The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1898-01-06

THSl DdttdiiOii, rOity-iouitu Ill EooSA)
Foot. /
Eighty-ffth (Buckingham) Foot.
Ninety-third Sutherland Highland
ers.
Third Battalion, Ninety-ffth or Rifle
Brigade.
First West India Regiment (color.
ed).
First Battalion, Twenty-seventh
(Enniskillen) Foot (at the landing
place on Lake Borgue).
Second Battalion. Eighty-ninth
(Dublin) Foot (on the Bienenu road).
The average strength of these
eleven battalions was sos of all ranks,
the total being $500 officers aud men.
NAVAL BRIGADE.
Provisional Battalion Marine Light In
.............................. 43o
Provisional Battalion Seamon on Shore zoo
Company Royal Marine Artillery ..... "a
Iotal..... ,....................... ....'... ITO
The grand total of all ranks and
arms present for duty equipped at or
near Laronde's plantation January 6,
1875, was 1o,923, which the head
quarters staff, etc, would argument
to about 1900 in round numbers.
Of the battalions or regiments enum-
Grated, the Twenty-seventh had re-
Gently returned from India, the
Ninety-third had come from the Cape
of Good Hope, the Eighty-nlnth has
been sent from Canada and the First
West India from Guadalupe. All
the Others were veterans of Yelling
toms army in the peninsula, and the
Sery best troops in the British army.
,SNHEw JACKSON THEIR OPPONENT.
w. their front and barring their
,,athway to New Orleans were on the
same date about 5000 Americans
effectively armed and equipped. But
that comparatively small number in
cluded Andrew Jackson and about
1000 pioneer riflemen of Tennessee
and Kentucky.
1t must be borne in mind that the
Tennessee ri1emen under Coffee and
Carroll and Kinds Missippians were
to man veterans of the Creek wal
and the Florida campaign-victors OF
Tallushatchie, Talladega, Emuckfaw
and the Horseshoe Bend, while
Adair's Kentuckians had been fight.
ing over three years on the Northwest
frontier, from Tippecanoe to the
Thames, and now having ended the
war in that quarter by defeating Proc,
tor and killing Tecumseb, had come
down the great river to help accentu
ate the finish.
Even then the odds seemed hope
less, but Jackson knew how to coun,
the value of the long rifles that came
in the hands of the homespun-clad
deer hunters and Indian trailers o
Kentucky and Tennessee. So he re.
ported to the War Department that
he believed he could "thwart the de-
signs Of the enemy"
Sklrmishes between some light
troops of the British and detachments
of Coffee's and CAROLS riflemen on
the a3d and 29th of December, gave
"Wellington's veterans" their first
taste of Tennessee lead. They did
not like it. Major Burroughs, report
ing the British reconnaissance De-
cember 23, says: "More than half
our casualties were in killed. An ap-
palling proportion were shot through
the head !"
These affairs made a profound I'M
preston upon General Pakenham.
Another collision on New Years day
more than confirmed his forebodings.
COTTON BALES FOR A FORT.
The position selected by Jackson
was the point at which the river and
the Borgue swamp most nearly ap-
proach each other, about seven miles
below the city, and about two miles
above Laronde's plantation, where
Pakenham had his headquarters. The
distance from river to swamp here is
about 1000 yards though not more
than 1900 yards of Its width was open
enough for the movement of troops in
heavy formation, the 100 yards or so
next the swamp being covered with
brush and logs. In straight line
across this strip Jackson made his
breastwork, utilizing an old ditch,
which was widcned and deepened
and the earth taken out of it thrown
up in an embankment, revetted inside
with small logs. The historic cotton
bales" were used only where he had
his cannon mounted. They were
placed on top of the earth and log
work in lien of "gabious" to make
embrasures for the guns. They were
not used on any part of the line held
by the rihemen. This field work was
on the average four feet high on the