ON THE UPPER LAKES IN 1814
AN EXPEDITION INTO LAKE HURON--THE BRITISH HAD THE BEST OF IT IN
THE END--GALLANT ACTION OF A BRITISH COMMANDER AT THE HEAD OF
THE NIAGARA RIVER--CAUTIOUS CAPTAIN CHAUNCEY AS A KNIGHT OF THE
WHIP-SAW, ADZE AND MAUL--HIS EQUALLY PRUDENT OPPONENT--BRITISH
TORPEDOES THAT FAILED--WHEN A THOUSAND MEN SUPPORTED BY SEVEN SHIPS
ARMED WITH ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-ONE CANNON “WITH GREAT GALLANTRY”
ROUTED THREE HUNDRED YANKEES AT OSWEGO--SUPPLIES THE BRITISH DID
NOT GET--A NAVAL FLOTILLA CAUGHT IN BIG SANDY CREEK--CHAUNCEY
AFLOAT ON THE LAKE--GALLANT YOUNG AMERICAN OFFICERS--LINE OF
BATTLE-SHIPS THAT WERE NEVER LAUNCHED.
The story of the deeds of the American naval sailors on the fresh-water
seas during 1814 may very well begin with the actions in the extreme
west. The Lake Erie victory of September 10, 1813, had annihilated the
British naval power west of Niagara Falls, and no attempt to build
another British fleet there has been made since that day. Nevertheless,
in 1814, there were British successes afloat on both Lake Huron and
Lake Erie that showed at once the resourcefulness and bravery of the
British officers and men--that proved they were still able to damage
the Yankee cause even if without shipping.
As the reader will remember, Perry, when operating on Lake Erie, was
subordinate to, though fortunately not under the immediate supervision
of, Captain Chauncey, who made his headquarters at Sackett’s Harbor.
It would have been fortunate for the American cause had Perry
superseded Chauncey, but he was brought to the Atlantic instead, where
circumstances prevented his accomplishing anything, while Captain
Arthur Sinclair was sent to take charge of the American fleet west of
the Niagara, and that region was made an independent station--Sinclair
was responsible only to the Navy Department. Sinclair had first
seen active service as a midshipman in the _Constellation_ along
with Macdonough, under Truxton, when the French frigate _Insurgent_
was whipped. He next appeared in history as the captain of the brig
_Argus_ that sailed with the squadron of Rodgers--a squadron of which
the _United States_ was a member, and that was the cruise when the
_Macedonian_ was captured. The _Argus_ took five merchantmen and
reached port in safety--it was something to the credit of an American
captain to bring in his ship when one remembers the overwhelming naval
force the British kept on the western side of the Atlantic.
Aside from keeping watch over the enemy’s coast of the great lakes
to see that no more war-ships were built there, Sinclair had but one
thing to do really worth doing, and that was to recapture the important
frontier trading post of Mackinaw that the British had surprised on
the morning of July 17, 1812, and with an overwhelming force captured
without resistance. The American garrison had not even heard that war
had been declared! Besides retaking Mackinaw, the Americans wished
to destroy some union posts occupied by the British, and damage the
British fur trading company as much as possible, because the company’s
officials had been the active and efficient agents of the British
Government in securing the aid of the western savages with their
scalping-knives for attacks on the American settlements.
With the _Niagara_, the _Caledonia_, the _Ariel_, the _Scorpion_, and
the _Tigress_, Captain Sinclair sailed into Lake Huron late in July,
carrying along nearly one thousand soldiers including some militia.
On July 20, 1814, the fleet reached the trading post of St. Joseph’s,
in what may be called the northwest corner of Lake Huron. Everything of
value there was destroyed, including a small fort. Then a number of men
went on to Sault Sainte Marie, at the head of the rapids, at the outlet
of Lake Superior. This was the chief post of the British fur company,
and it was burned. The _Perseverance_, a small vessel belonging to the
company, was fired by the company’s agent as he fled. The Americans
extinguished the flames, but lost the vessel on the rocks as they were
bringing her through the rapids.
[Illustration: SCENE OF Naval Operations on LAKE HURON, 1814.]
Then the fleet sailed to Mackinaw, only to find that the guns of the
ships could not reach up to the hill-top fort, and that the number of
American troops was inferior to the garrison of the island. An assault
was made, but the Americans were repulsed with considerable loss.
