d fifty men, under command of Major Arnaud, had been sent in
the night a mile or two down the river to oppose the landing and to
check the advance of the British. These raw militia, very poorly armed,
retired before the enemy. The detachment of one hundred and seventy
Kentuckians just arrived, under command of Colonel Davis, was ordered to
move forward to the support of the command of Major Arnaud. Though
wearied with the toilsome all-night march, the Kentucky troops went
forward about one mile below Morgan's line and took position on Mayhew's
Canal, their left resting on the bank of the river. Major Arnaud halted
his Louisiana militia on the right of these in line. The enemy, over one
thousand strong, came up in force under Colonel Thornton, who commanded
the British in the night battle of the twenty-third. A heavy fire of
musketry from the front was supported by a flanking fire of artillery
and rockets from the boats. The command of Major Arnaud gave way and
hastily retreated to the wood, appearing no more during the day on the
field of action. The Kentuckians returned the fire of the enemy with
several effective volleys, when they were ordered by an aid-de-camp of
General Morgan's, just arrived, to fall back and take a position on his
line of defense.

The falling back of the Kentuckians before the enemy was under orders
which they could not but obey. They were holding him in check and
inflicting heavier losses than they were receiving, against four or five
times their own numbers. They fell back one mile in good order. By
disposition of the commanding officer, they were placed in line, with an
open space of two hundred yards between their extreme left and the
extreme right of the entrenched Louisianians, and stretched out to cover
a space of three hundred yards, or one man to nearly two yards of space.
The remainder of the line stretching to the wood on the extreme right,
twelve hundred yards, was wholly without defensive works, or any defense
excepting a picket of eighteen men under Colonel Caldwell, stationed out
two hundred yards beyond the extreme right of the Kentuckians. Less than
two hundred poorly armed militia were thus isolated and distributed in
thin ranks to defend a line one mile in length, while General Morgan lay
behind his entrenchment, defending a space of two hundred yards with
five hundred troops and three pieces of artillery, which could have been
easily held by two hundred men.

Colonel Thornto