Whether Andrew Jackson deserves a place on our currency is clearly a subject of dispute, but his doings in New Orleans on Jan. 8, 1815, are not.

And unfortunately, your letter writer of April 20 (“Many good reasons to honor Andrew Jackson on $20 bill”) has managed to get virtually all of the relevant facts wrong.

Although Jackson was certainly in charge of our forces at the battle, the “28th South Carolina Regiment” was not one of them.

The order of battle for that engagement includes neither a South Carolina unit nor a “28th” regiment of any state or country.

More significantly, although the Battle of New Orleans was “important,” as the writer states, it by no means “helped to … get British soldiers removed from this country.”

This is because the prior Christmas Eve, negotiators had signed a treaty agreeing that each country would remove its troops from the territories of the other without further hostility. But the news of peace had not yet reached New Orleans.

His Majesty’s troops left New Orleans speedily, but those who had captured Castine and Eastport in the summer of 1814 dilly-dallied Down East until June 1818! So I’d like to know where Gen. Jackson was when we Mainers really needed him.

But in the interest of further peace, why not get beyond the personalities and go with the numbers?

George Washington was the first president, so he should remain on the $1 bill. The $5 bill should then belong to the fifth president, James Monroe. The $10 bill should feature John Tyler, and the $20 bill, James A. Garfield.

This system would not only be simple and fair, but it would greatly help schoolchildren in memorizing the list. Also, the fact that the largest bill was a $44 might help the nation to regain arithmetic skills we lost so long ago.

Larry Glatz

South Portland