War has played a key role in the history of the United States, from the nation's founding

right down to the present. War made the U.S. independent, kept it together, increased its

size, and established it as a global superpower. Understanding America's wars is essential for understanding American history.

Welcome to Key Battles of American History,

a podcast in which we discuss American history through the lens of the most important battles of America's wars.

Here is your host, James Early.

Thank you. your host, James Early. Hello and welcome back to Key Battles of the War of 1812.

This is your host, James Early, as always.

In our last episode, which was really more of a mini episode, Steve and I talked about

some political and economic developments that were going on behind the scenes as the battles were

going on in the year 1814. Now we're going to go back and resume the military narrative.

So the British, as I mentioned last time, are, they've been reinforced by troops that have

been fighting on the continent from Europe.

They've been fighting the French.

And they are kind of fed up with the Americans.

They're tired of always playing D defense.

So they're going to go on the offense some more. They'd already gone on the offense in the north. Now they're going to take

the war to the south. They're going to bring the war to some people that hadn't really seen

any fighting up until this time, at least not against the British. So the title of this episode is

the Gulf Coast campaign and the Battle of New Orleans.

And as I have been throughout the series, I am joined by my good buddy, Steve Guerra, the host of

the history of the papacy podcast, as well as Beyond the Big Screen podcast. Steve, you're ready to go

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