EARLY WORK ON THE GREAT LAKES
IT WAS A BEAUTIFUL REGION UNMARKED BY THE HAND OF MAN IN THOSE
DAYS--THE LONG TRAIL TO OSWEGO--THE FIRST YANKEE WAR-SHIP ON FRESH
WATER--THE BRITISH GET AHEAD OF US ON LAKE ONTARIO--GOOD WORK OF
“THE OLD SOW” AT SACKETT’S HARBOR--A DASH INTO KINGSTON HARBOR--THE
STORY OF THE BRILLIANT WORK BY WHICH JESSE D. ELLIOTT WON A SWORD
AND THE ADMIRATION OF THE NATION.
The student of American naval history who with weary toil reads through
the proceedings of the Congress for the year 1813, finds two paragraphs
marked “approved January 29,” that, because of the matters to which
they refer, stir him as not many other paragraphs of all the printed
proceedings of that legislative body from its first gathering down to
the present day are able to do. They are brief--the first contains
sixteen printed lines, and the last only seven. But in the first, gold
medals are awarded to Hull, of the _Constitution_, Decatur, of the
_United States_, and Jones, of the _Wasp_, for the astounding results
they achieved in their combats with the _Guerrière_, the _Macedonian_,
and the _Frolic_. And in the second the President of the United States
“is requested to present to Lieutenant Elliott, of the Navy of the
United States, an elegant sword, with suitable emblems and devices, in
testimony of the just sense entertained by Congress of his gallantry
and good conduct in boarding and capturing the British brigs _Detroit_
and _Caledonia_, while anchored under the protection of Fort Erie.”
[Illustration: _From a lithograph at the Navy Department, Washington._]
It was no small honor to have one’s name mentioned in connection with
Hull, Decatur, and Jones, but a few months later (July 13, 1813)
Elliott’s name once more appears in an act of Congress, this time in
connection with that of Lawrence. Lawrence and his men get $25,000
for the destruction of the _Peacock_; Elliott “and his officers and
companions” get $12,000 for the destruction of the _Detroit_.
The fight in which Lieutenant Jesse D. Elliott won these honors, if
compared gun for gun and man for man with the battles of the great
naval heroes with whom his name was mentioned, was but small and
unimportant. They fought with well-manned, fully equipped ships on the
high seas; he in row-boats on a fresh-water lake in the backwoods,
and armed with borrowed weapons. But when considered in its proper
light--when considered in its influence upon the Americans and on
the enemy, and especially when considered in its influence as the
forerunner of the great fresh-water battles where Perry and Macdonough
won glory, this was a most important conflict; for it fired the
hearts of the Yankee frontiersmen at a time when such disasters as the
surrender of Detroit to the British had made some kind of encouragement
most needful.
But before recounting the stirring events of the night when this Yankee
seaman earned his first honors, it is important to recount, as briefly
as may be, how it happened that Elliott, a salt-sea sailor, was found
on a fresh-water sea in the backwoods.
It is a delight to the student who loves nature to think of the
American frontier as it was in the days of 1812. For in those days
the forest stretched away from Maine along the swift St. Lawrence and
the green waters of the Great Lakes to end at the prairies of the
far West. It was a country as God made it and almost unmarred by the
bungling hand of man. The moose and the red deer, the wild turkey and
the partridge, roamed undisturbed at will, and the settlers who had
gathered at widely separated points must needs provide bounties on wolf
and panther and wild-cat scalps to protect their cattle and sheep,
their ducks and chickens. To go to the St. Lawrence River the traveller
found it most convenient to go up the Hudson to the head of navigation,
and then, after carrying his burden overland to Lake George, proceed by
the way of Lake Champlain. To the east of this there was no highway
through the vast forest. To the west lay the Adirondacks. To reach the
Great Lakes the traveller must needs leave the Hudson for the Mohawk,
and travel up its winding course in the shoal-draft scows called
batteaux that were pushed along by poles, just as the Big Sandy and Tug
Rivers in the Kentucky mountains are navigated at this day. At Little
Falls was a portage where the Indians and the Dutch used to compete for
the privilege of carrying goods around the broken water, and thereafter
the route as far as where Rome now stands was usually unimpeded. This
place reached, another portage must be made to Wood Creek, that flowed
toward Lake Ontario, and so at last the traveller saw from the bluffs
of Oswego the wide water before him. There were, indeed, roads along
these routes--trails, properly speaking, over which one could drive a
wagon in the dry months of summer and early fall, and a sled after the
snow came in winter. In the wet seasons these trails were practically
impassable.
