information:extraction, structural:scholar_edition
British reconnaissance-in-force

On Christmas Day, General Edward Pakenham arrived on the battlefield. The following day, he received nine large naval artillery guns from Admiral Cochrane along with a hot shot furnace to silence the two U.S. Navy warships, the sloop-of-war USS Louisiana and the schooner USS Carolina, that were harassing his troops the past week from the Mississippi River. The British covertly erected a gun battery with embrasures, hidden behind the levee, camouflaged with corn stalks. On December 26, the hot shot furnace had been completed. Under cover of night, the cannons were moved to the battery. On December 27, the schooner USS Carolina was sunk in a massive explosion, caused by a fire started by a heated shot fired by the British. The Louisiana was 300 yards away, and sited where it was able to take advantage of a breeze, to sail upstream and out of range of the concealed British battery. Further movement upriver, against the flow, was made by warping and hard towing, in the absence of winds.