o suitable garments and distributing them as they were most
needed. In one week's time the destitute soldiers were supplied and made
comfortable. These backwoodsmen, defenders of their country, did not
forget till their dying day the generous and timely ministries in a time
of trial, in which the women and the men of Louisiana, and especially of
New Orleans, seemed to vie; nor did they cease to speak in their praise.

Again, in view of the approaching battle, Jackson, in correspondence
with the Secretary of War, complains that the arms from Pittsburgh had
not yet arrived, expressing grave apprehensions of the consequences.
"Hardly," said he, "one third of the Kentucky troops, so long expected,
are armed; and the arms they have are barely fit for use." He presages
that the defeat of our armies and the dishonor of the officers
commanding, and of the nation, may be consequences chargeable to the
neglect of the government.

The American batteries on both sides of the river continued day and
night to fire upon and harass the British. Wherever a group of the
latter appeared, or an assailable object presented, the American fire
was directed to disperse or destroy. This incessant cannonading
exercised our gunners in the more skillful use of their pieces, annoyed
the enemy in the work of his fortifications, and rendered his nights
well-nigh sleepless.

JACKSON'S ENTRENCHED LINE, AND THE POSITIONS OF THE TROOPS AND
ARTILLERY.

Jackson's lines, five miles below the city, were along the canal, or old
mill-race, on the border of the plantations of Rodrique and Chalmette.
The old ditch, unused for years, had filled up in part with the washings
of the earth from its sides, and grown over with grass. It was chosen
because it lay at a point the shortest in distance from the river to the
swamp, and thus the more easily defended. Along the upper bank of the
canal a parapet was raised, with a banquet behind to stand upon, by
earth brought from the rear of the line, thus raising the original
embankment. The opposite side of the canal was but little raised,
forming a kind of glacis.

Plank and posts from the adjacent fencing were taken to line the parapet
and to prevent the earth from falling back into the canal. All this was
done at intervals of relief, by the different corps, assisted by labor
from the plantations near. It was not until the seventh of January that
the whole extent of the breastwork was proof against the enemy's cann