The Battle of New Orleans Part 2

The Major-general commanding, has, with astonishment and regret, learned that great consternation and alarm pervade your city. It is true the enemy is on our coast and threatens to invade our territory; but it is equally true that, with union, energy, and the approbation of Heaven, we will beat him at every point his temerity may induce him to set foot on our soil. The General, with still greater astonishment, has heard that British emissaries have been permitted to propagate seditious reports among you, that the threatened invasion is with a view to restore the country to Spain, from the supposition that some of you would be willing to return to your ancient government. Believe not such incredible tales; your Government is at peace with Spain. It is the vital enemy of your country,--the common enemy of mankind, the highway robber of the world, that threatens you. He has sent his hirelings among you with this false report, to put you off your guard, that you may fall an easy prey. Then look to your liberties, your property, the chast.i.ty of your wives and daughters. Take a retrospect of the conduct of the British army at Hampton, and other places where it entered our country, and every bosom which glows with patriotism and virtue, will be inspired with indignation, and pant for the arrival of the hour when we shall meet and revenge these outrages against the laws of civilization and humanity.

The General calls upon the inhabitants of the city to trace this unfounded report to its source, and bring the propagator to condign punishment. The rules and articles of war annex the punishment of death to any person holding secret correspondence with the enemy, creating false alarm, or supplying him with provision. The General announces his determination rigidly to execute the martial law in all cases which may come within his province.

By command. THOMAS L. BUTLER, _Aid-de-camp_.

BAYOU BIENVENUE AND THE BRITISH SPIES OF THE FISHERMEN'S VILLAGE.

Bayou Bienvenue, formerly called St. Frances River, drains all the waters of a swamp-basin, of triangular form and about eighty square miles in surface, bounded on the west by New Orleans, on the northwest by Chef Menteur, and on the east by Lake Borgne, into which it empties.

It receives the waters of several other bayous from the surrounding cypress swamps and prairies. It is navigable for vessels of one hundred tons burden as far as the junction with old Piernas Ca.n.a.l, twelve miles from its mouth. It is about one hundred and twenty yards in width, and has from six to nine feet of water at the bar, according to the flow of the tides. Its princ.i.p.al branch is Bayou Mazant, which runs to the southwest and receives the waters of the ca.n.a.ls of the old plantations of Villere, Lacoste, and Laronde, on and near which the British army encamped, about eight miles below New Orleans. The banks of these bayous, which drain the swamp lands on either side of the Mississippi, are usually about twelve feet below the banks of the river, which have been elevated by the deposit of sediment from overflows for centuries.

These slopes, from the banks back to the swamps, usually ten to eighteen hundred yards, drain off the waters and form the tillable lands of the sugar and cotton planters. They are protected from overflows by levees thrown up on the banks of the river. These plantation lands formed the only ground in this country for the encampment of a large army, or available for a march on New Orleans. On nearly all the large sugar plantations ca.n.a.ls were cut from the bank of the river running back to the swamp, to furnish at high tides water-power for mills which did the grinding or sawing for the plantations.

Bayous Bienvenue and Mazant, as mentioned, formed a waterway from Lake Borgne to the rear of the plantations of Villere, Lacoste, and Laronde, situated but two or three hours' easy march to the city, to which there was a continuous roadway through the plantation lands between the river and the swamps. The enemy was fully informed of every point of approach by spies within the military lines, and since the capture of the gunboats determined on an attempt to secretly invade the environing country, and to a.s.sault and capture New Orleans by surprise. But one mile from Lake Borgne, on the low bank of Bayou Bienvenue, was a village of Spanish and Portuguese fishermen and their families. From the bayous and adjacent lakes they furnished the city markets with fish, and were familiar with every body of water and every nook and inlet for many miles around. A number of these became notorious as spies in the pay of the British. Of this treacherous little colony, the names of Maringuier, Old Luiz, Francisco, Graviella, Antonio el Italiano, El Campechano, Mannellilo, and Garcia became known as connected with this disloyalty.

These served the English as pilots to their barges, as guides to the best approaches to New Orleans, and as ready spies within and without.

