ilitia and volunteers before him. Fortunately for the United States,
Prevost was no fighter, and he declined to advance or attack unless he
had a naval control of the lake. On September 11 the decisive contest
took place. McDonough, the American commander, with a small squadron,
entirely defeated and captured the British flotilla under Downie. It
was Lake Erie over again, with the difference that in this battle the
American fleet was not superior to the British. It was a victory due
to better planning and better gunnery, and it led to the immediate
retreat of Prevost, who tamely abandoned the whole campaign, to the
intense mortification of his officers and men. The remaining
expedition, under General Pakenham, comprising 16,000 Peninsular
veterans, under convoy of a strong fleet, sailed to the Gulf of Mexico
and advanced to capture New Orleans. General Andrew Jackson was at
hand, and with him a mass of militia and frontiersmen. Driven by the
furious energy of the Indian fighter, the Americans showed
aggressiveness and courage in skirmishes and night attacks, and finally
won an astounding victory on January 8, 1815. On that day the British
force tried to storm, by frontal attack, a line of intrenchments armed
with cannon and packed with riflemen. In twenty-five minutes their
columns were so badly cut up by {232} grapeshot and musketry that the
whole attack was abandoned, after Pakenham himself had been killed.
The expedition withdrew, and sailing to Mobile, a town in Spanish
territory, occupied by the Americans, retook it on February 11; but the
main purpose of their invasion was foiled.

In this year, while American land forces struggled to escape
destruction, the naval vessels were for the most part shut in by the
blockade. Occasional captures were still made in single combat; but
British frigates were now under orders to refuse battle with the larger
American vessels, and the captures by sloops were counterbalanced by
the British capture of the frigate _Essex_ by two antagonists in March,
1814. Practically the only extensive operations carried on were by
American privateers, who now haunted the British Channel and captured
merchantmen within sight of the English coasts. The irritation caused
by these privateers was excessive, and made British shipowners and
merchants anxious for peace; but it had no effect on the military
situation. England was not to be subdued by mere annoyance.

By the end of 1814, t