Jean Lafitte Historic Resource Study (Chalmette Unit)

1. See Samuel H. Lockett, Louisiana as It Is: A Geographical Topographical Description of the State. Ed. by Lauren C. Post (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1969), pp. 125-30.

2. Lower Mississippi River Delta. Reports on the Geology of Plaquemines and St. Bernard Parishes. Geological Bulletin No. 8 (New Orleans: Department of Conservation, Louisiana Geological Survey, 1936), p. 25; Thomas D. Rice and Lewis Griswold, Soil Survey of the New Orleans Area, Louisiana (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1904), pp. 10-11. A. LaCarriere Latour, Historical Memoir of the War in West Florida and Louisiana in 1814-15 (Orig. pub. 1816; reprint, Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1964), p. 80.

3. Rice and Griswald, Soil Survey, pp. 11, 15-16.

4. "Journal of Operations in Louisiana, 1814-1815" The Louisiana Historical Quarterly, XLIV (January-April, 1961), p. 39.

5. John Henry Cooke, A Narrative of Events in the South of France, and of the Attack on New Orleans, in 1814 and 1815 (London: T. and W. Boone, 1835), pp. 167-68; "Sir John Maxwell Tylden Journal, 1814-1815." (Manuscripts Division, New York Public Library), p. 49; Latour, Historical Memoir, p. 81; Major Forrest, "Journal of the Operations Against New Orleans in 1814 and 1815," The Louisiana Historical Quarterly, XLIV (January-April, 1961), p. 116.

6. Abraham Redwood Ellery, "Notes and Comments upon the Subject of a Yankee Song entitled, 'The Retreat of English'" (unpublished manuscript dated 1815 in the Manuscripts Division, New York Public Library).

7. Cooke, Narrative of Events, pp. 167-68; "Sir John Maxwell Tylden Journal, 1814-1815," p. 49.

8. Forrest, "Journal of the Operations," pp. 115-16.

9. "Particulars in relation to Battle of N. Orleans furnished me by a French gentleman, in 18283Summer." Oran Follett Papers, Box 2. Manuscript Division, Cincinnati Historical Society; Dagmar Renshaw Lebreton, "The Men Who Won the Battle of New Orleans," The Louisiana Historical Quarterly, XXXVIII (July, 1955), p. 28; Wilburt S. Brown, The Amphibious Campaign for West Florida and Louisiana, 1814-1815: A Critical Review of Strategy and Tactics at New Orleans (University, Alabama: University of Alabama Press, 1969), p. 141; Charles B. Brooks, The Siege of New Orleans (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1961), pp. 180-81.

10. Ignace de Lino de Chalmette owned the main battlefield property. An aged man, he died February 10, 1815, scarcely one month after the Battle of New Orleans. Brooks, Siege of New Orleans, p. 38; Powell A. Casey, Louisiana in the War of 1812 (Baton Rouge: Privately published, 1963), p. 105.

11. Brooks, Siege of New Orleans, p. 180.

12. Ibid., pp. 180-81; "Particulars in relation to Battle of N. Orleans"; "Sir John Maxwell Tylden Journal, 1814-1815," pp. 48-49; Bernhard, Duke of Saxe-Weimar Eisenach, Travels through North America, during the Years 1825 and 1826 (2 vols.; Philadelphia: Carey, Lea and Carey, 1828), I, 65; Lebreton, "Men Who Won the Battle of New Orleans," p. 28.

13. "Sir John Maxwell Tylden Journal, 1814-1815," p. 52; William Darby, A Geographical Description of the State of Louisiana, the Southern Part of the State of Mississippi, and Territory of Alabama.... (New York: James Olmstead, 1817), p. 73.

14. See Benjamin Henry Latrobe, Impressions Respecting New Orleans. Dairy and Sketches, 1818-1820. Ed. by Samuel Wilson, Jr. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1941); Abraham Redwood Ellery, "Plan showing the disposition of the American Troops, when attacked by the British Army, on the morning of the 8th Jany, 1815." Manuscripts Division, New York Public Library; A. Lacarriere Latour, "Plan of the Attack and Defence of the American Lines below New Orleans on the 8th January, 1815," in Latour, Historical Memoir, plate VII; Hyacinthe Laclotte, "Defeat of the British Army, 12,000 strong, under the Command of Sir Edward Packenham in the attack of the American Lines defended by 3,600 Militia commanded by Major General Andrew Jackson, January 8th 1815, on Chalmette plain...."

15. Latrobe, Impressions Respecting New Orleans, pp. 43-45.

16. Ibid., p. 45. Describing the mansions in the battlefield area, one visitor wrote generically of them: "The mansion-house, commonly, is situated about one hundred paces from the entrance, and an avenue of laurel trees, which are cut in a pyramidical form, and pride of China trees, leads to the door. The most of these houses are two stories high, and are surrounded with piazzas and covered galleries. Back of the elegant mansion-house stand the negro cabins, like a camp, and behind [them] the sugarcane fields, which extend to the marshy cypress woods about a mile back, called the cypress swamp." Bernhard, Travels through North America, I, 65.

17. Ellery, "Plan shewing the disposition of the American Troops" Latour, "Plan of the Attack and Defence of the American Lines" Laclotte, "Defeat of the British Army."

18. Dickson, "Journal of Operations in Louisiana," p. 25.

19. Laclotte, "Defeat of the British army."

20. "Aitchison Diary." Historic New Orleans Collection.

21. For generalized descriptions of this area occupied by the British troops, see Cooke, Narrative of Events, pp. 167-68 ; Forrest, "Journal of Operations," p. 116. For diagrams of these respective properties, see Latour, "Plan of the Attack made by Major Gen. Jackson on a Division of the British Army commanded by Major Gen. Keane, on the 23rd December 1814, at 7 O'Clock at night," in Historical Memoir, plate VI. A sketch map of the Villeré ground, somewhat at variance with Latour, appears in Dickson, "Journal of Operations in Louisiana, 1814-1815," p. 11.