VERMONT IN THE WAR OF 1812.
The continued aggressions of Great Britain were gradually but surely
tending to a declaration of war against the imperial mistress of the
sea. To the impressment of our seamen, the search and seizure of our
vessels, the wanton attack of the Leopard on the Chesapeake, and many
other outrages, was added the insult of attempting the same policy
toward all New England which years before England had pursued in the
effort to draw Vermont to her allegiance.
To open communication with the leading men therein, and to ascertain the
feeling of the New England States, in all of which, except Vermont, the
party opposing the administration of Madison was in the ascendant, Sir
James Craig, Governor-General of Canada, employed an adventurer named
John Henry, a naturalized citizen of the United States. Coming from
Canada, he passed through Vermont, tarrying awhile at Burlington and
Windsor. From the first town he wrote an unwarranted favorable report to
his employer, representing that Vermont would not sustain the government
in case of war; but, on reaching Windsor, he was led to give a less
favorable representation. He then journeyed through New Hampshire, and,
at length arriving at Boston, wrote many letters in cipher to Sir James.
He represented the opposition of the New England Federalists to the
administration to be of so violent a nature that, in case of war, they
would at least remain neutral, and probably would bring about a
separation of those States from the Union, and their formation into a
dependency of Great Britain. Having performed the duty assigned him, he
received from the British government, as reward for his services, not
the appointment he asked, but only compliments. In retaliation for this
poor requital, he divulged the whole correspondence to President
Madison, receiving therefor the sum of $50,000. In the manifesto of the
causes of war, this attempt at disruption was declared to be an "act of
greater malignity than any other."
On the 18th of June, 1812, an act was passed by Congress declaring war
against Great Britain. A considerable proportion of the citizens of the
United States were strongly opposed to a resort to arms, believing that
all disputes might have been adjusted more certainly by further
negotiations than by the arbitrament of war, for which the nation was so
ill-prepared.
So it was in Vermont. Of the 207 members of the Assembly which was that
year elected, seventy-nine were Federalists opposed to the war, who made
earnest protest against a resolution of the majority, declaring that
those who did not actively support this measure of the government "would
identify themselves with the enemy, with no other difference than that
of locality." But the overwhelming majority of Republicans, with a
governor of their own politics, framed the laws to their own liking. An
act was passed prohibiting all intercourse between the people of Vermont
and Canada without permit from the governor, under a penalty of $1,000
fine and seven years' imprisonment at hard labor; also, an act exempting
the bodies and property of officers and soldiers of the militia from
attachment while in actual service, and levying a tax of one cent per
acre on all lands, for arming and supporting the militia to defend the
frontiers.
Soon after the declaration of war, recruiting offices were opened in the
State, a cantonment for troops was established at Burlington, and small
bodies of volunteers were stationed at several points on the northern
frontier. On either side of the scattered settlers of this region lay
the forest,--on this, the scarcely broken wilderness of northern
Vermont; on that, the Canadian wilds, that still slept in almost
primeval solitude. The old terror of Indian warfare laid hold of these
people, and their imagination filled the gloomy stretch of northward
forest with hordes of red warriors awaiting the first note of conflict
to repeat here the horrors of the old border warfare. In some of these
towns stockades were built, and from all came urgent appeals to the
state and general government for arms to repel the expected invasion.
One frontier town was obliged to borrow twenty muskets, and the
selectmen were authorized to purchase twenty-five pounds of powder and
one hundred pounds of lead on six months' credit, a circumstance which
shows how poorly prepared Vermont was for war.
Two months before the declaration of war, Congress authorized the
President to detach 100,000 militia to march at a minute's notice, to
serve for six months after arriving at the place of rendezvous.
Vermont's apportionment was 3,000, and was promptly raised.
In November an act was passed by the legislature for the raising of
sixty-four companies of infantry, two of cavalry, and two of artillery,
to hold themselves ready at a minute's notice to take the field.
