John Peddie was an assistant quartermaster in the British army during the War of 1812. In December, 1814, on the eve of the Battle of New Orleans, Peddie and Royal Navy captain Robert Spencer scouted the area of Bayou Bienvenu, and determined it to be a suitable point for landing British troops. This scouting included disguising themselves as civilians, and hiring a pirogue, which carried them to the plantation of Jacques Villeré, which they decided would be the best landing point.[1] Aside from this, nothing about Peddie's life is readily available.
On December 21, 1814, Lt. John Peddie was debriefed by Admiral Alexander Cochrane as to what he and Robert Spencer found on their explorations. Peddie also reported on intelligence gathered from a fisherman named Duclos, who believed that U.S. general Andrew Jackson had amassed some fifteen thousand men at New Orleans. General Robert Ross, who was present in an advisory capacity, disputed that number, believing the inexperienced Duclos, a civilian, had inadvertently inflated those numbers.[2]
↑See, e.g., The Battle of New Orleans by Robert V. Remini