It is natural we all take satisfaction in projecting from the traces of the past the lines of the future, in order that we may derive from history its lessons and upon them lay our future courses.
Man may not know all, nor can he learn all that his fellows know. But he can, by utilizing the means at his command, collate his knowledge so that he can have from it the fullest picture with all the shadings and color of experience which is the essence of that record of human achievement which we call history.
Today is one dedicated to recall the memory of the splendid sacrifice, made upon our own soil, of those American soldiers, sailors, and marines of a century and more ago.
In talking of the naval factor which influenced development of the American strategy to bring victory to our arms at Chalmette, I am only taking from the record of that stirring period a few of the details which too many of our historians have neglected.
A fuller appreciation of the magnificent part played by our naval and marine officers in shaping and helping to win the Battle of New Orleans cannot dim the glorious valor and leadership of Andrew Jackson, nor can it lessen the tragedy which lay in the death of Pakenham, so fresh from his peninsular campaigns.
Too many of our people, serene in a consciousness of America’s greatness, are apt to forget the storms that attended its birth and early years and to overlook the capacity of their forbears to endure hardship, privation, and danger for the sake of free institutions. In reverence of what we have become, too often we overlook the environment of our beginnings.
We have become what we are—what, please God, we shall be always—largely through the loyalty, the valor, and the capacity and patriotism of those who led the struggles for freedom and justice upon the sanctified soil of Chalmette and other hallowed fields. If we allow such sacrifice and service to be forgotten we will not be able to reap, nor to preserve for posterity, the fruits of their victory.
We are essentially little different from our great-grandfathers. It was an army of citizens under the leadership of Andrew Jackson that turned back Britain’s seasoned veterans in the Battle of New Orleans and defeated a formidable invading force. Around nucleuses of small regular military and naval forces the young Republic raised its armies and its navies to meet its emergencies. The same policy persists today.
The United States does not saddle its people with an unreasonable tax burden but maintains sturdy peace-time forces which are the backbone of the potential fighting strengths of which we may have need. Our policy of national defense has developed from the early days when a sturdy citizenry gave us our strength. Today we do not depend upon the professional soldier and sailor but upon the citizen whose foresight has allowed, through Congress, a national defense built around a good Army and a good Navy, each of which has definite peace-time functions. Should occasion arise when men or nations cannot be disposed through moral impulse to respect the rights of free people, physical force must stand against aggression and imposition. In the scheme of our civilization the soldier and the sailor are one and the same, being different only in the element upon which he depends for his activities.
In paying tribute to those heroic soldiers and sailors of 1814-15 we come again to an appreciation of the citizen and to a realization of our responsibility to those small forces of regulars whom we maintain ashore and afloat as the keyed units of our national defense. The great George Washington told us that “when we assumed the soldier we did not lay aside the citizen,” while Blackstone, drew for us our own likeness, saying that “it is because he is a citizen and would wish to continue so, that he makes himself for awhile a soldier.”
We, today, have the same duty to our homes and institutions as that of our forbears in 1814. Though we have no foreign foe threatening at our doors, we are not relieved of the responsibility to make for our children their greatest opportunity in a free atmosphere. For posterity, as well as for our own offspring, there is our continual need of pointing to youth the valiant and patriotic example of those sturdy builders who have given to us our country and its institutions. Under the influence of racial elements unsympathetic with the American ideal there is a danger of breakdown of the structure erected by our forefathers, unless we are vigilant, loyal, and alert in the preservation of the rational and emotional ties that we have with our past. Our schools should continually instill the principles upon which the United States rests. There is no need for apprehension if these principles and ideals are indoctrinated in the minds of American children during their formative years.
New Orleans is one of the great seaports of the world. New Orleans is the gateway to an empire which was a pawn in the games played by the great kingmakers upon the checkerboard of the world. Europe lost a pawn when the astute diplomacy of Adams and Jefferson, supporting our plenipotentiaries in Napoleon’s court, tempted the Little Corporal to reacquire the Louisiana Territory from Spain by the secret treaty of San Ildefonso, after which he yielded to us, and Jefferson bought this great domain of valley and delta, paying Napoleon in bills drawn on a Dutch-English banking house. The imperial valley of the Mississippi was the prize at stake in three wars: The French and Indian, the Revolution’s unsung epic of the western borders, and the War of 1812. In 1803 Jefferson consummated the Louisiana Purchase. A distrustful people saw Laussat reacquire Louisiana for France only to deliver the territory to the commissioners, Claiborne and Wilkinson.
