Lake Borgne

Fought on December 14, 1814, this clash on Lake Borgne pitted British naval forces against their American counterparts as part of the wider conflict unfolding in the southern United States during the War of 1812. The engagement formed part of the coastal fighting between the Royal Navy and the United States Navy in that theater. Triumphant in the encounter, the British secured the ability to land their troops without opposition nine days afterward, setting the stage for a ground offensive directed at New Orleans.

Background

By the late summer of 1814, Vice Admiral Alexander Cochrane had persuaded the Admiralty that striking at New Orleans would sap American willingness to fight in Canada and speed the war toward a favorable close. As winter set in, British strategy called for seizing command of the Mississippi's mouth and questioning the legitimacy of the Louisiana Purchase. Pursuing that aim, General Edward Pakenham led an expeditionary force of roughly 8,000 troops to the Gulf Coast with orders to strike New Orleans. A letter without a signature, dispatched from Pensacola on December 5 and sent to Commodore Daniel Patterson, cautioned him about the coming danger and reached him on December 7. In response, Patterson sent Lieutenant Thomas ap Catesby Jones with a modest flotilla to station itself past the Rigolets, moving east toward the Mariana and Christiana passes near Cat Island as shown on Lossing's map, so that British ship movements could be tracked.

Jones commanded five Jeffersonian gunboats, numbered 156, 163, 5, 23, and 162, along with the schooner Sea Horse under Sailing-Master Johnson and the sloop-of-war Alligator acting as tender. Gunboat 156 served as flagship and carried a long 24-pounder, four 12-pounder carronades, four swivel guns, and more than forty crewmen.

Cochrane, commanding British forces on the North American Station, directed the Seahorse, Armide, and Sophie away from Pensacola toward the anchorage inside Ship Island, Mississippi. This spot, now called Bayou Bienvenue and sitting at the lake's head some 60 miles from the troop anchorage at Cat Island, was chosen as the landing point for British forces. On December 8, the trio of British ships noted that upon passing Cat Island two American gunboats had opened fire on them, and lookouts stationed aloft had spotted three additional gunboats. Landing troops could not go forward until this five-vessel American squadron, positioned in the shallow inlet waters of Lake Borgne, was eliminated.

Cochrane assigned every rowboat in the fleet to Commander Nicholas Lockyer of the Sophie, tasking him with chasing down the American flotilla through waters too shallow for line-of-battle ships to enter. Forty launches and barges went into action, each armed with a single carronade of 12, 18, or 24 pounds, supplemented by two more launches bearing a long 9-pounder and a long 12-pounder, plus three gigs without weapons. Nearly 980 sailors and Royal Marines made up this force, and the heaviest-manned barge carried 31 men.

Meanwhile Jones turned his squadron back toward the Rigolets, anchoring at Bay St. Louis on December 10, and readied his boats for combat the next day. By December 12 the squadron had reached Cat Island, only to discover that facing the British in such overwhelming numbers would put the gunboats at severe risk, prompting withdrawal back toward the Rigolets and Fort Petit Coquilles. A powerful current limited their progress on December 13 to the channel separating the mainland from Malheureux Island, south of what is today Ansley, Mississippi. Patterson had instructed Jones to hold his gunboats across Pass Christiana at the entrance to Lake Borgne, and to retreat to the Rigolets if necessary to make a defensive stand.

On the night of December 12, Lockyer's rowboats pushed into Lake Borgne aiming to strike the gunboat squadron. The next morning at 10:00, Jones spotted the approaching British boats and mistook their movement toward Pass Christian, followed by a pause, for a troop landing. By 2:00pm, seeing them press onward past Pass Christian without halting, he understood their true target was his own gunboats. Shallow water created difficulties, leaving three of his vessels sitting 12 to 18 inches short of clearance, a problem eased only when the flood tide arrived at 3:30pm.

The opening clash came at 3:45pm on December 13 between three of Lockyer's launches and the Sea Horse. Two hours earlier, that schooner had been dispatched to clear out, or otherwise destroy, a supply depot at Bay St. Louis so it would not fall into British hands. Backed by two shore-mounted 6-pounder guns, the Sea Horse drove off the three launches with grapeshot, forcing their temporary retreat be

Battle

After some thirty-six hours at the oars, the British closed on the five American gunboats that had been arranged abreast to seal off the passage between Malheureux Island and Point Claire on the mainland. At first light, Jones spotted the enemy's rowboats about nine miles off to the east. As the British pressed forward they caught sight of Alligator, and Roberts was dispatched with a handful of boats to run her down, seizing her by 9:30 in the morning. By ten o'clock on December 14, the flotilla of boats had drawn to within long gunshot range near St. Joseph's Island. Lockyer paused the operation here, allowing the crews to break for breakfast. He then organized his force into three divisions, keeping the first under his own command, placing Henry Montresor of Manly over the second, and giving Roberts of Meteor charge of the third. Once the men had eaten, they took up their oars again and pulled toward the waiting line of American gunboats. The real fighting began at 10:39 in the morning, with the British struggling against a powerful current while facing heavy round shot and grapeshot fire.

American gunners cut down or injured many of the men in the approaching boats, and Lockyer's own crew suffered especially heavy losses. As the distance shrank, British sailors and marines started climbing aboard the American vessels. By 11:50, Lockyer himself had boarded Gunboat No. 156, the vessel commanded by Jones, and in the struggle both officers were badly wounded. A rowboat from Tonnant, under Lieutenant James Barnwell Tattnall, grappled the gunboat but went down in the attempt, forcing its boarding party to shift over to the other boats. According to Jones, the British seized Gunboat No. 156 at 12:10 and turned its own guns on the remaining American ships, using its broadsides to help subdue them. The other four gunboats fell one after another until the fighting ended at 12:30. Lockyer later claimed that overtaking the rest of the flotilla took only five minutes, far shorter than the twenty minutes described in Jones's version of events.