Nevertheless, when the Congress discussed schemes for resenting British
aggression, the invasion of Canada was always mentioned first of all!
[Illustration: Sackett’s Harbor, 1814.]
To operate against Canada effectually it was necessary to have a naval
force on the great fresh-water lakes of Erie and Ontario. When the
British ship _Leopard_ attacked the _Chesapeake_ in order to impress
upon American minds that once an American citizen was impressed into
the British Navy he must remain there until the British Government
saw fit to release him, the American Congress was stirred so far as
to order a war-brig built on Lake Ontario. She was begun at Oswego
in 1808, and launched as the _Oneida_ in 1809, under the command of
Lieutenant Melancthon Woolsey, U. S. N. During this year also Sackett’s
Harbor was chosen as a naval station, and some military companies
were stationed there. Arsenals were established by New York State in
Champion Village and at Watertown, both not far from Sackett’s Harbor.
And thereafter the embargo acts of one kind and another gave sufficient
excuse to the people of that region to make very lively times, both
afloat and ashore, until, in 1812, the war came.
In fact war began here before it was declared at Washington. The
British merchant-schooner _Lord Nelson_ was found in American waters
and captured by the _Oneida_ on May 12th. She was condemned for
violating the Embargo Act. In June the British merchant-schooner
_Niagara_ was taken and sold for violating the revenue laws. These
seizures were revenged after the war began by an energetic Canadian
named Jones, who organized a party and captured two of a fleet of eight
American merchant-schooners trying to flee from Ogdensburg to Sackett’s
Harbor. The two were burned.
Meantime, it should be said that while the American shores were
sparsely settled, the Canadian side of the waters was very well
settled, Kingston being the chief naval and military post. And while
the Americans were building one slow brig to prepare for the inevitable
war, the British had built and armed a squadron of six vessels that
included the _Royal George_, of twenty-two guns, _Prince Regent_, of
sixteen guns, _Earl of Moira_, of fourteen guns, and three smaller ones
carrying fourteen, twelve, and four guns--in all eighty-four guns.
These were commanded by a Commodore Earle. It is worth noting here
that the British historians all speak of these vessels and their crews
as Canadians as distinguished from the British, and that the Canadian
seamen are everywhere denounced as cowards, just as the Yankee seamen
were. However, the distinction between “colonists” and the “British” is
made by English writers to this day.
[Illustration: SCENE OF Naval Operations on LAKE ONTARIO, 1812-’13.]
Commodore Earle decided in July to capture the _Oneida_, that was
lying in Sackett’s Harbor, and destroy the little fort there. Rumors
of his coming having reached the station, Woolsey, who still commanded
the _Oneida_, prepared to fight in spite of the overwhelming odds
against him. A long thirty-two had been sent up from the coast for the
_Oneida_ some time before, but it had proved too heavy for her, and it
had therefore been allowed to lie half-buried in the mud on the shore
of the bay, where, because it lay comfortably in the mud, it was known
as “The Old Sow.” This was placed in the fort on the bluff overlooking
the channel into the harbor, with a couple of sixes and a couple of
nines beside it. Next, the _Oneida_ was moored outside of Navy Point
where she could rake the channel, and then nothing more could be done
but fight it out as best they might.