How the territory, though American by decree and by law, remained European in spirit and in attitude was well described in the reports of Captain John Shaw of the American Navy, written while he was on duty at our first naval station on the Tchefuncta near Lake Pontchartrain.
It was the common sacrifice of Jackson’s volunteers and the Louisiana militia, welded by a common danger into the Army of the Defense of New Orleans, which perfected the title of the United States to Louisiana and sealed in blood the bond that binds Louisiana to the United States.
New Orleans, and Louisana do not alone realize their importance to the United States. They take a place in national and world affairs second to no other. New Orleans smiles a friendly welcome across the Gulf of Mexico and the West Indies, and sees beyond the Caribbean the front doors of friendly republics. She is around Panama’s close corner from the Orient and can be neighborly at once with Europe and Africa, South America, Asia, and the Antipodes and all the countries that border the Seven Seas. She is a crossroads of the world.
Here is a natural gateway to one of the richest, most populous, and diversified regions of the earth, the storehouse of much of our natural wealth. President Hoover— when he spoke at Louisville—visualized the opening of great inland waterways, from the Gulf of Mexico to the far broad fields of the valley’s fertile sweep. Later, it was my great privilege to have from him a message of confidence in the present and in the future of New Orleans. The substance of that message, my fellow Louisianians was, “Do not sell New Orleans short.” This is the inheritance you have from the makers of our nation.
It is to preserve this that we have our modern system of national defense in which our peace-time Navy plays such an important part. Andrew Jackson, whose memory we honor, outlined what we know to be a reasonable concept, saying of the Navy that it is your true policy, for your Navy will not only protect your rich and flourishing commerce in distant seas, but will enable you to reach and annoy the enemy, and will give to defense its greatest efficiency by meeting the danger at a distance from home”. Andrew Jackson, in his completion of the Mobile campaign and in his eventful defeat of Pakenham before New Orleans, had reason to know of the importance of naval operations.
To us who share a reverence for glorious tradition as we bow before the soft color of romance, New Orleans holds an inspiration which we pass to our guests and visitors so that they can see New Orleans as a multiple shrine of history. The very cobblestones of the streets have a story to tell. What a pageant of greatness is that procession of historic notables from the day the Sieur de Bienville, in 1718, laid claim in fact to this spot in the name of Louis Philippe. Each phase of her history is a part of the romance of Louisiana.
We celebrate tonight the one hundred and sixteenth anniversary of the Battle of New Orleans, fought on the field of Chalmette where earlier in the day the herioc deeds of Jackson’s men were memorialized. To understand it wholly one must understand the broad part played by American naval forces, not only in the fighting of the series of engagements which culminated in the battle, but in the development of the major strategy by which the invading forces were successfully combated. In importance in American history, the Battle of New Orleans ranks only after Saratoga where Burgoyne surrendered, and after Yorktown where Cornwallis’s capitulation marked the success of the war for independence. Have you wondered that the Battle of New Orleans, having been fought after the Treaty of Ghent, was really important?
The American forces not only drove back the invader at Chalmette but their valor sealed for all time the peace treaty with England. The United States had won treaty concessions and a favorable peace agreement from Great Britain at a time when Napoleon’s star had not set, when the Little Corporal was still the greatest force in Europe. True, Europe had harried the Emperor so successfully that Pakenham’s forces, released from the peninsular operations, were available to prosecute the war in the west. While they were forming, other factors so strengthened American claims that our treaty delegates were sought by Britain and a splendid peace arranged.
But strategists of all nations, master tacticians of the world, are agreed that had not the Battle of New Orleans been fought and won by American arms, the War of 1812 would have developed a new phase and we would have again been menaced from abroad. History’s verdict is unanimous that it is well that the news of the treaty failed to reach New Orleans before January 8, 1815.
Jackson’s victory at Chalmette rounded out the American growth and perfected the acquisition of Louisiana. A review of the elements of all that great achievement provides illuminating study. In them, one finds fresh basis for faith in our institutions and keys for the solution of many modern perplexities. It must not be understood that, in stressing the importance of naval factors in shaping the final campaign of the War of 1812, I imply that the services of the sailors and marines have not been recognized. A few years ago in old St. Louis Cemetry number one, where so many of our illustrious dead sleep in eternal rest, we gathered to dedicate a tablet at the grave of Major Daniel Carmick, an American marine officer, who was mortally wounded in the engagement of December 28 preceding the Battle of New Orleans. Congressional recognition was given this valiant officer for his service in defense of this city and it is true evidence that New Orleans does not forget that the memorial tablet was fixed to further mark his tomb.
