Although the middle of the American line never faced a direct attack, its defenders inflicted many of the British casualties suffered during the battle. The cannons here were ideally positioned to fire on the main British force advancing against the rampart's swamp end. To the left were Tennesseans led by Major General William Carroll, who succeeded Andrew Jackson as head of the Tennessee militia. General John Adair's Kentucky militia reinforced this section; nearly a third of these men had arrived in New Orleans without weapons or winter clothes but had been outfitted by the city's residents. The British called the Tennessee and Kentucky militias "dirty shirts" because, instead of wearing proper uniforms, the militiamen wore homespun clothing colored with homemade dyes.
