Battle of Lake Borgne
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The Battle of Lake Borgne was a coastal engagement between the
Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
and the
U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...
in the American South theatre of the
War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It bega ...
. It occurred on December 14, 1814 on
Lake Borgne Lake Borgne (french: Lac Borgne, es, Lago Borgne) is a lagoon of the Gulf of Mexico in southeastern Louisiana. Although early maps show it as a lake surrounded by land, coastal erosion has made it an arm of the Gulf of Mexico. Its name comes fro ...
. The British victory allowed them to disembark their troops unhindered nine days later and to launch an offensive upon New Orleans on land.


Background

In August 1814, Vice Admiral Cochrane had convinced the
Admiralty Admiralty most often refers to: *Admiralty, Hong Kong *Admiralty (United Kingdom), military department in command of the Royal Navy from 1707 to 1964 *The rank of admiral *Admiralty law Admiralty can also refer to: Buildings * Admiralty, Traf ...
that a campaign against New Orleans would weaken American resolve against Canada, and hasten a successful end to the war. In the winter of 1814, the British had the objective of gaining control of the entrance of the Mississippi, and to challenge the legality of the Louisiana Purchase. To this end, an expeditionary force of about 8,000 troops under General
Edward Pakenham Major General Sir Edward Michael Pakenham, (19 March 1778 – 8 January 1815), was a British Army officer and politician. He was the son of the Baron Longford and the brother-in-law of the Duke of Wellington, with whom he served in the Penin ...
had arrived in the Gulf Coast, to attack New Orleans. An anonymous letter sent from Pensacola, dated December 5 and addressed to Commodore Daniel Patterson warned him of this imminent threat, and was received on December 7. Patterson dispatched Lieutenant
Thomas ap Catesby Jones Thomas ''ap'' Catesby Jones (24 April 1790 – 30 May 1858) was a U.S. Navy commissioned officer during the War of 1812 and the Mexican–American War. Early life and education Thomas ap Catesby Jones was born on 24 April 1790 in Westmor ...
and a small flotilla to wait outside of the
Rigolets Rigolets is a 12.9 kilometer (8 mi) long deepwater strait in Louisiana. "Rigolets" comes from the word ''rigole'', French language, French for 'trench' or 'gutter'. The name is now locally pronounced "RIG-uh-leez". The strait begins at and ...
heading eastward, towards the passes Mariana and Christiana (marked on Lossing's map, close to Cat Island), to watch the movements of the British vessels. The American force consisted of five Jeffersonian gunboats - ''No. 156'', ''No. 163'', ''No. 5'', ''No. 23'', and ''No. 162'' - the
schooner A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoon ...
USS ''Sea Horse'' with Sailing-Master Johnson commanding, and a
sloop-of-war In the 18th century and most of the 19th, a sloop-of-war in the Royal Navy was a warship with a single gun deck that carried up to eighteen guns. The rating system covered all vessels with 20 guns and above; thus, the term ''sloop-of-war'' enc ...
, USS ''Alligator'', serving as a tender. Gunboat No. 156, the
flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the fi ...
of the squadron, mounted one long 24-pounder, four 12-pounder
carronade A carronade is a short, smoothbore, cast-iron cannon which was used by the Royal Navy. It was first produced by the Carron Company, an ironworks in Falkirk, Scotland, and was used from the mid-18th century to the mid-19th century. Its main func ...
s, and four
swivel gun The term swivel gun (or simply swivel) usually refers to a small cannon, mounted on a swiveling stand or fork which allows a very wide arc of movement. Another type of firearm referred to as a swivel gun was an early flintlock combination gun wi ...
s. She had a crew of over forty men. Vice Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane, British Commander-in-Chief of the
North American Station The North America and West Indies Station was a formation or command of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy stationed in North American waters from 1745 to 1956. The North American Station was separate from the Jamaica Station until 1830 when the ...
, ordered HMS ''Seahorse'', ''Armide'' and ''Sophie'' from
Pensacola Pensacola () is the westernmost city in the Florida Panhandle, and the county seat and only incorporated city of Escambia County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 54,312. Pensacola is the principal ci ...
to the anchorage within
Ship Island (Mississippi) Ship Island is a barrier island off the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, one of the Mississippi–Alabama barrier islands. Hurricane Camille split the island into two separate islands (West Ship Island and East Ship Island) in 1969. In early 2019, ...
. This location, known today as
Bayou Bienvenue Bayou Bienvenue is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed June 20, 2011 bayou and "ghost swamp" in southeastern Louisiana. It runs along the political border between Orleans P ...
