is advantage, and the superiority should be as great as is permitted
by the force at the disposal of the assailant.

This obstacle to the movement of the troops being removed, debarkation
began at the mouth of the Bayou des Pecheurs;[453] whence the
British, undiscovered during their progress, succeeded in penetrating
by the Bayou Bienvenu and its tributaries to a point on the
Mississippi eight miles below New Orleans. The advance corps, sixteen
hundred strong, arrived there at noon, December 23, accompanied by
Major-General Keane, as yet in command of the whole army. The news
reached Jackson two hours later.

Fresh from the experiences of Washington and Baltimore, the British
troops flattered themselves with the certainty of a quiet night. The
Americans, they said to each other, have never dared to attack. At
7.30, however, a vessel dropped her anchor abreast them, and a voice
was heard, "Give them this for the honor of America!" The words were
followed by the discharge of her battery, which swept through the
camp. Without artillery to reply, having but two light field guns,
while the assailant--the naval schooner "Caroline," Lieut. J.D.
Henley--had anchored out of musket range, the invaders, suffering
heavily, were driven to seek shelter behind the levee, where they lay
for nearly an hour.[454] At the end of this, a dropping fire was heard
from above and inland. Jackson, with sound judgment and characteristic
energy, had decided to attack at once, although, by his own report, he
could as yet muster only fifteen hundred men, of whom but six hundred
were regulars. A confused and desperate night action followed, the men
on both sides fighting singly or in groups, ignorant often whether
those before them were friends or foes. The Americans eventually
withdrew, carrying with them sixty-six prisoners. Their loss in killed
and wounded was one hundred and thirty-nine; that of the British, two
hundred and thirteen.

The noise of this rencounter hastened the remainder of the British
army, and by the night of December 24 the whole were on the ground.
Meantime, the "Caroline" had been joined by the ship "Louisiana,"
which anchored nearly a mile above her. In her came Commodore
Patterson, in chief naval command. The presence of the two impelled
the enemy to a slight retrograde movement, out of range of their
artillery. The next morning, Christmas, Sir Edward Pakenham arrived
from England. A personal examination satisfied him th