On the morning of the 1st of January the British gunners opened fire and felt serenely certain of destroying the rude defenses of cotton bales and cypress logs.

To their amazement the American artillery was served with far greater precision and effect by the sailors and regulars who had been trained under Jackson's direction.
By noon most of the British guns had been silenced or dismounted and the men killed or driven away.

"Never was any failure more remarkable or unlooked for than this," said one of the British artillery officers.
General Pakenham, in dismay, held a council of war.

It is stated that his own judgment was swayed by the autocratic Vice-Admiral Cochrane who tauntingly remarked that "if the army could not take those mud-banks, defended by ragged militia, he would undertake to do it with two thousand sailors armed only with cutlases and pistols." Made cautious by this overwhelming artillery reverse, the British army remained a week in camp, a respite of which every hour was priceless to Andrew Jackson, for his mud-stained, haggard men were toiling with pick and shovel to complete the ditches and log barricades.

They could hear the British drums and bugles echo in the gloomy cypress woods while the cannon grumbled incessantly.