Sailing thence, Captain Sinclair went to the Nautawassaga River, where
he destroyed a blockhouse, and found the fur company’s schooner _Nancy_
had been burned by the British lieutenant in charge.
Then Sinclair returned to Detroit, leaving the schooner _Tigress_,
Captain Champlin, and the _Scorpion_, Captain Turner, to blockade the
Nautawassaga, for that was the route by which supplies were carried
to the British force at Mackinaw. For a time this duty was done
efficiently, and food really became scarce at Mackinaw, but blockading
is dull work, vigilance was relaxed, and on September 3, 1814, the
British began their work of revenging the assaults of the squadron.
The watchful British scouts found that the two Yankee schooners were
posted fifteen miles or more apart. So a force of twenty sailors and
seventy-two soldiers got into four boats and at 9 P.M.--and a very
dark night at that--they made a dash at the _Tigress_. They were
within fifty yards of her when first seen. The captain fired his long
twenty-four at them, with no effect, and then mustered his crew at
the rail to repel boarders. But he had only twenty-eight men to the
enemy’s ninety-two. The Americans fought bravely, killed three seamen,
and wounded a Lieutenant Bulger, who commanded the enemy, and seven of
his soldiers, besides wounding several seamen who were not enumerated
by Bulger. Then the _Tigress_ surrendered. The captured Americans
were set on shore, and on September 5th, the captured _Tigress_, with
her American colors flying, got within ten yards of the _Scorpion_
when the concealed British soldiers jumped up, poured a volley into
the unsuspecting Yankees on the _Scorpion_, and then carried her by
assault. The British authorities strove to magnify this victory to
the utmost. They not only conceded that Champlin bravely defended
his vessel--the British Adjutant-General published a general order
announcing to the world that the vessels “had a crew of three hundred
men each.” The vessels “were valued by the proper officers at £16,000
sterling.” So says Allen. It was a lucky affair for the ninety-two.
Meantime a gallant party of British seamen had done still better
down at the foot of Lake Erie--rather in the head of Niagara River.
Three little American schooners, the _Ohio_, the _Somers_, and the
_Porcupine_, were lying off Fort Erie on the Canada side, which was
then in the possession of the Americans. That these vessels were lying
in perfect security their crews could very well believe, because
the British did not have even a row-boat anywhere in that vicinity.
Nevertheless, when feeling most secure, two of them were captured and
the third escaped only because the current of the river swept the enemy
down stream so rapidly that they passed her before ready to attack.
On the night of August 12, 1814, Captain Alexander Dobbs of the British
brig _Charwell_ and Lieutenant Coplestone Radcliffe of the British
brig _Netly_, two vessels which were lying at the head of Lake Ontario,
started with seventy-five seamen and marines to carry the _Charwell’s_
gig overland to Lake Erie. By relieving one another the men carried
the gig twenty miles (from Queenstown to Frenchman’s Creek). There
they were joined by a body of Canadian militia, with the aid of whom
they carried five big flat-bottomed scows, together with the gig, for
eight miles more to the beach of Lake Erie, where all six boats were
launched and filled with armed men. So expeditiously was this work done
that soon after 11 P.M. this little fleet was within hail of the Yankee
schooner _Somers_. When the anchor watch on her deck asked who they
were, they replied:
“Provision boats.”
Provision boats were frequently allowed to pass at night, and the watch
on the _Somers_ were entirely deceived. A moment later the British were
upon her, a volley of musketry was fired that wounded two of the watch,
her cable was cut, and away she went fairly in possession of the enemy.
The _Ohio_ was next in line, and the British were soon around her,
but her crew had come tumbling on deck at the sound of the muskets.
They made a right good fight, too, considering the circumstances, for
Lieutenant Conkling, who commanded the Yankee squadron, Sailing-Master
M. Cally, and one seaman were shot down, and four more were wounded,
while the British lost Lieutenant Radcliffe and one sailor killed and
six wounded. But each of these little vessels had a crew of only thirty
all told, and the British force coming on in such a fashion necessarily
triumphed.
Certainly this was one of the most gallant actions of the whole war on
the lakes; the enterprise of the British officers in getting afloat was
most remarkable. But it is nowhere recorded that they got any such a
sum of prize-money as was given to the men who, with far less risk and
far less enterprise, took the _Tigress_ and _Scorpion_. Allen says the
_Porcupine_ was unmolested because the current swept the conquering
host down-stream too rapidly to permit an attack. This is probably
true; that is to say, before the _Ohio’s_ crew had surrendered the
whole fleet of boats and the two captured vessels had been swept below
the _Porcupine_, and it was impossible to return. The number of militia
taking part in the assault is not given.
