The British forces halted at the entrance to Lake Borgne, between which and the Mississippi New Orleans stands.  Here, on December 14th, they captured a flotilla under Captain Jones, which secured to them complete command of the lake.

Meanwhile Jackson placed New Orleans under martial law, and carried on his measures of defence so vigorously, that the citizens began to pluck up courage.  When he heard of the capture of the flotilla, he sent couriers to General Coffee and others at the head of Tennessee and Kentucky troops, urging them to hasten to New Orleans.  His efforts were timely, for, on the 22d of December, General Keane, with more than two thousand five hundred men, reached the banks of the Mississippi through a bayou, nine miles below the city and prepared to take New Orleans by surprise.  Vigilant eyes were watching his movements; and a prisoner whom he had taken, escaping, hastened to New Orleans and gave General Jackson notice of the near approach of the foe.  At the same time, Coffee and Carroll arrived with the Tennesseeans, and Jackson put a column in motion to meet the invaders.  Early on the evening of the 23d of December, they marched, eighteen hundred strong, led by Jackson in person, and at the same time the armed schooner Carolinia dropped down the river to within musket range of the British camp.  Shot from that vessel first revealed the fact to the British that their presence was known at New Orleans.  The shells and shot from the vessel broke up their camp, when they were attacked in the dark by Jackson and his followers.  The combat that followed was indecisive, except in making the invaders more cautious and discreet.  In this night conflict, the Americans lost about two hundred men, while the British loss was twice as many.

New Orleans was saved from surprise; now it had to be saved from open invasion.  The events of the 23d dispirited the British, and in this condition General Packenham found the troops on his arrival on Christmas day with reinforcements, to take the chief command.  He was a veteran, fresh from the Spanish peninsula, and was delighted to find under his control some of the best of Wellington’s regiments.

He immediately prepared to effect the capture of New Orleans and the subjugation of Louisiana without delay.  With hot shot the annoying Carolinia was burned, and the Louisiana was the only American vessel left on the river.

Jackson was wide awake, however, and began throwing up a line of intrenchments from the banks of the Mississippi to an almost impenetrable swamp in the rear, four miles from New Orleans.

There has been some dispute in regard to the redoubt which defended New Orleans.  There was an old story that a part of the redoubt was composed of cotton bales taken from a rich planter named Mulanthy, and that the cotton bales were afterward sold with hundreds of pounds of British bullets in them.  General Harney, in the Washington Sunday Herald, several years ago denied this story.  General Harney said: