Historic Louisiana

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Historian and genealogist Pat Keyes
discovered this map and an account of the
Battle of New Orleans. This map represents
the first published view of the battle and
predates Latour’s Historical Memoir of the
War in West Florida and Louisiana by
several months. The map appeared in the
summer of 1815 in the Naval Chronicle of
London. The map’s author is anonymous.
References on the map include: A) The
bivouac of the troops on December 23; B)
The position on the night ditto; C) Ditto on
December 24; D) Ditto, after the advance
on December 28; E) The attack on January
8; F) Thorton’s attack; G) unknown; H)
unknown; I) The enemy’s attack on
December 23; J) unknown; K) An American
schooner blown up on December 27; L) An
American twenty-four-gun warship; M)
Batteries against the schooner; N) Batteries
thrown up by the English; O) Ditto to
protect the flank; P) Redoubts; and Q)
Canal cut to pass boats.
COURTESY OF PAM KEYES.
HISTORIC LOUISIANA
30
Mississippi Territory. After settling in Natchez,
then along the Pearl River, he journeyed to
Pascagoula, where he lived for several years
under the Spanish regime. After the Louisiana
Purchase his affiliation with Thomas Jefferson
brought him the appointment as judge for the
Attakapas District, where he died in 1809. But
he left a son, Edward Douglas White, who
likewise spoke French and English, practiced
law, and entered politics. He served five terms in
Congress, interrupted in 1835 by a term as
governor of Louisiana. E. D. White left five
children, but none of them left any children. His
namesake, Edward Douglass White, pursued a
legal career, went to Washington in 1890 as a
United States senator and died chief justice of
the United States. All three generations of the
Whites were charming storytellers, naturally
political, and the very essence of personality.
They combined in themselves Louisiana’s
Catholicism and Francophonism with an
indisputable Philadelphia heritage.
Since the dominant Jeffersonian political
party wanted new western states, Congress
admitted Louisiana to the Union in 1812.
This did not please all Creoles. The legislature
elected Jean Noel Destrehan as the first
United States senator from Louisiana, but he
promptly resigned to show his disdain for the
new American power. Governor Claiborne
could not succeed himself in 1816. The
resulting election went to Jacques Philippe
Villeré, the first Creole (native-born) governor
since the founding of Louisiana in 1699. The
popular vote provided Villeré with 2,314
votes to Judge Joshua Lewis’ 2,145 votes.
Lewis carried East Baton Rouge and everything
west and north except the old French
settlements at Natchitoches, Pointe Coupée,
and West Baton Rouge. The four years of
Villeré’s administration were prosperous, but
continued American immigration ended
Creole control. In 1820, Thomas Bolling
Robertson won the governorship.
The last time Louisiana played a role in
international affairs was the Battle of New
Orleans on January 8, 1815. This was the
final thrust of England’s three-pronged
offensive against the United States that
concluded the War of 1812. Though the