Small space is given in ordinary histories to the doings of the Navy in connection with the defence of New Orleans, when it was attacked by the British at the end of the War of 1812. As the reader will remember, the expedition against New Orleans was planned for the purpose of wresting from the United States the whole valley of the Mississippi. As France had endeavored in the eighteenth century to establish an empire, extending from the Great Lakes through the Mississippi water-shed to the Gulf of Mexico, that should hem in the British colonies on the Atlantic, so now the English strove to gain possession of what has become the heart of the American republic. The reader has only to consider what would have been the consequences of British possession of the metropolis of the Louisiana purchase to understand how the British Government has always looked ahead when seeking for territorial aggrandizement.

From an American point of view this expedition against New Orleans was infamous, for the reason that ministers representing both nations were negotiating a treaty of peace at Ghent when the order for the attack was issued. As one reads of the strength of the force sent to accomplish this work, it seems invincible. “A great fleet of war-vessels—ships-of-the-line, frigates, and sloops—under Admiral Cochrane was convoying a still larger fleet of troop-ships, with some ten thousand fighting men, chiefly the fierce and hardy veterans of the Peninsula War, who had been trained for seven years in the stern school of the Iron Duke, and who were now led by one of the bravest and ablest of all Wellington’s brave and able lieutenants, Sir Edward Packenham.”

Favored by wind and weather, the leaders of this fleet—the line-of-battle ships and frigates—reached the Chandeleur Islands on December 8, 1814, and came to anchor. They reviewed the ground that lay between them and the city they intended to take, and they found that the current of the great river was too strong for their wind-borne ships. So another, and apparently an easier, route was chosen—the route through the inlets and bayous of which the breadth of water called Lake Borgne was the most conspicuous feature. It was a landlocked route with a sufficient depth of water to float boats and transports, and the sole obstruction that the Americans could offer to the mighty host of invaders was a fleet of five gun-boats and two tiny tenders, one a schooner and one a sloop, that together could offer a broadside of fourteen guns, including a number of insignificant (short) six-pounders, the whole throwing two hundred and twelve pounds of metal, and manned by one hundred and ninety-four men, all told, under the command of Lieutenant Thomas ap Catesby Jones.

Very quickly the British admiral discovered these seven boats, and on December 12th sent a force to destroy them. With the emphatic assertion of the favorite British historian James in mind—the assertion that “the British, when engaged in expeditions of this nature, always rest their hopes of success upon valor rather than on numbers”—what does the uninformed reader suppose was the strength of this expedition? Whatever the supposition may be, the fact is that even James admits that it included no less than forty-two launches, all armed with carronades, chiefly twenty-four and eighteen-pounders, but some carrying twelve-pounders—forty-two launches, carrying guns that threw not less than seven hundred and fifty-eight pounds of shot at a single discharge, and manned by nine hundred and eighty men picked from among the ships of the squadron.

Lieutenant Jones saw the barge squadron approaching, and recognized that its force was overwhelming, but he was in no way dismayed. He might have run his gun-boats ashore and burned them without discredit, but he chose to fight instead. Sending one of his little tenders, called the Seahorse, that carried one six-pounder and fourteen men, to destroy some stores at Bay St. Louis, he tried to carry his five gun-boats to Les Petites Coquilles, where they would have the support of a small fort. He failed to do this because the wind was baffling and the current strong. So he anchored his boats in line across Malheureux Island Passage and there awaited the enemy.

In the meantime the British had seen the Seahorse moored under the bank at Bay St. Louis, and they sent seven launches to take her: She carried, as told, one six-pounder and a crew of fourteen, commanded by Sailing-master William Johnson. There were two six-pounders on shore to help her. On came the British with their seven launches, armed with guns of which the least was a twelve-pounder, and manned by at least one hundred and seventy-five men. They came on with a dash until Johnson opened fire and then they stopped and tried the virtues of their seven cannon. But “it appears that after sustaining a very destructive fire for nearly half an hour, the boats were repulsed.” So says James.

The Americans, with three six-pounders, had beaten off nearly two hundred picked British seamen armed with seven guns, of which the least was a twelve-pounder!

However, the British did not give it up altogether. They got reinforcements—the exact number of boats is not given—and returned, when Johnson destroyed his boat and the stores on shore and made a good retreat. Allen does not even mention this attack on the Seahorse. At about the same time the Alligator, the other tender to the main fleet, while trying to reach the gun-boats, was surrounded by the British fleet. Sailing-master Sheppard commanded her, and she carried one gun and a crew of eight men, all told. Mr. Sheppard surrendered.

As ill-luck would have it, after Lieutenant Jones had anchored his fleet of gun-boats in line, the strong current in the channel caused two of them—Number 156, which Jones himself commanded, and Number 163, commanded by Sailing-master George Ulrich—to drag their anchors until they were about one hundred yards below the rest of the fleet. This happened at 3 o’clock on the morning of December 14, 1814. It was a most serious misfortune, because the two were thus deprived of the efficient support of the other three. And before the two could regain their positions in line the full force of the British fleet came upon them.

