General Brock did not content himself in replying to General Hull on

paper, in defence of the British Government and the people of Canada; he

answered him in a more substantial way on the battle-field. General

Brock lost no time in collecting the few soldiers in Upper Canada, and

the militia volunteers, and proceeding by boats, vessels, and by land,

from Niagara to Detroit, to meet face to face the boasting commander of

the Grand Army of the West, and, in less than four weeks of his manly

reply to Hull's inflated proclamation, he made Hull and all his army

prisoners of war, with the surrender of the whole Michigan territory. It

was an achievement worthy of perpetual remembrance, that General Brock,

with forces hastily collected, "consisting of thirty of the Royal

Artillery with three six-pounders, under the command of Lieutenant

Troughton, two hundred and fifty of the 41st Regiment, fifty of the

Newfoundland Fencibles, and four hundred Canadian militia--in all

amounting to seven hundred and thirty, to whom six hundred Indians

attached themselves--making an aggregate of one thousand three hundred

and thirty;" we say, it is an achievement worthy of all remembrance and

honour, that General Brock should, with such motley and slender forces,

cross the Detroit river, and, by the skilful arrangement of his handful

of soldiers, take, without shedding a drop of blood, a fort strongly

protected by--_iron_ ordnance, nine twenty-four-pounders, eight

twelve-pounders, five nine-pounders, three six-pounders; _brass_

ordnance, three six-pounders, two four-pounders, one three-pounder, one

eight-inch howitzer, one five and a-half inch howitzer--in all

thirty-three pieces of ordnance; and defended by upwards of 2,500

regular soldiers and militia.

But there was this essential difference between the two armies: the

little Canadian army had homes, families, and liberties to defend,

connection with the mother country to maintain, and the consciousness of

right; the great American army, with its fortifications, had the

consciousness of long-continued and wide-spread wrongs in depredations

against their western Indian neighbours, bloated avarice for conquest,

and inveterate hatred of Great Britain.

There are several incidents connected with this remarkable military

achievement. Mr. Thompson, in his History of the War of 1812, says:

"General Brock having made such arrangements, in the government of the

province, as were necessary during his absence from York, proceeded

thence to Fort George, and thence to _Long Point, on Lake Erie, where he

was joined by two hundred and sixty of the militia, who had, in a few

days, and in the very height of their harvest, gallantly volunteered

their services to share the dangers of the field in defence of their

country_, together with the detachment of the 41st Regiment, who had

been previously sent to that quarter." (Thompson's History of the War of

1812, p. 106.)

Among the 260 volunteers from the county of Norfolk--Long Point, Lake

Erie--were the elder brother and brother-in-law of the writer of these

pages (he being then ten years of age); the one of them was lieutenant

and the other captain, who, with a great number of their neighbours,

proceeded in a vessel from Port Ryerse to Amherstburg--making the

passage in forty-eight hours--General Brock marching by land. The vessel

with the militia volunteers reached Amherstburg some five days before

General Brock, and, under the command of Colonel Proctor and the

direction of a skilful engineer, commenced erecting a battery at

Windsor, opposite to Detroit, behind a tuft of trees which skirted the

river shore. Sentries were stationed at convenient distances along the

north shore of the river, to prevent any intercourse with the American

side; while the militia, officers and men, worked each night with the

utmost quietness, in the erection of the battery, retiring at the

approach of day. In four nights the battery was erected and mounted with

cannon, when General Brock arrived, approved of what had been done,

called a Council of the Indian allies, as well as of his officers, and

determined forthwith to cross the river and attack Fort Detroit. The

Indians were to cross in the night, which they did some three or four

miles below Detroit, and spread themselves in the woods that surrounded

the town, which then contained from 6,000 to 8,000 inhabitants. The

night-erected battery was unmasked by felling the trees and underwood in

front of it, when, to the astonishment and terror of the Americans, they

saw a battery fully equipped, and already firing effectually upon their

town and fort. Early in the morning of the 15th of August, General

Brock, with his little army of 730 men (the militia being accoutred as

regular soldiers), crossed the river unopposed about three miles below

the fort (which was in the centre of the town), and marched in order of

battle, under cover of corn fields, to within half a mile of the fort,

from which, not cannon balls, but a flag of truce was sent out,

proposing the surrender to the British commander of the fort, army,

town, and territory.[195]

The terrific war-whoop of the dreaded Indians, who seemed to swarm in

the woods around the town, filled the people and General Hull with

irresistible terror; and at the very moment that General Hull was

holding a council of war with his officers in a room within the fort, a

shell, thrown from the British battery at Windsor, fell into the council

room, killed some officers, and wounded several more. This catastrophe,

with the terrible yells of the surrounding Indians, seemed to have

decided General Hull and his advisers that _surrender_ "was the better

part of valour."

A _second_ incident connected with the surrender of Detroit and the

Michigan territory is the council which General Brock held with the

Indians the day before the attack upon and surrender of Detroit, and his

interview with them the day after, for the account of which I am

indebted to Colonel John Clarke's manuscripts in the Dominion Library at

Ottawa:

"On General Brock's arrival at Sandwich, a council of war was assembled

on the following morning. Along with others were 1,000 Indians, whose

equipment generally might be considered very imposing.

"The council was opened by General Brock, who informed the Indians that

he was ordered by their great Father, the King, to come to their

assistance, and with them to drive the enemy from Fort Detroit. His

speech was highly applauded, and Tecumseh was unanimously called upon to

speak in reply. He commenced with expressing his joy that their great

Father beyond the Salt Lake (meaning the King of England) had at length

awoke from his long sleep, and sent his warriors to the assistance of

his red children, who had roused themselves in their honour, and were

now ready to shed the last drop of their blood in their great Father's

service.

"Previously to passing over to Detroit, General Brock inquired of

Tecumseh what kind of country he should have to pass through, in the

event of his proceeding further. Tecumseh, taking a roll of elm bark,

and extending it on the ground, drew forth his scalping knife, and

presently etched upon the bark a plan of the country; which, if not so

neat, was as fully intelligible as if a surveyor had prepared it.

Pleased with this talent in Tecumseh, and with his characteristic

boldness, General Brock induced the Indians to cross the river for the

attack on Detroit, prior to the embarkation of the white troops.

"Soon after Detroit was surrendered, General Brock took off his sash,

and publicly placed it around the body of the chief Tecumseh, who

received the honour conferred on him with evident gratification; but was

seen the next day without his sash. The British general, fearing that

something had displeased the Indian chief, sent his interpreter for an

explanation. Tecumseh told him that he did not wish to wear the sash as

a mark of distinction, when an older warrior than himself was present;

he had transferred the sash to the Wyandot chief, Roundhead.

"In his correspondence, General Brock states that 'of many Indians whom

he met at Amherstburg, he who most attracted his notice was the Shawnee

chief, Tecumseh, brother of the Prophet--a more gallant or sagacious

warrior does not, I believe, exist; he was the admiration of every one,

and was as humane as he was brave.'

"General Brock, in General Orders of the 16th of August, 1812, after the

capture of Detroit, states that two fortifications had been already

captured, Michilimackinac and Detroit, without a drop of blood being

shed by the hands of the Indians; the moment the enemy surrendered, his

life became sacred.

"On congratulating General Brock, after the capture of Detroit, Tecumseh

said to the General, 'We observed you from a distance standing the whole

time in an erect position, and when the boats reached the shore, you

were the first man on the land; your bold and sudden movements

frightened the enemy, and so compelled them to surrender to half their

number.'

"General Brock engaged the Indians to throw away the scalping

knife--implanting in their hearts the virtue of clemency, and teaching

them to feel pleasure and pride in compassion extended to a vanquished

enemy. In return, they revered him as their common Father, and whilst

under his control, were guilty of no excesses; and thereby the noble

Tecumseh was humane as well as brave."[196]

Such was the character and results of the first American invasion of

Canada.

It may be worth while to notice some events which preceded the taking of

Detroit, and which doubtless disappointed and disheartened General Hull.

In the island of St. Joseph, in Lake Huron, there was a fort or

block-house, under the command of Captain Roberts, with thirty regulars.

General Brock, in communicating to Captain Roberts the American

declaration of war against Great Britain, instructed him to take every

precaution for the protection of St. Joseph, and, if possible, to get

possession of Michilimackinac, now called Mackinac, and pronounced

Mackinaw, an island about nine miles in circumference, commanding the

entrance from Lake Huron into Lake Michigan, on which the Americans had

a fort with a captain in command, and a garrison of seventy-five men.

Captain Roberts was aided by Mr. Pothier, a gentlemen of the South-west

Fur Company, who volunteered his own services, attended by about 160

Canadian voyageurs, and placed the contents of the stores at the

disposal of Captain Roberts, who, with his little armament, consisting

of thirty regulars, two artillerymen and a sergeant, 160 Canadians, and

two iron field-pieces, set out on the 16th of July with his flotilla of

boats and canoes, convoyed by the _Caledonia_ brig, belonging to the

North-West Company, loaded with stores and provisions. On the ensuing

morning he reached Mackinac, a distance of about forty miles, landed

without opposition, and immediately summoned the garrison to surrender,

which was complied with in a few minutes. Thus was this key of the West

taken without the effusion of a drop of blood.

The Americans had carried on a brisk trade in schooners and sailing

vessels from Detroit, through Lake Huron, to the head of Lake Michigan,

now Chicago. The capture of Mackinac--which was a surprise to the

commander, who had not heard of the declaration of war--interrupted this

trade, and gave confidence to the Canadian voyageurs and Indians in the

British interests employed in the fur trade in these distant countries.

"This achievement, effected by the promptitude and judicious

arrangements of Captain Roberts, not only inspired the people with

confidence, and gave a turn to the present campaign fatal to the views

of the United States, by enabling us to maintain our influence among the

Indians of the West, which otherwise must have been lost, but it

essentially contributed to the successful struggle afterwards maintained

against the American arms in Upper Canada. General Hull, after the

capture of his army and the fall of Detroit, in his official despatch

relative to these events, attributes his disasters to the fall of

Mackinac; after the surrender of which, almost every tribe and nation of

Indians, except a part of the Miamis and Delawares, north from beyond

Lake Superior, west from beyond the Mississippi, south from Ohio and the

Wabash, and east from every part of Upper Canada, and from all the

intermediate country, joined in open hostility against the army he

commanded."[197]

"General Hull remained some time inactive, under pretext of making

preparation to prosecute the campaign with vigour; but it was the

fallacious hope of an early insurrection in his favour that lulled him

into a supineness fatal to the safety of his army. Amherstburg lay about

eighteen miles below him, and the mud and picketed fortifications of

that post was not in a condition to make resistance against a regular

siege. The Americans, confident of an easy conquest, had not as yet a

single cannon or mortar mounted, and to endeavour to take it at the

point of the bayonet he thought inexpedient. During this delay his

situation became more and more precarious; three detachments from his

army were, on three successive days, beaten back by a handful of the

41st Regiment and a few Indians, from a bridge over the River Canard,

three miles from Amherstburg, which they endeavoured to seize, in order

to open the route to that port. Another detachment, in attempting to

ford the river (Canard) higher up, was put to flight by a small party of

eighteen or twenty Indians who lay concealed in the grass. The enemy,

panic-struck at their sudden and hideous yell, fled with precipitancy,

leaving their arms, accoutrements, and haversacks. The British sloop of

war _Queen Charlotte_, carrying eighteen twenty-four pounders, lay in

the Detroit river, opposite the mouth of the River Canard, so that it

was impossible for the Americans to convey by water to Amherstburg any

artillery, of which, after much labour, they had at last mounted two

twenty-four-pounders. Lieutenant Rolette, commanding the armed brig

_Hunter_, had on the 3rd of July, at about ten o'clock in the forenoon,

by a bold attempt in his barge, with only six men, succeeded in

capturing the _Cayahaga_ packet, bound from Miami river to Detroit with

troops, and loaded with baggage, and the hospital stores of the American

army, the loss of which was now severely felt. Mackinac, in his rear,

had been taken since the commencement of the invasion, while the Indians

from that quarter were flocking to the British standard. Our naval force

being superior on the lake, Colonel Proctor pushed over to Brownstown, a

village nearly opposite to Amherstburg, twenty miles below Detroit,

with a small detachment of the 41st Regiment, under the command of

Captain Tallon, with a few Indians, who on the 5th of August surprised

and routed a party of 200 Americans under Major Vanhorne, on their way

from Detroit to River Raisin, to meet a detachment of volunteers from

Ohio, under Captain Brush, with a convoy of provisions for the army. In

this affair a quantity of booty, and General Hull's despatches to the

Secretary at War, fell into the hands of the victors, whereby the

deplorable state of the American army was disclosed." * *

"In the interim, the American general received a despatch from General

Hull, on the Niagara frontier, intimating that he could not expect

co-operation in that quarter, which would have created a diversion in

his favour. Such was the hopeless state of things when the American

general began to be sensible of his danger. His army hemmed in on every

side, cut off from its resources, and hourly wasting away with defeat,

death, sickness, and fatigue, unsupported by an expected insurrection of

Canadians in his favour, and unaided by any co-operating army, and,

above all, dismayed at the report of General Brock's resolution to

advance against him; his schemes of conquest vanquished, and in the

sinking state of his affairs, he saw no other alternative than to

retreat back to Detroit, under pretence of concentrating his main army,

and after re-opening his communications with the Rivers Raisin and

Miami, through which he received his whole supplies, to resume offensive

operations against Upper Canada. Accordingly, on the evening of the 7th

and the morning of the 8th of August, the whole of his army, except a

garrison of 250 men and a few artillery left in charge of a small

fortress they had thrown up on the British side, a little below Detroit,

_recrossed the river_.

