a place of considerable wealth, and, from the nature of its chief
export, was one of the principal sources of revenue to the American
government, in the Union. The defence of this town was entrusted to
General Jackson, afterwards President of the United States, and whose
elevation to the chief magistracy is as much to be attributed to the
skill and heroism displayed by him in the defence of the chief cotton
mart as to any other cause. Jackson was a shrewd, obstinate, and
energetic man. On ascertaining that the British had landed, he threw
every possible obstacle in the way of their advance. The weather was
cold and damp, and the soil was low, and wet, and muddy. A few days'
delay in such a situation would make nearly one half of an invading
force ill and dispirit the other half. Jackson sent out a few hundreds
of militia, every now and then, to harass his enemies, and in the
meanwhile he stirred up the 12,000 troops under him, to work vigorously
in the erection of lines of defence for the city. Indeed, in a short
time, he awaited an attack, with confidence, in a fortified position,
all but impregnable. His front was a straight line of upwards of a
thousand yards, defended by upwards of three thousand infantry and
artillery, and stretching from the Mississippi on the right, to a dense
and impassable wood on the left. Along the whole front of this
fortified line there was a ditch which contained five feet of water,
and which was defended by flank bastions, on which a heavy array of
cannon was placed. There were also eight distinct batteries,
judiciously disposed, mounting in all twelve guns of different
calibres, while on the opposite side of the river, about eight hundred
yards across, there was a battery of twenty guns, which also flanked
the whole of the parapet. The great strength of the American position
was strikingly apparent to General Pakenham. It seemed so very strong
indeed that he contemplated a siege. But then the ground was so cold
and damp, and the climate so unhealthy, that he could not sit very long
before a town, likely to be reinforced, and capable of being
strengthened by the construction of lines of defence, within lines of
defence, to almost any extent, if not completely invested. And more,
Pakenham had not guns sufficient for regular approaches. Pakenham was,
however, a good officer, a man of energy, judgment, and decision. He
set all hands instantly to work to deepen a canal, in the rear of the
Bri