Andrew Jackson and the Miracle of New Orleans - Brian Kilmeade

The War of 1812 saw America threatened on every side.  Encouraged by the British, Indian tribes attacked settlers in the West, while the Royal Navy terrorized the coasts.  By mid-1814, President James Madison's generals had lost control of the war in the North, losing battles in Canada.  Then British troops set the White House ablaze, and a feeling of hopelessness spread across the country. Into this dire situation stepped Major General Andrew Jackson.  A native of Tennessee who had witnessed the horrors of the Revolutionary War and Indian attacks, he was glad America had finally decided to confront repeated British aggression.  But he feared that President Madison's men were overlooking the most important targe of all, New Orleans. If the British conquered New Orleans, they would control the mouth of the Mississippi River, cutting Americans off from that essential trade route and threatening the previous decade's Louisiana Purchase.  The new nation's dreams of western expansion would