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and when a party of them, assisted by the militia, routed the enemy near Fort George, the prisoners being committed to their charge, were treated with the greatest humanity, thus completely exploding the apology set up by the British officers, that they could not control their allies.

The events on the north-western frontier were now assuming an interesting character. Both the British and Americans were strenuously engaged in preparing a naval force to be employed on Lake Erie; and at the same time an attempt was made on Forts Stephenson and Meigs, by Colonel Proctor, with a large force of British and Indians. Towards the end of July, the enemy appeared in the neighbourhood of Fort Meigs, and endeavoured by a variety of stratagems to withdraw the Americans from their works into the open field. Not succeeding in this, on the 1st of August Proctor laid siege to Fort Stephenson on the Sandusky river, with a force of 500 regulars and 800 Indians. The garrison consisted of only 160 men, with a single piece of cannon; but they were commanded by Major Croghan, a young officer, distinguished by the gallantry suited to his age, and the firmness and judgment of a veteran. He had been directed to abandon the fort on the approach of a superior force, but confiding in his own resources and the courage of his men, he dared to assume the responsibility of defending it.

Having poured into the fort a galling cannonade of shot and shells for two days, the British advanced at two different points to assault the works. One of the advancing parties, consisting of three hundred and fifty men, commanded by Colonel Short, was received with a heavy fire, and eighty of them, having leaped over the pickets into the ditch, were all killed or captured, Short himself being among the slain. The remainder were repulsed. The other party marched up a ravine towards the fort, and were received with a discharge of slugs and balls from the six-pounder, which had been masked and reserved for their reception, and now mowed them down with prodigious slaughter. This spirited resistance so completely dismayed the enemy, that Proctor abandoned his dead and wounded, and fled for safety. The Indians were so disappointed at missing the plunder and scalps of the garrison, that they forthwith began to abandon their allies in great numbers.

Major Croghan, for his brilliant services in this affair, received the appointment of lieutenant-colonel by brevet in

BATTLE ON LAKE ERIE.

323

the regular army; and the ladies of Chilicothe presented him with a splendid sword. The repulse which he had given the British and Indians saved Fort Meigs from an assault, and completely relieved the frontier to the south of the strait at Detroit, from its most troublesome enemy.

General Harrison, who had the chief command on the north-western frontier, was now occupied in preparing his troops for a descent upon the enemy's territory, as soon as the squadron in preparation on Lake Erie should be ready to afford him the facilities of transportation. Early in September Commodore Perry, who had in a few months succeeded in constructing from the trees of the neighbouring forests, a respectable squadron, sailed from Erie in pursuit of the enemy, who had hitherto commanded the lake. His fleet consisted of nine small vessels mounting in all fifty-six guns. That of the British, under Commodore Barclay, consisted of six larger vessels mounting sixty-nine guns. His complement of men was also greater than that of Perry.

On the 10th of September the fleets met off Put-in-bay. At the commencement of the action the Lawrence, the flagship, was attacked by the Detroit and Queen Charlotte, and as the wind was too light to allow the remainder of the squadron to come up to the commodore's support, he had to sustain their fire for two hours, when the Lawrence being reduced to a sinking condition, he committed her to the charge of Lieutenant Yarnall, and descending into a boat, passed through a shower of cannon balls and bullets, and transferred his flag to the Niagara. The wind now freshening, the remainder of the American vessels were brought into action, and soon compelled the surrender of the whole British fleet.

This victory being the first obtained over a squadron, and bringing with it the most important advantages, occasioned greater rejoicing among the Americans than any which had preceded it. The gallant Perry was loaded with honours and distinctions, and his victory was proudly recorded in the annals and celebrated in the songs of his countrymen.

On receiving intelligence of Perry's success, General Harrison, who had been reinforced by a strong body of Kentucky militia under governor Shelby, embarked on the lake, and soon arrived at Malden. This post had been abandoned by the British, who had ascended the river Thames as far as the Moravian villages. Here they were overtaken by General

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BATTLE OF THE THAMES.

Harrison, on the 5th of October, who succeeded in bringing them to action, and gained a complete victory. Colonel Proctor saved himself by flight, leaving his camp equipage and papers. Six hundred of the British were made prisoners. The Indians are said to have borne the brunt of the battle, and fallen in great numbers. Their great chief, Tecumseh, was among the slain in the battle of the Thames, having been shot by Colonel Johnson. This victory restored to the Americans all the posts which had been surrendered by General Hull.

The British had been no less successful in exciting the hostility of the Indians at the southern extremity of the Union than at the north; and a visit of Tecumseh at the commencement of the war had stirred up among them a spirit of blind fanaticism which manifested itself by a series of hostilities, carried on by the Creeks and Seminoles against the frontier inhabitants of Georgia. This was repressed, however, for the time, by an incursion of 2,500 Tennessee volunteers, led by General Jackson, in the fall of 1812. Their hostility now burst forth with fresh violence.

