USA > New York > Erie County > Centennial history of Erie County, New York : being its annals from the earliest recorded events to the hundredth year of American independence > Part 20
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Gen. Porter published a card in the Buffalo Gazette of De- cember Sth, in which he plumply charged Gen. Smyth with cowardice, declaring that the regular officers decided against crossing because of the demoralized condition of their com- mander. According to the opinions then in vogue it was im- possible under such circumstances for Smyth to avoid sending a challenge, and he did so immediately. Gen. Porter accepted, and selected Lt. Angus as his second, while Col. Winder acted on behalf of Gen. Smyth.
It seems curious to think of a duel having been fought within the borders of law-abiding Erie, but such was nevertheless the fact. On the afternoon of the 14th the two generals, with their friends and surgeons, met at "Dayton's tavern," below Black
221
AN ERIE COUNTY DUEL.
Rock, and crossed to the head of Grand Island, in accordance with previous arrangements. Arriving at the ground selected, one shot was fired by each of the principals, according to the official statement of the seconds, "in as intrepid and firm a manner as possible," but without effect. Col. Winder then rep- resented that Gen. Porter must now be satisfied that the charge of cowardice was unfounded, and after divers explanations that charge was retracted. Then Gen. Smyth withdrew sundry un- complimentary expressions which he had used regarding Porter, and then "the hand of reconciliation was extended and re- ceived," and all the gentlemen returned to Buffalo. It does not appear that there was any great desire for blood on either side.
Soon afterwards Gen. Porter published a statement of the facts concerning the embarkation which came within his know- ledge, but without indulging in any animadversions.
Doctor (or Major) Chapin was more furious than Porter, and also came out in a statement, bitterly denunciatory of Smyth. In January, after Smyth had left the frontier, he published still another statement, but he could not alter the ugly facts of the case. The account heretofore given is deduced from a careful comparison of the various publications just mentioned, and of the official reports of subordinate officers.
As near as I can ascertain it was just after the wretched failure of Smyth that a serious outbreak occurred in Buffalo, threatening at one time to involve citizens and soldiers in a wide-spread scene of bloodshed.
All through the war there was more or less ill-feeling between the citizens and the soldiers, especially the volunteers and mili- tia from other localities. The troops claimed that they were ill- treated by those whom they came especially to defend; the citi- zens declared that the armed men made unreasonable and extortionate demands. The feeling was probably intensified by the fact that many of the leading citizens of Buffalo were Fed- erals, whom it was easy to represent as disloyal.
Among the troops gathered by Smyth were six companies called " Federal Volunteers," under Lieut .- Col. F. McClurc, in- cluding two or three companies of "Irish Greens " from Albany and New York, and one of " Baltimore Blues" from that city.
Ralph M. Pomeroy, who kept the hotel at the corner of Main
222
MOBBING A HOTEL.
and Seneca streets, was an athletic, resolute man, and rather rough-spoken. There had been difficulties between him and some of the soldiers before. At the time in question a dispute occurred between Pomeroy and the captain of an Albany com- pany, which is said to have originated in a demand made by the officer or his men for food and liquor. The captain drew his sword and drove the hotel-keeper down stairs. Pomeroy swore he wished the British would kill the whole infernal crowd of them.
The few soldiers present left for camp, and in a short time an armed mob of "Baltimore Blues" and "Irish Greens" came down Main street. The guests, including several army officers, were at dinner, when the assailants commenced operations by throwing an axe through a window, directly upon the table. The diners sprang up, the mob rushed in, drove them out, and began the destruction of everything that could be laid hold of. Provisions were devoured, liquors drank, windows smashed, and chairs and tables broken in pieces.
Among the guests was Colonel McClure, the battalion com- mander of these very men, but he was powerless to control them. He went to the stable, mounted his horse and rode through the house, ordering them to disperse, but produced no effect. Then he ordered out the companies from Carlisle and Gettysburg under his command, and marched them down in front of the hotel, but these, though taking no part in the riot themselves, would do nothing to quell it.
Pomeroy concealed himself in his barn. His wife's sister-in- law, who was confined to her bed, was obliged to be carried upon it to a neighbor's house.
The rioters grew more and more furious. Beds were piled up in the second story, and set fire to, and a conflagration was only averted by the courage of "Hank Johnson," a white compan- ion of the Cattaraugus Indians, who ascended a ladder on the outside, and, although it was snatched from under him by the rioters, managed to clamber through the window and throw the burning articles into the street.
