PLAN
Shewing the Attack made by a
BRITISH SQUADRON
ON
Fort Bowyer at Mobile Pt.
ON THE 15 SEPTR., 1815.
By MAJOR A. LACARRIERE LATOUR,
Principal Engineer 7th Military Dist., U.S. Army, 1815.
The British force at Pensacola consisted chiefly of four sloops, commanded by Captain W. H. Percy,—the “Hermes,” twenty-two guns, the “Carron,” twenty, and the “Sophie” and “Childers” of eighteen guns each. The usual armament of such vessels consisted of thirty-two-pound carronades, with two long-nines or sixes. Apparently the British squadron threw thirty-four thirty-two-pound shot, and four nine or six pound balls at a broadside. Whether the armament was greater or smaller mattered little, for Captain Percy was unable to use with effect the batteries of either the “Carron” or the “Childers.” With much difficulty, owing to the shoals, he brought his squadron within range of Fort Bowyer, and with more gallantry than discretion prepared for the attack.
According to the British account, the land force at Percy’s command consisted of sixty marines and one hundred and twenty Indians, with one five-and-a-half-inch howitzer. According to the American account, a twelve-pound field-piece was placed ashore in battery with the howitzer. Such a force was insufficient to do more than intercept the garrison if it should be driven out of the fort. The brunt of the action fell on the ships, and experience did not warrant Percy in believing that his sloops, with their carronades, could silence a work like Fort Bowyer.
Nevertheless Percy gallantly made the attempt. At half-past four of the afternoon of September 15, he brought the “Hermes” close in, and opened fire within musket-shot of the fort. The “Sophie” came to anchor some distance astern, but within range. The “Carron” and the “Childers” anchored so far out that their carronades were useless, and apparently even the American twenty-four-pounders did not touch them. The “Hermes” and the “Sophie” alone sustained injury,[457] but their experience was decisive. After an hour’s action, the cable of the “Hermes” being cut, she became unmanageable, and at last grounded and was abandoned. Captain Percy set her on fire, and carried his crew, including the wounded, with much difficulty to his other vessels. The “Sophie” withdrew from fire, and the squadron returned at once to Pensacola.
Assuming that Captain Percy could use with effect only the twenty guns of the broadsides of the “Hermes” and “Sophie” against the twenty guns of the fort, the American gunnery was evidently superior to the British. The “Hermes” lost twenty-five men killed and twenty-four wounded,—a very severe loss in a crew which could not much have exceeded one hundred and fifty men. A better test of marksmanship was offered by the “Sophie,” which received comparatively little attention from the fort, but lost six killed and sixteen wounded. The whole American loss was reported as four killed and five wounded,[458] under the combined fire of both ships at close range, the fort having no casemates, and parapets only on the front and flanks.[459] Three guns were dismounted.
Greatly pleased by this success, Jackson issued a counter-proclamation[460] to the people of Louisiana, somewhat in the style of that which Nicholls had issued three weeks before.
“The base, the perfidious Britons,” it began, “have attempted to invade your country. They had the temerity to attack Fort Bowyer with their incongruous horde of Indians and negro assassins.... The proud, vain-glorious boaster Colonel Nicholls, when he addressed you, Louisianians and Kentuckians, had forgotten that you were the votaries of freedom.... I ask you, Louisianians, can we place any confidence in the honor of men who have courted an alliance with pirates and robbers? Have not these noble Britons, these honorable men, Colonel Nicholls and the honorable Captain W. H. Percy, the true representatives of their royal master, done this? Have they not made offers to the pirates of Barataria to join them and their holy cause? And have they not dared to insult you by calling on you to associate as brethren with them and this hellish banditti?”
With the exception of this proclamation and another[461] of the same date to the free negroes of Louisiana, Jackson paid no attention to the defence of New Orleans, but left it entirely to Governor Claiborne. He disregarded a memorial from the citizens, dated September 18, urging his personal attention and presence. “My whole force would not satisfy the demands they make,” he wrote to the War Department, October 10.[462] “As soon as security is given to this section of my district, which is first indispensably necessary, I shall hasten to New Orleans,” he wrote from Mobile, October 14.[463] He entertained no doubt that at Mobile he stood between the British and their object. “Unless Pensacola were reduced,” said his confidential biographer[464] ten years afterward, “it was vain to think of defending the country.... The attack on Mobile Point was a confirmation of his previous conjectures as to the views of the enemy.”
The Government at Washington became alarmed. While Jackson waited at Mobile for the arrival of General Coffee with his Tennesseeans to attack Pensacola, Monroe at Washington received warnings from Europe, Halifax, and Bermuda that the British force which had just laid Washington in ashes was but a division of a larger army on its way to attack New Orleans. He wrote to Jackson, September 25,[465]—