Tennessee at the Battle of New Orleans

There were, of course, many individual acts of heroism performed by Tennesseans, some of which, fortunately, have been recorded. John Donelson, Coffee’s brother-in-law, captured an important British officer, Major Mitchell. Lieutenant William Trousdale, himself destined for later fame as governor of Tennessee, was in the company which captured a major, two lieutenants, and thirty privates. The intrepid Trousdale barely escaped while leading a charge against the British who were entrenched behind a fence and a river levee. Having already leapt upon the fence, Trousdale glanced behind him only to discover to his dismay that the company had been ordered to retreat, leaving him alone in the enemy’s fire. He scrambled down from the fence and escaped back to his lines amid a hall of bullets.

Again, as at Horseshoe Bend, the excellent teamwork of Jackson and Coffee was evident. Coffee’s troops bore the brunt of fire and, as disciplined fighting men, had carried the fight to the enemy. Their outward simplicity concealed the marrow of the born soldier, willing—perhaps eager—to endure any personal hardship to gain his mission. Governor William C. C. Claiborne of Louisiana noted this quality and wrote that the “Tennessee troops equal the high expectations which were formed of them; nor is it possible for men to display more patriotism, firmness in battle, or composure under fatigue and privations.”25 It was evident that even after the December 23 engagement, the British were still inclined to underestimate American ability in massed battle array. It is just as well as they reasoned from a faulty premise and lacked the benefit of Latour’s estimation:

General Coffee’s Tennesseans, those modest and simple sons of nature, displayed that firm composure which accompanies and indicates true courage.... Instinctively valiant, disciplined without having passed through the formal training of reviews and garrison maneuvers, they evinced on this memorable night, that enthusiasm, patriotism, and a sense of a just cause, which were of far more avail than scientific tactics. The heroes of Wellington, who boasted of their military tactics and disciplined valor, were often doomed by woful (sic) experience, to appreciate the prowess of those warlike sons of the western country.26

V

Both armies now began in earnest to prepare for the impending big battle. The British ferried in several thousand more soldiers, bringing their number to approximately 8,000. General Sir Edward M. Pakenham, the Duke of Wellington’s brother-in-law, arrived on Christmas Day eager to add other laurels to his 22-year military career. His accomplishments already included his decisive attack as division commander at Salamanca in the Peninsula Campaign against Napoleon.

Jackson, although elated over the results of the initial encounter, realized that the British had come to fight, not as a striking force similar to that of the Washington foray, but as a conquering army bent upon seizing the Mississippi Valley. When, early in the morning of December 24, there was no move by the invaders, Jackson drew his army back about two miles to a point between the McCarty and Chalmette plantations and formed a line which extended from the Mississippi River on his right to a cypress swamp on the left.27 The Rodriguez Canal, a large wet ditch five feet deep, ran in front of the works. There the soldiers worked feverishly day and night to erect strong breastworks. Carroll’s position was on an extension of the canal. Coffee, on the extreme left of Jackson’s line after a scare on December 28, extended his ditch and works into the swamp, eliminating almost any further possibility for a flanking attack. The entire line covered about three-quarters of a mile, with about two-thirds of this being across the open plain.

Although no general action ensued immediately after the night battle, conditions in the battlefield area were hardly tranquil prior to January 8. On the evening of December 27, the British rushed a strong force forward, causing Jackson’s advance guard to fall back under heavy cannon, rocket, and musket fire. Pakenham staged a reconnaissance in force the next day and before it was called off the British were able to install a sizable force behind a fence oblique to the American line. Carroll instructed Colonel James Henderson and a detachment of 200 men to sweep along a wooded area, make a turn to the right toward the river and thus cut off the Redcoats. Unfortunately, Henderson’s slant to the right was premature and left the British still well covered by the fence, and his detachment several yards away from the protective covering of the woods.28 A burst of musketry killed Henderson and five men and the others fell back into the woods. In the noisy and heavy artillery duel of January 1, casualties on each side were few, but the Americans at the guns proved as keen marksmen as the Tennessee riflemen, and impressed the British considerably.

