and wounded dropped
out. Was it to be Badajos over again?

The British were within two hundred yards of the American breastworks.
Suddenly the Tennessee and Kentucky sharpshooters, four ranks deep, rose
from their concealment, and at the command--"Fire!"--a storm of bullets
swept through the British lines. And it was not a single volley. As the
Tennesseans fired they fell back and loaded, while the Kentuckians fired.
And so the deadly blast of lead mowed down the British ranks while round
and grape and chain-shot ploughed and shrieked through the now wavering
battalions. General Pakenham, at the head of his men, urged them forward
with encouraging words, while he had one horse shot under him and his
bridle arm disabled by a bullet. The British rallied and rushed forward
again amid the tempest of death. Pakenham, mortally wounded, was caught
in the arms of his aid, and his troops, no longer sustained by their
leader's presence and example, fell back in disorder. In this fearful
charge the British lost 2600 men, killed, wounded and made prisoners. The
Americans lost only eight killed and thirteen wounded. On the night of
January 19, the British retired to their fleet.

* * *

The last naval engagement of the war took place in January, 1815, between
the American frigate President, forty-four guns, commanded by Commodore
Stephen Decatur, and the British frigate, Endymion, forty guns, Captain
Hope. The battle began about three o'clock in the afternoon, and lasted
until eleven o'clock at night, both commanders showing remarkable skill
and resolution in the conflict, which was at long range. The Endymion was
nearly dismantled and about to surrender when three other British
men-of-war came up, and Decatur, being overpowered, had to strike his
colors. The President had twenty-four men killed and fifty-six wounded,
and the Endymion had eleven killed and fourteen wounded.

* * *

A treaty of peace had been signed at Ghent between the American and
British commissioners on Christmas Eve, 1814. England yielded nothing
and received nothing. The issues which had provoked the war were ignored
in its termination--indeed it was unnecessary to deal with them. As
_Niles Register_ stated the case in December, 1814: "With the general
pacification of Europe, the chief causes for which we went to war with
Great Britain have, from the nature of things, ceased