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 schooner from several twelve and eighteen 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 schooner Louisiana, commanded by Lieutenant Thompson, had come down to aid her, and was in great peril. 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 Pakenham issued orders for his whole army, then eight thousand strong, to move forward and carry the American intrenchments by storm. He had arranged that army into two columns. One was commanded by General Keane, and the other by General Gibbs, a good and experienced soldier, who came with Pakenham as his second in command. Toward evening the entire force moved forward, driving in the American pickets and outposts, and at twilight they halted on the plantations of Bienvenu and Chalmette, within a few hundred yards of the American lines. There a part sought repose, while others commenced the construction of batteries near the river. Sleep was denied them, for all night long Hinds’s troopers and other active Americans annoyed their flanks and rear with quick, sharp attacks, which the British denounced as "barbarian warfare."

They were numerous and prompt; for that night of the 27th of December, when a flushed foe in his immediate front was ready to pounce with tiger-like 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, Jackson had four thousand men and twenty pieces of artillery to receive 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 skirmishers 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. Pakenham 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 Beluche, 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 shots 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 endured 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 of a few rough backwoodsmen, as they regarded Jackson’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 Pakenham 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. The British loss was about one hundred and fifty.

Pakenham 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. The British established their hospital on Jumonville’s plantation, next below Villeré’s, and prepared for heavy work. The experience of the 28th had given Pakenham 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.

Jackson was busy at the same time strengthening his position at Rodriguez’s Canal, over which not a single British soldier had passed except as a prisoner. He placed two 12-pounders on his extreme left, near the swamp, in charge of General Garrigue Flauzac, a veteran French soldier who had volunteered; and also a six and an eighteen pounder under Colonel Perry. His line of intrenchments was extended into the swamp, so as to prevent a flank movement. He ordered a line of similar structure to be established on the opposite side of the Mississippi; and Commander Patterson, pleased with the effects of the guns of the Louisiana from the same side, established a battery behind the levee on Jourdan’s plantation, which he armed with heavy guns from the schooner, and manned with sailors enlisted or pressed into the service in New Orleans.

It commanded the front of Jackson’s lines, and soon compelled the British to abandon 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 Macarté’s, was a company of young men from the best families in the city, under Captain Ogden, who constituted his body-guard, 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 to such an 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 Captain You and Lieutenant 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 demi-lunettes, 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, and every thing that might produce resistance; and upon them were placed thirty pieces of heavy ordnance, manned by picked gunners of the fleet, who had served under Nelson, Collingwood, and St. Vincent.

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 they got their guns and gunners. Pakenham 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 red-hot shot for the destruction of the Louisiana, if she should come within range of the guns. Pakenham 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; so only the battle of the batteries went on.

Pakenham was disheartened, but he 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. Pakenham 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 Jackson’s line, while the main army should be engaged in storming it. The transportation of these men to the other side of the river was confided to Admiral Cochrane, who, in opposition to the opinions and wishes of the army officers, set the wearied soldiers and sailors to 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 re-enforcements under Major General John Lambert, a young officer of Wellington’s army, who had sailed from England toward the close of October. Pakenham’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.

Pakenham’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 scaling ladders to mount the embankments. Such was the substance of Pakenham’s General Order issued on the 7th of January, 1815.

Jackson penetrated Pakenham’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 six to thirty-two 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.

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 two 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 major general 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. This 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 12-pounder 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.

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.

Let us observe the movements in the British camp on that memorable night.

According to the plan already mentioned, Colonel Thornton proceeded to cross the Mississippi for the purpose of attacking Morgan. He marched to the levee, at the end of the newly-cut canal in extension of Villeré’s, and there waited with the greatest impatience the arrival of the boats that were to carry him and his troops over. The banks of the ditch had caved in in some places, and the falling of the water in the river had made that of the canal so shallow that the sailors were compelled to drag the boats through thick mud in many places. It was three o’clock in the morning before even a sufficient number of vessels to convey one half of the detachment had arrived. Farther delay would be fatal to the enterprise; so, with Pakenham’s sanction, Thornton dismissed half of his force, embarked the remainder, and crossed the river in a flotilla commanded by Captain Roberts, of the Royal Navy. Ignorant of the fact that the Mississippi was flowing with a quiet, powerful current, at the rate of five miles an hour, and making no provisions for this obstacle to a quick and direct passage, they were landed, after great fatigue, at least a mile and a half below their intended point of debarkation. Before they had all left the boats the day dawned, and the roar of cannon was heard on the plain of Chalmette.