It appears that this corps was formed almost exclusively from exempts
from military service. In one company, says an old paper,[95] was a
venerable patriarch who could still shoot and walk well, and who "was
all animation at the sound of the drum."
As shown by the disbursements by the State for premiums to recruits, it
appears that only the old and populous States of Massachusetts, New
York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia furnished more men to the regular army
than this young commonwealth, which was half a wilderness. The 30th and
31st regiments of infantry were composed entirely of Vermonters, as
were largely the 11th and 26th. The 3,000 detached Vermont militia were
assembled at Plattsburgh in the fall of 1812. In November General
Dearborn marched from Plattsburgh to the lines with an army of 5,000
men, 2,000 of whom were militia. At the La Colle he made an ill-planned
and feebly conducted attack upon a very inferior British force, and then
retired to Plattsburgh. A large number of Vermonters shared the barren
honors of this expedition under an incompetent leader. The militia were
presently disbanded, and four regiments of regulars crossed the lake and
took post at Burlington.
All along the lake, during the summer, there had been a stir of busy
preparation. Vessels of war were built and fitted out to contest the
supremacy on the lake with the British naval force already afloat.
"Niles' Register" reports the arrival at Plattsburgh[96] of the sloop of
war President, and a little later that of the smaller sloops, which,
with six gunboats, constituted at the time the American force on Lake
Champlain, all under the command of Lieutenant Macdonough. But the
belligerent craft of either nation held aloof from more than menace,
while sullen autumn merged into the bitter chill of northern winter, and
the ships were locked harmless in their ice-bound harbors.
When returning warm weather set them free, some British gunboats crept
up the lake, and on the 3d of June the Growler and Eagle went in
pursuit of them, chasing them into the Richelieu. Having come in sight
of the works on Isle aux Noix, the sloops put about and endeavored to
make their way back to the open lake against the current of the river
and a south wind. Three row-galleys now put out from the fort, and began
playing on them with guns of longer range and heavier metal than those
of the sloops, upon whom a galling fire of musketry was also rained from
the river banks. The vessels poured a storm of grape and canister upon
the green wall of leafage that hid the musketeers, and hurled
ineffectual shot at the distant galleys, maintaining a gallant defense
for more than four hours. Then a heavy shot from one of the galleys
crushed through the hull of the Eagle below the water-line, sinking her
instantly, but in shallow water, so that her men were rescued by boats
from shore. Fifteen minutes later a shot carried away the forestay and
main boom of the Growler, and being now unmanageable she was forced to
strike. Only one of the Americans was killed, and nineteen were wounded,
while the loss of the British was far greater, but the entire crews of
both sloops were taken prisoners. Thus disastrously to the Americans
resulted the first naval encounter of this war on these waters. The
captured sloops were refitted, and, under the names of Finch and Chub,
made a brave addition to the British fleet upon the lake.
The defenseless condition of the western shore invited attack, and on
the last day of July Colonel Murray sailed up to Plattsburgh with two
sloops, three gunboats, and a number of longboats manned by 1,400 men.
Making an unopposed landing, they destroyed the barracks and all other
public property there, and carried away eight thousand dollars' worth of
private property. During this attack General Wade Hampton, recently
appointed to the command of this department, remained inert at
Burlington, only twenty miles distant, with 4,000 troops, although he
had twenty-four hours' notice of the expected attack, and received
repeated calls for aid.
Two gunboats and the longboats then proceeded to Swanton, where they
destroyed some old barracks and plundered several citizens, and
committed similar piratical depredations at several points on the
western shore.
The two sloops, late Growler and Eagle, now sailed under changed names
and colors up the lake, accompanied by the other gunboats, and destroyed
several boats engaged in transporting stores. They appeared before
Burlington, firing a few shots upon the town, which were briskly
returned by the batteries. That night they cut out four sloops laden
with provisions, and burnt another with a cargo of salt, and then bore
away northward with their booty.
