Plan of the third Campaign -- Attack on Sackett's Harbor --
Attack on Oswego -- Woolsey transports guns to Sackett's
Harbor -- Capture of the detachment sent against him --
Expedition against Mackinaw -- Death of Captain Holmes --
Complete failure of the expedition.
While Porter was slowly approaching our coast, on his return from the
Pacific, events on our northern frontier were assuming an entirely
different aspect from that which they had worn for the last two years.
In the spring, just before and after Congress adjourned, small
expeditions on both sides were set on foot; one, on our part, to
Mackinaw, to aid in carrying out Armstrong's plan for the summer
campaign. This, like all the previous plans looked to the same result,
the details being varied apparently for the sole purpose of appeasing
the people, who it was thought, would not allow a repetition of those
manoeuvres which had ended in such signal disgrace. It was therefore
proposed, first to humble the Indians in the north-west, by capturing
Mackinaw, and thus hold the key of that whole region, so valuable for
its fur trade, and then march an army from the east of Lake Erie to
Burlington Heights, and seize and fortify that position till the
co-operation of the Ontario fleet and the troops at Sackett's harbor
could be secured, when a rapid advance might be made on Kingston, and
after its reduction, on Montreal. The Secretary clung to the conquest
of Canada with a tenacity that deserved success, but this plan also
utterly failed, and the progress of the campaign brought about results
widely different from those anticipated. That part of it looking to
the seizure of Mackinaw, was placed under the direction of Colonel
Croghan and Major Holmes, with whom Captain Sinclair, recently
appointed to the command of the upper lakes, was to co-operate with a
portion of his fleet--the other portion to aid in the expedition
against Burlington Heights. Major Holmes had at first been appointed
by the Secretary to command the land forces, but Colonel Croghan,
stationed at Detroit, and senior officer during Colonel Butler's
absence, denied the right thus directly to appoint him, insisting that
the commission should go through his hands. A correspondence followed,
which delayed the expedition till the third of July. In the mean time,
a British force, under Colonel McDowell, had visited and reinforced
all the posts on the northern lakes, penetrating even beyond Mackinaw.
While Holmes and Sinclair were detained till Colonel Croghan and the
Secretary could settle a question of etiquette, the English, who had
again acquired the ascendancy on Lake Ontario, by building more ships,
made an attack on Sackett's Harbor. Being repulsed, Sir James Yeo then
sailed for Oswego, to destroy materials for ship building, etc., which
he supposed to be assembled there. He arrived on the 5th of May, and
began to bombard the place. The American garrison at the fort,
consisted of three hundred men under Colonel Mitchell, with five guns,
three of which were almost useless. The place contained at that time,
but five hundred inhabitants. The schooner Growler being in the river,
and exposed to certain capture, was sunk, and her cannon transferred
to the fort, situated on a high bank east of the town.
Finding that the bombardment produced no effect, a large body of
troops, under General Drummond, was sent forward to carry the fort by
storm. The fifteen barges that contained them were led on by
gun-boats, destined to cover the landing. These no sooner came within
range of the artillery on shore, than a spirited fire was opened on
them, repulsing them twice, and finally compelling the whole flotilla
to seek the shelter of the ships. The next day the fleet approached
nearer shore, and commenced a heavy cannonade which lasted three
hours. Under cover of it, General De Watteville landed two thousand
troops, and advanced in perfect order over the ground that intervened
between the water and the fort. The soldiers and marines of the
Growler fought bravely, but Colonel Mitchell seeing that resistance
was hopeless, retired, scourging the enemy as he withdrew, with
well-directed volleys, and strewing the ground with more than two
hundred dead and wounded. He fell back to Oswego Falls, where the
naval stores had all been removed, destroying the bridges as he
retired. Foiled in their attempt to get possession of the stores, the
British, after having raised the Growler, retired to Sackett's Harbor,
and blockaded it, resolving to intercept the supplies, guns, etc.,
that were ready to be sent forward. Lighter materials could be
transported by land, but the guns, cables, and anchors, &c., destined
for two vessels recently built at Sackett's Harbor, could reach there
only by water, from Oswego, whither they had been carried by way of
the Mohawk river, Woods' creek, Oneida lake, and the Oswego river.
