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"LT O W A R D 
 MEMORIAL 
 LIBRARY 
 
 NEW ORLEANS, LA. 
 
 CONTRIBUTIONS TO 
 
 LOUISIANA 
 
 HISTORY 
 
 By WILLIAM BEER, 
 
 Librarian. 
 
 I. -: 
 
 l! 
 
 NEW ORLEANS, LA 
 1906, 
 
 200 COPIES PRINTED. 
 
Fl"3^ 
 
 ^,?!^<in.dL 
 
The necessity for the joint stuay 
 of biography and history for the de- 
 scription of any g-reat event is ad- 
 mirably shown in the bearing- of 
 three books just discovered in ah 
 English catalogue, and fortunately 
 able to be purchased for a library, 
 which already possessed nearly all 
 the available printed matter and 
 some manuscript matter relating to 
 the Battle of New Orleans. 
 
 The authorities available for ordi- 
 nary purposes are to be had in several 
 of the g-reat cities of the United 
 States, but in none of them is there 
 as much material as in the Howard 
 Memorial Library, at New Orleans. 
 
 After securing all the public rec- 
 ords an attempt has been made to 
 join to these the biograpliies of those 
 who, having- taken part in the battle, 
 survived and rose to eminence, and 
 of some who did not share their good 
 fortune, but remained in humble 
 positions. 
 
 "The Autobiography of Lieutenant- 
 General Sir Harry Smith," was pub- 
 lished by John Murray, in London, in 
 1902. Tlie two volumes are well 
 printed, and nave many interesting 
 illustrations, unfortunately none or 
 them of the particular point of in- 
 terest. 
 
 Sir Harry Smith was born in 17Sv, 
 and was consequently twenty-seven 
 
years of age at the time of land- 
 ing in Louisiana, 
 
 Curious details are given which ac- 
 count for the delays which enabled 
 Andrew Jackson to bring up his for- 
 ces and prepare for action. 
 
 The Captain of the ship on which 
 he sailed with his regiment insistea 
 on shortening sail every night to 
 the great amusement of the crew, 
 who had just lost a dashing cap- 
 tain, who insisted on full sail at all 
 times. 
 
 He gives a very full description 
 of the pleasant relations existing be- 
 tween Sir Edward Packenham and his 
 officers. 
 
 He speaks of the want of discipline 
 in the Twenty-first and Forty-fourth 
 Regiments. 
 
 He gives the reasons for the wan: 
 of co-operation of Thornton's corps 
 with the general body of troops. 
 
 It was Sir Harry Smith who car- 
 ried the flag- of truce to General 
 Jackson. The want of experience in 
 the civilities of war on the part ot 
 the Americans led to their firing on 
 him with cannon and musketry. 
 When ho was received eventually 
 the reply from General Jackson was 
 very courteous. 
 
 He speaks of the respect of the 
 Americans for tlie dead, from whom 
 not an article of clothing was taken. 
 
 Colonel Butler's aide-de-camp was 
 very angry when Sir Harry Smith 
 addressed the Spanish and French- 
 men in their own language. This 
 was a part of Jackson's suspicious 
 attitude toward the original colo- 
 nists. 
 
 He is of opinion that Mullins, who 
 was court-martialed for not having 
 the ladders and fascines ready, was 
 made a scapegoat. 
 
The disaster at New Orieau:? he 
 compares with that at Buenos Ayres. 
 
 In "Peace, War and Adventure." an 
 autobiographical memoir of George 
 Laval Chesterton, formerly of the 
 British Royal Artillery, is an ac- 
 count that covers the attack on W ash- 
 ington, and the Battle of New Or- 
 legins. 
 
 He describes what he calls the 
 Quixotic character of the opposition 
 of the small flotilla under Lieuten- 
 ant Catesby Jones, and gives many 
 details of the approach to the coast 
 of Lake Borgne. 
 
 He gieatly blames the wane or 
 enterprise of Admiral Cochrane, and 
 the lack of the commonest infor- 
 mation as to the defenceless con- 
 dition of the city. He describes an 
 incident not generally mentioned ol 
 a rash sorty of a small body of troops 
 from Jackson's line, which resulted 
 in the death of three horsemen. One 
 of the horses, well caparisoned, was 
 captured and taken back to Eng- 
 land. , . „ ,, 
 
 The account of the battle is full 
 of personal details, furnishing infor- 
 mation not within the knowledge ot 
 Sir Harrv Smith, who was at that 
 time closely attached to the com- 
 manding officers. , ^. 
 