In September Macdonough sailed down the lake with his little fleet and
offered battle, but the British declined and sailed into the Richelieu,
whither the brave commodore would not follow to be entrapped as
Lieutenant Smith had been. Again, in December, when some of the British
vessels came up to Rouse's Point on a burning and plundering expedition,
Macdonough endeavored to get within striking distance near Point au Fer,
but they refused to engage, and retired to the same safe retreat.
In October Colonel Isaac Clark, a Vermonter and a veteran of the
Revolution, made a brilliant dash with a detachment of his regiment, the
11th, on a British post at St. Armand, on Missisquoi Bay. With 102
riflemen he surprised the enemy, killing nine, wounding fourteen, and
taking 101 prisoners in an engagement that lasted only ten minutes. In
November he again visited St. Armand, securing fifty head of cattle
which had been taken there from the Vermont side of the line. A Canadian
journal was "glad to give the Devil his due," and credited him with
having "behaved very honorably in this affair."
During the autumn General Wade Hampton amused himself and tired his
troops with abortive meanderings along the line. In October he entered
Canada, and made an attack on a small body of British troops,
accomplishing nothing but the loss to himself of thirty-five men, killed
and wounded. He refused to cooperate with General Wilkinson, who was
advancing from Sackett's Harbor down the St. Lawrence, and desired
Hampton to join him at St. Regis, the object being the capture of
Montreal. Hampton's inglorious campaign ended with his retiring to
winter quarters at Plattsburgh. Many Vermonters served under him, their
hardships unrewarded by victory, or even vigorous endeavor to gain it.
Wilkinson's movements were as abortive, though when his flotilla reached
the head of the Long Sault, a brigade of his army engaged a force of the
enemy at Chrysler's Farm. The raw and undisciplined American troops, of
whom the Vermonters in a battalion of the 11th formed a part,
distinguished themselves by frequently repulsing some of the tried
veterans of the English army. Neither side gained a victory, but the
British remained in possession of the field, though they suffered the
heavier loss in killed and wounded, and the flotilla continued its
inconsequential voyage. Arriving at St. Regis, and learning that Hampton
would not cooperate with him, Wilkinson abandoned the movement against
Montreal, and went into winter quarters at French Mills.
On the last of December a British force made a successful raid on a
depot of supplies at Derby, Vermont, destroying barracks and
storehouses, and carrying away a considerable quantity of stores. In
consequence of this, and some threatening demonstration on the
Richelieu, Wilkinson removed his quarters to Lake Champlain. While this
pretense was made of undertaking a conquest which might result in the
annexation of Canada to the United States, and a consequent increase of
power in the north, a result desired neither by the secretary of war
nor the generals here employed, hot and earnest blows were falling on
the enemy at the westward. On Lake Erie Perry had overcome the British,
and was master of that inland sea. Harrison had vanquished the English
and their Indian allies at the battle of the Thames, and Michigan was
regained.
Meantime a storm of abuse raged between the political parties of
Vermont, each hurling at the other the hard names of Tories, traitors,
and enemies of their country, and neighborhoods and families were
divided in the bitter contest. The Federalist strength was so far
increased by the growing unpopularity of the war, and the irksomeness of
the restrictions on trade, that the party succeeded at the election of
1813 in placing Martin Chittenden, son of the old governor, at the head
of the state government.
One of his earliest acts was to recall by proclamation a brigade of the
state militia in service at Plattsburgh. In this the governor acted on
the ground that it was unconstitutional to call the militia beyond the
limits of the State without permission from the governor, their
commander-in-chief, a view of the case supported by the Supreme Court of
Massachusetts, and adhered to by most of the other New England States;
and, further, that the militia of Vermont were more needed for the
defense of their own State than for that of its stronger sister
commonwealth. A number of the Vermont officers returned a protest whose
vigor was weakened by its insolence. They refused to obey the
proclamation of their captain-general, but nevertheless the rank and
file, tired of inaction, less irksome to the officers, returned to their
homes before the term of enlistment expired, and the affair passed
without further notice.
