I cannot speak sufficiently in praise of the firmness and deliberation with which my whole line received their approach . . . —Andrew Jackson, New Orleans, 1815, Panel 25, 1956, Inscription unassessed, Jacob Lawrence, from Struggle: From the History of the American People, 1954–56, Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross, © 2019 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
After winning the Battle of New Orleans, Andrew Jackson wrote of the skill and valor of his ad hoc army. Jackson’s diverse militia held off the British approach, but their triumph was largely in vain. Just weeks prior, the United States and the United Kingdom had signed the Treaty of Ghent to end the war, but the news had not yet reached America.
Excerpt from Letter from Andrew Jackson to Robert Hays, February 17, 1815, Andrew Jackson Papers, 1775-1874, Manuscript/Mixed Material, Library of Congress
In my encampment, every thing was ready for action—when, early on the morning of the 8th, the enemy, after throwing a heavy shower of bombs and Congreve rockets, advanced their columns on my right and left, to storm my intrenchments. I cannot speak sufficiently in praise of the firmness, and deliberation, with which my whole line received their approach—more could not have been expected from veterans, inured to war.
This illustration in one of Lawrence’s source books depicts the Battle of New Orleans. In the right foreground, British troops advance along the Mississippi River into American trenches filled with bayonets.