Harper"s Round Table, April 30, 1895.
by Various.
HEROES OF AMERICA.
THE BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS.
BY HONORABLE THEODORE ROOSEVELT.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Decorative W]
hen in 1814 Napoleon was overthrown and exiled to Elba, the British troops that had followed Wellington into southern France were left free for use against the Americans. A great expedition was organized to attack and capture New Orleans, and at its head was placed General Pakenham, the brilliant commander of the column that delivered the fatal blow at Salamanca. In December a great fleet of British war-ships and transports, carrying thousands of victorious veterans from the Peninsula, and manned by sailors who had grown old in a quarter of century"s ocean warfare, anch.o.r.ed off the great lagoons of the Mississippi Delta. The few American gunboats were carried after a desperate hand-to-hand struggle, the troops were landed, and on the 23d of December the advance-guard of two thousand men reached the banks of the Mississippi, but ten miles below New Orleans, and there camped for the night.
It seemed as if nothing could save the Creole City from foes who had shown in the storming of many a Spanish walled town that they were as ruthless in victory as they were terrible in battle. There were no forts to protect the place, and the militia were ill armed and ill trained.
But the hour found the man. On the afternoon of the very day when the British reached the banks of the river the vanguard of Andrew Jackson"s Tennesseeans marched into New Orleans. Clad in hunting-shirts of buckskin or homespun, wearing wolf-skin and c.o.o.n-skin caps, and carrying their long rifles on their shoulders, the wild soldiery of the backwoods tramped into the little French town. They were tall men, with sinewy frames and piercing eyes. Under "Old Hickory"s" lead they had won the b.l.o.o.d.y battle of the Horseshoe Bend against the Creeks; they had driven the Spaniards from Pensacola: and now they were eager to pit themselves against the most renowned troops of all Europe.
Jackson acted with his usual fiery, hasty decision. It was absolutely necessary to get time in which to throw up some kind of breastworks or defences for the city, and he at once resolved on a night attack against the British. As for the British, they had no thought of being molested.
They did not dream of an a.s.sault from inferior numbers of undisciplined and ill-armed militia, who did not possess so much as bayonets to their guns. They kindled fires along the levees, ate their supper, and then, as the evening fell, noticed a big schooner drop down the river in ghostly silence and bring up opposite to them. The soldiers flocked to the sh.o.r.e, challenging the stranger, and finally fired one or two shots at her. Then suddenly a rough voice was heard exclaiming, "Now give it to them, for the honor of America," and a shower of sh.e.l.l and grape fell on the British, driving them off the levee. The stranger was an American man-of-war schooner. The British brought up artillery to drive her off, but before they succeeded Jackson"s land troops burst upon them, and a fierce, indecisive struggle followed. In the night all order was speedily lost, and the two sides fought singly or in groups in the utmost confusion. Finally a fog came up, and the combatants separated.
Jackson drew off four or five miles and camped.
The British had been so roughly handled that they were unable to advance for three or four days, until the entire army came up. When they did advance it was only to find that Jackson had made good use of the time he had gained by his daring a.s.sault. He had thrown up breastworks of mud and logs from the swamp to the river. At first the British tried to batter down these breastworks with their cannon, for they had many more guns than the Americans. A terrible artillery duel followed. For an hour or two the result seemed in doubt; but the American gunners showed themselves to be far more skilful than their antagonists, and gradually getting the upper hand, they finally silenced every piece of British artillery. The Americans had used cotton bales in the embrasures, and the British hogsheads of sugar, but neither worked well, for the cotton caught fire, and the sugar hogsheads were ripped and splintered by the round shot, so that both were abandoned. By the use of red-hot shot the British succeeded in setting fire to the American schooner which had caused them such annoyance on the evening of the night attack; but she had served her purpose, and her destruction caused little anxiety to Jackson.
Having failed in his effort to batter down the American breastworks, and the British artillery having been fairly worsted by the American, Pakenham decided to try an open a.s.sault. He had ten thousand regular troops, while Jackson had under him but little over five thousand men, who were trained only as he had himself trained them in his Indian campaigns. Not a fourth of them carried bayonets. Both Pakenham and the troops under him were fresh from victories won over the most renowned marshals of Napoleon, and over troops that had proved themselves on a hundred stricken fields the masters of all others in continental Europe.