On the morning of July 19, 1812, the British squadron appeared. It was
“a lovely Sabbath morning,” with a head-wind for the British, who came
beating up past Horse Island. By 8 o’clock they were within range and a
lake mariner, Captain William Vaughan, let drive with “The Old Sow” at
the _Royal George_. He didn’t have the range that time and the British
laughed and jeered loudly. On their getting nearer, however, the firing
from the shore began to tell. The _Royal George_ caught one shot below
the water-line and one higher up in the hull. The _Prince Regent_ and
the _Earl of Moira_ were struck. The shot from the ships all fell on
the beach, save one that landed in the yard of the old Sacket mansion,
where Sergeant Spies picked it up, and carrying it to Captain Vaughan,
he said:
“I have been playing ball with the red coats and have caught ’em out.
See if the British can catch back again.”
Captain Vaughan loaded the ball into the old gun. At that moment the
_Royal George_ was wearing around to fire a broadside and was stern on
to the fort. Taking careful aim Captain Vaughan fired, and the shot
“struck her stern, raked her completely, sent splinters as high as her
mizzen topsail-yard, killed fourteen men and wounded eighteen.” So said
a deserter. The British never published an account of their losses that
day, and the story is probably true, because Commodore Earle hauled off
while a Yankee band played “Yankee Doodle,” and the first battle of
Sackett’s Harbor was ended. “Nothing animate or inanimate on shore had
been injured in the least.”
The next attack was on the six schooners at Ogdensburg, that had
escaped the valiant Jones, of Canada. The British sent two vessels,
one of fourteen and one of ten guns, to Prescott, opposite Ogdensburg.
The Americans sent an Oswego-built schooner called the _Julia_, armed
with a long thirty-two and two long sixes, and manned with thirty men,
to convoy these schooners to Sackett’s Harbor. A big, open boat with
some sharpshooters went along. This squadron of two, mounting three
guns, “encountered and actually beat off, without losing a man,” the
two British ships that mounted twenty-four guns between them. The words
quoted are from James, the British historian, and his figures are given
as to the armament. It is therefore altogether probable that the two
beaten Britishers carried at least ten more guns than the figures given.
[Illustration: Captain Woolsey.
_From a painting at the Naval Academy, Annapolis._]
Thus Commander Woolsey added five small schooners to his fleet;
later in the autumn he added four more. Meantime, Commodore Isaac
Chauncey was appointed to command the forces on the Great Lakes; he
brought a gang of ship-carpenters to Sackett’s Harbor, and one hundred
experienced officers and seamen, besides guns, etc. The Commodore
arrived on October 6th. On November 26th he launched a ship built of
timber that stood in the forest when he arrived, and she was able to
carry twenty-four short thirty-twos. And that was neither the first nor
the last time that Yankee carpenters showed the world how to build a
ship in a hurry.
But while the carpenters worked, the Commodore went afloat with the
_Oneida_ and six armed schooners on October 8th. And then there was a
fight over at Kingston. Finding the _Royal George_ out at the False
Duck Islands the Commodore chased her into Kingston Harbor, and then
at 3 o’clock he decided to run in and see what sort of defences the
port had. Two of his schooners were off chasing merchantmen, but the
remaining four, carrying a long thirty-two each, went in ahead of the
_Oneida_. One, the _Pert_, had the misfortune to burst her big gun.
Her commander, Sailing-master Arundel, was badly hurt and four others
slightly. Arundel refused to leave the deck, but by accident fell
overboard and was drowned. The other schooners kept up a brisk fire on
the five batteries about the harbor, while the _Oneida_, which carried
only sixteen short twenty-fours, holding her fire, ranged up beside the
_Royal George_ and then gave it to her. In twenty minutes the British
had had enough of it, and chopping their rope cables they ran their
ship to the shore where the water was so shoal that the holes in her
hull couldn’t sink her and a big body of troops could defend her. Then
finding the shore batteries too heavy and the wind rising against his
course out of the harbor, Chauncey retreated. The _Royal George_ had
been well beaten and the schooner _Simeo_ sunk. And thereafter four
schooners sufficed to blockade the port of Kingston until the ice
relieved them of the task.
