The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1898-01-06
RATTLE OF NEW oRLEs
Eou sharpshooters' Aim AND
N'" Englands ?
IS Attack Forced by an
General Pakes Who lilly Knew the Pow
Inferior OF American Riflemen.
DRUBBING -
quite the fad lust now W

-lglish press and people to believe
,)or affect to believe that hostility to
England is the predominant feeling
in the United States. This fad finds
almost daily vent in British print.
The dignifed and conservative St.
Paul's, in studied paper, points out
that "the rapid growth of the belli-
cose spirit in America is the most
disquieting sign of our times. 1t is
clear that a new generation has
grown up spelling for fight. Their
current literature bristles with remin-
iscences of their battlefield from the
backwoods skirmishes of 1872 to the
clumsy butcheries of their civil war;"
ENGLISH GLORY BROKEN AT NEW
ORLEANS.
Tlaye can be no question but that
our civil war abounded in "butch.
cries." and t is equally indisputable
that some ofthen were very "clumsy."
1t is also true that most of the actions
of the war of 1872 were "backwoods
skirmishes," at least by comparison
with European warfare of that time.
Nevertheless, that war of 1SR pro-
duced the clumsiest butchery knS%n
to military annals, and in it t&
"butchering" was all done by Ameri-
can volunteers, while the 'sclumsi-
ness" was all exhibited by British regu-
lars. This general description sug-
gests at once, of course, the battle Of
New Orleans.
In the summer of 1874 the D'rltlsh
army which Wellington had co.hmand-
ed about four years in tn : Spanish
Peninsula was brokepup SAt Bordeaux.
The Iron Duke h1nsth once descrlb-
ed it as "an army that could go any
.vyhere and do anything. You couldn't
get enemies enough within gunshot Of
it to whip ii, and it always whipped
all the enemies it could get within
gunshot Of"
From this peerless army force of
infantry and artillery was selected,
placed under command of General
Sir Edward Pakenham, who had been
Wellington's chief of staff in the Pen
insula, embarked on transports and
ordered to take the newly acquired
possessions of the United States in
the Lower Mississippi Valley. Infor-
nation travelled slowly in those days,
and by the time the American Gov
ernment got notice of the project the
British force was well on its way over
sea.
SAILED FOR DEFENSELESS PORT.
New Orleans was practically de-
fenseless. Two skeleton regiments OF
Regular Infantry, three companies of
Regular Artillery and feeble flotilla
of small gunboats constituted the
whole American force, land and naval,
in the "Louisiana Purchase" when
Pakenham's army, conveyed by a
powerful squadron, left the English
channel In Its agony our Govern
ment called upon Andrew Jackson to
defend our infant empire of the West.
After various delays Pakenham's S
army, reinforced by other British
troops from Canada and the West
Indies, landed on the shores of Lake
Borgue, and on December 23, 1914,
effected lodgment on the banks of
the Mississippi River at the planta-
tlons of Laronde, Lacoste and Villere,
about nine miles below New Orleans.
The British force assembled at or
near Laronde's plantation under Sir
Edward Pakenham, as shown by the
morning report of January 6, was as
follows: (See Bathurst papers also
Regimental Records of the British
army.
The Fourteenth Duchess of York's
OWN Light Dragons, eight troops,
two mounted, six dismounted 4I6
. officers and men, lao horses.
ARTILLERY.
Three field batteries, IS guns, nine
Founders, $50 officers and men, 24o
horses.
One Congreve rocket battery, 8
tubes, 1Io officers and men, 6S
horses.
Detachment OF Royal Siege Train :.
Eight 18 Founders, six 8-inch mortars,
two a4-pounder howitzers, 373 officers
and men.
(The Siege Train was not horsed
when it embarked, reliance being had
on the enemy's country for transport
animals).
INFANTRY.
A't Battalion, Fourth (King's
ESToot.