January 8th: Today in 1815 an American Army under Andrew Jackson beat a British Army under Sir Edward Pakenham at the Battle of New Orleans. The battle in many ways reads like a replay of the Battle of Bunker Hill with over confident British troops directly assaulting dug in American forces but unlike Bunker Hill the American lines held and the British were repulsed as well as taking massive casualties. The Wikipedia account above is good, but my favorite account is still the Johnny Horton one I grew up on. Who wouldn’t be inspired by:

We fired our cannon ’til the barrel melted down.
So we grabbed an alligator and we fought another round.
We filled his head with cannon balls, and powdered his behind
And when we touched the powder off, the gator lost his mind.

Sometimes the classic accounts are the best.

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