Although they had nothing worth mention afloat on the upper lakes, the
honors there for 1814 were with the British.
On Lake Ontario the contest during 1814 was made with whip-saw, adze,
and maul rather than with guns, powder, and shot. The British under
the braggart, Sir James Yeo, at Kingston, and the Americans under the
over-cautious Captain Chauncey, at Sackett’s Harbor, “had been bending
all their energies during the preceding winter in making preparations
for securing the command of Lake Ontario.” The side that could get the
greater number of guns afloat was certain, under the circumstances, to
win. “As soon as one, by building, acquired the superiority, the foe at
once retired to port, where he waited until he had built another vessel
or two, when he came out, and the other went into port in turn.”
The building at Sackett’s Harbor began in February; two twenty-two-gun
brigs were laid down under the names of _Jefferson_ and _Jones_,
and a huge frigate, the _Superior_, which was at first designed to
carry fifty guns, but was lengthened to accommodate sixty-two, when a
deserter came in from Kingston and described the largest ship that Sir
James Yeo was building. “The _Jefferson_ was launched on April 7th, the
_Jones_ on the 10th, and the _Superior_ on May 2d.” She had been eighty
days only on the stocks, which shows that Mr. Henry Eckford, the master
ship-builder, was a great man in the craft. He did it, too, in spite of
sickness in camp that “almost assumed the proportions of a plague.”
Meantime, however, the Canadians over at Kingston had done better
in that they had an efficient number of ships ready for sea by
the first of May, although it was near the end of the season before
they spread their canvas on their big line-of-battle ship, which the
_Superior_ was designed to match. By getting his squadron out on the
lake first, Sir James Yeo obtained an opportunity of which he failed to
take full advantage, as will appear farther on.
But before he sailed he tried to blow some of the Yankee ships at
Sackett’s Harbor out of water by means of torpedoes, and this is
probably the first effort made by the British to use this class of
weapons against the Americans. It was on the night of April 25, 1814.
“Lieutenant Dudley, while out with two guard-boats, discovered there
three others in Black River Bay. Not answering his hail, he fired.
They fled. On searching, six barrels of gunpowder were found, each
containing a fuse.” They were slung in pairs by ropes and it was
supposed that venturesome sailors intended to swim into the harbor with
them and attach them to the vessels afloat and, after firing the fuse,
swim away to safety.
To fully understand what a great opportunity Sir James Yeo had when
he got his ships out on the lake ahead of Chauncey one must recall
the fact that all of the supplies for the Yankee fleet--sails and
rigging, guns and ammunition--had to be brought from New York City,
and the route included the Hudson and Mohawk Rivers to where Rome now
stands, where everything was carried overland to the head of navigation
in Wood’s Creek, and thence down that and the Oswego River to Oswego.
From that port the supplies had to be conveyed by boats on the lake a
distance of sixty miles to Sackett’s Harbor. By commanding the lake,
Sir James Yeo might shut off the supplies destined to Sackett’s Harbor.
As it happened, he might have done still more. He might have captured
a very large part of the supplies that had been forwarded to fit out
the new Yankee ships, for these supplies had reached the falls of the
Oswego, twelve miles above the lake, when Sir James took Oswego. They
had been forwarded when navigation in the Mohawk was good or when the
snows made the sledding good on the road alongside the various streams
in this inland-water route.
Sir James sailed with six ships from Kingston Harbor on May 4, 1814,
and early the next morning he was off Oswego. The port was defended
by a wretched little fort mounting three guns in good order, besides
one that had lost its trunnions and two that were in the mud. This was
garrisoned by a “battalion of less than three hundred men.” The Yankee
schooner _Growler_ was in port and had been loaded with seven of the
long cannon sent up for Chauncey’s fleet at Sackett’s Harbor.
Seeing the enemy in overwhelming force the naval men sank the
schooner and then went to help the garrison of the fort. The attempt
of the British to land on the day of their arrival was frustrated
by a gale of wind, but on the 6th the fleet was placed to cover the
landing and bombard the fort. The _Princess Charlotte_, of forty-two
guns--twenty-six long twenty-fours, two long sixty-eights, and fourteen
short thirty-twos; the _Montreal_, of seven long twenty-fours and
eighteen long eighteens, and the _Niagara_, of two long twelves and
twenty short thirty-twos, were placed to fire on the fort, which had
only two long twenty-fours, one long twelve, and one long six in place
to return the fire. The _Charwell_ and the _Star_, mounting two long
twelves and fourteen short thirty-twos, were ordered to “scour the
woods with grape and clear them of militia.” In addition, there were a
number of gun-boats, but these amounted to nothing in the attack.
