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prediction, * 'ould rely entirely on Tennessee rifle-^ men.
Commodore Patterson, who had served several years on the New Orleans station, which he had commanded from nearly the commencement of the war, was perfectly acquainted with our coast, and consequently knew what means were necessary to defend it. On this subject he had written, at an early peri-6d, and several times since, to the secretary of the navy. At Tchifonte, on the eastern shore of lake Pontchartrain, a flat-bottomed frigate had been begun to be built, two years before, calculated for the navigation of the lakes and of our coasts. She was to carry forty-two pieces of cannon, twenty-six of which were to be thirty-two pounders. The building of this frigate was suspended in consequence, I believe, of the representations of brigadier-general Flournoy, then commanding this district. From his first taking the command of the station, commodore Patterson had not ceased to solicit government to authorize him to have that frigate finished. Governor Claiborne?s correspondence with the heads of the different departments was also to the same effect; but though much was promised, nothing was performed. It might have been thought, from the little regard that was paid to the representations of the superior officers of the district, and of our representatives in congress, that Louisiana was considered as a bastard child of the American family; or that to attack her was looked upon as an impossibility. Yet the attack made on us was within a hair?s breadth of succeeding; for had the enemy appeared a few weeks sooner, be-
HISTORICAL MEMOIR.
masters of any gun-boat, they directed her fire against such of the others as had not struck.
The observation, which a due regard to truth compelled me to make at the beginning of this work, respecting the defenceless state in which Louisiana was found at the time of its invasion, here forces itself again upon me. But it is far from my intention to impute any fault to those whose conduct exempted them from censure. Probably a concurrence of untoward circumstances, unknown to me, may have occasioned the apparent neglect of Louisiana. No one is more disposed than I am to render justice to the patriotism, activity and zeal displayed by the heads of the different departments of our administration during the whole course of the war, which is now so happily terminated: nor is any one more ready to acknowledge the4 firmness and wisdom that so strongly marked the line of conduct pursued by our worthy president.
/^Twenty-five gun-boats, however, might at that time have saved Louisiana, by rendering it impossible for the British to land, and obliging them to abandon the project of attacking New Orleans by the lakes. In that case, the enemy would have been forced to take post at Mobile, in order to carry on the war by land in the Floridas. And fortunate it would have been for us, had he pursued this course, and much it is to be wished he may attempt it, should our country ever hereafter be at war with Great Britain. I predict that all the British troops that may attempt to march through the pine-barrens of Florida, will find their graves there; and for the accomplishment of my