But how many here know that four months and six days before that glorious achievement Commander Daniel Todd Patterson of the American Navy, then stationed here, persuaded Jackson, then at Mobile, that the true destination of the British expedition then assembling at Jamaica was New Orleans? That Patterson insisted that Jackson repair here with his available forces for our proper defense? Jackson had asked Patterson to bring his light vessels to Mobile. No uncertainty then pervaded Patterson’s mind. The British destination was not Mobile—it was New Orleans. Patterson’s information, strange though it may seem, came from none other than Jean Lafitte, the Baratarian pirate. The British had tried, unsuccessfully, to enlist Lafitte in their cause. He cast his fortunes with the imperiled resident Americans. Those fifty British naval vessels with 10,000 land troops were preparing to strike at this economic outlet of the Mississippi.
And let me ask a further question—who knows that fifty-one days before Jackson’s final battle, Patterson foretold what the British would do in these waters and on this soil, even predicting Chalmette as the exact locality where the final battle would be won?
The splendid achievements of the American Navy, more especially those in the six weeks prior to Jackson’s victory, have never been sufficiently emphasized. Just as little Belgium in the recent World War spent herself in holding back the Germans while England and France assembled their armies prepared for the defense of French soil, so did Patterson sacrifice his ships and his men in delaying the British advance over Lake Borgne and its adjacent waters, giving to Jackson that precious time that enabled him to organize his slender forces in such dispositions as to resist the invaders effectively.
The heroism of Belgium in her self-immolation has been widely acclaimed, but not so the like sacrifices of our infant Navy in these waters. That is a field of study the historian has overlooked. Ask any eighth grade schoolboy who won the Battle of January 8, 1815; will he mention the important part the Navy there played? But Patterson was the one who forced the final issue to the exact spot where Jackson fought the British. The invading force of the British, in ships and men to the number stated, left Negril Bay, Jamaica, November 26, 1814.
The army that burned our national Capitol the preceding September formed part of that force. It included also 4,000 troops from Plymouth, England, commanded by a General Keane, a gallant young Irish officer. These invaders reached the Chandeleur Islands, December 9. Their passage was marked by music, dancing, theatrical performances, and other hilarity. The wives of many officers accompanied the expedition. All felt confident an easy victory awaited them. All were filled with the delightful anticipations this New World seemed to offer them. They presumed the Americans profoundly ignorant of their approach. In confidence the British fleet and transports containing the army of invasion anchored in the deep waters between Ship and Cat Islands near the entrance to Lake Borgne. They prepared at once their small vessels for the transportation of their troops. They had to cross the adjacent shallow waters to their intended landing place.
But the revelations of Lafitte and the vigilance of Patterson had created quite a different situation from that which the British anticipated. Five gunboats, a tender, and a dispatch boat were awaiting in the passes of Mariana and Christian. Lieutenant Thomas ap Catesby Jones, their commander, had dispatched previously two other gunboats to Dauphin Island, at the entrance of Mobile Bay, to report intelligence of the foe. These vessels discovered the British fleet on December 10. Their reports reached Patterson. Jones was then directed to take such positions as would enable him, once the British in their light vessels attempted to enter Lake Borgne, to oppose their advance and at all cost prevent their landing. Jones’ ships made for Pass Christian. There the enemy discovered him December 13. Admiral Cochrane, commanding the British expedition, immediately changed his plans. No attempt was to be made to transport troops while these American gunboats were afloat. All effort was to be concentrated to destroy them.
Theodore Roosevelt, as the historian, wrote concerning this situation: “It was impossible for the British to transport their troops across Lake Borgne as contemplated until this flotilla was destroyed.” On December 14, the British advanced to cross the lake. Jones, with his five small gunboats in line between Point Claire and Malheureux Island, fought the British, as they advanced in forty-two barges with 1,200 men. In that encounter he lost, as was expected, his entire flotilla. Of Jones’ force of seven officers and two hundred and four men, six were killed and the thirty-five wounded included Jones, the commander. But he accomplished his mission. The British were delayed with a loss of about three hundred killed and wounded including their commander, Lockyer, wounded.
