Previous to the assembling of the convention the President, in hope of relieving the embarrassments occasioned by the opposition of New England to the war, advised the repeal of the embargo and non-intercourse acts, and the abandonment of the entire restrictive system. His recommendations were carried out by Congress. In the meantime stirring events were transpiring in the south. At this time Florida was a possession of Spain, which Jirep2Story was supposed to be a neutral power. Great Britain had laid Spain under heavy obligations in her struggle against Napoleon, and the British had now no difficulty in entering Florida, and using it as a base of operations against the south. Their fleet entered Pensacola harbor and obtained possession of the forts. From this point they began to stir up the Creek Indians to make war on the Americans, and fitted out an expedition against Fort Bowyer, commanded by Major Lawrence, who defended the harbor of Mobile. On the fifteenth of September an attack was made upon this fort, and was repulsed with the loss to the enemy of a vessel and a number of men. Jackson and New Orleans. General Jackson, having collected a force of three thousand Tennesseeans, marched to Pensacola, entered the town on the seventh of November, demanded that the British should leave the place at once, and notified the Spanish Governor that he should hold him responsible for the occupation of the town or the forts by the British for purposes of hostility towards the United States. The British immediately blew up a fort which they had erected seven miles below the town and embarked in their ships. Confident that New Orleans would be the next object of attack by the British, and knowing that the city was poorly prepared to resist, General Jackson at once sent General Coffee with the mounted Tennesseeans to that city, and followed with the rest of his troops as rapidly as possible. New Orleans was at this time a city of about twenty thousand inhabitants, less than onehalf of whom were whites. The whites were principally of French birth or parentage, and cared little for the United States. They could not be relied upon to hold the city against the British. The defences were in a miserable state, and the people were demoralized and insubordinate. Jackson set to work with vigor. He proclaimed martial law, and put down the opposition to his measures for the safety of the city with a firm hand. He called for volunteers to defend the city, and urged the free men of color to come forward and enroll themselves. They responded in considerable numbers. The prisons were emptied, and the prisoners enrolled in the ranks of the army. The services of Lafitte, a noted smuggler chief of Barataria bay, and of his band, were accepted. The British had | sissippi, about nine miles below New Orleans. endeavored to secure the aid of this Jackson attacked this party on the night of band as pilots, as they knew the coast the twenty-third with the regulars and thoroughly, but Lafitte and his men had re- Coffee's Tennesseeans dismounted, and drove fused to hold any communication with them. them to take shelter behind a levee. The While Jackson was thus engaged, the success of the Americans in this engagement British fleet arrived on the coast of Louisi- greatly encouraged them to hope for a ana, and cast anchor off the mouth of Lake similar issue to the final conflict. Borgne, the shortest passage by water to New Orleans. It had on board a force of twelve thousand veteran troops, just released from the wars against Napoleon, and four thousand marines and sailors. The British army was commanded by Sir Edward Pakenham, the brother-in-law of the Duke of Wellington, and an officer of tried ability, and under him were Generals Gibbs, Keene, and Lambert, veterans of the peninsular war. The Americans had a small flotilla in Lake Borgne, and by ex traordinary exertions, Jackson managed to THE PLAIN OF CHALMETTE-SCENE OF THE BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS. collect a force of five thousand troops, only one thousand of whom were regulars. On the fourteenth of December the British sent their boats into Lake Borgne, and after a severe engagement captured the American flotilla, and opened the way to the city. On the twenty-second of December the British landed twenty-four hundred men under General Keene, who advanced to a point on the bank of the Mis The next day Jackson took position on solid ground behind a broad and deep trench that extended across the plain of Chalmette from the Mississippi to an impassable swamp, and covered his position. with a line of intrenchments. The British, believing Jackson's force. to be much stronger than it really was, made no attempt to interfere with him for several days, and he employed this delay in strengthening his line with bales of cotton. The British on the twenty-eighth of December opened a heavy cannonade upon the American line. Jackson replied with energy with his five pieces of artillery, and the firing was continued without accomplishing anything definite for several hours. On the first of January, 1815, they attempted a second cannonade, but the American guns soon silenced their fire. On the fourth of January a body of twenty-two hundred Kentucky riflemen, who had descended the Mississippi to his assistance, reached