, at the head of the lake, situated from the troopship anchorage of Cat Island, was to be the disembarkation point for the British soldiers. On December 8, the three British vessels reported that as they passed Cat Island, Mississippi, two American gunboats had fired at them. Furthermore, lookouts on the masts had seen three more gunboats. It would not be possible to proceed with the disembarkation until this squadron of five gunboats, in the shallow waters of the inlet Lake Borgne, were destroyed. Cochrane put all the rowboats of the British fleet under the command of
Commander Commander (commonly abbreviated as Cmdr.) is a common naval officer rank. Commander is also used as a rank or title in other formal organizations, including several police forces. In several countries this naval rank is termed frigate captain. ...
Nicholas Lockyer of ''Sophie'', with orders to pursue the American flotilla, in waters too shallow for an attack by a
ship of the line A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed during the Age of Sail from the 17th century to the mid-19th century. The ship of the line was designed for the naval tactic known as the line of battle, which depended on the two colu ...
. The British deployed forty launches and
barge Barge nowadays generally refers to a flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. The first modern barges were pulled by tugs, but nowadays most are pushed by pusher boats, or other vessels ...
s with one 12, 18 or 24 pounder carronade each, two further launches with a long 9 pounder and a long 12 pounder respectively, as well as three unarmed gigs. The force consisted of some 980 sailors and
Royal Marines The Corps of Royal Marines (RM), also known as the Royal Marines Commandos, are the UK's special operations capable commando force, amphibious light infantry and also one of the five fighting arms of the Royal Navy. The Corps of Royal Marine ...
. The largest amount of men embarked in any one of the barges was 31. Jones's squadron headed back in the direction of the Rigolets, mooring at Bay St Louis on December 10. The following day, they prepared their boats to make an attack. On December 12 the squadron arrived at Cat Island, but found the overwhelming strength of the British would have been disadvantageous to the gunboats, so they returned in the direction of the Rigolets, and the fort at Petit Coquilles.Court martial of inquiry commenced May 15, to investigate the conduct of officers and seamen on December 14, reproduced in Latour (1816), appendix LXII, pp.cxxxii-cxxxv Owing to the strong current, they were only able to get as far as the channel between the mainland and Malheureux island on December 13. Jones had been ordered by Patterson to position his gunboats across Pass Christiana (to the south of the modern day settlement of
Ansley, Mississippi Ansley is an Unincorporated area, unincorporated community in Hancock County, Mississippi, United States. It is located approximately west of Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, Bay St. Louis. History Ansley was established as a Request stop, flag sto ...
), at the mouth of Lake Borgne, then fall back to the Rigolets to make a stand. At night on December 12, the British rowboats, under Lockyer, set off to enter Lake Borgne, to attack the gunboat squadron. Jones sighted the British rowboats on December 13 at 10:00am believing them to be disembarking troops, advancing in the direction of Pass Christian and then stopping. When he saw their route at 2:00pm, advancing past
Pass Christian Pass Christian (), nicknamed The Pass, is a city in Harrison County, Mississippi, United States. It is part of the Gulfport–Biloxi Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 6,307 at the 2019 census. History Pre-European history ...
without stopping, he realized they were heading to attack his gunboats. The shallow waters caused Jones issues, three of his gunboats being in 12 or 18 inches water less than their draught, which was resolved by the flood tide at 3:30pm. The first contact was with three of Lockyer's launches and the schooner ''Sea Horse'' on December 13 at 3:45pm. At 2:00pm she had been sent to remove, or failing that to destroy, a stores dump at
Bay St. Louis Bay St. Louis is a city in and the county seat of Hancock County, Mississippi, in the United States. Located on the Gulf Coast on the west side of the Bay of St. Louis, it is part of the Gulfport–Biloxi Metropolitan Statistical Area. As o ...
in order to prevent its capture by British forces. The schooner, with the protection of two land-based 6 pounder cannon, saw off three approaching launches with grapeshot, who initially retired out of range. ''Sea Horse'' faced a subsequent rowboat attack with four more launches as reinforcements, commanded by Captain Samuel Roberts of ''HMS Meteor''. This renewed attack was 'repulsed after sustaining for nearly half an hour a very destructive fire.' In the face of superior numbers, the ''Sea Horse'' was scuttled and the store was set alight, an explosion occurring at 7:30pm with a large fire being visible thereafter. Jones subsequently confirmed that he had sanctioned Johnson to destroy his schooner to prevent it being captured. At 8:00pm, Lockyer rested his boat crews, who had been rowing against the flow of the tide.


