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[Illustration: Z.F. SMITH.
Member of the Filson Club]
FILSON CLUB PUBLICATIONS No. 19
THE
Battle of New Orleans
INCLUDING THE
Previous Engagements between the Americans and the
British, the Indians, and the Spanish which
led to the Final Conflict on the
8th of January, 1815
BY
ZACHARY F. SMITH
Member of The Filson Club and Author of a History of Kentucky
and School Editions of the same
Illustrated
LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY
JOHN P. MORTON & COMPANY
PRINTERS TO THE FILSON CLUB
1904
COPYRIGHTED BY
The Filson Club
and All Rights Reserved
1904
PREFACE
In the preparation of the following account of the "Battle of New
Orleans," I have availed myself of all accessible authorities, and have
been placed under obligations to Colonel R.T. Durrett, of Louisville,
Kentucky. I have had free access to his library, which is the largest
private collection in this country, and embraces works upon almost every
subject. Besides general histories of the United States and of the
individual States, and periodicals, newspapers, and manuscripts, which
contain valuable information on the battle of New Orleans, his library
contains numerous works more specifically devoted to this subject. Among
these, to which I have had access, may be mentioned Notices of the War
of 1812, by John M. Armstrong, two volumes, New York, 1840; The Naval
History of Great Britain from 1783 to 1830, by Edward P. Brenton, two
volumes, London, 1834; History of the Late War, by H.M. Brackenridge,
Philadelphia, 1839; An Authentic History of the Second War for
Independence, by Samuel R. Brown, two volumes, Auburn, 1815; History of
the Late War by an American (Joseph Cushing), Baltimore, 1816;
Correspondence between General Jackson and General Adair as to the
Kentuckians charged by Jackson with inglorious flight, New Orleans,
1815; An Authentic History of the Late War, by Paris M. Davis, New York,
1836; A Narrative of the Campaigns of the British Army by an Officer
(George R. Gleig), Philadelphia, 1821; History of Louisiana, American
Dominion, by Charles Gayarre, New York, 1866; The Second War with
England, illustrated, by J.T. Headley, two volumes, New York, 1853;
History of the War of 1812 between the United States and Great Britain,
by Rossiter Johnson, New York, 1882; The Pictorial Field-book of the War
of 1812, by Benjamin J. Lossing, New York, 1868; The War of 1812 in the
Western Country, by Robert B. McAfee, Lexington, Kentucky, 1816;
Historical Memoirs of the War of 1814-1815, by Major A. Lacarriere
Latour, Philadelphia, 1816; Messages of James Madison, President of the
United States, parts one and two, Albany, 1814; The Military Heroes of
the War of 1812, by Charles J. Peterson, Philadelphia, 1858; The Naval
War of 1812, by Theodore Roosevelt, New York, 1889; The History of the
War of 1812-15, by J. Russell, junior, Hartford, 1815; The Glory of
America, etc., by R. Thomas, New York, 1834; Historic Sketches of the
Late War, by John L. Thomson, Philadelphia, 1816; The Life of Andrew
Jackson, by Alexander Walker, Philadelphia, 1867; A Full and a Correct
Account of the Military Occurrences of the Late War between Great
Britain and the United States, by James Williams, two volumes, London,
1818.
I have also been placed under obligations to Mr. William Beer, librarian
of the Howard Library of New Orleans, which has become a depository of
rare works touching the history of the South Mississippi Valley, and
especially relating to the War of 1812 and the battle of New Orleans. A
list of all the works in this library which Mr. Beer placed at my
disposal would be too long for insertion here, but the following may be
mentioned: Claiborne's Notes on the War in the South, Goodwin's
Biography of Andrew Jackson, Reid and Easten's Life of General Jackson,
Nolte's Fifty Years in Both Hemispheres, Report of Committee on
Jackson's Warrant for Closing the Halls of the Legislature of Louisiana,
The Madison Papers, Ingersoll's Historic Sketch of the Second War
between Great Britain and the United States, Cooke's Seven Campaigns in
the Peninsula, Hill's Recollections of an Artillery Officer, Coke's
History of the Rifle Brigade, Diary of Private Timewell, and Cooke's
Narrative of Events. No one would do justice to himself or his subject
if he should write a history of the battle of New Orleans without
availing himself of the treasures of the Howard Library.
Z.F. SMITH.
INTRODUCTION
England was apparently more liberal than Spain or France when, in the
treaty of 1783, she agreed to the Mississippi River as the western
boundary of the United States. Spain was for limiting the territory of
the new republic on the west to the crest of the Alleghany Mountains, so
as to secure to her the opportunity of conquering from England the
territory between the mountains and the Great River. Strangely enough
and inconsistently enough, France supported Spain in this outrageous
effort to curtail the territory of the new republic after she had helped
the United States to conquer it from England, or rather after General
Clark had wrested it from England for the colony of Virginia, and while
Virginia was still in possession of it. The seeming liberality of
England, however, may not have been more disinterested than the scheming
of Spain and France in this affair. England did not believe that the
United States could exist as a permanent government, but that the
confederated States would disintegrate and return to her as colonies.