At Fort Mimms, in the Tensaw settlement, a party of three hundred inhabitants who had fled thither for safety, were surprised on the 30th of August by six hundred Indians, who broke into the fort, drove the people into the houses which it inclosed, and set them on fire. Only seventeen escaped the general massacre.

An army of 3,500 militia, principally from Tennessee, was speedily assembled and placed under the command of General Jackson, for the purpose of chastising the authors of this unprovoked outrage. On the 2nd of November a detachment of this force under General Coffee attacked the Creeks at Talluschatches, destroyed 200 of their warriors, burnt their town, and captured 86 prisoners.

On the 8th, General Jackson attacked a large body of the Creeks, who were assembled at Taladega, and defeated them; the Indians leaving 290 of their warriors on the field, and retreating to the mountains.

On the 18th of November, General White was equally successful at the Hillibee village, where, after a bloody encounter, he defeated the Creeks, 60 of their warriors being killed, and 256 made prisoners, without the loss of a single man on the side of the Americans. General Floyd inflicted a similar defeat on the Indians at Autossee on the 29th of November.

On the 22nd of January, 1814, General Jackson with about 1,400 men was attacked by a large body of the Creeks near the bend of the Tallapoosa. The Indians were repulsed with considerable loss, and the general having effected his object, a diversion in favour of General Floyd, retired to Fort Strother. A furious night attack, made upon General Floyd's detachment on the 27th, was successfully resisted; and the Indians were compelled, after a severe loss, to fly for shelter into the Caulibee swamp.

The last signal stroke of vengeance was inflicted on the Creeks at the Horse Shoe Bend, called by the Indians Tohopeka, on the Tallapoosa, March 27th, 1814. Here by the judicious arrangements of General Jackson, they were completely surrounded, and, after a most sanguinary battle, the greater part of them were destroyed. Six hundred warriors fell in the battle, and but 300 escaped.

This may be considered the closing scene of the Creek war, since the subsequent march of General Jackson to the Hickory Ground only terminated in the formal submission of the chiefs.

'The interference of Great Britain,' says an American historian, 'in the relations that subsisted between the United States and the Creek Indians, was, as will be presently seen, finally retaliated upon her, with four-fold vengeance. The war with those deluded savages was the school in which Generals Jackson, Coffee, and Carroll, became adepts in the tactics, that made a Tennessee rifleman superior to a "Weilington invincible," and qualified an army of citizen soldiers to defeat an army of veterans, of superior numbers. The ways of Providence are indeed inscrutable to man. When the Creek war broke out, the United States were completely begirt with enemies; and short-sighted man would have considered the addition of an infuriated and warlike race, to the list of their foes, as an event much to be deplored. But this circumstance, more than any other, favoured the defence of New Orleans. The officers and soldiers, who defeated the legions of Pakenham, Gibbs, Keane, and Lambert, were formed in the contest with the unfortunate victims to British influence.'

CHAPTER XXXIX.

CAMPAIGN OF 1814.

EARLY in the spring of 1813 an offer was made by the Emperor of Russia of his mediation as the common friend of the United States and Great Britain, for the purpose of facilitating a peace between them. The president having accepted this offer, commissioned John Quincy Adams, then minister of the United States at St. Petersburg, Albert Gallatin, and James A. Bayard, with the requisite powers to conclude a treaty of peace, with persons clothed with similar powers, on the part of Great Britain.

During the session of congress which commenced in December 1813, a communication was received from the British government, declining to treat under the mediation of Russia, and proposing a direct negotiation in London or Gottenburg. This proposition was accepted, and the latter place appointed for the meeting, which was afterwards transferred to Ghent; and Henry Clay and Jonathan Russell were added to the commissioners who had already gone to Europe.

For the purpose of increasing the force of the regular army, several acts of congress were passed offering large bounties to recruits, and providing liberally for the pay, rations, and clothing of the troops. A loan of twenty-five millions of dollars, and the issue of treasury notes for five millions, were also authorized. Provision was also made for the increase and better organisation of the navy, and for the defence of the seaboard. An embargo, which had been laid to prevent the trade under British licences, was repealed in April, 1814.

The fall of Napoleon having left Great Britain at peace with all nations except the United States, enabled that power to direct the whole of her disposable force against the Americans. This circumstance, increasing the perils of the campaign, rendered it necessary to make greater exertions and sacrifices for the defence of the country.

The spring passed away without any important operations on either side. The army which had wintered at French Mills, left that station in the early part of the spring, one