"General Hull now detached a body of 600 men, under Lieutenant-Colonel

Miller, to dislodge the British from Brownstown, and open the

communication with the Rivers Raisin and Miami, upon which the existence

of the army depended. On the 9th, this detachment was met by the British

and Indians under Major Muir at Magnogo, between Brownstown and Detroit,

which, after a desperate battle, in which the Americans lost

seventy-five men, was obliged to retreat with inconsiderable loss

compared with that of the Americans.

"On the 7th, Lieutenant Rolette, with the boats of the _Queen Charlotte_

and _Hunter_, under cover of the guns of the latter, attacked and

captured a convoy of eleven batteaux and boats, having on board

fifty-six of their wounded, and two English prisoners, on their way from

Magnogo to Detroit, escorted by 250 American troops on shore.

"Amidst these reverses of fortune, the American general was startled at

the summons to surrender the fort of Detroit, by General Brock, who,

after having closed the public business at York, and prorogued

Parliament, and collecting a few regulars and militia with incredible

exertion, had reached Amherstburg by the 13th of August. So resolute a

demand struck the American commander with dismay, who, at the most, had

never contemplated a pursuit into his own territory by the British. He

still, however, maintained sufficient presence of mind to return a

prompt and positive refusal, upon receipt of which, the British, who now

occupied the ground so lately in possession of the enemy, in front of

Detroit, where they had thrown up a battery (erected by night) under the

direction of Captain Dixon, of the Royal Engineers, commenced, on the

afternoon of the 15th, a brisk cannonade on Detroit, from two

five-and-a-half-inch mortars, and two twelve-pounders, under the

management of Captain Hall, of the Provincial Navy, with a party of

sailors, which was continued for upwards of an hour with great effect.

Early in the morning of the 16th the cannonade recommenced, while

General Brock, with about 700 regulars and militia, and 600 Indians,

crossed the river without opposition at the Spring Wells, three miles

below Detroit, under cover of the _Queen Charlotte_ and _Hunter_. This

small but resolute force, after forming upon the beach, advanced in

column, flanked on the left by the Indians, with the river of Detroit on

their right, and took (at the distance of a mile) position in line, in

front of the American fort, into which the enemy had retired. Here every

preparation was making for an immediate assault, when, to the surprise

of both armies, a white flag was seen flying upon the walls of the fort,

and a messenger advancing with proposals from the American general to

_capitulate_. Lieutenant-Colonel McDowell, of the Militia, and Major

Glegg, of the 49th Regiment, aide-de-camp to General Brock, immediately

proceeded by his orders to the tent of the American general, where, in

a few minutes, they dictated the terms of capitulation. By this the

whole American army, including a detachment of 350 men, under Colonels

McArthur and Cass, dispatched on the 14th for River Raisin to escort the

provisions in charge of Captain Brush from thence to Detroit, became

prisoners of war; and Detroit, with the Michigan territory, were

surrendered to the British arms, without the effusion of a single drop

of British blood.

"The American statements of their own strength nearly coincide with

British reports, which make it 2,500 men, regulars and militia. The

militia were paroled, and permitted to return home, on condition of not

serving during the present war. The regulars were sent down to Quebec.

"The British force, including Indians, is acknowledged by the enemy to

have consisted of only 1,030 men or thereabout. Our own, and perhaps

more correct reports, state it to have consisted of 350 regular troops,

400 militia, and 600 Indians, who, upon the present occasion, are said

not to have sullied the glory of the day by any wanton acts of savage

barbarity incident to the Indian mode of warfare. Twenty-five pieces of

iron and eight pieces of brass ordnance, with an immense quantity of

stores of every description, and one armed brig, called the _John Adams_

(afterwards named _Detroit_), fell into the hands of the British"

[besides nearly 3,000 stand of small arms, much ammunition, and three

weeks' provisions for the whole army]. (Thompson's History of the War of

1812, pp. 67-72.)

"Thus ended this (first) rash and imbecile attempt at the conquest of

Canada. The loss of Mackinac and Detroit, with the flower of their army,

at the outset of the war, was a disgrace that filled the American

Government with consternation and alarm, as their plans of

aggrandisement were not only totally defeated, but their whole western

frontier was laid open to the inroads of the hostile Indians, and at the

mercy of a people still warm with indignation at the late

invasion."--_Ib_., pp. 72, 73.

General Brock, the day after taking Detroit, addressed to the

inhabitants of the Michigan territory the following Proclamation:

"Whereas the territory of Michigan was this day, by capitulation, ceded

to the arms of his Britannic Majesty, without any other condition than

the protection of private property; and wishing to give an early proof

of the moderation and justice of his Majesty's government, I do hereby

announce to all the inhabitants of the said territory, that the laws

heretofore in existence shall continue in force until his Majesty's

pleasure be known, and so long as the peace and safety of the said

territory will admit thereof; and I do hereby also declare and make

known to the said inhabitants, that they shall be protected in the full

exercise and enjoyment of their religion--of which all persons, both

civil and military, will take notice, and govern themselves accordingly.

"All persons having in their possession, or having knowledge of any

public property, shall forthwith deliver in the same, or give notice

thereof to the officer commanding, or to Lieutenant-Colonel Nicholl, who

are duly authorized to receive and give the proper receipts for the

same.

"Officers of militia will be held responsible that all arms in

possession of the militiamen be immediately delivered up; and all

individuals whatever who have in possession arms of any kind, will

deliver them up without delay.

"Given under my hand, at Detroit, this 16th day of August, 1812, and in

the 52nd year of his Majesty's reign. God save the King.

(Signed) "ISAAC BROCK,

"_Major-General_."

The purport and spirit of this proclamation was very different from

those issued by successful American commanders in former years, when

they required the conquered to take a new oath of allegiance, to enrol

themselves in a new army under pain of confiscation of property,

imprisonment, and even death. The true genius of English government is

justice, law, and liberty; the genius of democratic government is the

domination of party, and the spoils to the victors. In the conquest of a

vast territory by General Brock, there was no plunder or sacrifice of

life, by Indian or soldier, much less plunder for the benefit of the

general. It was not so with the promising, threatening, ostentatious,

grasping General Hull, who, according to the Patriotic Society of Upper

Canada (of which hereafter), is thus reported:

"In 1812, General Hull invaded the British province of Upper Canada, and

took possession of the town of Sandwich. He threatened (by proclamation)

_to exterminate the inhabitants if they made any resistance_. _He

plundered_ those with whom he had been on habits of intimacy years

before the war. Their plate and linen were found in his possession after

his surrender to General Brock. He marked out the loyal subjects of the

King as objects of his peculiar resentment, and consigned their property

to pillage and conflagration."

General Brock left Colonel Proctor in command of Detroit, and returned

to York (Toronto), where he arrived the 27th of August, amidst the

heartfelt acclamations of a grateful people.

"In the short space of nineteen days he had, with the assistance of the

Provincial Parliament, settled the public business of the province,

under the most trying circumstances that a commander could encounter,

and having united and prepared his little army, had effected a long and

fatiguing march of several hundred miles; and with means incredibly

limited, had repelled an invading enemy of double his force, pursued him

into his own territory, and finally compelled him to surrender his whole

army and jurisdiction; thus extending the British dominions, without

bloodshed, over an extent of territory almost equal to Upper

Canada."--"Our little navy on Lake Erie, and on Lake Ontario, though the

enemy were making the most active exertions, still maintained a decided

ascendency, and upon it depended the safety of Upper Canada and the

future fate of the British provinces. General Brock intended to have

followed up his first success by an attempt on Niagara, a fort nearly

opposite to Fort George; which, in all probability, as well as Oswego

and Sackett's Harbour, the nursery of the enemy's fleet and forces,

would have yielded to the terror of his name and the tide of success

that attended his arms; but, _controlled by his instructions_, he was

prevented from adopting measures which probably might have for ever

blasted the hopes of the United States in Upper Canada." (Christie.)

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 195: The brother-in-law and elder brother of the writer were

ordered by General Brock to select the fleetest horses of those captured

from the Americans, in order to convey the intelligence of the capture

of Detroit, and of General Hull and army, to Colonel Talbot, at Port

Talbot, and to General Vincent, commander of the forces at Burlington

Heights. They had wrought all night before they received their orders,

and travelled, one of them two days and two nights, and the other two

nights and three days without sleep. But these deeds were not peculiar;

similar deeds were performed on the Niagara and Lower Canada frontiers

during that and the following years. The Loyalist defenders of Canada of

those days were patriots and soldiers to the heart's core; and they had

wills, and nerves, and muscles "to endure hardness as good soldiers," in

the hardest and darkest hours of our country's trials and struggles.

It may be added, that the horse on which the elder brother of the writer

of these pages rode, in execution of the orders of General Brock, was

afterwards stolen by the traitor Wilcox, who escaped to the United

States, but was afterwards killed while invading Fort Erie.]

[Footnote 196: I think the reader will be interested in the following

particulars, which I have collected of this remarkable Indian Chief:

"In the year 1809, Tecumseh, attended by several hundred warriors,

encamped near Vincennes, then capital of Indiana, and demanded an

interview with the Governor of the State; for which interview was

assembled a Council, when it was observed there was no vacant seat for

the noble chief, Tecumseh. One of the Council officers hastily offered

his seat, and having respectfully said to him, 'Warrior, your Father,

General Harrison, offers you a seat.' 'My Father,' exclaimed Tecumseh,

extending his arms towards the heavens, 'There, son, is my Father, and

the earth is my mother; she giving me nourishment, and I dwell upon her

bosom.' He then sat himself upon the ground."

"The Indian warrior Tecumseh, a Shawnee chief, himself and warriors,

attached themselves to the cause of Great Britain, on the declaration of

the American war of 1812. * *

"Tecumseh's first engagement, under the British Colonel Proctor, then in

command of the Western District, was attacking and defeating a

detachment of Americans under Major Howe, from Detroit to the Beaver

river. In this affair, General Hull's despatches, and correspondence of

his troops, fell into the hands of Tecumseh; and it was partly from the

discouraging nature of their contents that General Brock attempted the

capture of the American army under General Hull."

"On the 16th of July, Tecumseh and a few of his warriors pursued near

Sandwich [on the Canadian side of the river] a detachment of the

American army, under Colonel McArthur, and fired on the rear guard. 'The

colonel suddenly faced about and gave orders for a volley, when all the

Indians fell flat on the ground, with the exception of Tecumseh, who

stood firm on his feet, with apparent unconcern."

"As Colonel Proctor retired to Nassau (Moravian town), on the Thames,

and when the regulars and militia had surrendered on the right, the

Indians carried on the contest on the left, and did not retreat until

the day was lost, and thirty-three of their number had been slain,

including the noble warrior, Tecumseh. After his fall, his lifeless

corpse was recovered with great interest by the American officers, who

declared that the contour of his features was majestic even in death. He

left a son who fought by his side when he fell, and was seventeen years

of age.

"The Prince Regent, in 1815, as a mark of respect to the memory of his

father, sent a handsome sword as a present to his son."]