The British sentries were indeed terrified by the Tennesseans’ ability with their rifles. These sentries called the Tennesseans dirty shirts because their brown hunting dress camouflaged them in the thick undergrowth and dry grass. These militiamen were not soldiers in the European definition of the word. Many were frontiersmen who had battled the wilderness and endured the merciless elements of nature. Small wonder it is that they were not awed by the polished legions poised for their defeat. In truth, their pride grew as they measured themselves against the reputation of their heralded foe.

They gained considerable satisfaction, for example, from their harassment of the enemy. One operation which they called the “hunting party” amounted to nothing more than slipping out at night and disposing of as many British sentries as possible. In one night’s effort, one old Tennessean killed three sentries, took their arms and accouterments, and returned before dawn boasting of his feat.

When Jackson was finally in position, his force of some 5,000 presented a heterogeneous array of the unlikeliest components for an army. The blue-coated American regulars anchored one end of the line and Coffee’s militiamen the other. In between were various groups such as the Louisiana militia; New Orleans volunteers; Mississippians; battalion of free men of color; Louisiana Creoles; and the recently arrived Kentuckians. The Baratarian pirates had their cannons, ranging in size from 6- to 32-pounders, loaded and ready to fire on signal. The breastworks were five feet high, and were considered by Jackson to be impenetrable by small projectiles. Pakenham apparently did not share this view. His plan of attack was now devised, and before the misty morning of January 8 was gone, the Americans and British engaged each other in their last great struggle.

VI

General Pakenham, realizing that further delays would only give Jackson additional time in which to make his position more secure, concluded that a day-break frontal attack would break the resistance of the Americans. He was still not convinced of their ultimate ability to withstand Britannia’s veterans. Strangely, he was joined in this opinion by his supporting officers, although they had witnessed the bravery and skill of the American in arms in both night and day engagements.

Sitting in the top of a tree, surveying the American works on the afternoon of January 7, Pakenham was inclined to agree with a deserter to his ranks that the weakest point in the American position was the extreme left, where some of Coffee’s militiamen stood knee-deep in the swamp. So far as he could determine, the outlook appeared good that the morning would bring a memorable victory. His plan called for three columns to attack. The smaller one, numbering about 800 men, was to invest the American right. Two thousand soldiers were in the middle column, while the 4,000 on the British right were to storm Coffee’s militiamen and attack Jackson’s rear. To begin the attack, 1,400 troops would be transported across the Mississippi by boats brought in from Lake Borgne to capture an American battery erected there to rake the British ranks.

Jackson also was observing Pakenham on the afternoon of the seventh and he concluded that a major assault upon his works was imminent. Fascines and scaling ladders were in evidence, as were additional troops which had arrived the previous day under the command of Major General John Lambert, who had sailed from England at the end of October. Jackson’s plan of defense, a simple one, was designed to frustrate and repulse the British onslaught. The riflemen were numbered “one” and “two.” At the signal, the “ones” would fire first, step back, reload, and then wait for the “twos” to fire.

The night hours wore slowly on until the first vestiges of morning light which was hardly perceptible because of the low-hanging fog. Every Tennessean fingered his trigger, checking occasionally to see if his trusty long knife was in place should hand-to-hand struggle become necessary. Finally, when the rolling mists parted, there was seen a red line advancing across the plain of Chalmette toward the American entrenchments. When Jackson saw this, he felt that the plan of attack would fail because no frontal attack could storm his entrenchments. Coffee strode up and down his line encouraging his men to remain steady and to withhold their fire until “one could see their belt-buckles.”29 On and on the silent line flowed, until it seemed like a great red carpet across the battlefield. Coffee recalled seeing the provocative scene of Redcoats advancing “in solid column in superior numbers and great order.” Within a few moments a mighty blast of artillery mowed down entire columns, but failed to halt the now surging tide streaming dangerously near the entrenchments. The British had come to within forty yards of Coffee’s flank before he roared: “Now men, aim for the center of the cross belts–fire!”30

