Chapter V Pages:  67-69

The military operations of the last year of the war were short and decisive. The British expedition up the Chesapeake, which ended in the destruction of Washington and the attack on Baltimore in 1814, was originally intended as a feint to draw both attention and the American forces away from Louisiana, which the English purposed to invade preparatory to taking possession of the valley of the Mississippi.(124) Pursuant to this plan, a force of 7,000 troops (125) which had assembled at Jamaica in November, 1814, but whose departure (126) was delayed for ten days until the arrival of Commodore Lloyd's squadron from Fayal (127) reached the mouth of the Mississippi on December 9th, and disembarked at Isle des Pois below New Orleans between the 16th and 20th, but was surprised to find that General Jackson had already begun preparations to meet them. (128)

Some preliminary engagements and two spirited attacks (129) convinced General Pakenham (130) that the task was more than had been bargained for, and he resolved, now that additional re-enforcements had reached him, (131) to carry the American entrenchments on both sides of the river by storm on January 8th. Meanwhile, through Jackson's indomitable energy and perserverance, the lines had been strengthened to such an extent as to be extremely formidable, (132) and by the morning of the battle he had succeeded in collecting a force of 5,698 men, only a small fraction being regulars. (133) The bulk of his army was stationed on the east bank of the Mississippi in three lines, while on the west side was General Morgan "with only eight hundred men, all militia, and indifferently armed." (134)

At dawn on January 8th, General Pakenham with 8,000 veteran troops, the flower of Wellington's Peninsular army, advanced to the attack, his columns in solid formation notwithstanding the fact that the ground was almost perfectly level and as smooth as a glacis. Upon their reaching a point 200 yards from  the first line of entrenchments, the American fire rang out. In less than half an hour the battle was over, after frightful carnage among the British who fled in wildest confusion. (135). On the west bank, however, the scene was reversed. The troops under Colonel Thornton, (136) after many difficulties and being retarded by the strong current, disembarked with half of their original forces and came into action against Morgan's militia. (137) Just when the Americans across the river were cheering over a victory still unexampled in our history, just when the advance of a skirmish line might have brought about the capture of the British army, Jackson had the mortification of seeing the Kentuckians "abandon their position and run in headlong flight toward the city." (138) Driving the Louisianans out of their entrenchments and gaining possession of Morgan's line, Thornton routed Patterson's battery, but the debacle of the British on the other bank and orders to rejoin the main army compelled him to fall back and to re-embark his troops at the close of the day. (139)

On the 19th the British withdrew from the Mississippi and on the 29th returned to their fleet, but it was not until March 6th that news was received of the treaty which had been signed at Ghent fifteen days before the battle had been fought. (140)

"While the nation had reason to exult over so signal a victory, the battle in no sense vindicated a dependence on raw troops. It only proved, as at Bunker Hill, that with trained officers to command them, with an effective artillery and regular troops to support and encourage them above all, when protected by works so formidable that nothing but a regular siege should have dislodged them, advantages of position may compensate for an utter lack of instruction and discipline.

"Agreeable as it might be to give the entire credit of this battle to raw troops, their heroic commander knew so well the uncertainty of their conduct in the open field that he was obliged to accept the advantages of a mere passive defense." (141)

Troops Employed During the War of 1812

The number of troops under arms at various times during this war was:

Regulars (including about 5,000 sailors and marines).............56,032
Volunteers...............................................................10,110
Rangers...................................................................3,049
Militia....................................................................458,463
                                                                                                ____________

Total.....................................................................527,654 (142)

Opposed to them was an enemy's force which, so far as can be estimated, did not exceed 67,000 all told, (143) yet that war cost the United States $86,627,009, (144) and no less than $45,950,546 have already been paid in pensions on its account. (145)

The Revolution lasted seven years, the War of 1812 two and a half. In the former more than four times as many regulars, but only about one-third as many militia, were employed as in the latter. (146) In the Revolution, aside from such victories as Trenton, Princeton, Monmouth, Stony Point, and King's Mountain, Burgoyne's force of 5,763 was captured in 1777, and four years later, with the aid of the French, Cornwallis was forced to capitulate with nearly 8,000. (147) Yet few of us realize that "the only decisive victor of the War of 1812 before the conclusion of the treaty of peace was at the battle of the Thames, where the force of British regulars dispersed or captured (148) numbered but little more than 800." (149) The results speak for themselves.