[Footnote 197: Christie's War of 1812, pp. 65, 66.]

CHAPTER LIII.

SECOND AMERICAN INVASION OF UPPER CANADA AT QUEENSTON--DISPROPORTION OF

AMERICAN AND CANADIAN FORCES--DEATH OF GENERAL BROCK--DEFEAT AND LOSS OF

THE AMERICANS--ARMISTICE--INCIDENTS WHICH OCCURRED ON THE NIAGARA

FRONTIER, AT FORT ERIE, AS RELATED BY LIEUTENANT DRISCOLL, OF THE 100TH

REGIMENT.

The _second invasion_ of Upper Canada took place on the Niagara

frontier, at Queenston. We will give the account of it (condensed) from

the History of the War by Mr. Thompson, of the Royal Scots:

"Dispirited at such a total failure in General Hull's expedition, it

became late in the season before the American Government could collect a

force on the frontiers with which, with any safety, another descent upon

Canada could be made. At length, Major-General Van Rensellaer, of the

New York Militia, with a force of _four thousand men_ under his command

(1,500 of whom were regular troops), established his camp at Lewiston,

on the Niagara river, nearly half-way between Lake Ontario and the

Falls.

"Before daylight on the morning of the 13th of October, a large division

of General Van Rensellaer's army, under Brigadier-General Wadsworth,

effected a landing at the lower end of the village of Queenston

(opposite to Lewiston), and made an attack upon the position, which was

defended with the most determined bravery by the two flank companies of

the 49th Regiment, commanded by Captains Dennis and Williams, aided by

such of the militia forces and Indians as could be collected in the

vicinity.

"Major-General Brock, on receiving intelligence, immediately proceeded

to that post, from Fort George, and arrived at the juncture when the

handful of British regulars was compelled to retire for a time before an

overwhelming force of the enemy. However, on the appearance of their

gallant chief, the troops were seized with a fresh animation, and were

led on by that brave general to a renewed exertion to maintain the post;

but at the moment of charging the enemy's position, within pistol-shot

of the line, General Brock was killed by a musket ball, and with him the

position was for a short time lost. Colonel Macdonell, his provincial

aide-de-camp, was mortally wounded about the same time, and died shortly

afterwards of his wounds.

"A reinforcement of the 41st Regiment, commanded by Captain Derenzy,

with a few of the Lincoln Militia and a party of Indians, were

immediately marched from Fort George to the succour of the troops at

Queenston, under the direction of Major-General Sheaffe, who now assumed

the command; and persons who were, by their situations in life and

advanced age, exempt from serving in the militia, made common cause,

seized their arms, and flew to the field of action as volunteers.

"The conflict was again renewed, and from the advantageous position of

Norton, the Indian chief, with his warriors, on the woody brow of the

high grounds, a communication was opened with Chippewa, from whence

Captain Bullock, of the 41st Regiment, with a detachment of that corps,

was enabled to march for Queenston, and was joined on the way by parties

of militia who were repairing from all quarters, with all the enthusiasm

imaginable, to the field of battle. The fight was maintained on both

sides with a courage truly heroic. The British regulars and militia

charged in rapid succession against a force in number far exceeding

their own, until they succeeded in turning the left flank of their

column, which rested on the summit of the hill. The event of the day no

longer appeared doubtful."

"Major-General Van Rensellaer, commanding the American army, perceiving

his reinforcements embarking very slowly, recrossed the Niagara river to

accelerate their movements; but, to his utter astonishment, he found

that at the very moment when their services were most required, the

ardour of the engaged troops had entirely subsided. He rode in all

directions through his camp, urging the men by every consideration to

pass over. Lieutenant-Colonel Bloome, who had been wounded in the

action and recrossed the river, together with Judge Peck, who happened

to be in Lewiston at the time, mounted their horses and rode through the

camp, exhorting the companies to proceed--_but all in vain_. Crowds of

the United States Militia remained on the American bank of the river, to

which they had not been marched in any order, but run as a mob; _not one

of them would cross_. They had seen the wounded re-crossing; they had

seen the Indians, _and were panic-struck_." (American Report of the

Battle of Queenston.)

"No sooner had the British forces succeeded in turning the left flank of

the enemy, than he visibly began to give way; one grand effort was

therefore made upon the crest of his position, in which the heights were

carried at the point of the bayonet.

"General Van Rensellaer, having found that it was impossible to induce a

man to cross the river to reinforce the army on the heights, and that

the army had nearly expended its ammunition, immediately sent boats to

cover their retreat; but the fire, which was maintained upon the ferry

from a battery on the bank of the lower end of Queenston, completely

dispersed the boats, and many of the boatmen re-landed and fled in

dismay.

"Brigadier-General Wadsworth was therefore compelled, after a vigorous

conflict had been maintained for some time on both sides, to surrender

himself and all his officers, with 900 men, between three and four

o'clock in the afternoon, to a force far inferior to his in numbers--a

circumstance which speaks loudly in favour of the plan of defence and

attack adopted by Major-General Sheaffe.

"The loss of the British in this battle did not exceed 100 men,

including killed, wounded, and missing; while that on the side of the

Americans, including deserters, was not less than 2,000; but amongst the

killed, the British Government and the country had to deplore the loss

of Sir Isaac Brock, one whose memory will long live in the warmest

affections of every British subject in Canada."[198]

"On the morning subsequent to the battle of Queenston, General Sheaffe

entered into an armistice with the American general commanding at

Lewiston, to be confined to that part of the frontier comprised between

Lakes Ontario and Erie, subject to a condition that forty-eight hours'

notice should be given by either party for a recommencement of

hostilities [a condition violated by the American commander]. This

arrangement [considered disadvantageous to the British cause] was at

first censured by individuals unaware of the motives by which General

Sheaffe was actuated. It was not, in the flush of victory, taken into

consideration that the number of American prisoners then in his charge

far exceeded the numerical strength of his army, when the Indian force

was withdrawn; and that, with his very limited means of defence, he had

a frontier of forty miles to protect."[199]

Before noticing the _third_ American invasion of Canada, in 1812, or the

second on the Niagara frontier, we will conclude this Chapter by adding

a few incidents on the Niagara river frontier, at Fort Erie, after the

death of General Brock, October 13, 1812, by Lieutenant Driscoll, of the

100th Regiment:

"I was stationed at Fort Erie on the memorable 13th of October, 1812. At

daybreak, having returned with my escort as visiting rounds, after a

march of about six miles in muddy roads through the forests, and about

to refresh the inward man, after my fatiguing trudge, I heard a booming

of distant artillery, very faintly articulated.

"Having satisfied myself of the certainty of my belief, hunger, wet, and

fatigue were no longer remembered; excitement banishes these trifling

matters from the mind; and I posted off to my commanding officer to

report the firing, now more audible and rapid.

"I found my chief, booted, spurred, and snoring--lying, as was his wont,

on a small hair mattress on the floor in his barrack-room, which boasted

of furniture, one oak table covered with green baize, a writing-desk, a

tin basin containing water, and a brass candlestick, which had planted

in it a regulation mutton-dip, dimly flickering its last ray of light,

paling before the dawn, now making its first appearance through the

curtainless window.

"The noise I made on entering the major's sleeping and other apartment

awoke him. As he sat up on his low mattrass, he said, 'What is the

matter?' 'Heavy firing down the river, sir.' 'Turn the men out.' 'All

under arms, sir.' 'That'll do.'

"By this time he was on his legs--his hat and gloves on. His hutman was

at the door with his charger, and his spurs in his horse's flanks in an

instant--leaving the orderly, hutman, and myself to double after him up

to the fort, some hundred yards off.

"As we reached it, the men were emerging through the gate in measured

cadence, and we were on our way to the batteries, opposite the enemy's

station at Black Rock.

"Before we reached our post of alarm the sun was up and bright. We had

not assumed our position long before an orderly officer of the

Provincial Dragoons rode up, and gave us the information that the enemy

were attempting to cross at Kingston, and that we must annoy them along

the whole line, as was being done from Niagara to Queenston, by any and

every means in our power short of crossing the river. Everything was

ready on our parts. The enemy all appeared asleep, judging from the

apparent quiet that prevailed on their side of the river.

"The command to annoy the enemy was no sooner given than, bang! bang!

went off every gun we had in position.

"Now there was a stir. The enemy's guns were in a short time manned, and

returned our fire; and the day's work was begun, which was carried on

briskly the greater part of the day on both sides of the Niagara.

"About two o'clock, another Provincial dragoon, bespattered, horse and

man, with foam and mud, made his appearance--not wearing his sword or

helmet.

"Said an old Green Tiger to me, 'Horse and man jaded, sir; depend upon

it, he brings bad news.' 'Step down and ascertain what intelligence he

brings.' Away my veteran doubles, and soon returns at a funeral pace.

'Light heart, light step,' were my inward thoughts. I knew by poor old

Clibborn's style of return something dreadful had occurred.

"'What news, Clibborn? What news, man? Speak out,' said I, as he

advanced towards the battery, that was still keeping up a brisk fire.

Clibborn walked on, perfectly unconscious of the balls that were

ploughing up the ground, uttered not a word, but shook his head.

"When in the battery, the old man sat down on the platform; still no

word, but the pallor and expression of his countenance indicated the

sorrow of his soul.

"I could stand it no longer. I placed my hand on his shoulder, 'For

Heaven's sake, tell us what you know.' In choking accents he revealed

his melancholy information: 'The general is killed; the enemy has

possession of Queenston Heights.'

"Every man in the battery was paralyzed; the battery ceased firing.

"A cheer by the enemy from the opposite side of the river recalled us to

our duty. They had heard of their success down the river. Our men, who

had in various ways evinced their feelings--some in weeping, some in

swearing, some in mournful silence--now exhibit demoniac energy. The

heavy guns are loaded, traversed and fired, as if they were

field-pieces--too much hurry for precision. 'Take your time, men; don't

throw away your fire, my lads.' 'No, sir, but we will give it to them

hot and heavy.'

"All the guns were worked by the 49 men of my own company, and they

wished to avenge their beloved chief Brock, whom they knew and valued

with that correct appreciation peculiar to the British soldier. They had

all served under him in Holland and at Copenhagen.

"I had a very excellent reconnoitring-glass; and as I kept a sharp

look-out for the effect of our fire, and the movements of the enemy, I

observed that powder was being removed from a large wooden barrack into

ammunition waggons. The only man of the Royal Artillery I had with me

was a bombardier, Walker. I called his attention to the fact I had

observed, and directed him to lay a gun for that part of the building

wherein the powder was being taken. At my request he took a look through

my glass, and, having satisfied himself, he lay the gun as ordered. I,

with my glass, watched the spot aimed at. I saw one plank of the

building fall out, and at the same instant the whole fabric went up in a

pillar of black smoke, with but little noise, as it was no more.

Horses, waggons, men, and building all disappeared; not a vestige of any

was seen.

"Now was our turn to cheer; and we plied the enemy in a style so quick

and accurate, that we silenced all their guns just as a third dragoon

come galloping up to us, shouting 'Victory! Victory!' Then again we

cheered lustily; but no response from the other side. Night now hid the

enemy from our sight.

"The commissariat made its appearance with biscuit, pork, rum, and

potatoes; and we broke our fast for that day about nine p.m.

"How strange and unaccountable are the feelings induced by war! Here

were men of two nations, but of a common origin, speaking the same

language, of the same creed, intent on mutual destruction, rejoicing

with fiendish pleasure at their address in perpetrating murder by

wholesale, shouting for joy as disasters propagated by the chances of

war hurled death and agonizing wounds into the ranks of their opponents!

And yet the very same men, when chance gave them the opportunity, would

readily exchange, in their own peculiar way, all the amenities of social

life, extending to one another a draw of the pipe, and quid, or glass;

obtaining and exchanging information from one and the other of their

respective services, as to pay, rations, and so on--the victors, with

delicacy, abstaining from any allusion to the victorious day. Though the

vanquished would allude to their disaster, the victors never named their

triumphs.

"Such is the character of acts and words between British and American

soldiers which I have witnessed, as officer commanding a guard over

American prisoners.

"J. DRISCOLL,

"Of the 100th Regiment."

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 198: Such was the high esteem in which the character of

General Brock was held even by the enemy, that during the movement of

the funeral procession of that brave man from Queenston to Fort George,

a distance of seven miles, minute guns were fired at every American post

on that part of the lines; and even the appearance of hostilities was

suspended.]

