On ascertaining that the British had landed, he threw every possible obstacle in the way of their advance. The weather was cold and damp, and the soil was low, and wet, and muddy. A few days' delay in such a situation would make nearly one half of an invading force ill and dispirit the other half. Jackson sent out a few hundreds of militia, every now and then, to harass his enemies, and in the meanwhile he stirred up the 12,000 troops under him, to work vigorously in the erection of lines of defence for the city. Indeed, in a short time, he awaited an attack, with confidence, in a fortified position, all but impregnable. His front was a straight line of upwards of a thousand yards, defended by upwards of three thousand infantry and artillery, and stretching from the Mississippi on the right, to a dense and impassable wood on the left. Along the whole front of this fortified line there was a ditch which contained five feet of water, and which was defended by flank bastions, on which a heavy array of cannon was placed. There were also eight distinct batteries, judiciously disposed, mounting in all twelve guns of different calibres, while on the opposite side of the river, about eight hundred yards across, there was a battery of twenty guns, which also flanked the whole of the parapet. The great strength of the American position was strikingly apparent to General Pakenham. It seemed so very strong indeed that he contemplated a siege. But then the ground was so cold and damp, and the climate so unhealthy, that he could not sit very long before a town, likely to be reinforced, and capable of being strengthened by the construction of lines of defence, within lines of defence, to almost any extent, if not completely invested. And more, Pakenham had not guns sufficient for regular approaches. Pakenham was, however, a good officer, a man of energy, judgment, and decision. He set all hands instantly to work to deepen a canal, in the rear of the British position, by which boats might be brought up to the Mississippi, and troops ferried across to carry the battery on the right bank of the river, a work of extraordinary labour, which was not accomplished until the evening of the 6th of January. The boats were immediately brought up and secreted near the river, and dispositions made for an assault at five o'clock on the morning of the 8th of January. Colonel Thornton was to cross the river, in the night, storm the battery, and advance up the right bank till he came abreast of New Orleans; while the main attack, on the intrenchments in front, was to be made in two columns--the first under General Gibbs, the second led by General Keane. There were, in all, about six thousand combatants, including seamen and marines, to attack double their number, intrenched to the teeth, in works bristling with bayonets, and loaded with heavy artillery.[25] When Thornton would have crossed, the downward current