Pakenham and his officers had passed an almost sleepless night, and at the time when Jackson aroused his slumbering staff the divisions of Gibbs and Keane were called up, formed into line, and advanced to within four hundred and fifty yards of the American intrenchments. Lambert’s division was left behind as a reserve. There stood the British soldiers in the darkness and the chilly morning air, enveloped in a thick fog, and anxiously listening for the booming of Thornton’s guns in his attack on Morgan. He was yet battling with the current of the Mississippi. Tediously the minutes and the hours passed, and yet that signal-gun remained silent.

Day dawned and the mist began to disperse, and as the dull red line of the British host was dimly seen in the early morning light through the veil of moisture, Lieutenant Spotts, of Battery No. 7, opened one of his heavy guns upon it. It was the signal for battle. As the fog rolled away the British line was seen stretching two thirds across the plain of Chalmette. From its extreme left and right rockets shot high in air, and, like a dissolving view, that red line almost disappeared as it was broken into columns by companies.

Gibbs now advanced obliquely toward the wooded swamp, with the Forty-fourth in front, followed by the Twenty-first and Fourth, terribly pelted by the storm that came from Batteries Nos. 6, 7, and 8, and vainly sought shelter behind a bulging projection of the swamp into the plain. These batteries poured round and grape shot incessantly into Gibbs’s line, making lanes through it, and producing some confusion. This was heightened by the fact that the Forty-fourth, with whom had been intrusted fascines and scaling-ladders, had advanced without them. To wait for these to be brought up was impossible in the focus of that cannonade. So Gibbs ordered them forward, the Twenty-first and Fourth in solid and compact column, covered in front by blazing rockets and cheered by their own loud huzzas. Whole platoons were prostrated, when their places were instantly filled by others, and the column pressed on, without pause or recoil, toward the batteries on the left, and the long and weaker line covered by the Tennesseeans and Kentuckians.

By this time all the American batteries, including Patterson’s on the right bank of the river, were in full play. Yet steadily on marched Wellington’s veterans, stepping firmly over the dead bodies of their slain comrades until they had reached a point within two hundred yards of the American line, behind which, concealed from the view of the invaders, lay the Tennesseeans and Kentuckians four ranks deep. Suddenly the clear voice of General Carroll rang out, Fire! His Tennesseeans arose from cover, and, each man taking sure aim, delivered a most destructive volley on the foe, their bullets cutting down scores of the gallant British soldiery. The storm ceased not for a moment; for when the Tennesseeans had fired they fell back, and the Kentuckians took their places, and so the four ranks, one after another, participated in the conflict. At the same time round, grape, and chain shot went crashing through the ranks of the British, making awful gaps, and appalling the stoutest hearts. The line began to waver, and would have broken but for the cool courage and untiring energy of the officers, and the inspiriting cry, "Here comes the Forty-fourth with the fascines and ladders!"

General Gibbs was also mortally wounded, and died the next day; and Keane was so severely shot through the neck that he was compelled to leave the field. The command was then assumed by Major Wilkinson, the officer of highest grade left in the saddle. Under his leadership the broken battalions endeavored to scale the breastworks. They were repulsed, and Wilkinson fell on the parapet mortally wounded. His discomfited men fell back, and all of the assailants withdrew in wild confusion. Of the gallant nine hundred Highlanders, with twenty-five officers, of the Ninety-third Regiment who went into the fight, only one hundred and thirty men and nine officers could be mustered at its close. The Twenty-first Regiment lost five hundred men, and every company came out of the terrible conflict a mere skeleton in numbers.

BIRDS-EYE VIEW OF THE BATTLE NEAR NEW ORLEANS, JANUARY 8, 1815. – FROM A SKETCH BY LATOUR, JACKSON’S CHIEF ENGINEER.

