Podcast 64 – Battle of New Orleans – On the West Bank
Host Stephen Hales explores the pivotal events of the Battle of New Orleans on January 8, 1815, on the Mississippi River's West Bank.
22 Apr 2026TRANSCRIPT
Podcast 63 – The Allard Plantation
Podcast 63 presents the Allard Plantation, now New Orleans City Park.
The Allard Plantation
The land along Bayou St. John, from Lake Pontchartrain to the “Great Portage” attracted members of Bienville’s exploration party from the first trips they made to what would be their Crescent City colony. While most of the French worked to establish the city, a few individuals broke off, heading back up the bayou, living with the indigenous. Small shacks evolve into farms, eventually becoming full plantations by the time of Spanish control.
One of those farms that becomes a plantation was owned by the Allard family. It’s the origin story of our beloved City Park.
The Podcast
PDF Here (https://nolahistoryguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/allard_plantation_20260406.pdf)
Early French Explorers
Spanish and American Maps
flipped
The Oaks — Suicide, Dueling, and Singing
Suicide Oak
Dueling Oak
Singing Oak
City Park
New Orleans City Park by Catherine Campanella
book
8 Apr 2026
Podcast 62 – Battle of New Orleans (for Walking Tour Guides)
This is the podcast version of the lecture I presented on the Battle to the Friends of the Cabildo WTG 2026.
Podcast 62 – Battle of New Orleans (for Walking Tour Guides)
I had the pleasure of presenting to the Friends of the Cabildo’s Walking Tour Guide class of 2026 last month, on the Battle of New Orleans. The talk lasted about 50 minutes, plus questions. As a pod, it’s a bit longer, since we’re not on the tight schedule.
Condensed presentation
The audience for this talk was very specific: streetwalkers! As such, there’s not a lot related to the battle that relates directly to a French Quarter Walking Tour. Still, it’s one of the most significant events in the American period of the history of the city. So, while we didn’t want to go too deep into the military tactics and such, some basics should be in the back of the guide’s head.
The Podcast
PDF of the slides. (https://nolahistoryguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/bno_foc_wtg_20260406.pdf)
Staff Ride Handbook
While working on this talk, I came across a battle resource, The Staff Ride Handbook for The Battles of New Orleans, 23 December 1814 – 8 January 1815 (https://www.armyupress.army.mil/Portals/7/educational-services/staff-rides/StaffRideHB_NewOrleans.pdf) (PDF). This handbook, produced by the Combat Studies Institute of the United States Army, is fantastic. Here’s its abstract:
The Combat Studies Institute is pleased to publish The Staff Ride Handbook for the Battles of New Orleans, 23 December 1814-8 January 1815, covering the final battles of the War of 1812. Interest in the details of this often-overlooked conflict has increased as a result of recent bicentennial observances, exposing a new generation of students to a unique period in our Army’s history. Most survey course references to the War of 1812 concern the demonstrably different performances of the US Army and US Navy, the latter getting the better coverage. That comparison however, lies at the heart of why this war and this series of battles are crucial to understanding the development of both the Army as an institution and civil-military relations more generally from 1815 to 1941. This handbook will help new and returning students to look at the battles of New Orleans in the proper context, aided by a wealth of new scholarship produced over the last 30 years.
French Quarter Walking Tours
As always, you’re most welcome to join us on a Friends of the Cabildo French Quarter Walking Tour (https://friendsofthecabildo.org)!
Inside a recent episode
Podcast 64 – Battle of New Orleans – On the West Bank
Published 4 Sept 2026 · Transcript excerpt
[…] We'll talk about that and we'll talk about the commanders of the battle. A brief overview of the battle overall before we get into specifically into the West Bank or the right bank side of Pakenham arrives on the scene at Christmastime in 1814 and starts getting to be a good bit aggressive once he gets settled, and that's when the right bank or the West Bank comes into focus. We'll talk about his strategy of moving on to the right bank and how he does that with his force of Thornton and the 85th Light Infantry. American intelligence led to creating some thorn in the side and some preparations to defend the right bank that otherwise the Americans might not have known about. […]
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