New Orleans, Louisiana April 7th
For General Parrish and his staff the past two days had been tense. The British had crossed the Pearl River yesterday despite General Hardee and his men blowing the bridges at Picayune thanks to a captured ferry. General Hardee and his Division of mounted Militia were fighting a delaying action to slow down their advance. The question was what was their objective. The first thought had been New Orleans, the port would make a good base for Britain to launch a campaign up the Mississippi river to connect with their attack coming out of the Great Lakes region. But the Navy had swept the Gulf on any approach to New Orleans and both the Royal Navy and the Imperial Armada were nowhere to be seen. It took a young Second Lieutenant named George Partridge to point out the obvious “General Parrish sir I believe he’s heading for Baton Rouge. It is the railroad hub for this part of the Commonwealth. Literally all the lines meet there If I were a British officer looking for a way to tie us in a good knot I’d burn Baton Rouge to the Ground and destroy as much of the Railroads as possible before I got run off.” Having it pointed out to him Parrish and the other senior officers couldn’t help but to see it. Second Lieutenant Partridge was given a Commendation and Promoted to First Lieutenant “For seeing what was right there to see but none of us could.” However there was still a problem of manpower Parrish decided to dispatch two divisions to Baton Rouge the Louisiana 7th Division and the 2nd Louisiana Militia Division Major General Daniel Honker the commander of the 7th was given command of the two divisions. However even with those two divisions they would only have 22,000 men at Baton Rouge plus Hardee’s division but they would have been fighting a running battle for four or five days at that point a total of at most 30,000 men. Against what looked like 50,000 British, they would have the advantage in artillery hopefully that would be a small one.
The Battle of Baton Rouge
Battle of Baton Rouge April 11, 1844
Arnott and his men took their time marching on Baton Rouge tearing up the Atlantic and Gulf Railroad as they marched. The constant harassment by General Hardee’s men also retarded their advance. This gave General Honker and his men at Baton Rouge time to strengthen the defenses of the city. Honker had no plan whatsoever of standing in lines batting against each other like they had done back in 1805 and in other parts of this current conflict. No he had his men digging trenches. His line ran along the western bank of Wards Creek North to Hurricane Creek in the North and Manchac Bayou in the south a 16 mile front. This was one of the better defensive positions around Baton Rouge to occupy however it meant that his reserve was less than a brigade until Hardee’s division arrived. Behind his lines he had 3 batteries of field guns. Hardee’s division would arrive on the Evening of April 10th and report that the Redcoats were about seven miles behind them. As his men filed past the trenches into a reserve position Hardee reported to Honker that he had just over 7,000 men combat ready with 1,000 walking wounded that could if needed be pressed into service. Since the battle of Picayune he had lost 2,000 men either killed or two wounded to move or captured. He still had his three horse guns.
General Arnott and his column had been in a slow running fight with the American Cavalry for since they had crossed the Pearl River. On the march he had lost just over 800 men killed or wounded. As he approached the town of Baton Rouge his scouts reported just over a division's worth of men dug in along a creek line in front of the town supported by a couple batteries of field guns. Arnott decided to wait till his force was fully up before he engaged the enemy. This meant that it was 1445h before the british army advanced on Baton Rouge. Arnott had his men deployed into line of battle with Downbridge’s 1st division on his Left and Major General Thomas Harold’s 2nd division on his right. Brigadier William’s cavalry was detached off to Downbridge’s left making him the southernmost British unit on the battlefield. Both divisions were deployed with three of their 4 brigades in line with the last one in reserve. Arnott had determined that it was best to have the American Army in front of him when he made his turn to the north than behind him. With that in mind his orders were as follows Harold would conduct a holding action while Downbridge attacked the American Right flank driving the American out of Baton Rouge toward Fort Washington Georgia (3). General Downbridge and his men would crash into the American Flank at 1600h.
General Honker was pleased with the way that the battle had been going so far. He had expected a heavy assault on his left flank as the enemy would want to drive him back towards the sea and had placed his Louisiana division there and Major General Hank Anderson’s Georgian Militia on the Right. Then at 1615h everything changed, two divisions worth of Redcoats appeared off his right flank and slammed into Anderson’s division. To the Georgian’s credit even out numbered two to one they held firm for over hour of brutal assaults on their positions and thanks to their quick firing breechloading Palmetto Rifles made the Redcoats bleed from every inch of ground that they gained. Yet numbers are their own advantage and when Downbridge’s attack started to stall Arnott ordered Harold’s Division to press their attack on the American left flank In Baton Rouge Honker was faced with a couple of bad choices he had ordered Hardee to take his men to reinforce Anderson’s battered division and no sooner had that flank had been stabilized the British started hammering his Louisianans. However the British had already found out that the Louisiana men with their McKnight Revolving rifles easily negated the number advantage that the British possessed.
