During the War of 1812, a final battle between British and American forces took place in New Orleans. This battle took place on January 8th, 1815 and the American forces were led by Andrew Jackson. Despite the fact that the battle was of a major significance in U. S. military history, the British had already signed a peace treaty with the United States called The Treaty of Ghent, which took place in Belgium on December 24th, 1814.

Because of the great distance from Belgium to Louisiana, word would not reach America for several weeks and therefore, neither the British or the Americans knew that the war was over. The two sides gathered up their forces and struck camp in preparation for what would be the final confrontation of the War of 1812.