A. Bigot, fct
THE
.PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
OF THE
WAR OF 1812; .
•
OR,
ILLUSTRATIONS, BY PEN AND PENCIL, OF THE HISTORY, BIOG
RAPHY, SCENERY, RELICS, AND TRADITIONS OF THE
LAST WAR FOR AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE,
BY BENSON J. LOSSIM.
WITH SEVERAL HUNDRED ENGRAVINGS ON WOOD, BY LOSSING AND BARRITT,
CHIEFLY PROM ORIGINAL SKETCHES BY THE AUTHOR.
benson J.
NEW YORK:
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,
FRANKLIN SQUARE.
1868.
v
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by
HARPER & BROTHERS,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern
District of New York.
\HE author of this volume said to the readers of his PICTORIAL
FIELD-BOOK OF THE REVOLUTION, at the close of that work,
" Should time deal gently with us, we may again go out with
staff and scrip together upon the great highway of our coun
try's progress, to note the march of events there." The im
plied promise has been fulfilled. The author has traveled
more than ten thousand miles in this country and in the Canadas, with note-book
and pencil in hand, visiting places of historic interest connected with the War of
1812, from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, gathering up, recording, and
delineating every thing of special value, not found in books, illustrative of the sub
ject, and making himself familiar with the topography and incidents of the battle
fields of that war. Access to the archives of governments, state and national, and
to private collections, was freely given him ; and from the lips of actors in the
events of that struggle he received the most interesting information concerning it,
which might have perished with them.
The results of the author's researches and labors are given in this volume.
The narrative of historic events is resumed where his work on the Revolution
left it. An account is given of the perils of the country immediately succeeding
the Revolution ; the struggles of the new nation with the allied powers of British
and Indians in the Northwest ; the origin and growth of political parties in the
United States, and their relations to the War of 1812 ; the influence of the French
Revolution and French politics in giving complexion to parties in this country;
the first war with the Barbary Powers ; the effects of the wars of Napoleon on the
public policy of the United States ; the Embargo and kindred acts, and the kin
dling of the war in 1812.
The events of the war are given in greater detail than in any work hitherto
published, and the narrative brings to view actors in the scenes whose deeds have
been overlooked by the historian. The work is a continuation of the history of
our country from the close of the Revolution in 1783 to the end of the Second
War with Great Britain in 1815.
POUGHKEEPSIE, NEW YORK, JULY, 1868.
A
CHAPTER I.
EARLY DAYS OF THE REPUBLIC.
The Close of the Revolution ; the States free, but not independent, 18 ; Why ? Articles of Confederation, 19 ;
the Public Debt, 20 ; Attitude of the States, 21 ; British Opinion concerning them, 22 ; Public Dangers,
23 ; Dissolution of the Republic threatened, 24 ; Washington's Forebodings ; his Proposition for a Con
vention to reorganize Government, 25 ; Meeting of the Convention, 2G ; Proceedings of the Convention
to form a National Constitution, 27-32 ; Ratification of the Constitution ; its Opponents, 33 ; the Estab
lishment of a Nation, 34.
CHAPTER II.
EVENTS IN THE NORTHWESTERN TERRITORY.
Foundations of Government in the Wilderness, 35 ; the Northwestern Territory ; Settlements there, 36-37 ;
the Indians and their British Allies, 38 ; Councils with the Indians, 39 ; British Intrigues and Indian
Hostilities, 40; Expedition against the Indians in the Ohio Country, 41 ; Battle on the Maumee, 42;
Visit to the Place of Conflict, 43-44 ; Expeditions of Scott and Wilkinson, 45 ; Forts built in the Wil
derness, 4G ; St. Glair's Expedition, 47 ; his Battle with the Indians and Defeat, 48 ; how Washington re
ceived the News of St. Glair's Defeat, 49; his Justice and Generosity; Wayne's Expedition, 50; Inter
ference of British Officials, 51 ; the British and Indians in armed Alliance, 52; Wayne's Expedition
down the Maumee, 53, 54 ; Defeat of the Indians and treaty of Greenville, 55, 5G.
CHAPTER III.
ESTABLISHMENT OF THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT.
The national Policy and Power indicated, 58 ; Relations with France and England, 59 ; revolutionary
Movements in France, (!0, (!1 ; diplomatic Intercourse with Great Britain and Spain, 62 ; Discourtesy of
the British Government ; mistaken Views concerning the American Government, 63 ; Acts in relation to
the Public Debt, 64 ; Hamilton's financial Scheme ; Currency, G5 ; Jefferson's Disappointment and Sus
picions, G6 ; Progress of the French Revolution, G7 ; the political and religious Views of Jefferson and
Adams, 68 ; Democracy in England, 69 ; Adams's Scheme of Government ; Jefferson's Disgust and un
generous Suspicions, 70; Paine's Rights of Man ; a Newspaper War, 71 ; the Federal and Republican
Parties formed, 72 ; Sympathy with the French Revolutionists, 73 ; Lafayette, 74 ; Monarchy in France
overthrown, 75 ; the National Convention ; Execution of the King, 7G ; Minister from the French Re
public, 77 ; Washington's Proclamation of Neutrality, 78.
CHAPTER IV.
FOREIGN RELATIONS AND DOMESTIC POLITICS.
" Citizen Genet" and his Reception by his political Admirers, 79 ; his first Interview with Washington ;
Enthusiasm of the Republicans, 80 ; the American and the French Revolution compared, 81 ; Genet de
fies the American Government, 82 ; he is recalled ; his Successor, 83 ; British " Rules" and " Orders in
Council;" Armed Neutrality, 84; British Impressment of American Seamen, 85; Jay's Treaty with
Great Britain, 86 ; Opposition to the Treaty, 87 ; the Whisky Insurrection ; Democratic Societies, 88 ;
Difficulties with Algiers, 89 ; an American Navy recommended, 90 ; Construction of a Navy ; Unfriend
liness of the French Directory, 91 ; Struggle between the Republicans and Federalists for political Power ;
Adams elected President, 92 ; open Rupture between France and the United States threatened, 93 ; Mad
ness of Partisans, 94; Aggressions of the French Directory, 95 ; Preparations for War with France;
Action in New York, 96; History of the Songs "Hail, Columbia!" and "Adams and Liberty," 97.
CHAPTER V.
WAR ON THE OCEAN. — POLITICAL STRUGGLES.
Washington appointed to the Command of the Army ; Hamilton acting General-in-chief, 98 ; Envoys ex
traordinary sent to France, 99; Bonaparte in Power; American War-vessels afloat, 100; British Out
rages ; Obsequiousness of the American Government, 102 ; naval Engagements, 103 ; American Cruisers
in the West Indies, 104 ; Truxtun's Victory ; Honors to the Victor, 105 ; Peace ; Divisions in the Fed
eral Party, 106 ; Intrigues against Adams ; Alien and Sedition Laws ; Nullification Doctrines put forth,
107; State Supremacy asserted; Jefferson elected President, 108 ; Mortification of the Federalists;
Death of Washington, 109 ; a public Funeral, 110 ; Washington's Person and Character, 111.
IV CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VI.
DIFFICULTIES WITH THE BARBARY POWERS. ENGLAND AND FRANCE AT WAR.
Bonaparte's Career and Influence, 112; Obsequiousness of Englishmen, 113 ; Beginning of Jefferson's Ad
ministration ; the National Capital, 114 ; Jefferson's Policy; political Proscription, 115 ; the Navy re
duced, 116 ; Captain Bainbridge, the Dey of Algiers, and the Sultan, 117 ; Insolence and Exactions of
the Barbary Rulers, 118; American Navy in the Mediterranean Sea and its Operations, 119-120 ; Bom
bardment of Tripoli, 121 ; Destruction of the P/ii/adelji/iia, 122 ; Destruction of the Intrepid ; Honors to
Commodore Preble, 123 ; Commodore Barren's Squadron in the Mediterranean, 124 ; Eaton's Expedi
tion in Northern Africa ; Respect of the Barbary Powers for the American Flag, 125 ; Bonaparte and his
Relations with England, 12(5; a French Invasion of England threatened, 127; a Struggle for political
Supremacy ; Bonaparte proclaimed Emperor, 128 ; Napoleon's Berlin Decree, 129.
CHAPTER VII.
EVENTS WEST OF THE ALLEGHANIES. SEARCH AND IMPRESSMENT.
Organization of new States, 130; Americans disturbed by the Retrocession of Louisiana to France, 131 ;
the secret Designs of the latter, 132; Jefferson's Letter and Bonaparte's Necessity; Purchase of Louisi
ana, 1 33 ; Events connected with the Purchase of Louisiana, 1 34 ; the Duel of Hamilton and Burr ; the
Acts of Burr's political Associates, 135; his ambitious Schemes ; Blennerhassett and Wilkinson, 136;
Burr's Operations, Trial for Treason, and Exile, 1 37 ; American commercial Thrift and British Jealousy,
138 ; British Perfidy defended by British Writers, 139 ; Unpleasant foreign Relations, 140 ; Memorial
of Merchants concerning British Depredations, 141 ; Impressment of American Seamen and Right of
Search, 142; diplomatic Correspondence on the Subject, 143; cruel Treatment of American Seamen,
144 ; farther diplomatic Action, 145, 146 ; national Independence and Honor in Peril, 147 ; Minister ex
traordinary sent to England, 148.
CHAPTER VIII.
SEARCH AND IMPRESSMENT. — EMBARGO. PARTY SPIRIT.
Negotiations concerning the Impressment of American Seamen, 149 ; a Treaty agreed to, but not ratified;
War on the Administration, 1 50, 151; The Continental System of Napoleon, 1 52 ; Aggressions on Amer
ican Commerce and Neutrality by France and England, 1 53 ; Napoleon's Milan Decree and its Effects,
154 ; the Navy and the Gun-boat Policy, 155 ; British Cruisers in American Waters, 15G ; the Affair of
the Chesapeake, 157 ; the Outrage resented, 158 ; Action of the American Government, 159 ; Action of
the British Government, 1GO; fruitless Mission of a British Envoy, 1G1 ; political Complexion of the
Tenth Congress ; an Embargo established, 1 G2 ; its Effects ; Party Spirit violently aroused, 1 G3 ; the
Embargo vehemently denounced, 1G4 ; the British exact Tribute from neutral Nations, 165 ; Dangers of
national Vanity, 166.
CHAPTER IX.
WAR BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND GREAT BRITAIN THREATENED.
Provisions for strengthening the American Navy, 1 67 ; Gun-boats ; Opposition to a Navy, 1 68 ; British op
position to the Orders in Council, 169 ; Napoleon's Blow at American Commerce ; Modification of the
Orders in Council, 170 ; Actions concerning the Embargo, 171 ; Disunionists in New England, 172, 173 ;
Embargo or War the proclaimed Alternative, 1 74 ; Cotton supposed to be the King of Commerce, 1 75 ;
Just Arrangements for settling the Difficulties with Great Britain, 176 ; the British Government repudi
ates the Acts of its Agent, 1 77 ; an offensive British Minister sent to America, 278 ; the French Decrees
and British Orders in Council, 179 ; England and France refuse to be just, 180 ; Outrage by a British
Cruiser, 181 ; Method of signaling, 182, 183 ; Action between the President and Little Jlelt, 184 ; Tes
timony concerning the Affair, 185 ; Commodore Rodgers assailed and vindicated, 186.
CHAPTER X.
HOSTILITIES OF THE INDIANS IN THE NORTHWEST.
The Indiana Territory and Governor Harrison, 187 ; British Emissaries among the Indians, 188 ; Tecum-
tha and his Brother the Prophet, 1 89 ; Indian Confederation proposed ; Harrison denounces the Prophet.
190; the Mission of Joseph Barron, 191 ; Tecumtha before Harrison at Vincennes, 192; roving Plun
derers; Tecumtha alarmed, 193; Preparations for fighting the Indians, 194 ; Harrison marches up the
Wabash with Troops ; Deputation of friendly Indians, 1 95 ; Visit of the Author to the Region of threat
ened Hostilities, 196-200; Harrison approaches the Prophet's Town; the Indians alarmed, 201 ; Har
rison's Encampment near the Tippecanoe, 202 ; the Prophet's Teaching, 203 ; Battle of Tippecanoe, 204,
205 ; The Prophet disgraced, 206 ; Actors in the Battle of Tippecanoe, 207 ; Author's Visit to the Bat
tie-ground, 208, 209.
CHAPTER XI.
A WAR SPIRIT AROUSED. DECLARATION OF WAR AGAINST GREAT BRITAIN.
The Twelfth Congress and its Composition, 210 ; the President's feeble War-trumpet, 211 ; Charges against
Great Britain, 212; Action of the Committee on Foreign Relations, 213; Alarm on Account of the
Slaves, 214; Randolph and Calhoun in Congress, 215; Policy of the Federalists, 216; Patriotism of
of Congn
on the Subject, 227 ; Declaration of War, 228 ; Protest of the Minority in Congress against the Meas
ure, 229 ; Organization of a Peace Party, 230 ; Measures for carrying on the War, 231 ; public Acts in
opposition to the War, 232.
CONTENTS. v
CHAPTER XII.
BEGINNING OF THE WAR OF 1812.
The British Regency — Political Affairs in Europe, 233 ; the Troops and Fortifications on the Northern
Frontier, 234 ; Sea-coast Defenses of the United States, 235-238 ; Fulton's Torpedoes and their Uses,
238-240 ; Fulton's Anticipations, 241 ; Effects of a Fear of Torpedoes, 242 ; the Action of State Gov
ernments concerning the War, 243 ; public Feeling in Canada, 244 ; Signs of Pacification, 24/5 ; condi
tional Revocation of the Orders in Council, 246 ; haughty Assumptions of the British Government on
the Subject of Search and Imprisonment, 247 ; War inevitable and justifiable, 248 ; Choice of military
Leaders, 249, 250.
CHAPTER XIII.
HULL'S CAMPAIGN AGAINST CANADA.
Canada to be invaded — Object of the Invasion, 251 ; Organization of an Army in Ohio — an active Frontiers
man, 253 ; Author's Journey through Ohio, 254 ; General Hull takes Command of Ohio Volunteers, 255 ;
regular and volunteer Troops in the Wilderness, 25G ; Hull's March to Detroit, 257; his Baggage and
Papers captured, 258 ; how the British in Canada were informed of the Declaration of War, 259 ; Detroit
in 1812, 2CO; Hull invades Canada, 261, 262; Reconnoissance toward Maiden, 263; first Battle of the
War, 264, 265 ; Distrust of General Hull, 266 ; first Blood shed in the War, 267 ; early Scenes at Mack
inaw, 268, 269 ; Events at Mackinaw in 1812, 270 ; Employment of the Indians by the British, 271.
CHAPTER XIV.
CAMPAIGN ON THE DETROIT FRONTIER.
Alarming Facts and Rumors, 272 ; Preparations in Canada for resisting Invasion, 273 ,- Alarm caused by the
Invasion, 274 ; Symptoms of Disloyalty — General Brock's Influence, 275 ; Defeat of Americans under Van
Home at Brownstown, 276 ; mutinous Spirit evinced in Hull's Army, 277; Expedition to succor a Supply-
train, 278 ; the March toward the River Raisin, 279 ; Battle of Maguaga, 280, 281 ; Disappointment and
Disaffection of the American Troops, 282 ; Brock goes to Maiden with Troops, 283 ; Preparations for at
tacking Detroit, 284 ; Hull deceived — an Effort to reach a Supply-train, 285 ; Hull summoned to sur
render, and refuses, 286 ; the British proceed to attack Detroit, 287; Scenes within the Fort, 288 ; Hull
surrenders the Fort, Garrison, and Territory, 289 ; Feeling of the Troops — Result of the Surrender, 290 ;
Incidents of the Surrender, 291 ; British Occupation of Detroit and Michigan, 292 ; Account of the Sur
render, and public Indignation, 293 ; Hull tried by a Court-martial, 294 ; a Consideration of Hull's public
Character, 295 ; the Government more to blame than Hull, 296.
CHAPTER XV.
MILITARY EVENTS IN THE THEN FAR NORTHWEST.
The Author's Journey from Chicago to Detroit, 297; a Ride from Windsor to Amherstburg, 298 ; Histori
cal Localities at Amherstburg or Maiden, 299; Windsor and "Windsor Castle, "300; Pontiac's Siege
of Detroit, 301 ; Chicago, its Name, Settlement, and Position, 302 ; Trading-house and Fort at Chicago,
303 ; an Indian Raid, 304 ; Troubles at Chicago, 305 ; Treachery of the Indians — a Warning, 306 ; Mu
nitions of War and Liquor destroyed, 307 ; Massacre at Chicago, 308 ; Incident of the Conflict with the
Savages — Bravery of Women, 309 ; Cruelties of the Indians — their British Allies, 310; Survivors of the
Massacre. 311 ; Mrs. Kenzie and the Growth of Chicago, 312 ; Designs against Fort Wayne, 313 ; Attack
on Fort Wayne, 314 ; Ravages of the Indians — Little Turtle, 315 ; Treachery of Indians at Fort Wayne.
316 ; Fort Harrison besieged, 317 ; brave Deeds at Fort Harrison, 318 ; Attack on Fort Madison, 319.
CHAPTER XVI.
WAR WITH THE BRITISH AND INDIANS IN THE NORTHWEST.
The Nation aroused — Enthusiasm of the People, 320 ; Harrison and the Kentuckians, 321 ; Harrison at the
Head of Kentucky Volunteers, 322 ; Departure for the Wilderness, 323 ; Volunteers flock to Harrison's
Standard, 324 ; Fort Wayne relieved — Destruction of Indian Villages, 325 ; Harrison's Popularity — he
commands the Northwestern Army, 326 ; Winchester met by British and Indians in the Wilderness, 327 ;
Re-enforcements gathering, 328 ; Harrison's proposed autumn Campaign, 329 ; reported Movement
through the Wilderness, 330 ; Erection of Forts, 331 ; the Indians alarmed and humbled, 332 ; the Au
thor's Visit to the Theatre of War, 333 ; Preparations for further Warfare, 334 ; Expedition against the
Indians in the Illinois Country, 335 ; Expedition to the Wabash Region, 336 ; Sufferings of the Kentucky
Soldiers, 337.
CHAPTER XVII.
WAR WITH THE BRITISH AND INDIANS IN THE NORTHWEST.
Harrison cheerfully meets Difficulties, 338; Difficulties of a winter Campaign, 339; Organization of the
Army — the Western Reserve, 340 ; Preparations in Ohio against Invasion, 341 ; Energy and Patriotism
of Colonel Wadsworth, 342 ; an Expedition to the Maumee, 343 ; stirring Events at the Maumee Rapids.
344 ; Services of friendly Indians, 345 ; Campbell's Expedition into the Wabash Region, 346 ; a Battle
near the Mississiniwa, 347 ; Sufferings and Difficulties of Harrison's Army, 348, 349 ; Advance toward
the Maumee Rapids, 350 ; Frenchtown on the Raisin River threatened, 35 1 ; Battle at Frenchtown, 352 ;
Winchester arrives with Re-enforcements, 353 ; he disregards Warnings of Danger, 354 ; Massacre at
Frenchtown, 355 ; Winchester compelled to surrender his Army, 356 ; Perfidy, Cowardice, and Inhu
manity of the British Commander, 357 ; Massacre and Scalping allowed by him, 358 ; Incidents of the
Massacre, 359 ; Author's Visit to Frenchtown, 360 ; historical Localities and Survivors of the War there,
361, 362 ; Harrison unjustly censured, 363; his Army at the Maumee Rapids, 364.
vi CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XVIII.
EVENTS ON THE NORTHERN AND NIAGARA FRONTIERS IN 1812.
First warlike Measures on the Northern Frontier, 3Gf> ; the Militia of the State of New York, 366 ; Events
on Lake Ontario and at Sackett's Harbor, 307 ; a hostile British Squadron off Sackett's Harbor, 368 ; a
Skirmish and a Repulse of the British— Vessels of War on Lake Ontario, 369 ; Operations on the St.
Lawrence Frontier, 370 ; hostile Squadrons on Lake Ontario, 370 ; Operations near Kingston— Commo
dore Chauncey, 372 ; General Brown sent to Ogdensburg, 373 ; the British attack Ogdensburg, 374 ; St.
Regis its capture by the Americans, 375 ; Honors to the Victors at Albany, 376 ; Eleazer Williams, or
" The Lost Prince," 377 ; the Author's Visit to St. Regis, 378 ; Buffalo in 1812, 379 ; the Niagara Fron
tier, 380 ; American Troops on the Niagara Frontier, 381 ; an Armistice and its Effects, 383 ; Prepara
tions for an Invasion of Canada, 384 ; Expeditions for capturing British Vessels, 385 ; Capture of the
Adams and Caledonia near Fort Erie, 386 ; Incidents of the Exploit, 387 ; Feelings of the Americans and
British, 388.
, CHAPTER XIX.
EVENTS ON THE NIAGARA FRONTIER IN 1812.
Conduct of General
Niagara Frontie
393 ; Passage of the Niagara Ri
Rensselaer wounded and Captain Wool in command, 396 ; the Americans scale Queenston Heights, 397;
Battle on Queenston Heights and Death of General Brock, 398 ; Passage of the River by Re-enforce
ments, '399 ; Events on Queenston Heights, 400 ; another Battle — Wool wounded, 401 ; bad Conduct of
the New York Militia, Colonel Scott in Command, 402 ; Heroes and Cowards made Prisoners of War, 403;
Surrender of the American Army, 404 ; a triumphal and funeral Procession, 405 ; Honors to General
Brock, 406 ; Colonel Solomon Van Rensselaer, 407 ; Events at the Mouth of the Niagara River, 408 ;
Protection for American Prisoners of War, 409 ; General Smyth's injurious Pride and Folly, 410 ; his
silly Proclamations ridiculed, 411.
CHAPTER XX.
EVENTS ON THE NIAGARA FRONTIER AND VICINITY IN 1812.
The Author's Visit to the Niagara Frontier, 412; Lewiston, Queenston, and Queenston Heights, 413; Brock's
Monument, 414 ; an Evening on Queenston Heights, 415 ; Interview with the Chief of the Six Nations,
416 ; Journey from Queenston to Niagara, 417 ; Fort George and its Appurtenances, 418 ; Fort Missis-
saga — Return to Niagara Falls, 419 ; Journey from Niagara Falls to the Settlement of the Six Nations on
the Grand River, 420 ; a Morning with the Chief of the Six Nations, 421 ; Indian Relics and Customs,
422 ; the Mohawk Church and Brant's Tomb, 423, 424 ; the Mohawk Institute— Communion-plate from
Queen Anne, 425 ; British attack Black Rock, 426 ; Preparations for another Invasion of Canada, 427 ;
the British forewarned — Passage of the Niagara River, 428 ; Incidents of the attempted Invasion, 42!) ;
Smyth's Incompetence and Folly, 430 ; the Invasion of Canada abandoned, 431 ; a Duel, and what came
of it — exit Smyth, 432.
CHAPTER XXI.
NAVAL OPERATIONS IN 1812.
Acknowledged naval Superiority of Great Britain, 433 ; Character, Distribution, and Condition of the Amer
ican War Marine, 434 ; Commodore Rodgers's Squadron — first Shot in the War, 435 ; Rodgers in Euro
pean waters — British Squadron at Halifax, 436 ; Cruise of the Constitution, 437 ; how she eluded her
Pursuers, 438 ; the Essex goes on a Cruise, 439 ; Cruise of the Essex, 440 ; how a Challenge was accepted
by Commodore Porter, 441 ; the Constitution off the Eastern Coast, 442 ; Battle between the Constitution
and Guerriere, 443, 444 ; Destruction of the Gue.rriere — Effects of the Victory, 445 ; Honors to Commo
dore Hull, 446 ; Effect of the Victory on the British Mind, 447 ; Hull's Generosity, 448 ; Cruise of the
Wasp, 449 ; Fight between the Wasp and the Frolic, 450 ; both Vessels captured by the Poictiers, 451 ;
Honors to Captain Jones, 452 ; Lieutenant Biddle honored and rewarded, 453.
CHAPTER XXII.
NAVAL OPERATIONS AND CIVIL AFFAIRS IN 1812.
Commodore Rodgers's second Cruise, 454 ; Battle between the United States and Macedonian, 455 ; Cap
ture of the Macedonian — Decatur takes her to New York, 456 ; Honors to Decatur, 457 ; Bainbridge in
Command of a Squadron, 458 ; his Cruise on the Coast of Brazil, 459 ; Battle between the Constitution and
Java, 460; Loss of the Java — Incidents of the Battle, 461 ; Honors to Bainbridge, 462 ; Effects of the
naval Battles in Great Britain, 463 ; meeting of the Twelfth Congress, 464 ; Madison re-elected — his Ad
ministration sustained, 465 ; Quincy's Denunciations and Clay's Response, 466 ; Measures for strengthen
ing the Army and Navy, 467 ; Retaliation — Report of the Committee on Foreign Relations, 468 ; Mani
festo of the Prince Regent and its Charges, 469 ; Mediation of the Emperor of Russia proposed, 470 ; Re
joicings over Napoleon's Misfortunes — Peace Commissioners, 471 ; Cabinet Changes, 472.
CHAPTER XXIII.
EVENTS ON THE MAUMEE RIVER.
Contemplated Expedition against Maiden, 473 ; American Camp at the Maumee Rapids, 474 ; Interference
of the Secretary of War with General Harrison, 475 ; General Clay's march to the Maumee, 476 ; Harri
son assumes grave Responsibilities, 477 ; British and Indian Expedition against Fort Meigs, 478 ; the
Mission of Captain Oliver, 479 ; Leslie Combs volunteers for perilous Duty, 480 ; Incidents of his Voyage
down the Maumee, 481 ; Preparations for an Assault on Fort Meigs, 482 ; Attack on Fort Meigs, 483 ;
CONTENTS. vii
critical Situation of the Fort and Garrison, 484 ; Harrison's Plans against the Besiegers, 48.") ; Dudley's
Defeat and sad Results, 486; Arrival of Re-enforcements for Fort Meigs, 487; Effect of a Sortie from
Fort Meigs, 488 ; the Author's Visit to the Maumee Valley, 490-493.
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE WAR IN NORTHERN OHIO — CONSTRUCTION OF PERRY'S FLEET.
Harrison's Provision for the Frontier Defenses, 494 ; Kentuckians under Colonel R. M. Johnson, 495 ; Te-
cumtha anxious for hostile Action, 490 ; Johnson's Troops at Fort Stephenson, 497 ; unsuccessful Attempt
to capture Fort Meigs, 498 ; Fort Stephenson menaced, 499 ; Croghan determines to hold it, 500 ; it is
summoned to surrender, 501 ; a Siege, 502 ; Fort Stephenson stormed, and the Assailants repulsed, 503 ;
Incidents of the Night succeeding the Struggle — Honors to Croghan, 504 ; the Author's Visit to Sandusky,
505, 506 ; also to Fremont and Site of Fort Stephenson, 507 ; Journey to Toledo — Harrison's Character
assailed and vindicated, 508 ; Captain Perry sent to Lake Erie, 509 ; Harbor of Erie or Presq' Isle, 510;
Construction of a Lake Fleet begun there, 511 ; Perry's Services with Chauncey and in securing American
Vessels, 512 ; Perry's earnest Call for Men, 513 ; Erie menaced, 514 ; first Cruise of Perry's Fleet, 515 ;
Harrison visits Perry, 516 ; Perry's second Cruise, 517.
CHAPTER XXV.
THE BATTLE OF LAKE ERIE.
Perry prepares for Battle, 518 ; his final Instructions — British Squadron in sight, 519 ; Names and Char
acter of the opposing Squadrons, 520; Change in the Order of Battle, 521 ; relative Position of the
Squadrons — Opening of the Battle, 522 ; first Position of the Vessels in the Fight, 523 ; the Battle —
Scenes on board the Lawrence, 524, 525 ; sad Condition of the Lawrence, 526 ; Perry goes from the Law
rence to the Niagara, 527 ; Perry breaks the British Line, 528 ; his Victory — British Ships vainly at
tempt to Escape, 529 ; Perry's famous Dispatch, 530 ; Surrender of the British Officers — Burial of the
Dead, 531 ; sad Effects of the Battle, 532 ; Importance of Perry's Victory, 533 ; public Celebrations by
the exultant Americans, 534 ; Honors to Elliott and his Subordinates, 535 ; a Plea for a British-Indian
Alliance — Prediction by Washington Irving, 536 ; Author's Visit to Erie and Cleveland, 537 ; Prepara
tions for unveiling a Statue of Perry at Cleveland, 538 ; surviving Soldiers of the War of 1812, 539 ; the
Statue unveiled — a remarkable Dinner-party, 540 ; a sham naval Battle — early Residents of Cleveland,
541 ; Perry and his Captives, 542 ; Reception of Perry and Harrison at Erie, 543.
CHAPTER XXVI.
HARRISON'S INVASION OF CANADA — HIS HOME.
Arrangements for invading Canada, 544 ; Army of the Northwest in Motion, 545 ; it crosses Lake Erie,
546 ; Proctor, frightened, flees from Maiden — Tecumtha's scornful Rebuke, 547; vigorous Pursuit of the
British, 548 ; the Armies in the River Thames, 549 ; Destruction of Property, 550 ; the British and In
dians make a Stand for Battle, 551 ; the Armies in battle Array, 552 ; Battfe of the Thames, 553, 554 ;
British defeated — Death of Tecumtha — who killed him, 555 ; Gallantry of Colonel Johnson, 556 ; Harri
son and Proctor properly rewarded, 557, 558 ; Returns to Detroit — Effect of the Victory, 559 ; the Au
thor's Visit to the Thames Battle-ground, 560, 561 ; Harrison on the Northern Frontier, 562; Harrison
leaves the Army — Author's Journey in Ohio, 563 ; Antiquities at Newark, 564, 565 ; Columbus and the
Scioto Valley, 566 ; Chillicothe and its Vicinity, 567, 568 ; Governor Worthington's Residence, 569 ;
Visit to Batavia and North Bend, 570 ; North Bend and its early Associations, 571 ; Courtship and Mar
riage of Captain Harrison and Anna Symmes, 572 ; Harrison's Tomb and Dwelling, 573, 574.
CHAPTER XXVII.
EVENTS ON THE ST. LAWRENCE FRONTIER AND UPPER CANADA.
The Energies of Great Britain displayed, 575 ; Operations in the St. Lawrence Region, 576 ; Attack on
Elizabethtown — Retaliation, 577 ; Attack on Ogdensburg, 578 ; Defense of the Town, 579 ; Ogdensburg
captured, 580 ; the Village plundered and Citizens carried off, 58 1 ; Author's Visit to Ogdensburg and
Prescott, 582 ; the Canadian Rebellion, 583 ; another Invasion of Canada contemplated, 584 ; Prepara
tions for it, 585 ; Expedition against Little York, 586, 587 ; Americans land and drive the British to Lit
tle York, 588 ; Explosion of a Powder-magazine and Death of General Pike, 589 ; Capture of York and
Escape of the British, 590 ; York abandoned — a Scalp as an Ornament, 591 ; the Author's Visit to To
ronto, formerly Little York, 592 ; an Adventure among the Fortifications, 593 ; notable Men and Places
at Toronto, 594 ; Passage across Lake Ontario — Journey to Niagara Falls, 595 ; Expedition against Fort
George — the respective Forces, 596 ; Cannonade between Forts George and Niagara, 597 ; the American
Squadron and the landing of Troops, 598 ; a severe Battle — Capture of Fort George, 599 ; the British
retreat to the Beaver Dams and Burlington Heights, 600 ; British Property on the Niagara Frontier de
stroyed by themselves — Expedition toward Burlington Heights, 601 ; the Americans at Stony Creek, 602;
Battle at Stony Creek, 603 ; Capture of Generals Chandler and Winder, 604 ; the Americans flee and
are pursued, 605 ; Destruction of Property at Sodus — British Fleet off Oswego, 606.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
EVENTS AT SACKETT's HARBOR AND ON THE NIAGARA FRONTIER IN 1813.
British Designs on Sackett's Harbor — its Defenses, 607 ; General Brown in Command at Sackett's Harbor,
608 ; Assembling of the Militia — Approach of the British, 609 ; Position of the Militia — a Panic and Flight,
610; a Conflict — Destruction of Public Stores, 611 ; the British retreat, 612 ; Sackett's Harbor and its
Defenses, 614; the Author's Visit there — the Frigate New Orleans — a neglected Monument, 616; his
torical Localities around Sackett's Harbor — a Visit to Watertown and Brownsville, 617; the Story of
Whittlesey and his Wife, 618 ; Movements on the Niagara Frontier, 619 ; Expedition against the British
at the Beaver Dams. 620 ; Services of a patriotic Woman. 621 ; Defeat and Surrender of the Americans
— Fort George invested, 622 ; the Author's Visit to the Beaver Dams Region, 623 ; a veteran Canadian
viii CONTENTS.
Soldier, 624 ; Visit to Stony Creek and Hamilton, 625 ; British and Indian Raids on the Niagara Fron
tier, 626 ; Battle at Black Kock, 627 ; Expedition to Burlington Heights and York, 628 ; Dearborn suc
ceeded by Wilkinson, 629 ; Relations between Wilkinson, Armstrong, and Hampton, 630 ; Affairs on the
Niagara Frontier, 631 ; Fort George menaced and Newark burnt, 632 ; just Indignation of the British —
Retaliation proposed, 633 ; Fort Niagara captured — Desolation of that Frontier, 634 ; N.Y. Militia at Buf
falo, 635 ; Battle near Black Rock and Destruction of Buffalo, 636 ; Horrors of retaliatory Warfare, 637.
CHAPTER XXIX.
EVENTS ON THE NORTHERN FRONTIER IN 1813.
Wilkinson concentrates his Forces, 638 ; General Dearborn moves into Canada, 639 ; Repulse of the British
at La Colle — Colonel Carr, 640 ; Preparations for War on Lake Champlain, 641 ; Movements of Hamp
ton in Northern New York, G42 ; Chauncey tries to engage Sir James Yeo on Lake Ontario, 643 ; a Bat
tle at last, 644 ; Chauncey again searching for his Foe, 645 ; an Expedition for the St. Lawrence against
Montreal — Disasters, 646 ; Hampton's Operations in the Chateaugay Region, 647 ; Wilkinson's Expedi
tion on the St. Lawrence, 648 ; Battle off French Creek — the Expedition moves down the St. Lawrence,
649 ; the Flotilla passes Prescott, 650 ; General Brown invades Canada — Wilkinson in Peril, 651 ; Prep
arations for a Battle, 652 ; Battle of Chrysler's Field, 653 ; the Americans go down the St. Lawrence,
654 ; Character of some of the chief Leaders, 655 ; the Army in winter Quarters at French Mills, 656 ;
its Sufferings there and Release, 657 ; Attempt to seduce American Soldiers from their Allegiance, 658 ;
the Author's Visit to the St. Lawrence Region — Carleton Island, 659, 660 ; William Johnson of the Thou
sand Islands, 661 ; his Exploits, Arrest, and Imprisonment, 662 ; his Sen-ices in the War of 1812, 663 ;
a Visit to French Mills and Vicinity, 664 ; Rouse's Point — La Colle, 665 ; a Visit to Chrysler's Farm,
Prescott, and Ogdensburg, 666.
CHAPTER XXX.
PREDATORY WARFARE OF THE BRITISH ON THE COAST.
Blockade of the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays declared, 667 ; Operations of Blockaders in Chesapeake Bay,
668 ; Attack on Lewiston — Cockburn, the Marauder, 669 ; Capture of Frenchtown, 670 ; Attack on
Havre de Grace, 671 ; the Town plundered and fired, 672 ; the Author's Visit to Havre de Grace — John
O'Neill, 673 ; Cockburn plunders and destroys other Villages, 674 ; stirring Scenes in Hampton Roads,
675 ; a British Fleet enters the Roads, 676 ; Craney Island and its Defenders, 677 ; Preparations for
Battle, 678 ; the British attack, aie repulsed, and withdraw, 679 ; they turn upon Hampton, 680 ; they
land and menace it, 681 ; a Struggle for the Possession of Hampton, 682 ; Americans driven out, and the
Village given up to Rapine and Plunder, 683 ; the Author visits Craney Island and Norfolk, 684, 685 ;
the Fortifications on Craney Island, 686 ; a Visit to Hampton, 687 ; a Daughter of Commodore Barren
— a Veteran of 1812 — Hampton destroyed by Virginia Rebels, 688 ; Cockburn in the Potomac and on the
Coasts of the Carolinas and Georgia, 689 ; Secret Organizations among the Slaves, 690 ; Decatur runs
the Blockade at New Yorkf 691 ; blockading Squadron off New London, 692 ; Alarm produced by Tor
pedo Vessels, 693 ; the Coast of Connecticut blockaded — the local Militia, 694 ; Decatur in the Thames,
695 ; the Author's Visit to New London and its Vicinity, 696, 697.
CHAPTER XXXI.
WAR ON THE OCEAN IN 1813.
Battle between the Hornet and Peacock, 698 ; Victory of the Hornet — Prowess of the Americans respected,
699 ; Honors to Captain Lawrence and his Men, 700 ; Cruise of the Chesapeake — her Character, 701 ;
Lawrence's last official Letter, 702 ; Brake's Challenge, 703 ; the Chesapeake and her Crew, 704 ; the
Chesapeake goes out to fight, 705 ; Battle between the Chesapeake and Shannon — Death of Lawrence,
706 ; Treachery — Capture of the Chesapeake — she is taken to Halifax, 708 ; Exultation of the British,
709 ; Honors to Captain Broke, 710 ; Respect paid to the Remains of Lawrence and his Lieutenant, Lud-
low, 711 ; funeral Ceremonies at Salem, 712 ; funeral Ceremonies at New York — Monuments, 713; stir
ring Scenes in Chesapeake Bay, 714 ; Cruise of the Argus in British Waters, 715 ; Battle between the
An/us and Pelican, 716 ; Battle between the Enterprise and Boxer, 71 7 ; Funeral of the Commander of
each at Portland, 718 ; Honors to Burrows and M'Call, 719 ; last Cruise of the Enterprise, 720.
CHAPTER XXXII.
CRUISE OF THE ESSEX.
Weakness of the American Navy, 721 ; the Essex starts on a long Cruise — a Search for Bainbridge, 722 ;
she sails for the Pacific Ocean, 723 ; her Search for British whaling Vessels, 724 ; by capturing and arm
ing British whaling Vessels, Porter creates a Squadron, 725 ; successful Cruise among the Gallapagos Isl
ands, 726 ; Porter sails for the Marquesas Islands, 727 ; civil War in Nooaheevah, 728 ; Porter engages
in the War, 729 ; the Women of Nooaheevah, 730 ; Incidents in the Harbor of Valparaiso, 731 ; Battle
between the Essex and two British Ships, 732 ; the Essex captured — Porter returns Home, 733 ; Honors
to Commodore Porter — his subsequent Career, 734; Rodgers's long Cruise in 1813 — his Services to his
Country, 735, 736 ; he makes another Cruise in the President — Honors to Rodgers, 737.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
WAR AGAINST THE CREEK INDIANS.
Insurrectionary Movements in Louisiana, 738 ; military Movements in West Florida, 739 ; Louisiana made
a State — Insurrection in East Florida, 740 ; Action of United States Officials there — Expedition, 741 •
Surrender of Mobile to the Americans, 742 ; Tennessee Volunteers on the Mississippi, 743 ; they return
to Nashville, 744 ; Tecumtha in the Creek Country — he exhorts the Creeks to make War on the White
People, 746 ; the Creek Nation and their Position, 747 ; Civil War among the Creeks — White People in
Peril, 748 ; the Militia in the Field — Battle of Burnt Corn Creek, 749 ; Preparations for Defense in Lower
Alabama, 750 ; Fort Minis and its Occupants, 751 ; Rumors of impending Hostilities, 752 ; Fort Mims
CONTENTS. ix
crowded with Refugees, 753 ; gathering of hostile Savages near, 754 ; furious Assault on Fort Mims, 755 ;
Massacre at Fort Mims, 756; Horrors of the Massacre, 757; Response of the Tennesseeans to a Cry for
Help, 758 ; General Andrew Jackson in the Field — Mobile threatened, but saved, 759.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
WAR AGAINST THE CREEK INDIANS.
Jackson heeds a Cry for Help from the Coosa, 7GO ; the Army threatened with Famine — Affairs in the
lower Creek Country, 761 ; Choctaw Allies — Expedition against Tallasehatche, 762; Battle of Talla-
sehatche, 763 ; Jackson hastens to the Relief of threatened Posts, 764 ; Battle at Talladega, 765 ; the dis
pirited Indians sue for Peace, 7G6 ; Destruction of the Hillabee Towns, 7G7 ; the Creek Country invaded
from Georgia — Battle of Auttose, 768 ; Expedition under Captain Dale, 769 ; Dale's terrible Canoe
Fight, 770; Fort Claiborne at Randon's Landing, 771 ; Battle of Econochaco, 772; Dissolution of the
Armies in the Creek Country — new Volunteers, 773 ; Battle of Emucfau, 774 ; Battle on Enotochopco
Creek, 775 ; Battle on the Calebee River, 776 ; East Tennesseeans and Choctaw Allies on the Way to the
Creek Country, 777; Battle of the Horseshoe, 779 ; the Power of the Creek Nation broken there, 780;
the subdued Indians sue for Peace — Weathersford in Jackson's Tent, 781 ; the Creek Nation ruined, 782.
CHAPTER XXXV.
CIVIL AFFAIRS IN 1813 — EVENTS ON THE NORTHERN FRONTIER IN 1814.
Political Composition of Congress — Peace Commissioners, 783 ; illicit Traffic — Change in public Sentiment
— Peace Party, 784 ; revolutionary Proposition — new Embargo Act, 785 ; Rumors of Peace — Embargo
Act repealed," 786 ; Provisions for the increase of the Army, 787 ; Prisoners of War — retaliatory Meas
ures proposed, 788 ; Campaign on the Northern Frontier and Lake Champlain, 789; Wilkinson marches
on La Colle Mill, in Canada, 790 ; Battle of La Colle Mill, 79 1 ; end of Wilkinson's military Career, 792 ;
Brown, moving toward the Niagara Frontier, perplexed by Orders from the War Department, 793 ; Naval
Forces on Lake Ontario, 794 ; the British attack Oswego, 795 ; they capture Oswego, 7i>6 ; Survivors of
the War in Oswego, 797 ; Sackett's Harbor blockaded, 798 ; Woolsey at Big Sandy Creek with Stores
for Sackett's Harbor, 799 ; Battle at Big Sandy Creek, 800 ; a great Cable carried to Sackett's Harbor —
Author's Visit to Big Sandy Creek, 801 ; the Army on the Niagara Frontier — Red Jacket, 802 ; Fort Erie
and the Invasion of Canada, 803 ; an Invasion of Canada from Black Rock, 804 ; Capture of Fort Erie,
805; Scott prepares for battle at Street's Creek, 806 ; preliminary Fighting, 807; Scott advances — the
British Force, 808; the Battle of Chippewa, 809, 810; the British driven from Chippewa — Indians dis
heartened, 81 1 ; the Armies inspirited by the Victory, 812; Preparations to cross the Chippewa Creek,
813 ; the British retreat — Brown marches for Fort Georgo, 814 — he falls back to Chippewa, 815.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
WAR ON THE NIAGARA FRONTIER IN 1814.
The British, re-enforced, advance toward Chippewa, 816; Scott discovers ^:hem near Niagara Falls, 817;
the British attack Scott, 818; Brown advances from Chippewa, 819 ; Colonel Miller captures a British
Battery, 820; Appreciation of his Exploit, 821 ; desperate Struggle in the darkness — Victory for the
Americans, 822 ; close of the Battle of Niagara Falls, 823 ; the Battle and the Victory considered, 824 ;
Scott, wounded, proceeds to Washington, 825 ; Honors awarded him, 826 ; the Author's Visit to the
Battle-grounds of Chippewa and Niagara Falls, 827, 828 ; the Army falls back and is ordered to Fort
Erie, 829 ; the British again attack Black Rock, 830 ; Brown wounded — Gaines takes Command of the
Army, 831 ; the American Troops at Fort Erie, 832 ; the British assail the Fort, 833 ; Battle of Fort
Erie, 834, 835 ; Brown resumes Command, 836 ; a Sortie, 837 ; brilliant Success of General Porter, 838 ;
Triumph of Miller and Upham, 839 ; the British abandon the Siege, 840 ; Honors awarded to General
Brown, 841 ; Honors to Generals Porter and Ripley, 842 ; two remarkable Survivors of the Battle of Fort
Erie, 843 ; General Izard sends Troops to the Niagara Frontier, 844 ; he takes Command there, 845 ; the
American Troops withdraw from Canada, 846 ; the Author visits Fort Erie and its Vicinity, 847, 848 ;
Holmes's Expedition into Canada — Battle of the Long Woods, 849 ; Expedition to the upper Lakes, 850 ;
Operations in that Region, 851 ; M 'Arthur's Raid in Canada, 852 — his Bravery and Generosity, 853.
CHAPTER XXXVII.
EVENTS ON LAKE CHAMPLAIN IN 1814.
The Downfall of Napoleon, 854 ; English Troops released for Service in America, 855 ; Struggle for the
Control of Lake Champlain, 856 ; Operations on the Canada Border, 857; alarming Order from the War
Department, 858 ; Concentration of Troops at Plattsburg, 859 ; Position of American Works there, 860 ;
the British advanco on Plattsburg, 861 ; a Skirmish at Beekmantown, 862 ; another near Plattsburg,
863 ; the British checked at the Saranac Bridge, 864 ; British land — our naval Forces in motion, 865 ;
Opening of naval Battle off Plattsburg, 866 ; Battle of Lake Champlain, 867-870 ; Victory for the Amer
icans complete, 87L; Casualties, 872 ; Movements of the land Troops — Battle of Plattsburg, 873 ; the
British ahvrmed, 874 ; their hasty Flight into Canada, 875 ; Rejoicings because of Victory, 876 ; Honors
to General Macomb, 877 ; Honors to Commodore Macdonough, 878 ; Effect of the Victory at Plattsburg,
879 ; the Author's Visit to the Scene of War on and near Lake Champlain, 880-884 ; Operations on Lake
Ontario, 885; a heavy British Ship on the Lake, 886; close of Hostilities on the Northern Frontier, 887.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
THE WAR ON THE NEW ENGLAND COAST IN 1814.
The Blockade of New London, 888 ; amphibious Warfare on the New England Coast, 889 ; New England
sea-port Towns blockaded, 890; Portsmouth and Boston menaced, 891 ; Preparations for the Defense of
Boston, 892; the British Squadron attacks Stonington, 893; Captain Holmes and his Gun, 894; a Dep
utation sent to the British Commander, 895 ; the British repulsed — impotency of the Attack, 896 ; a
x CONTENTS.
British Force on the Coast of Maine, 897; Operations in Penohscot Bay and River, 898; Preparations
at Hampden to oppose the British Invasion, 899 ; Panic and Flight of the Militia, 900 ; the British at
Bangor, 901 ; Treatment of General Blake, 902 ; the British at Castine, 903 ; the Author's Visit to Places
on the New England Coast — Observations at Boston, 904 ; at Salem and Marblehead, 905-907 ; Journey
to the Penobscot, 908 ; Observations at Castine, 909 ; Voyage up the Penobscot, 910 ; Hampden, 911;
Observations at Bangor, 912 ; Visit to New Bedford and Providence, 913 ; Stonington and Mystic, 914 ;
Story of a faithful Daughter, 915.
CHAPTER XXXIX.
THE CAPTURE OF WASHINGTON CITY.
Apathy of the Government while the Capital was in peril, 916; feeble Preparations for its Defense, 917;
General Winder in Command — a Call for Troops, 918; Tardiness of the Secretary of War — Apathy of
the People, 9 1 9 ; Appearance of the British in Chesapeake Bay, 920 ; gathering of Troops — Destruction
of Barney's Flotilla, 921; the Forces gathered for the Defense of Washington and Baltimore, 922; the
British move on Washington from the Patuxent, 923 ; Battle Lines formed near Bladensburg, 924 ; Ex
citement in the national Capital, 925 ; the British advance on Bladensburg, 926 ; Arrangements to receive
them, 926, 927; Dueling -ground near Bladensburg, 928 ; Battle of Bladensburg, 929, 930 ; Barney
wounded and made Prisoner, 931; the victorious British march on Washington City, 932; Destruction
of the public Buildings, 933 ; Destruction of the Navy Yard, 934 ; Flight of the President and his Cabinet
— Patriotism of Mrs. Madison, 935 ; Object of the Invasion, 936 ; the British retreat from Washington,
937 ; Slavery the cause of the Disaster at Bladensburg, 938 ; a British Fleet passes up the Potomac, 939 ;
Alexandria plundered — Torpedoes, 940 ; the British Squadron returns to Chesapeake Bay — Visit to the
Battle-ground at Bladensburg, 941 ; Kalorama and Oak Hill Cemetery, 942; Congressional Burial-
ground — Fort Washington, 943.
CHAPTER XL.
EVENTS AT BALTIMORE, PHILADELPHIA, AND NEW YORK IN 1814.
The British in Chesapeake Bay, 944 ; Exploits of Parker and Cockburn, 945 ; Operations of the British
Fleet in Chesapeake Bay, 946 ; Baltimore threatened, 947 ; Preparations for the Defense of Baltimore,
British Invaders driven off, 956 ; " The Star-spangled Banner," 957; the British land Troops march on
Baltimore, 958 ; they retire to their Ships — the British Programme, 959 ; Honors to Colonel Armistead,
960 ; the Author's Visit to Baltimore and the historical Localities around it, 961-965 ; New York and
Philadelphia relieved, 965 ; the Volunteer Companies of Philadelphia, 966 ; Organization of Troops and
Establishment of Camps, 967 ; Patriotism of the Citizens of Philadelphia, 968 ; New York aroused — Com
mittee of Defense, 969 ; the Citizens assist in casting up Fortifications — "The Patriotic Diggers," 970 ;
the Fortifications around New York, 971-975 ; a floating Battery authorized by Congress, 976 ; the Steam
ship Fulton the First, 977.
CHAPTER XLI.
NAVAL WARFARE ON THE OCEAN IN 1814 AMERICAN PRIVATEERS.
984; the Constitution and her Prizes — Honors to Commodore Stewart, 985 ; Stewart's Home in New
Jersey, 986 ; Decatur's Squadron — he puts to Sea in the President, 987 ; Battle between the President
and Ehdymion, 988 ; the rest of Decatur's Squadron puts to Sea, 989 ; Battle between the Hornet and
Penguin, 990 ; Honors to Captain Biddle, 991 ; Cruise of the Hornet and Peacock — the Navy at the end
of the War, 992 ; the first Privateers, 993 ; Cruise of the Rossie, 994 ; first Prize taken to Baltimore —
the Globe, 995; Cruise of the Higliflyer, Yankee, and Shadow, 996 ; Salem and Baltimore Privateers, 997;
Privateering at the close of 1812, 998; remarkable Cruise of the Corned, 999; Cruise of the Chasseur, Sar
atoga, Dolphin, Lottery, and Yankee, 1000; Cruise of the General Armstrong, Ned, and Scourye, 1001 ;
the Teaser — Capture of the Eagle — Cruise of the Decatur, 1002; Cruise of the David Porter, Globe, and
Harpy, 1003; the Career of the General Armstrong, 1004; Honors to Captain Reid — Cruise of the Prince
de Neufchatel, 1005 ; Cruise of the Saucy Jack and Kemp, 1006 ; Cruise of the Macdonough and Amelia
— the American Privateers and their Doings, 1007.
CHAPTER XLII.
CIVIL AFFAIRS IN 1814 — OPERATIONS IN THE GULF REGION.
Boston the Centre of illicit Trade, 1 008 ; the Peace Faction assails the Government and the Public Credit
1009 ; Effects of the Conspiracy against the Public Credit, 1010; new financial Measures — Revival of the
Public Credit, 1011 ; Measures for increasing the Army — Discontents in New England, 1012 ; the Hart
ford Convention, 1013-1015 ; the Members of the Hartford Convention, 1016 ; Jackson recalled to active
Service in the Gulf Region, 1017; the Baratarians and their Leader, 1018 ; Jackson perceives Mischief
at Pensacola, 1019 ; Fort Bowyer threatened by a British Squadron, 1020; the Fort attacked and the
Assailants repulsed, 1021 ; the British at Pensacola — Jackson marches on that Post, 1022 ; Flight of the
British and Indians, 1023 ; Jackson in New Orleans — Appearance of the British, 1024 ; Preparations to
receive the Invaders, 1025 ; Capture of the American Flotilla on Lake Borgne, 1026 ; Jackson's Review
of Troops in New Orleans and their Disposition, 1027 ; the British approach the Mississippi, 1028 ; they
march on New Orleans — Response to Jackson's Call for Troops, 1029 ; Events below New Orleans, 1030 ;
a night Battle, 1031; the British fall back, 1032 ; the Americans withdraw, 1034.
CONTENTS. xi
CHAPTER XLIII.
DEFENSE OF NEW ORLEANS PEACE.
Jackson's Line of Defense, 1034; a gloomy Day for the Invaders — Arrival of General Pakenham, 1035;
Seat of War in Louisiana and Florida, 1036 ; severe Battle on the 28th of December, 1037 ; the British
vanquished — the American Lines of Defense, 1038 ; the British cast up Redoubts near the American Line,
1039; a heavy Battle, 1040; the British repulsed and then re-enforced, 1041 ; Jackson prepares to receive
the increased British Forces, 1042 ; Character and Disposition of his own Forces — Position of his Army
on the 7th of January, 1043; a British Detachment crosses the Mississippi, 1044; Battle of New Orleans,
1046-1049 ; Disposal of the Dead, 1050; Attack on Forts St. Philip and Bowyer — Jackson's Army in
New Orleans, 1051; Honors accorded to Jackson and his Troops, 1052 ; Rumors of Peace and continu
ance of Martial Law, 1053 ; Incidents of Jackson's Trial for Contempt of Court, 1054; the Author's Jour
ney to New Orleans — Lexington and "Ashland," 1055 ; Frankfort and its Cemetery, 1056; a Visit to
Nashville and the " Hermitage," 1057 ; New Orleans and its historic Men and Places, 1058 ; Attack on
Fort Sumter — Uprising of the People, 1059 ; Negotiations for Peace and the Commissioners, 1060; Ghent
and the Sympathy of its Inhabitants with the Americans, 1 061 ; the Treaty of Peace, 1062, 1063 ; Rejoic
ings of the American People, 1064; Commemorative Medals — its Ratification, 1065; Position of the Re
public at the close of the War, 1067; Readjustment of National Affairs — Dartmoor Prisoners, 1 068 ;
Prosperity of the Republic and its Relations to other Nations, 1069 ; Text of the Treaty of Peace, 1071.
1. Illuminated Frontispiece.
2. Title-page.
3. Preface Page iii
4. Contents v
5. Illustrations xiii
6. Initial Letter 17
7. First Great Seal of the United
States 20
8. War 22
9. Britannia aroused 22
10. Portrait of William Jackson. . 26
11. Jackson's Monument 2T
12. Portrait and Signature of Gou-
verneur Morris 28
13. Signatures of the Members of
the Constitutional Conven
tion 30,31, 32
14. Tail-piece 34
15. Initial Letter 35
1C. Campus Martius 3T
IT. Portrait and Signature of Miss
Heckewelder 37
18. Portrait and Signature of Gen
eral St. Clair 38
19. Signature of Wiuthrop Sargent 3S
20. Signature of Lord Dorchesterv. 38
21. Fort Harmar 39
22. Fort Washington, on the Site
of Cincinnati 41
23. Signature of Joseph Harmar.. 41
24. The Maumee Ford— Place of
Harmar's Defeat 42
25. Map— Harmar's Defeat 43
26. Hall's Crossing-place 43
27. Apple-tree near Harmar's Ford 44
28. Map— Plan of St. Clair's Camp
and Battle 47
29. Signature of Tobias Lear 49
30. Lowry's Monument 52
31. Map— Plan of Line of Wayne's
March 54
32. Signature of A. M'Kee 54
33. Map— Battle of the Fallen Tim
bers 55
34. Turkey-foot Rock 55
35. Signature of Colonel Ham-
tramck 56
36. Colonel Hamtramck's Tomb. . 56
37. Tail-piece— Indian Implements 57
38. Initial Letter 58
39. Portrait and Signature of T.
Pinckney 64
40. Liberty Cent 65
41. Portrait and Signature of Gen
eral Hamilton 66
42. Portrait and Signature of
Thomas Paine 69
43. A Bad Measure 69
44. An Assignat 74
45. Portrait of Louis XVI 76
46. Paine fitting Stays 76
47. Memorial Medal 76
43. Initial Letter 79
40. TheContrast 81
50. Portrait and Signature of
Thomas Miffliu 82
51. Portrait and Signature of E. C.
Genet 83
52. Portrait and Signature of John
Jay 85
53. Signature of Alexander M'Kim 89
54. Seal of the Republican Society
of Baltimore 89
55. Portrait and Signature of C. C.
Pinckney 92
56. Portrait and Signature of John
Adams 93
57. Portrait and Signature of Joel
Barlow . 94
58. Signature of Benjamin Stod- ' 116.
dert Page 96; 117.
50. Initial Letter 98
60. John Bull taking a Lunch 99 118.
61. Signature of Stephen Decatur 101
6'2. Portrait and Signature of John 119.
Barry 101
63. Commodore Barry's Monu- 120.
meut 101 121.
64. Naval Pitcher 104 122.
65. Medal presented to Commo- 123.
dore Truxtuu 105 | 124.
66. Signature of Thomas Truxtun 105 125.
67. Truxtun's Grave 105 126.
68. The Lutheran Church in Phil
adelphia 110 127.
69. Washington Medal Ill 128.
70. Tail-piece— M'Pherson Blue.. Ill
71. Initial Letter 112 129.
72. Portrait and Signature of
Thomas Jefferson 114 130.
73. Algiers in 1800 117 131.
74. Portrait and Signature of 132.
Richard Dale 118 133.
75. Dale's Monument 119 134.
76. Portrait and Signature of Ed
ward Preble 120 135.
77. Tripolitan Weapon 121 136.
78. Tripolitau Poniard 122 137.
79. Medal given to Commodore 13S.
Preble 123 139.
80. NavalMonument 124 !
81. Signature of William Eaton. . 125 \ 140.
82. Initial Letter 130 141.
S3. Portrait and Signature of A. 142.
Burr 135 143.
84. Signature of John Adair 136 ! 144.
85. Blennerhassett's Residence. . 136 I 145.
86. Signature of Blennerhassett. . 136 146.
87. Portrait and Signature of Ru- 147.
fusKing 143 148.
88. Portrait and Signature of Wil
liam Pinkney 148 149.
89. Initial Letter 140 ] 150.
90. Lynuhaveu Bay 156 151.
91. Portrait and Signature of 152.
Commodore Barron 159 153.
92. Portrait and Signature of 154.
James Monroe 161 155.
93. Initial Letter 167
94. Gun-boats 168 156.
95. Portrait and Signature of Jo-
siah Quincy 174 157.
96. Portrait and Signature of 158.
James Madison 176 150.
97. Fort or Battery Severn, at An- 160.
napolis 181 161.
98. Commodore Rodgers's Resi
dence 182 162.
99. Signals, No. 1 182 163.
100. SignalBook 182
101. Signals, No. 2 183 164.
102. Signals, No. 3 183 165.
103. Signals, No. 4 183 166.
104. Signal Alphabet 183 j 167.
105. Signal, No. 5 184 168.
106. Portrait and Signature of 169.
Commodore Rodgers 185
107. Tail-piece— Gauntlet 186 170.
108. Initial Letter 187
109. Birth-place of Tecumtha and 171.
his Brother 188 172.
110. The Prophet 189 | 173.
111. Joseph Barron 191 j 174.
112. Indian Detecter 191 175.
113. Portrait and Signature of Gen
eral Boyd 194 176.
114. Signature of Peter Funk 195
115. Fort Harrison 197 ! 177.
Signat're of Judge Naylor Page 198
Portrait and Signature of A.
Whitlock 199
Portrait and Signature of Wil
liam H. Harrison 200
View at Tippecanoe Battle
ground 202
Signature of J. Snelling 203
Map— Battle of Tippecanoe. . 205
Vignette to a Mournful Ballad 20S
Tippecanoe Battle-ground. .. 209
Tail-piece— Wigwam 209
Initial Letter 210
Portrait and Signature of H.
Clay 211
The Gerrymander 211
Portrait and Signature of J.
Randolph 215
Portrait and Signature of J.
C. Calhoun 216
Signature of Josiah Quincy. . 217
Signature of James Emott. .. 217
Signature of J. H. Craig 220
Fac-simileofaNewspapenDut 224
Portrait and Signature of Gov
ernor Clinton 225
Governor Clinton's Tomb. ... 226
Caricature— Josiah the First. 228
Initial Letter 233
Portrait of George the Fourth 233
Signature of Jonathan Wil
liams 235
Fort Independence 236
Castle Williams 237
Plan of Fort M'Henry 237
Torpedo, Plate 1 238
Torpedo, Plate 2 239
Torpedo, Plate 3 239
Torpedo, Plate 4 240
Destruction of the Dorothea.. 240
Portrait and Signature of Rob
ert Fulton 242
Fulton's Birth-place 242
Signature of Edward Baynes. 247
Portrait of Henry Dearborn. . 240
GeneralDearborn's Residence 250
The Parting Stone 250
Initial Letter 251
Portrait and Signature of Wil
liam Hull 252
Portrait and Signature of John
Johnston 253
Place of Hull's Rendezvous. . 254
Signature of Governor Meigs. 255
View at Bloody Bridge 261
Colonel Babie's Residence... 262
View at the Riviere aux Ca
nards 264
Map— Detroit Frontier 266
Portrait and Signature of Dun
can M'Arthur 267
Mackinack.fromRoundlsIand 267
Arch Rock, Mackinack 268
Fort Mackinack 269
Tail-piece— Canoe 271
Initial Letter 272
Fort Niagara, from Fort
George 274
Portrait of Thomas B. Van
Home 275
Barracks at Sandwich 278
Maguaga Battle-ground 281
Tecumtha 282
Signature of J. B. Glegg 283
Portrait and Signature of D.
Noon 292
Portrait and Signature of Lew
is Cass 294
Tail-piece— Neglected Grave. 296
XIV
ILLUSTRATIONS.
ITS. Initial Letter Page 297
250. Portrait and Signature of Sol
omon Van Rensselaer.. Page 407
251. Signature of John Lovett 407
252. Tail-piece— Proclamation and
Sword 411
318. Tail-piece— A Scalp Page 493
319. Initial Letter 494
1T9. Signature of Jno. B. Laughton 298
180. View at Maiden, Upper Can
ada . 299
320. Signature of R.M.Johnson .. 495
321. J()hnsoii's Monument 496
181. British Cannon at Detroit 300
182. Signature of Robt. Reynolds. . 300
183 Signature of C Moran 302
322. Portrait and Signature of G.
Croghan 499
253 Initial Letter 412
254. Brock's Monument on Queens-
ton Heights 414
323. View at Fremont, or Lower
Sandusky 500
184. Kmzie Mansion and Fort
Dearborn 303
185. The Black Partridge's Medal. 306
255. Monument where Brock fell. . 416
256. Signature of Solomon Vroo-
324. Plan of Fort Stephen son 503
325. Gold Medal awarded to Gen
eral Croghau 505
257. PresentOutline of Fort George 418
258. French Magazine at Fort
George. 418
326. Lower Castalian Spring 506
ISs' Port W'vvne in 1819 315
327. Site of Fort Stephenson 507
18»! The Little Turtle's Grave 315
190. Bridge at the Head of the Mau-
328. Part of Short's Sword-scab
bard 507
259. Distant View of Fort Missis-
329. Perry's Residence 509
191. Portrait and Signature of Z.
Taylor 318
260. Interior View— Fort Mississa-
ga in 1860 419
330. Portrait and Signature of Dan
iel Dobbins 509
192. General Taylor's Residence.. 319
193 Initial Letter . 320
261. Mission-house on the Grand
River 421
331. Wayne's Block-house at Erie 510
332. Site of French Fort and En
trance to Erie Harbor 511
194 Fort Defiance 333
262. Portrait and Signature of G.
II M Johnson 421
195 Site of Fort Defiance 333
333. Mouth of Cascade Creek 511
334. Block-house 511
335. Map— Erie and Presq' Isle Bay 514
336. Portrait and Signature of Ush
er Parsons 516
190. Apple-tree at Defiance 334
197. Tail-piece — Indians at Ruins
of a Village 33T
198 Initial Letter 338
263. Ornamental Tomahawk 421
264 Deer-shank Weapon 422
265. Silver Calumet 422
°G6 Ancient ScalpiiT'-knife 422
199. Portrait and Signature of Si-
207. Mohawk Church, Grand Riv
er C W 423
337. Put-in Bay 517
338. Initial Letter 518
200. Signature of Elijah Wads-
worth 340
268. Interior of Mohawk Church.. 423
269. Communion Plate 425
270. General Porter's Residence,
Black Rock 426
339. Perry's Look-out, Gibraltar
Island 518
201. Portrait and Signature of E.
Whittlesey 341
340 Perry's Battle-flag 519
341. Portrait of O. H. Perry 521
202. Signature of William Eustis.. 349
203. Winchester's Head-quarters. . 354
204. Map — Movements at French-
town 358
271. Signature of George M'Feely. 426
272. Signature of Cecil Bisshopp. . 428
273. Signature of Samuel Angus. . . 428
274. Tail-piece — Snail on Maple-
leaf 432
342. View of Perry's Birth-place. . . 521
343. Catafalco 521
344. Perry's Monument 521
345. The two Squadrons just before
the Battle 522
205 Residence of La Salle 359
206. Monroe, from the Battle
ground 361
20T. Signature of Laurent Duro-
cher 362
275. Initial Letter 433
276. Signature of R. Byron 436
277. The ComtUution in 1SGO 436
278. Fac-simile of Commodore Por-
346. Portrait and Signature of 8.
Champlin 523
347. First Position in the Action. . 523
348. Signature of J. J. Yarnall 524
349. Second Position in the Battle 526
350. Portrait and Signature of J.
Chapman 527
208. Portrait and Signature of Jas.
Knafo-s 363
279. Portrait and Signature of
209. Tail-piece — Tomahawk and
Scalpin "-knife 364
280. Hull's Monument 442
351. Signature of Thomas Holdup 528
352. Position of the Squadrons at
the close of the Battle 529
210. Initial Letter 365
281. Portrait of James Richard Da-
211. Arsenal Building, Watertown 306
212. Signature of Colonel Benedict 36T
213. Portrait of Captain William
Vau"-han 36S
282 Hull's Medal 446
353. Almy's Sword 529
283. Portrait and Signature of Cap-
354. Fac-simile of Perry's Dispatch 530
355. The Burial-place, Put-in Bay. 532
356. Queen Charlotte and Johnny
Bull 534
214. Cipher Alphabet and Numer
als 3TO
215. Signature of Paul Hamilton.. 3TO
216. Signature of Richard Dodge.. 373
217. Appearance of Fort Presenta
tion in 1812 373
284. Signature of Thos. Whinyates 449
285. Signature of J. P. Beresford. . 451
286. A Wasp on a Frolic 452
287. Medal awarded to Captain
Jones 452
357. The Perry Medal 535
358 The Elliott Medal 535
359. Signature of Asel Wilkinson. 538
SCO. Portrait of Benjamin Fleming 538
361. Perry's Lantern 539
288 The Biddle Urn 453
218 Design on Indian Pass 374
289. Tail-piece— Eagle bearing off
the Trident of Neptune 453
290 Initial Letter . . . 454
219. Signature of G. D. Young. ... 376
220. Portrait and Signature of Ele-
azer Williams . . 377
362 Perry's Statue 540
363. Portrait and Signature of S.
Sholes 541
291. Signature of John S. Garden. 456
292. Medal awarded to Decatur. . . 458
293. Portrait and Signature of
Commodore Bainbridge.. .. 459
294. Baiubriclge's Monument 459
295. Bainbridge's New York Gold
Box 462
221. Old Church in St. Re<*is 378
364. Champlin's Chair 542
365 Perry's Quarters at Erie 543
223. The Port of Buffalo in 1813. . . 380
224. Remains at Fort Schlosser. . . 380
225. Signature of II. Dearborn 381
226. Map of the Niagara Frontier. 382
227. Portrait and Signature of Ste
phen Van Rensselaer 384
228. Signature of William Howe
Cuyler 387
366. Portrait of T.H.Stevens 543
367. Initial Letter 544
368. Portrait and Signature of C.
S. Todd 548
296. Bainbridge's Albany Gold Box 462
297. Bainbridge's Medal 463
998 Bainbrid<re's Urn 463
369. Dolsen's.. . 549
370. View at the Mouth of M'Greg-
or's Creek 550
299. Tail-piece — Napoieon's Flag
and Star descendiii" 472
371. M'Greeor's Mill 550
229. Portrait and Signature of Jes
se D Elliott 388
372. Portrait of Oshawahnah 552
300 Initial Letter 473
373. View on the Thames 553
230 Tail - piece Oar, Boarding-
301 Signature of C Gratiot 474
374. Map— Battle of the Thames.. 554
375. Portrait and Signature of S.
Theobald 556
pike, and Rope 388
302. Portrait and Signature of
Green Clay . . 476
231. Initial Letter 389
232. Signature of Alexander Smyth 389
233. Queenston in 1812 390
303. View of Cincinnati from New
port in 1812 . 476
376. The Harrison Medal 558
377. The Shelbv Medal 558
234. Signature of John K. Fenwick 391
235. View from the Site of Vroo-
man's Battery 391
304. Map— Fort Meigs and its Vi
cinity 477
305. Fac-simile of Harrison's Let
ter 479
378. Tecumtha's Pistol 560
379. Thames Battle-ground 561
380. Remains of an ancient Coffin 564
381. The four Sides of the Holy
Stone 564
236. Signature of John Chrystie... 392
237. Signature of James Collier... 393
238. Landing-place of the Ameri
cans at Queenston 395
306. Portrait and Signature of
Leslie Combs 480
382. Stone Axes 504
307 Up the Maumee Valley 481
383. Sectional View of a Pyramid. 564
384. Great Earth-work near New
ark 565
239. Russell's Law Office 396
308. Site of the British Batteries
from Fort Meigs 482
309. Portrait and Signature ofWm.
Christy 483
240. Portrait and Signature of John
E.Wool . . 397
385 The old State-house 567
241. Signature of J. R. Mnllanv. ... 399
242. Portrait and Signature of John
Brant 401
386. General M'Arthur's Residence 568
387. Portrait and Signature of T.
Worthlngton 568
310. Plan of Fort Meigs 484
311. Signature of W. E. Boswell.. . 487
312. Map Sie^e of Fort Mei<*s 488
243. Brant's Monument 401
388. Aden a, Governor Worthing-
244. Signature of Joseph G. Totten 403
245. Signature of J.Gibson 403
313. Remains "of Walker's Monu
ment. . . 489
389. Portrait and Signature of Mrs.
Harrison 571
246. New Magazine at Fort George 405
247. Signature of R. H. Sheaffe 405
248. Medal in Memory of General
Brock 400
314. Portrait of Peter Navarre 490
315. Ruins of Fort Miami 491
316. Up the Maumee from Maumee
City 492
317. Well at Fort Metes 492
390. Pioneer House, North Bend. . 571
391. Block-house at North Bend..- 571
392. Harrison's Grave 573
393. Svmmes's Monument 573
249. Brock's Monument. . . . . 406
ILLUSTRATIONS.
XV
395.
396.
397,
398.
399.
400.
402.
403.
404.
405.
406.
407.
408.
409.
410.
411.
412.
413.
414.
415.
416.
417.
418.
419.
420.
421.
422.
423.
424.
425.
426.
427.
428.
429.
430.
431.
432.
433.
434.
435.
436.
437.
438.
439.
440.
441.
442.
443.
444.
445.
440.
447.
449.
449.
450.
451.
452.
453.
454.
455.
456.
457.
458.
459.
460.
461.
462.
463.
464.
465.
466.
407.
Harrison's Residence at North
Bend .................. Page 574
Initial Letter ................. 57J
Block-house at Brockville ---- 57"!
Parish's Store-house .......... 578
Portrait and Signature of D.
W. Church ................. 578
Site of Fort Presentation ..... 579
Map— Operations at Ogdens-
burg ....................... 580
Portrait and Signature of J.
York ...................... 580
Court-house, Ogdensburg ---- 580
The battered Wind-mill ...... 583
Wind -mill and Ruins near
Prescott ................... 584
Fort Wellington in I860 ...... 584
Portrait and Signature of Z.
Pike
586
Little York in 1813 ........... 587
Remains of the Western Bat
tery.
668
Powder-magazine at Toronto 589
Map— Attack on Little York. . 590
Signature of John Ross 592
Remains of old Fort Toronto. 503
Old Fort at Toronto in 1860. . . 593
View on the Niagara near
Lewiston 505
Entrance to the Niagara River 597
Plan of Operations at the
Mouth of the Niagara 599
A North River Steam-boat. . . 601
Portrait and Signature of W.
H. Merritt 602
Battle-ground of Stony Creek 003
Tail - piece — Destruction of
Store-houses 606
Initial Letter 007
Portrait and Signature of Ja
cob Brown 608
General Brown's Monument.. 60S
Light-house at Horse Island.. 609
Signature of Capt. Mulcaster. 610
Map — Operations at Sackett's
Harbor 612
Sackett's Harbor in 1814 613
Map — Sackett's Harbor and its
Defenses 614
Signature of Henry Eckford.. 615
The yew Orleam 616
Pike's Monument 616
Remains of Fort Pike 617
Block-house, Sackett's Harbor 617
Mansion of General Brown. . . 618
Whittlesey Rock, Watertown. 018
Signature of C. G. Boerstler. . . 620
German Church 620
Portrait and Signature of Lau
ra Secord 621
Beaver Dams Battle-ground
and Surroundings 624
Signature of James Dittrick.. 624
Bisshopp's Monument 628
Interior of Fort Niagara 634
Signature of General A. Hall. 635
Tail-piece — Farm - house on
fire 637
Initial Letter 637
Portrait and Signature of J.
G. Swift 638
Signature of Joseph Bloom-
field 639
Signature of A. De Salaberry. 639
Portrait and Signature of Rob
ert Carr 640
Portrait and Signature of Jas.
Wilkinson 646
Signature of W. Hampton 648
Mouth of French Creek 649
Bald Island and Wilkinson's
Flotilla 650
Chrysler's in 1S55 652
Signature of Rob't Swartwout 652
Signature of J. A. Coles 653
Signature of J. Walbach 653
Map— Chrysler's Field 654
Signature of M. Myers 654
Place of Debarkation on the
Salmon River 655
Lewis and Boyd's Head-quar
ters 656
Brown's Head-quarters 656
Fac-simile of written Placard 658
Remains of Fort Carleton 659
Indian Armlet 660
Light-house kept by Johnston 661
468.
469.
470.
471.
472.
473.
474.
475.
476.
477.
478.
479.
480.
4S1.
482.
4S3.
484.
485.
486.
487.
488.
489.
490.
491.
492.
493.
494.
495.
496.
497.
498.
499.
Mill.
Mil.
MIL'.
MI;;.
504.
505.
500.
507.
M t.
M7.
18.
VJl.
MO.
._.
Peel Island 661 I 541.
Portrait and Signature of W.
Johnston... Page 662
Johnston's Commission 66;
French Mills in 1800 664
Signature of James Campbell 665
The Block-house Well 665
Signature of Peter Brouse 600
Victoria Medal 66C
Initial Letter 60'
Interior of old Fort Norfolk. . 66f
Signature of A. M'Laue 668
Signature of Admiral Cock-
burn 669
Landing-place of the British at
Havre cle Grace 671
The Pringle House 672
Episcopal Church 672
John O'Neil's Sword 673
General View of Crauey Island 675
Signature of Jos. Tarbell 67:
Signature of J. Sanders 676
Portrait and Signature of W.
B. Shubrick 670
Portrait and Signature of Rob
ert Taylor 67'
Signature of B. J. Neale 678
Portrait and Signature of Jas.
Faulkner 678
Plan of Operations at Craney
Island 67!
Signature of Josiah Tattnall. . 680
The Centipede 6S(
View at Hampton Creek in
1853 681
Plan of Operations at Hamp
ton 683
Head - quarters of Beckwith
and Cockburn 683
British Consul's House 68;
Oyster Fishing 6S5
Remains of Fortifications on
Craney Island 686
Block-house on Craney Island CSt
Magazine on Craney island. . 686
Landing-place of the British
at Murphy's 687
Kirby House OSS
Soldiers' Monument at Point
Pleasant 689
Osceola's Grave 600
Entrance to Bonaventure 601
Signature of T. M. Hardy 601
New London in 1813 692
Light-house at New London.. 694
Signature of H. Burbeck 604
Burbeck's Monument 694
Commodore Rodgers's Monu
ment 696
Ancient Block-house at Fort
Trumbull 697
New London Harbor from
Fort Trumbull 697
The old Court-house 697
Initial Letter 60S
The Lawrence Medal 700
Hornet and Peacock 700
Signature of Sam. Evans 701
Fac-simile of Lawrence's Let
ter 702
Fac-simile of Broke's Chal
lenge . * 703
The Chesap&tke disabled 706
Portrait of Captain Broke 707
Shannon and Chesapeake at
Halifax 70S
Portrait and Signature of Jas.
Lawrence 709
Signature of Admiral Warren 709
Admiral Warren's Seal 709
Silver Plate presented to Cap
tain Broke 710
Signature of George Budd .711
Coffins 712
ftawrence Memorial 712
Monument of Lawrence find
Ludlow 713
Lawrence's early Monument. 713
Portrait of W. H. Allen 715
Lieutenant Allen's Monument 716
Graves of Burrows, Blyth, and
Waters 718
The Burrows Medal 719
The M'Call Medal 720
Initial Letter 721
Portrait and Signature of D.
Porter 721
The mighty Gattanewa 728
The Essex and her Prizes 729
542. Marquesas Drum Page 730
543. Battle of the Essex, Phoebe, and
Cherub 733
544. David Porter's Monument.. .. 734
545. Initial Letter 738
546. Signature of Fulwar Skipwith 740
547. Signature of Hugh Campbell. 740
548. Portrait and Signature of Gen
eral Robertson 747
549. Signature of Sam Dale 749
550. Map— Seat of War in Southern
Alabama 751
551. FortMims 756
552. Portrait of John Coftee 759
553. Initial Letter 760
554. Map— Battle of Talladega 705
555. Claiborne Landing 770
550. Map— Seat of the Creek War
in Upper Alabama 778
557. Map— Battle of the Horseshoe 780
558. Initial Letter 783
559. Signature of N. Macon 784
560. Embargo— a Caricature 785
561. Death of the Terrapin 787
562. Signature of J. Mason 788
503. Signature of C. Van De Venter 788
504. Signature of George Glasgow 788
565. Map— Affair at La Colle Mill. 790
566. La Colle Mill and Block-house 791
507. The dismantled Superior 794
508. Sir J.L.Yeo 795
509. Attack on Oswego 796
570. Signature of A. Bronson 796
571. Signature of H. Eairle 797
572. Signature of M. M'Nair 797
573. Fort at Oswego in 1855 798
574. Place of Battle at Sandy Creek 799
575. Otis's House, Sandy Creek. .. 800
576. Signature of Alfred Ely 600
577. Signature of Harmon Ehle. .. 801
578. Portrait of Jehaziel Howard. . 801
579. Red Jacket's Medal 802
580. Portrait of Red Jacket 803
581. Profile and Signature of Wil
liam M'Ree 803
5S2. Portrait and Signature of C.
K.Gardner 805
583. Signature of General Riall. .. 805
5S4. Street's Creek Bridge S06
585. Remains of Tute-de-pont Bat
tery 807
556. Signature of Joseph Treat 807
587. Street's Creek Bridge, looking
North 808
588. General Towson's Grave 809
589. Map— Battle of Chippewa. . . . 810
590. Signature of Worth 812
591. Worth's Monument 812
592. Jones's Monument 812
593. Mouth of Lyon's Creek 813
504. Initial Letter 816
505. View at Lundy's Lane 818
500. Portrait and 'Signature of J.
Miller 820
597. Miller's Medal 821
508. Portrait of John M 'Neil 821
509. Flag of the Twenty-fifth 822
600. Map— Battle of Niagara Falls S23
601. Scott's Medal 826
602. Signature of Winfield Scott... 826
603. Signature of Jas. Cummings.. 827
004. Hospital near Lundy's Lane.. 828
605. Wooden Slab. 828
606. Remains of Douglass's Bat
tery and Fort Erie 830
007. Portrait and Signature of E.
P.Gaines 831
COS. Drummond's Secret Order 832
009. Gaiues's Medal 836
610. Portrait and Signature of P.
B. Porter 838
611. Porter's Tomb 838
612. Map— Sie<re of Fort Erie 839
613. Wood's Monument 840
J14. Brown's Medal 841
515. Brown's Gold Box 841
016. Signature of E. WT. Ripley. . . . 842
517. Porter's Medal 842
818. Seal of the City of New York. 842
519. Signature of De Witt Clinton 842
620. Ripley's Medal 843
321. Portrait of Robert White 844
622. Fac-simile of White's Writing 844
623. Portrait and Signature of G.
Izard 845
624. Ruins of Fort Erie 846
625. Fort Erie Mills 847
626. Signature of James Sloan 847
XVI
ILLUSTRATIONS.
627. Soldiers' Monument Page 848
628 Riley's Monument 849
712. Portrait and Signature of A.
B Holmes Page 914
798. Portrait and Signature of J.
Blakeley Page 979
629. Signature of R. M'Douall 850
630 Map M 'Arthur's Raid ... 852
713. Denison's Grave 914
714. Tail-piece— Bomb-shell 915
799. Blakeley's Medal 980
800. Portrait and Signature of L.
Warrington 981
631 Portrait of General Scott 853
715. Initial Letter 916
632 Initial Letter 854
716. Signature of P. Stuart 916
801. Warrington's Medal 982
633. Portrait and Signature of T.
717. Portrait and Signature of D.
L. Clinch 917
802. Billet-head of Cymw 985
803. Stewart's Medal 986
718. Portrait and Signature of W.
H Winder 918
804. Stewart's Residence 986
635 Signature of D Bissell 857
805. Stewart's Sword 986
630 S i "-nature of G Prevost 858
719 Signature of H Carbery 920
800. Portrait and Signature of C.
Stewart 987
637. Portrait and Sig. of B. Mooers 858
638. Portrait and Signature of A.
Macomb 859
720. Signature of J. P. Van Ness. . 920
721. Signature of T. E. Stansbury.. 921
722 Signature of J Sterett 921
807. Portrait and Signature of S.
Decatur 988
639 Sampson's . 859
723 Signature of W. Smith 922
808. Decatur's Monument 989
640. Map— Fortifications at Platts-
bur°- 860
724 Signature of S West 922
809. Portrait and Sig. of J. Biddle 990
810. Biddle's Medal 991
725 Signature of W D. Beall 922
641. M. Smith's Monument 801
642. Howe's House 862
643 Platt's Residence . 863
720. Signature of W. Scott 922
727. Signature of J. Tilghman 922
728 Ofd Mill, Bladeusburg 924
811. Privateer Schooner 993
812. Signature of Admiral Sawyer 994
813. Portrait and Signature of S.
C.Reid 1004
644 Old Stone Mill 864
729. Bridge at Bladensburg 927
730 Residence of J. C. Rives 927
645 The Saranac 865
814. Initial Letter 1008
646. Henley's Medal 868
731. Dueling-ground, Bladensburg 928
732. Signature of J. Davidson 928
733 Map Battle of Bladeusbur"- 929
815. Signature of A. J. Armstrong 1011
816. Portrait and Signature of A.
J Dallas 1011
647. Cassin's Medal 868
648. Portrait and Signature of H.
Pauldin0' 869
734. Portrait and Signature of J.
Barney 930
817. Signature of T.Jesup 1013
649. View from Cumberland Head 870
650. Map Naval Action . . 871
818. Signatures of the Members of
the Hartford Convention . . 1014
819. Caricature 1015
820. The Hermitage.... 1017
821. Portrait of W. C. C. Claiborne 1019
822 Portrait of A Jackson . 1020
735 Barney's Spring 931
651. Macdonough's Dispatch 872
652. Portrait and Sig. of J. Smith . 872
653. Battle of Plattsburg 873
736. Bullet 931
737. The Capitol in 1814 932
738 Remains of the Capitol 933
654. The Saranac at Pike's Canton
ment 874
739. Remains of the President's
House 934
823. Map— Attack on Fort Bowyer 1021
824. Jackson's City Head-quarters 1024
825. Portrait of Major Plauche. . . 1024
826. Patterson's Monument 1025
655. Ruins of Fort Brown 875
650. Artillery Quadrant 875
740. Signature of T. Tingey 934
741. Portrait and Signature of D.
Madison 935
657. General Mooers's Grave 876
658. United States Hotel 876
742. Portrait and Signature of J.
Barker 936
827. Map— Fight of Gun-boats and
Barges 1026
659. Macomb's Monument 877
660. Macomb's Medal 878
743. Portrait and Signature of G.
R.Gleig 937
744. Signature of D.Wadsworth... 938
745. Fort Washington. ... . 939
828. Cathedral in New Orleans... 1027
829. Fort St. John 1028
661. Macdonounrh's Medal. . . . 878
662. Macdonough's Farm-house...- 879
663. Dowuie's Grave 879
830. Villero's Mansion 1029
831. Portrait of De la Ronde 1030
832. Lacoste's Mansion 1031
604. View in Beekmantown 880
746 Sketch of Torpedo 940
665. Soldiers' Graves 880
747 The Unknown 942
833. Map— Affair below N.Orleaus 1032
834. Portrait of De Lacy Evans... 1032
835. A Tennessee Flag 1033
666. Map— Seat of War 881
748. Barlow's Vault 942
667. Store-houses 882
749 Kalorama 942
668. Mooers's House SS2
609. Woolsey's House 883
750. Cenotaph 943
751. Gerry's Monument 943
836. Initial Letter 1034
837. De la Ronde's Mansion 1034
670. Ball in Mooers's House 834
752. Initial Letter 944
638. Map— Seat of War in Louisi
ana 1036
671. Portrait and Signature of F.
Gregory 885
753. Portrait and Sig. of P. Parker. 946
754. Portrait and Sig. of 8. Smith . 947
755. Montebello . 947
839. Jackson's Head-quarters 1037
840. Chalmette's Plantation 1039
672. Portrait and Signature of M.
Crane .. . .' 885
750 Rodilrers's Bastion 949
841. Map— Battle of New Orleans 1040
842 Remains of a Canal 1042
673. Crane's Monument 886
757. Methodist Meeting-house 950
758. Portrait and Signature of J.
Strieker 950
674. Portrait and Signature of I.
Chauncey 887-
843. Plauchc's Tomb 1043
844 You's Tomb 1043
675. Chauncey's Monument 887
759. Portrait and Signature of D.
M'Dou°-all 952
845. Map— Position of Troops 1044
846 Battle of New Orleans 1047
670. Initial Letter 888
677. Portrait and Signature of J.
Montgomery 891
678. Fort Pickering 891
700. Battle of North Point 958
847 Monument 1048
701. Battle-flag 954
702. Signature of M. Bird 954
703. Fort M'Heury in 1801 954
704. Signature of J. H.Nicholson.. 955
765. Signature of S. Lane 955
766. Portrait and Signature of G.
Armistead 955
767. Signature of F. S. Key 956
708. Star-spangled Banner 957
70!). The Armistead Vase 960
848. Pecan-trees 1050
849 Map — Fort St. Philip 1051
679. Carcass 894
680. Stonington Flag 894
850 Jackson's Medal 1052
851 Jackson's Draft . ... 1053
6S1. The Cobb House 896
682. Denison's Monument 896
852. Signature of D. A. Hall 1054
853 The Old Court-house 1054
683. Portrait and Signature of J.
Sherbrooke 897
684. Fort Porter, Castine 897
685. Signature of R. Barrie 898
680. General Blake's House 898
854. Ashland 1055
855. Bodley's Grave 1055
S5G Jackson's Tomb 1055
857. Clay's Monument 1056
858. Grave of Daniel Boone 1056
687. Crosby's Wharf 899
771. Signature of W. Ifc Armistead 960
772. Battle Monument/ 961
859. Kentucky Soldiers' Monu-
688. Portrait and Signature of C.
Morris 900
689. Morris's Monument 901
773. The City Spring, Baltimore.. . 962
774. Portrait and Sig. of J. Lester. 963
775. North Point Battle-ground... 963
770. Monument where Ross fell. .. 964
777. Remains of Circular Battery.. 905
778. State Fencible . 960
860. Portrait and Signature of F.
Robertson. . 1058
690. Town-house, Hampden 902
691. Reed's Shop 902
692. Remains of Fort George 903
693. Signature and Seal ofG. Gos-
selin .'. 903
861. Portrait of A. Henuer 105b
802. Japan Plum 1059
803. Portrait of J. Q. Adams 1059
804. Portrait of J. A Bayard 1060
779. Signature of D. D. Tompkins. 970
780. Signature of Morgan Lewis. .. 970
781. Fort Stevens and Mill Rock.. 971
782. Tower at Hallett's Point 971
783. Fortifications around New
York • 972
805 Adams's Homes . . . 1000
694. Yankee Doodle Upset 904
695. Billet-head of Constitution 905
690. Fort Pickering, Salem 906
697. Remains of Fort Lee 906
866. ViewofGheut 1061
867. Cipher Writing 1001
868. Fac-simile of MS. of Treaty
of Ghent . 1002
698. Marblehead Harbor 907
869 Seal and Sig. of Gambler 1062
699. Fort Sewall 907
784 MiM Rock Fortifications 973
870. Seal and Sig. of Goulburu... 1062
871. Seal and Sig. of W. Adams . . 1002
872. Seal and Sig. of J. Q. Adams. 1002
873. Seal and Sig. of J. A. Bayard 1002
874. Seal and Sig. of H. Clay 1003
875. Seal and Sig. of J. Russell . . . 1003
870. Seal and Sig. of A. Gallatin.. 1063
877. Por't and Sig. of C. Hughes. 1003
878. Medal of Gratitude 1005
879. Treaty of Peace Medal 1005
880. Allegorical Picture— Peace. . 1066
881. Dartmoor Prison 1068
882. Tail-piece — Civil and Mili
tary Power . . 1073
700. Portrait and Signature of Dr.
Browne 908
785. Fort Clinton 973
780. FortCliutonandHarlemRiver 973
7S7. M'Gowan's Pass 974
788. North Battery. . 974
701. Small Cannon 909
702. View from Fort George 909
703. Remains of Fort Castine 909
704. Remains at Fort Griffith 910
705. Fort Point 910
706. The Bacon Tree 911
707. Mouth of the Kenduskeag 911
708. Portrait and Sig. of Van Meter 912
709. Remains of Fort Phoenix 913
710. Arsenal at Stonington 914
789. View from Fort Fish 974
790. Courtenay's, and Tower 975
791. Remains of Block-house 975
792. M'Gowan's Pass in 1800 975
7!)3. Signature of A. and N. Brown. 970
794. Iron-clad Vessel 970
795. Section of Floating Battery... 977
796. Fulton the First. 977
711. Portrait and Sig. of J. Holmes 914
797. Initial Letter... ..978
PICTORIAL FIE LD-B 0 OK
OF
THE WAR OF 1812.
CHAPTER I.
" I see, I see,
Freedom's established reign ; cities, and men,
Numerous as sands upon the ocean shore,
And empires rising where the sun descends !
The Ohio soon shall glide by many a town
Of note ; and where the Mississippi stream,
By forests shaded, now runs sweeping on,
Nations shall grow, and states not less in fame
Than Greece and Rome of old. We, too, shall boast
Our Scipios, Solons, Catos, sages, chiefs,
That in the lap of Time yet dormant lie,
Waiting the joyous hour of.life and light."
PHILIP FEENEATT, 1775.
UCH was the prophecy of an Amer
ican poet when the war for his
country's independence had just been kindled ; and
similar were the prescient visions of the statesmen
and sages of that hour, who, in the majesty of con-
scjous rectitude, decreed the dismemberment of a mighty
empire and the establishment of a nation of freemen in
the New World. Their rebellion instantly assumed the
dignity of a revolution, and commanded the respect and
sympathy of the civilized nations. Their faith was per
fect, and under its inspiration they contended gallantly
for freedom, and won. We, their children, have seen the
minstrel's prophecy fulfilled, and all the bright visions
of glory that gave gladness to our fathers paled by a splen
dor of reality that makes us proud of the title — AMERICAN
CITIZEN.
When, on the 25th of November, 1783, John Van Arsdale, a
sprightly sailor-boy of sixteen years, climbed the slushed flag- staff
in Fort George, at the foot of Broadway, New York, pulled down the
British ensign that for more than seven years had floated there, and un
furled in its place the banner of the United States,1 the work of the Rev
olution was finished. As the white sails of the Bi'itish squadron that
bore away from our shores the last armed enemy to freedom in Amer-
1 Before the British left Fort George they nailed their colors to the summit of the flag-staff, knocked off the elects,
and "slushed" the pole from top to bottom, to prevent its being climbed. Van Arsdale (who died in 183C) ascended by
nailing on cleets, and applying sand to the greased flag-staff. In this way he reached the top, hauled down the British
flag, and placed that of the United States in its position. It is believed by some that the nailing of the flag there by the
British had a higher significance than was visible in the outward act, namely, a compliance with orders from the impe
rial government not to strike the flag, as in a formal surrender, but to leave it flying, in token of the claim of Great
Britain to the absolute proprietorship of the country then abandoned. It was believed that the absence of British au
thority in the United States would be only temporary.
B
18 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The hopes of the Americans not realized. They were free, but not independent.
ica became mere specks upon the horizon in the evening sun to the straining eyes of
eager thousands gazing seaward beyond the Narrows,1 the idea of absolute independ
ence took possession of the mind and heart of every true American. He saw the visi
ble bonds of British thraldom fall at his feet, and his pulse beat high with the inspira
tion of conscious freedom, and the full assurance that the power and influence of Brit
ish sovereignty had departed from his country forever.
Alas ! those natural, and generous, and patriotic, and hopeful emotions were falla
cious. They were born of a beautiful theory, but derived no real sustenance from so
ber facts. They were the poetry of that hour of triumph, entrancing the spirit and
kindling the imagination. They gave unbounded pleasure to a disenthralled people.
But there were wise and thoughtful men among them who had communed with the
teachers of the Past, and sought knowledge in the vigorous school of the Present.
They diligently studied the prose chapters of the great volume of current history spread
out before them, and were not so jubilant. They reverently thanked God for what
had been accomplished, adored him for the many interpositions of his providence in
their behalf, and rejoiced because of the glorious results of the struggle thus far. But
they clearly perceived that the peace established by the decrees of high contract
ing parties would prove to be only a lull in the great contest — a truce soon to be
broken, not, perhaps, by the trumpet calling armed men to the field, but by the stern
behests of the inexorable necessities of the new-born republic. The revolution was
accomplished, and the political separation from Great Britain was complete, but abso
lute independence was not achieved.
The experience of two years wrought a wonderful change in the public mind. The
wisdom of the few prophetic sages who warned the people of dangers became painful
ly apparent. The Americans were no longer the legal subjects of a monarch beyond
the seas, yet the power and influence of Great Britain were felt like a chilling, over
shadowing cloud. In the presence of her puissance in all that constitutes the material
strength and vigor of a nation, they felt their weakness ; and from many a patriot heart
came a sigh to the lips, and found expression there in the bitter words of deep humili
ation — We are/ree, but not independent.
Why not ? Had not a solemn treaty and the word of an honest king acknowledged
the states to be free and independent ?
Yes. The Treaty of Peace had declared the confederated colonies "to be free, sov
ereign, and independent states ;" and that the King of Great Britain would treat them
as such, and relinquish " all claims to the government, propriety, and territorial rights
of the same."2 The king, in his speech from the throne,a had said, "I .Decembers,
have sacrificed every consideration of my own to the wishes and opinion 1783-
of my people. I make it my humble and earnest prayer to Almighty God that Great
Britain may not feel the evils which might result from so great a dismemberment of
the empire, and that America may be free from those calamities which have formerly
proved, in the mother country, how essential monarchy is to the enjoyment of consti
tutional liberty. Religion, language, interest, affections may, and I hope will, yet prove
a bond of permanent union between the two countries : to this end neither attention
nor disposition shall be wanting on my part."3
i The passage from New York Harbor to the sea, between Long Island and Staten Island.
» See Article I. of the Treaty of Peace between the United States and Great Britain, signed at Paris on the 3d of
September, 1783, by David Hartley in behalf of Great Britain, and Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay for
the United States.
' This acknowledgment was wrung from the king. He had long detested the very name of every thing American ;
and this feeling was strengthened by his intense personal hatred of Dr. Franklin, whose coolness and adroitness had
given him the distinction of Arch-rebel. The king carried his prejudices so far that Sir John Pringle was driven to
resign his place as President of the Royal Society in this wise : The king urgently requested the society to publish, with
the authority of its name, a contradiction of a scientific opinion of the rebellious Franklin. Pringle replied that it wag
not in his power to reverse the order of nature, and resigned. The pliant Sir Joseph Banks, with the practice of a true
courtier, advocated the opinion which was patronized by his majesty, and was appointed President of the Royal Soci
ety. See Wright's England under the House of Hanover, ii., 63.
OF THE WAR OP 1812. 19
Reception of John Adams in England. Why the Americans were not independent. Articles of Confederation.
This was all very kind, and yet the Americans were not independent.
Why not ? Had not the representative of their independent sovereignty been ap
pointed by the Congress to reside as the agent of the republic in the British capital,
and been received with cordiality ?
Yes. John Adams had been appointed14 minister plenipotentiary to the a February 24,
Court of Great Britain, and had been ordered to leave sunny France for fog
gy England. The Duke of Dorset, the British embassador at Paris, had treated him
most kindly at Auteuil, and had as kindly prescribed a gay court-dress to be worn by the
embassador at his first presentation to the king on his majesty's birth-day. That plen
ipotentiary had been presented,b most graciously received, and affected almost »june4)
to tears by these honest words of good King George : " I was the last man in
the kingdom, sir, to consent to the independence of America; but, now it is granted, I
shall be the last man in the world to sanction a violation of it."
This reception was significant, and this declaration of his majesty was explicit and
sincere. Yet the Americans were not independent.
Why not ? Because they had not formed a nation, and thereby created a power to
be respected ; because British statesmen were wise enough to perceive this weakness,
and sagacious enough to take advantage of it. Without the honesty of the king, mis
led by the fatal counsels of the refugee loyalists who swarmed in the British metropo
lis, and governed wholly by the maxims and ethics of diplomacy, the ministry cast
embarrassments in the way of the Confederation, neglected to comply with some of the
most important stipulations of the Treaty of Peace, maintained a haughty reserve, and
waited with* complacency and perfect faith to see the whole fabric of government in the
United States, cemented by the bonds of common interest and common danger while
in a state of war, crumble into fragments, and the people return to their allegiance as
colonists of Great Britain. Their trade and commerce, their manufactures and arts,
their literature, science, religion, and laws were yet largely tributary to the parent
country, without a well-grounded hope for a speedy deliverance. To this domination
was added a traditional contempt of the English for their transatlantic brethren as an
inferior people,1 and the manifestation of an illiberal and unfriendly spirit, heightened
by the consciousness that the Americans were without a government sufficiently pow
erful to command the fulfillment of treaty stipulations, or an untrammeled commerce
sufficiently important to attract the cupidity and interested sympathies of other na
tions.
Such is a general statement of reasons why the United States were not inde
pendent of Great Britain after their total political separation from her. These gave
to Dr. Franklin and others the consciousness of the incompleteness of the struggle
commenced in 1775. When a compatriot remarked that the war for independence was
successfully closed, Franklin wisely replied, " Say, rather, the war of the Revolution.
The war for independence is yet to be fought."
I have remarked that our fathers had not formed a NATION on the return of peace,
and in that fact was the inherent weakness of their government, and the spring of all
the hopes of the royalists for their speedy return to colonial dependency. To illustrate
this, let us take a rapid survey of events from the ratification of the Treaty of Peace
in the autumn of 1784, to the formation of the National Constitution in the autumn
of 1787.
The Articles of Confederation, suggested by Dr. Franklin in the summer of 1775,
adopted by the Continental Congress in November, 1777, and finally settled by the
ratification of all the states in the spring of 1781, became the organic law of the great
American League of independent commonwealths, which, by the first article of that
Constitution, was styled " The United States of America." In behalf of this Confeder-
1 "Even the chimney-sweepers on the streets," said Pitt, in a speech in the House of Commons in 1703, "talk boast-
ingly of their subjects in America."
20
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The League of States.
The States not sovereign.
The Public Debt.
acy, commissioners were appointed by the Continental Congress to negotiate for peace
with Great Britain. That negotiation was successful, and, in September, 1783, a defin-
> September 3, i^e treaty was signed at Paris* by the respective commissioners1 of the
1783. two governments. It was subsequently ratified by the Congress and the
Crown. In the first article of the treaty all the states of the League were named, for
the simple purpose of definitely declaring what provinces in the New World formed
"The United States of America," as there were British, French, and Spanish provinces
there not members of the League; and also because they were held to be, on the part
of the English, independent republics, as they had been colonies independent of each
other.2
The League now assumed a national attitude, and the powers of the Confederacy were
speedily tested. The bright visions of material prosperity that gladdened the hearts
of the Americans at the close of the war soon faded, and others more sombre appeared
when the financial and commercial condition of the forming republic was contemplated
with candor. A debt of seventy millions of dollars lay upon the shoulders of a wasted
people. About forty-four millions of that amount was owing by the Federal govern
ment (almost ten millions of it in Europe), and the remainder by the individual states.
These debts had been incurred in carrying on the war. Even while issuing their paper
money in abundance, the Congress had commenced borrowing; and when, in 1780,
their bills of credit became worthless, borrowing was the chief monetary resource of
the government. This, of course, could not go on long without involving the republic
in embarrassments and accomplishing its final ruin. The restoration of the public credit
or the downfall of the infant republic was the alternative presented to the American
people.
1 See note 2, page IS.
2 The advocates of the mischievous political doctrine known as supreme state sovereignty, whose fundamental dogma
is that the states then forming the inchoate republic were absolutely independent sovereignties, have cited this naming of
the several states in that treaty in support of their views. The states were independent commonwealths, but not sover
eignties. That term implies no superior. The colonies and states had never been in that exalted position. They were
dependencies of Great Britain until the Declaration of Independence was promulgated, when they immediately assumed
the position of equals in a National League, acknowledging the general government which they thus established as the
supreme controlling power, having a broad isiguet for the common use, bearing the words, " Seal of the United States,"
FIKST GEEAT SEAL OF TUB TTNITED STATES.*
as its insignia of authority. When a treaty of peace was to be negotiated, the states did not each choose a commis
sioner for the purpose, but these agents were appointed by the General Congress, as representatives of the nationality
of the Confederation, without reference to any particular states. And when, a few years later, the people ("We the
PEOPLE" is the phrase) formed and ratified a National Constitution, they disowned all independent state sovereignty, and
reserved to the states only municipal rights, the exercise of which should not be in contravention of the organic law of
the land.
* For a history (with illustrations) of this first Great Seal of the United States, see a paper in Harper's Magazine, voL
xiii., p. 178, written by the author of this work.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 21
Attempts to restore the Public Credit and establish Commercial Relations. Attitude of the States.
With a determination to restore that public credit, the General Congress immediately
put forth all its strength in efforts to produce such a result. A few weeks after the
preliminary Treaty of Peace was signed, the Congress declared that "the establishment
of permanent and adequate funds on taxes or duties, which shall operate generally,
and, on the whole, in just proportion, throughout the United States, is indispensably
necessary toward doing complete justice to the public creditors, for restoring pub
lic credit, and for providing for the future exigencies of the war."1 Two months
latera the Congress recommended to the several states, as " indispensably nee- a April is,
essary to the restoration of public credit, and to the punctual discharge of
the public debts," to vest the Congress with power to levy, for a period of twenty-five
years, specified duties on certain imported articles, and an ad valorem duty on all
others, the revenue therefrom to be applied solely to the payment of the interest and
principal of the public debt. It was also proposed that the states should be required
to establish for the same time, and for the same object, substantial revenues for supply
ing each its proportion of one million five hundred thousand dollars annually, exclusive
of duties on imports, the proportion of each state to be fixed according to the eighth
article of the organic law of the League.2 This financial system was not to take effect
until acceded to by every state.
This proposition was approved by the leading men of the country, but it was not
adopted by the several states. They all took action upon it in the course of the succeed
ing three years, but that action was rather in the form of overtures — indications of
what each state was willing to dp — not of positive law. All the states except two
were willing to grant the required amount, but they were not disposed to vest the
Congress with the required power. " It is money, not power, that ought to be the ob
ject," they said. " The former will pay our debts, the latter may destroy our liber
ties."*
This first important effort of the Congress to assume the functions of sovereignty
was a signal failure, and the beginning of a series of failures. It excited a jealousy be
tween the state and general governments, and exposed the utter impotency of the lat
ter, whose vitality depended upon the will of thirteen distinct legislative bodies, each
tenacious of its own peculiar rights and interests, and miserly in its delegation of power.
It was speedily made manifest that the public credit must be utterly destroyed by the
inevitable repudiation of the public debt.
The League were equally unfortunate in their attempts to establish commercial rela
tions with other governments, and especially with that of Great Britain. The Liberal
ministry, under the Earl of Shelburne when the preliminary Treaty of Peace was signed,
devised generous measures toward the Americans. Encouraged by a lively hope there
by engendered, American commerce began to revive. William Pitt, son of the emi
nent Earl of Chatham, then at the age of only twenty-four years, was Chancellor of the
Exchequer. With a clear perception of the value to Great Britain of friendly relations
between that government and the new republic, he introduced a bill into Parliament
for the regulation of commerce between the two countries, by which trade with the
British West India Islands and other colonial possessions of the crown was thrown
open to the enterprise of the merchants of the United States.
In this proposed measui'e was involved a powerful element of solid peace and har
mony between the two governments; but there seemed not to be wisdom enough
among the statesmen of Great Britain for a practical perception of it. The shipping
1 Journal of Congress, February 12, 1783. The last clause was necessary, because only preliminary articles of peace
had been signed, and the war might continue.
2 The following was the proposed apportionment : New Hampshire, $52,708 ; Massachusetts, $224,427 ; Rhode Island,
$32,318; Connecticut, $13-2,091 ; New York, $128,243 ; New Jersey, $83,358 ; Pennsylvania, $205,189 ; Delaware, $22,443 ;
-Maryland, $141,517; Virginia, $256, 48T ; North Carolina, $109,006; South Carolina, $96,183 ; Georgia, $16,030.
3 The resolutions of Congress, and the proceedings of the several State Legislatures, with remarks thereon by "A Re
publican," were published in the New York Gazetteer, and afterward in pamphlet form, in tho autumn of 1786, by Carroll
& Patterson, 32 Maiden Lane, New York.
22
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Dissolution of the Liberal British Ministry.
The new Cabinet.
Its discordant Elements.
interest, then potential in Parliament, with strange blindness to its own welfare and that
of the state, successfully opposed it; and the Liberal Shelburne ministry did not survive
the proposition a month. It was dissolved, and, after a ministerial hiatus of several
weeks, during which time faction threatened the peace if not the stability of the throne,
a Cabinet was formed of materials the most discordant hitherto. North and Fox, Burke
and Cavendish, Portland and Stormont, who had differed widely and debated bitterly
on American affairs, coalesced, much to the astonishment of the simple, the scandal of
political consistency, and the delight of satirists with pen and pencil.1
The new Cabinet listened to other counsels than those of the sagacious Pitt, and, in
stead of acting liberally toward the United States, as friends and political equals, they
inaugurated a restrictive commercial policy, and assumed the offensive hauteur of lord
and master in the presence of vassals or slaves. Echoing the opinions of the acrimoni
ous Silas Deane, the specious Tory, Joseph Galloway, and Peter Oliver, the refugee
Chief Justice of Massachusetts,2 English writers and English statesmen made public
observations which indicated that they regarded the American League as only alien
ated members of the British realm. Lord Sheffield, in a formidable pamphlet, gave
expression to the views of the Loyalists and leading British statesmen, and declared
his belief that ruin must soon overtake the League, because of the anarchy and confu-
1 The political satires and caricatures of the day indicate the temper of the people. Of these the war in America formed
the staple subject at the time in question. The conduct of that war, its cessation or continuance, formed the topic
of violent debates in Parliament, caused rancor
among politicians, was the basis of new party or-
gAnizations, and a source of great anxiety among
the people. Among those who employed carica
tures in the controversies Sayer and Gillray were
the chief. The latter soon outstripped all com
petitors, and gave to the world more than twelve
hundred caricatures, chiefly political. One of his
earliest productions was issued at the period in
question, in which the original positions of the
different leaders of the coalition were exhibit
ed in compartments. In one, entitled "War,"
Fox and Burke, in characteristic attitudes, are
seen thundering against the massive Lord North.
In another com
partment, called
"Neither Peace
nor War," the three orators are, in the
same attitudes, attacking the prelimina
ry Treaty of Peace with the United States.
Under them are the words " The Astonishing Coa
lition." Another caricature was called "The Loves
of the Fox and the Badger ; or, The Coalition Wed
ding." This popular caricature was a burlesque
pictorial history of the sudden friendship between
Fox and North. The latter was commonly known in political circles as " the
badger." In another print Fox and North were represented under one coat
standing on a pedestal, and called "The State Idol." This the king (who de
tested the whole affair) was expected to worship. In another, the two are seen
approaching Britannia (or the people) to claim her sanction. She rejects them
and their attention is directed to a gallows and block in the distance as their
proper destination.
The coalition finally became unpopular, and Gillray, in a caricature entitled
"Britannia Aroused; or, The Coalition Monsters Destroyed," represents her in
a fury, grasping one of the leaders by the neck and the other by the leg, and
hurling them from her as enemies to liberty. I have copied from Wright's En
gland under the Home of Hanover the most forcible portions of the torn carica
tures named. BEITANNIA AROUSET..
ih
in 1774, but soon afterward abandoned his countrymen and went to England
York, and did not leave the country uni!' ~
England, where he died in 1803.
Peter Oliver was past middle life when the Revolution broke out. He was appointed Chief Justice of Massachusetts
in 760, when his brother-in-law, Hutchinson, became governor of that province He was impeached by SSssachu-
setts Assembly in 1774, and soon afterward went to England, where he died in 1791 aged 79 yeirs
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 23
Expectations of British Statesmen. Lord Sheffield's Pamphlet. British Legislation. Public Dangers.
sion in which they were involved in consequence of their independence. He assumed
that the New England States in particular would speedily become penitent suppliants
at the foot of the king for pardon and restoration as colonies. He saw the utter weak
ness and consequent inefficiency of the League as a form of government, and advised
his countrymen to consider them of little account as a nation.1 "If the American
states choose to send consuls, receive them, and send a consul to each state. Each
state will soon enter into all necessary regulations with the consul, and this is the
whole that is necessary." In other wrords, the League has no dignity above that of a
fifth-rate power, and the states are still, in fact, only dislocated members of the British
Empire.2
In considering the more remote causes of the "War of 1812, and the final independ
ence of the United States achieved by that war, that pamphlet of Lord Sheffield, which
gave direction to British legislation and bias to the English mind in reference to the
American League, may be regarded as a most important one. It was followed by
Orders in Council3 by which American vessels were entirely excluded from the British
West Indies ; and some of the staple productions of the United States, such as fish,
beef, pork, butter, lard, et cetera^ were not permitted to be carried there except in Brit
ish bottoms. These orders were continued by temporary acts until 1788, when the
policy was permanently established as a commercial regulation by act of Parliament.
In view of this unfriendly conduct of Great Britain, the General Congress, in the
spring of 1784, asked the several states to delegate powers to them for fifteen years, by
which they might compel England to be more liberal by countervailing measures of
prohibition.4 Well would it have been for the people of the young republic had some
restrictive measures been adopted, whereby British goods could have been kept from
their ports, for in a very short time after the peace a most extravagant and ruinous
trade with Great Britain was opened. Immense importations were made, and private
indebtedness speedily added immensely to the evils which the war and an inadequate
government had brought upon the people. But the appeal of the Congress was in vain.
The states, growing more and more jealous of their individual dignity, would not invest
the Congress with any such power ; nor would they, even in the face of the danger of
having their trade go into the hands of foreigners, make any permanent and uniform
arrangements among themselves. Without public credit, with their commerce at the
mercy of every adventurer, without respect at home or abroad, the League of States,
free without independence, presented the sad spectacle of the elements of a great nation
paralyzed in the formative process, and the coldness of political death chilling every
developing function of its being.
Difficulties soon arose between the United States and Great Britain concerning the
i " It will not be an easy matter," he said (and he no doubt spoke the language of the English people in general), " to
bring the American states to act as a nation ; they are not to be feared as such by us. It will be a long time before they
can engage or will concur in any material expenses. A stamp act, a tea act, or such act that can never again occur,
would alone unite them. Their climate, their staples, their manners are different ; their interests opposite ; and
that which is beneficial to one is destructive to the other. We might as reasonably dread the effects of combinations
among the German as among the American states, and deprecate the resolves of the Diet as those of the Congress. In
short, every circumstance proves that it will be extreme folly to enter into any engagements by which we may not wish
to be bound hereafter. It is impossible to name any material advantage the American states will or can give us in return
more than what we of course shall have. No treaty can be made with the American states that can be binding on the
Whole of them. The Act of Confederation does not enable Congress to form more than general treaties."— SHEFFIELD'S
Observations on the Commerce of the American States, London, 1783. ,
3 The estimation in which the League was held by the British government may be inferred by an inquiry of the Duke
of Dorset, in reply to a letter from Messrs. Adams, Franklin, and Jefferson, on the subject of a commercial treaty, in
March, 17S5. His grace inquired " whether they were commissioned by Congress or their respective states, for it ap
peared to him that each state was determined to manage its own matters in its own way." It could not be expected that
England would be in haste to form any important commercial relations with a government so uncertain in its charac
ter, for a league of independent governments was liable to dissolution at any moment.
3 July, 17S3. The British Privy Council consists of an indefinite number of gentlemen, chosen by the sovereign, and
having no direct connection with the Cabinet ministers. The sovereign may, under the advice of this council, issue
orders or proclamations, which, if not contrary to existing laws, are binding upon the subjects. These are for tempo
rary purposes, and are called Orders in Council.
* See Journal of Congress, April 30, 1784.
24 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Weakness of the new Government made manifest. Its Dissolution threatened. Excuse for Dissatisfaction.
inexecution of the Treaty of Peace, each charging the other with infractions of that
treaty, or neglect to comply with its requirements.1 An open rupture was threatened,
• February 24, and John Adams was sent to England,a clothed with the full powers of a
1785- plenipotentiary, to arrange all matters in dispute.
But Mr. Adams could accomplish little. Indeed his mission was almost fruitless. He
found the temper of the British people, from the peasant up to the monarch, cold, if not
positively hostile, toward the United States. He was never insulted, yet the chilliness
of the social atmosphere, and the studied neglect of his official representations, often
excited hot indignation in his bosom. But his government was so weak and powerless
that he was compelled to bite his lips in silence. When he proposed to have the naviga
tion and trade between all the dominions of the British crown and all the territories
of the United States placed upon a basis of perfect and liberal reciprocity, the offer was
not only rejected with scorn, but the minister was given to understand that no othei'
would be entertained by the British government. When he recommended his own
government to pass countervailing navigation laws for the benefit of American com
merce, he was met with the fact that it possessed no power to do so. At length, be
lieving his mission to be useless, and the British government steadily refusing to send
a minister to the United States, he asked and received permission to return home.
Meanwhile matters were growing infinitely worse in the United States. The Con
gress had become absolutely powerless, and almost a by-word among the people. The
states had assumed the attitude of sovereign, each for itself; and their interests were
too diversified, and in some instances too antagonistic, to allow them to work in har
mony for the general good. The League was on the point of dissolution, and the fair
fabric for the dwelling of liberty, reared by Washington and his compatriots, was tot
tering to its fall. The idea of forming two or three distinct confederacies took posses
sion of the public mind. Western North Carolina revolted, and the new State of
Franklin,2 formed by the insurgents, endured several months. A portion of South
western Virginia sympathized in the movement. Insurrection against the authorities
of Pennsylvania appeared in the Wyoming Valley.3 A Convention deliberated at Port
land on the expediency of erecting the Territory of Maine into an independent state.4
An armed mob surrounded the New Hampshire Legislature, demanding a remission of
taxes ;5 and in Massachusetts, Daniel Shays, who had been a captain in the Continental
army, placed himself at the head of a large body of armed insurgents, and defied the
government of that state.6 There was resistance to taxation every where, and disre
spect for law became the rule and not the exception.
There was reason for this state of things. The exhaustion of the people was great
on account of the war, and poverty was wide-spread. The farmer found no remunera
tive market for his produce, and domestic manufactures were depressed by foreign
competition.7 Debt weighed down all classes, and made them, feel that the burden
1 Against Great Britain it was charged that slaves had been carried away by her military and naval commanders sub
sequent to the signing of the treaty, and on their departure from the country.* It was also complained that the Western
military posts had not been surrendered to the United States according to Article VII. of the treaty. Against the United
States it was charged that legal impediments had been interposed to prevent the collection of debts due British mer
chants by Americans, and that the stipulations concerning the property of Loyalists, found in Articles V. and VI. of the
treaty, had not been complied with. These criminations and recriminations were fair, for it has been justly remarked,
' ' America could not, and Great Britain would not, because America did not, execute the treaty."— Life and Works of John
Adams, i., 424.
2 See Ramsey's History of Tennessee ; Harper's Magazine for March, 1862.
3 See Lossing's Field-Book of the Revolution. * See Williamson's History of Maine.
5 See Coolidge and Mansfield's History of New Hampshire.
6 See Bradford's History of Maxsachiisetts ; Harper's Magazine for April, 18C2.
7 The idea was prevalent, at the close of the war, that the United States ought to be an exclusively agricultural nation,
and that the old policy of purchasing all fabrics in Europe, to be paid for by the productions of the soil, would be the
wiser one. Acting upon the belief that this would be the policy of the new government, the merchants imported largely,
and, there being very little duty to be paid, domestic manufactures could not compete with those of Great Britain. The
fallacy of the idea that exports would pay for the imports was soon made manifest, and almost universal bankruptcy
* See Article VII. of the treaty.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 25
Washington's Views of Public Affairs. His Suggestions, and those of Alexander Hamilton. Propositions of the latter.
which the tax-gatherer would lay upon them would be the " feather" that would " break
the camel's back." There was doubt, and confusion, and perplexity on every side ;
and the very air seemed thick with forebodings of evil. Society appeared to be about
to dissolve into its original elements.
Patriots — men who had labored for the establishment of a wise government for a
free people — were heart-sick. " Illiberality, jealousy, and local policy mix too much in all
our public councils for the good government of the Union," wrote Washington. "The
Confederation appears to me to be little better than a shadow without the substance,
and Congress a nugatory body, their ordinances being little attended to. To me it is
a solecism in politics ; indeed, it is one of the most extraordinary things in nature, that
we should confederate as a nation, and yet be afraid to give the rulers of that nation
(who are the creatures of our own making, appointed for a limited and short duration,
and who are amenable for every action, and may be recalled at any moment, and are
subject to all the evils they may be instrumental in producing) sufficient powers to
order and direct the affairs of the same. By such policy as this the wheels of govern
ment are clogged, and our brightest prospects, and that high expectation which was
entertained of us by the wondering world, are turned into astonishment ; and from the
high ground on which we stood we are descending into the vale of confusion and dai'k-
ness.
" That we have it in our power to become one of the most respectable nations upon
earth, admits, in my humble opinion, of no doubt, if we would but pursue a wise, just,
and liberal policy toward one another, and keep good faith with the rest of the world.
That our resources are ample and increasing, none can deny; but while they are grudg
ingly applied, or not applied at all, we give a vital stab to public faith, and shall sink,
in the eyes of Europe, into contempt."1
Other patriots uttered similar sentiments ; and there was a feverish anxiety in the
public mind concerning the future, destructive of all confidence, and ruinous to enter
prises of every kind. Already grave discussions on the subject had occurred in the
library at Mount Vernon, during which Washington had suggested the idea of a con
junction of the several states in arrangements of a commercial nature, over which the
Congress, under the Articles of Confederation, had no control. The suggestion was
luminous. It beamed out upon the surrounding darkness like a ray of morning light.
It was the hei'ald and harbinger of future important action — the key-note to a loud
trumpet-call for the wise men of the nation to save the tottering republic. It was the
electric fire that ran along the paralyzed nerves of the nation, and quickened into action
a broader statesmanship, like that displayed by the youthful Hamilton, who, three or
four years before, had induced the Legislature of New York to recommend the " assem
bling of a general Convention of the United States, specially authorized to revise and
amend the Confederation, reserving the right to the respective Legislatures to ratify
their determination."2
occurred among the importing merchants. The imports from Great Britain during the years 1784 and 1TS5 amounted
in value to $30,000,000, while the exports thither did not exceed $9,000,000.
1 Letter to James Warren, October 7, 17S5.
2 So early as 17SO, Alexander Hamilton, then only twenty-three years of age, thoroughly analyzed the defects of the
Articles of Confederation, in a long letter to James Duane, member of Congress from New York. It was dated, "Lib
erty Pole, September 3, 1780." He discussed the subject at great length, gave an outline sketch of a Federal Constitu
tion, and suggested the calling of a Convention to frame such a system of government.* During the following year he
published in the New York Packet, printed at Fishkill, Duchess County, a series of papers under the title of The Consti
tutionalist, which were devoted chiefly to the discussion of the defects in the Articles of Confederation. They excited
great local interest ; and Hamilton succeeded, in the summer of 1782, in having the subject brought before the Legisla
ture of the State of New York while in session at Poughkeepsie. It was favorably received, and on Sunday, the 21st of
July, that body passed a series of resolutions, in the last of which occurred the sentence above quoted.
On the 1st of April, 17S3, Hamilton, in a debate in Congress, expressed an earnest desire for a general Convention,
and the subject was much talked of among the members of Congress in 17S4. In the same year Thomas Paine and
Pelatiah Webster wrote on that subject. In the spring of 1784, Noah Webster, the lexicographer, in a pamphlet which
he says he " took the pains to carry in person to General Washington," suggested a "new system of government, which
• See The Works of Alexander Hamilton, i., 150.
26
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Conveution of Representatives of the States at Annapolis and Philadelphia.
This recommendation had been seriously pondered by thoughtful men throughout
the League, but the public authorities were not then ready to adopt it. Washington's
proposition for a commercial Convention was favorably received, and in September, the
• September ii, following year,a five states were represented by delegates in such Conven-
178S- tion, held at Annapolis, in Maryland.1 Already a desire had been ex
pressed in many parts of the country for a Convention having a broader field of consid
eration than commerce, only one of the elements of a nation's prosperity. So thought
and felt members of the Convention at Annapolis — a Convention that proved a failure
in a degree, inasmuch as only five of the thirteen states were represented. They ad
journed after a brief session, first recommending the several states to call another Con
vention in May following ; and performing the momentous service of preparing a letter
to the General Congress, in which the defects of the Articles of Confederation were set
forth.
In February following, the Congress took the proceedings of the Convention into
consideration, and recommended a meeting of delegates from the several states, to be
held at Philadelphia on the second Monday in the ensuing May ; not, however, for the
regulation of commerce, but really for the reconstruction of the national govern
ment.2
On the 4th of July, 1776, a Congress of
representatives of thirteen colonies met in
the great room of the State House in Phila
delphia, since known as Independence Hall,
and declared those colonies free and inde
pendent states. On Monday, the 14th of
May, 1787, a Congress of representatives
of the same colonies, then become free and
independent states, assembled in the same
hall for the purpose of establishing the va
lidity and power of that declaration, by dis
solving the inefficient political League of
the states, and constituting the inhabitants
of all the states one great and indissoluble
nation.
There were few delegates present on the
appointed day of meeting ; and it was not
until the 25th that representatives from
seven states (the prescribed quorum) ap
peared. Then Washington, a delegate from
Virginia, was chosen president of the Convention, and William Jackson secretary.3 On
WILLIAM JACK.BON.
should act, not on the states, but directly on individuals, and vest in Congress full power to carry its laws into effect."
This pamphlet is entitled, "Sketches of American Policy." Thus thinking men all lamented the weakness of the gen
eral government, and foresaw the dangers of the doctrine of supreme state sovereignty, which has wrought so much
mischief in our day.
i The following are the names of the representatives : New York— Alexander Hamilton, Egbert Benson ; New Jersey—
Abraham Clarke, William C. Houston ; Pennsylvania — Tenche Coxe, James Schureman ; Delaware— George Read, John
Dickinson, Richard Bassett ; Virginia — Edmund Randolph, James Madison, Jr., St. George Tucker.
8 This action of the Congress took place on the 21st of February, 1787. The resolution (which was submitted by the
delegates from Massachusetts) was as follows :
" Resolved, That in the opinion of Congress it is expedient that, on the second Monday in May next, a Convention of
Delegates, who shall have been appointed by the several states, be held at Philadelphia, for the sole and express pur
pose of revising the Articles of Confederation, and reporting to Congress and the several Legislatures such alterations
and provisions therein as shall, when agreed to in Congress and confirmed by the states, render the Federal Constitu
tion adequate to the exigencies of government and the preservation of the Union."
3 William Jackson was an eminent patriot, and one of Washington's most intimate personal friends. He entered the
Continental army at the age of sixteen years, and served his country faithfully during the whole war for independ
ence. He became an aid to the commander-in-chief, with the rank of major. In 1781 he accompanied his friend,
Colonel John Laurens, on a diplomatic mission to France. At the close of the war he visited Europe, and on his re
turn was appointed, on the nomination of Washington, secretary to the Convention that formed the National Consti-
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 27
William Jackson and Edmund Randolph. Members of the Convention. Attitude of Rhode Island.
the 28th, Edmund Randolph, of Virginia,1 at the request of his colleagues, opened the
business of the Convention in a carefully considered speech, in which he pointed out
the serious defects in the Articles of Confederation, illustrated their utter inadequacy
to secure the dignity, peace, and safety of the republic, and asserted the absolute neces
sity of a more energetic government. At the close of his speech he offered to the Con
vention fifteen resolutions, in which were embodied the leading principles whereon to
form a new government according to his views.
I do not propose to consider in detail, nor even in a synoptical manner, the proceed
ings of that Convention, which occupied several hours each day for four months. I will
merely direct attention to the really great men who composed it, and the measures
that were adopted, and leave the reader to seek in other sources the interesting infor
mation concerning the events in the daily sessions of that remarkable congress of wise
men, whose efforts bore noble fruit for the political sustenance of mankind.2
The venerable Dr. Franklin, then near the close of a long and useful life, was the
most conspicuous member of that Convention next to Washington. Thirty-three years
before he had elaborated a plan of union for the colonies, to which neither the crown
nor the provinces would listen ;3 now he came to revive that plan, with full hope of
success. Johnson, Rutledge, and Dickinson had been members of the Stamp-act Con-
tution. His private record of the proceedings and debates is iu the hands
of his family. He became the private secretary of President Washington,
and accompanied him on his tour through the Southern States in 1791.
He held the office of surveyor of the port of Philadelphia and inspector of
customs there until removed, for political causes, by Mr. Jefferson. He
then started a daily newspaper, called "The Political and Commercial Reg
ister."
Major Jackson lived a life of unsullied honor, and at his death was buried
in Christ Church yard, on Fifth Street, Philadelphia. A plain slab about
three feet high marks the spot, and bears the following inscription: "Sacred
to the memory of Major William Jackson : born March the 9th, 1759 ; depart
ed this life December the 17th, 1828. Also to Elizabeth Willing, his relict :
born March the 27th, 1768 ; departed this life August the 5th, 1858." Mrs.
Jackson was ninety years of age at the time of her death.
I am indebted to Miss Ann Willing Jackson, daughter of Major Jackson,
for the portrait given on the preceding page. It is copied from a miniature
in her possession, painted by Trumbull. She also has a silhouette profile
of her father, cut by Mrs. Mayo, of Richmond, Virginia, the mother of the
late Mrs. General Winfield Scott.
The signature of Secretary Jackson is with those of the other signers of JACKSON'S MONUMENT.
the Constitution, on page 32.
1 Edmund Randolph was a son of an attorney general of Virginia before the Revolution. He was an eminent law
yer, and a warm patriot throughout the old war for independence. He was a member of the Continental Congress from
1779 until 1782. He was active in the Convention that formed the Constitution. He was elected Governor of Virginia
iu 1788, and Washington chose him for his first attorney general of the United States in 1789. He was secretary of state
in 1794, but, in consequence of being engaged in an intrigue with the French minister, he retired from public life. He
died in December, 1813.
3 Rhode Island was not represented in the Convention. Ignorant and unprincipled men happened to control the
Aesembly of the state at that time, and they refused to elect delegates to the Convention. But some of the best and
most influential men in Rhode Island joined in sending a letter to the Convention, in which they expressed their cordial
sympathy with the objects of the movement, and promised their acquiescence in whatsoever measures the majority
might adopt. The following were the names of the delegates from the several states :
New Hampshire.— John Langdon, John Pickering, Nicholas Gilman, and Benjamin West.
Massachrisetts.— Francis Dana, Elbridge Gerry, Nathaniel Gorham, Rufus King, and Caleb Strong.
Connecticut.— William Samuel Johnson, Roger Sherman, and Oliver Ellsworth.
New York.— Robert Yates, Jonn Lansing, Jr., and Alexander Hamilton.
New Jersey.— David Brearley, William Churchill Houston, William Paterson, John Neilson, William Livingston, Abra
ham Clark, and Jonathan Dayton.
Pennsylvania.— Thomas MiflJin, Robert Morris, George Clymer, Jared Ingersoll, Thomas Fitzsimmons, James Wilson,
Gouverneur Morris, and Benjamin Franklin.
Delaware.— George Read, Gunning Bedford, Jr., John Dickinson, Richard Bassett, and Jacob Brown.
Maryland.— James M'Henry, Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer, Daniel Carroll, John Francis Mercer, and Luther Martin.
Virginia.— George Washington, Patrick Henry, Edmund Randolph, John Blair, James Madison, Jr., George Mason,
and George Wythe. Patrick Henry having declined his appointment, James M'Clure was nominated to supply his place.
North Carolina.— Richard Caswell, Alexander Martin, William Richardson Davie, Richard Dobbs Spaight, and Willie
Jones. Richard Caswell having resigned, William Blonnt was appointed as deputy in his place. Willie Jones having
also declined his appointment, his place was supplied by Hugh Williamson.
South Carolina.— John Rutledge, Charles Pinckney, Charles C. Pinckney, and Pierce Butler.
Georgia.— William Few, Abraham Baldwin, William Pierce, George Walton.William Houston, and Nathaniel Pendleton.
3 " The Assemblies did not adopt it," said Franklin, " as they all thought there was too much prerogative in it ; and in
England it was judged to have too much of the democratic."
28 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Leading Members of the Convention. Its Objects. Its Proceedings. Gonverueur Morris.
gress in 1765, and the last two had been compatriots of Washington in the Congress
of 1774. Livingston, Sherman, Read, and Wythe had shared the same honors. The
last two, with Franklin, Sherman, Gerry, Clymer, Morris, and Wilson, had signed the
Declaration of Independence. The Continental army was represented by Washington,
Mifflin, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, and Hamilton. The younger members, who had
become conspicuous in public life after the Declaration of Independence, were Hamilton,
Madison, and Edmund Randolph. The latter was then Governor of Virginia, having suc
ceeded Patrick Henry, the "trumpet of sedition" when the states were British provinces.
The Convention was marked by long and warm debates, and with dignity suited to
the occasion. The most prominent speakers were King, Gerry, and Gorham, of Massa
chusetts ; Hamilton and Lansing, of New York ; Ellsworth, Johnson, and Sherman, of
Connecticut; Paterson, of New Jersey ; Franklin, Wilson, and Morris, of Pennsylvania;
Dickinson, of Delaware ; Martin, of Maryland ; Randolph, Mason, and Madison, of Vir
ginia; Williamson, of North Carolina, and the Pinckneys, of South Carolina.
Such were the men, all conspicuous in the history of the republic, who assembled for
the purpose of laying the broad foundations of a nation. They had scarcely a prece
dent in history for their guide. The great political maxim established by the Revolu
tion was, that the original residence of all human sovereignty is in THE PEOPLE: it was
for these founders of a great state to parcel out from the several commonwealths of
which the new nation was composed, so much of their restricted power as the peo
ple of the several states should be willing to dismiss from their local political insti
tutions, in making a strong and harmonious republic that should be at the same time
harmless toward reserved state rights. This was the great problem to be solved. "At
that time," says a recent writer, " the world had witnessed no such spectacle as that of
the deputies of a nation, chosen by the free action of great communities, and assembled
for the purpose of thoroughly reforming its Constitution, by the exercise and with the
authority of the national will. All that had been done, both in ancient and in modern
times, in forming, moulding, or modifying constitutions of government, bore little re
semblance to the present undertaking of the states of America. Neither among the
Greeks nor the Romans was there a precedent, and scarcely an analogy."1
Randolph suggested the chief business of the Convention in his proposition "that a
NATIONAL government ought to be established, consisting of a supreme legislative, ex
ecutive, and judiciary." Upon this broad proposition all future action was based ; and
they had not proceeded far before it was clearly perceived that the Articles of Confed
eration were too radically defective to be the basis of a stable government. Therefore,
instead of trying to amend them, the Convention went diligently at work to form an
entirely new Constitution. In this they made slow
progress, opinions were so conflicting. Plans and
amendments were offered, and freely discussed. Dav
after day, and week after week, the debates contin
ued, sometimes with great courtesy, and sometimes
with great acrimony, until the 10th of September,
when all plans and amendments which had been
adopted by the Convention were placed in the hands
of a committee for revision and arrangement.2 Bv
1 Curtis's History of the Origin, Formation, and Adoption of the Consti
tution of the United States.
2 This committee, appointed on the 8th, consisted of Messrs. Madison,
Hamilton, King, Johnson, and Gouverneur Morris. They were directed
to " revise the style of, and arrange, the articles agreed to by the House."
They placed the matter in the hands of Gouverneur Morris for the pur
pose. In language and general arrangement, the National Constitution
was the work of that eminent man.*
* Gouverneur Morris was born near the Westchester shore of the Harlem River, New York, at the close of January,
1752. He was educated at King's (now Columbia) College, in the city of New York, studied law under the eminent
OF THE WAK OF 1812.
Signing the Constitution. Hesitation on the part of some. Patriotic Course of Franklin, Hamilton, and others.
this committee a Constitution was reported to the Convention. It was taken up and
considered clause by clause, discussed, slightly amended, and then engrossed. On
the loth it was agreed to by the delegates of all the states present. On the 17th a fail-
copy on parchment was brought in to receive the signatures of the members — an act
far more important in all its bearings than the signing of the Declaration of Independ
ence, eleven years before.1
In the performance of that act, as in the former, there was some hesitation on the
part of a few. There had been serious differences of opinion during the whole session
— so serious that at times there seemed a probability that the Convention would be an
utter failure. There were still serious differences of opinion when the instrument was
adopted, and delicate questions arose about signing it. A large majority of the mem
bers wished it to go forth to the people, not only as the act of the Convention collect
ively, but with the individual sanction and signature of each delegate. This was the
desire of Dr. Franklin, and, with pleasant words, he endeavored to allay all irritation
and bring about such a result. It was finally agreed, on the suggestion of Gouverneur
Morris, that it might be signed, without implying personal sanction, in these closing
words : " Done by consent of the states present. In testimony whereof, we have sub
scribed," etc.
Hamilton patriotically seconded the efforts of Franklin, notwithstanding the instru
ment did not have his approval, because it did not give power enough to the national
government. " No man's ideas," he said, " are more remote from the plan than my
own ; but is it possible to deliberate between anarchy and confusion on one side, and
the chance of good on the other?"
The appeals of Franklin and Hamilton, and the example of Madison and Pinckney,
secured the signatures of several dissatisfied members ; and all present, excepting
Mason and Randolph, of Virginia,2 and Gerry, of Massachusetts,3 signed the Constitu
tion.4 While this important work was in progress, Franklin looked toward the chair
occupied by "Washington, at the back of which a sun was painted, and observed, " I
have often and often, in the course of the session, and the vicissitudes of my hopes and
fears as to its issue, looked at that sun behind the President without being able to tell
whether it was rising or setting : at length I have the happiness to know that it is a
rising sun."
The Convention, by a carefully worded resolution, recommended the Congress to lay
the new Constitution before the people (not the states), and ask them, the source of all
William Smith, of that city, and was licensed"to practice in 1771. He was an active patriot during the war, serving in
the Continental Congress, on committees of safety, etc. He resided some time in Philadelphia. He was sent abroad
on a diplomatic mission, and resided for a while in Paris. He afterward went to London on public business, and was
finally appointed minister plenipotentiary at the French Court. He returned to America in 1798, was elected to the
Senate of the United States, and was active in public arid private life until his death in 1316.
1 For a full account in detail of all the proceedings in relation to the Constitution, see the History of the Origin, Forma
tion, and Adoption of the Constitution of the United States, with Notices of its Principal Framers, by George Ticknor Curtis,
in two volumes : New York, Harper & Brothers.
2 George Mason was Washington's neighbor and early personal friend. He was a statesman of the first order among
those of his associates in Virginia, and a thorough republican. He was the framer of the Constitution of Virginia, and
was active in the Convention that formed the National Constitution. He was so imbued with the state pride for which
Virginians have always been noted, that he would not agree to that Constitution because it did not recognize individual
state sovereignty — the very rock on which the new republic was then in danger of being wrecked. In conjunction with
Patrick Henry, he opposed its adoption in the Virginia Convention, professing to believe that it would be the instru
ment for converting the government into a monarchy. He died at his seat on the Potomac (Gunston Hall) in the
autnran of 1792, at the age of sixty-seven years.
3 We shall have occasion to consider the public character of Mr. Gerry hereafter. He was Vice-President of the
United States in 1812.
4 The names of the delegates have been given in note 2, page 27. The names of those who signed the Constitution
are given in our fac-similes of their signatures, which have been engraved from the original parchment in the State De
partment at Washington. It will be seen that Alexander Hamilton's name stands alone. His colleagues from New
York (Yates and Lansing) had left the Convention in disgust on the 1st of July, and New York was considered not
officially represented. But Hamilton, who had not swerved from duty, was there. The weight of his name was im
portant, and in the place that should have been filled with the names of delegates from his state was recited, "Mr. Ham
ilton, of New York." It will be observed that the hand-writing of all seems defective, the lines appearing irregular.
This is owing to the parchment on which their names are written, which did not receive the ink as freely as paper
would have done. These irregularities have all been carefully copied, so as to give a perfect fat-simile of the originals.
30
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Signatures to the National Constitution.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
31
Resolutions Bent to the State Legislatures.
Signatures to the National Constitution.
sovereignty, to ratify or reject it. The views of the great majority of the members of
Congress were concurrent, and on the 28th of September that body
"Resolved unanimously, That the said report [of the Convention to the Congress],
with the resolutions and letters accompanying the same, be transmitted to the several
32
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Conventions of the People.
The Federalist.
Signatures to the National Constitution.
Legislatures, in order to be submitted to a Convention of Delegates chosen in each state
BY THE PEOPLE THEREOF, in conformity to the resolves of the Convention made and
provided in that case."
Conventions of \\\Q people were accordingly held in the several states to consider the
Constitution. Long and stirring debates occurred in these Conventions, and at every
public gathering and private hearth-stone in the land. Hamilton, Madison, Jay, and
others fed the public understanding with able essays on government and in favor of
the new Constitution.1 That instrument was read and discussed every where. But it
8IGNATUEE8 TO THE CONSTITUTION.
The essays of Hamilton, Madison, and Jay were published under the general title of The Federalist. It was origin
ally designed to comprise the series within twenty, or, at most, twenty-five numbers, but they extended to eighty-five,
f these Hamilton wrote sixty-five. The first number, written by Hamilton in the cabin of a'Hudson River sloop, was
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 33
Ratification of the Constitution. Opposition to it. The family and state Pride of the Virginians.
was nine months after its adoption by the Convention, before the people of nine states
ratified it — that number being necessary to make it the organic law of the land. That
ninth state was New Hampshire, and the momentous act of the people occurred on the
21st of June, 1788. The General Congress was then in session, and, on the 2d of July,
adopted measures "for putting the said Constitution into operation." They appointed
the first Wednesday of the ensuing March as the day when the functions of the new
government should commence their action. The people in the states that had ratified
the Constitution chose their presidential electors in compliance with its provisions.
These met on the first Wednesday in February, 1789, and elected George Washington
chief magistrate of the new republic, and John Adams Vice-President. Washington
was inaugurated on the 30th of April, and before the close of the year the inhabitants
of all the states but one had ratified the National Constitution.1
After earnest deliberation — after the free discussion of every principle of govern
ment involving state rights and state sovereignty — after a careful comparison of the
advantages and disadvantages of a consolidated nation and the confederacy they had
fairly tried, it was solemnly declared that "WE, THE PEOPLE of the United States, in
order, to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquillity,
provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the blessings
of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this CONSTITUTION
for the United States of America."2
published on the 27th of October, ITS", a little more than a month after the adjournment of the National Convention.
They were published four times a week in a New York daily paper. Of these essays Washington wrote to Hamilton
in* August, 1TS8: "When the transient circumstances and fugitive performances which attend this crisis shall have dis
appeared, that work [The Federalist] will merit the notice of posterity, because in it are candidly and ably discussed the
principles of freedom and the topics of government, which will be always interesting to mankind, so long as they shall
be connected in civil society."
1 That state was Rhode Island, which held out until the spring of 1790. The people in the several states ratified the
Constitution in the following order : Delaware, December 7, 1787 ; Pennsylvania, December 12, 1787 ; New Jersey, De
cember 18, 17S7; Georgia, January 2, 17SS; Connecticut, January 9, 17S8; Massachusetts, February 6, 1788; Maryland,
April 28, 1788 ; South Carolina, May 23, 1788 ; New Hampshire, June 21, 1788 ; Virginia, June 20, 1788 ; New York, July
26,1788; North Carolina, November 21,1788; Rhode Island, May 29,1790. During the recess of Congress, in the au
tumn of 1789, President Washington visited the New England States. As Rhode Island yet remained a kind of foreign
state, he avoided it.
2 The Constitution was violently assailed by the " State Rights" or state sovereignty men— men who regarded alle
giance to a state as paramount to that due to the national government. Their chief objection was that it destroyed (as
it was intended to do) the alleged sovereignty of the several states, and constituted a consolidated nation. In Virginia,
especially, such a result was looked upon by the proud aristocracy with great disfavor. Virginia was then the ruling
state in the League, and her political power was swayed by a few families. These were exceedingly proud, and, down
to the breaking out of the war for independence, they looked with disdain upon the people of the other colonies.* This
feeling was somewhat modified by the operations of the war, and new men were found at the helm of the vessel of state.
Yet much of the old pride remained, and the leading Virginians, with a few honorable exceptions, could not bear the
thought of having the "Old Dominion," as they were proud to call the commonwealth, stripped of her independent
sovereignty. The new leaders seized upon this dominant state pride and made it subservient to their wishes. Patrick
Henry violently denounced the Constitution because of its destructive effects upon state sovereignty. lie clearly under
stood its character when, with a loud voice, in the Virginia Convention, he demanded, "Who authorized the Convention
to speak the language 'We, the people,' instead of 'We, the states? Even from that illustrious man who saved us by his
valor, I would have a reason for his conduct." George Mason, in the same Convention, denounced the Constitution be
cause, as he asserted, it "changed the confederation of states into a consolidation, and would annihilate the state gov
ernments."
The opposition in several other states was very powerful, for various reasons, and the Constitution and the friends of
the Constitution were assailed with the most outrageous misrepresentations. Of the opponents in Virginia Washington
wrote : " Their strength, as well as those of the same class in other states, seems to lie in misrepresentation, and a desire
to inflame the passions and alarm the fears by noisy declamation, rather than to convince the understanding by sound
arguments, or fair and impartial statements. Baffled in their attacks upon the Constitution, they have attempted to vil
ify and debase the characters who formed it, but I trust they will not succeed."
The papers, by Colonel Byrd (who was a member of the Colonial Council), above referred to, afford a glimpse of the
sense of superiority to all the other colonists entertained by the leading families in Virginia, which was always the
bane of progress and national feeling, and made large numbers of the politicians of that state disnnionists from the be
ginning. In these papers the New Englanders were spoken of as " a puritanical sect, with pharisaical peculiarities in
their worship and behavior." Trade was an unfit calling, and a trade eluding laws, though pronounced void, was justly
regarded as demoralizing. Such, they charged, was much of the trade of the Eastern provinces. The dwellers of New
York had not more favor. The Dutch were also traders— a " slippery people"— intruders on Virginia— encroachers and
reformers. New Jersey, in a religious aspect, was not less obnoxious, peopled by "a swarm of Scots Quakers, who
were not tolerated to exercise the gifts of the spirit in their own country ;" by " Anabaptists," too, and some " Swedes/'
The merits of Penn were equivocal— he was not immaculate; but, though "Quakers had flocked to Pennsylvania in
shoals," they had the virtues of " dilligence and frugality," and the " prudence" which became non-combatants. Mary-
* See Byrd's Westover Papars. ,
c
34 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Dissolution of the Continental Congress. Its Character, and that of the new Government.
With the birth of the nation on the 4th of March, 1789, the Continental Congress,
the representative of the League, expired. Its history is one of the most remarkable
on record. It was first an almost spontaneous gathering of patriotic men, chosen by
their fellow-citizens in a time of great perplexity, to consult upon the public good.
They represented different provinces extending a thousand miles along the Atlantic
coast, with interests as diversified as the climate and geography. With boldness un-
equaled and faith unexampled, they snatched the sceptre of rule over a vast dominion
from imperial England, of whose monarch they were subjects, and assumed the func
tions of sovereignty by creating armies, issuing bills of credit, declaring the provinces
free and independent states, negotiating treaties with foreign governments, and, finally,
after eight long years of struggle, wringing from their former sovereign his acknowl
edgment of the independence of the states which they represented. The career of the
Congress was meteor-like, and astonished the world with its brilliancy. It was also
short. Like a half-developed giant exhausted by mighty efforts, it first exhibited lassi
tude, then decrepitude, and at last hopeless decay. Poor and weak, its services forgot
ten by those who should have been grateful for them, it lost the respect of all mankind,
and died of political marasmus.
Out of its remains, phoenix-like, and in full vigor and grand proportions, arose a
nation whose existence had been decreed by the will of true sovereignty — THE PEOPLE
— and whose perpetuity depends upon that will. It immediately arrested the profound
attention of the civilized world. It was seen that its commerce, diplomacy, and dignity
were no longer exposed to neglect by thirteen distinct and clashing legislative bodies,
but were guarded by a central power of wonderful energy. The prophecy of Bishop
Berkeley was on the eve of fulfillment.1 England, France, Spain, and Holland placed
their representatives at the seat of the new government, and the world acknowledged
that the new-born nation was a power — positive, tangible, indubitable.
land was a commodious retreat for Papist?, for whom " England was too hot," and to whom, as a neighbor, Virginia
was a little cold. The Carolinas, left " derelict by the French and Sapaniards," were the regions of pines and serpents
—dismal in their swamps, and deadly in their malaria. "Thus, in the eyes of her favored few," says a late writer,
" Virginia was the paradise of the New World." For a farther illustration of this subject, see History of the Republic of
the United States of America, as traced in the Writings of Alexander Hamilton and his Contemporaries, by John C. Hamilton.
1 When inspired with his transatlantic mission, Bishop Berkeley wrote his six "Verses on the Prospect of Planting
Arts and Learning in America," in which he predicted the rising greatness of the New World, and employed the oft-
quoted line,
"Westward the course of empire takes its way."
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
Foundations of Government laid by the People.
They comprehend the Value of the Great Wilderness.
CHAPTER II.
1 Old burial-places, once sacred, are plundered,
And thickly with bones is the fallow field slrown ;
The bond of confederate tribes has been sundered —
The long council hall of the brave overthrown.
The Sac and Miami bowmen no longer
Preserve at the door-posts unslumbering guard ;
We fought, but the pale-browed invaders were stronger;
Our knife-blades too blunt, and their bosoms too hard."
W. H. C. HOSMEE.
3 have seen the development of \veak,jsolated commonwealths
into a powerful, consolidated nation, and are now to observe
the growth of that nation in resources and strength until, by
an exhibition of its powers in vindication of its rights before
the world, it became absolutely independent, and was re
spected accordingly.
That assertion and vindication were made by the moral
forces of legislation and the patriotism of the people, co-
working with the material forces of army and navy. In
this view is involved the whole drama of the contest known
in 'history as the War of 1812, or the Second Struggle for
Independence — a drama, many of whose characters and inci
dents appear upon the stage simultaneously with the persons and events exhibited in
the preceding chapter. Looking back from the summer of 1812, when war against
Great Britain was formally declared, the causes of the conflict appear both remote and
near. The war actually began years before the President proclaimed the appeal to
arms.
While statesmen and politicians were arranging the machinery of government, the
people were laying broad and deep the visible foundations of the state, in the estab
lishment of material interests and the shaping of institutions consonant with the new
order of things, and essential to social and political prosperity. They had already be
gun to comprehend the hidden resources and immense value of the vast country within
the treaty limits of the United States westward of the Alleghany Mountains. They
had already obtained prophetic glimpses of a future civilization that should flourish in
the fertile regions watered by the streams whose springs are in those lofty hills that
stretch, parallel with the Atlantic, from the Lakes almost to the Gulf, across fourteen
degrees of latitude. Pioneers had gone over the grand hills and sent up the smoke of
their cabin fires from many a fertile valley irrigated by the tributaries of the Ohio and
Mississippi. Already they had learned to regard the Father of Waters as a great aque
ous highway for an immense inland commerce soon to be created, and had begun to
urge the supreme authority of the land to treat with Spain for its free navigation.
Already peace and friendship with the savage tribes on the remote frontiers of civil
ization had been promised by treaties made upon principles of justice and not fashioned
by the ethics of the sword.1
1 Necessity, if noU;onscience, recommended this policy, for at the close of the Revolution the " regular army" had been
reduced to less thafceven hundred men, and no officer was retained above the rank of captain. This force was soon
still farther reduced to twenty-five men to guard the military stores at Pittsburg, and fifty-five to perform military duty
at West Point and other magazines.
Peace was negotiated with most of the tribes which had taken part against the United States in the late war. A
36 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Indian Treaties. Anti-slavery Movements. The Ordinance of 178T. First Settlements in Ohio.
By treaty with the chief tribes between the Ohio River and the Great Lakes, and
the cession by Virginia1 to the United States of all claims to lands in that region, the
general government became absolute possessor of a vast country, out of which several
flourishing states have since been formed.2
While the National Convention was in session at Philadelphia in the summer of
1787, the Continental Congress, sitting at New York, feeble and dying, with only eight
states represented, took up and disposed of in a satisfactory manner a subject second
only in importance to that under discussion in the capital of Pennsylvania. They
» July is, adopted,* by unanimous vote, "An Ordinance for the government of the Ter-
1T8T- ritory of the United States northwest of the Ohio."3 In anticipation of this
action, extensive surveys had been made in the new territory. Soon after the passage
of the ordinance above mentioned, a sale of five millions of acres, extending along the
Ohio from the Muskingum to the Sciota, were sold to the "Ohio Company," which
was composed of citizens of New England, many of whom had been officers of the Con
tinental army.4 A similar sale was made to John Cleve Symmes, of New Jersey, for
two millions of acres, in the rich and beautiful region between the Great and Little
Miami Rivers, including the site of Cincinnati.
These were the first steps taken toward the settlement of the Northwestern Terri
tory, in which occurred so many of the important events of the War of 1812. Hitherto
New England emigration had been chiefly to Vermont, Northern New Hampshire, and
the Territory of Maine. Now it poured, in a vast and continuous stream, into the Ohio
country. General Rufus Putnam, at the head of a colony from Massachusetts, founded
a settlement5 (the first, of Europeans, in all Ohio, if we except the Moravian missionary
stations6) at the mouth of the Muskingum River, and named it Marietta, in honor of
treaty was concluded at Fort Stanwix (now Rome, New York) in October, 17S4, with the Six Nations. Another was con
cluded at Fort M'lutosh in January, 1785, with the Wyandots, Delawares, Chippewas, and Ottawas; and another with
the Cherokees, at Hopewell, in November the same year. Dissatisfaction having arisen concerning remuneration for
lands, two new treaties were made at Fort Hannar, on the Muskiugum, Ohio, at the beginning of 1789, by which allow
ances were made for ceded lands. By treaty, the Indian titles to lands extending along the northern bank of the Ohio
and a considerable distance inland, as far west as the Wabash River, were extinguished. This tract comprised about
seventeen millions of acres.
1 The deed of cession, signed by Virginia commissioners, with Thomas Jefferson at their head, was executed on the
first day of March, 1784. It stipulated that the territory ceded should be laid out and formed into states, not less than
one hundred nor more than one hundred and fifty miles square ; that the states so formed should be "distinct repub
lican states," and admitted as members of the National Union, having the same rights of sovereignty, etc., as the
older states.
After the cession was executed the Congress referred the matter to a committee, of which Mr. Jefferson was chairman.
That committee reported an ordinance containing a plan for the government of the whole Western territory north and
south of the Ohio, from the thirty-first degree of north latitude to the northern boundary of the United States, it being
supposed that other states owning territory south of the Ohio would follow the example of Virginia. The plan proposed
to divide the great Territory into seventeen states, and among the conditions was the remarkable one "that, after the year
1800, there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in any of the said states, other than in the punishment of
crimes whereof the party shall have been duly convicted." This provision did not get the vote of nine states, the num
ber necessary to adopt it. New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, with the four New England States, voted for it;
North Carolina was divided ; Delaware and Georgia were unrepresented ; Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina voted
against it. (See Journal of Congress, April 19, 1784.) After expunging this proviso the report was adopted, but the
subject was not definitoly acted upon.
2 Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin.
3 This ordinance was reported by a committee, of which Mr. Dane, of Massachusetts, was chairman. It contained Mr.
Jefferson's anti-slavery proviso, with a clause relative to the rendition of fugitive slaves, similar in form to the one incor
porated in the National Constitution a few weeks later.
* This company was formed in Boston, and Rev. Manasseh Cutler, and Winthrop Sargent were the authorized agents
of the association to make the contract with the United States Treasury Board. Among the associates were Generals
Parsons and Rufus Putnam, of Connecticut ; General Varnum and Commodore Whipple, of Rhode Island ; General Tup-
per, of Massachusetts, and men of lesser note in public life.
s Putnam and his party landed on the site of Marietta on the 7th of April, 17S8. The governor of the territory had
not yet arrived, so they established temporary laws for their own government. These were published by being written
and nailed to a tree. Return J. Meigs, afterward governor of the state, was appointed to administer the laws. Such
was the beginning of government in the State of Ohio.
s These devoted missionaries were the first white inhabitants who took up their abode within the present limits of the
State or Ohio. The Rev. John Frederick Post and Rev. John Heckewelder had penetrated the wildei||es9 in this direction
before the commencement of the Revolution. Their first visit was as early as 1761. Others followed, and they estab
lished three stations, or villages of Indian converts, on the Tuscarawas River, within the limits of the present county of
that name. These were named Schoenbrun, Gnadeuhutten, and Salem. The latter was near the present village of Port
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
Campus Martms and Fort Washington.
Miss Heckewelder.
General St. Clair.
Maria Antoinette, the queen of Louis the Sixteenth, of France. A stockade fort, called
Campus Martms, was immediate
ly commenced, as a protection
against the hostile Indians.1 In
O
the autumn of the same year a
party of settlers seated them
selves upon Symmes's purchase,
and founded Columbia, near the
mouth of the Little Miami. Fort
Washington was soon afterward
built a short distance below, on
the site of Cincinnati.
It has been estimated that with
in the years 1788 and 1789, full
twenty thousand men, women,
CAMPUS MABTIU8.
and children went down the Ohio
in boats, to become settlers on its banks. Since then, how wonderful has been the
growth of empire beyond the Alleghanies !
Soon after the organization of the Northwestern Territory, Major General Arthur
St. Clair,2 an officer in the old French War, and in the Continental army during the
Revolution, was appointed its governor by the Congress, of which body he was then
president. He accepted the position with reluctance. "The office of governor was in
a great measure forced on me," he said, in a letter to a friend.3 Yet, ever ready to go
where duty to his country called him, he proceeded to the Territory in the summer of
Washington. There Hecke
welder resided for some time,
and there his daughter Jo
hanna Maria was born, on the
GthofApril,17Sl. She was the
first white child born in Ohio,
and is yet living [1SGT] atBeth-
lehera, Pennsylvania, in full
possession of her mental fac
ulties. She has been deaf for
a number of years, and uses
a slate in conversation. Her
hand is firm, and she writes
with vigor, as her signature,
carefully copied in the engra
ving, made at the close of 1859,
attests. It was appended to
an autograph note to the
writer. The portrait was tak
en by the Daguerreian pro
cess at that time. In a diary
kept by the younger pupils
of the Bethlehem boarding-
school, where Miss Hecke
welder was educated, under
date of December 23, 1TS8
(the year when Marietta was
founded), occurs the follow
ing sentence : " Little Miss
Polly Heckewelder's papa re
turned from Fort Pitt, which
occasioned her and us great
joy." See Bethlehem Souve
nir, 1S5S, p. 67.
' This fort was a regular
parallelogram, with an exte
rior line of seven hundred
and twenty feet. There was a
strong block-house at each
corner, surmounted by a tow
er and sentry-box. Between
them were dwelling-houses.
At the outer corner of each
block -house was a bastion,
standing on four stout tim
bers. There were port-holes
for musketry and artillery.
These buildings were all
made or' ea.wed timbers.
Twenty feet in advance of
these was a row of very
strong and large pickets,
with gateways through them, and a few feet outside of these was placed a row of abatis.
1 Arthur St. Clair was a native of Edinburp, in Scotland, where he was born in 1734. He came to America with Admi
ral Boscawen in 1759, and served under Wolfe as a lieutenant. After the peace in 1763 he was placed in command of
Fort Ligonier, in Pennsylvania. When the Revolution broke out he espoused the patriot cause, and was appointed a
colonel in the Continental army in January, 1776. He was active most of the time during that war, and after its close
settled in Pennsylvania. He was President of the Continental Congress in 17S7. and the following year was appointed
governor of the newly-organized Northwestern Territory. His services in that region are recorded in the text. He
survived his misfortunes there almost a quarter of a century, and then died, in poverty, at Laurel Hill, in Western
Pennsylvania, in August, 1818, at the age of eighty-four years.
3 William B. Giles, a member of Congress from Virginia.
38
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Temper of the Western Indians. The British tampering with them. Lord Dorchester. Frontier Troops and Posts.
1 788, and took up his abode in Campus a Juiv>
Martius,a with Winthrop Sargent as 178S-
SIGNATURE OF WINTUEOP 8AEGENT.
secretary or deputy, who acted as chief mag
istrate during the absence of the governor.
St. Clair at once instituted inquiries, in ac
cordance with bis instructions, concerning the
temper of the Indians in the Territory. They
were known to be exceedingly uneasy, and
sometimes in frowning moods ; and the tribes
on the W abash, numbering almost two thou
sand warriors, who had not been parties to
any of the treaties, were decidedly hostile.
They continued to make predatory incursions
into the Kentucky settlements, notwithstand
ing chastisements received at the hands of
General George Rogers Clarke, the "father
of the North west," as he has been called ; and they were in turn invaded and scourged
by bands of retaliating Kentuckians. These expeditions deepened the hostile feeling,
and gave strength and fierceness to both parties when, in after years, they met in
battle.
It soon became evident that all the tribes in the Territory, numbering full twenty
thousand souls, were tampered with by British emissaries, sent out from the frontier
forts, which had not been given up to the United States in compliance with treaty stip
ulations. Sir John Johnson (son of Sir William, of the Mohawk Valley, and the im
placable enemy of the United States1) was the Inspector General of Indian Affairs in
America, and had great influence over the savages; and Lord Dorchester (formerly
to war. These circumstan
ces gave rise to the opinion
that the British govern
ment, which yet refused to
send a representative to
Sir Guy Carleton) was again
governor general of those
provinces,2 and, by speeches
at Quebec and Montreal, di
rectly instigated the savages
the United States, and treated the new republic with ill-concealed contempt, was pre
paring the way for an effort to reduce the members of1 the League to colonial vas
salage.
The Confederacy was but feebly prepared to meet hostilities on their northwestern
frontier. The military force .at the time the Territory was formed consisted of only
about six hundred men, commanded by Brigadier General Harmar.3 Of these there
were two companies of artillery, formed of volunteers who enlisted to put down Shays's
Rebellion in Massachusetts. The frontier military stations were Pittsburg, at the forks
of the Ohio, Fort M'Intosh, on Beaver Creek, and Fort Franklin, on French Creek,
near old Fort Venango, in Pennsylvania; Fort Harmar, at the mouth of the Mus-
1 Sir John was the heir to the title and fortune of Sir William, and was at the head of the Loyalists in the Mohawk
Valley at the beginning of the Revolution. He had lived some time in England, and returned to settle in Canada in
1785. He had suffered in person and estate at the hands of the republicans, having been expelled from his home, his
property confiscated, and his family exiled. These circumstances made him a bitter and relentless foe, and ready to
strike a blow of retaliation. His losses were made up by the British government by grants of land. He died at Mont
real in 1830, at the age of eighty-eight years. For a detailed account of his career during the old war for independence,
see Lossing's Field-Book of the Revolution, vol. i.
2 Sir Guy Carleton was Governor of Canada when the old war for independence broke out, and continued there until
its close. He was acquainted with all the affairs of the Indians, and had great influence over them.
3 Appointed brigadier general on the 31st of July, 1787.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
39
Council at Fort Harmar.
Little Turtle's Opposition.
Uneasiness of the Indians of the Gulf Region.
FOBT IIABMAE.
kingum River; Fort Steuben, on the Ohio River, now Jefferson v ill e, opposite Louis
ville ; and Fort Vincennes, on the Wabash River.
Early in I789a Governor St. Clair held a council at Fort Harmar1 with
chiefs and sachems of the Six Nations. He also held a council with the
leading men of the Wyandots, Delawares, Ottawas, Chippewas, Pottawatomies, and
Sacs. With all these representatives of thousands of Indians, scattered over the coun
try from the Mohawk Valley to that of the Wabash, he made treaties, when old agree
ments were confirmed, and remunerations and boundaries were specified. The Six
Nations (or, rather, five of the six nations, for the Mohawks, who were in Canada, were
not represented) were faithful to the treaty ; but the great body of the others, influ
enced by British emissaries and unscrupulous traders, refused to acknowledge the valid
ity of the treaty made by their warriors and rulers.2 Within a few weeks after the
council at Fort Harmar, parties of them were out upon the war-path on the frontiers
of Virginia and Kentucky.
Nearer the Gulf, the Creeks and Cherokees, brought into immediate contact with
the wily Spaniards in Florida and at New Orleans, who were already preparing seduc
tive temptations to the settlers in the trans-Alleghany valleys to leave the American
League and join fortunes with the children of Old Spain, became first uneasy, and at
the time in question were assuming a hostile attitude. The Creeks, led by the talented
M'Gillivray, a half-breed, whose father was a Scotchman, had formed a close alliance
with the Spaniards, and through them might receive arms and other military supplies.
In view of all these pircumstances, the portentous cloud of a threatened general Indian
Avar was gathering in the Avestern horizon at the close of 1789.
' This fort was commenced in the autumn of 17S5, by a detachment of United States troops under the command of
Major John Doughty. It was on the right bank of the Muskingum, at its junction with the Ohio, and was named in
honor of Colonel Josiah Harmar, to whose regiment Major Donghty's corps was attached. It was the first military post
of the kind erected within the limits of Ohio. The outlines formed a regular pentagon, embracing about three fourths
of an acre. United States troops occupied it until 1790, when they left it to construct and occupy Fort Washington, on
the site of Cincinnati. During the Indian wars that succeeded it was occupied by a few troops, and was finally aban
doned after the treaty of Greenville in 1795.
2 In the great council at Fort Greenville in 1795, Little Turtle, the most active of the chiefs in the Northwest, gave the
following reason for their refusal to comply with the treaties: "You have told me," he said, "that the present treaty
should be founded upon that of Muskingum. I beg leave to observe to you that that treaty was effected altogether by
the Six Nations, who seduced some of our young men to attend it, together with a few of the Chippewas, Wyandote,
Delawares, Ottawas, and Pottawatomies. I beg leave to tell you that I am entirely ignorant of what was done at that
treaty."
40 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Evidences of British Intrigues. Proposed Western Boundary of the United States. Indian Warriors on the Ohio.
Yet more threatening was the aspect of affairs on the Western frontier in the spring
of 1790. Serious trouble was evidently brewing. Major Hamtramck, a small Cana
dian Frenchman, and a spirited officer in the United States army, was in command of
the military post at Vincennes, an important point on the Wabash,1 surrounded by
French families, whose long residence made them influential among the Indians. Many
of the latter spoke their language, and some had embraced the Roman Catholic relig
ion. Taking advantage of this intimate relationship, Hamtramck sent out Antoine
Gamelin, with speeches to the Wabash and Miami Indians from Governor St. Clair, of
fering them peace and friendship. In the course of his tour Gamelin obtained positive
evidence of the influence of the British at Detroit over the savage mind in the West.
He traversed the country from Post Vincennes along the Wabash, and eastward to the
Miami village, where the conjunction of the St. Mary's and St. Joseph's Rivers forms
the Maumee, or Miami of the Lakes, at the present city of Fort Wayne, Indiana. He
made speeches himself, and offered them St. Glair's ; but he was every where met with
the reply that they could do nothing definitely until they could hear from Detroit.
"You invite us to stop our young men," said the Kickapoos. "It is impossible to do
it, being constantly encouraged by the British." " We are all sensible of your speech,
and pleased with it," said Blue Jacket, chief warrior of the Shawnoese; "but we can
not give you an answer without hearing from our father at Detroit." "We can not
give a definite answer without consulting the commandant at Detroit," said Le Gris,
the great chief of the Miamis. "The English commandant at Detroit is our father
since he threw down our French father," said the Shawnoese.2 And so, on all occa
sions, they were unwilling to accept proffers of peace with the United States without
first consulting the commandant at Detroit, with whom Johnson and Carleton were in
t
constant communication. Instigated by these men, these Western tribes insisted on
the establishment of the Ohio River as the boundary between the Indians and the
United States, and would listen to no other terms.3
Hamtramck was so well satisfied of these machinations of the British that he assured
Governor St. Clair that a permanent peace with the savages was an impossibility. The
governor, meanwhile, had received accounts of the depredations of the Indians along
the Ohio from the Falls (Louisville) to Pittsburg. They infested the banks in such
numbers, waylaying boats and plundering and wounding the voyaging emigrants, that
an utter cessation of the navigation of the river seemed inevitable.
The principal rendezvous of the marauders was near the mouth of the Scioto, on the
north bank of the Ohio, and to that point two hundred and thirty Kentucky volunteers
and one hundred regular troops were sent, under General Harmar. They assembled
at Fort Washington,4 then not quite completed, and marched from thence to the Scioto.
1 Vincennes was so named by the French traders, who established a trading-post there as early as 1730. The name is
in honor of the Sieur de Vincennes, an officer sent to the Miamis as early as 1705, and who commanded the post on the
Wabash, afterward called by his name. It was alternately in possession of the Americans and British during the Revo
lution, while the head-quarters of the latter were at Detroit. It is on the bank of the Wabash, one hundred miles from
its mouth, and is the capital of Knox County, Indiana.
J Gamelin's Journal, cited by Dillon, in his History of Indiana, p. 226.
3 This curtailment of the boundaries of the United States, so as to prevent their control of the upper lakes and the
valuable fur trade of the country around them, was a favorite scheme of British statesmen. It was even proposed as a
sine qtut non, at one time, by the British commissioners who negotiated the Treaty of Peace in 1814, that the Indians
inhabiting a portion of the United States within the limits established by the Treaty of 1783 should be included as the
allies of Great Britain in the projected pacification ; and that definite boundaries should be settled for the Indian terri
tory, upon a basis which would have operated to surrender to a number of Indians, not probably exceeding a few thou
sands, the rights of sovereignty as well as of soil, over nearly one third of the territorial dominions of the United States,
inhabited by more than one hundred thousand of its citizens.*
* Fort Washington was built on the site of a block-house erected by Ensign Luce within the limits of the present city
of Cincinnati, which was first named Losantiville by a pedantic settler, from the words le os antivillf, which he interpreted
as meaning "the village opposite the mouth" — mouth of Licking River. Luce was at North Bend with a detachment of
troops, charged with selecting a site for a block-house. Judge Symmes wished it to be built there, but Luce, according
to the judge, was led to Cincinnati, as Losantiville was then called, on account of his love for the beautiful wife of a set
tler, who went there to reside because of the attentions to her of the ensign at the Bend. Luce followed, and erected the
* See American State Papers, ix., 332 to 421, inclusive.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
41
Fort Washington, on the Site of Cincinnati.
Harmar's Expedition against the Indians.
* 1790.
WASHINGTON, ON TUB 6ITE OF CINCINNATI.
b September 19.
The Indians fled on their
approach, and the expedi
tion returned without ac
complishing any thing.
A more formidable expe
dition, to penetrate the Mi
ami country, was determ
ined upon, and, at the close
of September,a Gen
eral Harmar left Fort
Washington with over four
teen hundred troops,1 and
moved toward the heart of
the hostile Indian country
around the head waters of
the Maumee. St. Clair, in
obedience to instructions
from President Washington,
had previously sent a let
ter1* to the British commandant at Detroit, courteously informing him
that the expedition had no designs upon any possessions of the crown.
He added that he had every reason to expect, after such a candid explanation, that the
commandant would
neither countenance
nor assist the tribes
in their hostilities.
Of course this ex
pectation was not
realized.
Harmar reached the Maumee at the middle of October. As he approached an In
dian town the inhabitants fled, leaving it to be burned by the invaders. Colonel Har-
din, with some Kentucky volunteers and thirty regulars, was sent in pursuit. He fell
into an ambuscade of one hundred Indians, under Mish-i-Jcin-a-Tcwa, or Little Turtle
(an eminent Miami chief), about eleven miles from the site of Fort Wayne, where the
Goshen state road crosses the Eel River. The frightened militia fled without firing a
gun, while the regulars stood firm until twenty-two of their number were slain. Cap
tain Armstrong, who escaped, stood in mud and water up to his chin, and saw the sav
ages dance in frantic joy because of their victory.
Harmar moved about two miles to Chillicothe2 and destroyed it; then, after being
block-house there ; and in 1790 Major Doughty built Fort Washington on the same spot. It was a rude but strong
structure, and stood upon the eastern boundary of the town as originally laid out, between the present Third and Fourth
Streets, east of Eastern Row, now Broadway, which was then a "two-pole alley." The celebrated English writer and
traveler, Mrs. Trollope, resided in Cincinnati for a while, and had a noted bazar on the site of the fort. That work was
composed of a number of strongiy-built hewn-log cabins, a story and a half in height, arranged for soldiers' barracks.
Some, better finished than the majority, were used by the officers. They formed a hollow square, inclosing about an acre
of ground, with a strong block-house at each angle. One of these was Luce's. These were built of the timber from the
ground on which the fort stood. In 1792 Congress reserved fifteen acres around it for the use of the garrison. In the
autumn of 1790, Governor St. Clair arrived at Fort Washington, organized the County of Hamilton, and decreed that the
little village of Cincinnati, commenced around the fort, should be the county seat. Thus commenced the Queen City of
the West, as it has been called.
1 These consisted of three battalions of Virginia militia, one battalion of Pennsylvania militia, one battalion of mount
ed light troops, and two battalions of regulars— in all, 1453. Of these, 320 were regulars.
2 This has been mistaken for the present Chillicothe on the Scioto. Chillicothe was the name of one of the principal
tribes of the Shawuoese, and was a favorite name for a village. There were several of that name in the country of the
Shawnoese. There was Old Chillicothe, where Boone was a captive for some time. It was on the Little Miami, on the
site of Xeuia. There was another on the site of Westfall, in Pickaway County ; and still another on the site of Frank
fort, in Ross County. There was an Indian town of that name on the site of the present Chillicothe. All these were
within the present limits of Ohio. It signified " the town," or principal one.
42
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Battle near Fort Wayne, and Ilarmar's Defeat.
The Disaster and its Consequences.
October 21,
1T90.
menaced by the Indians, he turned his face toward Fort Washington.*
That night was a starry one, and Hardin, who was full of fight, proposed
to Harmar a surprise of the Indians at the head of the Maumee, where they had a vil
lage on one side of the river and an encampment of warriors on the other side. Har
mar reluctantly complied, and four hundred men were detached for the purpose.1 Six
ty of them were regulars, under Major Wyllys. They marched in three columns (the
regulars in the centre), and pushed forward as rapidly as possible, hoping to fall upon
the Indians before dawn. But it was after sunrise before they reached the bank of the
Maumee. A plan of attack was soon arranged. Major Hall, with a detachment of mi
litia, was to pass around the village at the bend of the Maumee, cross the St. Mary's
and the St. Joseph's, gain the rear of the Indian encampment unobserved, and await
an attack by the main body of the troops in front. These, consisting of Major M'Mul-
lin's battalion, Major Fontaine's cavalry, and the regulars under Major Wyllys, were to
cross the Maumee at and near the usual ford, and thus surround the savages. The game
was spoiled by the imprudence of Major Hall, who fired prematurely upon a solitary
Indian and alarmed the encampment. The startled Miamis were instantly seen flying
in different directions. The
militia under M'Mullin and
the cavalry under Fontaine,
who had crossed the river,
started in pursuit, in disobe
dience of orders, leaving the
regulars under Wyllys, who
had also crossed the Mau
mee, unsupported. The lat
ter were attacked by Little
Turtle and the main body
of the Indians, and driven
back with great slaughter.
Richardville, a half-blood
and successor to Little Tur
tle, who was in the battle,
and who died at Fort Wayne
in ] 840, often asserted that
the bodies of the slain were
go numerous in the river at
the ford that he could have crossed over the sti'eam upon them dryshod.2
While this conflict was going on at the ford, M'Mullin and Fontaine, in connection
with Hall, were skirmishing with parties of Indians a short distance up the St. Jo
seph's. Fontaine, with a number of his followers, fell at the head of his mounted
militia, in making a charge. He was shot dead, and, falling from his horse, was imme
diately scalped. The remainder, with those under Hall and M'Mullin, fell back in
confusion toward the ford of the Maumee, and followed the remnant of the regulars
in their retreat. The Indians, having suffered severely, did not pursue.
General Harmar was informed of the disaster by a horseman who had outstripped
the rest. A detachment of militia was immediately ordered to the assistance of the
retreating parties ; but such mortal fear had taken possession of these raw recruits
that only thirty, willing to go, could be found among them. On his arrival at camp
Hardin urged Harmar to proceed with his whole force to the Maumee. The latter,
„ October 23 having lost all confidence in the militia, refused ; and, as soon as prepa
rations could be made, the whole army took up its marchb for Fort Wash-
1 Harmar's halting-place was on Nine-mile Creek, a tributary of the Maumee, nine miles south of Fort Wayne.
2 Statement of John P. Hedges, of Fort Wayne, to the author.
THE MAUMEE FOKD — PLACE OF IIARMAR'S DEFEAT.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
43
Scene of Harmar's Defeat.
Visit of the Author to the Places of Conflict.
Site of the Miami Village.
ington, which they reached on the
4th of November. l
I visited the scene of the disas
ter at the Maumee Ford toward
the close of September, 1860. I
came up the Maumee Valley to
Defiance on the night of the 24th,
and, after visiting places of histor^
ic interest there the next morn
ing (of which I shall hereafter
write), I rode on to Fort Wayne
upon the Toledo and Wabash Rail
way, a distance of forty -three
miles. It was a delightful day.
but the journey was very monot
onous, because almost intermina
ble forests covered the flat country
over which we passed. I arrived
at the flourishing city of Fort Wayne, the shire town of Allen County, Indiana, late in
the afternoon, and by twilight had visited the fords of the Maumee and St. Joseph's,
made famous by the events of the 22d of October, 1790. I was accompanied by the
Hon. F. P. Randall, the mayor of the city, who kindly offered his services as guide.
We crossed the great bridge at the head of the Maumee, and rode first down that
stream to the place yet known as "Harmar's Ford." It is about half a mile below
the confluence of the St. Mary's and St. Joseph's at Fort Wayne. The river was not
then fordable there, a dam having been built about half a mile below, making the
water four feet deep at the old crossing-place. The road that led to and crossed the
ford was along the margin of the Maumee, which was skirted by the same forest-trees
in whose presence the battle was fought. They had grown to be grand and stately,
and were made exceedingly picturesque by the trailing grape-vines.
We returned to the bridge and rode up
the St. Joseph's to the place where Major
Hall and his detachment forded it. It is
about half a mile above the bridge. There
the St. Joseph's, with its banks fringed
with a variety of graceful trees, swept in
gentle curves, and presented to the eye
pictures of great beauty. Near the spot
here represented, on the east bank of the
St. Joseph's, was once a stockade, built
by the French, and occupied by the En
glish in PoHtiac's time.
The land of the point between the St.
Joseph's and the Maumee, on which Little
Turtle was encamped and the principal
Miami village was situated, is a level bot
tom, and known as the Cole Farm. Much
of it was covered with Indian corn of lux-
CBOSBING-PLAOE.
1 Harmar lost, in this expedition, 183 killed and 31 wounded. Among the killed were Majors Wyllys and Fontaine.
The loss of the Indians was supposed to he about equal to that of the white people. Criminations and recriminations
grew out of this expedition. Harmar and Hardin were both tried by court-martial and both were acquitted. Harmar
resigned his commission on the 1st of January, 1792. Hardin had been a lieutenant in Morgan's rifle corps in the Revo
lution, and was a brave soldier. He was a Virginian by birth, but settled in Kentucky after the war. He was killed by
some Shawnoese while on a mission of peace to them in 1792, when he was in the thirty-ninth year of his age. A coun
ty in each of the states of Ohio and Kentucky bears his name, in his honor.
44
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
A venerable Historical Apple-tree.
Chief Richardville.
The Twightwees.
Their Cruelty to Prisoners.
uriant growth ; and I was told that there is evidence that a similar crop has been
raised from it year after year for almost a century, and yet the soil was black, rich,
and apparently inexhaustible. Here, it is said, was the place where the Miamis
were accustomed to burn their prisoners.1
About three hundred yards westward
from Harmar's Ford, on the site of the In
dian camp, was a venerable apple-tree, full
of fruit^ its trunk measuring fifteen feet
in circumference. Under this tree Chief
Richardville, to whom allusion has been
made, was born a little more than a hund
red years ago.2 It was a fruit - bearing
tree then, and is supposed to have grown
from a seed dropped by some French
trader among these Twightwees, as the
Miamis were called in early times.3 In
the sketch of the apple-tree the city o f
Fort Wayne is seen in the distance. The
spires on the left are those of the Roman
Catholic Cathedral.
We returned to Fort Wayne at twi
light, and I spent the evening profitably
with Mr. Hedges, one of the oldest and most intelligent of the inhabitants of that
town.4 He was there in the spring of 1812, while the old stockade was yet standing,
and before a garrison of United States troops from Harrison's army arrived. He has
seen the city bloom out into its present form and beauty from the folds of the dark
forest, and its history and traditions are as familiar to him as those of his own biog
raphy. We chatted on the events of the past until a late hour, and parted with an
agreement to visit the historic scenes together in the morning. The air toward mid
night was as mild as early June, but a dappled sky prophesied a storm. At three
o'clock in the morning I was aroused by heavy thunder-peals, and the dawning of the
APPLE-TREE SEAK 1IAKMAK 8 FOKD.
1 We have mentioned Mr. Gamelin's peace mission, on page 40. He was at this place, and only three days after he
left (about the 1st of May, 1700), the savages, as if in derision of the United States authority, brought an American pris
oner there and burned him.— See DILLON'S History of Indiana.
About seventy years ago a white man was bound to the stake at this place. The mother of Chief Richardville, men
tioned in the next note, and a woman of great influence, had made fruitless attempts to save him. The torch was ap
plied. Richardville, then quite young, had been designated as their future chief. She appealed to him, and, placing a
knife in his hand, bade him assert his chieftainship and cut the cords that bound the prisoner. He obeyed, and the pris
oner was released. The kind-hearted Miami woman secreted the prisoner and gent him down the Maumee in a canoe,
covered with furs and peltries, in charge of some friendly Indians. Many years afterward Richardville stopped at a
town in Ohio. A man came to him and threw his arms affectionately around his neck. It was the rescued prisoner. —
Lecture before the Congregation of the First Presbyterian Church, Fort Wayne.
2 Pis-he-ioa (Wildcat), or Jean Baptiste Richardville, was born in 1750. His father was Joseph Drouet de Richard
ville, a Frenchman, who traded at Kc-ki-on-ga* (Fort Wayne) from 1750 to 1770. He was elected chief of the Miamis, on
the death of Little Turtle, in 1811. He was a large, flue-looking man, of quite light complexion, and spoke English well.
Richardville left a fortune at his death in 1840. I was told by an old resident of Fort Wayne, who knew him well, that
he had received large sums of money and immense tracts of land, from time to time, in consideration of his signing
treaties ; and that, at his death, he had $200,000 buried where no one but his daughter could find it. He was a temperate
man, with acquisitiveness largely developed. He was buried in Fort Wayne.
3 The Twightwees once formed a powerful confederacy of tribes, and claimed to be the possessors of a vast territory.
At the treaty with Wayne at Greenville, which we shall notice presently, Little Turtle thus defined the ancient bound
ary of the Twightwees or Miamis : " It is well known by all my brothers present that my forefather kindled the first fire
at Detroit ; from thence he extended his lines to the head waters of the Scioto ; from thence to its mouth ; from thence
down the Ohio to the mouth of the Wabash ; and from thence to Chicago, on Lake Michigan."— American State Papers,
i., 570. This comprises about one half of Ohio, the whole of Indiana, and a part of Southern Michigan.
4 John P. Hedges was employed in the commissary's department, under John H. Piatt, of Ohio, the contractor for the
army of the Northwest, commanded by General Harrison. He was active in that department during the whole of the
war, and became familiar with all the territory. He was with General M'Arthur in his campaign in Western Canada,
and was with Harrison at the battle of the Thames. He was at the treaty with the Indians at Greenville in 1814, and
distributed provisions to the savages on that occasion.
Ke-ki-on-ga in the language of the Miamis, and Kee-ki-ogue in that of the Pottawatomies.
OF THE WAK OF 1812. 45
Indian Hostilities continued. Expeditions of Generals Scott and Wilkinson. Destruction of Villages and Crops.
28th was made dreary by a cold drizzle drifting upon a northeast wind. I went out
alone, and made the sketches at the two fords and other drawings, and, after visiting
the grave of Little Turtle, departed in the midday train for Indianapolis. Of Fort
Wayne in 1812, and of Little Turtle and his grave, I shall hereafter write.
Although Harmar in his expedition had punished the Miamis and Shawnoese se-
verely, and Hamtramck meanwhile had been up the Wabash to the mouth of the
Vermilion River and destroyed some deserted villages, Indian hostilities in the North
west were not even checked. The settlers along the Ohio were continually menaced
and sometimes attacked by the savages, back of whom was distinctly heard the voice
of the British commandant at Detroit. Western Virginia and Kentucky were threat
ened, and life and property on the frontiers were in jeopardy every hour. The Vir
ginia Legislature adopted measures for the protection of the settlers, and the national
government, awake to the importance of the subject, put forth all its available strength
for the same purpose. General Knox, the Secretary of War, issued orders to proper
authorities beyond the mountains " to impress the Indians with the power of the
United States," and " to inflict that degree of punishment which justice may re
quire."1 Under these instructions, General Scott, of Kentucky, with eight hundred
mounted men, crossed the Ohio,a and penetrated the Wabash country to the a May 2s,
large village of Ouiatenon, situated about eight miles below the present vil- ml-
lage of Lafayette, Indiana, where several French families resided. There he found
ample evidence of the Indians' connection with and dependence on the British at
Detroit. Scott destroyed the town, and several villages in the neighborhood, and
desolated the country. He killed thirty-two Indians, " chiefly warriors of size and
figure," and took fifty-eight prisoners, without losing any of his own men.2
On the 1st of August Brigadier General James Wilkinson left Cincinnati (Fort
Washington) with five hundred and twenty-five men, and penetrated the same region,
by a different route, to the important Ouiatenon village of Ke-na-pa-com-a-qua, which
the French called UAnguille (The Eel), on the Eel River, about six miles from the
present Logansport, Indiana.3 He destroyed that village, desolated the country
around as far as Tippecanoe, and then pushed forward to the great prairies that
stretch away toward Lake Michigan. But deep morasses, into which he was some
times plunged armpit deep, compelled him to retiirn. He then destroyed another
Kickapoo village of twenty houses, desolated all the crops, and, after a march of four
hundred and fifty miles, reached the Falls of the Ohio (Louisville) on the 21st of
August.4
The misfortune that befell the Indians under the lash of Scott and Wilkinson did not
quiet them. The British emissaries stimulated their courage to a point of desperation
by assuring them that the grand object of the United States was to exterminate the
tribes and take possession of their lands.5 Thus two most powerful incentives to war
1 Instructions of the Secretary of War to Brigadier General Scott, of Kentucky, March 9, 1791.
2 Scott's official report to the Secretary of War, June 2S, 1791.
3 Fort Ouiatenon, a stockade built by the French, was near the present city of Lafayette, Indiana.
* "I have destroyed," he said, "the chief town of the Ouiatenon nation, and made prisoners of the sons and sisters
of the king. I have burned a respectable Kickapoo village, and cut down at least four hundred and thirty acres of corn,
chiefly in the milk. The Ouiatenons, left without houses, home, or provisions, must cease to war, and will find active
employ to subsist their squaws and children during the impending winter."— WILKINSON'S Official Report to Governor St.
Clair, Auirust 24, 1791.
5 The most active of these British emissaries were Simon Girty, Andrew M'Kee, and Mathew Elliott, three malignant
Tories during the Revolution. The two latter were natives of Path Valley, Pennsylvania. Many a murder was justly
charged to these men while the old war for independence was in progress. They carried on their depredations on the
frontier with a high hand, and, for their faithfulness in inciting Indian hostilities during that war that led to frightful
massacres, the British government rewarded them with official station. They married Indian women, and became thor
oughly identified with the savages. At the time we are now considering Elliott and M'Kee were subordinate agents in
the British«Indian Department, and, with Girty, had homes near Alalden, in Canada, on the Detroit River. We shall
meet Elliott again. Girty was an unmitigated scoundrel. More brutal than the most savage Indian, he had not one
redeeming quality. He was the offspring of crime. His father, an Irishman, was a sot ; his mother was a bawd. He
was nurtured among the warlike Senecas, and his innate cruelty had free scope for growth. With Elliott and M'Kee,
who, with him, had been imprisoned at Pittsburg in 1778, he aroused the Indians in the Northwest with the same cry
46 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Efforts to form an Indian Confederacy. Building of Forts in the Indian Country. A Camp deep in the Wilderness.
were presented — self-preservation and patriotism. In defense of life and country they
resolved to fight to the last. Little Turtle, of the Miarais, Blue Jacket, of the Shaw-
noese, and Buck-ong-a-helos, of the Delawares, put forth all their energies in the sum
mer of 1791, as Pontiac had done thirty years before, to confederate all the Western
tribes in an eifort to drive every European from the soil north of the Ohio. The
protestations of St. Clair that peace, friendship, and justice, not war, subjugation, and
robbery, were the desire of the people and government of the United States, were of
no avail ; and he was compelled, for the sake of the national life on the frontier, to
attempt to convince them, by the stern argument of arms, that they were governed
by bad counselors at Detroit.
It was determined to establish a strong military post in the heart of the Miami
country, on the site of the present city of Fort Wayne. Congress authorized the
raising of sufficient troops for the purpose, and during the spring and summer of
1791, St. Clair was putting forth strong efforts in that direction, but with indifferent
success. Enlistments were slow, and it was not until the beginning of September
that he had collected a sufficient force to attempt the enterprise with an appearance
of safety. These had been collected in the vicinity of Cincinnati, and placed under
the immediate command, in camp, of Major Hamtramck, who was remarkable as a
tactician and disciplinarian.1 St. Clair took the field as commander-in-chief. Major
General Richard Butler, of Pennsylvania, was his second in command, and Winthrop
Sargent, Secretary of the Territory, was appointed adjutant general.
An army little more than two thousand strong, under the immediate command of
General Butler, and accompanied by General St. Clair, moved forward on the 5th and
6th of September.81 On the bank of the Great Miami, little more than twen
ty miles from Fort Washington, they halted and built Fort Hamilton, on the
site of the present village of Hamilton. Forty-two miles farther on, at a point about
six miles south of Greenville, in the present Darke County, Ohio, they built Fort Jef
ferson. When they moved from there, on the 24th of October, they began to encoun
ter the subtle foe in small parties. It was evident that dusky scouts were hanging
upon their flanks, and they became hourly more cautious and vigilant. The nights
were frosty, but serene. The days were genial and brilliant. The summer warmth
had been diffused over the whole of September ; and now the forests were arrayed in
all the gorgeous beauty of autumnal splendors peculiar to them.
At length, when dark clouds were overhead, and falling leaves were thick in their
path, the invading army halted and encamped upon the borders of an unknown
stream, which proved to be a chief tributary of the Upper Wabash. They were
ninety-seven miles from Fort Washington, deep in the wilderness. A light fall of
snow lay upon the ground — so light that it appeared like hoar-frost. Over a piece
of rising ground, timbered with oak, ash, and hickory, the encampment was spread,
with a fordable stream, forty feet in width, in front. The army lay in two lines, sev
enty yards apart, with four pieces of cannon in the centre of each. Across the stream,
and beyond a rich bottom land three hundred yards in width, was an elevated plain,
covered with an open forest of stately trees. There the militia — three hundred and
fifty independent, half-insubordinate men, under Lieutenant Colonel Oldham, of Ken
tucky — were encamped.
Eight weary miles through the woods the soldiers had marched that day, and when
the camp was arranged the sun was low in the cloudless sky of the west. The tired
soldiers early sought repose, without suspicion of danger near. All around them
that now alarmed them : " The Americans want to take your lives and your lands." For more than twenty years the
women and children of the Ohio country turned pale when his name was mentioned. •
1 Hamtramck was a poor rider. " He was crooked like a frog on horseback," said the venerable Major Whitlock, of
Crav.-fordsville, to me, who knew him well, and had served under him. He had the faculty of inspiring the men with
self-confidence, and, notwithstanding he was a most rigid disciplinarian, the troops all loved him, for he was kind-
hearted, generous, and brave.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
47
St. Clair's Troops and the Indians.
St. Clair's Camp.
The Tribes represented by the Warriors.
PLAN OF ST. CLAIK'S CAMP AND BATTLE.1
were evidences of old and recent Indian camps, and a few lurking savages had been
seen by vigilant eyes; but no one knew whether Little Turtle and his confederates,
with their followers, were near or far away.
They were near. Only a few miles distant the great Miami leader, Blue Jacket
the Shawnoese chief, and Buck-ong-a-helos, the leader of the Delawares, with the
cruel Girty and other white men in the British interest, were lying in wait, with two
thousand fierce warriors at their beck.2 These had been watching St. Clair's move
ments for several days, and were waiting for the proper moment to fall upon him like
a bolt from the cloud.
The morning of the 4th dawned brilliantly. "Moderate northwest wind, serene at
mosphere, and unclouded sky."3 All night long the sentinels had been firing upon
i This sketch of St. Clair's encampment is from Winthrop Sargent's MS. Journal of the Campaign, kindly lent to me
by his grandson, Winthrop Sargent, Esq., of Philadelphia. It is a foe-simile of Mr. Sargent's sketch.
EXPLANATION.— a, Butler's battalion ; 6 6, artillery ; c, Clarke's battalion ; d, Patterson's battalion ; e, Faulkner's rifle
company ; //, cavalry ; g, detachment of U. S. Second Redment ; h, Gaither's battalion ; j, Beddhurer's battalion ; b np,
flank guards ; o 2, pickets ; s, swamp ; m, camp guard. The numerous crosses represent the enemy ; z z, troops retreat
ing ; the crooked stream, a tributary of the Wabash.
8 The late Colonel John Johnson, of Dayton, mentioned hereafter, informed me that, from the best information he
could obtain, the Indians numbered about two thousand. Some have estimated their number at one thousand^ and
others at three thousand. The principal tribes engaged in the battle were the Miamis, Delawares, Shawnoese, Wyan-
dots, Ottawas, and a few Chippewas and Pottawatomies.
3 Winthrop Sargent's MS. Journal, November 4, 1791.
48 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
St. Glair's Battle with the Indians and his Defeat. Flight of the vanquished Army. A fleet-footed Woman.
prowling Indians, and the men, by order of the commanding general, had slept upon
their arms.
The troops had been early mustered and dismissed from parade. They were pre
paring for breakfast, when, half an hour before sunrise, a body of Indians, with yells
that wakened horrid echoes miles away through the forest, fell suddenly upon the
militia. The assailed camp was immediately broken up, and the frightened soldiers,
most of whom had never been in battle, rushed wildly across the bottom and the
creek into the lines of the regulars, producing alarm and confusion there. The In
dians closely followed, and fell upon the regulars. The savages were several times
repulsed, but soon rallied, and directed their most effective shots upon the artillery in
the centre. Every officer there was prostrated, and the cannon were silenced. The
carnage among the Americans was terrible, yet they withstood the enemy with great
gallantry for almost three hours. Finally, when full one half of the army had fallen,
St. Clair ordered a retreat to an old Indian road or trail. This was accomplished after
a furious charge as if to turn the enemy's flank.1 The militia then led the van in the
precipitate retreat, which soon became a flight.2 The fugitive army was well covered
by Major Clarke and his battalion.; and the Indians, after following about four miles,
turned back, wonderfully elated with their victory. Little Turtle was in chief com
mand.
St. Clair behaved gallantly during the dreadful scene. He was so tortured with
gout that he could not mount a horse without assistance. He was not in uniform.
His chief covering was a coarse cappo coat, and a three-cocked hat from under which
his white hair was seen streaming as he and Butler rode up and down the lines during
the battle. He had three horses killed under him. Eight balls passed through his
clothes. He finally mounted a pack-horse, and upon this animal, which could with
difficulty be spurred into a trot, he followed in the retreat.
The fugitive army did not halt until safely within the palisades of Fort Jefferson.
The panic was terrible, and the conduct of the army after quitting the ground was
mo^t disgraceful. Arms, ammunition, and accoutrements were almost all thrown
awdy ; and even officers, in some instances, threw away their arms, " thus setting an
example for the most precipitate and ignominious flight."3 They left the camp at
nine o'clock in the morning, and at seven o'clock that evening they were in Fort Jef
ferson, twenty-nine miles distant. That evening Adjutant General Sargent wrote in
his diary, " The troops have all been defeated ; and though it is impossible, at this
time, to ascertain our loss, yet there • can be no manner of doubt that more than half
the army are either killed or wounded."4
1 There were qnite a large number of the wounded so maimed that they could not walk or sit upon a horse, and their
companion!? were compelled to leave them upon the field. " When they knew they must be left," says Sargent, "they
charged their pieces with a deliberation and courage which reflects the highest honor upon them ; and the firing of mus
ketry in the camp after we had quitted it leaves little doubt that their latest efforts were professionally brave, and where
they could pull a trigger they avenged themselves."— MS. Journal.
During the engagement, the Indians, as opportunity offered, plundered and scalped their victims. They also disfig
ured the bodies of the slain. Having been taught by the British emissaries that the Americans made war upon them
for their lands, they crammed clay and sand into the eyes and down the throats of the dying and dead. — DILLON'S His
tory of Indiana, p. 283. Among the slain was Major General Butler ; and it has been authoritatively asserted that the
miscreant, Simon Girty, instigated a savage warrior, while the general was yet alive on the field, to scalp him, and take
out his heart for distribution among the tribes !
2 The whole number of effective troops in the battle, according to Sargent's return, was 1748.
3 Sargent's MS. Journal. There were almost two hundred female camp-followers, chiefly wives of the soldiers. Of
these, fifty-six were killed ; most of the remainder were in the flight. One of them, Mrs. Catharine Miller, who died iu
Cincinnati about the year 1838, was so fleet afoot that she ran ahead of the army. She had a great quantity of long red
hair, that streamed behind her as she ran, and formed the oriflamme which the soldiers followed.— Statement of Major
Whitlock, of Crawfordsville, Indiana.
4 MS. Journal, Friday, November 4,1791. Mr. Sargent was slightly wounded. According to his report, afterward made
out carefully, thirty-six officers were killed and thirty wounded; and 593 privates were killed and missing, and 214
wounded. He did not think many Indians were lost— probably not more than one hundred and fifty killed and wound
ed. Several pieces of cannon, and all the baggage, ammunition, and provisions were left on the field, and became spoil
for the savage victors. The value of public property lost, according to the report of the Secretary of War toward the
close of 1792, was $32,810 75. The signature of the Adjutant General, of which a foe-simile is given on page 38, was cop-
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 49
Effect of St. Clair's Defeat on the Public Mind. Expression of President Washington's Indignation.
At Fort Jefferson the flying troops found the First Regiment of the United States
army, about three hundred strong. Leaving a well-provisioned garrison there, the
remnant of St. Clair's force made their way to Fort Washington, where a November,
they arrived at noon on the 8th. a 1T91-
Intelligence of St. Clair's defeat produced the greatest alarm among all the settlers
in the "West, even as far eastward as Pittsburg. It cast a gloom over society in all
parts of the Union, and checked for a short time the tide of emigration in the direc
tion of the Ohio.1
St. Clair was condemned in unmeasured terms by men of all classes and parties,
and the indignation of President Washington was exceedingly hot. " Here," he said
to Tobias Lear, his private secretary,
" yes, HERE, on this very spot, I took •
leave of him. I wished him success
and honor. You have your instruc
tions, I said, from the Secretary of
War. I had a strict eye to them, and
will add but one word — beware of a
surprise! I repeat it — BEWARE OF A SURPRISE! You know how the Indians fight
us. He went off with that, as my last solemn warning, thrown into his ears.2 And
yet ! ! to suffer that army to be cut to pieces, hacked, butchered, tomahawked, by a
surprise — the very thing I guarded him against ! ! O God, O God, he is worse than
a murderer ! How can he answer it to his country ? The blood of the slain is upon
him — the curse of widows and orphans — the curse of Heaven !"
The tone of Washington's voice was appalling as these vehement sentences escaped
his lips. " It was awful !" said Mr. Lear. " More than once he threw his hands up as
he hurled imprecations upon St. Clair." Mr. Lear remained speechless — awed into
breathless silence.
" The roused chief," says the chronicler, " sat down on the sofa once more. He
seemed conscious of his passion, and uncomfortable. He was silent ; his wrath be
gan to subside. He at length said, in an altered voice, ' This must not go beyond
ied from his report. In Howe's Historical Collections of Ohio may be found many particulars and anecdotes of this dis
astrous campaign.
Among the slain, as we have observed, was Major General Butler, a highly esteemed officer from Pennsylvania. He
held the rank of colonel in the Continental army. In 1787 he was sent to the Ohio as agent for Indian affairs in that
quarter. He was wounded early in the action, and before his wounds could be dressed, an Indian, who had penetrated
the camp, ran up and> tomahawked and scalped him. Butler was much beloved by the Indians who were friendly to the
United States. Among those who loved him most was Big Tree, a Seneca chief in the Genesee Valley. He vowed to
avenge the death of Butler by killing three of the hostile Indians. Because the treaty of peace at Greenville in 1795
thwarted his bloody purpose, Big Tree committed suicide.
1 This event was the theme for oratory, the pulpit, poetry, art, and song. I have before me a dirge-like poem, printed
on a broadside, and embellished with rude wood-cuts representing forty coffins at the head, a portrait of General Butler,
a Miami village, an Indian with a bow, and the hideous skull and cross-bones. It is entitled "The Columbian Trage
dy," and professes to give, in verse, "a particular and official account" of the affair. It was published "by the earnest
request of the friends of the deceased worthies who died in defense of their country." According to this "official ac
count," the battle was fought between two thousand United States troops "and near four thousand wild Indian savages,
nt Miami Village, near Fort Washington !" A pious tone runs through the mournful ballad, and the feelings of the
writer may be imagined after the perusal of this single verse :
" My trembling hand can scarcely hold
My faint, devoted quill,
To write the actions of the Bold,
Their Valor and their Skill."
There was a famous song that was sung for many years afterward, entitled " Sinclair's Defeat," written, as the author
thus informs us, by one of the soldiers :
" To mention our brave officers is what I write to do;
No sons of Mars e'er fought more brave, or with more courage true.
To Captain Bradford I belonged, in his Artillery ;
He fell that day among the slain— a valiant man was he."
This song may be found in Howe's Historical Collections of Ohio, p. 136.
2 This interview was on the 2Sth of March, 1791, the day when St. Clair left Philadelphia and proceeded to the frontier
post of Pittsburg. Thence he went to Kentucky, and afterward to Fort Washington, every where endeavoring to enlist
the sympathies and co-operation of the inhabitants for the campaign.
D
50 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Washington's Kindness to St. Clair. Resignation of the latter. His later Days. General Wayne and his Troops.
this room.' Another pause followed — a longer one — when he said, in a tone quite
low, ' General St. Clair shall have justice. I looked hastily through the dispatches —
saw the whole disaster, but not all the particulars. I will hear him without preju
dice; he shall have full justice.'
" He was now," said Mr. Lear, " perfectly calm. Half an hour had gone by ; the
storm was over, and no sign of it was afterward seen in his conduct or heard in his
conversation."1
Washington was both generous and just, and St. Clair found in him a most faithful
friend. " The first interview of the President with the unfortunate general after the
fatal 4th of November," says the late Mr. Custis, who was present, " was nobly im
pressive. St. Clair, worn down by age, disease, and the hardships of a frontier cam
paign, assailed by the press, and with the current of popular opinion setting hard
against him, repaired to his chief as to a shelter from the fury of so many elements.
Washington extended his hand to one who appeared in no new character, for, during
the whole of a long life, misfortune seemed ' to have marked him for her own.' Poor
old St. Clair hobbled up to his chief, seized the offered hand in both of his, and gave
vent to his feelings in an audible manner."2
St. Clair's case was investigated by a committee of the House of Representatives,
and he was honorably acqiiitted. But public sentiment had set against him in a cur
rent too strong to be successfully resisted, and he resigned his commission.3 General
Anthony Wayne, whose impetuosity exhibited during the old war for independence
had gained him the title of " Mad Anthony," was appointed to fill his place. Wayne
was then in the prime of manhood, and Congress and the people had confidence in
his intelligence, courage, and energy. Congress authorized an increase of the regu
lar army to a little over five thousand men, and a competent part of this force, to be
called the Legion of the United States, was to be assigned to Wayne for an expedi
tion against the Indians in the Northwest. He took post at Pittsburg early in the
following June,a and appointed that place as the rendezvous of his invading
army. It was soon perceived that it was easier to vote troops in the halls of
Congress than to draw them out and muster them in the camp ; and it was not until
near the close of November that Wayne had collected a sufficient number to warrant
his moving forward. He then went down the Ohio only about twenty miles, and there
hutted his soldiers in a well-guarded camp, which he called Legionville. There he
was joined by Lieutenant William Henry Harrison, afterward the distinguished gen
eral in the armies of the United States, and the ninth President of the republic. The
1 Washington in Domestic Life, by Richard Rush, p. CT.
2 Recollections and Private Memoirs of Washington, by his adopted son, G. W. P. Cnstis, p. 419.
3 The late Hon. Elisha Whittlesey, of Ohio, First Auditor of the United States Treasury during a portion of the first
term of Mr. Lincoln's administration, and a veteran soldier of 1812, furnished me with the following interesting account
of his interview with St. Clair three years before his death :
" In May, 1815, four of us called upon him, on the top of Chestnut Ridge, eastwardly eight or ten miles from Greens-
burg, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. We were traveling on horseback to Connecticut, and being informed that
General St. Clair kept tavern, we decided to call for entertainment during the night. We alighted at his residence late
in the afternoon, and, on entering his log house, we saw an elderly, neat gentleman, dressed in black broadcloth, silk
stockings, and small-clothes, shining shoes whose straps were secured by large silver buckles, his hair clubbed and pow
dered. On closing his book he rose, received us most kindly and gracefully, and pointing us to chairs, he asked us to be
seated. On being asked for entertainment, he said, ' Gentlemen, I perceive you are traveling, and although I should be
gratified by your custom, it is my duty to inform you I have no hay nor grain. I have good pasture, but if hay and grain
are essential, I can not furnish them.'
" There stood before us a major general of the Revolution — the friend and confidant of Washington— late governor of
the Territory northwest of the River Ohio— one of nature's noblemen, of high, dignified bearing, whom misfortune, nor
the ingratitude of his country, nor poverty could break down nor deprive of self-respect—keeping a tavern in a log
house, but could not furnish a bushel of oats nor a lock of hay. We were moved principally to call upon him to hear him
converse about the men of the Revolution and of the Northwestern Territory, and our regret that he could not entertain
us was greatly increased by hearing him converse about an hour. The large estate he sacrificed for the cause of the
Revolution was within a short distance of the top of Chestnut Ridge, if not in sight. After he was governor he peti
tioned Congress for relief, but died before it was granted."*
* During the last two years of his life General St. Clair received a pension of sixty dollars a month from his govern
ment, and his latter days were made comfortable thereby. About 1850, Senator Brodhead, of Pennsylvania, procured
from Congress an appropriation for the heirs of General St. Clair.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 51
Wayne in the Indian Country. A grand Council. Interference of British Officials.
young Virginian soon exhibited qualities which caused Wayne to make him a mem
ber of his military family as his aid-de-camp.
Wayne remained at Legionville until the close of April, 1*793, when his whole force
proceeded to Cincinnati in boats, and took post near Fort Washington. There they
remained all the summer and until the 7th of October, when Wayne moved forward
and encampeda six miles in advance of Fort Jefferson, on the site of Green-
T -IT • * October 23.
ville. His army then numbered three thousand six hundred and thirty
men, exclusive of a small body of friendly Indians from the South, chiefly Choctaws,
under the eminent warrior, Humming-bird.
While the army was making these tardy movements, the government was using its
best endeavors to effect a pacification of the tribes, and to establish a solid peace
Avithout more bloodshed. These efforts promised success at times. With the aid of
the pious Heckewelder, the Moravian, General Putnam made a treaty of peace and
friendship with the Wabash and Illinois tribes, at Vincennes, on the 27th of Septem
ber, 1792. At about the same time great numbers of the tribes on the Miami, the
Maumee (or Miami of the Lakes), and Sandusky Rivers, assembled at the Maumee
Rapids to hold a grand council, at Avhich Red Jacket, Cornplanter, Big Tree, the aged
Guasutha, and other representatives of the Six Nations appeared, at the request of the
Secretary of War. Simon Girty was the only white man present. The savages, on
consultation, determined, in conformity with the advice of the British, not to acknowl
edge any claim of the United States to lands northwest of the Ohio River.1
In the spring of 1793 a commission was sent by the President to treat with the
hostile tribes.2 Lieutenant Governor Simcoe, of Canada, professing to be friendly,
and favorable to a pacification of the tribes, the commissioners went by the way of
Niagara, a post yet held by the British. Simcoe received them courteously, and hos
pitably entertained them for five or six weeks, while the Indians were holding another
grand council at the Rapids of the Maumee. While tarry ing there, the commissioners
were informed by a Mohawk Indian from the Grand River that Governor Simcoe had
" advised the Indians to make peace, but not to give up any of their lands."3 The
commissioners called Simcoe's attention to this. He did not deny the allegation, but
replied, "It is of that nature that it can not be true," as the Indians had not " applied
for his advice on the subject."4 This subterfuge was well understood by the commis
sioners ; and his admission that, " ever since the conquest of Canada," it had been
" the principle of the British government to unite the American Indians" was omin
ous of ulterior designs.
At Niagara, and at Captain Elliott's, near the mouth of the Detroit River, in Can
ada, the commissioners held councils with the Indians, but nothing satisfactory was
accomplished. British influence was more powerful than ever, and the savages in
council plainly told the commissioners that if they insisted upon the treaty at Fort
Harmar, and claimed lands on the northern side of the Ohio, they might as well go
home, as they would never agree to any other boundary than that river. So the
commissioners, after several months of fruitless labor, turned homeward late in Au
gust. It was evident that the might of arms must make a final settlement of the
matter, and to arms the United States resorted.
We left Wayne and his army near Fort Jefferson, eighty miles from Fort Washing
ton, on the 23d of October. He was then embarrassed by a lack of sufficient convoys
for his stores. Already a party detailed for this purpose had been attacked and se-
1 The sentiments of the Indians, even the friendly ones, concerning the boundary, may be inferred from the following
toast given by Cornplanter, at the table of General Wayne, at Legionville, in the spring of 1793 : " My mind is upon that
river," he said, pointing to the Ohio. "May that water ever continue to run, and remain the boundary of lasting peace
between the Americans and Indians on the opposite shore." — HALL'S Menwir of W. H. Harrison, p. 31.
2 The commission consisted of Benjamin Lincoln, Beverly Randolph, and Timothy Pickering.
3 Note of commissioners to Lieutenant Governor Simcoe, 7th June, 1793.
4 Reply of Lieutenant Governor Simcoe to American commissioner?, Tth June, 1793.
52 PICTOKIAL FIELD-BOOK
Hostile Intentions of the British revealed. Allied Indians and British in Arms. Battle at Fort Recovery.
verely handled by a strong band of Indians under Little Turtle near Fort St. Clair.
Lieutenant Lowry and fourteen of his companions were killed,1 and all the horses at
tached to the wagons were carried off.
The season was now too far advanced to enter upon a campaign, so Wayne set his
army to building a very strong fort on the spot where he was encamped. It was
made impregnable against the Indians. There they went into winter-quarters.2 Suf
ficient garrisons were placed in the forts at Vincennes, Cincinnati, and Marietta ; and
the return of spring was waited for with anxiety, for it was obvious that hostilities
with the savages could not be long delayed.
A European war, to which ^we shall soon have occasion again to refer, was now
having its effect upon the United States, complicating the difficulties which natu
rally attend the arrangement of a new system of government. Ill feeling between
the United States and Great Britain was increasing, and evidences were not wanting
that the latter was anxious for a pretense to declare hostilities against the former.
Taking advantage of this state of things, Lord Dorchester (formerly Sir Guy Carle-
ton), the Governor of Canada, encoiiraged the Indians in maintaining their hostile at-
» February io, titude. At a council of warriors from the West, held at Quebec early in
1794. I794,a Dorchester, in a speech, said, "Children, since my return I find
no appearance of a line remains ; and from the manner in which the people of the
states push on, and act, and talk on this side, and from what I learn of their conduct
toward the sea, I shall not be surprised if we are at .war with them in the course of the
present year y and if so, a line must then be drawn by the warriors"
This was a suggestion for the savages to prepare for war. It was followed by an
order from Dorchester to Lieutenant Governor Simcoe to establish a British military
post at the rapids of the Maumee, fifty miles within the Indian country and the treaty
limits of the United States. At the very time when this menacing attitude was as
sumed, the government of the new republic was exhibiting the most friendly feelings
toward that of Great Britain by a position of strict neutrality.
Wayne was compelled to wait until late in the summer of 1794 before he felt strong
enough to move forward. Meanwhile the Indians appeared in force. On the 30th of
June, about a thousand of them, accompanied by a number of British soldiers and
French Canadian volunteers,3 made their appearance before Fort Recovery (mention
ed in note 2 below), and during the day assailed the garrison several times. During
these assaults the Americans lost fifty-seven men in killed, wounded, and missing, and
two hundred and twenty-one horses. The Indians lost more, they said, than in their
battle with St. Clair.
"July 26, -^ess than a month after this engagement. Wayne was joinedb by Major
1794 General Scott, with sixteen hundred mounted volunteers from Kentucky ;
c July 28. and two days afterward0 he moved forward with his whole force toward the
1 Fort St. Clair was at a point about a mile from the site of Eaton, in Preble Coun
ty, Ohio. Between it and Eaton is a small cemetery, and therein, upon one of those
ancient artificial mounds common in Ohio, a neat monument of Rutland marble,
twelve feet in height, was erected by the citizens in commemoration of the slain at
Fort Recovery. Lowry and his companions were buried in Fort St. Clair. His re
mains were removed to the little cemetery on the 4th of July, 1R22, and there reiu-
terred with the honors of war. They were afterward buried in the mound.
2 This was called Fort Greenville, and covered a large part of the site of the pres
ent village of Greenville. The soldiers built several hundred log huts, in which they
wintered comfortably. Each hut was occupied by six persons.
From Fort Greenville Wayne sent out eight companies, and a detachment of artil
lery to take possession of and fortify the place where St. Clair was defeated. They
T.OWRY'B MONUMENT. arrived on the ground on Christmas-day, and proceeded to build a strong stockade.
They named it Fort Recovery, in commemoration of the fact that they had recov
ered the territory lost by St. Clair, as well as all but one of the cannon which he was compelled to leave behind. A com
pany each of artillery and riflemen were left there as a garrison.
3 Burnet, in his notes, asserts upon good authority that there were "a considerable number of British soldiers and De
troit militia with the Indians." Friendly Choctaws and Chickasaws with Wayne, who had been sent on a scout a few
days before, saw a large body of Indians, among whom, they asserted, were many white men with their faces painted.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 53
Wayne's Expedition down the Maumee. His Offers of Peace rejected. Conduct of Little Turtle.
Maumee. Admonished by the fate of St. Clair, he marched cautiously and slowly
— so slowly and stealthily that the Indians called him The Blacksnake. Little Turtle
was again upon the alert, with two thousand warriors of his own and neighboring
tribes within call. The vigilant Wayne well knew this. He had faithful and compe
tent scouts and guides, and by unfrequented ways and with perplexing feints, he
moved steadily onward, leaving strength and security in his rear.
Twenty-five miles beyond Fort Recovery he built a stockade on the bank of the
St. Mary's, and called it Fort Adams. From this point he moved forward on the 4th
of August, and at the end of four days encamped on a beautiful plain at the conflu
ence of the Au Glaize and Maumee Rivers, on the site of the present village of Defi
ance. There he found a deserted Indian town, with at least a thousand acres of corn
growing around it.1 There, as elsewhere on his march, the alarmed savages fled at
his approach. He tarried there a week, and built a strong fortification, which he
called Fort Defiance. Of this fort, and the appearance of its remains when I visited
it in the autumn of 1 860, 1 shall hereafter write.
Wayne was now at the most important and commanding point in the Indian coun
try. " We have gained the grand emporium of the hostile Indians of the West without
loss of blood," he wrote to the Secretary of War.a And there he gained "August 14,
full and positive information concerning the character, strength, and posi
tion of the British military post at the foot of the Maumee Rapids already alluded to.2
Once more peace and reconciliation were offered to the Indians. Notwithstanding
he was in possession of full power to subjugate and destroy without fear of the Brit
ish intruders below, Wayne, unwilling to shed blood unnecessarily, sent a message to
the Indians down the Maumee writh kind words. "Be no longer deceived or led
astray," he said, " by the false promises and language of bad white men at the foot of
the Rapids ; they have neither the power nor the inclination to protect you." He of
fered them peace and tranquillity for themselves and their families, and invited them
to send deputies to meet him in council without delay. His overtures were rejected,
and by craftiness they endeavored to gain time. " Stay where you are," they said,
" for ten days, and we will treat with you ; but if you advance we will give you bat
tle."
This defiance was contrary to the advice of the sagacious Little Turtle, who coun
seled peace.3 For this he was taunted with accusations of cowardice. The false
charge enraged him, and he was foremost in the conflict that immediately ensued.
That conflict was unavoidable. The vigilant Wayne perceived that nothing but a
severe blow would break the spirit of the tribes and end the war, and he resolved to in
flict it mercilessly. For this purpose his legion moved forward on the 15th of August,
and on the 18th took post at Roche de Bout, at the head of the Rapids, near the pres
ent town of Waterville, and there established a magazine of supplies and baggage,
with protecting military works, which they called Fort Deposit. There, on the 1 9th,
Wayne called a council of war, and adopted a plan of march and of battle submitted
by his young aid-de-camp, Lieutenant Harrison, who, nineteen years afterward, as a
general-in-chief, performed gallant exploits in that portion of the Maumee Valley.4
1 "The very extensive and highly cultivated fields and gardens show the work of many hands. The margin of those
beautiful rivers, the Miami of the Lakes [pronounced Maumee] and Au Glaize, appear like one continued village for a
number of miles both above and below this place ; nor have I ever before beheld such immense fields of corn in any
part of America from Canada to Florida."— WAYNE'S Letter to the Secretary of War from Fort Defiance, August 14, 1794.
2 It was a strong work of earth and logs, mounting four 9-pounders, two large howitzers, six 6-ponnders, and two
swivels. The garrison, under Major Campbell, a testy Scotchman, consisted of 250 British regulars and 200 militia.
3 "We have beaten the enemy twice, under separate commanders," said Little Turtle, in a speech. "We can not ex
pect the same good fortune always to attend us. The Americans are now led by a chief who never sleeps. The night
and the day are alike to him ; and during all the time that he has been marching upon our villages, notwithstanding
the watchfulness of our young men, we have never been able to surprise him. Think well of it. There is something
whispers me it would be prudent to listen to the offers of peace."
* I am indebted to the Hon. John Francis Hamtramck Claiborne, of Mississippi, for the plan of the line of march and
order of battle given in the text. In a letter to me, covering the drawings, dated "Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, August
54
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Battle of the Fallen Timbers.
Devastations around Fort Miami.
The Punishment of M'Kee.
PLAN OF T1IE LINE OF MAECII.1
On the morning of the 20th, at eight o'clock,
Wayne advanced with his whole army accord
ing to the adopted plan of march, having for
his subordinate general officers Major General
Scott, of the Kentucky volunteers, and Brig
adier Generals Wilkinson, Todd, and Barber.
They had proceeded about five miles when
the advanced corps, under Major Price, were
terribly smitten by heavy volleys from the
concealed foe, and were compelled to fall back.
The legion was immediately formed in two
lines, principally in a dense wood on the bor
ders 'of a wet prairie, where a tornado had
prostrated a large number of trees, making
the operations of cavalry very difficult. This
fallen timber2 afforded an admirable covert
for the enemy, who, full two thousand strong,
and composed of Indians and Canadian volun
teers,3 were posted in three lines, within sup
porting distance of each other. Wayne's
troops fell upon the foe with fearful energy,
and made them flee toward Fort Miami like
a herd of frightened deer to a covert. In the
course of an hour the victory was complete.
The mongrel horde were driven more than two miles through the thick woods, and left
forty of their number dead in the pathway of their flight. By the side of each body
lay a musket and bayonet from British armories.4
Three days and three nights the victorious army remained below the Rapids, wield
ing the besom of destruction in defiance of the threats of the commandant of Fort
Miami, within view of whose guns Wayne pitched his tents. On the site of the
present Maumee City, tioned, and chief insti-
near Fort Miami, Colo- J X^^^ $£/^ ^^ gator of the war, had
nel M'Kee, the Brit- -f_^&JsrW'~j/t^€~>^ extensive store -houses
ish agent already men- and dwellings, for he
was carrying on a most lucrative trade with the Indians. These, with their contents,
were committed to the flames, while every product of the field and garden above
and below the British fort was utterly destroyed.5 Wayne's men sometimes ap-
20, I860," Mr. Claiborne remarks : " This clay, sixty-six years ago, was fought the great Battle of the Rapids. I send yon
the original ' Plan of the Line of March' and of the ' Order of Battle.' I found these diagrams among the papers of my
father, the late General Claiborne, who was in the battle, a lieutenant and acting adjutant in the First Regiment United
States Infantry, Colonel J. F. Hamtramck. I found them in a package of letters from Harrison to my father, the ' Plan
of the Line of March' indorsed, in my father's handwriting, ' Lieutenant Harrison's Plan, adopted in council, August
19, '94.'
"Wayne, it appears, called a council of war on the 19th, and the plan, drawn tip by Harrison, then a young man of
twenty-one years, was adopted by the veteran officers the moment it was submitted— an homage to skill and talent rarely
awarded to a subaltern."
1 EXPLANATION OP THE PL AN.— A A, two squadrons of expert woodmen ; B B, two squadrons of light dragoons ; E E,
two companies of infantry front and rear ; G G, one troop of light dragoons on each flank ; H H, one company of infan
try on each flank ; 1 1, one squadron of dragoons on each flank ; J J, two companies of riflemen on each flank ; K K, ex
pert woodmen on the extreme of each flank. F F F F represent the main army in two columns, the legion of regular
troops on the right, commanded by General Wilkinson, and the Kentucky volunteers, under Scott, on the left.
2 This conflict is often called in history and tradition the Battle of the Fallen Timbers.
3 There were about seventy white men, including a corps of volunteers from Detroit under Captain Caldwell.
* Among the officers mentioned by Wayne, in his dispatch to the Secretary of War, whose services demanded special
mention, were Wilkinson and Hamtramck ; his aids-de-camp De Butt, Lewis, and Harrison ; Mills, Covington of the
cavalry, Webb, Slough, Prior, Smith, Van Rensselaer, Rawlins, M'Kenney, Brook, and Duncan. His loss in killed and
wounded was 133. Of these, 113 were regulars. The loss of the enemy was not ascertained. In their flight they left
forty of their dead in the woods.
5 Wayne's dispatch to the Secretary of War from Fort Defiance, August 28, 1794.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
55
The British and Indians humbled.
Death of Turkey-foot.
Scenes at the Place of his Death.
preached within pistol-shot of Fort Miami, but its
guns prudently kept silence. Major Campbell, the
commandant, contented himself with scolding and
threatening, while Wayne coolly defied him and
retorted with vigor. Their correspondence was
very spicy, but harmless in its effects.
Among the brave warriors in the battle who was
the last to flee before Wayne's legion, was Me-sa-
sa, or Turkey-foot, an Ottawa chief, who lived on
Blanchard's Fork of the Au Glaize River. He was
greatly beloved by his people. His courage was
conspicuous. When he found the line of the dusky
warriors giving way at the foot of Presque Isle
Hill, he leaped upon a small boulder, and by voice
and gesture endeavored to make them stand firm.
He almost immediately fell, pierced by a musket
ball, and expired by the side of the rock. Long
years afterward, when any of his tribe passed along
the Maumee trail, they would stop at that rock, and linger a long time with mani
festations of sorrow. Peter Navarre, a native of that region, and one of General Har
rison's most trusted scouts during the War of 1812, who accompanied me to the
spot in the autumn of 1860, told me that he had seen men, women, and children gather
around that rock, place bits
of dried beef, parched peas
and corn, and sometimes
some cheap trinket upon it,
and, calling frequently upon
the name of the beloved Ot
tawa, weep piteously. They
carved many rude figures of
a turkey's foot on the stone,
,as a memorial of the English
name of the lamented Me-sa-
l'LA_N OF TIIE BATTLE OF TItE FALLEN TIMBERS.
TTJKKEY-FOOT'S BOCK.
sa. The stone is still there,
by the side of the highway
at the foot of Presque Isle
Hill, within a few rods of
the swift - flowing Maumee.
Many of the carvings are
still quite deep and distinct,
while others have been ob
literated by the abrasion of
the elements.1 Of this locality, so famous in the chronicles of the War of 1812,1 shall
have more to say hereafter.
1 The above view of Turkeij-foofs Rock is at the foot of the Maumee Rapids, looking up the stream. It is seen in the
foreground, on the right, and over it the road passing over Presque Isle Hill. It was here, and farther to the right, that
the Indians were posted among the fallen trees. On the left is seen the Maumee, which here sweeps in a grtceful curve.
The point across the Maumee at the bend is the river termination of a plain, on which General Hull's army was encamp
ed while on its march toward Detroit in the summer of 1S12. There the army crossed the Manmee.
Turkey-foot Rock is limestone, about five and a half feet in length and three feet in height. It is about three miles
above Maumee City. In allusion to the event which the rock commemorates, Andrew Cofflnberry, of Perrysburg, in a
poem entitled "The Forest Ranger, a Poetic Tale of the Western Wilderness of 1794," thus wrote, after giving an ac
count of Wayne's progress up to this time :
" Yet at the foot of red Presque Isle
Brave Me-sa-sa was warring still :
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The Troops build Fort Wayne.
Colonel Hamtramck.
The humbled Indians sue for Peace.
Having thoroughly accomplished his work, Wayne returned with his army to Fort
. Angngt 27, Defiance,a while the Indians, utterly defeated and disheartened, retired to
"94- the borders of Maumee Bay, in the vicinity of Toledo, to brood over their
misfortunes and ponder upon the future. At the middle of September the victors
moved from Defiance to the head of the Maumee, and at the bend of that river, just
below the confluence of the St. Mary's and St. Joseph's, which form it, they built a
strong fortification, and named it Fort Wayne. It was completed on the 22d of Oc
tober, and was immediate
ly garrisoned with infan
try and artillery, under
Colonel Hamtramck.1 This
accomplished, the remain
der of the troops left, some
for Fort Washington, to be
discharged from the serv
ice, and the others for Fort
Greenville, where Wayne made his head-quarters for the winter. Thither deputa
tions from the various tribes with whom he had been at war came to Wayne, and
agreed upon preliminary terms of peace. They well remembered his assurance that
the British had neither the power nor the inclination to help them — an assurance
verified by the silence of Fort Miami's guns. They promised to meet him in council
early in the ensuing summer, for the purpose of forming a definitive treaty of peace
between the United States and the Indian tribes of the Northwest. Faithful to their
promise, chiefs and sachems began to reach Fort Greenville early in June. A grand
council was opened there on the 16th of that month, and was continued until the 10th
He stood upon a large rough stone,
Still dealing random blows alone ;
But bleeding fast— glazed were his eyes,
And feeble grew his battle-cries ;
Too frail his arm, too dim his sight,
To wield or aim his axe aright ;
As still more frail and faint he grew,
His body on the rock he threw.
As coursed his blood along the ground,
In feeble, low, and hollow sound,
Mingled with frantic peals and strong,
The dying chief poured forth his song."
Here follows "The Death-song of the Sagamore."
i John Francis Hamtramck was a most faithful and useful officer. He was a resident of Northern New York when the
Revolution broke out, and was a captain in the Continental army. He was appointed a major in the regular army of the
United States in September, 1789, and was promoted to be lieutenant colonel commandant of the first sub-legion in Feb
ruary, 1793. He commanded the left wing under General Wayne in the battle of the Maumee, in August, 1794, and held
the rank of lieutenant colonel in the First Infantry in 179C. He was retained as colonel on the reduction of the army in
April, 1802, and on the llth of April the following year he died and was buried at Detroit.
While in Detroit, in the autumn of 1800, 1 visited the grave of Colonel Ham
tramck, and made the accompanying sketch. It is in the grounds attached to
St. Anne's Orphan Asylum, and between that institution and St. Anne's Church,
both belonging to the Roman Catholics. The monument over his grave and
the grounds around it were much neglected. The former was dilapidated, the
latter covered with weeds and brambles. The monument is composed of a
light freestone slab, grown dingy from the effects of the elements, lying upon
a foundation of brick. It bears the following inscription :
"Sacred to the memory of JOHN FRANCIS HAMTRAMCK, Esq., Colonel of the
First United States Regiment of Infantry, and Commandant of Detroit and its
dependencies. He departed this life on the llth of April, 1803, aged 45 years,
7 months, and 27 days. True patriotism, and zealous attachment to national
liberty, joined to a laudable ambition, led him into military service at an early
period of his life. He was a soldier even before he was a man. He was an
active participator in all the dangers, difficulties, and honors of the Revolu
tionary War; and his heroism and uniform good conduct procured him the
attention and personal thanks of the immortal Washington. The United
States, in him, have lost a valuable officer and good citizen, and society a
useful and pleasant member. To his family his loss is incalculable, and his friends will never forget the memory of
Hamtramck. This humble monument is placed over his remains by the officers who had the honor to serve under his
command : a small but grateful tribute to his merit and his worth."
HAMTRAMCK'S TOMB.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 57
Treaty with the Indians at Greenville. Peace secured.
of August. Almost eleven hundred Indians were present, representing twelve tribes.1
A definitive and satisfactory treaty was signed by all parties on the 3d of August,
and the pacification of the Indians of the Northwest was thereby made complete.2
By the operations of a special treaty between the United States and Great Britain,
the Western military posts were speedily evacuated by the British, and for fifteen
years the most remote frontier settlements were safe from any annoyance by the In
dians. This security gave an immense impetus to emigration to the Northwestern
Territory, and the country was rapidly filled with a hardy population.
1 Wyandots, Delawares, Shawiioese, Ottawas, Chippewas, Pottawatomies, Miamis, Weas, Kickapoos, Piankeshaws,
Kaskaskias, and Eel River Indians.
2 After the treaty had been twice read to the Indians, and every section explained by General Wayne, that officer
said: "Brothers, — All you nations now present, listen ! You now have had, a second time, the proposed articles of
treaty read and explained to you. It is now time for the negotiation to draw to a conclusion. I shall, therefore, ask
each nation individually if they approve of and are prepared to sign those articles in their present form, that they may
be immediately engrossed for that purpose. I shall begin with the Chippewas, who, with the others who approbate the
measure, will signify their assent. You, Chippewas, do you approve of these articles of treaty, and are you prepared to
sign them ? [A unanimous answer— yes.] You, Ottawas, do you agree f [A unanimous answer— yes.] You, Potta
watomies? [A unanimous answer— yes.] You, Wyandots, do you agree ? [A unanimous answer— yes.] You, Dela
wares ? [A unanimous answer— yes.] You, Shawnoese ? [A unanimous answer— yes.] You, Miamis, do you agree ?
[A unanimous answer— yes.] Yon, Weas f [A unanimous answer— yes.] And you, Kickapoos, do you agree? [A
unanimous answer— yes.] The treaty shall be engrossed ; and, as it will require two or three days to do it properly on
parchment, we will now part, to meet on the 2d of August. In the interim, we will eat, drink, and rejoice, and thank
the Great Spirit for the happy stage this good work has arrived at."
After the treaty was signed, a copy of it on paper was given to the representative of each nation, and then a large
quantity of goods and many small ornaments were distributed among the Indians present. On the 10th, at the close of
the council, General Wayne said to them: "Brothers, I now fervently pray to the Great Spirit that the peace now es
tablished may be permanent, and that it may hold us together in the bonds of friendship until time shall be no more.
I also pray that the Great Spirit above may enlighten your minds, and open your eyes to your true happiness, that your
children may learn to cultivate the earth and enjoy tie fruits of peace and industry. As it is probable, my children,
that we shall not soon meet again in public council, I take this opportunity of bidding you all an affectionate farewell,
and of wishing you a safe and happy return to your respective homes and families."
By this treaty the Indians ceded about twenty-five thousand square miles of territory to the United States, besides
sixteen separate tracts, including lands and forts. In consideration of these cessions, the Indians received goods from
the United States, of the value of $20,000, as presents, and were promised an annual allowance, valued at $9500, to be
equitably distributed among all the tribes who were parties to the treaty.
58
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Organization of the new Government.
Its Policy indicated.
Its Power manifested.
CHAPTER El.
" What constitutes a state ?
MEN, who their duties know,
Bat know their rights, and, knowing, dare maintain ;
Prevent the long-aimed blow,
And crush the tyrant while they rend the chain—
These constitute a state."
SIR WILLIAM JOKES.
" There's a warfare where none but the morally brave
Stand nobly and firmly, their country to save.
'Tis the war of opinion, where few can be found,
On the mountain of principle, guarding the ground ;
With vigilant eyes ever watching the foes
Who are prowling around them, and aiming their blows."
MES. DANA.
HILE the arm of military power was removing the remains of a
hoary barbarism from the beautiful region west of the Allegha-
nies, preparatory to the founding of great commonwealths there,
the new national government was summoning its functions into
energetic and beneficent action. Men were never called upon
to perform duties of greater importance and momentous conse
quences. They were charged with the establishment of the for
eign and domestic policy of a nation, " not for a day, but for all
time." The President and the Legislature felt the responsibility, and in solemn earn
estness they elaborated schemes for the future prosperity of the republic.
The earliest efforts of Congress, after its organization, were directed to' the arrange
ment of a system of revenue, in order to adjust the wretched financial affairs of the
country. Mr. Madison, the tacitly acknowledged leader in the House of Representa
tives, presented the plan of a temporary tariff upon foreign goods imported into the
United States, with provisions favorable to American shipping ; also a scheme of ton
nage duties, in which great discriminations were made in favor of American vessels,
as well as those of France, Holland, Sweden, and Prussia, the only nations having
treaties of commerce with the United States. An efficient revenue system was speed
ily adopted and put in motion, for the consolidated government possessed inherent
power to do so.
This first practical exhibition of sovereignty by the central government of the
United States opened the eyes of British merchants and statesmen to the fact that
the Americans had suddenly made a stride toward absolute independence — that their
commerce was no longer subjected to the caprice of foreign powers, nor neglected
because of the disagreements and jealousies of thirteen distinct Legislatures. They
perceived that its interests were guarded and its strength nurtured by a central
power of wonderful energy, and that the new republic had taken its place among
the family of nations writh just claims to the highest respect and consideration. Other
nations yielded the same recognition, and its future career was contemplated with
peculiar interest throughout the civilized world.
While the House of Representatives was engaged on the subject of revenue, the
Senate wras occupied in arranging a judiciary system. A bill for the purpose was
offered in that body by Oliver Ellsworth, of Connecticut. After undergoing several
amendments, it was concurred in by both houses of Congress, and a national judiciary
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 59
The Judiciary. Amendments to the Constitution. Cabinet Ministers. Relations with France and England.
\vas established similar in all its essential features to that now in operation. It con
sisted of one chief justice and five associate justices, who were directed to hold two
sessions annually at the seat of the national government. Circuit and district courts
were also established, which had jurisdiction over certain specified cases. Each state
was made a district, as were also the two Territories of Kentucky and Maine. The
districts, excepting the two Territories, were grouped so as to form three circuits. A
marshal and district attorney were appointed for each distri«t by the President.1
The subjects of revenue and judiciary being well disposed of, Congress next turn
ed its attention to the organization of executive departments. Only three — Treas
ury, War, and Foreign Relations — were established. The heads of these were styled
Secretaries instead of Ministers, as in Europe. The President of the United States
was clothed with power to appoint or dismiss them at his pleasure, with the concur
rence of the Senate. They were designed to constitute a cabinet council, ever sub
ject to the call of the President for consultation on public affairs, and bound to give
him their opinions in writing when required.
The attention of Conoress was next turned to the amendments of the Constitution
O
proposed by the people of the several states, which amounted, in the aggregate, to
one hundred and forty-seven, besides separate Bills of Rights proposed by Virginia
and New York. Sixteen of the amendments were agreed to, and twelve of them were
subsequently ratified by the people and became a part of the organic law of the na
tion. The profound wisdom of the framers of the Constitution and its own perfection
are illustrated by the fact that, of these twelve amendments, not one of them, judged
by subsequent experience, was of a vital character.
Before the adjournment of Congress on the 29th of September,1 the Presi-
dent had appointed his Cabinet,2 and the new government was fairly set in
motion. Its foreign relations were, on the whole, satisfactory, and only in England
were other than friendly feelings toward the United States manifested. These were
met by corresponding ill feeling toward England on this side of the Atlantic. The
resentments caused by the late long war were blunted, but by no means deprived of
their strength ; and, finally, the fact that the British government still held possession
of Western military posts within the boundary of the United States, and that from
these had gone out influences which had involved their country in a bloody and ex
pensive war with the Indians, produced much irritation in the American mind. This
was intensified by the wounds given to their national pride by the British govern
ment, in so long refusing to negotiate a commercial treaty with them, and declining
to reciprocate the friendly advances of the United States by sending a minister to re
side at the national capital. **
With their old ally, France, the most perfect friendship still existed, but it was
destined to a speedy interruption. Events in that country, and the position assumed
by the President of the United States in relation to them, caused violent animosity to
take the place of cordial good will, and were among the causes which gave birth to
parties in America whose collisions, for several years, shook the republic to its centre,
and at times threatened its existence. The animosities of these parties, and the col
lateral relations of national policy and events in France and England to them, will be
found, as we proceed in our narrative, to have played an important part in the great
drama we are considering, at the period immediately preceding and during the prog
ress of the War of 1812.
1 John Jay, of New York, was appointed Chief Justice of the United States ; and John Rutledge, of South Carolina,
James Wilson, of Pennsylvania, William Cushing, of Massachusetts, Robert H. Harrison, of Maryland, and John Blair,
of Virginia, were appointed associate judges.
2 Alexander Hamilton was appointed Secretary of the Treasury ; Henry Knox, Secretary of War ; and Thomas Jeffer
son, Secretary of Foreign Affairs, the duties of which were the same as now performed by the Secretary of State, or
prime minister. The Navy Department was not created until 1708. Naval affairs were under the control of the Secre
tary of War. At that time the Attorney General and Postmaster General were heads of departments, but were not, as
now, Cabinet officers. Edmund Randolph was appointed Attorney General, and Samuel Osgood Postmaster General.
60 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Revolutionary Movements in Prance. Lafayette the Leader. Excitement in Paris. National Assembly.
At the very time when the fruits of the American Revolution were exhibiting their
ripeness in the form of a free and vigorous nation full of promise, the Empire of
PYance, made unsound to the core by social and political corruptions most foul, was
shaken by a moral earthquake — a revolution severe at the beginning, and terrible in
its subsequent course. The French monarch was weak, his advisers were wicked,
and the dominant classes, through luxury and concomitant vices, were exceedingly
corrupt. The good and the brave of the kingdom had long perceived the abyss of
woe upon the brink of which their country was poised, and with a heroism which in
the light of history appears almost divine, they resolved to sound the trumpet of po
litical reform, and arouse king, nobles, and people to a sense of solemn duty as men
and patriots.
At the head of these brave men was Lafayette, seconded chiefly by the Duke de
Rochefoucauld and M. Condorcet. They wished to obtain for France a Constitution
similar to that of England, which they regarded as the most perfect model of human
government then known. They loved their king because of his many virtues, and
would have advised him wisely had their voices been permitted audience in the Tui-
leries ; but they loved France more than their king, and desired to see her crowned
with true glory, based upon the welfare and prosperity of her people. To accomplish
this, they placed their hopes on a virtuous constitutional monarchy.
For a long time Lafayette and his coadjutors had been elaborating their scheme.
At length, in the Assembly of Notables, in April, 1789, that champion of rational lib
erty stood up in his place and boldly demanded a series of reforms in the name of
the people, one of which was a representative National Assembly. " What !" ex
claimed the Count D'Artois, one of the king's bad advisers, " do you make a motion
for the States General?" " Yes, and even more than that," quickly responded Lafay
ette. That more was a charter from the king, by which the public and individual
liberty should be acknowledged and guaranteed by the future States General. The
proposition was received with unbounded enthusiasm. The measure was carried.
Early in May a session of the States General was opened at Versailles, and they con
stituted themselves a National Assembly.
Now was the golden opportunity for King Louis. Slight concessions at that mo
ment might have secured blessings for himself and his country. But he heeded the
counsels of venal men more than the supplications of his real friends. He opposed
the popular will, and took the road to ruin. He ordered the hall of the National As
sembly to be closed, and placed a cordon of mercenary German troops around Paris
to overawe the people. From that time until early in July the French capital was
dreadfully agitated. Passion ruled the hour. The city was like a seething caldron.
Every one felt that a terrible storm was about to burst.
The National Assembly was now sitting in Paris, and thoroughly sustained by the
people. They called for the organization of forty-eight thousand armed militia.
Within two days two hundred and seventy thousand citizens were enrolled. A state
mayor was appointed by the town assembly, and the Marquis La Salle was named
commander-in-chief.
Court dispatches were intercepted by the people by the arrest of royal couriers.
Then they demanded arms. An immense assemblage went to the Hospital of the
Invalids on the 10th of July, and demanded from the governor the instant delivery to
them of all weapons there. He refused, and they seized thirty thousand muskets and
twenty pieces of cannon. Then they visited the shops of the armorers and the de
pository of the Garcle-meuble, and seized all the arms found there.
Higher and higher rose the tide of revolution. The girdle of soldiers around Paris
was the chief cause for present irritation. The National Assembly sent a deputation
to the king at Versailles to ask him to remove them. His good heart counseled com
pliance, but his weak head bowed to the demands of bad advisers. " I alone have
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 61
Excitement in Paris. Formation of a National Guard. Treachery at the Bastile. That Prison destroyed.
the right to judge of the necessity, and in that respect I can make no change," was
the haughty answer of the king borne back to the Assembly. This answer, and the
dismissal of M. Necker, the controller of the treasury, and other patriotic ministers
who favored reform, produced a crisis.
Paris was comparatively quiet on the night of the 13th of July. It was the omin
ous lull before the bursting of the tempest. The streets were barricaded. The people
formed themselves into a National Guard, and chose Lafayette as their commander.
Gun, sabre, scythe, and whatever weapon fell in their way was seized. Multitudes
of men of the same opinion embraced each other in the streets as brothers, and, in
an instant almost, a National Guard of one hundred thousand determined men was
formed.
The morning of the 14th was serene. The sky was cloudless. But storms of pas
sion were sweeping over Paris. The people were in motion at an early hour. Their
steps were toward the Bastile, a hoary state prison, which was regarded as the strong
hold of despotism. They stood before it in immense numbers. A parley ensued.
The gates were opened, and forty leading citizens, as representatives of the popu
lace, were allowed to enter. The bridges were then suddenly drawn, and volleys
of musketry soon told a tale of treachery most foul. They were all murdered !
That moment marks the opening of the terrible scenes of the French Revolution.
With demoniac yells the exasperated populace dragged heavy cannon before the
gates, and threatened the destruction of the Bastile. The terrified governor displayed
a white flag, and invited a second deputation to enter the gates. These shared the
fate of the former ! The furious multitude would no longer listen to words of peace.
They were treacherous all. A breach was soon made in the walls. The governor
and other officers were dragged to execution, and their heads were paraded upon
pikes through the streets. The great iron key of the Bastile was sent to the City
Hall.1 The National Assembly decreed the demolition of the hated prison, and very
soon it was leveled to the ground.2 Upon its site, now the Place cle Bastile, stands
the Column of July, erected by Louis Philippe to commemorate the Revolution in
1830, which placed him on the throne. Lafayette sent the key of the Bastile to
Washington, who placed it in the broad passage at Mount Vernon, where it still
hangs.
The National Assembly elected Lafayette commander -in -chief of the National
Guard of all France, a corps of more than four millions of armed citizens. They
voted him a salary of fifty thousand dollars a year, but, imitating Washington, he
refused to accept any remuneration for his services. The humbled king approved his
appointment, and the monarch, deserted by his evil counselors, threw himself upon
the National Assembly. " He has been deceived hitherto," Lafayette proclaimed to
the public, " but he now sees the merit and justice of the popular cause." The over
joyed people shouted " Long live the king !" and for a moment the Revolution seemed
to be at an end and its purposes accomplished.
But Lafayette, who comprehended the labors and the dangers yet to be encoun
tered, was filled with apprehension. The wily Duke of Orleans, who desired the de
struction of the king for the base purpose of his own exaltation to the throne, was
busied in sowing the seeds of distrust among the people.3 The duke incited them to
demand the monarch's presence at the Tuileries. Louis went voluntarily from Ver
sailles to Paris, followed by sixty thousand citizens and a hundred deputies of the
1 For a picture and description of this key, see Logging's Field-Book of the Revolution, ii., 209.
2 A picture of the Bastile may be found in Lossing's Home of Washington and its Associations, p. 221.
3 "He does not, indeed, possess talent to carry into execution a great project," said Lafayette to John Trumbull, who
was about to leave Paris, "but he possesses immense wealth, and France abounds in marketable talents. Every city
and town has young men eminent for abilities, particularly in the law— ardent in character, eloquent, ambitious of dis
tinction, but poor." Many of these were the men who composed the leaders in the Reign of Terror, and reddened the
streets of Paris with human blood.
62 PICTOKIAL FIELD-BOOK
European War expected. Great Britain and Spain in ill-humor. Attempt to extort Justice from Great Britain.
Assembly, and there formally accepted the Declaration of the Rights of Man, which
was presented to him. The people were satisfied, and the duke was disappointed.
Order reigned in Paris and throughout the kingdom. The bearing of these events
upon our subject will be observed presently.
At this time a general European war seemed inevitable. A long-pending contro
versy between Great Britain and Spain remained unsettled. It was believed that
France, with her traditional hatred of Great Britain, would side with Spain. This
alliance would menace England with much danger. At the same time, Spain, a de
clining power, would necessarily be much embarrassed by war. Viewing this situa
tion of affairs in Western Europe with the eye of a statesman, Washington concluded
that it was a favorable time to urge upon Spain the claims of the United States to
the free navigation of the Mississippi, concerning which negotiations had been for
some time pending, and also to press upon Great Britain the necessity of complying
with the yet unfulfilled articles of the Treaty of 1783. Mr. Carmichael, the American
Charge des Affaires at the Court of Madrid,1 was instructed not only to press the
point concerning the navigation of the Mississippi with earnestness, but to endeavor
to secure to the United States, by cession, the island of New Orleans and the Floridas,
offering as an equivalent the abiding friendship of the new republic, by which the
territories of Spain west of the Mississippi might be secured to that government.
At the same time, Gouverneur Morris, then in Paris, was directed by Washington to
repair to London, and, with sincere professions of a desire on the part of the United
States " to pf omote harmony and mutual satisfaction between the two countries,"
sound the British ministry on the subject of a full and immediate execution of the
Treaty ofl783.2
Morris had a formal interview with the Duke of Leeds, the Secretary of Foreign
Affairs, near the close of March, 1790. He was received with cordiality, and was
assured of the earnest desire of Great Britain to cultivate friendly relations with the
United States, and the determination of the king to send a minister to America. But
when Morris attempted to hold explicit conversation on the subject of his semi-offi
cial mission he was met with evasion and reticence. It was immediately made evi
dent to him that there was real reluctance on the part of Great Britain to fulfill the
stipulations of the Treaty of 1783, or to make a fair commercial arrangement, and that
there was a disposition to procrastinate while the difficulties between Great Britain
and Spain remained unadjusted. He found great misapprehensions existing in En
gland concerning the real character of the Americans and their government, even
among the best informed. They overrated the importance to Americans of friendship
with them. They believed that trade with Great Britain was of vital consequence
to the Americans, and that the latter would make an international commercial treaty
upon almost any terms to secure it. With this belief, a committee of Parliament, to
whom had been referred the revenue acts of the United States, acting under the ad
vice of the merchants of leading maritime towns of Great Britain, reported early in
1790, in favor of negotiating a commercial treaty with the Americans, but with the
explicit declaration that the commissioners should not " submit to treat" for the ad
mission of American vessels into any of the British islands or colonial ports. They
actually believed that the necessities of the United States would make them acqui
esce in an arrangement so ungenerous and partial.
While war with Spain seemed impending, the British ministers listened compla
cently to what Morris had to say about the frontier military posts, the impressment
of American seamen into the British naval service under the plea that they were sub-
1 William Carmichael went to Spain with Minister John Jay, as secretary of legation, in 17T9, and when that function
ary left, Mr. Carmichael remained as Charge dcs A/aires. After the Treaty of Peace was signed in 1T83, the Spanish gov
ernment refused to acknowledge him as such, but finally, through the agency of Lafayette, they reluctantly consented
to do so.
2 Washington's letter to Gouverneur Morris, October 13, 1789.
OF THE WAK OF 1812. 63
Discourtesy of the British Government. ( The Americans supposed to be dependent. A Change of Views.
jects of Great Britain, and the propriety of sending a full minister to the United
States.1 It was evident that the British were willing to allow their relations with
the Americans to remain unchanged until they should have a definite perception of
the course European aifairs were likely to take. This evidence became more and
more manifest in the autumn. The French government, embarrassed by its own
troubled affairs, was disinclined to take part with Spain in its quarrel, and the latter,
unable alone to cope with Great Britain, yielded every point in the controversy, and
the dispute was settled. Relieved of this burden of perplexity, and regarding France
as hopelessly crippled by her internal difficulties, Great Britain showed marked indif
ference concerning her relations with the United States. Nothing more was said
about sending a minister to America, and Mr. Morris was treated with neglect, if not
with positive discourtesy.
At the close of the year Mr. Morris left England. He had been there about nine
months, endeavoring to obtain a positive answer to the simple questions, Will you
execute the Treaty ? will you make a treaty of commerce with the United States ?
At the end of that time the real views of the British government were as hidden as
at the beginning. Ungenerous diplomacy had been employed all the time by the
British ministry, while the American government was anxious to establish peaceful
relations with Great Britain and all the world upon principles of exact justice. Its
agents were unskilled in the low cunning of diplomatic art which at that time dis
tinguished every court in Europe, and they lost the game. Both the government and
people of the United States felt aggrieved and indignant at the course of Great Brit-v
am, and self-respect would not allow them to farther press the subject of diplomatic
intercourse or treaty relations. They therefore resolved to pause in action until the
republic should become strong enough to speak in decisive tones, and prepared to
maintain its declarations by corresponding vigor of action.
Great changes are wrought by time. The march of stirring events in Europe
now became majestic, for a new and important era was dawning ; and the dignity
and importance of the republic beyond the sea was too apparent to the world to
allow the British government to maintain its indifference much longer without evil
consequences to itself. Already France, Holland, and Spain, the real enemies of En
gland, had placed representatives at the seat of our national government, and British
pride was compelled to yield to expediency. In August, 1791, George Hammond ar
rived in Philadelphia, clothed with full ministerial powers as the representative of
Great Britain, presented his credentials, and was formally received. In December
following, diplomatic relations between the two governments were established by the
i Great Britain evidently apprehended an alliance of the United States with Spain, in the event of a war between the
former and the latter power. Dorchester, the Governor of Canada, was employed to ascertain the disposition of the
United States on that point. He accordingly asked permission to pass through New York on his way to England : and
when it was readily granted, as he expected, he sent his aid-de-camp, Major Beckwith, to the seat of the United States
government, under the pretext of making a formal acknowledgment, bnt really to seek information upon the subject in
question. He first approached Mr. Hamilton, the Secretary of the Treasury. After expressing the thanks of Lord Dor
chester, he, with apparent unconcern, remarked that his Jordship had reason to fear that the delays which Mr. Morris
experienced in England would be attributed to a lack of desire on the part of the British ministry to adjust every mat
ter in dispute between the United States and Great Britain. In behalf of his lordship he was instructed to say, that
there could be no doubt, not only of the friendly feeling of Great Britain, but of a desire on her part for an alliance with
the United States. Major Beckwith then spoke of the rupture between Great Britain and Spain, and expressed his pre
sumption that, in the event of war, the United States would find it to their interest to take part with Great Britain. He
then, in the name of Dorchester, disclaimed any influence, under British authorities, over the Indian tribes in the West.
The President laid the matter before his Cabinet, and it was agreed to draw out from the major as much information
as possible by treating him and his communication very civilly. But he obtained no information of importance. The
matter was so transparent that no one was deceived. " What they [the ministers] are savins to you," Jefferson wrote
to Morris in August, " they are saying to us through Quebec ; but so informally that they may disavow it when they
please. . . . Through him [Major Beckwith] they talk of a minister, a treaty of commerce, and alliance. If the object
of the latter be honorable, it is useless ; if dishonorable, inadmissible. These tamperings prove that they view war
as possible; and some symptoms indicate designs against the Spanish possessions adjoining us. The consequences of
their acquiring all the country on our frontier from the St. Croix to the St. Mary's are too obvious to you to need devel
opment. You will readily see the dangers which would then environ us. . . . We wish to be neutral, and we will be so,
if they will execute the Treaty fairly and attempt no conquests adjoining MS."
64
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Efforts for the Establishment of the Public Credit. Hamilton's Protest against tampering with the National Honor.
appointment of Thom
as Pinckney, of South
Carolina, as American
minister to the Court
of St. James.1
At about this time
two violently antag
onistic parties had as
sumed definite shape
and formidable pro
portions in the United
States, the acknowl
edged heads of which ™
were Alexander Ham- llm
ilton and Thomas Jef
ferson, members of
Washington ' s Cabi
net. On the former,
ns Secretary of the
Treasury, devolved
the important duty
to arrange apian for
the establishment of
the public credit.2 Ow
ing to long delay, and
doubts and discour
agements in the minds
of the original holders
of the evidences of the
public debt, they had
fallen into the hands
of speculators at one
sixth of their nominal
value. It was there
fore argued that, in
the liquidation of these
claims, there should be
a scale of depreciation
adopted, thereby mak
ing a saving to the
public treasury.
Hamilton would
listen favorably to
no suggestions of
that kind. With the sagacity of a statesman, the sincerity of an honest man, and the
true heart of a patriot, he planted his foot firmly upon the ground of justice and
honor, and declared that public credit could only be established by the faithful dis
charge of public obligations in strict conformity to the terms of the contract. These
debts were oi*iginally due to ofiicers and soldiers, farmers, mechanics, and patriotic
capitalists, and were sacred in the estimation of honest men; and it was no just plea
for their whole or partial repudiation that speculators would profit by the honesty of
the government. It was not for the debtor to inquire into whose hands his written
promises to pay were lodged, nor how they came there.3 Upon this lofty foundation
of principle Hamilton stood before hosts of his frowning countrymen, conscious of the
importance of financial honor and integrity to the infant republic, and determined to
secure for it the dignity which justice confers, at whatever cost of personal popularity.
° January 14, He accordingly presented to Congress,31 in an able report, a scheme " for
the support of the public credit," whose principal feature was the funding
of the public debt — a plan proposed by him to Robert Morris as early as 1782. He
also proposed the assumption by the general government of the state debts incurred
during the war, amounting, in principal and interest, to over twenty millions of dol-
1 Thomas Pinckney was born in Charleston, South Carolina, 23d of October, 1750. He was educated in England.
When the Revolution broke out he entered the military service, and was active until Gates's defeat near Camden, in
August, 1780, when he was made a prisoner. He was Gates's aid. He was chosen Governor of South Carolina in 1787.
In 1792 he went as minister to England. In 1794 he was gent in the same capacity to Spain, to treat concerning the nav
igation of the Mississippi. At the beginning of 1S12 the President appointed him to the command of the Southern divi
sion of the army. After the war General Pinckney retired to private life. He died on the 2d of November, 1828, aged
seventy-eight years.
2 The impoverished condition of the country, and the wants of the public treasury at that time, may be comprehended
by the fact that, at the close of 1789, the Attorney General and several members of Congress were indebted to the pri
vate credit of the Secretary of the Treasury to discharge their personal expenses. Even the President of the United
States was obliged to pass his note to his private secretary, Mr. Lear, to meet his household expenses, which was dis
counted at the rate of two per cent, a month. Members of Congress were paid by due-bills, which the collectors were
ordered to receive in payment of duties.— HAMILTON'S History of the Republic of the United States, iv., 48.
3 Hamilton argued that, besides motives of political expediency, there were reasons in favor of his view "which rest
on the immutable principles of moral obligation ; and, in proportion as the mind is disposed to contemplate, in the
order of Providence, an ultimate connection between public virtue and public happiness, will be its repugnance to a vio
lation of those principles. This reflection derives additional strength from the nature of the debt of the United States.
IT WAS THE TRICE or LiBEBTY. The faith of America has been repeatedly pledged for it, and with solemnities that give
peculiar force to the obligation."
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 65
Hamilton's Financial Scheme assailed. Banking Capital in the United States. A Decimal Currency adopted.
lars. His scheme included the establishment of a national bank,1 a system of revenue
from taxation, internal and external, and a sinking fund.
This scheme — just, patriotic, necessary, and beneficial — was assailed with the great
est vehemence, and the discussions which it elicited, especially upon the subject of the
assumption of the state debts, in Congress, in the public press, and in private circles,
fearfully agitated the nation, and created the first regular and systematic opposition
to the principles on which the aifairs of the republic were administered. Its propo
sitions, especially the one relating to the assumption of state debts, were regarded
with alarm by the late opponents of the Constitution and a consolidated government}
because of their tendency to a centralization of power, as giving an undue influence
to the general government by placing the purse as well as the sword in its hands,
and as being also of doubtful constitutionality. Many believed that they saw in this
scheme great political evils, because it secured the financial union of the states, and
might lead to the establishment of a government as absolute as a constitutional mon
archy. These suspicions were strengthened by the well-known fact that Hamilton
regarded the British government as a model of excellence, and had advocated greater
centralization of power, in the Convention of 1787. He was made the target for the
shafts of personal and political malice, and his financial system was misrepresented
and abused as a scheme for enriching a few at the expense of the many.2 The war
of opinion was fierce and uncompromising.
While Washington took no part in the discussion of Hamilton's scheme, it com
manded his highest admiration, as the most perfect that human wisdom could devise
for restoring the public credit and laying the foundation of national policy. He pre
dicted great and lasting good from its adoption, and his prophecies were fulfilled.
Confidence was revived, and that acted like magic upon industry; and then com-
1 At that time the whole banking capital of the United States was only $2,000,000, invested in the Bank of North Amer
ica, established in Philadelphia by Robert Morris, chiefly as a government fiscal agent ; the Bank of New York, in New
York City; and the Bank of Mawachiwett*, in Boston. In January, 1T91, Congress chartered a national bank for the
term of twenty years, with a capital of $10,000,000, to be located in the city of Philadelphia, and its management to be
intrusted to twenty-five directors. It did not commence business operations in corporate form until in February, 1794.
The subject of currency had occupied the attention of the old Congress as early as 1782, when Gouverneur Morris pre
sented an able report on the subject, written at the request of Robert Morris.* He proposed to harmonize the moneys
of all the states. Starting with one ascertained fraction as a unit, for a divisor, he proposed the following table of
money : Ten units to be equal to one penny ; ten pence to one bill ; ten bills, one dollar (about seventy-five cents of onr
present currency) ; and ten dollars, one crown. Mr. Jefferson, as chairman of a committee on the subject of coins, re
ported a table in 1784, in which he adopted Morris's decimal system, but entirely changed its details. He proposed to
strike four coins, namely, a golden piece of the value of ten dollars, a dollar in silver, a tenth of a dollar in silver, and
a hundredth of a dollar in copper. This report was adopted by Congress the following year, and this was the origin of
our cent, dime, dollar, and eac/le. The establishment of a mint for coinage was delayed, and no legislative action on
the subject was taken until early in April, 1792, when laws were enacted for the preparation of one. For three years
afterward the operations of the mint were chiefly experimental, while in
Congress long debates were had concerning the devices for the new coins.
The Senate proposed the head of the President of the United States who
should occupy the chair of state at the time of the coinage. In the House,
the head of Liberty was suggested, as being less aristocratic than the ef
figy of the President— less the stamp of royalty. The head of Liberty was
finally adopted. During that interval of three years, several of the coins
called " specimens," now so rare in cabinets, and so much sought after by
connoisseurs, were struck. Of these the rarest is a small copper coin,
known as the " Liberty-cap cent." The engraving is from one in my pos- LIBERTY CENT.
session. The mint was first put into full operation, in Philadelphia, in 1795.
"The public paper suddenly rose, and was for a short time above par," says Marshall. "The immense wealth
which individuals acquired by this unexpected appreciation could not be viewed with indifference."
* Robert Morris had considered the subject for more than a year. As early as July, 1781, he wrote to Benjamin Dud
ley, of Boston, an Englishman, requesting him to come to Philadelphia, that he might consult him about the coinage of
money. In November Mr. Dudley was employed in assaying. Mr. Morris kept him engaged in experiments, and in the
preparation of machinery for a mint. In these Mr. Dudley consulted Dr. Rittenhouse and Francis Hopkinson. A coun
try blacksmith, named Wheeler, was employed to make the rollers for the mint, and it was July the following year be
fore any machinery was perfected. Mr. Morris labored hard to get the mint in operation, but without success. Finally,
on the 2d of April, 1783, Morris was enabled to write in his diary, "I sent for Mr. Dudley, who delivered me a piece of
silver coin, being the first that has been struck as an American coin." Mr. Dudley was installed superintendent of the
mint, having charge, also, of the preparation of the paper moulds, etc., in the manufacture of the currency printed by
Hall & Sellers, the printers of the Continental money. Finally, in July, Mr. Morris gave up the idea of establishing a
mint, and Mr. Dudley, after delivering up the dies to him, left his service.— ROBEBT MOBEIS'S Diary.
E
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Mr. Jefferson in France. His Reception in New York. His Suspicions of former Colleagues and Compatriots.
menced that wonderful
development of material
wealth which has gone on
with few intermissions
until the present time.
While these discus
sions were at their height,
Jefferson arrived at the
seat of government, to as
sume the duties of Secre
tary of State. He had
but lately returned from
France, where he had la
bored for several years
hi the diplomatic service
of his country. He had
witnessed the uprising of
the people there at the
bidding of Lafayette and
others a few months be
fore. The example of his
own country was the star
of hope to the French
revolutionists, and as the
author of the Declaration
of Independence, he was
regarded as an oracle, and
courted by the leaders of
the constitutional party
there. Fresh from the
fields of political excite
ment in the French capi
tal, and his inherent democratic principles and ideas intensified and enlarged by these
experiences, he came home full of enthusiasm, expecting to find every body in his own
country ready to speak a sympathizing word for, and to extend a helping hand to the
people of France, the old ally of Americans in their efforts to establish for themselves
a constitutional government.
But Mr. Jefferson was disappointed. When he arrived in New York, after a tedi
ous journey of a fortnight on horseback, he was warmly welcomed by the leading
families of the city, and became the recipient of almost daily invitations to social and
dinner parties. The wealthier and more aristocratic classes in New York, who gave
dinner parties at that time, were mostly Loyalists' families, who remembered the
pleasant intercourse they had enjoyed with the British officers during the late war,
and had always regarded the British form of government as the most perfect ever
devised. Free from political restraint, their conversation was open and frank, and
their sentiments were expressed without reserve. Mr. Jefferson was continually
shocked by the utterance of opinions repugnant to his faith, and in contrast with his
recent experience.1
Mr. Jefferson, who was sensitively and even painfully alive to the evils of despotism
and the dangers of a government stronger than the people, took the alarm, and he
became morbidly suspicious of all around him. The conservatism of Washington and
his associates in the government, and their lack of enthusiasm on the subject of the
French Revolution, which so filled his own heart, were construed by him as indiffer
ence to the diffusion of democratic ideas and the triumph of republican principles, for
which the patriots in the war for independence had contended. He 'had scarcely
taken his seat in the Cabinet before he declared that some of his colleagues held de
cidedly monarchical views, and it became a settled belief in his mind that there was a
party in the United States constantly at work, secretly and sometimes openly, for the
overthrow of republicanism. This idea became a sort of monomania, and haunted
him until his death, more than thirty years afterward.
Events in France soon began to make vivid impressions upon the public mind in
America. The fears of Lafayette were realized. The lull that succeeded the tempest
of 1789, was only the precursor of a more terrible storm in 1791, that shook European
society to its deepest foundations, and, like the great earthquake of 1755, was felt in
almost every part of the globe.
1 " I can not describe the wonder and mortification with which the table conversation filled me," Mr. Jefferson wrote.
" Politics was the chief topic, and a preference for a kingly over republican government was evidently the favorite
sentiment. An apostate I could not be, nor yet a hypocrite ; and I found myself, for the most part, the only advocate
on the republican side of the question, unless among the guests there chanced to be some member of that party from
the legislative houses." This is the first mention that we any where find of a Republican Party in this country.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 67
Formation of the Jacobin Club in Paris. Demoralization of the National Guard. A Constitution granted to the People.
Long before the meeting of the States-general at Versailles, forty intelligent men,
whose feelings were intensely democratic, wrho avowed their hatred of kings and
their attendant titles and privileges, and who ridiculed and contemned Christianity
as an imposture, had met in the hall of the Jacobin monks in Paris, and from that
circumstance were called the Jacobin Club. In the commotions that attended and
followed the destruction of the Bastile, this club had gained immense popularity.
They now published a newspaper, whose motto was LIBERTY AND EQUALITY, and
whose design was to disseminate ultra democratic doctrines, irreligious ideas, and a
spirit of revolt and disaffection to the king. They became potential— a power in the
state. Their influence was every where seen in the laxity of public morals. The
church w-as polluted with the contagion. A refractory spirit appeared among the
National Guards, and the king and his family were insulted in public.
Disgusted with these evidences of demoralization, Lafayette resigned his command
of the National Guard, but resumed it on the solicitation of sixty battalions. He was
exceedingly popular, yet he could not wholly control the Spirit of anarchy that was
abroad. 'The king, alarmed, fled in disguise from Paris. Terror prevailed among all
classes. The flight of the monarch was construed into a crime by his enemies, and he
was arrested and brought back to Paris under an escort of thirty thousand National
Guards. He excused his movement with the plea that he was exposed to too many
insults in the capital, and only wished to live quietly, away from the scenes of
strife.
The populace were not satisfied. Led by Robespierre, a sanguinary demagogue,
and member of the Constituent Assembly, they met in the Elysian Fields, and peti
tioned for the dethronement of Louis. Four thousand of the National Guard fired
upon them, and killed several hundred. The exasperation of the people was terrible,
yet the popularity of Lafayette held the factious in check.1
The Constitution was completed in September. The trembling king accepted it,
and solemnly swore to maintain it. Proclamation of the fact was made throughout
the kingdom, and a grand fete, whereat one hundred thousand people sang and danced
the Carmagnole in the Elysian Fields, was held at Paris, and salvos of cannon thun
dered along the banks of the Seine.2
There was wide-spread sympathy in the United States with these revolutionary
movements in France. The spirit pf faction, viewed at that great distance, appeared
like patriotism. Half-formed and half-understood political maxims, floating upon the
tide of social life in the new republic, began to crystallize into tenets, and assumed
antagonistic party positions. The galvanic forces, so to speak, which produced these
crystallizations, proceeded from the President's Cabinet, where Mr. Jefferson, the Sec
retary of State, and Mr. Hamilton, the Secretary of the Treasury, were at direct vari
ance in their views of domestic public measures, and were making constant war upon
each other. Jefferson, believing, with Thomas Paine (who now appeared in the field
of political strife abroad), that a weak government and a strong people were the best
guarantees of liberty to the citizen, contemplated all executive power with distrust,
and desired to impair its vitality and restrain its operations. He thought he saw in
the funding system arranged by Hamilton, and in the United States Bank and the ex
cise law — creations of that statesman's brain — instruments for enslaving the people ;
1 "I am exposed to the envy and attacks of all parties," he wrote to Washington, "for this single reason, that who
ever acts or means wrong finds me an insuperable obstacle. And there appears a kind of phenomenon in my situation
—all parties against me, and a national popularity, which, in spite of every effort, has remained unchanged. . . . Given
up to all the madness of license, faction, and popular rage, I stood alone in defense of the law, and turned the tide into
the constitutional channel."
3 Upon a tree planted on the site of the Bastile a placard was placed, in these words :
" Here is the epoch of Liberty ;
We dance on the ruins of despotism ;
The Constitution is finished-
Long live patriotism !"
68 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Jefferson makes War upon his Opponents. His religions Views. Jefferson and John Adams Antagonists in Opinion.
and he affected to believe that the rights of the states and liberties of the citizens
were in danger.
Hamilton, on the other hand, regarded the National Constitution as inadequate in
strength to perform its required functions, and believed weakness to be its most rad
ical defect ; and it was his sincere desire and uniform practice so to construe its pro
visions as to give strength and efficiency to the Executive in the administration of
public affairs.
Not content with an expression of his opinions, Jefferson charged his political op
ponents, and especially Hamilton, with corrupt and anti-republican designs, selfish
motives, and treacherous intentions ; and thus was inaugurated that system of per
sonal abuse and vituperation which has ever been a disgrace to the press and political
leaders of this country.
An unfortunate blunder made by John Adams, the Vice-President, at about this
time, confirmed Jefferson in his opinions and fears. These men, compatriots in the
events out of which the nation had been evolved, cherished dissimilar political ideas,
and held widely differing religious sentiments. Mr. Jefferson was always a free
thinker, and his latitudinarianism was greatly expanded by a long residence among
the contemners of revealed religion in France. He admired Voltaire, Rousseau, and
D'Alembert, whose graves were then green ; and one of his most intimate compan
ions was the Marquis of Condorcet, who " classed among fools those who had the
misfortune to believe in a revealed religion."1 He sympathized with the ultra Re
publicans of France, was their counselor in the early and later stages of the revolu
tionary movement of 1789, and opened his house to them for secret conclave. He
was an enthusiastic admirer of a nation of enthusiasts.
Mr. Adams, on the contrary, was thoroughly imbued with the political and reli
gious principles of New England Puritanism. He discovered spiritual life in every
page of the Bible, and accepted the doctrines of revealed religion as an emanation
from, the fountain of Eternal Truth. His mind was cast in the mould of the English
conservative writers, whom he admired. He detested the principles and practices of
the French philosophers, whom Jefferson revered ; and, from the outset, he detected in
the revolutionary movements in France the elements of destructiveness which were
so speedily developed. These views were indicated in a letter to the Rev. Dr. Price,
of England, acknowledging the receipt of a printed copy of his famous discourse on
the morning of the anniversary dinner of the English Revolution Society in 1789, in
which the preacher, accepting the French Revolution as a glorious event in the his
tory of mankind, said, " What an eventful period is this ! I am thankful that I have
lived to see it ; and I could almost say, ' Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in
peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation.' ... I have lived to see thirty millions
of people indignantly and resolutely spurning at slavery, and demanding liberty with
an irresistible voice."
To this Adams replied, " I know that encyclopedists and economists — Diderot and
D'Alembert, Voltaire and Rousseau — have contributed to this great event even more
than Sidney, Locke, or Hoadley ; perhaps more than the American Revolution : and I
own to you I know not what to make of a republic of thirty millions of atheists. . . .
i Capefigue, ii., 82. Mr. Jefferson's religious views, at that time, may be inferred from the contents of a letter written
at Paris on the 10th of August, 1T87, to Peter Carr, a young relative of his in Virginia, wherein he lays down some
maxims for his future guidance. He enjoins him to exalt reason above creeds. "Question with boldness," he says,
"even the existence of a God ; because, if there be one, he must more approve the homage of reason than of blindfold
fear." He then advises him to read the Bible as he would Livy or Tacitns. " The facts which are within the ordinary
course of nature you will believe on the authority of the writer, as you do those of the same kind in Livy or Tacitus."
He then cautions him against a belief in statements in the Bible "which contradict the laws of nature." Concerning
the New Testament, he said, " It is the history of a personage called Jesus. Keep in your eye the opposite pretensions,
1, of those who say he was begotten of God, born of a virgin, suspended and reversed the laws of nature at will, and
ascended bodily into heaven ; and, 2, of those who gay he was a man of illegitimate birth, of a benevolent heart, enthusi
astic mind, who set out with pretensions to divinity, ended in believing them, and was punished capitally for sedition
by being gibbeted according to the Roman law."
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
69
An English Democrat's Discourse. Burke's Reflections on the French Revolution. Paine's "Rights of Man."
Too many Frenchmen, after the example of too many Americans, pant for equality of
person and property. The impracticability of this, God Almighty has decreed, and
the advocates for liberty who attempt it will surely suffer for it."1
i See Letter to Richard Price, April 19, 1790, in the Life and Works of John Adams, ix., 563.
Richard Price, D.D., LL.D., was an eminent English Dissenting minister, and at this time was preacher at the meet
ing-house in Old Jewry, London. He was then quite venerable in years, and with a mind as vigorous as when, in 1776,
he wrote his famous "Observations on the War in America." He was an ultra democrat, and sympathized itrongly
with the French Revolution. He did not live to see that Revolution assume its huge proportions and hideous visage
that so terrified Europe, for he died in the spring of 1791.
The discourse above alluded to was preached on the anniversary of the Revolution in 1688 (4th of November) which
hurled James the Second from the throne. Dr. Price was an active member of the "Revolution Club," of which, at that
time, the Earl of Stanhope was president. The discourse " On the Love of our Country" was preached before the mem
bers, and was subsequently printed. After alluding to the Revolution in France, he said, "I see the dominion of kings
changed for the dominion of laws, and the dominion of priests giving way to the dominion of reason and conscience.
Be encouraged, all ye friends of freedom and writers in its defense ! The times are auspicious. Your labors have not
been in vain. Behold kingdoms, admonished by you, starting from sleep, breaking their fetters, and claiming justice
from their oppressors ! Behold the light you have struck out, after setting America free, reflected to France, and there
kindled into a blaze that lays despotism in ashes, and warms and illuminates Europe !"
The Society, at that meeting, on motion of Dr. Price, agreed, by acclamation, to send, in the shape of a formal address,
"their congratulations to the National Assembly on the event of the late glorious Revolution in France." This action
and the discourse of Dr. Price produced the greatest agitation throughout England. Auxiliary clubs were speedily
formed in various parts of the kingdom, encouraged by men like Dr. Priestley, the eminent Unitarian minister at Bir
mingham. Monarchist and Churchman were greatly alarmed. The king was inclined to deny any more concessions to
the Liberal party, making the Revolution in France a sufficient argument against reform in England, while the clergy of
the hierarchy raised a cry that the Church was in danger from the revolutionizing and destructive machinations of the
Dissenters. To the astonishment of all men, Edmund Burke raised his voice in the House of Commons in cadences
never heard before from his lips. He had ever been the eloquent advocate of the rights of man. Now he declared that
there was no such thing as natural rights of men, and he condemned the whole body of Dissenters in the strongest
terms, as discontented people, whose principles tended to the subversion of good government. Nor did his denuncia
tions rest there. He professed to regard Dr. Price's sermon with holy horror, and its author as a most dangerous agi
tator, and he brought to the task of disabusing the public mind of England concerning the real character of the revolt
in Paris the whole powers of his mighty intellect. In an almost incredible short space of time he wrote his famous
" Reflections on the French Revolution," the publication of which produced a most powerful effect. The king and min
istry, and the Tory party, expressed unbounded admiration of this splendid de
fense of their policy, while all just men agreed that it was a monstrous exagger
ation. It called forth many opposing writers— among them the powerful Priest
ley, the elegant Mackintosh, and the coarse but vigorous Paine. The war of
words, and pen, and type was waged furiously for a long time, and satirical bal
lads and clever caricatures played a conspicuous part in the contest.
Thomas Paine, who had been in Paris some time, and participated in some of
the revolutionary scenes there, had lately returned when Burke's "Reflections"
appeared, and he lost no time in preparing an answer, which he entitled " The
Rights of Man." The first part was published on the 1st of February, 1791, and
produced great disturbance. It was sought after with the greatest avidity, and in
proportion to its success was the alarm and indignation of the Tory party. There
was ample food for the caricaturists, and Gillray's pencil was active. Fox and
Sheridan, who were the leaders of the opposition in Parliament, were classed
among the leaders of the Revolution Clubs, and appeared in pictures with Priest
ley and Paine. In May, 1791, Gillray burlesqued Paine in a caricature which he
entitled " The Rights of Man ; or, Tommy Paine, the American Tailor, taking the
Measure of the Crown for a new
pair of Revolution Breeches."
Paine is seen with the conven
tional type of face given by the
caricaturists to a French demo
crat. His tri- colored cockade
bears the inscription, "Five la
liberte!" and from his month
proceeds an incoherent soliloquy, as if from a man half drunk.* This
was in allusion to his well-known intemperance. Paine was finally
prosecuted by the government for libel on account of some remarks in
his " Rights of Man," and was compelled to flee to France, where he was
warmly received by the revolutionists. A Tory mob destroyed Dr.
Priestley's ohurch in Birmingham, and his dwelling and fine library a
short distance in the country ; also he and his family barely escaped
with their lives.
• The following is a copy of the soliloquy: "Fathom and a half! fath
om and a half! Poor Tom ! ah ! mercy upon me ! that's more by half
than my poor measure will ever be able to reach ! Lord ! Lord ! I wish
I had a bit of the stay-tape [allusion to Paine's former business of stay-
maker] or buckram which I used to cabbage when I was a 'prentice, to
lengthen it out. Well, well, who would ever have thought it, that I,
A BAD MEASUBE. wno have served seven years as an apprentice, and afterward worked four
years as a journeyman to a master tailor, then followed the business of
an exciseman as much longer, shcu'.d not be able to take the dimension of this bawble ! for what is a crown but a bawble,
70 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Adams's "Discourses on Davila." His Opinions on Government. Jefferson's Disgust and Alarm.
Mr. Adams had discerned with alarm the contagion of revolution which went out
from Paris in the autumn of 1789. He saw it affecting England, and menacing the
existence of its government ; and he perceived its rapid diffusion in his own country
with surprise and pain. It was so different in form and substance from that which
had made his own people free, that he was deeply impressed with its dangers. With
a patriotic spirit he sought to arrest the calamities it might bring upon his country,
and with that view he wrote a series of articles for a newspaper, entitled " Discourses
on Davila." These contained an analysis of Davila's History of the Civil War in
France^ in the sixteenth century. The aim of Mr. Adams was to point out to his
countrymen the danger to be apprehended from factions in ill-balanced forms of gov
ernment. In these essays he maintained that, as the great spring of human activity,
especially as related to public life, was self-esteem, manifested in the love of superior
ity, and the desire of .distinction, applause, and admiration, it was important in a pop
ular government to provide for the moderate gratification of all of them. He there
fore advocated a liberal use of titles and ceremonial honors for those in office, and an
aristocratic Senate. To counteract any undue influence on the part of the Senate, he
proposed a popular assembly on the broadest democratic basis ; and, to keep in check
encroachments of each upon the other, he recommended a powerful Executive. He
thought liberty to all would thus be best secured.2 From the premises which formed
the basis of his reasoning, he argued that the French Constitution, which disavowed
all distinctions of rank, which vested the legislative authority in a single Assembly,
and which, though retaining the office of king, divested him of nearly all actual power,
must, in the nature of things, prove a failure. The wisdom of this assumption has
been vindicated by history.
The publication of these essays at that time was Mr. Adams's blunder.3 His ideas
were presented in a form so cloudy that his political system was misunderstood by
the many and misinterpreted by the few. He was charged with advocating a mon
archy and a hereditary Senate ; and it was artfully insinuated that he had been se
duced by Hamilton (whose jealous opponents delighted in pointing to him as the
arch-enemy of republican government) from his loyalty to those noble principles
which he had exhibited before he wrote his " Defense of the American Constitu
tions," published in London three years before.
Those essays filled Jefferson with disgust, and he cherished the idea that Hamilton,
Adams, Jay, and others were at the head of a party engaged in a conspiracy to over
throw the republican institutions of the United States, and on their ruins to construct
a mixed government like that of England, composed of a monarchy and aristocracy.4
1 Deir Istoria delle Guerre Civili di Francia, by Henrico Caterino Davila.
2 This was only an amplification of the thought thus expressed in, his Defense of the American Constitutions: "It is
denied that the people are the best keepers, or any keepers at all, of their own liberties, when they hold collectively, or
by representative, the executive and judicial power, or the whole uncontrolled legislature." He did not believe in the
efficiency or safety of a government formed upon the simple plan of M. Thurgot and other clear-minded men of France,
in which all power was concentrated in one body directly representing the nation. That was the doctrine and the prac
tice of the French revolutionists, enforced by the logic of Condorcet and the eloquence of Mirabeau. Mr. Adams wished
a system of checks and balances, which experience has proved to be the wisest.
3 They were published in the Gazette of the United States, at Philadelphia, then the seat of the national government.
Their more immediate object was a reply to Condorcet's pamphlet, entitled Quatre Lettrex 6"un Bourgeois de New Haven,
sur r Unite de la Legislation. Mr. Adams soon perceived that his essays were furnishing the partisans of the day with
too much capital for immediate use in the conflict of opinjon then raging, and ceased writing before they were com
pleted. Twenty years later, when a new edition was published, Mr. Adams wrote, " This dull, heavy volume still excites
the wonder of its author — first, that he could find, amidst the constant scenes of business and dissipation in which he
was enveloped, time to write it ; secondly, that he had the courage to oppose and publish his own opinions to the uni
versal opinion of America, and indeed of all mankind. Not one man in America then believed him. He knew not one,
and has not heard of one since, who then believed him. — J. A., 1812."
4 n rjijje rp01.y paperj Fenno's," he wrote to Mr. Short, in Paris, " rarely admits any thing which defends the present form
which we may see in the Tower for sixpence apiece ? Well, although it may.be too large for a tailor to take measure
of, there's one comfort — he may make mouths at it, and call it as many names as he pleases ! And yet, Lord ! Lord ! I
should like to make it a Yankee-doodle night-cap and breeches, if it was not so d— d large, or I had stuff enough. Ah !
if I could once do that, I would soon stitch up the mouth of that barnacled Edmund from making any more Reflections
upon the Flints. And so, Flints and Liberty forever, and d— n the Dungs ! Huzza !"
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 71
Effect of Paine's "Eights of Man." Feud between Jefferson and Hamilton. Newspaper War.
To thwart these fancied designs, and to inculcate the doctrines of the French Revo
lution which he so much admired, and on which he grounded his hopes of a stable
government in his own country,1 Jefferson hastened to have printed and circulated
Thomas Paine's famous reply to Burke's " Reflections on the French Revolution,"
called " The Rights of Man," which had just been received from England. That
essay, originally dedicated " To the President of the United States," was admired by
Jefferson, and it was issued from the Philadelphia press, with a complimentary note
from him.
This apparent indorsement of the essay by the government, in the persons of the
President and Secretary of State, was very offensive to Great Britain, and produced
a good deal of stir in the United States. Major Beckwith, the aid-de-camp of Lord
Dorchester, already mentioned,2 was in Philadelphia at that time, and expressed his
surprise ; but subsequent assurances that the President knew nothing of the dedica
tion, and that Mr. Jefferson " neither desired nor expected" to have the note printed,
soon smoothed the ripple of dissatisfaction so far as the British government was con
cerned.3
The political and personal feud between Jefferson and Hamilton became more in
tense every hour. Freneau's United States Gazette, believed to be under the control
of the former, was filled with bitter denunciations of Hamilton and the leading meas
ures of the administration ; and Fenno's National Gazette, the supporter of the gov
ernment policy, was made spicy by Hamilton's vigorous retorts.4 The public mind
was greatly excited thereby, and Washington was compelled to perceive (as he did
with alarm and mortification) that there was a schism in his Cabinet, which threat
ened to be destructive of all harmony of action, and perilous to the public good. He
anxiously sought to end the strife by assuming the holy office of peace-maker, but in
of government in opposition to his desire of subverting it, to make way for a king, Lords, and Commons. There are
high names here in favor of this doctrine . . . Adams, Jay, Hamilton, Knox, and many of the Cincinnati. The second
says nothing ; the third is open. Both are dangerous. They pant after union with England, as the p(^ver which is to
support their projects, and are most determined Anti-Gallicans. It is prognosticated that our republic is to end with
the President's life ; but I believe they will find themselves all head and no body."
1 " You will have heard," Mr. Jefferson wrote to Edward Rutledge in August, 1791, "before this reaches you, of the
peril into which the French Eevolution is brought by the flight of their king. Such are the fruits of that form of gov
ernment which heaps importance on idiots, and which the Tories of the present day are trying to preach into our favor.
I still hope the French Revolution will issue happily. I feel that the permanence of our own leans in some degree on
that, and that a failure there would be a powerful argument to prove that there must be a failure here."
2 See note 1, page G3.
3 The political sentiments of Paine's Rights of Man were in accordance with the feelings and opinions of the great
body of the American people. The author sent fifty copies to Washington, who distributed them among his friends.
His official position cautioned him to be prudently silent concerning the work. Richard Henry Lee, to whom Washing
ton gave a copy, said, in his letter acknowledging the favor, " It is a performance of which any man might be proud ;
and I most sincerely regret that our country could not have offered sufficient inducements to have retained, as a perma
nent citizen, a man so thoroughly republican in sentiment and fearless in the expression of his opinions." See Lossing's
Home of Washington, or Mount Vernon and its Associations, p. 262.
The note alluded to in the text was from Mr. Jefferson to a stranger to him (Jonathan Bayard Smith), to whom the
owner of Paine's pamphlet, who lent it to the Secretary of State, desired him to send it. " To take off a little of the
dryness of the note," Mr. Jefferson made some complimentary observations concerning the pamphlet, and expressed
his satisfaction that something public would be said, by its publication, " against the political heresies which had lately
sprung up." To the astonishment of Mr. Jefferson, this private note was printed with the pamphlet the next week.
Mr. Jefferson acknowledged that his remarks in it were aimed at the author of the Discourses on Davila, and the affair
produced a temporary estrangement between him and Mr. Adams.
Warm discussions arose, soon after the publication of Paine's pamphlet, on the doctrines which it promulgated. A
series of articles in reply to the "Rights of Man" appeared in the Boston Centinel, over the signature of PuUicola, which
were attributed to John Adams, and were reprinted in London, in pamphlet form, with his name on the title - page.
They were written by his son, the late John Quincy Adams. They were answered by several writers. "A host of
champions," Jefferson wrote to Paine, "entered the arena immediately in your defense."
* Philip Freneau, a poet of some pretensions, and a warm Whig writer during the Revolution, was called from New
York, where he was editing a newspaper, to fill the post of translating clerk in the State Department under Mr. Jeffer
son. A new paper, called The National Gazette, opposed to the leading measures of the administration, was started, and
Freneau was made its editor. It was understood to be Mr. Jefferson's " organ," but it would be both ungenerous and
unjust to believe that the bitter attacks made upon all the measures of the administration were approved by Mr. Jeffer
son ; yet, when the Secretary well knew that the President, whom he professed to revere, was greatly hurt and annoyed
by them, it was, as Mr. Irving justly remarks (Life of Washington, v., 164), "rather an ungracious determination to keep
the barking cur in his employ." Fenno published the United States Gazette, the supporter of the measures of the admin
istration.
72 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Federalists and Republicans. Their Differences. Popular Sentiment. Europe against France.
vain.1 The antagonisms of the Secretaries had become too violent to be easily recon
ciled. Their partisans were numerous and powerful, and had become arranged in
tangible battle order, under the respective names of Federalists and Republicans —
names which for many years were significant of opposing opinions : first, concerning
the administration of the national government; secondly, on the question of a neutral
policy toward the warring nations of Europe ; and, thirdly, on the subject of the war
with Great Britain declared in 1812.
The Federalists, called the " British party" by their opponents, were in favor of a
strong central government, and were very conservative. They were in favor of main
taining a strict neutrality concerning the affairs of European nations during the ex
citing period of Washington's administration, and were opposed to the War of 1812.
The Republicans, called the " French party," were favorable to a strong people and a
weak government, sympathized warmly with the French revolutionists, and urged
the government to do the same by public expressions and belligerent acts if necessary,
and were favorable to the War of 1812 when it became an apparent national neces
sity. Federal and Republican were the distinctive names of the two great political
parties in the United States during the first quarter of a century of the national ex
istence, when they disappeared from the politician's vocabulary. New issues, grow
ing out of radical changes in the condition of the country, produced coalitions and
amalgamations by which the identity of the two old parties was speedily lost.
The zeal of the opposing parties was intensified by events in Europe during the
summer and autumn of 1792 ; and at the opening of the last session of the second Con
gress, in November, the party divisions were perfectly distinct in that body.
All Europe was now effervescing with antagonistic ideas. The best and wisest
men stood in wonder and awe in the midst of the upheaval of old social and political
systems. Popular sentiment in the United States was mixed in character, and yet
crude in form, and for a while it was difficult to discern precisely in what relation it
stood to the disturbed nationalities of Europe. The blood of nearly all of them
coursed in the veins of the Americans ; and notwithstanding a broad ocean, and per
haps more than a generation of time, separated the most of them from the Old World,
they experienced lingering memories or pleasant dreams of Fatherland.
France, the old ally and friend of the United States, was the centre of the volcanic
force that was shaking the nations. The potentates of Europe, trembling for the
stability of their thrones, instinctively arrayed themselves as the implacable enemies
of the new power that held the sceptre of France, and disturbed the political and
dynastic equilibrium. They called out their legions for self-defense and to utter a
solemn protest. The people were overawed by demonstrations of power. The gleam
of bayonets and the roll of the drum met the eye and. ear every where, and in the
autumn of 1792 nearly all Europe was rising in arms against France.
Revolution had done its work nobly, wisely, and successfully in the United States,
and the experiment of self-government was working well. The memory of French
arms, and men, and money that came to their aid in their struggle for liberty, filled
the hearts of the Americans with gratitude, for they were not, as a people, aware of
• August 23 l Botl1 mmisters. discharged their respective duties to the entire satisfaction of the President, and he
1792. ' ' felt greatly disturbed by their antagonisms, now become public. To Jefferson he wrote," after referring
to the Indian hostilities, and the possible intrigues of foreigners to check the prosperity of the United
States, " How unfortunate, and how much to be regretted is it, that while we are encompassed on all sides by armed en
emies and insidious friends, internal dissensions should be harrowing and tearing our yitals. . . . My earnest wish and
my fondest hope, therefore, is that, instead of wounding suspicions and irritating charges, there may be liberal allow
ances, mutual forbearances, and temporizing yieldings on all sides. Under the exercise of these, matters will go on
smoothly, and, if possible, more prosperously. Without them, every thing must rub ; the wheels of government will
clog, our enemies will triumph, and, by throwing their weight into the disaffected scale, may accomplish the ruin of the
goodly fabric we have been erecting."
Washington wrote to Hamilton in a similar strain, and from both he received patriotic replies. But the feud was too
deep-seated to be healed. Jefferson would yield nothing. He harbored an implacable hatred of Hamilton, whom he
had scourged into active retaliation, and whose lash he felt most keenly.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 73
Washington's Wisdom and Prudence. Sympathy with the French Revolutionists. Anarchy in France.
the utterly selfish motive of the Bourbon in giving that aid, and how little it had
really contributed to their success in that struggle ; and their own zeal for freedom,
while enjoying the fruition of their efforts, awakened their warmest sympathies for
those yet in the toils of slavery. Without inquiring, they cheered on the people of
France, who were first led by the beloved Lafayette ; and with corresponding de
testation, heightened by the memory of old wrongs and the irritations of present un
friendliness, they saw Great Britain, so boastful of liberty, arrayed against the French
people in their professed struggle for the establishment of a constitutional govern
ment like that of England.
But there were wise, and thoughtful, and prudent men in the United States and in
Great Britain, who had made the science of government their study and human nature
their daily reading, who clearly perceived the vast difference between the revolutions
in America and France, and thought they observed in the latter no hope for the real
benefit and prosperity of the people. These, in the United States, formed the leaders
of the Federal or conservative party. Washington had hailed with great satisfaction
the dawning of what he hoped to be the day of liberty in France, but, from the begin
ning, his own sagacity, and the gloomy forebodings manifested by Lafayette from time
to time in his letters, made him doubtful of the success of the movement. He often
expressed an earnest wish that republicanism might be established in France, but
never breathed a hope, because he never felt it. And when, in the summer of 179?,
he perceived the bloody and ferocious character of the French Revolution, and the
departure of its course from the high and honorable path marked out for it by Lafay
ette and his compatriots, he and the conservative party, then fortunately holding the
reins of executive and legislative power, resolved that the government of the United
States should stand aloof from all entanglements with European politics.
Jefferson and his party, on the other hand, deeply sympathized with the French
revolutionists, and bore intense enmity toward Great Britain. They were greater in
numbers than the Federalists, and their warfare was relentless. They denounced
every man and measure opposed to their own views with a fierceness and lack of
generosity that appears almost incredible, and they shut their ears to the howling of
that lawless violence that had commenced drenching, the soil of France in blood.
Even the dispatches of government agents abroad were sneered at as instruments of
needless alarm, if not something worse.1
But " the inexorable logic of events" soon revealed to the people of the United
States those terrible aspects of the French Revolution which made them for a mo
ment recoil with horror. Anarchy had seized unhappy France, and the ferocious Jac
obin Club reigned supreme in Paris. They were the enemies of the king and Consti
tution, and were determined to overthrow both. Incited by them, the populace of
Paris, one hundred thousand in number, professedly incensed because the king had
refused to sanction a decree of the National Assembly against the priesthood, and
another for the establishment of a camp of twenty thousand men near Paris, marched
to the Tuileriesa with pikes, swords, muskets, and artillery, and demanded . Jnne 20)
entrance. The gates were thrown open, and forty thousand armed men,
many of them the vilest sans-culottes of the streets of Paris, went through the palace,
and compelled the king, in the presence of his family, to put the bonnet rouge, or red
cap of liberty, upon his head. .
Lafayette was then at the head of his army at Maubeuge, a fortified town in the
Department of the North. He hastened to Paris, presented himself at the bar of the
1 Gouverneur Morris, who had been appointed minister to France after Jefferson left, kept Washington continually
informed of the scenes of anarchy and licentiousness in the French capital, and presented gloomy prognostications re
specting the future of that country. Because of this faithfulness, and his testimony against the tendency of the French
Revolution, Mr. Jefferson, in his blind devotion to that cause, and his ungenerous judgment concerning all who differed
from him, spoke of Morris as " as a high-flying monarchy-man, shutting his eyes and his faith to every fact against hie
wishes, and believing every thing he desired to be true."
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Lafayette before the National Assembly.
He demands the Punishment of Traitors.
French Paper-money.
RECOMPENSE
LB DEXONCIATETTR .
! i
National Assembly, and in the name of the army demanded the punishment of those
who had insulted the king and his family in the palace and violated the Constitution.
But Lafayette was powerless. Paris was drunk with passion and unrestrained license.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 75
Monarchy in France overthrown. Lafayette imprisoned. The National Convention established.
The doom of royalty was decreed. The populace and members of the Assembly de
manded the deposition of Louis. The sittings of the Assembly were declared perma
nent until order should be restored. At midnight* the dreadful tocsin, or . August 9,
alarm-bell, was sounded, and the drums beat the generate in every direc
tion. The streets were filled with the mad populace, and in the morning the Tuileries
were attacked by them. The king, attended by the Swiss Guard, fled to the National
Assembly for protection. Nearly every man of the guard was butchered. The mon
arch escaped unhurt, but the overawed Assembly decreed the suspension of the royal
authority.1 Monarchy in France was virtually overthrown, and with it fell Lafayette
and the constitutional party. The Jacobins of the Assembly procured a decree for
the arrest of the marquis. He and a few friends turned their faces toward Holland
as a temporary refuge from the storm until they could escape to the United States.
They were arrested on the way, and for three years Lafayette was entombed in an
Austrian dungeon at Olmutz, while pretended republicans, with bloody hands, were
holding the uncertain and slippery reins of anarchical power in his beloved France.
The Jacobins were not satisfied with the suspension of the king's authority. They
felt unsafe while he lived. They conspired against his life and the lives of all who
might s^ftnpathize with him. They filled the prisons with priests and nobles, and
other suspected persons. These men were dangerous while their pulses beat health
ily. Their prisons became human slaughter-houses. Thither the demoniac
populace were sent on the evening of the 2d of September,15 and before the
dawn, at least eighteen hundred persons were slain !
The conspirators now took bolder steps. They abolished the Constituent Assem
bly, and constituted themselves a National Convention. The Hall of the Tuileries
was their meeting-place, and there, in the palace of the kings, they assumed the ex
ecutive powers of government. They decreed the abolition of royalty, and proclaimed
France a republic.0 With wonderful energy they devised and put in e September 23,
motion schemes of conquest and propagandism. They assumed to be
the deliverers of the people of Europe from kingly rule. Frontier armies, with the
aid of paper-money alone,2 were speedily put in motion to execute the decree of Dan-
ton and his fellow-regicides that " there must be no more kings in Europe." They
invaded Belgium and Savoy, and conquered Austrian Netherlands. At the sound
of the Marseilles Hymn, sung by these knights-errant of the new chivalry, the people
flocked to the standards of revolt.3
1 The king wrote a touching letter to his brother, dated " August 12, 1792, seven o'clock in the morning." The follow
ing is a copy :
"My brother, I am no longer king ; the public voice will make known to you the most cruel catastrophe. I am the
most unfortunate of husbands and of fathers. I am the victim of my own goodness, of fear, of hope. It is an impene
trable mystery of iniquity. They have bereaved me of every thing. They have massacred my faithful subjects. I have
been decoyed by stratagem far from my palace, and they now accuse me ! I am a captive. They drag me to prison, and
the queen, my children, and Madame Elizabeth [his sister] share my fate.
"I can no longer doubt that I am an object odious in the eyes of the French, led astray by prejudice. This is the
stroke which is most insupportable. My brother, but a little while, and I shall exist no longer. Remember to avenge
my memory by publishing how much I loved this ungrateful people. Recall one day to their remembrance the wrongs
they have done me, and tell them I forgave. Adieu, my brother, for the last time."
This letter was sent in a bit of bread to a friend of the king. It was intercepted, and never reached his brother. —
Correspondence of Louis XVI., translated by HELEN MAEIA WILLIAMS, iii., 45.
2 This paper-money, a specimen of which is given on page 74, was called Assignat. It was first issued in 1789, and the
basis for its credit was the property of the clergy and the emigrants, which the government had seized, and which was
intended for sale. For three years it held a market value of over ninety per cent., but in 1792 it began to depreciate, and,
like our own Continental money, soon became worthless. The first issue was to the amount of about $200,000,000. The
amount that was finally put in circulation was about $1,750,000,000. This paper-money, which for a season played so
important a part in the history of the world, was productive of the greatest evils. Specimens of it are now rarely to be
found. The engraving represents one in the author's possession.
3 In the National Convention, on the 28th of September, Danton declared, amid the loud applauses of the assembly,
that " the principle of leaving conquered peoples and countries the right of choosing their own constitutions ought to be
so far modified that we should expressly forbid them to give themselves kings. There must be no more kings in Europe.
One king would be sufficient to endanger general liberty; and I request that a committee be established for the purpose of
promoting a general insurrection among all people against kings." They thus made a distinction between the monarchs
and the people, and professed to be the deliverers of the latter. The Revolution Clubs of England affiliated with them
in sentiment, and Dr. Priestley and Thomas Paine were elected members of the National Convention. Priestley de-
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Egotism of the French Revolutionists.
Paine in France.
Execution of Louis XVI.
Success gave the revolu
tionists prestige, and, with
egotism unparalleled, the
National Convention, by
acclamation, declared that,
" in the name of the French
nation, they would grant
fraternity and assistance to
all those peoples who wish
ed to procure liberty ;" and
they charged the executive
power " to send orders to the
generals to give assistance
to such people, and to de
fend citizens who had suffer-
ed, and were then suffering
in the cause of liberty."
The revolutionists, flush
ed with victories, and em
boldened by the obedi
ence which their reign of
terror inspired, soon exe
cuted a long - cherished
plan of the Jacobins, and
murdered their king in the
presence of his subjects.1
They declared war against
England and Hoi- ,F b <
land,a and soon af- 1793. '
terward against i>Marcn
Spain,b and with r-
the battle-cry of "Liberty
and Equality" they de
fied all Europe. For a
moment England was alarmed, for she had numerous enemies in her own household,
and the civilized world looked upon the sanguinary tragedy on the Gallic stage with
dismay and horror.
The contagion of that bloody Revolution had so poisoned the circulation of the
social and political system of the United States, that, strange as it may appear to us,
when the proclamation of the French Republic, with all its attendant horrors of
August and September, was made known here, followed speedily by intelligence of
vJ
clined, but Paine accepted, went over to France, and
took his seat in that blood-thirsty assembly. This call
ed forth squibs and caricatures in abundance. In one
of the latter, entitled "Fashion for Ease; or, a Good
Constitution sacrificed for a Fantastic Form," Paine is
represented fitting Britannia with a new pair of stays, in
allusion to the occupation of his early life. Over a cottage
door on one side was a sign. " Thomas Paine, Stay-maker,
from Thetford. Paris Modes by Express." Paine never
ventured to return to England. His popularity in France
was brief. In the National Convention he offended the
ferocious Jacobius by advocating leniency toward the
king. He incurred their hatred, and Robespierre and
his associates cast him into prison, where he composed
his " Age of Reason." He was saved frojn the guillotine
by accident, escaped to the United States, and spent
much of his time there, until his death, in coarse abuse
of men and measures in that country and England.
1 They went through the farce of a trial. The king
was accused of treason to the people and the Constitu
tion, and was found guilty, of course. Weak in intellect,
and dissipated in habits as he was, Louis was innocent
of the crimes alleged against him. He was beheaded by
the guillotine. When standing before the instrument of death, and looking upon the people with benignity, he said,
"I forgive my enemies ; may God forgive them, and not lay my innocent blood to the charge of the nation ! God bless
my people !" He was cut short by an order to beat the drums and sound the trumpets, when the brutal officer in
charge called out to him, " No speeches ! come, no speeches I"
The death of Louis was sincerely mourned. He was weak, but not
wicked. He was an amiable man, and loved his country. His friends
dared not make any public demonstrations of grief, or even of attach
ment. A small commemorative medal of brass was struck, and secretly
circulated. These were cherished by the Loyalists for a generation with
great affection. On one side is a head of Louis, with the usual inscrip
tion — I.UD. xvi. REX GALL. DEI GRATIA. On the other side is a memo
rial urn, with "LOUIS xvi." upon it, and a fallen crown and sceptre at
its base. Beneath is the date of his death, and over it the significant
words, SOL REGNI ABUT— "The sun of the kingdom has departed." The
engraving is from a copy in the author's possession.*
MEMORIAL MEDAL.
* Louis was born on the 23d of March, 1754, and in 1TTO married Maria
Antoinette, of Austria. He ascended the throne of France, on the death of his grandfather, in 1774.
PAINE FITTING STAYS.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
Forgetfulness of Holland's Friendship. Arrival of " Citizen Genet." Washington's Wisdom and Prudence.
the conquest of Austrian Netherlands by a French army, there was an outburst of
popular feeling in favor of the Gallic cause that seemed to be almost universal.
They were blind to the total difference between their own Revolution and that in
France. They were forgetful of the friendship of Holland during that struggle — a
friendship far more sincere than that of the French ; forgetful also of the spirit of
true liberty which for centuries had prevailed in Holland, and made it an asylum for
the persecuted for conscience' sake in all lands ; and the people in several towns and
cities celebrated these events with demonstrations of great joy.1 With a similar
spirit the death of the French king was hailed by the leaders of the Republican party
in the United States ; and the declaration of war against England and Holland by
France awakened a most remarkable enthusiasm in favor of the old ally of the Amer
icans, aroused old hatreds toward England, and called loudly for compliance with the
letter and spirit of the treaty of 1778. 2
These demonstrations were soon followed by the arrival of" Citizen Genet," as he
was styled,3 as minister of the French Republic to the United States. He came in a
frigate, and landed at Charleston, South Carolina, early in April. His reception there
was all that his ambition could have demanded ; and his journey of three or four
weeks by land from there to Philadelphia, the national capital, was a continued ova-
tion. He was a man of culture and tact, spoke the English language fluently, and
was frank, lively, and communicative. He was precisely the man for his peculiar
mission. He mingled familiarly with the people, proclaimed wild and stirring doc
trines, scorned all diplomatic art and reserve, and assured the citizens of the United
States of the unbounded affection of his countrymen for the Americans. The Repub
lican leaders hailed his advent with delight ; and a large portion of the people were
favorable to immediate and active participation by their government with France in
its impending struggle against armed Europe. Many, in the wild enthusiasm of the
moment, would not have hesitated an instant in precipitating their country into a war
that might have proved its utter ruin.
It was fortunate for the country that a man like "Washington, and his wise coun
selors, were at the helm and halliards of the vessel of state at that time, and endowed
with courage sufficient to meet the dangerous popular gale. When intelligence of
the declaration of war between France and other nations reached him, the President
was at Mount Vemon. He had no confidence in the self-constituted rulers of France
or their system of government. " They are ready to tear each other in pieces," he
wrote to Governor Lee, of Virginia, " and will, more than probably, prove the worst
foes the country has."
Perceiving the proclivity of the public mind in his own country, the President felt
great anxiety, and he made immediate preparations to arrest, as far as possible, the
terrible evils which a free course of the popular sympathy for the French might have.
1 There was a grand fi-te held in Boston on the 24th of January, 1793. An ox was roasted whole. It was then deco
rated with ribbons, and placed upon a car drawn by sixteen horses. The flags of the United States and France were
displayed from the horns of the ox. It was paraded through the streets, followed by carts bearing sixteen hundred
loaves of bread and two hogsheads of punch. These were distributed among the people ; and at the same time a party
of three hundred, with Samuel Adams, then Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts, at their head, assisted by the French
consul, sat down to a dinner in Faneuil Hall. To the children of all the schools, who were paraded in the streets, cakes
were presented, stamped with the words "Liberty and Equality." By public subscription, the sums owed by prisoners
in the jail for debt were paid, and the victims of that barbarous law were set free. In Philadelphia the anniversary of
the French alliance, mentioned in the subjoined note, was commemorated by a public dinner. Governor (late General)
Mifflin presided. At the head of the table a pike was fixed, bearing upon its point the bonnet rouge, with the French and
American flags intertwined in festoons, and the whole surmounted by a dove and olive branch.
2 A treaty of alliance, friendship, and commerce was entered into by the United States and France on the 6th of Feb
ruary, 17TS, by which the former was bound to guarantee the French possessions in America ; and by a treaty of com
merce executed at the same time, French privateers and prizes were entitled to shelter in the American ports, while
those of the enemies of France should be excluded.— See Article XVII. of the Treaty.
3 The French Jacobins affected the simplicity of the republics of Greece and Rome. All titles were abolished, and
the term citizen was universally applied to men. When the king was spoken of, his family name of Capet was used.
He was called "Citizen Capet" or " Louis Capet." They affected to regard liberty as a divinity, and a courtesan, in the
conventional costume of that divinity, was paraded in a car through the streets as the Goddess of Liberty.
78 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Washington's Proclamation of Neutrality. Assaults upon it and its Author.
• April 12, He senta a most unwelcome letter to the Secretary of State. " War," he
1T93. Wrote, " having actually commenced between France and Great Britain, it
behooves the government of this country to use every means in its power to prevent
the citizens thereof from embroiling us with either of those powers, by endeavoring
to maintain a strict neutrality." He required Mr. Jefferson to give the subject his
careful thought, and lay his views before him on his arrival in Philadelphia. A sim
ilar letter was sent to the head of every other department.
Washington reached Philadelphia on the 17th of April, and on the 19th held a
Cabinet council. It was agreed that the President should issue a proclamation of
neutrality, warning citizens of the United States not to take part in the kindling war.
At the same meeting it was agreed that the minister of the French Republic should
be received.1
The President's proclamation of neutrality was issued on the 22d of April, and was
assailed with the greatest vehemence by the " French party," as the Republicans
were called. Reverence for the President's character and position was forgotten in
the storm of passion that ensued. The proclamation was styled a " royal edict," a
" daring and unwarrantable assumption of executive power," and was pointed at as
an open' manifestation by the President and his political friends of partiality for En
gland, a bitter foe, and hostility to France, a warm friend and ancient ally. It is fair
to infer, from the tone of his private letters at that time, that the Secretary of State
(who voted very reluctantly in the Cabinet for the proclamation), governed by his
almost fanatical hatred of Hamilton, and his sympathies with the French regicides,
secretly promoted a public feeling hostile to the administration.2
1 The following is a copy of the President's proclamation :
"Whereas it appears that a state of war exists between Austria, Prussia, Sardinia, Great Britain, and the United Neth
erlands on the one part, and France on the other, and the duty and interests of the United States require that they
should, with sincerity and good faith, adopt and pursue a conduct friendly and impartial toward the belligerent powers :
"I have therefore thought fit, by these presents, to declare the disposition of the United States to observe the conduct
aforesaid toward those powers respectively, and to exhort and to warn the citizens of the United States carefully to
avoid all acts and proceedings whatsoever which may ia any manner tend to contravene such disposition.
"And I do hereby make known, that whosoever of the citizens of the United States shall render himself liable to pun
ishment or forfeiture under the law of nations, by committing, aiding, or abetting hostilities against any of the said
powers, or by carrying to any of them those articles which are deemed contraband by the modern usage of nations, will
not receive the protection of the United States against such punishment or forfeiture ; and farther, that I have given
instructions to those officers to whom it belongs to cause prosecutions to be instituted against all persons who shall,
within the cognizance of the courts of the United States, violate the laws of nations with respect to the powers at war,
or any one of them. In testimony whereof, etc., etc. Signed, GEORGE WASHINGTON."
2 It is an unpleasant duty to arraign men whom the nation delights to honor as tried patriots, on a charge of com
plicity with those who at one time would have wrecked the government upon the rocks of anarchy, not designedly, per
haps, but nevertheless effectually. But historic truth sometimes demands it, as in the case before us. Mr. Jefferson
was openly opposed to the policy of Washington's administration. This was manly. But it was not manly to be a
covert enemy. He always denied any complicity with Freneau, his translating clerk, in his coarse abuse of Washington
and his political friends, while Jefferson was Secretary of State ; but the very minutes made by Mr. Jefferson himself,
and printed in his Anas, sufficiently indicate his relative position to Freneau at that time. He says that at a Cabinet
council Washington spoke harshly of Freneau, who impudently sent him three copies of his paper every day, filled with
abuse of the administration. " He could see nothing in it," Jefferson recorded, " but an impudent design to insult him :
he ended in a high tone." Again Jefferson says, " He [the President] adverted to a piece in Freneau's paper of yester
day. He said he despised all their attacks on him personally, but that there had never been an act of the government,
not meaning in the executive line only, but in any line, which that paper had not abused. ... He was evidently sore
and warm, and I took his intention to be, that I should interpose in some way with Freneau, perhaps withdraw his ap
pointment of translating clerk in my office. But I will not do it. His paper has saved our Constitution, which was gal
loping fast into monarchy, and has been checked by no one means so powerfully as by that paper. It is well and uni
versally known that it has been that paper which has checked the career of the monocrats." — Memoir and Correspond
ence of Jefferson, London edition, iv., 497. But the evidence against Mr. Jefferson in this matter is not entirely circum
stantial. The late Dr. John W. Francis, of New York, who was Freneau's physician in the latter years of his life,
informed the author that it was one of the most poignant griefs of that journalist that he had seemed to be an enemy
of Washington. He assured Dr. Francis that the National Gazette was entirely under the control of Mr. Jefferson, and
that the Secretary dictated or wrote the most violent attacks on Washington and his political friends. The only excuse for
the conduct of Mr. Jefferson at that time is political monomania.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 79
Genet's Reception in South Carolina. Privateers commissioned. Arrival and Reception of one of them at Philadelphia.
CHAPTER IV.
11 While France her huge limbs bathes recumbent in blood,
And society's base threats with wide desolation,
' May Peace, like the dove who returned from the flood,
Find an ark of abode in our mild Constitution.
But though peace is our aim,
Yet the boon we disclaim
If bought by our Sovereignty, Justice, or Fame ;
For ne'er shall the sous of Columbia be slaves
While the earth bears a plant, or the sea rolls its waves."
ROBEKT TREAT PAINE.
HE wisdom and timeliness of "Washington's proclamation of neu
trality was soon made manifest. Genet came with blank com
missions for naval and military service, and proceeded to fit out
two privateers at Charleston. He was also empowered to give
authority to every French consul in the United States to consti
tute himself a court of admiralty, to dispose of prizes captured by
French cruisers and brought into American ports. In defiance
of the proclamation, his privateers, manned principally by American citizens, sailed
from Charleston, with the consent and good wishes of the governor and citizens, to
depredate on British commerce.1
One of these privateers was U Embuscade, the frigate that brought Genet to our
shores. She went prowling up the coast, seizing several vessels, and at last captured
a fine British merchantman, named The Grange, within the Capes of the Delaware,
when she proceeded to Philadelphia in triumphant attitude.a Her arrival ajiays,
was greeted by a great assemblage of people on the brink of the river. 1793-
" When the British colors Avere seen reversed," Jefferson wrote to Madison, " and the
French flying above them, the people burst into peals of exultation." Upon her head,
her foremast, and her stern, liberty-caps were conspicuous ; and from her masts float
ed white burgees, with words that echoed the egotistic proclamation of the French
National Convention.2
UEmbuscade was the precursor of the French minister, who arrived at Philadel
phia fourteen days later.b According to preconcert, a number of citizens
met him at the Schuylkill and escorted him to the city, in the midst of the
roar of cannon and the ringing of bells. There he received addresses from societies
and the citizens at large ; and so anxious were his admirers to pay homage to their
idol, that he was invited to a public dinner before he pjesented his credentials to the
President of the United States !
At that presentation, which occurred on the 19th,cthe minister's pride was
touched, and his hopeful ardor was chilled. He found himself in an atmos-
1 General William Moultrie, the heroic patriot of the Revolution, was then Governor of South Carolina. A wit of the
day wrote :
" On that blest day when first we came to land,
Great Mr. Moultrie took us by the hand ;
Surveyed the ships, admired the motley crew,
And o'er the envoy friendship's mantle threw;
Received the sans-culotte with soft embrace,
And bade him welcome with the kindliest grace."
5 From her foremast were displayed the words, " Enemies of equality, reform or tremble ;" from her mainmast,
" Freemen, we are your friends and brethren ;" from the mizzen-mast, " We are armed for the defense of the rights of
man." L'Embuecade saluted the vast crowd with fifteen guns, and was responded to on shore by cheers, and gun for gun.
80 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Genet in the Presence of Washington. His Reception by his Political Friends. Democratic Societies
phere of the most profound dignity in the presence of Washington ; and he was made
to realize his own littleness while standing before that noble representative of the best
men and the soundest principles of the American Republic. He withdrew from the
audience abashed and subdued. He had heard sentiments of sincere regard for the
French nation that touched the sensibilities of his heart, and he had felt, in the genu
ine courtesy and severe simplicity and frankness of the President's manner, wholly
free from effervescent enthusiasm, a withering rebuke, not only of the adulators in
public places, but also of his own pretentious aspirations and ungenerous duplicity.1
Genet affected to be shocked by the evidences of monarchical sympathies in the
President's house.2 He was supremely happy when he was permitted to escape
from the frigidity of truth, virtue, and dignity into the fervid atmosphere of a ban-
• May 23, quet-hall filled with his " friends.'"1 There his ears were greeted with the
1793. stirring Marseilles Hymn, an ode in French, composed for the occasion,3 and
toasts brimful of " Liberty and Equality." There his eyes were delighted with a
" tree of liberty" upon the table, and the flags of the two nations in fraternal enfold-
ings. There his heart was made glad by having the red cap of liberty placed upon
his own head first, and then upon the head of each guest, while the wearer, under the
inspiration of its symbolism —
" That sacred Cap, which fools in order sped
In grand rotation, round from head to head"—
uttered some patriotic sentiment. There his hopes of success were made to bud anew
as he saw the officers and sailors of the privateer receive a " fraternal embrace" from
each guest, and bear away to the robber the flags of the two nations amid the cheers
of the convivialists.
Genet's presence intensified the party spirit of the Republicans. "Democratic
Societies," in imitation of the Jacobin Clubs of France, were formed, secret in their
proceedings, and disloyal in the extreme in their practice at that time. In servile
imitation of their prototypes, they adopted the peculiar phrases of the populace of
Paris ;4 and a powerful faction was soon visible, more French than American in their
habits of thought and political principles. By some strange infatuation, sensible and
patriotic men were drawn into the toils of the charmer, and they sanctioned and par
ticipated in scenes which composed a most astounding and humiliating farce.5
1 Genet's address to Washington was full of friendly professions. "It was impossible," Jefferson wrote to Madison,
"for any thing to be more affectionate, more magnanimous than the purport of Genet's mission. . . . He offers every
thing, and asks nothing." And yet, while making these professions, he had secret instructions in his pocket to foment
discord between the United States and Great Britain, and to set the American government at defiance, if necessary, in
the execution of his designs. He had already openly insulted that government by his acts at Charleston— a city which,
on that occasion as on subsequent ones, earned the " bad eminence" of standing alone in the attitude of disloyalty to
the national government.
2 He was " astonished and indignant" at seeing a bust of Louis XVI. in the vestibule, and complained of it to his
"friends" as an "insult to France." He was equally "astonished" by discovering in the President's parlor "certain
medallions of Capet and his family ;" and he was " shocked to learn" that the Marquis De Noailles (a relative of Madame
Lafayette) and other emigrant Frenchmen had lately been admitted to the presence of Washington. Indeed he found
most things disagreeable outside of the farmed circle of his "friends."
3 This was written by " Citizen Duponceau," of Philadelphia, a worthy French gentleman, who came to America with
the Baron De Steuben, and was for many years a distinguished citizen of Pennsylvania. The ode was translated into
English at the table by Freneau, the translating clerk of the Secretary of State, and then sung again.
* "The title of citizen," says Griswold, "became as common in Philadelphia as in Paris, and in the newspapers it was
the fashion to announce marriages as partnerships between Citizen Brown, Smith, or Jones and the citess who had been
wooed to such an association."— Republican Court, p. 350.
5 " At a dinner at which Governor Mifflin was present, a roasted pig receive'd the name of the murdered French king,
and the head, severed from the body, was carried round to each of the guests, who, after placing the liberty-cap on his
own head, pronounced the word ' tyrant,' and proceeded to mangle with his knife that of the luckless creature doomed
to be served for so unworthy a company. One of the Democratic taverns displayed as a sign a revolting picture of the
mutilated and bloody corpse of Marie Antoinette."*— Republican Court, p. 350. Strange as it may seem, Jefferson was so
influenced by his prejudices at that time that he shut his eyes, apparently, to all passing events, and could write to Mad-
* Marie Antoinette, the unhappy queen of Louis XVI., became the victim of Jacobin malignity, and was beheaded on
the 16th of October, 1793. She was a daughter of the Emperor of Austria, and is represented as a beautiful and accom
plished woman. Her murderers accused and convicted her of crimes of which they knew she was innocent. She was
taken to the scaffold on a cart. Her body was cast iuto the Magdalen church-yard, and immediately consumed with
quick-lime ! The fiends denied her a grave.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
81
Enthusiasm for the French Cause. The American and French Revolutions contrasted. Genet rebuked by Jefferson.
But the ludicrous picture of Genet's reception in Philadelphia was relieved by a
dignified act. On the day of his arrival in that city, an address, signed by three
hundred merchants and other substantial men of that city, in which was expressed
the soundest loyalty to the letter and spirit of his proclamation of neutrality, was pre
sented to President Washington.
Similar enthusiasm for the French cause was manifested in New York and a few
other places, but the citizens were never obnoxious to the charge of overt disloyalty
to the government. Although the Carmagnole1 was sung hourly in the streets, and
Democratic societies fanned the zeal for the Jacobin system of government into in
temperate heat, the citizens, as such, remained loyal to the Constitution and the laws.2
The government, unawed by the storm of passion that beat upon it, went steadily
forward in the path of right and duty. The Grange was restored to its British
owners, and the privateers were ordered to leave the American waters. Orders were
sent to the collectors of all the ports of the United States for the seizure of all vessels
fitted out as privateers, and to prevent the sale of any prizes captured by such ves
sels. Americans from one of the privateers fitted out at Charleston were arrested
and indicted for a violation of law ; and Chief Justice Jay declared it to be the duty
of grand, juries to present all persons guilty of such violation of the laws of nations
with respect to any of the belligerent powers.
These measures greatly irritated the French minister and his American partisans.
He protested ; and the Secretary of State, soon finding him to be a troublesome friend,
reiterated the opinions of the President, and plainly told him that, by commissioning
privateers, he had violated the sovereignty of the United States, and that it was ex
pected that The Genet and L1 Embusccide (the two privateers fitted out at Charleston)
would leave the American waters forthwith.
ison, after expressing his opinion that Genet's magnanimous offers would not be received, "It is evident that one or
two of the Cabinet [meaning Hamilton and Knox], at least, under pretense of avoiding war on the one side, have no
great antipathy to run foul of it on the other, and to make a part in the confederacy of princes against human liberty."
1 A dance, with singing, performed in the streets of Paris during the French Revolution. See page 60.
2 These societies and the newspapers in their interest attempted to deceive the people by comparing the French Rev
olution to their own, as equally justified and holy. Many, totally ignorant of the facts, believed ; but enlightenment and
better counsels kept their passions in check. The informed and thoughtful saw no just comparison between the two
Revolutions.
THB CONTRAST.
The aspect of dignity, decorum, gravity, order, and religious solemnity so conspicuous in the American Revolution
was wholly wanting in" that of the French. " When I find," Hamilton wrote to Washington, "the doctrines of atheism
openly advanced in the Convention, and heard with loud applauses : when I see the sword of fanaticism extended to
enforce a political creed upon citizens who were invited to submit to the arms of France as the harbingers of liberty :
when I behold the hand of rapacity outstretched to prostrate and ravish the monuments of religious worship erected by
those citizens and their ancestors ; when I perceive passion, tumult, and violence usurping those seats where reason
and cool deliberation ought to preside— I acknowledge that I am glad to believe there is no real resemblance between
what was the cause of America and what is the cause of France." The difference between American liberty and French
liberty was graphically illustrated by a print called The Contrast, of which our engraving is a reduced copy.
82
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Persistence of the French Minister.
His "Filibustering" Schemes.
His Attempt to create a Rebellion,
Genet, with offensive pertinacity, de
nounced this doctrine as contrary to
right, justice, and the law of nations,
and threatened "to appeal from the
President to the people." • The Re
publican papers sustained him in his
course.1 The Democratic societies be
came more bold and active ; and Genet,
mistaking the popular clamor in his fa
vor for the deliberate voice of the na
tion, actually undertook to fit out as a
privateer at Philadelphia, during the
absence of the President at Mount Ver-
non, under the very eyes of the national
government, a British vessel that had
been captured and brought in there by
E Embuscade, and which he named in
French The Little Democrat. Mifflin,
the Democratic Governor of Pennsyl-
vania, interfered, and threatened to
seize the vessel if Genet persisted in
his course. The minister refused to listen. Jefferson begged him to desist until the
return of the President. Genet spurned his kind words, and raved like a madman.
He declared his determination to send The Little Democrat to sea, complained that he
had been thwarted in all his undertakings by the government, denounced the Presi
dent as unfaithful to the wishes of the people, and resolved to press him to call the
Congress together to act upon the subjects in dispute.2
Genet's official and pmrate conduct became equally offensive ; and when, on Wash
ington's return to the seat of government, it was recited to him, his indignation was
aroused. "Is the minister of the French Republic to set the acts of the government
at defiance with impunity ?" he asked. His Cabinet answered No. Forbearance to
ward the insolent minister was no longer required by the most exacting courtesy,
and it was agreed in Cabinet comicil that the French government should be requested
to recall him because he was offensive to that of the United States. Jefferson had
become disgusted with him, and the tone of popular sentiment soon became more
sensible and patriotic. His reiterated threat of appealing from the President to the
people — in other words, to excite an insurrection for the purpose of overthrowing the
government — had shocked the national pride ; and many considerate Republicans,
1 A writer in Freneau's Gazette said, "I hope the minister of France will act with firmness and spirit. The people are
his friends, or the friends of France, and he will have nothing to apprehend ; for, as yet, the people are the sovereigns
of the United States. Too mtich complacency is an injury done to his cause ; for, as every advantage is already taken
of France (not by the people), farther condescension may lead to farther abuse. If one of the leading features of our
government is pusillanimity when the British lion shows his teeth, let France and her minister act as becomes the dig
nity of her cause, and the honor and faith of nations."
Frenean's paper, at that time, was assisted in its attacks upon the government by the General Advertiser (afterward
known as the Aurora), edited by B. F. Bache, a grandson of Dr. Franklin, who had been educated in France. It was
even more violent and abusive than its colleague, and even charged Washington with an intention of joining in the
league of kings and priests against the French Republic !
2 Genet was intrusted by his government with bolder schemes than the fitting out of privateers. He was to organize
what are called in our day " filibustering expeditions," on an extensive scale, against the Spanish dominions, the object
being no less than the seizure of Florida and New Orleans. An expedition against the former was to be organized in
South Carolina, and against the latter in Kentucky. The one in the Mississippi Valley was to be led by General George
Rogers Clarke, the conqueror of the Northwest, to whom was given the magniloquent title of "Major General in the
Armies of France, and Commander-in-chief of the French Revolutionary Legions on the Mississippi." Funds for car
rying on these expeditions were to be derived from the payment to the minister, by the United States, of a portion of the
national debt due to France. French emissaries were employed in South Carolina and Kentucky, and in the latter dis
trict, the public mind, irritated by the Spanish obstructions to the navigation of the Mississippi, was very favorable to
the movement. The failure of Genet's mission put an end to these schemes of conquest, not, however, until they had
produced annoying effects upon the national government.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
83
A Keaction.
Genet recalled.
His Successor.
Biographical Sketch of Genet.
who had been zealous
in the cause of the
Revolution in France,
paused while listening
to the audacious words
of a foreigner who pre
sumed to dictate the
course of conduct to
be pursued by the be
loved Washington.
The tide turned. Very
soon there were dem
onstrations through
out the Union of agree
ment with the procla
mation of neutrality,
which the partisans of
Genet never dreamed
of, and a strong and
irresistible reaction in
favor of the national
government speedily
manifested itself on
every hand.
Genet1 was recalled,
and M. Fouchet, a man
equally indiscreet, was
appointed his success
or. At the close of
the year, Mr. Jeffer
son, whose views of
French affairs had be
come much modified
by the course of events
at home and abroad,
left the Cabinet and
retired to private life,
much to the regret
of "Washington, who
found in him an able
minister of state. Jef
ferson was a patriot,
but, for several years,
his jealousy and ha
tred of Hamilton and
his friends made him
a political monoma
niac.
While the govern
ment of the United
States, unswayed by
the popular sentiment
in favor of France,
and national resent
ment against Great Britain, had hastened, on the breaking out of war between those
tw*> countries, to adopt a strictly neutral policy, thereby showing great magnanimity
and a conciliatory spirit toward the late enemy in the field, that enemy, inimical still,
was pursuing a selfish and ungenerous course, which the wisest and best men of En
gland deplored. Regardless of the opinions of Europe expressed in the treaty for an
armed neutrality in 1780,2she revived the rule of war laid down by herself alone in
1 Mr. Genet never returned to France. At about the time of his recall, a change of faction had taken place in his
country, and he thought it prudent not to return. He remained, married a daughter of George Clinton, Governor of the
State of New York, and became an ornament to American society. It is only of his official conduct, while the minister
of the French Jacobin government, that Americans have reason to complain of him. He was a man of eminent abili
ties. At the time of his arrival in the United Slates, he was a few months more than thirty years of age, having been
born in January, 1763. He was a precocious boy, and from childhood was engaged in public employments. He was
attached to the embassies at Berlin, Vienna, London, and St. Petersburg. Because of a spirited letter which he wrote
to the Emperor of Russia, indignantly protesting against his expulsion from his dominions after the death of Louis
XVI., he became a favorite of the French revolutionists. He was made adjutant general of the armies of France and
minister to Holland, and was employed iu revolutionizing Geneva and annexing it to France. He was finally sent to
America as minister and consul general. He was twice married. His second wife was the daughter of Mr. Osgood, the
first Postmaster General under the Constitution. He took great interest in agriculture, and his last illness was occa
sioned by his attendance at the meeting of an agricultural society of which he was president. He died at his seat on
Prospect Hill, near Greenbush, opposite Albany, on the 14th of July, 1S34.* One of his sisters was the celebrated Madame
Campan, and another was Madame Anguie, mother-in-law of the distinguished Marshal Ney. Mr. Genet often spoke of
the wisdom of Washington and his administration, the folly of his own countrymen at that time and of their admirers
in America, and rejoiced that the proclamation of neutrality defeated his wild schemes.
2 During the American Revolution the superior maritime power of Great Britain was able to damage the commerce
* Genet was buried in the grave-yard of the Reformed Dutch Church at Greenbush. Upon a plain marble tablet
placed over his remains is the following inscription :
" Under this humble stone are interred the remains of EDMUND CHARLES GENET, late Adjutant General, Minister Pleni
potentiary and Consul General from the French Republic to the United States of America. He was born at Versailles,
parish of St. Louis, in France, January 8, 1763, and died at Prospect Hill, town of Greenbush, July 14, 1834.
"Driven by the storms of the Revolution to the shades of retirement, he devoted his talents to his adopted country,
where he cherished the love of liberty and virtue. The pursuits of literature and science enlivened his peaceful solitude,
and he devoted his time to usefulness and benevolence. His last moments were like his life, an example of fortitude
and true Christian philosophy. His heart was love and friendship's sun, which has set on this transitory world, to rise
•with radiant splendor beyond the grave."
84 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
British "Rules" and Orders in Council. Their Injustice. The Armed Neutrality. Feeling in the United States.
1756,1 and first by a "provisional order in council," as it was called, issued in June,
• November 6 * 793,2 and then by another order in council, issued in November following,11
1793. anc[ secretly promulgated, she struck heavy blows at her antagonist, re
gardless of the fact that they fell almost as heavily upon those who favored her by
neutrality. Citizens of the United States were then carrying on an extensive trade
with the French West India Islands, whose ports had been opened to neutrals for the
same reasons as in 1756, and felt no apprehension of interference from any source.
But Great Britain had determined to again apply her starvation measures against her
old enemy, and a secret order in council was issued, and silently circulated among the
British cruisers, without the least notice or intimation to the American merchants,
directing all vessels engaged in trading with any colony of France to be taken into
British ports for adjudication in the courts of admiralty.'3
This lawless invasion of neutral rights, conducted secretly and treacherously, pros
trated at one blow a great portion of American commerce. The property of Amer
ican merchants to the amount of many millions of dollars was swept from the seas
into British ports and lost. This was regarded as little better than highway robbery,
judged by the law of nations and common justice.
When intelligence of this high-handed measure reached the United States, it pro
duced the hottest indignation throughout the land. Political strife instantly ceased,
and both parties were equally zealous in denunciations of the treachery and aggres
sions of Great Britain, for which she offered no other excuse than expediency, grow
ing out of her evident determination to maintain her boasted position of" mistress of
the seas," regardless of the rights of all the rest of the world. Congress was then in
session, and measures were proposed for retaliation, such as reprisals, embargoes, se-
of other European nations immensely. The British government revived the rule of 1750, below mentioned, and infringed
largely upon neutral commerce. To resist these encroachments, and to protect neutral maritime rights, Russia, Swe
den, Denmark, and Holland formed a treaty of alliance, which they denominated The Armed Neutrality, by which they
pledged themselves to support, at the hazard of war, if necessary, the following principles: 1. That it should be lawful
for any ships to sail freely from one port to another, or along the coast of the powers at war. 2. That all merchandise
and effects belonging to the subjects of the belligerent powers, and shipped in neutral bottoms, should be entirely free ;
that is, free ships make free goods. 3. That no place should be considered blockaded except the assailing power had
taken a station so as to expose to imminent danger any ship attempting to sail in or out of such ports. 4. That no neu
tral ships should be stopped without material and well-grounded cause ; and, in such cases, justice should be done them
without delay." The British navy triumphed over all opposition, the designs of the armed neutrality were defeated,
and Holland was made a party to the war with the Americans and France. A similar attempt to restrict the maritime
power of Great Britain was made in the year 1SOO, which resulted in the destruction of the Danish fleet before Copen
hagen in April, 1801. Soon after this The Armed Neutrality was dissolved, and the dominion of the seas was accorded
to England.
1 When the war between Great Britain and France was formally declared in 1756, the former power announced, as a
principle of national law, "that no other trade should be allowed to neutrals with the colonies of a belligerent in time
of war than what is allowed by the parent state in time of peace." This was in direct opposition to the law of nations
promulgated by Frederick the Great, of Prussia, namely, "the goods of an enemy can not be taken from on board the
ships of a friend ;" and also in direct violation of a treaty between England and Holland, in which it was stipulated ex
pressly that "free ships make free goods"— that the neutral should enter safely and unmolested all the harbors of the
belligerents, unless they were blockaded or besieged. England not only violated the treaty, but, having the might, ex
ercised the right of invading the sovereignty of Holland, and capturing its vessels whose cargoes might be useful for her
navy. This assumption— this dictation of law to the nations to suit her own selfish purposes— turned against England
the denunciations of the civilized world, and which for more than a century she has never ceased to receive. At that time
her "law" was aimed directly at France, then much the weaker naval power. Unable to maintain her accustomed
trade with her West India Islands, she opened their ports to neutrals. It was to destroy the trade by neutrals, so lucra
tive to them and so beneficial to France, that Great Britain introduced that new principle of national law.
2 This order, intended as a starvation measure against France, declared that all vessels laden wholly or in part with
breadstuff's, bound to any port of France, or places occupied by French armies, should be carried into England, and
their cargoes either disposed of there, or security given that they should be Bold only in ports of a country in friendship
with Great Britain. This order was issued on the 8th of June, 1793.
3 The following is a copy of the order : .
"George R. : Additional instructions to all ships of war, privateers, etc. :
"That they shall stop and detain all ships laden with goods the produce of any colony belonging to France, or con
veying provisions or other supplies for the use of such colonies ; and shall bring the same, with their cargoes, to legal
adjudication in our courts of admiralty. By his majesty's command. Signed, DUNDAS.
" November 6, 1793."
So secretly was this order issued that the first account of its existence reached the London Exchange with the details
of several captures which it authorized and occasioned. And Mr. Piuckney, the American minister, was unable to pro
cure a copy ofit until the 25th of December, more than six weeks after it was issued.— Pinckney's letter to his government,
December 20, 1793.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
British Impressment of American Seamen.
War threatened.
John Jay a special Minister to England.
questrations, and even war. The whole country was violently agitated ; and the
excitement was increased by events on the Indian frontier, already mentioned, show
ing the hand of British influence in the bloody battles in the Northwest.
Another and more serious element of discord between the two nations came up for
consideration, and which, in after years, was one of the immediate causes of open hos
tilities between the two countries. This was the impressment of American seamen
into the British service. In efforts to maintain her position of " mistress of the seas,"
Great Britain found herself under the necessity of announcing another " law of na
tions" to suit her particular case. High wages, humane treatment, and security from
danger, to be found in the American merchant service, had attracted a great many
British seamen to it. Their government, alarmed at the threatened weakening of its
naval power by this drain, planted itself upon the theory that a subject can not ex
patriate himself — once an Englishman, always an Englishman ; proclaimed the doc
trine that in time of war the government had a right to the services of every subject ;
and that, at the command of their sovereign, every natural-born subject was bound to
return and fight the battles of his country. In accordance with this doctrine a proc
lamation was issued, by which authority was given to the commanders of British
ships of war to make up any deficiency in their crews by pressing into their service
British-born seamen wherever found, not Avithin the immediate jurisdiction of any
foreign state. Under this authority many American merchant vessels were crippled,
while in mid-ocean, by British seamen being taken from them. Nor were subjects of
Great Britain alone taken. It was sometimes difficult to discover the nationality of
English and American seamen ; and as the British commanders were not very nice in
their scrutiny, native-born Americans were frequently dragged on board British war
vessels, and kept in servitude in the royal navy for years. This was a great and irri
tating grievance.
War with Great Britain now seemed in
evitable. To avert it was Washington's
most anxious desire. To do so, and main
tain strict neutrality, was a difficult task
He resolved to try negotiation. He well
knew that the temper of his countrymen
would oppose it. With a moral heroism
commensurate with the occasion, he nom
inated John Jay, the Chief Justice of the
United States, as envoy extraordinary to
the Court of Great Britain, to negotiate
for a settlement of all matters in dispute
between the two governments. The prop
osition was met with a storm of indigna
tion. It was scouted as pusillanimous.
The Democratic societies and Democratic
newspapers were aroused into uncommon
activity. The tri-colored cockade was
seen on every side, and the partisans of
the French regicides ruled the hour.
O
Better counsels prevailed in the Senate,
and on the 19th of Aprila that body ;1794
confirmed the nomination by a vote
of eighteen to eight. On the 12th of May
following, Mr. Jay sailed from New York for London.
The French " Republic," meanwhile, had become offended with the United States
because of the virtual dismissal of Genet, and demanded the recall of Mr. Morris.
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The Pall of the French Jacobins. Minister Monroe in Paris. Jay's Treaty with Great Britain.
Washington prudently complied, and appointed James Monroe in his place. The
, An~jSt latter arrived in France at an auspicious moment. a Intelligence of the
iT'J4. new American mission to England had aroused the most bitter enmity to
ward the United States among the violent leaders of the National Convention. But
their bloody rule was at an end. Robespierre and his fiendish associates had fallen.
For some time they had been hated in the Convention. At length Billaud Varennes
mounted the tribune, and, in a speech full of invective, denounced Robespierre as a
"July 26, tyrant.b The accused attempted to speak. "Down with the tyrant!" burst
1794. from many a lip, and he and his guilty colleagues were dragged to execu
tion amid the shouts of the populace, who had huzzaed as loudly when the king was
murdered. With their fall the dreadful Reign of Terror ended. The Jacobin society
was suppressed. Reason and conscience were asserting their sway in the Conven
tion. The nation breathed freer, and the curtain fell on one of the bloodiest tragedies
in the history of the human race.
Monroe was received with great cordiality. He sent a judicious letter to the Pres
ident of the Convention. Its sentiments were consonant with the feelings of the
hour. When he afterward entered the hall of the Convention the president em
braced him affectionately. It was decreed that the flags of the two nations should
be entwined and hung up there, in token of international union and friendship ; and
Monroe, with reciprocal courtesy, presented the banner of his country to the Conven
tion in the name of the American people. The Convention, in turn, resolved to pre
sent their national flag to the President of the United States.
Jay's mission to England was partially successful. He found many obstacles to
contend with. He entered upon the business in June, with Lord Grenville, and on the
1 9th of November following, the contracting parties signed a treaty of amity, com
merce, and navigation. Although Mr. Jay accomplished much less than his instruc
tions directed him to ask for, the treaty was a long step in the direction of right,
justice, and national prosperity, and led to the execution, to a great extent, of the
Treaty of 1783. It also laid the solid foundation of the commercial policy of the
United States.1
Jay's treaty was doomed to a severe trial, and, with it, the administration, the
Constitution, and even the republic itself. The Democrats had resolved to oppose it,
whatever might be its provisions, especially if it should remove all pretexts for a war
1 The treaty provided for the establishment of commissions to determine the eastern boundary of the United States,
then in dispute ; the amount of losses incurred by British subjects by impediments being thrown in the way of collect
ing debts in the United States incurred before the Revolution ; and to ascertain and estimate the losses of the Americans
by irregular and illegal captures by British cruisers, such losses to be paid by the British government. It was provided
that the Western military posts should be given tip on the 1st of June, 1796, in consideration of the adjustment of
the ante-Revolutionary debts. The Indian trade was left open to both nations, the British being allowed to enter
all American harbors, with the right to ascend all rivers to the highest port of entry. This was not reciprocated in
full. Americans were not allowed free navigation of the rivers in the Hudson's Bay Company's possessions, nor those
of others of the British colonial possessions in America, except above the highest ports of entry. The citizens or subjects
of each government holding lands in the dominions of the other government were to continue to hold them without
alienage, nor were confiscations of the property of such persons to be allowed. In a word, the existing conditions of
property should not be disturbed. Such are the substantial provisions in the first ten articles of the treaty, which were
declared to be perpetual. The remaining eighteen, having special reference to commerce and navigation, were limited
in their operations to two years after the termination of the war in which Great Britain was then engaged. American
Tessels were allowed to enter the British ports in Europe and the East Indies on equal terms with those of British ves
sels, while participation in the East India coasting-trade, and trade between European and British East Indian ports,
was left to the contingency of British permission. The British were permitted to meet the discrimination in the Amer
ican tonnage and import duties by countervailing measures. American vessels not exceeding seventy tons were allowed
to trade to the British West Indies on condition that they should not, during the continuance of the treaty, transport
from America to Europe any of the principal colonial products. British vessels were to be admitted into American
ports- on terms equal to the most favored nations. There were provisions made favorable to neutral property on the
high seas, and that a vessel entering a blockaded port should not be liable to capture unless previously notified of the
blockade. There were satisfactory arrangements made concerning enlistments; of courtesy between ships of war and
privateers of the two countries ; to prevent the arming of privateers of any nation at war with the two contracting par
ties, and the capture of goods in the bays and harbors of the parties. In the event of war between the two countries,
the citizens or subjects of either should not be molested, if peaceable ; and fugitives from justice, charged with high
crimes, to be mutually given up.*
* The Treaty in full may be found in the Statesman's Manual, iv., 298.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
Violent Opposition to the Treaty. Its Friends assailed. Secession proposed by Virginians.
with Great Britain. It reached the President early in March,a but the Sen- » March 5
ate were not convened to consider it until June.b Meanwhile an unfaithful 17y5-
Cabinet minister (Mr. Randolph, of Virginia) revealed enough of its charac- " June8'
tor to warrant attacks upon it. The mad, seditious cry of faction was immediately
raised in the Democratic societies and spread among the people.1
The Senate finally voted to ratify the treaty, and it was published to the world.2
Then the opposition opened upon it their heaviest batteries of abuse. The chief tar
gets for their shot were its provisions for the payment of honest debts contracted be
fore the Revolution, and the omission to provide for the remuneration of slaveholders
for their negroes carried away during that war. As the Constitution of the United
States, and the public sentiment and judicial decisions of Great Britain did not recog
nize man as property,3 the claim relating to slaves in the old treaty was passed over.
The author of the treaty, the approving senators, the administration, and the Presi
dent personally, were violently assailed. The treaty was declared to be a token of
national Cowardice ; an insult to the American people ; a covert blow at France, their
old ally. Bold attempts were made to intimidate the President and prevent his sign
ing it. Public meetings were held all over the country, at which the most violent
language and seditious suggestions and menaces were made. A mob in Philadelphia
paraded in the streets with effigies of Jay and the ratifying senators.4 A meeting in
Boston denounced the treaty as containing not one article " honorable or beneficial to
the United States." Hamilton and other speakers in favor of the treaty were stoned
at a public meeting in New York, not only by a low mob, but by decent people.5
South Carolinians called Jay a " traitor," longed for a guillotine, trailed the British
flag in the dust of the streets of Charleston, and burned it at the door of the British
O *
consul ; while Virginians, ever ready with the grand panacea of disunion for political
evils, offered their prescription in emphatic if not elegant language.6
1 The following is a specimen of those factious cries: "Americans, awake ! Remember what you suffered through a
seven years' war with the satellites of George the Third (and I hope the last). Recollect the services rendered by your
allies, now contending for liberty. Blush to think that America should degrade herself so much as to enter into any
kind of treaty with a power, now tottering on the brink of ruin, whose principles are directly contrary to the spirit of
republicanism. The United States are a republic. Is it advantageous to a republic to have a connection with a mon
arch ? Treaties lead to war, and war is the bane of a republican government. . . . France is our natural ally ; she has
a government congenial with our own. . . . The nation on whom our political existence depends we have treated with in
difference bordering on contempt. . . . Citizens, your security depends on France. . . . Let us unite with France, and
stand or fall together."
3 The Senate, on voting to recommend the ratification of the treaty, removed the seal of secrecy, but forbade the publi
cation of the treaty itself, for prudential reasons connected with measures for ascertaining the construction by the English
of the order of the Sth of June, 1T93 (see page 84), which, it was rumored, had just been renewed. Regardless alike of
the rules of the Senate, of official decorum, and of personal honor, Senator Thomson Mason, of Virginia, sent a copy of
it to the Aurora newspaper, the bitter enemy of the administration, and a full abstract of it was published therein on
the 2d of July. A poet of the day thus ironically addressed Mr. Mason :
" Ah, Thomson Mason ! long thy fame shall rise
With Democratic incense to the skies !
Long shall the world admire thy manly soul,
Which scorned the haughty Senate's base control ;
Came boldly forward with thy weighty name,
And gave the treaty up for public game \"—The Echo.
3 In 1C97 an English court decided that "negroes being usually bought and sold among merchants as merchandise.
and also being infidels, there might be a property in them sufficient to maintain trover." In 1702 Chief Justice Holt de
cided that "so soon as a negro lands in England he is free." To this Cowper alluded when he said, "Slaves can not
breathe in England." Holt also decided that "there is no such thing as a slave by the law of England." Just before
the kindling of the Revolution these decisions were reaffirmed by Chief Justice Lord Mansfield in the case of James
Somerset, a native of Africa, who had been carried to Virginia, sold as a slave, and taken to England by his master,
where he was induced to assert his freedom.
4 That of Jay bore a pair of scales: one was labeled "American liberty and independence," and the other, which greatly
preponderated, "British gold." From the mouth of the figure proceeded the words, " Come up to my price, and 1 will sfll
you my country."
s "These are hard arguments," said Hamilton, who was hit a glancing blow upon the forehead by one of the stones.
"Edward Livingston," says the late Dr. Francis, in his Old and New York ("afterward so celebrated for his Louisiana
Code), was, I am informed, one of the violent young men by whom the stones were thrown."
6 " Notice is hereby given," said a Richmond paper (July 31, 1795), " that in case the treaty entered into by that damn
ed arch-traitor, John Jay, with the British tyrant should be ratified, a petition will be presented to the next General
Assembly of Virginia at the next session, praying that the said state may recede from the Union, and be under the gov
ernment of one hundred thousand free and independent Virginians.
"P.S. As it is the wish of the people of the said state to enter into a treaty of amity, commerce, and navigation with
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Washington's Calmness and Faith. The "Whisky Insurrection" quelled. The "Democratic Societies."
None of these things moved Washington. He signed the treaty, and awaited
calmly to see the storm pass by. It did so, and the foundations of the government
were found to be stronger than ever. It was, says Lyman, " the first act of the gov
ernment that proved the stability of the Federal Constitution. It was a severe trial,
and the steadiness with which the shock was borne may be attributed, in some de
gree, to the personal character of the President."1 In after years, when the republic
was menaced by internal factions and external foes, the result of the conflict over
" Jay's Treaty" was pointed to as a warrant for faith and hope.
While these unpleasant relations with Great Britain and France were exciting the
people of the United States, the government was sorely perplexed by other events at
home and abroad. At home there had been, for a long time, much discontent on ac
count of excise laws which levied a duty on domestic distilled liquors. These discon
tents were fanned into a flame by the Democratic societies, and, in the summer of
1794, the inhabitants of some of the western counties of Pennsylvania arrayed them
selves in armed opposition to the authority of the national government. A formidable
insurrection prevailed. Buildings were burned, mails were robbed, and government
officers were insulted and abiised. At one time there were nearly seven thousand insur
gents in arms, many of them being the militia of the country, who had assembled at the
call of rebel leaders. The insurgent spirit also infected the border counties of Virginia.
The President perceived with alarm this imitation of the lawlessness of French pol
itics, then so assiduously propagated, and took immediate steps to crush the growing
« August 7 and monster. He first issued two warning proclamations. a They were un-
September 25. heeded. After exhausting all peaceable means for the restoration of
order, he sent a large body of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, and Maryland
troops, under General Henry Lee (then Governor of Virginia), into the disaffected dis
trict. This argument was effectual ; and very soon the .outbreak, known in history as
the " Whisky Insurrection," like that of Shays' s in Massachusetts a few years earlier,
was subdued and thoroughly allayed. This alarming insurrection was ended without
the shedding of a drop of blood — a result chiefly due to the prompt energy and pru
dence of Washington. The government was amazingly strengthened by the event.
Every good citizen expressed his reprobation of violent resistance to law, and the
Democratic societies, the chief fomenters of the rebellion,2 after that shoAved symp
toms of a desire to become less conspicuous.3
any other state or states of the present Union who are averse to returning again under the galling yoke of Great Britain,
the printers of the (at present) United States are requested to publish the above notification."
1 Lyman's Diplomacy of the United States, i., 208.
2 "That the self-constituted societies," Washington wrote to John Jay, "which have spread themselves over this
country, have been laboring incessantly to sow the seeds of distrust, jealousy, and of course discontent, thereby hoping
to effect some revolution in the government, is not unknown to you.* That they have been the fomenters of the West
ern disturbances, admits of no doubt in the mind of any one who will examine their conduct."
" I consider this insurrection," he wrote to General Henry Lee on the 26th of August, " as the first formidable fruit of
the Democratic societies, brought forth, I believe, too prematurely for their own views, which may contribute to the an
nihilation of them."
3 I have before me the certificate of membership granted to Captain (afterward Commodore) Joshua Barney by the
* At that time there existed in the city of New York an association called the Tammany Society, or Columbian Order.
It was formed by William Mooney, an upholsterer, residing in New York during the administration of Washington. Its
first meeting was on the 13th of May, 1789. It took its name from the Indian chief Tammany, of whom it was said " he
loved liberty more than life." Its officers were composed of a grand sachem and thirteen sachems, representing the
President and the governors of the thirteen states. Besides these there was a grand council, of which the sachems were
members. It was a very popular society, and its membership included most of the best men of New York. Its anni
versary on the 12th of May came to be regarded as a holiday. No party politics were tolerated in its meetings. But
when Washington denounced " self-constituted societies" for reasons above named, nearly all of the members left it, be
lieving their society to be included in the just reproof. Mooney and others adhered to the organization, and from that
time it became a political organization, and took part with Jefferson and the Democratic party. It is still in existence,
and is known as a centre of Democratic organization, in the political sense of that name. Its head-quarters are Tam
many Hall, fronting on the eastern side of the City Hall Park, at the junction of Nassau Street and Park Row. They
met at first at Martling's Long Room, on the southeast corner of Nassau and Spruce Streets. In the year 1800 they de
termined to build a "wigwam." Tammany Hall was accordingly erected by them. The corner-stone was laid on the
twenty-second anniversary of the society, in May, 1811, and was finished the following year. Of the original committee
of thirteen appointed at the meeting in 1800 to carry out the design of erecting a building, only one now (18C7) survives :
that is the venerable Jacob Barker, of New Orleans.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
Difficulty with Algiers.
British Interference.
Algerine Corsairs let loose upon American Commerce.
The new difficulty abroad was with Algiers, one of the Barbary Powers, on the
southern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The corsairs of those states, and especially
of Algiers, had long depredated upon commerce in that region, and had grown bold
by suffered impunity. When, at the close of the Revolution, American vessels began
to find their way within the Pillars of Hercules, they frequently became the prey of
these sea-robbers, who appropriated their cargoes and sold their crews into slavery,
where they were held for ransom-money. President Washington called the attention
of the national government to these piracies as early as 1790 ; and, in an able report,
.Secretary Jefferson laid before Congress important details touching the position of
American interests in that part of the globe. Little, however, could be done, as the
Americans had no navy ; and the commerce of the United States in that quarter was
for a long time dependent on the Portuguese fleet for protection.
