THE NAVY AT THE BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS
THE BRITISH GRAB AT THE VALLEY OF THE MISSISSIPPI--STOPPED AT LAKE
BORGNE BY THE YANKEE GUNBOATS UNDER LIEUTENANT THOMAS AP CATESBY
JONES--THE BRITISH CAME FIVE TO ONE IN NUMBERS AND ALMOST FOUR TO
ONE IN WEIGHT OF METAL--DEFENDING THE _SEAHORSE_ WITH FOURTEEN MEN
AGAINST ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-FIVE--THE FULL BRITISH FORCE DRIVEN
UPON TWO GUNBOATS--A MOST HEROIC DEFENCE THAT LASTED, IN SPITE OF
OVERWHELMING ODDS, MORE THAN ONE HOUR--INDOMITABLE SAILING-MASTER
GEORGE ULRICH--A FIGHT, THE MEMORY OF WHICH STILL HELPS TO PRESERVE
THE PEACE--WORK OF THE _CAROLINE_ AND THE _LOUISIANA_.
Small space is given in ordinary histories to the doings of the Navy
in connection with the defence of New Orleans, when it was attacked by
the British at the end of the War of 1812. As the reader will remember,
the expedition against New Orleans was planned for the purpose of
wresting from the United States the whole valley of the Mississippi. As
France had endeavored in the eighteenth century to establish an empire,
extending from the Great Lakes through the Mississippi water-shed to
the Gulf of Mexico, that should hem in the British colonies on the
Atlantic, so now the English strove to gain possession of what has
become the heart of the American republic. The reader has only to
consider what would have been the consequences of British possession
of the metropolis of the Louisiana purchase to understand how the
British Government has always looked ahead when seeking for territorial
aggrandizement.
From an American point of view this expedition against New Orleans
was infamous, for the reason that ministers representing both nations
were negotiating a treaty of peace at Ghent when the order for the
attack was issued. As one reads of the strength of the force sent
to accomplish this work, it seems invincible. “A great fleet of
war-vessels--ships-of-the-line, frigates, and sloops--under Admiral
Cochrane was convoying a still larger fleet of troop-ships, with some
ten thousand fighting men, chiefly the fierce and hardy veterans of the
Peninsula War, who had been trained for seven years in the stern school
of the Iron Duke, and who were now led by one of the bravest and ablest
of all Wellington’s brave and able lieutenants, Sir Edward Packenham.”
[Illustration: Sir Edward Michael Packenham.
_From an etching by Rosenthal of a print in the collection of Mr.
Clarence S. Bement._]
Favored by wind and weather, the leaders of this fleet--the
line-of-battle ships and frigates--reached the Chandeleur Islands
on December 8, 1814, and came to anchor. They reviewed the ground
that lay between them and the city they intended to take, and they
found that the current of the great river was too strong for their
wind-borne ships. So another, and apparently an easier, route was
chosen--the route through the inlets and bayous of which the breadth
of water called Lake Borgne was the most conspicuous feature. It was a
landlocked route with a sufficient depth of water to float boats and
transports, and the sole obstruction that the Americans could offer to
the mighty host of invaders was a fleet of five gun-boats and two tiny
tenders, one a schooner and one a sloop, that together could offer a
broadside of fourteen guns, including a number of insignificant (short)
six-pounders, the whole throwing two hundred and twelve pounds of
metal, and manned by one hundred and ninety-four men, all told, under
the command of Lieutenant Thomas ap Catesby Jones.
Very quickly the British admiral discovered these seven boats, and on
December 12th sent a force to destroy them. With the emphatic assertion
of the favorite British historian James in mind--the assertion that
“the British, when engaged in expeditions of this nature, always rest
their hopes of success upon valor rather than on numbers”--what does
the uninformed reader suppose was the strength of this expedition?
Whatever the supposition may be, the fact is that even James admits
that it included no less than forty-two launches, all armed with
carronades, chiefly twenty-four and eighteen-pounders, but some
carrying twelve-pounders--forty-two launches, carrying guns that threw
not less than seven hundred and fifty-eight pounds of shot at a single
discharge, and _manned by nine hundred and eighty men picked from among
the ships of the squadron_.
