In the light of dawn, both sides counted their losses. American casualties were twenty-four killed, one hundred fifteen wounded, and seventy-four captured. British losses were forty-six killed, one hundred sixty-seven wounded, and sixty-four captured. Among the captured British was Major Samuel Mitchell of the Ninety-fifth Regiment, the man who had put the torch to the American Capitol in August.

Subscribe Today

• Did you enjoy our article?
• Read more in MHQ magazine
• Subscribe online and save!
 

On December 24, a shaken General Keane abandoned his plan to attack New Orleans that day, even though he now had forty-seven hundred men under his immediate command. He reasoned that Jackson must have gathered a formidable army; Keane could not imagine risking such a reckless night attack without a large reserve. In the British ranks Jackson's audacity had taken a toll. Lieutenant George Robert Gleig of the Eighty-fifth said that the losses included 'our finest soldiers and best officers.' Among them was Gleig's close friend, Captain Charles Grey, shot through the head by a rifle ball. Compounding the Britons' misery was the weather. It had turned bitterly cold. The worst sufferers were two regiments of Jamaican blacks who were wearing summer uniforms. Further demoralizing the British was Carolina, still offshore, hurling grapeshot and cannonballs into their camp. To counter her heavy guns, Keane had nothing but fieldpieces.

General Jackson, using the Mississippi dragoons as his eyes, soon learned that the British were entrenching rather than continuing to advance. After deciding to imitate them, Jackson led his men back two miles to the Rodriguez Canal, a muddy ditch about twenty feet wide and four feet deep bordering the Chalmette plantation. He ordered them to start throwing up a rampart behind the canal. By the end of the day a wall of mud and logs extended six hundred yards from the river to a cypress swamp. Jackson, seldom off his horse, ordered the digging to continue through the night.

On Christmas Day a salvo of artillery fire from the British sailed toward the American earthworks. Was it the expected attack? No. Jackson's dragoons informed him the British were welcoming the arrival of a new general. According to rumor, it was no less than the duke of Wellington. In fact, it was the duke's brother-in-law, thirty-seven-year-old Maj. Gen. Sir Edward Pakenham. The conqueror of Guadeloupe, and a brilliant subordinate of Wellington in Spain, Pakenham had been appointed to supersede the unsuccessful Keane. As an index of British intentions, Pakenham reportedly carried in his dispatch case a commission as governor of Louisiana and the promise of an earldom for his anticipated victory. Popular with the troops, he was seemingly imbued with Wellington's aura.

General Pakenham found nothing merry about this Christmas Day. He had grave doubts about Admiral Cochrane's route of attack via Lake Bourgne and the Bayou Bienvenue. The British army was trapped on an isthmus three-quarters of a mile wide, between the Mississippi and a virtually impassable swamp, with the narrow, twelve-mile-long bayou the only link to the lake and the fleet. Now that they had lost the element of surprise, they were faced with sustaining their army along a watery supply line eighty miles long, with open boats as the only means of transport.

When Pakenham hinted at his dissatisfaction, Admiral Cochrane informed him that if the general was not willing to attack this American rabble in arms, he would do it with his sailors and marines and assign the army the job of carrying the baggage into New Orleans. Pakenham decided the army's honor was now at stake and sat down with his staff to plan offensive operations.

The general's first decision was to get rid of Carolina. His artillery commander, Colonel Alexander Dickson, assured him he could manage it with relatively light field guns as soon as he built a furnace for hot shot. At dawn on December 27 his guns opened fire with incandescent rounds on the schooner. Jackson had told the captain to retire up the river–orders that should have been sent twenty-four hours earlier. But the wind was feeble and the current strong. After being hit by the first few rounds, the vessel almost instantly became an inferno. As flames curled around her magazine, the crew abandoned ship. Soon afterward Carolina exploded with a blast that drew cheers from the watching British regiments.

Help HistoryNet by bookmarking to