After 200 years, city's fighting spirit unchanged

Author Morgan Molthrop at Jackson Square crediting 'the man.'

Many marvel at New Orleans’ miraculous rebirth, having assumed the struggling, honky-tonk Southern city could never revive itself after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. Yet, the Crescent City is looking better than ever with sports and convention industries booming, a vibrant music scene and social innovation outperforming other areas of the country in job growth and economic prosperity.

In a provocative new book, “Andrew Jackson’s Playbook: 15 Strategies for Success,” author Morgan McCall Molthrop examines surprising tactics and innovations that have contributed to the city’s rapid recovery, suggesting that contemporary civic leaders have much in common with U.S. Gen. Andrew Jackson who soundly defeated the “invincible” British Army at the Battle of New Orleans 200 years ago.

Dozens of books have been written about New Orleans’ unique music, culture, and history, but Molthrop analyzes the city’s remarkable resilience from an entirely new perspective. He theorizes that character traits, tactics and determination Gen. Jackson demonstrated in defeating the far better trained British army are the same characteristics that helped catapult the city’s post-Katrina recovery.

By interviewing a wide array of notable local sources, Molthrop juxtaposes events from 1815 with those of 2005, demonstrating unconventional attack plans that achieved improbable victories. Success tips are categorized with military terminology, including shoring up defenses, using guerrilla tactics, acting with bravado and never forgetting the prize. Readers can valuable reap life lessons along with a fascinating history lesson.

Gen. Jackson was a frontier soldier who refused to follow traditional rules of European engagement.

“Pesky Americans refused to fight fair,” Molthrop wrote.

The rough-and-ready American general formed alliances with unscrupulous Baratarian pirates, free men of color, Choctaw Indians, Kaintucks and Creoles, each with singular mettle. Similarly, New Orleans’ post-Katrina revival brought together a motley coalition of business, government and educational leaders, entertainers, tourism and sports promoters – even a Vodou priestess – to cooperate in an entirely new manner.

Both crises called for decisive action and for sidestepping rules. Real estate developer, Pres Kabacoff, for example, saw an urgent demand for loft apartments for returning artists and a Healing Center to create a new social hub. Putting together federal historic tax credits and new market tax credits, he quickly built a nexus.

“All the internal politics and bickering – they are just sideshows to me,” Kabacoff told Molthrop.

With few troops and weapons, Jackson understood the importance of shoring defenses. By buttressing the port of Mobile, he cut off the easiest route for British invasion and forced their ships up the treacherous mouth of the Mississippi.

In 21^st century New Orleans, the underlying defense is music – without which the city could perish. So, entertainers Harry Connick, Jr., Branford Marsalis and Habitat for Humanity teamed up to create Musicians Village, providing homes so musicians could get back into the clubs to perform.

After Katrina, the city needed to jumpstart its economy. New Orleans has always been a city of entrepreneurs “because large corporations won’t headquarter in a place with a poor school system and an annual summer evacuation,” Molthrop wryly commented.

But in 2000, New Orleans turned that hardship into an advantage, founding Idea Village, a startup community with a vision to create “a self-sustaining ecosystem that attracts, supports and retrains entrepreneurial talent.”

Above all, Jackson had the charisma to unite diverse groups and convince them to follow his leadership, pledging to die before surrendering to the British. The general’s team approach solidly defeated the Brit’s top-down command structure, slaughtering more than a thousand British troops in less than an hour.

“He’d beaten the army that had beaten Napoleon,” Molthrop wrote.

“Jackson’s Playbook” was designed not only to reflect on one of the most important battles in U.S. history on its 200^th anniversary, comparing its indomitable military leader to modern leaders, but also to help people understand and manage complex issues in their workplaces, neighborhoods and in their daily lives.

If you think you know the back-story on the War of 1812, “Jackson’s Playbook” provides an entirely new insight into the events and the enduring culture of New Orleans. Offbeat photos and insider perspective on this intriguing city make “Jackson’s Playbook” a fascinating read and guide to life.

History buffs relive critical U.S. battle

Imagine dragging a 2,000-pound cannon, cannon balls, guns and supplies several miles across swampy land (when you have had very little to eat) and then having to fight a battle as the British army did in 1815.  

Military experts say an opposing army needs three times as many soldiers to overcome an entrenched force, but the British general sent just 7,000 troops to fight Maj. Gen. Andrew Jackson’s feisty contingent of 5,400 French, German, English and Choctaw Indians.

