USA > New York > The Empire State: a compendious history of the commonwealth of New York > Part 42
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415
EXPEDITION AGAINST MONTREAL.
Early in August Macdonough had three armed schooners and six gun- boats ready for service, fitted and manned. At about the same time Plattsburg, on the west side of the lake, left uncovered by any military force, had been seized, plundered, and scorched by a British land and naval force, fourteen hundred strong, under Colonel Murray, while General Hampton, the commander of that region, lying at Burlington, twenty miles distant, with four thousand troops, had made no attempt to oppose the invaders.
In the mean time Chauncey had been busy on Lake Ontario. He sought a conflict with Sir James Yeo, but the latter evaded him for weeks, for he had been instructed to " risk nothing." The saved ship at the harbor had been completed and named the General Pike. Chauncey made her his flag-ship. He had twelve other vessels, mostly merchantmen altered into war-craft. Sir James had six vessels built at Kingston expressly for war.
One night in July the belligerents were about to engage in an encounter when a sudden tornado capsized two of Chauncey's vessels, and all on board perished excepting sixteen men. Finally, at the middle of September, Chauncey compelled the baronet to fight. The Pike fought the heavier vessels of the foe. The conflict was quick, sharp, and decisive. The Wolfe, Yeo's flag-ship, too much bruised to fight any longer, hurried away before the wind, covered by the Royal George. Chauncey pursued to Burlington Bay, but the equinoctial gale made it prudent for him to return to Niagara. He did little more during the season than to watch the enemy and assist the expedition on the St. Lawrence.
Armstrong directed Wilkinson to command the expedition against Montreal, and ordered Hampton, who was in command of the right wing of the army, to co-operate with the forces on the St. Lawrence. Hampton moved forward from Plattsburgh at about the middle of Sep- tember with four thousand effective infantry, a squadron of cavalry, and a train of artillery, and on the 24th encamped on the Chateaugay River near the site of the present village of Chateaugay, where he awaited orders.
At the middle of October the troops destined for Montreal sailed from Sackett's Harbor in a flotilla of open boats, and at the same time Hampton was ordered to push on to the St. Lawrence, at the mouth of the Chateaugay. The flotilla was dreadfully smitten by a gale on the lake, and was dispersed. Much property was lost. The scattered troops rendezvoused at Grenadier Island, excepting a detachment under Gen- eral Brown, which pushed on to French Creek, now Clayton, on the St.
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Lawrence, where, on November 1st, they had a sharp but successful encounter with British infantry on gun-boats and schooners.
The whole expedition was concentrated at French Creek in the first week in November. On the 5th the whole armament moved down the river in three hundred open boats. A Canadian winter was just at hand. Snow had already fallen, and the cold was becoming severe. Their flags were furled and their music was silent, for they wished to elude the vigilance of the British ; but they were discovered and pursued by troops in a heavy-armed galley and some gun-boats through the sinuous channels of the Thousand Islands. They had a battle by moonlight in Alexandria Bay.
Land troops from Kingston arrived at Prescott before Wilkinson could reach Ogdensburg, on the opposite shore. He disembarked above that village, marched around it to avoid the artillery on the Canada shore, and at a point a few miles below re-entered the boats, which had been safely taken past the batteries by General Brown. On November 10th the flotilla lay anchored a short distance above the head of the Long Rapids.
Meanwhile British troops under Lieutenant-Colonel Morrison, in boats and on shore, had pursued the flotilla, and some of them were posted at the foot of the rapids to intercept the Americans when they should come down. Many of the latter, under Generals Brown and Boyd,* were on the Canada shore. Brown pushed forward with a detachment to dis- lodge the British at the foot of the rapids, and on the 11th Boyd met the enemy face to face, who were in battle array on the farm of John Chrysler, a few miles below Williamsburg, in Canada. A severe battle was fought in sleet and snow. Boyd was ably supported by Generals Swartwout and Covington, and Colonels Coles, Ripley, and Swift. The Americans were driven from the field with considerable loss. General Covington was mortally wounded. Under cover of night the little American force withdrew to the flotilla, which descended the Long Rapids with safety the next morning.
