But Jackson still needed to evaluate the last and perhaps the most likely approach for the British, via Lake Borgne. Repelling an attack there would be a challenge, but the general was ready and willing. He had already, almost single-handedly, lifted the morale of New Orleanians. As the engineer Latour reported, “The citizens were preparing for battle as cheerfully as if it had been a party of pleasure, each in his vernacular tongue singing songs of victory. The streets resounded with ‘Yankee Doodle,’ the ‘Marseilles Hymn,’ the ‘Chat du Depart,’ and other martial airs.”