The King of England said as much when the treaty was made. If, then,
the States were to return to England as colonies, the more territory
they might bring with them the better, and hence a large grant was
acknowledged in the treaty of peace. The acts of England toward the
United States after acknowledging their independence indicate that the
fixing of the western boundary on the Mississippi had as much
selfishness as liberality, if indeed it was not entirely selfish.
The ink was scarcely dry upon the parchment which bore evidence of the
ratified treaty of 1783 when the mother country began acts of hostility
and meanness against her children who had separated from her and begun a
political life for themselves. When the English ships of war, which had
blockaded New York for seven long years, sailed out of the harbor and
took their course toward the British Isles, instead of hauling down
their colors from the flagstaff of Fort George, they left them flying
over the fortification, and tried to prevent them from being removed by
chopping down all the cleats for ascent, and greasing the pole so that
no one could climb to the top and pull down the British flag or replace
it by the colors of the United States. An agile sailor boy, named Van
Arsdale, who had probably ascended many trees in search of bird's nests,
and clambered up the masts of ships until he had become an expert
climber, nailed new cleats to the flagstaff and climbed to its summit,
bearing with him the flag of the new republic. When he reached the top
he cut down the British flag and suspended that of the United States.
This greasy trick may have been the act of some wag of the retiring
fleet, and might have been taken for a joke had it not been followed by
hostile acts which indicated that this was the initial step in a long
course of hostility and meanness.
But it was soon followed by the retention of the lake forts which fell
into British hands during the Revolutionary War, and which, by the terms
of the treaty, were to be surrendered. Instead of surrendering them
according to the stipulations of the treaty, they held them, and not
only occupied them for thirteen years, but used them as storehouses and
magazines from which the Indians were fed and clothed and armed and
encouraged to tomahawk and scalp Americans without regard to age or sex.
And then followed a series of orders in council, by which the commerce
of the United States was almost swept from the seas, and their sailors
forcibly taken from American ships to serve on British. These orders in
council were so frequent that it seemed as if the French on one side of
the British Channel and the English on the other were hurling decrees
and orders at one another for their own amusement while inflicting dire
injuries on other nations, and especially the Americans.
Had it not been for these hostile acts of the British there would have
been no War of 1812. Had they continued to treat the young republic with
the justice and liberality to which they agreed in fixing its western
boundary in the treaty of 1783, no matter what their motive may have
been, there would have been no cause for war between the two countries.
The Americans had hardly recovered from the wounds inflicted in the
Revolutionary War. They were too few and too weak and too poor to go to
war with such a power as England, and moreover wanted a continuance of
the peace by which they were adding to the population and wealth of
their country. What they had acquired in the quarter of a century since
the end of the Revolutionary War was but little in comparison with the
accumulations of England during long centuries, and they were not
anxious to risk their all in a conflict with such a power; but young and
weak and few as they were, they belonged to that order of human beings
who hold their rights and their honor in such high regard that they can
not continuously be insulted and injured without retaliation. The time
came when they resolved to bear the burdens of war rather than submit to
unjustice and dishonor.
In the French and Indian war which preceded the Revolution there was
fighting for some time before a formal declaration of war. The English
drove the French traders from the Ohio Valley, and the French forced out
the English while the two nations were at peace. The French chassed from
one of their forts to another with fiddles instead of drums, and the
English with fowling-pieces instead of muskets rambled over the forest,
but they sometimes met and introduced each other to acts of war while a
state of hostility was acknowledged by neither. Something like a similar
state of things preceded the War of 1812. Tecumseh was at work trying to
unite all the tribes of Indians in one grand confederacy, ostensibly to
prevent them from selling their lands to the Americans, but possibly for
the purpose of war. While he was at this work his brother, the Prophet,
had convinced the Indians that he had induced the Great Spirit to make
them bullet-proof, and the English so encouraged them with food and
clothing and arms that they believed they were able to conquer the
Americans, and began to carry on hostilities against them without any
formal declaration of war by either party. The battle of Tippecanoe,
which came of this superstition among the Indians and this encouragement
from England, may be considered the first clash of arms in the War of
1812. The English took no open or active part in this battle, but their
arms and ammunition and rations were in it, and after it was lost the
Indians went to the English and became their open allies when the War of
1812 really began. Whether the English were allies of the Indians or the
Indians allies of the English, they fought and bled and died and were
conquered together after the initial conflict at Tippecanoe, in 1811, to
the final battle at New Orleans in 1815, which crowned the American arms
with a glory never to fade.
The Filson Club, whose broad field of work in history, literature,
science, and art is hardly indicated by the name of the first historian
of Kentucky, which it bears, has deemed three of the battles which were
fought during the War of 1812 as the most important of the many that
were waged. These three were, first, the battle of Tippecanoe, regarded
as the opening scene of the bloody drama; second, the battle of the
Thames, by which the power of the British was crushed in the west and
northwest, and third, the battle of New Orleans, which ended the war in
a glorious victory for the Americans. The Club determined to have the
history of these three battles written and filed among its archives, and
to have the matter published for the benefit of the public. Hence, the
task was undertaken by three different members of the Club.
