and they were not likely to relinquish the footing they had gained on American soil without a desperate struggle. So he prepared for it. Leaving the regulars and some dragoons at La Ronde's to watch the enemy, he fell back with the remainder of his army to Rodriguez's Canal and set his soldiers at work casting up an intrenchment along its line from the river to the cypress swamp. All day they plied the implements of labor with the greatest vigor, and at sunset a breast-work three feet in height appeared along the entire line of Jackson's army, and the soldiers spent that Christmas-eve in much hilarity, for the events of the previous evening had given them the confidence of veterans. In the mean time Latour, the Chief Engineer, had cut the levee in front of Chalmette's plantation, so as to flood the plain between the two armies, and the two 6-pounders were placed in battery at the levee, so as to command the road. The river was so low that the overflow was of little account. Behind those intrenchments, of which each worker was proud, Jackson's little army spent the Christmas-day of 1814 in preparations for a determined defense of New Orleans and their common country. On the same day General Morgan received orders to evacuate the post at English Turn, place his cannon and a hundred men in Fort St. Leon, and take position with the remainder on Flood's plantation, opposite Jackson's camp, on the right bank of the Mississippi. The cutting of the levee at Chalmette's and Jumonville's helped the enemy more than it did the Americans, for it caused the almost dry canals and bayous to be filled with sufficient water to allow the British to bring up their heavy artillery. Had the Mississippi been full the invaders would have been placed on an island. That Christmas-day dawned gloomily for the invaders. The events of the 23d had greatly p depressed their spirits, and the soldiers had lost confidence in Keane, their commander. The sky was clouded, the ground was wet, and the atmosphere was chilly; and shadowing disappointment was seen in every face. The gloom was suddenly dispelled by an event which gave great joy to the whole army. It was the arrival at camp, on that gloomy morning, of LieutenantGeneral Sir Edward Packenham, the "hero of Salamanca," then only thirty-eight years of age, who came to assume the chief command of the invading army. He was a true soldier and an honorable man; and the charge (which might be justly brought against some of the subordinate commanders in that army) that he offered his soldiers, as a reward for their services in the event of their capturing New Orleans, the "Beauty and Booty" of the city, is doubtless wholly untrue, for his character was the very opposite of the infamous Cockburn. He came fresh from Europe, with the prestige of eminent success as a commander, and his advent at Villeré's was hailed with delight by officers and soldiers. He, too, was delighted when he perused the list of the regiments which he was to command, for all of the troops, excepting the Ninety-third and the colored regiments, had fought all through the war on the Spanish Peninsula. While Jackson was intrenching the British were not idle. They were employed day and night in preparing a heavy battery that should command the Carolina. It was completed on the morning of the 27th, and at seven o'clock a heavy fire was opened from it upon the little sloop, from several 12 and 18 pounders and a howitzer. They hurled hot shot, which fired the Carolina, when her crew abandoned her and she blew up with a tremendous explosion. The sloop of war Louisiana, commanded by Lieutenant Thompson, had come down to aid her, and was in great peril. VIEW OF THE RODRIGUEZ CANAL-JACKSON'S LINES. She was the only armed vessel in the river remaining to the Americans. By great exertions she was towed beyond the sphere of danger, and was saved to play a gallant part in events the following day. She was on the opposite side of the river, anchored nearly abreast of the American camp. The destruction of the Carolina gave fresh confidence to the invaders, and Packenham issued orders for his whole army, then eight thousand strong, to move forward and carry the American intrenchments by storm. He had arranged that ar by my into two columns. One was commanded General Keane, the other by General Gibbs, a good and experienced officer who accompanied Packenham as his second in the command. Towards evening the entire force moved forward, driving in the American pickets and outposts; and about twilight they halted on the plantations of Bienvenu and Chalmette, within a few hundred, yards of the American line, and there a part of them sought rest, while the others commenced the construction of batteries near the river. Repose was denied them, for all night long Hind's troopers, and other active Americans, annoyed their flanks and rear with quick, sharp attacks, which the British denounced as "barbarian warfare." Jackson, in the mean time, had been preparing to receive them. He was aware of the arrival of Packenham, and expected vigorous warfare from him. His head-quarters were at the spacious chateau of M. Macarté, a