The author of this volume is indebted to the late General Palfrey of New Orleans, who was a participant in the battle, for the privilege of copying Major Latour’s interesting drawing above given. The following explanations, by means of the reference figures, were made in the drawing by Major Latour: American Army – 1. General Jackson and his staff; 2. Major Plauche; 3. Captain Humphrey; 4. Beale’s riflemen and a company of the Seventh Regiment; 5. Redoubt on the bank of the river; 6. Captains Dominique You and Beluche, of Major La Coste’s battalion; 7. Lieutenants Crawley and Rose; 8. Colonel Perry; 9. General Garrigue; 10. Lieutenant Spotts; 11, 12. Divisions of Generals Carroll and Adair, and, farther to the left, General Coffee’s; 13. Cavalry and dragoons; 14, 15. Line of intrenchments; 16. Macarte’s, Jackson’s headquarters; 17. Rodriguez’s house. British Army – A, B. The British Army in two columns; C. The right column making the principal attack, under the command of Pakenham; E, F. Left column, commanded by Colonel Rennie; I. Battery; M. Ruins of Chalmette’s buildings.

Let us now turn our attention to the movements on the right bank of the Mississippi.

We left Colonel Thornton and his men just debarked, after battling with the current of the Mississippi for some time. Morgan had sent forward his advance of less than three hundred men (one third of whom were Arnaud’s Louisiana militia) under Major Tessier, and the remainder, fatigued and poorly-armed Kentuckians under Colonel Davis, chosen from those sent over on the 7th by General Adair, were directed to take position on Mahew’s Canal, about a mile in advance of Morgan’s line, near which it was supposed the British would land. The line which this small force was expected to hold extended from the river to the swamp, a distance of a mile, and required at least a thousand men and several pieces of artillery to give it respectable strength. Davis’s troops were placed on the left, resting on the levee, and Tessier’s were on their right, extending to the swamp. Both watched vigilantly for signs of the coming of the invaders. Their vigilance was vain, for Thornton landed a mile below them under cover of three gun-boats under the command of Captain Roberts.

Pushing rapidly up the road, Thornton encountered Morgan’s advance, when he divided his superior force, sending a part to attack Tessier, while with the remainder, and aided by Roberts’s carronades, he assailed Davis. Both commands were soon put to flight, and fell back in confusion on Morgan’s line. Tessier’s men could not gain the road, and many of them took refuge in the swamps, where they suffered much for several hours.

When Thornton gained the open fields in front of Morgan’s line he extended his force, and with the sailors in column on the road, and the marines placed as a reserve, he advanced upon the American works under cover of a flight of rockets, and with the aid of Captain Roberts’s carronades. As the sailors rushed forward they were met by volleys of grape-shot from Philibert which made them recoil. Seeing this, Thornton dashed forward with the Eighty-fifth, and, handling the men with great skill and celerity, soon put the Kentuckians to flight, who ran in wild confusion, and could not be rallied. Following up this advantage, Thornton soon drove the Louisianians from the intrenchments, and gained possession of Morgan’s line after that general had spiked his cannon and cast them into the river. He next made for Patterson’s battery, three hundred yards in the rear. Its guns, which had been playing effectually on the British in front of Jackson’s lines, were now trailed on the nearer foe on the river road. But Patterson, threatened by a flank movement, was compelled to give way; so he spiked his guns, and fled on board the Louisiana, while his sailors assisted in getting her into the stream, out of the reach of the enemy.

After the conflict had ceased, Jackson, accompanied by his staff, passed slowly along his whole line, addressing words of congratulation and praise to the officers and men every where. Then the band struck up "Hail, Columbia," and cheer after cheer for the hero went up from every part of the line. These were echoed from the lips of excited citizens who had been watching the battle at a distance with the greatest anxiety. Then the soldiers, after partaking of some refreshments, turned to the performance of the sad duty of caring for the wounded and the bodies of the dead, which thickly strewed the plain of Chalmette for a quarter of a mile back from the front of Jackson’s lines. These were the maimed and slain of the British army. No less than twenty-six hundred were lost to the enemy in that terrible battle, of whom seven hundred were killed, fourteen hundred were wounded, and five hundred were made prisoners. The Americans lost only eight killed and thirteen wounded! The history of human warfare presents no parallel to this disparity in loss. The Americans were thoroughly protected by their breastworks, while the British fought in front of them on an open level plain.

