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BICENTENNIAL of THE BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS SERIES Avoyelles, one of the original parishes created of Louisiana, had only been part of the United States for less than a decade when the War of 1812 broke out. Most of the men of Avoyelles who went down to New Orleans to fight under Andrew Jackson were French Creoles, who only spoke French, and had been born as citizens of Spain or France. Yet they were loyal to this new country which had come in and purchased Louisiana in 1803. Many were the sons of French speaking Spanish soldiers who fought under Galvez to defend the British in Baton Rouge and New Orleans during the Revolutionary War in the 1780s. Now the British had returned to Louisiana and the Avoyelles men volunteered, picking up their arms and making their way to New Orleans for the famous Battle of New Orleans.