[Footnote 199: Thompson's History of the War of 1812, Chap. xv.]

CHAPTER LIV.

THIRD AMERICAN INVASION OF UPPER CANADA, AT AND NEAR FORT ERIE, ON THE

NIAGARA RIVER, UNDER GENERAL SMYTH--HIS ADDRESS TO HIS SOLDIERS--THE

LUDICROUS AND DISGRACEFUL FAILURE OF HIS EXPEDITION--THREE AMERICAN

EXPEDITIONS REPELLED IN 1812 BY THE SPARTAN BANDS OF CANADIAN

VOLUNTEERS, ASSISTED BY A FEW REGIMENTS OF ENGLISH SOLDIERS.

Such was the result of the _second invasion of Canada_--the first

invasion on the Niagara frontier by the American "Grand Army of the

Centre."

The Americans, after recovering in some measure from their disastrous

defeat at Queenston, commenced gigantic preparations for assembling

another army near Buffalo, for a second descent on the Niagara frontier,

under the command of General Smyth, with an army which, according to the

latest accounts of the American reports themselves, was 8,000 strong,

with fifteen pieces of field ordnance--sustained in the rear by a

populous and fertile country, and the facility afforded by good roads to

draw the supplies for his army and to bring into the field a formidable

artillery. So confident was General Smyth himself of a successful result

of his expedition, that he boasted on the 10th of November "that in a

few days the troops under his command would plant the American standard

in Canada," and issued an order to the commandant of Fort Niagara to

save the buildings at Fort George and the adjacent town of Newark

(Niagara), as they would be required for winter quarters for the "Army

of the Centre."

It was a difficult if not doubtful task for General Sheaffe and the

regular and militia officers under his command to provide for the

defence of the country against such formidable odds; for up to the time

at which the American general had violated the terms of the armistice

not a single British soldier had arrived to reinforce the little

Canadian army; and "after the conflict at Queenston, the militia, which

constituted the majority of the British force, had been permitted to

return home to secure the remainder of their harvest." (Thompson.)

"However, on the first alarm being given of the hostile movements of the

American army, those already harassed but loyal Canadian militiamen

promptly returned to their posts, fully determined to dispute every inch

of ground while a man was left to defend it."--(_Ib_). Nor were these

volunteer Loyalists intimidated by General Smyth's extended columns of

cavalry and infantry with which he lined the American shore, his

marching and countermarching of countless battalions, and all the pomp

of war and parade of martial bombast with which the fertile mind of

General Smyth hoped to terrify the apparently defenceless Canadians; to

which he added a flaming proclamation, not excelled in pomposity and

brag by that of General Hull issued to Canadians three months before. We

give this proclamation, as we have done that of General Hull, in a

note.[200]

This proclamation, ridiculous as it is, and appealing to the lowest

mercenary as well as better motives of democratic Americans, produced a

considerable effect in Pennsylvania, and caused an accession of some

2,000 volunteers to General Smyth's already large forces; but when the

crisis of action arrived, this grandiloquent General Smyth was not to be

found on the field of action; and of the twenty boats which were

provided to convey across the river the first instalment of invaders of

Canada, fourteen boats were sunk or driven back, and only six boats

reached the Canadian shore and gained a temporary hold, but some of them

were driven back with loss before the next morning, and the remainder

were taken prisoners. The next day General Smyth promised to do very

great things; but we will narrate these doings and the results in the

words of the American writer Lossing, in his _Field Book of the War of_

1812. Lossing says:

"November 27th [1812].--It was sunrise when the troops began to embark,

and so tardy were the movements that it was late in the afternoon when

all was ready. General Smyth did not make his appearance, and all the

movements were under the direction of his subordinates. A number of

boats had been left to strand upon the shore, and became filled with

water, snow, and ice; and as hour after hour passed by, dreariness and

disappointment fell upon the spirits of the shivering troops. Meanwhile

the enemy had collected on the opposite [British] shore, and were

watching every movement. At length, when all seemed ready and impatience

had yielded to hope, an order came from the commanding general '_to

disembark and dine_.' The wearied and worried troops were deeply

exasperated by this order, and nothing but the most positive assurances

that the undertaking would be immediately resumed kept them from open

mutiny. The different regiments retired sullenly to their respective

quarters, and General Porter, with his dispirited New York volunteers,

marched in disgust to Buffalo.

"November 28th [1812].--Smyth now called a council of officers. They

could not agree. The best of them urged the necessity of crossing in

force at once, before the (Canadian) enemy could make formidable

preparations for their reception. The General decided otherwise; and

doubt and despondency brooded over the camp that night. The ensuing

Sabbath brought no relief. Preparations for another embarkation were

indeed in progress, while the (Canadian) enemy, too, was busy in

opposing labour. It was evident to every spectator of judgment that the

invasion must be attempted at another point of the river, when, towards

evening, to the astonishment of all, the General issued an order

perfectly characteristic of the man--for the troops to be ready at

eight (November 30) o'clock the next morning for embarkation. 'The

General will be on board,' he pompously proclaimed. 'Neither rain, snow,

or frost will prevent the embarkation,' he said. 'The cavalry will soon

scour the fields from Black Rock to the bridge, and suffer no idle

spectators. While embarking, the bands will play martial airs; _Yankee

Doodle_ will be the signal to get under way. * * The landing will be

effected in despite of cannon. The whole army has seen that cannon is to

be but little dreaded. * * Hearts of war! to-morrow will be memorable in

the annals of the United States.'

"'To-morrow' came, but not the promised achievement. All the officers

disapproved of the time and manner of the proposed embarkation, and

expressed their opinions freely. At General Porter's quarters a change

was agreed upon. Porter deferred the embarkation until Tuesday morning,

the 1st of December, an hour or two before daylight, and to make the

landing-place a little below the upper end of Grand Island. Winder

suggested the propriety of making a descent directly upon Chippewa, 'the

key of the country.' This Smyth consented to attempt, intending as he

said, if successful, to march down to Queenston, and lay siege to Fort

George. Orders were accordingly given for a general rendezvous at the

Navy Yard, at three o'clock on Tuesday morning, and that the troops

should be collected in the woods near by on Monday, where they should

build fires, and await the signal for gathering on the shore of the

river. The hour arrived, but when day dawned only fifteen hundred were

embarked. Tannehill's Pennsylvania Brigade were not present. Before

their arrival rumours had reached the camp that they, too, like Van

Rensellaer's militia at Lewiston, had raised a constitutional question

about being led out of their State. Yet their scruples seem to have been

overcome at this time, and they would have invaded Canada cheerfully

under other auspices. But distrust of their leader, created by the

events of the last forty-eight hours, had demoralized nearly the whole

army. They had made so much noise in embarkation that the startled

Canadian had sounded his alarm bugle and discharged signal guns from

Fort Erie to Chippewa. Tannehill's Pennsylvanians had not appeared, and

many other troops lingered upon the shore, loth to embark. In this

dilemma Smyth hastily called a Council of the regular officers, utterly

excluding those of the volunteers from the conference; and the first

intimation of the result of that Council was an order from the

commanding general, sent to General Porter, who was on a boat with the

pilot, a fourth of a mile from shore, in the van of the impatient

flotilla, _directing the whole army to debark, and repair to their

quarters_. This was accompanied by a declaration that the _invasion of

Canada was abandoned at present_, pleading in bar of just censure, that

his orders from his superiors were, not to attempt it with less than

3,000 men. The regulars were ordered into winter quarters, and the

volunteers were dismissed to their homes.

"The troops, without order or restraint, discharged their muskets in all

directions, and a scene of insubordination and utter confusion followed.

At least a thousand of the volunteers had come from their homes in

response to his invitation, and the promise that they should be led into

Canada by a victor [without personal danger, and with the promise of

plunder and glory]. They had implicit confidence in his ability and in

the sincerity of his great words, and in proportion to their faith and

zeal were now their disappointment and resentment. Unwilling to have

their errand to the frontier fruitless of all but disgrace, the

volunteers earnestly requested permission to be led into Canada under

General Porter, promising the commanding general the speedy capture of

Fort Erie if he would furnish them with four pieces of artillery.[201]

But Smyth evaded their request, and the volunteers were sent home

uttering imprecations against the man whom they considered a mere

blusterer without courage, and a conceited deceiver without honour. They

felt themselves betrayed, and the inhabitants in the vicinity

sympathized with them. Their indignation was greatly increased by the

ill-timed and ungenerous charges made by Smyth in his report to General

Dearborn against General Porter, in whom the volunteers had the

greatest confidence. General Smyth's person was for some time in danger.

He was compelled to double the guards around his tent, and to move it

from place to place to avoid continual insults. He was several times

fired at when he ventured out of his marquee. Porter openly attributed

the abandonment of the invasion of Canada to the cowardice of Smyth." * *

"Thus ended the melodrama of Smyth's invasion of Canada. The whole

affair was disgraceful and humiliating. 'What wretched work Smyth and

Porter have made of it!' wrote General Wadsworth to General Van

Rensellaer from his home at Genesee at the close of the year. 'I wish

those who are disposed to find so much fault could know the state of the

militia since the day you gave up the command. It has been "confusion

worse confounded."' The day that saw Smyth's failure was indeed

'memorable in the annals of the United States,' as well as in his own

private history. Confidence in his military ability was destroyed; and

three months afterwards he was 'disbanded,' as the _Army Register_ says;

in other words, he was deposed without a trial, and excluded from the

army."[202]

Such was the third and last American invasion of Upper Canada in 1812.

Three large American armies defeated--two of them taken prisoners by

less than one-third their number of Canadian volunteers, aided by a few

hundred regular soldiers and as many Indians, who, notwithstanding the

abuse of them by the American generals, never murdered a woman or child

during the year, or killed a prisoner, and who were no more "savages"

than the men who maligned them.

The Spartan bands of Canadian Loyalist volunteers, aided by a few

hundred English soldiers and civilized Indians, repelled the Persian

thousands of democratic American invaders, and maintained the virgin

soil of Canada unpolluted by the foot of the plundering invader.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 200: The following is General Smyth's proclamation, issued to

his soldiers, on his intended invasion of Canada:

"_General Smyth to the Soldiers of the Army of the Centre._

"Companions in arms!--The time is come when you will cross the stream

of Niagara to conquer Canada, and to secure the peace of the Canadian

frontier.

"You will enter a country that is to be one of the United States. You

are to arrive among a people who are to become your fellow-citizens. It

is not against _them_ that we come to make war. It is against that

Government which holds them as vassals.

"You will make this war as little as possible distressful to the

Canadian population. If they are peaceable, they are to be secure in

their persons; and in their property as far as our imperious necessities

will allow.

"Provided that, plundering is absolutely forbidden. Any soldier who

quits his rank to plunder on the field of battle, will be punished in

the most exemplary manner.

"But your just rights as soldiers will be maintained; whatever is booty

by the usages of war, you shall have. All horses belonging to the

artillery and cavalry; all waggons and teams in the public service, will

be sold for the benefit of the captors. Public stores will be secured

for the service of the United States. The Government will, with justice,

pay you the value.

"The horses drawing the light artillery of the enemy are wanted for the

service of the United States. I will order $200 for each to be paid to

the party who may take them. I will also order $40 to be paid for the

arms and spoils of each savage warrior who shall be killed.

"_Soldiers!_--You are amply provided for war. You are superior in number

to the enemy. Your personal strength and activity are greater. Your

weapons are longer. The regular soldiers of the enemy are really old,

whose best years have been spent in the sickly climate of the West

Indies. They will not be able to stand before you--you who charge with

the bayonet. You have seen Indians, such as those hired by the English

to murder women and children, and kill and scalp the wounded. You have

seen their dances and grimaces, and heard their yells. Can you fear

_them_? No; you hold them in the utmost contempt.

"_Volunteers!_--Disloyal and traitorous men have endeavoured to dissuade

you from your duty. Sometimes they say, if you enter Canada you will be

held to service for five years. At others they say that you will not be

furnished with supplies. At other times they say that if you are

wounded, the Government will not provide for you by pensions. The just

and generous course pursued by Government towards the volunteers who

fought at Tippecanoe, furnishes an answer to that objection. The

others are too absurd to deserve any.