wealthy Creole; and from its wide gallery and a dormer-window, seen in the accompanying picture, aided by a telescope, he had a full view of the whole field of operations. From that chateau, yet standing, he sent forth his orders. They were many and prompt: for that night of the 27th of December, when a flushed foe in his immediate front was ready to pounce with tigerlike fierceness upon him at dawn, was an exceedingly busy one for the Commander-in-chief. He had caused Chalmette's buildings to be blown up when the enemy advanced that the sweep of his artillery might not be obstructed; and he had called to the line some Louisiana militia from the rear. He also planted heavy guns; and by the time that the couchant foe was ready for his murderous leap he had four thousand men and twenty pieces of artillery to oppose him, while the Louisiana was in position to use her cannon with signal effect in co-operation with the great guns on land. The 28th dawned brightly, and as soon as the light fog of early morning had passed away a battle began. The enemy approached in two columns. Gibbs led the right, which kept near the great swamp, throwing out a skirmish line to meet those of the left column, commanded by Keane, who kept close to the river with artillery in his front. There was also a party of skirm ishers and light infantry detailed from Gibbs's command, under Colonel Robert Rennie, a very active officer, who was ordered to turn the American left flank and gain the rear of their camp. Packenham and his staff rode nearly in the centre of the line. At this moment Jackson saw with great satisfaction a band of rough-looking armed men coming down the road from the direction of the city. They were Baratarians under You and Bluche, who had run all the way from Fort St. John. They were immediately placed in charge of one of the 24-pounders, and performed excellent service. They were followed by the escaped crew of the Carolina under Lieutenants Norris and Crawley, who were placed in the line as managers of a howitzer on the right. The British, under Keane, advanced in solid column in the face of a galling fire of musketry, when they were suddenly checked by the opening of some of Jackson's heavy guns and the batteries of the Louisiana, which swept their line obliquely with terrible effect. More than eight hundred shot were hurled from her guns with deadly power. One of them killed and wounded fifteen men. At the same time the British rocketeers were busy, but their missiles did very little damage, and the Americans soon became too familiar with their harmless noise to be much affected by them. For a short time Keane's men stood the terrible storm that was thinning their ranks, when the maintenance of their position became mere fool-hardiness, and they were ordered to seek shelter in the little canals. Away they ran, pell-mell, to these places of refuge, and in mud and water almost waist deep they "leaned forward," as one of their companions wrote, "concealing themselves in the rushes which grew on the banks of the canal." It was a humiliating position for "Wellington's veterans,” in the face | Orleans. It commanded the front of Jackson's of a few rough backwoodsmen, as they regarded lines, and soon compelled the British to abanJackson's troops. Their batteries were half destroyed and were abandoned, and the shattered column, thoroughly repulsed, fell back to a shelter behind the ruins of Chalmette's buildings and the perfect ones of Bienvenu. Gibbs in the mean time was actively engaged on the British right. The gallant Rennie dashed into the edge of the swamp to flank the American left, and driving in the pickets approached within a hundred yards of the line behind which lay Carroll and his Tennesseeans. The movement was observed by Carroll, who sent Colonel Henderson, with two hundred Tennesseeans, to gain Rennie's rear and cut him off from the main body. Advancing too far Henderson encountered a large British force, and he and five of his men were killed and several were wounded. The remainder retraced their steps. Rennie was then pressing Carroll's left very severely, when Gibbs, observing the fierceness of the fight on the part of Keane's column, ordered the dashing Colonel to fall back on the main line. Rennie reluctantly obeyed, and was compelled to be an idle spectator of Keane's disaster. At length Packenham ordered a general retrograde movement, and he retired to his head-quarters at Villeré's, deeply mortified by the failure of his plans, of whose success he had not allowed himself to doubt. In this repulse the Louisiana, which was stationed near the right bank of the Mississippi, played the most efficient part and lost but one man killed. The loss of the Americans was nine killed and eight wounded. British loss was about one hundred and fifty. Packenham called a council of war, when it was resolved to bring forward heavy siege guns from the navy before making another serious attempt to carry Jackson's lines. They established their hospital on Jumonville's plantation, next below Villeré's, and prepared for heavy work. The experience of the 28th had given Packenham a test