Major General Andrew Jackson
in small boats, a few at a time, up the bayous from the Gu lf and Lake Borgne. It was a tedious and time-consuming effort. A ll during this process, the savvy General Jackson had his men buildin g earthworks along a canal between the Mississippi River
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and a cypress swamp, knowing the British mu st attack through that area. The British ge neral did, in fact, order hi s troops to attack, moving in an orderly but rigid formation of two straight columns towa rd the American lines. An American ship, Louisiana, which had been de!iveringa sporadic bombardment to the British camp, shifted her fire into theadva ncingcolumns, a nd Jackson's men, now numberi ng about 4,000, offered the adva ncing enemy a galling fire. Pake nha m called a retreat, though he suffered on ly I ight losses ofsome fifty-five men. American losses a mounted to about thirty-five. A few days later, on 31 D ecember, a duel of art ii lery bega n. I twas loud, destructive (es pecially for the British), and caused General Pakenham to decide that wa iting o n the a rriva l of the rest of his reinforcements would be the prudent course to take. H e expected that his strength would increase to some 6,000 soldiers once the new men arrived. Whi le he ordered his troops to retire to their camp, Jackson ordered his men to work.
They built additional defensive works deeper into the swamp, making his line nea rly a mile long. Jackson had more artillery placed on the earthworks, bringing his total strength to eight pieces, and had his men build two fall-back positions in case the British attack was successful. In case Pakenham tried a flanking movement, Jackson built a defensive line on the western side of the river, anchoring it with a pa ir of naval guns rake n from the Louisiana. Ir would be here that the British first attacked. Pake nh a m d etermined the bat tle should co mmence in the dark hours of 7-8 Janua ry 1815. He had received his replacement troops and reinforcements and felt that the cool, often wet, weather would offer hi s men an adva ntage. His plan called for Colo nel William Thornton to move some 600 seasoned troops to the western side of the river during the night and attack the American line there, which was defended by some 700 poorly trained militia from Louisiana and Kentucky. Colonel D avid Morgan was their commander. Thornton's orders were to capture the American gun s
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