In the evening, small parties of the hostile savages were seen prowling about the encampment, although no attack was made. This circumstance, in connection with the fact that he had not been molested during the day, convinced General Jackson that the enemy had got in the advance, and were lying in wait for him at a dangerous defile where he had forded the creek on his outward march. He therefore sent out his pioneers, who discovered another crossing, about six hundred yards lower down, which was approached through open woodlands; and, unlike the other, its banks sloped gently down, and were tolerably free from reeds and underbrush. The lower ford was, of course, selected, in preference to the one above.

Presuming that the Indians would rush upon his men, when they were engaged in passing the stream, the general made his preparations with great care, and issued his orders with unusual precision. Colonel Carroll was ordered to take command of the centre of the rear-guard; Colonel Perkins of the right column; and Colonel Stump of the left. Captain Russell was directed to bring up the rear with his company of spies. If attacked, Colonel Carroll was instructed to face about, display, and maintain his ground; while the right and left columns were to face outward, wheel back on their pivots, and then attack the Indians on both flanks.

In this order the crossing proceeded on the morning of the twenty-fourth. The front-guard, the wounded, and a part of the flank columns, had passed over; and the artillery were in the act of entering the creek—General Jackson being on the bank superintending the movement—when an alarm gun was fired in the rear. The instant after, the whole troop of Indians, who had discovered the effort to turn their position, came plunging down upon the rear-guard. Captain Russell received them gallantly, and fell back in good order. Colonel Carroll had scarcely given the order to halt and form, when the right and left columns, headed by their officers, broke and fled down the bank. Colonel Stump was among the foremost, and as he approached General Jackson’s position, the latter attempted to cut him down with his sword.

All was now confusion and disorder. The panic was communicated to the rear-guard, most of whom followed the example of their companions. Colonel Carroll, and Captain Quarles, were left with only twenty-five men, yet they sustained the unequal contest with unflinching bravery. The savages were checked in their advance, but the men were rapidly falling, and the iron hail came thicker and faster. General Jackson fairly boiled over with rage and indignation; yet, smothering his passion, he gave his orders coolly and calmly, but in a tone that rang like the blast of a trumpet. Words of encouragement were not wanting; and when the fearless and intrepid Coffee sprang from his litter into the saddle, he cried, “We shall whip them yet, my men!—the dead have risen and come to aid us!”

The company of artillery, who were armed with muskets, now rushed up the acclivity, and ranged themselves by the side of Colonel Carroll and his little band, while their commander, Lieutenant Armstrong⁠[19]⁠—Captain Deadrick being absent—and a few of his men, dragged up their six pounder. The gun had been unlimbered at the foot of the height, and when they prepared to load it, the rammer and picker were missing. No time was to be lost, as the savages were fast closing upon them. One of the men instantly wrested off his bayonet, and rammed the cartridge home with his musket; another used his ramrod as a picker, and primed with a musket cartridge. Twice was the gun loaded and fired with grapeshot. At the second discharge, the enemy were thrown into confusion, when Colonel Carroll pressed upon them with the bayonet, and forced them to retire a short distance, though they still persisted in the attack.

Meanwhile, Captain Gordon, whose company had been in the advance, had moved round and thrown himself upon the left flank of the Indians; and a few moments later, General Jackson brought up a considerable number of the rear-guard and flankers, whom he had rallied and reformed, with the assistance of General Coffee, Colonel Higgins, and other officers. Finding themselves baffled at every point, the enemy gave up the contest and made a hasty retreat, throwing away their packs as they fled, and leaving twenty-six of their warriors dead on the field.

In this series of engagements, at Emuckfaw and Enotochopco, General Jackson lost twenty men killed, and seventy-five wounded, four of them mortally. One hundred and eighty-nine dead bodies of the enemy were counted; but they removed all their wounded, and, probably, many who were killed outright.

Important as were these actions in their immediate results, they assumed additional consequence, as effecting a fortunate diversion in favor of the troops under General Floyd. He was attacked by the savages, at Camp Defiance, shortly before daylight, on the morning of the twenty-seventh of January, three days after the battle of Enotochopco. The furious onset of the savages was with difficulty resisted, and they were only repulsed with the loss of seventeen men killed, and one hundred and thirty-two wounded. Three hundred warriors, at the least, were rendered hors du combat in the several contests with General Jackson, and many more were intimidated from again taking up arms; and had they been present, the Georgia force might, not unlikely, have been overpowered.

