BRIAN KILMEADE – co-host of “Fox & Friends” author of “Andrew Jackson And The Miracle Of New Orleans: The Battle That Shaped America’s Destiny” 

• The War of 1812 saw America threatened on every side. Encouraged by the British, Indian tribes attacked settlers in the West, while the Royal Navy terrorized the coasts. In August 1814, British troops set the White House ablaze, and a feeling of hopelessness spread across the country.
• Into this dire situation stepped Major General Andrew Jackson. A native of Tennessee who had witnessed the horrors of the Revolutionary War and Indian attacks, he was glad America had finally decided to confront repeated British aggression. But he feared that President Madison’s men were overlooking the most important target of all: New Orleans.
• If the British could conquer New Orleans, they would control the mouth of the Mississippi River, cutting Americans off from that essential trade route and threatening the previous decade’s Louisiana Purchase. The new nation’s dreams of western expansion would be crushed before they really got off the ground. So Jackson faced three enormous challenges at the same time:
• In short, Jackson needed a miracle, and the local Ursuline nuns, whose convent was said to have miraculously warded off danger in the past, set to work praying for his outnumbered troops. And so, the Americans, driven by patriotism and protected by prayer, began the battle that would shape our young nation’s destiny.