d for the
British to make an assault. This the invaders did, five thousand
strong, on January 8, 1815. The fighting was hard, but the main attack
failed at every point. Three British major generals, including
Pakenham, were killed early in the action, and the total British loss
exceeded two thousand. The American loss was but seventy-one. The
shattered foe fell back, lay inactive for ten days, and then quietly
withdrew as they had come. Though Jackson was not noted for piety, he
always believed that his success on this occasion was the work of
Providence. "Heaven, to be sure," he wrote to Monroe, "has interposed
most wonderfully in our behalf, and I am filled with gratitude when I
look back to what we have escaped."

By curious irony, the victory had no bearing upon the formal results
of the war. A treaty of peace had been signed at Ghent two weeks
before, and the news of the pacification and of the exploit at New
Orleans reached the distracted President at almost the same time. But
who shall say that the battle was not one of the most momentous in
American history? It compensated for a score of humiliations suffered
by the country in the preceding years. It revived the people's
drooping pride and put new energy into the nation's dealings with its
rivals, contributing more than any other single event to make this war
indeed a "second war of independence." "Now," declared Henry Clay when
the news reached him in Paris, "I can go to England without
mortification." Finally, the battle brought Andrew Jackson into his
own as the idol and incarnation of the West, and set the western
democracy decisively forward as a force to be reckoned with in
national affairs.

CHAPTER III

THE "CONQUEST" OF FLORIDA

The victory at New Orleans made Jackson not only the most popular man
in the United States but a figure of international interest.
"Napoleon, returning from Elba to eke out the Hundred Days and add the
name Waterloo to history, paused now and then a moment to study
Jackson at New Orleans. The Duke of Wellington, chosen by assembled
Europe to meet the crisis, could find time even at Brussels to call
for 'all available information on the abortive expedition against
Louisiana.'"[3]

While his countrymen were sounding his praises, the General, however,
fell into a controversy with the authorities and people of New Orleans
which lent a drab aspect to the closing scene of an otherwise
brilliant drama. One of his first