[111]

Battle of New Orleans
Main article: Battle of New Orleans
Jackson arrived in New Orleans on December 1, 1814.[112] There he instituted martial law because he worried about the loyalty of the city's Creole and Spanish inhabitants. He augmented his force by forming an alliance with Jean Lafitte's smugglers and raising units of free African Americans and Creek,[113] paying non-white volunteers the same salary as whites.[114] This gave Jackson a force of about 5,000 men when the British arrived.[115]

The Battle of New Orleans by Edward Percy Moran (1910).
The British arrived in New Orleans in mid-December.[116] Admiral Cochrane was the overall commander of the operation;[117] General Edward Pakenham commanded the army of 10,000 soldiers, many of whom had served in the Napoleonic Wars.[118] As the British advanced up the east bank of the Mississippi River, Jackson constructed a fortified position to block them.[119] The climactic battle took place on January 8 when the British launched a frontal assault. Their troops made easy targets for the Americans protected by their parapets, and the attack ended in disaster.