Although it was a near run thing several times the Americans held their positions until darkness fell. That night The American held a council of war. All three Generals were of equal rank even if Honker had been given command of the battle by Parrish, because he was the regular army general. The facts were they had started the battle outnumbered by 20,000 men give or take however their rifles even the slower single shot Palmetto’s out classed the british who appeared to be using smoothbore muskets for the biggest part of their army. They had plenty of ammunition for two more days of battle and thanks to river boats supply was not an issue and if needed retreat was also not an issue. Hardee, and Anderson both argued to pull back and shorten the line and allow for better interior lines of movement. Honker finally agreed and around midnight the troops began to pull back to their new positions. Honker’s and Anderson’s divisions stayed on the northern part of the Ward Creek line while Hardee’s men formed a Right angle to Anderson’s men creating the new Right flank of Commonwealth force. Also that night word reached the Generals received word that Lt. Commander Ralph West would be bringing a squadron of 6 gunboats up from New Orleans to support them in the morning.
Dawn on April 12th brought a very unpleasant sight for Arnott. His plan to force the American’s from the town in a quick battle, in that he had failed. Having proved unable to do that he had hoped that they would decide that their position was untenable and withdraw either north or west as he had managed to cut off a retreat to the south. Now he found that he had failed in that as well. Now he faced a choice. His ammunition was not unlimited at best; he had enough for maybe two more major engagements after yesterday's fight. He had been shocked at the amount of casualties that his men had taken yesterday. All totaled he had lost close to 714 men killed and 900 men wounded. The question now was what to do today. He had two choices today he could attack or he could withdraw and start his swing north with a potential army in his rear. It was his division commander both pressing to attack that finally made up his mind. At 1000h Downbridge would renew his attack while Harold held his men for now. Downbridge led his men into the attack and drove his men forward into the murderous fire from the Hardee’s divisions. And by 1100h the British and Commonwealth soldiers were entwined in hand to hand combat. Downbridge sent runners back to Arnott to send any men he had free to into the attack saying “the action is on a knife edge, whichever side gets more men here first will carry the day. Send them now Sir send them now” Arnott did not flinch and ordered William’s two Cavalry Brigades into the fray. He also told Harold to begin to put pressure on the Northern Part of the American line.
William's Charge
William’s 10,000 Cavalry hit Hardee’s line just as the Georgian’s had started to gain the upper hand on the redcoats attacking. However they were in no position to stop a cavalry charge, and the line bent backwards under the weight of the attacking horses and men. Hardee was on his horse behind his men shouting encouragement and directing his merger reserves to plug holes that formed in the line. Hardee was never one to shy away from danger and when he saw the Cavalry charge coming he readied his men around him to be ready for it. As the charge broke on the American Line Lieutenant George Author Smith saw an American officer rallying and directing the defense impressively without hesitation he pulled out his pistol and fired. The shot struck Hardee in the left eye and he toppled out of his saddle dead. As word spread that the general was dead the Georgians broke and started to run.
Anderson saw Hardee’s men running and started to shift his men to cover the flank as he sent work to Honker. The Hardee’s men had broken and were in full retreat. At that point Honker told Anderson to start pulling me up the north and refuse his line at a right angle to Honker’s own line. Anderson managed to achieve this maneuver and by 1230 with the aid of a generous bombardment by West’s Gunboats that had arrived on the scene they had managed to refuse and stabilize the line enough for the American forces to pull out under the cover of the Gunboats.
The British now occupied Baton Rouge and had captured enough of the American field guns to encourage West’s ships to also withdraw north up the river. For Arnott having taken the city he now had to decide what to do next his original plan to march north now looked like a bad idea that would see him more likely to repeat Cornwallis's fate at the end of the American Revolutionary war than anything else. No he chose an even riskier plan beginning that night he started moving the bulk of his men to the western bank of the Mississippi river suing the large Railroad ferries that had been captured intact, as the American had not wanted to burn the large expensive and hard to replace boats for when they inevitably retook the city. The small force he left in the town spent the night and the following day destroying the railroad tracks and yard in the city when the last British troops left Baton Rouge for the west bank they set off charges in the bottom of the two large railroad ferries that had been coated in whale oil to encourage them burn better while the charges blew out the bottom of both boats leaving them total losses. Now the British would begin the long and hard march north on the western side of the Mississippi.
The Commonwealth lost 1,100 killed 2,500 walking wounded and 1,500 to wounded to move and 1,650 captured.
The British lost 2,400 men killed, 3,500 walking wounded 2,000 to wounded to move and left behind.