Andrew Jackson and the Miracle of New Orleans by Brian Kilmeade & Don Yaeger

Author:Brian Kilmeade & Don Yaeger
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2017-10-24T04:00:00+00:00

Bayou Bienvenue

Cochrane gave the order to move. The first of General Keane’s force embarked on December 22. The advance guard would be a light brigade consisting of the Fourth Regiment, Eighty-Fifth Light Infantry, and the green-uniformed Ninety-Fifth Rifles. Its commander would be Colonel William Thornton, who had distinguished himself in August at the big victory in Washington.

In addition to regular troops, Thornton took rocketeers armed with rockets. A squad of artillerymen went along, too, with two portable three-pound guns, as did a company of sappers, engineers charged with repairing roads and building bridges. Two other brigades accompanied by heavier armaments would follow.

The first barges shoved off by ten o’clock: the lead expeditionary force of more than 1,600 men was on its way, and after a long row, they entered Bayou Bienvenue in the darkness.

Spotting U.S. pickets on guard a half mile ahead near Fisherman’s Village, a party of British infantrymen, stealthy under the cover of night, surprised and quickly overcame the Americans. None of them were able to run back to New Orleans to warn Jackson that the British were on the way.

In the morning, when they resumed their advance after some hours of sleep, a vanguard of troops commanded by Thornton led the string of barges upstream on Bayou Bienvenue and its extension, Bayou Mazant. When they reached the head of the waterway, they found the water shallower than expected, and the soldiers had to walk from one boat to the next, as over an unsteady bridge, to reach land. The sappers went on ahead to clear a path and, where necessary, improvised bridges over streams. The British force-marched toward their destination, camouflaged by reeds that stood seven feet tall.

At first, progress was slow, but, after almost a mile, the boggy swampland gave way to firmer ground and a cover of cypress trees. A mile beyond, open fields came into view.

Over the decades, farmers had reclaimed fertile soil along the Mississippi. Levees and canals made cultivation possible, and plantations now lined the river, where well-irrigated acreage produced valuable crops. One such property now lay directly in the British path—but little did Thornton realize that it was a station for Jackson’s sentinels.

Under orders from Colonel Thornton, a company of soldiers fanned out, surrounding the main house of the Villeré plantation. Its owner, General Jacques Villeré, guarded the coastline elsewhere with his Louisiana militia; his son Gabriel remained at home, charged by Jackson with watching Bayou Bienvenue. As the British crept closer, Villeré stood on the house’s gallery, smoking a cigar. Deep in conversation with a younger brother, Major Gabriel Villeré failed to see the first redcoats as they approached through an orange grove near the house.

When he did, it was too late. He attempted to flee, but the British quickly took possession of the house, capturing him and easily overcoming the entire company of thirty militiamen he commanded.

New Orleans was now just seven miles away, an easy two-hour march along what General Keane regarded as a “tolerably good” road.20 Despite

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