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
Though the batteries of the enemy were in a better position, on a lower
plane, and with a narrower front than those of the Americans, the
gunners of the latter fired with more precision and effect on this day,
and on other occasions, as their own officers afterward admitted. In an
hour's time the fire from the enemy's side began to slacken, and
continued to abate until noon, when his two batteries to the right were
abandoned. Our balls dismounted several of his guns early in the day,
and in the afternoon the greater part of his artillery was dismounted or
unfit for service. The carriages of three of the guns on the American
side were broken, and two caissons, with over one hundred rounds of
ammunition, were blown up by rockets, at which the enemy loudly cheered.
The cheeks of the embrasures of our batteries were formed of cotton
bales, which the enemy's balls struck, sending the cotton flying through
the air. The impression that Jackson's breastwork line was constructed
of bales of cotton is a mistake. Bales of cotton were used only at the
bottom and sides of the embrasures, for a firmer support for the
artillery, beneath a casing of heavy plank. The British, in the absence
of cotton bales, used hogsheads of sugar, which were conveniently near,
for the same purposes. These our shot easily knocked to pieces,
saturating the damp earth around with the saccharine sweets. Our
breastworks were more substantially and easily made of the alluvial
earth.
The guns of the British batteries nearest the levee were directed in
part against the marine battery across the river during the day, but
with little effect. Before the close the enemy's guns were silenced,
and several of them abandoned. The British columns were in readiness,
drawn up in several parallel lines, prudently awaiting in the back
ditches and the trenches between the batteries a favorable moment to
advance to an assault of our lines. In this they were disappointed; the
superiority of the American artillery left them no hope of an advantage
by breaching our lines with this arm. That this was their object their
own authorities state. The losses this day of the Americans were
thirty-five killed and wounded; the enemy admitted a loss of
seventy-five. During the night of the first of January, the latter
succeeded in removing his heavy guns from the dismantled batteries,
dragging them off with much difficulty through the mired earth.
A VIEW FROM THE ENEMY'S STANDPOINT.
It is interesting to view a situation from an enemy's standpoint, and to
know the impressions made upon an enemy's mind in a great issue like the
one of contest. We quote again from Gleig's "Campaigns of the English
Army":
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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