Jean Lafitte Historic Resource Study (Chalmette Unit)

1. For factors bearing on the British southern strategy, see John K. Mahon, "British Command Decisions Relative to the Battle of New Orleans," Louisiana History, VI (Winter, 1965), pp. 55, 62. For an overview of the war, see John K. Mahon, The War of 1812 (Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1972).

2. 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), pp. 21, 23; David Lindsey, Andrew Jackson and John C. Calhoun (Woodbury, New York: Barron's Educational Series, Inc., 1973), pp. 22-23.

3. John Spencer Bassett, The Life of Andrew Jackson (2 vols.; New York: The Macmillan Company, 1916), I, 163-64; 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), pp. 66.

4. Latour, Historical Memoir, pp. 45, 48-51.

5. Bassett, Life of Andrew Jackson, pp. 146-47; Brown, Amphibious Campaign, p. 23; Charles B. Brooks, The Siege of New Orleans (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1961), pp. 36-37.

6. Monroe to Jackson, Dec. 10, 1814. Andrew Jackson Papers. Manuscript Division Chicago Historical Society. For a recent treatment of Jackson's performance during the New Orleans campaign as seen against the wider perspective of the War of 1812, see Robert V. Remini, Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Empire, 1767-1821 (New York: Harper and Row, Publishers, 1977), pp. 246-97.

7. James Stirling, "Memorandum regarding the Condition of Louisiana, 1813," p. 1. Melville Papers. Historic New Orleans Collection, New Orleans.

8. "Plan of Attack on New Orleans," ca. 1770. Manuscript Division. Historical Society of Pennyslvania. For details of the enterprise projected in 1773, see Joseph G. Tregle, Jr., "British Spy Along the Mississippi: Thomas Hutchins and the Defenses of New Orleans, 1773," Louisiana History, VIII (Fall, 1967), pp. 321-26. The author makes a strong argument that the 1773 report provided the basis for the British campaign of 1814. Ibid., pp. 326-27.

9. Jack D.L. Holmes, "Robert Ross' Plan for an English Invasion of Louisiana in 1782," Louisiana History, V (Spring, 1964), pp. 161, 167, 176-77.

10. Stirling Memorandum; Mahon, "British Command Decisions," p. 53; Richard K. Murdoch, "A British Report on West Florida and Louisiana, November, 1812," Florida Historical Quarterly July, 1964), pp. 49-50.

11. Stirling Memorandum.

12. "Lieutenant Carter, relative to the vulnerable points, and means of defense at Orleans, presented by the Hon. Allen B. McGruder, Jan. 26 1813. To the Honorable, The Secretary of the Navy." Manuscript Division. Historical Society of Pennyslvania.

13. Bassett, Life of Andrew Jackson, I, 146; Andrew Jackson, Correspondence of Andrew Jackson. Ed. by John Spencer Bassett (7 vols.; Washington: Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1926-35), II, v; Powell A. Casey, Louisiana in the War of 1812 (Baton Rouge: privately published, 1963), pp. 12, 13, 19; Brown, Amphibious Campaign, p. 72.

14. LaTour, Historical Memoir, p. 29; Casey, Louisiana in the War of 1812, p. 13; Brooks, Siege of New Orleans, p. 73; Robin Reilly, The British at the Gates: The New Orleans Campaign in the War of 1812 (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1974), p. 203.

15. Ibid., p. 210; Marquis James, Andrew Jackson, The Border Captain (New York: The Literary Guild, 1933), p. 212.

16. See "Opinion of Mr. Favrot upon the Principal Means of Defense to be Employed for the State of Louisiana Against the English, Nov. 19th 1814." Trans. from the French. Louisiana State Museum Library, New Orleans; "Don Pedro Favrot, A Creole Pepys," The Louisiana Historical Quarterly, XXVIII (July, 1945), pp. 724-25.

17. "Journal of an Officer, 1814-1815," DeBow's Review, XVI (1854), p. 643; Casey, Louisiana in the War of 1812, p. 17.

18. Bassett, Life of Andrew Jackson, I, 159; LaTour, Historical Memoir, pp. 25-28; 51-52; 66-67. See Jackson's proclamation to freed slaves of Louisiana, September 21, 1814, in ibid., pp. xxxi-xxxii.

