Beacon Lights of History, Volume 12 | Page 7

Major Lawrence, a most gallant officer. These troops
were of course unacquainted with the use of artillery, but they put the
fort in the best condition they could, and on the 12th of September the
enemy appeared, the fleet under Captain Percy, and a body of marines
and Indians under Colonel Nichols. Jackson, then at Mobile, apprised
of the appearance of the British, hastily reinforced the fort, about to be
attacked by a large force confident of success. On the 15th of
September the attack began; the English battered down the ramparts of
the fortifications, and anchored their ships within gun-shot of the fort;
but so gallant was the defence that the ships were disabled, and the
enemy retreated, with a loss of about one hundred men. This victory
saved Mobile; and more, it gave confidence to the small army on whom
the defence of the coast of the Gulf of Mexico depended.

Jackson forthwith issued his bulletins or proclamations in a truly
Napoleonic style to the inhabitants of Louisiana, to rally to the defence
of New Orleans, which he saw would probably be the next object of
attack on the part of the British. On the 2d of December he personally
reached that city and made preparations for the expected assault, and,
ably assisted by Edward Livingston, the most prominent lawyer of the
city, enlisted for the defence the French creoles, the American residents,
and a few Spaniards.
New Orleans was a prize which the English coveted, and to possess it
that government had willingly expended a million of pounds sterling.
The city not only controlled the commerce of the Mississippi, but in it
were stored one hundred and fifty thousand bales of cotton, and eight
hundred and ten thousand hogsheads of sugar, all of which the English
government expected to seize. It contained at that time about twenty
thousand people,--less than half of whom were whites, and these
chiefly French creoles,--besides a floating population of sailors and
traders.
New Orleans is built on a bend in the Mississippi, in the shape of a
horse-shoe, about one hundred miles from where by a sinuous
southeasterly course the river empties into the Gulf of Mexico. At the
city the river was about a mile wide, with a current of four miles an
hour, and back of the town was a swamp, draining to the north into
Lake Ponchartrain, and to the east into Lake Borgne, which opens out
into the Gulf east of the city. It was difficult for sailing-vessels at that
time to ascend the river one hundred miles against the current, if forts
and batteries were erected on its banks; and a sort of back entrance was
afforded to the city for small vessels through lakes and lagoons at a
comparatively short distance. On one of these lakes, Lake Borgne, a
flotilla of light gunboats was placed for defence, under the command of
Lieutenant Jones, but on December 14th an overpowering force of
small British vessels dispersed the American squadron, and on the
twenty-second about fifteen hundred regulars, the picked men of the
British army, fresh from European victories under Wellington,
contrived to find their way unperceived through the swamps and
lagoons to the belt of plantations between the river and the swamps,

about nine miles below New Orleans.
When the news arrived of the loss of the gunboats, which made the
enemy the masters of Lake Borgne, a panic spread over the city, for the
forces of the enemy were greatly exaggerated. But Jackson was equal
to the emergency, though having but just arrived. He coolly adopted the
most vigorous measures, and restored confidence. Times of confusion,
difficulty, and danger were always his best opportunities. He
proclaimed martial law; he sent in all directions for reinforcements; he
called upon the people to organize for defence; he released and enlisted
the convicts, and accepted the proffered services of Jean Lafitte, the
ex-"pirate"--or, rather, smuggler--of the Gulf, with two companies of
his ex-buccaneers; he appealed to "the noble-hearted, generous, free
men of color" to enlist, and the whole town was instantly transformed
into a military camp. Within a fortnight he had five thousand men,
one-fifth regulars and the rest militia. General Jackson's address to his
soldiers was spirited but inflated, encouraging and boastful, with a
great patriotic ring, and, of course effective. The population of the city
was united in resolving to make a sturdy defence.
Had the British marched as soon as they landed, they probably would
have taken the city, in the existing consternation. But they waited for
larger forces from their ships, which carried six thousand troops, and in
their turn exaggerated the number of the defenders, which at the first
were only about two thousand badly frightened men. The delay was a
godsend to the Americans, who