General Wilkinson was then very ill. Word came that General
* John Parker Boyd was born at Newburyport, Mass., in December, 1768, and died in Boston in October, 1830. He entered the military service and soon afterward went to the East Indies, where he entered the Mahratta service and soon rose to the rank of com- mander, leading, at one time, 10,000 men. He served for some time, when, his presence being no longer needed, he sold out and went to Paris. He returned home in 1808 and re-entered the United States Army as colonel. He was distinguished in the battle of Tip- pecanoe. In 1812 he was commissioned a brigadier-general, and commanded an important part of Wilkinson's expedition down the St. Lawrence in 1813. General Boyd was made naval officer at Boston in 1830, but died soon afterward.
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NIAGARA FRONTIER DESOLATED.
Hampton could not form the ordered junction with the expedition, but would return to Lake Champlain. He would not serve under Wilkinson. The expedition did not proceed farther, but went into winter quarters at French Mills, on the Salmon River. So ended in disaster another attempt to invade and conquer Canada.
Distressing events closed the campaign of the Northern Army on the Niagara frontier. Early in December General McClure, regarding Fort George as untenable with his little garrison of forty men, abandoned it and crossed over to Fort Niagara. Before leaving Canada he set fire to the beautiful village of Newark. One hundred and fifty houses were destroyed (December 10th), and scores of men, women, and children were turned into the keen wintry air, homeless wanderers. This savage act created the most fiery indignation, and fierce retaliation followed. The British captured Fort Niagara and massacred a part of the garrison. The Indians were given full liberty to plunder and destroy. Every village and hamlet on the New York side of the river was sacked and burnt. Black Rock and Buffalo, though defended by some troops, did not escape. The latter village contained abont eighteen hundred inhab- itants. All but four of its buildings were laid in ashes. An immense amount of public and private property was destroyed. With these events the campaign of 1813 in the north was closed. We have already considered the war with the Indians in the region of the Gulf of Mexico.
The naval operations on the ocean during 1813 were very important. As these were not specially connected with the history of the State of New York, it is our province only to notice them very briefly.
The United States sloop-of-war Hornet, Captain Lawrence, fought the British brig Peacock (February 24th, 1813) off the mouth of the Demarara River, South America. The Peacock surrendered after a sharp contest of fifteen minutes, and immediately sunk, carrying down with her nine British seamen and three Americans. The generous con- duct of Lawrence on that occasion drew from the survivors of the Pea- cock a letter of thanks after their arrival, as prisoners, at New York.
Lawrence was promoted to the command of the American frigate Chesapeake. On June 1st he sailed from Boston to respond to a chial- lenge by the commander of the frigate Shannon, Captain Broke. He found the boaster on the same day thirty miles from Boston Light. At five o'clock in the afternoon a furious struggle began. The vessels became entangled. The Britons boarded the Chesapeake, and after a desperate hand-to-hand combat the Americans were overpowered and the British flag was hoisted over the dreadfully injured vessel. Early in the conflict a musket-ball mortally wounded the gallant young Law-
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rence. As he was being taken to the cockpit he said : " Tell the men to fire faster and not to give up the ship. Fight her till she sinks !" These dying words of Lawrence-" Don't give up the ship !"'-became a battle cry of the Americans. The loss of men on the Chesapeake was fearful. She was taken to Halifax. Lawrence died on the way. Public honors were awarded him. His monument stands in Trinity church-yard, New York City.
In the spring of 1813 the American brig Argus, Captain Allen, carried Mr. Crawford to France as the accredited American Minister at the French court. For two months after her arrival in Europe she greatly annoyed the British shipping in the English Channel. Several vessels were sent out to capture her. At the middle of August she surrendered to the Pelican, sloop-of-war. Perry gained his great victory on Lake Erie less than a month afterward, and on September 5th the British brig Boxer, Captain Blythe, surrendered to the American brig Enterprise, Lieutenant Burrows, after a contest of forty minutes, off the coast of Maine. Both commanders were slain, and their bodies were buried in one grave at Portland. During the year 1813 the American frigate Essex, Captain Porter, made a long and successful cruise in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. She carried at her masthead the popular motto : " Free Trade and Sailors' Rights." In the spring of 1814 she was captured in the harbor of Valparaiso by the British frigate Phoebe and the sloop-of-war Cherub, after a most desperate struggle. Porter wrote to the Secretary of War : " We have been unfortunate, but not disgraced."