After the battle General Lambert sent a flag of truce asking for an armistice in order to bury his dead. Jackson granted it on the condition that it should not be extended to operations on the right bank of the river. The result of this exception was, as we have observed, the immediate withdrawal of Thornton from Morgan’s line. On the following morning detachments from both armies were drawn up three hundred yards in front of the American lines, when the dead bodies between that point and the intrenchments were carried and delivered to the British by the Kentuckians and Tennesseeans on the very scaling-ladders left by the enemy when driven back. The British then carried their dead to a designated spot on Bienvenu’s plantation which had been marked out as the cemetery of "the Army of Louisiana." There they were buried, and to this day that consecrated "God’s Acre" has never been disturbed. It is distinguished in the landscape by a grove of small cypress-trees, and is a spot regarded with superstitious awe by the negroes in that neighborhood. The wounded, who were made prisoners, were carefully conveyed to New Orleans, where they were placed in the barracks, and tenderly cared for by the citizens.

PECAN TREES.

On the 18th of January, in accordance with an arrangement made the previous day, a general exchange of prisoners took place; and on the 19th the British, under Lambert, were wholly withdrawn from the Mississippi, having stolen noiselessly away under cover of darkness the previous night. They reached Lake Borgne at dawn on the 19th, but they were yet sixty miles from their fleet, exposed to quite keen wintry air, and considerably annoyed by mounted men under Colonel De la Ronde, who hung upon their rear. There they remained until the 27th, when they embarked, and two days afterward reached the fleet in the deep water between Cat and Ship Islands. The vigilant Jackson, in the mean time, had made such disposition of his forces as to guard every approach to the city, for he thought the foiled enemy, enraged by disappointment, might attempt to strike a sudden blow at some other quarter.

I visited the theatre of war around New Orleans, with a young kinswoman as a traveling companion, in the month of April, 1861. We left New York on the 28th of March for Baltimore, from which city we passed over the Baltimore and Ohio Railway to Parkersburg, in Virginia, on the Ohio River, stopping over night at Harper’s Ferry, where, three weeks later, the torch of civil war, then just lighted, made sad devastation. We crossed the Ohio River at Parkersburg, and journeyed by railway to Cincinnati. There we again crossed that stream to Covington, and traveled southward through a beautiful region of Kentucky to Lexington, where we tarried a day and a night.

ASHLAND.

GRAVES OF DANIEL BOONE AND HIS WIFE.

KENTUCKY SOLDIERS’ MONUMENT.

ALFRED HENNER.

JAPAN PLUM.

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.

JAMES A. BAYARD.

VIEW OF THE CITY OF GHENT, FROM THE SCHELDT.

There it was ratified on the 28th of the same month by the Prince Regent, and then sent to America by the same messengers. They sailed in the British sloop of war Favorite on the 2d of January, 1815. She arrived at New York on the evening of Saturday, the 11th of February. Mr. Hughes left Ghent with a copy of the treaty at the same time the other messengers did, proceeded to the Texel, and there embarked for the Chesapeake in the schooner Transit.

MEDAL OF GRATITUDE.

There was rejoicing also in Great Britain because of peace, especially among the manufacturing and mercantile classes, for it promised returning prosperity; and a medal was struck in commemoration of the great event, which bore upon one side the words, "TREATY OF PEACE AND AMITY BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, SIGNED AT GHENT DECEMBER 24, 1814," and upon the other a feminine figure standing on the segment of a globe, bearing the cornucopia of plenty, and holding in one hand the olive-branch of peace. Partly encircling the figure were the words, "ON THE EARTH PEACE, GOOD-WILL TO MEN."

MEDAL COMMEMORATIVE OF THE TREATY OF PEACE.

