The Battle of New Orleans 283 



make an original complement of 150, and tallies ex- 

 actly with the number of men left on the Hornet 

 after the action was over, as mentioned by Lawrence 

 in his account of the total number of souls aboard. 

 The logbook of the Hornet just before starting on 

 her cruise states her entire complement as 158; but 

 4 of these were sick and left behind. There is still 

 a discrepancy of 4 men, but during the course of 

 the cruise nothing would be more likely than that 

 four men should be gotten rid of, either by sickness, 

 desertion, or dismissal. At any rate the discrepancy 

 is very trivial. In her last cruise, as I have elsewhere 

 said, I have probably overestimated the number of 

 the Hornet's crew ; this seems especially likely when 

 it is remembered that toward the close of the war 

 our vessels left port with fewer supernumeraries 

 aboard than earlier in the contest. If such is the 

 case, the Hornet and Penguin were of almost exactly 

 equal force. 



My own comments upon the causes of our suc- 

 cess, upon the various historians of the war, etc., 

 are so similar to those of Professor Soley, that I 

 almost feel as if I had been guilty of plagiarism ; 

 yet I never saw his writings till half an hour ago. 

 But in commenting on the actions of 1812, I think 

 the Professor has laid too much stress on the dif- 

 ference in "dash" between the combatants. The 

 Wasp bore down with perfect confidence to engage 



