The Battle of New Orleans: including the Previous Engagements between the Americans; and the British, the Indians and the Spanish which led to; the Final Conflict on the 8th of January, 1815 — John Shaqi
The Battle of New Orleans: including the Previous Engagements between the Americans; and the British, the Indians and the Spanish which led to; the Final Conflict on the 8th of January, 1815Smith, Z. F. (Zachariah Frederick)
History
The Battle of New Orleans: including the Previous Engagements between the Americans; and the British, the Indians and the Spanish which led to; the Final Conflict on the 8th of January, 1815
Smith, Z. F. (Zachariah Frederick)
New Orleans, Battle of, New Orleans, La., 1815
Incensed at the open and continued violations of neutrality by the
Spanish Governor, who had permitted Pensacola to be made a recruiting
camp for the arming and drilling of their Indian allies by the British,
General Jackson determined to march his army against this seat of
government, and to enforce the observance of neutrality on the part of
the Spanish commandant at the point of the bayonet if need be. He had
removed his headquarters to Fort Montgomery, where by the first of
November his command consisted of one thousand regular troops and two
thousand militia, mainly from Tennessee and Mississippi--in all, about
three thousand men. With these he set out for Pensacola, and on the
evening of the sixth of November encamped within two miles of the town.
He sent in Major Peire, bearing a flag of truce to the Governor, with a
message that Pensacola must no longer be a refuge and camp for the
enemies of the United States, and that the town must be surrendered,
together with the forts. The messenger was fired on and driven back from
Fort St. Michael, over which the British flag had been floating jointly
with the flag of Spain. The firing was done by British troops harbored
within. Governor Maurequez disavowed knowledge of the outrage, but
refused to surrender his authority. The next morning the intrepid
Jackson entered the town and carried by storm its defenses, the British
retreating to their ships and putting off to sea. Fort Barrancas was
blown up by the enemy, to prevent the Americans from turning its guns
upon the escaping British vessels. The Spanish commandant made profuse
apologies, and pledged that he would in future observe a strict
neutrality.
Jackson, fearing another attempt to capture Mobile by the retiring
fleet, withdrew from Pensacola and marched for the former place,
arriving there on the eleventh of November. At Mobile, messengers from
those in highest authority at New Orleans met him, urging that he
hasten there with his army and at once begin measures for the defense of
that city. Information had been received by W.C. Claiborne, then
Governor of Louisiana, from a highly credited source--most unexpected,
but most fortunate and welcome--that the vast British armament of ships
and men rendezvousing in the West Indies was about ready to sail, and
that New Orleans was assuredly the objective point of the expedition.
LAFITTE, THE PIRATE OF THE GULF, AND HIS SEA-ROVERS, LOYAL TO THE
AMERICAN CAUSE.
The informant was the celebrated Captain Jean Lafitte, the leader of the
reputed pirates of the Gulf, who had been outlawed by an edict of our
Government. The circumstances were so romantic, and displayed such a
patriotic love for and loyalty to our country, that they are worthy of
brief mention. As Byron wrote, he
Left a corsair's name to other times,
Linked with one virtue and a thousand crimes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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