Portugal was at war with Algiers for several years, and the fleet of the former con
fined the cruisers of the latter to the Mediterranean Sea. This barrier was broken in
1793, by British instrumentality acting secretly, for the avowed purpose of damaging
France. Portugal was then seriously dependent on Great Britain, and had asked its
aid in procuring a peace with Algiers. The British agent at the Court of the Dey
was instructed to do so, and, without due authority being given him by Portugal to
act in its behalf, he concluded a truce between the belligerents for one year. In that
treaty was introduced the extraordinary stipulation that the Portuguese government
should not afford protection to any nation against Algerine cruisers ! This truce was
immediate in its operations, and the robbers were released without notice being given
to other powers.
The effect of this measure was disastrous to American commerce. Notwithstand
ing the British ministry disclaimed any intention to injure the United States, it was
very evident that it was a part of a scheme to cripple the growing commerce of the
Americans, or at least so to alarm it as to prevent its carrying supplies to France.
And such was the result. The corsairs spread themselves over the Atlantic near the
European coasts, and captured a large number of American vessels making their way
to Portugal and other parts of the Continent, unsuspicious of any danger. The cor
sairs of Tunis joined those of Algiers, and thus a powerful fleet of pirate ships was
formed.1
Democratic or Republican Society of Baltimore, with the seal of the society attached, by the side of which his name is
written. The following is a copy of the certificate and seal :
"To all other Societies established on principles of LIBERTY and EQUALITY, UNION, PATRIOTIC VIRTUE, and PERSE
VERANCE.
"We, the Members of the Republican Society of Baltimore, certify and declare to all Republican or Democratic Soci
eties, and to all Republicans individually, that Citizen JOSHUA BARNEY hath been admitted and now is a member of our
Society, and that, from his known zeal to promote Republican principles and the rights of humanity, we have granted
him this oiir certificate (which he hath signed in the margin), and do recommend him to all Republicans, that they may
receive him with fraternity, which we offer to all those who may come to us with sim
ilar credentials.
" In testimony whereof, etc. Signed, ALEXANDER M'KiM, President.
"GEOBGE SEAKS, Secretary."
This certificate is dated the "twelfth day of August, and in the nineteenth year of the independence of the United
States and the establishment of the American Republic," or 1705.
1 The maritime force of Algiers at that time, according to O'Brien (see American State Papers, x., 323), consisted of
four frigates, with an aggregate of 124 guns ; one polacca (a vessel with three short masts, without tops, caps, or cross-
trees to the upper yards), with 18 guns ; one brig of 20 ; four xebecs (a small three-masted vessel used in the Mediter-
90 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The Pride and Avarice of the Dey of Algiers. An American Navy recommended. First Steps toward its Creation.
The Americans felt justly indignant toward Great Britain because of the important
part she had played in letting those robbers out of the Mediterranean. But the gov
ernment was powerless to act. David Humphreys, who had been appointed commis
sioner for the United States to negotiate with the Dey of Algiers, had been treated
with contempt by the haughty semi-barbarian, who was as avaricious as he was
proud. " If I were to make peace with every body," he said, " what should I do
with my corsairs ? What should I do with my soldiers ? They would take off my
head for the want of other prizes, not being able to live on their miserable allow
ance !"
Such logic was unanswerable by words, and Humphreys wrote to his government
at the close of 1793, at the suggestion of Captain Richard O'Brien,1 "If we mean to
have a commerce, we must have a navy to defend it." With the same recognition
of the necessity for nautical power, Washington, in his message at the opening of Con
gress early in December,a said, when alluding to the war in Europe, and the deli
cate international questions arising out of the frontier relations of the republic,
" There is a rank due to the United States among nations, which will be withheld, if
not absolutely lost, by the reputation of weakness. If we desire to avoid insult, we
must be able to repel it ; if we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful in
struments of our prosperity, it must be known that we are at all times ready for
war."
The President's wise counsels prevailed. In January ,b 1794, a commit-
b January 2. . . .* J '
tee was appointed, with instructions to report the amount of force neces
sary to protect American commerce against the Algerine pirates, and the ways and
means for its support.2 This measure, and the general subject of British aggressions,
elicited, as we have seen, long and warm debates, and party lines were very distinctly
* March 2c, drawn. The feeling against Great Britain became intense, and in Marchc
an embargo for a limited period was laid, chiefly for the purpose of ob
structing the supply of provisions for the British fleet in the West Indies.3 Then
followed the appointment of Mr. Jay as minister extraordinary to Great Britain, al
ready noticed.
There was a powerful and determined opposition to the creation of a navy. With
strange ideas of national honor and national independence, some advocated the pur
chase of a peace Avith the Dey of Algiers, and the future security of his forbearance,
by ransom and tribute money, rather than prepare for, and thus, as they believed,
provoke a war. And these cowardly counsels had great influence; for when, finally,
A March ii, a bill was passed3 providing for the construction of six frigates, it was en-
™- cumbered with a clause commanding a suspension of labor upon them in
the event of a peace with Algiers being secured. For the purchase of such peace a
million of dollars Avere appropriated. An act was also passed for the fortification of
the harbors of the republic.4 These were the first steps toward the creation of the
navy, army, and fortifications of the United States under the National Constitution.
rnneau), with an aggregate of 108 guns ; a brig on the stocks of 20 guns; three galliotas, with 4 guns each • and sixty
gun-boats. The vessels were all manned at the rate of twelve men fg,r each gun. Tunis had, at the same time, twenty-
three corsairs, mounting from 4 to 24 guns each.
•Letter of O'Brien to Humphreys, dated "Algiers, November 12, lT93."-See American State Papers, Boston edition,
1817, X., ;>19.
2 This was the first Committee of Ways and Means ever appointed by the Congress, questions of that sort haying
been hitherto referred to the Secretary of the Treasury. It was an opposition measure. '
3 First for thirty days, and afterward for sixty. At the end of that time the embargo expired by limitation, but a
temporary act authorized the President to renew it at any time before the next session of Congress
^VIT/S! bi" provicled that folir ofthe six friSates should carry 44 guns each, and the other two 36 guns each
About $.00,000 were appropriated for the purpose. In the matter of harbor defenses, the President was authorized to
commence fortifications at Portland, Portsmouth, Gloucester, Salem, Boston, Newport, New London New York Phila
delphia, Baltimore, Annapolis, Alexandria, Norfolk, Ocracoke Inlet, Wilmington, Cape Fear River Georgetown 8 C
Charleston, Savannah, and St. Mary's. But the whole amount of money appropriated for this purpose wis the'naltrv
sum of $130,000. True, this was only for the OHMMMMieflt of the fortifications. The President was authorized to nur
chase two hundred cannon, and artillery munitions for the forts, for which $96,000 were appropriated For the estab
hshment of arsenals and armories $81,000 were appropriated, and $340,000 were provided for the purchase of arms' and
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
91
Building of Frigates. Tribute to the Dey of Algiers. Release of Captives. The French Directory offended.
Perceiving an urgent necessity in the aspect of foreign affairs in relation to his own
government, the President resolved to have the six frigates built immediately, and
their keels were soon respectively laid in six different ports.1 The work was going
on briskly, when it was suspended, at the close of 1795, by the conclusion of a treaty
of peacea with the African robber, which cost the government a million » November 28,
of dollars without ultimate advantage.2 The work on the six frigates
was suspended, and the mercantile marine of the United States lost all hope of pro
tection in the event of a war with any foreign government.
At the beginning of 1*796 the aspect of the foreign affairs of the republic was peace
ful. The Indian war in the West had ceased ; a better understanding with Great
Britain prevailed than had been known since the close of the Revolution ; and the
French government, then in the hands of a Directory,3 showed no special symptoms
of enmity toward that of the United States. But clouds soon began to appear in that
section of the political horizon. The ratification of Jay's treaty gave such offense to
the Directory that they declared13 the alliance between France and the b February 15,
United States at an end, and that Adet, the successor of Fouchet, should
be recalled, to make room for a special minister. In July,c when intelli- c Julv 2-
gence was received that the Congress of the United States had made an appropriation
for the due execution of Jay's treaty, the Directory issued a secret order authorizing
French ships of war to treat neutral vessels in the same manner as they had suffered
themselves to be treated by the English. Under this authorization, numerous Amer
ican ships were seized in the West Indies by French cruisers. This was followed in
military stores. The importation of arms for two years was to he free, and no arms were allowed to be exported for a
year.
1 These were Portsmouth, N. H., Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Norfolk. The President also pro
ceeded to appoint the following officers, constructors, and navy agents :
Captains and Superintendents.
Naval Constructors.
Navy Agents.
For Ships to be built at
John Barry.
Samuel Nicholson.
Silas Talbot.
Richard Dale.
Thomas Truxtun.
James Sever.
Joshua Humphreys.
George Cleghorn.
Forman Cheesman.
John Morgan.
David Stodert.
James Hackett.
Isaac Coxe.
Henry Jackson.
John Blagge.
W. Pennock.
Jeremiah Yillott.
Jacob Sheafl'e.
Philadelphia.
Boston.
New York.
Norfolk.
Baltimore.
Portsmouth.
2 The relations of those African sea-robbers to the commerce of the world at that time was a disgrace to the civilized
nations who suffered themselves to be made tributary to the piratical rulers of the semi-barbarian states on the south
ern shores of the Mediterranean Sea.
The first contact of those powers with the Americans was in 17S5, when Algerine corsairs captured two vessels from
the United States, and consigned their crews, twenty-one in number, to slavery. Measures were immediately taken by
the diplomatic agents of the United States in Europe fur their release. The rapacious Dey believed he had found a new
mine of wealth, and he asked an enormous price for their ransom. The American government determined not to estab
lish a precedent that would be followed by more exorbitant demands. In France was a religious order, called Mathu-
rins, established in ancient times for the purpose of redeeming Christian captives in the hands of the infidels. On the
solicitation of Mr. Jefferson, then minister of the United States at the French Court, the principal of this order under
took to procure a release of the American captives. He was unsuccessful. Others made similar attempts, with like re
sults. The Dey refused to lower his demands, believing that the United States would pay any price rather than allow
Americans to remain in bondage. Finally our government appropriated $40.000 for their ransom, and first John Paul
Jones, and then Mr. Barclay, were appointed commissioners to negotiate for their release. Each died before he reached
Algiers, and the business was placed in the hands of Colonel David Humphreys, American minister at Lisbon. This
was at about the time when the truce between Portugal and Algiers, already mentioned, was concluded. The Algerine
fleet was then upon the Atlantic, and, within a month after the truce was agreed upon, ten American vessels were cap
tured by them, and over one hundred American seamen consigned to slavery. Colonel Humphreys asked the Dey for a
passport to Algiers. The elated rnler said that he would not make peace with the Americans on any terms, nor allow
any American embassador to come to his capital. Humphreys hastened to the United States, when Congress appropri
ated about a million of dollars to be applied to the release of the captives. In the spring of 1705 Humphreys sailed for
Europe, with Mr. Donaldson, consul for Tunis and Tripoli. While the former remained in France to obtain the aid of
that government, Donaldson made a treaty with the Dey. The captives were finally released on the payment of a large
sum of money, and an agreement on the part of the United States to pay to the Dey of Algiers an annual tribute. The
amount to be paid down was $800,000, and, in addition, the United States agreed to present the Dey with a friarate
worth one hundred thousand dollars. The amount of annual tribute-money was twenty-five thousand dollars. This
treaty was humiliating to the United States, but it was in accordance with the usages of European nations, and could
not then be avoided.
3 The Directory was installed at the Luxembourg at Paris, under a new constitution of government, on the 1st of
November, 1795, and was appointed to hold executive power for four years. It was composed of five members, and
ruled in connection with the Chambers, namely, the Council of Ancients and the Council of Five Hundred.
92
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
American Servility.
Close of Washington's Administration.
Attacks on his Character.
America by Minister Adet's famous " cock
ade proclamation," calling upon all French
residents in the United States, in the name
of the Directory, to mount on their hats a
tri-colored cockade. The call was loyally
responded to, and many American Demo
crats, also, were seen with this token of
their devotion to the French Republic.
Mr. Monroe, having failed to please either
the French Directory or his own govern
ment, was superseded by Charles Cotes-
worth Pinckney, of South Carolina. That
gentleman embarked as minister to France
in September, bearing with him Monroe's
letters of recall.
Washington's second administration was
now drawing to a close, and he resolved to
retire to private life. In September he is
sued his admirable Farewell Address to his
countrymen — a political legacy of inestima
ble value. At the same time the first great
struggle of the Federal and Democratic parties for power was going on, in the can
vass for Washington's successor. The candidates were Adams and Jefferson ; and
every appeal which party spirit or party rancor could invent was made to the people
all over the land. Adet, with unparalleled impudence, issued an inflammatory appeal
to the people, containing a summary of alleged violations of friendship to France on
the part of the United States government. It was chiefly intended to arouse the
feelings of the Americans against Great Britain. Other partisans of Jefferson, in their
zeal to injure the Federal party, made outrageous assaults upon Washington's char
acter, charging him with using the public money for private use, and of being a trai
tor to his country.1 The notorious Thomas Paine, lately released from a French
prison, with his moral sensibilities all blunted by habitual dissipation, wrote a scur
rilous letter to Washington, from under the roof of Monroe in Paris, in the summer
of 1796. This was published in the United States for the purpose of promoting Jef
ferson's election. But Adams was successful. The attack on Washington strength
ened the Federal party, and the last growl of the opposition toward him personally
was given by a writer in the Aurora on the first President's retirement from office
at the beginning of March, 1797, and on the eve of his departure for Mo Tint Vernon.2
When Washington retired from public life the clouds of difficulty between the
United States and France were thickening. French cruisers were inflicting great
o o o
' February 27, wrongs on American commerce, and near the close of the session of the
Congress of 1796, '97, the Secretary of State laid before that bodya a full
1T97.
1 "If ever a nation has been debauched by a man," said a writer in the Aurora, " the American nation has been de
bauched by Washington. If ever a nation was deceived by a man, the American nation has been deceived by Washing
ton. Let his conduct, then, be an example to future ages. Let it serve to be a warning that no man may be an idol.
Let the history of the Federal government instruct mankind that the mask of patriotism may be worn to conceal the
foulest designs against the liberties of the people."
2 " ' Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation,' " said this politician.
"If ever there was a time that would license the reiteration of the exclamation of the pious Simeon," he said, "that
time is now arrived; for the man who is the source of all the misfortunes of our country is this day reduced to a level
with his fellow-citizens, and is no longer possessed of power to multiply evils upon the United States. . . . When a ret
rospect is taken oftheWashingtouian administration for eight years, it is a subject of the greatest astonishment that a
single individual should have cankered the principles of republicanism in an enlightened people just emerged from the
gulf of despotism, and should have carried his designs against the public liberty so far as to have put in jeopardy its
very existence. Such, however, are the facts, and, with them staring us in the face, this day ought to be a JUBILEE in the
United States !"
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
93
President Adams. Aspect of Public Affairs. Treatment of an American Minister.
The French Directory.
exhibit of them. From that communication it appeared that not only were American
vessels captured, but their crews were treated with great indignity, and even cruelty.
Many bitter complaints were made against Commodore Joshua Barney, then in the
French service, in command of two frigates in the West Indies, who was accused of
treating his own captive countrymen with indifference and neglect. He was also
charged with having insulted the American flag by hoisting it union down. And yet,
when he arrived in Chesapeake Bay to learn and carry away to France the result of
the Presidential election, though he boasted of having in his pocket the orders of the
French Directory to capture American vessels, and declared that, if Jefferson were
not elected, war would be proclaimed by France within three months, he was not the
less on that account honored and feasted by infatuated politicians who read the
Aurora and believed Washington to be a traitor I1
Adams2 came into office with a power
ful party opposed to him — a party which
lacked only two votes of giving the elec
tion to Mr. Jefferson, his rival, who be
came Vice-President. An open rupture
with France was becoming more and
more imminent. The accession of Spain
to their alliance, and the victories of
young Napoleon Bonaparte in Italy, gave
the Directory strength, and their bearing
toward other governments became more
and more insolent. Their corsairs were
depredating upon American commerce,
and in their pride they declared that, un
til the United States had redressed cer
tain alleged grievances of which they
complained, no minister of the republic
would be received by them. Pinckney,
who had never been officially received as
minister, was ordered to leave France.
He retired to Holland, after sending a nar
rative of his bad treatment to his govern
ment, and there awaited farther orders.
The conduct of the French Directory soon wrought a great change in the public
mind in the United States. Disappointed by the failure of Jefferson to be elected
President, the Directory determined to punish the people who dared to thwart their
plans. They issued a decreea which was almost tantamount to a declaration » May 10,
of war. It not only authorized the capture of American vessels under cer
tain conditions, but declared that any American found on board of a hostile ship,
though placed there without his consent by impressment, should be hanged as a
pirate. American seamen, continually liable to impressment by the British, were to
be subjected to a pirate's fate by the French ! Strange to say, the eminent American,
i Hildreth's History of the United States, Second Series, i., 703.
s John Adams was born at Quincy, Massachusetts, October 13, 1735. He was educated at Harvard University, and at
the age of twenty-two years commenced the practice of the law. He was brought prominently into public life by his
defense of Captain Preston at Boston, who was engaged in the so-called "massacre," in the spring of 1770. He became
a member of the Massachusetts Legislature, and in 1774 was elected to the Continental Congress. He was one o;
most active men in that body until sent on diplomatic missions to Europe. He was the representative of the new re
public abroad for many years, and was one of the negotiators for peace in 1783. In 1789 he was chosen Vice-President
of the United States, and" in 1797 was elevated to the seat of the President, as Washington's successor. He served o:
term, and retired to Quiucy in 1801. He engaged but little in public life afterward. He and Jefferson died on the sam<
day, July 4, 1826, just fifty years after they voted for the Declaration of Independence. Mr. Adams was then ninety-one
years of age. The above portrait was painted by Stuart at about the time Adams was elected President.
94
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Joel Barlow a French Democrat.
Madness of Partisans.
' God save the Guillotine."
Joel Barlow, at that time
a resident in Paris, coolly
wrote to a friend concern
ing this barbarous decree,
" The government here is
determined to fleece you
to a sufficient degree to
bring you to your feel
ing in the only nerve in
which your sensibility
lies, which is your pe
cuniary interest."1
President Adams had
called an extraordinary
session of Congress at the
middle of May. The re
action every where had
greatly strengthened the
administration party, and
many Republicans talk
ed with complacency of a
war with France. But a
majority of the Cabinet
favored farther attempts
at negotiation. John Mar
shall, a Federalist (after
ward Chief Justice of the
United States), and El-
bridge Gerry, a Dem
ocrat ( afterward Vice -
President), were appoint
ed envoys extraordinary
to proceed to Europe,
join Mr. Pinckney, and
attempt to settle by di
plomacy all matters in
session of little more than
dispute between the United States and France. After a
six weeks, during which time provision was made for a small loan for calling out
eighty thousand militia, and creating a small naval force, and acts against privateer-
, July 10) ing were passed, Congress adjourned* in time to escape the yellow fever that
ravaged Philadelphia that season.2
1797.
Let mercy then control
The guillotine.
1 When all the sceptred crew
Have paid their homage due
The guillotine,
Let Freedom's flag advance
Till all the world, like France,
O'er tyrants' graves shall dance,
And peace begin."
1 Letter to his brother-in-law, Abraham Baldwin, of Georgia. Barlow, who went to France with a communication to
the National Convention from a sympathizing society in England, was made a French citizen. By some commercial
operations he accumulated a large fortune, lived in sumptuous style in Paris, and, being a thorough French Democrat,
was the bitter enemy of the administrations of Washington and Adams. While at Hamburg, in 1793, he was invited to
a Jacobin festival, and he furnished for the occasion a copy of the following song, written by Thelwall, a celebrated En
glish Jacobin. It was sung on that occasion, and has been generally considered a composition by Mr. Barlow himself.
It was entitled God save the Guillotine, and is a parody of the English national song* God save the King:
" God save the guillotine ! Shall in the basket roll,
Till England's king and queen
Her power shall prove ;
Till each anointed knob
Affords a clipping job,
Let no rude halter rob
The guillotine.
" France, let thy trumpet sound-
Tell all the world around
How CAPET fell ;
And when great GEORGE'S poll
2 At about this time a letter written by Jefferson to Philip Mazzei, an Italian republican, who had lived near him in
Virginia for a while, was published in the Federal newspapers, and made a great stir. The letter was written a year
before, and was translated and published by Mazzei in a Florentine journal. It contained a virtual indorsement of all
the charges made against Washington and his political friends. Its publication brought to an end the friendship be
tween Jefferson and the late President. Jefferson was placed in such an unpleasant dilemma by it that he prudently
kept silence. It was used with great effect at the time, and was again brought up against him at the Presidential can
vass in the year 1SOO. It was made the subject of a caricature called TUB PROVIDENTIAL DETECTION. At a place for
* It may not be out of place here to remark that " God save the King," in words and air, did not originate with Han
del in the time of George the First, as is generally supposed, but is almost a literal translation of a eantique which was
always sung by the maidens of St. Cyr when Louis the Fourteenth entered the chapel of that establishment to hear the
morning prayer. M. De Brinon was the author of the words, and the music was by the eminent Lulli, founder of the
French opera. The following is a copy of the words :
" Grand Dieu sanve le Roi !
Grand Dieu venge le Roi !
Vive le Roi !
Que toujours glorieux,
Louis victorieux!
Voye ses ennemi
Toujours soumis !
Grand Dieu sauve le Roi !
Grand Dieu venge le Roi !
Vive le Roi !"
This air is still sung by the vine-dressers in the south of France.— See Memoirs of Madame de Crcquy.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 95
Pride of the French Directory. Attempt to extort Tribute from the Americans. Pinckney's Reply. A French Decree.
Darker and darker appeared the storm-clouds of European politics, and the mutter
ing of their thunders shook the social fabric in America with some alarm. England,
for a moment, seemed tottering to its fall. Its financial power was sorely smitten by
the suspension of specie payments by the Bank of England, and its naval strength
and supremacy seemed menaced by a great mutiny at the Nore. Bonaparte was
making his splendid conquering marches in the direction of the Danube, and the Car
pathian Mountains beyond, and Austria had already been compelled to make peace
with his government. Success waited on French arms and French diplomacy every
where ; and when the three American envoys reached Paris in October,* . October 4
and asked for an audience with the Directory, they met with a haughty 179T-
refusal, unless they should first pay into the deficient French treasury a large sum as
an equivalent for friendship. Overtures for this purpose were made by unofficial
agents, and the sum demanded was two hundred and forty thousand dollars, besides
an arrangement for purchasing from the French government a large amount of Dutch
securities, which had been wrung from the Hollanders as the price of peace. Threats
were made that, if these conditions were not complied with, the envoys might be or
dered to leave France at any time with only twenty-four hours' notice, and that the
coasts of the United States would be ravaged by French vessels from St. Domingo.
Delay followed delay. The envoys were firm; and the occasion was given for
Pinckney to utter the noble sentiment, " Millions for defense, but not one cent for
tribute !" At length the envoys, having presented a list of grievances of which their
government complained, asked for their passports if they could not be recognized as
ministers. These were finally grantedb to the Federal envoys, but under cir- b March,
cumstances of insult and indignity Avhich amounted to virtual expulsion from 1798-
the country. Gerry, the Democrat, Avho had held interviews with Talleyrand, the
French premier, without the knowledge of his colleagues, and who doubtless encour
aged him to believe that the " French party" in America were sufficiently numerous
to avert a war with France, and insure a partial if not full compliance with her de
mands, was directed to remain in the character of an accepted minister.1 He did so,
and received the severest censures from his indignant countrymen. After being
treated with mingled insolence and contempt by Talleyrand and his asso- c JuiYi 1798-
ciates, Gerry also embarked for the United States.0 d Jannary 18
Meanwhile the French Directory had issued a decree*1 concerning neu- i«9S-
trals on the ocean, more outrageous than any yet put forth, and calculated to effect
ually destroy American commerce in European waters.2 This action, the indecent
treatment of the envoys, and the continued depredations of the French cruisers,
aroused a violent war spirit in the United States. It had been manifested, in a de
gree, at the opening of the Fifth Congress, and it increased with every fresh item of
intelligence from France.
The President, in his first annual message,6 had recommended prepara- e November 23,
tions for war ; and in Congress the administration grew stronger every
hour. At length, at the middle of March, dispatches came from the envoys giving a
history of the infamous proceedings of the French Directory.3 A general outburst
burnt sacrifice called the "Altar of French Despotism," before which Jefferson is kneeling, a flame is seen, fed by pa
pers marked Age. of Reason, Godwin, Aurora, Chronicle, J. J. Rousseau, Voltaire, Ruins of Volney, Heli-etim, etc. Around
the altar lie sacks for consumption, marked AMERICAN Spoliations, Dutch Restitution, Sardinia, Flanders, Venice, Spain,
Plunder, etc.
1 Gerry was much petted while in France, while his colleagues were neglected. At a ball given by Talleyrand as
early as Jannary, 179S, at which General and Madame Bonaparte were present, Mr. Gerry appeared. His brother envoys
not having been invited, he at first refused, but finally attended, he said, in compliance with the dictates of policy.
2 It proclaimed that all vessels having merchandise on board, the production of England or her colonies, whoever the
owner of the merchandise might be, were liable to seizure as good prizes ; and any vessel which at any previous part of her
voyage had touched at any English port or possession was forbidden to enter any French port. Just before the issuing
of this decree an American at Nantes wrote to his friends at home that no less than sixty privateers were fitting out in
that port alone to prey upon American commerce.
3 The Directory at that time were Barras, Moulius, SiOyes, Gohier, and Roger Ducos. All but Barras were soon after-
96 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Indignation of the Americans. Preparations for War with France. Proceedings in New York City.
of indignation followed. The people of the United States, as a nation, felt deeply in
sulted, and Pinckney's patriotic sentiment was repeated in every part of the republic.
And yet there were those slavish enough to justify France and criminate their own
government. In this cowardly course the Aurora took the lead. By some disloyal
hand it was placed in possession of Talleyrand's rejoinder to the complaints of the
envoys, and published it before it reached the government of the United States, for
whom alone it was intended. It was argued that it would be better to comply with
the demands of the Directory for money than to incur the risk of a war — better to
purchase peace by humbly paying tribute, than to vindicate the claims of the nation
to independence by asserting and maintaining its rights at all hazards !
Such logic did npt suit the character nor temper of the American people at that
time. The rampant war spirit, fed on every hand by fresh aggressions and patriotic
• March 19, appeals, was not to be appeased. The President issued a special message,1
1798- calling upon Congress to make provisions for hostilities. His appeal was
responded to with alacrity. Means for administering chastisements for injuries re
ceived, and for repelling those which were threatened, were provided without hesita
tion. Provision was made for the organization of a regular provisional army, in mag
nitude sufficient for the exigencies of the case, and the employment of a volunteer
force. Measures were also taken, on the recommendation of the Secretary of War,
for strengthening the navy, and making it a power to be respected on the high seas.1
To a great extent party spirit disappeared in the National Legislature. Their pro
ceedings were approved by the great majority of the people, and the President re
ceived addresses from all parts of the Union, warmly commending his course, and
overflowing with the most fervid patriotism.2 The young Federalists, with a spirit
of defiant response to the Democrats, who still wore the badge of devotion to French
politics ordered by Adet, mounted a black cockade, such as was worn by officers in
the Revolution ;3 and between the wearers of these opposing decorations there was
ward driven from office ; and when, in the autumn of 1799, Bonaparte usurped the government, he expelled from France
the first two above named as utterly corrupt.
1 After much manoeuvring on the part of the opposition to prevent the adoption of these measures to meet any hostilities
on the part of France, the men who in 1794 — only four years before — were eager for war with England, and voted for prep
arations for it with alacrity, were now as vehement for peace — an inconsistency which many of their partisans throughout
the country pointed at with scorn. Congress authorized a regular provisional army of about twenty thousand men, and
gave the President authority to appoint officers for it ; also to receive and organize volunteer corps, who should be ex
empted from ordinary militia duty. The sum of $800,000 was appropriated for the purchase of cannon, arms, and military
stores. Provision was made for fortifying the harbors of the United States— a labor already commenced— and, for the
farther security of ports, the purchase and equipment often galleys. The President was also authorized to cause twelve
ships of not less than 32 guns each, Department, the duties of which the
twelve of not less than 20 nor exceed- .^J /? Secretary of War had hitherto per-
ing 24 guns each, and six not exceed- //]j J4/C~~?{. n / formed, was created, and on the 30th
ing IS guns each, besides galleys and t/j/^t. ^yC^r~CL^ 1*/t// of April, 1798, Benjamin Stoddert, of
revenue cutters, to be built. A Navy Georgetown, in the District of Colum
bia, was appointed the first Secretary of the Navy, and took his seat in the Cabinet.
2 The city of New York was greatly excited by the prospect of a war with France. Its commerce had suffered much
by the depredations of French cruisers, and the mercantile classes were greatly exasperated. The Republicans or Dem
ocrats had a debating association, whose meetings were public, called "The Society of Free Debate." A meeting was
called for the 27th of April, 1798, to discuss the question, "Would it be better policy, under existing circumstances, to
lay an embargo [a scheme proposed by some as a less dangerous measure], than to arm in defense of our carrying-
trade ?" The Federalists went to the meeting in great numbers, and, by an overwhelming vote, elected Jacob Morton
chairman. By ten to one they voted for arming. They expressed by resolutions full approbation of the conduct of the
government, and their determination to support it. They appointed a committee, consisting of Colonel Jacob Morton,
Colonel Ebenezer Stevens, Nicholas Evartson, John Cozine, and Josiah Ogden Hoffman, to draft an address to the Pres
ident and Congress, expressive of their satisfaction with the course pursued toward France. After the adjournment a
Quaker addressed the multitude.
On the 5th of May a meeting was held, and addressed by the late Chief Justice Samuel Jones. Nine hundred young
men present pledged themselves to be in readiness, at a moment's warning, to offer their services to their country
against the French.
On the 5th of June the New York Chamber of Commerce took action concerning the defenses of New York. They
appointed a committee to confer with the military authorities and the Corporation. A conference was held the next
day at the Tontine Coffee-house, and it was resolved to call a public meeting of citizens who might be ready to defend
an "insulted country" and the "defenseless port." The call was made, and an invitation was given for such citizens to
enroll themselves as an artillery corps, it having been ascertained that Colonel Stevens, an experienced artillerist of
the Revolution, was willing to take the direction of them and to give them instructions.
3 This gave them the name of " Black-cockade Federalists," which was a term of reproach until ten years after the
War of 1S12-'15.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 97
Patriotic Songs. History of Hail, Columbia 1 and Adams and Liberty.
intense hatred, which sometimes led to personal collisions. In the streets of cities
opposing processions were seen; and all over the land the new songs of Hail, Colum
bia ! and Adams and Liberty, were sung with unbounded applause.1 The excitement
against some of the opposition leaders in Congress soon became intense, and the most
obnoxious of them, from Virginia, sought personal safety in flight, under the pretense
of attention to their private affairs at home.
i The history of the origin and fate of these two songs is curious. The former, almost totally destitute of poetic
merit, is still sung, and is regarded as a national song; the latter, full of genuine poetry, has been forgotten. Hail,
Columbia ! was writfen in the spring of 1798, wheu the war spirit of the nation was aroused by the irritating news from
France. Mr. Fox, a young singer and actor in the Philadelphia Theatre, was to have a benefit. There was so little
novelty at the play-house that he anticipated a failure. On the morning previous, he called upon Joseph Hopkinson,
and said, "Not a single box has been taken, and I fear there will be a thin house. If you will write me some patriotic
verses to the tune of the ' President's March,' I feel sure of a full house. Several people about the theatre have attempt
ed it, but they have come to the conclusion that it can not be done. Yet I think you may succeed." Hopkinson retired
to his study, wrote the first verse and chorus, and submitted them to Mrs. Hopkinson, who sang them with a harpsichord
accompaniment. The time and words harmonized. The song was soon finished, and the young actor received it the
same evening. The theatre placards the next morning announced that Mr. Fox would sing a new patriotic song. The
house was crowded— the song was sung— the audience were wild with delight ; for it touched the public heart with elec
trical effect at that moment, and eight times the singer was called out to repeat the song. When it was sung the ninth
time the whole audience arose and joined in the chorus. On the following night (April 30, 1T9S) the President and his
wife and some of the heads of departments were present, and the singer was called out time after time. It was repeat
ed night after night in the theatres of Philadelphia and other places, and it became the universal song of the boys in the
Htreets. On one occasion a crowd thronged the street in front of the author's residence, and suddenly "Hail, Colum
bia !" from five hundred voices broke the stillness of the midnight air.
In June following Robert Treat Paine was requested to write a song, to be sung at the anniversary of the "Massa
chusetts Charitable Fire Society." He wrote a political- song adapted to the temper of the times, and called it "Adams
and Liberty." At the house of Major Russell, editor of the Boston Centinel, the author showed it to that gentleman. "It
is imperfect," said Russell, "without the name of Washington in it." Mr. Paine was about to take some wine, when
Russell politely and good-naturedly interfered, saying, "You can have none of my wine, Mr. Paine, until you have
written another stanza, with Washington's name in it." Paine walked back and forth a few moments, called for a pen,
and wrote the finest verse in the whole poem — a verse which forms the epigraph of the chapter on the next page. This
song, in nine stanzas, became immensely popular. It was sung all over the country, in theatres and public places, in
workshops and drawing-rooms, and by the boys in the streets. The sale of it on "broadsides" yielded the author a
profit of $T50. The temper of the large majority of the American people at that time is expressed in the following
verses of the ode :
" While France her huge limbs bathes recumbent in blood,
, And Society's base threats with wide dissolution ;
May Peace, like the dove, who returned from the flood,
Find an ark of abode in our mild Constitution.
But though Peace is our aim,
Yet the boon we disclaim,
If bought by our Sov'reiguty, Justice, or Fame.
" 'Tis the fire of the flint, e"ach American warms ;
Let Rome's haughty victors beware of collision,
Let them bring all the vassals of Europe in arms—
We're a world by ourselves, and disclaim a division.
While with patriot pride
To our laws we're allied,
No foe can subdue us, no faction divide.
" Our mountains are crowned with imperial oak,
Whose roots, like our liberties, ages have nourished ;
But long ere our nation submits to the yoke,
Not a tree shall be left on the field where it flourished.
Should invasion impend,
Every grove would descend
From the hill-tops they shaded, our shores to defend.
" Let our patriots destroy Anarch's pestilent worm,
Lest our Liberty's growth should be checked by corrosion ;
Then let clouds thicken round us, we heed not the storm,
Our realm fears no shock but the earth's own explosion.
Foes assail us in vain,
Though their fleets bridge the main,
For our altars and laws with our lives we'll maintain.
For ne'er shall the sous of Columbia be slaves
While the earth bears a plant, or the sea rolls its waves."
G
98 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Preparations for War. Washington invited to command the Army. He accepts. Hamilton acting General-in-chief.
CHAPTER V.
" Should the tempest of war overshadow our land,
Its bolts could ne'er rend Freedom's temple asunder ; »
For, unmoved, at its portal, would Washington stand,
And repulse with his breast the assaults of the thunder !
His sword from the sleep
Of its scabbard would leap,
And conduct with its point ev'ry flash to the deep !
For ne'er shall the sons of Columbia be slaves
While the earth bears a plant, or the sea rolls its waves."
ROBERT TKEAT PAINE.
AVINGr resolved on war, if necessary, for the dignity of the
nation, the question arose spontaneously in the hearts of the
American people, Who shall command our armies at this im
portant crisis ? All minds instinctively turned toward Wash
ington as the only man who could command the respect of the
. whole nation and keep a dangerous faction in check.1 "In
such a state of public affairs," Hamilton wrote, "it is impossi
ble not to look up to you. ... In the event of an open rupture
with France, the public voice will again call you to command
the armies of your country. . . . All your past labor may demand, to give it efficacy,
this farther, this great sacrifice."2 " We must have your name, if you will in any
case permit us to use it," President Adams wrote to him on the 22d of June. " There
will be more efficiency in it than in many an army." And four days later, James
M'Henry, the Secretary of War, wrote to him, "You see how the storm thickens, and
that our vessel may soon require its ancient pilot. Will you — may we flatter our
selves that, in a crisis so awful and important, you will accept the command of all
our armies ? I hope you will, because you alone can unite all hearts and all hands,
if it is possible that they can be united."
These intimations were followed by corresponding action. On the Vth of July
President Adams, with the consent of the Senate, appointed Washington Lieutenant-
general and commander-in-chief of all the armies raised and to be raised for the
service of the United States. The venerated patriot, then sixty-five years of age, in
stantly obeyed the call of his country. " You may command me without reserve,"
he said to President Adams, qualifying the remark only by the expressed desire that
he should not be called into active service until the public need should demand it.
His friend, Mr. Hamilton, then forty-one years of age, was appointed first major gen
eral, and placed in active supreme command ; and in November, Washington held a
conference at Philadelphia with all the general officers, when arrangements were
made for the complete organization of a provisional army on a war footing.
Washington all this while had looked upon the gathering tempest with perfect
confidence that the clouds Avould pass by, and leave his country unscathed by the
1 It was the settled conviction of many of the wisest men of that day that the leaders of the opposition wished to
overthrow the Constitution. " It is more and more evident," Hamilton wrote to Washington late in May, 1798, " that
the powerful faction which has for years opposed the government is determined to go all lengths with France. I rnn
sincere in declaring my full conviction, as the result of a long course of observation, that they are ready to new model our
Constitution under the influence or coercion of France, to form with her a perpetual alliance, offensive and defensive, and to
give her a monopoly over trade by peculiar and exclusive, privileges. This would be in substance, whatever it might be
in name, to make this country a province of France. Neither do I doubt that her standard, displayed in this country,
would be, directly or indirectly, seconded by them, in pursuance of the project I have mentioned. "
2 Hamilton to Washington, May 19, 1798.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 99
The Pride of the Directory humbled. A Minister Plenipotentiary to France appointed.
lightning and the hail. Events soon justified his faith. The pride of the haughty
Directory was speedily humbled, and the fears of England, toward whom many
thoughtful men in America had looked as a possible friend and aid in the event of a
war with France, were allayed. The victorious Bonaparte, who had threatened Great
Britain with invasion, had gone off to Egypt on a romantic expedition, his avowed
object being to march into Palestine, take possession of Jerusalem, rebuild the Tem
ple, and restore the Jews to their beloved city and land. This he unsuccessfully at
tempted after the battle of the Nile, in which the proud Toulon fleet had been van
quished by Nelson. a A few weeks later Sir John Borlase Warren had • August i,
scattered a French fleetb that hovered on the coast of Ireland to aid in
surgents there ; and many minor victories were accorded to English b October 12.
prowess.1
These successes of the English, intelligence of the war feeling in America, and the
appointment of Washington as commander - in - chief of the armies of the United
States, made the intoxicated Directory pause in their mad career. The wily Talley
rand began to think of conciliation. In letters to Pinchon,0 French sec
retary of legation at the Hague, he intimated that any advances for ne- September 28,
gotiation that the government of the United States might make would
be received by the Directory in a friendly spirit. These intimations, as intended,
were communicated to William Vans Murray, the United States minister at the
Hague, who transmitted them to his government.
Without consulting his Cabinet, or taking counsel of national dignity, President
Adams nominated Mr. Murray minister plenipotentiary to France. The country was
astounded. It came upon the Cabinet, the Congress, and the people without premo
nition. The Cabinet opposed it, and the Senate resolved not to confirm it. No direct
overtures had been made by the French government ; and some of Mr. Adams's best
friends, who regarded war as preferable to dishonor, deprecated a cowardly cringing
to a half-relenting tyrant, and warmly remonstrated with him. He persisted, and
they were estranged. He finally so far yielded to public opinion as to nomiijate
three envoys extraordinary, Mr. Murray being one, to negotiate a settlement of all
matters in dispute between the United States and France. These were confirmed by
the Senate at near the close of the session, in February, 1799, not willingly, but from
a conviction that a refusal to do so might endanger the existence of the Federal party,
for Mr. Adams had many and powerful supporters. It was stipulated, however, that
the two envoys yet at home (Chief Justice Oliver Ellsworth and Patrick Henry2) should
1 England had for some time trembled violently before the won
derful operations of Bonaparte on the Continent. For a while in
vasion of the island seemed imminent. But when the cloud disap
peared in the autumn of 1798, and scarcely a day passed without
bringing intelligence of some new success of the British navy, the
feeling of exultation was intense. The pencil of Gillray, the great
caricaturist, was exceedingly active, and in quick succession he
brought out several prints illustrating John Bull as being surfeited
with his immense capture!*. In one of these, entitled "John Bull
taking a Luncheon ; or, British Cooks cramming Old Grumble-giz
zard with Son-ne Chere" the representative of English nationality, a
burly old fellow is seen sitting in a chair at a well-furnished table,
while the naval cooks are zealous in their attentions. The hero of
the Nile offers him a " fricassee a la Nelson," consisting of a large
dish of battered French ships of the line. Another admiral offers
him a "fricando a la Howe," "dessert a la Warren," "Dutch cheese
a la Duncan," et csetera. John Bull is deliberately snapping up a
frigate at a mouthful, and is evidently fattening on his diet.
"What!" he exclaims, "more fricassees? Where do you think I
JOHN BTTLL TAKING A LUNCH. shall find room to stow all you bring in?" By his side is an im
mense jug of brown stout to wash them down. Behind him is a
picture of " Bonaparte in Egypt" suspended against the wall, nearly concealed by Nelson's hat, which is hung over it.*
2 Mr. Henry declined the nomination because of his advanced age and increasing infirmities. Governor William R.
* The portion of this celebrated caricature here given, with the description, is copied from Wright's England under the
House of Hanover, ii., 298.
100 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Three Envoys sent to France. Bonaparte First Consul. Naval Warfare between the Americans and the French.
not embark for Europe until authentic and satisfactory assurances should be given as
to their reception. Such assurances were received by the government in October fol
lowing, and in November Ellsworth and W. R. Davie (the latter having taken Mr.
Henry's place) sailed for Europe. Fortunately for all parties, when the envoys
reached France a change had taken place in the government of that country. The
Directory Avas no more. Bonaparte had suddenly returned from the East, after
great and brilliant movements with various results, and was hailed as the good
genius of the Republic. He found, as he expected, his country rent by political dis
sensions, and the Directory in disrepute among the most powerful classes. With the
assistance of a strong party, supported by bayonets, he dissolved the Assembly of
•Novembers, Representatives and took the government into his own hands,a with the
1T99- title of First Consul, which was at first conferred upon him for ten years,
and afterward for life.
The audacity and energy of Bonaparte saved France from anarchy and ruin. To
please the people he proclaimed a pacific policy, and opened correspondence with the
b March 2 powers then at war with the Republic with professions of peaceful desires.
isoo. ft was at this auspicious moment that the American envoys arrived1* at
Paris.
While these political movements were in progress, and preparations were making
in the United States for a French invasion, wTar between the two nations actually
commenced on the ocean, although hostilities had not been proclaimed by either. On
the 7th of July, 1798, Congress declared the old treaties with France at an end, and
two days afterward passed a law authorizing American vessels of war to capture
French cruisers wherever they might be found. On the llth, a new marine corps of
nearly nine hundred men, rank and file, commanded by a major, was established by
law, and a total of thirty active cruisers was provided for.
We have observed that some movements for strengthening the navy wrere begun
early in 1797. The frigates United States, 44, Constitution, 44, and Constellation, 38, ]
were launched, and ordered to be put in commission that year. The United States first
reached the water, and was the beginning of the American navy created after the adop
tion of the National Constitution. She was launched at Philadelphia on the 10th of
July,c and was followed in September by the Constellation and Constitution.
The former was set afloat on the 7th of that month, at Baltimore, and the lat
ter on the 20th, at Boston ;2 yet none of these were ready for sea when, in the spring
of 1798, war with France seemed inevitable.
An Indiaman, called the Ganges, was armed and equipped at Philadelphia as a
24-poundcr, and placed in the command of Captain Richard Dale. She sailed on the
22d of May, to cruise along the coast from the east end of Long Island to the Capes of
Virginia, to watch the approach of an enemy to the ports of New York, Philadelphia,
and Baltimore. On the 12th of June Captain Dale received instructions off the Capes
of Delaware to seize French cruisers and capture any of their prizes that might fall
in his way.
The Constellation, 38, first went down the Patapsco on the morning of the 9th of
April, d and early in June went to sea under the command of Captain Thomas
Truxtun, in company with the Delaware, 20, Captain Decatur,3 each having
Davie, of North Carolina, was appointed in Henry's place. The commission then stood : Murray, of Maryland ; Ells
worth, of Connecticut ; and Davie, of North Carolina. Mr. Murray, still at the Hague, was instructed to inform Talley
rand of the appointment.
1 These numbers, 44, 38, etc., refer to the number of guns carried by each vessel, or, rather, the number they were rated
at. The armament of vessels sometimes varies from the rate.
The Constellation was constructed by David Stodert.
ail on the Guadaloupe station, his flag-ship being the Philadelphia, 3S
He left the service iu 1801, and engaged in
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
Capture of Le Croyable.
The United States and the Constitution.
Life and Services of Commodore Barry.
orders similar to
Dale's. When only
a few days out, De-
catur fell in with the French corsair Le CroyaUe, 14, captured her, and sent her to
Philadelphia as a prize. She wras condemned by the prize court, added to the United
States navy with the name of Retaliation, and placed under the command of Lieuten
ant William Bainbridge. She was the first vessel captured during the " French War
of '98," so called, and was the first vessel taken by the present navy of the United
States.
Early in July the United States, 44, Cap
tain John Barry,1 went to sea, and cruised
eastward. She carried among her officers
several young men who afterward became
distinguished in the annals of naval war
fare.2 The government soon afterward de
termined to send a force to the West Indies,
where American commerce was most ex
posed, and Captain Barry was ordered there
with a small squadron, consisting of the
United States, 44, Delaware, 20, and Her
ald,^.
The Constitution (yet in the service) went
to sea in July, in command of Captain Sam
uel Nicholson, and, in company with four
revenue vessels, sailed in August to cruise
off the coast southward of the Virginia
Capes. One of these vessels was in com
mand of Lieutenant (afterward Commodore)
Preble.
In August the Constitution, Captain Trux-
commercial pursuits in Philadelphia, where he died in 1803. A plain slab, near the noble granite monument erected to
the memory of his distinguished son in St. Peter's (Episcopal) Church burying-ground, marks the grave of the gallant
captain and his wife, who died in 1812.
1 John Barry was born in Ireland, County of Wexford,
in 1745. He came to America in his youth, as a seaman.
In 1775 he entered the naval service of Congress, and it
is a disputed point whether he was the first of the com
manders who got to sea at that period. He was in ac
tive service during the whole war. In the establishment
of the new navy in 1794 he was named the senior officer,
in which station, in command of the United States, he died
on the ISth of September, lS03,in the city of Philadelphia.
He died childless, at the age of fifty-eight years.
Commodore Barry's tomb is near the entrance to the
cemetery of St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, on Fourth
Street, Philadelphia. The following is a copy of the in
scription :
" Let the patriot, the soldier, and the Christian who visit
these mansions of the dead, view this monument with re
spect. Beneath are deposited the remains of JOIIN BARRY.
He was born in the County of Wexford, in Ireland, but
America was the object of his patriotism, and the theatre of
his usefulness and honor. In the Revolutionary War, which
established the independence of the United States, he bore
the commission of a captain in their infant navy, and aft
erward became commander-in-chief. He fought often and
once bled in the cause of freedom. But his habits of war
did not lessen in time the peaceful virtues which adorn private life. He was gentle, kind, just, and charitable ; and not
less beloved by family and friends than by his grateful country. In a full belief in the doctrines of the Gospel, he calmly
resigned his soul into the arms of his Redeemer on the 13th of September, 1803, in the fifty-ninth year of his age. His
affectionate widow hath caused this marble to be erected, to perpetuate his name after the hearts of his fellow-citizens
have ceased to be the living record of his public and private virtues."
" Her first lieutenant was David Ross, who was last seen on the 30th of November, 1799 ; John Mullowny, who died in
COMMODORE BAEEY'S MONUMEXT.
102 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
British Outrages. The Obsequiousness of the American Government. Instructions of the Secretary of the Navy.
tun, and the Baltimore, 20, Captain Phillips, performed signal service by safely con
voying sixty American merchant vessels from Havana to the United States, in the
face of several French cruisers lying in that port. Both the British and French au
thorities in the West Indies were surprised at the appearance of so many American
cruisers in that region. At the close of the year 1798 the American navy consisted
of twenty-three vessels, with an aggregate armament of four hundred and forty-six
guns.
It was at this time that the first of the series of most flagrant outrages upon the
American flag, which finally aroused the people of the United States to vindicate
their honor and independence by an appeal to arms, was committed by a British
commander. The American ship Baltimore, Captain Phillips, sailed out of Havana
on the morning of the 16th of November, 1798, in charge of a convoy bound to Charles
ton, South Carolina, and in sight of Moro Castle met a British squadron. At that time
the governments of the United States and Great Britain were on friendly terms, and
Phillips bore up to the Carnatick, the flag-ship of his majesty's squadron, to speak to
the commander. To his surprise, three of the convoy were cut off from the rest and
captured by the British vessels. By invitation Phillips went on board the CarnaticJc,
when he was informed that every man on board the Baltimore who had not a regular
American protection should be transferred to the British flag-ship. Captain Phillips
protested agains.t the outrage, and declared that he would formally surrender his
ship, and refer the matter to his government. His protest was of no avail. On re
turning to the Baltimore, he found a British officer mustering his men. He imme
diately ordered that gentleman and those who accompanied him to walk to the lee
ward, and then sent his men to their quarters. After consultation with a legal gen
tleman on board his ship, he determined to formally surrender her if his men were
taken from him. Fifty-five of them were transferred to the CarnaticJc, and the colors
of the Baltimore were lowered. Only five of her crew were retained by {he British
captain. These were pressed into the service of the king. The remainder were sent
back, and the Baltimore was released. Th.e British squadron then sailed away with
the five captive seamen, and the three merchant vessels as prizes.
The Baltimore hastened to Philadelphia, and her case was laid before the govern
ment. At that time the trade between the United States and Great Britain was ex
tremely profitable to American merchants ; and the mercantile interest was such a
power in the state that almost any indignity from the " mistress of the seas" would
have been submitted to rather than provoke hostilities with that government.1 The
American Cabinet, in its obsequious deference to the British, had actually instructed
the commanders of American cruisers on no account — not even to save a vessel of
their own nation — to molest those of other nations, France excepted.2 The govern
ment dismissed Captain Phillips from the navy without trial because he surrendered
without a show of. resistance ; but the outrage of the British commander was passed
by unnoticed !
At about the time of this occurrence near Havana, a small American squadron was
1801, was her second lieutenant ; her third was James Barron, afterward commodore ; and her fourth was Charles Stew
art, the venerable commodore, yet (1862) living. Among the midshipmen were Decatur, Somers, and Caldwell, who
distinguished themselves at Tripoli. Jacob Jones and William M. Crane joined her soon afterward, both of whom be
came commodores.
1 The country had just entered upon a career of great commercial prosperity, notwithstanding many perils and hin-
derances beset that branch of national industry. American tunnage had doubled in ten years. American agricultural
products found a ready market. The exports had increased from nineteen millions to almost ninety millions, and the
imports in about the same proportion ; and the amount of revenue from imports greatly exceeded the most sanguine
anticipations.
2 "The vessels of every other nation (France excepted"), ran the instructions of the Secretary of the Navy, "are on no
account to be molested ; and I wish particularly to impress on your mind that, should you ever see an American vessel
captured by the armed ship of any nation at war with whom we are at peace, you can not lawfully interfere to prevent
the capture, for it is to be taken for granted that such nation will compensate for such capture if it shall prove to have
been illegally made."
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 103
Naval Engagements. Increase of the Navy. Victory of the Constellation over the Insurgente.
cruising off Guadaloupe. One of the vessels was the captured Le Cray able, now the
Retaliation, commanded by Lieutenant Bainbridge. They discovered some French
cruisers, and mistook them for English vessels. The Retaliation reconnoitered them,
and perceived her mistake too late to avoid trouble. She was attacked by two
French frigates (the Volontaire and Insurgente), and was compelled to surrender.
The Insurgente, to whom the Retaliation was a prize, was one of the swiftest vessels
on the ocean. She immediately made chase after two of the American ships, who
were pressing alj sail in flight. Bainbridge was a prisoner on the Volontaire, and,
with the officers of that vessel, witnessed the chase with great interest from the fore
castle. The Insurgente continually gained upon the fugitives. "What are their
armaments ?" the commander of the Volontaire asked Bainbridge. " Twenty-eight
twelves and twenty nines," he quickly responded. This false statement doubled their
forces, and startled the commander. He was the senior of the captain of the Insur
gente, and immediately signaled him to give up the chase. The order was reluctantly
obeyed. The American vessels escaped, and Bainbridge's deceptive reply cost him
only a few curses. In this affair the Retaliation gained the distinction of being the
first cruiser taken by both parties during the war.
The strength of the navy was considerably increased during the year 1799. Many
vessels were launched, and most of them were commissioned before the close of au
tumn. At the beginning of the year the active force in the West Indies was distrib
uted into four squadrons. Commodore Barry, the senior officer in the service, was
in command of ten vessels, with an aggregate of two hundred and thirty-two guns,
whose general rendezvous was St. Rupert's Bay. Another squadron of five ves
sels, under Commodore Truxtun, in the Constellation, rendezvoused at St. Kitt's,
and cruised to leeward as far as Porto Rico. Captain Tingey, with a smaller force,
cruised between Cuba and St. Domingo ; and Captain Decatur, with some revenue
vessels, watched the interests of American commerce off Havana. These squadrons
captured many French vessels during the year.
At meridian on the 9th of February ,a while the Constellation was cruising
off Nevis, a large vessel was discovered at the southward. Truxtun gave
chase, and brought on an engagement at little past three in the afternoon. It lasted
an hour and a quarter, when the antagonist of the Constellation struck her colors
and surrendered. She Avas the famous French frigate Insurgente, Captain Barreault,
just mentioned as the captor of the Retaliation a few weeks earlier. The gallant
Frenchman did not yield until his fine ship was dreadfully shattered, and he had lost
seventy men, killed and wounded. The Constellation had lost only three men wound
ed. The prize was put in charge of Lieutenant (afterward Commodore) Rodgers,
and at the end of three days of tempest, danger, and suffering, she was taken into St.
Kitt's1 (St. Christopher), and received a salute from the fort.
This victory produced great exultation in the United States, and the navy was de
clared to be equal to any in the world. The Insurgente carried 40 guns and 409
men; the Constellation only 32 guns and 309 men. The battle was fought with
great skill and bravery on both sides. The press was filled with eulogiums of Trux
tun. He received congratulatory addresses from all quarters, and the merchants of
Lloyd's Coffee-house, London, sent him a service of plate worth over three thousand
dollars, on which a representation of the action was elegantly engraved.2 The cap
tives were loud in praises of Truxtun's courtesy and kindness ;3 and for a long time a
1 Cooper's Naval History of the United States, i., 297; Trnxtnn's dispatch to the Secretary of the Navy.
2 Wyatt's Generals and Commodores of the American Army andXavy, p. 197.
3 " I am sorry," Captain Barreault wrote to Truxtnn, " that our two nations are at war ; bnt since I unfortunately have
been vanquished, I felicitate myself and crew upon being prisoners to you. You have united all the qualities which
characterize a man of honor, courage, and humanity. Receive from me the most sincere thanks, and be assured I
shall make it a duty to publish to all my fellow-countrymen the generous conduct which you have observed to
ward us."
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
American Cruisers in the West Indies. Contest between the Constellation and La Vengeance.
song, called " Truxtun's Victory," was sung every where, in private and at public
gatherings.1
During the remainder of the year nothing of importance was performed by or be-
• November 3, fell our cruisers. In November Commodore Barry sailed from Newport*
1799. for France in the United States, having Messrs. Wolcott and Davie, the
two envoys, on board. He met with no adventures, and performed his errand with
satisfaction. Meanwhile our cruisers were busy in the West Indies, watching the
interests of American commerce there, and making the French corsairs exceedingly
cautious and circumspect. At length another victory gave lustre to the American
navy, rendering it very popular, and causing many leading families of the country to
place their sons in the service.2
The victory was again by Truxtun, in the Constellation. Early on the morning
of the 1st of February, 1800, while off Guadaloupe seeking for the large French frigate
La Vengeance, said to be in those waters, he discovered a sail to the south which he
took to be an English merchantman. He ran up English colors, but receiving no re
sponse, he gave chase. The stranger pressed sail, and it was almost fifteen hours
before the Constellation came w'ithin hailing distance of her. It was then discovered
that she was a large French frigate. Truxtun, unabashed, prepai'ed for action. It
was opened by the Frenchman, at eight o'clock in the evening, by shots from the
stern and quarter guns. A desperate engagement at pistol-shot distance ensued. It
lasted until one in the morning, the combatants all the while running free, side by
side, and pouring in broadsides. The French frigate suddenly ceased firing, and dis
appeared so completely in the gloom that Truxtun believed she had gone to the bot
tom of the sea. At that moment it was discovered that the Constellation's shrouds
had been nearly all cut away, and that the mainmast was ready to fall. A heavy
squall came on, and the mast went by the board, carrying with it a midshipman and
several topmen who were aloft. The stranger, dreadfully crippled, made her wTay to
b February, Cura§ao, where she arrived on the 6th.b She was the sought-for frigate
isoo. j^a Vengeance, carrying' 54 guns and 400 men, including passengers. Cap
tain Pitot, her commander, acknowledged that he had twice struck his flag during
the engagement. She would have been a rich prize for the Constellation. It was
lost only by the utterly helpless condition of that vessel's mainmast. Truxtun bore
away for Jamaica, and it was some time before he knew the name and character of
his antagonist, and the prize he had lost.3
1 The song was not poetry, but touched a chord of popular sentiment which responded with great animation. The
following is a single verse of the song, which contains eight :
" On board the Constellation from Baltimore we came ;
We had a bold commander, and Truxtun was his name :
Our ship she mounted forty guns,
And on the main so swiftly runs',
To prove to France Columbia's sons
Are brave Yankee boys."
2 "The Navy" became a favorite toast nt public meetings, and pictures of na
val battles and doggerel verses called "naval songs" were sold in the shops and
streets. An enterprising crockery merchant had some pitchers of different
sizes made in Liverpool, commemorative of the navy. One of them, before me,
that belonged to the late W. J. Davis, Esq., of New York, is a white pitcher,
about a foot in height. Under the spout, in a wreath, are the words, "SUCCESS
TO THE INFANT NAVY," and below this the American eagle, in form like that on
the great seal of the United States. On one side is a picture of a full-rigged vessel
of war, and some naval emblems in the foreground. On the other side is a map
of the United States, having on one side Washington and Liberty, in full-length
figures, Fame, with trumpet and wreath, above it ; and on the other side Frank
lin sitting making a record, and a helmeted female, representing America, near
wli'.ch stands Justice. This device was upon pitchers made at about the time of
Washington's inauguration as the first President of the United States.
3 La Vengeance had on board the Governor of Guadaloupe and his family, and
two general officers, returning to France. She had also a full cargo of sugar and
coffee, and a very large amount of specie. She lost, in killed and wounded, one
hundred and sixty-two. The Constellation lost fourteen men killed and twenty- KAVAI, PITCHER.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
105
Traxtun's Victory welcomed.
He is honored by Congress.
His public Services.
This second victory over a superior foe gave Truxtun great renown at home and
abroad, and the Congress of the United States, by action approved on the 29th of
March, 1800, authorized the President to present him a gold medal "emblematical of
the late action," with the thanks of the nation.1
JllCTlAL PE-.BF.NTF.I) TO COMMODORE TRUXTUN.
live wounded. Eleven of the latter died of their wounds. Among the lost was Midshipman Jarvis, of New York, who
commanded the men in the top. He was warned by an old seaman that the mast would soon fall. He gallantly said,
" Then we must go with it." They did so, and only one man was saved. Congress, by vote, recognized the bravery of
young Jarvis, "who gloriously preferred certain death to an abandonment of his post."
i This medal is represented in the engraving, the exact size of the original. On one side is a profile bust of Truxtun
in relief, with the legend, "PATRI.E PATREB FILIO DIGNO THOMAS TRUXTUN." On the reverse are seen two ships of war
(the French a two-decker), both shattered, and the rigging of both much cut up. Legend: "THE UNITED STATES
FRIGATE CONSTELLATION, OF THIRTY-EIGHT GUNS, PUKSUES, ATTACKS, AND VANQUISHES THE FRENCH SHIP LA VENGEANCE, OF
FIFTY-FOUK GUN8, 1ST OF FEBRUARY, 1800."
Thomas Truxtun was born at Jamaica, Long
Island, on the 17th of February, 1T55. He went
to sea at the age of twelve years. During his
apprenticeship he was impressed into the Brit
ish service, but was soon released. He com
manded a vessel in 1775, and brought consid
erable powder to the colonies at that time.
He was engaged in privateering from Phila
delphia during the whole war. While carryingMr.
Barclay, consul general of the United States, to
France, he had a successful engagement with a
British man-of-war. In 1704 he was appointed by
Washington one of the six naval commanders, and
the Constellation was built under his superintend
ence at Baltimore. His exploits in her are related
in the text. The cruise which resulted in the de
feat of La Vengeance was his last. In 1S02 he was
ordered to the command of a squadron destined
far the Mediterranean. Being denied a captain to
command his flag-ship, he declined the service.
His letter to this effect was construed by President
Jefferson as a resignation, which was accepted,
and the American navy was deprived of one of its
brightest ornaments. He retired to a farm not far
from Philadelphia, where he remained in quiet un
til 1816, when the citizens of Philadelphia elect
ed him high sheriff. He held that office three
years, and died on the 5th of May, 1822, in the six
ty-seventh year of his age. He was buried in Christ
Church-yard, Fifth Street, Philadelphia, where a
plain upright slab of white marble marks his grave,
on which is the following inscription : "Sacred to
the memory of Commodore Thomas Truxtun, for
merly of the United States Navy, who died May
5th, 1822, aged sixty-seven years." In considering
the little sketch of Truxtun's grave, the spectator
is supposed to be standing with his back to Fifth
Street looking east.
TECXTUN'B GRAVE.
106 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Peace. Troubles among the Federalists. Character of President Adams. Opposition to Adams in his own Party.
Other victories of less magnitude were won by the American cruisers during the
earlier months of the year 1800, and contributed to make the little navy of the United
States a subject for praise and wonder in Europe. But its services were now less
needed, and efforts to increase the navy were sensibly relaxed during the summer of
that year. Active negotiations for peace and amity were in progress between the
United States and the First Consul of France, which led to a settlement of difficulties.
The American envoys were cordially received, and three plenipotentiaries, with Joseph
Bonaparte at their head, were appointed to treat with them. Many difficulties arose,
and sometimes an utter failure of the effort seemed inevitable. Finally a convention
was concluded,1 peace was established, the envoys returned home, and the provisional
army of the United States was disbanded.
Allusion has been made to the divisions in the Federal party on account of Presi
dent Adams's course in the appointment of diplomatic agents for negotiations with
the French government before that government had officially signified its willingness
to receive them. The instant dissatisfaction caused by that act only gave intensity
to feelings already existing. Mr. Adams was an honest patriot, of much ability, but
totally unfitted by temperament and disposition for the leadership of a great politi
cal party. He was excessively vain, and correspondingly sensitive and jealous. His
vivid and sometimes eccentric imagination seldom yielded obedience to judgment.
His prejudices were violent and inexorable, and his frankness made him indiscreet in
his expressions of opinion concerning men and measures. He held resentment
against Hamilton as relentless as did Jefferson, and he openly accused him of British
proclivities, and hostility to the National Constitution. Because Wolcott, and Pick
ering, and Ames, and M'Henry, and other leading Federalists could not agree with
him concerning public policy, the President regarded them as personal enemies, actu
ated by selfish objects, and desirous of defeating his most earnest wishes, namely, a
re-election to the seat he then occupied. Cunning Democrats fanned the flame of
discord ; and they strengthened Adams's political aspirations by assuring him that he
might unite the moderate and virtuous men of both parties, and thus crush the oli
garchy of radical Federalists, to whom all national troubles should be attributed.2
It was not long before confidence among the members of the Federal party was al
most destroyed. Such were their divisions in the House of Representatives that, not
withstanding they had a decided majority there, they were not able, as Jefferson ex-
ultingly wrote, to carry a single measure during the session of 1799-1800. The sim
ple truth appears to be that Adams would not be controlled by the leaders who
claimed to have elevated him and his party to power. He exercised his own judg
ment as President without regard to party. His most ardent political partisans,
now become his opponents, reciprocated his own suspicions, and believed that his
conduct was prompted by jealousy of Hamilton, and a disposition to secure his own re
election at whatever sacrifice of principle, or at Avhatever risk to the Federal party.3
These suspicions created zealous action. The most influential Federal leadei-s, two
of whom (Timothy Pickering and James M'Henry) were in Adams's Cabinet, adopted
a scheme for quietly preventing his re-election to the Presidency, which he ardently
desired. The method of choosing the President and Vice-President, at that time, was
i This convention was signed at Paris on the 30th of September, 1SOO, by Oliver Ellsworth, William R. Davie, and Wil
liam Vans Murray, on the part of the United States, and Joseph Bonaparte, Charles P. E. Fleurieu, and Pierre L. Roe-
derer, in behalf of France. It provided that the old treaties should remain inoperative until a new negotiation should
decide concerning them as well as indemnities mutually claimed. It provided for the mutual restoration of captured
public ships and property not already condemned; for the mutual payment of all debts due by the respective govern
ments and individuals thereof; for reciprocal commercial relations to be equal to those of the most favored nations, and
for security of American commerce against the vexatious pretensions of French cruisers. The convention also declared
that free ships should make free (joods, thus affirming the doctrine of Frederick the Great fifty years earlier, and denying
that of England in her famous rule of 1756, revived in 1793.— See the convention in full in the Statesman's Manual, iv.,
338 2 Oliver Wolcott to Fisher Ames, Dec. 20, 1799.
3 Hildreth's History of the United States, Second Series, ii., 355.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
Plans of Federalists for defeating Adams. Tactics of the Democrats. The Alien and Sedition Laws.
for two persons to be voted for without distinction as to the office for which they
were respectively intended ; and the one receiving the highest number of votes was
declared President, and the other Vice-President.1 This plan gave facility to the
scheme of Mr. Adams's opponents. A caucus of the Federal members of Congress
resolved to place Mr. Adams and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, of South Carolina, on
the same ticket, with the understanding that both should receive the same number
of votes, and thus cause the election to be carried to the House of Representatives,
where Mr. Pinckney would have a considerable majority. Caution was necessary,
for the foe was vigilant, and ever ready to take advantage of the weakness which dis
sensions would create in the Federal camp. Open opposition to Adams, whose high
personal character was appreciated every where, and especially in New England,
might have imperiled the success of the party. Mr. Adams, on the other hand, was
aware of the intrigues against him, and that members of his Cabinet were leaders in
the scheme ; yet for once he was discreet enough not to denounce them openly, nor
dismiss them* from his council, for he was doubtful of his own strength in the power
ful Middle States where they were popular, and where the Alien and Sedition Laws,
which brought such odium upon his administration, were heartily detested. A Dem
ocratic caucus pursued a similar course, and selected Thomas' Jefferson and Aaron
Burr, but with the understanding that the former was the choice of the party for
President.
The Alien and Sedition Laws just alluded to were used adroitly by the Democrats
to excite the people against Adams's administration and the Federal party, and that
use was made powerful in securing the election of Mr. Jefferson to the Presidency in
the year 1800.2
1 For the young reader, or a foreigner to whom the working of our political system in detail may not be familiar, an
explanation here may be useful. The President of the United States is not voted for directly by the people. Persons
in each state, in number equal to the respective senators and representatives in Congress, are elected by the people,
and delegated with full powers to choose a President and Vice-President. These meet at a specified time, and form
what is termed the Electoral College. Although the electors may vote for whom they please, the candidates named by
the people are always voted for in the college, so that practically the people do vote directly for President and Vice-
President. In the event of an equal number of votes being cast in the college for both candidates, the election is car
ried to the House of Representatives, in accordance with the provisions of the National Constitution, Article ii., sec
tion 1.
2 The action of Virginia and Kentucky politicians in the matter were so powerful at the time, and remote, even to our
day, in their influence upon public opinion in a portion of the republic concerning the theory of our government, as to
warrant the introduction here of the following brief history of the affair :
In the year 1T9S, when war with France seemed to be unavoidable, Congress passed acts for the security of the gov
ernment against internal foes. By the first act alien enemies could not become citizens at all. By the second, which
was limited to two years, the President was authorized to order out of the country all aliens whom he might judge to be
dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States. By a third act, in case of war declared against the United States,
or an actual invasion, all resident aliens, natives or citizens of the hostile nation, might, upon a proclamation of the Pres
ident issued according to his discretion, be apprehended, and secured or removed. These were known as Alien Laws.
The President never had occasion to employ them, but several prominent Frenchmen, who felt that the laws were aimed
at them, speedily left the country. Among them was the celebrated French writer, M. Volney, who, in the preface to his
View of the Soil and Climate of the United States of America, complained bitterly of the " violent and public attacks made
upon his character, with the connivance or instigation of a certain eminent personage," meaning President Adams.
In July, 1798, an act was passed for the punishment of sedition. It made it a high misdemeanor, punishable by a fine
not to exceed $5000, imprisonment from six months to five years, and binding to good behavior at the discretion of the
court, for any persons unlawfully to combine in opposing measures of the government properly directed by authority,
or attempting to prevent government officers executing their trusts, or inciting to riot or insurrection. It also pro
vided for the fining or imprisoning any person guilty of printing or publishing "any false, scandalous, and malicious
writings against the government of the United States, or either House of Congress, or the President, with intent to de
fame them, or to bring them into contempt or disrepute." This was called the Sedition Law.
The laws brought out the heaviest batteries of denunciation from the opposition, and were deplored by many of the
Federalists. The wise Hamilton perceived the dangers that might arise from the enactment of the Sedition Law, and
immediately wrote a hurried note of warning to Wolcott on the 29th of June, saying, "LET us NOT ESTABLISH A TYKAN-
NY. Energy is a very different thing from violence. If we take no false step, we shall be essentially united ; but if we
push things to the extreme, we shall then give to faction body and solidity." The fears of Hamilton were realized.
Nothing contributed more powerfully to the speedy downfall of the Federal party than these extreme measures.
The Alien and Sedition Laws aroused individual resentments, and led to the public avowal of the doctrine of inde
pendent and supreme state sovereignty in its most dangerous form. The right of "nullification" was as distinctly pro
claimed by Jefferson and others as it ever was by Calhoun or Hayne. In a series of resolutions drawn up under the
seal of secrecy as to their authorship, Mr. Jefferson declared the National Constitution to be a mere compact made by
sovereign states as states, each having the sole right of interpreting for itself the "compact," and bound by no interpre
tation but its own ; that the general government has no final right, in any of its branches, to interpret the extent of its
own powers, and that all its acts not considered constitutional by a state may be properly nullified by such state within
108 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Method of Choosing Electors. Germ of a new Party. Jefferson elected President of the United States.
Most of the Presidential electors at that time were chosen by the respective State
Legislatures, and not by the people, as now, and the contest was really commenced
in the election of members to those bodies. New York was regarded as the custo
dian of the balance of political power, and the election of that state which occurred
at the close of April, 1800, was looked to with great anxiety by both parties. A rad
ical change had taken place. Burr, the most unscrupulous intriguer of the day,
worked incessantly, and New York, which the year before gave the Federalists five
hundred majority, noAv gave almost as great a majority for the Democrats. The lat
ter were jubilant — the former were alarmed.
At this time the germ of a new party was distinctly visible in Virginia and the
states south of it, which was born of slavery and the doctrine of independent state
sovereignty. Virginia was its sponsor, and it allied itself to the Democratic party.
And yet, strange as it may seem, Mr. Adams at this time looked to the Southern
States for his forlorn hope in the coming election contest. Believing Pickering and
M'Henry to be unpopular there, he abruptly called upon them to resign. M'Henry
instantly complied, but Pickering refused. Adams dismissed him with little cere
mony.1 The event caused much excitement, and had considerable influence in redu
cing the Federal vote. Bitter animosities prevailed. Criminations and recrimina
tions ensued.
The open war in the Federal party against Mr. Adams was waged by a few leaders,
several of whom resided in Essex County, Massachusetts, the early home of Picker
ing, and on that account the irritated President called his assailants and opposers the
" Essex Junto." He denounced them as slaves to British influence, some lured by
monarchical proclivities, and others by English gold. Severe retorts followed ; and a
pamphlet from the pen of Hamilton, whom Adams had frequently assailed in conver
sation as a British sympathizer, and an enemy to the National Constitution, damaged
the President's political prospects materially.
The result of the canvass was the triumph of the Democratic party. Jefferson was
elected President of the United States, and Aaron Burr Vice-President,2 to the great
joy of their partisans, who chanted, in effect,
" The Federalists are down at last !
The Monarchists completely cast !
The Aristocrats are stripped of power —
Storms o'er the British faction lower.
Soon we Republicans shall see
Columbia's sons from bondage free.
Lord ! how the Federalists will stare
At JEFFEESON in ADAMS' chair!" — The Echo.
its own boundaries. These resolutions were offered to the Kentucky Legislature ; but the one avowing the absolute
right of nullification was modified, or rather substituted by another, before the whole were put upon their passage. This
action was in November, 1798. Within a month afterward John Taylor, of Caroline, an avowed secessionist, introduced
into the Virginia Legislature a series of resolutions drawn by Mr. Madison, similar in spirit, but more cautious in ex
pression. They were adopted, and, with a plea in their favor, were sent to the various State Legislatures. In some of
them they were handled roughly, and all that responded condemned them as unwarrantable and mischievous, excepting
already-committed Kentucky. These were the famous "Resolutions of "98," on which nullification in 1S32 and secession
in 1861 planted themselves and looked for justification. The whole movement was of a local and temporary nature.
Jefferson and Madison were wielding dangerous weapons in their sturdy warfare for political power (for that was the
animus of the whole matter) ; but they trusted the people, and believed, as Jefferson said in his inaugural, that great
errors may be tolerated when reason is left free to combat them. That nullifiers and secessionists have no warrant for
their doctrines in the action of the Virginia Legislature at that time Mr. Madison distinctly declared more than thirty
years afterward. "The tenor of the debates," he said, "which were ably conducted, and are understood to have been
revised for the press by most, if not all of the speakers, discloses no reference whatever to a constitutional right in an indi
vidual state to arrest by force the operation of a law of the United States."— See letter to Edward Everett, August, 1830, in
Selections from the Private Correspondence of James Madison, published by J. C. M'Guire, of Washington City, for private
distribution.
' John Marshall, who was soon afterward appointed Chief Justice of the United States, took Pickering's place as Sec
retary of State, and Samuel Dexter was called to M'Henry's seat in the Cabinet as Secretary of War.
2 The Electoral College met, and their vote stood as follows : Jefferson, 73 ; Burr, 73 ; Adams, 05 ; Pinckney, C4 : John
Jay, 1. The votes for Jefferson and Burr being equal, the election, as provided by the Constitution, was carried into the
House of Representatives. The occasion presented exciting scenes. On the first ballot eight states voted for Jefferson,
six for Burr, and two (Vermont and Maryland) were divided. Two or three members were so sick that they were brought
to the House on beds. For seven days the members were occupied in balloting. The Federalists all voted for Burr,
as the least offensive of the two candidates, but the friends of Jefferson were stronger than they.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 1QO
Mortification of the Federalists. Ins and Outs. Announcement of the Death of Washington. Its Effect.
The mortification of the defeated party was intense, and new elements of strife
soon mingled with the old causes of contention between the two parties. At these
John Quincy Adams hinted when he said, " The election of Mr. Jefferson to the Pres
idency was, upon sectional feelings, the triumph of the South over the North, of the
slave representation over the free. On party grounds, it was the victory of professed
Democracy over Federalism, of French over British influence. The party overthrown
was the whole Federal party. The whole Federal party was mortified and humili
ated at the triumph of Jefferson.1
After an existence of eight years as a distinct political organization, the original
Federal party fell, never to rise again into power. Its noble monument is the ma
chinery of the national government, which its wise men devised and set in motion,
and which still performs its functions with admirable steadiness and increased power
— machinery which the opposition declared to be weak and dangerous when they
were in the minority, but which they adopted as sound and secure as soon as they
came into power. The saying of English politicians, that a Tory in place becomes a
Whig out of place, and a Whig when provided with a place becomes a Tory, was
exemplified.2
While the nation was thus agitated by contending factions and menaced by the
tempests of war, the great light of the republic, by whose steady planetary gleams
the vessel of state had been long guided, and saved from the rocks and quicksands of
faction and anarchy, suddenly went out. In the darkness that fell without twilight
— without premonition — every discordant voice was for a moment hushed, for awe
placed the finger of silence upon the lips of political partisans of every kind. The
National Congress was then in session at Philadelphia. Early on the morning of the
18th of December1 — a cold, crisp, winter morning — a courier with smoking
steed dashed up to the Presidential mansion, and delivered a letter from the
private secretary3 of the great leader, who had already been called PATER PATRICE.*
The President was at breakfast. The seal was black wax. It wras broken hastily by
Mr. Adams, who read, " It is with inexpressible grief that I have to announce to you
the death of the great and good General WASHINGTON. He died last evening, be
tween ten and eleven o'clock, after a short illness of about twenty-four hours."5
There was grief in the President's household. There was grief in Congress
when John Marshall announced11 " Our Washington is no more."
b December 19.
There was grief in the streets of the national capital when the sad intel
ligence went from lip to ear all over the city within an hour after the arrival of the
courier. There was grief throughout the nation when the knell of the funeral bells
in cities and villages, with chilling monotone, fell upon the ears of the people. There
was grief in Europe when, forty days afterward, it was known in England and on the
Continent. Lord Bridport lowered to half mast the flags of his great English fleet
' See Life of William Plummer, p. 310.
2 A London paper in 1813 contained the following poetic version of the maxim, under the head of Definition of
Parties:
"WHIGS NEVER IN.
A Whig is never in ! How strange the story !
Turn in a Whig— he turns in a Tory !
TORIES NEVEK OUT.
A Tory's never out ! Strange whirligig !
Turn out a Tory— he turns out a Whig !
INS AND OUTB.
Why then turn all our brains with senseless rout ?
Tory and Whig are merely IN and OUT."
3 Tobias Lear.
* The late G. W. P. Custis, the adopted son of Washington, in a letter to his foster-father written at Annapolis, where
he was at school, on the 12th of July, 1798, after congratulating his guardian on his appointment to the command of the
American army, said, "Let an admiring world again behold a Cincinnatus springing up from rural retirement to the
conquest of nations; and the future historian, in recording so great a name, insert that of the 'Father of his Country.' "
5 Dated "Mount Vernon, December 15, 1799."
110
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
1800.
Action of Congress on the Death of Washington. Marks of Respect in Europe. Funeral Honors. M'Pherson Blues.
of sixty vessels then lying in Torbay ; and Bonaparte, just made First Consul of
France, paid a beautiful tribute to the virtues of the beloved man in an order of the
day to the French army, and in directing a funeral oration to be pronounced before
him and the civil and military authorities.1 The Congress of his own country, by
* December 23 jomt resolutions, decreeda that a marble monument should be erected to
1T99. his memory at the new Capitol on the Potomac ; that there should be
a funeral procession from Congress Hall to the German Lutheran Church, where an
oration should be pronounced by one of the members of Congress ; that the citizens
of the United States should wear crape on their left arm as mourning for thirty days ;
and that the President should send a letter of condolence to Mrs. Washington, and
O /
request that her husband's remains might be interred at the Capitol of the nation.2
They also recommended the people of the United States to assemble on the next an-
, February 22, niversary of Washington's birthday ,b " to testify their grief by suitable
eulogies, orations, and discourses, or by public prayers."
General Henry Lee, the per
sonal friend of Washington, and
son of that "Lowland Beauty"
whom the great patriot loved in
his early youth, was the chosen
orator. With rare eloquence he
charmed the vast audience that
thronged the Lutheran Church,
the largest in Philadelphia.3 The
M'-Pherson Hhies,* an elegant
military corps of three hundred
young men, were there as a guard
of honor, and fired the accustom
ed military salute. On the ensu
ing 22d of February funeral ora
tions were pronounced in many
places throughout the country;
and memorials of many kinds
were speedily prepared, to per
petuate, by visible objects, the
recollection of Washington's vir-
TUE LUTHERAN CHURCH IN PHILADELPHIA.
1 This oration was delivered by Louis Fontaine in the Temple of Mars, at Paris, on the 8th of February, 1800. In al
lusion to the young general and chief ruler of France before him, the orator said, in his peroration, "Yes, thy counsels
shall be heard, O Washington ! O warrior ! O legislator ! O citizen without reproach ! He who, while yet young, rivals
thee in battles, shall, like thee, with his triumphant hands, heal the wounds of his country. Even now we have his dis
position, his character for the pledge ; and his warlike genius, unfortunately necessary, shall soon lead sweet peace into
this temple of war. Then the sentiment of universal joy shall obliterate the remembrance of oppression and injustice.
Already the oppressed forget their ills in looking to the future. The acclamations of every age will be offered to the
hero who gives happiness to France, and seeks to restore it to a contending world."
2 Mrs. Washington consented to the removal of her husband's remains to the National Capitol. But they have never
been taken from his beloved Mount Vernon. They never should be. That home of the illustrious patriot is now the
property of the patriotic women of America, and should ever be consecrated by the presence of his tomb. The HOME
and TOMB of our beloved friend should be inseparable, and these words of Lunt should express the sentiments of every
American :
" Ay, leave him alone to sleep forever,
Till the strong archangel calls for the dead,
By the verdant bank of that gushing river
Where first they pillowed his mighty head."
3 That German Lutheran Church is yet standing on Fourth Street, Philadelphia, above Arch Street. Lee's oration was
hastily prepared, but was an admirable production. In it he used those memorable words, "FIKST IN WAR, FIRST IN
PEACE, FIRST IN THE HEARTS OF HIS COUNTRYMEN." This oration may be found in Custis's Recollections of Washington.
* This corps was composed of the elite of Philadelphia society. The costume is represented in an engraving in Los-
sing's Home of Washington, or Mount Vernon and its Associations. Six of those who were present on that occasion were
yet living in January, 1S62, and all were residents of Philadelphia, namely, Samuel Breck, aged ninety ; S. Palmer, aged
eighty-one ; S. F. Smith, aged eighty-one ; Charles N. Bancker, aged eighty-five ; Quintan Campbell, aged eighty-five,
and Robert Carr, aged eighty-four. John F. Watson, the annalist of Philadelphia and New York, and who died in De-
O F T H E WA R OF 1812.
Ill
Medal hi Honor of Washington.
Sketch of Washington's Person and Character.
tues and illustrious deeds.1
logy.2
The faithful history of those deeds is his best eu-
' His glory fills the land— the plain,
The moor, the mountain, and the mart !
More firm than column, urn, or fane,
His monument— the human heart.
The Christian— patriot — hero— sage !
The chief from heaven in mercy sent ;
His deeds are written on the age —
His country is his monument."
GEORGE P. MOKRIS.
cember, 1SCO, was a member. Colonel Carr, who was an officer in the War of 1S12, informed me that he was one of the
squad who fired the volleys on that occasion. The costume of the M'Pherson Blues is seen in the figure below.
1 Among many other tokens
of respect published at that
time was a silver medal, a lit
tle larger and thicker than the
Spanish quarter of a dollar.
One of these is in the posses
sion of the writer, and is repre
sented in the engraving. On
one side is a profile of Wash
ington, inclosed in a wreath of
laurel, and surrounded by the
WOrdS, " HE IS IN GLORY, THE
WORLD IN TEAKS." On the T6-
verse is a memorial urn, and
WASHINGTON" MEDAL.
around it, forming two circles,
are abbreviations, seen in the
engraving, signifying "Born
February 11, 1732 ; General of
the American Army, 1775 ; re
signed 17S3 ; President of the
United States of America,
17S9; retired in!79G; General
of the Armies of the United
States, 179S ; died December
14, 1799." This medal was de
signed by Dudley A. Tyng, the
collector of customs at New-
buryport at that time, and en
graved and published, immediately after the death of Washington, by Jacob Perkins, the well-known ingenious me
chanic and engraver. He cut dies for this design of two sizes.
2 A contemporary wrote as follows concerning Washington's person and character:
"GENERAL WASHINGTON in his person was tall, upright, and well-made : in manner easy and unaffected. His
eyes were of a bluish cast, not prominent, indicative of deep thoughtfnlness, and, when in action on great occasions,
remarkably lively. His features strong, manly, and commanding; his temper reserved and serious; his counte
nance grave, composed, and sensible. There was in his whole appearance an unusnal dignity and gracefulness which
at once secured for him profound respect and cordial esteem. He seemed born to command his fellow-men. In his of
ficial capacity he received applicants for favors, and answered their requests with so much ease, condescension, and
kindness, as that each retired believing himself a favorite of his chief. He had an excellent and well-cultivated under
standing; a correct, discerning, and comprehensive mind; a memory remarkably retentive ; energetic passions under
perfect control ; a judgment sober, deliberate, and sound. He was a man of the strictest honor and honesty ; fair and
honorable in his dealings ; punctual to his engagements. His disposition was mild, kind, and generous. Candor, sin
cerity, moderation, and simplicity were, in common, prominent features in his character ; but, when an occasion call
ed, he was capable of displaying the most determined bravery, firmness, and independence. He was an affectionate
husband, a faithful friend, a humane master, and a father to the poor. He lived in the unvarying habits of regularity,
temperance, and industry. He steadily rose at the dawn of day, and retired to rest usually at nine o'clock in the even
ing. The intermediate hours all had their proper business assigned them. In his allotments for the revolving hours
religion was not forgotten. Feeling, what he so often publicly acknowledged, his entire dependence on God, he daily,
at stated seasons, retired to his closet to worship at His footstool, and to ask His divine blessing. He was remarkable
for his strict observation of the Sabbath, and exemplary in his attendance on public worship."
]12 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK.
Peaceful Promises. The Achievements of Bonaparte. His Influence in Europe. Hatred of Great Britain.
CHAPTER VI.
"The Dey of Algiers, not afraid of his ears,
Sent to Jonathan once for some tribute :
' Ho ! ho !' says the Dey, ' if the rascal don't pay,
A caper or two I'll exhibit.
I'm the Dey of Algiers, with a beard a yard long ;
I'm a Mussulman, too, and of course very strong:
For this is my maxim, dispute it who can,
That a man of stout muscle's a stout Mussulman.' "
EFFERSON'S administration commenced under favorable aus-
pices.a There were omens of peace abroad, and these . March 4)
promised calmness and prosperity at home. The
league of England and the Continental powers against Bona
parte had failed to impede his progress in the path toward uni
versal dominion ; on the contrary, he had brought nearly all
Europe trembling at his feet. Within the short space of two
years he made himself master of all Italy, and humbled proud
Austria by a scries of the most splendid victories on record. Within the circle of
another two years he had returned from his Oriental campaigns to receive the hom
age of France, and accept its sceptre in republican form as First Consul. With the
absolute power of an emperor, which title he speedily assumed, he prepared to bring
to France still more wealth, territory, and glory, by extending her sway from Africa
to the North Cape — from the Atlantic to the Ural Mountains. Old thrones shook;
and when Bonaparte whispered peace all Europe Kstened eagerly, for they were
words of hope for dynasties and nationalities.
The preliminary Treaty of Luncville,lb affirming that of Campo-For-
eisoiarj "' mio,2 made four years earlier,6 rendered a reconstruction of the map of
« October IT, Europe necessary, for kings and princes had allowed the successful soldier
to change the geographical lines of their dominions. Great Britain was
left alone in armed opposition to the conquering Corsican. Even her late allies
against him, always jealous of her maritime superiority, were now his foes. The
league of Northern powers, known as the Armed Neutrality,3 was re-established by
* December ic, treaty'1 at the instigation of the Emperor Paul, of Russia, and from their
180°- council went forth the spirit of Cato's words concerning the offending
African city : Delenda est Carthago — " Carthage must be destroyed." They resolved
to contradict by force her doctrine concerning the freedom of neutrals,4 and naval
armaments were put afloat. At the same time Bonaparte was threatening Great Brit
ain with invasion, and her rich East India possessions with the tread of the conqueror.
Although burdened with taxation to a degree before unknown, and wearied with
her long contest with France and the Irish rebellion under her own roof,5 Britain
1 The peace concluded at Luneville between the French Republic and the Emperor of Germany, after confirming the
Treaty of Campo-Formio, stipulated that the Rhine to the Dutch Territories should form the boundaries of France, and
recognizing the independence of the Bavarian, Helvetic, Ligurian, and Cisalpine Republics.
2 In the Treaty of Campo-Formio, between France and Austria, the latter yielded the Low Countries and the Ionian
Islands to the former, and Milan, Mantua, and Modena to the Cisalpine Republic which Bonaparte had established in
Italy. By a secret article, the Emperor of Austria took possession of the Venitian dominions, in compensation for the
Netherlands. 3 See note 2, on page 83. * See note 1, page 84.
5 The Roman Catholics and the Protestant Dissenters in Ireland were subjected to cruel and insulting disabilities by
the English in regard to both civil and religious privileges. In 1701 a society was formed, chiefly under the direction of
Wolfe Tone, for the purpose of procuring Parliamentary reform in this matter. They were called "United Irishmen."
They were also animated by republican sentiments, and a hatred of England as an oppressor. Inspired by events in
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 113
Great Britain triumphant. Friendly Relations with Bonaparte. The sudden Change ridiculed.
once more put forth her strength on the ocean. Parker and Nelson destroyed the
Danish fleet at Copenhagen,a and brought that government to submission ; . Apri] 2)
the other powers of the league, alarmed, and deserted by Paul's successor,
withdrew from the unequal contest, and left England still boasting, as in Waller's
time, two hundred years ago, that her ships were
"Riding without a rival on the sea;"
or chanting, with the faith of Thomson, a hundred years -later,
"When Britain first, at Heaven's command,
Arose from out the azure main,
This was the charter of the land,
And guardian angels sung the strain :
Rule Britannia ; Britannia rules the waves !
Britons never shall be slaves."
England was willing to have peace, but not with the loss of an iota of her power.
A peace ministry, with Mr. Addington at its head, assumed the reins of government
in the spring of 1801. It looked with favor upon the dispersion of the war-clouds
which had so long brooded over Europe. During that year one after another of the
Continental powers wheeled into the line of amicable relations with Bonaparte,1 and
in March, 1 802,b by treaty at Amiens,2 he and George the Third became
technical friends, much to the disgust of a powerful war party in England,
who would not trust the word of the ambitious Corsican for an hour. They believed
his object to be rest and gaining of time, while he should make preparations for more
formidable blows for the subjugation of Europe. But they were compelled to yield
to the greater faith, or the greater needs, of the government and the majority. There
was sunlight abroad, and a bow of promise in the sky. It seemed as if universal
peace was about to be established in Europe, and Bonaparte was hailed as a pacifica
tor. England blazed with bonfires and illuminations ; was resonant with speeches
and sermons; feasted in public halls in testimony of her faith and joy, and enriched
her literature with addresses and poems on the apparent dawning of a political mil
lennium. Forgetful of the past deeds of Bonaparte, which they had denounced as
crimes, Englishmen flocked to Paris to bow before the rising sun of power, and car
ried back with them French fashions in abundance, as tokens of their satisfaction.
The sly Corsican, chuckling over their obsequiousness, and their blindness to his real
designs, treated the most distinguished of his English admirers with marked respect,
and received in turn such fulsome adulation that right-minded men in Great Britain
blushed with shame.3
The machinery of government was all adjusted for the easy management of the
France, these "United Irishmen," whose society extended all over the kingdom, resolved to strike for liberty and es
tablish a republican form of government for Ireland. In this they received the aid of France. They nominated an ex
ecutive directory in 1797. Their plans, carried on with the utmost secrecy, were ripe for execution, when they were dis
covered and denounced by a government spy. Many of the leaders were arrested, but an open, armed rebellion was sud
denly developed all over the kingdom in May, 1798. Great Britain put forth its military power, then strong at home, in
anticipation of an invasion by the armies in France, and the insurrection was crushed in the course of a few months.
1 France concluded a treaty of peace with Naples March 18, 1801 ; with Spain, March 21 ; with the Pope, July 15 ; with
Bavaria, August 24 ; with Portugal, September 29 ; with Russia, October 4 ; with Turkey, October 9 ; and with Algiers,
December 7.
2 This was a treaty between Great Britain, Holland, France, and Spain. The preliminary treaty had been signed on
the 1st of October, 1801. The definitive treaty was signed by Lord Cornwallis, for England ; Joseph Bonaparte, for
France ; Azara, for Spain, and Schimmelpenniuck, for Holland.
3 Among those who went over at that time were Charles James Fox and his nephew, Lord Holland, Lords Erskine,
Grey, and other leading men. These visits excited the ridicule of satirists. Gillray's pencil was active. Several cari
catures from his brain were speedily published. He ridiculed the visit of Fox and his friends in a caricature entitled
' 'Introduction of Citizen Volprone and Suite at Paris," in which Fox and his wife, Lord and Lady Holland, and Grey and Er
skine, are seen stooping low before the new ruler of France. One of the most popular of his caricatures was entitled " The
first Kiss this ten years, or the meeting of Britannia and Citizen Francois." Britannia, who has suddenly become corpu
lent, appears as a fine lady in full dress, her shield and spear leaning neglected against the wall. The citizen expresses
his joy at the meeting in warm terms. "Madame," he says, "permittez me to pay my profound esteem to your en
gaging person, and to seal on your divine lips my everlasting attachment ! ! !" The lady, blushing deeply, replies,
"Monsieur, you are a truly well-bred gentleman ; and though you make me blush, yet you kiss so delicately I can not
refuse yon, though I was sure yon would deceive me again !" On the wall just behind these two figures are portraits
of King George and Bonaparte scowling at each other.— See Wright's England under the House of Hanover, ii., 391.
H
114
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Beginning of Jefferson's Administration. Appearance and Condition of the National Capital. Thomas Jefferson.
new President of the United States. The treasury had never been so full, nor the
revenue so abundant as at that time, and he was enabled to signalize the commence
ment of his administration and to strengthen it by the repeal of the excise and other
obnoxious acts, which were necessary at the beginning. Commerce, and all the in
dustrial interests of the country, were
flourishing, and the pathway of the new
chief magistrate of the republic seemed
plain, flowery, and luminous.
The seat of government had just been
removed to the city of Washington, the
new capital of the nation, and then an in
significant village on the bank of the Poto
mac, on the verge of a Maryland forest,1 in
the District of Columbia.2 There, in one
of the wings of the half-finished Capitol,
the last session of Congress had been
held ; and there, on the 4th of March, 1801,
Chief Justice Marshall administered to
Mr. Jefferson the oath of office, and he
became the third President of the United
States.3
Although Jefferson was a radical Re
publican, he made no special changes in
the inaugural ceremonies used by his pre
decessors. He abolished public levees at
the Presidential mansion, and sent mes
sages in writing to Congress, instead of
1 "There is one good tavern about forty rods from the Capitol, and several other houses are built or erecting," Oliver
Wolcott wrote to a friend in the autumn of 1800 ; " but I don't see how the members of Congress can possibly secure
lodgings unless they will consent to live like scholars in a college or monks in a monastery, crowded ten or twenty in
one house. The only resource for such as wish to live comfortably will be found in Georgetown, three miles distant,
over as bad a road in winter as the clay grounds near Hartford. . . . There are, in fact, but few houses in any one
place, and most of them small, miserable huts, which present an awful contrast to the public buildings. The people
are poor, and, as far as I can judge, they live like fishes, by eating each other. . . . You may look in almost any direc
tion, over an extent of ground nearly as large as the city of New York, without seeing a fence or any object except
brick-kilns and temporary huts for laborers. . . . There is no industry, society, or business."
Mrs. Adams, wife of the President, wrote in November, 1800 : " Woods are all you see from Baltimore until you reach
the city, which is only so in name. Here and there is a small cot, without a glass window, interspersed among the for
ests, through which you travel miles without seeing a human being." Concerning the President's house, which she
speaks of as "upon a grand and superb scale, requiring about thirty servants to attend and keep the apartments in
proper order, and perform the ordinary business of the house and stables," she said, "If they will put me up some bells
—there is not one hung through the whole house, and promises are all you can obtain— and let me have wood enough
to keep fires, I design to be pleased. I could content myself almost any where for three months ; but, surrounded with
forests, can you believe that wood is not to be had, because people can not be found to cut and cart it ! Briesler entered
into a contract with a man to supply him with wood ; a small part — a few cords only — has he been able to get. Most of
that was expended to dry the walls of the house before we came in, and yesterday the man told him it was impossible
to procure it to be cut and carted. He has had recourse to coals, but we can not get grates made and set. We have,
indeed, come into a new country."
2 The District of Columbia was a tract ten miles square, lying on each side of the Potomac, and ceded to the United
States by the States of Maryland and Virginia, for the residence of the national-government. The portion lying in Vir
ginia was retroceded to that state a few years ago. The city of Washington was laid out there in 1T91, and the erection
of the Capitol was commenced in 1T93, when, on the 18th of April, President Washington laid the corner-stone, with ma
sonic ceremonies. The two wings were completed in 1808. The government, which had resided ten years in Philadel
phia, moved to Washington in the autumn of 1800.
3 Thomas Jefferson was born at Shadwell, Albemarle County, Virginia, on the 13th of April, 1743. He was educated
at William and Mary's College, studied law with the eminent George Wythe, and was admitted to the bar while yet a very
young man. He was a member of the Virginia Assembly before the Revolution, and won fame as a vigorous thinker
and writer. He was elected to the Continental Congress in 17T5, and in 1776, at the request of a committee of which he
was a member, he drew up the Declaration of Independence. He was offered an embassy to France, but declined it
on account of feeble health. In 1779 he was elected Governor of Virginia, and in 17SO retired from public life, and de
voted his time chiefly to literary and scientific pursuits. He was sent to France in 1783, to join Adams and Franklin, as
representative of his country, and in 1785 succeeded Franklin as minister at the French Court. He remained there un
til 1789, when he returned, and entered Washington's Cabinet as Secretary of State. He remained in that position until
1793. He was elected Vice-President of the United States in 1796, and in 1801 was elected to the Presidency. He was
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 115
Mr. Jefferson foreshadows his Policy. His Popularity. A National Party desired. Political Proscription begun.
delivering speeches in person, because be considered these customs too monarchical
in form.1
A small military and civic escort conducted Mr. Jefferson to the Capitol, aftd there
he read his inaugural address to a large crowd of delighted listeners. It had been
looked for with anxiety, as it would foreshadow the policy of the new administration.2
It was patriotic, conservative, and conciliatory, and allayed many apprehensions of
his political opponents. " Every difference of opinion," he said, " is not a difference of
principle. We have called by different names brethren of the same principle. We
are all Federalists — we are all Republicans."3
In this spirit Mr. Jefferson commenced his administration. He set about the reform
of public abuses, treated every body with kindness, and left most of the incumbents
of public offices untouched for a while.4 His political enemies were compelled to con
fess his forecast, wisdom, and faithfulness ; and many Federalists, believing that he
would not disturb their friends in office, joined the Republican party, and became the
most vehement denunciators of their old partisans and their principles.5
Mr. Jefferson soon discovered that he was not wholly his own master. He had
been elevated to power by a party whose leaders, like those of all parties, were
lustful for office. He was compelled to listen to their clamors, and finally to yield
acquiescence in their doctrine that " to the victor belongs the spoils."6 He grad
ually filled many of the most important offices in his gift with his political friends,
for whose accommodation faithful men, a large proportion of them appointed by
Washington and retained by Adams, were removed. Thus was developed in alarm
ing proportions that system of proscription commenced by the second President,
which has worked mischievously in the administration of our general and state gov
ernments from that time until the present. It bore immediate fruit in the form of
bitter partisanship. The Federalists, now become the opposition, and thereby hav
ing the advantage in controversy, began a relentless warfare upon the new admin
istration as soon as its prescriptive policy was manifested. With that warfare, as a
mere game of politics, we have nothing to do, except so far as it had a bearing upon
re-elected in 1805, and in 1809 retired to private life, from which he was never again drawn. He died at his residence at
Monticello on the 4th of July, 1826, in the S4th year of his age. Like Adams, he departed on the fiftieth anniversary of
the Declaration of Independence. The profile of Mr. Jefferson, given on page 114, is from an impression from a pri
vate plate made in aquatinta about the year 1804, and presented by the President to the Hon. D. C.Verplanck, who was a
member of Congress from 1803 until 1809.
i The personal appearance of President Jefferson at this period may be imagined from the following description by
William Plumer, United States senator from New Hampshire in 1802: "The next day after my arrival I visited the
President, accompanied by some Democratic members. In a few moments after our arrival a tall, high-boned man
came into the room. He was dressed, or rather undressed, in an old brown coat, red waistcoat, old corduroy small
clothes much soiled, woolen hose, and slippers without heels. I thought him a servant, when General Varnum sur
prised me by announcing that it was the President."— See Life of William Plumer, p. 242.
3 In a letter to Nathaniel Macon, of North Carolina, on the 14th of May, Mr. Jefferson indicated his policy as follows:
" 1. Levees are done away with. 2. The first communication to the next Congress will be, like all subsequent ones, by
message, to which no answer will be expected. 3. The diplomatic establishment in Europe will be reduced to three
ministers. 4. The compensation of collectors depends on you [Congress], and not on me. 5. The army is undergoing
a chaste reformation. 6. The navy will be reduced to the legal establishment by the last of this mouth. 1. Agencies
in every department will be revised. 8. We shall push you to the uttermost in economizing. 9. A very early recom
mendation has been given to the Postmaster General to employ no printer, foreigner, or Revolutionary Tory in any of
his offices."
3 See the Statesman's Manual, i., 242, where the President's inaugural message is printed in full.
* Mr. Jefferson appointed James Madison Secretary of State, Henry Dearborn Secretary of War, and Levi Lincoln At
torney General. He retained Mr. Adams's Secretaries of the Treasury and Navy until the following autumn, when
Albert Gallatin was appointed to the first, and Robert Smith to the second. These were both Republicans, and his Cabi
net was now wholly so.
5 Mr. Jefferson dreamed, patriotically, of a consolidated national party and a brilliant administration. In a letter to
John Dickinson, two days after his inauguration, he wrote, "I hope to see shortly a perfect consolidation, to effect
which, nothing shall be wanting on my part short of the abandonment of the principles of the Revolution. A just and
solid republican government maintained here, will be a standing monument and example for the aim and imitation of
the people of other countries." Yet he early resolved on rewards to friends. To Colonel Monroe he wrote on the 7th
of March, "To give time for a perfect consolidation seems prudent. I have firmly refused to follow the counsels of
those who have desired the giving of offices to some of the Federalist leaders in order to reconcile. I have given, and
will give, only to Republicans, under existing circumstances."
6 This doctrine was first announced in these words by the late William L. Marcy when he assumed the administration
cf the public affairs of the State of New York as governor in 1833.
116 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Reason for giving a History of Parties. The Navy reduced. Unwise Economy. Tribute to the Barbary Powers.
public events during the few years immediately preceding the War of 1812, and held
relationship thereto.
It sedms proper at this point in our narrative to say, that the sketch of the rise and
progress of the two great political parties which existed in the United States at the
beginning of the present century, and whose animosities and aspirations had much to
do in bringing about a war in 1812, has been given for the purpose, first, to afford our
general subject that much-needed elucidation, and, secondly, to connect by dependent
links of historic outlines the events of the FIKST with those of the SECOND WAE FOR
INDEPENDENCE.
• March, At the close of Mr. Adams's administration,*1 Congress passed a law1 au-
1801- thorizing the President to place the navy on a rigid peace footing, by retain
ing only thirteen frigates,2 and only six of these to be kept in active service. The
act authorized him to dismantle and sell all others, and lay up seven of the thirteen
in a way in which they might be carefully preserved. It also authorized him to re
duce the complement of officers and men, by retaining in the service, in time of peace,
only nine captains, thirty-six lieutenants, and one hundred and fifty midshipmen, in
cluding those employed on the six frigates kept in active service, and to discharge the
remainder. Under this authority, and in accordance with his own judgment concern
ing rigid economy and the prospect of universal peace, Mr. Jefferson sold all but the
thirteen frigates named, laid up seven of these, and discharged all the officers and
men in excess after placing the service on a peace footing. And yet, in the matter
of force, nearly four fifths was retained, for the vessels sold were mostly inferior, and
only fourteen of them had been built expressly for the government service. The Pres
ident also suspended work on six ships authorized by Congress in 1798. So little did
the American people then seem to apprehend the value of a competent navy for the
protection of their commerce every where, as well as the honor of the nation, that a
majority of them applauded these measures, while many Federalists assailed them
only for political effect. That strong arm of the government which had so protected
commerce as to enable the Americans to sell to foreign countries, during the difficul
ties with France, surplus products to the amount of $200,000,000, and to import suf
ficient to yield the government a revenue exceeding $23,000,000, was thus paralyzed
by an unwise economy in public expenditure.
The conduct of the Barbary Powers soon made the want of an efficient navy pain
fully apparent. The government of the United States had purchased, by the pay
ment in full of a stipulated sum of money, the friendship, or rather the forbearance of
the Bey of Tripoli, while to the Dey of Algiers and the Bey of Tunis tribute in money,
military and maritime stores, and other presents was annually paid.3 The submis
sion of all the Christian nations of Europe to these exactions made those pirate-kings
exceedingly insolent, and finally, in the spring of 1801, the President resolved to
humble the pride and the power of those commercial marauders, release American
commerce from their thrall in the Mediterranean, and assert the dignity of his coun
try by ceasing to pay tribute to another. This resolution was strengthened by the
1 Approved March 3, 1801.
2 These were the United States, Constitution, President, Chesapeake, Philadelphia, Constellation, Congress, New York, Bos
ton, Essex, Adams, John Adams, and General Greene. These had an aggregate armament of 364 guns. The vessels sold
were the George Washington, Ganges, Portsmouth, Merrimack, Connecticut, of 24 guns each ; the Baltimore, Delaivare, and
Montezuma, of 20 guns each ; the Maryland, Patapsco, Herald, Trumbull, Warren, Norfolk, Richmond, and Pinckney, of 18
guns each ; the Eagle, Augusta, and Scamnel, 14 guns each ; the Experiment, 9 guns, and nine galleys.— COOPER, i., 333-4.
3 Colonel Ebenezer Stevens, an active and eminent merchant of New York, and who had been a meritorious artillery
officer during the Revolution, was employed by the government as its factor in forwarding the stores to Tunis. In
May, 1801, Secretary Madison wrote to Mr. Stevens on the subject, saying, " It is desirable that the remaining cargo
of maritime and military stores due to the Regency of Tunis should be provided and shipped without loss of time. The
powder will be given to you from the public magazines, and the Navy Department will give orders to its agent at New
York or elsewhere, as may be most convenient, to supply the cannon and such other articles as you may want and can
be spared."— MS. letter. How much cheaper and more dignified it would have been to have sent the materials in ships
of war, fully prepared, as they might have been, to knock the capitals of those semi-barbaric rulers about their ears,
and sink their corsairs in the deep waters of the Mediterranean !
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
117
Bainbridge at Algiers and Constantinople. His Treatment at each. Good Effect of his Visit to Constantinople.
insolent treatment of Commodore Bainbridge by the Dey of Algiers the previous
year. In May, 1800, Bainbridge, in command of the George Washington, 24, went
out with the usual tribute to the Algerine ruler. He arrived in the port of his capi
tal in September, performed with courtesy the duties enjoined upon him, and was
about to leave, when the Dey commanded him to carry an Algerine embassador to
the Court of the Sultan at Constantinople. Bainbridge politely refused compliance,
when the haughty and offended Dey said sternly, " You pay me tribute, by which
you become my slaves, and therefore I have a right to order you as I think proper."
The guns of the castle were looking out vigilantly upon Bainbridge's frigate, and
without their permission he could not pass out of the harbor. He was compelled to
yield to the force of
circumstances, being
assured by Mr. O'Bri
en, once a captive and
then American consul
there, that if he at
tempted to leave the
harbor, the guns of the
castle, heavy and well-
manned, would open
upon his vessel with
destructive effect, his
ship would be seized
and used for the pur
pose, and war would
ensue. To avoid these
calamities Bainbridge
bowed submissively
to the humiliation ;
and he even complied
with the haughty ruler's farther requisition, that he should carry the Algerine flag at
the main, and that of the United States at the fore. He sailed out of the port of
Algiers an obedient slave, and then, placing his own flag in the position of honor as a
freeman, he bore the Algerine embassador to the Golden Horn. " I hope," he wrote
to the Secretary of the Navy, " I shall never again be sent to Algiers with tribute,
unless I am authorized to deliver it from the mouth of our cannon."
Under other circumstances this trip to the ancient city of Constantinople would
have been a desirable one, for Bainbridge had the honor of displaying the stars and
stripes for the first time before that famous seat of Ottoman empire. The Sultan
and his great officers of state were astonished. They had never heard of the United
States ; but when, at length, they were made to comprehend that it was a country
beyond the great sea, discovered by Columbus, of which they had heard vague and
romantic rumors, Bainbridge was received with the greatest courtesy. He and the
Turkish admiral became warm friends ; and when Bainbridge was about to return to
Algiers in January, the latter gave him a firman to protect him from farther inso
lence there. The Sultan, whose flag bore the crescent moon, drew a favorable omen
from this visit of a banner bearing its neighbors, the stars of heaven. He believed
the two nations must ever be friends, and so they have been.
On his return to Algiers'1 the Dey requested Bainbridge to go on an- . January 21,
other errand to Constantinople. Bainbridge peremptorily refused. The
Dey flew into a rage, threatened war, and finally menaced the captain with personal
violence. Bainbridge quietly produced his firman, when the fierce governor became
lamb-like, and obsequiously offered to the man he had just looked upon as his slave,
ALGIERS IN 1800.
118
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The Dey of Algiers humbled.
Insolence of the Bey of Tunis.
Commodore Dale in the Mediterranean.
friendship and service. Taking advantage of this change, Bainbridge assumed the
air of a dictator, and demanded the instant release of the French consul and fifty or
sixty of his countrymen, who had lately been imprisoned by the Dey. When Bain-
bridge left he carried away with him all the French in Algiers. His compulsory visit
to Constantinople resulted in great good to his fellow-men.
The Bey or Bashaw of Tripoli,1 not content with the gross sum that had been paid
him by the United States, when he learned that his neighbors had received larger
bribes than he, demanded tribute in the autumn of 1800, and threatened war if his
demand was not satisfied Avithin six months. Accordingly, in May, 1801, he ordered
the flag-staff of the American consulate to be cut down, and proclaimed war. In an
ticipation of these events, Commodore Dale had been sent with a small squadron, con
sisting of the President, 44, Captain James Barren ; Philadelphia^ 38, Captain Samuel
Barren; Essex, 32, Captain Bainbridge, and Enterprise, 12, Lieutenant Commandant
Sterrett. The President was Dale's flag-ship. The squadron sailed from Hampton Roads,
and reached Gibraltar on the 1st of July. Dale soon proceeded eastward in company
with the Enterprise,
and appeared ofi" Trip
oli and Timis, to the
great astonishment of
the rulers of those
states. On the way
the Enterprise fell in
with, attacked, and
captured a Tripoli-
tan corsair called the
Tripoli, reducing her,
in the course of an
engagement of three
hours, almost to a
wreck, and killing and
wounding twenty of
her men, without the
loss of a single man on
her side.2 Meanwhile
the Philadelphia was
cruising in the Straits
of Gibraltar, to pre
vent two Tripolitan
corsairs which were
found there going out
upon the Atlantic ;
and the Essex sailed
along the northern
shores of the Medi
terranean, to convoy
American merchant
ships. Dale contin
ued to cruise in the
Mediterranean until
autumn, and his pres
ence exercised a most
wholesome restraint
over the corsairs.3
Another expedition
was sent to the Medi
terranean in 1802, under
Commodore Richard V.
Morris. It was a relief squadron, and consisted of the Chesapeake, 38, Lieutenant
Chauncey, acting captain; Constellation, 38, Captain Murray; New York, 36, Cap
tain James Bairon; John Adams, 28, Captain Rodgez-s; Adams, 28, Captain Camp
bell, and Enterprise, 12, Lieutenant Commandant Sterrett. Morris hoisted his broad
pennant on board the Chesapeake. The squadron did not go in a body, but pro
ceeded one after another from February until September. Meanwhile the ^Boston,
i This was Jussuf Caramalli. He was a third son, and had obtained the seat of power by violence. He murdered
his father and elder brother, and deposed his next brother, Hamet, the rightful heir, who at this time was an exile in
Egypt, whither he fled to save his life, followed by quite a large number of adherents.
s The rats or commander of the Tripoli was Mahomet Sous, Three times during the engagement the Tripoli struck
her colors, and as often treacherously renewed the combat, when Lieutenant Sterrett determined to sink her. She was
too much of a wreck to be taken into port— indeed, according to instructions, she could not be made a prize— and she
was dismantled under the direction of Lieutenant David Porter. When her commander reached Tripoli, wounded and
heart-broken, he was subjected to great indignity. He was placed upon a jackass, paraded through the streets, and aft
erward received the bastinado.
3 Richard Dale was born near Norfolk, Virginia, on the Cth of November, 1756. He went to sea at the age of twelve
years, and continued in the merchant service until 177G, when he became lieutenant of a Virginia cruiser. He was an
active officer during the whole war of the Revolution, and was with Paul Jones in his gallant action with the Serapis in
September, 1779. He was then only about twenty-three years of age. He was a great favorite with Jones, and the latter
presented to Dale the elegant gold-mounted sword which Jones received from the King of Prance. It is now in the pos
session of his grandson, Richard Dale, of Philadelphia, where I saw it iu November, 1861. The handle, guard, and hilt,
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
Tripoli and its Cruisers blockaded. Abandonment of the Barbary Coast. Commodores Morris and Dale.
commanded by the eccentric Captain M'Neill (son of Hector M'Neill, of the Revo
lutionary navy),1 was cruising in the Mediterranean in an independent way, after
conveying Robert R. Livingston, the United States minister, to France. The port
of Tripoli was blockaded by her early in May, where she was joined by the Con
stellation. The latter vessel was soon left alone, as M'Neill avoided the company of
others, and not long afterward she had a severe contest with a flotilla of seventeen
Tripolitan gun-boats. She handled them severely, as well as some cavalry on the
shore, with her great guns.
The Chesapeake reached Gibraltar on the 25th of May, and found the Essex, Cap
tain Bainbridge, still blockading the two Tripolitan cruisers there. The arrival of
the Adams late in July enabled the Chesapeake, in company with the Enterprise, to
cruise along the north shore of the Mediterranean for the protection of American
commerce. Finally orders were given for the different vessels of the squadron to
rendezvous at Malta. They collected there in the course of the month of January,
1803, and during the spring appeared off the ports of the Barbary Powers, and ef
fectually restraining their corsairs. Tripoli was blockaded by the John Adams in
May. She had a severe engagement toward the close of the month with gun-boats
and land batteries. These suffered severely, and the Americans lost twelve or fifteen
in killed and wounded. An unsuccessful attempt to negotiate a peace was made the
next day, and in June the movements of the Algerine and Tunisian corsairs induced
the Americans to raise the blockade. But, before leaving, Commodore Rodgers, of
the John Adams (then in chief command), with the Enterprise, attacked a large Tri
politan corsair lying in a sheltered bay, and drove her people to the shore. The cor
sair soon afterward blew up, with a large number of persons who had returned to
her. The ships then all left the Barbary coast, and Commodore Morris returned
home. He arrived toward the close of November, 1803. The conduct of affairs in
the Mediterranean under his direction was not satisfactory. A court of inquiry de
cided that he had not " discovered due diligence and activity in annoying the enemy,"
and the President, with a precipitation difficult to be defended, dismissed him from
the service without trial.2
The United States government had determined to act with more vigor against the
Barbary Powers, and in May, 1803, Commodore Preble was appointed to the com-
andthe mountings of the scabbard are solid gold, with beau
tifully-wrought devices on them. Upon the blade is the fol
lowing iuscription : VINIHCATI MARTS LHIMVICUS xvi. REMU-
NERATOR SIREN-IK) viRTUTi — " Louis XVI. rewarder of the
valiant asserter of the freedom of the sea."
Dale left the service in 1TSO. In 1794 he was appointed
one of the six naval captains by Washington. He was made
commodore in 1801 by being placed in command of a squad
ron, and the following year he resigned. He retired with a
competency, and spent the remainder of his days in Philadel
phia, where he died in 1826, iu the sixty-ninth year of his
acrp
dge.
The grave of Commodore Dale is in Christ Church-yard, on
Fifth Street, Philadelphia. His monument is a marble slab,
with the following inscription: "In memory of Commodore
RICUARD DALE, born November 6, 175G, died February 24,
1320. An honest man, an incorruptible patriot, in all his re
lations conciliating universal love. A Christian without
guile, he departed this life in the well-founded and triumph
ant hope of that blessedness which awaits all who, like him,
die in the Lord." On the same slab is an inscription com
memorative of the virtues of his wife, who died in Septem- DALE'S MONUMENT.
her, 1S32, at the age of sixty-five years. Very near this tomb
is a handsome marble cross, erected to the memory of Montgomery, a son of Commodore Dale, also of the United State*
navy, who died in December, 1S52, at the age of fifty-five years.
1 See Lossing's Field-Book of the Revolution, ii., C40.
2 Richard Valentine Morris was the youngest son of Lewis Morris, of Morrisania, New York, one of the signers of the
Declaration of Independence. He entered the service in early life, and in June, 179S, he was commissioned a captain in
the navy. He was retained as fifth in rank at the reduction of the navy in 1S01. His dismissal from the service hap
ever been considered a high-handed political measure. He died while attending the Legislature at Albany in 1S14.
120
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Squadron under Preble in the Mediterranean. Settlement of Difficulties with Morocco. Capture of the Philadelphia.
mand of a squadron, consisting of the
Constitution, 44, Philadelphia, 38, Ar
gus and /Siren, 16 each, and Nautilus,
Vixen, and Enterprise, 12 each. Preble
sailed in the Constitution at the middle
of August, and the other vessels follow
ed as fast as they were made ready.
The Philadelphia, Captain Bainbridge,
had sailed in July, and on the 26th of
August captured the Moorish frigate
Meshboha, found holding in possession
an American merchant vessel which
she had taken as a prize. It was dis
covered that her commander was act
ing under the orders of the Moorish
Governor of Tangiers to cruise for
American vessels. The Philadelphia
returned to Gibraltar with her prize.
On the arrival of Preble he determ
ined to sail for Tangiers and make in
quiries respecting the hostile proceed
ings of the Moors. He was accompa
nied by Commodore Rodgers, and on
the 6th of October the Constitution,
New York, John Adams, and Nautilus
entered the Bay of Tangiers. Preble
had an interview with the Emperor of Morocco, who disavowed the act of the Gov
ernor of Tangiers, and expressed a desire to remain at peace with the United States.
The difficulty with Morocco being settled, Rodgers sailed for home, and Preble
made energetic preparations to bring Tripoli to terms. A serious disaster soon oc
curred. On the morning of the 31st of October the Philadelphia chased a Tripolitan
ship into the harbor of Tripoli. In endeavoring to beat off she struck on a rock not
laid down in any of the charts. Every effort to get her off failed, and she was' at
tacked and finally captured by the Tripolitans. Bainbridge and his officers and men
were made prisoners, and two days afterward the ship was extricated and taken into the
harbor. The officers were treated as prisoners of war, but the crew were made slaves.
Bainbridge found means to report his misfortune to Preble at Malta, and to sug
gest the destruction of the Philadelphia, which was being fitted for sea. Preble had
recently appeared off Tripoli for the first time. On the 23d of December the ^Enter
prise, Lieutenant Decatur, sailing in company with the flag-ship, captured a ketch
called the Mastico, then belonging to the Tripolitans, and bound to Constantinople
with a present of female slaves for the Sultan. Heavy storms arose, and Preble and
Decatur sailed into Syracuse, where the ketch was appraised and taken into the
service, with the name of the Intrepid.
Decatur had formed a plan for cutting out or destroying the Philadelphia. It was
approved by Preble; and on the 3d of February, 1804, he left Syracuse with orders
and preparations to destroy her. The Intrepid was chosen for the service, and sev
enty-four determined young men sailed in her for the port of Tripoli, accompanied by
the brig Siren, Lieutenant Stewart. Heavy storms dekyed their operations until the
16th, when, in the evening, the young moon shining brightly, the Intrepid sailed into
the harbor, and was warped alongside the Philadelphia without exciting suspicion,
she having assumed the character of a vessel in distress. Most of the officers and
men were concealed until the ketch was placed alongside the Philadelphia. Then,
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 121
Destruction of the Philadelphia. Tripoli bombarded. A hand to hand Fight. Gallantry of Decatur.
for the first, the Tripolitans suspected them. At the same moment Decatur and
other officers sprang on board the frigate, followed by their men. In a few minutes
the turbaned defenders of the vessel were all killed or driven into the sea. She was
immediately set on fire, in the midst of the roar of cannon from the Tripolitan bat
teries and castle, and from two corsairs near. The scene was magnificent ; and as the
guns of the Philadelphia became heated they were discharged. The Intrepid was in
imminent danger from the flames, but she escaped. Not one of the gallant Decatur's
men was killed, and only four were wounded. In the light of the conflagration the
Intrepid, by the aid of oars, swept out of the harbor, where the boats of the Siren,
with their strong sweeps, were in readiness to aid in towing her off. Before a pleas
ant breeze both vessels sailed for Syracuse, where the American squadron and the
people of the town welcomed them with strong demonstrations of joy. For this he
roic act Decatur was promoted to captain, and several of the other officers who ac
companied him were advanced.
This bold act greatly alarmed the Bey or Bashaw of Tripoli, and the ensuing block
ade of his port by Commodore Preble made him exceedingly circumspect. Finally,
at the close of July,a Preble entered the harbor of Tripoli with his squadron, and
anchored the Constitution two and a half miles from the walled city, whose pro
tection lay in heavy batteries mounting one hundred and fifteen cannon, nine
teen gun-boats, a brig, two schooners, and some galleys, twenty-five thousand
land-soldiers, and a sheltering reef of dangerous rocks and shoals. These did
not dismay Preble. On the 3d of August, at three in the afternoon, he opened
a heavy cannonade and bombardment from his gun-boats, which alone could
get near enough for effective service. Conflict in closer range soon took
place, and finally Lieutenant Decatur, commanding gun-boat Number four,
lay his vessel alongside one of the largest of those of the enemy, and boarded
and captured her after a desperate struggle.1 He immediately boarded an
other, when he had a most desperate personal encounter with the powerful
Tripolitan captain. The struggle was brief but deadly. The captain was
finally killed by Decatur at a moment of fearful peril, and the vessel was
captured.2 After a general conflict of two hours, during which time three
of the enemy's gun-boats were sunk in the harbor, three of them captured, and
a heavy loss of life had been suffered by the Tripolitans, the Americans thought
it prudent to withdraw, but to renew the conflict four days afterward.
The second attack on Tripoli commenced at half past two o'clock in the
afternoon of the 7th.b An hour afterward a hot shot from the town
us ' passed into the hull of gun-boat Number Nine, one of the prizes
captured on the 3d, and fired her magazine. The vessel was destroyed, and
with it her commander, Lieutenant Caldwell, of the Siren, Midshipman Dor-
sey, and eight of her crew. Six others were wounded. When the smoke
cleared away her bow only was above water. On it were Midshipman Rob
ert T. Spence and eleven men, busily engaged in loading the long 24-pounder
with which she was armed. They gave three loud cheers, discharged the
gun at the enemy, and a moment afterward were picked from the water by
men in boats, for the wreck on which they stood, with its great gun, had
gone to the bottom.
Again, after inflicting some damage upon the enemy, the Americans with- TBIPOLITAN
drew, but renewed the attack on the 24th of the same month. This was WEAPON.
1 While Captain Decatur was thus gallantly assailing the enemy, his younger brother James, first lieutenant of the
Nautilus, was as bravely emulating his example, in command of gun-boat Number Two. He had caused the surrender of
one of the enemy's largest vessels, and was boarding her to take possession, when the captain of the surrendered vessel
treacherously shot him and escaped. The miscreant's pistol was loaded with two balls connected by a wire. The wire
struck Decatnr on the forehead, and bending, the two balls entered his temples, one on each side, and killed him in
stantly. He was the only American officer killed in this engagement.
3 Decatur attacked the Tripolitan captain with a pike. The assailed seized it and turned it upon his assailant. Deca-
122 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Tripoli bombarded the Fifth Time. A floating Mine. Its Explosion in the Harbor of Tripoli.
brief, and without any important results. But on the 29th a fourth and more formi
dable attack was made by the American gun-boats, commencing at three o'clock in the
morning. The conflict continued until daylight, with great fury on both sides, when
the Constitution ran toward the harbor, under heavy fire from the Bashaw's castle
and Fort English. She signaled the gun-boats to withdraw, correctly supposing their
ammunition to be nearly exhausted. This was done under the fire of the Constitution,
which, with grape and round shot, greatly damaged the gun-boats of the enemy and
caused them to retreat. She then ran in, and opened a heavy fire upon the town, bat
teries, and castle. She soon silenced the guns of the castle and two batteries, sunk a
Tunisian vessel, damaged a Spanish one, severely bruised the enemy's galleys and
gun-boats, and then withdrew, without having a man hurt.
The American squadron lay at anchor off Tripoli until the 2d of September repair
ing damages! It then sailed for the harbor, where it arrived on the afternoon of the
3d. The enemy, profiting by experience, had adopted new tactics. The change com
pelled Preble to modify his own plan. At half past three in the afternoon the bomb-
ketches opened the conflict by bombarding the town. The Constitution ran down to
the rocky reef and opened a heavy fire, at grape-shot distance, upon the castle and the
city. She poured in eleven effective broadsides, while the smaller vessels were car
rying on the conflict at other points. The general engagement lasted an hour and a
quarter, when, the wind rising freshly, the commander, in the exercise of prudence,
gave a signal for the squadron to withdraw.
The ketch Intrepid, used in the destruction of the Philadelphia, had been converted
into a floating mine, for the purpose of destroying the enemy's cruisers in the harbor
of Tripoli. One hundred barrels of gunpowder were placed in a room below deck,
and immediately above them a large quantity of shot, shell, and irregular pieces of
iron were deposited. In other parts of the vessel combustibles were placed, and she
was made in every way a most disagreeable neighbor. On the night succeeding the
fifth bombardment of Tripoli she was sent into the harbor on her destructive mission,
under the command of Captain Somers, who had behaved gallantly during the recent
attacks on the town. He Avas assisted by Lieutenant Wadsworth, of the Constitution,
and Mr. Israel, an ardent young officer, who got on board the ketch by stealth. These,
with a few men to work the Intrepid, and the crews of two boats employed in towing
her, composed the expedition.
At nine o'clock in the evening the Intrepid entered the harbor on her perilous mis
sion. The night was very dark, and she soon disappeared in the gloom. Many eager
eyes were turned in the direction where her shadowy form was last seen. All hearts
in the squadron beat quickly with anxiety. Suddenly a fierce and lurid light streamed
up from the dark bosom of the waters like volcanic fires, and illuminated with its
horrid gleams the rocks, forts, flotilla, castle, town, and the broad expanse of the har
bor, followed instantly by an explosion that made all surrounding objects tremble.
Flaming masts and sails and fiery bombs rained upon the waters for a few moments,
tur drew his cntlasa and attempted to cut off the head of the pike, when his weapon snapped at the hilt, and he was left
apparently at the mercy of the Turk. He parried the thrust of the Tripolitan, and sprang upon and clutched him by the
throat. A trial of strength ensued, and they both fell to the deck. The Tripolitan attempted, as they lay, to draw a
small poniard from his sash. Decatur perceived the movement, grasped the hand that held the deadly steel, and drew
from his own pocket a small pistol, which he passed round the body of his antagonist, pointed it inward, and shot him
dead. During the affray, Reuben James, a quarter-gunner, performed a most self-sacrificing act. One of the Tripolitan
crew, seeing the perilous condition of his commander, aimed a sabre-blow at Decatur's head. James, with both arms
disabled from wounds and bleeding profusely, rushed between the Tripolitan and his commander, and received the
sabre-stroke upon his own Vice -Admiral) Charles Stew-
head. The blow was not fa- mfc — — j^^ art — from which the annexed
tal. Decatur took the dirk jjK||jjjta^^|l ~ ~ — = — atiti^^ drawing was made. One of the
from his foe, and afterward ^^ ^^^^^BBBM^BHIHH^^^^^^ weapons— a powerful though
f eSenrt!l7nittv,t0 °aPtr TKirOLITA* PONIABD. ?Ot ^ ^ °f * ™°^ °T
(now [1807] the venerable long knife, in a shark -skin
scabbard— which was taken from the enemy by Decatur at that time, is delineated in the engraving on page 121. It
is in the possession of F. J. Dreer, Esq., of Philadelphia.— See Waldo's Life of Decatur, page 132.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
123
Destruction of the Intrepid.
Honors to Commodore Preble.
Biographical Sketch.
when all was again silence and darkness three-fold greater than before. Anxious eyes
and ears bent hi the direction of the dreadful explosion. The boats were waited for
until the dawn with almost insupportable impatience. They never came, and no
man of that perilous expedition was heard of afterward. Whether the explosion was
an accident or a sacrifice — whether a shot from the enemy, or a brand dropped from
a patriotic hand to prevent the ketch and its freight of men and powder from falling
into the hands of the Tripolitans — can never be known. For more than sixty years
the matter has been shrouded in impenetrable mystery.1
Lack of powder and the approach of the stormy season of the year induced Com
modore Preble to cease operations on the dangerous Barbary coast, other than the
maintenance of the blockade of Tripoli. Not another shot was fired ; and on the
10th of September* Preble was relieved by the arrival of Commodore Samuel
Barren. He returned home late in February, 1805, bearing expressions of the
highest regards from his oificers, and received the homage of the nation's gratitude.2
Congress voted thanks to the commodore, and all who had served under his orders.
On Preble they bestowed a gold medal bearing appropriate devices and inscrip-
MEDAT. GIVEN TO COMMODOEE PEBBLE.
i Waldo, in his Life ofDecatur, page 146, says that an eye-witness informed him that the evening was unusually calm ;
that as the Intrepid moved silently into the inner harbor, two of the enemy's heaviest galleys, with more than a hundred
men in each, captured the " infernal," wholly unconscious of her character. The impression was that Somers, knowing
their fate to be miserable captivity if taken prisoners into the city, where Bainbridge and his men had then suffered for
eleven months, considered death preferable, and with his own hand fired the magazine of the Intrepid. Under this im
pression a newspaper writer, after alluding to the capture, wrote with more feeling than poetry—
" In haste they board : see Somers stand,
Determined, cool, formed to command,
The match of death in his right hand,
Scorning a life of slavery.
And now behold ! the match applied,
The mangled foe the welkin ride :
Whirling aloft, brave Somers cried,
' A glorious death or liberty !' "
* Edward Preble was born in Portland, Maine, on the 15th of August, 1761. He early evinced a passion for the sea,
and engaged in the merchant service. He became a midshipman in the naval service in 1T79 in the state ship Protector.
He afterward became lieutenant of the sloop-of-war Winthrop, and remained in her during the remainder of the war for
independence. He was the first lieutenant appointed in the new naval establishment in 1798, and soon afterward made
two cruises in th« brig Pickering as commander. In 1800 he was made captain and placed in command of the Essex, in
which he sailed to the East Indies to convoy American vessels. On account of ill health he withdrew from active serv
ice until 1803, when he went to the Mediterranean Sea. After his successful operations there he again withdrew from
the service. In 1806 he suffered severely from debility of the digestive organs, from which he never recovered. He
died on the 25th of August, 1807, at the age of forty-six years. To his memory a friend wrote in 1807—
" Lamented chief! though death be calmly past,
Our navy trembled when he breathed his last !
Our navy mourns him, but it mourns in vain :
A Preble ne'er will live— ne'er die again !
Yet hope, desponding, at the thought revives —
A second PBEBI.E — a DECATUE lives '."
The likeness of Preble given on page 120 is from a portrait of him in Faneuil Hall, Boston.
124
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Commodore Barren's Squadron in the Mediterranean. The Naval Monument at Annapolis. Devices and Inscriptions.
tions.1 " Officers of the navy afterward caused a white marble monument to be erected
at the government dock-yard near the National Capitol in memory of their brother
officers who fell at Tripoli.2
Commodore Barren found himself in command of a much greater naval force than
the Americans had ever put afloat in the Mediterranean Sea. It consisted of the
President, 44, Captain Cox ; Constitution, 44, Captain Decatur ; Congress, 38, Captain
Rodgers; Constellation, 38, Captain Campbell; Essex, 32, Captain J. Barren; Siren,
16, Captain Stewart ; Argus, 16, Captain Hull ; Vixen, 12, Captain Smith ; Enterprise,
12, Lieutenant Commandant Robinson, and Nautilus, 12, Lieutenant Commandant
Dent. The John Adams, 28, Captain Chauncey, and the Hornet, 12, Lieutenant Com
mandant Evans, with two bombs and twelve gun-boats, were expected to join the
Mediterranean squadron. It will be perceived that in this squadron, in actual com
mand, were many of those who attained to great distinction during the War of 1812.
1 The engraving on the preceding page shows the exact size of the medal. On one side is a bust of the commo
dore, with the legend, "EDWAEDO PREBLE, nuoi STRENUO COMITIA AMERICANA." On the reverse, the American fleet bom
barding the town aud forts of Tripoli ; legend, " VINDIOI OOMMERCII AMEIUCANI. Exergue — ANTE TRIPOLI, 1804."
2 The picture represents the monu
ment as it appeared when first erected.
It is of white marble, and with its pres
ent pedestal (not seen in the engrav
ing) is about forty feet in height. It
was mutilated when the navy yard at
Washington was burned in 1814. It
was afterward repaired, and removed
to the west front of the Capitol in
Washington, where it was placed upon
a spacious brown-stone base in an oval
reservoir of water. The monument,
with this base, was removed to Annap
olis, in Maryland, in 1860, and set up
there in the grounds of the Naval
Academy. In consequence of the Great
Rebellion, in 1861, that academy was
removed to Newport, Rhode Island.
The monument was left. "It is situ
ated," wrote Mr. William Yorke AtLee
to the author in January, 1862, "on a
hill in the northwestern portion of the
naval school grounds. It is in a state
of good preservation, and adds not a
little to the beauty of the grounds."
The shaft is surmounted by the
American eagle, bearing the shield.
On its sides the representations of the
bows of vessels are seen projecting, •
and by its pedestal is an allegorical
figure of Fame in the attitude of alight
ing, with a coronal of leaves in one
hand and a pen in the other. The
form of the pedestal has been altered.
On one side of the base, in relief, is a
view of Tripoli and the American
squadron ; on the other the names of
the heroes in whose memory the
monument was erected. On three
sides of the base are statues rep
resenting Mercury (Commerce), His
tory, and America, the latter in the
form of an Indian girl with a feather
head-dress, half nud«, and two chil
dren near. On the brown sandstone
sub-base on which this monument now
NAVAL MONUMENT. stands are the following inscriptions,
upon three sides :
1. "Erected to the memory of Captain Richard Somers, Lieutenants James Caldwell, James Decatur, Henry Wads-
worth, Joseph Israel, and John Dorsey, who fell in the different attacks made on the city of Tripoli in the year of our
Lord 1804, and in the twenty-eighth year of the independence of the United States."
2. " The love of country inspired them. Fame has crowned their deeds. History records the event. The Children of
Columbia admire, and Commerce laments their fall."
3. "As a small tribute of respect to their memory, and admiration of their valor, so worthy of imitation, their brother
officers have erected this monument."
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 125
Alliance with Hamet Caramalli. March across Northern Africa. Peace with Tripoli. The Barbary Powers humbled.
Barren's flag-ship was the President. Leaving some of his force to overawe the
menacing Moors, he kept up the blockade of Tripoli during the autumn and winter of
1804-5. Meanwhile a land movement
against Tripoli was conceived and exe
cuted under the management of Cap
tain William Eaton, of the United States *- *•
army, then consul at Tunis.
We have already observed that
Hamet Caramalli, the right possessor
of the beyship of Tripoli, had fled to Egypt. He had taken refuge with the Mame
lukes. It was determined to make common cause with him against his usurping
brother. Accordingly Captain Eaton, with three American officers, set out for
Egypta to confer with him. Hamet joyfully accepted their alliance, a November 26
and the Viceroy of Egypt gave him permission to leave the country. 1804-
Pie left the Mamelukes with about forty followers, and joined Eaton westward of
Alexandria, who was at the head of a small number of troops, composed of men of all
nations. Early in Marchb the allies, with transportation consisting of one b March e
hundred and ninety camels, started for Tripoli. They traversed portions of
the great Desert of Barca, and the wild regions along the African coast of the Medi
terranean for a thousand miles. Late in April,0 in conjunction with two <= April 2T.
American vessels, they captured the Tripolitan sea-port town of Derne. d jlay is and
After two successful engagements'1 with Tripolitan troops they approach- June 18>
ed the capital, confident of success, for their followers had become very numerous,
when, to the mortification of Captain Eaton and the extinguishment of all the hopes
of Hamet, they were apprised that Tobias Lear, consul-general on that coast, had ap
peared before Tripoli in the JSksecc, and made a treaty6 with the terrified e
Bashaw.1
Thus ended the four years' war with Tripoli. The ruler of Tunis was yet insolent,
and Commodore Rodgers, who had become commander of the squadron in conse
quence of the failing health of Barren, anchored thirteen vessels before his capital on
the 1st of August. The haughty Bey was speedily humbled, and sent an embassador
to the United States.
The power of the American government was now acknowledged and feared by all
the barbarians of the northern shores of Africa, and the conynerce of the Mediterra
nean Sea was relieved of great peril. Pope Pius the Seventh declared that the Amer
icans had done more for Christendom against the North African pirates than all the
powers of Europe united. The cruising and belligerent operations of the American
navy in the Mediterranean had not only accomplished this great good for the world,
but had been an admirable school for the military marine of the United States. The
value of the lessons taught in that school was manifested a thousand times during
the war with Great Britain that ensued a few years later.
While these events in the Mediterranean, connected in the practical service on the
part of the Americans with the War of 1812, were transpiring, political changes had
commenced in Europe which speedily aroused the United States to a sense of the ne
cessity of strengthening the naval arm of the government.
We have observed that the beginning of 1802 saw a general pacification of Europe,
and that England paid obsequious court to Bonaparte, whose fascinations allured
thousands of Englishmen to France. This "First Kiss in Ten Years," celebrated by
i This treaty wts not creditable. Although it was stipulated that the United States should pay no more tribute to
Tripoli, it was agreed that $60,000 should be paid for captives then in possession of the Bashaw. Altogether better and
less humiliating terms for the United States might have been obtained. All that Hamet gained was the release of his
wife and children. He lost every thing else. He afterward came to the United States, and applied to Congress for re
muneration for his services in favor of the Americans. His petition was denied, but $2400 were voted for his temporary
relief.
126 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Bonaparte declared Consul for Life. His Insolence toward the English. War declared against France.
the caricaturists, was the last for more than that space of time. First jealousy, then
suspicion, and, finally, intense hatred of France and her ruler took possession of the
English mind. These feelings were intensified by the act of the French Senate, who
• August 3, declared Bonaparte consul for life,a a declaration speedily sanctioned by the
1802- votes of three millions of Frenchmen. This was jealously regarded as a
cautious step toward more absolute power, which England feared ; and when, im-
" August 15. mediately afterward, first the Island of Elba,b then Piedmont,0 then the
« September ii. Duchy of Parma,d were incorporated into the dominions of France, no
« 0ctober. one ^oubted that the First Consul would speedily set armies in motion
for the greater aggrandizement of himself and the country of his adoption.
England professed to see in this accession of territory infringements of the Treaty
of Amiens. Bonaparte retorted by accusing Great Britain of violating the spirit of
treaties and endeavoring to disturb the peace of Europe, for which he was laboring,
and assumed toward England a haughty and dictatorial tone that wounded her sens
itive pride. He evinced a disposition to possess Malta ; required England to drive
royal French emigrants from her shores, where they had taken refuge ; demanded a
suppression of the liberties of the English press in its criticisms on French affairs, be
cause it was regarded as his most dangerous enemy ; and actually asked for a modifi
cation of the English Constitution.1 He was charged with inciting another rebellion
in Ireland, and distributing his secret emissaries, under the guise of consuls, all along
the British coasts.2
The cup of Bonaparte's iniquity was finally made full to English comprehension
when, at the beginning of March, 1803, he declared, in an official note to Lord Whit-
worth, the British embassador in Paris, that England, alone, can not now encounter
France." That announcement, assuming the shape of a menace, raised a storm of
patriotic indignation all over England, which found a loud echo in the House of Lords
on the 9th of March. That indignation, not unmixed with alarm, became more in
tense when intelligence reached London that a Senatus ConsuUwn on the 21st of
March had placed one hundred and twenty thousand conscripts at the command of
the French ruler. Still professing a desire for peace, the Addington ministry contin
ued negotiations with Bonaparte. Finally, in May, the British minister at Paris, who
had been personally insulted by the First Consul, and who had repeatedly warned his
government that the negotiations on the part of the French ruler were deceptive, and
contrived only to give time for hostile preparation, was ordered to leave the French
capital. The British government immediately ordered the French minister to leave
London, and on the 1 8th of May formally declared war against France, and put in
immediate operation an embargo upon all French vessels in English ports. In retal
iation, crowds of English visitors in the French dominion were seized and held as
prisoners of war.3 Immense bodies of troops were sent to the French coast, and men
aced England with immediate invasion. Bonaparte superintended the preparations
in person, established his head-quarters at Boulogne, on the roads to which finger
posts marked "To London" were erected, and every possible means were used to in-
1 The English Constitution is not a permanent instrument embodying the foundations of all laws, like that of the
United States, but comprehends the whole body of English laws enacted by Parliament, and*y which the British peo
ple are governed. The Constitution of the United States is superior to the Congress or National Legislature ; the Par
liament or National Legislature of England is superior to the Constitution. What Parliament declares to be the Consti
tution of England is the Constitution of England: what the Parliament enacts the monarch must be governed by, and
the courts can not adjudge to be unconstitutional and void. Sheridan comprehensively said, "The King of England is
not seated on a solitary eminence of power ; on the contrary, he sees his equals in the coexisting branches of the Legis
lature, and he recognizes his superior in the LAW."
2 The latter charge was proven by the seizure of the papers of the French consul at Dublin, in wh»se secret instruc
tions were the following passages : " You are required to furnish a plan of the ports of your district, with a specification
of the soundings for mooring vessels. If no plan of the ports can be procured, you are to point out with what wind ves
sels can come in and go out, and what is the greatest draught of water with which vessels can enter the river deeply
laden."
3 About twelve thousand English subjects of all ages were committed to custody.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 127
The English People excited against France. Invasion of Great Britain by the French expected. Witticisms.
flame the resentments of Frenchmen against their English neighbors across the
Channel.
In England every art was also employed to excite the people against France and
its ruler. Immense numbers of " loyal papers" and " loyal tracts" were scattered
over the land, some being atrocious libels on Bonaparte and his family, fictitious ac
counts of his barbarities, and exaggerated pictures of his treatment of those countries
which had bowed to his power ; others were calm and dignified appeals to the pa
triotism and courage of the nation. It was evident to all that an invasion was prob
able, and yet wits, and satirists, and vulgar libelers hurled perpetual volleys of abuse
and ridicule against Bonaparte and France, affecting, with ill-disguised trepidation,
to look upon both with contempt.1 This apparent gayety and unconcern was like the
whistling of boys in the dark to keep their courage up. The government at the same
moment was making immense preparations to repel the expected invasion, and the
yea"r 1803 was one of alarm and terror for all England.2 She was the asylum of the
Bourbon Royalists, who were the traditional enemies of all popular liberty and prog
ress, the most implacable foes of the French ruler, and the sleepless and relentless
conspirators against the lives of all who should stand in the way of their recovery of
the throne from which the best of their lineage, Louis the Sixteenth, had been driven
a few years before. These Royalists were petted by the English government and pit-
1 Bonaparte was sometimes compared to a wild beast, at other times to a pigmy, and at all times as a blusterer to be
laughed at. One morning London would be amused by a large placard announcing an exhibition thus: "Just arrived
at Mr. Bull's Menagerie, in British Lane, the most renowned and sagacious Man-tiger or Orang-outang, called Napoleon
Bonaparte. He has been exhibited in Holland, Switzerland, and Italy, and lately in Egypt," etc. Another morning
chapmen would offer in the great thoroughfares songs with words like these :
" Come, I'll sing you a song, just for want of some other,
About a small thing that has made a great pother :
A mere insect — a, pigmy. I'll tell you, my hearty,
'Tis the Corsican hop-o'-my-thumb, BuouapartJ."
Or boastful ballads in words like these :
"Arm, neighbors, at length,
And put forth your strength
Perfidious, bold France to resist !
Ten Frenchmen will fly,
To shun a black eye,
If one Englishman doubles his fist !"
The theatres were resonant with patriotic songs. One of the most popular of those sang in the play-houses, called
"The Island," began with this stanza:
"If the French have a notion
Of crossing the ocean,
Their luck to be trying on land,
They may come if they like ;
But we'll soon make 'em strike
To the lads of the tight little Island !
Huzza for the boys of the Island ! i
The brave volunteers of the Island !
The fraternal embrace,
If foes want in this place,
We'll present all the arms in the Island !"
Gillray and other caricaturists were exceedingly active at this time in ridiculing all parties, but especially Bonaparte.
Some of these caricatures, which were grossly personal, annoyed the Corsican exceedingly, for he was extremely sensi
tive to any thing like ridicule against himself and family. The one which gave him most offense was a broad parody
on BeUhazzar's Feast, by Gillray, which appeared in August, 1S03, entitled " The Handwriting on the Wall." The First
Consul and Josephine, his wife (the latter represented of enormous bulk), and other members of his family and court,
are seated at table devouring the good things of England as a dessert. When Bonaparte first discovers the mysterious
hand, his fork is stuck into St. James's, seen on his plate. Another is swallowing the Tower of London, while Jose
phine is drinking large bumpers of wine. On a plate bearing the inscription " Oh de roast beef of Old England !" is seen
a head of King George. Above the feasters a hand holds the scales of Justice, in which the legitimate crown of France
weighs down the red cap and its attendant chain— Despotism under the name of Liberty. Behind Josephine stand the
three afterward princesses of the imperial family— Borghese, Louise, and Joseph Bonaparte. A copy of this caricature is
given in full in Wright's History of the House of Hanover, illustrated by Caricatures and Satires. It is said to have greatly
exasperated the First Consul and his friends.
2 On the 23d of July the germ of another rebellion in Ireland appeared at Dublin. The chief leader was Robert Em
met, an eminent barrister, who was implicated, with his brother, in the rebellion there in 1798. His followers proved
themselves so unworthy of himself and the cause (which was the independence of Ireland) that he fled in despair to the
Wicklow Mountains. He might have evaded pursuit, but his love for his betrothed, the daughter of the famous Curran,
caused him to linger. He was arrested, tried for and found guilty of treason, and hanged on the 20th of September fol
lowing.
128 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Effects of the British Declaration of War. Fight for the Championship. Bonaparte proclaimed Emperor. His Plans.
led by the English people ; and this offense, above all others, exasperated Bonaparte,
for he regarded England as the accomplice of the conspirators against himself and
human freedom.
The British declaration of war, said Meneval (who was always at the elbow of the
First Consul), changed his whole nature.1 He had been planning vast beneficent
schemes for France under the serene skies of universal peace, when England, of all the
nations loudest in her professions of concord and sentiments of Christian benevo
lence, was the first to disappoint him — the first to again disturb the peace of Europe
.by brandishing high in air the flaming sword of war, instead of the green olive-
branch of amity and good will. Compelled to accept the challenge, he resolved to
give her war to her heart's content.
Each party charged the other with acts of flagrant wrong against the peace and
well-being of the world, and the record of impartial history implies that both spoke
the truth. It is not our business to act as umpire on the question, or to delineate the
events of the great war that ensued. We will simply consider the resulting effects
of these international strifes on the peace and prosperity of the United States. The
war was waged by both parties with an utter disregard of the rights of all other
nations or the settled maxims of international comity. France and England entered
the lists for the champion's belt — for the supremacy in the political affairs of the
world — and they fought with the science, the desperation, and the brutality of ac
complished pugilists,
On the 18th of May, 1804, Bonaparte was proclaimed Emperor of the French, in
accordance with a decree of the Senatea and the votes of the people. To
give more eminent sanction to the deed, the Pope was invited to perform the
coronation ceremony. He consented, and on the 2d of December following Bona
parte was anointed by his holiness, at the great altar of Notre Dame, "The High and
Mighty Napoleon the First." The republics which he had established by his sword
were speedily changed into kingdoms, on the thrones of which members of his own
b May 26, family were placed. In May, the following year,b he was solemnly anointed
1805. King of Italy at Milan. Then he cast his eyes significantly over Europe, and
contemplated a thorough reconstruction of its map. England, Russia, Austria, and
Sweden, alarmed and provoked, coalesced against the " usurper," as Napoleon was
called. Prussia was kept from the league only by a bribe, Napoleon having offered
Hanover, which he had stolen from England, as the price of the king's friendship.
Very soon a French army one hundred and eighty thousand strong was upon the
Rhine. On the 2d of December the strength of the Corsican was tested. Against
him, near Austerlitz, appeared two great armies, each led, like his own, by an em
peror*. They met in deadly conflict. Napoleon was the victor. The Continental
Powers withdrew from the contest. Prussia received Han6ver as her reward, and
England was left to fight the Emperor of the French single-handed. Napoleon pro
ceeded to distribute crowns and ducal coronets among his friends and favorite gen
erals with a lavish hand, and induced no less than fourteen German princes, who
ruled over sixteen millions of people, to form a league, under the supremacy of
France, known as the Confederacy of the Rhine.
Early in 1806 the English government, under the premiership of Charles Fox,
opened with Napoleon negotiations for peace, the restoration of Hanover being one
of the proposed conditions. Napoleon considered it, and on that account the King
of Prussia, alarmed and offended, joined the coalition of the Northern Powers against
him. The exasperated emperor marched upon Prussia, and, after slaying more than
'October 25 twenty thousand of the king's subjects in arms, he entered Berlin,6 his
1806- capital, in triumph. Meanwhile the Russians had been beaten back
i History of the. Second War between the United States of America and Great Britain, by Charles J. Ingersoll. Second
Series, i., 20C.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 129
The Berlin Decree.
through Poland, and he was in possession of Warsaw. Strong, bold, and defiant, and
burning with a desire to humble " perfidious Albion," he issued from his camp at
the Prussian capital" the famous manifesto known in history as the . November 21,
Berlin Decree,1 which declared the ports of the whole of the British do- 180C-
minions in a state of blockade, while a French vessel of war scarcely dare appear on
the ocean to enforce it. This brings us to the immediate consideration of events in
the United States, and the eifects of the strife abroad upon American afiairs.
i The following is a copy of the decree :
" Imperial Camp, Berlin, November 21, 1SOG.
"Napoleon, Emperor of the French and King of Italy, considering:
"1. That England does not admit the right of nations as universally acknowledged by all civilized people ;
"2. That she declares as an enemy every individual belonging to an enemy state, and, in consequence, makes pris
oners of war not only of the crews of armed vessels, but those also of merchant vessels, and even the supercargoes of the
same ;
"3. That she extends or applies to merchant vessels, to articles of commerce, and to the property of individuals the
right of conquest, which can only be applied or extended to what belongs to an enemy state ;
"4. That she extends to ports not fortified, to harbors and mouths of rivers, the right of blockade, which, according to
reason and the usages of civilized nations, is applicable only to strong or fortified ports ;
"5. That she declares places blockaded before which she has not a single vessel of war, although a place ought not to
be considered blockaded but when it is so invested that no approach to it can be made without imminent hazard ; that
she declares even places blockaded which her united forces would be incapable of doing, such as entire coasts and a
whole empire.
" C. That this unequaled abuse of the right of blockade has no other object than to interrupt the communication of
different nations, and to extend the commerce and industry of England upon the ruin of those of the Continent ;
"T. That this being the evident design of England, whoever deals on the Continent in English merchandise favors
that design, and becomes an accomplice ;
" 8. That this conduct in England (worthy only of the first stages of barbarism) has benefited her to the detriment
of other nations ;
"9. That it being right to oppose to an enemy the same arms she makes use of, to combat as she does when all ideas
of justice and every liberal sentiment (the result of civilization among men) are disregarded,
" We have resolved to enforce against England the usages which she has consecrated in her maritime code.
"The present decree shall be considered as the fundamental law of the Empire until England shall acknowledge that
the rights of war are the same on land as at sea ; that they can not be extended to any private property whatever, nor to
persons who are not military, and until the right of blockading be restrained to fortified places actually invested by
competent forces.
"Art. 1. The British Islands are in a state of blockade.
"Art. 2. All commerce and correspondence with them is prohibited ; consequently, all letters or packets written in
England, or to an Englishman written in the English language, shall not be dispatched from the post-offices, and shall be
seized.
" Art. 3. Every individual a subject of Great Britain, of whatever rank or condition, who is found in countries occu
pied by our troops or those of our allies, shall be made prisoner of war.
" Art. 4. Every warehouse, all merchandise or property whatever belonging to an Englishman, are declared good prize.
" Art. 5. One half of the proceeds of merchandise declared to be good prize and forfeited, as in the preceding articles,
shall go to indemnify merchants who have suffered losses by the English cruisers.
"Art. 6. No vessel coming directly from England or her colonies, or having been there since the publication of this
decree, shall be admitted into any port.
"Art. 7. Every vessel that by a false declaration contravenes the foregoing disposition shall be seized, and the ship
and cargo confiscated as English property.
"Art. 8. [This article states that the Councils of Prizes at Paris and at Milan shall have recognizance of what may
arise in the Empire and in Italy under the present decree.]
" Art. 9. Communications of this decree shall be made to the Kings of Spain, Naples, Holland, Etruria, and to our oth
er allies, whose subjects as well as ours are victims of the injuries and barbarity of the English maritime code.
" Art. 10. Our ministers of foreign relations, etc., are charged with the execution of the present decree.
"NAPOLEON."
With a partiality toward the Americans that was practical friendship, the French cruisers did not, for a whole year, in
terfere with American vessels trading with Great Britain. On this point Alexander Baring, M.P., in his Inquiry into
the Causes and Consequences of the Orders in Council, and an Examination of the Conduct of Great Britain toward the Xeu-
tral Commerce of America, said: "^Vo condemnation of an American vessel had ever taken place under it; and so little did
the French privateers interfere with the trade of America with this country, that the insurance on it was very little higher
than in time of profound peace ; while that of the American trade with the Continent of Europe has at the same time
been doubled, and even trebled, by the conduct of our cruisers."
I
130
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Prosperity of American Commerce.
Germs of new States appearing in the Organization of Territories.
CHAPTER VH.
" Shall that arm which haughty Britain
In its gristle found too strong—
That by which her foes were smitten—
Shall that arm be palsied long ?
See our sons of ocean kneeling
To a tyrant's stripes and chains !
Partisan ! hast thou no feeling
When the hardy tar complains ?
See the British press-gang seize him,
Victim of relentless power !
Stout his heart is, but must fail him
In this evil, trying hour."
TUB IMPRESSED SEAMAN'S APPEAL.
iNCOURAGED by promises of continued peace in Europe, and the
relaxation of the "rule of 1756" by Great Britain,1 the commerce
and general business of the United States enjoyed a season of un
exampled prosperity. The social and political power of the re
public rapidly augmented. The Indians on the frontiers were
peaceful; and the causes for irritation on the part of the inhabit
ants west of the mountains toward the Spaniards, who controlled
the Lower Mississippi, were in a fair way of being speedily re
moved. The germs of new states were appearing in the late wilderness. That vast
domain northwest of the Ohio, west of a line drawn from the mouth of the Kentucky
River to Fort Recovery on St. Glair's battle-field, and thence due north to Canada, was
erected into a Territory,a and named INDIANA. William Henry Harrison,
Wayne's efficient aid in 1794 (who had been out of the army since 1798), was
appointed governor of the germinal state, and established his capital at Vincennes,
on the Lower Wabash.
At about the same time the Mississippi Territory, organized in 1798 by Winthrop
Sargent, St. Glair's efficient secretary in the government of the Ohio country,
was allowed a representative assembly ,b and its political machinery was put
in motion.
In the spring of 1802 the United States came into possession, by act of Georgia, of
one hundred thousand square miles of territory, now constituting the State of Ala
bama. It was inhabited by the Creek and Cherokee Indians toward the east, and
the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes toward the west. With those philanthropic im
pulses which marked the character of Jefferson, he recommended measures for the
well-being of those tribes, and for securing to them equal and exact justice.
Late in the same year the inhabitants within the present domain of Ohio, in repre
sentative convention held at Chilicothe, adopted a State Constitution,0
and the Territory, called OHIO, became a peer among the states of the
republic.
But these political organizations on soil within the domains of the United States,
and over which a civilized population was rapidly spreading, were of small account
when compared with the importance of a great acquisition of territory and political
power which speedily followed. Louisiana, which once comprehended the vast and
undefinable region of the Valley of the Mississippi and the domain watered by its
Ma T
1802. '
November 29.
See note 1, page 84.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 131
Louisiana retroceded to France. The Americans disturbed by the Act. President Jefferson's View of the Subject.
tributaries, from the Gulf of Mexico to the forty-ninth parallel of latitude, and west
ward to the Pacific Ocean, or " South Sea," as it was then called, was a possession of
France by right of discovery by secular and religious explorers, and was named in
honor of the Gallic king Louis.
In 1763 France ceded to England the whole of that region east of the Mississippi
except Florida, and to Spain all west of that river. By these cessions and the sur
render of others, effected by compulsion at the end of a seven years' war, France ab
dicated territorial dominion in North America.
While the negotiations of the Treaty of Amiens were in progress, a rumor went
abroad that Spain, by secret treaty, had retroceded, or would retrocede, to France all
of Louisiana in her possession, and possibly the domain along the Gulf of Mexico
known as East and West Florida, thus giving to that now rising, ambitious, and ag
gressive power the entire control of the navigation of the Mississippi, and a position
to exercise an influence over the political affairs of the United States more potent
and permanent than had ever been attempted. This gave the government and people
much uneasiness, and the American ministers in London, Paris, and Madrid were im
mediately instructed to endeavor to defeat the measure. It was too late. The act
of cession was accomplished, and the fact was made known to the President early in
1802.
President Jefferson, who loved his country and republican institutions intensely,
and who desired its prosperity and grandeur with a patriot's warm devotion, wrote
an earnest letter to Mr. Livingston,* the American embassador at Paris, on a Aprii 18)
the subject. With wonderful sagacity he clearly comprehended the mat
ter in all its bearings, immediate and prospective, and perceived the great evils to the
republic which French occupation of the outlet of the Mississippi would inflict. " It
would completely reverse," he said, " all the political relations of the United States,
and would form a new epoch in our political career. Of all nations of any consider
ation, France is the one which hitherto has offered the fewest points on which we
could have any conflict of right, and the most points of common interest. From these
causes we have ever looked to her as our natural friend, as one with whom we never
could have occasion of difference. Her growth, therefore, we viewed as our own, her
misfortunes ours. There is on the globe one single spot the possessor of which is our
natural and habitual enemy. It is New Orleans, through which the produce of three
eighths of our territory must pass to market ; and, from its fertility, it will ere long
yield more than half of our whole produce, and contain more than half of our inhabit
ants. France, placing herself in that door, assumes to us the attitude of defiance.
Spain might have retained it quietly for years. Her pacific dispositions, her feeble
state would induce her to increase our facilities there, so that her possession of the
place would be hardly felt by us, and it would not perhaps be very long before some
circumstance might arise which might make the cession of it to us the price of some
thing of more worth to her.
" Not so can it ever be in the hands of France ; the impetuosity of her temper, the
energy and restlessness of her character, placed in a point of eternal friction with us
and our character, which, though quiet, and loving peace and the pursuit of wealth, is
high-minded, despising wealth in competition with insult or injury. Enterprising
and energetic as any nation on earth, these circumstances render it impossible that
France and the United States can long continue friends when they meet in so irrita
ble a position. . . . The day that France takes possession of New Orleans fixes the
sentence which is to restrain her forever within her low-water mark. It seals the
union of two nations who, in conjunction, can maintain exclusive possession of the
ocean. From that moment we must marry ourselves to the British fleet and nation.
We must turn all our attentions to a maritime force, for which our resources place us
on very high ground ; and, having formed and connected together a power which
132 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Proposition for the Cession of Louisiana. The secret Designs of France. Talleyrand. Atrocious Suggestions.
may render re-enforcement of her settlements here impossible to France, make the
first cannon which shall be fired in Europe the signal for tearing up every settlement
she may have made."1
Mr. Jefferson suggested that if France considered the possession of Louisiana " in
dispensable for her views," she might be willing to cede to the United States, for a
consideration, the Island of New Orleans, and the Floridas, and guarantee the free
navigation of the Mississippi by both nations, thus removing, in a degree, " the causes
of jarring and irritation" between the parties.2
Although the President's letter to Mr. Livingston was private, Mr. Jefferson chose
to consider it as supplemental to the official instructions which were sent to the em-
bassador, and he desired him to urge, on proper occasions, with the proper persons,
and in a proper manner, the considerations and suggestions which the letter con
tained. As we have already observed, it was too late to prevent the cession. That
act had been accomplished by secret treaty eighteen months before.3
Nothing now remained for the Americans to do to prevent the threatened evils of
French occupation at the mouth of the Mississippi but to negotiate for the purchase
of territory there. Such negotiations were speedily entered into. Mr. Livingston
took important preliminary steps in that direction, and in January, 1803,a
James Monroe was appointed to assist him in the negotiation. Their in-
1 Letter to Robert R. Livingston, April 18, 1802.
2 France had no really peaceful and friendly feelings toward the United States at that time. Among the dreams of
glory which filled the mind of Bonaparte was the re-establishment of the ancient colonial Empire of France. His first
essay was in St. Domingo ; his next was to be in Louisiana. What would have been his instrumentalities there in ex
tending his sway over the country west of the Alleghanies, may be inferred from the following extract of a memorial
whose inspiration was supposed to be the First Consul, and Talleyrand the writer. This document was published in
pamphlet form in Philadelphia in 1803, but was suppressed because of negotiations then pending for the purchase of
Louisiana from France. It vindicates the wisdom and sagacity of Jefferson exhibited in the above letter to Mr. Living
ston. On the forty-fifth page of the pamphlet it is observed :
" There is still another mean, however, by which the fury of THE STATES may be held at pleasure— by an enemy placed
on their Western frontiers. The only aliens and enemies within their borders are not the blacks. They, indeed, are the
most inveterate in their enmity ; but the INDIANS are, in many respects, more dangerous inmates. Their savage igno
rance, their undisciplined passions, their restless and warlike habits, their notions of ancient rights, make them the fittest
tools imaginable for disturbing THE STATES. In the territory adjacent to the Ohio, Mississippi, and Missouri there are
more than thirty thousand men whose trade is hunting, and whose delight is war. These men lie at the mercy of any
civilized nation who live near them. Such a neighbor can gain their friendship or provoke their enmity with equal ease.
He can make them inactive, or he can rouse them to fury; he can direct their movement in any way he pleases, and
make it mischievous or harmless, by supplying their fury with arms and with leaders, or by withholding that supply.
" The pliant and addressful spirit of the French has always given them an absolute control over these savages. The
office which the laziness or the insolence of the British found impracticable was easily performed by us, and will be still
easier hereafter, since we shall enter on the scene with more advantages than formerly.
"We shall detach within, a sufficient force to maintain possession against all the efforts of THE STATES, should they,
contrary to all their interests, proceed to war with or without provocation. We shall find in the Indian tribes an army
permanently cantoned in the most convenient stations, endowed with skill and temper best adapted to the nature and the
scene of the war, and armed and impelled with far less trouble and expense than an eqnal number of our own troops.
We shall find a terrible militia, infinitely more destructive while scattered through the hostile settlements than an equal force
of our own. We shall find in the bowels of THE STATES a mischief that only ivants the touch of a well-directed spark to in
volve in its explosion the litter ruin of half their nation. Such will be the power we shall derive from a military station
and a growing colony on the Mississippi. These will be certain and immediate effects, whatever distance and doubt
there may be in the remoter benefits to France on which I have so warmly expatiated. As a curb on a nation whose
future conduct in peace and war will be of great importance to us, this province will be cheaply purchased at ten times
the cost to which it will subject us."
The writer made Bonaparte say : "My designs on the Mississippi will never be officially announced till they are exe
cuted. Meanwhile the world, if it pleases, may fear and suspect, but nobody will be wise enough to go to war to pre
vent them. I shall trust to the folly of England and America to let me go my way in my own time."
When the war between the United States and Great Britain broke out in 1812, British writers urged the government
to employ the savages, with all their known blood-thirstiness and cruelty, as allies. One writer soundly berated the gov
ernment for its apparent apathy toward their " Indian friends," and cited the above atrocious suggestions of the French
minister as the true programme of action for the British to pursue in the war with the Americans !— See the New Quar
terly Review and British Colonial Register, No. 4 : J. M. Richardson, Cornhill, London.
3 There had been for some time indications of speedy hostilities between the United States and Spain, growing out
of the territorial relations of the two countries on the Gulf of Mexico. By a treaty with Spain in 1795 that government
had granted to the United States the right of deposit at New Orleans for three years, after which the privilege was either
to be continued, or an equivalent place assigned on another part of the banks of the Mississippi. The Spaniards consid
ered themselves masters of the province while it was unoccupied by the French, even after the cession was consum
mated. The privilege of deposit at New Orleans had been continued; but suddenly, in October, 1802, the Spanish in-
tendant or governor declared by proclamation that the right of deposit at New Orleans no longer existed. This pro
duced great excitement in the Western country, and the Americans, when certified of the treaty of cession, did not doubt
that the Spanish intendant acted under orders from the French government.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 133
Effect of Jefferson's Letter and Bonaparte's Necessity. Purchase of Louisiana. Blow at England.
structions only asked for the cession of New Orleans and the Floridas, and that the
Mississippi should be divided by a line that should put the city of New Orleans
within the territory of the United States, thus securing the free navigation of that
river.
To the surprise of the American negotiators, M. Marbois, the representative of Bo
naparte,1 offered to treat for the sale of the whole of Louisiana. " Irresolution and
deliberation," said the First Consul in his instructions to Marbois, " are no longer in
season. I renounce Louisiana. It is not only New Orleans that I will cede, it is the
Avhole colony, without any reservation. I know the price of what I abandon, and I
have sufficiently proved the importance that I attach to this province, since my first
diplomatic act with Spain had for its object the recovery of it. I renounce it with
the greatest regret. To attempt to retain it would be folly. I direct you to nego
tiate this affair with the envoys of the United States."
The sagacious Bonaparte — the Man of Expediency — saw clearly which was the
path of safety for him. Jefferson's covert menace of an American alliance with En
gland against him, his ill success against St. Domingo,2 and the storm-clouds of war
that were again lowering darkly over Europe, caused the gorgeous dream of colonial
dominion to fade from the mind of the First Consul. He needed troops at home, and
he was more in want of money than far-off possessions held by doubtful tenure.3
Monroe arrived at Paris on the 12th of April, 1803. The negotiations immediately
commenced. The intercourse between the three commissioners was very pleasant.
Livingston and Marbois had known each other intimately more than twenty years
before. Every thing went on smoothly; and in less than a fortnight a treaty was
signed by which the United States came into the possession of a vast and, to some
extent, undefined domain, containing a mixed free population of eighty-five thousand
souls and forty thousand negro slaves, for the sum of 815,000,000. "We have lived
long," said Mr. Livingston to Marbois, as he arose from his seat after signing the
treaty, " but this is the noblest work of our whole lives. The treaty wrhich we have
just signed has not been obtained by art or force ; equally advantageous to the two
contracting parties, it will change vast solitudes into flourishing districts. From this
day the United States take their place among the powers of the first rank ; the En
glish lose all exclusive influence in the affairs of America."
Bonaparte, who had watched the progress of the negotiations with intense interest,
held similar opinions. " It is true," he said to Marbois a few hours later, " the nego
tiation does not leave me any thing to desire ; sixty millions [francs] for an occupa
tion that will not perhaps last for a day ! I Avould that France should enjoy this
unexpected capital, that it may be employed in works beneficial to her marine.* This
accession of territory," he continued exultingly, " strengthens forever the power of
the United States ; and I have just given to En gland a maritime rival that will ', sooner
or later, humble her pride"
1 Marbois was secretary to the French embassy to the United States during a portion of the American Revolution, and
was now at the head of the French Treasury Department.
2 Toussaint L'Ouvertnre, an able and courageous negro, seized the Spanish part of St. Domingo, and made it a colony
of France, in January, 1801. He was declared President for life. This example was speedily followed by the black and
colored population of Guadaloupe. They seized the governor sent out by Bonaparte, and established a provisional gov
ernment in October, 1801. Meanwhile an insurrection had broken out in St. Domingo, and Bonaparte sent his brother-
iu-law, Le Clerc, to quell it. Toussaint regarded the army as an instrument for the enslavement of himself and his
people. A new civil war ensued, while the French army was completely decimated by fever and sword. Twenty thou
sand soldiers perished, and sixty thousand white people of the island were massacred by the infuriated negroes. A
momentary peace ensued. Toussaint, who deprecated these acts, was treacherously seized on the false charge of inten
tion to excite another insurrection, taken to France, and died in prison there. By direct act of Bonaparte slavery was
established in Guadaloupe (where his army was more successful), and the slave-trade was opened.
3 "I require a great deal of money," the First Consul said to Marbois, "to carry on this war, and I would not like to
commence with new contributions. If I should regulate my terms according to the value of those vast regions to the
United States, the indemnity would have no limits. I will be moderate, in consideration of the necessity in which J am
placed of making a sale. But keep this to yourself."
* The invasion of England and the prostration of her maritime superiority was then Bonaparte's favorite project.
134 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Secession proposed by New England. Condemned by Hamilton. Affairs in the Southwest. Transfer of Louisiana.
Notwithstanding the acknowledged national advantages to be gained by the acqui
sition of Louisiana, the Federal politicians, especially those of New England, perceiv
ing that it would strengthen the South, into whose hands the government had fallen,
raised a loud outcry against it as the work of the Southern Democracy. They pro
fessed to regard the measure as inimical to the interests of the North and East ; and
having, while in power, become familiar with the prescription of disunion of the
states, always put forth by the Southern political doctors as the great remedy for
apparently incurable political evils, they resolved to try its efficiency in the case in
question. All through the years 1803 and 1804 desires for and fears of a dissolution
of the Union were freely expressed in what are now the free-labor states east of the
Alleghanies ;J and a select Convention of Federalists, to be held at Boston in the
autumn of 1804, to consider the question of disunion, was contemplated early in that
year. Alexander Hamilton was invited to attend it, but his emphatic condemnation
of the whole plan, only a few months before his death, seems to have disconcerted the
leaders and dissipated the scheme. " To his honor be it spoken," said Dewitt Clinton
in the Senate of the State of New York in 1809, "it was rejected by him with abhor
rence and disdain."
The acquisition of Louisiana by the United States was distasteful to the Spaniards.
It brought the restless and enterprising Americans too near the Spanish provinces in
Mexico to promise quietude to the latter. Yrugo, the Spanish minister at Washing
ton, therefore entered a solemn protest against the entire treaty. Questions concern
ing the true boundary of Louisiana were speedily raised, and serious complications
were threatened. The Spaniards were disposed to cling to all the territory east of
the Mississippi included in West Florida, and thus hold possession of New Orleans.
This disposition opened afresh the animosity of the inhabitants of the West against
the occupants of the Lower Mississippi, and the United States contemplated the ne
cessity of taking possession of New Orleans by the force of arms. Troops under
General James Wilkinson, consisting of a few regulars, several companies of Mississip
pi volunteers, and a considerable number of Tennessee militia, marched from Nash
ville to Natchez.
But a peaceful transfer of the territory took place. Lausat, the commissioner of
France to receive Louisiana from the Spaniards under the cession treaty, performed
that duty, and a few days afterward he formally delivered the island and city of New
Orleans to General Wilkinson and William C. C. Claiborne, the commissioners appoint
ed for the purpose by the United States. The Spaniards were left in possession of
the country along the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean, known as The Floridas,
lying south of the thirty-first degree of north latitude, and east of a line nearly cor
responding with the present boundary between Mississippi and Louisiana on the
Pearl River.
Upon the soil thus acquired, and which was an important step in the direction of
absolute independence of Great Britain on the part of the United States, some of the
most stirring events of the War of 1812 occurred, and thereon was fought the last
and most decisive battle of the Second War for Independence.
The acquisition of Louisiana created in the minds of adventurers visions of personal
and national aggrandizement the influence of which it was difficult to resist. Among
those who formed schemes of operation in that direction was Aaron Burr, the Vice-
President of the United States, who in 1804, by the failure of his political aspirations,
the general distrust of his political and personal integrity, the exposure of his immoral
character, his hopeless financial embarrassments, and, above all, his cruel murder of
i Jefferson, who was a strict constructionist'of the Constitution, was a little embarrassed by this treaty. The acquisi
tion of territory he thought unconstitutional, and he proposed an amendment of that instrument so as to sanction this
important act. But nothing of the kind was done. All parties coincided in the measure, and on the 20th of October,
1803, the Senate ratified the treaty by a vote of twenty-four to seven. The purchase of Louisiana became a precedent,
and its accession was one of the glories of Mr. Jefferson's administration.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
135
Aaron Burr. His Murder of Hamilton. Virginians honor him for it. Specially honored by Jefferson and his Friends.
the great and honored Hamilton in a duel, had become a desperate man, and a fugi
tive from society and from justice, moral and legal. When the correspondence be
tween Burr and Hamilton immediately preceding the duel was published, it was evi
dent that the former had committed a murder by forcing the combat upon his victim.1
The public indignation was intense — so intense that Burr fled before its fury to Geor
gia by sea, " merely," as he wrote to his (jjpghter Theodosia, a planter's wife in South
Carolina, " to give a
little time for pas
sion to subside, not
from any apprehen
sions of the final ef
fects of proceedings
in courts of law."
Burr found him
self in a congenial
atmosphere in the
South. He was feted
and caressed ; and
when, finally, he
made his way to
ward Washington
City, to take his seat
as President of the
Senate by virtue of
his office, he was
treated to ovations. A public
dinner was given him at Pe
tersburg, in Virginia, to hon
or him as " the destroyer of the
arch-foe of democra
cy."2 Attended by a
retinue of Democrats
he visited the thea
tre in the evening,
where the audience
rose and received
him with cheers.3
At "Washington City
he was received with
great deference. The
" President (Jeffer
son) seems to have
been more complai
sant than usual ;"4
and at Burr's re
quest General Wil
kinson was appoint
ed Governor of Lou
isiana, and Dr. Brown secreta
ry. These were the Vice-Pres
ident's warm friends.
At the close of his official ca-
reer in the spring of 1 805, Burr was a ruined man, socially, politically, and pecuniari-
1 The political intrigues and social immoralities of Burr had become so generally known in 1804 that his future suc
cess in any political schemes was extremely doubtful. He offered himself as an independent candidate for Governor
of the State of New York in the spring of 1804, and was defeated, as he believed, through the powerful influence of Alex
ander Hamilton, who was convinced that he was unfit for any important place of honor or profit. That failure imbit-
tered him. This feeling was intensified by the consciousness that he was suspected and distrusted every where. Ham
ilton, whom he regarded as his arch-enemy, was at the same time honored and trusted. His integrity was not doubted
by his most uncompromising political enemies. This contrast was like glowing embers upon the head of Burr, and he
was resolved to destroy his antagonist. A pretext for action to that end was not long wanting. A zealous partisan of
Burr's competitor in the late election, in his zeal during the canvass, declared in print that Hamilton had said that the
Vice-President was a "dangerous man, who ought not to be trusted with the reins of government." Again he wrote,
"I could detail you a more despicable opinion which General Hamilton has expressed of Burr."
These alleged expressions were made the basis of a challenge, on the part of Burr, to mortal combat. Hamilton per
ceived at the beginning that Burr was determined to force him to fight, against his own convictions of the wrongfulness
of dueling and the necessities of the case. He took honorable means to avoid a meeting. His malignant enemy could
not be appeased. At length, compelled by the wretched custom of society then prevailing, called " the code of honor,"
he accepted the challenge, met Burr on the western shore of the Hudson near Weehawken early on the morning of the
llth of July, 1S04, and received a mortal wound. He declared his intention not to fire at Burr, and adhered to his reso
lution, while the murderer took deliberate aim, and accomplished his errand to the field of blood. Hamilton was con
veyed across the river to the house of a friend, where he died after suffering for twenty-four hours. The coroner returned
a verdict of willful murder. A bill of indictment for that crime was found against him in New Jersey, within the juris
diction of which the duel was fought, and the Grand Jury of New York found bills against him and his seconds for being
concerned in a duel, the punishment for which, by a recent act of that state, was disfranchisement and incapacity to
hold office for twenty years. Burr fled to Philadelphia, and from thence to Georgia.
2 Parton's Life of Aaron Burr, page 3T2. 3 The same.
4 The same, page 3T3. Senator Plumer wrote in November, 1804, "Mr. Jefferson has shown him more attention, and in
vited him oftener to his house within the last three months, than he ever did for the same time before. Mr. Gallatin [Sec
retary of the Treasury] has waited upon him oftener at his lodgings, and one day was closeted with him more than
two hours. Mr. Madison, formerly the intimate friend of Hamilton, has taken his murderer into his carriage, and ac
companied him on a visit to the French minister. . . . The Democrats of both houses are remarkably attentive to Burr.
What office they can give him is uncertain. Mr. Wright, of Maryland, said in debate, ' The first duel I ever read of was
that of David killing Goliath. Our little David of the Republicans has killed the Goliath of Federalism, and for this I
am willing to reward him.' "—See Life of William Plumer, by his son, page 328.
136
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Burr's Schemes for his own Profit. Blennerhassett and his Home. Burr deceives Andrew Jackson and John Adair.
ly. Every legitimate avenue to a retrieval of his character and fortune seemed to be
closed, and he became desperate. His ambition was as intense as ever, and he sought
new fields for the exercise of his powers. He spent the ensuing summer in the West.
It was for him a season of wide observation of men and things, having a bearing upon
some grand enterprise which he had conceived. As he went leisurely down the
Ohio he visited Harman Blennerhassett, a WBlthy and cultivated Irishman, who, with
a beautiful and equally cultivated wife, had formed for themselves a sort of terrestrial
paradise upon an island in the Ohio River a short distance below the mouth of the
Muskingum. Husband and wife were equally charmed by Burr. He fired their
imaginations with glimpses of his schemes of personal grandeur for all who should
co-operate with him. He filled their minds with dreams of immense wealth and
power; and when he left their home the sunshine of their sweet domestic felicity had
departed forever. Blennerhassett was a changed man. He had placed his wealth
and reputation in the keeping of an unprincipled profligate, and lost both.1
At that time the brave and incorruptible Andrew Jackson was in command of the
Tennessee militia. In Maya Burr appeared at the door of his mansion, a few
miles from Nashville, and was received as an honored guest. To that stern
patriot he talked of the establishment of a splendid empire in the Southwest, where
the Spaniards then ruled ; and, before he departed, he had won Jackson's confidence,
and his promises of co-operation. He met Wilkinson at St. Louis, and divulged some
of his schemes to that weak man. He won the friendship of other influential persons,
1S06.
among them General
Adair, of Kentucky ;
and in the autumn
he returned to Wash
ington, and sought to
win to his service
dissatisfied military
and naval officers.
He talked enigmat
ically, and, to the
1 Blennerhassett's was in
deed a beautiful and happy
home. It was the creation of
wealth, taste, and love. The
mansion was elegant. The
gardens were laid out and
planted with care. Conserv
atories were rich in exotics.
Science, music, painting, farm
culture, and social pleasures
made up a great portion of
the sum of daily life in that
elegant retreat. It became
the resort of the best minds
west of the mountains. The
lately rude island smiled with
perpetual beauty. To the sim
ple settlers upon the neigh
boring shore the house seem
ed like a palace, and the way of living there like that of a prince. Into that paradise the wily serpent crept, and polluted
it with its slime.
Harman Blennerhassett was a descendant of an ancient Irish family, whose seat was Castle Conway, in Kerry. His
education was thoroughly given at Trinity College, in Dublin, aud he graduated at the same time with his friend and
kinsman, Thomas Addis Emmett. He loved and studied science. On the death of his father in 1798 he inherited a large
fortune. Having become involved in political troubles, he sold his estate, went to England, and married the beautiful
and accomplished Miss Agnew, granddaughter of one ot the British generals killed at the battle at Germantown, near
Philadelphia. They came to America,
JiLENJSEKllAHSETT B
for five years before Burr's appearance
they had enjoyed perfect happiness
and repose. A fine library, pictures,
scientific apparatus gave them imple
ments for mental culture, and they improved the opportunity. When Burr's mad schemes failed Blennerhassett's para
dise was laid waste. He became a cotton-planter in Mississippi, but finally lost his fortune. He and his wife finally
returned to England, where he died at the age of sixty-one years. His widow came to America to seek from Congress
some remuneration for his losses. While the matter was pending she sickened and died in poverty in New York in
August, 18^, and was buried by the Sisters of Charity.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 137
Military Preparations on the Ohio River. Burr suspected of Treason and denounced. His Arrest and Trial. Exile.
ears of some, disloyally. Now he spoke of an expedition against Mexico, then of a
union of the Western States and Territories into a glorious independent government.
To General Eaton he talked of usurpation — of taking possession, by the instrument
ality of a revolution, of the national capital and archives, and, Cromwell-like, assuming
for himself the character of a protector of an energetic government.1 The President
was apprised of these things, but he regarded Burr's language and schemes as those
of a desperate politician too weak to be dangerous.2
In the summer of 1 806 Burr was again in the West, engaged in his grand scheme,
into the inner secrets of which he had not allowed any man to penetrate. Blenner-
hassett's home was his head-quarters, and a military organization was his work. A
flotilla was formed at Marietta, on the Ohio, laden with provisions and military stores ;
and large numbers of leading men in the West, ignorant of the real designs of Burr,
but believing the great central plan to be the construction of a magnificent Anglo-
Saxon empire in Mexico, in whose glories they all might share, joined in the enter
prise. Wilkinson was made the arch-conspirator's willing tool. Having been en
gaged in intrigues with the Spaniards in a scheme that would have dismembered the
Union, he was now a fitting instrument for Burr's disloyal designs.
But in Kentucky there was a man not to be deceived by Aaron Burr. It was that
remarkable character, Colonel Joe Daviess, who gave his life to his country on the
field of Tippecanoe. He was then the United States District Attorney for Kentucky.
He believed Burr to be engaged in treasonable plans, and procured his arrest. Young
Henry Clay defended the prisoner, and he was acquitted ; but Daviess never doubted
his guilt. Jackson too had become convinced that Burr was preparing to separate
the West from the rest of the Union, and he denounced him. " I hate the Dons," he
Avrote to Governor Claiborne,a "and would delight to see Mexico re- a November 12,
duced ; but I would die in the last ditch before I would see the Union
disunited !" Wilkinson, alarmed at the aspect of affairs, turned traitor to Burr, and
also denounced him.
Meanwhile the government had become alarmed. The whole West, and indeed
the whole country, wTas agitated by Burr's operations ; and the magnitude of his
preparations, the persons involved in his toils, and the known disposition of unscru
pulous politicians west of the mountains to set up for independency, caused the Pres
ident to take measures to arrest what seemed to be treason, in the bud. Jefferson
did not choose to give it that complexion, and, in a proclamation for the arrest of
Burr's designs, whatever they might be, he warned all persons against participating
in a scheme for " invading the Spanish dominions."
Boats at Marietta, on the Ohio, loaded for New Orleans with materials for the ex
pedition, were seized, and Blennerhassett's Island wras occupied by United States
troops. In February, 1807,b Burr was arrested near Fort Stoddart, on
the Tombigbee River, in the present State of Alabama, by Lieutenant
(afterward Major General) E. P. Gaines. He was taken to Richmond, in Virginia,
and there tried on a charge of treason. Chief Justice Marshall presided over the
court. Burr was acquitted ; but, from that day to this, no intelligent student of the
history of events in the West during the years 1 805 and 1 806, doubts that he was en
gaged in a wicked conspiracy to dissever the Union, and establish a government over
which, in some form, he should be the ruler. His escape from conviction was so nar
row, and his fears of farther prosecution were so great, that, after remaining concealed
for several weeks among his friends, he sailed for Europe under the name of G. H.
Edwards. He remained in exile and poverty for several years.
i "He said if he could gain over the marine corps, and secure the naval commanders Trhxtun, Preble, Decatur, and
others, he would turn Congress neck and heels out of doors, assassinate the President, seize on the treasury and navy,
and declare himself the protector of an energetic government." — Deposition of General William Eaton. See Life of
Eaton, page 306^00, inclusive. 2 The same, page 401.
138
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The "Rule of 1756" modified. Commercial Thrift in the United States. The Jealousy of British Merchants aroused.
While the people of the United States were violently agitated by these events in
the West the war in Europe was progressing, and France and England had com
menced their desperate game for supremacy at the expense of the commercial pros
perity of the world.
For a long time the commercial thrift of the United States, fostered by a modifica
tion of the British "rule of 1756,"1 had been the envy of English merchants. That
modification had been made solely for the supposed benefit of British commercial in
terests. Relying upon the faith of that government, tacitly pledged in the formal
exposition of the terms of that modification by the law officer of the crown, the
American ship-owners commenced and carried on a most extensive and profitable
trade.2 American vessels became the chief carriers of the products of the colonies of
France and Holland ; also of Spain after her accession to the French alliance. Swe
den, Denmark, and the Hanse Towns3 were then the only neutral maritime powers,
and these, in common with the United States, were fast growing rich.4
First the envious British merchants complained ; then the privateersmen and navy
officers, who declared that, as there were no more prizes to take, their occupation was
1 See note 1, page 84.
2 On the accession of Alexander to the throne of Russia, after the assassination of the Emperor Paul in March, 1801,
the most friendly relations were established between that country and Great Britain. On the ITth of June, 1S01, a treaty
was concluded between the two governments "to settle," as the preamble expressed it, "an invariable determination
of the principles of the two governments upon the rights of neutrality." In that treaty not only the "rule of 1756" was
not recognized, but the right of the neutral to trade with the colonies of belligerents, and from his own country in the
produce of those colonies to the mother country, was expressly stipulated. As this was avowedly the "settled princi
ple" of the government of Great Britain, American commerce had no more fears. But its sense of security was soon
disturbed, but immediately quieted by the prompt action of Mr. King, the American minister at the BriMsh court. Early
in 1801 he was informed that a decree of the Vice-Admiralty Court at Nassau, New Providence, had condemned the cargo
of an American vessel going from the United States to a port in the Spanish colonies, the cargo consisting of articles
the growth of old Spain. Mr. King immediately presented a respectful remonstrance to the British government against
this infringement of the rights of neutrals. The matter was referred to the king's advocate general (Lord Hawkesbury),
who reported, on the 16th of March, 1S01, in the following words, the doctrine of England at that time* concerning the
rights of neutrals:
" It is now distinctly understood, and has been repeatedly so decided by the High Court of Appeals, that the produce
of the colonies of the enemy may be imported by a neutral into his own country, and may be exported from thence, even to the
mother country of such colony; and, in like manner, the produce and manufactures of the mother country may, in this cir
cuitous mode, legally find their way to the colonies. The direct trade, however, between the mother country 'and its colo
nies has not, I apprehend, been recognized as legal, either by his majesty's government or by his tribunals." He then
explained what rule should govern the carrying of goods to cause them to avoid a fair definition of "direct trade" and
be in conformity to the modification of the "rule of 1756," above mentioned, by saying, " that landing the goods and pay
ing the duties in the neutral country breaks the continuity of the voyage, and is such an importation as legalizes the
trade, although the goods be reshipped in the same vessel, and on account of the same neutral proprietors, and be for
warded for sale to the mother country or the colonies."
On the 30th of March the Duke of Portland (the principal Secretary of State) sent the above extracts from the report
of the advocate to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, with a letter in which he said, " I have the honor to sig
nify to your lordships the king's pleasure that a communication of the doctrine laid down in the said report should be
immediately made by your lordships to the several judges presiding in them, setting forth what is held to be the law
upon the subject by the superior tribunals for their future guidance and direction."— Letters from Messrs. Monroe and
Piuckney to Lord Howick, August 20, 1806.
3 Lubeck, Hamburg, and Bremen. These are all that remain of the ancient Hanseatic League, a commercial union
of a number of German port-towns in support of each other against the piracies of the Swedes and Danes, formed in
1164, and formally signed in 1241. At one time the league comprised sixty-six cities, and possessed great political power.
They were reduced by various causes to their present number more than two hundred years ago. The Congress at Vi
enna in 1815 guaranteed the freedom of these cities.
* The following table exhibits the export trade of the United States for four years:
YEARS.
FOREIGN.
DOMESTIC.
TOTAL.
1803
13,594,000
36,231,000
53,179,000
CO, 283, 000
42,206,000
41,468,000
42,387,000
41,253,000
55,800,000
77,699,000
95,506,000
101,536,000
1804
1805
1800
163,287,000
167,314,000
330,601,000
This exhibit was made peculiarly annoying to the English, because the foreign articles were principally productions
of the colonies of the enemies of Great Britain.
* Montesquieu, writing ten years before the English "rule of 1756" in regard to the rights of neutrals was promul
gated, said, concerning the spirit of that people, "Supremely jealous with respect to trade, they bind themselves but lit
tle by treaties, and depend only on their own laws. Other nations have made the interests of commerce vield to those
of politics; the English, on the contrary, have ever made their political interests give way to those of commerce "—See
The Spirit of Laws, ii., 8.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 139
Keassertion of the "Rule of 1756." British Perfidy defended by British Writers. Baring's Exposure.
greatly interfered with. The enemies of Great Britain, having full use of neutral
merchant vessels, had none of their own on the ocean. Armed ships, protected by
the neutral flag, performed all the duties of practical commerce, and the trade of the
maritime foes of England was but little interrupted by existing war. The " rule of
1756," it was alleged, was wholly evaded.
These complaints were heeded. The Courts of Admiralty began to listen willingly
to suggestions that this allegation of neutral property was in many, if not in most
cases, a mere fraud, intended to give to belligerent goods a neutral character ; and
early in the summer of 1805 the "rule of 1756" was revived in full force.1 Like kin
dred measures on previous occasions,2 it was put into operation secretly ; and the first
intimation that the maritime law laid down by the king's advocate in 1801, was abro
gated, was the seizure by British cruisers and condemnation by British Admiralty
Courts of American vessels and their cargoes. At the same time English public
writers put forth specious defenses of the action of'their government in its revival of
the old practice. One of these was James Stephens, a lawyer of ability, supposed to
have been employed for the purpose by the government. He wrote* an able a October,
and elaborate essay, under the title of" War in Disguise, or the Frauds of the 1805<
Neutral Flags," in which, taking the " rule of 1756" as the law of nations, " to which,"
he said, " the neutral powers have all assented, in point of principle, by submitting to
its partial application,"3 he argued that the immense trade carried on with the ene
mies of England under the American flag was essentially war against Great Britain.
" War in Disguise" was " written in the spirit of a lawyer stimulated by that of a
merchant,"4 and was full of dogmatic assertions and bold sophistries. It was ably
answered in England by Alexander Baring,5 and in America by James Madison, then
1 In May, 1805, the decision of the Lords of Appeal on the case of the cargo of the American ship Essex unchained the
chafing English cruisers. It was necessary, for the sake of decency, to give to the world a fair excuse for that decision.
It had already been decided that when goods had been made a common stock of America by a fair importation and
the payment of duties, they might be re-exported from thence to any part of the world. To evade this decision, the
Court of Appeals, in the case above alluded to, established the illegality of the neutral trade, "founded on a discovery,"
says Alexander Baring (see note 5, below), "now made for the first time, that the duties on the cargo imported had
not actually been paid in money, but by bond of the importer." This decision contracted the whole foreign trade of
America excepting that in her own produce. " It circulated rapidly among our cruisers and privateers," continues Mr.
Baring, " and in the course of a fortnight the seas were cleared of every American ship they could find, which now
crowded our ports for trial."— See Baring's Inquiry into the Causes and Consequences of the Orders in Council, pages 81, 82.
2 See page 84.
3 This assumption was characteristic. England, on her own motion, promulgated the "rule of 1756" as a "law of na
tions ;" and having the power to enforce it for half a century in the face of the most vehement protests of every respect
able maritime nation— even armed protests— her statesmen and publicists agreed that those nations had "assented to
it ;" as if a icrong unresented on account of the weakness of the sufferers became a right ! It was never assented to. The
"Armed Neutrality" of 1780 and 1SOO were marked protests against it, and the American principle and policy always op
posed the assumption. From the first protest against it in 1793 until the close of 1801, when Secretary Seward, in a letter
to Lord Lyons, the British minister at Washington, in the case of the San Jacinto and Trent, reiterated the American
doctrine concerning the protecting powers of a neutral flag, the Americans have opposed the "rule of 1750." For a full
account of the case of the San Jacinto and Trent, see Lossing's Pictorial History of the Civil War.
* Madison.
5 The eminent English merchant, Alexander Baring (afterward Lord Ashburton, and at that time a member of Parlia
ment), put forth a pamphlet in February, 1808, entitled An Inquiry into the Causes and Consequences of the Orders in Coun
cil, etc. It was published in February, 1808, and contains a most searching exposure of the mischievous exaggerations
and sophisms of this essay. It is not extravagant to say that that essay, in its injurious influence, was one of the most
potent causes of the war between the United States and Great Britain in 1S12, because it justified in a semi-official manner
the outrages of the British government, through its navy, on the commerce of the United States, under the sanction of
orders in council, and deluded the English mind with a semblance of justice. Speaking of some of the statements of
the author of War in Disguise, Mr. Baring said, "He appears ignorant of every thing relative to American trade to a de
gree incredible."
War in Disguise was followed by other pamphlets of lesser note on the same side. Among the most noted of these was
one entitled The Present Claims and Complaints of America Briefly and Fairly Considered. It was an echo of War in Disguise,
and was published in London at the close of May, 1806. On the back of the title-page of the copy in my possession is
the following memorandum in manuscript by Brooke Watson, who was an eminent Canadian merchant when the Rev
olution broke out in 1775, and was a violent partisan of the crown :
"June 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th, 1806. Read this pamphlet with all the attention in my power to give it, and under all
the consideration of my capacity, accompanied with as much disinterestedness as the nature of the subject will permit
to exercise. I am of opinion that, should this country give way to the solicitations of the American States, and much
less to their hostile threats, they will, by so doing, that is, by allowing the Americans to be the carriers of the produce
of the French colonies to the mother country, sacrifice the deepest interest of this nation to the views of France and the
growing insolence of the Americans. — East Sheen, 8th June, 1806. BEOOKE WATSON.
"Read 'War in Disguise,' Lord Sheffield, etc."
140 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Answer to " War in Disguise." Foreign Relations unpromising. Expected Difficulties with Great Britain.
the Secretary of State. In that answer, referring to menaces in Mr. Stephens's essay,
Madison uttered the following noble words, prophetic of soon-coming deeds that vin
dicated the power behind them : " The blessing of God on our first contest in arms
made this nation sovereign, free, and independent. Our citizens feel their honorable
condition, and, whatever may be their opinion on questions of national policy, will
firmly support the national rights. Our government must therefore be permitted to
judge for itself. No minister, however splendid his talents, no prince, however great
his power, must dictate to the President of the United States."1
The foreign relations of the United States at the opening of the year 1806 were
unpromising. The conduct of the Spanish government in reference to Louisiana
seemed to render wrar with that nation inevitable. Forbearance on the part of the
a january s; Americans was exhausted, and a select committee of Congress reported11
1806- that the aggressions of Spain afforded ample cause for war. But as the
policy of the country was always a peaceful one, it was proposed, while preparing
for hostilities, to endeavor to avert them, and settle all matters in dispute by the
purchase of a part or the whole of the Floridas from Spain. Action to that end was
taken, but the wrar-cloud soon passed away.
Not so with the harbingers of a storm that was evidently brewing between the
United States and Great Britain. The depredations of British cruisers and priva
teers on American commerce, commenced under the most absurd and frivolous pre
texts,2 and fully sanctioned by the British government, produced the most intense
indignation throughout the country ; and wThen the Ninth Congress had assembled at
Washington in December, 1805, the subject was speedily presented to their notice.
Mr. Jefferson had been re-elected President of the United States, and the Democratic
party, of which he was the founder and head, had an overwhelming majority in the
National Legislature. Its power became somewhat weakened by the defection of
John Randolph, of Roanoke, one of its leaders, a quarrelsome and ambitious man of
varied but not solid attainments, who carried with him several of his Virginia col
leagues, and filled the halls of legislation during the entire session with unprofitable
bickerings.
On account of British depredations, memorials from the merchants of nearly all of
the maritime towns of the United States north of the Potomac, argumentative and
denunciatory in substance, and numerously signed, were presented to the President ;
and on the 17th of January these, Avith a special message on the subject, were
laid before Congress by Mr. Jefferson, together with parts of the diplomatic corre-
1 This reply to Mr. Stephens was published anonymously in February, 1806, with the title of An Answer to "War in
Disguise;" or, Remarks on the New Doctrine of England concerning Neutral Trade.
After the capture of the Macedonian by Decatur in the autumn of 1812, the following epigram appeared in Cobbett'd
Political Register, an English publication :
"WAR IN DISGUISE; OR,
AN APOLOGY FOK HIS MAJESTY'S NAVY.
" One Stephens, a lawyer, and once a reporter,
Of war and of taxes a gallant supporter,
In some way or other to Wilberforce kin,
And a member, like him, of a borough bought in,
Who a Master in Chancery since has been made,
Wrote a pamphlet to show that Jonathan's TKADE
Was a ' WAE IN DISGUISE ;' which, though strange at first sight,
Events have since proved may have been but too right ;
For when Garden the ship of the Yankee Decatur
Attacked, without doubting to take her or beat her,
A FRIGATE she seemed to his glass and his eyes ;
But when taken himself, how great his surprise
To find her a SEVENTY-FOUR IN DISGUISE !
" If Jonathan thus has the art of disguising,
That he captures our ships is by no means surprising ;
And it can't be disgraceful to strike to an elf
Who is more than a match for the devil himself.— PUBS."
3 Baring's Inquiry, etc., page 96.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 141
Memorials of Merchants on the Subject of British Depredations. Conduct of the British Cruisers.
spondence on the same topic by Mr. Monroe, the United States minister at the Brit
ish court. The President assured Congress that Mr. Monroe had been instructed " to
insist on rights too evident and too important to be surrendered.1
The memorials from the merchants were generally drawn with great ability ; and
it is a notable fact that these men, who, as a class, naturally deprecate war because
it is destructive to commerce, and are willing to make great concessions to avoid it,
called earnestly upon the government to put forth the strong powers of the army
and navy, if necessary, in defense of the rights of neutrals and the protection of
American interests.
There were memorials from Boston, Salem, Newburyport, New Haven, New York,
Philadelphia, and Baltimore, and all called loudly for redress, under the evident ex
pectation that to insist upon it would cause war.
The Boston merchants said that they fully relied that " such measures would be
promptly adopted as Avould tend to disembarrass commerce, assert our rights, and
support the dignity of the United States."
The merchants of Salem said, " If, however, conciliation can not effect the purpose,
and an appeal to arms be the last and necessary protection of honor, they feel no dis
position to decline the common danger or shrink from the common contribution.
Relying on the wisdom and firmness of the general government on this behalf, they
feel no hesitation to pledge their lives 'and properties in the support of the measures
which may be adopted to vindicate the public rights and redress the public wrongs"
The merchants of Newburyport relied "with confidence on the firmness and justice
of the government to obtain for them compensation and protection ;" and those of
New Haven called upon that government " firmly to resist every encroachment upon
the rights of neutral nations." They tendered " assurances of their disposition to
give aid and support to every measure calculated to accomplish this important
object."
The New York merchants declared their firm " reliance upon the government of
their country that their rights would not be abandoned, and (referring to the assump
tion of the author of "War in Disguise," see page 139) that no argument in favor
of a usurpation would ever be derived from their acquiescence." They concluded
by saying, " We pledge our united support in favor of all the measures adopted to
vindicate and secure the just rights of our country."
The merchants of Philadelphia suggested that when every peaceable means con
sistent with honor had been tried to recover redress, and failed, that a resort to
arms might be necessary. " If such measures should prove ineffectual," they said,
" whatever may be the sacrifice on their part, it would be met with submission."
These memorials were signed by merchants of every shade of politics, and by for
eigners doing business in these ports. For more than ten years they had suffered
greatly from the varying but always aggressive policy of Great Britain, a policy now
greatly aggravated by the latitude tacitly given to the British cruisers in respect to
American commerce. These were in little danger of being made answerable for any
errors, and were consequently not disposed to make nice distinctions. They detained
and sent in every vessel they met under the most frivolous pretenses, in which they
were encouraged by the expectation of actual war. They captured American vessels
with cargoes wholly of American produce ; and the owners of privateers were in the
daily practice of taking in valuable cargoes and offering immediately to release them
for one or two hundred guineas, and sometimes a larger sum. " In these instances,"
says Mr. Baring, " the judge decreed the restitution of the ship and cargo, and costs
against the captors, with expressions of indignation which so lawless an outrage nec
essarily excited. The latter had, in the face of this censure, the audacity to enter ap-
1 Statesman's Manual, i., 273.
142 PICTOKIAL FIELD-BOOK
Impressment of American Seamen into the British Service. The Eight of Search asserted. Protest of the Americans.
peals, and the American was obliged either to compromise or leave to the captor the
option of bringing forward his appeal within a twelve-month, with the possible ad
vantage of an intervening war securing to him his prize.1 The London merchant," he
said, " is either obliged to acquiesce in this iniquitous robbery, or let his correspondent
suffer the more expensive vexations which it is, unfortunately, in the power of these
people to inflict. If these are the maritime rights," exclaims the honest and indig
nant Englishman, " for which, we are told, with a pompous ambiguity that always
avoids coming to the point, ' our ancestors fought and bled,' and for which ' we
crushed the Northern Confederacy,'2 I am strangely mistaken."3
Another and most serious subject of complaint against Great Britain was now
considered in connection with the depredatibns upon American commerce. It was
the impressment into the British naval service of seamen taken without leave from
American vessels, and who were sailing under the protection of the American flag.
To this subject we have already referred.4 It had been a topic of complaint and ne
gotiation from the beginning of the national government in 1789, and impressment
in general was a system against which humane British publicists and statesmen had
declaimed. But the British government, not always the exponent of the English
mind and heart, governed by expediency rather than justice, and having the prece
dents of more than four hundred years to support its policy in this respect,5 had then
for half a century chosen to exercise that power in procuring seamen for its navy,
and to utterly disregard other hoary precedents which would have justified it in
abolishing the nefarious system.6 It was too useful in time of war, in the replenish
ment of the navy, to be relinquished. Upon it had been ingrafted another more uni
versally offensive. It was that of searching neutral vessels for British seamen, and,
seizing them without other criteria of their nationality than the presumptive evi
dence which similarity of language afforded, impressing them into the British naval
service. In the course of fifteen years thousands of native Americans had thus been
made to serve a master whom they detested. There being no maritime power strong
enough to resist these aggressions, it was assumed by Great Britain, as in the case of
the " rule of 1756," that it was for her an established "maritime right."
From the beginning of its career the government of the United States protested
against the right of search and the impressment of seamen taken from under the
American flag. In his instructions to the United States minister in London, in the
summer of 1792, Mr. Jefferson directed him to call the attention of the British minis
try to the subject. That government not denying that American seamen had been
impressed, had made the degrading proposition that, for their protection against such
" accidents," such seamen should carry with them a certificate of citizenship ! " This
is a condition," said Mr. Jefferson, " never yet submitted to by any nation."7 The
right to enter an American vessel without leave, for any pretense, was then, and al
ways has been, strongly denied by the government of the United States. The War
of 1812 with England was a solemn protest against the assumption of that right by
the British government ; and such a requirement of American sailors would operate
practically as a warrant to British cruisers for stripping almost every American ves
sel of its seamen, for the habits, calling, and vicissitudes of the sailor are such that
most of them would soon lose their " certificates." The proposition had been unhes
itatingly rejected as inadmissible by an independent nation.
In October of the same year Mr. Jefferson again called the attention of the embas-
sador to the subject, " so many instances" of impressment having been complained
i Inquiry, etc., page 94. * Armed Neutrality. See note 2, page 83. =» Baring's Inquiry, pages 95, 96, 97.
4 See page 85.
5 The statute of 2 Richard II. speaks of impressment being well known as early as 13T8.
6 Impressment was declared to be illegal by the British government in 1641.
7 Mr. Jefferson to Mr. Pinckney, June 11, 1792.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
143
Correspondence on the Subject of Impressments.
Kufus King.
His Arraignment of the British Government.
of;1 and in November he expressed to Mr. Pinckney the hope that he might " be able
to make the British ministry sensible of the necessity of punishing the past and pre
venting the future."2
board their
In 1796 Timothy
Pickering, then Sec
retary of State, in
his instructions to
Mr. King, Ameri
can minister at the
Court of London,3
spoke of "the long
and fruitless at
tempts that have
been made to pro
tect American sea
men from British
impress," and di
rected him to do all
in his power to en
able the American
flag to " protect
those of whatever
nation who sail un
der it."4 In anoth
ry on
ships for American
seamen," and there
fore " their doom is
fixed for the war.
Thus," he said, "the
rights of an inde
pendent nation are
to be sacrificed to
British dignity.
Justice requires
that such inquiries
and examinations
be made, because,
otherwise, the lib
eration of our sea
men will be im
possible. For the
British govern
ment then to make
professions of re
spect to the rights of our cit
izens, and willingness to re
lease them, and yet deny the
only means of ascertaining
If the British government have any regard
er dispatch the same year he
alludes to the fact that the
British government had gone
so far as not to " permit inqui-
those rights, is an insulting tantalism.
to our rights, any respect for our nation, and place any value on our friendship, they
will even facilitate to us the means of releasing our oppressed citizens."5
A little later he wrote, " The British naval officers often impress Swedes, Danes,
and other foreigners from the vessels of the United States. They have even some
times impressed Frenchmen ! . . . They can not pretend an inability to distinguish
these foreigners from their own subjects. They may with as much reason rob the
American vessels of the property or merchandise of the Swedes, Danes, or Portu
guese, as seize and detain in their service the subjects of those nations found on board
American vessels."6
During the following year very many complaints concerning impressed American
seamen were made to the government of the United States, and cases of absolute
i Mr. Jefferson to Mr. Pinckney, October 12, 1792.
" The same to the same, November C, 1792.
3 Kufus King was born in Scarborough, Maine, in the year 1755. He was a student in Harvard College in 1775, when
the breaking out of the war for independence suspended that institution. He chose the law for his profession, and be
came an able practitioner. He was in Sullivan's army in Rhode Island in 1778, and was admitted to the bar in 1780. His
first appearance was in opposition to his great instructor, Theophilus Parsons, of Newburyport. His oratorical talents
soon became known and appreciated, and in 1784 he was elected to a seat in the Legislature of Massachusetts. In the
National Convention of 1787 he was an efficient member, and nobly advocated the ratification of the Constitution there
adopted. Having married the daughter of an opulent merchant of New York, Mr. King made that city his residence in
1788, and the next year was elected to a seat in the Legislature of New York. He was one of the first United States sen
ators from New York, and in 1796 was appointed minister to Great Britain. He returned home in 1803. From 1813 to
1826 he was a member of the United States Senate. At the close of his term he was sent to England as minister pleni
potentiary, but ill health compelled him to relinquish his post and return home after a residence of about a year there.
He died at his home near Jamaica, Long Island, on the 29th of April, 1S27, at the age of seventy-two years.
* Mr. Pickering to Mr. King, June 8, 1796.
6 The same to the same, September 10, 1796.
6 The same to the same, October 26, 1796.
144 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Cruel Treatment of American Seamen in the British Navy. Secretary Marshall to Minister King.
cruelty exercised toward and hardships endured by American seamen thus impressed
were reported.1
The United States government, always inclined to peace, frequently urged upon
that of Great Britain the necessity of a convention which should settle the questions
of impress and neutrality, but without success, for the British government prac
tically assumed the right to be a law unto itself. Early in 1799 Mr. King made an
earnest representation on the subject to Lord Grenville, denying, as he had on former
conferences, any right of the kind on the part of Great Britain, and suggesting that
American ships of war, by permission of their government, might with equal right
pursue the same practice toward British merchantmen. He protested against the in
discriminate seizure on board of American vessels of seamen of several nations, and
pressed him for some definite assurance of a change. But Grenville, as usual, was
evasive, and the conference ended without a prospect of satisfaction. Grenville as
sured Mr. King that all Americans so impressed should be discharged on application
for that purpose ; but the American minister very properly considered that offer far
short of satisfaction. " Indeed," he said, " to acquiesce in it is to give up the right."2
Late in the year 1800, John Marshall, then Secretary of State, wrote an able and
eloquent letter to Mr. King in London on the subject of the impress. "The impress
ment of our seamen," he said, " is an injury of very serious magnitude, which deeply
affects the feelings and the honor of the nation. . . . They are dragged on board
British ships of war with evidences of citizenship in their hands, and forced by vio
lence there to serve until conclusive testimonials of their birth can be obtained. . . .
Although the Lords of the Admiralty uniformly direct their discharge on the produc-
1 Investigation revealed the following facts: on the 4th of July, 1T94, Captain Silas Talbot, of the United States Navy,
wrote from Kingston, Jamaica, to Secretary Pickering, that Admiral Sir Hyde Parker had "issued a general order to all
captains and commanders of ships and vessels of war, directing them not to obey any writ of habeas corpus, nor suffer
any men to leave their ships in consequence of such writ." This order was issued because Talbot had made successful
applications to the civil authorities on that island for the release of enslaved Americans on board British vessels. Tal
bot, however, persevered in his humane efforts, and he wrote that, while all the writs which he had obtained were
served, none of them were obeyed. The naval officers on that station set the civil authority at defiance, and Talbot
wrote, "The laws in this island, it seems, can not be administered for the relief of American citizens who are held in
British slavery, many of whom, as they write me from on board Captain Otway's ship, have been brought to the gangway
and whipped for writing to their agent to get them discharged /"
William Cobbett, an Englishman, wrote afterward in Us Political Register, saying, "Our ships of war, when they meet
an American vessel at sea, board her and take out of her by force any seamen whom our officers assert to be British
subjects. There is no rule by which they are bound. They act at discretion; and the consequence is that great numbers
of native Americans have been impressed, and great numbers of them are now in our navy. . . . That many of these
men have died on board our ships, that many have been wounded, that many have been killed in action, and that many
have been worn out in the service there can be no doubt. Some obtain their release through the application of the
American consul here ; and of these the sufferings have in many instances been very great. There have been instances
where men have thus got free after having been flogged through the fleet for desertion.* But it has been asked whether we
are not to take our sailors where we find them ? To which America answers, ' Yes.' . . . She wishes not to have in her
ships any British sailors, and she is willing to give them up whenever the fact of their being British sailors can be
proved ; but let not men be seized in her ships upon the high seas (and sometimes at the mouths of her own rivers),
where there is nobody to judge between the parties, and where the British officer going on board is at once ACCUSES,
WITNESS, JUDGE, and OAPTOK !"
2 Mr. King to Mr. Pickering, March 15, 1799.
* There is ample testimony to prove the cruel treatment experienced by impressed American seamen on board British
vessels. Richard Thompson, a native of New Paltz, Ulster County, New York, testified at Poughkeepsie on the 17th of
April, 1793, that, while on the sea in a merchant vessel, he was impressed on board the British vessel of war Peacock in
1810. He was not allowed to write to his friends. When he and two other impressed American seamen heard of the
declaration of war in 1812, they claimed to be considered prisoners of war, and refused to do duty any longer. They
were ordered to the quarter-deck, put in irons for twenty-four hours, then taken to the gangway, stripped naked, "tied
and whipped, each one dozen and a half lashes, and put to duty." When the Peacock went into action with the Hornet
they asked the captain to be sent below, that they might not fight against their countrymen. The captain called a mid
shipman and told him to " do his duty." That duty was to hold a pistol at the head of Thompson and threaten to blow
his brains out if he and his companions did not do service. They were liberated on the capture of the Peacock by the
Hornet. Another seaman from Ulster County, named James Tompkins, testified to greater cruelties inflicted on himself
and three others, who were impressed on board the British ship Acteon in April, 1S12. When they refused to do duty
they were whipped "five dozen lashes each." Two days afterward they received four dozen lashes each. They still
refused to do duty, and, after the lapse of another two days, they received two dozen lashes each. They still refused,
and, after being whipped again, they were put in irons, where they were kept three months. On their arrival in London
they heard of the capture of the Guerriere. With a shirt and handkerchiefs they made stripes and stars for American
colors, hung it over a gun, and gave three cheers for the victory. For this outburst of patriotism they received two
dozen lashes each.
OF THE WAE OF 1812. 145
Argument against Impressments. The British Government refuses to listen. Its Proposition on the Subject rejected.
tion of this testimony, yet many must perish unrelieved, and all are detained a con
siderable time in lawless and injurious confinement. It is the duty as well as a right
of a friendly nation to require that measures be taken by the British government to
prevent the continued repetition of such violence by its agents. . . . The mere release
of the injured, after a long course of serving and suffering, is no compensation for the
past, and no security for the future. . . . The United States, therefore, require posi
tively that their seamen who are not British subjects, whether born in America or
elsewhere, shall be exempt from impressment. The case of British subjects, whether
naturalized or not, is more questionable ; but the right even to impress them is de
nied. . . . Alien seamen, not British subjects, engaged in our merchant service, ought
to be equally exempt with citizens from impressments. "We have a right to engage
them, and have a right to and an interest in their persons to the extent of the service
contracted to be performed. Britain has not a pretext of right to their persons or
their service. To tear them, then, from our possession is at the same time an insult
and an injury. It is an act of violence for which there exists no palliative." After
alluding to the fact that the principles of the United States government would not
allow retaliation by impressments from the British merchant ships, and suggesting
that something in that way might be done by recruiting from that service, Mr. Mar
shall concludes by saying, " Is it not more advisable to desist from, and to take ef
fectual measures to prevent an acknowledged wrong, than, by perseverance in that
wrong, to excite against themselves the well-founded resentment of America, and
force our government into measures which may possibly terminate in open rup
ture ?'n
These suggestions were all submitted to the British ministry, but without the
slightest visible effect. While the war continued, the nefarious practice was carried
on vigorously; but when the general pacification of Europe took place in 1801, and
the Peace of Amiens gave a respite to British ships of war — when their seamen were
in excess of the demand — impressments ceased, and the American minister in London,
untaught by past experience and observation, wrote, " I am in hopes that Lord St.
Vincent will be inclined to attend to our reiterated remonstrances against the im
pressment of our seamen and the vexations of our trade."2 Vain expectation !
Early in the year 1 800a Mr. Listen, the British minister in the United
• tt February 4
States, submitted to President Adams a proposition for the reciprocal de
livery of deserters, so worded as to sanction impressment on board of private vessels,
but to except " public ships of war." It was rejected. Pickering, the Secretary of
State, said, " It appears utterly inadmissible, unless it would put an end to impress
ments."3 The Secretary of the Navy said, " It is better to have no article, and meet
all consequences, than not to enumerate merchant vessels on the high seas among the
things not to be entered in search of deserters."4 The Secretary of the Treasury ob
jected to it because it did not " provide against the impressment of American sea
men."5 The Secretary of War objected to it on the same ground, saying, " If this
article [the seventh in Mr. Listen's proposition] means what it is apprehended it does,
it is utterly inadmissible."6 The President and his Cabinet, thus planting themselves
upon the broad principles of neutral rights and the sanctity of the national flag laid
down at the beginning, would listen to nothing short of a recognition of those rights
and of that sanctity.7
When hostilities between Great Britain and France were revived in 1803, the im-
i Marshall to King, September 20, 1800. 2 Mr. King to the Secretary of State. February 23, 1801.
3 Pickering to the President, February 20, 1800. * Benjamin Stoddert to the President, February 26, 1800.
5 Oliver Wolcott to the President, April 26, 1800. « James M 'Henry to the President, April 16, 1800.
7 From June, 1797, until the beginning of 1801, no less than 2059 applications for seamen impressed, including many
made previously by Mr. King and Mr. Pinckney, were made. Of these, only 102 were British subjects— less than one
twentieth of the whole impressed. Eleven hundred and forty-two were discharged as not being British subjects, and
805, more than one half, were held for farther proof, while there existed strong presumption that the whole, or a greater
part, at least, were aliens. — LTMAN'S Diplomacy of the United States, ii., 15, note.
K
146 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Doctrine concerning Neutral Rights held by the United States and Great Britain. The latter arraigned by Madison.
press was again put into active operation. The American minister in London, Mr.
Monroe, following up previous efforts made by Mr. King when that gentleman per
ceived that war was inevitable,1 used every lawful endeavor to make a mutually sat
isfactory arrangement concerning it. In a letter of instructions to that minister early
in 1804,a Mr. Madison, then Secretary of State, ably and lucidly reviewed
the whole subject of the impress and the rights of neutrals. His letter
opened with the following clear enunciation of the doctrines of the two nations :
" We consider a neutral flag on the high seas as a safeguard to those sailing under
it. Great Britain, on the contrary, asserts a right to search for and seize her own sub
jects ; and under that cover, as can not but happen, are often seized and taken off citi
zens of the United States, and citizens or subjects of other neutral countries navigating
the high seas under the protection of the American flay"
After brief and cogent argument, Mr. Madison said, " Were it allowable that Brit
ish subjects should be taken out of American vessels on the high seas, it might at
least be required that the proof of their allegiance should lie on the British side.
This obvious and just rule is, however, reversed. And any seaman on board, though
going from an American port, sailing under an American flag, and sometimes even
speaking an idiom proving him not to be a British subject, is presumed to be such
unless proved to be an American citizen. It may be safely affirmed that this is an
outrage which has no precedent, and which Great Britain would be among the last
nations in the world to suffer, if offered to her own subjects and her own flag.2
* * # # * * * * * *
" Great Britain has the less to say on the subject, as it is in direct contradiction to
the principles on which she proceeds in other cases. "While she claims and seizes on
the high seas her own subjects voluntarily serving in American vessels, she has con
stantly given, when she could give, as a reason for not discharging from her service
American citizens, that they had voluntarily engaged in it. Nay, more ; while she
impresses her own subjects from the American service, although they have been set
tled, and married, and naturalized in the United States, she constantly refuses to re
lease from hers American seamen pressed into it whenever she can give for a reason
that they are either settled or married within her dominions. Thus, when the volun
tary consent of the individual favors her pretensions, she pleads the validity of that
consent. When the voluntary consent of the individual stands in the way of her
pretensions, it goes for nothing. When marriage or residence can be pleaded in her
favor, she avails herself of the plea. When marriage, residence, and naturalization
are against her, no respect whatever is paid to either. She takes by force her own
subjects voluntarily serving in our vessels. She keeps by force American citizens
involuntarily serving in hers. More flagrant inconsistencies can not be imagined."
No arguments, no remonstrances, no appeals to justice or the demands of interna
tional comity, could induce the British government at that time, when waging war
with all its powers, to relinquish so great an advantage.
1 In the spring of 1803 Mr. King made a determined effort to prevent a revival of the practice of impressment. On the
Tth of May he submitted the following article to the British ministry: "No person shall be impressed or taken on the
high seas out of any ship or vessel belonging to the subjects or citizens of one of the parties by the public or private
armed ships or men-of-war belonging to or in the service of the other party." Lord St. Vincent, the First Lord of the
Admiralty, and Lord Hawkesbury, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, at first assented to this article ; but, after
consultation with Sir William Scott, an exception was required in favor of the narrow seas. This proposal was rejected
by Mr. King. It was regarded as a subterfuge. The government, at the opening of another war, was determined not
to relinquish the practice of impressments from American vessels, and this revival of an obsolete claim of England to
exclusive jurisdiction over the seas surrounding the British Isles as far south as Cape Finisterre and north to a point
on the coast of Norway, which it was known the Americans would reject, was done as an excuse for terminating the ne
gotiation on the practice of the impress.
2 Cooper, in his Naval History of the, United States, ii., 84, 8ays : "On the 12th of June [1805] No. 7 [gun-boat] fell in
with the fleet of Admiral Collingwood off Cadiz, and, while Mr. Lawrence was on board one of the British ships, a boat
was sent and took three men out of No. 7, under the pretense that they were Englishmen. On his return to his own ves
sel Mr. Lawrence hauled down his ensign, but no notice was taken of the proceeding by the British. It is a fitting com
mentary on this transaction that in the published letters of Lord Collingwood, when he speaks of the impressment of
Americans, he says that England would not submit to such an aggression for an hour."
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 147
National Independence and Honor imperiled. Memorials to Congress for decided Action. Hesitation of Congress.
Day after day proofs were received of the suiferings of American citizens on ac
count of the impress; and so flagrant and frequent were these outrages toward the
close of 1805, that, in the memorials presented to Congress on the subject of British
depredations upon American commerce, already alluded to, the impressment of Amer
ican seamen was a prominent topic.1
Action in Congress on these subjects, so vital to the interests of the people and the
dignity of the nation, was prompt. It was felt that a crisis was reached when the in
dependence of the United States must be vindicated, or the national honor be imper
iled. There was ample cause for most vigorous retaliatory measures toward Great
Britain, ay, even for war. But the administration itself, and the host of its oppo
nents, were willing to bear a little longer than take the responsibility of an open rup
ture with Great Britain. A resolution offered in the United States Senate, declaring
that the depredations upon American commerce under the sanction of the British
government were " unprovoked aggressions upon the property of the citizens of the
United States, violations of their neutral rights, and encroachments upon their na
tional independence," was adopted by unanimous vote ;a but when, four . February 10,
days afterward,b another resolution was offered requesting the President
to " demand the restoration of the property of those citizens captured and
condemned on the pretext of its being employed in a trade with the enemies of Great
Britain, indemnification for past losses, and some arrangement concerning the impress
ment of seamen," there was hesitation. To obtain the redress sought, there were
only four modes — namely, negotiation, non-intercourse, embargo, and war. The first
had been tried in vain ; the second and third would be menacing and offensive ; and
the fourth, all parties at that time deprecated. There was a division in the vote.
There was unanimity in denunciation, but differences when the test of positive action
was applied. There were twenty votes in the affirmative1, and six in the negative.
It was resolved to try negotiations once more. William Pinkney,2 of Maryland,
who had considerable diplomatic experience, was finally appointed a minister c
extraordinary to England,0 to become associated with Monroe, the resident
1 "The impressment of our seamen, notwithstanding clear proofs of citizenship, the violation of our jurisdiction by
captures at the mouths of our harbors,* and insulting treatment of our ships on the ocean, are subjects worthy the se
rious consideration of our national councils." — Salem Memorial.
"The constancy and valor of the seamen of the United States are justly themes of patriotic exultation. From their
connection with us, we consider their cause as our cause, their rights as our rights, their interests as our interests. Our
feelings are indignant at the recital of their wrongs." — Sew York Memorial, signed by John Jacob Astor and others.
" That our seamen should be exposed to meanest insults and most wanton cruelties, and the fruits of their industry
and enterprise fall a prey to the profligate, can not but excite both feeling and indignation, and call loudly for the aid
and protection of government." — Philadelphia Memorial. The New Haven and Baltimore memorials expressed similar
sentiments.
a William Pinkney was born at Annapolis, Maryland, on the 17th of March, 1764. His father was a Loyalist, but Wil
liam, as he approached manhood, toward the close of the Revolution, espoused the cause of his country. At the age of
twenty-two years he was admitted to the bar, and commenced the practice of his profession in Harford County, Mary
land, where he married the sister of (afterward) Commodore Rodgers. He was a member of the Executive Council of
Maryland in 1792, and in 1795 was chosen to the Legislature. The next year he was appointed one of the commissioners
under the provisions of Jay's treaty, and proceeded to England. He remained there until 1S05, when he returned, and
made Baltimore his residence. He was distinguished for his legal learning and eloquence, and was immediately ap
pointed Attorney General of Maryland. He was sent to England for the object mentioned in the text, in 1806, where he
remained until 1S11, when he returned home. He fought bravely in the battle near Bladensburg in 1814, and was soon
afterward elected to Congress. In 1816 he was appointed minister to Russia. He remained there until 1820, when he
returned, and was chosen to a seat in the Senate of the United States. In that body, and in the United States Courts, he
labored intensely until 1821, when his health suddenly gave way. He died on the 25th of February, 1822, in the fifty-
ninth year of his age.
* This had been done repeatedly. The American waters were almost continually plowed by British cruisers at this
time. A few weeks later an event occurred which aroused the greatest indignation throughout the country. A small
coasting vessel, navigated by Captain John Pearce, of New York, running for Sandy Hook, was fired into by the British
cruiser Leander, Captain Whitby. Captain Pearce was killed. It was, morally, a gross act of piracy. The act itself called
forth bitter denunciations at a meeting held at the Tontine Coffee-house, in New York, on the following day (April 26,
1806). A resolution proposed by a committee, of which Rufus King, late minister to England, was chairman, declared
that an administration that would suffer foreign armed ships to "impress, wound, and murder citizens" was "not en
titled to the confidence of a brave and free people." The public indignation was increased when it became known that
Captain Whitby, who was brought to trial in England for the murder of Captain Pearce, and his guilt fairly proven by
evidence dispatched thither by the United States government, was honorably acquitted I
148
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Minister Extraordinary sent to England. The old Party Lines again established. War and Anti-war Parties.
minister, in negotiating a treaty that should
settle all disputes between the two govern
ments. It was thought expedient, at the
same time, to use the second method pros-
pectively, as an auxiliary to the American
ministers, for it would appeal potentially to
the commercial interest of Great Britain,
then, as ever, the ruling power in the state.
Accordingly, after long and earnest debates,
the House of Representatives passed an
acta prohibiting the importation aMarch28,
into the United States of a great 1S06-
variety of the most important manufactures
of Great Britain. It passed the Senate on
the 16th of April, and on the 18th became
a law.1 To give time for the negotiations,
the commencement of the prohibition was
postponed until the middle of the following
November.
In the debate upon the Non-importation
Act in Congress, and in its discussion among
the people, the old party lines, which, to
some extent, had appeared faint when great
national questions were fairly discussed,
became perfectly distinct. The measure
was regarded by the jealous opponents of Jeiferson and his Cabinet as a display of
that hostility to Great Britain because of love for France, which the President and
his Secretary had so frequently manifested during the administrations of Washington
and Adams. It was regarded as a measure calculated to lead the country into a war
with Great Britain. The administration party, on the contrary, charged the Feder
alists, because they were unwilling to support the measure, with being friendly to
their country's oppressor. The old political war-cries were sounded, and " French
party" and " British party" became familiar words again on the lips of partisans.
The Federalists affected to regard Great Britain in her wars with France, and espe
cially in the current one with Napoleon, as the champion of the liberties of the world
against an audacious aspirant for universal empire ; while the Democrats affected to
consider the Emperor of the French as a great regenerator, who was destined to bene
fit the world by prostrating tottering thrones, effacing corrupt dynasties, purifying the
political atmosphere of Europe, and giving new life and vigor to the people. Such
were the antagonistic ideas then distinctly developed. The Non-importation Act
was passed by a strictly party vote — ninety-three Democrats, against thirty-two Fed
eralists and " Quids," as John Randolph and his six secessionists were called. The
heat of that debate in the first session of the Ninth Congress developed the germ of
the War and Anti-war parties, so strong and implacable just previous to and during
the WAR OF 1812.
1 The following is a list of articles prohibited : All articles of which leather, silk, hemp or flax, and tin and brass (tin
sheets cxcepted) were the materials of chief value ; woolen cloths whose invoice prices should exceed five shillings ster
ling a yard ; woolen hosiery of all kinds ; window-glass, and all the manufactures of glass ; silver and plated ware ; pa
per of every description ; nails and spikes ; mats, and clothing ready made; millinery of all kinds ; playing-cards; beer,
ale, and porter ; and pictures and prints.
OF TIJE WAR OF 1812. 149
Hopes created by a new British Ministry. Disappointment. Negotiations reopened. Charles James Fox.
CHAPTER
" Yon all rememher well, I guess,
The Chesapeake disaster,
When Britons dared to kill and press,
To please their royal master."
SONG RODGERB AND VlCTOBY.
" From the deep we withdraw till the tempest be past,
Till our flag can protect each American cargo ;
While British ambition's dominion shall last,
Let us join, heart and hand, to support the EJIBABGO :
For EMBARGO and PEACE
Will promote our increase ;
Then embargoed we'll live till injustice shall cease:
For ne'er, till old Ocean retires from his bed,
Will Columbia by Europe's proud tyrants be led."
SONG — EMBARGO AND PEACE.
HILE the debate on the Non-importation Act was at its height
in Congress, intelligence came of a change in the British minis
try that promised a speedy adjustment of all matters in dis
pute between the two countries. William Pitt died in Jauur.-
ry,a and at the beginning of February a new Cabi- a January 23,
net was formed, known in English history as " All-
the-talents Ministry," of which the peaceful, humane, and lib
eral Charles James Fox was the most influential member,1 as
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
Under the impression that the new ministry would be more ready to act justly to
ward the Americans than the old one, Mr. Pinkney sailed for England. He was soon
\mdeceived. England's policy in the conduct of the tremendous war in which she
was engaged was too firmly established to be disturbed by the private opinions and
wishes of individuals, and Mr. Fox appears to have imbibed the views of his prede
cessors in office concerning the complaints of the Americans on the subject of the
impress and neutral rights.
Before Pinkney's arrival Fox had expressed to Monroe some sensibility at the
passage of the Xon-importation Act. He declared that it embarrassed him, because
it would place him in the position of treating under seeming compulsion. Monroe
gave a satisfactory explanation, and, on the arrival of Pinkney, Lords Holland and
Auckland were appointed to negotiate with the American envoys.
The negotiations commenced in August.b As the American commis-
b August 2.
sioners were instructed to make no treaty which did not secure the vessels
of their countrymen on the high seas against visitations from press-gangs, this topic
naturally occupied the early and earnest attention of the negotiators. The American
commissioners, under instructions, contended that the right of impressment existing
by municipal law could not be exercised out of the jurisdiction of Great Britain, and,
consequently, upon the high seas. In reply, the British commissioners recited the old
1 Fox and Burke stood side by side in the opposition to Lord North in the long struggle before and during the Amer
ican Revolution. He was always on the liberal side in politics, of the Whig school, and was intensely hated by the king.
At one time, at the close of the Revolution, the nation appeared to be divided into parties, one known as the king's, and
the other as Fox's. On one occasion Dr. Johnson said, " Fox is an extraordinary man ; here is a man who has divided
a kingdom with Csesar, so that it was a doubt which the nation should be ruled by— the sceptre of George III. or the
tongue of Fox." He was always an advocate for a peace policy, and his accession to power in 1S06 gave the thinking
men of England hopes of a cessation of the wasting war with the all-conquering Napoleon. To that end he labored,
and had well-nigh accomplished measures for pacification when, on the 13th of September, 1S06, he died.
150 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Progress and Character of Negotiations. A Treaty agreed to. The Berlin Decree considered.
doctrine that no subject of the king could expatriate himself— " once an Englishman,
always an Englishman"— and argued that to give up that right would make every
American vessel an asylum for British seamen wishing to evade their country's serv
ice, and even for deserters from British ships of war. They were sustained in this
view by the law officers of the crown and the Board of Admiralty, and would not
yield the point. Here the American commissioners might have terminated the nego
tiation, because the vital object of their appointment could not be obtained.
At length this impressment question was placed in an attitude to allow negotiations
upon other topics to go on. While the British commissioners declared that their gov
ernment would not relinquish by formal treaty the right of impressment on the high
seas, they agreed that special instructions should be given and enforced for the ob
servance of great caution against subjecting any American-born citizens to molesta
tion or injury. They gave the American commissioners to understand, although it
was not expressed in terms, that the intention of the British government was not to
allow impressments from American vessels on the high seas except under extraordi
nary circumstances, such as having on board known deserters from the British navy,
m November 8 and thus gradually to abandon the practice. This proposition was put in
isoe. ' writing,a and the negotiations on other topics proceeded.
The terms of a treaty considered in many respects more favorable to the Americans
than that of Jay in 1794, to continue for ten years, were soon agreed to. The trade
between the United States and the European possessions of Great Britain were placed
on a footing of perfect reciprocity, but no concessions could be obtained as to the
trade of the West Indies ; while in the matter of the East India trade terms as favor
able to the Americans as those of Jay's would not be granted. The provisions in
that treaty concerning blockades and contraband were adopted, with an additional
provision that no American vessels were to be visited or seized within five miles of
the coast of the United States.
In regard to the carrying-trade, in which American vessels were so largely con
cerned, the modification of the " rule of 1756" (stipulated in the treaty with Russia in
1801, already alluded to)1 was agreed to, but to operate only during the current war,
by which such vessels could transport to any belligerent colony not blockaded by a
British force, any European goods not contraband of war, providing such goods were
American property, and the continuity of the voyage had been broken by their hav
ing been previously landed in the United States, and a duty paid of at least one per
cent, above the amount drawn back on re-exportation. In like manner the produce
of the colony might be carried back, and taken into any port in Europe not block
aded.
At this point in the negotiation, intelligence of the issue of the Berlin Decree,2 which
we shall consider presently, reached the commissioners. It produced hesitation on
the part of the British negotiators. They required assurances that the United States
would not allow their trade with Great Britain, and in British merchandise, to be in
terrupted and interfered with by France without taking measures to resent it. This
assurance the American commissioners refused to give, as they were not inclined to
pledge their government to quarrel with France for the benefit of English trade.
Holland and Auckland w-aived the point and signed the treaty, at the same time pre
senting a written protest against the Berlin Decree, reserving to the British govern
ment the right, should that decree be actually carried into force as against neutrals,
and be submitted to by them, to take such measures of retaliation as might be deem
ed expedient.
Had this treaty not been based in a degree upon contingencies and promises, leav
ing American commence still, in the absence of positive treaty stipulations, at the
1 See note 2, page 138. " See page 129.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 151
Treaty withheld from the Senate. War on the Administration. Blockade of the European Coast declared.
mercy of British policy, it might have been considered so advantageous to the mer
chants of the United States, being an advance in the right direction, as to have re
ceived the favor of the administration. But it was too loose in its actual guarantees,
and the experience of the past was too admonitory to allow such a treaty to be ac
cepted as a satisfactory settlement of difficulties between the two governments. It
also failed to secure the most vital advantages contemplated in the appointment of
the commission, namely, the abolition of the impress from American vessels and re-
linquishment on the part of Great Britain of its claims to a right of search. Such
being its character, the President, at the risk of being charged with usurpation, did
not even lay the treaty before the Senate, but, on his own responsibility, seconded by
the co-operation of Mr. Madison, his Secretary of State, he refused to ratify it. That
refusal destroyed all hope of negotiating another treaty so favorable to the Amer
icans, for, long before it reached the British government in official form, the Fox and
Grenville ministry had disappeared. It had been superseded3 by one in which » Marchi
Liverpool, Percival, and Canning, all disciples of the more warlike Pitt, were 180T-
the leading spirits. The remains of Fox had lain in Westminster Abbey six months
when this change in the administration took place.1
As might have been expected, Jefferson was vehemently assailed by the opposi
tion ; and the merchants, as a class, misled by the deceptive clamor of politicians,
swelled the voice of denunciation. The Federalists, ever suspicious of the President,
their arch-enemy in former crises of the government, charged him with insincerity
when he protested his earnest desire for an honorable adjustment with England ; and
they were inclined to regard the rejection of the treaty as a deliberate manoeuvre to
cherish popular passion, and thus to strengthen the party hold of the President and
his destined successor, Mr. Madison.2
The war against the administration was waged unrelentingly. Another great
struggle between the Democrats and Federalists for the prize of the Presidency and
national rule now commenced, and some leading men of the opposition who, when in
power, had bitterly denounced the course of the British government because of its
course on the impress and neutral rights, now became either silent spectators or vir
tual apologists for England. Yet the Democratic party steadily gained in numbers
and influence even in New England, and the war feeling became more and more in
tense and positive among the people.
We have already alluded to the seizure of Hanover by the Prussians at the insti
gation of Napoleon.3 This offense against the Crown of England was immediately
resented ; or, rather, it was made the pretext for employing against France a measure
which, as in 1756 and 1792, was calculated to starve the empire. By orders in Coun
cil, issued on the 16th of May, 1806, the whole coast of Europe from the Elbe, in Ger
many, to Brest, in France, a distance of about eight hundred miles, was declared in a
state of blockade, when, at the same time, the British navy could not spare from its
other fields of service vessels enough to enforce the blockade over a third of the pre
scribed coast. It was essentially a " paper blockade," then valid according to En
glish " laws of nations" — laws of her own enactment, and enforced by her own mate
rial power. The almost entire destruction of the French and Spanish fleets off Tra
falgar, a few months before,b had annihilated her rivals for the sovereign- b October 21,
ty of the seas, and she now resolved to control the trade of the world, by
which she might procure pecuniary means to carry on the war.
The British orders in Council somewhat startled American commerce, and by
some was considered, so far as that commerce was concerned, as not only a counter
vailing measure in view of the Non-importation Act of the American Congress, but a
positively belligerent one. But its effects were slight in comparison with the pros-
' See page 128.
= Hildreth's History of the United States, Second Series, ii., 663. 3 See page 128.
152 PICTOKIAL FIELD-BOOK
The Berlin Decree. The " Continental System." Americans the only Neutrals. Their Expectations.
trating blow inflicted upon the American shipping interest when, from the " Imperial
Camp at Berlin" on the 21st of November, 1806, Napoleon issued the famous decree
which declared the British Islands in a state of blockade, forbade all correspondence
or trade with England, defined all articles of English manufacture or produce as con
traband, and the property of all British subjects as lawful prize of war.1
Resting for moral support upon England's cherished " law of nations," Napoleon
made this declaration of a practically universal blockade when he had scarcely a ship
at his command to enforce it ; for Lord Nelson, as we have just observed, had almost
« October 21 demolished the whole French and part of the Spanish fleet off Trafalgar
1805. justi thirteen months before. a
On land the power of Napoleon was scarcely bounded by any river in Europe.
Within his grasp was seemingly the sceptre of universal empire, of which he dreamed
with the ambition of an Alexander. State after state had been added to his domin
ions, and brother after brother had been placed upon thrones of his own construction,
amid the ruins of old dynasties. He now endeavored, by the practice of England's
logic, to dispute with her in a peculiar way the sceptre of the seas.2
This was the beginning of what was afterward called the Continental System, com
menced avowedly as a retaliatory measure, and designed primarily to injure and, if
possible, to destroy the commercial prosperity of England. Napoleon adhered to it
for several years as a favorite scheme, to the delight and profit of smugglers created
by the system, and the immense injury of the commerce of the world. He compelled
most of the states of Europe to become partners in the league against Great Britain.
A refusal to join it was considered a just cause for war. Yet England, with such
powers against her, and such an injurious system impinging heavily upon her mari
time and trading interests, defied Napoleon and his allies, and exhibited a moral and
material energy which commands our wonder and highest respect.
America was at this time really the only neutral in the civilized world. Her iso
lation enabled her to maintain that position, and enjoy prosperity while Europe was
resonant with the din of battle, clouded with the smoke of camps and ruined towns,
and wasted by the terrible demands of moving armies. But her security and pros
perity were likely to be disturbed by this unrighteous decree from the "Imperial
Camp." It was so broad in its application, that it would be equally injurious to neu
trals and belligerents. The commercial world perceived this with its keen eye, and
American commerce was convulsed by a thrill of apprehension. Rates of insurance
ran up to ruinous heights at the beginning of 1807, and commercial enterprises of
every kind were suspended.
This panic was somewhat allayed by a letter from John Armstrong, American min
ister at Paris, who believed the operations of the decree would be only municipal,
and was assured by the French Minister of Marine that the existing commercial re
lations of the United States and the French Empire, as settled by the Convention of
1800,3 would not be disturbed.4 This assurance was subsequently strengthened by
the fact that the decree was not erfforced against American vessels until about a year
afterward,5 Napoleon doubtless hoping the United States, growing every day more
and more hostile toward England because of her injustice, would be induced to join
the league against that power. The Americans were also taught to rely upon the
traditional policy of France concerning the rights of neutrals, so plainly avowed in
the Armed Neutrality Treaty in 1780, earnestly proclaimed ever since by the French
1 See note 1, page 120.
2 Napoleon at this time had been compelled to abandon his schemes for the invasion of England. He had lost St. Do
mingo, and all prestige in the West Indies, and had no means of annoying his most potent enemy, on the sea.
3 See twelfth and fourteenth articles of that Convention in Statesman's Manual, iv., 342, 343.
4 On the 10th of December, Minister Armstrong asked for an explanation of the Berlin Decree. Monsieur Decres, the
Minister of Marine, replied on the 24th that he considered the decree as in no way modifying "the regulations at pres
ent observed in France with regard to neutral navigators, nor, consequently, of the Convention of the 30th of September,
1800, with the United States of America." » Baring's Inquiry, etc., page 116, cited in note 1, page 129.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 153
Change in the Policy of the French. Seizure of American Ships. Bi'itish Orders in Council.
rulers, and reiterated in the charges against England in the preamble to the famous
decree under consideration.
The promises of security to American commerce from the operations of the Berlin
Decree were soon broken. The powers of that decree were put forth in the autumn
of 1807. The Peace of Tilsit1 had released a large number of French soldiers from
duties in the camp and field, and these were employed at various ports along the
coasts of Europe in strictly enforcing the blockade and putting the Continental Sys
tem into active operation. Even American commerce did not remain undisturbed ;
on the contrary, it was directly threatened by a decision of Regnier, the French Min-
ter of Justice, who declared that all merchandise derived from England and her colo
nies, by whomsoever owned, was liable to seizure even on board neutral vessels.2 As
Americans were then the only neutrals, this decision was aimed directly at them,
with the intention, no doubt, of forcing the United States into at least a passive co
operation with Bonaparte in his deadly designs against British commerce and the
liberties of that people. When Minister Armstrong made inquiries concerning this
interpretation of the Berlin Decree, Champagny, the French Minister for Foreign Af
fairs, coolly replied that the principal powers of Europe for eleven months had not
only not issued any protest against the decree, but had agreed to enforce it, and that
to make it effectual its execution must be complete. He disposed of the treaty obli
gations in the matter by saying that, since England had disregarded the rights of all
maritime powers, the interests of those powers were common, and they were bound
to make common cause against her;3 that is to say, any nation that would not join
Napoleon in enforcing his iniquitous Continental System, ostensibly against England,
but really against the commerce of the world, forfeited its claim to have its treaty
stipulations regarded ! This doctrine was speedily followed up by practice, when
the American ship Horizon, stranded upon the French coast, was, with her cargo, in
violation of every principle of humanity, confiscated in the French prize court, acting
under Regnier's decision,11 on the ground that that cargo consisted of * November 10
merchandise of British origin. This decision and confiscation became a 1807<
precedent for the speedy seizure and sequestration of a large amount of American
property.
Almost simultaneously with this practical illustration of Regnier's interpretation
of the Berlin Decree in the case of the Horizon* Great Britain made a
, . , * November 10.
more destructive assault on the rights of neutrals than any yet attempt
ed by either party. By orders in council, adopted on the llth and promulgated
on the 17th of November, all neutral trade was prohibited with France or her allies
unless through Great Britain.4 This avowed measure of retaliation for the issue of
1 This was a treaty of peace concluded between France and Russia on the 7th of June, 1S07, when Napoleon restored
to the Prussian monarch one half of his territories, and Russia recognized the Confederation of the Rhine, and the eleva
tion of Napoleon's three brothers, Joseph, Louis, and Jerome, to the thrones respectively of Naples, Holland, and West
phalia.
2 Letter to the Imperial Attorney General for the Council of Prizes, September 18, 1807.
3 "All the difficulties which have given rise to your reclamations," said Champagny to Armstrong, " would be removed
with ease if the government of the United States, after complaining in vain of the injustice and violations of England,
took, with the whole Continent, the part of guaranteeing itself therefrom. England has introduced into the maritime
war an entire disregard for the rights of nations : it is only in forcing her to a peace that it is possible to recover them.
On this point the interest of all nations is the same. All have their honor and independence to defend." — LYMAN'S
Diplomacy of the. United States, i., 411.
This was all very true, but the terms on which the United States were invited to join that Continental league were
entirely inconsistent with their principles concerning blockades— principles identical with those of the Armed Neutral
ity of 17SO. The Berlin Decree asserted principles the very reverse of these, and in an extreme degree— principles
against which the Americans had ever protested — principles which the French minister, only a year before, had pro
nounced " monstrous and indefensible."
4 Mr. Baring, in his able Inquiry into the Causes and Consequences of the Orders in Council, gives the following analysis
of the extremely lengthy document :
"All trade directly from America to every port and country of Europe at war with Great Britain, or from which the
British flag is excluded, is totally prohibited. In this general prohibition every part of Europe, with the exception at
present of Sardinia, is included, and no distinction whatever is made between the domestic produce of America and
that of the colonies re-exported from thence.
154 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Napoleon's Milan Decree. Its Effects on American Commerce. British Cruisers in American Waters.
the Berlin Decree was only a pretext for pampering the greed of the British colonial
merchants and ship-owners. As the Americans were the only neutrals, it was a di
rect blow against their commerce, of which, for ten years, the British had been ex
ceedingly jealous. The effect was to deprive American vessels of all the advantages
of neutrality.
In retaliation for the issuing of these orders, Bonaparte promulgated another de
cree, dated "At our Palace at Milan, December 17, 1807," which extended and made
more vigorous that issued from Berlin. It declared every vessel which should sub
mit to be searched by British cruisers, or should pay any tax, duty, or license-money
to the British government, or should be found on the high seas or elsewhere bound
to or from any British port, denationalized and forfeit.1 With their usual servility
to the dictates of the conqueror, Spain and Holland immediately issued similar de
crees. Thus, within a few months, the commerce of the United States, carried on in
strict accordance wTith the acknowledged laws of civilized nations, was swept from
the ocean. Utterly unable, by any power it then possessed, to resist the robbers upon
the great highway of nations, the independence of the republic had no actual record.
It had been theoretically declared on parchment a quarter of a century before, but
the nation and its interests were now as much subservient to British orders in coun
cil and French imperial decrees as when George the Third sent governors to the col
onies of which it was composed, and Beaumarchais, in behalf of Louis the Sixteenth,
supplied their feeble, rebellious hands with weapons wherewith to fight for liberty
and independence.
While the commerce of the world was thus becoming the sport of France and En
gland — traditionary enemies and implacable duelists for a thousand years — unscru
pulous gamesters for power — an event occurred which excited in the United States
the most intense animosity toward Great Britain, and created a powerful war party
among legislators and people.
To give efficiency to the Orders in Council, the British government kept a naval
force continually hovering along the American coast. They frequently intruded into
American waters, and were a great vexation and annoyance to navigators and mer
chants. They were regarded as legalized plunderers employed by a strong nation to
despoil a weaker one.2 Every American vessel was liable, on leaving port, to be ar
rested and seized by this marine police, sometimes under the most untenable pretexts,
and sent to England as a prize. The experience of the Leander, already mentioned
(see page 147), was the experience of hundreds of vessels, excepting the murder of
their commanders ; and, as we have seen, remonstrances and negotiations were of no
avail. A crisis was at length reached in the summer of 1807.
"The trade from America to the colonies of all nations remains unaltered by the present orders. America may ex
port the produce of her own country, but that of no other, directly to Sweden.
"With the above exception, all articles, whether of domestic or colonial produce, exported by America to Europe,
must be landed in this country [England], from whence it is intended to permit their re-exportation under such regula
tions as may hereafter be determined.
"By these regulations it is understood that duties are to be imposed on all articles so re-exported ; but it is intimated
that an exception will be made in favor of such as are the produce of the United States, that of cotton excepted.
"Any vessel the cargo whereof shall be accompanied with certificates of French consuls abroad of its origin, shall,
together with the cargo, be liable to seizure and confiscation.
" Proper care shall be taken that the operation of the orders shall not commence until time is afforded for their being
known to the parties interested." — See Inquiry, etc., page 15.
When introducing this analysis of the orders of the llth of November, Mr. Baring remarks that "they are so much
enveloped in official jargon as to be hardly intelligible out of Doctors' Commons, and not perfectly so there." In a note
he says, " I beg to disclaim any intention to expound the titual text ; it seems purposely intended that no person should
profane it with his comprehension without paying two guineas for an opinion, with an additional benefit of being able
to obtain one directly opposed to it for two more."
1 "These measures," said the fourth article of the Milan Decree, "which are resorted to only in just refaction of the
barbarous system adopted by England, which assimilates in its legislation to that of Algiers, shall cease to have any
effect with respect to all nations who shall have the firmness to compel the English government to respect their flag."
It declared that the provisions of the present decree should be null as soon as England should " abide again by the
principles of the law of nations which regulate the relations of civilized states in a state of war."
2 Privateers with French commissions were guilty of depredations upon American commerce, but the occasions were
rare.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 155
Reorganization of the Naval Service. The "Guu-boat Policy." Deserters from British Ships.
Notwithstanding the many depredations upon American commerce and the in
creasing menaces of the belligerents in Europe, very little had been done to increase
the efficiency of the navy of the United States since its reduction at the close of the
war with the Barbary States. The squadron in the Mediterranean had been gradu
ally reduced, but several small vessels had been built. Two of these, the ship Wasp,
18, and brig Hornet, 18, constructed after French models, and ranking as sloops-of-
war, were beautiful, stanch, and fast-sailing craft.
In the spring of 1 806 the naval service was reorganized,1 yet nothing of great im
portance was contemplated to increase its material strength excepting the construc
tion of gun-boats.2 The President had imbibed very strong prejudices in favor of
these vessels. A flotilla of them, obtained from Naples, had been used effectively in
the war with Tripoli in 1804, and they were favorites in the service because they af
forded commands for enterprising young officers. A few were built in the United
States in 1805, their chief contemplated use being the defense and protection of har
bors and rivers. Then was inaugurated the " gun-boat policy" of the government, so
much discussed for three or four years afterward.
Toward the close of 1806 the President officially announced that the gun-boats (fifty
in number) " authorized by an act of the last session" were so far advanced that they
might be put in commission the following season.3 Yet only in the Mediterranean
Sea was there a foreign station of the navy of the United States where an American
cruiser might be seen at the beginning of 1807, notwithstanding American merchant
vessels to the amount of 1,200,000 tons were afloat. Nor was there a home squadron
worthy of the name ; while British and French cruisers were swarming on our coasts,
and British orders and French decrees were wielding the besom of destruction against
our commerce.
In the spring of 1807 a squadron of British ships of war, whose rendezvous was
Lynnhaven Bay,4 just within Cape Henry, in Virginia, were watching some French
frigates which had been for some time blockaded at Annapolis, in Maryland. One
of the British vessels was the Melampus, 38. Three of her men deserted, and enlisted
among the crew of the United States frigate Chesapeake, then being fitted for sea at
the navy yard at Washington to join the Mediterranean squadron. Mr. Erskine, the
British minister, who had been sent to Washington by Fox to supersede Merry, the
successor of Listen, made a formal request of the President for their surrender, but
without any warrant found in the laws of nations, or in any agreement between the
two governments. A proposition to deliver up British deserters had been made by
Monroe and Pinkney during the late negotiations, as an inducement for the British
to abandon the practice of impressment, but nothing on that point had been accom
plished.
The United States government, willing to be just, and anxious for honorable peace,
instituted inquiries concerning the deserters. They were actually enlisted for service
1 By an act of Congress in April, 1806, the President was authorized to employ as many of the public vessels as he
might deem necessary, but limiting the number of officers and seamen. The list of captains was increased by the act to
thirteen, that of the masters and commanders to nine, and that of the lieutenants to seventy-two. In consequence of
deaths and resignations there were many promotions, and sixty-nine midshipmen were raised to the rank of lieutenant.
The names of the captains under the new law were as follows : Samuel Nicholson, Alexander Murray, Samuel Barron,
John Rodgers, Edward Preble, James Barron, William Bainbridge, Hugh G. Campbell, Stephen Decatur, Thomas Tin-
gey, Charles Stewart, Isaac Hull, John Shaw, and Isaac Chauncey. Of these Commodore Stewart is now (18G7) the only
survivor.
The names of the masters and commanders were as follows : John Smith, George Cox, John H. Dent, Thomas Robin
son, David Porter, John Carson, Samuel Evans, and Charles Gordon. Not one survives.
2 The act of Congress for " fortifying the Ports and Harbors of the United States and for building Gun-boats" was ap
proved on the 21st of April, 180C. It provided for the construction of fifty gun-boats.
3 Annual message, December 2, 1800.— See Statesman's Manual, i., 282.
* Here the French fleet under the Count de Grasse lay early in September, 1781, when the English fleet under Admiral
Graves appeared off Cape Charles, entering the Chesapeake Bay. The French prepared for conflict, and put to sea. The
British bore down upon them, and on the afternoon of the 5th of September a partial action took place. The two fleets
were within sight of each other for five consecutive days, but had no other engagement. For an account of these events
and a diagram, see Lossing's Field-book of the Revolution, ii., 306, latest edition.
156
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The Deserters American Citizens. Their Surrender refused. The Chesapeake watched by a British Squadron.
on board the Chesa
peake ; but it was es
tablished by compe
tent testimony that
one was a native of
the Eastern Shore of
Maryland, that anoth
er was a colored man
and a native of Mas
sachusetts, and in the
case of the third there
was strong circum
stantial evidence of
his being a native-
born citizen of Mary
land.1 Under these
circumstances, as the
claims of British citi
zenship could not be
established, and as the
government was not
disposed to surrender any seamen who claimed its protection, a refusal in respectful
terms was communicated to Mr. Erskine. No more was said upon the subject; but
it appears to have stimulated Vice- Admiral Berkeley, on the Halifax station, under
whose command was the squadron in Lynnhaven Bay, to the assumption of authority
Avhich led to much trouble.
At about the beginning of June the Chesapeake sailed from Washington to Nor
folk, and on the 19th she was reported to Commodore James Barron, the appointed
flag-officer of the Mediterranean squadron, as ready for sea. She dropped down to
Hampton Roads, and on the morning of the 22d of June — a bright, beautiful, hot
morning — at about eight o'clock, she weighed anchor, under the command of Captain
Gordon, and bearing the broad pennant of Commodore Barron. She was armed with
twenty-eight 18-pounders on her gun-deck, and twelve carronades2 above, making a
total of forty guns. She was a vessel of ordinary character, and bore a crew num
bering three hundred and seventy-five.
On the evening of the 21st,a the British squadron in Lynnhaven Bay,
charged with the double duty, it seems, of watching the French frigates
and the Chesapeake, consisted of the Bellona, 74; the Melampus, 38; the Leopard,
50 ; and another whose name was not mentioned. The Leopard, Captain Humphreys,
was charged with the duty of intercepting the Chesapeake. She was a small two-
decker, and is said to have mounted fifty-six guns. She preceded the Chesapeake to
sea several miles, her sails bent by a gentle northwest breeze.
The Leopard kept in sight of the Chesapeake until three o'clock in the afternoon,
when the former bore down upon the latter and hailed, informing Commodore Barron
that she had a dispatch for him. The Chesapeake responded by lying-to, when some
of her officers discovered that the Leopard"1 s ports were triced up — an evidence of
belligerent intent — but they did not mention the fact to Captain Gordon or the com-
1 The names of the deserters were William Ware, who had been pressed from an American vessel on board the Me-
lampus in the Bay of Biscay ; Daniel Martin, colored, pressed at the same time and place; and John Strachan, pressed
on board the same vessel from an English Guineaman off Cape Finisterre. Ware and Strachan had protections, but
Martin had lost his.— See Commodore Barren's Letter to the Secretary of the Navy, dated April 2, 1807. It is proper to
state that Mr. Hamilton, the British consul at Norfolk, made repeated official demands for these three seamen and an
other, and wag as often refused by the officers of the Chesapeake, acting under government orders.
2 A carronade is a short piece of ordnance, having a large calibre, and a chamber for the powder like a mortar. It de
rives its name from Carron, in Scotland, where it was first made. — Webster.
1 June,
1SOT.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 157
The Chesapeake boarded. The Demand for the Deserters refused. The Leopard fires into the Chesapeake.
modore. A British boat came alongside, and the lieutenant in command was politely
received by Barren in the cabin of the Chesapeake. He informed the commodore that
he was in search of deserters, and, giving their names, he demanded their release, on
the authority of instructions issued at Halifax on the 1st of June by Vice-Admiral
Berkeley. Those instructions directed all captains under his command, should they
fall in with the Chesapeake out of the waters of the United States, to show their
orders, and " to proceed and search" for such deserters ; at the same time, should the
commander of the Chesapeake make a similar demand, they were to allow him to
search for deserters from the American service, " according to the usages of civilized
nations on terms of peace and amity with each other."1 He also presented a note
from Captain Humphreys of the Leopard, expressing a hope that every circumstance
respecting the deserters might " be adjusted in a manner that the harmony sub
sisting between the two countries might remain undisturbed."
Barron was justly astonished at the impertinence of Humphreys and the assump
tions of Berkeley. The " customs and usages" referred to by the latter were confined
to the British navy, and were subjects for complaint by " civilized nations." The
practice had been advocated only in the British Parliament and by the British press ;
and twice already the "usage" had been applied to American vessels by British
cruisers and denounced as outrageous.2 Barron knew well that the first outrage of
the kind had caused the issuing of a standing order from his government to the com
manders of national vessels never to allow their crews to be mustered except by their
own officers. He therefore made a short reply to Humphreys, telling him he knew
of no deserters on board the Chesapeake, that he had instructed his recruiting officers
not to enlist British deserters, and explicitly assuring him that his crew should not
be mustered except by their own officers.
While the lieutenant was waiting for Barren's answer, the officers of the Chesa
peake, suspicious of some mischief brewing, were busy in clearing the ship for action.
She had left port all unprepared for conflict. Without the least expectation of en
countering an enemy, she had gone to sea without preparation for hostile service,
either in the drilling of her men or in perfecting her equipments. She was littered
and lumbered by various objects, and her crew had been mustered only three times.
When the lieutenant left, Barron seems to have imagined that some hostile demon
stration might follow his refusal to allow a search for deserters. His men were
silently called to quarters, and the ship was regularly prepared for action. He soon
received a trumpet message from Humphreys, saying, " Commodore Barron must be
aware that the orders of the vice-admiral must be obeyed." Barron replied that he
did not understand. The hail was several times repeated, and then a shot was sent
from the Leopard athwart the bows of the Chesapeake. This was speedily followed
by another, and as quickly the remainder of the broadside was poured into the almost
helpless frigate. Owing to obstructions it was difficult to get her batteries ready;
and when one broadside was ready for action there was no priming-powder. When
a small quantity was brought, there were no matches, locks, nor loggerheads, and not
a shot could be returned. Meanwhile the Leopard, at not more than pistol-shot dis
tance, and in smooth water, poured several broadsides upon the unresisting ship, kill
ing three men and wounding eighteen. Barron and his aid (Mr. Broome), who were
standing in the gangway watching the assailant, were slightly hurt. The commodore
frequently expressed a desire that one gun, at least, might be fired before he should
1 Vice-Admiral Berkeley's circular order recited that many seamen, subjects of his Britannic majesty, and serving in
the British Navy, had deserted from several British ships, which he named, and had enlisted on board the frigate Ches
apeake, and had openly paraded the streets of Norfolk, in sight of their officers, under the American colors, protected by
the magistrates of the town and the recruiting officer, who refused to give them up, either on demand of the commanders
of the ships to which they belonged or on that of the British consul.
2 See the account of outrage in case of the Baltimore, Captain Phillips, on page 102, and that of the American gun
boat overhauled by one of Admiral Collingwood's vessels in the Mediterranean, note 2, page 146. An apology was
made for the former outrage, but the latter was passed by.
158 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Surrender of the Chesapeake. The Deserters carried away. The Outrage resented.
strike his flag, for he perceived that a surrender would be necessary to save the ship
from utter destruction. He was gratified. Just as the colors in their descent touched
the taffrail, Lieutenant Allen, who had made ineffectual attempts to use a loggerhead,1
ran with a live coal bet ween his fingers and touched off one of the guns of the second
division of the ship, of which he was commander.
The Leopard had kept up her cannonade, without any response, for about twelve
minutes. Twenty-one of her round shot had hulled the Chesapeake, and her grape
had made considerable havoc with the victim's sails and rigging. When the Amer
ican ensign was lowered, two British lieutenants and several midshipmen went on
board, mustered the crew, arrested the three deserters from the Melampus, dragged
from his concealment in the coal-hole the fourth, named John Wilson, who had desert
ed from the Halifax, and bore them all away to the Leopard. Barren, meanwhile,
had informed Humphreys by note2 that the Chesapeake was his prize ; but that com
mander refused to receive her, saying, " My instructions have been obeyed, and I de
sire nothing more." He then expressed regret because of the loss of life, and offered
any assistance the crippled ship might require. His proffered sympathies and aid
were indignantly rejected; and the Chesapeake, with mortified officers and crew,
made her way sullenly back to Norfolk.
The unfortunate deserters were taken to Halifax, tried by a court-martial, and sen
tenced to be hung. The three Americans were reprieved on condition that they
should re-enter the British service, but Wilson, the English subject, was hanged.
When Canning, the British Minister for Foreign Affairs, heard of the outrage, he
expressly disavowed the act in behalf of his government, and informed Monroe and
Pinkney that orders had been sent out for the recall of Berkeley from his command.
Humphreys also suffered the displeasure of his government because he had exceeded
his instructions, and he was never again employed in service afloat. One of the
Americans remanded to slavery in the British navy died in captivity ; the others,
« June is, after five years of hard service, were restored* to the deck of the ship from
which they had been taken. Provision was also made for the families of
the slain.
The attack on the Chesapeake created the most intense excitement and indignation
throughout the United States, and for a time all local politics were forgotten, and all
parties, Federalists and Democrats, natives and foreigners, were united in a firm re
solve that Great Britain should make reparation for the wrong, or be made to feel
the indignation of the insulted republic in the power of war. Public meetings were
held in all the principal cities from Boston to Norfolk,3 in which the feelings of the
people were vehemently expressed. " It is an act of such consummate violence and
wrong," said the citizens of Philadelphia,4 "and of so barbarous and murderous char
acter, that it would debase and degrade any nation, and much more so a nation of
freemen, to submit to it." Such were the sentiments every where expressed, and there
1 A loggerhead is a spherical mass of iron heated and used in place of a match in firing cannon in the navy.
2 Barron's dispatch to the Secretary of the Navy, June 23, 1SOT ; Cooper's Naval History of the United States, ii., 97-104 ;
nildreth's History of the United States, Second Series, ii., GTS ; Perkins's History of the Late War, page 22.
3 On the return of the Chesapeake to Norfolk a public meeting was held there, when it was resolved that no inter
course of any kind should be held with the British squadron in the vicinity until the pleasure of the President should
be known. Captain Douglas, the commander of the squadron, made some insolent threats, when Cabell, Governor of
Virginia, ordered detachments of militia to Norfolk and Hampton. Douglas, finding his threats to be working mischief
for himself, became as obsequious as he was before insolent, and withdrew from a menacing position in Hampton Roads
to Lynnhaven Bay. Decatur, then in command of the American naval force at Norfolk, was ordered not to molest him
while he remained there. Some rather spicy correspondence with Erskine, the British minister, ensued, in the course
of which he asked indemnification for some water-casks belonging to the British fleet destroyed by the indignant peo
ple of Hampton after the return of the Chesapeake ! In a letter to the Secretary of State from Monticello, concerning
this demand under such circumstances, President Jefferson wrote : " It will be very difficult to answer Mr. Erskine's de
mand respecting the water-casks in a tone proper for such a demand. I have heard of one who, having broken his cane
over the head of another, demanded payment for his cane. This demand might well enough have made part of an offer
to pay the damages done to the Chesapeake, and to deliver np the authors of the murders committed on board her."
* July 1, 180T. The secretary of the meeting, who drafted the resolutions, was Joseph Hopkinson, Esq., a leading Fed-
err.list, and author otHail, Columbia !
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
159
British Vessels ordered to leave American Waters.
Harbors to be defended.
Punishment of Barren.
was a general desire for an immediate declaration of war against Great Britain to re
dress all wrongs and grievances. But the President and his Cabinet, averse to war,
preferred a pacific course, and determined to allow Great Britain an opportunity for
a disavowal of the act, and to make reparation of the wrong. The former, as we have
observed, was promptly done by Mr. Canning ; the latter, embarrassed by intricate
negotiations, was accomplished more tardily.
In response and submission to the popular will, the President issued a proclamation
on the 2d of July, in wrhich he complained of the habitual insolence of the British
cruisers, expressed his belief that the present outrage was unauthorized, and ordered
all British armed vessels to leave the waters of the United States immediately. As
his government possessed no power to compel compliance with this order, he directed
that, in case of their refusal to leave, all intercourse with them, their officers and
crews, should be at once suspended. Pie forbade all persons affording such vessels
aid of any kind, unless in the case of a ship in distress or charged with public dis
patches. Preparations for defense were also made. Most of the gun-boats in com
mission were ordered to New York, Charleston, and New Orleans ; military stores
were purchased ; one hundred thousand militia were ordered to be detached by the
different states, but without pay, and volunteers were invited to enroll themselves.
Commodore Barron was made to
feel the nation's indignation most se
verely. He was accused of neglect
of duty, and was tried by a court-
martial on specific charges of that
nature. The navy, government, and
nation appear to have predeterm
ined his guilt. The wounded na
tional pride needed a palliative, and
it was found in the supposed de
linquencies of the unfortunate com
modore. He was found guilty, and
sentenced to five years' suspension
from the service, without pay or
emoluments.1 Captain Gordon was
tried on the same charge, but his of
fense was so slight that he was only
privately reprimanded. Such also
was the fate of Captain Hall, of the
marines ; while the gunner, for neg
lect in having priming-powder suffi
cient, was cashiered.
It was the opinion of Mr. Cooper
that these officers were made the
1 James Barron was born in Virginia in 1768, and commenced his services in the navy under his father, who was
" commodore of all the armed vessels of the Commonwealth of Virginia" during the Revolution and the Confederation.
He was commissioned a lieutenant under Barry in 1798, and the following year was promoted to the highest grade then
known to the navy, namely, captain. With, and subordinate to his brother Samuel, he sailed to the Mediterranean that
year, where he soon acquired fame for his skill in seamanship. He was one of the best officers and disciplinarians in
the navy. The affair of the Chesapeake and its effects upon himself cast a shadow over his future life. He was restored
to official position, but, somewhat broken in spirit, he never afterward entered the service afloat. In 1820 he and Deca-
tur had a correspondence on the affair of the Chesapeake, which resulted in a duel, the particulars of which will be given
hereafter. The duel was fought near Bladensburg, four miles from Washington City. Both were badly wounded. De-
catur died ; Barron recovered after mouths of intense suffering.
Barron held several important commands in the service on shore, and at the time of his death, on the 21st of April,
1851, he was the senior officer of the United States Navy. He died at Norfolk, in Virginia, and was buried in St. Paul's
Church-yard there, with military and civic honors, on the morning of the 23d of April. A funeral sermon was preached
in the venerable and venerated church by Eev. William Jackson. It was a beautiful tribute to the worth of a brave, and
ill-requited patriot.
1GO PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Kepai-ation demanded of England. Failure to obtain it. Royal Proclamation concerning British Seamen.
scape-goats of the government, where divided power is too often not only irrespons
ible but inefficient. " It may well be questioned," he says, " if any impartial person,
who coolly examines the subject, will not arrive at the conclusion that the real de
linquents were never put on their trial." He then adverts to the fact that four
months had been consumed in fitting this single vessel for sea, under the immediate
eye of the government, at a time when there was pressing necessity for her service ;
that she did not receive all her guns until a few days before she sailed ; that her
crew were coming on board until the last hour before her departure ; that her people
had been quartered only three days before she put to sea, and that she was totally
unfitted for active service when she was ordered to leave port. " When it was found
that the nation had been disgraced," continues Mr. Cooper, " so unsound was the state
of popular feeling that the real delinquents were overlooked, while their victims be
came objects of popular censure."1
The President's proclamation wras followed by the dispatch of the armed schooner
Revenge to England with instructions to the American ministers (Monroe and Pink-
ney) to demand reparation for insults and injuries in the case of the Chesapeake, and
to suspend all other negotiations until it should be granted. Unfortunately for the
success of the special negotiations, these instructions also directed them, in addition
to a demand for an apology and indemnity to the families of the killed, to insist, by
way of security for the future, that the visitation of American vessels in search of
British subjects should be totally relinquished. This was inadmissible. The British
government refused to treat upon any other subject than that of reparation. A dis
avowal of the act had already been made, and every disposition to be just and friendly
had been shown. The ministry even placed their government in the position of an
injured party, inasmuch as the proclamation concerning British ships of war in Amer
ican waters was evidently an act of retaliation before a demand for reparation had
been made, or the disposition of the British Cabinet had been ascertained.
Monroe and Pinkney had already proposed to reopen negotiations for a treaty on
the basis of the one returned from their government unratified,2 and, with these new
instructions, they pursued the subject with so much assiduity that Mr. Canning made
" October 22, to them a formal and final replya that, while he was ready to listen to any
iso7. suggestions with a view to the settlement of existing difficulties, he would
not negotiate anew on the basis of a treaty concluded and signed, and already reject
ed by one of the parties. Indeed there was a decided aversion to treating at all on
the subject of impressments ; and the views of the government on that topic were
plainly manifested when, by royal proclamation,15 all British mariners, in
" October 17. r . J . *
whatever service engaged, were required to leave it forthwith and hasten
to the aid of their native country, then menaced and imperiled, and her " maritime
rights" called in question. It authorized all commanders of foreign ships of war to
seize British seamen on board foreign merchant vessels (but without undue violence),
and take them to any British port. It also demanded from all foreign ships of war
the delivery of all British mariners on board of them ; and that in case of a re
fusal to give them up, proper notice should be communicated to the British minister
resident of the nation to which such contumacious vessel and commander might be
long, that measures for redress might be employed.
Mr. Monroe formally objected to this proclamation, as shutting the door against all
future negotiations on the subject of impressments.3 Canning replied that it was
1 Cooper's Naval History of the United States, ii., 110. 2 gee page 151.
3 James Monroe was born in Westmoreland County, in Virginia, on the 2d of April, 1759. His youth was spent among
political excitements when the old war for independence was kindling. He left the College of William and Mary for
the camp, and enrolled himself a soldier for freedom. He was severely wounded in the van of battle at Trenton, and
was promoted to captain. In other battles he was conspicuous for bravery ; and after that of Monmouth he left the army,
and commenced the study of law with Mr. Jefferson. When Arnold and Cornwallis invaded Virginia in 1781, he again
took up arms as a volunteer. He was elected a member of the Virginia Legislature in 17S2. He was promoted to the
Executive Council, and at the age of tweuty-five was elected to a seat in the National Congress. He remained in public
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
161
Special Envoy to the United States.
His Mission fruitless.
Critical Situation.
only a declaration
of existing law, and
necessary for the in
formation of British
commanders who
might be placed in a
situation similar to
that of Captain Hum
phreys, of the Leop
ard,
It was evident to
both parties that the
topic of that outrage
could not be satis
factorily treated in
London, because the
American ministers
could not separate it
from that of impress
ment. The British
government re
solved therefore
minister to Washing
ton, provided with
instructions to bring
the unhappy dispute
to an honorable con
clusion. H. G. Rose,
a son of one of the
ministers, was ap
pointed for the deli
cate duty, and ar-
vived at Annapolis in
January, 1808. His
mission was fruit
less. He was instruct
ed not to treat of the
affair of the Chesa
peake while the re
cent proclamation of
the President was in
force, nor to connect
thesubjectwith
that of impress-
to send a special ^ ments from pri
vate vessels. As the proclamation had reference to the conduct of British armed
vessels in American waters from the beginning of the current European war, the
President refused to withdraw the document, and Rose returned in the same vessel
that bore him to our shores. Meanwhile Monroe had returned home, leaving Pinkney
resident minister in London. All hopes of settling existing difficulties with England
were at an end, and from the beginning of 1808 the political relations between the
two governments foreboded inevitable hostilities at no distant day.
The critical condition of foreign relations induced the President to call the Tenth
Congress together as early as the 25th of October. The administration party had an
overwhelming majority in that body, and was daily increasing in strength through
out the country. The confidence of the Democrats in Jefferson's wisdom, sagacity,
and patriotism was unbounded. In the United States Senate there were only six
Federalists, and one of them, John Quincy Adams, soon left their ranks and joined
those of the dominant party.1 A new Democratic member appeared at about the
same time, and began a career as a national legislator which forms a wonderful chap
ter in the history of the government. It was Henry Clay,2 who had been appointed
to fill, for a single session, the seat made vacant by the resignation of General John
life, and, with Patrick Henry and others of his state, he opposed the ratification of the National Constitution. He was
one of the first United States senators from Virginia under it. He was sent to France as embassador in 1704, and was
recalled by Washington in 1T96. In 1798 he was elected Governor of Virginia, and three years afterward Mr. Jefferson
sent him to Paris to assist in negotiations for the purchase of Louisiana. He was then transferred to the British court
as co-laborer in diplomacy with Mr. Pinkney. In 1811 he was again elected Governor of Virginia, but was soon called to
the Cabinet of Mr. Madison as Secretary of War. In 1S1G he was elected President of the United States, and held that
office eight years, when he retired from public life. He lived in Virginia until 1S31, when he took up his residence with
his son-in-law in the city of New York. He died there on the 4th of July of that year, at the age of little more than sev
enty-one years.
i Mr. Adams was then forty years of age, and had been in the Senate since 1S03. " He is a man of much information,"
wrote his contemporary and friend, Senator Plumer, of New Hampshire, in April, 1SOO, " a correct and animated speaker,
of strong passions, and of course subject to strong prejudices, but a man of strict, undeviating integrity. He is not the
slave of party, nor influenced by names, but free, independent, and occasionally eccentric."
= "This day [December 29, 1S06"], wrote Senator Plumer, "Henry Clay, the" successor of John Adair, was qualified,
and took his seat in the Senate. He is a young lawyer. His stature is tall and slender. I had much conversation with
him, and it afforded me much pleasure. He is intelligent, and appears frank and candid. His address is good, and his
manners easy." — Life of Plumer, page 351.
162 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Political Complexion of the Tenth Congress. The President's Message. An Embargo established.
Adair, then under a cloud because of his recent participation with Aaron Burr in his
schemes in the Valley of the Mississippi.
In the House of Representatives the Democratic party had about the same average
majority as in the Senate. The opposition, even with the " Quids"— John Randolph
and his Virginia seceders— could not command at any time more than twenty-eight
votes. Their chief leaders were Samuel W. Dana, of Connecticut, who had been a
member since 1796; the late Josiah Quincy, of Massachusetts, who took his seat in
1 805 ; Barent Gardinier, of New York, and Philip Barton Key, of Maryland. Among
the new administration members was Richard M. Johnson, of Kentucky. Thus sus
tained by the National Legislature and the people, the policy of the President and
his Cabinet became the policy of the country.
» October 27 *n ^s seventh annual message* the President called the attention of
1807. Congress to several very important subjects. He gave a narrative of un
successful efforts to settle with Great Britain all difficulties concerning search and
impressments ; considered the affair of the Chesapeake, the refusal of the British com
manders to obey the orders of his proclamation to leave American waters, the orders
in Council and Decrees, the subject of national defenses, the uneasiness of the In
dians on the frontiers, and the relations with other foreign governments. He also
expressed great dissatisfaction at the acquittal of Burr, through erroneous, if not mis
chievous interpretation of law, as he evidently believed ; and he pressed upon the
attention of Congress the propriety of so amending the law as to prevent the de
struction of the government by treason.1
Having been officially informed13 of the new interpretation of the Ber-
U' lin Decree,2 and unofficially Apprised of the almost simultaneously issued
« December is. jjritigh or(jers in Council, the President communicated to Congress0 the
facts in his possession, and recommended the passage of an Embargo Act — " an in
hibition of the departure of our vessels from the ports of the United States."3 The
Senate, with closed doors, proceeded to the consideration of the subject, and, after a
session of four hours and a departure from ordinary rules, passed a billd
laying an embargo on all shipping, foreign and domestic, in the ports of
the United States, with specific exceptions. The minority made a feeble opposition
to the measure.4 They asked for delay, but it was not granted, and the act was
passed by a strictly party vote — ayes twenty-two, noes six. John Quincy Adams
thus signified his adherence to the dominant party by voting with them. In the
House, which also sat with closed doors, the passage of the act was pressed with
equal zeal by the friends of the administration, and was as warmly opposed by the
Federalists and " Quids." The bill was debated for three days in Committee of the
Whole, the sittings continuing far into each night. The bill was passed on Monday,
the 21st, at almost midnight, by a vote of eighty-two to forty-four, and became a law
by receiving the signature of the President on the following day. It prohibited all
vessels in the ports of the United States from sailing for any foreign port, except for
eign ships in ballast, or with cargoes taken on board before notification of the act ;
and coastwise vessels were required to give heavy bonds to land their cargoes in the
i "The framers of our Constitution," said the President, " certainly supposed they had guarded as well their govern
ment against destruction by treason, as their citizens against oppression under pretense of it ; and if these ends are not
attained, it is of importance to inquire by what means more effectual they may be secured."— Statesman's Manual, i., 297.
Jefferson, like many other sagacious men, felt at that time that the Union had barely escaped dissolution from the in
famous machinations of Burr and his dupes.
= See page 129. = Special Message to Congress, December 18, 1807.
4 The President was charged with having recommended an embargo before receiving positive information of the Ber
lin Decree and the Orders in Council. This was a mistake. Of the former he had been informed for a week previously
to his communication to Congress on the subject by an official letter from Mr. Armstrong ; and on the morning of the
day on which the message was sent in, the National Intelligencer, of Washington City, contained a paragraph from a
London paper of the 10th of November, announcing the Orders in Council " awaiting his majesty's signature." Private
letters had also reached him, by which he was satisfied that, by the combined action of the belligerents, the foreign com
merce of the United States was utterly destroyed.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 163
Effects of the Embargo. Prophecy of Josiah Quincy. Party Spirit violently aroused.
United States. What little life was left in American commerce under the pressure
of the orders and decrees of the belligerents was utterly crushed out by this act.
The Embargo Act, universal in its application and unlimited in its duration, was
an experiment never before tried by any nation — an attempt, by withholding inter
course from all the world, to so operate upon two belligerent nations as to compel
them to respect the rights and accede to the claims of an injured neutral. Its pro
fessed objects were to induce France and England to relax their practical hostility to
neutral commerce, and to preserve and develop the resources of the United States.
But it accomplished neither. The French government viewed it as timely aid to
their Continental System, and far more injurious in its effects upon Great Britain
than upon France ; while England, feeling that her national character and honor were
at stake, and believing that she could endure the privations which the measure would
inflict in both countries longer than America, proudly refused to yield a single point
under the pressure of this new method of coercion. The words of Josiah Quincy be
came prophetic. " Let us once declare to the world," he said, " that, before our em
bargo policy be abandoned, the French decrees and the British orders must be re
voked, and we league against us whatever spirit of honor and pride exists in both
those nations. . . . No nation will be easily brought to acknowledge such a depend
ence on another as to be made to abandon, by a withholding of intercourse, a settled
line of policy."1
Opposition to the measure, in and out of Congress, was violent and incessant. The
topic was made a strong battery from which the Federalists hurled their hottest de
nunciatory shot against the administration. Old party cries were again heard, and
the people were startled by the bugbear of French influence in the councils of the
nation. The President was charged with secret intrigues with Bonaparte for an alli
ance of the United States and France against Great Britain, the traditional object of
hatred by the Democratic party. The suggestion alarmed intelligent men, for the
history of six years had taught them that the allies »f the Corsican soon became his
subjects.2 The New England, people were taught to believe that the Embargo was
the result of a combination of Western and Southern states to ruin the Eastern com
monwealths ; and every art which party tactics could command was brought to bear
in the service of the opposition, who, as politicians, hoped, by means of the alarm, dis
traction, and real distress which then prevailed, to array such numbers against the
dominant party that, in the election for President of the United States to be held a
few months later, they might fill the Executive chair with one of their own number.
1 Speech in Congress on the supplementary Embargo Act, February, 180S.
2 In the course of debate on a supplementary Embargo Act in Congress, on the 20th of February, Gardinier denounced
the -whole affair as a sly, cunning measure to aid France. " Is the nation prepared for this ?" he vehemently exclaimed.
"To settle that point," he said to the defenders of the measure, "tell the people what your object is; tell them that yon
mean to take part with the ' Great Pacificator.' Else stop your present course. Do not go on forging chains to fasten
us to the car of the imperial conqueror !"
" The commercial portion of the United States (J mean from Pennsylvania to New Hampshire"), wrote Timothy Pick
ering on the 26th of January, 1808, "are in general yet patient, because, from their unlimited confidence in the Presi
dent's wisdom and patriotism, they believe that some mighty state secret induced him to recommend the Embargo. If
they supposed, as I do, that it originated in the influence of France— perhaps in a concert with that government, the
sooner to pull down the power of Britain— the public indignation would be roused, and our country saved from becom
ing the provinces of the ' emperor and king.'
"I greatly regret the retaliating order of Great Britain ; for, though it really furnishes no ground for the Embargo, it
will yet be urged by the President's friends to justify it. The path of interest and common policy was plain. We
should have pursued our ordinary commerce with all the British dominions, and armed our vessels against French
cruisers. This would have offended Bonaparte. No matter. While Britain maintains her own independence ours will be
safe. If she fall (which I do not believe will happen), our condition would not be worse. With arms in our hands, and
a manly military spirit pervading our country, we should be respected by the conqueror ; but tamely crouching, without
any resistance, we should be treated, as we should deserve, with contempt, and all the indignities due to voluntary
slaves." — MS. Letter to General Ebenezer Stevens, dated " City of Washington, January 20, 1808."
This remarkable letter, now before me, from a senator of the United States to a leading merchant of the city of New
York, is cited to show, first, how powerfully partisan feelings may operate upon the opinions and judgment of a true
patriot, and, secondly, how much the leading men of the country at that time considered the United States a dependent
on Great Britain. " While Britain maintains her own independence ours will be safe !" The war that speedily followed
dispelled that servile spirit.
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Inconsistency of Politicians. Violations of the Embargo. Supplementary Acts. A young Poet's Denunciations.
That section of the Federalists known as the " Essex Junto" were the most uncom
promising opponents of the administration and the Embargo ; and many of those who,
only two years before, had vehemently denounced Great Britain because of her per
sistent assaults upon the rights of neutrals, were now, in the heat of party zeal, the
apologists of, and sympathizers with that government, whose aggressions had con-
» February, stantly increased. In the very montha when that eminent British mer-
18081 chant, Alexander Baring, declared before the world that " it would be no
exaggeration to say that upward of three fourths of all the merchants, seamen, etc.,
engaged in commerce or navigation in America, have, at some time or other, suffered
from acts of our [British] cruisers,"1 a leading Federal politician (who, two years be-
* February 10 fore,b declared, by his vote in the National Senate, that the conduct of
1806. Great Britain was " an unprovoked aggression upon the property of the
citizens of the United States, a violation of their neutral rights, and an encroachment
upon their national independence"), wrote to a friend that, " although England, with
her thousand ships of war, could have destroyed our commerce, she has really done
it no essential injury."2
It was soon discovered that the Embargo Act was frequently violated by enrolled
coasting vessels carrying cargoes to the West Indies, and it became necessary to pass
supplementary acts to prevent such evasions of the law. It was chiefly in the de
bates upon these acts that the acrimony already noticed appeared. Gardinier, of
New York, made the most sweeping charges of corruption, and affiliation with the
"French usurper" against the majority in Congress. His violence and abuse elicited
some personal attacks, and one of them so incensed him that he challenged his assail
ant (Campbell) to mortal combat. They met at Bladensburg. Gardinier was shot
through one side of his body, but, after weeks of suffering, he recovered and came
back to Congress, not a whit subdued. Disputes ran high throughout the country,
and public speeches, newspapers, and pamphlets teemed with the most vehement as
saults upon the dominant party.3 Many men, dreading the horrors of a war with
1 Baring's Inquiry, etc.
2 Timothy Pickering to James Sullivan, Governor of New Hampshire, February 1C, 1808.
3 Among the few political pamphlets of that period, now extant, is a remarkable one before me, entitled The Embar
go; or, Sketches of the Times: a Satire. It is a poem, and was written by WILLIAM CXTLLEN BRYANT, then a lad only about
thirteen years of age, who is still (1807) in active political life, and holds a front rank among the literary celebrities of
the age. In rhythm, vigor of thought, and force of expression, this production of his early years gave ample assurance
of the future distinction of the author as a poet and political writer.* But politics were seldom the theme for his muse
after this early effusion of that nature.
In the preface he spoke of the " terrapin policy" of the administration— the policy designed by the Embargo of shut
ting the nation up in its own shell, as it were, like the terrapin. His epigraph, from Pope's £ssay on Satire, contained
the significant line,
" When private faith and public trust are sold."
He assailed the President and his supporters as vigorously as if his weapon had been wielded by the hand of long ex
perience. Seriously believing that his country was in great peril, he wrote —
" Ill-fated clime ! condemned to feel th' extremes
Of a weak ruler's philosophic dreams ;
Driven headlong on to ruin's fateful brink,
When will thy country feel, when will she think f "
Of the Embargo he wrote —
" Curse of our nation, source of countless woes,
From whose dark womb unreckoned misery flows,
Th' Embargo rages, like a sweeping wind —
Fear lowers before, and Famine stalks behind."
Influenced by the common opinion of the opposition, he said to his countrymen—
" How foul a blot Columbia's glory stains !
How dark the scene ! Infatuation reigns !
For French intrigue, which wheedles to devour,
Threatens to fix us in Napoleon's power.
* In a notice of the second edition, with other poems, printed in 1809, \heMonthlyAntholociy for June of that year said,
"If the young bard has met with no assistance in the composition of this poem, he certainly bids fair, should he con
tinue to cultivate his talent, to gain a respectable station on the Parnassian Mount, and to reflect credit on the literature
of his country."
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 165
An insulting Proposition by Great Britain. Tribute exacted from Neutral Nations.
England, which they believed the Embargo Act would evoke, preferred to give free
dom to the commerce of the country, and let it provide itself against the risks that
menaced it, rather than to kill it outright. Such was the feeling of many merchants ;
but patriotic statesmen, holding the dignity and the independence of the United
States as of far more consequence than the temporary interests of trade, advocated
the most stringent execution of the Embargo Act, and at the middle of * March 12,
March* the supplementary enactments became law. 180S-
At about the same time the British Parliament, with an air of condescension, pass
ed an act,b as a favor to neutrals, permitting them (United States and
Sweden) to trade with France and her dependencies, on the condition that
vessels engaged in such trade should first enter some British port, pay a transit duty,
and take out a license 71 In other words, the United States were told by England,
with as much insolence and hauteur in fact as the Dey of Algiers ever exhibited,
" Pay me tribute, and my cruisers (or corsairs) will be instructed not to plunder
you." This was properly regarded as a flagrant insult — one which the British gov
ernment would never have offered except to a nation supposed to be incapable of
efficiently resenting it. When to this insult was added a positive injury, a few
weeks later,0 in the form of instructions issued by ministers, in the name of
c j^nril 11
the half-demented king, to the British naval commanders, expressly intend
ed to induce Americans engaged in commercial pursuits to violate the blockade, the
administration resolved to plant itself firmly upon that dignity and independence
which a free people ought always to assert. Those instructions, so disgraceful to
the British ministers, were severely condemned by every honest man in the British
realm.2
Evasions of the Embargo continued, and another supplementary act, applying to
the navigation of rivers, lakes, and bays, increased its stringency, and awakened new
and more bitter denunciations of the measure. But the government was immovable.
Oh ne'er consent, obsequious, to advance
The willing vassal of imperious France !
Correct that suffrage you misused before,
And lift your voice above a Congress roar.
Rise, then, Columbia ! heed not France's wiles,
Her bullying mandates, her seductive smiles ;
Send home Napoleon's slave, and by him say
No art can lure us, and no threats dismay ,
Determined yet to war with whom we will,
Choose our allies, or dare be neutral still."
I have cited the above as an example of the intensity of feeling against the administration at that time among those
politically opposed to Jefferson and his party— a feeling that made even boys politicians.
1 This was essentially a tribute in the form of a duty, more odious in principle and application than the stamp tax that
aroused the American colonists in 1765. The effect may be illustrated by showing the amount of tribute which American
commerce was required by the act to pay upon only two of the many articles specified, with the percentage of the tariff,
namely, cotton and tobacco. The amount on a cargo of cotton, at the then current prices, costing at New Orleans
$43,500, would be subjected to a tax in some English port, before it would be allowed to depart for a French port, of
$6500. To this would be added about $2000 more on account of other charges. A cargo of tobacco of four hundred
hogsheads would be subjected to a tribute of about $13,000. The estimated annual tribute upon tobacco alone was
$2,338,000. It was proposed to tax a great variety of American productions in the same way.
2 The following is a copy of the instructions :
" George R. : Instructions to the commanders of our ships of war and privateers. Given at our Court at Windsor, the
llth day of April, 1SOS, in the 4Sth year of our reign :
" Our will and pleasure is that yon do not interrupt any neutral vessel laden with lumber and provisions, and going to
any of our colonies, islands, or settlements in the West Indies or South America, to whomsoever the property may appear to
belong, and notm'hstanding such vessel may not have regular clearances and documents on board. And in case any vessel
shall be met with, and being on her due course to the alleged port of destination, an indorsement shall be made on one
or more of the principal papers of such vessel, specifying the destination alleged and the place where the vessel was so
visited. And in case any vessel so laden shall arrive and deliver her cargo at any of our colonies, islands, or settle
ments aforesaid, such vessel shall be permitted to receive her freight and to depart, either in ballast or with any goods
that may be legally exported in such vessel, and to proceed to any unblockaded port, notwithstanding the present hos
tilities, or any future hostilities which may take place. And a passport for such vessil may be granted by the governor, or
other person having the chief civil command of such colony, island, or settlement."
A British-born writer of the day, after declaring that this order was a sufficient cause of war, said, " What ! one of the
most potent monarchs in the world, rather than do justice to an unoffending nation, on which, for fourteen years, his
ministers had perpetrated the most flagrant outrages, invites, and tempts, and affords facilities to its citizens to violate
the laws of their country, and openly pursue the infamous trade of smuggling."— Mathew Carey.
166 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The Embargo denounced as suicidal. Dangers of National Vanity. A notable Illustration.
It was deaf to the prayers for a repeal made in petition after petition that poured
into Congress, especially from New England. A proposition for repeal, and to allow
merchant vessels to arm and take care of themselves, was voted down by a large
majority ; and the only glimpse of light was seen through an authorization given to
the President to suspend the Embargo Act, according to his discretion, in case of
peace in Europe, or such changes in the policy of the belligerents as might, in his
judgment, make the navigation of the seas safe to American vessels. It was in the
debate on this proposition that Josiah Quincy, who had then taken a place among
the acknowledged leaders of the Federal party, used the language already quoted on
page 163. He denounced the whole policy as fallacious and mischievous. "The
language of that policy is," he said, " ' Rescind your decrees and your orders, or we
will, in our wrath, abandon the ocean !' And suppose Great Britain, governed by
the spirit of mercantile calculation, should reply, ' If such be your mode of venge
ance, indulge it to your heart's content ! It is the very thing we wish. You are our
commercial rivals, and, by driving you out of the market, we shall gain more than we
can lose by your retirement.' . . .
" It is to be feared," continued Mr. Quincy, " that, having grown giddy with good-
fortune, attributing the greatness of our prosperity to our own wisdom, rather than
to a course of events over which we have had no influence, we are now entering that
school of adversity, the first blessings of which is to chastise our overweening conceit
of ourselves. A nation mistakes its relative importance and consequence in thinking
that its countenance, or its intercourse, or its existence is all-important to the rest of
mankind. An individual who should retire from intercourse with the world for the
purpose of taking vengeance on it for some real or imaginary wrong, would, notwith
standing the delusions of self-flattery, be certainly taught that the world moved
along just as well after his dignified retirement as before. Nor would the case of a
nation which should make a similar trial of its consequence be very different. The
intercourse of human life has its basis in a natural reciprocity, which always exists,
however national or personal vanity may often suggest to inflated fancies that, in the
intercourse of friendship, civilities, or business, they give more than they receive."
These were words of wisdom — words as wise and significant now as they were
then. They combated a great error — an error fully exemplified in our day in the
assumption of a single class of our citizens, namely, the cotton-growers. These,
knowing the value of their great staple and its consequence to the civilized world,
believed or asserted, before the late Civil War, that it gave them power to dictate
certain lines of policy to the governments of the earth. In the madness of their
error they proclaimed cotton a KING too potent for all other kings. Believing that
the producers of the raw material have the consumers of it always in their power,
and may bring the latter to terms at any time by cutting off the supply, they forgot
the great fact that dependence is reciprocal, and that, in commercial conflicts, the
producer, being the poorer party, is always the first to succumb. The events and
results of the late Civil War laid bare that radical error to the full comprehension of
all, as well as to acute political economists.
So it was with the Embargo. Those who expected to see great national triumphs
follow that measure, which was expected to starve the English manufacturing oper
atives and the West India slaves, were bitterly disappointed. The evils brought
upon their own national industry in various forms were far greater than those in
flicted upon England or France. It had one good effect, namely, the encouragement
and establishment of various manufactures in the United States, which have ever
been important elements of our national independence.1
1 When war was declared against Great Britain in 1812, the manufacture of cotton was carried on extensively in
Rhode Island. A writer in 1813 estimated the number of cotton factories built and in course of erection at that time,
eastward of the Delaware River, at five hundred.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 167
Provisions for strengthening the Army and Navy. Increase in the Number of Gun-boats.
CHAPTER IX.
" Let traitors, who feel not the patriot's flame,
Talk of yielding our honor to Englishmen's sway";
No such blemish shall sully our country's fair fame :
We've no claims to surrender, nor tribute to pay.
Then, though foes gather round,
We're on Liberty's ground,
Both too wise to be trapp'd, and too strong to be bound."
SONG — EMBASGO AND PEACE.
" Where are you from?" bold Rodgers cried,
Which made the British wonder :
Then with a gun they quick replied,
Which made a noise like thunder.
Like lightning we returned the joke,
Our matches were so handy ;
The Yankee bull-dogs nobly spoke
The tune of Doodle Dandy."
SONG — RODGEES AND VICTORY.
RESIDENT Jefferson's policy had been to keej) the army and navy
upon the cheapest footing compatible with a due regard to the
public good. It was now evident that these arms of the public
service must be materially strengthened, in order to- secure the
national safety, and 'the President asked Congress to augment
the number and efficiency of the regular army. They did so.
The measure was opposed by the Federalists, but a bill to raise seven regiments
passed by a vote of ninety-eight to sixteen. Other provisions for war followed. The
sum of $1,000,000 was placed at the disposal of the President for the erection of
coast and harbor defenses. Another sum of $300,000 was appropriated for the pur
chase of arms, and $150,000 for saltpetre. The President was also authorized to call
upon the governors of the several states to form an army, in the aggregate, of one
hundred thousand militia, to be immediately organized, equipped, and " held in readi
ness to march at a moment's warning" when called for by the Chief Magistrate. He
was also authorized to construct arsenals and armories at his discretion ; the sum of
$200,000 was placed at his disposal for providing arms and military equipments for
the whole body of the militia of the republic ; and about a million of dollars were
appropi'iated to pay the first year's expenses of the seven new regiments. The gov
ernment appropriated altogether about $5,000,000 for war purposes.1
Efforts were made to increase the efficiency of the navy by adding to the few sea
men already in the service twelve hundred and seventy-two additional men, to put
on board the gun-boats then completed or in process of construction. In Decem
ber11 the President had been authorized to procure one hundred and eighty- t
eight additional gun-boats by purchase or construction, making, in all, two
hundred and fifty-seven.2 Mr. Jefferson's idea appears to have been to have these
1 The formation of new regiments brought into the service several men who became conspicuous in the War of 1812.
Among them was Wade Hampton, of South Carolina, who had been in the army of the Revolution, and was now made
a brigadier general. Among the colonels were Smythe and Parker, of Virginia, and Boyd, of Massachusetts. Peter
Gansevoort, of New York, also of the Continental army, was made a brigadier. Zebulon Pike was promoted to major,
and Winfleld Scott and Zachary Taylor both took offices in the army, the former as a captain, and the latter as a lien-
tenant.
5 The engraving on the following page shows the different forms of the gun-boats at that time. The group is made
from drawings presented to me when visiting the navy yard at Gosport, opposite Norfolk, in Virginia, in the spring of
168
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Gun-boats ridiculed.
Violent Hostility to a Navy.
Its Neglect.
boats in readiness, properly distributed, but not actually manned until necessity
should call for their being put into commission. This proposition excited much
ridicule, not only among naval officers, but among the people at large.1 The whole
gun-boat system was denounced as " wasteful imbecility, called by the name of econ
omy," and Jefferson was pointed at as a dreaming philosopher without a whit of mil
itary knowledge, as evinced when Governor of Virginia in 1781.2
There seemed to be, for reasons quite inexplicable, a most violent hostility to a
navy, especially at the South. A member (Mr. Williams) from South Carolina said
that he " was at a loss to find terms sufficiently expressive of his abhorrence of a navy.
He would go a great deal farther to see it burned than to extinguish the fire. It
Avas a curse to the country, and had never been any thing else. Navies had deceived
the hopes of every country which had relied upon them." He affirmed that the peo
ple were willing to give commerce all the protection in their power, " but they could
not provide a navy for that purpose." Others opposed a navy because it might be a
measure for increasing Executive patronage ; and no act was passed or appropriation
GUN-BOATS.
made, either for the employment of more men, or for the placing in commission any
additional vessels, until January, 1809, when the President was directed to equip the
1S53. I am indebted to Mr. James Jarvis for them. The drawings were made by one who assisted in their construc
tion, and who was then engaged in service at Gosport.
i Among those who ridiculed the gun-boat system was Colonel John Trambull, the artist. According to that system,
he said, "Whenever danger shall menace any harbor, or any foreign ship shall insult us, somebody is to inform the gov
ernor, and the governor is to desire the marshal to call upon the captains of militia to call upon the drummers to beat
to arms and call the militia-men together, from whom are to be drafted (not impressed) a sufficient number to go on
board the gun-boats and drive the hostile stranger away, unless, during this long ceremonial, he should have taken him
self off.— TRUMBULI.'S Reminiscences of his own Times, page 252.
a In the political poem quoted from on page 164, the author thus alludes to Mr. Jefferson at that time :
" And thou, the scorn of every patriot name,
Thy country's ruin, and her councils' shame !
Poor, servile thing ! derision of the brave !
Who erst from Tarleton fled to Carter's cave ;
Thou, who, when menaced by perfidious Gaul,
Didst prostrate to her whiskered minion fall ;
And when our cash his empty bags supplied,
Did meanly strive the foul disgrace to hide.
Go, wretch, resign the Presidential chair,
Disclose thy secret measures, foul or fair ;
Go search with curious eye for horned frogs
'Mid the wild wastes of Louisiana bogs;
Or where Ohio rolls his turbid stream,
Dig for huge bones, thy glory and thy theme."
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 169
James Madison elected President. Effect of Baring's Inquiry. Opposition to the British Orders in Council.
United States, 44, President, 44, Essex, 32, and John Adams, 24, the latter vessel hav
ing been cut down from a frigate to a sloop of war.1
The country was now agitated by an approaching election for President and Vice-
President of the United States, and for a time the political caldron seethed violently.
Early in 1808 a Democratic caucus of members of Congress nominated James Madi
son for President, and George Clinton for Vice-President of the republic. There was
then a schism in the Democratic party, caused by the ambition of leaders. Mad
ison, Monroe, and Clinton w^ere each candidates for the Chief Magistrate's chair ;
and the Federalists, perceiving, as they thought, some chance for success in the can
vass, nominated C. C. Pinckney, of South Carolina, for President, and Rufus King,
of New York, for Vice-President. The result was the election of Madison and
Clinton.
Meanwhile events were transpiring on both sides of the Atlantic, apparently tend
ing to a general abandonment of the policy of the Orders, Decrees, and Embargo.
The able Inquiry of Mr. Baring concerning the orders in Council, already cited, made
a powerful impression upon the mercantile classes of England. He had fully exposed
the inexpediency and injustice of the measures, and nobly vindicated the character
and conduct of the Americans. Some of the late Cabinet associates of Mr. Fox de
nounced those orders as both inexpedient and unjust ; and petitions for their repeal,
numerously signed by the merchants and manufacturers of Hull, Manchester, Liver
pool, and London, were presented to the House of Lords on the 17th and 21st of
March,* while a bill affirming the action of the Privy Council in the matter was a
pending. Henry Brougham, an eminent barrister, was the advocate of the
petitioners, and was heard with profound attention, on the 6th of April, in that body
of peers of the realm of which, a little more than twenty years afterward, he became
a distinguished member.2 Already, in the month of March, resolutions moved against
them by Lords Erskine, St. John, Holland, and Lauderdale,*and a protest signed by
the Earls of Lauderdale, King, and Albermarle, had prepared the way for Brougham's
argument. These documents contained, within their brief limits, close and sound ar
guments on the whole subject. The motion of Erskine discussed the illegality of the
new system in a constitutional view. Lord St. John's treated of its repugnance to the
law of nations. Lord Holland's set forth with great clearness its effects upon British
intercourse with foreign nations; and Lord Lauderdale's motion showed its prejudi
cial tendency to British commerce in general. The protest of the three peers named
discussed more particularly the consequences on the cotton trade.3 But the efforts
of these statesmen and the array of facts set forth in the minutes of evidence taken
at the bar of the House of Lords, before a Committee of the whole House, on the
subject of the orders,4 were insufficient to move the majority, and the ministry tri
umphed. The bill affirming the action of the Council and making it permanent was
passed, and Parliament fixed the amount of tribute in the form of " transit duties,"
i This vessel was built as a small frigate of 24 in Charleston, South Carolina. She was. cut down to a sloop, then
raised to a frigate ; finally cut down to a sloop again, and, about the year 1S30, was entirely rebuilt as a first-class ship.
— COOPEK'B Naval History of the United States, ii., 116.
= This was the now (1S67) venerable Lord Brougham. He had recently made London his residence, having practiced
law in his native city of Edinburg until 180T. He entered Parliament as a Whig in 1S10, and was a coworker with Clark-
son, Wilberforce, and Granville Sharpe in favor of the negro slave. He was the vindicator of Queen Caroline against
the persecution of her infamous husband, King George the Fourth. His voice and pen were ever on the side of reform
and humanity. In 1830 he became a peer, and Lord Chancellor of England. He has ever held a high place in literature,
his first contributions having appeared in the Edinburg Review, at its commencement in 1802. In his several depart
ments of labor as philosopher, law reformer, statesman, and critic, he has ever stood pre-eminent. He has resided
much at Cannes, in France, during his later years, on account of ill health.
During the late Civil War in America, Lord Brougham wrote and spoke in favor of the insurgents, who were fighting
for the perpetuation of the slave system which he had opposed all his life, and against the government whose most zeal
ous adherents were avowed Abolitionists.
3 According to the statement of that protest, the amount of cotton wool exported to England from the United States
inlSOT was "250,000 bags, amounting, at £12 per bag, to the value of .£3,000,000.
* Printed, with the motions and protest alluded to, and an abstract of Brougham's speech, in a thin volume of about
two hundred pages.
170 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Napoleon in Spain. The Bayonne Decree. Modifications of the British Orders in Council.
just referred to, which neutrals must pay to England for permission to navigate the
ocean without fear of sea-robbers.
Napoleon, inspired by the keenest sagacity, expressed his approbation of the Em
bargo. He was then in Spain, ostensibly for the purpose of crushing royal intrigues
for the good of the people, but really in preparing a throne for his brother Joseph.
Murat, with a competent force, occupied Madrid in March,a and in June Joseph
was declared by the Emperor to be King of Spain. From Bayonne, in March,
Napoleon issued a decree directing the seizure and confiscation of all American ves
sels in France, or which might arrive there ; and when Minister Armstrong remon
strated, he was given to understand that the Emperor expected the Embargo to be
full and perfect. " No American vessel," said the French minister craftily, " can be
lawfully abroad since the passage of the Embargo Act ; and those pretending to be
such must be either English, or, if American, vessels which come under the ban of the
Milan Decree because of subserviency to the British orders. The Emperor well knew
that there were a large number of American vessels afloat which, under the tempta
tion of immense profits, were sailing under British licenses ; and others were evading
French prohibitions by forged documents, which indicated that they had come di
rectly from America. This leak in his Continental System Napoleon was determined
to stop, and for that purpose his Bayonne Decree was effectual.
The Spaniards resisted the attempts of Napoleon to place his brother on their
throne, and there was a general uprising of the Dons. The whole Spanish Peninsula
and the Spanish colonies in Central and South America were thrown open to British
commerce, and by so much weakened the effect of the American Embargo on that
commerce. A repeal of the orders in Council as they related to Spain, and also to
Portugal, whose royal family had lately fled to Brazil and opened a vast country
there, immediately followed. On the receipt of intelligence concerning these facts,
petitions from several maritime towns in the United States were sent to the Presi
dent, praying for a suspension of the Embargo Act as to Spain and Portugal ; but he
declined, saying, " To have submitted our rightful commerce to prohibitions and trib
utary exactions from others would have been to surrender our independence. To
resist them by arms was war, without consulting the state of things or the choice of
the nation." He contended that the Embargo, " besides saving to our citizens their
property, and our mariners to their country," gave time for the belligerent nations to
revise a conduct as contrary to their interests as it was to our rights. As to Spain,
he wisely suggested that her resistance might not prove (as it did not) effectual.
But the President had already taken some measures in the direction of repeal. As
" A -'i si earty as *he cl°se °f April* he had sent instructions to Pinkney in London,
and Armstrong in Paris, authorizing them to offer a repeal of the Embargo
on certain conditions. To England such repeal was offered on condition of her recall
ing her orders in Council. To France Armstrong appears to have offered, in addition
to a repeal of the Embargo Act, a declaration of war against Great Britain in the
event of her not recalling her offensive orders after the Emperor should have with
drawn his Berlin, Milan, and Bayonne decrees.1
Canning spoke for his government in a very courteous but extremely sarcastic
note, assuring Mr. Pinkney of the kindly feeling of his majesty toward the United
States, but expressing his unwillingness to change the policy involved in those orders,
under the present aspect of the case. He could not see the impartiality of the Em-
i Armstrong's instructions said, " Should she [France] set the example of revocation, Great Britain would he obliged,
either by following it, to restore to France the full benefit of neutral trade, which she needs, or, by persevering hf her
obnoxious orders after the pretext for them had ceased, to render collision with the United States inevitable."
Pinkney's instructions said, "Should the French government revoke so much of its decrees as violate our neutral
rights, or give explanations and assurances having the like effect, and entitling it, therefore, to a removal of the Em
bargo as it applies to France, it will be impossible to view a perseverance of Great Britain in her retaliatory orders in
any other light than that of war, without even the pretext now assumed by her."
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
Canning's offensive Letter. Pinkney's Opinion of the Embargo. Silence of Napoleon. Opposition to the Embargo.
bargo which Mr. Pinkney claimed j1 nor did his majesty feel inclined to recall his
orders while the proclamation of the President concerning the interdiction of British
ships of war in American waters remained in full force.2 He alluded to the timeli
ness of the Embargo in assisting France in her blockade of Europe, but expressed an
unwillingness to believe that the Americans intended, or could have any interest in
" the subversion of the British power."3 The letter concluded with a hope that a
perfect understanding between the two governments might be maintained. But its
tone was so ironical — so disingenuous and uncandid — so full of the spirit of a selfish
strong man in his dealings with a weak one, that it irritated the American minister
to whom it was addressed, and the administration that made the overture, not a
little.
Mr. Pinkney expressed his views strongly against a repeal of the Embargo Act in
a letter to Mr. Madison. " The spirit of monopoly," he said, " has seized the people
and government of this country. We shall not, under any circumstances, be toler
ated as rivals in navigation and trade. . . . If we persevere we must gain- our pur
pose at last. By complying with the policy of the moment we shall be lost. By a
quiet and systematic adherence to principle we shall find the end of our difficulties.
The Embargo and the loss of our trade are deeply felt here, and will be felt with
more severity every day. The Avheat harvest is likely to be alarmingly short, and the
state of the Continent will augment the evil. The discontents among their manufac
turers are only quieted for a moment by temporary causes. Cotton is rising, and
will soon be scarce. Unfavorable events on the Continent will subdue the temper,
unfriendly to wisdom and justice, which now prevails here. But, above all, the world
will, I trust, be convinced that our firmness is not to be shaken. Our measures have
not been without effect. They have not been decisive, because we have not been
thought capable of persevering in self-denial — if that can be called self-denial which
is no more than prudent abstinence from destruction and dishonor."
The French Emperor maintained an ominous silence on the subject. He made no
response to Armstrong's proposition, and this reticence was quite as offensive as Can
ning's irony. " We have somewhat overrated our means of coercion," Armstrong
wrote to the Secretary of State. a "Here it is not felt; and in England, aAuffUgt31)
amid the more recent and interesting events of the day, it is forgotten. I 180S-
hope, unless France shall do us justice, we shall raise the Embargo, and make, in its
steady the experiment of an armed commerce. Should she adhere to her wicked and
foolish measures, there is much more besides that we can do ; and we ought not to
omit doing all we can, because it is believed here that we can not do much, and even
that we will not do what little we can."
At home the Embargo Act met with the most violent opposition in various forms.
It was talked against and acted against, especially by the leaders of the opposition
in the Eastern States. They excited a very strong sectional feeling by calling it
1 " If considered as a measure of impartial hostility against both belligerents," wrote Mr. Canning, "the Embargo
appears to his majesty to have been manifestly unjust, as, according to every principle of justice, the redress ought to
have been first sought from the party originating the wrong. And his majesty can not consent to buy off that hostility,
which America ought not to have extended to him, at the expense of a concession made, not to America, but to
France."
3 Alluding to the failure of Rose's mission in regard to the affair of the Chesapeake, Mr. Canning, with singular un
fairness, remarked, speaking of the President's proclamation which that affair drew forth concerning British vessels of
war, "The continuance of an interdiction w,hich, under such circumstances, amounts so nearly to direct hostility, after
the willingness professed, and the attempt made by his majesty to remove the cause on which that measure had been
originally founded, would afford but an inauspicious omen for the commencement of a system of mutual conciliation ;
and the omission of any notice of that measure in the proposal which Mr. Pinkney has been instructed to bring for
ward, would have been of itself a material defect in the overture of the President."
1 "By some unfortunate concurrence of circumstances," said Mr. Canning sarcastically, "without any hostile inten
tion, the American Embargo did come in aid of the ' blockade of the European Continent' precisely at the very moment
when, if that blockade could have succeeded at all, this interposition of the American government would most effectual
ly have contributed to its success."
These words of Canning were caught up by the opposition in America as additional evidence that the administration
were playing into the hands of Napoleon, and the old cry of " French party" was vigorously revived for a while.
172 . PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Infractions of the Embargo. Attempts to make it Odious. Disuuionists in New England.
sometimes a " Virginia measure," at others a " Southern measure," and at all times a
" subserviency to French dictation." They declared that it was a blow aimed inten
tionally at the prosperity of New England, she having greatly the preponderance in
commercial arid navigating interests ; and that, while the whole country felt the in
jury inflicted by the Embargo Act more than England or France, that injury fell
mostly upon the Eastern States. This deceptive statement, made chiefly for political
effect, was contradicted by the commercial statistics of the United States.1
Infractions of the Embargo were open and frequent all along the New England
coast, for the magistrates winked at them ; and smuggling became so general, es
pecially by way of Lake Champlain, that the first active services of the newly-cre
ated army were enforcements of the laws on the Northern frontier, under the direc
tion of Wilkinson, while gun-boats were sent into several of the Eastern ports for
the same purpose. The leaders of the opposition, hoping to break down the Demo
cratic party, made the Embargo Law as odious as possible, cast obstacles in the way
of its execution, and used every means to induce England to believe that it was so
unpopular that it would be speedily repealed in the face of the continuance of her
orders in Council. " They are now playing a game," the President wrote, " of the
most mischievous tendency, without perhaps being themselves aware of it. They are
endeavoring to convince England that we suffer more from the Embargo than they
do, and if they will but hold out a while we must abandon it. It is true, the time will
come when we must abandon it. But if this is before the repeal of the orders in
Council, we must abandon it only for a state of war. The day is not distant when
that will be preferable to a longer continuance of the Embargo. But we can never
remove that, and let our vessels go out and be taken under these orders, Avithout
making reprisals. Yet this is the very state of things which these Federal monarch
ists are endeavoring to bring about ; and in this it is but too possible they may suc
ceed. But the fact is, if we have Avar with England, it will be solely produced by
these manoauvres."2
An " Anglican party," a mere political myth in former years, was now a practical
reality.3
Another form of opposition to the Embargo was a declaration of several eminent
lawyers of Massachusetts that it was unconstitutional; and very soon the doctrine of
the Virginia nullifiers, as put forth in the Kentucky and Virginia resolutions of 1798,
so decidedly condemned by the Federalists as tending directly to disunion, was speed
ily proclaimed by that same party all over New England as being orthodox. When
it was known that the party was defeated, and that Madison was elected President,
the unpatriotic cry of disunion was heard throughout NCAV England, in the deceptive
accents of proclamations that a state, as such, has a right to declare void any act of
the National Congress that might be deemed unconstitutional. That doctrine was
as boldly proclaimed in the Eastern States as it had been in Virginia and the South
ten years before.4 The arguments used by the Virginia nullifiers and secessionists in
1 According to official tables, the value of the exports of the United States from ITfll to 1S13 was $1,343,047,000. Of
this amount the exports of the Eastern, Middle, and Southern States were in value as follows:
Five Eastern States $299,192,000
Four Middle States 534,TCO,000
Six Southern States and District of Columbia 509,089,000
or for the New England States less than one fourth of the whole amount.
2 Jefferson to Dr. Lieb, of Philadelphia, June 23, 1808.
s The following clause in a resolution adopted at a public meeting in Topsfield, Massachusetts, on the 15th of Janu
ary, 1807, expressed the sentiments, and illustrated the actions of a large class of Americans at that time : " This assem
bly can not refrain from expressing its conviction that neither the honor nor the permanent interests of the United
States require that we should drive Great Britain, if it were in our power, to the surrender of those claims [right of
search, impress, and confiscation] so essential to her in the mighty conflict in which she is at present engaged— a con
flict interesting to humanity, to morals, to religion, and the last struggle of liberty."
* A memorial from the town of Bath, in Maine, to the Massachusetts Legislature, dated December 27, 1808, contained
the following resolution : "That a respectful address be forwarded in the name of the people of this town to the Legis
lature of this commonwealth, stating to them the wrongs and grievances we already suffer, and the painful apprehen-
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 173
The dangerous Weapons of Party Strife. State Sovereignty proclaimed in New England. An Enforcing Act.
1798 against the Alien and Sedition laws were used in New England in 1808 against
the Embargo laws. Happily we are far enough removed from the din of that old
conflict of parties to view the contest dispassionately, and perceive that we can, with
just charity, declare that these New England leaders wrere no more real disunionists
at heart than were Jefferson and Madison, and that both parties, having confidence in
the people, ventured to use dangerous weapons in their partisan strife for the suprem
acy, feeling, as Jefferson said in his inaugural address, already cited, that there wras
safety in tolerating a great error " when reason is left free to combat it."
The second session of the Tenth Congress was commenced on the 7th of Novem-
ber,a and, at the earliest possible moment after the organization, the opposition
opened their batteries upon the Embargo in various forms. In both houses
motions for a repeal or modification of the act were presented, and long and warm
debates ensued. But in both houses there was a decided majority in favor of sustain
ing the measure, and these were supported by resolutions in favor of the Embargo
passed by the Legislatures of New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, Vir
ginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia. The whole country was agitated by the discus
sion of the question, and in private and public assemblies the great incubus upon
commerce was the topic which occupied all minds, and shaped the tenor of general
conversation.
The history of parties, their tactics and manoeuvres, their struggles and animosities
at that time, bearing as they do, more or less directly, upon the subject of this vol
ume, form a very interesting chapter in the chronicles of the nation for the student
of our history. Our plan and space do not admit of even an outline narrative of those
purely partisan conflicts, and we must pass on to a rapid consideration of events which
speedily caused war between the United States and Great Britain.
The policy of the administration being fully sustained, more stringent measures for
enforcing the Embargo were adopted. The Enforcing Act, as it was called, caused
such opposition and exasperation in New England, that action among the people and
in State Legislatures assumed the aspect of incipient rebellion. Then it was that dis
union sentiments, just alluded to, were freely uttered in nearly all the region eastward
of the longitude of the Hudson River. Many wise men began to regard civil war as
possible, if not inevitable. Some wTeak-kneed members of the administration party in
Congress wTere disturbed by the mutterings of the thunder indicating an approaching
sions we experience of speedily having our calamity increased by the addition of still more restrictive and arbitrary
laws ; expressing to them our approbation of the measures they have already adopted upon the subject, and requesting
them to take such other immediate steps for relieving the people, either by themselves alone or in concert with other
commercial states, as the extraordinary circumstances of our situation require."
In Gloucester, Massachusetts, a town meeting resolved, on the 12th of January, 1SOO, " that to our state government we
look for counsel, protection, and relief at this awful period of general calamity."
The people of Boston, in a memorial dated January 25, 1809, said: "Our hope and consolation rest with the Legisla
ture of our state, to whom it is competent to devise means of relief against the unconstitutional measures of the general
government ; that your power is adequate to this object is evident from the organization of the confederacy."
The opposition press uttered many violent and inflammatory appeals to the people. A hand-bill was circulated in
Newburyport which contained the following sentences: "Let every man who holds the name of America dear to him
stretch forth his hand and put this accursed thing, the EMBARGO, from him. Be resolute ; act like the sons of liberty,
of GOD, and of your country ; nerve your arms with VENGEANCE against the DESPOT who would wrest the inestimable
gem of your independence from you, and you shall be conquerors !"
"We know," said the Boston Repertory, "if the Embargo be not removed, our citizens will ere long set its penalties
and restrictions at defiance. It behooves us to speak, for strike we must if speaking does not answer."
"It is better to suffer the amputation of a limb [meaning the severance of New England from the Union"], said the
Boston Gazette, " than to lose the whole body. We must prepare for the operation. Wherefore, then, is New England
asleep ? Wherefore does she submit to the oppression of enemies in the South t Have we no Moses who is inspired by the
God of our fathers, and will lead us out of Egitpt t"
" This perpetual Embargo," said Russell, in the Boston Centinel, "being unconstitutional, every man will perceive that
he is not bound to regard it, but may send his produce or merchandise to a foreign market in the same manner as if the gov
ernment had never undertaken to prohibit it. If the petitions do not produce a relaxation or removal of the Embargo, the
people ought to immediately assume a higher tone. The government of Massachusetts has also a duty to perform. The
state is still sovereign and independent."
The above passages have been cited to give an idea of the state of public feeling under the pressure of the Embargo.
Never had the patriotism of the people greater temptations than at the gloomy period of utter commercial stagnation
or ruinous fluctuation from 1SOS to 1S12, inclusive of those years.
174
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Embargo or War the proclaimed Alternative.
Quincy lashes the War Party.
Effects of his Denunciations.
tempest, and, for the purpose of pacifying the discontented people, the majority passed
<> January 19, an acta appointing the last Monday in May following as the time for the
1809> assembling of the new Congress, when a repeal of the Embargo would
occur, and the alternative of war with Great Britain be accepted.
This postponement of the repeal and
the expressed intention of going to war
called forth from Quincy,1 the Federal
leader in the lower House, a most with
ering, denunciatory speech — a speech
that stung the dominant party to the
quick, and rankled like a thorn for a
long time. He treated their assertion
that war would be the alternative of re
peal with the most bitter scorn. He had
heard enough of that " eternal clamor,"
he said, and, if he could help it, the old
women of the country should no longer
be frightened by the unsubstantial bug
bear. He taunted them with cowardice,
and declared his conviction that no in
sult, however gross, that might be offer
ed by France or Great Britain, could
force the majority into a declaration of
war. " To use a coarse but common ex
pression," he said, " they could not be
kicked into a war." He declared that
all the officers for the new army were
partisans of the administration. " If the intention had been," he said, " to unite the
nation as one man against a foreign enemy, is not this the last policy which any ad
ministration ought ever to have adopted ? Is not a party army the most dreadful
and detestable of all engines, the most likely to awaken suspicions and to inspire dis
content ?" He then sneered at the idea of going to war with England — the great
maritime power of the world — with " but one frigate and five sloops in commission,"
while the administration had not " resolution enough to meet the expenses of the
paltry little navy rotting in the Potomac !"
Quincy's lash stirred up a strong Avar feeling* throughout the Democratic party,
and stimulated the administration to more vigorous efforts for increasing the army
and navy. The Southern members, with Williams, of South Carolina, at their head,
i Josiah Quincy was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on the 4th of February, 1772. He was educated at Harvard Uni
versity, in Cambridge, where he was graduated in 1790. He entered upon the practice of the law in Boston. In 1804 he
was elected to a seat in the National Congress, and held that position eight successive years. In 1813 he declined a re
election. He was chosen a senator from Suffolk, and was a representative in the upper House of the Legislature of
Massachusetts for four successive years. He was speaker of the lower House in 1820, and the following year was ap
pointed judge of the Municipal Court of Boston. In 1823 he was chosen mayor of that city, and held the office six con
secutive years, when he declined a re-election. He was chosen President of Harvard University in 1829, and held that
honorable position until his resignation in 1845, from which time he enjoyed leisure in private life, but always actively
alive to events around.
Mr. Quincy was an author of reputation, his most considerable works being A Ilixtory ofHarrarA University, in two
volumes, with illustrations by his daughter ; Memoir of his father (Josiah Quincy) and others ; A Memorial IJistorij of
Boston, etc. Mr. Quincy lived until the 2d day of July, 1SG4, when he died at his country seat in Quincy, Massachusetts,
in the ninety-third year of his age. He and the late Lord Lyndhurst (son of Copley, the painter) were born in Boston
on the same night, and the same physician attended both mothers.
The writer visited him when he was in his ninetieth year, and had the pleasure and profit of his conversation con
cerning past days ; and when he spoke of having a distinct recollection of being carried out of Boston by way of the
British fortifications on the Neck in 1775, and undergoing a purification by sulphur vapor on account of small-pox in
the city, I seemed to be talking with a patriarch indeed— a man whose memory embraced the stirring events of much
of the two centuries. He was born at the opening of the just rebellion of a great people against real tyranny, and lived
to speak patriotic words in condemnation of a most unrighteous rebellion of a few demagogues against, as one of their
number had but recently said, " the most beneficent government on the face of the earth."
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 175
Cotton supposed to be King of Commerce. Non-intercourse Act. Signs of Eeconciliation.
vehemently opposed every expenditure for the navy. That violent sectionalist, with
the shallowness and selfishness of his class, could perceive no other American interest
but that of cotton worth fighting for or preserving. The " transit duty" imposed upon
neutral merchandise by a late action of the British government was the chief object
of his ire and assault, and because of that measure he was eager to go to war. Daz>
zled by the increase of the cotton trade, he believed that product of Carolina to be
the King of Commerce, around which all other interests should revolve as satellites
or courtiers. " The great staple," he said, " of the country — cotton — worth more than
any two others, is coerced into Great Britain, and is absolutely prohibited from re
exportation altogether. . . . You are to raise cotton to carry to the British domin
ions, and nowhere else ! What does this amount to ? Any thing short of the as
sumption of the sovereignty of the soil ? And yet gentlemen can not see any cause
of war ! All the objections made to war with Great Britain — want of revenue, want
of ships, want of objects of attack, destruction of commerce, danger to our liberties
from standing armies — are nothing but disguises for want of patriotism, and con
temptible cowardice."
Yet, when Joseph Story, the afterward eminent jurist, with a broader statesman
ship, a wiser forecast, and a true national patriotism, suggested a fleet of fifty fast-
sailing frigates for the protection of all the industrial interests of the United States,
and the support of the dignity and independence of the government, scarcely a man
was to be found from the region southward of the Delaware to second his views ;
and Williams declared that if the rights of America were only so to be saved, he was
for abandoning them at once. " Impatient as he was to fight for the rights of the
cotton-growers, he had not the least idea of going to war for the rights of ship-owners.
While urging the navigating interest to submit quietly to destruction, in hopes of
forcing a "wider market for cotton, he declaimed with the most perfect unconscious
ness about the self-sacrifice of the South and the selfishness of the North 7"1 — a most
untruthful and ungenerous assertion, which has been constantly repeated ever since
by unscrupulous demagogues for selfish purposes, to the material injury of the whole
countiy, and especially of the slave-labor states.
The outside pressure upon the administration against the Embargo Act became
too great for resistance, and on the 1st of March, 1809, it was repealed. As a pacific
countervailing measure, to induce the European belligerents to respect the rights of
neutrals, a Non-intercourse Act was passed, by which the commerce of America was
opened to all the world except to England and France, and British and French ships
of war were equally excluded prospectively from American ports. This measure was
denounced by the opposition with more bitterness, if possible, than the Embargo Act.
It was declared to be actual war in disguise — a cowardly obedience to French man
dates — an attempt to produce hostilities with Great Britain at the instigation and
for the benefit of Napoleon. Strange as it may appear to us, this foolish bugbear —
this Gallic mask of demagogues for disturbing the nerves of the timid — was still effect
ive, and the country was so agitated by the alarmists that the paralysis of industry
continued. The wings of partially-released commerce fluttered timidly in harbors,
because its imagination pictured whole bevies of war-hawks abroad.
Relief soon came, and the doves of peace whitened the horizon. For some time
the administration, persuaded of the incompetence of the Embargo to effect its in
tended purposes, had been unofficially negotiating with Mr. Erskine, the British min
ister resident at Washington, for a settlement of the disputes between the two gov
ernments, and Mr. Madison took the Presidential chair on the 4th of March, vacated
by Mr. Jefferson, with a sanguine expectation that the beginning of his administration
would be signalized by some promise of peace and prosperity for his country.
i Hildreth's History of the United States, Second Series, iii., 126.
!76 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Mr. Erskine's Proposition. A just Arrangement. General Satisfaction. Disappearance of Party Strife.
Mr. Erskine had made such representations
to his government that Mr. Canning instruct
ed him to offer to propose to the Americans
a reciprocal repeal of all the prohibitory
laws upon certain conditions. But these
conditions were so partial to England — re
quiring the Americans to submit to the de
tested "rule of 1756," and to allow British
cruisers to capture all American vessels at
tempting to trade with France — that they
were rejected. But an arrangement was
speedily made, by which, upon the orders in
Council being recalled, the President should
issue a proclamation declaring a restoration
of commercial intercourse with Great Brit
ain, but leaving all restrictive laws against
France in full force. Mr. Erskine offered,
in addition, reparation for the insult and in
jury in the case of the Chesapeake, and also
assured the American government that Great
/ &t*^-** <££<£" £& <*-£/ £W grjtam Would immediately send over an en-
' voy extraordinary " invested with full pow
ers to conclude a treaty on all points of the relations between the two governments."
This arrangement was completed on the 18th of April. a On the following
8°9' day the Secretary of State received a note from Mr. Erskine, saying, " I am
authorized to declare that his majesty's orders in Council of January and November,
1807, will have been withdrawn, as respects the United States, on the tenth day of
June next." On the same day President Madison (only forty-four days after his in
auguration) issued a proclamation1* declaring that trade with Great Britain
might be renewed after the tenth day of the following June.1
This proclamation was hailed with the greatest joy throughout the United States
as an omen of brighter days. The voice of partisan strife was hushed, and President
Madison was lauded as the representative of the whole American people, and not of
a party only. He was toasted and praised by the Federalists, invited to their feasts,
and hailed as a Washingtonian worthy of all confidence. The foolish idea of" French
influence" was dispelled, and every body indulged in millennial anticipations. En
gland was lauded for her generosity and magnanimity, and in the House of Repre
sentatives John Randolph offered the following resolution on the 2d of May : "Re
solved, That the promptitude and frankness with which the President of the United
States has met the overtures of the government of Great Britain toward a restoration
of harmony and freer commercial intercourse between the two nations meet the ap
probation of this House." The warmest Federalists supported the resolution, and a
contemporary says that the praise of the President by his former political enemies
was so universal that "the Democrats grew jealous. They were afraid of losing the
attachment of the President, whose election they had made such exertions to secure."
The joy of the Americans was brief. On the 31st of July Mr. Erskine communi
cated to the President the mortifying fact that his government had refused to affirm
his arrangement. This refusal was made ostensibly because the minister had exceed-
1 After the usual preamble citing the action between the government and "the Honorable David Montague Erskine,
his majesty's envoy extraordinary," he said, " Now, therefore, I, James Madison, President of the United States, do
hereby proclaim, that the orders in Council aforesaid will have been withdrawn on the said tenth day of June next ;
after which day the trade of the United States with Great Britain, as suspended by the act of Congress above mentioned,
an act laying an embargo on all ships and vessels in the ports and harbors of the United States, and the several acts
supplementary thereto, maybe renewed."
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 177
Erskiue's Arrangements repudiated by his Government. The supposed Reasons. Party Rancor again revived.
ed his instructions, and was not authorized to make any such arrangement. It was
charged that this was not the true reason, because the arrangement as made was
perfectly just to both parties, and more favorable to England than to the United
States. To America it offered simply a repeal of the orders in Council and atone
ment for the outrage on the Chesapeake; to England it offered a restoration of all
the advantages of a vast and valuable commerce, and a continuance of non-inter
course between the United States and France. The most plausible- conjectures for
the disavowal of an arrangement so desirable were, first, that the implied censure of
the British government respecting the conduct of Admiral Berkeley, contained in
one of the letters of the Secretary of State to Mr. Erskine,1 so irritated the old mon
arch, who had always hated the Americans, that he refused his assent ; secondly, that
the recent violent proceedings in New England in relation to the enforcement of the
Embargo Act deceived the British ministry into the belief that the American gov
ernment would be compelled by popular clamor to repeal the Embargo, and leave
England's restrictive policy unimpaired. To the comprehension of the writer, the
true reason for the rejection may be found in the fact that such an arrangement
would interfere in a deep-laid scheme to break up the American Union, by fomenting
sectional antagonisms based chiefly upon the clashing of apparently diverse interests.
Two years later it was discovered that the British authorities in Canada had an ac
credited agent in Boston for that purpose, the British government ignorantly sup
posing the opposition of the Federalists to be real disloyalty.2 Whatever may "have
been the true reason for the rejection, the historical fact remains that England spurn
ed the olive-branch so confidingly offered. The orders in Council stood unrepealed,
Mr. Erskine was recalled,3 and a proclamation of the President of the United States,
dated 9th of August, 1809, declared the Non-intercourse Act to be again in full force
in regard to Great Britain. The British government also issued orders to protect
from capture such American vessels as had left the United States in consequence of
the President's proclamation of April preceding.
The blessings of the opposition, so freely showered upon the administration when
the blossoms of May and the leaves of June were unfolding, returned to their bosoms,
and at the season of the harvest-moon curses flowed out as freely. It was charged
that Madison and his Cabinet were acquainted Avith Canning's instructions to Er
skine ; that they knew the latter had exceeded his instructions, and that there was
no expectation of the arrangement being confirmed by the British government; and
that the whole affair was a pitiful trick of the administration to cast the odium of
continued restrictions upon commerce from their own shoulders upon that of the
British ministry. The partisan war was soon revived in all its rancor.
Francis James Jackson, who had been the British minister at Copenhagen in 1807,
succeeded Mr. Erskine. He was an unscrupulous diplomat, and, because of his com
plicity in the unwarrantable attack by British land and naval forces upon the capital
of Denmark in early September, 1807, he was known as " Copenhagen Jackson."4 The
1 Secretary Robert Smith, in a letter to Mr. Erskine on the 17th of April, said, "I have it ill express charge from the
President to state that, while he forbears to insist on a farther punishment of the offending officer, he is not the less
sensible of the justice and utility of such an example, nor the less persuaded that it would best comport with what is
due from his Britannic majesty to bis own honor."
2 For an account of this matter, see Chapter XI. of this work.
3 Mr. Erskine was the eldest son of the celebrated English orator and lord chancellor. In the year 1SOO he married the
(laughter of General John Cadwalader, of Philadelphia, with whom he lived until 1843, when she died. His eldest son
lie named Thomas Americtis, and is still living, I believe, the successor to his father's title. In 1848 Lord Erskine mar
ried again. This wife died in April, 1S51, and he again married in December, 1852. His last wife was the widow of
Thomas Calderwood Durham, Esq., of Largo and Palton. He had children only by his first wife. He succeeded to
his father's titles in 1823. He was educated for the law at Trinity College, Cambridge, but was much of his life in dip
lomatic service. He was British envoy at Washington from 1806 to 1810, and afterward represented his country at the
courts of Wurtemberg and Bavaria. In 1S43 he retired from public life, and died on the 19th of March, 1855.
* The British government strongly suspected that Denmark would acquiesce in the dictates of the French emperor,
and become the ally of the conqueror. If so, the Danish fleet would fall into his hands, and England's life might be im
periled. She therefore sent a formidable armament to the Baltic, accompanied by Jackson as envoy extraordinary, to
negotiate with the Danish government, the basis of which was an English protectorate of Danish neutrality, on condi-
M
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
'• Copenhagen Jackson" and his -Misconduct. Proposed Revocation of the French Decrees. Napoleon on Armstrong.
infamy of that affair made every person connected with it odious to the people of the
United States. It was a foul blot upon the boasted civilization and Christianity of
Great Britain; and the sending of Jackson, who had been a conspicuous actor in the
trao-edy as minister to Washington while causes for serious irritation between the
two governments existed, was regarded as a meditated insult by the extreme mem
bers of the dominant party.
Jackson was received with cool courtesy, but his deportment soon excited the
thorough dislike of those with whom he came in contact. He was insolent, irritable,
and quarrelsome. He had an unbounded admiration of the greatness of the people
he represented, and a corresponding contempt for the people he had been sent to.
He regarded the Americans as an inferior people, and treated the officers of govern
ment with the hauteur which he had practiced toward weak and bleeding Denmark
when he negotiated with her at the mouths of British cannon. His manners were so
offensive that, after the second verbal conference with him, Secretary Smith refused
any farther correspondence except in writing. The insolent diplomat was offended,
and wrote an impudent letter to the secretary. He was soon informed that no far
ther communications would be received from him. Disappointed and angry, he left
Washington, with every member of his diplomatic family, and retired to New York.1
The American government requested his recall, and early in 1810 he was summoned
back to England. But his government manifested the greatest indifference as to its
relations with the United States, the request for his recall was received with the
most perfect coolness, and no other minister was sent to Washington until early in
1811.
In the early part of 1810,a the President received intimations from abroad
that a way was probably opened for a repeal of the restrictive orders and
decrees. M. de Champagny (Duke de Cadore), the French Minister of Foreign Af
fairs, in a letter to Minister Armstrong, said that if England would revoke her block
ade against France, the latter would revoke her Berlin Decree.2 Minister Pinkney,
still in London, on receiving this information, approached the British ministry on the
subject, and he expressed to his own government his hope that the restrictive meas
ures of the belligerents would be speedily removed.3 To aid in negotiations to that
effect, Congress, on the 1st of May, 1810, repealed the 'Non-intercourse and Non-im
portation laws, and substituted an act excluding both British and French armed ves
sels from the waters of the United States. It farther provided that, in case either
Great Britain or France should so revoke or modify its acts before the 3d of March,
tion that its fleet should be deposited in British ports until the termination of the war with France. The Danish gov
ernment rejected this degrading proposal, and claimed the rights of a neutral, independent nation, whereupon the Brit
ish armament of twenty-seven sail of the line, and twenty thousand land troops, under the respective commands of Ad
miral Gambier and Lord Cathcart, attacked Copenhagen. The splendid cathedral, many public buildings and private
houses, were destroyed, and with them two thousand lives. The city was on flre from the 2d until the 5th of September.
A great part of the city was consumed, when a flag of truce was displayed by the Danish commander. The Danish fleet
and a large quantity of naval stores were surrendered. But the indignant Danish government refused to ratify the ca
pitulation, and issued a declaration of war against England. Russia, indignant at the shameful treatment of Denmark,
also declared war against England, and issued a manifesto on the 30th of October ordering the destruction of all British
ships and property.
1 Jackson found a residence in the city too uncomfortable, on account of the detestation in which he was held, and he
took up his abode at Claremont, the seat of the Post family, at the present Manhattanville, now Jones's Hotel, a fash
ionable place of resort.
2 See letter of Armstrong to the Secretary of State, January, 1810, in American State Papers. The manner of the cor
respondence of Minister Armstrong with the French government at this time appears to have excited the hot displeas
ure of the Emperor, who wrote to M. de Champagny on the 10th of January, 1810, as follows:
" MONSIEUR DUKE DE CAPORE,— You must see the minister from America. It is beyond all ridiculous that he writes
of things that one does not comprehend. I prefer that he should write in English, but at length, and in a manner that
we can understand. How is it that in affairs so important he contents himself with writing letters of four lines f Speak
to the secretary who is here ; speak also to the secretary who is about arriving from America. Send by a courier extra
ordinary a dispatch in cipher to make them understand that that government is not represented here ; that its minister
don't understand French— is a morose man, with whom one can not deal ; that all obstacles would be removed if we had
an envoy to talk with. Write in detail on the matter. Let me know what effect the letter from Altenburg has had in
the United States— what has been done, and what is proposed. Write to America in such manner that the President
may know what a fool has been sent here. NAPOLEON."
3 Letter of Piukuey to the Secretary of State, February 28, 1810, in American State Pavers.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 179
The Berlin and Milan Decrees revoked. The British Orders in Council maintained.
1811, as that they should cease to violate the neutral commerce of the United States,
and if the other nation should not, within three months thereafter, in like manner re
voke or modify its edicts, the provisions of the Non-intercourse and Non-importation
laws should, at the expiration of the three months, be revived against the nation neg
lecting or refusing to comply.
When this act was communicated to the French government, M. de Champagny
addressed a note to Minister Armstrong, dated 5th of August, 1810, officially declar
ing that " the decrees of Berlin and Milan are revoked, and that after the first day
of the following November they will cease to have effect ; it being understood that,
in consequence of this declaration, the English shall revoke their orders in Council,
and renounce the new principles of blockade which they have wished to establish,
or that the United States, conformably to their law, will cause their rights to be re
spected by the English." This was explicit, and the President doubted not it was
sincere. Therefore, in accordance with the provisions of the act of the 1st of May,
he issued a proclamation on the 2d of November announcing this revocation of the
French decrees, and declaring the discontinuance, on the part of the United States,
of all commercial restrictions in relation to France and her dependencies. On the
same day the Secretary of the Treasury issued an order to all collectors of the cus
toms to act in conformity with the President's proclamation, but to enforce against
English war vessels, and against her commerce, the law of Maya after tlje a May i
2d of the following February, unless, meanwhile, information should be re- 181°-
ceived by the President of the revocation of her orders in Council.
The United States had been made to doubt Gallic faith. Professing to be indiar-
o o
nant at what seemed to be partiality shown to England by the Americans in their
restrictive acts, Bonaparte had caused the seizure and confiscation of many American
vessels and their cargoes. Armstrong remonstrated from time to time, and finally,
when notified that a large number of these vessels were to be sold, he presented a
vigorous protest,b and recapitulated the many aggressions which American
commerce had suffered from French cruisers. This just remonstrance was
ungenerously responded to by a decree, issued by the Emperor from Rambouillet on
the 23d of March, 1810, which declared that "all American vessels which should en
ter French ports, or ports occupied by French troops, should be seized and seques
tered." Under this decree, many American vessels and millions of American prop
erty were seized. But it was supposed that the proclamation of the President on the
2d of November would annul these hostile proceedings, and release the vessels. On
the contrary, the French government simply suspended the causes in the Council of
Prizes0 until February, 1811, in order to ascertain whether the United
States would enforce the proclamation of November against Great Brit
ain. At the same time the French government abstained from furnishing the Amer
ican government with formal official evidence of any decree relating to the revoca
tion of former edicts, and the whole matter rested upon the simple letter of d
the Duke of Cadore (Champagny) to Mr. Armstrong.11
Great Britain took advantage of this fact, and resisted the application to re
scind her orders, on the ground that she was furnished with no evidence that the
decrees had been rescinded, because the French government had never promulgated
any edict for this revocation. But she had the evidence of the French minister's ex
plicit declaration, on which the fbtion of the United States government was based,
as well as a general order of the French government to the Director General of Cus
toms0 not to apply the Berlin and Milan Decrees to American vessels
entering French ports after the 1st of November, 1810. These official
declarations of the French government were sufficient for the United States, and
should have been for Great Britain, for, if faith could not have been placed in them,
decrees from the same source would have had little value. But France and England
180 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
England and France refuse to be just. Friendly Proposition of the United States unheeded.
were playing such a desperate game, that they not only rightfully suspected each
other of duplicity continually, but doubted the sincerity of the United States, al-
thouo-h that government had never, in the smallest degree, broken its faith with ei
ther* England refused to recall her orders in Council ; Bonaparte refused to make
any indemnity for the seizures under the Bayonne and Rambouillet Decrees, and
American commerce was left in a state of the most painful suspense.
Having exhausted all arguments in endeavoring to convince the British ministry
of the reality of the French revocation,1 and to effect a recall of the orders, Mr. Pink-
ney left England and returned home, satisfied that, while she could sustain herself in
the prosecution of the war, she would never yield an iota of her power to oppress the
Aveak. At this very time, spurned as they had been, the United States proceeded to
open another door of reconciliation, by an act of Congress providing that, in case at
any time " Great Britain should revoke or modify her edicts, as that they shall cease
to violate the neutral commerce of the United States, the President of the United
States should declare the fact by proclamation, and that the restrictions previously
imposed should, from the date of such proclamation, cease and be discontinued."2
To this friendly proposition England was deaf. She would listen to no appeals to
her justice or her magnanimity. For long years she had been the aggressor and the
oppressor, and yet she refused to heed the kindly voice of her best friend when it
pleaded flpr simple justice. At that very time she was exercising, by the might of
her navy, the most despotic sway upon the ocean, and committing incessant injuries
upon a friendly power. She had, at that time, impressed from the crews of American
merchant vessels, peaceably navigating the high seas, not less than six THOUSAND
MARINERS who claimed to be citizens of the United States, and who were denied all
opportunity to verify their claims. She had seized and confiscated the commercial
property of American citizens to an incalculable amount. She had united in the
enormities of France in declaring a great proportion of the terraqiieous globe in a
state of blockade, effectually chasing the American merchant from the ocean. She
had contemptuously disregarded the neutrality of the American territory, and the
jurisdiction of the American laws within the waters and harbors of the United States.
She was enjoying the emoluments of a surreptitious trade, stained with every species
of fraud and corrruption, which gave to the belligerent powers the advantage of a
peace, while the neutral powers were involved in the evils of war. She had, in short,
usurped and exercised on the water a tyranny similar to that which her great antag
onist had usurped and exercised on the land. And, amid all these proofs of ambition
and avarice, she demanded that the victims of her usurpations and her violence should
revere her as the sole defender of the rights and liberties of mankind !3
At about the time when Mr. Pinkney left England, Augustus J. Foster, who had
» February is, ^een secretary to the British legation at Washington, was appointed"
18H. envoy extraordinary to the United States, charged with the settlement
of the affair of the Chesapeake and other matters in dispute between the two gov
ernments.4 He had just fairly entered upon the duties of his peaceful mission, when
an event occurred that produced great complications and ill feelings.
1 The British ministry, in their refusal to rescind the orders, made a strong point of the fact that one of the conditions
in Champagny's letter was the renouncing by the English what were called the "new British principles of blockade,"
namely, the blockading of all commercial unfortified towns, coasts, harbors, and mouths of rivers. Bonaparte claimed
that it ought to be confined to fortified places. Great Britain would nq^relax an iota of her pretensions in this matter.
2 Act of Congress, passed 2d of March, 1811.
3 See Dallas's Exposition of the Causes and Character of the late War,
4 In announcing this appointment, the British ministry assured Mr. Pinkney of the most pacific feelings of their gov
ernment toward that of his own, and that the delay in filling the place caused by the recall of Jackson was not because
of any indisposition to keep up friendly diplomatic relations, but from a desire to make a satisfactory appointment, and
also from late interruptions to official business owing to the mental disability of the king and the establishment of a
regency. The king had shown signs of insanity in 1TS8, and a Regency Bill was submitted to Parliament in December
of that year. The king recovered, and in February following it was withdrawn. In 1S10 the physicians of the king
announced his confirmed insanity, and ou the 5th of February, 1S11, his son, the Prince of Wales, afterward George the
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
181
Outrage by a British Cruiser.
Commodore Kodgers.
The Frigate President ordered to Sea.
Since the favorable arrangement with France, British cruisers hovering upon the
American coast had become more and more annoying to commerce. A richly-laden
American vessel bound to France had been captured within thirty miles of New
York ;: and early in the month of May a British frigate, supposed to be the Guer-
riere, Captain Dacres, stopped an American brig only eighteen miles from New York,
and a young man, known to be a native of Maine, was taken from her and impressed
'into the British service.2 Similar instances had lately occurred, and the government
resolved to send out one or two of the new frigates3 immediately for the protection
of the coast trade from the depredators.
The President, Captain Ludlow, was then anchored off Fort Severn,4 at Annapolis,
FORT OR BATTERY SEVERN, AT AKMAVOLIS.
bearing the broad pennant of Commpdore Rodgers, the senior officer of the navy.
The commodore was with his family at Havre de Grace, seventy miles distant ;5 the
President's sailing-master was at Baltimore, forty miles distant ; her purser and chap
lain were at Washington, an equal distance from their posts, and all was listlessness
on board the frigate, for no sounds of war were in the air. Suddenly, at three o'clock
in the afternoon of the 7th of May, while Captain Ludlow was dining on board the
sloop-of-war Argus, lying near the President, the gig was seen, about five miles dis
tant, sailing at the rate of ten miles an hour, with the commodore's broad pennant
flying, denoting that he was on board.6 Rodgers was soon on the Presidents quar
ter-deck. He had received orders1 from his government to put to sea at once a ^ay 6
in search of the offending British vessel, and on the 10th he weighed anchor 1811-
Fourth, went before the Privy Council in great state, and was sworn in as regent of the kingdom. He held that office
until the death of his father in 1S20, when he became king.
1 Hildreth, Second Series, iii., 245.
2 Although the sea was running high, the captain of the Spitfire (the arrested brig) went with the young man on board
the frigate, and assured the commander that he had known him from boyhood as a native of Maine. The insolent reply
was, " All that may be so, but he has no protection, and that is enough for me." — New York Herald, May 11, 1811.
3 The American navy then in active service consisted of the President, Constitution, and United States, 44 each ; the Es
sex, 32 ; John Adams, 24 ; Wasp and Hornet, 18 each ; Argus and Siren, 1C each ; Xautilm, Enterprise, and Vixen, 12 each ;
and a large flotilla of gun-boats, commanded principally by sailing-masters selected from the officers of merchant ves
sels.— Cooper, ii., 118.
* The present Fort or Battery Severn, composed of a circular base and hexagonal tower, is upon the site of a fort of
the same name, erected, with other fortifications, in 1T7C. It was then little more than a group of breast-works. These
were strengthened at the beginning of the war in 1812. The present fort, seen in the picture, is rather a naval than a
military work, its principal use being for a practice-battery for the students in the Naval Academy there, and for the de
fense of the naval arsenal, school, and officers' quarters. That academy (which was removed to Newport, Rhode Island,
on the breaking out of the civil war in the spring of 1S01, and its buildings at Annapolis used for hospital purposes dur
ing the conflict) was to the navy what the West Point Academy is to the army. The grounds about Fort Severn are very
beautiful, and delight the eyes of all visitors. In addition to the Naval Monument there, already mentioned (page 124),
are others, both elegant and expensive.
5 The residence of Commodore Rodgers at Havre de Grace, at that time, was yet standing when I visited that town in
November, 1861. It stood at near the junction of Washington and St. John Streets, and was occupied by William Pop
lar. It was a two-story brick house, substantially built, and well preserved, as 'seen in the engraving on the next
page. It will be referred to again, in an account of my visit to Havre de Grace above alluded to.
6 Letter from an officer on board the President in the Sew York Herald, June 0, 1311.
182
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The President on a Cruise.
She discovers a strange Vessel.
Signals.
Method of Signaling.
COMMODOEE ROTIGERS'S RESIDENCE.
and proceeded down the Chesapeake, with
the intention of cruising off New York as
an inquirer concerning the impressment.
He stopped on his way down the bay for
munitions, and on the 14th passed the Vir
ginia capes out upon the broad ocean. He
lingered there as an observer for a day
or two, and at about noon on the 16th,
Cape Henry bearing southwest, and dis- >
tant about forty miles, he discovered a
strange sail on the eastern horizon. The
squareness of her yards and symmetry of
her sails proclaimed her a war vessel. She
was bearing toward the President under
a heavy press of sail. Thinking she might
be the offender, the President stood for the
stranger, and at two o'clock displayed her broad pennant1 and ensign. The stran
ger made several signals. These were unanswered, and she bore away southward.2
1 A pennant is a streamer made of a long, narrow piece of bunting, worn at the mast-heads of vessels of war. A
broad pennant is a square piece of the same material, placed at the mast-head of the commodore's flag-ship. It is some
times spelled pendant and pennon. The latter is not, strictly, a streamer. It is a shorter flag, split at the end, and used
on merchant vessels. In the Middle Ages it was carried by knights at the heads of their lances. It is sometimes used
poetically for a streamer or banner.