Seeing the Americans were vigilant, Captain Lockyer anchored his squadron, served breakfast, gave the men time to smoke and rest, and then ordered the advance. Captain Lockyer himself led the way, and with two other barges strove to board Number 156, where Jones commanded. For the moment it was a force of not less than seventy-five against the forty-one under Jones. But not one of them got over the rail of the gun-boat. Almost every man in Lockyer’s barge was killed or wounded, Lockyer himself being severely hurt; and as for the two other barges, both were sunk.

But a whelming host had come. There were thirty-nine well-manned boats left to continue the attack, and this entire host was concentrated on the two gun-boats that had drifted down from the original line. They surrounded the two as a pack of hounds surround a fox. They rushed in until they felt the teeth of the bayed; they backed off and barked, and rushed in again, only to be beaten off once more by the desperate crew fighting under an indomitable leader. In a little time that leader was cut down, but another as heroic—Midshipman George Parker—took his place, and with equal gallantry and skill continued the fight. Almost the entire British force was now directed at the flag-boat. With their great guns they hailed grape and canister at short range, and again and again sought to carry it by boarding, only to be driven off, until at last Parker, too, fell wounded and wholly disabled. The boarding-nets had now been shot away. The crew was cut to pieces and there was no longer any officer to direct them. And yet when the British, seeing the advantage gained, made a last rush, these sailors stood to their posts until the sheer weight of numbers—a dozen of the enemy on one man—bore them down.

Repeating for the sake of emphasis that there were, for the time, forty-two boats against two, how long does the uninformed reader suppose those American heroes held out against the hosts that swarmed to the rails? To the honor of the flag be it said that the firing began at 10.50 o’clock and it was not until 12.10 o’clock that the British were able to carry the deck of Number 156. For more than one hour the Americans had held the ship. And Sailing-master George Ulrich in Number 163, the smallest of the American fleet, did still better. For although he had at the beginning but twenty-one men on his boat, he was still fighting when the flag-boat was captured, and he did not surrender until her guns were turned upon him.

The heart of the Americans was broken when the flag came down on these two, for the full force of the now victorious squadron was turned on the three above. Nevertheless, it was not until 12.30 o’clock that the last boat surrendered. It had taken nine hundred and eighty men with forty-two great guns one hour and forty minutes to whip the one hundred and seventy-two men on the five Yankee gun-boats.

There was the usual Court of Inquiry to determine how it was that these five boats were lost. The officers and seamen of the little fleet were examined separately under oath, and when the evidence was all in, it was declared that “the action has added another and distinguished honor to the naval character of our country.”

The Americans lost six men killed and thirty-five wounded. The British historians admit that their loss was seventeen killed and seventy-seven wounded. The American officers estimated the British loss at nearly three hundred, and when we recall the deliberation as well as desperation of the American resistance, and the length of time that the little force held out, it is safe to say that the American estimate was much nearer the truth than the British report. For it is not possible that so small a loss as ninety-four in killed and wounded could hold in check nine hundred and eighty men under determined officers for more than one hour. Among the British wounded were one captain, five lieutenants, three master’s mates, and seven midshipmen. The killed on the British side included three midshipmen.

The American gun-boats, though few by count and insignificant in the number of their men, when compared with the British hosts, had nevertheless served not only to check the advance of the enemy at a time when every day gained for preparing to defend the city was precious, but to give the arrogant enemy a foretaste of the character of the resistance that was to be met at the city, and it was a foretaste that remained in the mouth.

Besides the little fleet of gun-boats on the bayous, the Americans had two war-vessels in the river. One was the schooner Caroline, Master-Commandant Daniel T. Patterson, that mounted six short twelves on each side and one long twelve on a pivot. After the British had effected a landing and were encamped at Villeré’s plantation on the Mississippi below the city, the Caroline dropped down with the current until opposite the British camp. It was on December 23, 1814, and at 7 o’clock at night that she left the city. The position taken was so close in to the camp that the British heard the orders given on her deck distinctly. They hailed her but got no answer. Then they fired some muskets at her, but these had no effect until at 8 o’clock, when they heard a voice say:

“Give them this for the honor of America.”

A broadside of grape-shot followed that threw the British camp into confusion. As a British account says:

“An incessant cannonade was then kept up which could not be silenced, for our people had no artillery, and a few rockets that were discharged deviated so much from their object as to afford only amusement for the enemy. Under such circumstances, therefore, all were ordered to leave their fires and shelter themselves under the dikes, where they lay each as he could find room, listening in painful silence to the iron hail among the boats and to the shrieks and groans of those that were wounded.”

By the 27th of the month, however, the British got a heavy battery of five guns located where it would bear on the schooner, while the schooner could only reply with the long twelve. Then they opened on her with red-hot shot. There was a northerly wind blowing to help the current. The schooner could not retreat up river against it, and to go down stream was to fall in with British ships. After a loss of seven killed and wounded she was fired and abandoned.

The other American ship was the Louisiana, carrying eight long twenty-fours on each side. She was valuable in annoying the British when they were advancing on the city, during which time she is said to have thrown eight hundred shot among them. And in the battle that followed, on January 8, 1815, she served as guard to the American flank.