering care their habits, their sentiments, and their pursuits prepared them for a transition in due time to a state of independence and self-government.

In the arduous struggle by which it was attained they were distinguished by multiplied tokens of His benign interposition.

During the interval which succeeded He reared them into the strength and endowed them with the resources which have enabled them to assert their national rights and to enhance their national character in another arduous conflict, which is now so happily terminated by a peace and reconciliation with those who have been our enemies.

And to the same Divine Author of Every Good and Perfect Gift we are indebted for all those privileges and advantages, religious as well as civil, which are so richly enjoyed in this favored land.

It is for blessings such as these, and more especially for the restoration of the blessing of peace, that I now recommend that the second Thursday in April next

be set apart as a day on which the people of every religious denomination may in their solemn assemblies unite their hearts and their voices in a freewill offering to their Heavenly Benefactor of their homage of thanksgiving and of their songs of praise.

Given at the city of Washington on the fourth of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifteen, and of the independence of the United States the thirty-ninth. James Madison.”