2 "Made the signal 275, and finding it not answered, concluded she was an American frigate," wrote the commander
of that vessel to his superior on the 21st of May. Each nation has a system of naval signals of its own, unknown to all
others, and changed frequently, and for that reason Commodore Rodgers could not answer. These signals comprise a
system of telegraphic signs, by which ships communicate with each other at a distance and convey information, or make
known their wants. This is done by means of a certain number of flags and pennants of different colors, peculiarly ar
ranged, which indicate the different numerals from 1 to 0. Particular flags or pennants are also used for specific pur
poses ; for example, one pennant is called the interrogative, and, when hoisted, signifies that a question is asked ; while
another flag signifies affirmative, negative, etc. To correspond with the flags, signal-books are formed, with sentences
or -words which these flags represent. These books contain a list of the most common words in the language, with a
table of such geographical names as are likely to be needed at sea, and also a list of the ships belonging to the navy of
the country.* — New American Cyclopaedia, article SIGNALS.
To give the reader a practical idea of the working of naval signals, I introduce graphic and explanatory descriptions
from Rodgers and Black's Semaphoric Signal-book, approved by the Secretary of the Navy, J. Y. Mason, in 1S4T. These
signals are composed of nine flags and five short pennants,
capable of making 100,000 signals. These flags and pen
nants are seen in the engraving, No. 1. There are three
colors, namely, red, white, and blue. The red and blue are
represented by shading, the lines of the former being per
pendicular, and of the latter horizontal. Each of the flags
has the same signification as the number above it.
The pennants are used for duplicating or repeating.
They are intended as substitutes for the numbers of such
flags as are already in use ; for example, in the signal num
ber 2325 the figure 2 occurs twice. Having but one flag to
represent that figure, another is substituted to answer its
purpose, and this is done by using a pennant termed du
plicate. The four pennants in the lower section of engrav
ing No. 1 represent 1st, 2d, 3d, and 4th duplicates in the
order of common enumeration. The first duplicate always
repeats the number of the upper or first flag (the counting
is always downward) of the signal with which it is hoist-
0
BIG.NALb. — >iO. 1.
SIGNAL-HOOK.
* These signal-books, when prepared for actual service at sea, are cov
ered with canvas, containing a plate of lead on each side sufficient to sink
them. This is for the purpose of destroying them, by throwing them
into the sea when a vessel is compelled to strike her colors, to prevent
their falling into the hands of the enemy. The annexed picture of a
signal-book so covered and leaded is from a drawing of one before me
which was used by Commodore Barney. It is about nine inches in length.
The lead is stitched into the canvas cover. It was found among Barney's
papers, which that indefatigable antiquary of Philadelphia, John A. M'Al-
lister, secured from destruction, and deposited for safe keeping with the
collections of the Pennsylvania Historical Society. Those papers were
kindly placed at my disposal by Mr. M'Allister, and from them I gleaned
much valuable material used in the preparation of a portion of this work.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
183
A Chase by the President.
Signaling.
A Change in Signals.
SIGNALS. — >'O. 2.
Anxious to speak with her, Rodgers gave chase. The President gained upon her,
and at three in the afternoon was so near that her hull was seen upon the horizon ;
ed; the 2d duplicate repeats the second flag, and so on. The first duplicate, hoisted singly, is answering pennant ; the
2d, hoisted singly, is No; the 3d, hoisted singly, is Yes; and the 4th, hoisted singly, is numeral signal. 0, or cipher pen
nant, hoisted singly, is alphabetical signal.
Engraving No. 2 shows four ex
amples of the use of the signals,
in all of which the duplicates are
used. By attention to the above
explanations, the operation will
be readily understood. The first
section of the engraving No. 2
represents the number 2295, op
posite which, in the signal-book,
will be found the words, "The
commodore wishes to see you."
The second section represents
the number 2329 — "Can you
spare a compass ?" In these two
the 1st duplicate is used, repeat
ing the number of the first or up
per flag. In the third section is
represented number C404— " Prepare for action." In the fourth section, number 7226—" Strange sail on the starboard."
In these two the second duplicate repeats the number of the second
flag hoisted. The recipient of the information conveyed by the sig
nals writes down the numbers on a slate, and then readily finds the
meaning by referring to the corresponding number in the signal-book.
In a calm the signals are displayed on a more horizontal line, as
seen in engraving No. 3, which represents number 130T — "Is be
calmed, and requires a steam-boat to tow."
The same flags and pennants are also used for alphabetical signals,
to spell a word or name. The 0, or cipher signal, is hoisted singly, as
the preparatory signal, after which the 0 or cipher signal is placed
above or below the flags where required, as seen in engraving No. 4,
and indicated in the alphabet below.
During the autumn and winter of 1811 and 1812, when war with En
gland seemed to be inevitable, the attention of Commodore Eodgers
was much occupied with the subject of laud telegraphs for army pur
poses, and naval signals. He invented a telegraph which was adopt
ed. On the 31st of April, 1812, he wrote to the Secretary of the Navy
from the President, then ly
ing in Hampton Roads, rec
ommending a change in
the naval signals, several
years having elapsed since
the system of day signals
then in use had been intro
duced. He thought it had
become known to the Brit
ish 'navy. In that letter,
preserved in the Depart
ment at Washington, he
sent a drawing made in ac
cordance with the proposed
change. His suggestions
were adopted, and the sig
nals delineated in the en
graving No. 5, on the next
page, copied from Rodgers's manuscripts,
were those used during the War of 1812.
A frequent change in the arrangement
of the signal flags is necessary, for obvious
reasons. The code of signals used in the
United States Navy just previous to the
late civil war was prepared by a board of
officers consisting of Commodores M'Cau-
ley and Lavalette, and Commanders Mar-
chand and Steedmau. It was adopted by
the Navy Department in 1857. In 1859 an
other board of officers tested and approved
a system of night signals invented by B. F.
Coston, of the United States Navy. In Octo
ber, 1861, they were adopted in the United
States army. A new system of signals for
both the army and navy was arranged by Major (afterward Colonel) Albert J. Myer, which was used throughout the
war. Major Myer was the chief signal officer during all that time, and is now (1867) at the head of the signal depart
ment of the army.
SIGNALS. — NO. 4.
1
A
2
E
3
c
4
D
5
E
e
F
7
G
,8
H
9
I
10
J
20
K
30
Ii
4.0
M
50
M
60
O
70
P
80
90
R
01
S
02
T
03
17
04
V
05
W
06
X
07
Y
08
Z
09
finish
184
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The Pursuer and the Pursued iu Conflict.
The President and the Little Belt the Combatants.
BIGS ALB. — NO. 5.
but the breeze slackened, and night fell upon the waters
before the two vessels were near enough to each other
to discern their respective characters.
At twenty minutes past eight in the evening the Pres
ident brought-to on the weather-bow, or a little forward
of the beam of the stranger, and, when within about a
hundred yards of her, Rodgers hailed, and asked " What
ship is that ?" No answer was given, but the question
was repeated from the stranger, word for word. After a
pause of fifteen or twenty seconds Rodgers reiterated his
inquiry, and, before he could take his trumpet from his
mouth, was answered by a shot that cut off one of the
main-top-backstays of his vessel, and lodged in her main
mast. He was about to order a shot in return, when a
o-un from the second division of his ship was fired. r At
almost the same instant the antagonist of the President
fired three guns in quick succession, and then the rest of
her broadside, with musketry. This provocation caused
the President to respond by a broadside. " Equally determined," said Rodgers, " not to
be the aggressor, or suffer the flag of my country to be insulted with impunity,! gave
a general order to fire."2 In the course of five or six minutes his antagonist was si
lenced, and the guns of the President ceased firing, the commander having discovered
that his assumed enemy was a feeble one in size and armament. But, to the surprise
of the Americans, the stranger opened her fire anew in less than five minutes. This
was again silenced by the guns of the President, when Rodgers again demanded
"What ship is that?" The wind was blowing freshly at the time, and he was able
to hear only the words, " His majesty's ship — " but the name he could not understand.
He immediately gave the name of his own vessel, displayed many lights to show his
whereabouts in case the disabled ship should need assistance, and bore away.
At dawn the President discovered her antagonist several miles to the leeward, and
immediately bore down upon her to offer assistance. Lieutenant Creighton was sent
in a boat to learn the names of the vessel and her commander, to ascertain the extent
of damage, offer assistance, and to express the regret of the commodore that necessity
on his part had led to such results. Lieutenant Creighton brought back the informa
tion that the ship was the British sloop-of-war Little, Belt, 18, Captain A. B. Bingham,
who had been sent to the waters off Charleston, South Carolina, in search of the Guer-
riere, and, not finding her, was cruising northward for the same purpose, according to
his instructions.3 Captain Bingham politely refused aid, because he did not need it,
and sailed away to Halifax, where he reported to "Herbert Sawyer, Esq., Rear-admi
ral of the Red," the commander-in-chief on the American station.4 The President pro-
•May, ceeded on her voyage toward New York, and "off Sandy Hook," on the 23d,a
181t- Commodore Rodgers wrote the dispatch to the Secretary of the Navy from
which the foregoing facts have been drawn.
The reports of the occurrence by Rodgers and Bingham were utterly contradictory
1 Two English seamen, who professed to have been deserters from the President, testified at Halifax that this gun was
discharged by accident.— London Times, December 7, 1811.
2 Rodgers's dispatch to the Secretary of the Xavy, May 23, 1811.
3 These instructions were dated at "Bermuda, this inth day of April, 1811," signed by H. N. Somerville, by command
of Admiral Sawyer, and addressed to " Arthur Batt Bingham, Esq., commander of his majesty's sloop Little Belt." In
the instructions he was enjoined to be "particularly careful not to give any just cause of offence to the government or
subjects of the United States of America ; and to give very particular orders to this effect to the officers you may have
occasion to send on board ships under the American flap."
* Bingham reported his vessel much damaged in her masts, sails, rigging, and hull ; many shot through between
wind and water, and many shot imbedded in her side and all her upper works, with the starboard pump shot away.
He told Creighton that he had all necessary materials on board for making sufficient repairs to enable him to reach
Halifax.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
185
Contradictory Statements of Rodgers and Bingham.
The Testimony.
Indignation of the American People.
1811.
in respect to the most essential fact, namely, as to the aggressor. Rodgers stated
positively that he hailed twice, and his words were repeated by the stranger; that
she first fired one shot, which struck his vessel, then three shots, and immediately
afterward the remainder of her broad
side, before he opened his guns upon
her, except the single one which one of
the deserters declared was discharged
by accident. This account was fully
corroborated, before a court of inquiry,
by every officer and some of the sub
ordinates who were on board the Pres
ident, under oath. On the contrary,
Captain Bingham reported that he
hailed fir^, and that his words were
twice repeated from the President,
when that vessel fired a broadside,
which the Little Belt immediately re
turned. This statement was fully cor
roborated before a court of inquiry,
held at Halifax on the 29th of
May,a by the officers of the Lit
tle Belt, and two deserters from the
President, under oath. Bingham and
his supporting deponents declared
that the action lasted from forty-
five minutes to one hour ; while
Rodgers declared that it lasted al
together, including the intermis
sions, not more than fifteen min
utes.1 Bingham also intimated in his dispatch that he had gained the advantage in
the contest.2
When intelligence of this affair wefit over the land it produced intense excitement.
Desires for and dread of war with England were stimulated to vehement action, and
conflicting views and expressions, intensified by party hate, awoke spirited conten
tions and discussions in every community. The contradictions of the two command
ers were in due time made known, and added fuel to the fires of party strife. Each
government naturally accepted the report of its own servant as the true one. Not
so with all the people of the United States. The opposition politicians and news
papers, with a partisanship more powerful for a while than patriotism, took sides with
the British ; and, eager to convict the administration of belligerent intentions, while
at the same time they inconsistently assailed it because of its alleged imbecility and
want of patriotism in not resisting and resenting the outrages and insults of Great
/z$f
G^f
1 John Rodgers was born at Havre de Grace, in Maryland, in 1771. He entered the navy as lieutenant, on the 9th of
March, 1798, and was the executive officer of the Constellation, under Commodore Truxtun, when the In&urgente was
taken. See page 103. He was appointed captain in March, 1799, and he was in active service during the naval opera
tions in the Mediterranean until 1805. He was the oldest officer in rank in the navy at the time of the occurrence narrated •
in the text. He was the first to start on a cruise with a squadron after the declaration of war in 1S12. His efficient serv
ices during that war will be found detailed in future pages. From April, 1815, until December, 1824, he served as presi
dent of the board of Navy Commissioners, and from 1824 until 1827 he was in command of a squadron in the Mediterra
nean. On his return in 1S27 he resumed his place at the board, and held it for ten years, when he relinquished it on
account of failing health. He died at Philadelphia in August, 1838. The portrait above given was copied from an orig
inal painting in the Navy Department at Washington.
2 "The action then became general, and continued so for about three quarters of an hour, when he [the American]
ceased firing, and appeared to be on fire about the main hatchway. He then filled. I was obliged to desist from firing,
as the ship falling off, no gun would bear, and had no after-sail to keep her to."— Dispatch to Admiral Sawyer, May
21, 1811.
186 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The demoralizing Effects of Party Politics. Commodore Rodgers assailed. Rodgers vindicated.
Britain, or making efficient preparations for such resistance and resentment, circulated
a report, with the fiercest denunciations, that Rodgers had sailed with orders from
Washington to rescue by force the young man lately impressed from a Portland
brig.1 They exultingly drew a comparison between the late and present Democratic
administration, the former denying the right of the Leopard to take a seaman by
force from the Chesapeake, the latter ordering Rodgers to do what Captain Hum
phreys had been condemned by the Americans and punished by his own government
for doing. Rodgers himself, who had behaved most prudently, gallantly, and mag
nanimously in the matter, received his full share of personal abuse from the opponents
of the administration ; and, strange as it may seem, when the question was reduced
to one of simple veracity on the part of the two commanders, a large number of his
countrymen, even with the overwhelming testimony of all the officers and many of
the subordinates of the President against that of five officers and two deserters pro
duced by Captain Binghamj|were so misled by party zeal as to express their belief
that the British commander uttered nothing but truth, and that Rodgers and his peo
ple all committed perjury ! But these ungenerous and unpatriotic assaults soon lost
their chief sustenance when the Secretary of State officially declared that no orders
had been given for a forcible rescue of the impressed American ; and the satisfaction
of Mr. Foster, the British minister at Washington (who had requested an inquiry into
the conduct of Rodgers), that the statements of that commander were substantially
true, was manifested by the fact that the subject was dropped in diplomatic circles,
was never revived there, and the affair of the Chesapeake was settled in accordance
with the demands of the government of the United States.
But while the two governments tacitly agreed to bury the matter in official obliv
ion, the people of the respective countries, highly excited by the event, would not let it
drop. It increased the feeling of mutual animosity which had been growing rapidly
of late, and widened the gulf of separation, which every day became more and more
difficult of passage by kindly international sentiments ; and when the Twelfth Con-
» November 4, gress assembled, a month earlier than usual,a the administration party in
and out of that body was found to be decidedly a war party, while the
Federalists, growing weaker in numbers every day, were as decidedly opposed to
war. •
1 The charge was apparently justified by the tenor of a letter, already referred to, purporting to have been written by
an officer on board the President on the 14th of May, but whose name was never given. He wrote : " By the officers who
came from Washington we learn that we are sent in pursuit of the British frigate who had impressed a passenger from
a coaster. Yesterday, while beating down the bay, we spoke a brig coming up, who informed us that she saw the British
frigate the day before oft' the very place where we now are ; but she is not now in sight. We have made the most complete
preparations for battle. Every one wishes it. She is exactly our force, but we have the Argus with us, which none of
us are pleased with, as we wish a fair trial of courage and skill. Should we see her, I have not the least doubt of an en
gagement. The commodore will demand the person impressed ; the demand will doubtless be refused, and the battle
will instantly commence. . . . The commodore has called in the boatswain, gunner, and carpenter, informed them of
all circumstauces, and asked if they were ready for action. Ready was the reply of each." — New York Herald, June 3, 1811.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 187
The Indiana Territory. Harrison its Governor. His wise Administration.
CHAPTER X.
" On Wabash, when the sun withdrew,
And chill November's tempest blew,
Dark rolled thy waves, Tippecanoe,
Amidst that lonely solitude.
But Wabash saw another sight ;
A martial host, in armor bright,
Encamped upon the shore that night,
And lighted up her scenery."
SONG— T ippEOAN OE
"Bold Boyd led on his steady band,
With bristling bayonets burnished bright.
What could their dauntless charge withstand ?
What stay the warriors' matchless might ?
Rushing amain, they cleared the field ;
The savage foe constrained to yield
To Harrison, who, near and far,
Gave form and spirit to the war."
BATTLE OF TIPPECANOE.
»HILE the nation was agitated by political contentions, and the
low mutteringa of the thunder of an oncoming tempest of war
were heard, heavy, dark, and ominous clouds of trouble were
seen gathering in the northwestern horizon, where the Indians
were still numerous, and discontents had made them restless.
In the year 1800, as we have seen (page 130 ), the Indiana
Territory (then including the present States of Indiana, Illinois,
- and Wisconsin) was established, and the late President Harri
son, then an energetic young man of less than thirty years of age, was appointed gov
ernor. He had resigned his commission of captain in the United States army, and
for a few years had been employed in civil life. In the year 1 805 a Territorial Leg
islature was organized, much to the discontent of the French settlers on the Wabash,
and Vincennes, an old town already spoken of (page 40), was made the capital.
Harrison was popular among all classes, and particularly with the Indians ; and he
managed the public affairs of the Territory with prudence and energy in the midst
of many difficulties arising out of land speculations, land titles, treaties with the In
dians, and the machinations of traders and the English in Canada. He had much to
contend against in the demoralization of the Indians by immediate contact with the
white people, especially effected by whisky and* other spirituous liquors.1
By a succession of treaties, Governor Harrison, at the close of 1805, had extin
guished Indian titles to forty-six thousand acres of land within the domain of Indi
ana. Every thing had been done in accordance with the principles of exact justice,
and, had the governor's instructions been fully carried out, the Indians would never
have had cause to complain. But settlers and speculators came, bringing with them,
in many cases, the peculiar vices of civilized society, which, when copied by the In
dians, were intensified fourfold. Regarding the natives as little better than the wild
beasts of the forest, they defrauded them, encroached upon their reserved domain,
and treated them with contempt and inhumanity. " You call us your children," said
an old chief to Harrison one day, in bitterness of spirit — " you call us your children
1 " I do not believe," wrote General Harrison in 1805, "that there are more than six hundred warriors on the Wabash,
and yet the quantity of whisky brought here annually for their consumption is said to amount to six thousand gallons."
188
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Encroachments on the Indians.
British Emissaries again at Work.
Tecumtha and his Family.
—why do you not make us happy, as our fathers, the French, did ? They never took
from us our lands ; indeed, they were common between us. They planted where they
pleased, and they cut wood where they pleased, and so did we. But nowT, if a poor
Indian attempts to take a little bark from a tree to cover him from rain, up comes a
white man and threatens to shoot him, claiming the tree as his own."1 And so, with
ample reason, they murmured on. Emissaries sent out by the British authorities in
Canada fanned the flame of discontent ; and Elliott, the old enemy of the Americans,
still living near Maiden, observing symptoms of impending war between the United
States and Great Britain, was again wielding a potent influence over the chiefs of the
tribes in the Northwest. Their resources, as well as privileges, were curtailed. Na
poleon's Continental System touched even the savage of the wilderness. It clogged
and almost closed the chief markets for his furs, and the prices were so low that In
dian hunters found it difficult to purchase their usual necessaries from the traders.
At the beginning of 1811 the Indians were ripe for any enterprise that promised them
relief and independence.
A powerful warrior had lately become conspicuous, \vho, like Metacomet, the Wam-
panoag, and Pontiac, the Ottawa, essayed to be the savior of his people from the
crushing footsteps of the advancing white man. He was one of three sons born of a
Creek mother (Methoataske) at the same time, in a cabin built of sapling logs un
hewn, and chinked with sticks and mud, near the banks of the Mad River, a few
miles from Springfield, Ohio. They were named respectively Tecumtha, Elkswatawa,
and Kamskaka. • Te
cumtha2 was the war
rior alluded to. His
name signifies, in the
Shawrnoese dialect, " a
flying tiger," or "a
wild-cat springing on
its prey." He was a
well-built man, about
five feet ten inches
in height.3 Elkswata
wa, " the loud voice,"
also became famous,
or, more properly speaking, notorious ; but Kamskaka lived a quiet, retired life, and
died in ignoble obscurity.
As early as 1 805, Elkswatawa, pretending to have had a vision, assumed to be a
prophet, and took the name of Pemsquatawah, or " open door." Up to that period
he had been remarkable for nothing but stupidity and intoxication. He was a
cunning, unprincipled man, whose countenance was disfigured by the loss of an
1 Governor Harrison to the Secretary of War.
2 The late Colonel John Johnston, of Dayton, Ohio, who was Indian Agent among the Shawnoese and neighboring
tribes for many years, and knew Tecumtha well, informed me that the proper way to spell that warrior's name, accord
ing to the native pronunciation, is as I have given it. On such authority I have adopted the orthography in the text.
From Colonel Johnston, whose name will be frequently mentioned in the course of our narrative, I obtained much val
uable information concerning the Indians of the Northwest from the year 1SOO to 1812, during a visit with him in the
autumn of 1SGO.
The birthplace of Tecumtha and his brothers was at the Piqua village, about five miles west from Springfield.* The
engraving, copied by permission from Howe's Historical Collections of Ohio, shows the place of his birth as it appeared
a few years ago. It is on the north side of the Mad River. A small hamlet, called West Boston, now occupies the site
of the Piqua village. The Indian fort at that place, consisting of a rude log hut surrounded by pickets, stood upon the
hill seen on the left of the picture. 3 Colonel Johnston.
* This was ancient Piqua, the seat of the Piqua clan of the Shawnoese, a name which signifies " a man formed out of
the ashes," and significant of their alleged origin. See Howe's Historical Collections of Ohio, page 302. Modern Piqua,
oftentimes confounded with that of the ancient one in speaking of Tecumtha, is a flourishing village on the Great Mia
mi River, Miami County. Upper Piqua, three miles above the village, is a place of considerable historical interest. The
reader is referred to Mr. Howe's valuable work for interesting details concerning the events which made it famous.
JJIHTJU'LAOE OF TEOU.MTUA AM) HIS UHOTIIERS.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
189
The Prophet's Vision.
Tecumtha's Craft.
His Inspiration.
The superstitious Indians excited.
eye.1 While lighting
his pipe one day, he
fell to the earth, as if
dead. Preparations
were made for his bu
rial. When his friends
were about to remove
him, he opened his eyes
and said, " Be not fear
ful. I have been in the
Land of the Blessed.
Call the nation togeth
er, that I may tell them
what I have seen and
heard." His people
were speedily assem
bled, and again he
spoke, saying, " Two
beautiful young men
were sent to me by the
Great Spirit, who said,
111E riSOI'HET.
is angry with you all.
He will destroy you
unless you refrain from
drunkenness, lying,
stealing, and witch
craft, and turn your
selves to him. Unless
the red men shall do
this, they shall never
see the beautiful place
you are now to be
hold." He was then
taken to a gate which
opened into the spirit-
land, but he was not
permitted to enter.2
Such was the proph
et's story. He imme
diately entered upon
his mission as a pro
fessed preacher of
righteousness. He in-
The Master of Life
veighed against drunkenness and witchcraft, and warned his people to have nothing
to do with the pale-faces, their religion, their customs, their arms, or their arts, for
every imitation of the intruders was offensive to the great Master of Life. Tecum-
tha, possessed of a master mind and a statesman's sagacity, was the moving spirit in
all this imposture. It was a part of his grand scheme for obtaining influence over
the Northwestern tribes for political purposes, and he went from tribe to tribe pub
lishing the wonders of his brother's divine mission.
The Prophet's harangues excited the latent superstition of the Indians to the high
est degree, and for a while his sway over the minds of the savages in the Northwest
was almost omnipotent. The chiefs and leading men of his own tribe denounced
him, but the people sustained him. Success made him bold, and he used his newly-
acquired power for the gratification of private and public resentments. He was ac
cuser and judge, and he caused the execution of several hostile Delaware chiefs on a
charge of witchcraft. A terrorism began to prevail all over the region where his di
vine mission was recognized. The credulous — men, women, and children — came long
distances to see the oracle of the Great Spirit, who, they believed, wrought miracles.3
Their numbers became legion, and the white settlers were alarmed.
Tecumtha's deep scheme worked admirably. In the great congregation were lead-
1 The portrait of the Prophet is from a pencil sketch made by Pierre Le Dru, a young French trader, at Vincennes,
in 1S08. He made a sketch of Tecumtha at about the same time, both of which I found in possession of his son at
Quebec in 1S4S, and by whom I was kindly permitted to copy them. That of Tecumtha will be found in Chapter XIV.
Owing partly to his excessive dissipation, the Prophet appeared much the elder of Tecumtha.
2 Drake's Book of the Indians, page C24.
3 The Prophet was without honor in his own country, and he left Piqua and settled in a village of his own at Green
ville, in Ohio, where Wayne held his great treaty in 17!>5, on lands already ceded to the United States. At the instiga
tion of Tecnmtha, no doubt, he sent emissaries to the tribes on the Lakes and on the Upper Mississippi, to declare his
prophecy that the earth was about to be destroyed, except in the immediate residence of the Prophet at Greenville.
Alarm caused many to flock thither as a place of refuge, and this gave Tecumtha ajj opportunity to divulge with ease
to a large number, his plans for a confederacy. The Prophet made many predictions concerning the future glory of the
Indians. His disciples spread the most absurd tales about his wonderful power — that he could make pumpkins spring
out of the ground as large as wigwams, and that his corn grew so large that one ear would feed a dozen men. They
spread a belief that the body of the Prophet was invulnerable, and that he had all knowledge, past, present, and future.
It is said that so great a number flocked to Greenville to see him, that the southern shores of Lakes Superior and Mich
igan were quite depopulated. The traders were obliged to abandon their business. Of these deluded fanatics not more
than one third ever returned, having died in consequence of the privations of hunger, cold, and fatigue. They perished
by scores upon their weary pilgrimage.— ITS. Life and Times of Tecumseh, by Henry Onderdonk, Jr., 1842.
190 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Tecumtha's Project of a Confederation. Harrison denounces the Prophet. Tecumtha's Boldness.
ing men from all the surrounding tribes, even from the Upper Mississippi, and he had
a rare opportunity to confer with them together on the subject of his darling project,
a grand confederation of all the tribes in the Northwest to drive the white man
across the Ohio, and reclaim their lands which they had lost by treaties. He declared
to assembled warriors and sachems, whenever opportunity offered, that the treaties
concerning those lands northward of the Ohio were fraudulent, and therefore void ;
and he always assured his auditors that he and his brother, the Prophet, would resent
any farther attempts at settlement in that direction by the white people.
Governor Harrison perceived danger in these movements, and early in 1808 he ad
dressed a speech to the chiefs and head men of the Shawnoese tribe, in which he de
nounced the Prophet as an impostor. " My children," he said, " this business must
be stopped. I will no longer suffer it. You have called a number of men from the
most distant tribes to listen to a fool, who speaks not the words of the Great Spirit,
but those of the Evil Spirit and of the British agents. My children, your conduct has
much alarmed the white settlers near you. They desire that you will send away
those people ; and if they wish to have the impostor with them they can carry him.
Let him go to the Lakes ; he can hear the British more distinctly."
This speech exasperated and alarmed the brothers. The Prophet and his follow
ers, frowned upon by the Shawnoese in general, who listened to the governor, took
up their abode in the spring of 1808 on the banks of the Wabash, near the mouth of
the Tippecanoe River. Tecumtha was there too, when not on his political journeys
among the neighboring tribes, but he was cautious and silent. The Prophet, more
directly aimed at in Harrison's speech, hastened to deny any complicity with the
British agents, or having hostile designs. He visited Vincennes in August to con
fer in person with the governor, and to give him renewed and solemn assurances that
he and his followers wished to live in harmony with the white people. So specious
were the words of the wily savage, that Harrison suspected he had misjudged the
man, and he dismissed the Prophet with friendly assurances.
The governor soon had reason to doubt the fidelity of the oracle. There were
reported movements at the Prophet's town on the Wabash, half religious and half
warlike, that made him suspect the brothers of unfriendly designs toward the Ameri
cans. He charged them with having made secret arrangements with British agents
for hostile purposes, and pressed the matter so closely that, at a conference between
the governor and the Prophet at Vincennes in the summer of 1809, the latter acknowl
edged that he had received invitations from the British in Canada to engage in a war
with the United States, but declared that he had rejected them. He renewed his
vows of friendship, but Harrison no longer believed him to be sincere.
» September so, Soon after this interview Harrison concluded a treaty at Fort Waynea
iso9. with DelaAvare, Pottawatomie, Miami, Kickapoo, Wea, and Eel River In
dians, by which, in consideration of $8200 paid down, and annuities to the amount of
$2350 in the aggregate, he obtained a cession of nearly three millions of acres of land
extending up the Wabash beyond Terre Haute, and including the middle waters of
the White River.1 Neither Tecumtha, nor his brother, nor any of their tribe had any
claim to these lands, yet they denounced those who sold them, declared the treaty
void, and threatened t'o kill every chief concerned in it. Tecumtha grew bolder and
bolder, for he was sanguine of success in his great scheme of a confederation, and the
arrest of the white man's progress. He had already announced the doctrine, opposed
to state or tribal rights, that the domain of all the Indians belonged to all in common,
and that no part of the territory could be sold or alienated without the consent of
all. This was the ground of the denunciations of the treaty by Tecumtha and his
brother, and the justification of their threats against the offending chiefs — threats the
1 The Weas and Kickapoos were not represented at the council, but the former, in October, and the latter, in Decem
ber, confirmed the treaty at Fort Wayne.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
191
Signs of Indian Hostilities.
The Mission of Joseph Barren.
His hostile Reception by the Prophet.
more alarming, because the warlike Wyandots, on the southern shores of Lake Erie,
whom all the tribes so feared and respected that they called them uncles, had lately
become the allies of these Shawanoese brothers.
In the spring of 1810 the Indians at the Prophet's town gave unmistakable signs
of hostility. They refused to receive the " annuity salt," and insulted the boatmen
who took it to them by calling them "American dogs." These and other indications
of hostility caused Harrison to send frequent messengers to the Prophet and his
brother. Finally, in July, he sent a letter to them by Joseph Barron, a Frenchman,
known to and respected by all the Indian tribes in that region as a faithful and kind-
hearted interpreter. He was instructed to in
vite the brothers to meet the governor in coun
cil at Vincennes, and lay their alleged griev
ances before him. Barron was received by the
Prophet in a most unfriendly spirit. The ora
cle was surrounded by several Indians, and
when the interpreter was formally presented
his single eye kindled and gleamed with
fiercest anger. Gazing upon the visitor in
tently for several minutes without speaking,
he suddenly exclaimed, " For what purpose do
you come here ? Brouillette was here ; he was
a spy. Dubois was here ; he was a spy. Now
you have come. You, too, are a spy." Then,
pointing to the ground, he said, vehemently,
" There is your grave, look on it !" At that
moment TeCumtha appeared, assured Barron
of his personal safety, heard the letter of
Governor Harrison, and promised to visit Vin
cennes in the course of a few days.1
On the morning of the 12th of August Te-
cumtha appeared at Vincennes. He had been requested to bring not more than thir
ty warriors with him ; he came with four hundred fully armed, and encamped in a
grove on the outskirts of the town. The inhabitants, most of whom were unarmed,
were startled by this unexpected demonstration of savage strength, and, partly on
1 Statement of Mr. Barron, quoted by Dillon in his History of Indiana, page 441. Mr. Barron was a native of Detroit.
He was employed by Harrison as interpreter about eighteen years. He was an uneducated man, of much natural abil
ity, and very interesting in conversation. He was slender in form, about a medium height, had black eyes, sallow com
plexion, a prominent nose, small mouth, and wore his hair in a cue, a la aborigine, with a long black ribbon dangling
down his back. He was a facetious, pleasant, social, and entertaining man, full of anecdotes and ban mots. He was fond
of music, and played the Indian flutes with skill. Barron was acquainted with most of the Indian dialects east of the
Mississippi. In 1837 he accompanied emigrating Pottawatomies to the West. He also accompanied another party of
the same tribe in 1S3S to their lands beyond the Mississippi. He afterward returned to the Wabash, and, after a pro
tracted illness, died on the 31st of July, 1843, at an advanced age, at the residence of his son on the Wabash, near its con
fluence with the Eel River.
Mr. Barron was at the battle of Tippecanoe with Harrison, and this circumstance greatly
exasperated the Indians against him. JThey were very anxious to capture and torture him.
So important did they consider him, that they made rude sketches of his features on the
barks of trees, and sent them among the various tribes, that they might know and catch
him. One of these was for some time in possession of Mr. Compret, of Fort Wayne. It was
carried to Germany by a Catholic priest as a great curiosity. Another, on a piece of beech
bark, was preserved a long time at Fort Dearborn, and in 1S30 was in possession of James
Hertz, a private soldier at Mackinaw, from whom a friend procured it, and in the autumn
of 1SG1 sent me a tracing of it. The sketch is a fac-simile on a reduced scale.
George Winter, Esq., an artist of Lafayette, Indiana, painted a portrait of Mr. Barron in
1837. He kindly furnished me the copy from which the above engraving was made ; also
with the information concerning the famous interpreter contained in this note. Mr. Winter
was the painter of the portrait of Frances Slocum, the lost child of Wyoming.— See Lossing's
Field-book of the Revolution, i., 369.
Brouillette and Dubois, mentioned above, with Francis Vigo, Pierre La Plante, John Con
ner, and William Prince, were influential men, and were frequently employed by Harrison
as messengers to the Indians.
JOSEPH UAKKON.
192 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Tecumtha at Vincennes. His Arrogauce. Harrison's Speech. Hostile Demonstrations by the Indians.
account of their fears, and partly because of the fame of Tecumtha as an orator, they
flocked to the governor's house. Seats had been prepared for those who were to par
ticipate in the council under the portico of the governor's residence ; but when Te
cumtha, after placing the great body of his warriors in camp in the shade of a grove
near by, advanced with about thirty of his followers, he refused to enter the area with
the white people, saying, " Houses were built for you to hold councils in ; Indians
hold theirs in the open air." He then took a position under some trees in front of
the house, and, unabashed by the large concourse of people before him, opened the
business with a speech marked by great dignity and native eloquence. When he had
concluded, one of the governor's aids, through Barron the interpreter, said to the
chief, pointing to a chair, " Your father requests you to take a seat by his side." The
chief drew his mantle around him, and, standing erect, said, with scornful tone, " My
father ! The sun is my father, and the earth is my mother ; on her bosom I Avill re
pose," and then seated himself upon the ground.
Tecumtha's speeches at this council were bold, arrogant, and sometimes insolent.
He avowed the intention of himself and brother to establish, by a confederacy of the
tribes, the principle of common interest in the domain as intended by the Great Spir
it, and to not only prevent any other sale or cession of lands, but to recover what had
been lately ceded by the treaty at Fort Wayne. He declared his intention to kill all
the " village chiefs" who had made the sale if the lands were not returned, because
he was authorized, he said, by all the tribes to do so. " Return those lands," he said,
" and Tecumtha will be the friend of the Americans. He likes not the English, who
are continually setting the Indians on the Americans."1
Governor Harrison, in his reply, ridiculed the idea that the Great Spirit had intend
ed the Indians to be one people. " If such had been his intention," he said, " he would
not have put six different tongues into their heads, but would have taught them all
to speak one language." As to the lands in dispute, the Shawnoese had nothing to
do with it. The Miamis owned it when the Shawnoese1 Avere living in Georgia, out
of which they had been driven by the Creeks. The lands had been purchased from
the Miamis, who were the true owners of it, and it was none of the Shawnoese's busi
ness. When these asseverations were interpreted, Tecumtha's eyes flashed with an
ger. He cast off his blanket, and, with violent gesticulations, pronounced the govern
or's words to be false. He accused the United States of cheating and imposing upon
the Indians. His warriors, receiving a sign from him, sprang to their feet, seized their
war-clubs, and began to brandish their tomahawks. The governor started from his
chair and drew his sword, while the citizens seized any missile in their way. It was
a moment of imminent danger. A military guard of twelve men, who were under
some trees a short distance off, were ordered up. A friendly Indian cocked his pis
tol, which he had loaded stealthily while Tecumtha was speaking, and Mr.Winans, a
Methodist minister, ran to the governor's house, seized a gun, and placed himself in
the door to defend the family. The guard were about to fire, when Harrison, perfect
ly collected, restrained them, and a bloody encounter was prevented. When the in
terpreter told him the cause of the excitement, he pronounced Tecumtha a bad man,
and ordered him to leave the neighborhood immediately. Tecumtha retired to his
° Aimist 20, camp, the council was broken up,a and no sleep came to the eyelids of the
isio. people of Vincennes that night, as they expected an attack from the savages.
On the following morning, Tecumtha, with seeming sincerity, expressed his regret
because of the violence into which he had been betrayed. He found in Harrison a
man not to be awed by menaces nor swayed by turbulence. With respectful words
he asked to have the council resumed. The governor consented, and then placed two
companies of well-armed militia in the village, for the protection and encouragement
of the inhabitants. Tecumtha, always dignified, laid aside his insolent manner, and
1 Onderdouk's MS. Life of Tecumseh.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 193
Unsuccessful Attempts to conciliate Tecumtha. Roving Plunderers. Tecumtha's Fears and Duplicity.
publicly disavowed any intention of attacking the governor and his friends on the
preceding day. When asked whether he intended to persist in his opposition to the
late treaty, he replied firmly that he should " adhere to the old boundary." Chiefs
from five different tribes immediately arose, and declared their intention to support
Tecumtha in the stand he had takenj and their determination to establish the pro
posed confederacy.
Harrison well knew the great ability and influence of Tecumtha, and was very anx
ious to conciliate him. On the following day, accompanied only by Mr. Barren, he
visited the warrior in his camp, and had a long and friendly interview with him. He
told Tecumtha that his principles and his claims would not be allowed by the Presi
dent of the United States, and advised him to relinquish them. " Well," said the
warrior, " as the Great Chief is to determine the matter, I hope the Great Spirit will
put sense enough into his head to induce him to direct you to give up this land. It
is true, he is so far oif he will not be injured by the war. He may sit still in his town
and drink his wine, while you and I will have to fight it out."1 The conference end
ed by the governor's promising to lay the matter before the President.
War with the followers of Tecumtha and the Prophet now seemed probable, and
Harrison commenced measures to meet it. A small detachment of United States
troops, under Captain Cross, stationed at Newport, Kentucky, were ordered to Vin-
cennes, there to join three companies of militia infantry and a company of Knox Coun
ty dragoons, in the event of an attack from the savages. The governor had paid par
ticular attention to drilling the militia, and now, when their services were likely to
be needed, they felt much confidence on account of their discipline.
The Indians on the Wabash, grown bold by the teachings of their great military
leader, the oracular revelations of the Prophet, and the active encouragement of the
British in Canada, began to roam in small marauding parties over the Wabash region
in the spring of 1811, plundering the houses of settlers and the wigwams of friendly
Indians, stealing horses, and creating general alarm. Tecumtha was exceedingly ac
tive, at the same time, in eiforts to perfect his confederacy and inciting the tribes to
war ; and, early in the summer, the movements of the Indians were so menacing that
Governor Harrison sent Captain Walter Wilson, accompanied by Mr. Barren, with an
energetic letter to the Shawnoe brothers.a He assured them that he was ajune24,
fully prepared to encounter all the tribes combined, and that if they did not 1811-
put a stop to the outrages complained of, and cease their warlike movements, he
should attack them.
Tecumtha wHs alarmed. He received the messengers very courteously, and prom
ised to see the governor in person very soon, when he would convince him that he
had no desire to make war upon the Americans. He accordingly appeared at Vin-
cennes on the 27th of July, accompanied by about three hundred Indians, twenty of
them women. The inhabitants were alarmed. It was believed that the wily savage
had intended, with these warriors at hand, to compel the governor to give up the Wa
bash lands. But when, on the day of his arrival, he saw seven hundred and fifty
well-armed militia reviewed by the governor, he exhibited no haughtiness of tone and
manner. He was evidently uneasy. He made the most solemn protestations of his
friendly intentions and desires to restrain the Indians from hostilities, yet he earnest
ly but modestly insisted upon a return of the lands ceded by the treaty at Fort
Wayne. His duplicity was perfect. He left Vincennes a few days afterward with
twenty warriors, went down the Wabash, and, as was afterward ascertained, visited
the Southern Indians — Creeks, Choctaws, and Chickasaws — and endeavored to bring
them into his league against the white people. The remainder of his followers from
the Prophet's town, astonished at the military display at Vincennes, returned to their
rendezvous on the Tippecanoe, filled with doubt and alarm.
1 Dawson's Life of Harrison, page 59 ; Drake's Book of the North American Indians.
194
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Preparations for fighting the Indians.
Colonel John P. Boyd.
Response to a Call for Volunteer?.
The government had suggested to Harrison
the propriety of seizing Tecumtha and the
Prophet, and holding them as hostages for the
good behavior of their followers. The gov
ernor, in turn, suggested, as a better method
of obtaining peace and security, an increase of
the military resources of the Territory, and the
establishment of a military post high up the
Wabash toward the Prophet's town. The wis^
dom of this suggestion was conceded. The
Fourth Regiment of "United States Infantry,
under Colonel John P. Boyd,1 was ordered from
Pittsburg to the Falls of the Ohio, now Lou
isville ; and Governor Harrison was author-
izeda to employ these troops and call B Jnly 17>
out the militia of the Territory for the 1811-
purpose of attacking the hostile savages on
the Tippecanoe, if he should deem it advisable.
This authorization gave the inhabitants about
Vincennes great relief. They had already, be
fore the arrival of the order, appointed a com
mittee at a public meeting1* to ask the " July 31.
government to direct the dispersion of the hos
tile bands at the Prophet's town.2
The government was anxious to preserve peace with the Indians, and Harrison's
orders gave him very little discretionary powers in the matter of levying war upon
the savages. They were sufficient for his purpose. He determined to push forward,
build a fort on the Wabash, make peaceful overtures, and if they were rejected, open
war vigorously. He called Colonel Boyd to Vincennes with his detachment, consist
ing of a part of the Fourth Regiment and some riflemen, and asked for volunteers.
The response was quick and ample. Revenge because of wrongs suffered at the
hands of the Indians north of the Ohio slumbered in many bosoms, especially in Ken
tucky ; and when the voice of the popular Harrison called for aid, it was like the
sound of the trumpet. Old Indian warriors in Kentucky like General Samuel Wells
1 John Parke Boyd was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, December 21, 17C4. His father w(fc from Scotland, and
his mother was a descendant of Tristam Coffin, the first of that family who emigrated to America. He entered the
army in 17S6, as ensign in the Second Regiment. With a spirit of adventure, he went to India in 1789, having first
touched at the Isle of France. In a letter to his father from Madras, in June, 1790, he says, "Having procured recom
mendatory letters to the English consul residing at the court of his highness, the Nizam, I proceeded to his capital, Hy-
drabad, 450 miles from Madras. On my arrival, I was presented to his highness in form by the English consul. My re
ception was as favorable as my most sanguine wishes had anticipated. After the usual ceremony was over, he present
ed me with the command of two kansolars of infantry, each of which consists of 500 men." His commission and pay
were in accordance with his command. He describes the army of the Nizam, which had taken the field against Tippoo
Sultan. It consisted of 150,000 infantry, C0,000 cavalry, and 500 elephants, each elephant supporting a " castle" contain
ing a nabob and servants. He remained in India several years, in a sort of guerrilla service, and obtained much favor.
He was in Paris early in 1808, and at home in the autumn of that year, when he was appointed (October 2) colonel of
the Fourth Regiment of the U. S. Army. He was in the battle of Tippecanoe in November, 1811, and on the commence
ment of war with Great Britain he was appointed (August 26) a brigadier general. He held that rank throughout the
war. He was at the capture of Fort George, and in the battle of Chrysler's Field, or Williamsburg, in Canada. He left,
the army in 1815, and the following year he went to England to obtain indemnity for the loss of a valuable cargo of salt
petre, captured by an English cruiser while on its way from the East Indies. He procured only a single installment of
$30,000. President Jackson appointed him Naval Officer at Boston in 1830. He died there the same year, on the 4th of
October, at the age of sixty-six years.
General Boyd was a tall, well-formed, and handsome man ; kind, courteous, and generous. I am indebted to the
courtesy of the Hon. William Willis, of Portland, Maine, for the materials of the above brief sketch and the profile of the
general.
2 The committee consisted of Samuel T. Scott, Alexander Devin, Luke Decker, Ephraim Jordan, Daniel M'Clure,
Walter Wilson, and Francis Vigo. In a letter dated August 3, 1811, and addressed to the President, they said, " In this
part of the country we have not, as yet, lost any of our fellow-citizens by the Indians ; but depredations upon the prop
erty of those who live upon the frontiers, and insults to the families that are left unprotected, almost daily occur."—
Dillon's History of Indiana, page 456.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 195
Harrison's March up the Wabash with Troops. Fort Harrison built. Deputations of friendly Indians.
and Colonel Owen instantly obeyed. They hastened to the field, accompanied by the
eloquent Kentucky lawyer, Joseph Hamilton Daviess, Colonel Frederick Geiger, Cap
tain Peter Funk1 at the head of a company of cavalry, and Croghan, O'Fallon, Shipp,
Chum, Edwards, and other subalterns, who had been mustered by Geiger near Louis
ville. All of these have praisers for bravery in the annals of their country.
On the 26th of September Governor Harrison left Fort Knox,2 at Vincennes, with
about nine hundred effective men, marched up the Wabash Valley, and oh the 3d of
October halted on the eastern bank of the river, about two miles above an old Wea
village, where the town of Terre Haute, Indiana, now stands. It was a spot famous
in Indian tradition as the scene of a desperate battle, at some time far- in the past, be
tween tribes of the Illinois and Iroquois. On this account the old French settlers
had named the spot " Battaille des Illinois." There they immediately commenced the
erection of a quadrangular stockaded fort, with a block-house at three of the angles ;
and there the governor received deputations from friendly Delaware and Miami In
dians, who assured him that the hostility and strength of the Prophet was increasing.
In war-speeches to them he had declared that the hatchet was lifted up against the
Americans; and this information was affirmed on the night of the 10th of October,
when some prowling Shawnoese, who had come down the Wabash, wounded one of the
sentinels. Harrison sent a deputation of Miamis to the Prophet's town with a mes
sage to the impostor, requiring the Indians on the Tippecanoe to disperse immediately
to their respective tribes. It also required the Prophet to restore all the stolen
horses in his possession, and surrender the men who had murdered white people on
the Indiana and Illinois frontiers. The messengers never returned with an answer.
The fort was completed on the 28th of October. It was built upon a bluff thirty
or forty feet above the Wabash, and covered about an acre of ground. On the day
of its completion it was named, by the unanimous request of the officers present, FORT
HARRISON, in honor of the governor. Colonel Daviess made a speech on the occasion.
Standing over the gate, and holding a bottle of whisky in his hand, he said, in conclu
sion, " In the name of the United States, and by the authority of the same, I christen
this Fort Harrison." He then broke the bottle over the gate, when a whisky-loving
soldier, standing near, exclaimed, with the usual expletive, " It is too bad to waste
whisky in that way — water would have done just as well." Less than a year after
ward that little fort became the theatre of heroic exploits under Captain Zachary
Taylor, which we shall consider hereafter.
I visited Terre Haute and the site of Fort Harrison late in September,
_ . ___ . . . . ' : • September 26.
1860.a I had spent the previous day at tort Wayne, in visiting and
sketching the grave of.Little Turtle, the great Miami chief, and other places of inter
est about that historic city. A storm had just ended, and the sky was still murky
i I am indebted to Mr. D. R. Poignard, of Taylorsville, Kentucky, for a very interesting narrative of this campaign,
taken by him from the lips of Captain Funk in 1802, then aged eighty years, and enjoying good health of mind and
body on his fertile farm eight miles from Louisville. Mr. Funk was a native of Maryland, where he was born in 1782.
He was of German descent. His narrative is clear, and exceedingly interesting, and I have availed myself of its valua
ble information in compiling the account of this memorable campaign.
Captain Funk says that Governor Harrison was in Louisville in August, 1811, when the narrator was in command of
a company of militia cavalry there. At Harrison's personal request he hastened to Governor Scott, and obtained per
mission to raise a company of cavalry to join the forces of the Governor of Indiana at Vincennes, for an expedition up
the Wabash. Harrison also call- -A^ - Sandusky ; but, before leaving
ed for a company of infantry, to ///
be raised by Captain James Hunt- / / L/
command, under Colonel Grog- // * \ his company in the course of a
han, at Fort Stephenson, on the few days, and early in September
joined Colonel Bartholomew's regiment, then marching on Vincennes. At this place they found Colonel Joseph H. Da
viess, with two other volunteers (James Mead and Ben. Saunders) from Lexington, the colonel's then place of residence.
There were with him, also, four young gentlemen from Louisville, namely, George Croghan, John O'Fallon, a million
aire of St. Louis in 1862, Moore, afterward a captain in the U. 8. Army, and Hynes.
The signature of Captain Funk (then bearing the title of Major), above given, is copied from a note to me from him,
written in September, 1861.
2 Fort Knox was erected by Major Hamtramck in 1787, and named in honor of General Henry Knox, the Secretary
of War.
196 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
A Night at Peru. A Political Campaign. Unpleasant Experience at Indianapolis.
when we left, at two in the afternoon, for Indianapolis. We arrived at Peru, a little
village on the Wabash fifty-six miles west of Fort Wayne, at sunset. The dull clouds
had lifted the space of a degree from the horizon, and allowed the last rays of the sun
to give glory to the thoroughly saturated country for a few minutes, before the lu
minary disappeared behind the forests that skirted a wide prairie on the west.
At Peru, a railway leading southward to the capital of Indiana connects with the
Toledo and Wabash Road, over which we had traveled. But there was no evening
connection, and we were compelled to remain among the Peruvians until morning.
Theirs is a small village. Town and taverns were filled with people, drawn thither
by the two-fold attraction of a county fair and a desire to go to Indianapolis in the
morning, where the late Judge Douglas, one of the candidates for the Presidency of
the United States, was to speak. I found a crowd of railway passengers around the
register of the inn where I stopped, all anxious to secure good lodgings for the night.
The applicants were many, and the beds proportionately few. I was fortunate enough
to have for my room-companion for the night, Judge Davis, of Bloomington, Illinois,
a gentleman of great weight in the West, and an ardent personal friend of the late
President Lincoln. He declared that, if his friend should be elected, he would be
found to be "the right man in the right place." Judge Davis is now (1867) one of
the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States.
Having half an hour to spare before supper and the approaching darkness, I strolled
around the village, that lies upon a rolling plain and along the banks of the beauti
ful Wabash — beautiful, indeed, because of variety in outline, greenness of verdure,
and its fringes of graceful trees and shrubbery. Many of the trees were more ancient
than the dominion of the white man there, and others were as young as the town
near by, so lately sprung up from the shadows of the wilderness. A canal, with
muddy banks, dug along the margin of the river, somewhat marred the beauty of
the scene. It was quite dark when I retired to the inn, having called on the way at
the house of Mr. Grigg, whose wife is a daughter of the Little Turtle. They were
absent, and I missed the anticipated pleasure of an interview with one whose father
bore such a conspicuous part in the history of the Northwest.
I left Peru, in company with Judge Davis, at six o'clock the following morning,
and reached Indianapolis at ten. It was a sunny day. The town was rapidly filling
with people pouring in by railways and common roads from all directions. Flags
were flying, drums were beating, marshals were hurrying to and fro, and the crowds
w.ere flowing toward the " Bates House," the common centre of attraction, where
Judge Douglas was receiving his friends in a private parlor, and waiting for the ap
pointed hour when he should go out and speak to the people, on the political topics
of the day. Over the broad street a splendid triumphal arch was thrown, and every
avenue to the hotel was densely thronged with eager expectants. I made my way
through the living sea, and registered my name for dinner at the " Bates," expecting
to leave for Terre Haute at evening. After spending an hour with Mr. Dillon, au
thor of the latest history of Indiana, I was informed that a train would leave for the
West at meridian. So I again elbowed my way through the crowd just as Judge
Douglas was entering his carriage, and, with the shouts of twenty thousand voices
ringing in my ears, I escaped to the empty streets, and reached the railway station
just in time for the midday train. I was soon reminded that I had involuntarily
made a liberal contribution to some light-fingered follower of the itinerant candidate
for the crown of civic victory. I had been relieved of the present care of that subtle
magician thus apostrophized by Byron :
"Thon more than stone of the philosopher!
Thou touchstone of Philosophy herself!
Thou bright eye of the mine ! thou loadstar of
The soul ! thou true magnetic pole, to which
All hearts point duly north, like trembling needles !"
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
197
Visit to Terre Haute and the Site of Fort Harrison.
Sketch of the Fort.
A Traveler in Trouble.
Terre Haute (high land) is seventy-three miles westward of Indianapolis. It is a
pleasant village, and the capital of Vigo County. It then contained less than two
thousand inhabitants. It is on a high plain on the left bank of the Wabash, and is
one of the most delightful summer residences in all that region. "We arrived there
at four o'clock in the afternoon. Hoping to visit the site of Fort Harrison that even
ing, so as to leave in the morning, I immediately sought a gentleman in the village
to whom I had a letter of introduction. The town was almost depopulated by the
attractions of a county fair in its neighborhood. The afternoon was so pleasant that
men, women, and children had all gone to the exhibition, and not a vehicle of any
kind could be found to convey me to the fort, over two miles distant. After wasting
more than an hour in fruitless attempts to procure one, I fell back on my unfailing
reserve, and started off on foot. It was twilight when I reached the spot — twilight
too dim to make a sketch of the locality. The old sycamore and elm trees that were
there in their early maturity when the fort was built yet stand along the bank be
tween the canal and the ruin, and on the western shore of the Wabash opposite may
still be seen the fine old timber upon the low and frequently-overflowed bottom ; but
nothing of the fort remained excepting the logs of one of the block-houses, which
then (1860) formed the dwelling of Cornelius Smock within the area of the old stock
ade. I had the good-fortune to meet an old man (in my haste I forgot to inquire his
name), when near the site of the fort, who was there in 1813, soon after Captain Tay
lor's defense of it. He pointed out the exact locality, and gave me such a minute
description of the structure,
that I made a rough outline
of it on the spot, a finished
copy of which is seen in the
picture. He pronounced it
perfect according to his rec
ollection. Its truthfulness
was confirmed on my return
to the Terre Haute House
by a picture, made in like
manner a few years ago from
the recollections of old peo
ple, and lithographed.1 It
was placed in my hands by
Mr. Ralston, of the gas
works; and I was surprised
to find such a perfect agree
ment, even in detail. I have
no doubt the engraving here
given is a truthful representation of Fort Harrison and its surroundings in 1813.
I left Terre Haute for Crawfordsville, Indiana, at three o'clock in the « September 27,
morning,a checking my luggage (as I thought) to the Junction near
Greencastle, the capital of Putnam County, where the Louisville, New Albany, and
Chicago Railway crosses that of the Terre Haute and Richmond. By mistake my
trunk was checked for Philadelphia, and was not left at the Junction. I found the
telegraph operator in his bed half a mile from the station, but he could not send a
message with effect before seven o'clock, at which time my luggage would be beyond
Indianapolis, making its way toward Philadelphia at the rate of twenty-five miles an
hour. The winged electricity was more fleet than the harnessed steam. It headed
the fugitive at Richmond, a hundred miles distant, and at two o'clock in the after
noon it was brought back a prisoner to Greencastle Station, much to my relief. I
i Published by Modesitt and Hager in the year 1S4S.
FOBT HAKBISON.
!98 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Greencastle and Crawfordsville. A Visit to the Founder of Crawfordsville. Two of Wayne's Soldiers.
think I never saw so much beauty in an old black leather trunk before nor since.
Meanwhile I had pretty thoroughly explored Greencastle, chiefly before daylight,
when trying to find my way back to the station from the telegraphist's lodgings.
Every street appeared to end at a vacant lot. At length, just at dawn, I received
directions from aft Irishman, with an axe on his shoulder, more explicit than clear.
" Is it the dapo' you want ?" he inquired. " Yes." " Will, thin," he said, " jist turn
down to the lift of the Prisbytarian Church that's not finished, and go by the way of
the church that is finished ; turn right and lift as many times as ye plaze, and bedad
ye'll be there." Perfectly satisfied I walked on, found the station by accident, wait
ed patiently for. the telegraphist, and then went to the village, half a mile distant, to
breakfast.
Greencastle is pleasantly situated upon a high table-land, sloping every way, about
a mile east of the Walnut Fork of the Eel Run, and then contained between two
thousand and three thousand inhabitants. I remained there until three o'clock in
the afternoon, when I left for Crawfordsville, twenty-eight miles northward, where I
met my family and remained a few days, the guest of the Honorable (afterward Ma
jor General) Lewis Wallace, the gallant commander first of the celebrated Eleventh
Indiana Regiment in Western Virginia, and afterward of loyal brigades and di
visions in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Northern Mississippi, in the late Civil War. '
There I met the Honorable s since 1833, and for fifteen
Isaac ISTaylor, who was with y /ft* " ^y^^V-') years was JudSe of the Cir-
Harrison at the battle of 6/ «X/2^^^t!^J/ cuit Court. From him I
Tippecanoe. He had been /V obtained much valuable in-
a resident of Crawfordsville formation concerning the in
cidents of the battle of Tippecanoe and the preceding march of the army from Vin-
cennes.2
I also visited, at Crawfordsville, the late venerable Major Ambrose Whitlock, one
of the last survivors of General Wayne's army in the Northwest. He was first under
the immediate command of Hamtramck, and afterward served as aid to Wayne, and
became lieutenant in the company of which Harrison was captain. Major Whitlock
was the founder of Crawfordsville. He \vas at the head of the Land-office in Indiana,
as receiver of the public moneys of the United States, for eight years. William H.
Crawford, Monroe's Secretary of the Treasury, appointed him to that station. The
office was at Terre Haute. It was finally determined to establish an office in another
part of the Territory for the convenience of the settlers, and the selection of the lo
cality was left to the judgment of Major Whitlock. He found in the wilderness near
Sugar Creek, in a thickly-wooded dell, a spring of excellent water, and resolved to
establish the new Land-office near that desirable fountain. Settlers came. He laid
out a village, and named it Crawfordsville, in honor of his friend of the Treasury De
partment. He resided there ever afterward. His house was upon a gentle eminence
eastward of the railway, and the wooded dell and the ever-flowing spring of sweet
water formed a part of his premises on the eastern borders of the village. Major Whit
lock3 was ninety-one years of age at the time of my visit, yet his mental faculties
i For an account of General Wallace's military services, see Lossing's Pictorial History of the Civil War.
"* Judge Naylor was born in Rockingham County, Virginia, on the 30th of July, 1790, and at the age of three years was
taken by his family to a settlement near Ruddle's Station, Bourbon County, Kentucky. He removed to Clarke County,
Indiana, in 1805, arid in 1810 made a voyage to New Orleans on a flat-boat. He repeated it next year, and soon after
his return, and while preparing for college, he joined Harrison's army at Vincenues as a volunteer in Captain James Big-
ger's company. He assisted in the construction of Fort Harrison, participated in the battle of Tippecanoe soon after
ward, and, at different times during the war with Great Britain that ensued, served as a volunteer, but was not in any
other battle. In 1SGO he was elected Judge of the Common Pleas of Montgomery County.
3 Ambrose Whitlock was born at Bowling Green, Caroline County, Virginia, on the 25th of April, 1769. At an early
age he went to Kentucky. He enlisted in Wayne's army, and was with him throughout his Indian campaigns. At one
time he was his aid. He was five years in garrison at Fort Washington (Cincinnati) as sergeant. President Adams
commissioned him lieutenant in 1800. In 1802 he was appointed assistant military agent at Vincennes, and also assistant
paymaster. He became district paymaster in 1805, a first lieutenant in the regular army in 1807, and a captain in 1S12.
OF THE WAK OF 1812.
199
Journey from Crawfordsville to Lafayette.
Political Excitement at Lafayette.
Political Parties at that Time.
were quite vigorous. Unlike many sol
diers of the past, a large portion of his life
was blessed with an affluence of health
and fortune.
On the evening of a sultry day, the last
one of September, we left Crawfordsville
for Lafayette, Indiana, twenty-eight miles
northward, with the intention of visiting
the Tippecanoe battle-ground the next
morning. The country through which we
passed for the first few miles was hilly, and
heavily timbered, and the foliage was be
ginning to assume the gorgeous hues of
autumn. It was the first evidence we had
seen of the actual departure of summer, for
nearly all September had been more like
August in temperature, than itself. We
soon reached a small prairie, the first we
had seen, and at eight o'clock arrived at
Lafayette. The town, containing full ten
thousand inhabitants, was all alive with
political excitement, the "Douglas Democrats" and the " Republicans"1 both holding
public meetings there. The former, convened at a hotel, was addressed by Herschel
V. Johnson, of Georgia, the " Douglas" candidate for the Vice-Presidency of the United
States ; the latter, held in the court-house, was addressed by Mr. Howard, member of
Congress from Michigan, whom I had met a few days before at the table of Senator
Lane, of Crawfordsville. Torch-light processions of the " Wide-awakes" and the
" Little GiantV'2 followed the speeches ; and as they marched and countermarched in
the same streets at the same time, they became so entangled to the eye of the specta
tor that it was difficult for a partisan to recognize his own political representative in
the moving illumination. This was followed by drum-beatings and huzzas, which
were kept up until midnight.
He relinquished his rank in the line in June, 1814, and in May, 1815, was appointed deputy paymaster general of the dis
trict composed of Kentucky, Illinois, and Indiana. He was disbanded in 1816, having served in the army twenty-three
years and a half, and attained to the rank of major. He was never in military service afterward. After serving eight
years as receiver of the public moneys in Indiana, he was dismissed by General Jackson to make room for some one
else. It is supposed that not half a dozen soldiers of Wayne's army now (1867) survive. In the possession of Mr. Dil
lon at Indianapolis I saw a daguerreotype of Martin Huckleberry, one of Wayne's army, then (September, 1860) just
taken from life ; and in Bangor, Maine, I saw in November, 1860, Henry Van Meter, a colored man, over ninety years of
age, who was also in "Mad Anthony's" army. I am indebted to General Wallace for the portrait of Major Whitlock, from
which this engraving was made. It was taken when he was in his ninety-first year. He died at his residence in Craw
fordsville on the 26th of June, 1863, when over ninety-four years of age.
1 There was a schism in the great Democratic party, so-called, in the spring of 1860, when one portion nominated Ste
phen A. Douglas, of Illinois, for the Presidency, and were called the " Douglas Democrats," and the other portion nom
inated John C. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, then the Vice-President of the United States, and were known as the
" Breckinridge Democrats." Opposed to the entire Democratic party was the Republican, a political organization of a
few years' standing, composed of men of all the old parties, whose leading distinctive object was the prevention of the
extension of slavery beyond the states and Territories in which it already existed. This party had nominated Abraham
Lincoln, of Illinois, for President. A fourth party, professedly conservative, and calling themselves the Union party,
nominated John Bell, of Tennessee, for President, and Edward Everett, of Massachusetts, for Vice-President. They
were frequently called the Bell-Everett party. At the election in November, 1860, these four candidates were supported
by their respective friends. Mr. Lincoln was elected. Mr. Douglas died in the city of Chicago early in the following
June. Mr. Bell had already declared his affiliation with rebels in arms against the government ; while Mr. Breckin
ridge, a lately-chosen senator from Kentucky, only waited for the close of the extraordinary session of Congress, held
in July, and the payment of his salary from the Treasury of the United States, to openly declare himself an enemy to
that country, and become a traitor by taking up arms to overthrow the government.
2 Republican associations, pledged to the support of the candidates of that party, were formed all over the free-labor
states in 1860. They wore round capes, and oftentimes lights on their hats, and assumed the name of " Wide-awakes."
They formed the staple of Republican torch-light processions in the autumn of I860. Mr. Douglas was a short, powerful
man. In allusion to his mental strength and shortness in stature, he was called by his admirers the Little Giant. The
young men of his party formed associations like the " Wide-awakes," called themselves "Little Giants," and formed the
staple of the torch-light processions of the Douglas party in the autumn of I860.
200
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Indian Portraits.
Journey to the Battle-ground of Tippecanoe.
Harrison's March up the Wabash Valley.
At Lafayette I met Mr. George Winter, an English artist who has resided many
years in Indiana, and had the pleasure of inspecting his fine collection of Indian por
traits and scenes painted by him from nature. His collection possesses much histor
ical and ethnological value, and ought to be in the possession of some institution
where it might be preserved and the individuals never separated. He was intimate
ly acquainted with many of the characters whose features he has delineated, and he
has collected stores of anecdotes and traditions of the aboriginals of the Northwest.
The memory of Mr. Winter's kind attentions while we were in Lafayette is very
pleasant.
The first day of October dawned brightly, and the temperature of the air was like
that of early June. Before sunrise we visited the artesian well of sulphur-water in
the public square, the result of a deep search for pure water. A neat pavilion covers
it ; cups are furnished for the thirsty, and not far off are baths of it for invalids and
others.
At an early hour we departed for the battle-ground of Tippecanoe, seven miles
northward. We passed over a level and pleasant country most of the way, crossing
the railway several times. Within three miles of the battle-ground we crossed the
Wabash on a cable-bateau,1 and watched with interest the perilous fording of the
stream just above, near the railway bridge, by a man and woman in a light wagon.
Twice they came near being submerged in
deep channels, but finally reached the shore
with only wet feet. The man saved the fer
riage fee of twelve cents.
We arrived at the Battle-ground House at
ten o'clock, passing the scene of the conflict
just before reaching it. Resting in the cool
shadows of the stately trees that still cover
the spot, let us turn to the chronicle of the
Past and study the events which have made
this gentle elevation, overlooking a " wet prai
rie," classic ground.
Fort Harrison, as we have seen, was com
pleted on the 28th of October. It was gar
risoned by a small detachment under Lieuten
ant-colonel Miller — the " I'll try, sir !" hero of
the battle of Niagara, three years later. The
main body of the army moved forward the
^October 29, next day,a and on the 31st, soon
1811- after passing the Big
Raccoon Creek, crossed to the t
western side of the Wabash, near J *
the site of the present village of ' 6/L.
Montezuma, in Parke County.2
There the troops were joined by some of the Kentucky volunteers, under Wells,
Owen, and Geiger.3 Harrison was commander-in-chief by virtue of his office as gov-
1 These were large flat-boats for conveying passengers, teams, and freight. They are pushed across by poles at low
water, and at high water are secured and assisted in the passage by a huge cable stretched from shore to shore.
2 Dillon's History of Indiana, page 462.
3 Having been informed that the Indians were more numerous in his front than he had anticipated, Governor Harri
son had sent Colonel Daviess and one or two others to Kentucky to apply for a re-enforcement of five hundred men.
Brigadier General Wells immediately ordered out his brigade and beat up for volunteers. The privates hanging back,
Wells and several of his officers stepped out, and being joined by some of the file, the volunteers mustered thirty-two
men. They elected Colonel F. Geiger as their captain. The reluctance of the men to turn out was owing in part to
their scruples, the brigade having been ordered out without orders from the Governor of Kentucky. The governor be
ing at Frankfort, there was no time to consult him. — Funk's Narrative.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 201
First Appearance of hostile Indians. The Prophet's Town approached. The Indians alarmed.
ernor of the Territory, and Boyd was his next in command. The whole force con
sisted of nine hundred and ten men, and was composed of two hundred and fifty
regulars under Boyd, sixty volunteers from Kentucky, and six hundred Indiana mili
tia. The mounted men, consisting of dragoons and riflemen, amounted to about two
hundred and seventy. The command of the dragoons was given to Colonel Daviess,
and of the riflemen to General Wells, both having the relative rank of major.
The army was near the Vermilion River on the 2d of November, and there, on the
western bank of the Wabash, built a block-house twenty-five feet square, in which
eight men were placed, to protect the boats employed in bringing up provisions for
the army. On the following daya the army moved forward, and on the a November 3,
5th encamped within eleven miles of the Prophet's town. Harrison had 1811>
been careful, on the preceding day, to avoid the dangerous passes of Pine Creek,
whose banks, for fifteen or twenty miles from its mouth, were immense cliffs of rock,
where a few men might dispute the passage of large numbers.1
From their encampment on the 5th, looking northward, stretched an immense prai
rie, extending far beyond the limits of vision. It reached to the Illinois at Chicago,
the guides asserted. It filled the troops, who had never been on the northwest side
of the Wabash, with the greatest astonishment ; but their attention was soon drawn
from the contemplation of nature to watchfulness against the wiles of their own spe
cies. Until now they had seen no Indians, though often discovering their trails. On
the following day,b when within five or six miles of the Prophet's town,
* b November C.
they were seen hovering around the army on every side. The approach
of the troops had become known to the Prophet, and his scouts, numerous and saga
cious, watched every step of the invaders. Great caution was now necessary, and
the same order of march which Harrison, as Wayne's aid, had planned for that gen
eral in I794,2he now adopted. The infantry marched in two columns on both sides
of the path, and the dragoons and mounted riflemen in front, rear, and on the flanks.
To facilitate the march, and keep the troops in position for a quick and precise forma
tion into battle order in the event of an ambuscade, they were broken into short col
umns of companies. They had now left the open prairie, and were marching most
of the time through open woods, the ground furrowed by ravines. Parties of In
dians were continually making their appearance, and Barron and other interpreters
tried, but in vain, to speak to their leaders. Finally, when within a mile and a half
of the Prophet's town, Toussaint Dubois, of Vincennes, offered to take a message to
the mongrel warrior-pontiff. The menaces of the savages were so alarming that he
soon turned back, and the army pressed forward toward the Tippecanoe.
The alarmed savages now asked for a parley. It was granted. They assured Har
rison that the Prophet had sent back a friendly message by the Delaware and Miami
couriers, but that they had gone down the eastern bank, and missed him on his march.
They were surprised at his coming so soon, and hoped he would not disturb and fright
en their women and children by occupying their town. Harrison assured them that
he was ready to have a friendly talk with them, and desired a good place for an en
campment. They pointed to a suitable spot back from the Wabash, on the borders
of a creek less than a mile northwest from the Prophet's town. Two officers (Majors
Taylor and Clarke) were sent with Quarter-master Piatt to examine it. They report
ed that the situation was excellent. Harrison then parted with the chiefs who had
come out to meet him, after an interchange of promises that no hostilities should be
commenced until an interview should be held the following day. " I found the ground
destined for, the encampment," Harrison wrote, "not altogether such as I could wish
i It was believed that the Indians might make a stand there, as they did in 1780, when General George Rogers Clarke
undertook a campaign against the Wabash Indians, and again, in 1790, when Major Hamtramck penetrated that region
with a small force as high as the Vermilion River, to, make a diversion in favor of General Harmar's expedition on the
Maumee. 2 See page 54.
202
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Harrison's Encampment on the Tippecanoe Battle-ground.
Its Arrangement and Composition.
it. It was, indeed, admirably calculated for the encampment of regular troops that
were opposed to regulars, but it afforded great facility to the approach of savages.
It was a piece of dry oak land, rising about ten feet above the level of a marshy prai
rie in front (toward the Prophet's town), and nearly twice that height above a simi
lar prairie in the rear, through which, and near to this bank, ran a small stream clothed
with willows and other brushwood. Toward the left flank this bench of land widened
considerably, but became gradually narrower in the opposite direction, and at the dis
tance of one hundred and fifty yards from the right flank terminated in an abrupt
point."1 No doubt the wily savages recommended this position that they might
employ their peculiar mode of warfare advantageously.
The above is a good description of the locality as it appeared when I visited it in
the autumn of 1 860. It was still covered with the same oaks ; on " the front," toward
Wabash and Tippecanoe Creek, stretched the same " wet" or frequently overflowed
prairie ; in " the rear" was the same higher bank, and prairie, and Burnet's Creek ; and
at the " abrupt point" the Louisville, New Albany, and Chicago Railway strikes the
" bench of land," and runs parallel with the common wagon-road along the bank over
looking the " wet prairie." In the annexed sketch, taken from " the abrupt point,"
looking northeast over the camp-ground, is seen the southern portion of the inclosure
of the battle-field, near
which Spencer's rifle
men were posted, indi
cated on the plan of
the encampment on
page 205. The horse
man denotes the direc
tion of the wet prairie
toward the Prophet's
town, and the steep
bank seen on the left
of the picture has Bur-
net's Creek flowing at
its base, and was still
"clothed with wil
lows," shrubbery, and
vines.
Harrison arranged
his camp with care on
the afternoon of the
6th of November, in
the form of an irregular parallelogram, on account of the slope of the ground. On the
front was a battalion of United States infantry, under Major George Rogers Clarke
Floyd,2 flanked on the left by one company, and on the right by two companies of In
diana militia, under Colonel Joseph Bartholomew.3 In the rear was a battalion of
United States infantry, under Captain William C. Baen,4 acting as major, with Cap
tain Robert C. Barton,5 of the regulars, in immediate command. These were support
ed on the right by four companies of Indiana militia, led respectively by Captains
VIEW AT TU'l'JiCAJiOJi BATTL.E-GKOC.N1>.
i Harrison's dispatch to the Secretary of War from Vincennes, November IS, 1811.
= Was appointed Captain of the Seventh Infantry in 1808, and Major of the Fourth Infantry in 1S10. In August, 1812,
he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel of Seventh Infantry, and resigned in April, 1813.
3 Afterward Lieutenant Colonel of Indiana Volunteers under General Harrison. He was appointed United States Ma
jor General of the Indiana Territory in 1816.
4 Appointed Captain of the Fourth Infantry in 1808, and died of his wounds received in the battle of Tippecanoe on
the 9th of November, 1811.
s First Lieutenant in Fourth Infantry in 1808, promoted to captain in 1809, and resigned in September, 1812.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 203
Harrison's Instructions. The Camp in Repose. The Indians in Commotion. The Prophet's Treachery.
Josiah Snelling, Jr.,1 John Posey, Thomas Scott, and Jacob Warrick, the whole com
manded by Lieutenant Colonel Luke Decker. The right flank, eighty yards wide, was
filled with mounted riflemen, under Captain Spear Spencer. The left, about one hund
red and fifty yards in extent, was composed of mounted riflemen, under Major Gen
eral Samuel Wells,2 commanding as major, and led by Colonels Frederick Geiger3 and
David Robb, as captains. Two troops of dragoons, under Colonel Joseph H. Da-
viess, acting as major, were stationed in the rear of the front line near the left flank;
and at a right angle with these companies, in the rear of the left flank, was a troop
of cavalry as a reserve, under Captain Benjamin Parke.4 Wagons, baggage, officers'
tents, etc., were in the centre.
Having completed the arrangement of his camp and supped, Harrison summoned
the field-officers to his tent by a signal, and gave them instructions. He ordered that
each corps that formed the exterior line of the camp should hold its ground, in case
of an attack, until relieved. In the event of a night attack, the cavalry were to pa
rade dismounted, with their pistols in their belts, and act as a corps de reserve. Two
captains' guards, of forty-two privates each, and two subalterns', of twenty each, were
detailed to defend the camp. The whole were commanded by the field-officer of the
day. Thus prepared, the whole camp, except the sentinels and guards, were soon
soundly sleeping. There was a slight drizzle of rain at intervals, and the darkness
was intense, except occasionally when the clouds parted and faint moonlight came
through.
Quite different was the condition of affairs in the Indian camp. There was no sleep
there. Both parties had agreed to parley before fighting, and there should have been
no excitement ; but the dusky foe of the white man had no respect for truces. The
unprincipled Prophet, surrounded by his dupes, prepared for treachery and murder as
soon as the curtain of night had fallen upon the land.5 He brought out the Magic
Bowl. In one hand he held the sacred torch, or " Medean fire," in the other a string
of beans which he called holy, and were accounted to be miraculous in their effect
when touched. His followers were all required to touch this talisman and be made
invulnerable, and then to take an oath to exterminate the pale-faces. When this was
accomplished, the Prophet went through a long series of incantations and mystical
movements ; then turning to his highly-excited band, about seven hundred in num
ber, he told them that the time to attack the white men had come. " They are in
your power," he said, holding up the holy beans as a reminder of their oath. " They
sleep now, and will never awake. The Great Spirit will give light to us, and dark
ness to the white men. Their bullets shall not harm us ; your weapons shall be al-
1 First Lieutenant in Fourth Infantry in 1808, regimental
paymaster in April, 1S09, and promoted to captain in June the
same year. He was breveted a major for gallantry at Browns-
town, in August, 1S12. In April, 1813, was appointed assistant
inspector general, with the rank of major, and in February,
1814, was commissioned Lieutenant Colonel of the Fourth Reg
iment of Riflemen. In April he received the commission of
inspector general, with the rank of colonel. He was distin
guished at Lyon's Creek, on the Chippewa, under GeneralBis-
sell ; and when the army was placed on a peace footing in 1815
he was retained as Lieutenant Colonel of the Sixth Infantry.
He was promoted to Colonel of the Fifth in 1819. He died at Washington City on the 20th of August, 1S2S.
2 He was a major in Adair's battalion of mounted riflemen, General Charles Scott's division of Kentucky Volunteers,
in 1T93. He was afterward made Major General of the Kentucky Militia. He was appointed Colonel of the Seventeenth
Regiment of Infantry in March, 1812, and was disbanded in May, 1814.
3 He afterward commanded a company of Louisville Volunteers under Major General Harrison.
* Parke was promoted to major on this field of action by Governor Harrison for his gallant conduct. His company
was discharged in November, 1812.
5 It is believed that the treachery of the Indians did not take the shape of an attack on Harrison's camp until late that
evening, it having been primarily arranged that they should meet the governor in council, and appear to agree to his
terms. At the close the chiefs were to retire to their warriors, when two Winnebagoes, selected for the purpose, were
to kill the governor, and give the signal for the uprising of the Indians.— See Indian Biography, by Samuel G. Drake,
1832 ; 12mo, page 33T.
204 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Furious Attack on Harrison's Camp. Good Behavior of raw Troops. Gallantry of Major Daviess.
ways fatal." Then followed war-songs and dances, until the Indians, wrought up to
a perfect frenzy, rushed forth to attack Harrison's camp without any leaders. Stealth
ily they crept through the long grass of the prairie in the deep gloom, intending to
surround their enemy's position, kill the sentinels, rush into the camp, and massacre
all.1
Harrison was in the habit of rising at four o'clock in the morning, calling his troops
to arms, and keeping them so until broad daylight. On the morning of the 7th of
November he was just pulling on his boots at the usual hour, when a single gun was
fired by a sentinel at the northwest angle of the camp, near the bank of Burnet's
Creek. This was instantly followed by the horrid yells of numerous savages in that
quarter, who opened a murderous fire upon the companies of Baen and Geiger that
formed that angle. The foe had been creeping up stealthily to tomahawk the senti
nels, but the sharp eyes of one of them had detected the moving savage in the gloom,
and fired upon him with fatal effect.2 Their assault was furious, and in their frenzy
several Indians penetrated through the lines, but never to return.
The whole camp was soon awakened by demon yells and a cry to arms, and the
officers, with all possible speed and precision, in the faint light of smouldering fires,
placed their men in battle order. These fires were then extinguished, for they were
more useful to the assailants than to the assailed. Nineteen twentieths of the troops
had never been in battle, yet, considering the alarming circumstances of the attack,
their conduct was cool and gallant, and very little noise or confusion followed such a
sudden awaking from sleep and call to defend life. The most of them were in line
before they were fired upon, but some were compelled to* fight defensively at the doors
of their tents.
Harrison called for his horse — a fine white charger — but in affright the animal had
pulled up the stake that held his tether, and could not be found. The governor im
mediately mounted a fine bay horse that stood snorting near, and with his aid, Colo
nel Owen, hastened to the angle of the camp where the attack was first made.3 He
found that Barton's company had suffered severely, and the left of Geiger's was en
tirely broken. He immediately ordered Cook's company and that of the late Captain
Wentworth, under Lieutenant Peters, to be brought up from the centre of the rear
line, where the ground was much more defensible, and form across the angle in sup
port of Barton and Geiger. At that moment the governor's attention was directed
to firing at the northeast angle of the camp, where a small company of United States
riflemen, armed with muskets, and the companies of Baen, Snelling, and Prescott, of
the Fourth Regiment, were stationed. There he found Major Daviess forming the
dragoons in the rear of those companies. Observing heavy firing from some trees
about twenty paces in front of them, he directed the major to dislodge them with a
part of his dragoons. " Unfortunately," says Harrison in his dispatch to the Secre
tary of War, " the major's gallantry determined him to execute the order with a
smaller force than was sufficient, which enabled the enemy to avoid him in front and
1 During the night a negro camp follower who had been missed from duty was found lurking near the governor's
marquee, and arrested. He was tried after the battle by a drum-head court-martial, and was convicted of having de
serted to the enemy, and returned for the purpose of murdering the governor. He was sentenced to be hung immedi
ately, but was saved in consequence of the kindness of heart of the governor. His imploring eyes touched Harrison's
tender feelings, and he referred the matter to the commissioned officers present. Some were for his immediate execu
tion, when Snelling said, " Brave comrades, let us save him. The wretch deserves to die ; but as our commander, whose
life was more particularly his object, is willing to spare him, let us also forgive him. I hope, at least, that every officer
of the Fourth Regiment will be on the side of mercy." Ben was saved.— Harrison's letter to Governor Scott, of Ken
tucky, cited by Hall, page 140. Captain Funk, in his narrative, says the negro was the driver of Governor Harrison's
cart, and that he informed the Indians that the white people had no cannon with them. Cannon were the dread of the
savages. Doubtless this information caused a change in the policy mentioned in note 5, page 203, and caused the sav
ages to conclude to attack the pale-faces.
>»a Judge Naylor, of Crawfordsville, already mentioned as a participant in the battle, informed me that the name of the
sentinel who first fired and gave the alarm was Stephen Mars, of Kentucky. He fired, and fled to the camp, but was
shot before reaching it.
3 Statement of Judge Naylor. Captain Funk says that Harrison's own white horse was ridden by Major Taylor, the
general's aid, against his wishes.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
205
Battle of Tippecanoe.
The Severity of the Battle.
Death of Major Daviess.
attack him on his flanks. The major was mortally wounded,1 and his party driven
back."2 Harrison immediately promoted Captain Parke to Daviess's rank just as in
telligence was brought to him that Captain Snelling, with his company of regulars,
had driven the savages from their murderous position Avith heavy loss.
TIPPECANOE
(Camp aai Battle.
The battle now became more general. The Indians attacked the camp on the
whole front and both flanks, and a portion of the rear line. They fell with great se
verity upon Spencer's mounted riflemen on the right and the right section of War-
rick's company, which formed the southwest angle of the encampment. Spencer and
his lieutenant were killed, and Warrick was mortally wounded, and yet their men
gallantly maintained their position. They were speedily re-enforced by Robb's rifle
men, who had been driven or ordered by mistake from their position on the left flank
toward the centre of the camp, and at the same time Prescott's company of the
Fourth Regiment was ordered to fill the space vacated by the riflemen, the grand
object being to maintain the lines of the camp unbroken until daylight, when the as-
1 The letter B in the plan marks the spot where Daviess fell. It was near an oak whose top was blown off in a gale
a few years ago. It is seen in the sketch of the battle-ground as it appeared in I860, printed on page 209.
2 Daviess was gallant and impatient of restraint. One of his party was General Washington Johns, of Vincennes, a
quarter-master of the dragoons, who was intimate with Harrison. Daviess sent him to the governor when the Indians
first made the attack at this point, asking permission to go out on foot and charge the foe. " Tell Major Daviess to be
patient ; he shall have an honorable station before the battle is over," Harrison replied. In a few moments Daviess
repeated the request, and the governor made the same reply. Again he repeated it, when Harrison said, "Tell Major
Daviess he has heard my opinion twice ; he may now use his own discretion." The gallant major, with only twenty
picked men, instantly charged beyond the lines on foot, and was mortally wounded. He was a conspicuous mark in
the gloom, because he wore a white blanket coat.— Statements of Judge Naylor and Captain Funk. The latter says Col
onel Daviess's horse was a roan bought of Frank Moore, of Louisville. The Indians were masked by some fallen tim
ber. Captain Funk attended him at about nine o'clock ; assisted in changing his clothes, and dressing his wounds. He
was shot between the right hip and ribs, and it was believed that the fatal bullet proceeded from the ranks of his friends
firing in the gloom. Daviess was afraid the expedition might be driven away hastily, and leave those wounded behind.
He exacted a promise from Captain Funk that in no event would he leave him to fall into the hands of the savages.
206 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Defeat of the Indians. The Prophet in Disgrace. Return of the Army to Vincennes.
sailed would be able to make a general charge upon a visible foe. To do this re
quired great activity on the part of the commander. Harrison was constantly rid
ing from point to point within the camp, and kept the assailed positions re-enforced.
Finally, when the day dawned, he discovered the larger portion of the Indians to be
on the two flanks. He accordingly strengthened these, and was about to order the
cavalry, under Parke, to charge upon the foe on the left, when Major Wells, not un
derstanding Harrison's intentions, led the infantry to perform that duty. It was ex
ecuted gallantly and eifectually. The Indians were driven at the point of the bay
onet, and the dragoons pursued them into the wet prairies on both sides of the ridge
on which the battle was fought. The ground was too soft for the horsemen to pur
sue, and the savages escaped. Meanwhile the Indians had been charged and put to
flight on the right flank, and had also taken refuge in the marshy ground, chiefly on
the side of Burnet's Creek, where they were sheltered from view.1
Looking eastward from the site of the battle-ground over the " wet prairie" (now
a fenced and cultivated plain) toward the Wabash, the visitor will see a range of
very gentle hills, covered with woods. On one of these the Prophet stood while the
battle was raging on that dark November morning, at a safe distance from danger,
singing a war-song and performing some protracted religious mummeries. When
told that his followers were falling before the bullets of the white men, he said,
" Fight on, it will soon be as I told you." When at last the fugitive warriors of
many tribes — Shawnoese, Wyandots, Kickapoos, Ottawas, Chippewas, Pottawatomies,
Winnebagoes, Sacs, and a few Miamis — lost their faith, and covered the Prophet
with reproaches, he cunningly told them that his predictions had failed because, dur
ing his incantations, his wife touched the sacred vessels and broke the charm ! Even
Indian superstition and credulity could not accept that transparent falsehood for an
excuse, and the impostor was deserted by his disappointed followers, and compelled
to take refuge with a small band of Wyandots on Wild-cat Creek. The foe had
scattered in all directions into places where the white man could not well follow.
" Sound, sound the charge ! spur, spur the steed,
And swift the fugitives pursue:
"Pis vain ; rein in — your utmost speed
Could not o'ertake the recreant crew.
In lowland marsh, in dell or cave,
Each Indian sought his life to save ;
Whence peering forth, with fear and ire,
He saw his Prophet's town on fire."
• November 8, When, on the day after the battle,a Harrison and his army advanced
isii. upon the Prophet's town, they found it deserted. After getting all the
copper kettles they could find, and as much beans and corn as they could carry away,
they applied the torch, and the village and a large quantity of corn were speedily re
duced to ashes. Six days afterward the army, bearing the wounded in twenty-two
wagons, reached Fort Harrison on its return to Vincennes. Captain Snelling, with
his company of regulars, was left to garrison the fort, and, on the 18th of the month,
the remainder of the army, excepting some volunteers disbanded the day before,
were at Fort Knox, in the capital of the Indiana Territory. The immediate result
of the expedition was to scatter the Prophet's warriors on the Wabash, frustrate the
scheme of Tecumtha, and give temporary relief to the settlers in Indiana.
Tecumtha, who was really a great man (while the Prophet was a cunning dema
gogue and cheat — a tool in the hands of his brother), was absent among the South-
i Harrison's dispatch to Dr.Enstis, Secretary of War, November IS, 1811 ; M'Afee's Tlistorji of the Late War in the West
ern Country, pages 22-30 ; Onderdonk's MS. Life of Tecumseh ; Drake's Indian Biography ; Hall's Life of Harrison, pages
132-146; Dillon's History of Indiana, pages 447-472; statements to the author by Judge Naylor, of Crawfordsville, In
diana, and Major Funk, of Kentucky.
The 7th was passed in burying the dead and strengthening the encampment, for rumors were plenty that Tecumtha
was coming to the aid of his brother with a thousand warriors. "Night," says Captain Funk, "found every man
mounting guard, without food, fire, or light, and in a drizzly rain. The Indian dogs, during the dark hours, produced
frequent alarms by prowling in search of carrion about the sentinels."
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 207
Tecumtha disappointed. Recruiting-tour of the Prophet. Life and Character of Major Daviess.
ern Indians when the battle of Tippecanoe occurred. He returned soon afterward,
and found all his schemes frustrated by the folly of the Prophet. The sudden un
popularity of the impostor deprived him of a strong instrument in the construction
of his confederacy, to which his life and labors had been long directed with the zeal
of a true patriot. He saw his brightest visions dissipated in a moment. Mortified,
vexed, and exasperated, and failing to obtain the acquiescence of Governor Harrison
in his proposition to visit the President with a deputation of chiefs, he abandoned all
thoughts of peace, and became a firm ally of the British.1
In the battle of Tippecanoe Harrison lost, in killed and wounded, one hundred and
eighty-eight.2 It was a hard-fought and well-fought battle, and attested both the
skill and bravery of Harrison.3 The expediency and conduct of the campaign were
topics for much discussion, and elicited not a little severity of censure from the op
ponents of the administration and of war. Harrison was a personal and political
friend of President Madison, and this gave license to the opposition to make him a
target for denunciatory volleys. His prudence, his patriotism, his military skill, his
courage, were all brought in question ; and some claimed the chaplet of fame for the
victory gained, for the brow of Colonel Boyd.4 But time, the great healer of dissen-
1 Elkswatawa (the Prophet) now started on a recruiting-tour among the various tribes on the Upper Lakes and Mis
sissippi, all of which he visited with astonishing success. He entered the villages of his most inveterate enemies, and
of others who had not even heard his name, and so manoeuvred as to make his mystery-fire and sacred string of beans
a safe passport through all their settlements. He enlisted some eight or ten thousand warriors to fight the battles of bis
brother. He carried into every wigwam an image of a dead person the size of life, which was ingeniously made of
some light material, and kept concealed under bandages of thin white muslin, and not to be opened to public scrutiny.
Of this he made great mystery, and got his recruits to swear by touching the string of white beans attached to its neck.
By his extraordinary cunning he carried terror wherever he went. If they did not obey him he threatened to make the
earth tremble to its centre and darken the light of the sun. Nature seemed to conspire with the Prophet, for at this
very time an earthquake extended along the Mississippi, demolishing houses and settling the ground. A comet, too,
appeared in the north with fearful length of tail, and seemed a harbinger to the fulfillment of the predictions of the Proph
et. The sun was eclipsed, to the great terror of the savages, but, as the Prophet declared, it resumed its wonted bright
ness because of his intercession. But while in the full tide of success, two rival chiefs of his own tribe dogged the foot
steps of the Prophet, denounced him as an impostor, and exposed his tricks.— On derdonk's MS. Life ofTecumseh.
2 He lost, in killed and wounded, ten officers, namely, one aid-de-camp, one major, three captains, two subalterns, one
sergeant, and two corporals. Judge Naylor told me that the sergeant and himself were asleep at the same fire when
the attack commenced, and that a bullet from an Indian's musket killed him as he was springing to his feet. Colonel
Abraham Owen, Harrison's aid-de-camp, was killed early in the engagement, when he and the governor rode to the point
of first attack. Letter A in the plan on page 205 marks the spot where he fell. He rode a white horse, and this made
him a mark for the Indians. The enemies of Harrison afterward asserted that the latter, to conceal himself, had ex
changed horses with Owen. The fact was as I have stated— his own horse had scampered away in a fright, and he had
mounted the first one near, which happened to be a dark-colored one. The horse Owen rode was his own. That offi
cer had joined him as a private of Geiger's company, and had been accepted as his volunteer aid. He was a good citi
zen and a brave soldier, and had been a member of the Kentucky Legislature.
Among the mortally wounded, and who died before Harrison made his report, was Major Daviess, and Captains Baen
and Warrick. Daviess, commonly called "Joe Daviess," was the most brilliant man in that little army, and was as
brave as he was brilliant. He was a Virginian by birth, and at the time of his death was only thirty-seven years of age.
He took a leading part against Aaron Burr in the West in 1S06. Previous to that he had been a successful opponent of
the Nicholases in political movements, they being Republicans and he a Federalist. He was a great student, very ab
stemious, used a hewn block for a pillow, and a bed nearly as hard. His oratory was powerful, and Wilson C. Nicholas,
the leader of that art in Kentucky at the close of the last century, was often compelled to bend to his young rival. Al
luding to this power, a Tennessee poet (Robert Mack) wrote as follows, in a rhyming eulogy, after his death :
"Emerging from his studious shed,
Behold, behold him rise !
All Henry bursting from his tongue,
And Marshall from his eyes.
Chained by the magic of his voice,
Fierce party spirit stood ;
E'en prejudice almost gave way,
While with resistless reasoning's sway
O'er far-famed Nicholas he rolled
The oratorial flood."
In 1S01, '02 Mr. Daviess went to Washington City on professional business, and was the first Western lawyer who ever
appeared in the Supreme Court of the United States. Mr. Jefferson made him Attorney of the United States for the
District of Kentucky. He married a sister of Chief Justice Marshall, and always held a front rank in his profession.
Daviess County, Kentucky, was named in his honor. He was wounded at about five o'clock in the morning of the 7th
of November, and survived until one o'clock in the afternoon of the same day. He was nearly six feet high, vigorous
and athletic. He was born in Bedford County, Virginia, on the 4th of March, 1774.
3 Harrison was continually exposed during the action, but escaped unhurt. A bullet passed through his hat. Major
Henry Hurst, who was one of his aids-de-camp (and an active one) in this battle, and was the only lawyer who resided
in Indiana while it was a Territory, died at Jeffersouville, on the Ohio, opposite Louisville, where he had lived forty
years, on the 1st of January, 1855, in the eighty-fifth year of his age.
* In his dispatch to the Secretary of War, Harrison said of Colonel Boyd : "The whole of the infantry formed a small
208 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Harrison and the Tippecanoe Battle. The Battle-ground. A solemn Memorial Poem.
sions, corrector of errors, and destroyer of party and personal animosities, has long
since silenced the voice of detraction ; and the verdict of his countrymen to-day, as
they study the record dispassionately, is coincident with that of his soldiers at the
time, and of the Kentucky Legislature shortly afterward, who, on motion of the
late venerable member of Congress, John J. Crittenden, resolved, " That in the late
campaign against the Indians on the Wabash, Governor W. H. Harrison has, in the
opinion of this Legislature, behaved like a hero, a patriot, and a general ; and that
for his cool, deliberate, skillful, and gallant conduct in the late battle of Tippecanoe,
he deserves the warmest thanks of the nation." History, art, and song1 made that
event the theme for pen, pencil, and voice ; and when, thirty years afterward, the
leader of the fray was a candidate for the Presidency of the United States, he was
every where known by the familiar title of Old Tippecanoe. His partisans erected
log-cabins in towns and cities, and in them sang in chorus,
"Hurrah for the father of all the green West,
For the Buckeye who follows the plow !
The foemen in terror his valor confessed,
And we'll honor the conqueror now.
His country assailed in the darkest of days,
To her rescue impatient he flew ;
The war-whoop's fell blast, and the rifle's red blaze,
But awakened Old Tippecanoe."
The battle-field of Tippecanoe has become classic ground. It belonged to the State
of Indiana, and had been inclosed with a rude wooden fence for several years, which,
we were told, was soon to give place to an iron one. The inclosure comprised seven
acres. It was a beautiful spot. The ground, gently undulating, and sloping from
Battle-ground City1 (an infant in years and size), was still covered with the noble
oaks. In the sketch here given, made when I visited it in October, 1 860, the specta
tor is supposed to be standing just northward of the place where Major Wells's line,
on the left flank, was formed (see a plan of the camp on page 205), and looking south
west over the once wet prairie toward the Wabash. On the extreme left, in the dis
tance, is seen the gentle eminence on which the Prophet stood during the battle, sing
ing his war-songs. Farther to the right, near the row of posts, is a large tree with
the top broken off. It marks the spot near which Daviess fell. There is only space
enough between it and the verge of the prairie below for the common road and the
railway.
brigade, under the immediate orders of Colonel Boyd. The colonel throughout the action manifested equal zeal and
bravery in carrying into execution my orders, in keeping the men to their posts, and exhorting them to fight with
valor." Judge Naylor informed me that he heard Colonel Boyd frequently cry out, " Huzzah ! my sons of gold, the
day is ours !"
1 Among the many "verses composed on the occasion of the
battle of Tippecanoe," none were more popular in the West, for
a long time, than a string of solemn doggerel, printed on a
small broadside of rough paper, at Frankfort, Kentucky. A copy
lies before me. It is entitled, "A Bloody Battle between the
United States Troops, under the command of Governor Harri
son, and several Tribes of Indians, near the Prophet's Town.
November T, 1811." At the head is a rude wood-cut, evidently
made by an amateur for some other scene, for a camp exhibits
two cannon. A little distance off are seen three Indians. I give
a fac-simile of this remarkable " illustration" (of reduced size), as
a specimen of the art in the West at that time. The following specimen of the " poetry" shows a " fitness of things" be
tween the rhyme and the picture :
" Harrison, a commander of great renown,
Led oil our troops near by the Prophet's town ;
After evils o'ercome and obstructions past,
Near this savage town they encamped at last."
Readers anxious to peruse the other seven verses will find the whole "poem" In the third volume of M'Carty's Xa-
tional Sony-book, page 440.
* This village is the child of a college located there, called The Battle-ijround Institute, devoted to the education of
both sexes. It was founded in 1858, and the village was soon afterward laid out. Both college and "city" are flour
ishing. The former was under the charge of Rev. E. H. Staley when I was there, and contained almost three hundred
pupils. The college is situated in a grove of oaks on the upper border of the'battle-prouiid, and the shaded inclosure
forms a delightful promenade and place for out-of-door study. Several students, with their books, were seen under the
trees when we were there.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
209
Departure for Chicago.
Journey across the Prairies.
Thunder-storm.
Arrival at Chicago.
TIPPECANOE BATTLE-UROUHD IN 1SOU.
We dined at the Battle-ground House, and departed for Chicago, one hundred and
forty miles distant, at three o'clock in the afternoon. The journey was one of real
pleasure. Soon after leaving, we entered a prairie, and traversed its dead level for
seventy miles, passing some little villages on the way. It was rich with verdure and
late prairie-flowers, and the broad expanse was dotted here and there in every di
rection, as far as the eye could comprehend, with clumps of tall trees and shrubbery,
which appeared like islands in the midst of a vast green sea. Toward evening heavy
black clouds gathered in the northwestern sky, and when we approached Michigan
City that stands among the sand dunes at the head of Lake Michigan, just at sunset,
we ran into a heavy thunder-shower that was sweeping around the majestic southern
curve of that inland sea. Darkness soon came on, and as we approached Chicago,
late in the evening, we encountered another shower. On lake and prairie the light
ning descended in frequent streams, and the thunder roared fearfully above the din
of the dashing railway train. But all was serene when we arrived at Chicago. The
stars were beaming brightly, and a young moon was just dipping its horn below the
.great prairie on the west. It had been a day of exciting pleasure as well as fatigue,
and the night at the Richmond House was one of sweet repose for us all.
o
210 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Meeting of the Twelfth Congress. Strength of Parties in that Body.
CHAPTER XL
"Hark ! the peal of war is rang ;
Hark ! the song for battle's sung ;
Firm be every bosom strung,
And every soldier ready.
On to Quebec's embattled halls !
Who will pause when glory calls ?
Charge, soldiers ! charge its lofty walls,
And storm its strong artillery !
Firm as our native hills we'll stand,
And should the lords of Europe land,
We'll meet them on the farthest strand ;
We'll conquer or we'll die !"
FEOM THE TEENTON TKTTE AMERICAN.
INTELLIGENCE of the battle of Tippecanoe reached Washing
ton City soon after the Twelfth Congress had assembled, and
produced a profound sensation in that body. They had been
convened by proclamation a month earliera than the a November 4,
regular day of meeting. The affairs of the coun
try were approaching a crisis, and this session was to be the
most important of any since the establishment of the nation.
Both political parties came fully armed and well prepared for a
desperate conflict. The Federalists were in a hopeless minority in both houses, but
were strong in materials. They had but six members in the Senate, where even Mas
sachusetts, the home of the " Essex Junto," was represented by a Democrat in the
person of the veteran Joseph B. Varnum, the speaker of the last House, who had
been chosen to supersede Timothy Pickering.1 Giles, of Virginia, having joined a
faction similar to Randolph's " Quids" in its relations to the administration, Wm. H.
Crawford, of Georgia, became the leader in the Senate of the dominant party proper,
and was ably supported by Campbell, of Tennessee.
In the lower House the Federalists had but thirty-six members, whose great leader
was Quincy, of Massachusetts, ably supported by Key, of Maryland, Chittenden, of
Vermont, and Emott, of New York. Connecticut and Rhode Island were still num
bered among the Federal states ; but in the remainder of New England and the State
of New York the Democrats had a decided majority. There were but ten Federal
ists for all the states south of Pennsylvania and Delaware. The more radical mem
bers of the last Congress had been re-elected ; and in Cheves, Calhoun and Lowndes,
of South Carolina, Clay, of Kentucky, and Grundy, of Tennessee — all young men and
full of vigor — appeared not only Democi-atic members of ability, but enthusiastic
champions of war with Great Britain. With these came the veteran Sevier, the hero
i The contest for power between the Federalists and Democrats of Massachusetts had been long and bitter. In 1811
the latter succeeded in electing their candidate for governor (Elbridge Gerry), and a majority of both houses of the Leg
islature. In order to secure the election of United States senators in the future, it was important to perpetuate this
possession of power, and measures were taken to retain a Democratic majority in the State Senate in all future years.
The senatorial districts had been formed without any division of counties. This arrangement, for the purpose alluded
to, was now disturbed. The Legislature proceeded to rearrange the senatorial districts of the state. They divided
counties in opposition to the protests and strong constitutional arguments of the Federalists ; and those of Essex and
Worcester were so divided as to form a Democratic district in each of those Federal counties, without any apparent re
gard to convenience or propriety. The work was sanctioned, and became law by the signature of Governor Gerry. He
probably had no other hand in the matter, yet he received most severe castigations from the opposition.
In Essex County, the arrangement of the district in its relation to the towns was singular and absurd. Russell, the
veteran editor of the Boston Centinel, who had fought against the scheme valiantly, took a map of that county and des-
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
211
Henry Clay chosen Speaker.
The President's feeble War-trumpet.
History of the Gerry-mander.
of King's Mountain, and first Governor of Tennessee — " stiff and grim as an Indian
arrow ; not speaking, but looking daggers."1 The young and ardent members, with
the imperious Clay ^^^^^ tious sachem, with
diately took the lead ; jf ^K warriors eager for a
per of the House was F^PIS^'^I^M e Present, in
a dozen scattering Ijf^^ f / Jm H must now add, that
icy of the administra- a system of more am-
tion was soon manifested, and the &// Ple provision for maintaining them,
timid President Madison found //'tffiy Notwithstanding the scrupulous
himself, as the standard-bearer of C j justice, the protracted moderation,
his party, surrounded, like a cau- r and the multiplied efforts on the
part of the United States, to substitute for the accumulating dangers to the peace of
ignated by particular coloring the towns thus se
lected, and hung it on the wall of his editorial
room. One day Gilbert Stuart, the eminent paint
er, looked at the map, and said the towns which
Russell had thus distinguished resembled some
monstrous animal. He took a pencil, and with a
few touches added what might represent a head,
wings, claws, and tail. "There," Stuart said,
"that will do for a salamander." Russell, who
was busy with his pen, looked up at the hideous
figure, and exclaimed, "Salamander ! call it Gerry
mander ! The word was immediately adopted into
the political vocabulary as a term of reproach to
the Democratic Legislature. — See Specimens of
Newspaper Literature, with Personal Memoirs, An
ecdotes, and Reminiscences, by Joseph T. Bucking
ham, ii., 91.
Stuart's monstrous figure of the Gerry-mander
was presented upon a broadside containing a natu-
— ral and political history of the animal, and hawked
about the country. From one of these before me,
kindly placed in my possession by the late Edward
Everett, I copied the picture given in this note,
which is about one half the size of the original.
After giving some ludicrous guesses as to its
character and origin — whether it was the genuine
Basilisk, the Serpens Monocephalus of Pliny, the
Griffin of romance, the Great Red Dragon or Apol-
lyon of Bunyan, or the Monstrum Horrendum of
Virgil — the writer of the natural history of the
Gerry-mander says that the learned Dr. Water-
£ruel proved it to be a species of salamander, engendered partly by the devil in the fervid heats of party strife. " But,"
he says, " as this creature has been engendered and brought forth under the sublimest auspices, the doctor proposes
that a name should be given to it expressive of its genus, at the same time conveying an elegant and very appropriate
compliment to his excellency the governor, who is known to be the zealous patron of whatever is new, astonishing, and
erratic, especially of domestic growth and manufacture. For these reasons, and other valuable considerations, the doc
tor has decreed this monster shall be denominated a GERKY-MANDER." : Hildreth.
2 Mr. Clay was elected on the first ballot. The vote stood— for Clay, 75 ; for Bibb, 38 ; for Bassett, of Virginia, 1 ; for
Nelson, of Virginia, 2 ; and for Macon, of North Carolina, 3. Mr. Clay was declared duly elected speaker. A corre-
THE GEEEY-MANDEB.
212 * PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Report of the Committee on Foreign Relations. Its Charges against Great Britain and warlike Tone.
the two countries all the mutual advantages of re-established friendship and confi
dence, we have seen that the British Cabinet perseveres not only in withholding a
remedy for other wrongs, so long and so loudly calling for it, but in the execution,
brought home to the threshold of our territory, of measures which, under existing
circumstances, have the character as well as the effects of war on our lawful com
merce. With this evidence of hostile inflexibility in trampling on rights which no
independent nation can relinquish, Congress will feel the duty of putting the United
States into an armor and an attitude demanded by the crisis, and corresponding with
the national spirit and expectations." Yet Mr. Madison, like Mr. Jefferson, was anx
ious to avoid war, if possible.
A war-note in a higher key was speedily sounded by the Committee on Foreign
Relations, of which Peter P. Porter, of New York, was chairman. They made a short
but energetic report on the 29th of November.*1 They referred in severe terms
to the wrongs which for more than five years the commerce of the United
States had suffered from the operations of the conflict for power between England
and France — wrongs inaugurated by British orders in Council, and imitated, in re
taliation, by French decrees. They charged Great Britain with the crime of persist
ing in the infliction of these wrongs after France, by abandoning her decrees, so far
as the United States were concerned, had led the way toward justice to neutrals.
They then arraigned Great Britain upon a more serious charge — that of continued
impressment of American seamen into the British service. While they pleaded for
the protection of commerce, they were not, they said, " of that sect whose worship
is at the shrine of a calculating avarice Although the groans of those victims
of barbarity for the loss of (what should be dearer to Americans than life) their lib
erty — although the cries of their wives and children, in the privation of protectors
and parents, have of late been drowned in the louder clamors of the loss of prop
erty, yet is the practice of forcing our mariners into the British navy, in violation of
the rights of our flag, carried on with unabated rigor and severity. If it be our duty
to encourage the fair and legitimate commerce of this country by protecting the
property of the merchant, then, indeed, by as much as life and liberty are more esti
mable than ships and goods, so much more impressive is the duty to shield the per
sons of our seamen, whose hard and honest services are employed, equally with those
of the merchants, in advancing, under the mantle of its laws, the interests of their
country. To sum up, in a word, the great cause of complaint against Great Britain,
your committee need only say, that the United States, as a sovereign and independ
ent power, claim the right to use the ocean, which is the common and acknowledged
highway of nations, for the purposes of transporting, in their own vessels, the prod
ucts of their own soils and the acquisitions of their own industry to a market in the
ports of friendly nations, and to bring home, in return, such articles as their necessi
ties or convenience may require, always regarding the rights of belligerents as de
fined by the established laws of nations. Great Britain, in defiance of this incontesta
ble right, captitres every American vessel bound to or returning from a port where
her commerce is not favored; enslaves our seamen, and, in spite of our remonstrances,
perseveres in these aggressions. To wrongs so daring in character and so disgraceful
in their execution, it is impossible that the people of the United States should remain
indifferent. We must now tamely and quietly submit, or we must resist by those
means which God has placed within our reach.
spondent of the New York Evening Post wrote : "He made a short address to the House on taking his seat, which, from
the lowuess of his voice at that time, could not be distinctly heard." In the same letter the writer said, "It is believed
Clay was not thought of for Speaker till Sunday ; he certainly was not publicly mentioned. The Democrats had a cau
cus Sunday evening, and fixed on Clay. This was done to prevent the election of Macon, who has too much honesty
and independence for the leading administration men."
Mr. Clay was then thirty-four years of age, and this was his first appearance as n member in the House of Represent
atives. He was in the Senate previously, as we have observed. The portrait given on the previous page is from a
painting from life by the late Mr. Ranney, when Mr. Clay was nearly sixty years of age.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 213
Resolutions of the Committee oil Foreign Relations. The first railway Traveler and telegraphic Dispatch.
" Your committee would not cast a shade over the American name by the expres
sion of a doubt which branch of this alternative will be embraced. The occasion is
now presented when the national character, misunderstood and traduced for a time
by foreign and domestic enemies, should be vindicated. If we have not rushed to
the field of battle like the nations who are led by the mad ambition of a single chief
in the avarice of a corrupted court, it has not proceeded from the fear of war, but
from our love of justice and humanity. That proud spirit of liberty and independ
ence which sustained our fathers in the successful assertion of rights against foreign
O o £?
aggression is not yet sunk. The patriotic fire of the Revolution still lives in the
American breast with a holy and unextinguishable flame, and will conduct this na
tion to those high destinies which are not less the reward of dignified moderation
than of exalted valor. But we have borne with injury until forbearance has ceased
to be a virtue. The sovereignty and independence of these states, purchased and
sanctified by the blood of our fathers, from whom we received them, not for ourselves
only, but as the inheritance of our posterity, are deliberately and systematically vio
lated. And the period has arrived when, in the opinion of your committee, it is the
sacred duty of Congress to call forth the patriotism and resources of the country.
By the aid of these, and with the blessing of God, we confidently trust we shall be
able to procure that redress which has been sought for by justice, by remonstrance,
and forbearance in vain."
The committee, " reserving for a future report those ulterior measures which, in
their opinion, ought to be pursued," earnestly recommended Congress to second
the proposition of the President by immediately putting the United States " into an
armor and attitude demanded by the crisis, and corresponding with the national
spirit and expectations." In a series of resolutions they recommended the imme
diate completion of the military establishment as authorized by law, by filling up
the ranks and prolonging the enlistments ; the authorization of an additional force
of ten thousand regular troops to serve for three years, and the acceptance by the
President, under proper regulations, of any number of volunteers not exceeding fifty
thousand, to be organized, trained, and held in readiness; giving the President au
thority to order out detachments of militia when the interests of the country should
require ; the immediate repairing of all national vessels and fitting them for service,
and the allowing merchant ships to arm in their own defense.1
This report, spread upon the wings of the press, went over the country swiftly —
not so swiftly as now, for railways and telegraphs were unknown2 — and produced a
1 Niles's Weekly Register, L, 253.
2 The first trip made by a locomotive on this continent was thus described a few years ago in a speech at an Erie
Railway festival, by Horatio Allen, the eminent engineer :
"When was it? Who was it? And who awakened its energies and directed its movements? It was in the year
1828, on the banks of the Lackawaxen, at the commencement of the railroads connecting the canal of the Delaware and
Hudson Canal Company with their coal mines, and he who addresses you was the only person on that locomotive.
The circumstances which led to my being alone on the engine were these : The road had been built in the summer ;
the structure was of hemlock timber, and rails of large dimensions notched on caps placed far apart. The timber had
cracked and warped from exposure to the sun. After about three hundred feet of straight line, the road crossed the
Lackawaxen Creek on trestle-work about thirty feet high, with a curve of three hundred and fifty-five to four hundred
feet radius. The impression was very general that the iron monster would either break down the road, or it would
leave the track at the curve and plunge into the creek. My reply to such apprehensions was that it was too late to con
sider the probability of such occurrences ; there was no other course than to have a trial made of the strange animal,
which had been brought here at a great expense, but that it was not necessary that more than one should be involved
in its fate ; that I would take the first ride alone, and the time would come when I should look back to the incident
with great interest. As I placed my hand on the throttle-valve handle, I was undecided whether I would move slowly
or with a fair degree of speed ; but, believing that the road would prove safe, and preferring, if we did go down, to go
handsomely, and without any evidence of timidity, I started with considerable velocity, passed the curve over the creek
safely, and was soon out of hearing of the vast assemblage. At the end of {wo or three miles I reversed the valve and
returned without accident, having thus made the first railroad trip by locomotive on the Western hemisphere."
The first regular telegraphic dispatch, for the public eye and ear, was sent from Washington City to Baltimore by
Professor Samuel F. B. Morse, the inventor of the electro-telegraphic system of intellectual communication, in May,
1844. The dispatch, furnished to Professor Morse, according to promise, by Miss Anna Ellsworth, daughter of the then
Commissioner of Patents, who had taken great interest in Mr. Morse's experiments, was worthy of the occasion : it was
the expression of Balaam — "WHAT IIATH GOD WROUGHT!" That first dispatch, in the telegraphic language, may be
found in the archives of the Connecticut Historical Society.
214 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Supposed Republican Proclivities of British Colonists. John Randolph on the Danger of enlightening the Slaves.
powerful impression upon the American mind and heart. No one could deny the
truthfulness of its statements, and few well-informed persons doubted the wisdom
and justice of its conclusions. While great indignation was felt toward France for
her past and present aggressions upon the rights of neutrals, much stronger was the
feeling against Great Britain, because it had been her settled policy and her practice
for more than half a century, and had been used with cruel rigor long before France,
in retaliation, adopted the same instrument for warfare. This indignation was more
vehement because England, with haughty persistence, and in violation of the sover
eignty and independence of the United States, continued her nefarious practice of
impressing American seamen into the British naval service. Upon such burning
feelings throughout the land, just then stimulated to great intensity by the intelli
gence from the Indian country, fell the fuel of this trumpet-toned report. It was
short, perspicuous, and pungent. It was read by every body ; and every measure
proposed in Congress, looking to hostilities with Great Britain, was applauded by a
large majority of the people.
In Congress warm debates followed on the resolutions appended to the report. It
was admitted that the United States could not meet Great Britain on the ocean fleet
to fleet, but it was believed that when an army from the States should appear on the
soil of Canada, or of the other British provinces in the farther East, the people, then
tired of being ruled as colonies, would gladly join fortunes with the young Giant
of the West. It was believed that their bosoms swelled with desires since embodied
in these words of an English poet :
" There's a star in the West that shall never go down
'Till the records of valor decay ;
We must worship its light, though 'tis not our own,
For liberty bursts in its ray."
It was also believed that American privateers would speedily ruin British com
merce and fisheries, and that, by sea and land expeditions, the people of the United
States would be remunerated tenfold for all the spoliations inflicted on their com
merce, and thus compel the British government to act justly and respectfully.1
Most of the Southern and Western members were in favor of war. But John Ran
dolph, always happy in his element of universal opposition, battled against the men
of his own section in his peculiar way, sometimes with ability, always discursorily,
and frequently with the keenest satire. He endeavored to excite the fears of the mem
bers of the slave-labor states by warning them that an invasion of Canada might be
retorted upon Southern soil with fearful effect. He declared that the slaves had al
ready become polluted by that French democracy which animated the administration
party, who were so eager to go to war with the enemy of Napoleon, whom he ranked,
as a scourge of mankind, with Tamerlane and Genghis Khan — " malefactors of the
human race, who grind down men into mere material of their impious and bloody
ambition." He said the negroes were rapidly gaining notions of freedom, destructive
alike to their own happiness and the safety and interests of their masters. He de
nounced as a " butcher" a member of Congress who had proposed the abolition of
slavery in the District of Columbia. He said men had broached on that very floor
the doctrine of imprescriptible rights to a crowded audience of blacks in the galleries,
teaching them that they were equal to their masters. " Similar doctrines," he said,
" are spread throughout the South by Yankee peddlers ; and there are even owners
of slaves so infatuated as, by the general tenor of their conversation, by contempt of
order, morality, religion, unthinkingly to cherish these seeds of destruction. And
what has been the consequence ? Within the last ten years repeated alarms of slave-
insurrections, some of them awful indeed. By the spreading of this infernal doctrine
the whole South has been thrown into a state of insecurity You have de-
1 Porter's Speech.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
215
Randolph scolds the Democrats.
John C. Calhoun.
Sketches of Randolph and Calhoun.
prived the slave of all moral restraint,"
he continued, addressing the Democrat
ic members; "you have tempted him
to eat of the tree of knowledge just
enough to perfect him in wickedness;
you have opened his eyes to his naked
ness God forbid that the South
ern States should ever see an enemy
on these shores with their infernal prin
ciples of French fraternity in the van !
While talking of Canada, we have too
much reason to shudder for our own
safety at home. I speak from facts
when I say that the night-bell never
tolls for fire in Richmond that the fright
ened mother does not hug her infant the
more closely to her bosom, not know
ing what may have happened. I have
myself witnessed some of these alarms
in the capital of Virginia."
Randolph1 then gave the Democrats
some severe words concerning the ad
verse policy advocated by their party
in 1798, when the Federal administra
tion was preparing for a war with
France. He taunted them with being preachers of reform and economy heretofore,
but now, in their blind zeal to serve their French master, were willing to create a
heavy national debt by rushing into an unnecessary and wicked war with a fraternal
people — fraternal in blood, language, religion, laws, arts, and literature.2
Randolph's speech had but little effect upon his auditors other than to irritate the
more sensitive and amuse the more philosophic. A few members, at the risk of poi
soned arrows from his tongue, ventured to give him some home thrusts, while Cal
houn, then less than thirty years of age, made this the occasion of his first oratorical
effort in that great theatre of legislative strife wherein he so long and so valiantly
contested.3 With that dexterous use of subtle logic which never failed to give him
1 John Randolph claimed to be seventh in descent from Pocahontas, the famous Indian princess. He was bom
three miles from Petersburg, in Virginia, on the 2d of June, 1TT3. He was educated at Princeton College, New Jersey,
Columbia College, New York, and William and Mary College, in Virginia. Prom infancy he suffered from ill health. He
studied law, but never practiced it. His first appearance in public life was in 1799, when he was elected to a seat in the
National Congress, and for thirty years, with an interval of two years each, he held a seat in that body. He became in
sane for a time in 1811, and had returns of his malady at intervals during the remainder of his life. He strenuously op
posed the war with Great Britain in 1812, and after that event his political career was very erratic. He was the warm
friend of General Jackson in 1828, and in 1S30 that gentleman appointed him United States Minister to Russia. He
could not endure the winter on the Neva, and his stay in Russia was short. He resided in England for a while, and after
his return his constituents elected him to Congress. But he did not take his seat. Consumption laid its hand upon
him, and he died in a hotel in Philadelphia, on the 23d of May, 1833, while on his way to New York to embark for Eu
rope.
2 Speech in the House of Representatives, December 10, 1811. — Niles's Register, i., 315.
3 John Caldwell Calhoun was born in Abbeville District, South Carolina, on the 18th of March, 1782. His mother
was a native of Virginia. He entered Yale College as a student in 1802, where he was marked as a young man of genius
and great promise. He was graduated in 1804 with the highest honors of the institution. He studied law in Litchfield,
Connecticut, and entered upon its practice in his native district. He was elected to a seat in the Legislature of South
Carolina in 1808, and in 1811 he took his seat as member of the National Congress as a stanch Republican or Democrat.
He ably supported Mr. Madison's administration, and in 1817 President Monroe called him to his Cabinet as Secretary
of War. He was elected Vice-President of the United States in 1825, and was re-elected with Jackson in 1828. He suc
ceeded Hayne in the Senate of the United States in 1831, and became the leader in the disloyal movement of his native
state known in history under the general title of Nullification, in 1832-'33. President Tyler called him to his Cabinet
as Secretary of State in 1S43, and he again entered the Senate as the representative of his state in 1845. He held that
position until his death, which occurred at Washington City on the 31st of March, 1850, when he was just past sixty-eight
years of age. Our portrait of Mr. Calhoun, on the next page, is from one taken from life about the year 1830, when he
was forty-eight years of age.
216
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Calhoun's Reply to Randolph's Speech.
The Policy of the Federalists.
Preparations for War.
to controvert. The
extent, duration,
and character of the
injuries received ;
the failure of those
peaceful means here
tofore resortedto for
the redress of our
wrongs, is my proof
that it is necessary.
Why should I men
tion the impress
ment of our seamen ;
depredation on ev
ery branch of our
commerce, includ
ing the direct ex
port trade, contin
ued for years, and
made under laws
which professedly
undertake to reg
ulate our trade
ingenious arguments in favor of any views he might desire to enforce, he repliecUo
Randolph at some
length, insisting
that it was a prin
ciple as applicable
to nations as to in
dividuals to repel
a first insult, and
thus command the
respect, if not the
fear of the assailant.
"Sir," he said, "I
might prove the
war, should it en
sue, justifiable by
the express admis
sion of the gentle
man from Virginia ;
and necessary, by
facts undoubted
and universally ad
mitted, such as
that gentleman
did not pretend
with other nations ;] negotiation resorted to time after time till it became hopeless ; the
restrictive systems persisted in to avoid war and in the vain expectation of returning
justice? The evil still grows, and in each succeeding year swells in extent and pre
tension beyond the preceding. The question, even in the opinion and admission of our
opponents, is reduced to this single point, Which shall we do, abandon or defend our
own commercial and maritime rights, and the personal liberties of our citizens in ex
ercising them ? These rights are essentially attacked, and war is the only means of
redress. The gentleman from Virginia has suggested none, unless we consider the
whole of his speech as recommending patient and resigned submission as the best
remedy. Sir, which alternative this House ought to sustain is not for me to say. I
hope the decision is made already by a higher authority than the voice of any man.
It is not for the human tongue to instill the sense of independence and honor. This
is the work of nature — a generous nature that disdains tame submission to wrongs.
This part of the subject is so imposing as to enforce silence even on the gentleman
from Virginia. He dared not deny his country's wrongs, or vindicate the conduct
of her enemy."
In this dignified strain Mr. Calhoun charmed his listeners, steadying the vacillat
ing, convincing the doubting, and commanding the respectful attention of the oppo
nents of the resolutions. He treated Randolph's bugbear of slave insurrection with
lofty contempt. " However the gentleman may frighten himself," he said, " with the
disorganizing effects of French principles, I can not think our ignorant blacks have
felt much of their baleful influence. I dare say more than one half of them never
heard of the French Revolution."2
The Federalists said very little on this occasion. It had always been their policy
to be prepared for war. The resolutions appended to the report of the Committee
a December 16, on Foreign Relations were adopted,a and bills were speedily prepared
and passed for augmenting the army. Additional regulars to the num-
i See page 105.
s Abridgment of the Debates of Congress from 17S9 to 1856, by Thomas H. Benton, iv., 449.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 21'
Augmentation of the Army. Patriotism of leading Federalists. Reasons of Quincy and Emott for their Course.
ber of twenty-five thousand were authorized by a vote of the House early in Janu
ary. a The bill also provided for the appointment of two major generals ajamiary4,
and five additional brigadiers ; also for a bounty to new recruits of sixteen 1S12-
dollars, and, at the time of discharge, three months' extra pay and a certificate for
one hundred and sixty acres of land.1 On the 14th of the month another act was
passed, appropriating a million of dollars for the purchase of arms, ordnance, camp
equipage, and quarter-master's stores ; and four hundred thousand dollars for powder,
ordnance, and small-arms for the navy. Thus, in a brief space of time, the little army
of the peace establishment, which had been comparatively inactive, was swelled in
prospective from about three thousand men to more than seventy thousand regulars
and volunteers. The President was authorized to call upon the governors of states
1 Seven of the thirty-seven Federalists in the House voted for these measures. These were Quincy and Reed, of Mas
sachusetts; Emott, Bleecker, Gold, and Livingston, of Xew York; and Miluor, of Pennsylvania. The latter was the late
James Milnor, D.D., Rector of St. George's Church, New York. It was during this session of Congress that he became
deeply impressed with religious sentiments, and felt himself called to the Gospel ministry. He abandoned the lucrative
profession of the law and the turbulent field of politics, and took orders in the Protestant Episcopal Church, of which,
until his death, in the spring of 1S44, he was "a bright and shining light."
The position taken by these leading Federalists at that critical time, in opposition to the great body of their colleagues
in Congress and of the party in New England, was patriotic in the
highest degree, and yet, so doubtful were they of the verdict which /? /~J
posterity might pass upon their actions, that two of them (Quincy (\ * Lj
and Emott) prepared quite an elaborate defense, in which the rea- j f\^( •( ('t /l/\ fj A j( A/\J(~<(S^r
sons for their course were ably set forth. It was drawn up by Em- t/ V • Vx \A/ V \ DoA_A/*/ I/*"* *^-f
ott, slightly amended by Quincy, and signed by both. It was left
in Emott's hands, to be used at any future time by him or his de-
sceudants in vindication of their course. Posterity — even eontem-
poraries — have pronounced their course wise and patriotic. The
original manuscript, in the possession of the Hon. James Emott, of
Poughkeepsie, New York, a son of one of the signers, is before me while I write. It is in the delicate and neat hand
writing of the elder Emott,* and dated January 1, 1812. After clearly stating the position of public affairs, they say : " We
thought it therefore worthy of an experiment to allow the administration to make out their case before the great bar
of the public without, as heretofore, aiding it by an early opposition ; and we hoped, and yet hope, that by withdrawing
the aliment of party rancor it will cease to exist, and that the people will see the precipice to which they have been
drawn, and the danger which awaits the country unless there is a speedy and radical change of men or measures. .
By leaving the government in the first instance unmolested, in its measures the people may receive a distinct impres
sion of its objects. If they are really of that high and commanding character as to effectuate what their friends prom
ised, relief to our country, it is of little consequence from whose hands so desirable a blessing is received. But if the
character of the plans of the administration continues time-serving, self-oppressive, and hypocritical, on it and its sup
porters would fall the responsibility, without the possibility of transferring it to those who had neither shared nor op
posed their purposes."
These gentlemen then allude to the prevalent opinion that if the Federalists should withhold their opposition, the
British government, hopeless of a party in its favor in the United States, would relax its restrictive measures. They
then declare that if the British government or people believe that opposition of the Federalists arises from any unpa
triotic motives, " bottomed on a desire for power to be obtained at the expense of the interests of the nation," there has
been an essential and lamentable mistake.
In reference to the measures proposed for putting the country in a state of adequate strength in the event of war, for
which these gentlemen voted four days after the date of the paper under action, they remarked: "In re-estimating our
duties upon this occasion, we have not deemed it necessary to take into consideration the causes which have led to our
present embarrassments. We certainly do not entertain the opinion that the course which has been pursued by the ad
ministration is either correct or to be justified ; but we can not but perceive that our present difficulties are not so appa
rently and exclusively attributable to the American government as to justify a resort to a policy which would leave the
nation unprotected and defenseless. ... It is because we wish for peace with security that we are willing to add to the
present military establishment. . . . Our country and our firesides are dear to tie. We think they are in danger, and
we wish to protect them. . . . When, by measures in which we have had no agency, and for which we do not hold our
selves responsible in whole or in part, we discover that a necessity has been produced for defensive preparations, we
can not permit ourselves to resist such preparations from motives of general opposition to the administration, or from
a desire to render it odious to the country."
* James Emott was born at Poughkeepsie, New York, on the 14th of March, 1771. He chose the profession of law as
his vocation, and commenced its practice at Ballston Centre, New York, a growing village a few miles from Balls-
ton Spa. In 1797 he was appointed a commissioner, with Robert Yates and Vincent Mathews, to settle disputes con
cerning titles to lands in the military tract of Onondaga County. The commissioners held their sittings at Albany,
and to that city Mr. Emott removed about the year 1800. In 1804 he was chosen to represent Albany County in the
State Legislature. He soon afterward removed to the city of New York, and after practicing law there for a while he
returned to Ponghkeepsie, and was elected to represent the Duchess District in the National Congress. He took his
seat in 1809, and continued in possession of it by re-election until 1S13. In politics he was a Federalist, and was one of
the prominent leaders, yet his patriotism was never in subjection to the behests of party. He was representative of
Duchess County in the New York Assembly iu 1814, and was Speaker of the House. He was a member of that body
four consecutive years. In 1817 he was appointed first judge of Duchess County, and held the office until 1823, when, for
political reasons, he was removed to make room for the late Maturin Livingston. He was appointed judge of the sec
ond circuit by Governor Clinton in 1827, and held it until 1831, when he was sixty years of age. Judge Emott then re
tired from active life. He died at Poughkeepsie, New York, on the 10th of April, 1850, aged seventy-nine years.
218 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Voices of the State Legislatures. A Pittance for the Navy. Unsuccessful Efforts for its Increase.
each to furnish his respective quota of one hundred thousand militia, to be held in
readiness to instantly obey the call of the chief magistrate. For the expense of this
reserve one million of dollars were appropriated.
The State Legislatures, meanwhile, spoke out emphatically for war if necessary.
New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Georgia, Kentucky, and Ohio, resolved to stand
by the general government when decisive measures should be adopted ; and, in their
reply to the annual message of Governor Gerry, the House of Representatives of
Massachusetts exhibited the same sentiments, denouncing Great Britain as a " pirat
ical state," and her practice of impressment "man-stealing."
The navy, important as it proved to be in the war that followed, was neglected.
Cheves, of South Carolina, made a report in favor of its augmentation ; and he and
Lowndes, in supporting speeches, hinted at the expediency of constructing forty frig
ates and twenty-five ships of the line. It was urged by these members, in direct op
position to the narrow views of Williams from the same state a year before, that
"protection to commerce was protection to agriculture." Quincy also argued that
protection to commerce was essential to the preservation of the Union, and, with a
covert but significant threat, he gave as a reason that the commercial states could
not be expected to submit to the deliberate and systematic sacrifice of their most im
portant interests.1 Their pleas were in vain. A bill, containing only an appropria
tion of four hundred and eighty thousand dollars for repairing three frigates — Con
stellation, Chesapeake, and Adams — and two hundred thousand dollars annually for
three years, to purchase timber for the purpose of refitting three others, was passed,
and sent to the Senate, where Lloyd, of Massachusetts, moved to insert an appropria-
• January IT, tion for thirty new frigates. a " Let us have the frigates," he said ; " pow
erful as Great Britain is, she could not blockade them. With our haz
ardous shores and tempestuous northwesterly gales from November to March, all
the navies in the world could not blockade them. Divide them into six squadrons.
Place those squadrons in the northern ports ready for sea, and at favorable moments
we would pounce upon her West India Islands, repeating the game of De Grasse and
D'Estaing in '79 and '80. By the time she was ready to meet us there, we would
be round Cape Horn cutting up her whalemen. Pursued thither, we would skim
away to the Indian Seas, and would give an account of her China and India ships
very different from that of the French cruisers. Now we would follow her Quebec,
now her Jamaica convoys ; sometimes make our appearance in the chops of the Chan
nel, and even sometimes wind north almost into the Baltic. It would require a hund
red British frigates to watch the movements of these thirty. Such are the means by
which I would bring Great Britain to her senses. By harassing her commerce with
this fleet, we could make the people ask the government why they continued to vio
late our rights."
Crawford, of Georgia, replied at some length, and the Senate, unmoved by the glow
ing pictures of naval achievements drawn by the senator from Massachusetts, not
only refused to sanction Lloyd's amendment, but reduced the appropriation for re
pairs to three hundi'ed thousand dollars.
While the war party, strong in Congress and throughout the country, were ener
getic in action and impatient of delay, Mr. Madison showed great timidity. It was
owing, doubtless, in a great degree, to the character of his Cabinet, which unfortunate
ly surrounded him at that momentous crisis. Mr. Monroe, the Secretary of State, was
the only member who had any military taste and experience, and he had seen only
limited service in the Revolution. Gallatin, the Secretary of the Treasury, was a
civilian, and was avowedly opposed to the war with Great Britain. Eustis, the Sec
retary of War, knew very little about military affairs. Hamilton, the Secretary of
the Navy, had no practical knowledge of naval affairs to qualify him for the station ;
i Hildreth, Second Series, iii., 277!
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 219
Madison threatened with Desertion by the War Party. He recommends an Embargo. A British Plot discovered.
and Mr. Madison himself was utterly unable, though by virtue of his office command-
er-in-chief of the army and navy of the United States, to grasp with vigor the con
duct of public affairs in a time of war. Consciousness of this made him timid and
vacillating.
The administration members of Congress at length resolved to take a bold and
decided stand with the President. His first term of office was draAvino- to a close,
O
and it was known that he was anxious for re-election. The leading Democrats in
the State of "New York, whose voices were potential in the matter at that time, dis
satisfied with Mr. Madison's weak course, contemplated nominating De Witt Clinton,
then mayor of the city of New York, for the Presidency of the United States. His
pretensions were sustained by Gideon Granger, the postmaster general, who doubt
ed the propriety of a war with Madison as leader. Other influential Democrats in
different parts of the country held similar views.
In this state of things, Mr. Madison was waited upona by several of the » March 2,
leading Democratic members of Congress, and informed, in substance, that
war with England was now resolved upon by the dominant party, the supporters of
his administration; that the people would no longer consent to a dilatory and in
efficient course on the part of the national government ; that, unless a declaration of
war took place previous to the Presidential election, the success of the Democratic
party might be endangered, and the government thrown into the hands of the Fed
eralists ; that, unless Mr. Madison consented to act with his friends, and accede to a
declaration of war with Great Britain, neither his nomination nor his re-election to
the Presidency could be relied on. Thus situated, Mr. Madison concluded to waive
his own objections to the course determined on by his political friends, and to do all
he could for the prosecution of a -war for which he had neither taste nor practical
ability.1
Mr. Madison's first step in the prescribed direction after this interview was in the
form of a confidential message to Congress on the 1st of April, recommending, as
preliminary to a declaration of war, the immediate passage of a law laying a general
embargo on all vessels then in the ports of the United States, or that might there
after enter, for the period of sixty days. Meanwhile another subject had produced
very great excitement throughout the country. An Irishman, named John Henry,
who had become a naturalized citizen of the United States, and had lived several
years in Canada, appeared at the Presidential mansion one dark and stormy even
ing early in February ,b 1812. He bore a letter of introduction to Mr.
Madison from Governor Gerry, of Massachusetts, who seemed to be im
pressed with the truthfulness of Henry, and the great importance of the information
which he proposed to lay before the President.2 An interview was arranged for the
following evening, when Henry divulged to the President what appeared to be most
astounding secrets concerning efforts that had been in progress for two years on the
part of the British authorities in Canada, sanctioned by the home government, to
effect a separation of the Eastern States from the Union, and to attach them to Great
Britain. He told Mr. Madison that, up to the year 1809, he had been living for five
1 Statement of James Fisk, a Democratic member of Congress from Vermont, who was one of the committee, cited in
the Statesman's Manual, i., 444. The feeling against Mr. Madison on account of his timid policy had begun to manifest
itself very strongly among his political friends in Congress before the close of 1811. The New York Evening Post, of
January 6, 1812, says : "The Houses of Congress refused to adjourn on the 1st of January in order to wait on the chief
magistrate. It was an intended insult."
Henry Dearborn, an officer of the Revolution, then in Washington, and who had lately been appointed a major gen
eral in the national army, wrote to his daughter, saying : " You may tell your neighbors they may prepare for war ; we
shall have it by the time they are ready. I know that war will be very unwelcome news to you, but I also know that
yon possess too much Spartan patriotism to wish your father to decline a command for the defense of the honor of our
beloved country. You would, if necessary, urge him to the field rather than a speck of dishonor should attach to him
for declining such a command."
2 Henry had spent a week in Baltimore. He left that city for Washington on the morning of the 1st of February.—
Letter in Niles's Register, ii., 46.
220 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The Mission of John Henry in New England. An Attempt to destroy the Republic by Disunion.
years on his farm in Vermont, near the Canada line, and amused himself in writing
essays for the newspapers against republican governments, which he detested. Those
essays, he said, had arrested the atten
tion of Sir James Craig, then Governor
General of Canada, who invited him to
Montreal at the close of 1808. At that
time the violent demonstrations of the
Federalists in New England against
the embargo induced the English to
believe that there was deep-seated dis
affection to the government of the United States on the part of the people of that
section. Under that impression Henry was commissioned by Sir James Craig to
proceed to Boston, and ascertain the trne state of affairs there, and the temper of the
people in that part of the Union. His instructions directed him especially to ascer
tain whether the Federalists of Massachusetts would, in the event of their success at
the approaching election, be disposed to separate from the Union, or enter into any
connection with England. " The earliest information on this subject," said Sir James,
" may be of great consequence to our government ; as it may also be, that it should
be informed how far, in such an event, they would look to England for assistance, or
be disposed to enter into a connection with us."1 Henry was authorized to intimate
to the Federalist leaders, if the supposed state of things should be found to exist, that
they might communicate to the British government through him.2
According to Henry's statement, he passed through Vermont after receiving
these instructions, and arrived at Boston on the 5th of March. There he remained
about three months, spending his time in coffee-houses and disreputable places, until
•May 4, Erskine's arrangement and a recall by Ryland,a Craig's Secretary, put an
S09' end to his mission. During that time Henry had addressed fourteen letters
to Sir James over the initials "A. B.," most of them written at Boston. The earlier
ones were filled with the most encouraging accounts of the extreme disaffection of
the Eastern people, especially those of Massachusetts, on account of the commercial
restrictions. He expressed his belief that, in the event of a declaration of war against
Great Britain by the United States, the Legislature of Massachusetts would take the
lead in establishing a separate Northern Confederacy, which might, in some way, end
in a political connection with Great Britain. The grand idea of destroying the Union
was the theme of all the letters, expressed or implied. " If a war between America
and France," he wrote, " be a grand desideratum, something more must be done ; an
indulgent, conciliating policy must be adopted. ... To bring about a separation of
the states under distinct and independent governments is an affair of more uncer
tainty, and, however desirable, can not be effected but by a series of acts and long-
continued policy tending to irritate the Southern and conciliate the Northern peo
ple. . . . This, I am aware, is an object of much interest in Great Britain, as it
would forever insure the integrity of his majesty's possessions on this continent, and
make the two goverments, or whatever member the present confederacy might join
with, as useful and as much subject to the influence of Great Britain as her colonies
can be rendered."3
i Sir James Craig's Instructions to John Henry, dated at Quebec, Cth February, 1S09.
" Henry was furnished with the following credentials, to be used if circumstances should require :
" The bearer, Mr. John Heury, is employed by me, and full confidence may be placed in him for any communication
which any person may wish to make to me on the business committed to him. In faith of which I have given him this,
under my hand and seal, at Quebec, the 6th day of February, 1809. j. jj. CKAIO."
Henry was also furnished with a cipher to be used in his correspondence.
3 Henry to Sir James Craig, 13th of March, 1809. Mr. Erskine's arrangement greatly disappointed the British author
ities in Canada, who doubtless expected to reap great rewards from the home government by a successful effort to dis
rupt the American Union. For twenty years they had been inciting the Indians on the Northwestern frontiers to war
upon the Americans, and now they hoped, by a successful movement among those whom they supposed to be as mer-
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 221
Henry's Correspondence in Madison's Possession. The President's Message on the Subject.
Henry soon perceived that his estimate of New England disloyalty was simply ab
surd, and he came to the conclusion that the idea of a withdrawal from the Union
was unpopular ; that, as matters stood, the Federalists would confine themselves to
the ordinary resistance of political opposition. " Weak men," he wrote, " are sure to
temporize when great events call upon them for decision."
Henry's performances seem to have pleased Sir James Craig, who promised him
employment in Canada worth at least a thousand pounds ($5000) per annum. Henry
waited long for the fulfillment of that promise, and finally Sir James died. In June,
1811, the British spy was in London humbly petitioning the government for remu
neration for his services in Boston. There he was at first treated with great con
sideration by the government. " I was received in the highest circles," he said to
his friend, the Count Edward de Crillon. " I was complimented with a ticket as \
member of the PITT CLUB without Ueing balloted for."1 But when he had spent all
his money, and presented his claims for retribution, the government attempted to
cheapen his services. He claimed thirty thousand pounds, but speedily lowered his
demands. He would be content, he said, with the office1 of Judge Advocate of Lower
Canada, with a salary of five hundred pounds a year, or a consulate in the United
States. Robert Peel, the Earl of Liverpool's under secretary, in behalf of that offi
cial, politely referred Henry to Sir James Craig's successor in Canada, Sir George
Prevost. The spy was exasperated, and sailed for Boston instead of for Quebec, full
of wrath, and a determination to be revenged by divulging the whole secret of his
mission to the United States government, and, if possible, receive from it the remu
neration which he had vainly sought in England. He was successful. Mr. Madison
was satisfied of the great value of Henry's disclosures at that crisis, when war against
England was about to be declared. They gave overwhelming proof of the secret de
signs of the British government to destroy the new republic in the West. Out of
the secret service fund in his possession he gave Henry fifty thousand dollars for the
entire correspondence of the parties to the aifair in this country and in England.
After receiving the money2 Henry went to Philadelphia, where he wrote a letter
to the President1 as a preface "to his disclosures. On the 9th of March a February 20,
the United States sloop-of-war Wasp, Captain Jones, sailed from Sandy
Hook with dispatches for Mr. Barlow, the American minister at Paris, bearing away
Henry to sunny France, where he would be safe from British vengeance. On the
same day the President laid the Henry documents3 before Congress, with a message,
in which he said, " They prove that at a recent period, while the United States, not
withstanding the wrongs sustained by them, ceased not to observe the laws of neu
trality toward Great Britain, and in the midst of amicable professions and negotia
tions on the part of the British government through its public minister here [Mr. Er-
skine], a secret agent of that government was employed in certain states — more espe
cially at the seat of government in Massachusetts — in fomenting disaffection to the
constituted authorities of the nation, and in intrigues with the disaffected for the
purpose of bringing about resistance to the laws, and eventually, in concert with
cenary as themselves, to reduce the United States to virtual vassalage. Ryland, Governor Craig's secretary, in a letter
to Henry on the 1st of May (four days before his official letter summoning him to Montreal), exhibited that disappoint
ment. He concluded his letter in these petulant words : " I am cruelly out of spirits at the idea of Old England truck
ling to such a debased and accursed government as that of the United States."
1 De Crillon's deposition before the Committee on Foreign Relations, submitted to Congress March 13, 1811.
2 This was paid out of the Treasury of the United States in two sums, on the draft of Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the
Treasury, to the order of James Graham, the United States Treasurer, one for forty-nine thousand dollars, and the other
for one thousand dollars, dated 10th of February, 1812. Henry was probably swindled out of his money. He had land
ed at Boston with a Frenchman calling himself the Count de Crillon, and a great intimacy grew up between them. They
went to Washington together. When Henry returned to Baltimore he had a deed from the "count" for an estate in
Languedoc, the consideration being four hundred thousand francs. It is probable the count received the forty-nine
thousand dollars, and Mr. Henry the one thousand dollars, the latter being sufficient to enable him to reach his valuable
French estate. The " count," who became a witness in the government investigation of Henry's disclosures, proved to
be an arrant knave and impostor.
3 These may be found in Benton's Abridgment of the Debates in Congress, iv., 500 to 514 inclusive.
222 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Henry's Disclosures make Political Capital. The British Ministry suppress the Correspondence. Embargo proposed.
a British force, of destroying the Union, and forming the eastern part thereof into a
political connection with Great Britain."
The indignation against Great Britain was intensified by these disclosures, and the
inhabitants of New England felt deeply annoyed by this implied disparagement of
the patriotism of their section. Both political parties endeavored to make capital
out of the affair. The Democrats vehemently reiterated the charge that the Feder
alists were a " British party," and " disunionists ;'n while the opposition alleged that
the affair was a political trick of the administration to damage their party, insure the
re-election of Madison, and to offer an excuse for war. The feeling excited in New
England against the administration was intense, and the indignation of the people
was almost equally divided between the President and the British sovereign. It
was charged that the whole matter was a fraud ; that Monroe wrote the letter pur
porting to have been sent by Henry from Philadelphia to the government, and that
the paper on which Lord Liverpool's communication to Henry, through Robert Peel,
was written, bore the mark of a Philadelphia paper manufacturer.
These charges were all unti*ue. Every thing about the matter was genuine. The
British minister at Washington (Mr. Foster), two days after the President's message
* March ii was published, declared in the public prints* his entire ignorance of any
1812- transaction of the kind, and asked the United States government to consid
er the character of the individual2 who had made these disclosures, and to " suspend
any farther judgment on its merits until the circumstances shall have been made
known to his majesty's government." That government was called upon for an ex
planation, early in May, by Lord Holland, who gave noticeb that he should
make a motion to call for the correspondence in relation to the intrigue.
Ministers were alarmed, and their guilt was apparent in their efforts to suppress in
quiry. Every pretext was brought to bear to oppose the motion. When they could
no longer deny the facts, they endeavored to throw the obloquy of the act upon the
dead Sir James Craig. The ministerial party in the House of Lords, when the mo
tion was made, prevailed, and, by a vote of seventy-three against twenty-seven, re
fused to have the correspondence produced. Lord Holland declared in his closing
speech that, until such investigation should be had, the fact that Great Britain had
entered into a dishonorable and atrocious intrigue against a friendly power would
stand unrefuted. And it does stand unrefuted to this day. It was so palpable, that
Madison, in his war message on the 1st of June, made this intrigue one of the serious
charges against Great Britain as justifying war.
The President, as we have observed, sent a confidential message to Congress on
the 1st of April, recommending the laying of an embargo for sixty days. It was
avowedly a precursor of war ; and Mr. Calhoun immediately presented a bill in Com-
1 They called up in formidable array the proceedings of the New England people against the Embargo Laws during
the past two or three years, and in an especial manner they arraigned Mr. Qnincy, the great opposition leader of the
House, who, a year before (January 14, 1811), in the debate on the bill to enable the people of the Territory of Orleans to
form a State Constitution preparatory to their admission into the Union, had declared that the passage of the bill would
"justify a revolution in this country." " Look," they said, " to the signification of this passage in Mr. Quincy's speech
—a passage which, when called to order, he reduced to writing : " I am compelled to declare it as my deliberate opinion
that, if this bill passes, the bonds of the Union are virtually dissolved ; that the states which compose it are free from
their moral obligations, and that, as it will be the right of all, so it will be the duty of some to prepare definitely for a
separation, amicably if they can, violently if they must." For an abstract of Mr. Quincy's speech on that occasion, see
Ben ton's Abridgment of the Debates in Congress, iv., 327.
The Senate, by resolution, asked for the names of persons in Boston or elsewhere who were concerned in the plot
with Henry. By Secretary Monroe's reply, it seems that the spy never mentioned the name of any individual.
2 John Henry was a native of Ireland. He appeared in Philadelphia about the year 1793 or 1794, having come over as
a steerage passenger. He possessed considerable literary ability, and became editor of Brown's Philadelphia Gazette.
He afterward kept a grocery, and married in that city. Having become naturalized, and obtained a commission in the
army in the time of the expected war with France, he had command of an artillery corps under General Ebenezer
Stevens, of New York, and was superior officer at Fort Jay, on Governor's Island, for more than a year. He afterward
had a command at Newport, where he quitted the service, settled upon a farm in Northern Vermont, studied law, and
after five years entered upon the service recorded in the text. "He was a handsome, well-behaved man," says Sulli
van, " and was received in some respectable families in Boston."
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 223
Efforts to alarm the People. War predicted. The Sins of France. Embargo Act passed.
mittee of the Whole in accordance with the recommendation.1 The opposition sound
ed an alarm. The weakness of the country, and its utter want of preparation for war,
became the themes of impassioned appeals to the fears of the people. The continued
aggressions of France — equal, they said, to those of England2 — were pointed to as
causes for war with that nation, and it might be necessary to encounter both at the
same time.
To these alarmists Clay vehemently responded. He charged them with having
cast obstacles in the way of preparation, and now made that lack of preparation an
excuse for longer submission to great wrongs. Weak as we are, he said, we could
fight France too, if necessary, in a good cause — the cause of honor and independence.
He had no doubt that the late Indian war on the Wabash had been excited by the
British ;3 and he alluded to the employment of Henry, as a spy and fomentor of dis
union, as another gross offense. " We have complete proof," he said, " that England
would do every thing to destroy us. Resolution and spirit are our only security."
He viewed the Embargo as a war measure, and " war we shall have in sixty days,"
he said.
John Randolph implored the House to act with great caution. He said the Presi
dent dared not plunge the country into a war while in its present unprepared state.
There would be no war within sixty days. He believed the spirit of the people was
not up to war, or the provocation of an Embargo Act would not be needed.
Other remarks were heard from both sides. The bill, by the aid of the previous
question, was passed that evening* by a vote of seventy against forty-one, a ^prii i,
It was sent to the Senate the next morning. That body suspended the 1S12-
rules, took up the bill, and carried it through all the stages but the last, with an
amendment increasing the time to ninety days. It was sent b*ack to the House the
next morning,b where it was concurred in, and on Saturday, the 4th of April,
it became a law by the signature of the President. It had been violently
assailed by Quincy, when it came back from the Senate, as an attempt to escape war,
not as a preliminary to it. It was absurd to think of creating a sufficient army and
navy in ninety days to commence war, He coincided with Randolph in the belief
that the Embargo was only intended to aid Bonaparte, by stopping the shipment of
1 When the Embargo project was first suggested in the Committee on Foreign Relations, it was proposed to discuss
it under a pledge of secrecy. John Randolph refused to be bound by any such pledge, denying the committee's author
ity to impose it. Mr. Calhonn, with frank generosity, on the ground that all should have aii equal chance, communi
cated to Mr. Quincy the fact that an embargo was to be laid the day before the committee's report to that effect was made.
Qniucy, Lloyd, and Emott immediately sent expresses with the information to Philadelphia, New York, and Boston.
Emott's message appeared in the New York Evening Post on the 31st of March, the day before the President's message
was sent in. In consequence of this information, several vessels at these respective ports loaded and escaped to sea
before the Embargo was laid.
2 These assertions contained much truth. According to a report laid before Congress on the 6th of July, 1812, it ap
peared that the whole number of British seizures and captures of American vessels since the commencement of the
Continental War was 917. Of these, 528 had occurred previously to the orders in Council of November, 1807, and 389
afterward. The French seizures and captures were 55S ; of these, 206 were before the Berlin and Milan decrees, 317 after
ward, and 45 since their alleged repeal. Recent Danish captures amounted to 70, and Neapolitan to 47. Besides these
there had been extensive Dutch and Spanish seizures, which, it was alleged, should properly be placed to the French
account, as those countries were under the control of Napoleon. It was also stated that more than half the captures by
British cruisers had been declared invalid, and restoration ordered, while in France only a quarter of the vessels seized
were so treated. It must be confessed that France was guilty of direct and indirect spoliation of American commerce
to an extent equal, if not exceeding that inflicted by Great Britain.
3 On the llth of June the Secretary of War laid before Congress numerous letters from military and civil officers of
the government from various portions of the Northwestern, Western, and Southwestern frontiers, dating back as far as
1307, and giving overwhelming evidence of the continual efforts of British emissaries to stir up the Indians to hostilities
against the United States, and to win them to the British interest in expectation of war between the two countries. I
will quote as a matter of fact, not speculation, from a speech of Red Jacket, the great Seneca chief, in behalf of himself
and other deputies of the Six Nations, in February, 1S10 :
" BROTHER,— Since you have had some disputes with the British government, their agents in Canada have not only
endeavored to make the Indians at the westward your enemies, but they have sent the war-belt among our warriors [in
Western New York], to poison their minds and make them break their faith with you. At the same time we had in
formation that the British had circulated war-belts among the Western Indians, and within your territory."
Copious extracts from the letters above mentioned as having been laid before the Secretary of War may be found in
Niles's Weekly Register, ii., 342.
224
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Supplementary Embargo Act.
Opposition to the Embargo.
Delusive Hopes of Justice.
provisions to Spain, where the British armies were then beginning to win victories.1
It was called, in ridicule, " a Terrapin War."2
The Embargo Act (which prohibited the sailing of any vessel for any foreign port,
except foreign vessels, with such cargoes as they had on board when notified of the
•> April 14, act) was speedily followed by a supplement11 prohibiting exportations by
1812- land, whether of goods or specie.3 Farther provision was also made for the
immediate strengthening of the army.
These belligerent measures were hailed with joy throughout the . country by the
war party, who were dominant and determined. They alarmed those who wished
for peace ; yet these, unwilling to believe that the administration would push mat
ters to the extreme of actual hostility, acquiesced in the embargo because of a delu
sive hope that it might be the means of causing Great Britain to modify its system
concerning neutrals, and thereby avert war. It was, indeed, a delusive hope. The
letters of Jonathan Russell (who had succeeded Mr. Pinkney as minister to England)
at this time gave no encouragement for it. On the contrary, they were discourag
ing. To Mr. Monroe he wrote, after attending discussions on the orders in Council
in Parliament : " If any thing wras wanting to prove the inflexible determination of
the present ministry to persevere in the orders in Council, without modification or re
laxation, the declarations of leading members of the administration on these meas
ures must place it beyond the possibility of a doubt. I no longer entertain a hope
that we can honorably avoid war."4
1 One great object of the Embargo appears to have been to detain at home as many merchant ships as possible, for
the twofold purpose, in view of approaching war, to keep them from British privateers, and to engage them for that
service on the part of the Americans. Mr. Alison, the British historian, suggests only part of the truth in saying that
it was to prevent intelligence of the proceedings of the Americans in their preparations for war reaching England, and
to furnish them with means, from their extensive commercial navy, of manning their vessels of war. To do this, cost
the nation a great sacrifice. A writer in the American Review of April, 1S12, estimated the loss as follows:
Mercantile loss $24,814,249
Deteriorated value of surplus produce and waste 40,196,028
Loss sustained by the revenue 0,000,000
Total national loss $74,010,277, or $6,107,523 a month.
8 See note 3, page 164. Argument, ridicule, satire were all employed against the "Terrapin War." During the late
spring and early summer of 1812, the subjoined song was sung at all gatherings of the Federalists, and was very popular :
" Huzza for our liberty, boys,
These are the days of our glory —
The days of true national joys,
WThen terrapins gallop before ye !
There's Porter, and Grundy, and Rhea,
In Congress who manfully vapor,
Who draw their six dollars a day,
And fight bloody battles on paper I
Ah ! this is true Terrapin war.
"Poor Madison the tremors has got,
'Bout this same arming the nation
Too far to retract, he can not
Go on— and he loses his station.
FAO-BIMlLJi OF A JSliWbl'Al'KB OUT.
Then bring up your 'regulars,' lads,
In 'attitude' nothing ye lack, sirs,
Ye'll frighten to death the Danads,
With fire-coals blazing aback, sirs 1
Oh, this is true Terrapin war !
"As to powder, and bullet, and swords,
For, as they were never intended,
They're a parcel of high-sounding words,
But never to action extended.
Ye must frighten the rascals away,
In ' rapid descent* on their quarters ;
Then the plunder divide as ye may,
And drive them headlong in the waters.
Oh, this is great Terrapin war !"
3 The opposition speakers and newspapers denounced the
Embargo (especially the "Land Embargo," as the supplement
ary act was called) in unmeasured terms. The land trade with
Canada, so suddenly arrested and thrown into confusion by it,
was represented by a bewildered serpent, which had been sud
denly stopped in its movements by two trees, marked respect
ively EMBARGO and NON-INTEECOCRSE. The wondering snake
is puzzled to know what has happened, and the head cries out,
"What is the matter, tail ?" The latter answers, "I can't get
out." A cock (in allusion to France) stands by, crowing joyfully.
4 Letter to Secretary Monroe, March 4, 1S12. Mr. Percival, one
of the Cabinet, and a leading administration member, said, in
the course of debate: "As England is contending for the de
fense of her maritime rights, and for the preservation of her na
tional existence, which essentially depends on the maintenance
of these rights, she could not be expected, in the prosecution of
this great and primary interest, to arrest or vary her course to
listen to the pretensions of neutral na'ions, or to remove the evils,
however then might be regretted, which the uniform policy of the
times indirectly or unintentionally extended to them."
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
225
British Orders and French Decrees unrepealed.
A preliminary War Measure.
Madison renominated.
The determination of the British government not to relax the rigor of the orders
in Council was explicitly stated a few weeks later,a when Mr. Foster, the a30thMay,
British minister at Washington, in a letter to Mr. Monroe, after reviewing
the wrhole ground of controversy between the two countries, said : " Great Britain
can not admit, as a true declaration of public law, that free ships make free goods.
She can not admit, as a principle of public law, that arms and military stores are alone
contraband of war, and that ship-timber and naval stores are excluded from that de
scription; and she feels that to relinquish her just measures of self-defense and retali
ation would be to surrender the best means of her own preservation and rights, and
with them the rights of other nations, so long as France maintains and acts upon
such principles."
The conduct of France now became a subject for just animadversion, and cast ob
stacles in the way of the arguments of the war party concerning the orders in Coun
cil. Joel Barlow had been sent to France as the successor of minister Armstrong.
He strove in vain to procure from the French government any promise of indemnity
for past spoliations, or of a relaxation of restrictive measures in future. The Presi
dent and his Cabinet had earnestly hoped that the Berlin and Milan decrees would
be repealed, thereby compelling Great Britain to withdraw her orders in Council, or
stand before the world as a willful violator of the rights of nations. In this they hoped
for a door of escape from war. It was certain that, while the decrees stood absolute
ly unrepealed in form, Great Britain would not relax her restrictive system one iota,
Dispatches from Barlow late in March gave no hope of a change. Indeed, the French
Minister for Foreign AiFairs had laid before the Conservative Senate1* a re
port in which those decrees were spoken of as embodying the settled pol
icy of the emperor, to be enforced against all nations who should suffer their flags to
be "denationalized1" by submitting to the pretensions of the British to seize enemies'
goods in neutral vessels, to treat timber and naval stores as contraband, or to block
ade a port not also invested by land.
Thus matters stood on the 1st of June, when Mr. Madison sent into Congress, aft
er previous arrangement with the Committee on
Foreign Affairs, a most important confidential mes
sage, by which he was fairly committed to the war
polity. He had hesitated somewhat. He was will
ing to sign a bill declaring war against Great Brit
ain, but he did not wish to appear as a leader in the
measure. His new political masters would consent
to no flinching. They resolved that the President
should share the fearful responsibility with them
selves. A Congressional caucus was about to be
held to nominate a Democratic candidate for the
Presidency, and a committee, with the imperious
Clay at their head, waited on Mr. Madison, and told
him plainly that he must move in a declaration of
war, or they would not support him for re-election.
He yielded. The caucus was held. Eighty members
were present. Varnum, of Massachusetts, was presi
dent, and Richard M. Johnson, of Kentucky, was sec
retary. The entire vote was given to Mr. Madison.
George Clinton, the Vice-President, whom they had
intended to nominate for re-election, had died a few
to
A little later a London ministerial paper used the following; language, which exposed the animus of the men in pow
er and the aristocratic and mercantile classes: "As Great Britain has got possession of the ocean, it must have the
right to enact laws for the regulation of its own element, and to confine the tracks of neutrals within such boundaries as its
own rights and interests require to be drawn." — London Courier, April, 1812.
226
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
George Clinton.
The President's accusatory Message.
Calhoun's Report on Causes and Reasons for War.
weeks before,1 and the aged Elbridge Gerry, lately defeated as a candidate for re
election to the governorship of Massachusetts, was placed on the ticket for Vice-
President. This matter disposed of, and the continued claims of De Witt Clinton, of
New York, to a nomination for President being considered as of little moment,
the war party, led by Clay and Calhoun, put forth vigorous exertions for the full ac
complishment of their purposes.
In his message to Congress on the 1st of June the President recapitulated the
wrongs which the people of the United States had suffered at the hands of Great
Britain — wrongs already noticed in preceding pages, and need not be repeated here.
He declared that her conduct, taken together, was positively belligerent. " We be
hold in fine," he said, " on the side of Great Britain, a state of war against the United
States, and on the side of the United States a state of peace toward Great Britain."2
He warned his countrymen to avoid entanglements " in the contests and views of
other powers" — meaning France — and called their attention to the fact that the
French government, since the revocation of her decrees as applied to American com
merce, had authorized illegal captures by her privateers ; but he abstained at that
time from offering any suggestions concerning definitive measures with respect to
that nation.
The message was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations,3 and on the 3d
of June Mr. Calhoun, its then chairman, presented a report, in which the causes and
reasons for war were more fully stated — more in historical order and detail — than in
the President's message. In concluding the review of British aggressions, the report
declared that the hostility of the government of Great Britain was evidently based
1 George Clinton was born in Ulster County, New York, in 1T39. He chose
the profession of the law for his avocation. In 1T68 he was elected to a seat
j^ in the Colonial Legislature, and was a member of the Continental Congress in
1775. He was appointed a brigadier in the army of the United States in 1776,
and during the whole war was active in military affairs in New York. In
-f --• . • t/ April, 1777, he was elected governor and lieutenant governor, under the new
Republican Constitution of the state, and was continued in the former office
eighteen years. He was president of the Convention assembled at Pough-
keepsie to consider the Federal Constitution in 17S8. He was again chosen
governor of the state in 1801, and three years afterward he was elected Vice-
President of the United States. He occupied that elevated position at the time
of his death, which occurred at Washington City on the 20th of April, 1812.
Mr. Clinton expired ab«ut nine o'clock in the morning. He had been ill for
some time, and his death was not unexpected. His funeral took place on the
afternoon of the 21st. The corpse was removed from his lodgings to the Capi
tol, escorted by a troop of horse. There it remained until four o'clock, when
the procession, composed of cavalry and the marine corps, clergymen, physi
cians, mourners, the President of the United States, members of both houses
of Congress, heads of departments, etc., moved to the Congressional burying-
grouud, situated on the Eastern Branch of the Potomac, about a mile east
ward of the Capitol. Over his grave a monument of white marble was erect
ed. The annexed sketch of it was made when I visited that resting-place of
many of the American worthies, in the autumn of 1861. It is about fifteen feet
in height. The tablet for the inscription, and a profile in high relief on the
obelisk, are of statuary marble. On the east side (in shadow in the picture)
is the inscription ; on the north side the fasces ; on the west side a serpent
on a staff; and on the south side the winged caduceus of Mercury. On the
west side of the obelisk is a Roman sword, crossed by a saber, and tied to
gether by a scarf. The following is a copy of the inscription :
"To the memory of GEORGE CLINTON. He was born in the State of New
York on the 26th of July, 1739, and died at Washington on the 20th of April,
1S12, in the 73d year of his age. He was a soldier and statesman of the Rev
olution, eminent in council, distinguished in war. He filled, with unexampled
usefulness, purity, and ability, among many other high offices, those of gov
ernor of his native state, and of Vice-President of the United States. White
he lived, his virtue, wisdom, and valor were the pride, the ornament, and the
security of his country ; and when he died he left an illustrious example of a
well-spent life, worthy of all imitation. This monument is affectionately dedi
cated by his children."
2 For the message in full, see Statesman's Manual, i., 387.
3 The committee was composed of John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina ; Felix Grundy, of Tennessee ; John Smilie,
of Pennsylvania ; John A. Harper, of New Hampshire ; Joseph Desha, of Kentucky ; and Ebenezer Sea'ver, of Massa
chusetts.
CLINTON S TOMJi.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 227
Action of the House of Representatives in Secret Session. Action of the Senate on a Declaration of War.
on the fact that the United States were considered by it as its commercial rival, and
.that their prosperity and growth were incompatible with its welfare. " Your com
mittee," said the report, "will not enlarge on any of the injuries, however great,
which have a transitory effect. They wish to call the attention of the House to those
of a permanent nature only, which intrench so deeply on our most important rights,
and wound so extensively and vitally our best interests, as could not fail to deprive
the United States of the principal advantages of their Revolution, if submitted to.
The control of our commerce by Great Britain, in regulating at pleasure and expel
ling it almost from the ocean ; the oppressive manner in which these regulations
have been carried into effect, by seizing and confiscating such of our vessels, with
their cargoes, as were said to have violated her edicts, often without previous warn
ing of their danger ; the impressment of our citizens from on board our own vessels
on the high seas and elsewhere, and holding them in bondage till it suited the conven
ience of their oppressors to deliver them up, are encroachments of that high and dan
gerous tendency which could not fail to produce that pernicious effect ; nor would
these be the only consequences that would result from it. The British government
might, for a while, be satisfied with the ascendency thus gained over us, but its pre
tensions would soon increase. The proof which so complete and disgraceful a sub
mission to its authority would afford of our degeneracy, could not fail to inspire con
fidence that there was no limit to which its usurpations and our degradation might
not be carried."
On the presentation of this report the doors were closed, and a motion to open
them was denied by a vote of seventy-seven against forty-nine. Mr. Calhoun then
presented a bill, as part of the report, declaring war between Great Britain and her
dependencies and the United States and its Territories. Amendments were offered.
Ten votes were given for a proposition by M'Kee, of Kentucky, to include France
in the declaration. Mr. Quincy endeavored, by an addition to the bill, to provide for
the repeal of all restrictive laws bearing upon commerce ; and Randolph moved to
postpone the whole matter until the following October. All were rejected, and the
bill, as Calhoun presented it, was passed on the 4th day of June by a vote of seventy-
nine for it and forty-nine against it.
When the bill reached the Senatea it was referred to a committee already a june 5, •
appointed to consider the President's message. It remained under discussion 1812-
twelve days. Meanwhile the people throughout the country were fearfully excited
by conflicting emotions. A memorial against the war went from the Legislature of
Massachusetts ; and another from the merchants of New York, led by John Jacob
Astor, recommending restrictive measures as better than war. War-meetings were
held in various places, and the whole country was in a tumult of excitement. Final
ly, on the 17th of June — the anniversary of the battle of Bunker Hill — the bill, with
some amendments, was passed by a vote of nineteen against thirteen. It was sent
back to the House on the morning of the 18th, where the amendments were concurred
in. The bill was engrossed on parchment, and at three o'clock on the afternoon of
that day became a law by the signature of the President.1 In the House, the mem
bers from Pennsylvania, and the states South and West, gave sixty-two votes for it
i The act declaring war was drawn up by William Pinkney, late minister to England, and then Attorney General of the
United States. It is as follows : "That war be, and the same is hereby declared to exist between the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland and the dependencies thereof and the United States of America and their Territories ; and
that the President of the United States is hereby authorized to use the whole land and naval force of the United States
to carry the same into effect, and to issue to private armed vessels of the United States commissions, or letters of marque
and general reprisal,* in such form as he shall think proper, and under the seal of the United States, against the vessels,
goods, and effects of the government of the said United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the subjects thereof."
* Letters of marque and reprisal, or commissions to seize the goods of an enemy in time of war and not incur the pen
alty of robbery or piracy, were issued in England as early as Edward the First. It has ever been a powerful belligerent
arm in warfare against commercial nations, and the system was of great service to the Americans during their war with
Great Britain in 1S12-'15. Efforts have recently been made to abolish the -system among nations. It should be, for,
after all, it is only legalized piracy.
'228
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Declaration of War.
The President proclaims the Fact.
A Protest.
' Josiah the First."
to seventeen against it. In the Senate the same states gave fourteen for it to five
against it. " Thus," says a late writer, " the war may be said to have been a meas- .
ure of the South and West to take care of the interests of the North, much against
the will of the ktter."1
When the War Act became law, the injunction of secrecy was removed, and on the
a June 19 following daya the President issued a proclamation announcing the fact, and
isi'2- ' calling upon the people of the United States to sustain the public authori
ties in the measures to be adopted for obtaining a speedy, just, and honorable peace.
" I exhort all the good people of the United States," he said, " as they love their coun
try ; as they value the precious heritage derived from the virtue and valor of their
fathers ; as they feel the wrongs which have forced on them the last resort of injured
nations ; and as they consult the best means, under the blessing of divine Providence,
of abridging its calamities, that they exert themselves in preserving order, in promot
ing concord, in maintaining the authority and the efficiency of the laws, and in sup
porting and invigorating all the measures which may be adopted by the constituted
authorities."
This was soon followed by an able protest against the measure. It was chiefly
written by Mr. Quincy, who then stood at the head of the opposition, not only in Con
gress, but throughout the country. The
prestige of his father's name as a leading
patriot of the Revolution ; his own long
services in the National Legislature ; his
family connections and influence ; his ster
ling worth in private life ; his withering
sarcasm of tongue and pen ; his fluency
of speech in declamation or debate, and
his handsome and commanding presence,
all combined to make him peerless as
a leader. He was consequently assailed
with the greatest bitterness by the friends
of the administration; and squibs, and
epigrams, and caricatures2 frequently at
tested the general acknowledgment of
his commanding position. Mr. Quincy
outlived all of his contemporaries. Not
one of the members of the Twelfth Con
gress — the Congress that declared war
against Great Britain in 1812 — was liv
ing at the time of his death. He was born
with the nation, whose full independence
was only achieved at the close of that
the IlIROT.
1 Edwin Williams, in the Statesman's Manual, i., 450.
2 One of the caricatures of Mr. Quincy is before me. It was engraved and published by William Charles,* of Phila
delphia, and is entitled "Josiah the First." He is represented as a king, in reference to his political domination. On
* Of William Charles, the engraver above mentioned, who published several caricatures during the War of 1S12-'15,
very little is remembered. The venerable Doctor Alexander Anderson, of New York, the father of wood engraving in
America, and yet (1867) a practitioner of the art at the age of ninety-two years, informed the writer that he knew Charles
when he first came to America, about the year 1801. He was a native of Edinburg, Scotland. He caricatured one or
more of the magistrates of that city, and, to avoid the consequences of prosecution, he left and came to the United
States. He practiced his art in New York for a number of years without success, and then went to Philadelphia. The
venerable John M'Allister, of Philadelphia, now (1867) more than eighty years of age, writes me that he remembers
Charles' and his small book-store and print-shop, which he opened in Philadelphia just before the War of 1S12. After
the suspension of specie payments by the banks in 1814, he engraved, printed, and vended a great quantity of notes for
fractions of dollars, commonly known as " shinplasters." He died in Philadelphia in the year 1821, and his widow con
tinued his bookselling and stationery business. I am indebted to Mr. M'Allister for the caricature of Mr. Quincy above
given.
OF THE WAK OF 1812. 229
I
Substance of the Protest of the Minority. Names of those who signed it.
war, and lived to see it, in sturdy maturity, not only resist a most dangerous inter
nal and inherited disease that threatened to destroy its life, but to rise from the at
tack purified and strengthened, with every promise of long and vigorous existence
impressed upon every fibre of its being.1
Mr. Quincy, it has been observed, wrote the most of the minority's protest against
the war. He was aided by Mr. Bayard, of Delaware, and some suggestions were
made by others. It was signed by all the minority members of the House of Rep
resentatives, and was issued in the form of an address to their constituents, in which
their conduct in voting against the war was vindicated.2 They set forth perspicu
ously the state of the country, and the course of the administration and its support
ers in Congress. They professed to believe that a war with Great Britain would
necessarily lead to a political connection with France, then waging bitter hostilities
against her — a connection which would be extremely hazardous to the liberties of
the United States. They professed to regard France as the greater aggressor of the
two, and looked upon her commerce as not worth contending for. Notwithstanding
the French edicts, a profitable trade might be carried on with England, for France
had not the power to enforce their edicts to a very great extent. Indeed, a large
portion of the world where American commerce might be made profitable was not
affected by the actions of either of the belligerents. They would, therefore, author
ize the American merchantmen to arm in their own defense, become their own pro
tectors, and go wherever they chose to risk themselves. As to the invasion and
seizure -of Canada, which was a part of the programme of the war party, they con
sidered an attempt to carry out that measure as unjust and impolitic in itself, very
uncertain in the issue, and unpromising as to any good results. They pointed to the
unprepared state of the country as vehemently forbidding a declaration of war.
" With a navy comparatively nominal, we are about to enter into the lists against
the greatest marine on the globe. With a commerce unprotected and spi'ead over
every ocean, we propose to make profit by privateering, and for this endanger the
wealth of which we are honest proprietors. An invasion is threatened of the colo
nies of a power which, without putting a new ship into commission, or taking another
soldier into pay, can spread alarm or desolation along the extensive range of our sea
board. Before adequate fortifications are prepared for domestic defense, before men.
or money are provided for a war of attack, why hasten into the midst of this awful
contest, which is laying waste Europe ? It can not be concealed that to engage in
the present war against England is to place ourselves on the side of France, and
his head is a crown. His coat is scarlet, his waistcoat brown, his breeches light green, and his stockings white silk. In
one hand he holds a sceptre, and in the space near his head (omitted in our reduced copy) are the words : "I, Josiah the
First, do, by this royal proclamation, announce myself King of New England, Nova Scotia, and Passamaquoddy ; Grand
Master of the noble Order of the Two Codfishes." On his left breast are seen two codfishes crossed, forming the order,
and in the sea behind him that kind offish is seen sporting in the water. These were probably introduced in allusion
to his defense on the floor of Congress of the rights of the New England fishermen ; or possibly because of the fact that
the representation of a codfish has hung in the Representatives' Hall in the State-house at Boston since the year 1TS4,
"as a memorial," in the language of John Rowe, who that year moved that it be placed there, "of the importance of
the codfishery to the welfare of the commonwealth of Massachusetts."
1 On the 29th of June, 1861, Mr. Quincy made a speech to the officers and soldiers of Captain Porbes's Coast Guard at
Quincy, Massachusetts. He was then in his ninetieth year. In the course of his remarks on the great uprising of the
people of the Northern section of the Union to put down the demagogues' rebellion in the Southern section, he remarked :
"With what pride and joy would the founders of this republic have hailed the events of our day — a whole people rising
as one man, with one mind and one heart, in support of the Constitution and the Union ; upspringing from the East,
the North, and the West, the farmer from the field, the mechanic from the work-bench—all classes and all professions —
forgetting their gains, and ready to make sacrifices with one thought and one will to protect, to preserve, and to render
the union of these states immortal. These are the true glories of a republic, evidencing that the masses which compose
it understand the value of their liberties, and are prepared to sacrifice property and life in their defense."
2 The following are the names of the signers of the protest :
George Sullivan, William Reid, Epaphroditus Champion, Benjamin Tallmadge, H. M. Ridgeley, Joseph Lewis, Jr.,
Elijah Brigham, Leonard White, Jonathan O. Moseley, Asa Fitch, Philip Stuart, Thomas Wilson, Abijah Bigelow, Laban
Wheaton, Lyman Law, James Emott, Philip B. Key, A. M'Bryde, Josiah Quincy, Elisha R. Potter, Lewis B. Sturges,
James Milnor, James Breckinridge, Joseph Pearson, William Ely, Richard Jackson, Jr., Timothy Pitkin, Jr., Thomas
R. Gould, John Baker, Martin Chittenden, Samuel Taggart, John Davenport, Jr., H. Bleecker, C. Goldsburgh. The pro
test was printed in newspapers and on broadsides, and widely circulated.
230 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
•
The Issue fairly before the Country. Organization of a Peace Party. Its unpatriotic Course.
expose us to the vassalage of states serving under the banners of the French em
peror."
" It is said," they remarked, " that war is demanded by honor. Is national honor
a principle which thirsts after vengeance, and is appeased only by blood ; which,
trampling on the hopes of man and spurning the law of God, untaught by what is
past and careless of what is to come, precipitates itself into any folly or madness to
gratify a selfish vanity or to satiate some unhallowed rage ? If honor demands a
war with England, what opiate lulls that honor to sleep over the wrongs done us by
France ?"
" What are the United States to gain by this war ?" they asked. " Will the grati
fication of some privateersmen compensate the nation for that sweep of our legiti
mate commerce by the extended marine of our enemy which this desperate act in
vites ? Will Canada compensate the Middle States for New York, or the Western
States for New Orleans ? Let us not be deceived. A war of invasion may invite a
retort of invasion. When we visit the peaceable, and, as to us, innocent colonies of
Great Britain1 with the horrors of war, can we be assured that our own coast will
not be visited with like horrors ? At a crisis of the world, such as the present, and
under impressions such as these, the undersigned can not consider the war into which
the United States have in secret been precipitated as necessary, or required by any
moral or political expediency."
Thus the issue was fairly placed before the country. The time for discussion was
ended ; the time for action had arrived. While one portion of the people — the vast
majority — were nobly responding to the call of the President to sustain the govern
ment by word and deed, another portion were preparing to cast obstacles in the way
of its success. An organization was soon visible, called the Peace Party, composed
chiefly of the more violent opponents of the administration and disaffected Demo
crats, whose party-spirit held their patriotism in complete subordination. Lacking
the sincerity or the integrity of those patriotic members of the Congressional minor
ity, whose protest was the voice of their consciences made audible, they endeavored,
by attempting to injure the public credit, preventing enlistments into the armies,
spreading false stories concerning the strength of the British and weakness of the
Americans, and by public speeches, sermons, pamphlets, and newspaper essays, to
compel the government to sheathe the sword and hold out the olive-branch of peace
at the cost of national honor and independence. These machinations were kept up
during the whole war to the great embarrassment of the government and the injury
of the country. To this unpatriotic Peace Party a large number of the leading Fed
eralists gave no countenance, but, with a clear perception of duty to their country,
and in accordance with the principles of the true spirit of republicanism, many of
them, bound to the expressed will of the majority, yielded their private views to the
necessities of the hour, and lent their aid, as the President desired all good citizens
to do, " to the constituted authorities for obtaining a speedy, a just, and an honorable
peace."
Having resolved on war, the next important labor for Congress to perform was
making adequate provisions for prosecuting it. One of the most important consid
erations was finance, for money has been justly styled the " sinews of war." In Feb-
a February IT, ruarya the Committee of Ways and Means reported a system of finance
adapted to a state of war for three years. Its chief features contem
plated the support of war expenses wholly by loans ; and the ordinary expenses of
the government, including the interest on the national debt, by revenues. They es
timated the war expenses at $11,000,000 for the first year. Aware that a state of
1 The House of Representatives resolved that, in the event of a determination to invade Canada or other British
provinces, the President should be authorized to issue a proclamation assuring the inhabitants thereof that all their
rights, of every kind, should be respected if their territory should become a part of the United States.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 231
Measures for raising Funds for War Purpose^. Belligerent Preparations. A Fast Day proclaimed.
war wrould diminish the revenue, they proposed a tariff by which the imposts should
be doubled, foreign tonnage raised to a dollar and a half, a direct tax of $3,000,000,
and an extensive system of internal duties and excise.1 Congress adopted this finan
cial scheme generally, and authorized* a loan of $11,000,000, at an interest » March 14,
not exceeding six per cent, a year, and reimbursable in twelve years. The
Secretary of the Treasury directed subscriptions to be opened at the principal banks
in the United States on the first and second days of May ;b and, to induce the
banks to subscribe, it was agreed that their subscriptions should remain as de
posits until called for by the wants of the Treasury.
When war was declared, it was found, by the returns of the subscriptions to the
$11,000,000 loan, that the banks had subscribed only $4,190,000, and individuals
$1,928,000, leaving a deficiency of $4,882,000. To supply that deficiency, the Presi
dent was authorized to issue Treasury notes, payable in one year, and bearing an an
nual interest of five and two fifths per cent., to be receivable in all payments at the
Treasury. This was intended to pass as currency, and supersede, to a certain extent,
the circulation of bank-notes. It was estimated that the entire expenses of the coun
try for the fiscal year of 1812-'! 3, including the $11,000,000 for war purposes, and
the interest on $45,154,000 (the amount of the public debt), would be $26,616,619.2
On the 26th of June Congress passed an act respecting the issue of letters of marque
and reprisal, and another for the consolidation of the old army and the new levies ;
the regular force to consist of twenty regiments of foot, four of artillery, two of dra
goons, and one of riflemen, which, with engineers and artificers, would make a force
of thirty-six thousand seven hundred men. The actual regular force — experienced,
disciplined, and effective — was only about three thousand men. The regular force
under arms at that time was about ten thousand men, but more than half of them
were raw recruits. Little reliance could be placed on the militia except 'for garrison
duty, notwithstanding they were eight hundred thousand strong in a population of
eight millions. They were not compelled by law to serve more than three years, nor
go beyond the limits of their respective states. To volunteers the government and
the country looked for numbers, and the President was authorized to place them on
a footing with the regular army, and, with their consent, to appoint their officers.
The navy consisted of only three frigates of forty-four guns each, three of thirty-
eight, one of thirty-six, one of thirty-two, three of twenty-eight, nine smaller vessels
ranging front twelve to eighteen, and one hundred and sixty-five gun-boats.
Congress adjourned on the 6th of July. They had requested the President to rec
ommend a day of public humiliation and prayer to be observed by the people of the
United States for the purpose of pxiblicly invoking the blessing of the Almighty on
their cause, and the speedy restoration of peace. In accordance with this request,
the President issued a proclamation on the 9th of July, recommending the setting
apart of the third Thursday of August following6 for that purpose. That
day was generally observed throughout the Union ; in most places in ac
cordance with the spirit of the Congressional resolutions and the proclamation of the
President, while from several New England pulpits went forth denunciations of the
1 As an excise duty on liquors was proposed by Mr. Gallatin, the Secretary of the Treasury, who was one of the lead
ers in the famous " Whisky 'Insurrection" in Western Pennsylvania a few years before (see page SS), which was pro
duced by a similar duty, he was severely handled by the opposition. Smilie, a Pennsylvania member of Congress,
who was much more deeply implicated in wrong-doing in connection with that insurrection than Mr. Gallatin, and who
now voted against the excise on liquors, was assailed with ridicule. On account of his defective education and his use
of bad grammar in his Congressional speeches, the following epigram, which appeared in a leading Federal paper in
March, 1S12, was pointed :
"A tax on whisky is a tax on sin:
Why then should Smilie hate the home-made gin-tax ?
Because he is, and he has ever been,
A most invet'rate enemy to syn-tax."
? TUxtory of the Political and Military Events of the late War between the United States and Great Britain, by Samuel Per-
Jtins, page 53.
232 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
How the Fast Day was observed. William Ellery Channiug'8 Discourse. Webster's Oration and Bryant's Ode.
war, and the alleged authors and abettors of it.1 The national anniversary that year
was also made the occasion for political speeches, songs, and toasts condemnatory of
the measures of the administration. (Some of these were fierce, others were mild, and
still others were dignified and patriotic — firm, outspoken, manly arguments against
the necessity, the wisdom, or the justice of the war, but evincing a love of country
more potent than love of party or opinions.2
1 Already the governor of Massachusetts had appointed the 23d of July as a day of humiliation, fasting, and prayer.
It was made the occasion for plain speaking from the pulpit against the war. Sometimes there was bitterness in the
words, but generally these sermons breathed a spirit of sorrow because of the calamities threatened by the war. Among
others, William Ellery Chanuing, of Boston, on both the state and the national fast-days, spoke out plainly, but with that
charitable and sweet Christian spirit which characterized his whole life. " The cry has been," he said, " that war is de
clared, and all opposition should therefore be hushed. A sentiment more unworthy of a free country can hardly be
propagated. If this doctrine be admitted, rulers have only to declare war, and they are screened at once from scrutiny.
At the very time when they have armies at command, when their patronage is most extended, and their power most
formidable, not a word of warning, of censure, of alarm must be heard. The press, which is to expose inferior abuses,
must not utter one rebuke, one indignant complaint, although our best interests and most valuable rights are put to
hazard by an unnecessary war. The sum of my remarks," he said, in concluding his discourse on the state fast-day,
"is this: It is your duty to hold fast, and to assert with firmness those truths and principles on which the welfare of
your country seems to depend ; but do this with calmness, with a love of peace, without ill-will and revenge. Improve
every opportunity of allaying animosities. Strive to make converts of those whom you think in error. Discourage, in
decided and open language, that rancor, malignity, and unfeeling abuse which so often find their way into our public
prints, and which only tend to increase the already alarming irritation of our country." " Our duties to our rulers," he
said, on the national fast-day, " are not so easily presented. It is our duty toward them to avoid all language and con
duct which will produce a spirit of insubordination, a contempt of laws and just authority. At the same time, we must
not be tame, abject, and see, without sensibility, without remonstrance, our rights violated and our best blessings thrown
away. Our elective form of government makes it our duty to expose bad rulers, to strip them of unmerited confidence
and of abused power. This is never more clearly our duty than when our rulers have plunged us into an unjustifiable
and ruinous war— a war which is leading us down to poverty, vice, and slavery. To reduce such men to a private sta
tion no fair and upright means should be spared, and, let me add, no other means should be employed. Nothing can
justify falsehood, malignity, or wild, ungoverned passion. Be firm, but deliberate ; in earnest, yet honest and just."
2 In the New York Evening Post, July 21, 1812, may be found the following notice of a speech by the afterward eminent
Daniel Webster, who had not yet appeared prominently in public life. He entered Congress the next year.
"WEBSTKK'B ORATION.— A gentleman of this name, distinguished in the State of New Hampshire for the superiority
of his talents, delivered an oration to the Washington Society at Portsmouth on the 4th of July. The following extracts
will be read with pleasure :
" ' With respect to the war in which we are now involved, the course which our principles require us to pursue can
not be doubtful. It is now the law of the land, and as such we are bound to regard it. Resistance and insurrection
form no parts of our creed. The disciples of Washington are neither tyrants in power nor rebels out. If we are taxed to
carry on this war, we shall disregard certain distinguished examples, and shall pay. If our personal services are re
quired, we shall yield them to the precise extent of our constitutional liability. At the same time, the world may be as
sured that we know our rights, and shall exercise them. We shall express our opinions on this, as on every measure
of government, I trust without passion, I am certain without fear. We have yet to learn that the extravagant progress
of pernicious measures abrogates the duty of opposition, or that the interest of our native land is to be abandoned by us
in the hour of the thickest danger and sorest necessity. By the exercise of our constitutional right of suffrage, by the
peaceable remedy of election, we shall seek to restore wisdom to our councils and peace to our bountry.' "
Those who remember Mr. Webster's patriotic course in the Senate of the United States in voting for the " Force Bill,"
to crush incipient treason and rebellion in South Carolina in 1833, will perceive in the above extract the visible germ
of that stanch patriotism which distinguished him through life. On the occasion referred to he said, with the spirit that
animated him in 1812, " I am opposed to this administration ; but the country is in danger, and I will take my share of
the responsibility in the measure before us."
The Evening Post of the same date contains an "Ode for the Fourth of July," written by William Cullen Bryant,
then seventeen years of age. He is now (1SG7), after a lapse of fifty-five years, one of the proprietors and the editor in
chief of that journal, which he has ably conducted for a very long period. The following stanzas selected from that
Ode give a specimen of its character which made it very popular at the time :
"Lo ! where our ardent rulers "The same ennobling spirit
For fierce assault prepare, That kindles valor's flame,
While eager " A te" awaits their beck That nerves us to a war of right,
To "slip the dogs of war." Forbids a war of shame.
In vain against the dire design For not in Conquest's impious train
Exclaims the indignant land ; Shall Freedom's children stand ;
The unbidden blade they haste to have, Nor shall in guilty fray be raised
And light the unhallowed brand. The high-souled warrior's hand ;
Proceed ! another year shall wrest Nor shall the Patriot draw his sword
The sceptre from your hand. At Gallia's proud command."
O F T H E WA R OF 1812.
233
A Regency established in England.
Condition of Political Affairs in Europe.
CHAPTER XH.
"The tocsin has sounded — the bugle has blown,
And rapid as lightning the rumor has flown,
That, prepared to defend our heaven-blessed soil,
Our country to save and proud tyrants to foil,
We submit without murmur to danger and toil."
SONG — THE TOCSIN IIAS SOUNDED.
BEFORE entering upon a description of the stirring scenes of act
ual conflict of arms during the w.ar, let us make brief notes of
the position of the belligerents in relation to the struggle.
The Prince of Wales (afterward George the Fourth) had be
come actual sovereign of Great Britain by the removal of the
restrictions of the bill which created him regent of the realm.
The court physicians
had pronounced the
insanity of the old king to be incurable.
This change in the practical relations of
the prince to the government took place in
February, 1812, and in May following a
radical change in the Cabinet occurred, on
account of the murder of Mr. Perceval, the
Chancellor of the Exchequer, by Bellamy,
a Liverpool ship-broker, who charged his
commercial losses upon the government,
and sought revenge in slaying one of its
chief servants. Lord Sidmouth was ap
pointed Secretary of State, the Earl of
Harrowby Lord President of the Council,
and Mr. Vansittart Chancellor of the Ex
chequer. Lord Castlereagh was Secretary
for Foreign Affairs.
Great Britain was still waging a tre
mendous war against Napoleon. Wellington was at the head of her armies in the
Spanish Peninsula, and her forces by land and sea were generally successful. Her h>
herent energy was wonderful. Russia refused to bow the knee to the Corsican, and
he threatened her with invasion. Great Britain became her ally, and the summer
and autumn of 1812 saw the" hopes of the ambitious emperor of obtaining universal
dominion clouded with fearful doubts. Six days after the United States declared
war against Great Britain, the victorious Napoleon, with an immense and splendid
army, crossed the Niemena in the face of three hundred thousand Russians, a June 24
and pushed on toward Moscow. At Borodino the retreating Muscovites 1S12-
confronted their invaders,b and when the curtain of night fell upon the bat
tle-field, ninety thousand killed and wounded soldiers lay there. The French
entered Moscow in triumph, but it was soon a heap of ashes. Late in October,
with one hundred and twenty thousand men, the emperor commenced a retreat to
ward France. Six months from the time of his entering Russian territory he had
lost, in slain, wounded, starved, frozen, and prisoners, four hundred and fifty thou-
TUE PRINCE REGENT — GEORGE TV.
234 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The British Navy. British Land Force in Canada. Their Frontier Fortifications.
sand men, and yet he had scarcely reached Paris before he issued orders for new
conscriptions with which to prosecute the war! The sun of his glory was low in
the west, yet it blazed out brilliantly before it set. In 1812, Great Britain, Russia,
Sweden, and Spain were allied in arms against France, Prussia, Italy, Austria, and
Poland.
The British navy at that time consisted of two hundred and fifty-four ships-of-the-
line, of 74 guns and upward ; thirty-five 50's and 44's ; two hundred and forty-seven
frigates ; and five hundred and six smaller vessels of war ; making a total of one
thousand and thirty-six. Of these there were five ships-of-the-line, nineteen frigates,
forty-one brigs, and sixteen schooners on the American station ; that is to say, at
Halifax and Newfoundland, Jamaica and the Leeward Islands.1 They had also four
armed vessels on Lake Ontario, namely, Royal George, 22 ; Earl ofMoira, 16 ; Prince
Regent, 14 ; and Duke of Gloucester, 8. They also had several smaller vessels nearly
ready for service.
The British regular land force in Upper Canada when war was declared did not
exceed fifteen hundred men ;2 but the aggregate of that in Lower Canada, and in the
contiguous British provinces was estimated at six thousand regular troops. The pop
ulation of all the North American British colonies was estimated at 400,000, and their
militia at 40,000. They had an immense assailable frontier, stretching along a series
of great lakes, and the Rivers St. Mary's, St. Clair, Detroit, Niagara, and St. Law
rence, commencing at Lake Superior on the west, and terminating far below Quebec
on the east, along a line of about 1 700 miles. Out of Lake Superior flows a rapid
current, over immense masses of rock, through a channel for twenty-seven miles call
ed the St. Mary's River, and enters Lake Huron, at the head of which is the British
island of St. Joseph. On that island was then a small fort and garrison. It is dis
tant above Detroit about three hundred and thirty miles by water. The shores of
Lake Huron at that time were uninhabited except by Indians and a few traders. At
its western angle is -a short and wide strait, connecting it with Lake Michigan, in the
centre of which is the island of Michilimackinack, which is about nine miles in cir
cumference. On this island the Americans had a small fort and garrison. The wa
ters flow out of Lake Huron through the rivers and Lake St. Clair, and then through
the Detroit River into Lake Erie. On the latter river, at Amherstburg, the British
had a fort and small garrison, where ships for service on Lake Erie were built. The
British had no harbor or military post on Lake Erie. At its foot, at the head of the
Niagara River, was Fort Erie, a distance of five hundred and sixty-five miles from
Quebec. Just above Niagara Falls, at the mouth of the Chippewa River, there was
a small stockade, called Fort Chippewa. Near the mouth of the Niagara River, not
quite seven miles below Queenstown, was Fort George, constructed of earthen ram
parts and cedar palisades, mounting some guns not heavier than nine-pounders.
Half a mile below the fort, at the mouth of the Niagara River, was a pretty little
village called Newark, now Niagara. On the north side of Lake Ontario is York, or
Toronto Harbor, where was an old fort and a block-house. York was then the cap
ital of Upper Canada. On the eastern extremity of the lake is Kingston, with a fine
harbor, and was defended by a small battery of nine-pounders on Point Frederick.
It was the most populous town in the Upper Province at that time, and formed the
principal naval depot of the British on Lake Ontario. There were some military
works at Montreal, and very strong ones at Quebec.
At the time when war was declared the United States weretat peace with all the
world, and had very little commerce exposed upon the ocean, owing to restrictions
i Steele's List, 1812.
» These consisted of the Forty-first Regiment, 900 men ; Tenth Veterans, 250 ; Newfoundland Regiment, 250; Royal
Artillery, 50 ; Provincial Seamen, 50. These forces had to occupy the Forts St. Joseph, Amherstburg, Chippewa, Erie,'
George, York (Toronto), and Kingston, and to defend an assailable frontier of nearly thirteen hundred miles.— Life and
Correspondence of Major General Sir Isaac Brock, K.I}., by Ferdinand Brock Tupper, p. 108.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 235
Sea-coast and Frontier Defenses of the United States. West Point Military Academy. Jonathan Williams.
and dangers which had prevailed for a few years. Of the land and naval forces at
that. time we have spoken in the last chapter. In addition to full twelve hundred
miles of frontier along the British provinces, there was a sea-coast of a thousand miles
to defend against the most powerful maritime nation in the world.
The subject of sea-coast, harbor, and frontier defenses attracted the attention of the
government at an early period. A school for military instruction, especially for the
education of engineers, to be established at West Point, on the Hudson, was author
ized by Congress in the spring of 1802;al and from to time to time appro- • March i&>
priations had been made for fortifications, and works had been erected.
The corps of engineers, authorized by the law just named, commenced their functions
as constructors of new forts or repairers of old ones in the year 1808, when a war with
England was confidently expected ; and that body of young men continued thus em
ployed, in a moderate way, until the breaking out of the war in 1812, when they
were sent to the field, and all won military distinction.2 The forts completed pre
vious to 1809 were the only fortifications for the defense of the sea-coast of the
United States at the commencement of the war in 1812.3
1 Washington recommended the establishment of a military academy at West Point so early as 1783, when, on the ap
proach of peace, his thoughts were turned to the future military condition of his country. Soon after he became Pres
ident of the United States, he again called the attention of his countrymen to the importance of a military academy,
and again indicated West Point as the proper place. In 1794, Colonel Rochefontaine, a French officer in the service of
the United States, and other officers of artillery, were stationed at West Point for the purpose of establishing a miltary
school there. They rebuilt the front of Fort Putnam, on the mountains in the rear, in 1795, and constructed five or six
small casemates, or bomb-proofs. Fort Clinton, on the Point, was then partly in ruins. Its magazine, twenty-five by
two hundred feet in size, built of stone and lined with plank, and trenches, was quite perfect. Several buildings were
erected, and the whole'post was under the charge of Major Jonathan Williams. The library and apparatus were com
menced, but the school was soon suspended. It was revived in 1S01 by Mr. Jefferson, and in the spring of the follow
ing year Congress, as we have observed in the text, authorized the establishment of a military academy there. Mean
while the harbors on the coast were defended only by small redoubts. They were insignificant affairs. " It is worthy
of remembrance?" observed the late venerable General J. G. Swift, in a letter to the author in February, 1860, "that the
sites upon which these small works were built were those selected in the Eevolutionary struggle, and they remain to
this day the best for their purpose."
2 Letter of General Swift to the author, February 13, 1860. In November, 1802, the engineers at West Point formed a
Military and Philosophical Society, the object of which was the promotion of military science. The following are the
names of the original members : Jonathan Williams, Decius Wadsworth, William A. Barren, Jared Mansfield, James
Wilson, Alexander Macomb, Jr., Joseph G. Swift, Simon M. Leroy, Walter K. Armistead, and Joseph G. Totten. These
were the members present at the first meeting. Swift and Totten were the latest survivors of this little company. The
former died in the summer of 1SG5, and the latter in the spring of 1864. Their portraits will be found in this work.
Totten was the chief military engineer of the United States at the time of his death. The society consisted of many
persons besides military men. Its membership, during its ten years' existence, comprised most of the leading men in
the country, especially of the army and navy. The MS. records of the society, in four folio volumes, are in the New
York Historical Society.
3 The following statement of the names, locations, and conditions of the coast fortifications previous to 1S08, 1 have
compiled from a manuscript general return of such works by Colonel Jonathan Williams* and Captain Alexander Ma-
comb, which I found among the minutes of the Military and Philosophical Society of West Point, mentioned in a preced
ing note. Some of these forts were somewhat strengthened before the declaration of war in 1812, but the change in
their general condition was not very great.
Fort Stimner, Portland, Maine.— A square block-house.
Fort William and Mary, Portsmouth, New Hampshire.— A ruin.
Fort Lily, Gloucester, Cape Ann. — Three sides of an unfinished figure, being one front and two diverging lines. A
square block-house in the rear.
Fort Pickering, at Salem, Massachusetts.— Three sides of a rectangular figure, without bastions, flanks, or any promi
nence whatever. The lower part of the sides is stone-work, with parapets of earth. Closed in the rear by barracks, a
* Jonathan Williams was born in Boston in 1750.
He was appointed Major of the Second Artillery and
Engineers iu February, 1801, and in December follow
ing Inspector of Fortifications and Superintendent of
the Military Academy at West Point. In July, 1802,
he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel of Engineers,
and resigned in June the following year. In April,
1805, he resumed the servica among the Engineers,
with the same rank, and in February, 1808, was pro
moted to colonel ; he resigned in July, 1812. In 1814
he was elected to a seat in Congress from Philadel
phia, but never occupied it. He died on the 20th of
May, 1815, at the age of sixty-five years. — Gardner's
Dictionary of the Army, 487. Colonel Williams was
the author of A Metnoir of the Thermometer in Xavi-
gation, and Elements of Fortification.
236 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The Coast Defenses of the United States in the year 1812.
A new system of naval warfare had lately been suggested by Robert Fulton, who
• December, had been a long time abroad, and who had recently returned homea to
achieve an immortal triumph in science and art, and the beginning of a
brick wall, and gate. A square block-house in the centre, and an old stone building in the rear and on the left, without
the lines. A sketch of its appearance in I860 may be found in another part of this volume.
Fort Sewall, at Marblehead, Massachusetts, is an irregular oblong figure, with a square block-house. It is founded, on
one side, on a rock, and on the opposite side has a wall and arches, forming a magazine below. One stone house within
the lines. A sketch of this old fort as it appeared in I860 may be found in another part of this work.
Fort Independence, in Boston Harbor. — New work. An irregular pentagon and well fortified, with five bastions. Three
bastions and one curtain finished. This fort (whose present appearance is seen in the engraving) is on Castle Island,
FOKT INDEPENDENCE.
on the site of a fortification erected during the early years of the Massachusetts colony. It was rebuilt in 1C44, and
burned in 1673. A new fort of stone was then erected, and other works, apd it became the shelter of the British during
the years preceding the Revolution. After the Revolution it was called Fort Adams. In 1799 Castle Island was ceded
to the United1 States, and President Adams named the works Fort Independence. The present structure was erected in
1801, '2, and '3. It and Port Warren, on an island opposite, command the entrance to Boston Harbor. The fort may
contain a thousand men in time of war.
Fort Wolcott, near Newport, Rhode Island. — Built of stone cemented with lime. Had a brick and stone magazine, a
sally-port and ditch, reverberatory furnace. Supported by two wings or bastions, both facing the harbor. Revetments
in stone laid in lime cement; parapets supplied with sod-work; the batteries intended for ten pieces'of cannon. Had
five pieces, 32-pounders each. Barracks two stories high, composed of brick, and bomb-proof.
Fort Adams, Newport Harbor.— Form similar to Port Wolcott. Situated on Brenton's Point, nearly opposite the
Dumplings Fort on Canonicut Island. Similar in all its arrangement and construction to Fort Wolcott. It was then
unfinished.
Fort Hamilton, Narraganset Bay, near Newport, a mile northwest of Fort Wolcott, on Rose Inland. — Extensive forti
fications, commenced in 1S02. Quadrilateral in form, presenting two regular and two tower bastions. Works suspend
ed in 1S03. It was intended to be wholly constructed of stone, brick, and sod-work. The barracks were completed, and
were considered the finest in America at that time. It was intended to mount seventy cannon. About half completed
when the war broke out.
North Batter;/, Rhode Island, about three fourths of a mile northeast of Fort Wolcott, on a point of land nearer New
port.— Semicircular, and calculated for about eight guns. It was unfinished.
Dumplings Fort.— Entrance to Narraganset Bay, nearly opposite Fort Adams. A round tower bastion, built in 1804,
of stone well cemented. It was about eighty feet above the water, and rose fifteen to twenty feet above the rock on
which it was built. It contained a good magazine, and three other bomb-proof rooms for the men. No cannon were
mounted. The platforms were not completed. Calculated for seven pieces, exclusive of howitzers and mortars. It was
believed that thirty men might defend it.
Towering Hill, near Newport, Rhode Island, one mile east of the North Battery, an,d due north from the city.— It com
manded the whole town, the country around, and a part of the harbor. Remains of Revolutionary works there. A small
block-house built in 1799 or 1800 was entire.
Fort Trumbull, New London, Connecticut, on a rocky point of land projecting into the River Thames.— Form irregu
lar. The walls fronting the water built of solid stone, elevated to the usual height, and'finished with turf and gravel.
Badly situated against an enemy on land, as the hills around it and across the river are higher than the fort. It had a
small magazine and stone block-house, and fourteen guns mounted. A view of this fort may be seen in another part
of this work.
Fort Jay, on Governor's Island, New York Harbor,* thirteen hundred yards south of the Battery, at the lower extrem
ity of the city of New York.— It was a regular fort, with bastions, quite strong, but then unfinished. It had a handsome
gateway, with a corps de garde draw-bridge. In the centre of the fort was a square block-house of timber, two stories
high, but probably not cannon-proof; under it was a well. It had two detached batteries, one mounting four 18-pound-
ers and an 8-inch French mortar, with platforms for four others ; and the other ten pieces, 18 and 24 pounders ; origin-
* Governor's Island was called Pag-ganc'k by the Indians, and Nutten Island by the Dutch. It was purchased, as a
public domain, by Governor Van Twiller, in the early days of the Dutch rule in New York. In the settlement of the
accounts of the Revolutionary debt, New York agreefl to erect fortifications in the harbor in front of the city of New
York, in payment of the quota required from that state. In accordance with an act passed by the State Legislature in
March, 1794, the sum of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars was expended, under the direction of a committee, in
constructing fortifications. The committee consisted of George Clinton, Matthew Clarkson, James Watson, Richard
Varick, Nicholas Fish, Ebenezer Stevens, and Abijah Hammond. A further sum of one hundred thousand dollars was
granted on the Gth of April, 1795, to complete the works on that and Oyster (now Ellis's) Island. Fort Jay was built,
and in February, 1800, the island and all its appurtenances were ceded to the United States. The island contains sev
enty-two acres of laud.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
237
Coast Defenses of the United States.
wonderful revolution in commerce, by the successful introduction of navigation by
steam.a While abroad, Mr. Fulton had conceived the idea of destroying ships
by introducing floating mines under their bottoms in submarine boats, and ex-
^<..; ^-*-^-'r*
CASTLE WILLIAMS.
ally intended for thirteen guns. The parapet had fifty-one embrasures, and it would take one thousand men to man the
parapet. The fort, being commanded by hills on the Long Island shore, was not constructed to withstand a siege, but
as a guard to the entrance to the East River, and to operate against an enemy in the harbor or in the city.
Ellis's and Bedloe's Islands both had fortifications on them. The former, lying a little more than two thousand yards
southwest from the Battery, had a semicircular battery calculated for thirteen guns. The parapet, of timbers, was un
finished. Twelve 12-pounders lay there, but no guns were mounted. It was commanded by Bedloe's Island, twelve
hundred yards distant ; also by Paulus's Hook (Jersey City), lying north of it. There were good quarters for officers and
men. It was an excellent position to defend the harbor from an enemy coming in at the Narrows. Only a part of the
island then belonged to the United States.
On Bedlne's Island a battery had been commenced, and brick buildings for quarters. No cannon were mounted except
ing two field-pieces that belonged to Fort Jay. A dismounted 24-pounder lay upon the island. It was almost useless as
a defensive work. Major Decius Wadsworth was then in command of the District of New York, and these works were
under his supervision. Of the islands in New York Harbor, and the modern fortifications upon them, I shall have occa
sion to write hereafter.
Fort Miffiin, on the southeast extremity of Mud Island, in the Delaware, just below Philadelphia, was an irregular
oval. It was the old British fort of the Revolution. It had been strengthened, and was a very important work. It was
constructed of stone, brick, and earth, with heavy guns mounted. A long account of it is given in the MS. records of
the Military and Philosophical Society (New York Historical Society), vol. iv.
FortM'Henmj, at Baltimore, was a new work situated on
a point of laud between the Patapsco River and the har
bor. It was a regular pentagon, with a well-executed re
vetment ; also a magazine, and barracks sufficient for one
company. The counterscarp, covert, and glacis were yet
to be made. On the water side was the wall of a battery,
but not yet inclosed. It is a well-chosen position to pre
vent ships reaching Baltimore, and is about two and a half
miles from the city. At the time we are considering, a large
house belonging to a citizen stood in front of the battery,
next the extreme point, and, in the event of a ship's pass
ing, would have to be battered down, as it would cover the
vessel. A picture of the fort as it appeared in 1SC1 may be
found in another part of this work.
Fort Severn, at Annapolis, has already been noticed. See
note 4, on page 181.
Forts Norfolk and Xelson, one on each side of the Eliza
beth River, near Norfolk, Virginia, were of some import
ance. The former, on the Norfolk side of the river, a mile
and a half below the town, was an oblong square, with two
bastions, built chiefly of earth, and a ditch on three sides
of it. VVithiu it was one frame house and eight small log
huts, all in bad condition. Two 12, four 9, and thirteen G
pounders, two brass 8-inch howitzers, and seven carron-
ades, all dismounted, were lying there. The fort was on
the site of some works thrown up during the Revolution.
Fort Xelson was about a mile below the town, on the OP-
PLAN OF FOKT M'IIEXKV.
posite side of the river. Its form was triangular, but irregular, the works of the Revolutionary era having been used.
It covered nearly two acres of ground. It was built of earth. It had two batteries with embrasures, lined with brick
inside. In it were one large two-story house, two rooms on a floor, a kitchen, and smoke-house. There were thirteen
24-pounders and one 12-pounder mounted ; the carriages were rotten, and unfit for service. This fort, like the one op
posite, was intended to guard the approach to the town by water. On the land side the walls were not more than three
feet high. The magazine was too damp for use.
238
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Military Posts on the Northwestern Frontiers.
Fulton's Torpedoes.
ploding them there. He was filled with the benevolent idea that the introduction
of such secret and destructive agencies would have a tendency to. do away with naval
warfare, and thus would be established what he called the Liberty of the Seas.
Impelled by this grand idea, he left France, where he had been residing several
years, and went over to England in 1 804, for the purpose of offering his invention
to the British government.1 He finally obtained permission to make a public ex
periment of his TORPEDO, as he called his " infernal machine," and he was furnished
For the protection of Charleston Harbor there were several works, some of them as old as the Revolution. Fort John
son, on James's Island, was enlarged and strengthened in 1793, and afterward repaired and patched at various times.
The chief works were of brick. The barracks were of wood, one-story high ; there was also a block-house. A large
portion of the fort was carried away by a hurricane in 1804, and the remainder was inundated, sapped, and destroyed.
Fort Pinckney, built in 1798, stood upon a marsh in front cf Charleston called Shute's Folly. Built entirely of brick. It
mounted eight 26-pounders en barbette. At the best it was an inefficient work, and in 1804 it too was sapped during the
great hurricane, and rendered almost useless. Fort Moultrie was built on the site of the fort of that name in the Revo
lution. It was constructed in 179S, chiefly of brick and palmetto logs. It mounted on the ramparts ten 26-pounders en
barbette, on double sea-coast carriages ; one mortar, and six 12-pounders and a howitzer in the ditch. This fort was also
greatly damaged by the hurricane. The counterscarp and glacis were entirely swept away ; no ditch remained ; every
traverse, and gun, and the reverberatory furnace were washed away and buried in the sand. All the wood-work of the
fort was rotten, yet the fort was in a condition to be repaired. At the south end of the city of Charleston were the re
mains of Fort Mechanic, a redoubt in utter ruin.
Such was the general condition of the sea-coast defenses of the United States when war was declared in 1812.
On the Northern and Northwestern frontiers were some military posts and fortifications. First was the fort on the
island of Michillimackinack, in the straitbetween Lakes Huron and Michigan. At Chicago, on Lake Michigan, was Fort
Dearborn ; at the head of the Maumee, Fort Wayne ; a strong fort at Detroit ; a battery and block-house at Erie ; a bat
tery at Black Rock, just below Buffalo • Fort Niagara, a strong work built by the French, at the mouth of the Niagara
River; another considerable fort at Oswego, and a military post and a battery, called Fort Tompkins, at Sackett's Har
bor. All of these will be noticed in the course of our narrative.
1 Mr. Fulton took up his residence in Paris with Joel Barlow, and remained with him seven years. It was during
that time that he planned his submarine boat, which he called a nautilus, and the machines attached to which he
styled submarine bombs. He offered his invention several times to the French government, and once to the Dutch em-
bassador at Paris, but did not excite the favorable attention of either. He then opened negotiations with the British
government, and went to London in 1S04. There he held interviews with Mr. Pitt and Lord Melville, and explained the
nature of his 'invention to them. Pitt was convinced of its great value, but Melville condemned it. In the course of a
month a committee was appointed to examine, whose chairman was Sir Joseph Banks. They reported the submarine
boat to be impracticable, when Mr. Fulton abandoned the idea of employing a submarine vessel, and turned his atten
tion t6' the arrangement of his bombs, so that they might be employed without submerged boats. These he called TOR
PEDOES, and, in a memorial afterward presented to the American Congress,* he thus describes their construction, and
method of operation :
PLATE I. This shows the torpedo anchored,
and so arranged as to blow up a vessel that
should strike it. B is a copper case, two feet
long and twelve inches in diameter, capable
of containing one hundred pounds of gun
powder. A, a brass box, in which is a lock,
similar to a common gun-lock, with a barrel
two inches long, and holding a musket-charge
of powder. The box, with the lock cocked
and barrel charged, is screwed to the copper
case B. H is a lever, having a communica
tion with the cock inside the box A, holding
the lock cocked, and ready to fire. C, a deal
box filled with cork and tied to the case B,
so as to make the torpedo fifteen to twenty
pounds lighter than the water specifically, so
as to give it buoyancy. It is held down to a
given depth by a weight. A small anchor is
attached to the weight to prevent its being
moved by the tides. The torpedo was sunk
not so deep as the usual draft of vessels to be
acted upon. In flood-tide it would be oblique
to the weight, at slack water perpendicular
at D, and during the ebb again oblique at E.
At ten feet below the surface the tide would
not be likely to disturb it seriously. When
a ship in sailing should strike the lever H,
an instantaneous explosion would take place,
and the utter destruction of the vessel would follow. Fulton proposed to anchor a hundred of these in the Narrows,
approaching the harbor of New York, in the event of war. The figure on the right shows an end view of the torpedo,
with a forked link, by which the chances of being struck by a vessel were increased.
* Mr. Fulton's memorial, published in pamphlet form in 1810, by William Elliott, 114 Water Street, New York, bears
the following title : TORPEDO WAK and SUBMARINE EXPLOSION, by ROHF.RT FUI.TON, Fellow of the American Philosophical
Society, and of the United States Military and Philosophical Societ'j. Its mottc— The Liberty of the Seas uill be the Happi
ness of the Earth.
•lOItPEIK). — PLATE I.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
Description of Torpedoes and their Uses.
with a Danish brig, named Dorothea, and two boats, with eight men each, for the
purpose. On the loth of October, 1805, the Dorothea was anchored in Walmer
PLATE II. This represents another kind of torpedo— a clock-work torpedo*— intended to attack a vessel while lying
at anchor or under sail, by harpooning her on her larboard or starboard bow. B, a copper case containing one hundred
pounds or more of gunpowder. C, a cork cushion, to give buoyancy to the whole. A, a cylindrical brass box, about
seven inches in diameter and two deep, in which is a gun-lock, with a barrel two inches long to receive a charge of pow
der and wad, which charge is fired with the powder of the case B. In the brass box A there is also a piece of clock
work, moved by a coiled spring, which being wound up and set, will let the lock strike fire in any number of minutes
which may be determined, within an hour. K is a small line fixed to a pin, which holds the clock-work inactive. The
instant the pin is withdrawn the clock-work begins to move, and the explosion will take place in one, two, three, or any
number of minutes for which it has been set. The whole is made perfectly water-tight. D isf a pine box, two feet
long and six or eight inches square, filled with cork to give it buoyancy, as in Plate I., although in this case it floats on
the surface, no weights for submergence
being used. To this the torpedo is sus
pended. The line of suspension should
be long enough to bring the torpedo
well back toward the stern of the vessel.
From the torpedo and float D are two
lines, each twenty feet long, united at E.
Prom these a single line, about fifty feet in
length, is attached to a harpoon. This,
when the vessel is harpooned in the bow,
will bring the torpedo under the bottom,
at about midships, of a man-of-war. The
harpoon I is a round piece of iron, half
an inch in diameter, two feet long, with
a butt of one inch, which is the exact cal
ibre of the gun from which it is to be
projected. In the head of the barbed har
poon is an eye ; the point about six inch
es long. Into the eye the line of the har
poon is spliced, and a small iron or tough
copper J'nk runs on the shaft of the har
poon. To this link the line is attached
at such length as to form the lq»p H
when the harpoon is in the gun. When
fired, the link will slide along to the butt
of the harpoon, and, holding the rope and
the harpoon parallel to each other, the
rope will act like a tail or rod to a rocket, and guide it straight. F is the harpoon gun, acting upon a swivel fixed in
the stern-sheets of a boat. The
harpoon is fixed in the vessel's
bow, with the line from the tor
pedo attached ; the torpedo clock
work is set in motion, the ma
chine is thrown overboard, and
the tide, on the motion of the ves
sel, quickly places it under the
ship.
PLATE III. The upper portion
of the plate represents the stem
of a row-boat, with the harpoon-
gun and torpedo just described.
A platform, four feet long and
three feet wide, is made o» the
stern, level with the gunwale, and
projecting over the stern fifteen
or eighteen inches, so that the
torpedo, in falling into the water,
may clear the rudder. The ropes
are carefully disposed so that
there may be no entanglement.
The letters in this figure (A, B, and
C) denote the parts, as in the last
plate. The pin D, which restrains
the clock - work, is drawn, when
the torpedo is cast off, by the line
attached to the boat at E. The
TORPEDOES.— PLATE in. ' harpooner, stationed at the gun,
* The late Henry Frasse, who for many years kept a shop in Fulton Street, New York, for the sale of watch-maker's
materials, made the clock-work for Mr. Fulton. In his account-book before me is the following entry at the time we are
considering :
" Dt. Mr. Fulton a H'y Frasse :
"26th May, 1810.— a Fulton repare un turpedos, le grand ressort, volant et roue, 4.50."
Mr. Frasse was then the only machinist of note in the city of New York. He died in February, 1S19, at the age of sixty-
eight years.
TOIiPEDO. — PLATE II.
240
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The Dorothea destroyed by a Torpedo.
An Account of Fulton's Experiment.
Road, not far from Deal, and in sight of Walmer Castle, the residence of William Pitt,
the English prime minister, and there, in the presence of a large number of naval offi
cers and others,1 he made a successful exhibition. He first practiced the boatmen
with empty torpedoes. One was placed in each boat, and connected by a small rope
eighty feet long. The Dorothea drew twelve feet of water, and the torpedoes were
suspended fifteen feet under water when cast from the boats, at the distance of sev
enty-five feet apart. They floated toward the brig with the tide, one on each side
of her. When the connecting-line struck the hawser of the brig, both torpedoes were
brought by the tide under her bottom.
Having exercised the men sufficiently, Fulton filled one of the torpedoes with one
hundred and eighty pounds of gunpowder, set its clock-work (explained in note 1,
page 238) to eighteen minutes, and then went through with the same manoeuvres as
before, the filled and the empty torpedo
being united by a rope. At the expira
tion of eighteen minutes from the time
the torpedoes were cast overboard, and
were carried toward the Dorothea, a dull
explosion was heard, and the brig was
raised bodily about six feet,2 and sepa
rated in the middle ; and in tweny min
utes nothing was seen of her but some
floating fragments. The pumps and fore
masts were blown out of her ; the fore-
topsail-yards were thrown up to the
cross-trees ; tht fore-chain plates, with
their bolts, were torn from her sides, and
her mizzen-mast was broken off in twro
places. The experiment was perfectly
satisfactory ; but the British government
refused to purchase and use the invention, because it was thought to be inexpedient
DESTRUCTION OF TUB DOEOTUEA.
also steers the boat, and fires according to his judgment. If the harpoon sticks into the bow of the vessel, the boat is
immediately moved away, the torpedo cast out of the boat, and the clock-work set in motion. If the harpoon misses
the ship, the torpedo may be saved, and another attack be made. Fulton proposed to have twelve men in each boat, all
armed for their protection or offensive movements, if necessary. The figure in the lower part of the plate is a bird's-
eye view of a vessel (A) at anchor. B, her cable ; E F, two torpedoes ; C D, their coupling lines, twelve feet long. It is
touching the vessel's cable, and the torpedoes being driven under her by the tide. In this way the Dorothea, mentioned
in the text, was attacked. Those were clock-work torpedoes.
PLATE IV. represents a bird's-
eye view of a vessel at anchor, or
under weigh, attacked by a flotilla
of mortar-boats. A is the vessel,
and B C two torpedoes operating
by means of the harpoon move
ment. When it was objected that
these boats would be exposed to
grape, canister, and musket balls
from the vessel, Fulton estimated
that the time of danger, by expert
movements, would not exceed four
minutes— two in approachingnear
enough to fire the harpoon, and
two for retreating. He entered
into a calculation of the greater
efficiency and less exposure of the
torpedo system, in harbor defense, than ships of war. I have given this description of the torpedo as illustrative of a
part of the history of the times we are considering. Science and mechanical skill have since produced far more de
structive engines of war, and yet Fulton's dream of establishing the liberty of the, seas by means of the torpedo, or any
other instrumentality, remains unaccomplished. A Monitor of to-day is worth a million of torpedoes for harbor defense,
i Admiral Holloway, Sir Sidney Smith, Captain Owen, Captain Kingston, Colonel Congreve, and a greater portion of
the officers of the fleet under Lord Keith were present. Pitt was in London, and did not see the exhibition. Colonel
Congreve was the inventor of the rocket, or •" pyrotechnic arrow," as Fulton called it, bearing his name.
5 The engraving is from a drawing by Fulton, appended to his memorial to Congress in 1S10.
TORPEDOES. — PLATE IV.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 241
Fulton's Torpedoes iii New York Harbor. His Estimate of the Value of Torpedoes and Steam Navigation.
for the mistress of the seas to introduce into naval warfare a system that would give
great advantages to weaker maritime nations. The Earl St. Vincent said Pitt was a
fool to encourage a mode of warfare which they, who commanded the seas, did not
want, and which, if successful, Avould deprive them of it.1
At the beginning of 1807 Mr. Fulton was in Washington with his drawings, mod
els, and plans for a " torpedo war." He was favorably listened to then, but his plans
were regarded with more interest after the affair of the Leopard and Chesapeake, a
few months later. That affair caused much public discussion about harbor defenses,
and able practical writers, like Colonel Williams and John Stevens, favored the use
of Fulton's torpedoes. It was believed that measures would be taken to drive British
vessels of war from American harbors, and on the 6th of July Fulton again brought
his torpedoes to the notice of the Secretary of the Navy. Congress made a small
appropriation for experiments, and on the 20th of July, by the direction of the Presi
dent, Fulton performed a feat in the harbor of New York similar to that of the de
struction of the Dorothea in Walmer Road. He utterly destroyed a vessel of two
hundred tons burden, and convinced the spectators that any ship might be so demol
ished.2 The experiment created quite a sensation in England. The Earl of Stan
hope, Fulton's early friend, alluded to it in Parliament, and reproached the govern
ment, by implication, for suffering such an invention to go to America, when, for three
thousand pounds, they might have possessed it. Nothing farther of importance was
done in the matter, for Fulton was then deeply engaged in bringing to a successful
issue his experiments in navigating by steam as a motor. But when those experi
ments resulted in absolute and brilliant success, and men's minds were filled with
speculations concerning the future of this new aid to commerce, he believed -that his
torpedo system would be of far more benefit to mankind than navigation by steam.
In a letter to a friend, giving him an account of his first voyage to Albany and back
by steam — the first achievement of the kind — he said : " However, I will not admit
that it is half so important as the torpedo system of defense and attack, for out of it
will grow the liberty of the seas, an object of infinite importance to the welfare of
America and every civilized country. But thousands of witnesses have now seen the
steam-boat in rapid movement, and believe ; they have not seen a ship-of-war de
stroyed by a torpedo, and they do not believe."3
How utterly impotent is the finite mind when it attempts to understand the future.
It is like a bewildered traveler in a dark night attempting to comprehend an almost
illimitable prairie before him by the aid of a "fire-fly lamp." The torpedo is forgot
ten ; the steam-boat, in Monitor* form, is now (1867) the great champion for the " lib
erty of the seas."
In January, 1810, Fulton again visited Washington, and at Kalorama, the seat of
his good friend Barlow, near Georgetown, in the presence of President Jefferson, Sec
retary Madison, and a large number of members of Congress,' he exhibited and ex
plained the plans and models of improved torpedoes, such as are described in note 1,
1 Letter from Robert Fulton to Joel Barlow.
2 Mr. Fulton invited the Governor of the State of New York, the Corporation of the city, and many others, to witness
his experiments. They assembled at Fort Jay, on Governor's Island, on the 20th of July, and in the shadow of the great
gateway he lectured on the subject of his torpedoes. He had a blank one for his explanations, and his numerous audi
tors gathered close around him, with great eagerness, to catch every word from his lips, and see every part of the ma
chine. At length he turned to one of the torpedoes lying near, under the gateway of the fort, to which his clock-work
was attached, and drawing out the plug, and setting it in motion, he said : "Gentlemen, this is a charged torpedo, with
which, precisely in its present state, I mean to blow tip a vessel. It contains one hundred and seventy pounds of gun
powder, and if I were to suffer the clock-work to run fifteen minutes, I have no doubt that it would blow this fortifica
tion to atoms." The circle of the audience around Mr. Fulton immediately widened, and, before five of the fifteen min
utes had elapsed, all but two or three had disappeared from the gateway, and retired to as great a distance as possible
with the utmost speed. Fulton, entirely confident in his machine, was perfectly calm. "How frequently fear arises
from ignorance," he said.— Colden's Life of Fulton, page 78.
3 Letter to Joel Barlow from New York, dated August 22, 1807.
4 For a description of the Monitor, a new style of vessel of war, first made known to the world by a terrible encoun
ter with the Merrimack, another efficient vessel of war, in Hampton Roads, Virginia, in March, 1S62, see Lossing's Pic
torial History of the Civil War.
Q
242
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Farther Experiments with Torpedoes.
A wholesome Fear of them.
Robert Fulton.
page 238. They were deeply impressed with the value of the invention, and in March
Congress appropriated five thousand dollars for farther experiments, to be publicly
made in the harbor of New York, under the direct superintendence of Commodore
Rodgers and Captain Chauncey. The sloop-of-war Argus was prepared to defend
herself against Fulton's torpedo attacks.1 The experiments were tried
uid&ctober, in the autumn.a They failed, so far as attacks upon the Argus were
concerned, and Rodgers reported the scheme to be wholly impracticable.
Commissioners, among whom were Chancellor Livingston, Morgan Lewis, and Cad-
wallader Golden, re
ported in its favor.
But Fulton, then still
deeply engaged in
steam-boat matters,
made no farther ef
forts to induce the
government to adopt
his torpedo system ;
yet his faith in its val
ue was not abated.
When war was de
clared in 1812, Ful
ton revived his tor
pedo scheme, but
could not win the
countenance of the
government. Sever
al attempts to put
it in execution were
made by inexperi
enced persons, and
failed, and torpe
does did not enter
into the system of
warfare carried on
at that time. But
while they were not
actually used, ex
cept in a few isola
ted cases, against
the British vessels
of war, a wholesome
fear of them was
abroad in the Brit
ish navy. There was
great anxiety mani
fested on the part
of the British naval
commanders, when
they approached
our coasts, to know
where Mr. Fulton2
was ; and, such was
their caution, they
seldom attempted to
enter the harbors
of the United
States dui-ing the
war. No doubt
the fear of Ful
ton's torpedoes
1 Fulton had also invented a submarine machine for cut
ting the cables of ships at anchor. Experiments with this
were tried at the same time.
2 Robert Fulton was born at Little Britain, Lancaster
County, Pennsylvania, in 17C5. His parents were from Ire
land. His early education was meagre. At the age of sev
enteen he was painting miniatures* at Philadelphia, and
indulging his taste for mechanics in the work-shops of that
city. His friends sent him to London, to receive instruc
tions in painting, when he was twenty-one years of age.
The celebrated West was his instructor. The Earl of Stan
hope, who took great interest in mechanics, became his
friend, and encouraged his taste for the useful arts. He
heard of the experiments of Fitch and Evans in the use
of steam for navigation, and his active mind began to spec
ulate on the subject, and have glorious perceptions of fu
ture achievements. He left painting, and became an en
gineer. He entered the family of Joel Barlow, at Paris, in
1707, and there he became acquainted with Chancellor Liv
ingston, with whom he carried on experiments in naviga
tion by steam. They saw wealth and honor as the reward
of success in that line on the inland waters of the United
States. They came home, and were successful. The first
voyage from Albany to New York silenced all doubt. In
* In White's Philadelphia Directory, 1785, is the following: "Robert Fulton, miniature painter, corner of Second and
Walnut Streets."
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 243
A "Pence Party." Action of State Governments. Riot in Baltimore.
saved several of our sea-port towns from destruction. Fulton's steam-frigate, launched
in 1814, will be noticed hereafter.
Notwithstanding war had been declared by a large majority in Congress, and was
approved by an equally large majority of the people of the United States, the admin
istration was anxious for some honorable means for averting it. Indeed, both gov
ernments at the last moment seemed to hesitate. In the United States there was a
large and powerful party utterly opposed to hostilities. There was a smaller organ
ization, called the " Peace party," who were pledged to cast obstacles in the way of
the government while hostilities should last. The authorities of several of the states
took ground early against affording aid to the government ; and it was very soon
perceived that the Canadians, whose Avillingness to cast off the yoke of tho imperial
government had not been doubted, were generally loyal, and ready to take up arms
against the United States. The Governors of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Con
necticut refused to comply with the requisition made upon them for militia immedi
ately after the declaration of war was promulgated. They planted themselves upon
the Constitution, and the act of Congress authorizing the President to make a requi
sition for the militia, which contemplated the exigency of expected invasion. No
evidence of any danger of invasion, they said, existed ; and, supported by the judici
ary and Legislatures of their respective states, they set the President at defiance.
The Legislature of New Jersey denounced the war as " inexpedient, ill-timed, and
most dangerously impolitic, sacrificing at once countless blessings." The Maryland
House of Delegates passed resolutions commending the action of the Governors of
Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, and disapproving of the war ; while
in the Senate opposite views were expressed. The Legislature of Pennsylvania re
buked the action of the three New England governors, and called it " an alarming
and unexpected occurrence." They resolved that " the declaration of war was the
result of solemn deliberation, sound wisdom, and imperious necessity." The Legisla
ture of Ohio declared that the United States had been driven into the war by the
aggressions of Great Britain, and said, " The man who would desert a just cause is
unworthy to defend it." The Governor of New York exhorted a hearty concurrence
in support of the national government; and the new State of Louisiana, just admit
ted into the Union, said, by the voice of its governor, " If ever war was justifiable,
the one which our country has declared is that war. If ever a people had cause to
repose in the confidence of their government, we are that people."
These conflicting views produced corresponding conflict of action. Party spirit
was aroused in all its fierceness. Personal collisions became frequent occurrences,
and in the city of Baltimore a most fearful riot occurred, the result of which was
murder and maiming.1
1809 he obtained his first patent. His torpedo scheme failing, he turned his attention to submarine batteries. In 1814 he
was directed by Congress to construct a war steamer. She was launched, and called Fulton. He died seven months
afterward (February 24, 1S15), at the age of fifty years. Our engraving of Mr. Fulton is from a portrait by Benjamin
West, painted in 1805. The view of his residence is from a sketch by E. B. Cope, Esq. It gives its present appearance.
1 There was a violent opposition newspaper in Baltimore called The Federal Republican, edited by a young man only
twenty-six years of age. Baltimore was then a flourishing commercial city, and this paper was the organ of the mer
cantile interest, which had suffered from the restrictive commercial measures, and was now prostrated by the impend
ing war. The Republican denounced the declaration of war, and, in defiance of intimations that had been made in Con
gress that when that declaration was once made all opposition to the war must cease, the editor announced his determ
ination to speak as freely against the administration and its measures as before, thereby reversing the policy of his party
in 1798 in the matter of the Alien and Sedition Laws. " We mean," he said, " to represent, in as strong colors as we are
capable, that the war is unnecessary, inexpedient, and entered into from partial, personal, and, as we believe, motives
bearing upon their front marks of undisguised foreign influence which can not be mistaken." This announcement was
made on Saturday, June 20th, and on Monday evening, the 22d, a mob, headed by a French apothecary, proceeded to the
office of that paper and demolished it. Having thus commenced violence, they proceeded to the wharves and disman
tled some vessels, and committed other heinous acts. The publisher of the Federal Republican determined to re-establish
the office. The lower portion of the house of one of the proprietors was used for the purpose. The paper was printed
in Georgetown, but published then in Baltimore after a silence of five weeks. According to expectation, the publishing
office was attacked. The magistrates of the city seemed to have used no means to quell the riot in June, and were not
expected to do so now. General Henry Lee, then a resident of Baltimore, furnished the proprietors with a regular plan
of defense, and offered to superintend the execution of it. General Lingan, another soldier of the Revolution, and also
244 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The Inhabitants of Canada. Reasons for their Loyalty. Address of the Canadian Legislature.
The people of Canada, whose soil was about to be invaded, were filled with feelings
of doubt and alarm, especially in the Upper Province. A large number of the in
habitants in that section were natives of the United States who had emigrated thith
er to better their condition. Many of them still felt a lingering affection for the land
of their birth, and were unwilling to take up arms against it ; but there was another
class of emigrants — Loyalists, or the children of Loyalists of the Revolution — polit
ical exiles — occupying -a large tract of land lying between Lakes Erie and Ontario,
and westward, who were indebted to the liberality of the British government for .the
soil they were cultivating, and to their own industry for the roofs that sheltered
them. These retained bitter feelings toward the United States, and took up arms with
alacrity against a people whom they regarded as their oppressors. When war was
actually commenced — when American troops were actually encamped on Canadian
territory, these old Loyalists formed a most energetic and active element in the firm
opposition which the invasion encountered. To these the Legislature of Upper Can
ada, whose loyalty was at first considered somewhat doubtful, addressed a most
stirring appeal, soon after the American declaration of war was known, to the delight
of the governor and the English party. " Already," they said, " have we the joy to
remark that the spirit of loyalty has burst forth in all its ancient splendor. The mi
litia in all parts of the province have volunteered their services with acclamation, and
displayed a degree of energy worthy of the British name. They do not forget the
blessings and privileges which they enjoy under the protective and fostering care
of the British empire, whose government is only felt in this country by acts of the
purest justice, and most pleasing and efficacious benevolence. When men are called
upon to defend every thing they call precious, their wives and children, their friends
and possessions, they ought to be inspired with the noblest resolutions, and they will
not be easily frightened by menaces, or conquered by force ; and beholding, as AVC
do, the flame of patriotism burning from one end of the Canadas to the other, we can
not but entertain the most pleasing anticipations. Our enemies have, indeed, said
that they can subdue this country by a proclamation ; but it is our part to prove to
them that they are sadly mistaken ; that the population is determinately hostile, and
that the few who might be otherwise inclined will find it their' safety to be faithful."
The address then proceeded to warn the people that, " in imitation of their Euro
pean master (Napoleon)," the United States would " trust more to treachery than to
a Federalist, joined him, and about twenty others made up the defensive party. They were well-armed and provisioned
for a siege. On the evening of the 20th of July (the evening of the day on which the revived newspaper first appeared)
the mob assembled. After assailing the building with stones for some time, they forced open the door, and when ascend
ing the stairs they were fired upon. One of the ringleaders was killed and several were wounded. After much solici
tude, two magistrates, by virtue of their authority, ordered out two companies of militia, under General Strieker, to
quell the mob. A single troop of horse soon appeared, and at about daylight the mayor and General Strieker appeared.
A truce was obtained, and it was agreed that the defenders, some of whom were hurt, and who were all charged with
murder, should be conducted to prison to answer that charge. They were promised not only personal safety, but pro
tection of the premises by a military guard. On their way to prison the band played the rogue's march. The mob im
mediately sacked the house. Only a few more of the military could be persuaded to come out, and the mob had its own
way to a great extent. At night they gathered around the prison, and the turnkey was so terrified that he allowed them
to enter. The prisoners extinguished their lights and rushed out. They mingled with the mob, and thus several es
caped. Some were dreadfully beaten, and three were tortured by the furious men. General Lee was made a cripple for
life, and General Liugan, then seventy years of age, distinguished for his services in the field during the old war for in
dependence, expired in the hands of the mob.* In the treatment of their unfortunate prisoners the most intense sav-
agism was displayed. The riot was at length quelled, and the city magistrates, on investigation, placed the entire blame
on the publishers of the obnoxious newspaper. It was decided that in a time of war no man has a right to cast ob
stacles in the way of the success of his country's undertakings. The course of the Federal Republican was condemned
as treasonable— as giving aid and comfort to the enemy ; and its fate was not mourned outside of the circle of its polit
ical supporters. While all right-minded men deprecated a mob, and condemned, in unmeasured terms, its atrocities,
they as loudly condemned the unpatriotic course of the offending newspaper.
* Funeral honors were paid to General Lingan, at Georgetown, on the 1st of September following, by a great proces
sion, and an oration by the late George Washington Parke Custis, the adopted sou of Washington. His oration was
extemporaneous, and wras an eloquent and impassioned appeal to the feelings of his auditors. Only thi'ee years and
six months after the death of the orator, the blood of other patriots, not engaged in the immediate defense of the liber
ty of the press, but hurrying to the national capital to save it from the grasp of fratricides, were slain in the streets of
Baltimore by a mob (April 19, 1801), who, as in 1812, were tenderly dealt with, if not encouraged, by the magistrates of
the city.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 245
Enlistments in the British Provinces. Peaceful Propositions. Action on the Orders in Council and Decrees.
force ;" that they would be falsely told that armies come to give them freedom
and peace ; that emissaries " of the most contemptible faction that ever distracted
the affairs of any nation — the minions of the very sycophants who lick the dust from
the feet of Bonaparte," would endeavor to seduce them from their loyalty.
This address had a powerful effect. The prudence and sagacity of Sir George Pre-
vost, the governor general of Canada, had allayed the political agitations in the Low
er Province, which had assumed a threatening aspect during the administration of
his predecessor, Sir James H. Craig. Now, when war seemed impending, the Legis
lature of the Lower Province, laying aside their political bickerings, voted to furnish
two thousand unmarried men to serve for three months during two successive sum
mers. Besides these, a corps, called the Glengary Light Infantry, numbering, on
the 1st of May, 1812, four hundred rank and file, and drawn chiefly from the Lower
Province, was organized. Its officers promised to double that number. At the same
time, enlistments were made in Acadia and Nova Scotia, while Lieutenant M'Donell
gathered under his banner a large number of Highlanders, settled upon the Lower St.
Lawrence and the Gulf.1 It was soon made evident to the Americans that no de
pendence could be placed upon disloyalty among the Canadians, and that, instead of
finding friends and allies north of the lakes, they would find active foes.
While these events were transpiring in America, there were movements abroad
which faintly promised an adjustment of difficulties between the two governments
without a resort to arms. Immediately after the declaration of war, President Mad
ison, through Secretary Monroe, sent a dispatch* to Mr. Russell, the Amer- a june 2e,
ican minister at the British court, by Mr. Foster, the English minister retir
ing from Washington,2 instructing him to offer an armistice preliminary to a definite
arrangement of all differences, on condition of the absolute repeal of the obnoxious
orders in Council, the discontinuance of impressment, and the return of all American
seamen who had been impressed and were still in the British service. He was au
thorized to promise, on the part of the United States, a positive prohibition of em
ployment for British seamen in the American service, public or private, on condition
of a reciprocity in kind on the part of the British government. He made still more
liberal advances toward reconciliation in a subsequent dispatch,b offering
. . . -,.H . . . a "August 24.
to agree to an armistice on a tacit understanding, instead ot a positive
stipulation, that no more American seamen should be impressed into the British
service.
The British government had already taken action on the orders in Council. We
have noticed the effect of Brougham's efforts in Parliament, and Baring's potent In
quiry on the subject of those orders. In the spring of 1812 a new order was issued,
declaring that if at any time the Berlin and Milan Decrees should, by some authori
tative act of the French government publicly promulgated, be withdrawn, the orders
in Council of January, 1807, and of April, 1809, should be at once repealed. Mr. Bar
low, the American minister at Paris, immediately after receiving information of this
new order, pressed the French government to make a public announcement that those
decrees had ceased to operate, as against the United States, since November, 1810.
The Duke of Bassano exhibited great reluctance to do so, but finally, persuaded that
the Americans would resume trade with Great Britain in defiance of the few French
cruisers afloat, and that the two governments might form an alliance against the em
peror, produced a decree, dated April 28, 1811, directing that, in consideration of the
resistance of the United States " to the arbitrary pretensions advanced by the British
orders in Council, and a formal refusal to sanction a system hostile to the independ-
1 A Ilistnnj of the War between Great Britain and the United States of America during the Years 1812, 1813, and 1814, by
G. Auchinleck, pajres 40-48 inclusive.
2 Mr. Foster sailed from New York for Halifax in the brig Colibri, on Sunday, July 12, accompanied by Mr. Barclay,
the British consul at New York.
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Disgraceful Conduct of a French Minister. Conditional Revocation of the Orders in Council.
ence of neutral powers, the Berlin and Milan Decrees were to be considered as not
having existed, as to American vessels, since November 1, 1810." l Barlow perceived,
by the date of this document, that there was dissimulation and lack of candor in the
whole matter, and, by pressing the duke with questions, caused that minister to ut
ter what were doubtless absolute falsehoods.2 In truth, the French had, throughout
this whole matter of decrees, and the enforcement of the Continental System, been
guilty of deception and injustice to a degree that would have justified an honest na
tion in suspending all diplomatic relations with them.
On receiving a copy of this decree Barlow dispatched it to London by the Wasp,
for Mr. Russell's use. It reached there just in time to co-operate with the British
manufacturers, who had procured the appointment of a committee of the House of
Commons to inquire into the effects of the orders in Council on the commercial inter
ests of the nation.3 Castleraagh, to whom Russell presented the decree, considered
it too limited to induce the British government to make any change in its policy.
But he and his colleagues were compelled to yield. The new ministry, who came in
after Mr. Perceval's death,4 were very strongly pressed by Brougham, Baring, and oth
ers, and menaced with the desertion of their supporters in the manufacturing dis
tricts. Finally, on the 1 6th of June,a Brougham, after a minute statement of
facts brought out by the inquiry of the Commons' committee, and an eloquent
exposition of the absurd policy pursued by the government,5 moved an address to the
Prince Regent, beseeching him to recall or suspend the orders in Council, and to
adopt such other measures as might tend to conciliate neutral powers, without sacri
ficing the rights and dignity of his majesty's crown. Castlereagh deprecated this
" hasty action," as he called it, and stated that it was the intention of the government
to make a conciliatory proposition to the Cabinet at Washington. On an intimation
that this definite proposition was decided upon in the Cabinet, and would appear in
the next Gazette. Brougham withdrew his motion. On the 23db a declaration
b jmig
from the Prince Regent in Council was published, absolutely revoking all or
ders as far as they regarded America. It was accompanied by a proviso that the
present order should have no effect unless the United States should revoke their Non-
intercourse Act, and place Great Britain on the same relative footing as France. The
order also provided that the Prince Regent should not be precluded, if circumstances
should require it, from restoring the orders in Council, or from taking such other
measures of retaliation against the French as might appear to his royal highness just
and necessary.6
Intelligence of this conditional revocation of the orders in Council reached Mr. Fos
ter before he sailed from Halifax, and he obtained from the naval commander on that
station (Admiral Sir John Borlase Warren) consent to a mutual suspension of pro-
1 The new decree was dated " Palace of St. Cloud, April 28, 1811," and signed by Napoleon as " Emperor of the French,
King of Italy, Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine, and Mediator of the Swiss Confederacy."
2 Barlow asked Bassano if the decree, apparently a year old, had ever been published. He was answered no, adding
that it had been shown to Mr. Russell, when Charge d' Affaires at Paris, and had been sent to Serrurier, at Washington,
to be communicated to the American government. The records on both sides of the Atlantic proved this statement to
be untrue. The decree was a fresh one, antedated for diplomatic effect.
3 The examination of this committee, who were authorized to summon persons and papers, commenced on the 29th
of April, and continued until the 13th of June. Witnesses from almost every part of Great Britain were examined, and
in every case the transcendent importance of American commerce to the welfare of England was made manifest by tes
timony. The folly, wickedness, and stupidity of the orders in Council were fully exposed ; and in the volume of almost
seven himdred pages, filled with the minutes of that examination, an awful picture is given of the calamities to trade
which those orders had produced. * See page 233.
5 He decried the sort of half-piratical commerce which England was then pursuing in unmeasured terms. "It is this
miserable, shifting, doubtful, hateful traffic that we prefer to the sure, regular, increasing, honest gains of American
commerce— to a trade which is placed beyond the enemy's reach ; which, besides enriching ourselves in peace and hon
or, only benefits those who are our natural friends, over whom he has no control ; which supports at once all that re
mains of liberty beyond the seas, and gives life and vigor to its main pillar within the nation — the manufactures and
commerce of England. . . . That commerce is the whole American market, a branch of trade in comparison of which,
whether you regard its extent, its certainty, or its progressive increase, every other sinks into insignificance. It is a
market which in ordinary times may take off about thirteen millions [$65,000,000] worth of our manufactures, and in
steadiness and regularity it is unrivaled." 6 American State Papers, ix., 83.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 247
All Armistice. The haughty Assumptions of the British Government. Number of impressed American Seamen.
ceedings against captured vessels. This fact was communicated to Mr. Boker, the
British secretary of legation left at Washington, to be laid before ihe President. Fos
ter also stated that he had advised Sir George Prevost, Governor General of Canada,
to propose a suspension of hostilities on land. This was done, and General Dearborn,
the commander of the American forces on the Northern frontier, provisionally agreed
to an armistice.1 Joy filled many hearts at these.promises of peace and returning
prosperity; but it was of short duration. The United States government refused to
ratify this armistice, or to accept the other propositions of the ex-minister, because the
President doubted his authority to suspend the proceedings of prize courts ; was un
certain how far these arrangements would be respected by the British officers them
selves ; saAV no security against the Indian allies of the English, then hovering like a
dark cloud on the Northwestern frontier ; and considered the arrangement unequal,
as it would afford an opportunity to re-enforce Canada during the armistice. The
President was also apprehensive that a suspension of hostilities previous to receiving
an answer from the British government on the subject of impressment might appear
like waiving that point.
When Mr. Russell presented his instructions'1 to Castlereagh on the sub-
. * v August 24,
ject of an armistice, that minister repliedb that the orders in Council had isi2.
been already provisionally repealed, and that instructions had been sent
to Admiral Warren, on the Halifax station, to propose a suspension of hostilities on
that basis. At the same time the British minister declined any discussion of the vi
tal subject of impressment, and the release of impressed seamen. He even expressed
surprise that, " as a condition preliminary even to a suspension of hostilities, the gov
ernment of the United States should have thought fit to demand. that the British gov
ernment should desist from its ancient and accustomed practice of impressing British
seamen from the merchant ships of a foreign state, simply on the assurance that a law
shall hereafter be passed to prohibit the employment of British seamen in the public
or commercial service of that state." He said that his government was willing to
discuss any proposition concerning abuses in the practice of impressment, or the
substitution of some method of accomplishing the same object with less vexation in
practice ; " but they can not consent," he said, " to suspend the exercise of a right
upon ichich the naval strength of the empire mainly depends" unless assured that the
object might be attained in some other way.2
Of all the grievances complained of by the Americans, that of impressment was
the most serious. It was a practical violation of the sovereignty and independence
of the United States, and was of more consequence to the character of the nation
than all blockades or other obstructions to commerce. It offended, in the highest
degree, the patriotism of every true American ; and it touched not only the political
sensibilities of a free people at a most tender point, but it impressed them keenly with
a sense of social wrong. At that very time there were upward of six thousand cases
of impressment of American seamen on the records of the State Department, and it
was believed that as many more, never reported to the government, had occurred.
Castlereagh admitted, on the floor of the British Parliament, that there were 'three
thousand five hundred impressed servants in the British navy, claiming to be Amer
ican seamen, but said that they might be discharged on proving their citizenship.
American citizens, kidnapped from the decks of American vessels by British cruisers,
and made slaves in British ships, were offered freedom only on condition of proving
i General Dearborn's head-quarters at this time were at Green- >
bush, opposite Albany, in New York. Thither Sir George Prevost ^^
sent his adjutant general, Baynes, to propose an armistice, and .-^T
clothed with power to conclude one. Dearborn and Baynes sisrned / / /"/ J
it on the 9th of August. The agreement was to affect only Dear- £&/ ^^ '
born and the frontiers of New York, and the armies of the British
along the opposite and corresponding line. 2 American State Papers, ix., 73.
248 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Failure of Peace Negotiations. British Letters of Marque and Reprisal. Opinions concerning the War.
themselves to bo American citizens ! Ay, more, subjected, at the same time, as we
have seen, to the liability of receiving degrading punishment for attempting to se
cure that freedom I1
Perceiving no hope of an adjustment of difficulties with the rulers of England, Mr.
» September 2, Russell obtained his passports,a and, leaving Mr. Reuben Guant Bease-
ley as agent for prisoners of war in London, he returned home, intima
ting by his departure that diplomacy between the two goverments had ended, and
that the war, already begun on land and sea, must proceed. On the 12th of October
the English government issued letters of marque and reprisal against the Ameri
cans.2 The armistice on the Canada frontier had been ended for some weeks, and
the war went on.
History has no record of a people more righteous in persisting in Avar than were
the Americans at this time, when their plea for simple justice was so insolently
spurned by the men who then unfortunately governed the British nation. They had
tried every peaceful measure consistent with national honor for obtaining a redress
of grievances, as they did for ten long and weary years, exposed to insult and op
pression from the same government, before the Revolution. They were now determ
ined to secure fully and forever that dignity and independence in the family of na
tions to which their strength and importance entitled them. " It was a war," says
a late historian3 (whose sympathies with the Federalists is manifested on every page
of his narrative), "for the rights of personal freedom — the freedom, suppose, of Brit
ons and other foreigners, as well as Americans,4 from the domineering insolence of
British press-gangs — an idea congenial to every manly soul, and giving to the con
test a strong hold on the hearts of the masses ; in fact, a just title to the character
of a democratic war, in the best sense of that very ambiguous epithet, and even to
be called a second war for independence, as its advocates delighted to describe it."
With these facts before them, writers and speakers of American birth, at that time,
for party purposes, magnified the generosity of Great Britain, its Christian desire for
peace, its magnanimous offers of reconciliation ; and declaimed most piteously about
the cruelty of waging war against a nation kindred in blood, language, and religion,
in the hour of its great extremity, when a desperate adventurer was seeking to de
stroy it. Even at this late day, a Scotch Canadian writer, with all the facts of his
tory in his possession, has ungenerously declared that " the war — the grand provoca
tion having been thus [by conditional repeal of the orders in Council] removed — was
persisted in, for want of a better excuse, on the ground of the ' impressment ques
tion,' " and adds, " The government of the United States stand, then, self-condemned
of wanton aggression on the North American colonies of Great Britain, and of prose
cuting the war on grounds different from those which they were accustomed to as
sign."5
Thus it has ever been with British writers and statesmen of a certain class, who
represent the great leading idea of the boasted Mistress of the Seas when she was
less enlightened than now. We have already quoted the following words of Mon
tesquieu concerning English politics a hundred years ago — " the English have ever
made their political interests give way to those of commerce."6 These words bear
1 See note, page 144.
2 Subsequently to this act, the British government, pressed by the necessities of their army in Spain, freely granted
licenses or protections to American vessels engaged in carrying flour to the ports of that country. This traffic was sub
jected to heavy penalties by Congress, yet it was largely indulged in, because it afforded immense profits — profits more
than equal to the risks. These licenses were cited by the opponents of the war then, and by British writers since, as
evidences of the great forbearance of the British government, for which the Americans should have been profoundly
thankful !
3 Ilildreth's History of the United Stated, Second Scries, iii., 352.
* The Americans justly contended that the flag should protect every man who was innocent of crime, who sought se
curity under its folds, wherever his birth-place might have been. It represented the sovereignty of the nation, and,
as such, claimed full respect.
5 Auchinleck's History of the War of 1812, page 38. 6 gee sub-note *, page 138.
0 F T H E
OF 1812.
249
National Mischief-makers.
The Men to be chosen as Military Leaders.
The Geueral-in-chief.
repetition in this connection. In estimating the character of other nations, men of
the class alluded to are always governed by the commercial idea, and can not com
prehend the fact, frequently illustrated in history (even slightly in their own), that a
people may contend for something more noble than pounds, shillings, and pence.
That class of writers and statesmen, who governed England about a century ago,
believed that a slight remission of taxes on tea would purchase the allegiance and
abject submission of the Americans. The same class of writers and statesmen, of
the Stephen and Castlereagh stamp, who governed England in 1812, believed that a
concession to American commerce would be an equivalent for national honor and in
dependence ; and the same class of writers and statesmen who governed England in
1861 could not comprehehend the great fact that the American government was
struggling for its life against household assassins, without counting the cost in
pounds, shillings, and pence. They are a class who never learn, and are prominent
only as national mischief-makers.
The door of reconciliation, as we have seen, was shut in the autumn of 1812. The
wrar had been already commenced on sea and land. Provision had been made by
Congress for the organization of an adequate army. One of the most important
measures was the appointment of officers to command the troops. A greater portion
of the most distinguished and meritorious officers of the Revolution had passed away,
and there were none of experience left who had held a commission above colonel in
the Continental army. A long season of peace, except during difficulties with the
Indians, had deprived the younger army of
ficers in the service of the opportunity of
real experience in the practical art of war.
Notwithstanding the surviving soldiers
of the old war had advanced far in the
journey of life, and most of them had been
long enjoying the quietude of civil pursuits,
it was thought to be most prudent to call
them to the head of the new army, with
their small experience of actual field duty,
than to trust to those who had never been
under fire. The collector of the port of
Boston, Henry Dearborn, late Secretary of
War, an active Democrat, and then sixty-
° February, one years of age, was appointed1
first major general, or acting com-
mander-in-chief, having the Northern De
partment under his immediate control.1
Thomas Pinckney, of South Caroli-
b March. . ,»/
na, was appointed" second major iren-
HEMRY WEAE1JOP.X.
1 Henry Dearborn was born in Hampton, New Hampshire, in March, 1751. At Portsmouth he studied the science of
medicine with Dr. Jackson Jackson, and commenced its practice there in 1772. When the old war for independence
was impending, he took an active part in politics on the popular side, and gave as much attention as his engagements
would allow to military matters. On the day after the skirmish at Lexington, in April, 1775, he marched toward Cam
bridge at the head of sixty men. He then returned to New Hampshire, was commissioned a captain in Colonel Stark's
regiment, and by the middle of May was back to Cambridge with a full company. He was in the battle of Bunker's
Hill, and accompanied General Arnold in his perilous expedition through the wilderness of Maine to Quebec in the au
tumn of that year. He suffered dreadfully from privations and a fever, but was sufficiently recovered to participate in
the assault on Quebec at the close of the year, when he was made a prisoner. He was not exchanged until March, 177T,
when he was appointed a major in Scammell's regiment. He was in the campaign opposed to Burgoyne, and behaved
gallantly on the field of Saratoga, where he was promoted to lieutenant colonel. He was at Monmouth, in Sullivan's cam
paign, and in the siege of Yorktown. In 17S4 he settled on the banks of the Kennebec as a farmer. Washington appoint
ed him marshal of the District of Maine in 17S!>, and he was elected to Congress from that Territory. He was called to
Jefferson's Cabinet, as Secretary of War, in 1801, which position he filled for eight years. Mr. Madison appointed him
collector of the port of Boston in 1S09 ; and in February, 1S12, he was commissioned a major general in the United States
army. Ill henlth compelled him to relinquish that position, and he assumed command of the military district of New
York City. He retired to private life in 1S15. In 1S22 President Monroe appointed him minister to Portugal, where he
250
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Names of the general Officers appointed.
Declaration of War announced to the Troops.
The first Prisoner.
eral, and placed in command of the Southern Department. Joseph Bloomfield, Gov
ernor of New Jersey,1 James Winchester, of Tennessee, J. P. Boyd, of Massachusetts,
and William Hull, Governor of the Territory of Michigan, were commissioned briga-
» April s, 1812. diers.a The same commission was givenb to Thomas Flournoy, of Geor-
e j™e'4 gia. John Armstrong, of New York, also received the commission0 of a
i July 2. brigadier, to fill the vacancy caused by the recent deathd of General Pe-
« July 8. ter Gansevoort. This was soon followed by a like commission6 for John
Chandler, of Maine. Morgan Lewis, of New York, was appointed quarter-master gen-
' April 3. eral,f and Alexander Smyth, of Virginia, late Colonel of the Rifles, was
* March so. appointed inspector general,g each bearing the commission of brigadier.
Thomas H. Gushing,2 of Massachusetts, then Colonel of the Second Regiment, was
appointed adjutant general, with the rank of brigadier. James Wilkinson, of Mary
land, the senior brigadier in the army, was sent to New Orleans to relieve Wade
Hampton, now a brigadier, and a meritorious subaltern officer in South Carolina dur
ing the Revolution. Alexander Macomb, of the Engineers, was promoted to colonel ;
and Winfield Scott and Edmund Pendleton Gaines, of Virginia, and Eleazer W. Rip-
ley, of Maine, were commissioned colonels.
remained two years. He died at the house
of his son in Roxbury, Massachusetts, on
the Gth of June, 1829, at the age of seven
ty-eight years. He had been living with
his son some time. The house in which
he died is yet (1867) standing on Wash
ington Street, Roxbury. It is a fine old
mansion, surrounded by trees, many of
them rare. It was oc
cupied, when I made
the sketch in I860, as
a summer boardiug-
house by Mrs. Shep-
ard. Not far from
it, at the junction
of Washington and
; Centre Streets, or of
the Cambridge and
the Dedham and
Rhode Island Roads,
was a rude stone, in
which was inserted
an iron shaft and
fork for the support
of a street lamp. It
is called the Parting
GENEBAL UEAKUOKN'S RESIDENCE. gtone Qn Qne gjde
is the inscription, The Parting Stone, 1744, P. Dudley ; on another, Dedham and Rhode Island ; and on
a third, Cambridge. It appears to have been erected by Mr. Dudley, at the parting of the ways, as a
sort of guide-post, and there it had remained for a hundred and sixteen years.
1 General Bloomfield was in New York when war was declared. He had arrived on the 2d of
June, to take charge of the fortifications there. He was the first to announce the declaration of war
to troops in a formal manner. This he did in the following brief order, issued on the 20th of June :
" General Bloomfield announces to the troops that war is declared by the United States ayainst Great Britain.
"By order, R. H. M'PHEHSON, A. D. C."
Government expresses had passed through New York City for Albany and Boston with the news at ten o'clock that
morning.
The first prisoner taken after the declaration of war was Captain Wilkinson, of the Royal Marines, who excited the
suspicions of the people of Norfolk, Virginia, that he was about to communicate the fact that war was declared, to a
British man-of-war known to be hovering on the coast. He was seen making his way rapidly from the house of the
British consul through back streets to a mail-boat about to start for Hampton. He darted on board the boat, and at
tempted to conceal himself. A boat from the navy yard, and another from Fort Norfolk, were dispatched after the
mail-boat. Captain Wilkinson was brought back, and conveyed to the navy yard as a prisoner.
2 Thomas H. Gushing was appointed captain of infantry in 1701. He was in the Sub-legion in 1702. In 1707 he was
appointed inspector of the army ; and in April, 1802, he was made adjutant and inspector, with the rank of lieutenant
colonel. He was promoted to colonel in 1805, and commissioned adjutant general in 1S12, with the rank of brigadier.
He was disbanded in 1815, and the following year was appointed collector of the port of New London. He died ou the
19th of October, 1822.— Gardner's Dictionary of the Army.
THE I'AKTINO
STONE.
OF THE WAK OF 1812. 251
Plan of the first Campaign. Governor Hull opposed to an Invasion of Canada. His judicious Recommendations.
CHAPTER Xin.
'Let Feds, Quids, and Demos together nnite,
For our country, our laws, and our altars to fight ;
While our tars guard the seaboard, our troops line the shore,
Let our enemies face us, we'll ask for no more.
While our hand grasps the sword well prepared for tho fight,
On Washington's glory we dwell with delight ;
His spirit' our guide, we can feel no alarms ;
While for Freedom we fight, we're victorious in arms !"
'N 'Lhe plan of the first campaign there was very little com
plexity. The coast fortifications were to be well garrisoned
by the local militia, when necessary, assisted by some regulars.
The remainder of the troops, regulars, volunteers, and militia,
were to be employed in invading Upper Canada at two points,
namely, on the extreme west from Detroit, and on the Niagara
frontier from the State of New York. It was believed, as we
have seen, that this might be successfully accomplished, and
that Canadian sympathy would complete and make permanent the easy conquest.
This achieved, a victorious army, in a friendly country, might go down the St. Law
rence to Montreal and Quebec, and liberate the Lower Province from British rule,
while Nova Scotia and New Brunswick (according to the opinions of the more san
guine), sympathizing with the movement, would welcome the invaders, and British
rule in North America would cease forever. The Americans, remunerated by their
conquests for commercial spoliations, would soon find British statesmen in power
ready to do justice to an injured nation. The originators of this campaign seem to
have forgotten the costly and disastrous lessons of l775-'76, when a similar attempt
to invade, conquer, and liberate Canada was made, and similar expectations of wel
come were indulged.
Governor Hull, of Michigan, was in Washington City during a part of the winter
and spring of 1812, while legislative preparations for war were in progress. The in
vasion of Canada was freely spoken of in official circles, but his voice was heard
against it. He knew that the British authorities in that country had sent messen
gers to all the principal Indian tribes in the Northwest, with arms and presents, ex
horting them to become the allies of Great Britain in the event of war. He knew
that his Territory was threatened with desolation by these savages, and that, with
out a fleet on Lake Erie, where the British had full sway, and with the inadequate
preparations even for a defense of the Territory which then existed, the idea of a
successful invasion of the neighboringi province was preposterous. He therefore
urged the President to increase the military force in his Territory simply for its de
fense ; and, for the third time, he called attention to the positive necessity of a small
American fleet on the lake.1
President Madison listened to the advice of Hull to some extent. Commander
Stewart was ordered to Washington to receive the appointment of agent on Lake
Erie, and also orders concerning the building of a fleet on those waters. The Presi-
i Immediately after the battle of Tippecanoe, the principal inhabitants of Detroit, alarmed at the aspect of affairs
around them, petitioned Congress to strengthen their defenses. The Territory was too sparsely populated to present
much resistance to the savages. The whole white population of Michigan was only about four thousand eight hund
red, and of this number four fifths were Canadian French. The remainder were chiefly Americans, with a few English
and Scotch.— Lanman's History of Michigan, page 193.
252
PICTOKIAL FIELD-BOOK
Hull commissioned a Brigadier General. Response to Calls for Volunteers. Organization of Ohio Troops.
dent made a requisition upon Governor Meigs, of Ohio, for twelve hundred militia, to
be detached, drilled, and prepared to march to Detroit ; and he requested Hull to
accept the commission of a brigadier
o-eneral, and take command of them.
" 7
Hull declined the proposed honor and
service, expressing a wish not to engage
in military employment. He was final
ly persuaded to accept the appointment,
but with no other object, he said, than
to aid in the protection of the inhabit
ants of Michigan against the savages.
He retained his office of governor of the
Territory, and returned to the North
west, prepared for any duty in that re
gion, civil or military, to which his gov
ernment might call him.
a April o, Governor Meigs's calla for
isi2. troops to assemble at Dayton,
at the mouth of the Mad River, on the
Great Miami,1 was heartily responded to.
At the close of April, the time appoint
ed for the rendezvous, 'more than the re
quired number had nocked to the camp.
The Indian wars and depredations, which
had been instigated by British emissaries, had greatly exasperated the settlers north
of the Ohio, and they were anxious to strike an avenging blow. Many of the best
citizens sought this opportunity to serve their country, and these were found at the
place of rendezvous, enduring all the privations of camp life, without tents or other
conveniences, for more than a fortnight. It was the middle of May before blankets
and camp equipage arrived from Pittsburg by way of Cincinnati. But the troops
had not been idle. They had organized three regiments, and elected their field offi
cers ; and when General Hull arrived there on the 25th of May, and took formal com
mand, they were nearly ready for a forward movement. Duncan M'Arthur was
chosen colonel of the First Regiment, and James Denny and William Trimble were
elected majors ; James Findlay was chosen colonel, and Thomas Moore and Thomas
Van Horn majors of the Second Regiment ; and the late LeAvis Cass, of Detroit, then
thirty years of age, was chosen colonel of the Third Regiment, with Robert Morrison
and J. R. Munson as majors. The veteran Fourth Regiment of regulars, stationed at
Port Vincennes, and commanded by Lieutenant Colonel James Miller, since the pro
motion of Boyd, had been ordered to join the militia at Dayton.
Governor Meigs, under the same date,b ordered Major General Elijah
"Wadsworth, commanding the fourth division of the Ohio militia, to raise,
without delay, three companies of men. WAadsworth obeyed with alacrity, and the
requisite number were soon in the field, selected from the brigades of Generals Mil
ler, Beale, Perkins, and Paine, which composed the fourth division.2
April G.
1 The present fine city of Dayton, the county seat of Montgomery Qounty, then contained about four hundred souls.
It derives its name from General Jonathan Dayton, of New Jersey, who, with Generals St.Clair and Wilkinson, and
Colonel Israel Ludlow, purchased a large tract of land in that section of the state.
2 The following incident connected with the volunteering was communicated to the author by the late venerable
Elisha Whittlesey, then (18G2) First Auditor of the Treasury Department at Washington, who was one of General Wads-
worth's aids : Colonel John Campbell, of Paine's brigade, called out his corps at Ravenna on the 23d of May. After
some stirring music, he placed himself in front of his regiment, and requested all who were willing to volunteer to step
forward. Many complied, but far too few to make the proper number for a company. Finally, Colonel Campbell was
compelled to stimulate them by threatening to resort to a draft. Their colonel had volunteered. It was a bright, sun
ny day, and he saw, high in the heavens, a brilliant star. He told his men that it was a good omen. One, who had
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
253
Rendezvous of Ohio Volunteers.
A Visit to Colonel John Johnston.
Sketch of his Life.
The place of the early rendezvous of the Ohio Volunteers was on the north side of
the Mad River, upon a beautiful plain about two miles above Dayton. I visited the
spot late in September, 1860, just as the heavy clouds of a cold northeast storm were
passing away. We reached the valley of the Great Miami at Hamilton, the site of
Fort Hamilton, twenty-five miles above Cincinnati, at twilight, and then traversed
that beautiful region, thirty-five miles farther to Dayton, Avhere we arrived at a little
past eight o'clock. At an early hour the next morning I started for the place of the
gathering of Hull's army, but a storm, that had begun during the night, was too fierce
to allow a comfortable ramble over the fields, so I rode to the pleasant mansion of
Colonel Jefferson Patterson, a mile or more from the town, to visit the venerable Col
onel John Johnston, who had been in that country as Indian agent, and in the per
formance of other government business, for more than half a century. I found him
in the apparent enjoyment of all his faculties, mental and physical, although the num
ber of his years was eighty-five. He was over six feet in height, and not at all bent
by the burden of years. Under the hospitable roof of Colonel Patterson, his son-in-
law, I spent nearly the whole day, and listened, with the greatest satisfaction and
profit, to the narration of the venerable pioneer's long experience in frontier life.
He had been well acquainted with most of the leading men in that region, white and
red, since the beginning of the century. His residence as Indian agent was mostly
with the Shawnoese. He knew Tecumtha and the Prophet well, and had entertained
the Little Turtle at his table. He informed me that he was writing a memoir of
his Life and Times, and hoped to be spared to complete it. He exhibited every
promise of centenary honors in action and speech, but death has since borne him to
the grave.1
held back, declared that if he could see the star he would volunteer,
and the company was soon filled. They all signed a volunteer roll.
1 The accompanying like
ness of Colonel Johnston is
from a plate published in
Moore's Masonic Review. On
the back of a daguerreotype
of him, which he showed me
at the time of my visit, was
the following, in his own firm
and plain hand-writing :
"Born near Ballyshannon,
Ireland, March 25, 1775. Emi
grated to the United States
with his parents in 17SO, and
settled in Cumberland Coun
ty, Pennsylvania. Was with
Wayne's army on the Ohio, at
Cincinnati, in the winter of
1792 and '93. A captain in
Philadelphia in 1798 ; a clerk
in theWar Department; agent
for Indian Affairs in the
Northwest thirty-one years.;
a canal commissioner of Ohio
eleven years ; paymaster and
quartermaster in the War of
1812; a commissioner fortreat-
i 112 with the Indians in 1841-'2
[for their removal westward;.
He saw it and kept his promise. Others followed,
They then elected Colonel Campbell their captain.
Presented to my beloved
daughter, Julia Johnston Pat
terson, and her family, by her
most affectionate father, JOHN
JOHNSTON."
Colonel Johnston was an ac
tive member of the masonic
fraternity. He was admitted
to its mysteries at Bourbon
Court-house (now Paris), Ken
tucky, in the winter of 1794-'5.
As secretary of a lodge in Phil
adelphia, Vie walked in the
funeral procession in honor of
the deceased Washington, in
1800, when General Lee pro
nounced his famous oration.
A brother member from Ire
land, who walked by his side,
came to Cincinnati fifty years
afterward, and was welcomed
to a lodge there by Colonel
Johnston. — Moore's Masonic
Review, xvi., 1. When, in the
summer of 1845, the remains
of Daniel Boone and his wife
were taken from Missouri and
buried in the public cemetery
at Frankfort, Kentucky, Colonel Johnston was one of the pall-bearers. He was president of the Historical and Philo
sophical Society of Ohio, and member of several kindred societies in other parts of the Union. Colonel Johnston died
at Washington City on the 19th of April, 1S61, at the age of eighty-six years. He visited the national capital for the
twofold purpose of settling some accounts with the government and soliciting the appointment of a grandson to a
cadetship at West Point. He was disappointed in his efforts. The great rebellion was then menacing the existence
of the republic he loved so well and had served so faithfully. Sumter had fallen before its fury, and the fratricidal
254
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Visit to the Field of Rendezvous. Storm and Accident on the Railway. The Country between Dayton and Sandusky.
It was late in the afternoon when I left Colonel Johnston, and rode to the place
of the gathering of the Ohio
militia. We crossed the Mad
River at Dayton, rode up the
turnpike a short distance be
yond the toll-gate, and, turn
ing into a road on the right,
found the place about half a
mile farther in that direc
tion. It is a low prairie,
and when I vis- a September 20,
PLACE OF RENDEZVOUS, NEAR DAYTON, AS IT APPEARED IN 18JO. itpd lta it Wfl«* 18G°'
covered with Indian corn, some standing and some of it harvested. The distant
trees in the little sketch show the line of the Mad River.
I returned to Dayton in time to take the cars for Sandusky at six o'clock. As we
left the station, an immense deep blue-black cloud came rolling up from the west.
In a few moments large drops of rain fell with the sound of hail on the car roof.
Suddenly a flash of vivid lightning broke from the cloud, and a crashing thunder
peal rolled over the land. A shower of cold rain followed. Before it ceased the sun
beamed out brilliantly in the west, and we seemed to be enveloped in a falling flood
of glittering gold. Then from many lips in the car were heard the exclamations,
" How beautiful ! how glorious !" and all eyes were turned eagerly toward the east,
where,
" In pomp transcendent, robed in heavenly dyes,
Arch'd the clear rainbow round the orient skies."
Twilight soon followed, and while moving at a moderate speed, near Cross's Sta
tion, eighteen miles above Dayton, a " switch" in wrong position threw our train off
the track, but with no other serious effect than producing a detention for three hours
in a most dreary place. There was a hamlet of a few houses near, and some of us
went out in the chilly night air to search for food and drink. In every house but
one nearly all the inmates were sick with fever and ague, and only at the dwelling
of a pleasant-spoken and kindly-acting German woman could any thing be procured.
There I obtained some fresh bread and milk, and was offered coffee. I laid in stores
sufficient for a night's campaign, hardly expecting to see Springfield, six miles be
yond, before morning. We were agreeably disappointed. Through the exertions
of the mail agent and others, we were in the enjoyment of comfortable quarters at
the " Willis House," in Springfield, before midnight.
The morning dawned brilliantly. The sky was cloudless and the air was cool, and
at about eleven o'clock I departed for Sandusky. From Springfield northward the
poverty of the soil became more and more apparent, until we reached the high
swampy land of the summit near Kenton. The road lay much of the way through
forests or recent clearings. About a mile north of Hudsonville Station (six miles
O N
south of Kenton) we crossed diagonally the road made by Hull in his march from
the Mad River to the Maumee. It was visible on each side, as far as the eye could
comprehend it, as a broad avenue through the forest, running from southeast to north
west, now filled with a delicate second growth of timber.
From Kenton1 to Tiffin,2 on the Lake Erie slope, a distance of forty miles, the coun
try was newly cleared of the woods most of the way. Few other than log houses
assassin was at the doors of the capital. His clear and active mind comprehended the danger to the liberties of his
country. He sickened, but, it was believed, not seriously. He kept his room ; and, in the absence of his attendant,
laid down upon his bed and expired. His body was buried at Piqua, with the remains of his wife and eight children.
1 Named in honor of Simon Kentou, a noted pioneer.
2 Named in honor of Edward Tiffin, who was president of the Convention that framed the Constitution of the State
of Ohio, and first governor of that state.
OF THE WAR 0 F 1 8 1 2. 255
Arrival at Sandusky. Hull takes Command of Ohio Volunteers. He Addresses the Troops.
were seen. Tiffin is the capital of Hardin County. It is quite a large town, spread
over a considerable surface of a gentle 'eminence on the east bank of the Sandusky
River. On the lower ground opposite is the little straggling village of Fort Ball,
the site of a stockade of that name, which the Ohio Volunteers erected there during
the early part of the war of 1812. It occupied about a third of an acre of ground, and
was named in honor of Lieutenant Colonel James V. Ball, commander of a squadron
of cavalry under General Harrison, whose exploits will be mentioned in connection
with events at Lower Sandusky (now Fremont), nearer the lake. We passed Tiffin
and Fort Ball at five o'clock, and reached Sandusky City, on Sandusky Bay, a little
after sunset. There I sojourned two or three days at the house of an esteemed
kinswoman.
The command of the little army of volunteers near Dayton was surrendered to
General Hull by Governor Meigs1 on the morning of the 25th of May.a The
governor made a stirring had fought for free-
speech on the occasion, /^ j ^f dom in the War of the
and congratulated the sol- ( ./jlfr // Revolution. Colonel Cass
diers on their good for- /x//'Jd%>j /I// ^*» a^so Addressed the troops
tune in being placed un- St/y t/^t&sl-jr-J £^ with eloquent words,
der the command of an ~^S " * which were loudly ap-
experienced officer who " plauded. General Hull
then came forward, took formal command, and, in a patriotic speech of some length,
he stirred the blood of the volunteers, and made them eager to meet the dusky foe
on the distant frontier. " In marching through a wilderness," he said, " memorable
for savage barbarity, you will remember the causes by which that barbarity has been
heretofore excited. In viewing the ground stained with the blood of your fellow-
citizens, it will be impossible to suppress the feelings of indignation. Passing by the
ruins of a fortress,2 erected in our territory by a foreign nation in times of profound
peace, and for the express purpose of exciting the savages to hostility, and supplying
them with the means of conducting a barbarous war, must remind you of that sys
tem of oppression and injustice which that nation has continually practiced, and
which the spirit of an indignant people can no longer endure."3
This speech touched sharply a tender chord of feeling in every bosom, and they
gave their general their fullest confidence. Most of them had never seen him before.
His manner was pleasing ; his general deportment was familiar, yet not undignified ;
and his gray locks commanded reverence and respect. There were some, who pro
fessed to know him well, who doubted the wisdom of the government in choosing
him to fill so important a station at a time so critical, yet they generally kept silent,
' Return Jonathan Meigs was born at Middletown, Connecticut, in 1765, and was graduated at Yale College. He
chose the law as a profession, and commenced its practice in his native town. He was chosen chief justice of the Su
preme Court of Connecticut in the winter of 1802-'3. In the following year President Jefferson appointed him com
mandant of United States troops and militia in Upper Louisiana, and soon afterward he became one of the judges of
that Territory. He was commissioned a judge of Michigan Territory in 1807. He resigned the following year, and was
elected governor of Ohio. His election was unconstitutional because of non-residence, not having lived four years in
Ohio prior to the election. He was appointed United States senator for Ohio in 1SOS. That office he resigned, and was
elected governor of that state in 1810. He was governor during the greater part of the War of 1S12, and was one of the
most energetic men of the West in the prosecution of that war. He was appointed postmaster general in March, 1S14,
and managed that important department of the government with great ability until 1S23. He died at Marietta, Ohio,
on the 29th of March, 1825. Governor Meigs was a tall and finely-formed man, and in deportment was dignified, yet ur
bane in the extreme.
The singular name of Governor Meigs suggests inquiry as to its origin. The answer may thus be briefly given : A
bright-eyed Connecticut girl was disposed to coquette with her lover, Jonathan Meigs ; and on one occasion, when he
had pressed his suit with great earnestness, and asked for a positive answer, she feigned coolness, and would give him
no satisfaction. The lover resolved to be trifled with no longer, and bade her farewell forever. She perceived her er
ror, but he was allowed to go far down the lane before her pride would yield to the more tender emotions of her heart.
Then she ran to the gate and cried, "Return, Jonathan ! return, Jonathan !" He did return ; they were joined in wed
lock, and, in commemoration of these happy words, they named their first child Return Jonathan. He was born in
1740 ; was the heroic Colonel Meigs of which history says so much, and was the father of the governor of Ohio, who
bore his name. 2 Fort Miami, on the Lower Maumee, just below the Falls.
3 History o/ the late War in the Western Country, by Robert B. M'Afee, p. 51.
256 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Hull's Troops joined by Regulars. Honors paid to the latter. The Army in the Wilderness.
wishing to give him every opportunity to disappoint their expectations, win success
for his country, and honors for himself.
On the 1st of Junea the little army commenced its march up the Miami.
a 1C 19 *
General Hull had appointed his son, Captain A. F. Hull, and Robert Wallace,
Jr., his aids-de-camp ; Lieutenant Thomas S. Jesup, of Kentucky, his brigade major;
Dr. Abraham Edwards his hospital surgeon ; and General James Taylor, of Ken
tucky, his quai-termaster general.1 He proceeded to Staunton, a small village on
the east bank of the Miami, and thence moved on to Urbana,2 where the volunteers
were joined by the Fourth Regiment of regulars under Lieutenant Colonel James
Miller.3 They were met about a mile from the village by Colonels M' Arthur, Cass,
and Findlay, at the head of their respective regiments, by whom they were escorted
into camp. They were led under a triumphal arch of evergreens, decked with flow
ers, surmounted with an eagle, and inscribed with the words, in large letters, " TIP-
PECANOE — GLORY. %u On their arrival, General Hull issued an order complimentary
to the regulars and congratulatory to the volunteers. "The general is persuaded,"
he said, " that there will be no other contention in this army but who will most ex
cel in discipline and bravery. . . . The patriots of Ohio, who yield to none in spirit
and patriotism, will not be willing to yield to any in discipline and valor."
The troops were now at a frontier town. Between them and Detroit, two hund
red miles distant, lay an almost unbroken wilderness, a part of it the broad morasses
of the watershed between the Ohio and the lakes, and beyond these the terrible
Black Swamp in the present counties of Henry, Wood, and Sandusky. There was no
pathway for the army, not even an Indian trail. They were compelled to cut a road,
and for this purpose M'Arthur's regiment was detached. The difficulties and labors
were very great, for heavy timber had to be felled, causeways to be laid across mo
rasses, and bridges to be constructed over considerable streams. They also erect
ed block-houses for the protection of the sick, and of provision trains moving forward
with supplies for the army. Industry and perseverance overcame all obstacles, and,
on the 16th of June, the road was opened to the scouts at a point in Hardin County,
not far from Kenton. Two block-houses were built on the south bank of that stream,
stockaded, and the whole work named Fort M' Arthur. The fortifications did not in
close more than half an acre. There were log huts for the garrison, and log corn-
cribs for the food. It was a post of great danger. Hostile Indians, and especially
the warlike Wyandots, filled the forest, and were watching every movement with
vigilant eyes and malignant hearts.
The army halted at Fort M' Arthur on the 19th, and Colonel Findlay was detached
with his regiment to continue the road to Blanchard's Fork of the Au Glaize, a trib
utary of the Maumee. Three days afterward the whole army followed, excepting a
small garrison for Fort M' Arthur, under Captain Dill, left to keep the post and take
care of the sick. Heavy rains now fell, and the little army was placed in a perilous
position. They had reached the broad morasses of the summit, and had marched
only sixteen miles, wrhen the deep mud impelled them to halt. They could go no far
ther. The black flies and musquitoes were becoming a terrible scourge. The cattle
were placed on short allowance, and preparations were made to transport the bag-
1 General Taylor was yet living, at the age of seventy-nine, in 184S, at Newport, Kentucky.
2 Urbana is the capital of Champaign County, Ohio. It was laid out by Colonel William Ward, a Virginian, in 1S05.
The army of General Hull encamped in the eastern part of the village. This being a frontier town, it was afterward
used as a place of rendezvous and departure for troops going to the frontier. The old court-house, built in 1807, was
used as a hospital.
3 These troops came from Vincennes. They had come by the way of Louisville, through Kentucky, and had been
every where received with honors. Their services at Tippecanoe were duly appreciated. At Cincinnati the shore was
lined with the inhabitants waiting to receive them as they crossed the Ohio from Newport. A triumphal arch had been
built, over which, in large letters, were the words, "THE HEROES OP TIITEOANOE." They were received with cheers
and a salute of seventeen guns (the number of the states at that time), and they, only, passed under the arch. Pood and
liquor in great abundance were sent to their camp.— Lieutenant Colonel Miller to his Wife, June 12, 1S12— Atitoriraph
Letter. * Lieutenant Colonel Miller to his Wife, June 12, 1S12— Autograph Letter.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 257
Hull's March toward Detroit. Alarming Reports concerning the Indians.
gage and stores on pack-horses. They built a fort, which, in allusion to the circum
stances, they called Fort Necessity.
Here Hull was met by two messengers from Detroit — General Robert Lucas and
William Denny — whom he had sent from Dayton to that post with dispatches for
acting Governor Atwater. Their report was disheartening. General Lucas had been
present at a council of the chiefs of several tribes at Brownstown — Ottawas, Ojib-
was or Chippewas,Wyandots, and others. All but Walk-in-the- Water, principal chief
of the Wyandots, made peaceful professions. The latter spoke many bold and un
friendly words. The British, too, were making hostile manifestations. They had
collected a considerable body of Indians at Maiden, where they were fed, and armed,
and well supplied with blankets and ammunition. Kind and generous treatment
made them fast friends of the British, and eager to go out upon the war-path against
the Americans. Tecumtha was also wielding his great influence in the same direc
tion ; and to Hull and his friends the situation of Detroit, with its weak defenses,
seemed, as it really was, in great peril. The danger made him impatient to push
forward. At length the rain ceased, the earth became more firm, the army marched
under the guidance of Zane, M'Pherson, and Armstrong (three men well acquainted
with wood-craft), and at the end of three days were on Blanchard's Fork, where
Colonel Findlay had erected a stockade fort, which was called by his name. It was
about fifty yards square, with a block-house at each corner, and a ditch in front. It
was on the southwest side of the stream, where the village of Findlay now stands.
The fort stood at the end of the present bridge.1
At Fort Findlay General Hull received a dispatch* from the War Depart- a June 24,
ment directing him to hasten to Detroit, and there await farther orders. It
Avas dated on the morning of the day when war was declared, but contained not a
word concerning that measure.2 This will be mentioned again presently.
Hull ordered all the camp equipage to be left at the fort, and made preparations
for an immediate advance. Colonel Cass was sent forward with his regiment to
open a road to the Rapids of the Maumee ;3 and a few days afterward the whole
army, excepting detachments left in the forts, were encamped upon a plain on the
eastern bank of that stream, opposite Wayne's battle-ground of 1794. There the
wearied troops had the first glimpse of civilization since they left Urbana. They
were taken across the stream, and marched down its left bank, through a small vil
lage at the foot of the Rapids,4 to a level spot near the ruins of the old British fort
Miami, where they encamped.
So wearied and worn were Hull's beasts of burden when he reached navigable wa
ters connecting with his destination that he resolved to relieve them as much as pos
sible. He accordingly dispatched, from the foot of the Rapids, the schooner Cuya-
hoga for Detroit with his own baggage and that of most of his officers ; also all of
the hospital stores, intrenching tools, and a trunk containing his commission, his in
structions from the War Department, and complete muster-rolls of the whole army.5
The wives of three of the officers, Lieutenant Dent, and Lieutenant Goodwin, with
thirty soldiers as protectors of the schooner, also embarked in her. A smaller ves
sel, under the charge of Surgeon's Mate James Reynolds, was dispatched with the
Cuyahoga for the conveyance of the army invalids, and both sailed into Maumee
1 Howe's Historical Collections of Ohio, page 238.
2 Armstrong's Notices of the War of 1S12, i., 48. Hull's Memoir of the Campaign of the Northwestern Army, page 36.
3 Miami and Maumee mean the same thing. The latter method of spelling more nearly indicates the pronunciation
to an English ear than the former. The Indians pronounced it as if spelled Me-aw-me. So the French spelt it, accord
ing to their pronunciation of i and a, Mi-a-mi. To distinguish this stream from the two of the same name (Great and
Little Miami) that empty into the Ohio, this was frequently called the Miami of the Lakes.
* Now Mnnmee City, nearly opposite Perrysburg, the capital of Wyandotte County.
6 Robert Wallace, one of General Hull's aids-de-camp, in a letter published in a newspaper at Covington, Kentucky,
in 1842, and quoted in the Appendix to General Hull's Military and Civil Life, page 443, says, " His son, Captain Hull
(who was also an aid), in executing this order, unfortunately shipped a small trunk containing the papers and reports
of the army, for which he was afterward severely reprimanded by his father."
K
258 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Hull informed of the Declaration of War. Capture of a Schooner with his Baggage and Papers.
Bay, where Toledo now stands, on the evening of the 1st of July. On the same day
the army moved toward Detroit through the beautiful open country, by the way of
Frenchtown, on the River Raisin, now the pleasant city of Monroe, in Michigan.
»jniy, When approaching Frenchtown toward the evening of the 2d,a Hull was
1812. overtaken by a courier, sent by the vigilant postmaster at Cleveland, with a
dispatch from the War Department, which read as follows :
" SIR, — War is declared against Great Britain. You will be on your guard. Pro
ceed to your post with all possible expedition ; make such arrangements for the de
fense of the country as in your judgment may be necessary, and wait for farther
orders."
This dispatch was explicit and easily understood, but its date, and the time and
manner of its reception, perplexed the general. It bore the same date as the one re
ceived a week earlier at Fort Findlay, in which there was no intimation of a declara
tion of war. That had been sent by a special courier from the seat of government ;
this had been sent by mail to Cleveland, to be there intrusted to such conveyance as
" accident might supply," through one hundred miles of wilderness.1 The former
contained an important order; the latter contained information more important.
This fact was inexplicable to Hull, and remains unexplained to this day. The cir
cumstance made him feel serious apprehensions for the safety of the schooner and her
consort. The question pressed heavily upon his mind whether the British command
er at Maiden, past which the vessels must sail, might not already have heard of the
declaration of war. In that event they might be seized, and valuable plunder as
well as valuable information would fall into his hands. Moved by these considera
tions, he dispatched an officer writh some men to the mouth of the Raisin to stop the
schooner, but their arrival was too late. With a fair wind she had passed that point.
A few hours afterward Hull's apprehensions were justified by events, for he learned,
on the morning after his arrival at Frenchtown, that the Cuyahoga had been cap
tured. While sailing past Maiden, unconscious of danger, at ten o'clock on the morn
ing of the 2d, she was brought to by a gun from the shore. The British armed ves
sel Hunter went alongside of her, and schooner and cargo became a prize. The
troops and crew were made prisoners of war. The vessel with the invalids, being be
hind the schooner, passed up the more shallow channel on the west side of Bois Blanc
Island, and reached Detroit in the afternoon of the next dayb in safety.2
The British commander at Maiden, and those of other posts, had been noti
fied of the declaration of war through the vigilance of British subjects in New York.
Sir George Prevost, the governor general of Canada, was informed of the fact on the
24th of June by an express from New York to the Northwest Fur Company, which
left that city on the 20th, the day when intelligence of the declaration of war reached
there. On the 25th, Sir George sent a courier with a letter to Sir Isaac Brock, the
lieutenant governor at York (now Toronto), but it did not reach him until the 3d of
1 I am indebted to the Hon. Elisha Whittlesey, of Ohio, late First Auditor of the United States Treasury, for the fol
lowing interesting account of the transmission of this dispatch from Cleveland to the camp. Mr. Walworth, the post
master at Cleveland, was requested by the postmaster general to send the dispatch by express. Charles Shaler, Esq., a
young lawyer, then in Cleveland (brother-in-law of Commodore M'Donough), was persuaded to become the bearer, cer
tainly as far as the Rapids of the Maumee, and possibly to Detroit. The compensation agreed upon was thirty-five dol
lars. On searching the mail the dispatch could not be found. It was suggested to Mr. Walworth that it might be in
the Detroit mail. Having been informed by letter of the declaration of war, and believing the dispatch to be of great
importance, he considered it his duty to open the Detroit mail. He did so, but with reluctance, and found the dispatch.
At about noon on the 2Sth of June Mr. Shaler started from Cleveland on horseback. He was obliged to swim all the
streams excepting the Cuyahoga at Cleveland. No relays of horses could be obtained. He reached the Rapids on the
night of the 1st of July. There he was informed that the army was moving rapidly toward Detroit. He pursued and
overtook it not far from the Raisin, at two o'clock in the morning of the 2d, just as the moon was rising. After some
formality he was ushered into the presence of Hull, who was dressing. He was requested to be silent in the presence
of camp listeners. A council of officers was immediately summoned. The army was put in motion at dawn. He ac
companied it to Detroit, where his horse died from the effects of the rapid journey through the wilderness. Mr. Shaler
remained in Detroit until he saw the flag of his country raised over the soil of Canada. He returned to Cleveland
partly on foot, and partly on hired and borrowed horses. a Letter of Dr. Reynolds, dated at Detroit. July 7, 1812.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 259
How British Officers in Canada were informed of the Declaration of War. Hall's Army at Detroit.
July, when he was at Fort George, on the Niagara frontier. He had been informed
of the event by express from New York as early as the 27th of June.1 Colonel St.
George, at Maiden, was informed of it by letter on the 30th, two days before it reach
ed Hull ; and Captain Roberts, in command of the British post on the island of St.
Joseph, at the head of Lake Huron, Avas notified by letter also on the 8th of July.
The letters to the last two named commanders were in envelopes franked by the
American Secretary of the Treasury.2 How these were obtained remains a mystery,
for no man believes that Mr. Gallatin would have lent such assistance to any known
enemy of his country. The fact that he was opposed to the Avar gave currency to a
report that he was willing to cast obstacles in the way of the invasion of Canada, a
scheme which many even of the war - party regarded as unwise. Mr. Madison was
also charged with having, under the influence of Virginia politicians and the wily Cal-
houn, withheld aid from Hull, that the conquest of Canada might not be effected, as
it would, by annexation to the United States, materially increase the area and polit
ical influence of free-labor territory, and more speedily snatch the sceptre of dominion
in the aifairs of the government from the slave-labor states. Assertions of this kind
were prevalent at that day, and have been revived in our time.3
Hull's army rested a day at Frenchtown, and spent the 4th of July in constructing
n bridge across the Huron River, near Brownstown, twenty-five miles from Detroit.
They had passed a hostile Wyandotte village, and observed a large vessel with troops
on board at Maiden. Expecting an attack by a combined force of British and In
dians, Hull's troops slept upon their arms that night.4 They marched early the next
morning ; and at evening, having passed the Rivers Aux Ecorces and Rouge, en
camped at Spring Wells,5 at the lower end of the Detroit settlement, opposite Sand
wich in Canada, where a British force was stationed, and not far from which, up the
river opposite Detroit, they were throwing up fortifications. The camp was upon a
pleasant eminence, eligible for a commanding fortification. From its crown they
hurled a few heavy shot across the river, " which cleared out a number of inhabitants
' The late Honorable William Hamilton Merritt, of St. Catharine's, Canada West, who was a member of the Canadian
Parliament, was an active officer of dragoons during the early portion of the war on the Canadian Peninsula. He left a
very valuable narrative of the events of the war in that section, in manuscript, which his family kindly placed in my
hands. In that narrative I find the following statement: "We received intelligence of the declaration of war by the
United States on the 27th of June, 1S12, from a messenger sent by the late John Jacob Astor to Thomas Clark, Esq., of
Niagara Falls. The express was immediately sent to President General Brock, who was at York."
2 Letter of General Jesup to General Armstrong, cited in the latter's Notices of the War of 1812, i., 195.
3 It is said that when (as we shall hereafter notice) General John Armstrong and President Madison quarreled, the
former, in a pamphlet, boldly made the charge alluded to in the text. They became reconciled, and the pamphlet was
withdrawn, and the whole issue, as far as practicable, was destroyed. One of these pamphlets was, it is said, in pos
session of the late Alvan Stewart. In a letter of that gentleman to "The Liberty Party" in 1S46, he alluded to this
matter as follows : After noticing the points on the frontier to which General Smyth, of Virginia, General Winder, of
Maryland, Generals Wilkinson and Hampton, then of Louisiana, were stationed with their troops, he says, "Four slave-
holding generals, with their four armies, were stretched out on our northern frontier, not to take Canada, but to prevent
its being taken by the men of New England and New York, in 1812, '13, and '14, lest we should make some six or eight
free states from Canada, if conquered. This was treason against Northern interests, Northern blood, and Northern
honor. But the South furnished the President and the Cabinet. This revelation could have been proved by General
John Armstrong, then Secretary of War, after he and Mr. Madison had quarreled." — Writings and Speeches of Alvan
Stewart on Slavery, edited by his son-in-law, Luther R. Marsh, Esq., page 47.
We have seen that Commander Stewart (now the venerable admiral bearing the title of Old Ironsides) was called to
Washington City on public business. At that time, while in conversation with Mr. Calhoun upon public matters, the
latter declared to the former that whenever the control of the national government should pass out of the hands of the
Southern politicians (he spoke for them, and not for the people), they would " resort to a dissolution of the Union."— See
Letter of Commodore Stewart to G. W. Childs, May 24, 1861.
* It was the intention of the British to attack Hull in the swamps of the Huron River. It was prevented by a decep
tive communication to the commander at Maiden by a resident there, and a friend of Hull's. He informed Colonel St.
George that Hull had sent for cannon at Detroit, and intended to cross the river and attack Fort Mjilden. This caused
the British commander to concentrate his troops for the defense of the fort. Meanwhile Hull moved on toward De
troit. Speaking of this event in the march, Robert Wallace, one of General Hull's aids, writing in 1842 to the Licking
Valley Register, Covington, Kentucky, says, "During that day it was remarked to me by several officers that General
Hull appeared to have no sense of personal danger, and that he would certainly be killed if a contest commenced. This
was said to prepare me for taking orders from the next in rank."
5 This locality was sometimes called The Sand Hills. Out of these, on the river side, many springs of pure water for
merly gushed out, and these gave the name by which the place was generally known. For the same reason the French
called it Belle Fontaine. The sand-hills, three in number, were Indian burial-places.
260 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Impatience to invade Canada. Hull determines to do so. Detroit in 1812.
very quick."1 There, and near Fort Detroit, Hull allowed his troops to wash their
clothes and have their arms repaired, while he was awaiting farther orders from his
government.2
Officers and men, anxious to invade Canada, were impatient, and even a mutinous
spirit was manifested by some of the Ohio Volunteers. They burned with a desire
to cross the river and attack the foe. The sight of growing fortifications, that would
endanger the town and fort of Detroit, and soon become too formidable to face in
crossing the river, maddened them, and it was with great difficulty that their officers
restrained them.3 To quiet their tumultuous impulses, Hull called a council of the
field officers. He assured them that he had no authority to invade Canada. They
insisted that it was expedient to do so immediately, and drive off the fort-builders.
" While I have command," he said, firmly, " I will obey the orders of my govern
ment. I will not cross the Detroit until I hear from Washington." The young offi
cers heard this announcement with compressed lips, and doubtless many a rebellious
heart — rebellious toward the commander — beat quickly, with deep emotion, for hours
after the council was dismissed. The general was perplexed ; but, happily for all
concerned, a letter came from the Secretary of War that evening, directing him to
" commence operations immediately," and that, should the force under his command
be equal to the enterprise, and " consistent with the safety of the American posts,"
he should take possession of Fort Maiden at Amherstburg, and extend his conquests
as circumstances might justify.4 He was also directed to give assurance to the in
habitants of the province about to be invaded, of protection to their persons and prop
erty. With such official warrant in his hands, Hull determined to cross into Canada
at once, to the delight of his army, both officers and privates.5
Detroit at that time stretched along the river at a convenient distance back, and
the present Jefferson Avenue was the principal street. It contained one hundred
and sixty houses, and about eight hundred souls. The inhabitants were chiefly of
French descent. Only seven years before, every building but one in the village was
destroyed by fire.6 On the hill, in the rear, about two hundred and fifty yards from
the river, stood Fort Detroit, built by the English after the conquest of Canada a
hundred years ago. It was quadrangular in form, with bastions and barracks, and
1 Lieutenant Colonel Miller to his Wife, July 7, 1812 — Autograph Letter.
2 Colonel William Stanley Hatch, of " River Home," near Cincinnati, kindly placed in my hands a chapter of his un
published "Memoirs of the War 0/1S12 in the Northwest, containing a minute account of events which came under his
own observation during the campaign of General Hull from May until the middle of August. Colonel Hatch was a
volunteer in the Cincinnati Light Infantry, commanded by Captain John F.Mansfield of that city, and from the inva
sion of Canada to the surrender of the army he was acting assistant quartermaster general. To his narrative I am in
debted for a number of facts given in this sketch not found recorded in history. He says that on Monday, the Gth of
July, the fourth regiment of regulars marched to the fort, and that the next day the volunteers marched thither, and
took up their position near the fort, south, west, and north of it.
3 General Hull had been subjected to much annoyance from the Ohio Volunteers from the beginning of the march.
They were militia just called into the field, and had never been restricted by military discipline. They were frequently
quite insubordinate. This fact was brought out on Hull's tria^ " One evening," says Lieutenant Baron, of the Fourth
Kegiment, in his testimony at the trial of General Hull, "while at Urbana, I saw a multitude, and heard a noise, and
was informed that a company of Ohio Volunteers were riding one of their officers on a rail. In saying that the Ohio
Volunteers were insubordinate, witness means that they were only as much so as undisciplined militia generally are.
Some thirty or forty of the Ohio militia refused to cross into Canada at one time, and thinks he saw one hundred who
refused to cross when the troops were at Urbana." — Forbes's Report oftJie Court-martial, page 124. The same witness
testified to the manifestation of a mutinous spirit at other times. On one occasion, he says, General Hull rode up and
said to Colonel Miller, "Your regiment is a powerful argument ; without them I could not march these men to Detroit."
* Dispatch of William Eustis, Secretary of War, to General Hull, dated June 24, 1812.
5 On the morning of the Gth Colonel Cass was sent to Maiden with a flag of truce, to demand the baggage and pris
oners taken from the schooner. On his approach he was blindfolded, and in this condition was taken before Colonel
St. George. He was treated courteously. The demand was unheeded, and, being again blindfolded, he was led out of
the fort. He returned to camp with Captain Burbanks, of the British army.— M' Afee.
6 The city of Detroit is about nine miles below Lake St. Clair. The river, or strait, between St. Clair and Lake Erie
gave it its name, de troit being the French name of a strait. The Indians called it Wa-rva-o-te-woncf. It was a trading-
post of the French as early as 1G20, before any of the French missionaries had penetrated the distant wilderness from
Quebec and Montreal. It was established as a settlement in 1701, when Antoine do la Motte Cadillac, lord of Bouaget,
Moun Desert, having received a grant of fifteen miles square from Louis XIV., reached the site of Detroit with a Jesuit
missionary and one hundred men, and planted the first settlement in Michigan. — Cftarlevoix. The name of the old In
dian village on its site was called by the Ottawas Teuchsa Grondic.— Colden, cited by Lauman in his History of Michigan,
page Gl.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
261
Sites of Fortifications at Detroit.
British Works opposite.
Preparations to cross the River.
covered about two acres of ground. The embankments were nearly twenty feet in
height, with a deep dry ditch, and were surrounded by a double row of pickets. The
outside row was in the centre of the ditch, and the other row projected from the
bank, forming what is technically called afraise. There was a work, called the Cita
del Fort, that stood on the site of the present Arsenal, or Temperance Hotel, in Jef
ferson Avenue. The fort was garrisoned when Hull arrived by ninety-four men. Its
position was one of considerable strength, but, unfortunately, it did not command the
river, and could not damage the armed vessels which the British at that time em
ployed in those waters.1 The town was surrounded by strong pickets, fourteen feet
high, with loop-holes to shoot through. The pickets commenced at the river, on the
line of the Brush farm, and followed it to about Congress Street ; thence westerly,
along or near Michigan Avenue, back of the old fort, to the east line of the Cass farm,
and followed that line to the river. On Jefferson Avenue, at the Cass line, and on At-
water Street, on the Brush farm, massive gates were placed. These pickets, which
had been erected as defenses against Indian incursions, were yet well preserved in
1812.2
The fortifications which the British were erecting on the opposite side of the river
(then about three fourths of a mile wide) would, if completed, not only command the
town, but seriously menace the fort ; so, with all possible expedition, Hull prepared
to cross and drive the British toward Maiden. His force at that time, including the
Michigan militia, under Colonel Elijah Brush, who had joined those from Ohio, num
bered about twenty-two hundred effective men.3
After great exertions, Hull collected boats and canoes sufficient to carry about
four hundred men at a time. These would be too few to cross in the face of the en
emy behind his breastworks, and he resorted to strategy. Toward the evening of
the llth, all the boats were sent down the river to Spring Wells, in full view of the
British, and at the same time Colonel M' Arthur, with his regiment, marched to the
same point. The Brit
ish prepared to dispute
their passage. After
dark, troops and boats
moved silently up the
river toBloody Bridge,
a mile and a half above
Fort Detroit, and pre
pared to cross there.
Finding all silent at
Spring Wells, the de
ceived British believed
that the Americans had
gone stealthily down
the river to attack
Maiden. Under this
impression, they left
Sandwich, and in the
morning the Ameri
cans had no One tO Op- VIEW AT BLOODY BRIDGE IN 1SGO.*
1 At that time the Americans had a small frigate, named the Adams, nearly completed, at the ship-yard on the Ronge
River. a Judge Witherell's Reminiscences of Detroit. 3 Lieutenant Colonel Miller— Autograph Letter.
* This view is from the bridge that was over Bloody Run, in Jefferson Avenue, in I860. Bloody Bridge was nearer
the Detroit River, seen in the distance. It was near the second fence from the river, running from the left in the pic
ture, and at the most distant point where the stream of water is seen. That stream is Bloody Run. The large tree in
the foreground was a whitewood. It was sixteen feet in circumference; and scars of the hullets received into it dur
ing a battle a hundred years ago might still be seen in its huge trunk.
262 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
First Invasion of Canada. Hull's Head-quarters. Hull's Proclamation to the Canadians.
• July 12, Pose their landing. At dawna the regular troops and the Ohio Volunteers
1812. crossed to the Canadian shore to a point opposite the lower end of Hog Isl
and. They looked with suspicious eye upon a stone wind-mill on the shore, for it ap
peared like an excellent place for a concealed battery.1 But there was no resistance,2
and the little army first touched Canada just above the present town of Windsor.
It was a bright and lovely Sabbath morning, with a gentle breeze from the south
west. The American flag was immediately hoisted by Colonel Cass and a subaltern3
over Canadian soil, and was greeted by cheers from the invaders, the spectators of
•the passage of the Detroit at Bloody Bridge, and from the fort and town. They
were also cordially received by the French Canadians. The Americans encamped
on the farm of Colonel Francis Babie,4 a
French Canadian and British officer, with
his fine brick mansion (then unfinished,
and yet standing in Windsor) in the
centre of the camp. This Avas taken pos
session of by General Hull, and used as
head-quarters for himself and principal of
ficers. The little village of Sandwich, a
short distance below, gave its name to
this locality, and Hull's dispatches from
COLONEL BABIE'B EESIl^NOi, j^ head.quarters wenj alWayS dated Sit
"Sandwich."
On the day of the invasion,1" the commanding general issued a stirring
proclamation to the inhabitants of Canada, which was written by Colonel
Lewis Cass. " After thirty years of peace and prosperity," he said, " the United
States have been driven to arms. The injuries and aggi'essions, the insults and in
dignities of Great Britain, have once more left them no alternative but manly resist
ance or unconditional submission." He then declared that he came as a friend, and
as their liberator from British tyranny, and not as an enemy or mere conquering in
vader. " I tender you," he said, " the invaluable blessings of civil, political, and re
ligious liberty, and their necessary results, individual and general prosperity. . . .
•Remain at your homes ; pursue your peaceful and accustomed avocations ; raise not
your hands against your brethren." He assured them that the persons and property
of all peaceful citizens should be perfectly secure. He did not ask them to join his
army. "I come prepared," he said, "for any contingency. I have a force which will
look down all opposition, and that force is but the vanguard of a much greater." All
that he asked of them was to remain peacefully at their homes. At the same time,
knowing that the British had in their service hordes of merciless savages, whose
mode of warfare was indiscriminate slaughter of men, women, and children, or the
1 " Expecting, of course, that the enemy would contest our lauding, we were thinking, as we left the shore, of the
amusing fact that we should doubtless commence our active campaign by attacking a wind-mill."— Colonel Hatch's Nar-
rative. The invasion proved to be about as ridiculous and bootless as Quixotte's attack on the wind-mills. This build
ing was yet standing when I visited the spot in the autumn of I860.
2 " As we were crossing the river we saw two British officers ride up very fast opposite where we intended landing,
but they went back faster than they came. They were Colonel St. George, the commanding officer at Maiden, and one
of his captains."— Lieutenant Colonel Miller to his Wife, July 14, 1812— Autograph Letter.
3 " Tell our much-beloved Father Flint that his sou James had the honor and gratification, as commanding officer, to
plant, with his own hands, assisted by Colonel Cass, the first United States standard on the pleasant bank of the De
troit River, in King George's province of Upper Canada."— Lieutenant Colonel Miller to his Wife, July 14, 1812— Auto
graph Letter.
* Pronounced as if spelt Baw-bee. The house was about eight rods back from Sandwich Street, Windsor, with shops
and mean buildings in front of it. It was a brick house, stuccoed in front, and made to represent blocks of stone. Be
fore it was a garden, the remnant of a more spacious and beautiful one, that extended to the river bank. The house
belonged to a son of Colonel Babie. When Hull took possession of it the floors were laid and the windows were in,
but the partitions were not built. These were immediately made of rough boards. The general and his aids, according
to Colonel Hatch's narrative, occupied the north half of the house, or the portion seen over the heads of the two figures
in the picture. The councils of war were held in the second story, over the rooms occupied by the general. General
James Taylor, of Kentucky, the quartermaster general, occupied a part of the house as his head-quarters, but, being
unwell, he lodged in Detroit.
OF THE \VAR OF 1812. 263
Effect of Hull's Proclamation. A Reconnoissauce toward Maiden. Foraging Expedition to the Thames.
torture of prisoners, he warned the inhabitants that no quarter would be shown to
them if found fighting by the side of the Indians. " The first stroke of the tomahawk,
the first attempt with the scalping-knife," he said, " will be the signal for an indis
criminate scene of desolation. No white man found fighting by the side of an In
dian will be taken prisoner. Instant destruction will be his lot."
This proclamation, the presence of a considerable army, and the sight of the Amer
ican flag flying on both sides of the Detroit, produced a powerful eifect. Many of
the Canadian militia deserted the British standard. Some joined the Americans, and
others returned to their farms. A large number of families, terrified by the tales of
British officers concerning the savagism of the invaders, had fled to the depths of the
forests. These were soon assured, and most of them accepted Hull's promised pro
tection, and returned to their homes.1
On the morning of the 13tha Hull sent a reconnoitring party toward Fort » July,
Maiden, at the little village of Amherstburg, eighteen miles below his head
quarters, a spot associated in the minds of the people of the West with every thing
hideous in the annals of their sufferings from Indian depredations, for there the raids
of the savages upon the frontier settlements had been arranged by Elliott, M'Kee,
Girty, and others. The troops were anxious to break up that nest of vultures ; and
the reconnoitring party, under Captain Henry Ulery, of Colonel Findlay's regiment,
went upon duty with great alacrity. They returned toward evening with intelli
gence that at Turkey Creek, nine miles below the camp, they had been informed that
about two hundred Indians, under Tecumtha (then in the British service), had been
lying in ambush at the southern end of the bridge over that stream, and that the
forest was full of prowling savages. Hull immediately ordered his camp to be forti
fied on the land side, and what cannon he had to be placed in battery on the bank
of the river, for vague rumors came that the British were about to send a small fleet
up to co-operate with a land force in an attack upon the Americans. Rumors also
came of Indians up the river, and a detachment of Sloan's cavalry were sent in that
direction. They sent word back that they had discovered a party of savages. At
eight o'clock the same evening, Colonel M' Arthur, with one hundred men, went in
pursuit. The chase was vigorous, and at Ruscum River the pursuers fell upon the
rear of the fugitives, who dispersed, fled to the woods, and escaped. M'Arthur was
about to return, when Captain Smith, of the Detroit Dragoons, overtook him with or
ders to push forward to the settlements on the Thames in search of provisions. He
instantly obeyed, penetrated as far as the Moravian towns, sixty miles from its
mouth, near which the battle of the Thames occurred in 1813, and found many farm
houses and cultivated fields along the picturesque borders of the river. Among
the homes near its mouth was that of Isaac Hull, a nephew of the general. The
owner had fled. The house was guarded by a file of British soldiers. These were
disarmed and paroled. Boats along the stream were seized, and loaded with the
winnings of the expedition ; and on the 17th M'Arthur returned to camp with about
two hundred barrels of flour, four hundred blankets, and quite a large quantity of
military stores. These were chiefly public property, collected for the British troops
at Maiden, and yet Hull gave a receipt for the whole, public and private.
Meanwhile small expeditions had been sent toward Maiden. Colonel Cass, with
that the proclamation was unauthorized and disapproved by the government. The American commissioners, at the
treaty of Ghent, in the face of Secretary Enstis's letter to the contrary, made the same assertion ; and this proclama-
264 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Affair on the Ta-ron-tee. First Battle of the War. The " Hero of Ta-ron-tee."
two hundred and eighty men, accompanied by Lieutenant Colonel Miller, of the reg
ulars, pushed forward to the Ta-ron-tee, as the Wyandots called it, or Riviere Aux
Canards, as it was named by the French, a wide and deep stream that passes through
VIEW AT TUE ElVIEKE AUX CANAKU8.
broad marshes into the Detroit River, about four miles above Maiden. On the south
ern side of this stream, at the end of a bridge, was a British picket, composed of some
of the Forty-first regiment, Canadian militia, and Indians under Tecumtha.1 Leav
ing a rifle company of forty men in ambush, Cass marched three or four miles up the
stream to a ford, came down on the south side, wading across streams armpit deep,
and confronted the enemy at sunset. There he was checked by a deep tributary of
the Aux Canards, and compelled to make a circuit of more than a mile to gain the
shore next to the enemy. This was soon accomplished. Forming with his riflemen
on each wing, Cass dashed upon the foe with great impetuosity, who fled at the first
fire. Pie had been re-enforced ; and three times he rallied, changed front, and fired
upon the pursuers. Cass chased the fugitives about half a mile, the drums beating
Yankee Doodle ; when night fell, the pursuit was relinquished, and the attacking par
ty returned to the bridge. A courier was sent to head-quarters to ask permission to
hold the bridge, as it would be of great importance in the march of the army toward
Maiden. Hull refused to grant it. It was too near the enemy, he said, to be held
with safety by a small detachment ; and, not having received his heavy cannon from
Detroit, he was not prepared to attack strong Fort Maiden at Amherstburg.2 The
impatient officers and soldiers were irritated by the refusal, and murmured loudly,
but Hull was unyielding. This was the first battle and victory in the second war
for independence. It was hailed throughout the United States as an omen of suc
cess, and Colonel Cass was called the "Hero of Ta-ron-tee." He took two prisoners ;
and from deserters he learned that some of the enemy were killed, and nine or ten
wounded, while he did not lose a man.
That the Americans might have taken Maiden with the means at their command
when they first crossed into Canada there can be no doubt. Why Hull did not at
tempt it is a question not easily answered to-day, unless we look for a solution in the
fact that the Americans had no reliable information concerning the real strength of
1 On the morning of the 17th a re-enforcement of troops arrived at the bridge, consisting. of the remainder of the
Fourth United States regiment, and a piece of artillery, under Captain Eastman. A council of officers was convened.
A majority of them insisted on leaving the hridge, while Colonel Cass and Captain Snelling insisted on holding it, as it
would be of the utmost importance in marching upon Maiden. The overruling of their opinion, and the refusal of Hull
to allow the bridge to be held, caused its abandonment. This was one of the most fatal of the delays of Hull in the
early movements of this Canadian invasion.
2 " This determination," says Wallace (Licking Valleij Register, 1842), " occasioned a delay of nearly three weeks, which
proved most fatal to the results of the campaign. Had we been prepared for an immediate attack on Maiden, our cam
paign would have been as glorious as it was otherwise disastrous, asd the name of General Hull would have been ex
alted to the skies."
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 265
Weakness of Fort Maiden. Effects of Delay. Recounoissauces toward Maiden.
the fort and garrison. The fort itself was weak, and the garrison was weaker. The
militia and Indians were constantly deserting. The fort consisted of four bastions
flanking a dry ditch, with a single interior defense of picketing, perforated with loop
holes for musketry. All the buildings were of wood, roofed with shingles. A few
shells would have destroyed the works. The garrison was composed of about two
hundred men of the first battalion of the Forty-first Regiment, commanded by Cap
tain Muir; a very weak detachment of the Royal Newfoundland Fencibles; and a
subaltern command of artillery under Lieutenant Troughton.1 The exact number
of Indians there at that time is not known. Colonel St. George, the commander of
the post, was so well convinced of his inability to hold it against a respectable force,
that orders were given to the garrison to be ready at a moment's notice to leave the
works. He preferred to risk a battle in the open field to incurring the dangers of a
siege in a fortification so untenable.
But Hull did not advance upon Maiden, and the post was saved and speedily
strengthened. Little enterprises like that in which Colonel Cass was engaged (though
none were so important in their actual or promised results) broke the monotony of
camp life, while most precious time was passing away — " wasting," the young offi
cers said. " I can scarcely restrain my indignation sufficiently while writing to de
scribe the event in deliberate terms," said one of them in 1817.2 "The officers," he
says, " from this occurrence, began to distrust the views of the general, and their
opinion of his abilities began to dwindle into contempt."
A report reached the camp, on the evening of the 1 7th,a that the Queen a Juiyj
Charlotte, a British armed vessel of eighteen guns, at Maiden, was sailing up
the river, and committing depredations on the American side. Colonel Findlay was
immediately detached with a small reconnoitring party toward the Aux Canards. He
found the planks of the bridge torn up, the timbers formed into a breast-work on the
south side of the stream, and the Queen Charlotte lying at the mouth of the river
within easy supporting distance.3 The great advantage acquired by Colonel Cass in
taking possession of that bridge was utterly lost. On the following day, a small
party, under Captain Snelling, went down as a corps of observation ; and, to the de
light of the whole army, Hull issued an orderb for its movement, which gave b
implied assurance of an immediate march on Maiden. Under the direction
of that order, Colonel M' Arthur, the senior officer; marched down the river, on the
morning of the 19th, with a detachment of his regiment, one hundred and fifty strong,
and joined Captain Snelling at the Petit Cote settlement, about a mile above the
bridge.
M' Arthur was instructed to ascertain the situation of affairs at the Aux Canards,
but not to go within reach of the guns of the Queen Charlotte. With his adjutant
and a few riflemen he went to the top of a ridge, about three hundred yards from
the river, to reconnoitre. He ascertained that the battery on the south side of the
stream was supported by about sixty regulars, one hundred and fifty Canadian mili
tia, twenty-five dragoons, and fifty Indians. Some little skirmishing ensued between
the Indians, who had crossed on the timbers of the bridge, and the American rifle
men ; and Colonel M' Arthur was fired upon by a gun-boat, until then undiscovered,
under the bank of the river, while he was reconnoitring the position of the Queen
Charlotte. He also came near being cut off by the Indians. Soon after this the
whole detachment engaged in two skirmishes with the Indians. In the last the
latter were commanded by Tecumtha. The ammunition of the Americans becom-
' Auchinleck's History of the War of 1812, page 51.
* Robert B. M'Afee. — History of tJif late War in the Western Country, page 65.
3 A short distance tip the Rouge River, and not far from Detroit, was a ship-yard (see the map), where a small brig,
called the A dams, was being fitted for service at this time, under the direction of H. H. Brevoort, of the navy, who was
called " Commodore" in Hull's orders. From the 12th to the 20th of July great exertions were made to perfect her prep
arations.
266
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Distrust of General Hull.
M'Arthnr in Command.
ANDINGOF
AMERICANS^JULY 5. I8'I2.
TISH BATTERIES
REDOUBTAND
FIED CAMP EVACUATED
ing scarce, they fell back, and
M'Arthur sent an express to
camp for re-enforcements. On
the arrival of the messenger,
Colonel Cass hastened down
with one hundred and fifty
men and a six-pounder. He
met the retreating detachment
at Turkey Creek Bridge, when
the united forces pushed on to
Petit Cote, and there encamped
for the night. The enemy had
been re-enforced in the mean
time with both men and artil
lery. Cass was anxious to at
tack them, and, at his request,
M'Arthur ordered the whole
force toward the bridge. A
few shots of the six-pounder
were exchanged with the artil
lery of the enemy, but with lit
tle eifect ; and toward evening
the whole detachment marched
back to camp fatigued and dis
pirited, and bereft of all confi
dence in the commanding gen
eral. All accused him of in
capacity ; many of them de
nounced him in private conver
sation as a coward, and a few
expressed the belief that he was
treacherous. These suspicions were confirmed to their minds by his leaving his army
on the 21st of July, and remaining at Detroit fcmr days, without, as they alleged,
any but frivolous pretexts.1
During the absence of Hull, the command of the troops in Canada devolved on
Colonel M'Arthur,2 who resolved to make an eifort to attack Maiden. He dispatched
1 M'Afee, 'pages CO to 68.
2 A biographical sketch of M'Arthur will be found in another part of this work. See Index.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
267
Skirmishes with the Indians.
First Blood shed in the War.
Michillimuckinack.
Captain M'Cullough, with Rangers, to seek a
passage for artillery across the Canards above
the bridge, so as to avoid the guns of the bat
tery and the Queen Charlotte. He found it
impracticable, on account of the deep morass
es that bordered the stream for several miles.
Informed that the Indians had been seen be
tween the Aux Canards and Turkey Creek,
M' Arthur sent Major Denny and one hundred
and seventeen men, all militia, to drive them
back. The major marched on the night of
the 24th, and early next morning found an In
dian ambuscade in the Petit Cote settlement,
where he captured a French captain of a mi
litia company then at Maiden. During the
day he had skirmishes with the savages. In
the last a part of his line gave way, and he
was compelled to retreat in confusion, pur
sued Tor two miles and a
half by the Indians.1 Near
Turkey Creek Bridge the
major endeavored to rally
his men, but in vain. They
crossed the bridge, and met General Lucas with re-enforcements, when the whole
party returned to camp.2 Denny had lost six killed and two wounded. This was
the FIRST BLOOD SHED IN THE WAR.3
While the little invading army were perplexed with doubts and fears, and startled
by dreadful suspicions concerning their commander-in-chief, alarming intelligence
came from the north — the far distant and mysterious region of the1 upper lakes, which
was considered the great hive of the savages. In the bosom of the clear, cold, deep
waters of the strait between Lakes Huron and Michigan — a strait forty miles in
length and four in
breadth — stands a
limestone rock, about
seven miles in circum
ference, rising in its
centre to an altitude
of nearly three hund
red feet, and covered
with a rough and
generous soil, out of
which springs heavy
timber. The Indians, MACKINACK, FEOM BOUND ISLAND.*
speaking the Algonquin tongue, impressed with its shape, called it Michillimackinack,
which signifies The Great Turtle. On the opposite shore, which is the most north-
1 British authorities say that there were only twenty-two Indians, of the Minoumin tribe, in this engagement.— See
Auchinleck, page 52.
2 Major Denny, at his own request, was subjected to the scrutiny of a court of inquiry, over which Colonel M'Arthur
presided. He was acquitted of all blame.
3 The check given to the Americans at the Aux Canards was made the subject of congratulation in a general order
issued by General Brock on the Gth of August.
* On the right is seen the projecting crag called Robinson's Folly; on the left the Lover's Leap; and in the centre
Fort Mackinack, with the village of Mackiuack below it. Old Fort Holmes, now a ruin, is on the higher ground in the
rear. This view is from a sketch by C. F. Davis, made in August in 1839 from Round Island, and is pronounced by those
who have visited Mackinack to be faithful.
268 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Pontiac's Confederacy. Treachery of the Indians. A Massacre. Scenery at Mackinaw.
erly point of the peninsula of Michigan, the French Jesuit missionaries planted the
symbol of Christianity as early as 1671, and called the Head-land Point of Ignatius.
La Salle, the discoverer of the Mississippi, with Father Hennepin and others, were
there in 1679 ; and by the side of the standard of the Prince of Peace they erected a
strong-hold of war, and called it Fort Michillimackinack. The name was abbreviated
to Mackinack (pronounced Mackinaw), and that orthography we will adopt.
When, on the conquest of Canada from the French, this post fell into the hands of
the English, the savages that filled the country remained hostile to their new mas
ters. " You have conquered the French," they said, " but you have not conquered
us." The mighty Pontiac, the Ottawa chief, was then forming his giant confederacy
in the Northwest for the extermination of the English westward of the Niagara.
The principal tribes of that region were the Ottawas and Ojibwas, or Chippewas.
The latter were the most powerful. Their most important village was upon the
back of Michillimackinack, The Great Turtle, in the strait, where a hundred warriors
resided.
On the morning of the king's birthday,a 1763, the forests and Fort Mack-
a Jung 4, » '
inack was filled with the Ojibwas. They professed warm friendship for the
English, and invited the garrison out to see their great game of ball, the favorite
amusement of the Indians. It was a gay and exciting scene. At length a ball went
up from the midst of the players in a lofty curve, and fell near the pickets of the fort.
It was a preconcerted signal. The warriors rushed toward the fort as if in quest of
the ball. Their hands were soon filled with gleaming hatchets, which the squaws
had concealed beneath their blankets. A bloody massacre ensued. After a satur
nalia of several days, the Indians, alarmed by rumors of the approach of a strong En
glish force, took refuge on the island — three hundred and fifty warriors, with their
families and household effects — carrying with them Alexander Henry, an English
trader, who had been saved from the massacre by the hands of friendly Indians. The
following year Fort Mackinack was garrisoned by the English. The Indians had
fled from the island, and settlements upon it immediately commenced. It is a most
delightful spot. As seen from the water, it presents a most striking picture of white
cliffs, contrasting beautifully with the green foliage that half covers them. In the
centre the land rises in wooded heights, in some places three hundred feet above the
lake. The rocks form fantastic shapes. Here may be seen a cave, there a towering
pinnacle, and in other places gorges are span
ned by natural bridges. One of the most
noted of these is the Arch Rock, second only
in picturesqueness to the famous Natural
Bridge in Virginia. The crown is over one
hundred feet above the water, and almost
forty above the ground. It was formed by
the falling out of great masses of stone. The
Rabbit's Peak, the Sugar-loaf, Plutonic Cave,
Devil's Kitchen, Giant's Causeway, and the
Lover's Leap, are all famous places, and clus
tered with stirring legends connected with
the French and English occupation, or run
ning back to the dim old traditions of the
Children of the Forest. But I will not occu
py more space in describing this now famous
summer resort for tourists and sportsmen — a
place I have never visited. I was about to
take passage at Chicago for the strait in the autumn of 1860, when I heard that snows
had fallen there, and that the sceptre of Boreas was omnipotent over all those north-
AKCII liiK'K, .MACK1.NAOK.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
269
Fort Mackinaw and its Surroundings.
Military Occupation of the Island.
A coveted Prize.
FORT MACKINACK.
ern waters. So I turned my
face homeward, content to
rely upon others for all need
ful information. At Detroit
I found the sketch of a dis
tant view of Mackinack Isl
and, printed on page 267 ;
and from Ballou's Drawing-
room Companion I have cop
ied the Arch Rock, and a
near view of Mackinaw vil
lage and fort, sketched by an
officer of the United States
Army.
Mackinack came into the
possession of the United
States in 1796, when the
Western military posts were
finally surrendered by the
British; and in 1812, Fort Holmes,1 on the high southwest bluff of the island over
looking the fine harbor, was garrisoned by fifty-seven men, rank and file, under the
command of Lieutenant Porter Hancks, of the United States Artillery. The post
was a very important one as a defense to the fur-traders, and a check upon the In
dians. The fort stood upon a bluff overlooking the fine semicircular harbor, a mile
in extent, with an uninterrupted view into Lake Huron to the northeast, and Lake
Michigan on the west. It was entirely commanded by the higher ground in the
rear, on which was a stockade defended by two block-houses, in each of which a brass
six-pounder was mounted. On a battery in front were two long nine-pounders, two
howitzers, and a brass three-pounder. These commanded the approach to the gate.
The magazine was bomb-proof, but without much ammunition or many implements
of war.2
Such was the American post in the far off wilderness, isolated from the haunts of
civilized life more than one half of the year by ice and snow, surrounded by hordes
of savages ready to raise the hatchet in the pay of those who might seem to be the
stronger party, and liable, in the event of war, to assault by allied British and In
dians from Fort St. Joseph, on an island of that name about forty miles northeast
from Mackinack, in command of Captain Charles Roberts, and garrisoned with a de
tachment of the Tenth Royal Veteran Battalion, forty-six in number. This fort had
been erected in the spring of 1812 by order of the vigilant General Brock, and that
circumstance had given some uneasiness to Lieutenant Hancks. Rumors of expect
ed hostilities had already been conveyed to him by traders, but the first knowledge
that he received of the actual declaration of war was from Captain Roberts, who, on
the morning of the 17th of July, appeared at Mackinack with his garrison of British
regulars, two hundred and sixty Canadian militia, and seven hundred and fifteen In
dians, chiefly of the tribes of the Sioux, Ottawas, Winnebagoes, and Ojibwas (Chip-
pewas), and demanded the surrender of the post.
Captain Roberts was a vigilant and energetic officer. As soon as Sir Isaac Brock
was apprised, at Fort George, on the Niagara frontier, of the declaration of war, he
1 Named in honor of Lieutenant Holmes, of Rodgers's Rangers, so celebrated in the French and Indian war. He was
in command of Fort Miami, on the Maumee River, in 17C3. He was murdered there on the 27th of May, 1703, through
the treachery of a young Indian girl who lived with him. She represented to him that a squaw lay dangerously ill in a
wigwam not far off, and desired him to bleed her. He went out for the purpose, and was shot. The sergeant who went
out to learn the cause was made a prisoner, and the fort was captured.
2 History of the Second War between the United States of America and Great Britain, by Charles J. Ingersoll, i., 80.
270 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Expedition against Mackinack. First Intimation of Danger. Demand for the Surrender of the Fort.
» June 26 dispatched an express* to Captain Roberts with the important intelligence.
isi2. A jetter from another hand, as we have observed, had already given that
information to Roberts. Brock ordered him to attack Mackinack immediately, if
practicable ; or, in the event of his being attacked by the Americans, to defend his
post to the last extremity. Another order, issued two days later,b directed
him to summon to his assistance the neighboring Indian tribes, British and
American, and to solicit the co-operation of the employes of the Northwest Fur
Company in that vicinity. Still another was issued, giving Captain Roberts discre
tionary powers.
Mr. Pothier, the agent of the Northwest Company, was then at St. Joseph's, and
Roberts laid before him his plan of operations. Pothier approved of them, and placed
all the resources of the company at that point at his disposal ; and he offered to com
mand in person one hundred and fifty Canadian voyayeurs, then employed in the
company's service, and within call.
On the morning of the 16th of July — a bright and beautiful morning — the wind
blowing gently from the northwest, Captain Roberts embarked with his whole force,
civilized, semi-civilized, and savage, for Mackinack, in boats, bateaux, and canoes,
accompanied by two six-pounders, and convoyed by the brig Caledonia, belonging
to the Northwest Fur Company, which was laden with provisions and stores. Mean
while the doomed garrison at Mackinack was ignorant of the declaration of war and
the impending blow. Lieutenant Hancks had observed with some uneasiness the
sudden coolness of Ottawa and Ojibwa chiefs, who had professed great friendship
only a few days before ; and on the morning when Roberts sailed from St. Joseph's,
the Indian interpreter at Mackinack told Hancks that he had been assured that the
Indians, who had just assembled in great numbers at St. Joseph's, were about to at
tack Fort Holmes. Hancks immediately summoned the American gentlemen on the
island to a conference. It was thought by them expedient to send a confidential
agent to St. Joseph's to ascertain, if possible, the temper of the commandant of the
garrison, and to watch the movements of the Indians. Captain Daurman was sent
on that errand. He embarked at about sunset on the 16th.c The moon was
at its full, and Avhen night fell upon the waters they were softly illuminated
by its dim effulgence.
Captain Daurman had accomplished fifteen miles of his voyage when he met the
hostile flotilla, and was made a prisoner. He was paroled on the condition that he
should land on Mackinaw in advance of the invaders, summon the inhabitants to its
west side to receive the protection of a British guard for their persons and property,
and not to give any information to Hancks of the approach of the expedition. He
was also instructed to warn the inhabitants that all who should go to the fort would
be subject to a general massacre !
Daurman was landed just at dawn, and fulfilled the provisions of his parole to the
very letter. But, while the inhabitants were flying from the village to seek British
protection from the blood-thirsty saA'ages, Dr. Day, an American gentleman, more
courageous than the rest, hastened to the fort and gave the alarm. This was the
first intimation that reached Hancks of the approach of an enemy. That enemy had
already landed, and taken one of his two heavy guns, in the gray morning twilight
of the 17th, to the crown of the island, in the rear of the fort, and placed it in bat
tery so as to command the American works at their weakest point. It was too late
for Hancks to prepare for defense. By nine o'clock in the morning Roberts had pos
session of the heights, and the woods back of the fort seemed to be swarming with
painted savages. At half past eleven a summons was made for the immediate sur
render of the fort, garrison, and island "to the forces of his Britannic majesty."
" This," said Hancks, in his report to the government, " was the first intimation I
had of the declaration of war." Haiicks held a consultation with his officers and the
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 271
Surrender of Mackinaw. .The Consequences. Employment of the Indians by the British.
American gentlemen in the fort, and it was agreed that the overwhelming force, and
the character of the assailants, made it expedient to surrender.1 Honorable terms
were allowed by capitulation, and at meridian the American colors were taken down,
and those of Great Britain were put in their place. The garrison marched out with
the honors of war. The prisoners were all paroled, and those who decided to leave
Mackinaw were conveyed in a British cai'tel to Detroit. An order was then issued
warning all those upon Mackinack who would not take an oath of allegiance to the
British government to leave the island within a month from the date of the capitu
lation. All private property was held sacred, and the Indians were thoroughly re
strained. " It was a fortunate circumstance," wrote John Askin, Jr.,a of the » juiy is,
British Store-keeper's Department, to Colonel William Glaus at Fort George,
" that the fort surrendered without firing a single gun, for had they done so I firmly
believe not a soul of them would have been saved." This admission on the part of a
British officer connected with the expedition, and who commanded two hundred and
eighty of the savages, stains indelibly the character of the government that employ
ed such instrumentalities — a practice which the great Earl of Chatham had vehe
mently denounced on the floor of the British Parliament more than thirty years be
fore.2
The capture of Mackinack was of the highest importance to the British interests,
immediate and prospective. Valuable stores and seven hundred packages of costly
furs were among the spoils of victory. The key to the fur-trade of a vast region was
placed in the possession of the enemies of the United States. The command of the
Upper Lakes, with all its vast advantages, was transferred to that enemy. The
prison bar that kept back the savages of that region and secured their neutrality was
drawn, and Detroit was exposed to fearful raids by those fierce barbarians of the
wilderness, whose numbers were unknown, and the dread of whom made all the front
ier settlements shudder with horror.
Such was another result of the criminal remissness, willful neglect, or imbecility
of the Secretary of War. Hancks might have been apprised of the declaration of
hostilities nearly a week earlier than the information reached Roberts. American
instead of British efforts might have been successful, and the captured fortress might
have been a British instead of an American post.
1 " Three American gentlemen, who were prisoners, were permitted to accompany the flag ; from them I ascertained
the strength of the enemy to be from nine hundred to one thousand string. . . . The following particulars relating to
the British force were obtained after the capitulation from a source that admits of no doubt : Regular troops, 40, includ
ing four officers ; Canadian militia, 260. Total, 300. Savaf/es— Sioux, 50 ; Winnebagoes, 48 ; Tallesawains, 39 ; Chippe-
was and Ottawas, 5T2. Total, 1021. It may be remarked that one hundred and fifty Chippewas and Ottawas joined the
British two days after the capitulation."— Lieutenant Hancks's Letter to the Secretary of War, August 4, 1812.
2 In the course of a debate in 1777 concerning the employment of Indians, a member of the House of Lords justified
their employment by saying that the British had a right to use the means "which God and Nature had given them."
Pitt (Earl of Chatham) scornfully repeated these words. "God and Nature ! Those abominable principles, and this
most abominable avowal of them, demands most decisive indignation. I call upon that right reverend bench (pointing
to the bishops), those holy ministers of the Gospel and pious pastors of the Church— I conjure them to join in the holy
work, and to vindicate the religion of their God." His appeal to the bishops was vain. Every man of them voted for
the employment of the savages in a war against their brethren in America, then struggling for their freedom.
During the war of 1812 British publicists continually insisted upon the necessity of conciliating the Indians, making
them allies, and using them as terrible instruments of warfare. One of them, in the British fyuirtcrly Review, No. 4,
called piteously upon the British government to look after the interests of the savages. "The aboriginal natives," he
said, "had beeu our faithful allies during the whole of the American rebellion, yet not a single stipulation was made in
their favor. . . . We dare assert, and recent facts [the aid given by the Indians in the vicinity of Detroit] have gone far
in establishing the truth of the proposition, that the Cauadas can not be effectually anl durdblj defended without the friend
ship of the Indians ."'
272 FICTO RIAL FIELD- BOOK
Alarming Rumors and Facts. . A mutinous Spirit in Hull's Army.
CHAPTER XIV.
" They who have nothing more to fear may well
Indulge a smile at that which once appall'd,
As children at discovered bugbears."
BYKON: Sardanapalus.
ISASTROUS in the highest degree to the American cause was
the fall of Mackinack, and the prospect which it presented to
Hull was justly appalling. His uneasiness was increased by in
telligence that came almost hourly of the web of extreme diffi
culties fast weaving around him. He had sent to the Govern
ors of Ohio and Kentucky for re-enforcements and supplies, but
* he had, as yet, no positive tidings of their approach. From the
north came sounds of dreadful import to a handful of isolated
soldiers. The savage chiefs in alliance with the British at Mackinack had sent cou-
~
riers to all the villages south as far as the Maumee, informing their warriors of that
alliance, of the fall of Mackinack, of the investment of Chicago, and of their active
preparations to proceed to Maiden in great force, to join other warriors there, and
attack Detroit. From the east came a rumor that the Canadians and savages in that
direction were also hasting toward Maiden, and that a detachment of British sol
diers, with artillery, under the command of Major Chambers, had landed at the
west end of Lake Ontario, penetrated in the direction of Detroit as far as the River
Trench, or Thames, and were receiving great accessions of militia and Indians on
their march. The alarm created by these facts and rumors was immediately intensi-
• August 4, fied by farther reports* that Colonel Proctor, of the British army, had ar
rived at Maiden from Fort Erie with re-enforcements.1 Then came over
from Sandwich an intercepted letter from a member of tfie Northwest Company at
Fort William, dated two days after the fall of Mackinack, sdying that, on the receipt
of the declaration of war, their agents ordered a general muster of their forces, which
amounted to twelve hundred men, exclusive of several hundreds of the natives. " We
are equal, in all," he said, " to sixteen or seventeen hundred strong. One of our gen
tlemen started on the 17th with several light canoes for the interior country to rouse
the natives to activity, which is not hard to do on the present occasion. We like
wise dispatched messengers in all directions with the news. I have not the least
doubt but our force two days hence will amount to five thousand effective men.
Our young gentlemen and engagees offered most handsomely to march immediately
for Michillimackinack. Our chief, Mr. Shaw, expressed his gratitude, and drafted one
hundred. They are to proceed this evening for St. Joseph's. He takes about as
many Indians. Could the vessel contain them, he might have had four thousand
more. It now depends on what accounts we receive from St. Joseph's, whether these
numerous tribes from the interior will proceed to St. Joseph's or not."2
In addition to these causes for alarm, Hull discovered a spirit of mutiny in his own
camp which gave him more uneasiness still — a spirit, he said, " which before had
manifested itself in whispers, increased and became more open. It was evident it
was now fostered and encouraged by the principal officers of the militia, and was
cite
1 Hull's Campaign of 1812, page 58.
2 Letter of Mr. M'Kenzie, of the Northwest Company, at Fort William, to Mr. M'lutosh, of Sandwich, July 19, 1812,
ted by Hull in his Campaijn 0/1812, pnge 53.
OF THE WAK OF 1812. 273
Energy and Vigilance of General Brock. Inactivity of Governor Prevost. The Car Brigade.
fast rising into an avowed conspiracy."1 This mutinous spirit we shall consider
presently.
Such was the situation of General Hull and his army at the middle of the first
week in August, when the cheering intelligence reached them that Captain Henry
Brush, of Chillicothe, Ohio, with two hundred and thirty volunteers, one hundred
beef cattle and other provisions, and a mail, were at the crossing of the River Rai
sin, thirty-five miles distant.
The energy and vigilance of Major General Brock, and the lack of these qualities
at this time in General Hull, saved Upper Canada from a disastrous invasion. The
amiable Sir George Prevost, the governor general, was spending precious time at
Quebec in absolute unbelief of impending war, while Brock, who, in Octo
ber,1 1811, had been made "president and administrator of the govern
ment of Upper Canada" — that is to say, lieutenant governor — perceived, from the
moment of his arrival at his post, that war was inevitable, and made preparations
accordingly. He was vigilant, active, sagacious, and brave, and made the most of
his inadequate resources to repel the invasion of Hull. From the beginning he was
opposed to the employment of the Indians, and discountenanced the attempts to
arouse their resentment against the Americans before war was declared ; but neces
sity compelled him to accept their services.2 He endeavored to strengthen the re
mote military posts. When navigation opened in the spring of 1812, he sent a sup
ply of ordnance and stores to St. Joseph's and to Amherstburg. He visited the lat
ter post early in June, taking with him a re-enforcement of one hundred men of the
Forty-first Regiment. But in all his movements he was restrained by his superior.
As late as his departure for Amherstburg, Sir George Prevost, not believing hostili
ties to be near, recommended him to employ the most rigid economy in the public
expenditure, and to avoid all expenses not absolutely necessary, because of the great
difficulty of raising money.
When intelligence of the declaration of war reached Brock he was at York, now
Toronto, the capital of his province. He had just been offered a company of farm
ers' sons, with their draught-horses, for the equipment of a car brigade, under Cap
tain Holcroft, of the Royal Artillery. He was considering this generous offer of the
yeomanry when the startling news arrived. It was immediately accepted. An ex
traordinary session of the Legislature was summoned ; and with Evans, his brigade
major, and his aid-de-camp, Captain Glegg, he hastened to Fort George, on the Ni
agara frontier, and there established his military head-quarters. His intention was
to cross the Niagara River immediately and capture the American fort of that name,
but he shrank from the responsibility of taking such an important step without in
structions, at the same time assuring his superior that it might be " demolished, when
found necessary, in half an hour."3 He contented himself with making preparations
for offensive or defensive movements, as circumstances might require. The militia
of the peninsula between Lakes Erie and Ontario being summoned to his standard,
eight hundred men responded by their presence. Yielding to necessity, he called
upon the Indians on the Grand River for aid, and a hundred came, under John Brant,
bringing promise of the speedy appearance of the remainder.4
By the 3d of July the " car brigade" was completed, with horses belonging to gen
tlemen " who spared them free of expense." Meanwhile the Americans had gath
ered a considerable force on the east side of the river, scattered at different points
1 Hull's Campaign of 1812, page 60. See note 3, page 260 of this work.
2 In a letter to Sir George Prevost, written December 3, 1811, after hearing of the Tippecanoe affair, he said: "My
first care, on my arrival in this province, was to direct the officers of the Indian Department at Amhersthurg to exert
their whole influence with the Indians to prevent the attack which I understood a few tribes meditated against the
American frontier."
3 Letters to Sir George Prevost, July 3 and 25, 1812, cited by Tupper in his Life of Brock, pages 171 and 198.
4 Letter of Brock to Sir George Prevost, July 3, 1812.
s
274
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Alarm caused by Hull's Invasion.
Brock before the Canadian Legislature.
That Body despondent.
FOET NIAGARA, FROM FORT GKOIMjE.
along a line of thirty miles from Buffalo to Fort Niagara, and estimated by General
Brock to be twelve hundred strong.1
On the 20th of July Brock received intelligence of Hull's invasion; also a copy of
his proclamation, with hints of its eifect. Those hints, and a knowledge of the weak
ness of Fort Maiden, alarmed him.2 The Legislature, about to meet at York, would
require his presence, and he could not leave for the field in the West, as he desired
to do. Divided duties perplexed him. He instantly recalled a portion of the militia
whom he had permitted to go home to gather in the grain harvest, and they mur
mured. He dispatched Colonel Proctor, of the Forty-first Regiment, with such re-
enforcements as he could spare, to assume command at Amherstburg, and the inhab-
a July 22, itants of the Niagara border felt themselves abandoned. He issued a coun-
S12- ter-proclamationa to neutralize the effect of Hull's, and hope revived.
Leaving the military along the Niagara frontier in charge of Lieutenant Colonel
Myers, Brock hastened to York, and, with much parade, opened the Legislature in
person. His address was cordially responded to ; but he soon found that the Legis
lature partook, in a large degree, of the despondency of a great portion of the people
of Upper Canada, which Hull's menacing proclamation and actual invasion had pro
duced. Five hundred militia in the Western District had already sought Hull's pro
tection ; the Norfolk militia, most of them connected by blood with the inhabitants
of the United States, peremptorily refused to take up arms; and the Indians on the
Grand River, in the heart of the province, after s.ome of their chiefs returned fi'om a
visit to Hull, refused, with few exceptions, to join the British standard, declaring their
intention to remain neutral. With such promises of failure and disaster before them
if resistance should be made, a majority of the Assembly were more disposed to sub-
1 Brock was very anxious to capture Fort Niagara, but was restrained by his superior. Sir George Prevost believed
it to be a party war, and was unwilling to do that which might rouse the national spirit of the Americans, and unite
both parties against the British. He believed that the war party could not carry on hostilities long. He therefore
commanded Brock to act strictly on the defensive.
2 Hull, as we have seen, invaded Canada and issued his proclamation on the 12th of July, but it was not until the 15th
that Lieutenant Colonel St. George wrote to General Brock on the subject. "It is strange," said the latter, "that
three days should be allowed to elapse before sending to acquaint me of this important fact. Hull's insidious procla
mation,"* he continued, "herewith inclosed, has already been productive of considerable effect on the minds of the peo
ple. In fact, a general sentiment prevails that, with the present force, resistance is unavailing. I shall continue to
exert myself to the utmost to overcome every difficulty."— Brock to Prevost, Fort George, July 20, 1812.
* The editor of the Life and Correspondence of Sir Isaac Brock, speaking of the invasion, says, "Brigadier General
Hull issued on that day the following insidious but able proclamation, which was doubtless written at Washington."—
See Life, etc., page 185.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 275
Symptoms of Disloyalty in Canada. Brock's Influence. His Proclamation. Volunteer Militia.
mit, and to court the favor of the invaders, than to stand np boldly in defense of
their province. Mr. Wilcox, a prominent politician of York or Toronto, and editor
of a leading newspaper, took strong ground in favor of the Americans, but he was
finally overawed by the energy and influence of Brock, and induced to offer him the
use of his pen and services. Wilcox was not a hearty supporter of the British, and
afterward joined the American army, in the service of which he was killed at Fort
Erie. Perceiving this alarming symptom of disloyalty, and apprehending more evil
than good from the presence, in a body, at the capital of these timid representatives
of the people, Brock prorogued the Assembly as soon as it had passed the necessary
supply bills.1 He had sought in vain for its leave to suspend the Habeas Corpus
Act or to declare martial law when necessary ; but, after consultation with his coun
cil, Brock resolved to do both, should certain exigencies occur.2
Brock's confident tone in his speech at the opening of the Legislature, and the
spirit and power of his counter-proclamation, produced a marked change;3 and when,
very speedily, the fall of Mackinack and the American reverses on the Detroit front
ier became known, a reversal of public sentiment was so manifest that Brock was
enabled to write to Sir George Prevost from York, saying, " The militia stationed
here volunteered their services this morning* to any part of the province * Ju]y 29)
without the least hesitation. I have selected one hundred, whom I have
directed to proceed without delay to Long Point, where I propose collecting a force
for the relief of Amherstburg. This example, I hope, will be followed by as many
as may be required.4
We have observed that the Americans on the banks of the Detroit were cheered
by the approach of Captain Brush to the Raisin with men, cattle, provisions, and a
mail, all sent forward by the vigilant and untiring Governor Meigs, of Ohio. A mes
senger soon bore from him to General Hull the information that a party of Indians,
under Tecumtha, and possibly some British regulars, had crossed the Detroit from
Maiden, and were lying near Brownstown, at the mouth of the Huron River, twenty-
five miles below Fort Detroit, for the purpose of seizing the treasures in charge of
1 Tupper's Life and Correspondence of Brock, page 203.
2 Sir George Prevost seemed to have had similar difficulties in the lower province. On the 31st of July he wrote to
General Brock, saying, " I believe you are authorized by the commission under which you administer the government
of Upper Canada to declare martial law, in the event of invasion or insurrection ; it is therefore for you to consider
whether you can obtain any thing equivalent to that power from your Legislature. I have not succeeded in obtaining
a modification of it in Lower Canada, and must, therefore, upon the occurrence of either of those calamities, declare
the law martial unqualified, and, of course, shut the doors of the courts of civil law."
3 Brock's proclamation, issued from Fort George, was calculated to arouse both the pride and the resentment of those
Canadians who were of the American refugee families. In allusion to Hull, he said,*" He has thought proper to in
vite his majesty's subjects not only to a quiet and unresisting submission, but insults them with a call to seek volun
tarily the protection of his government." Eeferring to Hull's assertion of the tyranny of the British government,
Brock asked, "Where is the Canadian subject who can truly affirm to himself that he has been injured by the govern
ment in his person, his property, or his liberty ? Where is to be found, in any part of the world, a growth so rapid in
prosperity and wealth as this colony exhibits? Settled not thirty years, by a band of veterans exiled from their for
mer possessions on account of their loyalty, not a descendant of these brave people is to be found who, under the fos
tering liberality of their sovereign, has not acquired a property and means of enjoyment superior to what were pos
sessed by their ancestors." He then warned them of the immense advantages which they would lose by a separation
from^Great Britain, the greatest maritime nation on the globe, their exclusion from the ocean by being a Territory of
the United States, and the danger of becoming reannexed to France when once estranged from the protection of Great
Britain. " Are you prepared," he said, " inhabitants of Canada, to become willing subjects, or, rather, slaves to the des
pot who rules the nations of Continental Europe with a rod of iron ? If not, arise in a body ; exert your energies ; co
operate cordially with the king's regular forces to repel the invader; and do not give cause to your children, when
groaning under the oppression of a foreign master, to reproach you with having so easily parted with the richest in
heritance of this earth— a participation in the name, character, and freedom of Britons !" He assured them that if, by
this sudden war, and a lack of aid, his majesty's arms should be obliged to yield, the province would not be abandoned,
and that no peace would be made with the United States of which the restoration of the Canadas to Great Britain
should not make the most prominent condition. He then alluded to Hull's threat of " no quarter" for those who should
They seek him not, and can not expect to find women and children in an invading army." Hull's threat was denounced
as inhuman ; and assurance was given that its execution would be considered " as deliberate murder, for which every
subject of the offending power must make expiation."
* Tupper's Life and Correspondence of Brock, page 207.
276
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Re-enforcements and Supplies at the River Raisin.
Defeat of Major Van Home at Brownstown.
Brush, so precious to the little army. Brush was unwilling to risk those treasures
and his small force without an escort, and he appealed to Hull to send him a detach
ment of men for that purpose. The general hesitated, and, when the Ohio colonels
joined in a request that an escort should be sent, he flatly refused compliance. At
length better counsels prevailed, and, after much persuasion, he ordered Major Thom
as B. Yan Home, of Colonel Findlay's Ohio regiment, to proceed to the Raisin with
a detachment of two hundred men from that corps, to join Brush, and afford a safe
convoy for the cattle, provisions, and mail. The major obeyed with alacrity. He
crossed the Detroit with his command on the 4th of August, and encamped that
night on the banks of the Ecorces River, where the soldiers slept on their arms.
They resumed their march early on the following morning. A light fog veiled the
flat country along the borders of the river. The air was still and sultry. Four
spies, under Captain William M'Cullough, preceded the troops, to watch for the en
emy. They lost their way, and, while passing around a corn-field in bloom, they
were fired upon by a dozen Indians who lay in ambush there. M'Cullough fell from
his horse severely wounded, and, before the detachment could reach the spot, the
savages had scalped him and bore away his shining locks in triumph. His country
was thus bereaved of one of the bravest and most devoted of its defenders, and the
whole army sincerely mourned a real loss.
The detachment was moving very cautiously half an hour after this sad occur
rence, when it was joined by some mounted militia, and a few gentlemen who had
taken this opportunity to travel in safety to the Raisin. These, with Major Van
Home, stopped at the house of a Frenchman for water, and were informed by him
that several hundred Indians and British soldiers were lying in ambush, near Browns-
town, for the purpose of intercepting the party. Van Home had become accustomed
to alarmists, and did not credit the story. He marched on in fancied security, his
front guard of twenty-
four men in two col
umns, each column pre
ceded by three dra
goons, and the main
body in the same or
der. The mail, with a
mounted escort, was
placed in the centre.
Where the ground,
would permit, the col
umns inarched a hund
red yards apart. As
they approached
Brownstown the road
passed through a nar
row prairie skirted with
thick woods, and a
creek on the right.
The woods on the creek
came to a point toward
the town, through
THOMAS B. VAN DORNE.
which the road passed
to the ford. On the
left were corn-fields and
thickets of thorn bush
es ; and near the creek
the columns were com
pelled to approach each
other on account of the
narrowness of the way.