After caring for his dead and wounded, General Jackson resumed his march, and arrived at Fort Strother on the twenty-seventh of January. On the twenty-eighth, General Coffee and his corps of officers were directed to return home, and wait the orders of the government; and on the thirty-first instant, General Roberts was ordered to conduct the volunteer regiments, whose bravery and patriotism were highly commended by the commanding general, back to Fayetteville, where they were discharged.

The brilliant successes of General Jackson in the Creek country now began to attract unusual attention. The commander of the military district, General Pinckney, referred to his conduct in terms of strong approbation, and suggested his name to the Secretary of War, for an appointment in the regular army. He had fought himself into the confidence and affections of the public, and he had no further need to depend on the reluctant services of a disorderly and half-mutinous soldiery.

So far from being offended at the tone and language of General Jackson’s letter, Governor Blount properly appreciated the feelings of the writer, and made every possible exertion to send him both troops and supplies. Men were not wanting to enrol their names; but there were hundreds and thousands who longed to fight beneath the standard, and under the eye, of Andrew Jackson. On the third of February, General Doherty arrived at Camp Ross with two thousand men from East Tennessee; and, shortly after, General Johnston reported himself at Huntsville, with over seventeen hundred men, from West Tennessee. Two regiments of cavalry, one from each section of the state, under Colonels Dyer and Brown, also appeared, and were organized into a brigade, under General Coffee. On the sixth of February, the 39th infantry, under Colonel Williams, about six hundred strong, joined General Jackson at Fort Strother, and about the same time, the Choctaws took up the hatchet against the Red Sticks, and offered him their services.

It was the intention of General Jackson to advance as soon as possible towards the bend of the Tallapoosa, near which the battle of Emuckfaw had been fought, and where, he was assured, the main strength of the enemy lay. The want of supplies, as usual, retarded his movements. It was now the rainy season; the streams were very much swollen, and the bridges swept away; the roads were soaked with water, and terribly cut up; and, although he kept five hundred men at work on the route between Fort Deposit and Fort Strother, several weeks elapsed before he was able to collect twenty days’ rations at the latter place.

While the general was making his preparations at Fort Strother, most of the detachments composing the force under his command remained in the rear, that the supplies thrown forward to that post might not be too quickly consumed. During this period of inaction, the spirit of mutiny again made its appearance, among the West Tennessee troops. He felt that he had so far dealt too leniently with this offence, and determined to visit it with summary punishment. A private belonging to General Johnston’s command was convicted of open mutiny, and sentenced to death. This was his second offence, and the general firmly refused to pardon him. The sentence was carried into effect, and the example thus presented exerted a most salutary influence on the whole army.

Early in March, General Jackson had finally completed his arrangements. Colonel Dyer was ordered to scour the country between the Coosa, Blackwarrior, and Cahawba, as low down as the old Coosa towns; the Choctaws and Chickasaws were directed to watch the country west of the Tombigbee, and prevent the escape of any of the Red Sticks beyond the Mississippi; and the Cherokees received instructions to range about the headwaters of the Tallapoosa. At the same time, there was a large force of North Carolina and South Carolina militia, under Colonel Pearson, who had relieved the Georgia troops under General Floyd, on the eastern borders of the Creek country, in readiness to coöperate in any simultaneous movement upon the fastnesses of the hostile Indians.

Leaving a garrison of four hundred and fifty men at Fort Strother, under Colonel Steel, General Jackson commenced descending the Coosa, having embarked his stores in boats, with the remainder of his force, on the sixteenth day of March. Arrived at the mouth of Cedar Creek, he established a dépôt at this point, and commenced the construction of a fort, which he named Fort Williams. The work on the fort being in a sufficient state of forwardness, he took up the line of march across the country to Emuckfaw, on the morning of the twenty-fourth instant, with about two thousand men. A strong detachment was left at Fort Williams, to protect the supplies, and continue the labor on the fortifications.

Not far from five miles below the battle-ground of the twenty-second of January, at Emuckfaw, is the great bend of the Tallapoosa, called by the Indians, Tohopeca, or Horse Shoe. At this place, the warriors from the hostile towns of Oakfuskie, Oakchoya, Eufaulee, New Youca, the Hillabees and Fish Ponds, had concentrated their forces, near one thousand strong, for a last desperate struggle. Across the narrow neck of land, or isthmus, by which the peninsula formed by the crooked river was entered, they had erected a breastwork of logs, from five to eight feet high, with double portholes, arranged with no little skill and ingenuity. Within the inclosure, there were about one hundred acres of land; the centre was high ground, covered with brush and fallen timber; and on the river bottom, at the lower extremity of the peninsula, was the Indian village.