In connection with the release of captives, a circumstance occurred at a dépôt for prisoners in England which caused great exasperation on the part of the American people. That dépôt was situated on Dartmoor, a desolate region in Devonshire, where it was constructed in 1809 for the confinement of French prisoners of war. It comprised thirty acres, inclosed within double walls, with seven distinct prison-houses, with inclosures. At the time of the ratification of the treaty of peace, there were about six thousand American prisoners there, including twenty-five hundred impressed American seamen, who had refused to fight in the British Navy against their countrymen, and were there when the war broke out in 1812. Some had been there ten or eleven years. The place was in charge of Captain T. G. Shortland, with a military guard. That officer was charged with much unfeeling conduct toward the prisoners, accounts of which reached America, from time to time, and produced great irritation in the public mind.

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ENDNOTES.

2 The common impression that Jackson’s breastworks were constructed chiefly of cotton bales is an erroneous one. A few were used at the end next the river, but they were not useful, and were rejected.

6 The forlorn condition of these troops, as a body, was such that Jackson was at a loss to determine whether their presence should be considered fortunate or unfortunate for the cause. They had come with the erroneous belief that an ample supply of arms and clothing would be furnished them at 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 excellent raw material for soldiers, and they were very soon prepared for efficient service.

8 Jean B. Plauché was a native of New Orleans, and was born there when it was a Spanish colony. He was a French Creole, and through life bore the character of one of the most esteemed citizens of New Orleans. After the war he resumed his vocation as merchant. He generally declined public offices, yet he was induced to take that of Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana.

PLAUCHÉ’S TOMB.

DOMINIQUE YOU’S TOMB.

In the same cemetery, and not far from the tomb of the Plauché family, was that of Dominique You, mentioned in these pages as a noble defender of New Orleans. On his tomb, made of brick and stuccoed, the writer found the following inscription written on a clouded marble slab: "DOMINIQUE YOU. Intrépide guerrier sur la terre et sur l’onde, il sut dans cent combats signaler sa valeur; et ce nouveau Bayard, sans reproche et sans peur, aurait pu, sans trembler, voir s’écrouler le monde."

9 William Carroll was born in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, in 1778. In 1813 he became inspector general of the Tennessee Militia and volunteers under Jackson. He was commissioned a colonel, and served with distinction in the war with the Creek Indians. He left the service at the close of the war. He was Governor of Tennessee from 1821 to 1827, and from 1830 to 1835. He died on the 22d of March, 1844.

10 John Coffee was a native of Nottaway County, Virginia, and entered the military service under Jackson in 1812. He was active with him in the Creek War, and in the attack on Pensacola in the autumn of 1814. He was distinguished in the battles near New Orleans. In March, 1817, he was appointed surveyor of public lands. He died near Florence, in Alabama, on the 7th of July, 1844.

11 John Adair was born in South Carolina in 1757, and entered the military service under General St. Clair. He served under Wilkinson in the Northwest, and was lieutenant colonel in Scott’s division in 1793. He was for two years United States Senator from Kentucky, where he had made his home. He was volunteer aid to Governor Shelby in the battle of the Thames, and in 1814 was brigadier general of Kentucky militia. He left the service at the close of the war. He was Governor of Kentucky from 1820 to 1824, and representative in Congress from 1831 to 1833. He died at Harrodsburg, Kentucky, on the 19th of May, 1840.

14 Latour says it was reported that there were divisions in the councils of the British officers concerning the point of attack, and that Admiral Cochrane, with a feeling of contempt for the American militia, declared he would undertake to storm Jackson’s lines with two thousand sailors, armed only with swords and pistols. This confidence in the invincibility of the British on this occasion contributed largely to their disaster.

16 The loss of the British on this occasion, in killed and wounded, was a little more than one hundred. The Americans lost one man killed and five wounded. On that side of the Mississippi the British acquired their sole trophy during their efforts to capture New Orleans. It was a small flag, and now [1867] hangs conspicuously among other war trophies in Whitehall, London, with the inscription, "Taken at the battle of New Orleans, January 8, 1815."

17 Walter H. Overton, of Tennessee, entered the army in 1808, and was commissioned a major in February, 1814. For his gallantry in defending Fort St. Philip he was breveted lieutenant colonel. He resigned in 1815. He was a member of Congress from Louisiana from 1829 to 1831.