Seeing Mr. Abel P. Grosvenor, a large man somewhat resem- bling Pomeroy, passing along the street, the mob raised the cry, " Kill the damned tory," chased him down Main street until he
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QUELLING THE MOB.
fell, and were apparently about to put their threat in execution, when they learned it was not Pomeroy. Others proposed to tear down the " Federal printing office," as they called the Buf- falo Gazette, and everything betokened a general carnival of destruction.
Before, however, the riot spread any further, Colonel Moses Porter, of the United States artillery, a veteran of thirty-six years service, interposed. His men were probably encamped at Flint Hill, north of Scajaquada creek. When he learned what was going on, he ordered out a detachment of artillery with a six-pound gun, and hastened down Main street. Halting just above the hotel he brought his gun to bear on it, and then sent a lieutenant and a platoon of men with drawn swords to clear the house. The order was vigorously carried out, and it is to be presumed that some resistance was made, as swords and pistols were freely used, and several of the mob killed and wounded. They were soon driven out, many jumping from the chamber windows, and some being severely cut as they clung to the window-sills, by the swords of the artillerists. The rest hastened to their encampment to seek their comrades, swearing vengeance against Porter and his men.
The veteran stationed his cannon at the junction of Main and Niagara streets, to await their coming, and for awhile it looked as if there might be a pitched battle in the streets of Buffalo. No attack was made, however, and order was at length restored. It indicates the kind of discipline in force that the rioters were in no way punished, except by the severe handling they received from Porter.
Pomeroy went to the Seneca village and remained some days, and then closed his hotel for the winter. That the proprietors of the Gazette considered themselves in a very delicate and dangerous position is shown by the fact that that journal does not contain one word, directly, about this important transaction. The only time it is spoken of in the paper is in an advertise- ment published December 15th, signed by Pomeroy, in which he declares that he shall close his hotel "in consequence of transactions too well known to need mentioning."
An epidemic, the nature of which was unknown, prevailed that winter on the frontier, carrying off many, both soldiers and
224
ELECTIONS, ETC.
citizens. Dr. Chapin and a Dr. Wilson called a meeting of physicians to endeavor to counteract it. It did not much abate till the last of January, 1813. Mr. Grosvenor only escaped the raging mob to die a few weeks later, in the East, of disease contracted here. Major Phineas Stephens, tlie commander of the Willink "Silver Greys," was another victim; he died at Black Rock, and was taken to Willink and buried with military honors.
In the middle of December an election was held for members of Congress. The Republicans (Democrats) renominated Gen. Porter, but he declined, and Messrs. Bates and Loomis were voted for by them in this congressional district. The Federal- ists supported Messrs. Howell and Hopkins, who were elected. The latter received sixty-one votes in the town of Buffalo, thirty- six in Hamburg, forty-one in Clarence, and thirty-seven in "Edon." The Republican candidates received thirty-four in Buffalo, eighty-one in Hamburg, ninety-two in Clarence, and fourteen in Eden. It was a light vote, but it will be seen that Buffalo and Eden were decidedly Federal, while Hamburg and Clarence were as decidedly Republican.
Says the next Gazette: "We understand" that no election was held in Willink and Concord. Their understanding was correct, but it is remarkable not only that no election was held, but also that a newspaper at the county-seat should not have been fully informed as to whether there was one or not.
Tompkins, who was personally popular, was elected governor by the Democrats, but the disasters of the summer, under a Democratic administration, had so aided the Federals that nine- teen out of the twenty-seven congressmen chosen in this State, and the majority of the assembly, belonged to the latter party. The State senate, however, was largely Democratic. In the na- tion at large, Madison was reëlected President by a decided ma- jority over De Witt Clinton, who had been a Democrat, but was an independent opposition candidate. He received the Federal vote, but declared himself in favor of a more vigorous prosecu- tion of the war.
There can be little doubt but that if that energetic leader had become President instead of the plausible but inefficient Madi- son, the war would not have been the wretched, milk-and-water
225
QUIET ON THE NIAGARA.
affair that it was. One side or the other would have been soundly whipped.
On the 22d of December the immortal Smyth resigned his command to Col. Moses Porter, and retired to Virginia on leave of absence. Before his leave expired Congress legislated him out of office, and the country received no further benefit from his military genius.