At Toulouse they had driven Marshal Soult from a position infinitely stronger than that held by Jackson, and yet Soult had under him a veteran army. At Badajos, Ciudad Rodrigo, and San Sebastian they had carried by open a.s.sault walled towns whose strength made the entrenchments of the Americans seem like mud walls built by children, though these towns were held by the best troops of France. With such troops to follow him, and with such victories behind him in the past, it did not seem to Pakenham possible that the a.s.sault of the terrible British infantry could be successfully met by rough backwoods riflemen fighting under a General as wild and untrained as themselves.
He decreed that the a.s.sault should take place on the morning of the 8th.
Throughout the previous night the American officers were on the alert, for they could hear the rumbling of artillery in the British camp, the m.u.f.fled tread of the battalions as they were marched to their points in the line, and all the smothered din of the preparation for a.s.sault. Long before dawn the riflemen were awake, and drawn up behind the mud walls, where they lolled at ease, or, leaning on their long rifles, peered out through the fog toward the camp of their foes.
At last the sun rose and the fog slowly lifted, showing the glorious array of the scarlet British infantry. As soon as the air was clear Pakenham gave the word, and the heavy columns of red-coated grenadiers and kilted Highlanders moved steadily forward. From the American breastworks the great guns opened, but not a rifle cracked.
Three-fourths of the distance was covered, and the eager soldiers broke into a run: then sheets of flame burst from the breastworks in their front as the wild riflemen of the backwoods rose and fired, line upon line. Under the sweeping hail the head of the British advance was shattered, and the whole column stopped. Then it surged forward again almost to the foot of the breastworks; but not a man lived to reach them, and in a moment more the troops broke and ran back.
Mad with shame and rage, Pakenham rode quickly among them to rally and lead them forward, and the officers sprang around him, smiting the fugitives with their swords, and cheering on the men who stood. For a moment the troops halted, and again came forward to the charge; but again they were met by a hail of bullets from the backwoods rifles. One shot struck Pakenham himself. He reeled and fell from the saddle, and was carried off the field. The second in command was wounded, and then all attempts at further advance were abandoned, and the British troops ran back to their lines. Another a.s.sault had meanwhile been made by a column close to the river, the charging soldiers rushing right up to the top of the breastworks: but they were all killed or driven back. A body of troops had also been sent across the river, where they routed a small detachment of Kentucky militia; but they were, of course, recalled when the main a.s.sault failed.
For the first time in a quarter of a century the British soldiers, the men who had conquered the conquerors of Europe, had met defeat. Andrew Jackson and his rough riflemen had worsted in a fair fight a far larger force of the best of Wellington"s veterans, and had accomplished what no French marshal and no French troops had been able to accomplish throughout the long war in the Spanish Peninsula. For a week the sullen British lay in their lines; then, abandoning their heavy artillery, they marched back to the ships and sailed again for Europe.
IMPORTANT NOTICE.
TO THE READERS OF "HARPER"S YOUNG PEOPLE."
HARPER"S ROUND TABLE? We imagine how puzzled and surprised a great throng of you are when your favorite HARPER"S YOUNG PEOPLE suddenly puts on a new dress and wears a new name. Yet it is the very same paper which has been your favorite ever since you first read it--the same, except that it has taken on some additional features of interest, and will be more pleasing to you than ever.
Of course you wish to know why a change has been made, and what the Editor means to give you in the ROUND TABLE which will make up for the disappearance of YOUNG PEOPLE. The ROUND TABLE will be so big and bright that it will accommodate more young people than you can count--all, in fact, who belong to the wonderful Order you all love. Listen to our programme for the future:
Serial stories by our best authors, short, timely, and entertaining articles, and the regular departments will be continued. You will find that not one of the attractions is omitted. The only alteration in the periodical, beyond the t.i.tle and make-up, is to be found in the additional departments. Something new has been added which is sure to interest everybody.