[Illustration:
_The Charwell covering the landing._
_The Princess Charlotte._
_The Star covering seamen and marines._
_Oswego Town._
_The Magnet._
_The Prince Regent._
_The Montreal._
_The Niagara._
The Attack on Fort Oswego, Lake Ontario, May 6, 1814.
_From an engraving, published in 1815, by R. Havel, after a drawing
of Lieutenant Hewett, Royal Marines._
]
When the four ships with their eighty-nine guns had begun to make the
air vibrate around the fort, and the two brigs with their thirty-two
guns were making the bark and branches fly from the trees of the
forests round about, eight hundred British soldiers were landed
under Lieutenant-Colonel Fischer, while two hundred sailors,
armed with boarding-pikes, were sent along, under Captain Mulcaster.
Covered by the fire of the four ships, mounting eighty-nine guns, and
two brigs, mounting thirty-two guns, “the debarkation of the troops”
was “very cleverly accomplished,” according to one author; and when
this was done “the soldiers and seamen behaved with great gallantry
and steadiness, their officers leading them, sword in hand, up a long,
steep hill.” In short, by behaving “with great gallantry” this body of
1,000 men, supported by ships carrying one hundred and twenty-one guns,
were able to drive Lieutenant-Colonel Mitchell and almost three hundred
soldiers and sailors away from his four guns!
But in doing so they lost twenty-two killed and seventy-three wounded,
including “the gallant Captain Mulcaster, dangerously.” These figures
are from the report of the British Colonel Fischer. The _Montreal_ was
“set on fire three times and much cut up in hull, masts; and rigging”
by the fire of the two long twenty-fours of the fort, that were worked
steadily in spite of the storm of iron fired from the British fleet.
The Americans lost six killed, thirty-eight wounded, and twenty-five
missing, both of these last falling into the enemy’s hands.”
“Mitchell then fell back unmolested to the falls, where there was
a large quantity of stores. But he was not again attacked.” It was
here that Sir James Yeo missed his opportunity, for with his superior
force he might easily have driven Mitchell still farther away, one
would suppose, and at the falls were stored twenty-two long thirty-two
pounder cannon, ten long twenty-fours, three short forty-twos, ten big
anchor cables, and no end of other material for Chauncey’s squadron,
and all of this was within a month or so conveyed to Sackett’s Harbor,
though not without some adventure. Sir James made no effort to take
it, but contented himself with raising the _Growler_ with her valuable
cargo, and destroying the fort and barracks.
After his victory at Oswego, Sir James Yeo refitted and then sailed to
Sackett’s Harbor and established a blockade that for a time was not a
little annoying to the Americans, for it prevented their bringing in
the war material from Oswego. However, in spite of the blockade, Master
Commandant M. T. Woolsey volunteered to bring the supplies around by
water as far as Stony Creek, which was but three miles from Sackett’s
Harbor, whence, in spite of bad roads, they could be easily brought in.
Accordingly the big guns and cables were loaded on nineteen barges at
Oswego Falls, and at sunset of May 28, 1814, this little fleet rowed
boldly out into the lake. The weather was thick, but the water was
smooth, and fair progress was made during the night. At sunrise, next
morning, the boats were obliged to put into Big Sandy Creek, which was
eight miles from the harbor; that is, all but one put into this creek.
The nineteenth, loaded with two long twenty-four pounder cannon and a
cable, went astray in the fog and one of the British cruisers picked it
up.
This seemed on the face of it very hard fortune, but in the end it
proved just the reverse. Sir James, having learned from the captured
crew all about the rest of the transports, sent two heavy gun-boats,
three cutters, and a gig, under Captain Popham, of the _Montreal_, to
capture the whole fleet. The British boat squadron carried one long
thirty-two pounder, one short sixty-eight, one short thirty-two, two
long twelves, and two brass sixes. The crews aggregated one hundred and
eighty men.
