(C) Verite News New Orleans
This story was originally published by Verite News New Orleans and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
Battalions of free men of color were made promises that were never kept [1]
['Tammy C. Barney', 'More Tammy C. Barney', 'Verite News New Orleans', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus', 'Display Inline', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar', 'Where Img', 'Height Auto Max-Width']
Date: 2025-07-11
Battle of New Orleans. Night attack of December 23. The painting shows the Choctaws and a mixed group of Major Daquin’s Battalion of Free Men of Colour. The latter were mostly attired in civilian clothes because they had been organized only for a few weeks. Credit: Public domain
An invitation with a promise led free men of color in Louisiana to enlist in militias to help the United States fight the British.
In a Sept. 21, 1814 proclamation, Gen. Andrew Jackson said he “regretted the United States government’s previous neglect of the colored militia, invited them to participate in the defense of the country and promised everyone who enlisted a bounty of 160 acres of land,” Bayou Life magazine states.
As a result, Major Louis D’Aquin’s Battalion of Free Men of Color was formed.
D’Aquin was a Creole refugee serving in the 2nd Regiment of the Louisiana Militia. His second-in-command, Joseph Savary, who fought for France during the Haitian Revolution, led the battalion of 156 men.
“March on! March on, my friends! March on against the enemies of the country,” he shouted in Haitian French.
Savary “helped delay the British advance long enough for Jackson to fortify his line of defense for the city of New Orleans,” Bayou Life states. “During the battle, the battalion made an attack under its own initiative and reached the advancing British lines.”
That action led to the death of the British commander, Sir Edward Pakenham, and secured the U.S. victory.
After the battle, Jackson praised D’Aquin’s Battalion of Free Men of Color and another unit of free Black men led by Major Jean Baptiste Plauché. Jackson said the troops had not “disappointed the hopes that had been formed of their courage and perseverance,” Bayou Life states.
But Jackson failed to keep his promise.
He ordered the government to give the free men of color their promised land, but federal officials refused and dropped the matter. To appease white residents who feared the battalion would “destabilize slavery” and spark “slave rebellions,” Jackson pulled the battalion out of New Orleans, and it disbanded.
For more tales from New Orleans history, visit the Back in the Day archives.
Related
Most Read Stories
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license. Republish This Story
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://veritenews.org/2025/07/11/batallion-free-men-of-color-andrew-jackson/
Published and (C) by Verite News New Orleans
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 US.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/veritenews/
