|
 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
|
Posted on 01/09/2003 5:35:46 AM PST by SAMWolf
|
are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
|
| Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. We hope to provide an ongoing source of information about issues and problems that are specific to Veterans and resources that are available to Veterans and their families. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel free to address their specific circumstances or whatever issues concern them in an atmosphere of peace, understanding, brotherhood and support.
|
|
|
|
On the swampy grounds of the Villere Plantation, hundreds of weary British soldiers are huddled around campfires trying to keep warm. The past two days have been exhausting for this advance party under the command of Major General John Keane and Colonel William Thornton. They have had to row themselves, along with tons of guns and equipment, thirty miles from their camp on Pine Island, and up the sluggish Bayou Bienvenu. In addition to this, numerous relays occur in dragging the provisions to camp across two miles of nearly impassable swamps and thick cypress forests. To the left of the British, the Mississippi is covered in a thick evening fog. It is so thick that the British patrols do not see the American schooner Carolina before it is too late and it sends roundshot flying into the camp. Keane and Thornton are taken completely by surprise, but they scramble to get the men into fighting order. Jumping from the schooner, Jackson’s men storm the riverbank and push toward the camp. For nearly an hour, the British regulars struggle fiercely with Jackson’s impromptu brigade of regulars, militia and dozens Choctaw warriors. The sides are equally matched with about 2000 men, but Jackson finds that he won’t be able to maintain order long among his militia who are facing seasoned British soldiers. His begins to falter and he pulls back. As he is withdrawing, the British in pursuit are distracted by another attack on their left flank. Using local planters as guides, General John Coffee has slipped through the woods and around to the British far-right. His Tennessee riflemen dismount their horses and descend on Thornton’s men. This British line is broken, but the experienced soldiers shield their officers and meet the riflemen head-on in small groups.  A close pitched battle in the dark ensues, as knives, swords, fists and gun butt’s are used to inflict damage. British captain George Gleig later remembered that, “many a sword which till tonight had not drunk blood, became in a few minutes crimson enough.” Finally, Thornton has managed to form up a line and drive Coffee’s men back into the woods where they retire to meet up with Jackson. The Americans withdraw leaving 45 British dead and another 170 wounded. Jackson’s men don’t fare much better, but the attack has consequences that would eventually work in favour of the Americans. The intensity of Jackson’s raid leads John Keane to believe that he had been attacked by a force more than twice that of his own. In a decision that would prove costly for the British, the apprehensive Keane decides he will not advance immediately on New Orleans. Instead, he will concentrate on getting more troops and equipment ashore, and hope General Pakenham’s reinforcements will arrive soon. The shocking news of Major General Ross’s death at Baltimore in mid-September, reached England a month later. In addition to the British Army losing a bright young commander, his death put the planned New Orleans campaign in jeopardy. A replacement for its overall command had to found. It was quickly decided that Major General Edward Pakenham would fill the position. There were misgivings about the appointment; Pakenham, though a brave and intelligent officer, had no experience commanding large operations. Before these objections could be addressed, however, he was already sailing to Jamaica for his rendez-vous with Alexander Cochrane.  Admiral Cochrane decided not to wait for Pakenham, and thought it better to leave with his own force, as well as that of John Keane's, to commence preparations off the Gulf Coast. Cochrane had spent most of November mulling over which of New Orleans' many access points he would penetrate. Thanks to his network of well paid informants, Cochrane knew that the Americans had only five small gunboats on Lake Borgne and that otherwise it was not fortified. Knowing that his navy could easily take care of these, his main concern would be the efficient transfer of men and supplies across the lake (which was too shallow for his large warships), up one of the many bayous and over the swampy terrain leading to the city. If there was strict and speedy execution of the plan, he felt it would work. Having been informed that Jackson hadn't yet fortified the city, Cochrane's fleet left Jamaica on November 27, 1814, hoping to catch Jackson off-guard. Cochrane reached the entrance to Lake Borgne two weeks later and wasted no time in sending a flotilla of 45 boats, generously laden with cannon, out to meet the American gunships. After a day and a half of rowing across the windless lake, British Captain Lockyer's men cornered the Americans. After a fierce battle, the British added five gunboats to their fleet and Cochrane began scouting out a base of operations. It was finally decided that Pine Island, at the lake's north end, would be the staging area. Over four cold and wet days, the British make several trips relaying men and equipment from the warships at the lake's entrance 30 miles across the water to Pine Island.  During this period the British did their best to assess the American state of affairs. Andrew Jackson sent out a truce party to inquire into the Americans captured after the lake battle, and Cochrane, dispensing of any formalities, drilled the emissaries as to the strength of the U.S. forces at New Orleans. Undoubtedly hoping to scare the British, one of the party put them at over 15,000. Cochrane didn't believe them, but it was all he could get from the Americans. More promising developments however, were soon reported. Advance scouts had located a village of Spanish fishermen just inside the Bayou Bienvenu. They were happy to reveal what they knew of American movements in the area, and which of the waterways leading inland were undisturbed by defensive measures. As soon as the scouts confirmed that the Villere Canal off the Bienvenu led to the lightly garrisoned Villere Plantation, Cochrane ordered Keane to prepare an advance force to leave from Pine Island. The boats could only accommodate about 2000 men at a time but the transport progressed steadily across the lake and up the sluggish bayou despite cold and darkness. The British even captured some American pickets posted in the fishing village. Much to Keane's concern, when questioned, they also estimated the U.S. forces around New Orleans to be 15,000. Undaunted, Keane moved his men up the Villere Canal hoping that Pakenham would soon make an appearance with his and General Lambert's reinforcements. On December 23, 1814, the British captured another small American advance party quartered at the Villere Plantation. The commander of these Americans was so embarrasses of his failure to secure the area that he made a desperate, but successful, attempt to escape in order to inform Jackson of the proximity of the British.  