On the night of the twenty-sixth of March, General Jackson encamped within six miles of the Horse Shoe, and early on the following morning, General Coffee was detached, with the mounted men and most of the friendly Indians, under instructions to cross the river at a ford two miles below Tohopeca, and take possession of the high grounds on the opposite bank, so as to cut off all chance of escape in that quarter. General Jackson then marched the remainder of his force to a position in front of the enemy’s breastworks, where he halted his men, until the preärranged signal announced that General Coffee had drawn a cordon of soldiers around the elevated ground overlooking the river and the hostile town and fortification. The main column immediately moved forward; the two pieces of artillery, a six and a three pounder, were planted on a hill eighty yards distant from the left of the enemy’s line; and at half past ten o’clock in the forenoon, the action was opened by a brisk fire, which was warmly returned by the Red Sticks.

The firing on the American side was mainly confined to the artillery, though a rifle or musket was occasionally discharged, whenever the dark warriors incautiously exposed their persons. For nearly two hours, the cannonade was kept up, with spirit and activity, though without producing any sensible impression. Meantime the friendly Indians had advanced to the left bank of the river, while General Coffee remained on the high ground with the rest of his troops. Some of the Cherokees now discovered that the enemy’s canoes, which were drawn up on the shore, near their village, had been left unguarded. They instantly plunged into the stream, swam across, and, in a few moments, returned with a number of the canoes. Means being thus provided for passing over, the Cherokees, headed by their chief, Richard Brown, and Colonel Morgan, and Captain Russell’s company of spies, crossed to the village, set it on fire, and attacked the enemy in the rear.

Surrounded though they were, the hostile Indians fought with the utmost bravery and desperation. Every avenue by which they might have fled was occupied by the American troops, and their habitations were in flames; still they refused to surrender, and successfully resisted every attempt of the spies and Cherokees to dislodge them. The soldiers with General Jackson, clamored loudly to be led to the assault, but he hesitated to give the order, till he became convinced that the party in the rear were not strong enough to overcome the opposition they encountered. The command to storm the works was then received with shouts and acclamations. General Doherty’s brigade, and the 39th infantry, under Colonel Williams, promptly advanced to the attack. The result of the contest did not long remain in doubt. A fierce struggle was maintained for a short time, through the portholes, muzzle to muzzle; the action being so close, as remarked in the dispatch of the commanding general, that “many of the enemy’s balls were welded to the American bayonets.” Major Montgomery, of the 39th infantry, was the first to spring upon the breastwork, but was shot dead among his comrades, who were rushing forward to sustain him. A smothered cry for vengeance rolled along the line,—and the whole column dashed over the feeble barrier, like the avalanche, crushing and bearing down everything before it.

The Indians, fighting with the fury of despair, met the shock with clubbed muskets and rifles, with the gleaming knife and tomahawk. Some few attempted to escape by swimming the river, but were shot down in their flight, by the spies and mounted men under General Coffee. Most of them, however, fought and died, where they stood—behind the ramparts which they were unable to defend. The conflict—nay, we may call it, without reproach to the victors, the butchery—was continued for hours. None asked for quarter. The Tallapoosa ran red with the blood of the savages, and the dead were piled in mangled heaps upon its banks.

Driven from the breastwork, a considerable number of the enemy took refuge among the brush and fallen timber on the high ground in the centre of the peninsula. General Jackson sent them an interpreter, to offer terms of capitulation, but they fired on and wounded him. The cannon were brought to bear on their position, and a partially successful charge was made, yet they were not dislodged. Finally, the brush was set on fire. The flames spread with rapidity, snapping and crackling as they caught the dry bark and leaves, and licking up everything in their way, like some huge, greedy monster. The Indians were now forced from their concealment; and all who attempted to fly, or offered resistance, were shot down. Night at length put an end to the carnage, and, under cover of the darkness, a few of the survivors of that fatal field escaped into the adjoining forests.

Five hundred and fifty-seven dead bodies of the enemy were found within the peninsula; and there were over three hundred taken prisoners, nearly all women and children. The total loss of the Red Sticks, in killed alone, must have been near eight hundred; as a number of the dead were thrown into the river previous to the final rout, by their surviving friends, or shot by General Coffee’s men while attempting to make their escape. Among the slain were three prophets, one of whom, by the name of Monohoe, was struck by a grapeshot in his mouth, out of which had issued the lies which had lured his nation to their ruin.

