Indiana Palladium, Volume 3, Number 37, Lawrenceburg, Dearborn County, 22 September 1827 — Page 1

waiM,ijitaMajtJiBJ4iia,wmiw-jjjiJJi EQUALITY OF RIGHTS IS NATURE'S PLAN AND FOLLOWING NATURE IS THE MARCH OF MAN. Barlow. Volume III. LAWRENCEBURGII, INDIANA; SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1827. Number 37.

THE SIX MILITIA MEN. Robertson Springs, July 26, 1327. Dear. Sir: Your letter of the 23J instant was handed to me, late last evening, and I hasten to answer the inquiries as requested in regard to the case of Harris and the other five militia men who were executed at Mobile. The regiment to which these unfortunate men belonged, was received into the service by the orders of the general government, was mustered for a six months tour, and was paid according!), for said service, as will appear by the muster and pay rolls, and by Colonel Pipkin's report to me. These rolls, with Col. Pipkin's report, the proceedings and sentence of the court martial detailed for the trial, and all the circumstances connected with the subject, are or ought to be on record at Washington City, where I have no doubt Mr. Buckner has had a full opportunity of examining them. I confidently assert that they stamp the allegations of Mr. Buckner with falsehood. The letter which Mr. Buckner now makes use of in order to injure my character, is well ascertained to be a forgery.

Jt was tirst published by Biwis, editor of the Democratic Press, purporting to be a letter from the unfortunate Harris to me. Now this man upver wrote but one letter to me, that I ever saw, or heard of before this publication, and in that he acknowledged himself to be guilty of the enormous crimes charged against him, and stated his willingness to meet the lust sentence of the court. If Mr. Buckner was as desirous to cult the truth from the archieves of the nation as he h to pluck from me my hard earned repu tation, he would have sen that Gn. Winchester, who commanded at Mobile at the time that this B inns' L iter is dated, made several communications to me after, that date, and before he had anv knowledge that the battle of New Orleans had been fought. Does not this circumstance shew the impossibility of Mr. Harris having knowledge at (he time btalcd, and still more that he could have gained it in time to have made it . a ground of application for mercy? The letters of Cen Winchester to me show

that he did not receive intelligence outer the battle of llobdirks Hill, by Colonel

the victory until the 17ih January; thi forged letter gives the intelligence to Mr. Harris two days before Strange indeed, that Mr. Harris, closely confined in jail, should be so much earlier informed than the commandant of that post. It would give me great pleasure to send you printed copies from the documents in my possession, properly certified, proving what I have here asserted, but it is impossible that this can be done within so short a period as that requested. I trust, however, that the statement here made will be sufficient with all honorable men, to counteract the f j'se impressions sought to be forced upon the freemen of Kentucky by Mr. J.nickner. Asa public or piivate man, speaking of transactions wilier concern the reputation and character of other", every manly feeling should remind him, ihat he ought to be guided by establishami when he thus nroduc.es facts of th

least plausible ground upon which to t!,u; laware Regiment, were severally bottom such changes as those of which c,jsirgci with desertion, joining the eneyou have recited; i pledge myself to be m' ''ind beant arms against the Lnited at-ali limes ready to meet him at the btatf ,lhc Court after duly consider-

idy bar of his country. It may be proper to remark in conclusian. that the findinff of the court o roves conclusively that those men were legally 7 0 r m eifin in .p n hnnv icd f hot flwi mn ct

have been acquitted. I approved of "e?''' U,llli," "S''r?; Samuel fchurrin their condemnation, because thev wore hs " B mholomew kell; be i I j r-. eacti hanged by the neck, (more than the promoters and ringleaders ot the mu- ... cy A ' v . 1 , , , . j . two-thirds ot the C ourt agreeing there- . tiny and desertion, committed at a peri- , x ,n. , rr, to , , , i m r r c i r to0 A he Genera. General Greene anod, when the safety of our Southern fron- 7 A. - . , ' J 'r

tier was threatened at a period, which n j c .1 called for the most energetic measures, ii , rfi i . and when every nerve of the government . was stretched in the defence of our liberties. When they violated the law in i . i 1they have done their duty as faithful soldiers, their country would have rewarded.them with its protection and grati. tuje D I am, Sir, your most obedient servant, ANDREW JACKSON. William Oiveks. r o i --ii u n i ii, r . P. S. U will be recollected, in the Revolut.onary war, at a time of great trial General Washington ordered deserters to be shot without trial. Capt. Reed i i i i k ..: t j e . uiiueruiworucijiwviiiB arieMeuuncc, nau one snot wuuoui inui, auu in "W" brought to the General; but he, Gener - al Washington, reprimanded Reed for net shooting the whole three. Gcneral