The first of these, "The Battle of Tippecanoe," was prepared for the
Club by Captain Alfred Pirtle, and published in 1900 as Filson Club
Publication Number 15. It is an illustrated quarto of one hundred and
sixty-seven pages, which gives a detailed account of the battle of
Tippecanoe and the acts of the Indians and British which led to it and
the important consequences which followed. The names of the officers and
soldiers, and especially those of Kentucky who were engaged in it, are
given so far as could be ascertained, and the book is a historic record
of this battle, full enough and faithful enough to furnish the reader
with all of the important facts.
The second, "The Battle of the Thames," the 5th of October, 1813, was
undertaken by Colonel Bennett H. Young, and appeared in 1903 as the
eighteenth publication of the Filson Club. It is an elaborately
illustrated quarto of two hundred and eighty-six pages, and presents a
detailed account of the acts which led up to the main battle and the
engagements by land and water which preceded it. It contains a list of
all the Kentuckians who as officers and privates were in the battle. The
reader who seeks information about this battle need look no further than
its pages.
The third and last of these important battles occurred at New Orleans
the 8th of January, 1815. Its history was prepared for the Club by Mr.
Z.F. Smith, and now appears as Filson Club Publication Number Nineteen,
for the year 1904. It is an illustrated quarto in the adopted style of
the Club, which has been so much admired for its antique paper and
beautiful typography. It sets forth with fullness and detail the
hostilities which preceded and led to the main battle, and gives such a
clear description of the final conflict by the assistance of charts as
to enable the reader to understand the maneuvers of both sides and to
virtually see the battle as it progressed from the beginning to the end.
This battle ended the War of 1812, and when the odds against the
Americans are considered, it must be pronounced one of the greatest
victories ever won upon the battlefield. The author, Mr. Z.F. Smith, was
an old-line Whig, and was taught to hate Jackson as Henry Clay, the
leader of the Whigs, hated him, but he has done the old hero full
justice in this narrative, and has assigned him full honors of one of
the greatest victories ever won. Although his sympathies were with
General Adair, a brother Kentuckian, he takes up the quarrel between him
and General Jackson and does Jackson full and impartial justice. If
Jackson had been as unprejudiced against Adair as the author against
Jackson, there would have been nothing like a stain left upon the
escutcheon of the Kentuckians who abandoned the fight on the west bank
of the Mississippi because it was their duty to get out of it rather
than be slaughtered like dumb brutes who neither see impending danger
nor reason about the mistakes of superiors and the consequences. He who
reads the account of the battle of New Orleans which follows this
introduction will know more about that battle than he knew before, or
could have learned from any other source in so small a compass.
R.T. DURRETT,
_President of The Filson Club_.
ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
The Author, _Frontispiece_
Seat of War in Louisiana and Florida, 8
Position of the American and British Armies near New
Orleans on the 8th of January, 1815, 24
Battle of New Orleans, on the 8th of January, 1815, 56
General Andrew Jackson, 72
General John Adair, 112
Governor Isaac Shelby, 164
Colonel Gabriel Slaughter, 174
THE BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS
GULF COAST CAMPAIGN, PRECEDING THE FINAL STRUGGLE.
On the 26th of November, 1814, a fleet of sixty great ships weighed
anchor, unfurled their sails, and put to sea, as the smoke lifted and
floated away from a signal gun aboard the Tonnant, the flagship of
Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane, from Negril Bay, on the coast of
Jamaica. Nearly one half of these vessels were formidable warships, the
best of the English navy, well divided between line-of-battle ships of
sixty-four, seventy-four, and eighty guns, frigates of forty to fifty
guns, and sloops and brigs of twenty to thirty guns each. In all, one
thousand pieces of artillery mounted upon the decks of these frowned
grimly through as many port-holes, bidding defiance to the navies of the
world and safely convoying over thirty transports and provisioning
ships, bearing every equipment for siege or battle by sea and for a
formidable invasion of an enemy's country by land. Admiral Cochrane, in
chief command, and Admiral Malcombe, second in command, were veteran
officers whose services and fame are a part of English history.