Battle

After rowing for about thirty-six hours, the British approached the five American vessels drawn up in line abreast to block the channel between Malheureux Island and Point Claire on the mainland. At daybreak, Jones noticed the British rowboats nine miles to the east. As the British advanced, they spotted ''Alligator'', immediately sent a few rowboats under Roberts to cut her off and the British quickly captured her at 9:30am. At 10 o'clock on the morning of December 14, the British boats had closed to within long gunshot by St. Joseph's Island. At this point Lockyer ordered the boats' crews to breakfast. Lockyer formed the boats into three divisions. He took command of the first, gave Montresor of command of the second, and Roberts of ''
Meteor A meteoroid () is a small rocky or metallic body in outer space. Meteoroids are defined as objects significantly smaller than asteroids, ranging in size from grains to objects up to a meter wide. Objects smaller than this are classified as micr ...
'' command of the third. When the British had finished their breakfast they returned to their oars and pulled up to the line of American gunboats. The main battle came at 10:39 am. The British were rowing against a strong current and under a heavy fire of round and grapeshot. The American sailors killed or wounded a number of the rowboat crews in the process, including most of the men in Lockyer's boat. Eventually the range closed and the British sailors and marines began to board the American vessels. At 11:50am Lockyer personally boarded Gunboat No. 156, Jones's vessel. Both Lockyer and Jones sustained severe wounds. One rowboat from ''Tonnant'', commanded by Lieutenant James Barnwell Tattnall grappled the gunboat and was sunk, all of its boarding party transferred to the other rowboats. Jones states that at 12:10pm the British captured Gunboat No. 156 and turned her guns against her sister ships. The gunboat fired her broadsides and assisted the capture of the remaining American craft. One by one, the British took the other four American gunboats. The engagement was over at 12:30pm. Lockyer had hypothesised that boarding and capturing the rest of the American flotilla took five minutes, rather than the twenty minutes in Jones's account.


Aftermath

The engagement lasted about two hours, though the actual hand-to-hand combat was short. Whilst the British outnumbered the American seamen, Roosevelt does note the advantage Jones's flotilla had in defense, being stationary, having some long heavy guns and boarding nettings. This was offset by two of the five gunboats (No.156 commanded by Jones, and No.163 commanded by Ulrick) having drifted out of line. The Americans lost their entire flotilla of five gunboats and crew, of whom 41 were killed or wounded. Lockyer states the five gunboats were each crewed by 45 men, for a total of 225, whereas Jones gives a lower figure for a total of 182 men in the five gunboats. Jones was made a
prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of wa ...
for three months and would later be decorated for his bravery in this engagement. The British casualties were 94 killed and wounded. The casualties were from the following vessels: ''Tonnant'', ''Norge'', ''Bedford'', ''Royal Oak'', ''Ramillies'', ''Armide'', ''Cydnus'', ''Seahorse'', ''Trave'', ''Sophie'', ''Belle Poule'', ''Gorgon'', ''Meteor''.Letter from Lockyer to Cochrane dated 18 December 1814, reproduced in American claims that at least 2 British boats sunk and over 300 casualties were inflicted, as Jones claimed,Letter from Jones to Patterson dated 12 March 1815, within Brannan (ed). pp.487-490 are disputed. In all, the six captured vessels of Jones's squadron comprised a loss of 245 men, sixteen long guns, fourteen carronades, two
howitzer A howitzer () is a long- ranged weapon, falling between a cannon (also known as an artillery gun in the United States), which fires shells at flat trajectories, and a mortar, which fires at high angles of ascent and descent. Howitzers, like ot ...
s and twelve swivel guns, as reported by Lockyer. Cochrane rated the captured flotilla as the equivalent of a 36-gun frigate and appointed Lockyer to its command as soon as his wounds permitted.Letter from Cochrane to Admiralty dated 16 December 1814, reproduced in Montresor took command ''pro tem''; in March 1815, Lockyer received promotion to
post captain Post-captain is an obsolete alternative form of the rank of Captain (Royal Navy), captain in the Royal Navy. The term served to distinguish those who were captains by rank from: * Officers in command of a naval vessel, who were (and still are) ...
. The British took the five gunboats into service under the names ''Ambush'' (or ''Ambush No. 5''), ''Firebrand'', ''Destruction'', and ''Eagle''. Several of these vessels remained in Royal Navy service into June 1815, and at least one perhaps beyond. As well as the warships providing men for the boats, there were sailors from the following troopships too: Gorgon, Dictator, Diomede, Alceste, Belle Poule, Hydra, Bucephalus, Fox, Dover, Thames. Lake Borgne would become the landing zone for British forces preparing to attack New Orleans. After the population of the city learned of the engagement on Lake Borgne, panic overtook some inhabitants of New Orleans; so Andrew Jackson declared
martial law Martial law is the imposition of direct military control of normal civil functions or suspension of civil law by a government, especially in response to an emergency where civil forces are overwhelmed, or in an occupied territory. Use Marti ...
on December 15. The loss of the gunboats meant that Jackson had no means of surveillance of the British, and it is noted that he did not deploy scouts as a substitute. One unintended consequence is that the gunboat crews in captivity were able to mislead the British as to Jackson's strength in numbers, when they were questioned. At the end of January 1815, the prisoners of war were transported to the Caribbean in HMS Ramillies. In February 1815, following news of ratification of the peace treaty, was sent to Jamaica, to fetch the prisoners taken at Lake Borgne, and to repatriate the prisoners. Although Jones's squadron never made it as far as the fort at Petit Coquilles, it was decided to improve the coastal defences with the creation of
Fort Pike Fort Pike State Historic Site is a decommissioned 19th-century United States fort, named after Brigadier General Zebulon Pike. It was built following the War of 1812 to guard the Rigolets pass in Louisiana, a strait from the Gulf of Mexico, via L ...
commencing in 1819 to replace the earlier fort. It was the first of three forts to be constructed in Louisiana under the postwar "Third System", along with
Fort Jackson, Louisiana Fort Jackson is a historic masonry fort located up river from the mouth of the Mississippi River in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana. It was constructed as a coastal defense of New Orleans, between 1822 and 1832, and it was a battle site during t ...
and
Fort Livingston, Louisiana Fort Livingston was a 19th-century coastal defense fort located on Grand Terre Island in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana. The fort was named after Edward Livingston who had held positions as Mayor of New York City, U.S. Senator from Louisiana, and U. ...
. The engagement itself was not referred to as a "battle" in the literature of the 19th century. Hornbrook's painting from the 1840s uses the word 'action' in its title. Secondary sources in the 20th century do refer to the 'Battle of Lake Borgne'.