Green, nenr Rudgly's mill, South Carolina, says Gordon's history, had eight men hung, on one pole for desertion Johnson's life of Green says five without court martial -I only approved of the proceedings of a court composed of men

who were the friends and iieLirhbora of those to be tried by them. Respectfully, ANDREW JACKSON. GENERAL GREENE. FROM THE CUMBERLAND VMD.) ADVOCATE OI' AUGUsT 25. General Jackson's Letter to Mr. Wm. O vens, of Kentucky, should have been published without one word of comment by us, had it not contained, in its Postscript, a charge against the character and well earned reputation of that distinguished Patriot and Hero General Greene, whose memory is dear to the heart of every American. We make the subjoined extract, not for the purpose of injuring General Jackson, or giving offence to any of his supporters, but with the view of rescuing from disgrace the name of one of our most distinguished and meritorious Revolutionary Patriots, whose life was devoted to the service of his country. The subjoined extract is copied from General Greene's orderly nook, which has been preserved by Col. William Lamar, of this county, who was attached to the Southern army from the time General Greene took command of it until the PJth of October, 1781, when he, with some other officers, were ordered to join some other corps; and was, during the whole of that time, under the immediate command ofGeneral Greene. The annexed copy of the proceedings of the Court Martial, held on the 30th day of April, 1701, at "Rugclys J," proves, most conclusively, that those men. were not "hu'g on one pole for desertion, without Court Martial," as the General states, but for "Desertion, joining the enemy, and bearing arms against the United States." Col. Lamar, (then captain,) states, that "they zcere actually found in the enemy's ranks, zvith arms in their hands, and clothed in the British uni form, and that they icerc taken prisoners, with about tzvo hundred British soldiers, ufVil Ham nrashinton, and that thru zcere all hmig zcith their Red Coats on." The charge made against General Washington 4has been proved to be entirely false, he never having issued any such order. Colonel William D. Brail', of Prince George's county, in this State, who was an eye witness to the whole transaction, knows and has pronounced it to be false." Copy of the Proceedings of the Court Jil ir Hal held at Rugelys Mill, on the 30A day oj Jlpril, 1731. "Camp at Rugely's Mill, hnday. 30th Jpril, 1731. "A? a General Court Martial, where of Lieut. Colonel Howes, is President, Thomas Wood, of the bi South Carolina R aiment, William Hennesly, of the 1st V irginia Regiment, William Sugars, of the 3rd M ir) land Regiment, Samuel Sherrin Johnson, of the 7th Maryland l""iit, and Bartholomew Kelly, of) ing the charges, evidence and defence. " u "Fu,sl. luu V"" ropecuveP ?rc 01 P. " ?cii and uvory r of them are guilt v, and do sentence, that the said Thomas Wood, William Hen- " 1 me youn. lie wou d be extremely happy if the ofr c . c .x J fences o those unfortunate men deserved . , 4 u ?Pni.hmentleM!verc. Butdesert.on 15 lcn s dangerous to a,, army, that uoiic y uus uiciaieu ine muue oi corrccA ut F .y oi giving som5 serious example, and the recent nsfortunes the troops have suftered by the perhdv ol some of their unworthy companions, forbid the exercise of lenity s",d comPel lho Gcneral to admi the for 5f martiaI J,aw' 4 , 4Ine criminals are to be executed accordin t0 lhe sentences annexed inst th at four 0,dock to.moow afternoon." CawUna.-On the subject of the Presideocy (gays the Star) our present Itepre UPI1unoa to Consress are divided tbus: 9 Co Jackson, S for Adams, aad 1 (Mr. Long) we put as doubtful.

