Andrew Jackson and the Miracle of New Orleans: The Battle That Shaped America's Destiny

by Brian Kilmeade

At the Hermitage, Andrew Jackson lived the life of a recluse, old and infirm, rarely leaving home and avoiding public appearances. He and his family worried that a simple cold—and the accompanying cough—could endanger his life. Yet the general’s old determination still burned and, in December 1839, he decided that neither his fragile health nor his straitened finances could be allowed to stand in the way of a trip to New Orleans for the silver jubilee.

If Jackson had had his way, he would have been accompanied by Rachel, but the stresses of the 1828 election a dozen years earlier had cost him dearly. So many insults were cast at both husband and wife that Rachel remarked to a friend just before ballots were cast, “I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of God than live in that palace in Washington.” Just days after the close of the hard-fought electoral battle, Rachel Jackson was indeed summoned by her Lord, stricken with an intense pain in her left arm, shoulder, and chest. Suddenly, the president-elect was in mourning for the love of his life.

He saved not only New Orleans from the British but preserved the Union.

With the celebrations in New Orleans concluded, Jackson returned to his stateroom aboard the Vicksburg and the steamship began its voyage upstream. Back at the Hermitage, Jackson would live five more years before dying quietly, on June 8, 1845.

His legacy was large and, like the War of 1812 and the Battle of New Orleans, subject to debate. Saving New Orleans made Andrew Jackson a national hero and, with his nation still mourning George Washington, Jackson inherited the great man’s mantle. General Washington led the first fight with the British—but Andrew Jackson’s success at New Orleans preserved his nation’s hard-fought independence.