Lieutenant Jones saw the barge squadron approaching, and recognized
that its force was overwhelming, but he was in no way dismayed. He
might have run his gun-boats ashore and burned them without discredit,
but he chose to fight instead. Sending one of his little tenders,
called the _Seahorse_, that carried one six-pounder and fourteen men,
to destroy some stores at Bay St. Louis, he tried to carry his five
gun-boats to Les Petites Coquilles, where they would have the support
of a small fort. He failed to do this because the wind was baffling and
the current strong. So he anchored his boats in line across Malheureux
Island Passage and there awaited the enemy.
In the meantime the British had seen the _Seahorse_ moored under the
bank at Bay St. Louis, and they sent seven launches to take her: She
carried, as told, one six-pounder and a crew of fourteen, commanded by
Sailing-master William Johnson. There were two six-pounders on shore
to help her. On came the British with their seven launches, armed
with guns of which the least was a twelve-pounder, and manned by
at least one hundred and seventy-five men. They came on with a dash
until Johnson opened fire and then they stopped and tried the virtues
of their seven cannon. But “it appears that after sustaining a very
destructive fire for nearly half an hour, the boats were repulsed.” So
says James.
[Illustration: MAP SHOWING MOUTHS OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.]
The Americans, with three six-pounders, had beaten off nearly two
hundred picked British seamen armed with seven guns, of which the least
was a twelve-pounder!
However, the British did not give it up altogether. They got
reinforcements--the exact number of boats is not given--and returned,
when Johnson destroyed his boat and the stores on shore and made a good
retreat. Allen does not even mention this attack on the _Seahorse_.
At about the same time the _Alligator_, the other tender to the main
fleet, while trying to reach the gun-boats, was surrounded by the
British fleet. Sailing-master Sheppard commanded her, and she carried
one gun and a crew of eight men, all told. Mr. Sheppard surrendered.
As ill-luck would have it, after Lieutenant Jones had anchored his
fleet of gun-boats in line, the strong current in the channel caused
two of them--Number 156, which Jones himself commanded, and Number
163, commanded by Sailing-master George Ulrich--to drag their anchors
until they were about one hundred yards below the rest of the fleet.
This happened at 3 o’clock on the morning of December 14, 1814. It was
a most serious misfortune, because the two were thus deprived of the
efficient support of the other three. And before the two could regain
their positions in line the full force of the British fleet came upon
them.
Seeing the Americans were vigilant, Captain Lockyer anchored his
squadron, served breakfast, gave the men time to smoke and rest,
and then ordered the advance. Captain Lockyer himself led the way,
and with two other barges strove to board Number 156, where Jones
commanded. For the moment it was a force of not less than seventy-five
against the forty-one under Jones. But not one of them got over the
rail of the gun-boat. Almost every man in Lockyer’s barge was killed or
wounded, Lockyer himself being severely hurt; and as for the two other
barges, both were sunk.
But a whelming host had come. There were thirty-nine well-manned boats
left to continue the attack, and this entire host was concentrated on
the two gun-boats that had drifted down from the original line. They
surrounded the two as a pack of hounds surround a fox. They rushed in
until they felt the teeth of the bayed; they backed off and barked, and
rushed in again, only to be beaten off once more by the desperate crew
fighting under an indomitable leader. In a little time that leader was
cut down, but another as heroic--Midshipman George Parker--took his
place, and with equal gallantry and skill continued the fight. Almost
the entire British force was now directed at the flag-boat. With their
great guns they hailed grape and canister at short range, and again and
again sought to carry it by boarding, only to be driven off, until at
last Parker, too, fell wounded and wholly disabled. The boarding-nets
had now been shot away. The crew was cut to pieces and there was no
longer any officer to direct them. And yet when the British, seeing
the advantage gained, made a last rush, these sailors stood to their
posts until the sheer weight of numbers--a dozen of the enemy on one
man--bore them down.
