The War of 1812, sometimes called “the forgotten conflict,” was a confrontation with Great Britain that brought the United States to the verge of bankruptcy and disunion. This stamp concludes commemoration of the bicentennial of a war that ultimately helped forge U.S. national identity and gave us our national anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner.

The subject of this stamp is Andrew Jackson’s triumphant victory over the British on January 8, 1815, at the Battle of New Orleans. The British suffered some 2,000 casualties as they were gunned down while trying to breach Jackson’s line. Jackson instantly became a national hero.

Ironically, the battle was fought two weeks after the Treaty of Ghent, which essentially declared the war a draw, had been signed in Belgium on December 24. But this news had not reached American shores, and the treaty would not be ratified until February 1815. Jackson’s victory, coming as it did in the final weeks of the war and before the peace treaty was ratified, left Americans with the impression they had won the war as a whole—and had defeated the greatest power in the world.