of the spirit of his opposers, and he was convinced that the task before him was not only difficult but dangerous, and that the very salvation of his army depended upon cautious movements, courage, and perseverance. The don Chalmette's plantation and fall back to the line between Bienvenu's and De la Ronde's. A brick-kiln on the bank opposite New Orleans was converted into a square battery, which was armed with two heavy guns that commanded the city and the river road, and placed in charge of Captain Henley of the Carolina. At Jackson's head-quarters at Macarte's was a company of young men from the best families in the city, under Captain Ogden, who constituted his bodyguard, and were subservient to his immediate orders alone. These were posted in Macarté's garden. There was incessant activity every where among all his troops, for his own spirit was infused into them. The Tennessee riflemen, in particular, delighted in going on "hunts," as they called them-that is to say, expeditions, alone, to pick off sentinels and annoy the enemy. This was carried on to such extent on Jackson's extreme left that the British dared not post sentinels very near the swamp. They contented themselves with throwing up a strong redoubt in that direction, which Captains You and Crawley continually battered with heavy shot from their cannon. The enemy persevered. and at the close of the month had several great guns mounted on the redoubt. On the 31st the guns of the new redoubt opened vigorously on Jackson's left, and that night the whole British army moved rapidly forward, took position within a few hundred yards of the American lines, and in the gloom commenced vigorous work with pickaxe and spade. They had brought up heavy siege guns from the lake, and all night long that army labored in the construction of redoubts for them, under the superintendence of Colonel Sir John Burgoyne, with the intention of making an immediate effort to break the American line. Before dawn they had completed three solid demilunes, or half-moon batteries, right, centre, and left, six hundred yards from the American lines, at nearly equal distances apart. They were constructed of earth, hogsheads of sugar from the neighboring plantations, and every thing that might resist, and upon them were placed Jackson was busy, at the same time, strength- thirty pieces of heavy ordnance, manned by ening his position at Rodriguez's canal, over picked gunners of the fleet, who had served unwhich not a single British soldier had passed der Nelson and Collingwood and St. Vincent. excepting as a prisoner. He placed two 12- Their works were hidden by a heavy fog in the pounders on his extreme left, near the swamp, morning of the 1st of January, which hung in charge of General Garrigue Fleauzac, a vet- thickly over the belligerent armies until after eran French soldier who had volunteered, and eight o'clock. When it was lifted by a gentle also a 6 and 18 pounder under Colonel Perry. breeze the British opened a brisk fire, not doubtHis line of intrenchments was extended into ing that in a few minutes the contemptible inthe swamp, so as to prevent a flank movement. trenchments of the Americans would be scatHe ordered a line of intrenchments to be estab- tered to the winds, and that the army, placed lished on the opposite side of the Mississippi; in battle order for the purpose, would find it and Commodore Patterson, pleased with the ef- an easy matter to rush forward and take them. fects of the guns of the Louisiana from the same Every moment their cannonade and bombardside, established a battery behind the Levee, on ment became heavier, and the rocketeers sent Jourdan's plantation, which he armed with heavy an incessant shower of their fiery missiles into guns from the schooner, and manned with sail- the American lines. Jackson's head-quarters ors enlisted or pressed into the service in New at Macarté's was a special target. In the course They had come with the erroneous belief that an ample supply of arms and clothing would be furnished them in New Orleans, and a large number of them were sadly deficient in these. Of the seven hundred sent to the front only five hundred had weapons of any kind. The commiseration of the citizens was excited, and by an appropriation by the Legislature and the liberal gifts of the citizens the sum of sixteen thousand dollars was speedily raised, with which goods were purchased and placed in the willing hands of the women of New Orleans. Within a week these were converted by them into blankets, garments, and bedding. The men constituted capital raw material for soldiers, and they were very soon prepared for efficient service. of ten minutes more than a hundred balls, shells, | a body was such that Jackson was at a loss to and rockets struck the building, and compelled determine whether their presence should be conthe commander-in-chief and his staff to evacu-sidered fortunate or unfortunate for the cause. ate it. The marks of that furious assault may be seen in all parts of the house to this day. Jackson in the mean time had opened his heavy guns on the assailants. The cannonade was led off by the gallant