BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS.

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yet they filled up their ranks and moved steadily on. CHAP. Presently they reached the range of the Kentucky and Tennessee rifles, which poured in a continuous stream of 1815. unerring bullets. The heads of the columns faltered. While endeavoring to rally them, Packenham fell; Keene and Gibbs were both wounded, the latter mortally. The command then devolved on General Lambert, who made two more unsuccessful attempts to storm the works, but was forced to retire, leaving on the field two thousand men killed and wounded. Jackson had taken the precaution to send General Morgan across the river to throw up intrenchments directly opposite his own. The night previous to the battle, Packenham sent a detachment under Colonel Thornton, who drove Morgan from his position, but when the main body was defeated he took to his boats and hastily retreated.

In this battle the Americans lost seven men killed and as many wounded.

Taking every precaution to guard against surprise,
Lambert gradually fell back to the first landing place,
and then, in the course of twenty days, re-embarked.
The only

Thus virtually ended the war of 1812.
battles well fought on land, were those directed by new
men called into active service by the war itself. The
victories at Lundy's Lane and New Orleans were gained
by soldiers who had been trained but a short time, but
they were under commanders in whom they had implicit
confidence.

Though these successful events were transpiring in that distant region, yet on the Atlantic coast, and at Washington, it was the gloomiest period of the war. Affairs were almost desperate. The treasury exhausted, the national credit gone, the terrible law of conscription, like an ominous cloud hanging over the people, civil discord seemingly ready to spring up between the States;

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CHAP. the coasts of South Carolina and Georgia yet subject to the marauding expeditions of the infamous Cockburn, 1815. while the inhabitants were crying in vain to the General Government for assistance. Nothing favorable had yet been heard from the commissioners of peace at Ghent, nor even from New Orleans. It was known that a very large force of British veterans was in the vicinity of that place, and that Jackson was very ill-prepared to meet them.

11.

As a gleam of sunshine in intense darkness, a rumor, by way of Canada, proclaimed that peace had been concluded; at the same time came another from the southwest that the enemy had been defeated. While all were tremblingly anxious for the truth of these rumors, late of a Saturday night, a British sloop-of-war, the Favorite, commissioned for the purpose, arrived at New York, Feb. bringing the treaty of peace, already ratified by the British government. The cry of PEACE! PEACE! ran through the city. As if by one impulse the houses were illuminated, and the citizens, without distinction of party, thronged the streets to congratulate each other. In the midst of their own rejoicings they did not forget their brethren who were yet ignorant of the welcome news, and messengers were sent in every direction. In thirty-two hours, the express with the tidings reached Boston. There the excitement was almost unbounded. The people assembled in crowds to hear the news, which had so unexpectedly brought relief to their distresses. The bells rang their merriest peal, and the schools received a holiday. Flags and streamers were soon displayed on the vessels which had lain so long idle at the wharf. Before night, carpenters and riggers were at work, sailors were engaged, cargoes were passing on board; Boston was herself again in commercial activity. The reception of the news was followed by similar rejoicings all along the coast, and throughout the country. To add still more to the happiness, as well as the gratification of the nation, in a

THANKSGIVINGS-THE FRIGATE PRESIDENT CAPTURED.

639

few days was confirmed the rumor of the total defeat of CHAP. the British before New Orleans.

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The Senate unanimously ratified the treaty within 1815. thirty hours after it was laid before them. The President speedily issued a proclamation, announcing the fact, that once more peace reigned throughout the land. A day for Feb. thanksgiving to Almighty God for the blessing, was observed by the nation.

The treaty provided for the mutual restoration of all places taken during the war; also for determining the northern boundary, and other matters of minor importance were amicably arranged. But not a word was said on the impressment question, for the settlement of which the war had ostensibly been continued after the first two months. Both parties seem to have been heartily tired of fighting; though Great Britain wished to restrain what she thought an alarming grasping spirit in the New Republic, as evidenced in the acquisition of Louisiana and the attempts on Canada.

