The Main battle on Jan 8, 1815

The American artillery was distributed on the lines in the following manner.

map of the positions of the Americans at the main battle of New Orleans

On the soil of the road within the levee was Battery No. 1, commanded by Captain Humphreys, of the United States Artillery. It consisted of two brass twelve- pounders, and a six-inch howitzer, on field carriages; these pieces enfiladed the road towards that side where the enemy was posted, and their fire grazed the parapet of the flank of redout, towards the right. Battery No. 1, was seventy feet from the bank of the river. The two twelve- pounders were served by soldiers belonging to the regular artillery and the howitzer by dragoons of Major St. Geme's company.

Battery No. 2, which had a twenty-four-pounder, was commanded by Lieutenant Norris of the navy, and served by part of the crew of the late schooner Carolina; its dis- tance from No. 1 was ninety yards. This battery was the most elevated above the soil.

Battery No. 3, commanded by Dominique You and Beluche, commanders of the privateers, had two twenty- four-pounders, which were served by French mariners; its distance from No. 2 was fifty yards.

Battery No. 4, commanded by Lieutenant Crawley, of the navy, and served by part of the crew of the Carolina, had a thirty-two-pounder; its distance from No. 3 was twenty yards.

BatteryNo. 5, commanded by Colonel Perry of the artillery, had twosix-pounders; its distance from No. 4 was one hundred and ninety yards.

Battery No. 6, commanded by General Garrigues Flaujeac, and served by a detachment of the company of Francs under the immediate command of Lieutenant Bertel, had a brass twelve-pounder; its distance from No. 5 was thirty- six yards.

memorial for Major Spots, who died in 1833

Battery No. 7 had a long brass eighteen-pound , and a six-pounder, commanded by Lieutenant Spotts and Chaveau, and served by gunners of the United States artillery; its distance from No. 6 was one hundred and ninety yards.

The8th battery had a small brass carronde which rendered very littleservice on account of the ill condi- tion of its carriage; it wascommanded by a corporal of artillery, and served by militia-men ofGeneral Carroll's command; its distance from No. 7 was sixty yards."Next to this piece the line formed a receding elbow, as laid down inthe draught of the affair of the 8th — enormous holes in the soil madeimnassable by their being full of water from the canal, rendered thisbend in the line unavoidable. From this bend, where the wood began, tothe extremity of the line, the erround was so low, and so difficult tobe drained, that the troops were literally encamped in the water,walking knee deep in mud, and the several tents were pitched on smallisles or hillocks, surrounded with water or mud. "It was here that thebrave troons of Generals Carroll and Coffee, from the 24th of December,1814, and part of those of Kentucky from the 6th, until the 20th ofJanuary

remains of the Rodriguez canal

Pakenham delayed his main assault until Jan 8, when he had brought up nearly 10,000 men.In the early morning of January 8, British Major-General Edward Pakenhamordered a two-pronged assault against Jackson's position: a small forceon the west bank of the Mississippi and the main attack in threecolumns (along the river, along the swamp line, and in reserve)directly against the earthworks manned by the vast majority of Americantroops. The British attack on the west bank was successful, but too late to help the Btritish outflank the Americans. The British attack was to be marked by delays and confusion in the execution of the plan. It seems obvious now that Pakenham should have withdrawn once he knew how stoutly the American line was defended. However, in battles before , such as the siege of Badajoz in 1812, a frontal assault against a professional French army had succeeded , albeit it a great loss. There, 2,000 men were killed in two hours storming the city .Surely the ragtag American army would flee after firing a few rounds. After the brutal battle of  Badajoz, the British troops went on an orgy of looting, killing and raping.

video of the battle from The Buccaneer

On the early morning of the 8th, according to one American the fog was so dense you couldn't see more than forty yards in any direction.In a few minutes the head of the British column could be dimly seen. It appeared about two hundred files long — that would, for regiments the size of theirs, be a formation four ranks deep. They were about six hundred to six hundred and fifty yards away ; too long a range for our small-bore rifles which, as you know, carried round bullets of forty-five or even sixty to the pound of lead and were not effective more than four hundred yards at the outside.

hundred yards at the outside.

view the advancing British troops would have had of the American line

General Jackson, Carroll and Adair and Major Latour, Mr. Livingston and I got up on the parapet. In a minute or two the enemy began to move. Two rockets were fired, one toward us and one toward the river. 'That is their signal for advance, I believe,' General Jackson said. He then ordered all of us down off the parapet but stayed there him- self and kept his long glass to his eye sweeping the enemy's line with it from end to end. In a moment he ordered Adair and Carroll to pass word along the line for the men to be ready, to count the enemy's files down as closely as they could, and each to look after his own file-man in their ranks, also, that they should not fire until told and then to aim above the cross-belt plates.

Then men were tense, but very cold. A buzz of low talk ran along the line for some minutes. The enemy's front line was now within five hundred yards, and the center of their formation was almost exactly opposite Car- roll's left company or Adair's right one. Then — boom! went our first gun. As well as I can remember after so many years, it was fired from the long brass 12-pounder in Battery No. 6, which was commanded by Old GeneralFleaujeac, a French veteran who had served under Napo- leon and came to Louisiana about 1802 or 1803. "Then all the guns opened. The British batteries, formed in the left rear of their storming column near the river, were still concealed from us by the fog, but they re- plied, directing their fire by the sound of our guns. It was a grand sight to see their flashes light up the fog — turning it into the hues of the rainbow

Still the enemy came on, but no sound from the rifie- line; no fire but that of artillery on either side. Our Bat- teries Nos. 7 and 8 were on the rifle-line. Number 7 had an old Spanish 18-pounder and a 6-pounder. Number 8 had but one gun — a 6-pounder. The smoke from these hung in front of the works or drifted slowly toward the enemy with- out lifting much in the damp air. Adair noticed this and said it was worse than the fog ; that the smoke would spoil the aim of the riflemen when their turn came. Carroll agreed with him. Then General Jackson ordered these two batteries to cease firing, whereupon the smoke soon lifted and the head of the enemy's column appeared not more than three hundred to three hundred and fifty yards off and coming on at quickstep, with men in front carrying a few scaling-ladders.