General Jackson lost fifty-five men killed, and one hundred and forty-six wounded. Twenty-three of the killed, and forty-seven of the wounded, were friendly Creeks and Cherokees.

After completing the destruction of the Indian fortifications at Tohopeka, General Jackson commenced his return march to Fort Williams, where he arrived on the second of April. He instantly began his preparations for scouring the country lying in the forks of the Coosa and Tallapoosa; and, on the seventh of April, his army was in motion for Hoithlewalee, one of the principal towns on the Hickory Ground;—the men being provided with eight days’ rations, which they carried on their backs. The campaign was now drawing to a close, but its hardships were not quite ended. The roads were flooded by the heavy rains, and the streams scarcely fordable; and, consequently, the march was tedious and difficult. General Jackson was much worn by the fatigues and privations which he had encountered, but his capability of endurance was not yet exhausted; and the strength of constitution he manifested, though belied by the apparent weakness of his frame, gave rise to the sobriquet of “Old Hickory,” which was applied to him by his soldiers, and adhered to him through life.

The terrible vengeance taken at Tohopeka, for the massacre at Fort Mims, and the other monstrous cruelties perpetrated by the Red Sticks, put an end to the war. The great body of the hostile savages fled in dismay, before the advancing columns of General Jackson. Many of the fugitives were killed by a detachment of the 3rd infantry, under Colonel Russell, but numbers effected their escape into Florida, on account of the remissness of Colonel Milton, the officer in command of the South Carolinians, who were then on the left bank of the Tallapoosa, not far above its junction with the Coosa. McQueen, one of the most prominent chiefs among the Red Sticks, was captured, but afterwards escaped to the Escambia river, with five hundred adherents.

Arrived at Hoithlewalee, General Jackson found the town abandoned. On the fourteenth of April it was destroyed, with several other villages in the vicinity. The general then divided his command into two columns; one scouring the country on the left bank, and the other, with which he remained in person, advancing down the right bank of the Tallapoosa, to the confluence, where a fort was constructed, called by General Pinckney, in honor of the gallant Tennessee commander, Fort Jackson. At this point most of the Hickory Ground chiefs came in and submitted to the conqueror. Weatherford also voluntarily surrendered, and the great prophet of the Creeks, Hillinghagee, was taken prisoner. The only terms prescribed by the victorious general were, that all who surrendered themselves should retire to the country north of Fort Williams, where, if their conduct was good, they would be permitted to remain proposition was made known, numbers of the fugitives were on their way to the neutral territory.

On the twentieth of April, General Pinckney arrived at Fort Jackson, and on the following day assumed the command. General Jackson shortly after repaired to his home in Tennessee, to recruit his health and strength, which had suffered materially during his long and arduous campaign. The thanks of the government and the applause of the nation followed him in his retirement. An opportunity was soon afforded for rewarding his services by an appointment in the regular army.—On the resignation of General Harrison, President Madison nominated him as a brigadier general, and major general by brevet; and, a short time afterwards, he was appointed a full major general, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the retirement of General Hampton. Both commissions were received at the same time, and the latter was accepted.

In the summer of 1814, General Jackson was ordered to take command of the seventh military district, and established his headquarters at Mobile. Associated with Colonel Hawkins, he concluded a favorable treaty with the Creek nation, by which, with the exception of a small portion of the tribe who chose to remain in Florida, they were prevented from again taking up arms during the continuance of the war with England.

The hostile tribes were now entirely quieted, and a chain of military posts established through the former theatre of their outrages. No sooner had this been done, than the attention of General Jackson was directed to the alarming state of affairs at Pensacola. He had long been convinced that the Spanish authorities in Florida were lending their aid and assistance to the English, in the prosecution of hostilities. Indeed, the facts and circumstances which forced him to such a conclusion, were so glaring and palpable, that it was impossible to form any other opinion. It is barely probable that Spain was the passive agent of Great Britain in this respect; but if so, her pusillanimity, in thus tamely surrendering her neutral rights and character, was equally censurable. If she was, in fact, the coädjutor of England, the measures adopted by General Jackson were justifiable; but if she was the creature only, they were necessary. This is the only argument that need be offered, in defence of the attack on Pensacola, which, in after times, was so severely criticised and censured, by his political opponents.