The muskrats had long been housed in their lodges on the frozen marshes,
and all waterfowl but the loons and mergansers had flown southward, when
Macdonough withdrew his fleet from the stormy lake into Otter Creek,
whose current was already thick with drifting anchor-ice. The craft were
moored in a reach of the river known as the Buttonwoods, three fourths
of a mile above Dead Creek, the ice closed around them, and they slept
inert until the return of spring.
The sap had scarcely begun to swell the forest buds when Vergennes,
eight miles upstream, where the first fall bars navigation, was astir
with the building of other craft for the Champlain navy. A throng of
ship carpenters were busy on the narrow flat by the waterside; the woods
were noisy with the thud of axes, the crash of falling trees, and the
bawling of teamsters; and the two furnaces were in full blast casting
cannon-shot for the fleet. Forty days after the great oak which formed
the keel of the Saratoga had fallen from its stump, the vessel was
afloat and ready for its guns. Several gunboats were also built there,
and early in May, their sappy timbers yet reeking with woodsy odors, the
new craft dropped down the river to join the fleet at the Buttonwoods.
The right bank of Otter Creek at its mouth is a rock-ribbed promontory,
connected with the mainland, except at high water, by a narrow neck of
low, alluvial soil. On the lakeward side of the point earthworks were
thrown up, and mounted with several pieces of artillery, for the defense
of the entrance against an expected attempt of the enemy to destroy the
American fleet. The militia of Addison, Chittenden, and Franklin
counties were put in readiness to turn out on the firing of signal guns,
and a small detachment was posted at Hawley's Farm, near the mouth of
Little Otter, to watch the approach of the army. About 1,000 of the
militia were stationed at Vergennes. All the night of the 13th the
officers of the neighboring towns were running bullets at their
treasurer's, where powder and lead were stored for the militia at
Vergennes.
On the 10th of May the British squadron passed Cumberland Head, and on
the 14th eight of the galleys and a bomb-ketch appeared off the mouth of
Great Otter, while a brig, four sloops, and several galleys were two
miles to the northward. The galleys opened a fire on the battery, which
was bravely defended by Captain Thornton of the artillery and Lieutenant
Cassin of the navy. The rapid discharge of the guns, repeated in echoes
from the rugged steeps of Split Rock Mountain till it became a
continuous roar, for a time greatly alarmed the inhabitants of the
adjacent country, but the assailants were beaten off after receiving
considerable injury, while they inflicted on the defenders only the
dismounting of one gun, and the slight wounding of two men. The British
fleet sailed northward, and next day Macdonough's flotilla issued forth
ready for battle, and sailed northward to Cumberland Bay.
The importance of this action has not had proper recognition. It is
briefly, if at all, mentioned by historians. If the defense of the
little battery which now bears the name of Fort Cassin, in honor of
Macdonough's brave lieutenant, had been less gallant and successful, our
fleet would in all probability have been destroyed before it could
strike the blow which gained its commander imperishable renown. The
British keenly felt the lost opportunity, for Captain Pring was charged
by his superiors with cowardice and disobedience of orders in not having
taken the battery and blockaded the American squadron.
The invasion of Canada again was the plan of the campaign for 1814. The
two western armies were to move against the enemy on the upper lakes and
at the Niagara frontier, while General Izard was to cut the
communication on the St. Lawrence between Kingston and Montreal. The
Vermonters of the 30th and 31st regiments, and part of the 11th, with
the militia and volunteers raised in the vicinity of Lake Champlain were
employed in this army, while the remainder of the 11th were in service
on the Niagara frontier.
The contraband trade was not entirely suppressed all along the border.
