The Cards Don't Lie by Sue Ingalls Finan

Author:Sue Ingalls Finan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: She Writes Press
Published: 2018-11-06T16:00:00+00:00

Tarot: THE SEVEN OF SWORDS

Revelation: Precarious effort; partial success.

December 14, 1814

The safe distance General Jackson had prescribed wasn’t safe enough, for, unfortunately, the British had also detected the presence of the American gunboats.

Through his spyglass, Lieutenant Jones could see a squadron of almost fifty barges entering Lake Borgne. As the British rowed closer, the Americans noted small cannons mounted on the bow of each barge. The Americans also became aware that these barges were filled with heavily armed British seamen and were heading directly toward them.

Ideally, Jones would move his flotilla westward into the lake and then north, drawing the enemy into the Rigolets, a shallow strait that connected Lake Borgne to Lake Pontchartrain. There, the guns of Fort Petite Coquille could support them. But Lieutenant Jones’s boats were dependent on wind. There wasn’t any. Not even tossing unnecessary items overboard helped their situation. His dismayed seamen watched as the British barges continued rowing straight at them.

The Americans courageously did their best against enormous odds. But after two hours of artillery fire, cannon smoke, barges smashing into gunboats, and hand-to-hand combat, the battle ended with the American gunboats captured or destroyed, ten men killed, thirty-five wounded, and most of the others taken prisoner.

Rather than trying to negotiate the zigzag channel of the Mississippi, the British had gained a shorter, direct route to New Orleans. The answer to where the British had planned the location of the invasion was obvious. Now, the question was when.

But Lieutenant Thomas ap Catesby Jones had delayed them.

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