In the month of August, Captain Gordon, of the spies, visited Pensacola, and ascertained that a large body of savages had been organized there by Colonel Nicholls, of the British army, and were then being instructed and drilled by British officers, in the presence, and with the knowledge, of the Spanish governor; that Fort Barrancas was occupied by between two and three hundred British troops; and that there were three armed vessels belonging to the same nation, in the bay, from which a considerable quantity of arms and provisions had been disembarked. Another reconnaissance was subsequently made by Lieutenant Murray, of the Mississippi militia, which fully confirmed the report made by Captain Gordon. On the twenty-ninth of August, also, Colonel Nicholls issued a proclamation, dated at his “headquarters, Pensacola,” addressed to the inhabitants of the southern and southwestern states, and inviting them to join his standard, in which he informed them that he was “at the head of a large body of Indians, well armed, disciplined, and commanded by British officers; a good train of artillery, with every requisite; seconded by the powerful aid of a numerous British and Spanish squadron of ships and vessels of war.”

General Jackson was not disposed to stand idly by, and see the rights of his country violated, and her interests jeoparded. He forthwith dispatched an express to the governor of Tennessee, requesting the whole quota of the militia of that state to be brought into the field without delay, and commenced his preparations for a march on Pensacola. On the fifteenth of September Colonel Nicholls appeared before Fort Bowyer, thirty miles below Mobile, at the entrance of the bay, with four vessels, containing a number of siege pieces, and several hundred sailors, mariners, and savages. The heavy guns were landed, the fort invested, and a lively cannonade opened upon it. Major Lawrence, of the 2nd infantry, the commander of the post, with its garrison of one hundred and twenty men, made a brave defence, and finally forced the enemy to retire, with the loss of one of their ships, and over two hundred killed and wounded.

Having been joined by about two thousand men from Tennessee, General Jackson took up the line of march for Pensacola, with all his disposable troops. His whole force consisted of upwards of three thousand men, but a small part being regulars, and the remainder militia from Mississippi and Tennessee, with a few Choctaw warriors. On the sixth of November he arrived near Pensacola, and sent a flag to the Spanish governor, to communicate the purpose of his visit. The bearer of the flag was fired on from the batteries in the town, and forced to return. Dispositions were then made for carrying the fort by assault, which was discovered to be defended by both British and Spanish troops, on the following day. On the morning of the seventh, the general entered the town with his troops, under a heavy fire from the fort, and the British flotilla in the harbor, and carried one of the advanced batteries at the point of the bayonet. The governor now supplicated for mercy, and surrendered the town and fort unconditionally; the British troops retiring to Fort Barrancas, and their savages allies seeking shelter in the everglades of Florida, whither they were driven by a detachment from the American army under Major Blue.

On the morning of the eighth of November, just as General Jackson was making ready to march upon Fort Barrancas, the British spiked and dismounted the cannon, blew up the works, and retreated to their shipping. The object of his visit to Pensacola being thus accomplished, and the enemy driven from the rendezvous, where they had been invited, or welcomed, by the Spanish authorities, General Jackson restored the town and fort to Governor Manriquez, and immediately returned to Mobile with his troops.

Intimations of an intended attack, or descent, on the southern frontier of the United States, had been previously given, and they were corroborated by the statements of the pirates of Barrataria, who, with their leader, Lafitte, had been solicited by Colonel Nicholls to join the projected expedition, but were afterwards induced, under a promise of pardon for their offences, to take an active and important part in the defence of New Orleans. It was for a long time uncertain at what point the blow would be struck; but, early in September, it became known that formidable preparations were making for the invasion of Louisiana, and the reduction of New Orleans. Governor Claiborne promptly ordered the two militia divisions of the state, under Generals Villeré and Thomas, to hold themselves in readiness to march at a moment’s notice, and issued a patriotic address to his fellow citizens, calling upon them to turn out, in a mass, if necessary, in defence of their homes and families. No immediate attack was then made, however, and the alarm subsided. It was renewed again towards the close of November; the apprehensions of danger were evidently well founded, and General Jackson at once hastened to the city of New Orleans, giving directions, before he set out, for his troops to follow as rapidly as possible, and dispatching an express to expedite the movements of the Kentucky militia, who were required to join him without loss of time.

Important as was the position of New Orleans, as the great emporium of the southwestern part of the Union, commanding the extensive trade and navigation of the Mississippi and its tributaries, the means provided for its defence were lamentably insufficient. It had been understood for some time, that the expedition under Admiral Cochrane, baffled at Baltimore, but subsequently reïnforced by a large body of troops, supposed, after the conclusion of the Treaty of Paris, to be no longer needed in Europe, was destined, ultimately, to operate upon the Gulf coast. Although New Orleans was the most liable to attack, and the most vulnerable point, in that quarter, few preparations were made for its protection; for the reason, probably, that the plundering and harassing warfare carried on by the enemy on the Atlantic shore, and the operations on the Niagara frontier, furnished constant employment for all the men and means at the disposal of the General Government. Late in the fall of 1814, the new levies raised in Kentucky and Tennessee, were ordered to proceed to that city, and supplies of arms and ammunition were also sent down the Mississippi.