Many cunning devices were resorted to by the smugglers. One of the most
notable was the fitting out of a pretended privateer by one John Banker
of New York. Obtaining letters of marque from the collector of that
city, he began cruising on the lake in a little vessel named the Lark,
of less than one ton burden, and armed with three muskets. After
evincing her warlike character by firing on the Essex ferry-boat, she
ran down the lake to Rouse's Point, and there lay in wait for prizes. A
barge heavily laden with merchandise presently fell a prey to the bold
privateer; her cargo was conveyed to New York by Banker's confederate,
and delivered to the owners. The government officials soon learned that
the goods had not been received at the United States storehouse, the
Lark was seized, and the brief career of privateering on these waters
came to an end. In March, 1814, Colonel Clark of the 11th, with 1,100
Green Mountain Boys, took possession of the frontier from Lake Champlain
to the Connecticut, establishing his headquarters at Missisquoi Bay,
harassing the enemy as opportunity offered, and making vigilant efforts
for the suppression of smuggling. After successfully accomplishing this,
he joined Wilkinson at the La Colle.
In the brave but unsuccessful attack on the La Colle Mill, upon whose
strong stone walls our two light pieces of artillery made no impression,
Clark led the 600 Green Mountain Boys who composed the advance. Their
loss was eleven of the thirteen killed, and one third of the 128
wounded. The Vermonters of this army had no further opportunity to
distinguish themselves until September, but those of the 11th regiment
gallantly bore their part in the bloody battles of Chippewa, Lundy's
Lane, and Fort Erie. In the first, General Scott called on the 11th to
charge upon the enemy, who had declared that the Americans "could not
stand cold iron," and the regiment dashed impetuously upon the scarlet
line and swept it back with their bayonets.
A formidable British army, 15,000 strong, largely composed of veterans,
flushed with their European victories, was near the Richelieu, under
command of Sir George Prevost, and their fleet had been strengthened by
additional vessels.
Though there were at the time but about 6,000 troops fit for duty, to
oppose the enemy's advance in this quarter, early in August the
secretary of war ordered General Izard to march with 4,000 of them to
the Niagara frontier. Protesting against an order which would leave the
Champlain region so defenseless, Izard set forth from Champlain and
Chazy with his army on the 29th, halting two days at Lake George in the
hope that the order might yet be revoked.
On the 30th the British general Brisbane occupied Champlain, and four
days later Sir George Prevost arrived there with his whole force; while
Plattsburgh was held by the insignificant but undaunted army of the
Americans under General Macomb, abandoned to its fate by a government
that did not desire the conquest of Canada. The three forts and
block-house were strengthened, and the general made an urgent call on
New York and Vermont for reinforcements, which was promptly responded
to, while small parties were sent out to retard, as much as possible,
the advance of the enemy. But the skirmishers were swept back by the
overwhelming strength of the invading army, and retired across the
Saranac, destroying the bridges behind them.
Governor Chittenden did not consider himself authorized to order the
militia into service outside the State, but called for volunteers. There
was a quick response. Veterans of the Revolution and their grandsons,
exempt by age and youth from service, as well as the middle-aged, each
with the evergreen badge of his State in his hat, turned out. With the
old smooth-bores and rifles that had belched buckshot and bullet at
Hubbardton and Bennington, and with muskets obtained from the town
armories, they flocked towards the scene of impending battle, on foot,
in wagons, singly, in squads, and by companies, crossing the lake at the
most convenient points, of which Burlington was the principal one.
General Strong was put in command of the Vermont volunteers. On the 10th
of September he reported 1,812 at Plattsburgh, and on the 11th 2,500,
while only 700 of the New York militia had arrived.
When the morning of the 11th of September broke, the American army
stood at bay on the south bank of the Saranac. Fifteen hundred regulars
and about 3,200 hastily collected militia and volunteers, confronted by
14,000 of the best troops of Great Britain, proudly wearing the laurels
won in the Napoleonic wars, and confident of victory over the despised
foe that now opposed them.
Early that morning the British fleet collected at Isle La Motte weighed
anchor, and sailed southward. At eight o'clock it rounded Cumberland
Head, and with sails gleaming in the sunlight, swept down toward the
American fleet like a white cloud drifting across the blue lake.
