Thus of the whole British force, some eight thousand rank-and-file, fifty-three hundred were to assault Jackson’s line; twelve hundred were to cross the river and assault Morgan; eight hundred and fifty men were detailed for various duties; and the seamen, except two hundred with Colonel Thornton, must have been in the boats. To meet this assault, Jackson held an overwhelming force, in which his mere numbers were the smallest element. According to a detailed account given by Jackson two years afterward, his left wing, near the swamp, was held by Coffee’s brigade of eight hundred and four men; his centre, by Carroll’s brigade of fourteen hundred and fourteen men; his right, near the river, by thirteen hundred and twenty-seven men, including all the regulars; while Adair’s Kentucky brigade, numbering five hundred and twenty-five men, were in reserve.[559] Adair claimed that the Kentuckians numbered fully one thousand. The dispute mattered little, for barely one third of the entire force, whatever it was, discharged a gun. Besides three thousand or thirty-five hundred men on the parapets and a thousand in reserve, Jackson had twelve pieces of artillery distributed along the line, covering every portion of the plain. The earth-wall behind which his men rested was in every part sufficiently high to require scaling, and the mud was so slippery as to afford little footing.[560] Patterson’s battery on the opposite shore increased in force till it contained three twenty-four-pounders and six twelve-pounders,[561] covered the levee by which the British left must advance. The “Louisiana” took no part in the action, her men being engaged in working the guns on shore; but without the “Louisiana’s” broadside, Jackson had more than twenty cannon in position. Such a force was sufficient to repel ten thousand men if the attack were made in open day. Pakenham, aware of the probable consequences of attacking by daylight, arranged for moving before dawn; but his plan required a simultaneous advance on both banks of the river, and such a combination was liable to many accidents. According to the journal of Major Forrest, the British Assistant-Quartermaster-General,[562] forty-seven boats were brought up the bayou on the evening of January 7: “As soon as it was dark, the boats commenced to be crossed over into the river. A dam erected below the sternmost boat had raised the water about two feet. Still there was a very considerable fall from the river; and through which, for an extent of two hundred and fifty yards, the boats were dragged with incredible labor by the seamen. It required the whole night to effect this, and the day had dawned before the first detachment of Colonel Thornton’s corps (about six hundred men) had embarked; and they just reached the opposite bank when the main attack commenced on the enemy’s line.”