as the evening fell, noticed a big schooner drop down the river
in ghostly silence and bring up opposite to them. The soldiers
flocked to the shore, challenging the stranger, and finally fired
one or two shots at her. Then suddenly a rough voice was heard,
"Now give it to them, for the honor of America!" and a shower of
shell and grape fell on the British, driving them off the levee.
The stranger was an American man-of-war schooner. The British
brought up artillery to drive her off, but before they succeeded
Jackson's land troops burst upon them, and a fierce, indecisive
struggle followed. In the night all order was speedily lost, and
the two sides fought singly or in groups in the utmost confusion.
Finally a fog came up and the combatants separated. Jackson drew
off four or five miles and camped.

The British had been so roughly handled that they were unable to
advance for three or four days, until the entire army came up.
When they did advance, it was only to find that Jackson had made
good use of the time he had gained by his daring assault. He had
thrown up breastworks of mud and logs from the swamp to the
river. At first the British tried to batter down these
breastworks with their cannon, for they had many more guns than
the Americans. A terrible artillery duel followed. For an hour or
two the result seemed in doubt; but the American gunners showed
themselves to be far more skilful than their antagonists, and
gradually getting the upper hand, they finally silenced every
piece of British artillery. The Americans had used cotton bales
in the embrasures, and the British hogsheads of sugar; but
neither worked well, for the cotton caught fire and the sugar
hogsheads were ripped and splintered by the roundshot, so that
both were abandoned. By the use of red-hot shot the British