Just as they reached its
margin, and were en
tering upon the open
ground around the vil
lage, near the house of
Adam Brown, a heavy
fire, at only fifty yards'
distance, was opened
upon them from both
sides by a large body of
Indians who lay in am
bush in the thickets and
the woods. The attack
was sudden, sharp, and deadly, and the troops were thrown into confusion. Appre
hensive that he might be surrounded, Major Van Home immediately ordered a re
treat. This movement was conducted with much confusion. The Indians pursued,
and a running fight was kept up for a considerable distance, the retreating Americans
frequently turning upon the savage foe, and giving him deadly volleys. The retreat
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 277
Perils of a Supply-train. Loud Complaints against Hull. Cheering Orders. A grievous Disappointment.
continued to the Ecorces, but the Indians, restrained by the prudent Tecumtha, only
followed about half that distance.1 The mail was lost, and passed into the hands of
the British authorities, by which most valuable information concerning the weakness
and disaffection of Hull's army was made manifest, for the officers and soldiers had
written freely to their friends at home on the subject.2 The detachment also lost
seventeen killed and several wounded, who were left behind.3
Hull was greatly disconcerted by the news of Van Home's repulse and loss. His
colonels urged the employment of immediate and efficient measures for retrieval, and
begged him to send a sufficient force to overcome any obstacles likely to be met be
tween Detroit and the Raisin. Brush was in danger, and the army would soon need
the supplies in his charge. The way between the army and Ohio must be kept open,
and no time was to be lost in securing these important ends. " Send five hundred
men at once," they said, " to escort Brush to Detroit." " I can spare only one hund
red men," was the general's disheartening reply. These were too few, and the en
terprise was abandoned for the moment. Brush was left to the mercy of Tecumtha
and his savage followers, and the needed supplies for the army were placed in im
minent peril. Indignation and alarm stirred the blood of the officers.
The mutinous spirit, of which Hull afterward wrote, was now vehemently exhibit
ed. There was plain and loud talk at head-quarters — talk which startled the gen
eral, and caused him to call a council of field officers,*1 the result of which » August 7,
was an agreement to march immediately upon Maiden. Orders were is
sued for the medical and surgical departments to prepare for active duties in the
field ; for the securing of boats at Detroit ; for leaving the convalescents under an
officer at Sandwich, with means for crossing the river, if desired ; for a raft of timber
and planks for a bridge to be floated down the river ; for drawing, on the morning
of the 8th, by the whole army, cooked rations for three days ; and for the return of
" all artificers, and all men on any kind of extra duty," to their regiments imme
diately.
This order diffused joy throughout the little army. They believed that the hour
for energetic action had come. Every man was busy in preparation; and a long
summer's day was drawing to a close, when another order from the commanding gen
eral cast a cloixd of disappointment over the camp more sombre than the curtain of
night that speedily fell upon it. It was an order for the army to recross the river to
Detroit/ — an order to abandon Canada, and leave to the vengeance of their own gov
ernment the inhabitants who, confiding in Hull's promises of protection, had refused
to take up arms in defense of their invaded territory. This order was in conse
quence of intelligence just received that a considerable force of British regulars, mi
litia, and Indians were coming to attack the Americans in the rear, under General
Brock.
But Canada was not to be wholly abandoned. Major Denny, with one hundred
and thirty convalescents and a corps of artillerists, under Lieutenant Anderson, was
left " to hold possession of that part of Canada, and afford all possible protection
to the well-disposed inhabitants." A strong house, belonging to one Gowris, had
been stockaded, and called Fort Gowris. In this, and in a long stone building yet
standing in Sandwich,4 which the American soldiers had used as barracks, the con-
1 For his gallantry in this campaign, Major Van Home, while a prisoner on parole, was promoted to Lieutenant Col
onel in the Twenty-sixth Regular Infantry, and was transferred to the Nineteenth in 1S14. He was disbanded in June,
1S15.
.
2 The battle-ground was about five miles below the present village of Trenton, in Michigan.
3 Among the killed were Captains William M'Cullough, Robert Gilchrist, Henry Ulery, and Jacob Boerstler ; Lieu
tenant Jacob Pentz, and Surgeons Edward Roby and Andrew Allison.— M'Afee, page 74. Hull's Letter to the Secre
tary of War, dated Sandwich, August 7, 1812.
* This building was erected for a school in 1807 or 1SOS. It was in a dilapidated state when I sketched it in the au
tumn of 1860. It occupies an open space in the village of Sandwich. Several poor families occupied it. The place
known as Spring Wells is opposite, and indicated in our little sketch by the buildings with tall chimneys, from which
columns of smoke are rising. These compose the copper smelting-works at Spring Wells. A long wharf on the Saud-
278
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The Army recrossed to Detroit.
Expedition to Succor the Supply-trail!.
Colonel Miller and his Men.
li,M:i:.M'KS AT SANDWICH.
valescents were placed, and Denny was ordered to defend the post to the last ex
tremity against musketry, but to leave it in the event of artillery being brought
against it so powerfully as to make it untenable.1
Sullenly that humiliated army obeyed their overcautious commander, and during
» August, the night of the 7th and moi-ning of the 8tha they crossed the deep, dark,
812' rapidly-flowing river in sadness, and encamped upon the rolling plain be
hind Fort Detroit. Hull's reason for this mortifying termination of his invasion of
Canada was the receipt of intelligence, as we have observed, that General Brock was
hasting toward Amherstburg with re-enforcements, and the necessity of securing a
permanent communication between his army and the sources of its supplies in the
Ohio settlements. He accordingly dispatched six hundred men, under Lieutenant
Colonel James Miller, on the afternoon of the 8th, to open a communication with the
Raisin and escort Brush to Detroit. The detachment consisted of the Fourth Regi
ment of regulars ; two small corps of the First Regiment, under Lieutenant Dixon
Stansbury and Ensign Robert A. M'Cabe ; detachments from the Ohio and Michigan
volunteers — the latter, sixty in number, from the "Michigan Legion,"2 mostly French,
under Captain Antoine Dequindre ; a corps of Captain Dyson's artillerists, then sta
tioned at the fort with a six-pounder, under Lieutenant John L. Eastman (who was .
Miller's brigade major on this occasion), and a howitzer, under Lieutenant James
Daliba ; and a part of Captains Smith and Sloan's cavalry, under the latter. Majors
Van Home and Morrison were associated with Lieutenant Colonel Miller as field
officers. " Commodore" Brevoort, who was a captain of infantry, and appointed com
mander of any government vessels that might be placed on the lakes, and Captain
A. F. Hull, the general's son, who was afterward killed at the Battle of Niagara Falls,
volunteered as aids to Lieutenant Colonel Miller.3
The troops paraded on the north side of Jefferson Avenue, in Detroit, nearly op
posite where the Exchange now stands. When placed in marching order, Lieuten
ant Colonel Miller rode up in front of them, and in his clear, loud voice, said to the
volunteers and militia, " Soldiers, we are now going to meet the enemy, and to beat
them. The reverse of the 5th (Van Home's) must be repaired. The blood of our
brethren, spilt by the savages, must be avenged. I shall lead you. You shall not
disgrace yourselves nor me. Every man who shall leave the ranks or fall back with
out ordei'S will be instantly put to death. I charge the officers to execute this or
der." Then, turning to the veteran Fourth Regiment of regulars, he said, " My
brave soldiers, you will add another victory to that of Tippecanoe — another laurel to
that gained on the Wabash last fall. If there is now any man in the ranks of the
detachment who fears to meet the enemy, let him fall out and stay behind." A loud
wich side of the river is seen toward the right of the position. The British picketed this building, and used it for bar
racks in 1813. i M'Afee, page 7T.
2 This "Legion" had been organized during the winter of 1S11-T2, as a home guard against the Indians, who were
then menacing the Michigan settlers. They were mustered into the volunteer service under the act of February 6, 1S12.
The "Legion" was composed of one company of dragoons, commanded by Captain Richard Smythe, and three compa
nies of infantry, commanded respectively by Captains Antoiue Dequindre, Stephen Mack, and Hubert la Croix.
3 Hull's letter to the Secretary of War, August 13, 1812 ; Judge Witherell's paper on the Battle of Mouguagen, read
before the Michigan Historical Society in the spring of 1859.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 279
March toward the Raisin. Indian Scouts. British and Indian Force. Walk-in-the-Water.
huzza went up from the entire corps, and " I'll not stay ! I'll not stay !" broke from
every lip.1
Miller led his detachment to the River Rouge that night, crossed it in two scows,
and bivouacked on its southern shore. The march was resumed early in the morn-
ino-. Major Thompson Maxwell,2 with the spies, led the way, followed by a vanguard
of forty-men, under the high-souled Captain Snelling, of the Fourth Regulars. The
infantry marched in two columns, about two hundred yards apart. The cavalry kept
the road in the centre in double file. The artillery followed, and flank-guards of
riflemen marched at proper distances. In this order a line of battle might be in
stantly formed. The march was very slow, owing to the difficulty of moving cannon
over marshy ground.
At about nine in the morning — a sultry Sabbath morning — the sky overcast with
clouds, and not a leaf stirring upon the trees, it became evident that an enemy was
near. Several Indians, fleet of foot, were seen flying in the distance. But nothing
of much interest occurred until, in the afternoon, they approached the Indian village
of Maguaga, fourteen miles below Detroit, where a man named White, who, with his
young son, accompanied the expedition as an amateur soldier, and in his eagerness
had outstripped the spies, was shot from his horse near the cabin of the chief Walk-
in-the-Water, behind which some Indians were concealed.3 He was scalped before
the advance-guard could reach the spot.
It was between three and four o'clock in the afternoon when Snelling and his men
reached the Oak Woods, near Maguaga. They had just entered a clearing, surround
ed with an oak forest and thick bushes, near the bank of the Detroit River, when
they received a terrible volley from a line of British and Indians, the former under
Major Muir, of the Forty-first Regiment, and the latter under Tecumtha. This was
a detachment which Proctor had sent over from Fort Maiden, at Amherstburg, to
Brownstown, to repeat the tragedy of the 5th (Van Home's defeat), cut off" commu
nication between the Raisin and Detroit, and capture the stores in charge of Captain
Brush. The party consisted of about one hundred of the Forty-first Regiment, as
many Canadian militia, and between two and three hundred Indians. Among the
leaders of the latter were Tecumtha, Walk-in-the-Water, Lame-Hand, and Split-Log
— all chiefs of note.
The flying savages, seen by the Americans in the morning, and who had been scout
ing for Muir, had entered the little British camp at Brownstown in hot haste, utter
ing the peculiar news-cry, and warning the soldiers that the enemy, strong in num
bers, was advancing upon them. The camp was immediately broken up, and Muir
and Tecumtha, with their followers, pressed forward to Maguaga, and formed an am
bush in the Oak Woods. There they lay for several hours, awaiting the slowly-ap
proaching Americans, and were joined by a fresh detachment from Maiden, under
Lieutenant Bullock, of the Forty-first Grenadiers, who had been sent by General
1 Judge Witherell.
2 Major Maxwell was well known in Detroit. He had been a soldier in the French and Indian War, and was one of
the survivors of the battle at Bloody Bridge, just above Detroit, in "Poutiac's War." He was a brave soldier in the
Revolution. He was with Wayne on his campaigns, and followed Miller npou the heights at the battle of Niagara Falls
(Lundy's Lane) when he took the British battery on the crown. He died on the River Rouge about the year 1834.—
Jurttre" Witherell.
3 Waik-in-the-Water's residence at Magnaga was on the land afterward owned by Major Biddle, and on which he
built his farm-houses. Judge Witherell says, " I knew him well in my boyhood. He was then a man past middle age,
with a fine, commanding person, near six feet in height and well-proportioned, and as straight as an arrow. He was
mild and pleasant in his deportment." The chief was friendly to the United States, and desired to join them at the
beginning of the war ; but the instructions of his government not to employ savages and his own humane impulses
would not allow Hull to accept his services. They were soon exposed to the attacks of the British and their savage
allies; and as the United States could give them no protection, Walk-in-the-Water and his band of Wyandots joined
the British at Maiden. Their hands were in that service, but the heart of the chief was not there. Walk-in-the-Water
died about the year 1817. His totem or arms was a turtle.
Walk-in-the-Water was a Huron, of the Wyandot tribe. His Indian name was My-ee-rah, and he was among the
most active of the chiefs with Tecumtha in the War of 1S12. Far-he, or Kinsr Crane, the grand chief of the Wyandots,
resided at Sandusky. We shall meet Walk-in-the-Water again, at the River Raisin and the Thames.
280 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Battle of the Oak Woods, or Maguaga. The British and their savage Allies defeated. Appearance of the Savages.
Brock from Fort George.1 He had reached Maiden the previous day, and was sent
over to assist Muir and his savage allies. He took with him twenty of his grena
diers, twenty light infantry, and twenty battalion-men. The Indians occupied the
left of the line.2
A single shot on the left of the foe, then the terrible yells of scores of savages, and
then a heavy volley of musketry from the whole British line, were the first intima
tions given to Snelling of the presence of the concealed enemy. He received and re
turned the fire gallantly, and maintained his position until joined by the main body.
Miller's quick ear caught the first sound of battle, and, ordering his men forward at
double quick, he rode at full speed toward the field of conflict. As his troops came
up and formed in battle order, he waved his sword aloft, and cried, " Charge ! boys,
charge !"3 The order was instantly, gallantly, and effectually obeyed ; and, at the
same time, a six-pounder poured in a storm of grape-shot that made sad havoc. A
body of Indians, that had been detached to the left of the foe, and near the river, was
driven back by an impetuous charge by Major Dequindre and his Michigan and Ohio
Volunteers,4 and fled. Their white auxiliaries, who performed but little fighting in
this engagement, mistaking them for Indian allies of the Americans, fired upon them.
The savages returned it with spirit, and for a few moments these friends in the same
service seemed determined to annihilate each other.
The battle had now become general. This sudden blow upon the right wing, and
the confusion produced by the mistake just mentioned, alarmed the centre, and the
whole British line, civilized and savage, wavered. Closely pressed in front, and ex
pecting an attack in the rear, the British regulars and Canadians broke and fled in
confusion, leaving Tecumtha and his savages to bear the brunt of the battle, which
they did with great obstinacy.5 Muir rallied his men, in a good position, a quarter
of a mile in rear of the battle-ground, when, becoming alarmed by firing in the woods
on the left, they retreated " at the double-quick," as Major Richardson said, gained
their boats as speedily as possible, and sped across the river to Maiden as fast as strong
arms and stout oars could take them. The savages finally broke and fled, and Miller
ordered Sloan to pursue them with his cavalry. That officer's courage seemed to
1 The entire British force at Monguaga, including the Indians, has been differently estimated by different writers. It
was probably about equal to that of the Americans.
2 Major Richardson, of the Forty-first, gives the following description of the appearance of the Indian warriors on the
march from Brownstown to Monguaga: "No other sound than the measured step of the troops interrupted the soli
tude of the scene, rendered more imposing by the wild appearance of the warriors, whose bodies, stained and painted
in the most frightful manner for the occasion, glided by us with almost noiseless velocity, without order and without a
chief; some painted white, some black, others half black and half red, half black and half white ; all with their hair
plastered in such a way as to resemble the bristling quills of the porcupine, with no other covering than a cloth around
their loins, yet armed to the teeth with rifles, tomahawks, war-clubs, spears, bows and arrows, and scalping-knives. Ut
tering no sound, and intent on reaching the enemy unperceived, they might have passed for the spectres of those wilds
—the ruthless demons which war had unchained for the punishment and oppression of men." Major Richardson, per
ceiving the necessity of an apology for behig found fighting Christian men side by side with these savage pagans as
brethren in arms, says, but without warrant, " The natives must have been our friends or our foes. Had we not em
ployed them the Americans would ; and, although humanity must deplore the necessity imposed by the very invader
himself of counting them among our allies, and combating at their sides, the law of self-preservation was our guide, and
scrupulous, indeed, must be the power that would have hesitated at such a moment in its choice."— War of 1812. Pint
Series, containing a full and detailed Narrative of the Operation of the Right Division of tlie Canadian Army, by Major Rich
ardson, K. 8. P — Pamphlet, page 52.
Auchinleck, without the shadow of justification, says (page 55), that " every possible exertion was employed by agents
of the United States government to detach the Indians from us, and to effect an alliance with them on the part of the
States." Every honorable exertion was used by the United States to detach the Indians from the British interest and
persuade them to remain neutral, but the government never consented to an alliance with the savages until the practice
of the British made it necessary, as in the old struggle for independence, when Washington said "we must fight Indians
with Indians."
3 Miller was thrown from his horse. He was supposed to be shot, and the savages rushed forward to scalp him.
They were driven back, and in a few moments he was remounted. — Judge Witherell. M'Afee says he remained on foot
through the remainder of the battle, and that the most active part devolved upon Majors Van Home and Morrison.
* Among those who performed gallant service in this charge was Sergeant Nathan Champe, son of Sergeant Champe,
famous in the Revolution as the one employed by Washington to seize Arnold in the city of New York. Lieutenant
George Johnston, who died at Green Bay in 1850, commanded the Michigan Cavalry on this occasion, and was called
the Murat of that corps. — Judge Witherell.
5 For his services on this occasion Tecumtha was rewarded by the British government with the commission of a brig
adier general.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
281
Rebuke of a hesitating Soldier.
Maguaga Battle-ground.
The Wounded saved from Capture.
W AHUAUA JlATTLE-liKOUNl).
have been paralyzed for the
moment. He stood still.
The impetuous Snelling
perceived it, and, rushing
up to him, peremptorily or
dered him to dismount,
leaped upon the horse him
self, and, at the head of his
troops, bareheaded (his hat
having been shot away in
the battle), his red hair
streaming in the wind, he
dashed after the fugitives,
and pursued them more
than two miles, when the
danger of an ambuscade,
the necessary care of the
wounded, and the approach
of night, induced Lieuten
ant Colonel Miller to order
a suspension of the chase.
The rout and victory were
complete. According .to
the British account, the
loss of their regulars was
twenty-four, only one of whom was killed.2 That of the militia and Indians were
never reported. Our troops found forty of the latter dead on the field. The loss of
the Americans was eighteen killed and fifty-seven wounded.3
Miller was anxious to follow up his advantage gained, and push on to the Raisin ;
and at sunset he dispatched a messenger to Hull reporting his success, and asking for
a supply of provisions. Hull ordered Colonel M< Arthur to take one hundred men of
his regiment, and six hundred rations, and go down the river in boats for the relief
of Miller. M' Arthur embarked at a little past two in the morning,a in nine . August 10,
boats, and, under the cover of darkness and a drenching rain, he passed the
Queen Charlotte and the Hunter, and reached his destination in safety. The wound
ed w«re immediately conveyed to the boats, but, in attempting to return by day
light, M'Arthur found himself intercepted by the British vessels. He hastened to
the shore, left the boats, conveyed the wounded through the woods to the road, and
sent them to Detroit in wagons, which, with proper forecast, he had ordered down,
because he anticipated this very difficulty. Colonel Cass had come down in the
mean time, and attempted to secure the boats, but before he reached the shore they
were seized by the British and lost.
Miller was injured by the fall from his horse at the beginning of the battle, and was
so ill that he could not proceed toward the Raisin immediately. He sent to Hull
for jnore provisions. His messenger met Cass below the River Aux Ecorces, and
i This is from a pencil sketch made by an officer of the United States Army in 1816. Beyond the. opening out of the
k Woods, mentioned in the text, is seen the Detroit River, with Grosse Isle in the distance. The Indian village near
which this battle was fought is spelled sometimes Maguaga, according to the orthography of the official dispatches ;
Mongenava, according to Mellish's Military Atlas, from which our map on page 266 was copied ; and Monyuayon, accord
ing to Judge Witherell and other local writers. I have adopted the orthography of the dispatches. The battle-ground
was at or near the present village of Trenton, in Michigan.
* Hull's Letter to the Secretary of War, August 13, 1812 ; Major Richardson, quoted by Auchinleck, pages 53 and 54 ;
M'Afee, pages 78 and 79 ; Judge Witherell's Paper, read before the Michigan Historical Society in the Spring of 1857 ;
Lieutenant Colonel Miller to his Wife, August 27, 1812— Autograph Letter.
3 Major Muir and Lieutenant Sutherland were the only British officers wounded. Tecumtha was also slightly wonnd-
ed in the neck by a buck-shot.
282 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Disappointment of the Troops. Disposition to deprive Hull of Command. The British before Detroit.
acquainted him with the delay. Cass knew that time was precious, for Proctor, re
lieved of all appi'ehensions of an attack upon Maiden, would doubtless send over a
larger force of Europeans and savages to bar the way to the Raisin, and attack Brush
there. He therefore sent this laconic dispatch to Hull : " SIR, — Colonel Miller is«ick;
may I relieve him ? — L. CASS." Receiving no reply, he returned to Detroit, meeting
on his way an express bearing to Miller positive orders for the whole detachment to
return to head-quarters. Thus another favorable moment for achieving great good
was lost by what seemed the timidity and instability of the commanding general.
Miller was only twenty-two miles from the Raisin. Dispirited in the extreme, he
and his troops left their camp at noon on the day after the battle, and made their
way slowly back to Detroit.
Hull's shortcomings were freely spoken of, and the belief was inculcated among
the troops that he was either traitorously inclined, or had become an imbecile. At
times he would be shut up in his room1 for hours, inaccessible to all but his son, who
was his aid-de-camp ; at others he appeared abstracted and confused — " sullen in de
portment, and wavering in his orders."2 His incompetency to meet the crisis at hand
was felt by all, and his officers of every grade, after consultation, came to the conclu
sion that the salvation of the little army would only be found in depriving him of
the command and giving it to another.3 Lieutenant Colonel Miller was invited to
accept it. He declined, but expressed his Avillingness to unite with them in giving
the command to M'Arthur, the senior officer of the volunteers, and one of the most
vigilant and active soldiers in the army. It would be a bold step for subordinates
to strip a commanding general of his sword and epaulets jvhile at the head of his
army, and, when they were ready to act, they naturally hesitated. Relief might
speedily come from Ohio. Governor Meigs, it was suggested, might accompany it
in person, and upon him the honor might properly be laid. Colonel Cass acted
•August 12, promptly on this suggestion, and wrotea an energetic letter to the gov
ernor, urging him to press forward with re-enforcements and supplies.
He informed him that the army had been reduced to a critical situation " from causes
not fit to be put on paper." He told him that the golden opportunity for success
had passed by, and mildly remarked that, unfortunately, the general and the princi
pal officers could not view the situation and prospect of affairs in the same light.
" That Maiden," he said, " might easily have been reduced, I have no doubt. . . .
But instead of looking back, we must now look forward. . . . Our supplies must
come from our state." He called for two thousand men at least, and added, "It is
the unanimous wish of the army that you should accompany them." •
Before this letter was shown to the other officers a change in affairs had taken
place. The British were congregating in force at Sandwich, and, in view of this men
ace, the following postscript was added to the letter : " Since the other side of this
letter was written, new circumstances have arisen. The British force is opposite, and
our situation has nearly reached its crisis. Believe all the bearer will tell you.
Believe it, however it may astonish you, as much as if told by one of us. Even a
c**** is talked of by the *****. The bearer will supply the vacancy.4 On you we
i "In my boyhood," says Judge Witherell, " I knew him well. His appearance was venerable and dignified ; his heart
was the seat of kindness ; he was unquestionably an honest man. The general had a most excellent familj-. Mrs.
Hull, a portly, fine-looking woman, made it the principal business of her life to visit the sick and provide for the desti
tute poor." 2 M'Afee, page 82.
3 Colonel Hatch says, "On a private consultation on the 12th of August with those known to be the most active of
the subordinate officers and men of the volunteer regiments, it was decided to get up a Round-Robin* (so called), ad
dressed to the three colonels, requesting the arrest or displacement of the general from his command, and vesting, by
common consent, the eldest colonel, M'Arthur, with all the powers incidental to chief command.
4 "The doubtful fate of this letter rendered it necessary to use circumspection in its details, and therefore the blanks
were left. The word 'capitulation' will fill the first, and 'commanding general' the other."— Colonel Cass to the Sec
retary of War, Washington City, September 10, 1812.
* A phrase (rond ruban) originally derived from a custom of the French officers, who, on signing a remonstrance or
petition to their superiors, wrote their names in a circular form, so that it might be impossible to ascertain who had
headed the list.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
Pecuniary Aid for Brock.
He proceeds to Fort Maiden.
Conference with Indians.
depend." This was signed by Cass, Findlay, M' Arthur, Taylor, and Colonel Elijah
Brush, of the Michigan militia.
General Brock joined Proctor at Amherstburg or Maiden on the night of the
13th.a Relieved from civil duties on the 6th, he procured pecuniary aid » August,
from an association of gentlemen, and, with two hundred volunteers, he 1812>
sailed from York for Burlington Bay, at the west end of Lake Ontario. He had been
called upon to repel a formidable invasion with few troops, and without a money-
chest, provisions, blankets, or even shoes for the militia whom he expected to muster
into the service. Those gentlemen known as "The Niagara and Queenston Associ
ation" supplied him with several thousand pounds sterling in the form of bank-notes,
which were afterward redeemed with army bills. He had sent forty of the Forty-
first Regiment to Long Point, on Lake Erie, to gather the militia there, and fifty more
of the same regiment were sent to the Indians in the interior, to induce them to en
gage in the expedition. On his way across the country he held a coun
cil1* at the Mohawk settlement on the Grand River, and sixty warriors
promised to join him on the 10th.
With his few regulars and three hundred militia, Brock embarked in boats, bat-
August 8.
teaux, and canoes (sup
plied by the neighbor
ing farmers) at Long
Point,0 a n d,
after a rough
voyage of five days
and nights, nearly two
hundred miles in ex
tent, he reached Am
herstburg a little be
fore midnight of the
13th. The patient en
durance of his troops
delighted him. He was
welcomed by a feu de
joie of musketry from
Tecumtha and his band
on Bois Blanc Island,
before Amherstburg.
Half an hour after
ward that warrior was
brought over by Colo
nel Elliot, the Indian
agent whom we have
already spoken of (who
lived near Amherst
burg), and Brock was
introduced to the great
chief of the Shawno-
ese.1 It being late, the
conference was short,
and they parted with
the understanding that
a council would be call
ed immediately.
Brock held a confer
ence with the Indians
on the morning of the
1 4th. About one thou
sand were present. The
general opened the in
terview by informing
i Captain J. B. Glegg, Brock's aid-de-camp, has left on record the following description of Tecumtha at that inter
view : " Tecumseh's appearance was very prepossessing : his figure light, and finely proportioned ; his age I imagined
to be about five-and-thirty [he was about forty] ; in height, five feet nine or ten inches ; his complexion light copper ;
countenance oval, with bright hazel eyes, bearing cheerfulness, energy, and decision. Three small silver crosses or
coronets were suspended from the lower cartilage of his aquiline nose, and
a large silver medallion of George the Third, which I believe his ancestor
had received from Lord Dorchester when Governor General of Canada, was
attached to a mixed-colored wampum string and hung round his neck. His
dress consisted of a plain, neat uniform, tanned deer-skin jacket, with long
trowsers of the same material, the seams of both being covered with neatly-
cut fringe, and he had on his feet leather moccasins, much ornamented with
work made from the dyed quills of the porcupine."
The portrait of Tecnmtha above given is from a pencil sketch by Pierre le Dru, mentioned in note 1, page 189. In
this I have given only the head by Le Dru. The cap was red, the band ornamented with colored porcupines' quills, and
in front was a single eagle's feather, black, with a white tip. The sketch of his dress (and the medal above described),
in which he appears as a brigadier general of the British army, is from a rough drawing which I saw in Montreal in the
summer of 185S, made at Maiden soon after the surrender of Detroit, where the Indians celebrated that event by a grand
feast. It was only on gala occasions that Tecumtha was seen in full dress. The sketch did not pretend to give a true
likeness of the chief, and was valuable only as a delineation of his costume. From the two we are enabled to give a
pretty faithful picture of the great Shawnoese warrior and statesman as he appeared in his best mood. When in full
dress he wore a cocked hat and plume, but would not give up his blue breech-cloth, red leggins fringed with buckskin,
and buckskin moccasins.
284 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Amnesty offered and accepted. Preparations for attacking Detroit. Its Surrender predetermined.
them that he had come to assist them in driving the Americans from Detroit and
their rightful hunting-grounds north of the Ohio. His speech was highly applauded
by Tecumtha, who replied in an eloquent and sagacious manner, and gave Brock a
high opinion of his genius.1 Not deeming it prudent to reveal too much of his plan
of operations to the assembled savages, the latter invited Tecumtha, with a few old
chiefs, to Colonel Elliott's quarters, and there he laid the whole matter before them.
The chiefs listened with great attention, and assured Brock that he should have their
cordial co-operation. In reply to his question whether the warriors could be re
strained from drinking whisky, Tecumtha replied that, before leaving their country
on the Wabash, they had promised him that they would not taste a drop of the fire
water until they had humbled the big-knives — the Americans — and that they might
be relied on.2
Brock had issued a general order early in the morning of the 14th, in which he
calmed the fears of those inhabitants who had deserted from the British army, or had
taken protections from Hull, by expressing his willingness to believe that their con
duct proceeded more from their anxiety to get in their harvests than from " any pre
dilection for the principles and government of the United States." This ingenious
offer of amnesty by implication was sent out upon the roads northward, and was ac
cepted by the great body of the inhabitants, who were alarmed and exasperated by
Hull's desertion of them ; and when, on the same day, Brock marched from Maiden
to Sandwich, he passed through a country of friends.
» August 11, Major Denny had already evacuated Fort Gowris,a and, with the con
valescents and troops under his command, had crossed the river to De
troit. The American camp at Sandwich and vicinity was immediately taken pos-'
session of by British troops, under Captain Dixon, of the Royal Engineers (whom we
shall meet at Fort Stephenson), and a battery was planted so as to command Detroit.
The American artillerists begged permission to open upon them from the fort with
twenty-four pounders,3 but Hull would not grant it, and the enemy was allowed to
complete his preparations for reducing the fort without molestation. The brave
Captain Srielling asked permission to go over in the night and take the works, but
Hull would listen to no propositions of the kind. He seemed unwilling to injure or
exasperate the enemy.
That General Hull had determined to surrender Detroit, under certain contingen
cies, rather than risk an engagement with, or a protracted siege by the British and
Indians, at least two or three days before that deed was accomplished, the careful
student of the history of that affair can not doubt. All of his movements indicate
this, according to the positive testimony given by M'Afee, and of Colonel Stanley
Hatch's narrative, already cited. Hatch was Hull's assistant quartermaster general.
Hull seemed convinced that, under all the circumstances, the post would be untenable
against such a force as the enemy might bring to bear upon it, unless his communi
cation with Ohio might be kept up. Dearborn had failed to make any diversions in
his favor on the Niagara or at Kingston, as he had been directed to do.4 His com
munication with Ohio (his only source of supply), lying beyond a trackless wilder-
1 Brock wrote of Tecumtha as follows : " A more sagacious or a more gallant warrior does not, I believe, exist. He
was the admiration of every one who conversed with him. Prom a life of dissipation he has not only hecome, in every
respect, abstemious, but he has likewise prevailed on all his native, and many of the other tribes, to follow his ex
ample." 2 Tupper's Life of Brock, page 220.
3 The execution of heavy guns at long distances at that time was feeble when compared to that of the rifled cannon
and conical balls used at the present day. In the year 1812, the late Ichabod Price, of New York (who died in that city
on the 1st of March, 1862, at the age of eighty-one years), suggested to the War Department both rifled cannon and con
ical balls. He was then a sergeant of an artillery corps of the State of New York, who volunteered for the defense of
the state. The department would not listen to Price's proposition ; but his genius was so well attested in the presence
of President Madison that he commissioned him a lieutenant in the regular army of the United States.
* Letter of the Secretary of War to General Dearborn, August 1, 1812. Of the position of affairs on the Niagara front
ier at this time much will be said hereafter. Suffice it to say now that General Dearborn agreed to a conditional ar
mistice with Sir George Prevost, an arrangement which the government of the United States subsequently repudiated.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 285
Hull deceived by false Reports and Appearances. Escort sent for Brush. Its Fate.
ness two hundred miles away, was cut off. His provisions, he thought, were becom
ing too scarce to warrant the risk of a protracted siege, and an intercepted letter
from Proctor to Roberts at Mackinack threatened a descent of five thousand Indians
from that region. Hemmed in on every side, and his force wasting with disease, dis
appointment, and death, his kindness of heart, and the growing caution incident to
old age, made him timid and fearful. He did not know that the letter from Proctor
at Maiden had been sent for the purpose of interception to alarm him.1 He did not
know that a large portion of Brock's troops, reported to him as regulars, were only
the militia of Long Point and vicinity, dressed in scarlet uniforms to deceive him.2
He was too honest (whatever may be said of his military sagacity) to suspect decep
tions of this kind, and he sincerely believed that his little army would be exterm
inated by the savages should he exasperate them by shedding their blood. " A man
of another mould, full of resolution and resource," says Ingersoll, " might have tri
umphed over the time-serving negligence of his own government, and the bold re
sistance of an enemy who could not fail to perceive that he had a feeble and dis
mayed antagonist to deal with."3
On the 14th General Hull sent a message to Captain Brush informing him that a
sufficient detachment to escort him to head-quarters could not then be spared, and
directing him to remain where he was until farther orders, or, if he thought best, to
attempt a forward movement by a circuitous and more inland route, after consulting
with Colonel Anderson and Captain Jobard, the bearers of the letter.4 Toward the
evening of the same day, he changed his mind, and concluded to send a detachment
to escort Brush to Detroit. He communicated his plan to Colonels M' Arthur and
Cass, who not only approved of it, but volunteered to perform the duty. They were
permitted to choose three hundred and fifty men from their respective regiments.
M' Arthur, as senior officer, took the command ; and they left in haste in the evening
without a sufficient supply of provisions for a protracted absence, or even of blank
ets for repose in resting, for they were assured that they would doubtless meet Brush
between the Rouge and Huron, and not more than twelve miles distant. When they
remonstrated because they were dispatched with a scanty supply of provisions, Hull
promised to send more after them on pack-horses. But Brush's orders left it option
al with him to remain or move forward. He was not found on the way, nor were
provisions received from Hull as promised.
The detachment under M'Arthur and Cass crossed the Rouge that even- « August 14,
ing,a and the next day pushed forward by a circuitous route toward the
head waters of the Huron, twenty-four miles from Detroit, when they became en
tangled in a swamp, and could proceed no farther. Half famished and greatly fa
tigued by their march through the forest, they had prepared to bivouac for the night,
when, just as the evening twilight was fading away, a courier arrived with a sum
mons from Hull to return immediately to Detroit.5 The order was obeyed, and they
1 I was informed by the venerable Robert Reynolds, of Amherstburg, who was a deputy assistant commissary general
in the British army in Canada during the war, that Proctor sent a letter to Captain Roberts telling him that his force
was considerable, and that he need not send down more than five thousand Indians. This letter, according to instruc
tions, was intercepted, and placed in the hands of Hull, who had visions immediately of an overwhelming force coming
down upon his rear, while a superior army should attack him in front.
2 I visited the Long Point region at Norwichville in the autumn of 1S60, where early settlers were yet living. There I
was informed, from the lips of Adam Yeigh, of Burford, who was one of the volunteers, that all of the recruits from his
neighborhood were dressed in scarlet uniform at the public expense. When they approached Sandwich he said these
raw recruits were mixed with the regulars, each volunteer being placed between two regulars. By this stratagem Hull
was deceived into the belief that a large British force was marching against him. Yeigh was an energetic young man,
and soon won the confidence of Brock, who gave him the following directions on the day that they marched upon Sand
wich from Amherstburg : If your lieutenant falls, take his place ; if your captain falls, take his place ; if your colonel
falls, take his place. As no blood was shed on the occasion, and nobody fell, Yeigh failed of promotion. He cited this
circumstance to show how nearly he came to being a British colonel.
a Historical Sketches of the Second War, etc., i., 81.
* Hull's Memoir of the Campaign of 1812, page T3.
5 Letter of Colonel Cass to the Secretary of War, September 10, 1812.
286 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Demand for the Surrender of Detroit. The Garrison threatened with Massacre. The Demand refused.
_ _ «
approached head-quarters the next day at about ten o'clock in the morning. Mean
while affairs at Detroit had reached a crisis.
On the morning of the 15th of August, General Hull pitched his marquee in the
centre of his camp, near the fort. It was the first time since the 4th of July that it
had made its appearance, and much attention and remark was elicited by it, especial
ly because its top was ornamented with red and blue stripes, which made it conspic
uous among the tents.1 The British had been in considerable force on the opposite
shore since the 13th, and had been permitted to throw up intrenchments, and to plant
a battery for two eighteen-pounders and an eight-inch howitzer in a position to com
mand the town and fort, notwithstanding the latter was armed with twenty-eight
pieces of heavy ordnance, which the artillerists were anxious to use in driving the
enemy from his works. When his preparations for attack were completed, General
Brock, at little past meridian on the 15th, sent Lieutenant Colonel M'Donell and Ma
jor Glegg from Sandwich, with a flag, to bear to General Hull a summons for the
unconditional surrender of the post. " The force at my disposal," said Brock, " au
thorizes me to require of you the surrender of Detroit. It is far from my inclination
to join in a war of extermination, but you must be aware that the numerous body of
Indians who have attached themselves to my troops will be beyond my control the
moment the contest commences."2
This covert threat of letting loose the blood-thirsty savages upon the town and
garrison of Detroit deeply impressed the commanding general with contending emo
tions. His pride of character, and his patriotism, for which all venei-ated him, bade
him fight ; his fear of the consequences to the army and the inhabitants under his
charge bade him surrender. His whole effective force then at his disposal did not
exceed one thousand men,3 and the fort was thronged with trembling women, and
children, and decrepit old men of the town and surrounding country, who had fled
thither to escape the blow of the tomahawk and the keen blade of the scalping-knife.
For full two hours he kept the flag waiting while revolving" in his mind what to do.
His troops were confident in their ability to successfully confront the enemy, and
were eager to measure strength with him ; and at length Hull mustered resolution
sufficient to say to Brock, " I have no other reply to make than to inform you that I
am ready to meet any force which may be at your disposal, and any consequences
which may result from its execution in any way you may think proper to use it."
He added, apologetically, that a certain flag of truce, sent to Maiden at about the
time Colonel Cass fell upon the British and Indians at the Aux Canards, proceeded
contrary to his orders ; and that the destruction of Gowris's house at Sandwich was
also contrary to his orders.4
Hull's response to Brock, when made known, was welcomed by the troops with the
most lively satisfaction ; and when the flag touched the Canada shore, the bearers
were startled by a loud huzza from the fort at Detroit and the adjacent camp. The
time for trial, and, as Hull's little army believed, of victory for them, was at hand, and
the most active preparations to meet the foe was seen on every side. Major Jesup
rode down to Spring Wells to reconnoitre the enemy at Sandwich. He was satisfied,
from the position which the Queen Charlotte had taken, that the British intended to
land at that place under cover of her guns. Having selected a commanding point
for a battery from which that vessel might possibly be driven away, he hastened
back to head-quarters, and requested Hull to send down a twenty-pounder for the
purpose. Hull refused. Jesup returned to Spring Wells, where he found Captain
i M'Afee, page 85. 2 Brock to Hull, dated Sandwich, August 15, 1812.
3 Hull, in his report to the Secretary of War, August 26, 1S12, said it " did not exceed eight hundred men." Colonel
Cass, in a letter to the same Cabinet minister, on the 10th of September, said that the morning report of the 15th " made
our effective men present fit for duty lOfiO." Major Jesup estimated them at 050.
* When Major Denny evacuated Fort Gowris he set fire to the picket and other works used for strengthening it, when
the flames accidentally seized the house and destroyed it.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. . 287
Bombardment of Fort Detroit. British and Indians cross the River. They move against the Fort.
. m — -
Snelling, with a few men and a six-pounder, occupying the place he had selected for
his battery. They perceived that the greater part of the British forces were at Sand
wich, and both hastened to head-quarters. Jesup now asked for one hundred and
fifty men to go over and spike the enemy's guns opposite Detroit. Hull said he could
not spare so many. " Give me one hundred, then," said the brave Jesup. " Only
one hundred," said Snelling, imploringly. " I will think of it," was Hull's reply ; and
soon afterward he took refuge in the fort, for at four o'clock in the afternoon the
British battery of five guns opposite, under the direction of Captain Dixon, of the
Royal Engineers, opened upon the town, the fort, and the camp, with shot and shell.
All the troops, except Findlay's regiment, which was stationed three hundred yards
northwest of the fort, were ordered within the walls, crowding the work far beyond
its capacity.1
The British kept up their cannonade and bombardment until toward midnight.2
The fire was returned with great spirit, and two of the enemy's guns were silenced
and disabled.3 At evening twilight it was suggested to Hull that as the fort did
not command the river, a strong battery might be placed near the margin of the
stream, so as to destroy the enemy as fast as they should attempt to land. An
eligible point for the purpose, in the direction of Spring Wells, was selected, but the
general, whose mind seemed to have been benumbed from the moment the enemy's
battery was opened, would listen to no suggestions of the kind ; and when that ene
my, in full force, crossed the river during the early morning of the 16th — a calm and
beautiful Sabbath morning — completing the passage in the matin twilight, they
were allowed to land without the least molestation from ball or bullet. Colonels
Elliott and M'Kee, with Tecumtha, had crossed during the night two miles be
low, with six hundred Indians, and taken position in the woods to attack the
Americans on flank and rear, should they attempt to dispute the debarkation of the
regulars and militia, who numbered seven hundred and seventy men, with five pieces
of light artillery.4 When all had breakfasted, the invaders moved toward the fort ;
the white troops in a single column, their left flank covered by the Indians, who kept
in the woods a mile and a half distant. Their right rested on the Detroit River, and
was covered by the guns of the Queen Charlotte.
Lieutenant Colonel Miller, with the 4th Regiment, was now in the fort ; and the
Ohio Volunteers and part of the Michigan militia were posted behind the town pali
sades, so as to annoy the enemy's whole left flank. The remainder of the militia
were stationed in the upper part of the town, to resist the incursions of the Indians,
1 Historical Sketches of the late War, by John Lewis Thomson, page 30.
2 During the evening a large shell was thrown from a battery opposite where Woodward Avenue now is. It passed
over the present Jefferson Avenue, then the principal street of the town, and fell upon the roof of Augustus Langdon,
which stood on what is now the southerly corner of Woodward Avenue and Congress Street. Coming down through
the house, which was two stories in height, it fell upon a table around which the family were seated, and went through
to the cellar. The family had just time to flee from the house, when the shell exploded, almost wrecking the building.
— Judge Withered.
3 The battery that did the greatest execution was placed, according to Judge Witherell, in the rear of the spot where
the United States Court-house now stands. It was commanded by Lieutenant Daliba, of Dyson's Artillery Corps. He
was a brave soldier. During the cannonade he stood in the ramparts, and when he saw the smoke or flash of the ene
my's cannon, he would call out to his men "Down !" when they would drop behind the parapet until the shot had struck.
A large pear-tree stood near the battery and was somewhat in the way. Colonel Mack, of the Michigan militia, or
dered a young volunteer named John Miller to cut it down. John obeyed with alacrity. Seizing an axe, he hewed
away diligently until he had about half severed the trunk, when a cannon ball from the enemy cut away nearly all of
the remainder. The young man coolly turned toward the enemy and called out, " Send us another, John Bull ; you can
cut faster than I can."
It is related that a negro was seen, on the morning of the 16th, when the shot were striking thick and fast around the
fort, behind a chimney on the roof of one of the barracks in the fort. He watched the smoke of the cannon across the
river, and would then dodge behind the chimney. At length an eight-pound ball struck the chimney just over his head,
demolished it, and covered the skulker with brick and mortar. Clearing himself from the rubbish, and scratching his
woolly head, he exclaimed, " What de debble you doin up dar !" He fled to a safer place.
4 According to Brock's official account, the number of troops which he marched against the fort was a little over thir-
*teen hundred, as follows : 30 artillery ; 250 of the 41st Regiment ; 50 Royal Newfoundland Regiment ; 400 militia, and
about 600 Indians. His artillery consisted of three 6-pounders and two 3-pounders.— Tupper's Life of Brock, page 250.
The number of Indians was probably greater than here stated, as 1000 warriors attended a council a few days before.
288 . PICTOKIAL FIELD-BOOK
Hull's Troops restrained from Action. All ordered into the Fort. Scenes within the Fort.
whose chief motive in joining the British standard was plunder, and the free and safe
indulgence of their ferocity. Two twenty-four-pounders had been placed in battery
on an eminence from which they could sweep the advancing column.1 The American
force was considerably less than that of the British, white and red combined, but
their position was much superior. They had four hundred rounds of twenty-four-
pound shot fixed ; about one hundred thousand cartridges prepared ; ample provisions
for fifteen days and more approaching, and no lack of arms and loose ammunition.2
The invaders advanced cautiously, and had reached a point within five hundred
yards of the American line, near the site of Governor Woodbridge's residence, at the
crossing of the Central Railroad, when General Hull sent a peremptory order for his
soldiers to retreat into the fort. The troops were astounded and bewildered. Con
fident in their ability to repulse and probably capture the invaders, they were eager
for the order to begin the contest. " Not a sign of discontent broke upon the ear ;
not a look of cowardice met the eye. Every man expected a proud day for his coun
try, and each was anxious that his individual exertion should contribute to the general
result."3 Like true soldiers they obeyed, but not without loud and fearless expression
of their indignation, and their contempt for the commanding general. Many of them,
high-spirited young men from the best families in Ohio, showed symptoms of positive
mutiny at first ; and the twenty-four-pounder would have poured a destructive storm
of grape-shot upon the advancing column, notwithstanding the humiliating order, had
not Lieutenant Anderson, who commanded the guns, acting under the general's di
rection, forcibly restrained them. He was anxious to reserve his fire until the ap
proaching column should be in the best position to receive the most destructive
volleys. The guns were heavily charged with grape-shot, and would have sent
terrible messengers to many of the " red-co^Pts," as the scarlet-dressed British were
generally termed. The eager artillerists were about to apply the match too soon,
when Anderson sprang forward, with drawn sword, and threatened to cut down the
first man who should disobey his orders.
The infuriated soldiers entered the already over-crowded fort, while the enemy,
after reconnoitring the fort and discovering the weakness of the fortification on the
land side, prepared to storm it. But, before they could form for the purpose, the oc
casion had ceased. The fire from the battery on the Canada shore, kept up slowly
since dawn, had become very vigorous. Up to this time no casualty had resulted
from it within the fort. Now a ball came bounding over the fort wall, dealing death
in its passage. A group standing at the door of one of the officers' quarters were
almost annihilated. Captain Hancks, of Mackinaw, Lieutenant Sibley, and Dr. Rey
nolds, who accompanied Hull's invalids from the Maumee to Detroit, were instantly
killed, and Dr. Blood was severely wounded. Two other soldiers were killed almost
immediately afterward by another ball ; and still two others on the outside of the
fort were slain.
Many women and children were in the house where the officers were slain. Among
them were General Hull's daughter and her children. Some of the women were pet
rified with aifrjght, and were carried senseless to the bomb-proof vault for safety.
Several of them were bespattered with blood ; and the general, who saw the eifects
of the ball from a distance, knew not whether his own child was slain or not. These
casualties, the precursors of future calamities, almost unmanned him, and he paced
the parade backward and forward in the most anxious frame of mind. At that mo
ment an officer from the Michigan militia in the town, who had observed the steady
approach of the enemy without a gun being fired from the fort or the twenty-four
1 This was in Jefferson Avenue, in front of the Cass farm, before the hill was cut down. The elevation was then about
the same as it is now at the intersection of Woodward Avenue. These guns were placed there by Lieutenant Anderson, «
of the United States Engineers. Although the landing-place of the enemy at Spring Wells was about three miles off,
Anderson opened upon the foe while they were crossing, but without doing much damage.
2 Colonel Cass to the Secretary of War, September 10th, 1812. 3 The same to the same.
OF THE WAK OF 1812. 289
Surrender of Detroit. Indignation of the Troops. Hull assumes all Responsibility.
pounders outside, came in haste to inquire whether it was the intention of the gen
eral to allow that body alone to defend the place ; also to inform him that the Brit
ish and Indians were at the tan-yard, close upon the town. The general made no re
ply, but, stepping into a room in the barracks, he prepared a note hastily, handed it
to his son, Captain Hull, and directed him to display a white flag immediately from
the walls of the fort,1 where it might be seen by Captain Dixon over the river.2 This
was done. The firing soon ceased, and in a few minutes Captain Hull was " unex
pectedly seen emerging from the fort"3 with a flag of truce. At the same time,
a boat, with a flag, was dispatched to the commander of the battery on the Canada
shore.
Captain Hull bore proposals for an immediate capitulation. He soon returned with
Lieutenant Colonel M'Donell and Major Glegg, who were authorized by Brock to
negotiate the terms of surrender. The white flag upon the walls had awakened pain
ful suspicions ; the arrival of these officers announced the virtual betrayal of the gar
rison. Hull had asked no man's advice, nor suggested to any the possibility of a sur
render.4 His act was quick, and as unexpected as a thunderbolt from a clear sky.
Not a shot had been fired upon the enemy — not an effort to stay his course had been
made. For a moment nothing but reverence for gray hairs, and veneration for a sol
dier of the Revolution, saved the commander from personal violence at the hands of
his incensed people. Many of the soldiers, it is said, shed tears of mortification and
disappointment.
The terms of capitulation were soon agreed to,5 and the American commander is
sued a general order saying that it was " with pain and anxiety" that he announced
to the Northwest Army that lie had been compelled, from a sense of duty, to agree
to articles of capitulation which were appended to the averment. He then sent a
1 "Leonard Harrison, of Dearborn, told me that soon after a white flag was hoisted at the fort he happened to be
standing near Colonel Findlay, of the Ohio Volunteers, and Lieutenant Colonel Miller, of the Fourth Infantry. Colonel
Findlay said, ' Colonel Miller, the general talks of a surrender ; let us put him under arrest.' Miller replied, ' Colonel
Findlay, I am a soldier ; I shall obey my superior officer,' intimating that if Findlay would assume the command of the
army he would obey him. Had the stern old M'Arthur, or the younger and more impetuous Cass been present, either
of them would have taken the responsibility."— JitAge Witlierell.
Miller's true soldierly qualities of obedience and acquiescence is shown in the careful manner in which, to his wife,
he wrote concerning the surrender, from his prison at Fort George, on the 27th day of August, 1812. " Only one week
after I, with six hundred men, completely conquered almost the whole force which they then had, they came out and
took Fort Detroit, and made nearly two thousand of us prisoners, on Sunday, the 16th instant. There being no opera
tions going on below ns [meaning Niagara frontier] gave them an opportunity to re-enforce. The number brought
against ns is yet unknown ; but my humble opinion is we could have defeated them, without a doubt, had we attempt
ed it. But General Hull thought differently, and surrendered without making any terms of capitulation. Colonel
Brush and I made the best terms we could after the surrender, which were but poor."— Manuscript Letter.
2 The white " flag" was a table-cloth. It was waved from one of the bastions by Captain Burton, of the Fourth Regi
ment, by order of General Hull. 3 Tupper's Life of Brock, page 232.
* In his dispatch to the Secretary of War, dated at Fort George, August 26, 1812, General Hull generously said : " I
well know the high responsibility of the measure, and take the whole of it on myself. It was dictated by a sense of duty,
and a full conviction of its expediency. The bauds of savages which had then joined the British force were numerous
beyond any former example. Their numbers have since increased ; and the history of tie barbarians of the north of
Europe does not furnish examples of more greedy violence than these savages have exhibited. A large portion of the
brave and gallant officers and men I commanded would cheerfully have contested until the last cartridge had been ex
pended and the bayonets worn to the sockets. I could not consent to the useless sacrifice of such brave men when I
knew it was impossible for me to sustain my situation. It was impossible, in the nature of things, that an army could
have been furnished with the necessary supplies of provisions, military stores, clothing, and comforts for the sick, on
pack-horses, through a wilderness of two hundred miles, filled with hostile savages. It was impossible, sir, that this
little army, worn down by fatigue, by sickness, by wounds, and deaths, could have supported itself not only against the
collected force of all the Northern nations of Indians, but against the united strength of Upper Canada, whose popula
tion consists of more than twenty times the number contained in the Territory of Michigan, aided by the principal part
of the regular forces of the province, and the wealth and influence of the Northwest and other trading establishments
among the Indians, which have in their employment more than two thousand while men."
After alluding to Colonels M'Arthur, Findlay, Cass, and Miller in commendatory terms, he said : " If aught has taken
place during the campaign which is honorable to the army, these officers are entitled to a large share of it. If the last
act should be disapproved, no part of the censure belongs to them." He closed his dispatch by soliciting an early in
vestigation of his conduct, and requesting the government not to be unmindful of his associates in captivity, and of the
families of the brave men who had fallen in the contest.
5 It was stipulated that the fort at Detroit, with all its dependencies, and the troops there, excepting such of the mili
tia of Michigan Territory who had not joined the army, should be surrendered, with all public property of every kind.
The command of Captain Brush at the River Raisin, and M'Arthur's then away from Detroit, were, at the request of
Hull, included in the capitulation, while the Ohio militia, who had not yet joined the army, were paroled on condition
that they should return home, and not serve during the war.
290 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Position of M 'Arthur and Cass. Escape of Captain Brush and his Command. Result of the Surrender.
messenger with a note to Colonel M' Arthur (who, with Colonel Cass and the detach
ment sent toward the Raisin, were, as we have seen, hastening back to Detroit) in
forming him of the surrender, and that he and his command were included in the ca
pitulation as prisoners of war.1 They had arrived in sight of Detroit at about the
time when the American white flags had silenced the British cannon,2 thoroughly
exhausted by rapid and fatiguing marches and lack of food, for they had tasted noth
ing for more than forty-eight hours, excepting some green pumpkins and potatoes
found in the fields. They had observed the enemy, and the ease with which, in con
nection with the army at Detroit, they might capture him by falling up<jn his rear.
But all was silent. That fact was a sealed enigma. There were two armies within
half cannon-shot of each other, and yet, to the ears of these listeners, they-both seem
ed as silent as the grave. Had there been firing, or any signs of resistance, M' Arthur
would have fallen upon the rear of the invaders even without orders. But all was
mystery until the arrival of Hull's courier writh the unwelcome tidings.
M' Arthur attempted to communicate with Hull, but failed. He sent a message to
Captain Brush with Hull's note, saying, " By the within letter you will see that the
army under General Hull has been surrendered. By the articles you will see that
provision has been made for the detachment under your command ; you will there
fore, I hope, return to Ohio with us."3
At sunset Colonel Elliott came to M'Arthur from the fort with the articles of capit
ulation, and with authority from Brock to receive tokens of the submission of the
detachment. The dark, lustrous eyes «f M'Arthur flashed with indignation at the
demand. As they filled with tears of deepest mortification, he thrust his sword into
the ground, and broke it in pieces, and then tore his epaulettes from his shoulders.
This paroxysm of feeling was soon succeeded by dignified calmness ; and in the dim
twilight M'Arthur and Cass, with their whole detachment, were marched into the
fort, where the arms of the soldiers were stacked. Before the curtain of night had
been fairly drawn over the humiliating scene the act of capitulation and surrender
was completed — an act which produced universal mortification and intense indigna
tion throughout the country.4 In less than two months after war was declared, and
the favorite scheme of an invasion of the enemy's provinces had been set in motion,
a strong military post, a spirited army, and a magnificent territory, Avith all its in
habitants,5 had been given up without an effort to save them, or a moment's waiting
for the arrival of powerful re-enforcements and ample supplies, then on their way
from the southward. About two thousand men in all6 became prisoners of war.
1 " Such part of the Ohio militia," he said, " as have not joined the army [meaning Brush's detachment at the Raisin]
will be permitted to return to their homes, on condition that they will not serve during the war. Their arms, how
ever, will be delivered up, if belonging to the public."
2 They had been discovered by Brock's scouts, and their presence in the rear caused the British general to move to
the attack sooner than he intAided to. "Hearing," says Brock, in his official dispatch, "that his [M'Arthur's] cavalry
had been seen that morning three miles in our rear, I decided on an immediate attack."
3 On the evening of the 17th, Captain Elliott, son of Colonel Elliott, with a Frenchman and Wyandot Indian, ap
proached Brush's encampment at the Raisin bearing a flag of truce, a copy of the capitulation at Detroit, and authority
to receive the surrender of Brush and his command. Lieutenant Couthier, of the Raisin, the officer of the day, blind
folded Elliott, and led him to the block-house. Brush was not satisfied that his visit was by authority, or that the doc
ument was genuine, so he ordered Elliott's arrest and confinement. M'Arthur's letter testified to the genuineness of
Elliott's document and authority, when Brush hastily packed up the public property at the Raisin, and, with his whole
command and his cattle, started for Ohio, directing Elliott to be released the next day. The angry Elliott sent for Te-
cumtha to pursue Brush. It was too late.— Statement of Peter Navarre (who was an eye-witness) to the Author in Sep
tember, I860 ; Letter to the Author from the Hon. Elisha Whittlesey, of Ohio.
4 Among other demonstrations in different parts of the country, the newspapers of the day noticed that at Greens-
borough, North Carolina, General Hull was hung and burnt in effigy, " in accordance with the prescription of a public
meeting."
5 The whole white population of Michigan at that time was between four and five thousand. The greater part were
Canadians. Their settlements were chiefly on the Maumee, Raisin, Ecorce, Rouge, Detroit River, Lake St. Clair, and
the island of Mackinack. They paid very little attention to agriculture, being engaged chiefly in hunting, fishing, and
trading with the Indians. They did not produce sufficient from the earth to give themselves sustenance ; and their beef,
pork, corn, and flour were brought from a distance.
6 Estimates of the number actually included in the capitulation vary from 1800 to 2500. I have examined all, and
think the number was not far from 2000.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
Effect of the Surrender. Incidents. Disposal of the Prisoners.
These consisted of two squadrons of cavalry, one company of artillery, the 4th United
States Regiment, and detachments from the 1 st and 3d ; three regiments of Ohio Volun
teers, and one regiment of the Michigan militia. The British obtained by this capit
ulation (for it was not 'a victory) a large amount of arms, ammunition, and stores, all
of which, especially arms, were greatly needed in Upper Canada.1 It was a godsend
to the provinces in every aspect. The surrender caused months of delay before
another invading army could be brought into the field, and thus gave the British
time for preparation ; and it secured the friendship and alliance of savage tribes,
who, as usual, were ready to join whatever side seemed to be the stronger party,
and safest as an ally.
The formal surrender of the fort and garrison took place at meridian, on the 16th.2
At the same hour the next day (Monday, the 17th) General Brock and his staff,
with other officers, appeared in full uniform, and in their presence a salute was fired
from the esplanade in front of the fort, with one of the brass cannon included in the
capitulation. It bore the following inscription: " TAKEN AT SARATOGA ox THE 17TH
OF OCTOBER, 1777." When the British officers saw this, they were so delighted that
some of them greeted the old British captive, now released, with kisses ; and one of
them remarked to Colonel Hatch, from whose manuscript narrative I have gained the
facts, " we must have an addition put to that inscription, namely, ' RETAKEN AT DE
TROIT AUGUST 16, 1812.' "3 The salute was answered by Dixon's battery on the
Canada shore, and by the Queen Charlotte, which came sweeping up the middle of
the river from the waters between Spring Wells and Sandwich, 'and took position di
rectly in front of the town.4
It was on this occasion that General Brock paid marked respect to Tecumtha.
He took off his own rich crimson silk sash and publicly placed it round the waist of
the chief. Tecumtha received it with dignity and great satisfaction ; but the follow
ing day he appeared without the badge of honor. Brock apprehended that some of
fense had been given to the chief, but, on inquiry, he found that Tecumtha, Avith great
modesty and with the most delicate exhibition of praise, had placed the sash upon the
body of Round Head, a celebrated and remarkable Wyandot warrior, saying, " I do
not want to wear such a mark of distinction, when an older and abler warrior than
myself is present."
The volunteers and militia who were made prisoners, and some minor regular
officers, were permitted to return home on parole. Those of Michigan were dis
charged at Detroit, and the Ohio Volunteers were borne in vessels to Cleveland, from
which point they made their way home. General Hull and the regulars were held
as prisoners of war, and sent to Montreal. They were taken to Maiden, and there
embarked on board the Queen Charlotte, Hunter, and other public vessels, and con
veyed to Fort Erie, opposite Buffalo. From that point they were marched to Fort
George, where they were again placed in vessels and sent to Kingston. From that
post they were escorted by land to Montreal.
General Hull and his fellow-prisoners reached Fort George, on the Niagara, on the
26th of August, when the commander immediately wrote a lengthy report of the
surrender and attendant events, but was not permitted to forward it, until hf^ ar
rival at Montreal.5 Information of the disaster had already reached General Van
1 The spoils were 2500 stand of arms ; twenty-five iron, and eight brass pieces of ordnance ; forty barrels of gun
powder, a stand of colors, and a great quantity and variety of military stores. The armed brig Adams also became a
prize. She was immediately put in complete order, and her name changed to Detroit, under which title we shall meet
her hereafter, in the British service.
2 The garrison flag surrendered on that occasion was taken to Montreal by Captain Glegg, Brock's aid-de-camp.
s This cannon was retaken from the British at the battle of the Thames, in October, 1S18. I saw it in the state arse
nal at Frankfort, Kentucky, when I visited that city in April, 1861. It is a small three-pounder, three feet four inches
in length. It has the British mark of the broad arrow upon it, and the date of" 1775."
* After the surrender, General Hull returned to his own house, where he had resided as Governor of Michigan. It
was then occupied by Mr. Hickman, his son-in-law. A British guard attended him.— Wallace.
5 It was Hull's intention to forward his dispatch from Fort George by Major Witherell, of the Michigan Volunteers ;.
292
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
A Courier's remarkable Ride.
British Occupation of Detroit and Michigan.
General Brock knighted.
1 August 16,
1812.
Rensselaer, at Lewiston, and he had
promptly sent^the news by express to
General Dearborn, the senior command
er in the army, whose head-quarters at
that time were at Greenbush, opposite
Albany, on the Hudson River. For
this important errand Van Rensselaer
employed Captain Darby Noon, the
leader of a fine company of Albany
Volunteers, who were then stationed at
or near Fort Niagara. Captain Noon
was a man of great energy, and he per
formed the service in an incredibly
short space of time. He rode express
all the way, changing his horses by im
pressing them when necessary, assur
ing the owners of remuneration from
the government. He neither slept on
the way, nor tasted food, excepting
what he ate on horseback. When he
arrived at Greenbush, he was so much
exhausted that he had to be lifted from
his horse, and he was compelled to re
main in his bed for several days.1
On the day of the surrender,* General Brock issued a proclamation to
the inhabitants of Michigan, in which they were assured of protection in
life, property, and religious observances, and were called upon to give up all public
property in the Territory. Having made arrangements for the civil and military oc
cupation of the Territory, and leaving Colonel Proctor in command of a garrison of
two hundred and fifty men at Detroit, he hastened back to York, where he arrived
on the 27th,b and was received with the greatest enthusiasm by the people,
who regarded him as the savior of the province. In the short space of
nineteen days he had met the Legislature, arranged the public affairs of the prov
ince, traveled about three hundred miles to confront an invader, and returned the
possessor of that invader's whole army and a vast territory, about equal in area to
Upper Canada. Henceforth, during his brief career, he was the idol of the Canadi
ans, and the Prince Regent, representing the majesty of Great Britain, cre-
« October 10. ' J J
ated him a baronet.02
While General Hull was on his way toward Montreal, Colonel Cass, at the request
of Colonel M' Arthur, was hasting to Washington City, " for the purpose," as he said,
" of communicating to the government such particulars respecting the expedition
lately commanded by Brigadier General Hull, and its disastrous results, as might en
able them correctly to appreciate the conduct of the officers and men, and to develop
the pluses which produced so foul a stain upon the national character."3 This corn-
but Brock having gone directly to York, the commander of the post would not take the responsibility of allowing his
prisoner to correspond with his government. From Montreal he sent his dispatch, dated August 26th, by Lieutenant
Anderson, of the Artillery, to the Secretary of War.— Hull's Letter to the Secretary of War, Montreal, September 8, 1812.
1 Darby Noon was a native of Ireland, and a man of great personal worth. He raised and equipped a volunteer com
pany at Albany, almost entirely at his own expense, and in 1813 was commissioned a ma.ior in the 41st Regiment of
New York State Militia. His wife was Caroline Broome, daughter of Lieutenant Governor Broome, of New York. Ma
jor Noon survived the war only eight years, dying in September, 1823. From his widow, who died in 1861, 1 received
the above portrait of the gallant officer.
2 General Brock's dispatches and the colors of the United States 4th Regiment reached London on the Cth of Octo
ber, the anniversary of his birth, where, in honor of his achievement at Detroit, the Park and Town guns were fired.
Only a week later, and the gallant general was no more.
J Ex-Governor Samuel Huntington was at Cleveland, a volunteer, when Colonel Cass arrived there on his way to the
1 August.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 293
Colonel Cass's Statement about the Surrender of Detroit. Public Indignation. A mischievous Armistice.
munication was made in writing on the 10th of September, in which was given an
outline history of events near Detroit, from the landing in Canada until the surrender.
It exhibited much warmth of feeling, and its circulation in print prejudiced the pub
lic mind against Hull, and intensified the indignant reproaches which the first intel
ligence of the surrender had caused to be hurled at the head of the unfortunate gen
eral. It also diverted public attention for the moment from the palpable inefficiency
of the War Department,1 the effects of the armistice, and the injurious delays of
General Dearborn,2 to which much of the disaster should properly be charged. Col
onel Cass's opinions, as well as facts, were eagerly accepted by the excited public as
veritable history, and few had words of palliation to offer for the captive veteran
when they read the following glowing, dogmatic words at the conclusion of the young
colonel's letter : " To see the whole of our men, flushed with the hope of victory,
eagerly awaiting the approaching contest — to see them afterward dispirited, hope
less, and desponding, at least five hundred shedding tears, because they were not al
lowed to meet their country's foe and to fight their country's battles, excited sensa
tions which no American has ever before had cause to feel, and which, I trust in God,
will never again be felt while our men remain to defend the standard of the Union.
Confident I am that, had the courage and conduct of the general been equal
to the spirit and zeal of the troops, the event would have been as brilliant and suc
cessful as it is disastrous and dishonorable.3
General Hull and his fellow-captiA'es arrived at Montreal on Sunday afternoon, the
6th of September, and attracted much attention. The prisoners numbered, rank and
file, three hundred and fifty. They were escorted from Kingston by one hundred and
thirty men, under Major Heathcote, of the Newfoundland Regiment. At Cornwall,
opposite St. Regis, they were met by Captain Gray, of the Quarter-master's depart
ment, who took formal charge of the prisoners. They had other escorts of troops until
seat of government. Huntington accompanied him to Washington, at the request of General Wadsworth. When
within two days ride of the national capital, Cass was prostrated by sickness. Huntington pressed forward, and wan
the first to give positive information of Hull's surrender, to the Secretary of War. This made Dr. Eustis impatient for
the arrival of Cass. " The Secretary at War," wrote Huntington, " was very desirous to see him, and requested me to
go after him in a carriage. I met him the first day, about thirty-five miles from this. He had recovered sufficiently to
pursue the journey." — Autograph Letter of Governor Huntington to General Meigs, Washington City, September
12, 1812.
J Secretary Eustis seems to have been so conscious of his fatal mistake in not sending his letter to Hull, announcing
the declaration of war, by which his vessel and its precious contents, captured at Maiden at the beginning of July, might
have been saved, that, as late as the 18th of December, four months after the surrender of Detroit, he gave evidence of
his belief that public opinion would lay the responsibility of the disaster upon him. In a letter to General Dearborn
of that date, he said : " Fortunately for you, the want of success which has attended the campaign will be attributed
to the Secretary of War. So long as you enjoy the confidence of the government, the clamor of the discontented should
uot be regarded." Governor Huntington, in his letter to Governor Meigs, mentioned in the preceding note, said : " The
whole blame is laid at the door of the present administration, and we are told that if De Witt Clinton had been our
president, the campaign would have been short and glorious— it would have been short, no doubt, and terminated by an
inglorious peace."— Autograph Letter, Washington City, September 12, 1812.
2 General Dearborn, early in August, signed an armistice, entered into between himself and Sir George Prevost, for a
cessation of hostilities until the will of the United States government should be known, there then being, it was supposed,
propositions for peace on the part of Great Britain before the Cabinet at Washington. On this account Sir George had
issued positive instructions for a cessation of hostilities. Dearborn signed the armistice on the Oth of August. Had he
sent a notice of it by express to Hull, as that officer did of his surrender to Dearborn, Detroit might have been saved,
for it would have reached Hull before the 15th of August, and the imperative commands of Prevost would have pre
vented Brock's acting on the offensive. Meanwhile Hull's supplies and re-enforcements would have arrived from Ohio,
and made him strong enough to invade Canada again at the conclusion of the armistice. But instead of sending a
notice of the armistice to Hull by express, Dearborn, like the Secretary of War with his more important dispatches,
intrusted his letter to the irregular mails, and it was actually nine days going from Albany to Buffalo ! The first
intimation of an armistice which Hull received was while on his way toward the Niagara as a prisoner of war.
3 Lewis Cass was born at Exeter, New Hampshire, on the 9th of October, 1782. At the age of seventeen years he
crossed the Alleghany Mountains on foot, and settled in Marietta, Ohio, where he studied law, and was active in pro
ceedings against Aaron Burr. Jefferson appointed him Marshal of Ohio in 180T. He took an active part in the war of
1812 in the West, and, late in 1813, President Madison appointed him Governor of the Territory of Michigan. He held
that position till 1831, when he was called to the Cabinet of President Jackson as Secretary of War. In 1836 he went
to France as American Minister at the Court of St. Cloud. He returned home in 1842. He was elected United States
Senator by the Legislature of Michigan in 1845, and he held that position until called to Buchanan's Cabinet in 1857. He
resigned that position at near the close of I860, because he could not remain associated with the President's confidential
advisers, who, he was satisfied, were plotting treason against his country. He retired from public life, and died at
Detroit on the 17th of June, 1S6G, at the age of eighty-four years.
294
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Hull in Captivity.
A Court-martial called to Try him.
Its Composition and Decision.
they reached the vicinity of Montreal,
when they were left in charge of the
militia until preparations could be made
for the formal entrance into the city.
This was not accomplished until quite
late in the evening, when they were
marched in in the presence of a great
concourse of rejoicing people, who had
illuminated the streets through which
the triumphal procession passed. Gen
eral Hull was received with great polite
ness by Sir George Prevost, the Gov
ernor General and Commander-in-chief,
and invited to make his residence at his
mansion during his stay in Montreal.
On Thursday following,*1
J " September 10,
General Hull and eight of 1812.
his officers set out for the United States
on their parole.
General Hull retired to his farm at
Newton, Massachusetts, from which he
Avas summoned to appear before a court-
martial at Philadelphia on the 25th of
February, 1813, of which General Wade
Hampton was appointed president. The members appointed consisted of three
brigadier generals, nine colonels, and three lieutenant colonels ; and the eminent A. J.
Dallas, of Pennsylvania, was judge advocate. This court was dissolved by the Presi
dent without giving a reason for the act ; and, almost a year afterward, Hull was
summoned to appear before another, to convene at Albany, New York. It met on
the 3d of January, 1814. General Dearborn was the president, and he was assisted
by three brigadier generals, four colonels, and five lieutenant colonels.1 Again Mr.
Dallas was judge advocate. As Hull blamed Dearborn for his negligence, and as his
own acquittal would condemn that officer, he might very properly have objected to
the appointed president of the court ; but he was anxious for a trial, and he waived
all feeling. He was charged with treason, cowardice, and neglect of duty and unof-
ficer-like conduct from the 9th of April to the 16th of August, 1812.2 General Hull
objected to the jurisdiction of the court on the first charge — treason — as a matter
of civil cognizance only. The court concurred in this view, and he was tried only on
the other charges. After a session of eighty days, the court decided" that
he was not guilty of treason,3 but found him guilty of the second and third
charges, namely, cowardice, and neglect of duty and unofficer-like conduct. He was
sentenced to be shot dead, and his name to be struck from the rolls of the army.*
March 26.
1 Generals Bloomfleld, Parker, and Covington ; Colonels Femvick, Carberry, Little, and Irvine ; and Lieutenant
Colonels Dennis, Connor, Davis, Scott, and Stewart.
2 The specifications under the charge of TREASON were, 1st. " Hiring the vessel to transport his sick men and bag
gage from the Miami to Detroit." 2d. "Not attacking the enemy's fort at Maiden, and retreating to Detroit." 3d.
"Not strengthening the fort of Detroit, and surrendering."
The specifications under the charge of COWARDICE were, 1st. " Not attacking Maiden, and retreating to Detroit." 2d.
"Appearances of alarm during the cannonade." 3d. "Appearances of alarm on the day of the surrender." 4th. " Sur
rendering of Detroit." The specifications under the third charge were similar to those under the second.
3 It is perhaps not technically true that the court decided that he was not guilty of treason. They determined that
they could not try him on that charge, but said " the evidence on the subject having been publicly given, the court deem
it proper, injustice to the accused, to say that they do not believe, from any thing that has appeared before them, that
General William Hull has committed treason against the United States."
4 The President approved the sentence on the 25th of April, and on the same day the following general order was
issued:
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 295
Hull pardoned by the President. A Consideration of Hull's public Character. His own Defense.
The court strongly recommended him to the mercy of the President, on account of
his age and his revolutionary services. Mr. Madison pardoned him, and he retired
to his farm, to live in comparative obscurity, under a cloud of almost universal re
proach, for about twelve years. He wrote a vindication of his conduct in the cam
paign of 1812, in a series of letters, published in the American Statesman newspaper
in Boston,1 and on his dying bed he declared his belief that he was right, as a sol
dier and a man, in surrendering Detroit. He had the consolation of feeling, before
his death, a growing sympathy for him in the partially disabused public mind, which
prophesied of future vindication and just appreciation.2
I have given, in this and the preceding chapter, as faithful a general history of
Hull's campaign as a careful and dispassionate study of documentary and other con
temporaneous narratives, written and verbal, have enabled me to do. I have record
ed what I believe to be undoubted facts. As they stand in the narrative, unattended
by analysis, comparison, or argument, they present General Hull in his conduct of the
campaign in some instances in an unfavorable light : not as a traitor — not as an act
ual coward, but as bearing to the superficial reader the semblance of both. But,
after weighing and estimating the value of these facts in connection with current cir
cumstances to which they bore positive relationship — after observing the composition
of the court-martial, the peculiar relations of the court and the witnesses to the ac
cused, and the testimony in detail, the writer is constrained to believe that General
Hull was actuated throughout the campaign by the purest impulses of patriotism and
humanity. That he wras tceak, we may allow ; that he was wicked, we can not be
lieve. His weakness, evinced at times by vacillation, was not the child of cowardice,
but of excessive prudence and caution, born of the noblest sentiments of the human
heart. These, in his case, were doubtless enhanced by the disabilities of waning
physical vigor.3 He was thus far down the western slope of life, when men counsel
more than act. The perils and fatigues of the journey from Dayton to Detroit had
affected him, and the anxieties arising from his responsibilities bore heavily upon
his judgment. These difficulties his young, vigorous, ambitious, daring officers could
not understand ; and while they were cursing him, they should have been kindly
cherishing him. When he could perceive no alternative but surrender or destruc
tion, he bravely determined to choose the most courageous and humane course ; so
he faced the taunts of his soldiers, and the expected scorn of his countrymen, rather
than fill the beautiful land of the Ohio, and the settlements of Michigan, with mourn
ing.
Hull had wrarned the government of the folly of attempting the conquest of Can-
" Washington City, April 25, 1814.
"The rolls of the army are to be no longer disgraced by having upon them the name of Brigadier General William
Hull. The general court-martial, of which General Dearborn is president, is hereby dissolved.
" By order, " J. B. WAT.BAOH, Adjutant General."
1 These were published in a volume of three hundred and ten pages, entitled, Memoirs of the Campaign of the North
western Army of the United States. A.D. 1812. General Hull's long silence was owing to the fact that his papers were
burnt in the vessel in which they were sent from Detroit to Buffalo, after the surrender, and that during two adminis
trations he vainly applied to the War Department at Washington for copies of papers necessary for his defense. It was
not until John C. Calhoun became Secretary of War that any notice was taken of his application. That officer promptly
caused copies to be made of all papers that General Hull desired, when he commenced his vindication in his memoir
just mentioned.
2 He was always calm, tranquil, and happy. He knew that his country would one day also understand him, and that
history would at last do him justice. He was asked, on his death-bed, whether he still believed he had done right in
the surrender of Detroit, and he replied that he did, and was thankful that he had been enabled to do it.— History of
the Campaign of 1S12, by his grandson, James Freeman Clark, page 365. Mr. Wallace, one of his aids, says that when he
parted with the general at Detroit to return home, the white-haired veteran said, " God bless you, my young friend !
You return to your family without a stain ; as for myself, I have sacrificed a reputation dearer to me than life, but I
have saved the inhabitants of Detr6it, and my heart approves the act."
3 Mr. Wallace, one of Hull's aids, whose testimony we have before alluded to, says : " General Cass has since declared
to me that he thought the main defect of General Hull was the ' imbecility of age,' and it was the defect of all the old
veterans who took the field in the late war. A peaceful government like ours must always labor under similar disad
vantages. Our superannuated officers must be called into service, or men without experience must command our arm
ies."
296 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The Government more to blame than Hull. A Scape-goat wanted, and found. Biographical Sketch of Hull.
ada without better preparation. But the young hot-bloods of the administration —
Clay, and others — could not wait ; and the President and his Cabinet, lacking all the
essential knowledge for planning a campaign, had sent him on an errand of vast im
portance and difficulty without seeming to comprehend its vastness, or estimating the
means necessary for its accomplishment. The conception of the campaign was a huge
blunder, and Hull saw it ; and the failure to put in vigorous motion for his support
auxiliary and co-operative forces, was criminal neglect. When the result was found
to be failure and humiliation, the administration perceived this, and sought a refuge.
Public indignation must be appeased — the lightning of the public wrath must be
averted. General Hull was made the chosen victim for the peace-offering — the sin-
bearing scape-goat ; and on his head the fiery thunderbolts were hurled. The grass
has grown greenly upon his grave for more than forty years. Let his faults (for, like-
all men, he was not immaculate) also be covered with the verdure of blind Charity.1
Two generations have passed away since the dark cloud first brooded over his fair
fame. We may all see, if we will, with eyes unfilmed by prejudice, the silver edging
which tells of the brightness of good intentions behind it, and prophesies of evanish-
ment and a clear sky. Let History be just, in spite of the clamors of hoary Error.
" ' Tis strange how many unimagiued charges
Caii swarm upon a man, when once the lid
Of the Pandora-box of contumely
Is open'd o'er his head."— SHAKSPEARE.
•
1 William Hull was born in Derby, Connecticut, on the 24th of June, 1753. He was graduated with honor at Yale Col
lege when he was nineteen years of age. He first studied divinity, but left it for the law. He was a meritorious soldier
and officer throughout the Revolution, and participated in nine battles. He went to Canada on an Indian commission
in 1792. He held judicial and representative offices in Massachusetts, and, as we have seen, was placed in a responsible
military and civil station at the beginning of the War of 1812. He died at Newton, Massachusetts, in November, 1825.
I am indebted to General Hull's granddaughter, Miss Sarah A. Clarke, of Newport, Rhode Island, for a copy of his por
trait, painted by Stuart, from which our engraving was made. The signature is copied from a letter in my possession,
written at White Plains, New York, in the autumn of 1778.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 297
Journey from Chicago to Detroit. A Sabbath in Detroit.
CHAPTER XV.
"And who supplies the murderous eteel ?
And who prepares the base reward
That wakes to deeds of desperate zeal
The fnry of each slumbering horde?
From Britain comes each fatal blow ;
From Britain, still our deadliest foe."
THE KENTUCKY VOLUNTEER ; BY A LADY.
"T was a beautiful, clear, breezy morning, early in October, 1860, when
the writer left Chicago, with his family, to visit the theatre
of events described in the two preceding chapters. We took
the Michigan Central train for Detroit, and soon lost sight of
the marvelous metropolis of Illinois, and Lake Michigan, on
which it stands.1 We swept rapidly around the magnificent
curve of the head of the lake, and after leaving the sand dunes
of Michigan City, and the withered bud of a prospective great
mart of commerce at New Buffalo, traversed a beautiful and fertile country in the
western half of the lower part of the peninsula and State of Michigan. Large streams
of water, mills, neat villages, broad fields covered with ripe corn, spacious barns, and
hardy people, seen all along the way to Marshall, where we dined, and beyond, pro
claimed general prosperity. Among the most considerable streams crossed during
the day were the St. Joseph, Kalamazoo, Battle Creek, and Huron. Over the latter,
in its crooked course, we passed several times when approaching the metropolis
(Lansing is the capital) of Michigan. It was the dusk of mere starlight when we
traveled over that section of the route, and it was late in the evening when we reach
ed Detroit, and found a pleasant home at the Russell House for the few days of our
sojourn in that neighborhood.
The following day was the Sabbath. The air was as warm as in early June. A
drizzling rain moistened all the streets and caused small congregations in the church
es. We listened to the full, powerful voice of Bishop M'Coskry in the morning, and
in the afternoon strolled with a friend far down beautiful Fort Street,2 and enjoyed
the prospect of fine residences and ornamental gardens. The sun shone brightly all
the afternoon, but in the evening heavy clouds came rolling up from the southwest.
At nine ^clock a thunder-storm burst over the city, which sent down lightning and
rain untirpast midnight. No traces of this elemental tumult were seen above in the
morning —
"The thunder, tramping deep and loud,
Had left no foot-marks there."
The sky was cloudless, and a cool breeze from the northwest — cooler than any we
had felt since the dog-days — reminded us that autumn had succeeded summer. It
came from the far-off region beyond Mackinack, where snow had already whitened
the hills. '
At an early hour I started for Monroe, on the site of old Frenchtown, on the river
1 This is the largest of the lakes that lie wholly within the United States. It is 330 miles long, and has an average
width of 60 miles. It contains 16,981 square miles, or 10,868,000 acres. Its average depth is about 900 feet, and its ele
vation above tide water is about 300 feet.
2 The residence of the late General Cass was on this street. It was a spacious but very modest wooden building, on
the corner of Fort and Cass Streets, a little westward of the site of the old fort. His former residence— a small, low,
one-storied building, with four dormer windows—was yet standing, on the west side of Lamed Street, near the corner
of Second Street.
298 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
A Trip from Detroit to Amherstburg. One of the "oldest Inhabitant's" Recollections of the War of 1812.
Raisin, to visit the places of histoi'ic interest in that vicinity, where I spent the day
pleasantly and profitably. Of the events of that day I shall write hereafter. On the
. October 6 following morninga I procured a horse and light wagon, crossed the ferry
18(5°- to the Canada shore at Windsor, and started for Amherstburg, eighteen
miles down the stream toward Lake Erie. In the lower part of Windsor I sketched
Colonel Babie's house, delineated on page 262, and then rode on to Sandwich, two
miles below, where I met one of that famous class known as " the oldest inhabitants"
in the person of Mr. John B. Laughton, who was born in Detroit, but who has been a
British subject from his early years. When, in 1796, the post of Detroit was evacu
ated by the British, according to the provisions of the treaty of 1783, many residents
of English, Irish, and Scottish line
age, preferring " not to be Yankees,"
as Mr. Laughton said, crossed the
river and settled along its Canada
shore. Mr. Laughton was a mem
ber of the Kent militia in 1812 ; and from Sandwich he saw the white flag that pro
claimed the surrender of Detroit. He was then a young man twenty-two years of
age. He was afterward in the affair known as the battle of the Long Woods, in
Canada ; also at the battle of Chippewa, where he lost a brother killed ; and at that
of Niagara, where he lost his own liberty, and was sent a prisoner to Greenbush, op
posite Albany. He related many interesting circumstances connected with the sur
render. He spoke of the Canadian Volunteers in the uniforms of regulars, by which
Hull was deceived ; and said that among the Indians who followed Brock into the
fort at Detroit were several Canadians, painted and dressed like the savages, who
each held up a white arm to show Hull that they had defied the menace in his proc
lamation respecting the treatment of such offenders.
Sandwich was an exceedingly pleasant village. Around it were orchards of pear
and apple trees of great size, which attested the fact that it is one of the oldest settle
ments in Canada. Here the disbanded French soldiers settled after the peace of
Paris in 1763. The houses had pleasant gardens attached to them; and as the town
was the capital of Essex County, it contained a jail and court-house, and the resi
dence of the county officers'.
I left Sandwich toward noon, and a little past meridian crossed Turkey Creek.
For several miles below Sandwich the banks of Detroit are low and sandy. The
road, lying much of the way in sight of the river, was in excellent condition, and
with the picturesque and interesting scenery forms a most attractive drive in pleasant
weather. Passing through the Petit Cote settlement, I arrived at a neat little tavern
near the northern bank of the Aux Canards, where I met an old French Canadian
who was present when Cass, and Findlay, and M' Arthur, and Snelling DMide their
military visits there in 1812. He was loyal then, but quiet ; and when re was safe
to do so, in the absence of the Americans, he furnished the Queen Charlotte with
vegetables. He pointed out the ridge from which M' Arthur reconnoitred the whole
position, and also the spot where Colonel Cass planted his six-pounder, and "blazed
away" at the enemy on the southern shore of the stream. The bridge seen in the
centre of the picture on page 264 was upon the site of the old one, and, like it, was
reached by a causeway at both ends. I sketched the scene, then crossed the Aux
Canards over the causeway and the bridge, and hastened on to Amherstburg, for
the day was rapidly wearing away. Most of the way from Aux Canards, or Ta-
ron-tee, to Amherstbm-g, the river bank is high, and the road passing along its margin
was thickly settled, for the farms were narrow. Most of the houses were large, with
fine gardens around them. Among the most attractive of these was " Rosebank,"
the residence of Mr. James Dougall, an eminent horticulturist, about three miles from
Amherstburg.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. , 299
The Vicinity of Amherstburg. Historical Localities.
It was nearly three o'clock when the steeples of Amherstburg announced its pres
ence. I soon crossed a beautiful open plain, whereon cattle were grazing, bounded
on the left by streets of neat log cottages, whitewashed and embowered, each a story
in height, with two acres of land attached. The plain was a military reserve of one
hundred and thirty acres, and the cottages were the dAvellings of pensioners — super
annuated British soldiers — who were well cared for by their government. On the
right of the road, in the upper part of Amherstburg, within a high picket inclosure,
was Fort Maiden; its chief building (barracks) were then devoted to more humane
purposes than war. It wTas used for the insane in Canada West, as a branch of a
parent asylum for such unfortunates situated at Toronto. No part of the old fort
remained. The new one was constructed during the excitement incident to the
" Patriot War," or " Rebellion," as men of different bias respectively call an out
break in the Canadas in 1838. It was constructed in 1839.
Amherstburg had an antiquated appearance, the houses having been chiefly built
by the French. The streets were narrow, and the side-walks were mostly paved with
irregular stones. I had but little time to devote to an inspection of the place. After
ordering dinner at Salmoni's, I went out with an intelligent lad, and visited the fort
and other places of interest along the shore. The ship-yard, Avhere a part of Barclay's
fleet on Lake Erie was built, was a few rods above Salmoni's ; and from the corner of
a large red stone house, overlooking the whole locality, and commanding quite an ex-
YIE\V OF MALDEN, WHERE THE BRITISH SHIPS WERE BUILT.
tensive view of the river southward, with Elliott's Point on the left and Bois Blanc
Island on the right, I made the accompanying sketch. The wharf, then used chiefly
for wood, was precisely where the British vessels were launched. In the direction of
the ship under sail (seen in the picture), just oif Elliott's Point on the left, is seen Lake
Erie. Looking a little farther to the right, on Bois Blanc Island, is seen the light
house, near which was a block-house and battery in 1812 ; and on each side of the
group of sails at the wharf is seen a block-house, both erected in 1838. There was
a block-house on the right of Salmoni's Hotel, and another at the upper end of the
ship-yard, near the fort, in 1812.
After dinner I visited the venerable Robert Reynolds, living in a fine brick man
sion, surrounded by charming grounds, on the bank of the river, just below Amherst
burg. From his grounds there is a view of Elliott's Point, where Colonel Elliott, al-
300 , PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
A veteran British Officer. Return to Detroit. Equine Entertainment at "Windsor Castle."
ready mentioned frequently, resided. Just below it, three or four miles from Am-
herstburg, is Hartley's Point, where General Harrison landed when he invaded Cana
da in 1813. Mr. Reynolds was in the eightieth year of his age when I visited him.
His sister, but little his junior, lived with him. They were born in Detroit. He
was deputy assist- sen's on the day of
ant commissary gen- fx_^>n / / y^^l. ;? / the battle of the
eral in the British //TA^fr^/// ////) /w /&] Thames. From that
army in the War of (/I/I/ (/ 'L^y /w(/ (^ time until the peace
1812, and was at the "~^TS=S— - ^ '""' -===^~~ •> ne was stationed at
taking of Detroit. ^y"""5"^ Burlington Heights,
He was also at Dol- at the west end of
Lake Ontario. His sister told me that she distinctly heard the firing between the
fleets of Perry and Barclay in the memorable battle of Lake Erie, in September, 1813 ;
and that she also saw from her residence the vessels conveying Harrison's army from
the Raisin to the Canada shore. Mr. Reynolds knew Proctor and Tecumtha well, and
seemed to have a very unfavorable opinion of the former as a commander. He spoke
of his conduct at the Thames as " shameful," and justified the strictures of Te
cumtha.
It was sunset when I left Amherstburg for Detroit. In the western sky, as I looked
over the fields where Van Home and Miller had wrestled with the mongrel foe, when
the country was almost a wilderness, were seen gorgeous cloud-bars of crimson and
gold. These faded into dull lead ; and just as daylight yielded the sceptre to star
light, I crossed the sluggish Ta-ron-tee. It was a summer-like evening, and before I
reached the slope of the highway leading up to Sandwich, the lights of Detroit gave
pleasant indications that the end of the journey was near. It was nine o'clock when
I entered Windsor, and on inquiring of a man, standing on the piazza of a large
wooden building, for the proper turn to the Ferry, I was told that the boat had
ceased running for the night. For a moment I was perplexed. I did not wish to re
main all night in Windsor when Detroit was so near. " Where can I leave my horse
and wagon in safety," I inquired. " At this house," the man replied. " What is the
name of it ?" I asked. " Windsor Castle," he answered. The name and the building
were in ludicrous contrast. But my business was not to criticise ; so I left the horse
in care of the groom of the stables of Windsor Castle, crossed the dark and swift-
flowing waters to Detroit in a light skiff hired for the occasion, and wondered all the
way at my confidence in a stranger whose face I could not see in the darkness. But
horse and wagon were found the next morning well cared for at " Windsor Castle."
I spent Wednesday, the 7th of October, in visiting places of interest in Detroit
under the kind guidance of Mr. Moore, of that city. We first went to the wharves in
rear of the warehouses of Messrs. Mooney and Foote, and Sheldon, to see three iron
cannon that were captured from the British in the naval battle on Lake Erie, where
Perry was victorious. They were then put to the more commendable use of posts
for fastening vessels to the wharves. One of them was
a long tweiity-four-pounder, and the other* two were
thirty-two-pound carronades. After visiting the rooms
of the Michigan Historical Society, where I found noth
ing of interest connected with the subject of my re
searches, we rode out on the noble Jefferson Avenue to
Bloody Run, stopping on the way for a brief interview
with the late Honorable B. F. H. Witherell, from whose
local sketches quotations have been made in preceding
Chapters. Judge Witherell kindly placed in my hands
much valuable historical material, the fruit of his own
BRITISH CANNON AT DETROIT. ,
researches.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 301
. . — — T
Siege of Detroit by Pontiac. Fight at Bloody Bun. Origin of the Name. Elmwood Cemetery.
Bloody Run, as a little stream that comes down gently to the great avenue, after
beautifying Elmwood Cemetery, is called, holds a conspicuous place in the annals of
Indian wars. The event which gave it its present name (it was formerly known as
Parent's Creek) may be thus briefly stated : We have already alluded to the con
spiracy of Pontiac in 1763. He had said to some Canadians in council: "I have
told you before, and I now tell you again, that when I took up the hatchet it was for
your good. This year the English must all perish throughout Canada. The Master
of Life commands it." He then told them that they must act with him, or he would
be their enemy. They cited the capitulation at Montreal, which transferred Canada
to the English, and refused to join him. He pressed forward in his conspiracy with
out them, and finally invested Detroit with a formidable force.
In July, 1763, Pontiac was encamped behind a swamp, about two miles north of
the fort at Detroit. Captain Dalyell,1 who had ranged with Putnam in Northern
New York, arrived with re-enforcements for the fort at the close of the month, and
obtained permission of the commandant to attack Pontiac at once. A perfidious Ca
nadian, possessed of the fact, communicated it to Pontiac, and he made ready for an
attack.
At a little past midnight,* Dalyell marched to Parent's Creek. The dark- » juiy si,
ness, owing to a storm, was intense. Pontiac, forewarned, had posted his
warriors all along the route for a mile in front of his camp, so that a thousand eager
ears were listening for the approach of the white men. Five hundred dusky Avar-
riors were lurking near the rude log bridge, at the mouth of the wild ravine, through
which Parent's Creek flowed. DalyelPs advance was just crossing the bridge when
terrific yells in front, and a bla-ze of musketry on the left flank, revealed the presence
of the wily foe. One half of the advanced party were slain, and the remainder shrank
back appalled. The main body advancing also recoiled. Then came another vol
ley, when the voice of Dalyell in the van inspirited his men. With his followers he
pushed across the bridge, and charged up the hill ; but in the blackness the skulking
enemy could not be seen, and his presence was known only by the flash of his guns.
Word now reached Dalyell that the Indians, in large numbers, had gone to cut off"
his communication with the fort. He sounded a retreat, and in good order pressed
toward Detroit, exposed to a most perilous enfilading fire. Day dawned with a thick
fog enveloping all objects, and now, for the first time, dim glimpses of the enemy
were obtained. They came darting through the mist on flank and rear, and as sud
denly disappeared after firing deadly shots upon the English. One of these slew Cap
tain Dalyell while he was attempting to bear off a wounded sergeant. The detach
ment finally reached the fort, having lost sixty-one of their number in killed and
wounded. Most of the slain fell at the bridge. Parent's Creek has ever since been
called, from that circumstance, Bloody Run, and the old structure was always called
Bloody Bridge. That bridge, as we have before remarked, was much nearer the De
troit than Jefferson Avenue. At the ciilvert where that avenue crosses Bloody Run
stands a huge whitewood tree, delineated on page 261, yet, as we have observed,
scarred by the bullets that were fired in that sanguinary encounter more than a hund
red years ago.
On leaving Bloody Run we rode up to the Elmwood Cemetery, and made the tour
of those hallowed grounds, where taste and industry, aided by natural advantages,
have produced one of the most charming places for the repose of mortality with
which our country begins to abound. We lingered there for more :than an hour, and
returned to the city in time for a late dinner, and a visit to the grave of Colonel
i This name is frequently written Dalzell. James Dalyell had been appointed a lieutenant in the Sixtieth Regiment
of Royal Americans in 1756, and obtained the command of a company in the second battalion of the First Regiment
of Foot. He was a brave and efficient officer, and had performed important services during the French and Indian
302 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Interviews with Citizens of Detroit. Chicago, its Name, Settlement, and Position.
Hamtramck, with Mr. R. M. Lyon,1 to whose kind attentions while in Detroit I was
much indebted. The monument that covered that brave soldier's grave is delineated
on page 56.
At twilight I called upon the Hon. C. Moran, who, though only a lad of sixteen
years, was performing ^~-~~~T5 said he saw General
sentinel duty in the ^^"^ ^^ Hull during the heavy
fort at Detroit when it ^-"^^^^^/^S^. ^&>Y^^s cannonading, just be-
was surrendered. He *^ ^ ^ E-"£^ fore the white flag was
run up, sitting upon the grass within the fort apparently unmoved by the terrors of
the scene. He related many interesting particulars of occurrences within the fort at
that time, and it was with real regret that I felt compelled to make the interview
short, for I had made an engagement to call on Mr. Robert M. Eberts, a native of De
troit, and a resident of that place since his birth in 1804. Mr. Eberts was full of in
teresting reminiscences, and the half hour passed with him was one of real pleasure
and profit.2 Late in the evening I returned to the Russell House, copied the picture
of Mackinack on page 267, and early the following morning — a cold, blustering, genu
ine late-November kind of morning — crossed the Detroit, and proceeded by railway
along the borders of Lake St. Clair to Chatham, for the purpose of visiting the battle
ground of the Thames or Moravian Towns. Of. that visit I shall write hereafter.
I have said that we went from Chicago to Detroit. These cities bear an intimate re-
• August 15, latiori in the history of the period we are considering, for on the very daya
when Brock demanded the surrender of Detroit, the little garrison of Fort
Dearborn, at Chicago, compelled to leave that post, set out upon their fatal march
toward Fort Wayne.
The site of Chicago (spelt by the early settlers Chigagua, Chikakou, and Chikako)
was first visited by a white man in 1674, when leather Marquette, a French Jesuit
priest, built a cabin there, planted a missionary station, and deposited the seed of the
present great city. It lay in the path of explorations by commercial and religious
adventurers, one seeking trade, the other desiring to give the light of the Gospel .to
the heathen of the New World. It was visited in turn by Marquette, Allouez, La
Salle, Durantaye,La Hontan,Dc St. Come, Gravier, Charlevoix, and others of less note.
In 1685 Durantaye built a fort where, eleven years before, Marquette erected his cabin.
How long it remained a missionary station it is difficult now to determine.3
" The first white man who settled here was a negro," the Indians of Chicago said,
with great simplicity. He was a mulatto from St. Domingo, named Jean Baptiste
Point au Sable, who found his way to that far-off wilderness in the year 1796. He
did not remain long, and the improvements which he had commenced fell into the
hands of John Kinzie, a native of Quebec, and for nearly twenty years the only white
inhabitant of Northern Illinois, with the exception of a few American soldiers. He
was an enterprising trader with the Indians, and in 1804 made Chicago his home.
1 Mr. Lyon was a Pension and Bounty Land Agent in Detroit. He informed me that he had in his possession com
plete copies of all army rolls of the War of 1812 for Michigan, Ohio, New York, and other states, besides other record
evidence of service. He had also in his possession muster-rolls of the Black Hawk. Patriot, and Mexican wars. He
was probably better prepared, by the amount of positive information in his possession, and the devotion of undivided
attention to the subject, to serve claimants for pensions and bounties than any other man west of Lake Erie.
2 Positive statements made to me by Mr. Eberts and Judge Moran, when combined, form a curious subject for specu
lation. Mr Eberts assured me that General Brock sent a hollow silver bullet (repeating Sir Henry Clinton's famous
act in 17T7) from Fort George to Major Muir at Fort Maiden, containing a message, and that the major sent it by Rich
ard Eberts (whom I saw at Chatham), brother of my informant, to Colonel Askin, a British officer residing at Strahan
in Canada. Askin's son-in-law, Colonel Brush, was then one of General Hull's aids-de-camp, and it was believed, after
the surrender, that the bullet contained a communication from Brock to Brush. Judge Moran told me that on one oc
casion his uncle was sent by Colonel Brush to Askin, his father-in-law, with a package, and that he was made a pris
oner, and detained in Canada for some time. The bullet and the package seem to have some connection in the matter.
3 Chicagou was the Indian name of the Illinois River, at the mouth of which the city stands. In the language of the
Pottawatomies, who inhabited that region, the name signifies a skunk or pole-cat—some say the wild onion, both of
which emit unpleasant odors, and were abundant there. It is said that the Pottawatomies wore garters of the dried
skunk's skin. — Sketch of the Early History of Chicago, by John Gilmartiu Shea.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
303
Fort Dearborn.
Kinzie's Residence.
The Garrison at Chicago.
During the two previous years the United States government had erected a stockade
there, and on the 4th of July of that year it was formally named Fort Dearborn, in
honor of the then Secretary of War. It had a block-house at each of two angles on
the southern side, a sally-port and covered way on the north side, that led down to
the river, for the double purpose of providing a means of escape and for receiving
water during a siege, and was strongly picketed.1 It stood upon a little rise of
KINZIE MANSION AND FORT DEARBORN.
ground on the south bank of the Chicago River, about half a mile from its mouth.
On the north bank of that stream, directly opposite the fort, Mr. Kinzie enlarged
into a spacious but very modest mansion the house built by Jean Baptiste and his
immediate successor, Le Mai. Within an inclosed green in front he planted some
Lombardy poplars, and in the rear was a fine garden and growing orchard. There
he lived with his young family for eight years, isolated from society excepting that
of the military, but enjoying great peace, with every necessary and many of the lux
uries of life, and possessing the confidence and esteem of the surrounding Indians. .
The peacefulness of the current of life at Chicago was interrupted in the spring of
1812. The garrison was commanded by Captain Nathan Heald,2 assisted by Lieu
tenant Linai T. Helm,3 a son-in-law of Mrs. Kinzie, and Ensign George Ronan. The
surgeon was Dr. Van Voorhees. The garrison consisted of fifty-four men. The only
other residents of the post, at the time of the events we are about to consider, were
Mr. Kinzie and his family, the wives of Captain Heald and Lieutenant Helm and of
some of the soldiers, and a few Canadian voyageurs, with their wives and children.
The officers and their troops, like Mr. Kinzie, were on the most friendly terms with
1 Fort Dearborn was erected under the superintendence of Major John Whistler, who was also the overseer of the
construction of Fort Wayne, at the forks of the Maumee. Major WThistler was an Englishman. He was taken prisoner
with Burgoyne at Saratoga in 1777, and remained in the United States. He settled in Maryland, and in 1790-91 joined
the troops under General St. Clair, and was with him at his defeat on the Miami in November, 1791, where he was act
ing as adjutant and was wounded. He was commissioned an ensign of the First Infantry in the spring of 1792, and in
the autumn was made a lieutenant in the first sub-legion. He passed through other grades of service until, on the 10th
of July, 1S12, he was breveted a major. He was disbanded in 1815, and three years afterward became military store
keeper at St. Louis. He died at Belle Fontaine, Missouri, in 1S27.
In building Fort Dearborn, Major Whistler had no oxen, and the timber was all dragged to the spot by the soldiers.
He worked so economically that the fort, Colonel Johnston, of Dayton (who furnished him with some materials from
Fort Wayne), told me, did not cost the government over fifty dollars. For a while the garrison could get no corn, and
Whistler and his men subsisted on acorns.
2 Heald, who was a native of Massachusetts, joined the army as ensign in the spring of 1799. He became a first lieu
tenant in November of the same year. In January, 1S07, he was commissioned a captain, and held that office until the
•J6th of August, 1812, when, on account of his good conduct at Chicago, he was promoted to major. He was disbanded
in 1815.
3 Helm, of Kentucky, entered the army as ensign in December, 1807, and became second lieutenant the following year.
He was promoted to first lieutenant in January, 1813, and to captain in April, 1814. He resigned in September following.
304 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Signs of Trouble with the Indians. An Indian Raid. Massacre of White People.
the Pottawatomies and "Winnebagoes, the principal tribes in that neighborhood ; yet
they could not win them from their decided attachment to the British, from whom,
at Fort Maiden, they annually received large presents as bribes to secure their alli-
a November, ance- After the battle of Tippecanoe, the previous autumn," in which por-
1811- tions of their tribes were engaged, it had been observed that the leading
chiefs became sullen, and suspicions of contemplated hostility sometimes clouded the
minds of Heald and his command. One day in the spring of 1812, Nau-non-gee and
a companion, both of the Calumet band, were at Fort Dearborn. When passing
through the quarters, they observed Mrs. Heald1 and Mrs. Helm2 playing at battle
dore. Turning to Mr. Griffith, the interpreter, Nau-non-gee said : " The white chiefs'
wives are amusing themselves very much ; it will not be long before they are living
in our corn-fields." The terrible significance of these words, then hidden, was made
apparent a few weeks later.
On the evening of the 7th of April, 1812, Mr. Kinzie's children were dancing before
the fire to the music of their father's violin, when their mother- came rushing wildly
in, pale with terror, and exclaiming, " The Indians ! the Indians !" " What ? where ?"
exclaimed Mr. Kinzie, in response. " Up at Lee's, killing and scalping !" gasped the
affrighted mother. It seems that the alarm had been given by a man and boy,3 who
had been fleeing from destination down the opposite side of the river, and had shout
ed the terrible fact to the family of Mr. Burns, half a mile above the fort, where Mrs.
Kinzie was in attendance upon a newly-made mother. Not a moment was to be lost.
Mr. Kinzie immediately hurried his family into two old pirogues* moored in front of
his house, and conveyed them across the river to the fort. At the same time the in
trepid Ensign Ronan, with six men, started up the river in a scow to save the Burns
family ; and a cannon was fired to give notice of danger to a party of soldiers who
had gone up the river to catch fish. Mrs. Burns, with an infant not a day old,5 and
the rest of her family, were taken in safety to the fort ; and the absent soldiers, who
were two miles above Lee's, made their way back in the darkness, discovering on
their way the bodies of murdered and scalped persons at Lee's Place. These were
obtained the next day, and were buried near the fort. It was afterward ascertained
that the savage scalping-party were Winnebagoes, from Rock River, who had come
with the intention of destroying every white person outside of the fort. The noise
of the cjmnon frightened them, and they fled back to their homes.
1 Eebecca Heald was a daughter of General Samuel Wells, of Kentucky (one of the heroes of Tippecanoe), and niece
of Captain William Wells, who will appear prominently in our narrative. She was with her uncle at Fort Wayne two
or three years before the war, where Captain Heald became acquainted with her. Their acquaintance ripened into mu
tual attachment. He taught her the use of the rifle, in which she became very expert. They were married in 1810 or
1811, and she accompanied her husband to Port Dearborn.
2 Mrs. Helm was a daughter of Colonel M'Killup, a British officer attached to one of the companies who were station
ed at Fort Miami, on the Maumee, at the time of Wayne's appearance there in 1794. While reconnoitring one night, he
was mistaken for an enemy, and mortally wounded. His widow married Mr. Kiuzie, with whom, and this daughter, she
removed to Chicago in 1803. Here the daughter, at the age of eighteen years, married Lieutenant Helm, of Kentucky,
in 1811. She died suddenly at Waterville, in Michigan, in 1844.— Pioneer Women of the West, by Mrs. E. F. Ellet.
3 These were a discharged soldier'and a son of Mr. Lee, who lived near the fort, and cultivated a farm about three
miles up the south branch of the Chicago River, in the vicinity of the point where Halstead Street now crosses that
stream. See map on page 266. This was known as Lee's Place. Lee and all his family, except Mrs. Lee and her infant,
perished in the massacre at Chicago on the 15th of August.
* Pirogue, or piragua, originally meant a canoe formed out of the trunk of a tree, or two canoes united. A vessel
used in this country as a narrow ferry-boat, carrying two masts and a lee-board, is called piragua.
5 The main facts of this narrative of affairs at Chicago, in 1812, are derived from a most interesting account from
the pen of Mrs. John II. Kinzie, of Chicago, published in pamphlet form in 1844, and repeated substantially in a
charming history of personal adventures on the northwestern frontier, by the same accomplished lady, in a volume
published in 1856, entitled, Wau-bun, the " Early Day" in the Northwest. Mrs. Kinzie is a daughter-in-law of Mr. John
Kinzie, the trader just mentioned, and much of the narrative of the events which we are considering she received from
Mrs. Helm, an actor in the events. Of this infant of Mrs. Burns she gives a few words of interesting narrative. The
mother and child were made pi'isoners at Chicago by a chief, and carried to his village. His attentions to them aroused
the jealousy of his spouse, and one day she spitefully struck the infant with a tomahawk with the intention of killing
it. The blow took off some of the scalp. " Thirty-two years after this," says Mrs. Kinzie, " as I was on a journey to
Chicago in the steamer Uncle Sam, a young woman, hearing my name, introduced herself to me, and, raising the
hair from her forehead, showed me the mark of the tomahawk which had so nearly been fatal to her."— Wau-bun,
page £44.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 305
Order for the Evacuation of Chicago. Danger in the Movement. The Commandant warned against it.
All of the inhabitants of Chicago not belonging to the garrison now took refuge in
the Agency House, which stood upon the esplanade, about twenty rods west from
the fort, on the site of the present light-house, and there intrenched themselves. This
was an old-fashioned log house, with a passage running through the centre, and piaz
zas extending the whole length of the building, front and rear. These were planked
up. Port-holes were cut in the barricade, and sentinels were posted there every
night. For some time hostile Indians hovered around the post and committed dep
redations ; but at last they disappeared, and for several weeks the dwellers at Chi
cago experienced no alarm.
Toward the evening of the 7th of August,a Win-ne-meg, or The Catfish, a , Igl2
friendly Pottawatomie chief, who was intimate with Mr. Kinzie, came to Chi
cago from Fort Wayne as the bearer of a dispatch from General Hull to Captain Heald,
in which the former announced his arrival at Detroit with an army, the declaration of
war, the invasion of Canada, and the loss "of Mackinack. It also conveyed an order
to Captain Heald to evacuate Fort Dearborn, if practicable, and to distribute, in that
event, " all the United States property contained in the fort, and in the government
factory or agency, among the Indians in the neighborhood." This was doubtless in
tended to be a peace-offering to the savages, to prevent their joining the British, then
menacing Detroit. •
Win-ne-meg, who knew the purport of the order, begged Mr. Kinzie to advise Cap
tain Heald not to evacuate the fort, or the movement would be difficult and dangerous.
The Indians had already received information from Tecumtha of the disasters to the
American arms, and the withdrawal of Hull's army from Canada, and were becoming
daily more restless and insolent. Heald had an ample supply of ammunition and pro
visions for six months ; why not hold out until relief could be sent from the south
ward ? Win-ne-meg farther urged that, if Captain Heald should resolve to evacuate,
it should be done immediately, before the Indians should be informed of the order, or
could prepare for formidable resistance. " Leave the fort and stores as they are," he
said, " and let them make distributions for themselves ; and while the Indians are en
gaged in that business, the white people may make their way in safety to Fort
Wayne."
Mr. Kinzie readily perceived the wisdom of Win-ne-meg's advice, and so did Cap
tain Heald's officers, but the commander resolved to obey Hull's order strictly as to
evacuation and the distribution of the public property. He caused that order to be
read to the troops on the morning of the 8th,b and then assumed the whole
responsibility. His officers expected to be summoned to a council, but were
disappointed. Toward evening they called upon the commander, and, when informed
of his determination, they remonstrated with him. The march, they said, must neces
sarily be slow, on account of the women and children and infirm persons, and there
fore, under the circumstances, extremely perilous. Hull's order, they said, left it to
the discretion of the commander to go or to stay ; and they thought it much better
to strengthen the fort, defy the savages, and endure a siege until relief should reach
them. Heald argued in reply that special orders had been issued by the War De
partment that no post should be surrendered without battle having been given by
the assailed, and that his force was totally inadequate to an engagement with the
Indians. He should expect the censure of his government, he said, if he remained ;
and having full confidence in the professions of friendship of many of the chiefs about
him, he should call them together, make the required distribution, and take up his
march for Fort Wayne. After that his officers had no more communications with him
on the subject. The Indians became more unruly every hour, and yet Heald, with
fatal procrastination, postponed the assembling of the savages for two or three days.
They finally met near the fort on the afternoon of the 12th,c and there the
commander held a farewell council with them.
U
306
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
A Treaty with the Indians.
Their Faithlessness known.
Solemn Warnings unheeded.
Heald invited the officers to join him in the council, but they refused. They had re
ceived intimations that treachery was designed — that the Indians intended to murder
them in the council-circle, and then destroy the inmates of the fort. The officers re
mained within the pickets, and, opening the port of one of the block-houses so as to
expose the cannon pointed directly upon the group in council, they secured the safety
of Captain Heald. The Indians were intimidated by the menacing monster, and ac
cepted Heald's offers with many protestations of friendship. He agreed to distribute
among them not only the goods in the public store — blankets, broadcloths, calicoes,
paints, etc. — but also the arms, ammunition, and provisions not necessary for the use
of the garrison on its march. It was stipulated that the distribution should take
place the next day, soon after which the garrison and white inhabitants would leave
the works. The Pottawatomies agreed, on their part, to furnish a proper escort for
them through the wilderness to Fort Wayne, on condition of being liberally reward
ed on their arrival there.
When the result of the council was made known, Mr. Kinzie warmly remonstrated
with Captain Heald. He knew the Indians well, and their weakness in the presence
of great temptations to do wrong. He begged the commander not to confide in their
promises at a moment so inauspicious for faithfulness to treaties. He especially en
treated him not to place in their hands arms and ammunition, for it would fearfully
increase their power to carry on those murderous raids which for months had spread
terror throughout the frontier settlements. Heald perceived his folly, and resolved
to violate the treaty so far as arms and ammunition were concerned.
On that very evening, when the chiefs of the council seemed most friendly, a cir
cumstance occurred which should have made Captain Heald shut his gates to his
dusky neighbors, and resolve not to leave the fort. Black Partridge, a hitherto friend
ly chief, and a man of much influence, came quietly to the commander and said : " Fa
ther, I come to deliver to you the medal I wear. It was given me by the Americans,
THE m.Acfk PAKTEITIGE'B MEDAL.
and I have long worn it in token of our mutual friendship. But our young men are
resolved to imbrue their hands in the blood of the white people. I can not restrain
them, and I will not wear a token of peace while I am compelled to act as an ene
my."1 This solemn and authentic warning was strangely unheeded.
i This medal, as I have been informed, was received by the Black Partridge at the treaty of Fort Wayne, on the 30tb
of September, 1800, mentioned on page 190. It was of silver. The engraving is the exact size of the original. It was
copied from one in the possession of the widow of General Jacob Brown, of Brownsville, New York, where I saw It in
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 3Q7
Another Warning. , Arms, Powder, and Whisky destroyed. Arrival of Re-enforcementg. Too late.
The morning of the 1 3th was bright and cool. The Indians assembled in great
numbers to receive their presents. Nothing but the goods in the store were distrib
uted that day ; and in the evening the Black Partridge said to Mr. Griffith, the in
terpreter, " Linden birds have been singing in my ears to-day ; be careful on the
march you are going to take." This was another solemn warning, and it was com
municated to Captain Heald. It, too, was unheeded ; and at midnight, when the
sentinels were all posted and the Indians were in their camps, a portion of the pow
der and liquor in the fort was cast into a well near the sally-port, and the remainder
into a canal that came up from the river far under the covered way. The muskets
not reserved for the garrison were broken up, and these, with shot, bullets, flints,
gun-screws, and every thing else pertaining to fire-arms, were also thrown into the
well. A large quantity of alcohol belonging to Mr. Kinzie was poured into the river,
and before morning the destruction was complete. But the work had not been done
in secret. The night was dark, and vigilant Indians had crept to the fort as noise
lessly as serpents, and their quick senses had perceived the destruction of what, un
der the treaty, they claimed as their own. In the morning the work of the night
was made more manifest. The powder was seen floating upon the surface of the
river, and the sluggish water had been converted by the whisky and the alcohol ii^to
" strong grog," as an eye-witness remarked. Complaints and threatenings were loud
among the savages because of this breach of faith j1 and the dwellers in the fort were
impressed with a dreadful sense of impending destruction, when the brave Captain
Wells, Mrs. Heald's uncle, and adopted son of the Little Turtle, was discovered upon
the Indian trail near the Sand Hills, on the border of the lake not far distant, with a
band of mounted Miamis, of whose tribe he was a chief.2 He had heard at Fort
Wayne of the orders of Hull to evacuate Fort Dearborn, and, being fully aware of
the hostilities of the Pottawatomies, he had made a rapid march across the country
to re-enforce Captain Heald, assist in defending the fort, or prevent his exposure to
certain destruction by an attempt to reach the head of the Maumee. But he was too
late. All means for maintaining a siege had been destroyed a few hours before, and
every preparation had been made for leaving the post the next day.
When the morning of the 15th arrived, there were positive indications that the In
dians intended to massacre all the white people. They were overwhelming in num
bers, and held the fate of the devoted band in their grasp. When, at nine o'clock,
the appointed hour, the gate was thrown open, and the march commenced, it was like
a funeral procession. The band struck up the Dead March in Saul. Captain Wells,
the summer of 1860. She also had a smaller medal of the same kind, struck for the same occasion. These were distrib
uted among the Inferior chiefs.
1 The celebrated chief Black Hawk, who was among the Indians at the time of the massacre at Chicago, declared that,
had the treaty been fully carried out, the white people would not have been attacked. And such has been the general
impression of students. But the conduct of Black Partridge before the powder and liquor were destroyed disproves
this. No doubt the massacre had been determined on as soon as the order for the evacuation was made known to the
Indians.
2 When in Toledo, Ohio, in the autumn of 1860, 1 spent an hour pleasantly and profitably with General John E. Hunt,
a brother-in-law of General Cass, whose early life was spent among the stirring scenes of the frontier. He was in the
fort at Detroit when it was surrendered. He knew Captain William Wells, and from his lips the substance of the fol
lowing brief notice was communicated : When a child, Wells was living with his relative, Hon. Nathaniel Pope, of Ken
tucky, where he was stolen by a band of Miami Indians and taken to the Maumee country. He was adopted by Little
Turtle, the eminent Miami chief. He was rescued by his relatives, but had become so attached to his Indian friends and
their mode of life that he returned to them. He was compelled to go upon the war-path when Harrison invaded that
region, and was with the Indians who defeated St. Clair. No doubt he swayed the mind of Little Turtle when Wayne
appeared in that region, for that chief was favorable to peace with the great Blacksnake, as they called him. Well*
saw clearly the weakness of the Indians ; and one day, while in the woods, he suddenly informed his foster-father that
he should leave him, to join the army of Wayne. "I now leave your nation for my own people," said Wells. "We
have long been friends. We are friends yet, until the sun reaches there," pointing to a place in the heavens. " Prom
that time we are enemies. Then, if you wish to kill me, you may; if I want to kill you, I may." At the hour named,
Wells crossed the Maumee, and, asking the direction toward Wayne's army, disappeared in the forest. In Wayne's army
he commanded a company of the spies. When peace was restored, after the treaty of Greenville, in 17!»5, he and the
Little Turtle became good friends. He married the Little Turtle's sister, a Miami girl, and became a chief of that na
tion. One of his daughters was the wife of Judge Wolcott, of Maumee City, Ohio. Wells was Indian Agent at Fort
Wayne when the War of 1812 broke out. He had lived there since 1804.
308
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
A solemn March out of the Fort.
Treachery of the Indians.
Massacre,of the White People.
with his face blackened with wet gunpowder in token of his impending fate, took the
lead with his friendly Miamis, followed by Captain Heald, and his heroic wife by his
side. Mr. Kinzie accompanied them, hoping, by his personal influence, to soften, if he
could not avert, the impending blow. His family were left in a boat, in charge of a
friendly Indian, to be conveyed around the head of the lake to Kinzie's trading sta
tion, on the site of the present village of Niles, in Michigan.
Slowly the procession moved along the lake shore until they came to the Sand
Hills, between the prairie and the beach, when the escort of Pottawatomies, about
five hundred in number, under The Black-bird, filed to the right, and placed those hills
between themselves and the white people. Wells and his Miamis had kept in the
advance ; suddenly they came dashing back, the leader shouting, " They are about to
attack us : form, instantly !" These startling words were scarcely uttered when a
storm of bullets came from the Sand Hills, but without serious effect. The treacher
ous and cowardly Pottawatomies had made those hillocks their cover for a murder
ous attack. The troops, hastily brought into line, charged up the bank, when one of
their number, a white-haired man of seventy years, fell dead from his horse, the first
victim. The Indians were driven back, and the battle was waged on the open prai-
rig between fifty-four soldiers, twelve civilians, and three or four women, against about
five hundred Indian warriors. Of course, the conflict was hopeless on the part of the
white people ; but they resolved to make the butchers pay dearly for every life which
they destroyed.1
The cowardly Miamis fled at the first onset. Their chief rode up to the Pottawat
omies, charged them with perfidy, and, brandishing his glittering tomahawk, declared
that he would be the first to lead Americans to punish them. He then wheeled and
dashed after his fugitive companions, who were scurrying over the prairie as if the
Evil Spirit was at their heels.
5>* fa* -1 Te>
INDIAN TRAIL
SITE OF CHICAGO AND OF EVENTS THERE IN 1812.
The conflict was short, desperate, and bloody. Two thirds of the white people
were slain or wounded, and all the horses, provisions, and baggage were lost. Only
twenty-eight strong men remained to brave the fury of about five hundred Indians,
who had lost but fifteen in the conflict. The devoted band had succeeded in break
ing through the ranks of the assassins, who gave way in front and rallied on the flank,
1 The place of conflict at the Sand Hills was on the site of a lot (vacant when I visited it in I860) in the rear of the
honse of the late Widow Clark, between Indiana and Michigan Avenues, just south of North Street, and about fifty rods
fr jm the lake.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 309
Incidents of the Conflict with the Savages. Death of Captain Wells. Bravery of Women.
and gained a slight eminence on the prairie near a grove called The Oak Woods.
The savages did not pursue. They gathered upon the Sand Hills in consultation, and
gave signs of willingness to parley. Farther conflict with them would be rashness ;
so Captain Heald, accompanied by Perish Le Clerc, a half-breed boy in Mr. Kinzie's
service, went forward, met Black-bird on the open prairie, and arranged terms for a
surrender. It was agreed that all the arms should be given up to Black-bird, and
that the survivors should become prisoners of war, to be exchanged for ransoms as
soon as practicable. With this understanding, captured and captors all started for
the Indian encampment near the fort.1
So overwhelming was the savage force at the Sand Hills, that the conflict, after the
first desperate charge, became an exhibition of individual prowess — a life-and-death
struggle, in which no one could render any assistance to his neighbor, for all were
principals. In this conflict women bore a conspicuous part. All fought gallantly so
long as strength permitted them. The brave Ensign Ronan wielded his weapon even
when falling upon his knees because of loss of blood.2 Captain Wells displayed the
greatest coolness and gallantry. He wras by the side of his niece when the conflict
began. " We have not the slightest chance for life," he said. " We must part, to
meet no more in this world ; God bless you." With these words, he dashed forward
with the rest. In the midst of the fight he saw a young warrior, painted like a de
mon, climb into a wagon in which were twelve children of the white people, and tom
ahawk them all ! Forgetting his own immediate danger, Wells exclaimed, " If that
is their game, butchering women and children, I'll kill too." He instantly dashed to
ward the Indian camp, where they had left their squaws and little ones, hotly pur
sued by swift-footed young warriors, who sent many a rifle ball after him. He lay
close to his horse's neck, and turned and fired occasionally upon his pursuers. When
he had got almost beyond the range of their rifles, a ball killed his horse and wound
ed himself severely in the leg. The young savages rushed forward with a demoniac
yell to make him a prisoner and reserve him for the torture, for he was to them an
arch offender. His friends Win-ne-meg and Wau-ban-see vainly attempted to save
him from his fate. He knew the temper and the practices of the savages well, and
resolved not to be made a captive. He taunted them with the most insulting epi
thets to provoke them to kill him instantly. At length he called one of the fiery
young warriors (Per-so-tum) a squaw, which so enraged him that he killed Wells in
stantly writh a tomahawk, jumped upon his body, cut out his heart, and ate a portion
ofthe warm and half-palpitating morsel with savage delight.3
The wife of Captain Heald,*who was expert with the rifle and an excellent eques
trian, deported herself bravely. She received severe wounds. Faint arid bleeding,
she managed to keep the saddle. A savage raised his tomahawk to kill her, when
she looked him full in the face, and, with a sweet, melancholy smile, said, in the Indian
tongue, " Surely you will not kill a squaw !" The appeal was effectual. The arm
of the savage fell, and the life of the heroic woman was saved. Mrs. Helm, the step
daughter of Mr. Kinzie, had a severe personal encounter with a stalwart young
Indian, who attempted to tomahawk her. She sprang on one side, and received the
blow intended for her head upon her shoulder, and at the same instant she seized the
savage around the neck, and endeavored to get hold of his scalping-knife, which hung
in a sheath upon his breast. While thus struggling, she was dragged from her antag-
1 Captain Heald's dispatch to Adjutant General dishing, October 23, 1812.
2 Mrs. Helm speaks of the terror of Dr. Van Voorhees at that time. He was badly wounded. His horse had been shot
under him. " Do you think," he said to Mrs. Helm, " they will take our lives ?" and then talked of offering a large ran
som for existence. She advised him not to think of life, but of inevitable death. " Oh !" he exclaimed, " I can not die.
I am not fit to die. If I had only a short time to prepare for it— death is awful !" She pointed to the falling Ronan,
and said, " Look at that man ! at least he dies like a soldier." " Yes," gasped the terrified surgeon, " but he has no ter
ror of the future— he is an unbeliever !" At that moment Mrs. Helm had a deadly struggle with a young Indian, and a
moment afterward she saw the dead body of the surgeon. He had been slain by a tomahawk.
3 Statement of Colonel John Johnston, of Dayton, to the author.
310 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Act of a friendly Indian. The Wounded butchered for their Scalps. Scalps purchased by the British Commander.
onist by another Indian, who bore her, spite of her desperate resistance, to the
margin of the lake, and plunged her in, at the same time, to her astonishment, hold
ing her so that she would not drown. She soon perceived that she was held by a
friendly hand. It was that of the Black Partridge who had saved her. When the
firing ceased and the capitulation was concluded, he conducted her to the prairie,
where she met her father, and heard that her husband was safe. Bleeding and suf
fering, she was conducted to the Indian camp by the Black Partridge and Per-so-tum,
the latter carrying in his hand a scalp which she knew to be that of Captain Wells
by the black ribbon that bound the queue.
The wife of a soldier named Corbord, believing that all prisoners were reserved
for torture, fought desperately, and suifered herself to be literally cut in pieces rather
than surrender. The wife of Sergeant Holt, who was badly wounded in his neck at
the beginning of the engagement, received from him his sword, and behaved as
bravely as an Amazon. She was a large and powerful woman, and rode a fine, high-
spirited horse, which the Indians coveted. Several of them attacked her with the
butts of their guns, for the purpose of dismounting her, but she used her sword so
skillfully that she foiled them. She suddenly wheeled her horse and dashed over the
prairie, followed by a large number, who shouted, " The brave woman ! the brave
woman ! don't hurt her !" They finally overtook her, and, while two or three were
engaging her in front, a powerful savage seized her by her neck, and dragged her
backward to the ground. The horse and woman became prizes. The latter was
afterward ransomed.
When the captives were taken to the Indian camp a new scene of horrors was
opened. The wounded, according to the Indians' interpretation of the capitulation,
were not included in the terms of the surrender. Proctor had oifered a liberal sum
for scalps delivered at Maiden; so, nearly all the wounded men were killed, and the
value of British bounty, such as is sometimes offered for the destruction of wolves,
was taken from each head.1 In this tragedy Mrs. Heald played a part, but fortunate
ly escaped scalping. In order to save her fine horse, the Indians had aimed at the
rider. Seven bullets took effect upon her person. Her captor, who was about to slay
her upon the battle-field, as we have seen, left her in the saddle, and led the horse to
ward the camp. When in sight of the fort his acquisitiveness overpowered his gal
lantry, and he was taking her bonnet from her head in order to scalp her, when she
was discovered by Mrs. Kinzie, who was yet sitting in the boat, and who had heard
the tumult of the conflict, but without any intimation of the result until she saw tlie
wounded woman in the hands of her savage captive.* " Run ! run, Chandonnai !"
exclaimed Mrs. Kinzie to one of her husband's clerks, who was standing on the beach.
" That is Mrs. Heald. He is going to kill her ! Take that mule, and offer it as a
ransom." Chandonnai promptly obeyed, and increased the bribe by offering in ad
dition two bottles of whisky. These were worth more than Proctor's bounty, and
Mrs. Heald was released. She was placed in Mrs. Kinzie's boat, and there concealed
from the prying eyes of other scalp-hunters.
Toward evening the family of Mr. Kinzie2 were allowed to return to their own
1 A writer, signing his communication " An Officer," under date of "Buffalo, March 8, 1813," speaks of the arrival
there of Mrs. Helm, and her narrative of sufferings at and after the massacre at Chicago. "She knows the fact," he
says, " that Colonel Proctor, the British commander at Maiden, bought the scalps of our murdered garrison at Chicago,
and, thanks to her noble spirit, she boldly charged him with the infamy in his own house." This independence was
probably the cause of the cruel treatment which she and her husband received at the hands of Proctor. She and her
husband, after several weeks of captivity among the Indians, were united at Detroit, where Proctor caused them both
to be arrested, and sent on horseback, in the dead of a Canadian winter, across the wilderness to Fort George, on the
Niagara frontier. The writer farther says concerning the statements of Mrs. Heald, " She knows, from the tribe with
whom she was a prisoner, and who were the perpetrators of those murders, that they intended to remain true, but that
they received orders from the British to cut off our garrison whom they were to escort." — Niles's Weekly Register, April 3,
1813.
2 John Kinzie, who bore so conspicuous a part in the events we are considering, was born in Quebec, in 1763, and
was the only offspring of his mother's second marriage. His father died while he was an infant, and his mother mar
ried a third time, and with her husband (Mr. Forsythe) removed to the city of New York. At the age of ten years
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 311
Survivors of the Massacre at Chicago. Sketch of Mr. Kinzie. Remains of the Fort.
house, where they were greeted by the friendly Black Partridge. Mrs. Helm was
placed in the house of Ouilmette, a Frenchman, by the same friendly hand. But these
and all the other prisoners were exposed to great jeopardy by the arrival of a band
of fierce Pottawatomies from the Wabash, who yearned for blood and plunder. They
searched the houses for prisoners with keen vision, and when no farther concealment
and safety seemed possible, some friendly Indians arrived, and so turned the tide of
affairs that the Wabash savages were ashamed to own their blood-thirsty inten
tions. ]
In this terrible tragedy in the wilderness fifty-five years ago, twelve children, all
the masculine civilians but Mr. Kinzie and his sons, Captain Wells, Surgeon Van Voor-
hees,2 Ensign Ronan, and twenty-six private soldiers, were murdered. The prison
ers were divided among the captors,3 and were finally reunited, or restored to their
friends and families. A few of them have survived until our day. Mrs. Rebecca
Heald died at the St. Charles Mission, in 'Missouri, in the year 1860. Major John H.
Kinzie, of Chicago (husband of the writer of" Wau-bun"), his brother Major Robert
A. Kinzie, and Mrs. Hunter, wife of General David Hunter, of the National Army, are
[1867] surviving children of Mr. Kinzie, and were with their mother in the boat
The brothers were both officers of Volunteers during the late Civil War ; and a most
promising son of John Kinzie became a martyr for his country in that war. Paul de
Garmo, another survivor, was living at Maumee City, Ohio, when I visited that place
in 1860, but I was not aware of the fact until after I had left. Jack Smith, a sailor
on the lakes, who was a drummer-boy at the time, was alive within the last two or
three years. It is believed that no other survivors of the massacre are now [1867]
living.
On the morning after the massacre the fort was burned by the Indians, and Chi
cago remained a desolation for about four years. In 1816 the Pottawatomies ceded
to the United States all the land on which Chicago now stands, when the fort was
rebuilt on a some what more extended scale, and the bones of the massacred were col
lected and buried. One of the block-houses of the new fort remained, near the bank
of the river, until 1856, when it was demolished. The view here given (by whom
young Kinzie was placed in a school in Williamsbnrg, near Long Island. One day he made his way to the North River,
got on board of an Albany sloop, and started for Quebec. Fortunately for him, he found a passenger who was on his
way to that city, who took charge of him. At Quebec the boy apprenticed himself to a silversmith. Three years after
ward, his family, having returned to Canada for the purpose of moving to Detroit, discovered him. They had supposed
him lost forever. When he grew up he loved the wilds. He became a trader, and lived most of the time on the frontier
and among the Indians. He established trading-houses. He married the widow of a British officer in 1SOO, and settled
at Chicago in 1804. There he became a captain in 1812, and in January, 1813, joined his family at Detroit. There he
was badly treated by General Proctor, who cast him into prison at Maiden. He was finally sent to Quebec, to be for
warded to England, for what purpose was never known. The vessel in which he sailed was compelled to put back,
when he was released and returned to Detroit, where he found General Harris in possession. He and his family re
turned to Chicago in 1816, when the fort was rebuilt. Mr. Kinzie died there on the 6th of January, 182S, at the age of
sixty-five years. This was two years before the town of Chicago was laid out into lots by commissioners appointed by
the state.
1 The leader of the friendly party was Billy Caldwell, a half-breed and a chief. The Black Partridge told him of the
evident intentions of the Wabash Indians. They had blackened their faces, and were then seated sullenly in Mr.
Kinzie's parlor, preparatory to a general massacre of all the remaining white people. Billy went in, took off his ac
coutrements, and said, in a careless way, " How now, my friends ! A good day to you. I was told there were enemies
here, but I am glad to find only friends. Why have yon blackened your faces ? Is it that yon are mourning for your
friends lost in battle ? Or is it that you are fasting? If so, ask our friend here (Mr. Kinzie), and he will give you to
eat. He is the Indian's friend, and never yet refused them what they had need of." The hostile savages were sur
prised and overwhelmed with shame.— Mrs. Kinzie's Wau-bun, page 238.
2 John Cooper, M.D., of Poughkeepsie, New York, was the immediate predecessor of Doctor Van Voorhees at Fort
Dearborn. They were natives of the same town (Fishkill, Dutchess County, New York) and class-mates. Van Voor
hees was a young man of great powers. Dr. Cooper left the fort in 1811, tendered his resignation, and left the army.
He died at Poughkeepsie in 1863, where he had been for many years the oldest medical practitioner in the place.
3 Captain Heald was quite severely wounded and made a prisoner by an Indian from the Kankakee, who had a strong
personal regard for him, but who, on seeing the feeble state of Mrs. Heald, released him and allowed him to accompany
her to the mouth of the St. Joseph's, in Michigan. On returning to his village, the Indian found himself an object of
great dissatisfaction because he had released his prisoner ; so he resolved to go to St. Joseph and reclaim him. Friend
ly Indians gave Heald warning, and he and his wife went to far-off Mackinack in an open boat, and surrendered them
selves to the British commander there as prisoners of war. This kept them out of the hands of the savages.— Wau-bun,
page 243.
312
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Block-house at Chicago.
The Author of Wau-ltm.
Amazing Growth of Chicago.
BLOOK-UOUttE AT C1UOAUO.
sketched I know not) was drawn not long before the demolition. On the left of the
picture is seen the light-house and a steam-boat in the Chicago River, above the Rush
Street bridge, at the termination and junction of Wabash Avenue and River Street.
On the right, across the river, not far from the site of the Kinzie mansion, is seen the
hotel called the Lake House, and in the foreground, on the right, is seen two vener
able trees, one of which was standing on the vacant lot where the block-house was
when I visited Chicago in 1860. At that time I had the pleasure of meeting Mrs.
John H. Kinzie, the author of Wait-bun, at her own house, and heard from her own
lips interesting reminiscences of Chicago in 1831, the year after state commissioners
laid it out into town lots. To Mrs. Kinzie's skillful pencil we are indebted for the
sketch of Fort Dearborn and the Kinzie mansion printed on page 303 ; also for the
map on page 308. Although she was a woman of about middle age, she and her hus
band were the " oldest inhabitants" of Chicago. They are the only persons now [1867]
living there who were residents of Chicago in 1831, within the present city limits.
There were two settlers living without the city limits in 1860 who resided on the
same spot in 1831. These were Archie Clybourn and John Clack, the latter generally
known as " Old Hunter Clack." They were originally from the Kanawha Valley, in
Virginia. These had been witnesses of its marvelous growth from a stockade fort
in the wilderness, and a few rude houses, to a city of almost two hundred thousand
inhabitants in the course of only thirty-six years ! Chicago is now the great en-
ti'epot for the grain of the teeming Northwest — the central point to which about a
dozen important railways converge1 — and yet there, only thirty-six years ago, Mrs.
Kinzie and her family, during a whole winter, were compelled to use the greatest
economy for fear they might exhaust their slender stock of flour and meal before it
could be replenished from " below !" At the same time, the Indians of that neigh
borhood were famishing — " dying in companies from mere destitution Soup
made from the bark of the slippery elm, or stewed acorns, was the only food that
many had subsisted on for weeks."2
1 The Michigan Central ; the Michigan Southern and Northern Indiana ; the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne, and Chicago ; the
Chicago branch of the Illinois Central ; the St. Louis, Alton, and Chicago : the Chicago and Rock Island ; the Illinois
Grand Trunk; the Chicago, Fulton, and Iowa ; the Galena, Chicago, and Union ; the Chicago and Northwestern ; and
the Chicago and Milwaukee, with numerous tributaries.
2 For a full description of Chicago in 1831, the reader is referred to the seventeenth chapter of Mrs. Kenzie
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 313
Chicago a Generation ago. Its historical Localities. Tecumtha's Hopes revived. Designs against Fort Wayne.
The city of Chicago now covers the entire theatre of the events just described.
The old channel of the river, from the fort to its mouth, has been filled or covered,
and the present harbor constructed. The Sand Hills have been leveled ; and where
the battle on the prairie — the struggles of brave warriors, and the chase and murder
of Wells — occurred, populated streets now lie. It was while passing along one of
these (Michigan Avenue) — the finest in point of beauty, taste, and prospect in all the
West, when on our way out to the pleasant suburban village of Hyde Park, on the
lake shore, to visit some old friends, that we were directed to the site of the Sand
Hills, the Oak Woods, and Lee's Place. Very near the spot where the Kinzie man
sion stood — where food was so scarce only thirty years ago, immense " elevators"-
the largest in the world — receive, weigh, arid send off annually millions of bushels of
the surplus grain of the Northwest ! This transformation is the work of a single
generation. It seems like a magic product evolved by the attrition of Aladdin's
lamp.1
When the work of destruction, and the final disposition of the prisoners at Chi
cago were completed, The Black-bird and his savage horde pressed toward Fort
Wayne. The fall of Mackinack and Detroit, and the destruction of the military post
at Chicago, so completely broke the power of the United States in the Northwest for
the moment, that the Indians, believing that there would be perfect safety in openly
joining the British, did so. Tecumtha's hopes of establishing a confederacy of the
Indians to drive the white people from the country north of the Ohio revived. The
prospect of success seemed brighter than ever, and, with the energy of a patriot and
enthusiast, he sent emissaries among all the tribes to invite them to take the war
path, with the sole intent of complete expulsion or utter extermination. The Win-
nebagoes, Pottawatomies, Kickapoos, Ottawas, Shawnoese, and less powerful tribes,
gladly listened ; and all over the region south of Lake Erie, far toward the Ohio, the
young men were speedily engaged in the war-dance.
Proctor and Tecumtha resolved to reduce Forts Wayne and Harrison immediately.
The former, as we have seen, was at the head of the Maumee,2 and the latter on the
Wabash.3 Major Muir, with British regulars and Indians, were to proceed from Mai
den up the Maumee Valley to co-operate with the Indians ; and the 1st of September
was appointed as the day when Fort Wayne should be invested by them. The gar
rison consisted of only seventy men, under Captain James Rhea,4 with four small
field-pieces. The savages were there as early as the 28th of August,a and at
about the same time hostile bands, for the purpose of diverting attention from
Forts Wayne and Harrison, and preventing their garrisons being re-enforced, were
directed to prosecute warfare at distant points in their usual mode — murdering iso
lated settlers, with their women and children. Pursuant to these instructions, a
scalping-party of Shawnoese fell upon " The Pigeon Roost Settlement," on a tribu-
1 I am indebted to the accurate knowledge and kind courtesy of Mrs. Kinzie for the following information respecting
the localities of acts in the events we have just recorded, as indicated by places to-day :
The " Kinzie mansion" was on the north side of the Chicago River, at the intersection of Pine and North Water
Streets, as they now are in " Kinzie's addition," and about eighty feet east of the Lake House.
The house of Ouilmette was between what are now Rush and Cass Streets, on North Water Street. Burns's was near
the foot of Wolcott Street, on the bank of the river. The east end of the Chicago and Galena Freight Depot covers the
spot.
The place where the fight commenced was between the Widow Clarke's and the lake. The trees are still standing
which stood there at that day.
"Lee's Place" was about a fourth of a mile above where Halstead Street crosses the South Branch.
Captain Wells was killed near the foot of Twelfth Street, on the Lake Shore path.
The "Oak Woods" were, in 1862, "Camp Douglas," just beyond the southern limits of the city, on the Lake Shore.
"Chicago University" and the grave of the late Stephen A.Douglas, who owned the property, occupy a portion of the
tract.
The place of the parley was about at the intersection of the Archer Road and Clarke Street.
2 See page 56. 3 See page 197.
* James Rhea was a native of New Jersey, and was lieutenant and adjutant of "Rhea's levies" in 1791. He was en
sign and second lieutenant of infantry in 1799, and was promoted to first lieutenant in 1800. He was commissioned a
captain in July, 1S07, and resigned at Fort Wayne at the close of 1812.— Gardner's Dictionary of the Army, page 377.
314 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Massacre of Settlers. Attack on Fort Wayne. . " Quaker Guns." The Garrison firm.
tary of the White River, within the limits of the present Scott County, in Southern
Indiana, on the 3d of September/ They first killed two bee-hunters of the set
tlement ;] and between sunset and dark they murdered one man, five women,
and sixteen children.2 Only two men and five children escaped.3 ' These made their
way, under the cover of the night, to the house of a settler six miles distant. One
hundred and fifty mounted riflemen, under Major John M'Coy, gave chase to the
" September 4. murderers the next day.b They followed them twenty miles, but they
escaped during the night. The militia of Scott, Jefferson, Clarke, and
c September T. j£nox Counties were soon assembled, and were joinedc by about three
hundred and fifty volunteers from Kentucky, under Colonel Geiger, for the purpose
of destroying the towns of the Dela wares, on the White River, who were suspected
of being the murderers. Evidence of the innocence and even friendliness of those In
dians was not wanting, and they were spared. From that time until the close of
the war, the settlers in that region lived in a continual state of fear and excitement.4
For several days the Indians, in large numbers, had been seen hovering in the woods
around Fort Wayne, and on the night of the 5th of September they commenced a se
ries of attacks by firing upon the sentinels, without effect. Up to that time, the Mi-
amis in the neighborhood, who had resolved to join the British, had made great pro
fessions of friendship, hoping, no doubt, to gain possession of the fort by a surprise.
This hypocrisy availed them nothing, so they cast off all disguise and opened hostili
ties. On the morning of the 6th they were invisible, and some of the soldiers ven
tured out of the fort. They had not proceeded seventy yards when bullets from a
concealed foe killed two of their number. Their companions hastened back, carrying
the bodies of their comrades with them.
On the night of the 6th the whole body of Indians, supposed to have been six hund
red strong, attacked the fort. They attempted to scale the palisades, but so vigilant
and skillful were the garrison that the savages were not permitted to do the least
damage. Perceiving such assaults to be useless, they resolved to employ strategy in
the morning. Two logs were formed into the shape of cannon, and placed in battery
before the fort. A half-breed, with a flag, approached and informed the commandant
that the British, then on their march, had sent them two battery cannon, and that if
a surrender was not immediately made, the fort would be battered down. He also
threatened a general massacre of the garrison within three days, as a re-enforcement
of seven hundred Indian warriors were expected the next day. The troops were not
frightened by the " Quaker guns." They were aware that friends were on the way
to relieve them,5 and resolved to hold out while their provisions lasted. For nearly
three days after the menace there was quiet. Then the savages renewed the at-
1 Jeremiah Payne and Frederick Kaupfman.
2 These were Henry Collings and his wife ; the wife of Jeremiah Payne and eight of her children ; Mrs. Richard Col-
lings and seven of her children ; Mrs. John Morris and her only child, and Mrs. Morris, the mother of her husband.
3 Mrs. Jane Biggs and her three children, and the aged William Collings and Captain John Morris, with two of the
children (John and Lydia) of Mrs. Collings who was murdered. They all escaped to the house of Zebulon Collings. —
Dillon's History of Indiana, page 492.
4 Mr. Zebulon Collings, to whose house the fugitives from The Pigeon Roost escaped, has left on record the following
vivid account of the sense of peril felt by the settlers during those dark days between the summer of 1S12 and 1815 :
" The manner in which I used to work was as follows : on all occasions I carried my rifle, tomahawk, and butcher-knife,
with a loaded pistol in my belt. When I went to plow, I laid my gun on the plowed ground, and stuck up a stick by
it for a mark, so that I could get it quick in case it was wanted. I had two good dogs. I took one into the house, leav
ing the other out. The one outside was expected to give the alarm, which would cause the one inside to bark, by which
I would be awakened, having my arms always loaded. I kept my horses in a stable close to the house, having a port
hole so that I could shoot to the stable-door. During two years I never went from home with a certainty of returning,
not knowing the minute I might receive a ball from an unknown hand ; but, in the midst of all these dangers, that God
who never sleeps nor slumbers has kept me." — Dillon's History of Indiana, page 493.
5 General Harrison, then at Piqua in command of Kentucky troops, sent Major William Oliver, a gallant officer, with
four Shawnoese, to Fort Wayne to assure the garrrison of speedy re-enforcement. They pushed through the wilderness
for about sixty miles. Oliver was in Indian costume. When they approached the fort they came upon the out-guards
of the savages. With great skill they evaded them, made their way through the lines of the besiegers, and, with fleet
foot, gained the fort. Oliver and his companions remained there until the close of the siege. —Early History of the Man-
mee Valley, by H. L. Hosmer, page 32.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
315
Siege of Fort Wayne raised.
Eavages of the Indians.
The Grave of Little Turtle.
September 9,
1812.
tack,a and kept up a fire at intervals for twelve hours. On the following
day they raised a tremendous war-whoop, to frighten the garrison, and
again commenced an assault, with as little success as on previous occasions. The
patient little garrison remained unharmed ; and on the 12th, the besiegers fled precip
itately, having heard of the approach of a large re-enforcement for the fort. That
evening the deliverers arrived, and Fort Wayne was saved.1
I'OKT WAYXE IN 1S12.
Before they left, the Indians destroyed every thing outside the fort — live-stock,
crops, and dwellings. Among the latter was the house of Captain Wells, who was
killed at Chicago. It was on his reservation of rich bottom lands on the north side
of the St. Mary's River, opposite the present city of Fort Wayne, and not more than
half a mile distant from it. When I visited the spot in the autumn of 1860, in com
pany with the venerable Mr. Hedges, already mentioned,2 and the Hon. I. D. G. Nel
son, more than twenty apple-trees of an orchard planted by Captain Wells — the old
est in Northern Indiana, having been set out in 1804 or 1805 — were yet standing,
shorn of beauty, huge,
gnarled, and fantastic
al, but fruit - bearing
still. They were . on
the land of Mr. Edward
Smith, on the east side
of the road from Fort
Wayne to White Pig
eon. In Mr. Smith's
garden, which was
within the inclosure of
the orchard, only a few
yards westward of a
group of larger trees,
was the grave of the
Little Turtle. Its place
is marked in our little
sketch of that group
T11E LITTLE TURTLE 8 GKAVE.
of five apple-trees by
the figures in the fore
ground. There the Lit
tle Turtle was buried
in the middle of July,
1812, and his nephew,
Co-is-see, pronounced a
funeral oration at his
grave. His residence
was then at Eel River,
about fi f t e e n miles
northwest of Fort
Wayne. He had come
to the fort to be treat
ed by the garrison sur
geon for the gout, and
died there.3 Mr. Hedg
es was at his funeral.
i Thomson's Sketches of the War, page 56 ; M'Afee, page 12T. 2 See page 44.
3 Mr. Drake, in his Book of the Indians, quotes the following notice of the Little Turtle's death from one of the public
prints of the day : "Fort Wayne, 21 July, 1812.— On the 14th instant the celebrated Miami chief, the Little Turtle, died
at this place, at the age of sixty-five years. Perhaps there is not left on this continent one of his color so distinguished
in council and in war. His disorder was the gout. He died in a camp, because he chose to be in the open air. He met
316 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Forts Wayne and Miami, Treachery of the Indians. Site of Fort Wayne.
By the side of his remains reposed those of his sister, the wife of Captain Wells.
Their graves were unhonored, but I was informed that^the kinsfolk of the noted
man were about to erect a neat monument to mark the place of their sepulture.
Fort Wayne, delineated on page 315, was built, as we have seen (page 56), in the
autumn of 1794. It was not on the site of the old French stockade, known as Fort
Miami ;* nor on that of the one which was occupied by an English garrison, consist
ing of a captain's command, at the time of Pontiac's conspiracy in 1 763. At that time
the old Fort Miami was a ruin, and the stockade to which reference is here made was
in perfect order. It was about half a mile from the present bridge across the Mau-
mee, on the east bank of the St. Joseph. The commander was a surgeon, and his pro
fession was the cause of his own death and the capture of the garrison by the Indians
at that time. He was asked by an Indian girl to go out of the fort to see a sick sav
age at the Miami village near by, where a young woman of the tribe, chosen for the
purpose, to show the contempt of the savages for the English, murdered him. The
garrison became prisoners to the Miamis.2 When, three years later, George Croghan
visited the spot, the fort was " somewhat ruinous." He found forty or fifty Indian
cabins at the village across the Maumee (that " stood on both sides of the St. Joseph"),
besides "nine or ten French houses." Among the latter was that of Drouet de Kich-
ardville, a French trader, and father of Chief Richardville,- already mentioned as the
successor of the Little Turtle.3 The fort of 1794-1812 stood on the bank of the Man-
BRIDGE AT TIIE HEAD OF TUE MAUMEE, AT FOKT WAY.SE.
mee (see map on page 266), at the junction of the present Main and Clay Streets,
Fort Wayne. The Wabash and Erie Canal passes through a portion of it. It was a
his death with great firmness. The Agent for Indian Affairs had him buried with the honors of war, and other marks
of distinction suited to his character." A writer, quoted by Mr. Drake, says that he saw the Little Turtle, soon after St.
Clair's defeat, at Montreal, and described him as about six feet in height, sour and morose, and apparently crafty and
subtle. He wore Indian moccasins, a blue petticoat that came half way down his thighs, and a European waistcoat and
surtout. On his head was a cap that hung half way down his back, bespangled with about two hundred silver brooches.
In each ear were two rings, the upper parts of each bearing three silver medals about the size of a dollar, and the lower
parts quarters of a dollar. They fell more than twelve inches from his ears. One from each ear fell over his breast,
the others over his back. He also had three large nose jewels of silver, cunningly painted. Little Turtle was of mixed
blood— half Mohican and half Miami. Colonel Johnston, who knew him well, called him " the gentleman of his race."
1 The French governor of Louisiana mentioned this stockade in a letter in 1751. It was situated near the St. Mary's,
probably in the vicinity of the canal aqueduct. The dim outlines of this fort were traced by Wayne in 1794, and by
Colonel Johnston in 1800.— Lecture by J. L. Williams before the congregation of the First Presbyterian Church of Fort
Wayne, March 7th, 1860.
2 Oral statement of Colonel John Johnston, of Dayton, Ohio, to the writer, who knew the murderess, she being a resi
dent of the Miami village when he went to Fort Wayne in the year 1800. Colonel Johnston gave me the names of the
United States commanders of the fort in regular succession, as follows ; Colonels J. F. Hamtramck, and Thomas Hunt ;
Majors John Whistler, Thomas Pasteaur, and Zebulou M. Pike ; Captains Nathan Heald, James Rhea, and Hugh Moore ;
and Colonel Joseph H. Vose. The fort was abandoned in ISIS. Captain Vose was a citizen of Manchester, and had been
commissioned a captain in the Twenty-first Infantry in April, 1812. Colonel Johnston, in a letter written in 1S59, said
that Captain Vose was the only army officer within his knowledge, in 1S12, who publicly professed Christiauny. He
was in the constant habit of assembling his men on the Sabbath and reading the Scriptures to them, and conversing
with them on religious subjects.— Williams's Lecture, p. 12. Captain Vose was promoted to major during the War of
1812. In 1842 he received the commission of colonel. He died at the New Orleans barracks, just below the city, on the
I5th of July, 1S45. a Dillon's History of Indiana, p. 403.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 317
Fort Harrison besieged. Perils of the Garrison. Firmness and Courage of Captain Taylor.
well-built stockade, with two block-houses and comfortable barracks, and of sufficient
strength to defy the Indians, but not the British with cannon. A large and substan
tial bridge now spans the Maumee from near the site of Fort Wayne to the plains on
which the Miami village stood. The sketch on page 316 was taken from near the
line of the eastern side of the fort. At the centre of the picture is seen the point of
confluence of the St. Mary's and the St. Joseph's rivers, which form the Maumee.
While these demonstrations against Fort Wayne were in progress, similar efforts
were made against Fort Harrison, on the Wabash. At sunset on the day of the
Pigeon Roost massacre,a two young haymakers near Fort Harrison were « September 3,
killed and scalped by a party of Indians. The crack of the murderers'
muskets was heard at the fort, and excited the vigilance of Captain Zachary Taylor,
the commander of the garrison, who was just recovering from an attack of bilious
fever. On the following morning the bodies of the young men were taken to the fort
and buried. Late that evening1* old Joseph Lenar came to the fort with „ ge iem^r 4
a flag, followed by about forty Indians, one fourth of them women. The
men were chiefs of the several tribes — Winnebagoes, Kickapoos, Pottawatomies, Shaw-
noese, and some Miamis — who still adhered to the fortunes of the Prophet. They
came from his town near Tippecanoe, on the Wabash, where he was still busy in stir
ring up the Indians against the white people. One of Lenar's party, a Shawnoese
who could speak English, told Taylor that their leader would speak to him in the
morning about food for his company. Friendly Miamis had warned Taylor of the
hostile disposition of all the neighboring tribes, and he was perfectly on his guard.
The garrison consisted of only about fifty men, of whom, on account of the prevail
ing fevers, not much more than a dozen were free from the care of Dr. Clark, the sur
geon. Only six privates and two non-commissioned officers could mount guard at a
time. Yet now, in the presence of impending danger, some of the convalescents went
freely upon duty. The arms of the garrison were examined with great care that
evening ; and, when every thing necessary for watchfulness and security had been
arranged, the commander, weak and exhausted, lay down and fell asleep. His slum
bers were short. Toward midnight he was aroused by the firing of his sentinels.
Springing from his couch, he hastened to the parade and ordered every man to his
post. It was soon ascertained that the lower block-house (on the left of the picture
of the fort on page 315), had been set on fire by the savages. It was the most im-
important point in the fort excepting the magazine, for there were the contractor's
stores — the supplies for the garrison. The guns, at this time, had "begun to fire
pretty smartly" on both sides, and the attack and defense were fairly begun at a
little past eleven, with great vigor.
The chief efforts of the commander were directed to the extinguishment of the fire.
General confusion reigned, and efforts for the safety of the fort were, for a while, put
forth feebly. The entire garrison were either sick or faint with fatigue, and for a
time the utter destruction of the whole fortification seemed inevitable. The block
house was consumed, and the fort was thus opened to the savage foe. This exposure
and their horrid yells dismayed the little garrison, and for a moment they regarded
all as lost, and gave up in despair. Two of the stoutest and most trusted of the sol
diers leaped the palisades, and attempted to escape, leaving their companions to their
fate. Nothing saved the fort and garrison but the presence of mind, courage, pru
dence, and energy of the commander. The fire was about to communicate to the
barracks, when he shouted, "Pull off the roofs nearest the block-house, pour on wa
ter, and all will be well !" His voice gave new courage to his troops. Water was
brought in buckets, and several of the men, led by Dr. Clark, climbed to the roof, cut
off the boards, and by great exertions, in the face of bullets and arrows, they sub
dued the flames, and saved the menaced buildings. Only eighteen or twenty feet of
the fort was opened by the fire, and up to this time only one man had been killed
318
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
September,
1812.
The Indians driven from Port Harrison. Relief sent to the Garrison. Character and Services of Captain Taylor.
and two wounded. Before daylight the breach was covered by a breastwork as high
as a man's head, in spite of the incessant firing of the foe, and only one man was
killed (none wounded) in the fort. At six o'clock in the morning, when the garrison
returned the fire more briskly, after a conflict of almost eight hours, the savages re
tired beyond the reach of the guns of the fort, and then proceeded to destroy or drive
off the live-stock — horses, hogs, and cattle — found in the neighborhood. Fortunately
for the garrison, the standing corn around the fort was left unharmed. Their food
having been destroyed with the block-house that contained it, and their cattle being
driven away, they were compelled to subsist for several days on that delicious and
nourishing green corn.
One of the men who leaped the pickets and fled from the fort returned toward
morning badly wounded. He approached the gate, and begged, " for God's sake,"
to be let in. Captain Taylor was near, but, not recognizing the voice, and believing
it <to be a trick of the Indians to get the gate open, he ordered the soldiers near to
shoot the man. Fortunately for him, he had run to the other bastion with the same
supplication, where his voice was recognized, and he was told to lie quietly behind
some empty barrels at the foot of the pickets until morning. He did so, and was
saved. His companion had been literally cut in pieces by the savages within a few
yards of the fort. The entire loss of the garrison was only three men killed and three
wounded, and all but two of the latter met with disaster because of disobedience of
orders.1
On the 5tha Captain Tay
lor effectually repaired the
breach in the fort made by the fire by
placing in the opening strong pickets
made of the logs of the guard - house ;
and he furnished a messenger with dis
patches for Vincennes, asking for relief.
This was a difficult task, for the Indians
hovered about the fort for several days.
At length the messenger made his way
through their circumvallating line, dur
ing a dark night, and soon afterward
General Hopkins, with Kentucky Volun
teers, marched up the valley on an ex
pedition against the Indians on the head
waters of the Wabash, and gave ample
relief to the sick, weary, and worn sol
diers at Fort Harrison.
The soldierly qualities displayed by
Captain Taylor in the defense of his post
against such fearful odds won for him
promotion to a major by brevet, and
from that time until his death, nearly
forty years afterward, which occurred
while he was President of the United
States, he was one of the most reliable,
useful, and modest of public officers.2
' Captain Taylor's Dispatch to Governor Harrison, dated "Fort Harrison, September 10, 1812."
2 Zachary Taylor was bom in Orange County, Virginia, on the 24th of September, 1784. His father removed with his
family to Kentucky the following year, and settled near the site of the present city of Louisville, then known as The
Falls of the Ohio. Zachary entered the army when about twenty-five years of age as first lieutenant of infantry. Two
years afterward (May, 1810) he was promoted to captain, and at about the same time he was married to Margaret Smith,
a young lady of good family in Maryland. When war was declared he was in command of Fort Harrison, and for his
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
319
Attack on Fort Madison.
Repulse of the Savages.
Biography of Zachary Taylor.
1812.
Simultaneous with the attack on Fort Harrison, an attempt was made by a party
of the British allies to capture a small military post a short distance from the site of
the present city of St. Louis, on the bank of the Mississippi River. The place was
called Bellevue, and the stockade Fort Madison. The post was very ineligibly situ
ated, and totally unfitted for defense. The savages appeared before it on the afternoon
of the 5th of September.11 They were fierce Winnebagoes, two hundred strong.
The garrison, under Lieutenants Hamilton and Vasques, consisted of a small
party of the First Regiment of United States Light Infantry. The approach of the foe
was heralded by the shooting and scalping of one of the garrison within thirty yards
of the fort. For three days the Indians kept up the assault, with frequent attempts
to fire the block-houses and barracks. Buildings outside were burnt, and all the live
stock were slaughtered. The gallant little garrison defended the imperiled fort, with
great spirit and perseverance, until ten o'clock on the night of the 8th, when the
enemy withdrew. With the exception of the man murdered at the commencement
of the attack, not one of the garrison was seriously injured. One of the men was
slightly Avounded in the nose.
services there in defending it, in September, 1812, he was breveted a major. He was an active and useful officer in the
West during the remainder of the war. When the army was reduced at the close of the contest, he was deprived of his
commission of major, and recommissioned a captain, in consequence of which he resigned. He was soon afterward
called back to the service by President Madison, and commissioned a major in the Third Infantry, and placed in com
mand of a post at Green Bay. In 1S19 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel, and in Jhat position he remained until
1832, when President Jackson commissioned him a colonel. He served with distinction in the " Black Hawk War" that
year, and remained in command of Fort Crawford, at Prairie du Chien, until 1S36, when he was sent to Florida to op
erate against the Seminole Indians. His services there were of great importance, and at the close of 1837 he was bre
veted brigadier general. He remained in charge of all the troops in Florida until 1840, when he was appointed to the
command of the southwestern division of the army. Fort Gibson was made his head-quarters in 1841, and the same
year he purchased an estate near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and placed his family there. When, in 1845, war with Mexi-
GENEKAI, TAYLOK'S RESIDENCE AT BATON KOTTGE.
co was imminent, he was ordered to take post in Texas with an army of observation, as it was called. It soon became
an army of invasion. In the war that ensued he gained, in quick succession, several brilliant battles ; and when the
conflict was ended, and he returned home, he was greeted with the wildest enthusiasm. Congress honored him with
the commission, by brevet, of major general, its thanks, and also with a ponderous gold medal, "in the name of the re
public, as a tribute due to his gallant conduct, valor, and generosity to the vanquished." The "Whig" party nominated
him for the presidency of the grateful republic, and he was elected to that high office in November, 1848. He entered
upon the exalted duties of his office on the 4th of March, 1849, and died at the presidential mansion, in Washington
City, on the Oth of July, 1850, at the age of sixty-five years.
The portrait of General Taylor, given on page 318, is from a daguerreotype taken after his return from Mexico. The
picture of his residence is a fac-simile of a pencil-sketch made by the venerated hero himself for the author, in Novem
ber, 1848. In his letter covering the drawing, he says, "The sketch, you will perceive, is rude, but the best I can offer to
you at this time. Indeed, the building is rude in itself, and scarcely worthy of being sketched. I hope, however, that
this may be suited to your purposes." It was the residence of Colonel Dixon, the English commander at Baton Rouge,
when the fort there was taken by the Spaniards, under Don Bernardo de Galvez, in 1779, and that commander then made
it his residence. It was demolished in 1859.
320 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The Nation aroused. Enthusiasm of the People. Volunteers in Abundance.
CHAPTER XVI.
'They rise, by stream and yellow shore,
By mountain, moor, and fen ;
By weedy rock and torrent hoar,
And lonesome forest glen !
From many a moody, moss-grown mound,
Start forth a war-worn baud,
As when, of old, they caught the sound
Of hostile arms, and closed around,
To guard their native land."
J. M 'LEI. LAN, JR.
fE have observed that troops, in ample numbers, were sent to the
relief of Forts Harrison and Wayne. Whence came they ?
What spirit animated them when pushing eagerly into the
wilderness amonsc hostile Indians, after the disasters in the
O '
Northwest — the utter failure of Hull's campaign, which had
created such great expectations on the part of both govern
ment and 'people? Let us consult contemporary records and
traditions for an answer.
Those sad disasters on the Northwestern frontier, aroused, as we have before ob
served, the most intense feelings of indignation and mortified pride throughout the
whole country, and especially in the region west of the Alleghany Mountains and
beyond the Ohio River, which was thereby exposed to Indian raids and British inva
sion. When intelligence of those disasters spread over that region, a burning desire
to wipe out the disgrace was universal ; and there was a general uprising of senti
ment and action for the recovery of all that had been lost, the extermination of the
brutal savages, and the expulsion of their British allies from the soil of the Re
public. l
Even before the formal declaration of war Kentucky had made military prepara
tions for the event. Her quota of the one hundred thousand detached militia which
the President was authorized to summon to the field was almost ready when the fiat
went forth. Early in May, Governor Scott,2 in obedience to instructions from the
War Department, had organized ten regiments (the quota of his state), and filled
i " The War," a weekly paper, published in the City of New York, by Samuel Woodworth, the poet, gives the follow
ing glimpses of the spirit of the people at that time in its issue of September 19, 1812 : " The citizens of Albany, im
mediately on hearing of the surrender of General Hull, commenced a subscription for raising a regiment of volunteers.
Very liberal subscriptions were made for the comfort and convenience of those who might offer their services. A regi
ment of volunteers is also raising in the City of Baltimore, and $15,000 have already been subscribed for the purpose
of furnishing the men with every thing necessary for their comfort. Fifteen hundred men are immediately to march
from Virginia, to rendezvous at Point Pleasant, on the Ohio. The ladies of Richmond volunteered their services to
make tents, knapsacks, etc., for the soldiers, and in five days all things were ready. When the news of the fall of
Detroit reached Lexington, in Kentucky, instead of deploring the loss, the citizens immediately set about repairing it.
An immense number of volunteers immediately came forward, among whom were several members of Congress, and
shouldered their muskets in their country's cause. The greatest enthusiasm prevails throughout the whole Western
country ; almost every man has volunteered his services, and, if we may judge from appearances, it will not be long be
fore our Western brethren will wipe away the stain upon the American arms by the ignominious surrender of Detroit
and the American army under General Hull.
" The citizens of New York are forming patriotic associations for the purpose of raising funds to assist the families
of volunteers and drafts detached for the defense of the borders, who may be in want during their absence on duty.
Large supplies of vegetables, coffee, tea, chocolate, sugar, etc., have also been sent to the troops stationed in and about
the harbor. This conduct is worthy of imitation."
= Charles Scott was a native of Cumberland County, Virginia. He was a corporal in a militia company under Brad-
dock in the campaign of 1T55, and was a distinguished officer in the Revolution. See Lossing's Field-Eook of the Revolu
tion. For a brief biographical sketch of him and his signature, see the same, Note 3, ii., 147.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 321
Governors Meigs and Harrison active. Harrison in Kentucky. Volunteers flocking to the Camp.
them without difficulty with volunteers, making an effective force of five thousand
five hundred men.
Governor Meigs, of Ohio, was equally active and vigilant. He promptly responded
to the call for troops to accompany Hull to Detroit, as we have seen ; and when he
was informed of the danger that menaced Hull's command, he immediately ordered
out the remaining portion of the quota of detached militia, twelve hundred in num
ber, to rendezvous at Urbana, on the border of the wilderness, under Brigadier Gen
eral Tupper. And when the fall of Detroit was known, he sent expresses in every
direction to the militia generals of the frontier, with orders to adopt energetic meas
ures for defense within their respective commands, and to advise the inhabitants on
the borders of the wilderness to associate and erect block-houses for the defense and
accommodation of families. He also sent arms and ammunition to different parts
from the public stores at Urbana.1
Governor Harrison, of Indiana, with his usual vigilance, promptness, and forecast,
had already caused block-houses and stockades to be erected in various parts of his
territory as defenses against the hostile Indians, and the militia were placed in a
state of preparation for immediate action when called upon. He had been authorized
by the national government to take command of all the troops of the territories of
Indiana and Illinois in prosecuting the war against the Indians commenced in the
autumn of 1811, and to call on the Governor of Kentucky for any portion of the con
tingent of that state which was not in service. Under that authority he went to
Kentucky, by invitation of Governor Scott, to confer respecting the troops of that
state. Kentucky was forever freed from apprehensions of Indian incursions, and her
sons, who had suffered, were eager to assist their neighbors over the Ohio in their
efforts to drive the murderous hordes back into the wilderness.
Harrison repaired to Frankfort, where the military were paraded and he was hon
ored with a public reception. He remained there several days, and met many of the
most eminent military men and civilians in the state. He comprehended in all its
length and breadth the difficulties and dangers to which Hull wTas exposed, and ex
pressed his opinions freely at a dinner-party in Lexington, whereat Henry Clay was
one of the guests. That gentleman and others urged him to present his views to the
government.2 He did so in a letter, dated the 10th of August, in which he suggested
a system of military operations in the Northwest. He expressed his fears of the re
sult of the fall of Mackinack, by which the Indian tribes might be let loose upon De
troit, and " meet, and perhaps overpower, the convoys and re-enforcements" which
had been, or might be, sent to Hull. After speaking of those re-enforcements, he said :
" I rely greatly upon the valor of these troops ; but it is possible that the event may
be adverse to us, and if it is, Detroit must fall, and with it every hope of re-establish
ing our affairs in that quarter until the next year."
Before this letter reached the War Department, Detroit had fallen, and Chicago
too, and the worst fears of the people of the West were realized. But these disas
ters, instead of depressing them, gave them increased elasticity and strength. The
whole total of society bordering upon the Ohio River heaved, like a storm-smitten
ocean in its wrath, with patriotic emotions. The murders by the Indians which soon
followed, and the alliance of the British with such fierce barbarians, excited a vehe
ment cry for retributive justice. Christian civilization, national pride, and an enlight
ened patriotism, all pleaded for vindication, and nobly was that plea responded to.
When a call for troops was made, men of every class and condition of life — farmers,
merchants, lawyers, physicians, and young men innumerable — flocked to the recruiting
stations and offered their services. Tenfold more men than were needed might have
1 Beply of Governor Meigs to the memorial of the citizens of Chillicothe, Ohio, on the subject of protecting the fron
tier.— Niles's Weekly Register, September 26, 1812.
1 Memoirs of the Public Services of William Henry Harrison, by James Hall, p. 160.
322 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Governor Shelby and his Recommendations. Governor Harrison at the Head of Kentucky Troops.
been mustered in Kentucky alone. Nor was Ohio, in proportion to its population, be
hind its elder sister state in practical enthusiasm. Governor Meigs was indefatigable
in his efforts ; and the people every where responded to the call of local officers, as
well as of the chief magistrate, with the greatest alacrity, to form an ample army for
botli protection and conquest. It was resolved to recover all that had been lost with
in the territory of the United States, and to take Maiden, the focus of the British-In
dian power in the Northwest.
At this moment the venerable Isaac Shelby, one of the heroes of King's Mountain,
appears upon the stirring scene as the successor of General Scott in the executive
chair of the State of Kentucky. With his usual sagacity, he surveyed the field of
operations determined upon, and strongly recommended the government to appoint a
Board of War for the region west of the Alleghanies, to prevent the delays caused by
the operations of what is termed, in our day, " red-tape policy" — in other words, the
absolute control, by a central power hundreds of miles away, of minor movements
which the exigency of the hour might demand as of vast importance. " If such a
board," he said, " was now organized, and I had the control of the present armament,
I would pledge myself the Indians would have cause to lament this campaign, and
their temerity in joining the British and deserting the friendship of the United States."
Governor Shelby's advice was not utterly disregarded ; but no practical results fol
lowed. The War Department promised to " think about it," and no conclusion seems
ever to have been reached.
Governor Harrison was very popular, and it was the general desire of the volun
teers and militia of the West, who had been gathering at different points since the
declaration of war was made, that he who had shown such soldierly qualities in the
little campaign that ended at Tippecanoe the previous year, should now be their lead
er against the British and Indians. Govenior Scott, Harrison's warm personal friend,
was anxious to place him in chief command of all the Kentucky troops, but he could
not do so legally, for the Governor of Indiana was not a citizen of that state. But
Scott was not a man to allow technicalities to interfere with great concerns in time
of danger ; so he invited several prominent men, among whom were Shelby (the gov
ernor elect), Henry Clay (the Speaker of the National House of Eepresentatives), and
Thomas Todd, Judge of the United States District Court, to meet him and consult
upon the subject. They unanimously requested the governor to make the appoint-
a Auo-ust 25, m©nt ; and accordingly he issued a commissiona to Harrison, by which he
1812. -yyag invested with the title of " Major General of the Militia of Kentucky"
by brevet. By a commission dated three days earlier, President Madison appointed
him a brigadier general in the Army of the United States.
On the 27th of August Harrison was at Cincinnati, and in a letter of that date to
Governor Meigs, after mentioning his appointment, he said : " It remains for your ex
cellency to determine what assistance I shall derive from your state. The Kentucky
troops which are placed at my disposal are two regiments of infantry and one of rifle
men, now at this place ; three regiments of infantry, one of dragoons, and one of
mounted riflemen, in full march to join me, and making in the aggregate upward of
four thousand men. The three regiments which are now here will march immediate
ly for Urbana ; and should the report of the capture of General Hull's army prove
untrue, I shall join them either at that place or before they reach it, and proceed to
Detroit without waiting for the regiments in my rear."1
In addition to the Kentucky troops here referred to, others were dispatched for the
protection of the Territories of Illinois and Indiana.2 Some of those destined for the
1 Autograph letter, August 27, 1812.
2 "The regiment commanded by Colonel Barbour," says M'Afee, "when ordered into service at the call of Governor
Harrison, was directed to rendezvous at the Red Barracks, with a. view of marching to the aid of Governor Edwards, at
Ruskin's, in the Illinois Territory. The regiments of Colonels Wilcox and Miller were ordered to rendezvous at Louis-
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 323
Gathering of Troops. Departure for the Wilderness. Harrison commissioned a Brigadier General.
latter region having been called, by the exigencies of current events, to Ohio, Harrison
thought it desirable to raise an additional force for Indiana. In compliance with his
request, Governor Shelby issued a proclamation early in September for the raising
of a large corps of mounted volunteers, to repair immediately to Vincennes ; and all
of the Kentucky troops destined for that post were placed under the command of
the venerable soldier of the Revolution, Brigadier General Samuel Hopkins. That
proclamation brought hundreds of Kentuckians, from all parts of the state, to the
standard of the Union. Every body seemed willing to march for the defense of the
frontiers ; and the question was not, Who will go ? but, Who shall stay ?J Before
the 1st of October, Kentucky had more than seven thousand of her sons in the field.
At about the same time, in obedience to an order from the Secretary of War, two
thousand troops under General Robert Crooks, from Western Pennsylvania, and fifteen
hundred under General Joel Leftwich,2 from Western Virginia, proceeded to join the
Army of the Northwest.
Before leaving Frankfort, General Harrison had issued an address to the people of
Kentucky, accompanied by another from General Scott, calling for five hundred
mounted volunteers. The Honorable Richard M. Johnson, who had distinguished
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himself in Congress, also issued an address for the same purpose ; and they had the
desired eifect. The latter gentleman, and John Logan, and William S. Hunter, Esqs.,
were appointed aids to the general; and when he departed for. Cincinnati, Johnson
was left to lead on such mounted troops as might be raised by the 1 st of September.
On the 28th of August Harrison issued a general order from his head-quarters at
Cincinnati, directing all the troops under his command to continue their march to
ward Dayton on the following morning, and prescribing in detail the discipline and
tactics to be observed.3 The troops marched early ; and on the morning of the 31st,
when they had passed Lebanon a short distance, forty miles from Cincinnati, Harrison
overtook them, and was received with the most hearty cheers of welcome from the
whole line. They reached Dayton on Tuesday, the 1st of September, and while on
his march toward Piqua the following day the commanding general was overtaken
by an express bearing to him the commission of brigadier general from the President,
with instructions to take command of all the forces in the Territories of Indiana and
Illinois, and to co-operate with General Hull, and with Governor Howard of the Mis
souri Territory.
Harrison was embarrassed by the instructions which accompanied the appointment,
and he refrained from accepting it until he should have definite information from the
War Department as to his relations to General Winchester, of the Regulars, to whom
ville and on the Ohio below, for the purpose of marching to Viucennes to protect the Indiana Territory. Colonels Barbee
and Jennings were at first ordered to the same place ; but, in consequence of the perilous situation of the Northwestern
Army, they were now directed, by express, to rendezvous at Georgetown on the 1st of September, and pursue the other
regiments, by the way of Newport and Cincinnati, for the Northwestern frontiers. The regiment of Colonel Poague
was called to rendezvous at Newport, on its way to the Northwestern Army ; and a regiment of dragoons, under Colonel
Simrall, was likewise directed to proceed for the same destination."— History of the Late War in the Western Country,
page 109. i M'Afee, page 111. 2 Died April 20, 1S46.
3 On the same day General Harrison, who had heard of the fall of Detroit and Chicago, and knew the danger to
which Fort Wayne would be exposed, wrote as follows to the Secretary of War: " I shall march to-morrow morning
with the troops I have here, taking the route of Dayton and Piqua. The relief of Fort Wayne will be my first object,
and my after operations will be guided by circumstances until I receive your instructions. Considering my command
as merely provisional, I shall cheerfully conform to any other arrangements which the government may think proper
to make. The troops which I have with me, and those which are coming from Kentucky, are perhaps the best ma
terials for forming an army that the world has produced. But no equal number of men was ever collected who knew
so little of military discipline, nor have I any assistants that can give me the least aid, if there was even time for it,
but Captain Adams, of the 4th Regiment, who was left here sick, and whom I have appointed deputy adjutant general
until the pleasure of the President can be known. No arms for cavalry have yet arrived at Newport, and I shall be
f jrced to put muskets in the hands of all the dragoons. I have written to the quarter-master at Pittsbnrg to request
him to forward all supplies of arms, equipments, and quarter-master's stores as soon as possible. I have also requested
him to send down a few pieces of artillery without waiting your order, and wait your instruction as to a farther number
There is but one piece of artillery, one iron four-pounder, auy where that I can hear of in the country. If it is intended
to retake the posts that we have lust, and reduce Maiden this season, the artillery must be sent on as soon as possible."
He also complained of a want of facility for getting money on drafts. Such were the inadequate preparations made by
the government for the promotion of the war in the Northwest, when it was first commenced.
324 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
A divided Command deprecated. Winchester and Harrison. Crowds of Volunteers. Harrison's Influence.
had been assigned the chief command of the Army of the Northwest. The original
object in the formation of that army having been co-operation with Hull in the cap
ture of Maiden, and the reduction and occupation of Canada West, the whole aspect
of affairs had been changed by the loss of Hull and his army. Harrison suggested
to the Department the importance of having one military head in the Northwest ;
and, with the justification of pressing necessity, he laid aside his usual modesty, and
preferred his own claim to that distinction, on the ground of his superior knowledge
of the country and the savages with whom they had to contend, and the universally
expressed desire of the troops that he should be their chief leader. Having made
this response to the government by the express who brought his commission and in
structions, Harrison pressed forward in the path of duty to Piqua, on the bank of
the Great Miami, with the intention of there resigning his command into the hands
of General Winchester. He had two thousand troops with him, and two thousand
were on their way to join him.
Piqua was reached on the 3d of September, and there Harrison was informed of the
critical situation of Fort Wayne, and of the rumored marching from Maiden, on the
18th of August, of a large force of British and Indians under Major Muir, with the in
tention of joining the savages in the siege of that place. Winchester, to whom Har
rison had written, had not arrived. There would be great danger in delay, and Har
rison resolved not to wait for his superior, but, retaining command, send detachments
immediately forward to the relief of the menaced garrison. For this purpose he de
tached Lieutenant Colonel John Allen's regiment of Regulars, with two companies
from Lewis's and one from Scott's regiments, writh instructions to make forced marches
until their object should be accomplished.1 At the same time he dispatched a mes
senger, as. we have seen, to assure the garrison of Fort Wayne of approaching relief.2
Already seven hundred mounted men, under Colonel Adams, had advanced to Shaw's
Crossing of the St. Mary's River, not far from Fort Wayne. The troop was composed
of citizens of Ohio of all ages and conditions, who, in hearing of the disasters north
ward, and the perils of Fort Wayne, had hastened to the field. " Such, indeed, was
the ardor of the citizens," says a contemporary, " that every road leading to the
frontiers was invaded with unsolicited volunteers."3 The exasperation in the West
against the British and Indians was intense.
Harrison had observed some restlessness among the troops under the restraints
a September, of discipline. On the morning of the 5tha he addressed them briefly, read
the Articles of War, endeavored to impress their minds with the import
ance of discipline and obedience, told them that the danger to which Fort Wayne
was then exposed demanded an immediate forced march for its relief, and request
ed those who could not endure the life of a true soldier to leave the ranks. Only one
man did so, when his companions, thinking him too feeble to walk, carried him on a
rail to the banks of the Great Miami, and gave him a " plunge bath," not, perhaps, in
strict accordance with the fashion prescribed by Priessnitz. The effect was salutary,
and murmurings ceased. Such discipline, exercised by the soldiers themselves, was
a hopeful sign for the commander.
Colonel John Johnston, the Indian agent, was residing at Piqua.4 At the request
of Harrison, he sent some Shawnoese to old Fort Defiance, at the mouth of the Au
Glaize River, to ascertain whether any British troops had gone up the Maumee Val
ley. Logan, a powerful half-breed, was sent to Fort Wayne for information. Both
parties were successful, and returned writh important messages. No British troops
had passed up the Maumee, and Fort Wayne was closely besieged by the savages.
i M'Afee, page 121. 2 See note 5, page 314. 3 M'Afee, page 121.
* For the purpose of neutralizing, if possible, the effects of British influence over the tribes of Ohio, a council had
been held at Piqna on the 15th of August. Governor Meigs, Thomas Worthington, and Jeremiah Morrow were the
commissioners on the part of the United States. Every thing promised success ; but while the council was in progress
news of the fall of Detroit and Chicago reached Piqua, and frustrated the plans of the white people.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 325
The Army in the Wilderness. Preparations for Battle. Fort Wayne relieved. Destruction of Indian Towns.
Harrison was compelled to wait at the Piqua until the morning of the 6tha a sept-i
for flints. At dawn of that day his forces were under motion, and before 1812-
eight o'clock they had fairly plunged into the great wilderness beyond the borders
of civilization. In order to inarch rapidly and easily, the troops had left most of then-
clothing and baggage at Piqua; and on the afternoon of the 8th, they overtook Al
len's regiment at St. Mary, sometimes called " Girty's Town,"1 or the First Cross
ing of the St. Mary River, There they were joined by Major R. M. Johnson, with a
corps of mounted volunteers. The army in the wilderness numbered two thousand
two hundred men. Indian spies were seen hovering around the camp that night,
who, it was afterward said, reported that " Kentuck was crossing as numerous as
the trees."
The morning of the 9th was dark and lowering, but the troops were in good spir
its, and reached Shane's, or the Second Crossing of the St. Mary, before sunset, where
they found Colonel Adams, with his mounted Ohio Volunteers. Being now in the
vicinity of Fort Wayne, the army marched in battle order on the following day, ex
pecting an attack. They moved slowly and cautiously. Scouts were out continu
ally, and Logan and another Shawnoe acted as guides. On the night of the llth
they fortified their camp in expectation of an attack, and many alarms occurred dur
ing the darkness, caused by the discovery of Indian spies who were lurking around
the verge of the pickets.
The inarch was resumed at a very early hour on the morning of the 1 2th in battle
order. An encounter was expected at a swamp five miles from Fort Wayne. But
no foe was visible there. The savages had all fled, as we have before observed,2 and
Fort Wayne, on that warm, bright September day, was the scene of great rejoicing.
The liberating army encamped around the fort that night, excepting a party of horse
men, who made an unsuccessful pursuit of the savages ; and on the following morn
ing, reconnoitring parties were sent out in every direction, but did not discover the
dusky foe.
Harrison now called a council of officers, to whom he submitted a plan of opera
tions, which was adopted. He had determined to strike the neighboring Indians
with terror by a display of power. He accordingly divided his army, and sent out
detachments to destroy whatever of Indian possessions might be found. One detach
ment, under Colonel Simrall (who arrived in camp with three hundred and twenty
dragoons on the 17th), laid waste the Little Turtle's town, on the Eel Run,b
excepting the buildings erected by the United States for the now deceased
chief, on account of his friendship since the treaty of Greenville in 1794.3 Another
detachment, under Colonel Samuel Wells, was sent to the Elk Hart River, a tribu
tary of the St. Joseph, of Michigan (sometimes called the St. Joseph of the Lake),
sixty miles distant, to destroy the town of the Pottawatomie chief O-nox-see, or
Five Medals,4 which was accomplished ;c and Colonel Payne, with an- « September ie.
other detachment, to the forks of the Wabash, and laid in ashesd a Mi- d September 15.
ami village there, and several others lower down.5 Around all of these villages were
corn-fields and gardens, but no living thing was seen. The Indians had deserted
i Now the village of St. Mary, in Mercer County, Ohio, on the site of Fort St. Mary, erected by Wayne, and command
ed by Captain John Whistler before he built Fort Dearborn at Chicago. The notorious Simon Girty occupied a cabin
at that place for some time. 2 gee pa<re 315.
3 While the Little Turtle lived most of the Miamis remained faithful to the Americans, but soon after his death, in the
summer of 1S12, the great body of them joined the hostile savages.
This village, like all the others, was deserted. Before the door of the chief, upon a pole, hnng a red flag, with a
room tied above it; and at the tent of an old warrior a white flag was flying from a pole. The body ofthe old warrior
was in a sitting posture, the face toward the east, and a bucket containing trinkets by its side. In one of the huts was
found a Cincinnati newspaper containing an account of General Harrison's army. The troops found a large quantity of
dried corn, beans, and potatoes, which furnished them and their horses with food.
* In one of these was found the tomb of a chief, built of logs and daubed with clay. His body was laid on a blanket,
with his gun and his pipe by his side, a small tin pan on his breast containing a wooden spoon, and a number of ear
rings and brooches.
326 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
General Winchester. Attachment of Troops to Harrison. Harrison in chief Command of the Northwestern Army.
them. The severest blow that a savage can receive, especially at that season of the
year, is to deprive him of food and shelter. So, when the torch was applied to the
cabins, the knife destroyed the corn and the vegetables.
GeneralJames Winchester arrived at Fort Wayne on the 18th of September, and
on the following day General Harrison formally resigned all command into his hands.
The change produced almost a mutiny among the soldiers. They were greatly at
tached to Harrison. Winchester was a wealthy citizen of Tennessee, and had not for
many years had any military experience. He had been a subordinate officer in the
army of the Revolution, but for thirty years had lived in ease and opulence in Ten
nessee. His deportment was too aristocratic to please the great mass of the troops,
and this, added to their expectations of more severe discipline from an officer of the
Regulars, caused a large number of them to positively refuse at first to serve under
the new commander. It required all the address of Harrison (popular as he was, and
as ready as were his followers to comply with all his wishes), together with the per
suasions of the other officers, to reconcile them to the change. It was effected, but
' O
only when they were allowed to indulge the hope that their beloved general might
be reinstated in command.1
a September, Harrison left Fort Wayne on the evening of the 1 9th,a and returned to
St. Mary, where he intended to collect the mounted men from Kentucky,
and prepare for an expedition against Detroit. " From Fort Wayne," he wrote,
" there is a path, which has been sometimes used by the Indians, leading up the St.
Joseph's, and from thence, by the head waters of the River Rezin [Raisin], to Detroit.
By this route it appears to me very practicable to effect a coup-de-main upon that
place, and if I can collect a few hundred more mounted men, I shall attempt it."2 To
the accomplishment of this design he prepared to lend all his energies. Already there
was a respectable force of mounted men at St. Mary, and others were on the march
to that place.
" Se tember Harrison went to Piqua to perfect his arrangements. There, on the 24th,b
he received a dispatch from the Secretary of War in reference to his let
ter concerning the acceptance of a brigadier's commission, which opened thus :
" The President is pleased to assign to you the command of the Northwestern
Army, which, in addition to the regular troops and rangers in that quarter, will con
sist of the volunteers and militia of Kentucky, Ohio, and three thousand from Virginia
and Pennsylvania, making your whole force ten thousand men." It then went on to
instruct him to first provide for the defense of the frontiers, and then to retake De
troit with a view to the conquest of Canada. He was assured that every exertion
would be made to send him a train of artillery from Pittsburg, in charge of Captain
Gratiot, of the Engineers, who would report to him as soon as some of the pieces could
be got ready. He was also informed that Major Ball, of the 2d Regiment of Dragoons,
would join him ; and that such staff officers as he might legally appoint would be ap
proved by the President. " Colonel Buford, deputy commissioner at Lexington," he
said, " is furnished with funds, and is subject to your orders." More ample powers
than had ever been given to any officer of the American army since Washington was
invested with the authority of a military dictator wrere intrusted to him in the fol
lowing closing sentence in the dispatch : " You will command such means as may be
1 At St. Mary's, Harrison wrote to Governor Shelby as follows : " My situation here is very embarrassing, so much
so that I have determined within the two hours past to propose to General Winchester to recognize me as commander-
in-chief, or to relinquish all command whatever, unless it is of the mounted forces which I have prepared, and with which
I shall strike a stroke somewhere. You will hear from another quarter the very serious difficulty which was to be en
countered before the men of Scott's, Allen's, and Lewis's regiments could be reconciled to the command of General
Winchester. I fear that the other three regiments will prove still more refractory." — Autograph Letter, September
22d, 1S12.
2 Autograph Letter to General Shelby, dated "St. Mary, 22d Septeml e-, 1S12." I have before me an autograph note
from General Harrison to Governor Meigs, of similar purport, dated at St. Mary, the 20th of September. "But it must
be kept profoundly secret," he wrote.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 327
Winchester's March through the Wilderness. Confronted by British and Indians. Sudden Flight of the latter.
practicable. Exercise your own discretion, and act in all cases according to your own
judgment." With such ample powers invested in a commander-in-chief, Shelby's
" Board of War" would have been quite useless. Harrison had reason to be proud
of the honor conferred, and the " special trust and confidence" reposed in him ; while
his soldiers, rejoicing in the fact, appeared ready and eager to follow whithersoever
he might lead.
General Winchester, with about two thousand men, left Fort Wayne on the morn
ing of the 22d of September (each soldier carrying six days' provisions) for the Mau-
rnee Rapids. He moved cautiously down the left bank of that river, to avoid a sur
prise, in three divisions, his baggage in the centre, and a volunteer company of spies,
under Captain Ballard, supported by Garrard's dragoons, moving about two miles
in advance. Winchester intended to halt at Fort Defiance, at the confluence of
the Maumee and Au Glaize Rivers, fifty miles from Fort Wayne, and there await
re-enforcements from Harrison at St. Mary. They encountered Indians on the way.
Some of the spies were killed ; among them Ensign Leggett, of the Seventeenth
United States Infantry, who, with four others of a Woodford (Kentucky) company,
had been permitted to push forward to reconnoitre the vicinity of Fort Defiance.
They were all killed and scalped. When their fate was made known in the camp,
Captain Ballard1 was ordered out with his spies and forty of Garrard's dragoons
to bury the bodies. This sad office they undertook on the morning of the 27th, and
when within two miles of the place of the massacre they discovered an Indian am
buscade. A conflict ensued. Garrard's troops charged upon the savages, when they
fled in dismay, closely pursued for some distance, and found refuge in the swamps,
where cavalry could not penetrate.
These Indians were the advance of a heavy force — heavy by comparison only —
under Major Muir, consisting of two hundred British regulars, one thousand savages,
under Colonel Elliott, and four pieces of cannon. They were making their way up
the Maumee on its southern side to attack Fort Wayne. Their artillery and bag
gage had been brought to Defiance in boats from Maiden, and with them they were
marching by land to Fort Wayne. Fortunately for the little army under Winches
ter, a shrewd subaltern of Scott's regiment (Sergeant M'Coy) had been captured and
taken before Muir, who was then twelve miles above Fort Defiance. He was ques
tioned closely, and in his answer he magnified Winchester's army fourfold. He also
told Muir that another army equally large was coming down the Au Glaize to join
Winchester. The exaggerated facts given to the British commander by his own
credulous and excited scouts made him believe the stories of M'Coy ; and when he
heard of the defeat of his advance by Ballard and Garrard, he ordered a retreat to
Fort Defiance, where he re-embarked his artillery and baggage.
Relying upon his boats for facility in retreating, in the event of a defeat, Muir re
solved to give battle about four miles above Fort Defiance, at the ford of a creek on
the north side of the Maumee, where Wayne crossed in 1794 ; but when, on the morn
ing of the 28th, he attempted to form his line of battle there, he- found, to his great
mortification and alarm, that about three fourths of his Indian allies had deserted
him. They had heard of M'Coy's stories, and, associating them with Muir's retro
grade movement, and the re-embarkation of his artillery and baggage, they became
greatly alarmed, and abandoned the expedition. Thus weakened, Muir conceived
himself to be in great danger. He hastened back to Defiance, and fled twenty miles
'• Captain Bland Ballard was a distinguished citizen of Kentucky. He was born in Fredericksburg, Virginia, October
16, 1(61 and at this time was just past fifty years of age. He had been in Kentucky since 17T9. He was with General
•k when he invaded the Ohio country in 1TS1, where he was severely wounded. In all that service, as a spy and
otherwise, Ballard was exceedingly active. He was with Wayne in his campaigns. He joined Allen's regiment in
328 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Winchester arrives at Fort Defiance. Re-enforcements gathering. Their March toward Fort Defiance.
down the Maumee before he halted, leaving some faithful mounted Indians behind
to watch the movements of the Americans.
Winchester, in the mean time, was moving cautiously forward. He could receive
no certain intelligence concerning the force and position of the enemy. Two scouts
(Hickman and Riddle) had gone completely around the invaders on the 26th with-
» September, out seeing them,1 and others were equally unsuccessful on the 27th and
28th.a When the army approached the creek where Muir expected to
make a stand, Winchester was informed of its advantageous position for the enemy,
and crossed to the southeast side of the Maumee to avoid him. There they discov
ered the trail of the invader, with his artillery. Ignorant of the alarm of Muir, they
encamped on a rise of ground and fortified their position. Then a council of war
was held. Some officers were in favor of sending a detachment in pursuit of the re
treating foe, but the general and a majority determined otherwise. Their provisions
were almost exhausted, and the unknown force of the enemy caused prudence to ask
for strength in re-enforcements.2 Several mounted parties were sent out to recon
noitre, and expresses were detached to General Harrison at St. Mary, asking for re
lief by sending men and food. It was soon ascertained that the enemy had left Fort
Defiance, and on the 30th Winchester moved down the river to a high bank of the
Maumee, within a mile of the fort, and again formed a fortified camp. On the 1st of
October Colonel Lewis made a reconnoissance in force, and ascertained that the ene
my was entirely gone.3
While Winchester was making his way toward Fort Defiance, the troops that were
gathering in the rear of the army had mostly arrived at St. Mary. These consisted of
three regiments from Kentucky, commanded respectively by Colonels Joshua Barbee,
Robert Poague, and William Jennings (the latter riflemen), and three companies of
mounted riflemen, from the same state, under Captains Roper, Bacon, and Clark.
Also a corps of mounted men from Ohio, under Colonel Findlay, who, as we have
seen, had been active with General Hull. These had been raised pursuant to a call
of Governor Meigs and General Harrison, at the beginning of September, and rendez
voused as early as the 15th at Dayton. They were intended to operate against some
of the hostile Indian towns.
On the 21st of September, Harrison ordered Colonel Jennings to proceed with his
regiment down the Au Glaize to establish an intermediate post between St. Mary and
Fort Defiance, and to escort provisions to the latter place for the use of Winchester
on his route to the Rapids of the Maumee. When Jennings had marched between
thirty and forty miles, he found the Indians hovering round his camp at night, and
his scouts brought intelligence that they were in considerable force toward Fort De
fiance ; so he halted and constructed a stockade on the bank of the Ottawa River, a
tributary of the Au Glaize, not far from the present Kalida (the Greek for beautiful),
the capital of Putnam County, Ohio. It was named Fort Jennings, in honor of the
commander of the detachment. At the same time Colonel Findlay was ordered to
attack some Ottawa towns4 farther eastward, on Blanchard's Fork, below Fort Find-
lay, in the same county.5
b Se tember Winchester was informed of the march of Jennings with provisions, and
on the 29th,b his army being half famished, he sent Captain Garrard
1 They crossed the Maumee to the south side, and took as direct a route as they could to the Au Glaize. They
crossed that stream, and descended it along its eastern shore to its mouth at Defiance. Two miles below the conflu
ence of the streams they crossed the Maumee, and returned up the north side to the army.
5 At about this time Peter Navarre (whom we shall meet hereafter), who had piloted the British as far as the Rap
ids, deserted them, and pushed on to meet Winchester and inform him of the approach of the enemy.— Hosmer's Early
History of the Maumee Valley, page 34.
3 M'Afee, pages 102-138, inclusive ; Thomson's Sketches of the Late War, ch. iv. ; Perkins's History, etc., of the Late
War; Brackenridge's History of the Late War, pages 55-58, inclusive.
* The emphasis in the word Ottawa being in the middle syllable, these were called 'Tawa towns. The Lower 'Tawa
town was on Blanchard's Fork, on the site of the present village of Ottawa, two miles below the Upper 'Tawa town.
5 See page 257.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 329
Harrison's Autumn Campaign arranged. Patriotism of the Women of Kentucky. Troops ready for an Advance.
with dragoons to assist in escorting to his camp a brigade of pack-horses with
supplies. Garrard was successful, and returned, after a tour of thirty-six hours, in a
drenching rain. Winchester was still in his fortified camp near Fort Defiance, and
Garrard was received at that beautiful spot in the wilderness with the lively satis
faction of the famished when fed.
During the few days of suspense concerning the extent of his command General
Harrison formed projects for the immediate future, which inexorable circumstances
compelled him to abandon, to some extent. He had now, as commander-in-chief, ar
ranged with care the plan for an autumn campaign, which contemplated the seizure
and occupation of the strategic position at the foot of the Maumee Rapids, and pos
sibly the capture of Detroit and Maiden. His base of military operations, having the
Rapids as the first object to be possessed, was a line drawn along the margin of the
swampy region from St. Mary to Upper Sandusky, the former to be the principal de
posit for provisions, and the latter for artillery and military stores. He intended to
march his army in three divisions : the right column to be composed of the Virginia
and Pennsylvania troops, to rendezvous at Wooster, the capital of the present Wayne
County, Ohio, and proceed from thence, by Upper Sandusky, to the Rapids. The
centre column, to consist of twelve hundred Ohio militia, to march from Urbana,
where they were then collected, to Fort M' Arthur, and follow Hull's road to the
Rapids. The left column, to be composed of the regulars under Colonel Wells and
four regiments of Kentucky volunteers, to proceed down the Au Glaize to the Mau
mee from St. Mary, and from their confluence pass on toward the Rapids. He designed
to send the mounted horsemen, by way of the St. Joseph of the Lake, to make the
coup-de-main on Detroit, already alluded to ; but this project was abandoned, for,
should they take that post without the support of infantry, they might be compelled
to abandon it, and would thereby expose the inhabitants to the fury of the Indians,
who must be exasperated by the movement. Harrison therefore determined to em
ploy them in making destructive forays upon Indian towns, and sweep the savages
from the line of march from the Rapids to Detroit, when the troops should all be
ready to move.
Harrison now made urgent appeals for supplies of every kind. He sent an express
to Pittsburg to hurry forward the cannon and ordnance stores to Wooster ; and, as
the troops were nearly destitute of winter clothing, he and Governor Shelby appealed
to the inhabitants of Kentucky for voluntary contributions. It was generously re
sponded to. A thousand needles were speedily put in motion in fair hands ; and
many a poor soldier, as he stood sentry on the banks of the Maumee or the Raisin a
few weeks later, had reason to feel grateful to the patriotic women of Kentucky.
On the 1st of October there were nearly three thousand troops at St. Mary. Har
rison resolved to employ the portion of the left wing, under Winchester, at Defiance,
as a corps of observation, and to make that place an important deposit for provisions,
preparatory to the advance of that corps upon the Rapids. This movement was to
commence as soon as the artillery should arrive at Upper Sandusky, and the other
supplies had accumulated along the base of operation. A corps of observation was
also to be placed at Lower Sandusky, which, with Defiance, would form the extremi
ties of a second base when the Rapids should be occupied. These arrangements for
operations were exceedingly judicious for an economical use of supplies, and a per
fect defense of the frontier while the troops were concentrating at the Rapids.
The mounted men, consisting of the companies of Roper, Clark, and Bacon, and the
volunteers under Major Richard M. Johnson, were formed into a regiment. They
elected Johnson their colonel ; and these, with the Ohio mounted men under Find-
lay, formed a small brigade, which Harrison placed in charge of General Edward W.
Tupper, of Gallia County, Ohio, a gentleman about fifty years of age, who had, by his
own exertions, raised about a thousand men for the service. This brigade was des-
330
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
A great Stir in Camp.
Rapid forward Movement.
Harrison at Fort Defiance.
tined for the expedition against Deti-oit, by way of the St. Joseph, which the general
hoped to set in motion soon. A few hours after it was organized, an express from
Winchester reached Harrison with the intelligence of his encounter with the invad
ing force under Muir. At almost the same moment, an express arrived from Gov
ernor Meigs, with a letter to him from General Kelso, who was in command of some
Pennsylvania troops on the shore of Lake Erie, informing him that, as late as the
16th of September, some British regulars, Canadian militia, and two thousand In
dians, had left Maiden with two pieces of artillery for Fort Wayne.
These dispatches created a great stir in camp. Three days' cooked provisions, with
ammunition and other military stores, were immediately issued to the troops, and a
command for a forced march was given. Three hours afterward General Harrison
was in the saddle, and his whole corps were following him toward the wilderness in
a drenching rain, and the road filled with deep mud. They reached the camp of Col
onel Jennings at twilight, and officers and men, from the general down, slept in the
cold, damp air, without tents, and nothing between them and the water-pools on the
surface of the flat ground but brush from the beech-trees. There Harrison was met
by another express from Winchester, notifying him of the flight of the enemy down
the Maumee. The rapid march was stayed. Barbee's regiment was ordered back
to St. Mary, and Poague's was directed to cut a road to Fort Defiance from Camp
Jennings. The mounted men, more than a thou
sand in number, pressed forward in five lines, mak
ing an imposing appearance in the stately forest,
where the leaves were just assuming the gorgeous
autumnal hues. The troops were disappointed and
depressed because of the flight of the enemy ; and
the commanding general was vexed when he dis
covered that Winchester's alarm was quite unnec
essary. He reached that officer's camp at sunset.
His soldiers bivouacked three miles in the rear.
Early the next morning they marched down to the
confluence of the Maumee and Au Glaize, and en
camped there around the ruined mtrenchments of
old Fort Defiance.
Harrison found the troops under Winchester in
a deplorable condition, and one regiment in a state
of open mutiny. He ordered the " alarm" instead
of the "reveille" to be beaten on the following
O
morning. This brought all the troops to arms.
They were drawn up in a hollow square, when, to
the surprise and delight of the soldiers, Harrison,
their beloved general, appeared among them. It
was with difficulty that they restrained their
voices, for shouts of welcome were ready to burst
from their lips. He addressed them as a kind fa-
thci' would talk to his children. He shamed the
malcontents by saying that while he lamented the fact of their mutiny, and was mor-
1 This fort was constructed of earth and logs, with a ditch extending around it, except on the Au Glaize side. At
each angle was a block-house, connected by a line of pickets at their nearest angles. Outside the fort there was a glacis,
or sloping wall of earth, eight feet thick, and outside of this the ditch, fifteen feet wide and eight feet deep. The glad*
next to the ditch was supported by a log wall, and by fascines, or fagots, on the side next to the Au Glaize. Pickets,
eleven feet long and one foot apart projected from the wall diagonally over the ditch, forming a /raise of formidable
appearance. The diagram, showing the relative position of the fort to the two rivers at their confluence, and to a new
fort afterward built by Winchester, may be explained as follows : A, officers' quarters ; B, store-houses ; C C C C, the
ditch ; E E, gateways ; P, a dry ditch, eight feet deep, used for the safe procurement of water from the river, with pick
ets (a a) guarding it; G, draw-bridge.
FORT DEFIANCE. i
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 331
Harrison's Address to his Troops. Erection of new Forts ordered. Troubles among Leaders.
tified on their account, it was of no consequence to the government, as he had now
more troops than he needed, and was in expectation daily of receiving large re-en
forcements from Pennsylvania and Virginia. As they had come to the woods ex
pecting to find all the comforts and luxuries of home, they must be disappointed, and
he gave them liberty to return. But he could not refrain from alluding to the mor
tification which he anticipated they would experience from the reception they would
meet from the old and the young, who had greeted them on their march to the scene
of war as their gallant neighbors. Then he appealed to their pride as soldiers and
their patriotism as citizens. He told them that his government had made him com-
mander-in-chief of the army in which they were serving, and assured them that am
ple supplies of provisions and other stores were on the way. When he had con
cluded, and the veteran Scott addressed them, saying, " You, my boys, will prove
your attachment for the service of your country and your general by giving him
three cheers," the wilderness instantly rang with shouts of applause, and before
the sun went down perfect harmony and good feeling prevailed in the camp.
General Harrison selected a site for a new fort on the bank of the Au Glaize, about
eighty yards above Old Fort Defiance, and ordered the immediate assignment of
fatigue parties to construct it. General Winchester at the same time moved his camp
from the Mauraee to the Au Glaize, about half a mile above the site of the new fort.
This movement was made on the 4th of October. That evening Harrison, accom
panied by Colonel Johnson and his original battalion (composed of Johnson's, Ward's,
and Ellison's companies), turned their faces toward St. Mary, where, three days after
ward, their term of enlistment having expired, they were discharged. Poague's regi
ment was directed to return to the old Ottawa towns, twelve miles from St. Mary,
after the road to Defiance should be completed, and erect a stockade there. They
did so, and Poague named it Fort Amanda, in honor of a loved one in Kentucky.
General Winchester was left in command of the left wing of the army, with instruc
tions to facilitate the transportation of supplies to Fort Defiance, and to occupy a
position at the Maumee Rapids as speedily as possible. When he left Winchester,
Harrison expected to'have all necessary supplies for advancing against Detroit within
a fortnight.
Before leaving Fort Defiance Harrison ordered General Tupper to lead the mounted
men, then over nine hundred in number, down the Maumee to the Rapids, and beyond
if desirable, to disperse any detachments of the enemy, civilized or savage, that might
be found, and to return to St. Mary by the " 'Tawa" or Ottawa towns on Blanchard's
Fork of the Au Glaize. But this order was not executed on account of several dis
turbing causes, namely, extensive damage to powder and scarcity of food, which
made it difficult to provide adequate supplies for an expedition that might occupy a
week or ten days; the sudden appearance of hostile Indians, who menaced Winchester's
camp ; dissatisfaction of some of the Kentucky troops with Tupper and his command ;
misunderstanding between Winchester and Tupper, and the unfriendly conduct of the
former toward the latter; the weakening of Tapper's forces by the withdrawal of Ken
tucky troops and Simrall's dragoons ; and finally the dismissal of Tupper from the
command of the expedition by Winchester, who gave it to Colonel Allen, of the reg
ulars, and which caused the Ohio troops to cross the Au Glaize, and positively refuse
to march under any other than their own chosen leader.1 The chief difficulty seems
to have arisen from conflict between regular officers and volunteers ; and thus termin
ated the expedition, said Tupper, " at one time capable of tearing the British flag from
the walls of Detroit."2
1 M'Afee, pages 148, 149 ; Tupper's Letter to General Harrison from Urbana, October 12, 1812 ; Brackeuridge, page 59 ;
Perkins, page 97.
2 Letter to General Harrison from Urbana, dated October 12th, 1812. M'Afee, who gives a more detailed account
of this affair than any other writer, says, " Some of the Kentuckians were not inclined to march under Tupper unless
332 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The Conduct of Colonel Tupper. Expeditions against the Indians. Harrison in Central Ohio.
Instead of returning to St. Mary, Tupper took the most direct route to Urbana by
way of Hull's road, from near the present town of Kenton, where he immediately pre
pared for another and independent expedition to the Rapids. Winchester preferred
charges against him for alleged misconduct at Defiance, and Harrison ordered his ar
rest, but the accused being far on his way toward the Rapids, as we shall observe
presently, when the order was given, the prosecution was stayed. At Tupper's re
quest a court of inquiry afterward investigated the matter, and he was honorably
acquitted.
While on his way from Defiance to St. Mary, General Harrison was informed, by ex
press from Fort Wayne, that the Indians wTere again menacing that post. At St. Mary
he found Colonel Allen Trimble at the head of five hundred mounted men of Ohio, who
came to join Tupper in the expedition against Detroit. These were immediately dis
patched to the relief of Fort Wayne, with instructions to proceed to the St. Joseph of
the Lake, about sixty miles distant, and destroy the town of the hostile Pottawatomie
chief White Pigeon. The troops were disappointed, and at Fort Wayne about one
half of Trimble's command refused to go farther. The gallant colonel pushed on with
the remainder, destroyed two Pottawatomie villages, and would have killed or cap
tured the inhabitants had not a treacherous guide given them timely warning of
danger.
At St. Mary Harrison found some penitent Miami chiefs who had joined the enemy.
They had come at the summons of messengers, and were prepared to deny their guilti
ness, or to palliate it, as circumstances might dictate. They found Harrison well in
formed concerning their bad conduct, and they cast themselves upon the mercy of
the government. As proof of their sincerity, they sent five chiefs to Piqua as host
ages until the decision of the President should be made known. Thither General
Harrison repaired, where he found some of Tupper's troops. He passed over to Urba
na, and then southeastward to Franklinton, on the west bank of the Scioto, opposite
the present city of Columbus, the capital of Ohio, whose site was then covered by
the primeval forest. There, in the heart of Ohio, and at a convenient point for the
concentration of troops and supplies from a distance, Harrison established his head
quarters, and occupied much of the remainder of the autumn and early winter in
laborious preparations for an advance on Detroit and Canada — collecting troops and
creating depots for supplies, building stockades and block-houses, cutting roads, and
dispersing or overawing the hostile Indians, who might be excessively mischievous
on the flank and rear. Poague speedily completed Fort Amanda on the Au Glaize,
Colonel Barbee erected another at St. Mary, which was called Fort Barbee, and be
fore the 1st of November the new stockade at Defiance, built chiefly of logs, was
completed and named Fort Winchester.
I visited the ruins of Fort Defiance on a warm sunny day late in September, 1860.
I came up the Maumee Valley by railway from Toledo on the previous evening, and
arrived at Defiance Station at midnight. The village of Defiance,1 lying mostly on
the Maumee, upon the beautiful plain at the confluence of that river and Au Glaize,
was shrouded in a chilling fog. Warned of the danger of the night air in that valley
accompanied by some field officer from Winchester's command. Colonel Allen therefore tendered his services to ac
company General Tupper in any capacity he might choose to receive him. The offer was accepted. But General Win
chester, having misunderstood the nature of the arrangement between them, issued an order directing Colonel Allen to
take the command and march toward the Rapids. This caused a serious misunderstanding between the two generals.
Colonel Allen, however, having informed General Winchester correctly on the subject, the order was immediately re
scinded. The greater part of the men having by this time refused to proceed directly to the Rapids, General Tupper
marched them over the Au Glaize, and proceeded to the Ottawa towns, where he professed to expect re-enforcements
from Ohio." This account agrees substantially with that of Tupper in his letter to Harrison, in which he says, " It is a
duty I owe to Colonel Allen to say that I have not the smallest reason to believe he was privy to the orders of General
Winchester."
1 Defiance is the county seat of Defiance County, about fifty miles northeastward from Fort Wayne. It was laid out
in 1822, and from its eligible situation and fertility of the country around— the rich Black Swamp region— seems destined
to become a place of much importance.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
333
Remains of Forts Defiance and Winchester.
Their Location and Appearance.
An ancient Apple-tree.
at that season of the year, I felt as if fever and ague were inhaled at every inspira
tion while walking a long distance to a hotel. There all was darkness. A slumber
ing attendant was finally aroused, and I was directed by the feeble light of a small
candle to a most cheerless bedroom at one o'clock in the morning. After an early
breakfast I went out to find the historical localities of the place, and was fortunate
enough to be introduced to Mr. E. H. Leland and Doctor John Paul, who kindly ac
companied me to them. We first visited the interesting remains of Fort Wayne on
the point of land where the two ruins meet. We found the form of the glacis and
ditch very distinctly marked, the remains of the former rising six or eight feet above
the bottom of the latter. The shape of the fort was perfectly delineated by those
mounds and the ditch. Some large honey-locust-trees were growing among the
ruins. These have appeared since the fort was abandoned in 1795. One of them,
with a triple stem, standing in the southeastern angle of the fort, measured fifteen
feet in circumference. These ruins are likely to be preserved. The banks were
covered with a fine sward, and they were within an inclosure containing about two
acres of land, which the heirs qf the late Curtis Holgate presented to the town.
We visited the site of Fort Winchester, a little above Defiance, on the bank of the
Au Glaize, and found the remains of many of the pickets protruding from the ground.
Across a ravine, just above the fort, was the garrison burying-ground. We returned
to the village, crossed the long bridge which spans the Maumee, and from the heights
of Fail's Grove, on the eastern side of the river, obtained a comprehensive view of the
two streams at their confluence, the site of the fort, and the village of Defiance. The
sketch there made is here
given. The meeting of the
waters is seen toward the
left, those of the Maumee
flowing in from the right
to meet those of the Au
Glaize, over which, in the
distance, a bridge is seen.
The group of trees (the hon
ey-locusts spoken of) seen
near the centre of the pic
ture mark the site of Fort
Defiance. In the foreground
is seen a garden extending
from the highway at the
foot of the heights of Fail's
Grove to the bank of
the Maumee, with waving
broom corn then ripe and
ready for the knife.
On our return to the village we visited on the way, near the margin of the Maumee,
an aged and gigantic apple-tree, coeval, no doubt, with the one near Fort Wayne.1
We found it carefully guarded, as a sort of " lion" of the place, by a high board fence,
the ground around it, within the inclosure, thickly covered with burr-bearing weeds.
It was upon the Southworth estate, and access to it might be had only through a
small house near. That tree was a living monument of the French occupation of the
spot, as a trading station, long before any other Europeans had penetrated that re
mote wilderness. It measured about fifteen feet in circumference eighteen inches
from the ground. The figure standing by it affords a fair criterion for judging of
SITE OF FOET DEF1ANOE.
See page 334.
334 PICTOKIAL FIELD-BOOK
Events nearer the Mississippi. The Indians generally hostile. Shelby's Appeal to the Kentuckians.
its size, by comparison with the body of a stout man.
We returned to Defiance in time for dinner, and left
with the early train for Fort Wayne.1
Let us resume the narrative of events in the North
west in the autumn of 1812.
We left General Harrison at Franklinton, General
Tupper at Urba-na, and General Winchester at Fort De
fiance, all engaged in preparations to move forward
to the Rapids of the Maumee, and thence to Detroit.
While the movement of the troops in Western Ohio and
Eastern Indiana, just related, were in progress, stirring
API-I.E-TEEE AT BEPiANOB. e^enis of a like ™ture occurred in the region nearer
the Mississippi River.
We have already noticed the departure of troops from Kentucky for Vincennes,
and the messengers sent to that post by Captain Taylor, asking immediate aid for
Fort Harrison on the Wabash.2 This call was immediately responded to. Colonel
William Russell, of the Seventh United States Regiment of Infantry, just arrived at
Vincennes, departed at once for Fort Harrison with about twelve hundred men, con
sisting of three companies of Rangers, two regiments of Indiana militia, under Colo
nels Jordan and Evans, and Colonel Wilcox's regiment of Kentucky Volunteers.
Lieutenant Richardson, of the regulars, was directed to follow with eleven men as
an escort for provisions. By a forced march Russell and his party reached Fort Har
rison on the 16th, much to the joy of Captain Taylor, without encountering the foe.
Not so the provision escort. That was attacked by the savages on the 15th, who
killed more than one half of the detachment and captured all of the provisions. An
other provision train that followed immediately afterward was more fortunate. The
savages were not seen. The great body of the Indians seemed to have fled from the
vicinity, and Russell and his troops, except Wilcox's regiment, returned to Vincennes.
At about this time the Indians of Illinois and Northern Indiana, persuaded, like
the rest of the savages under the influence of Tecumtha, after the fall of Mackinaw,
Detroit, and Chicago, that the time was at hand when the white people might be
driven beyond the Ohio River, every where showed signs of hostilities. These
were so menacing that Ninian Edwards, the Governor of the Illinois Territory, called
on the executive of Kentucky for aid. That aid was on its way in the person of
Colonel Barbour and his command, when it was diverted to Vincennes, on account
of the dangers impending over Fort Harrison. Edwards had sent out spies, and was
persuaded that no time was to be lost in making preparations for offensive and de
fensive operations against the savages. He combined the scattered militia of his
Territory, and caused several companies of Rangers to be encamped on the Missis
sippi, above St. Louis, and on the Illinois River. These served to keep the Indians in
a September 8, check for a time. Meanwhile Governor Shelby had made the stirring
appeal1 to the Kentuckians already alluded to.3 He told them of the
" extensive combination of the savages, aided by the British from Canada," who were
momentarily expected on the frontier settlements of Illinois and Indiana. Twenty-
one persons, he said, had already been murdered not more than twenty miles north
of the Ohio ! " It is hoped," he remarked, " that it will rouse the spirit and indigna
tion of the freemen of Kentucky, and induce a sufficient number of them to give tljeir
services to their country for a short period." He asked them to rendezvous at Louis
ville on the 1 8th of the month, with thirty days' provisions. " Kentuckians," he
said, " ever pre-eminent for their patriotism, bravery, and good conduct, will, I am
persuaded, on this occasion, give to the world a new evidence of their love of coun-
1 See page 43. 2 See page 107. 3 See page 323.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 335
Wealth arid Patriotism of Kentucky illustrated. Hopkins's Expedition against Illinois Indians. Insubordination.
try, and a determination, at every hazard, to rescue their fellow-men from the mur
ders and devastations of a cruel and barbarous enemy."1
This address, as we have seen, was responded to with wonderful alacrity. Hund
reds more than were needed were at Louisville on the appointed day, and were turned
back with feelings of the keenest disappointment. One old veteran, who had suf
fered from savage cruelty, and had fought the dusky foe in the early days of Ken
tucky settlement, although greatly chagrined when he found his company rejected,
said, " Well, well, Kentucky has often glutted the market with hemp, flour, and to
bacco, and now she has done so with volunteers." This was a truthful exposition,
in few words, of the wealth and patriotism of Kentucky.
General Samuel Hopkins, under whom the Kentucky Volunteers were placed, made
his head-quarters at Vincennes. The troops continued to arrive and were mustered
into the service from the 21st of September until the 2d of October, when Hopkins,
then convalescing after a severe attack of fever, found himself at the head of almost
four thousand men, about two thousand of them expert riflemen, on horseback. His
little army was speedily organized,2 and on the 10th of September he started with
the mounted riflemen for the Indian country by the way of Fort Harrison. The chief
design of the expedition was to march an annihilating force upon the principal Kick-
apoo and Peoria Indian villages on the waters of the Illinois River, the former sup
posed to be about eighty miles distant, and the latter one hundred and twenty miles.
Hopkins and his two thousand horsemen crossed the Wabash on the afternoon of
the 14th,a and made their first encampment that night three miles from Fort « October,
Harrison. Before them lay magnificent level prairies, covered with tall
grass, both dry and green. The guides passed a satisfactory examination as to their
knowledge of the route, and the plans of the general were unanimously approved by
a council of officers. On resuming the second day's march, every thing promised
well excepting the lack of discipline and evident restlessness under restraint manifest
ed by the troops. Indeed, so far as military discipline was concerned, they constituted
little more than a vast mob, and it was soon found that every man was disposed to
be a law unto himself. Every hour of the march revealed to the commanding gen
eral evidences of the fact that his army was as combustible as the dry grass around
them. The symptoms of discontent, seen even at Vincennes, now assumed the posi
tive forms of complaint and murmuring. The guides were suspected of ignorance or
disloyalty; and food and forage, it was alleged, were becoming alarmingly scarce.
Finally, while halting on the fourth day's march, a major, whose name is withheld,
rode up to the commanding general, and in an insolent manner peremptorily ordered
him to march the troops back to Fort Harrison. Not long afterward a violent wind
arose that blew directly toward them, and very soon it was discovered that the
prairie was on fire at the windward. They saved themselves by burning the grass
around their camp. It was believed that this was the work of the Indians, and it
gave the finishing blow to the expedition. The troops would not march farther.
Hopkins called a council of officers,b when it was decided by them to re
turn, as their men were utterly unmanageable. The mortified commander
then called for five hundred volunteers to follow him to the Illinois. Not one re
sponded to his summons. His authority had vanished. They even refused to sub-
1 Address of Governor Shelby, issued at Frankfort September 8, 1S12.
2 Four regiments were at first formed, to be commanded respectively by Colonels Samuel Caldwell, John Thomas,
James Allen, and Young Ewing. These constituted two brigades, the first to be commanded by General James Ray,
an early adventurer in Kentucky and experienced Indian fighter,* and the other by General Jonathan Ramsey. After
this arrangement was made, another, under Colonel Samuel South, was organized. George Walker was appointed
judge advocate of the little army, Pierce Butler adjutant general, Majors William Trigg and William A. Lee aids to
General Hopkins, William Blair and Joseph Weisiger volunteer aids, and John C. Breckiuridge the general's secretary.
* For an account of the early adventures of General Kay, see Collias's Kentucky, its History, Antiquities, and Biogra
phy, page 45S.
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Russell's co-operating Expedition in Illinois. Hopkius's Expedition to the Wabash Region. His new Troops.
mit to his leadership on their return, and he followed his army back to Fort Harrison,
where they arrived on the 25th.1 Thus ended an apparently formidable and promis
ing expedition. Yet it was not unfruitful of good. It alarmed the Indians, gave
them a sense of the real power of the white people, and made them more cautious
and circumspect. That imposing force had marched eighty or ninety miles in the In
dian country without show of opposition any where.
While Hopkins's expedition was in motion, another, under Colonel Russell, coni-
» October ii, posed of two small companies of United States Rangers, marched from
Vincennesa to unite with a small body of mounted militia under Gover
nor Edwards (who assumed the chief command), for the purpose of penetrating the
region toward which General Hopkins was marching, and to co-operate with him.
Their combined force numbered nearly four hundred men, rank and file. They pen
etrated deeply into the Indian country, but, hearing nothing of Hopkins, and being
too few to attempt much, they contented themselves with some minor exploits.
They fell suddenly and furiously upon the principal Kickapoo town, twenty miles
above Peoria, at the head of Peoria Lake, and drove the Indian inhabitants into a
swamp, through which for three miles they were vigorously pursued, the invaders
finding themselves frequently waist-deep in mud and water. The fugitives fled in
dismay across the Illinois River. Many of the pursuers passed over, and brought
back canoes with dead Indians in them. Twenty lifeless warriors lay prone in the
path of the returning victors. Doubtless many more perished in the morass and the
stream. The town, with a large quantity of corn and other property, was destroyed.
The spoils brought away were eighty horses, and the dried scalps of several white
persons who had been murdered by the savages.2 The expedition returned, after an
absence of thirteen days, with no other serious casualty than four men wounded, not
one of them mortally.
General Hopkins discharged the mutinous mounted men, and organized another
expedition against the Indians. This force, twelve hundred and fifty strong, was
composed chiefly of foot soldiers, and the object of the expedition was the destruc
tion of the Prophet's town, and other Indian villages on the Upper Wabash. His
troops consisted of three regiments of Kentucky militia, commanded respectively by
Colonels Barbour, Miller, and Wilcox ; a small company of regulars, under Captain
Zachary Taylor ; 'a company of Rangers, commanded by Captain Beckers ; and a com
pany of scouts or spies, led by Captain Washburne. The greater portion of them
rendezvoused at Vincennes, and moved up the Wabash Valley to Fort Harrison,
where they arrived on the 5th of November. Six days afterward they marched from
the fort up the road made by Harrison a year before, and, at the same time, seven
boats, filled with provisions, forage, and military stores, well guarded by Lieutenant
Colonel Barbour with a battalion of his regiment, moved up the river. The Indians
were supposed to be on the alert, and the march was cautiously pursued. The
streams were full of water, and the passage of swamps and low lands was extremely
difficult and fatiguing. They did not cross the Wabash as Harrison did, but, for suf
ficient reasons, marched up the east side of that stream.
So difficult was the march that the expedition did not reach the Prophet's town
until the 19th, when Hopkins dispatched Adjutant General Butler, with three hund
red men, to surprise a Winnebago village of about forty houses on the present Wild
Cat Creek, a mile from the Wabash, and about four miles below the Prophet's town.
The village was deserted. Flames soon laid it in ashes. The Prophet's town, about
equal in size, and a large Kickapoo village just below it, containing about one hund-
1 Hopkins's Report to Governor Shelby, dated Fort Harrison, October 26, 1812 ; Dillon's History of Indiana, page
497; M'Afee, page 158.
2 Colonel William Russell's Letter to Geueral Gibson, the acting governor of Indiana, dated " Camp Russell, October
31, 1812."
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 337
The Indians attack a Burial Party. Sufferings of the Kentucky Soldiers. Close of Hopkins's military Career.
red and sixty huts, with all their winter provision of corn and beans, were utterly
destroyed.
It was not until the 21st that any Indians were discovered. On that day they
fired upon a small party of soldiers, and killed one man. On the following morning
sixty horsemen, under Colonels Miller and Wilcox, went out to bury the dead, when
they were suddenly attacked by Indians in ambush, and lost eighteen men, killed,
wounded, and missing, in the skirmish that ensued.1 The rendezvous of the savages,
in a strong position on the Wild Cat, was soon discovered, and preparations were
made for dislodging them, when they decamped and disappeared. The season was
far advanced, the cold was increasing, and ice was beginning to form in the river.
These circumstances, and the fact that many of the troops, especially the Kentuck-
ians, were " shoeless and shirtless" — clad in the remnants of their summer clothes,
caused an order to be issued on the 25th for a return to Fort Harrison and Vincennes.2
" We all suffered very much," said Pierre La Plante, of Vincennes, who was one of
the troops, " but I pitied the poor Kentuckians. They were almost naked and bare
foot — only their linen hunting-shirts — the ground covered with snow, and the Wabash
freezing up."3
With this more successful expedition ended General Hopkins's military career. In
general orders, issued at Vincennes on the 18th of December following, he said : " The
commander-in-chief now closes his command, and, in all probability, his military serv
ices forever." Most of the volunteers were now discharged, and Illinois and Indiana
experienced a season of comparative repose.
1 This detachment was composed of Captain Beckers's company of Rangers, a small number of mounted militia, and
several army officers.
2 General Hopkins's Letter to Governor Shelby, November 27, 1812.
3 Dillon's H'ixtory of Indiana, Note, page 502.
338
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Impatience of the People.
Harrison's Difficulties.
He is Hopeful and Cheerful.
• 1812.
CHAPTER
"How dread was the conflict, how bloody the fray,
Told the banks of the Raisin at the dawn of the day ;
While the gush from the wounds of the dying and dead
Had thaw'd for the warrior a snow-sheeted bed.
"But where is the pride that a soldier can feel,
To temper with mercy the wrath of the steel,
While Proctor, victorious, denies to the brave
Who had fallen in battle, the gift of a grave ?"
LL through the months of October, November, and De-
cember,a General Harrison labored incessantly and in
tensely in making preparations for a winter campaign in the
Northwest. The nation was feverish and impatient. Igno
rance of military necessities allowed unjust and injurious cen-
^_ sures and criticisms to be made — unjust to the officers and sol
diers in the field, and injurious to the cause. The desire of the
people to recover all that Hull had lost would brook no re
straint, nor listen to any excuse for delay. A winter campaign was demanded, and
Harrison was not a man to shrink from any required duty. He knew that much
was expected of him ; and day and night his head and hands were at work, with
only the intermissions required by the necessity for taking food, indulging in sleep,
and the observance of the Sabbath. Taking all things into consideration, his task
was Herculean, and to some men would have been appalling. He was compelled {o
create an army out of good but exceedingly crude materials. He was compelled to
reconcile many differences and difficulties in order to insure the harmony arising
from perfect discipline. He was compelled to concentrate forces and supplies at
some eligible point, like the Rapids of the Maumee, while perplexed with the great
est impediments. His operations were necessarily threefold in character — prepara
tive, offensive, and defensive, in a wilderness filled with hostile savages controlled
and supported by British regulars. A frontier, hundreds of miles in extent, must be
protected at all hazards from the hatchet and the knife. The season was becoming
more and more inclement. From the fortieth degree of latitude northward (the di
rection of his projected, march) was a region of dark forests and black swamps. The
autumnal rains had commenced, filling every stream, and making every morass brim
ful of water. Through these, roads and causeways for wagons and pack-horses must
be cut and constructed, over which supplies of every kind, with men and artillery,
must be conveyed. Block-houses were to be built, magazines of provisions estab
lished, and a vigilant watch kept upon the savages who might prowl upon flanks and
rear. All this had to be done with undisciplined troops prone to self-reliance and
independence, with great uncertainty whether volunteers would swell his army for
invasion to the promised dimensions often thousand men.
Yet, in view of all these labors and difficulties, Harrison was cheerful and hopeful.
" I am fully sensible of the responsibility invested in me," he wrote to the Secretary
of War on the 13th of October. "I accepted it with full confidence of being able to
effect the wishes of the President, or to show unequivocally their impracticability.
If the fall should be very dry, I will take Detroit before the winter sets in ; but if we
should have much rain, it will be necessary to wait at the Rapids until the Mi-
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 339
Objections to a Winter Campaign. Difficulties of Transportation. General Simon Perkins.
ami of the Lake [Maumee, or Miami of the Lakes] is sufficiently frozen over to bear
the army and its baggage."
]S'iue days later Harrison wrote, "I am not able to fix any period for the advance
of the troops to Detroit. It is pretty evident that it can not be done upon proper
principles until the frost shall become so severe as to enable us to use the rivers and
the margin of the lake for transportation of the baggage and artillery upon the ice.
To get them forward through a swampy wilderness of near two hundred miles, in
wagons or on pack-horses, which are to carry their own provisions, is absolutely im
possible." He then referred to a suggestion of a Congressman that the possession
of Detroit by the enemy would probably be the most effectual bar to the attainment
of peace, then hoped for, and observed, " If this were really the case, I would under
take to recover it with a detachment of the army at any time. A few hundred pack-
horses, with a drove of beeves (without artillery or heavy baggage), would subsist
the fifteen hundred or two thousand men which I would select for the purpose until
the residue of the army could arrive. But, having in view offensive operations from
Detroit, an advance of this sort would be premature, and ultimately disadvantageous.
No species of supplies are calculated on being found in the Michigan Territory. The
farms upon the Raisin, which might have afforded a quantity of forage, are nearly all
broken up and destroyed. This article, then, as well as the provisions for the men,
is to be taken from this state — a circumstance which must at once put to rest every
idea for a land conveyance at this season, since it would require at least two wagons
with forage for each one that is loaded with provisions and other articles. My
present plan is," he continued, " to occupy Upper Sandusky, and accumulate at that
place as much provision and forage as possible, to be taken from thence upon sleds to
the River Raisin. At Defiance, Fort Jennings, and St. Mary, boats and sleds are pre
paring to take advantage of a rise of water or a fall of snow."
At this time, the troops moving on the line of operations which passed from Frank-
linton (head-quarters) and Delaware, by Upper to Lower Sandusky, composed of the
brigades from Virginia and Pennsylvania, and one of Ohio, under General Simon
Perkins,1 were designated in general orders, and known as the right wing of the army ;
1 Simon Perkins was born at Norwich, Connecticut, on the 17th of September, 1771. His father was a captain in the
army of the1 Revolution, and died in camp. He emigrated to Oswego, New-York, in 1795, where he spent three years in
extensive land operations. A portion of the " Western Reserve," in Ohio, having been sold by the State of Connecti
cut, the new proprietors invited Mr. Perkins to explore the domain, and report a plan for the sale and settlement of the
lands. He went to Ohio for that purpose in the spring of 1798. He spent the summer there in the performance of the
duties of his agency, and returned to Connecticut in the autumn. This excursion and these duties were repeated by
him for several successive summers. He finally married in 1804, and settled on the "Reserve" at Warren. So ex
tensive were the land agencies intrusted to him, that in 1S15 the state land-tax paid by him into the public treasury
was one seventh of the entire revenue of the state. Mr. Perkins was the first post-master on the "Reserve," and to
him the post-master general intrusted the arrangement of post-offices in that region. For twenty-eight years he re
ceived and merited the confidence of the department and the people. At the request of the government, in 1807 he
established expresses through the Indian country to Detroit. His efforts led to the treaty of Brownsville in the autumn
of 1SOS, when the Indians ceded lands for a road from the "Reserve" to the Maumee, or Miami of the Lakes. In May
of that year he was commissioned a brigadier general of militia, in the division commanded by Major General Wads-
worth, On hearing of the disaster to Hull's army at Detroit, he issued orders to his colonels to prepare their regiments
for active duty. To him was assigned the duty of protecting a large portion of the Northwestern frontier. "To the
care of Brigadier General Simon Perkins I commit you," said Wadsworth on parting with the troops of the Reserve,
" who will be your commander and your friend. In his integrity, skill, and courage, we all have the utmost confidence."
He was exceedingly active. His scouts were out, far and near, continually. His public accounts were kept with the
greatest clearness and accuracy for more than forty years. " No two officers in the public service at that time," testifies
the Honorable Elisha WThittlesey, "were more energetic or economical than Generals Harrison and Perkins." When,
in 1813, General Harrison was sufficiently re-enforced to dispense with Perkins's command, he left the service [February
28, 1813], bearing the highest encomiums of the commander-in-chief of the Army of the Northwest. President Madi
son, at the suggestion of Harrison and others, sent him the commission of colonel in the regular army, but duty to his
family and the demands of a greatly increasing business caused him to decline it.
General Perkins was intrusted with the arrangement and execution, at the head of a commission, of the extensive ca
nal system of Ohio. From 1826 until 1838 he was an active member of the "Board of Canal Fund Commissioners." They
were under no bonds and received no pecuniary reward. In the course of about seven years they issued and sold state
bonds for the public improvements to the amount of four and a half millions of dollars. Among the remarkable men
who settled the "Western Reserve," General Simon Perkins ever held one of the most conspicuous places, and his in
fluence in social and moral life is felt in that region to this day. He died at Warren, Ohio, on the 19th of November,
1844. His widow long survived him. She died at the same place in April, 1862. To their sou, Joseph Perkins, Esq.,
of Cleveland, I am indebted for the materials for this brief sketch, and the likeness of the patriot on the next page.
340
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Divisions of the Army of the Northwest.
Employment of the Troops.
The Western Reserve.
Tupper's brigade, that was to move on
Hull's road, by Fort M'Arthur, was called
the centre; and the Kentuckians under
Winchester were styled the left wing.
The Virginia and Pennsylvania troops
were employed in escorting the artillery
and military stores toward Upper San-
dusky; the Ohio troops conveyed pro
visions from Manary's Block-house, near
the head of the Great Miami, twenty miles
north of Urbana, to Forts M'Arthur and
Findlay, on Hull's road ; while the Ken
tuckians were traversing the swamps of
the St. Mary and the Au Glaize, and de
scending those rivers in small craft, to
O J
carry provisions to Fort Winchester (De
fiance) on the left wing.1
Northwestern Ohio, particularly the
settlements on the Western Reserve? had
been alive with excitement and patriotic
zeal during all the autumn,
and General Wadsworth, com
mander of the 4th Division of
the Ohio Militia (the boundaries
of which comprised the counties
of Jefferson and Turnbull, thus
embracing at least one third of the state) was continually, vigilantly, and efficiently
employed in the promotion of measures for the defense of the frontier from the Maumee
to Erie, and for the recovery of Michigan. In politics General Wadsworth was a
Democrat of the Jefferson school. He had watched with interest and indignation
the course of Great Britain for many years, and when the Congress of the nation de
clared war against her, he rejoiced in fhe act as a righteous and necessary one. He
had been an active soldier of the Revolution,3 and now, when his country needed his
i M'Afee, pages 103, 104.
= The charter of Connecticut, granted in 1602, covered the country from Rhode Island, or, as expressed, " Narragan-
set River," on the east, to the Pacific on the west. When New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania claimed dominion
above the line of the southern boundary of the province, difficulties appeared. These were disposed of. In 1786 the
State of Connecticut ceded to the United States all the lands within the charter limits westward of Pennsylvania, ex
cepting a tract one hundred and twenty miles in length westward, adjoining that state. The cession was accepted.
This was tailed the Connecticut or Western Reserve ; and many settlers went there from the State of Connecticut. A part
of the Reserve, containing half a million of acres, was granted by the state to the inhabitants of New London, Pair-
field, aud Norwalk, whose property had been burnt by the British during the Revolution. This was known as The Fire
Lands. The remainder of the Reserve was sold in 1T95, and the proceeds of the sale were devoted to the formation of
the present school fund of Connecticut.
3 Elijah Wadsworth was born in Hartford, Connecticut, on the 4th of November, 174T, and became a resident of Litch-
field before the Revolution. After the battle of Bunker's Hill he volunteered to go to Boston, but his purpose was
frustrated, when he engaged heartily in raising Colonel Elisha Sheldon's troop of light-horsemen. He was commis
sioned a lieutenant of the company of which Benjamin Tallmadge was captain. He served with zeal during the entire
war. He commanded the guard in whose custody Major Andro was placed immediately after his arrest.
Wadsworth was a man of great energy. He went early to Ohio, and was part owner of the ' ' Western Reserve." He
made his residence at Canfield, Ohio, in 1802, and was always a leading man in that section of the new state, and was
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
341
Elisha Whittlesey.
Alarming Rumors about Hull's Surrender.
Preparations against Invasion.
services, he cheerfully offered them.
Although he was sixty-five years of
age, he entered upon active military
duties with energy with the late
venerable Elisha Whittlesey, of Can-
field,1 and the late Honorable Ben
jamin Tappen, of Steubenville, Ohio,
as his aid-de-camp. The former ac
companied him to Cleveland from
Canfield,2 and the latter soon joined
him there.
General Wadsworth was at his
house in Canfield when intelligence
O
of the surrender of Hull reached him.3
The alarming rumors that prevailed
concerning the imminence of an in
vasion called for immediate and en
ergetic action. Wadsworth at once
issued orders to the several brigadier
generals of his division to muster the
militia for the protection of the fron-
d C^/s~^i t^er from ^e imme(liate incursions
/f S of the British and their savage allies.
// Already citizens of the region adja-
(/ cent to Canfield had formed a corps
of dragoons, under Captain James Dowd. This company was ordered into the serv
ice ; and so promptly did it respond to the call, that by noon the following day (Sun
day, August 23d, 1812), it was on its march toward Cleveland as an honorary escort
very efficient in the organization of the crude material of pioneer life into well-balanced society, the establishment of
schools, etc. His aid was essential in the establishment of the state government, and when the militia was enrolled he
was chosen major general of the 4th Division. In that office he was found when war broke out in 1812. His services
iu the war are recorded in the text. On his tomb-stone at Canfield are the following words: "Major General Elijah.
Wadsworth moved into Canfield in October A.D. 1802, and died December 30, 181T, aged 70 years, 1 month, and IT days."
1 Elisha Whittlesey was born in Litchfield County, Connecticut, on the 19th of October, 1T83. His father, a practical
farmer, was a member of the Connecticut Legislature seventeen consecutive sessions, and was a member of the State
Convention that ratified the Constitution of the United States. The subject of this brief memoir was a pupil of Rev.
Thomas Robbins, of Danbury, Connecticut, who died only a few years ago, and also of the eminent Moses Stuart, of
Andover. He studied law, and was admitted to practice at Fair-field in the winter of 1805. He commenced practice at
New Milford, but in June, 1S06, he emigrated to Ohio, and settled at Canfield, Turnbull County, which place was his
home when in private life. In the autumn of that year he was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of Ohio, and
at the first session of the Court of Common Pleas thereafter he was appointed prosecuting attorney, which office he held
sixteen years. When the war broke out he was appointed aid to General Wadsworth. On the retirement of General
Wadsworth from the service, Mr. Whittlesey was appointed brigade major in General Simon Perkins's corps, and was
with that officer during the remainder of his campaign in Northern Ohio in 1S12-'13. He was sent by General Harrison
from the Rapids of the Maumee, after the defeat of General Winchester at the Raisin, to ask the Legislature of Ohio
to pass a law providing for the payment of such Ohio troops as should remain in service after their time of enlistment
should expire. He was successful.
Mr. Whittlesey resumed his profession after the war. He served as a member of the Ohio Legislature from 1820 to
1822 inclusive, when he was elected to Congress, in which he served fourteen consecutive years. During all that time he
was a member of the Committee on Claims, full one half of that time its chairman, and was never absent, excepting on
public business, but for one dav/, for which, in the settlement of his accounts, he deducted the sum of eight dollars — a
day's salary ! President Harrison appointed him auditor of the treasury of the Post-office Department in March, 1841
He resigned it in 1843. President Taylor appointed him comptroller of the treasury in June, 1849. He offered his re
signation to President Pierce, but that gentleman, knowing the value of an honest man in that responsible station,
would not accept it. In March, 1S5T, he tendered his resignation to President Buchanan. He accepted it in May, say
ing, "The Lord knows I do not wish you to resign at all." On the 10th of April, 1SG1, President Lincoln called him
from his home to occupy the same responsible position. He cheerfully responded to the call of his country, although
seventy-eight years of age, and faithfully discharged the duties of his office until a few days before his death, which
occurred on Wednesday, the 7th day of January, 1863, when in the eightieth year of his age.
2 Canfield, the capital of Mahoning County, Ohio, was then the residence of General Wadsworth, and also of Mr.
Whittlesey.
3 It came in the form of a letter written by Alfred Kelley, and signed by twelve other citizens of Cleveland. B. Fitch,
of Ellsworth, was the bearer of it.
342 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Troops welcomed to Cleveland. Energy of General Wadsworth. Distress on the Raisin River.
for the commanding general. They marched by the way of Hudson,1 twenty-five miles
• August, fr°m Cleveland, and breakfasted there, at Oviatt's,on the morning of the 24th. a
18*2- Soon after resuming their march they met some of Hull's paroled army, who
had been landed from British boats at Cleveland. Their stories increased the panic
caused by startling rumors, and many of the inhabitants along the lake were flee
ing from their homes eastward or toward the Ohio, to avoid the apprehended on
coming evils. Wadsworth tried to allay the excitement, but it was rolling over the
frontier in an almost resistless flood. When the cavalcade entered Cleveland that
afternoon at four o'clock, it created great joy among the few inhabitants there. Two
or three hours later Colonel Cass arrived at Cleveland from Detroit on his way to
Washington City, and at the request of General Wadsworth he was accompanied to
the seat of government by ex-governor Samuel Huntington, then at Cleveland,2 as
bearer of an important letter to the Secretary of War. In that letter Wadsworth
informed the secretary that he had called out about three thousand of the militia of
his division, to rendezvous at Cleveland, but was compelled to acknowledge them
destitute of arms, ammunition, and proper equipments for a campaign, as well as the
difficulty of feeding them. Properly estimating the value of the great Northwest to
the Union, and the importance of these troops for its protection, as well as in the ef
forts to be made for the recovery of Michigan, " so dishonorably given up to the en-
<emy," he urged the government to extend its immediate and unceasing aid in sup
plying the wants of this little army then hastening to the field. ""The fate of the
Western country," he said, " is suspended on the decision the government shall make
to this .application."3
General Wadsworth did not wait for a reply. Necessity demanded instant action.
He took the responsibility of appointing commissioners of supplies, and giving re
ceipts to those who furnished them in the name of the government.4 The people,
with equal faith in the wisdom of the general and the justice of the government, re
sponded without hesitation to the call for provisions and forage. Nor was that faith
disappointed. By a letter dated the 5th of September, Wadsworth's course was
sanctioned by the War Department, and he wTas invested with full power to take
measures for supplying his troops and giving efficiency to their service.
Intelligence came to Wadsworth almost hourly of the distress of the inhabitants
on the Raisin, and along the lake shore eastward as far as the Huron River, who, in
violation of the agreements of the capitulations at Detroit, were being plundered by
the Indians even of their boots and shoes. Their homes were broken up by the ma
rauders, and many of the inhabitants were fleeing for their lives. The benevolent
Wadsworth was exceedingly anxious to send them relief, and it was with real joy
that he Welcomed the arrival at Cleveland, on the 26th of August, of General Simon
Perkins with a large body of troops. He resolved to send him forward to the Huron
immediately with a thousand men, to erect block-houses and protect the inhabitants.
1 The capital of the present Summit County, Ohio. It was the first settlement made in the county. In the division
of the Western Reserve among the purchasers from Connecticut, this section fell to the lot of David Hudson, who com
menced a settlement in the year 1SOO. Mr. 'Hudson died in March, 1836, aged seventy-five years.
2 Huntington was governor of Ohio from 1808 to 1810. In the latter part of his life he resided at Painesville, in Lake
County, where he died in 1S1T. He lived in Cleveland for a while before making his residence at Painesville. As an
illustration of the wonderful growth of American cities, and the rapid settlement and clearing of the country westward
of the Alleghany Mountains, I mention the fact that Governor Huntington, when approaching Cleveland from the east
one night, and only two miles from it, was attacked by a pack of wolves. He beat them off with his umbrella, and
made his escape to the town through the fleetness of his horse. That was only about fifty years ago. Cleveland-now
[186T] contains more than 50,000 inhabitants.
3 MS. Letter of General Wadsworth to the Secretary of War, dated Cleveland, August 25, 1812.
4 The commissioners appointed were Aaron Norton, Eleazer Hicock, and Ebenezer Murray. The people sold to
them, on the terms offered, as cheaply as if paid in gold and silver. They gave a certificate in writing stating the arti
cle furnished, its quantity and value, with a promise to pay for it when the government should remit funds for the
purpose. Property abandoned by frightened inhabitants was taken, appraised, and inventoried. A fatigue party
would harvest a field of grain, while an officer kept an exact account of the whole matter, and the owners were after
ward remunerated. In the final settlement hardly a single case of dissatisfaction occurred.— Statement of Hon. Elisha
Whittlesey to the author.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 343
Re-enforcements for Winchester. March to Detroit suspended. Attempted Lodgment at the Maumee Rapids.
General Reazin Beall1 was also directed to go westward on a similar errand ; and
preparations for their departure were nearly completed, when "VVadsworth received
dispatches from the Secretary of War saying that the President intended to adopt
the most vigorous measures " to repair the disasters at Detroit," and to prosecute
with increased ardor the important objects of the campaign. Wadsworth was di
rected to forward fifteen hundred men to the frontier as quickly as possible, with
directions to " report to General Winchester, or officer commanding" there, at the
same time promising an adequate supply of arms and ammunition. Arrangements
for the movement were speedily made, and Perkins and Beall, who had been em
ployed by Governor Meigs in opening a road from Mansfield, in the interior of Ohio
(now capital of Richland County), to Lower Sandusky, were ordered toward the lat
ter place. Some clashing of authority between Wadsworth and Meigs, and some
complaints concerning affairs in the region bordering on Lake Erie, caused Harrison,
who (as we have seen) was made commander-in-chief of the Northwestern Army, to
make a personal examination of matters there toward the close of October. He found
General Wadsworth near the mouth of the Huron River, at the head of eight hund
red men. Beall, with about five hundred, was at Mansfield. The two corps were
consolidated and placed under General Perkins, with orders to proceed to Lower
Sandusky, and open a road thence to the Rapids of the Maumee ; a severe task, for
it was necessary to causeway it about fifteen miles. This was accomplished. Har
rison returned to his head-quarters at Franklinton early in November, and on the
15th of that month was compelled to inform the War Department that he doubted
the propriety of attempting to penetrate Canada, or to proceed farther than the
Rapids during the winter, owing to the insurmountable difficulties in the way of
transporting forage and supplies. " I know it will be mortifying to Kentucky,"
Harrison wrote to Governor Shelby, " for this army to return without doing any
thing ; but it is better to do that than to attempt impossibilities. I wish to God the
public mind were informed of our difficulties, and gradually prepared for this course.
In my opinion, we should in this quarter disband all but those sufficient for a strong
frontier guard, convoys, etc., and prepare for the next season."
General Tupper had made another unsuccessful attempt to establish a permanent
lodgment at the Maumee Rapids, and this failure doubtless gave nerve to Harrison's
convictions. We left Tupper at Urbana, after his difficulties with Winchester at
Defiance. He pushed forward along Hull's road to Fort M'Arthur, and there he
speedily prepared an expedition to the Rapids, consisting of six hundred and fifty
mounted men who volunteered for the service. He had sent Captain Hinkson, at
the head of a company of spies, to reconnoitre at the Rapids, who returned with a
British captain, named Clarke, as his prisoner. The result of the reconnoissance was
information that there were three or four hundred Indians, and about seventy-five
British regulars at the Rapids, who were there for the purpose of carrying off a quan
tity of corn at that post. Tupper immediately notified General Winchester of his
intended expedition, and, on the 10th,a moved forward with his command .November,
along Hull's road toward the Rapids, taking with him a light six-pounder, 1812-
and five days' provisions in the knapsacks of the men.
The roads were wretched, and Tupper was compelled to leave his little cannon at
a block-house on the way. From Portage River, twenty miles from the Rapids, he
sent forwai-d a reconnoitring party, following slowly with his whole command.
Within a few miles of the Rapids he met his spies returning with information that
the enemy were still there. Halting until twilight, he marched forward to a ford
1 Reazin Beall, of Pennsylvania, was an ensign in the United States Infantry in 1792, and was in the third sub-legion
the same year. He was adjntant and quartermaster the following year. He served under Wayne for a while, and re
signed at the'beginning of 1794. From the Sth of September till the 3d of November, 1812, he was a brigadier general
of Ohio volunteers. He represented Ohio in Congress from 1S13 till 1815. He died on the 20th of February, 1842.—
Gardner's Dictionary of the Army, page 59.
344 PICTOEIAL FIELD-BOOK
Stirring Events at the Rapids. Fight with Indians. Relief for Ohio Troops. A Menace.
about two miles above the Rapids. Thence spies were again sent forward, and re
turned, saying, " They are closely encamped, and are singing and dancing." Tupper
resolved to attack them at dawn, and orders were given to cross the river imme
diately. The sky was clear, and the weather intensely cold. The men were much
fatigued, yet the excitement gave them strength. Tupper dashed into the icy flood
at the head of his men, and crossed with the first section in safety ; but the water,
waist-deep at times, and flowing in a swift current, confused and swept from their
feet many of the next division. They were exposed to great perils, but none were
lost. After ineffectual attempts to accomplish the undertaking, those who had cross
ed were recalled, and the whole body retired to the woods and encamped.
Early the next morning Tupper sent to Winchester for re-enforcements and food ;
and some spies went down the river, showed themselves opposite the enemy's camp,
and tried to entice them across. They failed, when Tupper moved down with his
whole body, and displayed the heads of his columns in the open space between the
river and the woods. This frightened the enemy. " The squaws," said a contem
porary writer,1 " ran to the woods ; the British ran to their boats, and escaped. The
Indians, more brave than their allies, paraded, and fired across the river, but without
effect." They used muskets and a four-pound cannon. Tupper then fell back, hop
ing the savages in a body would venture across the Maumee, but they did not.
Some mounted Indians were seen to go up the stream, and at the same time some of
Tupper's men, contrary to orders, entered a field to pull corn, while others pursued a
drove of hogs in the same direction. The latter were suddenly assailed by a party
of mounted savages who had crossed unperceived, and four of Tupper's men were
killed. The Indians, excited by the shedding of blood, fell upon the left flank of the
white army, but were repulsed. Almost at the same moment, a large body of the
savages, under the notable chief Split-Log, who rode a fine white horse, crossed the
river above the advance of Tupper's column. They were driven back by Bentley's
battalion with some loss, and the Ohio troops were not again annoyed by them.
Late in the evening Tupper and his men turned their faces toward Fort M' Arthur,
for their provisions were almost exhausted, and their nearest point of sure supply
was forty miles distant.
Winchester, in the mean time, having received Tupper's first message, had sent a
detachment, under Colonel Lewis, of four hundred and fifty men, to co-operate with
the Ohio troops. Tupper's appeal for men and food, which reached him later, was
forwarded to Lewis as soon as it was received by Winchester, and the former pushed
forward by a forced march to the relief of the imperiled ones. Finding Tupper's
camp deserted, apparently with haste, and in it two dead men scalped, Lewis sup
posed he had been defeated. Under this impression, he retreated to Winchester's
camp. Thus ended this bold attempt to take position at the Rapids. The inten
tions of the projector failed, but the expedition had the effect to frighten the British
and Indians away before they had gathered up the corn ; and averted, for the time,
a contemplated blow by the savages upon the alarmed- French settlements on the
Raisin, at the instigation of their British allies.2
1 M'Afee, page 170. See also Brackenridge, page 61.
2 Just before the approach of Tupper the following note (of course, written by one of the British allies) from the In
dians was sent to the inhabitants on the Raisin :
" The Hurons and other tribes of Tndiam, assembled at the Miami Rapids, to the inhabitants of the River Raisin.
" FEIENDS, — Listen : you have always told us that yon would give us any assistance in your power. We therefore, as
the enemy is approaching us, within twenty-five miles, call upon you all to rise up and come here immediately, bring
ing your arms along with you. Should you fail at this time, we will not consider you in future as friends, and the con
sequences may be very unpleasant. We are well convinced that you have no writing forbidding you to assist us.
his
"We are your friends at present. "Rot/nn + HEAD,
mark,
his
"WALK-IN- -f- THE-WATEE."
mark.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 345
Services of Captain Logan. His Death. Wa-pagh-ko-netta and its notable Indians.
At about this time the American service in the Northwest lost a valuable friend.
It was the settled policy of the government not to employ the Indians in war, but
there were occasions when exceptions to the rule became a necessity. It was so in
Ohio. There was an active, intelligent, and influential chief, a nephew of Tecum-
tha (son of his sister), who, when a boy, having been captui-ed by General John Lo
gan, of Kentucky, received that gentleman's name, and bore it through life. His wife
had also been a captive to a Kentuckian (Colonel Hardin), and both felt a warm at
tachment to the white people. Major Hardin (then in the Army of the Northwest,
and son of Colonel Hardin) and Logan were true friends, and highly esteemed each
other. Logan had much influence with his tribe, and when the war broke out he
asked for employment in the American service. It was granted, because he might
have been made an enemy. He accompanied Hull to Detroit, and was exceedingly
active as a scout. We have also seen that Harrison employed him on a mission to
Fort Wayne.
Soon after the return of Tupper from the Rapids, Logan and his followers were
sent toward that post to reconnoitre. They met a strong opposing party, and, to
save themselves, scattered in every direction. Captain Logan, with two friends
(Captains John and Bright Horn), made his way to Winchester's camp, where he re
lated their adventures. His fidelity was ungenerously suspected, and he was believed
to be a spy. His pride and every sentiment of manhood were deeply wounded by
the suspicion, and he resolved to vindicate his character by actions rather than by
words. He started* with his two friends for the Rapids, with the de- "November 22,
termination to bring in a prisoner or a Scalp. They had not gone far when
they were made prisoners themselves by a son of Colonel Elliott and some Indians,
among whom was Win-ne-meg, or Win-ne-mac — the Pottawatomie chief who bore
Hull's dispatch from Fort Wayne to Chicago.1 He was now an ally of the British.
He knew Logan well, and rejoiced in being the captor of an old enemy. The latter
resolved to make a desperate effort for liberty. His companions were made to un
derstand significant signs, and at a concerted signal they attacked their captors.
Logan shot Win-ne-meg dead. Elliott and a young Ottawa chief were also slain.
Logan was badly wounded, so was Bright Horn ; but they leaped upon the backs of
horses of the. enemy and escaped to Winchester's camp. Captain John followed
the next morning with the scalp of the Ottawa. Logan's honor and fidelity were
fully vindicated, but at the cost of his life — his wound was mortal. After he had
suffered great agony for two days, his spirit returned to the Great Master of Life.
Proctor had offered, it is said, one hundred and fifty dollars for his scalp. It was
never taken from his head. His body was carried in moumful procession, by Major
Hardin and others, to Wa-pagh-ko-netta,2 where his family resided, and was buried
1 See page 305.
3 This is a small village in Allen County, Ohio, on the An Glaize River, about ten miles from St. Mary. After the
Shawnoese were driven from Piqua by General Clark in 17SO, they established a village here, and named it Wa-pagh-
ko-netta, in honor of a chief of that name. Colonel John Johnston informed me that he knew the chief well. He said
he had a club-foot, and thinks the name had some relation to that deformity. Colonel Johnston resided at Wa-pagh-
ko-netta for some time. The Society of Friends, or Quakers, had a mission there for a number of years. It was the
home of Blue Jacket, spoken of in our account of the invasion of the country by Wayne, in 1T94. Buckongahelos also
resided there ; also the celebrated Black Hoof, who was a native of Florida, whose birthplace was on the Suwanee. He
remembered the removal of that tribe from their southern home to the forests of Pennsylvania and Ohio. He was at
the defeat of Braddock in 1755. In all the wars with the white people in his region, from that time until the treaty of
Greenville in 1795, he was a popular leader, and could always command as many men for the war-path as he desired.
He was a party to the treaty at Greenville, and was ever faithful to his pledges there made. Tecumtha could not se
duce him, and he was the faithful friend of the Americans in the war with Great Britain which we are now considering.
A few weeks after the burial of Logan [January, 1813], he visited General Tupper's camp at Fort M' Arthur. While
sitting by the fire with the general, a scoundrel militia-man, Colonel Johnston informed me, fired a pistol ball at him
through the logs of the block-house, which entered his cheek, passed through his mouth, cut off his palate, and lodged
in his neck. He would never have the ball removed, but would call the children to feel of it, and then would tell them
of his wrongs. Colonel Johnston gave him a healing plaster for his wound in the form of a bank-note of the denomi
nation of one hundred dollars. Colonel Johnston says he was one of the most perfectly formed men he ever saw. He
was naturally cheerful and good-natured. He lived with his wife faithfully for forty years. His stature was small, and
his eyesight remained perfect during his whole life.
346 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Expedition against Miamis and Delawares. Friends to be spared. Campbell on the Mississiniwa.
there with mingled savage rites and military honors. The scalp of the slain Ottawa,
raised upon a pole, was carried in the funeral procession and then taken to the coun
cil-house. Logan's death was mourned as a public calamity, for he was one of the
most intelligent, active, and trustworthy of Harrison's scouts.
At this time the Miamis, nearly all of whom had become wedded to the interests
of the British, were assembled, with some Delawares from White River, in towns on
the Mississiniwa, a tributary of the Wabash, fifteen or twenty miles from its conflu
ence with the latter stream, near the boundary-line between the present Wabash and
Grant Counties, Indiana. They were evidently there for hostile purposes, and Gen
eral Harrison resolved to destroy or disperse them. He detached for the purpose
Lieutenant Colonel John B. Campbell, of the Nineteenth Regiment of United States
Infantry,1 composed mainly of Colonel Simrall's regiment of Kentucky dragoons ; a
squadron of United States volunteer dragoons, commanded by Major James V. Ball;
and a corps of infantry, consisting of Captain Elliott's company of the Nineteenth
United States Regiment, Butler's Pittsburg Blues, and Alexander's Pennsylvania
Riflemen. A small company of spies and guides were attached to the expedition.
Campbell left Franklinton, the head-quarters of the Army of the Northwest, on
the 25th of November, with his troops, instructed by Harrison to march for the Mis
sissiniwa by way of Springfield, Xenia, Dayton, Eaton, and Greenville, so as to avoid
the Delaware towns. He was also instructed to save, if he could do so without risk
to the expedition, Chiefs Richardville (then second chief of the Miamis), Silver Heels,
and the White Lion, all of which, with Pecan, the principal chief of the Miamis, and
Charley, the leader of the Eel River tribe, were known to be friendly to the white
people. The son and brother of Little Turtle were also to be saved, if possible ; also
old Godfrey and his wife, who were true friends of the Americans.
It was the middle of December before the expedition left Dayton, on account of
delay in procuring horses. Their destination was eighty miles distant. Each sol
dier was required to carry twelve days' rations, and a bushel of corn for forage.
The ground was hard frozen and covered with snow, and the weather was intensely
cold, yet they marched forty miles the first two days. On the third they made a
forced march, and during that day and night they advanced another forty miles,
when they reached the Mississiniwa, and fell upon a town inhabited by. a number of
Miamis and Delawares. Eight warriors were slain, and eight others, with thirty-
two women and children, were made prisoners. The town was laid in ashes with
the exception of two houses, which were left for the shelter of the captives. Cattle
and other stock were slaughtered.
Campbell left the prisoners in charge of a sufficient guard, and pushed on down the
river three miles to Silver Heels's village with Simrall's and Ball's dragoons. It was
deserted ; so also were two other towns near. These were destroyed, with many
cattle. They captured several horses, and with these and a very small quantity of
corn they returned to the scene of their first victory, and encamped for the night on
the shore of the Mississiniwa. The camp was about two hundred yards square, and
fortified with a small redoubt at each angle. The infantry and riflemen were posted
in front, on the bank of the river, Captain Elliott's company on the right, Butler's in
the centre, and Alexander's on the left. Major Ball's squadron occupied the right
Black Hoof was often asked to sing the songs of the worship of his people, but nothing could induce him to do so.
He would not even repeat the words to the white man. His was like the refusal of the Hebrew captive to sing the
songs of Zion on the banks of the rivers of Babylon. Black Hoof was the principal chief of the Shawnoese for many
years before his death, which occurred at Wa-pagh-ko-netta about the year 1S30, at the age, it was believed, of one
hundred and ten years.
1 John B. Campbell was a native of Virginia, and nephew of Colonel Campbell, who was distinguished at the battle
of King's Mountain in 1780. He was commissioned lieutenant colonel of the Nineteenth Regiment of Infantry in
March, 1812. For his good conduct in the expedition mentioned above he was breveted a colonel. In April, 1814, he
was commissioned a colonel in the Eleventh Infantry, and was distinguished and severely wounded in the battle of
Chippewa on the 5th of July following. He died of his wounds on the 28th of August, 1814.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 347
Attack on Campbell's Camp. A desperate Fight. Distressing Retreat to Greenville.
and one half of the rear line, and Colonel SimralPs regiment the left and other half of
the rear line. Between Ball's right and Simrall's left there was a considerable open
ing. Major Ball was" the officer of the day.
At midnight the sentinels reported the presence of Indians, and a fire was seen
down the river. The greatest vigilance was exercised, and the reveille was beaten
at four o'clock in the morning. Adjutant Payne immediately summoned the field
officers to a council at the fire of the commander to consult upon the propriety of
going on twelve miles farther down the river, to attack one of the principal towns
there. While the officers were in council, half an hour before dawn,a , j)ecember is
the camp was startled by terrific yells, followed immediately by a 1812-
furious attack of a large body of savages who had crept stealthily along the margin
of the river. Every officer flew to his post, and in a few moments the lines were
formed, and the Indians were confi'onted with a heavy fire. The attack was made
upon the angle of the camp, formed by the left of Captain Hopkins's troops and the
right of Captain Garrard's dragoons of Simrall's regiment. Captain Pierce, who com
manded at the redoubt there, was shot and tomahawked, and his guard retreated to
the lines. The conflict soon became general along the right flank and part of the
rear. The Pittsburg Blues promptly re-enforced the point assailed, and gallantly
kept the savages at bay. For an hour the battle raged furiously. It was finally
terminated, between dawn and sunrise, by 'a well-directed fire from Butler's Pitts-
burg corps, and desperate charges of cavalry under Captains Trotter, Markle,1 and
Johnson, when the Indians fled in dismay, leaving fifteen of their warriors dead on
the field. Campbell had lost eight killed and forty-two wounded. Several of the
latter afterward died of their wounds.2 Campbell had one hundred and seven horses
killed. What the whole loss of. the Indians was could not be ascertained, but it is
supposed that they carried away as many mortally wounded as they left dead on the
field. Little Thunder, a nephew of Little Turtle, was in the engagement, and per
formed great service in inspiring his people with confidence by stirring words and
gallant deeds. Although Silver Heels, a friend of the Americans (and who was with
their army on the Niagara frontier the following year), was not present, nearly all of
the prisoners were of his band. He did every thing in his power to persuade his
young warriors to remain neutral, but in vain.
Rumors reached Campbell immediately after the battle that Tecumtha, with five
or six hundred warriors, was on the Mississiniwa, only eighteen miles below. With
out calling a council, the commander immediately ordered a retreat for Greenville.
He sent a messenger (Captain Hite) thither for re-enforcements and supplies, for he
expected to be attacked on the way. Fortunately the savages did not pursue. It
was a dreadful journey, especially for the sick and wounded, in that keen winter air.
They moved slowly, for seventeen men had to be conveyed on litters. Every night
the camp was fortified by a breastwork. At length, wearied and with little food,
they met provisions with an escort of ninety men under Major Adams. The relief
was timely and most grateful. All moved forward together, and on the 25th, with
three hundred men so frostbitten as to be unfit for duty, the expedition arrived at
Greenville. More than one half the corps that a month before had gone gayly to the
wilderness were now lost to the service for a while. They had accomplished their
errand, but at a great cost.3 The commander-in-chief of the army of the Northwest,
1 Joseph Markle, afterward a distinguished citizen of Pennsylvania. He died in 1867.
2 Lieutenant Colonel Campbell's official report to General Harrison, dated at Greenville, December25th, 1812 ; M'Afee,
page ITS ; Dillon's History of Indiana, page 510 ; Thompson's Sketches of the War, page 62. Lieutenant Colonel Camp
bell sent a brief dispatch to Harrison on the morning after the battle, misdated December 12th instead of December
18th, and addressed from "Two miles above Silver Heels."
3 " I have on this occasion," wrote Campbell to Harrison, " to lament the loss of several brave men and many wound
ed. Among the former are Captain Pierce, of the Ohio Volunteers, and Lieutenant Waltz, of Markle's troops. Pierce
was from Zanesville ; Lieutenant Waltz was of the Pennsylvania corps. He was first shot through the arm, and then
through the head. Captain Trotter was wounded in the head." Lieutenant Colonel Campbell highly commended these
PICTOKIAL FIP:LD-BOOK
Good Effects of the Chastisement of the Indians. Sufferings and Difficulties of Harrison's Army. Waste of Horses.
in a general order, congratulated Lieutenant Colonel Campbell on his success, and
commended him for his obedience to orders, his gallantry, and his magnanimity.1
These expeditions against the savages produced salutary effects, and smoothed the
way for the final recovery of Michigan. They separated the friends and enemies of
the Americans effectually. The line between them was distinctly drawn. There
were no middle-men left. The Delawares on the White River, and others who de
sired to be friendly, and who had been invited to settle on the Au Glaize in Ohio,
now accepted the invitation.2 The other tribes, who had cast their lot with the Brit
ish, were made to feel the miseries of war, and to repent of their folly. So severe
had been the chastisement, and so alarmed were the tribes farther north, who re
ceived the fugitives from the desolated villages on the Wabash and the Illinois at
the close of 1812, that Tecumtha's dream of a confederacy of Indians that should
drive the white man across the Ohio was rapidly fading as he awoke to the reality .
of an unsuspected power before him, and the folly of putting his trust in princes — in
other words, relying upon the promises of the representatives of the sovereignty of
England to aid him in his patriotic schemes. Before the war was fairly commenced,
the spirits of the Indians, so buoyant because of the recent misfortunes of the Amer
icans in the Northwest, were broken, and doubt and dismay filled the minds of all
excepting those who were under the immediate command and influence of the great
Shawnoese leader.
As winter came on the sufferings and difficulties of Harrison's invading army were
terrible, especially that of the left wing under Winchester, which was the most ad
vanced, and the most remote from supplies. Early in November typhus fever was
slaying three or four of his small command daily, and three hundred were upon the
sick-list at one time. So discouraging became the prospect at the beginning of De
cember of reaching even the Rapids, that, having pi-oceeded about six miles below
the Au Glaize, Winchester, partly from necessity and partly to deceive the enemy,
ordered huts to be built for the winter shelter of the troops. Clothing was scanty,
and at times the Avhole corps would be withotit flour for several days. These pri
vations were owing chiefly to the difficulty of transportation. The roads were
wretched beyond the conception of those who have not been in that region at the
same season of the year. It was swamp, swamp, swamp, "with only here and there a
strip of terra firma in plight almost as wretched. The pack-horses sank to their
knees, and wagon-wheels to their hubs in the mud. Wasting weariness fell upon
man and beast in the struggle, and the destruction of horses was prodigious. " The
fine teams which arrived on the 10th at Sandusky with the artillery," wrote Harri
son to the Secretary of War on the 12th of December, " are entirely worn down ; and
two trips from M' Arthur's block-house, our nearest deposit to the Rapids, will com
pletely destroy a brigade of pack-horses." It was sometimes found impossible to get
even empty wagons through the mire, and they were abandoned, the teamsters being
glad to get out with their horses alive ; and sometimes the quarter-master, taking
advantage of suddenly frozen mud, would send off a quantity of provisions, which
officers, also Lieutenant Colonel Simrall, Major M'Donnell, Captains Hite and Smith, and Captains Markle, M'Clelland,
Garrard, and Hopkins. Lieutenants Hedges, Basye, and Hickman were among the wounded.
1 "It is with the sincerest pleasure," said General Harrison, in a general order, " that the general has heard that the
most punctual obedience was paid to his orders in not only saving all the women and children, hut in sparing all the
warriors who ceased to resist, and that, even when vigorously attacked by the enemy, the claims of mercy prevailed
over every sense of their own danger, and this heroic baud respected the lives of their prisoners. Let an account of
murdered innocence be opened in the records of Heaven against our enemies alone. The American soldier will follow
the example of his government, and the sword of the one will not be raised against the fallen and the helpless, nor the
gold of the other be paid for the scalps of a massacred enemy."
- The Delawares had emigrated from Pennsylvania about fifty years before, where they had had an acquaintance
with the white people for as long a period under the most favorable circumstances. They had experienced the justice
and kindness of William Penn and his immediate successors. They were settled on the Au Glaize, about halfway be
tween Piqua and Wa-pagh-ko-netta. Some of them went farther east, and settled on the banks of the Scioto, within
the limits of the present Delaware country, whose name is derived from these Indians. Buckongahelos, already men
tioned, and an eminent chief named Kill-buck, were of this tribe.
OF THE WAB OF 1812. 349
Transportation in the Wilderness. Harrison's Instructions. The effective Force in the Northwest.
would be swamped and lost by a sudden thaw. Water transportation was quite as
difficult. Sometimes the streams would be too low for loaded boats to navigate;
then they would be found crooked, narrow, and obstructed by logs ; and again sud
den cold would produce so much ice that it would be almost impossible to move for
ward. Then sleds would be resorted to until a thaw would drive the precious freight
to floating vessels again. Such is a glimpse of the difficulties encountered in that
wilderness of Northern Ohio; but it affords a faint idea of the hardships of the little
invading army trying to make its way toward Detroit. All this was endured by the
patriotic soldiers without scarcely a murmur.
In view of all these difficulties, the enormous expense of transportation, and the
advantages which dishonest contractors were continually taking, Harrison suggested
to the War Department, at about the middle of December, that if there existed no
urgent political necessity for the recovering of Michigan and the invasion of Canada
during the winter, the amount of increased expenditure of transportation at that sea
son of the year might be better applied to the construction of a small fleet that should
command the waters of Lake Erie — a suggestion made by Hull, but little heeded, ear
ly in the year.1 The response came from the pen of a new head of the War Depart
ment. Dr. Eustis2 had resigned, and James Monroe, the only man in the cabinet who
had experienced actual military service, had succeeded him. With a more perfect
knowledge of military affairs, he better comprehended the character of the campaign ;
and, having perfect confidence in the commander-in-chief of the Northwestern Army,
he reiterated the instructions of his predecessor to Harrison, directing him to conduct
the campaign according to his own judgment, promising, at the same time, that the
government would take immediate measures for securing the command of Lake Erie.
Only on two points were positive instructions given: First, in the event of penetrat
ing Canada, not to promise the inhabitants any thing but the protection of life, lib
erty, and property ; and, secondly, not to make any temporary acquisitions, but to pro
ceed so surely that any position which he might obtain would be absolutely permanent.
Early in December a detachment of General Perkins's brigade reached Lower San-
dusky (now Fremont, Ohio), and repaired an old stockade there which had protected
an Indian store. The remainder of the brigade arrived soon afterward. On the 10th
a battalion of Pennsylvania troops made their appearance there, with twenty-one
pieces of artillery, which had been escorted from Pittsburg by Lieutenant Hukfal.
Very soon afterward a regiment of the same troops and part of a Virginia brigade
arrived, speedily followed by General Harrison, who made his head-quarters there on
the 20th. He remained but a little while. There he received the second dispatch
[December 25th] from Lieutenant Colonel Campbell, giving a more detailed account
of his expedition to the Mississiniwa. Harrison at once repaired to Chillicothe to
consult with Governor Meigs on the propriety of fitting out another expedition in
the same direction, to complete the work begun by destroying the lower Mississini
wa towns. The project was abandoned.
The whole effective force in the Northwest did not exceed six thousand three
hundred infantry,3 and a small artillery and cavalry force ; yet Harrison determined
1 See page 251.
2 William Eustis was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on the 10th of June, 1153. He was graduated at Harvard
College at the age of nineteen, and was at the Robinson House, oppo-
chose the practice of medicine for ./^^ "*f /I s~\ S~*\ 8^e ^rest P°int> while Arnold occu-
his profession. He entered the Con- j* ////V_ * J ' pied it as his head - quarters. He
tinental Army of the Revolution as ' v^f r~ / / „/ /~~f J commenced the practice of his pro-
a regimental surgeon, and served in / f ^- f ^ ^ fession at Boston at the close of the
that capacity during the war. He war. He was an ardent politician,
and was a representative of Massachusetts in the National Congress, of the Republican party, from 1801 till 1S05. Presi
dent Madison appointed him Secretary of War in 1S09, and he retained the office until the autumn of 1S12, when he re
signed. He was appointed minister to Holland in 1814. After his return he was chosen to a seat in Congress again,
which he held for nearly two terms from 1820. In 1823 he was chosen governor of Massachusetts. He was then sev
enty years of age. He died in 1825, while holding that office, in the seventy-second year of his age.
3 Harrison's Letter to the Secretary of War, January 4, 1813.
350 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Movements ordered. The Mission and Sufferings of Captain Combs. The Army at the Maumee Rapids.
to press forward to the Rapids, and beyond if possible. From Lower Sandusky he
dispatched Ensign Charles S. Todd, then division judge advocate of the Kentucky
troops, to communicate instructions to Winchester. He was accompanied by two
white men and three Wyandottes. He bore oral instructions from General Har
rison to General Winchester, directing the latter to advance toward the Rapids
when he should have accumulated twenty days' provisions, and there commence
building huts, to deceive the enemy into the belief that he intended to winter there ;
at the same time to prepare sleds for an advance toward Maiden, but to conceal from
his troops their intended use. He was also to inform Winchester that the difierent
lines of the army would be concentrated at the Rapids, and all would proceed from
thence toward Maiden, if the ice on the Detroit River should be found strong enough
to bear them. Young Todd performed this dangerous and delicate duty with such
success that he received the highest commendations of his general.
Meanwhile Leslie Combs, another Kentuckian, a brave and spirited young man of
scarcely nineteen years, who had joined Winchester's army as a volunteer on its
march from Fort Wayne to Defiance, had been sent by Winchester to Harrison on
an errand fraught with equal peril. He bore a dispatch to Harrison communicating
the fact that the left wing had moved toward the Rapids on the 30th of December.
Combs traversed the pathless wilderness on foot, accompanied by a single guide
(A. Ruddle), through snow and water, for at least one hundred miles, enduring pri
vations which almost destroyed him. He, too, performed his mission so gallantly and
satisfactorily that his general thanked him. These two messengers, who passed each
other in the mazes of the great Black Swamp fifty years ago — young, ambitious, pa
triotic, and daring — performed other excellent service during the war, as we shall
have occasion to observe. Combs and Todd are still [1867] living; both residents
of Kentucky, enjoying a green old age, and wearing the honors of their country's
gratitude. I had the pleasure of meeting them both during 1861, and listening to
interesting narrations of their experiences in that war. Portraits and biographical
sketches of these heroes may be found in future pages of this work.1
While on his march toward the Rapids, Winchester received a letter from Harri
son recommending him to abandon the movement, because, if, as Lieutenant Colonel
a De ember 25 Campbell, in his second dispatch,a had been informed, Tecumtha was on
the Wabash with five or six hundred followers, he might advance rapid
ly and capture or destroy all the provisions in Winchester's rear. It was this sec
ond dispatch of Campbell, as we have seen, that sent Harrison in such haste back to
Chillicothe, to consult with Governor Meigs.
Winchester did not heed the cautious suggestions of his superior, but pressed on
toward the Rapids. General Payne, with six hundred and seventy men, was sent
forward to clear the way. Payne went down the Maumee several miles below old
Fort Miami, but saw no signs of an enemy. The remainder of the army arrived at
the Rapids on the 10th of January, 1813, and established a fortified camp on a pleas
ant eminence of an oval form, covered with trees and having a prairie in the rear.
This was a little above Wayne's battle-ground in 1794, opposite the camp-ground of
Hull at the close of June, 1812, and known as Presque Isle Hill.2 On the day of
their arrival, an Indian camp, lately deserted, was discovered. Captain Williams,
with a small detachment, gave chase to the fugitives, whom he overtook and routed.
1 Combs's sufferings were very severe. He carried a heavy musket and accoutrements, a blanket, and four days'
provisions. The snow commenced falling on the morning after his departure, and continued without intermission for
two days and nights. On the third day of their march Combs and his companion found the snow over two feet deep
in the dense forest. Ruddle had been a captive among the Indians in this region and knew the way, and the method
of encountering such hardships as they were now called upon to confront. The storm detained them, their provisions
became scarce, and for several nights they could find no place to lie down, and sat up and slept. Hunger came to both
on the sixth day of their journey, and illness to young Combs. Nothing but his ever unfliching resolution kept him
up. On the ninth evening they reached Fort M'Arthur, and were well cared for by General Tupper. Combs lay pros
trated with sickness for several days. 2 See page 257, and map of the Maumee in this vicinity, page 55.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 351
Troops re-enlisted. The Settlement of Frenchtown threatened. Winchester sends them Defenders.
The enlistments of the Kentucky troops would expire in February, and Harrison
had requested Winchester to endeavor to- raise a new regiment among them to serve
six months longer. Inaction and suffering had greatly demoralized them. There
was so much insubordination among them that Winchester had little confidence in
their strength. Harrison, on the contrary, believed that active service would quick
en them into good soldiers, and did not hesitate to include them in those on whom
he would most rely in his expedition against Maiden. Events justified that faith
and confidence.
Winchester was now satisfied that the pleadings of humanity would speedily sum
mon him to the Raisin. First came rumors that the enemy, exasperated by their
want of success in their recent movements, were preparing at Maiden an expedition
to move upon Frenchtown, on the Raisin, for the purpose of intercepting the expedi
tion from Ohio on its way to Detroit. These rumors were speedily followed by mes
sengers from Frenchtown,a made almost breathless by alarm and rapid « January is,
traveling, bringing intelligence that the Indians whom Williams had scat
tered had passed them on their way to Maiden, uttering threats of a sweeping destruc
tion of the inhabitants and their habitations on the Raisin. Others soon follow-
ed,b deeply agitated by alarm, and, like the first, earnestly pleaded for b January
the shield of military power to avert the impending blow. The troops,
moved by the most generous impulses, were anxious to march instantly to the de
fense of the alarmed people. Harrison, the commander-in-chief, was at Upper San-
dusky,1 sixty-five miles distant, and could not be consulted. Winchester called a
council of officers. The majority advised an immediate march toward the Raisin,
between thirty-five and forty miles distant by the route to be traveled. This decis
ion was approved by Winchester's judgment and humane impulses, and on the morn
ing of the 17th he detailed Colonel Lewis and five hundred and fifty men in that di
rection. A few hours afterward Colonel Allen was sent with one hundred and ten
men. Lewis's instructions were " to attack the enemy, beat them, and take posses
sion of Frenchtown and hold it." These overtook Lewis and his party at Presque
Isle, a point on Maumee Bay a little below, opposite the present city of Toledo, about
twenty miles from the Rapids. There Lewis was told that there were four hundred
British Indians at the Raisin, and that Colonel Elliott was expected with a detach
ment from Maiden to attack Winchester's camp at the Rapids. This information
was sent by express to General Winchester, whose courier was on the point of start
ing with a message to General Harrison, informing him of the movement toward the
Raisin, and suggesting the probable necessity of a co-operating force from the right
wing.
Colonel Lewis remained all night at Presque Isle. The weather was intensely
cold, and strong ice covered Maumee Bay and the shore of Lake Erie. On that glit
tering bridge the Americans moved early and rapidly on the morning of the 18th,
and were within six miles of their destination before they were discovered by the
scouts of the enemy. On the shore of the lake, in snow several inches in depth, the
little army calmly breakfasted, and then marched steadily forward through timber
lands to an open savanna in three lines, so arranged as to fall into battle order in a
moment. The right, composed of the companies of M'Cracken, Bledsoe, and Matson,
i Upper Sandusky, the present capital of Wyandot County, Ohio, is not the place above alluded to. The "Upper
Sandusky" made famous during the Indian wars, and as the rendezvous of Americans in the war of 1812, was at Crane
Town (so called from an eminent chief named Tarhe or Crane), four miles northeast from the court-house in the pres
ent village of Upper Sandusky. After the death of Tarhe in 1818, the Indians transferred their council-house to the
site of the modern Upper Sandusky, gave it its present name, and called the old place Crane Town.
Old Upper Sandusky was a place of much note in the early history of the country. It was a favorite residence of the
Wyandot Indians, and near it Colonel Crawford had a battle with them and was defeated in June, 1T82. Crawford
was murdered by fire and other slow tortures which the savages inflicted on leading prisoners. A full account of
events in this vicinity may be found in Howe's Historical Collections of Ohio.
General Harrison built Fort Ferree, a stockade about fifty rods northeast of the court-house in the present Upper
Sandusky.
352 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Frenchtown and its suffering Inhabitants. Arrival of Winchester's relief Party. Battle and Massacre.
was commanded by Colonel Allen ; the left, led by Major Green, was composed of
the companies of Hamilton, Williams, and Kelley ; and the centre, under Major Madi
son, contained the corps of Captains Hightown, Collier, and Sebrees. The advanced
guard was composed of the companies of Captains Hickman, Glaives, and James, and
were under the command of Captain Ballard, acting as major. The chief of the lit
tle army was Colonel Lewis. '
Frenchtown,1 at the time in question, was a flourishing settlement containing thir
ty-three families, twenty-two of whom resided on the north side of the Raisin. Gar
dens and orchards were attached to their houses, and these were inclosed with heavy
pickets, called " puncheons," made of sapling logs split in two, driven in the ground,
and sometimes sharpened at top. The houses were built of logs of good size, and
furnished with most of the conveniences of domestic life. Two days after the sur
render of Detroit, as we have seen, this place was taken possession of by Colonel
Elliott, who came from Maiden for the purpose with authority from General Brock.
The weapons and horses of the inhabitants were left on parole, and protection to life
and property was promised. The protection was not given, and for a long time the
inhabitants were plundered not only by the Indians, but by Canadians, French, and
British,2 and were kept in a state of almost continual alarm by their threats. In the
autumn two companies of the Essex (Canadian) militia, two hundred in number, un
der Major Reynolds, and about four hundred Indians, led by Round-head and Walk-
in-the-water,3 were stationed there, and these composed the force that confronted
Colonel Lewis when he approached Frenchtown on the 18th of January, 1813, and
formed a line of battle on the south side of the Raisin, within a quarter of a mile of
the village. Lewis's force numbered less than seven hundred men, armed only with
muskets and other light weapons. The enemy had a howitzer4 in position, directed
by bombardier Kitson, of the Royal Artillery.
When within three miles of Frenchtown Colonel Lewis was informed that the ene
my was on the alert and ready to receive him ; and as the Americans approached the
village on the south side, the howitzer of the foe was opened upon the advancing
column, but without effect. Lewis's line of battle was instantly formed, and the
whole detachment moved steadily forward to the river, which was hard frozen, and
in many places very slippery. They crossed it in the face of blazing muskets, and
then the long roll was beaten, and a general charge was executed. The Americans
rushed gallantly up the bank, leaped the garden pickets, dislodged the enemy, and
drove him back toward the forests. Majors Graves and Madison attempted to cap
ture the howitzer, but failed. Meanwhile the allies were retreating in a line inclin-
• O
ing eastward, when they were attacked on their left by Colonel Allen, who pursued
them more than half a mile to the woods. There they made a stand with their
howitzer and small-arms, covered by a chain of inclosed lots and groups of houses,
and having in their rear a thick, brushy wood, full of fallen timber. While in this
position Majors Graves and Madison moved upon the enemy's right, while Allen was
sorely pressing his left. The enemy fell back into the wood, closely pursued, and
the conflict became extremely hot on the right wing of the Americans, where both
whites and Indians were concentrated. The contest lasted from three o'clock until
dark, the enemy all the while slowly retreating over a space of not less than two
miles, gallantly contesting every foot of the ground. The detachments returned to
the village in the evening, and encamped for the night on the ground which the ene-
1 The Raisin, on which Frenchtown was situated, was called Sturgeon River by the Indians, because of the abund
ance of that fish in its waters. It flowed through a fertile and attractive region, and late in the last century a number
of French families settled upon its banks, and engaged in farming, and trading with the Indians. Because of the
abundance of grapes on the borders of the stream they called it Riviere aux Raisins, and on account of the nationality
of the settlers the village was called Frenchtown. It is now Monroe, Michigan.
2 Statement to the author by the Hon. Laurent Durocher, of Monroe (Frenchtown), who was an actor in the scenes
there during the war of 1812. ' a See note 3, page 279.
* A howitz or howitzer is a kind of mortar or short gun, mounted on a carriage, and used for throwing bomb-shells.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 353
Frenchtown to be held. Winchester arrives with Re-enforcements. Position of Troops there.
my had occupied. American officers occupied the same buildings in which the Brit
ish officers had lived. The troops had behaved nobly. There had not been a single
case of delinquency. " This amply supported," as was said, " the double character
of Americans and Kentuckians," and fully vindicated the faith and judgment of Gen
eral Harrison. Twelve of the Americans were killed and fifty-five wounded. Among
the latter was Captain B. W. Ballard,1 who gallantly led the van in the fight ; also
Captains Paschal, Hickman,2 and Richard Matson.3 The loss of the enemy must have
been much greater, for they left fifteen dead in the open field, while the most san
guinary portion of the conflict occurred in the wood. That night the Indians gather
ed their dead and wounded, and, on their retreat toward Maiden, killed some of the
inhabitants and pillaged their houses.
As soon as his little army was safely encamped in the village gardens, behind the
strong " puncheon" pickets, and his wounded men comfortably housed, on the night
of the battle,a Colonel Lewis sent a messenger to General Winchester with a january is,
a brief report of the action and his situation.4 He arrived at Winchester's
camp before dawn, and an express was immediately dispatched to General Harrison
with the tidings.
Lewis called a council of officers in the morning, when it was resolved to hold the
place and wait for re-enforcements from the Rapids. They were not long waiting.
From the moment when intelligence of the affair at Frenchtown was known in Win
chester's camp, the troops were in a perfect ferment. All were eager to press north
ward, not doubting that the victory at the Raisin was the harbinger of continued
success until Detroit and Maiden should be in the possession of the Americans. It
was also apparent that Lewis's detachment was in a critical situation ; for Maiden, the
principal rendezvous of the British and Indians in the Northwest, was only eighteen
miles from Frenchtown, and that every possible method would be instantly put forth
to recover what had been lost, and bar farther progress toward Detroit. Accordingly,
on the evening of the 19th,b General Winchester, accompanied by Colonel
Samuel Wells, of Tippecanoe fame, marched from the Maumee toward
Frenchtown with less than three hundred men, it being unsafe to withdraw more
from the camp at the Rapids. He arrived at Frenchtown at three o'clock in the after
noon of the next day, crossed the river, and encamped the troops in an open field on
the right of Lewis's forces,5 excepting a small detachment under Captain Morris, left
behind as a rear-guard with the baggage. Leaving Colonel Wells in command of the
re-enforcements, after suggesting the propriety of a fortified camp, Winchester, with
his staff, recrossed the Raisin, and established his head-quarters at the house of
Colonel Francis Navarre, on the south side of the river, and more than half a mile
from the American lines.6
1 Captain Bland W. Ballard was a son of Captain Ballard, of Winchester's army. He was acting major at the time
when he was wounded.
2 Hickman led a party of spies under Wayne from December, 1794, until June, 1795.
3 Matson was afterward with Colonel R. M. Johnson in the battle of the Thames.
4 Colonel Lewis's full report to General Winchester was written two days afterward, dated "Camp at Frenchtown,
January 20, 1313, on the River Raisin." The facts in our narrative of the battle were drawn chiefly from this report.
5 It is asserted that Colonel Lewis recommended the encamping of the re-enforcements within the picketed gardens,
there being plenty of room on his left. Wells being of the regular army, precedence gave him the right of Lewis, and
military rule would not allow him to take position on his left. This observance of etiquette proved to be exceedingly
mischievous.
6 The view of Colonel Navarre's house, the head-quarters of Winchester, given on page 354, represents it as it ap
peared in 1813, with a "puncheon" fence in front. General Winchester occupied the room on the left of the entrance-
door. The room was a long one, fronting east (we are looking at the house in a southeast direction), and had a large
fireplace. In this room the Indians who came to trade with Navarre rested and slept. The trees seen on the west
side of the house are still there— venerable pear-trees (originally brought from Normandy), which were planted there
by the early settlers. Those which remain still bear fruit. In 1830 the old Navarre House was altered by the son of
the owner in 1813. He made additions to it, and raised the roof so as to make it two stories in height. Like the original,
the structure of 1830 was a log edifice. When I visited the spot in the autumn of I860, it had undergone another change
The log-house of 1830 had been clap-boarded, and it was then the residence of the rector of the Episcopal church in
Monroe. It stood back a little from Front Street, within the square bordered by Front, Murray, Humphrey, and Wads-
354
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Winchester's Lack of Vigilance.
Warnings of Danger unheeded by Winchester.
Other Officers on the Alert.
WINCHESTERS HEAD-QUARTERS.
According to the testimony of an officer
of the expedition, very little vigilance
was exercised by General Winchester.
Spies were not sent out to reconnoitre,
nor any measures adopted for strength
ening the camp. A large quantity of
fixed ammunition, sent to Winchester's
quarters from the Rapids, was not dis
tributed, although the re-enforcements
had only ten rounds of cartridges each ;
and the urgent recommendation of
Colonel Wells that the quarters of the
commander-in-chief and the principal
officers should be with the troops was
unheeded.1
On the morning of the 21st Winchester
requested Peter Navarre and his four
brothers to go on a" scout toward the mouth of the Detroit River. Peter was still
living when I visited the Maumee Valley in the autumn of 1860, and accompanied
me from Toledo to the Rapids. He was a young man at the time in question, full
of courage and physical strength. He and his brothers complied with Winchester's
request with alacrity. They saw a man, far distant, coming toward them on the ice.
He proved to be Joseph Bordeau, whose daughter Peter afterward married. He had
escaped from Maiden, and was bringing the news that the British would be at the
Raisin, with a large body of Indians, that night. Peter hastened back to Winchester
with this intelligence. Jacques La Salle, a resident of Frenchtown, in the interest of
the British, was present, and asserted, in the most positive language, that it must be
a mistake. Winchester's fears were allayed. Peter was dismissed with a laugh, and
no precautions to insure safety were taken by the general.2 Another scout confirmed
this intelligence during the afternoon. The general was still incredulous. Late in
the evening news came to Lewis's camp that a very large force of British and In
dians, with several pieces of heavy artillery, were at Stony Creek, only a few miles
distant, and would be at Frenchtown before morning. The picket-guard was im
mediately doubled, and word was sent to the commanding general. He did not be
lieve a word of it ; but Colonel Wells, who did believe the first rumor brought by
Bordeau, had meanwhile hastened to the Rapids with Captain Lanham for re-enforce
ments, leaving his detachment in charge of Major M'Clanahan.
When the late evening rumors had been communicated to Winchester, the field
officers remained up, expecting every moment to receiA^e a summons to attend a
council at head-quarters. They were disappointed. The general disbelieved the
alarming rumors ; and before midnight a deep repose rested upon the camp, as if
some trusted power had guaranteed perfect security. The sentinels, as we have ob
served, were well posted, but, owing to the severity of the weather, no pickets were
sent out upon the roads leading to the town. All but the chief officers in Lewis's
camp and some better-informed inhabitants seemed perfectly free from apprehension.
At head-quarters the night was passed by the general and his staff in sweet slumber ;
but just as the reveille was beaten, between four and five o'clock in the morning, and
the drummer-boy was playing the Three Camps, the sharp crack of the sentinels'
worth Streets. I am indebted to the kind courtesy of Mrs. Sarah A. Noble, of Monroe (Frenchtown), Michigan, for the
foregoing facts, and for the above sketch of Winchester's quarters as it appeared in 1813.
1 Major Elijah M'Clanahan to General Harrison, dated " Camp on Carrying River, January 2<5, 1813." Carrying River
was eighteen miles from Winchester's camp, on the Maumee, on the way toward the Raisin.
2 Oral statement of Peter Navarre to the author.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 355
Attack on Frenchtown by Proctor and his Fellow-savages. A terrible Struggle. A Panic and Massacre.
muskets firing an alarm was heard by still dull ears. These were followed im
mediately by a shower of bombshells and canister-shot hurled from several pieces of
ordnance, accompanied by a furious charge of almost invisible British regulars, and
the terrible yells of painted savages. The sounds and missiles fell upon the startled
camp with appall ing suddenness, giving fearful significance to the warnings, and a
terrible fulfillment of the predictions uttered the previous evening. Night had not
yet yielded its gloomy sceptre to Day. The character and number of assailants
were unknown. All was mystery, terrible and profound; and the Americans had
nothing else to do but to oppose force to force, as gallantly as possible, until the rev
elations of daylight should point to strategy, skill, or prowess for safety and vic
tory.
The exposed re-enforcements in the open field were driven in toward Lewis's picket
ed camp, after bravely maintaining a severe conflict for some time. At this moment
General Winchester arrived, and endeavored to rally the retreating troops behind a
" puncheon" fence and second bank of the Raisin, so that they might incline to the
right, and find shelter behind Lewis's camp. His efforts were vain. The British and
their savage allies were pressing too heavily upon the fugitives ; and when at length
a large body of Indians gained their right flank, they were thrown into the greatest
confusion, and fled pell-mell across the river, carrying with them a detachment of one
hundred men which Lewis had sent out for their support. Seeing this, Lewis and
Allen joined Winchester in his attempt to rally the troops behind the houses and
fences on the south side of the Raisin, leaving the camp in the gardens in charge of
Majors Graves and Madison. But all efforts to stop the flight of the soldiers were
vain. The Indians, more fleet than they, had gained their flank, and swarmed in the
woods on the line of their retreat, while those who made their way along a narrow
lane leading from the village to the road from the Rapids were shot down and scalped
by the savages skulking behind the trees and fences. Others, who rushed into the
woods hoping to find shelter there from the fury of the terrible storm, were met at
every turn by the bloody butchers, and scarcely one escaped. Within the space of
a hundred yards, near Plum or Mill Creek, nearly one hundred Kentuckians fell under
the hatchets of hired savages, who snatched the " scalp-locks" from their heads, and
afterward bore them in triumph to Fort Maiden to receive the market price for that
precious article of commerce.1 Death and mutilation met the fugitives on every side,
whether in flight or in submission, and all about that little village the snow was
crimsoned with human blood. On that dreadful morning it was on the part of the
allies of the British a war of extermination.2
1 " Never, dear mother, if I should live a thousand years, can I forget the frightful sight of this morning, when hand
somely-painted Indians came into the fort, some of them carrying half a dozen scalps of my countrymen fastened upon
sticks, and yet covered with blood, and were congratulated by Colonel Proctor for their bravery ! I heard a British
officer, who, I was told, was Lieutenant Colonel St. George, tell another officer, who, I believe, was Colonel Vincent, that
Proctor was a disgrace to the British army— that such encouragements to devils was a blot upon the British character."
— Letter of A. G. Tustin, of Bardstown, Kentucky, to his mother, dated Fort Maiden, January 23, 1813.
2 No rule of civilized warfare was observed. Blood and scalps were the chief objects for which the Indians fought.
They seemed disposed not to take any prisoners. A party of fifteen or twenty, under Lieutenant Garrett, after retreat
ing about a mile, were compelled to surrender, when all but the young commander were killed and scalped. Another
party, of forty men, were more than one half murdered under similar circumstances. Colonel Allen, who had been
wounded in the thigh in the attempt to rally the troops, after abandoning all hope, and escaping about two miles in the
direction of the Maumee, was compelled, by sheer exhaustion, to sit down upon a log. He was observed by an Indian
chief, who, perceiving his rank, promised him his protection if he would surrender without resistance. He did so. At
the same moment two other savages approached with murderous intent, when, with a single blow of his sword, Allen
laid one of them dead upon the ground. His companion instantly shot the colonel dead. "He had the honor," says
M'Afee, " of shooting one of the first and greatest citizens of Kentucky."
John Allen was born in Rockbridge County, Virginia, on the 30th of December, 1772. His father emigrated with him
to Kentucky in 17SO, and settled about a mile and a half below the present town of Danville, in Boyle County. In 1784
the family removed to another part, five miles from Bardstown, and in a school in that then rude village young Allen
received his education. He studied law in Staunton, Virginia, for four years, and commenced its practice in Shelbyville,
Kentucky, in 1795. He was following his profession successfully there when the war broke out in 1812, when he raised
a regiment of riflemen for service under Harrison. He was killed, as we have seen, at the massacre on the River
Raisin, on the 22d of January, 1813, at the age of forty-one years. Allen County, Kentucky, was so named in his
honor.
356 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Winchester made Prisoner. Proctor repulsed. Winchester forced to surrender his Army. Major Madison.
General Winchester and Colonel Lewis were made prisoners by Round-head,1 at a
bridge about three fourths of a mile from the village, stripped of their clothes except
shirt, pantaloons, and boots, and in this plight were taken to the quarters of the British
commander, who proved to be Colonel Proctor, the unworthy successor of the worthy
Brock in the command at Detroit and Amherstburg. He was in Fort Maiden, at the
latter place, when intelligence of Lewis's occupation of Frenchtown reached him, and
he made immediate preparations to drive the Americans back. The British and In
dians expelled from Frenchtown on the 1 8th had fallen back with their howitzer to
Brownstown, where Proctor joined them, on the evening of the 20th, with a detach
ment of the 41st Regiment, one hundred and forty in number, under Lieutenant Col
onel St. George ; the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, under Colonel Vincent ; and a
part of the 10th Veteran Battalion and some seamen. These, with Reynolds's militia
and a party of the Royal Artillery, with three three-pounders and the howitzer already
mentioned, made a white force about five hundred strong. The Indians, under Round
head and Walk-in-the-Water, numbered about six hundred. With these Proctor ad
vanced from Brownstown on the morning of the 21st, and halted at Swan Creek,
twelve miles on the way. There he remained until dusk, when the march was re
sumed. So great was the lack of vigilance on the part of the Americans that Proc
tor's troops and guns were made ready for assault before their presence was positively
known. Then followed the attack just recorded.
While the right wing of Lewis's army and Winchester's re-enforcements were suf
fering destruction, the left and centre, under Majors Graves and Madison, were nobly
defending themselves in the garden picketed camp. They maintained their position
manfully against the powerful assault of the enemy. The British had planted their
howitzer within two hundred yards of the camp (and eastward of it), behind a small
house about forty rods from the river, upon the road to Detroit. It was a formidable
assailant, but it was soon silenced by the Kentucky sharp-shooters behind the pickets,
who first killed the horse and driver of the sleigh that conveyed ammunition, and
then picked off thirteen of the sixteen men in charge of the gun. It was soon drawn
back so far that its shot had no effect on the " puncheon ;" and at ten o'clock, perceiv
ing all efforts of his white troops to dislodge the Americans to be fruitless, Proctor
withdrew his forces to the woods, with the intention of either abandoning the contest,
or awaiting the return of his savage allies, who were having their feast of blood
beyond the Raisin. When the assailants withdrew, the Americans quietly break
fasted.
While the troops were eating, a white flag was seen approaching from the British
line. Major Madison, believing it to be a token of truce while the British might bury
their dead, went out to meet it. It was borne by Major Overton, one of General Win
chester's staff, who was accompanied by Colonel Proctor. He brought an order from
General Winchester directing the unconditional surrender of all the troops as prisoners
of war. This was the first intelligence received by the gallant left wing that their
chief was a captive. Proctor had dishonorably taken advantage of his situation to
extort that order from him. He assured Winchester that as soon as the Indians, fresh
from the massacre from which he had escaped, should join his camp, the remainder
of the Americans would be easily captured, concealing from him the fact that they
had already driven the British back to the woods. He represented to the general
that, in such an event, " nothing would save the Americans from an indiscriminate
massacre by the Indians." Totally ignorant of the condition of the remnant of his
little army, and horrified by the butchery of which he had just been a witness, Win
chester yielded, and sent Major Overton with the orders just mentioned.
Madison, surprised and mortified, refused to obey the order except on conditions.
1 See page 291. It was with great difficulty that. Proctor persuaded Round-head to release his prisoner, or to give up
the military suit he had stripped from him.
OF THE WAR 0 F 1 8 1 2. 357
Proctor quails before a true Man. His Perfidy, Cowardice, and Inhumanity. A fearful Night at Freuchtown.
" It has been customary for the Indians," he observed, " to massacre the wounded and
prisoners after a surrender ; I shall therefore not agree to any capitulation which Gen
eral Winchester may direct, unless the safety and protection of all the prisoners shall
be stipulated." The haughty Proctor stamped his foot, and said, with a supercilious
air, " Sir, do you mean to dictate to me /" " I mean to dictate for myself," Madison
replied, with firmness. " We prefer selling our lives as dearly as possible rather than
be massacred in cold blood." Proctor, who was scorned by Brock for his jealousy
and innate meanness, and is remembered with dislike by the Canadians, who knew
him as innately cruel and cowardly,1 quailed before the honest, manly bravery of
Madison, and solemnly agreed that all private property should be respected ; that
sleds should be sent the next morning to remove the sick and wounded to Amherst-
burg ; that the disabled should be protected by a proper guard ; and that the side-
arms of the officers should be returned when the captives should reach Maiden.
Proctor refused to commit these conditions to writing, but pledged his honor as a
soldier and a gentleman that they should be observed. Madison was ignorant of
Proctor's poverty in all that constituted a soldier and man of honor, and trusted to
his promises. On the conditions named, he and his officers agreed to surrender them
selves and their men prisoners of war.
Before the surrender was fairly completed the Indians began to plunder, when
Major Madison ordered his men to resist them, even with ball and bayonet. The
cowardly savages quailed before the courage of the white captives, and none of the
prisoners were again molested by them while on their way to Maiden. Quite differ
ent was the fate of the poor wounded men who were left behind. Having secured
his object, Proctor violated his word of honor, and left them exposed to savage cruelty.
Rumors came that Harrison was approaching, and the British commander, more intent
on securing personal safety than the fulfillment of solemn promises, left for Maiden
with most of his savage allies, within an hour after the surrender, leaving as a "guard",
only Major Reynolds and two or three interpreters. Proctor did not even name a
guard, nor spoke of conveyances for the wounded after leaving Frenchtown ; and
when both Winchester and Madison reminded him of his promises and the peril of
the wounded, he refused to hear them. It is evident that from the first that inhuman
officer intended to abandon the wounded prisoners to their fate. Among them was
Captain Hart, brother-in-law of Henry Clay, and inspector general of the Army of
the Northwest. He was anxious to accompany the prisoners to Maiden, but Captain
Elliott, son of the notorious Colonel Elliott, who had known Hart intimately in Ken
tucky, assured him of perfect safety at Frenchtown, and promised to send his own
conveyance for him the next morning. Elliott assured all the wounded that they
need not apprehend danger, and that sleds from Maiden would come for them in the
morning.
The wounded were taken into the houses of the kind-hearted villagers, and cared
for by Drs. Todd and Bowers, of the Kentucky Volunteers, who were left behind for
the purpose. In every mind there was an indefinable dread when Proctor and his
motley crew departed; and when it was known that he had promised his savage
allies a " frolic" at Stony Creek, only about six miles from the Raisin, not only the
wounded soldiers, but the villagers, and Major Reynolds himself, felt a thrill of horror,,
for there could be no doubt that the drunken Indians, after their debauch, would re
turn to Frenchtown to glut their appetites for blood and plunder. Even those who
remained went from house to house, after Proctor's departure, in search of plunder.
The night following the battle was a fearful one at Frenchtown. .January 23,
Day dawned with hope, but the sun at his risinga found the inhabitants
1 Tecumtha, as we shall observe hereafter, regarded Proctor as a coward, and by threats compelled him to make a
stand on the Thames; and the venerable Robert Reynolds, of Amherstburg, and other survivors of the British army in
Canada with whom I have conversed, spoke of him with contempt as a boasting coward.
358
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Massacre and Scalping of wounded Prisoners allowed by Proctor.
Incidents of the horrible Event.
and prisoners in despair. Instead of the promised sleds from Maiden, about two hund
red half-drunken savages, with their faces painted red and black in token of their
fiendish purposes, came into
the village. The chiefs held a
brief council, and determined
to kill and scalp all the wound
ed who were unable to travel,
in revenge for the many com
rades they had lost in the fight.
This decision was announced by
horrid yells, and the savages
went out upon their bloody
errand. They first plundered
the village; then they broke
into the houses where the
wounded lay, stripped them
of every thing, and then toma
hawked and scalped them. The
houses of Jean B. Jereaume and
Gabriel Godfrey, that stood
near the present dwelling of
Matthew Gibson, sheltered a
large number of prisoners. In
the cellar of Jereaume' s house
was stored a large quantity of
whisky. This the savages took
in sufficient quantities to mad
den them, when they set both
dwellings on fire. A number of
the wounded, unable to move,
were consumed. Others, at
tempting to escape by the doors
and windows, were tomahawk
ed and scalped. Others, out
side, were scalped and cast into
the flames, and the remainder,
who could walk, were marched
off toward Maiden. When any
of them sank from exhaustion,
they were killed and scalped.
Doctor Todd, who had been tied and carried to Stony Creek, informed Elliott of
what was going on at the Raisin, and begged him to send conveyances for the
wounded, especially for Captain Hart ; but that young officer coolly replied, " Charity
begins at home ; my own wounded must be carried to Maiden first." He well knew
that an hour more would be too late for rescue.2
Major Graves was never heard of after the Maumee. Captain Hickman was mur
dered in Jereaume's house. Captain Hart was removed from that house by Doctor
1 This is from a sketch sent to Colonel William H. Winder by Lieutenant Colonel Boerstler, in a letter dated " Buffalo,
17th February, 1813. I send you," he says, " a hasty sketch of the situation of the troops at Frenchtown." He obtained
it from some subordinate officer among the prisoners from the Raisin, who were paroled, and passed through Buffalo.
He says, "The prisoners have passed through to the number of four hundred and sixty-two. The general and field
officers are not yet sent across." — Autograph Letter.
2 Elliott had been in Lexington, where he was very ill of fever for a long time in the family of Colonel Thomas Hart,
the father of Captain Hart. During that illness he had received many attentions from the young man whom he now
basely deserted in his hour of greatest need.
MOVEMENTS AT FKENOHTOWN.1
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
359
The Death of Captain Hart.
Sketch of his Life.
The British ashamed to call the Indians their Allies.
Todd, before the massacre was commenced, to the dwelling of Jacques Navarre, about
a mile up the river (now the Wads worth brick house), under the charge of a friendly
Pottawatomie chief. Hart offered him one hundred dollars to convey him in safety
to Maiden. The chief attempted it. Hart was placed on a horse, and when passing
through the village, near the house of Franyois La Salle1 (who was suspected of com
plicity with the British), a Wyandot
savage came out, and claimed the cap
tain as his prisoner. A dispute arose, and
they finally settled it by agreeing to kill
the prisoner, and dividing his money and
clothes between them. So says the most
reliable recorded history.2 Local tradi
tion declares that the Pottawatomie at
tempted to defend Captain Hart when
the Wyandot shot and scalped him.
There are many versions of the tragedy.
He was buried near the place of his
murder, but the exact spot is not known.
Proctor arrived with his prisoners at
Amherstburg on the morning of the 23d
of January, and on the 26th proceeded
to Sandwich and Detroit.3 Some of
them were sent to Detroit, and others were forwarded to Fort George, on the Niagara,
by way of the Thames. These suffered much from the severity of the weather and
bad treatment of their guards. At Fort George they were mostly paroled, on con
dition that they should not " bear arms against his majesty or his allies during the
war, or until exchanged." " Who are his majesty's allies ?" inquired Major Madison.
The officer addressed, doubtless ashamed to own the disgrace in words, said, " His
majesty's allies are known." General Winchester, Colonel Lewis,4 and Major Madi
son,5 were sent to Quebec, and at Beauport, near that city, they were confined until
the spring of 1814, when a general exchange of prisoners took place.
EE81DESCE OF LA SALLE.
1 I am indebted to Mrs. Sarah A. Noble for this sketch of La Salle's house, as it appeared at the time. It stood in
front of the ford, was built of logs, and between it and the river was a "puncheon" fence. The " Laselle Farm" was
known some time as the " Humphrey Farm." It is now [1S67] the property of the Honorable D. A. Noble.
2 Nathaniel G. T. Hart was a son of Colonel Thomas Hart, who emigrated to Kentucky from Maryland, and settled
in Lexington. Captain Hart was born at Hagerstown, in Maryland. One of his sisters married Henry Clay, another
married James Brown, long the United States minister at the French Court. Hart was making a fortune in mercantile
pursuits when the war of 1S12 broke out, when (at the age of about twenty-seven years) he was in command of the
Lexington Light Infantry, a company which was organized by General James Wilkinson, who was its first captain, in
17ST. Under its fourth captain (Beatty) it was with Wayne in the campaign of 1794. Hart was its seventh captain, and
was at the head of it in the expedition to the Raisin. When I visited Lexington in April, 1861, 1 called on the then
commander of the company, Captain Samuel D. M'Cullough, who showed me the crimson silk sash of Captain Hart in
his possession, which was torn and had blood-stains upon it. Cassius M. Clay, now [1S67] American minister to the
Court of St. Petersburg, commanded this company in the United States army in Mexico. In the battle of Buena Vista
its flag was the regimental color of the Kentucky cavalry. On the 18th of January, 1861, a flag was presented to this
company (now called the "Lexington Old Infantry") at the Odd Fellows Hall in Lexington, by General Leslie Combs,
in behalf of the donor, David A. Sayre. On that occasion the United States band from the barracks at Newport, Ken
tucky, performed the musical part of the ceremonies. The Star-spangled Bamur was sung, and the roll of all the captains,
from 1789 to 1SG1, was called. The only survivors of the company when Hart was captain, who were present, were,
Thomas Smith, of Louisville ; Lawrence Daly, of Fayette County ; and Judge Levi L. Todd, of Indianapolis. The latter,
who was Hart's successor as captain, gave the opening address.
3 A few days after the massacre at the Raisin Proctor ordered all the inhabitants there to leave their houses and
move to Detroit. It was mid-winter and severely cold. The snow was very deep, and they suffered dreadfully. Some
conveyances were sent down from Detroit for them. For a while Frenchtown was a desolation, and the remains of the
massacred were unburied.
4 William Lewis was in Gaither's battalion at St. Clare's defeat in 1791. He was then captain, and was appointed to
the same position in the 3d Regiment of Infantry the following year. He resigned in 1797. In August, 1S12, he was com
missioned Lieutenant Colonel of Kentucky Volunteers, and, as we have seen, behaved gallantly at Frenchtown. He
was a native of Virginia. His death occurred near Little Rock, Arkansas, on the 17th of January, 1S25.
5 George Madison was a native of Virginia, where he was born in 1763. He was a soldier in the Revolution, although
he was only a lad of twelve years when it broke out. He was with General Clarke in the Northwest, and was at the
head of a company in St. Clair's defeat in 1791, where he was wounded. He was also wounded in an attack by the In-
360 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
War-cry of the Kentuckians. Honor conferred on Proctor. Shamefulness of the Act. " Guardians of Civilization."
The loss of the Americans in the affair at the Raisin was nine hundred and thirty-
four. Of these, one hundred and ninety-seven were killed and missing ; the remainder
were made prisoners. Of the whole army of about a thousand men, only thirty-three
escaped. The loss of the British, according to Proctor's report, was twenty-four
killed, and one hundred and fifty-eight wounded. The loss of their Indian allies is
not known. The event was a terrible blow to Kentucky. It caused mourning in al
most every family. The first shock of grief was succeeded by intense exasperation,
and the war-cry of Kentucky soldiers after that was, Remember the River Raisin !
•January 20, At Sandwich Proctor wrote his dispatch1 to Sir George Prevost, the
commander-in-chief in Canada, giving an account of his expedition to
Frenchtown, and highly commending the conduct of his savage allies.1 His private
representations were such that the evidently deceived Assembly of Lower Canada
passed a vote of thanks to him and his men, and the equally duped Sir George
promoted him to the rank of brigadier general " until the pleasure of the Prince Re
gent should be known."2 That "pleasure" was to confirm the appointment, and there
by the British government indorsed his conduct.
I visited Frenchtown (now Monroe), in Michigan, early in October, 1860. I went
down from Detroit by railway early in the morning, after a night of tempest — min
gled lightning, wind, and rain. The air was cool and pure, and the firmament was
overhung with beautiful cloud-pictures. I bore a letter of introduction to the Honor
able D. S. Bacon, a resident of the place for almost forty years, who kindly spent the
day with me in visiting persons and places of interest on that memorable spot.
Crossing the bridge to the north side of the stream, we passed doAvn Water Street
toward the site of La Salle's, the camp of Colonel Lewis, and other places connected
with the battle and massacre already described. We met the venerable Judge Du-
dians in the camp of Major John Adair the following year. For more than twenty years he was auditor of public ac
counts in Kentucky. When Kentucky was asked for troops in 1812 he took the field. He was kept a prisoner at Quebec
for some time. In 1816 he was nominated for the office of governor of Kentucky. He was so beloved and popular that
his opponent withdrew in the heat of the canvass, declaring that nobody could resist that popularity. He was elected,
but died on the 14th of October the same year.
1 "The zeal and courage of the Indian Department," he said, "were never more conspicuous than on this occasion,
and the Indian warriors. fought with their usual bravery."
2 It seems hardly possible that the Canadian Assembly or Sir George Prevost could have known the facts of the hor
rors of Frenchtown, and Proctor's inhuman abandonment of the prisoners, or they would have punished rather than
rewarded the commander on that occasion. Sir George, in his general order announcing the promotion of Proctor, ac
tually said, " On this occasion the gallantry of Colonel Proctor was most nobly displayed in his humane and unwearied
exertions, which succeeded in rescuing the vanquished from the revenge of the Indian warriors .'"
British writers, unable to offer the shadow of an excuse for Proctor's conduct, either avoid all mention of the massa
cre, or endeavor to shield him from the scourge of just criticism by affecting to disbelieve the fact that he agreed to
give protection to the wounded, or accepted the surrender on any conditions whatever. " Indeed," says James, with
an air of triumph in discussion, "General Winchester was not in a condition to dictate terms," because he was "strip
ped to his shirt and trowsers, and suffering exceedingly from the cold."— Account of the Military Occurrences of the Late
War, etc., i., 188. But the testimony of eye and ear witnesses to the fact are too abundant for any honest-minded man
to doubt. Before all his men, in the presence of Colonel Proctor, not twenty rods from the house of Francois Lasalle,
Major Madison declared the conditions that had been agreed upon. The late Judge Durocher, who was present, in
formed me that he heard these conditions announced, and that Proctor assented to them by his silence. This is in con
firmation of Winchester's statement in his report, written at Maiden on the 23d of January, the day after the surrender.
It gives the writer no pleasure to record the cruelties of savages and the unchristian conduct of British commanders
who employed them. He would prefer to bury the knowledge of these things in oblivion, and let the animosities which
they engender die with the generation of men who were actors in the scenes ; but when a Pharisee, affecting to be the
"guardian of civilization," preaches censorious homilies to an equal in virtue and dignity, it is sometimes a wholesome
service to prick the bubble of his pride with the bodkin of just exposure. When the British government, in its pride
or blindness, lectures that of the United States on lust for power, barbarity in warfare, and kindred subjects, as it did
during the late civil war in the United States, an occasional lifting of the veil from the records of the censor's own
shortcomings may be productive of a wholesome humility and a practical desire for reform. Posterity will point the
finger of scorn toward the conduct of the government of that empire, and the journalists and publicists in its interest,
during the trials of the government and loyal people of the United States in their late struggles against foul conspiracy
and frightful rebellion, as unworthy of an enlightened and Christian nation. That conduct— the manifestation of the
intense selfishness of the aristocracy of rank and wealth which have ever ruled England— will always appear darkly in '
the history of nations as a crime against humanity, and a libel upon the character of the overwhelming majority of the
English people. The employment of bloody savages to butcher their relatives in America ; the demoniac treatment of
captive Sepoys in India; the encouragement of frightful atrocities in China, and the open sympathy with conspirators
against a beneficent government for the avowed purpose of establishing a despotism whose corner-stone should be
HUMAN SLAVERY, should forever close the lips of the English government when it attempts to lecture others ou human
ity, or claims to be, par excellence, the "guardian of civilization."
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
361
Visit to the Raisin.
The historical Localities there.
Survivors of the War.
rocher, already mentioned in the narrative as one of the actors in the scenes there —
a short, dark-complexioned man of French descent — who pointed out the spot, in an
open lot between Water Street and the river, not far from where we were standing,
a little westward of La Salle's house, where Captain Hart was murdered by the In
dians. Promising me another and longer interview at his office, we left Judge Du-
rocher, and passed on to the site of La Salle's dwelling, then the property of Hon. D.
S. Noble, delineated on page 359, apart of which yet remains, with a pear-tree plant
ed there during the last century. Not far below this we came to the railway and
the common road leading from the Raisin to Detroit. On the corner of the latter,
not far from the site of the houses of Godfrey and Jereaume, where the wounded
were burned and massacred, was a large brick house, the residence of Matthew Gib
son. Very near it, in an orchard, might be seen the remains of the cellars of those
buildings. From that point, around which the battle was fought, and near which the
MOSEOE, FROM THE BATTLE-GEOtTNl).
Americans were driven across the Raisin just before the massacre on the south side
of the stream, I made the above sketch (looking westward) of the river, the railway
bridge, and the distant town. Gibson's house is seen in the foreground, on the right ;
the railway bridge, on four piers in the water, with the town beyond it, is seen in
the centre ; and by the distant trees, seen immediately beyond the point on the left,
is indicated the spot near which Winchester was captured. Returning to the village,
I called upon Judge Durocher, who, in the course of a pleasant interview of an hour,
gave me many items of information concerning the events we have been considering.
' He spoke of Winchester as a " fussy man," quite heavy in person, and illy fitted for
the peculiar service in which he was engaged. He also assured me that after the de
feat of the Americans at Frenchtown, Proctor endeavored to persuade the Indians to
destroy the French settlements there, because he believed the inhabitants to be favor
able to the United States. It was even proposed to the Indians in council, and an
other cold-blooded massacre, not by the permission, but at the instigation of Proctor,
was only prevented by the firmness of the friendship which the Pottawatomies bore
to the inhabitants on the Raisin. Judge Durocher was seventy-four years of age
when I visited him. A little less than a year afterward he was borne to the grave.1
1 Laurent Durocher was the son of a French Canadian, and was born at St. Genevieve Mission, in Missouri, in 1786.
His father died when he was young, and his uncle sent him to a college in Montreal to be educated. At the close of his
362 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The valiant James Knaggs. His public Career. His Relations with the Indians.
Our next visit was to the head-quarters of Winchester, delineated on page 354,
which was occupied by the rector of the Protestant Episcopal church in Monroe. It
was too unlike the original to claim the service of the pencil, and we proceeded to
the house of James Knaggs, one of the oldest inhabitants of that region, and a re
markable character, who, as an Indian fighter and volunteer soldier, performed good
service during the war of 1812. He had just returned from some toil at a distance,
and, octogenarian as he was, he seemed vigorous in mind and body. He was a stout-
built man, about eighty years of age. His birth-place was at Roche de Bout, on the
Maumee, a little above the present village of Waterville. His father was an English
man, and his mother a Mohawk Valley Dutch woman.1 From early life he was fa
miliar with the Indians and the woods. He had been a witness of the treachery and
cruelty of the savages, and his family had suffered severely at their hands. When
speaking of the Indians and his personal contests with them, his vengeful feelings
could hardly be repressed, and he talked with almost savage delight of the manner
in which he had disposed of some of them.2
Soon after Wayne's campaign Knaggs settled at Frenchtown, and became a farmer.
In 1811 he established a regular ferry at the Huron River, on the road to Detroit,
with only Indians as companions and neighbors. These, excited against all Ameri
cans by British emissaries, Avere very troublesome, and Knaggs had frequent conflicts
with them in some form. When Hull Avas on his Avay toward Detroit, Knaggs joined
the army as a private in Captain Lee's company of dragoons — " River Raisin men
the best troops in the world," as Harrison said3 — and became very expert and efficient
in the spy, scout, or ranger service. He was engaged in the various conflicts near
the Detroit River, already described, and in 1813 was in the battle of the Thames,
under Colonel Richard M. Johnson. While Avith Hull at SandAvich, attached to Col
onel M' Arthur's regiment, he performed important scout serAdce. On one occasion,
accompanied by four men. he penetrated the country as far as the site of the present
village of Chatham, on the Thames, and there captured a Colonel M'Gregor, a burly
British officer, and a Jew named Jacobs, and carried them to Hull's camp. He tied
M'Gregor to a horse, and thus took him to the head-quarters of his chief. After the
surrender M'Gregor offered five hundred dollars for the capture of Knaggs, dead
or aliATe. The Indians were constantly on the watch for him, and he had many
studies, in 1805, he settled at Frenchtown. At the beginning of the war of 1812, he, with other young Frenchmen of that
region, joined the army of General icau commander with several im-
Hull for a year. They were at the - s* N portant trusts. When, in 1818,
Raisin when Hull surrendered, and M j D /f Monroe County was organized,
gave themselves up to Captain El- _^^ ^\ — x^/2. ^.^ Durocher was chosen its clerk. He
liott. During the remainder of the OCfitM/t&vVf O&6t/Z£&r24/ts' held that office for about twenty
war he was charged by the Amer- years. He was for six years a
member of the Territorial Council of Michigan, and in 1835 was a member of the Convention that framed the state Con
stitution. He was a member of the state Legislature, a justice of the peace, judge of probate, and circuit judge, and at
the time of his death, on the 21st of September, 1SG1, was clerk of the city of Monroe. The funeral services at the time
of his burial were held in St. Anne's Catholic church of Monroe, where Father Joos officiated.
1 Knaggs's mother lived at or near Freuchtown at the time of the battle there, and was one of those whom Proctor
ordered to Detroit. She was then eighty years of age. Thinly clad (having been robbed by the Indians), she proceeded
in an open traineau, and reached Detroit in safety. When asked how it happened that she did not perish, she replied,
" My spunk kept me warm."
2 On one occasion, as he informed me, while he kept the ferry on the Huron, he flogged a troublesome Indian very
severely. That night a brother of the savage came to Knaggs's cabin at a late hour to avenge the insult. Hearing a
summons, but not knowing the visitor, Knaggs went out, when the gleam of a knife-blade in the starlight warned
him of danger. He ran to a spot where he had a large club, pursued by a savage, who, in striking at him with his knife,
cut off the skirt of the only garment that Knaggs had on. The latter seized the club, turned upon his assailant, felled
him to the ground, and beat him until every bone in his body was broken. Although nearly fifty years had elapsed
since the occurrence, Mr. Knaggs became much excited while relating it.
3 I am indebted to Mr. Lyon, of Detroit, for the following copy of the first muster-roll of the "Raisin men," under
Cornet Isaac Lee :
Cornet, Isaac Lee. Serrieant, James Bentley. Corporal, John Ruland. Privates, James Knaggs, Louis Dronillard,
Orrin Rhodes, Michael M'Dermot, Scott Rolle, Samuel Dibble, Robert Glass, Cyrus Hunter, James Rolle, Silas Lewis,
Samuel Youngs, John Murphy, Thomas Noble, Francis Moffatt, Daniel Hull, John Reddull, John Creamer.
From October, 1813, to April, 1814, Captain Lee commanded a large company of dragoons. His lieutenants were
George Johnson and John Ruland. The late Judge Laurent Durocher was cornet. Johnson was a very brave officer,
and in the battle of Maguaga he actually commanded Smyth's dragoons.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
363
The patriotic Knaggs Family.
Harrison unjustly censured.
His Efforts to relieve Winchester at the Raisin.
narrow escapes. This made him feel bit
terly toward them.
At the battle of the Thames, Knaggs
identified the body of Tecumtha, it is said,
he having been long acquainted with the
great Shawnoe. He was absent in Ohio
on his parole when the battle of the Raisin
occurred. He was the youngest of five
brothers, all of whom were active in mili
tary service. His four brothers served
as spies with Captain Wells, who was
killed at Chicago. One of them was
captured in the war of 1812, and carried
a prisoner to Halifax. They were all men
of strong convictions, and each, until the
day of his death, hated both the British
and their Indian allies, for they had all
suffered at their hands.
Mr. Knaggs seemed in fine
health and spirits \vhen I
visited him ; but, a little more
than three months afterward,
he died suddenly. His death
occurred on the 23d of De
cember, I860.1
I returned to Detroit by the evening train, filled with reflections concerning the
events of the day, and those which made the Raisin terribly conspicuous in the annals
of the war. I remembered that some of the newspapers of the day censured Harri
son for not promptly supporting Winchester ; and that in the political campaign of
1840, when Harrison was elected President of the United States, his enemies cited
his alleged shortcomings on this occasion as evidence that his military genius and
services, on which his fame mostly rested, were myths. But contemporary history,
and the well-settled convictions of his surviving companions in arms whom I met in
the Northwest, as well as the gallant engineer, Colonel Wood, who afterward fell at
Fort Erie,2 fully acquit General Harrison of all blame or lack of soldierly qualities
on that occasion. It was not until the night of the 16th that he was informed by a
messenger that General Winchester had arrived at the Rapids, and meditated a for
ward movement. The latter intimation alarmed Harrison, and he made every exer
tion to push troops forward from Upper Sandusky, where he was then quartered,
sixty miles from the Rapids by way of the Portage River, and seventy-six miles by
Lower Sandusky. He immediately ordered his artillery to advance by way of the
Portage, with an escort of three hundred men, under Major Orr, with provisions ; and
he pressed forward himself, as speedily as possible, by the way of Lower Sandusky,
where one regiment and a battalion were stationed, under the command of General
Perkins. This battalion was ordered to march immediately, under Major Cotgrove,
and Harrison determined to follow it the next morning. He was just rising from his
1 I am indebted to Mr. William H. Bowlsby, a photographer in Monroe, for the likeness of Mr. Knaggs. It was taken
from life by that gentleman. The signature was written in my note-book by Mr. Knaggs when I visited him.
2 Lieutenant Colonel'Wood, then Harrison's chief engineer, with the rank of captain, afterward said, " What human
means within the control of General Harrison could prevent the anticipated disaster, and save that corps which was al
ready looked upon as lost, as doomed to inevitable destruction ? Certainly none, because neither orders to halt nor
troops to succor him [Winchester] could be received in time, or at least that was the expectation. He was already in
motion, and General Harrison still at Upper Sandusky, seventy miles in his rear. The weather was inclement, the snow
was deep, and a large portion of the Black Swamp was yet open. What would a Turenue or a Eugene have done,
under such a pressure of embarrassing circumstances, more than Harrison did ?"
364 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Harrison at the Maumee Rapids. He assists the Fugitives from the Raisin. His Army at the Maumee Rapids.
bed when a messenger came with the tidings of the advance of Lewis upon French-
town. Perkins was immediately ordered to pi-ess forward to the Rapids the remain
ing troops under his command. After hastily breakfasting, he and Perkins proceeded
in a sleigh. They were met on the way by an express with intelligence of Lewis's
victory at the Raisin. This nerved Harrison to greater exertions. He pushed for
ward alone and on horseback, through the swamps filled with snow, in daylight and
in darkness, and, after almost superhuman efforts, he reached the Rapids early on the
morning of the 20th. Winchester had departed for the Raisin the previous evening,
and Harrison could do nothing better than wait for his oncoming troops, under Perkins
and Cotgrove, and the artillery by the Portage. What remained at the Rapids of
Winchester's army, under Colonel Payne, were sent forward toward the Raisin, and
Captain Hart, the inspector general, was sent to inform Winchester of the supporting
movements in his rear.
Alas ! the roads were so almost impassable that the troops moved very slowly.
After the utmost exertions they were too late. News came to Harrison, at ten
o'clock on the morning of the 22d, of the attack of the British and Indians on the
Americans at Frenchtown. The fraction of Perkins's brigade which had arrived at
the Rapids was sent forward, and Harrison himself hastened toward the Raisin. He
met the affrighted fugitives, who told doleful stories of the scenes of the morning,
and assured the commander that tKe British and Indians were in pursuit of the
broken army of Winchester toward the Rapids. This intelligence spurred on the
re-enforcements. Other fugitives were soon met, who declared that the defeat of
Winchester was total and irretrievable, and that no aid in Harrison's power could
win back the victory of the enemy. A council of officers was held at Harrison's
head-quarters in the saddle, when it was decided that a farther advance would be
useless and imprudent. A few active men were sent forward to assist the fugitives
in escaping, while the main body returned to the Rapids. There another council was
held, which resulted in an order for the troops, numbering not more than nine hund
red men, to fall back to the Portage (about eighteen miles), establish there a forti
fied camp, wait for the arrival of the artillery and accompanying troops, and then to
push forward to the Rapids again.
The latter movement was delayed on account of heavy rains. On the 30th of Jan
uary Colonel Leftwitch arrived with his brigade, a regiment of Pennsylvania troops,
and a greater part of the artillery, and on the 1st of February General Harrison
moved toward the Rapids with seventeen hundred men. He took post on the right
bank of the river, upon high and commanding ground, at the foot of the Rapids, and
there established a foi'tified camp, to which was afterward given, in honor of the gov
ernor of Ohio, the name of Fort Meigs. All the troops that could be spared from
other posts were ordered there, with the design of pressing on toward Maiden before
the middle of February ; but circumstances caused delay, and the Army of the North
west tarried for some time on the bank of the Maumee before opening the campaign
of 1813 in that region.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
305
Events on the Northern Frontier.
First warlike Measures there.
Enforcement of the Revenue Laws.
CHAPTER
' Oh ! now the time has come, my boys, to cross the Yankee line,
We remember they were rebels once, and conquered John Burgoyne ;
We'll subdue those mighty Democrats, and pull their dwellings down,
And we'll have the States inhabited with subjects to the crown."
SONG — THE NOBLE LADS OF CANADA.
N preceding chapters the military events in the Northwest,
where the war was first commenced in earnest, have been con
sidered in a group, as forming a distinct episode in the history.
By such grouping, in proper order, the reader may obtain a
comprehensive view of the entire campaign of 1812 in that re
gion, which ended with the establishment of General Harrison's
head-quarters on the banks of the Maumee early in February,
1813.
We will now consider the next series of events, in the order of time, in the cam
paign of 1812, which occurred on the Northern frontier, from Lake Erie to the River
St. Lawrence. The movements in the Northwest already recorded claim precedence,
in point of time, over those on the Northern frontier of only seven days, Hull having
initiated the former by the invasion of Canada on the 12th of July, and a squadron
of British vessels having opened the latter by an attack on Sackett's Harbor on the
1 9th of the same month. The parties in these movements, between the scenes of
which lay an almost unbroken wilderness of wood and water of several hundred
miles, were absolutely independent of each other in immediate impulse and action.
When war was declared the United States possessed small means on the north
ern frontier for offensive or defensive operations. The first warlike measure was
the construction, at Oswego, on Lake Ontario, of the brig Oneida, by Christian Berg
and Henry Eckford, under the direction of Lieutenant Melancthon Woolsey, of the
United States Navy. She was commenced in 1808, and was launched early in 1809.
She was intended chiefly for employment in the enforcement of the revenue laws
on the frontier, under the early embargo acts. For a similar purpose, a company
of infantry and some artillery were posted at Sackett's Harbor, at the eastern end
of Lake Ontario,1 in 1808; and in March, 1809, militia detachments were stationed
on the southern shores of the St. Lawrence, opposite Kingston, to prevent smug
gling. This duty gave rise to many stirring scenes on the frontier in the violation
and vindication of the revenue laws, which were generally evaded or openly defied
until the spring of 1812, when a more stringent embargo act was passed.a "April 4,
The Legislature of the State of New York, as vigilant as the national 1S12-
government, took measures early for enforcing the laws on the Canada frontier of
that commonwealth. In February, 1808, the governor ordered five hundred stand of
arms to be deposited at Champion, in the present county of Jefferson ; and the fol
lowing year an arsenal was built at Watertown,2 on the Black River, twelve miles
1 The Indians gave this an almost unpronounceable and interminable name, which signified "Fort at the mouth of
Great River." It received its name from Augustus Sackett, the first settler. It was constituted an election district in
1S05, and in 1S14 it was incorporated a village. During the war of 1812 it was the chief military post on the Northern
frontier. Millions of dollars have been expended there for fortifications and war vessels, yet prosperity as a village
seems not to have been its lot. It contains less than one thousand inhabitants.
2 The engraving of the Arsenal Building on the following pace is from a sketch made by the writer in 1S55. It was
erected at a cost of about two thousand dollars. It is still [1S6T] standing, on the south side of Arsenal (formerly Co
lumbia) Street, between Benedict and Madison Streets. It was maintained by the state as an arsenal until 1S50, when
it was sold. .
366
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
ARSENAL BUILDING, WATKKTOWN.
War Materials at Watertown. The Militia there in Command of General Brown. The detached Militia of the State.
eastward of Sackett's Harbor, under the di
rection of Hart Massey,1 where arms, fixed
ammunition, accoutrements, and other war
supplies were speedily gathered for use on
the Northern frontier. In May, 1812, a reg
iment of militia, under Colonel Christopher
P. Bellinger, was stationed at Sackett's Har
bor, a part of which was kept on duty at
Cape Vincent. Jacob Brown, an enterpris
ing farmer from Pennsylvania, who had set
tled on the borders of the Black River about
four miles from WatertOAvn, and had been
appointed a brigadier general of militia in
1811, was then in command of the first de
tachment of New York's quota of the one hundred thousand militia which the Presi-
» April 10, dent was authorized to call out by act of Congress. a When war was de-
812' clared he was charged with the defense of the frontier from Oswego to Lake
St. Francis, a distance of two hundred miles.2
1 Mr. Massey was one of the earlier settlers of Watertown. The first religious meeting there was held in his house.
He was collector of the port of Sackett's Harbor at the time in question, and held that office all through what was call
ed " Embargo times" and the War. He died at Watertown in March, 1853, at the age of eighty-two years.
2 By a General Order issued from the War Department on the 21st of April, 1812, the detached militia of the State of
New York were arranged in two divisions and eight brigades. STEPHEN VAN RENESELAEB, of Albany, was appointed
major general, and assigned to the command of the First Division ; and BENJAMIN MOOERS, of Plattsburg, was ap
pointed to the same office, and placed in command of the Second Division.
The eight brigadiers commissioned for the service were assigned to the several brigades as follows : 1st brigade,
GERAED STEDDIFOED, of the city of New York ; 2d, REUBEN HOPKINS, of Goshen, Orange County ; 3d, MICAJAU PETTIS,
of Queensbury, Washington County ; 4th, RICHARD DODGE, of Johnstown, Montgomery County ; 5th, JACOB BBOWN, of
Brownsville, Jefferson County ; 6th, DANIEL MILLER, of Homer, Cortland County ; 7th, WILLIAM WADSWOETH, of Gen-
eseo, Ontario County; 8th, GEORGE M'CLURE, of Bath, Steubeu County.
This force was farther subdivided into twenty regiments, and to the command of each a lieutenant colonel was as
signed, as follows :
First Brigade : 1st regiment, Beekman M. Van Buren, of the city of New York ; 2d, Jonas Napes, of the city of New
York; 3d, John Ditmas, of Jamaica, Queens County.
Second Brigade: 4th regiment, Abraham J. Hardenbergh, of Shawangunk, Ulster County; 5th, Martin Heermance, of
Rhinebeck, Duchess County; 6th, Abraham Van Wyek, of Fishkill, Duchess County.
Third Brigade : 7th regiment, James Green, of Argyle, Washington County ; 8th, Thomas Miller, of Plattsburg, Clin
ton County; 9th, Peter I. Vosburgh, of Kiuderhook, Columbia County.
Fourth Brigade : 10th regiment, John Prior, of Greenfield, Saratoga County, and llth, Calvin Rich, of Sharon, Scho-
harie County, to be attached to the regiments from General Veeder's division ; 12th, John T. VanDalfsen, of Coeyman's,
Albany County, and 13th, Putnam Farrington, of Delhi, Delaware County, to be attached to the regiments from Gen
eral Todd's division.
Fifth Brigade-: 14th regiment, William Stone, of Whitestown, Oneida County ; 15th, Thomas B. Benedict, of De Kalb,
St. Lawrence County.
Sixth Brigade: 16th regiment, Farrand Stranahan, of Cooperstown, Otsego County; 17th, Thomas Mead, of Norwich,
Chenango County.
Seventh Brigade : 18th regiment, Hugh W. Dobbin, of Junius, Seneca County ; 19th, Henry Bloom, of Geneva, Cayu-
ga County ; 20th, Peter Allen, of Bloomfield, Ontario County.
To the Eighth Brigade was assigned the regiment of light infantry under Colonel Jeremiah Johnson, of Brooklyn,
Kings County, and the regiment of riflemen under Colonel Francis M'Clure, of the city of New York.
General Van Rensselaer assigned to the several brigades the following staff officers :
Brigades.
Brigade Majors and Inspectors.
Brigade Quartermasters.
Brigades.
Brigade Majors and Inspectors.
Brigade Quartermasters.
1
2
3
4
Theophilus Pierce.
John Dill.
Michael S. Van der Cock.
Moses S. Cantine.
Charles Graham.
Robert Heart.
Dean Edson.
Leon'd H. Gansevoort.
5
6
7
8
Robert Shoemaker.
Thomas Greenley.
Julius Keyes.
Joseph Lad.
Henry Seymour.
Nathaniel R. Packard.
Henry Wells.
Jeremiah Anderson.
I have compiled the above statement from General Van Rensselaer's first General Order, issued from his head-quar
ters at Albany on the 18th of June, 1812.* The following paragraph from his second General Order, issued on the 13th
of July, indicates the special field of operations to which General Van Rensselaer was assigned : " Major General Ste
phen Van Rensselaer having been requested to repair to the command of the militia heretofore ordered into the service,
and to be hereafter ordered into the service of the United States for the defense of the Northern and Western frontiers
of this state between St. Regis and Pennsylvania, enters upon his command this day." In the same Order General Van
Rensselaer declared that all the militia comprehended in the brigades organized by his General Order of the 18th of
June, " together with the corps commanded by Lieutenant Colonels Swift, Flemming, and Bellinger, were subject to
his division orders."
General Van Rensselaer's MS. Order Book from June 18th to October 1st, 1812.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
Seizure of British Vessels on Lake Ontario. Retaliation expected. Northern Militia called out.
In May, 1812, the schooner Lord Nelson, owned by parties at Niagara, Upper
Canada, and laden with flour and merchandise, sailed from that port for Kingston.
She was found in American waters, captured by the Oneida, under Lieutenant Com
manding Woolsey, and condemned as a lawful prize for a violation of the Embargo
Act. About a month later,a another British schooner, the Ontario, was cap- -June 14,
tured at St. Vincent, but was soon afterward discharged ; and at about the
same time, still another British schooner, named Niagara, was seized, and sold because
of a violation of the revenue laws. These events, as was expected, soon led to retal
iation. When news of the declaration of war reached Ogdensburg, on the St. Law
rence, eight American schooners — trading vessels — lay in its harbor. They endeav
ored to escape1* to Lake Ontario, bearing away affrighted families and their b
effects. An active Canadian partisan named Jones, living not far from the
present village of Maitland, had raised a company of volunteers to capture them. He
gave chase in boats, overtook the fugitive unarmed flotilla at the foot of the Thousand
Islands,1 a little above Brockville, captured two of the schooners (Sophia and Island
Packet), and emptied and burned them. The remainder retreated to Ogdensburg.2
It was believed that this movement was only the beginning of more active and ex
tensive ones, offensive and defensive, on the part of the British — that several of the
Thousand Islands were about to be fortified, and that expeditions of armed men in
boats were to be sent over to devastate the country along the northern frontier.
General Brown and Commander Woolsey, vested with full authority, took active
measures to repel invasion and protect the lake coast and river shores. In a letter
to the former, Daniel D. Tompkins, Governor of ISFew York, informed him of the dec
laration of war, and directed him to call out re-enforcements for Bellinger from the
militia of Jefferson, Lewis, and St. Lawrence Counties, and to arm and equip them,
if necessary, from _the arsenals at Watertown, and at Russel, farther north on the
Grosse River. Colonel Benedict, of
St. Lawrence, was ordered to guard
the frontier from Ogdensburg to St.
Regis. Measures were also taken to concentrate a considerable force at Ogdensburg
and Cape Vincent, for the twofold purpose of guarding the frontier and keeping-
Kingston in a state of alarm, that being the chief naval station where the British
built vessels for service on Lake Ontario.
On the llth of July the inhabitants on the frontier were alarmed by a rumor that
Commander Woolsey and his Oneida had been captured by the enemy, and that a
squadron of British vessels were on their way from Kingston to recapture the Lord
Nelson and destroy Sackett's Harbor. General Brown immediately repaired to the
Harbor. The rumor was a false one, but a part of it was the precursor of truth in a
similar form. Eighteen days afterward Commander Woolsey saw from his mast-head,
at early dawn, a squadron of five British vessels of war off Stony Island, beating to
ward the Harbor with the wind dead ahead. These proved to be the Royal George,
24; Prince Eegent, 22; Earl of Moira, 20; Simcoe, 12; and Seneca, 4, under the
command of Commodore Earle, a Canadian. On the way up they captured a boat
returning from Cape Vincent ; and by the crew (who were released), they sent word
to Bellinger, the commandant at Sackett's Harbor, that all they wanted was the
1 This group of islands, lying in the St. Lawrence River, just below the foot of Lake Ontario, fill that river for twenty-
seven miles along its course, and number more than fifteen hundred. A few of them are large and cultivated, but the
most of them are mere rocky islets, covered generally with stunted hemlocks and cedar-trees, which extend to the -
water's edge. Some of them contain an area of only a few square yards, while others present many superficial square
miles. Canoes and small boats may pass in safety among all of them, and there is a deep channel for steamboats and
other large vessels, which never varies in depth or position, the bottom being rocky. The St. Lawrence here varies
from two to nine miles in width. The boundary-line between the United States and Canada passes among them. It
was determined in 1818. The largest of the islands are Grand and Howe, belonging to Canada, and CarUton, Grindstone,
and Wells's, belonging to the United States. They have been the theatre of many historic scenes and legendary tales
during two centuries and a half.
2 History of St. Lawrence and Franklin Counties, by Franklin Hough, M.D., pages 620, 621.
368
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Preparations for Battle.
Approach of the British Squadron.
A brief Skirmish.
Captain Vaaghan.
Oneida and the Lord Nelson, at the same time warning the inhabitants that if the
squadron should be fired upon, the town should be burned.
Perceiving the peril to which the Oneida was exposed, Woolsey weighed anchor
and attempted to gain the lake. He failed, returned, and moored his vessel just out
side of Navy Point, on which the ship-house now [1867] stands, in such position that
her broadside of nine guns might be brought to bear on the enemy. The remainder
of her guns were taken out, to be placed in battery on land. An iron thirty-two-
pounder, designed for the Oneida, but found to be too heavy, had already been placed
on a battery of three nine-pounders upon the bluff at the foot of the main street of
ithe village, on which the dwelling of the commander of the naval station there now
stands. That heavy gun had been lying near the shore, partly imbedded in the mud,
for some time, and from that circumstance had acquired the name of The Old Sow.
These cannon, Avith two brass nine-pounders in charge of an artillery company under
the command of Captain Elisha Camp, and two sixes fished out of the lake from the
wreck of an English ship near Duck Island, composed the heavy metal with which
to combat the approaching British squadron. The soldiers for the same purpose
comprised only a part of Bellinger's regiment, Camp's Sackett's Harbor Artillery,
which promptly volunteered for thirty days' service, the crew of the Oneida, and
three hundred militia. At the first appearance of the enemy alarm-guns were fired,
and couriers were sent into the country in all directions to arouse the militia. At
sunset nearly three thousand had arrived or were near, but they were too late. Vic
tory had been lost and won early in the day.
Woolsey, the best engineer officer present, left his brig in charge of his lieutenant,
and took the general
command on shore. He
placed the 32-pound er
in charge of Captain
William Vaughan, a
sailing-master of emi
nence then living at
Sackett's Harbor,1 and
directed Captain Camp
to manage the others
in battery. Meanwhile
the enemy were slowly
drawing near ; and by
the time Woolsey was
prepared to receive
them, the British flag
ship Royal George,
closely followed by the
Prince Regent, were
close enough for ac
tion. Vaughan opened
WILLIAM VAUGHAN.
it at eight o'clock by
a shot from the big
gun, which was harm
less, and drew from
the people on the
Royal George a re
sponse of derisive
laughter, which could
be plainly heard on
the shore. This was
followed by some shots
from those two vessels
in the advance at the
distance of a mile,
which were quickly
answered by Vaughan.
The firing was kept up
for about two hours,
the squadron standing
off and on, out of ransje
* o
of the smaller guns.
1 From the widow of Captain Vaughan, yet [1867] living at Sackett's Ilarbor, I received the following brief sketch
of his life : He was born in the middle of August, 1776, at Wilkes-Barre, in the Valley of Wyoming, Pennsylvania. He
was two years old when the massacre took place there, and his mother fled with him over the mountains. At the age
of eighteen years he visited Canada. The posts of Oswego, Fort Carleton, and Presentation, or Oswegatchie, were then
held by the British, and he was compelled to have a passport to go from post to post on the soil of the United States.
He returned to Canada in 1797, after these posts were given up, and engaged in lake navigation. He was a pilot on
Lake Ontario for many years, and when the war broke out he was appointed a sailing-master. He served with great
activity during the war. We shall meet him occasionally in the course of our narrative. After the war he returned to
the occupation of mariner, and was master, at different times, of six steamboats on Lake Ontario. About the year 1850
his spine received an injury by his falling on the ice while rescuing a man and two women from destruction among
floating ice agitated by high winds. He never recovered. He died at Sackett's Ilarbor on the 10th of December, 1857,
aged eighty-one years.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 369
Fatal Rebound of a British Shot. The Squadron repulsed. Preparations for War on Lake Ontario.
The most of the enemy's shot fell against the rocks below the battery. One of these
(a thirty-two-pound ball) came over the bluff, struck the earth not far from Sackett's
mansion (then occupied by Vaughan's family), and plowed a deep furrow into the
door-yard.1 It was immediately caught up by Sergeant Spier, who ran with it to
Captain Vaughan, exclaiming, " I've been playing ball with the red-coats, and have
caught 'em out. See if the British can catch back again." At that moment the
Royal George was wearing to give a broadside, when Vaughan's gun sent back the
captive ball with such force and precision2 that it struck her stern, raked her com
pletely, sent splinters as high as her mizzen top-sail yard, killed fourteen men, and
wounded eighteen !3 The flag-ship had already received a shot that went through
her sides, and another between wind and water. The Prince Regent had lost her fore-
topgallant-mast, and the EarlofMoira had been hulled. The laughter of the enemy
had been changed into wailing. Disaster suggested the exercise of discretion, and a
signal of retreat was speedily given after the returned ball had made its destructive
passage through the ship. The squadron put about and sailed out of the harbor,
while the band on shore played Yankee Doodle, and the troops and the citizens
greeted their departure with loud cheers. Nothing, animate or inanimate, on shore
had been injured in the least by the cannonading of two hours' duration.4 It was a
serene Sabbath morning, and the village at evening was as quiet as if nothing re
markable had happened.
The command of the waters of Lake Ontario was now an object of great import
ance to both parties. To obtain this advantage required the speediest preparation
of armed vessels. The British had several afloat already ; the Americans had but
one. The only hope of the latter of securing the supremacy of the lake rested upon
their ability to convert merchant vessels afloat into warriors. These were schooners
varying in size from thirty to one hundred tons burden, and susceptible of being
changed into active gun-boats. Eight of them, as we have observed, were at Ogdens-
burg when war was declared. Two had been destroyed, and six now remained. To
capture and destroy them was an important object to the British ; to save and arm
them was a more important object to the Americans. To accomplish the former re
sult, the British sent the Earl of Moira, 14, and Duke of Gloucester, 10, down the St.
Lawrence to Prescott, opposite Ogdensburg, to watch or seize the imprisoned ves
sels. To accomplish the latter, the Americans sent a small force in the same direc
tion, consisting of the schooner Julia (built by the late venerable Matthew M'Nair,
of Oswego, and named in honor of his daughter), armed with a long thirty -two
and two long sixes, bearing about sixty volunteers, under the command of Lieu
tenant H. "W. "Wells, from the Oneida, with Captains Vaughan and Dixon ; also a
rifle corps under Noadiah Hubbard, in a Durham boat. These sailed from Sackett's
Harbor on the evening of the 30th of July, unmindful of the superior force of the
enemy. " Our means are humble," General Brown wrote to Governor Tomp- , July 30)
kins on that day,a " but, with the blessing of Heaven, this republican gun- 1812-
1 One of Captain Vaughan's gunners was Julius Torrey, a negro, who was a great favorite, and known in camp as
Black Julius. He served at his post with the greatest courage and activity. As the enemy was beyond the reach of
small-arms, most of the troops were inactive spectators of the scene. — Hough's History of Jefferson County, page 464.
2 Although the gun was well managed, the range of the shot had been a little wild because of their size. The gun
was a thirty-two-pounder, but the largest balls to be found at Sackett's Harbor were twenty-fours. These were made
to fit by wrapping them in pieces of carpet. The British thirty-two was just the shot needed for precision. The small
er shot used on that occasion were brought from the Taberg Works, near Rome, only a week before.
3 On my way to Sackett's Harbor in the summer of I860, I saw at Big Sandy Creek an old seaman named Jehaziel
Howard, who was at Sackett's Harbor at this time, and from him I learned some of the facts above stated. His state
ment concerning the number of killed and wounded by that last shot from the thirty-two-pounder was made on the
authority of James Button, who deserted to the British a few days before the battle. Button told the British com
mander that the Americans were very weak, and had no cannon. Their experience in the action made them suspect
him of being a spy. They threatened to have him tried as such. Taking counsel of his fears, he deserted from the
British and returned to the American camp. He was on the Royal George at the time of the action.
* The War, i., 82 ; Cooper's Naval History of the United States, ii., 326, 327 ; Hough's History of Je/erson County, 462-464 ;
oral statements to the author by Captain (now Colonel) Camp, the late Amasa Trowbridge, M.B., and Jehaziel
Howard.
