Edward Pakenham

Sir Edward Pakenham was a British Army major-general who served in the Napoleonic Wars and was a brother-in-law of the Duke of Wellington. During the War of 1812 he was sent to command the British expedition against New Orleans and was killed while leading the unsuccessful assault at the Battle of New Orleans on 8 January 1815.

Pakenham took command of the British expedition against New Orleans late in 1814 after a distinguished Peninsular War career. On 8 January 1815 he ordered the main assault against Andrew Jackson’s fortified American line and was mortally wounded during the failed attack. His death became inseparable from the British defeat at New Orleans, one of the most famous battles fought after the peace negotiations at Ghent had already concluded.

Timothy Ashby’s Desperate Valour places Edward Pakenham at the head of the British army sent against New Orleans in 1815. The novel follows intelligence officer Alexander Charteris into the Louisiana campaign before Pakenham’s arrival and then towards the disastrous frontal assault in which the commander is killed, making his decisions and the difficulty of attacking Andrew Jackson’s prepared position central to the military climax.