From "Dirty Shirts" to Buccaneers: the Battle of New Orleans in American Culture

The Louisiana State Museum's groundbreaking bicentennial exhibition features two national treasures: the uniform coat Andrew Jackson wore while leading troops at the Battle of New Orleans and a portrait of him by Ralph E. W. Earl. General Jackson wore the same coat for the portrait, now part of the National Portrait Gallery's collection in Washington, D.C.
On loan from the National Museum of American History of the Smithsonian Institution, the coat's inclusion in the exhibit opening at the Cabildo on Jackson Square marks the first time it has been in New Orleans since the battle.
The victory of a ragtag band of “dirty shirts,” as the British called their foes, captured the American imagination, contributed to a sense of national identity and propelled Andrew Jackson to the White House. The exhibition explores how a diverse group of French Creoles, Kentucky and Tennessee riflemen, Baratarians and free men of color, among others, defeated the mighty British army. With movie clips and a variety of memorabilia, the exhibition also considers what the battle meant to later generations.
Treasures from the Louisiana State Museum's collection include a newly restored officer's coat from the War of 1812; an original script from Cecil B. DeMille's 1938 film “The Buccaneer”; and the monumental painting “The Battle of New Orleans” (1839) by Eugène-Louis Lami, which portrays the moment when British General Edward Pakenham is fatally wounded.