pirate Jean Laffite at Barataria Bay, in cooperation with Colonel Ross, capturing six schooners and other small craft. In that same month, he refused Andrew Jackson's request to send his few naval units to Mobile Bay where Patterson knew they would be bottled up by a superior British fleet. Patterson's naval assets were limited to six gunboats, a schooner, a sloop, as well as the USS Carolina (1812) and USS Louisiana (1812). Foreseeing British designs against New Orleans almost two months before their attack, Patterson, not Jackson, was the first to prepare to defend the city. The American victory at the Battle of New Orleans resulted as much from his foresight and preparations as from Jackson's able fighting. delayed the enemy until reinforcements arrived, then gave artillery support in defense of the fortifications on the right bank of the Mississippi. Patterson, highly commended by Jackson, received a note of thanks from Congress, and was promoted to Captain on February 28, 1815. Patterson remained on the southern stations until 1824. Because of failing health, Thomas Macdonough relinquished command of whereupon Patterson then assumed command and became fleet captain and commander of this flagship in Commodore John Rodgers' Mediterranean Squadron. Returning home in 1828, he was appointed one of the three Navy commissioners. He commanded the Mediterranean Squadron from 1832 to 1836. He then took command of the Washington Navy Yard in 1836, an office he held until his death at Wilmington, Delaware, August 25, 1839. Daniel Todd Patterson and his wife are buried in Congressional Cemetery, Washington, D.C. The Life of Gould, an Ex-Man-of-War's Man, by Roland Gould (1867), noted on a website of the Navy Department Library at the Washington Navy Yard, purportedly contains a first-person account of the death of Commodore Patterson. Rank Although Patterson is properly called a "Commodore", during his years in the Navy this was not one of the hierarchical "line" ranks. Instead, "Commodore" applied to any officer in command of a fleet of two or more ships, regardless of the officer's "line" rank at the time, and regardless of whether the officer also held the dual role of commanding officer of one of the ships in the fleet. Thus Patterson was a Commodore at the time of the Battle of New Orleans because he commanded a fleet of ships, even though he was not promoted to the "line" rank of Captain until after the battle.