Some things I would dispute or add:
1. Keane's failure to move on New Orleans was based on his assessment that his troops were exhausted after hauling their equipment and supplies from Lake Borgne to the Mississippi and the fact that Jackson had cavalry in the area and he had none, making reconnaissance towards New Orleans dangerous at best
2. The British would not have made it as far as they did on December 23 if the Villerés had not ignored the order to block their canal. When Major Villeré arrived at Jackson's HQ, Jackson had him arrested for this.
3. Following in Andrew Jackson's footsteps, the author downplays the roles of the Regular troops in the battle. Forensic evidence from the battlefield indicates that the majority of British casualties were inflicted by artillery fire, most of which came from Regular artillery and naval guns salvaged from the USS Carolina and crewed by sailors. The Baratarians' contribution was a single battery; Lafitte's stores of gunpowder and musket flints were much more important.
The assault on Redoubt #1 was repulsed largely by the 7th US Infantry. Beale's rifles only numbered around 36 men, the other half of the unit having wandered into the British camp on December 23 and been captured.
4. The War of 1812 did not end on February 11, 1815. It ended on February 16, 1815, when the Treaty of Ghent was ratified by the US Senate. The author, having called New Orleans the battle "after the war was over", doesn't address the fact that the war was not, in fact, over.
Herewith endeth the lesson.
LT
returns to Flintloque to paint an Ogre.