On board of this fleet was an army and its retinue, computed by good
authorities to number fourteen thousand men, made up mainly of the
veteran troops of the British military forces recently operating in
Spain and France, trained in the campaigns and battles against Napoleon
through years of war, and victors in the end in these contests. Major
Latour, Chief Engineer of General Jackson's army, in his "Memoirs of the
War in Florida and Louisiana in 1814-15," has carefully compiled from
British official sources a detailed statement of the regiments, corps,
and companies which constituted the army of invasion under Pakenham, at
New Orleans, as follows:
Fourth Regiment--
King's Own, Lieutenant-colonel Brooks 750
Seventh Regiment--
Royal Fusileers, Lieutenant-colonel Blakency 850
Fourteenth Regiment--
Duchess of York's Own, Lieutenant-colonel Baker 350
Twenty-first Regiment--
Royal Fusileers, Lieutenant-colonel Patterson 900
Fortieth Regiment--
Somersetshire, Lieutenant-colonel H. Thornton 1,000
Forty-third Regiment--
Monmouth Light Infantry, Lieutenant-colonel Patrickson 850
Forty-fourth Regiment--
East Essex, Lieutenant-colonel Mullen 750
Eighty-fifth Regiment--
Buck Volunteers, Lieutenant-colonel Wm. Thornton 650
Ninety-third Regiment--
Highlanders, Lieutenant-colonel Dale 1,100
Ninety-fifth Regiment--
Rifle Corps, Major Mitchell 500
First Regiment--
West India (colored), Lieutenant-colonel Whitby 700
Fifth Regiment--
West India (colored), Lieutenant-colonel Hamilton 700
A detachment from the Sixty-second Regiment 350
Rocket Brigade, Artillery, Engineers, Sappers and
Miners 1,500
Royal Marines and sailors from the fleet 3,500
------
Total 14,450
Including artillerists, marines, and others, seamen of the ships' crews
afloat, there were not fewer than eighteen thousand men, veterans in the
service of their country in the lines of their respective callings, to
complete the equipment of this powerful armada.
At the head of this formidable army of invasion were Lord Edward
Pakenham, commander-in-chief; Major-general Samuel Gibbs, commanding the
first, Major-general John Lambert, the second, and Major-general John
Keene, the third divisions, supported by subordinate officers, than whom
none living were braver or more skilled in the science and practice of
war. Nearly all had learned their lessons under the great Wellington,
the conqueror of Napoleon. Since 1588, when the combined naval and
military forces of England were summoned to repel the attempted invasion
and conquest of that country by the Spanish Armada, the British
Government had not often fitted out and sent against an enemy a combined
armament so powerful and so costly as that which rendezvoused in the
tropical waters of Negril Bay in the latter autumn days of 1814. Even
the fleet of Nelson at the Battle of the Nile, sixteen years before,
where he won victory and immortal honors by the destruction of the
formidable French fleet, was far inferior in number of vessels, in
ordnance, and in men to that of Admiral Cochrane on this expedition. The
combined equipment cost England forty millions of dollars.
In October and November of this year, the marshaling of belligerent
forces by sea and land from the shores of Europe and America, with
orders to rendezvous at a favorable maneuvering point in the West
Indies, caused much conjecture as to the object in view. That the War
Department of the English Government meditated a winter campaign
somewhere upon the southern coasts of the United States was a common
belief; that an invasion of Louisiana and the capture and occupation of
New Orleans was meant, many surmised. For reasons of State policy, the
object of the expedition in view was held a secret until the day of
setting sail. Now it was disclosed by those in command that New Orleans
was the objective point, and officers and men were animated with the
hope that, in a few weeks more, they would be quartered for the winter
in the subjugated capital of Louisiana, with a dream that the coveted
territory might be occupied and permanently held as a possession of the
British Empire.
The Government at Washington was advised that, during the summer and
early autumn months of 1814, our implacable enemy was engaged in
preparations for a renewal of hostilities on a scale of magnitude and
activity beyond anything attempted since the war began; but it seemed
not fully to interpret the designs and plans of the British leaders.
Especially unfortunate, and finally disastrous to the American arms, was
the inaptness and inertness of the Secretary of War, General Armstrong,
in failing to adopt, promptly and adequately, measures to meet the
emergency. For almost a year after the destruction of the English fleet
on Lake Erie by Commodore Perry, and of the English army at the battle
of the Thames by General Harrison, a period of comparative repose ensued
between the belligerents. The British Government was too much absorbed
in delivering the _coup-de-main_ to the great Napoleon to give attention
to America. But her opportunity came. The allied powers defeated and
decimated the armies of the French Emperor, and forced him to capitulate
in his own capital. On the 3d of March, 1814, they entered Paris. On the
eleventh of May Napoleon abdicated, and was sent an exile to Elba.
England was at peace with all Europe. Her conquering armies and fleets
would be idle for an indefinite period; yet, it would be premature to
disband the former or to dismantle the latter. Naturally, attention
turned to the favorable policy of employing these vast and ready
resources for the chastisement and humiliation of her American enemies,
as a fit closing of the war and punishment for their rebellious
defiance. Under orders, the troops in France and Spain were marched to
Bordeaux and placed in a camp of concentration, from which they were
debarked in fleets down the river Garonne, and across the Atlantic to
their destinations in America. An English officer with these troops
expressed the sentiment of the soldiers and seamen, and of the average
citizen of England at this time, in this language: "It was the general
opinion that a large proportion of the Peninsular army would be
transported to the other side of the Atlantic, that the war would there
be carried on with vigor, and that no terms of accommodation would be
listened to, except such as a British general should dictate in the
Republican Senate."