Keane's second-in-command, the aggressive Colonel Thornton, insisted that a immediate advance on the city would be the only way to catch the Americans by surprise. Keane, more cautious by nature, having only two thousand men and no artillery, decided to wait for the reinforcements which were to arrive the next day. This hesitation by the British would soon undermine their plans. The British operation took a turn for the worse on the evening of December 23, when they were attacked by the Americans. Although they eventually drove them off, the incident blackened the mood of the exasperated British regulars even more. Pakenham finally arrived on Christmas day with more reinforcements and his men began the arduous task of shifting the heavy artillery 75 miles from Pine Island to the swampy Villere Plantation. Pakenham did little in the way of reconnaissance and three days later, the British advance ran straight into a strong American defensive line, no more than a mile and a half away. With grueling effort and determination, the British scattered their guns along a line only 1000 yards from Jackson's position. On January 1, 1815, the British commenced a cannonade hoping to weaken the enormous breastwork behind which the Americans sheltered. Without proper blocks to secure the huge guns, the British could not fire with accuracy and the American artillery finally drove them back. Pakenham had come too far to turn back now. He set about devising a new plan, which his men knew would involve a perilous frontal assault on the American line. Early Evening January 7, 1815 Major General Edward Pakenham is greatly disturbed with the beating his artillery has taken from the American guns. The cannon protecting Jackson's line have proven far more effective than his own, throughout the numerous exchanges over the past few days. Of greater concern is the battery of guns Jackson has placed on the west side of the Mississippi River, which are positioned to fire directly into a British advance on the American line. But Pakenham is confident that the plan he and his officers have put into motion will solve this problem, and Jackson's men will soon be on the run. Pakenham's plan is a brilliant, in theory. He has ordered his men to extend the Villere Canal by breaking through the levee along the riverbank so that it meets the Mississippi. This way, the British can move by water all the way from the Bayou Bienvenu to the river. Under the cover of darkness, this first wave of 1500 will land on the west bank of the river and seize the American guns. After this is accomplished, the cannon can then be turned on the Americans and used to support the 5000-strong assault on Jackson's line by the main army who will have moved forward, obscured by the morning fog.  The intrepid Colonel Thornton, who will lead the early morning attack on the west bank, oversees the slow process of loading equipment onto his shallow boats. Due to long days of backbreaking labour by the regulars, there are now over forty vessels assembled in the new portion of the canal. Most of the men have had no sleep in the past days. The cold and damp are taking their toll as sickness creeps through the camp. They have been here too long; like Thornton, a number of the men believe they missed a chance to seize New Orleans after they first took the Villere Plantation. Only a short distance away, also suffering from a lingering fever, Andrew Jackson surveys his defenses and wonders if they will be enough to stop a massive, well-trained British Army. For the past twelve days the Americans have been working to fortify this position along the north side of the Rodriguez Canal. Jackson has commandeered as many as 900 black slaves from local plantations to construct the massive earthen breastwork that runs 1000 yards from the dense swampy forest to the banks of the Mississippi. These same men are now completing a second line of defense a mile and a half back in case the Americans have to retreat. Anchored on the great river to Jackson's right rest the big vessels, the Carolina and the Louisiana, recently outfitted as ships of war. Both have been useful in keeping the British active dodging their cannonballs over the past few days. Having caught wind of a possible British attack on the batteries on the river's west bank, Jackson has had to transfer cannon from the Louisiana, along with an additional 400 militia under General David B. Morgan, to strengthen that position. Even this small drain of men away from Jackson's main line makes him anxious. Jackson's greatest fear over is whether or not he has enough men to stop the British. Reports about their numbers have been high, perhaps as many as 12,000. The American general still harbours worries about the British invading the city from the north, so he has had to move men to the banks Lake Pontchartrain to prevent a possible disaster. This has left him with less than 4000 men lining the Rodriguez Canal, many of them sparsely trained and poorly armed volunteers. Shivering on this damp patch of Louisiana terrain, neither army has any way of knowing that a treaty of peace was finalized two weeks earlier in the quiet Chartreux convent in Ghent, Belgium. Barely two months ago, the British government was so sure of Pakenham's success at New Orleans that they sent him off with a document which officially recognizes him as Louisiana's governor, and lists the members of the joint British-Spanish civil government that would be set up in that territory. Edward Pakenham has no idea that the sunset he watches melt into the Mississippi, will be his last.
|
Thanks for another great post on the FReeper Foxhole. I was trying to remember the words to the song as I was reading about the battle. I really don't think we need them, but I am glad that the Brits. are on our side today.
Them there is HRC who has to put makeup on 8-10 faces depending on who she is trying to fool on any given day!
Andrew would be turning over in his grave to see what has become of the DEMOCRATIC PARTY that he started.
Hope you're having a great day. :-)
<===I thought that it was his best
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
