The Battle of New Orleans 235 



though he held it with a veteran infantry. Of a 

 surety, the dashing general who had delivered the 

 decisive blow on the stricken field of Salamanca, 32 

 who had taken part in the rout of the ablest gen 

 erals and steadiest soldiers of Continental Europe, 

 was not the man to flinch from a motley array of 

 volunteers, militia, and raw regulars, led by a griz 

 zled old bush-fighter, whose name had never been 

 heard of outside of his own swamps and there only 

 as the savage destroyer of some scarcely more sav 

 age Indian tribes. 



Moreover, Pakenham was planning a flank at 

 tack. Under his orders a canal was being dug from 

 the head of the bayou up which the British had 

 come, across the plain to the Mississippi. This was 



32 It was about 5 o'clock when Pakenham fell upon Thomi- 

 eres. . . . From the chief to the lowest soldier, all [of the 

 French] felt that they were lost, and in an instant Pakenham, 

 the most frank and gallant of men, commenced the battle. The 

 British columns formed lines as they marched, and the French 

 gunners, standing up manfully for the honor of their coun 

 try, sent showers of grape into the advancing masses, while 

 a crowd of light troops poured in a fire of musketry, under 

 cover of which the main body endeavored to display a front. 

 But, bearing onward through the skirmishes with the might 

 of a giant, Pakenham broke the half-formed lines into frag 

 ments, and sent the whole in confusion upon the advancing 

 supports. . . . Pakenham, bearing onward with conquer 

 ing violence, . . . formed one formidable line two miles in 

 advance of where Pakenham had first attacked ; and that im 

 petuous officer, with unmitigated strength, still pressed for 

 ward, spreading terror and disorder on the enemy's left." 

 (Napier, iv, 57, 58, 59.) 



