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

us.” He continued, “The general’s expectation was that the period was at hand when we were to be relieved from our unpleasant situation and get into the town.”
    While Jackson was fortifying his location, the British delayed their advance. On December 28, Jackson’s forces repelled a British probing attack. As the battle began, Forbes wrote, “We drove in the enemy’s pickets with the impression and expected to annihilate Jackson’s forces in an instant, but to our great mortification we found after pushing on about three miles that his army had entrenched itself in a strong position with its right on the river and its left resting on a swampy woods which we afterward discovered to be impenetrable.”
    At this point, Major General Pakenham decided to bombard Jackson’s line and force him to withdraw. He added additional ordnances of all descriptions to his battery. Then on New Year’s Day, Forbes reported that the bombardment “afforded us a sight of fireworks, pop guns, mortars, and rockets such as has been seldom witnessed even in Lord Wellington’s great actions in the peninsula.”
    The British were ready to storm Jackson’s lines. The British plan was to attack Jackson’s line with the main body, made up of Major General Keane’s forces and Major General Samuel Gibbs’s forces. Major Gibbs was second under Major General Pakenham. Another force under Colonel William Thornton would cross to the west bank, take the American batteries and turn these guns on Jackson’s position on the east bank.
    The plan was in trouble from the beginning. Colonel Thornton had difficulties getting boats to move his troops from Lake Borne to the river. Still, Major General Pakenham decided to attack. Forbes had a front-row seat during the British assault and wrote, “Not one of these obstacles had been foreseen and our troops rushed on headlong till brought up by the ditch in front of the American line. They were of a nature not to be surmounted and we were constrained to fall back without reach from shot from their line and ship, with loss.”

    A reenactor fires a cannon on the battlefield. Edmond Boudreaux .
    Every aspect of the assault began to falter under the withering fire of the Americans. Several British commanders were wounded or killed. Among the wounded was Major General Pakenham. Forbes wrote, “The last resource was now to storm the lines and the day was fixed.” The British attacked Jackson’s line with Major General Keane’s forces and Major General Samuel Gibbs’s forces. Colonel William Thornton’s forces crossed to the west bank to take the American batteries.
    The Battle of New Orleans began on January 8, 1815. In the heat of the battle, Major General Samuel Gibbs was taking heavy fire, and his command began to fall apart. Major General Pakenham ordered Major General John Lambert to lead the reserves onto the field of battle. As Major General Pakenham tried to rally the British forces on the field, he was mortally wounded and removed from the battlefield. Major General John Keane, seeing Major General Gibbs’s forces falling apart, advanced to his aid. Major General Keane’s forces began to take the bulk of the American fire. Soon the second-in-command, Major General Gibbs, was dead, and Major General Keane was wounded.
    Major General Lambert was now in command. As Major General Lambert entered the battlefield, he was met by the fleeing remnants of the attack columns. In one of the few successes of the day, Colonel William Thornton had taken the American battery on the west bank, but he also needed two thousand men to hold it. At this point, the decision was to retreat. Forbes wrote:
    The principal attack upon the lines failed, notwithstanding the success upon the opposite side, and the public papers will sufficiently explain to you the loss the army has met with the loss of Generals Pakenham and Gibbs and the