the astonished Englishmen. More than one hundred were killed before they recovered from their panic. The survivors crouched behind the levee for protection; and here they lay an hour, listening in silence to the pattering of grape-shot among their huts, and to the shrieks and groans of those who lay wounded beside them."*

A discharge from the picquets on the right summoned them from their shelter. Two thousand Americans, led on by General JACKSON in person, had forced their way into the camp, and were bearing all before them. In the obscurity of the night the ranks were broken; Americans and English mingled together, legit que virum vir. Every man fought for himself alone, as in the old Homeric conflicts. Musket and pistol were laid aside for sword and bayonet, and the western rifle, wielded with both hands like a war-club. After two hours of hard fighting, the English were reinforced by the second detachment from the ships, and succeeded in beating off the attack. General JACKSON withdrew his men, and the enemy retreated once more to the welcome shelter of the levee. In this affair the British lost four hundred in killed, wounded, and taken; the Americans two hundred and fifty. The prisoners captured by Keane consisted almost entirely of lawyers. The members of the bar of New-Orleans had enrolled themselves in a volunteer corps, and accompanied General JACKSON in this expedition. They were entrapped by the English, and seized

to a man.

JACKSON'S measures were as well planned as prompt; and the employment of the schooner in particular merits all praise. This vessel alone kept the enemy chained to their position for three days. During this all-precious interval, the famous embankment of cotton bales on Rodriguez Canal was commenced, which was destined twice to foil every effort of the invaders, and to give the death blow to all their hopes of conquest.

The whole of the next day the British remained beneath the bank, suffering the extremes of cold and hunger: as soon however as it was dark, the army filed off and took up a position on the right, out of reach of the Carolina's guns. By giving her broadside a great elevation, the schooner succeeded in throwing shot among them, causing great annoyance though little execution.

On the 25th Sir Edward Packenham arrived in camp, and assumed the command. The next day a battery of ten guns was erected on the bank, and a fire of hot shot opened on the Carolina. The second ball took effect, and in fifteen minutes she was abandoned by her crew, with the loss of only one killed and six wounded.

On the 28th, the British army, under the command of Generals Gibbs and Keane, advanced in two columns about three miles, when they came in sight of the American troops posted behind the unfinished breast-work. The left column on the river was instantly greeted with a tremendous fire from the guns of the frigate Louisiana and those already mounted on the lines. Scarce a bullet passed over or fell short of its mark, but all striking full in the midst of our ranks, occasioned terrible havoc." The column was soon forced by the carnage to deploy into lines of battalions, and finally to halt and

* British Officer.

lie down in the ditches which intersected the plantation. On the right, the attack might have succeeded, had it been energetically directed, for the works were unfinished, and only a few guns mounted; but the loss suffered by the left division was so great as to induce the commanding officer to order a halt. In the ditches they remained until late in the afternoon, when the different regiments filed off, man by man, amid shouts and showers of balls from the American lines. A few guns which had been directed against the Louisiana were carried off by hand, by a party of sailors. The loss which the enemy suffered in this affair is astonishing; the more so when compared with the trifling injury they caused their antagonists. Only ten men were killed within the lines, and but one wounded on board of the frigate, whose guns fired eight hundred balls during the engagement. The same disproportion is remarkable throughout the invasion. Many a gallant Briton laid his bones beneath the cypresses of Louisiana.