New Orleans, at this time, contained about twenty thousand inhabitants,⁠[20] a great number of whom were of Spanish or English descent, and, consequently, but little reliance was to be placed on their fidelity to the American cause; so far from this, many were known to be in correspondence with the enemy, and only waiting for a favorable opportunity to act in a more open and decided manner. General Jackson arrived in the city on the second of December, and found everything in confusion and alarm. The apprehended invasion was the principal topic of conversation in every café and boudoir. The opponents of the administration there, as elsewhere throughout the union, confidently predicted that New Orleans must fall; and its friends more than half feared that the prediction would be verified.

It was no easy task to reänimate those who had grown faint-hearted under the influence of the pitiful Jeremiads which were constantly sounding in their ears. The American commander was accompanied by but few of his men, and his presence alone could not go very far towards the restoration of confidence. Yet he set himself vigorously to the work, and in a brief space of time, his impulsive energy, his earnest zeal, and his determined patriotism had wrought marvellous changes. The timid were reässured; the wavering were encouraged to remain steadfast; and those who had never doubted or faltered, derived new strength from his example. As yet, there were but a few hundred regular troops in the city, and the imminence of the danger was such, that it was necessary to commence operations without delay. The general was deficient both in the personnel and the matériel of war; but the exigencies of his military career had long since taught him to rely on his own unaided efforts. He was ever full of resources,—but never more than now.

The geographical position of New Orleans was highly favorable to its defence. It is situated on the left bank of the Mississippi, around a bend of the river, shaped like a crescent, about midway between the high ground at Baton Rouge, and the Gulf. On either side of the river, there is a strip of arable alluvion, protected from inundation by levees, and varying in width, from three hundred, to one thousand yards. Beyond this there are dense cypress brakes and swamps, with here and there a few acres of salt prairie, extending, on the east, to Lakes Borgne and Pontchartrain. The river debouches into the Gulf through several mouths, which are obstructed by numerous sand bars; and its ascent, at all times difficult, is especially so in high water, when the current is unusually rapid. Under the direction of General Jackson, the militia were imbodied; the defences of Forts St. Philip and Bourbon, on the Mississippi, below New Orleans, were enlarged and strengthened; batteries were constructed at the Rigolets, and on the Chef Menteur; all the numerous bayous and inlets, intersecting the lower valley of the river, between the Chef Menteur and the Atchafalaya, were obstructed, or guarded by strong pickets; and lines of intrenchments and fortifications were traced, below the city, extending from the Mississippi to the swampy grounds, and their construction commenced. Commodore Patterson, the officer in command of the naval station, zealously coöperated with General Jackson, in carrying out the measures of defence which he projected.

Positive intelligence was received in New Orleans, on the ninth of December, that the British fleet had been descried standing off the Chandeleur islands; and Lieutenant Thomas ap Catesby Jones was immediately dispatched by Commodore Patterson, with a flotilla of five gun boats, and one hundred and eighty-two men, to watch the motions of the enemy. On the twelfth instant, they were discovered in such force, off Cat island, at the eastern extremity of Lake Borgne, that Lieutenant Jones judged it safer to retire up the lake and guard the passes leading towards the city. On the following day, the schooner Seahorse, which had been sent to the bay of St. Louis, to assist in the removal of some public stores at Shieldsboro, was attacked by three of the enemy’s barges. These were driven off, but they soon returned with four others. The crew then abandoned the vessel and blew her up; and the storehouse on the bay was set on fire. The flotilla under Lieutenant Jones was attacked on the fourteenth instant, while becalmed, by a detachment of seamen and marines, twelve hundred strong, under Captain Lockyer, in forty-two launches and barges. Lieutenant Jones and his men made a brave defence; but after an obstinate contest of more than an hour, during which the enemy lost two of their boats, and over three hundred men, they were obliged to surrender, with the loss of forty killed and wounded.