For several months after the election, there was general quiet on this part of the frontier, relieved only by occasional "statements" on the part of some of the heroes of the latest and most re- markable invasion of Canada.
226
THE YOUNG COMMODORE.
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE CAMPAIGN OF 1813.
The Young Commodore. - Officers and Committeemen .- Hunters Caught .- Canada Invaded .- Transition Period of our Military System .- Surrender at Beaver Dams .- Chapin's Exploit .- Indians Enrolled. - Farmer's Brother and the Ma- randers .- A Raid and its Repulse .- Skirmishing at Fort George .- Perry's Vic- tory .- A Patriotic Digression .- More Skirmishing .- Burning of Newark. - McClure Runs Away .- Fort Niagara Captured .- Danger Impending.
Early in March, while all was still quiet among the land forces, a young man of twenty-six, with curling locks, bold, handsome features and gallant bearing, wearing the uniform of a captain in the United States navy, arrived at Buffalo from the East, and after a brief stay went forward to Erie. His brilliant yet man- ly appearance was well calculated to make a favorable impres- sion, yet to many thoughtful men he seemed too young, and possibly too gay, for the arduous and responsible position to which he had been appointed. But a few months were to demon- strate that for once the government had made an admirable se- lection, for the youthful stranger was Oliver Hazard Perry, then on his way to superintend the fitting out of a naval armament at Erie.
During the winter the government had purchased a number of merchant vessels, for the purpose of converting them into men-of-war, and the construction of several new ones had been begun. Erie, from its comparatively secure harbor, had been wisely selected as the naval headquarters. Five vessels, how- ever, were fitted out in Scajaquada creek, and for several months Perry flitted back and forth between the two places, urging on the work with all the energy of his nature.
Though hardly to be called a part of the "campaign," there are a few items that can be more easily introduced here than elsewhere. The supervisors for 1813 were Elijah Holt of Buf- falo, James Cronk of Clarence, Elias Osborn of Willink, Sam-
227
THE CAMPAIGN OPENED.
uel Abbott of Hamburg, and John C. Twining of Eden ; Concord unknown.
For a short time the ever-active Dr. Chapin officiated as sheriff, but in the spring he was superseded by Asa Ransom, who had twice before held the office. The change was perhaps caused by the doctor's acceptance of a commission from the governor as lieutenant-colonel by brevet. Under that com- mission he subsequently acted, but in very much the same independent fashion as before. Amos Callender was appointed surrogate. Jonas Williams was reëlected to the assembly by the Republicans.
Up to' April the war was apparently frozen up. Early in that month the Buffalonians were sharply reminded that they must be careful where they strayed. Lieutenant Dudley, of the navy, Dr. Trowbridge, Mr. Frederick B. Merrill and three seamen, while hunting on Strawberry Island, were discovered from the Canadian shore, a squad of men was sent across, and all were captured. The two civilians were released, but the lieutenant and his men were of course retained.
Ere long soldiers began to arrive on the frontier, besides those who had remained during the winter. On the 17th of April, Major-General Lewis and Brigadier-General Boyd arrived in Buffalo to assume command according to their respective ranks. General Dearborn took command on the whole northern frontier. The British force on the other side of the Niagara was very weak.
The campaign in the north was commenced by an expedition from Sacket's Harbor, under Gen. Dearborn and Commodore Chauncey, by which York (now Toronto) was captured by a dashing attack, the gallant General Pike being killed by the explosion of the enemy's magazine. This triumph prevented the sending of reinforcements to the British forts on the Niag- ara, and when our fleet appeared off Fort George, about the 25th of May, it was immediately evacuated.
The Americans under Gen. Lewis crossed and occupied it. Gen. Porter acted as volunteer aid-de-camp to Gen. Lewis, and the Buffalo Gazette takes pains to state that "Dr. C. Chapin, of this village, was in the vanguard." The British retreated toward the head of Lake Ontario.
228
A TRANSITION PERIOD.
The same day the commandant at Fort Erie, who held that post with a body of militia, received orders under which he kept up a heavy cannonade on Black Rock until the following morn- ing, when he bursted his guns, blew up his magazines, destroyed his stores and dismissed his men. All the other public stores, barracks and magazines, from Chippewa to Point Abino, were likewise destroyed, Lt .- Col. Preston, the commandant at Black Rock, immediately crossed and took possession.
