America's most surprising military victory was also a win over prejudice

Two hundred years ago today, on January 8, 1815, the Battle of New Orleans ended with dramatic casualty numbers: 71 Americans vs. 2,042 British soldiers. You may know the basics, but probably never heard about the importance of U.S. Gen. Andrew Jackson’s beliefs.

The battle displayed Jackson’s emphasis on performance over religious and racial bias. He ignored the objections of local officials and welcomed into a scraped-together army the pirate Jean Lafitte (part-French, part-Jewish, part-Haitian, all-trouble) and his corsair followers. Lafitte’s men and cannon were much needed, and Jackson believed God could redeem even buccaneers.

Jackson worked to raise black battalions from among the freemen of New Orleans. When a paymaster refused to pay the new recruits, Jackson told him to obey orders and “keep to yourself your opinions.” Jackson spoke of the African-Americans’ “intelligent minds and love of honor” and told them he would not tolerate racially based “improper comparisons or unjust sarcasm.”

His theology was also in evidence. During the weeks leading up to the battle, while others panicked at the thought of fighting British regulars who had defeated Napoleon, Jackson prayed ardently and told others to fight without fear because “the unerring hand of Providence” is always active amid the “shower of Balls, bombs, and Rockets.”

Jackson’s preparations and British arrogance combined to produce a one-sided U.S. victory of the kind Henry V achieved at Agincourt 400 years earlier (Oct. 25, 1415) and American forces won in the Persian Gulf campaign of 1991. One difference: U.S. forces in the latter campaign had the advantages of superior technology and training, but the British had the edge in those areas two centuries ago. They also had more soldiers, 7,000 against the Americans’ 4,000, but they erred in marching tightly against earthworks defended by Jackson’s rifles and pirate cannon.

“Heaven, to be sure, has interposed more wonderfully in our behalf, and I am filled with gratitude,” Jackson wrote to Secretary of State James Monroe after the victory. Ironically, the battle occurred after the peace treaty ending the War of 1812. News of the Dec. 24, 1814, agreement had not made it to New Orleans. But the battle was not in vain: London got the message, and a third war between England and its former colonies never occurred.

Besides, the battle also led to a song by Johnny Horton that made it to No. 1 on the pop chart on April 27, 1959:

In 1814 we took a little trip Along with Colonel Jackson down the mighty Mississip We took a little bacon and we took a little beans And we caught the bloody British in a town in New Orleans.

We fired our guns and the British kept a-comin’ There wasn’t nigh as many as there was a while ago We fired once more and they begin to runnin’ On down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.