Suddenly one rifle cracked a little to the left of where I stood. A mounted officer on the right and a little in front of the British head of column reeled in his saddle and fell from his horse headlong to the ground. What followed in an instant I cannot attempt to describe. The British had kept right on, apparently not minding the artillery fire much, though it was rapid and well-directed. They were used to it. But now, when every hunter's rifle from the right of Carroll's line to the edge of the swamp where Coffee stood, was searching for their vitals, the British soldiers stopped! That was something new, something they were not used to! "They couldn't stand it. In five minutes the whole front of their formation was shaken as if by an earthquake. Not one mounted officer could be seen. Either rider or horse, or both, in every case, was down — most of them dead or dying. I had been in battle where rifles were used up on the northwest frontier under Harrison. But, even so, I had never seen anything like this

In less than ten minutes the first line of the enemy's column had disappeared, exposing the second, which was about a hundred yards in its rear. You see, their formation was columns or brigade in battalion front and there were three batallions — or regiments — in the column, each formed four ranks deep. The plain was so level and their forma- tion in line so dense that to a certain extent the front or leading battalion afforded some cover to the one following, and so on.

We were formed four deep, in open order, with plenty of room to move to and fro. As fast as one line fired, its men would step back to the rear and load. But the time the fourth line had fired the first one would be ready again, and so on.

When their leading battalion, which we now know to have been the Forty-fourth Regiment, was practically destroyed, the next one, which was the Seventh Regiment, had been already a good deal shaken by the halt and carnage in the first and by the headlong flight of the survivors around or through its ranks, and so the Seventh Regiment broke almost as soon as they got their full weight of our rifle- fire. This left exposed in turn their third regiment of the column which was the Fourth or King's Own Foot, and they, too, succumbed after a very brief experience. Almost, as incredible as it may seem, this whole column, numbering, I should say, 2,500 or 2,600 men, was literally melted down by our rifle-fire. To put it another way, this column had been to all intents destroyed and the work was done in less than twenty minutes from the first rifle-shot. No such execution by small arms was ever done before, and I don't believe it ever will be done again.

Some of our men got excited and talked about leaping over the breastwork to follow them. But these were sternly suppressed by all the officers and by the more sensible and prudent men in the ranks also. To have gone out in the open field then, with their second column and all their reserves unhurt, would have been the undoing of us!

The man who fired first was Morgan Ballard. The British officer was afterwards ascertained to be Brigade- Major John Anthony Whittaker, of the 21st Foot in General Gibb's Brigade.

Not long after the hour when the American general had been roused from his couch, General Pakenham, who had slept an hour or two at the Villere masion, also arose, and rode immediately to the bank of the river, where Thornton had just embarked his diminished force. He learned of the delay and difficulty that had there occurred and lingered long upon the spot listening for some sound that should indicate the whereabouts of the force sent across the river. But no sound was heard, as the swift Mississippi had carried the boats far down out of hearing. Surely Pakenham must have known that the vital part of his plan was, for that morning, frustrated. Surely he will hold back his troops from the assault until Thornton announced himself. The doomed man had no such thought. The story goes that he had been irritated by a taunt of Admiral Cochrane, who had said that, if the army could not take those mud-banks, defended by ragged militia, he would do it with two thousand sailors armed only with cutlasses and pistols and then the soldiers could bring up the baggage. Besides, Pakenham believed that nothing could resist the calm and determined onset of the troops he led. He had no thought of waiting for Thornton, unless, perhaps, till daylight

 Map of British plan of attack at the start of the battle of New Orleans

Map of British attack at the battle of New Orleans. The troops of Gen. Samuel Gibb came under devastating fire. Gen. John Keane, ordered the 93rd Highlanders to march diagonally across the field to come to Gibb's aid. Of the 900 Highlanders, nearly 600 were killed. They fled from the murderous fire after they had gotten to about 100 yards from the rampart .

Map of last actions at the battle of New Orleans .Pakenham rode out to rally his troops and bring in the 44th and their fascines and ladders, and whose officer had disappeared. He tired to rally his troops by reminding them of their victories. He was hit many times and taken out of range of the American guns, where he died a few minutes later .Gibbs was also mortally wounded after reaching within 20 yards of the rampart, and died the next day.Keane was also severly wounded, so there was not a field commander left.

British troops nearest the river gained the top of the rampart before being repulsed

area where Pakenham was mortally wounded

Monument to Generals Pakenham and Gibbs at St. Paul's Cathedral, London. Both were killed in the Battle of New Orleans.

The Battle of New Orleans lasted less than two hours. The British lost 385 killed, 1,186 wounded and 64 captured. The Americans lost 13 killed , 115 wounded and 74 captured.

Chalmette National Cemetery, est in 1865 with 15,000 graves behind the battlefield. One American who fought at the battle is buried here. There is no memorial for the British soldiers who died. The bodies of Pakenham and

otherBritish officers were taken back to England.

The burial spot for the British soldiers has not been found . Some think most of the British dead were buried in the southern part of the battlefield and washed away when the Mississippi flooded in later years.

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