18 The chief sources from which the materials for the account of the battles near New Orleans were drawn were the official reports of the officers engaged in them; Latour’s Memoir of the War in West Florida and Louisiana; Judge Walker’s Jackson and New Orleans; the several histories of the war of 1812; and numerous statements to the author, oral and written, by actors in the scenes.

STATUE OF JACKSON IN FRONT OF THE CATHEDRAL.

At the Cathedral entrance the honored hero was met by the Abbé Du Bourg in his pontifical robes, and supported by a college of priests in their sacerdotal garments. The abbé addressed the general with eloquent and patriotic discourse, after which the chief was conducted to a conspicuous seat near the great altar, when the Te Deum Laudamus was chanted by the choir and people. When the imposing pageant was over, the general retired to his quarters to resume the stern duties of a soldier; and that night the city of New Orleans blazed with a general illumination.

21 On one side of the medal is a profile of the bust of Jackson, and on the other a figure of Victory seated, supporting a tablet before her with her left hand, in which is also a laurel wreath. She is making a record of the triumph on the 8th of January. She has written the word "Orleans," when she is interrupted by another figure, personating Peace, who holds an olive-branch in her right hand. With her left she points to the tablet, as if directing Victory to record the peace which had already been agreed upon by the belligerents. Victory is in the act of listening. The inscriptions on the medal are simple – "MAJOR GENERAL ANDREW JACKSON. BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS, JANUARY 8, 1815. RESOLUTION OF CONGRESS, FEBRUARY 27, 1815."

22 The story of Jackson’s difficulties with the civil authorities maybe told in a few words. In the Legislature of Louisiana was a powerful faction personally opposed to Jackson – so powerful that, when the officers and troops were thanked by that body on the 2d of February, the name of their chief leader was omitted. This conduct highly incensed the people. Their indignation was intensified by a seditious publication, put forth by one of the members of the Legislature, which was calculated to produce disaffection in the army. This was a public matter, and Jackson felt bound to notice it. He ordered the arrest of the author, and his trial by martial law.

Judge Dominic A. Hall, of the Supreme Court of the United States, issued a writ of habeas corpus in favor of the offender. Jackson considered this a violation of martial law, and ordered the arrest of the judge and his expulsion beyond the limits of the city. The judge, in turn, when the military law was revoked on the 13th of March, in consequence of the official proclamation of peace, required Jackson to appear before him and show cause why he should not be punished for contempt of court.

THE OLD COURT-HOUSE.

Andrew Jackson was born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, on the 15th of March, 1767. He was designed by his mother for the Christian ministry, but his studies were interrupted by the old War for Independence, whose tumults were loud in the region where the boy resided, his home then being in the northern part of South Carolina. He went into the service a mere lad, and was made a prisoner in 1781. His mother, his only surviving parent, died at that time, and he was left alone. He studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1786. He settled in Tennessee, and at Nashville, which he made his home in 1790, he was married to an excellent woman. In 1795 he assisted in forming a State Constitution for Tennessee. He was the first-elected Congressman from that state, and represented it in the Senate of the United States in 1797. He was soon appointed Judge of the Supreme Court of Tennessee, and for many years he was chief military commander in that section. His services in the War of 1812 are recorded in this volume. He remained in the service some time after the war. In 1821 he was appointed Governor of the Territory of Florida, and in 1824 he was an unsuccessful candidate for president of the Republic. He was elected to that office in 1828, and served two consecutive terms. In 1837 he retired from public life forever, and passed the remainder of his days at the "Hermitage" (see page 1016), where he died on the 8th of June, 1845.

JACKSON’S TOMB.

Beneath the roof of a little temple-like structure in the garden of the "Hermitage" rested the remains of General Jackson, by the side of those of his wife, when the author visited the place in the spring of 1861.