The English commander in charge sent Captain Peddie, of the army, on the twentieth of December, as a spy in the disguise of one of these fishermen, to inspect and report upon the feasibility of entering with the army at the mouth of Bayou Bienvenue, landing at the plantations above and marching suddenly by this route on the city. Old Luiz and two others of the fishermen were his guides. He safely and without suspicion penetrated to Villere's plantation, viewed the field for encampment there, and noted the easy route of approach to the city, without an obstruction in the way. His report being most favorable, the British officer in command decided at once on invasion and attack from this direction.

FIVE THOUSAND BRITISH TROOPS ENTER BAYOU BIENVENUE AND LAND NEAR VILLERE'S PLANTATION.

By Jackson's order, Major Villere, son of General Villere, the owner of the plantation, placed a picket of twelve men at Fisherman's Village on the twenty-first, to watch and report promptly in case the enemy appeared there. After midnight, near the morning of the twenty-third, five advance barges bearing British troops glided noiselessly into Bienvenue from Lake Borgne, capturing the picket of twelve men without firing a gun. Soon after, the first division of the invading army, twenty-five hundred strong, under command of Colonel Thornton, appeared in eighty barges, and pa.s.sed up the bayous to Villere's ca.n.a.l, where a landing was effected by the dawn of day. After a brief rest and breakfast, the march of two miles was made to Villere's plantation, arriving there at half-past eleven. The troops at once surrounded the house of General Villere, and surprised and made prisoners a company of the Third Louisiana Militia stationed there. Major Villere, after capture, escaped through a window at the risk of his life, reached the river bank and crossed over in a small boat, and hastened to New Orleans with the startling news. Colonel Laronde also escaped, and reached headquarters in the early afternoon; on the day before he had reported the sighting of several suspicious vessels out upon Lake Borgne, seemingly to reconnoiter.

Jackson had ordered Majors Latour and Tatum, of his engineer corps, to reconnoiter in the direction of the Laronde and Lacoste plantations, and to carefully examine this avenue of approach by the enemy. These officers left the city at eleven o'clock, and had reached Laronde's, when they met several persons fleeing toward the city, who told them of the arrival of the British at Villere's, and of the capture of the outpost there. It was then but half-past one o'clock. The two scouts put spurs to their horses, and by two o'clock the General was informed of the facts. With that heroic promptness and intuition characteristic and ever present with him, he exclaimed with fierce emphasis: "By the eternal! the enemy shall not sleep upon our soil!" The invading movement was a complete surprise, and there was not yet a defensive work to obstruct the march of the British upon the coveted city. Only genius and courage of the highest order could have met successfully such an emergency, and Jackson alone seemed equal to the occasion.

JACKSON DETERMINES TO ATTACK--b.l.o.o.d.y NIGHT-BATTLE OF THE TWENTY-THIRD OF DECEMBER.

Orders were issued rapidly, as the report of the alarm-gun gave notice to all to be ready. The troops were stationed within a radius of a few miles of the city, in garrisons. Major Plauche was summoned to bring down his battalion of uniformed volunteers from Bayou St. John, which summons was obeyed in a run all the way. General Coffee, encamped four miles above the city, under similar order, was at headquarters within one hour. Colonel McRae, with the Seventh regulars, Lieutenant Spotts, with two pieces of artillery, and Lieutenant Bellevue, with a detachment of marines, were all formed on the road near Montruil's plantation.

Coffee's riflemen and Hinds' Mississippi dragoons formed the advance in the order of march. Beale's Orleans Rifles followed closely after, and by four o'clock these had taken position at Rodrique's Ca.n.a.l. The battalion of men of color, under Major Daquin, the Forty-fourth regulars, under Captain Baker, and Plauche's men, were in close supporting distance.

Commodore Patterson was requested to arm such vessels lying in the river as were ready, and to drop down and take station opposite the enemy. The schooner Carolina was put in position; the sloop of war Louisiana could not steer in the stream. Governor Claiborne, with the First, Second, and Fourth Louisiana Militia, occupied a post in the plain of Gentilly, to cover the city on the side of Chef Menteur. A picket of five mounted men was fired on near the line of Laronde's and Lacoste's plantations, and driven in about four o'clock. A negro was apprehended, who had been sent by the British with printed copies of a proclamation in Spanish and French, in terms as follows: "Louisianians! remain quiet in your houses; your slaves shall be preserved to you, and your property respected. We make war only against Americans." This was signed by Admiral Cochrane and General Keene. Other copies were found.

