But his letters don't give clues as to who is sending him info. It has nothing to do with the mission of The American Slave Coast, but my curiosity as to his spy network has been growing. Finally, appears a book that carries some information on this subject, Struggle for the Gulf Borderlands: The Creek War and The Battle of New Orleans 1812 - 1815 (1981), by Frank Lawrence Owsley, Jr. University of Florida, Gainesville. The info comes from the papers of two of Jackson's correspondents, who, as even in this little book of scholarship, are ignored by history other than as cites and footnotes.
With this warning constantly being brought to the general's attention, he moved his headquarters to Mobile, closer to the source of his espionage reports. The names and addresses of most of Jackson's informants indicate that they were located either in Pensacola or New Orleans .... Since Pensacola was a neutral Spanish port, it was not under the regular British blockade and received a constant supply of letters and newspapers from the islands of the Gulf and the Caribbean.
One of the best sources were the papers out of Havana, and out of Jamaica.
This is how Jackson, his governor and all the other interested parties came to the consensus that the target was going to be either Mobile or New Orleans. Jackson decided it would be New Orleans with just barely enough time to leave Mobile and get to New Orleans and organize the defense.
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