USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York : its origin, rise, and progress Vol. III > Part 29
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THE NIAGARA FRONTIER IN 1812.
fered post. He was a man of genius, charming in conversation, full of anecdote, and an acknowledged wit. He wrote, upon his arrival at Og- densburg: " If flying through air, water, mud, brush, over hills, dales, meadows, swamps, on wheels or horseback, and getting a man's ears gnawed off with mosquitoes and gallinippers, make a soldier, then I have seen service." He accompanied the two Van Rensselaers on a tour of inspection along the Niagara River from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario. He spoke of the one' little brig Oneida at Sackett's Harbor, " which could be burned at any hour if the British chose," and of the reception given Van Rensselaer by its brave commander, Melancthon Taylor Woolsey, of New York. This vessel had recently been attacked by five British vessels larger than herself, but by landing part of her guns and establishing a battery on shore, where two hundred soldiers were stationed, she succeeded in beat- ing them off. On one occasion the little inspecting party were compelled to seek shelter at mid- night in a deserted house. Lov- ett said : " We placed our gen- eral on the table about four and a half feet long, crooked up his legs, borrowed a thick blanket of a soldier, and covered him up quite comfortably. The colonel then laid down upon two boards Colonel Solomon Van Rensselaer. [From the Miniature by Stuart.] in his great-coat; I selected a large Dutch-oven, as the thought struck me it would be the safest retreat from the vermin. But how to get in it I knew not. I finally took a wide board, placed an end in the mouth of the monstrous oven, laid myself on the board, and bade the sergeant of the guard raise up the other end and push me into the oven - and in I went like a pig on a wooden shovel ; and there I staid and had one of the loveliest night's rest of my life."
Van Rensselaer decided to concentrate his forces at Lewiston Heights, opposite the British works at Queenstown, and had hardly established his new headquarters when intelligence of the armistice arrived. It thus became necessary to confer with the British general, Sheaffe, concerning the details of that agreement and the government of the armies on the Niagara River during its continuance. Colonel Solomon Van Rensselaer,
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in full military costume, crossed into Canada with a flag of truce. He was courteously received at British headquarters. To the proposition that no troops should move from that district to join General Brock, who had gone to reinforce the British army opposite Detroit, Sheaffe readily assented. But when the audacious American colonel insisted upon the use of Lake Ontario as a public highway, in common with the British themselves, for purposes of transportation, the demand was un- equivocally refused. Van Rensselaer said: "Then there can be no armistice, our negotiation is at an end. General Van Rensselaer will take the responsibility upon himself of preventing your detaching troops from this district." The officers all rose to their feet: "Sir, you take high ground !" said Sheaffe, with his hand upon the hilt of his sword. " I do, sir, and will maintain it," replied Van Rensselaer, striking the same hostile attitude; "but," addressing himself decidedly to Sheaffe, "you dare not detach the troops !" Not another word was uttered. After walking the room for a few moments the general said, " Be seated, and excuse me." He withdrew with his officers, but presently returned, and politely remarked, "Sir, from amicable considerations I grant you the use of the waters." Thus the interview closed.
This successful effort at diplomacy was of vital importance to the Americans. The roads were impassable, especially for heavy cannon, and the much needed supplies for the army collected at Oswego could be ob- tained only by water, thus were not likely to reach their destination so long as the highway of the lake was beset by a triumphant enemy. An express was quickly on the wing, and Colonel Fenwick at Oswego ordered forward with all possible haste; the cannon and military stores were shipped to Fort Niagara, and thence, without the knowledge of the enemy, deposited safely at the camping-ground. General Van Rensselaer was also enabled to use this advantage for another purpose of great conse- quence to the country. He sent an express to Ogdensburg for the imme- diate removal of nine schooners to Sackett's Harbor. These had been imprisoned at that place, and were desired for gunboats, into which they could be changed for active service as the most expeditious method of preparing a fleet of war to obtain command of the waters of Lake Ontario.