Repeating for the sake of emphasis that there were, for the time,
forty-two boats against two, how long does the uninformed reader
suppose those American heroes held out against the hosts that swarmed
to the rails? To the honor of the flag be it said that the firing began
at 10.50 o’clock and it was not until 12.10 o’clock that the British
were able to carry the deck of Number 156. _For more than one hour
the Americans had held the ship._ And Sailing-master George Ulrich
in Number 163, the smallest of the American fleet, did still better.
For although he had at the beginning but twenty-one men on his boat,
he was still fighting when the flag-boat was captured, and he did not
surrender until her guns were turned upon him.
The heart of the Americans was broken when the flag came down on these
two, for the full force of the now victorious squadron was turned on
the three above. Nevertheless, it was not until 12.30 o’clock that
the last boat surrendered. It had taken nine hundred and eighty men
with forty-two great guns one hour and forty minutes to whip the one
hundred and seventy-two men on the five Yankee gun-boats.
There was the usual Court of Inquiry to determine how it was that these
five boats were lost. The officers and seamen of the little fleet were
examined separately under oath, and when the evidence was all in, it
was declared that “the action has added another and distinguished honor
to the naval character of our country.”
The Americans lost six men killed and thirty-five wounded. The British
historians admit that their loss was seventeen killed and seventy-seven
wounded. The American officers estimated the British loss at nearly
three hundred, and when we recall the deliberation as well as
desperation of the American resistance, and the length of time that the
little force held out, it is safe to say that the American estimate was
much nearer the truth than the British report. For it is not possible
that so small a loss as ninety-four in killed and wounded could hold
in check nine hundred and eighty men under determined officers for
more than one hour. Among the British wounded were one captain, five
lieutenants, three master’s mates, and seven midshipmen. The killed on
the British side included three midshipmen.
The American gun-boats, though few by count and insignificant in
the number of their men, when compared with the British hosts, had
nevertheless served not only to check the advance of the enemy at
a time when every day gained for preparing to defend the city was
precious, but to give the arrogant enemy a foretaste of the character
of the resistance that was to be met at the city, and it was a
foretaste that remained in the mouth.
Besides the little fleet of gun-boats on the bayous, the Americans
had two war-vessels in the river. One was the schooner _Caroline_,
Master-Commandant Daniel T. Patterson, that mounted six short twelves
on each side and one long twelve on a pivot. After the British had
effected a landing and were encamped at Villeré’s plantation on the
Mississippi below the city, the _Caroline_ dropped down with the
current until opposite the British camp. It was on December 23, 1814,
and at 7 o’clock at night that she left the city. The position taken
was so close in to the camp that the British heard the orders given on
her deck distinctly. They hailed her but got no answer. Then they fired
some muskets at her, but these had no effect until at 8 o’clock, when
they heard a voice say:
“Give them this for the honor of America.”
A broadside of grape-shot followed that threw the British camp into
confusion. As a British account says:
“An incessant cannonade was then kept up which could not be silenced,
for our people had no artillery, and a few rockets that were discharged
deviated so much from their object as to afford only amusement for the
enemy. Under such circumstances, therefore, all were ordered to leave
their fires and shelter themselves under the dikes, where they lay
each as he could find room, listening in painful silence to the iron
hail among the boats and to the shrieks and groans of those that were
wounded.”
By the 27th of the month, however, the British got a heavy battery
of five guns located where it would bear on the schooner, while the
schooner could only reply with the long twelve. Then they opened on
her with red-hot shot. There was a northerly wind blowing to help the
current. The schooner could not retreat up river against it, and to go
down stream was to fall in with British ships. After a loss of seven
killed and wounded she was fired and abandoned.
The other American ship was the _Louisiana_, carrying eight long
twenty-fours on each side. She was valuable in annoying the British
when they were advancing on the city, during which time she is said
to have thrown eight hundred shot among them. And in the battle that
followed, on January 8, 1815, she served as guard to the American
flank.