In the meantime, large appropriations had been made by the legislature of Louisiana for the defence of New Orleans; but that body appeared extremely reluctant to adopt all the suggestions of General Jackson and Governor Claiborne. Many of the members were disaffected, and others had been led to believe, by the British spies and emissaries who infested the city, that all attempts at resistance would be unavailing, and that it would be far wiser to propose terms of capitulation, immediately upon the appearance of the British force. General Jackson in vain urged the legislature to suspend the habeas corpus act; and despairing of accomplishing anything, except by the adoption of rigorous and decided measures, as a last resort, he finally ordered martial law to be proclaimed in the city and its vicinity. The functions of the civil authorities were only suspended in part, however, and the legislature continued its sessions.

This high-handed exercise of power, rendered necessary by the temporizing and vacillating course of the legislature, naturally provoked considerable comment. Those who were really and truly devoted to the American cause had no fears, when they saw the general wielding the authority which he had seized into his own hands; those only clamored against what they termed this infraction of the rights of the citizen, who were prepared to surrender the city to the enemy, at the first summons. The proclamation of martial law, though, perhaps, scarcely warranted by the law and the constitution, was one of those acts which are sometimes absolutely requisite in great emergencies. The power acquired under such circumstances, is, doubtless, liable to abuse; but in the hands of one whose patriotism, like that of Andrew Jackson, is sans peur, sans reproche, there can be no danger. “Silent leges, inter arma,” is a maxim, as applicable to free, as to monarchical governments. General Jackson was extremely loth to assume any questionable power, until he became penetrated with the conviction that the safety of the country demanded this step, and he surrendered it the very moment he felt assured that the crisis was past. His course was subsequently approved by the General Government, and pronounced by the Secretary of War, both “just as it respected the responsibility of the commanding general, and safe as it respected the liberties of the nation.”

A new impetus was given to every movement, by the active and energetic conduct of General Jackson. The fruitful and varied resources of his great mind were in constant requisition. His determined spirit, manifested in his expressive remark to Governor Claiborne—that he would “defend the country, or die in the last ditch!”—was communicated to those around him. Treason shrunk abashed from his presence, and cowardice assumed the appearance of valor at his side.

After the capture of the flotilla under Lieutenant Jones, it became impossible to watch the movements of the British squadron; and hence it was extremely difficult to foretell what point would be first attacked. Large requisitions were made by General Jackson, of negroes to work on the projected fortifications, intended to secure the different approaches; and all those found in the streets, together with the drays and carts, were impressed for the same purpose. The militia were ordered out en masse, and disciplined regularly every day. Orders were likewise again sent to hasten the march of the reïnforcements; and to General Coffee, who was rapidly approaching with his brigade of mounted men from Tennessee, the commanding general said, “You must not sleep until you arrive within striking distance!” The order was obeyed with characteristic promptitude;—General Coffee marched his command eighty miles on the last day, and arrived near the city late in the evening of the twenty-first of December.

All the arrangements of General Jackson for the defence of New Orleans were made with consummate skill. The batteries commanding the passes from Lake Borgne into Lake Pontchartrain were well manned; the colored battalion, under Major Lacoste, with the Feliciana dragoons, were ordered to take post on the Chef Menteur, to cover the Gentilly road; Major Plauche’s battalion, with Lieutenant Wagner’s company of light artillery, were stationed at Fort St. John, on the bayou of that name; the Tennessee cavalry and infantry, under Generals Coffee and Carroll, remained about four miles above the city; the regular troops, and the remainder of the state militia, occupied the city, and the fortifications on the river below; and the schooner Caroline and brig Louisiana were moored in the stream.

The watchful care and vigilance of the American commander were frustrated, however, by the want of due caution on the part of a picket posted near the mouth of the bayou Bienvenu, which led up from Lake Borgne. On the twenty-second of December, the picket was surprised by a party of the enemy, belonging to the division of General Keane, whose whole command, about four thousand five hundred in number, with their heavy cannon and stores, immediately proceeded, in their small boats, up the bayou, and, at four o’clock in the morning of the twenty-third, arrived opposite the opening of Villeré’s canal, which connected with the Mississippi. They halted at this point for a few hours, and then continued up the canal. Early in the afternoon of the same day, they gained the bank of the river unmolested, and established themselves on the plantations of General Villeré, Colonel La Ronde, and Major Lacoste, about eight miles below the city.

General Jackson did not wait to be attacked. Within an hour after receiving the information that the enemy had effected a landing, he put his troops in motion. Anticipating that the city might be simultaneously threatened by way of the Chef Menteur, General Carroll was left posted on the Gentilly road, with his command and the city militia; and the remainder of the troops, under General Jackson in person, consisting of General Coffee’s brigade, Major Hind’s dragoons, a detachment of artillery and marines, under Colonel McRea, parts of the 7th and 44th infantry, the battalions of Majors Plauche and Daquin, and two six pounder guns in charge of Lieutenant Spotts, moved down the left bank of the river, to attack the enemy who had landed below. The schooner Caroline, Captain Henley, with Commodore Patterson on board, and the brig Louisiana, Lieutenant Thompson, also dropped down the river. It was understood that the signal of attack would be the fire of the Caroline, when she had arrived opposite the position of the British troops.

