Addendum to Previous Post
“Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them…”
I never dreamed in writing the previous post that I would suddenly be thrust into a thought process reflecting Tennyson’s “The Charge of the Light Brigade.” But now I wonder.
Campbell Island
A reader of the Pointe Claire post has told me that he has heard a similar story, but one emanating from someone at the LaFrance marina. That story also was about a successful recovery of old cannons, these from Campbell Island.
Campbell Island? Why Campbell Island? We know a bit about this site, another marsh island south of the LaFrance marina, and like others, it can only be reached by water. It is even further from any towns and settlements than Point Clear and Russ Islands, those studied in the previous posts. It is also different from the others in that for at least a couple of generations it was occupied by an extended family by that name, the first of whom came from Scotland.
As far as we know, they were a quiet community, living off the land mostly, but also making oak bow stems for boats. We know some things from an interview with Poss LaFrance; he told how he and others carried to the island the body of the last Campbell to die. We have some wonderful old photos of him and the mourners with the coffin, on board Poss’s schooner, the Mabel L. In addition we have pictures of the graveyard with a house in the background as well as pictures of the island and the bayou leading to it.
I will soon be posting a separate article about the Campbells, with information taken from census reports and other documents in the historic society. But it is a separate subject and is not yet complete.
The Campbell story is in itself fascinating: a family who kept to themselves, but sometimes visited the more settled communities. By all accounts, they were not recluses; they simply lived and worked on their own island.
But once again, why cannons?
Some background history
Under most conditions, the telling of two similar stories would cast doubt upon both. Naturally, my mind went to that possibility. However, it could be that the mystery crew went to both places. In the foregoing post, I did not allow consideration that the cannons might be British. I was simply convinced that there had to be other explanations. Now, I just don’t know, and further investigation must be done.
I await further details about the newer story, but if the location of the marina proves out to be LaFrance, and the island was Campbell’s, the origin of those cannons could well be the British.
In the last couple of days, I have studied books about the battle of New Orleans from both my own library and the New Orleans Public Library. I have reread parts of the Gleig report, written by one who actually was present and fought at the battle. I have also been down to the battlefield at Chalmette. There I paged through the most detailed accounts of the battle, and talked with the ranger on duty. He said that there were emplacements along the Mississippi coast east of the Bay of St. Louis; I did not contest this, but I believe his only source was the map in Latour’s book. I have wondered over time why this is so, as Latour in his written work makes no mention of such.
Once more, I have viewed that map, and it clearly shows “American troops encampment.” Perhaps this was so marked because some troops may have camped in the area of present-day Pass Christian or thereabouts on their way back from the Creek War and on the way to New Orleans. It seems unlikely that they would have remained at the time the British were making their movements. I have heard stories of fires being let along the beaches in order to give the impression that there were many troops quartered, but I have not validated this information. Moreover, there seem to have been many settlements in Hancock County which have been pleased to claim that the troops came through their towns. Even this I have doubts about, as none of the histories gives an accurate account of the path of Jackson’s forces on their way to New Orleans. Only in the case of Jackson and his closest advisors is it recorded that they took the “old federal road,” meaning the 31st parallel after they left Mobile. They then went through Ford’s Fort near the Louisiana/Mississippi line, before going southwest to Madisonville. In any event, they were far north of the coastal areas.
I can find no indication in Gleig or other histories that the British went inland on their way to St. Bernard. Nonetheless, I have to allow that they might have done so. After all, they might well have reasoned that troops coming from inland could severely hamper their ability to transport the invaders being transferred to and from Pea Island.
There is in fact a high-ground site on Mulatto Bayou which over the years has been known as “English Lookout.” While I have never accepted this as having any historical significance, I now wonder. Perhaps I would have been more credulous had it been called “American Lookout,” but the name may have some basis in fact.
Further information sought
The reader mentioned above is undertaking to check the veracity of the story as told to him. Meanwhile, I have endeavored to clarify my own version, and have talked with the long-term assistant to my storyteller. He has no memory of the cannons being brought into Bayou Caddy, as he was very young. However, he and friends when they were youths on several occasions visited two sites of cannon emplacements, one on Point Clear Island and the other on the hill on Russ Island. He has described a kind of housing or support which has now been covered over by sand in each location. The location on Point Clear was a couple of hundred yards back from its point, near the old well. In answer to my inquiry about on which side of the islands the emplacements were found, he answered with certainly, “the inside.”
It is this latter point which I initially found to be perplexing.
