By late 1814, it was clear that America was not winning the War
of 1812. Washington, including the Capitol and the White House,
was in ashes. New Englanders were so demoralized that they were
considering secession. When British troops, hardened from
battling Napoleon, set sail for Louisiana, some feared that
America might not be able to hold on to its recent acquisition.
Into the national gloom, however, light broke. On January 8,
1815, a major general from Tennessee named Andrew Jackson
stopped the British from taking New Orleans. The battle lasted
less than two hours, but more than two thousand British soldiers
were killed or wounded, compared with only a few dozen
Americans. The victory had almost no practical effect. Although
the news hadn’t yet reached the Western Hemisphere, British and
American representatives had negotiated peace, on Christmas Eve
at the Treaty of Ghent, restoring the pre-war territorial
boundaries. Nonetheless, Jackson’s victory was a public-
relations triumph. It “restored and inflam