The Battle of New Orleans 215 



trained for seven years in the stern school of the 

 Iron Duke, and who were now led by one of the 

 bravest and ablest of all Wellington's brave and able 

 lieutenants, Sir Edward Pakenham. 



On the 8th of December, 1814, the foremost ves 

 sels, with among their number the great two-decker 

 Tonnant, carrying the admiral's flag, anchored off 

 the Chandeleur Islands; 4 and as the current of the 

 Mississippi was too strong to be easily breasted, the 

 English leaders determined to bring their men by 

 boats through the bayous, and disembark them on 

 the bank of the river ten miles below the wealthy 

 city at whose capture they were aiming. There was 

 but one thing to prevent the success of this plan, and 

 that was the presence in the bayous of five American 

 gunboats, manned by a hundred and eighty men, and 

 commanded by Lieutenant-comdg. Catesby Jones, 

 a very shrewd fighter. So against him was sent 

 Captain Nicholas Lockyer with forty-five barges, 

 and nearly a thousand sailors and marines, men who 

 had grown gray during a quarter of a century of 

 unbroken ocean warfare. The gunboats were 

 moored in a head-and-stern line, near the Rigolets, 

 with their boarding-nettings triced up, and every 

 thing ready to do desperate battle; but the British 

 rowed up with strong, swift strokes, through a mur 

 derous fire of great guns and musketry; the vessels 



* See, ante, p. 73. 