“Historians are still trying to come to terms with what happened,” said Ove Jensen, a National Park Service ranger who annually participates in reenactments of the Battle of New Orleans, fought on January 8 in present-day Chalmette.

“The British did not hold the American forces in high regard,” Jensen said.

The less battle-ready Americans surprised them, sustaining 20 casualties while the British lost 2,000 soldiers in less than two hours. (Napoleon had warned against a frontal assault.)

To relive these events, Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve will host the 199^th Anniversary of the Battle of New Orleans, one of the pivotal battles in the War of 1812, on Friday, January 10 and Saturday, January 11, featuring an assortment of military drills, weapon demonstrations, skirmish reenactment and living history demonstrations.

The purpose of the Battle of New Orleans Anniversary is educational, said Kristy Wallisch, a park ranger who coordinates the event.

“We want people to come away with why this battle was important and what sacrifices were made,” she said.

In addition, the Louisiana Institute of Higher Education, supported by the Greater New Orleans Foundation Exxon-Mobil Fund, will present a two-day symposium on Friday, January 10 and Sunday, January 12, examining the finer points of military strategies, international politics and the effects on United States’ history.

More than 100 living history experts will descend upon Chalmette Battlefield to illustrate what Americans might have been doing while waiting for the British to arrive. A sandbar at the mouth of the Mississippi River had forced British ships to approach from Lake Borgne and travel north towards New Orleans over land.

Women, children and soldiers wearing period costumes will provide cooking and craft demonstrations while interacting with park visitors. At various intervals, cannons and muskets will be fired across the field. Visitors are challenged to imagine “a wall of red and a lot of smoke,” Jensen said.

Jackson enlisted every able-bodied man to fight – white, free men of color, Native American and even Jean Lafitte’s Baratarian pirates.

“Initially, Jackson was not enthusiastic about teaming up with a pirate,” Wallisch said. But Lafitte’s men knew how to operate cannons and brought powder and flint.

Choctaw Indians from Louisiana, Mississippi and Oklahoma will be traveling to Chalmette this year to underscore the contributions their ancestors made in turning the tide.

“Because the battlefield is considered sacred ground where blood was spilled, we don’t simulate battles,” said Steve Abolt, U.S. Commander for the Battle of New Orleans Anniversary and a member of the 7^th U.S. Infantry Living History Association. Abolt lives in Georgia, yet returns every year to relive the events.

“I’ve been sleeping on that field 25 years,” he recalled, adding that the ground is always damp.

Many believe that the Battle of New Orleans was unnecessary, since the Treaty of Ghent ending the war was signed on Christmas Eve, but the treaty stated that it was not binding and fighting would continue until the treaty was ratified and final signed copies exchanged.

Americans at the front viewed the important battle this way, Wallisch said: “If we fail, the British will be at my house tomorrow.”

This story originally appeared in the New Orleans Advocate.

Battle of New Orleans reenacted

Today, I learned that had the Americans not won the Battle of New Orleans in the War of 1812, we might all be drinking tea and eating crumpets.

I suppose I once knew this important historic fact and, God knows, I see Gen. Andrew Jackson's statues around New Orleans often enough, but it didn't make that much impact until I was standing right on the battlefield, looking at the Rodriguez Canal where U.S. troops stealthily awaited the Brits.

The British ships approached from Lake Borgne and rowed ashore because it was shallow, which was handy except that there were American soldiers, free men of color and Indians on east and west banks of the Mississippi just waiting for them. (You can tell I have been to the Lafitte Visitor Center.)

Jackson lacked any military experience and had probably been a liberal arts major, but he was apparently a good strategist, so was able to outwit his enemies. Aren't all liberal arts majors witty?

British Gen. John Keane decided to rest at Lacoste's Plantation instead of moving upriver to immediately attack New Orleans, literally spitting distance away. This was a major faux pas. They would have found New Orleanians drinking cafe au lait, making gumbo and voodoo and unable to defend themselves from any kind of assault.

Of course, it's probably best not to siege a city when you are tired, but that pause gave Jackson enough time to align his own troops! On top of that, somebody in the British ranks forgot to bring the ladders! so they couldn't climb up the embankment

The next day, 2000 British soldiers were mowed down by U.S. soldiers helped by sharpshooters from Kentucky and Tennessee. A few  surrendered, but the rest of the British sailed off to attack Mobile. The war was over before they could do anything else and New Orleans was the prize.

All of this took place on Jan. 8, 1914, but it is reenacted every year by school children and adults who enjoy that sort of thing. This year, they'll storm the barricade on Jan. 11.