The Journal of Capt. Thomas Joyes: From Louisville to the Battle of New Orleans

The Journal of Capt. Thomas Joyes From Louisville to the Battle ofNe' lo Orleans Edited by Ky W.White orAmericans,the BattleofNewOrleans remainsthemostfamous clash ofthe War of 1812. The battle was fought on January 8, 1815, after both the United States · and Great Britain liad agreed to pe·, lee terms at the Treaty of Ghent, though neither government h: id yet r. itified tlic agreement. Without doubt, had the British won its negotiators would have insisted on a renegotiatic, n of the treaty. Politically and culturally, the battle had a profound effect upon the United States. It provided the country with a future president and seven future governors. Many Americans at the time considered the War of 1812 a second w, ir of independence and believed that their descendents would observe January 8 as a national holiday akin to Independence Gen. Andrew Jacksonencouraging his men alongthedefensesatthe Battle of New Orleans, 1815 ( 1858). 1HF Fit SON HISTORICAL 50( 1[TY Day. Indeed, not until the battles of the Civil War eclipsed the glory of the American victory at New Orleans did the 1815 clash lose its place in the American psyche. The victory enabled Americans to celebrate the nation's military power and earned the U.S. international respect. Never again did Americans feel compelled to prove to the world the value of their experiment iii white liberty and republican government. As historian Benson J. Lossing stated in 1869,the war secured " the positive and permanent independence of the United States, and with it a guarantee to the posterities, of the perpetuation and growth of free institutions." 1 FALL 2008 19 THE JOURNAL OF CAPT. THOMAS JOYES In fall 1814, the U.S. War Department appealed to the governors of Tennessee and Kentucky to send their militia forces south to New Orleans to ward off a threatened British invasion. Each state sent a brigade of three regiments down the Mississippi River to relieve the city,with orders to link up with the Tennessee militia force commanded by Gen. in the Kentucky militia,Capt. Thomas Joyes,kept j . a journal of his voyage from Louisville down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers and of his service at FIll*. K . I New Orleans. Joyes's parents settled in Louisville in the 1780s, where he was born in 1789. During the New Orleans campaign, he served as a company commander in the 13" i Kentucky militia. After the War of 1812 he became a surveyor, and he and his family retained local prominence. In Andrew Jackson, 17671845 ( 1857). THE 18341835 he served as mayor of Louisville and FILSON HISTORICAL SOCIETY in September 1845, when the state of Missouri returned the body of Daniel Boone to Kentucky for burial in the state cemetery in Frankfort,Joyes served as one of the pallbearers.2 Joyes s journal is one of the few firsthand accounts describing the chronology and hardships of the trip fom Kentucky to Louisiana between November 21, 1814, and January 3. 1815. With rare and unique detail, Joyes documented the voyage of three regiments of Kentucky militia,numbering approximately twentyfive hundred men, from the falls of the Ohio to New Orleans in barges and flat boats. Historians have generally ignored the story of the Kentucky militia befbre their arrival at New Orleans,just five days before the famous battle.3 ' Ihe historiography largely overlooks the hardships faced by the Kentucky militiamen who traveled down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers in the middle of winter. ' Ilie arms and equipment promised the Kentucky militia by the U.S. government never arrived. The commander of the 148 Regiment, Col. William Mitchusson, resigned in early December before the militia got to New Orleans. The commanding officer of the 13'h Regiment, Lt. Col. Presley Gray,obtained a furlough and did not complete the voyage, · and command of the regiment fell to Maj. John Davis. When the Kentucky militia arrived in New Orleans, its chief officer,Maj. Gen.John 1[ homas, became ill and surrendered overall authority to Brig. Gen. John Adair,who assigned two battalions of the leaderless 14th Regiment to his two remaining regimental commanders: Jackson then split the Kentucky force in half. He kept one regiment and...