Hon. PAUL HAMILTON,
_Secretary of the Navy_.
WASHINGTON, _Jan, 8, 1812_.
SIR: In answer to your note, requesting of me "a general
description of the armament and stores on board at the time of
the capture of the Adams, and the probable number of men," I
can state that I sailed from Maiden in the Adams, and arrived
at Fort Erie on the morning preceding the night in which you
captured that vessel. I left her in the afternoon, and crossed
in her boat to Buffalo, with a flag. When I left the Adams, she
had on board five guns mounted, (six and four pounders,) and
six long twelves in her hold. She had also on board a quantity
of powder and ball, and a number of boxes of muskets. I am not
able to state, of my own knowledge, the number of stand of
arms, but I have been informed that nearly all the arms taken
at Detroit were on board; if that was the fact, the number must
have been two thousand. The number of the crew that I left
on board could not vary much from sixty, and the number of
American prisoners about thirty, including three officers. I
have the honor to be, &c.