Free Legends and Lore of the Mississippi Golden Gulf Coast by Edmond Boudreaux Jr.

ships and transports could go no farther. The troops would be ferried thirty miles to Pea Island and, from there, another thirty miles to Bayou Bienvenu. On December 14, five American gunboats were defeated on Lake Borgue, removing the last obstacle for the landing forces.
    The British troops selected to invade New Orleans were considered the best in the world and were seasoned veterans of the wars with Napoleon and the invasion of Washington. From C.J. Forbes’s letter, we know that high-ranking British officers were of the opinion that when they arrived on “the American continent that the vexatious taxes imposed upon them [the people] by the American government had so disgusted the people at large as to leave no doubt of our being received with open arms.” Forbes stated:
    A representation of this effect must have gone home and can be the only means of accounting for the reason why the ministry did not send out a force with us adequate to the enterprise we were sent on. The issue has proved that the admiral’s information was fallacious and the returns of our killed and wounded will convince the world that the opposition we have met with was owing to the unanimity of every class of men. In fact, not a white man of even the lowest description has joined us since we landed, nor have our generals or the admiral succeeded in obtaining information of the most trivial nature .
    As far as adequate forces, Vice Admiral Cochrane had eight thousand to nine thousand seasoned veterans to Andrew Jackson’s roughly four thousand mixed forces. Jackson’s force included the Seventh U.S. Infantry, a variety of militias, free blacks, Native Americans and Jean Lafitte’s Baratarians.
    The real problem the British had was in transporting troops. Forbes stated, “Only 1,600 men could be put on shore at once, owing to the want of boats in the fleet and the distance the troops were to be conveyed from Cat Island to within eight miles of New Orleans, about a hundred miles.” The landing of the troops occurred near Major Gabriel Villere’s plantation, nine miles below New Orleans. Forbes said that the plantation was deserted and “learned from the slaves that their masters had joined the militia corps.”
    As darkness fell on December 23, Major General John Keane and 1,800 British troops camped on the Villere Plantation. After learning that British forces were encamped there, Andrew Jackson left New Orleans to engage the British. Forbes continued, “No sooner, however, had daylight quitted us than we were suddenly surprised by a tremendous fire of grape and round shot from a 12 gun schooner that had dropped down unperceived by any person of the army.” The vessel was “just opposite our position but within grape range.”
    While suffering many losses, Major General Keane was able to move his troops to a defendable position and began to return shots against the schooner. Within fifteen minutes, Andrew Jackson’s troops had maneuvered into position opposite the British and began to fire on their positions. Forbes wrote, “We found ourselves assailed in the rear or on the flanks by about 7,000 men under General Jackson.” Of course, Jackson had nowhere near that number of troops. British forces listed 46 killed and 277 wounded, and the Americans listed 24 killed and 213 wounded. The first day’s encounter ended in a draw.
    Andrew Jackson took advantage of the situation and withdrew to Rodriquez Canal, near Chalmette. Here, Jackson established a line, and his men began to fortify the area of the canal. Major General Edward Pakenham, British commander, wanted to take the Chef Menteur Pass to Lake Pontchartrain. British officers convinced Major General Pakenham to move against Jackson’s forces. They felt the small force would be defeated easily, and New Orleans could be taken quickly. Forbes wrote, “Reinforcements of the seventh and forty-third regiments joined