While Porter was performing great exploits on the calm Pacific Sea, Commodore Rodgers was out on a long cruise on the stormy Atlantic in the American frigate President. He sailed from Boston at the close of April, 1813, and returned to Newport, R. I., after a cruise of one hundred and forty-eight days. He had captured eleven British merchant vessels and the armed British schooner Highflyer.
During the spring and summer of 1813 a most distressing amphibious warfare was carried on along the coast of the United States from Dela- ware Bay to the harbor of Charleston by a British squadron commanded by Admiral Cockburn, which bore some land troops. This force destroyed American shipping in Delaware River, cannonaded the town of Lewiston on the shores of Delaware Bay, and plundered and burnt the villages of Frenchtown, Havre de Grace, Georgetown, and Fred- erickton, on the shores of Chesapeake Bay. It sailed into Hampton Roads and menaced Norfolk. Driven off by troops on Craney Island, in the Elizabeth River, under Major Faulkner (June 22d), the squadron made a marauding voyage down the coast of North Carolina, and carried
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NAVAL FORCE OF THE AMERICANS, 1813.
away a great many negroes, whom Cockburn sold as booty in the West Indies. In pleasant contrast with the conduct of Cockburn was the deportment of Commodore Hardy, who commanded a blockading squadron on the New England coasts during the same season. He was a high-minded gentleman and a generous enemy.
During most of the year 1813 the Americans had only three frigates afloat on the sea-namely, the President, the Congress, and the Essex. The Constitution was undergoing repairs, the Constellation was blockaded during the summer at Norfolk, and the Macedonia and United States were blockaded in the harbor of New London. The Adams was under- going repairs, the John Adams was unfit for service, and the New York and Boston were virtually condemned. All the brigs had been captured excepting the Enterprise ; and yet the Americans, with indomitable courage, determined to continue the war on the ocean, with vigor.
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CHAPTER XXX.
EARLY in the year 1814 the British Government seemed disposed to prosecute the war against the United States with increased vigor. The allied forces of Europe had checked the victorious career of Napoleon. They had united to crush him and to sustain the sinking Bourbon dynasty in France. Their armies, approaching from different directions, reached the suburbs of Paris at the close of March, when the emperors of Russia and Prussia entered the city. Nearly half a million disciplined troops were back of them. Napoleon, hoping to secure his crown ' for his son, abdicated in his favor (April 4th, 1814), and retired to the island of Elba. Peace for Europe appeared to be secured. British troops were withdrawn from the Continent, and early in the summer of 1814 fourteen or fifteen thousand of Wellington's veterans were sent to Canada to defend that province or to invade the State of New York.
At the beginning of 1814 British war vessels swarmed in American waters, and kept the seaport towns in such a state of continual alarm that all projects for the conquest of Canada were kept in abeyance for a while. They were not abandoned, however.
At this time the people of the United States were more united in sup- port of the war than ever before. The best men of the Federal Party patriotically aided the Government in its struggle. There were but few opponents of the Government outside of the unpatriotic Peace Faction and the sphere of its influence. The bulk of that faction was in New England. They did everything in their power to embarrass the Govern- ment, especially in its financial operations. They upheld violators of the revenne laws ; encouraged smuggling ; secretly furnished the British blockading squadron off the New England coasts with supplies, and rejoiced when disasters befell the arms of the United States. At length their mischievous disloyalty and treason became so conspicuous and obnoxious that the great bulk of the inhabitants of New England vehe- mently condemned their course, and they gradually disappeared from public view. To the credit of the State of New York, very few members of the Peace Faction resided within its borders.
In February (1814) General Wilkinson with a part of his force removed from the vicinity of the St. Lawrence to Plattsburgh, on Lake Champlain, and General Brown, with two thousand men, marched to
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THE MASTERY OF LAKE ONTARIO.