AA
370 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
A Fight on the St. Lawrence. Riflemen at Sackett's Harbor. Chauncey chief Commander on Lake Ontario.
boat may give a good account of the Duke and the Earl ; and a successful termina
tion of this enterprise will give us an equal chance for the command of the lake."
The Julia and her Durham consort went to the St. Lawrence that night. Although
it was very dark, they arrived in safety at Cape Vincent. At early dawn, under a
deeply-clouded sky, they pressed forward among the Thousand Islands, the wind
a July si, blowing down the river, and, at three o'clock in the afternoon,a met the two
isi2. British vessels off Morristown, eleven miles above Ogdensburg. They an
chored at once, and opened fire upon each other. The action lasted more than three
hours, during which the cannonading was almost incessant, and yet the Julia was
only slightly injured by a single shot, and not one of the Americans was killed or
wounded. The Earl of Moira was hulled several times, and both of the British ves
sels withdrew toward the Canada shore. Night came with intense darkness, but fre
quent flashes of lightning in the southern horizon revealed surrounding objects for a
moment. With the aid of the Durham and her own yawl, the Julia made her way
to Ogdensburg before morning,b when Lieutenant Wells left her in charge
b An frust 1
of Captain Vaughan, and returned to Sackett's Harbor. The armistice
that soon followed1 enabled the Julia, with the six schooners in her wake, to make
her way to the lake.c Meanwhile the guns of the Earl and Duke were
landed at Elizabethtown (now Brockville), and placed in battery there.2
Early in August Captain Benjamin Forsyth arrived at Sackett's Harbor with a
well-drilled company of riflemen. These were the first regulaf troops seen on that
frontier, and were welcomed with much satisfaction. General Brown urged Forsyth
to open a recruiting station at once, hoping to enlist two full companies of the sharp
shooters. At the same time, the national government was putting forth vigorous ef
forts for acquiring the supremacy of the lakes. The appointment of a proper com-
mander-in-chief of the navy to be created on them, who might properly superintend
its formation, was the first and most important measure. Fortunately for the service,
Captain Isaac Chauncey was chosen for this responsible and arduous duty. He was
then at the head of the navy yard at Brooklyn, New York. He was one of the best
practical seamen of his time, possessed a thorough knowledge of ships in whole and
in detail, and was in the constant exercise of energy and industry of the highest or
der. On the 31st of August he was commissioned for that special service, and on the
following day, Paul Hamilton, the then Secretary of the Navy, sent him a cipher
alphabet and numerals, by which he might make secret communications to the De
partment.3
CIPHER ALPHABET ANI> NUMERALS.
1 See note 2, page 293.
2 Letter of General Brown to Governor Tompkins, August 4, 1812. Hough's History of Jefferson County, page 465, 466.
Hough's History of St. Lawrence and Franklin Counties, page 622. Written Statement to the Author by the late Amasa
Trowbridge, M.D.
3 "After your arrival upon the lakes," wrote Mr. Hamilton, " yon may experience some difficulty and risk in sending
your dispatches to me ; and you may find it necessary to
employ a cipher in your communications, especially such
of them as might do the service an injury by falling into
the hands of the enemy. Under such circumstances, you
will communicate to me in cipher by the following alphabet whenever you may judge it expedient." Here follows the
cipher alphabet and numerals, of which a fac-simile is above given. The original is in the possession of the New York
Historical Society. It was presented by the Rev. Mr. Chauncey, a son of the commodore, on the 5th of February, 1861.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
American and British Squadrons on Lake Ontario. Elliott sent to Lake Erie. Chauncey's first Cruise.
Chauncey entered upon his new duties immediately after the receipt of his orders.
In the first week in September he sent forward forty ship-carpenters, with Henry
Eckford at their head. Others soon followed ; and Commander Woolsey was direct
ed to purchase some merchant vessels for the service. On the 18th of the same
month, one hundred officers and seamen, with guns and other munitions of war, left
'New York for Sackett's Harbor, and Chauncey arrived there himself on the 6th of
October. The schooners Genesee Packet, Experiment, Collector, Lord Nelson, Charles
and Ann, and Diana, were purchased, and manned and named respectively in the
same order, Conquest, Growler, Pert, Scourge, Governor Tompkins, and Hamilton.
Their armament consisted principally of long guns mounted on circles, with a few
lighter ones that could be of very little service. Add to these the Oneida and Julia
already in the service, and the entire flotilla, exclusive of the Madison, 24 (whose
keel was laid before Chauncey's arrival1), mounted only forty guns, and was manned
by four hundred and thirty men, the marines included. The Oneida carried sixteen
guns, therefore there was an average of only five guns each among the remainder of
the squadron. The British, at the same time, had made for service, on Lake Ontario,
the ships Royal George, 22, and Earl of Moira, 14; and schooners Prince Regent, 16,
Duke of Gloucester, 14, Simcoe, 12, and Seneca, 4. These, in weight of metal, were
double the power of the American, while there was a corresponding disparity in the
number of men.2
Lake Erie, over which also Chauncey was appointed commander, was separated
from Ontario by the impassable cataract of Niagara, and vessels for use on the wa
ters of the former had to be constructed on its shores, or at Detroit, where the unfin
ished brig Adams, captured at the surrender of Hull, had been built. For the pur
pose of creating a fleet there, Chauncey sent Lieutenant Jesse D. Elliott with orders
for purchasing vessels similar to those given to Commander Woolsey. We shall
consider some of Elliott's earlier operations presently.
Chauncey first appeared on Lake Ontario as the commander of a squadron on the
8th of November, a cold, raw, blustery day, with his broad pennant fluttering over
the Oneida, his flag-ship, accompanied by six small vessels,3 and bound on an expe
dition to intercept the entire British squadron on their return from Fort George, on
the Niagara River, whither they had gone from Kingston with troops and munitions
of war. Chauncey took his station near the False Ducks, some small islands nearly
due west from Sackett's Harbor, on the track to Kingston, and in the afternoon of
the 9tha fell in with the Royal George, Commodore Earl's flag-ship, mak- a November,
ing her way for the latter place. Chauncey chased her into the Bay of
Quinte, and lost sight of her in the darkness of the night that soon followed. On the
morning of the 10thb he captured and burnt a small schooner, and soon vember
afterward espied the Royal George headed for Kingston. He gave chase
with most of his squadron,4 followed her into Kingston Harbor, and there engaged
both her and five land batteries5 for almost an hour. These were more formidable
than Chauncey supposed ; and a brisk Avind having arisen, and the night coming on,
he withdrew and anchored. The breeze had become almost a gale the next morn
ing,0 so Chauncey weighed anchor and stood out lakeward. The Tomp- c „ emijer n
kins, Hamilton, and Julia chased the Simcoe over a reef of rocks, and so
1 The Madison was launched on the 26th of November, only forty-five days after her keel was laid. Henry Eckford
was her constructor.
2 Cooper's Naval History of the United States, ii.. 328.
3 The Oneida was commanded by Lieutenant Woolsey ; the Conquest by Lieutenant Elliott ; the Hamilton by Lieuten
ant M'Pherson ; the Governor Tompkins by Lieutenant Brown ; the Pert by Mr. Arundel ; the Julia by Mr.Trant ; and
the Growler by Mr. Mix. The last three named were sailing-masters.
* In this chase Captain Elliott, in the Conqitest, gallantly led, followed by the Julia, Pert, and Growler. The Oneida
brought up the rear. She allowed the smaller vessels to make the attack. When, at half past three, she opened her
carronades on the Royal George, that vessel was quick to cut her cables, and run up to the town.
5 There was a battery on both India and Navy Points. Three others guarded the town ; and some movable cannon
were brought to bear on the American vessels.
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Operations near Kingston. Chauncey's Prizes. Forsyth's Expedition.
riddled her that she sank before reaching Kingston. Soon afterward the Hamilton
captured a large schooner from Niagara. The prize was sent past Kingston under
convoy of the Growler, hoping to bring out the lioyal George, but that vessel had
been so much damaged in the action that she was compelled to haul on shore to
keep from sinking. She had received several shots between wind and water, some
of her guns were disabled, and a number of her crew had been killed.
The gale continued on the 12th, and during the following night a heavy snow
storm set in. Chauncey was undismayed by the fury of the elements. He had set
his heart on obtaining the supremacy of the lake at all hazards, and he continued his
cruise. Informed that the Earl of Moira was off the Real Ducks, he attempted to
capture her. She was on the alert. A schooner that she was convoying was seized,
but the warrior escaped. During the day Chauncey saw the lioyal George, and two
schooners that he supposed to be the Prince Regent and Duke of Gloucester, but they
did not seem disposed to meet him.
In this short cruise Commodore Chauncey captured three merchant vessels, destroy
ed one armed schooner, and disabled the British flag-ship, and took several prisoners,1
with a loss on his part of only one man killed and four wounded.2 The loss of the
British is not found on record.
Leaving the Governor Tompkins, Conquest, Hamilton, and Growler to blockade
Kingston harbor until the ice should do so effectually, Chauncey sailed on the 19th,
in the Oneida, for the head of the lake, accompanied by the remainder of the squad
ron. " I am in great hopes," he wrote to Governor Tompkins, " that I shall fall in
with the Prince Regent, or some of the royal family which are cruising about York.
Had we been one month sooner, we could have taken every town on this lake in
three weeks ; but the season is now so tempestuous that I am apprehensive we can
not do much more this winter." His anticipations were realized. He was driven
back by a gale in which the Growler was dismasted, and the ice formed so fast that
all the vessels were in danger. He retired to Sackett's Harbor, and early in Decem
ber the lake navigation was closed by the frost.3
While Chauncey was commencing vigorous measures for the construction of a navy
at the east end of Lake Ontario, the land forces there and on the St. Lawrence were
not idle, although no very important service was performed there during the remain
der of 1812. The vigilant Captain Forsyth made a bold dash into Canada late in
September. Having been informed that a large quantity of ammunition and other
munitions of war were in a British store-house at Gananoqui, on the shores of the Lake
of the Thousand Islands, in Canada,4 and not heavily guarded, Forsyth asked and
obtained permission of General Brown to make an attempt to capture them. He or
ganized an expedition of one hundred and four men, consisting of seventy riflemen
and thirty-four militia, the latter officered by Captain Samuel M'Nitt, Lieutenant
Brown, and Ensigns Hawkins and Johnson. They set out from Sackett's Harbor on
the 18th of September, and on the night of the 20th they left Cape Vincent in boats,
threading their way in the dark among the upper group of the Thousand Islands.
They landed 'a short distance from the village of Gananoqui, only ninety-five strong,
without opposition ; but as they approached the town they were confronted by a
party of sixty British regulars and fifty Canadian militia drawn up in battle order,
who poured heavy volleys upon them. Forsyth dashed forward with his men with-
1 Among the prisoners was Captain Brock, brother of Major General Brock, who had been killed recently at Queens-
town. He had some of his brother's baggage with him.
2 Mr. Arundel, the commander of the Pert, was badly injured by the bursting of one of her guns, and a midshipman
and three seamen were slightly wounded. Mr. Arundel refused to leave the deck, and was afterward knocked over
board by accident and drowned.
3 Chauncey's Letter to Governor Tompkins, November 15, 1812; Cooper's Naval History, ii., 333 to 337 inclusive.
4 Gananoqui is pleasantly situated at the mouth of the Gananoqui River, where it enters the upper portion of the St.
Lawrence, known as the Lake of the Thousand Islands. It is in the town of Leeds, in Canada West, nenrly opposite
the town of Clayton (old French Creek), New York.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
373
Spoils taken at Ganauoqui.
General Brown sent to Ogdensburg.
Hostile Movements there.
out firing a shot until within a hundred yards of the enemy, when the latter fled pell-
mell to the town, closely pursued by the invaders. There the fugitives rallied and
renewed the engagement, when they were again compelled to flee, leaving ten of
their number dead on the field, several wounded, and eight regulars and four militia
men as prisoners. Forsyth lost only one man killed and one slightly wounded. For
his own safety, he broke up the bridge over which he had pursued the enemy, and
then returned to his boats, bearing away, as the spoils of victory, the eight regu
lars, sixty stand of arms, two barrels of fixed ammunition comprising three thousand
ball-cartridges, one barrel of gunpowder, one of flints, forty-one muskets, and some
other public property. In the store-house were found one hundred and fifty barrels of
provisions, but, having no means of carrying them away, Captain Forsyth applied the
torch, and store-house and provisions were consumed.1 The public property secured
on this occasion was given to the soldiers of the expedition as a reward for their valor.
While Forsyth was away on his expedition, Brigadier General Richard Dodge ar-
• September 21, rived at Watertowna with a
1812< detachment of Mohawk Val
ley militia. He outranked General Brown,
and on his arrival he ordered that officer
to proceed to Ogdensburg, at the mouth
of the Oswegatchie River, to garrison old Fort Presentation, or Oswegatchie, at that
place.2 General Brown was chagrined by this unlooked-for order, but, like a true
soldier, he immediate
ly obeyed it. A part
of Captain Forsyth's
company went with
him ; and three weeks
later, at the request
of the governor, Gen
eral Dodge sent to
•October 12. Brown" the
remainder
of the riflemen, and
the artillery compa-
APPEAKANCE OF FOET OSWEGATCHIE IN
nies of Captains Brown, King, and Foot, in all one hundred and sixty men, with two
brass 9 -pound cannon, one 4, and an ample supply of muskets and munitions of war.
General Brown arrived at Ogdensburg on the 1st of October. Already the militia
had been employed in some hostile movements. At about the middle of September
information reached Ogdensburg that some British bateaux, laden with stores, were
ascending the St. Lawrence. It was resolved to capture them. A gun-boat, with a
brass six-pounder and eighteen men, under Adjutant Daniel W. Church, accompanied
by a party under Captain Griffin, in a Durham boat, went down the river in the
night, and encountered the enemy near Toussaint Island. The Durham boat was lost
in the affray, and the gun-boat was in great peril at one time. It was saved, how
ever. The expedition was a failure. Five of Church's men were wounded, and one
was killed. The British lost several in killed and wounded. They were led by Ad
jutant Fitzgibbon.3
On the day after General Brown's arrival at Ogdensburg,0 about forty
British bateaux, escorted by a gun-boat, were seen approaching Prescott
from below, and as they neared the town a battery at that place opened upon Og-
• °f General Brown to Governor Tompkins, September 23, 1812; Letter from Utica, September 29, 1S12, pub
lished in The War, page 71. The same letter appears in Niles's Weekly Register, October 10, 1812
2 A particular account of this fort will be given hereafter.
3 Hough's History of St. Lawrence and Franklin Counties, page 624.
374 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
A British Expedition on the St. Lawrence. It attacks Ogdensburg. The British repulsed.
densburg to cover the flotilla.1 The heavy guns at the latter place consisted of a
brass six-pounder under the charge of Adjutant Church, and an iron twelve-pounder
managed by Joseph York, sheriff of the county, and a volunteer citizen. These re
plied to the British battery for a while. On the following day the firing from Pres-
» October, c°tt was renewed, but was not answered; and on Sunday morning, the 4th, a
1812, two gun-boats and twenty-five bateaux, filled with about seven hundred
and fifty armed men, under Colonels Lethbridge and Breckinridge, went up the river
almost a mile, and then turned their prows toward Ogdensburg, with the evident
intention of attacking it. Forsyth's riflemen were encamped at the time near the
old fort on the west side of the Oswegatchie, and General Brown, with regulars and
militia, were stationed in the town.2 The whole American force amounted to about
twelve hundred effective men. These were immediately drawn up in battle order to
receive the invaders. When the latter had approached to within a quarter of a mile
of the town, nearly in mid-channel, the Americans opened such a severe fire from
their two cannon that the enemy retreated in confusion and precipitation, with the
loss of three men killed and four wounded.3 About thirty rounds were fired from
each of the two camion, and the action lasted two hours.4 Not one of the Ameri
cans was injured in the action, but some damage was done to the town by the can
non-shot of the British. " This enterprise," says Christie, a British author, " under
taken without the sanction of the commander of the forces, was censured by him, and
the public opinion condemned it as rash and premature."5
Eighteen days after the repulse of the British at Ogdensburg, Major Guilford Dud
ley Young, and a small detachment of militia, who were chiefly from Troy, New
York, performed a gallant exploit at St. Regis, an Indian village lying upon the
boundary-line between the United States and Canada. The dusky inhabitants of
that settlement were placed in a very embarrassing position when war was declared.
Their village lay within the boundaries of both governments, and up to that time
the administration of their internal affairs, managed by twelve chiefs, had been nom
inally independent of both. The annuities and presents from both governments were
equally divided among them, and in all matters of business and profits every thing
was in common. That this relation should not be disturbed, commissioners, appoint
ed by the two governments, agreed that the Indians should remain neutral, and that
the troops of both parties should avoid intrusion of their reservation. But they be
came objects of suspicion and dread. The settlers in that region had been horrified
with tales of Indian massacres remotely and recently, and these people could not pass
the boundaries of their domain without being regarded as possible enemies. So vig
ilant was this general fear that the Indians were compelled, when they went abroad,
to carry a pass from some well-known white inhabitant, among the most prominent
of whom, appointed by the chiefs, was Captain Policy, late of Massena Springs.6
i William E. Guest, Esq., whom Imet at Ogdenebnrg in the summer of 1860, in some ofhis published "Recollections"
of that place, speaking of the affair, says, " The villagers came out in large numbers, and stood in Washington Street, near
the residence of Mr. Parish. Among them were a number of ladies, who felt safe, as no balls had as yet come into the
village. While all were intently watching, with great excitement, the movements of the contending parties, a 12-pourfd
shot, with its clear, singing, humming sound, passed over our heads, in the line of State Street, as near as we could judge,
and fell in the rear of the village. A sudden change came over the scene. It became an intimate matter to all, and the
ladies beat a rapid retreat." When I was in Ogdensburg in 1855, and made a sketch of the old Court
house, printed in a note in Chapter XXVII. of this work, I was informed that that ball passed through
the building, and a hole made by it was pointed out to me.
2 The subordinate commanders on this occasion were Colonel Benedict, Major Dimock, Adjutant
Hoskiu, and Captains Forsyth, Griffin, Hubbard, Benedict, and M'Nitt. — Ogdensburg Palladium, Oc
tober 6, quoted in The War, L, 78.
3 One account says that one of their gun-boats was disabled, and another that " two of their boats
were so knocked to pieces as to render it necessary to abandon them."
4 Hough's History of St. Lawrence and Franklin Counties, page 625. Letter from Plattsburg, dated
October 9, in Niles's Weekly Register, iii., 126. Christie's Military Operations in Canada, page 81.
5 Christie's Military Operations in Canada, page 81.
6 These passes stated that the bearer was a quiet, peaceable person. It was their custom to hold
these passes up on approaching a white person that they might not be alarmed. On the other hand,
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 375
The British violate a Neutrality Agreement. British Troops occupy St. Regis. Its Capture by the Americans.
These restrictions curtailed their hunting and fishing, and they were reduced to such
great extremities that they were compelled to apply to Governor Tompkins for re
lief. l The governor listened to their request, and during the war they received about
five hundred rations daily from the United States government stores at French Mills,-2
now Fort Covington, on the Salmon River.
The neutrality agreement was violated by Sir George Prevost, the British com-
mander-in-chief in Canada, who placed Captain M'Donell and a party of armed Cana
dian voyageurs in the village of St. Regis " for the security of that post," to " guard
against any predatory incursions of the enemy, to inspire confidence in the Indians,"
and to give " support and countenance" to " Monsieur de Montigny, captain and res
ident agent at the village."3 The real object appears to have been the seduction of
the Indians from their neutrality by persuading them to join the British standard.
In this they were successful, as the presence of more than eighty St. Regis warriors
in the British army at different places on the frontiers subsequently fully proves.4
Major Young was stationed at French Mills when M'Donell took post at St. Regis,
and he wished to attempt the capture of the whole party at about the 1st of October.
William L. Gray, an Indian interpreter, was then running a mill on the site of the
present village of Hogansburg, two miles above St. Regis, and consented to be Young's
guide. He took him and his command along an unfrequented way, that brought
them out suddenly upon the eastern banks of the St. Regis, opposite the village. The
stream was too deep to ford, and, having no boats, Major Young was compelled to
abandon the project at that time. The British intruders were alarmed ; but as day
after day wore away without farther molestation, M'Donell settled down into a feel
ing of absolute security. From that state he was soon aroused. Young left French
Mills, with about two hundred men, on the night of the 21st of October, at eleven
o'clock, crossed the St. Regis, at Gray's Mills, at half past three in the a October 22,
morning,a in a boat and canoe and a hastily-constructed raft, and before
dawn arrived within half a mile of St. Regis, where they concealed themselves, while
taking some rest and refreshment, behind a gentle hill westward of the village. Hav
ing carefully reconnoitred the position, the little party moved in three columns to
ward the British part of the village, at the northern extremity of which, not far from
the ancient and famous church, stood the houses of Montigny and M'Donell, in which
the oificers and many of the men of the British detachment were stationed. Captain
Lyon, editor of the Troy Budget, moved with his company along the road upon the
bank of the St. Regis, so as to gain the rear of Montigny's house and a small block
house, while Captain Tilden and his company made a detour westward, partly in
rear of M'Donell's, for the purpose of reaching the St. Lawrence and securing the boats
of the enemy. Major Young, with the companies of Captains Higbie and M'Neil,
moved through the village in front. Thus the enemy was surrounded. Lyon was
first discovered by the British sentinel and attacked. Young was then within one
hundred and fifty yards of Montigny's house. At that instant an ensign of the enemy,
attempting to pass in front after being ordered to stand, was shot dead ; and a few
minutes afterward complete success crowned the enterprise of the gallant major.
Forty prisoners (exclusive of the commander and the Catholic priest), with their arms
and accoutrements, thirty-eight muskets, two bateaux, a flag, and a quantity of bag-
the Indians required persons traveling across their domain to exhibit passes. As few of these Indians could read, a de
vice (see preceding page) was adopted to obviate the difficulties which that deficiency Might give rise to. If a parson
was going through to French Mills, a simple bow was drawn on the paper; if he was intending to visit St. Regis vil
lage, an arrow was added to the bow.
1 The letter written to Tompkins for that purpose was signed by the mark and name of Lewis Cook, one of the chiefs
of the St. Regis Indians, and a colonel in the service of the United States.
2 Hough's History of St. Lawrence and Franklin Counties, page 156.
3 Letter of Adjutant Baynes to Captain M^)onell.
* Le Clerc, who succeeded Montigny as agent, raised a company of warriors there, and crossed over to Cornwall.
These participated in several engagements during the war.— Hough's St. Lawrence and Franklin Counties, page 156.
3Y6 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
First Trophy-flag of the War taken on Land. Its public Reception at Albany. Sketch of Colonel G. D. Young.
gage, including eight hundred blankets found at the Indian agent's house, were the
fruits of the victory. The British had seven men killed, including a lieutenant, en
sign, and sergeant, while the Americans were all unhurt. The late distinguished
civilian, William L. Marcy,1 who was a lieutenant in Lyon's company, and assailed
the block-house, was the captor of the flag that waved over it. He bore it in triumph
back to French Mills, where Young and his party arrived the same day, at eleven
o'clock, with the prisoners and spoils — the latter in the captured bateaux, by way
of Salmon River.2 ^ ^^ Young and his de-
The prisoners were J^^--^^1^^^^^^^^^' tachment returned
sent to Bloomfield's ____£^— ~/^^^~ *° r^roy> an<^ with
head - quarters at '^•-'^ ~~~^^^ — •» ^ "^ ^ his own hand pre-
Plattsburg. Early — <^— sented that British
in January Major flag — the first tro
phy of the kind that had ever been taken on land — to the people of the State of New
York in the capital at Albany.3
Soon, after the affair at St. Regis the British retaliated by an expedition to French
Mills, which captured the company of Captain Tilden stationed there. Le Clerc also
captured Mr. Gray, the interpreter, and sent him to Quebec, where he died in the
hospital.
During a brief sojourn at the Massena Springs, on the Racquette River, in the sum
mer of 1855, I visited St. Regis, or Ak-wis-sas-ne, the place "where the partridge
drums," as the Indians called it.4 I rode out to Hogansburg, ten miles eastward of
1 The public career of Mr. Marcy is too well known to require more than a passing notice here. He was then twenty-
six years of age, and had studied law, and was practicing it in Troy. He served with credit in the New York State mi
litia during a greater part of the war. In 1821 he was appointed adjutant general of the state. In 1829 he was made
a justice of the Supreme Court of the state. In 1831 he was elected to a seat in the United States Senate, and in 1833,
governor of the State of New York, which office he held, by re-election, six years. In 1845 President Polk called him
to his cabinet as Secretary of War, and in 1853 he became one of President Pierce's constitutional advisers as Secretary
of State. On the 4th of March, 1857, he retired to private life, and just four months afterward he died suddenly at Balls-
ton, New York, while reading in his bed, at the age of seventy years.
! Major Young's dispatch to General Bloomfleld, October 24, 1812 ; Thomson's Historical Sketches, etc. ; Hough's
History of St. Lawrence and Franklin Counties; statement of Rev. Eleazer Williams to the author.
3 That ceremony took place on the 5th of January, 1813, at one o'clock in the afternoon. Major Young, with a de
tachment of his Troy volunteers, entered Albany. The soldiers bore two fine living eagles in the centre of the detach
ment, and the trophy-colors in the rear, while a band played Yankee Doodle. They passed through Market Street (near
Broadway), and up State Street, to the Capitol, where they were greeted by an immense crowd who thronged the build
ing. The governor was too ill to be present, and Colonels Lamb and Lusk acted as his representatives. Major Young,
after an appropriate speech, delivered the trophy to those gentlemen, and received from Colonel Lusk a complimentary
response.
Guilford Dudley Young was born at Lebanon, Connecticut, in June, 1770, and in 1798 married Miss Betsey Huntiugton,
of Norwich. In 1805 he settled in Troy, New York, where he engaged in mercantile pursuits. He raised a corps of
volunteers in the summer of 1812, and joined the service on the St. Lawrence frontier under Colonel Benedict. Be
cause of his exploit at St. Regis he was promoted to major in the 29th Regular Infantry in February, 1813, and was
raised to the rank of lieutenant colonel two months afterward. He was disbanded in 1815, and soon afterward joined
Miranda's Mexican expedition. He left New York for that purpose in July, 1816. In August, the following year, he was
in Fort Sombrero, with two hundred and sixty-nine men, when it was encircled by three thousand five hundred Royal
ists. While standing exposed on the ramparts on the 18th of August, 1818, a cannon-shot from the enemy took off his
head.
* During the colonial period, when the northern frontiers of New England were harassed by savages, three children,
were carried off by them from Groton, Massachusetts. They consisted of two boys and a girl named Tarbell. The girl
escaped and returned home, but the boys were taken to Canada and adopted into the families of their captors— some
Caughnawaga Indians, near Montreal. In the course of time they married daughters of chiefs. Their intercourse with
the savages was not very pleasant, and the village priest advised them to seek new homes. They, with their wives and
wives' parents (four families) departed in a bark canoe, went up the St. Lawrence, and landed upon the beautiful point
on which St. Regis stands. There they resolved to remain. They called the place, on account of the abundance of par
tridges, as above noticed. In 1760, when they had made themselves comfortable houses, with cultivated fields around
them, they were joined by Father Anthony Gordon, a Jesuit priest, and a colony from Caughnawaga. Gordon named
the place St. Regis. Gordon erected a church of logs and covered it with bark. This was burned two years afterward,
\\hsn a small wooden church was erected in its place, and the first bell ever heard in St. Regis was hung in its tower.
The common belief has been that this was the bell carried off from Deerfield by the Indians, after the destruction of that
village by fire in 1704 ; and with that belief Mrs. Sigouruey wrote her beautiful poem entitled THE BELI. OF ST. REGIS, in
which occurs these stirring lines :
"Then down from the burning church they tore . -
The bell of tuneful sound ;
And on with their captive train they4)ore
That wonderful thing toward their native shore,
The rude Canadian bound.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
377
Eleazer Williams, or " The Lost Prince."
A strange Story.
The Bell at St. Regis.
A Visit to St. Eegis.
Massena, with some
friends, over a new
ly cleared but pleas
ant country, with the
great Wilderness of
Northern New York
lying on our right,
and far in the south
east the blue sum
mits of the Green
Mountains bounding
the horizon. We
dined at Hogans-
burg in company
with the late Rev.
Eleazer Williams,
the reputed " Lost
Prince" of the house
of Bourbon, who was
then pastor of a lit
tle congregation of
Episcopalians, whose
place of worship had
just been erected in a
pleasant pine grove
on the borders of
that village of two
hundred inhabitants.
Mr. Williams was
connected with the
Indians in that re
gion during the War
of 1812. He was
with Major Young
in his first attempt
to surprise the Brit
ish at St. Regis, and
was afterward in
military service at
Plattsburg, in a com
pany of volunteer
Rangers. He gave
me some useful in
formation
concern-
ing^the events of the war in that region, and showed me a portrait of himself, painted
in water-colors in 1814, in which he appears in military costume, and his features and
complexion not exhibiting the least indication of Indian blood. Mr. Williams's biog
raphy, written by the Rev. Mr. Hanson, and published under the title of The Lost
Prince, is a remarkable book. It contains a most strange story.1
From Hogansburg we rode up to St. Regis, a poor-looking village situated upon a
gently elevated plain at the head of Lake St. Francis, just below the foot of the Long
Saut Rapid, on a point between" the mouths of the St. Regis and Racquette Rivers.
It is surrounded by broad commons, used as a public pasture, with small gardens
near the houses. In front of the village, in the St. Lawrence, lie some beautiful and
fertile islands, upon which is raised the grain for the subsistence of the villagers ;
and on the opposite shore of the great river is the Canadian village of Cornwall. We
first visited the remains of the cellar of Montigny's house, where Captain M'Donell
and some of the British soldiers were captured by Young, at the mouth of the St.
It spake no more till St. Regis's tower
In northern skies appeared ;
And their legends extol that pow-wow's power,
Which lulled that knell like a poppy-flower,
As conscience now slumbereth a little hour
In the cell of a heart that's seared."
The bell carried from Deerfleld was taken to Caughnawaga, and hung in the church of St. Louis there, where it still
remains.
i A dark mystery has ever brooded over the fate of the eldest son of Louis the Sixteenth, King of France, who was
ten years of age at the time of his father's murder by the Jacobins. The Revolutionists, after the downfall of Robes
pierre and his fellows, declared that he died in prison, while the Royalists believed that he was sent to America. Cu
rious facts and circumstances pointed to the Rev. Mr. Williams, a reputed half-breed Indian of the Canghnawaga tribe,
as the surviving prince, who for almost sixty years had been hidden from the'world in that disguise. The claim that
he was the Dauphin— the "Lost Prince"— was set up for him, and the fact that he was not possessed of Indian blood
was fairly established by physiological proofs. Scars produced by scrofula and inoculation for the small-pox, described
as marking the person of the Dauphin, marked the person of Mr. Williams with remarkable exactness. The book in
question brings all of these proofs of identity to view. But the world was incredulous. The word of the Prince de Join-
ville, an interested son of Louis Philippe, was put in the balance against that of a poor missionary of the Episcopal
church in America, and the latter was outweighed. Mr. Williams died in 1S59, in that obscurity in which his life had
been passed. The question that so excited the American public a few years ago — " Have we a Bourbon among us ?" —
has not been asked for a long time. The remains of the reputed "Lost Prince" rest in peace near the banks of the
St. Regie.
378
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
A Parish Priest at a Horse-race.
The old Church in St. Regis.
Pleasant Memories of the Visit.
Regis. We then called at the house of the parish priest (Father Francis Marcoux),
but had not the pleasure of seeing him, he having gone over to Cornwall, his servant
said, to attend a horse-race. The gray old church, built of massive stone, its walls
five feet thick, its roof covered with shingles and its belfry with glittering tin-plate,
stood near. Its portal was invitingly open, and we entered. We found it quite plain
in general construction, but the altar and its vicinity were highly ornamented and
gilded. Upon the walls hung some rude pictures. Across the end over the entrance
was a gallery for the use of strangers. The Indian worshipers usually kneel or sit on
the floor during the service. The full liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church was used
there, and the preaching was in the Mohawk language.1 The present church edifice
was erected in 1792. The dilapidated spire had lately been taken down, and the bel
fry was covered with a cupola surmounted by a glittering cross. Near the vestry-
room, within the inclosure, was a frame-work on which hung three bells ; the two
upper ones made of the first one ever heard in St. Regis, mentioned in note 4, page
376. 2 The lower and larger one was cast in Troy in 1852, and had not yet been
placed in the tower.
OLD C11CKOII IN ST. KEGIi
While sketching the old church3 I was surrounded by the Indian children, all cu
rious to know what I was about ; while an old Indian woman stood in the door of a
miserable log house near by, looking so intently with mute wonder, apparently, that
I think she did not move during the half hour I was engaged with the pencil. The
children kept up a continual conversation, intermingled with laughter, all of which
came to the ear in sweet, low, musical cadences, like the murmuring of brooks. This
is in the British portion of the town.
Just after leaving the church we met the venerable Captain Le Clerc, already men
tioned, who had lived in St. Regis fifty-seven years. He accompanied us to the house
of Fran9ois Dupuy, one of the two merchants then in St. Regis. Dupuy's store and
1 A full and interesting account of St. Regis may be found in Hough's History of St. Lawrence and Franklin Counties.
2 This bell became cracked more than thirty years ago, and it was recast in two small ones. The Indians, suspicious
that some of the (to them) sacred metal might be abstracted at the bell-founder's, sent a deputation to watch the pro
cess, and see that every particle of the old bell went into the crucible.
3 In this view is seen the old church on the right, a specimen of many of the houses in the village on the left, and in
the extreme distance, near the centre, the dwelling of the parish priest. A tall flag-staff stands near the inclosure. The
bells mentioned in the text are just behind the two Lombardy poplars on the right.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
The Boundary Line between the United States and Canada.
Captain Polly.
Buffalo in 1812.
dwelling were on the forty-fifth parallel of north latitude, which is the dividing-line
here between the United States and Canada. That line passed through his house ;
and while an attendant was preparing some lemonade for us within the dominions of
Queen Victoria, we were sitting
in the United States, but in the
same room, waiting to be served.
On the margin of the street op
posite Dupuy's stood one of the
cast-iron obelisks, three feet and
a half in height, which are placed
at certain intervals along that
frontier line as boundary monu
ments. Upon its four sides were
cast appropriate inscriptions, in
raised letters.1
We left St. Regis toward the
evening of a delightful day, and
reached Massena just as the
guests of the hotel were assem
bling at the supper -table. At
BOUNDARY MONUMENT.
twilight I walked leisurely down
to the springs on the margin of
the swift -flowing Racquette, and
under the pavilion that covers
the principal fountain of health I
met a venei'able man, who in
formed me that he was one of
the first settlers in that region.
He was in the War of 1812 as a
soldier, and fought in some of the
battles on the Niagara frontier.
He was badly wounded at Black
Rock by the explosion of a bomb
shell that came from a battery
on the Canada side. "I was
knocked down," he said, "had
my breast -bone stove in, and
three ribs broken." He was at Fort Erie at the time of the sanguinary sortie, but
was unable to walk on account of his wounds. That veteran was Captain John Policy,
already mentioned. He was then seventy-two years of age. He had seen all the
country around him bloom out of the wilderness, and had outlived most of the com
panions of his youth.
Let us resume the historical narrative :
While active operations were in progress at the eastern end of Lake Ontario and
along the St. Lawrence River, important events were transpiring toward the western
end of the lake and on the Niagara frontier. That frontier, extending along the Ni
agara River from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario, a distance of thirty-five miles, was the
theatre of many stirring scenes during the war we are considering. The Niagara
River is the grand outlet of the waters of the upper lakes into Ontario, and divides
a portion of the State of New York from that of Canada. Half way between the two
lakes that immense body of water pours over a limestone precipice in two mighty
cataracts, unequaled in sublimity by any others on the surface of the globe.
At the time we are considering that frontier was sparsely settled. Buffalo2 was a
little scattered village of about one hundred houses and stores, and a military post
of sufficient consequence to invite the torch of British incendiaries at the close of
1813, when all but two dwellings were laid in ashes. It was only about sixty
years ago that the tiny seed was planted of that now immense mart of inland com
merce, containing one hundred thousand inhabitants. Where now are long lines of
wharves, with forests of masts and stately warehouses, was seen a sinuous creek, nav
igable for small vessels only, winding its way through marshy ground into the lake,
its low banks fringed with trees and tangled shrubbery. In 1814 it was a desola
tion, and the harbor presented the appearance delineated in the engraving on the fol
lowing page.
A little south of Buffalo, st ret chin o- alone Buffalo Creek, were the villages of the
O T 1 •
Seneca Indians, on a reservation of one hundred and sixty thousand acres of land,
and then inhabited by about seven hundred souls. Two miles below Buffalo was
Black Rock, a hamlet at the foot of Lake Erie and of powerful rapids, where there
1 On the west face, "BOUNDARY, AUGUST 9, 1842." On the east, "TREATY OF WASHINGTON." On the north, "LIEUTEN
ANT COLONEL I. B. B. ESTCOURT, H. B. M. COMMISSIONER." On the south, " ALBERT SMITH, U. S. COMMISSIONER."
' Buffalo was laid out by the Holland Land Company in 1S01, and was called New Amsterdam.
380
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Settlements along the Niagara Frontier in 1*12. Remains of Fort Schlosser. Destruction of the Steamer Caroline.
TUB POET OF BUFFALO IN 1813.
was a ferry ; and almost opposite was Fort Erie, a British post of considerable
strength. Nine miles below, at the Falls of Elliott's Creek, was the village of Wil-
liamsville ; and at the head of the rapids, above Niagara Falls, were the remains of
old Fort Schlosser, about a mile below Schlos
ser Landing, near which is yet standing an
immense chimney that belonged to the En
glish " mess-house," or dining-hall of the gar
rison that were stationed there several years
before the Revolution.1 Opposite Schlosser,
at the mouth of the Chippewa Creek, was the
small village of Chippewa, inhabited by Cana
dians and Indians. At the Falls, on the Amer
ican side, was the hamlet of Manchester ; and
seven miles below, at the foot of the Lower
Rapids, was Lewiston, a little village, with a
convenient landing at the base of a bluff. Op
posite Lewiston was Queenston, overlooked
from the south by lofty heights, sometimes
called The Mountain. It was the landing-
place for goods brought over Lake Ontario
for the inhabitants above. At the mouth of
BEMA1NS AT FOET SCULOSSEK.
1 The English built a stockade here in the year 17GO, and named it Fort Schlosser, in honor of the meritorious officer
who was in command there at the time. It was about a mile from the Niagara River. The frame of the mess-house
was prepared at Fort Niagara, at tLe mouth of the river, while the French were in possession there. It was intended
for a Catholic church at that place. The English took it to the site of the new fort, and put it up there. It disappeared
in the course of time, leaving nothing but the huge chimney. Around it a small building was erected, in which Judge
Porter resided for several years after his removal to the Niagara frontier. The building was consumed when the Brit
ish devastated that shore in 1813. Slight traces of old French works on the bank of the river, and of Fort Schlosser,
more in the interior, may now be seen. I am indebted to the late Colonel P. A. Porter, of Niagara Falls village (who was
killed in battle during the late Civil War), for the above sketch of the great chimney and the little building attached to it
Schlosser Landing was made famous at the close of 1S3T by the destruction there of the American steamer Caroline^
a party of British from Canada. At that time a portion of both Canadian provinces were in insurrection against the
British government. Navy Island, on the Niagara River, just above Schlosser, was made a rendezvous for the insur
gents of that neighborhood and their American sympathizers, and the steamboat Caroline was brought down from Buf
falo to be used as a ferry-boat between the island and Schlosser Landing. On the night of the 29th of December, 1837,
she was moored at Porter's store-house, Schlosser's Landing, having crossed the ferry several times during the day.
OF THE WAE OF 1812. 381
General Stephen Van Rensselaer. Weakness of the Niagara Frontier. General Dearborn's Instructions.
Niagara River, on the American side, was (and still is) Fort Niagara, a strong post,
erected by the combined skill and labor of the French and English engineers and
troops at different times.1 Just above the fort was the little village of Youngstown;
and opposite this, on the Canada shore, was Fort George. Between the fort and the
lake was the village of Newark, now Niagara. Along both banks of the river, its
whole length, a farming population was scattered. Such was the Niagara frontier
at the opening of the war of 1812. The reader will have occasion frequently to re
fer to the map of it on the following page.
Major General Stephen Van Rensselaer, appointed by Governor Tompkins the
commander-in-chief of the detached militia of the state, with Solomon Van Rensse
laer, the adjutant general of New York, as his aid and military adviser,2 and John
Lovett, of Troy, as his secretary, arrived at Fort Niagara on the 13th of August,3
and assumed command of the forces on that frontier. On the following day he made
his head-quarters at Lewiston, seven miles farther up the river. General Amos Hall,
commander of the militia of Western New York, was .then at the little hamlet of
Manchester, at Niagara Falls, with a few troops ; and detachments of the same kind
were scattered along the whole line of the river, a distance of thirty-five miles. But
the Avhole force in 'the field, to guard that frontier from a threatened invasion of the
enemy, did not amount to more than a thousand men.4 These were scantily clothed,
indifferently fed, and were clamorous for pay. There was not a single piece of heavy
ordnance along the entire frontier, nor artillerists to man the light field-pieces in their
possession. Of ammunition there were not ten rounds for each man. They had no
tents. The medical department was in a most destitute condition, and insubordina
tion was the rule and not the exception.5
General Dearborn had been instructed1 to make such demonstrations on a June 2c,
the frontier as should /^SSTC ^ie British, or
prevent re-enforcements /yy ;*s) j> .&s^>4 y£&-^4^i^7 their making a formida-
being sent to Maiden by ts ' c^€^f^Z^^~ ^£> hle movement against
Hull at Detroit. This duty was wholly neglected, and, as late as the 8th of Au
gust, the commanding general wrote to the Secretary of War, saying, " Till now
I did not consider the Niagara frontier as coming within the limits of my com
mand." This extraordinary assertion was made in the face of no less than five dis
patches from the War Department, in which such allusions were made to that frontier
as to expressly, or by implication, give him to understand that the entire line of the
Niagara River and the lakes were under his jurisdiction.6 And on the very next
The tavern there being crowded, several persons went on the boat to lodge for the night. At midnight a body of
armed men from the Canada shore came in a boat, rushed on board, exclaiming " Cut them down ! give no quarter !" and
chased the unarmed occupants astern. Some were severely injured, one man was shot dead on the wharf, and twelve
more were never heard of afterward. The boat was towed out into the river, set on fire, and left to the current above
the cataract. It sunk near Iris Island, and on the following morning charred remains of the vessel were seen below
the Falls. It was supposed that more than one of the missing men perished in the flames or the turbulent waters. At
one time the diplomatic correspondence between the two governments concerning this outrage threatened a war.
1 A particular account of the fort will be given hereafter.
2 General Stephen Van Rensselaer was not a military man. He was possessed of great wealth, extensive social influ
ence, and was a leading Federalist. His appointment was a stroke of policy to secure friends to the war among that
party. It was only on condition that Solomon Van Rensselaer, who had been in military service, should accompany
him, that he consented to take the post. It was well understood that Colonel Van Rensselaer would be the general, in
a practical military point of view.
3 On reaching Utica, on his way westward, General Van Rensselaer was called to Sackett's Harbor by rumors of hos
tile movements in that quarter. From there he went on a tour of inspection along the frontier to Ogdensburg, to learn
the condition of troops, and the means for offensive or defensive operatfons along the St. Lawrence frontier.
* See note 2, page 366.
s Narrative of the Affair at Queenstmon in the War of 1S12, by Solomon Van Rensselaer, page 10.
6 On the 26th of June the Secretary of War wrote to General Dearborn, then at Albany : " Your preparations, it is pre
sumed, will be made to move in a direction for Niagara, Kingston, and Montreal." On July 15th he wrote : " On your
arrival at Albany your attention will be directed to the security of the -northern frontier 6w the lakes." On the 20th he
wrote more explicitly, saying: "You will make such arrangements with Governor Tompkins as will place the militia
detached 6j/ him for the Niagara, and other posts on the lake under your control."1 July 29th he wrote : " Should it be ad
visable to make any other disposition of these restless people [the warriors of the Seneca Indians], you will give orders
to Mr. Granger and the commanding officer at Niaaara." On the 1st of August the same functionary wrote : "You will
make a diversion in favor of him [General Hull] at Niagara and Kingston as soon as may be practicable." Yet, with these
382
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The Niagara Frontier.
letters in his possession, General Dearborn, on the Sth of August, declared that until then he did "not consider the Ni
agara frontier as coming within the limits of his command !"
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 383
Effect of the Armistice. Solomon Van Rensselaer's Diplomacy. Service expected of the Army on the Niagara Frontier.
daya he signed an armistice agreeing to a cessation of hostilities along that » August 9,
entire dividing line between the two countries. That armistice still far
ther delayed preparations for offensive or defensive operations on the part of the
Americans, and, on the 1st of September, the entire effective force under General Van
Rensselaer on the Niagara frontier was only six hundred and ninety-one men, instead
of five thousand, as he had been promised I1 Notwithstanding Dearborn had been
ordered peremptorily to put an end to the armistice, he continued it until the 29th
of August,2 for the purpose, as he alleged,3 of forwarding stores to Sackett's Harbor
—a matter of small moment compared with the accruing disadvantages. Within the
period of the armistice, Brock was enabled, after the capture of Hull and the Terri
tory of Michigan, to return leisurely with his troops and prisoners to the Niagara
frontier. When the armistice was ended, and Van Rensselaer was so weak in men
and munitions of war, the British confronted him, on the opposite side of a narrow
river, with a well-appointed and disciplined, though small army, commanded by skill
ful and experienced officers, while every important point from Lake Ontario to Lake
Erie, along the British side of the Niagara, was carefully guarded or had been mate
rially strengthened.
Some of the most disastrous effects of the armistice were parried by a successful
effort at diplomacy on the part of Colonel Solomon Van Rensselaer, the commanding
general's aid, who was sent to Fort George to confer with the British general, Sheaffe,
on the details of the operations of that agreement. Van Rensselaer insisted upon the
unrestricted navigation of Lake Ontario for both parties, and this point was unex
pectedly yielded,4 restrictions upon the movements of troops, stores, etc., being con
fined to the country above Fort Erie. This was of vital importance to the Ameri
cans ; for the much-needed supplies for the army, ordnance, and other munitions of
war collected at Oswego could only be taken to the Niagara by water, the roads
were in such a wretched condition. By this arrangement, the vessels at Ogdensburg,
already mentioned, were released,5 to be converted into warriors ; and Colonel Fen-
wick, at Oswego, moved forward over the lake to Niagara with a large quantity of
supplies.
General Van Rensselaer6 was charged with the duty of not only defending the
frontier from invasion, but of an actual invasion of Canada himself. This was a part
of the original plan of the campaign. While Hull invaded the province from De
troit, it was to be penetrated on the Niagara and St. Lawrence frontiers. But Van
Rensselaer found himself in a most critical situation, and doubtful whether he could
even protect the soil of his own state from the foot of the invader. The arrival of
1 Van Rensselaer's Narrative, etc., p. 10.
2 On the 29th of August General Dearborn issued an order in which he declared the armistice at an end, and yet the
express bearing the order to the Niagara frontier did not reach General Van Rensselaer until the 12th of September.—
MS. Letter of Colonel Solomon Van Rensselaer to his Wife, dated Lewiston, September 12, 1S12.
3 Dearborn to the Secretary of War, August 27, 1812.
* This was on the 21st of August. Four days afterward General Brock arrived with Hull and the regulars of his army
as prisoners.
5 As soon as Van Rensselaer obtained the concession, an express was sent to Oswego, Sackett's Harbor, and Ogdens
burg, ordering those vessels up.
6 Stephen Van Rensselaer was the fifth in lineal descent from Killian Van Rensselaer, the earliest and best known
of the American Patroons. He was born at the manor-house in Albany, New York, on the first of November, 1TC4. Be
ing the eldest son, he inherited the immense estate of his father, and was the last of the Patroons. He was educated first
at Princeton College and then at Harvard University. He was graduated at the latter institution in 1782. He became
an active politician, and was a warm supporter of Washington and the national Constitution. In 1795 he was elected
lieutenant governor of his native state, and held the office six consecutive years. He was a rising man in the political
scale, when the overthrow of the Federal party in 1800 impeded his advancement. Although a Federalist and opposed
to the war in 1S12, when his country was committed to the measure he patriotically laid aside all party feelings and
gave it his hearty support. He was not a military man, and his appointment to the major generalship of the detached
militia was a stroke of policy rather than the deliberate choice of a good military leader. He did not long remain in
the service. He was in Congress during several consecutive sessions, and by his casting vote in the delegation of New
York he gave the presidency to John Quincy Adams in 1824. Then his political life closed. He was foremost in good
works. The " Rensselaer School" at Troy, New York, attests his liberality, and his activity in religious societies was
marked and useful. For many years he was President of the Board of Canal Commissioners. That was his position
at the time of his death, which occurred on the 2Cth of January, 1S40, in the seventy-fifth year of his age.
384
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Van Rensselaer calls for Re-enforcements. They come. Proposition to invade Canada. Van Rensselaer'e Letter.
Colonel Fenwick, on the 4th of September, with ordnance and stores gave some re
lief, but the evidence of preparations for invasion on the part of the British became
daily more and more positive and alarming.
At the middle of September Van
Rensselaer informed both Governor
Tompkins and General Dearborn of
the gloomy prospects before him, and
pleaded for re-enforcements, saying, "A
retrograde movement of this army up-
on the back of that disaster which has
befallen the one at Detroit would stamp
a stigma upon the national character
which time would never wipe away.
I shall therefore try to hold out against
superior force and every disadvantage
until I shall be re-enforced."1 But as
late as the 26th of September General
Dearborn could give him no sure prom
ises of timely re-enforcements, while in
the same letter that officer expressed
a hope that Van Rensselaer would not
only be able to meet the enemy, but
to carry the war into Canada. " At all
events," he said, "we must calculate
on possessing Upper Canada be
fore winter sets in."2
Soon after this regular troops
and militia began to arrive on
the Niagara frontier. The for
mer assembled at Buffalo and its
vicinity, the latter at Lewiston ;
" October 5, and when, in the first week of October,* General Van Rensselaer invited
Major General Hall, of the militia of Western New York, Brigadier Gen
eral Smythe, of the regular army and then inspector general, and the commandants
of the United States regiments to meet him in council, he proposed a speedy invasion
of Canada. " I propose," he said, " that we immediately concentrate the regular
force in the neighborhood of Niagara and the militia here [Lewiston], make the best
possible dispositions, and at the same time the regulars shall pass from Four-mile
Creek to a point in the rear of the works of Fort George and take it by storm ; I will
pass the river here, and carry the heights of Queenstown. Should we succeed, we
shall effect a great discomfiture of the enemy by breaking their line of communica
tion, driving their shipping from the mouth of this [Niagara] river, leaving them no
rallying-point in this part of the country, appalling the minds of the Canadians, and
opening a wide and safe communication for our supplies. We shall save our land,
wipe away part of the score of our past disgrace, get excellent barracks and winter
quarters, and at least be prepared for an early campaign another year."3 This pro
posed council was not held, owing to the failure of General Smyth to comply with
the request of General Van Rensselaer,4 and the latter was left wrholly to the re
sources of himself and his military family in forming his plans. They were delib
erately matured, and preparations for invading Canada went vigorously on. T6-
1 Letter to Governor Tompkius, September 17, 1812. 2 Dearborn to Van Rensselaer, September 2G, 1812.
3 Letter of General Van Rensselaer to General Dearborn, Lewiston, October 8, 1812.
* This will be noticed in the next chapter.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 385
Lieutenant Elliott on Lake Erie. Preparations for capturing British Vessels. Cp-operation of the Military.
ward the middle of October the American forces on the frontier were considered suf
ficient to warrant the undertaking.
While these preparations were in progress, a daring and successful exploit was per
formed near Buffalo, that won great applause for the actors and infused new spirit
into the troops. We have already observed that Lieutenant Jesse D. Elliott, of the
United States Navy, was sent by Commodore Chauncey to superintend the erection
of a fleet on Lake Erie. By a letter from the commander, dated the 7th of September,
he was instructed to report himself to General Van Rensselaer, on the Niagara frontier,
consult with him as to " the best position to build, repair, and fit for service" such
vessels as might be required to retain the command of Lake Erie, and, after selecting
such place, to " purchase any number of merchant vessels or boats that might be con
verted into vessels of war or gun-boats," with the advice of General Van Rensselaer,
and to commence their equipment immediately. He was also instructed to take
measures for the construction of two vessels of three hundred tons each, six boats of
considerable size, and quarters for three hundred men. These, and a variety of other
relevant duties, were committed to the charge of Lieutenant Elliott by Chauncey,
who said, " Knowing your zeal for the service and your discretion as an officer, I feel
every confidence in your industry and exertions to accomplish the object of your mis
sion in the shortest time possible."1 Elliott was then twenty-seven years of age.
Black Rock, two miles below Buffalo, was selected as the place for Lake Erie's first
clock-yard in fitting out a navy. While busily engaged there, early in October, in the
duties of his office, Elliott was informed that two British armed vessels had come
down the lake, and anchored under the guns of Fort Erie. These were the brigs
Adams, Lieutenant Rolette commander, and Caledonia, commanded by Mr. Irvine, the
former a prize captured when Hull surrendered, and its name was changed to Detroit,
the latter a vessel owned and employed by the Northwestern Fur Company on the
Upper Lakes.2 They were both well armed and manned,3 and it was understood
that the Caledonia bore a valuable cargo of skins from the forest. They appeared in
front of Fort Erie on the morning of the 8th of October, and the zealous Elliott, em
ulous of distinction, immediately conceived a plan for their capture. Timely aid
offered. On that very day a detachment of seamen for service under him arrived
from New York. They were unarmed, and Elliott turned to the military authorities
for assistance. Lieutenant Colonel Winfield Scott was at Black Rock. He entered
warmly into Elliott's plans, and readily obtained the consent of General Smyth, his
commanding officer, to lend his aid. Captain Towson, of the Engineers' Corps (2d
Regiment of Artillery), was detailed, with fifty men, for the service, and the cordial
acquiescence of General Smyth was evinced by a note, marked " confidential," to Col
onel Winder, of the 14th Regiment, then encamped near Buffalo, in which he said,
"Be pleased to turn out the hardy sailors in your regiment, and let them appear,
under the care of a non-commissioned officer, in front of my quarters, precisely at three
o'clock this evening. Send also all the pistols, swords, and sabres you can borrow at
the risk of the lenders, and such public swords as you have."4
Towson joined Elliott with arms and ammunition for the seamen, and both were
accompanied by citizens. The combined force, rank and file, Avas one hundred and
twenty-four men.5 All the preparations for the enterprise were completed by four
i Letter of Chauncey to Elliott, " Navy Yard, New York, September 7, 1812." 2 See page 270.
3 The Detroit mounted six 6-pounders and mustered fifty-six men, besides thirty American prisoners. The Caledo
nia mounted two small guns and mustered twelve men, besides ten American prisoners.
4 Manuscript Letter of General Smyth to Colonel Winder, October 8, 1812. It is proper here to remark that, through
the kind offices of Mrs. Aurelia Winder Townsend, of Oyster Bay, Long Island, daughter of General Winder, the papers
of that gallant officer were placed in my possession. Free use has been made of them in the course of this work.
6 Lieutenant Elliott, in his official report to the Secretary of the Navy, October 9, 1812, says there were one hundred
in the expedition— fifty in each boat. The list furnished by him, and here given in fall, makes the number one hund
red and twenty-four, as follows :
Commajulcrs, Jesse D. Elliott, Isaac Chauncey.
Sailing-masters, George Watts, Alexander Sisson.
BB
386 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Capture of the Adams and Caledonia. Names of the Captors. Excitement at Buffalo. Isaac Roach.
o'clock in the afternoon. Two large boats had been fitted up at Shogeoquady1 Creek,
just below Black Rock, and then were taken to the mouth of Buffalo Creek in the
evening. The expedition embarked at midnight, and at one o'clock in the morn-
• October 9, inga it left the creek silently, while scores of people on shore, who knew
that an important movement was on foot, waited with anxiety in the
gloom. At three o'clock the sharp crack of a pistol, followed by the flash and roll
of a volley of musketry, a dead silence, and the moving of two dark objects down the
river, proclaimed that the enterprise had been successful. A shout of joy rang out
upon the night air from the shore between Buffalo and Black Rock, and lanterns and
torches in abundance flashed light across the stream to illuminate the way of the
victors.2 The surprise and success were complete. The vessels were captured and
the men in them made prisoners. " In less than ten minutes," wrote Elliott, " I had
the prisoners all seized, the topsails sheeted home, and the vessels under weigh."3
The Detroit was taken by the boat conducted by Elliott in person, assisted by Lieu
tenant Roach,4 of the Engineers, and the Caledonia by the other boat conducted by
Sailing-master Watts,5 assisted by the military under Captain ToAvson. The first
Avas taken Avith scarcely any opposition, the second after very brief resistance. The
wind was light — too light to allow the ATessels thereby to stem the current and reach
the open lake ; so they ran doAvn the stream in the darkness, but not without annoy
ance. The turmoil of the capture, the shouts of the citizens at Black Rock and Buf
falo, and the display of lights along the American shore, called every British officer
and soldier to his post. The guns of Fort Erie, of tAvo or three batteries, and of fly-
Captain of Engineers and Marines, N. Towson.
Lieutenant of Engineers and Marines, Isaac Roach.
Master's Mates, William Peckham, J. E. M'Douald, John S. Cummings, Edward Wilcox.
Ensign, William Presman.
Boatswain's Mates, Lawrence Hanson, John Rack, James Morrell.
Quarter Gunners, Benjamin Tallman, Bird, Hawk, Noland, Vincent, Osborn, M'Cobbin, John Wheeler.
Seamen, Edward Police, James Williams, Robert Craig, John M'Intire, Elisha Atwood, AVilliam Edward, Michael S.
Brooks, William Roe, Henry Anderson, Christopher Bailey, John Exon, John Lewis.William Barker, Peter Davis, Peter
Deist, Lemuel Smith, Abraham Patch, Benjamin Myrick, Robert Peterson, Benjamin Fleming, Gardiner Gaskill, An
thony De Kruse, William Dickson, Thomas Hill, John Reynolds, Abraham Fish, Jerome Sardie, John Tockum, William
Anderson, John Jockings, Thomas Bradley, Hatten Armstrong.
Soldiers, Jacob Webber, Jesse Green, Henry Thomas, George Gladden, James Murray, Samuel Baldwin, John Hen-
drick, Peter Evans, William Fortune, Daniel Martin, John M'Guard, Samuel Fortune, John Garling, Zachariah Wise, John
Kearns, Thomas Wallager, Thomas Houragna, Peter Peroe, Edward Mahoney, Daniel Holland, Mathias Wineman, Mo
ses Goodwin, Lishurway Lewis, AVilliam Fisher, John Fritch, James Roy, James M'Gee, James M'Crossan, AVilliam Wei-
mer, Thomas Leister, Joseph Davis, Benjamin Thomas, James M'Donald, Thomas Ruark, J. Wicklin, AV. Richards,
James Tomlin, James Boyd, James Neal, John Gidleman, William Knight, M. Parish, James M'Coy, Daniel Fraser, John
House, Jacob Stewart, William Kemp, Hugh Robb, Anson Crosswell, Charles Lewis, John Shields, Charles Le Forge,
John Joseph, Henry Berthold, James Lee, Isaac Murrows, George Eaton, Thomas C. Leader, William Cowenhoven,
John J. Lord, Charles Le Frand, Elisha Cook, John Tolenson, John G. Stewart, William Fryer, Cyreuus Chapin, Alex
ander M'Comb, Thomas Davis, Peter Orenstock, William C. Johnson.
I am indebted to Colonel Gleason F. Lewis, of Cleveland, for the above " Roll of Honor," and I take pleasure in here
acknowledging my indebtedness to that gentleman for many kind services in aid of my labors. His attention to the
business of procuring pensions and bounties for the soldiers of the War of 1S12 and their families for many years, gives
him, probably, a more thorough knowledge of that subject, as relates to the Army of the Northwest, than any other
man in the country.
1 This is an Indian word, and is variously spelled Shogeoquady, Shojeoquady, Seajaquady, and Skajoekuda.
= Reminiscences of Buffalo, by Henry Lovejoy. 3 Letter to the Secretary of the Navy, October 9, 1812.
* Isaac Roach was born in the District of Southwark, Philadelphia, on the 24th of February, 1786. After the attack
on the Cltesapeake in 1807 [see page 157], Roach, then twenty-one years of age, organized an artillery company in Phil
adelphia. In 1812 he obtained the appointment of second lieutenant in the Second Regiment U. S. Artillery, and joined
that regiment under Lieutenant Colonel Scott in July. He volunteered to accompany the expedition against the Brit
ish brigs, and led fifty of his associates in the attack. He was then adjutant of the regiment ; and so anxious were the
men to accompany him, that when he passed along the line to select them, his ears were saluted with the exclamations,
" Can't I go, sir ?"— " Take me, Adjutant"—" Don't forget M'Gee"—" I'm a Philadelphia boy," etc. Roach was wound
ed in the battle at Q.ueenstown soon afterward, and he returned home. He soon afterward joined the staff of General
Izard. He was made a prisoner at the Beaver Dams the next year. He had many adventures in attempts to escape,
and was finally successful. He was about to take the field under General Scott as assistant adjutant general, when
peace came. He commanded successively Forts M'Heury, Columbus, and Mifflin, until 1823, when he was commissioned
major by brevet. He retired from the army in 1824. In 1838 he was elected Mayor of Philadelphia, and was appointed
Treasurer of the Mint soon afterward. lie died December 29, 1S4S.
5 Watts was killed on the 28th of November following, while assisting Lieutenant Holdup and others in spiking some
cannon at the little village of Waterloo, on the Canada side of the Niagara, a short distance below Fort Erie. The ball
that killed Watts passed through Holdup's hand. The former died in the arms of the latter.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
A Struggle for the Possession of a Vessel. Gallantry of the Combatants. Losses of Men in the Conflict.
ing artillery, all guided by the lights that gleamed over the waters, were brought
to bear upon the vessels.1 The Detroit was compelled to anchor within reach of the
enemy's guns, while the Caledonia ran ashore, and was beached under the protection
of the guns of an American battery between Buffalo and Black Rock.2 The guns of
the Detroit were all removed to her larboard side, and a mutual cannonading was
kept up for some time.3 Efforts were made by tow-line and warps to haul her to the
American shore. These failed ; and, regarding the destruction of the Detroit as cer
tain in her exposed position, Elliott cut her cable and set her adrift. At that mo
ment he discovered that his pilot had left. For ten minutes she went blindly down
the swift current, and then brought up on the west side of Squaw Island, near the
American shore, but still exposed to the guns of the enemy.4 The prisoners, forty-
six in number, were immediately landed below Squaw Island, but the current was so
strong that the boats could not return to the vessel. She was soon boarded by a
party of the British Forty-ninth Regiment, then stationed at Fort Erie, but they were
driven off by some citizen soldiers of Buffalo, who, with a six-pound field-piece, crossed
over to Squaw Island in a scow and boldly attacked them.5 She was then placed
in charge of Lieutenant Colonel Scott, at Black Rock, who gallantly defended her.
Each party resolved that the other should not possess her, and the cannons of both
were brought to bear upon the doomed vessel during the remainder of the day. At
a little after sunset Sir Isaac Brock arrived, and made preparations to renew the at
tempt to recover the Detroit, with the aid of the crew of the Lady Prevost ; but be
fore these were perfected a party of the Fifth United States Infantry set her on fire
and she was consumed.6 The Caledonia was saved, and afterward performed good
service in Perry's fleet on Lake Erie.
In this really brilliant affair the Americans lost only two killed and five wounded.
The loss of the British is not known.7 The Caledonia was a rich prize, her cargo
1 The movements on the Canadian shore were under the direction of the gallant Major Ormsby, the British com
mandant there. The first shot from the flying artil
lery crossed the river and instantly killed the brave
Major William Howe Cuyler, of Ontario, General
Hall's aid-de-camp, who had taken a deep interest
in the expedition. He had been in the saddle all
night, and had just left a warehouse where rigging
was procured for warping in the Detroit, and was
guiding the vessels with a lantern in his hand, when
the fatal ball struck him and he fell dead. His
body was carried by Captain Benjamin Bidwell and others to the house of Nathaniel Sill. The death of the gallant and
accomplished Cuyler was widely mourned. Obituary notices appeared in the newspapers ; and " The War," printed in
Kew York, published a poem 'To the Memory of Major Cuyler," in six stanzas, in which the following lines occur:
"In Freedom's virtuous cause alert he rose,
In Freedom's virtuous cause undaunted bled ;
He died for Freedom 'midst a host of foes,
And found on Erie's beach an honored bed."
2 She was grounded a little above what is now the foot of Albany Street. The injured on board the Caledonia were
brought on shore in a boat. It could not quite reach the land on account of shoal water, when Doctor Josiah Trow-
bridge, yet [186T] a resident of Buffalo, waded in and bore some of them to dry land 011 his back. They were taken to
the house of Orange Dean, at the old ferry (now foot of Fort Street, opposite the angle in Niagara Street), and well
cared for. While Doctor Trowbridge was taking a musket-ball from the neck of a wounded man, a twenty- four-pound
shot entered the house, struck a chimney just over their heads, and covered them with bricks, mortar, and splinters.
Another shot of the same weight demolished a trunk on the deck of the Caledonia, scattered its contents, consisting of
ladies' wearing apparel, among the rigging, passed on, and was buried in the banks of the river. Two small boys (Cyrus
K. St. John and Henry Lovejoy), who came down from Buffalo to see the fight, exhumed the shot and carried it home
as a trophy of thejr valor. — Narrative of Henry Lovejoy.
3 Elliott, who was on board the Detroit, hailed the British commander, and threatened to place his prisoners on the
decks if he did not cease firing. The enemy disregarded the menace. "One single moment's reflection," said Elliott
in his official dispatch, " determined me not to commit an act that would subject me to the imputation of barbarity."
4 Her position was nearly opposite Pratt's Iron Works.
5 These were principally members of an independent volunteer company of Buffalo, of which the late Ebenezer Wai-
den was commander. They first brought their six-pounder to bear upon the enemy at the point where the Black Rock
Ice-house stood in 1SGO, Doctor Trowbridge acting as gunner. When the regular gunner came they crossed over to
Squaw Island.— Statement of Doctor Trowbridge to the Author.
« Through the intrepidity of Sailing-master Watts, some of her guns were taken out of her during the cannonade, and
saved to do excellent duty in a land-battery between Black Rock and Buffalo.
' Elliott's official Letter to the Secretary of the Navy, October 9, 1812 ; Cooper's Naval Hwtory, ii., B31 ; Letter of Gen
eral Sir Isaac Brock to Sir George Prevost, October 11, 1S12, quoted in Tupper's Life of Brock, page 313.
388
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Elliott and his Companions.
Expression of the Gratitude of the Nation by Congress.
Jan. 26,
1813.
being valued at two hundred thousand dollars,
and British — on this
occasion was highly
commendable. El
liott1 made special
mention of several of
his companions,2 and
Congress,*
by a vote,
awarded to that offi
cer their thanks, and
a sword, with suita
ble emblems and de
vices.3 The exploit
sent a thrill of joy
throughout the Unit
ed States, because it
promised speedy suc
cess in efforts to ob
tain the mastery of
.Ti:ssi: 1). KLLIOTT.
The gallantry of all — Americans
Lake Erie, while it
produced a corre
sponding depression
on the other side, for
a similar reason.
" The event is partic
ularly unfortunate,"
wrote General Brock,
"and may reduce us
to incalculable dis
tress. The enemy is
making every exer
tion to gain a naval
superiority on both
lakes, which, if they
accomplish it, I do
not see how we can
possibly retain the
country."4
1 Jesse Duncan Elliott was born in Maryland in 1T85. He entered the naval service of the United States as midship
man in April, 180C, and in 1810 was promoted to lieutenant. After his gallant exploit near Buffalo he joined Chauncey
at Sackettjs Harbor. In July, 1813, he was promoted to master commandant over thirty lieutenants, and appointed to
the comin'and of the brig Niagara, 20, built on Lake Erie. He was second in command in Perry's engagement on the
10th of September, 1813,
and for his conduct on
that occasion Congress
voted him a gold medal.
After that battle he re
turned to Lake Ontario,
and was there actively
employed until Novem
ber the same year, when
he was assigned the com
mand of the sloop-of-war
Ontario, then just com
pleted at Baltimore. This
vessel was one of Deca-
tur's squadron that performed good service in the Mediterranean Sea in 1S15. Elliott was promoted to the rank of cap
tain in 1818, and subsequently had command of squadrons on several stations, as well as of the navy yards at Boston
and Philadelphia. On account of alleged misconduct in the Mediterranean, he was tried by a court-martial in 1S40. The
result was a sentence of four years' suspension from the service. In 1843 the President remitted the remainder of his
suspension. He died on the 18th of December, 1845. Commodore Elliott became involved in a controversy concern
ing his conduct in the Battle of Lake Erie, which ceased only with his death. That controversy, and the excitement
growing out of his placing an image of President Jackson on the Constitution frigate as a figure-head, will be noticed
hereafter.
3 He specially commended for their gallant services Captain Towson and Lieutenant Roach, of the Second Regiment
of Artillery ; Ensign Prestman, of the Infantry : Captain Chapin, and Messrs. John Macomb, John Town, Thomas Dain,
Peter Overstocks, and James Sloan, residents of Buffalo. He also particularly noticed Sailing-master Watts, who com
manded the boat that boarded the Caledonia.
3 Journal of Congress, January 26, 1813.
, * Letter of General Brock to Sir George Prevost, October 11, 1812.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 389
Impatience of the People and the Troops. Bad Conduct of General Smyth. His Letter to General Van Rensselaer.
CHAPTER XIX.
" September the thirteenth, at midnight so dark,
Our troops on the River Niagara embark'd ;
The standard of Britain resolved to pull down,
And drive the proud foes from the heights of Queenstown."
OLD SONG — TIIE HEKOES OF QUEENSTOWN.
^ several weeks General Van Rensselaer had felt the pressure
of public impatience, manifested by letters and the press. It
had been engendered by the extreme tardiness displayed in the
collection of troops on the frontier for the invasion of Canada,
about which much had been said and written menacingly, boast
fully, and deprecatory. That impatience had begun to be seri
ously manifested by his troops early in October.1 Homesick
ness, domestic claims, idleness in the camp, and bodily sufferings
and growing inclemency of the season, combined to affect the temper of the men
most injuriously. Their calls to be led to battle became daily more and more urgent
and imperious, until the volcanic fires of mutiny completely undermined the camp,
and threatened a total overthrow of the general's authority. He perceived the ne
cessity of striking the enemy at once at some point, or allow his army to dissolve, and
all the toils and expenses of the campaign to be lost. He formed his plans, and, as
we have observed, endeavored to counsel with the field officers under his command,
but failed. General Alexander Smyth, his second in command, had lately arrived.
He was a proud * pirant for the
Virginian, an ///7 /? // chief command
officer of the .^^/(M/ Q ^7 ;Mr S on *^e fr°ntier-
regular army (_^/ *&&£ &r?^&-^y J#y?rvy/'/C.S Unlike the true
(inspector gen- /f soldier and pat-
eral), and an as- riot, he could
not bend to the necessity of obedience to a militia general, especially one of Northern
birth and a leading Federalist, who, for the time, was made his superior in rank and
position. His temper was exhibited in his letter to Van Rensselaera , september 20,
announcing his arrival on the frontier.2 It was supercilious, dictatorial, 1812-
1 General Van Rensselaer was placed in a most delicate situation. It was well known that, politically, both he and
his aid, Colonel Solomon Van Rensselaer, had been opposed to the war, and the unavoidable delays were construed by
some into intentional immobility in order to frustrate the designs of the government. These suspicions were unjust
and ungenerous in the extreme, for no purer patriot and conscientious and truthful man than Stephen Van Rensselaer
ever lived. "A flood of circumstances," wrote Lovett, Van Rensselaer's secretary, "such as a great desire for forage,
for provisions, for every thing to make man comfortable ; the most inclement storm which I ever experienced at this
season of the year ; indeed, innumerable circumstances had convinced the general, as early as the beginning of the
month, that a blow must be struck, or the army would break up in confusion, with intolerable imputations on his own
character."— Manuscript Letter to Abraham Van Vechten, Buffalo, October, 21, 1812.
2 The following is a copy of General Smyth's letter :
" I have been ordered by Major General Dearborn to Niagara, to take command of a brigade of United States troops,
and directed, on my arrival in the vicinity of vonr quarters, to report myself to you, which I now do. I intended to have
reported myself personally, but the conclusions I have drawn as to the interests of the service have determined me to
stop at this place for the present. From the description I have had of the river below the Falls, the view of the shore
below Fort Erie, and the information received as to the preparations of the enemy, I am of opinion that our crossing
should be effected between Fort Erie and Chippewa. It has, therefore, seemed to me proper to encamp the United
States troops near Buffalo, there to prepare for offensive operations. Your instructions or better information may decide
you to give me different orders, which I will await."
This letter was offensive, first, because the subordinate officer not only failed to report himself in person, as he was
bound in duty to do, but assumed perfect independence by choosing his own theatre of action ; and, secondly, because
the writer, an entire stranger to the country, just arrived, went out of his way to intrude his opinions upon his com
manding general as to military operations, when he knew that that general had been there for weeks, and was neces-
390
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Smyth's Insubordination.
Van Kensselaer prepares to attack Queenston.
His effective Force.
and inipertinent, and gave ample assurance that he would not cordially co-operate
with the chief in command. So undutiful was his conduct that many were of opinion
that coercive measures should be used to bring him to a sense of duty.1 When polite
ly requested by Van Rensselaer to name a day for a council of officers, he neglected
to do so. Day after day passed, and Smyth made no definite reply, when the com
manding general resolved to act upon his own responsibility, and " gratify his own
inclinations and that of his army" by commencing offensive operations at once. On
the 10th of October he pi-epared to attack the British at Queenston, opposite Lewis-
ton, before dawn the next morning.2
QUEENSTON IN
Van Rensselaer considered his forces ample to assure him of success. They num
bered more than six thousand. Sixteen hundred and fifty regulars, under General
Smyth, were between Black Rock and Buffalo, commanded by Colonels Winder, Park
er, and Milton, and Lieutenant Colonel Scott. In the vicinity were three hundred
and eighty-six militia, under Lieutenant Colonels Swift and Hopkins. At Lewiston,
where Van Rensselaer had his head-quarters, Brigadier General Wadsworth com-
sarily familiar with every rood of the ground and every disposition of the enemy. Van Rensselaer, true gentleman as
he was, quietly rebuked the impertinence by informing General Smyth that for many years he had had " a general
knowledge of the banks of the Niagara Eiver and of the adjacent country on the Canada shore," and that he had now
" attentively explored the American side with the view of military operations." " However willing I may be," he said,
" as a citizen soldier, to surrender my opinion to a professional one, I commonly make such surrender to an opinion de
liberately formed upon a view of the whole ground All my past measures have been calculated for one point,
and I now only wait for a' competent force. As the season of the year and every consideration urges me to act with
promptness, I can not hastily listen to a change of position, mainly connected with a new system of measures and the
very great inconvenience of the troops."— Van Rensselaer to Smyth, 30th September, 1812.
Speaking of the conduct of General Smyth on this occasion, a contemporary officer says, "It is presumed this temper
produced a spirit of insubordination destructive to the harmony and concert which is essential to cordial co-operation,
and that the public service was sacrificed to personal sensibility."— Wilkinson's Memoir, i., 5G6. "Was I to hazard an
opinion," says Wilkinson in another place, "it should be that his designs were patriotic, but that his ardor obscured
his judgment, and that he was more indiscreet than culpable." — Memoirs, i., 581.
1 A Narrative of the Affair at Queemtown in the War of 1812, by Solomon Van Eensselaer, page 19.
2 Queenston (originally Queen's Town) was at this time a thriving little village, and one of the principal depots for
merchandise and grain in that region. Its prosperity was paralyzed by the Welland Canal, which cut off most of its
trade. The view here given is from a sketch made in 1812, from the north part of the village, looking southward
up the Niagara River. On the right are seen the Heights of Queenston, and on the left the heights of Lewiston. The
river is here about six hundred feet in width. The village was upon a plain of uneven surface at the foot of the Heights.
This plain at Queenston is seventy feet above the river, and slopes gradually to the lake, where the bank is only a few
feet above the water. The Heights rise two hundred and thirty feet above the river.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
391
The British Force on the Niagara Frontier.
Van Rensselaer's Knowledge of the Situation.
manded a corps of militia almost seventeen hundred strong, and near him was the
camp of Brigadier General Miller, with almost six hundred men. Five hundred
and fifty regulars under ^ under Major Mullany,
Lieutenant Colonel Fen- / /^ /^J^^^ * /? were in garrison at Fort
wick, and eight hundred \/^rl^L^^.'y^^'. t+J t^C//^ Xiagara. There were,
of the same class of troops *** in the aggregate, three
thousand six hundred and fifty regulars, and two thousand six hundred and fifty
militia.
The British force on the western bank of the Niagara River, regular militia and In
dians, numbered about fifteen hundred. Their Indian allies, under John Brant, were
about two hundred and fifty strong. Small garrisons held Fort Erie, at the foot of
Lake Erie, and two or three batteries, on rising ground, opposite Black Rock. The
erection of Fort Erie had then just been commenced, but for want of funds had been
left unfinished. Major Armand commanded there. A small detachment of the 41st
Regiment, under Captain Bullock, and the flank companies of the 2d Regiment of the
Lincoln Militia, under Captains Hamilton and Roe, was at Chippewa, where there was
a dilapidated old block-house called Fort Welland. The flank companies of the 49th
Regiment, under Captains Dennis and Williams, and a considerable body of militia,
were at Queenston, and, with the exception of detached parties of militia along the
whole line of the river to watch the movements of the Americans, the remainder were
at Fort George, the
head-quarters of Ma
jor General Brock,un-
der General Sheaffe.
At every mile be
tween Fort George
and Queenston, bat
teries were thrown
up. On Queenston
Heights, south of
the village, and half
way up the mount
ain, was a redan bat
tery, mounting some
1 8-pounders and two
howitzers ; and on
Vrooman ' s Point, 1
about a mile below,
was another battery,
on which was mount
ed a twenty - four -
pound carronade en
barbette. This gun commanded both Lewiston and Queenston Landing.
Van Rensselaer had made. himself thoroughly acquainted with the condition of the
enemy. His officers, while on official visits to the various posts, had been vigilant
and observing,2 and he was so well satisfied that a favorable time for an invasion of
1 The picture represents a view of the Niagara River and shores from Vroomau's Point. In the foreground are
the remains of the battery. On the right is seen Queenston and the Heights, with Brock's monument ; on the left,
Lewiston and its heights ; and in the centre, Niagara River and the Lewiston Suspension Bridge. We are looking
southward, up the Niagara River.
2 Colonel Solomon Van Rensselaer, who visited the British head-qnarters on business several times, says that on
the last occasion he saw two beautiful brass howitzers, of small size, calculated to be carried on pack-horses, the
wheels about the size of a wheel-barrow. He remarked to Colonel M'Donell and other British officers who accompanied
him, " These, at all events, are old acquaintances of mine. I feel partial to them, and must try to take them back." He
recognized them as formerly belonging to Wayne's army when he was in service under him. They were among the
VIEW FBOM THE SITE OF VKOOMAN'S BATTERY.
392 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Preparations to cross the River. Treason or Cowardice of Lieutenant Sims. The Expedition delayed. A Council.
Canada had arrived that he made arrangements on the 10th of October to assail
Queenston at three o'clock the next morning.1 During that evening thirteen large
boats, capable of bearing three hundred and forty full-armed and equipped men, were
brought down on wagons from Gill's Creek, two miles above the Falls, and placed in
the river at Lewiston Landing, under cover of intense darkness. The flying artillery
under Lieutenant Colonel Fen wick, and a detachment of regulars under his command,
were ordered up from Fort Niagara, and General Smyth was directed to send down
detachments from his brigade at Buffalo to support the movement. Colonel Solomon
Van Rensselaer was appointed to the command of the invading force,2 an arrange
ment which seems to have given umbrage to some of the officers of the regular army
on the frontier.
The river at Lewiston, at the foot of the lower rapids, is always a sheet of violent
eddies, the middle current running about four miles an hour. To prevent confusion
and disaster, experienced boatmen were procured, and the command of the flotilla
was intrusted to Lieutenant Sims, who was considered " the man of the greatest skill
for the service."3 Before midnight every thing was in readiness. Clouds had been
gathering in immense masses all the evening, and at one in the morning a furious
northeast storm of wind and rain was sweeping over the country. But the zeal of
the troops was not cooled by the drenching rain. At the appointed hour they were
all at the place of debarkation, with Van Rensselaer at their head. Lieutenant Sims
entered the foremost boat, and soon disappeared in the gloom. The others could not
follow, for he had taken nearly all the oars with him ! They waited for him to dis
cover and correct his mistake, but in vain. He went far above the intended crossing-
place, moored his boat to the shore, and fled as fast as the legs of a traitor or coward
could carry him. The soldiers endured the fierce blasts and the falling flood until
almost daylight, when they were marched to their respective cantonments, and the
enterprise was for a moment abandoned. The storm continued unabated twenty-
eight hours, and during that time all the soldiers remained in their deluged camps.
The general-in-chief again determined to seek the council of his brother officers,
hoping the patience of his troops would brook farther delay. He was mistaken. The
miscarriage and the desertion of Sims increased their ardor, and Van Rensselaer
O '
found himself compelled to renew the attempt at invasion immediately. He was
willing, for valuable re-enforcements were near. Lieutenant Colonel Chrystie had
arrived at Four-mile Creek
late in the evening of the
10th,Avith three hundred and
fifty newly - enlisted regu
lars, a part of the Thirteenth
Regiment of Infantry, com
manded respectively by Captains Wool, Ogilvie, Malcolm, Lawrence, and Armstrong,
with thirty boats and military stores. Chrystie had hastened to head-quarters, and
offered the services of himself and men in the execution of the enterprise in hand, but
he was too late. Every arrangement was completed. Colonel Van Rensselaer was
British trophies of victory taken at Detroit, and were brought down to be sent to England. Nicholas Gray, who was
inspector general of New York the following year, with the rank of colonel, and who was then acting engineer, made
a valuable reconnoissance of the whole frontier. His manuscript report to General Van Rensselaer is before me. His
outline map, accompanying the report, I found useful in constructing the Map of the Niagara Frontier on page 382.
1 Van Rensselaer was deceived by an erroneous report of a spy whom he had sent across the river on the morning of
the 10th to gain information. He returned with the false report that General Brock, with all his disposable force, had
moved off in the direction of Detroit.
2 General Van Rensselaer's Letter to the Secretary of War, October 14, 1S12.
3 On that evening Colonel Van Rensselaer wrote to his wife : " I go to storm an important post of the enemy. Young
Lush and Gansevoort attend me. I must succeed, or you, my dear Harriet, will never see me again. If so, let me en
treat you to meet my fall with fortitude ; and be assured, my dear, lovely, but unfortunate wife, that my last prayer
will be for you and my dear children." — MS. Letter, Lewiston, October 10, 1812. This letter is before me. It is mucli
blotted by the tears of the soldier's wife, as I was informed by her daughter.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 393
Second Attempt to invade Canada. Military Etiquette. Colonel Scott at Schlosser.
moving with his men to the landing-place, where only boats enough for the transpor
tation of the troops appointed for the perilous service had been provided.
When the storm abated immediate preparations were made for the" second attempt
at invasion. Brock was watching the Americans with the eye of a vigilant and skill
ful commander. The river that divided the belligerents was narrow, and every open
movement by each party might be observed by the other. Preparations were there
fore made with great caution. Brock was deceived. The strong force at Fort Ni-
o o
agara, and the detention of Chrystie's troops at Four-mile Creek, made him suspect
that an attack, if made soon, would be upon Fort George.
Three o'clock in the morning of the 13th was the appointed hour for the expedi
tion to embark from the old Ferry -house at Lewiston Landing for the base of Queens-
ton Heights. The command was again intrusted to Colonel Solomon Van Rensse-
laer. Lieutenant Colonel Chrystie was exceedingly anxious to have the honor of
chief in the enterprise, and pleaded his rank and experience, as compared with that
of the aid-de-camp of the general-in-chief, in favor of his claim. But Van Rensselaer
would not change his general arrangements. It was agreed, however, that Colonel
Van Rensselaer should lead a column of three hundred militia, and Lieutenant Col
onel Chrystie should lead another composed of the same number of regulars, so that
each might share in the hazards and glory of the expedition. Chrystie refused to
waive his rank in favor of Van Rensselaer, but consented to receive orders from him.
This technical distinction between waiving of rank and yielding obedience may be
clear to military minds, but it is quite imperceptible to the common sense of a ci
vilian.
At an early hour in the evening of the 12th,a Chrystie marched with three a October,
hundred men from Fort Niagara by an interior road, and reached Lewiston
before midnight. Lieutenant Colonels Stranahan, Mead, and Bloom, with three regi
ments, marched at about the same time from Niagara Falls,1 and also reached Lew
iston in good season. Meanwhile Lieutenant Colonel Scott had arrived at Schlosser,
two miles above the Falls, at the head of his regiment, where he was informed that
an expedition against the enemy of some kind was in motion at Lewiston.2 Young,
1 To avoid attracting the attention of the British, these regiments left the Falls at different hours ; Stranahan's start
ed at seven in the evening, Mead's at eight, and Bloom's at nine.
2 This fact was communicated to Scott by Colonel James Collier, now (1SGT) a citizen of Steubenville, Ohio. "He
was adjutant of the same regiment (Colonel Henry Bloom's) wherein I was paymaster," wrote Arad Joy, Esq., of Ovid,
New York, to the author in March, 1352. In a letter to me, written on the 20th of February, 1SCO, Colonel Collier says :
"The regiment to which I was attached was stationed at the Falls. I had been down to head-quarters at Lewiston,
seven miles below, on the 12th of October, and the orders for the marching of the troops at the Falls for that place were
confided to me. About sunset I rode up to the head of the Rapids, a mile above our camp, and was surprised to see a
detachment of troops pitching their tents. The officer in command, whom I did not then know, but who, I thought,
was the finest specimen of a man I ever saw, was standing alongside of his horse near by. His rank I knew from
his dress. I rode up to him and inquired if he was encamping for the night. 'Yes,' he replied. 'Then, sir,' I said,
' I think you can not we were to cross the
know what is to be go- .f river the next morn
ing on in the morn- /V ^^ ^ ing and attack the en-
ing.' 'No, sir,' he (f /O^o /> .^^a^/-^/ emy on the Heights of
said, ' I have not heard ^J t^s 4^ *^i «•— ^ y ^^^^^\^^} Queenston; that I had
from head-quarters for Sjf I the o r d e r s for the
several days. Is there // I marching of the troops
any thing in the wind, (^ ^--- to that post, but that,
sir?' I remarked that of course, they did not
include his command. 'I am Colonel Scott,' he said ; 'will you allow me to look at your orders?' They were hand
ed to him, and the moment he had read them he was in the saddle, his tenis were struck, and his command under ,
marching orders. The next I saw of the gallant soldier was on the Heights of Queenston in a perfect blaze of fire, and
then, as now, head and shoulders taller than any man in the country."
Many years afterward, when Scott, as a major general, was bearing more years and many honors, Colonel Collier met
him in Washington City, and the first words Scott addressed to him were, " I was indebted to you for my first fight. I
have always felt under great obligations to you. If it had not been for you, colonel, what would have been my posi
tion ? Seven miles from the battle-field, sir, and the first battle of a campaign ! Why, sir, I should never have got over
it during my life !" " It is pleasant now," wrote Colonel Collier, " in the sunset of my days, to recall this little inci
dent, connected as it is with the greatest captain of the age in which he lives." A few months after receiving this let
ter, I had the pleasure of spending a day or two with Colonel Collier at Cleveland, on the occasion of the inauguration
of the statue of Commodore Perry. He is a hale, erect gentleman, of what is called " the old school" in manners, and
most delightful entertainer of company in conversation.
394 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Colonel Scott on Lewiston Heights. Passage of the River in the Dark. Landing at the Foot of Queenston Heights.
ardent, and eager for adventure and glory, he immediately mounted his horse, and
dashed toward head-quarters as speedily as the horrid condition of the road would
allow. He presented himself to the commanding general, and earnestly solicited the
privilege of taking a part in the invasion with his command. " The arrangements
for the expedition are all completed, sir," said General Van Rensselaer. " Colonel
Van Rensselaer is in chief command. Lieutenant Colonels Chrystie and' Fenwick
have waived their rank for the occasion, and you may join the expedition as a volun
teer, if you will do the same." Van Rensselaer wisely determined not to have a di
vided command. Scott was unwilling to yield his rank ; but he pressed his suit so
warmly that it was agreed that he should bring on his regiment, take position on the
heights of Lewiston with his cannon, and co-operate in the attack as circumstances
might warrant. Scott hastened back to Schlosser, put his regiment in motion, and
by a forced march through the deep mud reached Lewiston at four o'clock in the
a October is, morning. a Again he importuned for permission to participate directly in
the enterprise, but in vain. His rank would be equal, on the field, to that
of Colonel Van Rensselaer, who had originated and planned the whole aflair,1 and
who the commanding general resolved should have the honor of winning the laurels
to be obtained by leadership.
The night of the 12th was intensely dark, yet every thing was in readiness for the
invasion at a little after three o'clock in the morning. b Mr. Cook, a citi
zen of Lewiston, had assumed the direction of the boats, and provided
men to man them ; Mr. Lovett, Van Rensselaer's secretary, had been placed in charge
of an eighteen-pound gun in battery on Lewiston Heights, with instructions to cover
the landing of the Americans on the Canada shore; and the six hundred men, under
Van Rensselaer and Chrystie, were standing in a cold storm of wind and rain at the
place of embarkation. It had been arranged for them to cross over and storm and
take possession of Queenston Heights, when the remainder of the troops were to fol
low in a body and drive the British from the town. But there were only thirteen
boats, and these were not sufficient to carry more than about one half of the troops
intended for the capture of the Heights.2 The regulars having reached the boats
first, the companies of Wool, Malcolm, and Armstrong were immediately embarked,
with forty picked men from Captain Leonard's company of artillery at Fort Niagara,
under Lieutenants Gansevoort and Rathbone, and about sixty militia. When all
were ready, Van Rensselaer gave the word to advance, and leaped into the boat con
taining the artillerists. Major Morrison was ordered to follow with the remainder
of the troops on the return of the boats.
The struggle with the eddies was brief. Within ten minutes after leaving Lewis-
ton Landing the boats struck the Canada shore "at the identical spot aimed at," just
above a huge rock now seen lying in the edge of the water under the Lewiston sus
pension bridge. There the militia were landed ; the regulars debarked a little be
low the rock.3 Three of the thirteen boats had lost their way; the remaining ten
now returned to the American shore.
The enemy were on the alert. The movements of the Americans had been discov-
i See note 2, page 381.
• 2 This inadequate number of boats seems to have been owing to remissness in Quarter-master-general Porter's de
partment. The quarter-master, then stationed at the Falls, had written to Van Rensselaer, "I can furnish you boats
at two or three days' notice to carry over 1200 or 1400 men." A sufficient number for six or seven hundred were or
dered, and the matter was left in charge of Judge Barton, the quarter-master's .agent. He had forwarded only thirteen
at the appointed hour. General Van Rensselaer has been censured for not having boats enough. It was no fault of his.
3 The view of the landing-place seen on the next page I sketched from a point a few yards below the Canadian end
of the Lewiston Suspension Bridge. The rock mentioned in the text is a prominent object in the picture. It is at the
foot of the rapids, where the river sweeps in a curve around Queenston Heights, a portion of which occupies a large
part of the sketch. Above is seen the suspension bridge, with its steadying-chains attached to the shore ; and on the
side of the opposite bank, looking up the river, the position of the railway, that lies upon a narrow shelf cut in the al
most perpendicular shore of the river, is marked by a train of cars. The toll-house seen at the end of the bridge, on
the right, shows the direction of the road from the bridge to the village of Queenston, not an eighth of a mile distant.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
395
Opposition to the Invaders.
A Skirmish near Queenston Village.
American Officers killed and wounded.
ered by the sentinels, and Captain Dennis, of the Forty-ninth Regiment of British
Regulars, stationed
~ '
at Queenston, with
sixty gi-enadiers of
that corps, Captain
Hatt's company of
York volunteer mili
tia,1 a small body of
Indians, and a three-
pound field-piece,
took position on the
sloping shore, a lit
tle north of the site
of the suspension
bridge, to resist the
debarkation. Their
presence was first
made known by a
broad flash, then a
volley of musketry
that mortally
wounded Lieuten
ant Rathbone, by
the side of Colonel
Van Rensselaer, be
fore landing, and
random shots from
the field-piece along
the line of the ferry
at the moment when
the boats touched
the shore. These
were answered by
Lovett's battery on
Lewiston Heights,
when the enemy
turned and fled up
the hill toward
Queenston, pursued
by the regulars of
the Thirteenth, un
der Captain "Wool,
the senior officer
present, in the ab
sence of Lieutenant
Colonel Chrystie,
who was in one of
the missing boats.2
LAMH.NG-l'LACE OF Tllli A.ME1UCANS AT QCEliNSTON.
On the margin of
the plateau on which Queenston stands Wool ceased pursuit, drew his men up in
battle order, and was about to send to Colonel Van Rensselaer for directions, when
that officer's aid, Judge Advocate Lush, came hurrying up with orders to prepare to
storm the Heights. " We are ready," promptly responded the gallant Wool. Lush
hastened back to the chief commander on the shore, and in a few minutes returned
with orders for Wool to advance. He was moving rapidly over the plateau toward
the foot of the Heights, when the order for storming was countermanded, and the
troops \vere brought to a halt near the present entrance to the village from the bridge.
Captain Dennis, meanwhile, had been strengthened by the arrival on the Heights of
the Light Infantry under Captain Williams, and a company of the York militia un
der Captain Chisholrn; and just as Wool's command had taken their resting position
in battle order, Dennis and his full force, already mentioned, fell heavily on the right
flank of the Americans. At the same time, Williams and Chisholm opened a severe
fire in their front from the brow of the Heights. Without waiting for farther orders,
Wool wheeled his column to the right and confronted the force of the enemy on the
plain, where with deadly aim his men poured a very severe fire into their ranks.
Van Rensselaer and the militia had taken a position on the left of the Thirteenth in
the mean time. The engagement was severe but short, and the enemy were com
pelled to fall back to Queenston. Both parties suffered much — the Americans most
severely. Of the ten officers of the Thirteenth who were present, two were killed
and five were seriously wounded. The former were Lieutenant Valleau3 and En
sign Morris ;4 the latter were Captains Wool, Malcolm, and Armstrong, and Ensign
1 Captain Samuel Hatt was one of the most esteemed and richest men in the province. He entered the service under
the impulses of the purest patriotism only, and took this subordinate station.
2 The three missing boats were commanded respectively by Lieutenant Colonel Chrystie, Captain Lawrence, and an
unknown subaltern. Chrystie's boat was driven by the currents and eddies upon the New York shore, and he ordered
Lawrence's back, while the third fell into the hands of the enemy, it having struck the shore at the mouth of the creek,
just north of Queenston.
3 John Valleau was commissioned first lieutenant of the Thirteenth Regiment on the 24th of March, 1812.
* Robert Morris, appointed ensign in the Thirteenth Regiment March, 12, 1812.
396
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Van Rensselaer and Wool wounded. Van Reiisselaer borne away. Wool takes the Command. Sketch of Wool.
Lent.1 The militia suffered very little; but Colonel Van Rensselaer was so badly
wounded in several places that he was compelled to relinquish the command. A bul
let passed through both of Wool's thighs, and both Malcolm2 and Armstrong3 were
wounded in the left thigh. A considerable number of the Americans were made pris
oners.
While Wool and his command were engaged with the enemy on the plain, those
upon the Heights kept up a desultory fire upon the Americans, which the latter could
not well respond to. Perceiving this, Van Rensselaer ordered the whole detachment
to fall back to the beach below the hill, in a place of more security. They did so, but
were not absolutely sheltered from the fire of the enemy above. One man was killed
and several were wounded by their shots.
It was now broad daylight, and the storm had ceased. While the detachment was
forming for farther action on the margin of the river, a fourth company of the 13th,
under Captain Ogilvie, crossed and joined them. No time was to be lost. The
Heights must be stormed and taken, or the expedition would be a failure. Lieu
tenant Colonel Chrystie had not been heard from. Van Rensselaer was disabled. All
the other officers were young men. Not a single commission was more than six
months old, and Captain Wool, the senior of them all in rank, was only twenty-three
years of age — too young, Van Rensselaer thought, to be intrusted with an undertak
ing so important. He had never been under fire before that morning, and was already
badly wounded. True, in the fight just ended, his metal had given out the ring of
that of a true soldier. The alternative was great risk and a chance for honor, or total
abandonment of the enterprise and the pointings of the finger of scorn. The choice
was soon made. Wool had asked for orders ; had been told that the capture of the
Heights was the great object of the expedition ; and, notwithstanding his severe flesh
wounds and the inexperience of himself and his men, he had expressed his eagerness
to make the attempt. Van Rensselaer ordered him to that duty, and at the same
time he directed his aid-de-camp Lush to follow the little column and shoot every
man who should falter, for symptoms of weak courage had already appeared.
Elated with the order, young Wool almost forgot his bleeding wounds. He was
light and lithe in person, full of ambition and enthusiasm, and beloved by his com
panions in arms.4 All followed him cheerfully. Ordering Captain Ogilvie, with his
1 James W. Lent, Jr., appointed ensign in the Thirteenth Regiment May 1, 1812. In March, 1813, he was promoted to
first lieutenant of artillery. He was retained in 1815, and became active in the quarter-master's department in 1810.
Left the service in 1817.
2 Richard M. Malcolm was commissioned captain in the Thirteenth Regiment of Infantry on the 8th of April, 1812.
In March, 1813, he was promoted to major, and in June, 1814, to lieutenant colonel of the same regiment. He was dis
banded in June, 1815. — Gardner's Dictionary of the Army, page SOT.
3 Henry B. Armstrong, yet [1867] living, is a son of General John Armstrong, the Secretary of War in 1814. He was
commissioned a captain in the Thirteenth Regiment in April, 1812 ; promoted to major the following year ;' in June,
1813, distinguished himself at Stony Creek ; became lieutenant colonel of the First Rifle Regiment in September, 1813,
and was disbanded in June, 1815. Although nearly eighty years of age when the Great Rebellion broke out in 1S61, he
went to Washington City and tendered to the government the services of himself and two sous. He then resided ou
an ample estate in Red Hook, Duchess County, New York.
John Ellis Wool, now (1867) a major general in the army of the United States, is a son of a soldier of the Revolu
tion who was with General Wayne at the
taking of Stony Point in the summer of
1779. He was born in Newburg, Orange
County, New York, in 1788. His father
died when he was only four years of age,
when he was taken into the family of his
grandfather, James Wool, five of whose
sons bore arms in the old war for inde
pendence. During his residence with hi.* i
grandfather in Rensselaer County, young
Wool attended a common country school.
At the age of twelve years, with a slender
education, he entered the service of a
merchant in Troy, New York, as clerk.
At eighteen he engaged in the business of
selling books and stationery in the same
RUSSELL'S LAW OFFICE.
town, and continued in that avocation un
til fire swept away all his worldly goods.
He then commenced the study of law with
John Russell, in Troy, in a small building
recently standing on Second Street, near
ly opposite General Wool's present resi
dence. War with Great Britain was soon
afterward looked upon as inevitable, and
young Wool, feeling the old fire of his
father stirring within him, left his books
to seek usefulness and honor in the field.
Upon the recommendation of De Witt
Clinton he obtained a commission as cap
tain in the 13th United States Regiment
in the spring of 1812. It is dated March
14, 1812. War was declared in little more
than ninety days afterward, and in September his regiment, under Lieutenant Colonel Chrystie, was ordered to the
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
397
Scaling Queenston Heights.
General Brock at Fort George.
His Expectation of an Invasion.
fresh troops to take the right of the column,
he sprang forward and commenced the
perilous ascent, guided by Lieutenants
Gansevoort and Randolph, who were well
acquainted with the way. The picked ar
tillerists led the column; and in many
places the precipice was so steep that the
troops were compelled to pull themselves
up by means of bushes. They were con
cealed from the enemy by the shelter of
the rocks and shrubbery; and near the
top of the acclivity they struck a fisher
man's path, which the enemy supposed to
be impassable, and had neglected to guard
it.
"While Wool and his little band were scal-
ino- the Heights, the British were making
,.-«
movements under great uncertainty. The
vigilant Sir Isaac Brock at Fort George,
about seven miles distant, had heard the
cannonading before dawn. He aroused his
aid-de-camp, Major Glegg, and called for
Alfred, his favorite horse, presented to him
by Sir James Craig. He had been in expectation of an invasion at some point for sev
eral days, and only the night before he had given each of his staff special instructions.1
Niagara frontier. His gallant bearing there is recorded in the text. Because of his bravery at Queenston he was pro
moted to major in the 29th Regiment of Infantry in April, 1813. For his gallant conduct at Plattsburg, in September,
1814, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel in December following. He was retained in the army in 1815, and on the
29th of September, 181G, was appointed inspector general of division, and in 1821 inspector general of the army of the
United States, with the rank of colonel. In 1826 he was made a brigadier general by brevet "for ten years' faithful
service." His reports to the government on matters pertainin^to the service were always models of their kind, and
always elicited encomiums. His discipline was always perfect and most efficient, and his sleepless vigilance has made
him on all occasions one of the most trusted officers in the service.
In 1832, General Wool was sent to Europe to collect information connected with military science. He received great
attention, especially in France, where, on one occasion, he formed one of the suite of Louis Philippe at a grand review
of 70,000 men. In November of the same year he accompanied the King of Belgium at a review of 100,000 troops,
and visited the fortifications of Antwerp. In 1S35, when hostilities with France were anticipated, General Wool made
a thorough inspection of all the sea-coast defenses, and submitted an admirable report to government. In 1S36 he
was ordered to the service of removing the €herokee Indians to Arkansas. In that mission he displayed some of the
highest traits of a soldier and statesman. In 1838, while the Canadian provinces were disturbed by insurrection, Wool
was sent to the wilds of Maine to look after the defenses of the border. In the Mexican war his services as a tactician,
disciplinarian, and as an administrative and executive officer in the field were of incalculable benefit to the country.
These are all recorded by the pen of the grateful historian. For his gallant conduct in that war he was breveted a
major general, and on his return home he was every where met with the most enthusiastic greetings. As tokens of
approbation, three swords were presented to him, one by the citizens of Troy, another by the State of New York, and a
third by the United States.
Toward the close of 1853, when filibustering expeditions were fitted out on the Western coast, the command of the
Department of the Pacific was intrusted to General Wool. It was a post of great labor and trust, involving as it did in
ternational questions of a delicate nature, and peculiar relations with Indian tribes. His activity, vigilance, and un
tiring energy in that field were wonderful. In the spring of 1855 he made a tour of inspection and reconnoissance
through the distant Territories of Oregon and Washington. On the breaking out of hostilities in that region in the
fall of 1855, Wool repaired to the scene of trouble, and was efficient in ending them. He remained in California until
near the close of President Pierce's administration, when he was relieved, and placed in command of the Department
of the East, comprising the whole country eastward of the Mississippi River. He was every where received with the
greatest enthusiasm, and especially at Troy, his place of residence. He was there engaged in the quiet routine of his
office when the rising tide of the great rebellion, that.broke out at the close of I860, commanded his attention. With
his wonted energy, he warned and entreated the national government to prepare for a great emergency : and when, in
April, 1S61, Fort Sumter was attacked, and the national capital" was menaced by the rebels, General Wool conceived
and executed such efficient measures at New York, that it is not too much to say that he was one of the chief instru
ments in the salvation of the republic from the hand of the destroyer. In July he entered upon active service at Fort
ress Monroe as commander of that post, where he stood in the delicate and most important position of sentinel at the
portal opening between the loyal and disloyal territories of the republic. He remained there almost a year, when he
was commissioned a full major general in the army of the United States, and transferred to the command at Baltimore
and vicinity. In 1863 he retired to private life.
1 Beacons had been placed at convenient distances between Kingston and Fort George to giv£ notice in the event of
an invasion, but in the confusion they were not lighted. The late Honorable William Hamilton Merritt, M.P., then a
398 PICTOKIAL FIELD-BOOK
Brock hastens toward Queenston. His perilous Position. Attack on Wool. Death of Brock.
But so confident was he that the attack would be made from Fort Niagara, that he
considered the demonstration above as only a feint to conceal that movement ; yet,
as a vigilant soldier, he instantly resolved to obtain personal knowledge of the situa
tion of affairs. Mounting Alfred, he pushed toward Queenston at full speed, follow
ed by his aids, Major Glegg and Colonel M'Donell. The journey of seven miles was
made in little more than half an hour. Arriving at Queenston, Sir Isaac and his com
panions rode up the Heights at full gallop, exposed to a severe enfilading fire of ar
tillery from the American shore. On reaching the redan battery, half way up the
Heights,1 they dismounted, took a general view of affairs, and pronounced them fa
vorable. Suddenly the crack of musketry in their rear startled them. Wool and
his followers had successfully scaled the Heights, and were close upon them. Brock
and his aids had not time to remount. Leading their horses at full gallop, they fled
down the slope to the village, followed by the twelve men who manned the battery.
A few minutes afterward the Stars and Stripes — the symbol of the Union — the in
signia of the Republic — were waving over the captured redan, and greeting the rays
of the early morning sun, then struggling in fitful gleams through the breaking
clouds. This was the third time within three months that the standard of the United
States had been victoriously displayed on the soil of Canada.2 Wool's triumph for
the moment was complete.
Brock immediately dispatched a courier to General Sheaffe at Fort George with
orders to push forward re-enforcements, and, at the same time, open fire upon Fort
Niagara. He then took command of Captain Williams's detachment of one hundred
men, and hastened up the slope toward the battery, behind which Captain Wool had
placed his little band, with their faces toward Queenston, to await an attack. Den
nis soon joined Brock with his detachment, when a movement was made to turn the
American flank. The vigilant Wool perceived it, and immediately sent out fifty men
to keep the flanking party in check, and to take possession of the " Mountain," or
crown of the Heights, where the monument now stands. But they were too few for
the purpose, and even when re-enforced they were too weak to stem the steady ad
vance of the veteran enemy. The wht>le detachment fell back with some confusion.
The enemy, inspirited by this movement, pressed forward, and pushed the Americans
to the verge of the precipice, which overlooks the deep chasm of the swift-floAving
river more than two hundred feet below. Wool's little band was in a most perilous
position. Death by ball, bayonet, or flood seemed inevitable, and Captain Ogilvie
raised a white handkerchief on the point of a bayonet in token of surrender. The in
censed Wool sprang forward, snatched away that token of submission, addressed a
few spirited words to his officers and soldiers, begging them to fight on so long as
the ammunition should last, and then resort to the bayonet. Waving his sword, he
led his inspirited comrades to a renewal of the conflict with so much impetuosity that
the enemy broke and fled down the Heights in dismay, and took shelter in and be
hind a large stone building near the edge of the river. Sir Isaac was amazed and
mortified ; and to his favorite grenadiers he shouted, " This is the first time I have
seen the Forty-ninth turn their backs !" His voice and the stinging rebuke of his
words checked them. At the same time Lieutenant Colonel M'Donell brought up
two flank companies of York Volunteers, under Captains Cameron and Howard,
which had just arrived from Brown's Point, three miles below. The fugitives had
rallied, and Sir Isaac turned to lead them up the Heights. His tall figure was a con
spicuous object for the American sharp-shooters. First a bullet struck his wrist,
wounding it slightly. A moment afterward, as he shouted " Push on the York Vol
unteers," another bullet entered his breast, passed out through his side, and left a
major at the head of a corps of cavalry, called the Niagara Dragoons, immediately dispatched a courier to Brock. He
reached Fort George early, but found Brock about ready to take the saddle.
1 A redan is a rampart in the following form, V> having its angle toward the enemy, and open in the rear.
2 At Sandwich by Hull (see page 202) ; at Gananoqui by Forsyth (see page 373) ; and at Queenston by Wool.
OP THE WAR OF 1812. 399
Capture of Queenston Heights. Character of the Exploit. Passage of the River by Re-euforcements.
death-wound. He fell from his horse at the foot of the slope, and lived long enough
to request those around him to conceal his death from the troops, and to send some
token of his remembrance to his sister in England. But his death could not be con
cealed more than a few minutes. When it became known, the bitter words " Revenge
the general !" burst from the lips of the Forty-ninth. M'Donell assumed the com
mand, and, at the head of them and the York Militia, one hundred and ninety strong,
he charged up the hill to dispute with Wool the mastery of the Heights. The strug
gle was desperate, and the Americans, doubtful of the issue, spiked the cannon in the
redan. Both parties were led gallantly and fought bravely. But when M'Donell
fell mortally wounded,1 and Dennis and Williams were both severely injured, and
were compelled to leave the field, the British fell back in some confusion to Vroo-
man's Point, a mile below, leaving the young American commander and his little
band of two hundred and forty men masters of Queenston Heights, after three dis
tinct and bloody battles, fought within the space of about five hours. Taking all
things into consideration — the passage of the river, the nature of the ground, the raw
ness of the troops (for most of the regulars were raw recruits), the absence of cannon,
and the youth and wounds of the American Commander, the events of that morning
were, " indeed, a display of intrepidity," as Wilkinson afterward wrote, " rarely exhib
ited, in which the conduct and the execution were equally conspicuous. . . . Under
all the circumstances, and on the scale of the operations, the impartial soldier and
competent judge will name this brilliant affair a chef-cVceuvre of the war."2
It was now about ten o'clock in the morning. Although bleeding and in mucli
pain, Wool would not leave the field, but kept vigorously at work in preparations to
defend the position he had gained. He drew his troops up in line on the Heights
fronting the village, ordered Gansevoort and Randolph to drill out the spiked can
non in the redan, and bring it to "bear upon the enemy near Vrooman's, and sent out
scouts to watch the movements of the foe.
Meanwhile re-enforcements and supplies were slowly crossing the river. In the
passage they were greatly annoyed by the fire from the one-gun battery on Vroo
man's Point. The first that arrived on the Heights was a detachment of the Sixth
Regiment under Captain M'Chesney ; another, of the Thirteenth, under Captain Law
rence ; and a party of New York state riflemen, under Lieutenant Smith. These
were immediately detached as flanking parties. They were soon followed by oth
ers, and before noon Major General Van
Rensselaer, Brigadier General Wads worth,
Lieutenant Colonels Scott, Fenwick, Stran-
ahan, and Major Mullany, were on the
Heights, while a few militia were slowly
t Lieutenant M'Donell was a brilliant and promising young man. He was the attorney general of Upper Canada, and
was only twenty-five years of age. He was wounded in five places, one bullet passing through his body, yet he survived
twenty hours in great agony. During that time he constantly lamented the fall of his commander.— Tupper's Life, etc.,
of Brock, page 322.
2 Wilkinson's Memoirs, i., 577. The officers who participated with Captain Wool, and received from him, in his re
port to Colonel Van Rensselaer, special commendation, were Captain Peter Ogilvie, and Lieutenants Kearney, Hugunin,
Carr, and Sammons. of the Thirteenth, Lieutenants Gansevoort and Randolph, of the light artillery, and Major Lush,
of the militia. Captain Ogilvie resigned in June, 1813. Lieutenant Stephen Watts Kearney, who was a native of New
Jersey, was retained in the service in 1S15, having risen to the rank of captain. He was made a major by brevet in
1323, and full major in 1829. In the spring of 1833 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel of dragoons, and to colonel
of the same in 1S36. In 1S4G he was promoted to brigadier general, went into the war with Mexico, and made conquest
of the province of New Mexico. For his gallant conduct there and in California he was made major general by brevet.
In March, 1847, he was appointed Governor of California. He died in October, 1S4S. His brother, Philip Kearney, who
lost an arm in the battles before the city of Mexico, was a brigadier general in the army raised to put down the Great
Rebellion in 1861, and was killed in battle near Fairfax Court-house, in Virginia, September 1, 1SG2. Lieutenant Daniel
Hugunin was a representative in Congress for New York from 1825 to 1827. He died in Wisconsin in 1850. Lieutenant
Gansevoort, who had been in the artillery service since 1806, was distinguished a little more than a month later at Fort
Niagara. He became captain of artillery in May, 1813, and left the service in March, 1814. Lieutenant Thomas Beverly
Randolph was aid-de-camp to General Carrington and captain of infantry in the spring of 1813. He resigned in 1815.
He was lieutenant colonel of Hamtramck's regiment of Virginia volunteers in Mexico in 1847. Lieutenant Stephen Lush
(acting major at Queenston) was aid to General Izard, arid dangerously wounded before Chippewa in October, 1814.
400 PICTOKIAL FIELD-BOOK
Colonel Scott on Queenston Heights. Wadsworth's Generosity. Indians on the Field. Influence of Scott.
passing over the river. Van Rensselaer took immediate steps for fortifying the po
sition, under the direction of Lieutenant Totten, of the Engineers, and dispatched an
aid-de-camp to hasten the passage of the militia.
Lieutenant Colonel Scott, as we have observed, arrived at Lewiston with his com
mand at four o'clock that morning. He placed his heavy guns in battery on the
shore under the immediate command of Captains Towson and Barker. Having re
ceived permission from Van Rensselaer to cross over as a volunteer and take com-
«nand of the troops on the Heights, he reached the Canada shore, with his adjutant
Roach, just after Wads worth, with a small detachment of volunteers, had crossed
without orders. He unexpectedly found that officer upon the mountain, and imme
diately proposed to limit his own command to the regulars; but the generous and
patriotic Wadsworth promptly waived his rank, and said, " You, sir, know profes
sionally what ought to be done. I am here for the honor of my country and that
of the New York militia." Scott at once assumed the general command, at the head
of three hundred and fifty regulars and two hundred and fifty volunteers, the latter
under General Wadsworth and Lieutenant Colonel Stranahan. Assisted by the skill
ful Lieutenant Totten, Scott placed them in the strongest possible position to receive
the enemy and to cover the ferry, expecting to be re-enforced at once by the militia
from the opposite shore. He was doomed to most profound mortification and disap
pointment.
While Scott was absent for a short time, superintending the unspiking of the can
non in the redan, a troop of Indians suddenly appeared on the left, led by Captain
Norton, a half-breed, but under the general command of Chief John Brant, a young,
lithe, and graceful son of the great Mohawk warrior and British ally of that name in
the Revolution. Brant made his first appearance in the field on this occasion. He
was dressed, painted, and plumed in Indian style from head to foot. His lieutenant
and most valued companion was a dark, powerfully-built chief known as Captain Ja
cobs. Another was Norton, the .half-breed just mentioned. They and their follow
ers Avere the allies of the British, and came mostly from the settlements of the Six
Nations, on the Grand River, in Canada.1
It was between one and two o'clock in the afternoon when this cloud of dusky
warriors swept along the brow of the mountain in portentous fury, with gleaming
tomahawks and other savage weapons, and fell upon the American pickets, driving
them in upon the main line of the militia in great confusion. The fearful war-whoop
struck terror to many a white man's heart, and the militia were about to fly ignobly,
Avhen Scott appeared, his tall form — head and shoulders above all others — attracting
every eye, and his trumpet-voice commanding the attention of every ear. He in
stantly brought order out of confusion. He suddenly changed the front of his line ;
and his troops, catching inspiration from his voice and acts, raised a shout and fell
with such fury upon the Indians that they fled in dismay to the woods after a sharp,
short engagement. But they were soon rallied by the dauntless Brant,2 and contin-
1 The British found considerable difficulty in inducing these Indians to join them. The authorities of the United
States used every effort in their power to keep the Indians from the contest on both sides, knowing their cruel mode
of warfare. Cornplanter, the venerable Seneca chief, did all in his power to keep his race neutral. At the request of
the United States government, he induced their influential chiefs, named respectively Blue Eyes, Johnson, Silver Heels,
and Jacob Snow, to visit the Indians on the Grand River, talk with them about remaining neutral, and bring back an
answer. In a manuscript letter before me from Robert Hoops to Major Van Campan, is an interesting account of a
meeting at Cornplauter's to hear their report. Mr. Hoops, Francis King, and John Watson were the white representa
tives present. Blue Eyes made the report. He said the Indians told him that they did not want to go to war, but re
marked, " It is the President of the United States makes war upon us. We know not your disputes. The British talk
much against the Americans, and the Americans talk much against the British. We know not which is right. The
British say the Americans want to take our lands. We do not want to fight, nor do we intend to disturb you ; but if
you come to take our land, we are determined to defend ourselves." The three commissioners cautioned the Senecas
not to use strong drinks, to keep quietly at home, and refrain from engaging in the war. Had the British been equally
mindful of the claims of civilization, the historian would have many less atrocities to record.
2 John Brant, whose Indian name was Ahyouwaighs, was a son of Joseph Brant, or Thayendanegea, and was born at
the Mohawk village, on the Grand River, in Canada, on the 27th of September, 1794, and was only eighteen years of
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
401
Approach of British under Sheaffe.
Chrystie takes Wool's Place.
Sheaffe's Re-enforcements.
ued to annoy the Americans until Scott,
at the head of a considerable portion of
his army, made a general assault upon
them, and drove them from the Heights.
At the same time, General Sheaffe was
seen cautiously approaching with re-en
forcements from Fort George, his troops
making the road near Vrooman's all
aglow with scarlet. Lieutenant Colonel
Chrystie had just arrived upon the bat
tle-field for the first time. He had cross
ed and recrossed the river, but did not
appear upon the Heights until in the af
ternoon,1 when he took command of the
Thirteenth Regiment, and ordered Cap
tain Wool, who had endured toil and suf
fering for more than twelve hours, to
the American shore to have his wounds
dressed.
At Vrooman's, General Sheaffe, who
had succeeded Brock in command, join
ed the fragments of the different
corps who had been driven from ^
the Heights when Brock was kill- /
ed, with heavy re - enforcements. .S *
age when he appeared as leader on the battle-field at Queenston. He received a good English education at Ancaster
and Niagara, and was a diligent student of English authors. He loved nature, and studied its phenomena with dis
crimination. He was manly and amiable, and at the time in question was in every respect an accomplished gentleman.
On the death of his father in 1SOT, he became the Tekarihoyea, or principal chief of the Six Nations, although he was
the fourth and youngest son. As such he took the field in 1S12 in the British interest, and was engaged in most of
the military events on the Niagara frontier during the war. At the close of the contest he and his young sister Eliza
beth took up their residence at the home of their father, at the head of Lake Ontario, where they lived in the English
style, and dispensed hospi
talities with a liberal hand.
The reader will find a full
account of this residence and
of the family at the time in
question in Stone's Life of
Joseph Brant. Young Brant
went to England in 1821 on
business for the Six Na
tions, and there took occa
sion to defend the character
of his father from aspersions
in Campbell's Gertrude of
Wyoming. He was success
ful in his proof, but the poet
had not the generosity or
manliness to strike the cal
umnies from his poem, and
there they remain to this
day. On his return Brant
went to work zealously for
the moral improvement of
his people, in which he was
successful. In 1S27 Governor
Dalhousie appointed him to
the rank of captain in the
represented in the engravin
BRANT'S MONUMENT.
British army and Superin
tendent of the Six Nations.
He was elected a member of
the Provincial Parliament in
1S32 for the county of Hal-
dimand, which comprehend
ed a good portion of the ter
ritory originally granted to
the Mohawks. Technical dis
ability gave the seat to an
other, after he had filled it
for a while. But during that
very summer the competitors
were both laid in the grave
by that terrible scourge,
Asiatic cholera. He died at
the Mohawk village where
he was born, at the age of
forty -eight years, and was
buried in the same vault with
his father, in the burying-
ground of the Mohawk
Church, a short distance
from Brantford, in Canada,
over which has been erected
a substantial mausoleum,
This monument will be noticed more particularly presently.
The conduct of Lieutenant Colonel Chrystie on this occasion was not wholly reconcilable with our ideas of a true
soldier. In a manuscript letter before me, written by Colonel Solomon Van Rensselaer to General Wilkinson in Janu
ary, 1316, he accuses Chrystie with cowardice, and says Captain Lawrence, whose boat Chrystie ordered back at the
crossing (see note 2, page 395), openly charged him with it. Van Rensselaer gives it as his opinion that much of the
bad conduct of the militia in refusing to cross the river in the afternoon was owing to the example of this officer. On
the other hand, General Van Rensselaer makes honorable mention of him in his report written the next day, and he
Cc
402 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Sheaffe's flank Movement. Bad Conduct of the New York Militia. Scott's Harangue.
He moved cautiously. Near Vrooman's he left two pieces of artillery to command
the town, filed to the right, and crossed the country to the little village of St. Da
vid's, three miles westward of Queenston, and by that circuitous route, after marching
and countermarching as if reconnoitring the American lines, he gained the rear of
that portion of the Heights on which they were posted, and formed in Elijah Phelps's
fields on the Chippewa road.1 There he was joined by the 41st Grenadiers and some
militia 'and Indians from Chippewa, when the whole British army confronting that
of the Americans was more than one thousand strong, exclusive of their dusky allies.2
The Americans, according to the most careful estimate, did not exceed six hundred
in number.
When Sheaffe appeared, General Van Rensselaer was on the Heights. He im
mediately crossed the river to push forward re-enforcements. He failed. The mili
tia, who had been so brave in speech and clamorous to be led against the enemy,
refused to cross. The smell of gunpowder, even from afar, seems to have paralyzed
their honor and their courage. Van Rensselaer rode up and down among them,
alternately threatening and imploring. Lieutenant Colonel Bloom, who had been
wounded in action and had returned, and Judge Peck, who happened to be at Lewis-
ton, did the same, but without effect. Van Rensselaer appealed to their patriotism,
their honor, and their humanity, but in vain. They pleaded their exemption as mili
tia, under the Constitution and laws, from being taken out of their own state ! and
Under that miserable shield they hoped to find shelter from the storm of indignation
which their cowardice was sure to evoke. Like poltroons as they were, they stood
on the shore at Lewiston while their brave companions in arms on Queenston Heights
were menaced with inevitable destruction or captivity. All that Van Rensselaer
could do was to send over some munitions of war, with a letter to General Wads-
wrorth, ordering him to retreat if in his judgment the salvation of the troops depend
ed upon such movement, and promising him a supply of boats for the purpose. But
this promise he could not fulfill. The boatmen on the shore were as cowardly as the
militia on the plain above. Many of them had fled panic-stricken, and the boats were
dispersed.
Wadsworth communicated Van Rensselaer's letter to the field officers. They per
ceived no chance for re-enforcements, no means for a retreat, and no hope of succor
from any human source except their own valor and vigorous arms. They resolved to
meet the oncoming overwhelming force like brave soldiers. Scott sprang upon a log,
his tall form towering conspicuous above all,3 and addressed the little army in a few
stirring words as the British came thundering on. "The enemy's balls," he said, be
gin to thin our ranks. His numbers are overwhelming. In a moment the shock
must come, and there is no retreat. We are in the beginning of a national war.
Hull's surrender is to be redeemed. Let us, then, die arms in hand. The country de
mands the sacrifice. The example will not be lost. The blood of the slain will make
heroes of the living. Those who follow will avenge our fall and their country's
wrongs. Who dare to stand ?" " All ! all !" was the generous response ; and
in that spirit they received the first heavy blow of the enemy on their right wing.4
was promoted to the office of inspector general. He did not live long enough to test his mettle fairly. He died at Fort
George, in Canada, on the 22d of July, 1813. ' MS. Journal of Captain William Hamilton Merritt.
2 Sheaffe's re-enforcements, with whom he marched from Fort George, consisted of almost four hundred of the 41st Regi
ment, under Captain Derenzy, and about three hundred militia. The latter consisted of the flank companies of the 1st
Regiment of Lincoln Militia, under Captains J. Crooks and M'Ewen; the flank companies of the 4th Regiment of Lin
coln Militia, under Captains Nellis and W. Crooks ; Captains Hall's, Durand's, and Applegarth's companies of the 5th
Regiment of Lincoln Militia : Major Merritt's Yeomanry Corps, and a body of Swayzee's Militia Artillery under Cap
tains Powell and Cameron. Those from Chippewa were commanded by Colonel Clark, and consisted of Captain Bul
lock's company of Grenadiers of the 41st Regiment ; the flank companies of the 2d Lincoln Regiment, under Captains
Hamilton and Rowe, and the Volunteer Sedentary Militia. Brant and Jacobs commanded the Indians. Two three-
pounders, under the charge of Lieutenant Crowther, of the 41st Regiment, accompanied the troops.
3 General Scott was six feet five inches in height. He was then slender, graceful, and commanding in form ; for
several years before his death he was ponderous, yet exceedingly dignified in his appearance.
4 Scott was in full-dress uniform, and, being taller than his companions, was a conspicuous and important mark for
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 403
Battle on Queenstou Heights. Perils of the Americans. Heroes and Cowards made Prisoners of War.
Sheaffe opened the battle at about four o'clock by directing Lieutenant M'Intyre,
with the Light Company of the 41st on the left of his column, supported by a body
of militia, Indians, and negroes under Captain Runchey, to fall upon the American
right. They fired a single volley with considerable execution, and then charged with
a tremendous tumult, the white men shouting and the Indians ringing out the fear
ful war-whoop and hideous yells. The Americans were overpowered by the onslaught
and gave way, for their whole available force did not much exceed three hundred
men. Perceiving this, Sheaffe ordered his entire line to charge, while the two field-
pieces were brought to bear upon the American ranks. The effect was powerful.
The Americans yielded and fled in utter confusion toward the river, down the slope
by the redan, and along the road leading from Queenston to the Falls. The latter
were cut off by the Indians, and forced through the woods toward the precipices along
the bank of the river. Others, who had reached the water's edge, were also cut off
from farther retreat by a lack of boats. Meanwhile the American commander had
sent several messengers with flags, bearing offers to capitulate. The Indians shot
them all, and continued a murderous onslaught upon the terrified fugitives. Some
of them were killed in the woods, some were driven over the precipices and perished
on, the rocks or in the rushing river below, while others escaped by letting themselves
down from bush to bush, and swimming the flood. At length Lieutenant Colonel
Scott, in the midst of the greatest peril, reached the British commanding general, and
offered to surrender the whole force.1 The Indians were called from their bloody
work, terms of capitulation were soon agreed to, and all the Americans on the British
side became prisoners of war. These, to the utter astonishment of their own com
manders, amounted to about nine hundred, when not more than six hundred, regu
lars and militia, were known to have been on the Canada shore at any time dur
ing the day, and not more than half that number were engaged in the fight on the
Heights. The mystery was soon explained. Several hundred militia had crossed
over during the morning. Two hundred of them, under Major Mullany, who crossed
early in the day, were forced by the current of the river under the range of Vroo-
man's battery, and were captured. Two hundred and ninety-three, who were in the
battle, were surrendered ; and the remainder, having seen the wounded crossing the
river, the painted Indians, and the " green tigers," as they called the 49th, whose
coats were faced with green, skulked below the banks, and had no more to do with
the battle than spectators in a balloon might have claimed. But they were a part of
the invading army, were found on British soil, and were properly prisoners of war.
The British soldiers, after the battle, plucked them from their hiding-places, and made
them a part of the triumphal procession with which General Sheaffe returned to Fort
George.2
the enemy. He was urged to change his dress. "No," he said, smiling, "I will die in my robes." As in the case of
Washington on the field of Monongahela, the Indians took special aim at Scott, but could not hit him.
1 Scott fixed a white cravat on the point of his sword as a flag of truce, and, accompanied by Captains Totten (from
whose neck the "flag was taken) wrench his sword from him, when
and Gibson, made his way along .. — \ Totten and Gibson drew theirs.
the river shore, under shelter of s' •* ~^—~ '^'ne Indians, who were armed with
the precipice, to a gentle slope, up M f ^_£* rifles, instantly fired, but without
which they hastened to the road l^jt^^ ^—Ss7/^7 — effect, and were about to use their
leading from the village to the /7/J /Ss/ClsC^f knives and tomahawks, when a
Heights, exposed to the random ^ * *^f' sf British sergeant, accompanied by a
fire of the Indians. Just as they /7 -v guard, seeing the encounter, rush-
reached the road they were met ^— — — (^^-^—^ ' — ~^t ec* forward, crying Honor ! honor !
by two Indians, who sprang upon ^ * took the Americans under his pro-
them like tigers. They would .* ^ — • ~~> tection, and conducted them to
not listen to Scott's declaration // ^^\jt—~^ — tne Presence of General Sheaffe.
that he was under the protec- ^<£_— - ^^~*~S~s • ^S / ~) —Life and Services of General
tion of a flag and was going to C ^**^ * *~/'S^^.sJ£S^A^_ ' WinfiM Scott, by Edward Mans-
surrender. They attempted to field, page 44.
2 The authorities consulted in compiling the foregoing account of events on the Niagara frontier, in this and the
preceding chapter, are as follows : Official Reports of Generals Van Rensselaer and Sheaffe, Lieutenant Colonel Chrystie
and Captain Wool ; oral and written statements of Captain (now Major General) Wool to the Author; MS. Order and
404 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Losses in the Battle of Queenston. The Surrender. Justice and Injustice to the Meritorious. Scott at Niagara.
The entire loss of the Americans during that eventful day, according to the most
careful estimates, was ninety killed, about one hundred wounded, and between eight
and nine hundred made prisoners, causing an entire loss, in rank and file, of about
eleven hundred men. The British loss in killed, wounded, and prisoners (the latter
taken in the morning), was about one hundred and thirty. The number of Indians
engaged and their loss is not positively known.1 Captain Norton was wounded, but
not severely. All parties engaged in the fight on that day behaved with exemplary
courage, and deserved, as they received, the encomiums of their respective generals,
and the thanks of their respective governments.2
Brigadier General Wadsworth was in command when the army was surrendered.
He delivered his sword to General Sheaffe in person. The ceremony of formal sur
render occurred at near sunset, when the prisoners, officers, and men were marched
to the village of Newark (now Niagara), at the mouth of the Niagara River. There
the officers were quartered in a small tavern, and placed under guard. While wait
ing for an escort to conduct them to the head-quarters of General Sheaffe, a little girl
entered the parlor and said that somebody in the hall wanted to see the " tall officer."
Scott, who was unarmed, immediately went out, when he was confronted by the two
Indians who had made such a violent assault upon him while bearing a flag of truqe.
Young Brant immediately stepped up to Scott and inquired how many balls had
passed through his clothing, as they had both fired at him incessantly, and had been
astonished continually at not seeing him fall. Jacobs, at the same time, seized Scott
rudely, and attempted to whirl him around, exclaiming, "Me shoot so often, me sure
Letter Books of General Stephen Van Rensselaer ; MS. correspondence of Colonel Solomon Van Rensselaer ; Oral Nar
ratives of Soldiers in the Battle at Queeuston, living in Canada in 1800; Perkins's History of the Late War ; Bracken-
ridge's History of the Late War ; Thornton's Historical Sketches of the Late War ; Colonel Solomon Van Rensselaer's Nar
rative of the Affair at Queenston; Ingersoll's Historical Sketch of the Second War, etc.; Niles's Weekly Register; the War;
Stone's Life of Brant; Sketches of the War, by an anonymous writer; Armstrong's Notices of the War of 1812; Mansfield's
Life and Services of General Winfield Scott; Baylis's Battle of Queenston; Files of the New York Herald, or semi-weekly
Evening Post; James's Military Occurrences of the Late War; Auchinleck's History of the War c/1812; Tupper's Life
and Correspondence of Sir Isaac Brock ; Christie's Military Operations in Canada ; Jarvis's Narrative ; Manuscript Jour
nal of Major Merritt; Symonds's Battle of Queenston Heights.
1 British writers widely disagree in their estimates concerning the Indian force on that occasion. It is known that
there were some with Dennis in the morning, that others accompanied Sheaffe from Fort George in the afternoon, and
that he was joined on the Heights by others from Chippewa. I think the Six Nations were represented on that day by
about two hundred and fifty warriors.
2 General Sheaffe named almost every commissioned officer engaged in the battle as entitled to high praise. He spe
cially commended Captain Holcroft, of the Royal Artillery, for his skillful and judicious use of the ordnance in his
charge ; also Lieutenant Crowther for similar service. He gave credit to Captain Glegg, Brock's aid-de-camp, for great
assistance ; also to Lieutenant Fowler, assistant deputy quarter-master general, Lieutenant Kerr, of the Gleugary Fen-
cibles, Lieutenant Colonels Butler and Clarke, and Captains Hall, Durand, Rowe, Applegarth, James Crooks, Cooper,
Robert Hamilton, M'Ewen, andDuncan Cameron. Lieutenants Richardson and Thomas Butler, and Major Merritt, of
the Niagara Dragoons, were all highly spoken of. He added to the list of honor the names of Volunteers Shaw, Thom
son, and Jarvis. The latter (G. S. Jarvis) wrote an interesting account of the battle. He was attached to the light com
pany of the Forty-ninth Regiment. Upon Major General Brock, his slain aid-de-camp (Colonel M'Donell), and Captains
Dennis and Williams, he bestowed special and deserved encomium for their gallantry.
In contrast with this dispatch of General Sheaffe to Sir George Prevost, written at Fort George on the evening of the
day of battle, is that ot General Van Rensselaer to General Dearborn, written at Lewiston on the following day. He
gives a general statement of important events connected with the battle, but when he comes to distribute the honors
among those who are entitled to receive them, he omits the name of every officer who was engaged in storming and
carrying the Heights of Queenston, the chief object of the expedition. The name of Captain Wool, the hero of the day
until the tide of victory was turned against the Americans, is not even mentioned. Byron defined military glory as
" being shot through the body, and having one's name spelled wrong in the gazettes." Worse fate than that would
have been that of Wool and the storming-party had History confined her investigations to Van Rensselaer's report.
He expressed his great obligations to General Wadsworth, Colonel Van Rensselaer, Lieutenant Colonels Scott, Chrys-
tie, and Fen wick, and Captain Gibson, all of whom were gallant men, and performed their duties nobly in the after part
of the day, but not one of them had a share in the capture of the Heights, the defeat of Major General Brock, and the
winnings of victory. Van Rensselaer was wounded and taken to Lewiston before daylight. Fenwick was wounded
while crossing the river and taken prisoner. Chrystie was not on the battle-field until the morning victories were all
won under Wool. How General Van Rensselaer could have made such a report is a mystery. It is due to his candor
and sense of justice to say that he was doubtless misled by the reports of interested parties, for as soon as he perceived
the injustice that was done to brave officers, he did all in his power to remedy the evil. In his report to Colonel Van
Rensselaer, on the 23d of October, Captain Wool made special mention of the officers who acted with him on that day,
and these General Van Rensselaer took occasion to name in a special manner in a letter to Brigadier General Smyth
announcing his resignation, written at Buffalo bn the 24th. In a letter to Captain Wool in December following, Gen
eral Van Rensselaer said, "I was not sufficiently informed to do justice to your bravery and good conduct in the attack
of the enemy on the Heights of Queenston." He then expressed the hope that the government would notice his merits
on that occasion.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
405
Scott's Encounter with Indians.
Object of their Visit.
A combined Triumphal and Funeral Procession.
to have hit somewhere !" The indignant officer thrust the savage from him, ex
claiming, " Hands off, you villain ! You fired like a squaAV !" Both assailants im
mediately loosened their knives and tomahawks from their girdles, and were about
to spring upon Scott, while Jacobs exclaimed, " We kill you now !'" when the assailed
rushed to the end of the hall, where the swords of the captured officers stood, seized
the first one, drew the blade from its steel scabbard as quick as lightning, arid was
about to bring the heavy weapon with deadly force upon the Indians, when a British
officer entered, seized Jacobs by the arms, and shouted for the guard.1 Jacobs turned
fiercely upon the officer, exclaiming, " I kill you," when Scott, with the heavy sabre
raised, called out, "If you strike I'll kill you both." For a moment the eyes of the
group gleamed with fury upon their antagonist, and a scene was presented equal to
any thing in the songs of the Troubadours or the sagas of the Norsemen. The gust
of passion was momentary, and then the Indians put up their weapons and slowly re
tired, muttering imprecations on all white men and all the laws of war.2 " Beyond
doubt," says his biographer,3 " it was no part of the young chief's design to inflict in
jury upon the captive American commander. His whole character forbids the idea,
for he was as generous and benevolent in his feelings as he was brave." It is be
lieved that their visit to Scott was one of curiosity only, for, having tried so repeat
edly to hit him with their bullets, they were anxious to know how nearly they had
accomplished their object. But it can not be denied that the exasperation of the In
dians against Scott, because of their losses on the Heights, was very great — so great
that while he remained at Niagara he could not move from his lodgings in safety,
even to visit the head-quarters of General Sheaffe,4 without a guard.
When General
Sheaffe marched in
triumph from
Queenston to New
ark, he took with
him the body of
the slain General
Brock, which had
been concealed in a
house near where he
fell. The march had
a twofold aspect. It
was a triumphal and
a funeral procession.
At Newark the body
was placed in the
government hoiise,
October 1C,
1812.
NEW MAGAZINE AT FOKT GEORGE.
and there it lay in
state three days,
when it was bu
ried* in a
new cav
alier bastion in
Fort George, whose
erection he had su
perintended with
great interest. By
the side of Brock's
remains were laid
those of his provin
cial aid - de - camp.
Lieutenant Colonel
M'Donell.5 The fu
neral ceremonies
1 This was Colonel Coffin, who had been sent by General Sheaffe, with a guard, to invite the American officers to hit*
table at his quarters. 2 Stone's Life of Brant, ii., 514 ; Mansfield's Life of Scott, page 46.
3 William L. Stone. At the close of his Life, of Joseph Brant, Stone gives an interesting sketch of the life of John
Brant.
* Roger H. Sheaffe was a native of Boston, Massachusetts, and was a lad living there with his widowed mother at the
opening of the Revolution. Earl ^^ nation to provide for him. He gave
Percy's head-quarters were at their *• — /^~t _ /^} him a military education, placed him
house while the British occupied the [ S/^/~^7/ ^^^ in the army, and procured commis-
town, and his lordship became much
attached to the boy ; so much so that,
with the consent of his mother, tie
took him away with him at the evac-
tioned iu Canada at the breaking out of the war. He at once stated frankly his reluctance to serve against his native
country, and solicited a transfer to some other field of duty. His request was not granted. For his gallant conduct.
and winning victory on the Heights of Queeuston, he was created a baronet, and ever afterward was known as Sir
Roger Sheaffe. General Sheaffe was bora on the 17th of July, 1TG3, and entered the British army on the 1st of May.
1TT8.
5 The cavalier bastion where Brock and his aid were buried is near what is known as the new magazine, in Fort
s^ ^ sions and promotions for him as fast
{/Lff^-^/ as possible. His promotion to ma-
/// jor general was acquired on account
of meritorious service. He was sta-
406
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Respect for Brock awarded by the Americans. Brock's Funeral. Honored by his Government and the Canadians.
were arranged by his other aid, Captain Glegg ;T and when they were over, the
Americans at Fort Niagara and at Lewiston fired minute-guns, as a mark of respect
due to a brave enemy, by command of Major General Van Rensselaer. An armistice
for a few days had been agreed upon by Van Rensselaer and Sheaffe, which gave the
George. That magazine is represented in the engraving on the preceding page. Behind it are seen the earthen ram
parts of the fort as they appeared when I visited it in I860. The place of the bastion is indicated by the hollow and
opening in the fence on the right of the picture.
i The following was the order of the procession : 1. Fort-major Campbell. 2. Sixty men of the Forty-first Regiment,
commanded by a subaltern. 3. Sixty of the militia, commanded by a captain. 4. Two six-pounders firing minute-guns.
5. Remaining corps and detachments of the garrison, with about two hundred Indians, in reverse order, forming a street
through which the procession passed, extending from the government house to the garrison. 6. Baud of the Forty-first
Regiment. 1. Drums, covered with black cloth and muffled. 8. Late general's horse, fully caparisoned, led by four
grooms. 9. Servants of the general. 10. The general's body-servant. 11. Surgeon Muirhead, Doctor Moore, Doctor
Kerr, and Staff-surgeon Thorn. 11. Rev. Mr. Addison. Then followed the body of Lieutenant Colonel M'Donell, with
the following gentlemen as pall-bearers: Captain A. Cameron, Lieutenant Robinson (late chief justice of Canada),
J. Edwards, Lieutenant Jarvis, Lieutenant Ridout, and Captain Crooks. The chief mourner was the brother of the
deceased.
The body of General Brock followed, with the following pall-bearers : Mr. James Coffin, Captains Vigoreaux, Derenzy,
Dennis, Holcroft, and Williams, Major Merritt, Lieutenant Colonels Clarke and Butler, and Colonel Claus, supported by
Brigade Major Evans and Captain Glegg. The chief mourners were Major General Sheaffe, Ensign Coffin, Lieutenant
Colonel Myers, and Lieutenant Fowler. These were followed by the civil staff, friends of the deceased, and the inhab
itants.
General Brock had become greatly endeared to the Canadians. Gentlemanly deportment, kind and conciliating man
ners, and unrestrained benevolence were his prominent characteristics. He died unmarried, precisely a week after he
had completed his forty-third year. His dignity of person has already been described. I have been unable, after dil-
igent efforts, to obtain his portrait or his autograph. His contemporaries gave many tokens of respect to his memory
after his death. " Canadian farmers," says Howison, in his Sketches of Canada, " are not overburdened with sensibility,
yet I have seen several of them shed tears when a eulogium was pronounced upon the immortal and generous-minded
deliverer of their country." The Prince Regent, in an official bulletin, spoke of his death as having been "sufficient to
have clouded a victory of much greater importance." The muse was invoked in expressions of sympathy and sorrow.
Among poetical effusions which the occasion elicited was the following, written by Miss Ann Bruyeres, "an extraor
dinary child of thirteen years old," the daughter of the general's warm friend, Lieutenant Colonel Bruyeres, of the Royal
Engineers :
" As Fame alighted on the mountain's crest,
She loudly blew her trumpet's mighty blast ;
Ere she repeated Victory's notes, she cast
A look around and stopped. Of power bereft,
Her bosom heaved, her breath she drew with pain,
Her favorite Brock lay slaughtered on the plain !
Glory threw on his grave a laurel wreath,
And Fame proclaims, ' A hero sleeps beneath.' "
Brock's biographer observes, in alluding to Fame being twice mentioned in the above lines, that it was singular that
" the mournful intelligence of Sir Isaac Brock's death was brought from Quebec to Guernsey [his native country] by the
ship Fame, belonging to that island, on the 24th of November, two days before it was known in London." — Tupper's
Life of Brock, page 330.
By direction of a resolution of the House of Commons on the 20th of July, 1813, a military monument by Westmacott
was erected to his memory in St. Paul's Cathedral, London, at a cost of nearly eight thousand dollars. It is in the
western ambulatory of the south transept, and contains an effigy of the hero's body reclining in the arms of a British
soldier, while an Indian pays the last tribute of respect. The monument bears the following inscription : " Erected, at
the public expense, to the memory of MAJOR GENERAL SIR ISAAC
BROCK, who gloriously fell on the 13th of October, MDCCCXIL, in
resisting an attack on Queenston, in Upper Canada." In addition
to this, twelve thousand acres of land in Upper Canada were be
stowed on the four surviving brothers of General Brock, and each
were allowed a pension of one thousand dollars a year for life, by
a vote of the British Parliament.
The Canadians could never seem to
honor him enough. In 1816 they struck
a small medal to his memory : and soon
afterward steps were taken in the prov
ince to erect a suitable monument on
Queenston Heights, not far from the spot
where he fell. They raised a lofty Tuscan column, 135 feet in height from the base to the
summit. The diameter of the base of the column was seventeen and a half feet. On the
summit was a pedestal for a statue. Within was a spiral staircase around a central shaft. In
the base was a tomb.'-in which the coflins containing the remains of Brock and M'Donell
were deposited on the 13th of October, 1824. Their remains were conveyed from Fort George
to their last resting-place in a hearse drawn by four black horses, followed by an immense
military and civic procession, while artillery fired a salute of minute-guns. This monument
stood, the pride of the Canadians, until the middle of April, 1840, when a miscreant named
Lett, a fugitive from Canada, who had become implicated in the disturbances there in 1837 and
1838, attempted to destroy it with gunpowder. He succeeded in so injuring it that it became
necessary to pull it down. A meeting was held on the Heights in July following, at which
the late Sir Allan M'Nab made a stirring speech, when it was resolved to erect a new monument. It was estimated
that eight thousand persons were present, and a salute was fired by the Royal Artillery. That meeting and the new
monument will be considered in the next chapter.
IN MEMORY OP GENERAL BROCK.
BROCK'S MONUMENT.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
407
Lovett on Lewiston Heights. Transfer of Colonel Van Rensselaer from Queenston to Albany. His Reception.
two commanders an opportunity for the exchange of those humane courtesies which
should never be lost sight of amid the tumults of war.1
Let us turn back and consider for a moment what occurred on the American side
in connection with the battle of Queenston. At Lewiston, Lovett,2 as we have seen,
was placed in charge of an eighteen-pounder in battery on the Heights,3 where he per
formed good service in covering the par
ty that crossed before daylight. It be
ing dark, he stooped close to the gun to
observe its aim, when it was discharged,
and the concussion so injured his ears
that he was much deaf ever afterward.
Soon after this Colonel Van Rensselaer
was brought over from the Canada shore
with five bleeding wounds. He had been
sick with fever, and had left his bed to
attend to preparations for the invasion.
The disease and his wounds so prostrated
him that for several days his life was in
extreme peril.4 It was not until five
days after the battle that he could be
moved from Lewiston. Then a cot was
rigged with cross-bars and side-poles, on
'October, which he was carried, on the
1812- ' 18th,a to Schlosser by a detach
ment of Major Moseby's militia riflemen.
On the following day he was /
taken by the same party by land JS
and water to Buffalo.5 There he C~^^) l_
remained until the 9th of Novem
ber, and was then conveyed to his home at Mount Hope, near Albany, accompanied,
as he had been since his removal from Lewiston, by Mr. Lovett. They were met in
the suburbs of Albany by a cavalcade of citizens, and Van Rensselaer was received
with the honors of a victor.6
1 The correspondence between the generals may be found in Van Rensselaer's Narrative, already alluded to.
2 John Lovett was a resident of Albany when the war broke out, and was a leading man in the profession of the law
there. General Van Rensse
laer, his early friend, invited
him to become his aid and
military secretary. " I am not
a soldier," said Lovett. "It is
not your sword, but your pen
that I want," replied Van
Rensselaer. Mr. Lovett was
elected to a seat in Congress
in 1S13, when he renewed his
acquaintance with Governor
Meigs, and through his influ
ence purchased a tract of land
on the Maumee, and com
menced a settlement which
he named Perrysburg, in hon
or of the gallant hero of Lake
Erie. There he resided, but
he was early cut off by the prevailing fever of the country. He died at Fort Meigs in August, 1818, at the early age of
fifty-two years. For a more extended sketch of Mr. Lovett's life, see Reminiscences of Troy, by John Woodworth.
3 This battery was called Fort Gray, in honor of Nicholas Gray, acting engineer, under whose supervision it was
arranged. '
* Arad Joy, Esq., who was paymaster of Colonel Henry Bloom's regiment, and acting quartermaster on the day of
the battle, wrote to me on the 15th of March, 1852, giving me an account of his experience on the Lewiston side of the
river. He had charge of the wagons that conveyed the wounded to the hospital on the ridge road, two miles from the
village. Of Van Rensselaer he says : " The loss of blood caused him to be chilly. He sat upon a board across the top
of the wagon-box, without a groan ; and as we met the soldiers going to the river to cross, he would call out at the top
of his voice, 'Go on, my brave fellows, the day is our own.1 It cheered up and encouraged them. He was taken to
good quarters in a private house. The head surgeon, with his instruments, was along. We carried him into the house
and seated him on a chair. His boots were filled with blood, which was gushing from his thigh, and plainly to be seen
through his pantaloons. The boots, at Van Rensselaer's request, were cut from his feet."
5 At Buffalo, on the 24th, Van Rensselaer used a pen for the first time since receiving his wounds, and wrote to his
wife. That letter is before me. It is filled with expressions of gratitude toward General Van Rensselaer, and con
cludes by saying : " I congratulate you on the birth of our little boy. That this should have taken place on the same
night I made the attack on the British is singular. He must be a soldier."
6 Solomon Van Rensselaer was born in Greenbush, opposite Albany, in the old house known as the Garret mansion,
408 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Events at the Mouth of the Niagara River. Account of Port Niagara. Disposal of the American Prisoners.
While the stirring events at Queenston were in progress in the morning, there was
a lively time at Forts George and Niagara.1 So soon as Brock heard the state of
affairs at Queenston, he sent down word to Brigade Major Evans, who had been left
in charge of Fort George, to open a cannonade upon Fort Niagara. He did so, and
received a sharp reply from the south block-house of the American fortress, which
was in charge of Captain M'Keon. That officer turned his guns upon the village of
Newark also when charged with hot shot, and «everal buildings were set on fire. The
cannonade continued some time, when Evans, aided by Colonel Claus and Captain
Vigoreux, of the Royal Engineers, opened a severe bombardment upon Fort Niagara.
Already the bursting of a twelve-pounder had deprived the Americans of their best
weapon. This fact, and the exposed condition of the fort under the attack of shells,
caused Captain Leonard, the commandant of the garrison, to abandon it. The troops
had not proceeded far when they observed British boats, filled with armed men, leaving
the Canada shore for Fort Niagara, evidently with the intention of securing a lodg
ment there. M'Keon immediately returned with his little force, remained there unmo
lested over night, and was joined by the remainder of the garrison the next morning.
The American militia officers and privates captured at Queenston were paroled and
sent across the river, but those of the regular army were detained as prisoners of war
for exchange.2 These were sent to Quebec, and from there, in a cartel? to Boston, ex
cept twenty-three, who were claimed as British subjects, and were sent to England
to be tried for treason.4 The energetic action of Lieutenant Colonel Scott then and
in 1774. His father was a brave officer of the Revolution (Henry Killiau Van Rensselaer), who was severely wounded
in the thigh in a battle near Fort Ann in 17T7. He was then a colonel. The bullet, which was not extracted until after
his death, forty years later, is still in the possession of the family. It was flattened by striking the thigh bone. His son
Solomon inherited his military disposition, and at the age of eighteen years entered the army under Wayne as a cornet
of cavalry in the same battalion with the late President Harrison. He was promoted to the command of a troop [July
1, 1798] before he was twenty. He was shot through the lungs in the battle at the Rapids of the Miami or Maumee in
August, 1794. In 1798, when war with France seemed inevitable, Washington sent for Van Rensselaer, inquired about
the state of his wounds, and soon afterward [January, 1800] he was appointed a major of cavalry. When the army was
disbanded he went into civil pursuits, but was called to the responsible post of Adjutant General of New York in Janu
ary, 1801. He held that office when the war broke out, and at the solicitation of his uncle, General Van Reusselaer, he
took a position on his staff. His services at Queenston have been recorded in the text. That event closed his military
life, except as major general of the militia in 1819. Monroe appointed him post-master at Albany, and he held that po
sition until removed by Van Buren. He was a delegate to the Whig Convention that nominated his friend Harrison
for the presidency in 1839. Harrison reinstated him in the post-office at Albany, from which ho was removed by John
Tyler. He died at his residence at Cherry Hill, about a mile south of State Street, Albany, on the 24th of April, 1852, in
the seventy-eighth year of his age. Cherry Hill is a most beautiful spot, westward of the rural extension of Pearl Street.
It overlooks the Hudson, and commands a fine view of the country eastward of the river. I remember a visit to that
mansion several years ago (then occupied by his daughters) with much pleasure. His residence during the war of 1812
was called Mount Hope, and is a little south of Cherry Hill.
1 Fort Niagara was commenced as early as 1G79, when La Salle, a French explorer, inclosed a small spot there with
palisades. In 1GS7, DeNonville, a French commander, constructed a quadrangular fort there with four bastions. The
Senecas attacked, a fatal disease followed, and the fort was abandoned. In 17'25, the French, who still occupied the spot,
built quite a strong fortification there. It was taken from them by Sir William Johnson, with a force of British and
Indians, in 1759. It then covered about eight acres, having been enlarged and strengthened from time to time until it
had become a regular fort of great resisting power. It never again passed into the hands of the French. During the
Revolution it was the rendezvous of the Tories and Indians, who desolated Central New York, and sent predatory parties
into Pennsylvania. "It was the head-quarters," says Deveaux, "of all that was barbarous, unrelenting, and cruel. There
were congregated the leaders and chiefs of those bands of murderers and miscreants who carried death and desolation
into the remote American settlements. There civilized Europe reveled with savage Americans, and ladies of educa
tion and refinement mingled in the society of those whose only distinction was to wield the bloody tomahawk and the
scalping-knife. There the squaws of the forests were raised to eminence, and the most unholy unions between them
and officers of highest rank smiled upon and countenanced. There, in the strong-hold, like a nest of vultures, securely
for some years they sallied forth and preyed upon the distant settlements of the Mohawk and Susquehanna valleys.
It was the depot of their plunder. There they planned their forays, and there they returned to feast until the time of
action came again."— Deveaux's Falls of Niagara. Fort Niagara remained in possession of the British until 179G. It was
then commanded by Colonel Smith, who led the British in the fight at Concord in 1775. It has been well observed that
"Colonel Smith may with propriety be said to have participated in both the opening and closing acts of the American
revolution."
2 The following is a list of the regular officers who were surrendered : Colonel Scott, Lieutenant Colonels Christie and
Fenwick (the former slightly, the latter badly wounded), Major Mnllany, Captains Gibson, M'Chesney, and Ogilvie, Lieu-
Tenants Randolph, Kearney, Sammons, Huguuin, Fink, Carr, Turner, Totten, Bailey, Phelps, Clarke (wounded), and
M'Carty, and Ensign Reeve.
3 A cartel ship is a vessel commissioned in time of war to carry prisoners for exchange, or messages from one belliger
ent to another.
* At the beginning of the war the American prisoners were cruelly treated. Much testimony on the subject was col
lected by a committee of Congress, appointed for the purpose, in the summer of 1813. It was in evidence that when
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 409
Scott's bold Protection of Fellow-prisoners. Retaliation authorized by Congress. Concerning Perpetual Allegiance.
afterward saved them from death. When the prisoners were about to sail from Que
bec, a party of British officers came on board the cartel, mustered the captives, and
commenced separating from the rest those who, by their accent, were found to be
Irishmen. These they intended to send to England for trial as traitors in a frigate
lying near, in accordance with the doctrine that a British subject can not expatriate
himself.1 Scott, who was below, hearing a tumult on deck, went 'up. He was soon
informed of the cause, and at once entered a vehement protest against the proceed
ings. He commanded his soldiers to be absolutely silent, that their accent might not
betray them. He was repeatedly ordered to go below, and as repeatedly refused.
The soldiers obeyed him. Twenty-three had already been detected as Irishmen, but
not another one became a victim. The twenty-three were taken on board the frigate
in irons. Scott boldly assured them that if the British government dared to injure a
hair of their heads, his own government would fully avenge the outrage. He at the
same time as boldly defied the menacing officers, and comforted the manacled prison
ers in every possible way. Scott was exchanged in January, 1813, and at once sent
a full report of this affair to the Secretary of War. He hastened to Washington in
person, and pressed the subject upon the attention of Congress. A bill was intro
duced to vest " the President of the United States with powers of retaliation."2 It
originated in the Senate, and would have passed both houses but for the conceded
fact that such powers were already fully contained in the general constitutional
powers of the President to conduct the war. Fortunately for the credit of common
humanity, the President never had occasion to exercise that power to the extent of
life-taking, for the British government wisely and prudently abstained from carrying
out in practice, in the case of American prisoners, its cherished doctrine of perpetual
allegiance.3
prisoners arrived at Plymouth they were sent to Mill prison for one day and night, and all the food allowed them " for
the twenty-four hours were three small salt herrings, or about the same weight of salted codfish, or half a pound of
beef, one and a half pounds of black bread, a little salt, etc." On the second day they were paroled, and sent twenty-
four miles from Plymouth, at the expense of the prisoners, where they were allowed scarcely sufficient to drive starva
tion away. It was testified that the prisoners were kept in a half-starved state, it being "the policy of the British
government," according to the memorial of "James Orne, Joseph B. Cook, Thomas Humphries, and others," as they
solemnly believed, " to select the sickly to be first sent in cartels, and keep the hale and hardy seamen until they become
sickly, thus rendering the whole of these gallant sous of Neptune who escape death, when they return to their homes, at
least for some time, perfectly useless to themselves, and quite so to their country, from their debilitated state."
American prisoners were actually hired out in the British service, as appears by the following advertisement in a
Jamaica paper:
"Port Royal, 25th Nov., 1812.
" Masters of vessels about to proceed to England with convoy are informed that they may be supplied with a limited
number of American seamen (prisoners of war) to assist in navigating their vessels, on the usual terms, by applying to
"GEOKGE MAUDE, Agent."
. i See page 85.
3 Only two months after the passage of the act, Scott himself, as commander in the capture of Fort George, selected
from his prisoners twenty-three, to be confined in the interior of the country, to abide the fate of those sent to England
from Quebec.
3 The British government had a precedent not only in a notable case in its own history, but in the action of a neigh
boring nation. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, Doctor Storey, a native of England, quitted his country and became a
subject of Spain. He was received at the English Court as embassador from his adopted country. He was indicted in
England for treason, when he pleaded his Spanish citizenship. It availed him nothing. His plea was overruled, and
he was condemned and executed. Colonel Towuley, an Englishman born, became naturalized in France, but on being
seized while bearing arms against England, was executed for treason. The French decree of Trianon declared that no
Frenchman could be naturalized abroad without the consent of the emperor, and that such that may be naturalized
abroad without his consent could not bear arms against France. The American judiciary had also furnished a pre
cedent. Isaac Williams, an American, received a lieutenant's commission from the French government in 1792, and
served in the French navy. In 1799 he was tried before Chief Justice Ellsworth for having accepted a privateer's com
mission from the French Republic to commit acts of hostility against Great Britain, contrary to the laws of the United
States and of the late treaty with Great Britain. The judge decided that the prisoner was a citizen of the United States,
and that the emigration of a citizen implies no consent of the government that he should expatriate himself.— See Per
kins's History of the Political and Military Events of the Late War, page 2SS. A farther notice of this subject, and the
views of the government of the United States, expressed by Secretary Monroe, will be found in another portion of this
work. — See Index.
The final result of Scott's humane and courageous conduct in this matter was very gratifying to himself. Almost three
years after the event at Quebec he was greeted by loud huzzas as he was passing a wharf on the East River side of
New York City. It came from a group of Irishmen who had just landed from an emigrant ship. They were twenty-
one of the twenty-three prisoners for whom he had cared so tenderly. They had just returned after a long confinement
in English prisons. They recognized their benefactor, and, says Scott's biographer, " nearly crushed him by their warm
hearted embraces."— Mansfield's Lift of Scott.
410 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Resignation of General Van Rensselaer. Smyth his Successor. Smyth's pompous Proclamations.
General Van Rensselaer was disgusted with the jealousies of some of the regular
officers and the conduct of the militia. He was also convinced that the profession
of arms was not the sphere in which he would be most useful. On the 24th of Octo
ber he resigned the command of the troops on the Niagara frontier to General Smyth,
and soon afterward obtained from Governor Tompkins permission to leave the serv
ice.1 Smyth's pride was gratified, and it was soon displayed in a series of pompous
proclamations, which created both merriment and disgust. He promised so largely
and performed so little that he became the target for ridicule and satire by all par
ties. In his first proclamation, issued on the 10th of November, he displayed a lack
of common courtesy and good taste by offensive reflections upon Generals Hull and
Van Rensselaer.2 " One army," he said, " has been disgracefully surrendered and
lost. Another has been sacrificed by a precipitate attempt to pass it over at the
strongest point of the enemy's lines with most incompetent means. The cause of
these miscarriages is apparent. The commanders were popular men, destitute alike
of theory and experience in the art of war." "In a few days," he continued, "the
troops under my command will plant the American standard in Canada. They are
men accustomed to obedience, silence, and steadiness. They will conquer or they will
die. Will you stand with your arms folded and look on this interesting struggle ?
Must I turn from you, and ask men of the Six Nations to support the gov
ernment of the United States ? Shall I imitate the officers of the British king, and
suffer our ungathered laurels to be tarnished by ruthless deeds ?3 Shame, where is
thy blush ? No. Where I command, the vanquished and the peaceful man, the child,
the maid, and the matron, shall be secure from wrong. The present is the hour for
renown. Have you not a wish for fame ? Would you not choose in future times to be
named as one of those who, imitating the heroes whom Montgomery led, have, in spite
of the seasons, visited the tomb of the chief, and conquered the country where he lies ?"
1 General Van Rensselaer reached Albany on Saturday morning, the 31st of October, when he was honored by a pub
lic reception. On the 30th the Common Council of Albany appointed three of their members, namely, Tennis Van Vechten,
Isaac Hausen, and Peter Boyd, a committee for the purpose. These on the same day issued a little handbill, calling upon
the people to meet at the public square the next morning at eight o'clock. The committee also recommended that such
" as are accommodated with horses or carriages to repair to the house of Widow Douw, on the Albany and Schenectady
turnpike, for the purpose of escorting Major General Van Rensselaer to his mansion-house ; and the residue of the citi
zens are requested to proceed to the hay-scales, and there join the escort." The reception was imposing, and highly
gratifying to the general. Two days afterward he received a letter from the debtors in the Albany jail, who had expe
rienced his bounty, congratulating him on his return.
2 "I take the liberty," wrote a correspondent of General Van Rensselaer from Geneseo, "to inclose you a copy of a
handbill from General Smyth, which was circulated yesterday and the day before about Batavia. As far as I have been
able to observe, men of all parties unite in reprobating the attack he makes upon other commanders. I suspect, indeed,
that the attack is the main, real object of the handbill."— Autograph Letter of Samuel M. Hopkins, November 14, 1812.
3 Soon after the commencement of hostilities it was rumored at Buffalo that the British had taken possession of Grand
Island, in the Niagara River, which belonged to the Senecas, one of the Six Nations. Red Jacket, the chief of the Sen-
ecas, called the nation to a council, and thereat a desire was expressed to go and drive the invaders off. At a subse
quent council, where there was a large attendance of the nation, a formal declaration of war against the Canadas was
made in these words :
"We, the chiefs and councilors of the Six Nations of Indians, residing in the State of New York, do hereby proclaim
to all the war-chiefs and warriors of the Six Nations that war is declared on our part against the provinces of Upper
and Lower Canada. Therefore we hereby command and advise all the war-chiefs and warriors of the Six Nations to
call forth immediately the warriors under them, and put them in motion to protect their rights and liberties, which our
brethren, the Americans, are now defending."*
This is believed to have been the first Indian declaration of war ever committed to writing. Although the services
of the Indians were offered to General Smyth, he declined them, because the government of the United States, acting
in the interest of common humanity, had resolved not to employ the savages in the war unless compelled to.
* Alluding to this council, Mr. Lovett, General Van Rensselaer's military secretary, then in attendance at Buffalo on
Colonel Solomon Van Rensselaer, said: "The spirit of insubordination seems to have wound its way among the sons
of Belial, our red brethren. Without the leave or knowledge of Mr. Granger [the Indian Superintendent], they have
had a great council back in the bush. To purge away this horrid sin of disobedience, Mr. G., the good Moses of these
shabby Israelites, ordered them to tread back their steps unsanctifled by his behests, and to cast to the wind the wam
pum, and the belts, and all the records of their abominable council, and to repair, one and all, before the high-priest of
the temple at Buffalo, to have their souls scrubbed from all political sins. The day before yesterday hither they came—
sachems, chiefs, and warriors — old and young, squaws and pappooses — with all of. intermediate grades. Such a thor
ough shaking of the beggar-bag of poor motley human nature I never before saw. With great humility all confessed
their sins, received absolution, and washed their souls in whisky. All got drunk, wallowed all night in the mud, and
the next day went home to their wigwams pure and humble, chanting the praises of IMoses."— Autograph Letter to
General Van Rensselacr, November 6, 1812.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 411
Smyth and his Proclamations ridiculed.
In another proclamation he said : " Companions in arms ! the time is at hand when
you will cross the stream of Niagara to conquer Canada, and to secure the peace of
the American frontier. You will enter a country that is to be one of the United
States Whatever is booty by the usages of war shall be yours." He offered
two hundred dollars apiece for horses for artillery that might be captured. He then
boasted of the superiority of the American soldiers and weapons, and unnecessarily
offended the Federalists, many of whom were in the ranks, by saying to the volun
teers, " Disloyal and traitorous men have endeavored to dissuade you from doing
your duty." In his address to " The Army of the Centre," as he called the little force
under his command, he said : " Soldiers of every corps ! it is in your power to retrieve
the honor of your country, and to cover yourselves with glory. Every man who per
forms a gallant action shall have his name made known to the nation. Rewards and
honors await the brave, infamy and contempt are reserved for cowards. Compan
ions in arms ! you come to vanquish a valiant foe. I know the choice you will make.
Come on, my heroes ! and when you attack the enemy's batteries, let your rallying-
word be, 'The cannon lost at Detroit, or death !' 'n
When these proclamations in quick succession appeared, the general's friends smiled,
the enemy laughed, and the Opposition press teemed with squibs and epigrams. He
was called " Alexander the Great," " Napoleon the Second," etc. A wag in the New
York Evening Post wrote of " General Smyth's Bulletin No. 2 :"
"Just so ! (and every wiser head
The likeness can discover)
We put a chestnut in the fire,
And pull the embers over ;
A while it waxes hot and hotter,
And eke begins to hop,
Aud after much confounded pother,
Explodes a mighty Pop .' ! .'"
General Smyth's invasion of Canada will be noticed presently.
i General Smyth's magniloquence was equaled only by Ross Bird's, a captain of the Third United States Infantry,
who, in great indignation because of some offense, offered to resign his commission. His letter closed with the follow
ing words : " In leaving the service I am not abandoning the cause of Republicanism, but yet hope to brandish the glit
tering steel in the field, and carve my way to a name which shall prove my country's neglect ; and when this mortal
shall be closeted in the dust, and the soul shall wing its flight to the regions above, in passing by the pale-faced moon
I shall hang my hat on brilliant Mars, and make a report to each superlative star, and, arriving at the portals of heav
en's high chancery, shall demand of the attending angel to be ushered into the presence of Washington !
" Ross BIED, Captain.
"Washington, September 13, 1813.
" To Lieutenant Colonel C. C. Russell."
Captain Bird had been in the army as early as 1791, and had lately been promoted to major of infantry in the new
army.
412 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Arrival at Niagara Falls. Departure for Qvteenston. An undesirable Horse and Driver.
CHAPTER XX.
"Alas for them ' their day is o'er,
Their fires are out from shore to shore ;
No more for them the wild deer bounds—
The plow is on their hunting-grounds."
CIIAKLES SPRA.GUE.
the middle of August, 1860, 1 visited the theatre of events de-
scr-ibed in the preceding chapter. I went down to Niagara
Falls from Buffalo in a railway train on the afternoon of the
16th. A violent thunder-storm greeted our arrival at five
o'clock. As business, not pleasure, was my errand to that great
gathering-place of the fashionable and of tourists in summer, I
rode to the northern part of the village, and took lodgings at
the quiet " Niagara House," where I found room in abundance
in chamber and at table. On the following morning, accompanied by the late Colo
nel P. A. Porter, then a resident of Niagara Falls village, I crossed the suspension
bridge, rode up the western bank of the river to Street's Creek, opposite Navy Isl
and, and visited the battle-ground of Chippewa with Colonel Cummings, a surviving
aid of the British general Riall, who commanded in that engagement. Of that visit
and its results I shall write hereafter.
I returned to the Niagara House in time for dinner, and at four o'clock started in
an old, dusty light wagon, with a jaded horse, for Lewiston, seven miles down the
river. It was at an hour when every body was on the road, and every horse and
vehicle were employed. I was left without choice, and felt thankful that I was not
compelled to go afoot. The driver was a rather rough-cast boy of sixteen years, with
a freckled face, a turned-up nose, a mischievous gray eye, sandy hair, and rather in
telligent, but uneducated. The horse seemed tipsy as well as tired, for he was con
stantly leaving the right lines of the highway. His coat was an uncertain brick
color, and rough ; the harness had dotted him with black bare spots ; his tail and
mane were thin and frizzled ; one of his ears drooped, and his gait, at best, was de
cidedly "gawky." I was anxious to reach Lewiston in time to cross the suspension
bridge to Queenston, and visit places of interest there before sunset, and at the start
the boy commenced lashing the beast unmercifully. I remonstrated. " Hain't ye
in a hurry?" he asked. "Yes, but you shall not torture the poor horse in that way,"
I replied. Such mercy surprised him. " Why, darn it," he said, impatiently, " I'm so
used to whippin' I can't help it. I never knowed a man afore who cared a whip-snap
for a hired hoss. He is lazy, mister — lazy," and he gave the poor animal another
severe stroke. So inveterate was the boy's cruel habit that he would not relinquish
it until I took the whip from him, and threatened to leave him by the road side.
Even then he would rise occasionally and kick the horse ; harmlessly, however, for
his toes were ambitiously getting ahead of his shoes.
We jogged on at a fair rate of speed, and met numerous " turn-outs" superior to
our own, of which we were not specially proud. Among them was a jaunty little
wagon and a span of black ponies, driven at full speed by the owner, the wife of a
New York city editor. Her establishment was the " observed of all observers," but
we were not jealous ; indeed, all thoughts of the road and its frequenters soon faded
when, at five o'clock, we reached the brow of Lewiston Heights and beheld the mag-
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 413
Lewiston Heights, and the View from them. Villages of Lewiston and Queenston. The Suspension Bridge.
nificent panorama before us. At the turn of the road, where it descends the Heights,
I alighted, and from the site of Fort Gray,1 now marked by slight mounds, I obtained
a view of land and water both grand and beautiful. On the left was seen Queenston
Heights, on which stands the new monument erected to the memory of General
Brock. At their base lay the village of Queenston. Farther westward a glimpse
of St. David's was obtained ; and northwestward, as far as the eye could reach, the
level country was dotted with woods and well-cultivated farms. At our feet lay
the village of Lewiston; and stretching away to the northeast was the vast plain,
much of it covered with the primeval forest. In the centre was the glittering line
of the blue Niagara River. Near its mouth the eye could discern the spires of Ni
agara (old Newark), on the Canada side, and the village of Youngstown, with the
mass of old Fort Niagara beyond, on the American side. The whole horizon north
ward was bounded by the dark line of Lake Ontario, over which was brooding a
thunder-storm, flashing fire and bellowing angrily as it moved sullenly eastward.
Leaving this grand observatory with reluctance, we made our way down the sinu
ous road to Lewiston, every where meeting, in the descent, geological evidences that
this bank was the shore of an ancient lake when the Falls of Niagara were doubtless
at this place, and that the plain on which the village stands was its bed. The ridge
is composed of sand and gravel, and the usual debris thrown up by a large body of
water in character essentially different from the surrounding surface. The summit
.of the Heights is here thirty-four feet above the level of Lake Erie.2
We passed through Lewiston3 (a village of about one thousand souls, very pleas
antly situated) without halting, and crossed the Niagara River to Queenston, over
the suspension bridge, a magnificent structure, with a roadway eight hundred and
fifty feet in length, twenty feet in width, and sixty feet above the water.4 We were
at Wadsworth's Tavern, in Queenston, and had engaged lodgings for the night before
six o'clock; and we immediately rode from there up the Heights to Brock's Monu
ment, near the summit. A short distance above the residence of David Thorburn,
Esq. (then the superintendent of the Six Nations of Indians in Canada), at the turn
of the road from the highway to the Falls, well up the acclivity, we passed a bury-
ing-ground which marks the site of the redan battery.5 Soon after passing this, we
came to the eastern entrance to the monument grounds (about forty acres in extent),
and the lodge of the keeper, George Playter, a loyal old man, whose kind courtesies
I remember with pleasure. The gate is of wrought iron, highly ornamented, with
cut-stone piers surmounted with the arms of the hero. The lodge is also of cut stone.
From the entrance an easy carriage-way winds up the hill to an avenue one hundred
feet wide, which terminates at the monument in a circle one hundred and eighty feet
in diameter.
1 See note 3, page 40T.
2 Lake Ontario is 334 feet lower than Lake Erie. The current of the Niagara River that connects them is not very
rapid ahove Schlosser and below Lewiston, and the river makes nearly the whole of that descent in the space of nine
miles. It falls perpendicularly at the great cataracts, 154 feet on the Canada side of Goat Island, and 163 feet on the
American side. It is supposed that the river originally flowed over the face of the precipice at Lewistou. By the grad
ual wearing away of the rocks in the lapse of ages, the Falls have receded seven miles, becoming continually lower.
" The precipice over which the present Falls flow is composed of solid limestone, with shale above and below. The
wearing away of the shale above has formed the Rapids, and the disintegration of that below has left the limestone in
overhanging masses until they break off with their own weight."— French's Gazetteer of the State of New York.
3 Lewiston was so named in honor of Morgan Lewis, who was an officer in the Revolution, and governor of the State
of New York in 1804.
* This bridge was destroyed by a gale of wind at the close of 1863. Fortunately no life was lost. The Lockport Jour
nal relates the following incident in connection with its destruction : " During the day upon which the Lewiston bridge
was carried off by the wind, a boy, whose parents reside in Canada, but is at work in Lewiston, went over to Canada on
a short visit to his parents. Just before the bridge went down, the boy proposed starting for his place of business ill
Lewiston. His father accompanied him. As they reached the bridge it was swaying to and fro over the boiling waters
far beneath. The boy hesitated a moment, but, as this motion of the bridge was not unusual, he stepped upon it, his fa
ther still with him, and proceeded to cross. They both went to about the middle, when the rapid and unusual motion
of the bridge greatly increased their fear. The father turned about, and the boy went on, both running at their fastest
speed for the opposite shore. They had just time to reach the shore on each side before the structure was borne away."
5 See page 398.
414
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The Monument on Queenston Heights.
The monument is built of the limestone
is placed upon a slightly-raised plat
form within a dwarf-walled inclos-
ure, seventy-five feet square, with a
fosse around the interior. At each
angle of this inclosure is placed mass
ive military trophies, wrought out of
the same stone as that of the monu
ment, and about twenty feet in height.
The monument is built upon a foun
dation of wrought stone forty feet
square and ten feet thick, resting
upon the solid rock of the mountain.
Upon this stands, in a grooved plinth,
a basement, thirty-eight feet square
and twenty-seven feet in height, un
der which, in heavy stone sarcopha
gi, are the remains of General Brock
O t
and Lieutenant Colonel M'Donell.
On the exterior angles of this base
ment are placed well-carved lions
rampant, seven feet in height, sup
porting shields with the armorial
bearings of the hero. On the north
of the Heights, quarried near the spot. It
side of this basement is
an inscription in bold
letters,1 and upon brass
plates in the interior of
the column are epitaph-
ic inscriptions.2
Upon the basement is
the pedestal of the col
umn, little more than
sixteen feet square, and
just thirty-eight feet in
height. Upon a panel
on each of three sides
of this pedestal is an
emblem in low relief,
and on the north side,
facing Queenston, is a
representation of a bat
tle scene in high relief,
in which Brock is rep
resented at the head of
his troops, wounded.
The column is of the
BKOCK'8 MONUMENT ON QUEENSTON HEIGHTS.
Roman composite order, ninety-five feet in height. The shaft is fluted, and is ten
feet in diameter at its base, with an enriched plinth, on which are carved the heads
of lions and wreaths in bold relief. The flutes terminate in palms. The capital of
1 The following is a copy of the inscription :
" UPPER CANADA has dedicated this monument to the memory of the late MAJOR GENERAL SIR ISAAC BROCK, K.B.,
Provincial Lieutenant Governor and Commander of the Forces in this Province, whose remains are deposited in the
vault beneath. Opposing the invading enemy, he fell in action near these Heights on the 13th of October, 1S12, in the
forty-third year of his age. Revered and lamented by the people whom he governed, and deplored by the sovereign to
whose service his life had been devoted."
2 On one plate is the following:
"In a vault underneath are deposited the mortal remains of MAJOR GENERAL SIR ISAAC BROCK, K.B., who fell in ac
tion near these Heights on 13th October, 1812, and was entombed on the 16th of October at the bastion of Fort Geonre,
Niagara, removed from thence, and reinterred under a monument to the eastward of this site, on the 13th October, 1824;
and, in consequence of that monument having received irreparable injury by a lawless act on the 17th of April, 1S40, it
was found requisite to take down the former structure and erect this monument ; the foundation-stone being laid, and
the remains again reinterred with due solemnity, on 13th October, 1853."
The other plate has the following inscription :
"In a vault beneath are deposited the mortal remains of Lieutenant Colonel JOHN M'DONELL, P.A.D.C., and Aid-de
camp to the lamented MAJOR GENERAL SIR ISAAC BROCK, K.B., who fell mortally wounded in the battle of Qncenston,
on the 13th October, 1812, and died on the following day. His remains were removed and reinterred with due solem
nity, on 13th October, 1S53."
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 415
Descriptor! of Brock's Monument. Ceremonies at the laying of the Corner-stone. Evening on Queenstou Heights.
the column is sixteen feet square, and twelve feet six inches in height. On each face
is sculptured a figure of Victory, ten feet six inches in height, with extended arms
grasping military shields as volutes. The acanthus and palm leaves are enwreathed
in antique style. From the ground to the gallery at the top of the column is a spiral
staircase of cut stone, comprising two hundred and thirty-five steps, lighted by loop
holes in the flutings of the column. On the abacus is a cippus upon which stands a
statue of BROCK, in military costume, seventeen feet in height, the left hand resting
on a sword, and the right arm extended with a baton.1 This monumental column is
exceeded in height by only one of a similar character in the world. That is the one
erected by Sir Christopher Wren, in London, to commemorate the great fire that des
olated that city in 1666. It is only twelve feet higher than Brock's.2
It was sunset when I completed the sketch of the monument, in which is included
a distant view of Lewiston Heights, seen on the right, and the village of Lewiston
and the plain beyond, seen on the left. Heavy clouds rolling up from the west, and
rumbling thunder in the distance, gave warning of an approaching storm. This
fact and the lateness of the hour prevented my ascending the shaft to obtain the
magnificent panoramic view from its summit, from which, it is said, small villages
may be seen southward, the battle-ground of Lundy's Lane or Niagara, the white spray
from the cataract, and the turmoil of the great whirlpool, in addition to the vast
stretch of land and water seen at other parts of the compass.
We made our way down the Heights to the village just in time to avoid the storm
which fell simultaneously with the darkness. It was severe, but short. The stars
were visible soon after it passed by, and I found my way to the house of Mr. Joseph
Winn, on the road to the suspension bridge. He was an old resident of Queenston,
and familiar with every locality there connected with the battle, although he was not
in the engagement. He kindly offered to be my guide in the morning. The night
was a tempestuous one, but the sky was cloudless at dawn. At an early hour I
visited the landing-place of the Americans near the suspension bridge, and made the
sketch printed on page 395. I then followed the high bank of the river some distance,
and made my way to the stone building in which the British took refuge after being
repulsed by Wool ;3 but the sketch I then made was lost a few days afterward.
> This monument was designed by W. Thomas, Esq., of Toronto, and was erected under his superintendence. The
contractor was Mr. J. Worthingtou.
2 We have observed that .a former monument to the memory of Brock was shattered by powder in 1840. The act
produced the greatest iiidignation throughout Canada. A meeting was held on Queenston Heights in June following,
composed of about eight thousand people. One of the most active men on that occasion was the late Sir' Allan M'Nab.
There was a military parade and salutes with artillery. In Toronto the day was observed as a solemn holiday. All the
public offices were closed, and business was generally suspended. Delegations and crowds of citizens flocked to Queens-
ton from Kingston, Toronto, Cobourg, and Hamilton. The lieutenant governor, Sir George Arthur, and his staff, were
there. Sir George presided. He addressed the meeting. Chief Justice Robinson, Sir Allan M'Nab, and several oth
ers, also made speeches. A number of Brock's surviving soldiers were also present. Resolutions were passed ; and
when the public proceedings were ended, six hundred persons sat down to a dinner under a pavilion erected on the spot
where the hero fell, at which Chief Justice Robinson presided. The result of the affair was the formation of a building
committee for the erection of a new monument, of which Sir Allan M'Nab was chairman.* The money for the purpose
was raised by the voluntary subscriptions of the militia and Indian warriors of the province. A grant from the Pro
vincial Parliament enabled the committee to lay out the grounds, and erect the gate and keeper's lodge. The foun
dation-stone was laid on the 13th of October, 1853, and on the same day the remains of Brock and M'Donell were rein-
terred with imposing ceremonies. The day was very fine. There were pall-bearers and chief mourners.t When the
remains were deposited in their last resting-place, the corner-stone was laid by Lieutenant Colonel M'Donell, brother
of one of the dead heroes. The late Honorable William Hamilton Merritt, M.P., delivered an address, in which he
spoke highly of the character and services of the Indians in the War of 1812. Mr. Thorburn, Indian agent, responded
in their behalf, and read an address from the chiefs present, which breathed sentiments of loyalty and affection for the
English queen. As a mark of respect, an American steam-boat at Lewiston lowered its flag to half mast.
3 See page 398.
* The following named gentlemen constituted that committee : Sir Allan M'Nab, M. P. ; Chief Justice Sir John Brush
Robinson ; Honorable Mr. Justice M'Lean ; Honorable Walter H. Dickson, M. L. C. ; Honorable William Hamilton Mer
ritt, M. P.; Honorable Thomas Clark Street, M. P. ; Colonel James Kerby ; Colonel John M'Dougal ; David Thorburn,
Esq. ; Lieutenant Garrett ; Colonel Robert Hamilton ; and Captain H. Munro.
t The pall-bearers were Colonels E. W. Thompson, W. Thompson, Duggan, Stanton, Kerby, Crooks, Zimmerman,
Carori, Thome, Servos, Clark, Wakefield, and Miller. Among the chief mourners were Colonel Donald M'Donell, the
deputy adjutant general for Canada East, Colonel Tache, Lieutenant Colonel Irvine, the survivors of 1812, and the chiefs
of the Six Nations.
416
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
A Veteran of 1812.
The Chief of the Six Nations of Indians.
The Place where Brock fell.
From the river I went up the Heights to the site of the redan, and then to the point
where the Americans were crowded to the verge of the precipice. This was ac
complished before breakfast.
When I came out of the dining-room at Wads worth's, I found the venerable Major
Adam Brown in the little parlor. He was a native of Queenston. At the time of
the battle he was a lieutenant in the 1st Battalion of the Lincoln Militia under Col
onel Glaus, then at Fort George, and was not in the engagement. He was in com
mand of a hundred men at the battle of Niagara (Lundy's Lane), and was in active
service during a greater part of the war. While I was writing some memoranda of
his conversation in my note-book, he spoke to a person behind me whom I had not
noticed, and asked, " Were you the chief who was with the Indians at the dedication
of the monument ?" " I was, sir," replied a pleasant voice. I turned and observed a
fine-looking, dark-complexioned, well-dressed man, whose features and expression re
vealed traces of the Indian race. We both arose at the same moment. I introduced
myself and inquired his name. He informed me that he was George Henry Martin
Johnson, a descendant, in the fourth generation, of Sir William Johnson, of the Mo
hawk Valley, and now Tekarihogea, or commander-in-chief of the Six Nations of In
dians in Canada, his father having been the official successor of John Brant. To me
this meeting was interesting and fortunate. I intended to visit the settlements of
the Six Nations, on the Grand River, during this tour, but was doubtful concerning
the best route, and the most important place for obtaining desired information. All
was now plain, and, before we parted, arrangements were made for Mr. Johnson to
meet me at Brantford a few days later.
On the day of my arrival at Queenston, a committee, appointed for the purpose,
had decided upon the exact spot where
Brock fell. I visited it in company with
Major Brown. A space sixty feet
square, within which was to be placed
a memorial-stone, had been staked out,
and in the centre, the very spot, as the
committee supposed, where the hero
fell, was marked.1 As early as 1821,
John Howison, in his Sketches of Upper
Canada, had said, " General Brock 'was
killed close to the road that leads
through Queenston village, and an aged
thorn-bush now marks the place where
he fell when the fatal ball entered his
vitals." The spot marked by the com
mittee is about twenty rods west of
the " road that leads through Queens-
ton," and a little eastward of the " aged
thorn-bush," which had become a tree
twenty feet in height, with two large
stems, when I saw it. Near the site a
workman was fashioning the blocks
of freestone of which the monument
was to be composed, and from him I
obtained a sketch of it. After making
MONUMENT WHERE BROOK PEJ.L.
1 1 was told that some old residents of the village declared that the place where Brock fell was westward of the
thorn-tree, and at least twenty paces from the spot selected. James Cooper, a blacksmith, who was within six feet of
Brock when he fell, said it was west of the thorn-tree; and Henry Stone, who lived in the stone house near the field,
declared that he saw the blood of Brock on rocks west of the tree.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 417
Journey from Queenstou to Niagara. Solomon Vroomau. Appearance of the Country.
a drawing of the spot, showing the old thorn-tree on the right, and the stately mon
ument on the Heights in the distance, I introduced, in proper place and propor
tions, the sketch of the memorial-stone to mark the place which Howison said "may
be called classic ground.'" It is a small affair, being only about four feet in height.
The ground around it was to be inclosed in an iron railing. The Prince of Wales
(Albert Edward) was at that timea making a tour in Canada, receiving . August,
tokens of loyalty every where. He visited Queenston very soon after I
was there, and laid the corner-stone of the little monument with imposing cere
monies.
I left Queenston for Niagara at about nine o'clock, after riding to the point in the
northern part of the village where the " old fort," or barracks, were situated, near the
residence of Mr. E. Clements, of the Customs. We immediately passed a creek and
deep ravine, and soon came to the first brick house below Queenston, on the left of
the road, the residence of the venerable Solomon Vrooman, pleasantly situated, and
surrounded by evidences of the highest and most thrifty cultivation. He was the
owner of the point on which the battery bearing his name was situated,2 and partici
pated in the battle by assisting in manning the nine-pounder that was mounted there.
I called to see him, and spent half an hour with him most agreeably. He was a
slender man, seventy-six years of age. His native place was ^in the Mohawk Valley,
but he had lived in Canada since the days of his young manhood. He went with me
to the spot where the battery was, and pointed out the very prominent mounds that
yet remain, near a barn, from which I made the sketch printed on page 391. He
told me that one hundred
were thrown
from that battery during
the day, wholly for the pur
pose of obstructing the passage of the river by the Americans.3 Its range of the old
ferry and the new crossing- pi ace at the present suspension bridge was point-blank and
effectual. On one occasion during the afternoon, some Americans, trying to escape
from Queenston by swimming the river, were brought by the current within rifle-shot
distance of the battery, when one of the men in his company raised his piece to fire.
Vrooman knocked up the piece, exclaiming indignantly, " Shame on you ! none but a
coward would fire upon men thus struggling for their lives !"
The road from Vrooman's to Niagara was one of the most delightful that I had
o - O -
ever traveled. Most of the way it skirted the high bank of the winding river, which
was covered with stately trees, through which continual glimpses of the American
shore could be obtained. Landward were seen broad fields, from which bountiful
harvests were pouring into barns, or green waving Indian corn, or numerous orchards,
whose trees were so heavily laden with fruit that they drooped like weeping willows.
As we approached Niagara we passed through first an aromatic pine grove, and theij
a narrow forest of oaks, beeches, maples, and evergreens, and emerged upon an open
plain, the property of the government, with the mounds of abandoned Fort George,
1 The Prince of Wales arrived at Queenston on the 17th of September, and on the following day he laid-the corner
stone of the little monument. Near the spot was erected a triumphal arch, on which, in large letters, were the words
" VIOTOEIA.— WELCOME." The veterans of 1S12, who were present, formed a guard of honor for the young prince. In the
background were the St. Catharine's Riflemen with a brass band. A silver trowel was presented to the prince with which
to perform the ceremony. Upon it was engraved the following inscription : " Presented to His Royal Highness ALBEET
EnwAED, Prince of Wales, by the Brock Monument Committee, on Queeuston Heights, ISth September, 1S60." On one
side of the monument was placed the following inscription : "This stone was placed by his Royal Highness ALBEET
EDWAED, Prince of Wales, on the ISth of September, 1SCO." On the other side, "Near this spot Sir Isaac Brock, K.B.,
Provisional Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, fell on the 13th of October, 1812, while advancing to repel the inva
sion of the enemy." 2 See Map on page 382.
3 The battery was crescent-shaped. Engineer Gray, in his manuscript report now before me, thus describes if : " It
is built en barbette (that is, without embrasures), and has a high breastwork to the river. On the north, a frame house,
intended for a barn ; on the west is a gun, mounted en barbette (on the top of the breastwork), and flanked by the skele
ton of a house. Within five rods of this runs the highway to Fort George."
I) U
418
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
A Visit to Port George.
Remains of the French Magazine there.
Hospitality of Mrs. Lee.
3'HESENT OUTLINES OF FOKT GEOKGE.
on the bank of the river, breaking the monotony of the level far to the right. There
were no fences to obstruct the view or the travel on the plain. Cattle were feeding
on the short grass, and here and there a footman or a horseman might be seen. We
turned out of the beaten road to the
right, and drove across the plain to one
of the angles of the fort. There I left
horse and driver, clambered up the
steep grassy sides of the embankment,
and commenced a hasty exploration of
the interior of the fort. The breast
works in all directions were quite per
fect, and the entire form of the fort
could be traced without difficulty.
There were two or three houses within
the works, and the parade and other
portions were devoted to the cultivation of garden vegetables.
In the most southerly
part of the fort, about three
hundred yards from the riv
er, is an old powder maga
zine, built by the French
within a stockade. It was
occupied as a dwelling by j^^H^^,^^^-^' -«^K§?>,,
the family of an Jinghsh sol
dier named Lee when I was
there in 1860. The higher
building seen in the picture
is the old magazine. It was
covered with slate, and its
walls, four and a half feet
thick, were supported by
three buttresses on each side. The buildings on the left are more modern. The in
terior of the magazine is arched, and the doors were originally covered with plates
of copper fastened by copper nails.
Mrs. Lee was an intelligent woman, very communicative, and free in the dispensa
tion of the hospitalities of her humble abode. We were refreshed with cakes, har
vest-apples, and cold spring-water. She filled a small basket with copper coins and
other relics, and as I parted with her she wished me good luck in my journeyings.
I clambered over an irregular and steep bank northward of the old magazine, visit
ed the site of the " cavalier battery" where Brock and M'Donell were buried, and
sketched the "new magazine," erected by the British in 181 2, delineated on page 405.
It is of brick. Near it was a small house occupied by an Irish family, and the maga
zine was used as a pig-sty.
From Fort George we rode to Niagara, half a mile below, halted long enough to
obtain refreshments for ourselves and the horse, and then rode out over the garrison
reservation, northeastward of the town, to Fort Mississaga,1 a strong earth-work with
a castle, which was constructed by the British during the war of 1812. Cattle were
grazing upon the plain ; the waters of Lake Ontario, ruffled b j a breeze, were spark
ling in the distance, and the whole scene was one of quiet and repose. Such, indeed, is
1 Mississaria or Has&asauga is the Indian name of a small black or dark brown rattlesnake, twelve or fourteen inches
in length, which usually inhabits tamarack and cranberry swamps in Northwestern Ohio and Canada West. This is the
name of an Indian tribe ; also of a large stream in Canada West that empties into Lake Huron. In the little view of
Fort Miesissaga given on the next page, Fort Niagara is seen on the right in the distance, and Lake Ontario on the west.
FEENOH MAGAZINE AT FOET GEOEGE.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
419
Fort Misstmaga iu 18(50.
Return to Niagara Falls.
Departure for the Grand River.
the impression on the
mind in Canada, as
compared with "the
States." The turmoil
and bustle that marks
an American popula
tion in large or small
numbers, was but
slightly manifested
there. I found appa
rent stagnation in
Queenston; and Ni
agara, though a fine
DISTANT VIEW OF FOKT MISSISSAGA.
and pleasant town in
appearance, with a
population of about
twenty-five hundred,
seemed to be repos
ing in almost perfect
rest. It was former
ly called Newark, and
the present city oc
cupies the site of the
little village which
the Americans de
stroyed in 1813. It
• 1791.
was one of the oldest towns in the province, having been settled by Colonel Simcoe
when he was the lieutenant governor. a It was a place of considerable trade
before the opening of the Welland Canal, about thirty years ago, and is now,
as then, the capital of the Niagara District.
We found the gate of Fort Mississaga wide open, and walked in without leave.
Not a human face was visible. I went
up to and around the ramparts, and,
taking a position over the entrance-
gate, from which I could see most of
the interior and Fort Niagara beyond,
I sketched the scene. In this view are
seen the barracks and the castle, with
Fort Niagara across the river in the
extreme distance. The castle is built
of brick. The walls are eight feet in
thickness, and covered with stucco.
While engaged with the sketch I was
startled by a voice near me. It was
that of the whole garrison, comprised
in the person of Patrick Burns, who
told me to make as many sketches as
I pleased, for the fort was uninhabited
except by his own family.
At an early hour we started on our
return to Niagara Falls. I attempted
to drive, but soon became discouraged
by the eccentric movements of the
horse, when the boy told me for the
first time that he was " as blind as a bat." But I have no reason to complain of the
animal, for he carried us back in safety, and in time for dinner and for departure by
the evening train for the West. Having placed my luggage in charge of a proper
person at the suspension bridge station, I ci'ossed that marvelous hanging viaduct on
foot, along the carriage-road under the railway gallery, with my satchel in hand. As
I left the bridge to ascend to the station on the Canada shore I was hailed by a
custom-house officer, of whose business I had not the least suspicion until informed
by him. Believing my assurance that the satchel contained nothing contraband, he
allowed me to pass, after I had expressed a wish, good-naturedly, that the United
States might soon be annexed to Canada, so that revenue officers might be allowed
to engage in some other employment.
On entering the cars on the Canada side I met Chief Johnson. We traveled to-
INTERIOR VIEW — FOKT MISSISSAGA IN 1SGO.
420 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
St. Catharine. Hamilton, Paris, and Brantford. Chief Johnson and the Indian Reservation.
gether as far as St. Catharine, eleven miles, where I intended to spend a day or two,
and agreed upon the time when we should meet at Brantford. The impressions made
by the time spent at St. Catharine, the persons I met at that famous gathering of in
valids around a mineral spring, a visit to the battle-ground of the Beaver Dams, the
journey to Hamilton, and a ride to Stony Creek, a place made famous in the annals
of the war we are now considering by a conflict and the capture of two American
generals, are always summoned by memory with great pleasure. Of these I shall
hereafter write.
On Tuesday evening, the 20th of August, I arrived at Hamilton, at the head of
Lake Ontario, by the Great Western Railway, and spent the night at the " Royal
Hotel." Early on the following morning I rode out to Stony Creek, seven miles, and
returned in time to take the cars at meridian for Paris in company with a young
Quadroon chief of the Six Nations, named M'Murray, whose mother, wife of the Rev
erend Dr. M'Murray, of Niagara, was a half-breed Indian woman, and sister to the first
wife of H. R. Schoolcraft, Esq. He was one of the finest formed and most attractive
young men, in person and feature, I have ever met.
The road from Hamilton to Paris, nearly thirty miles, passes through a very pic
turesque country. For five miles it skirts the northern high bank of the great
marsh that extends from Burlington Bay to Dundas, and follows, a greater portion of
the way, a line parallel with Dundas Street, or the Governor's Road. At Paris,1 a
large town, situated partly on a high rolling plain, and partly in a deep valley, on
Smith's Creek and the Grand River, I left the Great Western Railway, and took
passage for Brantford, seven miles southward, on the Buffalo and Huron Road, which
here intersects it. The country was hilly most of the way, but at Brantford it spreads
out into a beautiful plain, or high gravelly ridge, overhanging an extensive and well-
cultivated region. The town derives its name from the great Mohawk2 chief, the In
dians having a ford across the Grand River here, which they called " Brant's Ford,"
it being near his residence.3 The situation of the town, on the north or right bank
of the Grand River, is a healthful one. That river is navigable to within less than
three miles of the village. The deficiency in that distance is supplied by a canal.
The population is about four thousand.
Early on the morning after my arrival at Brantford I was met by Chief Johnson,
who had come up to the village the previous evening for the purpose. We left at
six o'clock for the Onondaga Station, about nine miles below, from which we walked
to Mr. Johnson's house, half way between the villages of Onondaga and Tuscarora,
the former inhabited by white people, and the latter wholly by the Indians. Onon
daga is on the north side of the river, and Tuscarora on the south. We passed sev
eral pure-blooded Indians on the way, some of them, who remain pagans, wearing-
portions of the ancient savage costume ; but most of them, men and women, were
dressed in the style of the white people around them.
1 Paris was so named on account of the gypsnm, or "plaster of Paris," which abounds there.
2 The word Mohawk, in that language, signifies " flint and steel."
3 Those of the Six Nations who joined the British during the Revolution were promised by the governors of Canada,
Carleton and Haldimand, that they should be well provided for at the close of the war. But in the treaty of peace in
1783, no provision was made for the Indians. At that time the Mohawks, with Brant at their head, were temporarily
residing on the American side of the Niagara River, near its mouth. The Senecas offered them a home in the Genesee
Valley, but Brant and his followers had resolved not to live in the United States. He went to Quebec to claim from Gov
ernor Haldimand the fulfillment of his promise. He had fixed his eye upon a large tract of land on the Bay of Quinte.
But the Senecas did not wish them to go so far away, and they chose a large tract on the Grand River. This matter
being settled, Brant went to England at the close of 17T5, and during the remainder of his life he devoted much of his
time to the moral improvement of his people.
The grant of land on the Ouise, or Grand River, which Brant, in the behalf of the Indians, procured in 1784, com
prised an area of twelve hundred square miles, or, as Brant expressed it when asked how much would satisfy them,
"six miles each side of the river from its mouth to its source." The whole country thus granted was fertile and beau
tiful. Of all that splendid domain, running up into the country from Lake Erie toward Lake Huron to the Falls of
Elora, the Indians now retain only comparatively small tracts in the vicinity of Brantford. In 1S30 the Indians made
a surrender to the government of the town plot of Brautford, when it was surveyed and sold to actual settlers. It soon
grew into a large and thriving village.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
421
Mission-house on Grand River.
Costume of the Chief of the Six Nations.
Indian Weapons.
MISSION-HOUSE ON T1IE GKANL) KIVEK.
On our way we also passed the old mission-house, constructed of logs in 1827, for
the residence of the Reverend
Robert Lugger, the predecessor
of the present missionary among
the Indians there. It is near the
left bank of the Grand River;
and from the road where the
sketch was made is a fine view
of the beautiful valley through
which that stream winds its way
toward Lake Erie.
A walk of a mile and a half
brought us to " Chiefswood," the residence of Mr. Johnson, situated on a gentle em
inence, with beautiful grounds sloping to the banks of the Grand River, and sur
rounded by his farm of two hundred acres of excellent land. It is a modest, square
mansion, two stories in height, built of
brick, and stuccoed. There I was cor
dially welcomed by Mrs. Johnson, a
handsome and well-educated woman,
daughter of a clergyman of the Church
of Ens-land, and the mother of three
O '
fine-looking, healthy children. While
awaiting preparations for breakfast,
Mr. Johnson proceeded to his business
office, leaving me to amuse myself with
the curiosities which adorned the little
parlor. On a table were several rare
Indian relics, and the daguerreotypes
of some Indian chiefs. Among the lat
ter was one of Mr. Johnson himself, in
the military costume of commander-in-
chief of the Six Nations, as seen in the
engraving. In precisely this garb he
appeared, in compliment to my curi
osity, when he came to invite me to
breakfast. The coat and breeches were
white cloth, and the scarf and sash
were rich specimens of Indian work,
composed of cloth, ribbons, beads, and
porcupine quills. In one hand he holds a hand
some curled-maple handled, silver-mounted pipe-
tomahawk,2 and in the other a most formidable
weapon, composed of the shank of a deer, with the
bare shin-bone for a handle, dried in the ansrular
' ~
position seen in the small engraving on the follow
ing page, and holding a thick glittering blade, which may be used either in giving deadly
ORNAMENTAL TOMAHAWK.
1 It will be observed, in the signature of Mr. Johnson, that a character in the form of a Z precedes the word "chief."
This indicates an arm bent at the elbow, and signifies that the head chief is the right arm of the nation.
2 These ornamental tomahawks are not for practical use. The handle, fourteen inches in length, contains a tube that
answers the purpose of the stem of a pipe, and the head of the tomahawk is arranged as a pipe-bowl. In this specimen
the blade and handle are connected by a silver chain. The blade is brass except the steel edge.
422
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
A Silver Calumet.
Ancient Scalping-knife and its History.
Number and Character of the Indians.
blows or as a scalping-knife. These, with a silver calumet, or pipe of peace, compose
a part of the regalia of the civil and military heads of the Six Nations. These arti-
SILVEK CALUMET.
DEER-SHANK WEAPON.
cles had been long in possession of the nation.1 On the table was also a daguerre
otype of Oshawahnah, the lieutenant of Tecumtha at the battle of the Thames, and
who in 1861 was yet living on Walpole Island, in Lake St. Clair, off the coast of 'Mich
igan. Mr. Johnson kindly presented to me the likeness of himself and of that venera
ble chief. That of the latter, with some facts concerning him, will be given hereafter.
By the side of the fireplace hung an undressed deerskin sheath which attracted
my attention. I drew from it an ancient scalping-knife, half consumed by rust, as
seen in the little picture. ^^^^^^^^ a^ou^ to break ground
me by Mr. Johnson, is his house, two or three
curious. When he was ANCIENT SCALPING-KNIFB. years previous to my
» August, visit,a the venerable Whitecoat, a centenarian chief then living at Tusca-
SGO- rora Village, came to him, and, pointing to the huge stump of a tree that had
been felled within the pi-escribed lines of the building, said, "Dig there, and you will
find a scalping-knife that I buried seventy years ago. You know," he continued, " that
before the laws of the white man governed us, it was the duty of the nearest of kin
of a wounded man to aA^enge his death by shedding the blood of the murderer in like
manner, and that the weapon so employed was never afterward used, but buried. I
thus took vengeance for my brother's blood, and at the foot of that tree I buried the
fatal knife. Dig, and you'll find it." Johnson did so, and found nothing but the rusty
blade, to which he has affixed a wooden handle, made like the original. Whitecoat
was among the warriors who were in the battle at Queenston. More than twenty
of his companions on that occasion were living in the Grand River settlements in
1860. The whole number of the Six Nations, with the Chippewas, in those settle
ments was about three thousand. Of these about five hundred were pagans. The lat
ter are chiefly Cayugas, who are usually of purer blood than the others, and conse
quently retain more of the Indian feeling and dislike of the Christians — the personifi
cation of hated civilization.
1 I saw and sketched these objects at the store of Mr. Allan Cleghorn, in Brantford, whose great interest in the wel
fare of the Indians in that vicinity caused him to be elected to a chieftaincy among them, according to the old Indian
custom— a compliment equivalent to the presentation of the "freedom of a city" to meritorious men.
The silver calumet, or pipe of peace, used at councils and in making treaties, above delineated, was quite old. On the
broad, ornamented silver plate under the bowl and part of the stem was the following inscription: "To the Mohawk
Indians, from the Nine Patentees of the Tract near Schoharie, granted in 1769." On one side of the bowl was the figure
of a white man, and on the other that of an Indian. These were connected with the representation of the sail on the
front of the bowl by a union chain. Suspended from the stem in a festoon was, first, a silver chain, and then strings of
wampum. The stem was eighteen inches in length.
The sword seen in the picture was presented to Mr. Johnson in 1849 by T. D. Beverly, Esq., of Three Rivers, Canada,
because of the chief's speech to the Six Nations (when assembled on the queen's birthday), in deprecation of the action
of the Canadian Parliament in paying Mr. M'Kenzie and "other rebels" for their losses during the civil war in 1837
and 1838. It was an elegant sword.
Mr. Johnson was born near Brantford on the 7th of October, 1818. He was a lineal descendant of Sir William John
son, through Sir John Johnson, whose son Jacob was his grandfather. His military commission as chief of the Six
Nations gave him the rank and pay of colonel. His influence was powerful, and he had the esteem of his people and
of the white inhabitants.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
423
Village of Ouondaga aud Mohawk.
The Mohawk Church.
Appearance of the Interior.
Immediately after breakfast I bade adieu to Mrs. Johnson and her interesting little
family, and left " Chiefswood" for Brantford, accompanied by the kind-hearted leader
in his own conveyance. We went by the way of Onondaga and Mohawk or "The
Institute," where Brant first settled. Near the former village Mr. Johnson has a
farm, on the verge of which, and close by the town, is a free Episcopal church, built
of brick, and devoted to the use of the
poor white people of that section. For
that noble purpose Mr. Johnson gave
the ground and a considerable sum of
money. In the village, which is pleas
antly situated on a plain, is a small
Methodist chapel and some neat cot
tages. Only here and there an Indian
family were seen, and these were found
in a state of excitement and grief be
cause of the death of a fine lad, a grand
son of Brant, who had been killed by
being thrown from a horse that morn
ing.
We reached the old Mohawk church
(the first of the kind erected in the
province) toward noon, found the door
open, and entered. Some carpenters
were at work repairing the exterior,
but in no way changing its form from
what it was originally. It is of wood,
and was erected in the year 1783. It
is a very plain, unpretending structure
within and without. The only ornament, except the upholstery of the pulpit and
the upper part of the frames
inclosing the Ten Command
ments, is a representation of
the royal arms of England,
handsomely carved and gilt,
attached to the wall over
the entrance - door, inside.
Back of the pulpit are two
black tablets with the Com
mandments inscribed upon
them. On the right of it is
another tablet, on which is
written the Lord's Prayer,
and on the left another, with
the Apostles' Creed, all in
the Mohawk language.1 In
front of the little chancel is
a neat font. The seats have
high backs. The one seen in
the corner, at the right of the pulpit, was pointed out to me as that which Brant and
i The following is a copy of the Lord's Prayer, as written upon the tablet in the old Mohawk church :
"Shoegwauiha Karouhyakonh teghsiderouh, Wagwaghseanadokeaghdiste ; Sayanertsherah aodaweghti; Tsineagh-
sereh egh neayaweane ne oughweatsyake tsioni nityouht ne Karouhyakouh. Takyouh ne Keah weghniserate ne ni-
yadeweghniserake oegwanadarok : Neoni toedagwarighwyastea ne tsiniyoegwatswatouh, tsiniyouht ne oekyouhha
tsitsyakhirighwiyoesteanis ne waonkhiyatswatea. Neoni toghsa tagwaghsharinet tewadadeanakeraghtoeke : Nok toe-
s.
1MEEIOE OF MOHAWK CIIUEOH.
424 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Building of the Mohawk Church. Its Bell. Tomb of the Brant Family. The " Mohawk Institute."
his family occupied when he resided there. The area of the interior is only about
thirty by forty feet, and is lighted by four arched windows on each side. The tim
ber for the church was floated down the Grand River, sawed and dressed by hand,
and carried to the spot by the Indians. The communion service, still used in the
church, was presented to the Mohawks by Queen Anne. It has been generally sup
posed that the bell was also a gift of the royal lady ; but, on examination, I found the
following " card" of the manufacturer cast upon it : " John Warner, Fleet Street, Lon
don, 1786." It was doubtless brought from England at about that time by Brant.
Near the south side of the church is the tomb of Brant and his son and official suc
cessors. His original family vault was built of wood. It fell into decay, and in 1850
the inhabitants of the vicinity erected a new and substantial tomb, composed of light
brown sandstone. The public ceremonies on the occasion were conducted chiefly
by the Freemasons (Brant being a member of that order), assisted by a large gather
ing of the people from the surrounding country and from the States, especially from
the Mohawk Valley, full five thousand in number. Upon a massive slab which com
poses the top of the tomb are appropriate inscriptions commemorative of both father
and son.1 A picture of the tomb may be seen on page 401. In front of the church,
near the entrance-gate to the grounds, is the grave of the maternal grandfather of
Chief Johnson, who was in the train of young Brant at the battle of Queenston. A
stone slab, with an appropriate inscription, covers his grave.2
After sketching the exterior and interior of the ancient church and Brant's tomb,
and visiting the much-altered house, a few rods distant, where the great chieftain
lived, we went to the "Mohawk Institute," the central point of missionary effort among
the Six Nations, commenced and continued by " The Society for the Propagation of
the Gospel in Foreign Parts."3 Their first missionary to the Mohawks was sent in
the year 1702, and from that time to this they have followed the waning tribe and
its confederates in the old league with motherly solicitude. This company have
maintained a missionary among the Six Nations in Canada ever since their migration
thither. They have contributed largely to the repairs of the old Mohawk church,
erected a new one in Tuscarora Village, and now maintain at the " Institute" about
sixty Indian scholars. These were under the charge of the Reverend Abraham Nelles,
the missionary of the station, and his excellent wife, who had been in that useful
field of labor since 1829. His family had had ecclesiastical connection with the Six
dagwayadakoh tsinoewe niyodaxheah: Ikea iese saweauk ne kayanertsherah, neoni ue kashatsteaghsera, neoni ne
ceweseaghtshera, tsiniyeaheawe neoni tsiniyeaheawe. Amen."
1 The following are copies of the inscriptions :
"This tomb is erected to the memory of TIIAYE>-I>ANEGEA, or Captain JOSEPH BKANT, Principal Chief and Warrior
of the Six Nations Indians, by his Fellow-Subjects, admirers of his fidelity and attachment to the British Crown. Born
on the banks of the Ohio River, 1742 ; died at Wellington Square.* U. C., 1SOT.
"It also contains the Remains of his Son AHYOUWAIGHS, or Captain JOHN BRANT, who succeeded his Father as Te-
karihogea, and distinguished himself in the war of 1812-15. Born at the Mohawk Village, U. C., 1794 ; died at the same
place,1833. Erected 1850."
The tomb is surrounded by a heavy wooden fence.
2 The following is a copy of the inscription :
"In memory of GEOKGE MARTIN, Mohawk Chief. Born at Kanajohara, U. S., Dec. 23, 1 767 ; died at Grand River,
C. W., Feb. 18, 1853, aged SC years."
Chief Johnson has in his possession a silver medal, presented to his grandfather more than seventy years ago by
George the Third. On one side is a profile of the king. On the other is a landscape. In the foreground is a lion in
repose, and a wolf approaching him with awe. In the distance is a representation of the Mohawk church on Grand
River and the mission-house near.
3 This society was incorporated by Parliament in 1701. It is the successor or continuation of an earlier one, in 15C1,
under the title of The Company for the Propagation of the Gospel in Xew England and Parts Adjacent in America. It
was composed partly of members of the Church of England and partly of Protestant Dissenters.
* Wellington Square is a pleasant little village in Nelson Township, situated ou Lake Ontario, eight miles from Hamil
ton, and now (1SG7) contains between four and five hundred inhabitants. There, north of the beach which divides Lake
Ontario from Burlington Bay, Brant made his abode, in a handsome two-storied mansion, beautifully situated, long be
fore the present village had existence. There he lived, in the English style, until his death. His widow (third wife),
Catharine, was forty-eight years of age at the time of his death. She preferred the customs of her people, and soon
after her husband's departure she left Lake Ontario and returned to Mohawk, on the Grand River. Her son and
daughter remained at the " Brant house" on Lake Ontario, and lived in elegant style for several years.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
425
COMMUNION PLATE.
The Work of the " Institute." The Communion Plate of the Mohawk Church. A pleasant Day with the Six Nations.
Nations for a century and a half. His faithfulness as a teacher of temporal and spir
itual things merits and receives the highest commendations. He resided at the old
mission-house, near Tuscarora, delineated on page 241, until 1837, when he took up
his abode at Mohawk.
Unfortunately, our visit was at vacation time, and we were deprived of the coveted
pleasure of seeing a group of threescore Indian children under instruction. We
spent two hours very agreeably with the kind missionary and his family at the " In
stitute" and the parsonage at the glebe. These have each two hundred acres of
fertile land, at the head of the Grand River, attached to them, and are separated by
the canal, which carries the navigation of the river up to Brantford. We crossed the
canal in a canoe, and at the parsonage, an old-fashioned dwelling near the old " Insti
tute" building, with beautiful grounds
around it, we saw many curious things
connected with the mission. Among
them was one half of the massive silver
communion plate presented by Queen
Anne to the Mohawks in 1 71 2. The other
half, a duplicate of this, was lent to a
church on the Bay of Quinte. Upon each
was engraved the royal arms of England
and "A. R." — Anne Regina — with the fol
lowing inscription in double lines around
them : " THE GIFT OF HER MAJESTY ANNE,
BY THE GRACE OF GOD, OF GREAT BRITAIN, FRANCE, AND IRELAND, AND OF HER
PLANTATIONS IN NORTH AMERICA, QUEEN, TO HER INDIAN CHAPEL OF THE MOHAWKS."
In addition to the three pieces given in the picture was a plate, nine inches in di
ameter, for receiving collections. Mr. Nelles also showed us a well-preserved folio
Bible, which was printed in London in 1701, and was sent to the MohaAvks with the
communion plate. On the cover are the following words in gilt letters : " FOR HER
MAJESTY'S CHURCH OF THE MOHAWKS, 1712."
We dined with the excellent missionaries, and then rode to Brantford, a mile and
a half distant, where, after a brief tarry, I bade adieu to Mr. Johnson and the Six
Nations, when I had only an hour in which to ti'avel seven miles to Paris to take the
evening train for Hamilton or Toronto. I had procui'ed a fleet and powerful horse,
and in a light wagon, with a small boy as driver, I traveled the excellent stone road,
or " pike," between the two places on that hot afternoon with the speed of the trot-
ting-course, yet with apparent ease to the splendid animal. I had four minutes to
spare at Paris.
That beautiful day, spent with the Six Nations and their military chief and spiritual
guide, will ever remain a precious treasure in the store-house of memory. I could
think of little else while on my journey that evening from Paris to Toronto. Of my
visit to that former capital of Upper Canada, known as York in the War of 1812, 1 shall
hereafter write.1
Let us rettarn from our digression from the strict path of history to the Niagara
frontier, which we so recently left, and consider the record of events there during the
remainder of 1812, after the battle at Queenston.
The British had erected some batteries on the high banks, a little back of the
Niagara River, just below Fort Erie, at a point where an invasion by the Americans
1 The Indian name was Darondo or Tarnnto, signifying "Trees on the Water." This was in allusion to the long, low,
sandy point (now an island), within which was the Bay of Toronto. On that point were, and still are, many trees. The
distance is so great that from the shore at the city they seem to be on the water. When Colonel Simcoe became lien-
tenant governor of the Upper Province he endeavored to Anglicize the settlers by making them familiar with English
names and things. With this object in view he gave English names to all places, and the Indian name of Taronto was
changed to York, in honor of the Duke of York. It was known for many years as Little York.
426 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Black Rock and Porter's Residence. Attack on the Works there. Bombardment of Fort Niagara.
might be reasonably expected. From these batteries they opened a severe fire on the
morning of the 1 7th of November upon Black Rock opposite, then a place of quite as
much importance as Buffalo in some respects. There were the head-quarters of the
little army under General Smyth, and there was the fine residence of General Peter
B. Porter, who was then in command there of a body of New York militia, and made
that dwelling his head
quarters. There were some
slight fortifications near
Black Rock, but the heavi
est cannon upon the breast
work was a six -pounder.
All day long, at intervals,
the British kept up the fire,
;. at one time hurling a 25-
pound shot against the
upper loft of Porter's resi-
— . =__ _=_— — ^ — . dence, and soon afterward
GENERAL PORTER'S RESIDENCE, ULACK ROCK.1 J ,.rkt->T,:rl ,_ on/^Viav llnll r\f
LllUpplUii dllOtilt;! U«lll, Ul
the same weight, through the roof, while he was there at dinner. At length a bomb
shell was sent into the east barrack with destructive power. It exploded the maga
zine, fired the buildings, and destroyed a portion of the valuable furs captured on
• October 9, board the Caledonia a few days before.a This exploit being one of the
chief objects of the cannonade and bombardment, both ceased at sunset.
Very little noise was heard along that frontier for a month afterward except the
sonorous cadences of General Smyth's proclamations. At length British cannon
opened their thunders. Breastworks had been raised in front of Newark, opposite
Fort Niagara, at intervals all the way up to Fort George, and behind them mortars
and a long train of battery cannon had been placed. At six o'clock on the morning
of the 21st of November these commenced a fierce bombardment of Fort Niagara,
and at the same time a cannonade was opened from Fort George and its vicinity.
From dawn until the evening twilight there was a continual roar from five detached
batteries on the Canada shore, two of them mounting twenty-four-pounders. From
these batteries two thousand red-hot shot were poured upon the American works,
while the mortars, from five and a half to ten and a half inches calibre, were shower
ing bomb-shells all day long. The latter were almost harmless, but the former set fire
to several buildings within the fort, which, by the greatest exertions, were saved.
The garrison, meanwhile, performed their duty nobly. They were quite sufficient in
number, but lacked artillery and ammunition. The gallant Lieutenant Colonel George
M'Feely2 was the commander, and Major Armistead,
of the United States Engineer Corps, performed the
most important services at the guns and in extinguish
ing the flames. Captain M'Keon commanded a 1 2-
pounder in the southeast block-house ; Captain Jacks,
of the 7th Regiment of Militia Artillery, was in charge of the north »block-house,
where he was greatly exposed to a raking fire of the enemy ; and Lieutenant Rees,
of the 3d United States Artillery, managed an eighteen-pounder in the southeast bat
tery, which told heavily upon a British battery with a twenty-four-pounder en bar
bette. He was soon badly wounded in the shoulder by the falling of a part of the
parapet. On the west battery an eighteen and a four pounder were directed by Lieu-
1 This is from a sketch made by the writer in the summer of 1860, from a pier in the Niagara River. The house is
upon the high shore of the river. It was then owned by Mr. Lewis F. Allen.
2 M'Feely was commissioned a major in March, 1S12, and in July was promoted to lieutenant colonel. He became
colonel of infantry in April, 1S14, and was disbanded in June, 1815.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 427
Artillery Duel at Fort Niagara. A heavy Force near Buffalo. Orders for Invading Canada at that Point.
tenant "Wendal, and on the mess-house,1 Doctor Hooper, of the New York Militia,
had charge of a six-pounder. South of Fort Niagara, and a dependency of it, was the
" Salt Battery," so called, mounting an eighteen and a four pounder. It was directly
in range of Fort George, and annoyed the garrison there exceedingly. It was com
manded by Lieutenants Gansevoort and Harris, of the 1st Artillery. From these
several batteries on the American side many a destructive missile went on terrible
errands during the day. Newark was on fire several times before night, and the
buildings in Fort George were also fired, and one of its batteries was silenced.2
During the day an American twelve-pounder burst and killed two men. Two others
were killed by the enemy's fire, and a lieutenant and four men were wounded. These
were the casualties of the day on the American side. What injury was done to the
British is not known. A shot from the Salt Battery sunk a sloop lying at the wharf
on the Canada side. Night ended the artillery duel, and it was not renewed in the
morning.
We have observed that General Smyth expressed his opinion to General Van Rens-
selaer, on his arrival on the frontier, that the proper place to cross the Niagara River
for the invasion of Canada was somewhere between Fort Erie and Chippewa.3 A
few days after the bombardment of Fort Niagara, Smyth attempted to act upon that
opinion. His proclamation had stirred the people of Western New York, and large
numbers had flocked to his standard ; for his flaming sentences warmed their zeal,
and they believed that all his glowing hopes would be realized and his flattering
promises would be fulfilled. On the 27th of November, when Smyth called the troops
to a general rendezvous at Black Rock, they numbered about four thousand five hund
red. They were composed of his own regulars, and the Baltimore Volunteers under
Colonel Winder, the Pennsylvania Volunteers under General Tannehill, and the New
York Volunteers under General Peter B. Porter. With these he felt competent to
invade Canada successfully.
As early as the 25th, General Smyth issued orders for " the whole army to be ready
to march at a moment's warning." " The tents," he said, " will be left standing. Offi
cers will carry their knapsacks. The baggage will follow in convenient time." After
giving directions for the embarkation of the troops in the boats provided by Colonel
Winder, to whom that important service was intrusted, he gave the following direc
tions for forming the troops in battle order on the Canada shore : " Beginning on the
right, as follows : Captain Gibson's Artillery ; the Sixth and Thirteenth Infantry ;
Captain Towson's Artillery ; the Fourteenth and Twenty-third Infantry as one regi
ment ; Captain Barker's and Captain Branch's Artillery ; the Twelfth and Twentieth
Infantry; Captain Archer's Artillery; General Tannehill's Infantry; a company of
Riflemen ; the Infantry of Colonel Swift and Colonel M'Clure ; a company of Rifle
men ; General Porter's Infantry ; Captain Leonard's Artillery ; a battalion of Rifle
men on each flank, in a line perpendicular to that formed by the main army, extend
ing to the front and rear."4
1 The Indians were jealous of any attempts of the French to build any thing like a fort among them. The French
succeeded by stratagem. They obtained permission to erect a great wigwam, or dwelling, and then induced the In
dians to go on a long hunt. When they returned the walls were so advanced that they might defy the savages. They
completed the building in a way that they might plant cannon on the top, and used it as a mess-house. Under it was
a deep dungeon, and in that dungeon was a well. It is believed that political prisoners from France were confined
in that dark prison. The water of the well was poisoned at one time, and a story was believed by superstitious sol
diers that at midnight the headless body of a Frenchman might be seen sitting on the margin of the well, where he
had been murdered.
2 Thompson, in his Historical Sketches of the Late War, page SO, says, "Such was the spirited earnestness of both officers
and men at this battery, that when, in the most tremendous of the bombardment, they had flred away all their car
tridges, they cut up their flannel waistcoats and shirts, and the soldiers their trowsers, to supply their guns." He also
speaks of the wife of an Irish artilleryman, named Doyle, who had been made a prisoner at Qneenston, and to whom a
parole had been refused, determined to resent the act by taking her husband's place as far as possible. On the occasion
now under consideration she took her place at the mess-house, and supplied the six-ponnder there with hot shot. Re
gardless of the shot and shell that fell around her, she never quitted her station until the last gun had been fired.
3 See Smyth's letter to Van Rensselaer, note 2, page 389.
* Manuscript order, November 25, 1812 : Winder Papers. In that order the directions for attack were given as follows :
428 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Arrangements for Crossing the Niagara River. The British, forewarned, are forearmed. Passage of the River.
•November Every thing was in readiness on the 27tha for invasion, and arrange-
isi2. ments Avere made for the expedition to embark at the navy yard beloAV
Black Rock at reveille on the morning of the 28th. Seventy public boats, capable of
carrying forty men each ; five large private boats, in which one hundred men each
could be borne ; and ten scows for artillery, with many small boats, were pressed into
the service, so that three thousand troops, the Avhole number to be employed in the
invasion, might cross at once. That evening Smyth issued his final order, directing
Lieutenant Colonel Boerstler to cross over at three o'clock in the morning Avith the
effective men of Colonel Winder's regiment, and destroy a bridge about five miles
beloAV Fort Erie, capture the guard stationed there, kill or take the artillery horses,
and, Avith the captives, if any, return to the American shore. Captain King was di
rected to cross at the same time at the " Red House," higher up the river, to storm
the British batteries. It Avas left to the discretion of Boerstler to march up the Can
ada shore to assist King, or to return immediately after performing his allotted Avork
at the bridge. "It is not intended to keep possession," said the order. "Let the
wounded be kept from the public eye to-morrOAV. You [Colonel Winder] Avill remain
on this bank and give directions."1
General Smyth had so long and loudly proclaimed his designs against Canada, and
had so fairly indicated his probable point of hiATasion, that the authorities on the other
side AA^ere prepared to meet him at any place between Fort Erie and Chippewa. Ma
jor Ormsby, of the Forty-ninth, with a detachment of that and the Newfoundland
regiment, Avas at the fort. The ferry opposite Black Rock Avas occupied by tAVO com
panies of militia under Captain Bostwick. TAVO and a half miles from Fort Erie, at a
house on the Chippewa road, Avas Lieutenant Lamont, with a detachment of the Forty-
ninth, and Lieutenant King, of the Royal Engineers, Avith a three and six pounder,
and some militia artillerymen. Near the same spot were two batteries, one mount
ing an eighteen and the other a tAventy-four pound cannon, also under Lamont. A
mile farther doAvn was a post occupied by a detachment under Lieutenant Bartley;
and on Frenchman's Creek, four and a half miles from Fort Erie, was a party of sev
enty under Lieutenant ^_ a part of the Forty-first
M'Intyre. Lieutenant -7^^ ^^ ^7 • / S _s •,. Regulars, some militia
r\ i i.-n -i r>- i, I Z^£-^- r^£~^> Sts&-7Lsftj ' .
Colonel Cecil Bisshopp I*-* ^^ // and militia artillery,
Avas at ChippCAva Avith and near him Avas Major
Hatt Avith a small detachment of militia. The whole number of British troops, scat
tered along a line of tAventy miles, did not, according to the most reliable estimates,
exceed one thousand men.
Before the appointed hour on the morning of the 28th,b the boats Avere
November
in readiness under the general superintendence of Lieutenant Angus, of
the navy, at the head of a . ter Watts, of Caledonia
corps of marines and sea- , -^y/*/ /3/J s fame,2 and several other
men, assisted by Lieiiten- \^s (£/?¥"'' ISi/l^LCj /t^// naval officers. It was a
ant Dudley, Sailing-mas- ' cold and dreary night.
At three in the morning6 the advanced parties left the American shore
c November 29. . , r .
for their respective destinations. One, under Lieutenant Colonel Boerst
ler, consisted of about tAvo hundred men of Colonel Winder's regiment, in eleven
boats ; and the other, under Captain King, AAras composed of one hundred and fifty
regular soldiers, and seArenty sailors under Lieutenant Angus, in ten boats. King's
party were discoA'ered upon the Avater a quarter of a mile from the shore, and Avere
"1. The artillery will spend some of their first shot on the enemy's artillery, and then aim at the infantry, raking them
where it is practicable. 2. The firing of musketry by wings or companies will begin at the distance of two hundred
yards, aiming at the middle and firing deliberately. 3. At twenty yards' distance the soldiers will be ordered to trail
arms, advance with shouts, fire at five paces' distance, and charge bayonets. 4. The soldiers will be silent, above all
things, attentive at the word of command, load quick and well, and aim low."
1 Manuscript order of General Smyth to Colonel Winder, November 27, 1S12 : Winder Papers. » See page 386.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 429
Incidents of the Attempt to invade Canada on the Upper Niagara.
so warmly assailed by volleys of musketry and shot from a field-piece at the Red
House, that six of the ten boats were compelled to return. The other four resolutely
landed in good order, in the face of the storm of bullets and grape-shot from flying
artillery ; and before King could form his troops on the shore, Angus and his seamen,
with characteristic impetuosity, rushed into the hottest fire and suffered considerably.
King formed his corps as quickly as possible, and the enemy were soon dispersed.
He then proceeded to storm and take in quick succession two British batteries above
the landing-place, while Angiis and his seamen rushed upon the field-pieces at the
Red House, captured and spiked them, and cast them, with their caissons,1 into the
river. In this assault Sailing-master Watts was mortally wounded while leading on
the seamen.2 Angus and his party returned to the landing-place, with Lieutenant
King, of the Royal Artillery, wounded and a prisoner. Supposing the other six boats
had landed (for it Avas too dark to see far along the shore), and that Captain King
and his party had been taken prisoners, Angus crossed to the American shore in the
four boats. This unfortunate mistake left King, with Captains Morgan and Sproull,
Lieutenant Houston, and Samuel Swartwout, of New York, who had volunteered for
the service with the little party of regulars, without any means of crossing. King
waited a while for re-enforcements. None came, and he went to the landing-place for
the purpose of crossing, with a number of the British artillerists whom he had made
prisoners. To his dismay, he discovered the absence of all the boats. He pushed
down the river in the dark for about two miles, when he found two large ones. Into
these he placed all of his officers, the prisoners, and one half of his men. These had
not reached the American shore when King and the remainder of his troops were
taken prisoners by a superior force.
Boerstler and his party, in the mean time, had been placed in much peril. The
firing upon King had aroused the enemy all along the Canada shore, and they were
on the alert. Boerstler's boats became separated in the darkness. Seven of them
landed above the bridge, to be destroyed, while four others, that approached the des
ignated landing-place, were driven off by a party of the enemy. Boerstler landed
boldly alone, under fire from a foe of unknown numbers, and drove them to the bridge
at the point of the bayonet. Orders were then given for the destruction of that struc
ture, but, owing to the confusion at the time of landing, the axes had been left in the
boat. The bridge was only partially destroyed, and one great object of this advance
party of the invading army was not accomplished. Boerstler was about to return to
his boats and recross the river, because of the evident concentration of troops to that
point in overwhelming numbers, when he was compelled to form his lines for imme
diate battle. Intelligence came from the commander of the boat-guard that they had
captured two British soldiers, who informed them that the whole garrison at Fort
Erie was approaching, and that the advance guard was not five minutes distant.
This intelligence was correct. Darkness covered every thing, and Boerstler resorted
to stratagem when he heard the tramp of the approaching foe. He gave command
ing orders in a loud voice, addressing his subordinates as field officers. The British
were deceived. They believed the Americans to be in much greater force than they
really were. A collision immediately ensued in the gloom. Boerstler ordered the
discharge of a single volley, and then a bayonet charge. The enemy broke and fled
in confusion,. and Boerstler crossed the river without annoyance.3
1 A caisson is an ammunition chest or wagon hi which powder and bomb-shells are carried. 2 Sec page 386.
3 Colonel Winder's manuscript report to General Smyth, December 7, 1812. Winder had attempted to re-enforce the
troops on the Canada shore, but failed. On the return of Angus and his party, he was ordered to cross the river with
two hundred and fifty men. Within twenty minutes after the order was given, he and his troops were battling with
the current and the floating ice. Winder's boat was the first and only one that touched the Canada shore, the current
having carried the others below. The enemy, with strong force and a piece of artillery, disputed his landing. Resist
ance would be vain, and Winder ordered a retreat, after losing six men killed and twenty-two wounded. On his return
he formed his regiment at once, tojoiu in the embarkation at dawn.
In the report above cited Colonel Winder paid the following compliment to Captain Totten, of the Engineers, who,
430 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
General Smyth's Incompetence. His foolish Swaggering. Another Attempt to cross the River.
It was sunrise when the troops began to embark, and so tardy were the movements
that it was late in the afternoon when all were ready. General Smyth did not make
his appearance during the day,1 and all the movements were under the direction of his
subordinates. A number of boats had been left to strand upon the shore, and became
filled with water, snow, and ice ; and as hour after hour passed by, dreariness and dis
appointment weighed heavily upon the spirits of the shivering troops. Meanwhile the
enemy had collected in force on the opposite shore, and were watching every move
ment. At length, wrhen all seemed ready, and impatience had yielded to hope, an
order came from the commanding general "to disembark and dine!'1'1'2' The wearied
and worried troops were deeply exasperated by this order, and nothing but the most
positive assurances that the undertaking would be immediately resumed kept them
from open mutiny. The different regiments retired sullenly to their respective
quarters, and General Porter, with his dispirited New York Volunteers, marched in
disgust to Buffalo.
* November 28, Smyth now called a council of officers. a They could not agree. The
best of them urged the necessity and expediency of crossing in force at
once, before the enemy could make formidable preparations for their reception. The
general decided otherwise, and doubt and despondency brooded over the camp that
night. The ensuing Sabbath dawn brought no relief. Preparations for another em
barkation were indeed in progress, while the enemy, too, was busy in opposing labor.
It was evident to every spectator of judgment that the invasion must be attempted
at another point of the river, when, toward evening, to the astonishment of all, the
general issued an order, perfectly characteristic of the man, for the troops to be ready
at the navy yard, at eight o'clock the next morning,b for embarkation.
November 30
" The general will be on board," he pompously proclaimed. " Neither
rain, snow, or frost will prevent the embarkation," he said. " The cavalry will scour
the fields from Black Rock to the bridge, and suffer no idle spectators. While em
barking, the music will play martial airs. Yankee Doodle will be the signal to get
under way. . . . The landing will be effected in despite of cannon. The whole army
has seen that cannon is to be little dreaded. . . . Hearts of War! to-morrow will
be memorable in the annals of the United States."3
" To-morrow" came, but not the promised achievement. All the officers disapproved
of the time and manner of the proposed embarkation, and expressed their opinions
freely. At General Porter's quarters a change was agreed upon. Porter proposed
deferring the embarkation until Tuesday morning, the 1st of December, an hour or
two before daylight, and to make the landing-place a little below the upper end of
Grand Island. Winder suggested the propriety of making a descent directly upon
Chippewa, " the key of the country." This Smyth consented to attempt, intending,
as he said, if successful, to march down through Queenston, and lay siege to Fort
George.4 Orders were accordingly given for a general rendezvous at the navy yard
at three o'clock on Tuesday morning, and that the troops should be collected in the
woods near by on Monday, where they should build fires and await the signal for
gathering on the shore of the river. The hour arrived, but when day dawned only
fifteen hundred were embarked. Tannehill's Pennsylvania Brigade were not present.
Before their arrival rumors had reached the camp that they, too, like Van Rensselaer's
militia at Lewiston, had raised a constitutional question about being led out of their
state. Yet their scruples seem to have been overcome at this time, and they would
at the time of his death in 1864, was Chief Engineer of the Army of the United States: "It is with great pleasure I ac
knowledge the intelligence and skill which Captain Totten, of the Engineers, has yielded to the works which are rais
ing. To him shall we be indebted for what I believe will be a respectable state of preparation in a short time."
1 Thomson's Historical Sketches, etc., page S5.
5 General Smyth's dispatch to General Dearborn, December 4, 1812.
3 Autograph order, Winder Papers, dated " Head-quarters, Camp near Buffalo, Nov. 29, 1812."
* Smyth's dispatch to General Dearboru, December 4, 1812.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 431
Smyth's Council of Officers. The Invasion of Canada abandoned. Disappointment and Indignation of the Troops.
have invaded Canada cheerfully under other auspices. But distrust of their leader,
created by the events of the last forty-eight hours, had demoralized nearly the whole
army. They had made so much noise in the embarkation that the startled enemy
had sounded his alarm bugle and discharged signal-guns from Fort Erie to Chippewa.
Tannehill's Pennsylvanians had not appeared, and many other troops lingered upon
the shore, loth to embark. In this dilemma Smyth hastily called a council of the reg
ular officers, utterly excluding those of the volunteers from the conference, and the
first intimation of the result of that council was an order from the commanding gen
eral, sent to General Porter, who was in a boat with the pilot, a fourth of a mile from
shore, in the van of the impatient flotilla, directing the whole army to debark and re
pair to their quarters.1 This was accompanied by a declaration that the invasion of
Canada was abandoned at present, pleading, in bar of just censure, that his orders from
his superiors were not to attempt it with less than three thousand men.2 The reg
ulars were ordered into winter quarters, and the volunteers were dismissed to their
homes.
This order for debarkation, and the fact that just previously a British major, bear
ing a flag of truce, had crossed the river and held an interview with General Smyth,
caused the most intense indignation, and the most fearful suspicions of his loyalty3
in the army, especially among the volunteers, whose officers he had insulted by neg
lect. The troops, without order or restraint, discharged their muskets in all direc
tions, and a scene of insubordination and utter confusion followed. At least a thou
sand of the volunteers had come from their homes in response to his invitation, and
the promise that they should certainly be led into Canada by a victor. They had
imposed implicit confidence in his ability and the sincerity of his great words, and in
proportion to their faith and zeal were now their disappointment and resentment.
Unwilling to have their errand to the frontier fruitless of all but disgrace, the volun
teers earnestly requested permission to be led into Canada under General Porter,
promising the commanding general the speedy capture of Fort Erie if he would fur
nish them with four pieces of artillery. But Smyth evaded their request, and the
volunteers were sent home uttering imprecations against a man whom they consid
ered a mere blusterer without courage, and a conceited deceiver without honor. They
felt themselves betrayed, and the inhabitants in the vicinity sympathized with them.
Their indignation was greatly increased by ill-timed and ungenerous charges made
by Smyth, in his report to General Dearborn, against General Porter, in whom the
volunteers had the greatest confidence.4 His person was for some time in danger.
He was compelled to double the guards around his tent, and to move it from place
to place to avoid continual insults.5 He was several times fired at when he ventured
out of his marquee. Porter openly attributed the abandonment of the invasion of
Canada to the cowardice of Smyth. A bitter quarrel ensued, and soon resulted in a
challenge by the general-in-chief for his second in command to test the courage of
both by a duel.6 In direct violation of the Articles of War, these superior officers of
1 Autograph statement of Colonel Winder.
2 General Smyth's report to General Dearborn, December 4, 1812.
3 It is proper to say, in justice to General Smyth, that there were no just grounds because of that event for any sus
picions of his loyalty. Colonel Winder had been to the British camp with a flag two days before, to make some ar
rangement about an exchange of prisoners, and this visit of the British major was doubtless in response.
* General Porter was a partner in business with Mr. Barton, the army contractor for the Niagara frontier, and General
Smyth alluded to him in his report as "the contractor's agent." He charged him with "exciting some clamor" against
the measures of General Smyth, and said, "He finds the contract a losing one at this time, and would wish to see the
army in Canada, that he might not be bound to supply it."
5 His friend Colonel Parker, a Virginian, in an autograph letter before me, written to Colonel Winder on the second
of December, said : " Major Campbell will inform you of the insult offered to the general last evening, and of the inter
ruption to our repose last night. God grant us a speedy relief from such neighbors !" — Winder Papers.
6 There appears to have been much quarreling among the officers on that frontier during the autumn of 1812. Only
three months before, Porter and Colonel Solomon Van Rensselaer had such a bitter dispute that it resulted in a chal
lenge from Porter, but they never reached the dueling-ground on Grand Island. General Stephen Van Rensselaer
watched them closely after he heard of the challenge, and was prepared to arrest them both when they should attempt
to go to the island.— Statement of Solomon Van Rensselaer, among the Van Rensselaer papers.
432 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
A harmless Duel between Porter and Smyth. A solemn Farce. Smyth disbanded. His Petition to Congress.
the Army of the Centre, with friends, and seconds,1 and surgeons,2 put off in boats
from the shore near Black Rock, in the presence of their troops, at two o'clock in the
afternoon of the 12th of December, to meet each other in mortal combat on Grand
Island.3 They exchanged shots at twelve paces' distance. Nobody was hurt. An
expected tragedy proved to be a solemn comedy. The affair took the usual ridicu
lous course. The seconds reconciled the belligerents. General Porter acknowledged
o *
his conviction that General Smyth was " a man of courage," and General Smyth was
convinced that General Porter was " above suspicion as a gentleman and an officer."4
Tims ended the melodrama of Smyth's invasion of Canada. The whole affair was
disgraceful and humiliating. " What wretched work Smyth and Porter have made
of it," wrote General Wadsworth to General Van Rensselaer from his home at Gene-
seo, at the close of the year. " I wish those who are disposed to find so much fault
could know the state of the militia since the day you gave up the command. It
has been 'confusion worse confounded.'"5 The day that saw Smyth's failure was
indeed " memorable in the annals of the United States," as well as in his own pri
vate history. Confidence in his military ability was destroyed, and three months
afterward he was " disbanded," as the Army Register says ; in other words, he was
deposed without a trial, and excluded from the army.6 Yet he had many warm
friends who clung to him in his misfortunes, for he possessed many excellent social
qualities. He was a faithful representative of the constituency of a district 'of Vir
ginia in the national Congress from 1817 to 1825, and again from 1827 until his death,
in April, 1830.
1 Lieutenant Colonel Winder was Smyth's second, and Lieutenant Angus was Porter's.
8 The surgeon on that occasion was Dr. Roberts, and the assistant surgeon was Dr. Parsons, afterward surgeon of
Perry's flag-ship Lawrence, in the battle on Lake Erie, and now [1SC7] a resident of Providence, Rhode Island.
3 This is a large island, containing 20,000 acres, dividing the Niagara River into two channels. (See map on page 382.)
On this island the late Mordecai Manasseh Noah proposed to found a city of refuge for his co-religionists, the Jews, and
memorialized the Legislature of the State of New York on the subject in 1S20. The project failed because the chief
rabbi in Europe disapproved of it. Noah erected a commemorative monument there, but it and his scheme have passed
away.
4 In a letter of Lieutenant Angus to Colonel Winder the next day, he said : " A meeting took place between General
Smyth and General Porter yesterday afternoon on Grand Island, in pursuance of previous arrangements. They met at
Dayton's tavern, and crossed the river with their friends and surgeons. Both gentlemen behaved with the utmost cool
ness and unconcern. A shot was exchanged in as intrepid and firm a manner as possible by each gentleman, but with
out effect The hand of reconciliation was then offered and received."— Autograph letter, Winder Papers. An
other account says that the party returned to Dayton's, where they supped and spent a convivial evening together.
5 Autograph letter to General Van Rensselaer, December 30, 1812.
6 General Smyth petitioned the House of Representatives to reinstate him in the army. That body referred the peti
tion to the Secretary of War — the general's executioner '. Of course, its prayer was not answered. In that petition he
asked for the privilege of "dying for his country." This phrase was a subject for much ridicule. At a public celebra
tion of Washington's birthday in 1814 at Georgetown, in the District of Columbia, the following sentiment was offered
at the table during the presentation of toasts : " General Smyth's petition to Congress to ' die for his country :' May it
be ordered that the prayer of said petition be granted."
A wag wrote on a panel of one of the doors of the Hall of Representatives —
"All hail, great chief! who quailed before
A Bisshopp on Niagara's shore ;
But looks on Death with dauntless eye,
And begs for leave to bleed and die.
Oh myl
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 433
Failures of the Armies. Acknowledged Naval Superiority of Great Britain. British Contempt for the American Navy.
CHAPTER XXI.
' ' By the trident of Neptune,' brave Hull cried, ' let's steer ;
It points out the track of the bullying Giierriere:
Should we meet her, brave boys, " Seamen's rights !" be our cry :
We fight to defend them, to live free or die.'
The famed Constitution through the billows now flew,
While the spray to the tars was refreshing as dew,
To quicken the sense of the insult they felt,
In the boast of the Guerriere'a not being the Belt."
SONG, " CONSTITUTION AND GTTEREIERE."
"Ye brave Sons of Freedom, whose bosoms beat high
For your country with patriot pride and emotion,
Attend while 1 sing of a wonderful Wasp,
And the Frolic she gallantly took on the ocean."
OLD SONG.
preceding chapters we have considered the prominent events
of the war on land, and perceive in the record very little where
of Americans should boast as military achievements. The war
had heen commenced without adequate preparations, and had
been carried on by inexperienced and incompetent men in the
Council and in the Field. Brilliant theories had been promul-
gated and splendid expectations had been indulged, while Phi-
\~ losophy and Experience spoke monitorily, but in vain. The vis
ions of the theorists proved to be " dissolving views" — unsub
stantial and deceptive — when tested by the standard of practical results. At the
close of the campaign in 1812, the Army of the Northwest, first under Hull and then
under Harrison, was occupying a defensive position among the snows of the wilder
ness on the banks of the Maumee ; the Army of the Centre, first under Van Rensse-
laer and then under Smyth, had experienced a series of misfortunes and disappoint
ments on the Niagara frontier, and was also resting on the defensive ; while the
Army of the JVorth, under Bloomfield, whose head-quarters were at Plattsburg, had
made less efforts to accomplish great things, and had less to regret and more to boast
of than the others. Yet it, too, was standing on the defensive when the snows of
December fell.
Different was the aspect of affairs on the water. The hitherto neglected navy had
been aggressive and generally successful. We have already observed the operations
of one branch of it, with feeble means, in the narrow waters of Lake Ontario, under
Chauncey ;T let us now take a view of its exploits on the broad ocean, where Thom
son had declared in son<?,
O 7
" Britannia rules the waves."
The naval superiority of England was every where acknowledged ; and the idea of
the omnipotence of her power on the sea was so universal in the American mind, that
serious expectations of success in a contest with her on that theatre were regarded
as absurd. The American newspapers — then, as now, the chief vehicles of popular
information — had always been filled with praises of England's naval puissance and
* examples of her prowess ; while the British newspapers, reflecting the mind of the
ruling classes of that empire, were filled with boastings of England's power, abuse of
all other people, and supercilious sneers at the navies of every other nation on the
i See page 3T1.
EE
434
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Number and Character of the American War Marine. Distribution and Condition. American Merchantmen saved.
face of the earth. That of the United States, her rapidly growing rival in national
greatness and ever the object of her keenest jealousy, was made the special tar
get for the indecorous jeers of her public writers and speakers. The Constitution,
one of the finest vessels in the navy of the United States, and which was among the
first to humble the arrogance of British cruisers, was spoken of as " a bundle of pine
boards, sailing under a bit of striped bunting ;" and it was asserted that " a few broad
sides from England's wooden walls would drive the paltry striped bunting from the
ocean."1 It was with erroneous opinions like these that the commander of the Alert
-August is, attacked the JSssexf and, as we shall observe presently, was undeceived
by a conclusive argument. Yet, in spite of conscious inferiority of strength
in men and metal, the distrust of the nation, and the defiant contempt of the foe, the
little navy of the United States went boldly out upon the ocean to dispute with En
gland's cruisers the supremacy of the sea.2
When war was declared, the public vessels of the United States, exclusive of one
hundred and seventy gun-boats, numbered only twenty, with an aggregate armament
of litle more than five hundred guns. These were scattered. Four of them had
wintered at Newport, Rhode Island; four others in Hampton Roads, Virginia; two
were away on foreign service ; two were at Charleston, South Carolina ; two were at
New Orleans ; one was on Lake Ontario ; and five were laid up " in ordinary."3 In
view of this evident inefficiency of the Ame-rican navy to protect its commerce, there
was much alarm among the few merchants whose ships had gone abroad before the
laying of the embargo, which saved many hundreds of detained vessels from exposure
to capture or destruction, and thus furnished materials for the privateers that soon
swarmed upon the ocean. These merchants sent a swift-sailing pilot -boat to the
(toasts of Northern Europe with the news of the declaration of war, and with direc
tions for the American commercial marine in the harbors of Russia, Sweden, Denmark,
and Prussia, to remain there until the war should cease. By this timely movement
:i greater part of the American shipping in those ports was saved from the perils of
British privateering. A sketch of that important branch of the American naval serv
ice during the, war will be presented in a group in another part of this work. It is
1 This was alluded to in the following stanzas of a song of the time :
" Too long our tars have borne in peace
With British domineering ;
But now they've sworn the trade should cease —
For vengeance they are steering.
First gallant Hull, he was the lad
Who sailed a tyrant-hunting,
And swaggering Dacres soon was glad
To strike to ' strijied bunting.' "
a "While, therefore," says an English writer, " a feeling toward Americans bordering on contempt had unhappily pos
sessed the mind of the British naval officer, rendering him more than usually careless and opinionative, the American
naval officer, having been taught to regard his new foe with a feeling of dread, sailed forth to meet him with the whole
of his energies aroused."— Naval Occurrences of the Late War, etc., by William James.
3 The following is a list of those vessels, their rated and actual armament, the names of the commanders of those
afloat, and the designation of those in "ordinary," or laid up for repairs or other purposes :
Name.
Rated.
ing.
Employed.
Name.
Rated.
Mount
ing.
Employed.
44
44
44
36
36
06
30
32
32
32
58
5S
5S
44
44
44
44
Capt. Hull.
Capt. Decatur.
Com. Rodgers.
Ordinary.
Ordinary.
Ordinary.
Capt. Smith.
Ordinary.
Capt. Porter.
Ordinary.
26
16
16
16
lii
16
12
19
12
12
18
18
Capt. Ludlow.
Capt. Jones.
Capt. Lawrence.
Lieut. Carroll.
Crane.
Wool?ey.
Gadsden.
Sinclair.
Blukely.
Bain bridge.
United States
President
Hornet
New York
Adams
Viper
There were four bomb-vessels in ordinary, named respectively Vengeance, Spitfire, ^Etna, and Vesuvius. The gun
boats were all numbered, from " 1" to " 170," and during the War of 1S12 were distributed as follows :
In New York, 54 : New Orleans, 26 ; Norfolk, 14 ; Charleston, S. C., 2 ; Wilmington, N. C., 2 ; St. Mary's, 11 ; Washing
ton, 10; Portland, S; Boston, 2; Connecticut and Rhode Island, 4; Philadelphia, 20; Baltimore, 10. Of these only
sixty-two were in commission. Eighty-six were in ordinary, and some were undergoing repairs. There had been an
increase of five to the number, and some slight changes of position, when the war broke out.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 435
Commodore Rodgers's Squadron. Cruise of the President. First Shot on the Water. Chase of the Belvidera.
proposed now to consider the events of the regular service only, excepting where
necessity may compel an incidental allusion to the other.
At the time of the declaration of war, Commodore Rodgers, with his flag-ship .Pres
ident, 44 ; Essex, 32, Captain Porter; and Hornet, 18, Captain Lawrence, was in the
port of New York. The Essex was overhauling her rigging ; the others might be
ready for service at an hour's notice. On the 21st of June Rodgers received the news
of the declaration of war, and with it orders for sailing immediately. He had drop
ped down the bay that morning with the President and Hornet, and toward noon had
been joined by a small squadron under Commodore Decatur, whose broad pennon
floated from the United States, 44. Her companions were the Congress, 38, Captain
Smith, and Argus, 16, Lieutenant Commandant St. Clair.
Rodgers had received information that a large fleet of Jamaica-men had sailed for
England under a strong convoy, and he believed that they must then be sweeping
along the American coast in the current of the Gulf Stream. When his sailing orders
arrived he resolved to make a dash at that convoy, and within an hour after receiving
his dispatch from the Navy Department he had weighed anchor. With the united
squadron he passed Sandy Hook that afternoon. In the evening he spoke an Ameri
can merchantman that had seen the Jamaica fleet, and had been boarded by the Brit
ish frigate Belvidera, 36. Rodgers crowded sail and commenced pursuit. Thirty-six
hours elapsed, and the enemy were yet invisible ; but an English war-vessel was
espied on the northeastern horizon, and a general chase of the whole squadron com
menced in that direction. The wind was fresh, and the enemy was standing before
it.1 The fleet President outstripped her companions, and rapidly gained on the fu
gitive. At four o'clock she was within gun-shot of the enemy, off Nantucket Shoals,
when the wind fell, and the heavier President — heavier, because she had just left
port — began to fall behind.
To cripple the stranger was now Rodgers's only hope of success. With his own
hand he pointed and discharged one of his forecastle chase-guns, the first hostile shot
of the war fired afloat? It went crashing through the stern-frame of the stranger
and into the gun-room with destructive effect, driving her people from the after part
of the vessel. This was immediately followed by a shot from the first division below,
directed by Lieutenant Gamble, which struck and damaged one of the stranger's
stern-chasers. Rodgers fired again, and was followed immediately by Gamble, whose
gun bursted, and killed and wounded sixteen men. It blew up the forecastle of the
President, and threw Rodgers several feet into the air. In his descent one of his legs
was broken. This accident caused a pause in the firing, when a shot from a stern-
chaser of the stranger came plunging along the Presidents deck, killing a midship
man and one or two men. t
It was now twilight, and the British ship having her spars and rigging imperiled
by the Presidents fire, that vessel having yawed3 for the purpose, began to lighten
by cutting away her anchors, staving and throwing overboard her boats, and starting
two tons of water. She gained headway ; and, as a last resort, the President fired
three broadsides, but with little effect. Unwilling to lighten his own ship, as it
would impair his ability for a cruise, Rodgers ordered the pursuit to be abandoned
at midnight.a The British vessel, it was afterward ascertained, was the mjnne23,
frigate Belvidera, 36, Captain Richard Byron, that had boarded the Ameri- 1812-
can merchantman just mentioned. Her commander displayed great skill in saving
his vessel. She sailed for Halifax for repairs,4 and gave the first information there
1 The commander of the English vessel had uot heard of the declaration of war, and when he saw the squadron he
stood toward it. But when he saw them suddenly take in their studding-sails and haul up in chase of him, frequently
wetting the sails to profit by the lightness of the wind, he suspected hostility.
2 The first on land was in the amphibious fight at Sackett's Harbor a month later. See page 368.
3 To yaw is to steer wild, or out of the line of the ship's course.
* The Belvidera was badly injured in her hull, spars, and rigging. The President received a number of shots in her
sails and rigging, but was not materially injured.
436
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Chase of the Jamaica Merchant Fleet.
British Squadron at Halifax.
Capture of the Nautilus.
of the actual existence of war, so positively communicated to her by the President.
In this action the American bursting of the gun. The
^y) iL
frigate had twenty-two men //?' /r3 /? -Belvidera lost seven killed
killed and wounded, sixteen "<-^ t/C/YSW ^j an(j wounded by shot, and
of whom were injured by the # several others by splinters.
Captain Byron was wounded in the thigh by the latter.1
Kodgers now continued the chase after the Jamaica-men. Cocoanut shells, orange
skins, and other evidences of his being in their track, were seen upon the water off
the Banks of Newfoundland on the first of July. On the ninth the commander of an
English letter-of-marque captured by the Hornet reported that he had seen the fleet
on the previous evening, when he counted eighty-five sail, convoyed by a two-deck
ship, a frigate, a sloop-of-war, and a brig. This intelligence stimulated Rodgers to
greater exertions, and he continued the chase, ineffectually on account of fogs, un
til the 13th, when he was within a day's sail of the chops of the Irish Channel. Then
he relinquished pursuit, sailed southwardly, and passed within thirty miles of the Rock
of Lisbon, in sight of Madeira, the Western Islands, and the Grand Banks of New
foundland, without falling in with a single vessel of war, and entered Boston Harbor
after a cruise of seventy days. He had captured seven English merchantmen, recap
tured an American vessel from a British cruiser, and brought in about one hundred
and twenty prisoners. Many of the seamen of the squadron were sick of the scurvy,
and several had died.
The news carried into Halifax by the J3elvidera created a profound sensation there.
The commandant of that naval station, Rear Admiral Sawyer, took measures imme
diately to collect a squadron for the purpose of cruising in search of Rodgers's ships
or any other American vessels. Within a week, the African, 64, Captain Bustard ; the
Shannon, 38, Captain Broke ; the Guerriere, 38, Captain Dacres ; the Belmdera, 36,
Captain Byron ; and the ^Eolus, 32, Captain Lord James Townsend, were united in
one squadron, under the command of Captain Broke, the senior officer, who made the
Shannon his flag-ship. This force appeared off New York early in July, and made
several captures, among them the United States brig Nautilus, 14, of Tripolitan fame,2
Lieutenant Commandant Crane. She had arrived at New York just after Rodgers
left, and went out immediately for the
purpose of cruising in the track of the
English West Indiamen. On the very
next day she fell in with the British
squadron, and, after a short and vigor
ous chase, was compelled to strike her
colors to ^he Shannon, and surrender one
hundred and six men. The Nautilus was
the first vessel of war taken on either side
in that contest. A prize crew was placed
in her, and she was made one of Brokers
squadron.3 She was afterward fitted
with sixteen 24-pound carronades, and
commissioned as a cruiser.
The Constitution, 44,4 Captain Isaac
THE CONSTITUTION IN 1800.
' Rodgers's journal and British account of the engagement, in Niles's Weekly Register, iii., 26 ; American account in
the Boston Centinel, by an officer of the squadron ; Cooper's Naval History, ii., 150. . 2 See page 120.
3 In naval nomenclature, a number of vessels under one commander, less than ten, are called a squadron; more than
ten, a fleet.
* The Constitution was built at Hart's ship-yard, in Boston, where Constitution Wharf now is, at a cost of $302,718.
She was made very strong. Her frame was of live-oak, and her planks were bent on without steam, as it was thought
that process softened and weakened the wood. She was launched on the 21st of October, 1707 (see page 100), in the
presence of a great gathering of people. She did not start upon a cruise until the following season, when she was com
manded by Captain James Nicholson, who died in New York on Sunday, the 2d of September, 1804, in the sixty-ninth
. OF THE WAR OF 1812. 437
Cruise of the Constitution. She meets a British Squadron. An exciting Chase begun.
Hull, returned from foreign service at about the time of the declaration of war, and
went into Chesapeake Bay, where she shipped a new crew, and on the 12th of July
sailed from Annapolis on a cruise to the northward.1 She was out of sight of land
on the 17th, sailing under easy canvas with a light breeze, when, at one o'clock in the
afternoon, she descried four vessels northward, heading westward. At four o'clock she
discovered a fifth sail in a similar direction, which had the appearance of a vessel of
war. By this time the other four wrere so near that they were distinguished as three
ships and a brig. They were in sight all the afternoon, evidently watching the Con
stitution. At half past six a breeze sprang up from the southward, which brought
the latter to the windward of the last discovered vessel. She was a British frigate.
Hull determined to bear down upon and speak to her ; and, to be ready for any emer
gency, he beat to quarters, and prepared his ship for action. The wind was very light,
and the two frigates slowly approached each other during the evening. At ten o'clock
the Constitution shortened sail and displayed a private signal. The lights were kept
aloft for an hour without receiving an answer. At a quarter past eleven they were
lowered, and the Constitution made sail again under a light breeze that prevailed all
night. Just before dawn the stranger tacked, wore entirely round, threw up a rocket,
and fired two signal-guns.
In the gray of early morning three other vessels were discovered on the starboard
quarter of the Constitution, and three more astern, and at five o'clock a fourth was
seen in the latter direction. The American cruiser had fallen in with Broke's squad
ron, and the vessel with which she had been mano3uvring all night was the Guerriere,
38, Captain Dacres. The squadron was just out of gun-shot distance from the Con
stitution, and the latter found herself in the perilous position of having two frigates
on her lee quarter, and a ship of the line, two frigates, a brig, and a schooner astern.
The brig was the captured Nautilus.
Now commenced one of the most remarkable naval retreats and pursuits ever re
corded. The Constitution was not powerful enough to fight the overwhelming force
closing around her, and Hull perceived that her safety depended upon celerity in
flight. There was almost a dead calm. Her sails flapped lazily, and she floated al
most independently of the helm on the slowly undulating bosom of the sea. In this
year of his age. She was so stanch a ship that the name of Ironsides was given her. She always was favored with
excellent commanders and performed gallant service. Some years ago the Navy Department concluded to break her
up and sell her timbers, as she was thought to be a decided "invalid." The order had gone forth, when the execution
of it was arrested by the voice of public opinion, called forth by the magic wand of a poet — the pen of Dr. Oliver Wen
dell Holmes, who wrote and published the following stirring protest against making merchandise of her :
"Ay, tear her tattered ensign down ! No more shall feel the victor's tread,
Long has it waved on high, Or know the conquered knee ;
And many an eye has danced to see The harpies of the shore shall pluck
That banner in the sky. The eagle of the sea !
Beneath it rung the battle-shout, o ! better that her shattered hulk
And burst the cannon's roar ; Should sink beneath the wave ;
The meteor of the ocean air Her thunders shook the mighty deep,
Shall sweep the clouds no more. And there snou]d be her grave.
Her deck, once red with heroes' blood— Nail to the mast her holy flag,
Where knelt the vanquished foe, Set every threadbare sail,
When winds were humming o'er the flood, And give her to the God of Storms,
And waves were white below — The lightning and the gale 1"
" Old Ironsides" was saved, repaired, and converted into a school-ship. Such is her vocation now [1867]. She was
lying at Annapolis in that capacity when the Great Rebellion broke out in 1861. Our little sketch exhibits her under
full sail, as she appeared there in the autumn of I860. When the Naval Academy was temporarily removed from An
napolis to Newport, Rhode Island, on account of the Rebellion, the Constitution took her place at the latter station.
Her latest commander in the war of 1S12-'15, Rear Admiral Charles Stewart, yet [1867] survives, at the age of ninety-
one years. He is sometimes called Old Ironsides. His achievements in the Constitution will be notfced hereafter.
1 The following is a list of the'offlcers of the Constitution at that time : Captain, Isaac Hull ; Lieutenants, Charles Mor
ris, Alexander S. Wadsworth, Beekman V. Hoffman, George C. Read, John T. Shubrick, Charles W. Morgan ; Sailing-
master, John C. Alwyn ; Lieutenants of Marines, William S. Bush, John Contee ; Surgeon, Amos E. Evans ; Surgeon's
Mates, John D. Armstrong, Donaldson Yeates ; Purser, Thomas J. Chew; Midshipmen, Henry Gilliam, Thomas Beatty,
William D. Salter, Lewis Germain, William L. Gordon, Ambrose L. Field, Frederick Baury, Joseph Cross, Alexander
Belcher, William Taylor, Alexander Eskriclge, James W. Delancy, James Greenleaf, Allen Griffin, John Taylor ; Boat
swain, Peter Adams ; Gunner, Robert Anderson.
438 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Methods for Flight. How the Constitution eluded her Pursuers. Her final Escape.
listlessness there was danger. Down went her boats with long lines attached, and
the sweeps were bent in towing her with the energy of men struggling for life and
liberty. Up from her gun-deck was brought a long eighteen-pounder, and placed on
her spar-deck as a stern-chaser, while another, of the same weight of metal and for a
similar purpose, was pointed off the forecastle. Out of the cabin windows, when saws
and axes had made them broad enough, two twenty-four pounders were run, and all
the light cannon that would draw was set. She was just beginning to get under
headway, with a gentle northwest wind blowing, when exertion was stimulated by
the booming of the bow-guns of the Shannon. For ten minutes she sent forth her
shot, but without effect, for she was yet beyond range. Again the breeze died away.
Soundings showed twenty fathoms of water. A kedge1 might be used. All spare
rope was spliced and attached to one which was carried out half a mile ahead and
cast into the deep. Quickly and strongly the crew " clapped on and walked away
with the ship, overrunning and tripping the kedge as she came up with the end of
the line."2 This was frequently repeated, and the frigate moved off in a manner most
mysterious to her pursuers. At length they discovered the secret and adopted the
method, when the Constitution, having a little breeze, fired a shot at the Shannon,
the nearest ship astern. At nine o'clock that vessel, employing a large number of
men in boats and with a kedge, was gaining rapidly on the flying frigate. A conflict,
unequal and terrible, seemed impending and inevitable, yet on board the Constitution
the best spirit prevailed. Nearer and nearer drew the Shannon, and almost as closely
the Guerriere was now pursuing on the larboard quarter of the imperiled vessel. All
hope was fading, when a light breeze from the south struck the Constitution and
brought her to windward. With such consummate skill did Captain Hull take ad
vantage of the wind and bear gallantly away, that the admiration of the enemy was
excited in the highest degree. As she came by the wind she brought the Guerriere
nearly on her lee beam, when that vessel opened a fire from a broadside. The shot
fell- short, the blessed breeze that had come like a Providence at the critical moment
died away, and the boats were again got out to tow by both parties. So anxious was
Broke to get the Shannon near enough for action, that nearly all the boats of the
squadron were employed for the purpose,3 while the men of the Constitution made
up in spirit what they lacked in numbers. Thus the race continued hour after hour
all that day and night, the pursuers and the pursued sometimes towing, sometimes
kedging.
The dawn of the second day of the chase was glorious. The sun rose with un
usual splendor. Not a cloud was seen in the firmament. The sea was smooth, and
a gentle wind was abroad, sufficient to make the murmur of ripples under the bow of
the vessels fall pleasantly on the ear. All of the ships were on the same tack, and
three of the English frigates were within long gun-shot of the Constitution on her lee
quarter. The five frigates were clouded with canvas from their truck to their decks.
Eleven sail were in sight. The scene was a most beautiful and exciting one. No
guns were fired, for the distance between the belligerents widened. Either better
sailing qualities or superior seamanship gave advantage to the Constitution. With
that pleasant breeze she gained on her antagonists, and at four o'clock in the after
noon she was four miles ahead of the Belvidera, the neai'est English ghip. At seven
heavy clouds began to brood over the sea, with indications of a squall. The Consti
tution prepared for it. It burst with fury — wind, lightning, and rain — but left that
1 Kedge, or kedger, is a small anchor with an iron stock, used for keeping a vessel steady or warping it along.
2 Cooper, ii., 156.
3 Coggeshall, in his History of tht American Privateers mid Letters of Marque, relates (page 12) that his friend, Captain
Brown, who was a prisoner on board the Shannon, was amused to hear Captain Broke and his officers converse about
the "Yankee frigate." At one period of the chase they were so confident of capturing her that a prize-crew were al
ready appointed to conduct her in triumph to Halifax. To all their questions about her, as she was seen speeding be
fore them, Captain Brown had but one answer, namely, "Gentlemen, you will never take that frigate."
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 439
End of the Chase after the Constitution. The Essex starts on a Cruise. She captures the Alert.
good frigate unharmed. The pursuers and the pursued lost sight of each other for
a while in the murky vapor. In less than an hour the squall had passed to leeward,
and the Constitution, sheeted home, her main and top-gallant sails set, was flying
away from the enemy at the rate of eleven knots. At twilight the pursuers were in
sight, and at near midnight they fired two guns. Away went the Constitution before-
the wind, and at six in the morning the topsails of the British vessel were seen from
the American, beginning to dip below the horizon. At a quarter past eight the En
glishman relinquished the pursuit, and hauled off to the northward ; and a few days
afterward the British fleet separated for the purpose of cruising in different directions.
Thus ended a chase of sixty-four hours, chiefly off the New England coast, remarkable
alike for its length, closeness, and activity. It was a theme for much newspaper com
ment, and a poet of the day, singing of the exploits of the Constitution, referred to this
as follows :
" 'Neath Hull's command, with a tough band,
And naught beside to back her,
Upon a day, as log-books say,
A fleet bore down to thwack her.
A fleet, you know, is odds, or so,
Against a single ship, sirs ;
So 'cross the tide her legs she tried,
And gave the rogues the slip, sirs."
A few days after Rodgers left New York, Captain Porter sailed from that harbor
in the Essex, 32, from the mast-head of which fluttered a flag bearing conspicuously
the words, " FREE TRADE AND SAILORS' RIGHTS." He captured several English mer
chant vessels soon after leaving Sandy Hook, making trophy bonfires of most of them
on the ocean, and their crews his prisoners. After cruising southward for some weeks
in disguise, capturing a prize now and then, he turned northward again, and met with
increased success. One night, by the dim light of a mist-veiled moon, he chased u
fleet of English transports bearing a thousand soldiers toward Halifax or the St. Law
rence, convoyed by the frigate Mercury, 36, and a bomb vessel. They were sailing
wide, and he captured one of the transports, with one hundred and fifty men, before
dawn, without attracting the attention of the rest of the fleet, for no guns were fired.
A few days after this,a while sailing in the disguise of a merchantman, a August is,
her gun-deck ports in, top-gallant masts housed, and sails trimmed in a
slovenly manner, the Essex fell in Avith a sail to windward. The stranger came bear
ing down gallantly, when the Essex showed an American ensign, and kept away un
der short sail, as if trying to avoid a contest. This emboldened the English vessel.
She followed the Essex for some time, and finally running down on her weather quar
ter, set her national colors, and, with three cheers from her people, opened fire. She
was soon undeceived, and her temerity was severely punished. The ports of the
Essex were knocked out in an instant, and the fire of the enemy was responded to
with terrible effect. The assailant was so damaged and disconcerted that the con
flict was made short. It was a complete surprise. A panic seized her people, and,
in spite of the efforts of her officers, they fled below for safety.1 Scarcely eight min
utes had elapsed from the firing of the first gun, when the stranger, which proved to
be the British ship Alert, Captain T. L. P. Laugharne, mounting twenty 18-pound car-
ronades and six smaller guns, struck her colors and was reported to be in a sinking
condition. When Lieutenant Finch, of the Essex, went on board to receive her flag,
he found seven feet water in the hold. She was a stanch vessel, and had been built
for the coal trade. She was purchased for the British navy in 1804, and the comple
ment of her crew was one hundred and thirty men and boys. She Avas every way in
ferior to the Essex, whose armament was forty 32-pound carronades and six long
twelves, and her complement of men was three hundred and twenty-five. The cap
ture of the Alert possesses no special historical interest excepting from the fact that
1 It is said that some of them, after their exchange, were executed for deserting their guns.
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
A Cartel-ship sent into Newfoundland. The Ease.x chases British Vessels.
she was the first British national vessel captured in the war. The Alert Ifod three
men wounded, while the Essex sustained no injury whatever.
The Essex was now crowded with prisoners, and Porter became conscious of the
fact that they had entered into a plot to rise and take the vessel from him. The
leaks of the Alert being stopped, and all things put in fair seaworthy condition, Por
ter made an arrangement with Captain Laugharne1 to convert her into a cartel ship.
When this was accomplished, the prisoners were placed on board of her, and she was
sent into St. John's, Newfoundland. On her return to the United States she was fit
ted up for the government service.
The Essex continued her cruise to the southward, and on the thirtieth of August,
just at twilight, fell in with a British frigate in latitude 36° N. and longitude 62° W.2
Porter prepared for action, and the two vessels stood for each other. Night fell, and
Porter, anxious for combat, ran up a light. It was answered at the distance of about
four miles. The Essex sought the stranger in that direction, but in vain, and when
the day dawned she had disappeared. Five days afterward Porter fell in with " two
ships of war to the southward and a brig to the northward — the brig in chase of an
American merchant ship."3 The Essex pursued, when the brig attempted to pass
and join the other two vessels. The Essex headed her, turned her course northward,
and continued the chase until abreast the merchantman, when, the wind being light,
the brig escaped by the use of her sweeps.
When the Essex showed her colors to the merchantman, the two British vessels at
the southward discovered them, fired signal-guns, and gave chase. At four o'clock
in the afternoon they were in the wake of the Essex and rapidly gaining upon her,
when Porter hoisted the American colors, and fired a gun to the windward, expecting
to escape by some manoeuvre in the approaching darkness. At sunset the larger of
the two vessels was within five miles, and rapidly shortening the distance between
her and the Essex. Porter determined to heave about after dark, and, if he could
not pass his pursuer, give her a broadside and lay her or board. The crew were in
fine spirits, and when this movement was proposed to them they gave three hearty
cheers. Preparations for action were immediately made. The Essex hove round and
bore away to the southwest, but the night being dark and squally, Porter saw no
more of the enemy. Supposing himself cut off from New York and Boston by a
British squadron, he made for the Delaware.4
Soon after Captain Porter reached the Delaware a circumstance occurred which
created quite a sensation in the public mind for a few days. A week after the dec
laration of war a writer in a New York paper charged Captain Porter with cruelly
treating an English seaman on board of the Essex who refused to fight against his
countrymen, pleading, among other reasons, that if caught he would be hung as a de
serter from the British navy. This story reached Sir James Lucas Yeo, commander
of the frigate /Southampton, then on the West India station. By a prisoner in his
hands, who was sent home on parole, he forwarded a message to Porter which ap-
1 Thomas Lamb Polden Langharne entered the British navy in 179S, at the age of twelve years. He was a most faith
ful and active officer, and advanced steadily to the post of commander, which he attained in 1811. He was appointed to
the command of the sloop Alert in February, 1812. His last appointment afloat was to the Achates, 18, in which he
cruised in the Channel until November, 1815. In 1823 he became inspecting commander in the coast-guard, was ad
vanced to post-captain, when he retired from the service on half-pay. He is yet [1867] living.
2 The reader who may consult a modern map while studying this account should remember that at that time the lon
gitude was calculated from the meridian of Greenwich, in England. In modern American maps it is calculated from
Washington City, the national capital.
3 Manuscript letter of Captain Porter to the Secretary of the Navy, dated "At sea, September 5, 1812."
4 Porter's manuscript letter, September 5, 1S12. That letter is before me. It contains a rough sketch of the nautical
movement just described. "Considering this escape a very extraordinary one," he wrote, "I have the honor to in
close you a sketch of the position of the ships at three different periods, by which you will perceive at once the plan
of effecting it." According to a letter from an officer of the Shannon, that frigate was the larger of the two vessels that
chased the Essex on that occasion, and the other vessel, instead of being a " ship of war," as Porter supposed, was the
Planter, a recaptured West Indiaman. In the light of this fact we perceive that Porter's escape was not very "extra
ordinary." The American merchantman mentioned in the text was the Minerva, from Cadiz. She was burnt by the
English on the morning succeeding the chase.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
441
Yeo's Challeiige and Porter's Acceptance. The Motto of the Essex. The Constitution starts on another Cruise.
peared in the following language on the 18th
of September, 1812, in the Democratic Press,
printed in Philadelphia : " A passenger of the
brig Lyon, from Havana to New York, cap
tured by the frigate Southampton, Sir James
Yeo commander, is requested by Sir James
Yeo to present his compliments to Captain
Porter, commander of the American frigate
Essex — would be glad to have a tete-a-tete any
ivhere between the Capes of Delaware and the
Havana, where he would have the pleasure
to break his own sword over his damned head,
and put him down forward in irons."
To this indecorous challenge Captain Porter
replied as follows on the same day : " Captain
Porter, of the United States frigate Essex,
presents his compliments to Sir James Yeo,
commanding H. B. M.'s frigate Southampton,
and accepts with pleasure his polite invita
tion. If agreeable to Sir James, Captain Porter
would prefer meeting near the Delaware, where
Captain P. pledges his honor to Sir James that
no other American vessel shall interrupt their
tete-a-tete. The Essex may be known by a flag
bearing the motto FREE TRADE AND SAILORS'
RIGHTS, and when that is struck to the South
ampton Captain P. will deserve the treatment
promised by Sir James.1 Here the matter
ended. The coveted tete-a-tete never occur
red.
The Constitution did not long continue idle
after her escape from Broke's squadron. She
remained a short time in Boston to recuperate,
and on the 2d of August sailed eastward in
hope of falling in with some one of the En
glish vessels of war supposed to be hovering
along the coast from Nantucket to Halifax.
Hull,2 her commander, was specially anxious
1 The original of Porter's acceptance is in the possession of
Doctor Leonard D. Koecker, of Philadelphia, who kindly allowed
me to make from it the fac-simile of the paragraph given in the
text
2 Isaac Hull was born at Derby, Connecticut, in 17T5. He first
entered the merchant service, and in 1798 became a fourth lieu
tenant in the infant navy of the United States, under Commodore
Nicholson. In 1SOO he was promoted to first lieutenant under
Commodore Talbot. In 1804 he commanded the brig Argus, and
distinguished himself at the storming of Tripoli and the reduc
tion of Derne. He was made captain in 180C, and was in com
mand ofthe Constitution when the war broke out. Ofhisachieve-
ments in her the text furnishes a detailed account. Commodore
Hull served in the American navy, afloat and ashore, with the
rank of captain, thirty-seven years. He commanded in the Med
iterranean and Pacific, and had charge of the navy yards at Bog-
ton and Washington. He was a member of the Naval Board for
several years. Commodore Hull died at his residence in Philadelphia on the 9th of February, 1843. His remains rest
in Laurel Hill Cemetery, and over them is a beautiful altar-tomb of Italian marble, made by John Struthers and Sons.
It is a copy of the tonib of Scipio Barbato at Rome, chas'tely ornamented, and surmounted by an American eagle in
442
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The Guerriere.
The CmiMtutimi off the Eastern Coast.
She chases a strange Vessel.
to fall in with that famous frigate before
whom he had been compelled to fly when
she was part of a squadron, and of whom
it had been said,
" Long the tyrant of our coast
Reigned the famous Guerriere;
Our little navy she defied,
Public ship and privateer :
On her sails, in letters red,
To our captains were displayed
Words of warning, words of dread:
' All who meet me have a care !
I am England's Guerriere.' "'
The commander of the Guerriere had
boastfully enjoined the Americans to re
member that she was not the Little 2telt,2
and this offensive form of menace in
creased Hull's desire to meet her and
measure strength with her.
The Constitution ran not far from the
shore down to the Bay of Fundy with
out meeting a single armed vessel. She
then bore away southward offCape Sable,
and eastward to the region of Halifax,
but with a like result. Hull now determ
ined to cruise eastward of Nova Scotia
to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, with the hope of interrupting vessels making their way to
Halifax or Quebec. In this new field he made some winnings, but the promise of
much harvest was too small to detain him. He turned his prow southward, and on
the nineteenth, at two o'clock in the afternoon, in latitude 41° 40', and longitude 55°
48',3 his heart was gladdened by the discovery of a sail from his mast-head, too re
mote, however, for her character to be determined.
The Constitution immediately gave chase to the stranger, and at half past three
o'clock it was discovered that she was a frigate, and doubtless an enemy. Hull let
his ship run free until within a league of the stranger to leeward, when he began to
shorten sail and deliberately prepare for action. The stranger at once showed signs
of willingness for a fight. Hull cleared his ship, beat to quarters, hoisted the Amer
ican colors, and bore down gallantly on the enemy, with the intention of bringing
her into close combat immediately.
full relief, in the aUitude of defending the na
tional flag, on which it stands. There is a can
non-ball under the flag, on which rests one of
the eagle's talons. Upon the south side of the
tomb is the name of ISAAC HULL. On the north
side is the following inscription, written by his
friend Horace Binuey, Esq. : " FEJJRUAKY ix.,
MDOOOXLIII. In affectionate devotion to the
private virtues of ISAAC HTTLT,, his widow has
erected this monument." The above likeness
of Hull is from an engraving by Edwin, from a
painting by Stewart.
1 A feminine warrior— an Amazon. The Guer
riere was originally a French ship, and was cap
tured on the 19th of July, 180C, by the British
ship Blanche, Captain Lavie. She was built at
L'Orient upon a sudden emergency, and her
timbers, not having been well seasoned, were iu
a somewhat decaying state at this time, it is
said.
2 See page 184.
3 See note 2, page 440.
HULL'S MONUMENT.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 443
The Guerriere fires on the Constitution. Hull's Coolness. Terrible Response of the Constitution.
" ' Clear ship for action !' sounds the boatswain's call ;
'Clear ship for action !' his three mimics bawl.
Swift round the decks see war's dread weapons hurled,
And floating ruins strew the watery world.
' All hands to quarters !' fore and aft resounds,
Thrills from the fife, and from the drum-head bounds ;
From crowded hatchways scores on scores arise,
Spring up the shrouds, and vault into the skies.
Firm at his quarters each bold gunner stands,
The death-fraught lightning flashing from his hands."
Comprehending Hull's movement, the Englishman hoisted three national ensigns,1
fired a broadside of grape-shot, filled away, and gave another broadside on the other
tack, but without effect. The missiles all fell short. The stranger continued to ma
noeuvre for about three quarters of an hour, endeavoring to get in a position to rake
and prevent being raked, when, disappointed, she bore up and ran under topsails and
jib, with the wind on the quarter. The Constitution, following closely, yawed occa
sionally to rake and avoid being raked, and firing only a few guns as they bore, as
she did not wish to engage in a serious conflict until they were close to each other.
It was now about six in the evening. These indications on the part of the enemy
to engage in a fair yard-arm and yard-arm fight caused the Constitution to press all
sail to get alongside of the foe. At a little after six the bows of the American be-
gan to double the quarter of the Englishman. Hull had been walking the quarter
deck, keenly watching every movement. He was quite fat, and wore very tight
breeches. As the shot of the Guertiere began to tell upon the Constitution, the gal
lant Lieutenant Morris, Hull's second in command, came to the captain and asked
permission to open fire. " Not yet," quietly responded Hull. Nearer and nearer the
vessels drew toward each other, and the request was repeated. "Not yet," said Hull
again, very quietly. When the Constitution reached the point we have just men
tioned, Hull, filled with sudden and intense excitement, bent himself twice to the
'deck, and then shouted, "Now, boys, pour it into them!" The command was in
stantly obeyed. The Constitution opened her forward guns, which were double shot
ted with round and grape, with terrible effect. When the smoke that followed the
result of that order cleared away, it was discovered that the commander, in his ener
getic movements, had split his tight breeches from waistband to knee, but he did not
stop to change them during the action.2
The concussion of Hull's broadside was tremendous. It cast those in the cockpit
of the enemy from one side of the room to the other, and, before they could adjust
themselves, the blood came streaming from above, and numbers, dreadfully mutilated,
were handed down to the surgeons. The enemy at the same time was pouring heavy
metal into the Constitution. They were only half pistol-shot from each other, and
the destruction was terrible. Within fifteen minutes after the contest commenced
the stranger's mizzen-mast was shot away, her main yard was in slings, and her hull,
spars, sails, and rigging were torn in pieces. The English vessel brought up in the
wind as her mizzen-mast gave way, when the Constitution passed slowly ahead, poured
in a tremendous fire as her guns bore, luffed short round the bows of her antagonist
to prevent being raked, and fell foul of her foe, her bowsprit running into the larboard
quarter of the stranger. In this situation the cabin of the Constitution was set on
fire by the explosion of the forward guns of her enemy, but the flames were soon ex
tinguished.
Both parties now attempted to board. The roar of great guns was terrible, and
1 This is alluded to in an old song called "Halifax Station," written and very extensively sung soon after the event
commemorated occurred :
"Then up to each mast-head he straight sent a flag,
Which shows on the ocean a proud British brag;
But Hull, being pleasant, he sent up but one,
And told every seaman to stand true to his gua."
2 Statement of Lieutenant B. V. Hoffman.
444
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Attempts at Boarding.
The Guerriere suddenly made a Wreck.
Dacres surrenders to Hull.
the fierce volleys of musketry on both sides, together with the heavy sea that was
running, made that movement impossible. The English piped all hands from below,
and mounted them on the forward deck for the purpose; and Lieutenant Morris,
Alwyn, the master, and Lieutenant Bush, of the Marines, sprang upon the taffrail of
the Constitution to lead their men to the same work. Morris was severely but not
fatally shot through the body ; Alwyn was wounded in the shoulder ; and a bullet
through his brain brought Bush dead to the deck. Just then the sails of the Consti
tution were filled, and as she shot ahead and clear of her antagonist, whose fore-mast
had been severely wounded, that spar fell, carrying with it the main-mast, and leav
ing the hapless vessel a shivering, shorn, and helpless wreck, rolling like a log in the
trough of the sea, entirely at the mercy of the billows.
" Quick as lightning, and fatal as its dreaded power,
Destruction and death on the Guerriere did shower,
While the groans of the dying were heard on the blast.
The word was, 'Take aim, boys, away with the mast !'
The genius of Britain will long rue the day.
The Guerriere 's a wreck in the trough of the sea ; •
Her laurels are withered, her boasting is done ;
Submissive, to leeward she fires her last gun."— OLD SONG.
The Constitution hauled off a short distance, secured her own masts, rove new rig
ging, and at sunset wore round and took a favorable position for raking the wreck.
A jack that had been kept flying on the
stump of the enemy's mizzen-mast was
now lowered, and the late Commodore
George C. Read, then a third lieutenant,
was sent on board of the prize. She was
found to be the Guerriere, 38, Captain
James Richards Dacres, one of the vessels
which had so lately been engaged in the
memorable chase of her present conquer
or, and which Hull was anxious to meet.
The lieutenant asked for the commander
of the prize, when Captain Dacres ap
peared. " Commodore Hull's compli
ments," said Read, " and wishes to know
if you have struck your flag ?" Captain
Daci'es, looking up and down, coolly and
dryly remarked, " Well, I don't know ;
our mizzen-mast is gone, our main-mast is
gone, and, upon the whole, you may say
we have struck our flag." Read then said,
" Commodore Hull's compliments, and wishes to know whether you need the assist
ance of a surgeon or surgeon's mate ?" Dacres replied, " Well, I should suppose you
had on board your own ship business enough for all your medical officers." Read
replied, " Oh no ; we have only seven wounded, and they were dressed half an hour
ago."1
i Statement of Captain William B. Orne, in the New York Evening Post. He commanded the American brig Betsey,
JAMEd RICHARD UACRE8.
changed ! You are now free, and I am a prisoner."
James Richard Dacres was a son of Vice Admiral J. R. Dacres, who was in command of the British schooner Carlctan,
on Lake Champlain, in the fight with Arnold's flotilla in 1776. Young Dacres entered the royal navy in 1790, on board
the Sceptre, 64, commanded by his father. His first service was against the French, in which he exhibited excellent
qualities. He was promoted to the command of the sloop Elk in 1805, and the next year was transferred to the Bacchante,
24. He was appointed to the command of the Guerriere in March, 1811. She then carried 48 guns, and was called "a
worn-out frigate." See O'Byrne's Naval Biography. He was wounded in the action with the Constitution. He was
unanimously acquitted by the court-martial at Halifax that tried him for surrendering his ship. He commanded the
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 445
Destruction of the Guerriere. Effect of the News of the Victory. Hull's Reception in Boston.
The Constitution kept near her prize all night. At two in the morning a strange
sail was seen closing upon them, when she cleared for action, but an hour later the
intruder stood off and disappeared. At dawn the officer in charge of the Guerriere
hailed to say that she had four feet water in her hold and was in danger of sinking.
Hull immediately sent all his boats to bring off the prisoners and their effects. l That
duty was accomplished by noon, and at three o'clock the prize ci-ew was recalled.
The Guerriere was too much damaged to be saved ; so she was set on fire, and fifteen
minutes afterward she blew up, scattering widely upon the subsiding billows all that
was left of the boastful cruiser that was " not the Little Belt?n
"Isaac did so maul and rake her,
That the decks of Captain Dacre
Were in such a woful pickle
As if Death, with scythe and sickle,
With his sling or with his shaft,
Had cut his harvest fore and aft.
Thus, in thirty minutes, ended
Mischiefs that couldjiot he mended;
Masts, and yards, and ship descended
All to David Jones's locker —
Such a ship, in such a pucker !" — Oi,i> SONG.
The Constitution arrived at Boston on the 30th of August, and on that day Cap
tain Hull wrote his official dispatch to the Secretary of War, dated " U. S. frigate
Constitution, off Boston Light." He was the first to announce to his countrymen
the intelligence of his owTn victory. That intelligence was received with the most
lively demonstrations of joy in every part of the republic, and dispelled for a mo
ment the gloom occasioned by the recent disasters at Detroit in the surrender of
General Hull. When the Constitution appeai-ed in Boston Harbor, she was surround
ed by a flotilla of gayly-decorated small boats, and the hundreds of people who filled
them made the air tremble with their loud huzzas. At the wharf where he landed
he was received with a national salute by an artillery company, which was returned
by the Constitution. An immense assemblage of citizens were there to greet him
and escort him to quarters prepared for him in the city, and the whole town was
filled with tumultuous joy. The streets through which the triumphal procession
passed were decorated with flags and banners. From almost every window ladies
waved their white handkerchiefs, and from the crowded side-pavements shout after
shout of the citizens greeted the hero. Men of all ranks hastened to pay homage to
the conqueror. A splendid public entertainment was given him and his officers by
the inhabitants of Boston, and almost six hundred citizens, of both political parties,
sat down to the banquet in token of their appreciation of the gallant commander's
Tiber from 1814 to 181S. He continued in service afloat. In 1838 he attained flag rank, answering to our commodore,
and in 1845 was appointed commander-in-chief at the Cape of Good Hope, his flag-ship being the President, 50. Vice
Admiral Dacres died in England, at an advanced age, on the 4th of December, 1853. The preceding likeness of Captain
Dacres (Vice Admiral of the Red) is from a print published in London in October, 1831.
1 "I feel it my duty to state that the conduct of Captain Hull and his officers to our men has been that of a brave
euemy, the greatest care being taken to prevent our men losing the smallest trifle, and the greatest attention being
paid to the wounded."— Captain Dacres's Report to Vice Admiral Sawyer, September 7, 1812.
2 Three days before the action between the Constitution and Guerriere, the John Adams, Captain Fash, from Liverpool,
was spoken by the English frigate. Upon Fash's register, which he deposited at the New York Custom-house, the fol
lowing lines were found written :
" Captain Dacres, commander of his Britannic majesty's frigate Guerriere, of 44 guns, presents his compliments to
Commodore Rodgers. of the United States frigate President, and will be very happy to meet him, or any other American
frigate of equal force to the President, oft" Sandy Hook, for the purpose of having a few minutes' t^te-^-tste."
To this fact a poet of the day, an American gentleman then living at St. Bartholomew's, thus alluded :
"This Briton oft had made his boast
He'd with his crew, a chosen host,
Pour fell destruction roiind our coast,
And work a revolution ;
Urged by his pride, a challenge sent
Bold Rodgers, in the President,
Wishing to meet
Him t'-te-d-t'-tp,
Or one his equal from our fleet —
Such was the Constitution."
446
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Tributes of Honor by Citizens and Public Bodies.
Congress presents Hull with a Gold Medal.
services.1 The citizens of New York raised money for the purchase of swords to be
presented to Captain Hull and his officers ; and the Corporation offered the gallant
• December 28, victor the freedom of the city in a gold "box,a with an appropriate in
scription.2 Hull was also requested by the same Corporation to sit for
his portrait, to be hung in the picture-gallery of the City Hall.3 In Philadelphia the
citizens, at a general meeting, resolved to present to Captain Hull " a piece of plate
of the most elegant workmanship, with appropriate emblems, devices, and inscrip
tions," and that "a like piece of plate be presented to Lieutenant Morris, in the name
of the citizens of Philadelphia." They also resolved to present tokens of their grati
tude to the other officers of the Constitution. The Congress of the United States, by
resolution, voted a gold medal to Captain Hull,4 and fifty thousand dollars to be dis-
1 A stirring ode was sung at the table. It was written for the occasion by the late L. M. Sargent, Esq., then an emi
nent and highly esteemed citizen of Boston. The victory of Hull, so complete, and obtained over a foe so nearly equal
in strength, gave promise of future successes on the ocean, and inspired the most doubting heart with hope. This hope
was expressed ill the following closing stanza of Mr. Sargent's ode :
"Hence be our floating bulwarks
Those oaks our mountains yield ;
'Tis mighty Heaven's plain decree —
Then take the watery field !
To ocean's farthest barriers, then,
Your whitening sails shall pour ;
Safe they'll ride o'er the tide
While Columbia's thunders roar ;
While her cannon's fire is flashing fast,
And her Yankee thunders roar."
2 This is a merely complimentary act, by which a person, for gallant or useful services, is honored with the nominal
right to all the privileges and immunities of a citizen by the government of a city. When Andrew Hamilton, of Phila
delphia, nobly defended the liberty of the press, and procured the acquittal of John Peter Zeuger, a New York printer,
who was accused of libel by the governor in 1735, the Corporation of New York presented that able lawyer the freedom
of the city in a gold box for his noble advocacy of popular rights. When Washington Irving returned to New York,
after twenty years' absence in Europe, the freedom of the city was given to him as a compliment for his distinction as
an American author when successful ones were rare.
The ceremony of presentation to Captain Hull took place in the Common Council Chamber of the City Hall. A com
mittee, consisting of Aldermen Fish and Mesier, and General Morton, introduced Hull to the Common Council, when
De Witt Clinton, the mayor, arose and addressed him. He then presented him with the diploma, elegantly executed in
vellum,* and a richly-embossed gold box, with a representation of the battle between the Constitution and Guerriere
painted in enamel. Hull responded in a few low and modest words, after which the mayor administered to him the
freeman's oath.
3 In that gallery hang the portraits of the successive governors of the State of New York. On that account it is known
as the Governors' Room.
4 On one side of this medal, represented of the exact size of the original in the above engraving, is seen the likeness
of Captain Hull in profile, with the legend ISACDS HULL PF.RITOS AKTK BUPERAT JUL. MDOOCXTI. ANO. OERTAMINE FORTES.
This legend (and date) seems to refer to the skill of Hull in escaping from the British fleet the previous month, for it
asserts ^hat his stratagem overmatched the experienced English. On the reverse of the medal is seen a naval engage
ment, in which the Guerriere is represented as receiving the deadly shots that cut away her mizzen-mast. The legend
is HOR,K MOMENTO VICTORIA, and the exergue INTEK CONST. NAV. AMER ET GUKR. NAV. ANGL. — the abbreviation of words
indicating action "between the American ship Constitution and the English ship Guerriere."
* The form of words in which this instrument is expressed will be found in another part of this work, where an ac
count is given of a similar honor conferred on General Jacob Brown.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 447
Effect of the Victory on the British. Estimates of its Importance. Remarks of the London Times.
tributed as prize-money among the officers and crew of the victor, whose example
was "highly honorable to the American character and instructive to our rising
navy."1
It is difficult to comprehend at this time the feeling which this victory of the
Americans created on both sides of the Atlantic. The British, as we have observed,
looked with contempt upon the American navy, while the Americans looked upon that
of England with dread. The naval flag of England had seldom been lowered to an
enemy during the lapse of a century, and the peopla had come to believe her " wooden
walls" to be impregnable. Dacres himself, though less a boaster than most of his
countrymen in command, had similar faith. He believed that an easy victory awaited
him whenever he should be so fortunate as to meet any American vessel in conflict ;
and he constantly expressed a desire to show how quickly he would make the "striped
bunting" trail in his presence. Very great, then, was the disappointment of the com
mander of the Guerriere, the service, and the British people, when Hull's victory was
accomplished. The Americans, on the other hand, as we have observed, had little
confidence in the power of their navy, and at that time they were cast down by the
heavy blow to their hopes in the misfortunes of the Army of the Northwest at
Detroit. This victory, therefore, so unexpected and so complete, was like the sudden
bursting forth of the morning sun, without preceding twilight, after a night of tem
pest, and the joy of the whole people was unbounded. It was natural for them to
indulge in many extravagances, yet these were only the mere demonstrative evidences
of a new-born faith that had taken hold of the American mind. This victory was,
therefore, of immense importance, inasmuch as it gave the Americans confidence, and
dispelled the idea of the absolute omnipotence of the British navy. Its momentous
bearing upon the future of the war was at once perceived by statesmen and publicists
on both sides, and zealous discussions at once arose concerning the relative strength,
and force, and armament of the two vessels, and the comparative merits of the two
commanders as exhibited in their conduct before and during the action.
There was a tendency on the part of the Americans to overestimate the importance
of the victory and the powers of their seamen, and there was an equal tendency of
the organs of British opinion to underestimate it, and to detract from the merits of
the conqueror by disparaging the strength and condition of the Guerriere. The very
writers who had spoken of the Constitution as " a bundle of pine-boards" now called
her one of the stanchest vessels afloat ; and the Guerriere, which they had praised
as a frigate worthy of the exhibition of British valor when she was captured from
the French, and able to drive " the insolent striped bunting from the seas," was now
spoken of as "an old worn-out frigate," with damaged masts, a reduced complement,
and " in absolute need of thorough refit," for which " she was then on her way to Hal
ifax." Yet the London Times, then, as now, the leading journal in England, and then,
as now, the bitter enemy of the United States, and implacable foe of every supposed
rival or competitor of England, was compelled, in deep mortification, to view the
affair as a severe blow struck at Britain's boasted supremacy of the seas. "We have
been accused of sentiments unworthy of Englishmen," it said, " because we described
what we saw and felt on the occasion of the captiire of the Guerriere. We witnessed
the gloom which that event cast over high and honorable minds ; we participated in
the vexation and regret ; and it is the first time we have ever heard that the striking
of the English flag on the high seas to any thing like an equal force should be regard
ed by Englishmen with complacency and satisfaction It is not merely that an
English frigate has been taken, after, what we are free to confess, may be called a
brave resistance, but that it has been taken by a new enemy, an enemy unaccustomed
to such triumphs, and likely to be rendered insolent and confident by them. He must
i Resolutions of the House of Representatives, November 5, 1S12.
448 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Surprise and Chagrin of the British. The two Vessels compared. Commodore Hull's Generosity.
be a weak politician who does not see how important -the first triumph is in giving a
tone and character to the war. Never before in the history of the world did an En
glish frigate strike to an American • and though we can not say that Captain Dacres,
under all circumstances, is punishable for this act, yet we do say that there are com
manders in the English navy who would a thousand times rather have gone down
with their colors flying than have set their brother-officers so fatal an example."
William James, one of the most bitterly partisan and unscrupulous historians of the
war, was constrained to say, " There is no question that our vanity received a wound
in the loss of the Guerriere. But, poignant as were the national feelings, reflecting
men hailed the 19th of August, 181 2, as the commencement of an era of renovation to
the navy of England."1
The advantage in the action, in guns, men, and stanchness, was undoubtedly on
the side of the Constitution, yet not so much as to make the contest really an unequal
one. The vessels rated respectively 44 and 38, while the Constitution actually car
ried in the action 56, and the Guerriere 49. The latter was pierced for 54 and car
ried 50 when she was captured from the French.2 Her gun-deck metal was lighter
than that of the Constitution, but the rest of her armament was the same. Notwith
standing this disparity, the weight of the respective broadsides, according to the
most authentic account, could not have varied very materially.3 The crew of the
Constitution greatly outnumbered that of the Guerriere, being 468 against 253. That
of the latter had a great advantage in experience and discipline ; for they had been
long in naval service, while the crew of the Constitution was newly shipped for this
cruise, and mostly from the merchant service.
According to the official report of Captain Hull, the action lasted thirty minutes,
while Dacres said its duration was two hours and twelve minutes. This discrepancv
may be reconciled by the consideration that the British commander probably counted
from the time when the Guerriere fired her first gun, which the Constitution did not
respond to, and the American commander computed from the moment when he poured
in his first broadside. The Guerriere was made a wreck — the Constitution was se
verely wounded in spars and rigging. The American loss was seven killed and seven
wounded. The British loss was fifteen killed, forty-four wounded, and twenty-four
(including two officers) missing. Dacres was severely wounded in the back.
At that time there were more captains in the navy than vessels for them to com
mand ; and Captain Hull, with noble generosity and rare contentment with the laurels
already won, gave up the command of his frigate for the sole purpose of giving oth
ers a chance to distinguish themselves. Captain Bainbridge, one of the oldest officers
in the service, and then in command of the Constellation, 38, which was fitting out for
sea at Washington, was appointed Hull's successor. He was made a flag officer, and
the Essex, 32, and Hornet, 28, was placed under his command. He hoisted his broad
pennant on board the Constitution, and sailed from Boston on a cruise on the 15th of
September. Captain Charles Stewart was assigned to the command of the Constella
tion / and not long afterward, Lieutenant Morris, Hull's second in command, who wTas
severely wounded when gallantly attempting to lead a boarding-party to the decks
of the Giierriere, was promoted to captain. Of Bainbridge's cruise I shall write pres
ently. Let us now consider a most gallant exploit of the Wasp, an inferior member
of the United States Navy.
The sloop-of-war Wasp, 18, was considered one of the finest and fastest sailers of her
class. She was built immediately after the close of the war with Tripoli, and was thor-
1 Naval Occurrences, page 116.
2 Captain Lavie's Letter to Lord Keith, July 20, 1806. " Le Guerriere," he said, "is of the largest class of frigates,
mounting fifty guns, with a complement of 317 men."
3 By actual weighing of the balls of both ships by an officer of the Constitution, it was found that the American 24's
were only three pounds heavier than the English IS's on that occasion, and that there was nearly the same difference
iu favor of the Intter's 32's.— Cooper's Naval History, etc., ii., 173, Note *.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
449
Cruise of the Wasp.
She encounters a Gale.
Chases a Vessel.
Captain Jones.
oroughly manned and equipped. She mount
ed sixteen 32-pound carronades and two long
12's, and also carried, usually, two small brass
cannon in her tops. Her officers were always
proud of her, as an admirable specimen of
their country's naval architecture. At the
kindling of the war she was on the European
coast, the only government vessel, excepting
the Constitution, then abroad ; and at the time
of the declaration of hostilities by the Ameri
can Congress, she was on her way home as bear
er of dispatches from the diplomatic represent
atives of the United States in Europe. Her
commander was Captain Jacob Jones, a brave
officer, in whose veins ran much pure, indom
itable Welsh blood.1
On the thirteenth of October, 1812, the
Wasp left the Delaware on a cruise, with a
full complement of men, about one hundred
and thirty-five in number. She ran off south
easterly to clear the coast and strike the
tracks of vessels that might be steering north
for the West Indies, and on the sixteenth encountered a heavy gale, which carried
away her jib-boom, and with it two of her crew. The storm abated on the following
day ;a and toward midnight, when in latitude thirty -seven north, and » October is,
longitude sixty-five west, his watch discovered several sail, two of them
appearing to be large vessels. Ignorant of the true character of the strangers, Cap
tain Jones thought it prudent to keep at a respectful distance until the morning light
should give him better information. All night the Wasp kept a course parallel with
that of the stranger vessels. At dawn she gave chase, and it was soon discovered
that the strangers were a fleet of armed merchant vessels under the protection of
the British sloop-of-war Frolic, mounting sixteen thirty-two-pound carronades, two
long six-pounders, and two twelve-pound carronades on her forecastle. She was
manned with a crew of one hundred and eight persons, under Captain Thomas
Whinyates,2 who had been her commander for more than five years. She was con-
1 Jacob Jones was born in the year 17TO, near the village of Smyrna, Kent County, Delaware. His father was a fann
er, and the maiden name of his mother was likewise Jones. He received a good academic education, and at the age
of eighteen years commenced the study of medicine and surgery. He began the practice of his profession at Dover, in
his native state, but did not pursue it long. He found the field well occupied, and, being active and ambitious, resolved
to abandon his profession for one more lucrative. He received the appointment of clerk of the Supreme Court for Kent
County. Of this business he became wearied, and entered the service of his country as a midshipman in the year 1799.
He made his first cruise under Commodore Barry, and was on board the frigate United States when she bore Ellsworth
and Davie to France as envoys extraordinary of the United States to the government of that country. He was promot
ed to lieutenant in February, 1801. When the war with Tripoli broke out he sailed in the Philadelphia under Bain-
bridge, and after the disaster that befell that vessel he was twenty mouths a captive among the semi-barbarians of
Northern Africa. He was commissioned master commandant in April, 1S10, and was appointed to the command of the
brig A rgus, which was stationed for the protection of onr commerce on our southern maritime frontier. In 1S11 he wa?
transferred to the command of the Waftp, and in the spring of 1812 was dispatched with communications from the United
States government to its embassadors in France and England. While on that duty war between the United States and
Great Britain was declared by the former. Soon after his return, he went on the cruise which resulted in his capture
of the Frolic, and the recapture of his own and the prize vessel by a British frigate. In March, 1S13, he was promoted
to captain, and ever afterward bore the title of Commodore. After the peace he was employed alternately at home and
abroad ; and, finally, in his declining years, he retired to his farm in his native state, where he enjoyed a serene old age.
He died at Philadelphia in July, 1850, at the age of eighty years. The likeness is copied from an engraving by Edwin,
from a portrait painted by the late Rembrandt Peale.
2 Thomas Whinyates entered the British navy
in 1798, and obtained his first commission in Sep
tember, 1799. He was promoted to the rank of
commander in May, 1805, and, after having com
mand of the bomb Zebra almost two years, he
was promoted to the command of the Frolic in
450 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Fight between the Wa«p and the Frolic. The Frolic boarded. Terrible Scenes on her Deck.
voying six merchantmen from Honduras. Four of these vessels were large, and
mounted from sixteen to eighteen guns each.1
It was Sunday morning. The sky was cloudless, the atmosphere balmy, and a
stiff and increasing breeze from the northwest was giving white crests to the billows.
Jones soon perceived that the hostile sloop was disposed to fight, and was taking
position so as to allow the merchantmen to escape Inflight during the engagement.
The top-gallant yards of the Wasp were immediately sent down, her top-sails were
close-reefed, and she was otherwise brought under short fighting canvas. The Frolic
also carried very little sail, and in this condition they commenced a severe engage
ment at half past ten o'clock in the morning. The Wasp ranged close up on the star
board side of the Frolic, after receiving a broadside from her at the distance of fifty
or sixty yards, and then instantly delivered her own broadside, when the fire of the
Englishman became so accelerated that the Frolic appeared to fire three guns to
the Wasp's two. The breeze had increased, and the sea was rolling heavily.
Within five minutes after the action commenced the main-top-mast of the Wasp
was shot away. It fell, with the main-top-sail yard, and lodged across the larboard
and fore and fore-top-sail braces, rendering the head yards unmanageable during the
remainder of the action. In the course of three minutes more her gaff and main-top-
gallant-mast was shot away, and fell heavily to the deck ; and at the end of twenty
minutes from the opening of the engagement, every brace and most of the rigging
was disabled. She was in a forlorn condition indeed, and had few promises of vic
tory.
But, while the Wasp was receiving these serious damages in her rigging and tops,
the Frolic was more seriously injured in her hull. The latter generally fired when
on the crest of the wave, while the former fired from the trough of the sea, and sent
her missiles through the hull of her antagonist with destructive force. The two ves
sels gradually approached each other until the bends of the Wasp rubbed against
the Frolic's bows ; and, in loading for the last broadside, the rammers of the Wasp's
gunners were shoved against the sides of the Frolic.2 Finally, the combatants ran
foul of each other, the bowsprit of the Frolic passing in over the quarter-deck of the
Wasp, and forcing her bows up into the wind. This enabled the latter to throw in
a close raking broadside that produced dreadful havoc.
The crew of the Wasp was now in a state of the highest excitement, and could no
longer be restrained. With wild shouts they leaped into the tangled rigging before
Captain Jones could throw in another broadside, as he intended before boarding his
enemy, and made their way to the decks of the Frolic, with Lieutenants Biddle and
Rodgers, who, with Lieutenants Booth, Claxton,3 and Rapp, had exhibited the most
undaunted courage throughout the action.4 But there was no one to oppose them.
The last broadside had carried death and dismay into the Frolic, and almost cleared
her decks of active men. The wounded, dying, and dead were strewn in every di-
March, 1867. He was commissioned a post-captain in August, 1S13, and in 1846 was placed on the list of retired rear
admirals.
1 The Frolic had left the Bay of Honduras with about fourteen sail under convoy. When off Havana her command
er first heard of the declaration of war. The British vessels experienced the same gale which the Frolic encountered,
and they were separated. The Frolic sustained quite serious damage, having had her main yard broken in two places,
and her maiii-top-mast badly sprung, besides other injuries. In this condition she entered upon the engagement. Dur
ing the engagement the merchant vessels with the Frolic escaped. See James's Naval Occurrences.
2 Captain Jones's Report to the Secretary of the Navy, November 24, 1812.
3 " Lieutenant Claxton," says Captain Jones, in his report to the Secretary of the Navy, " who was confined by sick
ness, left his bed a little previous to the engagement, and, though too indisposed to be at his division, remained upon
deck, and showed, by his composed manner of noticing its incidents, that we had lost by his illness the services of a
brave officer."
* John (or, as he was familiarly called, Jack) Lang, a seaman of the Wasp, who had once been impressed into the Brit
ish service, and was hot with the fire of retaliation, jumped on a gun with his cutlass, and was springing on board the
Frolic, when Captain Jones, wishing to give the enemy another broadside, called him down. But his impetuosity over
came his sense of obedience, and in a moment he leaped upon the bowsprit of the Frolic. The crew were all alive with
excitement. Seeing this, Lieutenant Biddle mounted the hammock-cloth to board. The crew caught the signal, and
followed with the greatest enthusiasm. Lang was from New Brunswick, New Jersey.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 451
Surrender of the Frolic. Both Vessels captured by the Poictiers. Captain Jones applauded.
rection. Several surviving officers were standing aft, the most of them bleeding, and
not a common seaman or marine was at his station, except an old tar at the wheel,
who had kept his post throughout the terrible encounter. All who were able had
rushed below to escape the raking fire of the Wasp.
The English officers cast down their swords in submission, and Lieutenant Biddle,
who led the boarding-party, springing into the main rigging, struck the colors of the
Frolic with his own hand, not one of the enemy being able to do so. The prize pass
ed into the possession of the conquerors after a contest of three quarters of an hour,
when every one of her officers were wounded, and a greater part of her men were
either killed or severely injured. Not twenty persons on board of her remained un
hurt.1 Her aggregate loss in killed and wounded was estimated at ninety men. The
Wasp had only five killed and five wounded.
The frolic was so injured that when the two vessels separated both her masts fell,
and with tattered sails and broken rigging covered the dead on her decks. She had
been hulled at almost every discharge from the Wasp, and was virtually a wreck be
fore her colors were struck.
The heat of the battle was scarcely over when Captain Jones prepared to continue
his cruise in his victorious little vessel. He had placed Lieutenant Biddle in com
mand of the shattered Frolic, with orders to take her into Charleston, or some other
Southern port, and was about to part company with his prize, when a strange vessel
was seen bearing down upon them. Neither the Wasp nor her prize was in a condi
tion to resist or flee. The rigging of the latter was so cut, and her top-sails so nearly
in ribbons, that it would have been folly to attempt either.
The strange sail drew near, and heaving a shot over the Frolic, and ranging up
near the Wasp, convinced them both that the most prudent course would be to sub
mit at once. Within two hours after the gallant Jones had gained his victory he was
compelled to surrender his own noble vessel and her prize. The captor was the
British ship-of-war Poictiers, of seventy-four guns, commanded by Captain John Poo
Beresford.2 She proceeded to Bermuda with her prizes, where the American prison-
ers were exchanged, and departed for home. From
York Captain Jones sent his account of the
occurrences to the Secretary of the Navy — a report
that was received with the greatest satisfaction.3
The victory of the Wasp over the Frolic — the result of the first combat between
the vessels of the two nations of a force nearly equal — occasioned much exultation in
the United States. The press teemed with laudations of Captain Jones and his gallant
companions, and a stirring song commemorative of the event was soon upon the lips
of singers at public gatherings, in bar-rooms, workshops, and even by ragged urchins
in the streets. The name of the author, if ever known, has been long forgotten,
but the following lines are remembered by many a gray -haired survivor of the
War :
" The foe bravely fought, but his arms were all broken,
. And he fled from his death-wound aghast and affrighted ;
But the Wasp darted forward her death-doing sting,
And full on his bosom, like lightning, alighted.
She pierced through his entrails, she maddened his brain,
And he writhed and he groan'd as if torn with the colic ;
And long shall John Bull rue the terrible day
He met the American Wasp on a Frolic."
1 Captain Whinyates's dispatch to Admiral Sir J. Borlase Warren, from the ship Poictiers, October 23, 1812. The loss
of the Frolic must have been about one hundred.
2 Report of Captain Jones to the Secretary of the Navy, November 24, 1S12 ; Whinyates's dispatch to Admiral Warren,
October 23, 1S12.
3 According to general usage, a court of inquiry was held on the conduct of Captain Jones in giving up the Wasp and
her prize. The opinion of the court was, "That the conduct of the officers and crew of the Wasp was eminently dis
tinguished for firmness and gallantry in making every preparation and exertion of which their situation would
admit."
452
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Caricature of "A Wasp on a Frolic."
Honors to Captain Jones.
A Medal presented to him by Congress.
Charles, the Philadelphia caricaturist, ma
terialized the idea, and sent forth a colored
picture, called A WASP ON A FKOLIC, OR A
STING FOR JOHN BULL, that sold by hundreds
during the excitement in the public mind.1
Captain Jones was everywhere received with
demonstrations of gratitude and admiration on
his return to the United States. In the cities
through which he had occasion to pass, brilliant
entertainments were given in his honor. The
Legislature of Delaware, his native state, ap
pointed a committee to wait on him with their
thanks, and to express " the pride and pleasure"
they felt in recognizing him as a native of their
state, and at the same time voted him thanks,
an elegant sword, and a piece of silver plate
with appropriate engravings. The Common
Council of New York, on motion of Alderman
Lawrence, voted him a sword, and also the
" freedom of the city." The Congress of the United States, on motion of James A.
Bayard, of Delaware, appropriated twenty-five thousand dollars as a compensation to
Captain Jones and his companions for their loss of prize-money occasioned by the re
capture of the Frolic. They also ordered a gold medal to be presented to the cap-
A WASP ON A FROI.TC.
GOLD MEDAL AWARDED BY CONGRESS TO CAPTAIN JONES.
tain, and a silver one to each of his officers. The captain also received a more sub
stantial token of his country's approbation by being promoted by Congress to the
command of the frigate Macedonian, which had lately been captured from the Brit
ish and taken into the service.2
1 Under the picture were the following lines :
" A Wasp took a Frolic, and met Johnny Bull,
Who always fights best when his belly is full.
The Wasp thought him hungry by his mouth open wide,
So, his belly to fill, put a sting in his side."
2 The following are the names of the officers of the Wasp at the time of the action : Jacob Jones, Commander ; George
W. Rodgers, James Biddle, Benjamin Booth, Alexander Claxton, and Henry B. Rapp, Lieutenants; William Knight, Sail
ing-master; Thomas Harris, Surgeon; George S. Wise, Purser ; John M'Cloud, Boatswain; George Jackson, Gunner;
George Van Cleve, A. S. Ten Eyck, Richard Brashear, John Holcomb, William J. M'Cluney, C. J. Baker, and Charles
Gaunt, Midshipmen ; Walter W. New, Surgeon's Mate.
The engraving is a representation of the medal, full size. On one side is a bust of Captain Jones. Legend— JAOOIIKK
JONES, VIRTUS IN ARDUA TENDiT. On the reverse are seen two ships closely engaged, the bowsprit of the Wasp between
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
453
Lieutenant Bjddle honored and rewarded.
Lieutenant Biddle shared
i 11 the honors. The Legisla
ture of Pennsylvania voted
him thanks and a sword,
and a number of leading
men in Philadelphia pre
sented him with a silver
urn, bearing an appropriate
inscription, and a repre
sentation of the action be
tween the Wasp and the
Frolic.1 He was shortly
afterward promoted to the
THE BIDDLE UBS.
rank of master command
ant, and received com
mand of the Hornet sloop-
of-war. Poetry wreathed
coronals for the brows of
all the braves of that fight,
and in the Portfolio for
January, 1813, a rather
doleful poem appeared in
commemoration of the gal
lantry of Biddle, of which
the following is a speci
men:
"Nor shall thy merits, Biddle, pass untold.
When covered with the cannon's flaming breath,
Onward he pressed, unconquerably bold ;
He feared dishonor, but he spurned at death."
the masts of the Frolic. Men on the bow of the Wasp in the act of boarding the Frolic. The main-top-mast of the Wasp
shot away. Legend — VICTORIAM UOSTI MAJOKI CELEKKIME KAPUIT. Exergue — INTER WASP. NAV. AMERI. ET FKOLIC NAV.
ANG. DIE XVIII OCT. MDCCOXII.
1 This urn and the silver medal presented to Lieutenant Biddle for his share in the capture of the Frolic are in pos
session of Lieutenant James S. Biddle, of Philadelphia. Also the gold medal afterward presented to the hero in ac
knowledgment of his services in capturing the Penguin. The following is the inscription on the urn :
" To Lieutenant James Biddle, United States Navy, from the early friends and companions of his youth, who, while
their country rewards his public services, present this testimonial of their esteem for his private worth. Philadelphia,
1813."
454
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Second Cruise of the President.
She chases a strange War-vessel.
A severe Battle.
CHAPTER XXII.
"The chiefs who our freedom sustained on the land,
Fame's far-spreadiug voice has eternized in story ;
By the roar of our cannon now called to the strand,
She beholds on the ocean their rivals in glory.
Her sons there she owns,
And her clarion's bold tones
Tell of Hull and Decatur, of Bainbridge and Jones ;
For the tars of Columbia are lords of the wave,
And have sworn that old Ocean's their throne or their grave."
HE victory won by the Wasp was followed, precisely a week
later,a by another more important. Commodore Rodg- . October 25,
ers sailed in the President from Boston on a second
cruise, after refitting, accompanied by the United States, 44, Cap
tain Decatur, and Argus, 16, Lieutenant Commanding Sinclair,
leaving the Hornet in port. The President parted company with
her companions on the 12th of October, and on the 17th fell in
with and captured the British packet Swallow. The United States
and Argus, meanwhile, had also parted company with each other,
and the former had sailed to the southward and eastward, hoping
to intercept British West Indiamen. Decatur was soon gratified by better fortune
^ ,_ in the estimation of a soldier. At dawn on Sunday morning, the 25th,b
October.
when in latitude 29° and west longitude 29° 30", not far from the island of
Madeira, the watch at the main-top discovered a sail to windward. There was a
stiff breeze and a heavy sea on at the time. It was soon discovered that the stranger
was an English ship-of-war, under a heavy press of sail. Decatur resolved to over
take and engage her, and for that purpose he spread all his canvas. The United States
was a good sailer, and she rapidly reduced the distance between herself and the fugi
tive she was pursuing. The enthusiasm of her officers and men was unbounded ; and
as the gallant ship drew nearer and nearer to the enemy, shouts went up from the
decks of the United States loud enough to be heard by the British before the Ameri
can vessel was near enough to bring her guns to bear.
At about nine in the morning Decatur had so nearly overtaken his prospective an
tagonist that he opened a broadside upon her. The balls fell short. The United
States was soon much nearer, when she opened another broadside with effect. This
was responded to in kind. Both vessels were now on the same tack, and continued
the action with a heavy and steady cannonade with the long guns of both, the dis
tance between them being so great that carronades and muskets were of no avail for
some time. Almost every shot of the United States fell fearfully on the enemy, who
finally perceived that safety from utter destruction might only be found in closer
quarters. When the contest had lasted about half an hour, the stranger, with muti
lated spars and riddled sails, bore up gallantly for close action. The United States
readily accepted the challenge, and very soon afterward her shot, sent by the direc
tion of splendid gunnery, cut the enemy's mizzen-mast so that it fell overboard. Not
long afterward the main yard of the foe was seen hanging in two pieces, her main
and fore top-masts were gone, her fore-mast was tottering, no colors were seen float
ing over her deck, and her main-mast and bowsprit were severely wrounded, while
the United States remained almost unhurt. The stranger's fire had become feeble,
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 455
Capture of the Macedonian. Incidents of the Battle. Comparison of the United States and Macedonian.
and Decatur filled his mizzen-top-sail, gathered fresh way, tacked, and came up un
der the lee of the English ship, to the utter discomfiture of her commander, who, when
he saw the American frigate bear away, supposed she was severely injured and about
to flee from him. \Yith that impression her crew gave three cheers j1 but when the
United States tacked and brought up in a position for more effectual action than be
fore, the British commander, perceiving farther resistance to be vain, struck her col
ors and surrendered. As the United States crossed the stem of the vanquished ves
sel, Decatur hailed and demanded her name. " His majesty's frigate Macedonian, 38,
Captain John S. Garden," was the response. An officer was immediately sent on board.
She had suffered terribly in every part during a combat of almost two hours. She
had received no less than one hundred round shot in her hull alone, many of them be
tween wind and water. She had nothing standing but her fore and main masts and
fore yard. All her boats were rendered useless except one. Of her officers and crew,
three hundred in number, thirty-six were killed and sixty-eight were wounded.2 The
loss of the United States was only five killed and six wounded.3 The Macedonian
was a very fine vessel of her class, only two years old, and, though rated at 36, she
carried forty-nine guns — eighteen on her gun-deck and thirty-two pound carronades
above. The United States mounted thirty long 24's on her main deck, and twenty-
two 42-pound carronades and two long 24's on her quarter-deck and forecastle. She
1 The cannonade by the United States was so incessant that her side toward the enemy seemed to be in a blaze.
Garden supposed she was on fire, and this belief caused the exultation on his ship. A contemporary rhymer wrote as
follows :
"For Carden thought he had us tight,
Just so did Dacres too, sirs,
But brave Decatur put him right
With Yankee doodle doo, sirs.
They thought they saw our ship in flame,
Which made them all huzza, sirs,
But when the second broadside came,
It made them hold their jaws, sirs."
See an allusion to this battle in Isote 1, page 140, quoted from Cobbett's Register.
2 Captain Carden thus stated his casualties: "Killed: 1 master's mate, the school-master, 23 petty officers and sea-
meu, 2 boys, 1 sergeant, and 7 privates of marines — total, 3G. Wounded dangerously : 7 petty officers and seamen. Severe-
Ill : 1 lieutenant, 1 midshipman, IS petty officers and seamen, 4 boys, and 5 private marines— total, dangerously and se
verely, 36. Wounded slightly : 1 lieutenant, 1 master's mate, 26 petty officers and seamen, and 4 private marines— total, 32.
According to the muster-roll found on board of the Macedonian, she had seven impressed American seamen among her
crew, two of whom were killed in the action. Another had been drowned at sea, while compelled to assist in boarding
an American vessel. Their names were Christopher Dodge, Peter Johnson, John Alexander, C. Dolphin, Mayer Cook,
William Thompson, John Wallis, and John Card. During the whole war, American seamen, similarly situated, were
compelled to fight against their countrymen. When the fact became known that there were impressed Americans on
the Macedonian, the exasperation of the people against Great Britain, because of her nefarious practice, was intensified.
3 Killed: Boatswain's mate, 1 seaman, and 3 marines. Wounded: 1 lieutenant, 4 seamen, and 1 marine. The lieuten
ant (John M. Funk) and one seaman (John Archibald) died of their wounds.
The following is a list of the officers of the United States : Commander, Stephen Decatur. Lieutenants, William H.
Allen, John Gallagher, John M. Funk, George C. Read, Walter Wooster, John B. Nicholson. Sailing-master, John D.
Sloat. Surgeon, Samuel R. Trevitt. Surgeon's Mate, Samuel Vernon. Purser, John B. Timberlake. Midshipmen, John
Stansbury, Joseph Cassin, Philip Voorhees, John P. Zantzinger, Richard Delphy, Dugan Taylor, Richard S. Heath, Ed
ward F. Howell, Archibald Hamilton, John M'Can, H. Z. W. Harrington, William Jamieson, Lewis Hiuchman, Benja
min S. Williams. Gunner, Thomas Barry. Lieutenants of Marines, William Anderson, James L. Edwards.
There was a boy only twelve years of age on board the United States, the son of a brave seaman, whose death had left
the lad's mother in poverty. When the crew were clearing the ship for action, the boy stepped up to Decatur and said,
'• I wish my name may be put down on the roll, sir." " Why so, my lad ?" asked the commander. " So that I may have
a share of the prize-money," was the earnest reply. Pleased with the spirit of the boy, Decatur granted his request. The
boy behaved gallantly throughout the contest. At the close of the action Decatur said to him, "Well, Bill, we have
taken the ship, and your share of the prize-money may be about two hundred dollars ;* what will you do with it?" "I
will send half to my mother, and the other half shall send me to school." The commander was so pleased with the
right spirit of the boy that he took him under his protection, procured a midshipman's berth for him, and superintend
ed his education.— Putnam's Life of Decatur, page 193.
* Congress decreed that in the distribution of prize-money arising from capture by national vessels, one half should
go to the United. States, and the other half, divided into twenty equal parts, should be distributed in the following man
ner: to captains, 3 parts; to the sea lieutenants and sailing-masters, 2 parts; to the marine officers, surgeons, pursers,
boatswains, gunners, carpenters, master's mates, and chaplains, 2 parts; to midshipmen, surgeon's mates, captain's
clerks, school-master, boatswain's mates, gunner's mates, carpenter's mates, steward, sail-makers, master at arms, arm
orers, and coxswains, 3 parts ; to gunner's yeomen, boatswain's yeomen, quarter-masters, quarter-gunners, coopers, sail-
maker's mates, sergeants and corporals of marines, drummers and lifers, and extra petty officers, 3 parts ; to seamen,
ordinary seamen, marines, and boys, 7 parts.
456 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Decatur's Courtesy. His Arrival with his Prize. The Macedonian at New York.
was manned with a crew of four hundred and seventy-eight. In men and metal the
United States was heavier than the Macedonian, " but," says Cooper, " the dispropor
tion between the force of the two vessels was much less than that between the exe
cution."1
Captain Garden fought his ship skillfully and bravely, and when he came on board
the United States, and offered his sword to Captain Decatur, the latter genfc-ously re
marked, " Sir, I can not receive the sword of a man who has so bravely defended his
ship, but I will receive your hand." Suiting the action to the word, Decatur took
the gallant Garden's hand, and led him. to his cabin, where refreshments were set out
and partaken of in a friendly spirit by the two commanders.2
When he took possession of his prize, Decatur found her not fatally injured, and he
determined to abandon his cruise and take her into an American port. His own ves
sel was speedily repaired. The Macedonian was placed in the charge of Lieutenant
Allen, who, with much ingenuity, so rigged her as to convert her into a barque, when
captor and captive sailed for the United States. Decatur arrived off New London on
the 4th of December,3 and at about the same time his prize entered Newport Harbor.
"Then quickly met our nation's eyes
The noblest sight in nature —
A first-rate frigate as a prize
Brought home by brave DEOATTTE." — OLD SONG.
Both vessels made their way through Long Island Sound, the East River, and Hell
Gate, at the close of the month, and on the 1st of January, 1813, the Macedonian an
chored in the harbor of New York, where she was greeted with great joy as a " New-
year's gift." " A more acceptable compliment could not have been presented to a
joyous people," said one of the newspapers. "She comes with the compliments of
the season from Old Neptune," said another. "Janus, the peace-loving, smiled,"
said a third, more classical. The excitement of a feast had then scarcely died away,
1 Naval History of the United States, ii., 179. See the official dispatches of Decatur and Garden ; Clark's Naval History;
Waldo's Life of Stephen Decatur ; The War ; Niles's Register ; Memoir of Decatur, in the Aiialectic Magazine, i., 502.
2 All of the private property of the officers and men of the Macedonian was given up to them. Among other things
claimed and received by Captain Carden was a baud of music and several casks of wine, the whole valued at eight hund
red dollars. Of this generous conduct Captain Carden spoke in the highest terms. Hull's generosity to Captain Dacres,
as we have seen, elicited the praise of that officer. The American newspapers called attention to the fact that the Brit
ish commander of the Poictiers, when he captured the Wasp and her prize from Jones, would not permit officers or men
to retain any thing except the clothes on their backs. See The War, i., 115.
Decatur and Carden had met before. It was in the harbor of Norfolk, just before the beginning of the war, that they
were introduced to each other. Before they parted Carden said to Decatur, " We now meet as friends ; God grant we
may never meet as enemies ; but we are siibject to the orders of our governments, and must obey them." "I heartily
reciprocate the sentiment," replied Decatur. " But what, sir," said Carden, " would be the consequence to yourself and
the force you command if we should meet as enemies ?" " Why, sir," responded Decatur, in the same playful spirit, "if
we meet with forces that might be fairly called equal, the conflict. would be severe, but the flag of my country on the
ship I command shall never leave the staff on which it waves as long as there is a hull to support it." They parted, and
their next meeting was on the deck of the United States, under the circumstances recorded in the text.
John Surman Carden was born on the 15th of August, 1771, at Templemore, Ireland. His father, Major Carden, of the
British army, perished in the ^ ceived the commission of corn-
war of the American Revolution, sy mauder in 1798. He was ap-
This, his eldest son, entered the // tf ^-^ pointed to the command of the
British navy as captain's servant (/ xv/ /^ S /? s Ville&e Paris in 1S08, and in 1811
in 1788 in the ship Edgar. In /ffl/// ( <^i^2 /fl^/£? to tnat of the Macedonian. He
1790 he became midshipman in // //• ~^ — ' was acquitted of all blame in the
the Perseverance frigate. He was I/ _^_ — -£/- " -^ surrender of his ship to Decatur.
made lieutenant in 1794. He re- Parliament was full of his praise,
and the cities of Worcester and Gloucester, and the borough of Tewksbury, honored him with their "freedom." He
was made a rear admiral in 1S40, and died at Bonnycastle, Antrim, Ireland, in May, 1858, at the age of eighty-seven
years.
3 Decatur'e official dispatch to the Secretary of the Navy was dated " At Sea, October 30, 1812. Lieutenant Hamilton,
a son of the Secretary of the Navy, was sent with it to his father, at Washington, immediately after the arrival of the
United States at New London. He bore the flag of the Macedonian to the seat of government, where he arrived on the
evening of the 8th of December, at which time a ball was in progress which had been given in honor of the naval offi
cers. The Secretary of the Navy (Paul Hamilton) and his wife and daughter were present. The first intimation of the
arrival of their son and brother was his entrance into the hall of the brilliant assembly, bearing the trophy. Captains
Hull and Stewart received it, and bore it to the accomplished wife of President Madison, who was present. The pleas
ure of the occasion was changed to patriotic joy, and at the supper one of the managers offered as a toast, " Commodore
Decatur, and the officers and crew of the frigate United States."
Decatur's arrival at New London was hailed with joyful demonstrations. The city authorities presented him the pub
lic thanks, and a ball was given in his honor.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 457
Celebration of Decatur's Victory. Banquets in the City of New ~5tork. Public Honors given to Decatur.
for only three days beforea a splendid banquet had been given, at Gib- a December 20,
son's City Hotel, to Hull, Jones, and Decatur, by the Corporation and
citizens of New York,1 and the newspapers of the land speedily became the vehicles
of the " eifusions" of a score of poets, who caught inspiration from the shoiits of tri
umph that filled the air. Woodworth, the printer-poet, and author of Tfie Old Oaken
Bucket, " threw together, on the spur of the moment," as he said, a dozen stirring
stanzas, of which the following is the first :
" The banner of Freedom high floated unfurl'd,
While the silver-tipp'd surges in low homage curl'd,
Flashing bright round the bow of Decatur's brave bark,
In contest an eagle— in chasing, a lark."
And J. R. Calvert wrote a banquet-song, which became immensely popular, of which
the following is the closing stanza :
"Now charge all your glasses with pure sparkling wine,
And toast our brave tars who so bravely defend us ;
While our naval commanders so nobly combine,
We defy all the ills haughty foes e'er can send us !
While our goblets do flow,
The praises we owe
To Valor and Skill we will gladly bestow.
And may grateful the sons of Columbia be
To DECATUR, whom Neptune crowns Lord of the Sea .'"
Decatur's victory, following so closely upon others equally brilliant, produced the
most profound sensations in the United States and in England. In the former they
were impressions of encouragement and joy; in the latter, of disappointment and
sorrow. The victor was highly applauded for his soldierly qualities and generosity
by each service ; and he was spoken of with the greatest enthusiasm by his country
men. Public bodies, and the Legislatures of Massachusetts, New York, Maryland,
Pennsylvania, and Virginia gave him thanks, and to these each of the two latter add
ed a sword. The same kind of weapon was presented to him by the city of Phila
delphia ; and the city of New York voteda him the freedom of the city
* December IT.
in addition to the honor of a banquet jointly with Hull and Jones, and
requested his portrait for the picture gallery in the City Hall. The Corporation of
New York also gave the gallant crew of the United States a banquet at the City
Hotel.2 The national Congress, by unanimous vote, thanked Decatur, and gave him
1 This banquet was given on the day after the freedom of the city was presented to Captain Hull. He and Decatur
were present, but Jones was absent. At five o'clock about five hundred gentlemen sat down at the tables. De Witt
Clinton, the mayor, presided. The room "had the appearance of a marine palace," said an eye-witness. It was " col
onnaded round with the masts of ships, entwined with laurels, and bearing the national flags of all the world. Every
table had upon it a ship in miniature, with the American flag displayed. In front, where the President sat, with the
officers of the navy and other guests, and which was raised about three feet, there appeared an area of about twenty
feet by ten covered with green sward, and in the midst of it was a real lake of water, in which floated a miniature
frigate. Back of all this hung a main-sail of a ship thirty-three by sixteen feet."— The War, i., 119. Decatur sat on the
right of the President, and Hull on the left. When the third toast— " Our Navy"— was given with three cheers, the great
main-sail was furled, and revealed an immense transparent painting, representing the three naval battles in which Hull,
Jones, and Decatur were respectively engaged. Other surprises of a similar nature were vouchsafed to the guests, and
the whole affair was one long to be remembered by the participants.
a This banquet was given on Thursday, the 7th of January, 1813, at two o'clock in the afternoon, under the direction
of Aldermen Van Der Bilt, Buckmaster, and King. The room had the same decoration as at the time of the banquet
given to Hull, Jones, and Decatur, a few days before. The sailors, numbering about four hundred, marched to the hotel
in pairs, and were greeted by crowds of men and women in the streets, loud cheers from the multitude, and the waving
of haudkerchiefs from the windows. The band of the llth Eegimeut, among whom was an old trumpeter who had
served under Washington, received them with music at the door. At the table they were addressed by Alderman Van
Der Bilt, who was responded to by the boatswain of the United States. In the evening they went to the theatre by in
vitation of the manager, which was communicated to them in person by Decatur. The whole pit was reserved for
them. The orchestra opened with Yankee Doodle. The drop curtain, in the form of a transparency, had on it a repre
sentation of the fight between the United States and Macedonian. Children danced on the stage. They bore large
letters of the alphabet in their hands, which, being joined in the course of the dance, produced in transparency the
names of HULL, JONF.S, and DECATUK. Then Mr. M'Farlaud, as an Irish clown, came forward and sang a comic song
of seven stanzas, written for this occasion, beginning,
" No more of your blathering nonsense
'Bout Nelsons of old Johnny Bull ;
I'll sing you a song, by my conscience,
'Bout JONES, and DECATUK, and HULL.
PICTORIAL FrELD-BOOK
Gold Medal presented to Decatur by Congres* Bainbridge in Command of a Squadron. Biographical Sketch.
a splendid gold medal, with appropriate devices and inscriptions.1 From that time
until now that commander's name is the synonym of honor and gallantry in the es-
GOLD MEDAL AWARDED TO DECATUR.
timation of his countrymen. His subsequent career added lustre to his renown as
the conqueror of the Macedonian.
We have already observed that Hull generously retired from the command of the
Constitution for the purpose of giving some brother-officer an opportunity for gallant
achievements in her, and that Captain Bainbridge was his appointed successor. A
small squadron, consisting of the Constitution, 44; Essex, 32; and Hornet, IS, were
placed in his charge. When Bainbridge entered upon his duty in the new sphere of
flag-officer, the Constitution and Hornet were lying in Boston Harbor, and the Essex,
Captain Porter, was in the Delaware. Orders were sent to the latter to cruise in the
track of the English West Indiamen, and at a specified time to rendezvous at certain
ports, when, if he should not fall in with the flag-ship of the squadron, he would be at
liberty to follow the dictates of his own judgment. Such contingency occurred, and
the Essex sailed on a very long and most eventful cruise in the South Atlantic and
Pacific Oceans. That cruise will form the subject of a portion of a future chapter.
Bainbridge2 sailed from Boston with the Constitution and Hornet on the 26th of
Dad Neptune has long, with vexation,
Beheld with what insolent pride
The turbulent, billow-washed nation
Has aimed to control the salt tide.
CIIORUS— Sing lather away, jonteel and aisy,
By my soul, at the game hob-or-nob,
In a very few minutes we'll plase ye,
Because we take work by the job."
3 On one side of the medal is a profile of Decatur's bust, with the legend STEPHANTTS DECATUE NAVAEOHUS, FITGNIS
PLUKIBUS VIOTOK. On the reverse is a representation of a naval engagement, one of the vessels representing the Mace
donian much injured in spars and rigging. Over them is the legend OCCIDIT SIGNUM HOSTILE BIDEEA SCTIGITNT. Ex
ergue — INTEB 8TA. TTNI. NAV. AMEKI. ET MACEDO. NAV. ANG. DIE XXV OCTOHRIS MDCOCXII.
2 William Bainbridge was born at Princeton, New Jersey, on the 7th of May, 1774, and at the age of fifteen years went
to sea as a common sailor. He was promoted to mate in the course of three years, and became a captain at the age of
nineteen. When war with the French became probable, he entered the navy with the commission of a lieutenant but
the position of a commander, his first cruise being in the Retaliation, which was captured. He was promoted to post-
captain for good service in the year 1800, and took command of the frigate Washington. His career in the Mediterranean
has been already mentioned in preceding chapters of this work. Between the war with Tripoli and that of 1812 Cap
tain Bainbridge was employed alternately in the naval and merchant service. After the successful cruise of the Consti
tution in 1812, he took command of the navy yard at Charlestown, Massachusetts. After the war he went twice to the
Mediterranean in command of squadrons to protect American commerce there. For three years he was president of
the Board of Navy Commissioners, and he prepared the signals which were in use in our navy until lately. For several
years Commodore Bainbridge suffered severely from bodily ill health, and finally died at his residence in Philadelphia,
on the 27th of July, 1833, at the age of fifty-nine years. His funeral was celebrated on the 31st. The Cincinnati Society
attended, with a large concourse of citizens, and his body was laid in the earth with military honors by the United States
Marines and a fine brigade of infantry, under the command of the late Colonel J. G. Watmough. His remains rest
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
459
Bainbridge on the Coast of Brazil. The Hornet challenges a British Vessel. Cruise of the Constitution down the Coast.
October. a He touched at the appointed rendezvous,1 and arrived off Bahia, or
San Salvador, Brazil,2 on the 13th of December. He immediately sent in Cap
tain Lawrence, with the Hornet, to commu
nicate with the American consul there,
when that commander discovered in the
port the English sloop-of-war Bonne Ci-
toyenne, 18, Captain Greene, about to sail
for England with a very large amount of
specie. Lawrence invited Greene to go out
upon the open sea with his vessel and fight,
pledging himself that the Constitution
should take no part in the combat, but the
British commander prudently declined the
invitation. The Hornet then took a posi
tion to blockade the English sloop, and the
Constitution departed5 for a
b December 26. . ,, „ -„
cruise down the coast 01 Bra
zil, keeping the land aboard. Three days
afterward, at about nine o'clock in the
morning, when in latitude 13° 6' south and
longitude 38° west, or about thirty miles
from shore, southeasterly of San Salvador,
Bainbridge discovered twro vessels in shore
and to the windward. The larger one was
seen to alter her course, with an evident
desire for a meeting with the Constitution.
The latter was willing to gratify her, and
for that purpose tacked and stood toward
the stranger. At meridian they both showed their colors and displayed signal
1812.
s, but
BAINBK1DGK b MONUMENT.
beneath a plain white marble obelisk in Christ Church
yard in Philadelphia, and near it is a modest monument
to mark the resting-place of his wife, Susaii Heyleger.
The following is the inscription on Baiubridge's mon
ument: "WILLIAM BAIUUKIDGE, United States Navy.
Born in Princeton, New Jersey, 7th of May, 1774. Died
in Philadelphia 2Sth of July, 1S33. PATBIA VICTISQUE
LAUDATUS." See the Medal, page 4C3.
Bainbridge was about six feet in height, and well built.
His complexion was fair, his eyes black and very ex
pressive, and his hair and whiskers very dark. He was
considered a model as an officer and a man iii the
navy.
1 The places specified were Port Praya, in the island
of St. Jago, and Fernando de Noronha, an island in the
Atlantic 125 miles from the extreme eastern cape of Bra
zil. It is now used as a place of banishment by the Bra
zilian government. The Constitution and Hornet appear
ed in the character of British vessels, and at both places
letters were left, directed to Sir James L. Yeo, of the
Southampton. They contained commonplace remarks,
and also orders, in sympathetic ink, for Captain Porter,
should they fall into his hands, he having been informed
that letters at those places for him would be directed to
Yeo. The stratagem succeeded. The whole transaction
was in accordance with the privileges of war, and yet a
writer in the London Quarterly Review charged Porter
with being guilty of an improper act in opening a letter
directed to another person I
2 This is one of the most important places in South
America, and until 17C3 was the seat of the viceroyalty
of Brazil, when it was transferred to Rio de Janeiro. It
contains a population of 100,000, of whom one third are
white, one third mulattoes, and the remainder negroes.
460 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Battle between the Constitution and the Java. Incidents of the Battle. Wreck and Capture of the Java.
the latter were mutually unintelligible. The stranger was seen to be an English
frigate. Bainbridge at once prepared for action, when the Englishman hauled down
his colors, but left a jack flying. Both ships ran upon the same tack, about a mile
apart, when, at almost two o'clock, the British frigate bore down upon the Constitu
tion with the intention of raking her. The latter wore and avoided the calamity, and
at two o'clock, both ships being on the same tack, the Constitution fired a single gun
across the enemy's bow to draw out her ensign again. A general cannonade from
both vessels immediately ensued, and a furious battle was commenced. When it had
raged half an hour the wheel of the Constitution was shot away, and her antagonist,
being the better sailer, had a great advantage for a time. But Bainbridge managed
his crippled ship with such skill that she was the first in coming to the wind on the
other tack, and speedily obtained a position for giving her opponent a terrible raking
fire. The combatants now ran free with the wind on their quarter, the stranger be
ing to the windward of the Constitution. At about three o'clock the stranger at-
^j o
tempted to close by running down on the Constitution'1 's quarter. Her jib-boom pen
etrated the latter's mizzen rigging, but suffered most severely without receiving the
least advantage. She lost her jib-boom and the head of her bowsprit by shots from
the Constitution, and in a few minutes the latter poured a heavy raking broadside
into the stern of her antagonist. This was followed by another, when the fore-mast
of the English frigate went by the board, crashing through the forecastle and main
deck in its passage. At that moment the Constitution shot ahead, keeping away to
avoid being raked, and finally, after manoeuvring for the greater part of an hour, she
forereached her antagonist, wore, passed her, and luffed up under her quarter. Then
the two vessels lay broadside to broadside, engaged in deadly conflict, yard-arm to
yard-arm. Very soon the enemy's mizzen-mast was shot away, leaving nothing stand
ing but the main-mast, whose yard had been carried away near the slings. The
stranger's fire now ceased, and the Constitution passed out of the combat of almost
two hours' duration at a few minutes past four o'clock, with the impression on the
mind of her commander that the colors of the English frigate had been struck. Be
ing in a favorable weatherly position, Bainbridge occupied an hour in repairing dam
ages and securing his masts, when he observed an ensign still fluttering on board of
liis antagonist. He immediately ordered the Constitution to wear round and renew
the conflict. Perceiving this movement, the Englishman hauled down his colors, and
at six o'clock in the evening First Liexitenant George Parker1 was sent on board to
inquire her name and to take possession of her as a prize.2 She proved to be the
Java, 38, Captain Henry Lambert, and one of the finest frigates in the British navy.
She was bearing, as passenger to the East Indies, Lieutenant General Hyslop (just
appointed governor general of Bombay), and his staff, Captain Marshall and Lieuten
ant Saunders, of the Royal Navy, and more than one hundred other officers and men
destined for service in the East Indies.
The Java was a wreck. Her main-mast had gone overboard during the hour that
Bainbridge was repairing. Her mizzen-mast was shot out of the ship close by the
deck, and the fore-mast was carried away about twenty-five feet above it. The bow
sprit was cut off near the cap, and she was found to be leaking badly on account of
wounds in her hull by round shot. The Constitution was very much cut in her sails
1 The officers of the Constitution in this action were— Captain, William Bainbridge. Lieutenants, George Parker,
Beekman T. Hoffman, John T. Shubrick, Charles W. Morgan. Sailing-masters, John C. Alwin, John Nichols. Chaplain,
John Carletou. Lieutenants of Marines, William H. Freeman, John Coulee. Surgeon, Amos A. Evans. Surgeon's Mates,
John D. Armstrong, Donaldson Yeates. Purser, Robert C. Ludlow. Midshipmen, Thomas Beatty, Lewis Germain, Wil
liam L. Gordon, Ambrose L. Fields, Frederick Banry, Joseph Cross, Alexander Belcher, William Taylor, Alexander Esk-
ridge, James W. Delancy, James Greeuleaf, William D. M'Carty, Z. W. Nixon, John A. Wish, Dulaney Forest, George
Leverett, Henry Ward, John C. Long, John Packet, Richard Winter. Boatsivain, Peter Adams. Gunner, Ezekiel Dar
ling. Acting Midshipman, John C. Cnmings.
2 On this very day, and at that very hour, Hull and Decatur were at the public banquet given them in the city of New
York. See page 457.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 461
The Losses of the Java. Comparison of the two Vessels. Arrival of the Constitution at Boston.
and rigging. Many of her spars were injured, but not one was lost. She went into
the action with her royal yards across, and came out of it with all three of them in
their proper places. There are conflicting accounts concerning the loss of the Java
in men. Her commander, Captain Lambert, was mortally wounded, and her other
officers were cautious about the number of her men and her casualties. Accordinp; to
~
a muster-roll found on board of her, made out five days after she sailed, her officers
and crew numbered four hundred and forty-six. These were exclusive of the more
than one hundred passengers, many of whom assisted in the engagement, and of
whom thirteen were killed. The British published account states the loss of men on
the Java to have been twenty-two killed, and one hundred and one wounded, while
Bainbridge reported her loss, as nearly as he could ascertain from the British officers
at the time, at sixty killed, and one hundred and one wounded. This was, doubtless,
below the real number. Indeed, Bainbridge inclosed to the Secretary of the Navy
evidences of a much larger loss in wounded. It was a letter, written by one of the
officers of the Java to a friend, and accidentally dropped on the deck of the Constitu
tion, where it was found and handed to Bainbridge. The writer, who had no motive
of public policy for concealing any thing from his friend, stated the loss to be sixty-
five killed, and one hundred and seventy wounded.1 The Constitution lost only nine
killed and twenty-five wounded. Bainbridge was slightly hurt in the hip by a
musket-ball ; and the shot that carried away the wheel of the Constitution drove a
small copper bolt into his thigh, which inflicted a dangerous wound, but did not
cause him to leave the deck before midnight.
The Java, as has been observed, was a superior frigate of her class. She was rated
at thirty-eight, but carried forty-nine. The Constitution carried at that time forty-
five guns, and had one man less at each than the Java. On the whole, the preponder
ance of strength was with the latter. Bainbridge might have saved the hull of his
prize by taking it into San Salvador, but, having proof that the Brazilian government
was favorable to that of Great Britain, he would not trust the captured frigate there.
He was too far from home to think of conducting her to an American port ; so, after
lying by the Java for two days, until the wounded and prisoners, with their baggage,
could all be transferred to the Constitution, he ordered the battered frigate to be
fired. She blew up on the 31st, when Bainbridge proceeded to San Salvador with his
prisoners, and found the Bonne Citoyenne about to attempt passing the Hornet and
putting to sea. His arrival frustrated the plan. Having landed and paroled his
prisoners,11 Bainbridge sailed for the United States on the 6th of January, . January 3,
1813.2 1S13-
The Constitution arrived at Boston on Monday, the 15th of February, and Bain
bridge immediately dispatched Lieutenant Ludlow with a letter to the Secretary of
the Navy. When Bainbridge landed he was greeted with the roar of artillery and the
acclamations of thousands of citizens. A procession was formed, and he was escorted
to the Exchange Coffee-house, the bands playing Yankee Doodle, and the throngs in
1 Letter from H. D. Corneck to Lieutenant Peter V. Wood, in the Isle of France, dated on board the Constitution,
January 1, 1S13. After speaking of the death of a friend in the battle, he said, " Four other of his messmates shared
the same fate, together with sixty men killed, and one hundred and seventy wounded."
3 The following is a list of the British military and naval officers paroled : Military, one lieutenant general, one major,
one captain. Xaval, one post captain, one master and commander, five lieutenants, three lieutenants of marine, one
surgeon, two assistant surgeons, one purser, fifteen midshipmen, one gunner, one boatswain, one ship carpenter, two
captain's clerks — total, thirty-eight. Captain Lambert died on the day after the landing (January 4). Bainbridge treated
nil of his prisoners with the greatest tenderness and consideration. Silver plate to a large amount, presented to Gen
eral Hyslop by the colony of Demarara, and which would have been lawful prize, was returned to that gentleman, who
thanked Baiubridge for his kind courtesy, and presented him his sword (which Bainbridge would not receive when it
was offered in token of surrender) in farther testimony of his gratitude. And yet, in the face of all this, James, the
earliest, as he was the most mendacious of the British historians of the war, and one most quoted by British writers
now, says (Xaval Occurrences, etc., page 1SS), " The mauuer in which the Java's men were treated by the American
officers reflects upon the latter the highest disgrace." In a letter to a friend, written when homeward bound, Bain
bridge exhibited his goodness of heart in thus speaking of the death of his antagonist: "Poor Lambert, whose death I
sincerely regret, was a distinguished, gallant, and worthy man. lie has left a widow and two helpless children I But
his country makes provision for such sad events."
462
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Honors given to Baiiibridge.
Public Banquet in Boston.
Gifts of the Cities of New York and Albany.
the streets, balconies, and windows cheering loudly, the ladies waving their handker
chiefs. The streets were strung with banners and streamers, and Commodores Rodg-
ers and Hull, who walked with Bainbridge in the procession, received a share of the
popular honors. The victory was announced at the theatre that night, and produced
the wildest enthusiasm. The Legislature of Massachusetts being in session, they
passed a resolution of thanks to Bainbridge and his officers and crew,1 and on the
2d of March a splendid banquet was given at the Exchange Coffee-house to Bain
bridge and the officers of the Constitution?
The capture of the Java, the fourth brilliant naval victory in a brief space of
time, caused great exultation throughout the United States, and the Constitution was
popularly called from that time Old Ironsides. Orators and rhymers, the pulpit and
the press, made the gallant exploits of Bainbridge the theme of many words in verse
and prose.3 The Common Council of New York presented to him the freedom of the
city in a gold box,4 and ordered his portrait painted for the picture-gallery in the
City Hall.5 The city of Albany did the same;6 and the citizens of Philadelphia pre-
NEW YORK GOLD liOX.
ALBANY GOLD liOX.
sented him with an elegant service of silver plate, the most costly piece of which was
a massive urn, elegantly wrought.7 The Congress of the United States voted their
1 By the Senate on the 19th of February, and by the House of Representatives on the 20th.
2 The procession was formed in Faneuil Hall by Major Tildeu, and was escorted by the Boston Light Infantry and the
Winslow Bhies, under Colonel Sargent. The Honorable Christopher Gore presided at the table, assisted by Harrison
Grey Otis, Israel Thorndike, Arnold Willis, Thomas L. Wiuthrop, Peter C. Brooks, and William Sullivan as vice-presi
dents. Intelligence had just come that the British Orders in Council had been repealed, and that peace might be soon
expected. Elated by this news, the Honorable Timothy Dexter offered the following toast: "The British Orders in
Council revoked, and our national honor gallantly retrieved. Now let us shut the temple of Janus till his double face
goes out of fashion." An ode was sung at the banquet, written, on request of the committee of arrangements, by the
late L. M. Sargent, Esq.
3 One of the most popular songs of the day was composed in honor of the capture of the Java, and called "Bain-
bridge's Tid re I," in which, after every verse, the singer gives a sentence in prose, winding up with the chorus "Tid
re I, Tid re I, Tid re id re I do." The following is a specimen of that kind of song, 'once so popular :
" Come, lads, draw near, and you shall hear,
In truth as chaste as Dian, O !