19. Bassett, Life of Andrew Jackson, I, 144-146; Jackson, Correspondence of Andrew Jackson, II, 123; James, Border Captain, pp. 221-22; Brown, Amphibious Campaign, p. 66; Casey, Louisiana in the War of 1812, p. 45; Brooks, Siege of New Orleans, p. 86. For a contemporary opinion on the unlikelihood of an enemy ascending the Mississippi, see Howell Tatum, "Major Howell Tatum's Journal While Acting Topographical Engineer (1814) to General Jackson commanding the Seventh Military District." Ed. by John Spencer Bassett. Smith College Studies in History, VII (October, 1921-April, 1922), pp. 99-100. For a British intelligence report of November, 1814, discussing these routes, see "Observations Naval and Military for the benefit of the Commanders of His Britanic Majesties [sic] Forces destined for the Reduction of Louisiana." British Public Record Office (BPRO), London. War Office 1, Vol. 143. For the contemporary cartographic appearance of the region, see William Darby, "A Map of the State of Louisiana with Part of the Mssissippi Territory from Actual Survey." 1816. Copy in the Map Division, Historic New Orleans Collection.

20. Jackson to Hugh L. White, February 7, 1827, in Correspondence of Andrew Jackson, III, 338; Edward Livingston to Jackson, November 21, 1814, in ibid., VI, 443-44; Latour, Historical Memoir, p. 52, 54; Mrs. Dunbar Rowland, Andrew Jackson's Campaign Against the British, or the Mississippi Territory in the War of 1812. Concerning the Military Operations of the Americans, Creek Indians, British, and Spanish, 1813-1815 (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1926), p. 260; James, Border Captain, pp. 215-16; Jane Lucas DeGrummond, The Baratarians and the Battle of New Orleans (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1961), pp. 58-60; Brown, Amphibious Campaign, pp. 63-64. Most authorities place Jackson's arrival in New Orleans on December 2. However, Jackson wrote that he arrived in the city on December 1, 1814. Jackson to Brigadier General James Winchester, December 11, 1814. Andrew Jackson Papers. Manuscript Division, Library of Congress. Presidential Papers Microfilm. Series 3, Vols. F-K, Reel 62.

21. Colonel Arthur P. Hayne to Jackson, December 1, 1814, in Jackson, Correspondence of Andrew Jackson, II, 107-08; Latour, Historical Memoir, pp. 54-57, 64-65, 69, 71, 74; Tatum, "Journal," pp. 97-104; Jackson to Claiborne, December 10, 1814. Andrew Jackson Papers. Manuscript Division, Library of Congress. Presidential Papers Microfilm. Series 3, Vols. F-K, Reel 62; Jackson to Monroe, December 10, 1814, ibid. Jackson to Captain Trudeau, December 20, 1814, ibid.; Jackson to Major Reynolds, December 22, 1814, ibid.; Reilly, British at the Gates, pp. 211-12, 214; John Reid and John Henry Eaton, The Life of Andrew Jackson. Ed. by Frank Lawrence Owsley, Jr. (Orig. pub. 1817. Reprint, University, Alabama: University of Alabama Press, 1974), pp. 252-55, 264-65, 510-11; Brown, Amphibious Campaign, p. 90; Rowland, Andrew Jackson's Campaign Against the British, pp. 264-65; DeGrummond, Baratarians, pp. 61, 62-63, 77-78; Brooks, Siege of New Orleans, pp. 74-75, 86, 99, 111, 114-15; Robert V. Remini, Andrew Jackson (New York: Twayne Publishers, Inc., 1966), pp. 63-64; Bassett, Life of Andrew Jackson, I, 167; Casey, Louisiana in the War of 1812, p. 44; James, Border Captain, pp. 223-257 Latour recommended that special attention be paid to the entrance of Bayous Dupre and Bienvenue off Lake Borgne. Latour to Jackson, ca. early December, 1814. Andrew Jackson Papers. Manuscript Division. Chicago Historical Society.

22. Lieutenant Colonel William MacRea to Jackson, Dec. 12, 1814, in Jackson, Correspondence of Andrew Jackson, II, 120.

23. Latour, Historical Memoir, pp. 68-69; Remini, Andrew Jackson, pp. 64-65; Jackson, Correspondence of Andrew Jackson, II, v-vi; Tatum, "Journal," p. 103; Rowland, Andrew Jackson's Campaign Against the British, pp. 298-99; James, Border Captain, pp. 230-31; DeGrummond, Baratarians, 60, 63, 79. See also, "Copy of Muster Roll of the Battalion, Orleans Volunteers during the invasion of Louisiana by the English Army in 1814-1815." (Unpublished, undated typescript in the Louisiana State Museum Library).