"_Volunteers!_--I esteem your generous and patriotic motives. You have

made sacrifices on the altar of your country. You will not suffer the

enemies of your fame to mislead you from the path of duty and honour,

and deprive you of the esteem of a grateful country. You will show the

_eternal_ infamy that awaits the man who, having come in sight of the

enemy, basely shrinks in the moment of trial.

"_Soldiers of every corps!_--It is in your power to retrieve the honour

of your country, and to cover yourselves with glory. Every man who

performs a gallant action shall have his name made known to the nation.

Rewards and honours await the brave. Infamy and contempt are reserved

for cowards.

"_Companions in arms!_--You come to vanquish a valiant foe; I know the

choice you will make. Come on, my heroes! And when you attack the

enemy's batteries, let your rallying word be 'The cannon lost at

Detroit, or death.'

(Signed) "ALEXANDER SMYTH,

"_Brigadier-General Commanding_.

"Camp near Buffalo, 17th Nov., 1812."]

[Footnote 201: We are inclined to think that those volunteers and others

who professed such patriotic indignation against Smyth, and promised

such great things, were, in general, no less poltroons than Smyth

himself. It was as easy for them to denounce Smyth, and to boast of what

they could and would do, as for Smyth, in his proclamation, to denounce

those who opposed the invasion of Canada.]

[Footnote 202: Lossing's Field Book of the War of 1812, Chap, xx., p.

430-432.

Mr. Lossing adds, in a note, that "General Smyth petitioned the House of

Representatives to reinstate him in the army. That body referred the

petition to the Secretary of War--the General's executioner. Of course,

its prayer was not answered. In that petition Smyth asked the privilege

of 'dying for his country.' This phrase was the subject of much

ridicule. At a public celebration of Washington's birthday, in 1814, at

Georgetown, in the District of Columbia, the following sentiment was

offered during the presentation of toasts: 'General Smyth's petition to

Congress to die for his country; may it be ordered that the prayer of

said petition be granted.'

"A wag wrote on a panel of one of the doors of the House of

Representatives:

"'All hail, great chief, who quailed before

A Bishop on Niag'ra's shore;

But looks on Death with dauntless eye,

And begs for leave to bleed and die,

"'Oh my!'"]

CHAPTER LV.

FOURTH AMERICAN INVASION--FIRST INVASION OF LOWER CANADA, COMPLETELY

DEFEATED BY THE COURAGE AND SKILL OF THE CANADIANS; AND GENERAL DEARBORN

RETIRES INTO WINTER QUARTERS AT PLATTSBURG.

But in addition to these three abortive invasions of Upper Canada in

1812, was one of _Lower Canada_, which will be narrated in the words of

Mr. Christie, illustrating as it does the ardent loyalty and noble

heroism of the French Canadians:

"The American forces, under General Dearborn, gradually approached the

frontier of Lower Canada; and early on the morning of the 17th of

November, 1812, Major (now Lieutenant-Colonel) De Salaberry,

Superintendent of the Canadian Voltigeurs, commanding the cordon of

advanced posts on the lines, received information at St. Philip's that

the enemy, to the number of ten thousand (10,000), were advancing to

Odletown. He immediately despatched two companies of the Voltigeurs,

under the command of Captain Perrault, of the same regiment, with 300

Indians under Captain Duchesne, of the Indian Department, to reinforce

Major Laforce, of the 1st Battalion embodied militia, who was posted

with the two flank companies of that battalion at the River La Cole.

This detachment, after a fatiguing march of thirty-six miles, chiefly

through _morasses_ and _abatis_, arrived early in the afternoon of the

same day at Burtonville, and took a position within the River La Cole, a

mile distant from it, in conjunction with a party of thirty Algonquin

and Abenaki Indians, and a few Voyageurs under Captain McKay, a

gentleman of the North-West Company in the Voyageurs' corps. Major De

Salaberry arrived the day following, with the remainder of the

Voltigeurs and the Voyageurs, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel

McGillivray, and four companies of the volunteer Chasseurs from the

parishes of Chateauguay, St. Constant, St. Philip, and l'Acadie.

"In the meantime the enemy occupied Champlain Town, two or three miles

from the lines, and an earnest invasion was momentarily expected.

Nothing occurred of any consequence until the 20th, in the morning, when

Captain McKay, visiting the picquet between three and four o'clock,

perceived the enemy fording the River La Cole, and at the same instant

heard them cock their firelocks in the surrounding bushes. He had

scarcely time to apprise the picquet under Captain Bernard Panet, of

their danger, when the enemy, who had surrounded the guardhut on all

sides, discharged a volley of musketry so close that their wads set fire

to the roof and consumed the hut. The militia and Indians discharged

their pieces, and dashing through the ranks of the enemy, escaped

unhurt, while the Americans, who had forded the river in two places,

mistaking each other for the enemy in the darkness and confusion of the

night, kept up a brisk fire for near half an hour, in which they killed

and wounded several of their own people. After discovering their error

they retired back to Champlain Town, leaving five of their men wounded,

and three or four killed, who were found by the Indians on the same day.

The American party is said to have consisted of fourteen hundred (1,400)

men and a troop of dragoons, and was commanded by Colonels Pike and

Clarke.

"This movement of the enemy gave room to expect another more vigorous

attempt to invade Lower Canada; and on the 22nd, the Governor, by a

General Order, directed the whole of the militia of the province to

consider themselves commanded for active service, and to be prepared to

move forward to meet the enemy as soon as required.

"Lieut.-Colonel Deschambault was ordered to cross the St. Lawrence at

Lachine to Cahuaugo, with the Point Claire, Riviere du Chene, Vaudreuil,

and Longue Point Battalions, and to march upon l'Acadie. The volunteers

of the 1st Battalion of Montreal Militia, the flank companies of the 2nd

and 3rd Battalions, and a troop of Militia Dragoons, crossed the river

to Longueuil and Laprairie; and the whole mass of population in the

district of Montreal made a spontaneous movement towards the point of

invasion with an enthusiasm unsurpassed in any age or country.

"General Dearborn, who, no doubt, was well informed of the state of the

public mind in Lower Canada at this crisis, foresaw, from the multitude

assembled to oppose his progress, and the hostile spirit of the

Canadians, the fruitlessness of an attempt to invade Lower Canada, and

began to withdraw his sickly and already enfeebled host into winter

quarters at Plattsburg and Burlington.

"All apprehensions of an invasion of Lower Canada for the present season

having disappeared, the troops and embodied militia were, on the 27th of

November, ordered into winter quarters."[203]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 203: Christie's History of the War of 1812, Chap, iv., pp.

90-92.

"The armistice between General Smyth and Sheaffe after the battle of

Queenston was terminated on the 20th of November, pursuant to

notification to that effect from the former. This and the former

armistice, without affording any present advantage, proved in the event

materially prejudicial to the British on Lake Erie. The Americans

availed themselves of so favourable an occasion to forward their naval

stores unmolested from Black Rock to Presqu' Isle [Erie] by water, which

they could not otherwise have effected, but with immense trouble and

expense by land, and equipped at leisure a fleet which afterwards

wrested from us the command of that lake."--_Ib._, pp. 92, 93.]

CHAPTER LVI.

PART I.

WAR CAMPAIGNS OF 1813--THREE DIVISIONS OF THE AMERICAN ARMY--BATTLE OF

FRENCHTOWN, AMERICANS DEFEATED--MISREPRESENTATIONS CORRECTED.

The campaign of 1813 opened auspiciously for the Canadians, in both

Upper and Lower Canada, notwithstanding the fewness of their defenders

in regulars, militia, and Indians, and though they suffered severely in

several instances towards the close of the year.

It was manifest from the movement of the American army to the frontiers

of Upper and Lower Canada, before the close of the year 1812, that on

the opening of the campaign of 1813 they intended to retrieve the

disasters and disgraces of the first year of the war, and make descents

upon the colonies in good earnest. Sir George Prevost, Governor-General,

was placed at great disadvantage for their general defence, as the small

British force then occupying the Canadas, and the wide extent of

frontier the British commander-in-chief had to defend, rendered it

impossible for him to cope with the American enemy in point of numbers.

The American army, to whom was committed this year _the honour of

conquering Canada_, was divided, as the year before, into three

divisions: first, the Army of the North, consisting of 18,000 men,

commanded by General Hampton, and stationed along the southern shore of

Lake Champlain, on the south precincts of Lower Canada; the second, the

Army of the Centre, consisting of 7,000 effective men, which was again

subdivided into two divisions, commanded by Generals Dearborn and

Wilkinson, and were posted from Buffalo, at the lower extremity of Lake

Erie, to Sackett's Harbour, at the lower end of Lake Ontario; and the

third, the Army of the West, consisting of "8,000 effective men,"

according to the American account, commanded by Generals Harrison and

Wilkinson, whose limits extended from Buffalo westward, as far as the

British frontier extended.

After the capture of Detroit by General Brock and his little army,

Colonel Proctor was appointed to command that fort, with a force of

about 600 regulars and a number of Indians--an entirely insufficient

force, but all that could be spared and provided from the slender forces

of Upper Canada. The American General, Harrison, who succeeded Hull in

the command of the West, organized a large force by the end of 1812, of

over 5,000 men, consisting principally of men from Ohio and Kentucky.

Among the small outposts which Proctor had established in the

neighbourhood of Detroit, was one at _Frenchtown_, on the River Raisin,

twenty-six miles from Detroit, which consisted of thirty of the Essex

Militia, under Major Reynolds, and about 200 Indians. On the 17th of

January, 1813, Brigadier-General Winchester, commanding a division of

the American army, sent Colonel Lewis with a strong force to dislodge

the British--which he succeeded in doing, after a sharp encounter in

which the Americans lost twelve killed and fifty wounded. Reynolds

retreated to Brownstown, sixteen miles in his rear, and gave information

to Colonel Proctor of the advance of Winchester's brigade, which now

occupied _Frenchtown_, and _was over one thousand strong_.

Colonel Proctor knew that his only hope of success was by prompt action

to fight the enemy in detail, before General Harrison could unite his

whole force to bear on Detroit. He therefore forthwith assembled all his

available force at Brownstown, and on the 21st pushed on to attack the

American camp at Frenchtown, with about 500 regular soldiers and militia

and 600 Indians. The attack upon the American camp was made on the

morning of the 22nd; and the Indians, under the Wyandot chief Roundhead,

speedily turned the enemy's flank and caused him to retreat--Chief

Roundhead with his Indians taking General Winchester himself prisoner,

and delivering him unharmed to Colonel Proctor. About 500 of General

Winchester's men had thrown themselves into the houses, where they were

making deadly resistance from fear of falling into the hands of the

Indians, who were greatly exasperated by this mode of warfare, and

assailed and pursued their retreating but resisting enemies with a

ferocity unequalled during the whole three years' war. Colonel Proctor

informed General Winchester that the houses would be set on fire, and he

would be utterly unable to restrain the Indians, if this kind of warfare

were persisted in, and they refused to surrender. They at length

surrendered, on being assured that they would be protected from the

Indians. Thirty-two officers and upwards of 500 men were taken

prisoners, not one of whom sustained any injury from their captors,

whether regular soldiers, militia, or Indians.

But many Americans were slaughtered in refusing to surrender for fear of

the Indians, and determined to fight and retreat in hopes of making

their escape. They suffered severely; and on that account several

American writers have represented the Indians at the battle of

Frenchtown as committing unheard-of cruelties upon helpless men, women,

and children. Even President Madison joined in the misrepresentation, as

he was always ready to seize upon any pretext to assail the British

Government for admitting the alliance of the Indians in the

war--forgetful that his Government had repeatedly sought to do the same

thing, but had only succeeded in a few instances. But in vindication of

the Indians and their commander, Colonel Proctor, the following facts

may be stated, which are conclusive on the subject. In the first place,

General Winchester, the commander of the American detachment, was taken

prisoner by the Indians, and instead of being butchered and scalped, was

delivered unharmed by the Wyandot chief Roundhead into the hands of

Colonel Proctor.

However, many of the Americans refused to surrender from fear of falling

into the hands of the Indians, and attempted to retreat and fight, in

hopes of escape, but were mostly killed in the attempt by the Indians,

so greatly exasperated by the mode of warfare adopted against them from

the houses. Under this pretext most American writers have represented

the Indians, with the sanction of the English, as having committed

unheard-of cruelties against helpless men, women, and children at the

battle of Frenchtown--statements which were pure fiction, as has been

proved to demonstration in Chapter XXXV. of this history, in the

fictions of the alleged "Massacre of Wyoming."