How Baiubridge true, and his bold crew,
Again have tamed the lion, O !
'Twas off Brazil he got the pill
Which made.him cry pcccavi, O
But hours two, the Java new,
Maintained the battle bravely, O !
"But our gallant tars, as soon as they were piped to quarters, gave three cheers, and boldly swore, by the blood of
the heroes of Tripoli, that, sooner than strike, they'd go the bottom singing
Tid re I, Tid re I, Tid re id re I do."
* This box is three inches in diameter and one inch in depth. On the inside of the lid is the following inscription :
"The Corporation of the City of New York to Commodore William Baiubridge, of the United States frigate Constitu
tion, in testimony of the high sense they entertain of his gallantry and skill in the capture of his Britannic Majesty's
ship JAVA on the 29th of December, 1812."
*> The portrait was painted by John Wesley Jarvis. The engraving on page 459 is from a copy of that picture.
6 The box presented by the city of Albany is of oblong form, and is faithfully delineated in the engraving. It is three
inches and a half long and three fourths of an inch deep. On the inside of the lid is the following inscription : "A trib
ute of respect by the Common Council of the City of Albany to Commodore William Baiubridge for his gallant naval
services in the late war with Great Britain." This box is in the possession of the gallant commander's daughter, Mrs.
(Mary Bainbridge) Charles Jundou, of Philadelphia.
7 This urn is eighteen inches in height. The lid is surmounted by an eagle about to soar. Below each massive ban-
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
463
Medal presented to Bainbridge by Congress.
Effect of the naval Battles in America and Great Britain.
thanks to Bainbridge and his companions in arms, and also fifty thousand dollars in
money, because of the necessary destruction of their prize. They also ordered a gold
medal to be struck in honor of the commander,1 and silver ones for each of his offi
cers, in token of the national approbation of their conduct.
BAINBRIDGE MEDAL.
The conflict between the Constitution and Java was the closing naval engagement
of the year, and, with the previous victories won by the Americans, made the deep
est impressions upon the public mind in both hemispheres. The United States cruis
ers, public and private, had captured about three hundred prizes from the British
during that first six months of war. The American war-party — indeed, the whole
American people, excepting a few Submissionists, were made exultant by these events,
and the gloom caused by the failure of the land forces w"as dispelled. The views of
the Federalists, who had always favored a navy, were justified, and the opposition to
it, on the part of the Democrats, ceased. The British people were astounded by these
heavy and ominous blows dealt at their supremacy of the seas, and some of the lead
ing newspapers scattered curses broadcast. One of them, a leading London paper,
with that vulgarity which too often disgraced journalism on both sides of the At
lantic at that time, petulantly expressed its apprehensions that England might be
stripped of her maritime superiority " by a piece of striped bunting flying at the
mast-head of a few fir-built frigates, manned by a handful of bastards and outlaws !"
But this impotent rage soon subsided, and British writers and speakers, compelled
to acknowledge the equality of the American people in all that constitutes the true
die is a head of Neptune. On one side
of the urn is the representation of the
wrecked Java and the triumphant Con
stitution, and on the other the following
inscription : " Presented by the citizens
of Philadelphia to Commodore William
Bainbridge, of the U. S. frigate Constitu
tion, as a testimonial of the high sense
they entertain of his skill and gallantry
in the capture of the British frigate Java,
of 49 guns and 500 men, and of their ad
miration of his generous and magnani
mous conduct toward the vanquished
foe. Loss in the action of 29th Decem
ber, 1812— C., 9 killed, 25 wounded ; J.,
CO killed, 101 wounded."
After the death of Bainbridge's wid
ow, his plate was distributed among
his surviving children. The urn and
other silver pieces, and the New York
gold box, belong to Mrs. Susan (Bain-
BAINBRIDGE UEN.
bridge) Hayes, widow of Captain Thom
as Hayes, of the United States Navy, a
resident of Philadelphia. To her kiud
courtesy I am indebted for the privilege
of making sketches of the urn and box
es. She also has in her possession the
sword presented to Bainbridge by Hy-
slop (see Note 2, page 461). It is a straight
dress sword, in a black leather scabbard.
Also another sword, with basket guard
and elegant gilt mountings. Also a
Turkish cimeter.
1 On one side of the medal is a bust of
Bainbridge, and the legend "GULIELMUK
H.UNBRIDGE FATRIA VICTOKISQUE I.AUDA-
TUS." Reverse, a ship, the stumps of
her three masts standing, and her con
queror with only a few shot-holes in her
sails. Legend — "PUGNANDO." Exergue
— " INTER CONST. NAV. AMERI. ET JAV.
NAV. ANGL. DIE XXIX. DECF.M. ilDCCCXII."
464 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
James's so-called " Histories" of the War. Meeting of the Twelfth Congress.
greatness of a nation, labored hard to show that in all cases the American vessels, in
force of men and metal, were greatly superior to those of the British encountered.
They even went so far as to assert that the American frigates were all " seventy-fours
in disguise !" These assertions were iterated arid reiterated long after the war had
ceased, to the amusement of thoughtful men, who clearly perceived the truth when the
smoke had cleared away. The most notable exhibition of this folly is seen in three
volumes, one on the naval and two on the military occurrences of that war, written
by William James. These, as we have observed, were" among the earliest of the
elaborate writings concerning that wrar, and have, ever since their appearance, been
the most frequently quoted by those British and British-American writers and speak
ers who delight in abusing the government and people of the United States. The
spirit manifested on every page bears evidence of the poverty of the author in all that
constitutes a candid and veracious historian.1
Having now considered in groups the military and naval events of the war during
the first year of the contest, excepting those in the extreme southern boundaries of
the Republic, which will be noticed hereafter, let us glance at the civil affairs of the
United States, having relation to the subject in question, before entering upon a de
scription of the stirring campaign of 1813.
The second session of the Twelfth Congress commenced on the 2d day of No-
» 1812 vember.a It was the eve of the popular election of Presidential electors.
President Madison had been nominated for the office for a second term by a
Congressional caucus, as we have already observed,2 as the Democratic candidate ;
and the Legislature of New York had nominated De Witt Clinton, a nephew of the
late Vice-president, and of the same political faith, for the same office. The Federal
ists, conscious of their inability to elect a candidate of their own, coalesced with the
Clintonian Democrats. This course was decided upon in a Convention of Federalist
leaders from all the states north of the Potomac, held in secret session, in the city of
„ 12 New York, in September.13 If the war must go on, they regarded Clinton as
the possessor of greater executive ability than Madison, and better able to
conduct it vigorously ; but their chief desire and hope was to bring about an early
peace by the defeat of Madison, the repeal of the British Orders in Council3 having
opened a door for that consummation so devoutly wished for. Jared Ingersoll, of
Pennsylvania, a moderate Federalist, was nominated by the Convention for Vice-
president. George Clinton having died, Elbridge Gerry, as we have seen,4 was nom
inated for Vice-president by the Madisonians.
When the elections occurred, nearly all the Federalists and a fraction of the Demo
cratic party voted for the Clintonian electors. All of the New England States, ex
cepting Vermont, chose such electors.5 New York did the same, in consequence of the
adroit management of Martin Van Buren, a politician thirty years of age, who then
appeared prominently for the first time.6 There was a similar result in New Jersey,
1 William James was an English emigrant to the United States early in the present century. He was a veterinary
surgeon (or "horse doctor," as they are called in this country) in Philadelphia, but was unsuccessful in his profession,
lie left that city for his native country, thoroughly disgusted with every thing American, because the people had not
appreciated his talents. His chief employment after his return seems to have been abuse of the Americans, their public
men, their government, and their writers. He wrote angry reviews of some American books on the naval and military
history of the War of 1812, and these were published, in 1817 and 1818, in three volumes. The first was entitled "A
Full and Correct Account of the NAVAL OOOURKENCES of the Late War, etc.," and the other two, "A Full and Correct Ac
count of the MIT.ITAEY OOOUBBENOES of the Late War, etc." They are not histories, but violent tirades, and manifest, as
the Edinlwrg Review remarked, " bitter and persevering antipathy" to the Americans. "Almost every original remark
made by the author upon them," said the Iteview, "bears traces of the unworthy feeling we have just mentioned." In
considering his performance in the light of two generations of thought and investigation, the truth of the motto on the
title-page of his volume on the Xaval Occurrences, quoted from Murphy's Tacitus, is very manifest. "Truth is always
brought to light by time and reflection, while the lie of the day lives by bustle, noise, and precipitation." James died in
1827. 2 See page 225. 3 See page 245. * See page 226.
5 In Massachusetts, so strongly Democratic, only a few months before, the "peace electors," as the Clintonians were
called, obtained a majority of 24,000.
6 Owing to the dissonance iu the Democratic party in New York, caused by the dissensions between the Madisonians
and Cliutouiaus, the Federalists chose nineteen out of the twenty-three members of Congress. Those of New Hamp-
OF THE WAK OF 1812. 465
The Administration sustained. Madison re-elected. Threats of Josiah Quincy in Congress.
and for a time the re-election of Madison appeared doubtful. But before Congress
had been in session six weeks it was definitely ascertained, from the official canvass,
that Madison had one hundred and twenty-eight out of the two hundred and eighteen
electors chosen, and that a large majority of the Congressmen elect were friends of
the administration. This result was regarded, under the circumstances, as a very
strong expression of the public in favor of the war ; and the war-party in and out of
Congress were greatly strengthened. They were also encouraged by the aspect of
affairs abroad. Intelligence of apparent disasters to the English in Spain, the triumph
of Bonaparte in the terrible battle of Borodino, and his victorious march upon Moscow,
filled them with the hope that England, struggling with all Europe against her, must
speedily be compelled to withdraw her soldiers and seamen from America, and give
up the contest here, or else fall a prey to the conquering Corsican. But they were
doomed to an early disappointment of their hopes by disasters that fell thick and fast
upon the French army, exposed to Russian snows and Russian cohorts. It was evi
dent, too, from the returns of the late elections, that the Opposition were growing
stronger every day.
Among the earliest national measures proposed in Congress was a plan for increas
ing the army twenty thousand men, making the whole establishment fifty-six thou
sand. The President, in his fourth annual message,a after giving a gen- > November 4,
eral statement of the position of affairs in relation to the war, called the
attention of the national Legislature to the necessity of measures for the vigorous
prosecution of it. A bill was introduced into the House of Representatives to raise
the pay of private soldiers from six to eight dollars a month, to guarantee recruits
against arrest for debt, and to give them their option to enlist for five years or for
the war. In the same bill was a clause allowing the enlistment of minors without the
consent of their parents or masters. This elicited a very spirited debate, in which
Josiah Quincy engaged with his usual vigor. He declared it to be an interference
with the rights of parents and masters, and warned the House that if the bill passed
with that " atrocious principle" contained in it, it would be met in New England by
the state laws against kidnapping and man-stealing. He opposed it as bearing par
ticularly hard upon the North, where the laborers are the yeomanry and the minors,
while at the South the laborers were slaves, and exempted by law from military duty.
The planter of the South, he said, can look around upon his fifty, his hundred, and
his thousand human beings, and say, "These are my property1"1 — property tilling the
land, and em-iching the owner in war as well as in peace ; while the farmer of the
North has " only one or two ewe lambs — his children, of which he can say, and say
with pride, like the Roman matron, 'These are my ornaments.'" These, by the pro
posed law, might be taken from him, and his land must remain untilled.1
Williams, of South Carolina, the chairman of the Military Committee, retorted
fiercely. In reply to Quincy's assertion that the bill contained an " atrocious princi
ple," he charged the great Federal leader with uttering an "atrocious falsehood."
His language was so offensively supercilious that it drew admonitions even from
John Randolph. He argued well in favor of an increase of the army. " The British
regular force in the Canadas," he said, " could not be estimated less than twelve
thousand men. In addition to these were the Canadian militia, amounting to several
thousands, and three thousand regulars at Halifax. To drive this force from the field,
the St. Lawrence must be crossed with a well-appointed army of twenty thousand
men, supported by an army of reserve of ten thousand. Peace is not to be expected
shire were all Federalists, and that party carried the Legislature of New Jersey and more than half of its Congressional
delegation.
1 A question upon similar premises arose in the Convention of 1787, when it was proposed to make three out of every
five slaves count as persons in determining the representation of the states in Congress. It was observed that while
the slaves were called persons for a political purpose, they were only chattels at other times, and could not be called into
the military service of the country. This was a grievous wrong toward the nou-slaveholding states.
GG
466 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The Policy and Leaders of the War Party denounced by Quincy. Response by Henry Clay.
but at the expense of a vigorous and successful war. Administrations have in vain
mied for it, even at the expense of the sarcastic sneers of the British minister. The
campaign of 1813 must open in a style and vigor calculated to inspire confidence in
ourselves and awe in the enemy. Nothing must be left to chance ; our movements
must every where be in concert. At the same moment we move on Canada, a corps
of ten thousand men must threaten Halifax from the province of Maine. The honor
and character of the nation require that the British power on our borders should be
annihilated the next campaign. Her American provinces once wrested from her, ev
ery attempt to recover them will be chimerical, except by negotiation. The road to
peace thus lies through Canada." The bill passed the House of Representatives, but
the objectionable clause received only four votes in the Senate.
The expensive volunteer system was taken up in Congress, and the law authorizing
the employment of that species of soldiers was repealed. Another was substituted,
which authorized the enlistment of twenty regiments of regulars to serve twelve
months, to whom a bounty of sixteen dollars should be given. It also provided for
the appointment of six major generals and six brigadier generals, and a correspond
ing increase of subordinate officers. Party spirit was aroused in the debate that en
sued, and the discussion took a range so wide as to include the whole policy and
«• Januarys, conduct of the war. Mr. Quincy led offa with great bitterness and the
keenest sarcasm. " He denounced the invasion of Canada," says Hildreth,1
" as a cruel, wanton, senseless, and wicked attack, in which neither plunder nor glory
was to be gained, upon an unoffending people, bound to us by ties of blood and good
neighborhood ; undertaken for the punishment, over their shoulders, of another peo
ple three thousand miles off, by young politicians fluttering and cackling on the floor
of that house, half hatched, the shell still on their heads, and their pin-feathers not
yet shed — politicians to whom reason, justice, pity, were nothing, revenge every thing;
bad policy, too, since the display of such a grasping spirit only tended to alienate
from us that large minority of the British people anxious to compel their ministers
to respect our maritime rights. So thought the people of New England, and hence
the difficulty of getting recruits. The toad-eaters of the palace — party men in pur
suit of commissions, fat contracts, judgeships, and offices for themselves, their fathers,
sons, brothers, uncles, and cousins — might assert otherwise, but the people had spoken
in the late elections. There were in New England multitudes of judicious, patriotic,
honest, sober men, who, if their judgments and their consciences went with the war,
would rush to the standard of their country at the winding of a horn, but to whom
the present call sounded rather as a jewsharp or a banjo If the government
would confine itself to a war of defense, it should have his support ; but for a war of
conquest and annexation, whether in East -Florida2 or Canada, he would not contrib
ute a single dollar. Nor was he to be frightened from this ground by the old state
cry of British connection, raised anew by a pack of mangy, mongrel blood-hounds, for
the most part of very recent importation, their necks still marked with the collar, and
their backs sore with the stripes of European castigation, kept in pay by the admin
istration to hunt down all who opposed the court."
This contemptuous speech drew a most vigorous reply from Mr. Clay, the Speaker
of the House, who felt himself specially aimed at by the expression " unfledged poli
ticians." He charged the Federalists, says Hildreth, " with always, throughout the
whole controversy with Great Britain, thwarting the plans of their 6wrn government ;
clamoring alike against the embargo, against the non-intercourse, against the non-im-
o ~ ~ 7 O / ~
portation ; when the government were at peace, crying out for war ; and, now the
government were at war, crying out for peace ; falsely charging the President with
1 History of the United States, second series, iii., 381.
2 The revolutionary and military operations in that quarter will be noticed hereafter.
OF THE WAK OF 1812. 467
Clay's Speech in Opposition to Quincy. Measures for strengthening the Army and Navy. Government Expenses.
being under French influence ;J heaping all kinds of abuse on Bonaparte ; assailing
Jefferson with impotent rage ; spiriting up chimeras of Southern influence and Vir
ginia dictation, as if the people did not choose their own presidents; going even so
far as to plot the dissolution of the Union." Mr. Clay then presented a most pathetic
picture of the wrongs inflicted upon, and miseries endured by, American seamen un
der the operations of the impressment system, to Avhich Great Britain clung tena
ciously. " As to the gentleman's sentimental protest against the invasion of Canada,"
he said in substance, " was Canada so innocent, after all ? Was it not in Canada that
the Indian tomahawks were Avhetted ? Was it not from Maiden and other Canadian
magazines that the supplies had issued which had enabled the savage bands to butch
er the garrison of Chicago? Was it not by a joint attack of Canadians and Indians
that Michillimackinac had been reduced ? What does a state of war present ? The
combined energies of one people arrayed against the combined energies of another,
each aiming to inflict all the injury it can, whether by sea or land, upon the territo
ries, property, and persons of the other, subject only to those mitigated usages prac
ticed among civilized nations. The gentleman would not touch the British Continent
al possessions, nor, for the same reason, it was supposed, her West India islands. By
the same rule, her innocent soldiers and sailors ought to be protected ; and as, accord
ing to a well-known maxim, the king could do no wrong, there would seem to be
nobody left whom, on the gentleman's principles, we could attack, unless it were Mr.
Stephen,2 the reputed author of the Orders in Council, or the Board of Admiralty,
under whose authority our seamen were impressed." .... Mr. Clay's " plan was,"
he said, " to call out the ample resources of the country to the fullest extent, to strike
wherever the enemy could be reached, by sea or land, and to negotiate a peace at
Quebec or Halifax."
Measures were adopted for strengthening both the army and navy, and the more
perfect organization of each. The President was authorized to cause the construc
tion of four ships of seventy-four guns each, and six frigates and six sloops-of-war ;3 to
issue treasury notes to the amount of five millions of dollars, and to create a new
stock for a loan of sixteen millions of dollars.4 A bill was also passed, chiefly through
the untiring efforts of Langdon Cheves and John C. Calhoun, representatives from
South Carolina, by which the bonds of merchants given for goods imported from
Great Britain and Ireland after the declaration of war, and seized under the provi
sions of the Non-importation Act, were canceled. For six weeks after the news of
war reached England exportations had been allowed to go on ;5 and the goods to
Avhich the law in question would apply were valued, at invoice prices, at more than
'! Quincy had said, in the speech just quoted from, that the " administration, under French influence and dictation,
had for twelve years ruled the country with authority little short of despotic ;" and then referred to the continuous rule
of " a narrow Virginia clique, to the exclusion from office and influence of all men of talents, even of their own party,
not connected with that clique." 2 Author of War in Disguise. See page 140.
3 According to a careful estimate made by the Secretary of the Navy, the force of three frigates would not be more
than equal to one 74-gun ship. The expense of building and equipping a frigate of 44 guns, estimated from the actual
cost of the President, was $220,910 ; the cost of a 74, $333,000. The annual expense of keeping a frigate of that size in
service was estimated at $110,000, and that of a 74 at $210,110. The result from these 'calculations was, that while the
expenses of a 74 were something less than those of two frigates of 44 guns each, her value in service was equal to three
frigates. — See Perkins's History of the Political and Military Events of the Late War, page 150. This estimate determined
Congress to build 74's.
4 The following were the Treasury estimates of expenditures for the year 1813 :
For the civil list, and interest and reimbursement of a part of the principal of the public debt $8,500,000
For the army, not including the new levies 17,000,000
For the navy, not including the proposed increase 4,925,000
Total $30,425,000
The total appropriations made for the service of the year amounted to $39,975,000. Such was the amount necessary to
meet the entire expenses of the government of the United States fifty years ago, when it was waging a war with Great
Britain. The expenditures of the government for a j-ear (1863) during the late civil war was $865,234,000.
5 This was under a false impression made by Mr. Russell, the American Charge ff Affaires, that in consequence of
the repeal of the Orders in Council the Non-intercourse Act would be suspended. Immediately after the repeal (June
23d, 1812), all the American ships then in British ports commenced loading with British goods.
468 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Retaliatory Law. Report of the Committee on Foreign Relations.
eighteen millions of dollars, and 'were worth double that amount in the American
market. This act conciliated the mercantile interest.
Cheves, who was chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, endeavored to
procure a partial repeal of the Non-importation Act, but failed. The restrictive sys
tem was regarded with great favor as a powerful weapon in the hands of the Ameri
cans, and its friends adhered to it with the greatest tenacity, believing it to be a pol
icy potent in hastening the ruin of England. The Federalists failed to support the
measure because the repeal was not complete, and on account of the provision in it
for the more strict enforcement of what was left.
We have already observed that a retaliatory law, first suggested by Colonel Scott
on account of some prisoners taken at Queenston, and who had been sent to England
as deserters because they were Irishmen, was passed.1 It was so framed as not only
to meet the special case of those persons, but such Indian outrages under British sanc
tion as had been committed at the River Raisin.2 Happily, there was no occasion
for enforcing the law.
On the 1 3th of January, Mr. Calhoun, from the Committee on . Foreign Relations,
made an able report. It had been looked for with great interest. In that report
the subject of impressment held a conspicuous place. The President, as we have ob-
a June 26, served, only a week after the declaration of war,a proposed an immediate
1812- armistice, on conditions at once just and honorable to both nations. It was
rejected by the British in terms of peculiar reproach and insult. At about the same
time the British Orders in Council were repealed conditionally, but the practice of
impressment was defended as just and expedient, and would not be allowed to be
come a subject for negotiation by the British authorities. Thus matters stood when
the Report on Foreign Relations was presented. After alluding to the above facts,
the committee proceeded to say that " the impressment of our seamen, being de
servedly considered a principal cause of the war, the war ought to be prosecuted un
til that cause be removed. To appeal to arms in defense of a right, and to lay them
down without securing it, or a satisfactory evidence of a good disposition in the op
posite party to secure it, would be considered in no other light than a relinquishment
of it. ... The manner in which the friendly advances and liberal propositions of the
Executive have been received by the British government has, in a great measure, ex
tinguished the hope of amicable accommodations. . . . War having been declared,
and the case of impressment being necessarily included as one of the most important
causes, it is evident it must be provided for in the pacification. The omission of it
in a treaty of peace would not leave it on its former ground ; it would, in effect, be
an absolute relinquishment, an idea at which the feelings of every American must re
volt. The seamen of the United States have a claim on their country for protection,
and they must be protected. If a single ship is taken at sea, and the property of an
American citizen wrested from him unjustly, it rouses the indignation of the coun
try. How much more deeply, then, ought wre to be excited when we behold so many
of this gallant and highly meritorious class of our fellow-citizens snatched from their
families and country, and carried into a cruel and afflicting bondage ? It is an evil
which ought not, which can not be longer tolerated. Without dwelling on the suf
ferings of the victims, or on that wide scene of distress which it spreads among their
relatives through the country, the practice is, in itself, in the highest degree degrad
ing to the United States as a nation. It is incompatible with their sovereignty; it
is subversive of the main pillars of their independence. The forbearance of the Unit
ed States under it has been mistaken for pusillanimity."
To effect a change in the British policy respecting impressments, the committee
1 See page 408.
2 The British authorities excused themselves on the plea that they could not restrain the Indians. This was DO jus
tification. The root of the iniquity was in the employment of the savages as allies.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 469
Manifesto of the Priiice Begent. Charges against the Government of the United States.
recommended the passage of an act, which was appended to their report, similar to
one proposed by Mr. Russell to Lord Castlereagh several months before, prohibiting,
after the close of the present war, the employment, in public or private vessels, of any
persons except American citizens, this prohibition to extend only to the subjects or
citizens of such states as should make reciprocal regulations. An act to that effect,
which passed the House on the 12th of February, was adopted by the Senate on the
last day of the session,a against very warm opposition of some of the war- a March 3,
party, who considered it as a'humiliating concession.
Only four days before the presentation of their reportb by the Commit
tee on Foreign Relations, the Prince Regent, acting sovereign of Great
Britain, issued a manifesto0 concerning the causes of the war, and the sub
jects of blockade and impressment. He declared that the war was not
the consequence of any fault of Great Britain, but that it had been brought on by
the partial conduct of the American government in overlooking the aggressions of
the French, and in their negotiations with them. He alleged that a quarrel with
Great Britain had been sought because she had adopted measures solely as retalia-
tive as toward France ; and that, as those measures had been abandoned by a repeal
of the Orders in Council, the war was now continued on the question of impressment
and search. On this point the Prince Regent took such a decisive position, that the
door for negotiation which the recommendation of the Committee on Foreign Aifairs
proposed to open seemed irrevocably shut. " His royal highness," said the manifesto
from his palace at Westminster, " can never admit that in the exercise of the un
doubted and hitherto undisputed1 right of searching neutral merchant vessels in time
of wai', and the impressment of British seamen when found therein, can be deemed
any violation of a neutral flag, neither can he admit the taking of such seamen
from on board such vessels can be considered by any neutral state as a hostile meas
ure or a justifiable cause of war." After reaffirming the old English doctrine of the
impossibility of self-expatriation of a British subject, the manifesto continued: "But
if, to the practice of the United States to harbor British seamen, be added their as
sumed right to transfer the allegiance of British subjects, and thus to cancel the ju
risdiction of their legitimate sovereign by acts of naturalization and certificates of
citizenship, which they pretend to be as valid out of their own territory as within it,2
it is obvious thai to abandon this ancient right of Great Britain, and to admit these
naval pretensions of the United States, would be to expose the very foundations of
our maritime strength."
The manifesto charged the United States government with systematic efforts to
inflame their people against Great Britain, of ungenerous conduct toward Spain, Great
Britain's ally, and of deserting the cause of neutrality. " This disposition of the gov
ernment of the United States — this complete subserviency to the ruler of France —
this hostile temper toward Great Britain," said the prince, " are evident in almost ev
ery page of the official correspondence of the American with the French government.
Against this course of conduct, the real cause of the present war, the Prince Regent
solemnly protests. While contending against France in defense not only of the lib
erties of Great Britain, but of the world, his Royal Highness was entitled to look for
a far different result. From their common origin — from their common interest — from
their professed principles of freedom and independence, the United States was the
last power in which Great Britain could have expected to find a willing instrument
and abettor of French tyranny."3
1 For a refutation of this erroneous assertion, see Chapter VII.
2 This right of citizenship, acquired by naturalization and the transfer of allegiance, has long ago been tacitly ac
knowledged by the British authorities. Indeed, the claim set up by the Prince Regent was practically abandoned dur
ing the War of 1812, for, excepting in the case of the Irishmen made prisoners with Colonel Scott, the British never
claimed British-born prisoners as subjects. See page 40S.
3 In the manifesto the Prince Eegent also solemnly declared that "the charge of exciting the Indians to offensive
470 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Proposition from Russia to mediate. The Proposition entertained. Napoleon's Invasion of Russia.
This manifesto, adroitly framed for effect in the United States as well as at home,
was approved by both houses of Parliament, and sustained in an address to the throne.
It reached America at about the close of the twelfth Congress, and its avowals of the
intended adherence of the British government to the practice of impressment stood
before the people side by side with the declarations of the report of their Committee
on Foreign Affairs, in which it was declared that it was against that practice the war
was waging, and that it ought to be waged until the nefarious business was aban
doned by the enemy.
While pondering these documents, the Americans were suddenly called by the
march of events to contemplate other most important subjects in connection with the
war. John Quincy Adams was then the American minister at the Russian court.
His relations with the Emperor Alexander were intimate and cordial. When intel
ligence of the declaration of war reached St. Petersburg the Czar expressed his regret.
On account of the French invasion of his territory he was on friendly terms with Great
"September 20, Britain, and his prime minister, Romanzoff, suggested to Mr. Adamsa the
expediency of tendering the mediation of Russia for the purpose of ef
fecting a reconciliation. Mr. Adams favored it, but for a while the victorious march
of Bonaparte toward Moscow, the heart of the Russian empire, delayed the measure.
The final defeat of the invader secured present tranquillity to the Czar, and he sent
instructions to M. Daschkoff, his representative at Washington, to offer to the United
States his friendly services in bringing about a peace. This was formally done on
the 8th of March, 1813, only four days after President Madison, in his second inaugu
ral address, had laudably endeavored to excite anew the enthusiasm of the people in
the vigorous prosecution of the war.
At about this time official intelligence had been received by the government of the
result of Napoleon's invasion of Russia. He had indeed reached Moscow after fear
ful sufferings and losses, but when he rode into that ancient capital of the Muscovites
at the head of his staff, on the 15th of September, it was as silent as the Petrified City
of the Eastern tale. The inhabitants had withdrawn, and the great Kremlin in which
he slept that night was as cheerless as a magnificent mausoleum. Hi's slumbers were
soon disturbed. The Russians had not all left. For hours a hundred unlighted torch
es had been held by the hands of Russian incendiaries. When the great bell of the
metropolitan cathedral tolled out the hour of midnight, these were kindled by flint
and steel, and instantly a hundred fires glared fearfully from every direction upon
the couch of the great Corsican. The city was every where in flames, and the wea
ried French army were compelled to seek shelter in the desolate country around the
blackened ruins of that splendid town.
On that fearful night the star of Napoleon's destiny had reached its meridian.
Ever afterward it was seen slowly descending, in waning splendor, the paths of the
western sky. He perceived in the destruction of Moscow the fearful perils of his sit-
tiation, and sought to avert them. He proposed terms of peaceful adjustment, but
the emperor flung them back with scorn. Retreat or destruction was the alternative.
He chose the former; and late in October, with one hundred and twenty thousand
men, he turned his face toward France. For a few days the sky was clear and the
atmosphere was genial. Then came biting frosts and blinding snow-storms, while
clouds of fiery Cossacks smote his legions on flank and rear with deadly blows. Suf-
measures against the United States is equally void of foundation." This denial was iterated and reiterated by British
statesmen and publicists, and has been ever since. It is very natural for a civilized and Christian people to repel the
charge of complicity with savage pagans in the practices of merciless and barbarous warfare. It is commendable, and
evinces a proper sense of the heinousness of the offense against civilization ; but the official declarations of even a
prince, were he many times more virtuous than that libertine regent of England, can not set aside the indelible records
of history or the verdict of mankind. There are too many positive statements concerning such complicity to doubt it.
In addition to those given in the preceding pages of this work, many more may be found in Niles's Weekly Register,
ii., 342.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 471
Napoleon's Disasters in Russia. Rejoicings of the American Peace-party. Commissioners to treat for Peace.
fering and death held high carnival among the fugitives. Bonaparte saw that all was
lost, and he hastened to France, bearing almost the first intelligence of the terrible
disaster. He lost during the campaign one hundred and twenty-five thousand slain
in battle, one hundred and thirty-two thousand by fatigue, hunger, disease, and cold,
and one hundred and ninety-three thousand made prisoners ; in all, four hundred and
fifty thousand men ! Notwithstanding this fearful loss of life, he had scarcely reach
ed Paris when he issued an order for a general conscription, in number sufficient to
take the places of the dead. At the same time Russia, Sweden, Denmark, Prussia,
and Spain coalesced for the purpose of striking the crippled conqueror a crushing
blow, and early in 1813 they sent large armies toward the Elbe to oppose him. His
conscripts were already in the field, and with three hundred and fifty thousand men
he invaded Germany, fought and won the great battle of Lutzen,a and, after » May 2,
other conflicts, seated himself in Dresden, agreeably to an armistice, and list
ened to offers of mediation on the part of Austria, with a view to closing the war.
The intelligence from Europe was disheartening to the war-party, for it was evi
dent that the coalition of the great powers of Europe against the French would so
relieve England that she might prosecute the war in America with great vigor. The
President had been at all times anxious for peace on honorable terms. He perceived
a chance for its accomplishment through Russian mediation, and he at once accepted
the offer of M. Daschkoff. That acceptance was followed by the nomination of Al
bert Gallatin, the Secretary of the Treasury, and James A. Bayard, a representative
of Delaware in the Senate of the United States, as commissioners or envoys extraor
dinary, to act jointly with Mr. Adams to negotiate a treaty of peace with Great
Britain at St. Petersburg. At the same time, William H. Crawford,v of Georgia, a
Peace Democrat, was appointed to succeed the lately deceased Joel Barlow1 as min
ister at the French court. Of the result of the efforts for peace through Russian
mediation I shall hereafter write.
The reverses of Napoleon, as we have observed, discouraged the war-party, and
gave corresponding joy to the Federalists, especially to the wing of that organization
known as the Peace-party, whose head-quarters were at Boston. There they cele
brated the Russian triumphs with public rejoicings.2 In other places, too, these vic-
"• Mr. Barlow, as we have seen, was an ardent Republican (see page 94). In October, 1812, the Duke de Bassano, at
Napoleon's request, invited Barlow to meet the emperor at Wilua, in Poland, the nominal object of which was to com
plete a commercial treaty with the United States, for which the American minister had long importuned. It was be
lieved by some that the real object was to make an arrangement by which French ships, manned by American sailors,
might be brought into play against Great Britain. Whatever was the object remains a mystery. Barlow obeyed the
royal summons immediately, and traveled day and night. The weather was very inclement. The country had been
wasted by war, and he suffered many privations. In consequence of these and exposure to the weather, he was attacked
with inflammation of the lungs, which caused his death in the cottage of a Jew at Zarnowice, near Cracow, on the 22d
of December, 1812. Of course, the object of his mission was not accomplished. His last poem, dictated, it is said, from
his death-bed, was a withering expression of resentment against Napoleon for the hopes which he had disappointed.
2 Services were held in King's Chapel, on the 2Cth of March, 1813, in commemoration of the victories of the Russians
over Napoleon, who aimed, it was said, "at the empire of the world." One hundred and fifty amateurs and professional
gentlemen assisted in the performance of sacred music. Among other pieces sung was the following recitative, com
posed for the occasion : " For the hosts of Gallia went in with their chariots and with their horsemen into the North,
and the Lord chased them with fierce warriors, winter blasts, and famine ; but the children of Sclavia, safe and unhurt,
through all the danger passed." The closing prayer was made by the Reverend Mr. Chauncey.
The services in the church were held in the forenoon. In the afternoon many hundreds of the citizens of Boston and
the neighboring country sat down to a public dinner. M. Eustaphieve, the Russian consul for New England, was a
guest. The room was appropriately decorated. Among the ornaments was a portrait of the Russian emperor, with the
words, "Alexander, the deliverer of Europe." Harrison Gray Otis made a speech on the occasion, in which he declared
his conviction that the check given to Napoleon by Russia had rescued our country from its greatest danger— the influ
ence of the French policy. Several songs were sung. One of them contained the following verse :
" Hail, Russia ! may thy conq'ring bands
Sad Europe from her chains release ;
• Exalt the hopes of farthest lands,
And give us back an exiled PEACE '."
An ode was sung, to the air of "Ye Mariners of England," which concluded thus:
" Then fill to Alexander !
For him a garland twine,
While shaded by our oaks, we taste
The virtues of the vine.
472 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Cabinet Changes. Armstrong chosen Secretary of War.
tories were hailed with joy, and became the themes for song and oratory,1 to the great
disgust of the war-party and their newspaper organs, who censured the President for
his haste in snatching at Russian mediation.
During the session of Congress which closed on the 3d of March, 1813, there had
been some important changes in President Madison's Cabinet. Public clamor against
him had caused Dr. Eustis to resign the War bureau, and the aifairs of that depart
ment were conducted for several weeks by Mr. Monroe, the Secretary of State. John
Armstrong, who had been appointed a brigadier general in the army of the United
States, and succeeded General Bloomfield in command at New York, was appointed
» January is, Secretary of War,a and Paul Hamilton was dismissed from the Navy De
partment to make way for William Jones,b who had been a ship-master
2' in earlier life, was an active Philadelphia politician of the Democratic
school, and at the time was Commissary of Purchases for the army. Madison's Cab
inet, at the opening of the campaign of 1813, was composed as follows: James Mon
roe, Secretary of State ; John Armstrong, Secretary of War ; William Jones, Secre
tary of the Navy; Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury; and William Pinkney,
Attorney General.
Arid when those oaks adorn our hills,
Or bear our thunders far,
Let each soul
Fill his bowl
To vict'ry and the Czar—
And give a long and loud huzza
To vict'ry and the Czar."
i On the 5th of June, 1813, the late G. W. P. Custis, the adopted son of Washington, addressed a large audience at
Georgetown, in the District of Columbia, on the Russian victories. That address drew from the Russian minister at
Washington a very complimentary letter, and a request for a copy to be transmitted to Russia. That letter, dated
" June 21, 1813," was accompanied by a small medal containing a likeness of the Emperor Alexander. " Permit me t&
express to you my gratitude," said M. Daschkoff, "that of my family, and of all my countrymen who shall peruse your
oration, for the zeal and interest you have displayed in our cause ; and allow me to send you a small medal, with the
likeness of Alexander the First, the only one which is now in my possession." — MS. Letter.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
473
Harrison's Position on the Maumee.
Expedition against Maiden.
Its Failure.
CHAPTER
" Oh, lonely is our old green fort,
Where oft, in days of old,
Our gallant soldiers bravely fought
'Gainst savage allies bold ;
But with the change of years have passed
That unrelenting foe,
Since we fought here with Harrison,
A long time ago." SONG — OLD FORT MEIGS.
OTHING of importance in military movements occurred during
the dead of winter, in 1813, excepting the terrible affair at
Frenchtown, on the River Raisin, already described,1 and some
hostile demonstrations on the St. Lawrence frontier at Elizabeth-
town and Ogdensburg by the opposing parties. The campaign
of that year opened almost simultaneously on the shores of Lake
Ontario, in the Valley of the Maumee, and on the coasts of Vir
ginia.
Let us first consider the military events in the Northwest, where we left General
Harrison, with a portion of his gallant little army, encamped amid the snows in the
dark forests that skirted the Rapids of the Maumee.2
The position chosen by Harrison for a strong advanced post, which would give him
facilities for keeping open a communication with Ohio and Kentucky, allow him
to afford protection to the inhabitants on the borders of Lake Erie, and to operate
against Detroit and Maiden, was one of the most eligible in the Northwest, and its
possession gave the British much uneasiness. Harrison's plan was to form simply a
fortified camp, and to prosecute the winter campaign with vigor. For this purpose
he endeavored to concentrate troops there, and prepared to push on to the vicinity
of Brownstown, for the purpose of operating directly against Maiden while the De
troit River was bridged with ice. Considering the destruction of the enemy's ves
sels, frozen up in the vicinity of Maiden, of great importance, he sent a small force,
under Captain Langham,3 to perform that service. On the 2d of March* they
set off in sleighs, with six days' provisions, and well equipped with combusti
bles. The party was one hundred and seventy strong. The particular incendiaries
were under the immediate command of M. Madis, a Frenchman of European military
experience, then conductor of artillery. They were instructed to leave the sleighs
at Middle Bass Island, and, with their feet muffled in moccasins, proceed noiselessly,
under cover of night, to the work of destruction. Harrison advanced with a support
ing detachment, but on his arrival at Maumee Bay,b not far below the pres
ent city of Toledo, he met Langham and his party returning. They had
found the lake open, and of course the plan of the expedition was frustrated. The
mildness of the winter had been remarkable ; the roads were consequently almost
impassable. There was no ice competent to bear troops and munitions of war.
Harrison now abandoned all hopes of moving forward until spring, and continued
the work of fortifying his camp with great vigor, for the preservation of his stores,
i See Chapter XX. = See page 364.
3 Augustus L. Langham, of Ohio, was an ensign in a rifle corps in 1808. He resigned in 1809, and in March, 1812, was
commissioned a captain in the Nineteenth Regiment of Infantry. He distinguished himself at Fort Meigs. In August
following he was promoted to major, was retained in 1815, and resigned in October, 181C.
1 1813.
b March 3.
474 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Fortified Camp at the Maumee Rapids. Remissness of the commanding Officer. A weak Garrison.
collected there in great quantity. His troops were then about eighteen hundred in
number, and were employed on the works under the skillful direction of that com
petent officer, Captain Wood, the chief
engineer of Harrison's army, Captain
Gratiot,1 then lying prostrate with ill
ness that long continued. "The camp,"
said Captain Wood, was about twenty-
five hundred yards in circumference, the whole of which, with the exception of sev
eral small intervals left for batteries and block-houses, was to be picketed with tim
ber fifteen feet long, from ten to twelve inches in diameter, and set three feet in the
ground. Such were the instructions of the engineer ; and so soon as the lines of the
camp were designated, large portions of the labor were assigned to each corps in the
army, by which means a very laudable emulation was easily excited. To complete
the picketing, to put up eight block-houses of double timbers, to elevate four large
batteries, to build all the store-houses and magazines required to contain the supplies
of the army, together with the ordinary fatigues of the camp, was an undertaking of
no small magnitude. Besides, an immense deal of labor was likewise required in ex
cavating ditches, making abatis, and clearing away the wood about the camp ; and
all this was to be done, too, at a time when the weather was inclement, and the ground
so hard that it could scarcely be opened with the mattock and pickaxe. But in the
use of the axe, mattock, and spade consisted the chief military knowledge of our
army ; and even that knowledge, however trifling it may be supposed by some, is
of the utmost importance in many situations, and in ours was the salvation of the
army. So we fell to work, heard nothing of the enemy, and endeavored to bury our
selves as soon as possible."2
But the work so vigorously commenced was abandoned soon afterward, when the
general and the engineer left the camp — the former to visit his, sick family at Cincin
nati, and to urge forward troops and supplies for his army; the latter to superintend
the erection of defensive works at Sandusky. The camp at the Rapids was left in
charge of Colonel Leftwich, of the Virginia militia, who appears to have resolved to
desert the post as soon as possible. Regardless of the danger to the stores, and
comfort and safety of those he might leave behind, he not only allowed all work
upon the fortifications to cease, but permitted the soldiers to burn the collected pick-
etings for fuel, instead of getting it from the woods within pistol-shot of the camp.
On his return from Sandusky on the 20th of February, Captain Wood, to his great
mortification, perceived the utter neglect of Leftwich, and the destruction of the
works on the lines commenced before he left. The consequence of this conduct of
Leftwich, whom Wood called " an old phlegmatic Dutchman, who was not even fit
for a pack-horse master, much less to be intrusted with such an important command,"
was great exposure of the gai'rison to the inclement weather, and the stores to immi
nent peril from the enemy. When, on the expiration of their term of enlistment, the
Virginia troops under Leftwich, and others from Pennsylvania, left for home, only
about five hundred men remained at the Rapids under Major Stoddard, with which
to maintain possession of an unfinished line of circumvallation calculated to contain
an army of two thousand men.
Harrison's greatest concern during the winter of 1813 was the possibility of not
keeping soldiers enough in the field for the spring campaign, as the terms of the en-
1 Charles Gratiot was a native of Missouri, and was appointed second lieutenant of Engineers in October, 1806, and
captain in 180S. Harrison appointed him his chief engineer in 1812. He was promoted to major in 1815, lieutenant
colonel in 1819, colonel and principal engineer in 1828, and on the same day (May 24) was breveted brigadier general.
He left the service in December, 1838.
2 The lines of the camp, inclosing about eight acres, were very irregular. They were upon a high bank, about one
hundred feet above the river and three hundred yards from it. On the land side, commencing at the run, was a deep
ravine that swept in a crescent form quite round to the rear.
OF THE WAK OF 1812. 475
A Call for Volunteers nobly answered. Armstrong's Interference with Harrison's Plans. Harrison's Protest.
listment of different corps would soon expire. To provide for such contingency, he
called for volunteers from Kentucky and Ohio, and met with cordial responses.1 He
was preparing to collect about four thousand men at the Rapids for an early move
ment against Maiden, when he received instructions from General Armstrong, the
new Secretary of War, which deranged all his plans. By these he was directed to
continue his demonstrations against Maiden, but only as a diversion in favor of at
tempts to be made upon Canada farther down. He was enjoined not to make an
actual attack upon the enemy until the consummation of measures for securing the
command of Lake Erie, then just inaugurated, and to be completed at Presque Isle
(now Erie, Pennsylvania) by the middle of the ensuing May. Much to his mortifica
tion and alarm, he was directed to dispense with militia as much as possible, and to
fill up the 17th, 19th, and 24th Regiments of Regulars for service in the ensuing
campaign. He was informed that two other regiments of regulars had been ordered
to be raised, one in Kentucky and the other in Ohio. Should the old regiments not
be filled in. time, he was permitted to make up the deficiencies from the militia. With
these he was to garrison the different posts, hold the position at the Rapids, and
amuse the enemy by feints.
This interference with his plans annoyed Harrison exceedingly, and he ventured to
remonstrate with the Secretary of War. He gave him his viewsa very aMai.cni8)
freely, and with them some valuable and much-needed information concern
ing the country to be defended and the Indian tribes in alliance with the British. He
explained the causes of apprehended danger in attempting to carry out the new pro
gramme, and assured the Secretary of War that the regular force to be relied on
could not be raised in time for needed service, and that, even if it should, it would be
too small for the required duty — so evidently inadequate that enlistments would be
discouraged.2 Armstrong, who seldom bore opposition patiently, did not like to be
remonstrated with, but he prudently forbore farther interference in the conduct of
the campaign in the Northwest at that time.3
General Harrison was yet at Cincinnati late in March, actively engaged in endeavors
to forward troops and supplies to the Rapids. Informed that the lake was almost free
of ice, that the Virginia and most of the Pennsylvania troops would leave at the ex-
1 Harrison requested that a corps of fifteen hundred men might be raised in Kentucky immediately, and marched to
his head-quarters without delay. The Legislature of Kentucky was then in session, and Harrison's request was sub
mitted to them in a confidential message by Governor Shelby. A law was immediately passed offering additional pay
of seven dollars a mouth to any fifteen hundred Kentuckians who would remain in the service till a corps could be
sent to relieve them. This offer was accompanied by an appeal to their patriotism from the Legislature, which reached
them on the Sth of February. They had suffered much, and were very anxious to return home, so they would only
promise to remain an indefinite time, but said that if the general was ready to lead them against the enemy they would
follow him without additional pay. Similar appeal to the Ohio and Pennsylvania troops met with similar success,
but the Virginians would not remain. Meanwhile the Legislature of Kentucky passed an act for detailing three thou
sand men from the militia, of which fifteen hundred were to march for Harrison's camp, and Governor Meigs ordered
two regiments to be organized for the same service.
2 In a letter to Governor Shelby, at about this time, Harrison said : " Last night's mail brought me a letter from the
Secretary of War in which I am restricted to the employment of the regular troops raised in this state to re-enforce the
post at the Eapids. There are scattered through this state about one hundred and forty recruits of the 19th Regiment,
and with these I am to supply the place of the brigades from Pennsylvania and Virginia, whose time of service will
now be daily expiring. By a letter from Governor Meigs I am informed that the Secretary of War disapproved the call
for militia which I had made on this state and Kentucky, and was on the point of countermanding the orders. I will
just mention one fact, which will show the consequences of such a countermand. There are upon the Au Glaize and
St. Mary's Rivers eight forts, which contain within their walls property to the amount of half a million of dollars from
actual cost, and worth now to the United States four times that sum. The whole force which would have had charge
of all these forts and property would have amounted to less th.an twenty invalid soldiers."— Autograph Letter, March
21, 1813.
3 Armstrong attempted to arrange the military force of the country on the plan adopted by General Washington in
the Revolution. On the 19th of March he promulgated a general order, dividing the whole United States into nine
military districts, as follows : 1, Massachusetts, with Maine and New Hampshire ; 2, Rhode Island and Connecticut ;
3, New York below the Highlands and New Jersey ; 4, Pennsylvania and Delaware : 5, Maryland -and Virginia ; 6,
Georgia ; 7, Louisiana. The rest of the States and Territories being divided between the Sth and 9th, the first embraced
the seat of war at the west end of Lake Ontario, and the other the Niagara portion, Lake Ontario, and the St. Law
rence and Lake Champlain.
On the 12th of March commissions were issued for eight new brigadiers, namely, Cushing, Parker, Izard, and Pike,
of the old army, and Winder, M'Arthur, Cass, Howard, and Swartwout. The latter succeeded Morgan Lewis as
quarter-master with the rank of brigadier.
476
PICTOKIAL FIELD-BOOK
The Brigade of General Green Clay.
Their Rendezvous and March toward the Maumee.
Cincinnati in 1812.
piration of their term on the 2d of April,
and that the enemy were doubtless in
formed of the situation of affairs at the
Rapids by a soldier who had been made
a prisoner by them, he anticipated an
early attack upon his camp there. It
was, therefore, with the greatest anxiety
that he awaited promised re-enforce
ments from Kentucky. The governor
had ordered a draft of three thousand
militia (fifteen hundred of them for
Harrison's army) as early as the middle
of February, to be organized into four
regiments, under Colonels Bos well, Dud
ley, Cox, and Caldwell, forming a bri
gade to be commanded by Brigadier
General Green Clay.1 The regiments
under the first two named officers ren
dezvoused at Newport, opposite to Cin
cinnati, at about the first of April.
Those companies which had arrived
there earlier had been sent forward to
the Rapids on forced marches, by the
way of Urbana and "Hull's Trace," and
the commander-in-chief followed soon
afterward, leaving the remainder of the
Kentuckians designed for his command
to be forwarded as quickly as possible.
He arrived at camp on the 12th of April, and was gratified by finding more than two
VIEW OF CINCINNATI FBOM NEWPORT IN 1812.
1 In a letter dated at "Frankfort, March 5, 1813," Governor Shelby invited Mr. Clay to accept the command of the
brigade as brigadier general. Clay accepted the office, and in a letter, dated on the 16th of the same month, the gov
ernor sent him his commission. In the first letter, now before me, the governor said that, had it been designed to
cross into Canada at once, he should have taken command of the Kentucky troops in person.
2 This view of Cincinnati in 1812 is from an old print. It then contained about two thousand inhabitants.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
477
Fort Meigs and its Vicinity. Harrison assumes Responsibility. Proctor's Preparations to invade the Maumee Valley.
hundred patriotic Pennsylvanians remaining, who had been persuaded to do so by
their chaplain, Dr. Hersey.1
Under the direction of Captain Wood, the for
tified camp, which had been named in honor of
the governor of Ohio, had assumed many of the
features of a regular fortification, and was digni
fied with the name of Fort Meigs. It was evi
dent that its defense would be the chief event in
the opening of the campaign. Harrison had been
informed while on his way of the frequent ap
pearance of Indian scouts in the neighborhood
of the Rapids, and of little skirmishes with what
he supposed to be the advance of a more power
ful force. Alarmed by these demonstrations, he
dispatched a messenger from Fort Amanda with
a letter to Governor Shelby, urging him to send
to the Maumee the whole of the three thousand
militia drafted in Kentucky. This was in viola
tion of his instructions from the War Department
respecting the employment of militia, but the
seeming peril demanding such violation, he did
not hesitate for a moment. Expecting to find
Fort Meigs invested by the British and Indians,
he took with him from Fort Amanda all the troops
that could be spared from the posts on the St.
Mary and the Au Glaize, about three hundred in
all, and descended by water from his point of de
parture with the intention of storming any British
batteries which he might find employed against
his camp. He was agreeably disappointed on his
arrival by the discovery that the enemy was not
near in great force. But that enemy, vigilant and
determined, was preparing to strike at Fort Meigs
a destructive blow.
When the ice began to move in the Detroit
River and the lake, Proctor formed his plans for
an early invasion of the Maumee Valley. Ever
since his sanguinary operations at Frenchtown
he had been using every art and appliance in his
power to concentrate at Amherstburg a large In
dian force for the purpose. He fired the zeal of
Tecumtha and the Prophet by promises of future
success in all their schemes for confederating the
savage tribes, and by boasting of his ample pow
er to place in the hands of his Indian allies Fort
Meigs, its garrison, and immense stores. So stim
ulative were his promises that, at the beginning
of April, Tecumtha was at Fort Maiden with al
most fifteen hundred Indians. Full six hundred
of them were drawn from the country between
i These patriotic men informed the general that they were very anxious to go home to put in their spring seeds, but
that they would never leave him until he thought that their services could be spared without danger to the cause. On
the arrival of the three Kentucky companies he discharged the Pennsylvauians.
478 PICTOKIAL FIELD-BOOK
Proctor calls Savages to Maiden. Expedition against Fort Meigs. Harrison's Precautions.
Lake Michigan and the Wabash, much to the satisfaction of Harrison when he dis
covered the fact, for it so relieved him of apprehensions of peril to his posts from that
direction that he countermanded his requisition on Governor Shelby for all the draft
ed men from Kentucky.
Proctor was delighted with the response of the savages to his call, and visions of
speedy victory, personal glory, and official promotion filled his mind. He became
more boastful than ever, and more supercilious toward the Americans at Detroit.
MS13. He ordered the Canadian militia to assemble at Sandwich on the 7th of April,a
when he assured them that the campaign would be short, decisive, suc-
o April, cessful, and profitable. On the 23db his army and that of his savage allies,
more than two thousand in number,1 were in readiness at Amherstburg ; and on that
day they embarked on a brig and several smaller vessels, accompanied by two gun
boats and some artillery. On the 26th they appeared at the mouth of the Maumee,
about twelve miles below Fort Meigs; and on the 28th they landed on the left bank
of the river, near old Fort Miami, and established their main camp there.2 From
that point Proctor and Tecumtha, who were well mounted, rode up the river to a
point opposite Fort Meigs to reconnoitre. They were discovered at the fort, when a
shot from one of the batteries sent them back in haste.3 Captain Dixon, of the Royal
Engineers, was immediately sent up with a fatigue party to construct batteries upon
a commanding elevation neai-ly opposite the fort, in front of the present Maumee
City, but incessant rains, and the wretched condition of the roads, so retarded the prog
ress of the work that they were not ready for operations until the first day of May.
The approach of the enemy in force had been discovered by Captain Hamilton, of
the Ohio troops, on the 28th, while reconnoitring down the river with a small force.
Peter Navarre, one of Harrison's most trustworthy scouts, yet (1867) living in Ohio,
first saw them. Hamilton sent him in haste to Fort Meigs with the intelligence,
when Harrison instantly dispatched him with three letters, one for Upper Sandusky,
one for Lower Sandusky, and one for Governor Meigs, at Urbana.4 Although Fort
Meigs was quite strong, several block-houses having been erected in connection with
the lines of intrenchment and pickets, and a good supply of field-pieces had been
mounted, Harrison was convinced, from the character and strength of the enemy, that
his post was in imminent peril. He knew that General Green Clay was on his march
with Kentuckians; and as soon as Navarre was furnished with his letters, he dis
patched Captain William Oliver, the commissary to the fort, an intelligent, brave, and
judicious officer (who had performed similar service for him), with an oral message
to Clay, urging him to press forward by forced marches. Oliver bore to Clay the
following simple note of introduction :5
" Head-quarters, Camp Meigs, 28th April, 1813.
" DEAR SIR, — I send Mr. Oliver to you, to give yon an account of what is passing
here. You may rely implicitly upon him. Yours,
" WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON."
Oliver was accompanied by a single white man and an Indian. He was escorted
1 The combined force under Proctor consisted of 522 regulars, 461 militia, and about 1500 Indians ; total, 2482. The
Americans at Fort Meigs did not exceed 1100 effective men.
2 See the map on the preceding page, which covers the entire historic ground at and around the Maumee Rapids from
Roche de Bout— perpendicular rock— where the river has a considerable fall, and where Wayne was encamped in 1704
(see page 54), to Proctor's encampment near Fort Miami at the time we are considering. It shows the place of Hull's
encampment in 1812 (see page 257), and Wayne's battle-ground in 1794 (see page 55), with the site of Fort Meigs, and
of incidents connected with the siege about to be described in the text ; also the present Maumee City on one side of the
river, Perryville on the other, and the rail and wagon bridges across. Between Fort Meigs and Perryville is seen a
stream. It courses through the ravine mentioned in Note 2, page 474.
3 Statement of Reverend A. M. Lorraine, in the Ladies' Repository, March, 1845.
* Oral statement of Navarre to the author.
5 The original is before me, and a fac-simile of it appears on the opposite page. It is one of the papers of General Clay
kindly placed in my hands by his son, General Cassius M. Clay, our late minister at the Russian Court. It is written
on a half sheet of foolscap paper, and is thoroughly soiled by contact with mud and water.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
479
General Harrison's Note to General Clay.
beyond the immediate danger that surrounded the camp by a company of dragoons
under Captain Garrard. He found General Clay at Fort Winchester (Defiance) with
twelve hundred Kentuckians, three companies of his command, as we have observed,1
having been sent forward by Harrison at the close of March. Clay had left Cincin-
1 See page 470.
480
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Combs commissioned a Captain of Spies.
He goes on a perilous Expedition.
Biographical Sketch of Combs.
1 April 7,
1813.
nati early in April, after issuing a stirring address1 to his troopsa in General
Orders, and followed Winchester's route to the Maumee.2 At Dayton he
was overtaken by Leslie Combs, of Kentucky, a bold and ardent young man of nine
teen years, whose services as scout and messenger in the late campaign, which ended
so disastrously at the Raisin, were well known to General Clay. He at once com
missioned Combs captain of a company of- riflemen as spies or scouts, to be selected
by him from Dudley's corps.
At St. Mary's block-house Clay divided his brigade. He sent Dudley to the Au
Glaize, while he descended the St. Mary himself with Colonel Boswell's corps. Both
divisions were to meet at Defiance. While on their way down the Au Glaize, intel
ligence reached Dudley of the perilous condition of Harrison at Fort Meigs. At a
council of officers it was resolved to apprise the commander-in-chief of the near ap
proach of succor. Who shall under
take the perilous mission? was the im
portant question. It required some per
son acquainted with the country. Young
Combs, eager for patriotic duty and dis
tinction, volunteered to go. " When we
reach Fort Defiance," he said, " if you
will furnish- me a good canoe, I will carry
your dispatches to General Harrison, and
return with his orders. I shall only re
quire four or five, volunteers from my
own company, and one of my Indian
guides to accompany me." A murmur
of approbation ran thro-ughthe company,
and his offer was joyfully accepted by
Dudley with words of compliment and
gratitude.3 They reached Defiance the
following morning. It was the first
of May. As soon as a canoe could be
procured Combs embarked on his peril
ous mission, accompanied by two broth
ers named Walker, and two others
named respectively Paxton and John-
1 " Keutuckians," he said, " stand high in the estimation of our common country. Our brothers in arms who have
gone before us to the scene of action have acquired a fame which should never be forgotten by you — a fame worthy
your emulation Should we encounter the enemy, remember the fate of your .BUTCHERED BROTHERS at the River
Raisin— that British treachery produced their slaughter !"
2 As it may be interesting to the reader to know what constituted the private outfit of an officer of the army at that
time for service in the field, I subjoin the following " list of articles for camp" prepared for General Clay:
" Trunk, portmanteau and fixtures, flat-iron, coffee-mill, razor-strop, box, etc., inkstand and bundle of quills, ream
of paper, three halters, shoe-brushes, blacking, saddle and bridle, tortoise-shell comb and case, box of mercurial oint
ment, silver spoon, mattress and pillow, three blankets, three sheet?, two towels, linen for a cot, two volumes M'Kenzie's
Travels, two maps, spy-glass, gold watch, brace of silver-mounted pistols, umbrella, sword, two pairs of spurs— one of
silver. CLOTHES : Hat, one pair of shoes, one pair of boots, regimental coat, great-coat, bottle-green coat, scarlet waist
coat, blue cassimere and buff cassimere waistcoat, striped jean waistcoat, two pair cotton colored pantaloons, one pair
bottle-green pantaloons, one pair queen-cord pantaloons, one pair buff short breeches, one pair red flannel drawers, one
red flannel waistcoat, red flannel shirt, five white linen shirts, two check shirts, nine cravats, six chamois, two pair
thread stockings, three pair of thread socks, hunting shirt, one pair of woolen gloves, one pair of leather gloves."
"A complete ration" at that time was estimated at fifteen cents, and was composed and charged as follows: meat,
five cents ; flour, six cents ; whisky, three cents ; salt, soap, candles, and vinegar, one fourth of a cent each.
3 Captain Combs is yet (1867) living in his native state of Kentucky, vigorous in mind and body, and bearing the title
of general by virtue of his commission as such in the militia of his state. He is descended, on his mother's side, from
a Quaker family of Maryland. His father, a Virginian, was a "Revolutionary Officer and a Hunter of Kentucky." So
says a simple inscription on his tomb-stone. Leslie was the youngest of twelve children. He joined the army in 1812,
when just past eighteen years of age, and was at once distinguished for his energy and bravery. He was employed, as
we have seen (page 350), on perilous duty, and never disappointed those who relied upon him. He was made a captain
and wounded near Fort Meigs, and narrowly escaped death. He was paroled, and late in May, 1813, returned home.
He commenced the study of law, and was not again in the field until ISJSC.Trhen he raised a regiment for the south
western frontier at the time of the revolution in Texas. He became very active in political life. His home was Lex-
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 481
Combs's Voyage down the Maumee River. Greeting of the Flag at Port Meigs. Combs attacked by Indians.
son; also by young Black Fish, a Shawnoese warrior.1 With the latter at the helm,
the other four engaged with the rowing, and himself at the bow in charge of the rifles
and ammunition of the party, Combs pushed off from Defiance, amid cheers and sad
adieus (for few expected to see them again), determined to reach Fort Meigs before
daylight the next morning. The voyage was full of danger. Rain was falling theavi-
ly, and the night was intensely black. They passed the Rapids in safety, but not until
quite late in the morning, when heavy cannonading was heard in the direction of the
fort. It was evident that the expected siege had commenced, and that the perils of
the mission were increased manifold. For a moment Combs was perplexed. To re
turn would be prudent, but would expose his courage to doubts ; to remain until the
next night, or proceed at once, seemed equally hazardous. A decision was soon made
by the brave youth. " We must go on, boys," he said ; " and if you expect the honor
of taking coffee with General Harrison this morning, you must work hard for it."
He went forward with many misgivings, for he knew the weakness of the garrison,
and doubted its ability to hold out long. Great was his satisfaction, therefore, when,
on sweeping around Turkey Point,2 at the last bend in the river by which the fort
was hidden from his view, he saw the stripes and stars waving over the beleaguered
UP THE MADMEK VAM.KY.
camp. Their joy was evinced by a suppressed shout. Suddenly a solitary Indian
appeared in the edge of the woods, and a moment afterward a large body of them
were observed in the gray shadows of the forest, running eagerly to a point below
to cut off Combs and his party from the fort. The gallant captain attempted to dart
by them on the swift current, when a volley of bullets from the savages severely
wounded Johnson and Paxton — the former mortally. The fire was returned with
effect, when the Shawnoese at the helm turned the prow toward the opposite shore.3
There the voyagers abandoned the canoe, and, with their faces toward Defiance, sought
safety in flight. After vainly attempting to take Johnson and Paxton with them,
Combs and Black Fish left them to become captives, and at the end of two days and
two nights the captain reached Defiance, whereat General Clay had just arrived. The
Walkers were also there, having fled more swiftly, because unencumbered. Combs
and his dusky companion had suffered terribly.4 The former was unable to assume
ingtoi), and he was a neighbor and warm personal friend of Henry Clay throughout the long public career of that great
man. The friendship was mutual, and Clay always felt and acknowledged the power of General Combs. He was al way;-
a fluent, eloquent, and most effective speaker, and now, when he has passed the goal of "threescore and ten years,"
he never fails to charm any audience by his words of power, his apt illustrations, and genial humor.
1 He was a grandson of Black Fish, a noted warrior who led the Indians in the attack on Boonsboro', in Kentucky,
in 17T8.
a In the above picture, a view of a portion of the Maumee Valley, as seen from the northwest angle of Fort Meigs,
looking up the river, Turkey Point is seen near the centre, behind the head of Hollister's Island, that divides the river.
A clump of trees, a little to the right of the three small trees in a row near the bank of the river, marks the place. The
Maumee is seen flowing to the right, and to the left the plain, when I made the sketch in the autumn of I860, was
covered with Indian corn, some standing and some in the 'shocks. A canal for hydraulic purposes is seen in the fore
ground. It flows immediately below the ruins of Fort Meigs.
3 It was first thought that the Indians were friendly Shawnoese. So thought Black Fish ; but when he discovered his
mistake, he exclaimed, " Pottawatomie, God damn !"
* Paxton was shot through the body, but recovered. During the political campaign of 1S40, when General Harrison
HH
482 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Preparations for assailing Fort Meigs. Harrison's Speech to his Soldiers. Fort Meigs strengthened.
the command of his company, but he went down the river with the re-enforcements,
and took an active part in the conflict in the vicinity of Fort Meigs. There we shall
meet him again presently.1
The British had completed two batteries nearly opposite to Fort Meigs on the
SITE OF THE BKITISH BATTERIES FROM FORT MEIGS.2
" April, morning of the 30th,a and had mounted their ordnance. One of them bore
813' two twenty-four-pounders, and the other three howitzers — one eight inches,
and the other two five and a half inches calibre. In this labor they had lost some
men by well-directed round shot from the fort, but neither these missiles nor the
drenching rain drove them away. Harrison had not been idle in the mean time.
His force was much inferior to that of the enemy in numbers, but was animated by
the best spirit. On the morning after the British made their appearance near, he ad
dressed his soldiers eloquently in a General Order ;3 and when he discovered the foe
busy in erecting batteries on the opposite shore that would command his works, he
began the construction of a traverse, or wall of earth, on the most elevated ground
through the middle of his camp, twelve feet in height, on a base of twenty feet, and
three hundred yards in length. During its construction it was concealed by the
tents. When these were suddenly removed to the rear of the traverse, the British
engineer, to his great mortification, perceived that his labor had been almost in vain.
Instead of an exposed camp, from which Proctor had boasted he would soon " smoke
was elected President of the United States, General Combs spoke to scores of vast assemblies in his favor. On one
occasion he was in the neighborhood of Paxton's residence, who took a seat on the platform by the side of the speaker.
Combs related the incident of the voyage down the Manmee and their joy at the sight of the old flag on that morning.
" Here," said he, " is the man who was shot through the body. Stand up, Joe, and tell me how many bullets it would
have taken to have killed you at that measure." " More than a peck .'" exclaimed Paxton.
1 I met General Combs at Sandusky City in the autumn of I860, when he gave me an interesting account of his opera
tions in the Maumee Valley at that time. Speaking of his return to Defiance, he said, "Black Fish made his way to his
native village, while I pushed on toward Defiance. It rained incessantly. 1 was compelled to swim several swollen
tributaries to the Maumee, and was dreadfully chafed by walking in wet clothes. My feet were lacerated by traveling
in moccasins over burnt prairies, and my mouth and throat were excoriated by eating bitter hickory-buds, the only
food that I tasted for forty-eight hours. For days afterward I could not eat any solid food. I was placed on a cot in a
boat, and in that manner descended the river with my gallant Kentucky friends."
2 The above little picture, sketched in the autumn of 1800 from the ruins of Croghan Battery (so named in honor of
the gallant defender of Fort Stephenson), Fort Meigs, looking northwest, shows the scattered village of Maumee City
in the distance, with the site of the British batteries in front of it. This is indicated in the picture by the distant bluff
with two houses upon it, immediately beyond the two little figures at the end of the railway-bridge in the middle-
ground. When I visited the spot in 1860, the ridge on which the cannon were planted, lower than the plain on which
the village stands, was very prominent. Behind it was a deep hollow, in which the British artillerymen were securely
posted. On the brow of the plain, just back of the British batteries, indicated by the second bluff with one house upon
it, was afterward the place of encampment of Colonel Johnson. The railway-bridge, seen in the middle-ground of this
picture, has a common passenger-bridge by the side of it. Between the extreme foreground and the railway embank
ment is the ravine mentioned in a description of Fort Meigs on page 474, and indicated in the map on page 488 by a
stream of water.
3 " Can the citizens of a free country," he said, " who have taken arms to defend its rights, think of submitting to an
army composed of mercenary soldiers, reluctant Canadians, goaded to the field by the bayonet, and of wretched, naked
savages ? Can the breast of an American soldier, when he casts his eyes to the opposite shore, the scene of his coun
try's triumphs over the same foe, be influenced by any other feelings than the hope of glory? Is not this army com
posed of the same, materials with that which fought and conquered under the immortal Wayne ? Yes, fellow-soldiers,
your general sees your countenances beam with the same fire that he witnessed on that glorious occasion ; and, al
though it would be the height of presumption to compare himself with that hero, he boasts of being that hero's pupil.*
To your posts, then, fellow-citizens, and remember that the eyes of your country are upon you !"
* Wayne's battle-ground in 1704, and the theatre of his victory, were in sight of the soldiers thus addressed. Harri
son "was Wayne's aid-de-camp on that occasion, and. as we have observed on page 53, was one of his most useful officers.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
483
British and Indians cross the River.
A Gun-boat.
Fort Meigs attacked.
Colonel Christy.
out the Yankees" — in other words, speedily destroy it with shot and shell, he saw
nothing but an immense shield of earth, behind which the Americans were invisible
and thoroughly sheltered. Proctor accordingly modified his plans, and sent a con
siderable force of white men under Captain Muir, and Indians under Tecumtha, to
the eastern side of the river, under cover of the gun-boats, with the evident intention
of preparing for an attack on the fort in the rear. When night fell the British bat
teries were yet silent, and remained .; so ; but a gun-boat, to wed; up. the river near the
fort under, cover of the darkness, fired thirty shots without making any other im
pression than increasing the vigilance of the Americans, who reposed on their arms.
Early in the morning the gun-boat went down the river barren of all honor.
Late in the morning on the 1st of May,a. not withstanding heavy rain-clouds
were driving down the Maumee: Valley, and drenching every thing, with fitful
discharges, the British opened a severe cannonade and bombardment upon Fort Meigs,
and continued the assault, with slight intermissions, for about five days,1 but without
much injury to the fort and garrison. The fire was returned occasionally by eight-
een-pounders. The supply of shot for these and the twelve-pounders was very small,
there not being more than three hundred and sixty of each. They were used with
judicious parsimony, for it was not known how long the siege might last. The Brit
ish, on the contrary, appeared to have powder, balls, and shells in great abundance,
and they poured a perfect storm of missiles — not less than five hundred — upon the
1 1813.
1 A survivor of the War of 1812, and one of the most active and remarkable men of the day when the late civil war
broke out, was Colonel William Christy. He was acting
quarter-master at Fort Meigs, and had charge of all the
stores and flags there at that time. He was only twenty-
two years of age, yet he had, by his energy and patriot
ism, secured the love and confidence of General Harrison
in a remarkable degree. When the first gun was fired
upon Fort Meigs, Harrison called him to his side, and
said, " Sir, go and nail a banner on every battery, where
they shall wave so long as an enemy is in view." Chris
ty obeyed, and there the flags remained during the en
tire siege.
Mr. Christy was born in Georgetown, Kentucky, on the
6th of December, 1791. At an early age he went with his
father to reside near the Ohio, not far distant from Cin
cinnati. He was left an orphan at the age ot fourteen
years. He studied law, and entered upon the duties of
that profession in 1811. When war was declared he join
ed the army under Harrison. That officer knew his fa
ther, and kindly gave the son of his old friend a place in
his military family as aid-de-camp, and, as we have just
observed, he was made acting quarter-master at Fort
Meigs. He behaved gallantly there in the sortie in which
Captain Silver was engaged, and in which his company
suffered terribly. Christy was in subordinate command
in that fight, and received the commendations of his gen
eral. He was promoted to lieutenant in the old First
Regiment of United States Infantry. After the close of
the Harrison campaign, which resulted in victory at the
Thames, he was ordered to join his regiment, then at
Sackett's Harbor. There General Brown appointed him
adjutant, and he was in active service in Northern New
York for some time. When the army was disband
ed, Christy was retained, and was stationed for a while
in New Orleans. He left the army in 1810, and com
menced the career of a commission merchant in New Or
leans. He married there, and soon amassed a fortune,
which he lost, however, by the dishonesty of a partner.
He resumed the practice of the law, and in 1826 published
his "Digest" of the Decisions of the Supreme Court of
the State of Louisiana. Again he amassed a large for
tune. He espoused the cause of Texas, and soon after
ward lost his property, but gained the praiee of being " the first filibuster in the United States." His nature was im
pulsive, and during his residence of more than forty years in New Orleans he had several "affairs of honor," growing
out of political quarrels chiefly. He was a ready and fluent speaker, and during the campaign when Harrison was
candidate for the Presidency, Colonel Christy accompanied his chief in person throughout Ohio, and made more than
one hundred speeches in his behalf. His kindness of heart and ungrudging hospitality ever gained him hosts of warm
friends.
484
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
New Battery opened on Fort Meigs.
Harrison's Defenses.
Critical Situation of the Fort and Garrison.
MORTAR BATTERY
fort all of the first day, and until eleven o'clock at night.1 One or two of the garri
son were killed, and Major Stoddard, of the First Regiment, a soldier of the Revolu
tion, who -commanded the fort when Left witch retired, was so badly wounded by a
fragment of a shell that he died ten days afterward.2
On the morning of the 2d the British opened a third battery of three twelve-
pounders upon the fort from the opposite side of the river, which they had completed
during the night, and all that day the cannonade was kept up briskly. Within the
next twenty-four hours a fourth battery was opened.3 That night a detachment of
artillerists and engineers crossed the river, and mounted guns and mortars upon two
mounds for batteries already constructed in the thickets by the party that crossed on
the 30th, within two hundred and fifty yards of the rear angles of the fort. One of
these, nearest the ravine already mentioned, was a mortar battery ; the other, a few
rods farther southward, was a three-gun battery. Expecting an operation of this
kind, the Americans had constructed traverses in time to foil the enemy ; and when,
toward noon of the 3d, the three cannon and the howitzer opened suddenly upon the
rear angles of the fort, their fire was almost harmless. A few shots from eighteen-
pounders, directed by Gratiot, who
was convalescing, soon silenced the
gun -battery, and the pieces were
hastily drawn off and placed in posi
tion near the ravine.
Shot and shell were hurled upon
the fort more thickly and steadily
on the 3d than at any other time,
but with very little effect. This
seemed to discourage the besiegers,
and on the 4th the fire was materially
slackened. Then Proctor sent Major Chambers with a demand for the surrender of
the post. " Tell General Proctor," responded Harrison, promptly, " that if he shall
take the fort it will be under circumstances that will do him more honor than a thou
sand surrenders." Meanwhile the cannonading from the fort was feeble, because of
O 7
the scarcity of ammunition. " With plenty of it," wrote Captain Wood, " we should
have blown John Bull from the Miami." The guns were admirably managed, and
did good execution at every discharge. The Americans were well supplied with
food and water5 for a long siege, and could well afford to spend time and weary the
assailants by merely defensive warfare sufficient to keep the foe at bay. They ex
hibited their confidence and spirit by frequently mounting the ramparts, swinging
their hats, and shouting defiance to their besiegers. Nevertheless, Harrison was
anxious. Hull and Winchester had failed and suffered. The foe was strong, wily,
and confident. So he looked hourly and anxiously up the Maumee for the hoped-for
re-enforcements. Since Navarre and Oliver went out, he had heard nothing from
1 As the enemy were throwing large numbers of cannon-balls into the fort from their batteries, Harrison offered a gill
of whisky for every one delivered to the magazine-keeper, Thomas L. Hawkins. Over one thousand gills were thus
earned by the soldiers. — Howe's Historical Collections of Ohio, page 532. An eyewitness (Reverend A. M. Lorraine) re
lates that one of the militia took his station on the embankment, watched every shot, and forewarned the garrison
thus : " Shot," or "bomb," as the case might be ; sometimes " Block-house No. 1," or "Look out, main battery," "Now
for the meat-house," " Good-by, if yon will pass." At last a shot hit him and killed him instantly.
2 Amos Stoddard was a native of Massachusetts, and was commissioned a captain of artillery in 179S. He was re
tained in 1802. In 1804 and '05 he was governor of the Missouri Territory. He was promoted to major in 1807. He
was deputy quarter-master in 1S12, but left the staff in December of that year. He died of tetanus, or lockjaw, on the
llth of May, 1813. He was the author of "Sketches of Louisiana," published in 1810.
3 These were named as follows, as indicated on the above map : a, Mortar ; 6, Queen's ; c, Sailor's ; and d, King's.
* This plan is from a sketch made by Joseph H. Larwell, on the 19th of July, 1813. All the dotted lines represent the
traverses, a a a a a indicate the block-houses ; b b, the magazines ; c c c c, minor batteries. The grand and mortar
batteries and the well are indicated by name.
5 During the first three days of the siege the Americans were wholly dependent upon the rain for water. Those who
were sent to fetch it were exposed to the fire of the enemy. On the fourth they had completed a well within the fort
which gave them an ample supply.
PLAN OF FOKT MEIGS.4
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 485
General Clay moving down the Maumee. Harrison's Plans developed. Movements near Fort Meigs.
abroad. His suspense was ended at near midnight on the 4th, when Captain Oliver,
with Major David Trimble and fifteen men who had come down the river in a boat,
made their way into the fort as bearers of the glad tidings that General Clay and
eleven hundred Kentuckians were only eighteen miles distant, and would probably
reach the post before morning.
Captain Oliver had found Clay at Fort "Winchester on the 3d. The cannonading
at Fort Meigs was distinctly heard there, and Clay pressed forward as speedily as
possible with eighteen large flat scows, whose sides were furnished with shields
against the bullets of Indians who might infest the shores of the river. It was late
in the evening when the flotilla reached the head of the Rapids, eighteen miles from
the scene of conflict. The moon had gone down, and the overcast sky made the night
so intensely dark that the pilot refused to proceed before daylight. It was then that
Trimble and his brave fifteen volunteered to accompany Captain Oliver to the fort,
to cheer the hearts of Harrison and his men by the tidings of succor near. It did
cheer them. Harrison immediately conceived a plan of operations for Clay, and dis
patched Captain Hamilton and a subaltern in a canoe to meet the general, and say to
him with delegated authority, " You must detach about eight hundred men from your
brigade, and land them at a point I will show you, about a mile or a mile and a half
above Camp Meigs. I will then conduct the detachment to the British batteries on
the left bank of the river. The batteries must be taken, the cannon spiked, and
carriages cut down, and the troops must then return to the boats and cross over to
the fort. The balance of your men must land on the fort side of the river, opposite
the first landing, and fight their way into the fort through the Indians. The route
they must take will be pointed out by a subaltern officer now with me, who will land
the canoe on the right bank of the river, to point out the landing for the boats."
This explicit order reveals much of Harrison's well-devised plan. He knew that
the British force at the batteries was inconsiderable, for the main body were still
near old Fort Miami, and the bulk of the Indians with Tecumtha were on the eastern
side of the river. His object was to strike simultaneous and effectual blows on both
banks of the stream. While Dudley was demolishing the British batteries on the
left bank, and Clay was fighting the Indians on the right, he intended to make a gen
eral sally from the fort, destroy the batteries in the rear, and disperse or capture the
whole British force on that side of the river.
It was almost sunrise when Clay left the head of the Rapids. He descended the
river with his boats arranged in solid column, as in a line of march, each officer hav
ing position according to rank. Dudley, being the senior colonel, led the van.
Hamilton met them, in this order, ajbout five miles above the fort. Clay was in the
thirteenth boat from the front. When Harrison's orders were delivered, he directed
Dudley to take the twelve front boats and execute the commands of the chief con
cerning the British batteries, while he should press forward and perform the part as
signed to himself.
Colonel Dudley executed his prescribed task most gallantly and successfully. The
current was swift, and the shores were rough, but his detachment effected a landing
.in fair order. They ascended to the plain on which Maumee City stands unobserved
by the enemy, and were there formed for marching in three parallel columns, the
right led by Dudley, the left by Major Shelby, and the centre, as a reserve, by Acting
Major Morrison. Captain Combs, with thirty riflemen, including seven friendly In
dians, flanked in front full a hundred yards distant.1 In this order they moved through
the woods a mile and a half toward the British batteries, which were playing briskly
upon Fort Meigs, when the columns were so disposed as to inclose the enemy in a
1 At the request of General Clay, Captain Combs furnished him with minute information respecting the operations
nnder Dudley, in a letter dated May 6, 1815. The writer has kindly furnished me with a copy of that letter, from which
the main facts of this portion of the narrative have been drawn.
486 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Dudley half wins Victory, and loses it. Sad Result of Zeal and Humanity. Americans defeated and made Prisoners.
crescent, with every prospect of capturing the whole force. Dudley had failed to in
form his subalterns of his exact plans, and that remissness was a fatal mistake. Shel
by's column, by his order, penetrated to a point between the batteries and the Brjt-
ish camp below, when the right column, led by Dudley in person, raised the horrid
Indian yell, rushed forward, charged upon the enemy with wild vehemence, captured
the heavy guns and spiked eleven of them without losing a man. The riflemen,
meanwhile, had been attacked by the Indians, and, not aware of Dudley's designs,
thought it their duty to fight instead of falling back upon the main body. This was
the fatal mistake. The main object of the expedition was fully accomplished, al
though the batteries were not destroyed. The British flag was pulled down, and as
it trailed to earth loud huzzas went up from the beleaguered fort.
Harrison had watched the moment with intense interest from his chief battery, and
when he saw the British flag lowered, he signaled Dudley to fall back to his boats
and cross the river, according to explicit orders. Yet the victors lingered, and sharp
firing was heard in the woods in the rear of the captured batteries. Harrison was
indignant because of the disobedience. Lieutenant Campbell volunteered to carry a
peremptory order across to Dudley to retreat, but when he arrived the victory so
gloriously won was changed into a sad defeat. Humanity had caused disobedience,
and terrible was the penalty. At the moment when the batteries were taken, as we
have just observed, Indians in ambush attacked Combs and his riflemen. With quick
and generous impulse, Dudley ordered them to be re-enforced. A greater part of
the right and centre columns instantly rushed into the woods in considerable dis
order, accompanied by their colonel. Thirty days in camp had given them very little
discipline. It Avas of little account at the outset, for, disorderly as they were, they
soon put the Indians to flight, and relieved Combs and his little party. That work
accomplished, discipline should have ruled. It did not. Impelled by the enthusiasm
and confidence which is born of victory, and forgetful of all the maxims of prudence,
they pursued the flying savages almost to the British camp. Shelby's column still
held possession of the batteries when this pursuit commenced, but the British artil
lerists, largely re-enforced, and led by the gallant Captain Dixon, soon returned and
recaptured them, taking some of the Kentuckians prisoners, and driving the others
toward their boats.1 Meanwhile the Indians had been re-enforced, and had turned
fiercely upon Dudley. His men were in utter confusion, and all attempts at command
were futile. Shelby had rallied the remnant of his column and marched to the aid
of Dudley, but he only participated in the confusion and flight. The Kentuckians
were scattered in every direction through the woods back of where Maumee City now
stands, making but feeble resistance, and exposed to the deadly fire of the skulking
savages. The flight became a rout, precipitate and disorderly, and a greater part
of Dudley's command were killed or captured, after a contest of about three hours.
Dudley, who was a heavy, fleshy man, was overtaken, tomahawked, and scalped, and
his captive companions, including Captain Combs and his spies, were marched to old
Fort Miami as prisoners of war. Of the eight hundred2 who followed him from the
boats, only one hundred and seventy escaped to Fort Meigs.3
1 When Proctor was apprised of the approach of the detachment under Dudley, he supposed it to be the advance of
the main American army, and he immediately recalled a large portion of his force on the eastern side of the river.
About seven hundred Indians were among them, led by Tecumtha. They did not arrive in time to participate iu the
battle, but they allowed Proctor to send large re-enforcements from his camp.
3 The exact number of officers and private soldiers were, of Dudley's regiment, 761 ; Boswell's, CO, and regulars, 45—
total, SCO.— Manuscript Reports among the Clay papers.
3 General Harrison censured Colonel Dudley's men in General Orders on the 9th of May, signed by John O'Fallon,
his acting assistant adjutant general. " It rarely occurs," he said, " that a general has to complain of the excessive
ardor of his men, yet such appears always to be the case whenever the Kentucky militia are engaged. Indeed, it is
the source of all their misfortunes." After speaking of the rash act in pursuing the enemy, he remarked, " Such temer
ity, although not so disgraceful, is scarcely less fatal than cowardice." In a letter to Governor Shelby on the 18th, Gen
eral Harrison censured Colonel Dudley. " Had he retreated," he said, " after taking the batteries, or had he made a
disposition to retreat in case of defeat, all would have been well. He could have crossed the river, and even if he had
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 487
Clay's Encounter with the Indians. A Sally ing-party and their Perils. A gallant Messenger.
While these tragic scenes were transpiring on the left bank of the river, others
equally stirring were in progression in the vicinity of Fort Meigs. General Clay had
attempted to land the six remaining boats under his command nearly opposite the
place of Dudley's debarkation, but the swiftness of the current, swollen by the heavy
rains, drove five of them ashore. The other, containing General Clay, with Captain
Peter Dudley and fifty men, kept the stream, separated from the rest, and finally land
ed on the eastern bank of the river opposite to Hollister's Island. There they were
assailed by musketry from a cloud of Indians on the left flank of the fort, and by
round shot from the batteries opposite. Notwithstanding the great peril, Clay and
his party returned the Indians' attack with spirit, and reached the fort without the
loss of a man.
Colonel Boswell's command in the other boats, consisting of a part of the battalions
of Kentucky militia under Major
William Johnson, and two other
companies of Kentucky levies, land-
ed near Turkey Point. He. was im
mediately ordered by Captain Hamilton, General Harrison's representative, to fight
his way into the fort. The same Indians who assailed Clay disputed his passage.
Boswell arranged his men in open order, marched boldly over the low plain,1 engaged
the savages on the slopes and brow of the high plateau most gallantly, and reached
the fort without suffering very serious loss. There he was greeted by thanks and
shouts of applause, and met by a sallying-party2 coming out to join him in an imme
diate attack upon that portion of the enemy with whom he had just been engaged,
pursuant to Harrison's original plan of assailing the foe on both sides of the river at
the same time. There was but a moment's delay. Boswell on the right, Major Al
exander and his volunteers on the left, and Major Johnson in the centre, was the or
der in which the party advanced against their dusky foe. They fell upon the sav
ages furiously, drove them half a mile into the woods at the point of the bayonet, and
utterly routed them. In their zeal the victors were pursuing with a recklessness that,
if continued, would have resulted in disaster like that which overwhelmed Dudley.
Fortunately, General Harrison, always on the alert, had taken a stand, with a spy
glass, on one of his batteries, from which he could survey the whole field of opera
tions. He discovered a body of British and Indians gliding swiftly along the bor
ders of the woods to cut off the retreat of the pursuers, when he dispatched a volun
teer aid (John T. Johnson, Esq.) to recall his troops. It was a perilous undertaking.
The gallant aid-de-camp had a horse shot under him, but he succeeded in communi
cating the general's orders in time to allow the imperiled detachment to return with
out much loss.
General Harrison now ordered a sortie from the fort against the enemy's works on
.the right, near the deep ravine. For this purpose three hundred and fifty men were
lost one or two hundred men, he would have brought over a re-enforcement of six hundred, which would have enabled
me to take the whole British force on this side of the river." Harrison did not then know that Dudley had sacrificed
the greater portion of his little army and his own life in the humane attempt to save Combs and his party from destruc
tion. Combs afterward called General Harrison's attention to the injustice of his censure. It was too late ; it had
passed into history, and has been perpetuated by the pens of successive chroniclers.
William Dudley was a citizen of Fayette County, Kentucky, at that time, but was a native of Spottsylvania County,
Virginia. He was a magistrate in Kentucky formally years, and was highly esteemed. He was overtaken, as we have
observed in the text, by the Indians, and shot in the body and thigh. When last seen he was sitting on a stump in a
swamp, defending himself against a swarm of savages. He was finally killed, and his body was dreadfully mutilated.
I was informed by Abraham Miley, of Batavia, Ohio, who was in Fort Meigs at the time of the siege, that when the body
of Dudley was found a large piece had been cut from the fleshy part of his thigh by the savages, which they doubt
less ate. ,
1 See picture on page 481, and note 2 on the same page.
2 Composed of Pennsylvania and Virginia Volunteers (the former, except a small company, known as the Pittsburg
Slues, and the latter the Petersburg Volunteers), a company of the Nineteenth United States Regiment under Captain
Waring, and Captain Dudley's company, who had followed Clay into the fort. The Pittsburg Blues were commanded by
Captain James Butler, son of the General Butler who fell at St. Clair's defeat in 1791. See pages 47 and 48. The Vir
ginians were under Captain M'Crea.
488
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Sortie from Port Meigs.
Proctor disheartened.
He is deserted by his Fellow-savages.
detailed, and placed under the command of Colonel John Miller,1 of the regular serv
ice. They consisted of the companies of United States troops under Captains Lang-
ham, Croghan, Bradford, Nearing,2 Elliott,3 and Gwynne,4 and Lieutenant Campbell ;
Major Alexander's5 volunteers, and a company of Kentucky militia under Captain Se-
bree.6 Miller was accompanied by Major George Todd, of the Nineteenth Infantry,
and led his command with the greatest bravery. They charged with the fiercest im
petuosity upon the motley foe, eight hundred and fifty strong, drove them from their
batteries at the point of the bayonet, spiked their guns, and scattered them in confu
sion in the woods beyond the ravine toward the site of the present village»of Perrys-
burg. The enemy fought desperately, and Miller lost several of his brave men. At
one moment the utter destruction of Sebree's company seemed inevitable. They were
surrounded by four times their number of Indians, when Gwynne, of the Nineteenth,
perceiving their peril, rushed to their rescue with a part of Elliott's company. They
were saved. The object of the sortie was accomplished, and the victors returned to
the fort with forty-three prisoners, followed by the enemy, who had rallied in con
siderable force.1
After these sorties on the 5th the siege of Fort Meigs was virtually abandoned by
Proctor. The result of that
day's fighting, combined with
the ill success of all preceding
efforts to reduce the fort, were
so disheartening that his In
dian allies deserted him, and
the Canadian militia turned
their faces homeward.8 The
splendid Territory of Michi
gan had been promised to the
Prophet as a reward for his
services in the capture of Fort
Meigs, and Tecumtha was to
have the person of General
Harrison, whom he had hated
intensely since the battle of
Tippecanoe in 1811, as his pe
culiar trophy. These prom-
8LEGB OF FORT MEIGS.
1 Colonel of the Nineteenth Eegiment of Kegulars. He was a native of Ohio, and was commissioned colonel on the
6th of July, 1812. He was transferred to the Seventeenth Infantry in May, 1814. In 1818 he left the army. He was gov
ernor of Missouri from 1828 to 1832, and a representative in Congress from 1837 to 1843. He died at Florisant, Missouri,
on the 18th of March, 1846.
2 Abel Nearing was from Connecticut. He survived the siege, but died on the 13th of September following from the
effects of fever.
3 Captain Elliott was a nephew of the notorious Colonel Elliott in the British service, and then with Proctor, and of
Captain Jesse Elliott, of the United States Navy, on Lake Erie at that time.
* David Gwynne, as first lieutenant and regimental paymaster, had accompanied Colonel J. B. Campbell against the
Mississinawa Towns (see page 346). He was made captain in March, 1813. In August he was made brigade major to
General M'Arthur, and in 1814 was raised to major of riflemen. He left the army in 1816, and died near St. Louis in 1849.
s Major Alexander was a brave officer. He commanded a rifle company, Pennsylvania Volunteers, in Campbell's ex
pedition against the Mississinawa towns in December, 1812.
6 Uriel Sebree was a captain in Scott's Kentucky Volunteers in August, 1812, and was with Major Madison at French-
town, under Winchester. He was a gallant officer.
7 The Americans lost in this sortie 28 killed and 25 wounded.— MS. Report.
8 "I had not the option of retaining my position on the Miami. Half of the militia had left us. ... Before the ord
nance could be withdrawn from the batteries I was left with Tecumtha and less than twenty chiefs and warriors— a
circumstance which strongly proves that, under present, circumstances at least, our Indian force is not a disposable one, or
permanent, though occasionally a most powerful aid."— Proctor's Dispatch to Governor Prevost.
In his dispatch to Sir George Prevost from Sandwich on the 14th of May Proctor fairly acknowledged himself defeat
ed, and, admitting that he had no data for judging how many the Americans had lost in killed, " conceived" the num
ber to have been between a thousand and twelve hundred ; whereupon Sir George deceived the Canadians and falsified
history by asserting, in a General Order, he had " great satisfaction in announcing to the troops the brilliant result of
an action which took place on the banks of the Miami River," and ""which terminated in the complete defeat of the ene
my, and capture, dispersion, or destruction of thirteen hundred men !" By a comparison of the most reliable accounts
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
489
Flight of the British and Indians.
Massacre of Prisoners at Fort Miami.
Tecumtha's Rebuke of Pro<*or.
ises were all unfulfilled. The Indians left in disgust, and probably nothing but Te
cumtha's commission and pay as brigadier in the British army secured his farther
services in the cause.
Proctor's eyes saw his savage allies leaving him and his Canadian militia discon
tented, and his ears heard the startling intelligence that Fort George, on the Niagara
frontier, was in the hands of the Americans, and that re-enforcements were coming
from Ohio for the little army at Fort Meigs.1 He saw nothing before him, if he re
mained, but the capture or dispersion of his troops, and he resolved to flee. With
the design of concealing this fact that he might move off with safety, he again sent
Captain Chambers to demand the surrender of the fort. Harrison regarded the ab
surd message as an intended insult, and requested that it should not be repeated. It
was the last friendly communication between the belligerents.2
Proctor attempted to bear away from his batteries his unharmed cannon, but a few
shots from Fort Meigs made him withdraw speedily. A parting response in kind
from one of his gun-boats, in return, slew several, among them Lieutenant Robert
Walker, of the Pittsburg ^ returned to Amherstburg
with the remains of his lit
tle army, leaving behind
him a record of infamy on
the shores of that stream
in the wilderness equal in
blackness to that upon the
banks of the Raisin.4 Here,
in few words, is the record,
attested by Captain Wood,
On the surrender of Dudley's command the prisoners
were marched down to Fort Miami with an escort, and there, under the eye of Proc
tor and his officers, the Indians, who had already plundered them and murdered many
on the way,6 were allowed to shoot, tomahawk, and scalp more than twenty of them.
This butchery was stopped by Tecumtha, who proved himself to be more humane
than his British ally and brother officer, Henry Proctor.7
Blues, whose grave may yet
be identified within the re
mains of the fort by a plain,
rough stone, with a simple
inscription, that stands at
its head.3 This was the last
life lost in the siege. In the
same vessels that brought
him to the Maumee, Proctor
of the Engineers, and others.5
REMAINS OF WALKER S MOXC.MENT.
on both sides, the loss of the Americans during the siege may fairly, it seems, be put down at about 80 killed, 270 wound
ed, and 470 prisoners. The British loss was 15 killed, 47 wounded, and 44 made prisoners.
1 We have observed (page 478) that Peter Navarre was sent from Fort Meigs with a letter to the Governor of Ohio.
That energetic man immediately sent messengers in all directions for volunteers, and he was very soon on his way to
the relief of the beleaguered garrison. His march was arrested by the flight of the besiegers.
2 Harrison's dispatches to the Secretary of War, May 9, 1813 ; Proctor's dispatch to Sir George Prevost, May 14, 1813 ;
M'Aiee's History of the Late War; Perkins's and Thomson's Sketches, etc. ; Captain Wood's Narrative, cited by M'Afee :
Major Richardson's Narrative ; Auchinleck's History of the War of 1812 ; General Clay's Letter to General Harrison, May
13, 1813 ; Captain Combs's Letter to General Clay, May 5, 1815 ; General Harrison to Governor Shelby, May 18, 1813 ;
Armstrong's Notices of the War of 1812 ; Onderdonk's MS. Life of Tecumseh; Speech of Elentheros Cook, Esq., of San-
dnsky City, at Fort Meigs, June 11, 1840; Narratives of Rev. A. M. Lorraine and Joseph R. Underwood, eyewitnesses,
quoted by Howe ; Hosmer's Early History of the Maumee Valley; oral statements to the Author by Peter Navarre.
3 The little monument, which contained only the words, Lieutenant Walker, May 9, 1813, had been greatly mutilated,
when I visited the spot in the autumn of 1800, by relic-seekers, those modern iconoclasts whose business, when thus
pursued, is simply infamous. The remains of the stone, as delineated in the picture, was only about five inches above
the ground. It is of limestone, and was wrought by a stone-cutter in the garrison not long after his burial. A few rods
east of it is the grave of Lieutenant M'Culloch, who was killed during the summer by Indians while out hunting.
* See the close of Chapter XVII.
5 In Howe's Historical Collections of Ohio, page 533, may be found a very interesting narrative of the horrid events at
Fort Miami, by Joseph R. Underwood, who was present. It is more circumstantial than the letter of Captain Combs
to General Clay, mentioned below.
6 Major Richardson, of the British army, who wrote an account of events under Brock and Proctor in the West, says
that the Indians who made the attack, in spite of the efforts of the guard, were some who had taken no part in the bat
tle. "An old and excellent soldier," he says, "of the name 01 Russell, of the Forty-first, was shot through the heart
while endeavoring to wrest a victim from the grasp of his assailant."
3 Major Richardson, just quoted, says, in speaking of the massacre : " More than forty of these unhappy men had fall
en beneath the steel of the infuriated party, when Tecumtha, apprised of what was doing, rode up at full speed, and,
raising his tomahawk, threatened to destroy the first man who resisted his injunction to desist.
General Leslie Combs, then, as we have seen, a captain of spies, and one of the prisoners, in a letter to General Clay,
already alluded to, gave a very particular account of the affair. A copy of that letter, furnished by General Combs in
1861, is before me. He says that the prisoners, on their march toward Fort Meigs, met a body of Indians, who, in the
490
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
A 'Wsit to the Maumee Valley.
Interesting traveling Companions.
Peter Navarre.
PETER MAVAKUE.
I visited the theatre of events just de
scribed, on the 24th of September, 1860,
and had the singular good fortune to be
accompanied by L. H. Hosmer, Esq., of To
ledo, author of The Early History of the
Maumee Valley, and the venerable Peter
Nav.arre (a Canadian Frenchman), General
Harrison's trusty scout, already mention
ed.1 Navarre resided about twenty miles
from Toledo, and had come into the city
on business two or three days before. Mr.
Hosmer, aware of my intended visit at that
time, had kindly detained him until my ar
rival. Only two days before, I had enjoyed
a long conversation at the " West House,"
in Sandusky City, with General Leslie
Combs, who had just visited Fort Meigs
for the first time , since he was there as a
soldier and prisoner, in 1813. That visit
had recalled the incidents of the campaign
most vividly to his mind, and he related them to me with his usual enthusiasm and
perspicuity. With the soldier's description in my memory, and the historian and
scout at my side, I visited Fort Meigs and its historical surroundings under the most
favorable circumstances.
The night of my arrival at Toledo had been a tempestuous one — wind, lightning,
rain, and a sprinkle of hail. The following morning was clear and cool, with a blus
tering wind from the southwest. We left the city for our ride up the Maumee Val
ley at nine o'clock, in a light carriage and a strong team of horses. Mr. Hosmer vol
unteered to be coachman. Our road lay on the right side of the river ; and when
nearly seven miles from Toledo we came to the site of Proctor's encampment, on a
level plateau a short distance from the Maumee, upon land owned, when we visited
presence and without the interference of General Proctor, Colonel Elliott, and other officers, as well as the British
guard, commenced robbing the captives of clothes, money, watches, etc. Combs showed his wound as a plea for con
sideration, but without effect. He too was stripped. As they passed on, the prisoners saw ten or twelve dead men,
naked and scalped, and near them two lines of Indians were formed from the entrance of a triangular ditch in front to
the old gate of the fort, a distance of forty or fifty feet. Between these the prisoners were compelled to run the gaunt
let, and in that race many were killed or maimed with pistols, war-clubs, scalping-kuives, and tomahawks. The num
ber of prisoners thus slaughtered, without Proctor's attempt at interference, was estimated at a number nearly, if not
quite equal to those slain in battle.
When the surviving prisoners were all inside, the savages raised the war-whoop and commenced loading their guns.
The massacre already accomplished, and this preparation for a renewal of it, were made known to Tecumtha, who has
tened to the fort with all the rapidity of his horse's speed, and, more humane than his white ally, instantly interposed
and saved the lives of the remainder. Elliott then rode in, waved his sword, and the savages retired.
Drake, in his Life of Tecumtha, says that the warrior authoritaively demanded, "Where is General Proctor?" Seeing
him near, he sternly inquired of him why he had not put a stop to the massacre. "Your Indians can not be command
ed," replied Proctor, who trembled with fear in the presence of the enraged chief. "Begone !" retorted Tecumtha, in
perfect disdain. " You are unfit to command ; go and put on petticoats !"
The half-naked prisoners were taKen in a cold rain-storm that night, in open boats, to the mouth of Swan Creek, and
thence to Maiden. After a brief confinement there they were sent across the river, and at the mouth of the Huron were
left to find their way to the nearest settlement in Ohio, fifty miles distant.
1 Peter Navarre was a grandson of Robert Navarre, a French officer who came to America in 1745. He settled at De
troit, and there Peter was born about the year 1790, and,with his father and family, settled at the mouth of the Maumee
in 1807. At that time Kan-tiuk-ee-mm, the widow of Pontiac, was living there with her son, Otussa. She was very old,
and was held in great reverence. Navarre was at the Prophet's Town, on the Wabash, with a French trader, when Har
rison arrived there just before the battle of Tippecanoe, but escaped. He joined Hull's army at the Rapids, was with
him at Detroit, and, after the surrender, returned to the Raisin and enlisted in Colonel Anderson's regiment. He was
there when Brock was ordered to surrender (see page 201), but was afterward compelled to accompany the British as a
guide up the Maumee, where, as we have seen, he deserted and fled to Winchester's camp. He was an eyewitness of
the massacre at the River Raisin. After that, Navarre and his brothers were employed as scouts, and performed ex
cellent service. He is a stout-built man, of dark complexion, and is now [1807] about eighty years of age. He speaks
English imperfectly, as the Canadian French usually do. The above portrait is from a daguerreotype taken in Toledo
when he was about seventy years of age, and kindly presented to me by Mr. Hosmer.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
491
Remains of Port Miami.
Maumee City and its historical Elm-tree.
Presque Isle Hill.
KUINS OF FORT MIAMI.
it, by Henry W. Horton. Across a small ravine, a few rods farther southward, were
the remains of old Fort Miami, famous, as we have seen, in Wayne's time, as one of
the outposts of the British,
impudently erected in the
Indian country within the
acknowledged territory of
the United States.1 It was
upon the land of Benjamin
Starbird, whose dwelling
was just beyond the south
ern side of the fort. It was
a regular w^ork, and covered
about two acres of land. The
embankments were from fif
teen to twenty feet in height.
They were covered with
heavy sward, and fine hon
ey-locust and hickory trees
were growing upon them.
These were in full leaf, and
the grass was very green,
when we were there. From the northwest angle of the fort I made the accompany
ing sketch, which includes the general appearance of the mounds. On the right is
seen a barn, which stands within the triangular outwork, at the sally-port mentioned
by Captain Combs- in his narrative, substantially given in Note 7, page 489, where he
was compelled to run the gauntlet for his life ; and on the left a glimpse of the Mau
mee. All about the old fort is now quiet. For more than fifty years peace has smiled
upon the Maumee Valley ; and Proctor and Tecumtha, Elliott and The Prophet, and
the other savages of the war, white and red, are almost forgotten, except by those
families who suffered from their cruelty.
From Fort Miami we rode up to Maumee City, opposite Fort Meigs, a pleasant lit
tle village of about two thousand inhabitants, situated at the head of river naviga
tion, eight miles from Toledo. It is the capital of Lucas County, Ohio, and was laid
out in 1817 by Major William Oliver and others, within a reservation of twelve miles
square. The bank of the river, curving gracefully inward here, is almost one hund
red feet in height. Nearly opposite lies the little village of Perry sburg, and between
them is a fertile, cultivated island of two hundred acres, with smaller islands around
it. Directly in front are seen the mounds of Fort Meigs and a forest back of them ;
and up the Maumee are the considerable islands known respectively as Hollister's and
Buttonwood, or Peninsula. The latter view is delineated in the sketch on the next
page, taken from the main road along the brow of the river bank in front of the
village. In it is seen the magnificent elm-tree that stood near the old " Jefferson
Tavern ;" and in the middle, in the distance, over Hollister's Island, is seen Turkey
Point, memorable in connection with the adventures of Combs and the landing of
Boswell. That elm is famous. We have observed that, at the beginning of the
siege, the water used by the garrison was taken from the riA^er at great risk. From
the thick foliage of this elm several bullets from rifles in the hands of Indians went
on death-errands across the river to the water-carriers. These were returned by
Kentucky riflemen, and tradition says that not less than six savages were brought to
the ground out of that tree by those sharp-shooters.
From Maumee City we rode three miles up to Presque Isle Hill2 (the scene of
Wayne's operations), wandered over the battle-gnwnd of The Fallen Timber,3 and
See page 54.
2 See page 55.
3 See Map on page 55,
492
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Remains of Fort Meigs.
The Well.
Political Reminiscences.
sketched Turkey-Foot's Rock, given on page
55. We then returned to the bridges (com
mon carriage and railway bridge), and crossed
to Fort Meigs, the form of which we found dis
tinctly marked by the mounds of earth. That
of the Grand Traverse1 was from four to six
feet in height, and all wrere covered with green
sward. The fort originally included about
ten acres, but was somewhat reduced in size
before the second siege, which we shall no
tice presently. The places of the block
houses were visible, and the situation of the
well, near the most easterly angle of tlje fort,
was marked by a shallow pit, and a log in an
upright position, seven or eight feet in height.2
UP THE MAUMEE, FEOM MATJMEE CITY.
On leaving the fort we strolled along the ravine on its right and rear to the site of
the British battery captured by Colonel Miller. There yet stood the primeval for
est-trees — the very woods in which Tecumtha and his Indians were concealed. A
little brook was flowing peacefully through the shallow glen, and the high wind that
1 See Plan of Fort Meigs on page 484.
2 That log has a history. In 1840, General Harrison, then living at North
Bend, on the Ohio, was nominated for President of the United States. It
was said that the hero lived ill a log cabin, was very hospitable, and was ever
ready to give the traveler a draught of hard cider. Politicians, who are al
ways anxious to find something to charm the popular mind, took the hint,
and when the partisans of the general, during the political canvass that en
sued, held large meetings, they erected a log cabin, and had a barrel of cider
for the refreshment of all comers. In a short time there were log cabins in
every city and village in the land. The partisans of the general made a cap
ital " hit," and he was elected by an overwhelming majority. During that
canvass a mass meeting of his partisans in Northern Ohio was appointed to
be held at Fort Meigs, and, on the day previous to the time appointed for it,
logs were taken there for the purpose of building a cabin. On that night
some political opponents in the neighborhood spoiled the logs by sawing
them in two. The cabin-building was 'abandoned. One of the logs was
placed in an upright position in the nearly-filled old well, a large hole was
bored in the end, a small pole was inserted, and upon it was raised a banner
before the eyes of the assembled multitude,* having on it a rude picture of a
man sawing a log, and the words "1.000 FOOO ZEAL." In those days the Dem
ocratic party were called Loco Focos, the origin of which name was as follows : A faction of the Democratic party met
to organize in the city of New York, when some opponents suddenly turned off the gas. This trick had been played be
fore, and they were prepared. In an instant loco foco matches were produced from their pockets, and the gas-lamps
relighted. From that time they were called the Loco Foco Party, and it became the general name, in derision, of the
whole Democratic party.
* This meeting was held on the llth day of June. It was estimated that forty thousand persons were present. The
orator of the day was Elentheros Cooke, Esq., of Sandusky City. The Reverend Mr. Badeau, the clergyman who offi
ciated, was the chaplain of Harrison's army, and in the fort at the siege.
WELL AT FOKT MEIGS.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
493
Visit to Fort Meigs and its Vicinity.
Journey back to Toledo.
Adieu to the Guide and Historian.
made the great trees rock was scarcely felt in the quiet nook. There we three — his
torian, scout, and traveler — had a " p*icnic" on food brought from Toledo, and clear
water from the brook, and at one o'clock we departed for the city, passing clown the
right bank of the Maumee. Just after leaving the fort we rode through Perrysburg,
a pleasant village about the size of Maumee City, and the capital of Wood County,
Ohio. It was laid out in 1816, and named in honor of the gallant victor on Lake
Erie three years before.
When we arrived at the ferry station opposite Toledo, the boat had ceased running
because of low water. The wind had been blowing stiffly toward the lake all day,
and expelled so much water from the river that the boat grounded in attempting to
cross, so we left our team to be sent for, were borne over in a skiff at the moderate
price of three cents apiece, and were at the " Oliver House" in time for a late dinner,
and a stroll about the really fine little city of Toledo1 before sunset. At that hour I
parted company with Mr. Navarre, with heartfelt thanks for his services, for he had
been an authentic and intelligent guide to every place of interest at and around Fort
Meigs. I spent a portion of the evening with General John E. Hunt (a brother-in-
law of General Cass), who was born in Fort Wayne in 1798. His father was an offi
cer under General Wayne at the capture of Stony Point, on the Hudson, in 1779, and
composed one of the " forlorn hope" on that occasion. Although General Hunt was
only a boy at the time, he was attached to General Hull's military family during the
entire campaign which ended so disastrously at Detroit at midsummer.
At ten o'clock in the evening I bade good-by to kind Mr. Hosmer, and went up the
Maumee Valley by railway to Defiance, where I landed at midnight, as already men
tioned,2 in a chilling fog.
1 Toledo is on the left bank of the Maumee River, near its entrance into Maumee Bay, at the lake terminus of the
Wabash and Erie Canal. It covers the site of Fort Industry, a stockade erected there about the year 1800, near what is
now Summit Street. It stretches along the river for nearly a mile and a half, and the business was originally concen
trated at two points, which were two distinct settlements, known respectively as Port Lawrence and Vistula. Toledo
was incorporated as a city in 1836, and has now [186T] almost twenty thousand inhabitants. Little more than thirty
years ago Ohio and Michigan disputed firmly for the possession of Toledo — a prize worth contending for, for it is a poit
of great importance. They armed, and an inter-state war seemed inevitable for a while. It was finally settled by Con
gress, and Toledo is within the boundaries of Ohio. For a full account of this " war," see Howe's Historical Collections
of Ohio, and Major Stickney's narrative in Hosmer's Early History of the Maumee Valley. 2 See page 332.
494 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Harrison's Provision for the frontier Defence. At his Head-quarters in Ohio. Colonel Johnson's proposed Campaign.
CHAPTER XXIV.
"Sound, oh sound Columbia's shell !
High the thundering psean raise !
Let the echoing bugle's swell,
Loudly answering, sound his praise !
'Tis Sandusky's warlike boy,
Crowned with Victory's trophies, comes !
High arise, ye shouts of joy,
Sound the loud triumphant sound,
And beat the drums." C. L. S. JONES.
S soon as General Harrison was certain that Proctor had abandoned
the attempt to gain possession of the Maumee Valley and had re
turned to Maiden, he placed the command of the troops at Fort
Meigs in charge of the competent General Clay, and started for
Lower Sandusky and the interior, to make provision for the de
fense of the Erie frontier against the exasperated foe. He left the
fort under an escort of cavalry commanded by Major Ball, whose
horses had been sheltered by the traverses during the sie«-e. He
•/ O O
arrived at Lower Sandusky on the 12th of May, where he met
Governor Meigs with a large body of Ohio volunteers pressing
forward to his relief. Believing that their services would not be needed immediate
ly, he thanked them cordially for their promptness and zeal, and directed them to be
disbanded. He then hastened toward Cleveland, and ordered the country along the
shores of Lake Erie, from the Maumee to the Cuyahoga, to be thoroughly reconnoi
tred. Having thus provided for the immediate safety of the frontier settlements, he
took up his quarters again at Franklinton, and inaugurated measures for meeting the
future exigencies of the service in that region by the establishment of military posts
not far from the lake, one of the most important of which was at Lower Sandusky.
The general was delighted with the evidences of spirit, courage, and patriotism that
appeared on every side. The Ohio settlements were alive with enthusiasm. The
advance of Proctor had spread general alarm throughout the state, and hundreds,
discerning the peril that menaced their homes, had hastened to the field at the call
of the patriotic Governor Meigs. These revelations of strength and will assured
Harrison that when he should call for aid, the sons of Ohio would immediately ap
pear in power.
While these events were occurring in the extreme Northwest, the naval prepara
tions were going on vigorously at Presque Isle (Erie), and another and efficient arm
of the service had been created, or rather materially strengthened. Richard M. John
son, a representative of Kentucky in Congress, who had been with Harrison the pre
vious autumn, had proposed to the Secretary of "War the raising of a regiment of
mounted men in his state, to traverse the Indian country from Fort Wayne along the
upper end of Lake Michigan, round by the Illinois River, and back to the Ohio near
Louisville. The secretary approved the plan, and early in January* laid it
before Harrison. The general pei'ceived its litter impracticability in winter.
Campbell's expedition to the Mississiniwa Towns1 had taught him that. " Such an
expedition in the summer and fall," he said, " would be highly advantageous, because
the Indians are then at their towns, and their corn can be destroyed. An attack upon
1 See page 347.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 495
Johnson's Mounted Kentuckians. Dissatisfaction of the Volunteers. Proctor and the Indians.
a particular town in the winter, when the inhabitants are at it, as we know they are
at Mississiniwa, and which is so near as to enable the detachment to reach it with
out killing their horses, is not only practicable, but, if the snow is on the ground, is
perhaps the most favorable. But the expedition is impracticable to the extent pro
posed."1
The projected incursion was abandoned, but Johnson was authorized* . February 20,
to raise a full regiment of mounted men in Kentucky, to serve under Gen- lsl3-
oral Harrison. As soon as Congress adjourned, he hastened homeward and entered
zealously upon the business of recruiting. He published his authority with a stirring
address.b The regiment was soon raised : and toward the close of May,
. b March 2°
Johnson was at the head of several companies, on their way to the appoint
ed general rendezvous at Newport, opposite Cincinnati, when a note from one of
General Harrison's aids was handed to him. It had already been read to the com
manders of the advanced companies, and produced the greatest dissatisfaction among
the troops. After thanking all patriotic citizens who had taken up arms in defense
of the country in general terjns, the note assured them that as the enemy had " fled
with precipitancy from Camp Meigs," there was no "present necessity for their longer
continuance in the field." Disappointment, chagrin, anger, and depression took the
place of patriotic zeal for a moment ; but Johnson soon allayed these feelings. He-
did not choose to regard the note as an order for disbanding his troops, and he pressed
forward to Newport. There he met General Harrison, when arrangements were made
for the regiment to enter the United States service, to traverse a portion of the Indian
country according to Johnson's original plan, and to rendezvous at Fort Winchester
on the 1 8th of June. It was believed that the fleet on Lake Erie, designed to co-op
erate with the army, would be ready at that time for a movement against Maiden
and Detroit. The regiment arrived at Dayton on the 28th of May, and there the final
organization was completed.2 Under the brave Johnson that regiment performed im
portant service.3
Proctor appears to have been disheartened, for the moment, by his failure before
Fort Meigs, and on his return to Maiden he disbanded the Canadian militia, and can
toned the Indians at different places in the neighborhood. Some of them were em
ployed as scouts, others hunted, but the most of them lived upon rations furnished
by the British commissariat. Meanwhile British emissaries, white and red, were busy
among the tribes of the Northwest, stirring them up to make war on the Americans.
A Scotchman and Indian trader, named Dickson, was one of the most efficient of these
agents. He was sent, before Proctor moved for the invasion of the Maumee Valley,
• ' General Harrison's Letter to the War Department, January 4, 1813.
3 Eichard M. Johnson was appointed Colonel; James Johnson, Lieutenant Colonel; Dnval Payne and David Thomp
son, Majors; R. B. M'Afee (the author of a History of the War in the West, already quoted frequently), Richard Mat son,
Jacob Elliston, Benjamin Wartield, John Payne, Elijah Craig, Jacob Stucker, James Davidson, S. R. Combs, W. M.
Price, and James Coleman, Captains; Jeremiah Kertly, Adjutant; B. S. Chambers, Quarter-master; Samuel Theobalds,
Judge Advocate; L. Dickinson, Sergeant-major ; James Suggett, Chaplain and Major of the Spies; L. Sandford, Quarter
master general; Doctors Ewing, Coburn, and Richardson, Surgeons.
3 Richard Mentor Johnson was born at Bryant's Station, five miles northeast of Lexington, Kentucky, on the 17th of
October, 1781. At the age of fifteen years he acquired
the rudiments of the Latin language, and then entered
Transylvania University as a student. His mental and
physical energies were remarkable. He chose the law
for a profession, and he soon took a conspicuous place
in that avocation. During the excitement in the South-
west at the beginning of the present century, when
hostilities between the Spaniards at New Orleans and
the settlers of the Mississippi Valley seemed imminent,
young Johnson took an active part, and volunteered, with others, to make an armed descent on New Orleans. Before
he was twenty-two years of age he was elected to a seat in the Kentucky Legislature, where he served two years. He
was elected to Congress in 1807, and took his seat when he was just twenty-five years of age. He took a prominent pos>
tion from the beginning. He held that seat by continued re-election until 1819. In the debates in Congress and move
ments in the field he was very active during the Second War for Independence. These will find proper notice in the
text.
When, in 1S19, Colonel Johnson retired from Congress, he was immediately elected to a seat in the Kentucky Legislature.
He was chosen a representative of his state in the Senate of the United States, where he served his country faithfully
496
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Dickson and his Savages.
Tecumtha restive in Inaction.
Fort Melgs to be again attacked.
1813.
to visit all the tribes for that purpose on the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers, from
Prairie du Chien to Green Bay, making desolated Chicago the grand rendezvous for
his savage recruits. There he had collected more than one thousand of them early
in June.a He marched them across Michigan to Detroit, and barely missed
falling in with Colonel Johnson and his mounted men at White Pigeon's Town
on the way.1 His influence had been such that the Indians were incited to many
acts of violence in the Territories of Illinois and Missouri. They were even so bold
as to invest Fort Madison, and at one time it was apprehended that the powerful
Osage nation Avould rise in open war against the Western frontier. But that calam
ity was arrested by prompt measures in Illinois and Missouri.
Tecumtha had not ceased, since their return to Maiden, to urge Proctor to renew
the attempt to take Fort Meigs. Proctor was reluctant ; but, toward the close of
June, he consented, and an expedition was organized for the purpose. At about that
time, a Frenchman, taken prisoner on the field of Dudley's defeat, and kept at Mai
den ever since, escaped. As the enemy suspected, he fled to Fort Meigs, and inform
ed General Clay of the preparations to attack him. Clay immediately communicated
the fact to Harrison at Franklinton, and Governor Meigs at Chillicothe. It was ru
mored that the expected invading force was composed of nearly four thousand In
dians and some regulars from the Niagara frontier. The vigilant Harrison was
quickly in the saddle. He did not believe Fort Meigs to be the object of attack, but
the weaker posts of Lower Sandusky, Cleveland, or Erie. He ordered the Twenty-
fourth Regiment of United States Infantry, under Colonel Anderson, then at Upper
Sandusky, to proceed immediately to Lower Sandusky. Major Croghan, with a part
of the Seventeenth, was ordered to the same post, and also Colonel Ball with his
squadron of cavalry.2 Harrison followed, and on the evening of the 26th he over-
ten years. Then [1820] he again
took a seat in the Lower House,
and held that position until ISiiT,
when, having been elected Vice-
president of the United States,
he took his place as President
of the Senate. At the end of his
official term he retired from pub
lic life, and passed the remain
der of his days on his farm in
Scott County, Kentucky, except
ing a brief period, when he was
again in the Legislature of that
state. While engaged in that
service at Frankfort, he was
prostrated by paralysis, and ex
pired on the 15th of November,
1850. In the cemetery near
Frankfort, Kentucky, is a splen
did monument erected to the
memory of soldiers of the Com
monwealth who had fallen in
battle. Within its inclosure is
a beautiful monument, made of
slightly clouded Italian marble,
to the memory of Colonel John
son, bearing the following in
scriptions: on one side of the
pedestal, " RIOUARU MENTOR
JOHNSON, born at Bryant's Sta
tion, Kentucky, on the 17th day
of October, 1781 ; died in Frank
fort, Kentucky, on the 15th of
JOHNSON'S MONUMENT.
November, 1850." On the oppo
site side: "To the memory of
Colonel Richard M. Johnson, a
faithful public servant for near
ly half a century, as a member
of the Kentucky Legislature,
and Representative and Senator
in Congress ; author of the Sun
day Mail Report, and of the laws
for abolishing imprisonment for
debt in Kentucky and in the
United States. Distinguished by
his valor as colonel of a Ken
tucky regiment at the battle
of the Thames. For four years
Vice-president of the United
States. Kentucky, his native
state, to mark her sense of his
eminent services in the cabinet
and in the field, has erected this
monument in the resting-place
of her illustrious dead."
On the northeast side of the
pedestal is a bust of Johnson in
low relief; and on the southwest
side an historical group, in the
same style, in which he is repre
sented as shooting Tecumtha at
the battle of the Thames. Some
remarks on that subject will be
found in our account of that bat
tle.
1 Dickson's recruits are repre-
The principal chief among them was Ma-
"It is remarkable," says M'Afee,
sented by eyewitnesses as being the most savage and cruel in their nature.
i-pock, whose girdle was covered with human scalps as trophies of his prowess,
"that after the savages joined the British standard to combat for 'the Defenders of the Faith,' victory never again de
clared for the allies in the Northwest. For the cruelties they had already committed, and those which were threat
ened by this inhuman association, a just God frowned indignant on all their subsequent operations." — History of the,
Latf, War, page 208.
' General Harrison had just held an important council with the Shawnoese, Delaware, Wyandot, and Seneca Indians
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 497
Johnson's Reconnoissance to the Raisin. At Fort Stephenson. Departure for the Wilderness, and Recall.
took Colonel Anderson. Scouts had reported the appearance of numerous Indians
on the Lower Maumee, and the general selected three hundred men to make a forced
march to Fort Meigs. He arrived there himself on the 28th, and then ordered Col
onel Johnson, who had come down from Fort Winchester with his seven hundred
men after forty days of hard service in traversing the Wilderness, to make a recon-
noissance toward the Raisin to procure intelligence. Obedience followed command.
The movement was successful. Johnson ascertained that there was no immediate
danger of an invasion from Maiden in force. Satisfied of this, Harrison left Fort
Meigs on the 1st of July, escorted by seventy mounted men under Captain M'Afee
as far as Lower Sandusky. From there he went to Cleveland, escorted by Colonel
Ball, to make farther defensive provisions. There he left Ball and his cavalry in
charge, and returned to his head-quarters after ordering Colonel Johnson, with his
mounted men, to take post at the Huron River. That efficient officer again prompt
ly obeyed. He arrived at Lower Sandusky on the 4th of July. Flags were flying,
and music filled the air. The garrison of Fort Stephenson,1 under Major Croghan,
were about to celebrate the day with appropriate ceremonies, and, at their request,
Colonel Johnson delivered a patriotic oration. Toasts were given, and good cheer
abounded. But duty called from pleasure, and the mounted men resumed their sad
dles to press onward to the Huron. An order from the War Department arrested
them. Johnson was dii-ected to turn back, and hasten to the defense of the Illinois
and Missouri Territories, then, in the opinion of the authorities there, seriously men
aced by Dickson and his savage folloAvers. He was disappointed and mortified ; but,
after writing to Harrison expressing his strong desire to remain in the army destined
for Detroit and Maiden, he turned his horse's head again toward the Wilderness.
The commander-in-chief urged the Department to comply with Johnson's wishes, as
suring the Secretary that Dickson's savages were on the Detroit. The order was
countermanded, and, when far on his way toward the Mississippi as an obedient sol
dier, Johnson was recalled. It was well for the country that he was left to serve
under the direct command of General Harrison at that time.
Late in July the British had collected on the banks of the Detroit nearly all of the
warriors of the Northwest, full twenty-five hundred in number. These, with Proc
tor's motley force already there, made an army of about five thousand men. Early
in the month bands of Indians began to appear in the vicinity of Fort Meigs, killing
and plundering whenever opportunity offered. Tecumtha, meamvhile, had become
at his head-quarters at Franklinton. Circumstances had made him suspect their fidelity to their promises of strict neu
trality. It was a crisis when all should be made plain. He required them to take a decided stand for or against the
Americans ; to remove their families into the interior, or the warriors must accompany him in the ensuing campaign, and
fight for the United States. The venerable Ta-he, who was the acknowledged representative of them all, assured the
general of their unflinching friendship, and that the chiefs and warriors were anxious to take part in the campaign. He
accepted their assurances as true, and told them he would let them know when he wanted them. " But," he said, " you
must conform to our mode of warfare. You are not to kill defenseless prisoners, old men, women, or children. By your
good conduct I shall be able to tell whether the British can restrain their Indians if they wish to do so." He then told
them that he had heard of Proctor's promise to deliver him into the hands of Tecumtha. "Now," he said, jocularly,
"if I can succeed in taking Proctor, you shall have him for your prisoner, provided you will treat him as a squaw, and
only put petticoats upon him, for he must be a coward who would kill a defenseless prisoner."
1 Fort Stephenson was erected in the summer of 1S12. Lower Sandusky (now the village of Fremont) was a mere
trading-post, the only buildings being a government store and a Roman Catholic mission-house in charge of two priests.
Thomas Butler, who had been in Wayne's army, was charged with the duty of selecting the site and superintending the
construction of a stockade at that place. He drew the lines of the fort around the store-house, about one hundred
yards in one direction, and about fifty yards in the other. The men employed in the work were a company under Cap
tain Norton, of Connecticut, who were ordered to Lower Sandusky by Governor Meigs for the purpose. Sergeant Eras-
tus Bowe, of Tiffin, Ohio, one of the three known survivors of the detachment ill 1860, was the first to break ground,
saying, " Captain, I don't think there will be much fighting here, but I believe I will make a hole here." His remark
was caused by the general belief that the British would never be able to penetrate so far. The pickets for the fort
were cut near the present railway station, and in the course of twenty-five days they were all set. A block-house was
constructed on the northeast corner, and another in the middle of the north side of the fort. Croghan strengthened the
fort in the summer of 1813 by the erection of two more block-houses, one of which was built against the middle block
house on the north side, and the other on the southwest corner. He also constructed an embankment and ditch, and in
the block-house on the northeast angle placed his six-pounder. — Statement of Erastus Bowe in the "Sandusky Demo
crat," July 27, 18CO. The other two known survivors of the constructors of the fort at that time were Samuel Scribner,
of Marion, and Ira Carpenter, of Delaware, Ohio.
- Ti
498 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Tecumtha's Plan for Capturing Fort Meigs. Vigilance of the Americans. The Attempt a Failure.
very restive under the restraints of inaction, especially when he saw so large a body
of his countrymen ready for the war-path, and he at last demanded that another at
tempt should be made to capture Fort Meigs. He submitted to Proctor an ingenious
plan by which to take the garrison by stratagem and surprise. He proposed to land
the Indians several miles below the fort, march through the woods, unobserved by
the garrison, to the road leading from the Maumee to Lower Sandusky in the rear,
and there engage in a sham-fight. This would give Clay an idea that some approach
ing re-enforcements had been attacked, and he would immediately sally out with the
garrison to their aid. The Indians would form an ambuscade, rise, and attack the
unsuspecting Americans in their rear, cut off their retreat, and, rushing to the fort,
gain an entrance before the gates could be closed.1 Proctor accepted the plan and
arranged for the expedition, but the vigilance and firmness of General Clay defeated
the well-devised scheme and saved the fort.
On the 20th of July Proctor and Tecumtha appeared with their combined forces,
.about five thousand strong, at the mouth of the Maumee.2 General Clay immediately
dispatched a messenger to Harrison, at Lower Sandusky, with the information. The
commander-in-chief, doubtful what post the enemy intended to attack, sent the mes
senger (Captain M'Cune) back with an assurance for General Clay that he should
have re-enforcements if needed, and a warning to beware of a surprise. He then re
moved his head-quarters to Seneca Town,3 nine miles farther up the Sandusky River,
from which point he might co-operate with Fort Meigs or Fort Stephenson, as cir
cumstances should require. There, with one hundred and forty regulars, he com
menced fortifying his camp, and was speedily joined by four hundred and fifty more
United States troops under Lieutenant Colonel Paul,4 of the infantry, and Ball, of
the dragoons; also by M* Arthur and Cass, of Ohio, who had each been promoted to
brigadier, general. Colonel Theodore Deye Owings was also approaching with five
hundred regulars from Fort'Massac, on the Ohio River.
Tecumtha attempted ,to execute his strategic plan. On the afternoon of the
"July, 25th,a while the British were concealed in the ravine already described, just
1813- below Fort Meigs, the Indians took their prescribed station on the Sandusky
road, and at sunset commenced their sham-fight. It was so spirited, and the yells
of the savages were so powerful, that the garrison had no doubt that the command
er-in-chief, with re-enforcements, had been attacked. They were exceedingly anxious
to go out to their aid. Fortunately, General Clay was better informed. Captain
M'Cune had just returned from a second errand to General Harrison,- after many hair
breadth escapes in penetrating the lines of the Indians swarming in the woods. Al
though Clay could not account for the firing, yet he was so certain that no Americans
were engaged in the contest, whatever it might be, that he remained firm, even when
officers of high rank demanded permission to lead their men to the succor of their
friends, and the troops were almost mutinous because of the restraint. Clay's firm
ness saved them from utter destruction. A heavy shower of rain, and a few cannon-
1 Statement of Major Richardson, of the British army.
2 Proctor commanded the white troops in person. Dixou, of the Royal Artillery, commanded the Mackinaw and oth
er Northern tribes ; Tecumtha those of the Wabash, Illinois, and St. Joseph ; and Round-Head (see page 291) those of
the Chippewas, Ottawas, and Pottawatomies of Michigan.— Harrison's Letter to the Secretary of War, Seneca Town,
August 4, 1813.
3 The Indians who occupied this region were called "the Senecas of Sandnsky"— why does not appear, for they were
composed of Cayugas chiefly, with a few Oneidas, Mohawks, Ouondagas, Tuscaroras, and Wyandots. They numbered
about four hundred souls at the close of the war, and were the remnant of the tribe of Logan, the chief immortalized
by Mr. Jefferson. In 1817 and ISIS forty thousand acres of land lying on the east side of the Sandusky River were
granted to them. In 1S31 they ceded their lands to the United States, and went west of the Mississippi. Seneca County,
of which Tiffin is the county seat, derived its name from these so-called Seneca Indians. The fortified camp of Harri
son assumed the form of a regular work known as Fort Seneca, having a stockade and ditch, and occupied several acres
of a plain on the bank of the Sandusky. Slight remains of the work were yet visible in 1800.
4 George Paul was a major of Pennsylvania militia under General Harrison. He afterward resided in Ohio, and en
tered the service again early in the war. He was commissioned a lieutenant colonel in April, 1S13, and colonel at the
close of June'following. He resigned in October, 1814.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
499
Fort Stephenson to be attacked.
Major Croghan's Instructions.
A Council of War.
shot hurled from the fort in the direction of the supposed fight, put an end to the
firing, and that night was as quiet at Fort Meigs as in a time of peace. The strategy
of Tecumtha had failed, to the great mortification of the enemy. Ignorant of the
strength of the fort and garrison,1 they did not attempt an assault. After lingering
around their coveted prize about thirty hours, the besiegers withdrewa to «juiy27,
Proctor's old encampment, near Fort Miami, and on the 28th the British
embarked with their stores and sailed for Sandusky Bay, with the intention of at
tacking Fort Stephenson. A large number of their savage allies marched across the
country for the purpose of co-operating with Proctor in the siege. Intelligence of
this movement was promptly communicated to Harrison by General Clay.
Fort Stephenson was garrisoned by one
hundred and sixty men, under the command,
as we have observed, of a gallant young Ken-
tuckian, Major George Croghan, of the Regu
lar Army, then only twenty-one years of age.
Their only ordnance was an iron six-pounder
cannon, and their chief defenses were three
block - houses, circumvallating pickets from
fourteen to sixteen feet in height, and a ditch
about eight feet in width and of equal depth.
Already an examination of Fort Stephenson
by General Harrison had convinced him that
it would be untenable against heavy artillery,
and, in orders left with Major Croghan, he
said, " Should the British troops approach you
in force with cannon, and you can discover
them in time to effect a retreat, you will do
so immediately, destroying all the public
stores. You must be aware that to attempt
to retreat in the face of an Indian force would
be vain. Against such an enemy your gar
rison would be safe, however great the num
ber."
On the receipt of the intelligence from
General Clay, General Harrison called around
him in council M'Arthur, Cass, Ball, Wood, Hukill^aul, Holmes, and Gra
ham, and it was unanimously agreed that Fort Stephenson was untenable,
and that, as the approaching enemy had cannon, Major Croghan ought immediately
to comply with the standing order of his general. Believing that the innate bravery
of Croghan would make him hesitate, General Harrison immediately dispatched to
him an order to abandon the fort.2 The bearers started at midnight, and lost their
way in the dark. They did not arrive at Fort Stephenson before eleven o'clock the
next day, when the forest around was swarming Avith Indians.
Major Croghan consulted his officers concerning a retreat, when a majority agreed
with him that such a step would be disastrous, and that the post might be maintain
ed. A few moments after the conference, he placed in the hands of the mes- c Jn]v 30
sengers from General Harrison the following answer to his chief:0 " SIR, — 1813-
C^vt^A^^u
/' °
" July 29.
1 The garrison numbered, in rank and file, only about eighteen hundred men. There were a little over two thousand
at the close of May, but full two hundred had died of camp fever.
2 The order was sent by a white man (Conner) and two Indians, who found some difficulty in the performance of their
mission. The following is a copy of the order: " SIR,— Immediately on receiving this letter you will abandon Fort
Stepheusou, set fire to it, and repair with your command this night to head-quarters. Cross the river and come up on
the opposite side. If you should deem and find it impracticable to make good your march to this place, take the road
to Huron, and pursue it with the utmost circumspection." The order was dated 29th July.
500
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Croghan disobeys Orders.
His Explanations justify the Act.
Colonel Ball's Fight with Indians.
I have just received yours of yesterday, ten o'clock P.M., ordering me to destroy
this place and make good my retreat, which was received too late to be carried
into execution. We have determined to maintain this place, and, by heavens ! we
can."
This positive disobedience of orders was not intended as such. The gallant young
Kentuckian gladly perceived sufficient latitude given him in the clause of the earlier
order, in which the danger of a retreat in the face of an Indian force was mentioned,
to justify him in remaining, especially as the later order did not reach him until such
force was apparent. But the general could not permit disobedience to pass unno
ticed, and he immediately ordered Colonel Wells to repair to Fort Stephenson and
_s^^fe^^^. supersede Major Croghan.1 The latter was ordered
to head-quarters at Seneca Town. He cheerfully
obeyed the summons, and made so satisfactory an
explanation to General Harrison that he was direct
ed to resume his command the next morning, with
written instructions similar to the ones he had be
fore received. Croghan was now more determined
than ever to maintain the post.
General Harrison kept scouts out in all direc
tions watching for the foe. On the evening of Sat
urday, the 31st of July, a reconnoitring party, lin^
VIEW AT FREMONT, OK LOWEB SANDCSKV.2
1 Colonel Wells was escorted by Colonel Ball, with his corps of dragoons, arid bore the following letter to Major
Croghan: "i§m, — The general has just received your letter of this date informing him that you had thought proper to
disobey the order issued from this office, and delivered to you this morning. It appears that the information which
dictated the order was incorrect, and as you did not receive it in the night, as was expected, it might have been proper
that you should have reported the circumstances and your situation before you proceeded to its execution. This might
have been passed over, but I am directed to say to you that an officer who presumes to aver that he has made his res
olution, and that he will act in direct opposition to the orders of his general, pan no longer be intrusted with a separate
command. Colonel Wells is sent to relieve you. You will deliver the command to him, and repair, with Colonel Ball's
squadron, to this place. By command, etc., A. H. HOLMES, Assistant Adjutant General."
On the way, about half a mile southwest of the present village of Ballsville, Colonel Ball's detachment were attacked
by about twenty Indians, and quite a severe skirmish ensued. Seventeen of the Indians were killed ; and, until within
a few years, an oak-tree stood on the site of the contest, bearing seventeen marks of a hatchet, to indicate the number
of Indians slain.
2 This view was taken from the verge of the hill, near where the howitzer, or mortar, of the British was planted after
landing, so as to be brought to bear upon the fort. In the front is seen a magnificent elm-tree, of large growth at the
time of the invasion. Tradition avers that an Indian, who climbed into its top to reconnoitre Fort Stephenson, was
shot by one of the Kentucky riflemen in the garrison. In this view we are looking down the Sandusky River. In the
little cove, seen nearly over the roof of the small building nearest the left of the picture, is the place where the British
lauded. The island opposite is seen more to the left. In the extreme distance are store-houses, at which point the
British gun-boats were first discovered by the garrison. On the extreme right is the gas-house, and over it, on the east
side of the river, is the elevated plain where Croghanville was laid out, and where the Indians were first seen.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 501
Fort Stephenson summoned to surrender. Incidents under a Flag of Truce. The Surrender refused.
gering upon the shores of Sandusky Bay, about twenty miles from Fort Stephenson,
discovered the approach of Proctor by water. They hastened back, stopping at the
fort on the way at about noon the next day.a Croghan was on the alert.
Already many Indians had appeared upon the eminence on the eastern side
of the Sandusky River (where Croghanville Avas laid out in 1817), and had scamp
ered away after a few discharges of the six-pounder in the fort.
At four o'clock that afternoon the British gun-boats, with Proctor and his men,
appeared at a turn in the river more than a mile distant. In the face of shots from
the six-pounder they advanced, and, in a cove not quite a mile from the fort, the Brit
ish landed, with a five-and-a-half-inch howitzer, opposite a small island in the stream.
At the same time the Indians displayed themselves in the woods in all directions, to
cut off a retreat of the garrison.
General Proctor entered immediately upon the business of his errand. His attack
ing force consisted of a portion of the Forty-first Regiment, four hundred strong, and
several hundred Indians. Tecumtha, with almost two thousand more, was stationed
upon the roads leading from Fort Meigs and Seneca Town, to intercept apprehended
re-enforcements from those directions.
Having disposed of his forces so as to cut off Croghan's retreat, General Proctor
sent Colonel Elliott, accompanied by Captain Chambers with a flag of .truce, to de
mand the instant surrender of the fort. These officers were accompanied by Cap
tain Dixon, of the Royal Engineers, who was in command of the Indian allies.
Major Croghan sent out Second Lieutenant Shipp,1 as his representative, to meet the
flair. After the usual salutations, Colonel Elliott said : "I am instructed to demand
O '
the instant surrender of the fort, to spare the effusion of blood, which we can not
do should we be under the necessity of reducing it by our powerful force of regulars,
Indians, and artillery."
" My commandant and the garrison," replied Shipp, " are determined to defend the
post to the last extremity, and bury themselves in its ruins, rather than surrender it
to any force whatever."
"Look at our immense body of Indians," interposed Dixon. "They can not be
restrained from massacring the whole garrison, in the event of our undoubted suc
cess."
" Our success is certain," eagerly added Chambers.
" It is a great pity," said Dixon, in a beseeching tone, " that so fine a young man
as you, and as your commander is represented to be, should fall into the hands of the
savages. Sir, for God's sake, surrender, and prevent the dreadful massacre that will
be caused by your resistance."
Shipp, who had lately dealt Avith the same foe at Fort Meigs, coolly replied : " When
the fort shall be taken, there Avill be none to massacre. It Avill not be given up Avhile
a man is able to resist."
Shipp was just turning to go back to the fort, when an Indian sprung from a bushy
ravine near and attempted to snatch his sword from him. The indignant American
Avas about to dispatch the savage, when Dixon interfered. Croghan, Avho had stood
upon the ramparts during the conference, observed the insult, and shouted, " Shipp,
come in, and we will blow them all to hell !" The ensign hastened into the fort, the
flag returned, and the British opened a fire immediately from their gun-boats, and
from the five-and-a-half-inch hoAvitzer which they had landed. For some reason, never
. i
1 Edmund Shipp, Jr., was a native of Kentucky, and was appointed ensign of the 17th regiment of infantry in May,
1S12. He was promoted to second lieutenant in March, 1813, and distinguished himself in the defense of Fort Meigs
the following year. After the affair at Fort Stephenson he became General M'Arthnr's brigade major. In March,
1814, he was promoted to first lieutenant, and to captain in May, and at the close of the war was retained in the serv
ice. He died at Bellefontaine, Ohio, on the 22d of April, 1S17. On the 13th of February, 1S35, the Congress of the United
States voted a sword, to be received by his nearest male relative, in testimony of their sense of his services at Fort Ste
phenson.— Gardner's Dictioimry of the Army.
502 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Fort Stephenson besieged. The Garrison. Approach for an Assault.
until recently explained, they commenced the attack in great haste, before proper ar
rangements were made.1
All night long, five six-pounders, which had been landed from the British gun-boats,
and the howitzer upon the land, played upon the stockade without serious effect.
They were answered occasionally by the solitary cannon in the fort, which was shift
ed from one block-house to another, so as to give the impression that the garrison had
several heavy guns. But their supply of ammunition was small, and Major Croghan
determined to use his powder and ball to better advantage than firing at random in
the dark. He silenced the gun, and ordered Captain Hunter,2 his second in command,
to place it in the block-house at the middle of the north side of the fort, so as to rake
the ditch in the direction of the northwest angle, the point where the foe would doubt
less make the assault, it being the weakest part. This was accomplished before day
light, and the gun, loaded with a half charge of powder and a double charge of slugs
and grapeshot, was completely masked.
During the night the British had dragged three six-pounders to a point of woods
on ground higher than the fort, and abeut two hundred and fifty yards from it (near
the spot where the court-house in Fremont now stands, westward of Croghan Street),
and early in the morning they opened a brisk fire \ipon the stockade from these and
the howitzer. .Their cannonade produced but little effect, and for many hours the
little garrison made no reply. Proctor became impatient. That long day in August
was rapidly passing away, and he saw before him only a dreary night of futile effort
in his present position. His Indians were becoming uneasy, and at length he resolved
to storm the fort. At four o'clock in the afternoon he concentrated the fire of all his
guns upon the weak northwest angle. His suspected purpose was now apparent.
Toward that weak point Croghan directed his strengthening efforts. Bags of sand
and sacks of flour were piled against the pickets there, and the force of the cannon
ade was materially broken.
At five o'clock, while the bellowing of distant thunder in the western horizon, where
a dark storm-cloud was brooding, seemed like the echo of the great guns of the foe,
the British, in two close columns, led by Brevet Lieutenant Colonel Short and Lieu
tenant Gordon, advanced to assail the works. At the same time a party of grena
diers, about two hundred strong, under Lieutenant Colonel Warburton, took a wide
circuit through the woods to make a feigned attack upon the southern front of the
fort, where Captain Hunter and his party were stationed. Private Brown, of the Pe
tersburg Volunteers, with half a dozen of his corps and Pittsburgh Blues, happened
to be in the fort at the time. Brown was skilled in gunnery, and to him and his com
panions was intrusted the management of the six-pounder in the fort.
As the British storming-party under Lieutenant Colonel Short advanced, their ar
tillery played incessantly upon the northwestern angle of the fort, and, under cover
of the dense smoke, they approached to within fifteen or twenty paces of the out
works before they were discovered by the garrison. Every man within the fort was
at his post, and these were Kentucky " sharp-shooters !" They instantly poured upon
the assailants such a shower of rifle-balls, sent with fatal precision, that the British
line was thrown into momentary confusion. They quickly rallied. The axe-men
1 The late Hon. Elisha Whittlesey, in his address at Fremont (Lower Sandusky), on the forty-fifth anniversary of the
defense of Fort Stephenson, explained the cause. Aaron Norton, of Portage County, Ohio, told him that on that Sun
day afternoon, in total ignorance of the proximity of the British and Indians, he was approaching the fort on the oppo
site side of the Sanduskj, when he discovered quite a large body of Indians scattered along the bank of the river, half
concealed by bushes. He wheeled his horse and fled in the direction of Seneca. The startled Indians fired several
shots at him, but without effect. This occurrence was doubtless communicated to the British commander. He knew
Harrison was near, and feared that he might sally forth from his fortified camp with re-enforcements from Cleveland
or Mansfield, beat back Tecumtha, and fall upon him at Sandusky; hence his haste in assailing the fort.
2 James Hunter was a native of Kentucky, and was adjutant of the Kentucky mounted riflemen in the battle of Tip-
pecanoe. He was wounded there. He was promoted to captain in the 17th regiment of infantry in March, 1812. He
left the army in May, 1814. On the 13th of February, 1835, the Congress of the United States voted him a sword be
cause of his distinguished services at Fort Stepheuson. — Gardner's Dictionary of the Army.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
503
Storming of Fort Stephenson.
Slaughter of the Assailants.
The British and Indians repulsed.
PLAN OF FOKT STEPHEN SON.1
bravely pushed forward over the glacis, and leaped into the ditch to assail the pick
ets. Lieutenant Colonel Short was at the head of the gallant party, and when a suf
ficient number of men were in the ditch behind him, he shouted, " Cut away the pick
ets, my brave boys, and show the damned Yankees no quarter !" Now was the mo
ment for the voice of the unsuspected six-pounder to be heard. The masked port flew
open instantly. The gun spoke with terrible effect. Slugs and grapeshot streamed
along that ditch overflowing with human life, and spread terrible havoc there. Few
escaped. A similar attempt was made by the second column of the storming-party,
when another discharge from the six-pounder and a destructive volley of rifle-balls
ended the contest. Brevet Lieutenant Colonel Short and Lieutenant Gordon, of the
Forty-first Regiment, Laussaussiege, of the Indian department, and twenty-five pri-
vate§, were left dead in the ditch,2 and twenty-six of the wounded were made pris
oners. Captain Dixon and Captain Muir, and Lieutenant M'Intyre, of the Forty-first
Regiment, were slightly wounded and escaped. A precipitate and confused retreat
immediately followed this repulse. "Warburton and his grenadiers did not reach the
south front of the fort until after the disaster. They were assailed with a destruc
tive volley from Hunter's corps, and fled for shelter to the adjacent woods.
The whole loss of the garrison was one man killed and seven slightly wounded.
The loss of the British in killed and wounded, according to the most careful estimates,
was one hundred and twenty. The cowardly Indians, as usual when there was open
1 EXPLANATION or THE PLAN.—!, line of pickets ; 2, embankment from the ditch to and against the pickets; 3, dry
ditch ; 4, outward embankment or glacis ; A, block-house first attacked by cannon ; B, bastion or block-house from
which the ditch was raked by the six-pounder in the fort ; C, guard block-house ; D, hospital while attacked ; E E E,
military store-houses ; F, commissary's store-house ; G, magazine ; H, fort gate ; K K K, wicker gates ; L, partition gate :
5, position of the five six-pounders of the British on the night of the 2d of August ; P, the graves of Lieutenant Colonel
Short and Lieutenant Gordon, who were killed in the ditch. The mortar or howitzer shifted position, as indicated on
the plan. In the first assault there were four six-pounders in battery, only one being left in the first position near the
river. This Plan was first published, from the official drawing, in the Port Folio for March, 1815, and soon afterward in
Thomson's carefully prepared Historical Sketches of the Late War. The graves of the two British officers are a few yards
northeastward from the junction of High and Market Streets.
2 It is said that Lieutenant Colonel Short, when he fell, twisted a white handkerchief on the end of his sword as a
supplication for that mercy which his battle-cry a moment before denied to his foe.
504 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Dead and Wounded borne away. The Night succeeding the Struggle.
fighting or great guns to face, kept themselves out of harm's way in a ravine near
by, and the whole battle was fought by the small British force, who behaved most
gallantly. During the night Proctor sent Indians to gather up the dead and wound
ed, and at three o'clock in the morning* the invaders sailed down the San-
dusky, leaving behind them a vessel containing clothing and military stores.
At about the same hour the gallant Major Croghan wrote a hurried note to General
Harrison, informing him of his victory and the retreat of Proctor.
The assault lasted only about half an hour. The dark storm-cloud in the west
passed northward, the setting sun beamed out with peculiar splendor, a gentle breeze
from the southwest bore the smoke of battle far away over the forest toward Lake
Erie, and in the lovely twilight of that memorable Sabbath evening the brave young
Croghan addressed his gallant little band with eloquent words of praise and grateful
thanksgiving. As the night and the silence deepened, and the groans of the wound
ed in the ditch fell upon his ears, his generous heart beat with sympathy. Buckets
filled with water were let down by ropes from the outside of the pickets ; and as the
gates of the fort could not be opened with safety during the night, he made a com
munication with the ditch by means of a trench, through which the wounded were
borne into the little fortress and their necessities supplied.1
Intelligence of this gallant defense caused the liveliest sentiments of admiration
throughout the country, and congratulations were sent to Major Croghan from every
quarter. His general, in his official report, spoke of him in words of highest praise.2
The ladies*of Chillicothe, Ohio, purchased and presented to him an elegant sword ;3
and the Congress of the United States voted him the thanks of the nation.4 Twenty-
two years later the Congress gave him a gold medal, in commemoration of his signal
service on that day. Posterity will ever regard his name with honor.5
1 Major Croghan's Report to General Harrison, August 5, 1813 : General Harrison's Eeport to the Secretary of War,
August 5, 1813 ; M'Afee's History of the Late War, pages 322 to 328 ; Auchinleck's History of the War of 1812, pages 184 to
1ST ; James's Military Occurrences, etc., pages 262 to 260 ; Niles's Register, August 14, 1813 ; The Port Folio, March, 1815 ;
The War, volume ii., pages 39, 43, 47, 49, 51, Cl ; Address of Colonel Elisha Whittlesey at Fremont, August 2, 1858; Ad
dress of Homer Everett, Esq., at Fremont, February 24th and 25th, 1860; Perkins's History of the Late War, pages 223,
224 ; Sketches of the War (Rutland, 1815), pages 166 to 168 ; Atwater's History of Ohio, pages 22<i to 229 ; Dawson's Life
of General Harrison, pages 249 to 251 ; MS. of Dr. Brainerd, quoted by Homer Everett, Esq.
2 " I am sorry," wrote General Harrison to the Secretary of War on the 4th of August, "that I can not transmit you
Major Croghan's official report. He was to have sent it to me this morning, but I have just heard that he was so much
exhausted by thirty-six hours of continued exertion as to be unable to make it. It will not be among the least of Gen
eral Proctor's mortifications to find that he has been baffled by a youth who has just passed his twenty-first year. He
is, however, a hero worthy of his gallant uncle, General George Rogers Clarke."
3 This gift, at their request, was presented to him by Samuel Finley and Joseph Wheaton, with the following letter
bearing the signatures of the donors :
" CHIM.IOOTIIE, August 13, 1813.
" SIB,— In consequence of the gallant defense which, under Divine Providence, was effected by you and the troops
under your command, of Fort Stephenson, at Lower Sandusky, on the evening of the 2d inst., the ladies of the town of
Chillicothe, whose names are undersigned, impressed with a high sense of your merits as a soldier and a gentleman,
and with great confidence in your patriotism and valor, present you with a sword. Mary Finley, Mary Sterret, Ann
Creighton, Eliza Creiirhton, Eleanor Lamb, Nancy Waddle, Eliza Carlisle, Mary A. Southward, Susan D. Wheaton, of
Washington City, Richamah Irwin, Judith Delano, Margaret M'Lauburg, Margaret Miller, Elizabeth Martin, Nancy
M'Arthur, Jnne M'Coy, Lavina Fulton, Catharine Fullerton, Rebecca M. Orr, Susan Wake, Ann M. Dunn, Margaret
Keys, Charlotte James, Esther Doolittle, Eleanor Buchannan, Margaret M'Farland, Deborah Ferree, Jane M. Evans,
Frances Brush, Mary Curtis, Mary P. Brown, Jane Heylin, Nancy Kerr, Catharine Hough, Eleanor Worthington, Mar
tha Scott, Sally M'Lean."
To this letter Major Croghan replied at Lower Sandusky on the 25th of August:
"LABIES OF CHIT.I.ICOTIIE,— I have received the sword which you have been pleased to present to me as a testimonial
of your approbation of my conduct on the 2d instant. A mark of distinction so flattering and unexpected has excited
feelings which I can not express. Yet, while I return you thanks for the unmerited gift you have thus bestowed, I feel
well aware that my good fortune (which was bought by the activity of the brave soldiers under my command), has
raised in you expectations from my future efforts which must, I fear, be sooner or later disappointed. Still, I pledge
myself (even though fortune should not be again propitious) that my exertions shall be such as never to cause you in
the least to regret the honors you have been pleased to confer on your 'youthful soldier.' "
* On the 8th of February, 1814, the Committee on Military Affairs reported a resolution, among others similar, to re
quest the President to present an elegant sword to Colonel Croghan. This resolution was passed by at the time, and
never called up again.
5 George Croghan was a son of Major William Croghan, of the Revolutionary army. His father was a native of Ire
land ; his mother was a sister of General George Rogers Clarke, sometimes called the Father of the Northwest. He
was born at Locust Grove, near the Falls of the Ohio (now Louisville), in Kentucky, on the 15th of November, 1T91. He
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
Medal presented to Croghan.
A Visit to Sandusky.
A Ride to G'astaliau Springs.
September 24,
1SCO.
GOLD MEDAL AWARDED TO GENERAL CEOGHAM.'
It was a soft, hazy, half sunny day, late in September,* when I visit
ed the site of Fort Stephenson and the places of events that made it fa
mous. I had come up by railway during the early hours of the morning from pleas
ant Sandusky City, where I had spent two or three days with friends, vainly en
deavoring to visit Put-in-Bay, where Perry's fleet rendezvoused before the battle
which gave him victory and immortality. The excursion steam-boat to that and
other places had been withdrawn for the season, and the wind was too high to make
a voyage thither in a sail-boat safe or pleasant. I was less disappointed than I should
otherwise have been, by the discovery that an artist (Miss C. L. Ransom), then in
Sandusky City, had made careful drawings of the historical points about Put-in-Bay.
I had the pleasure of meeting her, and availing myself of her courteous permission
to copy such of her drawings as I desired. Of these more will be said when giving
an account of the naval battle near there.
In company with Mr. Barney, with whom I was staying, I visited the famous Cas-
talian Springs, at the village of Castalia, five or six miles south from Sandusky City.
They flow up from subterranean fountains, almost as limpid as air, and in volume so
great that along the outlet, which is called Cold Creek, in its course of three miles
through a beautiful prairie of three thousand acres to Sandusky Bay, no less than
was graduated at William and Mary College, in Virginia, in the summer of 1S10 ; entered its law school, and remained
there until the fall of 1811, when he joined the army nuder Harrison at Vincennes. He was volunteer aid to Colonel
Boyd at the battle of Tippecanoe. On account of his services in the Wabash expedition, he was appointed a captain of
infantry in the spring of 1S12, and in August he marched with the forces under General Winchester to the relief of Gen
eral Hull in Canada. In March, 1813, he was promoted to major, and became aid-de-camp to General Harrison. In that
capacity he distinguished himself in the defense of Fort Meigs, and the sortie on the 5th of May under the gallant Col
onel Miller. For his gallantry at Fort Stephenson he was breveted a lieutenant colonel, and was appointed colonel of
a rifle corps in February, 1814. At the close of the war he was retained in service, but married in 1817 and resigned. In
1824 he was appointed postmaster at New Orleans, and returned to the service in 1825 as inspector general, with the
rank of colonel. In 1S35 Congress awarded him a gold medal for his gallantry at Fort Stephenson. He. died at New
Orleans on the Sth of January, 1849.
1 On Tuesday, the 27th of January, 1835, a joint resolution passed the House of Representatives, authorizing the Pres
ident of the United States to " present a gold medal to General Croghan" (he was then inspector general of the army),
and swords to several officers under his command. These were Captain Jamss Hunter, an'd Lieutenants Benjamin
Johnson and Cyras A. Baylor, of the Seventeenth Regiment, Lieutenant John Meek, of the Seventh Regiment, and En
signs Edward Shipp and Joseph Duncan. The latter was afterward Governor of Illinois.
Lieutenant Johnson was promoted to captain of a rifle corps in March, 1814, and left the service at the close of the
war. Lieutenant Baylor also left the service at the close of the war. Lieutenant Meek resigned in May, 1814. He was
appointed military store-keeper at Little Rock, Arkansas, in the summer of 1S3S, and was removed, on a change of ad
ministration, in 1841. Ensign Duncan was promoted to first lieutenant of infantry in July, 1814, and was disbanded in
1815. He was a representative in Congress from Illinois from 1327 to 1835, Governor of Illinois from 1834 to 1S3S, and
died at Jacksonville on the 15th of January, 1844.
It is proper to observe that the representation of the fort and its surroundings, on this medal, presented to General
Croghan, is incorrect. It was not a regular fort, but a picketed inclosure, with rudely-built block-houses. The San
dusky River is here a narrow stream, and not such an expanse of water as the place of the vessels represent. It may
have been intended for Saudusky Bay.
506
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Appearance and Character of the Castaliau Springs.
An Evening iu Sandusky.
Journey to Fremont.
fourteen sets of mill-stones were kept in motion by it.
J.OWEU OASTAMAN SPRING.
In a rough scow we hovered
over the centre of the
spring, and, peering
down into its clear,
mysterious depths,
saw logs, and plants,
> and earth in grotto
form, made iridescent
by the light in the
aqueous prism.1 We
intended to visit the
somewhat marvelous
cave in the range of
limestone about two
miles from the springs, but the day was too far spent when I had completed my
sketch of the fountains to allow us to do so. We returned to the town by the way of
Mr. Barney's fine vineyard, and arrived at sunset. I spent the evening with General
Leslie Combs at the "West House," and in a public meeting.2 The next day was
the Sabbath, and on Monday morning I started by railway for Lower Sandusky with
impressions which have crystallized into pleasant memories of a delightful little city
on a slope overlooking one of the finest bays that indent the southern shoi-es of Lake
Erie.3 On our way we stopped a few minutes at the little village of Clyde, where
the railways from Cleveland and Toledo and from Cincinnati and Sandusky City
cross each other. There a crowd had collected to see and hear the late Judge Doug
las, then one of the candidates for the presidency of the United States, who was trav
eling for his political health, weary and wayworn. Eager eyes, vociferous shouts,
loud huzzas, and the swaying of a little multitude, is the picture of a few minutes of
time impressed upon the memory. An hour later I was in Fremont, as the old vil
lage of Lower Sandusky was named a few years ago in honor of the accomplished
explorer in earlier years, and general in the army of the republic during a portion of
the late Civil War.
Very soon after my arrival I was favored with the company of Messrs. Sardis Birch-
ard and Homer Everett (residents of the village, and familiar with its history) in a
pilgrimage to places of interest in and around that shire-town of Sandusky County.4
1 The Castalian Springs are great natural curiosities, and are much visited. There are two, known respectively as
Upper and Lower. They are about one fourth of a mile apart, and are connected by a race. At the lower one, where
Messrs. Cochraue and Weston had a flouring-mill, a dike had been raised (seen in the above sketch) to give more fall
to the water. The two springs are of about equal dimensions. That of the lower one, which I visited, is about sixty
feet in depth. The water is so limpid that a white object an inch in diameter may be plainly seen lying on the bottom.
The temperature of the water is about 40° Fahrenheit, and holds in solution lime, soda, magnesia, and iron. It petri
fies every thing with which it comes in contact. This process makes the mill-wheels indestructible. About a mile and
a half from the springs is a limestone ridge covered with alluvium. From beneath this these springs appear to flow,
and are doubtless the first appearance on the earth of a little subterranean river, like that of the Eutaw in South Caro
lina. 2 See page 490.
3 Sandusky City is the capital of Erie County, Ohio. It was named Portland when it was first laid out in 1817, when
there were only two log houses there, one on the site of the "Veranda Hotel," and the other about sixty rods east of it.
The town stands upon an inexhaustible quarry of the finest limestone. It was a favorite resort of the Indians, and
previous to the War of 1812 it was known as Ogontz's Place, Ogontz being the name of a Wyandot chief who resided
there. A writer in the American Pioneer, i., 199, says the name of Sandusky is derived from that of a Polish trader who
was with the French when they were establishing their line of trading-posts on the Maumee and Wabash Rivers. His
name was Sanduski, and established himself near the present village of Fremont. His trading operations were con
fined to the river and bay there, and these became known to both Indians and Europeans as Sanduski's River and San-
duski's Bay. Sanduski quarreled with the Indians, fled to Virginia, and was there killed by some of those who followed
him.
On the peninsula, across the bay opposite Sandusky, is a rough monument, erected there by the order and at the ex
pense of the late Honorable Joshua R. Giddings, to perpetuate the memory of the spot where he and twenty-one others
had a skirmish with the Indians on the 29th of September, 1812. He was a substitute for an older brother, and was only
fourteen years of age. The regiment to which he belonged was commanded by Colonel Richard Hayes, and the little
company, who had been ordered on duty on the peninsula after the defeat of General Hull, was led by Captain Coltou.
They had two skirmishes with the savages, in which, of the twenty-two soldiers, six were killed, and an equal number
were wounded. Mr. Giddings was the youngest soldier of the regiment.
* This town stands at the head of the navigation of Saudusky River, eighteen or twenty miles from Sandusky Bay
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
507
Site of Fort Stephenson.
Its Locality and Appearance.
The Six-pounder "Good Bess."
The site of Fort Stephenson is in the bosom of the village of Fremont. It occu
pies about two thirds of the square bounded by Croghan, High, Market, and Arch
Streets. The dwelling of the late Honorable Jacques Hurlburd stands within the
area of the old stockade, and a few yards south of the block-house in which was
placed the cannon that swept the ditch. The northwest angle, where the British
made their chief assault, is at the junction of High and Croghan Streets. Near the
house of Dr. J. W. Wilson, on Croghan Street, was the head of the ravine and small
stream of water (see Plan of Fort Stephenson on page 503) between the stockade and
the British battery. It was to the shelter of that ravine that the affrighted Indians
fled after the first discharge of rifle-balls from the garrison.
From the site of the fort we went to the brow of the hill overlooking the landing-
place of the British. When I had finished my sketch (printed on page 500) we vis
ited the Good jBess, the iron six-pound cannon that performed such fearful service
in the defense of the fort.2 I then rode, in company with Mr. Birchard, to old Cro-
by its course. Here, at the Lower Rapids of the Sandusky, the Indians were granted a reservation by the treaty of
Greenville. The French had a trading-station here at an early day. Here was the residence of a band of Wyandot In
dians, called the Neutral Nation. They had two villages. They were " cities of refuge" for all. Whoever sought safe
ty in them found it. During the bloody wars between the Iroquois and the Europeans, this band of Indians were al
ways peace-makers. Their two towns were walled, and remains of their works may yet be seen. Indian tribes at war
recognized them as neutral. Those coming from the West might enter the Western City, and those from the East the
Eastern City. The inhabitants of one city might inform those of the other that war-parties had been there, but who
they were, or where from, must never be mentioned. At length the inhabitants of the two cities quarreled, and one de
stroyed or dispersed the other. — Stickney's Lecture at Toledo, 1S45, quoted by Howe.
i This view is from the northern side of Croghan Street, opposite the residence of Dr. J. W. Wilson. The building
seen in the centre is the late residence of Honora- ^^ where the body of Lieutenant Colonel Short was
ble Jacques Hurlburd. Croghan Street descends
to the left, to the business part of the village, and
High Street passes to the right. On the extreme
left, on High Street, is seen a barn. This is just
beyond the southwest angle of the fort, where
Croghau placed a block-house. At the foot of the
bank on Croghan Street is the site of the ditch
swept by the six-pounder, and a little way east- PAKT OF SUl 8 longs to Chester Edgcrton, Esq. The citizens have
ward from the corner of High Street is the place 81 x manifested a laudable desire to purchase the prop
erty, that it may be converted into a public square, and the site kept free from buildings.
3 The garrison named the piece the Good Bess. It was taken to Pittsburg, where it remained until it was presented to
the Corporation of Lower Sandusky (Fremont) in 1850. It was then nicely mounted as a field-piece, and is used on the
anniversary of the battle for salutes, and sometimes by political parties. The breech is somewhat mutilated, it having
been spiked by contending political parties at different times. It was carefully preserved in a small building on Cro
ghan Street, between Forest Street and the site of the fort.
found. In 1850, when the street and side-walk
were being regulated, the brass piece at the top
of a sword-scabbard was found upon that spot,
supposed to have belonged to Lieutenant Colonel
Short. It is now in the possession of Sardis Birch
ard, Esq., of Fremont.
The ground occupied by Fort Stephenson be
508 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Works of Art. Journey to Toledo. General Harrison's Military Character assailed and vindicated.
ghanville, on the eastern side of the Sandusky, and afterward to the place of Ball's
skirmish with the Indians, mentioned in Note 1, page 500. It was between the
dwelling of Mr. Villetti (the residence of Mr. Birchard) and Mr. Platt Brush, on the
road from Fremont to Tiffin and Columbus. The oak-tree, with the hatchet-marks,
stood on the west side of the road, near Mr. Brush's house.
At Mr. Villetti's I enjoyed the pleasure of seeing some valuable paintings belong
ing to Mr. Bii-chard, among them the fine picture of The Dog and Dead Duck, a work
of art of the Dusseldorf school that attracted much attention during the exhibition
in the Crystal Palace in New York in 1854. Leaving his attractive gallery, we re
turned to the village, stopping on the way in the " Spiegel Wood," a lovely spot not
far from the banks of the winding Sandusky, where he was erecting an elegant sum
mer mansion. f
The day was now far spent. Dark clouds were gathering in the western sky, and
in that direction I was soon moving swiftly over the railway toward Toledo, thirty
miles distant. I arrived at the " Oliver House," in that city, a few minutes before a
heavy thunder-storm burst upon it and the surrounding country. On the following
day I made the visit to Fort Meigs, up the Maumee Valley, already described on
pages 490 to 493 inclusive.
After the repulse of the British at Fort Stephenson, very little of importance oc
curred in the Northwest until the battle on Lake Erie, at near the middle of Septem
ber, when the aspect of affairs in that quarter wTas entirely changed. Harrison's reg
ular force in the field did not exceed two thousand men, yet he considered them suf
ficient for all present purposes. The din of a second invasion of the state had again
aroused the people, and hundreds of volunteers had flocked to the field only to be
again disbanded. These volunteers were offended. They regarded the action of the
general as an indication that he believed them to be, as soldiers, unworthy of his con
fidence ; and their indignant officers, in published resolutions, attacked the military
character of General Harrison, and declared that they would never again rally to his
flag. His personal and political enemies joined in the hue and cry; and men sitting
at home in ease, utterly ignorant of military affairs, assailed him with jeers as an im
becile or a coward, because he did not, writh his handful of regulars and a mass of
raw troops, push forward against Maiden and Detroit, before the tardily-building
navy was completed. Misrepresentation followed misrepresentation, for the purpose
of poisoning the public mind. Fearing their effects, his general, field, and staff officers,
"August 14, fourteen in number,1 held a meeting at head-quarters, Lower Seneca Town,a
and in an address to the public, drawn up by General Cass, they expressed
their entire confidence in the military abilities of their chief, and their belief that his
course " was such as was dictated by military wisdom, and by a due regard to our
circumstances and to the situation of the enemy."
Up to this time General Harrison's efforts had been mainly directed to defensive
measures ; now, the fleet at Erie being nearly ready, and Captain Perry, who was to
command it, having received orders to co-operate with Harrison, the latter bent all
his energies to the creation of a well-appointed army for another invasion of Canada,
Let us leave General Harrison for a while at his head-quarters at "Camp Seneca,"
and consider the naval preparations to co-operate with him.
We have observed that General Hull's advice respecting the creation of a fleet on
Lake Erie, before attempting an invasion of Canada, was unheeded,2 and that the
army of the Northwest was involved in disaster, and its commander was covered
with a cloud of disgrace. The event taught the rulers wisdom, and they profited by
1 'General Cass ; Colonels Wells, Owings, Paul, and Bartlett ; Lieutenant Colonels Ball and Morrison ; Majors Todd,
Trigg, Smiley, Graham, Croghan, Hukill, and Wood. The gallant Croghan, in a special letter on the 27th, silenced the
slanderers who were making political capital of Harrison's order for him to evacuate Fort Stephenson, and his disobe
dience. "The measures recently adopted by him," wrote Croghan, " so far from deserving censure, are the clearest proof*
of his keen penetration and able generalship." 2 See page 251.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
509
Captain Perry ordered to Lake Erie.
His Journey thither.
Presqu' Isle and Captain Dobbins
the lesson. They resolved to dispute the supremacy of the lakes w.ith the. British,
and to Commodore Chauncey was intrusted the necessary preparations.
During the summer and autumn of 1812, Captain Oliver H. Perry, of Rhode Island,
, a zealous naval officer twenty-seven years of age, was in command of a flotilla of gun
boats on the Newport station. He was very anxious for service in a wider field of
action — on the lakes or the broad ocean — where he might encounter the enemy and
win distinction. In November11 he offered his services for the lakes ; and on • 1812.
the first of February following13 he received a cordial letter from Chauncey, in b isis.
which that gentleman said, " You are the very person that I want for a particular
service, in which you may gain reputation for yourself and honor for your country."
This service was the command of a naval force on Lake Erie. Perry was delighted ;
and his joy was complete when, on the 17th of the same month, he received orders
from the Secretary of the Navy to report to Commodore Chauncey, at Sackett's Har
bor, with all of the best men of his flotilla in Narraganset Bay. Before sunset that
day he had dispatched Sailing-master Almy, Avith fifty men and officers, for the east
ern shore of Lake Ontario. Two days afterward an
other company of fifty men were sent to the same des
tination, under Sailing-master Champlin ; and on the
21st fifty more, under Sailing-master Taylor, left
Providence and followed their companions. Twen
ty hours later Perry left his pleasant home in New
port, with his little brother Alexander, then only
thirteen years of age, and was on his way in a sleigh.
He stopped part of a day at Lebanon, in Connecticut,
to visit his parents, and on the 28th he met Chauncey
at Albany. They journeyed together northwardly
through the Wilderness, and arrived at Sackett's Har
bor on the evening of the 3d of March. There Perry
remained a fortnight on account of an expected at
tack by the British. The menaces of danger ceased, and the young commander was
ordered to proceed to Presqu' Isle (now Erie), and hasten the equipment of a little
squadron then in process of construction there.2 He arrived at Buffalo on the 24th,
1 Perry's house, a well-preserved mansion, stood, when the
writer sketched it in 1S48, on the south side of Washington
Square, Newport, a few doors from Thames Street. It was a
spacious, square building, and was erected almost a century ago
by Mr. Levi, a Jew. To that house Perry took his bride, a daugh
ter of Dr. Mason, of Newport, and there she lived a widow al
most forty years. She died in February, 1S5S.
2 Erie was chosen for this purpose on the recommendation of
Captain Daniel Dobbins, one of the most experienced naviga
tors on Lake Erie. He suggested its advantages as a place for
building gun-boats early in the autumn of 1S12. The bay being
completely land-locked, and its only entrance too shallow for
large vessels to enter, but deep enough for the egress of gun
boats, he regarded it as the safest place on the lake for the con
struction of small vessels. He was appointed sailing-master in
the navy at the middle of September, 1812,* and received instruc
tions from the government to commence the construction of gun
boats at Erie. On the 12th of December he informed the De
partment that, under the lead of Ebenezer Crosby, a good ship
wright, and such house-carpenters as he could supply, he had
two of the gun-boats— 50 feet keel, IT feet beam, and 5 feet hold
— on the stocks, and would engage to have them all ready by the
time the ice was out of the lake.
* On his return from Detroit he was sent by General David
Mead with dispatches to Washington. There he was summoned
to a Cabinet council, and was fully interrogated concerning the
lakes. His opinions were received with deference ; and such was
the confidence of the Cabinet in his judgment that he was ap
pointed sailing-master, and directed to construct gun-boats at
Erie.
PERRY'S RESIDENCE.'
510
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The Harbor of Erie or Prescm' Isle.
History of the Locality.
Village of Erie.
spent the next day in examining vessels on the stocks at the navy yard at Black
Hock, then superintended by Lieutenant Pettigru, and made arrangements for having
stores forwarded to him. He pressed onward by land, and at an inn on the way he
was informed by the keeper, who had just returned from Canada, that the British .
were acquainted with the movements at Erie, and would doubtless soon attempt to
penetrate the hai'bor, and destroy the naval materials collected there.
The harbor of Erie is a large bay, within the embrace of a low, sandy peninsula
that juts five miles into the lake, and a bluff of main land on which the pleasant vil
lage of Erie, the capital of Erie County, Pennsylvania, stands. The peninsula has
sometimes been an island when its neck has been cleft by storms, and the harbor has
been entered from the west by small vessels. Within the memory of living men
Presqu' Isle (the peninsula) has been a barren sand-bank; now it is covered by a
growth of young timber. It is deeply indented toward its extremity by an estuary
called Little Bay. The harbor is one of the finest on the lake when gained, but at
the period in question, and until lately, its entrance was by a shallow channel, tortu
ous and difiicult on account of sand-bars and shoals. Although Presqu' Isle was a
place of historic interest in colonial times,1 it was an insignificant village in 1812, and
less than twenty years of age.2 Many miles of wilderness, or a very sparsely-popu
lated country, lay between it and the thick settlements ; and the supplies of every
Captain Dobbins was an efficient man and faithful officer. He was duly appointed a sailing-master in the navy, and
was highly esteemed by Commodore Perry. He was born in Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, on the 5th of July, 177G, aud
tirst visited Erie, with a party of surveyors, in 179C. It was then a wilderness. He was there with General Wayne at
the time of his death. He settled there, and became a navigator on the lakes. He was at Mackinaw with his vessel,
the Salina, when that place was captured by the British in 1S12, and, with R. S. and William Reid, of Erie, he was pa
roled. At Detroit he was again made prisoner, and paroled unconditionally. He was very efficient in fitting out the
squadron at Erie, and in the expedition, under Commodore Sinclair, that attempted to retake Mackinaw. After the war
he was in command of the Washington, and in 1S1G he conveyed troops in her to Green Bay. She was the first vessel, ex
cept a canoe, that ever entered that harbor. A group of islands in that vicinity were named Dobbins's Islands in honor
of him. He was ordered to sea in 1S26, when he resigned his commission in the navy, but remained in the government
employment. In 1S29 President Jackson appointed him commander of the revenue cutter Rush. He left active service
in 1849, and died at the age of almost eighty-one, February 29, 1S5G. The likeness of Captain Dobbins, given on the pre
ceding page, is from a portrait painted by Moses Billings, of Erie, when he was seventy-five years of age.
1 Here was erected one of the chain of French forts in the wilderness which first excited the alarm and jealousy of
the English colonies in America and the government at home. The remains of the ramparts and ditches, seen iu the
sketch on the opposite page, are very prominent upon a point overlooking the entrance to the harbor, which it com
mands, and a deep ravine, through which Mill Creek flows, within the eastern limits of the borough of Erie. The fort
is supposed to have been erected early in 1749, that being the year when the French sent armed emissaries throughout
the. Ohio Valley to drive off the English traders. It was constructed under the direction of Jean Ceeur (commonly writ
ten Joucaire in history), an influential Indian agent of the French governor general of Canada. This was intended
by the French for an important entrepot of sup
plies for the interior forts ; but when Canada passed
into the possession of the English, a hundred years
ago, the fort was abandoned, and fell into decay.
General Wayne established a small garrison there
in 1794, and caused a block-house to be built on
the bluff part of Mill Creek, at the lake shore of
Garrison Hill. On his return as victor over the
Indians in the Maumee Valley, he occupied a log
house near the block-house. There he died of
gout, and, at his own request, was buried at the
foot of the flag-staff. His remains were removed
to Radnor Church - yard, Pennsylvania, in 1S09.
The block-house fell into decay, and, in the win
ter of 1S13-'14, another was built on its site ; also
one on the Point of the Peninsula of Presqu1 Isle.
The former remained until 1S53, when some mis
creant burnt it. It was the last relic of the War
of 1S12 in that vicinity. I am indebted to B. F.
Sloan, Esq., editor of the Erie Observer, for the ac
companying sketcTi of the block-house, made by
Mr. Chevalier, of Erie. The view is from the edge
of the water at the mouth of Mill Creek, just below the old mill. On the left is seen the open lake, and on the right of
the block-house, where a small building is seen, was the place of the flag-staff and Wayne's grave.
2 It was laid out in 1795, when reservations were made of certain lots for the use of the United States. Theflrst white
settler there was Colonel John Reid, from Rhode Island, who built a log cabin, enlarged it, and called it the Presqu' Me
Hfitel, entertained travelers, soldiers, traders, speculators, and Indians, and laid the foundation of a large fortune. His
sou built the "Reid House," in Erie, one of the finest hotels iu the country out of the large cities.
WAYNE 8 BLOCK-HOUSE AT ERIE.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
511
Perry's Arrival :u Erie.
Construction of a Fleet begun.
Cascade Creek, and Block-house near.
VIEW OF T1IE SITE OF T11E FEENCU FOET AN1) ENTRANCE TO EKIE HAEUOU.'
kind, but timber, for naval preparations, had to be brought from far-away places with
great labor. Zeal and energy overcame all difficulties.
Perry arrived at Erie, as we have observed, on the 27th of March. He established
his quai'ters at Duncan's " Erie Hotel," and entered upon the duties of his important
errand by calling around him the employes of the government there. Much pre
liminary work had al
ready been done under
the direction of the
energetic Sailing-mas
ter Dobbins and Noah
Brown, a shipwright
from New York. For
est-trees around Erie
had beeil felled and
hewn ; the keels of two
twenty-gun brigs and
a clipper schooner had
been laid at the mouth
of Cascade Creek;
two gun -boats were
nearly planked up at
the mouth of Lee's
Run,between the pres
ent Peach and Sassa
fras Streets ; and a
third, afterward call-
1 This view of the entrance to Erie Harbor was taken from the site of the old
French Fort dc la Presqu' Isle, mentioned in the note on the preceding page. The
mounds indicating the remains of the fort are seen on the right, and near them,
iu the centre of the picture, is a small building used as a powder-house. On the
bluff on the extreme right is seen a little structure, indicating the site of the
block-house mentioned in the note on the preceding page, which is not far from
the present light-house. On the left, in the extreme distance, is Presqu' Isle
Point, and in the water, piers that have been constructed for 'the improvement of
the entrance channel, and a light-house.
2 This is a view of the site of the n-ayy yard at the month- of the Cascade Creek,
and of a portion of the harbor of Erie, made by the author early in September,
I860. The creek and the gentle cascade, which gives its appropriate name, are
seen in the foreground. Beyond it, and the small boats seen in its waters, is the
beach where the Lawrence, Xiayara, and Ariel were built. On the clay and gravel
bluff at the extreme right, the fence marks the site of a block-house built to
protect the ship-yard, whose stout flag-staff, with cross-pieoes for steps, served
as an observatory. From its top a full view of the lake over Presqu' Isle could
be seen. The lower part of the block-house was heavy, rough logs ; the upper,
or battery part, was made of hewn timber.
In the distance, in the centre of the picture, is seen the landing at Erie, and on the left the pier and light-house at the
entrance to the harbor. Just behind the bluff, in the distance, is the mouth of Lee's Run, where the Porcupine and
Tigress were built. The cascade is about fifteen feet iu perpendicular fall in its passage over a ledge of slate rock, aud
is about one mile from the public square in Erie.
MOUTH OF CASCADE CREEK.2
BLOCK-HI >i M
512 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
A Guard at Erie. Perry hastens to Chauncey. Events on the Niagara Frontier.
; _ .
cd Scorpion, was just commenced. To guard against surprise and the destruction
of the vessels by the British, a volunteer company of sixty men, under Captain Fos
ter, had been organized. Captain Dobbins had also formed a guard of the ship-car
penters and other mechanics engaged on the vessels.
On the arrival of Sailing-master Taylor, on the 3d of March, with officers and men.
Perry hastened to Pittsburg to urge forward supplies of every kind for the comple
tion and equipment of his little squadron. He had already ordered Dobbins to Buf-
a April 10, falo f°r men and munitions ; and on his returna he was gratified to find that
S13> faithful officer back and in possession of a twelve-pound cannon, four chests
of small arms, and ammunition. The vessels, too, were in a satisfactory state of for
wardness. They were soon off the stocks. Early in May the three smaller ones were
launched, and on the 24th of the same month the two brigs were put afloat.1
b At sunset of the day before the launching of the brigs,b Perry left Erie in
an open four-oared boat, to join Chauncey in an attack upon Fort George, at
the mouth of the Niagara River. The commodore had promised him the command
of the marines in the enterprise. All night he buffeted the angry waves of Lake Erie,
and arrived at Buffalo the next day. Perry was accompanied from Erie as far as
Lewiston by his faithful coadjutor, Captain Dobbins. From that point the latter was
sent back to Schlosser, to prepare boats for seamen who were to be sent up after the
reduction of Fort George, and to the Black Rock navy yard, to hasten the equipment
of some government vessels that were to join the growing squadron at Erie.
Fort George fell,0 Fort Erie was evacuated and burnt, and the British
abandoned the entire line of the Niagara River. This enabled Perry to take
safely from that stream into Lake Erie and the sheltering arms of Presqu' Isle five
vessels which Henry Eckford had prepared for warlike service, and which had been
detained below Buffalo by the Canadian batteries. They were loaded with stores at
the Black Rock navy yard ; and on the morning of the 6th of June, oxen, seamen,
and two hundred soldiers, under Captains Brevoort and Younge, who had been de
tailed to accompany Perry to Erie, with strong ropes over willing shoulders com
menced warping or "tracking" them up the swift current. It was a task of incredi
ble labor, and occupied full six days.
The little flotilla2 sailed from Buffalo on the 13th. Perry was in the Caledonia,
sick with symptoms of bilious remittent fever. Head winds prevailed. " We made
twenty-five miles in twenty-four hours," wrote Doctor Usher Parsons, Perry's sur
geon, in his diary.3 It was not until the 19th that they entered the harbor of Erie,
just in time to avoid the little cruising squadron of the enemy under the gallant
Captain Finnis, of the Royal Navy, which had been on the look-out for them. Of
this Perry had been informed, on his way, by men in a small boat that shot out from
the southern shore of the lake, and he had prepared to fight. When the last vessel
of the flotilla had crossed the bar at Erie, the squadron of the enemy hove in sight
off Presqu' Isle Point.4 Three or four days afterward the flotilla went up to the
mouth of the Cascade Creek, where the two brigs and a gim-boat lay.
Perry's fleet was completed and finished on the 10th of July; but, alas! he had
1 The timber for the vessels was found on the spot. Their frames were made of white and black oak and chestnut,
the outside planking of oak, and the decks of pine. Many trees found their places as timber in the vessels on the very
day when they were felled iu the forest.
2 It consisted of the prize brig Caledonia (see page 3S6) ; the schooner Somers (formerly Catharine), carrying one long
24 ; schooner Amelia (formerly Tiriress), carrying one long IS ; and schooner Ohio, carrying one long 24 ; the sloop Con
tractor (now called Trippc), carrying one long 18. The commanders of this flotilla from Buffalo to Erie were Perry,
Almy, Holdup, Darling, and Dobbins.
3 Doctor Usher Parsons, of Providence, Rhode Island, is the last surviving commissioned officer of Perry's fleet. I am
greatly indebted to him for many valuable contributions to this portion of my work, both oral and written, especially
for the use of his diary kept during the campaign of 1813. We shall meet him presently as the surgeon of the Law-
rence, Perry's flag-ship, in the battle of the 10th of September.
4 This cruising squadron consisted of the ship Queen Charlotte, mounting 17 guns ; the fine schooner Lady Prcvost,
mounting 13 guns ; the brig Hunter, a smaller vessel of 10 guns ; the schooner Little Belt, of 3 guns ; and the CMppcwa,
of 1 gun.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. - 513
Brig Laicrence to be the Flag-ship. Lack of Men. Perry's Earnestness and Unselfishness.
only men enough to officer and man one of the brigs, and he was compelled to lie
idle in the harbor of Erie, an unwilling witness of the insolent menaces of the enemy
on the open lake. The brig that was to bear his broad pennant was named (by order
of the Secretary of the Navy, received on the 12th) Lawrence, in honor of the gallant
captain of the Chesapeake, who had just given his life to his country.a The . ju,ie,
other brig was named Niagara*, and the smaller vessels constructed at Erie
were called respectively Ariel (the clipper schooner), Porcupine, and Tigress. But
what availed these vessels without officers and crews? The two hundred soldiers
lent as a guard for the flotilla on its voyage from Buifalo had been ordered back.
Only Captain Brevoort, who was familiar with the navigation of the lake, remained,
and he was assigned to the command of the marines of the Niagara. Perry was
sick, and almost one fifth of his men were subjects for the hospital in the court-house,
under Doctor Horsley, or the one near the site of Wayne's block-house, under Doctor
Roberts. And yet the government, remiss itself in furnishing Perry with men, was
calling loudly upon him to co-operate with Harrison. Twice within four days he re
ceived orders to that effect "from the Secretary of the Treasury.b Harri- bju] ^^
son, too, was sending messages to him recounting the perils of the situation
of his little army, and intelligence came that a new and powerful vessel, called Detroit,
was nearly ready for service at Maiden. This was coupled with the assurance that
the veteran Captain Robert H. Barclay, who had served with Nelson at Trafalgar,
had arrived with experienced officers and men, and was in chief command of the hos
tile squadron seen off Presqu' Isle. In the bitterness of a mortified spirit Perry
wrote to Chauncey,c his chief, saying, " The enemy's fleet of six sail are now c
off the bar of this harbor. What a golden opportunity, if we had men !
Their object is, no doubt, either to blockade or attack us, or to carry provisions and
re-enforcements to Maiden. Should it be to attack us, we are ready to meet them.
I am constantly looking to the eastward ; every mail and every traveler from that
quarter is looked to as the harbinger of the glad tidings of our men being on the way.
Give me men, sir, and I will acquire both for you and myself honor and glory
on this lake, or perish in the attempt. Conceive my feelings : 'an enemy within strik
ing distance, my vessels ready, and not men enough to man them. Going out with
those I now have is out of the question. You would not suffer it were you here.
Think of my situation : the enemy in sight, the vessels under my command more than
sufficient and ready to make sail, and yet obliged to bite my fingers with vexation
for want of men."1 Again, on the 23d of July, when Sailing-master Champlin had ar
rived with seventy men, Perry wrote to Chauncey : "For God's sake, and yours, and
mine, send me men and officers, and I will have them all [the British squadron] in a
day or two. Commodore Barclay keeps just out of the reach of our gun-boats
The vessels are all ready to meet the enemy the moment they are officered and man
ned. Our sails are bent, provisions on board, and, in fact, every thing is ready. Bar
clay has been bearding me for several days ; I long to be at him." Then, with the
most generous patriotism, he added, " However anxious I am to reap the reward of
the labor and anxiety I have had on this station, I shall rejoice, whoever commands,
to see this force on the lake, and surely I had rather be commanded by my friend
than by any other. Come, then, and the business is decided in a few hours."
Perry's importunities were almost in vain. Few and mostly inferior men came to
him from Lake Ontario, and, so far as the government was concerned, he was left to
call them from the forest or the deep. When he gave Harrison the true reason for
failing to co-operate with him, the Secretary of the Navy reproved him for exposing
1 Two days afterward [July 21] the enemy were becalmed off the harbor, when Perry went out with three gun-boats
from Cascade Creek to attack him. Only a few shots were exchanged, at the distance of a mile. One of Perry's shots
struck the mizzeii-mast of the Queen Charlotte. A breeze sprung up, and the enemy's squadron bore away to the open
lake.
KK
514
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Relations of Chauncey and Perry.
Erie menaced.
Preparations for an Attack.
his weakness ; and when he complained to Chauncey of the inferiority of the men
sent to him — " a motley set, blacks, soldiers, and boys" — he received from the irritated
commodore a letter so filled with caustic but half-concealed irony, that he felt con
strained to ask for a removal from the station, because, as he alleged, he " could not
serve longer under an officer who had been so totally regardless of his feelings."1 A
manly, generous letter from Chauncey soon afterward restored the kindliness of feel
ing between them.
In the mean time the post of Erie had been seriously menaced. General Porter, at
Black Rock, sent word that the enemy were concentrating at Long Point, on the
Canada shore of the lake, opposite Erie. At about the same time a hostile movement
was made toward Fort Meigs, and the British fleet mysteriously disappeared. No
doubt was entertained of a design to attempt the capture of Erie, with the vessels
and stores, by a combined land and naval force. A panic was the consequence. The
families of many citizens fled with their valuables to the interior. Already a block-
house had been erected on the bluff east of Cascade Creek to protect the ship-yard,2
and a redoubt mounting three long twelve-pounders had been planted on the heights
(now called Garrison Hill), near the present light-house, and named Fort Wayne.
Barracks had been erected in the village,3 and a regiment of Pennsylvania militia
were encamped near Fort Wayne. The vessels were as well manned as possible, and
boats rowed guard at the entrance to the harbor. But these means of defense were
not considered sufficient, and Perry called on Major General David Mead, of Mead-
ville, to re-enforce the troops with his militia. This was done,4 and in the course of a
few days upward of fifteen hundred soldiers were concentrated at a rendezvous near.
But an invasion from the lake was not attempted, owing, as was afterward ascertain
ed, to the difficulty of collecting a sufficient number of troops in time at Long Point.
At the close of July Perry had about three hundred effective officers and men at
1 Letter to the Secretary of the Navy, dated on board the Laicrence, at Erie, August 10, 1S13.
2 See note 2, page 511.
3 These occupied a portion of the space now bounded by Third and Fifth and State and Sassafras Streets. These
objects and localities, and others, are indicated ou the above map, in the construction of which I acknowledge aid
kindly afforded me by Giles Sanford, Esq., of Erie. The public square is indicated by the white space on the village
plan, and the court-house by the shaded square within it.
* Doctor Parsons wrote iu his diary, under date of August 1, 1813, "General Mead, of Meadville, arrived two or three
days ago, and, with his suite, came ou board the Laicrcnce under a salute of thirty-two guns."
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 515
Passage of Vessels over Erie Bar. First Cruise of Perry's Fleet. Re-enforcements under Captain Elliott.
Erie, with which to man two 20-gun brigs and eight smaller vessels. The enemy
disappeared and the lake was calm. He was so restive under the bearding of Bar
clay and the chafing from superiors, that he resolved with these to go out upon the
lake and try the fortune of war. On Sunday, the first of August, he moved his flo
tilla down to the entrance of the harbor, intending to cross early the next morning.
The lake was lower than usual, and the squadron would not float over the bar. Even
the smaller vessels had to be lightened for the purpose, and at one time it was con
sidered doubtful whether the Lawrence and Niagara could be taken out of the har
bor at all. The flag-ship was tried first. Her cannon, not " loaded and shotted," as
the historians have said (for they had been discharged in saluting General Mead),
were taken out and placed on timbers on the beach, while the Niagara and smaller
vessels lay with their broadsides toward the lake for her protection, in the event of
the reappearance of Barclay.1
By means of " camels"2 the Lawrence was floated over on the morning of the 4th,
and by two o'clock that day her armament was all on board of her, mounted and pre
pared for action. The Niagara was taken over in the same way with very little
trouble, and the smaller vessels reached the deep water outside* without a ^£,^5,
much difficulty. The labor of this movement had been exciting and ex
hausting, and the young commander scarcely slept or partook of food during the
four days. The enemy was exp'ected every moment. Should he appear while the
flotilla was on the bar, all might be lost. Fortunately, Commodore Barclay's social
weakness — the inordinate love of public festivities — prolonged his absence, and his
squadron did not heave in sight until the 5th, just as the Niagara was safely moving
into deep water.3 The Ariel, Lieutenant Packet, and Scorpion, Sailing-master Cham-
pliu, were sent out boldly to engage and detain the squadron. Barclay was surprised
at this movement, and perceiving that his golden opportunity was lost, he bore away
toward Long Point. The whole of Perry's flotilla was in perfect preparation before
night. That evening it weighed anchor," and stood toward Long Point
0 *•— ' «— ' . * <^j
on its first cruise. Perceiving no farther use for the militia, who were anx
ious to get into their harvest-fields, General Mead discharged them, and the armed
citizens of Erie resumed their accustomed avocations.
Perry cruised between Erie and the Canada shore for two or three days, vainly
searching for the enemy, who had gone to Maiden to await the completion of the
Detroit, a ship that would make the British force superior to that of the Americans.
But the latter now received accessions of strength. On the 9th the squadron was
joined at Erie by Captain Jesse D. Elliott,4 who brought with him about one hundred
officers and superior men. With these he manned the Niagara and assumed com
mand of her. Thus re-enforced, Perry resolved to sail up the lake and report himself
ready to co-operate with Harrison.
The squadron left Erie on the 12thc in double column, one line in regular < August.
battle order,5 and rendezvoused in an excellent harbor called Put-in-Bay,d "August is.
1 Manuscript corrections of the text of M'Kenzie's Life of Perry, by Captain Daniel Dobbins, -who assisted in the
movement. I am indebted for the use of these notes to his son, Captain W. W. Dobbins, of Erie, Pennsylvania.
2 A "camel" is a machine invented by the Dutch for carrying vessels over shallow places, as bars at the entrance of
harbors. It is a huge box or kind of scow, so arranged that water may be let in or pumped out at pleasure. One of
them is placed on each side of a vessel, the water let in, and the camels so sunken that, by means of ropes under the
keel and windlasses, the vessel may be placed so that beams may bear it, resting on the camels. The water in the
camels is then pumped out, they float, and the vessel, raised by them, is carried over the shallow place.
3 Captain Dobbins, in his MS. notes on M'Kenzie's Life of Commodore Perry, says that the citizens of Port Dover, a
small village on Ryason's Creek, a little below Long Point, in Canada, offered Commodore Barclay and his officers a
public dinner. The invitation was accepted. While that dinner was being attended Perry was getting his vessels over
the bar, and thereby acquired power to successfully dispute the supremacy of Lake Erie with the British. At the din
ner Captain Barclay remarked, in response to a complimentary toast, "I expect to find the Yankee brigs hard and fast
on the bar at Erie when I return, in which predicament it will be but a small job to destroy them." Had Barclay been
more mindful of duty, his expectations might have been realized. Captain Dobbins makes this statement on the au
thority of an old lake acquaintance, Mr. Ryasou, who was at the dinner. 4 See page 3SS.
5 Perry's aggregate force of officers and men was less than f :ur hundred. His squadron was composed as follows:
516
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Islands around Put-in-Bay.
Harrison visits Perry on his Flag-ship.
Sickness in the Fleet.
formed by a group of islands known as the North, Middle, and South Bass, Put-in-
Bay, Sugar, Gibraltar, and Strontian,1 and numerous small islets, some of them con
taining not more than half an acre. These lie off Port Clinton, the capital of Ottawa
County, Ohio. Nothing was seen of the enemy ; and on the following day, toward
evening, the squadron weighed anchor and sailed for Saridusky Bay, when a strange
sail was discovered off Cunningham (now Kelly) Island by Champlin, of the Scor
pion, who had been sent out -as a sort of scout. He signaled and gave chase, fol
lowed for a short time by the whole squadron. It was- a British schooner reconnoi
tring. She eluded her pursuers by darting among the islands that form Put-in-Bay,
under cover of the night. A heavy storm of wind and rain came with the darkness.
The Scorpion partly grounded, the schooner ran ashore in the gale, and the squadron
lay at anchor all night.2 On the following morning the point of the peninsula off
Sandusky Bay was reached, when Perry fired signal-guns, according to agreement, to
apprise Harrison at his quarters at Camp Seneca of his presence. That evening Col
onel E. P. Gaines, Avith a few officers and a guard of Indians, appeared on board the
Lawrence, and informed Perry that Harrison, with eight thousand men — militia, reg
ulars, and Indians — was only twenty-seven miles distant. Boats were immediately
dispatched to bring the general and his suite on board. He arrived late in the even
ing of the 19th, during a heavy rain, accompanied by his aids, M' Arthur and Cass,
and other officers composing his staff, and a large number of soldiers and Indians,
twenty-six of the latter being chiefs of the neighboring tribes, whose friendship it
was thought important to maintain. The plan of the campaign was then arranged
a August, by the two commanders. The 20th,a a bright and beautiful day, was spent
S13- in reconnoitring Put-in-Bay, with the view of concentrating the army there
for transportation to Maiden, and on the 21st the general returned to his camp.
As Harrison Avas not quite ready for
the forAvard movement, Perry
., ,h . ! J "August 23.
sailed0 on a reconnoitring ex
pedition toward Maiden, first ordering the
ever-trusty Captain Dobbins to hasten
with the Ohio to Erie on the important
errand of procuring additional stores. He
found the enemy Avithin the mouth of the
Detroit River. The new vessel had not
yet joined the squadron, and he resohred
to strike a bold bloAv. Unfavorable winds
made the measure very perilous ; and be
fore the elements were propitious he was
prostrated by an attack of bilious remit
tent fever, then very prevalent in the
squadron. His surgeon and chaplain,
and his young brother Alexander, who
had accompanied him from Rhode Island,
Avere also severely ill, and the assistant
surgeon, Doctor Parsons, Avas too weak
from a similar attack to Avalk.3 The en
terprise was abandoned for the time, and
Lawrence, commanded by Commodore Perry; Niagara, Captain Elliott; Caledonia, Purser M'Grath; Ariel, Lieutenant
Packet; Somers, Sailing-master Almy; Tigress, Master's-mate M'Donald; Scorpion, Sailing-master Champliu; Porcu
pine, Midshipman Seuat; Ohio, Sailing-master Dobbins; Trippe, Lieutenant Smith.
1 So named because of the quantity of that mineral found there.
2 Parsons's Diary. MS. statement of Captain Champlin, communicated to the Author.
3 "Though so ill as to be incapable of walking," says M'Kenzie, "with a humane self-devotion most honorable to
him, he continued to attend at the bedside of the sick, to which he was carried, and to prescribe for them, not only on
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
517
Put-in-Bay.
A Reconnoissance by Perry.
The Circumspection of the British commander.
on the 27th,a at eight o'clock in the evening, the squadron again anchored "Augus
in Put-in-Bay. There, on the 31st, Perry received from Harrison a re-en- 1813-
PUT-IX-liAY.
forcement of thirty-six men, to act as marines and supply the places of some of the
sick.
At the end of a week's confinement Perry gave orders for another cruise, and on
the first of September the squadron weighed anchor and sailed again for Maiden,
where he challenged Barclay, who did not then choose to respond, but, under shore
batteries, lay securely and unmoved. On the following morning Perry sailed for
Sandusky Bay, to communicate with General Harrison, and then, with his whole
squadron, returned to anchorage in Put-in-Bay. l
board of the Lawrence, but of the smaller vessels, being lifted for the purpose in his cot, and the sick brought on deck
for his prescriptions." — Life of Perry, L, 203.
Usher Parsons was born at Alfred, Maine, on the ISth of August, 1TS8. He chose the medical profession as a life-
pursuit, and studied with Dr. John Warren, of Cambridge, Massachusetts. On the promulgation of the declaration of
war he entered the navy as surgeon's mate. He volunteered to accompany Perry to Lake Erie with the crew of the
John Adams. In the battle on Lake Erie, described in the next chapter, he was on the flag-ship Lawrence as acting
surgeon, his superior being too ill to attend to his duties. Indeed, the duties of both Dr. Barton and Dr. Horseley
devolved on Dr. Parsons when the battle was over. Speaking of him in a letter to the Secretary of the Navy, Perry
said: "I can only say that in the event of my having another command, I should consider myself particularly fortu
nate in having him with me as a surgeon." In 1814 he served on the upper lakes under Commodore Sinclair. At
the request of Perry, Parsons became the surgeon of the new frigate Java, 44, commanded by the hero of Lake Erie.
After ten years' service in the navy he retired, settled as a physician and surgeon in Providence, Rhode Island, was
professor in Brown University and other colleges, president of the Rhode Island Medical Society, and first vice-presi
dent of the National Medical Society. In 1822 he married a daughter of Rev. Dr. Holmes, of Cambridge, the author of
the Annals of America. She died three years afterward, bearing one son, Dr. Charles W. Parsons, now [1SG7] president
of the Rhode Island Medical Society. Dr. Parsons is the author of several medical works and historical discourses, and
a well-written Life of Sir William Peppcrell, Dart. Dr. Parsons is still [1SG7] in the enjoyment of perfect physical and
mental health, at the age of seventy-nine years.
1 Put-in-Bay Harbor is on the north side of Put-in-Bay Island, one of the largest of the group of about twenty in that
neighborhood. The view of the harbor from Put-in-Bay Island, given above, is from a drawing made on the spot, in
September, 1S59, by Captain Van Cleve, a veteran Lake Ontario steam-boat commander, who kindly presented it to me.
Directly in front is seen Gibraltar Island, and the place of "Perry's Look-out," delineated in the little picture at the
beginning of the next chapter, is indicated by the flag. The smoke in the distance points out the place of the battle,
ten miles in a northwardly direction from Put-in-Bay. The Bass Islands are seen on the right, and Rattlesnake Island
on the left. The beaches of all are chiefly of white pebbles. The view is from Put-iu-Bay Island, near the landing.
518
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Perry's Antagonist m Sight.
Preparations far Battle.
Rendezvous at Put-in-Bay.
CHAPTER XXV.
" September the tenth, full well I ween,
In eighteen hundred and thirteen,
The weather mild, the sky serene,
Commanded by bold Perry,
Our saucy fleet at anchor lay
In safety, moor'd at Put-in-Bay ;
'Twixt sunrise and the break of day,
The British fleet
We chanced to meet ;
Our admiral thought he would them greet
With a welcome oil Lake Erie." — OLD SONG.
AIL ho !" were the stirring words that rang out loud and clear
from the mast-head of the Lawrence on the warm and pleasant
morning of the 10th of September, 1813. That herald's proc
lamation was not unexpected to Perry. Five days before he
had received direct and positive information from Maiden that
Proctor's army were so short of provisions that Barclay was
preparing to go out upon the lake, at all hazards, to open a com
munication with Long Point, the chief deposit of supplies for
the enemy on the banks of the Detroit River. Perry had made preparations accord
ingly ; and, day after day, from the rocky heights of Gibraltar Island, now known as
" Perry's Look-out," he had
pointed his glass anxiously
in the direction of Maiden. l
^ On the evening of the 9th
m he called around him the offi-
| cers of his squadron, and
I gave instructions to each in
I writing, for he was determ-
|| ined to attack the enemy at
his anchorage the next day
if he did not come out. His
plan Avas to bring on a close
action at once, so as not to
lose the advantage of his
O
short carronades. To each
vessel its antagonist on the
British side was assigned,
the size and character of
PERRY'S LOOK-OUT, GIBRALTAR ISLAND, PUT-IN-BAY.S them having been COmmum-
1 Perry also kept two of the smaller vessels as look-outs in the vicinity of the Sisters Islands.
2 This little picture is from a painting made on the spot by Miss C. L. Ransom, who kindly permitted me to copy
it (see page 505). "Perry's Look-out" is on the left, and is composed of limestone piled about fifty feet above the wa
ter. In front is a natural arch. On the summit is a representation of a monument proposed to be erected there, of
which the corner-stone was laid several years ago with imposing ceremonies. OH the left are seen the graves of some
sailors who died of cholera. In the middle is seen Rattlesnake Island. On the right, in the extreme distance, is North
Bass Island, and between the two is the passage toward Detroit. The Middle Bass is also seen on the right. Thisis
a faithful copy of Miss Ransom's picture, with the exception of time. It has been made a moonlight scene, for effect,
instead of a daylight one.
Near the site of the proposed monument, Jay Cooke, an eminent banker, has a fine dwelling, and on the foundations
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
519
Perry's Battle-flas
His final Instructions.
The British Fleet in Sight.
PEKEY S BATTLE-FLAG.-1
cated to him by Captain Brevoort,1 whose family lived in Detroit. The Laicrence
was assigned to the Detroit • the Niagara to the Queen Charlotte, and so on ; and
to each officer he said, in substance, Engage your antagonist in close action, keeping
on the line at half-cable length from the vessel of our squadron ahead of you.
It was about ten o'clock when the conference ended. The moon was at its full,
and it was a splendid autumn night. Just before they parted, Perry brought out a
large square battle-flag, which, at
his request, Mr. Hambleton,2 the
purser, had caused to be privately
prepared at Erie. It was blue,
and bore, in large letters, made of
white muslin, the alleged dying
words of the gallant commander
of the Chesapeake, " DON'T GIVE
UP THE SHIP !" " When this flag
shall be hoisted to the main-royal
mast-head," said the commodore,
" it shall be your signal for going
into action." As the officers were
leaving, he said, " Gentlemen, re
member your instructions. Nel
son has expressed my idea in the
words, 'If you lay your enemy
close alongside, you can not be out
of your place.' Good-night."
The cry of " Sail ho !" was soon
followed by signals to the fleet of
" Enemy in sight ;" " Get underweigh ;" and the voices of the boatswains sounding
through the squadron and echoing from the shoi-es the command, " All hands up
anchor, ahoy !" At sunrise the British vessels were all seen upon the northwestern
horizon —
" Six barques trained for battle, the red flag displaying,
By Barclay commanded, their wings wide outspread,
Forsake their strong-hold, on broad Erie essaying
To meet with that foe they so lately did dread." — OLD BALLAD.
A light wind was blowing from the southwest. Clouds came upon it from over the
Ohio wilderness, and in passing dropped a light shower of rain. Soon the sky be
came serene, and before ten o'clock, when, by the aid of the gentle breeze in beat-
prepared for that monument he caused to be erected, in 1SCC, a small one, composed of yellowish limestone. It is about
ten feet in height, and surmounted by a bronze vase for flowers. On its sides are naval devices of the same metal.
1 Henry Brevoort, of New York, was commissioned Second Lieutenant in Third Infantry in 1801. lie commanded
transports on Lake Erie, and in May, 1811, was promoted to captain. He distinguished himself in the battle of Magua-
ga (see page 279), and also as commander of marines in the Siagara in the battle of Lake Erie. He received a silver
medal for his gallantry there. He was promoted to major in 1S14, and was disbanded in 1815. In 1822 he was made
United States Indian Agent at Green Bay.— Gardner's Dictionary of the Army.
2 Samuel Hambleton was a native of Talbot County, Maryland, where he was born in 1T7T. He was first a merchant,
then a clerk in the Navy Department, and in 1SOC was appointed purser in the navy. After the battle of Lake Erie, the
officers and crews of the American squadron appointed him prize agent, and more than $200,00(1 passed through his
hands. He left the lake in 1814, and performed good service afloat and ashore for many years. He died at his resi
dence in Maryland, near St. Michael's, called " Perry's Cabin," January 17, 1851.
3 This is a picture of the flag as seen in the Trophy Room of the Sanitary Fair in the City of New York in the month
of April, 1SG4. It is between eight and nine feet square. The form of the letters is preserved in the engraving. They
are about a foot in length, and might be seen at a considerable distance.
The following lines, in allusion to this flag, are from a fine poem on The Hero of Lake Erie, by Henry T. Tuckerman,
Esq. :
"Behold the chieftain's glad, prophetic smile,
As a new banner he unrolls the while ;
Hear the gay shout of his elated crew
When the dear watchword hovers to their view,
And Lawrence, silent in the arms of death,
Bequeaths defiance with his latest breath !"
520 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Perry's Determination to flght. Names and Character of the opposing Vessels. Signal for Battle.
ing and strong arms with oars, the squadron had passed out from the labyrinth of
islands into the open lake, within five or six miles of the enemy, not a cloud was
hanging in the firmament, nor a fleck of mist was upon the waters. It was a splen
did September day.
Perry was yet weak -from illness when the cry of ''Sail ho!" was repeated to him
by Lieutenant Dulaney Forrest. That announcement gave him strength, and the ex
citement of the hour was a tonic of rare virtue. The wind was variable, and he
tried in vain to gain the weather - gage of the enemy by beating around to the wind
ward of some of the islands. He was too impatient to fight to long brook the waste
of precious time in securing an advantage so small with a wind so light. " Run to
the leeward of the islands," he said to Taylor, his sailing-master.1 "Then you will
have to engage the enemy to leeward," said that officer, in a slightly remonstrant
manner. "I don't care," quickly responded Perry; "to windward or to leeward,
they shall fight to-day." The signal to wear ship followed immediately, when the
wind shifted suddenly to the southeast, and enabled the squadron to clear the isl
ands, and to keep the weather - gage. Perceiving this, Barclay hove to, in close or
der, and awaited Perry's attack. His vessels, newly painted and with colors flying,
made an imposing appearance. They were six in number,2 and bore sixty-three car
riage-guns, one on a pivot, two swivels, and four howitzers. Perry's squadron num
bered nine vessels, and bore fifty-four carriage-guns and two swivels.3 Barclay had
thirty-five long guns to Perry's fifteen, and possessed greatly the advantage in action
at a distance. In close action, the weight of metal was with the Americans, and for
o
that reason Perry had resolved to close upon the enemy at once. The British com
mander had one hundred and fifty men from the royal navy, eighty Canadian sailors,
two hundred and forty soldiers, mostly regulars, and some Indians. His whole force,
officers and men, was a little more than five hundred. The American commander
had upon his muster-roll four hundred and ninety names. Of these the bearers of
one hundred and sixteen were sick, and most of them too weak to go upon deck.
About one fourth of Perry's crew were from Rhode Island; one fourth were regular
seamen, American and foreign ; about one fourth were raw volunteers, chiefly from
Kentucky ; and about another fourth were negroes. ,
At a little past ten o'clock Perry's line was formed according to the plan arranged
the previous evening, the Niagara in the van. The Lawrence was cleared for ac
tion, and the battle-flag, bearing the words " DOX'T GIVE UP THE SHIP," in letters large
enough, as we have observed, to be seen by the whole squadron, was brought out
and displayed. The commodore then addressed his officers and crew a few stirring
words, and concluded by saying, " My brave lads ! this flag contains the last words
of Captain Lawrence. Shall I hoist it ?" " Ay, ay, sir !" they all. shouted, as with
one voice, and in a moment it was run up to the main-royal mast-head of the flag
ship, amid cheer after cheer, not only from the Lawrence, but the whole squadron.
It was the signal for battle.
1 William Vigeron Taylor was of French descent. He was a captain in the merchant service, and entered that of the
navy under Perry as sailing-master. Perry esteemed him highly, and made him sailing-master of his flag-ship on Lake
Erie. He rendered efficient service in the fitting out of the squadron. In the battle on the 10th of September he re
ceived a wound in the thigh, but kept the deck until the close. On the return of the Lawrence to Erie, Mr. Taylor was
sent with dispatches to Chauncey. In 1S14 he was commissioned a lieutenant in the navy. He was promoted to com
mander in 1831, and to post captain in 1841. He commanded the sloops Warren and Erie in the Gulf of Mexico. After
his promotion to post captain he was placed in command of the ship-of-the-liue Ohio, and took her around Cape Horn to
the Pacific. He was then sixty-eight years of age. On the llth of February, 1851, he died of apoplexy, in the seventy-
eighth year of his age.
It is proper here to mention that most of the biographical sketches of the officers of Perry's squadron contained in
this chapter are compiled from a paper on the subject from the pen of Dr. Usher Parsons, published in the 2few England
Historical and Genealogical Register for January, 1SG3.
2 These were as follows : Ship Detroit, 19 guns, 1 in pivot, and 2 howitzers ; ship Queen Charlotte, 17, and 1 howitzer ;
schooner Lady Prevost, 13, and 1 howitzer ; brig Hunter, 10 ; sloop Little Belt, 3 ; and schooner Chippeu-a, 1, and 2 swivels.
3 These were as follows: Brig Lawrence, 20 guns ; brig Niagara, 20 : brig Caledonia, 3; schooner Ariel, 4; schooner
Scorpion, 2, and 2 swivels ; sloop Trippe, 1 ; schooner Tigress, 1 ; and schooner Porcupine, 1. The Ohio, Captain Dob
bins, had gone to Erie for supplies, and was not in the action. .
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
521
Perry's Care for his Men.
Change hi the Order of Battle.
Biographical Sketch of Perry.
OLIVER 11. I'tKltY.
As the dinner-hour would occur at
the probable time of action, the thought
ful Perry ordered refreshments to be dis
tributed. The decks were then wetted
and sprinkled with sand so that feet
should not slip when blood should begin
to flow. Then every man was placed
in proper position. As the squadron
moved slowly and silently toward the
enemy, with a gentle breeze, at the rate
of less than three knots, the Niagara,
Captain Elliott, leading the van, it was
discovered that Barclay had made a dis
position of his force that required a
change in Perry's prescribed order of
battle. It was instantly made, and the
American squadron moved to the at
tack in the order best calculated to cope
with the enemy. Barclay's vessels were
near together. The flag-ship Detroit,
1 Oliver Hazard Perry was born in South Kingston, Rhode Island, on the 23d of August, 17S5. His father was then
in the naval service of the United States. He entered the navy as midshipman at the age of fifteen years, on board the
8loop-of-war General Greene, when war
with France seemed inevitable. He
first saw active service before Tripoli,
in the squadron of Commodore Preble.
He was commissioned a lieutenant in
1810, and placed in command of the
schooner Revenge, attached to Com
modore Rodgers's squadron in Long
Island Sound. She was wrecked, but
his conduct in saving public property
was highly applauded. Early in 1812
he was placed in command of a flotil
la of gun-boats in Newport Harbor.
After his victorious battle on Lake
Erie in 1S13, he was promoted to post-
captain, and at the close of the war he
• was placed in command of the Java,
44, a first-class frigate, and sailed with
Decatur for the Mediterranean Sea.
VIEW OF PEKRY'S
On his return, while his vessel was
lying in Newport Harbor, in mid-win
ter, a fearful storm arose. He heard
of the wreck of a merchant vessel upon
a reef six miles distant. He immedi
ately manned his barge and said to his
crew, " Come, my boys, we are going
to the relief of shipwrecked seamen ;
pull away !" He rescued eleven almost
exhausted seamen from death.
On account of piracies in the West
Indies, the United States government
determined to send a little squadron
there for the protection of American
commerce. Perry was assigned to the
command of it, and in 1819 he sailed
in the John Adams, accompanied by
the Nonsuch. In August he was at
tacked by the yellow fever, and on his
birthday (August 23d) he expired, at the age of thirty-four years. He was bur
ied at Port Spain, Trinidad, with military honors. His death produced a most
profound sensation throughout the United States, for it was regarded as a great
public calamity. Tributes
of national grief were dis
played, and the Congress of
the United States made a
liberal provision for his fam
ily, and his mother, who
was dependent on him for
support. In 1S2G his remains
were conveyed from Trini
dad to Newport in the sloop-
of-war Lexington, and land
ed on the 27th of Novem
ber. On Monday (December
4th) following he was inter
red with funeral honors due
to his rank. His coffin rest
ed in a sort of catafalto, the
lower part being in the form
of a boat. The canopy was
decorated with stars and
trimmed with black curtains, and at each corner were black plumes. The State of Rhode Island afterward 'caused to
be erected a substantial granite monument to his memory. It stands upon a grassy mound on the west side of the Isl
and Cemetery, and at the base rest the remains of the commodore and the deceased of his family. The monument bears
the following inscriptions. Kant side: "OLIVER HAZARD PERRV. At the age of 2T years he achieved the victory of Lake
CATAFALOO.
PERRY S MONUMENT.
522 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Relative Position of the two Squadrons. Opening of Ihe Battle. Choice of Antagonists.
1 9, was in the van supported by the schooner Chippeica, with one long 1 8 on a pivot,
and two swivels. Next was the brig Hunter, 10 ; then the Queen Charlotte, 17, com
manded by Finnis. The latter was flanked by the schooner Lady Prevost, 13, and
the Little Belt, 3. Perry, in the brig Lawrence, 20, moved forward, flanked on the left
by the schooner Scorpion, under Champlin, bearing two long guns (32 and 12), and
the schooner Ariel, Lieutenant Packet, which carried four short 12's. On the right
of the Lawrence was the brig
Caledonia. Captain Turner,
with thre; loi| 24,8> Thes(:
were intended to encounter the
Chippewa, Detroit, and Hunt
er. Captain Elliott, in the fine
brig Niagara, 20, followed,
with instructions to fight the
Queen Charlotte ; while Almy,
THE TWO SQUADBOS9 JCBT BEFORE THE 1SATTLE. jn ^Q SomCTS, With tWO lOllg
32's and two swivels, Senat, in the Porcupine, with one long 32, Conklin, in the Ti
gress, with one long 24, and Holdup, in the Trippe, one long 32, were left in the rear
to engage the Lady Prevost and Little Belt.1
The sun was within fifteen minutes of meridian when a bugle sounded on board
the Detroit as a signal for action, and the bands of the British squadron struck
up "Rule Britannia." A shout went up from that little squadron, and a 24-pound
shot from the enemy's flag-ship was sent booming over the water toward the Law
rence, then a mile and a half distant. It was evident that Barclay appreciated the
advantage of his long guns, and Avished to fight at a distance, while Perry resolved
to press to close quarters before opening his fire.
That first shot from the enemy fell short. Another, five minutes later, went crash
ing through the bulwarks of the Lawrence. It stirred the blood of her gallant men,
but, at the command of Perry, she remained silent. " Steady, boys ! steady !" he said,
while his dark eye flashed with the excitement of the moment — an excitement
which was half smothered by his judgment. Slowly the American line, writh the
light wind abeam, moved toward that of the enemy, the two forming an acute angle
of about fifteen degrees.
"Sublime the pause, when down the gleaming tide
The virgin galleys to the conflict glide ;
The very wind, as if in awe or grief,
Scarce makes a ripple or disturbs a leaf." — II. T. TUCKEEMAN.
Signals were given for each vessel to engage its prescribed antagonist. At five min
utes before twelve the Lawrence had reached only the third one in the enemy's line,
and was almost as near the Qtteen Charlotte as the Detroit, with the Caledonia half-
cable length behind, and the Niagara abaft the beam of the Charlotte and opposite
the Lady Prevost.
The battle now began on the part of the Americans. The gallant young Champlin,
Erie, September 10, 1813." North side: " Bora in South Kingston, R. I., August 23, 1TS5. Died at Port Spain, Trinidad,
August 23, 1819, aged 34 years." West side: " His remains were conveyed to his native land in a ship-of-war, according
to a resolution of Congress, and were here interred December 4, 1S2C." South side: "Erected by the State of Rhode
Island."
In person Commodore Perry was tall and well-proportioned, of exquisite symmetry, and graceful in every move
ment. He was every inch a man. He possessed splendid talents ; was prudent and brave in the highest degree. In
private life he was gentle, and his conjugal love and faithfulness were perfect. His respect for his wife amounted to
reverence, and he was ever ready to acknowledge her salutary influence. Doctor Parsons relates that his first remark
on regaining the Lawrence, utter the battle, was addressed to his friend Hambleton, the purser. He said, " The prayers
of my wife have prevailed in saving me."
1 The above diagram shows the position of the two squadrons when the American was approaching that of the Brit
ish in battle order. A is the British squadron, and its vessels are designated by Roman numerals. I., Chippeu-a; II.,
Detroit; III., Hunter ; IV., Queen Charlotte; V.,Lady Prevost; VI., Little Belt. B is the American squadron, and the
vessels are designated by Arabic numerals. 1, Scorpion; 2, Ariel; 3, Lawrence; 4, Caledonia; 5, Xiayara; 6, Somers; 7,
Porcupine; S, Tigress; 9. Trippe. I have been furnished with these diagrams by Commodore Stephen Champlin, of
the U. S. Navy, the commander of the Scorpion in the battle.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
523
The first Shot fired by the Americans.
Sailing-master Champlin.
First Position of the Vessels in the Fight.
then less than twenty-four years of age, who
still (1867) lives to enjoy a well-earned reputa
tion,1 had already fired the first (as he did the
last) shot of the battle from the guns of the
Scorpion.
" But see that silver wreath of curling smoke—
Tis Barclay's gun ! The silence now is broke.
Champlin, with rapid move and steady eye,
Sends back iu thunder-tones a bold reply."
This was followed by a cannonade from Pack
et,2 of the Ariel; arid then the Lawrence,
which had begun to suffer considerably from
the enemy's missiles, opened fire upon the De
troit with her long bow-gun, a twelve-pounder.
The action soon became general. The small
er, slow-sailing vessels had fallen in the rear,
and when the battle began the Trippe was
more than two miles from the enemy.
The Scorpion and Arid, both without bul
warks, fought bravely, and kept their places
with the Lawrence throughout the entire ac-
tion. They did not suffer much, for the en-
emy concentrated his destructive energies
upon the Lawrence and neglected the others.
From the Detroit, the Hunter, the Queen Charlotte,
FIE8T POSITION IN THE ACTION'.3
and even from the Lady Prevost,
shots were hurled upon the Amer
ican flag-ship, with the determin
ation to destroy her and her gal
lant commander, and then to cut
up the squadron in detail. No
less than thirty-four heavy guns
were brought to bear upon her.
The Caledonia, with her long
guns, wras enabled to do good ex-
1 Stephen Champlin was bora in South Kingston, Rhode Island, on the 17th of November, 1789. His father was a
volunteer soldier in the Revolution. His mother was a sister of Commodore Perry's father, making the two command
ers first cousins. He went to sea as a sailor at the age of sixteen years, and at the age of twenty-two, having passed
through all grades, he was captain of a ship that sailed from Norwich, Connecticut. On the 22d of May, 1S12, he was
appointed sailing-master in the navy, and commanded a gun-boat, under Perry, at Newport. As we have seen, he was
sent to Lake Erie. On his arrival he was appointed to the command of the Scorpion, which he gallantly managed
throughout the battle. Subsequently to the battle he was placed in command of the Queen Charlotte and Detroit, two
prize-ships taken from the enemy. In the spring of 1814 he was placed in command of the Tigress, under Commander
Sinclair, and, with Captain Turner, he blockaded the port of Mackinaw. His services on the Upper Lake will be noticed
in the future text. Suffice i't to say here that he was severely wounded in the thigh while in that service by canister-
shot, and takeu prisoner. That wound has been troublesome to him until this hour. In 1S1C he was appointed to the
command of the Porcupine, and conveyed a party of topographical engineers to the Upper Lakes, who were to consider
the boundary-line between the United States and Great Britain. His wound prevented his doing much active service.
He was ordered to the steam-ship Fulton at New York, and had left her but a short time when she blew up. In 1842 he
was placed in command of the naval rendezvous at Buffalo, and was successful in shipping apprentices for the service.
In 1S45 he was ordered to the command of the Michigan at Erie, and continued there about four years and a half. A
few years ago he was placed on the reserve list, with full pay, and remains so. He now bears the title of commodore.
He resides at Buffalo, and, with the exception of the sufferings caused by his wound, he is in the enjoyment of fair health,
at the age of seventy-eight years. He is a stout, thick-set man, of middle size. He is the last survivor of the nine com
manders in Perry's squadron in the great battle in 1813.
2 John H. Packet was a native of Virginia. He received his warrant as midshipman in 1809, and was commissioned
a lieutenant a few days before this battle. He was with Bainbridge when the Constitution captured the Java. He
served at Erie some years after the battle, and died there of fever.
The acting sailing-master of the Ariel in the battle, Thomas Brownell, was from Rhode Island, and went to Erie as
master's-mate, where he was promoted. He was commissioned a lieutenant in 1843, when he was placed on the retired
list. He now (186T) resides at Newport, Rhode Island. He was always an active and esteemed officer.
3 This diagram shows the position of the vessels at the beginning of the action. The British vessels, A, are indicated
by Roman numerals* and the American vessels, B, by Arabic. I., Clajjpswa; II., Detroit; III., Hunter; IV., Queen
524 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Perry closes upon Barclay. Progress of the Fight. Scenes on board the Lawrence.
ecution from the beginning, but the shot of the carronades from the Niagara fell
short of her antagonist. Of her twenty guns, only a long 12 was serviceable for a
while. Shifting another, Elliott brought two to bear with effect, and these were
served so vigorously that nearly all of the shot of that calibre were exhausted. The
smaller vessels meanwhile were too far astern to be of much service.
Perry soon perceived that he was yet too far distant to damage the enemy mate
rially, so he ordered word to be sent from vessel to vessel by trumpet for all to
make sail, bear down upon Barclay, and engage in close combat. The order was
transmitted by Captain Elliott, who was the second in command, but he failed to
obey it himself.1 His vessel was a fast sailer, and his men were the best in the squad
ron, but he kept at a distance from the enemy, and continued firing his long guns.
Perry meanwhile pressed on with the Lawrence, accompanied by the Scorpion, Ariel,
and Caledonia, and at meridian exactly, when he supposed he was near enough for
execution with his carronades, he opened the first division of his battery on the star
board side on the Detroit. His balls fell short, while his antagonist and her consorts
poured upon the Lawrence a heavy storm of round shot from their long guns, still
leaving the Scorpion and Ariel almost unnoticed. The Caledonia meanwhile en
gaged with the Hunter, but the Niagara kept a respectful distance from the Queen
Charlotte, and gave that vessel an opportunity to go to the assistance of the Detroit.
She passed the Hunter, and, placing herself astern of the Detroit, opened heavily upon
the Lawrence, now, at a quarter past twelve, only musket-shot distance from her
chief antagonist. For two hours the gallant Perry and his devoted ship bore the
brunt of the battle with twice his force, aided only by the schooners on his weather-
bow and some feeble shots from the distant Caledonia when she could spare them
from her adversary the Hunter. During that tempest of war his vessel was terribly
shattered. Her rigging was nearly all shot away ; her sails were torn into shreds ;
her spars were battered into splinters ; her guns were dismounted ; and, like the Guer-
riere when disabled by the Constitution, she lay upon the waters almost a helpless
, wreck. The carnage on her deck had been terrible. Out of one hundred and three
sound men that composed her officers and crew when she went into action, twenty-
two were slain and sixty-one were wounded. Perry's little brother had been struck
down by a splinter at his side, but soon recovered.2 Yarnall,3 his first lieutenant, had
conie to him bleeding, his nose swelled to an enormous size, it having been perforated
by a splinter, and his whole appearance the impersonation of carnage and ill luck,
and said, "All the officers in my division are cut down; can I have others?" They
were sent ; but Yarnall soon returned, again wounded and bleeding profusely, with
the same sad story. " I have no more officers to furnish you," replied Perry ; " vou
must endeavor to make out by yourself." The brave lieutenant did so. Thrice
wounded, he kept the deck, and directed every shot from his battery in person.
Forest, the second lieutenant, fell stunned at Perry's feet ;4 and the gallant Brooks,
Charlotte; V., Lady Prevost; VI., Little Belt. 1, Scorpion; 2, Ariel; 3, Lawrence; 4, Caledonia; 5, Niagara; G, Somers;
1 , Porcupine ; 8, Tigress; $,Trippe.
1 Dr. Usher Parsons's Discourse on the Battle of Lake Erie, delivered before the Rhode Island Historical Society, Feb
ruary 16, 1S52, page 10.
2 Two musket-balls had already passed through his hat, and his clothes had been torn by splinters.
3 John J. Yarnall was a native of Pennsylvania, and was commissioned a lieutenant in July, 1813, having been in the
service as midshipman since 1809. lost at sea with all on board.
Ten days after the battle on Lake ^^-^ f /2//y >^x5> Tne State of Virginia presented
Erie he was sent to Erie with the i^&ttw/ &/ CftX/l^?^. -f£&'C.<f:^> Lieutenant Yarnall with a sword
Lawrence, and soon afterward ( ^ soon after the battle of Lake
was ordered to the John Adams. \ " « • .. Erie. It was exhibited at the
lie was appointed commander ^v^^>//^\_J[£j__x^"vs^^X''^ — £S>^ head-quarters of the Old Soldiers
of the Eperrrier in 1S15. She was at Cleveland, on the occasion of
the dedication of the statue of Perry in that city in September, I860. I copied the following inscription from the blade :
" In testimony of the undaunted gallantry of Lieutenant John J. Yarnall, of the United States ship Lan-rence, under
Commodore Perry, in the capture of the whole English fleet on Lake Erie, September 10, 1813, the State of Virginia be
stows this sword." It was brought from Wheeling to Cleveland by Mr. Fleming, of the former place.
* He was struck in the breast by a spent grape-shot. Perry raised him up, assured him that he was not hurt, as there
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 525
Death of Lieutenant Brooks. Terrible Scenes on board the Lawrence. Strange Conduct of Captain Elliott.
so remarkable for his personal beauty,1 a son of an honored soldier of the old war for
independence, and once governor of Massachusetts, was carried in a dying state to
the cockpit, where balls were crashing through, his mind more exercised about his be
loved commander and the fortunes of the day than himself. When the good surgeon,
Parsons, who had hastened to the deck on hearing a shout of victory, returned to
cheer the youth with the glorious tidings, the young hero's ears were closed — the
doors of the earthly dwelling of his spirit were shut forever.2
While the Lawrence was being thus terribly smitten, officers and crew were anx
iously wondering why the Niagara — the swift, stanch, well-manned Niagara — kept
aloof, not only from her prescribed antagonist the Queen Charlotte, now battling the
Lawrence, but the other assailants of the flag-ship. Her commander himself had
passed the order for close conflict, yet he kept far away ; and when afterward cen
sured, he pleaded in justification of his course his perfect obedience to the original
order to keep at "half-cable length behind the Caledonia on the line." It may be
said that his orders to fight the Queen Charlotte, who had left her line and gone into
the thickest of the fight with the Lawrence and her supporting schooners, were quite
as imperative, and that it was his duty to follow. This he did not do until'the guns
of the Laiorence became silent, and no signals were displayed^ by, nor special orders
came from Perry. These significant tokens of dissolution doubtless made Elliott be
lieve that the commodore was slain, and himself had become the chief commander of
the squadron. He then hailed the Caledonia, and ordered Lieutenant Turner3 to
were no signs of a wound, and, thus encouraged, he soon recovered from the shock. The ball had lodged in his clothes.
"I am not hurt, sir," he said to the commander, "but this is my shot," and coolly put it in his pocket.
1 John Brooks was a native of Massachusetts. He studied medicine with his father. Having a military taste, he ob
tained the appointment of lieutenant of marines, and was stationed at Washington when the war broke out. He was
sent to Lake Erie under Perry ; and at Erie, while the squadron was a-bnilding, he was engaged in recruiting for the
service. There he raised a company of marines for the squadron. He was an excellent drill officer, and gave great
promise of future distinction. So intense was his agony when he fell, his hip having been shattered by a cannon-ball,
that he begged Perry to shoot him. He died in the course of an hour. "Mr. Brooks," says Doctor Parsons, " was prob
ably surpassed by no officer in the navy for manly beauty, polished manners, and elegant personal appearance."
2 The scenes on board the Lawrence, as described to me by Doctor Parsons, must have been extremely terrible. The
vessel was shallow, and the ward-room, used as a cockpit, to which the wounded were taken, was mostly above water,
and exposed to the shots of the enemy ; while nothing but the deck-planks separated it from the terrible tumult above,
caused by the groans and shrieks of the wounded and dying, the deep rumbling of the gun-carriages, the awful explo
sions of the cannon, the crash of round-shot as they splintered spars, stove the bulwarks, dismounted the heavy ord
nance, and cut the rigging, while through the seams of the deck blood streamed into the surgeon's room in many a
crimson rill. When the battle had raged half au hour, and the crew of the Lawrence were falling one by one, the com
modore called from the small skylight for the doctor to send up one of his six assistants. In five minutes the call was
repeated and obeyed, and again repeated and obeyed, until Parsons was left alone. " Can any of the wounded pull a
rope?" inquired Perry. The question was answered by two or three crawling upon deck to lend a feeble hand in pull
ing at the last guns in position.
Midshipman Lamb had his arm badly shattered. While moving forward to lie down, after the doctor had dressed the
wound, a round-shot came crashing through the side of the vessel, struck the young man in the side, dashed him across
the room, and killed him instantly. Pohig, a Narraganset Indian, badly wounded, was released from his sufferings
in the same way by another ball that passed through the cockpit. No less than six round-shot entered the surgeon's
room during the action.
Some of the incidents witnessed by the doctor were not so painful. A cannon-ball passed through a closet contain
ing all the brig's crockery, dashing a greater portion of it in pieces. It was an illustration— that ball from John Bull —
of "a bull in a china-shop." The commodore's dog had secreted himself in that closet when the war of battle com
menced, and when the destructive intruder came he set up a furious barking — "a protest," said the doctor, "against
the right of such an invasion of his chosen retirement."
We have observed that Lieutenant Yarnall was wounded, yet kept the deck. He had his scalp badly torn, and " came
below," said the doctor, "with the blood streaming over his face." Some lint was applied to the wound and confined
by a handkerchief, and the lieutenant was then directed to come for better dressing after the battle, as he insisted upon
returning to the deck. It was not long before he again made his appearance, having received a second wound. Ou the
deck were stowed some hammocks stuffed with reed-tops, or " cat-tails," as they are popularly called. These filled the
air like down, and had settled like snow upon the blood-wet head and face of Yarnall. When he made his appearance
below, his visage was ludicrous beyond description ; his head appeared like that of a huge owl. The wounded roared
with laughter, and cried out, "The devil has come among us !"
3 Daniel Turner was a native of New York. He was appointed a midshipman in 1SOS, and in 1813 was commissioned
a lieutenant. He was efficient in getting the little lake squadron ready for service. In its first cruise across the lake,
young Turner, less than twenty-one years of age, commanded the Xiagara. On the arrival of Captain Elliott, he was
ordered to the third ship, the Caledonia, and managed her gallantly during the action. He continued in the lake service
the following year, and was made a prisoner and sent to Montreal. He was exchanged, and accompanied Perry in the
Java to the Mediterranean. For his services in the battle of Lake Erie his native state presented him with an elegant
sword. He was at one time commander of the naval station at Portsmouth ; at another of the Pacific squadron, and
always performed his duties with the greatest promptness. He was temperate, brave, generous, and genial. He was
526 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The Niagara's Treatment of the Lawrence, Condition of the Lawrence,. Perry abandons her.
T • —
leave the line and bear down upon the Hunter for close conflict, giving the Niagara
a chance to pass for the relief of the Lawrence. The gallant Turner instantly obeyed,
and the Caledonia fought her adversary nobly. The Niagara spread her canvas be
fore a freshening breeze that had just sprung up, but, instead of going to the relief of
the Lawrence, thus silently pleading for protection, she bore away toward the head
of the enemy's squadron, pass-
m» the American flag-ship to
J& the windward, and leaving her
^f, M exposed to the still galling
\ tp-B <£ll -^-^•^•^ <Mj fire of the enemy, because, as
"N*8 4 1* & 7 •$£ / r * was alleged in extenuation of
^ ^i ~^? this apparent violation of the
^2 rules of naval warfare and
BECONI. POSITION IN THE BATTLE. i the ciaims of humanity, both
squadrons had caught the breeze and moved forward, and left the crippled vessel
floating astern. Elliott seemed to notice her only by sending a boat to bring round
shot fronf her to replenish his own scanty store.
As the Niagara bore down she was assailed by shots from the Queen Charlotte,
Lady Prevost, and Hunter, and returned them with spirit. It was while she was
abreast of the Lawrences larboard beam, and nearly half a mile distant, that Perry
performed the gallant feat of transferring his broad pennant from one vessel to the
other. He had fought as long as possible. More than two hours had worn away in
the conflict. His vessel lay helpless and silent upon the almost unruffled bosom of
the lake, utterly incapable of farther defense. His last effective heavy gun had been
fired by himself, assisted by his purser and chaplain. Only fourteen unhurt persons
remained on his deck, and only nine of these were seamen. A less hopeful man would
have pulled down his flag in despair; but Perry's spirit was too lofty to be touched
by common misfortunes. From his mast-head floated the admonition, as if audibly
spoken by the gallant Lawrence, DON'T GIVE UP THE SHIP. In the dash of the Cal
edonia and the approach of the long-lagging Niagara he felt the inspiration of hope ;
and when he saw the latter, like the priest or the Levite, about to " pass by on the
other side," unmindful of his wounds, resolutions like swift intuitions filled his mind,
and were as quickly acted upon. The Niagara was stanch, swift, and apparently
unhurt, for she had kept far away from great danger. He determined to fly to her
deck, spread all needful sail to catch the stiffening breeze, bear down swiftly upon
the crippled enemy, break his line, and make a bold stroke for victory.
With the calmness of perfect assurance, Perry laid aside his blue nankeen sailor's
jacket which he had worn all day, and put on the uniform of his rank, as if conscious
that he should secure a victory, and have occasion to receive as guests the conquered
commander and officers of the British squadron.2 " Yarnall," he said, "I leave the
Lawrence in your charge, with discretionary powers. You may hold out or surren
der, as your judgment and the circumstances shall dictate." He had already ordered
his boat to be lowered, his broad pennant, and the banner with its glorious words, to
be taken down,3 but leaving the Stars and Stripes floating defiantly over the battered
made master commander in 1S25, and post-captain in 1835. He died on the 4th of February, 1S50, leaving a widow and
one daughter, who still survive him.
1 This shows the relative position of the two squadrons at the time when the Niagara bore down upon the head of the
British line, the change of her course after Perry took command of her, and the penetration of that line by her. One
dotted line, from 4 to 4, shows the attack of the Caledonia on the Hunter, and the other, from 5 to 5, the coarse of the
Niagara as described on this and the next page. The vessels of the British squadron, A, are designated by Roman nu
merals, thus : I., Chippcwa; II., Detroit; III., Hunter; IV., Queen Charlotte ; V., Lady Prevost; VI., Little Belt. Those of
the American squadron, B, are designated by Arabic numerals, thus : 1, Scorpion; 2, Ariel; 3, Lawrence; 4, Caledonia;
5, yiatjara ; 6, Somers ; 7, Porcupine ; 8, Tigress ; 9, Trippe.
2 Letter of Rev. Francis Vinton, D.D., son-in-law of Commodore Perry, to the Author.
3 This was rolled up and cast to him, after he had entered his barge, by Hoeca Sargent, now [18C7] living at Cam
bridge, Massachusetts.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
527
Perry's Voyage from the Lawrence to the Niagara. Its Perils and its Success
A British Survivor of the Battle.
hulk. With these, his little brother, and four stout seamen for the oars,1 lie started
upon his perilous voyage, anxiously watched by Yarnall and his companions.
" A soul like his no danger fears ;
His pendant from the mast he tears,
And in his gallant bosom bears,
To grace the bold Niagara.
See ! he quits 'the Lawrences side,
And trusts him to the foaming tide,
Where thundering navies round him ride,
And flash their red artillery." — OLD SONG.
He stood upright in his boat, the pennant and the banner half folded around him,
a mark for the anxious eyes of his own men and for the guns of the enemy.2 The
latter discovered the movement. Barclay, who was badly wounded, and whose flag
ship was almost dismantled, well knew that if Perry, who had fought the Lawrence
so gallantly, should tread the quarter-deck of the fresh Niagara as commander, his
squadron would be in great danger of defeat. He therefore ordered great and little
guns to be brought to bear upon the frail but richly-laden vessel — laden with a hero
of purest mould. Cannon-balls, grape, canister, and musket-shot were hurled in show
ers toward the little boat during the fifteen minutes that it was making its Avay from
the Lawrence io the Niagara.3 The oars were splintered, bullets traversed the boat,
and the crew were covered with spray caused by the falling of heavy round and
grape-shot in the water near. Perry stood erect, unmindful of danger. His men en
treated him to be seated, for his life at that critical moment seemed too precious to
be needlessly exposed to peril. It was not foolhardiness nor thoughtlessness, but the
innately brave spirit of the man, that kept him on his feet. At length, when his oars
men threatened to cease labor if he did not sit down, he consented to do so. A few
minutes later they were all climbing to the deck of the Niagara, entirely imharmed,
and greeted with the loud cheers of the Americans, who had watched the movement
1 One of these was Thomas Penny, who died in the Naval Asylum, near Philadelphia, in 1SG3, at the age of eighty-one
years.
2 Perry's portrait belonging to the city of New York, and
hanging in the Governor's Room, from which ours on page
5-21 was copied, is what artists call a kit-kat, or three-quar
ters length. It was painted by John Wesley Jarvis, and rep
resents Perry standing, with the banner floating like a huge
scarf from his shoulders.
3 Among the survivors of the Battle of Lake Erie whom I
have met was John Chapman, a resident of Hudson, Ohio, a
small, energetic man, who related his past experience in an
attractive, dramatic style. He was in the British fleet as
gunner, maintop-man, and boarder in the Queen Charlotte,
and claimed the distinction of having fired the first shot at
the Lawrence from a 24-ponnder. He also said that he aim
ed a shot at Commodore Perry when making his perilous
passage from the Lawrence to the Xiagara. Mr. Chapman was
a native of England. He came from there in the transport
Bostwick early in 1812, and lauded at Quebec. From that
city he went up the St. Lawrence in May, and took post in
Fort George, on the Niagara River. He afterward went up
to assist in the erection of Fort Erie. He was present at the
surrender of Hull, and participated in the battle of Queens-
ton Heights. In the summer of 1S13 he was placed on board
the schooner Lady Prevost, at Long Point, and arrived at
Maiden about three weeks before the battle of Lake Erie.
He was with Proctor at the attack on Fort Stephenson. He
was one of the survivors in the fatal ditch (see page 503), and
escaped to the woods under cover of the darkness. On the
return of Proctor to Maiden he went on board the Qiiei-n
Charlotte, and was with her in the battle. He was sent to
Ohio with other prisoners, and was one < f those who
were held as hostages for the safety of tlie Irishmen
under Scott who were sent to England, as mentioned
on page 408. He was released on the 20th of Octo
ber, at Cleveland. He went immediately to Hudson,
a few miles distant, where he resided until his death
in 1SC5. I am indebted to the Rev. T. B. Fairehild, of Hudson, for the substance of the above brief sketch of the pub
lic career of Mr. Chapman, and to the soldier himself for his likeness, taken in the spring of 18(52.
528 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Meeting of Perry and Elliott. Surrender of the helpless Lawrence. Perry strikes the British Line.
with breathless anxiety. Perry was met at the gangway by the astonished Elliott.
There stood the hero of the fight, blackened with the smoke of battle, but unharmed
in person and unflinching in his determination to win victory — he whom the com
mander of the Niagara thought to be dead. There were hurried questions and an
swers. "How goes the day?" asked Elliott. " Bad enough," responded Perry ; "why
are the gun-boats so far astern ?" " I'll bring them up," said Elliott. " Do so," respond
ed Perry. Such is the reported substance of the brief conversation of the two command
ers,1 at the close of which Elliott pushed off in a small boat to hurry up the lagging
vessels. Having given his orders to each to use sails and oars with the greatest vigor,
he went on board the Somers, and behaved gallantly until the close of the action.
At a glance Perry comprehended the condition and capabilities of the Niagara.
There had been few casualties on board of her, and she was in perfect order for con
flict. He immediately ran up his pennant, displayed the blue banner, hoisted the
signal for close action, and received quick responses and cheers from the whole squad
ron ; hove to, altered the course of the vessel, set the proper sails, and bore down upon
the British line, which lay half a mile distant. Meanwhile the gallant Yarnall, after
consulting Lieutenant Forrest and Sailing-master Taylor, had struck the flag of the
Lawrence, for she was utterly helpless, and humanity required that firing upon her
should cease. As the starry flag trailed to the deck a triumphant shout went up
from the British. It was heard by the wounded on the Lawrence. When informed
of the cause, their hearts grew almost still, and in the anguish of chagrin they refused
to be attended by the surgeon, and cried out, " Sink the ship ! sink the ship ! Let us
all sink together !"2 Noble fellows ! they were worthy of their commander. In less
than thirty minutes after they had offered themselves a willing sacrifice for the honor
of their country's flag, they were made joyful by hearing the step and voice of their
beloved commander again upon the deck of the Lawrence.
Perry's movement against the British line was successful. He broke it ; passed at
half pistol-shot distance between the Lady Prevost3 and Chippewa on his larboard, and
the Detroit, Queen Charlotte, and Hunter on his starboard, and poured in tremendous
broadsides right and left from double-shotted guns. Ranging ahead of the vessels
on his starboard, he rounded to and raked the Detroit and Queen Charlotte, which had
got foul of each other.4 Close and deadly was his fire upon them with great guns
and musketry. Meanwhile, the Lawrence having drifted out of her place in the line,
her position against the Detroit was taken by the Caledonia, Captain Turner; the
latter's place in line, as opposed to the Hunter, was occupied by the Trippe, com
manded by Lieutenant Holdup.5 These gallant young officers had exchanged signals
1 Mr. Ilambleton, the purser of the Lawrence, has left on record ail account of this interview between Perry and El
liott. "As Perry reached the deck of the Niagara," he says, "he was met at the gangway by Captain Elliott, who in
quired how the day was going. Captain Perry replied, Badly ; that he had lost almost all of his men, and that his ship
was a wreck, and asked what the gun-boats were doing so far astern. Captain Elliott offered to go and bring them
up ; and, Captain Perry consenting, he sprang into the boat and went off on that duty.— Hambleton's Journal, cited by
M'Kenzie.
2 Oration by George H. Calvert, at Newport, Rhode Island, on the 10th of September, 1853, on the occasion of the cel
ebration of the fortieth anniversary of the Battle of Lake Erie.
3 Lieutenant Buchan, the commander of the Lady Prevost, was shot through the face by a musket-ball from Perry's
marines. Perry saw him standing alone, leaning on the companion-way, his face resting on his hand, and looking with
fixed gaze toward the Xiagara. His companions, unable to endure the terrible fire, had all fled below. Perry immedi
ately silenced the marines on the quarter-deck. He afterward learned that the strange conduct of Buchan was owing
to sudden derangement caused by his wound. Poor fellow ! he was a brave officer, and had distinguished himself un
der Nelson.
4 The position of the Detroit and Queen Charlotte at this time may be seen by reference to II. and IV. in the diagram
on page 526. In the same diagram the course of the Niagara in breaking the British line may be seen along the dotted
line from 5 to 5.
5 Thomas Holdup was a native of Sonth
Carolina, and was an inmate and pupil
of the Orphan Asylum in Charleston. He
became a protege of General Stevens, of
that city, who obtained a midshipman's
warrant for him in 1809. He was on board
the John Adams, at Brooklyn, in 3812,
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
529
Perry breaks the British Line.
British Vessels attempt to escape.
Perry's Victory complete.
to board the Detroit, when they saw the Niagara with the commodore's pennant
bearing down to break the British line. Turner followed her closely with the Cal
edonia; and the freshened breeze having brought up the Somers, Mr. Almy,1 the
Tigress, Lieutenant Concklin,2 and the Porcupine, Acting Master Senat,3 the whole
American squadron except the Laicrence was, for the first time, engaged in the con
flict. The fight was terrible for a few minutes, and the combatants were completely
enveloped in smoke.
Eight minutes after Perry dashed through the British line the colors of the De
troit were struck, and her example was speedily followed by all the other vessels of
, t^ Barclay's squadron, excepting the
v^r j* Little Belt and Chippewa (I. and
si H rV". in the annexed diagram), which
7 s . .*, . ., attempted to escape to leeward.
jj\ 4& M, .x&^^-v&JJ] A\ Champlin with the Scorpion, and
POSITION OF THE 8QTTADBONS AT TI1E CLOSE OF THE BATTLE.*
Holdup with the Trippe, made
chase after the fugitives, and both
^\T6rc ovci*LciKcn. <i 1 1 < I urouoflitj D&CK
o
to grace the triumph of the victor, the Little Belt by the former, and the Chippewa
by the latter. It was in this chase that Champlin fired the last gun in that memo
rable battle. " So near were they to making their escape," says Champlin in a letter
to the author, " that it was 1 0 o'clock in the evening before I carne to an anchor un
der the stern of the Lawrence with the Little Belt in tow."
It was three o'clock in the afternoon when the flag of the Detroit was lowered.
The roar of cannon ceased ; and as the blue vapor of battle was borne away by the
breeze, it was discovered that the two squadrons were intermingled.5 The victory
was complete. The flag of the Lawrence had indeed been struck to the enemy, but .
she had not been taken possession of. She was yet free, and, with a feeble shout
and, with others, volunteered for the lake service. He performed gallant service near Buffalo toward the close of the
year, and was commissioned a lieutenant. In April, 1813, he went to Erie with men, and assisted in fitting out the
squadron there. He fought his vessel brave
ly in the action of the 10th of September,
and he and Champlin pursued the two fugi
tives of the British squadron. He was in
service on the upper lakes the following
year, and there was invited to the Java by
Perry. He had married, and declined the
offer of a good post on that vessel. He sub
sequently commanded several different ves
sels, and was promoted to master command
ant in 1825. He was commissioned post-cap
tain in 1S3G. He died suddenly while in com
mand of the Washington Navy Yard, in Jan
uary, 1841. His widow, who was a Miss Sage,
died soon afterward. By act of the Legisla
ture of South Carolina he assumed the name
of his benefactor, with a promise that he
should inherit his fortune. From that time
[1S15] he is known as Thomas Holdup Ste
vens. He was possessed of a high order of
literary ability, and was beloved by all. His
son, Thomas Holdup Stevens, behaved gal
lantly in the naval action off Hilton Head in
the late civil war.
1 Thomas C. Almy was a native of Rhode
Island, of Quaker parentage. He became a
sailor in early life, and at the age of twenty-
one years he%ras commander of a ship. He
was in the flotilla at Newport, went to Lake
ALMY S SWOKD.
Erie, and was efficient, useful, and brave
there. He died at Erie in December, 1813,
only three months after the battle that has
made his name immortal. His disease was
pneumonia.
The annexed engraving is a picture of the
hilt of the sword awarded to Almy, and
which was given to his next of kin. On one
side of the blade are the words "THOMAS C.
ALMY, Sailing-master commanding, Lake
Erie, 10th September, 1813." On the other
side the words "ALTICS IBUNT QUI AD SUM-
MA NITTJNTEK," with a little view of ships-of-
war.
3 Augustus H. M. Concklin was a native of
Virginia. He was appointed midshipman in
1809, and lieutenant in 1813. He followed El
liott to Erie. On a dark night in 1814 his
vessel was captured by a party in boats off
Fort Erie. He left the service in 1820, while
stationed at Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
3 George Senat was a native of New Or
leans, of French extraction. He commenced
active life as a sailor, but of his career pre
vious to his joining the squadron at Erie
nothing appears on record. He served on
the upper lakes in 1814. On his return to
Erie he became involved in a quarrel with
Sailing-master M'Donald. A duel ensued,
and young Senat was killed. They fought at what is now the corner of Third and Sassafras Streets, Erie.
* In this, as in the preceding diagrams, furnished by Commodore Champlin, the British vessels are designated by Ro
man numerals, and the American vessels by Arabic numerals. This diagram shows the relative position of the vessels
of the two squadrons at the close of the battle. The respective numbers indicate the same vessels as in the other dia
grams. 5 See the above diagram and note of explanation.
L L
530 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Perry's Triumph a remarkable one. His famous Dispatch to Harrison. His Dispatch to his Government.
that floated not far over the waters, her exhausted crew flung out the flag of their
country from her mast-head.1
This triumph was a remarkable one in American and British history. Never be
fore had an American fleet or squadron encountered an enemy in regular line of bat
tle, and never before, since England created a navy, and boasted that
" Britannia rules the wave,"
had a whole British fleet or squadron been captured. It was a proud moment for
Perry and his companions.
" As lifts the smoke, what tongue can fitly tell
The transports which those manly bosoms swell,
When Britain's ensign down the reeling mast
Sinks to proclaim the desperate struggle past !
Electric cheers along the shattered fleet,
With rapturous hail, her youthful hero greet ;
Meek in his triumph, as in danger calm,
With reverent hands he takes the victor's palm ;
His wreath of conquest on Faith's altar lays,2
To his brave comrades yields the meed of praise."— II. T. TUCKERMAN.
When Perry's eye perceived at a glance that victory was secure, he wrote, in pen
cil, on the back of an old letter, resting it upon his navy cap, that remarkable dis
patch to General Harrison whose first clause has been so often quoted —
" We have met the enemy, and they are ours : two ships, two brigs, one schooner,
and one sloop. Yours, with great respect and esteem, O. H. PERRY."
L /Ms
FAO-SIMILE OP PERRY'S DISPATCH.
A few minutes afterward, when, as Bancroft says, " a religious awe seemed to come
over hhn at his wonderful preservation in the midst of great and long-continued dan
ger,"3 he wrote to the Secretary of the Navy as follows :
" U. S. Brig Niagara, off the Western Sister,* Head of Lake Erie, September 10, 1813, 4 P.M.
" SIR, — It has pleased the Almighty to give to the arms of the United States a sig
nal victory over their enemies on this lake. The British squadron, consisting of two
ships, two brigs, one schooner, and one sloop, have this moment surrendered to the
force under my command after a sharp conflict.
" I have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
" O. H. PERRY.
"Honorable William Jones, Secretary of the Navy."
1 " The shattered Lawrence," says Dr. Parsons, " lying to the windward, was once more able to hoist ifcr flag, which
was cheered by a few feeble voices on board, making a melancholy sound compared with the boisterous cheering that
preceded the battle."— -Discourse, page 13.
2 See Perry's Dispatch to the Secretary of the Navy, printed above. 3 New York Ledger.
* This is the most southwardly of three islands near the western end of Lake Erie, named respectively Eastern Sister,
Middle Sister, and Western Sister, lying in a line from the southwest to the northeast. It was a little westward of the
island named in the dispatch that the battle occurred.
OF THE WAE OF 1812. 531
Perry returns to the Lawrence. Surrender of the British Officers. Burial of the Dead in the Lake.
These hurried but admirably-worded dispatches were sent by the same express to
both Harrison and the Secretary of the Navy.1 Then the ceremony of taking pos
session of the conquered vessels, and receiving the formal submission of the vanquish
ed, was performed. Perry gave the signal to anchor, and started for his battered
flag-ship, determined, on her deck, and in the presence of her surviving officers and
crew, to receive the commanders of the captured squadron. "It was a time of con
flicting emotions," says Dr. Parsons, " when he stepped upon deck. The battle was
won and he was safe, but the deck was slippery with blood, and strewn with the
bodies of twenty officers and men, seven of whom had sat at table with us at our last
meal, and the ship resounded every where with the groans of the wounded. Those
of us who were spared and able to walk met him at the gangway to welcome him
on board, but the salutation was a silent one on both sides ; not a word could find
utterance."2
The next movement in the solemn drama was the reception of the British officers,
one from each of the captured vessels. Perry stood on the after-part of the deck,
and his sad visitors were compelled to pick their way to him among the slain. He
received them with solemn dignity and unaffected kindness. As they presented
their swords, with the hilts toward the victor, he spoke in a low but firm tone, with
out the betrayal of the least exultation, and requested them to retain their weapons.
He inquired, with real concern, about Commodore Barclay and his fellow-sufferers
from severe wounds ; and he made every captive feel, at that sad and solemn mo
ment, the thrill of pleasure excited by the conduct of a Christian gentleman in the
moment of the adversity of the recipient of his kindness.
" A chastened rapture, Perry, fills thy breast;
Thy sacred tear embalms the heroes slain ;
The gem of pity shines in glory's crest
More brilliant than the diamond wreath of fame."
When this sad ceremony was over, the conqueroi', exhausted by the day's work upon
which he had entered with fever-enfeebled body, lay down upon the deck in the
midst of his dead companions, and, surrounded by prisoners, and with his hands fold
ed over his breast, and his drawn sword held in one of them, he slept as sweetly as a
wearied child.3
There was yet another sad service to be performed. The dead of the two squad
rons were yet unburied. When twilight — the rich, glowing twilight at the end of a
gorgeous September day — lay upon the bosom of the lake like a luminous, deepening
mist, the bodies of all the slain, excepting those of the officers, wrapped in rude
shrouds, and with a cannon-ball at the feet of each, were dropped, one by one, into
the bosom of the clear lake, at the close of the beautiful and impressive burial serv
ice of the Anglican Church.
" 'Neath the dark waves of Erie now slumber the brave,
In the bed of its waters forever they rest ;
The flag of their glory floats over their grave ;
The souls of the heroes in memory are blessed."— W. B. TAPPAN.
1 The gallant Lieutenant Dulaney Forrest was Perry's chosen courier. He was a native of the District of Columbia,
and had been in the service since 1800, when he was appointed midshipman. He was with Bainbridge when the Con
stitution captured the Java. He was acting lieutenant on board Perry's flag-ship, and was chief signal officer. His con
duct was brave, and he was greatly beloved by his companions. He bore to Washington not only the dispatches of his
commander, but the flags captured from the British. Forrest also took with him the blue banner with the words of
Lawrence, mentioned on page 520. Forrest accompanied Perry to the Mediterranean in the Java. He was commission
ed a lieutenant at that time. He died of fever in 1925.
Colonel Peter Force, of Washington City, has a piece of every flag captured in this battle, and of nearly every trophy-
flag of the war. They were all taken to Washington, where, in course of time, through neglect, they fell into decay.
The pieces in the possession of Mr. Force are carefully preserved in a scrap-book, with the place and date of their cap
ture recorded, and make an interesting collection of bits of bunting.
The intelligence of the victory on Lake Erie was carried to Pennsylvania from Detroit by Samuel Doclue, Samuel
Burnett, and Cyrus Bosworth. The first was a mail-carrier from Detroit to Cleveland ; the second from Cleveland to
Warren, Ohio, and the third from Warren to Pittsburg. They were all three living at the time of the inauguration of
Perry's statue at Cleveland in September, 1SGO. Mr. Bosworth participated in that celebration.
2 Discourse, page 14. 3 Calvert's Oration, page 21.
532
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Burial of Officers on the Shore.
Sad Effects of the Battle.
"Ill luck" of the British.
September "A,
1S13.
THE UUIUA-L-PLAOK.
The moon soon spread her silver sheen over their common grave, and
all but the suffering wounded slumbered until the dawn.a
The two squadrons weighed anchor at nine o'clock and sailed into Put-in-Bay Har
bor, and there, twenty-four hours afterward, on the margin of South Bass Island,
from which, on the right, may be seen the
channel leading out toward Canada, and
on the left the open way toward Detroit,
where now willow, hickory, and maple-
trees cast a pleasant shade in summer,
three American and three British officers1
were buriedb with the same
-, f i ,A . , "September^.
solemn funeral rites, in the
presence of their respective countrymen.2
The light of the morning of the llth
revealed sad sights to the eyes of the bel
ligerents. Vessels of both squadrons were
dreadfully shattered, especially the two
flag-ships. Sixty-eight persons had been
killed and one hundred and ninety wound
ed during the three hours that the battle
lasted. Of these, the Americans lost one
hundred and twenty-three, twenty-seven
of whom were killed ; the British lost one hundred and thirty-five, forty-one of whom
were killed.3 Barclay, of the Detroit (the British commander), who had lost an arm
at Trafalgar, was first wounded in the thigh, and then so severely injured in the
shoulder as to deprive him of the use of the other arm. Finnis, of the Queen Char
lotte, the second in command, was mortally wounded, and died that evening. Both
were gallant men ; and justice to all demands the acknowledgment that the Ameri
cans and British carried on that terrible conflict with the greatest courage, fortitude,
and skill. It is also just to say that the British experienced what is called "ill luck"
from the beginning. First, the wind suddenly turned in favor of the Americans at
the commencement of the action, giving them the weather -gage ; then the two prin
cipal British commanders were struck down early in the action ; then the rudder of
the Lady Prevost was disabled, which caused her to drift out of the line ; the entan
glement of the Detroit and Queen Charlotte gave the Niagara, under Perry, an oppor
tunity to rake them severely ; and, lastly, the men of the British squadron had not,
with the exception of those from the Royal Navy, received the training with guns
1 These were Lieutenant Brooks and Midshipmen Luut and Clarke, of the American service, and Captain Finuis and
Lieutenants Stokoe and Garland, of the British service. The view here given of the burial-place of these officers I cop
ied, by permission, from one of the paintings of Miss C. L. Ransom, already mentioned.
2 Samuel R. Brown, who arrived at Put-in-Bay Island on the evening of the 9th, and from the head of it was a wit
ness of the battle at about ten miles distant, was present at the burial. " An opening on the margin of the bay," he
says, " was selected for the interment of the bodies. The crews of both fleets attended. The weather was fine ; the
elements seemed to participate in the solemnities of the day, for every breeze was hushed, aud not a wave ruffled the
surface of the water. The procession of boats— the neat appearance of the officers and men — the music — the slow and
regulated motion of the oars, striking in exact time with the notes of the solemn dirge— the mournful waving of the
flags— the sound of the minute-guns from the different ships in the harbor — the wild and solitary aspect of the place —
the stillness of nature — gave to the scene an air of melancholy grandeur better felt than described. All acknowledged
its influence, all were sensibly affected." — Vine* on Lake Erie, printed in Albany in 1814.
3 The American Toss was distributed as follows : On the Lawrence, 83 ; Niagara, 27 ; Caledonia, 3 ; Sowers, 2 ; Ariel, 4 ;
Trippe and Scorpion, 2 each. Besides the officers mentioned in Note 1, above, the British lost in wounded Midship
man Poster, of the Queen Charlotte; Lieutenant Commanding Buchan and First Lieutenant Roulette, of the Lady Pre
vost; Lieutenant Commandant Brignall and Master's Mate Gateshill, of the Hunter; Master's Mate Campbell, com
manding the Cluppetva; and Purser Iloffmeister, of the Detroit.
Doctor Horseley, the surgeon of the squadron, being ill, the duties devolved wholly upon his young assistant, Doctor
Usher Parsons, then only twenty-five yefirs of age. During the action he removed six legs, which were nearly divided
by cannon-balls. On the morning of the llth he went on board the Niagara to attend to her wounded, and then those
of the other vessels requiring surgical attention were sent to the Laiurence. The skill of Doctor Parsons is attested by
the fact that of the whole ninety-six wounded only three died. He modestly attributed the result to fresh air, good
spirits caused by the victory, and the "devoted attention of the commodore."
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 533
Importance of Perry's Victory. Its Effects. How his Cannon were afterward used.
that most of the Americans had just experienced, for they came out of port the morn
ing of the battle.1
Perry's victory proved to be one of the most important events of the war. At
that moment two armies, one on the north and the other on the south of the warring
squadrons, were waiting for the result most anxiously. Should the victory remain
with the British, Proctor and Tecumtha were ready at Maiden, with their motley
army five thousand strong, to rush forward and lay waste the entire frontier. Should
the victory rest with the Americans, Harrison, with his army in the vicinity of San-
dusky Bay, was prepared to press forward by land or water for the seizure of Maiden
and Detroit, the recovery of Michigan, and the invasion of Canada. All along the
borders of the lake within sound of the cannon in the battle (and they were heard
from Cleveland to Maiden2), women with terrified children, and decrepit old men, sat
listening with the deepest anxiety ; for they knew not but with the setting sun they
would be compelled to flee to the interior, to escape the fangs of the red blood-hounds
who were ready to be let loose upon helpless innocency by the approved servants of
a government that boasted of its civilization and Christianity. Happily for Ameri
ca — happily for the fair fame of Great Britain — happily for the cause of humanity —
the victory was left with the Americans, and the savage allies of the British were
not allowed to repeat the tragedies in which they had already been permitted to en
gage. Joy spread over the northwestern frontier as the glad tidings went from lip
to lip. That whole region was instantly relieved of the most gloomy forebodings of
coming evil. That victory led to the destruction of the Indian confederacy, and wiped
out the stigma of the surrender at Detroit thirteen months before. It opened the way
for Harrison's army to repossess the territory then surrendered, and to penetrate Can
ada. It was speedily followed by the overthrow of British power in the Canadian
peninsula and the country bordering on the upper lakes, and the absolute security
forever of the whole northwestern frontier from British invasion and Indian depreda
tions. From that moment no one doubted the ability of the Americans to maintain
the mastery of our great inland seas, and the faith of the people in this ability was
well expressed by a poet of the time, who concluded an epic with the following lines :
" And though Britons may brag of their ruling the ocean,
And that sort of thing — by the Lord I've a notion — •
I'll bet all I'm worth— who takes it ?— who takes ?—
Though they're lords of the sea, we'll be lords of the lakes."3
The effect of this victory upon the whole country was electric and amazingly in-
1 The great guns used by Perry, and those captured by him from the British, remained in the United States Naval
D^pot at Erie until the autumn of 1825, when they were transferred to the Naval Station at Brooklyn. They were
about to be removed through the agency of Dows, Cary, and Meech, who had prepared a line of boats for the just com
pleted Erie Canal. The happy thought occurred to some one that these cannon might be used for telegraphic purposes
in connection with the celebration of the first opening of the canal. They were accordingly placed at intervals of about
ten miles along the whole line of the canal. When the first fleet of boats left Buffalo on that occasion, the fact was an
nounced to the citizens of New York in one hour and twenty minutes by the serial discharges of these cannon. This
announcement, literally conveyed in "thunder-tones" from the lake to the sea-board, was responded to in like manner
and in the same space of time.— Statement of Orlando Allen to the Buffalo Historical Society, April, 1863.
The authorities consulted in the preparation of the foregoing account of the Battle of Lake Erie are the official dis
patches of Perry and Barclay : Niles's Register ; The War ; Port Folio ; Analectic Magazine ; Political Register ; M'Ken-
zie's Life of Perry; Life of Elliott, by a citizen of New York; Cooper's Naval History; Discourses by Parsons, Bur
gess, and Calvert ; oral and written statements communicated to the author by the survivors ; Brown's Views mi Lake
Erie, and Log-book of the Lawrence, kept by Sailing-master Taylor.
2 I was informed by Captain Levi Johnson, whom I met at Cleveland in the autumn of I860, that he and others were
engaged in the last work upon the new court-house, which stood in front of the present First Presbyterian Church, on
the day of the battle. They thought they heard thunder, but, seeing no clouds, concluded that the two squadrons had
met. He and several others went down to-the lake bank, near the present residence of Mr. Whittaker, on Water Street.
Nearly all the villagers assembled there, numbering about thirty. They waited until the firing ceased. Although the
distance in a straight line was full seventy miles, they could easily distinguish the sounds of the heavier and lighter
guns. The last five reports were from the heavy guns. Knowing that the Americans had the heaviest ordnance, they
concluded that victory remained with them, and with that conviction they gave three cheers for Perry. Miss Reynolds,
sister of the venerable Robert Reynolds, of the British army, whom I also visited in the autumn of 1SGO, told me that
she listened to the firing during the whole battle. The distance was less than forty miles.
A letter dated at Erie, September 24, 1813, says that a gentleman from the New York state line heard at his house the
cannonading on the lake one hundred and sixty miles distant ! It was heard at Erie, and at first was supposed to be
distant thunder. 3 Analectic Magazine, iii., 84.
534
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Exultation of the Americans.
Public Celebrations.
Songs and Caricatures.
spiriting. There had been a prevailing apprehension that the failures of 1812 were
to be repeated in 1813. This victory dissipated those forebodings, and kindled hope
and joy all over the land.
"O'er the mountains the sun of our fame was declining,
And on Thetis' billowy breast
The cold orb had reposed, all his splendor resigning,
Bedimmed by the mists of the West.
The prospect that rose to the patriot's sight
Was cheerless, and hopeless, and dreary ;
But a bolt burst the cloud, and illumined the night
That enveloped the waters of Erie." — OLI> SONG.
It is difficult at this time to imagine the exultation then felt and exhibited every
where. Illuminations,1 bonfires, salvos of artillery, public dinners, orations, and songs
were the visible indications of the popular satisfaction in almost every city, village,
and hamlet within the bounds of the republic. The newspapers teemed with eulo
gies of the victor and his companions, and the pulpit and rostrum were resonant
with Avords of thanksgiving and praise. The lyre2 and the pencil3 made many con-
1 The City Hall and other buildings in New York were splendidly illuminated on the evening of Saturday, October
23, 1813. There was a band of music in the gallery of the portico, and transparencies were exhibited showing naval
battles: also the words of Lawrence, "DON'T GIVE UP THE SHIP," and those of Perry's dispatch, "WE HAVE MET THE
ENEMY, AND THEY AKE onus." The last-named transparency was exhibited at the. theatre, with a picture of the fight
between the Hornet and Peacock.
2 Many songs were written and sung in commemoration of Perry's victory. One of the most popular of these was
American Perry, which commences thus :
"Bold Barclay one day to Proctor did say,
I'm tired of Jamaica and Cherry ;
So let us go down to that new floating town,
And get some American Perry.*
Oh, cheap American Perry !
Most pleasant American Perry !
We need only all bear down, knock, and call,
And we'll have the American Perry."
3 Among the caricatures of the day was one by Charles, of Philadelphia, representing John Bull, in the person of the
king, seated, with his hand pressed upon his stomach, indicating pain, which the fresh juice of the pear, called perry,
Oh ! Terry !/! Curse
—One disaster after another^
-dhave not half rcco vend oft/icS/iudif-mx
" -•- L s" "- Boxinq mulch!
Queen Charlotte and tfohnty ftull jot their dose of fferru.
will produce. Queen Charlotte, the king's wife (a fair likeness of whom is given), enters with a bottle labeled PEEEY,
out of which the cork has flown, and in the foam is seen the names of the vessels composing the American squad
ron. She says, "Johnny, won't you have some more Perry ?" John Bull replies, while writhing in pain produced by
perry, " Oh ! Perry ! ! ! Curse that Perry ! One disaster after another — I have not half recovered of the bloody nose I
got at the Boxing-match." This last expression refers to the capture of the Boxer by the American schooner Enter
prise. This caricature is entitled "Queen Charlotte and Johnny Hull got their dose of Perry." This will be better per-
* See the next note on this page.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
535
Honors awarded to Perry.
Congress presents a Gold Medal to both Perry and Elliott.
tributions to the popular demonstrations of joy, and public bodies testified their grat
itude by appropriate acts. The Legislature of Pennsylvania voted thanks and a gold
medal to Perry; also thanks and a silver medal to every man engaged in the battle.1
INTIEB CLASS. AMERI.
ET BRET. DIE X. SEP.
The corporate. authorities of New York ordered the illumination of the City Hall in
honor of the victory ;2 and the National Congress voted thanks and a gold medal to
both Perry and Elliott, to be adorned with appropriate devices,3 and silver ones, with
THE ELLIOTT MEDAL.
the same emblems, to the nearest male relatives of Brooks, Lamb, Clarke, and Clax-
ton, who were slain. Three months' extra pay was also voted for each of the com
missioned officers of the navy and army who served in the battle, and a sword to
ceived by remembering that one of the principal vessels of the British squadron was named the Queen Charlotte, in honor
of the royal consort. In a ballad of the day occurs the following lines :
" On Erie's wave, while Barclay brave,
With Charlotte, making merry,
He chanced to take the belly-ache,
We drenched him so with Perry."
1 The War, page 127. 2 See note 1, page 534.
3 On one side of Perry's medal is a bnst of the commodore, surrounded by the following words: "OLIVEEUS u.
PEBEY. PEINCEPB 6TAGNO ERiENSE. CLASSAM TOTAM ooNTUDiT." Oil the reverse a squadron of vessels closely engaged,
and the legend " VIAM INVENIT VIRTUS AUT FAOIT." Exergue: "INTER CLASS. AMEBI. ET BRIT. DIB x. SEP. MDCCCXIII."
On one side of Elliott's medal is a bust of the commander, and the words "JESSE D. ELLIOTT. NIL ACTCM REPUTANS si
QUID. SUPRESSET AGENDUM." On the reverse a squadron engaged, and the legend "VIAM INVENIT VIRTUS AUT FACIT.','
The exergue the same as on Perry's.
536 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Effect of the Victory on the British. A Plea for a British-Indian Alliance. Washington Irving's Predictions.
each of the midshipmen and sailing-masters " who so nobly distinguished themselves
on that memorable occasion."1 In after years, when the dead body of Perry was
buried in the soil of his native state, her Legislature caused a monument to be erect
ed to his memory,2 for she claimed, with much justice, a large share of the glory of
the battle of Lake Erie for her sons.3
The effect of this victory was deeply impressive on the British mind, and the news
papers in the provinces and the mother country indulged in lamentations over the
want of vigor in the prosecution of the war manifested by the ministry. " We have
» October, been conquered on Lake Erie," said a Halifax paper,a " and so we shall be
813- on every other lake, if we take as little care to protect them. Their success
is less owing to their prowess than to our neglect." A London paper consoled the
<> TST h people by saying,b " It may, however, serve to diminish our vexation at
the occurrence to leam that the flotilla in question was not any branch
of the British Navy It was not the Royal Navy, but a local force — a kind of
mercantile military." Others, conscious of the inability of the British force in Can
ada to cope with the Americans, urged the necessity of extending the alliance with
the Indians. " We dare assert," said a writer in one of the leading British Reviews,4
" and recent events have gone far in establishing the truth of the proposition, that
the Canadas can not be effectually and durably defended without the friendship of
the Indians, and command of the lakes and the River St. Lawrence." He urged his
countrymen to consider the interests of the Indians as their own ; " for men," he said,
" whose very name is so very formidable to an American, and whose friendship has
recently been shown to be of such great importance to us, we can not do too much."
The name of Perry is cherished with increasing reverence by successive genera
tions ; and the vast population that now swarm along the southern borders of Lake
Erie regard the battle that has made its name immortal in history as a classical pos
session of rare value. Only a few weeks after the victory, Washington Irving, in a
chaste biographical sketch of Commodore Perry,5 said : "The last roar of cannon that
died along her shores was the expii-ing note of British domination. Those vast in
ternal seas will perhaps never again be the separating space between contending na
tions, but will be embosomed within a mighty empire ;6 and this victory, which de
cided their fate, will stand unrivaled and alone, deriving lustre and perpetuity from
its singleness. In future times, when the shores of Erie shall hum with busy popu
lation ; when towns and cities shall brighten where now extend the dark and tangled
forests ; when ports shall spread their arms, and lofty barks shall ride where now the
canoe is fastened to the stake ; when the present age shall have grown into venera
ble antiquity, and the mists of fable begin to gather round its history, then will the
inhabitants look back to this battle we record as one of the romantic achievements
of the days of yore. It will stand first on the page of their local legends and in the
marvelous tales of the borders."
This prophecy of the beloved Irving has been fulfilled. The archipelago that em
braces Put-in-Bay has become a classic region. At Erie, and Cleveland, and San-
dusky, and Toledo, where the Indian then " fastened his canoe to a stake," " ports
i We have observed in Note 2, page 519, that Mr. Hambleton, purser of the Lawrence, was chosen prize agent. A
board of officers from Lake Ontario, assisted by Henry Eckford, naval constructor, prized the captured squadron at
$225,000. Commodore Chauncey, the commander-in-chief on the lakes, received one twentieth of the whole sum, or
$12,750. Perry and Elliott each drew $7140. The Congress voted Perry $5000 in addition. Each commander of a
gun-boat, sailing-master, lieutenant, and captain of marines, received $2295 ; each midshipman, $811 ; each petty officer,
$447; and each marine and sailor, $209.— Miss Laura G. Sanford's History of Erie, page 273. = See page 521.
3 Perry took with him from Rhode Island, as we have seen (page 509), a large number of men and officers. It was by
them chiefly that the vessels built at Erie were constructed. The commodore and three of his commanders — Champlin,
Almy, and Turner, and five other officers— Taylor, Brownell, Breese, Dunham, and Alexander Perry, were from Rhode
Island. In the fight forty-seven of the fifty-five guns of the squadron were commanded by Rhode Islanders.
* New Quarterly Review and British Colonial Register, No. 4 ; S. M. Richardson, Cornhill, London.
5 Analectic Magazine, December, 1813.
J 6 He had .just heard of Harrison's victorious invasion of Canada, and it was believed at that time that the upper prov
ince would assuredly become a portion of the United States.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 537
Journey to Cleveland. Historic Places at Erie. Night Travel.
spread their arms ;" and every year the anniversary of the battle is somewhere cel
ebrated with appropriate ceremonies. Already the corner-stone of a monumental
shaft in commemoration of the battle has been laid upon Perry's Look-out on Gibral
tar Island ;a and in the beautiful city of Cleveland — an insignificant hamlet on the
bleak lake shore in 1813, now [1867] a mart of commerce with about fifty thousand
inhabitants — a noble statue of Perry, wrought of the purest Parian marble by a resi
dent artist, has been erected by the city authorities.2
I was present, as an invited guest, at the inauguration of that statue of Perry on
the 10th of September, 1860. Never will the impressive spectacles of that day, and
the influence of the associations connected with them, be effaced from memory. The
journey thither, the mementoes of history seen on the way, and the meeting of scores
of veterans of the War of 1812 at the great gathering, made a deep impression on
the mind. I left my home on the Hudson, with my family, on the morning of the
6th,a with the intention of stopping at Erie (where a portion of Perry's » September,
squadron was built) on my way to Cleveland. It was a day like one in
midsummer — sultry and showery ; yet in the railway carriage, whose steeds never
grow weary, and wherein shelter from sun and rain are ever afforded, we traversed
during the day, with very little fatigue or inconvenience, more than the entire length
of the State of New York, through the Hudson and Mohawk valleys and the great
levels westward, to Buffalo, a distance of three hundred and seventy miles. There
I left my family in charge of the veteran Captain Champlin, one of the heroes of
the fight, to accompany him by water to Cleveland; and early the next morn
ing1' I pushed on by railway to Erie, where I had the good fortune to b gg tember T
meet Captain W. W. Dobbins, son of the gallant officer of that name al
ready mentioned. He kindly accompanied me to the places of interest about Erie —
the site of Fort Presqu' Isle3 — of Wayne's block-house — of Fort Wayne, on Garrison
Hill, by the light-house4 — of the navy yard at the mouth of Cascade Creek,5 and the
old tavern where Perry made his head-quarters before and after the battle. When,
at the close of the day, we returned to the village, heavy black clouds were brooding-
over the lake in the direction of the great conflict, and the deep bellowing of the dis
tant thunder gave a vivid idea of the tumult of the battle heard from that very spot
almost half a century before. I had completed my sketches and observations, and I
spent the evening pleasantly and profitably with Captain Dobbins and his venerable
mother, to whom I am indebted for kind courtesies and valuable information.6 At
almost two o'clock in the morning0 I left Erie in the railway cars for
Cleveland, just after a heavy thunder-shower had passed over that re
gion, making the night intensely dark, and drenching the country.
We arrived at Cleveland at six o'clock in the morning. Heavy mists were scurry
ing over the lake upon the wings of fitful gusts, and dashes of rain came down fre
quently like sudden shower-baths. For almost three hours I waited at the wharf
where the passengers on the boat from Buffalo were to land. She was The Western
Metropolis — a magnificent vessel — one of the finest ever built on the lakes. All night
1 See picture on page 518. On the 4th of July, 1852, the national anniversary was celebrated on Put-in-Bay Island by
five companies of Ohio volunteer militia. Their encampment was the first ever seen there since Harrison left it with
his troops in the autumn of 1S13. At that time it was agreed to take measures for erecting a monument in commemo
ration of the victory, and The Battle of Lake Erie Monument Association was formed. A Constitution was adopted, and
General Lewis Cass, of Detroit, was appointed president of the association. J. G. Camp, E. Cooke, E. Bill, A. P. Ed
wards, and J. A. Harris, were appointed a provisional executive committee.
2 The project of erecting a statue of Perry at Cleveland originated with the Hon. Harvey Rice, of that city, who, as
member of the Common Council, brought the subject before that body in June, 185T, in a series of resolutions. A com
mittee was appointed to take the matter in hand, composed of Harvey Rice, O. M. Oviatt, J. M. Coffinberry, J. Kirkpat-
rick, and C. D. Williams. They contracted with T. Jones and Sons, of Cleveland, to erect a monument surmounted by a
statue of Perry, for the sum of eight thousand dollars. The designs of monument and statue were made by William
Walcutt, the sculptor, of Cleveland, and the figures were executed by him.
3 See page 511. * See note 1, page 510. 5 See page 511.
6 Mrs. Dobbins is of English and Irish extraction, and was married to Mr. Dobbins at Cannonsburg, Pennsylvania,
early in the year 1SOO, by whom she had ten children.
538
PICTOKIAL FIELD-BOOK
The Pilot of the Ariel.
Crowds fill Cleveland.
" Camp Perry" on Sunday.
long she had battled with the storm, yet she was so stanch that her passengers had
slept securely and soundly. A fine state-room had been assigned to Captain Champ-
lin. Among the survivors of the war who accompanied him was Captain Asel Wil
kinson, of Golden, Erie County, New York, wrho was the pilot of the Ariel — a tall,
slender man, seventy-two years of age. He stood at the helm of his vessel all through
the battle of the 10th of Sep
tember. His cartridge - box
was shot from his side by a
cannon-ball, and the thunder
of the great guns brought the blood from his ears and nose, and permanently impair
ed his hearing. I received many reminiscences of the fight from his lips during a
brief hour that I spent with him. His vigor of mind and body gave promise of years
of future usefulness, but his days were nearly numbered. On the 4th of July, 1861,
he was in Buffalo with his wife to participate in the celebration of the day. When
they were passing the corner of Pearl and Mohawk Streets he suddenly fell to the
pavement and expired.
In the midst of a furious thunder-storm we rode to the residence of a gentleman on
Euclid Street, to the hospitalities of which we had been invited, and there we found
a pleasant home during our brief sojourn in Cleveland. It was the last day of the
week. On Monday the appointed ceremonies were to be performed, and visitors were
pouring into the "Forest City" by thousands from every direction. That evening
the hotels and large numbers of private houses were filled with guests. Mr. Bancroft
(the historian), who was one of the chosen orators for the occasion, had arrived; also
a large delegation from Rhode Island, including Governor Sprague, Mr. Bartlett, the
Secretary of State, Dr. Parsons, Bishop Clarke, and Captain Thomas Brownell, who
was the acting sailing-master of the Arid in the battle. Members of the Perry fam
ily and scores of the survivors of the war were also there, and the bright and beau
tiful Sabbath found Cleveland full of strangers.
It was indeed a bright and beautiful Sabbath. The storm-clouds were gone, and
' ^^^^^ the first cool breath of autumn came from
the lake and gave warning of the ap
proaching season of hoar-frost. At an
early hour Euclid Street — magnificent
Euclid Street — was full of animation.
Crowds were making their way to "Camp
Perry," on the county fair-grounds, the
head-quarters of the military, who were
under the command of Brigadier General
J. W. Fitch. In the spacious marquee of
that ofiicer we met, just before the hour
for morning religious services (in which
Bishop Clarke led), most of the Rhode
Island delegation, Governor Dennison, of
Ohio, and his staff, and Benjamin Fleming,
of Erie, a lively little man, then seventy-
eight years of age, who was a maintop-
man in the Niagara during the battle.
He was yet living in 1863, and was one
of three survivors of the battle who are
residents of Erie.1 Fleming was a native of Delaware.2 He wras dressed in full sail-
UENJAMIN FLEMING.
1 The other two were John Murray, a marine from Pennsylvania, aged about seventy-three, and Jesse Wall, a colored
man, aged about seventy-four years, who was a fifer on board the Niagara.
2 Benjamin Fleming was borii in Lewiston, Delaware, on the 20th of July, 1TS2. He entered the naval service on
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
539
Surviving Soldiers of the War of 1S12.
Inauguration of the Statue of Perry.
Preliminary Proceedings.
or's costume, and on his right breast, in the form of a shield, on which was inscribed his
name and the occasion, was the silver medal presented by the State of Pennsylvania.1
There we also met Dr. Nathan
Eastman, of Medina, Ohio,
who, as volunteer surgeon, as
sisted in dressing the wounds
of those injured in the battle
who were taken to the marine
hospital at Erie. He was after
ward appointed assistant sur
geon, and spent the dreary
winter of 1813— 14 in that ca
pacity on board the prize-ships
Detroit and Queen Charlotte,
PERRY'S LANTERN.
for some soldiers were on those
vessels and upon Put-in-Bay
Island. There was also Hosea
Sargent, of Cambridge, Mas
sachusetts, a survivor of the
Z,aicrence, who handed Perry
his flag as he was leaving his
vessel for the Niagara. A
mute relic of the battle was
also on the ground. It was
Perry's signal lantern, and be
longed to Lieutenant Selden,
It was made of tin, with win-
of the " Wayne Guards" of Erie, who were present,
dows of scraped horn, and had a venerable appearance.
Monday dawned gloomily. The sky was lowering with heavy clouds, the tem
perature was chilling, and as the time approached for the commencement of the pub
lic ceremonies there were indications of early rain. But these hindered nothing. At
an early hour I went to the City Hall, the head-quarters of the "soldiers of 1812,"
and assisted in the interesting task of making a register of the names and ages of
those who were present, about three hundred in number.2 The air was full of mar
tial music, the streets and buildings were gay with banners, and as the appointed
time for uncovering the statue drew near, the public square of ten acres, in the cen
tre of which it stood, began to fill with people. I had made my way with difficulty
through the crowd from the old soldiers' head-quarters to the stage erected for the
conductors of the pageant and invited guests. Mr. Bancroft soon arrived, alone, but
was followed almost immediately by the mayor of the city, the committee of arrange
ments, Dr. Parsons (the associate orator), the Perry family, and other invited guests.
Very soon the immense military and civic procession came filing into the square in
gay and sombre costumes, accompanied by a miniature brig Lawrence, on wheels,
drawn by four horses. The inclosure was filled with the living sea, and broad On
tario and Superior Streets were crowded Avith people as far as the eye could reach.
"All Cleveland is out!" exclaimed a gentleman at my elbow. "All creation, you
had better say," responded another. It was estimated that fifty thousand strangers
were present.
The ceremonies before the statue were opened by prayer from the lips of the Rev
erend Dr. Perry, of Natchez, Mississippi. Then Mr. Walcutt, the sculptor, unveiled
the statue. There it stood, upon a green mound, surrounded by an iron railing, im
posing, beautiful, and remarkable because of its extreme whiteness.3 Tens of thou
sands of voices sent up loud cheers as that chaste work of art was clearly revealed,
for, just as the covering was removed, rays of sunlight, that had struggled through
board the frigate Essex in 1811, and at New York volunteered for the lake service. He was wi,th Elliott At the capture
of the Caledonia and A dams. See list of names in Note 5, page 3S5. He had lived in Erie ever since the war. Two
of his sons were in a Pennsylvania regiment during the late Civil War, and both were wounded in the battles before
Richmond. , ' See page 535.
2 Among these were Benjamin Le Reaux, aged seventy-seven years. He was from La Salle City, Illinois. He was a
small, lively, sparkling-faced man, and was dressed in the same military suit of gray in which, as orderly sergeant, he
fought under General Scott in the battle of Niagara, or Luudy's Lane. He was in Jesup's command. A history of that
gray uniform will be given hereafter. Mr. Le Reaux's father was a Frenchman, and served as captain under Lafayette.
3 The monument and statue, represented on the following page, present to the eye one of the most chaste memorials
of greatness to be found in the country. Indeed, it is believed that nothing equals it. The pedestal is of Rhode Island
granite, twelve feet in height, on one side of which is sculptured, in low relief, the scene of Perry's passage from the
Lawrence to the Niagara. On one side of it is a small statue of a Sailor-boi/, bareheaded, and on the other one of a Mid
shipman, with his cap on, in the attitude of listening. The statue is of Parian marble, and remarkable for its purity.
It is eight feet in height, but at the altitude of the top of the pedestal or monument it appears life-size. The entire
height of the monument, including the base, is* twenty-five feet.
540
PICTOKIAL FIELD-BOOK
The Statue unveiled.
Orations by Bancroft and Parsons.
A remarkable Dinner Party.
the clouds, fell full upon it. Mr. Walcutt
made a brief address, which was responded
to by Mayor Senter. Then followed Mr.
Bancroft's oration,1 and an historical dis
course by Dr. Parsons.2 Oliver Hazard Per
ry, the only surviving son of the commo
dore, addressed the people briefly, when the
masonic ceremonies of dedication were per
formed. The proceedings closed with a song,
written by E. G. Knowlton, of Cleveland,
and sung by Ossian E. Dodge.
I had been invited to dine with the vet
erans of 1812, and when the ceremonies be
fore the statue were ended, I hastened from
the crowded city to the old soldiers' ban
quet-hall in the railway buildings on the
margin of the lake. The scene was a most
interesting and remarkable one. Almost
three hundred survivors of the war, who had
been participants in its military events, were
seated at the table, with their commander
for the day (General J. M. Hughes), and
Deacon Benjamin Rouse, the president of
the Old Soldiers' Association, at their head.
There were very few among them of feeble
step. Upon every head not disfigured by a
wig lay the snows that never melt. It was
a dinner-party, I venture to say, that has no
parallel in history. The ages of the guests
(excepting a few younger men, like myself,
who were permitted by courtesy to be pres
ent) ranged from fifty-seven to ninety years.3
The average was about seventy years; and
the aggregate age of the company was about
twenty thousand years !
When I left the banquet-hall a spectacle of rare beauty met the eye. The high
banks of the lake in front of the cjty were covered with men, women, and children,
thousands in number, who had come out to be witnesses of a promised sham-fight on
the lake, in nearly exact imitation of the real one forty-seven years before. I climbed
the steep bank, up a long flight of stairs at the foot of Warren Street, to a good po
sition for observation, and found myself by the side of Mr. Fleming, the jolly little
maintop-man of the Niagara, with his sailor's dress and silver medal. The clouds
had dispersed, and the afternoon was almost as bright and serene as when the old
battle was waged. One by one the vessels representing the belligerent squadrons of
Perry and Barclay went out from the mouth of the Cuyahoga, not " with a light
breeze" alone, but by the more certain power of steam-tugs. Captain Champlin com
manded the mock- American squadron, and Mr. Chapman4 that of the mock-British. '
1 Immediately after the conclusion of Mr. Bancroft's address, he was presented with a cane, made of the timber of the
Lawrence, by the "Wayne Guards," of Erie. The head is of gold, and the ferule a spike from the Lawrence.
2 During the delivery of Dr. Parsons's discourse, an intelligent old man, named Quinn, from Pittsburg, Pennsylvania,
came upon the stand, and reported himself as the man who made the cordage used in rigging the vessels of Perry's
squadron. He had with him, in a box, the identical tools that were used in that service.
3 The oldest man among them was a colored soldier named Abraham Chase. He was ninety. Two of them (S. F.
Whitney and Richard M'Cready) were only fifty-seven. They were boys in the service. * See page 527.
I'EERY 8 STATUE.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
541
Sham Battle on Lake Erie.
Visit to early Residents of Cleveland.
Captain Stanton Sholes.
I860.
A singular coincidence occurred. As in the real battle, so in this, there was a light
breeze at first, which freshened before the close. It was an exciting scene, and little
Fleming fairly danced with exhilaration as he observed the flashes — the booming
of great guns — the fleet enveloped in smoke — Champlin, like Perry, leaving the Law
rence and going to the Niagara, and the latter sweeping down, breaking the Chap
man-Barclay's line and winning victory. With this extraordinary pageant closed the
public ceremonies of the day.1
On the following day, accompanied by the Rev. T. B. Fairchild, of Hudson, Ohio, I
visited several persons and places in 'Cleveland connected with its history. Among
the former were Judge Barr, to whose kind courtesy, through the medium of letters,
I was under many obligations, and the widow of Dr. David Long, a daughter of John
Wadsworth, one of the earliest settlers in that region. She was a resident of Cleve
land at the time of the battle.2 When I visited hera she and Levi John- « September,
son and his wife were the only survivors of the inhabitants of that place
in 1813. At the time of Hull's surrender
there was great alarm at Cleveland, and
Mrs. Long was the only woman who re
mained. Her husband would not desert
the sick there, and she would not desert
her husband. At that time they had no
military protection, but in the spring of
1813 Major Jesup was stationed there
with two companies of Ohio militia.
These were joined in May by Captain
Stanton Sholes, now [1867] a resident of
Columbus, Ohio,3 with a company of
United States Artillery from Pennsylva
nia. He was cordially welcomed by
Governor Meigs, and made his quarters
at Major Carter's tavern. He immedi
ately set about felling the timber on the
site of the present city of Cleveland, with
which to build a small stockade fort.
This was erected near the present light
house, about fifty yards from the lake.
1 At the close of the public proceedings the members of the Masonic Order who were present dined together at the
Weddell House. H. L. Hosmer, Deputy Grand Master of Ohio, presided. The banqueters were enlivened by toasts and
speeches, and the festivities closed with a song written for the occasion by William Ross Wallace, and sung by Ossian
E. Dodge— a song of three stanzas, of which the following stirring one is the conclusion :
"Roll, roll, ye waves ! eternal roll !
For ye are holy from his might :
Oh, Banner, that his valor wreathed,
Forever keep thy victor-light !
And if upon this sacred lake
Should ever come invading powers,
Like him may we exulting cry,
WE'VE MET THE FOE, AND THEY AKE OFRS !"
3 Dr. Long's dwelling was on the site of the present light-house at Cleveland. It still exists, but at Borne distance
from the place where it was built. It now stands on the north side of Frankfort Street, between Bank and Water Streets.
It is a small building, one story, about 20 by 20 feet square.
3 Mr. Sholes is a native of Connecticut, born before the breaking out of the Revolutionary War, and is now [1SC7]
about ninety-six years of age. His father was a British soldier at the capture of Quebec from the French, and served
four years in our old war for independence. In early life Captain Sholes engaged in the business of a sailor, and visited
many parts of the world. He quit the ocean in 1803, and settled in the State of New York. After a few years he took
up his abode on the banks of the Ohio River, about twenty miles below Pittsburg. In May, 1812, he received from Pres
ident Madison a captain's commission in the second division United States Artillery, with orders to recruit a company
of one hundred men for five years. This he accomplished, and in May, 1S13, arrived with them at Cleveland, as we have
observed. He served faithfully in the Northwest, during the hostilities in that region, under Harrison. I am indebted
to Captain Sholes for much valuable information concerning operations there. He is an honored hero of two wars, for
before the close of the Revolution he ran away from home, and entered the service of his country as a boy-soldier.
542 PICTOKIAL FIELD-BOOK
Perry and his Captives. Terrible Storm on Lake Erie. Fate of the chief Vessels in the Battle.
He also erected a comfortable hospital. During that summer he was on active duty
there, but two days before the battle on the lake he received orders from General
Harrison to break up his encampment, and, with his company and all the government
boats at Cleveland, move on to the mouth of the Maumee, preparatory to a speedy
invasion of Canada.
I left Cleveland on the morning of the 1 2th of September1 for Southern Ohio,
and the residence and tomb of General Harrison. Of the incidents of that
journey I shall hereafter write. Let us occupy a few moments in considering the
farther movements of the lake squadron so late*ly in battle. We left them in Put-in-
" September, Bay on the morning of the 12th,b after the sad task of burying the slain
officers had been performed.
In the course of the day after the battle Perry visited the wounded Barclay on
board the battered Detroit. They met there for the first time face to face, and it was
the beginning of a lasting personal friendship. His kindness to Barclay and his men
on this occasion elicited the praises of that officer in his official dispatch. Every thing
that friend could do for friend was performed by the victor toward the captive.1
Perry now prepared for the transportation of Harrison's army to Canada. For
that purpose he placed all the wounded Americans on board the Lawrence, and the
wounded British on board the Detroit and Queen Charlotte,2 and arranged the Ni
agara and the lighter vessels of both squadrons as transports. He made the Niag
ara his flag-ship; and on board of her, on the 13th, while a furious gale from the
southwest was sweeping over the lake, he wrote a detailed account of the battle for
the Secretary of the Navy.3 The shattered British vessels were made to suffer by
that storm. It drove heavy swells into the harbor, which so shook the Detroit that
her masts fell upon her decks with a terrible crash, wrecking every thing near them.
The main and mizzen masts of the Queen Charlotte also fell ; and there lay the three
vessels helpless hulks. They were converted into hospital ships. The crippled Law
rence, devoted to the same uses, sailed sluggishly for Erie on the 21st,c
c September. *
and was soon followed by the Detroit and Queen Charlotte.^ She arrived
Captain Sholes is the subject of an extraordinary physiological change. For fifty years he was bald and wore a wig.
Then he was afflicted with severe headache, for the relief of which cloths dipped in warm water and wrung out were
applied. The pain ceased and a new growth of hair commenced. In the summer of 1SG4, as I was informed by his pas
tor, Rev. Mr. Byers, his head was thickly covered with glossy, snowy -white hair, so long that it was combed back from
the forehead and tied with a ribbon at his neck. His face, also, which was formerly much wrinkled, had become smooth,
"with much of the restored fairness of youth."
1 While Perry was on the Detroit, two savages, who had been concealed in the hold of the vessel, were brought to him.
They were Indian chiefs, and had been taken on board clothed in sailors' suits, and, with others, were placed in the tops
as sharp-shooters. The noise of great guns and the dangers of the fight unnerved them, and they had fled to the hold
in terror. When brought before Perry they expected torture or scalping. Their astonishment was great when he spoke
kindly to them, directed them to be fed, and sent them on shore with assurances of protection from the Indians friendly
to the Americans.
2 The prisoners conveyed to Erie were sent to Pittsburg, in the interior, for greater security. The wounded were
well cared for.
3 In this dispatch Perry spoke in terms of praise of all his officers who were conspicuous in the battle. Captain El
liott received a bountiful share, contrary to the judgment and wishes of many of Perry's officers. They expressed their
opinions freely in disparagement of Elliott. A quarrel between the two commanders and their friends ensued. The
controversy was revived in after years by Mr. Cooper, the historian of the United States Navy, and old animosities were
awakened to unwonted vigor. They have ^^ Captain George Miles, of Erie. They were
now slept for many years, and I do not « J@?N ^ converted into merchant ships, but in the
choose to disturb them by any remarks B^^BB course of five or six years they became use-
here. The public verdict has determined less. The Detroit lay at Buffalo some time,
the relative position of the two command- l! |j • \ j \ J\ when she was purchased by the hotel-keep
ers in the history of the country. So let it lu}J™ ' '^'yE* ~.~- --— ers at Niagara Falls, with which to make a
be. ;]^a spectacle for the visitors there in the sum-
4 The Lawrence, Detroit, and (Jueen Char- Hnaj^^.^ mer. They placed a live bear and other
lotte were afterward sunk in Little Bay (see i fiB ^^B animals on board of her, and sent her
map on page 514), on the northerly side of -j adrift above the Falls, in the presence of a
the harbor of Erie. The Niagara was kept | > JpHMKf'H^^K great crowd of people, who expected to see
at Erie as a receiving ship for a long time. 1 K£. ner plunge over the great cataract. But
She was finally abandoned, and also sunk tf^HH ji^^^___T1 she lodged in the rapids above, and there
in Little Bay. Here her bottom, partly Jjjjjijjg* went to pieces. Such was the end of Corn-
covered by sand, may still be seen. In mander Barclay's flag-ship Detroit. Pieces
1S3T the Detroit and Queen Charlotte were ^^pegg^r- -<a, of the Lawrence have been sought for as
purchased of the government, and raised by relics by the curious, and many canes and
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
543
Perry and Harrison at Erie.
Their Reception.
Incidents at Erie.
Execution of Bird.
I'EURY'S QUARTERS.
at Erie on the 23d, and was greeted by a
salute of seventeen guns on shore. A month
• October 22, later,a when Canada Jhad been
successfully invaded by Harri
son, and Perry, as his volunteer aid, had
shared in the honors of victory, the Ariel
sailed into Erie with these commanders,
who were accompanied by Commodore
Barclay, then admitted to his parole, and
Colonel E. P. Gaines. These officers took
lodgings at Duncan's, Perry's old head
quarters, yet standing (glorious because of
its associations, though in ruins), on the
corner of Third and French Streets.1 They
were received with the booming of can
non, the shouts of the people, and the kind
ly greeting of every loyal heart. The town
was illuminated in the evening, and the streets were enlivened by a torch-light pro
cession, bearing transparencies, made at
the suggestion and under the direction
of the accomplished Lieutenant Thomas
Holdup.2 On one of these were the words
" Commodore Perry, 10th of September,
1813;" on another, " General Harrison,
5th of October, 1813;" on another, " Free
Trade and Sailors' Rights;" and on a
fourth, " Erie." The Niagara arrived the
same afternoon, and other vessels soon fol
lowed.3
The succeeding winter was passed in
much anxiety by the inhabitants of Erie
on account of an expected attack by the
British and Indians, who, it was reported,
were preparing to cross the lake on the
ice from the Canada shore. False alarms
were frequent, and midnight packings of
valuables preparatory to an exodus were
quite common. The summer brought
guaranties of repose, and during the last
half of the year 1814 only a company of
volunteers were stationed there, most of them at the block-house at Cascade Creek.4
other articles have been made of the wood. Captain Champlin and Dr. Parsons, survivors of the battle, both have
chairs made from the oak wood of the flag-ship. Our little engraving on the opposite page shows the form of Cham-
plin's chair. I saw the stern-post of the Lawrence in possession of Captain W. W. Dobbins, at Erie.
1 This is known as the "Erie Hotel." The above picture shows its appearance when I sketched it in September,
1360. The most distant window of the second story, seen in the gable of the main building, and boarded up, was point
ed out to me as the one that lighted the room occupied by Perry.
3 See Note 5, page 528. 3 Doctor Parsons's Diary. Miss Laura G. Sanford's History of Erie.
4 Three men were executed at Erie for desertion in the autumn of 1S14. One of them was a young man of some
standing, named Bird, who had fought gallantly on the Niagara in the battle on Lake Erie. His offense could not be
overlooked, and he was shot. It was thought by some that his pardon, under the circumstances, might not have been
detrimental to the public good. A doleful ballad, called The mournful Tragedy of James Bird, was written, and became
very popular throughout the country, drawing tears from unrefined and sensitive listeners. Older readers will doubt
less remember with what pathos the singers would chant the following, which was the last of the eleven verses of the
ballad :
"See, he kneels upon his coffin ! sure his death can do no good.
Spare him ! Hark ! Oh God ! they've shot him ; his bosom streams with blood.
Farewell, Bird ! farewell forever ! Friends and home he'll see no more !
But his mangled corpse lies buried on Lake Erie's distant shore."
THOMAS notnrp STEVENS.
544 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Arrangements for Invading Canada. Harrison's Disinterestedness. Governor Shelby and his Followers.
CHAPTER XXVI
" 'Twas on La Tranche's fertile banks
A gallant host appeared ;
But fourteen hundred formed their ranks-
No chance of war they feared.
Their country's cause had called them forth
To battle's stormy field ;
They deemed the man of little worth
Whose mind but thought to yield.
There our Columbia's warrior bauds
The star-stud ensign bear,
And General Harrison commands
The men to valor dear."
HEN Perry's victory gave the sovereignty of Lake Erie to the
Americans, General Harrison had completed his arrangements
r\ -£ for invading Canada. He had called on Governor Shelby, of
••' Kentucky, for fifteen hundred men, and, with the generosity of
an unselfish patriot as he was, invited that veteran to the field
and to the chief command, saying, " Why not, my dear sir, come
in person ? You would not object to a command that would be
nominal only. I have such confidence in your wisdom, that you,
in fact, should ' be the guiding head and I the hand.' The situation you would be
placed in would not be without its parallel. Scipio, the conqueror of Carthage, did
not disdain to act as the lieutenant of his younger and less experienced brother,
Lucius."
This invitation roused the martial spirit of Shelby, and he resolved to lead, not to
send his people against the foe. He called for mounted volunteers to assemble at
» July 31, Newport, opposite Cincinnati, at the close of July. a " I Avill meet you there
isi3. jn persOn?" ne said ; " I will lead you to the field of battle, and share with
you the dangers and honors of the campaign." His words were electrical ; Kentucky
instantly blazed with enthusiasm. " Come," said the young men and veterans, " let
us rally round the eagle of our country, for Old King^s Mountain^ will certainly lead
us to victory and conquest." Twice the required number flocked to his standard ;
and with Major John Adair,2 and the late venerable United States senator John
J. Crittenden,3 as his aids, and wearing upon his thigh a sword just presented to
1 Governor Shelby was one of the leaders of the militia who defeated the banded Tories under Major Ferguson on
King's Mountain, on the upper borders of South Carolina, on the 7th of October, 1781. Shelby's valor on that occasion
was conspicuous, and he was known in later years by the familiar name of Old King's Mountain.
2 John Adair was a North Carolinian, and emigrated to Kentucky in 1786, at the age of thirty-one years. He was an
active officer in the Indian wars on the Northwestern frontier. He held the commission of major in 1792. He was pop
ular in his adopted state until 1807, when his unfortunate connection with Burr obscured his reputation for a while. He
seems not to have been aware (like other of Burr's dupes) of the traitor's real designs. In politics he was a Federalist.
His conduct during the campaign of 1813 was every way praiseworthy. He was afterward appointed adjutant general
of the Kentucky troops, with the brevet rank of brigadier general. In that capacity he commanded the Kentuckians
in the battle of New Orleans. In 1820 he was elected Governor of Kentucky, and was often a member of the State Legis
lature. He had been United States senator in 1805 ; in 1831 he was elected a member of the lower house of Congress.
He died on the 19th of May, 1840, at the age of eighty-three years.
3 John J. Crittenden was born in Woodford County, Kentucky, in September, 17SG. His father was an early settler
in that state. Young Crittendeu studied law, and commenced its practice in Russellville, Logan County. He was among
the first volunteers raised by Governor Shelby for Harrison in 1812. He accompanied General Hopkins in his expedi
tion on the Wabash (see page 33G), and the next year was with Harrison on the Northwestern frontier. He performed
gallant service in the battle on the Thames, after which he resumed his profession at Russellville. He was several
times a member of the State Legislature, and was elected United States senator in 1S17. He afterward removed to
Frankfort, where he practiced his profession until 1835, serving his constituents as legislator occasionally. That year
OF THE WAK OF 1812. 545
Sword presented to Governor Shelby. Army of the Northwest in Motion. Its Embarkation for Canada.
him by Henry Clay, in the name of the State of North Carolina, in testimony of ap
preciation of his services in the old war for independence,1 he led thirty-five hund
red mounted men, including Colonel R. M. Johnson's troop, in the direction of Lake
Erie. At Urbana he organized his volunteers into eleven regiments,2 and on the 1 2th
of September reached Upper Sandusky. From that post Shelby pushed forward with
his staif, and at Fort Ball (Tiffin) he heard of Perry's victory. He dispatched a cour
ier to Major General Henry, whom he had left in command at Lower Sandusky, giv
ing him the glorious news, and directing him to press forward with the troops as fast
as possible. The intelligence of success nerved them to more vigorous action ; and
on the 15th and 16tha the whole army of the Northwest, excepting the • September,
troops at Fort Meigs and minor posts, were on the borders of Lake Erie,
on the pleasant peninsula between Sandusky Bay and the lake below the mouth of
the Portage River, now Port Clinton.3 Shelby arrived there on the 14th, a few min
utes before a part of Perry's squadron appeared bearing three hundred British pris
oners. These were landed at the mouth of the Portage, placed in charge of the in
fantry, and a few days afterward were marched to Franklinton and Chillicothe, es
corted by a guard of Kentucky militia under Quartermaster Payne.
Preparations were now made for the embarkation of the army. Harrison had been
joined at Seneca by about two hundred and sixty friendly Wyandot, Shawnoese, and
Seneca Indians under chiefs Lewis, Black Hoof,4 and Blacksnake. General M' Arthur,
Clay's successor in command of Fort Meigs, was ordered to embark artillery, provis
ions, and stores from that now reduced post, and to march the regulars there, with
Clay's Kentuckians, to the Portage. Colonel Johnson was directed to remain at Fort
Meigs with his mounted regiment until the expedition should sail, and then march
toward Detroit, keeping abreast of the army on the transports, as nearly as possible.
The embarkation of the army commenced on the 20th.b The weather
ScDtctnl)cr
was delightful. On the 24th the troops rendezvoused on Put-in-Bay Isl-
he was elected to the United States Senate. He was called to the cabinet of President Harrison, in 1841, as attorney
general. He was again elected to the Senate, and in 184S was chosen Governor of Kentucky. President Fillmore called
him to his cabinet in July, 1850, as attorney general. He entered the United States Senate again as a member in 1S54,
and held his seat there until 1SG1, when his term of office expired. He took an active part, as a Union man, in legisla
tive measures pertaining to the Great Rebellion, and his proposition for conciliation will ever be known in history as
The Crittenden Compromise. In 1S61 he was elected a representative of tke lower house of the Thirty-seventh Congress,
which position he occupied until the close of the session on the 3d of March, 1863, when he w^s again put in nomina
tion for the same office. But he did not live until the time for the election. His physical powers had been gradually
giving way for some time, and at half past three o'clock on Sunday morning, July 26, 1863, he died at his residence at
Frankfort, without a struggle, at the age of almost seventy-seven years.
1 1 have before me Mr. Clay's autograph letter to Governor Shelby on the subject. The following is a copy :
"LEXINGTON, 22d August, 1813.
"MY DEAB SIB,— I have seen by the public prints that you intend leading a detachment from this state. As you will
want a sword, I have the pleasure to inform you that I am charged by Governor Turner and Mr. Macon with delivering
to you that which the State of North Carolina voted you in testimony of the sense it entertained of your conduct at
King's Mountain. I would take it with me to Frankfort, in order that I might personally execute the commission, and
at the same time have the gratification of seeing you, if I were not excessively oppressed with fatigue. I shall not fail,
however, to avail myself of the first safe conveyance, and if any should ofler to you I will thank you to inform me. May
it acquire additional lustre in the patriotic and hazardous enterprise in which you are embarking !
"Your friend, H. CLAY."
The sword was placed in the hands of Mr. W. T. Barry, a mutual friend, on the day when the letter was written, who
conveyed it to Governor Shelby, at Frankfort.
5 The regiments were officered respectively as follows: Lieutenant Colonels Trotter, Donaldson, Poague, Mouutjoy,
Eeinick, Davenport, Paul, Calloway, Simrall, Barbour, and Williams. They were formed into five brigades, under Brig
adiers Calmes, Chiles, King, Allen, and Caldwell. The whole were formed into two divisions, under Major Generals
William Henry and Joseph Desha. W. T. Barry was appointed the governor's secretary, Thomas T. Barr judge advo
cate general, and Doctor A. J. Mitchell hospital surgeon.
3 The Portage is a deep, sluggish stream. It rises in the Black Swamp, and flows between thirty and forty miles.
There is a good harbor at Port Clinton.
4 Black Hoof was a famous Shawnoese chief. He was born in Florida, and remembered his tribe moving from there
to Pennsylvania and Ohio. He was prominent in the fight against Braddock in 1755, and was in all the Indian wars
with the Americans in the Northwest toward the close of the last century, until the treaty of Greenville in 1795. Up to
that time he had been the bitter enemy of the white man ; afterward he remained faithful to that treaty. Tecumtha
tried to seduce him, but failed, and by his influence he kept a greater portion of his tribe from joining the British in
the War of 1812. He became the ally of the United States, but bodily infirmity kept him from active service. In the in
stance of his friendship just mentioned, he simply brought his people to camp, and left younger chiefs to conduct them
in the campaign.
MM
546 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The Army crosses Lake Erie. It lands without Opposition. Vengeance of the Kentuckians and Fears of Proctor.
and, and on the 25th they were upon the Middle Sister, an island containing six or
seven acres. Upon that small space almost five thousand men were encamped. The
Kentuckians had left their horses on the peninsula, and were acting as infantry.1 The
elements were favoring. There was a fresh breeze from the south, and General Har
rison and Commodore Perry sailed in the Ariel to reconnoitre the enemy at Maiden.
They accomplished their object fully and returned at sunset. Directions were at
once given for the embarkation of the troops the next morning, and in a general or
der issued that evening, the place and manner of landing, the arrangement of the
order of march, the attack on the foe, and other particulars, were prescribed with
great minuteness. It was believed that the enemy would meet them at the landing-
place. This order was signed by E. P. Gaines, the adjutant general, and contained
the following exhortation : " The general entreats his brave troops to remember that
they are the sons of sires whose fame is immortal ; that they are to fight for the rights
of their insulted country, while their opponents combat for the unjust pretensions of
a master. Kentuckians ! remember the River Raisin ! but remember it only while
victory is suspended. The revenge of a soldier can not be gratified upon a fallen
enemy."2
a September, The final embarkation took place on the morning of the 27th.a N~o love
lier autumnal day ever dawned upon the earth. The sky was cloudless,
the atmosphere balmy, and a gentle breeze from the southwest lightly rippled the
waters. In sixteen armed vessels and almost one hundred boats that little army was
put afloat. All was in motion at nine o'clock, and as the great flotilla moved north
ward toward the hostile shore, Harrison's stirring address was read to the men on
each vessel. From these went up a hearty shout of Harrison and Victory, and
then all moved on silently into the Detroit River. The spectacle was beautiful and
sublime.
Hartley's Point, three or four miles below Amherstburg (Maiden), and opposite
the lower end of Bois Blanc Island, had been selected by Harrison and Perry as the
landing-place. The debarkation took place at about four o'clock, on a low, sandy
beach there, which stretched out in front of high sand-drifts, behind which it was be
lieved the enemy lay concealed. The army landed in perfect battle order, the Ken
tucky Volunteers on the right, the regulars on the left, and Ball's Legion and the
friendly Indians in the centre. But no enemy was there. Proctor, who was in com
mand at Maiden, taking counsel of Prudence and Fear,3 and contrary to the solemn
advice, earnest entreaties, and indignant remonstrances of his more courageous broth
er officer Tecumtha,4 had fled northward with his army, and all that he could take
1 There were not vessels enough to transport the horses with forage, and they were left behind. A strong fence of
brush and fallen timber was constructed across the isthmus from near Port Clinton, a distance of not more than two
miles, making the whole peninsula an inclosure for the horses to pasture in. One of every twenty Kentuckians were
drafted to form a guard for the horses, and these were placed under the command of Colonel Christopher Rife.
2 The terrible massacre at the River Raisin, and the circumstances attending it, inspired the Kentuckians with almost
savage desires for vengeance. One of their songs sung around camp-fires recounted the cruelties of the Indians and
the inhumanity of Proctor on that occasion. The following is one of the stanzas :
" Freemen ! no longer bear such slaughters ;
Avenge your country's cruel woe ;
Arouse, and save your wives and daughters !
Arouse, and smite the faithless foe 1
CHOKUS.— Scalps are bought at stated prices,
Maiden pays the price in gold."
3 Proctor, like the Kentuckians, remembered the River Raisin, and was afraid of falling into the hands of those whose
sons and brothers had been butchered a few months before by his permission. His scouts had seen the Americans on
the Sandusky Peninsula, and had reported their number at fifteen thousand, at least ten thousand of whom were Ken
tuckians burning with revenge. The fear of these gave fleetness to his feet.
* The defeat and capture of the British squadron had been foolishly concealed from'Tecumtha for fear of its demoraliz
ing effect on his savage followers. The Indian leader was therefore greatly astonished when he observed Proctor prepar
ing to flee. He had been delighted when the British vessels went out to fight. He crossed over to Bois Blanc Island
to watch the first appearance of them returning with the vanquished American squadron— an apparition which Proc
tor's boasting had made him believe would certainly be revealed. He was disappointed, bewildered, and perplexed ;
and, with great vehemence of manner, he addressed Proctor, saying,
"Father, listen ! Our fleet has gone out ; we know they have fought ; we have heard the great guns ; but we know
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 547
Tecumtha's scornful Rebuke of Proctor. The British and Indians fly toward the Thames. The Americans pursue.
with him, leaving Fort Maiden, the navy buildings, and the store-houses smoking
ruins. As the Americans approached the town, with Governor Shelby in advance,
they met, not valiant British regulars nor painted savages, but a troop of modest, well-
dressed women, who came to implore mercy and protection. The kind-hearted vet
eran soon calmed their fears. The army entered Amherstburg with the bands play
ing Yankee Doodle. The loyal inhabitants had fled with the army. The ruins of
Fort Maiden, the dock-yard, and the public stores were sending up huge volumes of
smoke.
Proctor had impressed into his service all the horses of the inhabitants to facilitate
his flight, yet Harrison wrote courageously to the Secretary of War, on the evening
after his arrival at Amherstburg,a saying, " I will pursue the enemy to- » September 27,
morrow, although there is no probability of overtaking him, as he has
upward of a thousand horses, and we have not one in the army. I shall think my
self fortunate to collect a sufficiency to mount the general officers." Only one, and
that a Canadian pony, was procured, and on that the venerable Shelby was mounted.
When Harrison's vanguard arrived at Amherstburg, the rear-guard of the enemy
had not been gone an hour. Colonel Ball immediately sent an officer and twenty of
his cavalry after them, to prevent them destroying the bridge over the Aux Canards,
or Ta-ron-tee. They had just fired it when the Americans appeared. A single vol
ley scattered the incendiaries, and the bridge was saved. The next morning Harri
son's army, excepting a regiment of riflemen under Colonel Smith left at Amherst
burg, crossed it, and encamped in the Petit Cote Settlement,1 and at two o'clock on
the 29th they entered Sandwich. At the same time the American flotilla reached
Detroit ; and on the following day, Colonel Johnson and his mounted regiment ar
rived there. M' Arthur, with seven hundred effective men, had already crossed over,
driven off a body of Indians who were hovering around the place, and retaken the
town. General Harrison had also declared the martial law enforced by Proctor at
an end, and the civil government of Michigan re-established, to the great joy of the
inhabitants.2
On the arrival of Johnson the general-in-chief sent on one of his aids-de-camp,
Captain C. S. Todd,3 to order the colonel to cross immediately with his troops, for he
nothing of what has happened to our father with one arm [Captain Barclay]. Our ships have gone one way, and we
are much astonished to see our father tying up every thing, and preparing to run the other way, without letting his red
children know what his intentions are. You always told us to remain here and take care of our lands. You always
told us you would never draw your foot off British ground ; but now, father, we see you are drawing back, and we are
sorry to see our father doing so without seeing the enemy. We must compare our father's conduct to a fat dog that
carries its tail upon its back, but when affrighted it drops it between its legs and runs off.
"Father, listen! The Americans have not yet defeated us by land, neither are we sure that they have done so by
water ; we therefore wish to remain here and fight our enemy, should they make their appearance. If they defeat us we will
then retreat with our father. . . . You have got the arms and ammunition which our great father, the king, sent for his
red children. If you have an idea of going away, give them to us, and you may go and welcome for us. Our lives are
in the hands of the Great Spirit. We are determined to defend our lands, and, if it be his will, we wish to leave our
bones upon them."
This speech was addressed to Proctor at a council held on the 18th of September in one of the store-houses at Am
herstburg. Its effect was powerful. The Indians all started to their feet, and brandished their tomahawks in a men
acing manner. Proctor had resolved to flee to the Niagara frontier, but this demonstration made him hesitate. He
finally quieted Tecumtha and his followers by promising to fall back only to the Moravian Towns, on the Thames, and
there make a stand. These were about halfway between Amherstburg and the outposts of the centre division of the
British army, on the western borders of Lake Ontario. On the day of the council Proctor left Amherstburg with a large
portion of his force. Major Warburton remained, charged with destroying the public property on the appearance of
the Americans. i See Map on page 266.
2 Before the Americans landed, the joyous inhabitants ran np the United States flag. They had suffered dreadfully.
For months the insolent savages had made their dwellings free quarters. When they fled the Indians fired the fort.
The flames were soon extinguished.
3 Harrison's gallant aid-de-camp, Charles Scott Todd, is yet [18C7] living in his native state, Kentucky, where he was
born on the 22d of January, 1791. I met him in Washington City at near the close of 1861, when he was almost seven
ty-one years of age. His mental and physical vigor seemed equal to those of most men at fifty. He was there to offer
his services in the field to his government in its war against the Great Rebellion. Colonel Todd is one of the most em
inent of the public servants of this country. He was educated at the College of William and Mary, in Virginia, where
he was graduated with distinction in 1S09. Law became his profession, but on the breaking out of the war he entered
the military service as ensign of a company of volunteers raised for Harrison at Lexington, where he was enaraged in
his profession. He became acting quarter-master and judge advocate of Winchester's wing of the Northweste'rn Army,
and was exceedingly active in the wilderness. "He combined," said Harrison at that time, "the ardor of youth with
548
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Johnson and his Horsemen cross Detroit River. Vigorous Pursuit of the British. Perry's Squadron in the Thames.
was resolved to push on in pursuit of
the enemy as quickly as possible. He
called a council of his general officers,
informed them of his intention, and
consulted with them concerning the
best route to pursue, only two being
feasible, namely, by land in rear of the
British, or by Lake Erie to Long Point,
where the Americans might make a
rapid march across the country, and
intercept the fugitives. The land route
was chosen.
Johnson and his mounted men cross
ed the river to Sandwich on the even
ing of the lst,a and on the aOctober,
following morning the pur
suit was commenced. M' Arthur and
his brigade were left to hold Detroit ;
Cass's brigade and Ball's regiment
o ~
were left at Sandwich ; and about one
hundred and forty regulars, Johnson's
mounted corps, and such of Shelby's
Kentucky Volunteers as were fit for
long and rapid marches, the whole
three thousand five hundred in number, left Sandwich, and pressed on toward Chat
ham, on the Thames,1 near which, it was alleged, Proctor was encamped. General
Marquis Calmes, and Adjutant General Gaines were compelled by illness to remain
at Sandwich ; and General Cass accompanied Harrison as volunteer aid.
Information had been received two days beforeb that some small ves
sels, with the enemy's artillery and baggage, were escaping up Lake St.
Clair toward the Thames, when Commodore Perry dispatched a portion of his squad
ron, consisting of the Niagara, Lady Prevost, Scorpion, and Tigress, under Captain
Elliott, in pursuit. Perry soon followed in the Ariel, accompanied by the Caledonia ;
and on the day when Harrison left Sandwich0 the little squadron appeared
off the mouth of the Thames, having in charge the baggage, provisions, and
ammunition-wagons of the American army. The enemy's vessels, having much the
start, escaped up the Thames.2
Proctor seems not to have expected pursuit by land, and the Americans found all
the bridges over the streams that fall into Lake St. Clair uninjured. Harrison pressed
the maturity of age." In May, 1S13, he was commissioned a captain in the United States army, and Harrison appointed
him his aid. His conduct in the campaign in the autumn of that year was highly commended, especially at the battle
on the Thames. He succeeded Major Hukill as deputy inspector general of the Eighth Military District, and was adju
tant general of the district the following year, when he served with General M'Arthur with great acceptance. He be
came inspector general in March, 1815, with the rank of colonel, but left the army in June following ; and after the war
Harrison said that "Colonel Todd was equal in bravery and superior in intelligence to any officer of his rank in the
army."" He resumed his practice of the law at Frankfort, where he married a daughter of Governor Shelby. He soon
became secretary of state, then a member of the Legislature, and was finally sent by President Monroe on a confidential
mission to Colombia, South America. His services there were very important. In the spring of 1840 he assisted, by re
quest, in the preparation of a Life of General Harrison, and, as editor of a Cincinnati paper, he warmly advocated the
general's election to the presidency. In the summer of 1841 he was appointed United States minister to Russia, and
served his country in that capacity to the perfect satisfaction of both governments. It was while he was there that the
portrait from which the above likeness was taken was painted. In private, as in public life, Colonel Todd is a model
of a Christian gentleman.
1 This considerable stream was called La Tranche by the French. It is sometimes called the Trent, but now is known
only by the name of Thames. In the poetic epigraph to this chapter it is called La Tranche.
2 M'Afee (page 383) says that when the American army arrived at the mouth of the Thames, an eagle was seen hov
ering oveV it. "That," said Harrison, " is a presage of success." Perry, who had landed and was with the general,
remarked that an eagle hovered over his squadron on the morning of the 10th of September.
h September 30.
• October 2.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
Pursuit up the Thames.
A Halt at Dolsen's.
The American Troops at Chatham.
forward rapidly along the good road by the borders of the lake for twenty miles,
when seven British deserters informed him that Proctor, with seven hundred white
men and twelve hundred Indians, was encamped at Dolsen's farm, about fifteen miles
from the mouth of the Thames, on its right or northern bank, and fifty-six miles from
Detroit by water. This information stimulated the Americans to greater exertions,
and when they halted at night on the banks of the Ruscom, they had marched twen
ty-five miles from Sandwrich. At dawn the next morning the pursuit was renewed,
and near the mouth of the Thames Johnson's regiment captured a lieutenant of dra
goons and eleven privates, who had just commenced the destruction of a bridge over
a small tributary of the river. This was the first intimation to Harrison that Proc
tor was aware of the pursuit. The capture of this little party was considered a good
omen. The pursuit was continued, and that night the Americans encamped on Drake's
farm, on the left bank of the Thames, about four miles below Dolsen's. The Scorpion,
commanded by the gallant Champlin, the Tigress, and the Porcupine, had followed
the army up the river as convoys to the transports, and to cover the passage of the
troops over the mouths of the tributaries of the Thames, or of the river itself. At
this point the character of the stream and its banks changed. Below, the channel
was broad, the cur
rent sluggish, and the
shores were extended
flat prairies ; here the
country became hilly,
the banks high and
precipitous, the chan
nel narrow, and the
current rapid. On
these accounts, and
because of the expo
sure of the decks to
Indian sharp-shooters
from the lofty wooded
banks, it was conclud
ed not to take the ves
sels higher than Dol
sen's. Perry now left
the vessels, offered his
services as volunteer
aid to General Harri
son, and joined the army in the exciting pursuit of the fugitives.
Harrison pressed forward on the morning of the 4th. Proctor fled up the Thames
from Dolsen's, cursed by Tecumtha for his cowardice, to Chatham, two and a half
miles, where an impassable stream, called M'Gregor's Creek, flows into the Thames
between steep banks. There Proctor promised Tecumtha he would make a final
stand. " Here," he said on his arrival, " we will defeat Harrison or lay our bones."
These words pleased the warrior, and he regarded the position as a most favorable
one. " When I look on these two streams," he said, " I shall think of the "Wabash and
the Tippecanoe." A bridge at the mouth of the creek, and another at M'Gregor's
mill, a mile above, had been partially destroyed, and a considerable body of Indians
1 The above sketch is a view of Dolsen's house, made when I visited the spot in the autumn of 1860. It is a hewn
log structure, and stands very near the right or north hank of the Thames. It is about two miles and a half below
Chatham. The owner and resident there in 1813, Isaac Dolsen, Esq., was then living in Chatham, but was absent at
the time of my visit. He was then about eighty years of age. He and his brother John were natives of the Mohawk
Valley, of Dutch descent. On their return, after the battle some miles above, the American army encamped on the farm
of John, half a mile below Isaac's. The Thames is here sluggish, and about three hundred yards wide.
DOLSEN'S.1
550
PICTOKIAL FIELD-BOOK
Skirmish at M'Gregor's Mill.
Destruction of Property.
The British nearly overtaken.
VIEW AT JUNCTION OF TIIE THAMES AND M'GREGOB'S CREEK.1
were at each, to dispute the
passage of the pursuers or
their attempts to make re
pairs. Two six-pound can
nons, under the direction of
Major Wood, soon drove
the savages from the bridge
at Chatham, and a dash of
Colonel Johnson and his
horsemen upon the dusky
foe at M'Gregor's also sent
them flying after Proctor.
Johnson lost two men kill
ed and six or seven wound
ed. The Indians had thir
teen killed and a large
number wounded.
Both bridges were speed
ily repaired, and the troops
were about to push forward, when Walk-in-the-water, the Wyandot chief already
mentioned, who had left the banner of
Proctor with sixty warriors, came to Har
rison and offered to join his army condi
tionally. The general had no time to treat
with the savage, so he told him that if he
left Tecumtha he must keep out of the way
of the American army. He did so, and re
turned to the Detroit River.
The enemy spread destruction in their
flight. Near Chatham they fired a house
containing almost a thousand muskets.
The flames were quenched and the arms
were saved. Half a mile farther up the
river they burned one of their own ves
sels laden with ordnance and military
stores ; and opposite Bowles's farm, where
Harrison encamped, two more vessels and
a distillery, containing ordnance, naval and military stores, and other property of great
value, were in flames. The Americans secured two 24-pounders and a quantity of
shot and shell. Certain intelligence was received that the enemy were only a few
miles distant, and that night Harrison intrenched his camp and set a double guard.
At midnight Proctor and Tecumtha reconnoitred the camp, but prudently refrained
from attacking it.
1 This sketch is a view of the junction of the Thames and M'Gregor's Creek, from the present hridge at Chatham,
looking up the river. The Thames is seen on the left, and M'Gregor's Creek on the right. The upper termination of
the bridge, mentioned in the text, was between the two clumps of trees on the bluff. In the distance is seen the court
house and jail of Chatham. On the flat between it and the creek the British built two or three gun-boats, under the
superintendence of Captain Baker, the same person who constructed the barge that bore Washington from Elizabeth-
town to New York in 17SO, when going there to be inaugurated President of the United States. Looking beyond the
point of the bluff, up the Thames, is seen the residence of Henry Jones. It is upon the site of the building, mentioned
in the text, in which were a large quantity of muskets saved from the flames by the Americans. Farther np the stream
lay a sunken steam-boat, that craft being in the habit of plying between Detroit and Chatham. On the opposite side of
the Thames is seen a tannery. The plain on which the gun-boats were built is now a military reserve.
2 This little sketch shows the appearance of the ruins of M'Gregor's mill when I visited it in the autumn of I860. The
timbers of the ends of the dam are seen on the shores. The bridge carried by Johnson crossed the stream very near
the mill. In this view we are looking east from the southwest side of the creek. A beautifully shaded ravine, with a
small creek, is seen here.
M'GREGOR'S MILL.2
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 551
The fugitive British and Indians discovered. The chosen Battle-ground. Tecumtha's chief Lieutenant.
The Americans were in motion at dawn, the mounted regiments in front, led by
General Harrison and his staff. The Kentuckians, under Shelby, followed. They soon
captured two of the enemy's gun-boats and several bateaux, with army supplies and
ammunition, and several prisoners. At nine o'clock they reached Arnold's Mill, at
the foot of rapids, where the Thames was fordable by horses. There Hai-rison de
termined to cross the river and follow directly in the rear of Proctor. The mounted
men each took one of the infantry behind him, and at meridian, by this means and the
bateaux, the whole American army was on the north side of the Thames, and press
ing on vigorously after the fugitives. Every where on the way evidences of the pre
cipitation of the retreat were seen in property abandoned.
At two o'clock, when eight miles from the crossing place, the Americans discovered
the smouldering embers of the recently-occupied camp of the enemy's rear-guard, un
der Colonel "VVarburton. It was evident that the fugitives were nearly overtaken.
Colonel Johnson dashed forward to gain intelligence. Within about three miles of
the Moravian Town1 he captured a British wagoner, and from him learned that Proc
tor had halted across the pathway of the pursuers, only three hundred yards farther
on. Johnson, with Major James Suggett and his spies, immediately advanced cau
tiously, and found the enemy awaiting the arrival of the Americans in battle order.
He obtained sufficient information respecting their position to enable General Harri
son and a council of officers, held on horseback, to determine the proper order for at
tack. His force was now little more than three thousand in number, consisting of
one hundred and twenty regulars of the 27th Regiment, five brigades of Kentucky
volunteers under Governor Shelby, and Colonel Johnson's regiment of mounted in
fantry.
The ground chosen by the enemy to make a stand was well selected. On his left
was the River Thames, with a high and precipitous bank, and on his right a marsh
running almost parallel with the river for about two miles. Between these, and two
and three hundred yards from the river, was a small swamp, quite narrow, with a
strip of solid ground between it and the large marsh. The ground over which the
road lay, and indeed the whole space between the river and the great swamp, was
covered with beech, sugar-maple, and oak trees, with very little undergrowth. The
British regulars (a part of the Forty-first Regiment) were formed in two lines, be
tween the small swamp and the river, their artillery being planted in the road near
the bank of the stream. The Indians were posted between the two swamps, where
the undergrowth was thicker, their right, commanded by the brave Oshawahnah,2
a Chippewa chief, extending some distance along and just within the borders of the
larger marsh, and so disposed as to easily flank Harrison's left. Their left, command-
1 This village is in the township of Oxford, Canada West, on the right bank of the Thames. The settlers were In
dians converted to Christianity by the Moravians, who fled to Canada from the Muskingum, in Ohio, in 1792. By an
order of the Provincial Council in 1793, a large tract of land, comprising about lifty thousand acres, was granted for
their use, on which they proceeded to build a church and village. The Rev. John Scott, of Bethlehem, ministered there
for some time. At the period we are considering this Christian-Indian village had nearly one hundred houses, mostly
well built. Many of the Indians spoke English. They had a school-house and a chapel, and very fine gardens. Village
and crops were 'destroyed by the American troops, it having been alleged that some of the Indians residing there had
been foremost in the massacre on the Raisin. In 1S3C the Indians surrendered a large portion of their lands to the Ca
nadian government, for an annuity of one hundred arid fifty pounds sterling. The present Moravian Town is back from
the Thames, about a mile and a half from the original site.
2 The likeness on the next page of this chief, Tecumtha's lieutenant, or second in command, in the battle on the
Thames, is from a daguerreotype taken from life at Brantford, in Canada, in September, 1858, and presented to me by G.
n. M. Johnson, chief of the Six Nations on the Grand River (see page 421), in the summer of I860. The old chief at
tended a grand council of all the Indians in Canada, at Brautford, and was the guest of Mr. Johnson. In the council he
appeared with all his testimonials of bravery— his "stars and garters"— as seen in the picture. Around his hat was a
silver band. He also displayed a silver gorget, medals, etc., a sash of bead-work, strings of wampum, and an orna
mented tomahawk pipe, like the one on page 421. He was then about ninety years of age. He had been a famous war
rior — the hero of fifteen battles. He was a mild-spoken, pleasant man, very vigorous in mind and body. He was yet
living in 1861, the principal of seven or eight chiefs, on Walpole Island, in Lake St. Clair, opposite the town of Algomac,
Michigan, fifty miles above Detroit. Walpole Island is about ten miles in length. The Indians are Chippewas, Potta-
watomies, and Ottawas. They were settled here by the Indian Agent of the British government at the close of the War
of 1812. They were placed in charge of a superintendent in 1839. The number now (1S6T) is about one thousand.
Their principal business is hunting in the country around the Canadian borders of Lake St. Clair.
552
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Harrison's Arrangements for Battle.
The British Line of Battle.
OSIIAWAIlNAll.
ed in person by Tecumtha, occupied
the isthmus, or narrowest point be
tween the two swamps.
In the disposition of his army for
battle, General Harrison made arrange
ments for the horsemen to fall back,
allow the infantry to make the attack,
and then charge upon the British lines.
For this purpose General Calmes's
brigade, five hnndred strong, under
Colonel Trotter,1 was placed in the
front line, which extended from the
road on the right toward the greater
marsh. Parallel with these, one hund
red and fifty yards in the rear, was
General John E. King's brigade, and
in the rear of this was General David
Chile's brigade, posted as a reserve.
These three brigades were under the
command of Major General Henry.
Two others (James Allen's and Cald-
well's2) and Simrall's regiment, form
ing General Desha's3 division, were
formed upon the left of the front line,
so as to hold the Indians in check and
prevent a serious flank movement by them. At the crotchet formed by Desha's corps
and the front line of Henry's division (see map on page 554), the venerable Gover
nor Shelby, then sixty-six years of age, took his position. In front of all these was
Johnson's mounted regiment in two columns (one under the colonel, and the other
commanded by his brother James, the lieutenant colonel4), its right extending to
within fifty yards of the road, and its left resting on the smaller swamp. A small
corps of regulars, under Colonel Paul, about one hundred and twenty in number, were
posted between the road and the river for the purpose of advancing in concert with
some Indians under the wooded bank, to attempt the capture of the enemy's cannon.
These Indians, forty in number, were to stealthily gain the British rear, fire upon
them, and give them the fearful impression that their own savage allies had turned
upon them. The defection of Walk-in-the-water would be instantly remembered.
When every preparation* for attack was completed, Major Wood, who had just
been reconnoitring the enemy's position, informed General Harrison that the British
lines were drawn up in open order. This information induced the general, contrary
1 George Trotter was then lieutenant colonel. He was a captain in Simrall's regiment, and was distinguished and
wounded in the action of Colonel Campbell at the Mississiniwa Towns in December, 1S12. He was acting brigadier
general in the battle on the Thames. He was a native of Kentucky, and died at Lexington, in that state, on the 13th
of October, 1815.
2 Samuel Caldwell was a distinguished Kentuckian. He was a major of Kentucky levies in 1791, and distinguished
himself with Wilkinson in the Wabash country in August of that year. He was lieutenant colonel commanding volun
teers in the autumn of 1812, and was in General Green Clay's brigade the following year. He was made brigadier gen
eral of volunteers in August, 1813, and as such commanded in the battle on the Thames.
3 Joseph Desha was a descendant of a Huguenot family. He was born in Western Pennsylvania in December, 17C8,
and emigrated to Kentucky, with his father, in 1781. In 1790 he settled permanently in Mason County, Kentucky. He
performed military service under Wayne in 1794 and '95, having, at the early age of fifteen, been engaged in conflicts
with the Indians. He represented Mason County in the State Legislature, and in 1816 was chosen a member of Con
gress. His only military service in the War of 1812 was under Harrison in the campaign in Canada. In 1824 he was
elected governor of Kentucky, and held the office four years. He then retired to private life. He died at Georgetown,
Scott County, on the llth of October, 1842.
4 The spirit of the Kentuckians who formed that corps may be inferred by the fact that Lieutenant Colonel James
Johnson had with him his two sons, Edward P. and William, the one seventeen and the other only fifteen years of age.
James Johnson was a representative in Congress in 1825 and '26. He died in August, 1826.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
553
Change of Battle Order.
Battle of the Thames.
Flight of Proctor.
to all precedent, to incur the peril of changing the prescribed mode of attack at the
last moment. Instead of having Henry's division fall upon the British front, he or
dered Johnson to charge their line with his mounted riflemen.1 That gallant officer
made immediate preparations for the bold movement, but found the space between
the river and the small swamp too limited for his men to act efficiently. In the ex
ercise of discretion given him, he led his second battalion across the little swamp to
attack the Indian left, leaving the first battalion, under his brother James and Major
Payne, to fall upon the British regulars. The latter were immediately formed in four
columns of double files, with Major Suggett and his two hundred spies in front. Col
onel Johnson formed the second battalion in two columns, in front of Shelby, with a
company of footmen before him, the right column being headed by himself, and the
left by Major David Thompson. Harrison, accompanied by Acting Adjutant Gen
eral Butler,2 Commodore Perry, and General Cass, took position on the extreme right,
near the bank of the river, where he could observe and direct all movements.
A bugle sounded, and the Americans immediately moved forward with coolness
and precision in the prescribed order,
among huge trees, some undergrowth, and
over fallen timber. They were compelled
to move slowly. When at some distance
from the front line of the British regulars,
the latter opened a severe fire. The horses
of the mounted Kentuckians were frighten
ed, recoiled, and produced some confusion
at the head of the columns. Before order
was restored, another volley came from the
enemy. With a tremendous shout the
American cavalry now boldly dashed upon
the British line, broke it, and scattered it
in all directions. The second line, thirty
paces in the rear, was broken and confused
in the same way. The horsemen now
wheeled right and left, and poured a de
structive fire upon the rear of the broken
columns. The terrified foe surrendered as fast as they could throw down their arms,
and in less than five minutes after the first shot of the battle was fired, the whole
British force, more than eight hundred strong, were totally vanquished, and most of
them made prisoners. Only about fifty men and a single officer (Lieutenant Bullock),
of the Forty-first Regiment, escaped. Proctor fled in his carriage, with his personal
staff, a few dragoons, and some mounted Indians, hotly pursued by a part of John
son's corps under Major Payne.
"When Proctor saw lost was the day,
He fled La Tranche's plain ;
A carriage bore the chief away,
Who ne'er returned again."— OLD SONG.
The battle on the right was over before the advancing columns of General Henry
were fairly in sight of the combatants.
When the bugle sounded for attack on the right, the notes of another on the left
rang out on the clear autumn air. Colonel Johnson and the second battalion of his
1 "The measure," said General Harrison, in his report to the Secretary of War on the 9th of October, " was not sanc
tioned by any thing that I had seen or heard of, but I was fully convinced that it would succeed. The American back
woodsmen ride better in the woods than any other people. A musket or rifle is no impediment, they being accustomed
to carrying them on horseback from their earliest youth. I was persuaded, too, that the enemy would be quite unpre
pared for the shock, and that they could not resist it."
2 We shall meet Adjutant Robert Sutler hereafter in the battle of New Orleans.
3 This view is from the road-side, on the hiarh river bank, at the point where the British left rested on the Thames,
and a few rods from the residence occupied by Mr. Watts.
VIEW ON THE THAMES.3
554
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The Contest with the Indians.
The Fight a fierce one.
The Savages defeated?.
troops moved against the Indians almost simultaneously with the attack on the Brit
ish line. The savages, under the immediate command of Tecumtha, reserved their
fire until the Americans were within a few paces of them, when they hurled a most
deadly shower of bullets upon them, prostrating a greater portion of the vanguard,
or forlorn hope, and wounding Colonel Johnson very severely.
"Sudden, from tree and thicket green,
From trunk, and mound, and bushy screen,
Sharp lightning flashed with instant sheen,
A thousand death-bolts sung !
Like ripen'd fruit before the blast,
Eider and horse to earth were cast,
Its miry roots among ;
Then wild, as if that earth were riven,
And, poured beneath the cope of heaven,
All hell to upper air was given,
One fearful whoop was rung ;
And, bounding each from covert forth,
Burst on their front the demon birth."
The branches of the trees and the undergrowth in this part of the field were too
thick to allow the mounted riflemen to do much service on horseback. Perceivin^
O
this, Johnson ordered them to dismount, and carry on the conflict on foot at close
rwMPto^'^i^^i ,/•'/.
BATTLE OF THE THAMES.
quarters. For seven or eight minutes the battle raged furiously, and there were
many hand-to-hand fights between the Kentuckians and savages, while the former
raised the fearful cry, at times, " Remember the River Raisin !" Victory was poised
for a while. Perceiving this, Shelby ordered Lieutenant Colonel John Donaldson's
regiment to the support of Johnson, and directed General King to press forward to
the front with his brigade. The Indians had already recoiled from the shock of the
Kentucky rifles, and only a part of Donaldson's regiment participated in the fight.
The savages fled, and a scattering, running fire was kept up for some time along the
swamp in front of Desha's division, and by the fugitives pursued by Major Thompson
and his men. Other movements were ordered by Governor Shelby, but the Indians
had given up the contest, and the battle was over before they could be effected. The
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 555
Escape of Proctor. Death of Tecumtha. Who killed Tecumtha ?
pagan allies of the British scattered through the forest in rear of the greater swamp,
while Proctor and his few followers were flying like hunted deer before Payne and
his horsemen, who pursued him far beyond the Moravian Town, killing some Indians,
capturing some prisoners, and securing valuable spoils. Among the latter were six
brass cannon, three of which were taken from the British in the War of ftie Revolu
tion, and were retaken from Hull at Detroit. Majors John Payne, E. D. Wood, C.
S. Todd, John Chambers, and A. L. Langham, and Lieutenants Scroggin and Bell,
Avith three privates, continued the pursuit of the fugitive general until dark, but could
not overtake him. He abandoned his carriage, left the road, and escaped by some
by-path. Within twenty-four hours he was sixty-five miles from the battle-ground !
His carriage, sword, and valuable papers were captured by Major Wood,1 and the
party returned to Moravian Town, taking with them sixty-three prisoners. They
found the little village deserted. So panic-stricken were some of the women that,
Avhen they left, being unable to carry their children in their flight, they threw them
into the Thames to prevent their being butchered by the Americans !2
The loss in this short, sharp, and decisive battle was not large. The exact number
was not ascertained. That of the Americans was probably about fifteen killed and
thirty wounded. The British lost about eighteen killed, twenty-six wounded, and six
hundred made prisoners ; of these, twenty-five were officers. Harrison estimated the
number of small-arms taken from the enemy during the pursuit and the battle, with
those destroyed by them, at more than five thousand, nearly all of which had been
captured from the Americans at Detroit, Frenchtown, and Dudley's defeat on the
Maumee. The Indians left thirty-three of their dead on the field. How many they
lost by death and wounds in the contest was never ascertained. Tecumtha, their
great leader, and really great and noble man, all things considered, was among the
slain. He was much superior to Proctor in manhood, military genius, and courage,
and is worthy to be remembered with profound respect. He was killed early in the
action, while inspiriting his men by words and deeds. Tradition and History relate
that he had just wounded Colonel Johnson with a rifle-bullet, and was springing for
ward to dispatch him with his tomahawk, when that officer drew a pistol from his
belt and shot the Indian through the head.
" The moment was fearful ; a mightier foe
Had ne'er swung his battle-axe o'er him ;
But hope nerved his arm for a desperate blow,
And Tecumtha fell prostrate before him.
He fought in defense of his kindred and king,
With a spirit most loving and loyal,
And long shall the Indian warrior sing
The deeds of Tecumtha the royal."
The statement of tradition and history has been made in enduring marble by the
sculptor on Johnson's monument in the cemetery at Frankfort, Kentucky.3 It has
been questioned, and positively denied ; and during the political campaign when
Johnson was a candidate for the chair of Vice-President of the United States, the
question caused much warm discussion. Johnson, it is said, never affirmed or denied
the story. He killed an Indian under the circumstances and in the manner just re
lated, on the spot where two red warriors, stripped naked, were found after the Jbat-
tle, one of whom it was believed was Tecumtha,4
1 In a letter to the author, Captain Stanton Sholes (see page 541), who was in the battle of the Thames, says, " I had
a very pleasant ride back to Detroit in Proctor's beautiful carriage. I found in it a hat, a sword, and a trunk. The
latter contained many letters, mostly written in the handsomest writing I ever saw, by Proctor's wife to her ' dear
Henry.' "
2 " I had this fact," says Samuel R. Brown, in his Views on Lake Erie, page 63, "from an American gentleman who was
at Oxford when Proctor and the Indians passed through there. The squaws were lamenting the loss of their children."
3 See page 496.
* The solution of the question, "Who killed Tecumtha?" is of no historic importance, yet, it having been the subject
of much discussion, a few facts bearing upon it may be appropriately introduced here. These facts have been drawn
chiefly from a very interesting written communication made to me in January, 1861, by Dr. Samuel Theobald, who was
Johnson's judge advocate, and with him in the battle. When Dr. Theobald (see a sketch of him in note 2, page 556)
556
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The Gallantry of Colonel Johnson in the Battle.
His Wounds.
Samuel Theobald.
Johnson behaved most gallantly in the
action. He was mounted on a white pony
that his servant had ridden, his own horse
having been disabled. This made him a
conspicuous mark for the enemy. At the
sound of the bugle charge he dashed for
ward at the head of his Forlorn Hope, and at
tacked the Indian left, where Tecumtha was
stationed.1 The first volley of bullets from
the foe wounded him in the hip and thigh.
He almost immediately received another bul
let in his hand from the Indian that he shot,
which traversed his arm for some distance.
He was disabled, and said to Dr. Theobald,2
one of his staff, who was dismounted, and
fighting near him, " I am severely wounded ;
where shall I go ?" " Follow me," answered
Theobald. He did not know where to find
the surgeon of the regiment, so he led him
across the smaller swamp to the road, and
about three hundred rods in the rear, to the
stand of Dr. Mitchell, Governor Shelby's sur
geon general. The colonel, faint with the
loss of blood, was taken from his horse, when
the little animal, having performed its duty to the last, fell dead, having been wound
ed in seven places. Theobald ran to the Thames for water, which revived the colo
nel. His wounds were dressed, and he was conveyed to a vessel a few miles below,
wrote to me he was residing near Greenville, Washington County, Mississippi. He says that, early in the campaign,
Johnson organized a small corps, composed of the staff of his regiment, which he denominated the Forlorn Hope. It
was designed to accompany him immediately in the event of a battle. One of these was the venerable Colonel William
Whitely, who had been distinguished in conflicts with the Indians in the early years of settlements in Kentucky, and
then over seventy years of age. He had volunteered as a private in Captain Davidson's company. The others who
composed the Forlorn Hope, and charged upon the enemy at the opening of the battle, were Benjamin S. Chambers,
Robert Payne (a nephew of Colonel Johnson), Joseph Taylor, William Webb, Garrett Wall, Eli Short, and Dr. S. Theo
bald. Whitely was kitted, and was found lying near the two Indians mentioned in the text by Theobald and Wall,
after the battle. They found the bodies of the two Indians lying a little way apart. On the following morning the
news spread that the body of Tecumtha had been found. One of the Indians alluded to was designated as the fallen •
chief. Theobald felt a desire to identify the body of the chief, and took Anthony Shane, a half-breed Shawnoese, who
knew Tecumtha well, to view it. The body was entirely naked, and several strips of skin had been taken from the
thighs by some of the Kentuckians, who had reason to remember the River Raisin, and, as I was informed by a soldier
who was in the battle, these strips were used for making razor-strops ! Shane did not ijecognize the body as that of Te
cumtha. The late Colonel John Johnston, of Dayton, Ohio, who, as Indian agent, often employed Shane, informed me
that he told him that Tecumtha once had his thigh-bone broken, and that a sort of ridge had been formed around the
fracture that might be easily felt. No such ridge was observed in the thigh of the Indian claimed to be Tecumtha,
found on the ground where the charge of the Forlorn Hope was made and Johnson was wounded. Dr. Theobald far
ther informs me that his friend, Captain Benjamin Warfield, commander of a company in Johnson's regiment, told him
that he was directed to search the battle-field for wounded soldiers. He found a British soldier, named Clarke, lying
there mortally wounded. He was the Indian interpreter for Proctor, and asserted positively that Tecumtha was killed,
and his body was carried off by the Indians. I have since been informed by Colonel C. S. Todd, one of Harrison's aids
at that time (see page 547), that he was told by the celebrated chief Black Hawk that he was present at that battle, and
that Tecumtha's body was certainly carried off by his followers. These facts show that, while Colonel Johnson may
have shot Tecumtha, the body supposed to be his, and so barbarously mutilated by the exasperated Kentuckians, was
that of another warrior.
1 Tecumtha, as we have seen, had reason to doubt the word and courage of Proctor. He doubtless took his position
at the junction of the British and Indian lines, so as to have a near and direct communication between himself and
Proctor. He knew that Proctor was flying through fear. The Canadians on the route of the retreat had told him that
Proctor would not fight if he could help it. Proctor knew that Tecumtha would compel him to fight here, or feel the
force of savage resentment, so he fled at the commencement of the battle ; and no doubt the haste of his white troops
to surrender was to secure themselves from the vengeance of Tecumtha and his followers.
2 Samuel Theobald was born near Paris, Bourbon County, Kentucky, on the 22d of December, 1790. He was "gradu
ated in medicine" at Transylvania University, at Lexington, and in that borough practiced medicine for twenty years.
