The letters contained in this book are not the official ones sent to the Secretary of War; they are private letters written by the ordinary, or extraordinary, participant in the events of the Battle of New Orleans. They were written to the people back home, or to a brother in Virginia, a cousin in Cincinnati or to a fellow militia-man in Mississippi, who had yet to come to New Orleans. Those who received the letters would let their home town newspaper copy them; if the letters were especially interesting, they would be reprinted by other newspapers who received the original newspaper as an exchange paper. The most interesting letters might thus appear in up to fifteen or twenty newspapers, in as many states. As each letter writer was an individual, so each letter has its own personality.