Overtures for the negotiation-of a treaty of peace had been interchanged
between the two nations at war as early as January. By April the
American Commissioners were in Europe, though the arrival of the English
Commissioners at Ghent for final deliberations was delayed until August.
Meanwhile, several thousands of these Peninsular troops were transported
to reinforce the army in Canada. On the sixteenth of August a small
fleet of British vessels in Chesapeake Bay was reinforced by thirty sail
under the command of Admirals Cochrane and Malcombe, one half of which
were ships of war. A large part of this flotilla moved up the Potomac
and disembarked about six thousand men, under command of General Ross.
The battle of Bladensburg was fought on the twenty-fourth, followed
immediately by the capture of Washington and the burning of the
Government buildings there. A few days after, the combined naval and
military British forces were defeated in an attack on Baltimore, General
Ross, commander-in-chief, being among the slain. About the same date,
Commodore McDonough won a great and crushing victory over the English
fleet on Lake Champlain, while the British army of fourteen thousand
men, under Sir George Prevost, was signally defeated by the Americans,
less than seven thousand in number, at Plattsburg, on the border of New
York.
Such was the military situation in the first month of autumn, 1814.
Seemingly, the British plenipotentiaries had a motive in reserve for
delaying the negotiations for peace. England yet looked upon the United
States as her wayward prodigal, and conjured many grievances against the
young nation that had rebuked her cruel insolence and pride in two wars.
She nursed a spirit of imperious and bitter revenge. A London organ,
recently before, had said: "In diplomatic circles it is rumored that our
military and naval commanders in America have no power to conclude any
armistice or suspension of arms. Terms will be offered to the American
Government at the point of the bayonet. America will be left in a much
worse situation as a commercial and naval power than she was at the
commencement of the war."
[Illustration: SEAT OF WAR. LOUISIANA & FLORIDA]
The reverses to the British arms on Lake Champlain, at Plattsburg, and
at Baltimore, virtually ended hostilities in the Northern States for the
remaining period of the war. Winter approaching, all belligerent
forces that could be marshaled would be transferred to the waters of
the Gulf for operations on the coast there. The malice and wanton
barbarity of the English in burning the national buildings and property
at Washington, in the destruction and loot of houses, private and
public, on the shores of the Chesapeake and Atlantic, and in repeated
military outrages unjustified by the laws of civilized warfare, had
fully aroused the Government and the citizenship to the adoption of
adequate measures of defense for the Northern and Eastern States. It was
too late, however, to altogether repair the injuries done to the army of
the Southwest by the tardiness and default of the head of the War
Department, which, as General Jackson said in an official report,
threatened defeat and disaster to his command at New Orleans. Indignant
public sentiment laid the blame of the capture of Washington, and of the
humiliating disasters there, to the same negligence and default of this
official, which led to his resignation soon after.
GENERAL JACKSON ASSUMES COMMAND OF THE SEVENTH MILITARY DISTRICT OF
THE SOUTHWEST.
General Andrew Jackson had, in July, 1814, been appointed a
major-general in the United States army, and assigned the command of the
Southern department, with headquarters at Mobile. His daring and
successful campaigns against the Indian allies of the British the year
previous had won for him the confidence of the Government and of the
people, and distinguished him as the man fitted for the emergency. At
the beginning of the war British emissaries busily sought to enlist,
arm, and equip all the Indians of the Southern tribes whom they could
disaffect, as their allies, and to incite them to a war of massacre,
pillage, and destruction against the white settlers, as they did with
the savage tribes north of the Ohio River. In this they were
successfully aided by Tecumseh, the Shawanee chief, and his brother, the
Prophet. These were sons of a Creek mother and a Shawanee brave. By
relationship, and by the rude eloquence of the former and the mystic
arts and incantations of the latter, they brought into confederacy with
Northern tribes--which they had organized as allies of the English in a
last hope of destroying American power in the West--almost the entire
Creek nation. These savages, though at peace under treaty and largely
supported by the fostering aid of our Government, began hostilities
after their usual methods of indiscriminate massacre and marauding
destruction, regardless of age or sex or condition, against the exposed
settlers. The latter sought refuge as they could in the rude stockade
stations, but feebly garrisoned. At Fort Mims, on the Alabama River,
nearly three hundred old men and women and children, with a small
garrison of soldiers, were captured in a surprise attack by a large body
of warriors, and all massacred in cold blood. This atrocious outbreak
aroused the country, and led to speedy action for defense and terrible
chastisement for the guilty perpetrators. The British officers offered
rewards for scalps brought in, as under Proctor in the Northwest, and
many scalps of men and women murdered were exchanged for this horrible
blood-money.