A few days after the ratification of the treaty, the President recommended to Congress the passage of a law to guard against incidents which, during the periods of war in Europe, might tend to interrupt peace, enjoining that

American vessels be navigated exclusively by American seamen, either natives or such as are already naturalized,” thus endeavoring to gain by legislation what could not be obtained by war. Yet one object had been secured-we hear no more of the impressment of American seamen.

18.

15.

Previous to the announcement of peace, the commanders of some of the national vessels determined to evade the blockading enemy and escape to sea. Commodore De- Jan catur, on board the frigate President, commanding the sloops Hornet and Peacock to follow, attempted to evade the blockade of the port of New York. Passing out in the night, after being unfortunately aground for some

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CHAP. hours, in the morning he fell in with the British squadron, by whom he was chased. One of the enemy, the frigate 1815. Endymion, commenced an engagement, but after a running fight, she was effectually disabled, and fain to haul off. The President unfortunately was also crippled, and the other British vessels coming up, Decatur was compelled to strike his colors.

A few days after, the Hornet and Peacock avoided the blockade, and proceeded to their rendezvous, off the Cape of Good Hope. On her way the Hornet, Captain Biddle, Mar. fell in with and captured the British brig Penguin. The latter was made a complete wreck, and as such was set on fire. The Peacock joined her consort, and in company they sailed to the Indian Ocean. The Hornet was soon after chased by a British seventy-four, and in order to escape, she was compelled to throw her guns and nearly all her armament overboard, in which condition she returned to New York. The Peacock, Captain WarringJune ton, continued on to the East Indies, where she captured the cruiser Nautilus.

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The Constitution, Captain Stewart, also evaded the blockade off Boston harbor. On a moonlight night she fell in with two war vessels off the port of Lisbon. They prepared to engage, but the Constitution manoeuvred to keep the wind at about an equal distance from her anFeb. tagonists. Captain Stewart, seizing a favorable oppor20. tunity, directed all his force upon the vessel nearest,

which almost immediately struck; then he captured the other in a similar manner. The prizes proved to be the British sloops-of-war Cyane and Levant. These captures were all made after the articles of peace were signed.

Soon after the commencement of the war with Britain, the Dey of Algiers, thinking the Americans would have no means of punishing him, renewed his old practice of piracy. Pretending to be dissatisfied with the presents he had received from the American government, he dis

COMMODORE DECATUR HUMBLES THE DEY OF ALGIERS. 641

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missed Lear, the consul, threatening to reduce him and CHAP. his family, and all the Americans in Algiers, to slavery, a fate which Lear escaped by paying a large ransom. Some 1815. American vessels were afterward seized by the pirates, and their crews reduced to slavery.

Two months after the conclusion of peace, an American squadron, under Decatur, consisting of three large frigates and seven other vessels of war, sailed for the Mediterranean. Six weeks later, Bainbridge followed May. with the Independence, the new seventy-four, accompanied by other war vessels; on the way he was also joined by the Congress frigate. But before his arrival in the Mediterranean, the energetic Decatur had brought the Dey to terms. On the second day after passing through the Straits of Gibraltar, he fell in with the largest frigate of the Dey under his high Admiral, on a cruise for American merchantmen. After a fight of less than thirty minutes the Algerine was captured; two days after another cruiser shared a similar fate. When the squadron appeared before Algiers, the intelligence of these disasters, by which he had lost his best ship, and six hundred men, had greatly humbled the Dey. To escape a worse punishment, he gladly submitted to the indignity of signing, on Decatur's quarter-deck, a humiliating treaty. He June bound himself to make indemnities for his extortions; to surrender all his prisoners without ransom, and to renounce all claim for tribute from the American government, as well as his barbarous practice of piracy and reducing prisoners to slavery.

Decatur proceeded immediately to Tunis and Tripoli, where he demanded and received indemnity for some American vessels, at whose captures, in their harbors, by the English, they had connived. Thus, in a few weeks, these barbarians were taught a lesson which they have not yet forgotten. When Bainbridge arrived, he found all the difficulties arranged. The united navy, consisting of

30.