Chapter V

Both armies now began in earnest to prepare for the impending big battle. The British ferried in several thousand more soldiers, bringing their number to approximately 8,000. General Sir Edward M. Pakenham, the Duke of Wellington’s brother-in-law, arrived on Christmas Day eager to add other laurels to his 22-year military career. His accomplishments already included his decisive attack as division commander at Salamanca in the Peninsula Campaign against Napoleon.

Jackson, although elated over the results of the initial encounter, realized that the British had come to fight, not as a striking force similar to that of the Washington foray, but as a conquering army bent upon seizing the Mississippi Valley. When, early in the morning of December 24, there was no move by the invaders, Jackson drew his army back about two miles to a point between the McCarty and Chalmette plantations and formed a line which extended from the Mississippi River on his right to a cypress swamp on the left.[27] The Rodriguez Canal, a large wet ditch five feet deep, ran in front of the works. There the soldiers worked feverishly day and night to erect strong breastworks. Carroll’s position was on an extension of the canal. Coffee, on the extreme left of Jackson’s line after a scare on December 28, extended his ditch and works into the swamp, eliminating almost any further possibility for a flanking attack. The entire line covered about three-quarters of a mile, with about two-thirds of this being across the open plain.

Although no general action ensued immediately after the night battle, conditions in the battlefield area were hardly tranquil prior to January 8. On the evening of December 27, the British rushed a strong force forward, causing Jackson’s advance guard to fall back under heavy cannon, rocket, and musket fire. Pakenham staged a reconnaissance in force the next day and before it was called off the British were able to install a sizable force behind a fence oblique to the American line. Carroll instructed Colonel James Henderson and a detachment of 200 men to sweep along a wooded area, make a turn to the right toward the river and thus cut off the Redcoats. Unfortunately, Henderson’s slant to the right was premature and left the British still well covered by the fence, and his detachment several yards away from the protective covering of the woods.[28] A burst of musketry killed Henderson and five men and the others fell back into the woods. In the noisy and heavy artillery duel of January 1, casualties on each side were few, but the Americans at the guns proved as keen marksmen as the Tennessee riflemen, and impressed the British considerably.

The British sentries were indeed terrified by the Tennesseans’ ability with their rifles. These sentries called the Tennesseans _dirty shirts_ because their brown hunting dress camouflaged them in the thick undergrowth and dry grass. These militiamen were not soldiers in the European definition of the word. Many were frontiersmen who had battled the wilderness and endured the merciless elements of nature. Small wonder it is that they were not awed by the polished legions poised for their defeat. In truth, their pride grew as they measured themselves against the reputation of their heralded foe.

They gained considerable satisfaction, for example, from their harassment of the enemy. One operation which they called the “hunting party” amounted to nothing more than slipping out at night and disposing of as many British sentries as possible. In one night’s effort, one old Tennessean killed three sentries, took their arms and accouterments, and returned before dawn boasting of his feat.

When Jackson was finally in position, his force of some 5,000 presented a heterogeneous array of the unlikeliest components for an army. The blue-coated American regulars anchored one end of the line and Coffee’s militiamen the other. In between were various groups such as the Louisiana militia; New Orleans volunteers; Mississippians; battalion of free men of color; Louisiana Creoles; and the recently arrived Kentuckians. The Baratarian pirates had their cannons, ranging in size from 6- to 32-pounders, loaded and ready to fire on signal. The breastworks were five feet high, and were considered by Jackson to be impenetrable by small projectiles. Pakenham apparently did not share this view. His plan of attack was now devised, and before the misty morning of January 8 was gone, the Americans and British engaged each other in their last great struggle.