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

England's Purpose to Conquer and Hold Possession of the Territory Ceded by Napoleon, and to Establish Her Dominion in the Mississippi Valley.

There are evidences that the English Government had revived an old dream of conquest and expansion, by which she might once again establish dominion west of the Alleghany Mountains, by the capture of New Orleans, the key to the lower Mississippi Valley. It is a well-known fact in history that that government refused to recognize the legitimacy of the sale and transfer of the Territory of Louisiana by Napoleon to the United States. She had looked upon the transaction with a covetous and jealous eye, for she had nursed the hope some day of adding to her own vast possessions, by conquest or purchase, not only the domain of Louisiana, but that of Florida also. Had it not been that she was engrossed with her military and naval forces in the turbulent wars in Europe, during the ascendant period of Napoleon, the British Government would most probably have employed her armies and navies mainly in the accomplishment of these aims of territorial aggrandizement. Her invasion of the Northwest territory from Canada, at the opening of the War of 1812-15, which so disastrously ended with the destruction of the British fleet by Commodore Perry on Lake Erie, and the annihilation of the British army by General Harrison at the battle of the Thames, was but an entering wedge to her deep designs. After the fall of Napoleon and the pacification of Europe relieved her armies and navies of further service on that side of the ocean, she, in her pride and insolence, believed that she would be invincible in America. Her cherished dream might now at last be realized by the conquest and permanent possession of Louisiana. We have mentioned the significant fact that overtures for peaceful negotiations had been mutually arranged as early as January, 1814, and commissioners soon after appointed to meet at Ghent. When the capitulation at Paris and the exile of Napoleon to Elba occurred within a few brief months, repeated excuses for the delay of negotiations by the British envoys were made. The United States wanted peace on equitable terms, for she had nothing to gain by continuing the war. England dallied and delayed; meanwhile marshaling her military and naval forces for a final crushing blow on her American foe. When articles of peace were signed on the twenty-fourth of December, the British Government knew that information of the event would not reach the belligerents in the Gulf of Mexico until some time in February. But His Majesty, the King of England, and his councilors, confidently believed, as did the officers in command of the English army and navy in this expedition, that the victorious invaders would eat their Christmas dinner in the subjugated city of New Orleans, and there to stay.

Gleig, an educated officer with the army of invasion, who became the chief English historian of the campaign, in his "Narrative," has to say:

The primary cause of our defeat may be traced to a source more distant than I have mentioned; I mean to the disclosure of our designs to the enemy. How this occurred, I shall not take upon me to declare; though several rumors bearing at least the guise of probability have been circulated. The attack on New Orleans was professedly a secret expedition, so secret indeed that it was not communicated to the inferior officers and soldiers in the armament until immediately previous to our quitting Jamaica. To the Americans, however, it appears to have been long known before. And hence it was that, instead of taking them unawares, we found them fully prepared for our reception. That our failure is to be lamented no one will deny, since the conquest of New Orleans would have been, beyond all comparison, the most valuable acquisition that could be made to the British dominion throughout the whole Western hemisphere. In possession of that post, we should have kept the entire Southern trade of the United States in check, and furnished means of commerce to our own merchants, of incalculable value.

On the 29th of August, 1814, Colonel Edward Nichols, in command of the land forces quartered in the Spanish capital of Pensacola, issued a proclamation, from which we quote:

Natives of Louisiana! On you the first call is made to assist in liberating from a faithless, imbecile government, your paternal soil. Spaniards, Frenchmen, Italians, and British; whether settled, or residing for a time in Louisiana, on you also, I call to aid me in this just cause. The American usurpation in this country must be abolished, and the lawful owners of the soil put in possession. I am at the head of a large body of Indians, well armed, disciplined, and commanded by British officers, a good train of artillery with every requisite, seconded by the powerful aid of a numerous squadron of ships. Be assured, your property, your laws, the tranquility and peace of your country, will be guaranteed to you. Rest assured that these brave Indians only burn with an ardent desire of satisfaction for the wrongs they have suffered from the Americans, to join you in liberating the southern province from their yoke, and drive them into the limits formerly prescribed by my sovereign. The Indians have pledged themselves not to injure the persons or properties of any but enemies to their Spanish or English fathers. A flag, Spanish, French, or British, over any door, will be a certain protection.