The expedition under General Wilkinson that left Sackett’s Harbor
at the beginning of October, 1813, to attack Montreal, is worth a
paragraph, because it shows how utterly futile it usually was and is
to give a sailor’s work to a landsman. Everything was ready on October
4th, but the order to start was not issued until the 12th, and the
order was not obeyed until the 17th. When they did finally get away
the huge flotilla of boats was not only overloaded, but the start
was made at night when one of the long, fierce storms of the region
was coming on. Fifteen large boats were lost that night, while every
soul afloat endured the greatest hardships from wind and sleet. After
waiting along-shore and among the islands for the storm to end, the
expedition pushed on and reached Grenadier Island on the 20th. They
went on eventually, beginning on the 29th, but the delays had given the
enemy every opportunity to gather to oppose the expedition. They passed
Prescott on the night of the 6th, but they came to grief when on the
11th they met the enemy at Chrysler’s farm, below Williamsburg. Instead
of capturing Montreal they built winter-quarters on Salmon River.
[Illustration: Wilkinson’s Flotilla.
_From an old wood-cut._]
Along with Commodore Chauncey came Lieutenant Jesse D. Elliott. He
had the confidence of the Commodore and was at once sent forward to
Buffalo, where he was “to purchase any number of merchant vessels or
boats that might be converted into vessels of war or gun-boats” and,
further, “to take measures for the construction of two vessels of three
hundred tons each, six boats of considerable size, and quarters for
three hundred men.”
In those days Black Rock was a village about two miles from Buffalo
on the road toward Niagara Falls, Main Street being then, as now, the
chief thoroughfare of Buffalo, while Black Rock was a settlement at
the head of Niagara River. It was at Black Rock that Elliott decided
to establish the navy-yard. At first thought this might seem to have
been a hazardous undertaking, because almost directly across the river
was a strong British post--Fort Erie, which is now chiefly celebrated
for having a fine beach, where Buffalo people go when overheated, as
New York people go to Coney Island. However, if the British might be
expected to try crossing to interfere with Elliott’s ship-building,
it was also possible for Elliott to keep a good watch on British
movements; and this he did.
[Illustration: Detroit in 1815.]
So it happened that when two brigs came down the lake from Detroit
and anchored under the guns of Fort Erie on October 8, 1812, Elliott
learned the fact instantly. One of these brigs was of Yankee build.
She was new and almost ready for service at Detroit, when that post
fell into the hands of the British, and was at once taken into their
service and called the _Detroit_ to commemorate their taking of the
town. The other brig was called the _Caledonia_. She was the property
of a British fur-buying company and had come from the upper lakes
(although the Americans did not know it at the time) loaded with fine
furs to the value of $200,000. What Elliott did know, when he saw the
two brigs, was that those two vessels were just what he wanted for use
on the lake, and that it would be very much better for the American
cause to go over and take them than to buy and build a score. And this
he determined to do.
As good fortune had it, a detachment of seamen that included an ensign
and forty-seven men and petty officers arrived at Black Rock on the
evening of the day when the brigs reached Fort Erie. These men were
unarmed, but Elliott was not without resource. At that time Winfield
Scott, of whom every school-boy has read, was a lieutenant-colonel
in command of troops at Black Rock, and to him Elliott applied for
arms and men with success. It is not uninteresting to note that when
application was made to the militia for arms for the expedition across
the river the order to obtain them read: “all the pistols, swords, and
sabres, you can borrow _at the risk of the lenders_.” Enough owners
of weapons willing to lend without making a claim on the Government
in case of loss were found, and the arms provided for the sailors. A
company of fifty soldiers under Captain Towson volunteered to help.