Captain Woolsey, a brave, skillful and energetic officer, who had been
appointed to take charge of their transportation, caused a rumor to be
spread that he designed to effect it through Oneida lake. [Sidenote:
May 28.] But soon as the British fleet left Oswego, he dropped down
the river with fifteen boats, loaded with thirty-four cannon and ten
cables. Halting at Oswego till dark, he then pulled out into the
lake. A detachment of a hundred and thirty riflemen accompanied him,
while a body of Oneida Indians marched along the shore. The night was
dark and gloomy--the rain fell in torrents, drenching sailors and
soldiers to the skin, while the waves dashed over the boats, adding to
the discomforts and labors of the voyage. It was a long and tedious
pull along the scarcely visible shores, on which swayed and moaned an
unbroken forest.
The next day at sunrise the fleet of boats reached Big Salmon river,
with the exception of one, which kept on, under the pretence of going
direct to Sackett's Harbor, and fell into the hands of the blockading
squadron, giving it information of the approach of the others.
Woolsey, knowing that he could not run the blockade, had resolved to
land his guns at Big Sandy creek and transport them by land eight
miles distant, to Sackett's Harbor. Having reached the mouth of the
creek in safety, he ascended two miles and landed. In the mean time
Sir James Yeo had dispatched two gun-boats, with three cutters and a
gig, in search of him. Finding the fleet had ascended Big Sandy creek,
Captains Popham and Spilsbury, who commanded the expedition, followed
after. The soldiers and marines were landed a mile or more below where
Woolsey was unloading, and moved forward, keeping parallel with the
gun-boats, which incessantly probed the thickets, as they advanced,
with grape shot. Major Appling, who commanded the American riflemen,
placed them and his Indian allies in ambush about half a mile below
the American barges. Allowing the enemy to approach within close
range, he suddenly poured in a destructive volley, which so paralyzed
them that they threw down their arms and begged for quarter. All the
boats, officers, and men were taken, making a total loss of a hundred
and eighty-six men.
The guns were then carried across to Sackett's Harbor, and the new
ship Superior armed, which so strengthened Chauncey's force that Sir
James Yeo raised the blockade and sailed for the Canada shore.
[Sidenote: July 3.]
At last the expedition against Mackinaw got under way. Two war brigs,
the Lawrence and Niagara, together with several smaller vessels,
carrying in all nine hundred men, began slowly to traverse the inland
seas from Detroit to Mackinaw. Nothing but canoes and batteaux had
hitherto floated on those scarcely known waters, with the exception of
a single schooner or sloop, which made an annual solitary trip to the
extreme north-western posts to carry supplies. More than a thousand
miles from the ocean, and lifted nearly six hundred feet above it,
those vast seas rolled their waves through unbroken forests. This was
the first fleet that ever penetrated those solitudes, through which
roamed unscared beasts of prey, and from whose further margin
stretched away those immense prairies that go rolling up to the base
of the Rocky Mountains. Amid unknown rocks and shoals--feeling its way
along narrow channels--at one moment almost grazing the sand-bars with
its keels, and the next moment floating over water nearly a thousand
feet deep--now traversing groups of beautiful islands, and anon
skirting the bases of precipices, on whose summit waved forests that
had stood undisturbed since the birth of time--that little fleet crept
on towards its destination. Its progress was so slow that Colonel
McDowell, commanding at Mackinaw, had ample time to make preparations
for defence.
Captain Sinclair, on his arrival, refused to advance against the fort,
for its batteries looked down on his decks from a hundred feet in the
air. A land attack was therefore resolved upon and carried into
execution. [Sidenote: Aug. 4.] But the dense woods, filled with sharp
shooters, through which the troops were compelled to force their way,
rendered the movement a complete failure. Captain Holmes, a gallant
officer, was shot by an Indian boy. A black servant of Colonel Croghan
immediately covered the body with leaves, to prevent mutilation by the
Indians, and the next day it was recovered. The troops were
re-embarked, and the discomfitted fleet turned homeward. Overtaken by
a storm in Lake Huron, all their boats were destroyed, and the vessels
themselves narrowly escaped being wrecked. A detachment having
destroyed six months' supplies at the mouth of the Natewasaga river
destined for Mackinaw, two schooners were left to blockade the place.
[Sidenote: Sept. 13.] Mackinaw, thus cut off from all communication
with the provinces, would be starved out and compelled to surrender.
But to complete the disaster of this unfortunate enterprise, four
batteaux, with a fleet of small boats from Mackinaw, surprised and
captured one of the schooners, the Tigress. Lieutenant Woolsey then
took command of her, and the next morning, with American colors
flying, stood steadily down on the Scorpion until he ranged alongside,
when he fired all his guns at once, and running aboard, took the
unsuspecting vessel without a struggle.
Thus ended an expedition, romantic from the scenery through which it
passed, but comparatively useless in its results, and costing more
than it was worth, even if it had been successful.