In October, 1813, General Jackson led twenty-five hundred Tennessee
militia, who had been speedily called out, into the Creek country in
Alabama. A corps of one thousand men from Georgia, and another of
several hundred from the territory of Mississippi, invaded the same from
different directions. Sanguinary battles with the savages were fought by
Jackson's command at Tallasehatche, Talladega, Hillabee, Autosse,
Emuckfau, Tohopeka, and other places, with signal success to the
American arms in every instance. The villages and towns of the enemy
were burned, their fields and gardens laid waste, and the survivors
driven to the woods and swamps. Not less than five thousand of the great
Ocmulgee nation perished in this war, either in battle or from the
ruinous results of their treachery after. Nearly one thousand of the
border settlers were sacrificed, one half of whom were women and
children or other non-combatants, the victims of the malignant designs
and arts of British emissaries. The chief of the Creeks sued for peace,
and terms were negotiated by General Jackson on the 14th of August,
1814.
From his headquarters at Mobile, in September, 1814, General Jackson,
with sleepless vigilance, was anticipating and watching the movements of
the British upon the Gulf coast, and marshaling his forces to resist any
attack. There had been reported to him the arrival of a squadron of nine
English ships in the harbor of Pensacola. Spain was at peace with our
country, and it was due that the Spanish commandant of Florida, yet a
province of Spain, should observe a strict neutrality pending
hostilities. Instead of this comity of good faith and friendship, the
Spanish officials had permitted this territory to become a refuge for
the hostile Indians. Here they could safely treat with the British
agents, from whom they received the implements of war, supplies of food
and clothing, and the pay and emoluments incident to their services as
allies in war. In violation of the obligations of neutrality, the
Spanish officials not only tolerated this trespass on the territory of
Florida, but, truckling to the formidable power and prestige of the
great English nation, they dared openly to insult our own Government by
giving aid and encouragement to our enemy in their very capital.
The most important and accessible point in Spanish Florida was
Pensacola. Here the Governor, Gonzalez Maurequez, held court and
dispensed authority over the province. The pride of the Spaniards in the
old country and in Florida and Louisiana was deeply wounded over the
summary sale of the territory of Louisiana by Napoleon to the United
States in 1803; recalling the compulsory cession of the same to France
by Spain in 1800. Naturally they resented with spirit what they deemed
an indignity to the honor and sovereignty of their nation. The Spanish
minister at Washington entered a solemn protest against the transaction;
questions of boundaries soon after became a continuing cause of
irritating dispute. The Dons contended that all east of the Mississippi
River was Florida territory and subject to their jurisdiction. A
military demonstration by General Wilkinson, then in command of the army
of the Southwest, was ordered from Washington, opposition awed into
silence, and the transfer made. In brief time after the boundaries of
Florida were fixed on the thirty-first degree of north latitude, and
east of a line near to the present boundary between Louisiana and
Mississippi. Previously Mobile was the seat of government for Florida,
but American aggression made the removal of the Government to Pensacola
compulsory, and gave an additional cause of grievance to our sensitive
neighbors. Under British auspices and promises of protection, the
Governor displayed his resentment.
To confirm the report that came to him at Mobile of the arrival of an
English squadron in Pensacola Bay, and of treacherous aid and comfort
being given by the Spanish Governor, Jackson sent as spies some friendly
Indians to the scene of operations, with instructions to furtively
observe all that could be seen and known, and report to him the
information. It was confirmed that the ships were in the harbor, and
that a camp of English soldiers was in the town; that a considerable
body of Indian recruits had been armed and were being drilled, and that
runners had been dispatched to the country to invite and bring others to
the coast to join them as comrades in arms. A few days after, a friendly
courier brought news that several hundred marines had landed from the
ships, that Colonel Nichols in command and his staff were guests of
Governor Maurequez, and that the British flag was floating with the flag
of Spain over one of the Spanish forts.
An order issued about this time by Colonel Nichols to his troops,
followed by a proclamation to the people of Louisiana and Kentucky,
revealed in visible outlines something of the purposes and plans of the
menacing armaments. He advised his command that the troops would
probably soon be called upon to endure long and tedious marches through
forests and swamps in an enemy's country, and exhorted them to
conciliate their Indian allies and "never to give them just cause of
offense." He addressed the most inflammatory appeals to the national
pride and prejudices of the French people of Louisiana, and to supposed
discontented citizens of Kentucky, whose grievances had grown out of
their neglect by the National Government or been engendered by the arts
of designing politicians and adventurers.
BATTLE AT MOBILE BAY--THE BRITISH REPULSED.
General Jackson strongly suspected that Louisiana would be invaded, and
that New Orleans was designed to be the main and final point of attack.
Yet he was led to believe that the British would attempt the capture of
Mobile first, for strategic reasons. Early in September he reinforced
the garrison of Fort Bowyer, situated thirty miles south of Mobile. This
fortification, mounting twenty cannon, commanded the entrance to the
harbor. It was garrisoned by one hundred and thirty men, under the
command of Major William Lawrence. On the fifteenth of September the
attack was made by a squadron of four ships of war, assisted by a land
force of seven hundred marines and Indians. Though the enemy mounted
ninety-two pieces of artillery, in the assault made they were defeated
and driven off to sea again, with a loss of two hundred killed and
wounded, the flagship of the commander sent to the bottom, and the
remaining ships seriously damaged.