Sackett's Harbor, preparatory to his departure for the Niagara frontier. Late in March Wilkinson erected a battery at Ronse's Point, at the foot of Lake Champlain, on the Canada border. He had resolved to march on Montreal, with or without orders from Washington. Informed that a considerable British force was about to be gathered at La Colle Mills, three or four miles within the Canada line, he pressed forward with about four thousand men to preoccupy the place. The British arrived there first, and were garrisoned in a very strong stone mill. They were regnlars under Major Hancock. Although Wilkinson was informed that re-enforcements for Hancock were approaching and were near, he persisted in making an effort to dislodge the troops in the mill and in a strong position near it. After a sharp engagement for two hours the Americans were repulsed, with a loss of sixty-three men. With this event the military career of Wilkinson was ended. He was tried by a court-martial, but was acquitted. Suspended from command at the time, he left the army and his troops were assigned to General Izard.
Both parties had been preparing during the winter and spring to make a struggle for the mastery of Lake Ontario. As soon as the ice in Kingston Harbor gave way, Sir James Yeo, in command of a British squadron there, went ont upon the lake with about three thousand fight- ing men. On May 5th he appeared off Oswego with the design to attempt the seizure of a large quantity of provisions and naval stores which the Americans had gathered at the falls of the Oswego River, at the (present) village of Fulton. The post was defended by a fort on the bluff at the east side of the harbor and garrisoned by three hundred men commanded by Colonel Mitchell, and a small flotilla under Captain Woolsey. Commodore Chauncey was not quite ready to leave Sackett's Harbor. The British effected a landing at Oswego, and after a sharp skirmish with the little garrison, in the open field, the latter retired, and the invaders took possession of the fort. But they dared not attempt to penetrate the country in quest of the coveted prize, but hastily withdrew early on the morning of the 7th, carrying away as prisoners several prominent citizens. The British lost in the contest two hundred and thirty-five men.
The principal military force of the British in Upper Canada was now placed under the command of Lieutenant-General Drummond, and were stationed chiefly on the peninsula west of the Niagara River. Toward that frontier General Brown marched from Sackett's Harbor at the close of June, and on July 1st he was on the eastern bank of the Niagara near the desolated town of Buffalo.
Brown had orders from Washington to invade Canada. He regarded
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his force sufficient for that achievement. It consisted of two brigades of infantry, commanded respectively by Generals Scott # and Ripley ; some artillery under Captains Towson and Hindman, and a small squadron of cavalry led by Captain S. D. Harris. These were all regn- lars. He also had a brigade of New York and Pennsylvania vol- nnteers, and nearly six hundred In- dians. The latter comprised almost all of the military force of the Six Nations remaining within the State of New York, of whom Red Jacket + was the chief. This com- bined force was commanded by General Peter B. Porter.
The Americans made the first aggressive movement on July 3d, when Generals Scott and Ripley crossed the Niagara River to attack WINFIELD SCOTT, 1820. Fort Erie, nearly opposite Buffalo, which was then the chief impedi- ment in the way of an invasion of Canada. Scott led several regiments and a corps of artillery to the Canada shore, in boats, before the dawn on the 3d. He was followed by General Brown and his staff. It was a late hour before the more tardy Ripley joined them with several regiments,
* Winfield Scott was born in Petersburg, Va., in June, 1786, and died at West Point, N. Y., in May, 1866. He was admitted to the bar in 1806, but entered the army as cap- tain of artillery two years later. He became lieutenant-colonel in 1812, and adjutant- general, with the rank of colonel, early in 1813. He was made prisoner at the battle of Queenstown. In the spring of 1814 he was commissioned a brigadier-general, and fought battles on the Niagara frontier for which he received the thanks of Congress and a gold medal. After the war he was sent to Europe in a military and diplomatic capacity. IIe remained in the army. His services in the South-in Charleston during the nullification movements, in the war with the Seminoles and Creeks, and in the partial removal of the Cherokees from Georgia in 1838-were very salutary. He was a discreet pacifier of trouble on the northern frontier in 1839, and on the borders of New Brunswick. He performed admirable service in the war with Mexico. When the Civil War broke ont, in 1861, he was general-in-chief of the armies of the United States, but being infirm he soon resigned his trust. In 1852 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the Presidency of the United States.