For example, General Harrison, who was one of the few old American

generals employed by the democratic President Madison in the war, and

who was one or two days' march from Frenchtown, was informed and wrote

in a despatch two days after the battle (24th of January), that "General

Winchester had been taken by the Indians, _killed and scalped; his body

was cut up and mangled in a shocking manner, and one of his hands cut

off_;" when not a hair of General Winchester's head was injured, and he

was afterwards exchanged, and appeared on the Niagara frontier, and was

again taken prisoner, safe and sound, by the British at the battle of

Stony Creek.

General Harrison, in his despatches written five days afterwards, after

having ascertained all the facts of the battle, makes no mention of any

cruelties practised by the Indians, which he doubtless would have done

had there been any truth in the imputations against the Indians or the

English soldiers with whom they acted. He speaks of General Winchester

as among the prisoners, notwithstanding his statement five days before

that he had been killed, scalped, and cut to pieces. The following

facts, given by Mr. Thompson in his "History of the War of 1812," are

conclusive on this affair of the battle of Frenchtown, the 22nd of

January, 1813:

"Much has been said by American writers regarding the conduct of the

combined forces of the affair of Frenchtown. They have not even stopped

to charge British officers and soldiers with the most enormous

cruelties, committed in conjunction with the Indians, when it was in

their power to have prevented them. Such have been the contemptible

misrepresentations to which many publications, otherwise deserving of

merit, have descended, as well of this as of many other affairs during

the war; and even amongst a few British subjects they have gained

credence.

"General Harrison, however, in writing his despatches to Governor Meigs,

as well as several officers of his army who avail themselves of the

general express to write to their friends in Chillicothe, in most of

their letters give the details of the battle, _but seem to be ignorant

as regards the greatest part of that 'Massacre_,' as it has been

gravely termed. It is gathered from these despatches and letters by a

Chillicothe journal of the 2nd of February, 1813, that '_those who

surrendered themselves on the field of battle were taken prisoners by

the British, while those who attempted to escape were pursued,

tomahawked, and scalped_.' Now, even this account, in part, is

incorrect; for the Indians, by whom they were assailed, were posted

there for the express purpose of cutting off their retreat; and _those

who surrendered to the Indians were safely conducted to the British

camp_; but such was the panic with which these unfortunate fugitives

were seized, that no persuasions on the part of the Indian chiefs, _who

were fully disposed to comply with the orders of Colonel Proctor_, could

prevail on them to surrender until they were either wounded and taken,

or overtaken in the chase by their pursuers, when no efforts of the

chiefs could save them from their fury.

"In a letter containing copies of despatches from General Harrison,

dated 24th January, 1813, it is stated that 'when the attack commenced,

General Winchester ordered a retreat, but from the utter confusion which

prevailed, this could not be effected; and he then told them that every

man must take care of himself, and attempted to make his own escape on

horseback, but was overtaken by the Indians before he had gone a mile,

and killed and scalped. His body was cut up and mangled in a most

shocking manner, and one of his hands cut off.'

"Now, here is an awful Indian tale, manufactured, as many others have

been of like description, which turns out to be a mere fabrication; for

when General Winchester found himself pursued in his attempt to escape,

he with a few others surrendered themselves to a chief of the Wyandot

nation, and not a hair of their heads was hurt, _except the injury

received from the fight_.

"It is also stated in the same letter that Colonels Allen and Lewis were

among the slain; in contradiction of which, in General Harrison's letter

to Governor Meigs, dated 29th January, it is stated that General

Winchester and Colonel and Brigade-Major Gerrard are among the

prisoners.

"The conclusion is plain, that had those deluded people not been

overcome by fear, and surrendered themselves at once, they might have

enjoyed the same safety as did General Winchester and his

companions."[204]

"This spirited and vigorous measure (on the part of Colonel Proctor)

completely disconcerted the arrangements made by General Harrison for

the recovery of Michigan territory, and secured Detroit from any

immediate danger. The House of Assembly of Lower Canada [as also of

Upper Canada] passed a vote of thanks to Colonel Proctor for the skill

and intrepidity with which he planned and carried into effect this

enterprise. A vote of thanks was also passed to the officers,

non-commissioned officers, and privates who assisted in its

accomplishment; and Colonel Proctor was immediately promoted to the rank

of brigadier-general by Sir George Prevost, the commander of the forces,

until the pleasure of the Prince Regent should be known, who was pleased

to approve and confirm the appointment."[205]

PART II.

AMERICANS ATTACK AND PLUNDER IN AND ABOUT BROCKVILLE--SUCCESSFUL

RETALIATORY ATTACK ON OGDENSBURG.

The next military affairs in the order of time, illustrative of the

loyalty and courage of the Canadians, occurred on the River St.

Lawrence, in the neighbourhoods of Prescott and Brockville. Most of the

American invasions were mere raids for destruction and plunder of

property. In the winter of 1813 several of these raids were made from

Ogdensburg on the British settlements. "After winter (1813) had fairly

set in, and the St. Lawrence was frozen over, the Americans on several

occasions sent marauding parties across the ice to pillage and destroy

the Canadian settlements. [The American mode of giving liberty to

Canada.] On the night of the 6th of February, two companies of riflemen

from Ogdensburg, under command of Captain Forsyth, made a descent on the

town of Brockville, wounded a sentry, fired several houses, and carried

off a quantity of plunder, together with fifty of the inhabitants.

Several inroads from Ogdensburg were made; and the British were anxious

to retaliate." (Tuttle.) On the closing of the session of the

Legislature of Lower Canada, the 17th of February, 1813, the

Governor-General, Sir George Prevost, made a tour of inspection of the

forts of Upper Canada. On his arrival at Prescott he was importuned to

authorize an attack upon Ogdensburg, in retaliation for an attack upon

Brockville by the enemy some days previous. He consented to a

demonstration on the river to ascertain the enemy's force; and on the

ensuing morning (22nd February), as the Governor-General departed,

accompanied to Kingston by Lieut.-Colonel Pearson (commander of

Prescott), Lieut.-Colonel M'Donnell, second in command, moved with his

party across the river on the ice, towards Ogdensburg. The enemy,

perceiving the movement, were prepared to receive him; and

Lieut.-Colonel M'Donnell, impelled by that spirit characteristic of

British soldiers, turned the demonstration into a real attack.

The enemy was driven from the town after a short contest, leaving about

twenty killed and a considerable number wounded. Four brass

field-pieces, seven pieces of iron ordnance, complete, with several

stand of arms and a considerable quantity of stores, fell into the hands

of the victors, who lost seven killed, and seven officers (including

Lieutenant-Colonel M'Donnell) and forty-one men wounded. After having

destroyed two small schooners and two gun-boats left there to winter,

they removed the stores and arms to their own side of the river at

Prescott. This brilliant achievement prevented any further American

forays on the Canadians from Cornwall to Gananoque for the rest of the

winter.

PART III.

WINTER PREPARATIONS IN LOWER CANADA FOR THE CAMPAIGN--UNPRECEDENTED

MARCH ON SNOW-SHOES OF LOYALIST VOLUNTEERS FROM NEW BRUNSWICK TO LOWER

CANADA--AMERICAN PLAN OF OPERATIONS.

The greatest exertions were made in Canada during the winter to prepare

for the ensuing campaign. The Canadian regiment of Fencibles, the

Voltigeurs, the Glengarries, were recruited with diligence and success,

though still without reinforcements from England--too much engrossed

with her European wars to afford much assistance to the colonies. A

volunteer regiment from New Brunswick came, by permission and authority,

to the assistance of the beleaguered but hitherto successful Canadians.

"The King's Regiment of New Brunswick was mustered into the regular army

as the 104th Regiment, and sent to Canada for active service. The

regiment was first formed amongst the Loyalists who had settled in York

county, about Fredericton, in 1784, and on its voluntary enrolment in

the regular army, the Legislature passed complimentary resolutions to

officers and men, and presented the regiment with a handsome silver

trumpet. A portion of this regiment was conveyed to Quebec by sea; but

several companies made a very trying march on snow-shoes, through an

unbroken country, during very cold weather, to arrive in Canada in time

for the spring campaign."[206]

"The plan of the American campaign for 1813 was that a large army under

General Dearborn was to threaten Lower Canada, whilst a determined

effort was to be made to retake Michigan territory, capture the forts of

Niagara frontier, and thus reduce the whole of Upper Canada. This

accomplished, all the armies were to make a joint descent upon Montreal

and Quebec, which would be followed by the occupation of the Maritime

Provinces, and thus the British would be driven from the American

continent."[207]

PART IV.

AMERICAN FLEET ON LAKE ONTARIO SUPERIOR TO THE BRITISH FLEET, AND, WITH

THE ARMY, ATTACKS AND TAKES YORK (TORONTO), AND AFTER OCCUPYING IT LESS

THAN TWO WEEKS, RETIRE WITH MUCH HASTE.

The American fleet on Lake Ontario was superior to that of the British,

and was being daily augmented at Sackett's Harbour--their principal navy

yard on Lake Ontario. The first descent was expected to be upon

Kingston; but the American Government deemed it too hazardous a game to

risk their Lake armament upon an enterprise against this principal

military depot of the British in Upper Canada, and resolved to direct

their forces against more distant and defenceless places on the lake.

Commodore Chauncey having equipped his fleet for an expedition, and

received on board upwards of 1,700 troops under the command of Generals

Dearborn and Pike, sailed from Sackett's Harbour as early as the 25th of

April, and on the following evening arrived off York (Toronto) with

fourteen sail of armed vessels; and on the following day commenced

landing their troops about three miles west of the town--the British

being compelled to retire after making a strong resistance. The

grenadiers of the 8th Regiment, who lost their captain, M'Neal, were,

after a desperate contest, almost annihilated by the overwhelming

numbers of the enemy.

The best account we have read of this expedition against, or rather raid

upon, the town of York, is given by Thompson, and which I quote at

length, relating as it does to what was then and now is the capital--the

defenceless capital--of Upper Canada:

"In the month of April, the ice having completely broken up in the port

of Sackett's Harbour, where the American squadron under Commodore

Chauncey had wintered, General Dearborn, commanding the right division

of the Army of the Centre, consisting of 4,000 men stationed in that

vicinity, selected 2,000 of the most efficient of his division [American

History of the War, published in New York], and on the 22nd of the month

embarked them on board the fleet, with which he ascended the lake, and

with this force appeared off the harbour of York, the capital of Upper

Canada, on the morning of the 27th.

"The enemy appearing to threaten an attack upon the town, General

Sheaffe collected his forces, which consisted of nearly 700 men,

including regulars and militia, with about 100 Indians; and with these

he made a most determined resistance to the landing of the enemy; but at

length, overcome by numbers, he was compelled to retire; by which means

the enemy was enabled to effect his landing a short distance above the

fort, which was situated about two miles to the west of the town, at the

entrance of the harbour.

"So soon as the American troops, who were led on by General Pike, had

made good their landing, they formed into two lines (the first of which

was commanded personally by General Pike, and the rear or reserve line

by General Pearce), and in this order advanced upon the first battery

and carried it by assault; they then advanced towards the citadel in the

same order, and by the same means captured an intervening battery.

"Here the columns halted, in order to dress the lines for an attack upon

the main works. At this moment a large magazine accidentally exploded,

by which a quantity of stones and timbers were thrown into the air, and

in their fall killed and wounded a number on both sides, amongst whom

was the American general, Pike.

"The British regulars and militia performed prodigies of valour, but

were overpowered by a force three times their number, and in a high

state of discipline;[208] they were compelled to retreat towards the

town.

"General Sheaffe then held a Council with his principal officers and

civil authorities of the town, by whom it was advised that he should

retreat towards Kingston with the remainder of his troops; and that the

commandant of the militia, Lieutenant-Colonel Chewett, should treat

with the American commander for terms for the surrender of York.

"At the capture of York the British lost not less than 400 men, 300 of

whom were made prisoners of war, and about forty killed and wounded by

the explosion. The Americans lost 378, thirty-eight of whom were killed

and two hundred and twenty-two wounded by the explosion of the magazine.

General Pike died of his contusions a few minutes after being carried on

board of one of the vessels.[209]

"On the 8th of May, the American army under General Dearborn once more

evacuated York, after having occupied it twelve days, and secured much

booty."

