First published 1999
Robert Remini chronicles the 1815 battle that transformed America's place in the world. His account opens with Britain's veteran troops, fresh from defeating Napoleon, crossing Louisiana waters in a Gulf storm to face what they assumed would be easy prey. Instead they met Andrew Jackson, the gaunt frontiersman his men called "Old Hickory," commanding an unlikely coalition of militia, pirates, free blacks, Creoles, Choctaw warriors, and Tennessee sharpshooters. Remini draws on his National Book Award winning expertise to bring alive the swashbuckling pirate Jean Lafitte, the proud British General Pakenham, the agile marksmen who picked off sentries by night, and the partying New Orleans residents who refused to black out their lamps. The author shows how Jackson's stunning victory over Britain's crack forces proved American sovereignty to the world and launched a poor orphan boy toward the presidency. This coalition of dissidents marching to "Yankee Doodle" and "La Marseillaise" forged former colonies into a true nation.
Genres: historical, 20th-century, american, military-history, 19th-century, american-history
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, thought-provoking
Tropes: historical-figures, underdog
Setting: Louisiana, New Orleans
Period: 1815
224 pages · Hardcover · Viking Adult