It was on the evening of May 29, 1814, that this British flotilla
arrived off the mouth of the Big Sandy. They were seen by a resident,
Mr. James Otis, who hastened to inform the officers of the American
fleet, and in consequence a very neat ambush was arranged.
Meantime the spreading of the news of the British invasion brought
reinforcements a-plenty to the Americans--one hundred and twenty
riflemen, under Major Appling; a battery of two six-pounders, under
Captain George Melvin; a troop of cavalry, under Captain Harris; sixty
Oneida Indians, and “some infantry.” Under Woolsey’s orders, the one
hundred and twenty riflemen and the sixty Indians were placed in the
bush near the first bend in the creek reached in coming up-stream from
the lake, while the remainder of the forces took post near the flotilla
of transports, to make a fight in case the ambush failed. But the
ambush did not fail.
On the morning of the 30th the British rowed into the creek. “In the
door of a fisherman’s house (yet standing when I visited the spot in
1860) Popham saw a woman, and ordered her to have breakfast ready for
himself and officers when they should return. She knew how well Woolsey
was prepared to receive his pursuers, and said, significantly:
“‘You’ll find breakfast ready up the creek.’”
So says Lossing. “The British passed on in jolly mood up the
creek”--they were jolly until they had arrived within a short distance
of the first bend in the creek. Here the Yankee transports were
first seen, some distance above, and the British opened fire on the
transports with solid shot, while grape and canister were fired into
the brush on both sides of the creek. Having by the grape-discharges
cleared the brush, as they supposed, the British landed a flanking
party on each side of the creek, and these started marching up while
the boats continued firing solid shot at the Yankee transports.
The opportunity of the Americans had now come, and “so furious and
unexpected was the assault on front, flank, and rear that the British
surrendered within ten minutes.” The British “force was captured with
hardly any resistance.” This seems the more remarkable when it is known
that the sixty Oneida Indians had been frightened away by the grape of
the British and the fight was made by Appling’s one hundred and twenty
riflemen only. Captain Popham, commanding the British forces, reported
eighteen of his men killed and fifty dangerously wounded; but Appling
reported only fourteen British killed and twenty-eight wounded. This
discrepancy is noteworthy; it is a right lonesome discrepancy, because
rarely have the British acknowledged a greater loss than that the
Americans credited them with.
The Americans had one man and one Indian slightly wounded. The number
of British captured was one hundred and thirty-three aside from the
wounded. The advantage of this victory, of course, far outweighed the
loss of the one transport that led to the invasion.
This blow disheartened Sir James Yeo so much that on June 6th he raised
the blockade of Sackett’s Harbor.
Thereafter neither the British nor the Yankee commander did anything
in the way of fighting, though both were very busy superintending
ship-carpenters. Sir James was eager to get a liner afloat, that
was to carry one hundred guns, while Chauncey was working over
his sixty-two-gun frigate. Sir James had a force afloat that was
stronger than the Yankee force, but once the Yankee _Superior_ was in
commission, the preponderance would be the other way, and Sir James
(like Chauncey) was not going to take any chances in battle unless he
had the greater force. For six weeks the two squadrons lay idly in port.
Meantime, however, Lieutenant F. H. Gregory of the American navy
engaged in “two very gallant cutting-out expeditions.” On June 16th,
with twenty-two men in three row-boats, he started away across the
lake to intercept some of the enemy’s provision-schooners, and on the
19th fell in with the British gun-boat _Blacksnake_ armed with a short
eighteen-pounder and carrying eighteen men. Gregory at once carried
the boat by assault without the loss of a man. He burned the boat
and carried the men into Sackett’s Harbor; and then on July 1st he
descended on Presqu’ Isle, where he “burned a fourteen-gun schooner
just ready for launching” and once more escaped without loss.
With these two incidents only to mar the calm, the time passed until
July 31st, when Chauncey got clear of the port. He now had a fleet
of eight vessels, of which the largest (the _Superior_) carried a
crew of five hundred men, with thirty long thirty-two pounders, two
long twenty-fours, and twenty-six short forty-twos. The smallest, a
brig, the _Oneida_, carried one hundred men and was armed with two
long twelves and fourteen short twenty-fours. As a whole the squadron
measured 5,941 tons, carried 1,870 men, and mounted two hundred and
twenty-eight guns that fired 3,352 pounds of metal at a broadside. Sir
James Yeo had as many ships as Chauncey, but the best of the British
squadron carried thirty-two long twenty-fours, four short sixty-eights,
and twenty short thirty-twos--an inferior armament to that of the
Yankee _Superior_; and the whole Yankee force is fairly said to be
as six to five in comparison with the British. Sir James conceded
this superiority of force, “which would certainly preclude Yeo from
advancing any claims to superiority in skill or courage.” So there was
no fight. Perhaps it should be added that Chauncey was dangerously
sick during July and had to be carried on board ship when he sailed, on
July 31st.
