The Search for the Lost Riverfront: Historical and Archeological Investigations at the Chalmette Battlefield, Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve: Parts I and II
Birkedal T (ed). 2009. The Search for the Lost Riverfront: Historical and Archeological Investigations at the Chalmette Battlefield, Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve: Parts I and II. National Park Service
This report presents the results of archival and archeological investigations undertaken by the National Park Service on behalf of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The study site is the Chalmette Unit of Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve, a small Park Service area located in St. Bernard Parish near the eastern edge of the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. Originally established as an independent national monument in 1939, the Chalmette Unit commemorates and preserves the core battlefield where American and British troops clashed during the Battle of New Orleans at the end of the War of 1812. From this engagement, the United States emerged as the clear victor, and although the battle was fought after the official close of the war, it had a major and lasting effect on the course of American history. The victory launched Andrew Jackson on his rise to the presidency, reaffirmed the claims of the United States to the Louisiana Territory, and gave the American people the military confidence to determine their own destiny in world affairs and follow future directions that were largely independent of Europe's shifting power structure and political turmoil (Coles 1965:236, 270-271; Remini 1969:91; Owsley 1981:178, 194-195).