The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1876-01-08
The Eighth of January,

memorable At one o'clock on that morn
ing sixty years ago, General Andrew jack
son lay asleep in his worn uniform, in one
of the rooms OF the McCarty mansion, near
New Orleans. The guarded house doomed
up dim and silent in the foggy night among
the darkened trees and near by, within the
slippery earth-works formed of the once
sediment of the Mississippi river, thirty
Two hundred half clad, half armed militia
lay, sleeping, by orders, on their fint-lock
guns.
Below, on the river, the British camp
was alive with the preparation for an at
tack Nearly $4,000 men, largely com
posed of the flower of Welington's army,
the heroes of Waterloo, were under the
| impetuous and over confidant Sir Edward
Rockingham impatently awaiting the sig
nal to move.
AT four o'clock these troops were in
their assigned position. The main column
of attack, 5000 men, with the 44h-an
Irish regiment---at their head under Gen.
Gibbs on the border of cypress swamp
half mile in front of where Carroll
commanded, supported by Adair. On the
high road along the Mississippi stood col
umn of light troops 1000 strong, under
Col. Rennie. He was at concerted signal
to spring forward and assail the river end
of Gen. Jacksons position. Midway be-
tween these stood the magnificent aud
praying Goth Highlander regiment Of Col.
Dale, $50 men Two hundred soldiers
who were 10 supper! them were wandering
lost ard leadcrles, in the log, and, fortu-
nately for themselves, never found the 99th
On the very skirts of the swamp was
regiment of demoralized blacks. They
They eerved to amusc the Kentucky Cot
Coffee. o. the open plain, $50 yards
from the American lines, an English bat
terry Of six lS-pounders. A mile behind,
Gen. Lambert held two newly arrived reg
imenis in reserve.
The leaders of these columns in that
chilli and misty morning telt premonitions
of disaster. Said Col. Mullens. of the
44th, My regiment has been ordered to
execution" Col. Dale, giving the doctor
his watch and a letter: " Give these to
my wife | shall die at the head Of my
regiment" These and more were literally
fulfilled. Half an hour before dawn they
sgnaled to begin the assault. Daylight
was struggling through the mist when
Gibbs was approaching the Ameri-
can lines, that were cutting
great lanes in his column from front
to rear" Still they advanced to within
two hundred leards when CAROLS rifle
men send forth belchipg flash. When
they had reached within one hundred
yards half their number had fallen and the
rest would no longer obey the leader.
Gen. Paekngham rode up, and waving his
hat, sought 10 rally them. A column once
checked will seldom but break in confus-
ion and retreat. A ball shattered the arm
Of Packiugham. The next moment his
horse fell dead This ended the FIRST
assault.
Next then superb Highlands marchel
up. Now for an irresistible contest But
in one moment a thirty-two FOUNDER load
ed to the muzzle with musket balls. fired
at point blank range, ieveled two hundred
men to the plain. The Highlandders did
not waver They and other troops advanced.
Officers and men were falling everywhere.
Lieut.. Lavack, who gained the breast work
said "on looking around the two leading
regiments had vanished as if the face Of
the earth had opened and swallowed them
up" Such was the effect of the American
fires. Brief was the unequal contest; twenty-
five minutes after the first American gun
the enemy were in complete route. One-half
The American army had never fired shot
The band of the battalion D'Orleans, COM
mencing with Yankee Doodle, had not
ceased to play the national military airs.
The British loss was >, 900 in killed, wound
ed and prisoners. The American loss was
SeUen killed, and sir wounded. General
Jacsons shrewdness in adapting the means
OF defense to the character of his men.
made him the hero and subsequent presi-
dent.
The news of this victory had scarcely
reached New York when came word across
the Atlantic that on Dec. "a treaty of
peace had been signed at Client