and imperturbable Humphrey on the left, followed by the fierce You and his Baratarians — Crawley, Norris, Spotts, and the veteran Garrigue. The American artillery thundered along their whole line, to the amazement of the British, who wondered how and where they got their guns and gunners. Packenham soon saw that he had underrated the strength and skill of his adversary; and Cochrane, whose gallant tars were at the guns, did every thing in his power to encourage them. The conflict became terrible. Batteries on the Levee fought with Patterson on the opposite side; and in them were kept in readiness redhot shot for the destruction of the Louisiana, if she should come within range of the guns. Packenham also sent a detachment of infantry to attempt the turning of the American left, in the swamp; but they were driven back in terror by Coffee's Tennesseeans, and only the battle of the batteries went on. Packenham was disheartened, but by no means despaired of success. He conceived the bold and hazardous plan of carrying Jackson's lines on both sides of the river by storm. Those on the right bank had been strengthened, but were feebly manned, and were under the chief command of General Morgan. Packenham resolved to send over fifteen hundred infantry, with some artillery, and, under the cover of night, attack Morgan, carry the works, occupy them, and from batteries there enfilade Jack gaged in storming it. The transportation of these men to the other side of the river was con Toward noon the fire of the British visibly slackened, while that of the Americans was unceasing. The demi-lunes of the foe were crush-son's line, while the main army should be ened and broken. The sugar hogsheads had been converted into splinters, and their contents, mingling with the moist earth, soon lost their vol-fided to Admiral Cochrane, who, in opposition to ume. The guns not dismounted were careened, and were worked with great difficulty; and by the time their voices ceased altogether the batteries on the Levee were nearly demolished. The invaders abandoned their works at meridian, and fled in inglorious haste, helter-skelter, to the ditches in search of safety; and under cover of the ensuing night they crawled sullenly back to their camp, dragging with them over the spongy ground a part of their heavy cannon, and leaving five of them a spoil for the Americans. Their disappointment and chagrin were intense, and were equally shared by officers and men. Their New-Year's Day was a far gloomier one than that of Christmas. They had been without food or sleep for nearly sixty hours. They all cast themselves down on the damp ground, too wearied for thought, and their troubles were soon ended for the time by deep slumber. Packenham was in his old quarters at Villere's, which he had left in the morning with the confident expectation of sleeping in New Orleans that night as a conqueror. There was joy in the American camp that night. It was intensified in the morning by the arrival of Brigadier-General John Adair with intelligence of the near approach of more than two thousand drafted militia from Kentacky, under Major-General John Thomas. They arrived in the city on the 4th of January, and seven hundred of them were sent to the front under Adair. Their forlorn condition as the opinions and wishes of the army officers, set the wearied soldiers and sailors at work widening and deepening and prolonging to the Mississippi Villeré's Canal, for the purpose of bringing over boats from the Bayou Bienvenu, instead of dragging them on rollers as they had heavier cannon. The labor was completed on the 7th, when the army was in fine spirits because of the arrival, the day before, of a considerable body of reinforcements under Major-General John Lambert, a young officer of Wellington's army, who had sailed from England toward the close of October. Packenham's own regiment (Seventh Fusileers) was among them, and the army that confronted Jackson now consisted of ten thousand of the finest soldiers in the world. These were divided into three brigades, and placed under the respective commands of Generals Lambert, Gibbs, and Keane. Packenham's plan of operations for the new attack was simple. Colonel Thornton was to cross the Mississippi on the night of the 7th, with the Eighty-fifth and one West India regiment, marines and sailors, and a corps of rocketeers, and fall upon the Americans before the dawn. The sound of his guns was to be the signal for General Gibbs, with the Forty-fourth, Twenty-first, and Fourth regiments, to storm the American left; while General Keane, with the Ninety-third, Ninety-fifth, and two light companies of the Seventh and Forty-third, with some West India troops, should threaten the American right-sufficient to draw their fire, and then rush upon them with the bayonet. Meanwhile the two British batteries near the Levee, which the Americans destroyed on the 1st, were to be rebuilt, well mounted, and employed in assailing the American right during Keane's operations. Keane's advance corps were furnished with fascines to fill the ditches, and scalingladders to mount the embankments. Such was the