Captain William Laval was a South Carolinian, the son of a French officer of the Legion of Lauzun, belonging to the French forces in the Revolutionary war. In 1808 he received the commission of ensign in the American army. In 1812, he became a first lieutenant. The breaking out of the Creek war found him a captain. He was with the third regiment, to which his company belonged, at the battle of Holy Ground. For the service of charging the Spanish battery at Pensacola he was specially selected by General Jackson. The loss of his leg prevented his sharing with his regiment in the glorious victory of New Orleans, and ended his military career as well. His aptitude for civil as well as military life was manifested by his filling the offices of Secretary of State, Comptroller General, and Treasurer of South Carolina, as well as Assistant Treasurer of the United States under Polk’s administration. That the presence of the British was enforced, and by no means agreeable to the Spaniards, was promptly manifested by the good feeling exhibited by the latter towards the Americans, as soon as Percy and Nicholls had taken their departure. The inhabitants were much impressed by the kind and generous conduct of General Jackson; who seems fully, to have appreciated the peculiar position in which the town was placed, by the pretentious audacity of Percy and Nicholls, the feebleness of its garrison, and above all the imbecility of Maurique. In the dispatch before referred to he says: “The good order and conduct of my troops, whilst in Pensacola, have convinced the Spaniards of our friendship and our prowess; and have drawn from the citizens an expression, that ‘The Choctaws are more civilized than the British.’” In letters written from Pensacola to Havana, in relation to the capture of the place, the comparison is thus expressed: “the American Choctaws were more civilized than the religious English.” These letters teem with the praises of the considerate conduct of General Jackson and his army. When the first account of the invasion reached Havana, American vessels were seized as a retaliatory measure; but when all the particulars of the expedition were learned they were promptly released. Having blown up St. Michael, General Jackson left Pensacola, on November 9, to go to the defence of New Orleans, which from all indications was threatened with an attack by the British. There he arrived with his army, on December 2, to begin those preparations which were to end on January 8, in the grand and glorious land victory of the War of 1812.