herents of the old Bourbon monarchy,
driven from France by the Revolution, and also at a more recent date some
of the followers of Napoleon. Among the former was a French emigrant
major named St. Geme, who had once been in the English service in
Jamaica, and now commanded a company in a battalion of citizens. This
officer had been a favored companion of the distinguished French general,
Moreau, when the latter, on a visit to Louisiana, a few years previously,
had scanned with the critical eye of a tactician, the position of New
Orleans and its capabilities of defence. Edward Livingston, who acted as
an aide-de-camp to General Jackson, advised the general to consult St.
Geme, and the latter pointed out the Rodriguez Canal as the position
which Moreau himself had fixed upon as the most defensible, especially
for irregular troops. Jackson approved and acted upon the advice thus
given, and hastened to cast up intrenchments along the line of the canal
from the Mississippi back to an impassable swamp two miles away. In
building the redoubts the ground was found to be swampy and slimy, and
the earth almost unavailable for any sort of fortification, whereupon a
French engineer suggested the employment of cotton bales. The requisite
cotton was at once taken from a barque already laden for Havana. The
owner of the cotton, Vincent Nolte, complained to Edward Livingston, who
was his usual legal adviser. "Well, Nolte," said Livingston, "since it is
your cotton you will not mind the trouble of defending it."[1] Before the
final battle a red hot ball set fire to the cotton, thereby endangering
the gunpowder, and the cotton was removed, leaving only an earth
embankment about five feet high, with a ditch in front to protect the
Americans.

[1] A similar remark has been incorrectly attributed to Jackson.

The British troops, about 7000 in number, disembarked at Lake Borgne,
after capturing an American flotilla which had been sent to prevent the
landing. About nine miles from New Orleans, at Villere's Plantation, the
invaders formed a camp, and they were suddenly attacked by Jackson on the
evening of December 23. The battle raged fearfully in the darkness,
Jackson's Tennesseans using knives and tomahawks with deadly effect. The
Americans had the advantage, but in the fog and darkness Jackson could
not follow up his success. Lieutenant-General Edward Pakenham, one of the
bravest and ablest of Wellington's veterans, landed on Christma