Macdonough's vessels were anchored in a line extending north from Crab
Island and parallel with the west shore, the Eagle, Captain Henly, at
the head of the line, next the Saratoga, Commodore Macdonough's
flagship; the schooner Ticonderoga next; and at the south end of the
line the sloop Preble, so close to Crab Island Shoal as to prevent the
enemy from turning that end of the line. Forty rods in the rear of this
line lay ten gunboats, kept in position by their sweeps; two north and
in rear of the Eagle, the others opposite the intervals between the
larger craft.
At nine o'clock the hostile fleet came to anchor in a line about three
hundred yards from ours, Captain Downie's flagship, the Confiance,
opposed to the Saratoga; his brig Linnet to the Eagle; his twelve
galleys to our schooner, sloop, and a division of galleys; while one of
the sloops taken from us the year before assisted the Confiance and
Linnet, the other the enemy's galleys. The British fleet had 95 guns,
and 1,050 men; the American, 86 guns, and 820 men. In such position of
the fleets the action began.
The first broadside of the Confiance killed and disabled forty of the
Saratoga's crew. The head of one of his men, cut off by a cannon-shot,
struck Macdonough in the breast and knocked him into the scuppers. A
shot upset a coop and released a cock, which flew into the shrouds and
crowed lustily, and the crew, cheering this augury of victory, served
the guns with increased ardor. The Eagle, unable to bring her guns to
bear, cut her cable and took a position between the Saratoga and the
Ticonderoga, where she greatly annoyed the enemy, but left the flagship
exposed to a galling fire from the British brig. Nearly all the
Saratoga's starboard guns were dismounted, and Macdonough winded her,
bringing her port guns to bear upon the Confiance, which ship attempted
the same manoeuvre, but failed. After receiving a few broadsides, her
gallant commander dead, half her men killed and wounded, with one
hundred and five shots in her hull, her rigging in tatters on the
shattered masts, the British flagship struck her colors.
The guns of the Saratoga were now turned on the Linnet, and in fifteen
minutes she surrendered, as the Chub, crippled by the Eagle's broadsides
and with a loss of half her men, had done some time before.
The Finch, driven from her position by the Ticonderoga, drifted upon
Crab Island Shoals, where, receiving the fire of a battery on the island
manned by invalids, she struck and was taken possession of by them. The
galleys remaining afloat made off. Our galleys were signaled to pursue,
but were all in a sinking condition, unable to follow, and, the other
vessels being crippled past making sail, the galleys escaped.
The havoc wrought in this conflict proves it to have been one of the
hottest naval battles ever fought. A British sailor who was at Trafalgar
declared that battle as "but a flea-bite to this." The British lost in
killed and wounded one fifth of their men, the commander of the fleet,
and several of his officers; the Americans, one eighth of their men.
Among the killed were Lieutenant Stansbury of the Ticonderoga, and
Lieutenant Gamble of the Saratoga. The Saratoga was twice set on fire by
the enemy's hot shot, and received fifty-five shots in her hull. At the
close of the action, not a mast was left in either squadron on which a
sail could be hoisted.[97]
The result, so glorious to the Americans, was due to the superior
rapidity and accuracy of their fire.
For more than two hours the unremitting thunder-peal of the battle had
rolled up the Champlain valley to thousands who listened in alternating
hope and fear. For a time, none but the combatants and immediate
spectators knew how the fight had gone, till the lifting smoke revealed
to the anxious watchers on the eastern shore the stars and stripes alone
floating above the shattered ships; then horsemen rode in hot speed
north, east, and south, bearing the glad tidings of victory.
The opening of the naval fight was the signal for the attack of the
British land force. A furious fire began from all the batteries. At two
bridges, and at a ford above Plattsburgh, its strength was exerted in
attempts to cross the Saranac. The attacks at the bridges were repulsed
by the American regulars, firing from breastworks formed of planks of
the bridges. At the ford, the enemy were met by the volunteers and
militia. A considerable number succeeded in crossing the river, but an
officer riding up with news of the naval victory, the citizen soldiers
set upon the enemy in a furious assault, and with cheers drove them
back.