Two big boats were prepared in Shajackuda Creek, that empties into the
Niagara below Black Rock, and at midnight one hundred and twenty-four
men, all told, embarked.
Let it be kept in mind that the _Detroit_ was a well-built war-brig,
fully armed and manned, that the _Caledonia_ was well manned by the
hardy lake seamen accustomed to dealing with the savage Indians of
the far West, and that both vessels were anchored under the guns of
a strong military post, full of experienced men. There were three
batteries of great guns in place, besides field artillery that could
be brought to bear in a few minutes. To cut out these two vessels was
a task but little less hazardous than the attack which Decatur made on
the frigate _Philadelphia_ in the harbor of Tripoli.
One needs to see the mighty sweep of the Niagara River past Black Rock
to appreciate the task of the seamen under Elliott who had to row the
boats up stream from the creek and across to the Canadian shores.
[Illustration:
1. Buffalo.
2. Fort Erie.
3. Black Rock.
4. British batteries.
5. Sailors’ barracks.
6. Artillery encampment.
7. Squaw Island.
8. Strawberry Island.
9. Detroit aground.
10. Caledonia ashore.
11. Navy-yard.
12. British artillery.
13. Point of embarkation.
Capture of the British Brigs _Detroit_ and _Caledonia_, October 12,
1812.
_From a wood-cut prepared under the supervision of Lieutenant Jesse D.
Elliott himself._]
They embarked at midnight, and at 1 o’clock found themselves in the
current of the Niagara. For two hours thereafter they pulled with
steady stroke, and then as the anchor-watch on the _Detroit_ was noting
the hour of 3, a pistol-shot from a big boat that suddenly loomed
alongside, roused the crew from their over-strong feeling of security.
A volley of musketry followed and then over the rail tumbled fifty men,
led by Lieutenant Elliott, and the _Detroit_ was in American hands.
The surprise of the _Detroit_ was completely successful. A minute or
two later the other boat, under Sailing-master Watts, was beside the
_Caledonia_. Her more watchful crew were up and ready to greet these
men with a volley, but the attack was resistless and “in less than ten
minutes I had the prisoners all seized, the top-sails sheeted home, and
the vessels under weigh.” So wrote Lieutenant Elliott.
But though under sail the wind was too light to carry the brigs against
the current, and they could not reach the lake as they wished to do.
The British batteries opened a hot fire. Elliott replied with the guns
of the _Detroit_ as long as the ammunition lasted, while striving at
the same time to get her across to the American side. “For ten minutes
she went blindly down the current,” while the steady flashing of cannon
afloat and ashore illuminated the night, and people ran to and fro on
both sides of the river shouting and cheering. And then the _Detroit_
grounded on Squaw Island, opposite what is now the foot of Albany
Street, Buffalo. The Americans landed their prisoners, forty-six in
number, below the island, but before they could return some British
regulars had crossed over and captured the _Detroit_. The Yankees,
with a six-pounder field-piece on Squaw Island, drove them away, and
Winfield Scott and some troops took possession. But she was still
within reach of the British long guns, and during the remainder of
the night and all the next day she was under fire. Then the British
brought a war vessel, the _Lady Prevost_, to cover them while they were
to take her off, and so the Americans fired and destroyed her.
Meantime Elliott had carried the _Caledonia_ clear of all, and she was
the first member of the fleet that enabled the gallant Perry to write,
“We have met the enemy and they are ours.”
As already said, the fight, considered beside the salt-sea battles,
was only a trifling skirmish, but two British ships were captured, the
percentage of damage done to the British power afloat on Lake Erie was
tremendous, and as an example of dashing bravery the feat thrilled the
whole American nation. Not less marked was its effect upon the British,
for General Sir Isaac Brock, who commanded in that department, wrote:
“The event is particularly unfortunate and may reduce us to
incalculable distress. The enemy is making every exertion to gain a
naval superiority on both lakes, which, if they accomplish it, I do not
see how we can possibly retain the country.”