Part of this addition is the athletic department, ent.i.tled Interscholastic Sport. This department is to be conducted by "The Graduate," who is an experienced writer and student of scholastic athletics, and who, while following the course of school athletics all over the United States, will give you many valuable suggestions on physical training. Another part of this addition, which will be sure to please you just now especially, is a department on Bicycling, which will contain charts and maps showing pleasant bicycle trips in or near the large cities of the United States. This department will be under the editorship of an expert wheeler, who will have the a.s.sistance of the officers of the League of American Wheelmen. Besides these features the type will be changed so that about two hundred words will be added to each page of the paper, thus increasing the amount of letter-press by nearly one-fourth. You will now receive nearly one-quarter again as much reading matter as heretofore for the same amount of money. You will approve of this, we know.
But why give the paper another name? Because the Order of the Round Table, founded by HARPER"S YOUNG PEOPLE four years ago, has grown to such enormous proportions, has spread so far and wide, has gone into so many corners of the States of the Union, and European countries as well, that it demands some definite recognition, as one of the largest organizations of its kind in the world. But the t.i.tle HARPER"S ROUND TABLE means something more than this. It not only acknowledges the growth, the power, and the interest of the Order of the Round Table, but it is the journal which goes into the home of its readers as they sit about the family "round table" of an evening. It brings with it reading of interest to the children and to the young men and women of the family, as well as to the parents; and its purpose is to introduce and maintain in the family of this nineteenth century some of the manly qualities, some of the chivalry, honesty, and uprightness which have made the Table Round of King Arthur so famous in history. HARPER"S ROUND TABLE represents the chivalry of brother to sister and sister to brother, children to parents and parents to children, in this present day. It maintains that all the good qualities of King Arthur"s Order are equally applicable and necessary in the family circle of to-day, and it purposes to stand for them week by week. The ROUND TABLE, therefore, is not only the t.i.tle of a great organization of young Americans, but it also stands for a periodical which should be a welcome visitor in every family circle. Its readers will find in its pages amus.e.m.e.nt, interest, instruction, as well as suggestions of what courtesy and courage mean, and what they can accomplish. HARPER"S ROUND TABLE is HARPER"S YOUNG PEOPLE in a larger form, with its field broadened and its interest increased. You will endorse this change, not only for itself, but because it also furnishes you with more reading matter than was promised you when you subscribed for HARPER"S YOUNG PEOPLE.
A CHANGE OF FORTUNE.
"Oh, the days when I was happy!"
Sighed a pensive little j.a.ppy, As the crystal tears rolled down and washed the color from his cheek.
On the table in my study Sweetly smiling, round, and ruddy.
Many years he had been standing in a china jar unique.
Now, alas! his smile was faded.
His expression worn and jaded.
And his bursting heart found utterance in a woful lamentation: "Oh, that from my proud position, Highest goal of my ambition, I should ever stoop to suffer such a sad humiliation!
"Once I was caressed and flattered, Rich or poor, it little mattered.
Young and old, from babe to grandsire, every one must have a "j.a.p."
And alike by tastes aesthetic, Grave or humorous or poetic, I was hailed, and all-triumphant, lived and throve in Fortune"s lap.
"Then--ah me!--the reigning fashion, Every artist had a pa.s.sion For displaying me in pictures, and the studios were my own.
Now, to claim their whole attention, One whom I am loath to mention Comes, an upstart, a usurper, and ascends my rightful throne.
"Hard it is my grief to smother, Bitter thus to see another Wear my honors! Artists paint him, poets his perfections praise.
Everywhere his visage hated Greets me. He is fondled, feted.
Worst of all, he rules the children as did I in other days.
"Nevermore shall I be happy,"
Said the weeping little j.a.ppy, "Nevermore my days be merry, and my slumbers soft and downy.
I shall live, but all unheeded, Quite cut out and superseded By that precious, omnipresent pet and paragon, _the Brownie_!"
MARGARET JOHNSON.
OFF WITH THE MERBOY.
BY JOHN KENDRICK BANGS.
CHAPTER II.
THE START.