The Battle of New Orleans / including the Previous Engagements between the Americans / and the British, the Indians and the Spanish which led to / the Final Conflict on the 8th of January, 1815

by Z. F. Smith

British Soldiers Won Laurels in European Wars.

From English authorities we learn that there were in the English army, under Pakenham, regiments that had won laurels at Martinique, Badajoz, Salamanca, Vittoria, the Pyrenees, and Toulouse. The English chronicler, Cooke, says of some of these veterans, who touched, on their way to America from the coasts of France, the shore of Old England for a few days, that "scraps from our colors, or other little souvenirs, were craved for with outstretched hands, to find a resting place in the fair bosoms of the ladies of Devonshire."

Others again were but recently transported from the fiery ordeals of Corunna, Busaco, and Ciudad Rodrigo, says the same author. England never sent forth from her borders a braver or better-disciplined body of soldiers, as was proven in every trial of campaign and battle of the invasion of Louisiana. No other troops in the world could have behaved with more sturdy gallantry or fought with superior courage. Their defeat was destiny. Providence and General Jackson did it!