rnf

From the Philadelphia Museum. 1 THE ATTACK OF NEW ORLEANS. By a Subaltern of the British Army. We must refer me reader to our author for the topography of the held of operations. "The place where we landed was as wild as it is posole to imagine. Wherever we looked nothing was to be seen except one huge marsti, covered with tall reeds; not a house, not a vestige of human industry could be discovered; and even ol trees, there were but a few growing upon the banks of the creek. Yet it was such a spot as, above all other:-, favored our operations. No eye could watch us, or icport our arrival to the American general. By remaining quietly among the reeds, we might effectually conceal ourselves from notice; because, from the appearance of! all around, it was easy to preceive that the place which we occupied was seldom, if ever before, marked with a human footstep. Concealment, however, was the thing of all others which we required; for he it remembered, that there were now only sixteen hundred men on the main lan-I. The rest were still at Pine island, where they must remain till the boats which had transported us should return for their convey ance, consequently many hours must elapse before this small corpse could be either reinforced or supported. If therefore, we had sought for a point where a descent might be made in secrecy and safety, we could not have found one better calculated for that purpose than the present; because it afforded every means of concealment to one part of our force, until the other should be able to come up." Here general Kean should have halted till the other brigades could have joined him; but deceived, as it is said, by deserters, he incautiously adv'anced into the open country. By the culpable negligence of an officer a prisoner was suffered to escape, and by the imprudence of the general, the troops were permitted to light fires; the consequence was a surprise. In this manner the day passed without any further alarm; and darkness having set in, the fires were made to b'az'J with increased splendor,our evening meal was eaten, and we prepared to sleep. But about half past seven o'cloc k, the attention of several individuals was drawn to a large vessel, which seemed to be stealing up the river till she came opposite to our camp; when her anchor was dropped, and her sails leisurely furled. At tirst we were doubtful whether she might not be one of our own cruisers, which had passed the post unobserved, and had arrived to render her assistance in our future operations. To safety this doub', she was repeatedly hailed, but returned no answer, when an alarm spreading throughout the bivouac, all thought of sleep was laid aside. Several musket shots were now tired at her with the design of exacting a reply, of which no notice w.-.s taken; till at length, having fastened all her sails, and swun her broadside towards us, we could di: tinctly hear some one cry out in a com manding voice, 'Give them this for the honor of America.' The words were instantly followed by the Hashes of her guns, and a deadly shower of grape swept down numbers in the camp. Against this dreadful tire we had nothing whatever to oppose. The artillery which we had landed was too light to bring into competition with an adversary so powerful ; and as she had anchored: witlun a short distance ol the opposite hank, no musketry could reach her with my precision or eiiect. A lew rockets! were discharged, which made a beauti ful appearance in the air; but the rocket is an uncertain weapon, and these deviated too far from their object to produce even terror among those against whom they were directed. Under these circumstances, as nothing could be done offensively, our sole object was to r.heltcr the men as much as possible from this iron hail. With this view, they were commanded to leave the fires, and to has ten under the dyke. Thither all, accordingly repaired, without much regard to order or regularity, and lay ing ourselves along wherever we could find room, we listened in painful silence to the scattering of grape shot among our huts, and to the shrieks and groans of those who lay wounded beside them. The night was now dark as pitch, the moon being but young, and totally ohj it. i i. .' .- J , scurea wuu ciouus. wur nres deserted bv us, and beat about by the enemy's shot, began to burn red and dull; and, except when the Hashes of those gun which play ed upon us cast a momentary glare, not ih object could be distinguish-

d at the distance of a yard. In thislheads, were therefore erected against . I- l ft 1

state we lay for nearly an hour, una ble to move from our ground or oiler any opposition to those who kept us there; when a straggling fire of musketry called our attention towards the piquets, and warned us to prepare for a closer and more deperate strile. As yet, however, it was uncertain from what cause this drooping tire arose. It might proceed from the sentinels, who, alarmed by the cannonade from the river, mistook every tree for an American; and till this should be more fully ascertained, it would be improper to expose the troops, by moving any of tin m from the shelter which the bank afforded. But these doubts were not permitted to continue long in existence. The drooping tire having paused for a few moment, was succeeded by a tearful yell; and the heavens were illuminated on all s-ides by a si mi-circular blaz of musketry. It was now clear that we were surrounded, and that by a very superior force; and therefore, no alternate e remaining. but, either to surrender at discretion, or to beat back the assailants. The whole detail of this action is given in our author's best manner. The loss sustained in i amounted to about 500 men, most of whom might have been saved, if gen. Kean had not moved from his position m the wood until his torce would have enabled him to advance at once against the town. On the 2jth, sir Edward Packenham and general Gibbs joined the army; it would have been fortunate if they had arrived sooner. Oi the morning of the 2Gth our bat teries opened on the schooner; but here a capital error was committed, which was the more remarkable, as several na val officers were serving ashore, who -hould have corrected the error. A large ship had dropped down the river and anchored in front of the position. about a mile above the schooner; had the batteries been in the first instance, erected against her, her consort would have been obliged, either to pass our batteries in order to get up to the town, which against the stream of the Mississippi, would have been no easy task, or she must have dropped down the river, in which case no future annoyance could have been anticipated from her. The schooner was blown up the ship escaped; and though it does not appearthat any actual mist hiet was done by her, yet her subsequent position, flanking the enemy's lines, added materially to their apparent strength, intimidating our trooos, and giving courage to the adver sary. On the 27th the whole army advanced towards the town; but after a slight skirmish again retired. "We remained inactive during the 28th, 20th, and 30th; but not so the enemy. Day and night we could ob serve numrrous parties employed in strengthening his lines; while from the increased number of tents, which almost every hour might be discerned, it was evident that strong reinforcements were continually pouring into his camp. Nor did he leave us totally unmolested. Bv

