of robert f. kennedy, acknowledging the 50th anniversary of his assassination. live on c-span3. the chalmettet battlefield, the site of the battle of new orleans. up next, we look at the very last ground battle of the war of 1812. >> the battle of new orleans was the battle but between the american forces and great britain as part of 1812. it was the last ground battle between the u.s. and great britain, the last place where the two armies came together on land. we are at the show met metteefield -- chal battlefield. back in 1815, this would have been the heart of the city, new orleans, there. it is located in st. bernard parish, a little ways outside the city proper.

the ground assault that we call the battle of new orleans started on january 8, 1815 and it would be about five weeks after when the battle officially ended or when the war officially ended. new orleans was a very important target for the british for a couple reasons. first, it is right along the mississippi river. it was the first city that controlled all of the trade and vessels coming in and out of the gulf of mexico and because of this hub of trading, new orleans has always been very important and the british figured if they could capture that, they control that trade, and if you could control the trade of a country, you could help determine that outcome as well. there are so many important people out here that helped dictate what would happen on the british side. it really includes people like general packing him who

eventually becomes the commander of the entire ground assault out here. he is the brother of the duke of wellington. he's got a lot of clout in the british circle there. there's also admiral cochrane, who not necessarily was here, but was in command of the overall assault force, 15,000 troops, that the british have. on the american side, the most famous will be andrew jackson who commanded the u.s. gulf forces at the time. you also have people like joseph, a refugee from the haitian revolution who puts together almost three to 50 men -- almost 260 free men of color to put together a battalion there. it is generally accepted that there were somewhat around 4000 american troops. it was overwhelming, the british compared to the americans. the british were professional soldiers. they had been fighting in

europe. as for the american troops, three quarters war men who do not have any experience. so the first conflict between u.s. forces and american forces happened on december 23. jackson found out from gabriel valerie -- who jumped out of the plantation house and ran all the way back to new orleans to tell jackson the british it landed. when jackson hears this, he calls out his famous line "by the eternal, they shall not sleep on our soil." it was a very confusing time. it is dark and a lot of the americans do not know each other as well as the british soldiers did. this is also one of the points where the cavalry and the

choctaw american indians fighting out here really played a massively significant part. they used to be cover of darkness and their ability to move through the landscape to really cause some confusion with the british. for the americans, they were not able to push the british out. jackson ended up forced to fully richard reid -- fully were trait of the british re-think about attacking very quickly. the casualties that they incurred on the day may be british way for more troops to arrive, which gave jackson time to prepare defenses for the city. jackson was in a couple of different places. prior to his knowledge of where the british landed he actually

stayed on real and the french quarter. then he comes to stay at a plantation house. it would have been similar to the house on the property -- but jackson's headquarters burned down in a fire in the late -- late 1800s. it did have the same style of dormer windows he used to look out and survey the entire battlefield, to figure out where he would build his defenses and what the british were doing. when the british decided to launch the ground assault of january 8, they actually launch a pretty complicated three-pronged assault. the reason this spot was picked by jackson to make the defense is it is so narrow. it is one of the narrowest chunks of ground between the swap in the river all the way into the city, which helped jackson concentrate his small forces, negating some of the british's superior motives.

he had a rampart, a wall like fortification created right along the rodriguez canal. the canal gets dug out to eight feet wide, 15 feet deep and the rampart wall is created as well to 15 feet wide and 18 feet tall, which provides a long fortification the men can stand behind. this is a re-creation of the rampart wall. it is similar in terms of construction, although it is a little bit short. it would have been closer to eight the tall and the side facing the british would have been heavily sloped to allow cannonballs to deflect off of it more easily. eventually the british heard that this area of the rampart would be the weakest part of the defensive line, so they tried to flank the side and take out the artillery that was causing problems for the british. unfortunately for the british, jackson had been warned by pure lafitte -- pierre lafitte that he should extend the rampart and it gets extended into the swamp. instead of being the weakest part of the line, it becomes one

of the strongest, and the british really are not prepared for how deep and difficult it is to move through swamp. they end up taking massive casualties there. the second line of defense by the british is near the levy side and the plan there was to take ladders and big bundles of sugarcane sticks from the nearby plantation -- they would have taken those sticks and thrown them into the canal and laid a ladder right on top of the ramparts so they could swarm over the top and overwhelm the canons there, which were, again, causing so many casualties. on the day of the attack, the man in charge of bringing those, colonel molden of the 44th regiment, did not bring them. they end up getting bottlenecked

on the levy side and the british take massive casualties there as well. the third line of attack -- we can see from where we are -- but jackson had a set of cannons whose entire point was to shoot the british battlefield. they thought if they could capture those cannons, they could turn them on to the american line. they do attack those -- they do capture those, but it's about two hours too late. the main battle was over by that point. the losses were pretty massive

for the british. they had about 2000 casualties out of the entire army of about 7000. the americans have less than 20. it was a very decisive victory out there, perhaps one of the most decisive x-rays of the war of 1812. so the treaty of ghent was the official treaty that ended the war of 1812. it is a complicated situation. most treaties, once they are negotiated, the wars and. -- the wars end. they have to bring it back to congress and the president to get approval. the british said it needed to be ratified in parliament and congress before hostilities could end. the treaty had been signed, negotiated about three weeks prior to the battle of new orleans, but it was not official until about five weeks later. it's in this time when the determination of what is going to happen has already happened. after the battle of new orleans, there were a few long-lasting of facts, with the first being how americans felt about themselves. for many people there was this national binding, unifying event that took place. in fact, we called the time after the battle of new orleans the era of good feelings.

this billing does not last for long time. by 1819, we are back to these facts most politics that happen. but it does bring people together being americans first. it does solidify the area from the louisiana purchase, which has negative effects as well. it allows us to expand further west, which allows us to get into conflict with more native american tribes. it also allows the expansion of slavery. new orleans was a major hub for the slave trade and by protecting it from the british, they really increase the amount of slavery that happened in the united states. so, andrew jackson, already known as a military man in the creek wars prior to this battle, but this throws him into such popularity he is able to win the presidency in 1828. andrew jackson the man and andrew jackson the general -- if you had said anything bad about andrew jackson's politics it was inferred you are talking about the man himself, and therefore the country. it's this battle where he gains one of his next -- one of his nicknames. he was already known as old hickory. here is where he gets the nickname of "the hero of new orleans" that sticks with him

until he dies. one thing i like people to take away is this idea of how small the chunk of ground is has a lot of long-lasting effects across the nation. the men fighting here were fighting for all different reasons. but the reasons they were fighting overlapped enough that they were able to go to the city and some of the battle of new orleans in the american population. >> our cities tour staff recently traveled to new orleans to learn about its rich history. learn more about new orleans and other stops on our tour at c-span.org/cities tour. you're watching american history tv all weekend, every weekend, on c-span3. >> dwight pitcaithley is a

former national park service chief historian and editor of "the u.s. constitution and secession." next, he offers an analysis of the 67 constitutional amendments considered by congress right before the outbreak of the the civil war that sought to address the secession crisis. the ulysses s. grant national historic site in st. louis posted this talk. one-hour dwightto introduce dr. pitcaithley -- he is kind of a rock star for us. teaches attired, he new mexico state university, teaches about history and civil war history and he had a book that came out this week, "the u.s. constitution and