About nightfall the troops were formed in line of battle, the left composed of a part of Coffee's men, Beale's Rifles, the Mississippi dragoons, and some other mounted riflemen, in all about seven hundred and thirty men, General Coffee in command, Colonel Laronde as guide.

Under cover of the darkness, they took position back of the plantation of the latter. The right formed on a perpendicular line from the river to the garden of Laronde's plantation, and on its princ.i.p.al avenue. The artillery occupied the high road, supported by a detachment of marines.

On the left of the artillery were stationed the Seventh and Forty-fourth regulars, Plauche's and Daquin's battalions, and a squad of Choctaw Indians, all under the command of Colonel Ross.

The second invading division of the British army, made up of the Twenty-first, Forty-fourth, and Ninety-third Regiments, with a corps of artillery, in all about twenty-five hundred men, was disembarked at the terminus of Villere Ca.n.a.l at half-past seven o'clock in the evening of the twenty-third, just as the roar of the s.h.i.+p's cannon announced the opening of the night battle. At seven o'clock Commodore Patterson had anch.o.r.ed the Carolina in the Mississippi, as requested, in front of the British camp, and but a good musket-shot away. Such was the security felt by the enemy in camp that they stood upon the levee and viewed her as a common boat plying the river. Within thirty minutes she opened upon the enemy a destructive fire which spread consternation and havoc throughout their camp. In half an hour more they were driven out, with many killed and wounded. About eight o'clock the troops on the right, led by Jackson himself, began the attack on the enemy's left. The Seventh and Forty-fourth regulars became hotly engaged along the line, supported by McRae's artillery. Plauche's and Daquin's battalions coming up, the fighting became furious from the road to Laronde's garden. The British were forced back within the limits of Lacoste's plantation, the combatants being often intermingled and fighting hand-to-hand, almost undistinguishable in the darkness of night, made denser by the smoke of battle and the gathering fog.

Meanwhile, Coffee's troops, from the rear of Laronde's plantation, were moved to the boundary limits of Lacoste and Villere, with a view of taking the enemy in the rear. Coffee extended his front and ordered his men to move forward in silence and to fire without orders, taking aim as best they could. They drove the enemy before them, and took a second position in front of Lacoste's plantation. Here was posted the Eighty-fifth Regiment of the British army, which was forced back by the first fire toward their main camp. Captain Beale's Riflemen advanced on the left into the British camp at Villere's, driving the enemy before them and taking some prisoners, but sustained some loss before joining Coffee again. Coffee's division finally took a last position in front of the old levee, near Laronde's boundary, where it hara.s.sed the enemy as they fell back, driven by Jackson on the right. By ten o'clock the British had fallen back to their camp in discomfiture, where they were permitted to lay in comparative quiet until morning, except their hara.s.sment from the artillery fire of the schooner Carolina. In the darkness and confusion of combat at dead of night lines were broken and order lost at times, until it was difficult to distinguish friends from foes. General Jackson led his troops back to the opening point of the attack and rested them there until morning, when he fell back over one mile to Rodrique's Ca.n.a.l, the position selected for the defense of the city.

Three hundred and fifty of the Louisiana militia, under command of General David Morgan, were stationed at English Turn, seven miles below Villere's, and nearly fourteen miles from New Orleans. Intelligence of the arrival of the British at Villere's, on the twenty-third, reached General Morgan's camp at one o'clock in the afternoon of the day.

Officers and men expressed an eagerness to be led against the enemy; but General Morgan, not having then received orders from Jackson to that effect, deemed it prudent to hold them waiting in camp. At half-past seven o'clock, when the guns from the Carolina were heard bringing on the battle, it was found difficult to restrain them longer. Morgan finally, at the urgent request of his officers, gave orders to go forward, which the troops received with ardor. They reached a point near Jumonville's plantation, just below Villere's, when a picket guard in advance met a picket force of the enemy and fired on it; the fire was returned. A reconnoiter failing to discover the numbers and position of the enemy in his front, Morgan took a position in a field until three o'clock in the morning, when he marched his men back to camp. The failure of this command to join issue in this battle, in concert with the other commands of Jackson's army, was apparently most unfortunate.

