If you don’t know history, the ship seemed like an odd duck.
The Iwo Jima-class amphibious assault ships served from the 1960’s up into the 1990’s (I spent four-and-a-half years on the class’s namesake, the Iwo Jima). They were carriers for helicopters and the occasional VTOL (Vertical Take-Off and Landing) aircraft. They worked in recovering the Apollo capsules, including the ill-fated Apollo-13. They supported relief efforts and evacuations. Their primary purpose, though, was to transport and support US Marines.
Like a lot of the different classes of amphibious assault ships, the Iwo Jima-class ships were named exclusively after battles from Marine Corps history – Inchon, Saipan, Tripoli, Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, etc. But one of them always stood out - LPH-11, the USS New Orleans.
Like I said, if you don’t know history, that seems out of place in that list. But it's not.
Read on . . .
Today is the 200th anniversary of the Battle of New Orleans, the last major battle of the War of 1812, when American forces under the command of Andrew Jackson repelled British invaders intent on taking the city, despite being outnumbered more than two-to-one (and despite the fact that the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the war, had already been signed the previous Christmas – though the combatants wouldn’t know that until February).
The Battle of New Orleans was actually a series of military actions, which ran from December 23rd (the day before the treaty would be signed, ironically) until the last and largest battle on January 8th, 1815. It started with a skirmish at Lacoste Plantation, where General John Keane and 1,800 British troops had made the grievous mistake of waiting for reinforcements instead of marching the nine unobstructed miles to city. Once Jackson got wind of their presence, he launched a night attack on the camping British troops with some 2,100 men. The British held their ground, but the attack left them even more hesitant to proceed against the city without more reinforcements - they wouldn't make a move on the city until New Year's Day, when the main force arrived.
With that respite, Jackson was able to set up earthworks along the canal and install eight artillery batteries. By the time the main British force struck, under the command of General Edward Pakenham, the city was prepared. After three hours of exchanging artillery fire, Pakenham finally withdrew and decided to wait for his entire force - 11,000 men - who assembled on January 8th for a final assault. Jackson faced them with about 4,700 men (including 58 Marines from the New Orleans Navy Yard - hence, the USS New Orleans).
Nothing much went right for the British. Colonel Thornton was supposed to take almost 800 men across the Mississippi River to attack the American batteries from the flank, but a plan to divert water into a canal failed, forcing them to drag their boats to the river - a delay of some 12 hours. The heavy fog of the morning suddenly lifted, exposing British troops to pounding American guns. In the British charges, many of the senior officers - including Pakenham himself, as well as his second-in-command - were quickly killed, leaving the British troops in disarray and under heavy fire until one of the remaining Generals could take charge and order a withdrawal. By the time it was over, British casualties, including the wounded and missing, were almost 30 times that of their American counterparts.
There were little skirmishes afterward, along the Gulf Coast (chiefly around Mobile), but the British never threatened New Orleans again. Then, in about mid-February, word of the treaty finally reached them, and they set sail for their base in the West Indies. That was the end of the War of 1812.
The ship is gone now – decommissioned in 1997, the USS New Orleans was sunk on July 10th, 2010, about 70 miles north-west of the Hawaiian island of Kauai. Another ship bears the name today (LPD-18), but like the three ships that had come before LPH-11, it’s named for the city, not the battle. But the battle has no shortage of remembrances.
That’s why, today, the US Marine Corps band will play in Jackson Square, and there will be fireworks over the Mississippi, and they will lay wreaths at Chalmette Battlefield, and the Ursuline nuns will keep a two-century promise to sing a Mass of Thanksgiving to Our Lady of Prompt Succor each year on this day.
Because today was the day the Great City held, and that's worth remembering.