tish position, by which boats might be brought up to the
Mississippi, and troops ferried across to carry the battery on the
right bank of the river, a work of extraordinary labour, which was not
accomplished until the evening of the 6th of January. The boats were
immediately brought up and secreted near the river, and dispositions
made for an assault at five o'clock on the morning of the 8th of
January. Colonel Thornton was to cross the river, in the night, storm
the battery, and advance up the right bank till he came abreast of New
Orleans; while the main attack, on the intrenchments in front, was to
be made in two columns--the first under General Gibbs, the second led
by General Keane. There were, in all, about six thousand combatants,
including seamen and marines, to attack double their number, intrenched
to the teeth, in works bristling with bayonets, and loaded with heavy
artillery.[25] When Thornton would have crossed, the downward current
of the Mississippi was very strong, so strong indeed that the fifty
boats, in which his division was embarked, were prevented from reaching
their destination at the hour appointed for a simultaneous attack upon
New Orleans, in front and rear. Pakenham, as the day began to dawn,
grew exceedingly impatient, and, at last, having lost all patience, as
it was now light, revealing to the enemy, in some degree, his plans, he
ordered Gibbs' column to advance. A solemn silence pervaded the
American lines. There was indeed nothing to be heard but the measured
tread of the column, advancing over the plain, in front of the
intrenchments. But when the dark mass was perceived to be within range
of the American batteries, a tremendous fire of grape and round shot
was opened upon it from the bastions at both ends of the long
intrenchment, and from the long intrenchment itself. Gibbs' column,
however, moved steadily on. The 4th, 21st, and 44th regiments closed up
their ranks as fast as they were opened by the fire of the Americans.
On the brow of the glacis, these intrepid men stood as erectly and as
firmly as if they had been on parade. But, through the carelessness of
the colonel commanding the 44th regiment, the scaling ladders had been
forgotten, and it was impossible to mount the parapet. The ladders and
fascines were sent for, in all haste, but the men, on the summit of the
glacis, were, meanwhile, as targets to the enemy. They stood until
riddled through and through, when they fell back in