The records do not show what orders, if any, were sent from headquarters by Jackson to General Morgan in summoning his forces in the afternoon of the day for the attack at night. It is barely possible that the General neglected to dispatch an order to, or to communicate with, the commander of so important a body of troops, in numbers nearly one fifth of the entire American forces engaged, in a critical hour when every available soldier was needed on the field of combat. A swift messenger sent by Jackson from headquarters at two o'clock, as to other outpost commands, could easily have reached English Turn at five o'clock. General Morgan knew that the invading army were in bivouac seven miles above. By eight o'clock he could have had his troops in attacking distance of the enemy, and in their rear. When Jackson and Coffee a.s.saulted the British lines at eight o'clock, and drove them back in confusion upon their camp, a spirited surprise attack by Morgan's command in the rear, any moment before nine o'clock, would probably have routed the entire British division engaged and forced them to lay down their arms or retreat to their boats. He did move his command forward, and halt them at some distance from the enemy, but it was probably too late. The battle was over and the opportunity gone.

An after-incident throws a ray of light upon the criticism of the day upon the above affair. Honorable Magloire Guichard, President of the House of Representatives, in his testimony before the Committee of Inquiry on the military measures employed by Jackson against the Legislature, said:

On the twenty-seventh of December, when I got home, I found Colonel Declouet (of Morgan's command), who had just crossed the river. Amid the conversation of the evening, I expressed my surprise at his not having attacked the British from the lower side, on the night of the twenty-third; that had he done so with the men under his command, at the same time with the troops coming from the city, all would have terminated on that evening, and the British would have laid down their arms. He expressed great sorrow that he had not been the master to do so. He declared that this was his intention, but that General Morgan refused to comply with his request. Afterwards, having resolved to come toward midnight to reconnoitre, they had met with a small picket, who fired upon them; they returned the fire, and then retired.

The British loss in this initial night-battle is put by our authorities at four to five hundred in killed, wounded, and prisoners. Their own official reports admit three to five hundred. The Americans had twenty-four killed, one hundred and fifteen wounded, and seventy-four made prisoners. The fall of Colonel Lauderdale, of Mississippi, was much lamented.

So unique in the annals of military experience was this fiercely fought night-battle, so startling in its surprise of the bold and confident Britons, and so characteristic of Jackson's grim humor of war, that it is interesting to know the impressions it made upon the minds of the enemy. With this view, we quote a vivid description from the history of an English officer who was in the campaigns against Napoleon, with Ross and Pakenham in America, and who was a partic.i.p.ant in this battle, Captain Robert Gleig. He says:

About half-past seven at night our attention was drawn to a large vessel which seemed to be stealing up the river, opposite our camp, when her anchor was dropped and her sails quietly furled. She was repeatedly hailed, but gave no answer. An alarm spread through our bivouac, and all thought of sleep was abandoned. Several musket shots were fired at her, when we heard a commanding voice cry out: "Give them this for the honor of America!" The words were instantly followed by the flashes of her guns, and a deadly shower of grape swept down numbers in our camp.

Against this dreadful fire we had nothing as yet to oppose. We sought shelter under the levee, and listened in painful silence to the pattering of shot which fell among our troops, and to the shrieks and groans of the wounded who lay near by. The night was dark as pitch.

Except the flashes of the enemy's guns, and the glare of our own deserted fires, not an object could be distinguished. In this state we lay helpless for nearly an hour, when a straggling fire of musketry, driving in our pickets, warned us to prepare for a closer and more desperate strife. This fire was presently succeeded by a fearful yell, while the heavens became illuminated on all sides by a semi-circular blaze of musketry.

Rus.h.i.+ng from under the bank, the Eighty-fifth and Ninety-fifth Regiments flew to support the pickets; while the Fourth, stealing to the rear, formed close column as a reserve. But to describe this action is out of the question, for it was such a battle as the annals of warfare can hardly parallel. Each officer, as he was able to collect twenty or thirty men around him, advanced into the midst of the enemy, where they fought hand to hand, bayonet to bayonet, and sword to sword, with the tumult and ferocity of Homer's combats before the walls of Troy. Attacked unexpectedly in the dark, and surrounded by enemies before we could arrange to oppose them, no order or discipline of war could be preserved. We were mingled with the Americans before we could tell whether they were friends or foes.

The consequence was that more feats of individual gallantry were performed in the course of the conflict than many campaigns might have afforded. The combat having begun at eight in the evening, and long and obstinately contested, continued until three in the morning; but the victory was decidedly ours, for the Americans retreated in the greatest disorder, leaving us in possession of the field. Our losses, however, were enormous. Not less than five hundred men had fallen, many of whom were our first and best officers.

The recall being sounded, our troops were soon brought together, forming in front of the ground where we had at first encamped. Here we remained until the morn, when, to avoid the fire of the vessel, we betook ourselves to the levee on the bank, and lay down. Here we lay for some hours, worn out with fatigue and loss of sleep, and s.h.i.+vering in the cold of a frosty morning, not daring to light a fire or cook a meal. Whenever an attempt was made, the s.h.i.+p's guns opened on us. Thus was our army kept prisoners for an entire day.

This was not a field victory for either combatant, but rather a drawn battle, as each party fell back to the lines occupied at the opening. It was a very great victory for the Americans in its bearings on the final issues of the campaign. The attack of Jackson was to the British like a bolt of lightning from a clear sky. It paralyzed and checked them on the first day, and at the first place of their encampment on sh.o.r.e, and enabled him to adopt measures to beat back the invaders in every attempt they made for a further advance inland. The enemy had found an open way and expected an easy march, with a certainty that the Crescent City, by Christmas Day, would become an easy prey for their "Loot and l.u.s.t," as Admiral Cochrane is said to have promised. Instead of a garden of delights, they had walked into a deathtrap at the gate of entrance.

Confidence and prestige were shaken in the front of a foe equal in valor and as skilled in arms as themselves. The rude reception given by Jackson had compelled the army of the invaders to halt in its first camp, and to re-form, to reinforce, and to rehabilitate its plans, before daring another step forward. This delay, fatal to the British, probably saved the city. On the next morning early (of the twenty-fourth) the first division of the British army would have been reinforced by the second division landed on the night of the battle, giving five thousand fresh veteran troops in bivouac at Villere's, with which to march upon the city. It was but seven miles distant, with a broad, level highway leading to it. Jackson could have opposed to this army not over two thousand men in the open field, where every advantage would have been with the enemy. With the bravery and discipline the latter showed in the surprise-battle at night, they would have made an irresistible march to victory against the city, had not the invincible Jackson paralyzed them with this first blow. It was a master-stroke, worthy the genius of a great commander.

The valor of the English soldiers was rarely, if ever, surpa.s.sed on a b.l.o.o.d.y field of contest. There was no panic, no rout, no cowering under the murderous fire of the s.h.i.+p's guns, or when the blaze of musketry encircled them in the darkness of the night. Although the ranks were broken and little order prevailed, the men rallied to the calls of the nearest officers, and plunged into the thickest of the strife. Only this veteran discipline and stubborn British courage saved the enemy from rout and worse disaster. Colonel Thornton, the bravest and most skillful of the officers of the English army, as he repeatedly proved himself, commanded on this occasion. General Keene had not yet come up.

The American forces engaged were: United States regulars, Seventh Regiment, Major Peire, four hundred and sixty-five men, and Forty-fourth Regiment, Captain Baker, three hundred and thirty-one men; marines, Lieutenant Bellevue, sixty-six; artillery, McRae, twenty-two; Major Plauche's battalion, two hundred and eighty-seven; Major Daquin's battalion of St. Domingo men of color, two hundred and ten; Choctaws, Captain Jugeant, eighteen; Coffee's Tennessee Brigade, five hundred and sixty-three; Orleans Rifles, Captain Beale, sixty-two; and Mississippi Dragoons, Major Hinds, one hundred and seven; in all, twenty-one hundred and thirty-one men.

JACKSON ENTRENCHES AT RODRIQUE'S OLD Ca.n.a.l SITE.

As mentioned, Jackson occupied the line of Rodrique's Ca.n.a.l, two miles above the British camp at Villere's, and five miles below the city. The s.p.a.ce from the river here back to the swamp was but seventeen hundred yards, making it an admirable line for defense. Early on the twenty-fourth every available man was put to work throwing up a breastwork on the upper side of the ca.n.a.l, while pieces of artillery were planted at commanding points for immediate emergency. Negroes from the adjacent plantations were called in to expedite the work of building the entrenchment and suitable redoubts, as had been done at other works of fortification and defense. On the twenty-fifth, General Morgan was ordered to abandon the post at English Turn and to move his command of Louisiana militia to a position on the right bank of the river, at Flood's plantation, opposite Jackson's camp.

THE s.h.i.+P CAROLINA BURNED WITH HOT SHOT--ARTILLERY DUEL ON THE TWENTY-EIGHTH.