Jackson's camp. Only one-half of thein were armed. Jackson could not supply the remainder with arms, but set them to work to construct a second line of intrenchments in the rear of his first. Brilliant American Victory. Having finished their preparations, the British erected a battery of six eighteenpounders on the night of the seventh of January, and on the morning of the eighth advanced to carry the American line by storm. Their centre was led by General Pakenham in person, and other columns under Generals Gibbs and Keene moved against the right and left wings of the Americans. The open space over which the enemy were obliged to pass was nearly a mile in width, and was completely commanded by Jackson's guns. The British advanced in splendid style, and were soon within range of the American artillery, which opened on them with terrible effect. They never wavered, but closing up their ranks firmly pressed on. As they came within musket shot the Kentucky and Tennessee riflemen opened a fatal fire upon them which literally mowed them down. They wavered and broke. General Pakenham attempted to rally them, and was shot down. Generals Gibbs and Keene were wounded while engaged in the same attempt, the latter mortally. The command devolved upon General Lambert, who made two more attempts to carry the line by storm. Each time the fatal fire of the American riflemen drove back the tried veterans of Wellington's campaigns, and at last they broke and fled in confusion. General Lambert continued the retreat to the shore of the gulf, where the British fleet lay, and about a fortnight later embarked his troops and withdrew. Close of the War. The American loss in the battle of New Orleans was seven killed and six wounded. The British lost two thousand in killed and wounded. The victory was of the highest importance. It saved not only New Orleans but the mouth of the Mississippi from British control. Had the army of General Pakenham been successful, there is good reason to believe that England wouid have refused to relinquish the Mississippi, and the war would have gone on, or peace would have been made with the mouth of the great river under the control of England. The victory closed the war, and was won as we shall see three weeks after the treaty of peace was signed. At sea the war was carried on by the few American cruisers that managed to elude the blockade of our coast. The frigate "Essex," Commodore Porter, went to sea in 1813, and made a number of captures in the Atlantic. Learning that the British. whalers, which had been armed for the purpose of capturing American vessels, engaged in the same trade, were doing considerable damage in the Pacific, Commodore Porter sailed around Cape Horn and entered that ocean. He captured twelve armed British whalers in the course of a few months, and then learning that the British frigate "Phoebe " had been sent in pursuit of him, Porter sailed to Valparaiso to look for her. While he lay there the "Phoebe," accompanied by the English sloop of war "Cherub," arrived off the harbor. The "Phoebe" was herself a full match for the "Essex," but Porter resolved to fight both vessels. As he was leaving the harbor a sudden squall carried away his maintopmast, and left him at the mercy of his enemies, which at once attacked him. His defence was one of the most gallant and COMMODORE DECATUR. desperate in history, but he was forced to surrender, but not until he had lost fiftyeight of his crew killed, and sixty-six wounded. In January, 1815, the frigate " President," Commodore Decatur, managed to elude the blockade of New York, and get to sea. She was chased by a British squadron of five vessels, and a running fight ensued. Being entirely disabled, the " President" was forced to surrender. In February, 1815, while cruising off the port of Lisbon, one fine moonligh. night, the "Constitution," Captain Stewart, encountered two British sloops of war, the "Cyane," 24, and the "Levant," 18, and captured both of them after a short engagement. These vessels were captured after peace was signed and were restored to the British. On the twenty-third of March, the " Hornet," Captain Biddle, captured the British brig "Penguin" of the Cape of Good Hope. The "Penguin" was so much injured that Biddle was forced to destroy her. On the thirtieth of June the "Peacock," Captain Warrington, ignorant of the close of the war, captured the "Nautilus" in the East Indies. The latter vessel was restored to the British. Thus the war, which opened so gloomily for the Americans, closed with a series of brilliant successes for them. In the meantime negotiations for peace had been conducted between the American and British commissioners at Ghent, in Belgium. The American commissioners had been instructed to demand the settlement of the impressment question, and at the same time to give assurance that upon the relinquishment of that claim by England Congress would enact a law forbidding the enlistment of English sailors in either the navy or merchant service of the United States. On the fourteenth of December, 1814, the labors of the commissioners were brought to a close, and a treaty of peace between the United States and Great Britain was signed. The treaty provided that all places captured by either party during the war should be restored to their rightful possessors. |