So, at length, the Americans had obtained possession of the Canadian side of the Niagara, and it would seem that it need not have been difficult to retain it. But the blundering of the government, the weakness of commanders, and the general apathy of the people during a great part of that war were alike astonishing.
The greatest difficulty was that of obtaining a permanent force. In fact a great part of the disasters of the war of 1812 were attributable to a cause which I have never yet seen fully set forth. The whole military system of the country was in a transition state.
During the revolution, the sole military reliance of the nation was on the regular "Continental " army. But thirty years of free government had made Americans extremely unwilling to sub- ject themselves to the menial position and supposed despotic discipline of the regular service. On the other hand, the sys- tem of organizing volunteers which has since been found so effective was then in its infancy.
Frequent attempts were made in that direction, but they were generally managed by the State authorities, the discipline was of the most lax description, and the terms of service were exces- sively short. In Smyth's command, as we have seen, were a few " Federal volunteers," enlisted for twelve months, but they were composed of six independent companies, from different States, temporarily aggregated in a battallion.
There was not a single organization corresponding to the present definition of a volunteer regiment-a body of intelligent freemen, enlisted for a long term of service, officered by the State authorities, but otherwise controlled entirely by those of the nation, and subject to the same rules as the regulars, though modified in their application by the character of the force.
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FORT HUMPHREY.
As a general rule, if a volunteer of 1812 stayed on the line three months, he thought he had done something wonderful.
Moreover, there were at first almost no officers. Those who had fought in the Revolution were generally too old for active service, and West Point had not yet furnished a body of men whose thorough instruction supplies to a great extent the lack of ex- perience. A little knowledge of the history of the war of 1812 ought to satisfy the most frantic reformer of the overwhelming necessity of maintaining the National Military Academy in the most efficient condition.
Add to these causes of weakness a timid, vacillating Presi- dent, and a possible unwillingness of the then dominant South to strengthen the North by the acquisition of Canada, and there are sufficient reasons for the feebleness characterizing the prose- cution of the war of 1812.
Yet niany rude efforts were made to provide against possible disaster. It was in 1813, as I am informed, that the inhabitants on the upper part of Cazenove creek, most of them living in the present town of Holland, combined and built a stockade of con- siderable magnitude on the farm of Arthur Humphrey. Logs were cut nearly fifteen feet long, hewn on two sides so as to fit closely together, and set side by side two or three feet in the earth, leaving some twelve feet above ground. About an acre was thus inclosed, and the walls being loop-holed for rifles the inhabitants hoped to defy any Indian assailants, or even white men unprovided with artillery. The stockade was commonly called "Fort Humphrey," and long after peace had returned, long after the primitive fortress had disappeared from sight, the Humphrey place was known for miles around as "the Fort Farm."
About the same time, or perhaps the year before, Captain Bemis' barn in Hamburg was surrounded by a similar stockade, twelve feet high. There was also a block-house built in that vicinity. Joseph Palmer's barn in Boston was likewise stock- aded, and there may have been other such fortifications in the county of which I have not happened to hear.
Decidedly the most active partisan commander on the Niag- ara frontier was Col. Chapin, though there may be some doubts as to the usefulness of his efforts, so irregular and desultory
230
CHAPIN'S EXPLOIT.
were they. In June he organized a company of mounted rifle- men, for the purpose of clearing the country along the other side of the river of scattered bands of foes.
They proceeded to Fort George, and on the 23d of June a force started up the river from that point. It consisted of four or five hundred regular infantry, twenty regular dragoons, and Chapin's company of forty-four mounted riflemen, the whole under Lt .- Col. Boerstler. On the 24th, when nine miles west of Queenston, at a place called Beaver Dams, it was attacked by a force of British and Indians. After some skirmishing and marching, accompanied with slight loss, the assailants sent a flag to Col. Boerstler, and on the mere statement of the bearer that the British regular force was double the Americans, besides seven hundred Indians, that officer surrendered his whole command.