At six o’clock in the evening of the twenty-third, the different corps composing the main column, in all not far from two thousand men, effected a junction at the canal Rodriguez, within sight of the watch fires of the enemy, which were discovered gleaming dimly in the distance. The night was prematurely dark, owing to the dense fog rising from the river. This circumstance, however, favored the movement, as it was thereby concealed from the enemy; and the very best spirit pervaded the whole command. The troops were now formed for the attack;—the artillery and marines, and the regular infantry, on the right; the battalions of Plauche and Daquin, both under Colonel Ross, in the centre; and the brigade of General Coffee, dismounted, on the left. General Coffee was directed to turn the enemy’s right, and attack them in the rear; while the rest of the column advanced against them in front.

At half-past seven o’clock, the long looked-for signal was given by the Caroline. The first intimation received by the enemy, of the approach of the Americans, was the raking broadside of the schooner, which completely swept their encampment. Before they had fairly recovered from their astonishment, General Jackson fell upon them like a thunderbolt. Though taken by surprise, General Keane ordered his fires to be extinguished, and finally succeeded in forming his men to beat off the attack. Before order was entirely restored, General Coffee had forced his way into the enemy’s camp, and General Jackson was moving upon them in front with equal daring and impetuosity.

Notwithstanding the intense darkness, the American soldiers were kept to their duty, and displayed the most praiseworthy gallantry. The enemy were driven from their position, and several successive charges were made, with great success. At length, it was discovered that the troops were falling into confusion, on account of the thick mist which shrouded everything around, and General Jackson thought it best to call off his men. During the remainder of the night they lay on the field of battle, and in the morning fell back to the canal Rodriguez, about two miles nearer the city, where the swamp and the Mississippi approached within a few hundred yards of each other.

The American loss in the engagement on the evening of the twenty-third, was twenty-four killed, one hundred and fifteen wounded, and seventy-four taken prisoners; that of the British was forty-six killed, one hundred and seventy-four wounded, and sixty-four missing. But the most important result of the action, was the check given to the operations of the enemy. They were taught to respect their antagonists far more than they had done; and, when they were informed by their prisoners, who designed to deceive them, that the American force was at least fifteen thousand strong, they began to think the conquest of New Orleans would not, after all, be a mere holiday affair.

General Jackson decided to make a stand at the position to which he retired on the morning of the twenty-fourth of December, as it was ascertained that reïnforcements were constantly arriving at the enemy’s camp. The work of fortifying it was instantly commenced. The canal Rodriguez, which was about four feet deep, served the purpose of a ditch; and, behind this, a breastwork was constructed, stretching from the Mississippi on the right, about one thousand yards, to the cypress swamp on the left. The line extended some distance into the marsh and then inclined to the right, in order to prevent any attempt to turn that flank. The underbrush and trees in this quarter were also cleared away for a considerable space, so that an assailing column could not approach without being exposed to a destructive fire. Earth being scarce in this low country, General Jackson had recourse to a novel expedient. Bales of cotton, in large numbers, were brought from the city, which were placed in line and covered over with dirt. Flank bastions to enfilade the works, and strong batteries, were also constructed, at irregular intervals.

On the right bank of the Mississippi, about half a mile in advance of General Jackson’s main position, a line of intrenchments, extending from the river to the low grounds, was also formed, and a heavy battery of fifteen guns established, which enfiladed the whole front ©f the position on the left bank. In addition to this principal line of intrenchments, there were others formed in the rear, to which General Jackson designed to retreat, in succession, if the enemy forced him to abandon his first position. Another precautionary measure was likewise adopted, to render his main line more secure against attack. Sluices were opened through the levee, and the plains in front flooded with water from the river. The general was so carried away with zeal and enthusiasm, and so deeply impressed with the great responsibility resting upon him, and the importance of every step, that for four days and nights, while his preparations were in progress, he scarcely took a moment’s rest. No crisis seemed to be too great for him; his vigilance became more keen sighted, and his spirits rose higher, as dangers thickened around his path; his resources grew more ample as the occasion required, and his resolution hourly grew more stern and unbending.