For the last thirty years he has been engaged in cotton-planting, most of the time residing near Greenville, Missis
sippi. His ancestors, paternal and maternal, were Kentucky pioneers. His younger brother, James, was with him in
the battle of the Thames, and another brother, Thomas S., was in the military service on the frontier for twelve months
as a lieutenant of rangers.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 557
Johnson conveyed Homeward. Rejoicings because of the Victory. Harrison and Proctor properly rewarded.
under charge of Captain Champlin, of the Scorpion, which that gallant officer had
captured from the British. In that vessel he was conveyed to the Scorpion, at Dol-
sen's, and in her to Detroit. There he remained a short time, and then, with much
suffering, he made his way homeward.1 He reached Frankfort early in November,
and in February, after kind and skillful nursing by Major C. S. Todd, although una
ble to walk, he resumed his seat in Congress, at Washington. His journey thither
was a continued ovation, for his gallantry on the Thames was known to the nation.2
Harrison's successes, and the annihilation of the allied armies of the foe westward
of Lake Ontario, produced great rejoicing throughout the United States.3 All that
Hull had lost had now been recovered, and more. The hopes of the Americans were
stimulated. They felt that a really able general was in the field, and all the arts of
Harrison's political and personal enemies could not blind them to the fact that, by
the exercise of military genius, indomitable perseverance, and unflinching courage, he
had accomplished more than all the other leaders, and had fully vindicated his coun
try's honor. His praises were on every honest lip. In the chief cities, from Maine
to Georgia, bonfires and illuminations attested the public satisfaction, and in many
places joint honors were paid to the heroes of Lake Erie and the Thames — Perry and
Harrison.4 As usual, songs written for the occasion were heard in theatres and in
the streets, and at every festive table Harrison was toasted as The Hero of Tippeca-
noe and of the Thames. The Congress of the United States, in testimony of their
appreciation of his services, afterward gave him their cordial thanks, and voted him
a gold medal.5
Proctor received his reward in the form of the censure of his superiors, the severe
rebuke of his sovereign, and the scorn of all honorable men. He had the meanness
to shift the disgrace of defeat from his own cowardly shoulders to those of his gal
lant regulars, and there it remained for more than twelve months. Upon his mis
representations Sir George Prevost severely censured the detachment of the Forty-
first Regiment that were in the battle, in a general order issued at Montreal on the
24th of November.31 But they were vindicated by the trial of Proctor in De- ajsi3
cember the next year,b when the cause of his defeat and the loss of the "West- " 1S14-
ern province were found to be in his own demerits as a soldier. He was found guilty
of misconduct in not providing measures for a retreat, while the court, with singular
inconsistency, acquitted him of any lack of personal bravery or indiscretion at the
1 He remained several days under a surgeon's care at Urbana, in a commissary office near Doolittle's tavern, then
the head-quarters of Governor Meigs.
2 The authorities from which I have drawn the chief materials for the foregoing narrative in this chapter are the offi
cial reports of General Harrison to the Secretary of War ; the several histories of the period already cited ; written and
oral statements of survivors ; official reports of the British officers ; the newspapers of the day, and biographies of Har
rison, Johnson, Cass, and Tecumtha, etc.
3 Harrison, in his official letter to the War Department, spoke in the highest terms of his officers and troops. " I am
at a loss," he said, " how to mention the conduct of Governor Shelby." After paying a well-merited compliment to the
veteran, and the major generals and brigadiers, he said, "Of Governor Shelby's staff, his adjutant general, Colonel
M'Dowell, and his quarter-master general, Colonel Walker, rendered great services ; as did his aids-de-camp, General
Adair, and Majors Barry and Crittendeu. The military skill of the former was of great service to us, and the activity
of the two latter gentlemen could not be surpassed." He highly commended Acting Adjutant General Butler, and said,
" My aids-de-camp, Lieutenant O'Fallon and Captain Todd, of the line, and my volunteer aids, John S. Smith and John
Chambers, Esquires, have rendered me most important service from the opening of the campaign. I have already
stated that General Cass and Commodore Perry assisted me in forming the troops for action. The former is an officer
of the highest merit, and the appearance of the brave commodore cheered and animated every breast." He highly com
plimented the officers and men of the mounted regiment, and Major Wood, of the Engineers.
* On the 23d of October the new City Hall in New York was splendidly illuminated in honor of these two victories.
Also Tammany, Washington, and Mechanics' Halls, the theatre, the City Hotel, and hundreds of private residences, were
illuminated. In the windows of the City Hall were several transparencies. One of them represented the battle on Lake
Erie, and the words "DON'T GIVE UP THE Snip !" In front of Tammany Hall was a superb painting exhibiting a fnll-
length portrait of Harrison, and the figures of several Indian warriors, the chief of whom was on his bended knees su
ing for peace, and offering at the same time a squaw, and her papoose on her back, as hostages for their fidelity. On it
was also represented the naval engagement on Lake Erie.
5 On one side is a bust of General Harrison, and the words MAJOR GENERAL WILLIAM H. HARRISON. On the reverse
is seen a woman placing a wreath around two bayonets fixed on muskets, and a color-staff, stacked over a drum and
cannon, bow and quiver. Her right hand rests upon the Union shield, and holds a halbert. From the point of union
of the stack hangs a banner, on which is inscribed FORT MEIGS— BATTLE or THE THAMES. Over these, in a semicircle,
are the words, RESOLUTION OF CONGRESS, AI-ELL 4, ISIS. Beneath, BATTLE OF THE THAMES, OCTOBER 5, 1S13.
558
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Proctor's Punishment considered too mild by the Prince Regent.
The Remnant of Proctor's Army.
BATlTiE OP THE THAMES,
OCTOBER 5, 1813.
TUB HARBISON MEI>AL.
time of the battle. He was sentenced to be " publicly reprimanded, and suspended
from rank and pay for six months." So notorious was the fact of his cowardly aban
donment of his army at the very beginning of the battle that the Prince Regent se-
THE SHELBY MEDAL.
verely reprimanded the court for its " mistaken leniency," expressed his " regret that
any officer of the length of service and the exalted rank" attained by General Proc
tor " should be so extremely wanting in professional knowledge, and deficient in
those active, energetic qualities which must be required of every officer," and that
the charges and finding of the court should " be entered in the general order-book,
and read at the head of every regiment in his majesty's service." General Proctor
is represented as a stout, thick-set, fine-looking man. He died in Liverpool in 1858
or 1859.
The few British regulars and militia who escaped after the battle of the 5th of
October fled in confusion through an almost unbroken wilderness toward Lake On
tario. They rendezvoused at Ancaster, seven miles westward of Hamilton and the
head of the lake, on the 17th, when their numbers, inclusive of seventeen officers,
amounted to two hundred and fifty-six. Their flight spread consternation over all
that region.
The victory in itself and its subsequent effects was most complete. It broke up
the Indian confederacy of the Northwest, and caused the disheartened warriors to
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 559
Effects of the Victories of Perry and Harrison. Disposition of the Troops. A Journey to the Thames.
forsake their white allies, and sue humbly for peace and pardon at the feet of the
Americans. Their very personal existence compelled them to endure this humilia
tion. The winter was approaching, and they and their families were destitute of
provisions and clothing, without the means of procuring either. Their prayers were
heard and heeded ; and those whom they had fought against at the instigation of a
professed Christian government, became their saviors from the deadly fangs of hun
ger and frost.1 The base conduct of Proctor, and the kindness of Harrison, gave a
fatal blow to British influence among the Indians of the Northwest.
The American troops occupied the battle-ground on the Thames, and on the
7tha General Harrison departed for Detroit, leaving Governor Shelby in . October,
command. The army commenced moving that day in the same direction, 1813-
taking with them the property they had captured and the prisoners. On the 10th
they arrived at Sandwich in the midst of a furious storm of wind and snow, during
which several of the vessels from the Thames were injured, and much of the captured
property was lost. Harrison and Perry had planned an immediate attack on Mack-
inack, and Captain Elliott had volunteered to command the naval force, but the ex
treme cold and the blinding storm warned them of the near approach of winter and
the dangers that might be encountered, and they prudently abandoned the enter
prise. Rumors came that the enemy had fled from Mackinack ; so, after concluding
an armistice with the chiefs of several of the hostile tribes, among whom was Mai-
pock, the fierce and implacable Pottawatomie, and receiving hostages for their faith
fulness,2 Harrison prepared to go down the lake with M' Arthur's brigade, a battal
ion of regular riflemen under Colonel Wells, and mounted men under Colonel Ball,
to join the American forces on the Niagara frontier. The Kentuckians returned
home, after stopping at the Raisin to bury the whitened bones of their massacred
countrymen, and on the Sandusky peninsula to recover their horses,3 suffering much
from fatigue, hunger, and cold on the way.
General Harrison appointed General Cass military and civil governor of Michigan,
and directed him to retain his brigade (about one thousand in number) to keep the
Indians in check, and hold possession of that portion of Canada lately conquered by
the Americans west of Lake Ontario. Harrison arrived at Buffalo on the 24th of
October, with about thirteen hundred men, only one thousand of them effective sol
diers. There he joined General M'Clure in active preparations against the enemy.
I visited the battle-ground on the Thames on a cold, blustering day in Octo
ber,15 1860, accompanied by Miles Miller, Esq., of Chatham, Canada West, b October 11,
formerly editor of The Western Planet newspaper. I left Detroit in the
morning with my family, crossed the river, took seats in a carriage on the Great
Western Railway, and, after a swift journey of an hour and a half, over a space of
fifty-four miles along the borders of Lake St. Clair, through oozy swamps, broad
prairies, tangled forests, and wealthy farms to the Thames, following the route of
Harrison's pursuing army, we alighted at Chatham, a pleasant village of six thou
sand inhabitants, on the left or south bank of the Thames, and the capital of the
county of Kent. It lies upon a plain in the midst of a fine agricultural country, at
the head of steam-boat navigation on the Thames. It was originally laid out by
1 An eye-witness says : " A few days after Proctor's defeat, Detroit was so fall of famished savages that the issue of
rations to them did not keep pace with their hunger. I have seen the women and children searching about the ground
for bones and rinds of pork which had been thrown away by the soldiers. Meat in a high state of putrefaction, which
had been thrown into the river, was carefully picked up and devoured. The feet, heads, and entrails of the cattle slaugh
tered by the public butchers were collected and sent off to the neighboring villages. I have counted twenty horses in
a drove fancifully decorated with the offals of the slaughter-yard." — Vieics on Lake Erie, by Samuel R. Brown, paize 95.
2 We have already observed that Walk-in-the-water, and many of his followers, deserted Proctor at Chatham. While
Harrison was in pursuit of the enemy up the Thames, chiefs of the Miamis, Ottawas, Pottawatomies, Chippewas, and
Kickapoos proposed to General M1 Arthur, at Detroit, a suspension of hostilities, and agreed to "take hold of the same
tomahawk with the Americans, and to strike all who are, or may be enemies of the United States, whether British or
Indians." They brought in their women and children, and offered them as hostages for their own good behavior."
s See page 546.
560 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
A Visit to the Battle-field on the Thames. Recollections of an old Resident. Tecumtha and his Pistol.
Governor Simcoe, who reserved six hundred acres for a town plot. On the opposite
side of the river, in the township of Dover, is the little suburban village of North
Chatham, connected with the main town by a toll-bridge.
We took rooms at the Royal Exchange Hotel, and, as soon as a vehicle could be
procured, I started with Mi-. Miller for the Thames battle-ground, about eighteen
miles distant. The sky was overcast by broken masses of clouds, and a biting north
wind came from the great Canadian wilderness, with Winter Tales upon every blast.
We followed the route of the American army, sketching the ruins of M'Gregor's mill
(see page 550) on the way, and at about one o'clock in the afternoon were at the lit
tle village of Tecumseh (Thamesville Station), within a mile and a half of the historic
ground. There we dined, and had the pleasure of seeing David Sherman, Esq., a
life-long resident of that spot, who was a lad nine or ten years of age when the bat
tle occurred, and had a clear recollection of the events of the day which came under
his observation. He informed us that the Americans encamped on his father's farm,
where the village of Tecumseh now stands, on the night before the battle. His fa
ther was a soldier with Proctor, and left home twenty-four hours before. During
the forenoon of the day of the battle, young Sherman went up to within half a mile
of the place where Johnson discovered the British line, and saw Tecumtha sitting
on a log near where a white cow that belonged to a neighbor had been killed and
was then a-roasting. Tecumtha asked him whose boy he was. He tojd him, when
the chief, who was acquainted with his father, said, " Don't let the Americans know
that your father is in the army, or they'll burn your house. Go back, and stay home,
for there will be a fight here soon."
Mr. Sherman said he scanned the great chief with the wide-open eyes of wonder
and cui'iosity of a boy of his age, and, among other things, saw two pistols in the
warrior's belt, unlike the English ones he had been accustomed to. Having satisfied
his curiosity, he took Tecumtha's advice, and hastened homeward. He saw the
Americans passing rapidly onward toward the place where he left the chief, and
heard the din of battle during the afternoon. All was quiet before sunset and dur
ing the night ; and early the next morning he ventured to go upon the battle-ground,
where he saw the two Indians,
one of whom was supposed to
be General Tecumtha. On that
spot a pistol precisely like one
of those that he saAv in Tecum
tha's belt was found by a neigh
bor, and was in his possession.
He has no doubt of its bein«r
~
one of the great leader's weap
ons, and cherishes it as such.
It jg of American manufacture,
fourteen inches in length, has a flint-lock, is rifled, and bears the name of " H. Al
bright," maker. I made a sketch of it, and, upon the circumstantial evidence of Mr.
Sherman, present it to the reader as a picture of one of the pistols of the great Shaw-
noese chief.
From Mr. Sherman we learned some interesting facts concerning the locality of the
battle-ground, but he refused to indicate the exact place where Tecumtha fell, giving
as a reason for his reticence on that point that he had been making efforts to induce
the provincial government to erect a monument on the spot, and, until that should be
accomplished, he should keep the secret in his own bosom. I think the place desig
nated on the map on page 554 is the correct one.
After dinner we rode up to the dwelling of the old Watts Farm, on which most of
the battle was fought, while the troops under Shelby occupied a portion of the lands
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 561
Appearance of the Battle-field of the Thames. Moravian Town. Return to Chatham.
owned by James Dixon at the time of our visit. "We had very little trouble in find
ing the places sought. The forest had disappeared, and nothing remained of the
grand old trees except a few ravaged and mostly dead stems, many of them black
ened by fire. The smaller swamp had also disappeared, but its place was distinctly
marked by deep black mould. In the rear is the great swamp still, and in front, be
tween lofty wooded banks, flows the beautiful La Tranche or Thames, near which are
graves of the slain. From a corn-field between the smaller and larger swamps, near
the spot where Johnson and Tecumtha met, I made a sketch of the battle-field.
THAMES JiATTLE-GKOCND.1
Around us were golden pumpkins and wealthy shocks of Indian corn, and in the re
cently-cleared field, where the small swamp lay, cattle were quietly grazing on the
frost-nipped grass. It is an attractive spot for the historical student, and our visit
was an item in the fulfillment of the poet's prophecy, that
"Oft to La Tranche's battle-field
In future times shall traveler come,
To mute reflection's power to yield,
And gaze on lowly warriors' tomb.
''Here,' shall he say, 'our soldiers stood;
There were the Indians' numerous host;
Here flowed the gallant Johnson's blood;
There, died the Shawuoean boast.' "
We intended to visit the Moravian town,2 but, after sketching the battle-ground,
' s O O
and the little view of the Thames printed on page 553, the day was so far spent that
we felt compelled to turn back toward Tecumseh, where we partook of refreshments,
and at twilight started on our return to Chatham. We arrived at the " Royal Ex
change" at nine in the evening, cold and weary, but full of satisfaction.
Before sunrise on the following morning I sketched the view at the mouth of
~ ~
M'Gregor's Creek, printed on page 550, and after an early breakfast, again accompa-
1 In this sketch the spectator is looking southward, toward the Thames. Its line is marked by the distant trees. The
fence seen along the edge of those trees indicates the position of the road that leads to Detroit, across which stood
Proctor's regulars, and on which were his cannon. The line of Proctor's army was north and south, across the upper
edge of the smaller swamp, near where the cattle are seen.
2 I was informed that the Moravians there were all Indians except their minister, the Rev. Mr. Vogler. There were
about fifty families, mostly Delawares, and descendants of the early settlers. Each family had a plank house and forty
acres of land, furnished by the government. The houses appeared very much like those of the pensioners at Am-
herstburg, mentioned on page 299. They had a neat church. Some of the log houses of the original town, a mile and a
h;>lf from the present village, not destroyed in 1S13. were yet standing. The chief or military leader of the Indians
was Philip Jacobs, who lived on the site of the old town. He was about sixty years of age at the time of my visit.
NH
562 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Dolsen's. Journey eastward. Harrison on the Northern Frontier.
nied by the courteoxis Mr. Miller, crossed the river, and rode down to Dolsen's to pro
cure a drawing of his residence, made famous by the events of the campaign of Hai'-
rison against Proctor. We returned in time for myself and party to take the cars for
the East at half past nine o'clock. We passed through London (a flourishing town
of about seven thousand inhabitants, pleasantly situated at the confluence of the north
and east branches of the Thames) at noon, and arrived at Paris, forty-seven miles far
ther eastward, in time for dinner. There we left the railway, and traveled in a pri
vate carriage to Norwichville, twenty-five miles southward, where we were received
at twilight by relatives — descendants of the first settlers of that region, who built
log huts, and felled the primeval forest there only a little more than fifty years ago.
Now it is a fertile, well-cultivated, and highly-picturesque country, bearing few traces
of a settlement so new that many of the inhabitants remember its beginning. We
tarried there a few days, and then returned to our home on the Hudson by way of
the Niagara Suspension Bridge, after an absence of more than five weeks, bearing rich
treasures from the historic fields of the Northwest.
As the campaign that closed on the banks of the Thames was the last in which
General Harrison was engaged, we will here consider a brief outline of his career from
his arrival on the Niagara frontier until he left the service in the spring of 1814.
Harrison, as we have observed, arrived at Buffalo on the 24th of October. He went
immediately down to Newark, the head-quarters of General M'Clure, of the New York
Militia, and soon afterward commenced active operations, by order of the Secretary
of War, for an expedition against the British at Burlington Heights, at the west end
of Lake Ontario, the " capture or destruction of which," the Secretary said in his
letter, " would be a glorious finale to his campaign." While in the midst of these
preparations, another letter came from the same functionary, written only four days
later than the former, requiring General Harrison to send M'Arthur's brigade to
Sackett's Harbor, as Montreal, not Kingston, would be the point of attack on the en
emy by Wilkinson's army, by which the country eastward of Lake Ontario might be
exposed to the incursions of the British from the latter place. There were valuable
stores at Sackett's Harbor, and it was thought to be more important to save these
than to assail the enemy farther west. Like an obedient soldier, Harrison obeyed.
His troops were embarked on Chauncey's fleet at the middle of November. The pro
gramme having been changed, the Secretary of War gave General Harrison permis
sion to visit his family near Cincinnati. The general accompanied his troops to Sack
ett's Harbor, and then journeyed homeward by the way of New York, Philadelphia,
Baltimore, and Washington, every where receiving the plaudits of his countrymen.
The campaign under the old generals (Dearborn, Hampton, and Wilkinson) on the
northern frontier in 1813 having been fruitless of much good to the American cause,
the eyes of the people were turned in expectation toward General Harrison, the suc
cessful leader, as the future acting commander-in-chief of the American army, or at
least of that portion of it on the northern frontier. Such was the expectation of his
companions in arms. " Yes, my dear friend," Perry wrote to him, " I expect to hail
you as the chief who is to redeem the honor of our arms in the North." "You, sir,"
wrote M' Arthur to him from Albany, in New York,1 " stand the highest with the mi
litia of this state of any general in the service, and I am confident that no man can
fight them to so great an advantage, and I think their extreme solicitude may be the
means of calling you to this promotion."
These expectations were not realized. For reasons unexplained, the feelings of
General Armstrong, the Secretary of War, appear to have been suddenly and greatly
changed toward General Harrison, and his treatment of that officer deprived the
country of his military services at a most critical time. He persistently interfered
i M'Arthur was then in attendance as a witness upon the court-martial for the trial of Brigadier General Hull. See
page 294.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 563
Treatment of Harrison by the Secretary of War. Harrison leaves the Army. A Journey in Ohio.
with Harrison's prerogatives as commandei'-in-chief of the Eighth Military District,
and the general became convinced, by circumstances not necessary to detail here, that
the secretary disliked him, and was determined to deprive him of all active command.
lie remembered Armstrong's unasked permission to visit his family at Cincinnati, and
he now construed it as a deliberate hint that he-might retire from the army a while.
These suspicions were fostered arid confirmed by subsequent events, and on the llth
of May, 1814, Harrison, in a letter to the Secretary of War, and another to the Presi
dent of the United States, offered to resign his commission. When Governor Shelby
heard of the movement he wrote an earnest letter to the President, urging him not to
accept the resignation, and saying, " Having served in a campaign with General Har
rison, by which I have been enabled to form some opinion of his military talents and
capacity to command, I feel no hesitation to declare to you that I believe him to be
one of the first military characters I ever knew, and, in addition to this, he is capable
of making greater personal exertions than any officer with whom I have ever served."1
Harrison was then forty years of age.
Unfortunately for the country, the President was absent from Washington, at his
home in Virginia, when the letters of Harrison and Shelby reached the capital. They
were both forwarded to Madison. Meanwhile the Seci'etary of War, without con
sulting the President, accepted the general's resignation. This was an assumption
of authority never exercised before nor since. In a letter to Governor Shelby, the
President expressed his sincere regret that the valuable services of General Harrison
could not have been secured to the government for the approaching campaign. Har
rison left the army, and during the ensuing summer he was appointed, in conjunction
with Governors Shelby and Cass, to treat with the Indians of the Northwest concern
ing all things in dispute between the tribes and the United States.
As we shall not meet General Harrison again in active military service, nor men
tion his name except incidentally, I will take this occasion to notice a short journey
in Ohio, in the autumn of 1860, while collecting materials for this work, in which was
included a visit to the home and grave of that faithful public servant at North Bend,
on the banks of the Ohio.
In a former chapter (see page 542) I have mentioned my departure from Cleveland
after the inauguration of Perry's statue, for Columbus, the capital of Ohio. The rail
way between the two places lies, much of the distance from Cleveland to Delaware,
through a flat, not very fertile, and a newly-cleared country, the latter fact being at
tested by a profusion of stumps of trees in most of the clearings. On the summit
of the water-shed between Lake Erie and the Ohio River, the country is more rolling
and fertile. We journeyed one hundred and thirty-five miles in the course of five
hours and forty minutes, and reached Columbus at about two o'clock in the after
noon of a delightful September day.a At three I left for Newark, the a September 12.
capital of Licking County, thirty-three miles eastward of Columbus, for
the twofold purpose of visiting an old and highly-esteemed friend,2 and viewing, in
the neighborhood, one of the most remarkable of the tumuli, or ancient mounds, with
which the Ohio country abounds. I found my friend very ill — too ill to endure more
than a few minutes' conversation. During the evening, in company with his son, I
visited Mr. David Wyrick, a resident of the village, an engineer by profession, and an
enthusiastic antiquary, who had lately been made famous as the discoverer of a stone,
with Hebrew inscriptions, in a portion of the ancient earth- works that abound in the
neighborhood of Newark. I found him a plain, earnest man, and bearing, among
those who know him best, a character above reproach for truth and sincerity. He
showed me a large number of curious things taken from mounds in the neighbor-
1 Governor Shelby to President Madison, May 15, 1814.
2 Samuel G. Arnold, Esq., editor and proprietor of the Newark North American, and author of a Life of Patrick Henry,
and one or two other small volumes.
564
PICTOKIAL FIELD-BOOK
Ancient Mounds and Relics at Newark, Ohio.
Ancient Coffin aiid inscribed Stonee.
i:::.M.uxs OP AN ANCIENT COFFIN.
hood. Among them was a portion of a
coffin, made of a hollowed oak log, found
beneath a truncated circular pyramid for
ty feet in height, with a base one hundred
and eighty-two feet in diameter, evidently
constructed by a people ignorant of metal
lic-edged tools.1 But the most curious of
all the relics was the stone upon the four sides of which are words in Hebrew let
ters. Mr. Wyrick found them while
searching for human remains in the
centre of a small depression of the
earth connected with the system of
ancient earth-works in that region.
The stone is in the form of a trunc
ated cone, five inches in length, with
two sides broader than the other two
sides, and a neck and knob, evidently
formed for suspending it by a cord
or chain. It has the appearance, in
texture and color, of a novaculite, or " hone-stone," and is finely polished. The let
ters (said by those who are competent to decide to be ancient Hebrew) are neatly
made in intaglio upon each of the four sides. How, and when, and for what prac
tical or symbolical purpose that stone was deposited in the earth there, may forever
remain a mystery.2
This coffin is quite shallow, and more like the hollowed platform of a scaffolding. It bears evidence of having been
THE FOUR SIDES OF THE IIOLY STONE.
hollowed by the processes employed by
the aborigines when Europeans first vis
ited America, namely, by fire and stone
axes. With these they felled trees and
hollowed out logs for canoes. They first
burnt the timber, and then removed the
charred part with the blunt stone axe, for
these could not be made sharp enough to
cut, and endure. These processes were re
peated until the requisite depth was ob
tained. Every part of the hollowed por
tions of the ancient coffin that I saw bore
clear marks of these operations.
STONE AXES.
The coffin, when found, was in a con
cavity of earth lined with clay made im
pervious to water. It lay in water twelve
inches in depth, resting upon seven pieces
of small timber, these resting upon two
larger pieces, as seen in the above sketch.
These, like the coffin, were completely
" water-sogged." The coffin was lined
with a fabric resembling old carpeting,
so fragile that it crumbled at the slight
est touch. On this the body of the de
ceased had been laid ; and thereon was
found the skeleton in fragments, locks of
beautiful black hair, and ten copper rings lying near where the hands might have been folded over the breast. The
whole were imbedded in clay, over which was an arch of small and large stones. Over this was a mound of clay, mak
ing the whole structure inclosing the coffin about seven feet in height. The remainder of the pyramid was composed
of stone. These the State of Ohio purchased for constructing the "Licking Summit Reservoir" for the use of the Ohio
Canal, and removed about fifty thousand wagon-loads. The sepulchre was found when these stones were removed, and
was explored by Mr. Wyrick. The clay was brought from a distance, for there is none like it in the vicinity.
The annexed diagram, kindly drawn for me by Mr.
Wyrick, shows a sectional view of the clay mounds, the
small stone arch, and the position of the coffin. A the up
per part of the clay mound, and B the lower portion. In
these the open dots indicate the places where it was evi
dent timbers had been placed, and had rotted away. C
the arch of stone, 1111 indicating two layers of small
stones from six to ten inches in diameter, and 2 a layer
of broad flat stones. D the coffin and skeleton, and E the
concavity filled with water, in which they rested. The clay
had evidently been formed into a kind of mortar, and was
as hard as sun-dried brick. The pyramid was on an em
inence seven miles south of Newark, and five hundred feet above the level of any stream of water near.
- The cavity in which Mr. Wyrick found this stone was about twenty feet in circumference, and about two feet in
depth at the centre. When he had excavated through dark and rich alluvium about fourteen inches, he came to a light
er soil of a clayey nature, in which were pebbles. One of these, of oblong form, composed of reddish quartz, first at
tracted his attention. Soon afterward he found the inscribed stone imbedded in the clay. Gentlemen of learning ex
amined it, and proved the letters to be obsolete Hebraic. The Reverend ,1. W. M'Carty, of Newark, a Hebrew scholar,
translated the words on three of the four sides ns follows: "Holy of Holies;" "The Word of the Law ;" and"TAc Word
of the Lord." At a meeting of some of the leading citizens of Newark, held at the Court-house about two months after
my visit there, to consider the character and the circumstances of the finding of the " Holy Stone," General Dille pre
sided, and Mr. M'Carty gave an interesting account of the whole matter. It was stated that only four or five of the
SECTIONAL VIEW OF THE PYKAMII).
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
An ancient stone Box and its Contents.
An immense ancient Earth-work near Newark visited and described.
Early the following morning, accompanied by my young friend, I visited the " Old
Fort," as the people there call one of the most magnificent of the ancient earth-works
that abound in that section of Ohio. It is a mile and a half from Newark, in the
midst of a primeval forest, and forms a pleasant resort in summer. It is composed
of a continuous mound, that sweeps in a perfect circle a mile in circumference, broken
only by the entrance to it, where the banks, higher than any where else, turn outward
for fifty feet or more, and form a magnificent gateway. The embankment averages
GKEAT EARTH-WORK NEAR NEWARK.
from fifteen to twenty feet in height, and is covered with maple, beech, and hickory
trees of every size, from the huge Anak of the forest to the lithe sapling — the former
indicating the origin of the structure to be far more remote than the advent of Euro
peans in the Xew World. These also cover the area inclosed by the mound. The
ditch from which the earth was thrown is within the embankment, and is visible
around the entire line of the work, proving it not to have been a fortification. In the
centre of the area (which is perfectly level) is a slight elevation, in the form of a
spread eagle, covering many yards, and is called the Eagle Mound.1
characters correspond to those now in use in the Hebrew books, but these furnished a key to the translation. It had al
ready been stated" by a gentleman familiar with the history and practice of the Freemasons, and who was a member of the
fraternity, that the stone was of the kind used by masons of a certain grade in the East soon after the building of the
first temple by Solomon. It has in their system, he said, a well-known meaning, its principal use in ancient times be
ing for deposit beneath whatever structure the master mason might superintend. This symbol, he said, was not nec
essarily furnished with inscriptions, but masons entitled to use it might put such sentences upon it as that one has. It
would be placed in the northeastern part of the foundation, and if it stood on its point would indicate that something
more was deposited beneath. If it lay on its broadest face, the point or small end would indicate the direction where
other deposits would be found. These, if found, would disclose facts connected with the building. Was not the cavity
in which the stone was found the foundation of a structure never erected ?
A few weeks subsequent to my visit, Mr. Wyrick found, in one of the mounds in that vicinity, a stone box, nearly
egg-shaped, the two halves fitting together by a joint which runs around the stone lengthwise. Within this box was a
stone seven inches long and three wide, on a smooth surface of which is a figure, in bas relief, well cut, and surrounded
by characters thus described by the Rev. Mr. M'Carty : " The words over the head of the human figure contain three
letters. Two of them are Hebrew, Sheir and He (or Heth). The third I inferred to be Mem— a conjecture most readily
suggested by its form, it being exactly that of the old Gaelic Muin (M), and afterward fully borne out by its always an
swering thereto. This gave the word Moskch (Moses) or Meshiach (Messiah)." Of the characters Mr. M'Carty said " some
looked like the Hebrew coin character, some like the Phoenician alphabet, a few bore resemblance to those on the Grave
Creek stone,* and some I could not identify with any known alphabet." He at last found that the language was really
Hebrew, much like that found in the Bibles of the German Jews, and, after great and patient labor, he discovered that
the whole constituted an abrfdged form of the Ten Commandments.
This is not the place, nor has the writer the knowledge requisite for a discussion of the matter. I have simply stated
the curious facts — facts well worthy of the earnest investigation of archffiologists, for they raise the ethnological and
historical question whether the mound-builders of this continent were of Asiatic origin, or were related to the Indian
tribes whose remnants still exist.
1 Other mounds in this vicinity are in the shape of animals. One of the most curious and extensive of these is about
four miles from Newark, on the road to Granville. It is in the shape of a lizard, and covers the whole summit of a hill.
Its dimensions, in feet, are as follows : Length of the head and neck, 32 ; of the body, 73 ; of the tail, 105 : width from
the ends of the fore feet over the shoulders, 100 ; from the ends of the hind feet over the hips, 92 ; between the legs,
across the body, 32 ; across the tail, close to the body, IS ; height at the highest point, 7 ; whole length, 210. It appears
to be mainly composed of clay, and is overgrown with grass. Visitors have made a path from the nose, along the back,
to where the tail begins to curl, at which point stands a large black walnut-tree.— See Howe's Historical Collections of
Ohio, page 298.
* A small stone tablet, found in a large monnd near Grave Creek, in the vicinity of Winchester, Virginia, having an
inscription in cuneiform characters like the ancient Phoenician.
506 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Thoughts concerning the Mound-builders. City of Columbus. Journey down the Scioto Valley.
The ground covered by this ancient work is owned by the Licking County Agri
cultural Society, and within the earth-walled inclosure their annual fairs are held, for
the accommodation of which some buildings have been erected. These, with the gen
eral appearance of the work, and the trees upon the banks, as seen from the entrance,
may be observed in the picture on page 565. After finishing that sketch, and ex
ploring every part of this strange old structure by an unknown people in an unknown
age, I returned to Newark, the quickened imagination filling the mind with wondrous
visions of the earlier ages of our continent, while Memory recalled those suggestive
lines of Bryant in his " Prairie," in which, turning to the Past, he soliloquizes concern
ing the mound-builders, saying, as introductory,
" And did the dust
Of these fair solitudes once stir with life
And burn with passion ? Let the mighty mounds
That overlook the rivers, or that rise
In the dim forest, crowded with old oaks,
Answer. A race that long has passed away
Built them ; a disciplined and populous race
Heaped with long toil the earth, while yet the Greek
Was hewing the Pentelicus to forms
Of symmetry, and rearing on its rock
The glittering Parthenon."
I returned to Columbus in time to visit the magnificent State-house, dine, and leave
in the stage-coach at two o'clock for Chillicothe, forty-five miles down the Scioto Val
ley, toward the Ohio River. Columbus is a beautiful city, of almost twenty thousand
inhabitants, standing upon a gently-rolling plain on the eastern side of the Scioto
River,1 about half a mile below its confluence with the Olentangy. The streets are
broad, its public buildings are attractive, and many private mansions display great
elegance. It is pleasant in every feature as the political capital of a great state.
Where it now stands was a dark forest when Harrison had his head-quarters at Frank-
linton, on the opposite side of the Scioto, in 1812 and 1813. Then a settlement was
commenced there, and in 181 6 it was made the seat of the state government. The
county seat of Franklin was removed to Columbus from Franklinton in 1824, and the
present city was chartered in 1834.
The journey from Columbus to Chillicothe, in an old-fashioned elliptical stage-coach
drawn by four horses, was a very delightful one. The day was perfect in purity of
air and in temperature ; the sky was unflecked by the smallest cloud, and the whole
country was green with verdure. I was granted the privilege of a seat by the side
of the driver, and thus I secured uninterrupted views of the country, which exhibited
all the picturesque beauty possible without the charms of mountains or high hills.
Our route lay along the gentle slopes on the eastern side of the Scioto until AVC
reached Shadeville, a pleasant little embowered village, where we first struck the bot
tom of the Scioto Valley, nine miles from Columbus. There we changed horses, and,
eight miles farther on, stopped at Bloomfield, another little village, where fresh horses
were waiting our arrival. A little before sunset we rode into Circleville, a large town
at the head of the great Pickaway Plains.2 Our route had been through one of the
most beautiful regions of Ohio, and would increase in interesfywe were told, as we
advanced toward Chillicothe. But the night was near. We had passed broad fields
of Indian corn, plants full twelve feet in height, heavily laden with ears, beneath which
droves of swine were frequently seen. The streams were fringed with heavy-foliaged
trees and shrubbery, interspersed with magnificent sycamores, while the little forests
1 According to a statement of Rev. David Jones in his journal in 1T74, Scioto, in the Shawnoese language, signifies
hairy river, so called because that stream in the spring was filled with hairs, from the immense number of deer that
came to it to drink when shedding their coats.
2 Circleville is the capital of Pickaway County, situated on the Ohio Canal and Scioto River. It stands upon the site
of one of the ancient earth-works that abound in that region, which was of circular form, and gave the name to the vil
lage. The court-house stood in the centre of the circle, and the town grew up around it. For an interesting account of
the mounds in that vicinity, the reader is referred to Howe's Historical Collections of Ohio, page 410.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 567
Circleville.
Arrival at Chillicothe. Its Site and early Buildings.
and pleasant groves through which Ave rode presented to the eye timber-giants of a
size seldom seen eastward of the Alleghany Mountains.
We found Circleville crowded with people of every sex, color, and condition, in at
tendance upon a county fair— so crowded that our most earnest endeavors to pro
cure some supper at the tavern where the coach stopped failed. We tarried there
but a short time, and at sunset resumed our journey with fresh horses. To avoid the
heavy dew and chilly night air, I took a seat inside the coach, with eight other adults
and two children, and enjoyed a delightful ride across the Pickaway Plains1 during
the strangely luminous twilight that lingered long at the close of that lovely Septem
ber day. Just as night fell upon the landscape, we diverged from the Plains to pass
through the village of Kingston, and at ten o'clock in the evening we sat down to an
excellent supper, with keen appetites, at the "Valley Hotel" in Chillicothe.
Chillicothe, the capital of Ross County, and centre of the trade of the Scioto re
gion, is delightfully situated on a perfectly level plain, at a narrow and picturesque
part of the valley, with lofty and rugged hills rising around it. In ancient times it
was a place of great attraction for the inhabitants, and was one of the principal ren
dezvous of the Shawnoese when the white man began to seat himself in the Ohio
country. It was early settled, and in the year 1800 the seat of government of the
Northwestern Territory was removed from Cincinnati
to Chillicothe. The building of a state-house there was
commenced the same year, and was completed early
enough in 1801 for the Territorial Legislature to meet
in it.2 In the same room, the Convention that framed
the Constitution for the State of Ohio met in the au
tumn of 1802. It was built of stone, and was the first
public edifice made of that material in the Territory.
That venerable and venerated structure was demol
ished about the year 1850, and on its site was erected
the present court-house for the county, of light brown
111 J?i1 il i'/»1 THE OLD STATE-HOUSE.
freestone, and remarkable as one ot the most beautiful
public buildings west of the Alleghanies. The old jail, also built in 1801, was yet
standing when I visited Chillicothe. The above sketch of the state-house is copied,
by permission, from Howe's Historical Collections of Ohio, page 436.
Chillicothe was an important rendezvous of United States soldiers during the War
of 1812, as we have already incidentally observed. They were stationed at Camp
Bull, about a mile north of the town, on the west side of the Scioto. There several
hundred British prisoners, captured by Perry and Harrison, were confined for some
time.
On the morning after my arrival I rode out to " Fruit Hill," the residence of Gen
eral Duncan M' Arthur during a greater portion of his life, and then (1860) the prop
erty and dwelling of his son-in-law, Honorable William Allen, late member of Con
gress. It was about two and a half miles from the court-house in Chillicothe, upon the
lofty plain between the Scioto and Paint Creek Valleys, and was so situated as to com-
1 These plains lie south of Circleville, on the easfc side of the Scioto, and are said to contain the richest body of land
in Ohio. They are called respectively upper and lower plains. The black soil is the result of vegetable decomposition
during many ages. Beneath it is a bed of pebbles and gravel, and the surface of the Plains is from forty to fifty feet
above the Scioto. These plains were the resort not only of the mound-builders, but of the Indians before the Europe
ans came. There they had a general council-fire for' all-the associated tribes in that region ; there it was that the war
riors assembled to confront the army of Lord Duumore in 1774, and there the horrid rites of torturing prisoners were
frequently performed. There, on that classic Indian ground, Logan, the bereaved Mingo chief, made the famous speech
preserved by Mr. Jefferson ; and there was " Camp Charlotte," on Scippo Creek, seven miles southwest from Circle
ville, where, by treaty, Dnnmore's campaign was brought to a close. For a full account of Dnumore's expedition, and
Logan and his famous speech, the reader is referred to Lossing's Pictorial Field-book of (tie Revolution, ii., 2S1 arid 284 in
clusive.
2 The first two sessions of the Territorial Legislature were held in a small, two-storied log honse that stood on the
corner of Second and Walnut Streets. This had a wing, in which were public offices. This building was used for bar
racks during the War of 1S12.
568
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Visit to "Fruit Hill" and " Adena."
Governor Worthington.
FKUIT 1I1LL, GENERAL Ju'AKTHUB's RESIDENCE.
mand a fine view of the town
and the surrounding coun
try. It was reached from
the valley by a winding road
among the hills. The man
sion was of hewn sandstone,
spacious and elegant in fin
ish within and without. It
was erected in 1802, and
stood in the midst of a
pleasant grassy lawn, dot
ted with a variety of orna
mental trees and fruit-bear
ing Osage orange -trees. I
was disappointed in not find
ing the proprietor at home,
but this was lessened by the
kind hospitalities of a young
woman, a member of the
family, who led me to the observatory on the top of the house, from which may be
obtained charming views of the Scioto and Paint Creek Valleys.
Having sketched the "Fruit liill" mansion,1 I rode to "Adena," the fine old res
idence of Governor Thomas Worthington,
chief magistrate of Ohio from 1814 to 1818.
It is situated upon the same ridge, two hund
red feet above the Scioto, and half a mile
north from M'Arthur's mansion. It overlooks
the same valleys, and, because of the beauty
of its situation, it was called "Adena," or Par
adise. The building is of hewn sandstone,
and was erected in 1805, at great expense,
under the supervision of the elder Latrobe,
of AVashington City. Its elegance and nov
elty were such, in its form, its large panes of"
glass, its papered rooms, and marble fire
places, that persons came from long distances
to see it, and considered its name appropri
ate. It was the finest mansion in all that
region ; and, so much was Worthington re
spected, that all agreed that man and dwell
ing were worthy of each other.
He Avas an early settler in the vi
cinity. In 1798 he built the first
frame house, with glazed win
dows, erected in Chillicothe, oiled
paper being then the substitute
for glass.2 He erected a saw and grist mill' for the accommodation of the inhabit
ants, and in every way was a very public-spirited man.3
1 This view is from the lawn, looking toward Chillicothe, a glimpse of which is seen on the extreme left of the picture.
2 The first dwelling for a white man on the site of Chillicothe was a bark cabin erected by General M'Arthur.
3 Thomas Worthington was born in Jefferson County (then Berkeley), Virginia, about the year 17C9. He took with
him to the Ohio country quite a number of slaves, whom he emancipated. He was one of the most energetic of the pi
oneers to that region, and soon became a leading man among the settlers. He was a member of the Convention that
formed the Constitution of the State of Ohio in 1803. Soon after that he was chosen to represent the new state in the
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
5G9
Description of " Adeua."
M'Arthur's Portrait.
A Visit to Cincinnati and its Vicinity.
Adena was then owned by Governor Worth-
ington's sou, General James Worthington.
The court in front of the mansion was filled
with trees, shrubbery, and flowers. On the
right was an enormous cherry-tree, planted *
in 1798 by the side of the log cabin in which
Governor Worthington and his family lived
until the house in Chillicothe was completed.
There was a fine garden attached to the man
sion, and from various points in the vicinity
most charming views of the Scioto Valley
may be obtained. The proprietor was not at
home at the time of my visit, but I have very
pleasant recollections of the kind courtesy
I received from his family in showing me
works of art and curiosities, and imparting
information. Among the relics of the past AI>EX A, GOVERNOR WOBTUIXGTON'S RESIDENCE.
which I saw there was a hatchet-pipe, almost precisely like the one shown me at
Brantford, in Canada, and delineated on page 421. It was presented to Governor
Worthington by Tecumtha, and is highly valued by the family.
Leaving " Adena," I passed down the winding road through the hills to the plain,
by a beautiful little lake at the foot of the wooded acclivity, and, on reaching Chilli
cothe, called at the residence of the Honorable C. A. Trimble, member of Congress,
and son-in-law of M' Arthur, who owns the fine portrait of the general from which the
engraving on page 267 was copied. He, too, was absent, but, through the kind offices
of his brother, I was permitted to have a daguerreotype of the painting made. This
was completed just in time to allow me to take the cars on the Marietta and Cincin
nati Railway for the latter place at about three o'clock in the afternoon. We reach
ed the "Queen City" at seven in the evening, having journeyed. ninety-six miles
through an interesting country from the Valley of the Scioto to that of the Little
Miami.
During the three succeeding days I visited men and places of interest in and about
Cincinnati. I crossed the Ohio to Covington and Newport, cities on the Kentucky
shore, flanking the mouth of the Licking River. I also rode out to Batavia, the cap
ital of Clermont County, about twenty miles distant, one hot afternoon, fortunately
occupying a portion of the driver's seat on a stage-coach. Our route lay along the
Ohio through Columbia, a suburban village (settled before the seed of Cincinnati was
planted), to the mouth of the Little Miami, the eye every where delighted with the
picturesque beauty of the shores of the great river, covered with vineyards then
wealthy with immense stores of grapes, on the Ohio side.
"There grows no vine
By the haunted Rhine,
By Danube or Guadalquivir, ,
Nor on island or cape,
That bears such grape
As grows by the Beautiful River."1
We crossed the Miami, and made our way along the level country on its eastern
side a few miles, when our course bent more eastward among lofty cultivated hills.
Toward sunset we looked down from a rugged eminence into the fertile vale of the
east branch of the Little Miami, then flooded Avith the evening sunlight, which
Senate of the United States, and was an active supporter in Congress of Jefferson's administration. He was elected
governor of the state in 1S14, and held the office four years. After his retirement from the chief magistracy he was ap
pointed a member of the first board of Canal Commissioners, and held that office until his death in the year 1S27, hav
ing been in public station about thirty years.
* Ohio is the Shawuoese word for Beautiful River. The French called it La Belle Riviere.
570 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Veterans of the War of 1S1-2 at Batavia. An Evening with a Daughter of General Harrison.
brought out, in luminous relief, against the green verdure back of it, the quiet village
of Batavia, that lay nestled in the lap of the hills at the head of the valley. There,
at the houses of relatives and friends, I passed the Sabbath, and met three surviving
soldiers of the War of 1812, namely, John Jamieson, Abraham Miley, and James Car
ter. Mr. Jamieson was from Kentucky, and belonged to a company of spies in Por
ter's regiment. He was active on the frontier in the vicinity of Detroit during a
greater portion of the war. In 1814 he saw the infamous Simon Girty on the rack
of severe rheumatism at his house a few miles below Maiden. The villain's cabin
was decorated with scalps. Mr. Miley was a rifleman in Fort Meigs at the time of
the siege in May, 1813. Mr. Jamieson and Mr. Carter confirmed the horrid story of
the conversion of some of the skin of Tecumtha into razor-strops. One of them had
seen pieces of the skin in the hands of a Kentuckian who took it from Tecumtha's
thigh !
» September is, On the evening after my return to Cincinnati from Bataviaa I de
parted for North Bend, fourteen miles westward, on the Ohio and Mis
sissippi Railway, where General Harrison was wedded while yet a subaltern in the
army of the United States, where he lived when he bore the honors of a gallant gen
eral of that army, and where he was buried while the laurels Avhich composed the
most precious civic crown in the power of a people to bestow were yet fresh upon
his brow.
The annual fair of the United States Agricultural Society was about to close in Cin
cinnati, and thousands of visitors Avere making their way homeward. The cars were
densely packed, and, because of some detention in the lower part of the city, we did
not reach North Bend until after dark. The nearest public house was at the little
village of Cleves, a mile distant over the hills, and thitherward I made my way on
foot, accompanied by a grandson of General Harrison, son of W. W. H. Taylor, Esq.,
at whose house I supped and spent the evening. Their dwelling is pleasantly situ
ated on a slope overlooking the village of Cleves and the Great Miami Valley at that
point, and is only half a mile from the tomb of Harrison. Mrs. Taylor is a daughter
of the general. She kindly invited me to pass the night under their roof, but cir
cumstances made it proper for me to take lodgings at the tavern in Cleves. In the
possession of Mrs. Taylor were porti*aits of her father and mother, the former painted
in the winter of 1840-'41 by J. G. H. Beard, of Cincinnati, and pronounced a faithful
likeness by the family. The latter, an equally faithful likeness, was painted in 1828
by a young artist named Corwin, who died in New York when about to embark for
Italy. It is the portrait of a small and beautiful woman at the age of fifty-three
years. Mrs. Taylor kindly furnished me with photographic copies of the portraits.
When I visited North Bend, Mrs. Harrison, who had just passed the eighty-fifth
year of her age, was residing with her son, Scott Harrison, Esq.,1 at Lawrenceburg,
five miles farther down the Ohio. I was informed that she had not received visits
from strangers for a long time, her sensitive nature instinctively shrinking from the
notoriety which her husband's exalted position had given her. It was said that she
retained much of the rare beauty* of her earlier years, and that the portrait of her
given on the opposite page is a fair likeness of her in her extreme old age.2 She was
Anna Symmes, daughter of the Honorable John Cleves Symmes, of New Jersey,
who, as we have observed (page 36), purchased an immense tract of land between
1 Mr. Harrison had in his possession the telescope used by Commodore Perry in the engagement on Lake Erie, which
that gallant commander presented to General Harrison as a token of his regard.
2 Mrs. Harrison died on the 25th of February, 1864, when lacking exactly five months of being eighty-nine years of
age. She was born in Sussex County, New Jersey, on the 25th of July, 1TT5. Her remains were taken to the house of
her daughter, Mrs. Taylor, at Cleves, and at the Presbyterian Church in that village the Reverend Mr. Bushnell preach
ed a funeral sermon, from the text which she had selected for the occasion a year before— "Be still, and know that I
nm God." Her remains were then laid in the vault overlooking the North Bend, by the side of those of her husband.
Mrs. Harrison was distinguished for personal courage, good sense, modesty, and sincere piety. Her life was made up
of alternate excitement and repose. She was loved most dearly by all who knew her.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
571
Settlement at North Beiid.
Symmes's City to be the future Capital of Ohio.
A successful Rival.
the Great and Little Miami Rivers, and
who, early in February, 1790, landed Avith
some settlers at the most northerly bend
of the Ohio River in its course below
Wheeling, and proceeded to found a set
tlement by laying out a village upon the el
evated plateau through which the White
water Canal courses at the present North
Bend Station. He commenced the con
struction of hewn-log huts, with substan
tial stone chimneys, and the town was
named " Symmes's City." The first house
erected is yet [1867] standing on the
bank of the canal, a few rods from the
Ohio, and about eighty rods from the
North Bend
Station. The
chimneys of
two others
might be
seen at the
time of my
visit nearer
the station and the river.
Settlers on the "Miami Purchase" had already built
huts at Columbia and on the site of Cincinnati, but at
North Bend Judge Symmes designed to plant the fruitful
seed of a commercial city ; but the choice of the site of
Cincinnati for a block-house to protect the Miami settlers deranged all the judge's plans
and destroyed his hopes. The settlers that
came preferred to place their families un
der the immediate wing of military protec
tion, and Cincinnati, instead of "Symmes's
City," or North Bend, became the great
emporium of the Ohio region.1 There Fort
Washington was built and a garrison sta
tioned,2 and there, after the treaty of
Greenville3 in 1795, Captain Harrison was
stationed as commander. Meanwhile a
block-house had been erected at North
Bend, and about a quarter of a mile above
the present railway station, on the bank of
PIONEEK HOUSE. KOKTU BEND.
BLOCK-HOUSE AT NOET11 BENI).*
1 We have observed in Note 4, page 40, that Ensign Luce, of the United States Army, in the exercise of his discre
tion, chose the site of Cincinnati for the block-house in opposition to the powerful influence of Judge Symmes. Ac
cording to common tradition, it was passion, not judgment, that fashioned the ensign's decision. He had formed an
acquaintance with the beautiful young wife of one of the settlers at the Bend. When the husband discovered the gal
lant officer's too great attention to his black-eyed spouse, he removed to Cincinnati, that she might be beyond the power
of the tempter. This movement suddenly changed the mind of the ensisrn. He had resolved to build the block-house
at the Bend ; now he discovered that Cincinnati was a much more eligible site. He accordingly marched his troops to
that little settlement. Judge Symmes warmly remonstrated, but in vain. The ensign was fairly captivated by the
sparkling eyes, and they decided the question. "Thus we see," says Judge Burnet, from whose "Notes" these facts
have been gleaned, " the incomparable beauty of a Spartan dame produced a ten years' war which terminated in the
destruction of Troy, and the irresistible charms of another female transferred the commercial emporium of Ohio from
the place where it had been commenced to the place where it now is. If this captivating American Helen had remain
ed at the Bend the block-house would have been erected there, population, capital, and business would have centred
there, and there would have been the Queen City of the West." 2 See pa<re 40. 3 See page 5T.
* This is copied, by permission, from a sketch in Howe's Historical Collections of OMo.page 230.
572 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Captain Harrison arid Anna Symmes as Lovers. Their Marriage opposed. Its Consummation and Result.
the river, Judge Symmes had erected quite a commodious house for himself, the ruins
of whose chimney and fire-place might yet be seen in 1860. To that dwelling came
his family in January, 1795, one of whom was the beautiful Anna, then a girl twenty
years of age. The block-house was a dependency of the post at Cincinnati, and it
received the early personal attention of Captain Harrison, then a young man twenty-
two years of age. He was the son of a leading citizen of Virginia, and bearing the
highest praises of his commander, General Wayne, as a gallant soldier. He was a
welcome guest in the hospitable house of Judge Symmes ; and his visits, which be
came more and more frequent, were especially pleasing to the gentle Anna, who had
first met him at the house of her sister, Mrs. Major Short, near Lexington, Kentucky.
The young friends soon became lovers, and the judge gave his consent to their mar
riage. Hearing some slanderous stories concerning Captain Harrison, he withdrew
that consent, but the loving Anna, like a true woman, had implicit confidence in her
affianced. She resolved to marry him, and her faithfulness verified the saying that
" Love will find its way
Through paths where wolves would fear to prey."
On the morning of the day fixed for the marriage, Judge Symmes, without any sus
picion of such an event then, mounted his horse and rode to Cincinnati. The lovers
* November 22, were united at his house,a in the presence of Anna's step-mother and
1795. many friends, by Dr. Stephen Wood, then a magistrate. The judge did
not se'e his son-in-law until a few weeks afterward, when he met him at a dinner-par
ty given by General Wilkinson, then in command of Fort Washington, to General
Wayne. " Well, sir," the judge said, somewhat sternly, " I understand you have mar
ried Anna." " Yes, sir," responded Captain Harrison. " How do you expect to sup
port her?" the father inquired. "By my sword and my own right arm," quickly an
swered the young officer. Judge Symmes was pleased with the reply, and, like a
sensible man, was reconciled, and gave them his blessing. He lived to be proud of
that son-in-law as governor of the Indiana Territory, and the hero of Tippecanoe, Fort
Meigs, and the Thames ; and the devoted wife, after sharing his joys and sorrows for
five-and-forty years, laid him in the grave within sight of the place of their nuptials,
while the nation mingled its tears with hers, for he was crowned with the unsurpass
able honor of being the chief magistrate of this republic. *
1 William Henry Harrison, the youngest of fifteen children, was born at Berkeley, on the James River, in Virginia, ou
the 9th of February, 17T3. He was descended from a celebrated leader of the same name in Cromwell's army. He was
educated at Hampdeu-Syduey College, in Virginia. On the death of his father, Robert Morris, of Philadelphia, became his
guardian. Contrary to the advice of that gentleman, he entered the army. He hastened to the Northwest, but too late
to share in the horrors of St. Clair's defeat. His services with Wayne have already (page 53) been noticed. Soon after
his marriage he resigned his commission, and entered upon the duties of civil life, at the age of twenty-four, as Secretary
of the Northwestern Territory. In 1799 he was elected the first delegate in Congress for that extensive region. Soon
afterward, when Indiana was erected into a separate Territory, he was appointed governor, and clothed with extraor
dinary powers. He entered upon the duties of his office at the old military post of Vinceuues in 1S01, and discharged
his duties for several years with great wisdom and fidelity. His troubles with the Indians, and his military movements
in the Wabash Valley, are recorded in Chapter X. of this work. In subsequent chapters may be found a detailed ac
count of his conduct as a military commander. His services in the field ended with the battle on the Thames, in Octo
ber, 1S13, and in the following spring he retired to his farm at North Bend. He was frequently called to serve his adopt
ed state in public capacities. He was a member of the Ohio Legislature and of the United States House of Represent
atives. In 1S24 he was elected to a seat in the United States Senate, and in 1S2S was appointed minister to Colombia.
Differing with President Jackson in some views respecting Panama, he was recalled. In 1S40, after living in retirement
many years, he was nominated by the party then called Whig for the chief magistracy of the United States, and was elect
ed by an overwhelming vote. He was inaugurated on the 4th of March, 1841, being then a little past sixty-eight years of
age. Precisely a month afterward he died, leaving behind him a clean record of almost fifty years of public service.
" Calm was the life he led, till, near and far,
The breath of millions bore his name along,
Through praise, and censure, and continuous jar — "
But long as on Ohio's coursing wave
Is borne one freeman toward the glowing West,
His eye and tongue above the chieftain's grave
Shall hail the marble honors of his rest !
And, long as Dian lifts her waning crest
Where Liberty yet holds what she hath won,
A pensive thought shall haunt the patriot's breast
OF THE WAR OE 1812.
573
An early Settler in Ohio.
A Visit to the Tomb of General Harrison.
Captain Symmes and his Theory.
I passed the night, as I have intimated, at the tavern in Cleves, and in the morn
ing had the good fortune to meet the venerable Daniel G. Howell, who was the first
man-child born on " Symmes's Purchase." That event occurred at North Bend, on
the 23d of August, 1790. A child of the opposite sex, the first in the settlement, was
born nine days earlier. Mr. Howell's family were from New Jersey, and came West
with Judge Symmes. He gave me some interesting particulars concerning the hard
ships of the early settlers, and his adventures as one of the volunteers for the relief
of Fort Meigs. At first the settlers could not spare land enough for raising flax, but
they fortunately found a useful substitute in a species of nettle that grew on the open
glades in the Miami Valley to the height of about three feet. The autumn winds
would prostrate it, beneath the winter snows it would rot, and in the spring all the
boys of the settlement would be engaged in carrying the crop to North Bend, where
it was treated like flax, spun by the women, and woven into cloth for summer wear.
This was all the linen in use there for some time. It was very dark at first, but was sus
ceptible of bleaching. They used dressed deer-skin for external clothing, and wild tur
keys came over from Kentucky in abundance, like the quails to the Hebrews, and sup
plied them with much food.
After breakfast I called at
Mr. Taylor's, and his son ac
companied me to the tomb
of Harrison. On an adjacent
hill, about thirty rods west
ward from it, is a family bu
rial-ground, in which is the
grave of Judge Symmes, cov
ered by a mai'ble slab, rest
ing a little above the ground,
on brick-work.1 From this
little cemetery we crossed a
grassy hollow and ascended
to the tomb of Harrison, on
a beautiful knoll about two
hundred feet above the Ohio
River. It was built of brick,
HARBISON S GK.VVi:.
Of him, whose reign in her brief year was done,
And from his heart shall rise the name of HARRISON." — GEORGE H. COI.TON.
1 The following is the inscription on the slab : " Here rest the remains of John Cleves Symmes, who, at the foot of
these hills, made the first settlement between the Miami Rivers. Born on Long Island, New York, July 21, A.D. 1742.
Died at Cincinnati, February 26, A.D. 1S14."
John Cleves Symmes was born at Riverhead, Long Island, and in early life was a surveyor and school-teacher. He
married a daughter of Governor William Livingston, of New Jersey, and sister of the wife of John Jay. He was active
during the Revolution, and in 1777 was made an associate judge of the Supreme Court of
the State of New Jersey. On his removal to the Northwestern Territory he was appointed
one of the United States district judges. Near the present village of Cleves he built a fire
house, at a cost of $12,0(M1, the brick for which was burned on the spot. A political enemy,
named Hart, set it on fire on the 1st of March, 1S11, and it was entirely consumed. Judge
Symmes died, as his monument says, in 1814, at the age of about seventy-four years.
A nephew and namesake of Judge Symmes attracted much public attention and consid
erable ridicule, about forty years ago, by the promulgation of his belief that the earth was
open at the poles, and that its interior was accessible and habitable. He had held the of
fice of captain in the army in the War of 1812, and performed gallant service at Fort Erie.
He petitioned Congress in 1S22 for aid in performing a voyage of discovery to the inner
earth, setting forth the honor and wealth that would accrue to his country from a discov
ery which he deemed certain. His memorial was presented by Colonel Richard M. John
son, of Kentucky, but was laid on the table. He found very little encouragement or sup
port from any quarter. His arguments were ingenious, and he had a few believers. He
died at Hamilton, Butler County, Ohio (the site of old Fort Hamilton), on the 2Sth of May,
1828, and some admirer of his caused a monument to his memory, having as a part of it a
globe open at both end?, to be constructed. The picture of it here given is from Howe's
Historical Collections of Ohio, page 77.
SYMMES S MONUMENT.
574
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Site of General Harrison's Residence.
Destruction of his House by Fire.
Mementoes.
was ten by twelve feet in size, and was surrounded by trees, shrubbery, and green
sward. At its foot was a noble mulberry-tree, and at its head was the entrance, with
doors slightly inclined. The only tenants when I was there were the remains of Gen
eral Harrison and his second daughter, Mrs. Doctor Thornton. The engraving shows
the appearance of the spot, and a view of the great North Bend of the Ohio, as we
look eastward from the grave. On the right, near the bank of the river, is seen one
of the stone chimneys already mentioned, a few rods from the North Bend Station.
Descending from Harrison's tomb, we crossed the Whitewater Canal, and, after
sketching the old house seen on page 571, visited the site of General Harrison's resi
dence, on a level spot at the foot of gentle hills, about three hundred yards from the
HARBISON'S RESIDENCE AT NOKTII UEND.
Ohio, and in full view of the North Bend Railway Station. Nothing of it remained
but the ruins of cellar and fire-places, and these were covered with brambles. The
house was set on fire by a dismissed servant-girl, it was believed, a few years ago,
and entirely consumed. All of General Harrison's military and other valuable papers
were burned ; also many presents that were sent to him by political friends during
the presidential canvass in 1840. The family portraits and a few other things were
saved.1 I sketched the locality from the railway station. Placing a drawing of the
mansion, from one in Howe's Historical Collections of Ohio, in the proper position, I
give to the reader a correct view of the residence and its surroundings before the fire.
The water seen in the foreground is that of the Whitewater Canal. I returned to
Cincinnati toward noon, and left the same evening for Dayton and the shores of
Lake Erie.
1 Among these was a beautiful black cane with a silver head, on which was engraved a log cabin, a cider-barrel, a
•sheaf of wheat, a steam-boat, and other devices ; also his name, and presentation " by a gentleman of Louisiana." The
log cabin and cider-barrel refer to a peculiarity in the features of that campaign. The eastern end of Harrison's man
sion was one of the original log houses built by the settlers at North Bend, and clap-boarded over. His partisans, when
he was nominated, started the story that he lived in a log cabin, whose latch-string was always on the outside, so that
the traveler might enter, and that a mug of cider was always ready there for the wayfarer. The story was popular with
the masses. Log cabins were erected all over the country, in which Harrison meetings were held, and a barrel of cider
was always ready for free distribution at these meetings. The canvass was known as " the Hard Cider Campaign," and
the demoralization produced by it was very great. Many a song was composed in his praise and sung at these meet
ings, in one of the most popular of which occurs the following verse, that may be appropriately quoted in this con
nection :
" Hurrah for the log cabin chief of our choice !
For the old Indian fighter, hurrah !
Hurrah ! and from mountain to valley the voice
Of the people re-echoes hurrah !
Then come to the ballot-box — boys, come along,
He never lost battle for you ;
Let us down with oppression and tyranny's throng,
And up with Old Tippeca^ioe 1"
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 575
The Energies of England displayed. Respect for the Skill and Valor of the Americans.
CHAPTER XXVII.
" Once this soft turf, this riv'let's sands,
Were trampled by a hurrying crowd,
And fiery hearts and armed hands
Eucounter'd in the battle-cloud.
Ah ! never shall the land forget
How gush'd the life-blood of her brave—
Gush'd, warm with hope and courage yet,
Upon the soil they fought to save." — WILLIAM CCLLEN BBYAMT.
IIILE the army of the Northwest, under Harrison, was slowly
recovering what Hull had lost, and more, stirring and important
events were occurring on the frontiers of Niagara, Lake Ontario,
and the St. Lawrence River.
England was then putting forth her mightiest efforts to crush
Napoleon, and her display of energy and resources was marvel
ous. It required the most vigilant exercise of these on the Con
tinent, yet she withheld nothing that seemed necessary to secure
success in America. The naval victories of the Americans during 1812 were very
mortifying to the " Mistress of the Seas," and it was resolved by the British cabinet
to prosecute the Avar on the ocean with the greatest vigor. A most profound and
wholesome respect for the skill and valor of American seamen had been suddenly cre
ated in the British mind, and, to prevent farther disasters on that theatre of action,
it was determined that no more conflicts with American ships should be hazarded
but with such superior force as would seem to insure success. The American coast
was to be practically blockaded, and with so much rigor as to prevent the egress of
privateers and the return of them Avith prizes ; and the fiat went forth from the Brit
ish court that every thing American found afloat should be captured or destroyed,
while all of her maritime towns should be menaced and annoyed by the presence and
movements of Bi'itish cruisers.
The success of the allied powers against Napoleon during 1812 greatly relieved
England for the moment, and enabled her to give more force to her conflict in the
Western world. During the winter of 1812-'! 3 a body of troops were sent to Hali
fax, to re-enforce those in Canada in the spring, the principal object to be accom
plished in that quarter being the defense of the provinces against invasion, while the
war should be carried on vigorously along the coast and on the ocean.
The Americans were disheartened by the results of their campaigns on land during
1812, and it was difficult to increase the army either by volunteers or militia. The
government had determined.to renew the efforts for the conquest of Canada, in which
service nearly all of the regulars were to be employed. The remainder, to consist
of militia and volunteers, Avere to compose, Avith the regulars, an army of fifty thou
sand men. By an arrangement for an exchange of prisoners, many A'aluable officers
Avere restored to command. The states were divided into nine military districts,1
to each of Avhich a general officer of the United States army Avas assigned, Avhose
1 The districts were composed as follows : 1. Massachusetts and New Hampshire. 2. Rhode Island and Connecticut.
3. New York from the sea to the Highlands, and the State of New Jersey. 4. Pennsylvania from its eastern limit to
the Alleghany Mountains, and Delaware. 5. Maryland and Virginia. 6. The two Carolinas. 7. The States of Tennes
see, Louisiana, and the Mississippi Territory. S. Kentucky, Ohio, and the Territorial governments of Michigan, In
diana, Illinois, and Missouri. 9. Pennsylvania from the Alleghany Mountains westward, New York north of the High
lands, and Vermont.
576 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The Americans prepare for vigorous War. Operations in the St. Lawrence Region. Brockville and its Vicinity.
duty it was to superintend and direct all the means of defense within his military
district. Detachments of troops were stationed at the most exposed places on the
sea-board to form rallying points for the militia in the event of invasion ; and the
commandant of each district was authorized to call upon the governors of the re
spective states for such portion of the militia most convenient to the menaced point
as he should deem necessary, the operations of such troops to be combined with those
of the regular force, and the whole to be under the direction of the commandant of
the district, and while in service to be paid and supported by the United States. By
this arrangement, designed to prevent any serious interference on the part of the
governors of states who Avere opposed to the war, there was in each district a regu
lar officer of rank equal with any militia officer who might be ordered out, and, un
der the Articles of War, entitled to chief command. Strict orders were also issued
to receive no militia major general into the service of the United States except at the
head of four thousand men, or a brigadier general without half as many. Eight new
brigadiers were commissioned j1 and each district, besides its commissary general,
was to have an adjutant, a quarter-master, and an inspector of its own. Meanwhile
vigorous preparations had been making by the Northern Army on the St. Lawrence
and its vicinity, and the Army of the Centre on the Niagara frontier, for an invasion
of Canada.
Early in February, 1813, some important movements were made on the St. Law
rence at Ogdensburg and its vicinity. In a former chapter we have observed some
interesting occurrences between the hostile parties in that region during the preced
ing autumn and early winter. Both Avere vigilant, and both had committed " im-a-
sions" and made prisoners. British deserters had fled to the American lines, and
parties of troops from Canada had crossed the river, captured some of these, and
made prisoners of American soldiers and civilians. A number of these captives Avere
confined in the jail at ElizabethtOAvn, IIOAV Brockville, in Canada, eleven or twelve
miles above Ogdensburg, some of whom expected to be shot by order of a court-
martial.
An expedition to rescue the prisoners in Elizabethtown jail Avas planned by Major
(late Captain) Forsyth, then stationed at Ogdensburg. With his riflemen, Lyttle's
company of volunteers, and some citizens, about tAvo hundred in all, Forsyth left the
A'illage in sleighs at about nine o'clock in the evening of the 6th of February,*
rode along the southern shore of the St. Lawrence to Morristown, and there
engaged Arnold Smith,2 a tavern-keeper, to pilot them across the river, which is about
tAvo miles and a half Avide there. It Avas a perilous passage, for the ice Avas not very1
strong. They crossed safely by keeping open order. The party Avas divided ; For
syth led one division, and Colonel Benedict, of the NCAV York State Militia, the other.
Flanking parties were throAvn out under the respective command of Lieutenants
Wells and Johnson. In this order they approached Elizabethtown, on the bank of
the river, where the flanking parties took post at opposite ends of the village, to
check any attempts at retreat or approaching i-e-enforcemcnts.
The summer tourist on the St. LaAvrence must remember with pleasure the appear
ance of Brockville (ElizabethtOAvn), and the beautiful green ridges around it, rising,
one above another, from and parallel to the river. It is at the foot of the group of
the Thousand Islands, in the St. Lawrence ; and in front of it, upon a bare rock a short
distance from the shore, there still remained, Avhen I visited the place in 1860, a small
1 These were Thomas H. Gushing, Thomas Parker, George Izard, and Zebulon M. Pike, of the old army ; William II.
Winder, Duncan M 'Arthur, Lewis Cass, and Benjamin Howard. Robert Swartwout, of New York, appointed quarter
master as successor of Morgan Lewis, bore the rank of brigadier.
2 Mr. Smith was one of the earlier settlers there. Morristown was laid out in 1799 by Jacob (afterward General)
Brown. Colonel David Ford made an actual settlement there in 1808, and Arnold Smith and Thomas Hill took up their
residence, at about the same time, on the site of the village. Smith's was the first public house kept there. He also
erected the first tavern at the present village of Edwardsville. Morristowu now (ISO"; contains about 400 inhabitants.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 577
A general jail Delivery at Elizabethtown. The British determine to retaliate. Ogdensburg to be attacked.
block -house erected there during the "Rebellion" in
Canada in 1837. On the first of those ridges was the
principal business part of Brockville, while on the one
above stood a court-house and jail, of blue limestone,
and churches and other fine buildings. On the site of
that court-house and jail stood the building used for
the same purpose in 1813, described as an "elegant
brick edifice." Toward this building Major Forsyth
moved through the town, after detaching small parties
to secure the different streets in the village. On reach
ing it, he demanded the keys of the jailer. They were
immediately surrendered, and the major proceeded to
release every prisoner but one, who was confined for
murder. He begged piteously to share the fate of his fellow-prisoners ; but he was
a criminal, and could not be taken from the hands of justice. Some of the prominent
citizens were also seized and taken to Ogdensburg. A captured physician was pa
roled at Morristown and sent back. The only show of resistance was a shot from a
window, which slightly wounded one man. Major Carley, the commander of the
post, three captains, two lieutenants, with forty-six other prisoners, were taken in tri
umph to Ogdensburg, where the expedition arrived before daylight on the 7th, with
out the loss of a man. The spoils were one hundred and twenty muskets, tAventy
rifles, two casks of fixed ammunition, and a quantity of other stores. For this gallant
enterprise, which called forth universal applause, Forsyth was made lieutenant colo
nel by brevet, his commission being dated the 6th of February, by which it was made
to himself and family a memorial of the event.
This exploit led to early retaliation on the part of the British. At about that time
Sir George Prevost, the Governor General of Canada, arrived at Prescott on his way
to the capital of the upper province. Lieutenant Colonel Pierson, commanding at
Prescott, proposed an attack upon Ogdensburg. The governor was Avilling to have
the attempt made ; but on learning that some deserters had crossed the St. Lawrence,
and would probably inform the Americans of the proximity of a prize so precious as
his excellency, he became alarmed for his personal safety, and ordered Pierson to ac
company him on an immediate journey to Kingston with an escort. Lieutenant Col
onel M'Donell was charged with the business of assailing Ogdensburg, and was di
rected by the governor to first make a demonstration on the ice in front of the vil
lage, to engage the attention of the American troops, while his excellency should put
much space between himself and his enemies.
British spies informed Forsyth of the intended attack, and he immediately dis
patched a courier to General Dearborn at Plattsburg, on Lake Champlain, for re-en
forcements. " I can afford you no help," replied Dearborn. " You must do as well
as you are able, and if you can not hold the place you are at liberty to abandon it."
He intimated that the sacrifice of Ogdensburg might be of public benefit in arousing
the flagging energies of the Americans. On the receipt of this reply, Forsyth called
a council of officers, when it was resolved to hold the place as long as possible. Its
defenses were few and feeble, yet stout hearts were there. Near the intersection of
Ford and Euphemia (now State) Streets stood a trophy-cannon taken from Burgoyne
at Saratoga — an iron six-pounder, on a wheel-carriage, commanded by Captain Kel
logg, of the Albany Volunteers. On the west side of Ford Street, between State and
Isabella Streets, was a store used as an arsenal, in front of which, likewise on a wheel-
carriage, was a brass six-pounder, manned by some volunteers and citizens, under
Joseph York, Esq., then sheriff of the county and captain of a small company of vol
unteers. On the river bank, a short distance from Parish's huge stone store-house,1
1 This was built by David Parish, a wealthy banker, who early in this century bought an extensive landed estate on
Oo
578
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
PAKISll 8 6TOKE-UOUSE.
Preparations to receive the British. Adjutant Church and his Associates. The British advance on Ogdensburg.
yet (1867) standing, near the International Ferry, was a
rude wooden breastwork, on which was mounted, on a
sled-carriage, an iron twelve-pounder, also taken from
Burgoyne. This battery was commanded by Captain
Joshua Conkey. Oil the point where the light-house
now stands, near
the site of old
Fort Presenta
tion, was a brass
nine -pounder on
a sled-carriage, in charge of one of Captain
Kellogg' s sergeants. Back of the old fort, and
mounted on sleds, were two old-fashioned iron
six-pounders, one of them commanded by Ad
jutant Daniel W. Church,1 and the other by
Lieutenant Baird, of Major Forsyth's compa
ny. In front of the huge gateway between
the two buildings then remaining of the old
fort2 was another brass six-pounder on a sled,
and about twenty feet to the left of this was
a six-pounder iron cannon on a sled. Several
others were lying on the edge of the Oswegat-
chie fast bound in ice. Below the town, on
the square bounded by Washington and Wa
ter, Elizabeth and Franklin Streets, was an un
finished redoubt, which' was commenced the previous autumn by M. Ramee, a French
engineer, by order of General Brown, and named Fort Oswregatchie. All the troops
then available for the defense of the place were Forsyth's riflemen, a few volunteers,
and about a dozen raw recruits.
On the morning of the 22d of February, about eight hundred men, under Lieuten
ant Colonel M'Donell, appeared on the ice, and approached Ogdensburg in two col
umns. It was a singular spectacle," for only once or twice before had the river been
closed between Prescott and Ogdensburg. The right column, three hundred strong,
composed of a detachment from the Glengary Light Infantry Fencibles3 and a body
of Canadian militia, was commanded by Captain Jenkins. The left column, five
hundred strong, composed of detachments of the King's Regiment and the Royal
Newfoundland Corps, a body of Canadian local militia and some Indians, was com
manded by Lieutenant Colonel M'Donell. These troops moved steadily toward the
village, while some of the inhabitants were yet in bed, and others were at breakfast.
The right column proceeded to attack Forsyth and his command at the old fort, or
" stone garrison," as it was called.4 Forsyth formed his men behind the stone build-
the St. Lawrence frontier. He caused the large stone store on Water Street, Ogdensburg, to be erected in 1810, and in
1S13 he constructed a blast-furnace at Rossie. He is regarded as the early benefactor of St. Lawrence County, and is
always spoken of with affection.
1 Daniel W. Church was born at Brattleboro', Vermont, in 1T72, and emigrated to Northern New York in 1801, where,
at Canton, St. Lawrence County, he commenced the business of millwright by erecting the first saw-mill built there.
He was one of the pioneer settlers in that county, and acted a conspicuous part in its early history. He assisted in organ
izing the first court in that county, and was sitting on the bench as associate justice, with Judge Raymond presiding, in
the court-house at Ogdensburg when the shot from Prescott passed through the building, as mentioned in note 1, page
580. He volunteered in the military service at the beginning of the War of 1S12, and was appointed adjutant of Colonel
Benedict's regiment. His particular services at Ogdeusburg and vicinity are mentioned in the text. Twice during the
war he received the special thanks of General Brown. He was a man of fine personal appearance, fond of history and
science, and charming in society. He died at Morristown, on the St. Lawrence, on the 7th of January, 1857, in the 85th
year of his age, universally esteemed and deeply regretted by the whole community. 2 See picture on page 373.
3 These were Scotch Roman Catholics, of the families of refugee Loyalists from the domain of the Johnsons in the
Mohawk Valley, the most of whom inhabit the County of Glengary.
4 Father Francis Picquet was a priest of the Sulpician order, and was active, after his arrival in Canada in 1733, in the
establishment of the Catholic religion and French political dominion in the New World. For the purpose of attach-
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
579
The British driven back upon the Ice.
Surrender of a Part of the Americans.
Historical Localities.
ings, and directed them to reserve their fire until he should give the word of com
mand. Baird, with the brass six-pounder, was on the right of his line, and Church,
with the iron six-pounder, was near the centre. Just as the enemy reached the flat,
snow-drifted shore, they fired, but without effect. Forsyth then gave the word, and
a full volley of musketry and a discharge of artillery swept down eight of the foe,
and threw their line into utter confusion. They attempted to rally and charge upon
the Americans, but the frightened militia failing to support the light infantry, the
movement was not executed, and the assailing party, after losing, besides the killed
and wounded, a number of prisoners, fled out upon the frozen river, seriously an
noyed by the nine-pounder on the point where the light-house now stands.
While these events were in progress on the upper side of the village beyond the
Oswegatchie, Lieutenant Colonel M'Donell had marched up into the town, from a
point below the battery, near the barracks, without resistance.1 Captain Conkey
kept his twelve-pounder silent, when he might have
swept the enemy's ranks fearfully, and perhaps ut
terly checked their advance ; and, without the least
resistance, he surrendered himself, his gun, and his
men to the invaders. When this was accomplished
they expected an easy conquest of the town, but they
were soon confronted by the cannon under Captain
Kellogg and Sheriff" York. The gun of the former
was soon disabled by the breaking of its elevator
screw, and he and his men fled across the Oswegatchie
ing as many of the Iroquois confederacy of Indians to the French and the Church as possible, he founded a mission at
the mouth of the Oswegatchie in 1748, and recommended the erection of a fort there. The river was called La Presenta
tion by the French. There he erected a substantial stone building, on the corner-stone of which, found among the
ruins many years ago, was the following inscription : " IN NOMINE t DEI OMNIPOTF.NTIS HUIO IIAIIITATIONE INITIA I>EI>IT
FKANB. PICQUET, 1749." Translation: "Francis Picquet laid the foundations of this habitation, in the name of the Al
mighty Godwin 1749." Another stone building of the same size was erected about sixteen feet from the first one ; and
when a stockade fort was built there soon afterward, covering about an acre of ground, these edifices, standing on the
bank of the Oswegatchie, formed part of the fort, which was called Presentation. Between the two buildings massive
gates of oak, fifteen feet in height, were erected. " The remainder of the eastern or southeastern portions," says Mr.
Guest, in his "Recollections of Ogdensburg audits Vicinity," " was heavy stone wall; indeed, this maybe said to have
inclosed the whole. Here was held the first court in St. Lawrence County, and here, also, they had preaching when
they were fortunate enough to obtain a clergyman." Nothing now remains of these old works but a few traces of the
foundation. The inscribed corner-stone occupies a conspicuous position in the State Armory, erected in Ogdensburg
in 1S5S. I saw it in 1855 in a wall of the Hasbrouck estate on Ford Street. In the above sketch of the site of Fort
Presentation, taken from in front of Judge Ford's mansion, the position of the stone buildings above mentioned is in
dicated by the two little figures seen between the low one-story building toward the right of the picture and the more
distant landing-place at Ogdensburg. Toward the left of the picture, on the point projecting into the St. Lawrence, is
seen the light-house, and across the river a glimpse of Prescott and Fort Wellington. Toward the extreme right, on the
distant shore, are seen the ruined buildings on Windmill Point, desolated during the "Rebellion" of 1837. The land
ing-place of the British, on the marshy shore, to attack Forsyth, was directly beyond the clump of trees on the extreme
left of the picture.
1 The British struck the shore at the foot of Caroline (now Franklin) Street, and marched up that street to Washing
ton, along Washington, past Parish's house, to State Street, and halted ; then to the Arsenal in Ford Street, between
. State and Isabella Streets.
580
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Bravery of Sheriff York. Sketch of his Life. Flight of Citizens. Patriotism, Courage, and Fidelity of Mrs. York.
MAP Oi' OWSUAXLONB AT OUI>J&NBUUi>.U.
and joined Forsyth, leaving the indomitable York to maintain the fight alone.1 The
sheriff continued to fire until two of his men were mortally wounded, and himself
and the remainder of his party were made prisoners.
The village was now in full possession of the enemy, and the citizens fled, mostly
in the direction of Remington's, now Heuvelton. M'Doncll proceeded at once to
1 Joseph York was born in Claremont, New Hampshire, on the 8th of Jan
uary, 1781, and when quite young settled with his father in Randolph, Ver
mont. At the age of seventeen years (1798) he joined the Provisional Army
under Lieutenant Nathaniel Leonard, and served until the army was dis
banded in 1800. He emigrated to Ogdensburg in 1805. He was deputy sher
iff three years, and sheriff four years. When made prisoner on the occasion
above noted, he was taken to Prescott, and thence to the Johnstown jail,
where, through the active exertions of his wife, he was paroled, and a few
weeks afterward exchanged.
Mr, York's residence at that time was in the conrt-honse, a frame build
ing that stood on the corner of Knox
and Euphemia (now State) Streets. His
widow was living when I visited Og-
deusburg in the summer of 1800. She
was a small, delicate, and highly-intel
ligent woman, and I remember my in
terview with her with great pleasure.
She gave me a graphic account of the
events of the invasion, and kindly al
lowed me to make a copy of the silhou
ette likeness of her husband. She said
she did not leave her home in the court
house until the British had fired several
shots into it, and almost reached it,
when she took some money and table
spoons, and ran as fast as she could into
the country, with a number of other women. They retreated about fifteen
miles. The next day she returned, and found the house plundered, the fur
niture broken, and her husband a prisoner. The heroic little woman (who
had made many cartridges for the soldiers) immediately resolved to go over
into Canada in search of her husband. She crossed the river
in a skiff, went to the house of a friend (Mrs. Yates) at Johug-
town, having a British officer as escort, made personal applica
tion to Lieutenant Colonel M'Donell, procured the release of
her husband on parole, and took him back with her. Sheriff
York was very highly esteemed in St. Lawrence County. Three
successive years he represented that county in the Legislature of
New York. The town of York, in Livingston County, was named
iu honor of him. He died on the 6th of May, 1827, at the age of forty-six years. Mrs. York died in July, 1862.
COUET-HOUSE, OGDKNSHDKO.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 581
Retreat of the Americans from Ogdensburg. Plunder of the Village. Prisoners carried to Canada.
complete the conquest by dislodging Forsyth and his party. He paraded his troops
on the northern shore of the Oswegatchie, and sent a flag to Forsyth summoning
him to surrender instantly. " If you surrender, it shall be well ; if not, every man
shall be put to the bayonet," was a message sent with the summons. " Tell Colonel
M'Donell," replied Forsyth, " there must be more fighting done first." The bearers
of the flag had just reached their line on Ford Street, near Hasbrouck's, when Church
and Baird fired the two six-pounders that stood before the gate of the fort, both
charged with grape and canister. The effect was severe, but less frightful than it
might have been had not Forsyth peremptorily ordered Church to elevate his piece
a little higher. The discharge frightened the enemy, and they took shelter behind
Parish's store-house and other buildings, and began picking off the Americans in de
tail, while another party, overwhelming in numbers, were preparing to storm the old
fort. Forsyth's quick eye and judgment comprehended the impending peril. It was
heightened by the wounding of Church and Baird, and he gave orders for a retreat
to Thurber's Tavern, on Black Lake, eight or nine miles distant, where, on the same
day, he wrote a dispatch to the Secretary of War, in which he gave a brief account
of the affairs of the morning, and said, "If you can send me three hundred men, all
shall be retaken, and Prescott too, or I will lose my life in the attempt."
Lieutenant Baird was too severely wounded to be taken away, and he was left at
the mansion of Judge Ford,1 where he was made a prisoner. The town now being in
full possession of the enemy, the work of plunder commenced. Indians and camp-fol
lowers of both sexes came over from Canada, and these, with resident miscreants,
defying the earnest efforts of the British officers to prevent plunder, carried off or de
stroyed a great amount of private property. Every house in the village except three
was entered. The public property was carried over to Canada. Two armed schoon
ers and two gun-boats fast in the ice were burned, the barracks near the river were
laid in ashes, and an attempt was made to fire the bridge over the Oswegatchie.2
Fifty-two prisoners were taken to Prescott, where those who were not found in arms
were paroled and sent back.3 Some of the prisoners were confined in the jail at Johns
town, three miles below Prescott,4 and others were sent to Montreal. Fourteen of
the latter escaped from prison at Montreal, and the remainder were sent to Halifax.
The Americans lost in this affair, besides the prisoners, five killed and fifteen wound
ed. The British lost six killed and forty-eight wounded. As the enemy immediately
evacuated the place, the citizens soon returned. From that time until the close of
the war Ogdensburg remained in an entirely defenseless state, which exposed the in
habitants to occasional insults from their belligerent neighbors over the river.5 A
little east of Prescott, on the bank of the St. Lawrence, the British erected a small
fortification during the war, which commanded Ogdensburg. It was called Fort
Wellington. The present fort of that name was built upon an eminence back of the
other, in 1838, at the time of the "Rebellion" in Canada."
1 This mansion stood on a pleasant spot not far from the left bank of the Oswegatchie River. Nathan Ford, its own
er, was among the earliest settlers of Ogdensburg. He was born in Morristown, New Jersey, on the Sth of December,
1763. He served in the Continental army, and in 1T94 and 1705 he was employed by Ogden and others, who had pur
chased lands in Northern New York, to look after their affairs in that quarter. He was a man of indomitable energy,
and early foresaw prosperity for the little settlement at the mouth of the Oswegatchie. He died in April, 1829, at the
age of sixty-six years.
z The plunder of public property consisted of 1400 stand of arms, with accoutrements, 12 pieces of artillery, 2 stands
of colors, 300 tents, a large quantity of ammunition and camp equipage, with some beef, pork, flour, and other stores.
3 The prisoners in the jail at Ogdensburg represented to the British that they were only political offenders, and then
were all released. Most of them accompanied the invaders back to Prescott, when it was ascertained that they had de
ceived the British officers. Some were given up at once, and Sheriff York finally recovered the most of them.
* This jail was used as a place of public worship for a long time, to which the inhabitants of Ogdensburg frequently
resorted before the year 1812. Previous to that time there was no regular place of worship in Ogdensburg.
5 In May, 1S13, an officer came over from Prescott for deserters, and insolently threatened to burn Ogdensburg if they
were not given up. "You will do no snch thing," said Judge Ford. " No sooner will I see the incendiaries landing
than I will set fire to my own house with my own hands, rally my neighbors, cross the river with torches, and burn ev
ery house from Prescott to Brockville." The British officer, perceiving the consequences that might ensue, afterward
apologized for his conduct.— Hough's HiKtnrn i\f St. Lawrence County, page 635.
582 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
A Day on the St. Lawrence. A Visit to Ogdensburg and Prescott. The " Rebellion" in Canada.
I visited the theatre of scenes just described, and places of interest in their neigh
borhood, in July, 1860, after spending a day or two among the Thousand Islands in
. jniy 20, the vicinity of Cape Vincent. At dawn on a beautiful morninga I embarked
iseo. on t^e steam-boat New York at that point for Ogdensburg, and had the
pleasure of meeting an old acquaintance (Captain Van Cleve), a veteran commander
of steam-boats on Lake Erie and the St. Lawrence, and who was an involuntary actor
in the stirring scenes in the neighborhood of the Oswegatchie in 1838, which will be
noted presently. Familiar with every island, rock, and bush on the route, I found
him a most instructive companion during that delightful voyage among the Thou
sand Islands. Another passenger was Mr. Pierpont, of Pierpont Manor, Jefferson
County, New York, who was one of the United States commissioners that fixed the
boundary-line between the former and Canada soon after the close of the War of
1812-'15. With these two gentlemen as companions willing to impart information,
I lacked nothing.
Just above Brockville, as we emerged from the Thousand Islands, a settlement of
Tories of the Revolution was pointed out to me, and the house in which a grandson
of Benedict Arnold lived, and where he died a few years ago.
We arrived at Ogdensburg early in the day, and I went out immediately to visit
places of historic interest there, accompanied by Messrs. Westbrook and Guest, to
whom I am indebted for kind attentions while there. The landing-places of the Brit
ish from the ice ; the sites of the " stone garrison" and other military works ; the ar
senal, court-house, and old burial-ground, on an eminence south of the Oswegatchie,
were all visited before dinner.1 Afterward I went alone over to Prescott, and, in
company with a citizen of that village, rode to Wind-mill Point, a mile below, to visit
the scene of a serious tragedy late in the autumn of 1838.
Allusion has already been made several times to the " Rebellion" in Canada in 1837
and 1838. It was a violent effort on the part of leaders and followers in both prov
inces to cast off the rule of an oligarchy and establish constitutional government,
whose administrators should be responsible to the people. The most conspicuoiis
leader in the upper province was the late William Lyon M'Kenzie, a Scotchman, and
in the lower province the late Louis Joseph Papineau, a wealthy French Canadian.
These, with many followers, assumed the position of open insurrection against the
provincial authorities. They were joined by many sympathizers from the United
States frontier, and in the autumn of 1838 the affair had grown to alarming propor
tions — -so alarming that, on account of the active sympathy of the Americans with
the Canadian " Patriots," it threatened to disturb the friendly relations between the
United States and Great Britain. All the frontier towns on both sides of the line
were kept in continual excitement, and none more so for a time than Ogdensburg and
Prescott. Matters were brought to a crisis there in this wise. One of the most act
ive of the " Patriots" on the American side was William Johnson, of Frenchtown (now
Clayton), commonly known as "Bill Johnson," and sometimes called the " Patriot,"
and sometimes the "Pirate" of the Thousand Islands. Of him we shall have occasion
to speak more in detail hereafter, for he was an active partisan in the War of 1812.
Johnson's knowledge of the St. Lawrence from Cape Vincent to Ogdensburg made
him a valuable auxiliary to the Canadian insurgents, and he engaged with them in
co-operative movements for seizing Fort Wellington, which had just been completed
•at Prescott. For this purpose a large number of "Patriots" went down the St. Law
rence early in November, 1838. On the 12th, the steam-boat United /States, Captain
Van Cleve, just mentioned, took as passengers for Ogdensburg about two hundred
i I visited the fine mansion and beautiful grounds of Mr. Parish, son of the early proprietor of vast landed estates in
that region. There for many years was the residence of Elena Vespucci, a lineal descendant of the Florentine Ameri-
rns Vespucci, in whose honor our continent was named. She visited this country with the expectation of receiving a
irrant of land or money from Congress. She was a brilliant, fascinating woman. She left for Europe in 1S59. Many
evidences of her taste were seen about the mansion.
OF THE WAH OF 1812. 583
An American Steamer pressed into the Service of the " Patriots." Siege of a garrisoned Wind-mill.
and fifty " Patriots" from Sackett's Harbor. On the way down the St. Lawrence, Van
Cleve discovered two schooners becalmed. One of his passengers, a stranger of gen
teel appearance, asked him to take them in tow, as they were laden with goods for
Ogdensburg, and he should be glad to have them reach port the next morning. The
decks were covered with boxes and barrels, and only men enough to navigate the ves
sels were visible. The schooners were taken in tow, when Van Cleve was speedily
undeceived. Full two hundred armed men came from them on board of his vessel.
The schooners were a sort of Trojan horses. Van Cleve was perplexed. He resolved
to " lay to" at Morristown, and send word to the authorities at Ogdensburg. This
becoming known to the " Patriots," about one hundred of those on the United States
who took passage at Sackett's Harbor, and all who had come from the schooners,
went on board of the latter, when they cast off from the steam-boat and sailed down
the St. Lawrence. On the following morning they were at anchor in the river be
tween Ogdensburg and Prescott, and created the greatest excitement im both towns.
The British armed steamer Experiment was lying at Prescott, and made immediate
arrangements to attack the schooners. One of them meanwhile had run aground,
and the other had gone down to Wind-mill Point and landed her armed men. At
about the same time the United States arrived at Ogdensburg. The " Patriots" pressed
her into their service, and, with the assistance of the American steam ferry-boat Paul
Pry, rescued the stranded schooner, and conveyed the other to a place of safety near
Ogdensburg. She was also employed in carrying over some "Patriots" whom John
son had persuaded to accompany him to Wind-mill Point, in which service she lost
her pilot, Solomon Foster, an excellent young man, who was instantly killed by a ball
from the Experiment that passed through the wheel-house of the United States. That,
evening Colonel Worth arrived at Ogdensburg with United States troops, accompa
nied by a marshal, who seized all vessels in the "Patriot" service, including the
United States, and effectually cut off supplies of men, arms, and provisions from Wind
mill Point.
The " Patriots" at the Point made a citadel of the strong stone wind-mill there,
took possession of some stone dwellings, and cast up breast
works. They were under the command of a brave young
Polander named Von Schoultz. On the morning of the
"November, 13tha they were attacked with shot and shell by
the Experiment and two other armed steamers
that had arrived. These were replied to by the battery that
had been constructed on the shore near the wind-mill during
the night. There were cowards among the "Patriots." So
o o
many had fled that when the. cannonade commenced only
one hundred and eighty were left. When, soon afterward,
British regulars and volunteers to the number of more than
six hundred went out from Fort Wellington and attacked the
~
" Patriots" in the rear, only one hundred and twenty-eight
were left ; and yet these fought so desperately that, accord
ing to Dr. Theller's account,1 they drove the British back to
the fort, killing one hundred of them and wounding many,
after a Conflict Of ail hour. THE «ATTEBKI> WIM,-.MH.L.
Little but burying the dead occupied the next day.b That night, four
b November 14.
hundred British regulars, sixteen hundred vohinteers, cannon, and gun
boats arrived from Kingston. The "Patriots" were doomed. Food, ammunition,
and physical strength were exhausted, and they surrendered. They had lost thirty-
six killed ; ninety were made prisoners. Von Schoultz, only thirty-one years of age,
and several Americans, were hanged in less than a month afterward. Some were re-
i Theller's Canada in 1S37-'3S.
584
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Fate of the captured "Patriots."
Fort Wellington.
Return to Ogdeusburg and Departure eastward.
WIND-MILL AND RUINS NEAB IT.ESCOTT.
leased, and twenty-three were sent to En
gland, and from thence to the British pen
al colony in Van Diemen's Land. Eleven
years later they were all released by a
declaration of amnesty by the crown.
The British burned the wood-work of
the wind-mill and stone houses. In that
desolated condition they yet remained
when I visited the spot in I860, and made
the sketch from which, our little engrav
ing was copied. The wind-mill still ex
hibits many indentations made by the
cannon-balls during the siege.
It was toward evening when I returned
to Prescott, stopping on the way to visit
Fort Wellington, a strong work covering
about three acres of ground. It was not garrisoned, and every thing within seemed
neglected. The citadel, in the form of a
block-house, seen in the engraving, is a
strong work, the lower part of stone,
the upper of hewn timbers. The bar
racks are in good condition. A few can
non were on the ramparts, and on the
river side of the fort lay a brass one, on
which was inscribed the words and char
acters " S. 1ST. Y., 1834. Taken from the
rebels in 1837." It was a trophy.
When I recrossed the St. Lawrence at
near sunset, heavy clouds were floating
down from the region of the Thousand
Islands, and low thunder-peals were
heard in the far southwest. I stopped
on the International Ferry wharf just
long enough to sketch the Parish store-house, and arrived at the Seymour House a
few minutes before a heavy shower of rain began to fall. I passed part of the short
summer evening with Mrs. York, already mentioned, at the house of Mr. Chapin, her
son-in-law, and at four o'clock the next morning, when the clouds, after a night of
tempest, were breaking, depai'ted in the cars for the eastward, to visit French Mills
(now Covington), Malone, Odelltown, Champlain, Chazy, and Plattsburg. Of those
visits I shall hereafter write.
A second invasion of Canada, as we have observed, was a principal feature in the
programme of the campaign of 1813. Quebec, on account of its military strength
and accessibility to large vessels from the sea, was held to be unassailable ; but Mon
treal, the emporium of the vast Indian trade in the immense country westward of it,
seemed to promise an easy conquest. The possession of that city, and of the entire
Upper Province, was the prize for which the Army of the North was expected to
contend. But the same lack of sagacity on the part of the cabinet, to which much
of the disasters of 1812 were chargeable, now reappeared. Instead of sending a com
petent force for the capture of Montreal before the ice in the St. Lawrence should
move and permit British transports to bring re-enforcements from Halifax, it was de
termined first to reduce Kingston and York (now Toronto), on Lake Ontario, and
1 In this view, looking toward the St. Lawrence, the village of Ogdensburg is seen in the extreme distance, on the
height.
FOKT WELLINGTON IN
OF THE WAK OF 1812. 585
Dearborn and Chauncey on Lake Ontario. Plans for invading Canada. Preparations for active Movements.
Forts George and Erie, on the Niagara River, recapture Detroit, and recover the
Michigan Territory. The latter enterprise was successful, as we have seen in the last
chapter; it now remains for us to consider the events connected with the prosecu
tion of the former, namely, the capture of York, Forts George and Erie, and King
ston, in the order here named.
Early in the winter of 1813, Dearborn, who was in the immediate command of the
Army of the North, had about six thousand troops under his control, and was em
powered to call out as many of the local militia as might be needed to supply any de
ficiencies in the regular army. Commodore Chauncey, by operations described in a
former chapter,1 had acquired such complete control of Lake Ontario that he could
confine all the British vessels of war to the harbor of Kingston.
Orders were given for the concentration of four thousand troops at Sackett's Har
bor, and three thousand at Buffalo. The former were to cross the ice to Kingston,
capture that place, destroy all the shipping that might be wintering there, and then,
as soon as practicable, either by land or water, proceed to York, seize the army stores
collected there, and two frigates said to be on the stocks.
Dearborn received a general outline of this plan from the War Department on the
10th of February. He was then at Plattsburg with two brigades wintering there,
amounting in the aggregate to about twenty-five hundred effective men. "Noth
ing shall be omitted on my part," he wrote on the 1 8th,a " in endeavoring <> February,
to carry into effect the expedition proposed."2 Major Forsyth, who re
turned to Ogdensburg after the British left it, was ordered to Sackett's Harbor.
General Brown was directed to call out several hundred militia ; and Colonel Zebu-
Ion M. Pike (who was made a brigadier general a month later) was ordered to pro
ceed from Plattsburg to the Harbor with four hundred of his best men in sleighs.
But Chauncey was detained in New York, and the expedition against Kingston was
abandoned, partly on that account, and partly because the arrival at that place of
Sir George Prevost with Pierson's escort3 from Prescott gave foundation for a report
that the British there had received large re-enforcements.4 When, about the 1st
of March, Dearborn arrived at Sackett's Harbor, the story was current there, and
generally believed, that Sir George, with six or eight thousand men, collected from
Quebec, Montreal, and Upper Canada, was at Kingston, engaged in active prepara
tions for offensive measures.
•Dearborn found only about three thousand troops at the Harbor, and he sent ex
presses to hasten forward those on the way. On the 9th of March he wrote to the
Secretary of War, saying, " I have not yet had the honor of a visit from Sir George
Prevost," and expressed some doubts whether the knight would make his appearance
at all. A week afterward all causes for apprehensions of an attack from Kingston
had disappeared, and at a council of officers1* the expedition against that
place was formally abandoned until the lake should be open and the co
operation of the fleet should be secured. To the strengthening of that arm of the
service on the lake, the genius and industry of Henry Eckford, the naval construotor,
were now earnestly directed, the President having, on the 3d of March, directed six
sloops of war to be built on Lakes Ontario and Erie, and as many purchased as the
exigencies of the service might require. The pay of seamen was advanced twen
ty-five per cent., and many of them were sent to the lakes for active service there.
Early in April the brig Jefferson was launched0 at Sackett's Harbor, and the c April T.
keel of the General Pike was laid.d On the 14th the British launched two "April 9.
large vessels at Kingston, and at about the same time received for the service on the
' See Chapter XVIII. 2 General Dearborn to the Secretary of War. 3 See page 577.
* "Chauncey has not returned," Dearborn wrote to the Secretary of War on the 25th of February. "I am satisfied
that if he had arrived as soon as I had expected him, we might have made a stroke at Kingston on the ice ; but his
presence was necessary for having the aid of the seamen and marines."
586
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The Troops at Sacketfs Harbor.
Expedition against Little York.
The British Defenses.
water large numbers of seamen from the Royal Navy. On the 15th the ice in the
lake disappeared, and two days afterward Chauncey sent out the Growler to recon
noitre. Brigadier General Chandler had lately arrived. The effective force at Sack-
ett's Harbor at this time consisted of about five thousand regulars and twelve months'
volunteers, two thousand militia, and thirteen hundred sailors.
At the middle of April Dearborn and Chauncey matured a plan of operations. A
joint land and naval expedition was proposed, to first capture York, and then to cross
Lake Ontario and reduce Fort George. At the same time, troops were to cross the
Niagara from Buffalo and Black Rock, capture Forts Erie and Chippewa, join the
fleet and army at Fort George, and all proceed to attack Kingston. Every thing
being arranged, Dearborn embarked about seventeen hundred men on Chauncey's
fleet at Sacketfs Harbor on the 22d of April, and on the 25th the fleet, crowded with
soldiers, sailed for York.1 After a boisterous passage, it appeared before the little
town early in the morn
ing of the 27th, when
General Dearborn, suf
fering from ill health,
placed the land forces
under charge of Gener
al Pike,2 and resolved
to remain on board the
commodore's flag-ship
during the attack.
The little village of
York3 was then chiefly
at the bottom of the
bay, near a marshy flat
through which the
Don, coming down
from beautiful fertile
valleys, flowed slug
gishly into Lake Ontario,
and, because of the softness
of the earth there, it was
often called " Muddy Little
York." It gradually
grew to the westward,
and, while deserting
the Don, it wooed the
Humber, once a famous
salmon stream, that
flows into a broad bay
two or three miles west
of Toronto. In that
direction stood the re
mains of old Fort To
ronto, erected by the
French, and now (1867)
an almost shapeless
heap. On the shore
eastward of it, between
the present new bar
racks and the city, were
two batteries, the most east
erly one being in the form
of a crescent. A little far
ther east, on the borders of
1 Chavmcey's fleet consisted of the flag-ship Madison, commanded by Commander Elliott ; the Oneida, Lieutenant Com
manding Woolsey ; the Fair American, Lieutenant Chauncey ; the Hamilton, Lieutenant M'Pherson ; the Governor Tomp-
kins, Lieutenant Brown ; the Conquest, Lieutenant Pettigrew ; the Asp, Lieutenant Smith ; the Pert, Lieutenant Adams;
the Julia, Mr. Trant ; the Growler, Mr. Mix ; the Ontario, Mr. Stevens ; the Scourge, Mr. Osgood ; the Lady of the Lake,
Mr. Flinn ; and Raven, transport.
3 Zebnlon Montgomery Pike was one of the earlier explorers of the wilderness around the head-waters of the Missis
sippi River. He was born in Lamberton, New Jersey. His father was an army officer, and young Pike entered the
army.while yet a boy. His whole life was devoted to the military profession. Soon after the purchase of Louisiana, in
1803, President Jefferson decided to have the vast unknown territory explored, and sent Captains Lewis and Clarke to
accomplish a portion of it. At the same time, young Pike (who was born on the 5th of January, 1779) was commissioned
to explore the present Minnesota region. That was in 1805. In the following year he made a perilous but successful
reconnoissance of the wilderness in the direction of Northern Mexico, and, returning in the summer of 1807, he received
the thanks of Congress. He reached the rank of colonel of infantry in 1S10, and in March, 1813, he was commissioned a
brigadier. He.lost his life in the attack on York (Toronto), in April, 1813, when he was little more than thirty-four years
of age. His name and memory are perpetuated, not only on the pages of History, but in the titles often counties, and
twenty-eight townships and villages in the United States, chiefly in the Western country.
On the day before he left Sacketfs Harbor, General Pike wrote as follows to his father : " I embark to-morrow in the
fleet, at Sacketfs Harbor, at the head of a column of 1500 choice troops, on a secret expedition. Should I be the happy
mortal destined to turn the scale of war, will yon not rejoice, oh my father? May heaven be propitious, and smile on
the cause of my country. But if we are destined to fall, may my fall be like Wolfe's— to sleep in the arms of victory."
His wish was gratified.
3 York, or " Little York," as it was generally called, was a village of about nine hundred inhabitants, situated on the
north shore of Lake Ontario, a little west of the meridian of the Niagara River. It was founded by Governor Simcoe,
was made by him the seat of government in 179T, and designed to be, what it has since become, a large and flourishing
city. In front of it is a beautiful bay, nearly circular, a mile and a half iu diameter, formed by the main and a curious-
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 587
Neglect of Defenses. General Pike's Instructions. His Troops confronted at their Landing-place.
a deep ravine and small stream, was a picketed block -house, some intrenchments
with cannon, and a garrison of about eight hundred men, under Major General Sheaffe.
On Gibraltar Point,
the extreme western
end of the peninsula,
that embraced the
Harbor with its pro
tecting arm, was a
small block - house ;
and another, seen in
the engraving, stood
on the high east bank
of the Don, just be
yond the present
bridge at the eastern
termination of King and Queen Streets. These defenses had been strangely neglect
ed. Some of the cannon were without trunnions ; others, destined for the war vessel
then on the stocks, were in frozen mud and half covered with snow. Fortunately for
the garrison, the Duke of Gloucester was then in port undergoing some repairs, and
her guns furnished some armament for the batteries. These, however, amounted to
only a few six-pounders. The whole country around, excepting a few spots on the
lake shore, was covered with a dense forest.
On the day when the expedition sailed from Sackett's Harbor General Pike issued
minute instructions concerning the manner of landing and attack. " It is expected,"
he said, " that every corps will be mindful of the honor of the American arms, and
the disgraces which have recently tarnished our arms, and endeavor, by a cool and
determined discharge of their duty, to support the one and wipe off the other." "The
unoffending citizens of Canada," he continued, " are many of them our own country
men, and the poor Canadians have been forced into this war. Their property, there
fore, must be held sacred ; and any soldier who shall so far neglect the honor of his
profession as to be guilty of plundering the inhabitants, shall, if convicted, be pun
ished with death. But the commanding general assures'the troops that, should they
capture a large quantity of public stores, he will use his best endeavors to procure
them a reward from his government." With such instructions the Americans pro
ceeded to invade the British soil at about eight o'clock on the morning of the 27th
of April, 1813.
It was intended to land at a clearing near old Fort Toronto. An easterly wind,
blowing with violence, drove the small boats in which the troops left the fleet full
half a mile farther westward, and beyond an effectual covering by the guns of the
navy. Major Forsyth and his riflemen, in two bateaux, led the van, and when with
in rifle-shot of the shore they were assailed by a deadly volley of bullets by a com
pany of Glengary Fencibles and a party of Indians under Major Givens, who were
concealed in the woods that fringe the shore. " Rest on your oars ! prime !" said
Forsyth, in a low tone. Pike, standing on the deck of the Madison, saw this halting,
and impatiently exclaimed, with an expletive, " I can not stay here any longer !
Come," he said, addressing his staff, "jump into the boat." He was instantly obeyed,
shaped peninsula, which, within a few years, has become an island. It was only a few rods wide, where, in 1858, a
storm cut a channel and made most of the peninsula an island, while at its western extremity it was very broad, and
embraced several ponds. See map on page 590. It is low and sandy— so low that, from the moderate elevation of the
town (fifteen or twenty feet above the water), the dark line of the lake maybe seen over it. Upon it were, and still are,
some trees, which, at first glance, seem to be standing on the water. This gave the name of Tarontah, an Indian word
signifying "trees on the water," to the place. When the French built a fort there, westward of the extreme western
end of the peninsula (which was called "Gibraltar Point"), they named it Fort Tarontah, or Toronto. In pursuance of
his plan of Anglicizing the Upper Province, Simcoe named it York. The people, at a later day, with singular good taste,
resumed the Indian name of Tarontah, or Toronto.
588
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Battle in the Woods.
Cowardly Flight of the Indians.
The British driven to Toronto.
and very soon they and their gallant commander were in the midst of a fight, for
Forsyth's men had opened fire, and the enemy on the shore were returning it brisk
ly. The vanguard soon landed, and were immediately followed, in support, by Ma
jor King and a battalion of infantry. Pike and the main body soon followed, and
the whole column, consisting of the Sixth, Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Twenty-first Reg
iments of Infantry, and detachments of light and heavy artillery, with Major For
syth's riflemen and Lieutenant Colonel M'Clure's volunteers as flankers, pressed for
ward into ihe woods. The British skirmishers meanwhile had been re-enforced by
two companies of the Eighth, or King's Regiment of Regulars, two hundred strong, a
company of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, a large body of militia, and some
Indians. They took position in the woods, and were soon encountered by the ad
vancing Americans, whose artillery it was difficult to move. Perceiving this, the
British, led by General Sheaffe in person, attacked the American flanks with a six-
pounder and howitzer. A very shai'p conflict ensued, and both parties suffered much.
Captain M'Neil, of the King's Regiment, was killed. The British were overpowered,
and fell back, when General Pike, at the head of the American column, ordered his
bugler to sound, and at the same time dashed gallantly forward. That bugle blast
thrilled like electric fire along the nerves of the Indians. They gave one horrid yell,
then fled like frightened deer to cover, deep into the forest. That bugle blast was
heard in the fleet, in the face of the wind, and high above the voices of the gale, and
evoked long and loud responsive cheers. At the same time Chauncey was sending
to the shore, under the direction of Commander Elliott, something more effective than
huzzas, for he was hurling deadly grape-shot upon the foe, which added to the con
sternation, of the savages, and gave fleetness to their feet. They also hastened the
retreat of Sheaffe's white troops to their defenses in the direction of the village, while
the drum and fife of the pursuers were briskly playing Yankee Doodle.
The Americans now pressed forward as rapidly as possible along the lake shore in
platoons by sections. They were not allowed to load their muskets, and were com
pelled to rely upon the bayonet. Because of many ravines and little streams, the ar
tillery wras moved with difficulty, for the enemy had destroyed the bridges. It was
a strong right arm, and essential in the service at hand ; and by great exertions a
field-piece and a howitzer, under Lieutenant Fanning, of the Third Artillery, was
moved steadily with the column. As that column emerged from thick woods, flank
ed by M'Clure's volunteers, divided equally as light troops, under Colonel Ripley, it
was confronted by twenty-four pounders on the Western Battery, the remains of
ItEMAINS OK T11E WESTERN HATTERY.1
which are now (1867) plainly visible between the present New Barracks and the
city on the lake shore. Upon that battery the guns of some of Chauncey's vessels,
1 In this sketch the appearance of the mounds in 1860 is given. On the left, in the distance, is seen a glimpse of a
wharf and part of Toronto. On the right a portion of the peninsula, now an island. In the centre of the picture is the
opening between the island and the remainder of the peninsula, looking out npou the lake. The steam-boat indicates
the present channel, which is narrow aud not very deep.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 589
Battle at York. Explosion of the British Powder-magazine. Death of General Pike and others.
which had beat up against the wind in range of the enemy's works, were pouring
heavy shot. Captain Walworth was ordered to storm it with his grenadiers, of the
Sixteenth. They immediately trailed their arms, quickened their pace, and were
about to charge, when the wooden magazine of the battery, that had been carelessly
left open, blew up, killing some of the men, and seriously damaging the defenses.
The dismayed enemy spiked their cannon, and fled to the next, or Half-moon Battery.
Walworth pressed forward, when that, too, was abandoned, and he found nothing
within but spiked cannon. Sheaffe and his little army, deserted by the Indians, fled
to the garrison near the governor's house, and there opened a fire of round and grape
shot upon the Americans. Pike ordered his troops to halt, and lie flat upon the grass,
while Major Eustis, with his artillery battery, moved to the front, and soon silenced
the great guns of the enemy.
The firing from the garrison ceased, and the Americans expected every moment to
see a white flag displayed from the block-house in token of surrender. Lieutenant
Riddle, whose corps had brought up the prisoners taken in the woods, was sent for
ward with a small party to reconnoitre. General Pike, who had just assisted, with
his own hands, in removing a wounded soldier to a comfortable place, was sitting
upon a stump conversing with a huge British sergeant who had been taken prisoner,
his staff standing around him. At that moment was felt a sudden tremor of the
ground, followed by a tremendous explosion near the British garrison. The enemy,
despairing of holding
the place, had blown
up their powder-mag
azine, situated upon the
edge of the water, at
the mouth of a ravine,
near where the build
ings of the Great West
ern Railway stand.
The effect was terrible.
Fragments of timber,
and huge stones of
which the magazine
walls were built, were scattered in every direction over a space of several hundred
yards.1 When the smoke floated away the scene was appalling. Fifty-two Ameri
cans lay dead, and one hundred and eighty others were wounded.2 So badly had
the affair been managed that forty of the British also lost their lives by the explo
sion. General Pike, two of his aids, and the British sergeant wrere mortally hurt,3
while Riddle and his party were unhurt, the missiles passing entirely over them.
The terrified Americans scattered in dismay, but they were soon rallied by Brigade
Major Hunt and Lieutenant Colonel Mitchell. The column was reformed, and the
general command was assumed by the gallant Pennsylvanian, Colonel Cromwell
1 The magazine was about twenty feet square. It contained five hundred barrels of gunpowder, and an immense
quantity of shot and shells. It was built of heavy stone, close by the lake shore, with a heavy stone wall on its water
front. Its roof was nearly level with the surface of the ground. The descent to its vaults was by stone steps inside of
the wall. It was so situated that the Americans did not suspect its existence there. The picture ot it above given, as
it appeared before the explosion, is from a pencil sketch by an English officer. It is said that some of the fragments
of the magazine were thrown by the explosion as far as the decks of Chauncey's vessels, and, says Ingersoll, "the water
was shocked as with an earthquake."
2 A late provincial writer, whose pages exhibit the most bitter spirit, says, in speaking of this destruction of life, "We
heartily agree with James [the most malignant and mendacious of the British writers on the War] 'that, even had the
whole column been destroyed, the Americans would but have met their deserts;' and if disposed to commiserate the
poor soldiers, at least, we wish, with him, ' that their places had been filled by the American President anil the ninety-
eight members of the Legislature who voted for the war.1 " — A History of the Late War between Great Britain and the
United State* of America, by G. Auchinleck, Toronto, 1855.
3 One of General Pike's officers afterward wrote : "I was so much injured in the general crash that it is surprising
how I survived. Probably [ owe my escape to the corpulency of the British sergeant, whose body was thrown upon
mine by the concussion."— Letter in The Aurora, quoted by Hough in his History of Je/erson County, page 4S2.
590
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Surrender of York. Escape of General Sheaffe and his Regulars. The Americans in Possession of the Post.
Pcarce, of the Sixteenth, the senior officer.1 After giving three cheers, the troops
pressed forward toward the village, and were met by the civil authorities and militia
officers with propositions for a capitulation, in response to a peremptory demand for
surrender made by Colonel Pearce. An •arrangement was concluded for an absolute
surrender, with no other prescribed conditions than that all papers belonging to the
civil officers should be retained by them, that private property of all kinds should be
respected, and that the surgeons in attendance upon the British regulars and Cana
dian militia should not be considered prisoners of war.2 General Sheaffe's baggage
and papers were captured. Among the former was a musical snuff-box that attract
ed much attention.
Taking advantage of the confusion that succeeded the explosion, and the time in
tentionally consumed in the capitulation, General Sheaffe and a large portion of his
regulars, after destroying the vessel on the stocks and some store-houses and their
contents, stole across the Don, and fled along Dundas Street toward Kingston. When
several miles from York they met a portion of the King's Regiment on their way to
Fort George. These turned back, covered Sheaffe's retreat, and all reached King
ston in safety. Sheaffe (who was the military successor of Brock) was severely cen
sured for the loss of York, and was soon afterward superseded in command in Upper
Canada by Major General De Rottenburg. He retired to Montreal, and took com
mand of the troops there.
On hearing of the death of General Pike, General Dearborn went on shore, and as
sumed command after the capitulation. At sunset the work was finished; and at
the same hour (eight o'clock in the evening), both Chauncey and Dearborn wrote
brief dispatches to the government at Washington, the former saying, " We are in
1 Cromwell Pearce was born in Willistown, Chester County, Pennsylvania, on the 13th of August, 17T2, on the farm
where the celebrated " Paoli massacre" occurred in the autumn of 1777. His father was a native of Ireland. Cromwell
was brought up a farmer. At the age of twenty-one years Governor Mifflin commissioned him a captain of militia, and
in 1799 he entered the regular army of the United States as first lieutenant in the Tenth Regiment of Light Infantry. He
was commissioned a colonel of the Sixteenth Infantry in July, 1812, and marched to the Northern frontier. He bore a
distinguished part in the capture of York, and yet his name was not mentioned in General Dearborn's report of the af
fair. Only Chauncey, in his official report, speaks of him. Pearce was brave, modest, and unassuming, and performed
his duties nobly throughout the war. In the autumn of 1S13 he was in the battle of Chrysler's Field, on the St. Law
rence, when, on the fall of the commander, he again became the leader of the contending forces. At the close of the war
he retired to private life. In 1S1G he was elected sheriff of his native county. In 1824 he was chosen a presidential
elector, and was deputed to carry to Washington City the electoral vote of the state. In 1825 he was appointed an as-
sociatejudge of the County Court, which office he held until 1839. He died suddenly on the 2d of April, 1852, in the eight
ieth year of his age. — Xotce Cestritnsi*, by William Darlington, M.D., LL.D.
2 The following were the commissioners who arranged the terms of capitulation :
Americans: Lieutenant Colonel E. G. Mitchell ; Major Samuel S. Conner, aid-do camp to General Dearborn ; and Com
mander Elliott, of the Navy. British : Lieutenant Colonel W. Chewett, of the York Militia ; Major W. Allen, of the same
corps ; and Lieutenant F. Gaurreau.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 591
York abandoned by the Americans. General Pike's last Moments. A Scalp adorning the Parliament-house.
full possession of this place," and the latter, " I have the satisfaction to inform you
that the American flag is flying upon the fort at York." The post, with about two
hundred and ninety prisoners besides the militia, the war-vessel Duke of Gloucester,
and a large quantity of naval and military stores, passed into the possession of the
Americans. Such of the latter as could not be carried away by the squadron were
destroyed ; and before the victors left, the public buildings were fired by some un
known hand, and consumed.1 Four days after the capitulation the troops were re-
embarked, preparatory to a descent upon Fort George. The post and village of York,
possessing little value to the Americans, were abandoned.1 The British re- .Mays,
possessed themselves of the spot, built another block-house, and on the site 1813-
of the garrison constructed a regular fortification.
The loss of the Americans in the capture of York was sixty-six killed and two
hundred and three wounded on land, and seventeen killed and wounded on the ves
sels. The British lost, besides the prisoners, sixty killed and eighty-nine wounded.
General Pike was crushed beneath a heavy mass of stone that struck- him in the back.
He was carried immediately after discovery to the water's edge, placed in a boat, and
conveyed, first on board the Pert, and then to the commodore's flag-ship. Just as the
surgeons and attendants, with the wounded general, reached the little boat, the huz
zas of the troops fell upon his benumbed ears. " What does it mean ?" he feebly
asked. " Victory," said a sergeant in attendance. " The British union-jack is coming
down from the block-house, and the stars and stripes are going up." The dying hero's
face was illuminated by a smile of great joy. His spirit lingered several hours, and
then departed. Just before his breath ceased the captured British flag was brought
to him. He made a sign for them to place it under his head, and thus he expired.
His body was taken to Sackett's Harbor, and with that of his pupil and aid, Captain
Nicholson, was buried with military honors within Fort Tompkins there. Of his final
resting-place I shall hereafter write.2
When I visited the site of York and the theatre of events there in 1813, in August,
1860,1 found on the borders of that harbor the beautiful — really beautiful city of
Toronto, containing between fifty and sixty thousand souls. I arrived there by the
Toronto branch of the Great Western Railway at eight o'clock in the evening, having
left Paris, on the Grand River, at about five in the afternoon. We reached Burling
ton Station at six, and occupied about an hour and a half in traveling the remaining
1 The Parliament-houses stood on the site of the present jail in Toronto. It is said that the incendiary was instigated
by the indignation of the Americans, who found hanging upon the walls of the legislative chamber a human scalp !
British writers, ever ready to charge the Americans with all manner of crimes, have not only affected to disbelieve this
story, but have charged American writers who have stated the fact with deliberate falsehood. It is not pleasant to re
late facts so shameful to the boasted civilization of that country as this incident furnishes; but as one of the latest of
British historians has, without the shadow of an excuse, intimated that the scalp in question had been taken by Com
modore Chauncey from the head of a British Indian, "shot while in a tree," during the advance of the Americans on
the town (see Auchinleck's History of the War c/1812, published in Toronto in 1855), I feel compelled, by a sense of jus
tice, to submit the proofs of this evidence of the barbarism of the British authorities in Canada at that time.
On the 4th of June, 1S13, Commodore Chauucey wrote from Sackett's Harbor to the Secretary of the Navy, saying,
" I have the honor to present to you, by the hands of Lieutenant Dudley, the British standard taken at York on the 27th
of April last, accompanied by the mace, over ichich hung a human scalp. These articles were taken from the Parliament-
houses by one of my officers and presented to me. The scalp I caused to be presented to General Dearborn." — Autograph
Letter, Navy Department, Washington City. Armstrong, who was Secretary of War at that time, writing in 1S3G, says,
"One regimental standard was (by some strange confusion of ideas) sent to the Navy Department, and one human scalp,
a prize made, as we have understood, by the commodore, was offered, but not accepted, as a decoration to the walls of
the War Department."— Notices of the War of 1812, i., 132. General Dearborn wrote, "A scalp was found in the execu
tive and legislative council-chamber, suspended near the speaker's chair, accompanied by the mace."— Giles's Register,
iv.,190. Commenting on this, Niles says, "The mace is the emblem of authority, and the scalp's position near it is truly
symbolical of the British power in Canada." The Canadian people had no part nor lot in the matter, and should not
bear any of the odium. If British writers would fairly condemn the wrong-doings of their rulers, they would be more
just to their fellow-subjects.
2 The chief authorities consulted in the preparation of the foregoing narrative in this chapter are the official reports
of the commanders on both sides ; the histories of the events by Thompson, Perkins, James, Auchinleck, Armstrong,
Christy, Ingersoll, and minor writers ; Whiting's Biography of General Pike ; Hough's Histories of Jefferson, Franklin,
aud St. Lawrence Comities ; Rogers's History of Canada : Smith's Canada, Past and Present ; Cooper's Naval History
of the United States; The War; Niles's Register : the Port Folio ; Analectic Magazine; manuscript notes of Dr. Amasa
Trowbridge ; autograph letters of actors in the scenes, and notes from the lips of survivors.
392 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
A Journey to Toronto. Experience in that City. A Veteran of the War of 1812.
thirty-nine miles. Lieutenant Francis Hall, who traveled the same route in 1816,
more than ten years before the first railway was built for the conveyance of passen
gers, says, " It took us three hours to accomplish the five miles of road betwixt the
head of the lake and the main road, called Dundas Street, which runs from York to
ward Lake Erie and Amherstburg The face of the country from the head of
the lake to York is less varied than that of the Niagara frontier. The thread of set
tlements is slender, and frequently interrupted by long tracts of hemlock swamp and
pine barrens." Cultivation has somewhat changed the features of the country since
then, but, after leaving the glimpses of Lake Ontario on our right, we found the route
rather uninteresting, the country being generally flat.
We crossed the rocky bed of the Humber at twilight, and before nine o'clock, hav
ing supped, I was settled as a guest at the " Rossin House" for two days. During
the night a fearful thunder-storm burst over the city, and the lightning fired two
buildings. Amid the din of the tempest came the doleful pealing of the fire-bells.
At the midnight hour,
"Oh, the bells, bells, bells !
What a tale their terror tells
Of despair !
How they clang, and clash, and roar ;
What a horror they outpour
On the bosom of the palpitating air !"— EDGAR A. POE.
For more than two hours I lay wondering when the tumult would cease. All things
have an end, and so did this unwelcome disturbance — unwelcome, because I was worn
and weary, and needed full rest for another hard day's work on the morrow.
The sun, at rising, peered longitudinally through a veil of mist that hung over the
land and the lake. There was great sultriness in the air. I went out early to find
the venerable John Ross, one of the oldest inhabitants of Toronto, then in his seven
tieth year. He settled there in the year aft
er it was made the seat of the provincial
government, and for sixty-two years he had
watched its growth from a few scattered
huts to a stately city. lie was born at "Butler's Barracks," just back of Newark,
now Niagara. Some of Butler's Rangers, those bitter Tory marauders in Central
New York during the Revolution, who in cruelty often shamed Brant and his braves,
settled in Toronto, and were mostly men of savage character, who met death by vio
lence.1 In the War of 1812 Mr. Ross belonged to a company of York Volunteers.
He was with Brock at Hull's surrender, and in the battle of Queenstown, two months
later, where his loved commander fell. He assisted in the burial of the hero in Fort
George, and he gave me many interesting incidents connected with the event.
Mr. Ross gave me such minute and clear directions concerning the interesting
places in and around Toronto that I experienced no difficulty in finding them. I
hired a horse and light wagon, and a young man for driver, and spent a greater por
tion of the day in the hot sun. We first rode out to the plain westward of the city,
to visit the landing-place of the Americans and the remains of old Fort Toronto. The
latter, delineated on the next page, were on the margin of the lake, where the
bank is only about eight feet above the water. The spot is about sixty rods west
ward of the present military post called the New Barracks. The principal remains
of the fort (in which may be seen some timber-work placed there when the fort was
partially repaired in the winter of 1812-'! 3) are seen in the foreground. They pre
sented abrupt heaps covered with sod. On the right, in the distance, is seen Gibraltar
Point, with the trees springing from its low, sandy surface. On the left are the New
Barracks. A few rods westward of the fort were the remains of a battery, the
1 Mr. Ross knew a Mr. D , one of these Ranger?, who, when intoxicated, once told him that " the sweetest steak he
ever ate was the breast of a woman, which he cut off and broiled !"
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
593
Remains of Old Fort Toronto. An Adventure among the Fortifications at Toronto Displeasure of a British Official.
KlvMAlNS OF OI.l) FORT TORONTO.
mounds of which were four or five feet in height. Passing on toward the city, near
the* lake shore, we came to the remains of the Western Battery (see map on page 590),
delineated on page 588, ten or fifteen rods eastward of the New Barracks; and, still
nearer to the town, the mounds of the Half-moon Battery.
Riding into the city, we passed through the old garrison, where a few of the One
Hundredth Regiment occupied a portion of the barracks. The gates were away, and
the public road passed directly through the fort. For the purpose of obtaining a
sketch of the old block-house of 1813, 1 mounted the half-ruined parapet on the north
side, when I was accosted by the fort adjutant just as I had set my pencil at work.
With great discourtesy of manner he informed me that it was a violation of law to
OLD FORT AT TORONTO IN 1600.
make sketches of British fortifications, and that I ought to think myself fortunate in
being allowed to escape without a penitential day in the guard-house. I assured him
that had I for a moment dreamed that a few old mounds of earth, two deserted block
houses, and some tumble-down barracks, with a public road crossing the very centre
of the group, constituted a fortification in the sense of British military law, I should
not have been a trespasser. This intimation that a man with his eyes open could not,
in the chaos around him, discover a British fort, did not increase the amiability of the
adjutant, and, with the supercilious hauteur of offended dignity, he gave me to under
stand that he wished no farther conversation with me. This was the only instance
PP
594 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
A courteous Sergeant. Visit to the Don. Chief Justice Robinson and William Lyon M'Kenzie.
of incivility- that I received during all my travels in Canada. I closed my portfolio,
passed out at the eastern gateway, and from the causeway that crosses the ravine at
the foot of Bathurst Street, a short distance from the site of the powder magazine
that exploded, I obtained a much more interesting sketch than I should have done
from the parapet.1 This was full compensation for the fort adjutant's incivility.
When I had finished my sketch I started into and through the fort, and fell in with
Sergeant Barlow, a most courteous young man, who invited me to his quarters to see
his bride. There he showed me a number of relics of the War of 1812, lately thrown
up by the excavators in the employ of the railway company. Among them was a
military button marked "P. R." — Pennsylvania Rangers — some silver and copper
coins found with a skeleton, and the remains of an epaulette. There I also met Ser
geant Robertson, a veteran Scotch soldier, who was one of the Glengary Regiment
during the War of 1812. He had served in the British army twenty years previous
to that war. He was tall and vigorous, but somewhat lame, and about ninety years
of age. He gave me some curious details of the operations of the famous Gleng'ary
men during the strife.
From the old fort we rode out to the River Don, at the eastern extremity of the
city. It is there about seventy feet wide, and was spanned by a bridge at the junction
of King and Queen Streets, made of heavy open timber-work. There General Sheaffe
crossed in his flight, burning the bridge behind him. Looking up the Don from it
about three fourths of a mile, where its wooded banks are high, may be seen St.
James's Cemetery, in the northeast corner of which is the site of the first palace or
dwelling of the governor, which was built of logs and called Castle Frank. The
spot still retains that name. I intended to visit it, but when we were at the bridge
the day was waning, and a thunder-shower was gathering in the west ; so we turned
our faces cityward, and arrived at the hotel in time for a late dinner and a stroll
around the city to view its very beautiful public buildings before dark.
On the following morning I called upon Sir John Beverly Robinson, chief justice
of Upper Canada, at his pleasant residence on the southeast corner of John and Queen
Streets. He was an aged man, small in stature, and elegant and affable in manners.
His father was a member of Simcoe's corps of Queen's Rangers during our old War
for Independence, and, with other Loyalists, fled to Nova Scotia at its close. He aft
erward settled in Upper Canada, where the chief justice was born. The son was des
tined for the legal profession, and finished his education in England, where he was
admitted to the bar. When the War of 1812 broke out he abandoned his profession
temporarily, joined the army in Canada, and was with Brock, in gallant service, at
Detroit and Queenston. He was rewarded with the office of solicitor general, and
was afterward made attorney general and chief justice of the province. He died at
Toronto early in 1863, at the age of seventy-one years.
In the course of the morning I met the famous leader of the revolt in Upper Canada
in 1837, William Lyon M'Kenzie, with whom I had been acquainted several years.
He was still engaged in his favorite profession of editing and publishing a newspaper,
and, though at near the end of the allotted age of man, he seemed as vigorous as ever,
and was conducting his paper with that boldness that ever characterized his career.
He, too, has since been laid in the grave. Mr. M'Kenzie accompanied me to the res
idence of the governor general, the Parliament-house, and the wharf, where great
preparations were making for the reception of the Prince of Wales, who was then at
Montreal on his way to the Upper Province. Workmen were engaged in the con
struction of an immense amphitheatre and triumphal arch, not far from the Parlia-
1 In this view is seen the causeway and bridge over the ravine, and the general appearance of the fort in I860. In
the embankment is seen a f raise, or pickets placed horizontally. On the left is the old block-house of 1S13. In the cen
tre, to the right of the open gateway, is another block-house with a flag on it, built after the Americans left York. On
the right is the governor's house, built after the war, with a poplar-tree near it. In the ravine, a little to the left of the
cannon and horses, was situated the magazine that exploded.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
595
Passage across Lake Ontario.
The Railway to Lewiston.
Arrival at Niagara Falls.
August 23,
1860.
ment-house, at the foot of wide Brock Street, I think. The veteran agitator was to
leave for Montreal that afternoon for the purpose of meeting the prince, and so we
soon parted, he to dash off some spicy editorials — to hurl a shot at some political or
social evil — and I to dine and prepare for a voyage across the lake to the Niagara
River.
We left Toronto toward evening,a hoping to reach Lewiston in time to
take the train that would connect with one leaving Niagara Falls early
for the East, but in this we were disappointed. The voyage was a delightful one in
a stanch steamer. We passed out of the harbor through the channel across the for
mer neck of the peninsula,1 and in a short time we were out of sight of land. All
along the western and northern horizons heavy clouds were drifting, and the watery
expanse back of us was as black as the Styx. Before us, as we approached the
mouth of the Niagara River, the white mist, which is eternally rising from the Great
Cataract, was seen above Queenston Heights, at least twenty miles distant. When
we entered the river a heavy thunder-shower was rapidly rising in the direction of
Burlington Bay. It burst upon us
at Lewiston, where we entered the
railway cars. It was short and se
vere. As we moved along the fear
ful shelf in the rocks forming the
perpendicular banks of the Niagara
River — rocks a hundred feet above
and a hundred feet below the rail
way that overlooks the rushing wa
ters — the setting sun beamed out
in splendor, and revealed clearly
the whole country from Queenston
Heights to Lake Ontario. Just as
we had passed a small rocky tunnel,
we were detained for a few minutes
by some obstruction, when, from the
back window of the -last car in the
train at which I was standing, I
O?
made the accompanying sketch. It
will convey to the reader an idea of
the nature of the road. Below is
seen the waters of the Niagara, span
ned by the suspension bridge at
Lewiston, and, by a somewhat wind
ing way, flowing into Lake Ontario
in the far distance. We ran into
Niagara Falls village at dark in the
midst of another heavy thunder-
shower, and late in the evening de
parted in the cars for the East. I
rested at Rochester that night, and
on the following day reached my
home on the Hudson, after a weari
some but most interesting tour of a
fortnight in Canada and along the Niagara frontier.
We have observed on page 591 that the victors at York abandoned that post pre
paratory to an attack upon Fort George, at the mouth of the Niagara River. On ac-
VIEW ON THE KIAGAEA, KEXB LEWISTON.
1 See note 3, page 586.
596 P1CTOKIAL FIELD-BOOK
Expedition against Fort George. Preparations for an Attack. The respective Forces there.
count of adverse winds, the expedition did not leave York Harbor until the 8th of
May, when the whole fleet crossed the lake and anchored off the mouth of Four-mile
Creek, four miles eastward of Fort Niagara. Dearborn and Chauncey, and other
army and naval commanders, had preceded the fleet in the pilot schooner Lady of
the Lake, and selected the place for an encampment near the mouth of the creek.
There the troops were debarked, and Chauncey sailed for Sackett's Harbor with most
of his fleet, to obtain supplies and re-enforcements for the army. He arrived there on
a May, the llth.a The smaller vessels were continually employed in conveying stores
S13- and troops to Dearborn's camp ; and on the 22d the Madison, with the com
modore's pennant flying in her, sailed for the same point with three hundred and fifty
troops, including Macomb's artillery corps. She arrived at Four-mile Creek on the
25th, and on the evening of the same day Commander Perry, who had come down
hastily from Erie, joined Chauncey, to the great delight of that officer. At the mo
ment of his arrival, all the officers of the squadron were assembled on board the flag
ship to receive orders. " No person on earth," Chauncey said to Perry, as he cor
dially grasped his hand, "could be more welcome at this time than yourself." On
the following morning the commodore and Perry, in the Lady of the Lake, recon
noitred the enemy's batteries with care, planted buoys for the government of the
smaller vessels which it was intended to send close in shore, and arranged other pre
liminaries for the attack. They then called upon General Dearborn, who was quite
ill at his quarters, when Chauncey urged the importance of making the attack the
next morning. The general assented, and issued an order to that effect, which was
signed by Winfield Scott, adjutant general and chief of staff. The last clause of the
order placed the landing of the troops in charge of Commodore Chauncey, and that
specific duty was intrusted to Commander Perry. Information of this arrangement
was communicated to the commanding general, who, it appears, had no definite plan
of attack.1
Fort Niagara and the troops there were under the command of Major General
Morgan Lewis, of New York. During the occupancy of the camp at Four-mile Creek
re-enforcements had come in from various points, and on the return of Chauncey, pre
pared for attacking the British post. The American land force fit for duty was over
four thousand in number, under the general command of Dearborn. He was too ill
to take the field, and issued his orders part of the time from his bed. He was sup
ported by Generals Lewis, Boyd, Winder, and Chandler, and eminently so by Colonel
Scott, whose skill and industry in disciplining the troops during their detention in
camp was of the greatest service.
The British force in the vicinity was composed of about eighteen hundred regulars,
consisting of the Forty-ninth Regiment, and detachments from the Eighth, Forty-first,
Glengary, and Newfoundland Corps, under the command of Brigadier General John
Vincent. Eight companies of the Forty-ninth, five companies of the Eighth or King's,
three companies of the Glengary, and two of the Newfoundland Regiment, and a por
tion of the artillery, were stationed at Fort George and its immediate vicinity, with
three hundred and fifty militia and fifty Indians. The right, from Fort George to
Brown's Point (the first below Vrooman's, near Queenston), was commanded by
Colonel Harvey ; the left, from the fort to Four-mile Creek, on the Canada side of the
Niagara River, was commanded by Colonel Myers, the deputy quarter-master gen
eral ; and the centre, at the fort, by General Vincent. In the rear of Fort George, in
the several ravines, companies were stationed so as to support each other when re
quired.2
Besides Fort George, the British had several smaller works along the shores of the
Niagara River and Lake Ontario, in the vicinity. Five of the twenty-four-pounders
1 Letter of Commodore Perry, supposed to be to his parents, cited by M'Kenzie in his Life of Par y, ii., 138.
2 Merritt's MS. Narrative.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 597
Cannonade between Forts George and Niagara. The American Squadron off the Niagara River.
taken from Hull had been brought to that frontier, four of which had been mounted
in Fort George, and the fifth had been placed en barbette,1 about half a mile from New
ark, on or near the site of the present Fort Mississagua. They had another battery at
the mouth of the Two-mile Creek. The Americans had quite a powerful work, called
the Salt Battery, in the lower part of Youngstown, opposite Fort George. There
were two other batteries above it, and two between it and Fort Niagara.
Arrangements were made for the attack on Fort George on the morning of the
27th of May. A large number of boats had been built at Five-mile Meadow, on the
Niagara River, and orders were sent for them to be brought round to Four-mile Creek.
When they were launched, toward evening on the 26th, a small battery opposite the
Meadows opened upon the workmen. This brought on a general cannonading be
tween the two forts and their dependent batteries, during which the Salt Battery at
Youngstown inflicted severe injury upon every wooden building in and near Fort
George, while the return fire from the fort was slow and feeble, owing, it is said, to a
scarcity of powder. Meanwhile night came on, and under its cover the boats went
down the river and reached the American encampment in safety. During the night,
all the heavy artillery, and as many troops as possible, were placed on the Madison,
Oneida, and Lady of the Lake, and instructions given for the remainder to follow in
the smaller war vessels and boats, according to a prescribed plan.
Generals Dearborn and Lewis went on board the Madison, and between three and
four o'clock in the morning the squadron weighed anchor. The troops were all em
barked at a little past four, and the wThole flotilla moved toward the Niagara with a
very gentle breeze. The wind soon failed, and the smaller vessels were compelled to
employ their sweeps. A heavy fog hovered over land and water from early dawn
until the sun broke forth in splendor, when a magnificent sight was opened to view
on the lake. The large vessels, filled with troops, were all under way, and the bosom
of the water was covered with scores of boats, filled with soldiers, light artillery, and
horses, grandly advancing upon the enemy, who had been greatly perplexed by the
fog. The breeze had now freshened a little, and all the vessels took their designated
positions without difficulty.
The Julia, Sailing-master Trant, and the Growler, Sailing-master Mix, took a posi
tion at the mouth of the Niagara River, to keep in check or silence a battery near the
light-house (on or near the site of Fort Mississagua), in the vicinity of which it was
-- -~^-i^iV^-^^ r ---:^>~ • —
TO TILE NIAGARA EIVEK.2
intended to land some of the troops. The Ontario, commanded by Mr. Stevens, took
a position north from the light-house, so as to enfilade the same battery and cross the
1 That is, on the top of an embankment, without embrasures or openings in the banks by which the cannon is shel
tered and concealed.
- This view is from a drawing made in 1813, previous to the attack on Fort George, and published in the Port Folio
in July, 1S17. On the extreme left is seen Fort Niagara, and at a greater distance, across the river, Fort George and the
vilage of Newark. To the right of the light-house, over which is a flag, is seen the battery which the Julia and Growler
controlled.
598 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Opening of {he Batteries. Landing of the American Troops. Gallantry of Commodore Perry.
fire of the other two. The Governor Tompkins, Lieutenant Brown, and the Conquest,
commanded by another lieutenant of the same name, took position near Two-mile
Creek, so as to command a battery which the enemy had erected there. Near this
was the designated place for the debarkation of most of the troops. For the purpose
of covering them in that movement, the Hamilton, Lieutenant M'Pherson, the Asp,
Lieutenant Smith, and the Scourge, Sailing-master Osgood, took stations near the oth
er two, but closer to the shore.
While the vessels were taking their positions, and the troops were preparing to
land, the batteries upon both sides were playing briskly. Colonel Scott, on accept
ing the position of adjutant general, had stipulated that he should be allowed to com
mand his regiment (Second Artillery) on extraordinary occasions. This he considered
an extraordinary occasion, aftd he was placed in the command of the vanguard or for
lorn hope of five hundred men destined to make the first attack. The troops were to
land in three brigades, from six divisions of boats. Scott's advance was composed of
his own corps acting as infantry, Forsyth's riflemen, and detachments from infantry
regiments. These were to be followed by General Lewis's division and Colonel Moses
Porter with his light artillery, and these, in turn, by the commands of Generals Boyd
(who had succeeded General Pike), Winder, and Chandler. The reserve consisted of
Colonel Alexander Macomb's regiment of artillery, in which the marines of the squad
ron, under Captain Smith, had been incorporated. Four hundred seamen were also
held in reserve, to land, if necessary, under the immediate command of Commodore
Chauncey.
Before the expedition reached the place of intended debarkation the wind had in
creased, and a rather heavy sea rolling shoreward made the landing difficult. The
TompJcins swept gracefully into her designated position.v Lieutenant Brown coolly
prepared for action, and then opened a fire upon the British battery with so much
precision that it was silenced, and its people driven away in less than ten minutes.
The boats now dashed in under the skillful management of Perry ; and so eager were
the troops of the van, under Scott, to meet the foe, that they leaped into the water
and waded to the shore, Captain Hindman, of the Second Artillery, being the first
man who touched the beach. They had already been under fire ; for, as the first bri
gade, under Boyd, with Scott in the van, approached the shore, they were unexpect
edly assailed by volleys of musketry from more than two hundred of the Glengary
and Newfoundland regiments under Captain Winter, and about forty Indians under
Norton, who was conspicuous at Queenston the year before. These had been con
cealed in a ravine and wood not far from the battery that had been silenced. The
shot passed over the heads of the Americans ; and, a few minutes afterward, Scott
and his party were on the beach, sheltered by an irregular bank, varying from six to
twelve feet in height, where they formed for immediate action. The enemy, from
apprehension of the fire from the schooners, did not approach the shore again imme
diately, but kept back, with the intention of assailing the invaders when they should
ascend the bank to the plain above.
The conduct of Perry on this occasion was remarkable. Unmindful of personal
danger, he went from vessel to vessel in an open boat, giving directions personally
concerning the landing. With Scott he leaped into the water, and rushed ashore
through the surf, and soon had the satisfaction of seeing the whole first brigade, un
der Boyd, landed in perfect order on the beach, flanked by M'Clure's Baltimore and
Albany Volunteers. Meanwhile the schooners were not firing briskly enough to suit
the young hero. He pushed off to the Hamilton, of nine guns, and while Scott and
his party were attempting to ascend to the plain, he opened a tremendous discharge
of grape and canister shot on the British, who were now advancing to repel the
Americans, full one thousand strong, infantry and artillery, under Colonel Myers.
The struggle of the Americans in ascending the bank Avas most severe. Three
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
599
A severe Contest on the Shore.
Eetreat of the British.
Capture of Fort George.
times they were compelled to fall back, hard pushed by the bayonets of the foe. In
the first attempt, Scott, at the head of his men, was hurled backward to the beach.
Dearborn, who was anxiously watching the movement with his glass from the Madi
son, and who placed more reliance on Scott than any other man, seeing him fall, ex
claimed in agony, " He is lost ! he is killed !" Scott soon recovered himself, rallied
his men, rushed up the bank, knocked up the bayonets of the enemy, and took and
held a position at a ravine near by. He was supported by Porter's field train and a
part of Boyd's brigade, in which service the Sixth Regiment, three hundred strong,
under Colonel James Miller, performed a conspicuous part. A severe and gallant ac
tion ensued — gallant on both sides — which was chiefly sustained by Scott's corps, and
the Eighth (King's) British regiment, under Major Ogilvie. The contest lasted only
about twenty minutes, when the severe cannonade from the Hamilton and the well-
applied fire of the American troops caused the British to break and flee in much con
fusion. The wrhole body of the enemy, including the Forty-ninth Regiment, which
had been brought forward by Colonel Harvey as a re-enforcement, fled toward Queens-
ton, closely pursued by Colonel Scott. Colonel Myers, their commander, was wound
ed and taken from the field ; and the whole corps, officers and men, who fought brave
ly, suffered severely.
General Vincent was satisfied that the victory of the Americans was complete, and
that Fort George was untenable, so he ordered its guns to be spiked, the ammunition
to be destroyed, the fort to be abandoned, and the whole force under his command
to retreat westward, by the way of Vrooman's and St. David's, to a strong position
among the hills, at a place called the Beaver Dams, about eighteen miles distant, and
rendezvous there.
Information of the im
pending destruction of
the fort was communica
ted to Scott while pass
ing it with his pursuing
column by some prison
ers who came running
out. He immediately de
tached two companies,
under Captains Hind-
man and Stockton,1 and,
wheeling to the left,
dashed on at their head
toward the fort to save
the guns and ammuni
tion, if possible. When
he was about eighty
paces from the works
one of the magazines ex
ploded, and a piece of
flying timber threw the impetuous leader from his horse, and hurt him severely. He
soon recovered from the shock, and pressed forward. The gate was forced, the light
ed trains for firing two smaller magazines were extinguished, and, with his own
hands, Scott hauled down the British flag. The whole manoeuvre occupied but a few
minutes, and Scott was soon again at the head of his column, in hot pursuit of the
1 Thomas Stockton was a native of Delaware, and was appointed captain of artillery in 1S12. In 1814 he became ma
jor of the Forty-second Infantry, and at the close of the war was retained as captain, with the brevet rank of major.
He afterward served in the artillery. He resigned in 1S25. In 1S44 he was governor of Delaware, and died at New
castle in March, 1S4G.
PLAN OF OPERATIONS AT TUB MOUTH OF THE NIAGARA EIVEE.
600 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Pursuit of the British checked. Their Flight to the Beaver Dams aud Burlington Heights.
flying enemy, satisfied that he would overtake and capture them. Twice he disre
garded an order from General Lewis to give up the pursuit, saying to Lieutenants
Worth and Vandeventer, the messengers, " Your general does not know that I have
the enemy within my power; in seventy minutes I shall capture his whole force."
Just then Colonel Burn,1 his senior, was crossing the Niagara River from the Five-
mile Meadows with precisely the troops which Scott deemed necessary to make his
successful pursuit of the enemy secure. While waiting for these he was overtaken
by General Boyd, who gave him peremptory orders to relinquish the chase and re
turn to Fort George. He obeyed with regret. He had followed the enemy five
miles, and was then so near them that he was in the midst of the British stragglers.
Lieutenant Riddle, who was not aware of the order, pursued the fugitives almost to
Queenston, and cap'tured and brought back several prisoners.
At meridian, Fort George and its dependencies, with the village of Newark, were in
the quiet possession of the Americans, the attack and conquest having occupied only
three hours. The Americans had been eleven hours on duty since embarking at Foiir-
mile Creek. Only a small portion of them had been actually engaged in the conflict.2
Their loss was about forty killed and one hundred wounded. The only officer slain
was Lieutenant Henry A. Hobart, of the Light Artillery. The loss of the British reg
ulars was fifty-one killed, and three hundred and five wounded, missing, and prison
ers. The number of British militia made prisoners was five hundred and seven,
making the entire loss of the enemy eight hundred and sixty-three, with quite a large
quantity of munitions and stores saved from destruction at Fort George and the
batteries.
General Vincent and most of his troops reached the Beaver Dams toward sunset,
and during the evening he was joined by a " battalion company" of the Eighth, and
a " detachment of the royal navy" under Captain Barclay, who had been escorted by
the gallant Captain Merritt, of the mounted militia, from the Twenty-mile Creek.3
Between midnight and dawn, the troops from Fort Erie, under Lieutenant Colonel
Bisshopp, and from Fort Chippewa, under Major Ormsby, reached the camp, orders
having been sent to those commanders to abandon the entire Niagara frontier. Early
in the morning Vincent resumed his march toward the head of Lake Ontario, his
whole force bqing about sixteen hundred men. From Forty-mile Creek (now Grims-
by) he wrote an official dispatch to Sir George Prevost that evening, giving an ac
count of his disasters, and suggesting the propriety of establishing a communication
with the army on Burlington Heights (whither he was inarching) " through the me
dium of the fleet." On the 29th he took post on the heights, and was soon joined by
troops from Kingston.
* May, On the morning of the 28th,a when it was known that Vincent had fallen
1813- back to his deposit of provisions and stores at the Beaver Dams, General Lewis
was sent in pursuit of him with the brigades of Chandler and Winder. They accom
plished nothing. Ascertaining that Vincent had fled westward, they made a circuit
1 James Burn was a native of South Carolina. He was a captain of cavalry in 1709. He settled in Pennsylvania, and
in the spring of 1812 was appointed colonel of the Second Light Dragoons. He left the service on the disbanding of the
army in 1815. He died at Frankfort, near Philadelphia, in 1823.
- General Dearborn, in. a second dispatch to the Secretary of War, written on the Sth of June, spoke in the highest
terms of all the officers and men engaged in the affair, especially of the "animating examples" of Scott and Boyd, and
the services of Colonel Porter, Major Armistead, and Lieutenant Totteu, in their "judicious and skillful execution in
demolishing the enemy's batteries." Lieutenant Totteu finally became a brigadier general, and was the Chief Engi
neer of the United States Army for several years before his death.
3 "We formed again at the Council-house" [see plan on page 509], says Captain Merritt, "when I was sent up to or
der down the light company of the King's, who, we understood, were at the Eight-mile Creek. I rode through the
M'oods, around the American regiments, followed up the lake to the Twenty-mile Creek (was two hours on the road),
where I met Commodore Barclay with his sailors, and the King's. We hurried on to Shopman's, where I learned the
army had retreated to De Cou's [the Beaver Dams]. I took the party through the woods, and arrived there at nine
o'clock in the evening. Next morning the militia were allowed to remain or follow the army. This was a bad day for
many as well as myself. I went home, prepared my^'kit,' and with a heavy heart bid adieu, as I thought, to the place
of my nativity for a long time. I was determined to'share the fate of the army."— MS. Narrative.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
601
British Property destroyed by themselves.
Injurious Delay.
Expedition sent toward Burlington Heights.
of many miles to assure themselves of the British evacuation of the frontier, and then
returned to camp.
Forts Erie and Chippewa, and all pubKc property from the former down to Niagara
Falls, were doomed to destruction by an order received from General Vincent on the
afternoon of the 27th. In pursuance of that order, Major Warren, in command of the
batteries opposite Black Rock, was ordered to open fire upon that place, and keep it
up all night, until the troops should move off. He did so ; and in the morning the
magazine at Fort Erie was blown up, and magazines, barracks, and store-houses all
along the frontier were fired. In the evening of Friday the 28th, Lieutenant Colo
nel James P. Preston, the commandant at Black Rock (who was Governor of Virginia
in 1816), crossed over with the Twelfth Regiment and took possession of Fort Erie.
He at once issued an admirable proclamation to the people of Canada, by which he
allayed their apprehensions and disarmed all resentment.1
Two or three days were now consumed in apathy at Newark, Dearborn and Chaun-
cey not having been able to agree respecting future movements. The latter, who had
anchored his fleet in Niagara River, sailed for Sackett's Harbor on the 31st. Mean
while a rumor came that Proctor was marching from the Detroit frontier to assist
Vincent in recoverincr that of the Niao;ara, This determined the American com-
c? o
mander to send troops in pursuit of Vincent immediately, for the purpose of attack
ing him among the hills or arresting his flight westward. For this purpose he de
tached General Winder, at his own request, on the 1st of June, with about eight hund
red men, including Burn's dragoons, and Archer's and Towson's artillery. He took
the Lake Road, and marched rapidly to Twenty-mile Creek, where he was informed
of Vincent's position at Burlington Heights and his re-enforcements from Kingston.
Winder prudently halted, sent to Dearborn for re-enforcements, and waited for their
arrival. He was joined on the 5th by General Chandler and about five hundred men.
Chandler, being the senior officer, took the chief command, and the whole body moved
1 "The Albany steam-boat which arrived yesterday (Sunday) brings intelligence that Fort Erie had surrendered to
the troops of the United States, under Generals Dearborn and Lewis, with little or no resistance on the part of the en
emy." This announcement appeared in a New York paper on Monday morning, the 7th of June, 1S13. This form of
announcement of war news from the North and West at that time was very common. Expresses from the army at dif
ferent points were sent to Governor Tompkins, the chief magistrate of the State of New York, living at Albany, and
the steam-boat was the most rapid method for conveying intelligence then known. Every few days the New York pa
pers would say, " The Albany steam-boat brings intelligence," et cetera. It must be remembered that steam navigation
was then in its infancy. It was not six years since Fulton's first successful experiment had been made. There were
only three steam-boats on the Hudson at that time, whose owners had, by legislative grant, the monopoly of that kind
of navigation. These were the Paragon, Car of Septum, and Xorth River. The average length of the passage from New
York to Albany was then about thirty-six hours.*
* The following advertisement, taken from the New York Evening Post of the date under consideration, with a fac
simile of a cut of " the steam-boat" at its head, will seem very curious to the traveler now, at the distance of sixty years :
HUDSON RIVER STEAM-BOATS.
For the Information of the Public.
The Paragon, Captain Wiswall, will leave New York
every Saturday afternoon, at 5 o'clock. The Car of Nep-
tune, Captain Roorback, do., every Tuesday afternoon,
at 5 o'clock. The North River, Captain Bartholomew, do.,
every Thursday afternoon, at 5 o'clock.
The Paragon will leave Albany every Thursday morn
ing, at 9 o'clock. The Car of Neptune, do., every Satur
day morning, at 9 o'clock. The North River, do., every
Tuesday morning, at 9 o'clock.
TRICES OF PASSAGE.
From New York to Verplanck's Point, $2 ; West Point,
$2.50; Newburg, $3; Wappinger's Creek, $3.25 ; Poughkeepsie, $3.50; Hyde Park, $4; Esopus, $4.25; Red Hook, $4.50 :
Catskill, $5; Hudson, $5; Coxsackie, $5.50 ; Kinderhook. $5.75: Albany, $7.
From Albany to Kinderhook, $1.50; Coxsackie, $2 ; Hudson, $2; Catskill, $2.25: Red Hook, $2.75; Esopus. $3; Hyde
Park, $3.25 ; Poughkeepsie, $3.50 ; Wappinger's Creek, $4 ; Newburg, $4.25 ; West Point, $4.75 ; Verplauck's Point,
$5.25 ; New York, $7.
All other way passengers to pay at the rate of one dollar for every twenty miles. No one can be taken on board and
put on shore, however short the distance, for less than one dollar.
Young persons from two to ten years of age to pay half price. Children under two years, one fourth price. Servants
who use a berth, two thirds' price ; half price of none.
602
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Encounter at Forty-mile Creek.
Americans at Stony Creek.
Preparations to surprise their Camp.
forward briskly to Forty -mile Creek, where
they i-ested, after driving off a patrol of mount
ed militia under Captain Merritt. They then
moved forward to Stony Creek, ten miles far
ther westward and within about seven miles
of Vincent's camp, where they encountered a
British picket-guard. These were dispersed,
and hotly pursued by the American advance-
guard, consisting of light infantry under Cap
tains Hindman, Biddle, and Nicholas, part of a
rifle corps under Captain Lyttle, and a detach
ment of dragoons under Captain Selden. Near
the present toll-gate, a little eastward of Ham
ilton, they encountered another picket. These,
too, were driven in, and the victors pushed on
in pursuit until they saw Vincent's camp on the
great gravelly hill at the head of Burlington
Bay. Then they wheeled, and made their way
leisurely back to camp at Stony Creek.
The main body of the army encamped upon
ground rising slightly above a meadow, through
which flows a branch of Stony Creek, and occu
pied the space from the main stream north of the village to the house of Mr. Gage,
at the foot of the hills, on the site of which, when I visited the spot in 1860, stood the
residence of Nelson Miller. The Thirteenth and Fourteenth Regiments, and a com
pany of artillery under Captain Archer,1 took post on the lake shore, near the mouth
of the creek, about three miles from the main body. The troops in both camps, ex
pecting a night attack, slept on their arms, and every precaution was taken by Chand
ler in the posting of pickets, throwing out patrols, etc., to prevent a surprise. Ex
plicit directions were given by him where and how to form the line of battle in the
event of an attack. The cannon were properly planted, and the horses that drew
them were unharnessed.
There was equal vigilance in the British camp. The audacity of the American
vanguard in pursuing the pickets amazed and alarmed Vincent. He was anxious to
obtain immediate knowledge of the numerical strength and the disposition of his
foe, and sent out Lieutenant Colonel Harvey, with the light companies of the Eighth
and Forty-ninth Regiments, to reconnoitre the American camp. The duty was
well performed, notwithstanding the night was very dark, and Harvey reported, be
fore midnight, that "the enemy's camp -guards were few and negligent; that his
line of encampment was long and broken ; that his artillery was feebly supported ;
and that several of the corps were placed too far in the rear to aid in repelling a
blow which might be rapidly and vigorously struck at the front." He advised a
night attack, and Vincent, heeding it, made immediate preparations to execute the
movement.
At midnight the British commander left his camp with about six hundred men,
composed of five companies of the King's (Eighth) Regiment and the whole of the
Forty-ninth, and marched for Stony Creek. Harvey's scout joined them, and at about
two o'clock in the morning they all halted within a mile of the American camp.
Harvey had discovered the centre to be the weakest point in Chandler's line. By
one of the inhabitants of the neighborhood, who had treacherously joined the Amer-
1 Samuel B. Archer was a native of Virginia. He was a captain in Scott's Second Regiment of artillery, and was
breveted major for his gallant conduct at Fort George on the 27th of May, 1813. He was retained in the service inlSIS,
and in 1821 became inspector general, with the rank of colonel. He died on the llth of December, 1823.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
603
Assault on the American Camp.
Confusion and Disaster in the Darkness.
UATT.LE-GEOC.ND OF STOXY CEEEK.1
icans and deserted, Vincent had obtained the countersign for that night, and through
it he was enabled to secure the sentinels without giving alarm.
It was now two o'clock in the morninga — a warm Sabbath morning — and > jnne e,
the little army of Americans were sleeping soundly, unconscious of impend
ing danger. Clouds covering a moonless sky made the gloom deep, but not impen
etrable. Five hundred British regulars loaded their muskets, fixed their bayonets,
and, led by General Vincent in person, rushed upon the American centre at double-
quick, writh the appalling Indian war-whoop, and plied the bayonet so fearfully that
the line was cut, and that portion of it scattered to the winds. This furious charge
was immediately followed by Major Plenderleath at the head of forty men of the
Forty-ninth, who fell upon the artillery, bayoneted the men at the guns, captured two
six-pounders, and turned them with fearful effect upon the camp. The greatest con
fusion prevailed, Chandler's centre and the assailants becoming almost inextricably
mixed in the dark, and each was unable to distinguish friends from foes.
In the mean time Major Ogilvie, with a part of the King's Regiment, had fallen
upon the American left, composed of the Fifth, Sixteenth, and Twenty-third Regu
lars, and some riflemen under General Winder, to which was attached Burn's dra-
•goons, who were too far in the rear to render immediate assistance. This attack was
at first gallantly resisted, the Twenty-fifth, of the centre, lending their aid ; but a fire
in the rear, from a detachment of the assailing party that broke through the line,
threw them into great confusion.
While Chandler2 was making preparations to meet this unexpected assault, a heavy
1 This view, sketched in the morning sunlight, is from the residence of Daniel Lewis, Esq., lieutenant colonel of the
Wentworth Militia, who was in the battle. In the foreground is seen the meadow through which flows a branch of
Stony Creek. Beyond it, on the left, is a gentle elevation, the estate of Mr. Thomas Waddle, of Hamilton, and near the
village, on which lay the encampment. Miller's (Gage's) house is seen on the extreme right, with a veranda and grove
of trees in front. In the distance is the range of hills which extend westward from Queenston, and are called "the
Mountain" by the Canadians.
2 John Chandler was born within the bounds of the present State of Maine (Kennebec County), then a part of Massa
chusetts, in the year 1TCO. His parents were very humble, and he became an itinerant blacksmith. His residence was
in General Dearborn's settlement of Monmonth, about fifteen miles west from Augusta. It is recorded, in a late His
tory and Description of Xew England, by Coolidge and Mansfield, that " he was the poorest man in the settlement." By
industry and perseverance he became wealthy. His talents were of a high order. He was a representative in Congress
from 1805 to 1SOS, and when the war broke out and he was commissioned a brigadier general, he was major general of
militia. His military career ended at Stony Creek, and he was disbanded in 1815. He represented Maine in the Senate
of the United States from 1S20 to 1829. He died at Augusta, Maine, September 25, 1841, at the age of eighty-one years.
004 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Capture of Generals Chandler and Winder. Narrow Escape of General Vincent. Retreat of the Americans.
fire was opened on the right flank of the Americans. Perceiving this, he hastened
in that direction to prevent its being turned, when, in the darkness, his horse stum
bled and fell, and the general was severely hurt. He soon recovered his feet, suc
ceeded in providing for the safety of his right, and was returning to the centre, mov
ing with difficulty on foot, when he was attracted to the artillery, where there was
much confusion. He was not aware that the two cannon were in possession of the
enemy ; and, under the impression that those in confusion around the pieces were
some of his own command, he gave orders for them to rally. To his utter astonish
ment he found himself among the enemy, and in a moment he was disarmed and made
a prisoner of war. At about the same time General Winder and Major Van De Ven
ter1 fell into the same trap and were made prisoners.2
At this moment there was the wildest confusion every where. Towson's artillery
had poured a destructive fire upon the assailants and had broken their ranks. Col
onel Burn, with his cavalry, had cut his way through the British Forty-ninth, and
was performing the same feat with the American Sixteenth, Avhen he discovered that
he was fighting his own friends. They had combated severely for several minutes be
fore the fatal mistake was discovered. Meanwhile Genei'al Vincent, the British com
mander, had been thrown from his horse in the darkness, and being unable to find
either his animal or his troops, had wandered off in the woods. His friends supposed
him to be killed or a prisoner. The command devolved upon Colonel Harvey, who,
finding it impossible to drive the Americans from their position, collected his scat
tered forces as quickly as possible, and Avhile it was yet dark hastened back toward
Burlington Heights with his notable prisoners. He sent Captain Merritt back to
look for General Vincent. He was unsuccessful, but captured two Americans, and
"junec, took them into camp as trophies.3 During the ensuing daya Vincent was
lsl3- found by his friends in the woods, four miles from the place of conflict, with
out hat or sword, and almost famished. His horse and accoutrements had fallen into
the hands of the Americans.
In this confused and terrible night-battle the Americans lost seventeen men killed,
thirty-eight wounded, and ninety-nine missing. The British lost twenty-three killed,
one hundred wounded, and fifty-five missing. Notwithstanding the Americans held
the ground, it was a substantial victory for the British, and the loss of the two gen
erals a severe one for the former. Through the gallantry of Lieutenant M'Chesney
one piece of artillery was immediately recovered, and the other the enemy was not
able to take away for the want of horses.4 They were endeavoring to do so when
they were overtaken by Lieutenant Macdonough, and the piece was seized by him.
The Americans, fearing a renewal of the attack, retreated so precipitately that they
left their dead unburied. Under the command of Colonel Burn they fled to Forty-
mile Creek, near which they were met by Colonel James Miller and four hundred
men sent to re-enforce them. " I can assure you," Colonel Miller wrote to his wrife,
" I can scarce believe that ypu would have been more glad to see me than that army
was.5 On the following day,b in the afternoon, they were joined by Generals
Lewis and Boyd, with their staffs, and the little army encamped there, on a
1 Christopher Van De Venter was a native of New York. He was appointed lieutenant in Scott's regiment of artil
lery in 1S09. In 1812 he was assistant military ageiit at Fort Columbus, in New York Harbor. He was afterward dep
uty quarter-master, with the rank of major, and in that capacity served on the Niagara frontier. He was taken a pris
oner to Quebec. At the close of the war he was retained in the service, and in 1S1G was aid-de-camp to Brigadier General
Joseph G. Swift. He resigned in August that year, and from 1S1T until 1827 he was chief clerk in the War Department.
He died at Georgetown, D. C., on the 22d of April, 1838.
2 Colonel William Eraser (then a sergeant), who was living at Perth, back of Brockville, in Canada, in I860, took both
the generals prisoners. He advanced upon the artillery, he said, with forty-six men, but when they drew near it they
had only twenty-five men. The American cannon in their front was loaded with all sorts of missiles. The priming
flashed, and the gun was not discharged. They then rushed forward, shouting "Come on, Brant !" The cannon were
taken. Plenderleath was wounded. Fraser was binding up his wounds, when Chandler and Winder fell into the snare
and were captured. 3 Merritt's MS. Narrative. * The same.
5 Autograph letter to his wife, dated Fort George, June 13, 1813.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 605
A British Fleet in Sight. Pursuit of the Americans. The British at Sodus Bay.
plain, its right flank on the lake, and its left on a creek which skirts the base of a very
steep but not lofty mountain.
At six o'clock that evening a British squadron under Sir James L. Yeo appeared in
the distance. The Americans lay on their arms all night, and in the morning the
hostile vessels were near. There was a dead calm. At six in the morning an armed
schooner was towed in, and opened a fire upon the American boats in Avhich most of
their baggage and camp equipage was transported, which lay on the shore. Mean
while the artillery companies under Archer and Towson had placed four cannon in
defensive position, and Lieutenant Totten had constructed a temporary furnace for
heating shot. The hostile vessel was soon driven off. At about the same time some
~
savage allies of the British appeared on the bald brow of the mountain, and fired in
effectually into the camp, and intelligence came that the British were moving east
ward from Burlington Heights. Sir James sent an officer, with a flag, to demand
from General Lewis an immediate surrender of his force, reminding him that a Brit
ish fleet was on his front, a savage foe in his rear, and an approaching British army
on his flank. Lewis answered that the summons was too ridiculous to merit a serious
reply. He had not lost a man in the whole affair of the morning. The schooner had
been driven away, and he was prepared to send off the boats with baggage and camp
equipage, accompanied by a guard of two hundred men under Colonel Miller. The
boats started prematurely — before the troops were ready. They were chased by an
armed schooner. A dozen of them were captured, and the remainder were run ashore
and abandoned by the crews. At ten o'clock in the morning the whole army com
menced a retrograde movement, the savages and local militia constantly hovering on
their flank and rear. They reached Fort George after losing several prisoners cap
tured by pursuers, and General Vincent came forward and occupied their camp at
Forty-mile Creek. Lieutenant Colonel Bisshopp, who Avas placed in command of the
right division of the British force, pushed forward with detachments, and took posi
tions which commanded the cross-roads from a little west of the present Port Dalhou-
sie, on the lake shore, to the mountain passes at the Beaver Dams.1
The British squadron in the mean time hovered along the lake coast, and interfered
greatly with the supplies for the American camp. On the evening of the 12tha . June)
they captured two vessels laden with valuable hospital stores in the mouth 1S13-
of Eighteen-mile Creek, eastward of the Niagara River ; and on Tuesday evening, the
loth, they made a descent upon the village of Charlotte, at the head of the naviga
tion of the Genesee River, and carried off a large quantity of stores. Sailing east
ward, they appeared off Sodus Bay on Friday, the 1 8th, and on the following even
ing a party of about one hundred, fully armed, landed at Sodus Point (now in Wayne
County) for the purpose of destroying the American stores known to be deposited
there. These had been removed to a place of concealment a little back of the village.
The enemy were exasperated on finding the store-houses empty, and threatened to
destroy the village if the place of the concealment of their contents should not be re
vealed. The women and children fled in alarm. A negro, compelled by threats,
gave the enemy the desired information, and they were marching in the direction of
the stores, when they were confronted at a bridge over a ravine by forty men under
Captain Turner, of Lyons. A sharp skirmish ensued, in which each party lost two
men.2 Both parties fell back, and the foiled British, as they returned to their vessels,
1 The chief authorities consulted are the official dispatches of commanders on both sides, and the several histories of
the war already mentioned; Mansfield's Life of General Scott; autograph letters of Colonel James Miller; MS. state
ment of Captain William H. Merritt ; Armstrong's Notices of the War of 1S12 ; Niles's Weekly Register ; The War, and
oral statements of survivors.
An account of my visit to the battle-grounds of Stony Creek and the Beaver Dams will be given in the next chapter.
2 Statement of Captain Luther Redfield, of Clyde, Wayne County, New York, in a letter to the author in February,
1SGO, when the old soldier was about eighty-six years of age. He says that in a log house a few rods north of the pres
ent Presbyterian church, in the village of Junius, public worship was held. The attack of the British at Sodus was on
Saturday evening. The next day, just as the afternoon service was about to commence at the house above mentioned,
606
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Destruction of Property at Sodus.
British Fleet off Oswego.
burned the public store-houses, five dwellings, and the old Williamson Hotel,
laid waste by fire property valued at about twenty-five thousand dollars.
»jnne 20, From Sodus the British squadron sailed eastward, and appeared off Os-
1813. wego,a with a wish to enter the harbor and seize or destroy stores there;
but Sir James, who was a cautious commander, did not venture in, and on the morn
ing of the 21st his squadron turned westward, and for several days lay off the Ni
agara River.
a horseman came dashing up at full speed with the news of the British invasion. Redfleld was a captain in the regi
ment of Colonel Philetus Swift. There were several non-commissioned officers in the church. These were seiit to
arouse the military of the neighborhood, and by five o'clock Captain Redfield was on the march with about one hund
red men. They halted most of the night a few miles north of Lyons, and resumed their march by moonlight toward
morning. They arrived at Sodus at a little after sunrise on Monday morning, when they met a funeral procession with
the body of Turner's slain soldier. The British had gone, but the fleet was in sight. The company remained -about a
week at Sodus, and were then discharged.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
607
British Designs against Sackett's Harbor.
The Defenses there.
General Jacob Brown.
CHAPTER
' To Sackett's Harbor Yeo steered, with Prevost's chosen blood-hounds,
But Brown his dogs of valor cheered, militia blood, but good hounds.
He chased them from the bloody track, and Yeo's bull-clogs slighting,
Though Chauncey was not there, he show'd Sir James the art of lighting.
Bow, wow, wow !
Fresh-water dogs can tutor them with bow, wow, wow !"
OLD SONG — A NEW Bow Wow.
the military and naval authorities at Kingston were in
formed of the weakening of the important post at Sackett's Har
bor by the withdrawal of troops and vessels for the expedition
against York, they resolved to attempt the capture of the place,
•y or to destroy the new ship-of-war then on the stocks,1 and other
public property there. The capture of York made them circum
spect, for the flushed victors might turn their faces toward King
ston ; but when it was known that Dearborn and Chauncey were
about to attack Fort George and its dependencies, it was resolved to assail Sackett's
Harbor immediately. The prize was more attractive now than ever before. Besides
being the principal place of deposit on the lake for military and naval stores, and a
fine vessel was there nearly completed, all the property captured at York2 was de
posited there. The possession or destruction of these by the British would have
given them the command of Lake Ontario, and a decided advantage during the whole
campaign. With singular remissness of duty on the part of the commanding gen
eral, these had been left exposed. The guard detailed for their protection, under Col
onel Barker, was utterly inadequate for the task. It consisted of parts of the First
and Second Regiments of Dragoons, numbering about two hundred and fifty men,
fifty or sixty artillerists, and from eighty to one hundred infantry, composed chiefly
of invalids, recruits, and fragments of companies left behind when the expedition
sailed for York. The dragoons, dismounted, manned Fort Tompkins, a considerable
work on the bluff, on the west side of the Harbor,3 and covering the site of the present
residence and garden of the naval commandant of the station. The artillerists, un
der Lieutenant Ketchum, were also there. A little north of the village, on the east
side of the Harbor, opposite Fort Tompkins, was a small work, erected principally by
the labor of a company of exempts, called Fort Volunteer. General Jacob Brown,4
1 After the death of the gallant leader in the attack on York, this vessel was named General Pike.
2 See page 591.
3 This consisted of a strong block-house and surrounding intrenchments, and occupied tjie place of the battery on
which the iron thirty-two-pounder that drove off the British in 1812 was mounted. See page 368. The single cannon
with which it was armed at the time we are now considering was the same iron thirt3T-two-pounder. The fort was
named Tompkins in honor of Daniel D. Tompkins, then governor of the State of New York. The bluff on which it
stood overlooks Navy Point, within which is the Harbor, where the ship-yard was. The place was named in honor
of Augustus Sackett, the first settler. Its Indian name was along one, and signified "fort at the mouth of Great River."
* Jacob Brown was born of Quaker parents, in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, on the 9th of May, 1775. He was well
educated early. When he was sixteen years of age his father lost his property, and the right-minded youth resolved to
earn his own livelihood. He taught school in the Quaker settlement of Crosswicks, in New Jersey, from his eighteenth
to his twenty-first birth-day. For a while he was a surveyor in the vicinity of Cincinnati, and in 1798 was a school
teacher in the city of New York. He commenced the study of law, but it was distasteful to him, and he abandoned it.
He then purchased some land on the Black River, in Jefferson County, and adopted the pursuit of a farmer. In 1809 he
was appointed colonel of a regiment of militia in that section, and on his estate a settlement was formed and named
Brownsville. In 1811 the Governor of New York commissioned him a brigadier general of militia, and, as we have seen
(see page 3C6), he was intrusted with important command. From that time until the close of the war General Brown's
public career formed an important part of the history of the times, and the record may be found in these pages. He
G08
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Brown's Position.
Approach of the British.
Brown assumes Command at Sackett's Harbor.
of the New York Militia, who, having finished
the six months' service for which he was call
ed to the field at the beginning of the war,
as we have seen, was residing at his home in
Brownsville, on the Black River, a few miles
from Sackett's Harbor, had been requested
by General Dearborn, and urged by Colonel
Macomb, to assume chief command in that
region. He was unwilling to interfere with
his esteemed friend, Colonel Backus, and
agreed to take command only in the event of
actual invasion. He went to head-quarters
frequently to advise with Backus concerning
preparations for defense, and it was under
stood between them that if the enemy should
threaten the post, Brown was to call the neigh
boring militia to the Harbor and take chief
command.
On the eyening of the 27th of May, the
Lady of the La.ke, which had been cruising
off Kingston to watch the
movements of the enemy,
came into Sackett's Harbor
with the startling informa-
that a strong British squad
ron, under Sir James L. Yeo,
had just put to sea. Colonel Backus sent an express to General Brown with the in
telligence. That vigilant officer immediately dispatched messengers to the militia
officers of his district with orders to hasten, with as many men as possible, to the
Hai-bor. This accomplished, he mounted his horse, and before the dawn of the 28th
he entered Backus's camp, took command, ordered alarm
guns to be fired to arouse the country, and sent off ex
presses in various directions to militia officers, and to
was retained in the army at the close of the war, and was appointed to the com
mand of the Northern Division. He became a general-in-chief of the armies of
the United States in 1821, and held that office until his death, at his head-quar
ters in the City of Washington, on the 24th of February, 1S28, at the age of fifty-
three years. His widow, yet (1SG7) living, resided, until recently, in the fine man
sion erected at Brownsville by the general in 1814.
General Brown's remains were interred with imposing ceremonies in the
Congressional Burial-ground, and over them stands a beautiful white marble
monument, composed of a truncated fluted column and tableted base, on which
are the following inscriptions :
East Side.—" Sacred to the memory of Major General JACOB BROWN, by Birth,
by Education, by Principle, devoted to Peace. In defense of his country, and in
vindication of her. rights, a Warrior. To her he dedicated his life— wounds re
ceived in her cause abridged his days."
South Side. — "He was born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, on the 9th of
May, 1775, and died at the City of Washington, commanding general of the army,
on the 24th of February, 1828.
" Let him whoe'er in after days
Shall view this monument of praise,
For Honor heave the Patriot sigh,
And for his country learn to die."
West Side.—"Jn both by the thanks of the Nation and a golden medal from
the hands of their chief magistrate— and by this marble erected to honor him,
at the command of the Congress of the United States."
Xorth Side.— "In War his services are attested by the fields of Chippewa, Ni
agara, Erie ; in Peace by the improved organization and discipline of the army."
The monument stands very near that of General Macomb, his successor in the
chief command of the armies of the United States.
GENERAL BROWN B MONUMENT,
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
609
Assembling of the Militia.
The British Force approaches Sackett's Harbor.
An Alarm.
Colonel Tuttle, who was advancing with regulars. During the day the people of
the surrounding country continually arrived at head-quarters. Some were armed,
and some were not, and all were entirely without discipline, and almost without or
ganization. As fast as they appeared they were armed and sent to Horse Island, a
mile distant, where Colonel Mills and about two hundred and fifty Albany Volun
teers had been stationed for a week. The island (on which the light-house stands1)
LIGHT-HOUSE ON 1IOESE ISLAND.
commands the entrance to the Harbor, and there it was believed the enemy would
attempt to land. Then, as now, it was separated from the main by only a shallow
strait, always fordable, and sometimes almost dry. Between it and the village was
a thin wood that had been partly cut over, and was encumbered with logs, stumps,
and brush. The main shore is a ridge of gravel, about five feet in height, and at that
time formed a natural breast-work.
At midday on the 28th,a the British squadron, which left Kingston on the »May,
evening of the 27th, appeared off Sackett's Harbor. It consisted of the Wolfe,
24, just finished ; Royal George, 24; Earl of Moira, 18 ; schooners Prince Regent,
Simcoe, and Seneca, mounting from ten to twelve guns each, and about forty bateaux.
The land troops, ten or twelve hundred strong, consisted of the grenadier company
of the One Hundredth Regiment, two companies of the Eighth or King's, a section of
the Royal Scots, four companies of the One Hundred and Fourth, one company of
the Glengary Regiment, two of the Canadian Voltigeurs, a detachment of the New
foundland Regiment, and another of the Royal Artillery, with two 6-pounders. There
was also a considerable body of Indians attached to the expedition, and who accompa
nied it in canoes. Sir James Lucas Yeo commanded the squadron, and the whole expe
dition was under the direction of Sir George Prevost, the Governor General of Canada,
who accompanied it as leader of the land forces. He was with Yeo on the Wolfe.
The British squadron lay to about six miles from the Harbor, and a large number
of troops were embarked in boats for the purpose of landing. While anxiously wait
ing for the signal to pull for shore, the soldiers were perplexed by an order to return
to the squadron. They were still more perplexed when that squadron, without appa
rent cause, spread its sails to the light breeze and turned toward Kingston. The se
cret was soon known. A flotilla of nineteen American gun-boats had been seen off
i This is a view of the light-house as it appeared when I visited the island in 1S55. It stands upon the spot where the
enemy landed, and the keeper at the time of my visit was Captain Samuel M'Nitt, of whom -I shall hereafter speak.
The island contains about twenty-seven acres.
QQ
610 PICTOEIAL FIELD-BOOK
Chase and Capture of American Vessels. Position of the Militia. A Panic and Flight.
Six-towns Point, approaching from the westward, and Sir George Prevost did not
doubt their being tilled with armed men destined to re-enforce Sackett's Harbor. It
was even so. They were conveying part of a regiment under Lieutenant Colonel
Thomas Aspinwrall from Oswego to the Harbor. The apparition had made Sir George
nervous. The Indians were not so easily frightened as their pale-faced ally. They
darted in their canoes toward the American flotilla. This movement shamed Sir
George. He listened to the advice of Sir James, turned the prows of his vessels once
more in the direction of Sackett's Harbor, and sent several boats with armed men to
join the canoes. Aspinwall and his party, closely chased, made for the shore. Twelve
of his boats and seventy of his men were captured. The other seven boats, moi-e fleet
than their companions or pursuers, reached the haven in safety. The escaped party
on shore made their way thither by land. They arrived at nine o'clock in the even
ing, and added one hundred men to the effective force at Sackett's Harbor. •
-May, The night of the 28tha was spent by the Americans in active preparations
IBIS. for tne expected attack. Toward midnight, about forty Indians, under Lieu
tenant Anderson, were landed on the shore of Henderson Bay, for the purpose of at
tacking the American militia in the rear. They were discovered, and Colonel Mills
and his force, about four hundred strong, were withdrawn from Horse Island and
placed behind the gravel ridge, at a clearing of five or six acres on the main, with a
6-pounder field-piece. The remainder of the militia, under Colonel Gershom Tuttle,
were posted on the edge of the woods, a little farther back ; and Colonel Backus, with
his dismounted dragoons, was stationed on the skirt of the same woods, nearer the
village. Lieutenant Colonel Aspinwall was posted on the left of Backus, and the ar
tillerists, under Lieutenant Ketchum, were stationed in Fort Tompkins, whose only
armament was a 32-pounder mounted on a pivot.
Not a zephyr rippled the waters of the Harbor on the morning of the 29th, and not
a cloud flecked the sky. Calmness, serenity, and beauty were visible on every side.
The sails of the enemy's squadron could not catch the slightest breeze, and it was im
possible for the large vessels to approach near enough to join in the attack. At dawn,
thirty-three boats, filled with armed men, left the British squadron and made for Horse
Island, where they landed under cover of two gun-boats directed by Captain Mulcas-
ter, of the royal navy. As the flotilla rounded the island, the huge pivot gun in Fort
Tompkins hurled murder-
ous enfilading shots in their
midst' and when the^ were
near the shore they re
ceived a scattering fire from the muskets of the militia. This was promptly respond
ed to by Mulcaster's great guns, loaded with grape and canister, and by his first fire
Colonel Mills, who was standing near his men, was shot dead.
The British formed in good order on the island, and with the grenadiers of the One
Hundredth at their head, commanded by Colonel Baynes, they pressed rapidly across
the shallow strait. The rank and file of the American militia had suffered no mate
rial injury, but the sound of bullets among the bushes, and the din of the oncoming
foe, struck the whole line with an extraordinary panic, and before they had time to
give a second fire they rose from their cover behind the gravel bank and fled with,
precipitation, leaving their 6-pounder behind. The efforts of the gallant Major Her-
kimer to arrest their flight were vain.1
This disgraceful retreat astonished and perplexed General Brown, who was on the
1 It is said that one of the militia commanders, who had talked very valiantly arid hopefully, became much discour
aged as soon as he saw the enemy's boats approaching the shore. As they came forward in a swarm he became less
and less hopeful, until at length he told his men that he doubted the ability of the American force to cope with the en
emy. "I fear we shall be compelled to retreat," he said. After a pause he continued, "I know we shall, and as I am
a little lame I'll start now," and away he went upon the road leading to Adams, as fast as his legs could carry him, jutt
as Mulcaster's guns opened their fire. He was among the " missing" at the close of the battle.
OF THE WAK OF 1812. 611
Cowardly Flight of Militia. Gallantry of Captain M'Nitt. Destruction of Public Stores.
left of his little army. He expected the militia would have remained firm until the
enemy were finally on the main. But their movement was so sudden, general, and
rapid, that he found himself completely alone, not a man standing within several rods
of him. Stung by this shameful conduct, he ran after the fugitives and endeavored
to arrest their flight. His efforts were unavailing. Forgetful of their promises of
courage, and unmindful of the orders they had received to rally in the woods in the
event of their being driven back, they continued their flight until they were sure of
being out of harm's way. Some of them were not heard of again during the day.
Those under Colonel Tuttle were equally recreant to duty, and joined in the dis
graceful flight, although they had not in any way been exposed to the enemy's fire.
But there was an honorable exception. Captain Samuel M'Nitt, with unflinching
courage, had maintained his position on the extreme left, and stood blazing away at
the enemy after his companions had fled. Seeing the panic, he started in pursuit of
the fugitives, and, with the aid of Lieutenant Mayo, succeeded in rallying almost one
hundred of them behind some fallen timber. From that cover they annoyed the en
emy exceedingly, who were then marching through the woods toward the town.1
Meanwhile Colonel Backus and his regulars had advanced, and, with the Albany Vol
unteers, who had stood firm when the militia fled, and had retired slowly along a
wagon-road by the margin of the lake before superior numbers, was disputing the
march of the invaders inch by inch.
These demonstrations of courage revived the sinking hopes of the commanding
general. In hastening from M'Nitt's gallant band to Backus's line, his affrighted
horse had broken from him in the woods. Fortunately, he soon met a man on horse
back, whose animal he seized and mounted, and then pushed forward to the extreme
right. There he found Colonel Backus with his dismounted dragoons on the right,
assisted by Major Lavall, the gallant Albany Volunteers on the left, and infantry and
artillery in the centre, Avhile the gun at Fort Tompkins was playing upon the advanc
ing column of the foe. For an hour the conflict continued, and so great was the
weight of the enemy that the American line was constantly pressed back. Lieuten
ant Fanning, in command at Fort Volunteer, perceiving no danger of an attack there,
had led his little force forward and engaged gallantly in the fight. Still the foe bore
heavily upon them, and when the Americans Avere most in want of encouragement a
disheartening event occurred. Dense smoke arose in their rear, and it was soon as
certained that the store-houses on the margin of the Harbor, filled with the spoils of
York and a vast amount of other valuable property, also the new ship General Pike,
were in flames. Had a portion of the enemy landed in the rear and applied the torch ?
No. In the almost universal panic that prevailed when the militia fled, Lieutenant
Wolcott Chauncey, of the Navy, who had the stores in charge, was informed that all
was lost, and that the victorious enemy was rapidly marching upon the post. A
train prepared for the emergency was lighted, and in a few minutes stores and ship
were in flames. The friendly incendiary was soon named to General Brown, much to
his relief, and he hastened to inform "and reassure Colonel Backus. He arrived just
in time to see that gallant officer fall, mortally wounded, and to wipe his pallid brow
with his own hand.2
Pressed back, back, back, the wearied and worried Americans took refuge in some
new log barracks in an open space near the town. The enemy made desperate efforts
to dislodge them. Brown saw that all would be lost should they be driven from that
1 Samuel M'Nitt was a Scotchman, and a brave and active man. He was for some time a member of Forsyth's corps,
and, as such, saw much active service at the beginning of the war. He commanded a militia company at the time we
are now considering. He was in Wilkinson's expedition that went down the St. Lawrence in the autumn of 1813, and
was in command of a company of regulars in the battle at Chrysler's Field. He died on the 9th of September, 1801, at
Depauville, in Jefferson County, at the age of about ninety years.
2 Electus Backus was a native of New York. He was commissioned major of the First Light Dragoons in October,
1803, and in February following was promoted to lieutenant colonel. He died eight days after the battle (June 7, 1813),
and was buried at Sackett's Harbor with military honors.
612
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The Militia reassembled.
Prevost alarmed.
His disgraceful Retreat.
shelter, and he determined to rally the fugitive militia, if possible, who, he was in
formed, were on the outskirts of the village and on the roads leading from it, and
with them feign a descent upon the enemy's boats. He sent out mounted dragoons
instructed to proclaim a victory gained, knowing that in the supposed absence of dan
ger most of them would return. The stratagem was successful. About three hund
red of them were collected, though in great disorder, on the eastern side of the vil
lage, about three fourths of a mile from the place where the battle was still raging.
There they were addressed by the commanding general, who loaded them with re
proaches, and informed them that measures had been taken to shoot every man of
them who should be found attempting to run again. Many of them, stung by the
words of the general, begged to be led into the thickest of the fight, and almost two
hundred of them formed under the direction of Westcott, a Sackett's Harbor butcher,
and Caleb, a volunteer, and, while others went toward the British landing-place, they
attacked a flanking party of the enemy under Captain Grey, the adjutant general,
just as they were about to assail the log barracks. Grey was a gallant soldier. He
was walking backward, waving his sword, and had just shouted " Come on, boys ; re
member York ! The day is ours !" when a drummer-boy among the rallied militia
cried out, "Perhaps not yet !" and shot him. Grey fell, and instantly expired.1
SACKETT'S HARBOR
May 1813
This rallying of the fugitive militia and menacing of the enemy's boats decided the
fortunes of the day in favor of the Americans. Sir George Prevost, sweeping the ho
rizon with his glass from a high stump, perceived the militia on his flank and rear,
and supposing them to be re-enforcements of regulars in large numbers, immediately
sounded a retreat while the way to their boats was open.2 It was commenced in
good order, but soon became a disorderly flight. It was so precipitate that the fa
tigued Americans could not overtake them. They reached the squadron in safety,
leaving a large portion of their dead and wounded behind.3 At about ten o'clock in
the morning, Sir George, with cool impudence, sent a flag to demand the surrender
of the post which he had failed to capture. The summons was treated with deserved
contempt. He then asked permission to send surgeons to take care of his wounded.
This was denied ; but an assurance was given by General Brown that Americans
were " distinguished for humanity as well as bravery."
It was believed that the enemy intended to renew the attack. His squadron con
tinued at anchor, and his boats remained filled with soldiers for some time not far
from Horse Island. At noon they returned to the squadron, and the whole flotilla
sailed for Kingston. It entered that port on the morning of the 30th, to the great
mortification of the inhabitants, who had expected to see the expedition return with
1 Captain Grey was a son of General Grey, the commander of the corps in the massacre of a part of Wayne's detach
ment at Paoli, in Pennsylvania, in September, 1T77. 3 Oral statement of E. Camp, Esq., of Sackett's Harbor.
3 The British lost 50 killed and 211 wounded. The Americans lost 4"! killed, 84 wounded, and 3C missing. Most of the
latter were the cowardly militia, who were ashamed to show their faces again.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
613
How public Property was saved.
Conceit and Inefficiency of Sir George Prevost.
A Sort of "Greek Fire."
all the garrison at Sackett's Harbor and the public property there.1 The whole af
fair, on the part of the British, was pronounced at the time, and has been by their own
writers since, " in a high degree disgraceful."2 The skill, courage, and energy of Gen
eral Brown, under the most appalling difficulties, seconded by the like qualities in a
part of the troops, made it a brilliant achievement for the Americans, and a subject
for just praise of the commanding general.3
As soon as the battle was ended .the efforts of the men were turned to the salva
tion of the public property from the flames. Because of the greenness of the timber
of the General Pike she had burned but little, and was saved. The Duke of Glouces
ter^ captured at York, also escaped destruction. She was saved by the gallantry of
Lieutenant Talman, of the army, who, notwithstanding he knew there was a large
quantity of gunpowder on board of her, hastened to her deck, extinguished the kind-
lino- flames, and brought her from under the fire that was consuming the store-houses.
o o ^
The Fair American and Pert had cut their cables and retreated up the Black Riv
er. Several of the guns on Navy Point were spiked. The value of the property de
stroyed by the fire was about half a million of dollars. The loss was severely felt,
because the distance from Albany, from which most of these stores were drawn, was
such that they could not be seasonably replaced.4
No further attempts were made by the enemy to capture Sackett's Harbor, and it
remained, as it had been from the beginning, the most important place of deposit for
the army and navy stores of the Americans on the Northern frontier. During the
SACKETT'S HAUIJOK IN 1S14.5
1 James's Military Occurrences, i., 173.
2 The conduct of Sir George Prevost in this and other occurrences where he became military commander was severely
criticised. Wilkinson, in his Memoirs, i., 585, declares that Sir James Yeo was averse to the retreat. He says he was
informed that Major Drummond (afterward Lieutenant Colonel Drummond, killed at Fort Erie), when Sir George gave
the order to retreat, stepped up to him and said, "Allow me a few minutes, sir, and I will put yon in possession of the
place." To this the haughty baronet replied, "Obey your orders, sir, and learn the first duty of a soldier." The con
tempt for Sir George on the part of the army, which his conduct on this occasion engendered, was much intensified by
his inglorious retreat from Plattsburg the following year.
3 The authorities consulted in the preparation of this narrative are the official reports of the respective commanders;
the several American histories of the war ; Auchinleck, Christie, and James on the British side ; Wilkinson's Memoirs :
Cooper's Naval History of the United States ; manuscript statement found among General Brown's papers, and narra
tives of survivors.
* In a letter to the author in October, 1863, the late venerable Robert Carr, who was a lieutenant colonel on the North
ern frontier, gave the following account of a sort of" Greek fire" that was exhibited at Sackett's Harbor at about the
time of the events recorded in the text. "At Sackett's Harbor," says Colonel Carr, "in September, 1813, a person from
New England called on General Brown to exhibit some preparation which he called liquid fire, or some such name.
General Covington called at my tent and invited me to go with him to witness the trial to be made that morning; but
as I was a member of a court-martial then sitting, I could not go with him. On his return he informed me that the af
fair was most astonishing. The liquid resembled ink, and he had it in two small porter-bottles, one of which he threw
against a small hemlock-tree, which was instantly in a blaze from top to bottom. The other bottle he also broke against
another tree with a similar result. He asserted that water would not extinguish it. General Covington remarked that
it might be called ' hell fire.1 "
s This view is from a print from a drawing by Birch, published in the Port Folio in 1S15. On the left is seen Pike's
614
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Sackett's Harbor, and Occurrences there.
Description of its Defenses.
Map of the Same.
summer and autumn of 1813 several expeditions were fitted out there, which we shall
hereafter consider, and labor was vigorously applied by the troops stationed there in
the autumn, and by the sailors in the winter, in strongly fortifying the post. Fort
AN OF SACKETT'S HAKBOB AND ITS DEFENSES IN 1S14.
Tompkins was strengthened, and several
other works were constructed, and before
the midsummer of 1814 the post seemed
to be secured against any force the enemy might bring to bear upon it.1
cantonment, where were barracks erected by Major Darby Noon. See page 292. On the rocky bluff at the right is seen
Fort Tompkins. Near Pike's cantonment is seen a block -house, on the site of Fort Volunteer, and immediately back
of it, a circular building with battlemented top represents Fort Chauncey. The little figures near the small boat, toward
the centre of the picture, are on Navy Point, where the ship-house now stands.
1 Joseph Bouchette, one of the most eminent writers on the statistics of the Canadas, gave the following description
of the place at the close of 1814: "A low point of land runs out from the northwest, upon which is the dock-yard, with
large store-houses and all the requisite buildings belonging to such an establishment. Upon this point is a very pow
erful work, called Fort Tompkins, having within it a strong block-house two stories high ; on the land side it is covered
by a strong picketing, in which there are embrasures ; twenty guns are mounted, besides two or three mortars, with a
furnace for heating shot. At the bottom of the harbor is the village, that contains from sixty to seventy houses, and to
the southward of it a barrack capable of accommodating two thousand men, and generally used for the marines belong
ing to the fleet. On a point eastward of the harbor stands Fort Pike, a regular work surrounded by a ditch, in advance
of which there is a strong line of picketing. In the centre of the principal work there is a block-house two stories high.
This fort is armed with twenty guns. About one hundred yards from the village, and a little to the westward of Fort
Tompkins, is Smith's cantonment or barrack, strongly built of logs, forming a square, with a block-house at each cor
ner. It is loop-holed on every side, and capable of making a powerful resistance. Twenty-five hundred men have been
accommodated in it. A little farther westward another fort presents itself [Fort Kentucky], built of earth and strongly
palisaded, having in the centre of it a block-house one story high. It mounts twenty-eight guns. Midway between
these two works [a little farther inland] is a powder magazine, inclosed within a very stong picketing.
"By the side of the road that leads to Henderson Harbor stands Fort Virginia, a square work with bastions at the
angles, covered with a strong line of palisades, but no ditch. It is armed with sixteen guns, and has a block-house in
the middle of it. [See sketch on p. 617.] Fort Chauncey is a small circular tower, covered with plank, and loop-holed
for the use of musketry, intended for a small-arm defense only. It is situated a small distance from the village, and
commands the road that leads to Sandy Creek. In addition to these works of strength, there are several block-houses
in different situations, that altogether render the place very secure, and capable of resisting a powerful attack; indeed,
from recent events, the Americans have attached much importance to it, and, with their accustomed celerity, have spared
no exertions to render it formidable." — Bouchette's Canada, page 620. To this account may be added the statement
that, after the battle in May, 1S13, a breastwork of logs was thrown up around the village from Horse Island to the site
of Madison Barracks.
The above map, showing a plan of Sackett's Harbor and its defenses in 1814, as described by Bouchette, is from a
manuscript drawing by Patrick May, a soldier who was stationed there for two years. The topography may not be pre-
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 615
A Visit to Sackett's Harbor. Commodore Tattnall. Historical Localities. Henry Eckford.
I visited Sackett's Harbor in the summer of 1860. I rode up from Sandy Creek
during a sultry morning, through the wealthy agricultural towns of Ellisburg and
Henderson, after a heavy rain. Before noon the sky was almost cloudless, and I
spent the afternoon in visiting places of interest ai'ound Sackett's Harbor. Commo
dore Josiah Tattnall, one of the most accomplished men in the navy, and then in com
mand of the naval station at the Harbor, accompanied me. I found him an exceed
ingly courteous man, of medium size in stature, and in the sixty-fourth year of his
age. He had been commander of the East India squadron for some time, having the
Powhatan for his flag-ship, in which he brought over the seas the Japanese embassa-
dors in the spring of 1860. Having been for several years in arduous service, the
government had kindly ordered him to the Sackett's Harbor station to enjoy a season
of rest. There he deserted the flag of his country, under which he had been cherished
for almost half a century. He resigned his commission, joined the traitors in the
slave-labor states who were then in open . rebellion against his government, and be
came commander-in-chief of the " Confederate Navy."1
Yet I can not forget the commodore's kindness. He accompanied me to the ship-
house on Navy Point, in which is the New Orleans, just as she was left in her unfin
ished state at the end of the war in 1815. He also went with me to the site of Fort
Pike, to Madison Barracks and the burial-ground, and to visit the widow of Captain
William Vaughan, whose exploits have already been mentioned in these pages.2 Mrs.
Yaughan (a small, delicate woman) occupied the Sackett mansion, which was her resi
dence in 1812. At the time now under consideration, Colonels Backus and Mills board
ed with her there. The house was near the site of Fort Tompkins. It was a stibstan-
tial frame building, with a fine portico, and was embowered in shrubbery and trees.
The New Orleans was to have been a huge vessel, made to cope with the St. Law
rence, a three-deck man-of-war of 120 guns, which the Biitish launched at Kingston
in the autumn of 1813. Henry Eckford3 was the constructor, and Henry Eagle, late
of Oswego, was foreman of the navy yard. Time was precious, and Eckford applied
f—
cisely correct, but it gives a general idea of the pains taken, and the method adopted for making the post as secure from
capture as possible. It shows the localities of the fortifications, and of the vessels in the harbor in the autumn of 1814.
1 Josiah Tattnall was born at Bonaventure, four miles from Savannah, Georgia, in November, 1796. He is a grandson
of Governor Tattnall. He entered the navy as a midshipman in 1S12, and was commissioned a lieutenant in 1818. He
was promoted to commander in February, 1S38, and to captain in February, 1850. He first served in the frigate Constel
lation, and was in the affair at Craney Island in June, 1S13. He was in the Algerine war under Decatur, was with Perry
on the coast of Africa, and with Porter in his expedition against the pirates in the Gulf of Mexico. He was in command
of the Spitfire in the bombardment of Vera Cruz in the war with Mexico, and in the attacks on Tuspan, Tampico, and
Alvarado. He was in command of the East India squadron during the trouble with the Chinese in the summer of 1858,
and in the spring of I860 brought the Japanese embassadors to this country. He resigned his commission in 18G1, and
accepted one from the "government" of the so-called " Confederate States of America." He was in command of the ves
sels of the rebels at Norfolk when the Merrimack was destroyed, and in 1SG3 was in command of the "musquito fleet"
at Savannah, Georgia. His services were soon afterward dispensed with, and he sunk into obscurity. 2 See page 368.
3 Henry Eckford was born in Scotland on the 12th of March, 1TT5, and at the age of sixteen became an apprentice to
his uncle, John Black, an eminent naval
constructor at Quebec. In 1796 he com
menced the business of ship-building in
the city of New York, and soon rose to • /^ / 1^~~) //' / • \
the head of his profession, and New York- ^"^ I /2S^/l/^~7 ^--^ S^s> ^^^/'j' )
built ships were most sought after. Eck- / ^ f^^-^^l^/O^ <2C___/
ford had become thoroughly identified
with the interests and destiny of his
adopted country when the war com
menced in 1812, and he made large con
tracts with the government for vessels on the Lakes. His achievements were wonderful, considering the theatre on
which they were performed. At the close of the war, his accounts with the government, involving several millions of
dollars, were promptly and honorably settled. Soon after that he constructed the Robert Fulton, a steam-ship of a thou
sand tons, to run between New York and New Orleans. He became naval constructor at the Brooklyn dock-yard of the
government. His genius was too much hampered by government interference, and he soon left the position and en
gaged extensively in his profession. Orders came to him from foreign governments to construct war vessels. At the
request of General Jackson he furnished a plan for a new organization of the navy. He had now amassed an ample
fortune, and had set aside $20,000 for the endowment of a professorship of Naval Architecture in Columbia College,
when an unfortunate connection with an insurance company reduced him almost to penury. In 1S31 Mr. Eckford built
a sloop of war for the Sultan of Turkey, and he sailed in her to Constantinople. The sultan made him chief naval con
structor of the empire. He died suddenly at Constantinople on the 12th of November, 1S32, in the lif.y-seventh year
of his age.
616
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The 2few Orleans Frigate.
Madison Barracks.
A neglected Monument.
THE "HEW ORLEANS."
to the work all the force that he could command. So vigorous were his efforts, that
• January and within twenty-seven daysa from the time when the axe was first laid to
February, isis. j-ne timber in the surrounding forest for the great ship she was almost
ready to be launched. She was to have been a three-decker, pierced for 110 guns, but
capable of carrying 120 eighteens and
forty - fours. Her frame was all com
pleted, and planks nearly all on, when
tidings of peace caused work upon her
to cease. In the condition in which she
was then left she has ever since re
mained. She was never launched. A
spacious house was built over her, and
so well has she been taken care of that
her timbers remain perfectly sound.
Her keel, according to a statement of
Mr. Henry Metcalf, the ship-keeper, is
183 feet 7£ inches; breadth of beam,
56 feet ; depth, 47 feet ; length over all,
214 feet ; tonnage, 3000. She was to
draw 27 feet. Within the time above
mentioned all the timbers for other pur
poses connected with the vessel were
got out. The annexed sketch shows the
appearance of her bow as seen at the entrance to the ship-house. Near this building,
on the south side, may be seen the sunken hulk of the Jefferson.
From the New Orleans we went up to Madison Barracks, on the high ground over
looking the village, the harbor, Black River Bay, and the wooded country beyond.
These barracks are spacious stone buildings, covering three sides of a square, near the
remain^ of Fort Pike. They were erected soon after the war, under the direction of
Deputy Quarter-master General Thomas Tucker, at an expense of $85,000. They
have not been occupied by troops for a number of years.
We strolled into the burial-ground attached to the barracks, and visited the wooden
monument erected to the memory of General Pike and others who gave their lives to
their country during the war. That monu
ment, utterly neglected, was rapidly crumb
ling into dust. I was there five years be-
"Juiy, fore,b when it was more leaning than
1855. ^e pjga tower, and fortunately made a
sketch of it and copied the fading inscriptions
upon it. Sergeant Gaines, who was then tak
ing charge of the barracks, accompanied me,
and assisted in deciphering the inscriptions.
He had placed a copy of them, written on
parchment, in a bottle, which was tightly
sealed, and was then hanging under the urn,
as the best way to preserve the precious rec
ords on the spot. When I was there in 1860
the urn and the bottle had disappeared, the
panels were much decayed, and the inscrip
tions were illegible. The remains of the gal
lant dead were collected there during the ad-
minstration of Colonel Hugh Brady, who commanded the post for ten years after the
war ; and the monument, which was about seven feet in heiglrt to the top of the urn,
PIKE'S MONUMENT.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
C17
Forts Pike and Virginia.
An evening Ride to Watertowu.
A Visit to the Widow of General Brown.
was erected by the officers of the garri
son.1 How long will our national gov
ernment suffer just reproach for neglect
in not erecting enduring monuments over
the graves of these heroes ?
On leaving the barracks we went out to
the remains of Fort Pike, south of them,
whose grassy mounds skirt the brow of
the high bank. Within these were a mag-
o ^J
azine, a few cannon, and heaps of balls ;
and across the parade, the declining sun,
shining brightly, was casting long shad
ows of the poplar-trees which were plant
ed there when the fort was built in 1814.
It was a beautiful spot, and we lingered
as long as time would permit, when we
returned to the village and went to the
site of Fort Virginia, whose block-house,
BEMAIXB OF FOB! PIKE.
made of heavy hewn timber, was yet stand
ing in perfect preservation, and used as a
barn. It was on the premises of Mrs. Tisdale,
about twelve rods south from Washington
Street.
We returned to the commodore's residence
at five o'clock, and after tea I started in a
lisvht wagon for Watertown, on the Black
o o *
River, about twelve miles distant, where I
spent the Sabbatha with the fam- « August 22,
ily of an old friend. On Monday
morning he accompanied me to Brownsville,
four miles distant, where I had the pleasure
BLOCK-HOUSE, BACKER'S HAEBOB. of spending a part of the forenoon at the ele
gant mansion of the widow of General Brown. There many mementos of that gal
lant officer were preserved. Among them Avas the portrait painted by John Wesley
Jarvis, from which the engraving on page 608 was copied ; also a monochrome drawn
by Sully, of Philadelphia (now [1867] the oldest painter in the United States), for the
medal voted to General Brown by the American Congress for his meritorious con
duct on the Niagara frontier. That medal was also there. There too was his sword ;
also the elegantly written and well ornamented diploma which by vote of the Com
mon Council of New York conferred upon him the " freedom of the city," and the
gold box in which it was presented to him. .Of the latter mementos of the gallant
soldier I shall have occasion to write hereafter.
The mansion of General Brown, which he built in 1814-'! 5, is spacious and elegant.
It is of blue limestone, and stands on the borders of the village of six or seven hund
red inhabitants, in the midst of a lawn of about eight acres, ornamented with shrub-
1 The following were the inscriptions on the monument :
West Panel.— "In memory of Brigadier General Z. M. Pike, killed at York, U. C., 2Tth April, 1813. Captain Joseph
Nicholson, 14th Infantry, aid-de-camp to General Pike, killed at York, U. C., 27th April, 1S13."
Forth Panel. — " In memory of Brigadier General L. Covington, killed at Chrysler's Field, U. C., Nov. 11, 1813. Lieu
tenant Colonel E. Backus, 1st Dragoons, killed at Sackett's Harbor, 29th May, 1S13."
East Panel. — " In memory of Colonel Tuttle, Lieutenant Colonel Dix, Major Johnson, Lieutenant Vaudeventer."
South Panel. — "In memory of Lieutenant Colonel John Mills, Volunteer, killed at Sackett's Harbor, 29th May, 1813.
Captain A. Spencer, 29th Infantry, killed at Lundy's Lane, 25th July, 1814."
General Pike was first buried near Fort Tompkius, not far from the ship-house. The remains of all were deposited
in the cemetery of the barracks iu 1819, when the monument was erected. Those of Colonel Mills were taken to Albany
immediately after the battle.
CIS
PICTORIAL FIELDBOOK
General Brown's Residence in Brownsville.
Return to Watertown.
The Whittlesey Rock.
Ibery and stately trees. The view of it here given is from the banks of a little stream
that runs through a gentle swale alonsc the skirt of the lawn.
OF (iEJSKKAL BROWN.
On our return to Watertown we rode along the margin of the Black River, where
it sweeps in swift current through the village after leaping the precipice at the falls,
and halted at the entrance to a cavern which extends to an unknown distance under
the town. In front of it, projecting
into the stream like a huge buttress,
is a mass of limestone known as the
Whittlesey Rock, it being the place
where the guilty wife of a man of
that name jumped into the stream
and perished over fifty years ago.
Her husband was a lawyer from
Connecticut, and settled in Water-
town in 1809. Toward the close of
the war he was appointed brigade
paymaster, and in the performance
of his duties went to the city of New
York for funds, accompanied by his
wife. He received thirty thousand
dollars. On the way back she rob
bed him of several thousand dollars ;
and he was induced by the machina
tions of his wife — a woman of education, but thoroughly depraved, who worked upon
liis fears — to report himself robbed of all, in order to secure the money for them
selves. This was done on an occasion when he went out on a tour to pay oif the
drafted militia. He offered two thousand dollars reward for the robber, and made
WUITTLESEY BOOK, WATERTOWN.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 619
A Confession extorted. Suicide of the guilty Party. Captain Hollins. Movements on the Niagara Frontier.
other demonstrations of honesty. But he was not believed by many; and his securi
ties, Fairbanks and Keyes, of Watertown, were so well convinced of foul play, that
they decoyed him into a lonely place* not far from the village, and extorted . juiy IT,
from him a confession, and the assertion that a larger portion of the money
might be found with his wife. One of the sureties and two or three others proceed
ed to the residence of Whittlesey, which stood near the bank of the river, forcibly
entered the house, and there, between beds and quilted in a garment, most of the
money was found. Whittlesey was taken to his home, and husband and wife, bitter
ly criminating each other, were placed under a guard. Unperceived by these, in a
moment of confusion Mrs. Whittlesey glided from the house, crossed the present cem
etery of Trinity Church to the river, and plunged in. Her body was found floating
near the lower bridge. Public opinion fastened all the guilt upon the wretched wife.
Whittlesey went into a Western state, where he led a correct life, and held the offices
of justice of the peace and county judge. Mr. Fairbanks, one of the actors in the af
fair, is yet (1867) living at Watertown, and from his lips, on our return to the village,
I received an account of the tragedy.1
At the Woodruff House, in Watertown, I met Captain Hollins, of the navy, a stout,
thick-set man, sixty-one years of age. He was a midshipman in our navy toward the
close of the War of 1812, and in the course of long years rose to the rank of captain.
He, too, deserted his flag in the hour of his country's peril, went South, and, during
the Great Rebellion, played traitor with all the vigor his abilities would allow.2 His
accomplished wife, who was with him in Watertown, was a daughter of the pa
triotic Colonel Sterett, of Baltimore, and, true to her family instincts, tried, it is
said, to persuade her husband to stand by his flag. She was in Poughkeepsie,
New York, when he arrived at Boston from a cruise in the Massachusetts in May or
June, 1861, and hastened to him to prevent his apprehended purpose. She failed,
and he fell.
I left Watertown on Monday evening for Cape Vincent, for the purpose of visiting
places of historic interest on the St. Lawrence. Concerning my visit to Carleton Isl
and, French Creek, and other places near the Thousand Islands, I shall hereafter write.
Let us now return to the Niagara frontier, and consider the hostile movements there
soon after the battles at Sackett's Harbor, Fort George, and Stony Creek.
We left the Americans, under General Dearborn, at Fort George, and the enemy's
advance, at the same time, occupied a strong position at the Beaver Dams, among the
hills, and at Ten-mile Creek (now Homer village, three miles eastward of St. Catha
rine's), nearer the lake shore. At the former place, De Cou's house, a strong stone
building, was made a sort of citadel by the enemy, where supplies were collected
from the surrounding country, especially from those of the inhabitants who favored
the American cause. The character and position of the place had been ascertained
by a scout of mounted riflemen under Major Cyrenius Chapin, of the New York Vol
unteers, who was under Towson in the capture of the Caledonia at Fort Erie the
preceding autumn.3 It was an important post, and General Dearborn determined to
attempt its capture. For that purpose he detached five hundred and seventy men, in
cluding Chapin's corps, some artillerymen, and two field-pieces, under Lieutenant Col-
1 A minute account of this affair, with a portrait of Mr. Fairbanks, may be found in Hough's History of Jefferson
County, page 2C3.
2 George N. Hollins was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on the 20th of September, 1799. He entered the navy as mid
shipman in February, 1S14, on the sloop-of-war Baltimore, Captain Ridgely. He was a volunteer, under Barney, in the
battle of Bladensburg. He was also an aid of Commodore Rodgers during the attack on Baltimore, and carried mes
sages to Fort M'Henry. He was in the battle between the President and Endymion, off Sandy Hook, in January, 1S15,
when he was taken prisoner and carried to Bermuda. He is supposed to be the last survivor of the men of the Presz-
dent. He was with Decatur in the Mediterranean. His exploit in the attack on Greytown, Nicaragua, is fresh in mem
ory, and uot productive of pleasant reflections on the part of American citizens. Hollins seems not to have been highly
prized by the leaders in the Rebellion, and is almost unknown to honorable fame among them.
3 See page 386. He was very efficient as lieutenant colonel commanding in skirmishes near Fort George in October
following. He died in Buffalo in February, 1S3S.
620
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Expedition against the British at the Beaver Dams.
Encounter with Indians.
An old German Church.
^/ /^
(£%?1><*S^)
•X — s
onel Charles G. Bcerst-
ler, of the Fourteenth
Infantry.1 They left
Fort George on the
evening of the 23d of June, marched up the Niagara River to Queenston, and then
halted for the night. Early the next morning they proceeded toward St. David's,
four miles west of Queenston, and when near it several British officers were seen to
leave houses, mount their horses, and ride off westward in haste. They fired alarm
guns and sounded a bugle, by which means the several cantonments of the enemy
were aroused.
The Americans moved steadily forward until they reached the " Ten Road," a lit
tle eastward of the present village of
Thorold, and at an old German church2
commenced the ascent of the "Mountain"
(as the Canadians call the gentle emi
nences that extend from the Niagara to
Hamilton and beyond), through a forest
of pine and beech trees, to the more level
country on the summit, where they halted
for some time. On resuming their march
and proceeding about a mile, they saw In
dians in a cleared field (Hoover's) and
open woods running toward a more dense
forest of beech-trees that skirted each side
of the road, near the present toll-gate, close
by the residence of the Rev. Dr. R. II. Ful
ler, rural dean. Chapin was immediate
ly ordered forward with his mounted men,
who were kept considerably in advance of
the main body. These had passed the beech woods, and a greater portion of the oth
ers had also gone by, when a body of Mohawk and Caughnawaga Indians, four hund
red and fifty in number, under Captain John Brant and Captain William John Kerr3
(who afterward became his brother-in-law), who had been lying in ambush, fell upon
Boerstler's rear, where about twenty light dragoons were posted. Boerstler imme
diately recalled Chapin, formed his troops, charged upon the half-concealed foe, and
drove them almost a mile. The Indians might have been entirely routed had Bcerst-
ler followed up the advantage gained. He hesitated. The Indians rallied, and hung
upon his flank and rear, keeping up a most galling fire at every exposed situation.
The Americans pressed onward, over the Beaver Dam Creek, fighting the wily foe to
immense disadvantage, and made conscious that they were almost, if not altogether
surrounded by them. For about three hours this annoying contest was kept up.
Boerstler's cannon had been posted on a rise of ground at the turn in the road near
the residence of Mr. Schriner at the time of my visit, and the Indians fell slowly
back before the American bayonets.
At length Bcerstler determined to retire and abandon the object of the expedition.
1 Charles G. Bcerstler was a native of Maryland, and was commissioned lieutenant colonel of the Fourteenth Infantry
in March, 1812. He waa active, as we have seen (page 428), in affairs at Black Rock toward the close of that year.
Three days before his unfortunate expedition to the Beaver Dams he was promoted to colonel of the Fourteenth. At
the close of the war he was disbanded.
2 This is a view of the oldest building erected for the worship of God in that section of Canada remaining at the
time of my visit. It was a little more than half a mile from the village of Thorold. The German refugees from the
Mohawk Valley at the close of the Revolution built it. It was formed of logs, and was about twenty-five feet square.
It stood in the midst of a burial-ground.
3 Captain Kerr was a grandson of Sir William Johnson, by Molly Brant, sister of the great Mohawk chief, and was
one quarter Mohawk. He married Elizabeth, the beautiful and accomplished youngest child of Brant.
GERMAN C1IUECII.
OF THE WAR OF 1&12.
621
British Troops saved by a Heroine. Mrs. Secord's Services and Reward. Bcerstler and his Command captured.
While moving off he encountered a small body of militia, under Lieutenant Colonel
Thomas Clark, in the Beech Woods. They had hastened to the field from all quarters.
Boerstler halted, and sent a courier to Dearborn for re-enforcements. Very soon after
ward Lieutenant James Fitzgibbon,
who was in command at De Cou's,
appeared with forty or fifty men of
the British Forty ninth.1 He had
been warned of the expedition of
Boerstler, and the danger to his post
and command, by Mrs. Laura Secorcl,
then a resident of Queenston, and
now (1867) dwelling at Chippewa,
who had been privately informed of
the plans of General Dearborn. Re
solving to reveal them to her endan
gered friends, she made a circuit of
nineteen miles on foot, and gave the
information which led to the Indian
ambush and the check of Boerstler's
march.2 Fitzgibbon displayed his
men, and, perceiving much confusion
in the American ranks, conceived the --^ag^t ^\
plan of boldly demanding their sur
render in the name of Major De Ha
ven, the commandant of the district. Fitz
gibbon himself approached with a flag.
He falsely assured Boerstler that his party
was the advance of fifteen hundred British
troops and seven hundred Indians, then approaching under Lieutenant Colonel Bissh-
A blacksmith in Smoky Hollow, two miles north from St. Catharine's, named Yocum, piloted Fitzgibbon from De
er Dams.
vas then, as now, a woman of light and delicate frame, and her patriotic journey was performed on a
s day. She is now (1S6T) living at the Canadian village of Chippewa, on the Niagara River, at the age
ars, her mental faculties in full play, and her eyesight sufficiently retained to see to read without spec-
Cou's to the Bea
3 Mrs. Secord
very hot summe
of ninety-two ye . ... . _
tacles. She is t e widow of James Secord, Esq., who commanded a company of militia in the battle at Queenston in
1312, and was severely wounded there. In a letter to me, written on the 13th of February, 1861, Mrs. Spcord has given
the following interesting account of her exploit here mentioned: "After going to St. David's, and the recovery of Mr.
Secord, we returned again to Queenston, where my courage again was much tried. It was then I gained the secret plan
laid to capture Captain Fitzgibbon and his party. I was determined, if possible, to save them. I had much difficultly in
getting through the American guards. They were ten miles out in the country. When I came to a field belonging to
a Mr. De Cou, in the neighborhood of the Beaver Dams, I then had walked nineteen miles. By that time daylight had
left me. I yet had a swift stream of water to cross over an old fallen tree (Twelve-mile Creek), and to climb a high hill,
which fatigued me very much.
" Before I arrived at the encampment of the Indians, as I approached they all arose with one of their war-yells, which
indeed awed me. You may imagine what my feelings were to behold so many savages. With forced courage I went
to one of the chiefs, told him I had great news for his commander, and that he must take me to him, or they would be
all lost. He did not understand me, but said, ' Woman ! what does woman want here ?' The scene by moonlight to some
might have been grand, but to a weak woman certainly terrifying. With difficulty I got one of the chiefs to go with me
to their commander. With the intelligence I gave him he formed his plans and saved his country. I have ever found
the brave and noble Colonel Fitzgibbon a friend to me ; may he prosper in the world to come as he has done in this.
"LAURA SECORD.
" Chippewa, U. C., February 18, 1S61."
Lieutenant Fitzgibbon was promoted to the rank of captain in the British army, and is now (1867) a Poor Knight of
Windsor Castle. He gave Mrs. Secord a certificate setting forth the facts above recorded. It is signed "James Fitzgib
bon, formerly lieutenant in the Forty-ninth Regiment." That certificate is printed in the Anglo-American Magazine,
and on page 175 of Auchinleck's History of the War of 1812, published in Toronto in 1855.
When the Prince of Wales was making a tour in Canada in 1SCO, the veteran soldiers of 1S12 on the Niagara frontier
went to Niagara to sign an address to his royal highness. Mrs. Secord applied for permission to place her name on the
list. "Wherefore?" was the natural question. She told her story, and it was agreed that she was one of the most em
inently deserving of honor among the patriots of that war. The story was repeated to the prince on his arrival at
Queenston, and it made such an impression on his memory and kind heart, especially when it was said that the brave
and patriotic woman was not "rich in this world's goods," that, soon after his return home, he caused the sum of one
huudred pounds sterling to be presented to her* The likeness above given is from a daguerreotype kind'y sent to me
from Mrs. Secord by the hand of Mr. J. P. Merritt, of St. Catharine's.
622 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The Terms of Surrender violated by the Indians. A bold Stroke for Liberty. Fort George invested by the British.
opp, and that the savages were becoming so exasperated that it would be difficult
to keep them from massacring the Americans. Boerstler believed, and was alarmed.
He agreed to surrender on the conditions that the officers should retain their arms,
horses, and baggage, and that the militia and volunteers, with Colonel Boerstler (who
was slightly wounded), should be permitted to return to the United States on parole.1
By the time the capitulation was agreed to in final form, De Haven, who had been
sent for by Fitzgibbon, came up with two hundred men and received the submission
of the captives. The number of prisoners surrendered was five hundred and forty-
two, and the spoils of victory were one 12-pounder, one 6-pounder, and a stand of
colors.
The surrender was scarcely completed when the articles of the capitulation were
violated. The Indians immediately commenced plundering the prisoners of their
arms and clothing, and the militia and volunteers, instead of being released on parole,
were taken to Burlington Heights and kept there as prisoners of war. Some of them
escaped through the adroit management of Major Chapin, who was soon sent, with a
number of his volunteers, in two bateaux, in charge of Captain Showers and a guard,
to Kingston, there to be held as prisoners. When within twelve miles of York they
arose and overpowered the guard, crossed the lake in the night, and arrived safely at
Fort ^Niagara with their jailers as prisoners.2
When Boprstler's courier reached Dearborn, that commander sent Colonel Christie
with three hundred men to re-enforce him. They pushed forward rapidly to Queens-
ton, where they heard of the surrender of the Americans. Christie hastened back to
camp with the sad intelligence. It caused alarm there that was speedily justified
by events. The British advanced upon Queenston, and, occupying that place and
vicinity, soon invested the Americans at Fort George with a formidable force. Gen
eral Vincent, with a small force, held Burlington Heights, and General De Rotten-
burg was encamped with a strong body at Ten-mile Creek. Dearborn, whose career
as chief had been singularly unsuccessful, was soon superseded by a more incom
petent and less trustworthy man, General Wilkinson,3 whose movements on the North
ern frontier present a series of blunders and disasters.4
1 This capitulation, in four brief articles, the substance of which is given in the text, was signed on the part of Colo
nel Boerstler by Captain Andrew M'Dowell, and on that of Lieutenant Colonel Bisshopp by Major P. V. De Haven.
Captain Merritt, in his MS. Narrative, says that Captain Norton, of the Indian force, humorously declared that the
Caughnawagas fought the battle, the Mohawks got the plunder, and Fitzgibbon got the credit. "The greater part of
the Caughnawagas," says Merritt, " were displeased, and returned home in a few days afterward, which at this time was
a very great loss."
2 Major Chapin, in his Review of Armstrong' s Notices of the War 0/1812, page 16, says that he was placed in one boat
with a principal part of the guard, and Captain Sackrider and a greater portion of the prisoners in the other boat. Or
ders had been given for the boats to keep some rods apart, cue ahead of the other. After they had passed out of Bur
lington Bay upon the open lake, Chapin made a signal to Sackrider in the hinder boat, which the Americans were row
ing, to come up closer. He gave the word in whispers to the men, and while the major was amusing the British captain
with a story, the hinder boat came up under the stern of the forward one. It was ordered back, when Chapin, with loud
voice, ordered his men not to fall back an inch. Captain Showers attempted to draw his sword, and some of his men
thrust at Chapin with bayonets. The latter prostrated the captain with a blow. He fell in the bottom of the boat, and
two of his men who were thrusting at Chapin fell upon him. The latter immediately stepped upon them. The guard
in both boats were speedily overcome and secured. "I succeeded to the command of our fleet of two bateaux," says
Chapin, " with no little alacrity. We shifted our course, crossed Lake Ontario, and with the boats and prisoners arrived
the next morning safe at Fort Niagara."
3 Congress was in session when this " climax of continual tidings of mismanagement and misfortune" reached Wash
ington. The late Charles J. Ingersoll, one of the historians of the war, was then a member of the House of Representa
tives. The intelligence produced great irritation. " On the Cth of July, 1813, therefore," says Ingersoll, " after a short
accidental communion of regret, and impatience in the lobby of the House of Representatives with the Speaker and
General Ringgold, of Maryland, I was deputed a volunteer to wait on the President, and request General Dearborn's
removal from a command which, so far, had been so unfortunate." The recall of General Dearborn immediately fol
lowed this request, and on the 15th of July that officer, who had performed noble service in the Continental army, took
leave of that on the Niagara frontier, at Fort George, pursuant to an order from the Secretary of War that he should
"retire from command until his health should be re-established." "The Northern army," says Ingersoll, "relieved of
a veteran leader whose age and health disqualified him for active and enterprising services, in his successor, General
Wilkinson, did not get a younger, healthier, or more competent commander."— Historical Sketch of the Second War, etc.,
i., 288.
* The authorities consulted in the preparation of the foregoing narrative are the official dispatches : statements of
officers ; the Histories of Thompson, Perkins, Conner, Brackenridge, Ingersoll, James, Christie, Auchinleck ; Stone's
Life of Brant ; Chapin's Review of Armstrong ; Merritt's MS. narrative ; personal narratives of survivors, etc.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 623
A Visit to St. Catharine's and the Beaver Dams' Battle-ground. De Cou's and De Con's Falls.
It was in sultry August, 1860, that I visited the scenes of Boerstler's march and dis
aster, and places in the vicinity. I have already mentioned my trip from Queenston
to St. Catharine's, and so on to Hamilton, Paris, Brantford, and the Indian settlements
on the Grand River in Canada.1 It was at that time that I stopped at St. Catharine's
for the purpose of seeing the Honorable William Hamilton Merritt, the brave British
cavalry officer already mentioned, and of visiting places of interest near. I arrived
there on Saturday evening, and at a boarding-house where I procured lodgings I had
the pleasure of meeting the family of a once valued acquaintance in Virginia, who
were seeking health from the use of the powerful mineral waters that flow up copi
ously there from the deep recesses of the earth.2 Little did I think that within a few
months the accomplished head of that family, whom I had learned to esteem most
highly, would be seduced from his allegiance to the flag of his country, under which
he had served with fidelity and distinction for five-and-thirty years, and become the
general-in-chief of armies in rebellion against the government of the Republic ! He
held the narrow view of American citizenship, engendered by the doctrine of supreme
state sovereignty, expressed in the words " I go with my state," and followed the
terrible fortunes of his native Virginia when her political chai'latans — her selfish
trading politicians — declared her secession from the Union, and brought ruin on her
people.
I was unfortunate in not finding Mr. Merritt at home. As a member of the Cana
dian Parliament, he had gone to Quebec to receive the Prince of Wales. To his son,
Mr. J. P. Merritt, I am indebted for many kind courtesies while there. He gave me
free access to his father's military papers, and kindly lent me the MS. Narrative of
Events in the campaigns on the Canadian Peninsula already referred to.
Early on Monday morning,a after a night made memorable by a fearful a August 20,
thunder-storm, I started for the Beaver Dams, accompanied by Mr. Mer
ritt. On the way I sketched the ancient German church delineated on page 620 ;
and early in the forenoon we reached the house of the Reverend Dr. Fuller by the
famous Beech Woods where Boerstler was first attacked. From the roof of his
dwelling we obtained a fine view of the Beaver Dams' battle-ground and the thea
tre of Boerstler's misfortunes, and from that elevation made the sketch seen at the
top of the picture on the following page. On the right is seen the Beech Wood,
and through the centre Beaver Dams' Creek. On the left is seen the turn of the
road where Boerstler's cannon were planted, and a little to the right of it is the
stone house of Mr. Shriner, whose orchard, adjoining it, was the place where Boerst
ler surrendered to De Haven. The two-story house on the right of the picture
is De Cou's, and the cascade on the left is a view of De Cou's Falls, in Twelve-mile
Creek.
From Dr. Fuller's we rode on through Beaver Dam village to De Cou's, passing
on the way the smoking ruins of a barn which had been fired by lightning during
the night. The famous house was of stone, two stories in height, spacious, with or
namental shrubbery around it. It was in an elevated, fertile, and beautiful region.
After sketching the building we passed on to the lake slopes of the hills, and, follow
ing a farm-road a little distance, came to De Cou's Falls, where the Twelve-mile
Creek pours over a ledge of rocks, semicircular in form, into a wild ravine, in a per
pendicular cascade of sixty feet. The sides of the ravine are very precipitous, and
covered chiefly with evergreens. With much difficulty and some danger, I made my
1 See page 420.
2 The city of St. Catharine's, on the Twelve-mile Creek, the Welland Canal, and the Great Western Railway, was
known as " Chipman's" during the war. It is between twelve and thirteen miles west from the Niagara River. It is
a port of entry (Port Dalhousie is at the mouth of the creek), is beautifully situated, and threatens to rival Hamilton.
Its mineral springs are very noted for their healing properties, and St. Catharine's has become a place of great resort
for invalids and fashionable people. It is a very desirable place for those who love a quiet watering-place for a few
weeks in summer. The population is about seven thousand.
624
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Sketch of De Con's Falls.
A Veteran of the War of 1812.
Eeturn to St. Catharine's.
BATTLE-GBOtTND.
DE COt's STONE UOUSE.
way to its wild depths,
and obtained a favorable
position for a sketch of
the Falls, on the crown
of which, shaded by ce
dars and hemlocks, were
the remains of an old mill. A fourth of a mile below
was another fall of thirty feet, where the ravine deepens
and darkens, for the whole declivity down which the
stream pours toward the plain is covered with a dense
forest.
We made our way along a most picturesque road
among the hills to the fertile rolling plain below, and
stopped at the little log cottage of Captain James Dit-
trick, a bachelor
of seventy -five,
and a veteran of
the War of 181 2.
He was commander of the Fourth Lincoln company, and
was in the battles at Queenston, Fort George, and Ni
agara, or Lundy's Lane, and was active on the frontier
and over the peninsula during the whole of the war. He
arrived at the Beaver Dams a few minutes after the sur
render of Boerstler, and participated in the joy of the oc
casion. Captain Dittrick was a bald-headed, heavy man,
very pleasant and communicative — ready to " fight his
battles o'er again" by his hearthstone. Our visit was
made too short for our pleasure and profit by the rum
bling of thunder. We rode on to St. Catharine's, where
we arrived in time to escape a drenching shower. I
dined with Mr. Merritt and his father's family, and had
the pleasure of meeting at the table the widow of the eminent Jesse Hawley, who
wras a distinguished citizen of Western New York, to whom Governor De Witt Clin
ton (autograph letter now before me) gave the credit of being the chief projector of
that great work of internal improvement, the Erie Canal. He published a series of
1>E COO S FALLS.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 625
Visit to Hamilton and Stony Creek. A Refugee from the Wyoming Valley. Departure for Brautford.
able letters over the signature of "Hercules," whose wise suggestions led to the con
struction of that mighty work which immortalized the name of Clinton, and added
millions to the wealth of New York.1
I left St. Catharine's toward evening for the beautiful city of Hamilton, at the head
of the lake. The railway passes through a most charming country lying between
the " Mountain" or ancient shore of Ontario and the lake. This mountain approaches
the lake within three foui'ths of a mile at Hamilton, and then, turning more south
ward, assists in forming the deep valley in which Dundas lies nestled. I passed the
night at the Royal Hotel in Hamilton, and at six o'clock the next morning started in
a light wagon for Stony Creek, seven miles eastward, over a fine stone road. I was
directed to Colonel Daniel Lewis for information concerning the battle and its local
ities. His residence was a little northward of the village, but he was absent. From
Mr. Heales, residing there, I obtained all needful knowledge respecting the place of.
the encampment and the combat. After making the sketch on page 603, 1 returned
to the village, made my way half a mile southward of it, and took a hasty glance at
the pouring down of Stony Creek from the " Mountain" in a perpendicular fall of one
hundred and thirty feet into a deep, narrow gorge. Wishing to depart from Hamil
ton for Paris at twelve o'clock, I did not linger long at the falls. On my way back I
stopped at the house of Mr. Michael Aikman to obtain some information concerning
the place of the British encampment on Burlington Heights. He too was absent, but
I spent a most interesting half hour with his mother, Mrs. Hannah Aikman, a small,
delicate woman, then ninety-one years of age. She was the daughter of Michael
Showers, a Tory refugee from the Wyoming Valley. She and her family were in
Wintermoot's Fort, and her father was one of Butler's Rangers. After the battle
there they were compelled to fly. They went up the Susquehanna, and across the
country by way of the Genesee, intending to go to Niagara by the lake in a small
boat which they took with them. It was so injured that it could not be used. The
father walked to Fort Niagara for relief, and for a week his family subsisted on roots
which they dug from the soil. They were timely relieved by some Mississagua In
dians. Her father was one of the settlers with Bxitler's Rangers on the Canadian
peninsula, and for almost seventy years she had lived at her then place of abode.2
When I told her of my visit to Wintermoot's house, and described it as she remem
bered it, and spoke of the Wintermoots, the Burnets, the Hallenbecks, the Dorrances,
and others whom she knew, her eyes brightened, and she said it seemed as if one of
her old neighbors had come to see her.
I reached Hamilton3 just in time to take the cars for the West, and, as I have al
ready mentioned, arrived at Brantford, on the Grand River, that evening. Of my
visit to the Indian settlements in that vicinity I have elsewhere written.4
1 It is proper to say here that the project of a canal to connect the waters of Lake Erie with those of the Hudson
River was contemplated by General Philip Schuyler, Elkanah Watson, and Christopher Colles, many years before Mr.
Hawley wrote his convincing letters.
2 I have before mentioned in this work that, after the Revolution, Butler's Rangers and other refugees from the
United States settled on the Canadian peninsula. Each one of Butler's Rangers, almost five hundred in number, was
presented with a thousand acres of land in this then wilderness, and that district, of which there were four in the prov
ince, was called Nassau. Governor Haldimand, a German, named the four districts respectively, beginning at the De
troit, Hesse, Nassau, Mecklenburg, and Lunenburg. Haldimand was a great friend of the Canadians ; but Simcoe, de
sirous of making the province as English as possible, and denoting native nationality, gave British names to almost
every place. In this spirit he changed the name of Toronto to York, in honor of a victory by the Duke of York on the
Continent.
3 Hamilton was laid out in 1813, and is situated on the southwestern extremity of Burlington Bay. It is the chief city
of West Canada, having a population of about 24,000. Burlington Heights are composed of an immense deposit of
gravel, sand, and loam. The village of Burlington was the germ of the city of Hamilton, and stood on its site. The
Great Western Railway passes along the shore of the bay, at the foot of the heights, and crosses the Des Jardins Canal,
which is cut directly through the great hill north of the cemetery and the residence of the late Sir Allan M'Nab. The
present railway bridge over the canal is of iron, and seventy feet above the water. The first one was of wood. It gave
way, with a train of cars upon it, in March, 1857, when fifty-six persons were killed. In the cemetery may be seen the
remains of General Vincent's fortified camp. They form a ridge across the grounds (which comprise about twenty-seven
acres), running east and west. The palatial residence of the late Sir Allan M'Nab is called Dundurn Castle. It is built
of limestone, fronts southeast, overlooking the bay and Hamilton, and is surrounded by about forty acres of land.
* See pages from 420 to 425, inclusive.
RR
626 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Raids on the Niagara Frontier. A Massacre by Western Indians. Statement of Captain Merritt and others.
General Boyd, being the senior officer on the Niagara frontier, became temporary
commander-in-chief there after the departure of General Dearborn. He found his po
sition an important and arduous one. The success of the British at the Beaver Dams
made them bold, and they were gradually closing upon the Americans at Fort George
and Newark. Frequent picket skirmishing occurred, and bold raids into the Ameri
can territory were performed. One of these occurred on the night of the 4th of
July.a A party composed of Canadian militia and Indians, and led by Lieu
tenant Colonel Thomas Clark, crossed the Niagara from Chippewa to Schlosser,
captured the guard there, seized a large quantity of provisions, one brass 6-pounder
cannon, several stands of arms, and some ammunition. With these spoils they re
turned in triumph to the Canada shore.
Four days later a sad tragedy was performed near the residences of John and Peter
•Ball,1 about a mile and a half from Fort George. The gallant young leader, Merritt,
then just twenty years of age, was sent with a small party to recover some medicines
near Ball's which the British had concealed when they fled from Fort George in May.
A body of one hundred and fifty savages, just arrived from the Western wilderness,
under Captain M. Elliott, and led by the bloody Blackbird, of Chicago fame,2 were
employed as a covering party. Merritt was encamped, and while breakfasting at
Ball's a skirmish with an American picket-guard took place not far off. Lieutenant
Eldridge (then adjutant), with thirty-nine volunteers, went out to the relief of the
guard, and a larger force, under Major Malcolm, prepared to follow. The impetuous
Eldridge dashed forward into the thick wood, and fell into an ambush prepared for
him by Blackbird and his followers. The foe was repulsed at first, but overwhelm
ing numbers crushed Eldridge and his little party.3 Only five escaped. The prison
ers and wounded were butchered and scalped by the Western savages, whose con
duct on the occasion was marked by the most atrocious barbarity.4 This was so
shocking and exasperating that General Boyd resolved to adopt Washington's plan
of having " Indians fight Indians," and to accept the services of the Senecas and Tus-
' The Ball family still occupied this dwelling, I was informed, when I visited Niagara in 1860. They have, as a cher
ished relic, the military chapeau worn by the gallant Brock when he fell at Queenston. 2 See page 308.
3 Joseph C. Eldridge was a native of New York. He entered the army as second lieutenant in the Thirteenth Regu
lar Infantry hi the spring of 1812. A year afterward he was promoted to first lieutenant, and appointed adjutant. He
was distinguished for bravery at Stony Creek a month earlier, and was a young officer of great promise.
4 There are statements by American and British writers concerning this affair too widely differing to admit of recon
ciliation. Some of the American writers say that the force which fell upon Eldridge was composed of British and In
dians, while British writers declare that no white man was present. The only statement that I have ever met from an
eye-witness is that of the late Hon, William Hamilton Merritt in his MS. narrative, now before me, and from that I have
drawn the facts up to the ambush. He says that he had no expectation of being in the fight, and that he and John Bell
were the only two white persons engaged in it except a boy thirteen years old, whose father was a prisoner and dan
gerously wounded, and whose eldest brother was killed at Fort George. "This little fellow," says Merritt, "was de
termined to revenge the loss his family had sustained, and would not be persuaded to leave the field until his mother
[Mrs. Law, whose house was on the ground] came out and took him away in her arms by force." An American officer,
writing from Fort George the next day, said that two of the five survivors, and who were at first taken prisoners, stated
that there were British soldiers in the ambush, painted as Indians, "with streaks of green and red around their eyes."
— Niles's Register, iv., 352.
Mr. Merritt says that his whole attention, after the fight, was given to the prisoners in the hands of Blackbird and
his followers, and that his own life was threatened because he made intercession for those of the captives. " The poor
devils," he says, "were crying and imploring me to save their lives, as I was the only white man they saw." He says
that the Indians, after getting an interpreter, promised him that " the lives of the prisoners should be spared — would
only frighten them a great deal, to prevent them coming again. I made a solemn vow," he continues, "if a prisoner
was killed, never to go out with an Indian again." The savages violated their pledge, and butchered their prisoners
with a barbarity too revolting to be repeated here. The American officer above alluded to says : "I break open this
letter for the purpose of stating that the body (as is supposed) of Lieutenant Eldridge, the adjutant of the Thirteenth,
has been brought in this moment, naked, mangled in the manner mentioned of the other." The excuse made for the
murder of Eldridge was that, after he was made prisoner, he treacherously drew a concealed pistol and shot one of the
chiefs through the head. This was Blackbird's reason for murdering all. Mr. Merritt speaks of Eldridge as "the offi
cer who forfeited his life by firing at an Indian while a prisoner." He does not speak from his own knowledge. An
investigation proved the assertion of the savage leader to be wholly untrue, and this crime (strange as it may appear)
stands, iincondemned by British writers, one of pure barbarian cruelty.
The following least revolting recital is from a letter from an American officer to his friend in Baltimore, dated at Fort
•George, July 12 : "A recital will make you shudder. I will merely mention the fate of a young officer who came under
my notice, whose body was found, the day after the action, cut and mangled in the most shocking manner, Jiis entrails
torn from his body, and HIS HEART STUFFED IN HIS MOUTH 1 We are resolved to show no quarter to the Indians after
.tMs."— A'iZcs's Weekly Register, iv., 352.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 627
Expedition against Black Rock. General Porter hurries to its Defense. Repulse of the British.
caroras, who had proffered them, under certain conditions which humanity would
impose.
Clark's success at Schlosser suggested another and more important expedition. It
was the surprise of the American naval station and deposit for stores and munitions of
war at Black Rock, near Buffalo. It was organized by the gallant Lieutenant Colonel
Cecil Bisshopp, of the British Forty-first. He left his head-quarters at Lundy's Lane
on the afternoon of the 10th,a with detachments from the Royal Artillery, and a ju]yi
the Eighth, Forty - first, and Forty - ninth Regiments, and at Chippewa was
joined by Lieutenant Colonel Clark, with a body of Lincoln militia and volunteers,
making his whole force between three and four hundred in number. They embarked
at Chippewa early in the evening, and at half an hour before dawnb landed
unperceived on the American shore, a short distance below Black Rock.
The block-house there, called Fort Tompkins, was in charge of less than a dozen ar
tillerists ; and the only other available military force at the station was about two
hundred militia, under Major Adams, with two or three pieces of artillery. At Buf
falo, two miles distant, were less than a hundred infantry and dragoon recruits from
the South, on their way to Fort George, and a small body of Indians under Henry
O'Bail, the young Corn-planter, who had been partially educated at Philadelphia, but
who, Indian-like, could not brook the restraints of civilization, and had gone back to
his blanket and feather head-dress. These forces were under the command of Gen
eral Peter B. Porter, who was then residing at his house near Black Rock.1
Bisshopp was accompanied by Colonel Warren. They surprised Major Adam's
camp, and he and his alarmed militia fled precipitately to Buffalo, leaving the artil
lery unharmed on the ground. General Porter narrowly escaped capture in his own
house. He made an unsuccessful attempt to reach Adam's camp when he learned
of the flight of the militia and the garrison at the block-house. He followed on foot
toward Buffalo, and on the way met Captain Cummings, with one hundred regulars,
who, having heard of the invasion, was advancing toward Black Rock. In the mean
time the enemy had fired the block-house and barracks, attacked the navy buildings
and a schooner lying there, and the principal officers had gone to the house of Gen
eral Porter, where they ordered breakfast. Their followers, and the re-enforcements
continually coming over from the Canada shore, were employed meanwhile in plun
dering the inhabitants and public stores not destroyed by fire.
On meeting Captain Cummings, Porter ordered him to halt. Then, mounting the
horse of one of the dragoons, he hastened to Buffalo, rallied about one half of Major
Adam's militia, and, with these and about fifty volunteer citizens, he soon rejoined
Cummings. With the united force and about forty Indians, he attacked the invaders,
at eight o'clock, from three different points. The Indians, who were concealed in a
ravine, arose from cover, and gave the appalling war-whoop at the moment of the
attack, and added much to the surprise and confusion of the British, who did not ex
pect the return of the Americans. After a short, spirited contest, the foe were beaten,
and driven in confusion toward their boats, now moored near the present ferry, where
they rallied. Porter now concentrated his own forces, and fell upon Bisshopp with
so much power that, after a contest of not more than twenty minutes, he fled with
precipitation to his boats, leaving nine killed and sixteen or eighteen prisoners, among
whom was Captain Saunders, of Bisshopp's regiment, who was badly wounded.2 He
was carried gently by the Indians in blankets to General Porter's house.3 The Brit-
' See page 426.
2 Stone's Life of Brant, page 242 ; Lieutenant Colonel Clarke's Official Report to Lieutenant Colonel Harvey, dated
Chippewa, July 12, 1813. Mr. Stone says that, after he had written his account of the affair at Black Rock, he placed his
manuscript in the hands of General Porter, who was then living. The general not only corrected it, but rewrote the
whole narrative, the substance of which is given in the text.
3 The Indians, after taking from Captain Saunders his cap, epaulettes, sword, and belt, carried him gently to Porter's
house. He was wounded by a rifle-ball passing through his chest and lungs, and another shattering his wrist. He re-
628 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
MONUMENT.
Death of Bisshopp. His Monument. Expedition to Burlington Heights. Descent on York.
ish suffered a greater loss after they had reached their boats.1 Among those mor
tally wounded was the commander of the expedition, a gallant young man, thirty
years of age. He was conveyed in sadness to his head-quarters at Lundy's Lane,
where, after lingering five days, he died. He was buried in the bosom of a green
slope, in a small cemetery on the south side of Lundy's Lane, a short distance from
the great cataract of the Niagara, by his brother officers,
who erected over his grave a neat monument. In the
course of time it fell into decay, and thirty-three years
afterward the sisters of the young soldier replaced it by
another and more elegant one. Upon the recumbent slab
that surmounts it is an appropriate inscription.2
During the remainder of the summer there were fre
quent skirmishes in the neighborhood of Fort George,
caused by attacks upon American foraging parties, but
no enterprise of much importance was undertaken ex-
cepting an attempt to capture the British stores at BuV-
Ihigton Heights, known to be in charge of a feeble guard
under Major Maule. This was attempted towai-d the end of July. Colonel Win-
field Scott had just been promoted to the command of a double regiment (twenty
companies), and had resigned the office of adjutant general. He was eager for dis
tinction and useful service, and he volunteered to lead any land force that might be
sent to the head of Ontario. Chauncey was then making gallant cruises about the
lake. He had twelve vessels, and felt strong enough to cope with any force that
might appear under Sir James Yeo.
The expedition to Burlington Heights was under the chief command of Chauncey.
He appeared at the mouth of the Niagara River with his fleet on the 27th of July,
and on the following day he sailed for the head of Ontario, with three hundred land
troops under Colonel Scott. Meanwhile Colonel Harvey had taken measures for the
security of the British stores at Burlington. Lieutenant Colonel Battersby was or
dered from York with a part of the Glengary corps to re-enforce the guard under
Major Maule. By forced marches Battersby joined Maule before Chauncey 's arrival.
That officer and Scott soon perceived that their force was insufficient for the pre
scribed work. Convinced of this, and informed of the defenseless state of York on
account of the withdrawal of Battersby's detachment, Chauncey spread his sails, went
across the lake, and entered that harbor on the 31st. Colonel Scott landed his troops
without opposition, took possession of the place, burnt the barracks, public store
houses and stores, and eleven transports, destroyed five pieces of cannon, and bore
mained at Porter's, kindly treated and attended by his wife, who was sent for, for about three weeks, when he was suf
ficiently recovered to be sent to the rendezvous of prisoners at Williamsville.— Stone's Life of Red Jacket, page 246.
1 The entire loss of the British during this expedition, in killed, wounded, and missing, must have been almost sev
enty. Some estimated it as high as one hundred. The loss of the Americans was three killed and five wounded. Two
of the latter were Indians. The destruction of property was not so great as has been generally represented. The
Americans did not lose, by destruction or plunder, more than one third of the valuable naval stores at Black Rock, col
lected for Commodore Perry, nor did they reach a particle of the military stores for the use of the army, then deposited
at Buffalo. The enemy destroyed or captured 4 cannon, 177 English and French muskets, 1 three-pounder traveling car
riage, 6 ammunition kegs, a small quantity of round and case shot, 123 barrels of salt, 40 barrels of whisky, considerable
clothing and blankets, and a small quantity of other stores.— Clark's Official Report.
2 The following is a copy of the inscription :
" Sacred to the memory of Lieutenant Colonel the Honorable Cecil Bisshopp, 1st Foot Guards, and inspecting field-
officer in Upper Canada, eldest and only surviving son of Sir Cecil Bisshopp, Bart., Baron de la Fouche, in England.
After having served with distinction in the British army in Holland, Spain, and Portugal, he died on the ICth of July,
1813, aged 30, in consequence of wounds received in action with the enemy at Black Rock on the llth of the same
month, to the great grief of his family and friends, and is buried here.
"This tomb, erected at the time by his brother officers, becoming much dilapidated, is now (1846) renewed by his af
fectionate sisters, the Baroness de la Fouche and the Honorable Mrs. Rechell, in memory of an excellent man and be
loved brother."
Lieutenant Colonel Bisshopp received a severe, but not mortal wound while on shore, and four or five others after he
entered his boat. The gallant Fitzgibbon took charge of him, and conveyed him as tenderly as possible from Chip-
pewa to Luady's Lane.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 629
General Dearborn succeeded by General Wilkinson. Arrival of the Latter at Washington. Indian skirmishing.
away as spoils one heavy gun and a considerable quantity of provisions, chiefly of
flour. The expedition returned to the Niagara on the 3d of August, carrying with
them the sick and wounded of Bosrstler's command found in York. No military
movements of much importance occurred on that frontier after this until late in the
year.1
Four days after the return to the Niagara, while Chauncey's fleet was lying at an
chor in the mouth of the river, a British squadron under Sir James Yeo made its ap
pearance. Chauncey went out to attack the baronet. They manoeuvred all day, and
after midnight, during a heavy squall, two of the American vessels were capsized and
lost, with all on board excepting sixteen. This movement we shall consider here
after, in giving a connected account of the naval operations on Lake Ontario dur
ing the year 1813.
We have noticed the retirement of General Dearborn from the command of the
Northern Army. That measure had been decided upon by General Armstrong, the
Secretary of War, full six months before it occurred. He considered the command
of that army " a burden too heavy for General Dearborn to carry with advantage to
the nation or credit to himself," and two remedies were suggested to the Secretary's
mind — " the one a prompt and peremptory recall, the other such an augmentation of
his staff as would secure to the army better instruction, and to himself the chance of
wiser councils."2 The former remedy was chosen, and General James Wilkinson, then
in command in the Gulf region, and General Wade Hampton, stationed at Norfolk, in
Virginia, were ordered to the Northern frontier. These men had been active officers
~ /
in the old War for Independence, the first on the staff of General Gates, and the sec
ond as a partisan ranger in South Carolina in connection with Marion. Unfortunate
ly for the good of the public service, they were now bitter enemies, and so jealous of
each other that they would not co-operate, as we shall observe, at a critical moment.
It was early in March when the Secretary's orders were sent to Wilkinson, and
with them was a private letter from the same hand, breathing the most friendly spirit,
and saying, " Why should you remain in your land of cypress when patriotism and
ambition equally invite you to one where grows the laurel ? .... If our cards be
Avell played we may renew the scenes of Saratoga."3 Wilkinson was flattered, and
as soon as he could make his arrangements he left the " land of the cypress," jour
neyed through the Creek country by Avay of Fort Mims to the capital of Georgia,
and thence northward to Washington City, where he arrived, weary and worn with
several hundreds of miles of travel, and weak with sickness, on the 31st of July. He
was cordially received by Armstrong and the President, and, after being allowed to
rest a few daysj and becoming formally invested with the power of commander-in-
chief of the Army of the North in place of Dearborn, a plan of the proposed opera
tions of that army during the remainder of the campaign, which the Secretary had
laid before the Cabinet on the 23d of July,a was presented to him for con- »i8i3.
sideration,b with an expressed desire that if he should perceive any thing b August 5.
objectionable in the plan he would freely suggest modifications.
At the beginning of the campaign Armstrong was anxious to secure the control
1 There were frequent picket skirmishes. Among the most conspicuous of these was one that occurred near Fort
George on the 16th of August while the belligerents were near each other. It was the first, of any account, in which
the Indians of Western New York engaged after their alliance with the Americans, which had been made with the ex
plicit understanding that they were not to kill the enemy who were wounded or prisoners, or take scalps. The occa
sion referred to was an effort to capture a strong British picket. About three hundred volunteers and Indians under
Major Chapin and General Peter B. Porter, and two hundred regulars under Major Cummings, were sent out by General
Boyd for the purpose. The primary object was defeated by a heavy rain, but a severe skirmish ensued, in which the
enemy was routed, and twelve British Indians and four white soldiers were captured. The principal chiefs who led
the American Indians were Farmer's Brother, Red Jacket, Little Billy, Pollard, Blacksnake, Johnson, Silver Heels, Cap
tain Half-town, Major Henry O'Bail ( Cornplanter's son), and Captain Cold, chief of the Onondagas.— Boyd's Dispatch.
2 Xotices of the War c/1812, ii., 23.
3 Armstrong to Wilkinson, March 12, 1813. Armstrong and Wilkinson were both members of General Gates's mili
tary staff during the campaign which resulted in the capture of Burgoyne at Saratoga in the autumn of 1777.
630 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Secretary Armstrong and General Wilkinson. Generals Wilkinson and Hampton. Haughtiness of Hampton.
of the St. Lawrence by the capture of Kingston, but circumstances, as we have seen,1
prevented an attempt to do so. That project was now revived, and had received the
approval of the Cabinet. It did not strike Wilkinson favorably, and on the 6th of
August, in a written communication to the Secretary, the general freely suggested
modifications, saying, " Will it not be better to strengthen our force already at Fort
George, cut up the British in that quarter, destroy Indian establishments, and (should
General Harrison fail in his object) march a detachment and capture Maiden? After
which, closing our operations on the peninsula, razing all works there, and leaving
our settlements on the strait in tranquillity, descend like lightning with our whole
force on Kingston, and, having reduced that place, and captured both garrison and
shipping, go down the St. Lawrence and form a junction with Hampton's column,2 if
the lateness of the season should permit."3 The object of that junction was to make
a combined attack on Montreal. The Secretary of War, always impatient when his
opinions were disputed, at once conceived a dislike of his old companion in arms,
whom he had invited so kindly to come North and win laurels, and from that time a
widening estrangement existed. Long years afterward the Secretary wrote, " This
strategic labor of the general had no tendency to increase the executive confidence
in either his professional knowledge or judgment. Still the President hoped that if
the opinions it contained were mildly rebuked, the general would abandon them, and,
after joining the army, would hasten to execute the plan already communicated to
him."4
Armstrong replied courteously to Wilkinson. He adhered to his owrn plan, but al
lowed that the fall of Kingston and the attainment of the control of the St. Lawrence
might be as effectually accomplished indirectly by a quick movement down the river
against Montreal, masked by a feigned attack on the former place. But he decidedly
objected to any farther movements against the enemy on the Canadian peninsula, as
they would but " wound the tail of the lion ;"5 and Wilkinson departed' for Sackett's
•August 11. Harbora without any definite plan of operations determined upon, while
Armstrong sent instructions to General Boyd to keep within his lines at
Fort George, and simply hold the enemy at bay, notwithstanding the American force
was much larger than that of the British.
On his way to Sackett's Harbor Wilkinson sent from Albany his first orders to
Hampton, as commander-in-chief of the Northern Army. This aroused the ire of the
old aristocrat, whose landed possessions in South Carolina and Louisiana were almost
princely, and whose slaves were numbered by thousands. His anger was intensified
b by his hatred of Wilkinson, and he immediately wrote to the Secretary of
War,b insisting that his wras a separate command, and tendering his resig
nation in the event of his being compelled to act under Wilkinson. Wilkinson at the
same time was distrustful of Armstrong, and evidently quite as jealous of his own
rights, for on the 24th of August he wrote to the Secretary of War, saying, "I trust
you will not interfere with my arrangements, or give orders within the district of my
command, but to myself, because it would impair my authority and distract the pub
lic service. Two heads on the same shoulders make a monster." "Unhappily for
the country," says Ingersoll, " that deplorable campaign was a monster with three
heads, biting and barking at each other with a madness which destroyed them all and
disgusted the country."6 This calamity we shall have occasion to consider hereafter.
Wilkinson arrived at Sackett's Harbor late in August,0 and found him
self nominally in command of between twelve and fourteen thousand
troops, four thousand of them, under Hampton, at Burlington, composing the right
wing, and the remainder equally divided between Sackett's Harbor, the centre, and
• i See page 585. 2 Hampton was on Lake Champlain, with his head-quarters at Burlington.
3 Notices of the War of 1812, ii., 31. * The same.
5 Armstrong's letter to Wilkinson, August 8, 1813. 6 Historical Sketch of the Second War, etc., i., 295.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 631
Wilkinson at Sackett's Harbor. Affairs on the Niagara Frontier. Scott marches for Sackett's Harbor.
Fort George, the left wing.1 But his real effective force did not exceed nine thousand
men. It had been a sickly summer on the frontier, especially on the Canadian penin
sula, and the hospitals were full. The British force opposed to him amoimted to
about eight thousand. Their right was ou Burlington Heights, their centre at Kings
ton, and their left at Montreal.
Wilkinson called a council of officers on the 28th.a It was attended by a August,
Generals Lewis, Brown, and Swartwout, and Commodore Chauncey. It was 1813-
determined to concentrate at Sackett's Harbor all the troops of that department ex
cept those on Lake Champlain, preparatory to striking " a deadly blow somewhere."2
Wilkinson accordingly hastened to Fort George, leaving Lewis in command at the
Harbor, and arrived there on the 4th of September, extremely ill, after a fatiguing
voyage the whole distance in an open boat. As soon as his strength would allow he
assumed active command there, and on the 20th held a council of officers, at Avhich
Generals Boyd, Miller, and Williams, eleven colonels and lieutenant colonels, and ten
majors, attended. It was resolved to abandon and destroy Fort George, and transfer
the troops to the east end of Lake Ontario. But orders came from Washington to
" put Fort George in a condition to resist assault ; to leave there an efficient garrison
of at least six hundred regular troops; to remove Captain Nathaniel Leonard, of the
First Regiment of Artillery, from the command of Fort Niagara, and give it to Cap
tain George Armistead, of the same regiment ; to accept the services of a volunteer
corps offered by General P. B. Porter and others, and to commit the command of Fort
George and the Niagara frontier to Brigadier General Moses Porter."3 These instruc
tions were but partially obeyed. Leonard was left in command of Fort Niagara ; no
arrangements were made for the acceptance of the volunteers ; and Colonel Scott, in
stead of General Moses Porter, was placed in command of Fort George, with a garri
son of about eight hundred regular troops, and a part of Colonel Philetus Swift's reg
iment of militia, instructed, in the anticipated event of the British abandoning that
frontier, to leave the fort in command of Brigadier General M'Clure, of the New York
Militia, and with his regulars join the expedition on the St. Lawrence. Having com
pleted his arrangements, Wilkinson embarked with the Niagara army on Chauncey's
fleet, and sailed eastward on the 2d of October.
Colonel Scott immediately set Captain Totten, of the Engineers, at work to strength
en the post over which, a few months before, he had unfurled the American flag for
the first time. Much had been accomplished at the end of a week, when, suddenly,
to the surprise of all, the British broke camp and hastened toward Burlington Heights.
General Vincent had received intelligence of the defeat of Proctor on the Thames,*
and he instantly directed the concentration of all his forces at the head of the lake,
to either meet Harrison, should he push in from the field of victory, or to renew the
attempt to repossess themselves of the Niagara frontier. Proctor, with the small
remnant of his vanquished army, joined Vincent on the 10th. This retrograde move
ment of the British was the contingency which Scott longed for, because he preferred
active service down the St. Lawrence to garrison duty. He accordingly placed Fort
George in command of General M'Clure, and crossed the river to the American shore
with all the regulars on the 13th of October.1* He marched to the mouth of b
the Genesee River, where he expected to find lake transportation for his troops.
He was disappointed ; and in drenching rain, and through deep mud, he pressed on
with his little army by way of the sites of Rochester5 and Syracuse6 to Utica,7 where
1 Report of the adjutant general, August 2, 1813. 2 Minutes of the council.
3 Armstrong's Notices of the War of 1812. 4 See page 554.
5 The only dwelling then at the Falls of the Genesee, where the city of Rochester now stands, was the log house of
Euos Stone, built in 1807. Now (1867) the population of Rochester is about 55,000.
6 Syracuse was then in embryo, in the form of a few huts of salt-boilers, and called by the village name, South Salina.
It now (1S67) contains a population of about 34,000.
7 Utica is on the site of old Fort Schuyler, a few miles eastward of the later Fort Schuyler, originally called Fort Stan-
wix, now Rome. It was then an incorporated post village, and considered the commercial capital of the great Western
632 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Armstrong on the Frontier. The British threaten Fort George. It is abandoned. Newark burnt.
he struck the road that from there penetrated the Black River country.1 There he met
General Armstrong, who had left his post at Washington for the double purpose of rec
onciling the differences between Wilkinson and Hampton, and to superintend in per
son the movements of the St. Lawrence expedition. The Secretary permitted Scott to
leave his troops in command of Major Hindman, and to push forward to Ogdensburg,
where he joined Wilkinson, and took part in subsequent events of the expedition.
a October is, When Scott left Fort Georgea it was believed that the British troops
had been called from the west end of Lake Ontario to re-enforce the gar
rison at Kingston. Such order had been sent to Vincent by the timid Sir George
Prevost when he heard of Proctor's disaster. On the receipt of it Vincent called a
council of officers, when it was resolved to disobey it, and not only hold the penin
sula, but endeavor to repossess every British post on the Niagara frontier. Mean-
Avhile M'Clure was sending out foraging parties, who greatly alarmed and distressed
the inhabitants. They appealed for protection to General Vincent, and he sent a de
tachment of about four hundred British troops under Colonel Murray, and about one
hundred Indians under Captain M. Elliott, to drive the foragers back. The work was
accomplished, and the Americans were very soon hemmed within their own lines by
the foe, who took position at Twelve-mile Creek, now St. Catharine's.
While affairs were in this condition at Fort George General Harrison arrived there,
as we have seen,2 with the expectation of leading an expedition against Burlington
Heights. But he was speedily ordered to embark, with all his troops, on Chauncey's
squadron, for Sackett's Harbor. M'Clure was again aloneb with his vol-
November 10.
unteers and militia. The time of service of the latter was about to ex
pire, and none could be induced to remain.3 Gloomy intelligence came from the St.
Lawrence — Wilkinson's expedition had failed. Startling intelligence came from the
westward — Lieutenant General Drummond, accompanied by Major General Riall,
had lately arrived on the Peninsula, with re-enforcements from Kingston, and as
sumed chief command ; and Murray, with his regulars and Indians, was moving to
ward Fort George. Its garrison was reduced to sixty effective regulars of the Twen
ty-fourth United States Infantry. These were in great peril, and M'Clure determ
ined to abandon the post, and place his little garrison in Fort Niagara. The weather
was extremely cold. Temperature had been faithful to the calendar, and winter had
commenced in earnest on the 1st of December. Deep snow was upon the ground,
and biting north winds came over the lake. " Shall I leave the foe comfortable quar
ters, and thus increase the danger to Fort Niagara ?" he asked of the Spirit and Usage
of War. They answered No, and with this decision, and under the sanction of an or
der from the itinerant War Department,4 he attempted to blow up the fort while his
men were crossing0 the icy flood.5 Then he applied the brand to the
c December 10,
beautiful village of Newark. One hundred and fifty houses were speed
ily laid in ashes.6 The inhabitants had been given only a few hours' warning ; and,
District of New York. It was first called Old Fort Schuyler Village. At the time we are considering it had abotit 1700
inhabitants, and was a central point for all the principal avenues of communication. Its population now is about 25,000.
1 The present Jefferson County was then known as the Black River country. 2 See page 559.
3 " I offered a bounty of two dollars a month," says M'Clure, in the Buffalo Gazette, " for one or two months, but with
out effect. Some few of Colonel Bloom's regiment took the bounty, and immediately disappeared."
* From Sackett's Harbor the Secretary of War wrote as follows :
"War Department, October 4, 1813.
" SIR,— Understanding that the defense of the post committed to your charge may render it proper to destroy the town
of Newark, you are hereby directed to apprise the inhabitants of this circumstance, and invite them to remove them
selves and their effects to some place of greater safety. JOHN ARMSTRONG.
" Brigadier General M'Clure, or officer commanding at Fort George."
Behind this order General M'Clure took shelter when assailed by the public indignation.
& Mr. E. Giddings, a printer, kept the ferry between the fort and Youngstown opposite at that time, and for many years
succeeding the war he had charge of Fort Niagara. He narrowly escaped capture when the British took the fort in De
cember, 1813.
6 Only one house was left standing. Mr. Merritt, in his Narrative, says : " Nothing but heaps of boats, and streets
full of furniture that the inhabitants were fortunate enough to get out of their houses, met our eyes. My old quarters,
Gordon's house, was the only one standing."
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 633
Sufferings of the Inhabitants. Just Indignation of the British. Fort Niagara surrendered.
with little food and clothing, a large number of helpless women and children were
driven from their homes into the wintry air houseless wanderers.1 Oh ! it was a
cruel act. War is always cruel, but this was more cruel than necessity demanded.
It excited hot indignation and the spirit of vengeance, which soon caused the hand
of retaliation to work fearfully. It provoked the commission of great injury to Amer
ican property, and left a stain upon the American character.
Murray was at Twelve-mile Creek when he heard of the conflagration of Newark.
He pressed on eagerly, hoping to surprise the garrison. He was a little too late, yet
his swift approach had caused M'Clure to fly so precipitately that he failed to blow
up the fort or destroy the barracks on the bank of the river ; and he left behind tents
sufficient to shelter fifteen hundred men. These, with several cannon, a large quan
tity of shot, and ten soldiers, fell into the hands of the British. That night the red
cross of St. George floated over the fortress, and Murray's troops slumbered within
its walls.
" Let us retaliate by fire and sword," said Murray to Drummond, as they gazed,
with eyes flashing with indignation, upon the ruins of Newark. " Do so," said the
commander, " swiftly and thoroughly ;" and on the night of the 1 8th of December —
a cold, black night — Murray crossed the river at Five-mile Meadows, three miles
above Fort Niagara, with about a thousand men, British and Indians. With five
O ' '
hundred and fifty regulars he pressed on toward the fort, carrying axes, scaling-lad
ders, and other implements for assault, and shielded from observation by the thick
cover of darkness. They captured the advanced pickets, secured silence, and, while
the garrison were soundly sleeping, hovered around the fort in proper order for a sys
tematic and simultaneous attack at different points. Five companies of the One
Hundredth Regiment, under Lieutenant Colonel Hamilton, were to assail the main
gate and escalade the adjacent works; three companies of the same regiment, under
Captain Martin, were to storm the eastern demi-bastion ; the Royal Scots Grena
diers, Captain Bailey, were to assault the salient angle of the fortification ; and the
flank companies of the Forty-first Regiment were ordered to support the principal
attack.2
These preparations were unnecessary. Gross negligence or positive treachery had
exposed the fort to easy capture. M'Clure had established his head-quarters at Buf
falo, and when he left Niagara on the 12th,a he charged Captain Leonard, » December,
commander of the garrison, to be vigilant and active, for invasion might
be expected. This vigilance and activity the invaders had prepared for ; but when,
at about three o'clock in the morning, Hamilton went forward to assail the main gate,
he found it standing wide open and unguarded ! Leonard had left the fort the even
ing before at eleven o'clock, and spent the night with his family at his house three
miles in the rear. He gave no hint to the garrison of expected assault, and his de
parture was without their knowledge.3 They were between three and four hundred
strong in fairly effective men, and, with a competent and faithful commander, might
have kept the invaders at bay. They had neither, and when the foe came there was
no one to lead. The sentinels were seized, and in fear gave up the countersign to the
foe, and -the fort was entered without much resistance. The occupants of the south
eastern block-house, and the invalids of the Red Barracks, made such determined op
position for a few minutes that Lieutenant Nowlan and five men were killed, and Col-
1 The unscrupulous James (ii., 8) says : " General M'Clure gave about half an hour's notice to the inhabitants of New
ark that he should burn down their village," and says very few believed him to be in earnest. General M'Clure, in a.
communication to the Buffalo Gazette, says: "The inhabitants had twelve hours' notice to remove their effects, and
those who chose to come across the river were provided with all the necessaries of life."
2 Colonel J. Murray's Report to Lieutenant General Drummond, December 19, 1813.
3 Captain Leonard was suspected of treason. It was stated by General M'Clure, six days after the capture of the fort,
that he had given himself up to the enemy, "and that his family are now on the Canada side of the strait." It is known
that he returned to the fort and became a prisoner. He was "disbanded," or dropped from the service not long after
ward.
634
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Massacre at Fort Niagara.
Savage Atrocities near Lewistou.
Desolation of the Niag-ara Frontier.
INTERIOR OF FOET NIAGARA.
onel Murray, three men, and a surgeon were wounded. This conflict was over before
the remainder of the garrison were fairly awake to the cause of the tumult, and the
fort was in possession of the foe. It might have been an almost bloodless victory
had not the unhallowed spirit of revenge for the outrage at Newark demanded vic
tims. Murray did not restrain that spirit, and a large number of the garrison, many
of them invalids, were bayoneted after all resistance had ceased I1 This horrid work
was performed on Sunday morning, the 19th of December, 1813.
When Murray had gained full possession of the fort, he fired one of its largest can
non as a signal of success for the ear of General Riall, who, with a detachment of
British regulars and about five hundred Indians, was waiting for it at Queenston.
Riall immediately put his forces in motion, and at dawn crossed the Niagara to Lew-
iston, and took possession of the village without much opposition from Major Bennett
and a detachment of militia who were stationed on Lewiston Heights at Fort Grey.
At the same time a part of Murray's corps plundered and destroyed the little village
of Youngstown (only six or eight houses), near Fort Niagara.
Full license was given by Riall to his Indian allies, and Lewiston was sacked, plun
dered, and destroyed — made a perfect desolation.2 This accomplished, the invaders
pushed on toward the little hamlet of Manchester (now Niagara Falls Village) ; but,
when ascending Lewiston Heights, they were met and temporarily checked and driv
en back by the gallant Major Mallory, who, with forty Canadian volunteers, came
down from Schlosser and fought the foe for two days as they pushed him steadily
back toward Buffalo.3 He could do but little to stay the march of the desolator.
The whole Niagara frontier on the American side, from Fort Niagara to Tonewanta
Creek, a distance of thirty-six miles, and far into the interior, was swept with the be-
1 The loss of the Americans was 80 killed— many of them hospital patients — 14 wounded, and 344 made prisoners.
Of the entire garrison only 20 escaped. The spoils consisted of 27 pieces of cannon, 3000 stand of arms and many rifles,
an immense amount of ordnance and commissariat stores, and a large quantity of clothing and camp equipage of every
description.
2 A letter to the editor of Giles's Weekly Register from a gentleman on the frontier said : " They killed at and near Lew
iston eight or ten of the inhabitants, who, when found, were all scalped with the exception of one, whose head was cut
off. Among the bodies was that of a boy ten or twelve years old, stripped and scalped."
3 General M'Clure's Report to Governor Tompkins, dated at Buffalo, December 22, 1813.
OF THE WAK OF 1812. 635
Desolation of the Niagara Frontier. New York Militia at Buffalo. The British at Black Rock.
som of destruction placed by British authority in the hands of savage pagans.1 Man
chester, Schlosser, and Tuscarora Village shared the fate of Youngstown and Lewis-
ton.2 Free course was given to the blood-thirsty Indians, and many innocent persons
were butchered, and survivors were made to fly in terror through the deep snow to
some forest shelter or remote cabin of a settler far beyond the invaders' track. Buf
falo, too, would have been plundered and destroyed had not the progress of the foe
been checked by the timely destruction of the bridge over the Tonewanta Creek.
But the respite for doomed Buffalo was short. Riall and his followers returned to
Lewistori, crossed over to Queenston, and on the morning of the 28th appeared at
Chippewa, under the command of Lieutenant General Drummond. In the mean time
the alarm had spread over Western New York, and the inhabitants were thoroughly
aroused. General M'Clure had sent out a stirring address3 to the " in- a December is,
habitants of Niagara, Genesee, and Chautauqua," urging them to repair
immediately to Lewiston, Schlosser, and Buffalo.3 General Amos Hall, with his usual
alacrity, called out the militia
and invited volunteers. His
head-quarters were at Batavia,
where the government had an
arsenal, thirty or forty miles
eastward from Buffalo, and
there General M'Clure resigned his command, and took orders from Hall. As fast as
men were collected they were sent to Black Rock and Buffalo, and thitherward Hall
hastened on the morning of the 25th. He reached Buffalo twenty-four hours after
his departure from Batavia, and there found " a considerable body of irregular troops
of various descriptions, disorganized and confused. Every thing wore the appearance
of consternation and dismay."4 He ordered their immediate organization ; and when,
on the 27th, he reviewed the troops, he found their number to be a little more than
two thousand at Buffalo and Black Rock.5
General Drummond advanced to a point nearly opposite Black Rock on the 29th,
and reconnoitred the American camp. At midnight General Riall crossed with reg
ulars, Canadians, and Indians, about a thousand strong, and landed where Bisshopp
did, about two miles below Black Rock. Moving immediately forward, they encoun
tered mounted pickets under Lieutenant Boughton, who, after a brief skirmish with
the British vanguard, fled across Shogeoquady Creek.6 The enemy took possession
of the " Sailors' Battery" there and the bridge, and then paused, while Boughton
1 This was a hamlet. Augustus Porter, Esq., had valuable mills there. These were destroyed.
2 A handbill printed at Montreal on the 2Sth of December, and cited by the PlatMiury Republican of January 1, 1814,
contained an extract of a letter from "an officer of high rank" (Lieutenant General Drummoud?) at Queenston, written
on the 19th, in which the following passage occurs : " A war-whoop from five hundred of the wos« savage Indians (which
they gave just at daylight, on hearing of the success of the attack on Fort Niagara) made the enemy take to their heels
[at Lewiston], and our troops are in pursuit. We shall not stop until we have cleared the whole frontier. The Indians
are retaliating the conflagration of Newark. Not a house within my sight but is inflames. This is a melancholy but just
retaliation."
3 This address was issued on the day preceding the capture of Fort Niagara, M'Clure having been informed by his
scouts of the preparations of the British to make a descent upon the American side of the Niagara.
* Hall's Report to Governor Tompkins.
5 There were 129 mounted volunteers, under Lieutenant Colonel Boughton ; 433 exempts and volunteers, under Lieu
tenant Colonel Blakeslee, of Ontario; 136 Buffalo militia, under Colonel Chapin ; 97 Canadian volunteers, under Major
Mallory ;* 332 Genesee militia, under Major Adams. These were at Buffalo. At Black Rock were stationed 3S2 effect
ive men, under Brigadier General Hopkins, composed of corps commanded by Lieutenant Colonels Warren and Church
ill, exclusive of a body of 37 mounted infantry under Captain Ransom ; S3 Indians, under Lieutenant Colonel Granger ;
25 artillery, under Lieutenant Seely, with a 6-pounder ; and about 300 Chautauqua Indians, under Lieutenant Colonel
M'Mahon.— Hall's Report to Governor Tompkins, January 6, 1S14.
6 See map on page 382.
* Major Benajah Mallory had been, in early youth, in the military service toward the close of the Revolutionary War.
He had settled in Canada, but, with others, took sides with his own country, and became the commander of the famous
partisan corps known as the " Canadian Refugees." He was in the severe battle aUNiagara Falls, or Lnndy's Lane, and
assisted General Scott from the field after he was wounded. He resided many years in Lockport, New York, and when,
in 1852, Scott stopped there on a journey, he recognized the veteran as one of his loved companions in arms.
636 PICTOKIAL FIELD-BOOK
Bad Conduct of the Militia. Battle near Black Rock. The Americans repulsed.
hastened with news of the fact to General Hall's quarters, between Buffalo and Black
Rock. The night was very dark. The troops at head-quarters were paraded, and
Lieutenant Colonels Warren and Churchill (General Hopkins was absent from camp)
were ordered to go forward with their corps and feel the position and strength of the
enemy. They met the foe, and at the first fire they broke and fled, and were no more
seen during the following day. Hall then ordered Adams and Chapin, with their
commands, to the same duty, and the same result ensued ; and at the dawn of the
30th he found himself in command of eight hundred troops less than at the evening
twilight of the 29th. They had actually deserted.
Hall now advanced with his whole force, and ordered Lieutenant Colonel Blakeslee
to move forward and commence the attack on the enemy's left. They marched to
ward Black Rock on the Hill Road, and in the dim light of early dawn saw a flotilla
of British boats making for the shore near General Porter's mansion. These bore the
Royal Scots, eight hundred in number, who landed under cover of a five-gun battery
on the American shore, in the face of severe opposition. Their plan of attack was
soon revealed to the American general, and he made his dispositions accordingly.
Colonel Gordon, of the centre, with about four hundred Scots, commenced the attack,
while the British left wing attempted to flank the American right. Hall quickly
foiled this design by throwing Granger and his Indians, and Mallory and his Cana
dian Refugees, in the way of the enemy's advancing left wing. At the same time
Blakeslee and his Ontario militia confronted the centre, and M'Mahon and his Chau-
tauqua troops were posted as a reserve at the battery of Fort Tompkins,1 which was
commanded by the gallant Lieutenant John Seely.
The batteries on the Canada shore and the cannon of the Americans opened fire
simultaneously and vigorously, while Blakeslee's men, cool as veterans, disputed the
ground with the foe inch by inch. But the Indians and Canadians, lacking moral
strength, gave way almost before a struggle was begun, and M'Mahon and his re
serves were ordered to the breach. They, too, gave way and fled, and could not be
rallied by their officers. Hall's power was thus completely broken, and he was
placed in great peril. Deserted by a large portion of his troops, opposed by veter
ans, vastly outnumbered, and almost surrounded, he was compelled, for the safety of
the remnant of his little army, to sound a retreat, after he had maintained the un
equal conflict for half an hour. He tried to rally his troops, but in vain. The gal
lant Chapin, with a few of the bolder men, retired slowly along the present Niagara
Street toward Buffalo, keeping the enemy partially in check,2 while Hall, with the
remainder, who were alarmed and scattered, retired to Eleven-mile Creek, where he
rallied about three hundred men, who remained true to the old flag. With these he
was enabled to cover the flight of the inhabitants, and to check the advance of the
invaders into the interior.
The British and their Indian allies took possession of Buffalo,3 and proceeded to
plunder, destroy, and slaughter. Only four buildings were left standing in the town.
These were the jail (built of stone), the frame of a barn, Reese's blacksmith-shop, and
the dwelling of Mrs. St. John, a resolute woman, who, more fortunate than her neigh-
1 This battery, of three guns, was on the site of William Bird's house, and Fort Tompkins was on ground now occu
pied by the stables of the Niagara Street Railway Company. It had six pretty heavy guns, and was the largest work
there.
2 "Among these was Lieutenant John Seely, a carpenter and joiner, who lived on the corner of Auburn and Niagara
Streets, and was lieutenant of a company of artillery at Black Rock. He had fought his pieces on the brow of the hill,
on what is now Breckinridge Street, uutil he had but seven men and one horse left. Mounting the horse, which was
harnessed to the gun, he brought it away with him, firing upon the enemy whenever occasion offered Near where
Mohawk Street joins Niagara was then a slough. Here Seely turned upon his foe. The gun was thrown off from its
carriage by the discharge, but was quickly replaced, and taken to the village.— Uti/cdo during the War of 1812 ; a paper
read before the Buffalo Historical Society, March 13, 1S63, by WILLIAM DORBHEIMER, Esq.
3 The place was unofficially surrendered by Colonel Chapin to prevent farther bloodshed. He approached the Brit
ish with a piece of his shirt as a flag of truce, and agreed to surrender on condition that private property should be re
spected. It was agreed to, and he and some other citizens became prisoners. When General Riall found that Chapin
had no authority to surrender the city, he declared his own agreement void, and gave his marauders free play.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 637
Destruction of Buffalo arid Black Rock. Murders by the Indians. Horrors of retaliatory Warfare.
bor, Mrs. Lovejoy (who was murdered and burnt in her own house), saved her own
life and her property.1 At Black Rock only a single building escaped conflagration.
It was a log house, in which women and children had taken refuge. The Ariel, lit
tle Belt, Chippewa, and Trippe, vessels that performed service in the battle on Lake
Erie a little more than a hundred days before, were committed to the flames. Fear
ful was the retaliation for the destruction of half-inhabited Newark, where not a life
was sacrificed! Six villages, many isolated country houses, and four vessels were
consumed ; and the butchery of innocent persons at Fort Niagara, Lewiston, Schlos-
ser, Tuscarora Village, Black Rock, and Buffalo, and in farm-houses, attested the fierce-
ness of the enemy's revenge.2
1 Mrs. St. John was a stout, resolute woman. I was informed by the venerable Dr. Trowbridge, of Buffalo, who was
there at the time, that he went to the house of Mrs. St. John, begged her to leave because the Indians would kill her,
offered her the use of his horse for the purpose, and assured her that he would take care of her children. She said, "I
can't do it; here is all I have in the world, and I will stay and defend it." She did so, not by force but kindness of
manner, and her life and property were spared. Mrs. Lovejoy was not so prudent. She, too, was resolute, but resisted
the Indians by force when they came to the house. They killed and scalped her, and left her body, covered with the
silk in which she was dressed, upon the floor. On the following day, when the savages carne into the town again to
complete their work of destruction, her house and corpse were consumed. The latter had been laid out across the cords
of a bedstead by a neighbor. Her son, Henry Lovejoy (see note 2, page 387), now (1SC7) living in Buffalo, was then a lad
twelve years of age, and was in the affair at Black Rock when Bisshopp was repulsed, where he carried a flint-lock
musket, too huge for his strength to bear it long. When the enemy approached at the time we are considering, this
brave-hearted woman said to the boy, "Henry, you have fought against the British : you must run. They will take
you prisoner. I am a woman ; they'll not harm me." He fled to the woods. Her house stood on the site of the pres
ent Phoenix Hotel.
2 In a letter of a gentleman to his wife in Albany, written on the Gth of January, 1814, from Le Roy, he says: "Nu
merous witnesses testify to the following facts : The Indians mangled and burned Mrs. Lovejoy in Buffalo ; massacred
two large families at Black Rock, namely, Mr. Luffer's and Mr. Lecort's ; murdered Mr. Gardner ; put all the sick to death
at Youngstown, and killed, scalped, and mangled sixty at Fort Niagara after it was given up. Many dead bodies are
yet lying unburied at Buffalo, mangled and scalped. Colonel Marvin counted thirty-three this morning. I met be
tween Caynga and this place upward of one hundred families in wagons, sleds, and sleighs, many of them with nothing
but what they had on their backs ; nor could they find places to stay at." The suffering of the fugitives was terrible.
The almost universal condemnation of General M'Clure for the destruction of Newark, and the manifold greater enor
mities committed in retaliation, caused Sir George Prevost to hasten before the world with an assurance that he should
endeavor to stop that sort of warfare. He well knew that the judgment of mankind would pronounce farther prosecu
tion of war on that plan to be atrocious, and, in a proclamation issued on the 12th of January, 1S14, after justifying the
retaliation thus far, said : " To those possessions of the enemy along the whole line of frontier which have hitherto re
mained undisturbed, and which are now at the mercy of the troops under his command, his Excellency has determined
to extend the same forbearance, and the same freedom from rapine and plunder which they have hitherto experienced ;
and from this determination the future conduct of the American government shall alone induce him to depart."
638
PICTOKIAL FIELD-BOOK
Wilkinson concentrates his Forces.
The Secretary of War at Sackett's Harbor.
Colonel J. G. Swift.
CHAPTER XXIX.
"For a nautical knight, a lady— heigh-ho !—
Felt her heart and her heart-strings to ache ;
To view his dear person she looked to and fro.
The name of the knight was Sir James Lucas Yeo,
And the Lady— 'twas she of the Lake."
OLD SONG — THE COURTEOUS KNIGHT, OB THE FLYING GALLANT.
ENERAL WILKINSON, as we have seen, arrived at Sackett's
Harbor on the 20th of August, 1813, where he formally assumed
command of the Northern Army, and, with the co-operation of a
council of officers, formed a general plan of operations against
the enemy at Kingston and down the St. Lawrence. His first
care was to concentrate the forces of his command, which were
scattered over an extensive and sparsely-settled country, some
on the Niagara frontier, some at the eastern end of Lake Ontario
and on the St. Lawrence, and some on Lake Champlain. He accordingly directed
those on the Niagara and at Sackett's Harbor to rendezvous on Grenadier Island, in
the St. Lawrence, about eighteen miles from the Harbor, and at French Creek (now
Clayton), about the same distance further down the river. Those composing the
right wing, on Lake Champlain, were directed to move at the same time to the Can
ada border, at " the mouth of the Chateau-
gay, or other point which would favor the
junction of the forces and hold the ene
my in check."
For the purpose of promoting harmony
of action between Wilkinson and Hamp
ton, as we have observed, and to add effi
ciency to projected movements, the Secre
tary of War, accompanied by the adjutant
general, Colonel Walbach, established the
seat of his department at Sackett's Har
bor.3 He, and Wilkinson,
and the late venerable Gen
eral Joseph Gardner Swift (then chief en
gineer of the Northern Army, and bear
ing the commission of colonel1) held con
sultations with Governor Tompkins at
Albany, who, from the beginning, had em
ployed his best energies for the promotion
of the general good, and especially for the
defense of his commonwealth against in
vasion.
Before considering Wilkinson's expedi
tion, let us turn back a little, and take a
1 Joseph Gardner Swift was born in Nantncket on the last day of the year 1783. He entered the army as a cadet at
Newport, Rhode Island, in ISOfl, and was the first graduate of the Military Academy at West Point. He became attached
to a corps of United States Engineers, and in 1807, having attained the rank of captain, he was appointed commandant
of West Point. He was military agent at Fort Johnson, South Carolina, early in 1812, and was soon afterward made an
September 5,
1813.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
639
Governors Tompkius and Galusha.
General Dearborn moves into Canada.
glance at military and naval operations on Lake Champlain up to the autumn of 1813.
We shall then better understand several aspects of that expedition.
When war was declared in June, 1812, zealous supporters of the national adminis
tration were governors of New York and Vermont,1 between which lay important
Lake Champlain. These magistrates, sustained by their respective Legislatures, sec
onded the administration in all its measures. The Legislature of Vermont prohibited
all intercourse with Canada except with the permission of the governor, and they
adopted measures for calling out the militia of the state when needed. New York
was not a whit behind her sister of the Green Mountains in zeal and efficiency.
During the summer of 1812 Brigadier General Bloomfield was sent to the Cham-
plain frontier with several regiments, and on the 1st of September had collected
about eight thousand men at Plattsburg — regulars, volunteers, and militia — besides
some small advanced parties at Chazy and Champlain. General Dearborn arrived
there soon afterward, and assumed direct command; and on the 16th of November
he moved toward the Canada line with three thousand regulars and two thousand
militia, and encamped upon the level ground near the present village of Rouse's
Point. There he advanced across the line toward Odell Town, for what ultimate ob
ject no one knew, and on the banks of the La Colle, a tributary of the Sorel, he was
confronted by a considerable force of volti-
geurs, chasseurs, militia, and Indians, under
Lieutenant Colonel De Salaberry, an active
British commander.
On the morning of the 20th, just at dawn,
Colonel Zebulon M. Pike, with about six
hundred men, crossed the La Colle, and sur-
rounded a block-house which had been occupied by a strong picket-guard of Cana
dians and Indians. These had fled during the previous evening. At about the same
time a body of New York militia, who had been detached by another road, approached
for the same purpose, and in the dim light of the early morning were mistaken by
those at the block-house for enemies. Pike's men opened fire upon them, and for
aid-de-camp to Major General C. C. PInckney, of South Carolina, with the rank of lieutenant colonel. He succeeded
Jonathan Williams as commander of the United States corps of Engineers, with the rank of colonel. For his valuable
services on the St. Lawrence frontier in 1813 and 1814, and in defense of the city of New York, he was breveted as briga
dier general. He was connected with the Military Academy at West Point for several years after the war, and in 1818 he,
with several officers of the corps, left the service because of the appointment of General Bernard, a French officer of dis
tinction, to the control of important engineering services on the coast. For nine years General Swift was Surveyor of
the port of New York, and from 1829 to 1845 he was superintendent of the harbor improvements on the Lakes. He was
in charge of several important works as civil engineer, among which may be named the Baltimore and Snsquehanna
Railroad, the New Orleans and Lake Pontchartrain Railroad, and the Harlem Railroad. He went on a mission of peace,
by order of President Harrison, to the British American Provinces in 1841, and in 1852 he made a tour in Europe. Gen
eral Swift contributed many valuable papers to publications on scientific subjects. After 1S30 he resided in Geneva,
New York, spending his winters in Brooklyn, Long Island. I am indebted to him for many valuable letters relating to
the subject of this work. He retained his mental faculties in great perfection until near the time of his death, which
occurred at Geneva on the 23d of July, 1865.
1 Daniel D. Tompkins was Governor of New York, and Jonas Galueha of Vermont.
040
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Repulse of the British at La Colle.
They rally and defeat the Americans.
Lieut. Ward and Lieut. Col. Carr.
nearly half an hour a sharp contest was
sustained. When they discovered their
mistake, they found De Salaberry ap
proaching in force with a strong ad
vance guard, when Lieutenant Ward,1
of the Twenty-ninth New York Militia,
with his company of fifty men, moved
slowly upon the enemy, and, after re
ceiving three discharges from them
Avithout returning a shot, gave the or
der to fire and charge. This was
promptly obeyed, and the appalled foe,
taken completely by surprise, were
driven back to the main body. This
gallant performance of the lieutenant
elicited the highest praise from his su
periors. But De Salaberry's force was
too overwhelming to be successfully
withstood. To the Americans a re
treat was sounded, and they fled so
precipitately that they left five of their number
dead and five wounded on the field.2 It was a
fruitless expedition, and the army returned to
• November 23, Plattsburga out of humor and de-
1812.
pressed in spirits. Three of the regiments of regulars went into winter
1 Lieutenant Aaron Ward received his commission on the 30th of April, 1813. He was promoted to captain a year
later. At the close of the war he was charged with the conducting of the first detachment of British prisoners from the
States to Canada. Law was his chosen profession, and in 1825 he became a law-maker by being elected a representa
tive of his district in the State of New York in the National Congress. He was an active and efficient worker, and his
constituents were so well satisfied with his services that he kept his seat twelve out of eighteen consecutive years. He
assisted in framing the new Constitution of the State of New York in 1S4G, and after that he declined to engage in pub
lic life. He traveled extensively abroad in 1S59, and afterward published a very interesting volume, entitled Around the
Pyramids. For many years he was major general of the militia of Westchester County. He died early in 1SC7. His res
idence was at a beautiful spot overlooking the village of Sing Sing, and the Hudson and its scenery from the Highlands
to Hoboken.
2 MS. Journal of Colonel Robert Carr. Christie's History of the War in the Canadas, page 90. Robert Carr, whose jour
nal is here cited, was born in Ireland on the 29th of January, 1778. He came to America at the age of six years, and set
tled, with his father, in Philadelphia. They lived next door to Dr. Franklin, and he was often employed by that great
man as an errand-boy. He learned the art of printing with Benjamin Franklin Bache, a grandson of Dr. Franklin, with
whom he commenced his apprenticeship in 1792. He rose to the head of his profession, and in 1804 received a first
premium as the best printer in Philadelphia. He printed Wilson's Ornithology from manuscript ; also Rees's Cyclopedia.
In March, 1812, he received the commission of major in the Sixteenth Regiment of Infantry, and in August, 1813, was
promoted to Lieutenant Colonel of the Ninth, from which he was transferred to the Fifteenth. He was disbanded in
1815, and for several years he was the last surviving field-officer of the army of 1812 in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, or
Pelaware. He was a member of the M'PJicrson Blues of Philadelphia, and one of the firing party on the occasion of the
Congressional funeral of Washington in that city. See note 4, page 110.
Colonel Carr married a daughter of William Bartram, proprietor of the celebrated Botanical Gardens near Philadel
phia, and, in right of his wife, carried on the establishment from the year 1808 to 1850, a period of more than thirty
years. From 1S21 to 1824 he was adjutant general of the State of Pennsylvania ; and, by order of the Legislature, he
compiled a work on " Rules and Regulations for the Field Exercise." He was a long time an alderman and a justice
of the peace in Philadelphia, and has ever been held in the highest esteem by his fellow-citizens. Deprived of his prop
erty in his old age by the vicissitudes of fortune, he was for some time gate-keeper at the Pennsylvania Asylum for the
Insane, situated in a beautiful spot beyond the Schuylkill. There I visited him on a blustry afternoon late in Novem
ber, 1861, when he was almost eighty-four years of age. He was in excellent health and spirits, and assured me that he
had not been sick in more than sixty years. He had led a strictly temperate life, never having been intoxicated but
once. It was when he was a boy, and was produced by eating rum-cherries. A mouth before I visited him he had
been among the American camps in Virginia, near Arlington Heights, where he walked seventeen miles in one day, and
attended a theatre in Washington the same evening. "I could have danced a cotillon after that," he said. He attend
ed the celebration of Bradford's birth-day by the New York Historical Society in May, 18f>3, as a delegate from Phila
delphia, and was then doubtless the oldest printer in the United States. On the 22d of February, 1SC4, Colonel Carr,
then past eighty-six years of age, read Washington's Farewell Address before the veteran soldiers of the War of 1812,
at the Union soldiers' celebration in Philadelphia. He never used spectacles, excepting when his photograph was taken,
yet he wrote with grace and facility until the time of his death, which occurred in Philadelphia on the 15th of March,
1866. He kindly lent me his Diary, kept during the War of 1812. It is written in a fine hand, and contains much valu
able matter. I shall ever remember with pleasure my interview with an errand-boy of Dr. Franklin, and one who liad READ
PROOF, as a printer, with President Washington wlien correcting his own compositions.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 641
End of Dearborn's Canada Expedition. Preparations for War on Lake Champlain. Early Naval Operations there.
quarters at Plattsburg, and three others at Burlington, the former under the com
mand of Colonel Pike, and the latter under Brigadier General Chandler. The light
artillery and dragoons returned to Greenbush (opposite Albany), the head-quarters
of General Dearborn, and the militia were disbanded.
There were no farther military movements on Lake Champlain of special import
ance until July, 1813. Naval preparations had been somewhat active under the su
perintendence of Lieutenant Thomas Macdonough, who, in the fall of 1812, super
seded Lieutenant Sidney Smith in the command on Lake Champlain.1 When war
was declared the whole American naval force on the lake consisted of only two gun
boats that lay in Basin Harbor on the Vermont shore.2 Two small sloops and four
bateaux were fitted up and armed, each carrying a long eighteen-pounder. The Brit
ish had two or three gun-boats and armed galleys in the Richelieu, or Sorel River,
the outlet of Lake Champlain into the St. Lawrence.
In the spring of 1813 Macdonough put the new-armed sloops Growler and Eagle
afloat, the former commanded by Lieutenant Smith and the latter by Mr. Loomis.
At the beginning of June intelligence came that the British gun-boats had attacked
some American small craft near Rouse's Point. Macdonough ordered Smith, with the
Growler and Eagle, and one hundred and twelve men (including Captain Herrick and
thirty-three volunteers), to look after the matter, and, on the evening of the 2d of
June,a these vessels anchored near Rouse's Point, within a mile of the Canada
a 1813.
line. On the following morning they went down the Sorel with a stiff favoring
breeze from the south, and at Arch Island gave chase to three British gun-boats.
The pursuit continued to a point within sight of the fortifications on Isle aux JVoix,
where prudence caused Smith to tack and beat up the Sorel against the wind. When
this movement was discovered by the British, three armed row-galleys were sent out
from the shelter of the batteries on the island, and gave chase. They soon opened
upon the flying sloops with long twenty-four pounders. At the same time a land
force was sent out on each side of the river, who poured severe volleys of musketry
upon the decks of the Growler and Eagle. These were answered by grape and can
ister. This running fight had been kept up for about four hours, when a heavy can
non-shot tore planking from the Eagle below water, and she went down almost im
mediately. At about the same time the Growler became disabled and ran ashore,
and the people of both vessels were made prisoners. The Americans lost in the en
gagement one killed and nineteen wounded. The loss of the British was much great
er — probabty at least one hundred. But they gained a victory, and with it secured,
for the time, the full control of the lake. The captured sloops were refitted by them,
named respectively Finch and Chubb, and placed in the British naval service. Mac
donough recaptured them at Plattsburg in September the following year.
Macdonough was not disheartened by his loss. It stimulated him to greater ex
ertions, and by the 6th of August he had fitted out and armed three sloops and six
gun-boats. Meanwhile a British force of soldiers, sailors, and marines, fourteen hund
red strong, under Colonel J. Murray, conveyed in two sloops of war, three gun-boats,
and forty-seven long boats, had fallen upon Plattsburg. b That place was en- b
tirely uncovered, there being no regular troops on the west side of the lake.
The enemy landed on Saturday afternoon without opposition, and began a work of
destruction which lasted until ten o'clock the next day. Major General Hampton
was at Burlington, only twenty miles distant, with almost four thousand men, yet he
did not attempt to cross the lake, or in any way oppose the inroad of Murray. The
latter officer shamefully violated the promises made to the civil authorities of Platts-
1 Sidney Smith was fifth lieutenant under Commodore Barron in the Chesapeake at the time of her affair with the
Leopard. In 1810 he was ordered to Lake Champlain, and remained ill command there until the arrival of Macdonough,
his senior in rank. He died a commander in the service in 1S27.
2 Basin Harbor is considered the best on Lake Champlain. It is near the southwest corner of Ferrisburg, Addison
Couutv, Vermont, and nearly opposite Westport on the New York side of the lake.
Ss
642 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Colonel Murray's Raid. Movements of Hampton in Northern New York. Operations on Lake Ontario.
burg when he entered the village, that private property should be respected, and that
non-combatants should remain unmolested. After destroying the block-house, arse
nal, armory, and hospital in the town, and the military cantonment (known as Pike's)
near Fredenburg Falls, on the Saranac, two miles above the village, he wantonly
burned three private store-houses, and plundered and destroyed private merchandise,
furniture, etc., to the amount of several thousand dollars. The value of public prop
erty destroyed was estimated at twenty-five thousand dollars.1
Having accomplished the object of his raid, Colonel Murray retired so hastily that
he left a picket of twenty men, who were captured. He went up the lake several
miles above Burlington on a marauding expedition, destroying transportation boats,
and on his way back to Canada he plundered private property on Cumberland Head,
on the Vermont shore, and at Chazy Landing. Such was the condition of affairs on
Lake Champlain at the close of the summer of 1813, when Wilkinson took command
of the Army of the North, and prepared for his expedition down the St. Lawrence.
The right wing of the army, under General Hampton, was first put in motion, when
it was thought that Kingston would be the first point of attack. He was ordered to
penetrate Canada to ward Montreal by way of the Richelieu or Sorel,to divert the at
tention of the enemy in that direction. For this purpose his forces were assembled
on Cumberland Head at the middle of September, consisting of four thousand effect
ive infantry, a squadron of horse, and a well-appointed train of artillery. On the
- September, 19tha he moved forward to the Great Ch^zy River, the infantry in boats,
convoyed by Macdonough's flotilla, and the squadron of horse and artil-
" SePtember- lery by land. They formed a junction at Champlain on the 20th,b and on
the same day the advance, under Majors Wool, Snelling, and M'Neil, marched as far
as Odell Town, just within the Canada borders, westward of Rouse's Point. A severe
drought was prevailing over all that region. Hampton was convinced that he would
not be able to procure water on the route northward over that flat country for his
•• September 21. horses and draught-cattle, and he at once returned to Champlain0 and
took the road westward, which led to the Chateaugay River. At the "Four Cor
ners," not far from the present village of Chateaugay, he encamped,d
" September 24. . -I- T •' a
and remained there awaiting orders twenty-six days.
In the mean time preparations for the expedition were going on at the eastern end
of Lake Ontario, over whose waters Commodore Chauncey and Sir James Yeo had
been for some time playing a sort of hide-and-seek game. As Chauncey's fleet was a
co-operative force in the expedition of Wilkinson, we may here appropria^ly consider
the naval movements on Lake Ontario not already described, up to the departure of
the expedition down the St. Lawrence.
We have already observed the active co-operation of the naval with the land forces
in the capt'ure of York2 and Fort George,3 and the attempt of Sir James Yeo to seize
or destroy the post at Sackett's Harbor.4 Intelligence of the fact that the British
squadron was out upon the lake reached Chauncey on the 30th of May, while lying
in the mouth of the Niagara River. He immediately weighed anchor, crossed over
the lake and looked into York, and then ran for Kingston. No foe was to be seen,
and he sailed for Sackett's Harbor, where the embers of the recent conflagration were
smouldering. Chauncey felt some doubts of his ability to cope Avith the heavy ves
sels of the enemy, and he used every exertion io have the new ship, the General Pike,
put afloat. She was a corvette, pierced for twenty-six long twenty-fours. She was
i History of Lake Champlain from 1609 to 1814, by Peter S. Palmer, page 168. Mr. Palmer says : " Soldiers would break
into private dwellings, and bear off back-loads of property to the boats in the presence of British officers, who, when
remonstrated with by the plundered citizens, replied that they could not prevent it, as the men did not belong to their
particular company." Among the sufferers in this way, according to an inventory made at the time, and published by
Mr. Palmer, were judge T>. Lord, who lost property to the amount of $1079 81 ; Peter Sailley, $387 7T, besides two store
houses valued at $900; Judge Palmer, $386 50; Doctor Miller, $1200 ; Bostwick Burk, $150 00; Jacob Ferris, $700 ; and
lesser amounts by other citizens. A store-house belonging to Major Platt was also burned.
* See page 5ST. 3 See page 698. 4 See page 609.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 643
Commodore Chauncey tries to engage Sir James Yeo. Serious Disaster. The British Commander avoids a Conflict.
launched on the 12th of June, and on the day before, Captain Arthur Sinclair had ar
rived and was placed in command of her. But it was late in the summer before she
was fully equipped and manned, for much valuable material intended for her had
been consumed, and men came from the sea-board tardily, a part of whom were sent
to the importunate Perry, then anxiously preparing his squadron on Lake Erie to co
operate with General Harrison. Meanwhile the keel of a fast-sailing schooner, after
ward named the /Sylph, was laid by Eckford at the Harbor ; and a small vessel was
kept constantly cruising as a scout between the Ducks (a group of islands) and Kings
ton, to observe the movements of Sir James. On the 16th of June the Lady of the
Lake, Lieutenant W. Chauncey, engaged in that service, captured the British schooner
Lady Murray, loaded with provisions, shot, and fixed ammunition, and took her into
the Harbor. At about this time the British squadron made a cruise westward, and,
as we have seen, interfered seriously with vessels bearing supplies for the Americans
at Fort George, and destroyed stores at Sodus.1 Sir James, as we have observed, had
looked into Oswego, but thought it prudent not to land.2
We have alluded to the appearance of Sir James and his squadron off Xiagara on
the 7th of July, just after Chauncey, with the troops under Colonel Scott, had re
turned from the second expedition to York.3 The British squadron was first seen
about six miles to the northwest. Chauncey immediately weighed anchor, and en
deavored to obtain the weather-gage of his enemy. He had thirteen vessels, but only
three of them had been originally built for war purposes.* The enemy's squadron
consisted of two ships, two brigs, and two large schooners. These had all been con
structed for war, and were very efficient in armament and defensive shields.
All day the belligerents manoeuvred, with a good breeze, without coming into con
flict. At sunset there fell a dead calm, and sweeps were used. When night came
on the American fleet was collected by signal. During the evening the wind came
from the westward, freshened, and at midnight was a fitful gale. Suddenly a rushing
sound was heard astern of most of the fleet, and it was soon ascertained that the
Hamilton, Lieutenant Winter, and Scourge, Mr. Osgood, had disappeared. They were
capsized by a terrific squall, and all the officers and men, excepting sixteen of the lat
ter, were drowned. This was a severe blow to the lake service, for these two ves
sels, carrying nineteen guns between them, were the best in it.
Soon after dawna the British squadron was seen bearing down, as if for ac- «jniy8,
tion, but when within a league of the Americans it bore away. Again the
belligerents commenced manoeuvring for advantages. Alternate wind and calm made
the service severe, and at length the considerate Chauncey, whose men had been
at quarters full thirty-six hours, ran in and anchored at the mouth of the Niagara
River. All night the lake was swept by squalls. When, in the morning,13 b
the enemy was seen at the northward, Chauncey weighed anchor and stood
out to meet him. Another day and night were consumed in fruitless manoeuvres.
At length, at six o'clock on the morning of the 10th, having the weather-gage, Chaun
cey, with a light wind, formed his fleet in battle order, and a conflict seemed immi
nent.5 But varying breezes, and an unwillingness on the part of the enemy to engage,
1 See page 005. 2 See page 606. 3 See page 628.
* The Pike, Madison, Oneida, Hamilton, Scourge, Ontario, Fair American, Governor Tompkins, Conquest, Growler, Julia,
Asp, ami Pert.
5 On the night of the 9th, Chauncey, hecoming convinced that he could not get the wind of the British while the lat
ter were disposed to avoid an action,"formed his fleet in an order of battle well calculated to draw the enemy down. It
was considered an admirable movement. His vessels were formed in two lines, one to windward of the other. "The
weather line," says Cooper, in giving an account of it, "consisted altogether of the smallest of the schooners, having in
it, in the order in which they are named from the van to the rear, the Julia, Growler, Pert, Asp, Ontario, and Fair Amer
ican. The line to leeward contained, in the same order, the Pike, Oneida, Madison, Governor Tompkins, and Conquest."—
Naval History of the United States, ii., 364. Commodore Chauncey, in his dispatch to the Secretary of the Navy on the
13th, said, "The schooners, with long, heavy guns, formed about six hundred yards to windward, with orders to com
mence a fire upon the enemy as soon as they could reach him with effect, and, as he approached, to edge down the line
to leeward. The Julia, Growler, Pert, and Asp to pass through the intervals, and form to leeward, the Ontario and Fair
American to take their stations in the line." The same disposition was made on the night of the 10th, when an action en-
644 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Capture of American Vessels. The British Commander very prudent. A Battle at last.
caused another day to be spent in manoeuvring. At ten o'clock at night the enemy
made chase, and at eleven the Fair American (the sternmost of the sdhooners) opened
fire upon the advancing foe. The enemy continued to draw ahead, and a general ac
tion seemed unavoidable. The commanders of the Growler (Lieutenant Deacon) and
Julia (Mr. Trant1), in the excess of their zeal, took their vessels out of the prescribed
line. They became separated from the rest of the fleet, and were captured after a
severe but short struggle, with small loss. There was but little fighting elsewhere,
and at midnight, the gale increasing, Chauncey determined to run for shelter into the
Genesee. He changed his course, however, and went to Sackett's Harbor, where, after
encountering a calm, he arrived with the remains of his fleet on the 13th. On the
same day he took in provisions for five weeks and sailed on another cruise, with eight
vessels. Off Niagara, on the 16th, he fell in with the enemy, who had the same
number of vessels; but, after a cruise of three days more, he returned to the Har-
* July 19, bor,a where he found the new vessel (the Sylph) launched. Great sickness
1813. prevailed in the fleet, and Chauncey lay inactive in the Harbor for some time.2
On the 28th of August Chauncey put out again upon the lake, but it was not until
the 7th of September that he came in sight of the enemy. At dawn of that day the
British squadron was seen off the Niagara, and Chauncey, with the Pike, Madison,
and Sylph, each with a schooner in tow, made chase. For six days he endeavored to
bring his antagonist into action ; but Sir James Yeo, following the strict injunctions
of his superiors to risk nothing, avoided a contest. The critical situation of Canada
at that time made the preservation of a naval force sufficient to protect harbors and
keep Chauncey employed, very important.
On the llth Sir James lay becalmed off the Genesee. Catching a gentle breeze
from the northwest, Chauncey bore down upon him, and was within gun-shot dis
tance of his enemy when the British sails took the wind, and their vessels, being the
faster sailers, escaped, not, however, without sustaining considei'able damage during
a running fight for more than three hours. The Pike had been hulled several times,
but not seriously hurt, while the British vessels were a good deal cut up. Yeo final
ly escaped to Amherst Bay, whose navigation was strange to the American pilots,
and he was not followed. Chauncey lay off the Ducks until the 17th, when Sir James
made his way into Kingston harbor. Chauncey now ran into Sackett's Harbor for
supplies.
On the 18th the American squadron sailed for the Niagara for troops to be con
veyed to Sackett's Harbor, and was followed by the enemy. After remaining a few
days, Chauncey crossed the lake with the Pike, Madison, and Sylph, each with a
schooner in tow, having been informed that the enemy was in York harbor. When
he approached, Sir James fled, followed by Chauncey in battle order and with the
weather-gage. The baronet was now compelled to fight, or to cease boasting of un
satisfied desires to measure strength with Americans. An action commenced at a
little past noon, when the Pike for more than twenty minutes sustained the desperate
assaults of the heaviest vessels of the enemy. She was managed admirably, and de
livered tremendous broadsides upon her antagonists. She was gallantly assisted a
part of the time by the Tompkins, Lieutenant W. C. B. Finch, of the Madison ; and
when the smoke of battle passed away, the Wolfe (Sir James's flag-ship) was found to
sued. "Nothing could have been simpler or better devised," says Cooper, "than this order of battle; nor is it possible
to say what would have been the consequences had circumstances allowed the plan to be rigidly observed." A sketch
of the positions of the vessels in this engagement was sent by Chauncey with his report of the affair to the Navy De
partment.
1 James Trant was a native of Ireland, and came to America in 1781 with Captain Barry, in the Alliance. He was a
sailing-master in the United States Navy from its formation. He was marked by eccentricities of character and opin
ions, and for the most unflinching courage. He lived nntil he was about seventy years of age. Toward the close of his
life he was commissioned a lieutenant (May 5, 181T), which gave him great comfort. He died at Philadelphia on the
llth of September, 1820.
= It appears, by the official reports made at about that time, that one fifth of the men were left on shore in consequence
of illness. Of two hundred men on board the Madison, eighty were on the sick-list at one time.
OF THE WAK OF 1812. 645
Perilous Situation of the British Squadron. British Transports captured. A new Expedition.
be too seriously injured to sustain a conflict any longer. She had lost her main and
mizzen top-masts, and her main yard, besides receiving other injuries, and when dis
covered she was pushing away dead before the wind, crowded with canvas, and gal
lantly protected by the Royal George in her flight. A general chase was immediate
ly commenced, and a running fight was maintained for some time. The pursuit was
continued toward Burlington Bay for two hours, when Chauncey called oflThis vessels.
No doubt, by pressing sail, and with proper support, he might have captured or de
stroyed the British squadron,1 but the wind was increasing, and there was no good
harbor or place of shelter on the coast, where, in the event of being driven ashore,
capture by land troops would be almost certain. Taking counsel of prudence, Chaun
cey sailed into the Niagara, and there lay safely during a severe gale that lasted for
ty-eight hours.
For two days after the gale had subsided the wind blew strongly from the east,
when it shifted to the westward.1 All the transports with troops had now a Octobers,
departed for Sackett's Harbor, and Chauncey went out again in search of
the foe. The weather was thick, and the Lady of the Lake, sent to reconnoitre Bur
lington Bay, reported that only two gun-boats were to be seen there. Supposing the
enemy to have escaped imder cover of mist or darkness, Chauncey sailed away east
ward, and at sunset of the 5th of October, when near the Ducks, the Pike captured
three British transports, Confiance, Hamilton? and Mary. The Sylph captured the
Drummond cutter, and the armed transport Lady Gore. These carried from one to
three guns each. The whole number of persons found on the five vessels, and made
prisoners, including the officers, was two hundred and sixty-four. Among the latter
was a lieutenant and two master's mates of the royal navy, four masters of the pro
vincial marine, and ten army officers. During the remainder of the season Sir James
Yeo remained inactive in Kingston harbor, and Commodore Chauncey was employed
in watching the movements of the enemy there, and in aiding the army in its descent
of the St. Lawrence.
After much discussion at Sackett's Harbor between the Secretary of War, General
Wilkinson, and other officers, it was determined to pass Kingston and make a descent
upon Montreal. For weeks the bustle of preparation had been great, and many
armed boats and transports had been built at the Harbor. Every thing was in readi
ness by the 4th of October.3 Yet final orders were not issued until the 12th, when
apian of encampment and order of battle was given to each general officer and corps
commander, to be observed when circumstances would permit. Four days more
were consumed without any apparent necessity, when, on the 17th, orders were given
for the embarkation of all the troops at the Harbor destined for the expedition. At
the same time, General Hampton, who, as we have seen, had been halting on the banks
of the Chateaugay, was ordered to move down to the mouth of that river.
1 Chauncey was indignant and loud in his complaints of a want of support on this occasion. Speaking of this, the
Hon. Alvin Bronson, of Oswego, New York, in a letter to me, dated August 28, 1860, says : " While on board the British
fleet as a prisoner in May, 1814, and associating familiarly with its subordinate officers, I received ample confirmation of
reports that had been current in the army and navy of the bad conduct of some of the officers under Commodore Chaun
cey in a then late naval engagement at the head of the lake. It was a running fight, and the British sailors facetiously
called it the Burlington Races, as it was fought partly off Burlington Heights. Chauncey was the assailant, and would
have destroyed the British fleet, or have driven it on shore, had he been properly sustained by his best and heaviest
vessels, particularly the Madison, Commander Crane, and the heavily-armed and fast-sailing brig Sylph, Captain Wool-
gey. These vessels never got into close action." The only excuse was that they had gun-boats in tow ; but Chauncey's
signal for close action, which he kept flying, implied that the vessels must cast off every encumbrance. "The British
officers," continues Mr. Bronson, " awarded Chauncey all credit for skill and bravery, and admitted that their fleet must
have been destroyed if he had been properly sustained by his subordinates."
The bearer of a flag of truce who went into Sackett's Harbor on the 12th of October admitted that Sir James Yeo was
so badly beaten on this occasion that he had made preparations to burn his vessels, and would have done so had Chaun
cey chased him twenty minntes longer. Every gnu on the Wolfe's starboard side was dismounted.— Letter to the Editor
of the Democratic Press, dated at Sackett's Harbor, October 13, 1813, and copied in The War, ii., 86.
2 The Confiance and Hamilton were the Growler and Julia, captured from the Americans on the night of the 10th of Au
gust. Their names had been changed by the captors.
3 General Morgan Lewis's testimony on the trial of Wilkinson.
646
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Wilkinson's Expedition leaves Sackett's Harbor.
A disastrous Voyage.
Gallantry of Captain Myers.
With a reckless disregard of life and property, the troops under Major General
Lewis were embarked at the beginning of a dark night, when portents of a storm
were hovering over the lake, at a season when sudden and violent gales were likely
to arise. They were packed in scows, bateaux, Durham boats, and common lake sail
boats, with ordnance, ammunition, hospital stores, baggage, camp equipage, and two
months' provisions. The voyage was among islands and past numerous points of
land where soundings and currents were known to few. There was a scarcity of
pilots, and the whole flotilla seemed to have been sent out with very little of man's
wisdom to direct it. The wind was favorable at the beginning, but toward mid
night, as the clouds thickened and the darkness deepened, it freshened, and before
morning became a gale, with rain and sleet. The flotilla was scattered in every di-
> October IT, rection, and the gloomy dawna revealed a sad spectacle. The shores of
the islands and the main were strewn with wrecks of vessels and prop
erty. Fifteen large boats were totally lost, and many more too seriously damaged
to be safe. For thirty-six hours the wind blew fiercely, but on the 20th, there hav
ing been a comparative calm for more than a day, a large proportion x)f the troops,
with the sound boats, arrived at Grenadier Island.1 These were chiefly the brigades
of Generals Boyd, Brown, Covington, Swartwout, and Porter2 (the three former had
encamped at Henderson Harbor), which had
arrived.
General Wilkinson in the mean time was
passing to and fro between the Harbor and
Grenadier Island, looking after the smitten
expedition. A return made to him on the
22d showed that a large number of troops
were still behind, in vessels "wrecked or
stranded." The weather continued boister
ous, and on the 24th he was compelled to
write to the Secretary of War, " The ex
tent of the injury to our craft, clothing,
arms, and provisions greatly exceed our ap
prehensions, and has subjected us to the
necessity of furnishing clothing, and of
making repairs and equipments to the flo
tilla generally. In fact, all our hopes have
been nearly blasted ; but, thanks
to the same Providence that
placed us in jeopardy, we are sur-
mounting our difficulties, and,
God willing, I shall pass Prescott on the night of the 1st or 2d proximo."
The troops remained encamped on Grenadier Island until the 1st of November,
except General Brown's brigade, some light troops, and heavy artillery, which went
1 The now venerable Major Mordecai Myers, of Schenectady, New York, toVhom I am indebted for an interesting
narrative of the events of this campaign, was very active in saving lives and property during this boisterous weather.
It was resolved to send back to Sackett's Harbor all who could not endure active service in the campaign. Nearly two
hundred of these were put on board two schooners, with hospital stores. The vessels were wrecked, and Captain Myers,
on his own solicitation, was sent by General Boyd with two large boats for the rescue of the passengers and crew. He
found the schooners lying on their sides, the sails napping, and the sea breaking over them. Many had perished, and
the most of those alive, having drank freely of the liquors among the hospital stores, were nearly all intoxicated. The
hatches were open, and the vessels were half-filled with water. By great exertions and personal risk Captain Myers
succeeded in taking to the shore nearly all of the two hundred persons who had embarked on the schooners. Forty
or fifty of them were dead.
2 Colonel Carr's MS. Journal. "October 19, first brigade, under Boyd— 5th, 12th, and 13th Regiments ; second bri
gade, under Brown— Gth, 15th, and 22d Regiments, already arrived and encamped. October 20, the third brigade, under
Covington— 9th, 16th, and 25th Regiments ; and fourth brigade, under Swartwout— llth, 21st, and 14th, have arrived.
The fifth, under Porter— light troops and artillery— arriving hourly. The weather still stormy, and continual rains for
the last two days."
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 647
Hampton in the Chateaugay Country. Position of the Belligerents. Hampton's criminal Negligence.
down the St. Lawrence on the 29th,a and took post at French Creek. In ,October
the mean time Hampton, pursuant to Wilkinson's orders, movedb down isis.
the Chateaugay toward the St. Lawrence for the purpose of forming a
junction with Wilkinson from above. He found a forest ten or twelve miles in ex
tent along the river in the line of his march, in which the vigilant and active De
Salaberry had felled trees across the obscure road, and placed Indians and light troops
to dispute the passage of the Americans. General George Izard was at once sent
out with light troops to gain the rear of these woods, and seize the Canadian settle
ments on the Chateaugay in the open country beyondj while the remainder of the
army made a circuit in an opposite direction, and avoided the obstructed forest alto
gether. The movement was successful, and on the following dayc a great-
c October 22.
er portion of the army encamped at Spear's, near the confluence of the
Outard Creek and the Chateaugay River.1 It was an eligible position, and there
Hampton remained until the stores and artillery came up on the 24th.
Immediately in front of *he army at Spear's was ar open country, seven miles along
the river, to Johnson's,2 where another extensive forest lay in the way. These woods
had been foi-med into abatis, covering log breastworks and a log block-house. On
the latter were some pieces of ordnance. In front of these defenses were Indians and
a light corps of Beauharnais militia, and behind them, under the immediate command
of Lieutenant Colonel De Salaberry, was the remainder of the disposable force of the
enemy, charged with the duty of guarding a ford at a small rapid in the river, and
keeping open communication with the St. Lawrence. De Salaberry's force was almost
a thousand strong, and Sir George Prevost and General De Wattville were within
bugle call with more troops.
Hampton determined to dislodge De Salaberry, take possession of his really strong
hold, and keep it until he should hear from Wilkinson, from whom go tidings had
been received for several days. He was informed of the ford opposite the lower flank
of the enemy, and on the evening of the 25th he detached Colonel Robert Purdy, of
the Fourth Infantry, and the light troops of Boyd's brigade, to force the ford, and fall
upon the British rear at dawn. The crack of Purdy's musketry was to be the signal
for the main body of the Americans to attack the enemy's front. But the whole
movement was foiled by the ignorance of the guides and the darkness of the night.
Purdy crossed the river near the camp, lost his way in a hemlock swamp, and could
neither find the ford nor the place from which he started. His troops wandered
about all night, and different corps would sometimes meet, and excite mutual alarm
by the supposition that they had encountered an enemy.3 In the morning Purdy ex
tricated his command from the swamp labyrinth, and, within half a mile of the ford,
halted and gave them permission to rest, for they were excessively fatigued. In the
mean time Hampton put three thousand five hundred of his army in motion, under
General Izard, expecting every moment to hear Purdy's guns ; but they were silent.
The forenoon wore away ; meridian was past ; and at two o'clock Izard was ordered
to move forward to the attack. Firing immediately commenced, and the enemy's
pickets were driven in. The gallant De Salaberry came out with about three hund
red Canadian fencibles and voltigeurs, and a few Abenake Indians, but Izard's over
whelming numbers pressed him back to his intrenchments.
Firing was now heard on the other side of the river. Purdy, who seems to have
neglected to post pickets or sentinels, had been surprised by a small detachment of
1 This point is seen at the junction of" Hampton's route" and "Smith's road" on the map on page 881. The stream
seen along " Smith's road" is the Ontard. 2 See Map on page 8S1.
3 "Incredible as it may appear," said Purdy, in his official report to Wilkinson, "General Hampton intrusted nearly
one half of his army, and those his best troops, to the guidance of men each of whom repeatedly assured him that they
were not acquainted with the country, and were not competent to direct such an expedition." " Never, to my knowledge,"
said Purdy, in another part of his report, "during our march into Canada, and while we remained at the Four CoAere,
a term of twenty-six days, did General Hampton ever send off a scouting or recounoitriug party, except in one or two
cases at Spear's, in Canada."
648 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Disgraceful Events. Hampton's inglorious Retreat. Wilkinson's Expedition on the St. Lawrence.
chasseurs and Canadian militia, who gained his rear. His troops, utterly disconcerted,
fled to the river. Several officers and men swam across, bearing to General Hampton
alarming accounts of the great number of the enemy on the other side of the stream.
That enemy, instead of being formidable, had fled after his first fire, and the ludicrous
scene was presented of frightened belligerents running away from each other. All
was confusion ; and detachments of Purdy's scattered men, mistaking each other for
enemies in the dark swamp, had a spirited engagement. The only sad fruit of the
blunder was the death of one man.
De Salaberry had perceived that superior numbers might easily outflank him, and
he resorted to stratagem. He posted buglers at some distance from each other, and
when some concealed provincial militia opened fire almost upon Hampton's flank,
these buglers simultaneously sounded a charge. Hampton was alarmed. From the
seeming extent of the British line
as indicated by the buglers, he sup
posed a heavy force was about to
fall upon his front and flank. He
immediately sounded a retreat, and withdrew from the field. The enemy in a body
did not venture to follow, but the Canadian militia1 harassed the army as it fell
slowly back to its old quarters at Chateaugay Four Corners, where its inglorious
campaign ended. The whole affair was a disgrace to the American arnis, and, as one
of the surviving actors in the scenes (now a distinguished major general in the United
States Army) has said, " no officer who had any regard for his reputation would vol
untarily acknowledge himself as having been engaged in it."2 In this affair, which
has been unwarrantably dignified with the character of a battle, the Americans lost
about fifteen killed and twenty-three wounded. The British lost five killed, sixteen
wounded, and four missing.3
Storm followed storm on Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence. Snow fell to the
depth of ten inches, and the troops collected by Wilkinson on Grenadier Island suf
fered much. The season was too far advanced — a Canadian winter was too near — to
allow delays on account of weather, and General Brown and his division moved for
ward, in the face of the tempest and of great peril, on the 29th of October. They
landed at French Creek, and took post in a thick wood about half a mile up from the
present village of Clayton. Chauncey in the mean time attempted to blockade the
enemy in Kingston Harbor, or at least to prevent his going down the river either to
pursue the Americans or to take possession of and fortify the important old military
post at the head of Carleton Island, just below Cape Vincent. But Chauncey's block
ade Avas ineffectual. British marine scouts were out among the Thousand Islands ;
and when, on the afternoon of the 1st of November, they discovered Brown at French
Creek, two brigs, two schooners, and eight gun-boats, filled with infantry, were out
and ready to bear down upon him. They did so at about siinset of the same day.
Fortunately Brown had planted a battery of three 18-pounders on Bartlett's Point, a
high wooded bluff" on the western shore of French Creek, at its mouth, under the com
mand of Captain M'Pherson, of the light artillery. This battery, from its elevation,
was very effective, and it was served so skillfully that the enemy were driven away
after some cannonading. At dawn the next morning the conflict was renewed, with
1 In his official dispatch Sir George Prevost asked from the Prince Regent a stand of colors for each of the five bat
talions of Canadian militia as a mark of approbation. They were granted. ,
2 Major General John E. Wool, who then held the commission of major in the Twenty-ninth Regiment United States
Infantry. I am indebted to written and oral statements of General Wool for many of the facts given concerning the
affair near Johnston's, on the Chateaugay. Hon. Nathaniel S. Benton, of Little Falls, New York, late Auditor of the
State of New York, and author of a History of Herkimer Count;/ and the Upper Mohawk Valley, was captain of a militia
company engaged in this affair. He informed me that his company numbered 109 men, and all of them his own height
—si* feet.
3 American and British Official Reports ; General Orders ; Christie's, Auchinleck's, Thompson's, Perkins's, and Inger-
Boll's Histories ; Armstrong's Notices, etc.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
649
American Camp at French Creek. The attacking British repulsed. Wilkinson pursued down the St. Lawrence.
the same result, the enemy in the two engagements having suffered much loss. That
of the Americans was two killed and four wounded. It was with much difficulty
that the British saved one of their brigs from capture.
Troops were coming down from Grenadier Island in the mean time, and landing
upon the point on which Clayton1 now stands, and along the shore of French Creek
as far as the lumber and rafting yard on what is still known as Wilkinson's Point.
Wilkinson arrived there on the 3d, and on the 4tha he issued a general or- . November,
der preparatory to final embarkation, in which he exhorted his troops to
sustain well the character of American citizens, and abstain from rapine and plunder.
" The general is determined," he said, " to have the first person who shall be detected
in plundering an inhabitant of Canada of the smallest amount of property made an
example of."2
On the morning of the
5th, a clear, bright, crisp
morning, just at dawn, the
whole flotilla, comprising al
most three hundred boats,
moved down the river from
French Creek with banners
furled and music silent, for
they wished to elude dis
covery by the British, who,
until noAV, were uncertain
whether the expedition was
intended for Kingston, Pres-
cott, or Montreal.3 The vig
ilant foe had immediately
discovered their course, and,
with a heavy armed galley
MOUTU OF FKE.NCH OKEEK.*
and gun -boats filled with
troops, started in pursuit. The flotilla arrived at Morristown early in the evening.
It had been annoyed by the enemy all the way. Several times Wilkinson was dis
posed to turn upon them; and at one time, near Bald Island, about two miles below
Alexandria Bay, he was compelled to engage, for the enemy's gun-boats shot out of
the British channel on the north, and attacked his rear. They were beaten off, and
Wilkinson determined to run by the formidable batteries at Prescott during the night.
It was found to be impracticable, and his boats lay moored at Morristown until morn
ing. A corps of land troops from Kingston had also followed Wilkinson along the
northern shore of the river, and arrived at Prescott before the American flotilla reached
Ogdensburg.
For the purpose of avoiding Fort Wellington and the other fortifications at Pres
cott, Wilkinson halted three miles above Ogdensburg, where he debarked his am
munition and all of his troops,b except a sufficient number to man the " November 6.
' This was formerly called Cornelia, and is yet called by the name of French Creek. It was named in honor of Senator
John M. Clayton, of Delaware, in 1833. French Creek was called by the Indians Fallen Fort, from the circumstance that,
long before a white man was ever seen there, a fort had been captured on its banks by the Oneidas.
2 General Order, French Creek, November 4, 1813.
3 The boat that conveyed Wilkinson and his military family was commanded by the now venerable William John
ston, who was an active spy on that frontier during the war. He is better known as " Bill Johnston, "by some called the
" Hero," and by others the " Pirate," of the Thousand Islands. Of Mr. Johnston and his remarkable career I shall write
presently.
* This is from a sketch made in the summer of 1860, from the place of Brown's encampment, at the lumber and raft
ing yard on Wilkinson's Point. In the water, in the foreground, is seen a raft partly prepared for a voyage down the
St. Lawrence. The bluff in the distance, beyond the little sail-vessel, is Bartlett's Point, on which M'Pherson's battery
was placed. The vessel without sails indicates the place where the British squadron lay when it was repulsed. The
land seen beyond is Grindstone Island, from behind which the British vessels came. The point in the middle distance,
on the extreme right, is the head of Shot-bag Island. .
650 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Difficulties in Wilkinson's Way. A Council of Officers. Number and Position of the British Force.
BALD ISLAND AND WILKINSON'S FLOTILLA.1
boats. These were to be conveyed by land to the " Red Mill," four miles below Og-
densburg, on the American shore, and the boats were to run by the batteries that
night. At the place of debarkation he issued a proclamation to the Canadians, in
tended to make them passive ;2 and there, at noon, he was visited by Colonel King,
Hampton's adjutant general. By him he sent orders to Hampton to press forward to
the St. Lawrence, to form a junction with the descending army at St. Regis.
By the skillful management of General Brown, the whole flotilla passed Prescott
safely on the night of the 6th, with the exception of two large boats heavily laden
with provisions, artillery, and ordnance stores,3 which ran aground at Ogdensburg.
They were taken off under a severe cannonading from Fort Wellington, and soon
« November 7, joined the othersa at the " Red Mill." Wilkinson was now informed that
the Canada shore of the river was lined with posts of musketry and artil
lery at every eligible point, to dispute the passage of the flotilla. To meet and re
move these impediments, Colonel Alexander Macomb was detached, with twelve
hundred of the elite of the army, and on Sunday, the 7th, landed on the Canada shore.
He was soon followed by Lieutenant Colonel Forsyth and his riflemen, who did ex
cellent service in the rear of Macomb.
The flotilla arrived at the " White House," opposite Matilda,4 about eighteen miles
below Ogdensburg, on the 8th, and there Wilkinson called a council of his officers,
consisting of Generals Lewis, Boyd, Brown, Porter, Covington, and Swartwout. Aft
er hearing a report from the active chief engineer, Colonel Swift, concerning the re
ported strength of the enemy,5 the question, Shall the army proceed with all possible
rapidity to the attack of Montreal ? was considered, and answered in the affirmative.
1 This is from a sketch by Captain Van Cleve (see note 1, page 51T), who kindly allowed me the use of it. Bald Island
is one of the Thousand Islands, and lies on the left of the American or steam-boat channel of the river. It is mostly
bare, and rises to the height of about thirty or forty feet above the water in the centre. At some distance beyond it,
northward, is the British channel. The gun-boats that attacked Wilkinson's flotilla came out at the lower end of Bald
Island, through a lateral channel in which the sail-vessel lies.
2 He assured them that he came to invade, and not to destroy the province — •" to subdue the forces of his Britannic
Majesty, not to war against unoffending subjects. Those, therefore," he said, "who remain quiet at home, should vic
tory incline to the American standard, shall be protected in their persons and property ; but those who are found iu
arms must necessarily be treated as avowed enemies. To menace is unmanly ; to seduce, dishonorable ; yet it is just
and humane to place these alternatives before you."— Proclamation, November 7, 1813.
3 The flotilla moved at eight o'clock in the evening, under cover of a heavy fog, General Brown, in his gig, leading the
way. There was a sudden change in the atmosphere, when the general's boat was discovered at Prescott, and almost
fifty 24-pound shot were fired at her, without effect. The gleaming of bayonets on shore, in the light of the moon in
the west, caused a heavy cannonade in the direction of the American troops on the march, also without effect. Brown
halted the flotilla until the moon went down, but its general movement was perceived by the enemy. For three hours
they poured a destructive fire upon it, and yet, out of about three hundred boats, not one was touched, and only one
man was killed and two wounded.— General Wilkinson's Journal, November 6, 1813.
According to the statement of Captain Mordecai Myers, already referred to (note 1, page 646), there were traitors in
Ogdensburg. He says that the British at Prescott were apprised of the approach of the flotilla by the burning of blue
lights in one or more houses in Ogdensburg.
* Matilda is a post village in Dundas County, Canada West, on the Point Iroquois Canal. The "White House" had
disappeared when I visited the spot in 1855, when the place belonged to James Parlor.
5 Colonel Swift employed a secret agent, who reported to him that the enemy's forces were as follows in number and
position : 600 under Colonel Murray, at Coteau du Lac, strongly fortified with artillery; about 300 men of the British
line of artillery, but without ammunition, at the Cedars ; 200 sailors, 400 marines, and an unknown number of militia at
Montreal, with no fortifications ; 2500 regular troops expected daily from Quebec ; and the militia between Kingston
and Quebec, 20,000. Wilkinson reported his own force to be 7000 men, and that he expected to meet 4000, under Hamp
ton, at St. Regis.— Journal of Dr. Ainasa Trowbridge, quoted by Dr. Hough in his History of St. Lawrence Cuunty, page 639.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 651
General Brown invades Canada. Wilkinson in Peril. Preparations for Battle at Chrysler's Farm.
General Brown was at once ordered to cross the river with his brigade and the dra
goons, for the purpose of marching down the Canada side of the river in connection
with Colonel Macomb, and the remainder of the day and night was consumed in the
transportation.1 Meanwhile Wilkinson was informed that a British re-enforcement,
full one thousand strong, had been sent down from Kingston to Prescott, under the
command of Lieutenant Colonel Morrison. They had come in the armed schooners
Beresford and Sidney Smith, and several gun-boats and bateaux under Captain Mul-
caster, which had eluded Chauncey's inefficient blockading squadron. They were
joined at Prescott by provincial infantry and dragoons under Lieutenant Colonel
Pearson, and on the morning of the 9th they were close upon Wilkinson with the
vessels in which they came down the river, and a large portion of the land troops
were debarked near Matilda for the purpose of pursuing the Americans. General
Boyd and his brigade were now detached to re-enforce Brown, with orders to cover
his march, to attack the pursuing enemy if necessary, and to co-operate with the
other commanders.
Wilkinson now found himself in a perilous position. The British armed vessels
were following his flotilla, and a heavy British force was hanging upon the rear of
his land troops, ready to co-operate with the water craft in an attack upon the Amer
icans. They constantly harassed Brown and Boyd, and occasionally attacked the
rear of the flotilla. The forces on the shore also encountered detachments coming
O
up from below, and were compelled to make some long and tedious circuits in their
march because of the destruction of bridges in the front.
On the morning of the 10th,a when Wilkinson was approaching the » November,
" Longue Saut," a perilous rapid in the St. Lawrence, eight miles in extent,
he was informed that a considerable body of the enemy had collected near its foot,
constructed a block-house, and were prepared to attack him when he should come
down. General Brown was ordered to advance at once and dislodge them, and at
O 7
noon cannonading was heard in that direction for some time. At the same hour the
enemy came pressing upon Wilkinson's rear, and commenced cannonading from his
gun-boats. The American gun-barges were so slender that the eighteen-pounders
could not be worked effectively,-so they were landed, placed in battery, and brought
to bear upon the enemy so skillfully that his vessels fled in haste up the river. In
these operations the day was mostly consumed. The pilots were unwilling to enter
the rapids at night. It was necessary to hear from Brown, for when the flotilla
should once be committed to the swift current of the rapids there could be no retreat.
These considerations caused Wilkinson to halt for the night, and his vessels were
moored a little below Chrysler's Island, nearly in front of the farm of John Chrysler
(a British militia captain then in the service), a few miles below Williamsburg, while
Boyd, with the rear of the land force, encamped near.
At ten o'clock in the morning of the llth Wilkinson received a dispatch from
Brown, addressed from " five miles above Cornwall," announcing his success in his
attack upon the British post at the foot of the rapids, informing him of the wounding
of Lieutenant Colonel Forsyth and one of his men, and urging him to come forward
with the boats and supplies as quickly as possible, because his wearied troops were
" without covering in the rain."2 This dispatch found Wilkinson extremely ill, and
his reply, in which he told Brown of the presence of the enemy upon his rear, and his
apprehensions that he intended to pass him with his gun-boats and strengthen the
British force below, was addressed " From my bed." " It is now," he said, " that I
feel the heavy hand of disease — enfeebled and confined to my bed while the safety
1 A part of this force landed on the property of Christian Delabough, near Matilda, owned, in 1S55, by Daniel Shaw.
Another portion landed at Snyder's, now Pillar's Bay.
2 General Brown's MS. Letter-book. Colonel Carr, in his MS. Journal before me, says : "We are wet to the skin, and,
having no tents or shelter but bushes, must pass a very uncomfortable night." Dated "Near Cornwall, November 10,
10 P.M."
652
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Position of the British on Chrysler's Farm.
Character of the Ground.
Assault on the British Vanguard.
OIIKYBLEK'S IN 1855.
of the army intrusted to my command, the honor of our armies, and the greatest in
terests of our country are at hazard."2
Wilkinson now ordered the flotilla to proceed, and Boyd and his command to re
sume their march. At that moment information reached the commanding general
that the enemy were advancing in column, and that firing from their gun-boats was
heard. He immediately sent Colonel Swift with an order for Boyd to form his de
tachment into three columns, advance upon the enemy, and endeavor to outflank him
and capture his cannon. At the same time the flotilla was ordered to lie moored on
the Canada shore, just below Weaver's Point, while his gun-boats lay off' Cook's Point.
The brave Boyd, anx
ious for battle, instantly
obeyed. Swartwoutwas
detached with the fourth
brigade to assail the van
guard of the enemy,
which was composed of
light troops, and Cov-
ington was directed to take position at supporting distance from him with the third
brigade. Swartwout, on a large brown horse, dashed gallantly into woods of second
growth, followed by the Twenty-first Regiment, commanded by Colonel E. W. Ripley,
and with them drove the light troops of the enemy back upon their main line in open
fields on Chrysler's farm, below his house.3 That line was well posted, its right rest
ing on the St. Lawrence, and covered by Mulcaster's gun-boats, and the left on a
black-oak swamp, supported by Indians and gathering militia, under Colonel Thomas
Fraser. They were advantageously formed back of ravines that intersected the ex
tensive plain and rendered the advance of the American artillery almost impossible,
and a heavy rail-fence.4
1 This is a view of Chrysler's house and the outbuildings as they appeared when I visited the spot in August, 1855, a
cirumstance to be noticed presently. The house fronted the St. Lawrence. The road, in which the oxen and cart are
seen, is the fine highway along the river from Cornwall to Prescott. 2 General Brown's MS. Letter-book.
3 This conflict is usually called the battle of Chrysler's Field. It is sometimes called the battle of Williamsbnrg, that
village being almost within cannon-shot range of the battle-field. Chrysler's name is frequently spelled with a t.
* The British army, on this occasion, was slightly superior in numbers, counting its Indian allies, to the Americans,
and had the double advantage of strong position behind ravines and of freshness, for the Americans had undergone
great fatigue. They were formed in what Wellington called en echelon, or the figure of steps, with one corps more ad
vanced than another, as follows : Three companies of the Eighty-ninth Regiment were posted on the extreme right,
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 653
Battle on Chrysler's Farm. Incidents of the Contest. The Americans repulsed.
Swartwout's sudden and successful dash was quickly followed by an attack on the
enemy's left by the whole of the fourth brigade, and a part of the first, under Colonel
Coles, who advanced across plowed fields, knee-deep in mud, in the face of a heavy
shower of bullets and shrapnel-shells.1 At the same time General Covington, mount
ed on a fine white horse, gallantly led the third brigade against the enemy's left, near
the river, and the battle became general. By charge after charge, in the midst of
difficulties, the British were pushed back almost a mile, and the American cannon,
placed in fair position by General Boyd, under the direction of Colonel Swift, did
excellent execution for a few minutes. The squadron of the Second Regiment of
Dragoons was early on the field, and much exposed to the enemy's fire, but, owing
to the nature of the gi-ound, was unable to accomplish much. At length Covington
fell, severely wounded,2 and the ammunition of the Americans began to fail. It was
soon exhausted, and the fourth brigade, hard pushed, fell back, followed by Colonel
J. A. Coles. This retrograde movement affected the third
brigade, and it too fell back, in considerable disorder. The
British perceived this, and followed up the advantage gained
with great vigor, and were endeavoring by a flank movement
to capture Boyd's cannon, when a gallant charge of cavalry,
led by Adjutant General Walbach, who had obtained Arm
strong's permission to accompany the expedition, drove
them back and saved the pieces. The effort was re
newed. Lieutenant Smith, who commanded one of the
cannon, was mortally wounded, and it fell into the ene
my's hands.3
The conflict had lasted about five hours, in the midst of cold, and snow, and sleet,
when the Americans were compelled to fall back. During that time victory had
swayed, like a pendulum, between the combatants, and would doubtless have rested
with the Americans had their ammunition held out. Their retreat was promising to
be a rout, when the flying troops were met by six hundred men under Lieutenant
Colonel Timothy Upham,4 of the Twenty-first Regiment of Infantry, and Major Mal
colm, whom Wilkinson had sent up to the support of Boyd. These checked the dis
orderly flight, and, taking position on the ground from which Boyd's force had been
driven, they gallantly attacked the enemy, seized the principal ravine, and, with a se
vere fire at short musket range, drove the British back and saved tlie day.5 Mean
while Boyd had reformed his line in battle order on the edge of the wood from which
Swartwout drove the foe at the beginning, and there awaited another attack. It was
not made. Both parties seemed willing to make the excuse of oncoming darkness a
warrant for suspending farther fighting. The Americans, under cover of night, re
tired unmolested to their boats, and the British remained upon the field. Neither
party had gained a victory, but the advantage was with the British.6
resting on the river, with a 6-ponnder, and commanded by Captain Barnes On their left, and a little in the rear, were
flanking companies of the Forty-ninth and a detachment of fencibles, with a 6-pounder, under Lieutenant Colonel Pear
son. Still further to the left and rear were other companies of the Forty-ninth and Eighty-ninth Regiments, and a C-
pounder, under Lieutenant Colonel Morrison, whose left rested on a pine forest. In front of all were voltigeurs, under
Major Harriott, and some Indians, under Lieutenant Anderson.
1 Shells containing a quantity of musket-balls, which, when the shell explodes, are projected still farther.
» Covington was killed a short distance from Chrysler's barn (see picture on page 052), which was yet standing, well
bored by bullets, when I visited the battle-ground in 1855. The British fired from that barn, and it is believed that a
bullet from it was the one fatal to the general. The place where he fell was on the site of a nursery of thrifty trees in
1855.
3 William Wallace Smith was a cadet in 1809. He was a native of New Jersey. He was commissioned second lieu
tenant of light artillery on the 1st of June, 1812, and promoted to first lieutenant in October, 1813. In the battle on
Chrysler's Field he was serving his field-piece himself, having lost all of his men, when he was mortally wounded. He
died, a prisoner, at Fort Prescott, on the 13th of December, 1813.
* Upham was a gallant soldier. We shall meet him again on the Niagara frontier.
5 MS. sketch of the military career of Colonel Timothy Upham, by an officer of the army.
6 Official dispatches of Wilkinson and Boyd, and Lieutenant Colonel Morrison ; Wilkinson's Journal ; Life of General
Macomb, by Captain George H. Richards ; General Brown's MS. letter-book ; Colonel Robert Carr's MS. journal ; the
654
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The American Flotilla descends the St. Lawrence.
Bad Conduct of General Hampton.
On the morning
after the battle the
flotilla and gun-boats
passed safely down
the Long Rapids
without discovering
any signs of an ene
my, and at the same
time the land troops
marched in the same
direction unmolest
ed. At Barnhart's,
three miles above
Cornwall, they form
ed a junction with
the forces under Gen
eral Brown, and Wil
kinson expected to
hear of the arrival of
Hampton at St. Re
gis, on the opposite shore of the St. Lawrence. But he was disappointed. General
Brown had written to Hampton the day before informing him of rumors of a battle
above, and saying, " My own opinion is, you can not be with us too soon," and beg
ging him to inform the writer by the bearer when he might be expected at St. Regis.1
Soon after Wilkinson's arrival, Colonel Atkinson, Hampton's inspector general, ap
peared as the bearer of a letter from his chief, dated the llth, in which the command
er of the left of the grand army of the North, who had fallen back to Chateaugay
Four Corners, declared his intention not to join Wilkinson at all, but to co-operate
in the attack on Montreal by returning to Champlain and making a descent from that
place.2 Wilkinson was enraged, and declared that he would " arrest Hampton, and
direct Izard to bring forward the division." He was too feeble in mind and body to
execute his threat, or do any thing that required energy; and, after uttering a few
various published HistBries of the War; oral statements to the author in 1855 by Peter Brouse, a surviving British sol
dier in the battle, living near the ground ; Dr. Amasa Trowbriclge's narrative, quoted by Hough.
The loss of the British in this engagement was 22 killed, 150 wounded, and 15 missing. The Americans lost 102
killed and 23T wounded. Among the killed and mortally wounded were General Covington, and Lieutenants Smith,
Hunter, and Olmstead ; and their wounded officers were Colonel Preston. Majors Chambers, Cummings, and Noon, Cap
tains Foster, Campbell, Myers, Murdoch, and Townsend, and Lieutenants Heaton, Pelham, Lynch, Williams, Brown,
and Crary. Among the officers specially mentioned with praise were General Covington, Colonel Pearce, who took
command of his corps when he fell, Colonels E. P. Gaines, E. W. Ripley, and Walbach, Lieutenant Colonel As-pinwall,
Majors Cummings, Morgan, Grafton, and Gardner, and Lieutenants Whiting (his aid) and (late Major General) W. J.
Worth.
The wounded in the battle were placed in barns and log houses, and the mansion of Chrysler was made a hospital. A
bullet passed through Captain Myers's arm, near his shoulder, while at the head of his men in assailing the British be
hind the stone wall. The dcsperateness of the encounter may be conceived when the fact is stated that of 89 men he
lost 23. He shared General Boyd's quarters at French Mills. Dr. Man, a noted physician, took him to his house, ten
miles distant, where he remained four months. He there became acquainted with the daughter of Judge William Bai
ley, of Plattsbnrg, and in March following they were married in that town.
Mordecai Myers was born at Newport, Rhode Island, on the 1st of May, 1776, and is now (1SC7) in the ninety-second
year of his age. He was educated in New York City, and became a merchant in
Richmond, Virginia. There he served in a military company under Colonel (aft
erward Chief Justice) Marshall. He soon returned to New York, engaged in bns-
iness there, and served in an artillery company under the command of Captain
John Swartwout. He was afterward commissioned an officer of infantry, and for
two years studied military tactics assiduously. When war was threatened he was
active in raising volunteer companies, and in March, lS12,'he was commissioned a
captain in the Thirteenth United States Infantry, and ordered to report to Colonel Peter B. Schuyler. During the war
he performed laborious and gallant services under several commanders in the Northern Department, and in 1815 the
disability produced by his wound caused him to be disbanded and placed on the pension roll for the half pay of a cap
tain. Then ended his military career. He has resided many years in Schenectady. He has been mayor of that city, and
represented New York city in the Legislature of the State for six years. i Brown's MS. Letter-book.
2 Letter of General J. G. Swift to the author of this work, dated " Geneva, N. Y., February 13, I860."
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
655
The American Army at the French Mills.
Character of its chief Leaders.
Hampton censured.
1813.
curses, he called a council of war, and left Hampton to do as he pleased. That coun
cil decided that the "conduct of Major General Hampton, in refusing to join his di
vision to the troops descending the St. Lawrence, rendered it expedient to remove
the army to French Mills, on the Salmon River."1 " The opinion of the younger
members of the council was," says General Swift, " that, with Brown as a leader, no
character would be lost in going on to Montreal ;"2 but the majority said no, and on
the following day,a at noon, when information came that there was a "November 13
considerable British force at Co'teau du Lac, the foot soldiers and ar
tillerymen were all em
barked on the transports,
under the direction of
General Brown, and de
parted for the Salmon.3
The horses of the dra
goons, excepting about
forty, were made to swim
across the cold and rap
idly-flowing river, there
a thousand yards wide,
and the squadron pro
ceeded to Utica. The
flotilla passed up the Big
Salmon River about six
miles to its confluence
with the Little Salmon,
near the French Mills,
when it was announced
that the boats were scuttled, and the army was to go into winter quarters in huts.5
Thus ended in disaster and disgrace an expedition which, in its inception, prom
ised great and salutary results. It was composed of brave and patriotic men ; and
justice to those men requires the humiliating confession from the historian that their
failure to achieve complete success is justly chargeable to the incompetency of the
chief commanders, and the criminal indulgence on the part of those commanders of
personal jealousies and animosities. The appointment of Wilkinson to the command
of the Northern Army was a criminal blunder on the part of the government. His
antecedents were well known, and did not recommend him for a responsible position.
The weakness of his patriotism under temptation, and his too free indulgence in in
toxicating liquors, were notorious. Hampton was totally unfitted for the responsible
station in which he was placed ;6 and Armstrong, who was a fellow-soldier with them
both in the old War for Independence, lacked some of the qualities most essential in
the administration of the extraordinary functions of his office in time of war. His
presence on the frontier during the progress of the expedition was doubtless detri
mental to the service, and he left for the seat of government at a moment when the
counsel and direction of a judicious Secretary of War was most needed.7
PLACE OF DEBARKATION ON TUB SALMON 1UVEE.4
1 " The grounds on which this decision was taken were— want of bread, want of meat, want of Hampton's division,
and a belief that the enemy's force was equal, if not greater than our own."— General J. G. Swift to General John Arm
strong, June 17, 1836. 2 General Swift's Letter to General Armstrong, June 17, 1836.
