214 Naval War of 1812 



the course of events, it came about that Louisiana 

 was the theatre on which the final and most dramatic 

 act of the war was played. 



Amid the gloomy, semi-tropical swamps that 

 cover the quaking delta thrust out into the blue wa 

 ters of the Mexican Gulf by the strong torrent of 

 the mighty Mississippi, stood the fair, French city 

 of New Orleans. Its lot had been strange and 

 varied. Won and lost once and again, in conflict, 

 with the subjects of the Catholic king, there was a 

 strong Spanish tinge in the French blood that 

 coursed so freely through the veins of its citizens; 

 joined by purchase to the great Federal Republic, 

 it yet shared no feeling with the latter, save that 

 of hatred to the common foe. And now an hour 

 of sore need had come upon the city; for against 

 it came the red English, lords of fight by sea and 

 land. 



A great fleet of war vessels ships of the line, 

 frigates and sloops under Admiral Cochrane, was 

 on the way to New Orleans, convoying a still 

 larger fleet of troop ships, with aboard them some 

 ten thousand fighting men, chiefly the fierce and 

 hardy veterans of the Peninsula War, 3 who had been 



3 "The British infantry embarked at Bordeaux, some for 

 America, some for England." ("History of the War in 

 the Peninsula," by Major-General Sir W. F. P. Napier, 

 K.C.B. New edition. New York, 1882, v, p. 200.) For dis 

 cussion of numbers, see further on. 



