OPERATIONS ON THE NIAGARA FRONTIER.

317

trated their forces with those of the other British garrisons on the Niagara peninsula, beyond Burlington heights, about forty miles west of Fort George. Generals Chandler and Winder were detached from Fort George with 1,000 men to attack them. They were met and repulsed, with the loss of both these officers captured; and Sir James Yeo, arriving with his fleet, relieved the British, and compelled the Americans to return to the main army, with the loss of most of their artillery and baggage. A detachment of 570 men, under Lieutenant-Colonel Boerstler, being sent soon after to attack a body of the enemy at Beaver Dams, was surrounded and captured.

A second expedition under the command of Colonel Scott, was sent against the British post on Burlington heights, on the 28th of July. The landing took place on the 31st; but on reconnoitering the enemy's works, they were deemed too strong to be attacked with any prospect of success, and the troops were immediately re-embarked. On their return, they put into York, burned the barracks and public stores, and brought off one piece of ordnance and a quantity of flour.

During the time occupied by these operations, the British had prepared a flotilla, superior to that of the Americans, which enabled them to turn the advantage on Lake Ontario in their own favour. On the 7th of October, Sir James Yeo appeared with his fleet before Fort George, where Commodore Chauncey lay at anchor with his squadron. He immediately went out, and in a gale, which happened on the night of the 8th, lost two of his schooners, with the greater part of their crews. On the 10th, an action took place, in which two of the American schooners were taken. The fleets then separated, neither party being willing to come to a decisive

contest.

Thus terminated the operations of the American forces on Lake Ontario, under the direction of General Dearborn. Nothing had been effected towards the successful termination of the campaign; heavy losses had been sustained, and the only favourable opportunity for a descent on Montreal had been suffered to escape. The general had been most of the time an invalid, and had never appeared to lead his troops on any expedition. He was now superseded, and General Wilkinson called from the south to take his place.

General Wilkinson arrived at Sackett's Harbour on the 1st of August; the war department, under the direction of General

318

BATTLE OF CHRYSTLER'S FIELDS.

Armstrong, was removed to that place, and extensive preparations were commenced for a descent on Montreal. The army consisted of 8,000 men, but a period of three months elapsed before they were ready to descend the St. Lawrence on the expedition. This enabled the enemy to fortify every important point on the river; and when, on the 5th of November, the flotilla set sail, their progress was disputed so 'obstinately, that it was found necessary to land a body of troops under the command of General Brown, who proceeded in advance of the boats, to dislodge the enemy from his posts on the river. The rear division, under General Boyd, encountered a party of equal force at Chrystler's Fields, near Williamsburg, on the 10th of November. A spirited action ensued, in which the Americans, with considerable loss, succeeded in driving the British from their position, and enabling the flotilla to pass unmolested.

On the 11th, General Wilkinson with the main body arrived at St. Regis, where General Hampton, with an additional force, had been ordered to meet him for the purpose of co-operating in the proposed descent on Montreal. Instead of obeying the order, Hampton sent a communication to his commander, informing him, that in consequence of the sickly state of his troops, the want of provisions, &c. he had thought proper to fall back on his main depot at Plattsburg, for the purpose of keeping open a communication with the St. Lawrence, and thus contributing to the success of the main object. In consequence of this strange proceeding of General Hampton, the expedition was abandoned, and General Wilkinson's army retired to French Mills, and went into winter quarters.

The disappointment and chagrin of the nation at the failure of this attempt was proportioned to the extensive preparations, and the sanguine hopes with which it had been undertaken. The whole fault was respectively charged upon the war department, the commanding general and his recusant subaltern; but it was easy to perceive, that if either had possessed a tolerable share of decision and energy, the expedition would have been attended with a very different result.

Before restoring his department to its only proper position, the capital, the secretary of war, General Armstrong, had issued an order to General M'Clure, commanding at Fort George, to destroy the British town of Newark, situated in its vicinity. This order was punctually complied with on the 10th of December, and about 500 unoffending and innocent

BRITISH RAVAGES ON THE SEA COAST.

319

people were thus rendered houseless, and compelled, in the midst of a Canadian winter, to seek shelter from the charity of their friends.

This act, and the burning of York, were most severely retaliated by the British, who, when General M'Clure subsequently retreated, and Fort Niagara was lost, passed over to the American side of the river, burnt Niagara and Lewistown, and laid waste all the other flourishing villages and settlements on the Niagara between the lakes. Indeed, these unnecessary acts of aggression on the Canada borders, were afterwards alleged in justification of every similar proceeding on the part of the enemy.

Although the British were so deeply sensible of the injustice and cruelty of this mode of warfare when practised upon their own people, they had been beforehand with the Americans in its commencement. Having declared a blockade of the ports and harbours in the Chesapeake and Delaware bays, in December, 1812, they extended it on the following May to New York, and all the southern ports. A squadron of four ships of the line and six frigates, under Admiral Cockburn, arrived in the Chesapeake early in March, and three seventyfours, and several smaller vessels, under Commodore Beresford, arrived in the Delaware about the same time. On the 16th of March, a demand was made on the inhabitants of Lewistown, on the Delaware, for supplies, which was promptly refused. The demand being again made and again refused, the British commenced a bombardment of the town on the 6th of April. They subsequently attempted to land at two different places on the river, but being met at the water's edge and driven back, they abandoned the river, after burning some merchant vessels, and sailed for Bermuda.

