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

by Brian Kilmeade

Finally, on March 15, 1813, a much-anticipated letter from the War Department arrived—only to humiliate and infuriate Jackson and his men, who had sacrificed their time, their money, and, in some cases, their lives to travel to defend New Orleans. As a result of America’s many failures early in the war, General John Armstrong had replaced William Eustis as secretary of war in January, and Armstrong had decided to upend all of Eustis’s strategy. “On receipt of this Letter,” General Armstrong had written, “consider [your corps] as dismissed from public service.”9 Armstrong’s focus would not be on the South but on the East Coast, where he thought the greatest jeopardy lay. At first Jackson was confused about the missive’s meaning. Could Armstrong really be telling him to disband his army and