Pea Island
Even though I have revisited the Latour maps showing American troops being in an area east of the Bay of St. Louis, at this point I still have no evidence that the British went further inland than Pea Island, that desolate nine-mile long strip of marshland lying just off Louisiana mainland. (I choose to use the historical name rather than that by which the British called the island, i.e., “Pine Island.” On modern maps it is “Pearl River Island.”)
We know that what they did, however, was to camp several thousand troops on Pea Island during the transporting process. Gleig gives a detailed account of how the troops were ferried there, what the desolate island looked like, how difficult was the weather, and much more. Some of the poor blacks recruited from Jamaica froze and died. December 1814 was said to have been an extremely severe period of rain and cold.
The troops carried heavy arms and supplies. Each one had to take a cannon ball in his knap sack. It is not likely that those who were being moved to the battle field picked up the arms left on the island by those who perished from the cold and rain.
Nowhere is there mention of anyone going inland. There are, however, mentions of gunboats, which seem to be in addition to the barges with one cannon each used to fight the battle of Lake Borgne against the five American armed schooners.
The timetable below has been assembled in order to contemplate whether there was time to send any boats and troops inland. The answer is indeed in the affirmative, as there were fully ten days between the removal of troops under convoy of gun-brigs, and the first embarkation of troops from Pea Island.
Gun-brigs
The British fleet numbered at least fifty vessels. Not all were ships of the line. The mention of gun-brigs alerts the curiosity of anyone studying this history. The following definition of a gun-brig is taken from Wikipedia:The earliest gun-brigs were shallow-draught vessels. Initially they were not brigs at all, but were classed as 'gunvessels' and carried a schooner or brigantine rig. They were re-rigged as brigs about 1796 and re-classed under the new term 'gun-brig'. They were designed as much to row as to sail, and carried their primary armament firing forward – a pair of long 18-pounders or 24-pounders, weapons which in any practical sense could only be trained and fired with the vessel under oars.
It is now time to return to the statement made by the younger storyteller. He said that the cannons had been placed on the inside of each of the two marsh islands. This means they would essentially have been pointing north, as if to defend against a counter action coming from that direction.
If one is willing to postulate that the British might have made their way in-land during that ten-day period, he might no longer be perplexed as I had been.
The British, who had excellent maps and much information beforehand, and whose planning went so far as to have the small barges manufactured in Jamaica long before they embarked, might well have thought possible that American land troops could have descended through the marshes of Hancock County Ms thus causing much disturbance to the landing of troops on Pea Island or anywhere on the coast of Lake Borgne.
Something I have wondered about was whether the British ferried their cannons through Pea Island or carried them to St. Bernard directly from the ships. I now have confirmation that British not only took cannons to Pea Island, but in fact left some there to be picked up later. It is highly likely that some stayed, as they probably did not want to take back to the ships any more than necessary. This evidence comes from War of 1812, by Greenblatt: “Pakenham ordered cannons brought up from Pea Island, on the morning of December 27….On December 28, Pakenham ordered troops to retreat…[He was] determined to try again, and ordered heavy navy guns brought up from Pea Island.”
There can be little doubt that some equipment was left on the island. Probably, whatever the deceased Jamaican troops had carried was left behind. Perhaps some cannons were too. If the stories we have been told concerned cannons being found on Pea Island, there would be no hesitance of belief.
If true, we are owed…
We may never know the full history of the cannons. One thing is clear, however, that being that if they in fact existed, whatever their identity and purpose, we of Hancock County deserve better from those who recovered them. Even presuming that they acted legally, they should have shared their discoveries with us.
Timetable for British – Pea Island to Bayou Bienvenu
(Most of the following is according to Gleig. Pine Island is Pea Island)
- 12/10 – shore of America discerned, opposite Chandeleur
- 12/13 – began removal of troops from ships to lighter vessels, under convoy of “gun-brigs”
- 12/14 – battle of Lake Borgne. Earlier, the fleet had weighed anchor but began to run aground; troops “embarked of their new and straitened transports…and after exposure of 10 hours” landed on Pine Island
- 12/16: the disembarkation of the troops began; Remini: “it took 5 days to complete.”
- 12/21 – all the troops were got on shore “late on the evening of the 21
st ” - 12/22 – boats assembled, ammunition packed, stores where got ready. Not enough boats, so troops had to be ferried 1/3 at a time.
- 12/23 – first group of 1600 men and two cannon embarked.
rbg