The smoke from the long rifles hung so heavy in that misty morning that Jackson, slightly to the right of center, could not ascertain the result of the militiamen’s blast. So with Abner Duncan and Tom Overton he rode to Coffee’s end of the line. A few moments later there was another sharp, ringing volley, and Jackson increased his horse’s gallop. When he was within 100 yards of Coffee, the smoke lifted just enough for the surprised commander to see the British “falling back in a confused mass with the first ranks of their column … blown away.”31 So far as Coffee was concerned, the grape and canister were “nothing to the carnage of our rifles and muskets when they (the British) reached them.”

General Carroll also caught the force of the attack when nearly 2,000 men bore down upon the center of his line. As before, his rifles answered with an authority which inspired one officer to write: “The determined firmness of the men, silent as death at their posts, convinced me that on that day they would add fresh laurels to those already won by Tennessee.”32

Regrouping, the British line advanced a second time only to be cut down again. It was now apparent that Pakenham’s well devised plans had gone awry. The depleted columns which did reach the works could not scale them because an Irish regiment and a West Indian regiment, entrusted with the responsibility of carrying the fascines and scaling ladders, had failed in their duty. A major, a lieutenant, and twenty men finally pressed across the ditch on the American left, and the two officers started up the works. The major was riddled immediately with bullets, but the lieutenant managed to scale the top and demanded the surrender of a couple of militia officers facing him. To this demand they suggested that he look behind him, which he did and discovered to his consternation that the men whom he thought were following him “had vanished as if the earth had opened and swallowed them up.”33 Of greater consequence to the British, however, was the death of General Pakenham, who had been cut down as he attempted to arouse his stricken troops for another assault.

During the struggle, several Tennesseans became mixed with the Kentuckians and one of them was accidentally killed by a Kentucky sharpshooter when a gun discharged prematurely. One Tennessean, remembered only as Paleface, remained with the Kentuckians throughout the battle. A gaunt little man, Paleface received the sword of a surrendering British officer and, in the closing minutes of the fight, killed at nearly 300 yards a retreating Redcoat who was making obscene gestures at the defenders.

As the firing died down, captives began to trickle into the works, one of whom was a young man about 19 or 20 years old, apparently in great pain. He was assisted by several Kentuckians who sought to alleviate his suffering by removing his accouterments. At the same time a Tennessean returned from the river with a tin coffee pot filled with water. The stricken soldier asked if he could have just a drop. “Oh yes!” said the Tennessean, “I will treat you to anything I’ve got.” After taking two or three sips out of the spout, the young man returned the pot, sank backward, took a gasp or two, and died.34

By now, the tide of battle was receding as the aggressors retired from the field “under cover of a very thick fog.”35 When the smoke and fog lifted, the gallant defenders witnessed a sight which would forever be etched upon their minds. Before them were the tortured forms of the dead and dying, many of them convulsing in the agonies of death. Across the battlefield, there also arose sounds which would reverberate across the years in their memories—the groans and lamentations of fallen men. Witnessing that scene, few could dispute Coffee’s conviction that the “famous campaign against Orleans is at rest at present, and has thus far been marked with better fortune to the American arms than anything heretofore known.”36 Over 2,000 British were either dead, wounded, or missing, while the American loss stood at seven killed and six wounded.37

Thus, within two hours the Battle of New Orleans belonged to history. General Lambert, the only remaining British officer of general rank, covered the retreat and that afternoon assumed the melancholy task of retrieving and burying the dead. The bodies were delivered to the British lines by the Tennesseans and Kentuckians on the unused scaling ladders they found strewn across the battlefield. The dead soldiers were interred in a site on the Bienvenu plantation. Ironically, some British officers were buried in Villere’s garden, which had been their headquarters prior to the battle. It was not until the night of January 18, however, that the entire British army withdrew from its encampments and returned across Lake Borgne to their fleet still anchored in deep water between Cat and Ship islands. Their departure was carefully observed by Jackson, who distributed his forces to protect every approach to the city should the frustrated enemy attempt to strike another blow.

VII

On January 21, 1815, Tennessee was “revered, and General Jackson idolized” by appreciative citizens of New Orleans who filled the city’s streets to cheer the army during its victory march through the city. Included in the festive occasion, arranged as an outpouring of the city’s gratitude, was a “triumphal arch, adorned with wreaths, supported by eighteen pillars (one for each state) and eighteen damsels, the fairest in the city, bearing a motto emblematic of the state she represented.”38 Flowers were scattered in abundance along the entire route. While the period of rejoicing was still in progress, Mrs. Jackson arrived in the city on February 19th in time for a grand ball given in the general’s honor on Washington’s birthday.

Praise was showered upon the Tennesseans, particularly the Coffee militiamen who, from the inception of the campaign, had carried the heaviest burden of battle among the American troops. From the time they departed Fayetteville in early October, they had been almost constantly in the saddle or on foot, often wading through muck, and stoically enduring privation. This patient endurance of any test they were called upon to face, drew from Robert Butler, Adjutant General, Seventh Military District, this comment:

To the Tennessee mounted gunmen, to their gallant leader, brigadier-general Coffee, the general presents his warmest thanks, not only for their uniform good conduct in action, but for the wonderful patience with which they have borne the fatigue, and the perseverance with which they surmounted the difficulties of a most painful march, in order to meet the enemy—a diligence and zeal to which we probably owe the salvation of the country. Ordinary activity would have brought them too late to act the brilliant part they have performed in the defeat of our invaders.39

Resolutions of thanks and gratitude were also tendered the Tennesseans by the Louisiana Legislature which, however, failed to include any recognition of Jackson. In a note to that body, Coffee courteously thanked them for the recognition, but added that the highest honors given to anyone connected with the defense of New Orleans rightfully belonged to General Jackson.

On March 14, word finally reached Jackson that the war was officially over. He thereupon released the Tennesseans from duty and instructed Generals Coffee and Carroll to return them home immediately. Traveling over the famed Natchez Trace, there was ample time for them to reflect upon the momentous events of the past five months, and they may have wondered what the result at New Orleans would have been had Tennessee not been represented there. But there was one thing certain! No group connected with New Orleans marched any harder, fought more relentlessly, or endured hardship as long as did the Tennesseans. This being the case, one could not blame them for musing a bit, and occasionally stroking their long rifles, which had etched for each of them an honored place in the golden annals of their country’s history.

It is a long trail leading from the plain of Chalmette to January 8, 1965, but nothing that has happened over these years lessens the modern Tennessean’s appreciation for the warriors who represented their state so well at New Orleans. History has observed that of the approximately 5,000 Tennesseans in the vicinity almost 1,500 were on the line during the battle.

With the exception of the 700 United States regulars, no group connected with the campaign on the American side had the military training and leadership which the Tennesseans already possessed by virtue of their participation in the Creek War. If the British attack on the American left, held by Coffee’s Tennesseans, had succeeded, the battle’s outcome might well have been a different story.

The several groups comprising Jackson’s army performed capably. Each had its unique talents and accomplished much of what was expected of it. When considering the entire New Orleans campaign, however, one is immediately impressed with the fact that no phase can be studied without finding evidence of Tennessee’s participation. It is clear in retrospect, as it was in 1815, that the role of Tennessee at New Orleans was highly significant, perhaps the dominant force, in bringing the campaign to a successful conclusion.

APPENDIX

Jackson Reports On Battle

Letter from Major-General Jackson to the Secretary of War

Camp, four miles below Orleans, 9th January, 1815.

Sir:

During the days of the 6th and 7th, the enemy had been actively employed in making preparations for an attack on my lines. With infinite labour they had succeeded on the night of the 7th in getting their boats across from the lake to the river, by widening and deepening the canal on which they had effected their disembarkation. It had not been in my power to impede these operations by a general attack—added to other reasons, the nature of the troops under my command, mostly militia, rendered it too hazardous to attempt extensive offensive movements in an open country, against a numerous and well-disciplined army. Although my forces, as to number, had been increased by the arrival of the Kentucky division, my strength had received very little addition; a small portion only of that detachment being provided with arms. Compelled thus to wait the attack of the enemy, I took every measure to repel it when it should be made, and to defeat the object he had in view. General Morgan with the Orleans contingent, the Louisiana militia, and a strong detachment of the Kentucky troops, occupied an intrenched camp on the opposite side of the river, protected by strong batteries on the bank, erected and superintended by commodore Patterson.

In my encampment every thing was ready for action, when early on the morning of the 8th the enemy, after throwing a heavy shower of bombs and congreve rockets, advanced their columns on my right and left, to storm my intrenchments. I cannot speak sufficiently in praise of the firmness and deliberation with which my whole line received their approach. More could not have been expected from veterans inured to war.—For an hour the fire of the small arms was as incessant and severe as can be imagined. The artillery, too, directed by officers who displayed equal skill and courage, did great execution. Yet the columns of the enemy continued to advance with a firmness which reflects upon them the greatest credit. Twice the column which approached me on my left, was repulsed by the troops of general Carroll, those of general Coffee and a division of the Kentucky militia, and twice they formed again and renewed the assault. At length, however, cut to pieces, they fled in confusion from the field, leaving it covered with their dead and wounded. The loss which the enemy sustained on this occasion, cannot be estimated at less than fifteen hundred in killed, wounded, and prisoners. Upwards of three hundred have already been delivered over for burial; and my men are still engaged in picking them up within my lines, and carrying them to the point where the enemy are to receive them. This is in addition to the dead and wounded whom the enemy have been enabled to carry from the field during and since the action, and to those who have since died of the wounds they received. We have taken about five hundred prisoners, upwards of three hundred of whom are wounded, and a great part of them mortally. My loss has not exceeded, and I believe has not amounted to ten killed and as many wounded. The entire destruction of the enemy’s army was now inevitable, had it not been for an unfortunate occurrence, which at this moment took place on the other side of the river. Simultaneously with his advance upon my lines, he had thrown over in his boats a considerable force to the other side of the river. These having landed, were hardy enough to advance against the works of general Morgan; and, what is strange and difficult to account for, at the very moment when their entire discomfiture was looked for with a confidence approaching to certainty, the Kentucky re-enforcements, in whom so much reliance had been placed, ingloriously fled, drawing after them, by their example, the remainder of the forces; and thus yielding to the enemy that most formidable position. The batteries which had rendered me, for many days, the most important service, though bravely defended, were, of course, now abandoned; not however until the guns had been spiked.

This unfortunate rout had totally changed the aspect of affairs. The enemy now occupied a position from which they might annoy us without hazard, and by means of which they might have been able to defeat, in a great measure, the effects of our success on this side the river. It became therefore an object of the first consequence to dislodge him as soon as possible. For this object, all the means in my power, which I could with any safety use, were immediately put in preparation. Perhaps, however, it was owing somewhat to another cause that I succeeded even beyond my expectations. In negotiating the terms of a temporary suspension of hostilities, to enable the enemy to bury their dead and provide for their wounded, I had required certain propositions to be acceded to as a basis, among which this was one—that, although hostilities should cease on this side the river until twelve o’clock of this day, yet it was not to be understood that they should cease on the other side; but that no re-enforcements should be sent across by either army until the expiration of that day. His excellency major-general Lambert begged time to consider of those propositions until ten o’clock of to-day, and in the meantime re-crossed his troops. I need not tell you with how much eagerness I immediately regained possession of the position he had thus happily quitted.