Campaign Groups and Pairs


The first public building to be destroyed by the British was the Capitol, which also housed the Library of Congress and the Supreme Court. They then pushed on to the President’s House, ate the ‘victory’ supper which had been prepared for Madison and his party, and burned the House down. Incendiary rockets supplied by Michell were used to create particularly fierce blazes. One of Michell’s gunner officers, Lieutenant Speer, and his artillerymen played a prominent role in the destruction; Americans may be pleased to know that Speer was later recorded as having “Died Insane”.


It was to be three years before the President (now former Secretary of State and veteran of Bladensburg James Monroe) could re-occupy his House and five years before Congress could once again meet in the Capitol. Stone walls adjacent to the fiercest ‘rocket assisted’ heat in both the Capitol and the President’s House remained standing but were so weakened as to be unsafe; they were mostly torn down and rebuilt during the reconstruction. It is a myth that the White House got its name because its external walls were subsequently painted white to hide the soot and scorch marks caused by the fire. The building had already been painted white in 1800 and was sometimes referred to as ‘the White House’ in the first decades of its existence. It simply appeared more imposing and less weather- beaten after being rebuilt and repainted.


General Ross withdrew his forces from Washington after 24 hours. Michell seems to have spent most of 25 August assessing the 200 plus American cannons, and the other ordnance stores and munitions that had been captured or destroyed. Ross gave a favourable mention to Michell in his dispatch: “The exertions of Captain Mitchell [sic], of the royal artillery, in bringing his guns into action, were unremitting; to him, and to the detachment under his command, including Captain Deacon’s rocket brigade, and the marine rocket corps, I feel every obligation.” (London Gazette of 27 September 1814 refers)


After re-embarking his command on the ships in the Patuxent river, Michell travelled up the Potomac river to join the other assault force (which had been much delayed by shoals and adverse winds). It was a naval force consisting of frigates, two bomb vessels armed mainly with heavy mortars, and two rocket vessels, one of which, Erebus, carried 32-pound Congreve rockets. On the evening of 27 August 1814, they bombarded Fort Washington, the only artillery fort guarding the Potomac river approach to Washington. It was armed with twenty-seven guns (including 52-pound monsters) and manned by a garrison of regulars. After two hours the garrison blew up the fort’s magazine and retreated. The next day the British ships reached the prosperous river port of Alexandria. The Mayor, terrified that the naval rockets would burn down the whole town in short order, promptly surrendered, offering up 22 merchant ships and vast stores of tobacco, cotton and food to the British.


After the successes at Washington and Alexandria, the British commanders decided to raid the important port city of Baltimore. Michell told his wife; “We landed at the mouth of the Papsaco River on the 12th [September] and immediately marched on the road to Baltimore… as soon as the remainder of the Guns were ready to move on I rode forward to join the Army and you may conceive my feelings at meeting the Brave General Ross carrying to the rear mortally wounded – he had been riding in front of the whole Army reconnoitring when he was shot… after saying a few words to him I went forward…”


Michell’s guns played an important part in enabling the British to win the battle of North Point later that day. During the night a torrential downpour soaked most of the British force; Michell decided to keep dry by sleeping inside a pigsty. Baltimore was well defended by 11,000 troops, 150 cannon, stone artillery forts and earthworks, as well as sunken blockships to prevent warships from entering the harbour. Probing attacks made some headway but showed how tough a target Baltimore was, and on 15 September the British re-embarked and withdrew.


Michell led a raid by 1,200 men to capture some American guns, but on 5 October he was still reflecting on “the Baltimore business” in a letter home. “We are now in full sail down the river [Potomac] and it is said to leave the Chesapeake but where we are to go is not yet made public.” He was not aware that he had been specially promoted out of turn to Brevet Major on 29 September 1814, as a reward for his actions at the Battle of Bladensburg, and that he was bound for Jamaica, where Government was assembling a strong amphibious force to attack New Orleans. The Americans learned about this before the British ships sailed from Jamaica. They even knew that the plan was to attack the city from the south-east, approaching it along the east bank of the Mississippi.


The Battle of New Orleans


Reinforcements arrived from Britain, including new and more senior commanders for the army and for the artillery. Michell reverted to his regimental duties as a battery commander, in charge of two 9-pounders (with 110 rounds per gun) and four 6-pounders (120 rounds each), which were landed on 23 December 1814. His first mission was to destroy the U.S.S. Carolina, a 14-gun schooner corvette which the Americans had sent down the Mississippi to bombard the British camp. On 27 December Michell engaged it with red hot shot from his 9-pounders. They had been positioned, together with a furnace, on the levee. The fourth round started a fire, the crew abandoned ship, and after two and a half hours the Carolina blew up.


The next day, the army advanced to probe the American defence line. Major-General Andrew Jackson had selected a strong position at Calmette, five miles from the city. It ran behind and parallel with the Rodriguez canal (four feet deep, 20 feet wide, and apparently free of alligators) which led from cypress swamps in the east to the Mississippi river in the west. These natural obstacles anchored its flanks. To cover the central obstacle of the canal itself, Jackson built a timber and earthwork rampart wall on which he mounted his infantry and cannons, and a second earthwork and rampart wall a little upstream on the opposite (west) bank of the Mississippi. This western wall and redoubt housed twenty cannons, which could fire across the river to support the main defence line on the east bank. Another, larger warship, the sloop U.S.S. Louisiana, which was armed with 24-pounders, was stationed on the river between the two positions, to provide additional artillery support and to prevent any British attack up the river itself. Having located these formidable and well- manned defences, the British pulled back. It was decided that much heavier cannon were needed, in order to thoroughly bombard the American wall and rampart before the next attack. By great exertions, several 24- and 18-pounders were disembarked from Royal Navy warships. Gun emplacements and platforms were constructed at night from planks and sugar casks filled with loose soil. On New Year’s Day 1815 a fierce artillery duel was fought. After about three hours the British batteries fell silent, having either used up all their ammunition or, as was the case with Michell’s heavy howitzer, been damaged by American counter-battery fire. The flimsy and hastily built gun emplacements proved to be totally unfit for purpose, and it was clear that the British could not hope to win the artillery battle unless drastic steps were taken.


The force commander, Major-General Sir Edward Pakenham, developed an audacious and highly risky plan. Part of the army would cross the Mississippi in small open boats, capture the American position upstream on the west bank and turn its guns on to the rear of the main American wall on the east bank. Simultaneously, the east bank rampart would be attacked in a frontal assault by the main force of infantry and riflemen.


A canal was dug from a nearby bayou so that 42 ship’s boats could be launched into the Mississippi after dark. Michell was given command of the artillery to be sent to the west bank. The ship’s boats were not strong enough to transport cannon during an assault crossing, but they could carry a complete Rocket Brigade and enough gunners to man the American cannons once they had been captured. They would cross, under cover of darkness, before midnight on 7-8 January 1815.


Unfortunately, the plan began to unravel from the start. The new canal proved to be a nightmare, consisting of very little water but an enormous quantity of deep, sticky mud. By 3.15 a.m. on 8 January only 30 boats had been man-handled along it and launched into the Mississippi. At 5 a.m. the situation was not much improved, but General Pakenham was told that Michell’s artillery group, an infantry battalion and some marines (about 560 men in total, one third of the number allocated to the west bank attack) could start to cross at once. He ordered them to set off, although the crossing would now begin eight hours late and they would land on the west bank in full daylight. The main frontal attack on the east bank wall would go ahead an hour after daybreak. This decision meant that the main assault force had to close right up to the American ramparts in daylight, instead of making their initial advance to the Rodriguez canal in the dark and early morning fog.


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