Siege of Fort Erie -- Assault and repulse of the British --
Brown takes command -- Resolves to destroy the enemy's works
by a sortie -- Opposed by his officers -- The sortie --
Anecdote of General Porter -- Retreat of Drummond -- Conduct
of Izard.
[Sidenote: Aug. 3.]
Gaines, immediately on his arrival at Fort Erie, set about
strengthening the works, so that when Drummond actually invested it,
he found it in a good state of defence.
In the mean time, the English commander hearing that Brown's magazine
had been removed from Schlosser to Buffalo, dispatched Colonel Tucker
to the latter place, with twelve hundred men, to seize them. But Brown
anticipating such a movement, had stationed Major Morgan, with a
battalion of riflemen, at Black Rock, to meet and repel it. This
vigilant and gallant officer thwarted every attempt of the British to
advance, and compelled them reluctantly to return.
A night expedition sent to cut out three small American vessels at
anchor in the river, succeeded better--two of them being surprised and
captured.
[Sidenote: Aug. 13.]
Having completed his trenches and erected his batteries, Drummond, on
the 13th, opened his fire. Shot and shells were incessantly hurled all
that and the succeeding day against the fort without materially
weakening its strength. The British commander then resolved to carry
it by assault. The garrison was composed of about 2500 men, while the
force under Drummond was estimated at four thousand. As night
approached, and the cannonading ceased, General Gaines observed a
commotion in the British camp, and suspecting that preparations were
making for an assault, ordered one third of the garrison to stand to
their arms all night.
Drummond had resolved to assail the works in three separate strong
columns, of from twelve to fifteen hundred men each, moving
simultaneously against three separate points. One against Towson's
battery, occupying the extreme north-east angle of the fortifications;
a second against the right, and the third full on the fort itself. The
day had been stormy, with torrents of rain deluging the earth, and the
night set in dark and dismal. The watch fires of the enemy's camp
could scarcely be discerned through the gloom, and dead silence
reigned over both encampments. Hour after hour wore slowly away, till
midnight came, and yet no sound but the moaning of the wind as it
swept over the water and the woods, broke the stillness.
At length about two o'clock in the morning, the muffled tread of the
advancing columns was distinctly heard in the darkness. The one
directed against Towson's batteries near the water, came first within
range, when a tremendous fire opened upon it. In an instant, the whole
scenery was lit up by the blaze of the guns, which threw also a red
and baleful light over the serried ranks, pressing with fixed bayonets
to the assault. Although Towson kept his batteries in fierce play, and
sheets of flame went rolling on the doomed column, it kept resolutely
on till it approached within ten feet of the infantry. But its
strength was exhausted; it could stagger on no farther; and first
wavering, it then halted, and finally recoiled. Rallied to a second
attack, it advanced with loud shouts, only to be smitten with the same
overwhelming fire. Encouraged to a third effort, it swerved from the
direct assault, and endeavored to wade around an abattis of loose
brushwood, that stretched from the batteries to the shore. Pressing
forward, up to their arm-pits in the water, some few reached the
enclosure within, but only to perish, and the remainder retreated. The
column advancing against the right battery, commanded by Douglas, was
allowed to approach within fifty yards, when such a rapid and wasting
fire was poured upon it, that it recoiled in confusion. The central
column, led on by Lieutenant-Colonel Drummond, pressed firmly and
rapidly through the fire of Hindman's guns, applied their ladders to
the walls, and began to mount. Repulsed, they made a second and third
desperate effort to reach the parapets, but without success. Stubborn
and brave, this officer was resolved not to abandon the attempt, and
favored by the darkness, led his troops quietly along the ditch to a
point where no assault was expected, and applying his ladders, mounted
to the top of one of the bastions. Enraged by his successive repulses,
and maddened by the slaughter of his troops, this intrepid but brutal
leader no sooner gained the parapet than he cried out "give the damned
Yankees no quarter." The latter instantly closed on him with a
sternness and ferocity that made that single bastion swim in blood.
Carrying out his own inhuman orders, Drummond shot Lieutenant
Macdonough as he lay prostrate and wounded, bravely beating off the
soldiers who refused his cry for quarter. The next instant the
barbarous act was avenged by a soldier, who shot him dead in his
footsteps. The troops, however, courageously maintained the advantage
they had gained, till daylight, when some cartridges in a stone
building near by, catching fire by accident, exploded with a
tremendous concussion, lifting the platform of the bastion from its
bed, and hurling the shattered and affrighted occupants of it to the
ground. A disorderly flight followed, and the British troops withdrew
to their encampment.
General Drummond, however, did not abandon the siege, but sat down
before the fort with a stronger determination than ever to reduce it.
