the disasters suffered from the Americans, and Croker, the Secretary to the Admiralty, was able to tell the story of the fight off Boston to the wildly cheering House, as a complete defense of his department. Broke was at once created a Baronet and a Knight of the Bath. In America, on the other hand, the story of the fight was received with mingled wrath and incredulity. "I remember," says Rush, afterward U. S. Minister at the Court of St. James, "at the first rumor of it, the universal incredulity. I remember how the post-offices were thronged for successive days with anxious thousands; how collections of citizens rode out for miles on the highway to get the earliest news the mail brought. At last, when the certainty was known, I remember the public gloom, the universal badges of mourning. 'Don't give up the ship,' the dying words of Lawrence, were on every tongue."

The War of 1812, which was waged in consequence of various commercial and maritime disputes, was concluded by the Peace of Ghent, December 24, 1814. Previously, on August 15th of that year, a force of four thousand men under General Ross sailed into Chesapeake Bay. The commander of the American fleet, instead of opposing their landing, burned his ships and joined the land force. The British thereupon decided to march on Washington. The force opposed to them 'consisted of one thousand regulars and five thousand militia. Instead of contenting themselves with harassing the British, for which they were better fitted, they drew up ready for a pitched battle at Bladensburg, a point covering Washington in the direction of the British advance. The British attacked and routed the Americans with small loss on either side. The precipitate flight of the militia on the first charge so weakened the defending force that the commander decided to make no further effort to hold Washington, and accordingly he evacuated the city. The British marched in and destroyed the government property, including the Capitol, the President's house, and the national records; a barbarous violation of the usages of war among civilized nations. Their next proceeding was to march on Baltimore. They were supported by a squadron of fifty sail under Admiral Cochrane, which sailed up the Patapsco River. The town was garrisoned with one thousand five hundred men

nearly all militia.

Its chief defense was an outwork called

Fort Henry, on the Patapsco.

The land force met with little resistance in its advance, although it lost its commander, Ross, in a skirmish. The fleet bombarded Fort Henry, but was unable either to silence the guns of the fort or to force its way past. As the land force did not appear strong enough to make the attack unsupported the attempt was abandoned. In the meantime the British had sustained a severe loss on the coast. Sir Peter Parker, a naval officer of much note, who. was in command of a frigate in the Chesapeake Bay, had landed with a small force and had been killed by an outlying post of Americans.

On the northern frontier the war had been carried on actively by both sides, but without decisive results. In May the British took Oswego, on Lake Ontario. In June the Americans renewed their attempt to invade Canada. They crossed near Niagara with three thousand five hundred men, captured Fort Erie, and defeated the British at Fort Chippeway. On July 25 they encountered the whole British force at Lundy's Lane, near Niagara. A fierce engagement followed, with heavy and nearly equal losses on each side.

The Americans kept Fort Erie for some little time, but finally they destroyed it and returned to their own territory. In September, Sir George Prevost, the governor of Canada, made an attempt, somewhat like Burgoyne's, to invade the United States by way of Lake Champlain. He was supported by a fleet of seventeen sail; but a small American fleet, under Commodore McDonough, engaged the British fleet and utterly defeated it at Plattsburgh, near the northern end of the lake. This killed Prevost's attempted invasion.

By far the most important events of the war were those in the South. In the course of the summer of 1814, it became known that the British were meditating an attack on the Southern States, probably at the mouth of the Mississippi. The defense was intrusted to Jackson, fresh from his victory over the Creeks. He found that the British had established themselves at Pensacola, in the Spanish territory of Florida. Jackson himself took up his position

at Mobile, on the coast of Alabama. The chief defense of Mobile was Fort Bowyer, on a point commanding Mobile Bay. On the 15th of September the fort was attacked by the British both by sea and land, but was gallantly and successfully defended by Major Lawrence. Jackson sent a ship to its relief, but the captain, hearing a terrific explosion, came back and told Jackson that the fort had fallen. The explosion in reality was caused by the blowing up of a British ship which had been set on fire by the guns of the fort. After this success, Jackson marched upon Pensacola and seized it, considering that the Spaniards, by harboring the British, had forfeited their rights as neutrals. The British now proceeded to attack New Orleans.