The enemy determined to destroy the s.h.i.+p Carolina, as she lay out in the river, from whose deadly broadsides by day and by night they had been so terribly hara.s.sed since the opening of the night battle of the twenty-third. Having brought up their artillery from their landing-place, they erected a battery commanding that part of the river, with a furnace for heating shot. On the twenty-seventh, they opened fire in range, and in fifteen minutes the schooner was set on fire by the red-hot missiles and burned to the water's edge. The fire of the battery was next directed against the Louisiana, a larger war-vessel, the preservation of which was of great importance. Lieutenant Thompson, in command, with the combined efforts of one hundred men of his crew, succeeded under fire of the battery in towing her beyond the range of the guns of the enemy.

On the evening of the twenty-seventh the British moved forward in force, drove in the American advance lines, and occupied Chalmette's plantation, one mile above Laronde's. During the night they began to establish several batteries along the river. At dawn of day on the twenty-eighth they advanced in columns on the road, preceded by several pieces of artillery, some playing upon the Louisiana and others on the American lines. The s.h.i.+p's crew waited until the columns of the enemy were well in range, when they opened upon them a destructive fire, which silenced their guns. While this oblique fire fell upon the flank of the British, the batteries on the American line answered them from the front with much effect. One shot from the Louisiana killed fifteen of the enemy's men. Some of his guns were dismounted, and he was driven from several of his batteries. In seven hours' cannonading the s.h.i.+p fired eight hundred shot. The enemy threw into the American ranks many Congreve rockets, evidently misled in the hope that these ugly-looking missiles would strike terror to the ranks of our troops. These soon learned that they were not so dangerous as they appeared. The infantry this day did not engage in more than heavy picket skirmis.h.i.+ng, and in checking the demonstrations of the enemy on our lines. This movement all along the line was evidently a feint in force, to draw from Jackson's army information as to the powers of resistance it might offer and to ascertain its most vulnerable point of attack. The loss of the British this day was estimated at two hundred; that of the Americans much less, as they were mainly sheltered from the enemy's fire. There were nine killed and eight wounded.

DEFENSES ON THE WEST BANK OF THE RIVER.

Realizing that the enemy might suddenly throw a force across the river, and by a flank movement up the right bank gain a position opposite the city, from which, by shot and sh.e.l.l, he might compel a surrender, Jackson sent Major Latour, chief of his engineer corps, to the west side, with orders to select a position most suitable for a fortified line in the rear of General Morgan's camp. Bois-Gervais Ca.n.a.l, three miles below New Orleans, was fixed upon, and one hundred and fifty negroes from the plantations near at once set to work. In six days they completed the parapet, with a glacis on the opposite side.

Commodore Patterson removed from the Louisiana a number of her guns, which he placed in battery in front of Jordon's plantation, on the right bank, with which he did important service to the end of the campaign.

This formidable battery was formed to give a deadly flanking fire on the enemy's ranks from the opposite bank of the river. It was manned and served by sailors, mostly landed from the Carolina when she was burned.

They had been enlisted about the city after the gunboats were destroyed; men of all nations, not a third of them speaking the English language.

The constant daily fire of this battery caused the British to fall back from Chalmette's and Bienvenue's houses and to seek safer quarters in the rear, after the artillery duels of the twenty-eighth.

Captain Henly, of the late s.h.i.+p Carolina, was placed in command of a strong redoubt on the bank of the river, opposite New Orleans, around which was a fosse twenty-five feet in width, the earth from which was thrown up to form a steep glacis, from the summit of the wall serving as a parapet to the brink of the fosse. Here a battery of two twenty-four pounders commanded at once the road and the river back to the swamp.

The Tennesseans, placed on the left, and operating in the undergrowth of the woods of the swamp, were a continual terror to the British sentinels and outposts. Clad in their brown hunting-dress, they were indistinguishable in the bush, while with their long rifles they picked off some of the British daily. The entrenchment line was being daily strengthened.

A SECOND ATTEMPT TO BREACH THE AMERICAN WORKS, ON THE FIRST OF JANUARY--GREAT ARTILLERY DUEL.

On the evening of the twenty-fifth, Sir Edward Pakenham arrived at the British headquarters, and at once a.s.sumed chief command of the army in person. He was a favorite of Lord Wellington in the Peninsular campaigns, and held in high esteem by the English Government and people.