PART V.

AMERICAN FLEET AND ARMY RETURN TO SACKETT's HARBOUR--MAKE PREPARATIONS

FOR ATTACKING FORT GEORGE AND THE TOWN OF NEWARK, WHICH, AFTER A SEVERE

BATTLE, THEY TAKE AND OCCUPY.

After evacuating York, the American fleet and army proceeded again to

Sackett's Harbour, where preparations were immediately made for invading

the Niagara frontier. On the 20th of May the American fleet again

ascended Lake Ontario, and on the morning of the 23rd they appeared off

the mouth of the Niagara river, soon after which, the weather being

favourable to their purpose, they attacked Fort George and the town of

Newark (now Niagara), by land and water. Early in the morning of the

27th of May the enemy commenced a combined attack upon the fort, having

previously, on the 24th and 25th, materially injured the works by a

warm cannonade from their ships and batteries. A body of about 800

riflemen, under Colonel Winfield Scott, landed near the Two Mile Creek,

while the fleet ranged up in the form of a crescent, extending from the

north of the Lighthouse to the Two Mile Creek, so as to enfilade the

British batteries by a cross fire. The riflemen, after forming and

ascending the bank, were met by the British, and compelled to give way

in disorder, and return to the beach, from whence they kept up a smart

fire under cover of the bank. In the meantime, another body of upwards

of 2,000 men, under the command of General Lewis, made a landing, and

formed on the beach under cover of a tremendous cannonade of round shot,

and showers of grape and canister from the fleet, that swept the

adjacent plain, and compelled the British to retire. General Vincent,

finding the works torn to pieces by the enemy's artillery, and no longer

tenable against so overwhelming a force, caused the fort to be

dismantled, and the magazines to be blown up, and retreated to

Queenston, leaving the Americans to take possession of the ruins of the

fort. The British loss consisted of fifty-two killed and upwards of

three hundred wounded and missing [more than half the entire force]. The

Americans state their loss at thirty-nine killed and a hundred and

eleven wounded.[210]

PART VI.

THE BRITISH RETREAT TO BURLINGTON HEIGHTS--BATTLE OF STONY CREEK--DEFEAT

OF THE AMERICANS, AND THEIR DISORDERLY RETREAT TO FORT GEORGE.

"General Vincent, on the ensuing day, having collected all the forces

from Chippewa and Fort Erie, and destroyed or rendered useless the posts

and stores along the frontier, commenced his retreat towards Burlington

Heights, at the head of Lake Ontario." (Christie.)

"General Vincent continued his retreat as far as Burlington Heights; and

on the 1st day of June was followed by an American army of 3,500

infantry, and about 300 cavalry, commanded by Generals Chandler and

Winder, for the purpose, as was vainly boasted, of making prisoners of

the whole British army, and thus terminate the contest of the

north-western frontier."

This expected conquest of the whole British army was commenced by the

affair of Stony Creek, when both of the American generals themselves

were taken prisoners.

On the evening of the 5th of June, the American forces encamped at the

village of Stony Creek, about nine miles from the British camp at

Burlington Heights, with the purpose of attacking and taking the British

position next day. But General Vincent was on the alert to obtain

information as to the enemy's strength and movements, and dispatched

Colonel (afterwards Major-General) Harvey, with two companies, to

reconnoitre their camp at Stony Creek, and, from the report received,

determined to attack them that very night.

"All the troops, both regulars and militia, that could possibly be

spared from the garrison at Burlington Heights, together with those who

had retreated from Fort George, amounting in all to 700, were ordered to

be in readiness for a movement. Immediately after dark they commenced an

advance towards Stony Creek, where, after several halts in order to

reconnoitre the country through which they were marching, they arrived

between one and two o'clock on the morning of the 6th of June.

Immediately the quarter guard of the enemy was surprised and taken, and

the assailants rushed into the camp, where all was in apparent security.

But such a scene of carnage commenced--the huzzas of the besiegers; the

yells of the Indians, led on by Captain Brant; the clashing of bayonets,

and, above all, the thunder of the cannon and musketry, rendered it

truly appalling. A column of the enemy was at length formed into some

kind of order, but to no purpose; they were by this time completely

unnerved and dispirited, which, together with the darkness of the night

and the clouds of smoke, threw them into the greatest confusion and

disorder. Not so, however, with the British troops; their plans had been

so well concerted, that every man knew his rallying signal; they were,

therefore, at all times beyond surprise. The American army, being

completely discomfited, retreated from their bivouac in the greatest

confusion.

"As soon as General Vincent had completed the defeat of the enemy, he

again fell back upon Burlington Heights, taking as trophies of his

victory three field-pieces and a brass field howitzer, captured from the

enemy, besides both their generals, and about 150 officers, sergeants,

and rank and file.

"After the defeat at Stony Creek, the American army, in the most

indescribable manner [helter-skelter, every man for himself] retreated

towards Fort George [whence they came] without the least military order

or subordination; in fact, such officers as could avail themselves of

horses on the road, regardless of the means employed for that purpose,

took them and made their way to the lines with all possible speed, and

left the rest of the army to shift for themselves; they, therefore,

retreated [or scampered] in small detached parties, some of whom had

exonerated themselves of their arms and equipments. Thus did they travel

[at double-quick] towards their headquarters from two or three to a

dozen; and were, in compassion for their sufferings, succoured by those

very people whose houses, a day or two previous, they had ransacked and

plundered."[211]

PART VII.

GENERAL VINCENT, REINFORCED, PURSUES THE RETREATING ENEMY--BRILLIANT

AFFAIR OF THE BEAVER DAMS, IN WHICH SEVERAL HUNDRED AMERICANS SURRENDER

TO ONE-FIFTH THEIR NUMBER--THE AMERICANS COOPED UP IN FORT GEORGE--FORT

SCHLOSSER AND BLACK ROCK ATTACKED BY THE BRITISH, AND THE PUBLIC FORTS

AND MAGAZINES DESTROYED OR TAKEN--THE AMERICAN ARMY CANNOT BE INDUCED TO

COME OUT OF FORT GEORGE INTO OPEN FIELD FIGHT.

In a short time General Vincent received some reinforcements, and

assumed the offensive, advanced towards Fort George with a view to

investing it--forming his line on the Four Mile Creek, with his left

resting on the lake; but he ultimately extended his line from the Twelve

Mile Creek (St. Catharines) to Queenston.

General Lewis, who now had full command (General Dearborn having

resigned), finding his advance posts and foraging parties continually

harassed and frequently made prisoners by small detachments of British

and Canadian troops stationed at different posts through the country, in

order to prevent the American camp at Fort George from obtaining

supplies, dispatched Colonel Boerstler with about 600 or 700 men, by way

of Queenston, with a view of dislodging a detachment or picquet posted

at a place called the Beaver Dams, a few miles from Queenston. Colonel

Boerstler was surprised by a small party of Indians under Captain Ker;

and believing themselves hemmed in by superior numbers, surrendered to

Lieutenant (afterwards Colonel) Fitzgibbon, of the 49th Regiment, who

arrived in time to complete the victory with a detachment of forty-six

rank and file. The prisoners were five to one to the captors, being 512

in number, including twenty-five officers, two field pieces, and a stand

of colours.

By these successes, the Americans were compelled to confine themselves

to Fort George and its neighbourhood; and before the 1st of July the

British had formed a line extending from Twelve Mile Creek, on Lake

Ontario (Port Dalhousie), across to Queenston, on the Niagara river; and

the Canadians began now to retaliate the game of marauding which the

Americans had been practising on the Niagara frontier. From Chippewa an

attack was made on Fort Schlosser, on the American side of the river,

during the night of the 4th of July, by a small party of militia and

soldiers under Lieutenant-Colonel Clarke, who surprised the guard at

that post, and brought away a brass six-pounder, upwards of fifty stand

of arms, a small quantity of stores, with a gun-boat and two batteaux.

At daybreak in the morning of the 11th of July, Lieutenant-Colonel

Bishop, lately commanding Fort Erie, crossed over the river with 240

men, consisting of a small party of militia and detachments of the 41st

and 49th Regiments, and effectually surprised the enemy's post at Black

Rock, burning his block-houses, stores, barracks, dockyard, and a

vessel, but were compelled to hasten their departure by a reinforcement

of American militia and some Indians in their interest, who opened a

smart fire under cover of the surrounding woods, killing thirteen of the

British attacking party, and wounding a considerable number--among

others, Lieutenant-Colonel Bishop, mortally; but the British party

brought away seven pieces of ordnance, two hundred stand of small arms,

and a great quantity of stores.

The two armies were almost in sight of each other at Fort George; the

commander of the British wished to ascertain the extent of the enemy's

works and his means of defence, and to draw him into an open field of

battle, and therefore, on the 24th of August, made a demonstration as if

to assault the fort, drove in the picquets; took several of them,

advanced to within a few hundred yards of the enemy, who, though

supported by the fire upon the British from their batteries on the

American side of the river, could not be induced to leave their

entrenchments and venture in the open field, although the force of the

British did not exceed 2,000, while the American force exceeded 4,000,

but wholly depending upon resources from the American side for their

subsistence, and compelled to act solely on the defensive, from the

hostile front assumed by the British in the neighbourhood. The American

army of 4,000 men, being cooped up within the limits of the fort,

depending for their supplies from the United States, and not daring to

go out of their fortifications, could do little harm and be of little

use to the American cause, the British commander did not think it

advisable to incur the loss and risk of an assault upon the fort.

PART VIII.

WAR IN THE WEST--GENERAL PROCTOR'S UNSUCCESSFUL SIEGE OF LOWER SANDUSKY.

In the meantime General Harrison was on the Sandusky river, making

preparations to prosecute the war with vigour, in order to recover the

Michigan territory, as soon as the fleet fitting out at Erie (Presqu'

Isle), under Captain Perry, who had been dispatched thither by Commodore

Chauncey towards the end of May, should be sufficiently strong to

co-operate with the land forces. General Proctor resolved to make

another effort to defeat General Harrison's purpose to recover Michigan,

and immediately besieged the American fort at Lower Sandusky; but in

consequence of the withdrawment of the Indians out of the reach of the

enemy's guns, and disinclined to the delay of a siege, and General

Harrison with a respectable force at no great distance, General Proctor

thought proper to raise the siege and retire to Amherstburg.

PART IX.

FAILURE OF THE EXPEDITION OF SIR GEORGE PREVOST AND COMMODORE SIR JAMES

YEO AGAINST SACKETT'S HARBOUR.

During the absence of Commodore Chauncey and his fleet from Sackett's

Harbour, engaged in operations on the Niagara frontier, an expedition

was planned and fitted out at Kingston against that chief depot of

American naval supplies on Ontario. Sir George Prevost,

Commander-in-Chief, and the British Commodore, Sir James L. Yeo (just

arrived from England), were both at Kingston, and much was expected from

their joint counsels, and the arrival of some naval officers and sailors

from England. On the 27th of May a body of 800 or 1,000 men were

embarked on board the British flotilla at Kingston, consisting of

_Wolfe_, 24 guns; _Royal George_, 24; _Earl of Moira_, 18; and four

schooners, carrying from ten to twelve guns each, with a sufficient

number of batteaux; and at noon the following day they were off

Sackett's Harbour. The weather was propitious, and the troops were

transferred to the batteaux to make their landing under an escort of

two gun-boats, commanded by Captain Mulcaster--the whole under the

immediate direction of the land and naval commanders-in-chief. They had

not proceeded far when a convoy of American boats, loaded with troops,

was descried doubling Stanley Point, on their way from Oswego to

Sackett's Harbour. The Indians, who had previously landed on an island,

fired upon them as they passed, and threw them into confusion, while the

British boats and batteaux bore down and captured twelve of them, with

about 150 men; the remainder escaped to Sackett's Harbour.

The landing was deferred until next day, thus giving the Americans time

to spread the alarm throughout the country--to collect reinforcements

from all quarters--to collect and station their soldiers, with a

field-piece, in the surrounding woods, and make every possible

preparation for their defence. The fine day was followed by a dark,

rainy, and stormy night, which scattered the boats, so that the British

could not succeed in landing in the morning before the Americans had

lined the woods with their men. Nevertheless the British succeeded in

landing; the enemy retreated, but posting themselves securely behind

large trees, kept up a smart fire on the British.