substance of Packenham's General Order issued on the 7th of January, 1815. Jackson penetrated Packenham's design on the 6th, and prepared to meet and frustrate it. His line of defense, extending, as we have observed, from the Mississippi to an impassable cypress swamp, a mile and a half in length, along the line of the half-choked Rodriguez's Canal, was very irregular. In some places it was thin, in others thick; in some places the banks were high, in others very low. They had been cast up not by the soldiery alone, nor by the slaves, but by the hands of civilians from the city, including merchants and their clerks, lawyers and physicians and their students, and many young men who never before had turned a spadeful of earth. Along this line artillery was judiciously placed. On the edge of the river a redoubt was thrown up and mounted with cannon, so as to enfilade the ditch in front of the American lines. Besides this there were eight batteries placed at proper distances from each other, composed of thirteen guns carrying from 6 to 32 pound balls, a howitzer, and a carronade. Across the river was Patterson's marine battery for auxiliary service in the defense of this line, mounting nine guns; and the Louisiana was prepared to perform a part, if possible, in the drama about to open. chateau; and on De Lerey's plantation, in the rear of it, Hinds was stationed with one hundred and fifty mounted men. Near Pierna's Canal a regiment of Louisiana militia, under Colonel Young, were encamped as reserves. Jackson's whole force on the New Orleans side of the river, on the 7th, was about five thousand in number, and of these only three thousand two hundred were at his line. Only eight hundred of the latter were regulars, and most of them were new recruits commanded by young officers. His army was formed in two divisions, the right commanded by Colonel Ross, acting as Brigadier, and the left by Generals Carroll and Coffee, the former as MajorGeneral and the latter as Brigadier-General. A mile and a half in the rear of his main line another intrenchment had been thrown up, behind which the weaker members of his army were stationed with pickaxes and spades. line was prepared for a rallying point in the event of disaster following the impending conflict. Jackson also established a third line at the lower edge of the city. General Morgan, on the opposite side of the river, prepared to defend his lines with only eight hundred men, all militia and indifferently armed. On his left were two 6-pounders in charge of Adjutant Nixon of the Louisiana militia, and a 12pounder under Lieutenant Philibert of the navy. Patterson's battery in Morgan's rear could render him no service, for its guns were turned so as to command the plain of Chalmette in front of Jackson's line. This Such was the strength and position of the two armies on the night of the memorable 7th of January, 1815, preparatory to the great conflict on the following day. Jackson's infantry were disposed as follows: It was not until the afternoon of the 7th that Lieutenant Ross, with a company of Peire's Jackson could determine, with any certainty, Seventh Regiment, guarded the redoubt on the whether the enemy would first attack his own extreme right, in which tents were pitched. or Morgan's line. Then from the gallery of Between Humphrey's battery and the river, on head-quarters, with his telescope, he could see the right, Beale's New Orleans riflemen were such preparations by the foe as convinced him stationed. From their left the Seventh Regi- that his own lines would first feel the shock of ment extended so as to cover another battery, battle; and when the darkness of night fell he and connected with a part of Plauche's battal- could distinctly hear the sounds of labor in reion, and the colored corps under Colonel La constructing the British batteries which the Coste, which filled the interval between batter-Americans had destroyed. His pickets and ies No. 3 and 4 (see Map), the guns of the lat-sentinels were strengthened, and sleepless vigiter being covered by D'Aquin's free men of color. Next to D'Aquin was the Forty-fourth Regiment, which extended to the rear of battery No. 5. The remainder of the line (full two-thirds of its entire length) was covered by the commands of Carroll and Coffee. The former had been reinforced that day (7th) by a thousand Kentuck-modore Patterson (Mr. R. D. Shepherd), who ians under General Adair, and with him, on the right of battery No. 7, were fifty marines under Lieutenant Bellevue. Coffee, with five hundred men, held the extreme left of the line on the edge of the swamp, where his men were compelled to stand in the water, and to sleep on floating logs which they lashed to the trees. Captain Ogden, with cavalry (Jackson's bodyguard), was at head-quarters, yet at Macarté's lance marked a large portion of the troops behind his intrenchments that night. The chief lay down to rest on a sofa after a day of great fatigue, surrounded by his aids, and was slumbering sweetly when, at little past midnight, he was awakened by the entrance of an aid of Com had been sent to inform the General that there He must |