The deciding battle of the War of 1812, the Battle of New Orleans, was won by the Americans on January 8, 1815, a few scant weeks after the British and American negotiators signed the Treaty of Ghent that ended the war, at least on paper. Assessed from that perspective, it might be regarded as an unnecessary battle of no importance, but nothing could be further from the truth.

Had the British triumphed, it’s likely that they would have exploited their victory by maintaining control of New Orleans and the Mississippi River. The vast expanse of lands sold by Napoleon Bonaparte to Thomas Jefferson in the Louisiana Purchase might have been restored to its original realm, Spain, thereby cutting off the young American nation from westward expansion. Had Great Britain conquered New Orleans, the British would have held a position of dominance on the North American continent; the United States as we know it today might never have reached its status as a world power had its boundaries been tethered by the British.

But the British did not win. Instead, the Battle of New Orleans bequeathed to the Americans a destiny which would rival anything the Founding Fathers could have imagined.

Matthew J. Chandler-Smith

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