24. Historical Memoir, p. 71.

25. Jackson to Hugh L. White, February 7, 1827, in Correspondence of Andrew Jackson, III, 339.

26. For more about Laffite, the British offer, and the Baratarian situation in 1814, see Latour, Historical Memoir, pp. 13-14, 18-20, 22-23, 72, xiii-xiv, 253-55; John Snyder, "Jean Lafitte and the British Offer of 1814," Louisiana History, XX (Spring, 1979), pp. 159-67; DeGrummond, Baratarians, pp. 81, 82, 122; James, Border Captain, p. 229; Brown, Amphibious Campaign, pp. 85-86. A biography of Laffite is in Stanley Clisby Arthur, Jean Laffite, Gentleman Rover (New Orleans: Harmonson, Publisher, 1952).

27. Latour, Historical Memoir, p. 63; Bassett, Life of Andrew Jackson, I, 165-66; Parton, Life of Andrew Jackson, II, 34-35; Theodore Roosevelt, The Naval War of 1812; or, the History of the United States Navy during the Last War with Great Britain, to which is Appended an Account of the Battle of New Orleans, Orig. pub. 1882. Reprint, New York: Haskell House Publishers, Ltd., 1968), p. 343.

28. Parton, Life of Andrew Jackson, II, 34; James, Border Captain, p. 223.

29. Latour, Historical Memoir, p. 25; Bassett, Life of Andrew Jackson, I, 161; Roosevelt, Naval War of 1812, p. 343; James, Border Captain, p. 207; Brown, Amphibious Campaign, pp. 75-76; Brooks, Siege of New Orleans, p. 82. For overview maps showing the location of the British fleet approaching New Orleans, see Latour, "A General Map of the seat of War in Louisiana and West Florida...," in Historical Memoir; and Abraham R. Ellery, "Map of the seat of the War in Louisiana in the years 1814 and 1815." Manuscript Division, New York Public Library.

30. Latour, Historical Memoir, p. xxxii; Roosevelt, Naval War of 1812, p. 459; Bassett, Life of Andrew Jackson, I, 168-69; Brooks, Siege of New Orleans, pp. 80, 106-07; DeGrummond, Baratarians, pp. 64-65. For discussion of the reasons for the British rejection of alternative approaches, see Mahon, "British Command Decisions," pp. 69-71.

31. Latour, Historical Memoir, pp. 55, 57-58, 59-61, 64; Jackson to Secretary of War James Monroe, December 27, 1814, in Correspondence of Andrew Jackson, II, 126-27; Brown, Amphibious Campaign, pp. 77-81; William James, The Naval History of Great Britain, from the Declaration of War by France in 1793, to the Accession of George IV (6 vols.; London: Richard Bentley, 1837), VI, 357-60; Roosevelt, Naval War of 1812, pp. 343-46; Alfred T. Mahan, Sea Power in Its Relations to the War of 1812 (2 vols. orig. pub. 1905. Reprint, New York: Haskell House Publishers, Ltd., 1969), II, 389-90; Rowland, Andrew Jackson's Campaign Against the British, pp. 270-74; Reilly, British at the Gates, p. 225. For correspondence relative to the Lake Borgne battle, including a report by Jones, see Latour, Historical Memoir, pp. xxxii-xxxvi, cxl-cxliii. Report of a court of inquiry absolving Jones from blame in the defeat is in ibid., pp. cxxxii-cxxxv.

32. Jackson to Monroe, December 16, 1814, in Correspondence of Andrew Jackson, II, 116; Tatum, "Journal," p. 113; Latour, Historical Memoir, 64, 65, 66; Overton to Jackson, December 17, 1814. Andrew Jackson Papers. Manuscript Division, Chicago Historical Society; Brooks, Siege of New Orleans, pp. 113-14; Casey, Louisiana in the War of 1812, p. 12. On December 15 two of Patterson's officers were sent under flag of truce to the British fleet to determine the condition of Jones's men taken from the gunboats. The two officers were likewise incarcerated and held until mid-January. Latour, Historical Memoir, pp. 74-77