A Valentine's Day Trip To The Battle of New Orleans

A map from the book, The British at the Gates - The New Orleans Campaign in The War of 1812 by Robin Reilly shows where we visited today, February 14, 2009 - Happy Valentine's Day in the Big Easy! The link to the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park - Chalmette Battlefield (Battle of New Orleans) is here. The National Cemetery adjacent to the battlefield is still closed due to damage from Hurricane Katrina.

After touring the battlefield, we stopped outside Jackson Barracks -- today it was Jim & Cathy at the Gates, not the British. This link (large file) describes efforts to save artifacts at the Jackson Barracks museum and pictures of the devastation inflicted by Hurricane Katrina (the Barracks are located about 3 miles west of Chalmette and closer to downtown New Orleans). The reconstruction of Jackson Barracks is projected to become completed in January 2010.


Some of our pre-Katrina pictures taken at Jackson Barracks (also the above picture):












Compare our pre-Katrina picture of General Pershing's staff car with the picture included in the link regarding the rescue of artifacts (including the car).