General Packenham did not return to his old position, but encamped on the battle-ground of the 23d of December; his outposts extending in some places to within three hundred yards of the American lines. Finding the works so well defended, he determined to consider them as a regular fortification, and to breach them. The 28th, 29th, 30th, and 31st were employed in bringing up heavy guns from the fleet. The labor and hardships incurred in the transportation of twenty-four pounders by hand through a quaking morass, can scarcely be conceived. Throughout this period the position of the British was any thing but enviable. The scarcity of provisions had reduced them to half allowance, and driven them to still their hunger with the sugar they found on the plantations. As they had no tents, they were forced to sleep upon the ground; and Louisiana in December is not exactly the spot one would select for passing the night al fresco. Even the enjoyment of the damp earth was denied them. The Americans did not grant them a moment's repose. From the day of their landing they had been engaged in one continued battle. Beside the shot that were constantly thrown among them from guns greatly elevated on the lines, the American artillerymen would advance with a few fieldpieces within range, fire half a dozen rounds, and retreat so rapidly as to baffle pursuit, while bands of riflemen lurked about the picquets and shot down the sentinels. The English had a great dread of the Tennesseeans, whom they denominated Dirty Shirts,' from the color of their hunting-frocks. These night excursions were very popular among the Dirty Shirts;' they termed them hunting parties. One of these worthies is said to have killed and stripped three sentinels on the same spot in one evening, and to have made his escape into camp with the booty.* This system of warfare, although much inveighed against by English writers, we think both justifiable and wise. When armies meet on foreign ground to decide some state question, about which they may be supposed to know little and to care less, we can understand that a kind of chivalric understanding should exist between combatants. Such wars are but duels on a large scale, and the courtesy which directs antagonists in affairs of honor ought certainly to be exercised. The case is far otherwise with invaders.

MAJOR LATOUR'S War.

Then a man fights for his native soil; for his family and friends; for his possessions, which would be plundered; for his home, which would be ransacked and destroyed. He considers his foes in the light of house-breakers, and every man slain one enemy less, and very justly. This system too succeeded admirably in a military point of view, by harassing and discouraging the English. The repulses they had met with, the incessant labor and constant excitement in which they were kept by the ever-recurring attacks, had disheartened the troops, and made them heartily sick of the expedition.

On the night of the 31st of December, Packenham's men were employed in erecting batteries for thirty heavy guns. The work was accomplished before dawn. The sun rose behind clouds, and for some time the mist was so thick that the American lines could not be distinguished. At eight o'clock the white tents of the camp became visible, and the cannonade commenced. The fire was principally directed against McCarty's château, which was occupied by JACKSON as his head-quarters. Although the house was pierced through and through repeatedly, the staff escaped without a wound. The American batteries responded feebly at first, but gradually grew brisker, and at length surpassed the British both in rapidity and precision. The enemy had rolled hogsheads of sugar into the parapet of his battery, under the impression that it would be as effectual as sand in deadening the force of balls; but it proved otherwise, for the shot crashed through the casks as if they had been empty, dismounting the guns and killing the gunners. Cotton bales, on the contrary, proved a much better defence; and although some of them were rather rudely knocked about by the twenty-four pound shot, but little execution was done among the Louisianians. At three o'clock the fire of the English had slackened very much; and while the Americans, reserving a few guns to return their feeble salutes, directed the remainder against the infantry, who consequently retired in precipitation, leaving many dead on the field. Soon after, the enemy ceased firing altogether, and abandoned his guns. JACKSON's loss did not exceed fifty, in killed and wounded.

That

The Americans had good reason to be elated by their success. thirty pieces of cannon should be silenced by fifteen, only five of which were of equal calibre, was far more encouraging to the invaded than any advantage they had yet obtained. Satisfied with the result of the affair, they made no attempt to carry off the guns, which were accordingly removed by the English, with much labor, on the ensuing night. Five however were ultimately left behind.

Once more frustrated in his hopes, Sir Edward Packenham changed his plan of attack. It was now determined that a body of troops should cross the river, and that an advance should be made on both banks at once. A canal two miles in length by six feet in breadth was commenced, in order to convey the boats from the Bayou to the river. It would seem never to have occurred to the general that ships' boats could be pushed on rollers over land in half the time it would take to dig such a canal. Meantime the work was continued, and completed on the evening of the seventh.

