-that
remarkable battle that gloriously ended the War of 1812, and restored
the national pride and honor so sorely wounded by the fall of
Washington--celebrates the event in the chief cities of the United
States.

During our second clash of arms with England, the Creek War, wherein the
red man met his doom, brought Jackson's name into prominence. At one
bound, as it were, he sprang from comparative obscurity into renown.

In 1814 he was appointed a major general in the United States army, and
established his headquarters at Mobile. He repulsed the English at Fort
Bowyer, on Mobile Point, and awaited orders from Washington to attack
them at Pensacola, where, through the sympathy of the Spaniards who were
then in possession of the Florida peninsula, they had their base of
operations.

Receiving no orders from Washington, he became impatient of delay, and
upon his own responsibility marched his troops against Pensacola and put
the British to flight. "This," says Sumner, "was the second great step
in the war in the Southwest."

Washington had been captured and her principal public buildings burned,
and New Orleans, the Crescent City, would now, it was thought, be the
next point of attack by the British.

To New Orleans, therefore, "to defend a defenseless city, which had
neither fleets nor forts, means nor men," came Jackson.

His entrance into the city was quiet and unostentatious and so devoid of
the pomp and pageantry of a victorious general as to cause question in
the minds of some as to whether or not this was the man expected. His
dress was plain in the extreme, and bore upon it no insignia of rank;
yet those there were, of insight, who saw in his every aspect the man of
power.

From eye and posture and gesture emanated a certain indefinable force
that attracted men to him, and created in them an enthusiasm for his
cause. Old and young who came under his influence were ready to do his
bidding.

To the terrified women and children of New Orleans who appealed to him
for protection from the enemy, he replied:--

"The British shall not enter the city except over my dead body."

His words and his presence inspired confidence. And when his flag was
run up above his headquarters in Royal Street a sense of security was
felt by the inhabitants.

The conditions about him, however, were far from promising, and to a
less determined spirit than that of Jackson would have been appalling.

The troops under him were f