hy
Spaniards and mulattoes, nondescript desperadoes from the old band of
Lafitte, and militia and regulars from all the Southern States, forms
no part of the naval annals of the war. It is enough to say that the
flower of the British army, led by a veteran of the Peninsula,
recoiled before that motley crew of untrained soldiers, and were
beaten back, leaving their gallant leader and thousands of their brave
men dead upon the field. The navy was not without some share in this
glorious triumph. On the 23d of December the schooner "Carolina"
dropped down from New Orleans, and opened fire upon the enemy. "Now,
then, for the honor of America, give it to them!" sung out her
commander, as the first broadside was fired. The attack, unexpected as
it was, created a panic in the British camp. A feeble reply was made
with rockets and musketry; but even this was soon discontinued, and
the enemy took refuge under the steep bank of the levee, whither the
plunging shot could not follow them. All night the "Carolina" kept up
her fire; and, when at daybreak she moved away, she left the camp of
the enemy in confusion. During the day she renewed the attack, and
persisted in her fire until the British threw up a heavy battery on
the river's bank, and replied. The lads of the "Carolina" promptly
accepted the challenge thus offered, and for a time a spirited combat
was maintained. But the battery threw red-hot shot, and the schooner
was soon set on fire and destroyed. Meanwhile the corvette "Louisiana"
had come down to the scene of action, and in the subsequent
engagements did some effective work. When the final onslaught of the
British was made, on Jan. 7, 1815, the guns of the "Louisiana" were
mounted on the opposite bank of the river, and the practised sailors
worked them with deadly effect, until the flight of the American
militia on that side exposed the battery to certain capture. The
sailors then spiked their guns, and marched off unmolested. The
sailors of the "Carolina," on that day of desperate fighting, were in
the centre of Jackson's line, between the Creoles and the swarthy
Baratarians under Dominique Yon. Here they worked their howitzers, and
watched the scarlet lines of the enemy advance and melt away before
that deadly blaze; advance and fall back again in hopeless rout. And
among the many classes of fighting men whom Jackson had rallied before
that British line, none did battle more valiantly for the honor of
the nation and t