The brief exhilaration of the army over Van Rensselaer's triumph swiftly turned into the deepest gloom. News came of the capitulation of Hull at Detroit, a disaster which seemed likely to produce a general mutiny among the New York forces. Erelong, on the 26th of the same
Aug. 26. month, General Sir Isaac Brock, governor of Lower Canada, at the head of his troops, was seen on the opposite shore of the Niagara River, less than one fourth of a mile distant, parading Hull and his American soldiers
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pompously along the heights of Queenstown, in full view of the American camp at Lewiston. On the following morning the prisoners were embarked for Montreal and Quebec to be made a public spectacle. "Seated in an old ragged, open carriage, Hull was drawn through the streets of Montreal, and thus exhibited as a rare show to the natives assembled."
" Why did Hull surrender ?" was the question upon every lip. The war party of the country, mortified at this speedy termination of an attempt to make a conquest of Canada, and thus humiliate Great Britain, made the unhappy Hull the scapegoat of everybody's blunders, accusing him, as did his officers under him, of cowardice or treachery. But the difficulties of his position were very great, and it is extremely doubtful whether under any officer much Canadian ground could have been gained. Brock's vigilance had secured Fort Mackinaw before its commander had been apprised of the declaration of war; and taking advantage of the im- politic armistice in contemplation, the same British officer had withdrawn a large body of troops from Niagara and hastened to Detroit. The Indians of the whole region flocked to his standard ; and the cunning Tecumseh and his savage warriors guarded the road from Ohio to inter- cept reinforcements and supplies. A detachment sent by Hull to the aid of Captain Brush at the river Raisin with men, flour, and cattle from Ohio for the army, fell into an ambuscade and was totally routed. The mail-bag was captured, and Brock by the means came into possession of the knowledge needful to overwhelm Detroit. He crossed the river, and demanded the unconditional surrender of the post. Hull doubted his ability to sustain a siege with his meager force, and supplies fast diminishing. The British were already in the town, advancing toward the fort in solid column, twelve deep. A dark and fiendish war-cloud hung upon every side, and the British general had significantly remarked in his note, " The Indians who have attached themselves to my troops will be beyond my control the moment the contest begins."
Hull shuddered at the prospect of consigning the innocent inhabi- tants of the town and country, who thronged the fort for protection, to barbarities from which the stoutest heart would turn with sickening horror. His daughter and her children were there, and the wives and children of some of the leading citizens of Detroit ; also clergymen and non-combatants. Believing resistance would be in vain, it seemed crimi- nal rather than brave to sacrifice so much human life. He was pacing the parade backward and forward in acute mental agony, when a cannon- ball bounded into the fort, killing instantly Captain Hancks of Fort Mackinaw, Lieutenant Sibley, and Dr. Reynolds, who had accompanied
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Hull's sick from Maumee to Detroit - besides wounding several others. Women were bespattered with blood and quickly carried to the bomb-proof vault for safety. A moment later the white flag was raised.
The capitulation included the detachments of Cass and McArthur, the command and convoy under Brush at the Raisin, and indeed the whole territory of Michigan. Cass and McArthur, with three hundred men, had been sent to endeavor by a circuitous route to open communication with Brush ; but getting entangled in a swamp, with nothing to eat for two days but a few potatoes and green pumpkins, they returned to Detroit just as affairs had reached the crisis. Their wrath may be better imagined than described. They were brave and capable officers, and unwilling to consider themselves beaten. The whole army was in a fury of disappoint- ment, and the surrender was particularly hard on the fresh troops who had not yet come in sight of the smoke of the enemy's guns.
Immediately upon Hull's exchange he was tried by a court-martial for treason, cowardice, and neglect of duty ; acquitted of the first, he was sentenced to be shot for the last two. He was pardoned, however, by the President, but dismissed the service.
While Hull stood doubting whether he should err on the side of humanity or valor, hemmed in by a foe of unknown strength upon all sides, the site of what is now Michigan Avenue in the wonderful city of Chicago, was the scene of a shocking massacre. Fort Dearborn, built by the United States Government in 1804 near the junction of the Chicago River and Lake Michigan, was garrisoned by fifty-four men under Cap- tain Nathan Heald. It was a solitary post in the vast wilderness, far from the frontiers, and Hull ordered its evacuation as soon as he heard of the fate of Fort Mackinaw ; the message was conveyed from Fort Wayne by a Pottawatomie chief who was on amicable terms with John Kinzie, the first white settler of Chicago.1 The garrison were directed to march
1 The Indians said " the first white man who settled here was a negro" - referring to Jean Baptist Point au Sable, a mulatto from St. Domingo, who built a little house on the north side of the Chicago River, opposite the fort, in 1796 ; the same dwelling which Mr. Kinzie subsequently enlarged and occupied for many years with his young family, enjoying the friendship, trade, and confidence of the Indians. He planted some fine Lombardy poplars in front, and cultivated a garden and orchard in the rear. John Kinzie was born in Quebec in 1763. He was the only offspring of his mother's second marriage. His father died while he was an infant, and his mother married a third time, and with her husband, Mr. Forsythe, removed to New York City. At ten years of age young Kinzie was placed in a school at Williamsburg ; but he ran away after a short period, and reached Quebec. He became a trader, and established numerous trading-houses. In 1800 he married the widow of Colonel McKillup, a British officer killed at Fort Miami, on the Maumee River, at the time of Wayne's appearance there in 1794. Her daughter was the young wife of Lieutenant Helm. Three children were with her in the boat on the day of the massacre, John H. Kinzie, Robert A. Kinzie, and a daughter who became the wife of General David Hunter. - Lossing.
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through the woods to Fort Wayne, and thence to Detroit. The friendly Indian messenger warned Captain Heald against the perilous undertaking. The savages all through the Western country were restless, sullen, and blood-thirsty. Mr. Kinzie remonstrated. The younger officers in the fort, Lieutenant Helm, son-in-law of Mrs. Kinzie, and Ensign Ronan, urged their commander to remain, strengthen the fort, and defy the Indians until relief could reach them. But Heald said he must obey orders. Thus arrangements were made for departure.
At nine o'clock on the same bright morning that Detroit was sur- rendered, the gate of the Chicago fort was thrown open, and a Aug. 15. little mournful procession emerged, and slowly moved in an
easterly direction along the shore of Lake Michigan. The heroic Mrs. Heald rode a handsome horse by the side of her husband; Mrs. Helm and the other ladies were also mounted. Captain Wells, Mrs. Heald's uncle, who had married an Indian princess and been made a chief among the Miamis, galloped across the country with a few of his tribe to assist in defending the fort ; but, finding himself too late, he could only place himself at the head of the doomed party to do all in his power to prevent slaughter. Mr. Kinzie was also present, hoping by his personal influence to soften, if he could not avert, the impending blow. His family were in a boat in charge of a friendly Indian. As the travelers neared the sand-hills between the prairie and the beach, their escort of treacherous Pottawatomies, under Blackbird, filed to the right and disappeared behind the little hillocks. In the next breath they commenced an assault. It was a hand-to-hand encounter, short and desperate, a life-and-death strug- gle - a battle in the open field - fifty-four soldiers, twelve civilians, and four or five women, fighting full five hundred Indian warriors. Captain Wells said to his niece, Mrs. Heald, as he saw the nature of the conflict, " We have not the slightest chance for life," and dashed forward to fight with the rest, while his cowardly Miamis fled over the prairies and away as if the evil spirit was at their heels. A fiendish young savage sprang into a wagon in which were twelve children, and tomahawked them all ! Captain Wells saw the bloody deed, and was off towards the Indian en- campment with the speed of a whirlwind, exclaiming, " If that is their game, butchering women and children, I'll kill too." Swift-footed war- riors pursued and shot him.1 Knowing the temper and practices of the savages well, he taunted them after he fell with the most insulting epi- thets in order to provoke them to kill him instantly, and thus to escape
1 Mary, the daughter of Captain William Wells whose life was as romantic and heroic as its termination was tragic, married in 1821, Judge James Wolcott, a resident of Maumee City from 1826 until his death in 1873.
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being reserved for the torture, in which he succeeded. A tomahawk was plunged into his head, his heart was cut out, and a portion of it eaten with exuberant delight. Mrs. Heald received seven bullet-wounds ; but, although faint and bleeding, she managed to keep her saddle. The Indi- ans wished to save her horse, and only aimed at the rider. Dr. Van Voorhees, a brilliant young New York surgeon from Fishkill, was among the slain ; also the brave Ensign Ronan, who wielded his sword to the last. Mrs. Helm had a deadly strife with a stalwart savage who struck at her with a tomahawk. She sprang aside, receiving the blow in her shoulder ; at the same instant she seized him about the neck and tried to grasp his scalping-knife, which hung in a sheath by his side. While thus struggling she was dragged from her antagonist by another savage, who bore her, despite her desperate resistance, to the margin of the lake and threw her in, but held her so that she could not drown. She presently perceived that she was supported by a friendly hand. It was a chief who had saved her. When the firing ceased he conducted her to the prairie, where she met her step-father, Mr. Kinzie, and heard that her husband was safe. The wife of one of the soldiers fought desperately, and suppos- ing that all prisoners were reserved for torture, suffered herself to be literally cut in pieces. Mrs. Holt, whose husband was severely wounded in the beginning, received from him his sword, and used it so skillfully while a half-dozen warriors were all trying at once to dismount her and secure her high-spirited horse, that other Indians shouted, "Don't hurt her !" She suddenly wheeled her horse and rode furiously over the prairie, but was checked by the savages; and while three of them engaged her in front, a powerful fellow seized her by the neck and dragged her backward to the ground. She was carried into captivity, but afterwards ransomed. The wounded captives were nearly all scalped after Captain Heald went through the ceremony of a surrender. Mrs. Heald herself escaped scalping in this last horrible moment only through the interces- sion of Mrs. Kinzie, who sent a trusty Indian servant to offer a mule as a ransom, and the Indian increased the bribe with two bottles of whiskey. As this was more than her beautiful scalp would bring at Malden, she was released, and concealed in Mrs. Kinzie's boat from the avaricious eyes of other scalp-hunters. All the civilians were killed except Mr. Kinzie and his sons, all the officers except Captain Heald and Lieutenant Helm, two thirds or more of the soldiers, and twelve children. The prisoners were divided among their captors.1
1 Dr. John Cooper of New York, a native of Fishkill, was the immediate predecessor of Dr. Van Voorhees at Fort Dearborn. They were classmates, and when Dr. Cooper resigned, in 1811, Dr. Van Voorhees was appointed in his stead.
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On the day after the massacre the fort was burned, and the site of Chicago left in desolation for the next four years. Blackbird and his savage horde pressed immediately towards Fort Wayne and Fort Harrison on the Wabash, encouraged by private emissaries from 1812. Tecumseh, who was strong in the hope of establishing a confederacy for the complete expulsion of the white inhabitants north and west of the Ohio River, the principal tribes of the region having already united.
It was a black day for New York when intelligence of these several dis- asters reached the city-Fort Mackinaw and Detroit surrendered, Chicago annihilated, and the remaining strongholds in Ohio beleaguered ! The folly of the War Department in commencing hostile operations before ob- taining control of the lakes was apparent. Regrets were of no use in the emergency. The mischief was to be remedied. New York must strain every nerve, or devastating war would cross her borders. The whole coun- try was profoundly agitated. Sparsely settled Ohio heaved like a storm- smitten ocean in its wrath, and men of every class and condition in life flocked to the recruiting stations and offered their services. Before the 1st of October, Kentucky had more than seven thou- sand of her sons in the field. Gen. William Henry Harrison, governor of Indi- ana, was assigned to the chief command.
The great inland seas were of the first conse- quence. A navy must be created upon them. But how ? Could ships be built in a newly settled country, where nothing could be sup- plied but timber ? Every- thing else would have to be transported from Alba- ny at vast expense, and much of the way through the original wilderness. Captain Isaac Chauncey. And how could war-vessels be launched upon waters controlled by the enemy ? Colonel Solomon Van Rensselaer's masterly diplomacy enabled the government to begin the herculean enterprise. Captain Isaac Chauncey, at the head of the New York navy-yard, and one of the best
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practical seamen of his time, was commissioned (August 31) to the chief command over the waters of the lakes, with directions to superintend the forming of a navy. He was admirably fitted for the post, energetic, fear- less, industrious, and his experience as commander of the merchant-vessels of John Jacob Astor on several successful voyages to the East Indies, as well as his conspicuous gallantry in naval engagements off Tripoli, and elsewhere, inspired public confidence. Within a week he sent Henry Eckford, the famous New York ship-builder, with forty ship-carpenters to Lake Ontario. Others soon followed. Commander Woolsey was or- dered to purchase for immediate use the merchant-schooners which had come from Ogdensburg, as before mentioned, and these were transformed into war-vessels with marvelous expedition and skill. On the 18th of Sep- tember, one hundred officers and seamen, with guns and other munitions of war left New York for Sackett's Harbor. Chauncey arrived there in person on the 6th of October.1
To create a fleet upon Lake Erie, separated from Lake Ontario by the impassable cataract of Niagara, vessels must be constructed on its Oct. 6. shores ; and Chauncey sent Jesse Duncan Elliott, a young naval lieutenant of thirty, to choose a point for a dock-yard (with the advice of General Van Rensselaer) and to purchase any number of merchant-vessels or boats that might be converted into ships of war or gunboats, and build others. The work was going forward briskly at Black Rock, two miles below Buffalo, when, on the 8th of October, two British vessels, the Detroit and the Caledonia, appeared in front of Fort Erie, and Elliott resolved upon their capture. That very day a detachment of seamen for service under him had arrived from New York City. They were unarmed, but Lieuten- Oct. 9.
ant-colonel Winfield Scott, who was stationed with the artillery at Black Rock, borrowed pistols, swords, and sabres for their use, and an expedition consisting of one hundred men divided equally in two boats, embarked in strict silence at midnight and passed into the gloom, returning three hours later, having in the interim surprised and captured both vessels. "In less than ten minutes," wrote Elliott, "I had the prisoners all seized, the topsails sheeted home, and the vessels under weigh." The Detroit was a prize captured by the British at Detroit when Hull surrendered. She was retaken by the boat conducted by Elliott in person, assisted by Isaac Roach, lieutenant of artillery ; but grounding, was burned to prevent recapture. The Caledonia, of two guns, with a cargo of furs valued at two hundred thousand dollars, was captured by
1 Lossing's Field Book of the War, p. 371 ; Hildreth's United States, Vol. VI. p. 356 ; Randall's State of New York, p. 173 ; Cooper's Naval History of the United States ; Baines' French Revolution ; Thompson's History of the Second War ; Eastman's New York.
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the second boat under Sailing-master Watts, assisted by Captain Nathan Towson, and was brought off in triumph. This vessel became the nucleus of the American naval force on Lake Erie. Several of the residents of Buffalo were engaged in the brilliant exploit. The display of lights to illuminate the return of the victors, together with the shouts of the citi- zens, called every British officer and soldier to his post.
Meanwhile the soldiers stationed along the St. Lawrence River were reinforced largely from the New York militia ; and they were not idle, although no very important service was performed in that quarter during the remainder of 1812. Bloomfield guarded the approaches into New York through Lake Champlain, with a command of regulars. Smyth, also of the regular army, and at that time inspector-general, was in the vicinity of Buffalo. Van Rensselaer had been charged with the invasion of Canada ; but he had not hitherto been provided with sufficient support to justify courting a battle. He endeavored in vain to counsel with Smyth, who, being an aspirant for the chief command, did not relish obedience to a militia general. Van Rensselaer thought Smyth's conduct engendered a spirit of insubordination fatal to the harmony and concert of military movements. But his arny clamored to be led against the enemy, and he was, moreover, satisfied that the proper time for invading Canada had arrived. On the 10th of October he made arrangements to assail Queenstown at three o'clock the next morning. The com- Oct. 10. mand of the expedition was assigned to Colonel Solomon Van Rensselaer, which gave umbrage to some of the officers of the regular army. During the evening thirteen large boats were brought down from Gill's Creek, two miles above Niagara Falls, and placed in the river at Lewiston land- ing, under cover of intense darkness. In the midst of a furious storm of wind and rain, six hundred troops stood at the place of embarkation with Solomon Van Rensselaer at their head. Lieutenant Sims, who had been selected to command the flotilla, entered the foremost boat and dis- appeared. He had taken nearly all the oars with him, thus the other boats could not follow ! They waited for him to discover his mistake and return, but in vain. He moored his boat upon the other side, and fled.
The storm had no sooner ceased than preparations were made for the second attempt at invasion. The boats remained two days in full view of the British, who supposed their appearance a feint, and Oct. 12. that they were intended to carry an armament down the river against Fort George. .
To render success more certain, Smyth agreed to furnish an additional number of boats, and to cross the river himself with seven hundred regu-
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