on as possible."

Jackson himself attributed his success in this desirable object as
much to negotiation as to the force he would be able to apply. The
story of the main assault and its disastrous repulse is familiar. In
itself, it was but an instance of a truth conspicuously illustrated,
before and after, on many fields, of the desperate character of a
frontal attack upon protected men accustomed to the use of
fire-arms--even though they be irregulars. Could Thornton's movement
have been made in full force assigned, and at the moment intended,--so
that most of the advance on both sides the river could have been
consummated before dawn,--a successful flanking operation would have
been effected; and it is far from improbable that Jackson, finding the
naval guns turned against him, would have been driven out of his
lines. With raw troops under his command, and six thousand veterans
upon his heels, no stand could have been made short of the town, nor
in it.

As it was, the failure of the two parts of the British to act
coincidently caused them to be beaten in detail: for the disastrous
and bloody repulse of the columns on the east bank led to the
withdrawal of the tiny body on the west.[459] No further attempt was
made. On the 18th of January the British withdrew. In pursuance of the
full discretionary power given by their orders as to any further
employment upon the American coast of the forces under their command,
General Lambert and the Admiral then concerted an attack upon Fort
Bowyer, at the entrance to Mobile Bay. This surrendered February 11,
the day that the news of the Peace reached New York.

* * * * *

The ocean as well as the land had its episodes of fighting after peace
had been signed. The United States frigate "President," which during
the first two years of the war had been commanded continuously by
Commodore John Rodgers, was in May, 1814, transferred to Decatur, who
took to her with him the crew of his old ship, the "United States,"
irretrievably shut up in New London. The "President" remained in New
York throughout the year, narrowly watched by the enemy. In a letter
of August 10, Decatur speaks of the unfavorable conditions of the
season for sailing; that four British ships kept close to Sandy Hook,
at times even anchored. He then mentions also "the great apprehension
and danger" which New York was undergoing, in common with the entire
seaboard, and the wish of the ci