+ Red Jacket (Sa-go-ye-wrat-ha) was a celebrated Seneca orator. Ile was born near Buffalo, N. Y., in 1751. His nation was on the side of the British during the old war for independence. He was conspicuous for his oratory at a council held at Fort Stanwix (Schuyler) in 1784, in a speech against ceding lands to the white people. In an interview with President Washington he received from the latter a silver medal, which he ever
423
CAPTURE OF FORT ERIE.
when the combined troops invested the fort. Brown demanded its surrender. There was a parley, but little fighting, and in the afternoon the fort was given up. At six o'clock the little garrison, commanded by Major Buek, marched out and laid down their arms. They were sent across the river and marched to the Hudson, prisoners of war. During the forenoon cannons had been fired from the fort, which killed four Americans and wounded two or three. The Americans had driven in the British piekets and killed one man. This was all the blood shed in the capture of Fort Erie.
Measures were promptly take to seeure the advantages of th victory to the Americans. Gen- eral Riall, an able soldier and chief commander of the British under Drummond on that frontier, was marching toward Fort Erie when he heard of the investment of that post. He at once sent forward some veterans to re-enforce the CEO WASHINGTON TRED JACKET, garrison. At Chippewa they heard of the capture of the fort, when Riall resolved to press forward and RED JACKET. attack the invaders at once. In- formed that re-enforcements were coming to him from York, he post- poned the attack until the next morning. General Brown sent General Scott with his brigade, accompanied by Towson's artillery, to meet this force. Scott moved early on the morning of the 4th (July, 1814). General Ripley was ordered in the same direction, but always tardy and slow to obey, it was late in the afternoon before he was prepared to move. Seott pushed on toward Chippewa, and drove in a British ad-
afterward wore with pride. It is in possession of Colonel Parker, now (1887) chief of the remnant of the nation. In 1810 he informed the United States Government of the attempt of Tecumtha to draw the Senecas into the North-western Confederacy. He fought for the United States in the War of 1812-15. Red Jacket was a persistent opposer of Christian missionaries. His influence over the remnant of his nation was supreme. He remained a thorough Indian, and held in contempt the language, dress, and customs of the English-speaking people. Late in life he became an intemperate man. In 1884 a beautiful monument to his memory was erected in a cemetery at Buffalo (where he died in January, 1830), under the auspices of the Buffalo Historical Society. Colonel Wil- liam L. Stone wrote and published a life of Red Jacket.
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vanced detachment about a mile from that post. There he was joined at evening by Brown's entire force, and on the morning of the 5th the hostile armies were only two miles apart.
Scott was joined by General Porter, with his volunteers and Indians, at noon on the 5th. Riall had been re-enforced. There was skirmishing during the afternoon. Toward evening Riall advanced with his whole force. A desperate battle ensned between Street's Creek and Chippewa. It was very sanguinary. At length the British line gave way under the pressure of a flank movement by Major McNeil and a terrific fire from a corps under Major Jesup. The foe broke and fled to the intrench- ments at Chippewa, tearing up the bridge over Chippewa Creek behind them, and so leaving an impassable barrier between themselves and the victorious Americans. The battle-field was strewn with the dead and wounded-six hundred and four of the British, and three hundred and fifty-five of the Americans. A shower of rain descended like an angel of mercy that night, and gave comfort to the maimed and dying of both armies, who were tenderly cared for. Much of the next and following day were spent by the Americans caring for the wounded and in burying the dead.
Drummond was mortified by this discomfiture of his veteran troops by what he deemed to be raw Americans, and he resolved to wipe out the stain. He gathered troops from every available point, in number about one third larger than that under Brown, and soon advanced to meet the invader.
Brown was anxions to push on toward the month of the Niagara, where he expected Chauncey would co-operate with him. He crossed the Chippewa Creek in boats with a part of his army before daylight on the morning of the 8th, when Riall fled to Queenstown, put some of his troops into Forts George and Mississangua, and established his head- quarters near the lake, twenty miles westward. Brown pushed on to Queenstown and menaced Fort George. After waiting many days he learned that Chancey was sick and his squadron was blockaded at Sackett's Harbor. Hopeless of aid from the navy, he ordered the army to fall back to the battle-ground of Chippewa and await developments. They did not rest long, for on the morning of the 24th Brown was startled by the intelligence that Drummond had landed with a thousand troops at Lewiston, many of them Wellington's veterans ; that a British force occupied Queenstown, and that Riall had joined the lientenant- general with his own troops and a body of loyal Canadians.
Brown now ordered Scott to march rapidly with a part of the army and menace the forts at the month of the Niagara. He pushed forward toward evening with his brigade, Towson's artillery, and some mounted
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