Medal

In 1847 the
Admiralty Admiralty most often refers to: *Admiralty, Hong Kong *Admiralty (United Kingdom), military department in command of the Royal Navy from 1707 to 1964 *The rank of admiral *Admiralty law Admiralty can also refer to: Buildings * Admiralty, Traf ...
initiated the Naval General Service Medal. The clasps covered a variety of actions, from boat service to single-ship actions, to larger naval engagements, including major fleet actions. The engagement at Lake Borgne was deemed a boat service worthy enough of recognition by a clasp, and appears on the list of clasps for boat service during the War of 1812. The Admiralty issued a clasp (or bar) marked "14 Dec. Boat Service 1814" to surviving combatants who claimed the clasp. This was the largest Boat Action for which the Naval General Service Medal was granted. In all, 205 survivors claimed it.


See also

* American South theatre of the War of 1812


Notes and citations

Notes Citations ;Bibliography * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


External links

* {{Battles of the War of 1812
Lake Borgne Lake Borgne (french: Lac Borgne, es, Lago Borgne) is a lagoon of the Gulf of Mexico in southeastern Louisiana. Although early maps show it as a lake surrounded by land, coastal erosion has made it an arm of the Gulf of Mexico. Its name comes fro ...
Lake Borgne Lake Borgne (french: Lac Borgne, es, Lago Borgne) is a lagoon of the Gulf of Mexico in southeastern Louisiana. Although early maps show it as a lake surrounded by land, coastal erosion has made it an arm of the Gulf of Mexico. Its name comes fro ...
History of Louisiana 1814 in Louisiana December 1814 events
Lake Borgne Lake Borgne (french: Lac Borgne, es, Lago Borgne) is a lagoon of the Gulf of Mexico in southeastern Louisiana. Although early maps show it as a lake surrounded by land, coastal erosion has made it an arm of the Gulf of Mexico. Its name comes fro ...
Lake Borgne Lake Borgne (french: Lac Borgne, es, Lago Borgne) is a lagoon of the Gulf of Mexico in southeastern Louisiana. Although early maps show it as a lake surrounded by land, coastal erosion has made it an arm of the Gulf of Mexico. Its name comes fro ...