 He gives considerable space to the 
 Creek Indians, who were brought to 
 the army by Colonel Nicholls. 
 
 Nowhere can be found so detailed 
 an account of the retreat. 
 
 He gives an account of a ride 
 with the Duke of Wellington, in 
 which he discussed the Battle of New- 
 Orleans. The Duke regretted that 
 so many of the great battles, in- 
 cluding "that of Trafalgar, had been 
 fought on Sunday, and asked for de- 
 tails of New Orleans. The Duke 
 
blamed the landing on Lake Borgno. 
 He stated that he was consulted on 
 the subject, and deemed it injudi- 
 cious to use the lakes for landing an 
 army, because crafts large enough 
 for the purposes of trade were un- 
 able to get to the shore. 
 
 It is not astonishing that historie;? 
 should have been written, in con- 
 siderable detail, of the most cele- 
 brated regiments of the British 
 Army. Several of these are intei - 
 esting to the student of New Orleans 
 history, notablv that of the Ninety- 
 third Sutherland Highlanders, which 
 took an important part in the battle. 
 The account is naturally not as de- 
 tailed as that given in the previously 
 mentioned volumes, being mainly 
 based on the book by Gleig. It gives, 
 however, a few additional references 
 fiom correspondents which are of 
 value. 
 
 The writer of this history lays 
 great stress on the insubordination 
 of Colonel Mullins. 
 
 The nam.es of all the officers and 
 men killed during the attack on 
 New Orleans are given at length. 
 
 In the appendix it is stated that 
 that Lieutenant Colonel Dale was 
 buried in one of the colors of the 
 regiment. 
 
 It is frequently as interesting to 
 discover information in material al- 
 ready in the possession of an in- 
 stitution as to lind it in books, which 
 necessarily need additional space. 
 
 An examination of Part 1, Vol- 
 ume 4, of the "Congressional Debates 
 of 1827-1828," furnishes two exceed- 
 irgly interesting additions to the 
 bibliography of the battle. One of 
 them illustrates very forcibly how a 
 subject of almost minute importance 
 may from some special reason be 
 
iijade to occupy the attention of a 
 body of great importance for tlie 
 time utterly out of proportion. 
 
 In the first session of the twenti- 
 etli Congress, Edward Livingston, 
 Kepresentative from New Orleans, 
 moved an amendment to a report of 
 a committee unfavorable towards a 
 bill for the relief of Marigny D'Au- 
 terive. This was a private bill for 
 remuneration. The claim was for 
 the lost time of his slave, impressed 
 by General Andrew Jackson in serv- 
 ice of the United States in New Or- 
 leans, and who was wounded, and 
 also for hospital charges. 
 
 This case occupied the attention 
 of Congress for some ten days, and 
 the debates upon it revealed the 
 state of tension between the North- 
 ern and Southern Repretentatives in 
 Congress. 
 
 Edward Livingston held that the 
 rejection of the claim was a denial 
 of the right of property in the slave. 
 His speech on the 4th of January, 
 1828, brought forth many interesting 
 statements, among others a list of 
 similar claims, which showed that 
 General Jackson had made great 
 use of impressed slaves in His de- 
 fense. 
 
 The Southern members to a man 
 stood by Mr. Livingston. The mem- 
 bers from. Northern States opened up 
 the whole question of the indivisible 
 nature of slavery, and suggested that 
 the white men of Louisiana used 
 their slaves as substitutes for figiit- 
 ing purposes, and when, they were 
 "v^'-ounded endeavored to extract blood 
 money in satisfaction. 
 
 Many members made Ion a: speeches- 
 calling from the pag-es of history 
 illustrations of greater or less rele- 
 vance. 
 
Mr. Gurley, of Louisiana, gives a 
 short but graphic account of the 
 Events of the 23d of December. 
 
 A few of the members rose to 
 sug-g-est the limitatio.i of the debate, 
 but made long speeches provoking 
 replies whicli tended to prolong it. 
 Almost all the celebrated and maiiv 
 of the obscure members of Congress 
 took part in the debate. Almost 
 everyone prefaced his speech bv a 
 declaration of unwillingness " to 
 lengthen the debate, but few con- 
 tributed less than four pages to 
 the record. 
 
