Combat· War of 1812
Battle of Lake Borgne
The opening blow of the New Orleans campaign, and an American defeat that bought priceless time.
To clear the way for the army's approach, the British sent some forty barges carrying nearly a thousand seamen and Royal Marines against the five American gunboats under Lieutenant Thomas ap Catesby Jones that guarded Lake Borgne. Small Marine guards served aboard the gunboats. The Americans, becalmed and badly outnumbered, fought hard, sinking and damaging several barges before the British closed and boarded; Jones was severely wounded, and one by one all five gunboats were carried in close combat. The flotilla was lost, opening the lake to the British advance, but the stubborn defense, and the captured crews' success in misleading the British about Jackson's strength, cost the enemy days they could not spare and helped set up the disaster that awaited them at New Orleans.
Podcast episodes on War of 1812
Record no. 240