General Gaines being wounded by a shell, now retired to Buffalo,
leaving Ripley in command. When the state of affairs was reported to
General Brown, he saw at once that another and heavier assault would
soon be made, and though his wounds were yet unhealed, repaired to the
fort, and assumed the command. [Sidenote: Sept. 2.] The brave Jessup
with his arm in a sling, and still suffering from his wounds,
volunteered his services, and every preparation was made for a
desperate resistance.
Owing to the sickness of Commodore Chauncey the co-operation expected
from the fleet had entirely failed, so that the brilliant victories of
the summer, on the Niagara frontier, had not advanced the original
plan of the campaign, and the American army instead of marching to
Burlington Heights, and thence on Kingston, was compelled to stand on
the defensive. Commodore Chauncey was a gallant and skillful
commander, and had reduced his crews to a state of discipline rarely
equaled. But he lay sick in Sackett's Harbor till the 2d of July, and
then was carried on board his ship. His arrival near [Sidenote: Aug.
5.] Niagara was too late to be of any service to the army shut up in
Fort Erie, and he cruised in the lake, blockading Yeo in Kingston, and
striving in vain to bring him to an engagement. It was no fault of his
that Ontario was not signalized by a victory equal to that on Lake
Erie.
General Izard, after sitting on the court-martial of Wilkinson, was
appointed to take command of the northern army at Plattsburg.
[Sidenote: May 4.] He was an accomplished officer, but like his
predecessors, too much of a martinet to effect any thing with
irregular troops. He fell a victim to military rules, which, in the
changing, disorderly army under his command, could not be applied. Cut
adrift from them he knew not what to do. A thoroughly-educated
officer, he became a slave to his knowledge, and without the genius to
create resources, or skill to mould and apply the materials that
surrounded him, he made matters worse by grumbling. Quarrels, duels
among the officers, desertion, the mixture of black and white
recruits, misrule, and bad appointments, discouraged and disgusted him
with the army he commanded. In the mean time, the arrival of fresh
troops from England rendered some movement necessary, and Izard, at
the head of seven thousand men, such as they were, was ordered to
Sackett's Harbor, to plan an attack on Kingston, if circumstances
rendered it prudent, or succor General Brown. Leaving three thousand
under Macomb, at Plattsburgh, he with the remainder took up his sulky
and discontented march for Sackett's Harbor, where he arrived on the
13th of September. Three days previously, Brown wrote him from Fort
Erie, imploring his assistance, saying unless it was rendered
speedily, the fate of his army was doubtful. The accounts, however,
which he received of the dilatory manner in which Izard marched, and
of the feelings he entertained, left him no hope from that quarter,
and he said, "We must, if saved, do the business ourselves." He fell
back on himself, and his little band resolved to defend the fort to
the last, against whatever force might be brought against it. Weak
from his wounds, he yet toiled day and night to strengthen his
defences. Neither his sickness, nor the torrents of rain that fell
almost daily, could deter him from exertion, and by his energy and
bearing he diffused an air of cheerfulness and confidence amid and
around those entrenchments, which are always the forerunner of great
deeds. Having ascertained what formidable preparations were making to
press the siege, he resolved not to wait their completion, but with
one bold sortie overwhelm the batteries of the enemy and destroy their
works. A council of officers was called, to whom he submitted his
plans. Their decision was adverse, which chagrined him much; he was
also annoyed to find himself opposed by his next in command. He,
nevertheless, was determined to carry out his purpose, and said to
Jesup, "We must keep our own counsels; the impression must be made
that we are done with the affair; _but as sure as there is a God in
heaven the enemy shall be attacked in his works, and beaten, too, as
soon as all the volunteers shall have passed over_." These were
rapidly coming in at the call and efforts of General Porter, who was
worthy to command them, and with whom they knew no disgrace could
occur.
General Brown having made himself perfectly acquainted with the
position and designs of the enemy, quietly matured his own plans.
Drummond's army, four thousand strong, was encamped in an open field
surrounded by a forest, two miles distant from his entrenchments in
order to be out of reach of the American cannon. One-third of this
force protected the artillerists in completing their batteries and the
workmen in digging trenches and erecting blockhouses.