Inhabitants of Kentucky! You have too long borne with grievous impositions. The whole brunt of the war has fallen on your brave sons; be imposed on no longer; but either range yourselves under the standard of your forefathers, or observe a strict neutrality. If you comply, whatever provisions you send down will be paid for in dollars, and the safety of the persons bringing it, as well as the free navigation of the Mississippi, will be guaranteed to you.

Men of Kentucky! Let me call to your minds the conduct of those factions which hurried you into this civil, unjust, and unnatural war, at a time when Great Britain was straining every nerve in defense of her own, and the liberties of the world. Europe is now happy and free, and now hastens justly to avenge an unprovoked insult. Accept of my offers; everything I have promised, I guarantee to you, on the sacred honor of a British officer.

We might repeat such evidences of the purposes and plans of the expedition to Louisiana. But we will close the subject with the impressions of General Jackson himself.

In a contribution to the Philadelphia Times, of the 1st of November, 1898, Colonel A.C. Buell is authority for the following:

"It was related to me," says Colonel Buell, "by the late Governor William Allen, of Ohio, when, as correspondent of the Missouri Republican, I visited the venerable statesman at his home near Chillicothe, in 1875. After an interview on the current political situation, Governor Allen became reminiscent. A scrap-book beats the best of memories in the world; so I will quote from my scrap-book the exact text of this reminiscence. The Governor said:

"'Shortly after Arkansas was admitted into the Union, in 1836, I, being a member of Congress, then called at the White House. General Jackson—he always preferred to be called General, rather than Mr. President—invited me to lunch with him. No sooner were we seated, than he said: Mr. Allen, let us take a little drink to the new star in the flag;—Arkansas! This ceremony being duly observed, the General continued: Allen, if there had been disaster, instead of victory, at New Orleans, there would never have been a State of Arkansas.

"'This, of course, interested me; and I asked: Why do you say that, General?

"'Then he answered that: If Pakenham had taken New Orleans, the British would have claimed and held the whole of Louisiana Purchase.

"'But, I said, you know, General Jackson, that the Treaty of Ghent, which had been signed fifteen days before the decisive battle, provided for the restoration of all territory, places and possessions, taken by either nation from the other, during the war, with certain unimportant exceptions.

"'Yes, of course, Jackson replied, but the minutes of the conference at Ghent, as kept by Mr. Gallatin, represent the British commissioners as declaring in exact words: "We do not admit Bonaparte's construction of the law of nations; we can not accept it in relation to any subject-matter before us."

"'At that moment, pursued General Jackson, none of our commissioners knew what the real meaning of those words was. When they were uttered the British commissioners knew that Pakenham's expedition had been decided on; our commissioners did not know it. Now, since I have been Chief Magistrate, I have learned, from diplomatic sources of the most unquestionable authority, that the British ministry did not intend the Treaty of Ghent to apply to the Louisiana Purchase at all. The whole corporation of them,—Pitt, the Duke of Portland, Grenville, Perceval, Lord Liverpool, and Castlereagh, denied in toto the legal right of Napoleon to sell Louisiana to us. They held, therefore, that we had no right to that Territory. So you see, Allen, that the words of Mr. Gouldburn, on behalf of the British commissioners, which I have quoted to you from Albert Gallatin's minutes of the conference, had a far deeper significance than our commissioners could penetrate. These words were meant to lay the foundation for a claim on the Louisiana Purchase, entirely external to the provisions of the Treaty of Ghent. And in that way, the British government was signing a treaty with one hand in front, whilst the other hand, behind its back, was dispatching Pakenham's army to seize the fairest of our possessions.

"'You can also see, my dear Allen, said the old General, waxing warmer, you can also see what an awful mess such a situation would have been, if the British programme had been carried out in full. But Providence willed otherwise. All the tangled web that the cunning of English diplomacy could weave around our unsuspecting commissioners at Ghent was torn to pieces, and soaked with British blood, in half an hour, at New Orleans, by the never-missing rifles of my Tennessee and Kentucky pioneers; and that ended it. British diplomacy could do wonders; but it could not provide against such a contingency as that. Now, Allen, you have the whole story; and know why Arkansas was saved to the Union.'"