Chapin and his Erie county volunteers were sent to the head of Lake Ontario, (now Hamilton,) whence the colonel, two offi- cers and twenty-six privates were ordered to Kingston, by water, under guard of a lieutenant and fifteen men. They were all in two boats ; one containing the British lieutenant and thirteen men and the three American officers-the second filled with the other twenty-six prisoners, a British sergeant and one sol- dier. Before starting, the colonel managed to arrange with his men a signal for changing the programme. When about twenty miles out on Lake Ontario, Col. Chapin gave the signal and his men ran their boat alongside of the one he was in. The British lieutenant ordered them to drop back, and Chapin or- dered them on board. The former attempted to draw his sword, when the colonel, a large, powerful man, seized him by the neck and flung him on his back. Two of the soldiers drew their bay- onets, but he seized one in each hand, and at the same time his men swarmed into the boat and wrested their arns from the guard, who were unable, in their contracted quarters, to fire a shot or use a bayonet.
The victors then headed for Fort George, where, after rowing nearly all night, they arrived a little before daylight and turned over their late guard to the commandant as prisoners. It was a gallant little exploit, and effectually refutes the charge of cow- ardice which some have brought against Colonel Chapin.
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THE SIX NATIONS TURN OUT.
The British men-of-war still commanded the lake, though Perry's fleet was fast preparing to dispute their supremacy. About the 15th of June the five vessels which had been fitted up in Scajaquada creek stole out of Black Rock, and joined Perry at Erie. While one of these ships lay at anchor in the Niagara, just before leaving, a boat which was crossing the river ran afoul of her cable and was upset, and Mr. Gamaliel St. John, his eldest son, and three soldiers who were with them, werc drowned.
The Queen Charlotte and other British vessels this year, as last, hovered along the lake shore and occasionally sent a boat's crew ashore to depredate on the inhabitants of Hamburg and Evans. One day we read of their chasing a boat into the mouth of the Cattaraugus ; at another time a boat's crew landed and plundered Ingersoll's tavern at the mouth of Eighteen-Mile creek.
Up to the present period, no Indians had been taken into the service of the United States. In the spring General Lewis in- vited the warriors of the Six Nations to come to his camp, and three or four hundred of them did come, under the lead of the veteran Farmer's Brother. On their arrival they were requested to take no part for the time, but to send a deputation to the Mohawks to induce them to withdraw from the British service, in which case the Senecas and their associates were also to return.
Many appeared disappointed on finding they were not to fight, but were merely to be used to keep others from fighting, though this was the policy that Red Jacket favored throughout. But the Mohawks and other British Indians showed no disposi- tion to withdraw from the field, and as we have seen took a prominent part in the capture of Colonels Boerstler and Chapin.
In the carly part of July, too, a skirmish took place near Fort George, in which an American lieutenant and ten men were captured, who were never heard of more, and were sup- posed to have been slain by the savages.
Then, at length, Gen. Boyd accepted the services of the war- riors of the Six Nations. Those then enrolled numbered four hundred, and there were never over five hundred and fifty in the service.
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THE CHIEF AND THE MARAUDERS.
It is difficult to say who was their leader. One account says it was Farmer's Brother, and another designates Henry O'Bail (the Young Cornplanter) as holding that position. Still another will have it that Young King was their principal war-chief, while Captain Pollard undoubtedly acted as such the next year, at the battle of Chippewa.
The truth seems to have been that the designation of general- issimo, like most Indian arrangements, was decidedly indefinite. There was a considerable number of undoubted war-chiefs, but no one who was unquestionably entitled to the principal com- mand. Farmer's Brother was generally recognized, both by In- dians and whites, as the greatest of the war-chiefs, and was allowed a kind of primacy among them, but he was very old, and I cannot gather that he held any definite rank above the rest. Leaders for active service seem to have been chosen from time to time, either by actual election or by general consent.
When they first turned out, a large body of them under Farm- er's Brother camped in the woods just west of Buffalo, near the cabin of a Mr. Aigin, who lived half-way between Main street and the foot of Prospect Hill. His son, James Aigin, then a boy, who has furnished many reminiscences of those times to the Historical Society, says that one night several Indians came to his father's house and endeavored to force an entrance. There were two or three well-armed men, who held the intruders at bay. Presently they got on the roof and began to take it off. Aigin put his son out of the window, and bade him run and notify Farmer's Brother. The boy found the chieftain wrapped in sleep among his braves. He laid his hand on the old warrior, who bounded up like a youth of twenty. On being informed of the difficulty, he hastily proceeded to Aigin's cabin. No sooner did the marauders dimly see that gigantic form striding toward them amid the trees, than every men of them at once took to his heels. The chieftain assured the family of his protection, and for the remainder of the night he lay beside their cabin fire.
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