24 The slab bears these few words: "General THOMAS BODLEY. Born 4th July, 1772. Died 11th June, 1833,"

29 Captain Ogden was the commander of the Life-guard. The officers alone were uniformed. Mr. Henner was one of only three survivors of that guard at the time of my visit, the other two being Ex-Governor Henry Johnson and James Hopkins. He became a resident of New Orleans in 1809, when the city contained about 14,000 inhabitants. He was there in 1801, having been sent by his father on a flat-boat with the first bales of cotton ever taken to that city. He placed them in the Jesuits’ warehouse, on the site of the St. Charles Hotel, above Canal Street. It was in the fields outside of the palisades, which then occupied the line of the present broad Canal Street.

37 See Lossing’s Pictorial Field-book of the Civil War, Chapter XIV., volume i.

38 John Quincy Adams was born at the homestead of his family at Quincy, Massachusetts, on the 11th of July, 1767. When only eleven years of age he accompanied his father to Europe, and was much in the society of diplomatists and other distinguished men. He received much of his education abroad, and when only fourteen years of age he was the private secretary of Mr. Dana, United States minister at St. Petersburg. He was graduated at Harvard University in July, 1787, and studied law and entered upon its practice in Boston. He took an active part in politics. In 1794 Washington appointed him resident minister in the Netherlands. He afterward held the same office in Portugal and Prussia. He returned to Boston in 1801, and was elected to a seat in the Massachusetts Senate. He was sent to the National Senate in 1803. In 1809 he was sent as minister to the Russian court, where he was a great favorite with the Emperor Alexander. He was at the head of the American commissioners in the negotiation of the treaty of peace at Ghent in 1814, and in 1815 he was appointed minister to the British court. He was appointed Secretary of State in 1817, in which office he remained until he took the chair of President of the United States in 1825. In 1831 he was elected a member of the National House of Representatives, which position he held by re-election until his death, which occurred in the Speaker’s Room at the Capitol on the 22d of February, 1848, in the eighty-first year of his age.

39 Ghent is the capital of the province of East Flanders, in Belgium; is situated at the confluence of the Scheldt and Lys, and is one of the most interesting localities in the ancient Netherlands.

40 James A. Bayard was born in Philadelphia on the 26th of July, 1767. He was graduated at Princeton in 1784, became a lawyer of eminence, and took a seat in Congress in 1797, to which he had been elected by the Federalists. He held that position until 1804, when he was elected to the National Senate, in which he became a leader. He was opposed to the War of 1812, but cheerfully acquiesced in the action of the majority. After assisting in the negotiation of the treaty of peace he went to Paris, where he became seriously ill. When he arrived in England, on his way home, he was met with the commission of minister to Russia. He declined the honor, hastened home, and five days after his arrival (August 6, 1815) he died.

42 Albert Gallatin was born on the 29th of January, 1761, in the city of Geneva, Switzerland. He was graduated at the University of Geneva in 1779, came to America in 1780, and entered the military service in Maine. After the Revolution he was a tutor in Harvard College for a while, and finally settled in Western Pennsylvania. He was a member of the Convention to revise the Constitution of that state in 1789, and was elected to the State Legislature. He was chosen a member of the National Senate in 1793, but, being ineligible, he was elected a member of the other house, and became the Republican leader of it. Jefferson appointed him Secretary of the Treasury in 1801, which office he held until 1813, when he was sent to St. Petersburg as a commissioner to treat for peace.

43 On the 27th of October, 1814, the Academy of Sciences and Fine Arts at Ghent invited the American commissioners to attend their exercises, when they were all elected honorary members of the Academy. A sumptuous dinner was given, at which the Intendant, or chief magistrate of Ghent, offered the following sentiment:

"Our distinguished guests and fellow-members, the American ministers – may they succeed in making an honorable peace to secure the liberty and independence of their country." The band then played "Hail, Columbia." The British commissioners were not present.

44 After the treaty was concluded the American commissioners gave a dinner to the British commissioners, at which Count H. Von Steinhuyse, the Intendant of the Department, was a guest. Sentiments of mutual friendship were offered. A few days afterward the Intendant gave an entertainment to the commissioners of both nations.

45 On the next two pages is a fac-simile of the last paragraph of the treaty, with the signatures of the respective commissioners, and representations of the seals set opposite their names. These were carefully copied by the writer from the original in the Department of State at Washington City. The impressions of all the seals on the red wax were imperfect, as the engravings represent them.

