ew in number and poorly equipped for battle.
The Crescent City was ill equipped for defense. The governor and the
Legislature were at loggerheads.

As was his way in a crisis, General Jackson took matters into his own
hands.

He placed the city under martial law and made every man a sailor or a
soldier compelled to the restrictions and the rules governing the army.

He was aware that his action was open to severe censure, but in the face
of the object to be attained he held this as of little consequence.

While engaged in examining a situation for a fortification in one
direction, the British effected a landing in another. They had captured
the American flotilla guarding the entrance to Lake Borgne and were
making ready to advance upon the city.

This information brought consternation to the inhabitants but not to the
indomitable Jackson. Obstacles to him were but objects to be overcome.
He swung his troops into line and went out to meet the enemy. The
advance was checked by a sharp engagement with little loss to either
side.

He then set the little schooner _Carolina_, in the Mississippi, to
bombarding the levee where the British gunners had taken refuge. With
her guns continuously roaring she kept the Britishers at bay for three
whole days, when she succumbed to their heavy fire and exploded. Her
entire crew escaped with the exception of one man killed and six
wounded.

On the field of Chalmette, a few miles below New Orleans, the opposing
armies threw up intrenchments from the same soft ooze and mud, so close
they now stood to each other. From an upper room of the McCarte mansion
house--the home of a wealthy Creole--General Jackson surveyed the
operations of the enemy; and directed the movements of his own troops.

December the 28th an advance was made by the British on the American
lines but without significant results. On New Year's Day another attack
was made.

In the interim between these assaults went out an order from General
Jackson to Governor Claiborne that involved the general for years
thereafter in legal complications with the Louisiana Legislature. News
was borne to General Jackson on the field that the Legislature was
preparing to capitulate New Orleans in the belief that the city would be
captured.

"Tell Claiborne," said the irate Jackson, "to blow them up."

Later, he wrote to Governor Claiborne, in case the report was true, to
place a guard at the door of the legislative hall and keep