 Marigny D'Auterive claimed $1,094, 
 oi Avhich $755 were allowed, and the 
 whole discussion was over tlie bal- 
 lance of $339. Surgeon's bill, $24: 
 lest time, one month, $15; deprecia- 
 tion. $200. 
 
 This immensely long debate fur- 
 nishes a few absolutely certain de- 
 tails to our knowledge Of the meth- 
 ods of General Jackson in his mag- 
 nificent and successful defense of 
 the city. It resulted in the pavment 
 of tlie sum by a narrow majority of 
 four votes in a total of 198. 
 
 On Jan. 8, 1828, Mr. Hamilton, of 
 South Carolina, moved an inquirv on 
 the exprediency of having a liistorical 
 picture of the battle of New Orleans 
 placed in one of the panels of the 
 rotunda of the Capitol. In a speech 
 abounding with the flowers of rhet- 
 oric he made this resolution, which 
 provoked an amendment from the 
 enemies of the hero of the battle, 
 opening up a comparison between 
 this and a thousand other battles 
 fought in other States. The debate 
 was intensely personal. It was a 
 case of anything to beat Jackson. 
 His enemies apparently conquered. 
 
The resolution was rejiected by a 
 vote of 103 to 98. 
 
 It is interesting- occasionally to 
 take up volumes of older periodicals 
 for comparison with those of the day. 
 Editors and contributors belong to a 
 class seldom reached in modern pe- 
 riodicals. 
 
 The volume of the New Monthly 
 Magazine, for 1846, was edited by 
 that prolific and once popular au- 
 thor, Harrison Ainsworth. Among 
 its contributors are Horace Smith, 
 the joint author of "Rejected Ad- 
 dresses;" Talfourd, the author of 
 "Ion," Saptain Marryat, Mrs. Trol- 
 lope, G. P. R. James, Frances Anne 
 Butler and Michielet. 
 
 The editor evidently considered 
 that American Information was de- 
 manded. Many of the articles re- 
 late to the new world. Of local in- 
 terest is a seri-es under the title of 
 "Echoes from the Back Woods," by 
 Captain Levinge, who, after a term 
 of duty witli his regiment in Canada, 
 made a tour of the United States in 
 the then customary manner, mostly 
 by steamier. 
 
 His observations on the natural 
 history, and especially on the birds, 
 are extremely interesting. His visit 
 to Alexandria occurred at a time 
 when what he calls the ruffiians who 
 composed thie invading army of 
 Texas, were passing up the Red 
 River. 
 
 Railroads have changed the coun- 
 try since he saw it. The only sign 
 of a road on the broad prairies was 
 made by the hundreds of oxen driven 
 to tlie New Orleans market. 
 
 New Orleans at this period was the 
 paradise of gamblers and adventur- 
 
^rs. He praises the leating in the ha- 
 tels. 
 
 The trip to Mobile was by steamer 
 
 -throug-h the Rigolets, which he de- 
 scribes as aboundiag- In allig-ators. 
 
 Joathesome reptiles of all, sorts and 
 myriads of mosquitoes. 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 Autobiography of Lieutenant Gen- 
 eral Sir Harry Smith, edited by G. 
 C. Moorie Smith, two volumes, 8vo, 
 with portraits and illustrations. Lon- 
 don, 1902, pp. 382 and 434. 
 
 Peace, War and Adventure, an Au- 
 tobiog-raphical Memoir of George La- 
 val Chesterton, two volumes, 12mo. 
 London, 1853, pp. 282 and 32r.. 
 
 Burgoyne, Captain R. H.. Records 
 of the Ninety-third Sutherland High- 
 landers, on volume, 8vo., pp. 430. 
 London, 1883. Illustrated with col- 
 ored drawings of uniforms and plans 
 of battles. 
 
 Register of Debates in Congress. 
 Contains the leading debates and in- 
 cidents of the first session of the 
 Twentieth Congress, volume 4, Wash- 
 ington, 1828, 8vo., pp. 736 and XIX. 
 
 The New Monthly Magazine and 
 Humorist. Volume 79. London, 184(5. 
 WILLIAM BEER. 
 
 39 
 
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