The fleet in the meantime, as well as small vessels intended to have

been landed in time to support the advance of the troops, were, through

the light and adverse wind, a long way in the rear. Under these

circumstances, Colonel Baynes, the Adjutant-General of the Forces in

British North America, who was charged with this service, found it

impossible to bring up or wait for the arrival of the artillery, and

ordered his detachment to divide and scour the woods. The enemy,

dislodged from the woods at the point of the bayonet, fled to their fort

and block-houses, whither they were pursued by the British, who set fire

to their barracks.

At this juncture it was thought by the commanding officer, Colonel

Baynes, that the enemy's block-houses and stockaded battery could not be

carried by assault, even with the assistance of the field-pieces, had

they been landed. The fleet were still too far out of reach to aid in

battering them, while the men were exposed to the fire of the enemy,

secure within the works. The _signal of retreat_ was therefore given to

the indignant assailants, and the enterprise was abandoned at a moment

when the enemy had so far calculated upon a victory on the part of the

British as to set fire to their naval stores, hospital, and marine

barracks, by which all the booty previously taken at York, and the

stores for their new ship, were consumed. They had also set fire to a

frigate on the stocks; but on discovering the retreat of the British,

they succeeded in suppressing the fire, and saved her. The troops were

immediately re-embarked, and returned to Kingston, after having

sustained a loss of 259 in killed, wounded, and missing, while the loss

of the enemy must have been double that number.

Thus terminated this expedition, to the disappointment of the public,

who, from the presence and co-operation of the two commanders-in-chief,

fondly flattered themselves with a far more brilliant result. This

miscarriage, with other reverses at the commencement of the present

campaign, destroyed in the opinion of the enemy the invincibility our

arms had acquired the preceding autumn.[212]

PART X.

OCCURRENCES ON LAKE ONTARIO--NAVAL MANOEUVRES AND BATTLES.

On Lake Ontario the two naval commanders strove with indefatigable

emulation for the dominion of the lake. Chauncey, after the capture of

Fort George, returned to Sackett's Harbour to await the equipment of his

new ship, the _Pike_; while his adversary, Sir James Yeo, scoured the

lake, and supplied the British army in the neighbourhood of Fort George

with abundance of stores. In the early part of July, Sir James fitted

out an expedition of boats for Sackett's Harbour, with a view of cutting

out their new ship, then almost rigged and ready to appear on the lake.

He arrived unobserved in the vicinity of that port, and would probably

have effected his purpose had not the escape of two deserters from his

party, which had landed for refreshments, and in order to remain

concealed until night should favour the enterprise, given the alarm to

the enemy. This unlucky incident induced him to relinquish the

undertaking and return to Kingston.

Towards the end of July the American fleet again appeared with

augmented force upon the lake, and Commodore Chauncey having received a

company of artillery, with a considerable number of troops under Colonel

Scott, proceeded for the head of the lake, with a view of seizing and

destroying the stores at Burlington Heights, the principal depot of the

army on the Niagara frontier, then occupied by a small detachment under

Major Maule. The design of the enemy against this depot being suspected,

Lieutenant-Colonel Battersby, commanding the Glengarry Regiment, upon

being notified to that effect by Lieutenant-Colonel Harvey,

Deputy-Adjutant-General, moved forward from York, and, by a march of

extraordinary celerity, arrived with a reinforcement in time to save the

depot, which the enemy, on finding the British ready to receive them,

did not deem it prudent to attack.

Commodore Chauncey, on learning that York, by the advance of

Lieutenant-Colonel Battersby to Burlington Heights, was left destitute

of troops, seized the opportunity and bore away for that port, which he

entered on the 31st of July. Here the Americans landed without

opposition, and having taken possession of a small quantity of stores

found at that place, they set fire to the barracks and public

store-houses, and having re-embarked their troops, bore away to Niagara.

It is a coincidence worthy of notice, that on the same day in which the

American commander was employed in burning the barracks and stores at

York, Lieutenant-Colonel Murray was no less actively employed on the

same business at Plattsburg.

The British fleet sailed from Kingston on the last day of July, with

supplies for the army at the head of the lake, and on the 8th of August

looked into Niagara, where the enemy's fleet lay moored. The latter hove

up and bore down upon the British fleet, with which they manoeuvred

until the 10th, when a partial engagement ensued, in which two small

vessels (the _Julia_ and _Growler_) were cut off and captured by the

British.[213]

Commodore Chauncey, somewhat disheartened with the loss of these, and

two other small vessels--the _Scourge_ of eight, and the _Hamilton_ of

nine guns--upset by press of sail to escape, with the loss of all hands,

except sixteen men picked up by the English, bore up for Niagara, from

whence he sailed almost immediately for Sackett's Harbour, where he

arrived on the 13th of August. Here he provisioned his fleet, and

instantly made sail for Niagara, where he remained at anchor until the

British fleet appeared off the harbour, early in the morning of the 7th

of September, when the American fleet again weighed and bore down upon

the British fleet, with which they manoeuvred until the 12th, when the

latter returned into Amherst Bay, near Kingston. During these five days

but few shots were exchanged between the larger ships, without any

injury to either side. The Americans, however, had much the advantage in

weight of metal and long guns.

The fleets again met on the 28th of September, off York, when an

engagement ensued for nearly two hours, in which the _Wolfe_, commanded

by Sir James Yeo, lost her main and mizen-top-masts, and would probably

have been captured had not the _Royal George_, commanded by Captain

Mulcaster, run in between the _Wolfe_ and the _Pike_, taking the latter

in a raking position, so as to afford the _Wolfe_ an opportunity of

hauling off and clearing away the wreck. This affair terminated in the

retreat of the British fleet under Burlington Heights, whither the enemy

did not think proper to pursue it.

On the 1st of October, the American fleet set sail from Fort George with

a convoy of troops for Sackett's Harbour, where an expedition was

preparing whose destination was as yet unknown. The British fleet left

their anchorage under Burlington Heights on the next day, and came in

sight of the enemy; but no attempt was made to bring on a general

engagement. The American fleet, on their way to Sackett's Harbour; fell

in with and captured five small vessels out of seven, with upwards of

250 men of De Watteville's Regiment, from York, bound for Kingston,

where an attack was apprehended. This loss, though apparently trifling

in itself, was severely felt, by reason of the few forces in the Upper

Provinces.

For the remainder of the season nothing of moment occurred on this lake;

and indeed the naval commanders appeared to have considered the question

of too great importance to their respective Governments to stake the

fate of war in Upper Canada upon a decisive naval engagement.[214]

PART XI.

OCCURRENCES ON LAKE ERIE AND IN THE WEST--LOSS OF THE BRITISH

FLEET--EVACUATION OF DETROIT AND THE TERRITORY OF MICHIGAN BY GENERAL

PROCTOR, WHO IS PURSUED IN HIS RETREAT UP THE THAMES, AND DEFEATED BY

GENERAL HARRISON, AND IS AFTERWARDS TRIED AND CONDEMNED TO BE SUSPENDED

AND DEPRIVED OF HIS PAY FOR SIX MONTHS.

_The operations on Lake Erie and in the West_ were disastrous to the

British cause during the latter part of the summer and early autumn of

1813. General Harrison, with an army of 8,000 men on the Miami river,

only awaited for the equipment of the American fleet fitting out under

Commodore Perry, at Presqu' Isle (Erie), to move his forces against

Detroit, and to carry on offensive operations against the British in the

neighbourhood of Lake Erie. Captain Barclay, who had early in the summer

assumed the command of the British squadron on Lake Erie, blockaded the

American fleet, so as to prevent their crossing the bar at Presqu' Isle

(which they could not effect without unshipping their guns) until the

end of August; when, having occasion to bear away for Long Point,[215]

the enemy seized the moment of his absence and crossed the bar. Finding

on his return the enemy ready for the lake, and too powerful for his

small squadron, he bore away for Amherstburg, to await the equipment of

the _Detroit_, recently launched.

Commodore Perry sailed shortly after him for the head of the lake, and

appeared at the commencement of September, for several days

successively, off Amherstburg, in defiance of the British squadron,

retiring every evening to his anchorage at _Put-in-Bay_. The British

forces in Michigan territory and its neighbourhood, under General

Proctor, falling short of supplies for which they depended solely upon

the fleet, the captain had no other alternative than that of risking a

general naval engagement. With this resolution he made sail from

Amherstburg on the 9th of September, manned with only fifty or sixty

seamen (including a small reinforcement of thirty-six men from Lake

Ontario), and detachments from the 41st and Royal Newfoundland Regiment

as marines. On the 10th, in the morning, the enemy's fleet was descried

at anchor in _Put-in-Bay_, which immediately weighed and bore down upon

the British squadron, while the wind blowing a gentle breeze from the

south-west, turning round to the south-east, gave the enemy the weather

gage. At a quarter before twelve the British commenced firing, which was

in ten minutes afterwards returned by the enemy, who bore up for close

action. The engagement continued with unabated fury until half-past two,

when the enemy's principal ship being rendered unmanageable, Commodore

Perry left her in charge of his first lieutenant, Yarnal, and hoisted

the pendant on board the _Niagara_. Soon after Commodore Perry had left

the _Lawrence_, her colours were struck, but the British, from weakness

of their crews and destruction of their boats, were unable to take

possession of her.

It was at this anxious and interesting juncture that the fate of the day

seemed to poise in favour of the British; and Commodore Perry even

despaired of the victory, when a sudden breeze revived his hopes, and

turned the scale in his favour. This fortunate commander, finding the

_Niagara_ had suffered lightly in the engagement, made a desperate

effort to retrieve the fortune of the day, and taking advantage of the

breeze, shot ahead of the _Lady Prevost, Queen Charlotte_, and _Hunter_,

raking them with her starboard guns, and engaged the _Detroit_, which,

being raked in all directions, soon became unmanageable. The _Niagara_

then bore around ahead of the _Queen Charlotte_, and hauling up on

starboard tack, engaged that ship, giving at the same time a raking fire

with her larboard guns to the _Chippewa_ and the _Little Belt_, while

the smaller vessels, closing to grape and canister distance, maintained

a most destructive fire. This masterly and but too successful

manoeuvre decided the contest. Captain Barclay being severely and

dangerously wounded, Captain Finnis, of the _Queen Charlotte_, killed,

and every commander and officer second in command either killed or

disabled, the _Detroit_ and _Queen Charlotte_, perfect wrecks, after a

desperate engagement of upwards of three hours, were compelled to

surrender.

By this decisive action, the whole of the British squadron on Lake Erie

was captured by the enemy, who now became masters of the lake. The enemy

lost in this action twenty-seven men in killed and ninety-six men

wounded. The British lost three officers and thirty-eight men killed,

and nine officers and eighty-five men wounded.

The prisoners were landed at Sandusky, and treated with the greatest

humanity by the American commodore, who paroled Captain Barclay, and

treated that gallant officer with all the kindness and attention which

his unsuccessful bravery deserved.

The British army in possession of the Michigan territory and the

neighbourhood of Detroit, by this disastrous defeat, were deprived of

every prospect of obtaining future supplies from Kingston by way of Lake

Ontario, and a speedy evacuation of Detroit, and a retreat towards the

head of that lake became inevitable.

General Harrison having received reinforcements amounting to 7,000 or

8,000 men, including 4,000 volunteers from Kentucky under Samuel Shelby,

the ex-governor of that State, and an old revolutionary officer, was

conveyed by Commodore Perry, in his flotilla, with all the troops and

stores, from the mouth of the Miami to the Canadian shore, except the

thousand dragoons who were to advance by land, and so order their march

that they might arrive in the neighbourhood of Malden at the same time

with the infantry. General Harrison occupied Amherstburg the evening of

the 23rd of September, General Proctor having previously abandoned it

and fallen back upon Sandwich, after having set fire to the navy yard,

barracks, and public stores at the former place.

General Harrison, on his arrival, having found the different points

evacuated, invested General McArthur with the chief command of these

garrisons, and prepared to pursue the retreating army up the River

Thames, with a force of 3,000 men, including Colonel Johnson's corps of

dragoons, consisting of 1,000. General Harrison occupied Sandwich the

27th of September, and on the 2nd of October he marched in pursuit of

the shattered remains of the British forces under General Proctor. In

this, his reverse of fortune, the Indians, under Colonel Elliot, of the

Indian Department, with Tecumseh, still adhered to his standard with

unshaken fidelity, and covered his retreat.