twenty-nine. The American estimates increase this to two thousand six hundred. The Americans had eight men killed and thirteen wounded.
The prisoners and wounded were sent to the city. Some of the little boys of the time, now in their nineties, who watched the slow, sad cortege, tell of their childish pity and sympathy for them, and their admiration for the great, tall, handsome prisoners, in their fine uniforms.
The citizens pressed forward to tender their aid for the wounded. The hospitals being crowded, private houses were thrown open, and the quadroon nurses, the noted quadroon nurses of the city, offered their services and gave their best skill and care at the bedside of the English sufferers.
As soon as the armistice expired, the American batteries resumed their firing. Colonel Thornton with his men recrossed the river during the night of the eighth. From the ninth to the eighteenth a small squadron of the British fleet made an ineffectual attempt to pass Fort St. Philip. Had it timed its action better with Pakenham's, his defeat might at least have cost his enemies dearer.
On the 18th of January took place the exchange of prisoners, and New Orleans received again her sorely missed citizens. Although their detention from the stirring scenes of the camp formed in their lives one of the unforgivable offences of destiny, their courteous, kindly, pleasant treatment by the British naval officers was one of the reminiscences which gilded the memories of the period.
Sir John Lambert's retreat was the ablest measure of the British campaign. To retire in boats was im-
