Revelation: A period of doubt and worry.
As he marched by his own plantation buildings, Jacques turned his attention away from his family to the circumstances at hand. Questions clamored in his mind: Would he ever see his loved ones again? Would they take the English by surprise, or were they marching into a trap? Yes, the parade two weeks earlier on the Place d’Armes had given the citizens more confidence—Jackson now had about 2,100 men—but Jacques was a bit concerned about the quality of the local volunteers marching with him. Besides local plantation owners, bankers, lawyers, and merchants, he also knew that some of them were actually prisoners who had been awaiting trial, along with released criminals who had served most of their sentences. Could these untried citizen participants show the same bravado against soldiers who had defeated Napoleon’s armies in Spain?
The general called a halt, forming a line on the Laronde and Lacoste plantations. They were just half a mile west of the British encampment. Orders were passed from unit to unit by hand signals and from rank to rank by whispers.
Old Hickory, looking through his telescope, made out the dark form of the schooner Carolina gradually approaching its position opposite the British encampment. Turning his telescope to his left, he could plainly see the enemy’s campsite. Many of the English were gathered around big bonfires, no doubt to dry their clothing after slogging through the swamps. Others, whom he could not see, were probably sleeping off the effects of the alcohol looted from the nearby plantation, oblivious to any threat.
Andrew Jackson smiled to himself. How splendid for our attack!