Receiving no orders from Washington, he became impatient of delay, and upon his own responsibility marched his troops against Pensacola and put the British to flight. "This," says Sumner, "was the second great step in the war in the Southwest."
Washington had been captured and her princ.i.p.al public buildings burned, and New Orleans, the Crescent City, would now, it was thought, be the next point of attack by the British.
To New Orleans, therefore, "to defend a defenseless city, which had neither fleets nor forts, means nor men," came Jackson.
His entrance into the city was quiet and unostentatious and so devoid of the pomp and pageantry of a victorious general as to cause question in the minds of some as to whether or not this was the man expected. His dress was plain in the extreme, and bore upon it no insignia of rank; yet those there were, of insight, who saw in his every aspect the man of power.
From eye and posture and gesture emanated a certain indefinable force that attracted men to him, and created in them an enthusiasm for his cause. Old and young who came under his influence were ready to do his bidding.
To the terrified women and children of New Orleans who appealed to him for protection from the enemy, he replied:--
"The British shall not enter the city except over my dead body."
His words and his presence inspired confidence. And when his flag was run up above his headquarters in Royal Street a sense of security was felt by the inhabitants.
The conditions about him, however, were far from promising, and to a less determined spirit than that of Jackson would have been appalling.
The troops under him were few in number and poorly equipped for battle.
The Crescent City was ill equipped for defense. The governor and the Legislature were at loggerheads.
As was his way in a crisis, General Jackson took matters into his own hands.
He placed the city under martial law and made every man a sailor or a soldier compelled to the restrictions and the rules governing the army.
He was aware that his action was open to severe censure, but in the face of the object to be attained he held this as of little consequence.
While engaged in examining a situation for a fortification in one direction, the British effected a landing in another. They had captured the American flotilla guarding the entrance to Lake Borgne and were making ready to advance upon the city.
This information brought consternation to the inhabitants but not to the indomitable Jackson. Obstacles to him were but objects to be overcome.
He swung his troops into line and went out to meet the enemy. The advance was checked by a sharp engagement with little loss to either side.
He then set the little schooner _Carolina_, in the Mississippi, to bombarding the levee where the British gunners had taken refuge. With her guns continuously roaring she kept the Britishers at bay for three whole days, when she succ.u.mbed to their heavy fire and exploded. Her entire crew escaped with the exception of one man killed and six wounded.
On the field of Chalmette, a few miles below New Orleans, the opposing armies threw up intrenchments from the same soft ooze and mud, so close they now stood to each other. From an upper room of the McCarte mansion house--the home of a wealthy Creole--General Jackson surveyed the operations of the enemy; and directed the movements of his own troops.
December the 28th an advance was made by the British on the American lines but without significant results. On New Year"s Day another attack was made.
In the interim between these a.s.saults went out an order from General Jackson to Governor Claiborne that involved the general for years thereafter in legal complications with the Louisiana Legislature. News was borne to General Jackson on the field that the Legislature was preparing to capitulate New Orleans in the belief that the city would be captured.
"Tell Claiborne," said the irate Jackson, "to blow them up."
Later, he wrote to Governor Claiborne, in case the report was true, to place a guard at the door of the legislative hall and keep the members in it; where they could, he satirically remarked to a friend, have full time to make some wholesome laws for the State without distraction from outside matters.
Through mistake in the execution of the order, the enraged lawmakers were kept outside of the a.s.sembly hall instead of in it, and the session was broken up.
At break of dawn that memorable day of January 8th, 1815, the British were prepared to attack.
Jackson and his valorous volunteers were ready. A pygmy force were they against a mighty one! Raw recruits contending against the trained veterans of Wellington"s army, led by the gallant Pakenham!
The signal rocket went up.
The long red lines advanced over the field.
But to what a fate!
"Don"t shoot till you can see the whites of their eyes!"--Jackson had instructed.
"_Fire!_"
When the smoke cleared, British soldiers, dead and dying, thickly strewed the ground.
Intrenched behind their barricades of cotton bales and sand and mud, the Americans were scarcely touched.
The murderous fire went on.
The British columns reeled and broke.
General Pakenham heroically waved his troops forward and fell, wounded to death.
General Gibbs, second in command, was struck down.
General Keane was disabled.
The leaders were fallen! The troops were disordered.
In the distance the red lines receded.
_Jackson had won._
In less than thirty minutes the unequal conflict had ended, save in the silencing of the guns, which required two hours to accomplish.
Never in the annals of history has such a victory been recorded.
The loss to the English was two thousand killed, wounded, and captured.
The American loss was but eight killed and thirteen wounded.
General Jackson marched his victorious troops into New Orleans, where he was received with the wildest enthusiasm.
The whole country applauded and rejoiced.
_Andrew Jackson had become the Hero of the Nation._
At Ghent, two weeks before the battle, the Treaty of Peace between England and the United States had been signed; but the ship bearing the news had not then reached this country.
But--Jackson had finished the war--had "finished the war in GLORY!"