47 It was issued from the office of the Mercantile Advertiser, on a slip of paper five by six inches in size, and was posted and scattered all over the city. The following is a copy of one of these placards, in the possession of John B. Moreau, Esq., of New York City:

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"New York, Saturday Evening, 9 o’clock, February 11, 1815.

"PEACE.

"The great and joyful news of PEACE between the United States and Great Britain reached this city this evening by the British sloop of war Favorite, the Hon. J. U. Mowatt, Esq., commander, in forty-two days from Plymouth.

"Henry Carroll, Esq., Secretary of the American Legation at Ghent, is the welcome bearer of the treaty, which was signed at Ghent on the 24th December by the respective commissioners, and ratified by the British government on the 28th December. Mr. Baker, late Secretary to the British Legation at Washington, has also arrived in the sloop of war with a copy of the treaty ratified by the British government."

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49 Six per cents rose from 76 to 86, and treasury notes from 92 to 98.

50 Coin, which was twenty-two per cent. premium, fell to two per cent. in the course of forty-eight hours. Within the same time sugar fell from $26 per cwt. to $12.50; tea from $2.25 per lb. to $1; tin from $80 a box to $25. These are mentioned, among scores of articles, as specimens of the sudden effect of the news on commercial values.

51 Philadelphia was the first to illuminate. It took place on Wednesday evening, the 15th of February. Robert Wharton, the mayor, in his proclamation concerning it, suggested that, as the religious principles of the Quakers would not permit them to illuminate, the police should see to it that they should be protected "in their peaceful rights." The mayor directed all the lights to be extinguished at ten o’clock. On that occasion brilliant lights were exhibited from the top of a shot-tower one hundred and sixty feet in height. The illumination in New York took place on the 22d of February. On the evening of the 16th of March a "superb ball," as the newspapers of the day said, was given at Washington Hall, the dancing-room of which was sixty by eighty feet in size. The "number of ladies and gentlemen was six hundred." The room was so arranged as to present the appearance of a beautiful pavilion, or temple, with eighteen pillars, on each of which was the name of a state. It was called the Temple of Concord. On one side of the room, under a canopy composed of flags, was the Bower of Peace, surrounded with orange and lemon trees covered with fruit. The Evening Post of the 21st of March said of the scene in the hall, "It was a picture of female beauty, fashion, and elegance not to be surpassed in any city in the Union." Among the most active women at this entertainment were those who composed the managers of the Association for the Relief of the Soldiers in the Field, formed in 1814. These consisted of Mrs. General Lewis, Mrs. William Few, Mrs. David Gelston, Mrs. Philip Livingston, Mrs. Colonel Laight, Mrs. Thomas Morris, Mrs. Marinus Willet, Mrs. William Ross, Mrs. Nathan Sanford, Mrs. Daniel Smith, Mrs. L. Bradish, Miss M. Bleecker, Miss H. Lewis, and Miss H. E. G. Bradish.

52 The device on one side of the medal is emblematic of the United States and Canada. On one side of a river and lake (St. Lawrence and the Lakes) is the eagle, representing the sovereignty of the republic, threatening to fly over into Canada, whose emblem is the beaver. There the British lion couchant is seen, emblematic of the protecting sovereignty of Great Britain. The device on the other side explains itself. The medal was made by Thomas Wyon, Jr., a young engraver, then only twenty-three years of age. He died in 1817, at the age of twenty-five years, when he was at the head of his profession. Copies of the three medals here mentioned are in the rare numismatic collection of Chas. I. Bushnell, Esq., of New York, to whose courtesy I am indebted for the privilege of having two of them engraved for this work.

54 The Opposition newspapers contained some well-pointed epigrams, keen satires, and genuine wit, aimed at the friends of the war, and in illustration of the shortcomings of the treaty; and there was also an abundance of coarse abuse poured out, through the same channels, upon the Administration. The usually dignified Evening Post had some severe criticisms, and justified the following stanza in its New Year’s Address, printed a few weeks before: