Tennessee at the Battle of New Orleans

The enemy having concentrated his forces, may again attempt to drive me from my position by storm. Whenever he does, I have no doubt my men will act with their usual firmness, and sustain a character now become dear to them.

I have the honour to be, &c.ANDREW JACKSON.

Letter from Major-General Jackson to the Secretary of War

Camp, four miles below Orleans, January 13, 1815.

Sir:

At such a crisis I conceive it my duty to keep you constantly advised of my situation.

On the 10th instant I forwarded you an account of the bold attempt made by the enemy on the morning of the 8th, to take possession of my works by storm, and of the severe repulse which he met with. That report having been sent by the mail which crosses the lake, may possibly have miscarried; for which reason I think it the more necessary briefly to repeat the substance of it.

Early on the morning of the 8th, the enemy having been actively employed the two preceding days in making preparations for a storm, advanced in two strong columns on my right and left. They were received however, with a firmness which it seems they little expected, and which defeated all their hopes. My men, undisturbed by their approach, which indeed they had long anxiously wished for, opened upon them a fire so deliberate and certain, as rendered their scaling ladders and fascines, as their more direct implements of warfare, perfectly useless. For upwards of an hour it was continued with a briskness of which there has been but few instances, perhaps, in any country. In justice to the enemy it must be said, they withstood it as long as could have been expected from the most determined bravery. At length, however, when all prospects of success became hopeless, they fled in confusion from the field—leaving it covered with their dead and wounded. Their loss was immense. I had first computed it at fifteen hundred; it is since ascertained to have been much greater. Upon information which is believed to be correct, colonel Hayne, the inspector-general, reports it to be in the total two thousand six hundred. His report I enclose you. My loss was inconsiderable being only seven killed and six wounded. Such a disproportion in loss, when we consider the number and the kind of troops engaged, must, I know, excite astonishment, and may not every where, be fully credited; yet I am perfectly satisfied that the account is not exaggerated on the one part, nor underrated on the other.

The enemy having hastily quitted a post which they had gained possession of on the other side of the river, and we having immediately returned to it, both armies at present occupy their former positions. Whether, after the severe loss he has sustained, he is preparing to return to his shipping or to make still mightier efforts to attain his first object, I do not pretend to determine—it becomes me to act as though the latter were his intention. One thing, however, seems certain, that if he still calculates on effecting what he has hitherto been unable to accomplish, he must expect considerable re-enforcements; as the force with which he landed must undoubtedly be diminished by at least three thousand. Besides the loss which he sustained on the night of the 23d ult. which is estimated at four hundred, he cannot have suffered less between that period and the morning of the 8th inst. than three hundred—having, within that time, been repulsed in two general attempts to drive us from our position, and there having been continual cannonading and skirmishing during the whole of it. Yet he is still able to show a very formidable force.

There is little doubt that the commanding general, sir Edward Packenham, was killed in the action of the 8th, and that major-generals Kean and Gibbs were badly wounded.

Whenever a more leisure moment shall occur, I will take the liberty to make out and forward you a more circumstantial account of the several actions, and particularly that of the 8th; in doing which my chief motive will be to render justice to those brave men I have the honour to command, and who have so remarkably distinguished themselves. I have the honour to be, &c.

ANDREW JACKSON.

1

O. P. Chitwood, F. L. Owsley, and H. C. Nixon. The United States from Colony to World Power, (New York, 1954), 218. Delegates from Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont, and New Hampshire met at Hartford, Connecticut, December 15, 1814, to declare their opposition to the war. Declaring that a state could interpose its authority against unconstitutional acts of the Federal Government, the Convention also proposed seven constitutional amendments and appointed a committee to go to Washington to negotiate with the Government. Shortly after the committee’s arrival, however, word came of the overwhelming American victory at New Orleans, so that the representatives retired without revealing the purpose of their trip.

2

The northern states were more concerned with the infamous “Orders of Council” passed by the British Government permitting that nation’s navy to search any United States ship on the pretense of looking for English deserters, and forbidding any intercourse between France and America. The firing on the American frigate Chesapeake in the summer of 1807 by the British warship Leopard for the former vessel’s refusal to be searched, brought the two countries dangerously close to war, and Federalist apathy was almost swept away by an aroused public opinion.

3

Charles B. Brooks, The Siege of New Orleans. (Seattle, 1961), 12. Jackson assumed command of the Military District on May 28.

4

Enroute to Mobile, Jackson on August 10 concluded a peace treaty with the Creeks, requiring that tribe to reside on lands bordered by the Coosa River to the west, the Chattahoochee in the east, and to the south, by a line running east and west. It was thought that the Creeks and Seminoles would thus be separated, and contact broken with British agents. John H. DeWitt, “General James Winchester, 1752-1826,” in Tennessee Historical Magazine I (1915), 183.

5

Coffee was born in Prince Edward County, Virginia, June 2, 1772, and died at his home “Hickory Hill” near Florence, Alabama, July 7, 1833. Migrating to Tennessee in 1798 with his widowed mother, Coffee became a successful merchant and surveyor. In 1809 he married Mary Donelson. Their farm on Stone’s River in Rutherford County was 10 miles from the Hermitage. “Letters of General John Coffee to His Wife, 1813-1815,” in Tennessee Historical Magazine, II, (1916), 264-65. Coffee’s granddaughter, Eliza Croom Coffee, described him as possessing a commanding appearance with brilliant black eyes and a dark skin. “His expression,” she wrote, “was quiet and serious, but not sad, and showed deep thought. His manners were courteous and gentle.” Eliza Croom Coffee, “Sketch of the Life of General John Coffee,” Florence, Alabama, 1897 (Script in Manuscript Collection, Tennessee Historical Society, Tennessee State Library and Archives.)

6

Nashville Whig, September 21, 1814, p. 3.

7

John Coffee to Mary Donelson Coffee, Camp Gaines, October 22, 1814, in Tennessee Historical Magazine, II (1916), 285-86.

8

C. S. Forester, “Victory of New Orleans,” in American Heritage VIII, (1957), 8.

9

N. Floyd McGowin, “Some Aspects of Waning British Influence in the Middle Gulf Region,” in The Alabama Review, IX (1956), 166-67.

10

Born near Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, March 3, 1788, Carroll came to Nashville in 1810 to open a mercantile store. His fondness for studying military tactics endeared him to Andrew Jackson, then Major General of the Second Tennessee Division encompassing West (now Middle) Tennessee. When Jackson resigned in 1813 to command the United States Army in defense of the Southern frontier, Carroll received the appointment. Later, as Governor of Tennessee, Carroll distinguished himself for his frugality and business acumen.

11

Nashville Clarion, November 1, 1814, p. 3.

12

The Clarion and Tennessee State Gazette, November 22, 1814, p. 3.

13

Nashville Whig, November 16, 1814, p. 3.

14

Nashville Daily Gazette, November 10, 1858, p. 2. As the story goes, all of the Tennessee troops, including those of Coffee, were fully armed by December 21. The second keelboat, however, did not arrive until some time after the battle of January 8, leaving the Kentuckians, who arrived January 4, only partially armed.

15

John Coffee to Mary Donelson Coffee, Sandy Creek, December 15, 1814, in Tennessee Historical Magazine, II (1916), 289. The line of march was almost parallel to the sea coast, about 40 or 50 miles from the Gulf.

16

Edward Larocque Tinker, Creole City, Its Past and Its People (New York, 1953), 45-46. Jackson’s relationship to the legislature was so strained that, after the battle, that body refused to pass a resolution of commendation for the general’s services.

17

John Coffee to Mary Donelson Coffee, December 15, 1814, in Tennessee Historical Magazine, II (1916).

18

John Coffee to Andrew Jackson, December 17, 1814, Andrew Jackson MSS., Manuscript Division, Tennessee State Library and Archives.

19

McGowin, op. cit., 167.

20

Major A. Lacarriere Latour, Historical Memoir of the War in West Florida and Louisiana (Philadelphia, 1816), 88; Eliza Croom Coffee.

21

Benson L. Lossing, The Pictorial Field-Book of the War of 1812 (New York, 1869).

22

Latour, op. cit., 99.

23

John Coffee to Mary Donelson Coffee, New Orleans, January 20, 1815, in Tennessee Historical Magazine, II (1916), 289-90. See also J. A. Trousdale, “A History of the Life of General William Trousdale,” in Tennessee Historical Magazine, II (1916), 123-24.

24

Nashville, Whig, January 11, 1815, p. 3. Of interest is the fact that Lauderdale County, Alabama, where John Coffee later made his home, is named after Colonel James Lauderdale.

25

Ibid.

26

Latour, op. cit., 107.

27

Going down the river the following six plantations comprised the principal theater of action: Macarty, Chalmette, Bienvenu, De la Ronde, Lacoste, and Villere.

28

John Spencer Bassett, (ed.), Major Howell Tatum’s Journal (Northampton, Massachusetts, 1921), 115-16. One other man, presumed dead, was wounded, but arose three times and endeavored to escape under a heavy discharge of musketry. He was finally rescued by Major John W. Simpson, Captain Barbee Collins, and two privates.

29

Eliza Croom Coffee, op. cit.

30

Ibid.

31

Ibid.

32

Nashville Whig, January 25, 1815, p. 2. This information was taken from a letter sent by an officer to a Nashville friend and reprinted in the Whig.

33

Rossiter Johnson, A History of the War of 1812-1815 (New York, 1882), 344.

34

“A Contemporary Account of the Battle of New Orleans by a Soldier in the Ranks,” in The Louisiana Historical Quarterly, I (1926), 15.

35

John Coffee to Mary Donelson Coffee, New Orleans, January 20, 1815, in Tennessee Historical Magazine, II (1916), 290.

36

Ibid.

37

Stanley Clisby Arthur, The Story of the Battle of New Orleans (New Orleans, 1915), 247.

38

John Coffee to Mary Donelson Coffee, New Orleans, January 30, 1815, in Tennessee Historical Magazine, II (1916), 291.

39

Latour, op. cit., Appendix, clxxxv.