At length, by December 20, the British troops were landed on Pea Island at the mouth of Pearl River where General Keane took command to organize the vanguard for future operations. From disaffected former Spanish residents of New Orleans, the enemy was informed of the feasible route of advance to the city, via Bayous Vienvenue and Mazant and the canal across Villiere’s plantation. Over this route the invader came and on December 23 we find him established with one-half of his army at a Point one-half mile from the Mississippi banks and nine miles below New Orleans.
The British from there sent out posters to the inhabitants in Spanish and in French: Louisianians: remain quietly at your homes; we make war only against Americans.”
The enemy was in fine spirits. Not a gun had been fired since Jones’ flotilla had been destroyed. Here at seven o’clock that evening, December 23, they met new difficulties from the Navy. The guns of the Carolina and the Louisiana, then on the Mississippi and under Patterson’s command, drove them from one position to another. For three days there was not an hour that Patterson failed to sweep the British field. The invaders then concentrated their entire force of artillery on the Louisiana and Carolina. On the twenty-seventh the destruction of the Carolina was accomplished—with an American loss of three killed and nine wounded. The Louisiana, however, from the opposite bank of the river continued to annoy them. And the guns of the Carolina were. Promptly put ashore, manned by her surviving sailors, to augment Jackson’s command, being posted in front of Jourdain’s plantation in a position commanding the enemy’s left flank.
Time does not permit me further to describe the conflicts that followed almost daily until the final battle of January 8.
Major Carmick of the marines bore a prominent part in many of these, his command consisting of De Bellevue’s marines, Plauche’s and Daquin’s battalions, McRea’s artillery and two hundred “men of color” from Haiti. On December 28 he fell seriously wounded. These were briefly the conditions that forced the British to delay their final attack until January 8, 1815, thirty or more days of respite precious to the Americans.
The losses of the Navy both in ships and in men were the price gladly paid to give Jackson time to augment his meager force and arrange them for effective defense. His main line was established along an abandoned canal on Chalmette plantation about five miles below the city, a line extending from the river to an impassible swamp a mile to the northeast. A flanking position was also prepared on the opposite (right) bank of the Mississippi. Jackson’s position was one of great strength; it could be attacked only from the front; it, as a site for defense Patterson had prophesied as “a narrow strip of land . . . through which an army cannot march, nor transport artillery."
Here the British lost, on that memorable day we commemorate, no less than 2,600 men, of whom 700 were killed, 1,400 wounded, and 500 taken prisoner. This included Sir Edward Packenham, the British commander, killed in battle. The American loss was but eight killed and thirteen wounded. Thus the Battle of New Orleans with a tremendous British loss passed into the records of American history.
Patterson’s gallant and efficient subordinates of the Navy were afforded their need of praise, for he wrote that General Jackson freely acknowledged that the “unwearied exertions of the small naval force on this station, from the first appearance of the enemy has contributed in a great degree to his expulsion.”
Nor did Congress overlook the Navy. In its resolution, it stated that the Congress entertained “a high sense of the valor and good conduct of Commodore Daniel T. Patterson, of the officers, petty officers, and seamen attached to his command, for their prompt and efficient cooperation with General Jackson, in the late gallant and successful defense of the City of New Orleans.”
I do not share the view that republics are ungrateful. But, my friends, they are forgetful. Strive as we may by international understanding to insure the maintenance of peace, war may come to subsequent generations. In that event, pray though we may that ours may be spared, Americans must win if they face the necessity of making war. The will to win lies in the spirit of those who are called to fight; if their tradition is bright and their cause is just they must have the capacity to appreciate those advantages.
For the safety of future generations, you must in peace preach the glories of constructive endeavor as you instill into the hearts of all Americans an assurance of right that needs only a threat of danger to arouse them to the defense of our free institutions. What better text for each lesson than the pages of our glorious history; the lesson of secure peace and the lesson of war for right.
Let us nurture the stamina, the courage, and the patriotism that is our heritage from our forbears so that posterity may have American ideals and American idealism. We truly find a guarantee of our country’s future in a proper pride in its glorious past.
The American flag, the Stars and Stripes, supplanted here the banners of Spain and of France. It, as the emblem of our liberty, resisted successfully on this soil a formidable British invader advancing proudly and gaily, confident of victory, under the Cross of St. Andrew and the Cross of St. George. It is a proud flag, my fellow-citizens, an emblem of freedom and of justice. I call upon you—stand true! Look along the straight avenues of our history and see the light of honor, the badge of courage, the brilliant rainbow of a pure ideal.
Out of our history lift the spirit of our future, a single essence that is the heart and soul of America, and hold it secure for posterity.