ASSAULT AND CAPTURE OF PENSACOLA, THE SPANISH CAPITAL OF
FLORIDA--THE BRITISH DRIVEN TO SEA.
Incensed at the open and continued violations of neutrality by the
Spanish Governor, who had permitted Pensacola to be made a recruiting
camp for the arming and drilling of their Indian allies by the British,
General Jackson determined to march his army against this seat of
government, and to enforce the observance of neutrality on the part of
the Spanish commandant at the point of the bayonet if need be. He had
removed his headquarters to Fort Montgomery, where by the first of
November his command consisted of one thousand regular troops and two
thousand militia, mainly from Tennessee and Mississippi--in all, about
three thousand men. With these he set out for Pensacola, and on the
evening of the sixth of November encamped within two miles of the town.
He sent in Major Peire, bearing a flag of truce to the Governor, with a
message that Pensacola must no longer be a refuge and camp for the
enemies of the United States, and that the town must be surrendered,
together with the forts. The messenger was fired on and driven back from
Fort St. Michael, over which the British flag had been floating jointly
with the flag of Spain. The firing was done by British troops harbored
within. Governor Maurequez disavowed knowledge of the outrage, but
refused to surrender his authority. The next morning the intrepid
Jackson entered the town and carried by storm its defenses, the British
retreating to their ships and putting off to sea. Fort Barrancas was
blown up by the enemy, to prevent the Americans from turning its guns
upon the escaping British vessels. The Spanish commandant made profuse
apologies, and pledged that he would in future observe a strict
neutrality.
Jackson, fearing another attempt to capture Mobile by the retiring
fleet, withdrew from Pensacola and marched for the former place,
arriving there on the eleventh of November. At Mobile, messengers from
those in highest authority at New Orleans met him, urging that he
hasten there with his army and at once begin measures for the defense of
that city. Information had been received by W.C. Claiborne, then
Governor of Louisiana, from a highly credited source--most unexpected,
but most fortunate and welcome--that the vast British armament of ships
and men rendezvousing in the West Indies was about ready to sail, and
that New Orleans was assuredly the objective point of the expedition.
LAFITTE, THE PIRATE OF THE GULF, AND HIS SEA-ROVERS, LOYAL TO THE
AMERICAN CAUSE.
The informant was the celebrated Captain Jean Lafitte, the leader of the
reputed pirates of the Gulf, who had been outlawed by an edict of our
Government. The circumstances were so romantic, and displayed such a
patriotic love for and loyalty to our country, that they are worthy of
brief mention. As Byron wrote, he
Left a corsair's name to other times,
Linked with one virtue and a thousand crimes.
But this does injustice to these _marauders of the sea_, who put in a
plea of extenuation. The disparity of their virtues and their crimes is
overwrought in the use of poetic license. Before the period of the
conquest of Guadeloupe by the English, the French Government in force
on that island had granted permits to numerous privateersmen to prey
upon the commerce of the enemy, as our own Government had done in two
wars. Now they could no longer enter the ports of that or of any other
of the West India islands, with their prizes and cargoes. Lafitte and
his daring sea-rovers made of the Bay of Barataria, on the Gulf coast
sixty miles south of New Orleans, a place of rendezvous and headquarters
for their naval and commercial adventures. From this point they had
ready and almost unobserved communication by navigable bayous with New
Orleans and the marts beyond. They formed a sequestered colony on the
shores of Barataria, and among the bold followers of Lafitte there were
nearly one hundred men skilled in navigation, expert in the use of
artillery, and familiar with every bay and inlet within one hundred
miles of the Crescent City. Their services, if attainable, might be made
invaluable in the invasion and investment of New Orleans contemplated by
the British, who through their spies kept well informed of the
conditions of the environment of the city. The time seemed opportune to
win them over. If not pirates under our laws, they were smugglers who
found it necessary to market the rich cargoes they captured and brought
in as privateersmen. Barred out by other nations, New Orleans was
almost the lone market for their wares and for their distribution
inland. Many merchants and traders favored this traffic, and had grown
rich in doing so, despite the severity of our revenue laws against
smuggling and the protests of other nations with whom we were friendly.