FOOTNOTES (124-149) ON CHAPTER V THE CAMPAIGN OF 1815 Pages: 67-69

124. Lossing, p. 936.

125. 3,000 who had participated in the operations in the Chesapeake and 4,000 under the command of General Keane who had sailed from Plymouth in September.

126. From Negril Bay on November 26, 1814.

127. This squadron had made three desperate attacks upon the American privateer, General Armstrong, under the command of Captain Reid, in the harbor of Fayal, on the night of September 26-27, but had been repulsed and so crippled that it did not reach Jamaica until ten days after the appointed rendezvous. This delay is considered to have saved New Orleans. See American State Papers, XIV, p. 493, and Coggeshall, History of American Privateers, p. 370.

128. Jackson had reached New Orleans on December 2nd, 1814.

129. December 14th, 23rd, 27th, 28th, and 31st, and January 1st.

130. The hero of Salamanca, who had arrived on December 23rd and superseded General Keane.

131. According to Captain Gleig's British Campaigns, P. 419, the British forces which landed below New Orleans in December, 1814, and January, 1815, numbered 14, 250, including 2,000 sailors and 1,500 marines.

132. "The main body was posted on the east bank behind a line of entrenchments from 5 to 8 feet high, and extending from the river on the right to an impenetrable cypress swamp on the left. Those works were little more than 1,000 yards long, and were thrown up on the edge of a canal, which served as a wet ditch, the water of which varied in depth from 1 to 5 feet. Along the front of this short line fifteen guns were posted in nine different batteries containing from one to three guns each. Of these batteries four were served by the regular artillery and infantry, two by the former marines and sailors of the U.S.S. Carolina, and one by trained privateers men. In support of these batteries there were two regiments of regular infantry and detachment of marines."__Upton, p. 134.

133. 884, including 66 marines. Moreover, most of the regulars were new recruits commanded by young officers. The militia were distinctly indifferent. Of the Kentucky brigade, 2,250 men, who arrived shortly before the battle, "not one man in ten was well armed, and only one man in three had any arms at all."__Parton, Life of Andrew Jackson, II, p. 168.

134. Lossing, p. 1043.

135. 700 were killed, 1,400 wounded, and 500 made prisoners. Among the killed was General Gibbs; Generals Pakenham and Keane were wounded, the former mortally. The regimental casualties were tremendous, the 93d Highlanders losing 786 out of 1,100 officers and men.

The Americans, on the other hand, came out almost unscathed, their losses being confined to 8 killed and 13 wounded.__Lossing, pp. 1046 and 1049; Upton, p. 135.

136. About 4,900 men.

137. Some time after the fighting had begun on the plain of Chalmette on the eastern side of the river.

138. Parton, II, p. 213. Jackson subsequently told the fugitives that "the want of discipline, the want of order, the total disregard to obedience, and a spirit of insubordination, not less destructive than cowardice itself, are the causes which led to the disaster, and they must be eradicated, or I must cease to command."__Goodwin, Life of Andrew Jackson, p. 153.

139. Lossing, pp. 1042, 1043, 1045, and 1049.

140. Ibid., pp. 1051 and 1053.

141. Upton, pp. 135-136.

142. Records of the Adjutant-General's Office; Upton, p. 137.

The terms of enlistment were as follows:

One year or more, including sailors and marines........63,179
Six months or more..........................................66,325
Three months or more.....................................125,643
One month or more........................................125,307
Less than one month......................................147,200
                                                                                 __________

Total.........................................................527,654

143. About 55,000 British regulars, 1,810 militia, and 9,825 Indians, a total of 66,635.__Brannan's Letters and Gleig's British Campaigns, quoted by Upton, p. 138.

Our largest force was 235,839 in 1814 (see page 65), whereas the British maximum, attained in the same year, was only 16,500._Armstrong, I, p. 220.

144. Annual report of the Secretary of the Treasury, June 30, 1914, p.236

145. The annual report of the Commissioner of Pensions, June 30, 1913, p. 9, shows that $45,923,014.46 had been paid out in pensions for the War of 1812; his report for 1914, p. 33, adds $27,532.40, making a total of $45,950,546.86.

146. Regulars. Militia and Volunteers.

Revolution................231,771 164,087
War of 1812...............56,032 471,622
(see page 40.)

147. See pages 20 and 38.

148. Page 57 and page 585, footnotes 48 and 49.

149. Upton, p. 139.