Captain Jones' Blockade
Five American gunboats and a flotilla of ship's boats from the British fleet at anchor in the straights between Ship and Cat Island.
“This flotilla consisted of fifty open boats; most of them armed with a carronade in the bow, and well manned with volunteers from the different ships of war. Our fleet amounted now to upwards of fifty sail, many of them vessels of war….. It was not long before the enemy's guns opened upon them, and a tremendous shower of balls saluted their approach. Some boats were sunk, others disabled, and many men were killed and wounded; but the rest pulling with all their might and occasionally returning the discharges from their carronades, succeeded, after an hour's labour, in closing with the Americans. The marines now began a deadly fire of musketry; whilst the seamen, sword in hand, sprang up the vessels' sides in spite of all opposition; and sabering every man that stood in their way, hauled down the American ensign, and hoisted the British flag in its place.” Gleig, p.262 archive.org/details/campaignsofbriti00glei/page/262/mode/2up?view=theater
The American gunboats were speedy sailing cutters similar to a sloop. Rigged fore and aft with mainsails and at least two headsails.
“Lieutenant Jones's account gives his full force as 5 gunboats, mounting in all three long 32's, two long 24's, twenty-two long 6's, four 12-pr. carronades, two 5-in. howitzers, and twelve swivels, and having 182 men on board. He had also with him the schooner Seahorse, which he detached to Bay St. Louis before the attack, and the little sloop Alligator. The gunboats carried an aggregate of one hundred and eighty-two men, under the command of Lieutenant Thomas Ap Catesby Jones, U.S.N.”
threedecks.org/index.php?display_type=show_battle&id=748
The American gunboats were speedy sailing cutters similar to a sloop. Rigged fore and aft with mainsails and at least two headsails.
“Lieutenant Jones's account gives his full force as 5 gunboats, mounting in all three long 32's, two long 24's, twenty-two long 6's, four 12-pr. carronades, two 5-in. howitzers, and twelve swivels, and having 182 men on board. He had also with him the schooner Seahorse, which he detached to Bay St. Louis before the attack, and the little sloop Alligator. The gunboats carried an aggregate of one hundred and eighty-two men, under the command of Lieutenant Thomas Ap Catesby Jones, U.S.N.”
threedecks.org/index.php?display_type=show_battle&id=748
The naval engagement in Lake Borgne on December 14, 1814, determined that there would be a battle for New Orleans. Captain Jones six gunboats were fast, and well-armed, and could have denied British access to Lake Borgne, and the ability to land troops just a few miles south of the city. But the Captain Jones' advantage was lost when the wind fell out of their sails; the tide went out leaving two of his gunboats fast aground in Louisiana mud. He couldn't run, so he had to make a stand, and the British got lucky. The British transport barges would be no match for the fast, shallow draft, American gunboats. The British would have to find another invasion route, and there weren’t any options with the Mississippi River on one side, and an impregnable swamp on the other.
“On the 14th, by break of day, were discovered, five miles to the eastward, a great number of barges formed in a line, ……. after which they advanced in a line of about forty-five barges and other craft in front, to attack the gun-boats. By half after eleven in the forenoon, the attack became general, and after three quarters of an hour of a most vigorous resistance, made by one hundred and eighty-two men, including officers distributed in the different gun-boats, against about 1200 of the enemy in very large barges and other craft, carrying nine and twelve-pounders and twenty-four pound carronades, the gun-boats were forced to strike, after having lost six men, and thirty-five being wounded, many of them severely…. Lieutenant Jones who commanded the gunboats, was wounded in the left shoulder.” Historical Memoir of the War in West Florida and Louisiana in 1814-15, Arsène Lacarrière Latour, p.60
If it were not presumptuous to form a conjecture as to the unfortunate circumstance of the arrival of the enemy on the shores of the Mississippi, unperceived by us, I should be inclined to attribute it to the capture of our gun-boats, by which we were deprived of the means of following his movements, and observing the point to which his attack was directed. Historical Memoir of the War in West Florida and Louisiana in 1814-15, Arsène Lacarrière Latour, p.231
If it were not presumptuous to form a conjecture as to the unfortunate circumstance of the arrival of the enemy on the shores of the Mississippi, unperceived by us, I should be inclined to attribute it to the capture of our gun-boats, by which we were deprived of the means of following his movements, and observing the point to which his attack was directed. Historical Memoir of the War in West Florida and Louisiana in 1814-15, Arsène Lacarrière Latour, p.231
George Gleig’s book dispels a popular local myth that Captain Thomas Catesby Jones' blockade delayed the British landing. Gleig provides the circumstances of logistics that caused the delay. After the barges returned to the fleet with the captured gunboats, it took eight days, December 16-23 to make four round trips to transport a British force of 8000 men from the Fleet at anchor in the Ship Island straight to Pea Island. One trip for the sailors rowing the barges was a 36-hour haul.
Lacarriere Latour, Jackson’s chief engineer, points out in his book that the British invasion route wasn’t known to Jackson until mid-day on the 23rd; nine days after the blockade attempt. Fortifications on the Jackson Line began on the morning of the 24th, after Jackson's surprise night attack on the British the night before.