JACKSON
JACKSON
army, to fill the vacancy caused by the resigna-
tion of William Henry Harrison, and he was
assigned to the command of the Army of the
South. The legislature of Mississiijpi Territory
voted him a sword. On July 10, 1814, he assumed
command at Fort Jackson, met the Creek In-
dians, and after much diplomacy negotiated
terms of peace known as the treaty of Fort Jack-
son. He was detained at Fort Jackson an entire
month, when he went to Mobile, arriving at
the place, then a village of one hundred fifty
houses, late in August, 1814. He immediately
took possession of Fort Bowyer, on Mobile Point,
where Major Laurence, with one hundred sixty
men of the 2d U.S. infantry, garrisoned the fort,
which was armed with two 24-pounders, six 12-
pound ers and twelve small pieces. On Sept.
12, 1814, the fort was invested by a land force of
marines and Indians numbering about two hun-
dred, commanded by Colonel Nichols, supported
by a British ileet of four vessels with eighty guns,
commanded by Captain Percy. On the 13th fire
was opened by the investing land force with a
howitzer, and on the 15th the battle was fought,
resulting in a loss to the British of thirty-two
killed and forty wounded and the Hermes wrecked
on the shore, while the garrison lost four killed
and ten wounded. Then followed the invasion of
Florida, at that time Spanish territory. On No-
vember 3, with 8000 men and rations for eight
days, he left Mobile ; reached Pensacola on the
6th ; took possession of the town on the 7th ; the
British fled on the 8th, and on the 11th Jackson
with his army was back in Mobile. It was not
till Nov. 25, 1814, that General Coffee reached
Mobile with an army of 2800 men, and on the
26th Jackson took command of the reinforced
army of 4000 men, of which 1000 were regulars
and the balance raw militia and Indians. On
November 22 he left Mobile with his staff, and
arrived in New Orleans Dec. 3, 1814, where he
was met by Gen. W. C. C. Claiborne, Commodore
Patterson, U.S.N., Nicholas Girod, mayor of New
Orleans, and Edward Livingston and John R.
Gregnes, representing the New Orleans bar.
When the formalities of his reception were over,
heat once reviewed the uniformed militia, which
had been hastily made up of merchants, lawyers,
clerks and planters' sons. He made Edward
Livingston his aide-de-camp and interpreter,
the language spoken in the city being French.
The approach to the city by Lake Borgne
was defended by a fleet of six gunboats,
carrying twenty-three guns and manned by
one hundred eighty-two men under Lieut.
Thomas ap Catesby Jones. The land force
was made up of two half-filled regiments of
regulars lately recruited ; a battalion of uni-
formed volunteers ; two regiments of state militia
insufficiently armed and equipped and without
training or discipline, and a battalion of free
colored men, in all less than 2000 men. In the
river were the schooner Carolina and the ship
Louisiana, neither of them in cominission. The
army left at Mobile was en route, commanded by
General Coffee, and General Carroll was floating
swiftly down the Mississippi with a volunteer
force of Tennesseeans whom he was drilling
daily on the roofs of the decks of his fleet of trans-
ports, and Generals Thomas and Adair were on
their way down the Mississippi with 2000 Ken-
tuckians, unarmed and with insufficient clothing,
blankets and camp equipage. The British force
included a fleet of fifty armed vessels of the best
class in the British navy, while more on the way
from Bordeaux, Pensacola and England, were
expected at any moment ; and on these ships were
four regiments who had fought at Bladensburg
and burned the capitol at Washington ; four
regiments from England, direct from the Penin-
sular battle fields ; two regiments of negro troops
from the West Indies, and 1500 marines : 8900
men in all, fully armed and equipped, besides
nearly 10,000 sailors who could be landed in an
emergency. On December 14 the English flotilla
advanced on the little crafts of Lieutenant Jones
in Lake Borgne drawn up across the channel
anchored by the stern with springs to the cables,
and the unequal flght was soon over, the current
running out and the absence of wind preventing
any escape. The Americans were taken on board
by the British and their wounded cared for.
Martial law was declared in New Orleans, Decem-
ber 16, which restored ox'der and confidence, and
on Sunday, the 18th, Jackson removed the troops
then in the city, and Edward Livingston read
his addresses "To tlie Embodied Militia," "To
the Battalion of Uniform Companies,'" and " To
tlie Men of Color." On the 19th General Coffee
arrived with eight hundred men, and the same
day Colonel Hinds, with a regiment of Missis-
sippi dragoons who had marched two hundred
thirty miles in four days. On December 22 Gen-
eral Carroll arrived with his regiment of Tennes-
seeans and a supply of muskets, and on the same
day 1600 British troops landed at the mouth of
the Bayou Bienvenue, only eight miles from New
Orleans. General Jackson lost no time in going
out to meet the enemy, and the same afternoon
2131 American troops advanced to the Rodriguez
canal, six miles below the city and two miles
from the landing place of the British troops.
Commodore Patterson was ordered to drop down
the river with the Carolina, and Captain Henly
and Captain Butler of Jackson's staff alone re-
mained in command of the city. On December
23, at 7.30 P.M., the Carolina opened a broadside
over the plain and other broadsides followed in