One of the Lafitte brothers and other leaders of the outlawed community
were under arrest and held for trial in the Federal Court at New Orleans
at this time. From Pensacola, Colonel Nichols sent Captains Lockyer, of
the navy, and Williams, of the army, as emissaries to offer to the
Baratarian outlaws the most enticing terms and the most liberal rewards,
provided they would enlist in the service of the British in their
invasion of Louisiana. Lafitte received them cautiously, but
courteously. He listened to their overtures, and feigned deep interest
in their mission. Having fully gained their confidence, they delivered
to him sealed packages from Colonel Nichols himself, offering thirty
thousand dollars in hand, high commissions in the English service for
the officers, and liberal pay for the men, on condition that the
Baratarians would ally themselves with the British forces. After the
reading of these documents, the emissaries began to enlarge on the
subject, insisting on the great advantages to result on enlisting in the
service of his Britannic Majesty, and the opportunity afforded of
acquiring fame and fortune. They were imprudent enough to disclose to
Lafitte the purpose and plans of the great English flotilla in the
waters of the Gulf, now ready to enter upon their execution. The army of
invasion, supported by the navy of England, would be invincible, and all
lower Louisiana would soon be in the possession of the British. They
would then penetrate the upper country, and act in concert with the
forces in Canada. On plausible pretexts the emissaries were delayed for
a day or two, and then returned to their ship lying at anchor outside
the pass into the harbor. Lafitte lost little time in visiting New
Orleans and laying before Governor Claiborne the letters of Colonel
Nichols and the sensational information he had received from the British
envoys.
It was this intelligence which was borne in haste to General Jackson at
Mobile, by the couriers mentioned previously. The Lafittes promptly
tendered the services of themselves, their officers, and their men, in a
body to the American army, and pledged to do all in their power, by sea
and land, to defeat and repel the invading enemy, on condition that the
Government would accept their enlistment, pardon them of all offenses,
and remove from over them the ban of outlawry. This was all finally
done, and no recruits of Jackson's army rendered more gallant and
effective service, for their numbers, in the stirring campaign that
followed. They outclassed the English gunners in artillery practice, and
showed themselves to be veterans as marines or soldiers.
On receipt of this information of Lafitte, confirmed from other secret
and reliable sources, the citizens were aroused. A mass-meeting was held
in New Orleans and a Committee of Safety appointed, composed of Edward
Livingston, Pierre Fouchet, De la Croix, Benjamin Morgan, Dominique
Bouligny, J.A. Destrahan, John Blanque, and Augustine Macarte, who acted
in concert with Governor Claiborne, and with the Legislature called into
session.
JACKSON ARRIVES IN NEW ORLEANS.
General Jackson left Mobile on the twenty-first of November and arrived
with his little army at New Orleans on the second of December, and
established headquarters at 984 (now 406) Royal Street. He found the
city well-nigh defenseless, while petty factions divided the councils of
leaders and people, especially rife among the members of the
Legislature. There was, incident to recent changes of sovereignties and
conditions of nationalities, serious disaffection on the part of a most
respectable element of the population of Louisiana and Florida toward
the American Government. The French and Spaniards, who mainly composed
the population, intensely loved their native countries with a patriotic
pride. They knew allegiance to no other, until a few years before, by
the arbitrary edicts of Napoleon, all of Louisiana was sold and
transferred to the United States. Other causes of irritation added to
the bitterness of resentment felt by the old Spanish element. Spain
tenaciously insisted on enforcing her claims of sovereignty to all
territory from the east bank of the Mississippi to the Perdido River, on
the east line of Alabama. But the American settlers within the same
became turbulent, and in October, 1810, these bold bordermen organized a
filibustering force of some strength, captured and took possession of
Baton Rouge, killing Commandant Grandpre, who yet asserted there the
authority of Spain. When Congress met, in December, 1810, an act was
passed in secret session authorizing the President to take military
possession of the disputed coast country in certain contingencies. Under
orders from Washington, General Wilkinson, with a force of six hundred
regulars, marched against Mobile, took possession of the Spanish fort,
Charlotte, and caused the garrison to withdraw to Pensacola.
This precipitate action--the British envoy protesting against such
informal occupation--was justified at home on the plea of strong grounds
of suspicion that England herself might suddenly assert sovereignty over
the same territory under secret treaty with Spain. Amid these rude and
revolutionary proceedings, all within a decade of years, necessarily
there followed a tumult of differing sentiment and contentions among the
Spanish, French, and American people of the section. Fortunately the
French element were of a nativity whose country had been for generations
the inveterate enemy of the English, our common foe. If there were any
who felt resentment before over the enforced change of allegiance from
beloved France to the stranger sovereignty, when the crisis of campaign
and battle came none were more gallant and brave in meeting the invading
enemy.
On the ninth of December the great English flotilla appeared off
Chandeleur Islands, and came to anchor near to Ship Island, the
shallowness of the water not permitting the nearer approach to the main
shore of vessels so large. The British authorities yet believed that the
destination of this fleet was unknown to the Americans ashore; but in
this they were mistaken, as they afterward admitted. The inadequacy of
men and means and measures to properly meet and repel such an
invading force, as mentioned before, was mainly due to the tardy
negligence of the department at Washington. The sleepless vigilance and
untiring energy of General Jackson was in marked contrast to this, not
only within his own military jurisdiction, but in the whole region
around. His trusty spies, pale and dusky, were everywhere, and little
escaped his attention. The situation was now critical in the extreme.
Fortunately, the unbounded confidence all had in their military chief
inspired hope and infused energy among the people. He had never been
defeated in battle. If any one could wrest victory now out of the
inauspicious and chaotic conditions that threatened disaster, they
believed it to be General Jackson.
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