Some doubts seem to have been felt on each side how far the French-born Louisianians would be true to the American Union, of which they had lately become citizens. There seems to have been no ground for these suspicions, and the Louisianians were throughout loyal to their new government. There was also fear of a rising among the slaves. Moreover, the American supply of arms was miserably insufficient; but the strong will and courage of Jackson overcame or lightened every difficulty. On November 24 the British fleet of fifty sail anchored off the mouth of the Mississippi. Two plans of attack were open to the British: to ascend the river and attack New Orleans by water, or to land the troops and march on the city. To do the former it would have been necessary to destroy the forts which guarded the river, or at least to silence their guns. This was considered too difficult, and the British commanders decided to attack by land. Accordingly, on the 21st of December, the British troops disembarked. They were opposed by a fleet of small vessels, but the British gunboats beat these off, and the troops made good their landing. They were under the command of General Pakenham, a brother-in-law of the Duke of Wellington. He had shown himself a brave soldier in the Peninsula, but had done nothing to prove his fitness for command when much skill and judgment were needed. Till his arrival the British troops, numbering about three thousand, were commanded by General Keane. At first the Americans were ignorant of the exact position of the enemy, but on the 23d they learned that the British

army was within nine miles of the city. The news was brought by a young planter, whose house had been seized by the British troops. All the rest of the household had been captured, and but for his escape the city might have been surprised. Jackson then marched out, and an engagement followed. After a whole night's fighting, during which the British were much harassed by the fire of two vessels in the river, the Americans retired. Keane, it has been thought, ought then to have marched straight on the city.

9

After this, Jackson stationed himself outside the city and threw up earthworks in its defense. Every man and horse that could be pressed into the service was employed. On the 25th Pakenham arrived, and three days later an unsuccessful attack was made on the American works. Here, as before, the two American ships in the river harassed the British troops, till one was sunk and the other driven off by the enemy's guns. On the 8th of January the British made their general attack. They numbered seven thousand three hundred, the Americans twelve thousand. Pakenham sent a detachment across the river to seize the forts on that side, which would otherwise have annoyed his main body by a cross fire. This attempt was completely successful, but the main body was defeated with terrific loss, and Pakenham himself fell. Jackson did not attempt to follow up his victory, and, after a few skirmishes between the outposts, the British embarked and sailed off.

Though the war was in reality over and peace signed when this battle was fought, yet the victory was of great importance to the Americans. It saved New Orleans, a rich and populous city, from the horrors of a sack; and, contrasted with the American defeat at Washington, it begot an enthusiastic admiration for Jackson which laid the foundation of his great political influence.

WATERLOO

RETURN OF THE CORSICAN OGRE - RIVAL HOSTS-THE GREAT FIGHT THE CAVALRY, THE SQUARES, AND THE GUNNERS— OLD GUARD TO THE RESCUE-THE GREAT DEFEAT

A

A. D. 1815

FTER the abdication of Napoleon and his removal to Elba which ensued, Europe began to breathe. Then suddenly the news of his escape was learned. The exertions which at this crisis were made by the allied powers have rightly been termed gigantic, yet never was Napoleon's genius more signally displayed than in the speed and skill by which he reassembled all the military resources of France. He re-entered Paris on the 20th of March, 1815, and by the end of May, besides sending a force into La Vendee to put down the armed risings of the royalists in that province, and besides providing troops under Massena and Suchet for the defense of the southern frontiers of France, he had an army assembled in the northeast, for active operations under his own command, which amounted to between one hundred and twenty thousand and one hundred and thirty thousand men, with a superb park of artillery, and in the highest possible state of equipment, discipline, and efficiency.

The approach of the many Russians, Austrians, Bavarians, and other foes of the French emperor to the Rhine was necessarily slow; but the two most active of the allied powers had occupied Belgium with their troops while Napoleon was organizing his forces. Marshal Blucher was there with one hundred and sixteen thousand Prussians, and the Duke of Wellington was there also with about one hundred and six thousand troops, either British or in British