Admiral Cockburn pursued a similar system of warfare on the Chesapeake. The plantations, farms, and gentlemen's seats on the shore were plundered. The villages of Frenchtown, Havre de Grace, Fredericktown, and Georgetown were plundered and burnt; and Norfolk and the villages in its immediate neighbourhood were only saved from destruction by the spirited resistance of the inhabitants, assisted by some marines and sailors from the Constellation frigate, and a few gun-boats in the harbour, who manned a battery on Craney island, sunk several of the British barges, and drove the remainder back to their ships.

The village of Hampton, eighteen miles from Norfolk, was

320

SACKING OF HAMPTON.

defended by about 450 militia, against a British flotilla, with bombs and rockets, commanded by Admiral Cockburn; but Sir Sidney Beckwith coming to the assistance of the Admiral with 2,000 men, succeeded in capturing the place, which was forthwith abandoned to the soldiery, who perpetrated outrages on the inhabitants, which would have disgraced the darkest ages of barbarism.

After this great victory and triumph, Admiral Cockburn, sailed with his squadron up the Potomac, to within 70 miles of Washington; but finding the fortifications on the river in a good state of defence, he retired. He next proceeded up the bay, and threatened Annapolis and Baltimore; but not deeming it prudent to attack those places, he proceeded to the south, pursuing his system of plunder and devastation on the coast of the Carolinas and Georgia.

These outrages, which were intended to render the war unpopular with the Americans, had a directly contrary effect, infusing new spirit and energy into their subsequent operations, and giving a tone to the public feeling, which was the only requisite hitherto wanting towards the successful conduct of the war.

The blockade of the northern ports fell into better hands. Commodore Hardy, who commanded the squadron, which blockaded New London, and held the frigates United States and Macedonian in a state of inaction there during the latter period of the war, conducted his operations in a spirit of comparative forbearance and humanity. His chivalry, however, was not so generous as to permit his acceptance of the challenge from the commanders of those frigates, offering to meet the Endymion and Statira, ships of the blockading squadron, of equal force. The uniform result of previous meetings of this kind was too ominous of disgrace to the British arms.

The success of the Americans in their naval encounters with the enemy was not less remarkable than it had been during the preceding year. On the 24th of February, Captain Lawrence, in the sloop of war Hornet, fell in with the brig of war Peacock, and after a close action of fifteen minutes, compelled her to strike her colours and hoist a signal of distress. The firing of the Hornet instantly ceased, and the boats were hoisted out for the purpose of saving the British crew, as the vessel was in a sinking state. In spite of the most active exertions on the part of their generous enemies, thirteen of the British went down with the ship, and four of

AFFAIR OF THE SHANNON AND CHESAPEAKE.

321

the Hornet's crew, who were rendering assistance, suffered the same fate.

On his return to the United States, Captain Lawrence was promoted to the command of the frigate Chesapeake, then lying in Boston harbour. Soon after taking command of his ship, Lawrence received a challenge from Captain Broke, of the British frigate Shannon, to meet him in single combat, ship to ship, engaging that the Tenedos, which was then blockading Boston, in company with the Shannon, should be out of the way during the action. The challenge was promptly accepted. The ships met; the Chesapeake was taken, and the gallant Lawrence, with his lieutenant, Ludlow, fell in the action. These frigates were nearly equal in weight of metal, the Shannon mounting fifty-two guns and the Chesapeake forty-eight; but the latter undoubtedly laboured under great disadvantages in the undisciplined and half intoxicated state of the crew, just out of port. Her capture, however, was a source of unbounded exultation to the British.

In May, 1813, Captain Allen, in the brig Argus, having conveyed Mr. Crawford, the American ambassador, to France, began a cruise in the British channel, during which he captured and destroyed British vessels and cargoes to the amount of two millions of dollars. He was then assailed by the Pelican sloop of war, of twenty guns, and sustained a severe action of forty-three minutes, when the British frigate Sea Horse heaving in sight, the Argus struck. Captain Allen was mortally wounded during the engagement.

In September, the United States brig Enterprise encountered the British brig Boxer off the coast of Maine, and after an action of forty-five minutes compelled her to surrender. Both the commanders fell in the action, and were buried together, with military honours, in Portland. The Boxer was superior to her antagonist in tonnage, men and guns. She lost twenty-five killed, and fourteen wounded; while the Enterprise lost four killed, and eleven wounded.

The British had employed the Indians as allies from the commencement of the war, and had encouraged rather than repressed their propensity to use their prisoners in the most barbarous manner. It was not till the summer of this year that the Six Nations declared war against England, and united their arms with those of the United States. In accepting their aid, it was made a strict condition, that they should treat their captives according to the usage of civilised nations,