A fire was kept up from the English batteries until sundown, but when
the evening, murky with the cloud of battle, darkened into the starless
gloom of night, the British host began a precipitate retreat, abandoning
vast quantities of stores and munitions, and leaving their killed and
wounded to the care of the victors. They had lost in killed, wounded,
prisoners, and deserters 2,500; the Americans, 119. But bitterest of all
to the vanquished invaders was the thought that they who had overcome
the armies of Napoleon were now beaten back by an "insignificant
rabble" of Yankee yeomen.
The retreat had been for some hours in progress before it was
discovered, and a pursuit begun, which, after the capture of some
prisoners, and covering the escape of a number of deserters, was stopped
at Chazy by the setting in of a drenching rainstorm.
Three days later, their present service being no longer necessary, the
Vermont volunteers were dismissed by General Macomb, with thanks of warm
commendation for their ready response to his call, and the undaunted
spirit with which they had met the enemy.
Through General Strong they received the thanks of Governor Chittenden,
and, later, the thanks of the general government "to the brave and
patriotic citizens of the State for their prompt succor and gallant
conduct in the late critical state of the frontier."
Their promptness was indeed commendable, for they had rallied to
Macomb's aid, and the battle was fought, four days before the government
at Washington had issued its tardy call for their assistance. The State
of New York presented to General Strong an elegant sword in testimony of
"his services and those of his brave mountaineers at the battle of
Plattsburgh," and the two States united in making a gift to Macdonough
of a tract of land on Cumberland Head lying in full view of the scene of
his brilliant victory.
The army of Sir George Prevost was beaten back to Canada, but it was
still powerful, and the danger of another invasion was imminent.
Governor Chittenden issued another proclamation, unequivocal in its
expressions of patriotism, enjoining upon all officers of the militia to
hold their men in readiness to meet any invasion, and calling on all
exempts capable of bearing arms to equip themselves and unite with the
enrolled militia when occasion demanded.
As there was nothing to apprehend from any naval force which could be
put afloat this season by the British, Macdonough requested that he
might be employed on the seaboard under Commodore Decatur. On the
approach of winter, the fleet was withdrawn to Fiddler's Elbow, near
Whitehall, never again to be called forth to battle. There, where the
unheeding keels of commerce pass to and fro above them, the once hostile
hulks of ship and brig, schooner and galley, lie beneath the pulse of
waves in an unbroken quietude of peace.
There were rumors of a projected winter invasion from Canada to destroy
the flotilla while powerless in the grip of the ice. It was reported
that an immense artillery train of guns mounted on sledges was
preparing; that a multitude of sleighs and teams for the transportation
of troops, with thousands of buffalo robes for their warmth, had been
engaged and bought. Vermont did not delay preparation for such an
attack.
The rancor of politics among her people had given place to a nobler
spirit of patriotism, and, without distinction of parties, all good men
stood forth in defense of their country, and those who had opposed the
war were now as zealous as its advocates in prosecuting it to an
honorable close.
Major-General Strong issued a general order to the militia to be ready
for duty at any moment, requested the exempts to aid them, and urged the
selectmen to make into cartridges the ammunition with which the towns
were supplied, and place them at convenient points for distribution. All
responded promptly, and, moreover, matrons and maids diligently plied
their knitting-needles in the long winter evenings to make socks and
mittens for the brave men who would need them in the bitter weather of
such a campaign.
But, instead of the expected invasion, came the good news of the treaty
of peace, signed at Ghent on the twenty-fourth day of December.
Peace was welcome to the nation, though the treaty was silent concerning
the professed causes of the declaration of war, and the only
compensation for the losses and burdens entailed by the conflict, so
wretchedly conducted by our government, was the glory of the victories
gained by our little navy and undisciplined troops over England's
invincible warships and armies of veterans.
FOOTNOTES:
[95] _Niles' Register._
[96] October 27, 1812.
[97] Macdonough's report, Palmer's _Lake Champlain_.