Two batteries were at length completed and a third nearly
finished--all mounted with heavy cannon, one being a sixty-eight
pounder--before the sortie was made. For four days previous Brown
tried the effect of his artillery upon these works, and during the
whole of the thirteenth and fourteenth a tremendous cannonading was
kept up in the midst of a pelting storm. The two succeeding days the
firing continued at intervals, interspersed with conflicts between the
pickets. [Sidenote: Sept. 17.] The next day at noon, an hour when such
an attempt would be least expected, Brown resolved to make a sortie
with nearly the whole of his disposable force, capture the batteries,
spike the cannon, and overwhelm the brigade in attendance before the
other two brigades, two miles distant, could arrive. The assault was
to be made in two columns. The left composed of Porter's volunteers,
Gibson's riflemen, a portion of the 1st and 23rd regiments of regulars
and some Indians was directed to march along a road which had been cut
through the woods, while the gallant Miller with the first brigade was
to move swiftly along a deep ravine that run between the first and
second batteries of the enemy, and the moment he heard the crack of
Porter's rifles, mount the ravine and storm the batteries. It was a
dark and sombre day--the clouds flew low, sending down at intervals
torrents of rain and giving to the whole scenery a sour and gloomy
aspect. But everything being ready, Brown, about ten o'clock, opened
with his artillery, and for two hours it was an incessant blaze and
roar all along the line of the entrenchments. Its cessation was the
signal for the two columns to advance. General Ripley commanded the
reserve, while Jesup with a hundred and fifty men held the fort
itself. Porter with his column surprised and overthrew the enemy's
pickets, and began to pour in rapid volleys on his flank. Miller no
sooner heard the welcome sound than he gave the order to charge. In an
instant the brigade was on the top of the bank, and without giving the
enemy time to recover from their surprise the troops dashed forward on
the entrenchments in front of them. Though assailed so unexpectedly
and suddenly the enemy fought gallantly to save the works which had
cost them so much labor. The contest was fierce but short. Carrying
battery after battery at the point of the bayonet, the victorious
Americans pressed fiercely on till all the batteries and the labor of
nearly fifty days were completely in their possession. Ripley then
hastened up with the reserve to form a line for the protection of the
troops while the work of destruction went on; while executing the
movement he was wounded in the neck and carried back to the fort.
In the mean time, Drummond aroused by the first volleys, had hurried
off reinforcements on a run. Pressing forward through the rain, urged
to their utmost speed by the officers pointing forward with their
swords to the scene of action, they, nevertheless, arrived too late to
prevent the disaster. In an hour the conflict was over; yet in that
short space of time the work of demolition had been completed. In the
midst of incessant volleys and shouts and the rallying beat of the
drum, heavy explosions shook the field and magazines and block houses
one after another blew up, spreading ruin and desolation around.
In that short combat more than four hundred of the enemy had fallen,
and nearly as many more been taken prisoners. The American loss was
three hundred killed and wounded; among the slain, however, were the
gallant Wood and Gibson. The bayonet and sabre were wielded with
terrible effect in the strife.
General Porter in passing with a few men from one detachment to
another, during the engagement, suddenly found himself in the presence
of sixty or eighty British soldiers drawn up in the woods, and
apparently not knowing what to do. Thinking it better to put a bold
face on the matter, he ran up to them, exclaiming, "That's right, my
good fellows, surrender and we will take care of you!" and taking the
musket out of the hands of the first and flinging it on the ground he
pushed him towards the fort. In this way he went nearly through the
first line, the men advancing unarmed in front. At length a soldier
stepped back and presented the point of his bayonet to General
Porter's breast, and demanded _his_ surrender. A scuffle ensued, and
some officers coming to the rescue of the soldier Porter was flung
upon the ground and his hand cut with a sword. On recovering his feet
he saw himself surrounded by twenty or thirty men, shouting to him to
surrender. He very coolly told _them_ to surrender, and declared if
they fired a gun he would have the whole put to the sword. In the mean
time a company of American riflemen coming up, fired upon the English.
After a short fight the whole were killed or taken prisoners.
Having accomplished his work, Brown retired in good order within the
fort. Drummond, weakened by nearly one-fourth of his force, and the
labors of so long a time being destroyed, raised the siege and retired
behind the Chippewa.
General Izard, who was to fall on his rear, did not reach Lewistown
till the 5th of October. [Sidenote: Oct. 14.] At length, forming a
junction with Brown's troops, he moved forward, and sat down before
Drummond encamped, behind the Chippewa. His army, six thousand strong,
was deemed sufficiently large to capture the enemy, and this event was
confidently expected to crown the Canadian campaign. [Sidenote: Oct.
21.] But after some faint demonstrations, not worth recording, he
seven days after retired to Black Rock, preparatory to winter
quarters. Although pressed by the Secretary of War to attack the
enemy, he declined, and having spent the summer in grumbling, went
sullenly into winter quarters, thus closing the list of inefficient
commanders, which threatened for awhile never to become complete.
While Izard was thus ending a military career in which he had gathered
no laurels, Macomb, whom he had left at Plattsburgh, doomed as he said
to destruction, had crowned himself with honor, and shed lustre on the
American arms.