Qualla: Edward Pakenham

Edward Pakenham: Introduction

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Sesquicentennial Commission, Public domain. The treaty had already been signed. On 24 December 1814, British and American diplomats had put their names to the Treaty of Ghent and ended the War of 1812. The news had not yet crossed the Atlantic. So when Major-General Sir Edward Pakenham — Anglo-Irish aristocrat, brother-in-law of the Duke of Wellington, hero of Salamanca — led his veteran soldiers forward through the morning mist outside New Orleans on 8 January 1815, he and they were fighting a war that no longer technically existed. He died that morning at the age of 36, hit three times by grapeshot, slumped on his aide-de-camp's borrowed horse. His body was sent home to County Westmeath preserved in a cask of rum.

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Image: Sesquicentennial Commission | Public domain

Edward Pakenham: Born at Pakenham Hall

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit User:Deadstar, CC BY-SA 3.0. Pakenham was born on 19 March 1778 at Pakenham Hall — the great Gothic Revival pile near Castlepollard that is now called Tullynally Castle, still the seat of the Pakenham family after more than three centuries. His father was the 2nd Baron Longford. His mother was Catherine Rowl...

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Image: User:Deadstar | CC BY-SA 3.0

Edward Pakenham: The Duke's Brother

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mullingar, CC BY 2.5. In 1806 his sister Catherine married Arthur Wellesley, a rising British officer who would later become the Duke of Wellington. The connection took Pakenham to the Peninsular War as his brother-in-law's adjutant-general. He commanded a regiment at Bussaco in 1810, fought at Fuente...

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Image: Mullingar | CC BY 2.5

Edward Pakenham: An Expedition That Should Not Have Sailed

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Francisco Scachi, Public domain. In September 1814 he was promoted major general and given command of the British army in North America. His predecessor, General Robert Ross, had been killed in a skirmish near Baltimore. Pakenham accepted the post even though the campaign that awaited him — an attack on New Orle...

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Image: Francisco Scachi | Public domain

Edward Pakenham: Grapeshot at Line Jackson

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit 14GTR, CC BY-SA 4.0. The main assault on 8 January 1815 was a disaster from the first minutes. The brigade carrying the fascines and scaling ladders fell into confusion. Without ladders, the British infantry could not climb Jackson's earthworks; they advanced into a storm of musketry and cannon fire ...

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Image: 14GTR | CC BY-SA 4.0

Edward Pakenham: Home in a Cask of Rum

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit User:Asarlaí, Public domain. Wellington, hearing of his brother-in-law's death, wrote in genuine grief: "He fell as he lived, in the honourable discharge of his duty." He reserved his real fury for Admiral Cochrane, whose plan he believed had killed Pakenham. The body was preserved in rum for the long Atlant...

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Image: User:Asarlaí | Public domain