The Glorious Eighth of January
"Following the Civil War, public enthusiasm for the Battle’s anniversary diminished as the number of
surviving veterans of 1815 declined and New Orleans coped with the struggles of Reconstruction"
January 8th, marks the anniversary of the Battle of New Orleans. On the plain of Chalmette, Louisiana, Andrew Jackson and a mixed force of U.S. troops, including volunteer militia from Tennessee, Kentucky, Louisiana and the Mississippi Territory, free blacks, Creoles, Native Americans, and even a band of pirates, held back a larger, better trained and better equipped British force. Against all expectations, Jackson and his troops protected New Orleans from the very same empire that had just defeated Napoleon’s forces in Europe. The victory catapulted Jackson to national fame and made him one of the earliest heroes of the young United States. The first half of the 19th century was therefore truly the golden age for the battle’s anniversary, when people gathered and frolicked in the city as they would on any holiday, and the history of the annual celebrations during this time is arguably as compelling as the history of the battle itself.
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