NEW ORLEANS (AP) – The FBI says a rifle that was used during the Battle of New Orleans is back at a museum after being stolen from there 35 years ago.

The head of the FBI’s New Orleans office, Eric Rommal, says it’s the only known weapon that has been traced back and documented to one of two preliminary battles in December 1814.

Rommal says the museum asked the FBI to investigate in the fall, and the bureau and Louisiana State Police found it at a home in south Louisiana. He says the homeowners bought the rifle in 1982, apparently without realizing it was stolen, and cooperated with investigators.

The agencies returned the rifle to the Confederate Memorial Hall last week, on the anniversary of the final Battle of New Orleans in 1815.

The Battle of New Orleans was a series of engagements fought between December 14, 1814 and January 18, 1815, constituting the last major battle of the War of 1812. American combatants, commanded by Major General Andrew Jackson, prevented a much larger British force from seizing New Orleans and the vast territory the United States had acquired with the Louisiana Purchase.

The Treaty of Ghent had been signed on December 24, 1814 (but was not ratified by the US Government until February 1815), and hostilities continued without the involved parties knowing about the treaty until January 18, by which time all of the British forces had retreated, finally putting an end to the Battle of New Orleans.

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