When Chauncey got away from port he sailed up to the head of the
lake. The British brig _Magnet_ was found in the Niagara River, and
her crew burned her and fled ashore when the Yankee _Sylph_, a brig
of slightly superior force, was sent in to attack her. Leaving three
brigs to blockade the Niagara, Chauncey sent the brig _Jones_ cruising
alongshore between Sackett’s Harbor and Oswego, and with his four ships
went to Kingston and blockaded Sir James Yeo’s four ships that were in
the port. The American force was “superior by about fifteen per cent.,
and Sir James Yeo very properly declined to fight with the odds against
him although it was a nicer calculation than British commanders had
been accustomed to enter into.”
But in blockading Kingston Chauncey refused to co-operate with the
American army in a well-considered plan for invading Canada, and this
refusal was all, as it now appears, that stood in the way of capturing
Kingston and the British fleet. He wrote, when asked to co-operate in
the invasion of Canada, that he thought the request was a “sinister
attempt to render us subordinate to, or an appendage of, the army.”
Then, in an attempt to pose as a gallant knight, he writes that, “to
deprive the enemy of an apology for not meeting me, I have sent ashore
four guns from the _Superior_, to reduce her armor in number to an
equality with the _Prince Regent’s_, yielding the advantage of their
sixty-eight pounders.” He “yielded the advantage” of the sixty-eights
but retained the advantage of long thirty-twos over long twenty-fours,
something he was dishonest enough to omit mentioning.
Save for the transportation of 3,000 soldiers from Sackett’s Harbor
to the mouth of the Genesee River Chauncey did nothing but blockade
Kingston until the liner of one hundred guns (called the _St.
Lawrence_) was completed there. Then he retired to Sackett’s Harbor.
The young officers under him were apparently worthy of an efficient
commander--of one who, like Perry, would say, “To windward or leeward
they shall fight to-day;” for when Lieutenant Gregory, with Midshipman
Hart and six men, while scouting in Kingston Harbor, fell in with two
barges and thirty men, the thirty men conquered only after they had
killed Hart and wounded the lieutenant and four of his six men. And
then, just before the close of navigation Midshipman McGowan headed
an expedition into Kingston to blow up the new British liner with a
torpedo. This expedition fell in with two of the enemy’s guard-boats,
and captured both of them. It is not unlikely that they would have
succeeded in destroying the liner but for the fact that she was not in
the harbor.
Sir James Yeo got out of Kingston with his new liner and the rest of
his squadron on October 15th and assisted the British army on the
Niagara frontier, until November 21st, when the ice ended navigation.
[Illustration: One of the Unlaunched Lake Vessels.
_From a photograph._]
The Americans in the January following began the building of two
line-of-battle ships to regain the control of Lake Ontario which Sir
James Yeo had gained with his liner _St. Lawrence_. One keel was
stretched at Sackett’s Harbor--a keel that was 183 feet 7½ inches
long. She was to be 214 feet long over all, 56 feet wide and 47 feet
deep, with a draught of 27 feet. She was pierced for one hundred and
twenty guns, “eighteens and forty-fours.” The work was pushed with
extraordinary rapidity, but before she was finished news of the peace
came, so a house was built over her and thereafter she stood on the
keel-blocks as a spectacle for tourists for about eighty years, when
her rotten condition made it necessary to burn her. She was called the
_New Orleans_. The other, called the _Chippewa_, was laid down farther
up the bay, but very little work was done there.
On the whole, the British ships controlled Lake Ontario during four
months in 1814, while the Americans held it two and a half. On the
other hand, the British loss in men was about three hundred to the
American loss of eighty. And the British lost a fourteen-gun brig, a
ten-gun schooner (burned when ready for launching), three gun-boats,
three cutters, and a gig. The Americans lost the schooner _Growler_,
loaded with seven guns; a transport barge loaded with two guns and a
hawser, a gig, and the four cannon destroyed at the Oswego fight. The
story of the war on Lake Ontario in 1814 is not of the stirring kind,
but the Americans certainly had the best of it.