giving to his guns a great degree of ele-jwas determined to divide the army, to vation, he contrived at last to reach our send part across the river, who sht.uid bivouac; and thus were we constantly seize the enemy's guns, and turn them on under a cannonade which, though it did j themselves; while the remainder should little execution, proved nevertheless ex-! at the same time make a general assault tremely annoying. Besides thi, he now along the whole entrenchment. But bebegan to erect batteries on the opposite fore this plan could be put into rx'cubanlcof the river; from which a flanking, tion, it would be necessary to cut a cadre could be thrown across the entire! nal across the entire neck of land from

front of his position. In short, he adopt - ed every precaution winch prudence; could suggest, and for the reception which, the nature ot his post was so ad mirably adopted. 'Under these circumstances it was evident that the longer an attack was delayed, the less likely was it to succceed ; that something must be done immediately every one preceived, but how to proceed was the citliculty. If we attempted to storm the American lines, we should expose ourselves to almost cer tain destruction from their artillery ; to turn them seemed to be impossible; and to draw their troops by any manoeuvring; from behind thtir entrenchments, was a tiling altogether out of the question. There seemed, therefore, to be but one practicable mode of assault; which was, to treat these tieldworks as one would treat a regular fortification; by erecting batteries against them, and silencing, if possible, at least some of their guns. To this plan, therefore, did our leader resort; and, in consequence, the whole of these three days were employed in landing heavy cannon, bringing up ammunition, and making such preparation as might have j-ufficed for a siege." Batteries of their owu Unr hogs-

the enemy, (the suDaitern values this

costlv material at many thousand pounds;) but they had their revenge; our engineers had yet to learn that sugar and sand possessed very different jtowersolresistai.ee. 1 he shot passed through our works and killed many of the artillery. On the enemy's side, however, little impression was made, and from a cause as singular; lor it is said that the cotton bags, the capture of which had provoked the attack, contributed to the defence of New Oilcans. Certain it is, that the idea ol the regular approaches and breaching batteries was immediately abandoned. "All our plans, had as yei proved abortive; even this, upon which so much reliance had been placeti, was found to be of no avail; and it must be confessed, that something like murmuiing began to be heard through the camp. And, in truth if ever an army, might be permitted to murmur, it wat this. In landing, they had borne great hardships, not only without repining, but with cheerfulness; their hopes had been excited by false reports, as to the practicability ol the attempt in which they were embarked; and now they found themselves entangled amidst difficulties from which there appeared to be no escape, except by victor). In their attempts upon the enemy's line, however, they had been twice foiled, in artillery they preccived themselves so greatly overmatched, that their own could hardly assist them; their provisions being derived wholly from the fleet, were both scanty hi d coarse; and their rest was continually broken. For not only did the cannon and mortars from the main of the enemy's position play unremittingly upon them both day and night; but they were likewise exposed to a deadly fire from the opposite bank of the i her, where not less than eighteen pieces of artillery were now mounted, and swept the entire line of our encamp ment, besides all this, to undertake the duty of a piquet, was as dangerous as to go into action. Parlies of American sharp-shooters harassed and disturbed those appointed to that service , from the time they took possession of their post till they were relieved; while to light fires at night was impossible, because they served hut as certain nvtirks for the enemy's gunners; 1 repeat, therefore, that a little murmuring could not be wondered at. Be it observed, however, that these were not the murmurs of men anxn us to escape front a disagreeable sitaution by any means. On the contrary, they resembled rather the growling of a chained dog, when he sees his adversary, and cannot reach him; for in all their complaints, no man ever hinted at a retreat, while all were eager to bring matters to the issue of a battle, at any sacrilice of lives. 4Nor was our gallant leader less an, ous to fight than his followers. To fight upon something like equal terms, however, was his wish; and for this purpose a scheme was invented, worthy, for its boldness, of the school in which Sir Edwards had studied his profession. It ' the B.iyo de Cataline to the river, of sufiicient width and depth to admit of boat ofbeing brought up from the lake. uThe canal, as I have stated, being finished on the Cth, it was resolved to lose no time in making use of it. Boats were accordingly ordered up for the transportation of 1400 men; and col. Thornton with the Goth regiment, the marines, and a party of sailors, were appointed to cross the river. But a nun her of untoward accidents occurred, to spoil a plan of operations as accuratelylaid down as any in the course of var. Tl je scil through which the canal was dug, being soft, parts of the bank gave way and, chocking up the channel, prevented the heaviest of the boats frora getting forward. These again blocked up the passage, so that none of those which were behind could proceed; and thus instead of a flotilla for the accom modation ot MOO men, only a number of bouts sufficient to contam 350 men was enabled to reach their destination. Even these did not arrive at the time appointed. Accordingly to the pre-concerted plan, col. Thornton's detachment was to cross the river immediately after dark. They were to push for wards, so as to carry all the latteries