Edward Pakenham

Major General Sir Edward Michael Pakenham, GCB (19 March 1778 – 8 January 1815), was an Anglo-Irish Army officer and politician.He also received the Army Gold Cross and clasps for the battles of Martinique, Busaco, Fuentes de Oñoro, Salamanca, Pyrenees, Nivelle, Nive, Orthez, and Toulouse.In August 1814, Vice Admiral Cochrane had finally convinced the Admiralty that a campaign against New Orleans would weaken American resolve against Canada, and hasten a successful end to the war.Pakenham wanted to use Chef Menteur Pass as the invasion route, but he was overruled by Admiral Cochrane, who insisted that his boats were providing everything needed.After yet another failure to breach Line Jackson Pakenham decided to wait for his entire force of 8,000 men to assemble before continuing his attack.Pakenham summoned his Assistant Adjutant General (AAG), Major Harry Smith, and informed him Thornton's delayed troops would have no impact upon the main attack on the Left Bank.The other regiments were already advancing behind the 44th, the party of 300 lost formation as they struggled to reach the redoubt, and as day dawned, the attack commenced before the supplies could be brought forward.[16] As Pakenham rallied his troops near the enemy line, grapeshot from US artillery shattered his left knee and killed his horse.Wellington had held Pakenham in high regard and was deeply saddened by news of his death, commenting: We have but one consolation, that he fell as he lived, in the honourable discharge of his duty and distinguished as a soldier and a man.The Americans were prepared with an army in a fortified position which still would have been carried, if the duties of others, that is of the Admiral (Sir Alexander Cochrane), had been as well performed as that of he whom we now lament.
A lithograph by Francisco Scacki, created a few years after the battle. The mortal wounding of Pakenham at the Battle of New Orleans in the centre clearly influenced a later engraving by F. O. C. Darley , dating from 1860. These Bearskin cap bedecked British soldiers are wearing trousers, which Darley would replace with kilts in his version.
The Death of Pakenham at the Battle of New Orleans by F. O. C. Darley shows the death of Sir Edward Pakenham on 8 January 1815. This romanticised portrayal, dating from 1860, has British soldiers wearing Bearskin caps, a headdress not worn since the American Revolutionary War , with kilts, which were not worn in this battle.
Generals Edward Pakenham and Samuel Gibbs Memorial, St. Paul's Cathedral
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