JACKSON had not been idle during these five days. The Rodriguez

breast-work was now raised to the ordinary altitude, covered by ditch, and fifteen guns placed at proper distances along the line; and moreover a battery mounting eighteen guns had been erected on the other side of the river, so as completely to enfilade the English bivouac. No precaution was omitted nor labor spared to strengthen the position and to harass the enemy. Major General Lambert's arrival with two regiments had increased the British army to nine thousand effective men. The Americans, although rated at twenty-five thousand by the British Officer,' mustered but four thousand men on the lines. Fascines and scaling-ladders had been prepared by the invaders for the troops on the left bank, who were to advance at the sound of Thornton's guns on the opposite side. The Louisianians were fully apprized of the approaching attack by the activity and turmoil they had remarked in the enemy's camp, and were ready at all points to encounter it. Affairs stood thus on the evening of the seventh.

BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS.

PLAN OF THE BATTLE OF THE EIGHTH OF JANUARY: REDUCED FROM MAJOR LATOUR'S CHART.

On the 8th of January took place the last desperate effort of the British to obtain possession of the prize they had been taught to deem so easy. A reference to the plan will show the respective positions of the combatants.

General Keane with twelve hundred men was to make a sham attack on the river bank, while General Gibbs, with the main body, was to storm the works on the right, in the direction of batteries six and

seven. Fascines and scaling-ladders were entrusted to the FortyFourth regiment, and success was considered certain. JACKSON, on the other hand, lay snugly entrenched behind his embankment of mud and cotton bales, his left appuyé on the swamp, his right on the Mississippi. General Coffee and the Tennesseeans occupied the extreme left of the line, and the batteries were served by the United States' artillerists and militiamen, except No. 2, which was entrusted to the crew of the late Carolina, and No. 3, commanded by privateer captains, and served by Lafitte's men.

6

The attack was to have taken place before sunrise, but owing to the caving-in of the canal, the army did not arrive within musket range until dawn. They were received by a well-directed volley, which threw them into disorder; but they soon rallied, and were advancing steadily to the assault, when Packenham discovered that the Forty-Fourth regiment had come into the field without the fascines and ladders. Colonel Mullens was ordered to return for them, but losing all command of himself, forsook his men. Packenham immediately despatched an aid to bring them up. This officer found them in the greatest confusion. The General, upon hearing this, placed himself at their head, and ordered the column to press on at double quick time. Twice they charged, exposed to a murderous fire of musketry and cannon, which mowed them down by ranks. The deeds of the thirty-two pounders are especially commemorated: 'One single discharge,' says the Subaltern, served to sweep the centre of the attacking force into eternity.' The officers exerted themselves to the utmost to rally their men, but all efforts were useless. Two or three hundred gained the ditch, and endeavored to climb the parapet, but the soft earth gave way beneath their feet, and only seventy succeeded in the attempt, all of whom were captured. The death of Sir Edward Packenham, who fell like a brave man at the head of the Forty-Fourth, and the mortal wound received by General Gibbs, completed the universal dismay. The column turned and fled. On the river the advance of General Keane's detachment stormed an unfinished battery occupied by a rifle corps: instead of supporting his men, and entering the lines at that point, General Keane marched with his column across the plain to the aid of the main body. Such a movement only served to increase the confusion. His troops caught the general panic, and Keane himself was borne, desperately wounded, from the field. Meantime the brave band that had taken the battery, unsupported by their friends, and unable to retreat, perished to a man by the rifles of the Louisianiaus. On the right bank, Colonel Thornton carried all before him; drove the Americans from two entrenched positions; and was in full pursuit, when a messenger brought the news of the disaster of the main army, and the order for an immediate retreat, which he effected without opposition. It appears evident, from all statements of this affair, and from JACKSON's address, that the conduct of the militia on the right bank formed a striking contrast to the bravery of the troops on Rodriguez Canal.

Here the carnage had been awful. A space of ground extending from the ditch of the American lines to that on which the enemy drew up his troops, two hundred and fifty yards in length by about two