3 In a general order issued on the morning of the 13th, General Wilkinson said, " The commander-in-chief is com
pelled to retire [from the Canada shore] by the extraordinary, unexpected, and, it appears, unwarrantable conduct of
Major General Hampton in refusing to join this army with a division of four thousand men under his command agree
able to positive orders from the commander-in-chief, and, as he has been assured by the Secretary of War, of explicit in
structions from the War Department."
* This is a view of the place where Wilkinson's flotilla was moored. The boats were soon frozen in the ice, and in
February, apprehensions being felt of their capture by the enemy, they were cut and burnt down even with the surface
of the ice, and sunk when it melted in the spring. 5 Colonel Robert Carr's MS. Diary. 6 See page 630.
7 On the 24th of November, General Brown, then in command of the army at French Mills, wrote, with considerable
656
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Death and Burial of General Covington. Head-quarters of General Officers. Hampton's Disobedience of Orders.
On arriving at Salmon River the army
was immediately debarked on the frozen
shores, and set to work in the construction
of huts for winter quarters. Their first la
bor was the sad task of digging a grave
for the remains of General Covington. He
was shot through the body on the llth,
and died at Barnhart's on the morning of
the 13th, just before the flotilla departed
for French Mills.1 Wilkinson at once left
for Malone, after transferring the command
• November ic, of the army to General Lewis,a
who, with General Boyd, made
1813.
BBOWN'S HEAD-QUARTERS.
LEWIS'S AWD BOTD'S HEAD-QUARTERS.
his head-quarters at a long, low building,
yet standing in 1860, a dingy red in color,
on the left bank of the Salmon, near the
present lower bridge over the river at
French Mills or Fort Covington.2 Lewis
and Boyd obtained leave of absence, and
the command of the army devolved upon
Brigadier General Brown, who made his
head-quarters on the right bank of the riv
er, in a house built by Spaftbrd in 1811
(store of P. A. Mathews in 1860, corner of
Water and Chateaugay Streets), and there
he received his commission1* of t> February it,
major general of the United
States Army. Hampton, in the mean time, had retired to Plattsburg with his four
thousand men. By special orders, sent from Malone by the hand of Colonel Swift
(when on his way to Washington with dispatches),3 Wilkinson directed Hampton to
join the army at French Mills. This, like other orders, were utterly disregarded by
feeling to the Secretary of War, saying, " 5fou have learned that the grand army of the United States, after marching
and countermarching most ingloriously, arrived at this place on the 13th instant. I must not express to yon my indig
nation and sorrow. I did not expect you would have left us." In the same letter he said, " Colonel Scott will hand yon
this, and can give you all the information you wish relative to our movements since he joined us [see page G3'2], and
the present situation of our army. The public interest would be promoted by the advancement of such men as Scott."
— MS. Letter-book.
1 Leonard Coviugton was a brave soldier. He was a native of Maryland, and born in October, 1709. In 1792 he was
a cornet of cavalry, and was distinguished for bravery under Wayne in the defense of Port Recovery (see page 52) in
June, 1794. He was in the battle at the Maumee Rapids in August following, where Wayne achieved a victory over the
Indians. At the time of the first engagement he held the commission of lieutenant ; in the last he was capt^n. He
resigned in 1795. From 1805 to 1807 he represented a district of his native state in the National Congress. In 1809 he
was commissioned colonel of light dragoons, and in August, 1813, was breveted brigadier general. He accompanied
Wilkinson in his unfortunate expedition that ended at the French Mills. At the time of his death, on the 13th of No
vember, 1813, he was about forty-five years of age.
2 There was a block-house at French Mills situated on the property, owned, when I visited there in 1860, by Mr.
M'Crea. General Covington's body was buried just outside of the block-house, in the present garden of Mr. M'Crea.
There also was buried the remains of Major John Johnson, of the Twenty-first Infantry,* who died at the station on the
llth of December, 1813. The block-house was named Fort Covington in honor of the slain general, and the village
that grew up around the French Mills was also called Fort Coviugton. The place was first settled by a few French
Canadians, who built mills there, and from this circumstance it was called French Mills until after the war.
3 "I found Mr. Madison much grieved by the failure of the campaign," General Swift wrote to the author in Febru
ary, I860. "It was generally believed that, had younger officers been placed in command of the armies of Wilkinson
and Hampton, Montreal would have been taken without the inconsequential conflict at Chrysler's Field, though that
affair gave distinction to several officers for meritorious services." Major Totten succeeded Colonel Swift as chief en
gineer after he left, of whom Brown spoke in the highest terms.
* Major Johnson was from Pennsylvania. He entered the service as a marine in 1800, and was first lieutenant under
Preble at Tripoli in 1804. In April, 1S13, he was assistant adjutant general with the rank of major. In June he was
commissioned major.
OF THE WAR, OF 1812. 657
The Army relieved of Hampton's Presence. Sufferings of the Army at the French Mills. Departure of the Troops.
Hampton. He had accomplished the defeat of efforts to take Canada,1 and, leaving
General Izard, of South Carolina, in command, he abandoned the service, and returned
to his immense sugar plantations in Louisiana,2 followed by the contempt of all vir
tuous and patriotic men.
General Brown at once adopted measures for making the troops as comfortable as
possible. Huts were constructed, but this was a work of much labor, and consumed
several weeks. Meanwhile severe winter weather came. They were on the forty-
fifth parallel, and at the beginning of December the cold became intense. Most of
the soldiers had lost their blankets and extra clothing in the disasters near Grenadier
Island, or in the battle on Chrysler's Field. Even the sick had no shelter but tents.
The country in the vicinity was a wilderness, and provisions were not only scarce,
but of inferior quality. A great quantity of medicines and hospital stores had been
lost through mismanagement, and these could not be procured short of Albany, a dis
tance of two hundred and fifty miles. The mortality among the sick became fright
ful, and disease prostrated nearly one half of the little army before they were fairly
housed in well-regulated cantonments.3 Taking advantage of this distress, British
emissaries tried, by the circulation of written and printed placards, to seduce the suf
fering soldiers from their allegiance. One of these written placards (see a fac-simile
on the next page), found one morning upon a tree in one of the American camps, and
presented to me by Colonel Carr, reads thus :
"NOTICE. — All American Soldiers who may wish to quit the unnatural war in
which they are at present engaged will receive the arrears due to them by the Amer
ican Government to the extent of five month's pay, on their arrival at the British out
Posts. No man shall be required to serve against his own country."
It is believed that not a single soldier of American birth was enticed away by such
allurements.
The enemy frequently menaced the cantonment at French Mills, as well as at
Plattsburg, and toward the close of January Wilkinson received orders from the War
Department to break up the post on Salmon River. Early in February the move
ment was made. The flotilla wras destroyed as fully as the ice in which it Avas frozen
would permit, and the barracks were consumed. The hospital at Malone was aban
doned ; and while Brown, with a larger portion of the troops, marched up the St. Law
rence and to Sackett's Harbor, the remainder accompanied the commander-in-chief to
Plattsburg. The enemy at Cornwall were apprised of this movement, and crossed
the river on the ice on the day when the last American detachment left French Mills.
They were regulars, Canadian militia, and Indians, and plunder seemed to be their
chief object. In this they were indulged, and the abandoned frontier suffered much.
No discrimination seemed to be made between public and private property, and it
was estimated that at least two hundred barrels of provisions were carried away.
Thus closed the events of the campaign of 1813 on the Northern frontier.
I visited the theatre of the scenes described in this chapter partly in the year 1855,
1 See note 3, page 259.
2 Hampton had immense sugar plantations in Louisiana, and was doubtless the most extensive planter and wealthiest
man in the Southern States. He owned at one time five thousand negro slaves. He was a native of South Carolina,
and was born in 1754. He was an active partisan soldier with Sumter and Marion. In 1808 he was commissioned a
colonel of light dragoons, and a brigadier general in 1809. On the 2d of March, 1813, he was promoted to major general.
His inefficient career is recorded in the text. In April, 1814, he resigned his commission, to the great joy of the North
ern Army, with whom his deportment and habits had made him unpopular. He died at Columbia, South Carolina, on
the 4th of February, 1835, at the age of eighty-one years.
3 The army was cantoned as follows on the 1st of January, 1814 :
The artillery, under Colonel Alexander Macomb, of the Engineers, at the block-house on Mr. John M'Crea's property.
The wounded from Chrysler's were taken into the block-house. This was called the Centre Camp. The East Camp, un
der the charge of Colonel E. W. Ripley, was on Seth Blanchard's property. The North Camp, under Colonel James Mil
ler, was on the property of Allen Lincoln. The West Camp, under Colonel Campbell, was on W. L. Manning's property.
The South Camp was on Hamlet Mear's property. The owners above mentioned were the proprietors of the land when
I visited Fort Covington in the summer of I860.
TT
C58
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Attempt to seduce the American Soldiers from their Allegiance.
and partly in 1860. In the evening of Monday, the 23d of July, in the latter year, I
journeyed with a friend, as already mentioned on page 619, from Watertown to Cape
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
659
Visit to Carleton Island.
Remains of Fortifications there.
Their History.
Vincent1 by railway, and lodged in an inn connected with the road station there,
standing on the margin of the St. Lawrence. It was a chilly night. The next morn
ing was clear and blustering, and the surface of the river was dotted with the white
caps of the waves. After an early breakfast we started for Carleton Island, three
miles down the St. Lawrence, in a skiff rowed by a son of the proprietor of the hotel.
As we approached the rocky bluff at the head of the island we observed several chim
neys standing alone (built of stone, some perfect, some half in ruins), which mark the
remains of strong and somewhat extensive fortifications erected there by both the
French and English during the last century, that post being a key to the internavi-
gation of the St. Lawrence River and Lake Ontario. We moored our boat in a small
sheltered creek by which the head of the island is made a pleasant peninsula of eight
or ten acres. On this stand the residences of Mr. Charles Pluche, an intelligent French
Canadian (who owns five hundred acres of the western end of the island2), and of his1
brother. That creek separates the peninsula from the higher bluff on which the ruins
of Fort Carleton are seen. Mr. Pluche kindly accompanied us to these ruins and
other interesting places near, and, but for the increasing violence of the wind, which
became almost a gale at noon, our visit would have been one of unmixed satisfaction.
The ruins of Fort Carleton are upon the most elevated portion of the island, and
from the ramparts may be viewed some of the most picturesque scenery of the famous
Thousand Islands and the New York shore. At what precise time fortifications were
first erected there is not positively known. The English found it quite a strongly
fortified post at the time of the conquest of Canada, at a little past the middle of the
last century, and, perceiving its value in a military point of view (for it commands the
main channel of the St. Lawrence), they greatly strengthened it.3 They occupied it
until 1812. On the declaration of war that year most of the barracks to which the
now standing chimneys
belonged were in good
order, and before Cape
Vincent was settled two
or three families resided
on the island. A garri
son, composed of a ser
geant and three invalid
soldiers, and two women,
occupied the fort when
the war broke out. As
soon, as intelligence of
the declaration reached
the frontier, Captain Ab-
ner Hubbard, of Hub-
bard's (now Mill en's)
Bay, a soldier of the Rev
olution, started in a boat,
with a man and boy, to
REMAINS OF FOBT CARLETON.*
1 This was known as Gravelly Point at the time of the War of 1812. It was laid out as a village in 1817. It is the
northernmost town of Jefferson County, and is the terminus of the Rome, Watertown, and Cape Vincent Railway. From
this point is a ferry to Kingston, passing through Wolf or Grand Island by a canal dug for the purpose a few years ago.
The railway wharf is 3000 feet in length, with large store-houses and a grain-elevator.
2 The island contains 1274 acres. The portion here alluded to was a military class-right, located there in 1786. The
island forms a part of Cape Vincent Township, Jefferson County, New York. The island received its name from Gov
ernor Sir Guy Carleton.
3 Long, in his Voyages, printed in London, 1791, after speaking of Oswegatchie (Ogdensburg), says, " Carleton is higher
up the river, and has greater conveniences to it than Oswegatchie, having an excellent harbor, with strong fortifications,
and well garrisoned, excellent accommodations for shipping, a naval store-house for Niagara and other ports."
* This view is from the N. N. E. point of the fort, and shows eight of the nine chimneys yet standing. On the ex
treme right, beyond the little vessel, is seen Cape Vincent.
1MUIA.N AEilLKT.
660 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
First Seizure of a Military Post. Interesting Relics on Carleton Island. Perilous Voyage on the St. Lawrence.
capture Fort Carleton. He succeeded, and this was the first seizure of a military
post after the declaration of war. He sent a boat on the following day to bring away
the stores, and soon afterward the barracks were burned. Nine bare chimneys have
stood there ever since, gray and solitary tokens of change. There were about twenty
originally within the fort, some of which are in ruins. There were also chimneys on
the little peninsula near Mr. Pluche's house, and along the shore northward, where, on
a fine grassy point, vestiges of the gardens that were attached to the officers' quarters
may yet be seen. The moat that surrounded the fort was dug in the rock, and so
was the well in the northwestern portion of the works.
A little northward of the fort was the garrison cemetery ; and beyond this, a fourth
of a mile from the ramparts, is an ancient Indian burial-ground, in a grove of small
trees on the verge of the river. In a grave that was opened there in the spring of
1860 was found the skeleton of a chief, bearing evidence that the body was first
wrapped in the hide of a buffalo, then swathed in birch-bark, and next deposited in a
board coffin. With the skeleton was found a sil
ver gorget, on which was engraved a running deer ;
also a fine silver armlet (now in possession of the
writer) bearing the royal arms of England,1 silver
ear-rings, and other trinkets. Near this burial-
ground was found, the year before, a silver medal
given by the British government to Colonel John
Butler. It is known that Butler and Sir John
Johnson encamped, with the Indians from the Mo
hawk Valley, on Carleton Island in 1775, when on
their way to join the British at Montreal. The
medal was doubtless lost there at that time, and the chief who bore the armlet and
gorget was probably one of the expedition, who perished there.
After partaking of some refreshments from the hands of Mrs. Pluche and daughter,
we re-embarked in our little boat at noon. The wind was blowing almost a gale
from the direction of Lake Ontario, bringing down waves that made the voyage a
dangerous one. At times, when in the trough, we could not see the land. Our oars
man, a stout, resolute young man, labored faithfully, with the boat's bow up stream,
but he could not make an inch of headway toward Cape Vincent ; so, after heavy ex
ertions and some anxiety, we were driven to the southern shore of the river, at a
point opposite our place of departure. There we abandoned the boat and started on
foot for Cape Vincent, when we met a farmer, with his wagon and rick, going to his
field for hay. We hired him to take us to the Cape, and on soft, sweet dried grass
we lay and rested in the cool air to the end of the wagon journey. The remainder
of the afternoon was spent at the Cape in strolling about the little village, for the
river was too rough to make a wished-for voyage to Grenadier Island either safe or
pleasant. There we met General William Estes, AvJio was conspicuous in the " Patriot
Wai*" in Canada in 1838, and visited the dwelling of Dr. Webb, the kitchen part of
which is the remnant of the house of Richard M. Esseltyne, which, with others, was
destroyed by the British. In it an American was shot.
We lodged at Cape Vincent that night, and at five o'clock the next morning departed
in a lake steamer for Clayton (French Creek), sixteen miles below, where we landed,
and breakfasted at the " Walton House," kept by a son of William Johnston, known
among his British contemporaries in 1838 as "the Pirate of the Thousand Islands."
i This armlet is little more than ten inches in length and two and a half in width, and the ornamentation is embossed
•work. In addition to the royal arms is a trophy group, composed of helmet and cuirass, cannon, spears, and banners,
the latter bearing the letters G. E., the monogram of the king ; and a group inclosed within branches of the olive and
palm, composed of a crown resting upon a sword and sceptre crossed. These armlets, gorgets, and other silver orna
ments were distributed freely among the Indian chiefs by the British government, as one of the means of securing their
loyalty. The gorget was always suspended from the neck, and rested upon the upper part of the breast.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
661
Visit to Rock Island, the Home of Johnston of the Thousand Islands.
Peel Island and its Associations.
There we were informed that the hero of many a romantic legend of the frontier was
still living, in the light-house of which he was keeper, on a solitary island a few rods
in circumference, five miles below, where, in company with two young ladies — trav
eling companions — I had visited him two years before. Hiring a boat, and a good
fisherman as oarsman, we set out after breakfast to visit Mr. Johnston, prepared with
fishing tackle to indulge in sport on the way. "We trolled faithfully, but only a sol
itary pickerel of moderate size rewarded our watchfulness of the lines. Our dreams
of mighty masquelonges, forty pounds in weight, which some young ladies, they say,
sometimes " hook," were dispelled ; but the kindly oarsman came to the assistance
of our humbled pride as sportsmen with the pleasant suggestion that the late storm
of wind had so roiled the water that " nobody couldn't do nothin' at fishin' when the
creeturs couldn't see the spoon." And we were no more successful in catching a hero.
Silence reigned on Rock Isl
and.1 Not a living thing was
seen. Johnston lived there
entirely alone, at the age of
seventy-eight years. He was
now absent, and the island
was deserted.2 After making
a sketch of the light-house and
its locality, we left in disap
pointment, and again trolled
unsuccessfully as we floated
down the current about two
miles to Peel Island, the scene
of Johnston's exploit which
caused him to be declared an
outlaw by his own govern
ment, and gave him the name
of "Pirate." This exploit was the destruction of the British mail steamer Sir Robert
Peel at this place on the night of the 29th and 30th of May, 1838, by Johnston and
some disguised associates, who were engaged with the Canadians in their armed re
sistance to government. The immediate object of the assailants appears to have
been the capture, and not the destruction of the steamer, and with her aid to seize,
on the following day, the steamer Great Britain, and convert the two into cruisers
on the lake. Johnston had but thirteen men with him, but was promised that two
hundred should be
within call on the
shore of the neigh
boring main. They
were not there. He
had not suificient
men to manage the
powerful steamer,
and, toward morn
ing, he committed
her to the flames.
PEEL ISLAND. She w&s seized at
1 This is an appropriate name. It is a group of bare rocks, with a few trees and shrubs growing in the interstices.
Johnston had filled gome of the hollows with earth, brought from the main shore in his boat, and we found them cov
ered with vegetables and flowers. The barren island possessed a pleasant little garden.
a This is in the midst of the Thousand Islands, five miles below Clayton, on the south side of the steam-boat channel.
At the time of my visit there in 1S58 I ascended to the lantern, and from that elevation counted no less than seventy
islands, varying from rods to miles in circumference.
L1GUT-IIOCSE KEPT BY JOHNSTON.
662
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Johnston's Exploits among the Thousand Islands. His Arrests and Imprisonments. His Commission as Commodore.
Ripley's dock, on Wells's Island, taken into the stream, set on fire, and floated down
and lodged against a small island near (represented in the sketch on the preceding
page), which has since been known as Peel Island.1
i From the lips of Mr. Johnston I received a very minute and particular account of this transaction. He was living
at Clayton when the " Patriot" war broke out. Being a bold, adventurous man, and cordially hating the British gov
ernment and its employes, he was easily persuaded by the
American sympathizers with the "Patriots" to engage in
the strife. His thorough knowledge of the St. Lawrence
from Kingston to the Longue Sault pointed the "Patri
ots" to him as a valuable man for the service on that front
ier. He says that the leaders promised him ample assist
ance in men and means, but disappointed him. They em
ployed him to capture the Peel and seize the Great Britain.
The former was a new and stanch vessel, built at Brock-
ville in 183T. She was 30 feet wide and 160 in length, and
was commanded by Captain John B. Armstrong. On the
evening of the 29th of May, 1833, she was on her way up
from Prescott to Toronto, with nineteen passengers, and
stopped atM'Donnell's Wharf, on Wells's Island, for wood.
Johnston and thirteen men in disguise were lying in wait
at Ripley's wood wharf near by. They were armed with
muskets and bayonets, and painted like Indians. They
rushed on board, crying out, " Remember the Caroline !" (an
American vessel that the British had destroyed at an Amer
ican wharf a few months before), and compelled the passen
gers, in terrible alarm, and in their night-clothes, to go on
shore. Their baggage was taken on shore likewise, and
in this plight they remained, in a woodman's shanty, until
morning, when they were conveyed to Kingston by the
Oneida. When the insurgents had taken possession of the
Peel, they hauled her out into the stream, expecting, as we
have observed in the text, to be joined by a large number
of others from the main. They did not appear. Johnston
and his men, who, he says, "looked like
devils," could not manage her, and she
was set on flre' Governor Mlarcy de-
clared Johnston an outlaw, and offered a
reward of $500 for his person, and small
er sums for each of his confederates who
might be convicted of the offense. The
Earl of Durham, governor of Canada, offered $5000 for the conviction ot any person concerned in the "infamous outrage."
Johnston boldly avowed himself the leader of that party, in a proclamation which he issued from "Fort Wallace" on
the 10th of June, 1838. He declared that the men under his command were nearly all Englishmen, and that his head
quarters were on an island in the St. Lawrence, not within the jurisdiction of the United States. " I act under orders,"
he said. "The object of my movements is the independence of the Canadas. I am not at war with the commerce or
property of the United States." " Fort Wallace" was a myth. It was wherever Johnston happened to be.
Johnston was now placed in peril between the officers of the two governments, and for several months he was a ref
ugee, hiding among the Thousand Islands, and receiving food at night from his daughter, a beautiful girl eighteen
years of age, small in stature and delicate in appearance, who handled oars with skill, and who, in a light boat, sought
his hiding-places under cover of darkness. She was often watched and followed by persons in the interest of the
United States government, but her thorough knowledge of the islands and skill in rowing allowed her to elude them.
Finally Johnston joined in the expedition to Prescott, to "keep out of the way of both parties," he said. After the de
feat of the insurgents at Windmill Point [see page 583], he was seen publicly in the streets of Ogdensburg, where he
had many sympathizers, and was not arrested. He saw that all was lost, and, weary of hiding, he resolved to give him
self up to the authorities of the United States, and cast himself upon the clemency of his country. He made an arrange
ment with his son John to arrest him and receive the $500 reward. On the 17th of November (1838) he left Ogdens
burg in a boat, with his son, when Deputy Marshal M'Culloch pursued him in a boat over which floated the revenue flag.
Johnston was overtaken about two miles above Ogdensburg. He was armed with a Cochran rifle, two large rifle-pistols,
and a bowie-knife. He agreed to surrender on condition that he should give up his arms to his son. He was then con
ducted back to the village, and delivered into the custody of Colonel (late Major General) Worth. He was taken to
Syracuse, tried before Judge Conklin on a charge of violating the neutrality laws of the United States, and acquitted.
He was again arrested, and escaped, when a reward of $200 was offered for his arrest. He gave himself up at Albany,
and, after lying three months in jail, was tried, found guilty, and sentenced to one year's imprisonment, and a fine of
$250. His faithful daughter, who had acquired .the just title of the "Heroine of the Thousand Islands," hastened to
Albany, and shared prison life with her father. After being there six months, with his faithful child at his side, he
found means, by making a key of some zinc furnished him by a friend, to escape. The plan was made known to his
daughter, who left the prison, and waited for him at Rome. One evening, at eight o'clock, he left the jail, and before
daylight had walked forty miles toward Rome. When he arrived there, finally, at the house of a friend, he was dread
fully exhausted. He went home, and was unmolested ; but the " Patriots" were determined to drive him into active
service, and he received a commission creating him commauder-in-chief of all the naval forces in "Patriot service" on
the lakes.* This position had been accorded to him by common consent the year before. But he had seen enough of
that kind of service, and he declined the office. A year or more afterward, when the agitation on the frontier had pretty
* Johnston's commission as commodore is before me, printed and written on thin paper. On the margin of it, occu
pying nearly one half of the space, is a rough engraving, a copy of which is given on the opposite page, reduced to half
the size. Above this design (in which the American eagle is seen bearing off the British lion, whose crown has fallen,
a maple leaf, symbolic of Canada, and two stars representing the two provinces) were little pictures of the arms of the
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
663
Johnston's heroic Daughter.
His Birthplace.
His Services in the War of 1812.
We returned to Clayton, and there found " Commodore" Johnston, a hale man, full
of spirit, but suffering some from recent illness. I spent two hours pleasantly and
profitably with him and his courageous daughter, listening to narratives of the stir
ring scenes in which they had been engaged twenty-two years before, and of which
I have given a meagre outline in note 1, page 662. The "Heroine of the Thousand
Islands" was now Mrs. Hawes, an intelligent and interesting woman, and mother of
several children. Mr. Johnston is a man of medium size, compactly built, and full of
pluck. His life-history was a stirring one previous to the " Patriot War." During
the War of 1812 he was employed by Chauncey and Wilkinson in active service on
the frontier waters ; and he gave the British, whom he cordially disliked, a great deal
of trouble. He was a native of Canada,1 On the breaking out of the war he was
residing at Bath, above Kingston, and conveyed some Americans across the lake to
Sackett's Harbor in a large bark canoe. Not being satisfied with the militia service,
in wrhich he had been engaged, he remained on the American side, and from that time
until the close of the wrar was engaged in the secret service on Lake Ontario and the
St. Lawrence, wTith a permit to capture all British public property that he might find
afloat. His vessel was a gig, or light, swift boat, called the JRidgeley, and his com
panions were a corporal and five armed seamen. With these he captured bateaux
and stores ; with these he conveyed Wilkinson down the St. Lawrence, beyond the
Longue Sault ;2 and with these he bore the body of the gallant Covington from Barn-
hart's to the French Mills.3 On one occasion he captured the Canadian dispatch mail
on its way from Governor Prevost at Montreal to the lieutenant governor at Toronto,
which, on delivery to Chauncey, was found to contain information of great value to
the American commander. On another occasion he was out in Chauncey's boat, and
much ceased, a petition for his pardon was numerously signed. He took it to Washington himself, and, just at the close
of Mr. Van Buren's administration in March, 1841, presented it to the President. "Mr. Van Buren," he said, "scolded
me for presuming to come there with such a petition ; but I waited ten days, presented it to President Harrison, and he
pardoned me."
Mr. Johnston has lived at Clayton ever since. His offense was finally overlooked, and for several years the govern
ment that offered a reward of $500 for him as an outlaw has been paying him $350 a year for taking charge of one of its
light-houses, in eight of the spot (Peel Island) where the offense was committed ! Time makes great changes. When
the late Rebellion broke out in 1801, Johnston, then about eighty years of age, went to Washington City, called on Gen
eral Scott, and offered his services to his government.
State of New York, and below two others representing an eagle on its nest arrang
ing ears of wheat. The commission runs thus :
" Head-quarters, Windsor, U. C., September 5, 1839.
"WlI-T.IAM JOITNSTON, Ks<). :
"Sin,— By authority of the Grand Council, the Western Canadian Association,
the great Grand Eagle Chapter, and the Grand Eagle Chapter of Upper Canada,
on Patriot Executive duty — You are hereby Commissioned to the Rank in Line of
a Commodore of the Navy, Commander-in-Chief of all the Naval forces of the Ca
nadian Provinces, on Patriot service in Upper Canada.
"Yours with respect, H. S. HAND,
" Commander-in-chief of the Northwestern Army on
Patriot service in Upper Canada.
" E. J. ROBERTS, Adjutant General, N. W. A. P. S."
This commission is indorsed by "John Montgomery, of the Grand Eagle Chap
ter of Upper Canada, on Patriot Executive duty.
"ROBEET ROBEETSON, Secretary."
" Sworn to before me, at Windsor, U. C., this 25th day of September, 1839.
"H. S. HAND."
The seal attached to the commission appears to have been impressed by a com
mon glass signet, on which are the words, "Remember me to all friends."
These " Chapters" refer to the secret leagues of sympathizers with the insurgents that were formed along the entire
frontier, under the name of " Hunters' Lodges." These were suppressed by President Tyler, who issued a proclamation
for the purpose on the 5th of September, 1841.
1 He was born at Three Rivers on the 1st of February, 1782. His father was an Irishman, and his mother was a Dutch
girl from New Jersey. After the war he lived at Sackett's Harbor and Watertown, and kept a tavern for a while in the
latter village. He finally settled at French Creek (now Clayton), where he and most of his family have since resided.
2 See page 651. Johnston was well acquainted with Chrysler, and tried to get the army below his residence, that it
might not suffer during the engagement that seemed inevitable. During the battle of Chrysler's Field or Farm, John
ston carried powder from the boats to the dragoons, who delivered it to those in the fight. It is well known that Gen
eral Wilkinson indulged too freely in spirituous liquors. Johnston assured me that, at the time of the battle of Chrys
ler's Field, the Commander-in-chief was so intoxicated ("indisposed," as charity phrases it) that he could not leave his
boat. 3 See page 656.
JOHNSTON'S COMMISSION.
664
PICTOKIAL FIELD-BOOK
Johnston's Perils in Canada.
Journey from Clayton to Malone.
Visit to French Mills or Fort Covington.
was wrecked on the Canada shore in a storm. The boat was a ruin. They were dis
covered. Johnston was identified, and a body of militia and Indians were sent out
from Kingston (where he had been hung in effigy) to arrest him. He directed his men
not to avoid capture, but to affirm that they had been sent out for deserters, and were
returning home when struck by the storm. Their story was believed, and within a
week they were*sent home on parole. Johnston meanwhile concealed himself in a
huge hollow stump, in a field of oats, for several days, and it was three weeks before
he found a way to return to Sackett's Harbor.
There was a crowd of visitors at the " Walton House," for it is a favorite place of
summer resort for those who love good fishing, boating, and the most picturesque
scenery of the Thousand Islands. The St. Lawrence, filled with these islands, is there
about nine miles wide. During an afternoon I visited the place of Brown's encamp
ment when attacked by the British,1 and made the sketch on page 649. Toward
sunset the quiet of the little village was disturbed, and the faces of all the inhabitants
were turned skyward to observe the passage over them of a man in a balloon, a
thousand feet in the air, who had ascended from Kingston, and, as we were informed
next day, descended far toward the Sorel, the outlet of Lake Champlain. On the fol
lowing morning I went down the St. Lawrence to Ogdensburg, and made the visits
there and in the vicinity recorded in Chapter XXVHI. On Friday, the 27th, I break
fasted at Malone,2 and after a brief interview with Sidney W. Gillett, Esq., whose ele
gant new mansion stood fronting on Main Street in that village, on the site of the
arsenal established there in 1812,1 rode out to Fort Covington (French Mills), about
fourteen miles northward, in a light wagon drawn by a span of fleet black ponies.
FBEU01I MILLS IN 1800.3
The Honorable James Campbell, who was an ensign, and was stationed at French
Mills and vicinity during a greater portion of the war, in the service of the Quarter
master's and Commissary Departments, was yet living, and residing with his daugh
ter at Fort Covington. I had been at his house, on the road between Massena Springs
and St. Regis, a few years before ; and I found him now, as then, able to say that he
had never been sick in his life, though almost fourscore years of age. His mental
1 See page 648.
» Malone is the capital of Franklin County, and is pleasantly situated on the Salmon River. It was the only incorpo
rated village in the county, and had a population of about 2000. The banks of the river there, below the railway bridge,
are rugged and picturesque. Settlements were made there at the beginning of this century.
3 The building on the right, with its gable next to the dam, is the original mill erected there by the French Canadians.
OF THE WAB OF 1812. 665
Veteran Soldiers at Fort Covington. Journey to Rouse's Point. La Colle. Passage of St. Lawrence Rapids.
vigor seemed perfect, and his memory of events in his experience was vivid. He was
stationed at French Mills early in the war,
in charge of rations, which were served
regularly to the St. Regis Indians in order
to keep them quiet.1 He was assistant rf ^-"^Tr"/ — m~~~
store-keeper, and when Wilkinson left there I/
he was placed in charge of all the provisions of the army. He continued in that serv
ice until its departure in February, 1814. Judge Campbell kindly accompanied me
to places of interest about Fort Covington, namely, the original mill ;2 the head-quar
ters of Boyd and Brown ;3 the place of debarkation,
where the gun-boats were destroyed ;4 the site of the
respective cantonments of the army ; and of the block
house on the M'Crea property,5 whose well, contained
within the building, was yet standing.
While on the lower bridge over the Salmon, sketch
ing the picture of the Mills on the opposite page, an old
gentleman approached, and was introduced to me by
Judge Campbell. He was Colonel Ezra Stiles, the dep-
THE BLOCK-HOUSE WELL. ,, f ±1. j. TH —l. f* • R 1,
uty collector of the port at r ort Covmgton,b who en
listed in the Eleventh Regiment in December, 1812, when a little more than fourteen
years of age. He was with Hampton in the affair at Chateaugay, and was with Gen
eral Brown in all of his military operations on the Niagara frontier during the re
mainder of the war. He left the service when the army was disbanded in 1815.
I returned to Malone in time to take the cars for Rouse's Point at about three
o'clock P.M. It was a bright and very delightful day. In that journey, fifty-seven
miles, we crossed the foot of the great Adirondack slope, the northernmost portion
of the Allegheny or Appalachian range of mountains, that traverse the sea-board
states from Georgia to the St. Lawrence level. The lofty peaks of the Adirondacks
were in sight southward, while the eye, glancing northward over an immense wood
ed prairie, rested upon the Mountain back of Montreal. At near six o'clock I took a
hurried meal at the village of Rouse's Point, and hiring a light wagon, fleet horse, and
intelligent driver, rode to La Colle River, a tributary of the Sorel, and made a sketch
of a block-house there before sunset. By a slight circuit we rode through La Colle
village and Odelltown in the twilight. I spent the night at Rouse's Point, and on
the following morning journeyed to Champlain, Chazy, and Plattsburg. Of the events
which have made all the places just named famous in our history, and of my visit
there, I shall hereafter write.
In the summer of 1855 I Spent a short time at Massena Sulphur Springs, on the
Racquette River, seven miles by road from the St. Lawrence. While sojourning there
I visited St. Regis, as already mentioned, and, on leaving, crossed the St. Law
rence from Lewisville, at the head of the Longue Sault, for the purpose of visiting
the battle-field on Chrysler's Farm. It was a warm and pleasant day late in Au
gust,11 and a friend accompanied me. At Lewisville we hired a water- a August 22,
man, who engaged to take us safely across the swift and, in some places,
turbulent stream, there divided by two or three islands. We shot obliquely across
and down the first channel, rounded the lower cape of an island, went up its farther
shore in an eddying current, and in a similar manner shot across to another island.
In this zigzag way we made the really perilous passage of the rapids to the village
of Chrysler, where we lunched on apple-pie, cheese, and cold water, and hired a con
veyance to the battle-ground and Williamsburg beyond.
1 See page 375. a See picture on page 664. 3 See pictures on page 656. * See page 655. 5 See note 2, page 656.
6 Fort Covington is a port of entry ; but the steam-boats seldom go above Dundee, a small village a mile below, and
about half way between the Mills and the boundary-line between the United States aud Canada.
C66
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Visit to the Battle-ground on Chrysler's Farm. A British Soldier and his Medal of Honor. Scene on the St. Lawrence.
We Avere kindly welcomed at the Chrysler mansion, delineated on page 652, by Mr.
James Croile, the proprietor, Avho pointed out the various localities of the battle,
and accompanied us to the
house of his nearest neigh
bor, Peter Brouse, who
was a soldier in the Dun-
das militia, and partici
pated in the fight. Mr.
Brouse related with much
self-satisfaction the exploits of the British on that day, and, with much genuine pride,
exhibited a small silver medal, suspended by a ribbon,
which he had lately received. These had been presented
to the sunriving soldiers of that and other battles, from
1793 to 1814, by the British queen as a sort of "Legion of
Honor." The picture here given is the exact size of the
original, and exhibits both sides. On one side is the effigy
of the queen and her name ; and on the other a repre
sentation of her majesty crowning a soldier Avith a ciA'ic
wreath, and the words," To THE
BRITISH ARMY 1814-1793."
One of Chrysler's barns,
pierced and battered by bullets,
was yet standing, and appears
the larger (though the most re
mote) in the group of outbuild
ings in the picture on page 652.
In the orchard, between the
mansion and the river, may be
seen the burial-places of the
killed in the battle.
"We dined with Mr. Croile and his family in the Chrysler mansion, and at two
o'clock started for Williamsburg, four and a half miles up the river. Our road lay
along the margin of the stream, through one of the most fertile districts of Canada.
We had not proceeded far before a small cloud, whose gathering we had scarcely no
ticed, sent down a violent shower of rain. We sought shelter under a wide-spread
ing tree in front of a plain dwelling, from which came the giggling of girls who were
amused at our plight. The tree was no shelter, and we unceremoniously took ref
uge from the storm in the house, where those who had innocently made merry over
our drenching kindly regaled us with straAvberries and cream, and made the balance-
sheet of courtesy in their favor. The storm was brief. The sun burst forth in sudden
splendor, and its rays, wedded to the retiring rain-drops, wove a gorgeous iridescent
vail, marked, like the bow on the cloud, with specific curves, but lying prone upon the
bosom of the St. Lawrence, and bathing its surface and islands in prismatic beauty.
It was a charming spectacle, and has left an ineffaceable picture on the memory.
At four o'clock we reached Williamsburg (whose name had just been changed to
Morrisville, in honor of a distinguished officer in the postal department of Canada),
where we dismissed our carriage, intending to go by water to Prescott. We were
directed to the " Grand Trunk Hotel" as the best in the village, which is remarkable in
our recollection for swarms of flies, flocks of spiders, arid an obliging host. There we
supped and lodged, and before dawn took passage in a Montreal steamer for Prescott,
where we breakfasted. Crossing to Ogdensburg, we spent the day and night there,
and on the following day made a voyage through' the Thousand Islands to Cape
Vincent, from whence I journeyed by railway to my home on the banks of the Hudson.
VICTORIA MEDAL.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 667
The British resolve on vigorous War. Blockade of Chesapeake and Delaware Bays. The Blockading Squadron.
CHAPTER XXX.
" She conies ! the proud invader comes
To waste our country, spoil our homes ;
To lay our towns and cities low,
And bid our mothers' tears to flow ;
Our wives lament, our orphans weep-
To seize the empire of the deep !"— ANGUS UMPHBAVILLE.
1.HASTISE THE AMERICANS INTO SUBMISSION ! was the fiat of the
British Cabinet at the close of 1812, and it was determined to
send out a land and naval force sufficient to do it. It was evi
dent that efforts such as have been recorded in preceding chap
ters would be made by the Americans for the invasion and con
quest of Canada, and that the successes achieved by them on
the ocean would stimulate them to the performance of more
daring exploits on the waves which Britannia claimed to rule.
These efforts must be met, and Great Britain put forth her strength for the purpose.
It was determined to blockade and desolate the coasts of the United States, lay waste
their sea-port towns, destroy their dock-yards, and thus not only endeavor to divert
their military strength from the Canada frontier, but destroy the centres of their com
mercial and naval power, dispirit the people, intensify the domestic resistance to the
farther prosecution of the war, and secure the absolute submission of the nation to
British insolence and greed. Admiral Warren's fleet in American wraters was re-en
forced, and Sir George Cockburn, a rear admiral in the British navy, and willing in
strument in the accomplishment of work which honorable English commanders would
not soil their hands with, was made his second in command. He Avas specially com
missioned to wage a sort of amphibious and marauding warfare on the coasts, from
the Delaware River southward.
On the 26th of December, 1812, an order in Council declared the ports and harbors
in the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays to be in a state of rigorous blockade. Soon
afterward additional ships of war and transports arrived at Bermuda, bearing a con
siderable land force, and well furnished with bomb-shells and Congreve rockets, to be
used in the conflagration of sea-board towns.1 A part of the land force consisted of
French prisoners of war, who preferred to engage in the British marine service to
risking indefinite confinement in Dartmoor Prison, in England.
The first appearance of blockading vessels was on the 4th of February,* when
four 74-gun ships and several smaller armed vessels2 entered the Virginia Capes
and bore up toward Hampton Roads. The fleet was under the command of Admiral
Cockburn (whose flag-ship was the Marlborougli), assisted by Commodore Beresford,
whose pennant was over the Poictiers.3 They bore a land force of about eighteen
hundred men, and were well supplied with small surf-boats for landing. Their ap
pearance alarmed all lower Virginia, and the militia of the Peninsula and the region
about Norfolk were soon in motion. An order soon went out from the Secretary of
1 This rocket is a very destructive species of fire-work, invented by Sir William Congreve, an English artillery officer,
in 1S04, and first used against Boulogne in 1S06. The body of the machine is cylindrical, and its head conical. It is
filled with very inflammable materials, on the combustion of which, as in the common sky-rocket, the body is impelled
with continued acceleration.
2 Marlborouyh, Admiral Cockburn ; Dragon, Captain Berry ; Poictiers, Commander Beresford ; and Victorious, Captain
Talbot, were the 74's. These were accompanied by the Acaxta, 44, Kerr ; Junon, 38, Kerr ; Statira, 38, Stackpole ; Maid-
;.tone, 3C, Burdett ; Selvidera, 36, Byron ; Narcissus, 32, Aylmer ; Lauristimus, 21, Gordon ; Tartarus, 20, Paseo. Others
soon joined these, making a very formidable fleet. 3 See page 451.
668
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Defenses of Norfolk and Hampton Roads. Discretion of the Blockaders. Patriotism on the Shores of Delaware Bay.
a March ic, the Treasury* for the extinguishment of all the beacon-lights on the Ches
apeake coast.
It was supposed that Hampton and Norfolk would be attacked. The latter place
was pretty well defended by fortifications which General Wade Hampton had caused
to be thrown up on Craney Island, five
miles below the city, under the superin
tendence of Colonel Armistead. The
masters and mates of merchant vessels
in Norfolk harbor joined themselves into
volunteer military companies and garri
soned old Fort Norfolk. The frigate
Constellation, 38, Captain Tarbelle, was
lying near, supported by a flotilla of gun-
Ill Bliaifa 3l f'lhMpP , I boats'. Old Point Comfort soon bristled
with bayonets ; and the British com
manders thought it more prudent at that
time to destroy the small merchant craft
found in Chesapeake Bay than to enter
Hampton Roads. They did little more
than this for several weeks, when Com
modore Beresford was sent, with the
INTEEIOK or OLD FOET NORFOLK IN less. Poictiers, Belvid&ra, and some smaller
vessels, to blockade the Delaware Bay and Rivei', and teach the inhabitants along
their shores the duty of submission. He found his unwilling pupils very refractory ;
for when, on the 16th of March, he pointed the guns of the Poictiers toward the vil
lage of Lewis, near Cape Henlopen, and said, in a note to " the first magistrate" of
that little town, " You must send me twenty live bullocks, with a proportionate quan
tity of vegetables and hay, for the use of his Britannic majesty's squadron," offering
to pay for them, but threatening, in the event of refusal, to destroy the place, the
" first magistrate" of Lewistown, and all the people, from Philadelphia to the sea, said
in substance, as they every where prepared for resistance, " We solemnly refuse to
commit legal or moral treason at your command. Do your worst." They had heard
of his coming, and had already, on both sides of the bay and river, assembled in armed
bodies at expected points of attack to repel the invaders. The spirit of the fathers
was aroused, some of whom, full of the fire of the flint, were yet abiding among them.
At Dover, on the Sabbath day, the drum beat to .arms, and men of every denomina
tion in politics and religion, to the number of almost five hundred, responded to the
call. Among them was Jonathan M'Nutt, an age-bent soldier of the Revolution, who
exchanged his staff for a musket and engaged in the drill. Pious Methodist as he
was, he "did not regard the day as too holy for patriotic deeds, and he spent the whole
afternoon in making ball-cartridges.1 This was the spirit every where manifested.
At Smyrna, New Castle, and Wilmington, the inhabitants turned out with spades or
muskets, prepared to cast up the earth for bat
teries and trenches,2 or to be soldiers to meet the
foe. At the latter place, the venerable soldier of
the Revolution, Allan M'Lane, took the direction
of military affairs.3 The specie of the banks of
New Castle and Wilmington was sent to Philadelphia for safety ; and in the latter
city Captain William Mitchell and his Independent Blues, and Captain Jacob H. Fis-
1 Niles's Weekly Register, iv., 68.
2 They erected a strong work, to completely command the Christiana Creek, at Wilmington, which was called Fort
Union. It was believed that it could withstand any force that might approach it by water.— See Sketch of Military Oper
ations on the Delaware during the late War. 3 Niles's Weekly Register, iv., 68.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 669
The British threaten and hesitate. Attack on Lewistown. Cockburn's Operations.
ler and his Junior Artillerists, formed in three days for the occasion, volunteered to
garrison Fort Mifflin.
Beresford was astonished by the spirit of the people, and held the thunders of his
threat at bay for almost three weeks. Governor Haslet, in the mean time, summoned
the militia to the defense of the menaced town, and on his arrival at Lewis on the
23d he reiterated the positive refusal of the inhabitants to furnish the invaders with
supplies. Beresford continued to threaten and hesitate ; but at length, on the even
ing of the 6th of April, he sent Captain Byron, with the Belvidera and smaller ves
sels, to attack the village. They drew near, and the Belvidera sent several heavy
round-shot into the town. These were followed by a flag of truce, bearing from By
ron a renewal of the requisition. It was answered by Colonel S. B. Davis, who com
manded the militia. He repeated the refusal, when Byron sent a reply, in which he
expressed regret for the misery he should inflict on the women and children by a
bombardment. " Colonel Davis is a gallant officer, and has taken care of the ladies,"
was the verbal answer. This correspondence was followed by a cannonade and bom
bardment that was kept up for twenty-two hours. So spirited was the response of a
battery on an eminence, worked by Colonel Davis's militia, that the most dangerous
of the enemy's gun-boats was disabled, and its cannon silenced. Notwithstanding
the British hurled full eight hundred of these eighteen and thirty-two pound shot
into the town, and many shells and Congreve rockets were sent, the damage inflicted
was not sevei-e. The shells did not reach the village ; the rockets passed over it ;
but the heavy round shot injured several houses. No lives were lost. An ample
supply of powder was sent down from Dupont's, at Wilmington, while the enemy
supplied the balls. These fitted the American cannon, and a large number of them
were sent back with effect.1
On the afternoon of the 7th the British attempted to land for the purpose of seiz
ing live-stock in the neighborhood, but they were met at the verge of the water by
the spirited militia, and driven back to their ships.' For a month the squadron lin
gered, and then, dropping down to Newbold's Ponds, seven miles below Lewistown,
boats filled with armed men were sent on shore to obtain a supply of water. Col
onel Davis immediately detached Major Gjeorge H. Hunter with a few men, who
drove them back to the ships. Failing to obtain any supplies on the shores of the
Delaware, the little blockading squadi-on sailed for Bermuda, where Admiral Warren
was fitting out re-enforcements for his fleet in the American waters.
The blockaders within the Capes of Virginia were very busy in the mean time.
The fleet was under the command of Admiral Cockburn, and took chief position in
Lynn Haven Bay.2 He continually sent out marauding expeditions along the shores
of the Chesapeake, who plundered and burnt farm-houses, carried off negroes and
armed them against their masters, and seized live-stock wherever it could be found.
The country exposed to these depredations was extensive and sparsely settled, and
it was difficult to concentrate a military force at one point in sufficient time to be
effective against the marauders. In some instances they Avere severely punished, but
these were rare.
More felicitous and more honorable exploits were sometimes undertaken by the
blockaders under Cockburn. On the 3d of April
a flotilla of a dozen armed boats from the Brit-
ish fleet, under Lieutenant Polkingthorne, of the
St. Domingo, 74, entered the mouth of the Rappa-
hannock River, and attacked the Baltimore pri
vateer Dolphin, 10, Captain Stafford, and three armed schooners prepared to sail for
France. The assault was unexpected and fierce. The three smaller vessels were
soon taken, but the struggle for the Dolphin was severe. She was finally boarded,
1 Niles's Weekly Register, iv., 118. 2 See page 156.
670 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Cockbuni's Desires restrained by Fear. The British capture Frenchtown. Havre de Grace threatened.
and for fifteen minutes the contest raged fearfully on her deck. Overpowered by
numbers, Captain Stafford was compelled to submit.1 In this affair the loss was
much heavier on the British than on the American side. No official account of the
casualties were ever given by either party, but contemporary writers agree that the
capture of the Dolphin cost the victors many lives.
Emboldened by this success, Cockburn resolved to engage in still more ambitious
adventures. He thought of attacking Annapolis and Baltimore, and even dreamed
of the glory and renown of penetrating the country forty or fifty miles 'and destroy
ing the national capital. Prudence restrained obedience to his desires. His friends
among the " Peace men" of Baltimore doubtless informed him that the vigilance of
the people of that city, under the eye of the veteran General Smith, was sleepless ;
that look-out boats were far down the Patapsco ; that riflemen and horsemen were
stationed along the shores of the river and bay ; that Fort M'Henry was being
strengthened by the mounting of thirty-two-pounders ; that the City Brigade num
bered almost two thousand men; and that an equal number of volunteers for the de
fense of the place were within trumpet-call. He wisely concluded to pass by the po
litical and commercial capitals of Maryland, and fall upon weaker objects. With a
large force he menaced Baltimore as a feint on the 16th of April, and on the 29th,
with the brigs Fantome and Mohawk, and tenders Dolphin, Racer, and Highflyer, he
entered Elk River, toward the head of Chesapeake Bay, and proceeded to destroy
Frenchtown, on the Delaware shore. It was a village of about a dozen buildings,
composed of dwellings, store-houses, and stables. The blockading vessels had driven
the trade between Philadelphia and Baltimore from the ordinary line of water-travel,
and this place had become an important entrepot of traffic between the two cities.
Admiral Cockburn made the Fantome his flag-ship, and sent First Lieutenant West-
phall, of the Marlborough, with about four hundred armed men in boats, to destroy
the public and private property at Frenchtown. The only defenders were quite a
large number of drivers of stages and transportation wagons who were assembled
there, and a few militia who came down from Elkton. The former garrisoned the re
doubt, which had just been erected, upon which lay three iron four-pounders, first
used in the old War for Independence. . They fought manfully, but were compelled
to retire before overwhelming numbers. The store-houses were plundered and burnt,
but no dwelling was injured. The women and children were treated with respect.
Property on land to the amount of twenty-five thousand dollars was consumed, and
on the water five small trading-vessels.2 This incendiary work accomplished, the in
vaders withdrew, and on the Fantome, the following day, Sir George wrote an ac
count of the affair to Admiral Warren, taking care to assure that humane commander
that he was following out his orders in giving a receipt for property taken from non-
combatants.
Havre de Grace, near the mouth of the Susquehanna River, was the marauding
knight's next object for visitation. It was a small town, two miles up from the head
of Chesapeake Bay, and contained about sixty houses, built mostly of wood. It was
on the post-road between Philadelphia and Baltimore, as it now is upon the railway
between the two cities. For some time the enemy had been expected there, not be
cause there were stores or any other seductions for him, but because the love of plun
der and wanton destruction appeared to be Cockburn's animating spirit. Several
companies of militia had been sent to the vicinity ; and upon the high bank of the
1 Niles's Weekly Register, iv., 119.
2 Niles's Weekly Register, iv., 1G4. A letter in The War (i., 196) says : " On their arrival at the Stage Tavern, which was
nearest their landing, the British officer told the landlady not to be frightened, as they would not hurt her or her prop
erty, and ordered something to regale himself. Soon afterward some under officers came in and said they had possession
of the stores, and asked what they should do with them. The officer replied that if there was any thing they wanted
they might take it and then burn the houses. In a few minutes every British sailor was rigged in an American uni
form, after which they get the stores on fire, and consumed them and all the goods in them to a considerable amount."
A greater portion of the merchandise consumed was private property.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
671
Preparations for the Invaders at Havre de Grace.
Cockburn assails the Village.
Flight of the Inhabitants.
river, just below the village, near the site of the present (1867) iron-works of Whitta-
ker & Co., a battery was erected, on which one eighteen-pounder and two nine-pound
ers were mounted. This, for reasons unexplained, was called the " Potato Battery."
On the lower, or Concord Point, where the light-house now stands, was a smaller bat
tery, and both were maimed by militia exempts. Patrols watched the shores all the
way to the Bay looking for the enemy, and for about three weeks this vigilance was
unslumbering. The enemy did not appear. All alarm subsided ; and the spirit that
brought out armed men began to flag. Some returned home, and apathy was the rule.
Cockburn was informed of this state of things at Havre de Grace, and prepared to
fall upon the unsuspecting villagers on the night of the 1st of May. A deserter car
ried intelligence of his intentions to the town, and the entire neighborhood was speed
ily aroused. The women and children were carried to places of safety, and about
tAvo hundred and fifty militia were soon again at their posts. But Cockburn did not
come. He purposely lulled them into repose by a postponement of the attack. The
deserter's story was disbelieved. It was thought to be a false alarm. What is there
to call the British here ? common sagacity queried. The militia again became dis
organized, and many of them returned home.
On the night of the 2d of May there was perfect quiet in Havre de Grace. The
inhabitants went to sleep more peacefully than they had done for a month. They
were suddenly awakened at dawn by the din of arms. It was a beautiful serene
morning ; " not a cloud in the sky nor a ripple on the water," said the venerable Mr.
Howtell, of Havre de Grace, to me, in the autumn of 1861, as we stood upon the site
of the "Potato Battery." He was there at the time, and participated in the scenes.
Fifteen to twenty barges, filled with British troops, were discovered approaching
Concord Point, on which the light-house n«w stands. The guns on higher Point
Comfort, manned by a few lingering militia, opened upon
them, and these were returned by grapeshot from the ene
my's vessels. The drums in the village beat to arms. The
affrighted inhabitants, half dressed, rushed to the streets, the
non-combatants flying in terror to places of safety. The
confusion was cruel. It was increased by a flight of hissing
rockets, which set houses in flames. These were followed
by more destructive bomb-shells ; and while the panic and
the fire were raging in the town, the enemy landed. A
strong party debarked in the cove by the present light
house, captured the small battery there, and pressed forward
to seize the larger one. All but eight or ten of the militia
had fled from the village; and John O'Neil, a brave Irish
man, and Philip Albert, alone remained at the battery. Al-
LANDING-PLACE OF THE BRITISH.
bert was hurt, and O'Neil attempted to manage the heaviest gun alone. He loaded
and discharged it, when, by its recoil, his thigh was injured, and he was disabled.
They both hurried toward the town, and used their muskets until compelled to fly
toward the open common, near the Episcopal Church, pursued by a British horse-
672
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Landing of the British at Havre de Grace.
Their cruel Conduct.
Destruction of private Property.
man. There O'Neil was captured, but Albert escaped. The brave Irishman was
carried on board the frigate Maidstone, and in the course of a few days was set at
liberty.
The guns of the captured battery were turned upon the town, and added to the
destruction. A greater portion of the enemy (almost four hundred in number) went
up to the site of the present railway ferry landing, and debarked there. They rushed
up to the open common, separated into squads, and commenced plundering and de
stroying systematically, officers and men entering into the business with equal alac
rity.1 Finally, when at least
one half of the village had
been destroyed, Cockburn,
the instigator of the crime,
went on shore, and was met
on the common by several
ladies who had taken refuge
in an elegant brick house,
some distance from the vil
lage, known as the Pringle
mansion. They entreated
him to spare the remainder
of the village, and especially
the roof that sheltered them.
He yielded with reluctance,
and at length gave an order
for a stay of the plundering.2
Meanwhile a large detach
ment of the enemy went up
the Susquehanna about six miles, to the head of tide-water, and there destroyed the
extensive iron-works and cannon foundery
belonging to Colonel Hughes. A number
of vessels that had escaped from the Bay
and were anchored there were saved from
the flames by being sunk. At a point be
low, Stump's large warehouse was burnt.
Finally, when all possible mischief had
been achieved along the river bank — when
farm-houses had been plundered and burnt
a long distance on the Baltimore road —
when, after the lapse of four hours, forty
of the sixty houses in the village had been
destroyed, and nearly all the remainder of
the edifices, except the Episcopal Church,3
were more or less injured, the marauders
assembled in their vessels in the stream, EPISCOPAL OHUROH.
1 The late Jared Sparks, LL.D., was an eye-witness of the conduct of the marauders, and has left on record, in the
North American Review (July, 1817), an account of real barbarities committed by them-; and William Charles, the cari
caturist, perpetuated their cruelties and robberies with his pencil. A few of the British officers, who did not share in
the spirit of Cockburn, remonstrated, but in vain.
2 Among those who took shelter there were the wife of Commodore Rodgers, Mrs. William Pinkney, and Mrs. Golds-
borough. The latter begged the officer who had been sent up with a detachment to burn Mr. Pringle's house to spare
it, for she had an aged mother in it. He replied that his orders were from Admiral Cockburn himself, and that she must
see him. This was the occasion of the deputation of women meeting him on the common. When they returned the
house was on fire, and men were leaving it with plunder. By great exertions the flames were extinguished. Such was
the statement of a lady living near to her brother in Baltimore, published in Niles's Register, iv., 196. She mentions sev
eral instances of vandalism.
3 This building is of brick, and stands on the corner of Union Street and Congress Avenue. It was two stories in
THE PBINULE UOUSE.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
673
A Visit to Havre de Grace.
Historical Localities there.
John O'Neill, his Sword and Dwelling.
and at sunset sailed out into the Bay to pay a similar visit to villages on the Sassa
fras River.1 Havre de Grace was at least sixty thousand dollars poorer when they
left than when they came twelve hours before.
It was a sunny but blustery daya when I visited Havre de Grace and . November 22,
the scenes around it, made memorable by its woes. I arrived in the
evening by railway from Baltimore, where I had spent three days in visiting the
battle-ground at North Point and other interesting places hereafter to be described.
The town was full of soldiers, many being stationed there to guard the ferry and
public property from the violence of the sympathizers with the rebels in Maryland.
The only hotel in the place was entirely filled with lodgers, and private houses were
in like condition. The prospect for a night's repose was unpromising. For myself,
a settee or an easy-chair might have sufficed ; but I had a traveling companion (a young
woman and near relative) who required better accommodations. The obliging pro
prietor of the hotel, after much effort, succeeded in placing us in the unoccupied fur
nished house of his son-in-law, where we passed a dreary night, the windows of my
room clattering continually at the bidding of the gusty wind. Early the next morn
ing I went out in search of celebrities, and, after sketching the old residence of Com
modore Rodgers, printed on page 182, 1 fortunately fell in with Mr. Howtell, already
mentioned, who became my cicerone. Under his direction I was enabled
to find every place sought after.
While sketching the landing-place of the British near the light-house
(page 671), the keeper of the pharos came to know my business. He was
an aged man, and I soon discovered that he was one of the oldest resi
dents of the place, having been a half-grown boy at the time of the Brit
ish visitation. " Did you know John O'Neil, who behaved so gallantly at
the Potato Battery ?" I asked. " I ought to," he replied, " for he was my
father." Can you tell me any thing about the sword presented to him by
the authorities of Philadelphia for his bravery on that occasion ?" I in
quired. " If you will go with me to the house," he replied, " it will speak
for itself." When I had finished my sketch of the weather-beaten light
house (from which most of the stucco had been abraded) and the cove,
with the distant Turkey Point, Spesutia Island, and the -Maryland main
on the right, I followed Mr. O'Neil to his little cottage near by, and there
not only saw and sketched the honorary sword, but from the brave John
O'Neil's own family Bible obtained a few facts concerning his personal
history. He was born in Ireland on the 23d of November, 1 768, and came
to America at the age of eighteen years. He was in the military service
under General Harry Lee in quelling the Whisky Insurrection in Western
Pennsylvania, and in 1798 entered the naval service against the French.
He became an extensive nail-maker at Havre de Grace, sometimes em
ploying as many as twenty men. The destruction of the place ruined his
business. When the present light-house was built on Concord Point in
1829 he became its keeper; and on the 26th of January, 1838, he died in
the house where his son and successor resides. The sword had a hand
somely-ornamented gilt scabbard, on which was the following inscription :
"PRESENTED TO THE GALLANT JOHN O'NEIL FOR HIS VALOR AT HAVRE
DE GRACE, BY PHILADELPHIA— 1813." In Charles's caricature just men- JC
tioned, a British officer, who has arrested the bold cannonier and con-
heizht at the time of the destruction of Havre de Grace. Between thirty and forty years ago it was fired by a lightning
stroke and partially consumed. The square spaces in the walls over the windows show the lower portions of the old
windows in the second story. Although the British did not apply the torch to the church, they amused themselves by
hurling stones through the windows.
i In the affair at Havre de Grace the Americans lost one man (Mr. Webster), killed by a rocket. The British lost three
killed and two wounded.
Uu
674 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The "Pringle House." Its Owner a Veteran of the War. Plunder and Destruction of Villages by Cockburn.
fronts him, is made to say, " I tell you what, Mr. O'Neil, you are certainly a brave
fellow, but as a prisoner of war must go on board with us." They did not keep him
long, for on the 10th, seven days after his capture, he wrote to a friend in Baltimore,
saying, " I was carried on board the Maidstone frigate, where I remained until re
leased three days since." His letter opened with the quaint sentence, " No doubt be
fore this you have heard of my defeat y" and this was followed by a brief narrative
of the affair.
Toward noon I rode up to the " Pringle House," the residence of the Honorable
Elisha Lewis, who had just been elected a member of the State Legislature by the
Unionists of his district. His estate is called Bloomsbury, an old English title, and
contains six hundred acres of land, with a front of a mile on Chesapeake Bay. When
the mansion was built in 1808 by Mark Pringle, a wealthy Baltimore merchant, it
was the finest country residence in the state, and even when I visited it few rivaled
it either in appearance or comfort. It stood upon an eminence overlooking Havre de
Grace, the Susquehanna River, and Chesapeake Bay. It was very large, and sub
stantially built of pressed brick. Mr. Lewis was one of the brave defenders of Balti
more in 1814, when that city was threatened by General Ross and his army. He
served as a volunteer sergeant in Captain Perring's company, Twenty-seventh Regi
ment — the brave Twenty-seventh — Maryland Militia, which did such gallant service
in the battle of North Point. His gun was disabled by a shot through the stock,
when he took the musket of a slain companion by his side, and continued the fight.
Founder of a commercial house in Baltimore, he was engaged thirty years in trade,
and passed much of his time in England. For sixteen years he had been enjoying
the quiet of country life.
After spending an hour pleasantly at Bloomsbury I rode back to the village, and
to the quarters of Colonel Rodgers, son of the commodore, who was then raising a
Maryland regiment for the war. At half past three we left Havre de Grace, and were
with friends in Philadelphia in time for supper.
Let us resume the historical narrative.
Cockburn and his marauders went up the Sassafras River, that separates Cecil and
Kent Counties, Maryland, and attacked the villages of Fredericktown and George
town, lying on opposite banks of that stream, about eleven miles from its mouth.
The former is in Cecil County, the latter in Kent County. Both of them at that
time, and especially Georgetown, had a flourishing trade with Baltimore. These vil
lages contained from forty to fifty houses each, and at Fredericktown several small
vessels that had run up from the bay for shelter were moored.
It was on the 6th of May, a warm and beautiful morning, that Cockburn, with six
hundred men, in eighteen barges, went up the Sassafras. He first visited Frederick-
town, on the northern shore of the stream. Less than one hundred militiamen, under
Colonel Veazy, were there, with a little breastwork, and a small cannon to defend it.
When the enemy opened his great guns all but thirty-five of them fled. With these
Veazy made stout resistance, but was compelled to retire. The marauders landed,
and the entreaties of the women to spare the town, especially the more humble dwell
ings of the poor, were answered by oaths and coarse jests and the application of the
fire-brand. The store-houses, the vessels, and the beautiful village were set in flames
after the invaders were glutted with plunder. The marauders then crossed over to
Georgetown, and served it in the same way. So delighted was Cockburn with his
success in plundering and destroying unprotected towns, that, with characteristic
swagger, he declared he should not be satisfied until he had burned every building in
Baltimore.
After having plundered and destroyed these quiet villages, and despoiled them of
an aggregate of at least seventy thousand dollars, Cockburn and his pirates returned
to their ships. This kind of warfare, so disgraceful to a civilized government, created
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 675
The blockading Force strengthened. Norfolk menaced. Stirring Scenes in Hampton Roads.
the most intense hatred of the enemy, and aroused a war spirit throughout the land
that for a time appalled the cowardly " Peace Party," and nearly silenced the news
papers in their interest.
On the 26th of May a British order in Council extended the blockade to New York
and all the Southern ports ; and on the 1st of June Admiral Warren entered the* Ches
apeake with a considerable naval re-enforcement for Coekburn and Beresford, bearing
a large number of land troops and marines under the command of Sir Sidney Beck-
with. The British force now collected within the Capes of Virginia consisted of eight
ships of the line, twelve frigates, and a considerable number of smaller vessels, and it
was evident that some more important point than defenseless villages would be the
next object of attack. The citizens of Baltimore, Annapolis, and Norfolk were equally
menaced, but when, at the middle of June,a three British frigates entered
Hampton Roads, and sent their boats up the James River to destroy some
small American vessels there and plunder the inhabitants, it was evident that Nor
folk would be the first point of attack. The Constellation1 and a flotilla of twenty
gun-boats, as well as Forts Norfolk and Nelson (one on each side of the Elizabeth
River), and Forts Tar and Barbour,2 and the fortifications on Craney Island, were all
GENERAL VIEW OF CBANEY ISLAND.
put in the best state of defense possible ; while Commodore Cassin, then in command
of the station, ordered Captain Tarbell to organize an expedition for the capture of
the frigate that lay at anchor at the nearest distance from Norfolk.
Toward midnight on Saturday, the 19th of June,b Captain Tarbell, with
fifteen gun-boats, descended the Elizabeth River in two divisions, one under
Lieutenant J. M. Gardner, and the other under Lieutenant Robert G. Henley. Fifteen
volunteer sharp-shooters from Craney Isl-
and were added to the crews of the boats.
Because of head winds the flotilla did not
approach the nearest vessel until half
past three in the morning. She lay about
three miles from the others, and under
cover of the darkness just before daylight, and a heavy fog, the Americans approached
within easy range of the vessel without being discovered. At four o'clock Tarbell
opened fire upon her. She was taken by surprise, and her response was so feeble and
irregular that a panic on board was indicated. The wind was too light to fill her
sails, while the gun-boats, managed by sweeps, had every advantage. They were
formed in crescent shape, and during a conflict of half an hour Tarbell was contin
ually cheered by sure promises of victory. It was snatched from his hand by a breeze
that suddenly sprung up from the north-northeast, which enabled the two frigates
anchored below to come up to the assistance of the assailed vessel, supposed to be
1 During the spring efforts had been made by officers of the British blockading squadron to capture the Constellation,
then in command of the now (1867) venerable Admiral Stewart. Some stirring events had occurred in connection with
these efforts.
2 Fort Tar was a email redoubt south of Armistead's Bridge. Fort Barbour was east of Church Street and south of
the Princess Anne Road. These were to defend the land-side approaches of the enemy.
676
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Skirmish in Hampton Roads.
A British Fleet enters the Roads.
Admiral Shubrick's public Life.
the Junon, 38, Captain Sanders. These opened a
severe cannonade on the flotilla, and the Ameri
cans were obliged to haul off. As they retired in
good order, they kept up a fire on the British ves
sels for almost an hour.1 They damaged their
enemy seriously, while some of their own boats
were badly bruised. Master's Mate Allison was
killed, and two seamen were slightly wounded. These composed the entire loss of
the Americans. How much the British seamen suffered is not known.
This attack brought matters to a cri
sis. Efforts for the capture of Norfolk,
with its fortifications, the armed vessels
there, and the navy yard, were imme
diately made by the British admiral.
The cannonade had been distinctly
heard, and with the very next tide aft
er the conflict on that foggy Sunday
morning fourteen of the enemy's ves
sels entered the Roads, ascended to the
mouth of the James River, and took
position between the point called New-
port-Newce and Pig Point, at the mouth
of the Nansemond. These vessels had
on board the One Hundred and Second
Regiment of British Infantry, the Roy
al Marine Brigade, and two companies
of French volunteer prisoners, who, in
compliment to their language, were
called Chasseurs Britanniques. These
land troops were
commanded by Gen
eral Sir Sidney Beck-
with, assisted by
1 In this affair Lieutenant (now Admiral) W. B. Shubrick performed a gallant part. I was informed by Commodore
Tattnall that after the engagement had continued about an hour Captain Tarbell made general signal to withdraw from
the contest. The boat commanded by Shubrick at that time happened to be nearest the enemy, and that brave young
officer, then twenty-three years of age, satisfied that a few more shots would damage the enemy, obeyed the order very
slowly, and continued to blaze away at the frigate. This caused the concentration of the enemy's fire upon his single
boat. Still he moved off slowly, firing on his retreat, until a signal made specially for him directed him to leave, and
take in tow a disabled gun-boat. This he did without losing a man.— Notes of Conversation with Commodore Tattnall in
July, 1860.
William Branford Shubrick was born near Charleston, South Carolina, on the 31st of October, 1790. He was at school
in New England about three years, from his twelfth to his fifteenth year, the latter part of the time in Harvard Univer
sity, from which he was called home, and in Charleston was instructed in the science of navigation. In June, 1SOG, he
entered the navy as midshipman, but continued his studies until 1807, when he joined the sloop of war Wasp at Norfolk.
She left that port about three days before the attack of the Leopard on the Chesapeake. He was actively engaged in
service until the war broke out, when he made a cruise in the Hornet with Commander Lawrence, when he was trans
ferred to the Constellation, then under the command of the now venerable Admiral Stewart. He then bore the commis
sion of a lieutenant. He behaved gallantly in the attack on the Junon and in the defense of Craney Island. After that
he followed Stewart to the Constitution, and in that vessel he served until the close of the war, always taking an active
part in her brilliant conduct. Pursuant to a resolution of Congress (February 22, 1S16), he received a silver medal as one
of Stewart's officers. In 1834 the Legislature of South Carolina presented him with an elegant sword in testimony of
their appreciation of his gallant services in the Constitution when she captured the Cijane and Levant. He was acting
first lieutenant during her remarkable escape from the British squadron, hereafter to be recorded in these pages. At
the close of the war he was commissioned first lieutenant, and in the Waxhinflton, 74, under Chauncey's flag, he cruised
in the Mediterranean. He was promoted to master commandant in 1820. Eleven years later, after several well-con
ducted cruises, he was promoted to captain, and until 1838 was engaged in service on shore. He was afloat again in
ifeS as commander of a squadron in the West Indies. In 1846, on the breaking out of the war with Mexico, he was as
signed to the command of a squadron in the Pacific, and actively participated in events there. In 1853 he was in com
mand of a squadron on our Eastern coast for the protection of the fisheries, an important and delicate duty. In 1858 he
commanded a powerful squadron sent to demand satisfaction for injuries from the government of Paraguay, and having
discretionary power to commence hostilities should that satisfaction not be made to the United States Commissioners.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
Virginia Militia near Norfolk.
Craney Island.
American Forces there.
General Taylor.
Lieutenant Colonel Napier and other eminent leaders. The whole force of the ene
my, including sailors, was about five thousand men.
James Barbour was then Governor of Virginia. He was patriotic and active, and
by untiring energy he had assembled several thousand militia. A large portion of
these, with some United States regulars under Captain Pollard, were at old Fort Nor
folk and vicinity. They had been di-awn chiefly from the coast districts most imme
diately menaced by the enemy. The governor had been zealously seconded in his
efforts by the Richmond press and leading provincial journals, who, as usual, appealed
vehemently to state pride. The appeal was effectual, and gallant men flocked to the
standard of their common country.
Craney Island, then in shape like a painter's pallet, and rising a few feet above the
water, was separated from the main by a strait that was fordable at low or half tide.
Across this a temporary foot-bridge had been constructed, which led to Stringer's
farm-house. The island at that time contained about thirty acres of land. On the
southeastern side of it, and commanding the ship channel, were intrenchments, on
which two 24, one 18, and four 6 pound cannon were planted. These formed the
most remote outpost of Norfolk, and were the key to the harbor. The defense of this
island was demanded by stern necessity, and to that end the efforts of the leaders
in that vicinity were directed. The chief
of these was Brigadier General Robert B.
Taylor, the commanding officer of the dis
trict. The whole available force on the
island when the British entered Hampton
Roads consisted of two companies of ar
tillery from Portsmouth, led by Captains
Emerson and Richardson, under the com
mand of Major James Faulkner, of the Vir
ginia State Artillery; Captain Roberts's
company of riflemen ; and four hundred
and sixteen militia infantry of the line,
commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Henry
Beatty, assisted by Major Andrew Wag
goner. These were so situated that, if
attacked and overpowered, they had no
means for escape, and yet, as one of the
newspapers of the day said, they were
" all cool and collected, rather wishing the
attack."
On the arrival of General Taylor1 at
Norfolk he perceived the necessity of re-
enforcing the troops on Craney Island,
President Lopez complied with the demand, and he returned in 1859. Before leaving he visited General Urquiza, Pres
ident of the Argentine Republic, who presented him with a splendid sword. The United States Congress by joint res
olution authorized him to accept it. This closed his sea service, in which he has held every rank and exercised every
command, from midshipman to rear admiral. He has also performed faithful shore service of every kind pertaining to
his rank. He has commanded three different navy yards, and held two bureaus in the Navy Department. He has been
chairman of the Light-house Board since its establishment in 1S53, and in a service of over sixty-one years has been
only six years and eight months unemployed. His father was an officer of the Revolution.
1 Robert Barnard Taylor was an eminent man. He was born on the 20th of March, 1774, and was educated at Wil
liam and Mary College, Williamsburg. He studied law with Judge Marshall, and was associated at the bar with Wil
liam Wirt, L. W. Tazewell, and other eminent lawyers. In 179S-'99 he was a member of the Virginia Assembly, of the
Federal school. He was one of the grand jurors (John Randolph, foreman) in 1807 who found a bill of indictment
against Aaron Burr, charged with treason. During the same year he was counsel for Commodore Barren, after the af
fair of the Chesapeake and Leopard. He took pride in military affairs, and at the breaking out of the War of 1S12 he was
appointed to the command at Norfolk as brigadier general of the Virginia forces. He was very efficient in defense of
that city in the summer of 1813. He retired from the command in February, 1814, when General Parker succeeded to
his place. On that occasion the citizens of Norfolk gave him a public dinner, and from the military he received the
most flattering testimonies of their esteem and affection. When, as the national guest, General Lafayette visited the
678
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Artillerists on Craney Island.
Landing of the British.
Preparations for Battle.
where the first blow of the coming battle was likely to fall. He accordingly sent
down thirty regulars under Captain Richard Pollard, from Fort Norfolk, and thirty
volunteers under Lieutenant Johnson, of Culpepper, and Ensign Archibald Atkinson
(member of Congress in 1849), of Isle of Wight, most of them riflemen. These were
followed by about one hundred and fifty
seamen, under Lieutenants B. J. Neale,
W. B. Shubrick, and James Sanders, and
fifty marines under Lieutenant Breckin-
ridge. These, on the solicitation of Gen
eral Taylor, were sent by Tarbell to work
the heavy guns. The whole force on the island, on the evening of the 21st, num
bered seven hundred and thirty-seven men.
At midnight the camp was alarmed by the crack of a sentinel's musket. He
thought he discovered a boat in the strait.1 The troops were called to arms, and
stood watching until dawn, when a bush, and not a boat, was found to have been the
cause of the commotion. The troops were dismissed, but they had scarcely broken
ranks when a horseman came dashing across the fordable strait, and reported that the
enemy were landing in force near Major Hoffleur's, a little more than two miles dis
tant. The drum beat the long roll, and as the daylight increased the British were
seen passing continually in boats from the ships to the shore. Major Faulkner at once
ordered the three heavy guns in the southeastern portion of the island to be trans
ferred to the northwestern part, and had them placed in battery there with the four
6-pounders. These seven pieces constituted a pretty formidable battery. A short
distance in the rear of it, the infantry, riflemen,
and Richardson's artillerymen acting as infant
ry, were formed in line, so as to face the strait
at the mouth of Wise's Creek.
The command of the 18-pounder was given
to Lieutenant B. J. Neale, assisted by Lieuten
ants Shubrick and Sanders, and about one
hundred sailors and marines, chiefly from the
Constellation. The two 24's and four 6's were
under the charge of Captain Emerson, with his
company of artillery, and aided by Lieutenants
Godwin and Howie, Sergeants Young and Liv
ingston, Corporal Moflatt, and Captain Thomas
Rooke, master of the merchantman Manhat- /
tan, who had been of great service in transfer- '
ing the heavy guns from one end of the island
to the other. These heavy guns were worked
chiefly by the men from the navy. The entire
battery was under the supreme command of
Major Faulkner, a cool and skillful artiller- A*
ist.2 The whole force on the island was Je%
commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Beatty. ^
United States in 1824, and a grand reception was given him at Torktown, in Virginia, the scene of his warfare and tri
umph in youth, General Taylor was the chosen orator for the assembled multitude. " In all my time I never heard such
eloquence," said a veteran to me in the spring of 1853. " In all my time I never saw so many men in tears."
General Taylor filled the position of judge and legislator with distinction. He was in the Convention in 1829-'30,
charged with amending the Constitution of Virginia. In that body he introduced enlightened measures in regard to
the elective franchise. In the winter of 1831-'32 he was made judge of the General Court of Virginia, and held the office
until his death on the 13th of April, 1834.
1 This sentinel was William Shutte. He was stationed upon a small island that once lay near the mouth of Wise's
< Creek. See map on page 679. Shutte made the usual challenge, and, receiving no answer, fired, and continued to fire
;mtil the camp was fully aroused. •+ •
2 James Faulkner was born in Ireland in 1776, and came to America when a boy under the charge of a distant rela-
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
679
Advance of the British on Land.
A sharp Conflict.
Advance of the British on Water.
.SCHOONER OltKTCH/^',
- *Xg>S / ^
STRINGERS
NOW CROCK
A long pole was procured, the national flag was nailed to it, and then it was planted
firmly in the redoubt. The gun-boats were anchored in the form of a segment of a
circle, extending from Craney Island to Lambert's Point, while the Constellation lay
nearer the city. Thus prepared, the Americans calmly awaited the approach of the foe.
The British landed about ,
twenty-five hundred men, in
fantry and marines, at Hof-
fleur's Creek. The morning
sky was cloudless ; and for
more than two hours the flash
ing of their burnished arms
might be seen by the Ameri
cans as they manoeuvred on
the beach and on the edge of
an intervening wood. Stealth
ily they crept through the
thick undergrowth of the for
est, and appeared suddenly on
the point at the confluence of
Wise's Creek and the strait.
They immediately opened a
cannonade from a field-piece
and a howitzer, and sent a
bevy of Congreve rockets upon
the island, to cover the move
ment of a detachment sent to
cross Wise's Creek, and gain
the rear of the American left
flank in position on the main.
They were partially sheltered
by the house of Captain George
Wise, known as Wise's Quar
ters, and a thick wood. Some
of the heavy guns of the bat
tery on the island were opened
upon them with great preci-
'sion and rapidity, and a show
er of grape and canister shot soon drove the enemy out of reach of the artillery.
Almost simultaneously with this advance of the British land -force fifty large
barges, filled with full fifteen hundred sailors and marines, were seen approaching
from the enemy's ships. They hugged the main shore to keep out of range of the
gun-boat artillery, and moved in column order, in two distinct lines, in the direction
of the strait, led by Admiral Warren's beautiful barge. This vessel was fifty feet in
length, painted a rich green, and employed twenty-four oars. Because of her shape
and numerous oars she was called the Centipede. In her bow was a brass 3-pounder,
PLAN OF OPERATIONS AT CKANEY ISLAND.
tive. He established himself in mercantile business in Martinsbnrg, Berkeley County, Virginia, at the age of twenty-
one years, and that was the place of his residence until his death. He long tried in vain to obtain a commission in the
regular army of the United States. When war broke out he hastened to Norfolk with the volunteer troops of his adopt
ed state, and was there commissioned a major of artillery. In that capacity he served gallantly on Craney Island, and
was the chief actor in the repulse of the British. Major Faulkner married the only daughter of Captain William Mackey,
of the Revolutionary Army. He died in 1S1T from the effects of exposure and fatigue in camp. His wife was then dead.
They left but one child, who thus became an orphan in tender years. This was Charles J. Faulkner, who was an active
public man in Virginia, and who was sent to the French court as minister plenipotentiary by President Buchanan. To
him I am indebted for the likeness of his father on the opposite page. When the Great Rebellion broke out he took
sides with the insurgents, and dishonored the memory of his gallant and patriotic father by abandoning the flag which
his ancestor had so nobly defended.
680 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The British Flotilla driven back. Attempt to seize Norfolk and the Navy Yard abandoned. Hampton.
called a "grasshopper," and she was commanded by Captain Hanchett, of the flag
ship Diadem, a natural son of George the Third.
As the first division of the fleet of barges approached, the eager Emerson could
hardly be restrained by the more prudent Faulkner. At length they reached the
fair range of the guns. Faulkner gave a signal, when Emerson shouted, " Now, my
brave boys, are you ready ?" " All ready," was the quick response. " Fire !" ex
claimed Faulkner. The whole battery, except two dismounted guns, managed1 by
Goodwin and Livingston, belched forth fire and smoke, and round, grape, and canister
shot. The volley was fearful, yet in the face of it the barges moved steadily forward
until the storm of metal was too terrible to be endured. The boats were thrown into
the greatest confusion. The Centipede was hulled by a heavy round shot that passed
through her diagonally, wounding several of the men in her, cutting off the legs of
one of them, and severely hurting the thigh of Captain Hanchett. Orders for retreat
were given. The Centipede and four other barges were sunk in shoal water, and the
remainder of the flotilla escaped to the ships. Lieutenant Neale was directed to send
some of his bold seamen to seize the admiral's barge and all in it, and haul it on shore.
This was gallantly performed under the direction of Lieutenants Tattnall1 and Geis-
enger, Midshipman Bla-
Master George F.
De la Roche. They se
cured several prisoners and the admiral's fine barge. This was afterward repaired,
and performed good service as a guard-boat during many a cold, dark night in the
ensuing autumn.2
Thus ended the battle. " Thus, not long before the time when the Regent of Great
Britain congratulated his kingdom on the pitch of grandeur it reached by dictating
peace to France in the French capital, a brother of that regent was repulsed by a
handful of militia in an attempt to capture a small island in Chesapeake Bay."3 It
was a most mortifying result for the British.4 So certain was Sir Sidney Beckwith
of success, that he promised the troops the opportunity of breakfasting on Craney
Island that morning. Some of the oificers took their shaving apparatus with them,
and others their dogs. At ten o'clock the scene was changed, and before sunset the
British commanders abandoned all hope of seizing Norfolk, the Constellation, and the
navy yard. It was the last attempt there during the war.
Exasperated by their ignominious repulse at Craney Island, the British proceeded
to attack the village of Hampton, a flourishing borough on the west side of Hampton
Creek, two miles and a half from Old Point Comfort. It was the capital of Elizabeth
City County, Virginia, and was a mile from the confluence of the creek with the wa
ters of Hampton Roads. It was defended at the time by about four hundred and
fifty Virginia soldiers under Major Stapleton Crutchfield, whose adjutant general
was Robert Anderson, Esq., whom I had the pleasure of meeting at Yorktown in
1848. They were composed chiefly of militia infantry, and a few artillerymen and
1 See page C15.
2 "We waded out to the Centipede" said Commodore Tattnall, "and found a Frenchman in her with both legs shot
off. Several others were in her, wounded in the legs
and feet by the passage of the ball. We carried the
Frenchman ashore in a hammock, and he died soon aft
erward. We also found a little terrier dog sitting upon
the small cannon in her bow, and several cutlasses, pis- TIIE CENTIPEDE.
tols, et cetera. I had many a cold night's guard duty in the admiral's barge after that."— .Votes of a Conversation with
Commodore Tattnall at Sackett's Harbor in the Summer of 1860. Onr little picture of the Centipede is from an exact model
of it, on a small scale, which was made by order of Commodore Warrington. The black spot near the stern shows the
place where the cannon-ball entered it.
3 Ingersoll's Historical Sketch of the Second War, etc. He is mistaken as to the locality of Craney Island. It is in the
Elizabeth River, and not in Chesapeake Bay.
4 The Americans met with no loss. The British, according to their own account, lost C killed, 24 wounded, and 114
missing. Of the latter 40 were prisoners and deserters.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
681
Americans at Hampton.
Landing of the British near Hampton.
Armed Boats appear in Front.
cavalry. They were encamped on the " Little
England" estate of five hundred acres, a short
distance southwest from the town, where they had a heavy battery composed of four
6, two 12, and one 18 pounder cannon, in charge of Sergeant William Burke, to defend
the water-front of the camp and the village.1
On Friday night, the 24th of June, twenty-five hundred British land troops, includ
ing the rough French prisoners (Chasseurs Britanniques), were placed in boats and
small sailing vessels, and between dawn and sunrise of the 25tha were landed »june,
behind a wood near the house of Daniel Murphy, a little more than two miles 1813-
from Hampton, under cover of the guns of the Mohawk sloop of war. These were
designed to fall upon Hampton and the little American jcamp in the rear, while Ad
miral Cockburn, with a flotilla of armed boats and barges, should make a feint in
front.
The land troops, under the general command of Beckwith, assisted by Lieutenant
Colonels Napier2 and Williams, moved stealthily and rapidly forward toward the
doomed town, while the armed boats appeared suddenly off Blackbeard's Point, at
the mouth of Hampton Creek. The. latter were first discovered by American patrols
at Mill Creek, who gave the alarm. The camp was aroused, and a line of battle was
formed. At that moment a messenger came in haste with intelligence that the Brit
ish were moving in force on the rear of Hampton. The woods toward Murphy's were
glowing with scarlet, and a grain-field near was verdant with the green uniforms of
the French. The inhabitants of the village, who yet remained, fled toward York-
town, excepting a few who could not leave or who were willing to trust to British
honor and clemency.
The brave Crutchfield resolved to stand firm and defend the town against the in
vaders on land and water. He sent Captain Servant and his rifle company out to
ambush on the road leading to Celey's plantation, beyond Murphy's, who were to at-
1 This picture, sketched in the spring of 1853 from a window of Burcher's Hotel, near the steam-boat wharf in Hamp
ton, is a view of the portion of the " Little England" estate, lying on Hampton Creek, mentioned in the text. A line
drawn perpendicularly beneath each numeral on the clouds would touch the locality intended to be indicated by such
numeral. Figure 4 shows the place of Crntchfleld's encampment, and 1 the place where the four-gun battery was plant
ed. Figure 2, the place of a smaller battery ; 3, Blackbeard's Point, at the mouth of Hampton Creek, from behind which
the British flotilla came ; 5, the forest behind which Beckwith's troops landed ; 6, Hampton Roads : 7, a portion of the old
mansion of the Little England estate ; 8, the mouth of the west branch of Hampton Creek ; and, 9, Bully's house, that
stood there in 1S13. The " Little England" estate was the ancestral possession of the family of Commodore Barron.
In the foreground of the picture is seen the steam-boat wharf at Hampton, with the creek on the right.
2 This was Charles James Napier, afterward a distinguished general in the British Army, who was knighted for his
services in the East Indies, where he became commander-in-chief of the British forces. He was born in 1782, and died
in August, 1835, bearing the honors of a worthy lieutenant general. He was a sprightly writer, and his biographer says
that " when he was not fighting he was writing."
682 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The British Invaders confronted. A severe Skirmish. Struggle for the Possession of Hampton.
tack and check the enemy ; and when Cockburn ventured within Blackboard's Point,
and opened fire on the American camp, Crutchfield's heavy battery responded with
so much spirit and effect that the arch-marauder was glad to escape for shelter behind
that point, and content himself with throwing a shot or rocket occasionally into the
American camp.
Crutchfield gave special attention to the movement in his rear, being convinced
that Cockburn's was only a feint. From his camp was a plantation road, that crossed
cultivated fields, and by the edge of the woods behind which the British had landed
unobserved, to a highway known as Celey's Road, that connected with the public
road to Yorktown a short distance from Hampton. Connected with this road was a
plantation lane leading to Murphy's, on the banks of the James River. Along this lane
or road the British moved from their landing-place, and had reached rising ground and
halted for breakfast when they were discovered by the Americans. Captain Pryor,
of the artillery in camp, immediately detached Sergeant Parker and a few picked
men, with a field-piece, to go up the Yorktown Road to Celey's Junction, to assist the
ambushed riflemen. Parker had just reached his position and planted his cannon,
when the British moved forward with celerity. They had just crossed the head of
the west branch of Hampton Creek, at the Celey Road, when the advanced guard of
Servant's corps (Lieutenant Thomas Hope and two others), who were concealed by a
large cedar-tree (yet standing when I visited the spot in 1853), opened a deadly fire
with sure aim upon the French column in front, led by the British sergeant major, a
large and powerful man. That officer and several others were killed ; the invaders
were checked, and great confusion in their ranks ensued. The main body of the rifle
men now delivered their fire, and the commander of the Marines, the brave Lieuten
ant Colonel Williams, of the British army, fell dead.
The British soon recovered from their temporary panic, and pressed forward, com
pelling the riflemen to fall back. In the mean time, Crutchfield, hearing the firing,
had moved forward from his camp with nearly all of his force, leaving the position on
the Little England estate to be defended by Pryor and his artillerymen from the at
tack of the barges. While he was marching in column by platoons along the lane
from the Little England plantation toward Celey's Road and the great highway, he
was suddenly assailed by an enfilading fire on his left. He immediately ordered his
men to wheel and charge the enemy, who were 9n the edge of the woods. This was
done with the coolness and precision of long-disciplined soldiers, and the foe fell back.
The victors were pressing forward, when the British opened a storm of grape and
canister shot upon them from two 6-pounders, and some Congreve rockets, and ap
peared in force directly in front of Crutchfield. The Americans withstood the fire a
few minutes, when they fell back, and a part of them broke and fled in confusion
across the Yorktown Road and the Pembroke estate.
Parker in the mean time had worked his piece with good effect. Now his ammu
nition failed. Lieutenant Jones, of the Hampton Artillery, hastened to his relief; but
when they saw an overwhelming force of the enemy moving along the Celey Road,
they fell back to the Yorktown Pike. Jones now found that his match was extin
guished, so he ran to a house near by, snatched a brand from the hearth, and con
cealed himself in a hollow near a spring. When the British drew near and almost
filled the lane, supposing the cannon to be abandoned, he arose and discharged his
piece with terrible effect. Many of the foe were prostrated by its missiles, and dur
ing the confusion that ensued in the British ranks he attached a horse to his cannon
and bore it off toward the camp. When he drew near that camp he saw that it was
occupied by the enemy, who had come in force from the barges and compelled Pryor
to spike his guns and flee. This he did in safety. He and his command, after fight
ing their way through the surrounding enemy with their firelocks, swam the West
Branch of Hampton Creek, and, making a circuit in rear of the enemy, fled to what is
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
683
Americans driven from Hampton. The Village given up to Rapine and Pillage. A Committee of Investigation.
now known as Big Bethel, without
losing a man or a musket. Seeing
this, Jones turned and fled, after spik-
.ing his gun. He followed Pryor's
track to the same destination.
Crutchfield, with the remainder of
his troops, had rallied on the flank
of Servant's riflemen, and renewed
the fight with vigor. He soon ob
served a powerful flank movement by
the enemy, which threatened to cut
off his line of retreat, when he with
drew in good order, pursued almost
two miles across and beyond the Pem
broke farm. The pursuit was term
inated at what is now known as New
bridge Creek. Thus ended the bat
tle. The British had lost about fifty
in killed, wounded, and missing, and
the Americans about thirty. Of
eleven missing Americans, ten at least
had fled to their homes.
The victorious British now entered
Hampton by the Yorktown Road,
bearing the body of the brave Lieu
tenant Colonel Williams. Beckwith
and Cockburn made their head-quar- PLAN OF OPEKAT10NS AT HAMPTON.
ters at the fine brick mansion of Mrs. West-
wood, which stood upon the street leading to
the landing. In her garden the remains of
Williams were buried with solemn funeral
rites on the same day. Then the village was
given up to pillage and rapine. The atroci
ties committed at that time upon the defense
less inhabitants who remained in Hampton,
particularly on the women, have consigned
the name of Sir George Cockburn to merited
infamy, for he was doubtless the chief author
of them.1 The reports of them at the time
were much exaggerated, but sufficient was proven by official investigation to cause
the cheeks of every honest Briton to tingle with the deepest blush of shame. " We
are sorry to say," said Commissioners Thomas Griffin and Robert Lively, appointed
to investigate the matter, " that from all information we could procure, from sources
too respectable to permit us to doubt, we are compelled to believe that acts of vio
lence have been perpetrated which have disgraced the age in which we live. The
sex hitherto guarded by the soldier's honor escaped not the rude assaults of superior
force."2 A correspondence on the subject occurred between General Taylor and Sir
1 There can be little doubt that Cockbnrn promised his men " Booty and Beauty" to their hearts' content. It was
like him. But no one could suspect the right-minded Admiral Warren, or even the more latitudinarian Sir Sidney, of
such a crime against civilization and Christianity.
2 In his dispatch to Governor Barbour on the 28th, Major Crutchfield, the American commander at Hampton, said,
after giving an account of the battle and the excesses of the soldiery, "The unfortunate females of Hampton who could
not leave the town were abused in the most shameful manner, not only by the soldiers, but by the venal savage blacks,
who were encouraged in their excesses. They pillaged, and encouraged every act of rapine and plunder, killing a poor
man by the name of Kirby who had been lying on his bed at the point of death for more than six weeks, shooting his
IIEAD-QUAKTERS OF BECKWITH AND COCKHUEN.
684 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Official Correspondence concerning Outrages. A Visit to Norfolk and its Vicinity. Old Fort Norfolk.
Sidney Beckwith, in which the latter, while he did not deny the charges, attempted
to justify the atrocities by pleading the law of retaliation, falsely alleging, as was
proven, that the Americans had waded out from Craney Island after the battle there,
and deliberately shot the crew of a barge which had sunk on the shoal.1 And while,
it was not denied that British officers and soldiers had engaged zealously in the bus
iness of plundering the private houses at Hampton of every thing valuable that
might be easily carried away,2 the more horrid crime of ravishing the persons of mar
ried women and young maidens, was charged by the British commanders upon the
French soldiery. " The apology," said the commissioners just mentioned, " that these
atrocities were committed by the French soldiers attached to the British forces now
in our waters appeared to us no justification of those who employed them, believing,
as we do, that an officer is, or should be, ever responsible for the conduct of the troops
under his command." So shameful were these atrocities — too gross to be repeated
here — that the most violent of the British partisan writers were compelled to de
nounce them ; and Admiral Warren and General Beckwith, in obedience to the in
stincts of their better natures and the demands of public opinion, dismissed the Chas
seurs J3ritanniques from the service.
At the " ides of March," in the year 1853,a I visited Norfolk, Craney
» March 13 and 14. T1 , ' J „ ' .. . , ' L.f
Island, and Hampton, for the purpose of collecting materials tor this
work, and I had the good fortune to meet several persons who were well acquainted
with "places and events in that region pertaining to the War of 1812. I had spent
the 4th of March at the national capital, " assisting," as the French say, at the inau
guration of President Pierce ; a day or two with the late George Washington Parke
Custis at his beautiful seat of " Arlington," opposite Washington City ; then a few
days in Richmond; a little time in a trip and visit to " Monticello," near Char-
lottesville, the home of the living and the grave of the departed Thomas Jefferson ;
and then part of a day on the James and Elizabeth Rivers on a voyage to Norfolk.
I intended to go to Craney Island the next morning, but the wind was so high that
no boatman was willing to venture upon the water, so that day I visited the Navy
Yard at Gosport, Old Fort Norfolk, and other places of interest in and around the
city. At the former place were seen the skeleton of the famous Constellation ; the
useless monster ship Pennsylvania / the work-shops and yards where full eight hund
red men found employment, and more than twenty-five hundred huge iron cannon,
with a complement of balls. All of this property, valued at several millions of dol
lars, with other government vessels, was destroyed or seized by the insurgents of
Virginia in April, 1861, at the breaking out of the late Civil War.
Old Fort Norfolk, a structure made during the old War for Independence, on the
right bank of the Elizabeth River, was in a dilapidated state, and was occupied only
by a keeper and his family. That custodian was a queer old man, seventy years of
wife in the hip at the same time, and killing a faithful dog lying under his feet. The murdered Kirby was lying last
night weltering in his blood."
Sir Charles Napier (see note 2, page 681), in his diary of these events, in which he bore a part, says, "Every horror was
perpetrated with impunity — rape, murder, pillage— and not a man ica« punished." Again : " Strong is my dislike to what
is, perhaps, a necessary part of our job, viz., plundering and ruining the peasantry. We drive all their cattle, and of
course ruin them. My hands are clean ; but it is hateful to see the poor Yankees robbed, and to be the robber."
1 General Taylor addressed Admiral Warren, and was answered by Sir Sidney Beckwith as the commander of the
land forces. In his note to Admiral Warren General Taylor said: "The world will suppose these acts to have been
approved, if not executed by the commanders, if suffered to pass by with impunity. I am prepared for any species of
warfare which you are disposed to prosecute. It is for the sake of humanity that I enter this protest." General Beck
with, as we have observed, charged cruelty on the part of the Americans as a palliation ; to which Taylor replied that
he was satisfied that no such act as charged ever took place, and if it had, it was no excuse for the crimes committed at
Hampton against the helpless and innocent. A board of officers was convened to investigate the matter, when it was
ascertained that, during the engagement off Craney Island, two of the British boats were sunk by the American guns,
and the crews were in danger of being drowned ; that, being in line of action, the firing necessarily continued, but that,
in order to avoid injuring those in the water and helpless, the firing of grape was discontinued. One man, who had sur
rendered, but endeavored to escape, was fired upon to bring him back.
2 Among other "property," according to the laws of Virginia, taken away by the British, were negroes. Under a
promise of freedom, a large number of them flocked to the British standard. Most of those whom Cockburn enticed on
board his vessels by these promises were afterward sold into a worse slavery in the British West Indies.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
685
March 14,
1853.
B2IT18H OONSUL'8 HOUSE.2
British Consul at Norfolk and his Residence. Thomas Moore and the Lake of the Dismal Swamp. Craiiey Island.
age. With boundless garrulity he gave me his domestic history, and insisted upon
bringing out his last baby, the sixth child by his fourth wife. His third wife appears
to have been " a thorn in his side." When speaking of her, he thrust his hands into
his packets, looked upon the grass, sighed, and, in a subdued voice, said, " The Lord
was good to me, and took her away soon. I really believe she would have died
happy could she have seen me die first. I didn't think it best to gratify her, and so
she had to give it up." On leaving the fort I went to the residence of Robert E. Tay
lor, Esq., son of General Taylor, the defender of Norfolk, to whom I am indebted for
much information concerning events in that vicinity in 1813. On the folowing morn
ing1 I breakfasted with the British consul, the late G. P. R. James, the em
inent novelist. The circumstance is mentioned to introduce the fact that
his residence was the same (118 Main Street) as
that occupied by Mr. Hamilton, the British consul
at Norfolk in 1807, at the time of the affair of the
Chesapeake and Leopard, whose personal popular
ity alone saved his house from demolition by the
exasperated people.1 In that house Thomas Moore,
the Irish poet, lodged in 1804, and there he wrote
his beautiful poetic paraphrase of a popular legend
connected with the Lake of the Dismal Swamp. I
passed the morning delightfully with Mr. James and
his interesting family, and at ten o'clock started for
Craney Island in a skiff manned by a negro seventy
years of age, and a mulatto boy of sixteen, both
slaves. The air was balmy. Scarcely a ripple ap
peared on the water, and the sun was pleasantly obscured by a slight haziness of the
atmosphere.
Just after passing Fort Norfolk we came abreast Lambert's Point, and, stretching
far to the right, toward the Rip Raps, was seen Sewell's Point, made famous to this
generation by the stirring events of the late Civil War with which it is associated.
The waters in that vicinity
were dotted with oyster-
vessels at anchor, engaged
in receiving cargoes from
numerous small boats that
were hovering over the
oyster-beds in every direc
tion, each bearing two men
with fishing rakes. As we
neared the head of Craney
Island,! hailed a brace of
these fishermen in a boat,
and asked them for a " fip's
worth" of oysters for my watermen. To my astonishment, they dropped two rake's-
full — at least a peck — into our boat, and on them the oarsmen feasted while I strolled
over the island, viewing and sketching the remains of military works erected there
during the War of 1812. These are seen rising above the common surface of the isl
and in the little sketch on page 675. These works were erected immediately after
the repulse of the British from the island in June,b and were quite formidable.3
They consisted of a fort on the southeast part of the island, and a magazine
1 See page 158. 2 This is from a sketch made by the author on New Year's Day, 1865.
3 The troops on the island at the time here mentioned were without any shelter excepting indifferent tents, and suf
fered much for lack of water. They dug hollows on the island in which they caught rain, and then strained the muddy
water for use.
OY8TEB FISHING.
' 1813.
686
PICTOKIAL FIELD-BOOK
The Fortifications on Craney Island.
BEMAIN8 OF FORTIFICATIONS ON OKANEY ISLAND.
and breast-works on the northwestern side, on the spot where Faulkner's efficient
battery was planted. There was an intervening and connecting line of intrench-
ments along the channel side of the island, with embrasures for cannon. These had
almost disappeared, but the embank
ments of the fort were ten or twelve
feet in height. They inclosed a hex
agonal block-house, built of brick, and
surrounded by an arcade below the
ports. It was two stories in height,
but the upper floor does not appear
to have been laid. Near the block
house was a magazine, also built of
brick. Nothing remained of the old
main gate, on the land side, but an
iron hinge, and of the gateway a
broken arch. This block-house, or
citadel, when I was there, was per
fectly preserved.
The magazine on the opposite end
of the island was also built of brick, and was well preserved. Around it were some
remains of breastworks, but many had perished from the encroachments of the sea.
These and the whole island were almost wholly submerged during a very high tide
ULOOK-IIOUSE ON ORANEY ISLAM).
MAGAZINE ON ORANEY ISLAND.
a few weeks before my visit there. Much of the old em
bankments was washed away, but the solitary cedar,
mentioned as being there in 1813, remained unharmed
on the southern slope of the island.1 From the maga
zine we had a fine view of the entire scene of action on the 22d of
June. The schooner on the right, in the annexed picture, designates
the place of the barges at the time of their repulse ; and the distant \ \
point between the vessel and the shore by the magazine shows the
landing-place of the British, who moved through the woods up to Wise's Creek.
1 This tree is seen in the sketch on page 675.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
687
A Slave's Freedom purchased by his Wife.
A Visit to Hampton and Vicinity.
Landing-place of the British.
at the left of the magazine, across the strait, is seen a small house, at the mouth of
Wise's Creek. It was near the site of "Wise's Quarter," which was demolished
many years ago. In the more modern house we found an intelligent colored man,
about eighty years of age, rejoicing in the fact that his freedom had just been pur
chased by his wife, a woman almost as old as himself. She earned money by mid
wifery, in which profession she was very proficient. " Bress de Lord !" said the old
man, " for de day when I married Dinah. She allers said Pomp shouldn't die a slave,
but she's worked hard almost fifty years afore she made her promise sure." He was
living near there at the time of the fight, and assisted in the erection of the fortifica
tions on Craney Island.
It was about four o'clock when I returned to Norfolk. I spent the remainder of
the afternoon in strolling about the city, and on the following morning departed in
the steamer Selden for Hampton, eighteen miles distant. There I had the good for
tune to meet Colonel Wilson W. Jones, brother of the lieutenant who went to the as
sistance of Parker with his cannon, and so gallantly took it from the field.1 The col
onel was a sergeant in Servant's rifle company, and was in the battle on Celey's Road
when the British sergeant major and Lieutenant Colonel Williams were killed. He
kindly accompanied me to places of interest around Hampton. First we visited the
head-quarters of Beckwith and Cockburn (printed on page 683), and were kindly
shown the rooms occupied by them, and the grave of Williams in the garden, by Mrs.
Savage, who then resided there. We
then rode up to the landing-place of
the British, where stood Captain Mur
phy's house in picturesque ruins upon
a grassy point, from which we had a
fine view of Hampton Roads. From
Murphy's we followed the line of
march of the British to the place
where they were attacked by the rifle-
LAKDISQ-PLAOE OF TUE BRITISH AT I
men, and afterward by Jones with his field-piece, and then went to the mansion of
the Pembroke farm, over which the Americans fled toward Little Bethel. In that
mansion lived an aged couple at the time, named Kirby, whose treatment by the pur
suing British soldiers who entered the house was the cause of the invoking of many
an imprecation throughout the land upon the head of the enemy.2 Near it stood the
mansion of the Bethel estate, the dwelling of another aged man, named Hope, under
whose roof great atrocities were committed.3 From these we returned to Hampton
i See page 682.
8 Mr. Kirby was an aged man, very sick, and at the point to die when the soldiers entered the house. His wife was
by his bedside, when they shot him through the body and wounded her in the hip. This was proclaimed as a wanton
murder, and excited the greatest indignation. Colonel Jones knew Mrs. Kirby well, and her version of the story was
that, with vengeful feelings, the soldiers chased an ugly dog into the house, which ran under Mr. Kirby's chair, in which
he was sitting, and, in their eagerness to shoot the dog, shot the aged invalid, the bullet grazing the hip of Mrs. Kirby.
Mrs. Kirby always considered the shooting of her husband an accident.
3 The conduct of the British at Mr. Hope's was barbarous in the extreme. He was sixty-five years of age. They
stripped him entirely naked, wounded him intentionally with a bayonet, and tortured him with menaces of death.
They would doubtless have killed him had not their attention been directed to a woman who had sought refuge in his
PICTOKIAL FIELD-BOOK
Commodore Barren's Daughter. Colonel Jones and his Family. Destruction of Hampton.
by the Yorktown Road, still following the line
of the invader's march, and visited Mrs. Jane
A. Hope, daughter of Commodore James Bar-
ron, who kindly furnished me with the por
trait and autograph of her father, copies of
which are printed on page 159. She spoke
feelingly of the treatment her father received
at the hands of the government, and expressed
a hope that History might yet be just to his
memory. She was a somewhat aged lady,
delicate in form and feature, and exceedingly
pleasing in conversation. When the blight
of the Rebellion fell upon Hampton, Mrs. Hope
went to \\rarrenton) in North Carolina, where
she died in January, 1862.
I spent the evening with Colonel Jones and his excellent wife, and saw in their lit
tle parlor two original crayon drawings by the eminent Sharpless, the faithful delin
eator from life of the profiles of Washington and his wife. These were profiles of
Jefferson and Monroe. I made a careful copy of the former. Early the next morn
ing I drew the sketch from my window at the hotel presented on page 681, and at
the appointed hour left Hampton for Richmond in the James River steamer.
This was my second visit to Hampton, with an interval of five years, and both times
I carried away with me pleasant remembrances of courteous inhabitants and a charm
ing village. All is now changed. Hampton has been made a desolation by the smit-
ings of civil war. Very few of its inhabitants were faithful to the old flag, and that
county of which Hampton was the capital furnished no less than six companies to the
rebel army. Colonel Jones remained a stanch Union man — faithful among the faith
less — and was the last man to leave the doomed village when, at a few minutes past
midnight on the 7th of August, 1861, the torch was applied by order of the rebel Gen
eral Magruder during the maudlin delirium of intoxication. He (the aged veteran
of 1812) was not allowed to take any thing from his house — the house in which the
family of Commodore Barron long resided — and he and his equally aged companion
had scarcely left it when they saw it in flames. Within twelve hours, four churches
and four hundred and seventy dwellings were laid in ashes. Among the churches
was one of the most ancient in Virginia,2 which stood apart from the town. Its de
struction was an act of purest barbarism.
•June, The British remained in Hampton until the 27th,a when they re-embarked,
L813> and on the morning of the 29th Major Crutchfield entered the plundered vil
lage and took possession. On the 1st of July the blockading squadron, consisting at
that time of seven ships of the line, seven frigates, and eleven smaller vessels, left
Hampton Roads and entered the mouth of the Potomac River. A portion of the
fleet went up that stream, exciting the most intense alarm at Alexandria, George
town, and the national capital. The only fortification on which those cities could
rely at that time for the arrest of the invading squadron was old Fort Warburton,
then called Fort Washington,3 situated on the Maryland side of the Potomac, a few
miles below Alexandria. This was strengthened and its garrison increased by call-
house. They left him, seized her, and subjected her to indignities of which savages would be ashamed. Because of
these atrocities, M'Laws, of the Veteran Corps at Wilmington, used the word HAMPTON, in place of Attention, when call
ing them to order.
1 This house was of brick, and beautifully situated. At the time of the British invasion it belonged to John S. West-
wood. When I visited it it was the property of his family. In front of it were some tomb-stones, near the site of the
old Pembroke church.
2 For a drawing and full historical description of this ancient church, see Lossing's Pictorial Field-book of the Revolu
tion, ii., 326.
3 This fort had been put in good condition. It had about twenty 18 and 32 pounder cannon mounted, that bore im
mediately upon the channel ; also a water battery of eight 32-pounders advantageously placed.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
689
Cockburn in the Potomac and on the Coast of North Carolina.
Alarm in South Carolina.
ing in the militia from the surrounding country. Breastworks were thrown up at
Alexandria, Georgetown, and Washington, and vigorous measures were taken to meet
the foe. The alarm soon subsided. The British did not approach nearer to Wash
ington than seventy miles, and then withdrew, went' around to the Chesapeake, and
created equal alarm at Annapolis and Baltimore. Assured that those cities were
amply defended, they withdrew, and a portion of the fleet, under Admiral Cockburn,
went southward to plunder, destroy, and spread alarm along the coasts of the Caro-
linas and Georgia. His vessels were the Sceptre, 74 (flag-ship) ; Romulus, Fox, and
Nemesis.
On the 12th of July Cockburn anchored off Ocracoke Inlet, and dispatched Lieu
tenant Westphall, with about eight hundred men in barges, to the waters of Pamlico
Sound. They found within the bar the Anaconda, of New York, and Atlas, of Phil
adelphia, both private armed vessels. They fell upon the Anaconda, whose thirteen
men, after stout resistance, blew holes in her bottom with her own guns and escaped.
The British plugged the holes and saved her. They captured the Atlas and some
smaller craft, but a revenue cutter escaped, and gave timely warning at Newbern.
Westphall proceeded to attack that place, but it was too well defended by the new
ly-rallied militia to warrant an attack, so he proceeded to Portsmouth, not far off,
took possession of the town, and for two or three days engaged in the pastime of
plundering and desolating the surrounding country. The rapid gathering of the mi
litia caused them to decamp in haste on the 16th, carrying with them cattle and other
property, and many slaves, to whom freedom was falsely promised. These Cockburn,
it is said, sold in the West Indies.
Leaving Pamlico Sound, the arch-marauder went down the coast, stopping at and
plundering Dewees's and Capers's Islands, and filling the whole region of the Lower
Santee with terror. Several plantations on Dewees's were desolated, and from Ca
pers's a large quantity of live-stock was taken away, with a few slaves. Other ex
posed places along the coast expected a simi
lar visitation. Breastworks were thrown up ^^^aB^lMBHhfijii
around Charleston ; Fort Moultrie and other
fortifications were strengthened, and a con
siderable body of militia were assembled on
IladdrelPs Point, or Point Pleasant, where
might have been seen, before the late Civil
War, a monument erected to' the memory of
some soldiers who perished there by disease.1
No battle was fought on South Carolina soil
during the war. Her politicians were among
the most clamorous for hostilities, and some
of her citizens made fortunes by privateer
ing ; but few of her sons were found in the
ranks of their country's defenders. She suf
fered most from the fear of losing property,
especially slaves, which her state law de
clared to be property; and during the time
1 This monument was built of brick, having in shallow recesses in the base of the crowning pyramid marble tablets
bearing the following inscriptions :
East Side.—" On the 18th of June, 1812, the United States of America declared war against Great Britain. At the first
sound of the trumpet the patriot soldiers who sleep beneath this monument flew to the standard of Liberty. Here they
fell beneath the scythe of Death. The sympathies of the brave, the tears of the stranger, and the slow dirge of the camp
attended them to the tomb.
" ' How sleep the brave, who sink to rest
With all their country's wishes blest.
The laurel wreath of shining green
Will still around their tomb be seen.'"
West Side.—" Sacred to the memory of Sersreant Truman Goodrich and Adam C. Spencer. Also of David Aarant,
Xx
SOI.DIEKS' MONUMENT, POINT PLEASANT.
690
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Secret Organizations among the Slaves.
A revolutionary Hymn.
The Grave of Osceola.
when Cockburn was hovering along the coast the large slaveholders were agitated by
the deepest anxiety lest a force of the British should land and declare freedom to all
serfs who should join their standard. Had they done so, no doubt an army of many
thousand colored people would have flocked to that standard, for the negroes had
heard of the liberation of their brethren in Virginia by the British, but not of the infa
mous treachery of their seducer, who sold them into worse servitude in the West In
dies. All along the coast, and far into the interior, secret organizations existed among
the negroes for united efforts to obtain their freedom ; and, in anticipation of the com
ing of a British army of liberation, they were prepared to rise in large numbers, at a
given signal, and strike for freedom.1 But Cockburn was content to fill his pockets
by plundering, and a petty slave-trade on his own account ; so, after keeping the Car-
olinas in a state like fever and ague for many weeks,2 he went down to the Georgia
coast, and at " Dungenness House," the seat of the fine estate of General Nathaniel
Greene, of the Revolution, on Cumberland Island, he made his head-quarters for the
winter. His marauders went out in all directions upon the neighboring coast, spread
ing desolation and alarm. Among the estates visited was that of Bonaventure, a few
William Rutland, John Williams, William M'Lellan, Henry Kilgore, John Taylor, John Bruce, and Harris Lancaster,
private soldiers of the Third Eegiment of State Troops."
When I visited the spot a few years before the late war, the tablets were much defaced by the effects of bullets which
had been fired at them for the sport of some young men of Charleston. It was sad to see such evidences of utter care
lessness of the memory of those whom another and better generation had delighted to honor. And yet there was tes
timony not far off— just across a broad channel — that respect for a really great man, though ranked in history as a sav-
- _r%- age, was not wanting. I refer to Osceola, the celebrated Seminole warrior,
who for a long time outgeneraled some of the best commanders of the repub
lic—Scott, Taylor, Gaines, and Jesup— in their attempts to expel his people
from the Everglades of Florida, which had belonged to his fathers from time
immemorial. A stone slab marks his last resting-place on earth, just at the
entrance-gate to Fort Moultrie ; and when I was there not even a pencil-mark
defaced the surface, on which was inscribed, in large letters, OSCEOLA. And
so it remained through the late Civil War, unscathed amid the ruins around
it. I saw it, well preserved, in the spring of 1SCG. Osceola was made a pris
oner by treachery, having been arrested in the camp of General Jesup, whith
er he had been invited to a conference under the generally sacred protection
of a flag of truce. He was imprisoned, and his great heart was broken. The
warrior became like a little child, and died at the close of January, 1839. No
one can look upon that simple monument, just outside of the gate of a power
ful fortress, without finding in it and the huge walls near significant emblems
of the comparative strength of the European and the native American on the
continent ; nor can an American citizen, acquainted with the history of the
latter years of that warrior's life, avoid the blush of shame for the government
that sanctioned such treachery.
1 I am indebted to an accomplished American scholar and professor in one of our colleges for an account of one of
these secret organizations, which met regularly during the summer of 1813 upon an island in the vicinity of Charleston.
The leader was a man of great sagacity and influence, and their meetings were opened and closed by singing the sub
joined hymn, composed by that leader. They held meetings every night, and had arranged a plan for the rising of all
the slaves in Charleston when the British should appear. At one of their meetings, the question "What shall be done
with the white people?" was warmly discussed. Some advocated their indiscriminate slaughter as the only security
for liberty, and this seemed to be the prevailing opinion, when the author of the hymn came in and said, " Brothers !
you know me. You know that I am ready to gain your liberty and mine. But not one needless drop of blood must be
shed. I have a master whom I love, and the man who takes his life must pass over my dead body." The following is
a copy of the hymn— a sort of parody on the national song " Hail, Columbia:"
OSCEOLA'S GRAVE.
/•Hail ! all hail ! ye Afric clan !
Repeat. -< Hail ! ye oppressed, ye Afric band !
(Who toil and sweat in slavery bound,
And when your health and strength are gone,
Are left to hunger and to mourn.
Let independence be your aim,
Ever mindful what 'tis worth ;
Pledge your bodies for the prize,
Pile them even to the skies !
Chorus.— Firm, united let us be,
Resolved on death or liberty !
As a band of patriots joined,
Peace and plenty we shall find.
(Look to heaven with manly trust,
Repeat. < And swear by Him that's always just
(.That no white foe, with impious hand,
Shall slave your wives and daughters more,
Or rob them of their virtue dear ! •
Be armed with valor firm and true,
Their hopes are fixed on Heaven and you,
That Truth and Justice will prevail.
Chorus.— Firm, united, etc.
/•Arise ! arise ! shake off your chains !
Repeat. < Your cause is just, so Heaven ordains ;
(To you shall freedom be proclaimed !
Raise your arms and bare your breasts,
Almighty God will do the rest.
Blow the clarion's warlike blast ;
Call every negro from his task ;
Wrest the scourge from Buckra's hand,
And drive each tyrant from the land !
Chorus. — Firm, united, etc.
2 Cockburn landed at Hilton Head and one or two other places, from which he carried off some cattle and a number
of slaves ; and Savannah was much agitated for a time with the fear of his grasp.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
691
Cockburn on the Coast of Georgia.
Decatur runs the Blockade at New York.
He is driven into the Thames.
ENTKASCE TO HONAVEXTUBE.
miles from Savannah,
the property of the
Tattnall family, on
which, in a grove of
live-oak draped with
the Spanish moss, is
one of the most pic
turesque cemeteries
in the world, the en
trance to which is
seen in the picture,
made from a sketch
by the artist T. Ad-
dison Richards.
While Cockburn,
the marauder, was on
the Southern coast,
Hardy, the gentle
man, was blockading
a portion of the New
England coast. The
harbors from the Delaware to Nantucket were regularly watched, and ingress and
egress were very difficult.
We have given an account of the arrival at New York of the frigates United States
and Macedonian,1 the former in the American service, under Decatur, and the latter
a prize captured by him from the British in the previous autumn. These had been
repaired and fitted for sea, and the gallant Captain Jones had been placed in com
mand of the Macedonian. At this time the Poictiers, Captain Beresford, and a num
ber of other vessels, were carefully guarding the entrance to New York Harbor
through the Narrows, but Decatur, anxious to get out upon the ocean, resolved to
run the blockade. He found it unsafe to attempt it at the Narrows ; so, with his two
frigates, accompanied by the sloop of war Hornet, Captain Biddle, which was anxious
to join the Chesapeake at Boston, he passed up the East River and Long Island Sound
for the purpose of escaping between Montauk Point and Block Island.2 For a month
Sir Thomas Hardy, with his
flag-ship the RamilU.es, the
Orpheus, Captain Sir Hugh
Pigot, the Valiant, Acasta,
and smaller vessels, had been
keeping vigilant watch in that region. During that time Sir Thomas had won the
good opinion of the inhabitants along the coast because of his honorable treatment
of them.
When Decatur approached the mouth of the Thames,a he was met by the * June ^
Valiant and Acasta, and, knowing that the Ramillies and Orpheus were 1813-
near, he deemed it prudent to run into New London Harbor. He was pursued by
the enemy as far as Gull Island, at which point the British anchored in position to
command the mouth of the Thames. Then commenced a regular blockade of New
London, which continued full twenty months, and was raised only by the proclama
tion of peace. The squadron in sight of New London was soon strengthened, and
when, at the latter part of June, Hardy assumed commaiid of it, it consisted of two
74's, two frigates, and a number of smaller vessels.
1 See page 456.
= This is out at sea, south of Rhode Island, and forms a part of that State's jurisdiction. The British had now raised
their standard on this island.
692
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Blockading Squadron off New London.
Alarm of the Inhabitants.
Decatur finds a Place of Safety.
NEW LO>'1>ON IN ISliJ. '
The presence of this fleet created much anxiety. The more aged inhabitants, who
remembered Arnold's incursion in 1781, were filled with apprehensions of a repetition
of the tragedies of that terrible day. It was generally expected that the enemy
would enter the river and attack Decatur's squadron, and the neighboring militia
were summoned to the town ; the specie of the banks was conveyed to Norwich, at
the head of tide-water ; and women, and children, and portable property were sent
into the interior. The character of Sir Thomas was a sufficient guaranty that neither
life nor private property would be wantonly desti'oyed ; but, in the event of the bom
bardment of the ships, the town could not well escape destruction by fire. Decatur,
in anticipation of such bombardment of his vessels, after lightening them, took them
five or six miles up the river, beyond the reach of the enemy, and upon an eminence
near Allyn's Point, from which he had a fine view of the Sound and New London
Harbor, he cast up some intrenchments, and placed his cannon upon them. The spot
was named Dragon Hill.2
At about this time an event occurred off New London which caused great exas
peration in the blockading squadron, and came near bringing most disastrous effects
upon the New England coast. It was the use of a torpedo, or submarine mine, whose
invention, construction, and character have already been given in these pages.3 The
government of the United States, it will be remembered, refused to employ them. It
was left for private enterprise to attempt the promotion of the public good by their
use in weakening the power of the enemy. One of these enterprises was undertaken
in New York city. In the hold of the schooner Eagle, John Scudder, junior, the orig
inator of the plot, placed ten kegs of gunpowder, with a quantity of sulphur mixed
with it, in a strong cask, and surrounded it with huge stones and other missiles, which,
in the event of explosion, might inflict gi-eat injury. At the head of the cask, on the
inside, were fixed two gun-locks, with cords fastened to their triggers at one end, and
two barrels of flour at the other end, so that when the flour should be removed the
1 In this view, looking down the river, the old court-house, yet standing on State Street, is seen near the centre of the
picture. Upon the rocky peninsula farther to the right (erroneously made to appear like an island) is seen Fort Trum-
bull. Beyond it, in the distance, at the mouth of the river, is seen the light-house, and in the open sound the British
blockading squadron. In the extreme distance is seen, as if in connecting line, Gull and Fisher's Island. On the ex
treme left are the Heights of Groton, east of the Thames.
- History of New London, by Miss Frances Manwaring Caulkins, author of a History of Norwich, Connecticut. These
volumes justly rank among the best arranged and most interesting of the local histories of our country.
3 See pages from 238 to 240 inclusive.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 693
A Torpedo Vessel off New London. Alarm and Precautions of the British. Other Torpedo Vessels.
locks would be sprung, the powder ignited, and the terrible mine exploded. Thus
prepai-ed, with a cargo of flour and naval stores over the concealed mine, the Eagle,
Captain Riker, late in June, sailed for New London, where, as was expected and de
sired, she was captured by armed men sent out in boats from the Ramillies. The
crew of the Eagle escaped to the shore at Millstone Point, and anxiously awaited the
result. The wind had fallen, and for two hours unavailing efforts were made to get
the Eagle alongside the Ramillies for the purpose of transferring her cargo to that
vessel. Finally boats were sent out as lighters, the hatches of the Eagle were opened,
and when the first barrel of flour was removed the explosion took place. A column
of fire shot up into the air full nine hundred feet, and a shower of pitch and tar fell
upon the deck of the Ramillies. The schooner, and the first lieutenant and ten men
from the flag-ship on board of her, were blown into atoms, and most of those in the
boats outside were seriously, and some fatally injured.
The success which this experiment promised caused others to be tried. A citizen
of Norwich, familiar with the machine used by Bushnell in attempts to blow up the
Eagle, British ship-of-war, in th,e harbor of New York during the Revolution, invented
a submarine boat in which he voyaged at the rate of three miles an hour. In this he
went under the Ramillies three times, and on the third occasion had nearly com
pleted the task of fixing a torpedo to her bottom, when a screw broke, and his effort
was foiled. He was discovered, but escaped. A daring fisherman of Long Island,
named Penny, made attempts on the Ramillies with a torpedo in a whale-boat, and
Hardy was kept continually on the alert. So justly fearful was he of these mines,
that he not only kept his ship in motion, but, according to Penny, who was a prisoner
on the Ramillies for a while, he caused her bottom to be swept with a cable every
two hours night and day. He finally issued a warning to the inhabitants of the
coasts that if they did not cease that cruel and unheard-of warfare, he should proceed
to destroy their towns and desolate their country.1
An attempt of Mr. Mix, of the navy, in July,'to blow up the Plantagenet, 74, lying
off Cape Henry, Virginia, was almost successful. The torpedo was carried out, under
cover of intense darkness, in a heavy open boat called The Chesapeake Avenger, and
dropped so as to float down under the ship's bow. It exploded a few seconds too
soon. The scene was awful. A column of water, twenty-five feet in diameter, and
half luminous with lurid light, was thrown up at least forty feet, with an explosion
as terrific as thunder, and producing a concussion like the shock of an earthquake.
It burst at the crown. The water fell in profusion on the deck of the Plantagenet,
and at the same moment she rolled into the chasm made by this sudden expulsion of
water, and nearly upset. Torpedoes were also placed across the Narrows, below New
York, and at the entrance to the harbor of Portland. This fact made the British
commanders exceedingly cautious in approaching our harboi's, and they and their
American sympathizers expressed great horror at this mode of warfare. It was re
plied that the wanton outrages committed on the defenseless inhabitants of the coast,
from Havre de Grace to Charleston, fully justified any mode of warfare against such
marauders, and that stratagem in the horrid business of war was always justifiable.2
1 Hardy had been in the habit of allowing trading vessels to pass, the blockade being chiefly agaiust Decatur's little
squadron ; but on the morning after the explosion of the Eagle he informed General Isham, the commander of the mi
litia at New London, that no vessel would thereafter be allowed to pass the British squadron except flags of truce. And
on the 2Sth of August, after an attempt upon the Ramillies by Penny from the south side of Long Island, Hardy wrote
to Justice Terry, of Southold, desiring him to warn the inhabitants along the coast that if they allowed a torpedo boat
to remain another day among them, he would " order every house near the shore to be destroyed." The leniency and
courtesy extended to the inhabitants by Captain Hardy gave him claims to their respectful consideration.
2 The Philadelphia Aurora said, in speaking of the complaints of the mischievous "Peace party" of that day, "We
would respectfully solicit the pious men to explain to us the difference between waging war with submarine machines
and with aerial destructive weapons — fighting under water or fighting in the air ? The British, too cowardly to meet
us on shore (except when they are certain of finding little or no opposition) like men and soldiers, send us Congreve
rockets to burn our towns and habitations ; we, in turn, dispatch some of our torpedoes to rub the copper off the bottoms
of their ships."
694
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Vigorous Blockade of the Coast of Connecticut.
The local Militia.
Colonel Burbeck.
Although Hardy did not execute his threats, he made the blockade more rigorous
than ever, and many trading vessels became prizes to the British cruisers. A tiny
warfare was kept up along the Connecticut coast, for, whenever a chased vessel was
driven ashore, the inhabitants would turn out to defend it. One
of these encounters occurred a little west of the light-house late
in the autumn. a The sloop Moxana was chased » November 28,
ashore by three British barges, and grounded.
Within half an hour a throng of people had assembled to rescue
her, when the enemy set her on fire and retreated. The Amer
icans attempted to extinguish the flames, but a heavy cannonade
from the ships drove them off. Although many were exposed
to the cannon-balls on that occasion, not one was hurt. " Dur
ing the whole war," says Miss Caulkins, " not a man was killed
by the enemy in Connecticut, and only one in its waters on the
coast."1
At near the close of June, the
veteran colonel of artillery in the
regular service, Henry Burbeck,
who had been stationed at New
port, arrived at New London to
take charge of that military de
partment.2 He found the militia,
who were strongly imbued with
the mischievous doctrine of state
supremacy, unwilling to be trans
ferred, according to late orders
from the Secretary of War, from the service of the state to the service of the United
States. He accordingly, under instructions from Washington, dismissed them all.
The people, misconstruing the movement, were alarmed and exasperated. They re
garded themselves as unwarrantably deprived of their defenders, and betrayed to
the enemy, who might come and plunder and destroy to his heart's content. At the
same time, it was known that Hardy's fleet had been re-enforced by the arrival of
the Endymion and Statira, vessels equal in strength to the United States and Mace
donian. A panic of mingled fear and indignation prevailed, and it was only allayed
by the quick response of the Governor of Connecticut to the invitation of Colonel
1 History of New London, page 634.
2 Henry Burbeck was born in Boston on the 8th of June, 1754. He was a soldier of the Revolution, and in 1787, under
the Confederation, he was commissioned a captain. He was appointed
captain of artillery in 1789, and promoted to major in 1791. He was raised
to lieutenant colonel of artillery and engineers in 1798, and to colonel in
1802. During his service at New London, on the 10th of September, 1813,
he was breveted a brigadier general, and held that commission until the
close of the war, when, after thirty-eight years of military service, he re-
L1GUT-UOCSE AT NEW LOMJO-N.
UURBECK'S JKXNCMENT.
tired from the army, and took up his abode in New London. He died there on
the 2d of October, 1848, at the great age of ninety-four years. He was buried
in the Cedar Grove Cemetery at New London, and over his grave the Massa
chusetts Society of the Cincinnati, of which, at the time of his death, he was
president, and last survivor but one of the original members, erected a hand
some granite monument, under the direction of Honorable R. G. Shaw, of Bos
ton, the late General H. A. S. Dearborn, of Roxbury, and the Reverend Alfred
L. Baury, of Newton Lower Falls, a committee of the society. Upon the front
of the obelisk, on a shield, is the following inscription : " Brigadier General
HENRY BITRBECK, born in Boston, Mass., June 8, 1754. Died at New London,
October 2, 1S48." Upon the cube on which Cie obelisk stands the following
words are deeply engraven: "The Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati
dedicate this monument to the memory of their late honored President. He
was an officer of the United States from the commencement of the Revolu
tionary War until near the close of his life. By a patriotic and faithful dis
charge of the high and responsible duties of a Gallant Soldier, and an Ex
emplary Citizen, he became as justly and eminently distinguished as he was
rightfully and universally respected. Erected MDCCCL."
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 695
Decatur endeavors to get to Sea. The Blue-lights and the " Peace Party." A Challenge. Tour in New England.
Burbeck to call out the militia for the temporary defense of the menaced town. Brig
adier General Williams was appointed to the command of the militia, and the alarm
subsided.
Decatur watched continually during the summer and autumn for an opportunity
to escape to sea with his three vessels ; and hoping, as the severely cold weather came
on, to find the enemy at times somewhat lax in vigilance, he slowly dropped down
the river, and at the beginning of December was anchored in New London Harbor,
opposite Market Wharf. With great secrecy he prepared every thing for sailing.
He fixed on Sunday evening, the 12th,a for making the attempt to run the » December,
blockade. Fortunately for his plan, the night was very dark, the wind 1813>
was favorable, and the tide served at a convenient hour. When all things were in
readiness, and he was about to weigh anchor, word came from the, row-guard of the
Macedonian and Hornet that signal-lights were burning on both sides of the river,
near its mouth. They were blue-lights, and Decatur had no doubt of their being
signals to warn the enemy of his movement, which was known in the village that
evening. Thus exposed by " Peace Men," of whom there were a few in almost every
community, he at once abandoned the project, and tried every means to discover the
betrayers, but without effect. The Opposition, as a party, denied the fact, while oth
ers as strongly asserted it. In his letter to the Secretary of the Navyb
December 20.
on the subject, Decatur said, " Notwithstanding these signals have been
repeated, and have been seen by twenty persons at least in this squadron, there are
men in New London who have the hardihood to affect to disbelieve it, and the ef
frontery to avow their disbelief." The whole Federal party, who were traditionally
opposed to war with Great Britain, were often unfairly compelled to bear the odium
of actions which justly pertained only to the " Peace" faction. They were compelled
to do so in this case, and for more than a generation members of that party were
stigmatized with the epithet of "Blue-light Federalist."
The United States and Macedonian were imprisoned in the Thames during the re
mainder of the Avar.1 In the spring of 1814 they were dismantled, and laid up about
three and a half miles below Norwich, and their officers and men made their way by
land to other ports and engaged actively in the service. The Hornet lay at New
London almost a year longer, when she slipped out of the harbor and escaped to New
York.
Of the more stirring operations of the blockading fleet in this vicinity the follow
ing year I shall hereafter write, and it remains for me now only to make brief men
tion of the circumstances of my visit at New London and its vicinity late in the au
tumn of 1860. I had been on a tour East as far as Castine, at the mouth of the Pe-
nobscot, and up that river to Bangor, and was thus far on my way homeward, after
spending Thanksgiving-day with the acting surgeon of Perry's fleet, Dr. Usher Par
sons, at his house in Providence, Rhode Island. I had reached New London at an
early hour, and, with a pleasant day before me, went out to visit places of historic in
terest in the town and its neighborhood. Before doing so, I called on the accom
plished author of the History of New London (Miss Caulkins2), and, after the brief in-
1 In January, 1814, Captain Moran, master of a sloop that had been captured by the blockaders, reported that Hardy,
in his presence, expressed a desire that the Macedonian and Statira should have a combat, they being vessels of equal
power, but that he would not permit a challenge to that effect to be sent. Decatur at once informed Hardy (17th of
January, 1814) that he was ready to have a meeting of the Macedonian and Statira, and the United States and Endymion,
and invited him to the contest. This message was sent by Captain Biddle, of the Hornet, who was informed that an
answer would be sent the next day. The crews of the two American frigates were assembled, and when the proposi
tion was submitted to them they received it with hearty cheers. They were eager for release, and did not doubt their
ability to secure a victory. On the following day an answer came. The challenge was accepted so far as the Macedo-
donian and Statira were concerned, but a meeting between the United States and Endymion was declined because of an
alleged disparity in strength, which would give great advantage to the American vessel. Decatur, being under sailing
orders, and anxious to get his little squadron to sea, would not consent to its separation by detaching the Macedonian
for a duel, so the matter dropped.
2 Miss Caulkius is also the author of an admirable History of Norwich, Connecticut.
096
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
OO-MMOUOKK EODGIK8S 11O.NUJIBNT.
Cemetery at New London and its Occupants. Commodore Rodgers. New London Harbor and Fort Trumbull.
terview which limited time allowed, I was well prepared to find the places (and ap
preciate the interest attached to them) in and around 'that pleasant little city often
thousand inhabitants. I shajl ever remember that interview with pleasure.
Near New London is the " Cedar Grove Cemetery," in which are the graves of
many of the honored dead. Among these, over which affection has reared monu
ments, may be found those of General Burbeck and Commodore George W. Rodgers.
I made sketches of the monuments erected to
the memory of each, and present them to the
readers of these pages. Commodore Rodgers
was a gallant officer of the navy, and died in
the service of his country at Buenos Ayres, in
South America, on the 21st of May, 1832, at the
age of forty-six years. He was then in com
mand of an American squadron on the coast of
Brazil. He was a veteran officer, having been
a midshipman in 1804, and a lieutenant in
active service during the War of 1812. 1 By
order of the Navy Department, his remains
were brought home in the ship Lexington in
1850, and conveyed to New London in charge
of Commodore Kearney. Their re-interment in
" Cedar Grove Cemetery"2 was the occasion of
a great civic and military display, in which the
Governor of Connecticut and his suite joined.3
His monument is a plain obelisk of freestone, on which is a simple inscription.
From the cemetery I rode back to the town by another way, which passed by the
older part of the place, and the " Hempstead House," the last remaining of the three
original houses built at New London. It was erected and occupied by Sir Robert
Hempstead, whose descendants yet own it. It was fortified against the Indians at
one time, and was the nearest neighbor to the mansion of Governor Winthrop, at the
head of the Cove — that cove out of which, within twenty rods of the " Hempstead
House," sailed the first vessel that went from New London to the West Indies.
From the " Hempstead House" I rode down to the light-house at the mouth of the
Thames, sketched the view of it on page 694, and, returning, visited Fort Trumbull,
so called in honor of the first Governor of Connecticut of that name. It is a most
delightful drive along the river from the light-house and Pequot House to the city,
and it is much traveled for pleasure during the summer season. Outward is seen the
broad expanse of the Sound, with Fisher's and Gull Islands in the distance ; while up
the river is seen the fort and city on one side, and Fort Griswold, the Groton Monu
ment and village, and the green hills stretching away toward Norwich on the other.
Fort Trumbull is a strong work, built chiefly of granite from the quarry at Millstone
Point. It is the third fortress erected on the spot. In 1775 a strong block-house
was built upon that rocky point, some embankments were cast up around it, and the
whole was named Fort Trumbull. In 1812 these embankments were only green
mounds. These were cleared away, and a more formidable work was erected, leav
ing the old block-house within the lines. This fort, retaining the original name, fell
into decay, and all but the ancient block-house was demolished preparatory to the
commencement of the present structure. There the block -house still stands, a
monument to the memory of the patriotism of our fathers of the Revolution. The
1 He was made master commandant in 1816, and captain in 1825. One of his sons (Lieutenant Alexander P. Rodgers)
was killed at the battle of Chapultepec, in Mexico, in September, 1847.
2 This cemetery was laid ont by Dr. Horatio Stone for an association in 1850, and consecrated in 1851. The first in
terment of a person living when it was laid out was that of Joseph S. Sistare.— Miss Caulkins.
3 Cuulkins's Uistory of Connecticut, 662.
OF THE WAB OF 1812.
697
Block-house erected in 1812.
The old Court-house and its Associations.
Peace.
new fort was built under the
superintendence of (then)
Captain George W. Cullum,
of the United States Engi
neers, and was completed in
1849, at a cost of about two
hundred and fifty thousand
dollars. The views from its
battlements are extensive ;
and from the grassy espla
nade sloping to the water
ANCIENT BLOCK-HOUSE, FOBT TBUMBULL.
NEW LONDON IIAKBOK FBOM FOBT TEUMBULL.
southward may be obtained
a very pleasant view of the
harbor, the mouth of the riv
er, and Long Island Sound
beyond.
The last object of interest
visited in New London was
the old court-house built in
1784, three years after its
predecessor was burnt at the
time of Arnold's invasion.1
It stands at the head of broad State Street,
upon a rocky foundation. It had an ex
ternal gallery around it at the second
story, but this was removed at the be
ginning of the present century, and it
now bears the appearance that it did at
the close of the Second War for Inde
pendence, when it was the scene of joy
ous festivities immediately after the Pres
ident's proclamation of peace reached
the town in February, 1815. 2 Friendly
greetings between the British blockading
squadron and the citizens then took place.
The latter soon went to sea, and the Unit
ed States and Macedonian departed for
New York after an imprisonment of
about twenty months. Then " the last shadow of war departed from the town."
I left New London for Stonington by railway at evening, whither I shall invite the
reader before long.
We have now considered the military events during the year 1813 in the North
and West, on the Lakes, and along the Atlantic coast ; let us now look out upon the
ocean, and observe the hostile movements of the belligerents there. In the mean
time sounds of war with the Indians come up from the Gulf region.
1 See Miss Caulkins's History of New London, page 626.
2 Admiral Hotham, whose flag-ship was the Superb, then commanded the blockading squadron off New London. On
the 21st of February the village was splendidly illuminated. Hotham determined to mingle in the festivities. An
nouncing the parole on the Superb to be "America," and the countersign "Amity," he and his officers went ashore
and mingled freely and cordially with the inhabitants. The admiral was received with distinguished courtesy, for, like
Hardy, he bad won the merited esteem of the citizens by his gentlemanly conduct. At about this time the Pactolus
and Narcissus came into the harbor, bringing Commodore Decatur and Lieutenant (now Admiral) W. B. Shubrick,
who had been captured in the frigate President. A public reception, partaking of the character of a ball, was held at
the court-house, to which all the British officers on the coast were invited. Several were present, and the guests were
received by Commodores Decatur and Shaw.
"
TJIE OL1) COCUT-1IOUSE.
698 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The Hornet on the Coast of South America. Her Contest with the Peacock,
CHAPTER XXXI.
' O, Johnny Bull, my joe, John, your Peacocks keep at home,
And ne'er let British seamen on a Frolic hither come,
For we've Hornets and we've Wasps, John, who, as you doubtless know,
Carry stingers in their tails, O, Johnny Bull, my joe."
BKOTUEB JONATHAN'S EPISTLE TO JOHNNY BULL, 1S14.
" Then learn, ye comrades of the illustrious dead,
Heroic faith and honor to revere ;
For Lawrence slumbers in his lowly bed,
Embalm'd by Albion's and Columbia's tear."
MONODY ON THE DEATH OF LAWKENCE.
FTER the destruction of the Java off the coast of Brazil in De
cember, 1812, Commodore Bainbridge, as we have observed,
sailed for the United States,a leaving the Hornet, Cap- a jannary e,
tain James Lawrence, to blockade the Bon Citoyenne,
a vessel laden with treasure, in the harbor of San Salvador.1
On the 24th of January, the British ship of war Montagu, 74,
made her appearance. She came up from Rio Janeiro to raise
the blockade. The Hornet was driven into the harbor, but es
caped during the very dark night that followed, and went cruising up the coast. She
was thus employed for a month, and captured a few prizes. Finally, on the 24th of
February, at half past three o'clock in the afternoon, while chasing an English brig
off the mouth of the Demerara River, Lawrence suddenly discovered a vessel, evi
dently a man-of-war, with an English ensign set, just without the bar.2 He determ
ined to attack her. The Carobana bank lay between the Hornet and this newly-dis
covered enemy. "While she was beating around this another sail was discovered,
bearing down cautiously on her weather quarter. When she drew near she proved
to be a man-of-war brig, displaying British colors. The men of the Hornet were
called to quarters. The ship was cleared for action, and as the American ensign was
flung out she tacked, contended for the weather-gage unsuccessfully, and then stood
for her antagonist. The latter was on a like errand, and both vessels, with their
heads different ways, and lying close to the wind, passed within half pistol-shot of
each other at twenty-five minutes past five, delivering their broadsides from larboard
batteries as the guns bore. Immediately after passing, the stranger endeavored to
wear short round, so as to get a raking fire at the Hornet. Lawrence closely watched
the movement, and promptly imitating it, and firing his starboard guns, compelled
the stranger to right his helm. With a perfect blaze of fire the Hornet came down
upon her, closed, and in this advantageous position poured in her shot with so much
vigor for fifteen minutes that her antagonist not only struck her colors, but raised
the union down in the fore rigging as a signal of distress. Very soon afterward the
mainmast of the vanquished fell, and went over her side. Lieutenant J. T. Shubrick
was sent to take possession of her, and ascertain her name and condition. She was
the British man-of-war brig Peacock, 1 8, Captain William Peake. Her commander
was slain, a great portion of,her crew had fallen, and she was in a sinking condition.
She already had six feet of water in her hold. Lieutenant David Connor and Mid
shipman Benjamin Cooper were immediately dispatched with boats to bring off the
wounded, and endeavor to save the vessel. For this purpose both vessels were an-
1 See page 401. 2 She was the Eapiegle, mounting sixteen 32-pound carrouades and two long 9's.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 699
The Destruction of the Peacock. Conduct of Captain Lawrence. Prowess of the Americans respected.
chored. The guns of the Peacock were thrown overboard, the holes made by shot
were plugged, and every exertion was made to keep the battered hulk afloat until
the wounded could be removed. Their efforts were not wholly successful. The
short twilight closed before the work of mercy was accomplished. The vessel filled
rapidly ; and while thirteen of her crew and several men belonging to the Hornet
were yet on board of her, she suddenly went down. Nine of the thirteen, and three
of the Hornefs men,1 perished. Connor and several other Americans, and four of the
Peacock's crew, had a narrow escape from death. The latter saved themselves by
running up the rigging to the foretop, which remained above water when she set
tled on the bottom, for she sunk in only about five fathoms. Four prisoners, in the
confusion of the moment, had lowered the Peacock's stern boat and escaped to the
shore. Those who were saved received every attention from the victors. The crew
of the Hornet cheerfully divided their clothing with those of the Peacock • and so
sensible were the oificers of the latter of the generosity of the American commander
and his men, that, on their arrival in New York, they expressed their gratitude in a
public letter of thanks to Captain Lawrence.2 •
The loss of the British in this engagement, besides ship and property, is not ex
actly known. Captain Peake and four men were known to be killed, and four offi
cers and twenty-nine men were found wounded. Nine others were drowned. The
entire loss of life on the part of the enemy was probably not less than fifty. The
Hornet was scarcely touched in her hull, but her sails and rigging were considerably
cut, and her mainmast and bowsprit were wounded. Of her crew only one man was
killed3 and two wounded in the fight, and three, as we have observed, wTent down
with the Peacock.* Two others were injured by the explosion of a cartridge. The
strength of the Hornet in men and metal was slightly greater than that of the Pea
cock. She carried eighteen 32-pound carronades and two long 12's. The Peacock
was armed with sixteen 24-pound carronades, two long 9's, one 12-pound carronade
in the forecastle, one 6-pounder, and two swivels. Her men numbered one hundred
and thirty, and those of the Hornet one hundred and thirty-five.
Captain Lawrence found himself with two hundred and seventy-seven souls on
board, and short of water. He determined to return immediately to the United
States ; and he did not cast anchor until he reached Holmes's Hole, Martha's Vine
yard, on the 19th of March. On that day he wrote an official letter to the Secretary
of the Navy giving an account of his success, and on the 25th he arrived at the Brook
lyn Navy Yard. Intelligence of the exploits of the Hornet went over the land, and
produced the liveliest joy, as well as the most profound sensation in both countries.
The prowess and skill of American seamen were fully vindicated and acknowledged,
and the " Mistress of the Seas" found it necessary to move with the humiliating cau
tion of a doubter conscious of danger. " If a vessel had been moored for the sole
purpose of experiment," said a Halifax (British) newspaper, " it is not probable she
could have been sunk in so short a time. It icitt not do for our vessels to fight theirs
single-handed. The Americans are a dead nip." The President of the United States,
in his message to Congress at the special session in May, said, " In continuance of the
brilliant achievements of our infant navy, a signal triumph has been gained by Cap-
i John Hart, Joseph Williams, and Hannibal Boyd.
z "So much," they said, "was done to alleviate the uncomfortable and distressing situation in which we were placed
when received on board the ship you command, that we can not better express our feelings than by saying we ceased
to consider ourselves prisoners ; and every thing that friendship could dictate was adopted by you and the officers of
the Hornet to remedy the inconvenience we otherwise should have experienced from the unavoidable loss of the whole
of our property and clothes by the' sudden sinking of the Peacock." This was signed by the first and second lieuten
ants, the master, the surgeon, and the purser of the Peacock.
3 John Place, who was in the top. It is a singular fact that there was scarcely a mark of a ball seen below the main
top. The captain's pennant was shot from the mainmast at the beginning of the action.
* To this fact a poet of the time, in an elegy on the death of Lawrence, wrote:
" For 'twas the proud Peacock to the bottom did go ;
He lost more in saving than conquering his foe."
700
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Honors to Captain Lawrence and his Men.
Public Dinner in New York.
The Lawrence Medal.
tain Lawrence and his companions, in the Hornet sloop-of-war, with a celerity so un
exampled, and with a slaughter of the enemy so disproportionate to the loss in the
Hornet, as to claim for the conqueror the highest praise."1
The Common Council of New York resolved to present the " freedom of the city,"
with " a piece of plate with appropriate devices and inscriptions," to Captain Law
rence, and to give a public dinner to the officers and crew of the Hornet.'1 Afterward,
* January 4, when Lawrence was slain, the Congress of the United States requested11
the President to present to his nearest male relative a gold medal com
memorative of his services,3 and a silver medal to each of the commissioned officers
NTER HORNET NAV. AMERI.
ET PEACOCK NAV.ANG.
DIE XXIV. FEB.
DCCCXIII
MEDAL AWARDED TO CAPTAIN LAWRENCE BY COXGKEI
who served under him in the Hornet. Every where throughout the land the name
of Lawrence was honored; and, as usual after a victory, Art and Song made contri
butions to the garland of praise with which the people delighted to crown the chief
victor.4
1 Message to Congress, Special Session, May 25, 1813. In the Memoirs of Sir Charles Napier may be found the fol
lowing paragraph : "When in Bermuda, in 1813, with his regiment, Colonel Napier, writing to his mother, says : ' Two
packets are quite due, and we fear they have been taken, for the Yankees swarm here ; and when a frigate goes out to
drive them off by force they take her I Yankees fight well, and are gentlemen in their mode of warfare. Decatur re
fused Garden's sword, saying, " Sir, you have used it so well I should be ashamed to take it from you." These Yankees,
though so much abused, are really line fellows.'"
2 This dinner was given at Washington Hall, on Tuesday, the 4th of May. I have before me one of the orignal in
vitations issued by Augustus H. Lawrence, Elisha W. King, and Peter Mesier, Corporation Committee. It has a small
wood-cut at the head representing a naval battle, which was drawn ana engraved by Dr. Alexander Anderson, who is
yet (1867) engaged in his profession, though in the ninety-third year of his age. " In the evening the gallant tars were
treated to a seat in the pit of the theatre," says ThcWar, "by the managers, and roused the house by their jollity and
applause during the performance. The representations were adapted to suit the taste of the visitors and gratify the
patriotic enthusiasm of the audience. Captain Lawrence, with General Van Rensselaer, General Morton, and a num
ber of other official characters, filled one of the side boxes, and rrfade the house ring with huzzas on their appearance."
3 The above is a picture of the medal, proper size. On one side is seen the bust of Captain Lawrence, with the legend
"lAO LAWKENCE. DULCE ET DECORUM E8T PKO PATKIA
MOBI." On the reverse is seen a vessel in the act of sink
ing — her mizzen mast shot away ; a boat rowing toward
her from the American ship. Legend — " MANSUETUD.
MAJ. QTJAM VICTORIA." ExCrgUC — " INTER HORNET HAV.
AMERI. ET PEACOCK NAV. ANS. DIE XXIV. FEB. MDCCCXIII."
* Amos Doolittle, an engraver of New Haven, Connec
ticut, who engraved on copper, immediately after the
skirmishes at Lexington and Concord, four illustra
tions of the events of that day, drawn on the spot by
Earl, engraved and published a caricature concerning
the fight of the Hornet and Peacock, of which the annexed
picture is a miniature copy. An immense hornet, crying
out "Free trade and sailors' rights, you old rascal," is
seen alighting on the head of a bull (John Bull) with the
wings and tail of a peacock, and, by piercing his neck
"J with his sting, makes the mongrel animal roar " Boo-o-
1IOBNET AND PEACOOIi. 0-O-hOO ! ! !"
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 701
Cruise of the Chesapeake. Her Character. Lawrence in Command of her. A Challenge.
While the Hornet was making her way homeward, the Chesapeake, 38, Captain
Evans, which had been lying: in Boston Harbor for
some time, was out on an extensive cruise. She
left Boston toward the close of February, passed
the Canary and Cape Verd Islands, crossed the
equator, and for six weeks cruised in that region.
She then went to the coast of South America, passed the spot where the Peacock
went down, sailed through the West Indies, and up the coast of the United States to
the point of departure. During all that long cruise she met only three ships of war,
and accomplished nothing except the capture of four merchant vessels. As she en
tered Boston Harbor in a gale she lost a top-mast, and several men who were aloft
went overboard with it and were drowned. The Chesapeake had the reputation,of
being an " unlucky" ship before the war, and this unsuccessful cruise and melancholy
termination confirmed the impression. A superstitious notion prevailed in the navy
concerning " lucky" and " unlucky" vessels, and officers and seamen were averse to
serving in the Chesapeake on account of her " unlucky" character.1
Captain Evans was compelled to leave the service at the close of this cruise on
account of the loss of the sight of one of his eyes, and danger that menaced the oth
er. Lawrence, who had just been promoted from master commandant to captain,
was assigned to the command of the Chesapeake. He accepted it with reluctance,
because the seamen would not sail in her with the spirit that promised success.
British vessels were now blockading the harbors of Massachusetts. Hitherto that
blockade had been very mild on the New England coast, for the British Cabinet be
lieved that the people of that section, being largely opposed to the war, would, if
properly cajoled, prove recreant to patriotism, and either join the enemy outright, or
separate from and thus materially weaken the remainder of the States. This delusion
now began to yield to the stern arguments of events, and the blockade was made
more rigorous every hour. Blockading ships hovered like hawks along the New
England coast, and the Shannon, 38, and Teneclos, 38, were closely watching Boston
Harbor at the close of May.
The Hornet was now commanded by Captain Biddle, and had been placed under
the orders of Captain Lawrence. They were to cruise together if possible, going east
ward and northward from Boston for the twofold purpose of intercepting the British
vessels bound to the St. Lawrence, and ultimately to seek the Greenland whale-fish
eries. Every thing was in readiness at the close of May, when the Shannon, the com
plement in strength of the Chesapeake, appeared alone off Boston, in the attitude of a
challenger. She was observed by Lawrence, and on Tuesday, the 1st day of June,
that commander wrote as follows to the Secretary of the Navy :
" Since I had the honor of addressing you last I have been detained for want of
men. I am now getting under weigh, and shall endeavor to carry into execution the
instructions you have honored me with. An English frigate is now in sight from my
deck. I have sent a pilot boat out to reconnoitre, and should she be alone I am in
hopes to give a good account of her before night. My crew appear to be in fine spir
its, and, I trust, will do their duty."2 (See fac-simile on page 702.)
At a later hour Captain Philip Vere Broke, the commander of the Shannon, wrote
a challenge to Captain Lawrence, saying : " As the Chesapeake appears now ready
for sea, I request you will do me the favor to meet the Shannon with her, ship to ship,
to try the fortunes of our respective flags. To ah officer of your character it requires
some apology for proceeding to farther particulars. Be assured, sir, it is not from
1 "In the navy, at this particular juncture, the Constitution, Constellation, and Enterprise were the lucky vessels of the
service, and the Chesapeake and President the unlucky. The different vessels named went into the War -of 1S12 with
these characters, and they were singularly confirmed by circumstances."— Cooper, ii., 246.
2 Autograph letter in the Navy Department, Washington City. This was the last letter written by Captain Lawrence.
702
PICTOKIAL FIELD-BOOK
Captain Lawrence's last Official Letter.
any doubt I can entertain of your wishing to close with my proposal, but merely to
provide an answer to any objection which might be made, and very reasonably, upon
the chance of our receiving any unfair support."
Captain Broke then, in a long appendix to his challenge, explained his object, men
tioned his own strength, the disposition of other British vessels in the neighborhood,
OF THE WAK OF 1812.
703
Captain Broke's Challenge.
designated the place of combat,1 asked for a plan of mutual signals, offered arrange
ments concerning the presence of other vessels, and assured him that the Chesapeake
could not get to sea without " the risk of being crushed by the superior force of the
British squadron" then abroad.2
The Shannon ranked as a 38-gun ship, but mounted fifty-two guns.3 According
1 "I will send all other ships beyond the power of interfering with us, and meet you wherever it is most agreeable
to you, within the limits of the under-mentioned rendezvous, viz., From six to ten leagues east of Cape Cod Light
house, from eight to ten leagues east of Cape Ann's Light, on Cashe's ledge, in lat. 43° N., at any bearing and distance
you please to flx, off the south breakers of Nantucket, or the shoal on St. George's Bank." — MS. Challenge.
2 MS. Letter, with Captain Broke's signature, in the Navy Department, Washington City; This letter was sent by the
hand of Captain Slocum, of Salem. He was landed at Marblehead, and made his way to Boston as speedily as possible.
The Chesapeake had gone to sea, and he placed the letter in the hands of Commodore Baiubridge, the commandant of
the station.
3 The Shannon was built at Chatham, in England, in 1806. She was also known as " unlucky" by the British seamen
because two ships of the same name had been previously lost. One, a 32-gun frigate, was built in 1796, and lost by
shipwreck in 1SOO ; the other, of thirty-six guns, was built in 1803, and in the same year struck the ground in a gale, and
was wrecked under the batteries of Cape la Hogue.— James's Xaval Occurrences.
704 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Condition of the Chesapeake. A mutinous Feeling discovered. Lawrence accepts Broke's Challenge.
to Broke's challenge, she " mounted twenty-four guns on her broadside, and one light
boat-<nm ; 18-pounders on her main-deck, and 32-pound carronades on her quarter
deck and forecastle ; and was manned with a complement of three hundred men and
boys, besides thirty seamen" who had been taken out of captured vessels.1 She
was perfectly equipped, and her men were thoroughly disciplined ; and officers and
men had unwavering confidence in each other. Quite different was the case of the
Chesapeake. The seamen, as we have observed, naturally superstitious, regarded her
as " unlucky," and this opinion was disheartening. Captain Lawrence had been in
command of her only about ten days, and was unacquainted with the abilities of her
officers and men. Some of the former were absent on account of ill health. First
Lieutenant Octavius A. Page, of Virginia, a very superior officer, was sick with a lung
fever, of which he died in Boston soon afterward. Second Lieutenant Thompson was
absent on account of ill health, and Acting Lieutenants Nicholson and Pearce were
also absent from the same cause. The consequence was that Lieutenant Augustus
Ludlow, who was the third officer under Evans in the last cruise of the Chesapeake,
became Lawrence's second in command. He was very young, and had never acted
in that capacity, yet he was an officer of merit, and already distinguished. There
was but one other commissioned sea officer in the ship.
Captain Lawrence was beset with other difficulties. The crew were almost mutin
ous because of disputes concerning the prize-money won during the last cruise. There
were also a large number of mercenaries on board, among them a troublesome Por
tuguese, who was a boatswain's mate. Many of the crew had but recently enlisted ;
and in every way the Chesapeake was wholly unprepared for a conflict with an equal
in men and metal. But in armament she was almost equal to the Shannon. She
mounted twenty-eight long 18-pounders on the main-deck, sixteen 3 2-lb. carronades
on the quarter-deck, and four carronades of equal weight and a long 18-pounder on
the forecastle.2
After Captain Broke had dispatched his challenge to Salem he prepared his ship
for combat, displayed his colors in full, and lay off Boston light-house under easy sail.
Captain Lawrence understood this as a challenge, and when the pilot-boat, sent out
to reconnoitre, returned with the assurance that the Shannon was alone, he determ
ined to accept it. He well knew his disabilities, and told his officers that he would
rather fight the Shannon and Teneclos in succession, after a twenty days' cruise, than
to fight either alone on first putting to sea, when the thoughts of homes just left, sea
sickness, and other depressing circumstances would seriously affect his men. Yet,
innately brave, and always self-reliant, he acted upon his own impulses, and, without
consulting any one on shore, he weighed anchor toward noon.3
Captain Lawrence attempted to conciliate his crew by giving them checks for their
prize-money, and addressed them eloquently for a few minutes. He then ran iip three
ensigns, one on the mizzen-royal-mast-head, another on the peak, and a third in the
starboard main-rigging, and attempted to stimulate the quickened enthusiasm of his
men by unfurling at the fore a broad white flag bearing the words first used on the
Essex* FKEE TRADE AND SAILORS' RIGHTS. Yet they still murmured, for the Portu
guese was rebellious, and active in fomenting discontent.
1 Captain Broke's MS. Letter to Captain Lawrence. Lieutenant George Budd, who became a purser on board the
Shannon, said, in his dispatch from Halifax to the Secretary of the Navy, that she had, in addition to her complement,
" an officer and sixteen men belonging to the Belle Poule, and a part of the crew of the Tenedos."
2 The guns of the Chesapeake were all named. James, in his Naval Occurrences, page 232, has preserved the names of
those composing one broadside of the main-deck, and some of those on the quarter-deck and forecastle, as follows :
MAIN-DECK — Brother Jonathan, True Blue, Yankee Protection, Putnam, Raging EagU, Viper, General Warren, Mad An
thony, America, Washington, Liberty for Ever, Dreadnought, Defiance, Liberty or Death. QUABTEB-DECK— Bull-dog, Spit
fire, Nancy Dawson, Revenge, Bunker's Hill, Pocahontas, Tmvser, Willful Murder.
The Chesapeake was built at Norfolk, Virginia, in 1T97, at a cost of $221,000, and was considered one of the finest ves
sels of her class.
3 At nine o'clock the Shannon captured a small schooner off Boston Light. The Chesapeake saw this, fired a gun, and
loosed her foretop-sail as a signal for putting to sea. * See page 441.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 705
The Chesapeake goes out to fight. Great Excitement in Boston. Beginning of the Battle.
It was now noon — a pleasant day in early summer,a after a chilling mist a June 1(
had brooded for a week over Boston Harbor. The anchor of the Chesapeake 1813-
was lifted, and she rode gallantly out into the bay in the direction of her menacing
foe, followed by the eager eyes of thousands.1 As her antagonist was in sight, her
decks were immediately cleared for action, and both vessels, under easy sail, bore
away to a position about thirty miles from Boston Light, between Cape Cod and
Cape Ann.2
At four o'clock the Chesapeake fired a gun, which made the Shannon heave to. She
was soon under single-reefed top-sails and jib, while the Chesapeake, under whole top
sails and jib, was bearing down upon her with considerable speed. The breeze was
freshening, and as the latter approached her movements were watched on board the
Shannon with great anxiety, because it was uncertain on which side she was about
to close upon her antagonist, or whether she might not commence the action on her
quarter. Having the weather-gage the Chesapeake had the advantage ; and " the
history of naval warfare," says Mr. Cooper, " does not contain an instance of a ship's
being more gallantly conducted than the Chesapeake was now handled."3
Onward came the Chesapeake until she lay fairly along the larboard side of the
Shannon, yard-arm and yard-arm, within pistol-shot distance. It was now between
half past five and six o'clock in the evening. The Chesapeake was luffed, and ranged
up abeam, and as her foremast came in a line with the Shannons mizzen mast the
latter discharged her cabin guns, and the others in quick succession from aft forward.
The Chesapeake was silent for a moment until her guns bore, when she poured a de
structive broadside into her antagonist. Now came the tug with heavy metal. For
six or eight minutes the cannonade on both sides was incessant. In general effect
the Chesapeake had the best of the action at this juncture, but she had suffered dread
fully in the loss of officers and men. Compared with that of the foe, it was as ten to
one.4
While passing the Shannon's broadside, after a contest of twelve minutes, the Ches
apeake 's foretop-sail-tie and jib-sheet were shot away. Her spanker-brails were also
loosened, and the sail blew ont. Thus crippled at the moment when she was about
to take the wind out of the Shannon's sails, shoot ahead, lay across her bow, rake her,
and probably secure a victory, the Chesapeake would not obey her helm ; and when
the sails of her antagonist filled, she by some means got her mizzen rigging foul of
the Shannon's fore-chains. Thus entangled, the Chesapeake lay exposed to the raking
fire of the foe's carron-ades. These almost swept her upper decks. Captain Lawrence
was slightly wounded in the leg ; Mr. "White, the sailing-master, was killed ; Ludlow,
the first lieutenant, was badly wounded in two places by grape-shot ; and Mr. Brown,
the marine officer, Mr. Ballard, the acting fourth lieutenant, and Peter Adams, the
1 There was great excitement at Boston and in its neighborhood when it was known that the Chesapeake had gone
ont to meet the Shannon. Thousands of hearts beat quicker with the desire that Captain Lawrence should add new
laurels to those he had already won in his combat with the Peacock, and the harbor was soon swarming with small craft
making their way out to the probable scene of action. Yet there were those who were moved by opposite feelings.
The party opposed to the war was strong in Massachusetts, and when, a fortnight afterward, it was proposed in the
Legislature of that state to pass a vote of thanks to the then slain Lawrence for his gallantry in the capture of the Pea
cock, a preamble and resolution were adopted by the Senate declaring that similar attentions already given to military
and naval officers engaged in a like service had "given great discontent to many of the good people of the Common
wealth, it being considered by them as an encouragement and excitemeut to the continuance of the present unjust, un
necessary, and iniquitous war. The resolution was as follows :
" Resolved, as the sense of the Senate of Massachusetts, that in a war like the present, waged without justifiable cause,
and prosecuted in a manner which indicates that conquest and ambition are its real motives, it is not becoming a moral
and religious people to express any approbation of military or naval exploits which are not immediately connected with
the defense of our sea-coast and soil." — June 15, 1813.
2 From the high grounds near Salem the inhabitants had a distant view of the engagement, and the booming of the
cannon was heard far inland.
3 Cooper's Xaval History of the United States, ii., 248.
* "Of one hundred and fifty men quartered on the upper deck," said Lieutenant Ludlow to an officer of the Shannon,
"I did not see fifty on their legs after the first fire." The Shannon's topmen reported " that the hammocks, splinters,
and wrecks of all kinds driven across the deck formed a complete cloud." — Statement of Captain R. H. King, of the Royal
Navy.
YY
706
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Battle of the Chesapeake and Shannon. Captain Lawrence mortally wounded. " Don't give up the Ship."
THE CHESAPEAKE DISABLED BY THE SHANNON'S BKOADBIDE8.1
boatswain, were all mortally wounded. The latter was boatswain of the Constitution
in her action with the Guemere.
When Captain Lawrence perceived the entanglement of the ships he ordered his
boarders to be called up. Unfortunately, a negro bugler was employed to give the
signal instead of the drummer, as usual. Dismayed by the aspect of the fight, the
bugler skulked under the stern of the launch, and when called to duty he was so ter
rified that he could not give even a feeble blast.2 Oral orders were immediately
sent to the boarders, but these were imperfectly understood amid the din of battle.
At that moment, while Captain Lawrence was giving directions concerning the dam
aged foresails, that the ship might be rendered manageable, he was fatally wounded
by a musket-ball, and carried below by Lieutenant Cox, aided by some of the men.3
His last words when he left the deck were in substance, " Tell the men to fire faster
and not give up the ship. Fight her till she sinks !" These words of the dying hero
were remembered, and " Dortt give up the Ship" was the battle-cry of the American
Navy during the whole war. It was the motto upon the banner borne by Perry's
flag-ship in battle three months later, and is still a proverbial word of encouragement
to the struggling and faltering in life's various battles.4
The keen and experienced eye of Captain Broke quickly comprehended the weak-
1 This is from a sketch by Captain R. H. King, of the Royal Navy, who was with Captain Broke in the Shannon from
1SOG until 1814, excepting a short time in the spring of 1813. He rose to the rank of commander in 1828, and to captain
in 1839, when he withdrew from service afloat.
2 His name was George Brown. He was exchanged. Afterward he was tried at New London, found guilty of cow
ardice, and sentenced to the punishment of three hundred lashes on his bare back.
3 Lieutenant Cox commanded the middle division of the gun-deck. He heard the oral orders for the boarders, and
ran up at the moment when Lawrence fell.
* The following are the first and last stanzas of a stirring poem by R. M. Charlton :
" A hero on his vessel's deck " Oh, let these words your motto be,
Lay weltering in his gore, Whatever ills befall ;
And tattered sail and shattered wreck Though foes beset, and pleasures flee,
Told that the fight was o'er ; And passion's wiles enthrall.
But e'en when death had glazed his eye, Though danger spreads her ready snare
His feeble, quivering lip Your erring steps to trip,
Still uttered, with life's latest sigh, Remember that dead hero's prayer,
' Don't, don't give up the ship !' And ' don't give up the ship /" "
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
707
A desperate Struggle.
Treachery of a Portuguese.
Capture of the Chesapeake.
ness of the Chesapeake at this moment, she having no officer on the quarter-deck
above the rank of midshipman. He immediately ordered his boarders forward.
Placing himself, with his first lieutenant, at the head of twenty of them, and passing
cautiously from his fore-channels, he reached the quarter-deck of the Chesapeake
without opposition, for the gunners, finding all their officers fallen, and themselves
exposed to a raking fire without the means of returning a shot, had left the guns and
fled below. Meanwhile Lieutenant Budd had ordered the boarders to follow him up.
Only fifteen or twenty obeyed, and with these he gallantly attacked the British at
the gangways. He was almost instantly disabled by a severe wound, and thrown
down on the gun-deck. His followers were driven toward the forecastle. These
disasters aroused the severely-wounded young Ludlow. Having laid his commander
in the guard-room, he hurried upon deck, where he almost instantly received a fatal
sabre-wound, and was carried below.
Broke now ordered about sixty marines of the Shannon to join him. These kept
down the Americans who wrere ascending the main hatchway. Provoked by a shot
from below by a boy, they fired down the hatches, and killed and wounded a great
many men. The victory was soon made easy by treachery. The boatswain's mate
(the mutinous Portuguese already mentioned) removed the gratings of the berth-
deck, and then, running below, followed by a large number of the malcontents of the
morning, he shouted, maliciously, " So much for not paying men prize-money !" This
act gave the British complete control of the vessel ; and while a few gallant marines,
animated by the injunctions of the bleeding Lawrence, were yet defending the ship,
First Lieutenant Watts, of the Shannon, hauled down the colors of the Chesapeake
and hoisted the British flag. At that instant he was slain by a grape-shot from one
of the foremast guns of his own ship,
which struck him on the head.1
History has recorded but few naval
battles more sanguinary than this. It
lasted only fifteen minutes, and yet, as
Cooper remarks, " both ships were char
nel-houses." They presented a most dis
mal spectacle. The Chesapeake had lost
forty-eight men killed, and ninety-eight
wounded. The Shannon had lost twen
ty-six killed, and fifty -eight wounded.
Among the killed were Lieutenant Watt,
already mentioned, Mr. Aldham, the pur
ser, and Mr. Dunn, the captain's clerk.2
Both ships presented a most dismal ap
pearance. Marks of carnage and desola
tion every where met the eye.3 Captain
Broke, who had ordered the slaughter to
cease when the victory was gained, had
become delirious. Lawrence, too severe-
1 Captain Broke behaved most gallantly in this conflict. He received, according to his report, " a severe sabre-
wound at the first onset while charging a part of the enemy who had rallied on the forecastle," yet he continued his
orders until he was assured of victory, when he partly fainted from loss of blood. While a seaman was tying a hand
kerchief around the captain's wounded head, there was a cry, " There, sir, there goes up the old ensign over the Yankee
colors !" Washington Irving, in an account of the engagement, in the Analectic Magazine, says that Samuel Livermore,
of Boston, who, from personal attachment to Lawrence, had accompanied him as chaplain, attempted to avenge his fall.
He shot at Captain "Broke, but missed him. Broke made a stroke at Livermore's head with his sword, which the latter
warded off, but in so doing received a severe wound in the arm. 2 Captain Broke's Report.
3 There is a curious coincidence in the history of the Shannon and the American frigate Constitution. Within a few
days of each other, in the summer of 1360, these two vessels, whose names are dear to their respective nations, and both,
in "maritime parlance, ranking as invalids, were equipped and sailed on a cruise. The conqueror of the Chesapeake left
Portsmouth, England, and at about the same time the Constitution left Portsmouth, Virginia, on a short cruise, prepara-
pin or BOWES VEBE BROKE.
708
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The Chesapeake taken to Halifax.
Biographical Sketch of Captain Lawrence.
ly wounded to be carried to his shattered cabin, was left in the ward-room with his
own surgeon, seldom uttering a word except to indicate his wants. White lay
dead,1 Ballard,2 Broome,3 and Adams were dying, and the gallant Ludlow was suf
fering severely from a mortal wound.
TUB SHANNON AND CHESAPEAKE ENTERING TUB 1IAEBOB OF HALIFAX.4
As soon as the two ships were disentangled, the Shannon started for Halifax with
a June, her prize, where she arrived on the 7th. a Lawrence had expired the day be-
isis. for6j an(j his body, wrapped in the flag of the Chesapeake, lay upon the quar
ter-deck.5 As the ships entered the harbor, the men-of-war there manned their yards
tory to her taking her station at Annapolis as a school«ship. Each was about to be broken up many years ago, and each
was saved by poetical remonstrances — one by Tennyson, and the other by Holmes. The stirring poem by Holmes may
be found on page 437.
1 William Augustus White was a native of Rutland, Vermont, and was only twenty-six years of age. He was repre
sented as a noble and generous young man. His loss was greatly deplored by his friends, who regarded him as a young
man of great promise. A friendly hand wrote :
"Columbia's page in gen'rous strain shall tell
Those deeds of courage where her Lawrence fell ;
Honor shall gild the hero's spotless shrine,
And thine, O WHITE ! with kindred lustre shine."
2 Edward J. Ballard was an active and very promising young man. He was appointed a midshipman in February,
1800, and was commissioned a lieutenant on the day after the action in which he lost his life. The commission was is
sued before news of the action reached the Department. " Anxious to render himself useful, and to share in the glory
acquired by our naval heroes," wrote a friend, "he left (though scarcely recovered from an indisposition of. several
months) the peaceful asylum of friendship for his home on the ocean, and terminated with honor a well-spent life of
virtue."
3 James Broome, the commander of the marines, was a native of New Jersey. He was appointed a midshipman in
July, 1807. Of the forty-four marines under his command on board the Chesapeake, twelve were killed and twenty
wounded.
* From a sketch by Captain R. H. King, R. N.
* James Lawrence was born at Burlington, New Jersey, on the 1st of October, 1781. He was left to the tender care
of two sisters, his mother having died a few weeks after his birth. He exhibited a passion for the sea at the age of
twelve years, but his father designed him for the profession of the law. He entered upon a course of studies with his
brother John at Woodbury at the age of fourteen years, and soon afterward lost his father. Law was distasteful to
him. He longed for the sea, and his brother gave him the opportunity of acquiring preparatory knowledge. He ap
plied for a situation in the navy at the age of eighteen years, and entered the service as a midshipman in the ship
Ganges, Captain Tingey, in the autumn of 1798. He was transferred to the Adams. He was commissioned a lieutenant,
and was first officer of the Enterprise in the war with Tripoli. Decatur, in his official reports, acknowledges his serv
ices in the bombardment of Tripoli. After his return from the Mediterranean he was for some time attached to the
Navy Yard at New York. He became first lieutenant on the Constitution, and in succession commander! the Vixen,
Wasp, Argus, and Hornet. He married in New York in 1808. At the commencement of the war in 1812 he sailed in
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
709
Joy of the British.
Admiral Warren's Thanks to Captaiu Broke.
Effect of the Victory in England.
in honor of the conqueror. The eager inhab
itants crowded to the water-side, and cov
ered the wharves and houses. Shout after
shout went up from the multitude, and joy
filled every heart on shore, except of those
who mourned friends among the slain.1
The capture of a single ship of war prob
ably never produced a greater eifect upon
the contending parties than this victory of
the Shannon over the Chesapeake. The re
cent almost uninterrupted success of the lit
tle navy of the United States had made the
Americans believe that it was invincible, and
a similar idea was taking hold of the British
mind. The spell was now broken. The
Americans were desponding, the British jubi
lant. In his letter of thanks to Captain
Broke and the men of the Shannon, Sir John
Borlase Warren, the com-
mander-in-chief of the Brit
ish Navy on the Ameri
can station, observed that
they had " restored the re
nown wThich had ever ac
companied the British Navy from the foul and false aspersions endeavored to be
SIGNATURE AND SEAL OF ADMIEAL WAKKEN.
thrown upon it by an insidious enemy, and had by their exer
tions added one of the brightest laurels to the wreath which
O
had hitherto encircled the British arms."
The joy in England was intense. It was evinced by public
speeches in and out of Parliament,2 bonfires, and illuminations.
The Tower guns wTere fired as in the event of a victory like those
of the Nile and Trafalgar. The freedom of the city of London and a sword of the
value of one hundred guineas ($500) were voted to Captain Broke3 by the Corpora-
command of the Hornet, having been made master commandant in November, 1810. Off Demerara he fought the Pea
cock and sunk her. He returned to New York, where he was soon ordered to Boston to take command of the Chesa
peake. In her he died on the 5th of June, 1S13.
1 Cooper's Naval History of the United States; Thomson's Sketches of the War ; Perkins's History of the late War;
James's Naval Occurrences; Memoir of Captain Broke, in Naval (London) Chronicle; Irving's Memoir of Lawrence,
Analectic Magazine; Niles's Register; The War; Captain Broke's Report of the Battle; Anchinleck's History of the
War ; Lieutenant Budd's Report to Secretary of the Navy ; O'Byrne's Naval Biography ; The Essex Register, Boston
Chronicle, and National Intelligencer.
2 Mr. Croker, principal secretary to the Lords of the Admiralty, said in his place in the House of Commons, "It was
not— and he knew it was a bold assertion which he made— to be equaled by any engagement which graced the naval
annals of Great Britain."
3 Philip Bowes Vere Broke was born in Suffolkshire, England, on the 9th of September, 17T6. He was educated at
the Royal Academy in Portsmouth, and entered the navy in 1792. He served in the war between France and England,
and commanded the Shannon in cruises for the protection of the British whale fisheries in the Greenland seas. He was
in that service when war between the United States and Great Britain was declared. He was then dispatched with a
small squadron to blockade the New England ports. Because of his services in the capture of the Chesapeake he was
raieed to the dignity of baronet, and made Knight Commander of the Bath. Sir Philip married in early life Sarah Lou
isa, daughter of Sir William Fowle Middleton. He was one of the most active and useful officers of the British Navy un-
710 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Honors to Captain Broke. Silver Plate presented to him by his Neighbors.
tion of that city. He was knighted by the Prince Regent ; compliments were show
ered upon him from every quarter; and the inhabitants of Suffolk, his native county,
presented him with a gorgeous piece of silver plate as a testimonial of their sense of
his eminent services.1
SILVER PLATE PRESENTED TO CAPTAIN BROKE.
til his retirement, bearing the commission of Rear Admiral of the Red. He- died in Suffolk County on the 3d of Janu
ary, 1841, at the age of sixty-five years.
i A picture of this plate was published in London on the 2d of December, 1816, a copy of which, on a reduced scale,
is given above. The plate is described as being made of silver, and forty-four inches in diameter. It was enriched
with emblematical devices commemorative of the acts of the recipient on the occasion of his capture of the Chesapeake.
These devices are described as follows : The centre, enriched with a wreath of palm and laurel leaves, with groups of
Nereids and Tritons, presents the spectacle of the battle between the Shannon and Chesapeake. A deep and highly-fin
ished border composes the exterior of the circle, in which are significant devices in four principal divisions. In the first
compartment, in the form of an escalop-shell, is seen Neptune receiving the warrior. The former is issuing from the
sea with his attendants, and presenting to the hero (who is borne in a triumphal car, attended by Britannia and Lib
erty bearing the British flag) the naval coronet. In the compartment opposite Britannia is seen on a sea-horse, hold
ing the trident of Neptune in one hand, and with the other hurls the thunder of her power at the American eagle, which
is expiring at her feet in the presence of ocean deities. In a third compartment the device represents the triumph of
Victory. The winged goddess, bearing a coronal, approaches in her shell-car drawn by ocean steeds, and offers peace
to the vanquished. In the fourth compartment is represented the four quarters of the world, in the form of figures, as
sembled under the protection of the British lion, commerce having been secured to the world by British prowess. Be
sides these are the figures of Fortitude, Justice, Wisdom, and Peace, intended to represent the characteristics of the
British nation.
On the plate the following inscription was engraved : " Struck with the gallantry, skill, and decision displayed by Sir
Philip Bowes Vere Broke, Baronet, K.C.B., commander of his Majesty's frigate, the Shannon, in the attack, boarding,
and capture of the American frigate, the Chesapeake, of superior force in men and metal( and under the command of a
distinguished captain of light horse, on the 1st of June, 1813, achieved in the short space of fifteen minutes, the inhabit-
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
Respect for the Remains of Lawrence and Ludlow. Funeral Ceremonies. The Bodies of the Slain taken to Salem.
The most gratifying respect was paid to the remains of Captain Lawrence on their
arrival at Halifax, and also to those of Lieutenant Ludlow, who died there on the
13th of the month.1 The garrison furnished a funeral party from the Sixty-fourth
Regiment three hundred strong. The navy also furnished a funeral party, with pall
bearers, and at the appointed hour the body was taken in a boat from the Chesa
peake to the King's Wharf, where it was received by the military under Sir John
Wardlow. Six companies of the Sixty-fourth Regiment preceded the corpse. The
officers of the Chesapeake (headed by Lieu-
tenant Budd,2 who became the command-
er after the fall of his superiors) followed
it as mourners. The officers of the Brit-
ish Navy were also in attendance. These were followed by Sir Thomas Saumerez, the
staff, and officers of the garrison. The procession was closed by a number of the in
habitants of the town. The funeral services were performed by the rector of St.
Paul's Church, and three volleys' were discharged by the troops over the grave.
The feeling of depression in the American mind passed away as soon as reflection
asserted its dignity. All the circumstances were so unfavorable to the Chesapeake
that it was reasonable to suppose that such a misfortune would not occur again.
The deep mortification that assumed the features of censure was momentary, and the
gallant Lawrence and his companions were honored with every demonstration of re
spect. The most remarkable of these was exhibited in the patriotic and successful
efforts of Captain George Crowninshield, Jr., of Salem, Massachusetts, to restore the
bodies of Lawrence and Ludlow to their native land. He, with others, had seen the
contest in the distance from the heights around Salem, and the feelings then excited
were deepened by the intelligence of the fate of the gallant Lawrence and Ludlow,
and some of their companions. He opened a correspondence with the United States
government, asking permission to proceed to Halifax in the brig Henry, of which he
was master, with a flag of truce, to solicit from the authorities there the remains of
the honored dead. Permission was granted. The President of the United States
gave him a passport for the purpose,a and on the 7th of August he and some a juiy2s,
associates sailed in the Henry from Salem for Halifax.3 He arrived there on 1813>
the 10th. His errand was successful, and on the 13th of the same month he sailed
from Halifax for Salem with the remains of Lawrence and Ludlow. The Henry
reached Salem on the 1 8th of August, and on the following day Captain Crownin
shield wrote to the Secretary of the Navy informing him of the fact, and saying,
" The relatives of Captain Lawrence have requested that his remains might ultimate
ly rest in New York, but that funeral honors might be paid here, and, accordingly,
the ceremonies will take place on Monday next at Salem. Commodore Bainbridge
has been consulted on the occasion."
The funeral obsequies were performed at Salem on Monday, the 23d of August.
The morning was beautiful. The brig Henry lay at anchor in the harbor bearing her
precious freight, and near her the brig Rattlesnake. Almost every vessel in the wa-
ants of Suffolk, the victor's native county, anxious to evince their sense of his spirited, judicious, and determined con
duct in thus adding another brilliant trophy to the unrivaled triumphs of the British Navy, with a spontaneous burst
of feeling voted him this tribute of their affection, gratitude, and admiration."
1 Augustus C. Ludlow was son of Robert Ludlow, Esq., and was born at Newburg, New York, in 1792. He entered
the navy as a midshipman in April, 1804, and in the summer of that year sailed in the President for the Mediterranean
Sea. He returned home in the Constitution, then commanded by Captain Campbell, in 180T. He remained in her, under
Commodore Rodgers, until promoted to lieutenant, in June, 1S10, when he was placed in the Hornet. When Lawrence
became her commander he was charmed with Ludlow's character, and his knowledge of his young friend's worth made
him cheerfully continue him in his service on the Chesapeake as his first lieutenant.
2 For Lieutenant Budd's dispatch to the Secretary of the Navy from Halifax, June 15, 1813, see Brannan's Official Let
ters, Military and Aavrr?, Washington, 1823, page 167. He was appointed midshipman in the autumn of 1S05, commis
sioned a lieutenant in May, 1812, and master commandant in March, 1820. He died on the 3d of September, 1837.
3 These were Holton J. Breed, first officer ; Samuel Briggs, second officer ; and John Sinclair, Jeduthan Upton, Ste
phen Burchmore, Joseph L. Lee, Thomas Bowditch, Benjamin Upton, and Thorudike Proctor, all masters of vessels.
Mark Messurrey, cook, and Nathaniel Cummings, steward.
712
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Funeral Ceremonies at Salem. Removal of the Bodies to New York.
Testimonials of Regard.
THE COFFINS.
ters, and flag-staff in the town, exhibited the American ensign at half-mast, and nu
merous flags were displayed in the streets through which the funeral procession was
to pass. Thousands poured into the town from the surrounding country at an early
hour. The streets were thronged. The Boston South End Artillery were there with
the "Adams" and " Hancock," brass cannon of the Revolution, and men of distinction
in every pursuit of life participated in the funeral obsequies.
At a little past meridian the bodies were taken from the Henry and placed in
barges, accompanied by a long procession of boats manned by seamen in bluejackets
and wrhite trowsers, their hats bearing the words on Lawrence's white flag, FREE
TRADE AND SAILORS' RIGHTS. At India Wharf hearses were ready to receive them,
and at the same time the Henry and Rattlesnake were firing minute-guns alternately.1
The bells commenced tolling at one o'clock,2 and an immense procession moved to slow
and solemn music, escorted by a company of light infantry under Captain J. C. King.
They passed through the principal streets to the Rev. Mr. Spalding's meeting-house.3
The corpses were received by the clergy at the door, and
placed in the centre of the large aisle by the sailors wrho bore
them to the shore. These stood leaning upon the coffins dur
ing the services. The coffins were covered with black velvet,
with the monograms of the heroes inclosed in wTreaths, swords
crossed, and a marginal border all embroidered in silver. The
interior of the church was hung in black, and decorated with
cypress and evergreens ; and in front of the sacred desk the
names of LAWRENCE and LUDLOW appeared in letters of gold.
An eloquent and touching funeral oration was delivered by
the Honorable Joseph Story, and the rites of sepulture were
performed by the Masonic societies and the military, when
the bodies were placed in a vault.4
Preparations were soon made for removing the remains of Lawrence and Ludlow
to New York. Because of some delay in procuring an extension of the passport of
the Henry (so as to allow her to go to New York) from Acting Commander Oliver,
of the British blockading squadron off New London, they were conveyed to the navy
yard at Charleston on the 3d of September, and from thence taken to New York by
land. They were placed on board the United States sloop of wrar Alert, lying in New
York Harbor, while the city authorities made arrangements for a public funeral.5
1 A company under Captain Peabody fired minute-guns in Washington Square.
3 The bells in Boston, fifteen miles distant, were tolled at the same time, and the flags upon the shipping in the har
bor were displayed at half-mast. Minute-guns were fired by the Constitution and other vessels there.
3 The committee of arrangements applied for the use of the North Meeting-bouse (Dr. Barnard's), "particularly on
account of its size and the fine organ which it contained." They were refused, the committee of the proprietors sayiug
that they had no authority "to open the house for any
other purpose than public worship."
4 The death of Lawrence was the theme of several ele
giac poems written and published in different parts of the
country. Some of them were printed on satin, with em
blematic devices, and were framed and hung up in houses.
The annexed rough picture is a fac-simile of one of these
devices, one third the size of the original, designed and en
graved by A. Bowen, of Boston, and printed at the head
of an elegy, on satin, at the office of the Boston Chronicle.
I 'am indebted to the kind courtesy of Miss Caroline F.
Orne, of Cambridgeport, for a copy of the original, and
for other interesting papers made use of in this work.
s In the arrangements made for the funeral a substan
tial testimonial of regard was agreed to, in the form of an
appropriation of one thousand dollars each for the two
children of Captain Lawrence, to be vested in the Com
missioners of the Sinking Fund of the Corporation, the
interest to be applied to the use of the recipients, and the
principal to be given to the daughter when she should
arrive at the age of eighteen years, and to the son at the
age of twenty-one years.
LAWKENCE MEMORIAL.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
719
Medals awarded to Burrows and M'Call.
The Grave of Burrows.
On the 6th of January following-,* the Congress of the United States, by
joint resolution, requested the Chief Magistrate of the Republic to present to
the nearest male relative of Lieutenant Burrows "a gold medal, with suitable em
blems and devices, in testimony of the high sense entertained by Congress of the gal
lantry and good conduct of the officers and crew in the conflict with the British sloop
Boxer on the 4th of September, 1813."1 By the same joint resolution Congress re-
THE BURROWS MEDAL.
quested the President to present to Lieutenant M'Call, " as second in command of the
Enterprise in the conflict with the Boxer, a gold medal, with suitable emblems and
devices.2
In this engagement the Boxer was very much cut up both in hull and rigging,
while the Enterprise suffered very little. The battle was a fair test of the compara
tive nautical skill and good gunnery of the combatants. Justice accords the palm
for both to the Americans. A London paper, speaking of the battle, said, " The fact
seems to be but too clearly established that the Americans have some superior mode
The "passing stranger" above mentioned was Silas M. Burrows, of New York, who, being in Portland, visited the
cemetery, saw the neglected condition of the young hero's grave, and ordered a monument to be built. A poet unknown
to the author afterward wrote thus :
" I saw the green turf resting cold
On Burrows's hallowed grave ;
No stone the inquiring patriot told
Where slept the good and brave.
Heaven's rains and dew conspired to blot.
The traces of the holy spot.
At length a 'passing stranger' came,
Whose hand its bounties shed ;
He bade the sparkling marble claim
A tribute for the dead ;
And, sweetly blending, hence shall flow
The tears of gratitude and woe."
The tomb of Midshipman Waters is a marble slab resting on four round sandstone pillars. On the slab is the following
inscription : " Beneath this marble, by the side of his gallant commander, rest the remains of Lieutenant Kervin Waters,
a native of Georgetown, District of Columbia, who received a mortal wound, September 5, 1813, while a midshipman on
board the United States brig Enterprise, in an action with his Britannic Majesty's brig Boxer, which terminated in the
capture of the latter. He languished in severe pain, which he endured with fortitude, until September 25th, 1813, when
he died with Christian calmness and resignation, aged eighteen. The young men of Portland erect this stone as a tes
timony of their respect for his valor and virtues."
1 The picture above given is the exact size of the medal. On one side is seen an urn standing npon an altar, around
which are grouped military and other emblems, on one of which (a trident) hangs a victor's chaplet of laurel leaves.
Upon an elliptical panel on the side of the altar is seen " W. BURROWS," in prominent letters. Around the whole is the
legend " VICTORIAM TIBI CLARAM. PATRICE M>«STAM." On the reverse is seen the two brigs enaraered in combat, the main
top-mast of the Boxer shot away. Over them the legend " VIVEBE SAT VINCEEE." Exergue, "INTER ENTEBPRIZE NAV.
AMERI. ET BOXES NAT. BRIT. DIE iv SEPT. MDCCCCXIII." The date should be the 5th instead of the 4th.
2 On one side the bust of Lieutenant M'Call and the legend " EDWARD R. M;CALI. NAVIS ENTERPRISE PB.EFECTUS." Ex
ergue, " Sic ITCH AD ASTRA." The reverse the same as on that of Burrows.
720
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Loss of Life on the two Vessels.
Last Cruise of the Enterprise.
INTER ENTEHPH1ZE NAV
AMEHI. ET BOXEH VAV.
BRIT. DIE IV SEPT.
MDCCCXIII.
HE M'CALL MEDAL.
offering, and we can not be too anxiously employed in discovering to what circum
stances that superiority is owing." The loss of the Boxer was a great mortification ;
and there can be no doubt that Captain Blyth felt full assurance of victory when he
went into the contest. Indicative of this was the nailing of the flag to the mast, al
ways a most foolish and perilous boast in advance.1 The loss of the Boxer was sev
eral killed besides her commander, and seventeen wounded. The Enterprise lost only
one killed besides her commander, and ten wounded. This was the Boxer's last
cruise as a war vessel. She was sold in Portland, and sailed from that port for sev
eral years as a merchantman. The Enterprise made only one more cruise during the
war, under the command of Lieutenant Renshaw. She sailed southward as far as the
West Indies in company with the fast-sailing brig Rattlesnake, Lieutenant Creighton.
While off the coast of Florida she captured a British privateer, and both vessels were
chased by an English seventy-four. The Rattlesnake soon fled from the sight of both
consort and pursuer, while the Enterprise was hard pressed by the Englishman for
seventy hours. Renshaw cast all her guns overboard in order to increase her-speed.
It was of little avail. Nothing saved the " lucky" little brig from capture but a fa
vorable shifting of the wind. Not long afterward she sailed into Charleston Harbor,
and was there made a guard-ship. She did not appear again at sea during the war.
The melancholy tolling of the funeral bells over the slain Burrows and Blyth had
scarcely died away when merry peals of joy were heard all over the land in attesta
tion of the delight of the people caused by Perry's victory on Lake Erie, already fully
recorded in these pages. With that victory ceased rejoicings over the exploits of
the vessels of the regular navy during the remainder of the year, because, with a sin
gle exception, they were not remarkable ; but the piivateers then swarming upon the
ocean were doing excellent service every where. The history of their doings may be
found toward the close of the volume.
i Cooper relates (ii., 260, note) that, when the Enterprise hailed to know if the Boxer had struck, as she kept her flag
flying, one of the officers of the British vessel leaped upon a gun, shook both fists at the Americans, and shouted "No,
no, no !" at the same time nsing some strong opprobrious epithets. The excited gentleman's superiors were compelled
to order him down. His movement created much merriment on board the Enterprise.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
721
Weakness of the American Navy.
Beginning of the wonderful Cruise of the Essex.
CHAPTER XXXII.
" War-doom'd the wide expanse to plow
Of ocean with a single prow,
Midst hosts of foes with lynx's eye
And lion fang close hovering by,
You, Porter, dared the dangerous course,
Without a home, without resource,
Save that which heroes always find
In nautic skill and power of mind ;
Save where your stars in conquest shone,
And stripes made wealth of foes your own."
ODE TO DAVID POETEE, 1814.
S we take a survey from a stand-point at mid-autumn, 1813,
we observe with astonishment only three American frigates at
sea, namely, the President, 44 ; the Congress, 38 ; and the Es
sex, 32. The Constitution, 44, was undergoing repairs ; the
Constellation, 38, was blockaded at Norfolk ; and the United
States, 44, and Macedonian, 38, were prisoners in the Thames
above New London. The Adams, 28, was undergoing altera
tions and repairs, while the John Adams, 28, New York, 36,
and Boston, 28, were virtually condemned. All the brigs, ex
cepting the Enterprise, had been cap
tured, and she was not to be trusted at
sea much longer. The Essex, Commo
dore Porter, was the only government
vessel of size which was then sustain
ing the reputation of the American
Navy, and she was in far distant seas,
with a track equal to more than a third
of the circumference of the globe be
tween her and the home port from which
she sailed. Sheikas then making one
of the most remarkable cruises on rec
ord. Let us here consider it.
We have observed the Essex starting
from the Delaware in the autumn of
1812,a with orders to seek a
junction with the Constitu
tion and Hornet, under Commodore
Bainbridge, at designated places, but al
lowed, in the event of failure to do so,
to follow the dictates of the judgment
of her commander.1 She did not fall in
with her consorts of Bainbridge's little
squadron, and she sailed on a long
cruise in the South Atlantic and Pacific
Oceans. In anticipation of such cruise
Captain Porter took with him a larger
See page 458.
Zz
October 23.
722 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The Nocton a Prize to the Essex. A Search for Bainbridge. An English Governor deceived.
number of officers and crew than was common for a vessel of that size. Her mus
ter-roll contained three hundred and nineteen names ; and her supplies were so am
ple that she sank deep in the water, which greatly impaired her sailing quality.
The Essex took a southeast course for the pui-pose of crossing the tracks of vessels
bound from England to Bermuda, but met only a few Portuguese traders with whom
she had no hostile business. On the 27th of November she sighted the bold mount
ains of St. Jago, and ran into the harbor of Port Praya in search of the commodore.
There Porter received unbounded hospitalities from the Portuguese governor; and
when he had waited a proper time for the expected arrival of Bainbridge, he depart
ed with his ship loaded with pigs, sheep, fowls, and tropical fruits of every kind. He
concealed his destination from the governor, and, sailing eastward when he left port,
gave the impression that he was bound for the coast of Africa. When beyond tele
scopic range he changed his course, stood to the southwest, and crossed the equator
on the llth of December in longitude 30° west. On the following day he captured
his first British prize, the Nocton, 10, a government packet, with a crew of thirty-one
men, bound for Falmouth. She had fifty-five thousand dollars in specie on board.
This treasure and her crew were transferred to the Essex, and Lieutenant Finch (aft
erward Captain William Compton Bolton), with a crew of seventeen men, was direct
ed to go to the United States with her. She was captured by a British frigate be
tween Bermuda and the Capes of Virginia. Only the specie of the Nocton was se
cured by Porter.
a December 14, Two days after this victorya the pyramidal mountain peak of the
di'eary penal island of Fernando de Noronha, whereon no woman was
allowed to dwell, loomed up sullenly from the waste of waters. This was one of the
specified places of rendezvous of Bainbridge's squadron. Disguising the Essex as a
merchantman, and hoisting English colors, Porter sailed close to the island, anchored,
and sent Lieutenant Downes to the governor with a polite message, asking the priv
ilege of procuring water and other refreshments. Downes soon returned with a pi-es-
ent of fruit from the governor, and intelligence that only the week before the British
ships Acasta, 44, and Morgiana, 20, had sailed from the island, and left with the mag
istrate a letter for Sir James Yeo, of His Majesty's ship Southampton. Porter was
satisfied that the " British ships" spoken of were the Constitution and Hornet / that
the writer of the letter was Commodore Bainbridge, and the Sir James Yeo address
ed was himself. With this conviction, he sent Downes back to the governor with
the truly English present of porter and cheese, and the assurance that a gentleman
on board his vessel, iq||mately acquainted with Sir James, and who intended to sail
directly to England from Brazil, would be happy to carry the letter to the baronet.
The governor sent the letter to Porter. The latter broke the seal and read as follows :
"MY DEAR MEDITERRANEAN FRIEND, —
" Probably you may stop here. Don't attempt to water ; it is attended with too
much difficulty. I learned before I left England that you were bound to the Brazil
coast ; if so, we may meet at St. Salvador or Rio Janeiro. I should be happy to meet
and converse on our old affairs of captivity. Recollect our secret in those times.
"Your friend of His Majesty's ship Acasta, KERR."
The last clause in this letter gave Porter a needed hint. He called for a lighted
candle, and, holding the sheet of paper near the flame, the following note, written in
sympathetic ink,1 was revealed by the heat :
" I am bound off St. Salvador, thence off Cape Frio, where I intend to cruise until
1 Sympathetic ink is composed of compounds which, when written with, will remain invisible until heated. Solu
tions of cobalt thus become blue or green, lemon-juice turns brown, and a very dilute sulphuric acid blackens.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 723
Failure to find Bainbridge. The Essex sails for the Pacific Ocean. Her Arrival at Valparaiso.
the 1st of January. Go off Cape Frio, to the northward of Rio Janeiro, and keep a
look-out for me. YOUR FuiEim"1
With these instructions Porter sailed for Cape Frio. He came in sight of it three
days before the Constitution captured the Java,2 and for some time cruised up and
down the Brazilian coast between Cape Frio and St. Catharine. He met many Por
tuguese vessels, but could obtain no reliable information concerning the squadron.
His situation was becoming more and more perplexing. English influence was pow
erful all along the coasts of the South American continent, while the power of his
own government was little known or respected. He was, in a degree, in an enemy's
waters, with no friendly port into which he might run for shelter, carry prizes if he
should catch them, or procure necessary supplies. He was compelled, as he says in
his Journal, to choose between " capture, a blockade, or starvation." He was left to
his own resources, for he could not find the commodore, and he resolved to sweep
around Cape Horn, pounce upon the English whalers in the Pacific Ocean, and live
upon the enemy. The specie obtained from the Nocton would be a reliable resource
in an hour of need, and he could not doubt his success. With this determination he
spread the sails of the Essex to the breeze in the harbor of St. Catharine on the 26th
of January, 1813, and after a most tempestuous and perilous voyage made Cape Horn
on the 14th of February. At the close of that month the pleasant southwest breezes
came over the calmer ocean, and under their gentle influence the inhospitable coasts
of Patagonia and Lower Chili were soon passed. On the 5th of March the glittering
peaks of the Andes were seen hundreds of miles distant, and on the evening of that
day the anchor of the Essex was cast at the island of Mocha, off the coast of Arauca-
nia, for the first time after leaving St. Catharine. Its solitary mountain peak towered
more than a thousand feet in the clear blue firmament ; immense flocks of birds hov
ered over its unpeopled shores, and in its surrounding wraters shoals of seals were
sporting in the surf. A joyous hunt for a day by the delighted crew brought to the
ship an ample supply of coveted fresh meat, for the island, inhabited by Spaniards
before the reign of the buccaneers in that region, abounded with fat wild hogs and
horses. The flesh of the latter proved more savory than that of the former, and was
preferi-ed by the people of the Essex.
Porter had now spent two months without falling in with a hostile vessel. His
supplies of naval stores were portentously diminishing, and he anxiously hoped for
prey by which he might replenish his exhausted materials. With that hope he
cruised northward, enveloped for several days in thick fogs, when suddenly, on the
14th of March, as the Essex swept around the Point of Angels, the city of Valpa
raiso, the chief sea-port town of Chili, burst upon the vision like the creation of a ma
gician's wand. She had been running gallantly before a stiff breeze ; now she was
suddenly becalmed under the guns of a battery, so unexpectedly and near had the
turning of that point brought her to the town. The harbor and its shipping were in
full view. Several Spanish vessels were about departing ; and an armed American
brig, heavily laden, seeing the English colors at the mast-head of the Essex, had triced
up her ports and prepared for action. Unwilling to have a knowledge of the arrival
of an American frigate in those waters spread by the Spanish vessels along the coast,
and perceiving a British whaler preparing for sea, Porter bore off to the northward,
and in an hour or two lost sight of the town. He returned on the following day, ran
into port and anchored, and soon learned two important facts, namely, that Chili had
» just become independent of Spain, and the people were prepared to give him a cor
dial reception ; and that the Viceroy of Peru had sent out cruisers against the Amer
ican shipping in that quarter. Porter's appearance with a strong frigate was there-
1 Journal of a Cruise made to the Pacific Ocean by Captain David Porter, in the United States Frigate Essex, in the Years
1312, 1813, and 1814, i., 36. 2 See page 460.
724 PICTOKIAL FIELD-BOOK
Frieudliness of the Chilians. The Kasex in Search of British Whalers. Cruise among the Galapagos Islands.
fore exceedingly opportune, for American commerce lay at the mercy of English pri
vateers among the whalers, and the Peruvian corsairs.
The Essex was welcomed by the Chilian authorities by a salute of twenty-one guns
at the forts, and of nine guns from the American brig, which proved to be the Colt,
1 8 ; and Mr. Poinsett, the American Consul General, hastened from Santiago, the cap
ital of Chili, to join in the festivities which had been arranged for giving Porter a
formal reception. Dinners, balls, excursions on land and water followed, and the offi
cers of the Essex never forgot the delightful hours which they spent with the Chilian
beauties, by whom they were exceedingly petted. In this welcome, these entertain
ments, and the bright prospects of usefulness to their countrymen and a profitable
cruise for themselves, the people of the Essex found full compensation for all their
hardships during the terrible voyage from the stormy Atlantic around the dark cape
into the Pacific Sea.
As soon as she was tolerably victualed the Essex put to sea, and on the 25th fell
in with an American whaler, from whom Porter learned that two other vessels, the
Walker and Barclay, had just been captured by a Peruvian corsair offCoquimbo, ac
companied by an English ship. Porter pressed on up the coast, and s<5on overhauled
the corsair. She was the Nereyda. He took from her all her captured Americans,
and, after casting her cannon, ammunition, and small-arms overboard, sent her to Cal-
lao with a letter to the Peruvian viceroy, in which he denounced the piratical con
duct of the commander of the cruiser, and asked for punishment due for his crime.
The Essex then looked into Coquimbo, but, seeing nothing discernible, sailed for Cal-
lao. As she neared the harbor she recaptured the Barclay, and, making her her con
sort, sailed for the Galapagos Islands, the alleged resort of English whalers. From
the master and crew of the Barclay Porter ascertained that there were twenty-three
American and about twenty English whale-ships in that region. The latter were, in
general, fine vessels of between three and four hundred tons burden, and would af-
o ' ~
ford good prizes for the Essex. The most of them were armed, and bore letters of
marque.
On his way over the quiet Pacific toward the Galapagos, Porter made preparations
for fierce struggles with the armed English whalers. The ships were put in perfect
order, and then seven small boats were arranged as a flotilla and placed under the
command of Lieutenant Downes.1 They made Chatham Island on the 17th of April,
but found no enemy there. Similar disappointment awaited them at Charles Island
on the following day. Lieutenant Downes went ashore, and found a box nailed to a
post, over which was a black sign with the words HATHA WAY'S POST-OFFICE painted
on it in white letters. The contents of the post-office were conveyed on board the
Essex, and gave, by a list of English whalers that had touched there a few months
before, positive evidence that those islands were a resort for British vessels in that
service. With this assurance Porter cruised eagerly among the Galapagos, but al
most a fortnight was spent without seeing a single vessel. On the morning of the
» April, 29tha the welcome cry of "Sail, ho!" was heard, and a ship was seen to the
1813. westward. Soon afterward two others were observed a little farther to the
south. Porter immediately gave chase to the first-seen vessel, and at nine o'clock in
the morning she was his prize. She was the English whale-ship Montezuma, with
fourteen hundred barrels of oil on board. Placing a prize-crew in her, he made sail
after the other two vessels. The wind fell, and there was a dead calm. The flotilla
of small boats under Downes pushed forward. They pulled for the larger of the two
1 John Downes was born in Massachusetts. He entered the naval service as midshipman in 1802, and was active in
the attack on the shipping in the harbor of Tripoli. He accompanied Porter, as lieutenant, in the entire cruise of the
Essex, and became commander of the Essex Junior. In 1831 he was promoted to captain, and commanded the Potomac.
in the punishment of the Quallah Battoo people for outrages on American commerce. His last sea service was in 1834.
He died in Boston on the llth of August, 1854, and was buried with the honors due to his rank. Secretary Dobbin di
rected the officers of the Navy and Marine Corps to wear crape on the left arm for thirty days.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 725
Capture of the Georgiana and other English armed Whaling-ships. Porter in Command of a Squadron.
vessels, which kept training her guns upon the flotilla as it approached ; but between
two and three in the afternoon she surrendered without firing a shot. She was the
English whale-ship Georgiana. Her companion was captured in like manner. She
was the Policy, also a whaler. These three prizes furnished Porter with many need
ed supplies. Among these were beef, pork, cordage, water, and a large number of the
huge Galapagos turtles, whose flesh is delightful to the appetite and healthful to the
stomach.
Captain Porter fitted up the Georgiana as a cruiser. She had been built for the
service of the East India Company, and had the reputation of being a fast sailer. She
was pierced for eighteen guns, and had six mounted when taken. The Policy was
also pierced for eighteen guns, and had ten mounted. These were added to the ar
mament of the Georgiana, and she became a fitting consort of the Essex, with sixteen
light guns, under the command of the gallant Lieutenant Downes, with forty-one
men. He raised the American pennant over her on the 8th of JVIay,a and it
was saluted by seventeen guns. The crew of the Essex, officers and men, was
now reduced to two hundred and sixty-four souls.
The reputation of the Georgiana for fleetness was unmerited, yet Porter expected
to make her useful. She and the Essex parted company on the 12th of May, with a
clear understanding concerning places for rendezvous at specified times. The Essex,
accompanied by the Policy, Montezuma, and Barclay, did not cruise far from the Gal
apagos, and it was sixteen days before a strange sail was seen by her. On the after
noon of the 28thb one was seen ahead, and a general chase was made. At sun-
. b May
set she was visible from the frigate's deck, and she was stjll in sight on the
following morning. It was not long before the Essex got alongside of and captured
her. She was the English whale-ship Atlantic, mounting eight 18-pounder carron-
ades, and manned by twenty-three men, under the command of a renegade Nantucket
captain. She was pierced for twenty guns.
During this chase another vessel wras seen. With characteristic energy, Porter
placed Lieutenant M'Knight, of the Montezuma, in command of the Atlantic, and or
dered him to chase the newly-discovered stranger. The Essex also joined in the pur
suit, and the Greenwich, a vessel little lighter than the Atlantic, mounting ten guns,
and manned by twenty-five men, was added to the list of prizes in Porter's hands.
The Atlantic and Greenwich had letters of marque, and, being fast sailers, were very
dangerous to American commerce.
With all his prizes but the Georgiana, now five in number, Porter sailed for the
mouth of the Tumbez, in the Gulf of Guayaquil, on the South American Continent,
where he anchored on the 1 9th of June, off the miserable village of Tumbez. There
the little squadron was joined by the Georgiana," bringing with her two
prizes, the Hector, 11, and Catharine, 8. Downes had captured a third, the
Rose, 8, which he had filled with the superabundant prisoners and sent to St. Helena.
She was a dull sailer. He removed her oil, threw her guns overboard, and gave the
prisoners the ship on condition that they should sail for that rocky isle in the At
lantic.
Porter now found himself, at the end of eight months after he sailed from the Del
aware, in command of a squadron of nine armed vessels ready for formidable war
fare. The Atlantic being every way superior to the Georgiana, Lieutenant Com
manding Downes was transferred to her, with his crew. Twenty guns were mount
ed in her, and she was named Essex Junior. She was manned by sixty picked men.
The Georgiana was also armed with twenty guns, and converted into a store-ship,
under the command of" Parson" Adams, the chaplain of the Essex.
The squadron left Tumbez on the 30th of June, the Essex and Essex Junior sailing
in company until the 9th of July,d when the latter was dispatched for Val-
paraiso with the Catharine, Sector, Montezuma, Policy, and Barclay in con-
726 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Capture of the dreaded Seringapatam,. Successful cruising among the Galapagos Islands. Porter warned of Danger.
voy. The Essex at the same time, accompanied by the Georgiana and Greenwich,
•July, sailed westward toward the Galapagos. On the 13tha she captured the En-
1813. gHsh whale-ship Charlton, armed with ten guns, and manned by twenty-one
men. Two other vessels had been seen in her company, the larger of which, the pris
oners from the Charlton said, was the Seringapatam, mounting fourteen guns, and
manned by forty men. She had been built in England for the Sultan Tippoo Saib
for a cruiser, and was the most formidable enemy of American shipping in the Pacific
Ocean. Porter longed for her capture, and was soon gratified. The Greenwich bore
gallantly down upon her, and, after exchanging a few broadsides, the English vessel
surrendered. She soon afterward made an unsuccessful effort to escape. The small
er vessel, called the New Zealander, was captured without difficulty.
Porter's prisoners were now so numerous that he was compelled to admit a large
number to parole. These were placed in the Charlton, and sent to Rio de, Janeiro
under a pledge of honor. The guns were taken out of the New Zealander and placed
in the Seringapatam, giving her an armament of twenty-two heavy pieces, but with
an insufficient crew. She was thus converted into a formidable cruiser. The Geor
giana, with a hundred thousand dollars worth of spermaceti oil, was sent to the
United States, bearing in irons the captain of the Seringapatam, who was found with
out a commission as privateer, and liable to the penalties of piracy.
The Essex, with the Greenwich, Seringapatam, and JVew Zealander, now sailed for
Albemarle Island, the largest of the Galapagos group. On the morning of the
28thb they discovered a strange sail. Chase was given, and continued all
day, but she eluded her pursuers during the ensuing night. This was the first
time that the Essex had failed to place herself alongside of an antagonist since she
entered the Pacific Ocean, and Porter and his people were much mortified. The
cruise continued, and on the 4th of August the little squadron anchored off James's
Island, a short distance from Albemarle. There they remained more than a fortnight,
and on the 22d anchored in Banks's Bay, between Narborough Island and the north
head of Albemarle, where the prizes were moored, and from whence the Essex pro
ceeded0 on a short cruise alone. After sailing for some time along the
c ATI crust 24
Galapagos without meeting any vessels, Porter was gratified by the ap
parition of a strange sail on the 15th of September, apparently lying to, far to the
southward and to the windward* The Essex, disguised, approached her, and discov
ered her to be an English whale-ship engaged in the process of "cutting in," or get
ting on board the ship the blubber of the great fish. When the Essex was within
about four miles of the whaler, the latter became alarmed, cast off her fish, and made
sail. The Essex threw off her disguise and pursued, and at four o'clock in the after
noon had the stranger within range of her guns. A few shots brought her to, and
she became a prize. She was the Sir Andrew Hammond, armed with twelve guns,
and manned by thirty-one men. She was the vessel that escaped the Essex on the
night of the 28th of July. She had on board a large supply of beef, pork, bread,
wood, and w^ater, of which the Essex was in need. With this prize she returned to
Banks's Bay, where she was soon afterward joined by the Essex Junior from Val
paraiso. Downes had there moored three of the prizes, and sent the fourth, the Pol
icy, to the United States with a cargo of spermaceti oil.
While at Valparaiso Downes learned two important facts, namely, that the exploits
of the Essex had produced great excitement in the British Navy, and caused the gov
ernment to send out the frigate Phoebe, with one or two consorts, to attempt her cap
ture ; and that the Chilian authorities were becoming more friendly to the English
than to the Americans. Surveying the situation in the light of this information, Por
ter resolved to go to the Marquesas Islands, refit his vessels, and return to the United
States. His cruise had been remarkably successful. He had captured almost every
English whale-ship known to be off the coasts of Peru and Chili, and had deprived
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 727
Porter, with his Squadron, sails for the Marquesas Islands. Arrival at Nooaheevah. White Residents on the Island.
the enemy of property to the amount of two and a half millions of dollars, and three
hundred and sixty seamen. He had also released the American whalers from danger,
and inspired the Peruvians and Chilians with the most profound respect for the
American Navy. Accordingly, on the 2d of October, he spread the sails of the Es
sex to the breeze, and she sailed westward from Banks's Bay, followed by the Essex
Junior, Seringapatam, New Zealander, /Sir Andrew Hammond, and Greenwich. Most
of these were slow sailers, and kept the Essex back. The impatient Porter, fearing
the delay might cause him to miss an English vessel bound for India of which he
had heard, sent the Essex Junior forward to the Marquesas with instructions to at
tempt to intercept and capture her. Meanwhile the squadron crept lazily over the
calm sea, and on the 23d of October the group of the Marquesas was seen looming up
from the western horizon. On the following day they neared the shores, and saw the
natives thronging the beaches and swiftly navigating the waters in light canoes.
After passing among the islands a few days, the Essex finally anchored in a fine bay
of Nooaheevah with her prizes, except the Essex Junior, which came in soon after
ward.
"The situation of the Essex" says Cooper,1 "was sufficiently remarkable at this
moment to merit a brief notice. She had been the first American to carry the pen
nant of a man-of-war around the Cape of Good Hope, and now she had been the first
to bring it into this distant ocean. More than ten thousand miles from home, with
out colonies, stations, or even a really friendly port to repair to, short of stores, with
out a consort, and otherwise in possession of none of the required means of subsist
ence and efficiency, she had boldly steered into this distant region, where she had
found all that she had acquired through her own activity ; and having swept the seas
of her enemies, she had now retired to these little-frequented islands to refit with the
security of a ship at home. It is due to the officer who so promptly adopted and so
successfully executed this plan, to add, that his enterprise, self-reliance, and skill indi
cated a man of bold and masculine conception, of great resources, and of a high de
gree of moral courage — qualities that are indispensable in forming a naval captain."
The bay in which the squadron was moored, and its surroundings, presented very
picturesque scenery to the navigators. A beautiful valley was seen extending back
from it among the lofty hills, and here and there a native village dotted its margins.
Rich vegetation crowned the eminences, and cultivated fields smiled along the slopes
and beautiful intervales. The natives every where among the group of islands had
appeared very friendly, and Captain Porter expected nothing but quiet and full suc
cess in fitting his vessels for his long homeward voyage. In this he was disappoint
ed, for during his stay he was compelled to engage in a military campaign, and take
possession of Nooaheevah by force of arms. It happened in this wise :
The anchor of the Essex had just been cast when a canoe shot out from the shore
and came alongside the frigate. It contained three white men, one of whom was
naked and tattooed like the natives. This man was an Englishman, named Wilson,
and had been on the island twenty years. One of his companions was Midshipman
John Maury, of the United States Navy, who had been left on the island to gather
sandal-wopd while the merchant vessel that bore him to it should go to China and
return. He was accompanied by a seaman. These were the only white men on
Nooaheevah. They informed Porter that war was raging on the island between the
native tribes who inhabited the different valleys, and that it was quite fierce between
the Taeehs, who dwelt in the one before them, and the Happahs over the mountains.
He. was farther informed that he would probably be compelled to take the part of
the Taeehs against the Happahs in order to get from them such supplies as he de
sired and the island afforded.
Wilson understood the native language well, and became Porter's interpreter.
i Naval History of the United States, ii., 222.
728
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Civil War in Nooaheevah.
Porter threatens to engage in it.
The "mighty Gattanewa."
With him the captain landed, and was met on the beach by a throng of men, women,
and children, who not only welcomed him, but gave cordial greetings to the marines,
who followed him with beating drums, and fired volleys of musketry in the air.
These unusual sounds brought swarms of the Happahs to the crest of the mountain,
where they brandished their spears and clubs in the most threatening manner. They
had lately spread desolation through portions of the valley of the Taeehs, destroying
houses, plantations, and bread-fruit-trees. Porter immediately sent them word that
he had come with force sufficient to take possession of the whole island, and that if
they ventured into the Tienhoy Valley as enemies while he remained he would pun
ish them severely. He gave them permission to bring hogs and fruit to the shore,
and promised them protection while trafficking. This bold message delighted the
Taeehs, and filled the Happahs with awe, because of the powerful ally which good
fortune had brought to their enemies.
Porter had just returned to his ship when he was informed that the great Gatta
newa, the mighty King of the Taeehs, a descendant of Oateia, or Daylight, through
eighty-eight generations, had returned from a tour of inspection to one or two of his
strong-holds among the mountains. A boat was sent to bring the monarch on board
the Essex, and all hands
waited in expectation
of seeing a most digni
fied personage, for their
eyes had already seen
the really beautiful and
stately granddaughter
of the monarch. They
were disappointed. Be
fore them appeared a
tottering man leaning
upon a rude stick, bent
with the weight of years,
naked, excepting tem
ples covered with with
ered palm -leaves and
loins swathed in dirty
tappa or native cloth, his
skin black with tattoo
ing, and made almost
leprous in appearance by
the effects of excessive
indulgence in the use of
kava, a native intoxicat
ing drink. He was then
stupefied by its effects,
and it was not until aft
er he had slept long in
the cabin of the Essex
that he was able to talk
of public affairs.
Porter agreed to assist
Gattanewa against the Happahs and Typees, his chief enemies. He established a
camp in a shady plain not far from the beach, and at the same time active labor was
commenced in the service of preparing the Essex for her long voyage. Days passed
on, and so peaceful did the Americans appear that the Happahs were emboldened.
THE MIGHTY GATTAMEWA.
OF THE WAK OF 1812.
729
Battles with the Natives.
Porter victorious.
Change iii the Name of the Island and Harbor.
They poured into the valley, menaced the camp, and sent a messenger to Porter to
tell him that he was a coward. The old monarch and his chief warriors urged Por
ter to strike a withering blow. He complied with their request. He landed a 6-
pounder cannon, and the natives carried it to the summit of the mountain. He then
sent Lieutenant Downes, with forty men with muskets, to attack the Happahs. They
were driven from hill to hill until they reached one of their forts on the brow of
an eminence. There, four thousand strong, they made a stand, and hurled spears
and stones at the assailants. The fort was stormed and captured, and the awe-struck
Happahs fled in every direction. Their hostility was overcome, and they hastened
to send messengers with prayers for peace. Within a week envoys from almost ev
ery tribe on the island appeared bearing tribute-treasures and tokens of friendship.
Porter's power was supreme. He took possession of a conical hill overlooking his
encampment and the harbor, cast up a breastwork formed of water-casks filled with
earth, mounted four guns upon it, raised the American flag over it, and on the 19th
of November took formal possession of the island. He named Nooaheevah Madison
Island, and the breastwork Fort Madison, in honor of the President of the United
States ; and to the beautiful expanse of water before him he gave the name of Mas
sachusetts Bay, in token of his attachment to his birth-place. The fort was placed
THE ESSKX AND UEK PPaZKS IN MASSACHUSETTS HAY, .NOOAUEEVA1I
in command of Lieutenant John M. Gamble, of the Marines, and Messrs. Feltus and
Clapp, midshipmen, with twenty-one men, were placed under his orders, and remained
there until the squadron was ready to sail. This was wise precaution to secure the
speedy repairs of the Essex.
The powerful Typees had remained hostile, and became more and more defiant,
to the great discomfort of Gattanewa's people and the annoyance of the Americans.
At length Porter resolved to make war upon them. An expedition, consisting of
thirty-five Americans, including Captain Porter and five thousand Taeehs and Hap
pahs, moved against the incorrigibles. The Typees, armed with slings and spears,
met them with such overwhelming numbers and fierce determination, that at the end
of the first day they were compelled to fall back to the beach, and numbering among
their casualties a shattered leg belonging to Lieutenant Downes, caused by a blow
from a sling-man's stone. That night the valley of the Typees resounded with shouts
of victory, and the sonorous reverberations of many beaten drums.
Porter renewed the attempt the next day, and led his motley army boldly over
the rugged hills into the Typee Valley, in the midst of great exposure to hostile mis-
1 From a drawing by Captain Porter.
730 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The Typee Valley desolated. The Women of Nooaheevah. Porter arrives at Valparaiso.
siles from concealed foes, and many privations. Village after
village was destroyed until they came to the principal town,
in which were fine .buildings, a large public square, temples
and gods, huge war-canoes, and other exhibitions of half-sav
age life. These were all reduced to ashes, and by the broom
of desolation that beautiful valley, four miles in width and
nine in length, was made a blackened desert. The Typees,
utterly ruined and humbled, now submissively paid tribute,
and Porter could say
"I am monarch of all I survey ;
My right there is none to dispute." MAEQUESAS DKUM.
Porter had allowed his crew full indulgence while at Nooahevah. The natives
were lavish in that species of savage hospitality which gives concubines to strangers
in the persons of their wives and daughters. The women of that island were really
beautiful in figure and feature, and not much darker in complexion than most Spanish
women. Warm attachments were formed between them and the seamen, and when,
on the eve of departure, Porter forbade his men going on shore, they were greatly
discontented. For three days during this restraint they became almost mutinous.
" The girls," says Porter in his Journal, " lined the beach from morning until night,
and every moment importuned me to take the taboos off the men, and laughingly ex
pressed their grief by dipping their fingers into the sea and touching their eyes, so as
to let the salt water trickle down their cheeks. Others would seize a chip, and, hold
ing it in the manner of a shark's tooth, declared they would cut themselves to pieces
in their despair ; some threatened to beat their brains out with a spear of grass, some
'to drown themselves, and all were determined to inflict upon themselves some dread
ful punishment if I did not permit their sweet-hearts to come on shore."1 Porter's
men did not take the deprivation so good-naturedly. Their situation, they said, was
worse than slavery ; and a man named Robert White declared, on board the Essex
Junior, that the crew of the Essex had come to a resolution not to weigh her anchor,
or, if they should be compelled to get the ship under weigh, in three days' time after
leaving the port to seize the ship and hoist their own flag. Porter thought it neces
sary to notice the affair. He assembled his men and addressed them kindly. He
spoke of the reported threat, expressed his belief that the rumor could not be true,
but added, " should such an event take place, I will, without hesitation, put a match
to the magazine and blow you all to eternity." He added that perhaps there might
be some grounds for the report, and said, " Let me see who are and who are not dis
posed to obey my orders. You who are inclined to get the ship under weigh, come
on the starboard side ; and you who are otherwise disposed, remain where you are."
All hastened to the starboard side. The men showed great willingness to be obe
dient. Then White, the ringleader of the mutineers, if there were any, was called
out. After informing the crew that this was the man who had slandered them, Por
ter sent him ashore in one of the numerous canoes in which the natives were swarm
ing around the ship, and left him behind.
The Essex was thoroughly fitted for her long voyage and for encountering ene
mies early in December, and on the 12tha she sailed, with her prizes, from
Nooaheevah, taking with her Mr. Maury and his companion. They stretched
away eastward to the South American continent, and early in January the peaks of
the Andes were visible. On the 3d of Februaryb Porter entered the harbor
of Valparaiso, exchanged salutes with the fort, went on shore to pay his re
spects to the governor, and on the following day received a visit from his Excellency
and his wife, and some other officers. Meanwhile the Essex Junior cruised off the
port as a scout to give warning of the approach of any man-of-war. Notwithstand-
1 See Porter's Journal, ii., 13T.
OF THE WAR 0 F 1 8 1 2. 731
Incidents in the Harbor of Valparaiso. Porter's Generosity. He tries to fight.or run the Blockade.
ing the friendly demonstrations of the governor, it was evident to Captain Porter that
the English were in higher favor than the Americans with the Chilian government.
Porter had not been long in Valparaiso when two English men-of-war were report
ed in the offing. They sailed into the harbor all prepared for action, and seemed
ready to violate the hospitalities of a neutral port. These vessels were the Phoebe,
36, Captain Hillyar, and the Cherub, 20, Captain Tucker. The former mounted thirty
long 18-pounders, sixteen 32-pound carronades, and one howitzer, and six 3-pounders
in her tops. Her crew consisted of three hundred and twenty men and boys. The
Cherub mounted eighteen 32-pound carronades below, with eight 24-pound carron
ades and two long 9's above, making a total of twenty-eight guns. Her crew mus
tered one hundred and eighty. The Essex at this time could muster only two hund
red and twenty-five souls, and the Essex Junior only sixty. The Essex had forty 32-
pound carronades, and six long 12-pounders ; and the Essex Junior bore only ten 18-
pound carronades, and ten short 6's. The weight of men and metal was heavily in
favor of the British vessels.
As the Phoebe came sweeping into the harbor with her men all at quarters, and ran
close alongside the Essex, Porter warned Hillyar that if his vessel touched the Amer
ican frigate he should open upon her, and much blood would be shed, for he was fully
prepared for action. " I do not intend to board you," exclaimed the Englishman,
who perceived Porter's readiness to fight, but as he luffed up his ship was taken
aback, and his jib-boom was thrown across the forecastle of the Essex in a menacing
manner. Porter summoned his men and bade them spring upon the Phoebe, cutlasses
in hand, the moment when the two vessels should touch each other. She was com
pletely in the power of the Essex, and with the aid of the Essex Junior the American
frigate might have sunk the Phoebe in fifteen minutes. Hillyar saw his helplessness,
and, throwing up his hands in consternation, declared that his present position was
an accident. The chivalrous Porter accepted the apology, and the frightened En
glishman was allowed to pass on. It was afterward generally believed that Hillyar
had positive orders to attack the Essex, even in a neutral South American port, and
that his intentions were hostile until the moment when he discovered his imminent
peril in the power of the gallant American.
After obtaining some supplies, the English vessels went out and cruised off Val
paraiso. During a period of more than six weeks Porter tried in vain to bring on an
engagement with the Phoebe singly, or with the Essex Junior in company. On the
27th of February he felt sure of a fight, for the Phoebe stood close in for the harbor,
displaying a banner on which were the words " God and our Country ; British Sailors'
best Rights ; Traitors offend both." Porter accepted this as a challenge, quickly pre
pared his vessel, and hoisting a banner under his old motto, " Free Trade and Sailors'
Rights," with the words " God, our Country, and Liberty ; Tyrants offend them," he
sailed boldly out. Hillyar, who had doubtless been instructed not to fight the Essex
alone, quickly showed the stern of his ship, and ran down to the Cherub, to the great
disgust of the Americans.
Informed that other English cruisers might be expected soon, Porter determined
to run the blockade and put to sea. On the 28th of March he spread his sails to a
stiff southwest breeze, and made a bold dash for the open Pacific. A heavy squall
struck the Essex as she rounded the Point of Angels, carrying away the maintop-
mast, and over into the deep the men who were aloft reefing. They were lost. The
British ships, lying in wait outside, immediately gave chase, while the crippled frig
ate crawled toward the friendly port to repair damages. She could not reach her
old anchorage in time to escape the enemy, so she took shelter in a bay not far from
a battery, and anchored within pistol-shot of the shore. Notwithstanding that was
neutral ground, the enemy's vessels bore down upon the Essex, and Captain Hillyar,
unmindful of the courtesy of Porter when the Phoebe was within his power, proceed^
732 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The Essex crippled. Porter's Generosity not reciprocated. Battle between the Essex and two British Ships.
ed to attack her. The Essex prepared for conflict, and endeavored to place a spring
on her cable. Before this could be accomplished the Phoebe got in an advantageous
a March 28, position, and, at a few minutes before five o'clock in the afternoon,a opened
tire upon the stern of the American frigate with his long guns. The Cher
ub at the same time assailed the starboard bow of the Essex, while the Essex Junior
was unable to render her consort any assistance.
The Cherub was soon driven off by the bow-guns of the Essex, and joined with the
Phoebe in a severe raking fire on the American. For a while the latter was unable
to reply, but at length three of her long twelves were run out of her stern ports* and
were handled with so much dexterity and power that, at the end of half an hour aft
er the action commenced, both of the English ships were compelled to haul off and
repair damages. The Essex had been much bruised in the conflict, and many of her
crew were killed or wounded. Her ensign at the gaff and her battle-flag had been
shot aAvay, but her banner, inscribed " FREE TRADE AND SAILORS' RIGHTS,"* was still
flying at the fore. Every man, from the commander down, resolved to defend her to
the last.
The Phoebe and Cherub soon renewed their attack in a position on the starboard
quarter of the Essex where she could make no effectual resistance, the distance be
tween her and her antagonists being too great to be reached by her carronades.
Their fire was very galling, and Porter was driven to the alternative of surrendering,
or running down to close quarters with his enemy. He decided on the latter move
ment, notwithstanding his ship had suffered a farther loss of important spars and
rigging. So badly wTas she crippled that the only sail that could be made available
was the flying jib. This was hoisted, the cable was cut, and slowly the Essex edged
away toward the Phoebe until she was within range of the frigate's carronades, when
for a few minutes the firing on both sides was tremendous. The Phoebe changed her
position to a long range, and kept up a terrific cannonade upon her helpless antago
nist, whose deck was now strewn with the dead, her cockpit and ward-room filled with
the wounded, and a portion of her hull in flames. Many of her guns were disabled ;
and at one of them no less than fifteen men — three entire crews — fell dead or mor
tally wounded. Yet she drove off the Cherub, and for two hours maintained the
terrible combat with her principal antagonist.
Porter now perceived no chance for boarding the Phoebe, and the raking of her
long guns was producing horrible carnage in his ship. He resolved to attempt to
run her ashore, land her people, and set her on fire. The wind was favorable ; but
when she was within musket-shot distance from the beach, it shifted, paying the
ship's head broad off, leaving her exposed to a raking fire from the Phoebe. At this
moment of extreme peril, Lieutenant Downes came from the Essex Junior in an open
boat to receive orders. He was directed to defend, or, if necessary, to destroy his
own vessel. He returned with some of the wounded, and left three sound men who
came with him.
The slaughter on the Essex continued, the enemy's shot hulling her at almost every
discharge. Still Porter held out, hoping to lay his ship alongside the cautious Phoebe.
He let go an anchor, by which the head of his vessel was brought round and enabled
to give his enemy a broadside. It was effectual. The Phoebe was crippled by it,
and began drifting away with the tide. Porter was hopeful of success, Avhen his
hawser parted, and the Essex, an almost helpless wreck and on fire, floated toward
her antagonist. The flames came up both the main and forward hatchways. There
was no longer a chance for saving the ship. The magazine was threatened. Already
an explosion of powder had added to the confusion. Porter was unhurt. He called
a council of officers. Only one man (Lieutenant Stephen D. M'Knight2) came ! The
1 See page 441.
2 Stephen Decatur M'Knight was a native of Connecticut. After the capture of the Essex, he, with a companion
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
733
Surrender of the Essex.
The Conduct of the British Commander.
Porter returns Home.
rest were either slain or wounded. He then told his men that those who preferred to
take the risk of drowning by jumping overboard and swimming for the shore, to the
certainty of being blown up, might do so. Many accepted the offer. Some reached
the beach ; a large number were drowned. Porter hauled down his flag. The ves
sel was surrendered, and the flames were extinguished. Of the two hundred and
twenty-five brave men who went into the fight, only seventy-five effective ones re
mained. Fifty-eight had been killed, sixty-six wounded, and thirty-one were missing.
The two vessels of the enemy lost, in the aggregate, only five killed and ten wounded.
ACTION BETWEEN THE ESSEX AND THE PHIEBE AND CHEEUB.1
Thus ended the wonderful and brilliant cruise of the Essex. Her closing exploits
were as gallant as her former career. " We have been unfortunate, but not dis
graced," wrote her noble commander. " The defense of the Essex has not been less
honorable to her officers and crew than the capture of an equal force; and I now
consider my situation less unpleasant than that of Commodore Hillyar, who, in vio
lation of every principle of honor and generosity, and regai'dless of the rights of na
tions, attacked the Essex in her crippled state within pistol-shot of a neutral shore,
when for six weeks I had daily offered him fair and honorable combat."2
By an arrangement with the victorious Hillyar the Essex Junior was made a car
tel, and in her Porter and his surviving companions sailed for the United States. Aft
er a voyage of seventy-three days they arrived on the coast off Long Island, and fell
in with the Saturn, a British ship of war, whose commander (Xash) questioned the
papers of the Essex Junior, and detained her. The indignant Porter considered this
treatment a violation of his arrangements with Hillyar, and escaped in a whale-boat.
After sailing and rowing about sixty miles, he landed near Babylon, on the south side
of Long Island, where he was suspected of being a British officer. His commission
settled the question, and he enjoyed unbounded hospitality. He made his way to
New York, where he was received with demonstrations of most profound respect ;
and when intelligence went over the country of the exploits of the Essex, every city,
named James Lyman, were sent to Rio de Janeiro as prisoners of war, where they were shipped for England in a Swed
ish vessel. They were never heard of afterward. The vessel arrived in safety, but the captain of the vessel never gave
any account of them. 1 From a drawing by Captain Porter.
2 Porter's Dispatch to the Secretary of the Navy, July 3, 1813. Porter relates that when he was about to part with
Hillyar at Valparaiso, he alluded to his conduct in attacking the Essex under such circumstances, when the British com
mander, with tears in his eyes, said, "My dear Porter, you know not the responsibility that hung over me with respect
to your ship. Perhaps my life depended on taking her." "I asked no explanations at the time," says Porter, when
writing of the affair several years afterward. "If he can show that the responsibility rests on his government, I shall
do him justice with more pleasure than I now impeach his conduct." — Journal, ii., 157.
734
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Honors to Commodore Porter.
His subsequent Career.
His Death and Monument.
village, and hamlet was vocal with his praises. Municipal honors were lavished upon
him ; and several State Legislatures and the National Congress thanked him for his
services. By universal acclamation he was called the Hero of the Pacific. Philip
Freneau, the popular bard of the Revolution, wrote a dull ode on " The Capture of the
Essex /" and a livelier poet, in his " Battle of Valparaiso," thus sang :
"From the laurel's fairest bough
Let the muse her garland twine,
To adorn our Porter's brow,
Who, beyond the burning line,
Led his caravan of tars o'er the tide.
To the pilgrims fill the bowl,
Who, around the southern pole,
Saw new constellations roll,
For their guide."
This cruise was Porter's most eminent service afloat. He aided in the defense of
Baltimore a few weeks after his return home ; and at the close of the war he was ap
pointed one of the commissioners on naval aifairs. In 1817 he commanded a small
fleet sent to break up a nest of pirates and freebooters in the Gulf of Mexico. In
1826 he resigned his commission in the navy, and afterward became the representa
tive of the United States in Turkey,
as resident minister, at Constantinople.
He died near that city in 1843, at the
age of sixty-three years. His remains
were brought to the United States;
landed at Philadelphia; borne to St.
Stephen's Church, South Tenth Street,
wherein religious services for the occa
sion were performed ; and he was buried
on the north side of that church. They
were afterward removed to the groiinds
of the Naval Asylum on the banks of
the Schuylkill, and buried at the foot of
the flag-staff. Once more they were re
moved, and now find a resting-place be
neath a beautiful monument in Wood-
lawn Cenfetery, Philadelphia. His coun
trymen remember him with just pride.1
.While Commodore Porter was in the
Pacific with the Essex, Commodore
Rodgers was on a long cruise in the
North Atlantic in his favorite frigate,
KAVII> POUTER'S MONUMENT. the President, 44. He left Boston on
1 David Porter was born in Boston on the 1st of February, 1780. His first experience in the navy was in the frigate
Constellation, in which he entered as midshipman in 1T9S. He was in the action between that vessel and L' Imurgente,
in February, 1790, when his gallantry was so conspicuous that he was immediately promoted to lieutenant. He accom
panied the first United States squadron that ever sailed to the Mediterranean in 1803, and was on board the Philadelphia
when she struck on the rock in the Harbor of Tripoli. There he suffered imprisonment. In 1S06 he was appointed to
the command of the Enterprise, and cruised in the Mediterranean for six years. On his return to the United States he
was placed in command of the flotilla station near New Orleans, where he remained until war was declared in 1812,
when he was promoted to captain, and assigned to the command of the frigate Essex. His exploits in her have been
recorded in the text of this chapter.
The following are the inscriptions on Porter's monument in Woodlawn Cemetery, Philadelphia :
North Side.—" COMMODORE DAVID PORTER, one of the most heroic sons of Pennsylvania, having long represented MB
country with fidelity as minister resident at Constantinople, died at that city in the patriotic discharge of his duty,
March 3, 1843."
South Side.—" In the War of 1812 hia merits were exhibited not merely as an intrepid commander, but in exploring
new fields of success and glory. A career of brilliant good fortune was crowned by an engagement against superior
force and fearful advantages, which history records as an event among the most remarkable in naval warfare."
Wfst Side.— "His early youth was conspicuous for skill and gallantry in the naval services of the United States when
the American arms were exercised with romantic chivalry before the battlements of Tripoli. He was on all occasions
OF THE WAK OF 1812. 735
Rodgers's unsuccessful Cruise. Capture of Merchant Vessels and the Highflyer.
the 27th of April, 1813, and President Road on the 30th, in company with the Con
gress, 38, and, after a cruise of one hundred and forty-eight days, arrived at Newport,
Rhode Island, having captured eleven sail of merchant vessels and the British armed
schooner Highflyer.
Rodgers sailed northeasterly, in the direction of the southern edge of the Gulf
Stream, until the 8th of May, when the President and Congress parted company,1 the
former cruising off more to the southward in quest of the British commercial ships
in the West India trade. She was unsuccessful, and Rodgers turned her head in a
direction that promised the good fortune of intercepting vessels trading between the
West Indies and Halifax, St. John's and Quebec. Again there was no success ; and
after beating about among almost perpetual fogs, the President was off the Azores
early in June. Rodgers now determined to try his fortune in the North Sea in search
of British merchantmen. Much to his astonishment, he did not meet with a single
vessel until he made the Shetland Islands, and there he found only Danish ships trad
ing to England under British licenses.
Rodgers's supplies now began to fail, and he put into North Bergen, in Norway, for
the purpose of replenishment. In this, too, he was disappointed. An alarming scarc
ity of food prevailed over all the country, and he was able to obtain only water. He
put to sea, and cruised about in those high latitudes with the hope of falling in with
a fleet of English merchantmen which were to sail from Archangel at the middle of
July. At the moment when he expected to make prizes of some of them, he fell in
with two British ships of war. Unable to contend with them, the President fled,
hotly pursued by the foe. Owing to the perpetual daylight (the sun at that season
being there several degrees above the horizon at midnight), they were enabled to
keep up the chase more than eighty hours, during which time they were much nearer
the President than was desirable on the part of the pursued. She finally escaped ;
and Rodgers, neither daunted nor disheartened, and having his stores somewhat re
plenished by those of two vessels which fell into his hands just before the appearance
of the war-ships, turned westward to intercept merchantmen eoming out of and going
into the Irish Channel. Between the 25th of July and the 1st of August he captured
three vessels, when, finding that the enemy had a superior force in that vicinity, he
found it expedient to change his ground. After making a complete circuit of Ire
land, and getting into the latitude of Cape Clear, he steered for the Banks of New
foundland, near which he made two more captures. From one of these he learned
that the Bellerophon, 74, and Hyperion frigate (both British vessels) were only a few
miles from him. He did not fall in with them, however, and soon stood for the coast
of the United States.2
On the 23d of September the President toward evening fell in with the British
armed schooner Highflyer, tender to Admiral Warren's flag-ship St. Domingo. She
was a fine vessel of her class ; a fast sailer, and was commanded by Lieutenant
Hutchinson. When discovered she was six or seven miles distant. By a stratagem
Rodgers decoyed her alongside the President, and captured her without firing a gun.
She did not even discover that the President was her enemy until the stratagem had
succeeded. It was done in this wise : Previous to his departure on this cruise Rodg
ers was placed in possession of some of the British signals. These he had ordered
to be made on board his ship, and he now resolved to try their efficacy. He hoisted
an English ensign over the President. The Highflyer answered by displaying an
other, and at the same time a signal from a mast-head. To Rodgers's delight, he dis-
among the bravest of the brave ; zealous in the performance of every duty ; ardent and resolute in the trying hour of
calamity ; composed and steady in the blaze of victory."
East Side.—TXo inscription. On the upper part of the column the word " PORTER," in a wreath. On the lower part a
trident and anchor crossed.
1 The Conffress continued at sea until the 12th of December, having cruised in the far-distant waters of the South
American coast. She captured several British vessels, among them two armed brigs often guns each.
2 Letter of Commodore Rodgers to the Secretary of the Navy, dated Newport, September 27, 1813.
736 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
How Roclgers captured the Highflyer. Astonishment of her Commander. Rodgers's Service to his Country.
covered that he possessed its compleme-nt. He then signaled that his vessel was the
Sea Horse, one of the largest of its class known to be then on the American coast.
The Highflyer at once bore down, hove to under the stern of the President, and re
ceived one of Rodgers's lieutenants on board, who was dressed in British uniform.
He bore an order from Rodgers for the commander of the Highflyer to send his sig
nal-books on board to be altered, as some of the Yankees, it was alleged, had obtained
possession of some of them. The unsuspecting lieutenant obeyed, and Rodgers was
put in possession of the key to the whole correspondence of the British Navy.1
The commander of the Highflyer soon followed his signal-books. He was pleased
with every thing on board the supposed Sea Horse, and admired even the scarlet
uniform of Rodgers's marines, whom he mistook for British soldiers. When invited
into the cabin, he placed in the commodore's hands a bundle of dispatches for Ad
miral Warren, and informed his supposed friend that the main object of the British
naval commander-in-chief on the American station at that time was the capture or
destruction of the President, which had been greatly annoying British commerce, and
spreading alarm throughout British waters. The commodore inquired what kind of
a man Rodgers was, when the lieutenant replied that he had never seen him, but had
heard that he was " an odd fish, and hard to catch." " Sir," said Rodgers, with start
ling emphasis, " do you know what vessel you are on board of?" " Why, yes, sir,"
he replied, " on board His Majesty's ship Sea Horse!" " Then, sir, you labor under a
mistake," said Rodgers. " You are on board the United States frigate President, and
I am Commodore Rodgers, at your service !" At the same moment the band struck
up Yankee Doodle on the President's quarter-deck, and over it the American ensign
was displayed, while the uniforms of the marines were suddenly changed from red to
blue !2 The British commander could hardly be persuaded to believe the testimony
of his own senses ; and he was astounded when he found himself in the hands of Com
modore Rodgers. He had been one of Cockburn's subalterns when that marauder
plundered and burned Havre de Grace3 a few months before ; and it is affirmed that
Lieutenant Hutchinson had now in his possession a SAvord which he earned away from
Commodore Rodgers's house on that occasion.4 He had been warned by Captain
Oliver, when receiving his instructions as commander of the Highflyer, to take care
and not be outwitted by the Yankees. " Especially be careful," said Oliver, " not to
fall into the hands of Commodore Rodgers, for if he comes across you, he will hoist
you upon his jib-boom and carry you into Boston !"5 But Rodgers treated the sin
ner with all the courtesy due to a prisoner of war, and he was soon allowed to go at
large on parole.6
Three days after the capture of the Highflyer1 Rodgers sailed into Newport Har
bor, accompanied by his prize, her commander, and fifty-five other prisoners. His
cruise, as he said, had not been productive of much additional lustre to the American
Navy, but he had rendered his country signal service by harassing the enemy's com
merce, and keeping more than twenty vessels in search of him for several weeks. He
had captured eleven merchant vessels, and two hundred and seventy-one prisoners.
All of the latter, excepting the fifty-five, had been paroled, and sent home in the cap
tured vessels.
1 See a description of signals on pages 182-184.
2 Statement of Commodore Rodgers after the war to a- friend at his own table in Washington City. Letter of Com
modore Rodgers to the Secretary of the Navy, September 27, 1813. 3 See page 6T2.
4 National Advocate, November, 1813. 5 Niles's Register, v., 129.
6 George Hutchinson entered the British navy as midshipman in 1T06, and was active in the various official grades
through which he passed up to that of commander in the autumn of 1821. He was commissioned a lieutenant in 1806,
and in 1811 he was assigned to a station on the St. Domingo, preparing for the American coast. He first commanded the
Dolphin, a vessel captured by the British from the Americans at the mouth of the Rappahannock early in April, 1813,
and converted into a tender of the St.Domingo. See page 669. He was afterward commander of another tender of the
flag-ship, the Highflyer, and was captured in her, as we have observed in the text, on the 26th of September, 1813. Aft
er his promotion to commander in the British navy in 1821, he retired from active service, and was yet on the half-pay
list in 1849. See O'Byrne's Naval Biography. ' This was the only man-of-war ever captured by Rodgers.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 737
Another Cruise of the President. She runs the Blockade at New York. Honors to Commander Rodgers.
Commodore Rodgers sailed from Newport on another cruise in the President on
the 5th of December,11 with a stiff breeze from the north-northwest, and got
a 1 Q1 3
well to sea without falling in with a British squadron, as he expected to. On
the following day he captured the Cornet, which had been taken from the Americans
by British cruisers, and then sailed southward. In the vicinity of Barbadoes he
captured a British merchantman on the 5th of January,1" on the 7th anoth- 1 1314.
er, and on the 9th another. He remained to the windward of Barbadoes
until the 16th,c when he ran down into the Caribbean Sea, and cruised cjanuary-
unsuccessfully in that region for a while. He finally captured and sunk a British
merchantman, and then sailed for the coast of Florida. Proceeding northward, he
was off Charleston Bar on the llth of February,*1 but did not enter. He con
tinued his voyage up the coast, chasing and being chased, and, dashing through
a vigilant British blockading squadron off Sandy Hook, he sailed into New York
harbor on the evening of the 18th.1 He was greeted with honors by the citizens of
New York ; and on the 7th of March a dinner was given in compliment to him at
Tammany Hall. Most of the notables of the city were present ; and it was on that
occasion that Rodgers gave the following toast, which was received with great en
thusiasm by the company present, and praised by the administration newspapers
throughout the country : " Peace — if it can be obtained without the sacrifice of na
tional honor or the abandonment of maritime rights ; otherwise war until peace shall
be secured without the sacrifice of either." More than three hundred gentlemen were
at the dinner, among whom were many ship-masters. A toast to the commodore
elicited eighteen cheers, and a song hastily written that morning was sung by one
of the guests.2
The President being in need of a thorough overhauling, the Secretary of the Navy
offered to Commodore Rodgers the command of the Guerriere, which might much
sooner be made ready for sea.3 The commodore accepted the offer, and repaired to
Philadelphia, where the Guerriere, 44, was being fitted out. Finding her not so near
ly ready as he had supposed her to be,4 the commodore informed the secretary that
he preferred to retain command of the President. But the Secretary, in the interim,
had offered the President to Decatur. Rodgers courteously allowed that command
er to take his choice of vessels, when he chose that which had borne the broad pen
nant of Commodoi-e Rodgers for several years.5
Here closes the story of the naval operations of the war for the year 1813. An
other field of observation now claims our consideration.
1 Letter of Commodore Rodgers to the Secretary of the Navy, February 19, 1813. 2 See Niles's Register, vi., 44.
3 "Commodore Rodgers," said a writer at this time, "is, we conjecture, between forty and forty-five years of age; a
man of few words, and not conspicuous for the love of parade or dress ; but his ship, for interior order, neatness, ele
gance, and taste, may vie with any that floats on the ocean. It is said that his discipline is perfect ; and this, perhaps,
may account for the opinion that he is distant and very reserved to those under him ; but his reserve in company car
ries the air of the reserve of the studious man, without the least trait of haughtiness, for humanity and great attention
to the care of the youth under his command is a pleasing trait in this brave man's character."— The Polyanthus, Boston.
* The Guerriwe was launched on the 20th of July, and was the first two-decked ship that ever properly belonged to
the American Navy.— Cooper.
5 Rodgers's evasion of the blockade was a cause of deep mortification to the British, for three of their large ships of
war were on the alert, the nearest of which was the Plantagenet, 74, Captain Lloyd. Rodgers expected a brush with
them, and cleared his ship for action. He even fired a gun to windward as a proof of his willingness to fight, but he
was not molested. On returning to England, Lloyd excused himself by alleging a mutiny in his ship, and on that
charge several of the sailors were executed.
3 A
738 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Louisiana and the Floridas. Insurrectionary Movements. Events at Baton Rouge.
CHAPTER XXXIH.
" Oh, dim waned the moon through the flitting clouds of night,
With a dubious and shadowy gleaming,
Where the ramparts of Minis rose stilly on the sight,
And the star-spangled banner was streaming.
And far still that wild horde of savage birth they deem'd,
And far every fearful intrusion,
Till the war-hatchet swift o'er their fated fortress gleam'd,
Midst despair, havoc, death, and confusion."
A SOUVENIR OP FOKT MIMS, BY C. L. S. JONES.
' ITHERTO, in the course of our narrative, we have only observed
hints of hostile operations in the more southern portion of the
republic, beginning with the endeavors of Tecumtha to induce
the Creeks, Cherokees, Choctaws, and other tribes in the Gulf
region1 to become a part of his great Indian Confederacy against
the white people. We have now reached a point in the story
where a consideration of the events of the war in that region is
necessary to the unity of the history.
Let us first consider the geographical and political aspect of the Gulf region.
In a former chapter we have considered the purchase by and cession to the United
States of the vast Territory known as Louisiana.2 Eastward of that Territory, at the
time of the breaking out of the war in 1812, and bordering on the Gulf of Mexico,
was a region in possession of the Spaniards, known as East and West Florida. The
former extended from the Perdido River (now the boundary-line between the states
of Florida and Alabama) eastward to the Atlantic Ocean, including the great penin
sula lying south of Georgia, and stretching over almost six degrees of latitude. The
latter extended westward from the Perdido to (as the Spaniards claimed) the island
of Orleans, on the Mississippi. The northern boundary was partly on and partly a
little below the thirty-first parallel.
During the autumn of 1810, and winter of 1810 and 1811, movements were inaugu
rated which finally led to the absolute possession of both Floridas by the United
States. In October, that portion of the claimed Spanish territory lying on the Mis
sissippi became the theatre of insurrectionary operations. It was inhabited chiefly
by persons of British and American birth. These seized the old fort at Baton Rouge ;
met in Convention ; declared themselves independent of Spain ; and adopted a flag
with a lone star upon it, as the revolutionists in Texas did many years later.3 The
1 These families came under the general name of Mobilian tribes ; and their territory originally was next in extent to
that of the Algonquins, stretching along the Gulf of Mexico from the Atlantic to the Mississippi River more than six
hundred miles, up the Mississippi to the mouth of the Ohio, and along the Atlantic to the Cape Pear. It comprised a
greater portion of the present State of Georgia, a part of South Carolina, the whole of Florida, Alabama, and Mississip
pi, and portions of Tennessee and Kentucky. The nation was divided into three grand confederacies, namely, Musco-
gees or Creeks, Choctaws, and Chickasaws. The Creek confederacy included the Creeks proper, the Seminoles of Florida,
and the Yamassees, or Savannahs, of Georgia.
The Creeks occupied the country from the Atlantic westward to the high lands which separate the waters of the Ala
bama and Tombigbee Rivers.
The Choctaws inhabited the beautiful country bordering upon the Gulf of Mexico, and extending west of the Creeks
to the Mississippi.
The Cherokees were the mountaineers of the South, and inhabited the very beautiful land extending from the Caro
lina Broad River on the east to the Alabama on the west, including the whole of the upper portion of Georgia from the
head waters of the Alatamaha to those of the Tennessee. It is one of the most delightful regions in the United States.
2 See page 131.
3 There was a family named Kemper in that region who had suffered much at the hands of the Spaniards. They were
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 739
West Florida claimed by the United States. Military Movements therein. Intermeddling of a British Official.
Spanish Loyalists made slight resistance, but it was soon overcome; and the insur
gents asked the government of the United States to give them aid and recognition.
Already that government had claimed a right, under the act of cession, to the entire
Territory of West Florida, and that claim was a topic for dispute between it and
that of Spain. Instead, therefore, of countenancing the insurgents in their efforts to
set up for themselves, the President issued a proclamation on the 27th of October, in
which he declared the Territory of West Florida, as far east as the Pearl River, to
be in the possession of the United States. W. C. C. Claiborne, the governor of the
Orleans Territory (afterward called the State of Louisiana), then in Washington, was
hurried off to take possession of it, avowedly not only as a right, but as a friendly
act toward Spain, whose rights were as much jeoparded by the revolutionary move
ment as was those of the United States. Claiborne was clothed with powers to em
ploy troops then in the Mississippi Territory, if necessary, to enable him to take and
hold possession of the country.
Not long after this, a body of men, chiefly Americans from Fort Stoddart, on the
Mobile River, led by Colonel Reuben Kemper, who professed to be acting under the
authority of the Florida insurgents, menaced the port of Mobile.1 They were driven
away, but still threatened that post ; and the Spanish governor, Folch, thoroughly
alarmed, wrote a letter to Mr. Monroe, the American Secretary of State, in which he,
expressed a desire, in the event of his not being speedily re-enforced from Havana or
Vera Cruz, to treat for the surrender of the whole province of Florida. At about the
same time, Morier, the British Charge d' Affaires, residing at Baltimore, formally pro
tested against such acquisition on the part of the United States as an act unfriendly
to Spain, then struggling with the gigantic power of Napoleon.
When Congress assembled in December,* the question of the occupation of
Florida by the United States had assumed a very important aspect in the pub
lic mind. The Federalists were vehemently opposed to all farther acquisition of ter
ritory; and when, early in January ,b the letter of the Spanish governor bjanuary3i
and the protest of the British charge were laid before Congress, they pro
duced considerable excitement. Morier's protest was considered simply an imper
tinence by the government party, while the intimations of Folch were pondered se
riously, and acted upon after some debate. In secret session a resolution was adopt
ed, in \\4»ich was expressed an unwillingness on the part of the United States to al
low the Territory in question to pass from the possession of Spain into that of any
other power. An act was also passed in secret session0 authorizing the
President to take possession of both Floridas under any arrangement that
might be entered into with the local authorities; or, in the event of an attempt to do
the same by any foreign power, to take and hold possession by force of arms. It was
believed, and with reason, that the British were about to assume control of that
country, under the provisions of some secret arrangement with Spain ; and, to fore-
daring men (Reuben and Samnel), and resolved to get rid of their hated rulers. Impatient of the delay of the United
States in taking possession of West Florida, they excited the people of Bayou Sara, and others in the neighborhood, to
take up arms. They assembled at St. Francisville, marched upon Baton Rouge, took it by surprise after a slight skirm
ish, in which Governor Grandpre was killed, and the town and fort became the possession of the insurgents. The
Spaniards fled eastward, some to Mobile, and some to Pensacola. The revolutionists then assembled in Convention ;
prepared and issued a declaration of independence, modeled after that composed by Jefferson, and declared their right
and intention to form treaties and establish commerce with other nations.
1 His professions were true. He was dispatched to the Tombigbee by the Convention for the purpose of enlisting
men to expel the Spaniards from the Mobile district. In that business he was assisted by a wealthy citizen, Colonel
James Caller, who, like most of the residents in that region, hated the Spaniards. Troops were secretly raised. Flat-
boats, with provisions, were sent down the Tensaw River to Smith's plantation. Daring spirits gathered around the
leaders; and a company of horsemen, under Captain Bernard, scoured the country for arms, ammunition, and provi
sions. A young man, named Sibly, was sent to demand the surrender of the fort, then commanded by Governor Folch.
The invaders gathered near Mobile, and there drank and frolicked to their hearts' content. An old man, who drank
their whisky and won their confidence, betrayed their weakness to the governor. The latter sent two hundred regu
lar soldiers, under a competent leader, who surprised them at near midnight, and broke up their camp. This was in
November, 1310. Major Hargrove and nine men were captured, ironed, and sent to Havana, where they suffered five
years in the dungeons of Moro Castle.— See Pickett's Hiatory of Alabama, ii., 235.
740 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Events near Mobile. Admission of Louisiana. Insurrection in East Florida.
stall such action, Governor Claiborne had already asserted the jurisdiction of the
United States over a considerable portion of Florida eastward of the Mississippi, aft
er some opposition from Ful-
war Skipwith, formei-ly a dip-
/? lomatic agent of the United
*<--hr-- — • States in France, who hadbeen
ff£4///h/ elected governor of their do
main by the insurgents. Find
ing himself supported chiefly
by the dregs of society only, Skipwith yielded, and retired to private life. Soon aft
erward, a small detachment of American regulars, under Captain (afterward Major
General) Edmund P. Gaines, appeared before Mobile and demanded its surrender.
Governor Folch refused. Presently Colonel Gushing arrived from New Orleans
with gun-boats, artillery, and troops, and encamped three weeks at Orange Grove,
when he marched up to Fort Stoddart, and formed a cantonment at Mount Vernon.
He came professedly to defend the Spaniards against the insurgents, who made no
farther efforts to obtain possession of Mobile.
Louisiana was admitted into the Union as a state on the 8th of April, 1812. By a
separate act, that part of Florida, as far eastward of the Mississippi River as the
• April 14, Pearl River, was annexed to that new state ;a and by another act the re-
1812- maining territory, as far as the Perdido River, eastward of Mobile Bay
(with the exception of the post of Mobile, yet in the hands of the Spaniards), was
b annexed to the Territory of Mississippi,1* then asking for admission as a
state.
An insurrection had broken out in East Florida in the mean time. Its chief theatre
was oh the coast, near the Georgia border. Brigadier General George Mathews, of
the Georgia militia (a soldier of the Revolution), who had been appointed commis
sioner under the secret act of the session in 1810-'ll,to secure the province should
it be offered, was the chief instigator of the disturbance, for the Georgians were anx
ious to seize the adjoining territory. Amelia Island, lying a little below the bound
ary-line, seemed to be a good as well as justifiable base of operations. The fine harbor
of its capital, Fernandina, was a place of great resort for smugglers during the days
of the embargo ; and, as a neutral port, might be made a dangerous place. ^ he pos
session of this island and harbor was therefore important to the Americans. A pre
text for seizing it was not long wanting. The insurgents planted the standard of
revolt on the bluff opposite the town of St. Mary's, on the border-line, in March, 1812.
Some United States gun
boats, under Commodore
Campbell, were in the
St. Mary's River, and Ma- „ . v
thews had some United
States troops at his command near.
c Igl2 On the 17th of March0 the insurgents, two hundred and twenty in number,
sent a flag of truce to Fernandina demanding the surrender of the town and
island. The American gun-boats came down at about the same time. The author
ities bowed in submission, and General Mathews, assuming the character of a pro
tector, took possession of the place in the name of the United States. Commodore
Campbell declared, in a letter to Don Justo Lopez, the commandant of Amelia Island,
that the naval forces were not intended to act in the name of the United States, "but
to aid and support," he said, " a large proportion of your countrymen in arms, who
have thought proper to declare themselves independent."1
A flag was raised over Fernandina on which were inscribed the words " Vox po-
1 MS. Letter in the Navy Department.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
Seizure of East Florida by United States Officials. Expedition against Mobile. General Wilkinson.
puli lex salutis" and on the 19th the town was formally given up to the United
States authorities. A custom-house was immediately established ; the floating prop
erty in the harbor was considered under the protection of the United States flag,
and smuggling ceased. Then the insurgents, made eight hundred strong by re-en
forcements from Georgia, and accompanied by some troops furnished by General Ma-
thews, besieged the Spanish governor in St. Augustine, for it was feared that the Brit
ish might help the Spaniards in recovering what they had lost in the Territory. This
was a kind of filibustering which the United States government would not counte
nance, and David B. Mitchell,1 governor of Georgia, was appointed to supersede Ma-
thews'1 as commissioner. But the change of men did not effect a change » April 10,
of measures. Mitchell believed that Congress would sanction Mathews's
proceedings. The Lower House did actually pass a bill,b in secret session, * June 21-
authorizing the President to take possession of East Florida. The Senate rejected
it, for it was not desirable, at the moment when war had been declared against Great
Britain, to provoke hostilities with another power unnecessarily. There was incon
sistency in it, which the Opposition were not slow to perceive and make use of.
" Say nothing now," they said, " about Sir James Craig, of Canada, and John Henry,2
or Copenhagen."3 They denounced the whole movement of the government in Flor
ida, East and West, as dastardly — a seizure of the possessions of a friendly power
"by Madison's army and navy."
We have observed that the United States claimed, under the act of the cession of
Louisiana, all of West Florida, including Mobile; and that a large portion of that
territory had been annexed to that of Mississippi. When the Congress and the
Cabinet had determined upon war with Great Britain in the winter and spring of
1812, the importance of the post of Mobile to the United States was very apparent,
and as early as March in that year, General Wilkinson, then in command of the United
States troops in the Southwest, was ordered to take possession of it. At near the
close of March0 he sent Commodore Shaw, with a detachment of gun-boats, to
c 1g19
occupy the Bay of Mobile and cut off communications with Pensacola ; and
Lieutenant Colonel Bowyer, then stationed with a respectable number of troops at
Fort Stoddart, about forty miles above Mobile, was ordered to march on the latter
post at a day's notice, for the purpose of investing Fort Charlotte.
Wilkinson left New Orleans on the 29th of March, and embarked on board the
sloop Alligator. The troops were ordered to rendezvous at Pass Christian. The
weather was unfavorable for the schooner, and the general took a barge. He came
near losing his life by the upsetting of this little vessel. He and his fellow-passen
gers clung to its upturned keel a long time, when, exhausted and famishing, they
were picked up by some Spanish fishermen, who towed their barge ashore and right
ed it, and allowed the rescued men to proceed. They reached Petit Coquille at mid
night, and on the following morning an express was sent to Boyer with orders for
him to come down the river, and take a position opposite the little village of Mobile.
The troops from New Orleans arrived in Mobile Bay on the 12th of April,d
and at two o'clock the next morning landed opposite the site of the Pavilion,
not far from the fort, then commanded by Captain Cayetano Perez.4 The garrison
was surprised. The first intimation given them of the presence of an enemy was
the sounding of Wilkinson's bugles for an advance. Six hundred men, in column, ap
peared before Fort Charlotte at noon, and demanded its surrender. The negotia-
1 David B. Mitchell was a native of Scotland, and at this time was forty-seven years of age. He arrived at Savannah
in 1783, to take possession of property there which had been bequeathed to him, where he studied law. He became so
licitor general of Georgia in 1795, and for several years held various offices civil and military. He was elected governor
of Georgia in 1809, and held that office until 1813. He was re-elected in 1815. He was active in public affairs until his
death, which occurred in Baldwin County, Georgia. 2 See pages 219 to 221 inclusive. 3 Note 4, page 177.
* On the 13th, General Wilkinson issued a proclamation and sent it into the town of Mobile, in which he assured the
inhabitants that he came not to injure, but to protect them, and to extend over them the rightful jurisdiction and laws
of the United States. He gave permission to those who chose to leave the place, to go, with their goods, in safety.
742 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Surrender of Mobile by the Spaniards. Tennesseeans under Andrew Jackson preparing for War.
tions to that end were short, and on the 15th the Spaniards evacuated the fort and
retired to Pensacola. The Americans at once entered, took possession, and proceeded
to strengthen the post. Wilkinson sent nine pieces of artillery to Mobile Point,
which were placed in battery there, and, marching to the Perdido, began the con
struction of fortifications there under the superintendence of Colonel John Bowyer.
This work was soon abandoned, and Fort Bowyer was commenced on Mobile Point
by some workmen under Captain Reuben Chamberlain. Such was the beginning of
movements which resulted in the acquisition of all Florida by the Americans.
When the war broke out there was an already famous militia general in Tennessee,
well known all over the settled portion of the Mississippi Basin. It was Andrew
Jackson, who, as we have observed, became somewhat entangled in the toils of the
wily spider, Aaron Burr, for a while.1 He was living on a fine plantation a few miles
from Nashville.
War was declared on the 19th of June by the proclamation of the President. Ti
dings of it reached Jackson on the 26th, and on the same day he authorized Governor
Blount to tender to the President of the United States the services of himself and
twenty-five hundred men of his division as volunteers for the war. Under other cir
cumstances the offer would have been rejected. Jackson was no " court favorite ;"
on the contrary, he was obnoxious to the President and his Cabinet. He had soundly
berated the government, when Madison was chief minister, in a speech in the streets
of Richmond, as the "persecutor of Aaron Burr." He had openly shown his prefer
ence for Monroe over Madison, and had called the Secretary of War an " old granny."
But the government needed strength, and was not willing to reject any that might
be offered. The President received Jackson's generous offer with gratitude, and ac
cepted it, he said, "with peculiar satisfaction." The Secretary of War wrote a cordial
, Apri] ltj letter of acceptance to Governor Blount,a and that officer publicly thanked
1812- Jackson and his volunteers for the honor they had done the State of Tennes
see by their patriotic movement.2
For several weeks Jackson remained on his farm impatiently awaiting orders to go
to the field. All was calmness in the Gulf region, for the energies of the government
were bent to the one great labor, apparently, of invading and subjugating Canada.
When that effort failed, and Hull's campaign ended in terrible disaster at Detroit,
sagacious men believed that the British, not needing so many troops on the Northern
frontier, would turn their attention to the seizure of Gulf ports and an invasion of
the sparsely settled country in that region. The government was also impressed
with this surmise, and late in Octoberb called on Governor Blount for fif-
October 21
teen hundred Tennesseeans to be sent to New Orleans to re-enforce Gen
eral Wilkinson. Blount made a requisition upon Jackson for that purpose, and the
general at once entered upon that militaiy career which rendered his name immortal.
On the 10th of December, a day long remembered in Middle Tennessee because of
deep snow and intense cold, Jackson's troops, over two thousand in number, assem
bled at Nashville, bearing clothing for both cold and warm weather. When organ
ized, they consisted of two regiments of infantry of seven hundred men each, com
manded respectively by Colonels William Hall and Thomas H. Benton, and a corps
of cavalry six hundred and seventy in number, under Colonel John Coffee. William
B. Lewis, Jackson's near neighbor and friend, was his quartermaster; and his brigade
inspector was William Carroll, a young man from Pennsylvania, The troops were
composed of the best physical and social materials of the state, many of the young
men being representatives of some of the first families in Tennessee in point of posi
tion; and on the 7th of January, 1813, when every thing was in readiness, the little
army went down the Cumberland River in a flotilla of small boats, excepting the
mounted men, whom Coffee led across the country to join Jackson at Natchez, on the
» See page 136. 2 Partou's /•?/„• of Andrew Jackson, i., 366.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 743
The Tennesseeans on the Mississippi Eiver. Their Treatment by the Government. Jackson's Kindness.
Mississippi. With sly sarcasm, whose shaft was pointed at some New York and
Pennsylvania militiamen on the Niagara frontier at that time, the energetic leader,
in a letter to the Secretary of War, said : " I am now at the head of 2070 volunteers,
the choicest of our citizens, who go at the call of their country to execute the will of
the government, icho have no constitutional scruples^ and, if the government orders,
will rejoice at the opportunity of placing the American eagle on the ramparts of Mo
bile, JPensacola, and Fort Augustine, eifectually banishing from the Southern coasts all
British influence." Jackson was then in his prime of manhood, being forty-six years
of age.
After many' stirring adventures among the ice in the Cumberland and the Ohio,
and the floods and tempests of the Mississippi, for nine-and-thirty days, the little flo
tilla reached Natchez,a a thousand miles, by the route it had taken, from 'February 15,
its place of departure. Colonel Coffee, with his mounted men, was al
ready near there to welcome them. The troops were in glorious spirits. The love
of adventure had been heightened by its gratification, and all were impatient to push
forward to New Orleans, a land of warmth and beauty as it appeared to their imag
inations. The officers, especially, wished to go rapidly forward, for they dreamed of
glory in the conquest of Mobile and Pensacola, and delicious resting-places among
the orange groves of the Gulf shore. They were disappointed. A messenger had ar
rived at Natchez with orders from Wilkinson for them to remain where they were, as
he had no instructions concerning them or their employment in his department, nor
had he any quarters prepared for their accommodation. He was evidently fearful of
being superseded by Jackson, who was a major general of volunteers in the United
States service, for he said in his letter to that leader that caused him to halt, that he
should not think of yielding his command until regularly relieved by superior au
thority. Jackson disembarked his troops, and encamped them in a pleasant spot near
Natchez, to await fai'ther orders.
February passed by, and the early flowers of March were budding and blooming,
and yet the Tennessee army was at Natchez. On the first of that month Jackson
wrote an impatient letter to the Secretary of War. He saw little chance for the em
ployment of himself and his followers in the South, and suggested that they might be
useful in the North. He had gone to the field as an unselfish patriot, and, as he said
in his letter to Wilkinson, "had marched with the spirit of a true soldier to serve his
country at any and every point where service could be rendered." Day after day he
waited anxiously for orders to move. At length he was cheered by the receipt of a
letter from the War Department. His heart beat quickly with the thrill of delight
ful expectations as he broke the seal. Icy coldness fell upon his spirits for a moment
when his eyes perused the contents. It read thus :
" SIR, — The causes of embodying and marching to New Orleans the corps und,er
your command having ceased to exist, you will, on the receipt of this letter, consider
it as dismissed from public service, and take measures to have delivered over to Major
General Wilkinson all the articles of public property which may have been put into
its possession." To this was appended a cold tender of the thanks of the President
to Jackson and his corps, and the signature of John Armstrong, the new Secretary
of War, who, on the date of the letter, had been only two days in office.
That was practically a cruel letter, under the circumstances. It placed the little
army in a sad plight, for it was dismissed from service without pay, sufficient cloth
ing, means of transportation, provisions, or accommodations for the sick, more than
five hundred miles from their homes by the nearest land route, which lay much of the
way through a wilderness roamed by savages. Jackson instantly resolved on diso
bedience. He determined not to dismiss the men until they were restored to their
homes ; and with that decision and courage in assuming responsibility which always
marked his career, he made every necessary preparation possible for a return to Ten-
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Jackson's fiery Letters. Return of his Troops to Nashville. His pecuniary Troubles on their Account.
nessee, at large expense, and without any money. He impressed wagons and teams,
and gave orders for pay on the quarter-master of the Southern Department. In like
manner he incurred other expenses. So confident were the merchants of Natchez in
his integrity and the justice of their government, that they turned over to him large
quantities of shoes and clothing, telling him to pay for them at Nashville when con
venient.
Meanwhile Jackson had written fiery letters to the President, the Secretary of War,
Governor Blount, and General Wilkinson.1 He despised the latter, and suspected him
of sinister designs ; and when, in due time, he received a reply from that officer, in
which he suggested that great public service might be rendered by promoting enlist
ments into the regular army, Jackson's anger knew no bounds. He watched for re
cruiting officers with hawk-eyed vigilance, and when one was found in his camp, he
notified him that if he should catch him trying to seduce one of his volunteers into
the regular army, he would have him instantly drummed beyond his lines.2 The Sec
retary of War, on the other hand, by a courteous and explanatory letter, mollified his
passion by assuring him that when he wrote the letter that appeared so cruel, he did
not suppose that the little army had moved far from Nashville.
Late in March Jackson commenced his homeward movement. It was an under
taking of great hazard and difficulty, but was well accomplished in the course of a
month, for they traveled at the rate of eighteen miles a day. He shared all the pri
vations of the soldiers, and he was beloved by them as few men have ever been be
loved. His endurance was wonderful during the march, and his men declared that
lie was " as tough as hickory." From that day until his last on earth, he was famil
iarly and affectionately called " Old Hickory."
Finally, on the borders of his state, Jackson sent a messenger to Washington to
convey an offer of the services of himself and volunteers on the Northern frontier,
whither Harrison had been sent as chief commander. No response came, and on the
22d of May he drew up his detachment on the public square in Nashville, where they
were presented with an elegantly wrought stand of colors by the ladies of Knoxville.3
There they were dismissed, and dispersed to their homes with feelings of great dis
satisfaction toward the national government.
Such was Jackson's first effort to serve his country in the field in the War of 1812,
and it resulted in holding the fear of absolute pecuniary ruin over his head for some
time. His transportation orders were dishonored, and the creditors looked to him for
pay. He was prosecuted for amounts in the aggregate much larger than his entire
fortune. The suits were postponed to give him an opportunity to appeal to the na
tional government for justice and protection. The late Thomas H. Benton was his
messenger and* advocate on that occasion; and when it was intimated to him that
nothing could be done for the general's relief, he boldly assured the President and his
cabinet that if the administration desired the support of Tennessee in the war, the
1 "These brave men," he wrote to Wilkinson, "at the call of their country, voluntarily rallied around its insulted
standard. They followed me to the field ; I shall carefully march them back to their homes. It is for the agents of the
government to account to the State of Tennessee and the whole world for their singular and unusual conduct to this
detachment." s Partou's Life of Jackson, i., 3SO.
3 The preparation of these flags was commenced soon after the departure of the troops from Nashville. One was a
simple national banner made of silk ; the other was a regimental standard. The embroidery, performed by the ladies
in the most exquisite manner, was on white satin. Near the top, in a crescent form, were eighteen stars in orange
color, denoting the then number of states. Next below were two sprigs of laurel lying athwart. Under these were the
words, " Tennessee Volunteers—Independence, in a state of war, istobe maintained on the battle-ground of the Republic. The
knted field is the post of honor. Presented by the Ladies of East Tennessee, Knoxville, February 10th, 1813." Below all,
implements of war were represented, beautifully wrought. The wing of the colors was beautiful fancy lutestring, dove
color, ornamented with white fringe and tassels.
In reply to the presentation letter, written by the wife of Governor Blonnt, Jackson said : " While I admire the ele
gant workmanship of these colors, my veneration is excited for the patriotic disposition that, prompted the ladies to be
stow them on the volunteers of West Tennessee. Although the patriotic corps under my command have not had one
opportunity of seeing an enemy, yet they have evinced every disposition to do so. This distinguished mark of respect
will be long remembered, and this present shall be kept as a memorial of the generosity and patriotism of the ladies of
East Tennessee."— Nashville Whig, quoted by Parton, i., 3S3.
OFTHEWAROF1812. 745
The Government just. Tecumtha in the Creek Country. His successful Appeals to the Creeks.
government must assume the payment of the bills in question, for the volunteers un
der Jackson were drawn from the most substantial families in the state. This argu
ment was convincing. The government met the draft promptly, all concerned were
satisfied, and Jackson was saved from bankruptcy and ruin.
Omens of a war tempest soon appeared in the Southern firmament, and Jackson
was not allowed to remain long in quiet on his plantation. British emissaries, pale
and dusky, were busy among the Indians of the Gulf region, endeavoring to stir them
up to war against the Americans around them, hoping thereby to divide and weaken
the military power of the United States, and lessen the danger that menaced Canada
with invasion and conquest. Chief among these emissaries in zeal and influence was
Tecumtha, the great Shawnoese warrior, who, as early as the spring of 1811, as we
have seen, had, with patriotic designs, visited the Southern tribes, and labored to se
cure their alliance with Northern and Western savages in a grand confederation,
whose prime object was to stay the encroachments of the wrhite man. He went
among the Seminoles in Florida, the Cherokees and Creeks in Western Georgia and in
Alabama, and the Des Moines in Missouri, but without accomplishing little more than
sowing the seeds of discontent, which might in time germinate into open hostility. He
returned to his home on the Wabash just after the battle of Tippecanoe,a « November,
Avhich his unworthy brother had rashly brought on, and which destroyed
his hopes of a purely Indian confederacy. Thereafter his patriotic efforts were put
forth in alliance with the British, who gladly accepted the aid of the cruel savages
of the Northwest.
In the autumn of 1812, after the surrender of Detroit and the Michigan Territory
promised long quiet on that frontier, Tecumtha went again to the Gulf region. He
took his brother, the Prophet, with him, partly to employ him as an instrument in
managing the superstitions of the Indians, and partly to prevent his doing mischief at
home. They were accompanied by about thirty warriors. The Choctaws and Chick-
asaws, among whom they passed on their way, would not listen favorably to Tecum-
tha's seductive words ; but the Seminoles in Florida and Georgia, and the Creeks in
Alabama, lent to him willing ears. He was among the latter in October, where he
crossed the Alabama River at Autauga, in the lower part of the present Autauga
County, and there addressed the assembled Creeks for the first time. His eloquence,
his patriotic appeals, and his fame as a warrior won him many followers, and with
these and his own retinue he went on to Coosawda on the Alabama,1 and at the Hick
ory Ground addressed a large concourse of warriors who had flocked to see and hear
the mighty Shawnoese, whose exploits in the buffalo-chase, on the war-path, and in
the council had filled their ears, even in boyhood, with wondrous tales of achieve
ments won. It was a successful day, and Tecumtha was greatly encouraged. He
crossed the Coosa, and went boldly forward in the direction of the great falls of the
Tallapoosa (in the southwest part of the present Tallapoosa County) to Toockabatcha,
the ancient Creek capital, where Colonel Hawkins, the United States Indian Agent,
had called a great council of the Creeks. Hawkins was highly esteemed by them,
and at his call full five thousand Indians responded in person, besides many negroes
and white people mingled with them.
Tecumtha approached this great gathering with well-feigned modesty. He kept
at the outer circle of spectators until the conclusion of the agent's first day's address,
when, at the head of his thirty followers from the Ohio region, he marched with dig
nity into the square, all of them entirely naked excepting their flaps and ornaments.
Their faces were painted black, and their heads were adorned with eagles' feathers,
while buffalo tails dragged behind, suspended by bands around their waists. Like
appendages were attached to their arms, and their whole appearance was as hideous
1 This Indian town was at the confluence of the Coosa and Tallapoosa Rivers, where they form the Alabama. It was
on the western side of the Alabama, in the southeastern part of Autauga County.
746 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Tecumtba at a great Council. He traverses the Creek Country. His Threat and its Fulfillment.
as possible, and their bearing uncommonly pompous and ceremonious. They marched
round and round in the square, and then, approaching the Creek chiefs, they cordially
gave them the Indian salutation of a shake at arm's length, and exchanged tobacco
in token of friendship. Only one chief (Captain Isaac, of Coosawda) refused to greet
Tecumtha. On his head were a pair of buffalo horns, and these he shook at the Shaw-
noese visitor with contempt, for he said Tecumtha was a bad man, and no greater
than he.1
Tecumtha appeared in state in the square each day, but kept silence until Hawkins
had finished his business and departed for the agency on the Flint River. Then he
was silent no longer. That night a grand council was held in the great round-house.
It was packed with eager listeners. In a fiery and vengeful speech Tecumtha poured
forth eloquent and incendiary words. He exhorted them to abandon the customs of
the pale-faces and return to those of their fathers. He begged them to cast away the
plow and the loom, and abandon the culture of the soil as unbecoming noble Indian
warriors, as they were. He warned them that servitude or extinction at the hands
of the white race would sppedily be their doom, for they were grasping and cruel ;
and he desired them to dress only in the skins of beasts which the Great Spirit had
given them, and to use for weapons of war only the bow and arrow, the war-club,
and the scalping-knife. He concluded by informing them that their friends, the Brit
ish, had sent him from the Great Lakes to invite them out upon the war-path for the
purpose of expelling all Americans from Indian soil, and that the powerful King of
England was ready to reward them handsomely if they would fight under his ban
ner. The wily Prophet at the same time, who had been informed by the British when
a comet would appear, declared to the excited warriors that they would see the arm
of Tecumtha, like pale fire, stretched out on the vault of heaven at a certain time, and
thus they would know by that sign when to begin the war. It was almost dawn be
fore this famous council adjourned, and then more than half of the braves present had
resolved on war against the Americans.
Tecumtha, full of encouragement, went forth, visiting all of the important Creek
towns, and enlisting many recruits for the British cause. Among the most distin
guished of these was Weathersford, a powerful, handsome, sagacious, brave, and elo
quent half-blooded chief. But others equally eminent withstood the persuasions of
the great Shawnoese. One of the most conspicuous of these was the Big Warrior of
Toockabatcha, whose name was Tustinuggee-Thlucco. Tecumtha was extremely anx
ious to win him, but the Big Warrior remained true to the United States. At length
the angry Shawnoese said, with vehemence, as he pointed his finger in the Big War
rior's face, " Tustinuggee-Thlucco, your blood is white. You have taken my red-
sticks and my talk, but you do not mean to fight. I know the reason. You do not be
lieve the Great Spirit has sent me. You shall believe it. I will leave directly, and go
straight to Detroit. When I get there I will stamp my foot upon the ground, and
shake down every house in Toockabatcha !" The Big Warrior said nothing, but long
pondered this remarkable speech.2
It was, indeed, a remarkable speech. Events soon proved it to be prophetic. Nat
ural phenomena — one that might be foretold by astronomers, and the other always
beyond the knowledge of mortals — combined to give tremendous effect to Tecumtha's
words and mission. The comet, the blazing " arm of Tecumtha" in the sky, appeared ;
and at about the time when the common Indians, who believed in the great Shaw
noese and his mystical brother, knew, by calculation, that Tecumtha must have ar
rived at Detroit, there was heard a deep rumbling beneath the ground, and a heav
ing of the earth that made the houses of Toockabatcha reel and totter as if about to
fall. The startled savages ran out of their huts, exclaiming, " Tecumtha is at Detroit !
Tecumtha is at Detroit ! We feel the stamp of his foot !" It was the shock of an
i Pickett's History of Alabama, ii., 242-3. = Pickett's History of Alabaina, ii., 245.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
747
The Creek Nation and their Position.
General James Robertson.
Choctaws and Chickasaws.
earthquake that was felt all over the Gulf region in December, 1812. l But it did not
move the Big Warrior from his allegiance.
Tecumtha's visit proved to be a most sad one for the Creeks as a nation. It brought
terrible calamities upon them — first in the form of civil war, and then in almost utter
destruction at the hands of the exasperated Americans. He left seeds of discontent
to germinate and expand into violent agitations. Chief was arrayed against chief,
and family against family, on the question of peace or war with the Americans. They
were strong as a nation, numbering about thirty thousand souls, of whom at least
seven thousand were warriors ; yet
peace was the guarantee of their exist
ence. They were hemmed in by pow
erful and rapidly-increasing communi
ties of white people, and between them
and the Northern tribes were the Choc-
taws and Chickasaws,2 over whom that
grand old patriot, General James Rob
ertson, held a powerful sway, like that
of a kind father over loving children.3
These stood as a wall of separation be
tween the actual followers of Tecumtha
north of the Ohio, and those in the Gulf
region whom he was endeavoring to
~ O
seduce from the pursuits of peace into
the war-path under the British banner.
They were not only opposed to an alli
ance with the British, but were ready
to fight for the Americans. " My heart
is straight," said the brave Too-tuma-
Ktubble, the " medal chief" of the Choc-
taws, " and I wish our father, the Pres
ident, to know it. Our young warriors
want to fight. Give us guns and plen-
1 See Pickett's Alabama, ii., 24<5. Drake, in his Book of the Indians of Xorth America, eleventh edition, page 624, men
tions that circumstance as occurring in December, 1811, and cites Francis M'Henry as denying that it ever took place.
But Mr. Pickett, in his carefully-prepared work, says this earthquake was remembered by all the old settlers, and places
the date in December of 1812, which agrees with the incidents of Tecumtha's mission there.
3 The Choctaws inhabited the country along the Mississippi from the northern borders of the Choctaw domain to the
Ohio River, and eastward beyond the Tennessee to the lands of the Cherokees and Shawnoese.
3 James Robertson, who has justly been called the Father of Tennessee, was a native of Virginia. He emigrated to
the rich regions beyond the mountains about the year 1760, and on the banks of the Watauga, a branch of the Tennes
see, he made a settlement, and lived there several years. He was often called upon to contest for life with the savages
of the forest. In 17T6 he was chosen to command a fort built near the mouth of the Watanga. In 1779 Captain Rob
ertson was at the head of a party emigrating to the still richer country of the Cumberland, and on Christmas eve of that
year they arrived upon the spot where Nashville now stands. Others joined them, and in the following summer they
numbered about two hundred. A settlement was established, and Robertson founded the city of Nashville. The Cher
okee Indians attempted to destroy the settlement, but, through the skill and energy of Robertson and a few compan
ions, that calamity was averted. They built a log fort on the high bank of the Cumberland, and in that the settlers
were defended against full seven hundred Indians in 1781. The settlement was erected into a county of North Carolina,
and Robertson was its first representative in the State Legislature. In 1790 the " Territory south of the Ohio River"
was formed, and Washington appointed Robertson brigadier general and commander of the militia in it. In that ca
pacity he was very active in defense of the settlements against the savages. At the same time he practiced the most
exact justice toward the Indians, and when these children of the forest were no longer hostile, his kindness toward the op
pressed among them made him very popular. At length, when the emissaries, white and red, from the British in the
North began to sow the seeds of discontent among them at the breaking out of the war in 1812, the government wisely
appointed General Robertson agent to the Chickasaw tribe. He was ever watchful of the national interest. As early as
March, 1S13, he wrote : " The Chickasaws are in a high strain for war against the enemies of the country. They have
declared war against all passing Creeks who attempt to go through their nation. They have declared, if the United States
will take a campaign against the Creeks [because of some murders committed by them near the mouth of the Ohio], that
they are ready to give them aid." A little later he suggested the employment of companies of Chickasaws and Choc
taws to defend the frontiers and to protect travelers, and he was seconded by Pitchlyn, an active and faithful Indian.
During the war General Robertson remained at his post among the Indians, and invited his aged wife to share his
privations by quaintly saying to her by a messenger, " If you shall come this way, the very best chance for rest and
sleep which my bed affords shall be given you, provided always that I shall re'aiu a part of the same." lie was theii
748 PICTOKIAL FIELD-BOOK
fiivil War in the Creek Nation. The white Inhabitants in Peril. The Militia called out.
ty of powder and lead, we fight your enemies. We fight much ; we fight strong.
.... Our warriors good Americans — fight strong. You tell him so. You, General
Robertson, know me ; my heart straight. Choctaw soldiers good soldiers. Give
epaulettes, guns, and whisky — fight strong."
Tecumtha had enjoined the leaders of the war-party to keep their intentions secret,
and for many months, while civil war was kindling in the bosom of the Creek na
tion because of a powerful and zealously-opposing peace-party, and the land was
filled with quarrels, fights, murders, and violence of every kind, it was difficult for
the public authorities to determine with any certainty whether or no any considera
ble number of the Creeks would join the British standard. Colonel Hawkins, the
agent, believed that nothing more serious than a war betv/een native factions would
ensue. It was well known that Peter M'Queen, a half-blood of Tallahassee, who was
one of the leaders of the war-party, was doing every thing in his power to accomplish
that result, while Big Warrior was equally active in efforts to avert so great a ca
lamity. On one hand was seen the hideous " war-dance of the Lakes," taught them
by Tecumtha, and on the other the peaceful, quiet, anxious, determined deportment
of men resolved on peace. The whole Creek nation became a seething caldron of
passion — of angry words and threatenings, which were soon developed into sanguin
ary deeds.
On account of the civil war raging here, and there, and every where in the Creek
country, the white settlers were placed in great peril. In the spring of 1813 they
were made to expect an exterminating blow. They knew that a British squadron
was in the Gulf, and in friendly intercourse with the Spanish post at Pensacola. They
knew that the fiery M'Queen and other leaders had gone to that post with about
three hundred and fifty warriors, with many pack-horses, intended doubtless for the
conveyance of arms and supplies from the British to the war-party in the interior.
Every day the cloud of danger palpably thickened, and the inhabitants of the most
populous and more immediately threatened districts of the Tombigbee and Tensaw
petitioned the governor of Mississippi for a military force sufficient for their protec
tion. The governor was willing, but General Flournoy, who succeeded General Wil
kinson in command of the Seventh Military District, persuaded by Colonel Hawkins,
the Indian agent, of the civilization and friendly disposition of the Creeks, would not
grant their prayer.1
Left to their own resources, the inhabitants of the menaced districts prepared to
defend themselves as well as they might. They sent spies to Pensacola, who returned
with the positive and startling intelligence that British agents, under the sanction of
the Spanish governor, were distributing supplies freely to M'Queen and his follow
ers, that leader having exhibited to the chief magistrate of Florida a list of Creek
towns ready to take up arms for the British, in which, in the aggregate, were nearly
five thousand warriors. On hearing this report, Colonel James Caller, of Washing
ton, called on the militia to go out and intercept M'Queen and his party on their re
turn from Pensacola. There was a prompt response, and he set out with a few fol-
?eventy-one, and she sixty-three years of age. She went to him, and was at his side when he died at his post in the In
dian country the year following. His death occurred on the 1st of September, 1S14, and on the 2d his remains were
buried at the Agency. In 1S25 they were removed to Nashville, and, in the presence of a large concourse of citizens,
were reinterred in the cemetery there. A plain tomb covers the spot. The remains of his wife rest by his side, and
the observer may there read the following inscriptions:
" GENERAL JAMES ROBERTSON, the founder of Nashville, was born in Virginia, 2Sth June, 1742. Died 1st September,
1S14.
" CHARLOTTE R., wife of James Robertson, was born in North Carolina, 2d January, 1751. Died llth June, 1S43."
She was then ninety-two years of age. Their son, Dr. Felix Robertson, who was born in the fort, and the first white
child whose birth was in West Tennessee, died at Nashville in 1864.
1 Thomas Flournoy was a native of Georgia, and a distinguished member of the bar at Augusta, his place of resi
dence. He was in feeble health at this time, and his force was inadequate to perform the arduous services required of
them. He was commissioned a brigadier general on the ISth of June, 1812, and resigned in September, 1814. When
Wilkinson was summoned to the Northern frontier, Flournoy was made his successor in the Gulf region. In 1819-'20
lie was a commissioner to treat with the Creek Indians.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 749
The Militia in the Field. March of M'Queen and his Followers from Pensacola. Battle of Burnt Corn Creek.
lowers, crossed the Tombigbee into Clarke County, parsed through Jackson, and biv
ouacked on the right bank of the Alabama River, at Sisemore's Ferry, opposite the
southern portion of the present Monroe County, Alabama. He crossed the river on
the following morning,a and marched in a southeasterly direction across ajuiy2Gi
the Escambia River into the present Conecuh County, Alabama, toward the
Florida frontier. He had been joined in Clarke County by the famous border
er, Captain Sam
Dale, and fifty
men, who were en
gaged in the con
struction of Fort
Madison, toward
the northeast part
of Clarke, and was
now re-enforced by others from Tensaw Lake and Little River, under various leaders,
one of whom was Captain Dixon Bailey, a half-blood Creek, who had been educated
at Philadelphia. Caller's command now numbered about one hundred and eighty
men, divided into small companies, well mounted on good frontier horses, and pro
vided with rifles and shot-guns. During that day they reached the Wolf Trail, cross
ed Burnt Corn Creek, and bivouacked.
On the morning of the 27th Caller reorganized his command. Captains Phillips,
M'Farlane, Wood, and Jourdan were appointed majors, and Captain William M'Grew
was created lieutenant colonel.1 They were now on the main route for Pensacola,
and were moving cheerily forward, down the east side of Burnt Corn Creek, when a
company of fifteen spies, under Captain Dale, who had been sent in advance to recon
noitre, came galloping hurriedly back with the intelligence that M'Queen and his
party were only a few miles distant, encamped upon a peninsula of low pine barrens
formed by the windings of Burnt Corn Creek, engaged unsuspectingly in cooking and
eating. A hurried council was held, and it was determined to attack them. For
this purpose Caller arranged his men in three columns, the right led by Captain
Smoot, the left by Captain Dale, and the centre by Captain Bailey. They were upon
a gentle height overlooking M'Queen's camp, and down its slopes the white men
moved rapidly, and fell upon the foe. M'Queen and his party were surprised. They
fought desperately for a few minutes, when they gave way, and fled toward the
creek, followed by a portion of the assailants.
Colonel Caller was brave but overcautious, and called back the pursuers. The re
mainder of his command were engaged in capturing the well-laden pack-horses of the
enemy, and when those in advance came running back, the former, panic-stricken,
turned and fled in confusion, but carrying away their plunder. Now the tide turned.
M'Queen's Indians rushed from their hiding-places in a cane-brake with horrid yells,
and fell upon less than one hundred of Caller's men at the foot of the eminence. A
severe battle ensued. Captain Dale was severely wounded by a ball that struck his
breast-bone, followed the ribs around, and came out near the spine, yet he continued
to fight as long as any body. Overwhelming numbers at length compelled him and
his companions to retreat. They fled in disorder, many of them leaving their horses
behind them. The flight continued all night in much confusion. The victory in the
Battle of Burnt Corn Creek — the first in the Creek war — rested with the Indians.
Only two of Caller's command were killed, and fifteen wounded. The casualties of
the enemy are unknown. For some time it was supposed that Colonel Caller and
Major Wood had been lost. They became bewildered in the forest, and wandered
about there some time. When they were found they were almost starved, and were
1 The principal subordinate officers were Phillips, Wood, M'Farlane, Jourdan, Smoot, Dixon, Heard, Cartwright,
Creagh, May, Bradberry, Robert Caller, and Dale. •
750 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOO-K
General Claiborue in the Creek Country. Refugee Settlers. Mims's House fortified.
nearly senseless. They had b?en missing fifteen days! Caller's command never re
assembled. M'Queen's retraced their steps to Pensacola for more military supplies.1
But for the fatal word " retreat" the Indians might have been scattered to the winds.
While these events were transpiring in the Indian country above Mobile, General
F. L. Claiborne,2 who had been a gallant soldier in Wayne's army in the Indian coun
try north of the Ohio, was marching, by orders of General Flournoy, from Baton
Rouge to Fort Stoddart, on the Mobile River, with instructions to direct his princi
pal attentions to the defense of Mobile. He reached Mount Vernon, in the north
ern part of the present Mobile County, three days after the battle of Burnt Corn
• July so, Creek. a He found the whole population trembling with alarm and terrible
IBIS. forebodings of evil. Already a chain of rude defenses, called forts, had been
built in the country between the Tombigbee and Alabama Rivers, a short distance
from their confluence where they form the Mobile River,3 and were filled with af
frighted white people and negroes, who had sought shelter in them from the impend
ing storm of war.
Claiborne's first care was to afford protection to the menaced people. He was anx
ious to march his whole force into the heart of the Creek nation, in the region of the
Coosa and Tallapoosa Rivers, but this Flournoy would not allow. "If Governor
Holmes [of the Mississippi Territory] should send his militia into the Indian coun
try," he wrote, " he must, of course, act on his own responsibility ; the army of the
United States, and the officers commanding it, must have nothing to do with it."
Claiborne was compelled to do nothing better than to distribute his troops through
out the stockades for defensive operations. He sent Colonel Carson, with two hund
red men, to the confluence of the Tombigbee and Alabama Rivers, and dispatched
Captain Scott with a company to St. Stephen's, in the northeast part of Washington
County, where they occupied an old Spanish block-house. Major Hinds, with dra
goons, was ordered to scour the country in various directions for information and as
a check ; and some of the militia of Washington County were placed in the stock
ades in Clarke County, between the Tombigbee and Alabama. Captain Dent was
sent to Okeatapa, within a short distance of the Choctaw frontier, and assumed the
command of a fort there.
Previous to Claiborne's arrival, wealthy half-blood families had gone down the Ala
bama in boats and canoes, and secreted themselves in the thick swamps around Ten-
saw Lake. There they united with white refugees in constructing a strong stockade
around the house of Samuel Minis, an old and wealthy inhabitant of that region, situ
ated a short distance from the Boat-yard on Tensaw Lake, a mile east from the Ala
bama River, ten miles above its junction with the Tombigbee, and about two miles
below the Cut-off.4 The building was of wood, spacious in area, and one story in
height. Strong pickets were driven around it, and fence-rai^ placed between them ;
and, at an average distance of three feet and a half from the ground, five hundred
port-holes for musketry were made. The pickets inclosed an acre of ground, and the
stockade was entered by two ponderous gates, one on the east and the other on the
west. Besides Mims's house there were several other buildings within the pickets ;
i Pickett's Alabama, ii., 255. Life and Times of General Sam Dale, by J. F. H. Claiborne, pages 65 to 82 inclusive.
s Ferdinand Leigh Claiborne, a brother of William C. C. Claiborue, at that time governor of the Orleans Territory,
was born in Sussex County, Virginia, in 1773. His family was one of the oldest in that commonwealth. In his twen
tieth year he was appointed an ensign in Wayne's army, and became much attached to Major Hamtramck. One of his
eons, now (1804) living, bears the major's name. He was in the battle of the Fallen Timbers, at the Rapids of the Mau-
mee, in 1794. He was stationed at Richmond and Norfolk after the war, holding first the rank of lieutenant and then
of adjutant. In 1799 he was promoted to captain, and was active as such, and adjutant general in the Northwest, until
1802, when he was ordered to Natchez. He resigned, settled in the Mississippi Territory, presided over the deliberations
of its Legislature, and in 1811 was appointed brigadier general of the Mississippi militia. In March, 1813, he was commis
sioned a brigadier general of volunteers in the United States Army, and ordered to the command of the post at Baton
Rouge. He was active, as the text avers, during the Creek War. He was a legislative councilor of the Mississippi Ter
ritory immediately after the close of the Creek War in 1S14, and died the following year.
3 These were Forts Curry, Madison, Revier, Siuquefield, and White, situated upon a curve sweeping eastward ofBas-
eett's Creek and across its head waters. * See Map on the opposite page.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
751
Map of a Part of the Creek Country.
Fort Mims and its Occupants.
WHITE'S FT.
u
also cabins and board shelters. At the southwest corner was a partially-finished
block-house. The whole work, which was called Fort Mims, was upon a slight ele
vation, yet not eligibly situated ; but such confidence had the people of the surround
ing country in its strength, that, as soon as it was finished, they poured into it in large
numbers with their effects. It soon became the scene of a terrible tragedy that dis
pelled the pleasant dream of Creek civilization and friendship, and inflamed the peo
ple westward of the Alleghanies, who had suffered much from savage cruelty and
treachery, with a thirst for vengeance.
752 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Claiborne's Auxiety about the Settlers. Rumors of impending Indian Hostilities. Pacification of the Choctaws.
Two days after he reached Mount Vernon General Claiborne asked Flournoy's per
mission to call for the militia. " I am not myself authorized to do so," his command
er replied, " as you will perceive if you turn to the late regulations of the War De
partment." Again foiled in his generous endeavors by official interference, Claiborne
resolved to do what he might in strengthening Fort Minis. Already Lieutenant Os-
• July 28, borne, and sixteen soldiers under him, had taken post there.a He now dis-
1813- patched Major Daniel Beasley thither, with one hundred and seventy-five vol
unteers, who was accompanied by Captains Jack, Batcheldor, and Middleton. They
b August 6. found seventy citizens there on volunteer duty,b under Captains Dunn and
•= August i. Plummer, who were inexperienced officers. On the following dayc the little
garrison was cheered by the presence of General Claiborne, who had come to make a
personal inspection of the fort. He saw its weakness, and issued orders for it to be
strengthened by the addition of two block-houses. " To respect an enemy," he said,
wisely, " and prepare in the best possible way to receive him, is the certain means of
success." He also authorized Major Beasley to receive any citizens who would assist
in the defense of the station, and to issue rations to them with the other soldiers un
der his command. Under this order the seventy citizens just mentioned were en
rolled, and they immediately elected the brave Dixon Bailey their captain — the half-
blood who distinguished himself at the battle of Burnt Corn Creek. Claiborne also
organized a small company of scouts under Cornet Rankin, composed of that officer,
one sergeant, one corporal, and six mounted men.
Every day the war-cloud thickened. Rumors came to Claiborne from the north
ward that there was growing disaffection among the powerful Choctaws, and he per
ceived the value of an immediate blow at the Creeks before they should be ready to
strike one themselves, or draw over to the interest of the war-party their more peace
ably-inclined neighbors. He again applied to Flournoy for permission to penetrate
the heart of the Creek nation, but with no better success than before. " I have to
entreat you," Flournoy wrote to Claiborne, " not to permit your zeal for the public
good to draw you into acts of indiscretion. Your wish to penetrate into the Indian
country with the view of commencing the war does not meet my approbation, and
I again repeat, our operations must be confined to defensive operations."1 Flour
noy was impressed with the belief that the hostile movements in the Creek country
were only feints in the interest of the Spaniards, to draw the American troops from
Mobile, so that the former might, while that post was weakened and uncovered, at
tempt its capture with a chance of success.
Again foiled, Claiborne addressed himself to the important task of securing the
neutrality, at least, of the Cherokees, for every day gave signs of their constantly-
growing disaffection. A belief was gaining ground, and with good reason, that a
general Indian war in the southwest was possible, and even probable, and the whole
country from the Perdido to the Mississippi was filled with alarms. The stockades
were crowded with refugees from their menaced homes early in August, and doubt,
and dread, and great fear filled the hearts of the white people. Claiborne went up
to St. Stephen's, and from thence dispatched a deputation to Pushamataha, the prin
cipal chief of the Choctaws, who was balancing between equally powerful inclina
tions toward peace and war. He listened, and was finally induced to visit Claiborne's
"August is nead-qviarters at Mount Vemon.d The general received him with much
military pomp, and presented him with the uniform and other insignia of
a brigadier genei-al.2 By this means his friendship was secured, and he and a band
of his Choctaws — chosen warriors — immediately prepared fof the war-path under the
flag of the United States, while the rest of the nation agreed to remain neutral.
1 Flournoy to Claiborne, August 10, 1S13, from " Bay St. Louis." See Claiborne's Life of General Sam Dale, page 03.
2 He gave him a suit of rich regimentals, gold epaulettes, sword, silver spurs, and hat and feather, ordered from Mo
bile at a cost of three hundred dollars.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 753
Stockades threatened. Fort Mims crowded with Refugees. Warnings of Slaves unheeded. Indians near the Fort.
Having accomplished the pacification of the Choctaws, the energetic Claiborne
turned his attention to the defense of the several stockades in the Indian country.
Late in August,1 while he was at St. Stephen's, he was informed that four * August 23,
hundred Creek warriors were about to fall upon Fort Easley, a feeble
post sixty miles nearer the enemy than Fort Mims, and that Fort Madison would be
next attacked. The women and children in Easley had only about a dozen defend
ers, and Claiborne resolved to hasten to their relief. He left the camp at Mount Ver-
non in charge of Captain Kennedy, and, with twenty mounted dragoons, and sixty
men from the companies of Captains Dent and Scott, he pushed on toward Easley
Station, or Fort Easley. Major Beasley, in the mean time, finding Fort Mims too
small for the swelling multitude that flocked into it, commenced its enlargement by
driving a new row of pickets sixty feet beyond the eastward end. The work went
on slowly and carelessly. Every day, and sometimes several times a day, the inmates
were alarmed by rumors of approaching savages, until they became indifferent, in the
belief that they were all false.
On the morning of the 29th of August, two slaves (one of them belonging to John
Randon, and the other to a man named Fletcher), who had been sent out a short dis
tance from the fort to attend to some beef-cattle, came rushing through one of the
wide-open gates almost out of breath, and their eyes dilated with mortal fear. They
declared that they had counted four-and-twenty painted savages on the edge of a
swamp. Captain Middleton was immediately sent out with two mounted men to re
connoitre, but returned at sunset without seeing any trace of hostile Indians. Beasley
charged the negroes with lying, and ordered them to be severely flogged for raising
a false alarm. Randon's negro received the lashes, but Fletcher, who believed the
story of his slave, refused to have him flogged. This so exasperated Beasley that he
ordered Fletcher to leave the fort, with his large family, by ten o'clock the next day.
At that time there were five hundred and fifty-three souls within the stockade, con
sisting of white people, Indians, officers, soldiers, and negi-oes. Many of them were
sick, for there arose around them continually the malaria of Alabama swamps swel
tering in the rays of an August sun. Most of them were non-combatants, for the in
fatuated Beasley, who believed himself and charge to be perfectly secure, had greatly
weakened the garrison by sending men to neighboring posts from which came pite
ous cries for aid and protection.
The morning of the 30th was clear and sultry. The alarm caused by the story of
the negroes on the previous day had subsided, and Fletcher, the owner of one of
them, had consented to have his slave whipped rather than be driven from the fort
with his family. Full of confidence, Beasley at ten o'clock had dispatched a messen
ger with a letter to General Claiborne, in which he assured his commander of his per
fect safety, and his " ability to maintain the post against any number of Indians."1
The women in the stockade were preparing dinner; the soldiers were loitering list
lessly about, or were playing cards, or lying on the ground asleep ; and almost a hund
red children were playing gleefully among the cabins and tents. Young men and
maidens were dancing, and every appearance gave promise of an evening of sweet re
pose. Nothing marred the happy aspect of the scene but the form of Fletcher's poor
negro, who was tied up and his back bared for the lash because he had told a terri
ble truth, and it was believed to be a lie. But it was a moment of awful peril. In
a shallow ravine, overshadowed by trees and filled with luxuriant vegetation, lay al
most a thousand Creek warriors, not more than four hundred yards from the eastern
gate, preparing, like fierce and famished tigers, to spring upon their prey at the first
opportune moment. They were mostly naked excepting the usual "flap." Many of
them were hideously painted, and all were well armed. The prophets, in whose care
were the superstitions of the dusky horde, lay with the warriors, their heads covered
i Major Beasley to General Claiborne, August 31, 1813.
3B
754 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The Indian Leaders. Gathering of the hostile Savages. False Confidence of the Commander at Fort Mime.
with feathers, their faces painted black, and their medicine-bags and magic rods by
their sides. It was a host devilish in appearance, and on a demoniac errand. Whence
came they ? Let us see.
We have observed that M'Queen and his followers, after the battle of Burnt Corn
Creek, went back to Pensacola, where they were again well supplied with provisions
and ammunition, and instructed by the British and Indian agents there to fight the
Americans, and, in the event of their being defeated, to send their women and chil
dren to Pensacola. " If you should be compelled to fly yourselves," they said, " and
the Americans should prove too hard for both of us, there are vessels enough to carry
us off altogether to Havana."1
M'Queen was associated with Josiah Francis and William Weathersford, both half-
bloods ; the former a son of a Creek woman by a Scotchman named Francis,2 and
the latter a child of Charles Weathersford, of Georgia, by the beautiful Sehoya, a
half-sister of General M'Gillivray, of the Creek nation.3 Weathersford was an ex
traordinary man ; commanding in person, powerful in physical strength, honorable,
and as humane as circumstances would allow. He was the superior of M'Queen and
Francis in ability ; and when, after the return of the well-supplied Indians from Pen
sacola, there was a great gathering of warriors at Toockabatcha, on the Tallapoosa,
and preparations were made for opening the war by an incursion into the country on
the Lower Alabama, he became the principal leader.4
• August 20, Late in Augusta Weathersford conducted his followers to the planta
tion of Zachariah M'Girth, not far from the site of the present village of
Claiborne, in Monroe County, Alabama, ninety miles below Montgomery. There he
captured some negroes, and from them learned the condition of Fort Minis. One of
his captives escaped, and bore to Major Beasley intelligence of impending danger,
while Weathersford for several days deliberated and prepared for an exterminating
blow. As the Indians did not make their appearance, Beasley supposed the negro
fugitive's story to be a mere fabrication ; and, as we have observed, the commander
and the inmates of the fort were resting in fancied security, when, on the 29th,
Weathersford and his host approached the ravine in which they lay on the morning
of the 30th. There they were again seen by the slave, who had been whipped for
supposed lying on the previous day. He might have warned Beasley, which warn
ing, if heeded, might have saved the fort ; but his back was yet smarting from the
severe flogging, and, fearing a repetition of it, he fled to Fort Pierce, a stockade about
two miles from Fort Mims.
At noon the garrison drum at Fort Mims beat for dinner. The eastern gate stood
wide open, with some drifted sand against it. The first tap was the signal for the
savages to rise from their cover and rush to the fort ; and the first intimation of their
presence was a horrid yell,5 that filled the air as they came streaming over a field to-
1 Pickett's Alabama, ii., 2C7, note.
~ Francis assumed to be a prophet inspired by the Shawnoe seer, Tecumtha's one-eyed brother. lie placed Francis
in a cabin by himself, around which he danced and howled for ten days. Then, he said, Francis was blind, but that he
would again see, and then he would know all of things future. At the expiration of ten days the Prophet led him
forth, and Francis walked like a blind man all day. Toward night his sight came to him suddenly, when he became
the greatest prophet in the Creek nation, with the power to create lesser prophets. That power he used freely.
3 Alexander M'Gillivray was the head chief of the Creek nation during Washington's administration. He was a son
of a Creek woman by a Scotch Tory of Georgia, whose property was confiscated at the close of the old War for Inde
pendence. This son took refuge among the Creeks, and became the "beloved man," or head chief. He was an edu
cated man ; brave, fluent in speech, and personally popular. The Spanish authorities honored him with the commis
sion of a colonel ; and he was received in New York in 1T90 with great honors when he came, with a retinue of follow
ers, to negotiate a treaty between the Creeks and the United States— the very treaty whose spirit his countrymen were
now about to violate. His mother's family were among the first in the Creek nation ; and his haU sister, Sehoya,
Weathersford's mother, was celebrated for her beauty and mental excellence. Weathersford was born at the Hickory
Ground, near Coosawda, on the Alabama.
* Warriors from thirteen Indian towns marched in a southward direction, while others from Tallahassee, Anttose,
and Ockfnske formed a corps of observation in another direction, to conceal the movement.
5 There seem to have been no sentinels on duty, for the Indians were within thirty steps of the fort before they were
discovered.— Letter of Fletcher Cox to General Claiborne, in Life of General Sam Dale, page 109.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 755
Sudden Appearance of the Indians. Furious Assault on the Fort. A terrible Battle in Fort Mims.
ward the open gate. Beasley flew to close it, and his soldiers rushed with their arms
to the port-holes, while the unarmed men, and the women and children, huddled, pale
and trembling, and almost paralyzed with sudden fear, in the houses and cabins with
in the main inclosure. Beasley was too late. Before he could remove the drifted
sand and shut the gate, the savages were upon him. He was felled by clubs and
tomahawks ; and over his dying body the dusky torrent rushed into the new inclo
sure, where Captains Middleton and Jack were on duty. He crawled behind the gate
and soon expired, using his latest breath in exhorting his men to fight valiantly.
The Indians soon filled the outer inclosure, while the field beyond swarmed with a
yelling multitude of blood-thirsty men. Their prophets commenced incantations and
dances. They had assured the warriors that the white men's bullets would split
harmlessly on the sacred bodies of the seers and the multitude behind them. The
delusion was soon dispelled. Five of the invulnerable prophets were shot dead.
The dismayed savages recoiled for a moment in doubt and fear. Many rushed wildly
out of the gate, but others filled their places, and, with yells and howls, they poured
a deadly fire upon the inmates of the fort through the portholes of the old pickets
and the outside stockades. The poor bound negro, who was awaiting the lash, was
shot dead on the spot where he was to have been punished for doing all in his power
to avert the dreadful calamity then impending. Captain Middleton, who was in
charge of the eastern section, was slain, with all of his command. Captain Jack, in
the south wing, with a rifle company, maintained the conflict nobly. Lieutenant
Ranclon fought from the guard-house on the west ; and Captain Dixon Bailey, the
gallant half-blood, on whom the command of the garrison devolved after the fall of
Beasley, was seen in every part of the fort, directing the military and encouraging
the other inmates.
The situation was terrible. There were two inclosures, separated by a row of log
pickets with port-holes, and an open gate. On one side were unarmed men, women,
and children, thickly crowded, with few soldiers, for a larger portion of them were
in the outer inclosure with Middleton and Jack. On the other side were lusty sav
ages, maddened by the sight of blood and ravenous for plunder ; and all around were
human fiends filling the open field and eager for slaughter and spoils. . Victory or
death was the alternative offered to the inmates of the fort. After the first shock of
surprise their courage returned, and, under the direction of the intrepid Bailey, those
who had arms manned the dividing pickets, and through the port-holes poured vol
leys that made wide lanes in the thick ranks of the foe. These, however, were imme
diately filled, and the terrible conflict went on. Sometimes the guns of a Christian
and pagan would cross in a port-hole, and both would fall. Old men, and even wom
en and boys, fought with desperation. Bailey's voice constantly encouraged them.
" Hold on a little longer," he said, " and all will be well. The Indians seldom fight
long at a time." He endeavored to induce some of them to join him in a sortie and
a dash through the enemy to Fort Pierce to procure re-enforcements, and, returning,
attack the enemy in the rear and raise the siege. The movement seemed too peril
ous and hopeless, and none would follow him. He determined to go alone, and was
actually climbing the picketing for the purpose when his friends pulled him back.
The horrid battle raged for three hours, when, as Bailey expected, the Indians be
gan to tire. Their fire slackened, their howlings were less savage, and they began to
carry off plunder from the head-quarters of Major Beasley and the other buildings in
the outer inclosure. The people in the main fort were thrilled with a hope that the
savages were about to depart. That hope was soon extinguished. Weathersford
was not a man to accept of half a victory when a complete one was within his grasp.
He beheld with scorn the conduct of many of his warriors wrho were more intent on
plunder than conquest. Seated upon a fine black horse, he rode after the departing
braves, addressed them vehemently with words of rebuke and persuasion, and soon
756
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Massacre in Fort Mims.
Scalping the Dead and Dying.
Price for Scalps offered by the British Agent.
led them back to complete the business in hand. With demoniac yells the savages
resumed the work of destruction. They soon filled the outer inclosure again, but
were kept at bay by brothers of Captain Bailey and other sharp-shooters, who had
made port-holes in Mims's house by knocking off some shingles, and from thence sent
deadly bullets into many a lusty warrior who was endeavoring to press through the
inner gate. But very soon, under the direction of Weathersford, fire was sent to
Mims's roof on the wings of arrows, and it burst into a flame. Some of the scorched
inmates of the house fled to other buildings, and some were roasted in the horrid
oven. The house was soon in cinders, with its extensive sheds and out-buildings.
The fire spread to other buildings, and in a few minutes almost the entire area of
the fort was scathed by the crackling flames. The shrieks of women and children
added to the horrors of the scene.
Only one place of refuge now remained, and to it the doomed people rushed fran
tically. It was Patrick's loom-house (7 in the diagram below), on the north side of
the fort, which had been inclosed with strong pickets, and called the Bastion. This
was Captain Bailey's original stand, and there he and the survivors of his company
now took position and poured fatal volleys upon the savages.
The assailants were now in the main fort, and every inmate pressed frantically to
ward the Bastion. In doing so many were killed by the Indians, while the weak,
wounded, and aged were trampled under foot and pressed to death. The venerable
Samuel Mims, when tottering toward this last place of refuge, was shot, and while
he was yet living the knife of his assassin was passed around his head, and his scalp,
with its hoary locks, was waved exultingly in the air.
The fire and the savages attacked the
Bastion at the same time. The former was
more merciful than the latter. The Indians
broke down the pickets, and butchered the
inmates in cold blood. The children were
seized by the legs, and their brains knocked
out against the stockades. Women were
disemboweled, and their unborn children
were flung in the air. The British agent
at Pensacola had offered five dollars apiece
for scalps, and the long tresses of women,
as well as the coverings of men's heads,
were speedily in the hands of the savages
as marketable commodities in a Christian
mart ! In the midst of the performance of
these horrid deeds Weathersford rode up.
Like Tecumtha, he was noble and humane.
He reproached his followers for their cruel
ty, and begged them to spare the women
and children at least. His interference
nearly cost him his life. Many clubs were
raised threateningly over his head, and he
was compelled to retire. In after years the scenes he then witnessed filled him with
1 The above plan of Fort Mims was found among the manuscripts of General Claiborne, and first published by Pick-
ett in his History of Alabama, ii., 2G5. It may also be found in Claiborne's Life ai\d Times of General Sam Dale, page
112, and is printed here by permission of the author. The following is an explanation of the reference figures : 1. Block
house ; 2. Pickets cut away by the Indians ; 3. Guards' station ; 4. Guard-house ; 5. Western gate, but not up ; 6. This
gate was shut, but a hole was cut through by the Indians ; 7. Captain Bailey's station ; 8. Steadham's house ; 9. Mrs.
Dyer's house ; 10. Kitchen ; 11. Mims's house ; 12. Eandon's house ; 13. Old gateway, open ; 14. Ensign Chambliss's tent ;
1C. Ttandon's ; 17. Captain Middleton's ; 18. Captain Jack's station ; 19. Port-holes taken by Indians ; 20, 21. Port-holes
tnken by Indians ; 22. Major Beasley's cabin ; 23. Captain Jack's company ; 24. Captain Middletou's company ; 25. Where
Beasley fell ; 20. Eastern gate, where the Indians entered.
FOET MIMS.1
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 757
Number of the Slain. Indians rewarded by the British Agent. Horrors of the Massacre. Burial of the Dead.
remorse, for he was chief author of the calamity. He had raised the storm, but he
was unable to control it. " My warriors," he said, " were like famished wolves, and
the first taste of blood made their appetites insatiable."1
At noon on that fatal 30th of August, when the drum was beaten for dinner, there
were five hundred and fifty persons in Fort Minis, happy in the belief that they were
secure from danger ; at sunset of the same day four hundred of them were dead !
Not one white woman nor one child escaped. Every avenue of flight from the hor
rid slaughter-pen was sentineled. Yet twelve men of the garrison did cut through
the pickets and escape to the swamp. Among these was Captain Bailey ; but he was
severely wounded, and died by the side of a cypress stump.2 Hester, a negro woman,
who had received a ball in her breast, had followed them out. She reached a canoe
in Tensaw Lake, paddled it into and down the Alabama to Fort Stoddart, which she
reached on Tuesday night,a and was the first to give information to Gen- "August 31,
eral Claiborne of the horrible tragedy. Most of the negroes were spared
by the Indians, and were made their slaves.
The battle lasted from twelve o'clock until five, when the fort was a smoking ruin.
The savages then retired about a mile east of the fort, where they slept that night,
after smoking their pipes and trimming their scalps. They had suffered severely, for
the garrison had sold their lives as dearly as possible. Not less than four hundred
Creek warriors were slain or wounded. On the morning after the conflict they com
menced burying their dead, but soon abandoned the labor. Putting their wounded
into canoes, a part of the warriors went up the river ; some staid in the neighbor
hood to plunder and kill,3 and others went to Pensacola, with their trophy-scalps on
poles, to receive their reward from the British agents there.
Ten days afterward, Major Kennedy, who had been sent by General Claiborne to
bury the dead at Fort Mims, arrived there.b His eyes met a sad and
horrid spectacle. The air was filled with gluttonous buzzards who had
come to feast on the dead bodies, and a large number of dogs were disputing with
the foul birds for the banquet. The mutilated remains of the dead were buried in
two pits.4 " Indians, negroes, wThite men, women, and children," Kennedy said in his
report, " lay in one promiscuous mass. All were scalped ; and the females of every
age were butchered in a manner which neither decency nor language will permit me
to describe. The main building was burned to ashes, which were filled with bones.
The plains and the woods around were covered with dead bodies. All the houses
were consumed by fire except the block-house and a part of the pickets. The sol
diers and officers, with one voice, called on Divine Providence to revenge the death
of our murdered friends."5
The massacre at Fort Mims created the most intense excitement and alarm through
out the Southwest. This was increased by the operations of the powerful prophet,
Francis, who at the same time was spreading destruction and consternation over the
country between the Alabama and Tombigbee Rivers, from the forks northward, now
Clarke County, in Alabama. The little stockades were filled with the affrighted in-
1 Claiborne's Life of General Sam Dale, page 128.
2 When the flames began to reach the people in the Bastion, Dr. Thomas G. Holmes, an assistant surgeon of the gar
rison, seized an axe, cut some pickets in two, but left them standing till an opportunity for escape offered. Bailey now
cried out, "All is lost!" and begged the people to escape. The pickets were thrown down, but, as we have obs^-ved,
only twelve escaped. Bailey's little sick son, only thirteen years of age, was carried safely to the woods by his negro
man Tom, who, half mad with fear and dire confusion, ran back with the boy to the Indians. The savages took the
child by the legs, and while he cried " Father, save me !" they dashed out his brains. The following are the names of
the persons who escaped from the fort and lived : Dr. Thomas Gf. Holmes ; Hester, a negro woman ; Socca, a friendly
Indian; Peter Randon, lieutenant of citizens' company ; Josiah Fletcher ; Sergeant Mathews ; Martin Rigdon ; Samuel
Smith, a half-blood ; Mourrice and Joseph Perry, of the Mississippi Volunteers ; John Hoven ; Jones ; and
Lieutenant W. R. Chambliss, of the Mississippi Volunteers. — Pickett's Alabama, ii., 276. See diagram on opposite page
for the houses of the Steadhams and Randons, and the tent of Lieutenant Chambliss.
3 The inmates of Fort Pierce, a small stockade two or three miles from Fort Mims, fled down the river and reached
Mobile in safety. * Two hundred and forty-seven bodies were buried.
4 Kennedy's MS. Report to General Claiborne, quoted in Pickett's Alabama, ii., 2S2.
758 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Distress in the Creek Country. Response of the Tennesseeaus to a Cry for Help. Jackson's Appeal, and its Effects.
habitants, and sickness and death were their constant companions. The distress in
the Creek country can scarcely be imagined. A fearful cry for help went northward,
not, as it would now, on the wings of the lightning, but by couriers on swift horses.
Yet they were tardy messengers measured by travel-speed to-day. It took thirty-
one days to carry the news to the city of New York, where it produced very little
sensation, for the heart of the whole country was then yet tremulous with the joyous
emotions created by the recent victory won by Perry on Lake Erie, and excited by
intense interest in the movements of General Harrison, who was then penetrating
Canada, and nobly retrieving the national misfortunes at Detroit the previous year.
These absorbed the public attention northward of the Ohio and eastward of the Alle-
ghany Mountains, while the fiercely-kindled Creek War equally absorbed the atten
tion and awakened the most fervid sympathies and hottest indignation of the people
of the Mississippi and Gulf regions.
The sons of Tennessee quickly and nobly responded to the cry for help from below.
Governor Blount promised to do what he might, but General Jackson was then too
ill to take active measures in the same direction immediately, but he assured his fel
low-citizens that he would do so as speedily as possible. He was then lying at the
Nashville Inn, prostrated by the effects of serious wounds received from the late
Thomas H. Benton in an affray in the streets of Nashville with deadly weapons. He
was convalescing, and, full of the " fire of the flint," he issued a stirring address to
those volunteers who followed him a thousand miles to Natchez a year before. He
begged them to go forward in a cause " so worthy the arm of every brave soldier and
true citizen;" and expressed his regret that he was not able to go with them, at the
same time assuring them of his belief that he might soon join them, which he did.
Jackson's appeal touched the hearts of the Tennesseeans ; and the action of the Leg
islature, then in session, was consonant with the wishes and feelings of the people.
On the 25th of September* they authorized Governor Blount to call out three
thousand five hundred volunteers, in addition to fifteen hundred already mus
tered into the service of the United States, the commonwealth of Tennessee guaran
teeing their pay and subsistence, and appropriating three hundred thousand dollars
for the payment of expenses to be immediately incurred. On the same day General
Jackson issued another spirited address, calling his division to the field. He ordered
them to assemble on the 4th of October at Fayetteville, near the northern boundary
of Alabama. Already his first address had set the military spirit of the state ablaze ;
now a letter-writer at Nashville declared11 that " in a few days there will
h September 27. - , „ . J
be but tew young men left in town. Nearly all have volunteered — some
have gone, and others are getting ready. . . . Colonel John Coffee has already start
ed with the cavalry. Infantry and mounted volunteer companies are flocking to the
standard every day. Had not General Jackson been confined by his wound, I think
all would have been on the way by this time."1
On the 26th General Jackson dispatched the energetic Colonel Coffee, with his
regiment of dragoons, five hundred strong, and as many mounted volunteers as could
join him immediately, to take post at Huntsville,2 in Northern Alabama, for the en
couragement and protection of the inhabitants there, and to cover a depot of supplies
which he intended to establish on the Tennessee River south of Huntsville, at Ditto's
Landing. Coffee pushed forward with celerity, and reached Huntsville on the 4th of
October. His force had been augmented almost hourly on the way by volunteers
who flocked to his standard, and he found himself on the borders of the Creek coun
try with full thirteen hundred men. Jackson meanwhile, with his arm in a sling and
suffering intensely, was making his way to the prescribed rendezvous of his troops
1 The War, ii., 73.
2 Huntsville is the present capital of Madison County, Alabama, one of the finest regions of that state, at the foot of
the mountain slopes which there gradually melt into the level Gulf region.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
759
General Coffee in Northern Alabama.
Jackson in the Field.
Mobile threatened, but saved.
at Fayetteville, on the 4th of October,
full eighty miles south from Nashville.
He could not reach there at the pre
scribed time, but sent forward a spirit
ed address to the soldiers, to be read to
them on that day. It was an appeal to
their pride and patriotism; and called
upon them, in an especial manner, to be
obedient to discipline, for it was essen
tial in preparing them for the noble task
before them.
While these movements were in prog
ress in West Tennessee, others of like
character and importance were going
on in East Tennessee, where General
John Cocke was in command. Under
the direction of Governor Blount, he
ordered his division to rendezvous at
Knoxville ; and so promptly did they
respond, that he wrote to General Jack
son on the 2d of October* that his
a 1 Ql Q
men, twenty-five hundred in number, were ready to march, and that he could
doubtless contract for a thousand barrels of flour to be sent to Ditto's Landing imme
diately.
Jackson reached Fayetteville on the 7th of October, where he remained a week
waiting for the arrival of troops, organizing them, and making arrangements for sup
plies. He was greeted by cheering news from Coffee. It was generally supposed
that the Indians would hasten to the capture of Mobile, under the auspices and di
rection of the Spaniards, after the destruction of Fort Minis. It might have been an
easy matter ; but they lingered, as usual, after their victory, and then pushed north
ward.1 This good news came from Coffee, and Jackson, acting upon it, was making
vigorous preparation to meet them, when, on Monday, the llth of October,b a
courier came dashing into his camp with intelligence from Coffee that the sav
ages were near. The general gave instant orders for his troops to march. Two hours
later they were in motion ; and at eight o'clock the same evening they were in Hunts-
ville, having marched thirty-two miles almost without halting. On the following
morning Jackson was informed that the rumor of the near approach of the Indians
was false. He leisurely led his troops across the swift-floAving Tennessee at Ditto's
Landing, joined Coffee's command, and, on a high bluff overlooking the beautiful
river, opposite a charming island, encamped.
JOI1M COFFEE.
' 1S18.
1 The Indians, as usual, stopped to enjoy their victory after it was achieved, instead of securing its solid advantages.
Such consternation was produced by the massacres on Tensaw that Mobile might have become an easy prey to the
savages. But while they lingered, the Spanish accomplices at Pensacola appeared to have become alarmed lest the
savages might destroy Mobile, which they hoped to recover uninjured. Governor Manique accordingly wrote to Weath-
ersford and his associates on the subject. After congratulating them on their success at Fort Mims, assuring them of
friendship and a desire to aid them, and thanking them for their offers of assistance in the recapture of Mobile, the
governor dissuaded them from attacking it, or at least destroying it. "I hope," he wrote, "you will not put in execu
tion the project you tell me of to burn the town, since these houses and properties do not belong to the Americans, but
to true Spaniards."— Letter dated Pensacola, September 29,1813, quoted by Pickett in his Htetory of Alabama. It is
among the Claiborne papers already alluded to. It is positive proof of the complicity of the Spanish authorities at
Pensacola with the British and Indians in waging an exterminating war against the people of the Mississippi Terri
tory, and justified the seizure of Pensacola by the Americans which occurred afterward.
760 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Jackson's impatient waiting for Supplies. Cries for Help from the Coosa. Jackson marches in that Direction.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
"Alas for them ! their day is o'er;
Their fires are out from shore to shore ;
No more for them the wild deer bounds—
The plow is on their hunting-grounds.
The pale man's axe rings through their woods—
The pale man's sail skims o'er their floods."
CHARLES SPRAGUE.
p'^ACKSON'S little army, under his immediate command, was now
about twenty-five hundred strong, and the difficulties of the
campaign, with all their gloomy suggestions, arose in colossal
proportions before his judgment and experience. His supplies,
promised by General Cocke, had not arrived, and before him
was an untried wilderness filled with hostile savages. Twenty-
five hundred men and thirteen hundred horses must be fed.
" Such a body," says a late writer, " will consume ten wagon-
loads of provisions every day. For a week's subsistence they require a thousand
bushels of grain, twenty tons of flesh, a thousand gallons of whisky, and many hund
red weight of miscellaneous provisions." Jackson was grievously disappointed, and
stormed furiously at fate, the shallow Tennessee (on which the provision vessels would
not yet float), the contractors, and even at General Cocke. Then he sent his quarter
master, Major W. B. Lewis, to Nashville for supplies, and Colonel Coifee, with six or
seven hundred mounted men, to scour for food the country watered by the Black
Warrior River, an important tributary of the Tombigbee. He was cheered by infor
mation that General White, with the advance of General Cocke's division of East
Tennesseeans, had already passed the site of Chattanooga and the now famous Look
out Mountain — made famous by the events of the great Civil War, which occurred
there in the autumn of 1863 — and would probably join him in the course of a few
days.
Jackson set about drilling his troops thoroughly, and while engaged in that duty
a Creek chief of the peace-party informed him that a large number of his nation were
preparing to attack a fort filled with friendly Indians at the Ten Islands of the Coosa
. October 19, River. The general immediately broke camp upon the bluif,a and with
immense labor and fatigue1 made his way twenty-two miles in that direc
tion along the course of the Tennessee to Thompson's Creek, one of its tributaries, all
the while watching anxiously, through the eyes of scouts, for the appearance of the
expected supply flotilla. But they did not come. He wrote to friends and public
authorities in every direction, and the burden of his letters were, " Give me food, and
I will end this savage war in a month." And yet he did not wait for the expected
supplies to begin it, for such piteous entreaties came from the Coosa that he resolved
to press forward at all 'hazards. He established a depository for supplies at the
mouth of Thompson's Creek, cast up fortifications to defend them which he named
Fort Deposit, and on the evening of the 24th of October he started for the Ten Isl
ands of the Coosa, fifty miles distant, with only two days' supply of bread and six of
meat, swearing that he would " neither sound a retreat nor suffer a defeat"2 before the
1 The country in that region is exceedingly rough and mountainous, and the troops were compelled to endure the
most appalling labors. " We have cut our way," wrote Major Reid, Jackson's aid-de-camp, " over mountains more tre
mendous than Alps."
2 Letter of Major John Reid to Quarter-master W. B. Lewis, October 24, 1S13, quoted by Parton, i., 432.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 761
The Army threatened with Famine. Affairs in the lower Creek Country. Courage and Honor of Captain Dale.
savages. Coffee, who in the space of twelve days had marched two hundred miles,
burned Black Warrior's Town and another Indian village on the Black Warrior Riv
er, and collected about th^ee hundred bushels of corn, had joined him, and the whole
army went cheerily forward toward the Coosa. He cut his way over the. rugged
mountains with indomitable perseverance to Wells's Creek,a where his » October 28,
supply of bread failed, and he remained encamped for several days, that
his foraging parties might collect provisions. His little army was there threatened
with actual starvation, for the contractors had entirely failed to meet their engage
ments. The foragers were usually successful. One party, under Colonel Dyer, two
hundred strong, fell upon the Indian village of Littefutchee, at the head of Canoe
Creek, twenty miles from the camp, captured twenty-nine prisoners and a good sup
ply of corn, and laid the town in ashes.b Then the army marched on, and
in less than a week afterward it was encamped on the right bank of the
Coosa, not far from the Ten Islands and the mouth of the Canoe or Littefutchee Creek.
Let us here leave the resolute invaders a few moments, and consider the condition
of affairs in the Creek country.
We have observed that the massacre at Fort Minis spread consternation over the
whole region, and white people and friendly Indians sought shelter in the stockades
or safety in flight toward the Gulf. Sickness prevailed in all the stockades, and there
was distress every where. Murders, robberies, and conflagrations were seen on every
hand. Claibome was harassed with almost hourly messages bearing piteous impor
tunities for help, and from none more loudly than from St. Stephen's, one of the most
important posts in the country.1 Information had reached the general that the gar
rison and refugees in Fort Madison, in the eastern part of Clarke County, were likely
to share the horrid fate of those in Minis from a combined attack of the savasres.
O
Under the direction of General Flournoy, he ordered Colonel Carson, the commander,
to abandon the fort and hasten to the relief of St. Stephen's, if his judgment should
sanction such movement. Carson left Madison reluctantly, followed by about five
hundred settlers of both sexes, and all ages and conditions, and marched westward.
He had arrived on the banks of the Tombigbee, on his way to St. Stephen's, when an
other letter from Claiborne reached him, in which he was urged " not to abandon the
fort [Madison] unless it was clear that he could not maintain it." It was too late.
He crossed the river and entered St. Stephen's.
Fort Madison was not wholly abandoned. There were bold men there who re
solved to remain and defend it, together with Fort Glass, a small stockade only a
fourth of a mile distant. The leader was Captain Sam Dale.2 He was still suffering
from the effects of his wound received at Burnt Corn Creek. When Carson's drum
beat for his troops to march, Dale beat his for volunteers to remain ; and when the
last of the United States soldiers marched out of the fort, Dale marched in at the head
of eighty brave citizens, among them Captain Evans Austill. Dale received a note
from General Flournoy advising him to repair to Mount Vernon, as he was sure to be
attacked by an overwhelming force. Dale replied that he had sworn to defend the
women and children under his charge ; that he had a " gallant set of boys" under
him; and that when the general should hear "of the fall of Fort Madison, he would
find a pile of yellow-hides to tan if he could get his regulars to come and skin them !"3
Dale maintained his position with boldness, and was not attacked.4
1 See page 750, and Map on page 751. 2 gee page 749.
3 Life and Times of General Sam Dale, pages 116 and 117. Dale says Flournoy was opposed to the stockade system,
and was determined to concentrate his troops at Mobile, Mount Veruon, and St. Stephen's. Claiborne's order for the
evacuation of Fort Madison, inspired by Flournoy, was cursed by the Mettlers in the forks of the Alabama and Tombig
bee, who considered themselves cruelly abandoned.
* " During the day," says Dale, " sentinels were posted around the fort. At night I illuminated the approaches for a
circuit of one hundred yards by a device of my own. Two poles, fifty feet long, were firmly planted on each side of the
fort ; a long lever, upon the plan of a well-sweep, worked upon each of these poles ; to each lever was attached a bar
of iron about ten feet long, and to these bars were fastened with trace-chains huge fagots of light wood. The illumina-
762 PICTOEIAL FIELD-BOOK
The Choctaw Allies. Speech of Pushamataha. Coffee's Expedition against Tallasehatche.
While there was still a doubt in every mind whether the Choctaws would remain
friendly to the Americans, Pushamataha removed every suspicion by suddenly ap
pearing at St. Stephen's and offering to enlist several companies of his warriors to
take up. arms under the banner of the United States. He was conducted to Mobile by
George S. Gaines, where he had an interview with General Flournoy. That strangely
blind officer declined the chief's offer, and Gaines and Pushamataha went back to
St. Stephen's filled with mortification and disgust. The assembled citizens had be
gun to curse the commanding general without stint, when a courier appeared riding
in haste. He bore authority from Flournoy for Gaines to recruit in the Choctaw
nation. His advisers had caused him to repent of his folly in refusing the generous
offer of Pushamataha.
Gaines and the brave chief started northward for the Choctaw country. They
were met at John Peachland's by Colonel John M'Kee, agent of the Chickasaws, with
whom they held a consultation. Pushamataha and Gaines then went forward. The
former called a council of his people of the eastern district of the nation.1 He ha
rangued the assembled multitude in an admirable speech ; and it was so effective
that when, at the conclusion, he said, " If you have a mind to follow me, I will lead
you to glory and victory," a warrior arose, slapped his hand upon his heart, and said,
" I am a man ! I am a man ! I will follow you !" All the others did likewise, and
raised a shout that filled the heart of Gaines with joy.2 Colonel M'Kee was equally
successful with the Chickasaws. A large body of them volunteered to folloAv him,
and did so to the Tuscaloosa Falls, for the purpose of attacking a Creek town there.
They found it in ashes, and the centre of a solitude wherein no Indian was visible.
M'Kee returned to Peachland's, at the mouth of the Octibaha, where his dusky follow
ers separated, some going to their homes, and others making their way to join the
standard of General Claiborne, then at St. Stephen's.3
It was while the consternation of the inhabitants on the Alabama and Tombigbee
was most intense that Jackson was making his way toward the sanguinary theatre
on which, as we have seen, he appeared at the close of October. He now became
chief actor in the terrible drama.
On his arrival upon the Coosa, Jackson was informed that the Creeks were assem
bled at Tallasehatche, a town in an open woodland only thirteen miles from the
camp.4 He resolved to attack them at once, and on the morning of the 2d of No
vember he summoned the stalwart Coffee to his presence. That brave officer had
* September 24, lately been promoted to the rank of brigadier.51 He was anxious to be
on the wing with his mounted men, and was soon gratified. The com
manding general ordered him to take one thousand horsemen, and fall suddenly and
fiercely upon the offending town in which blood-thirsty enemies were harbored, and
destroy it. He left camp for the purpose toward evening, his troops accompanied by
Captain Richard Brown and a company of friendly Creeks and Cherokees, whose
tion from such an elevation was brilliant, and no covert attack could be made upon my position. As a precaution
against the Indian torch, I had my block-houses and their roofs well plastered with clay. We displayed ourselves in
arms frequently, the women wearing hats and the garments of their husbands, to impress upon the spies that we knew
were lurking around an exaggerated notion of our strength. For provisions we shot such cattle and hogs as grazed
within the range of our guns, but I carefully noted the marks and brands, and afterward indemnified the owners."— Life
of Dale, page 117.
1 The Choctaw nation was then composed of three distinct governments. The Eastern district was ruled over by
Pushamataha, the Western by Puckshenubbee, and the Northwestern by Mushelatubba.
2 "You know Tecumtha," said Pushamataha. ."He is a bad man. He came through our nation, but did not turn
our heads. He went among the Muscogees [Creeks], and got many of them to join him. You know the Tensaw peo
ple. They were our friends. They played ball with us. They sheltered and fed us whenever we went to Pensacola.
Where are they now? Their bones rot at Sam Mims's place. The people at St. Stephen's are also our friends. The
Muscogees intend to kill them too. They want foldiers to defend them. [Here he drew his sword and nourished it.]
You can all do as you please. You are all freemen. I dictate to none of you. But I shall join the St. Stephen's people.
If you have a mind to follow me, I will lead you to glory and victory."— Pickett's Alabama, ii., 291.
3 Pickett's Alabama, ii., 292.
* Not far from the present village of Jacksonville, the capital of Benton County, Alabama, on the southeast side of
Tallasehatche Creek.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 763
Battle of Tallasehatche. Annihilation of the Town and the Warriors. Jackson's Army on the Coosa.
heads were tastefully ornamented with white feathers and deer's tails. They forded
the Coosa at the Fish Dam, four miles above the Ten Islands, and at dawn on the
morning of the 3d halted within half a mile of the doomed town. There Coffee
quickly divided his forces into two columns, the right composed of cavalry, com
manded by Colonel Allcorn, and the left of mounted riflemen, under Colonel Cannon.
With the latter the newly-made general marched. Allcorn was directed to encircle
one half of the town with his cavalry, while Cannon and his riflemen should encircle
the other half. This was promptly accomplished at sunrise, when the foe sallied
out with beat of drums and savage yells, their prophets being in the advance.
The battle that speedily began was brought on at about eight o'clock by the com
panies of Captain Hammond and Lieutenant Patterson, who had made a manoeuvre
for the purpose of decoying the foe from the shelter of their houses. It was success
ful. The Indians fell upon them furiously, when the two companies, according to in
structions, fell back, pursued by the enemy, until the latter encountered the right of
Coffee's troops. These first gave the Indians a deadly volley of bullets, and then
charged them violently, while the left division closed in upon the doomed foe. Never
did men fight more gallantly than did the Creeks. Inch by inch they were pushed
back to their houses by the ever-narrowing circle of assailants. They fought desper
ately and with savage fury. They were shot and bayoneted in and out of their
houses. Not one would ask for quarter, but fought so long as he had strength to
wield a weapon. None survived. Every warrior was killed. In falling back to
their dwellings they mingled with the women and children, and in the fury of the
contest some of these were slain. The victory for tfye assailants was complete ; and
at the close of this short, sharp battle, one hundred and eighty-six Indian warriors
lay dead around the victors.1 It was believed that full two hundred perished.
Eighty-four women and children were made prisoners. The loss of the Americans
was only five killed (no officers) and forty-one wounded, most of them slightly.
Having destroyed the town and buried his dead, the victorious Coffee marched
back in triumph to the camp on the Coosa, followed by a train of sorrowful captives.
It was a terrible sight for the eye of Pity. Retributive justice, evoked by the slain
at Fort Mims, was satisfied. Tallasehatche was wiped from the face of the earth,
and every survivor was sent a prisoner to Huntsville.2 Thus commenced the fearful
chastisement of the infatuated Creeks who had listened to the siren voice of Tecum-
tha, and the wicked suggestions and false promises of the Spaniards and British at
Pensacola.
Jackson now made his way over the Coosa Mountains to the Ten Islands, and on
the right bank of the Coosa commenced the construction of a second fortified deposit
for supplies. Strong pickets and block-houses soon began to rise, and the work was
well advanced when, just at sunset on the 7th of November, an Indian chief from the
Hickory Ground, who, by stratagem, had made his way from the beleaguered fort,
came with swift foot and informed the general-iii-chief that one hundred and sixty
i General Coffee said in his report (November 4, 1813) : " They fought as long as one existed ; and when the last of
the devoted band, still struggling for the mastery, had fallen beneath the hatchets and hunting-knives of his enemies,
one hundred and eighty-six warriors were stretched lifeless on the fine open woodland in which their village was sit
uated."
= A touching tale of truth is told in connection with the battle of Tallasehatche. Among the slain was found an In
dian mother, and upon her bosom lay her infant boy, vainly endeavoring to draw sustenance from the cold breast. The
orphan was carried into camp, and Jackson tried to induce some of the mothers among the captives to give it nourish
ment. "No," they replied ; "all his relatives are dead, kill him too." The little boy was taken to the general's own
tent, fed on brown sugar and water until a nurse could be procured at Huntsville, when it was sent to Mrs. Jackson.
The general was a childless man, and he adopted the forest foundling as his son. Mrs. Jackson watched over him with
a mother's care, and he grew to be a beautiful youth, full of promise. But consumption laid him in the grave among
the shades of the " Hermitage" before he reached manhood, and his foster-parents mourned over him with a grief as
sincere as that of consanguinity.
This boy was no exception to the rule of Indian instinct for wild and forest life. He delighted to roam in the woods,
decorate his head with feathers, and start out from ambush and frighten children with loud yells and horrid grimaces.
He was apprenticed to a harness-maker in Nashville.
764 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Fort Strother in Peril. Jackson goes to the Relief of Talladega, He surrounds the Besiegers at Talladega.
friendly Creek warriors, with their families, were hemmed in at Talladega, in Lash-
ley's Fort,1 thirty miles distant, with no hope of escape. The besiegers were a thou
sand strong, and they so completely surrounded the little stockade that no man could
leave it unobserved. The inmates had but little food and water, and must soon
perish. The foe was well provided, and, feeling sure of their prey at the hands of
Famine if by no quicker way, were dancing around the doomed people with demo
niac joy. This messenger, who was a prominent man, had made his escape by cov
ering himself with the skin of a hog, and in the darkness of night, while imitating its
gait, and grunting, and apparent rooting, was allowed to pass slowly through the
hostile camp until he was beyond the reach of their hearing and arrows. Then he
cast away his disguise, and with speed heightened by desperation, he fled to Jack
son's camp on the Coosa.
The commander-in-chief resolved to give immediate relief to the people at Talla
dega. He had just heard of the near approach of General White with the van of
General Cocke's division of East Tennessee troops, so he ordered his whole force, ex
cepting a small guard for the camp, the sick and the wounded, to make immediate
preparations for marching. He wrote a hasty note to General White, informing
that officer that he should expect him to protect Fort Strother and its inmates during
» November 8, his absence, and at little past midnighta he commenced fording the Coosa
a mile above the fort, with twelve hundred infantry and eight hundred
mounted men, each of the latter taking a foot-soldier on his horse behind him. All
were across at four o'clock in the morning, and then they commenced a very weary
ing march through a perfect wilderness. At sunset they were within six miles of
Talladega, when the general commanded his followers to seek repose, for active work
would be required of them in the morning.
The chief slumbered not. All night long he was on the alert for the reports of
spies whom he sent out on scouting expeditions. At midnight he received a note by
an Indian runner from General White, telling him that General Cocke had recalled
him, and he would not be able to protect Fort Strother. Jackson was perplexed.
Strother and Talladega both needed his presence. He resolved to rescue the latter,
and then fly to the defense of the former. Silently his troops were put in motion in
the dark, and before four o'clock in the morningb they had made a wide
^November 9.
circuit and surrounded the enemy, who, a thousand and eighty strong,
were concealed in a thicket that covered the margins of two rivulets flowing out from
springs.2
Jackson disposed his troops for action so as to inclose the foe in a circle of armed
men. The infantry were in three lines, the militia on the left, and the volunteers on
the right. The cavalry formed the two extreme wings, and were ordered to advance
in a curve, keeping their rear connected with the advance of the infantry lines, so that
there should be no break in the circle. In this position were the troops at sunrise,
when Colonel William Carroll was sent forward with the advanced guard, composed
of the companies of Captains Dederich, Caperton, and Bledsoe, to commence the at
tack. He delivered a heavy fire, when the savages rushed forth, with horrid yells and
screams, in the direction of the militia under General Roberts, from whose brigade
1 This fort was a little eastward of the Coosa River, in Talladega County, Alabama ; and a portion of its site is now
covered by the pleasant village of Talladega, the capital of the county, which had a population of about two thousand
when the late Civil War broke out in 1861. It is in a delightful valley, with very attractive scenery in view.
2 The order of march is seen in the upper part of the diagram on page 7G5. The cavalry were commanded by Colonel
Allcorn, and the mounted riflemen by Colonel Cameron. The infantry were commanded by Brigadier Generals Hall*
and Roberts,t assisted by Colonels Bradley, Pillow, M'Crorsney, Carroll, and Dyer. The position of the troops in the
attack, when they had surrounded the enemy, is seen in the lower part of the diagram, commencing with the reserves
under Colonel Dyer. This diagram is copied, by permission, from Pickett's History of Alabama, ii., 292.
* William Hall had been a colonel in the Tennessee militia who followed Jackson from Nashville to Natchez and
back, and was made brigadier general of three-months' volunteers on the 2Cth of September, 1813.
t Isaac Roberts. He was commissioned brigadier general of three-months' Tennessee Volunteers on the 4th of Oc
tober, 1813.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
765
Temporary Panic among the Militia.
Battle at Talladega,
Destruction of the Indians.
Carroll had been detached, and who, pursuant to or-
dei's, had fallen back, so as to bring the enemy upon
the main body. Their horrid noise and devilish ap
pearance so terrified the militia that some of them
gave way. Seeing this, Jackson ordered Colonel
Bradley to fill the chasm with his regiment, which
was lagging behind the line. Bradley failed to
obey, and Lieutenant Colonel Dyer, in command
of reserves composed of the companies of Captains
Smith, Morton, Axune, Edwards, and Hammond,
was ordered to that duty with his men. These
were immediately dismounted, and met the yelling
savages so resolutely that the fugitive militia took
courage, resumed their station, and fought gallant
ly. The battle now became general, and had lasted
about fifteen minutes, when the Indians, who had
fought well, suddenly broke, and fled in all direc
tions toward the surrounding mountains.
But for the giving way of the militia, and the
forming of a gap in the circle by the tardiness of
Bradley, and a too wide circuit made by Allcorn
and his cavalry, it is believed that not a warrior
would have escaped. They were hotly pursued,
and the woods for miles became a resting-place for
the bodies of dead savages. Two hundred and nine
ty of the slain were counted. Many were, doubtless,
not seen. The number of the wounded could not be
ascertained, but they were numerous. The loss of the Americans amounted to fifteen
killed and eighty-five wounded. Four were badly hurt, and only two of the latter
died from the effect of injuries received. Among the wounded were Colonels Wil
liam Pillow and James Lauderdale, Major Richard Boyd, and Lieutenant Samuel Bar
ton, the last mortally.1 These and other wounded men were placed on litters, and
when the dead were all buried the victorious little army marched with the maimed
to Fort Strother, followed by the grateful rescued Creeks.2 Among the few trophies
of victory borne back to the Coosa was a coarse banner on which were the Spanish
arms. This evidence of the complicity of the Spaniards with the hostile Creeks was
sent by Jackson to the ladies of East Tennessee, who, as we have observed, presented
a stand of colors to the Tennessee Volunteers.3
When Jackson and his troops reached Fort Strother, wearied and half famished,
they found the place almost destitute of provisions. None had been brought in during
the absence of the little army, and now starvation threatened all. Almost mutinous
1 General Jackson's Dispatch to Governor Blotmt, November 11, 1813. Report of Adjutant General Sitler, Novem
ber 15.
2 These consisted of one hundred and sixty friendly Creek warriors, with their wives and children. The crushing
blow was to have fallen upon them on that very day. They were almost ready to die of thirst. Their gratitude and joy
were commensurate with the distress from which they had been relieved.
3 See page 744. The following note (printed in Parton's Life of Jackson, i., 448) accompanied the colors, and contains
a history of the affair :
" General Andrew Jackson, with compliments to Governor Blount, requests him to inform the ladies of East Ten
nessee, who presented the colors to the Tennessee Volunteers, that Captain Deaderich, who, with Captain Bledsoe's and
Captain Caperton's companies, under the direction of Major Carroll, were sent to bring on the attack, and lead the en
emy, by a regular retreat, on the strongest point of my infantry, went into action with their colors tied round him, and
that they were well supported. And, in return, I send yon a stand of colors (although not of such elegant stuff or mag
nificent needle-work) taken by one of the volunteers, which I beg you to present to them as the only mark of gratitude
the volunteers have it in their power to make. With his own hand he slayed the bearer. They will be handed by Mr.
Fletcher, who I send for that purpose." A letter dated Nashville. November 17, 1813, said, " Mr. Thomas H. Fletcher,
of this town, has just arrived from General Jackson's army. He was the bearer of a stand of colors taken from the en
emy, and bearing the Spanish cross."
766 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
A divided Command. The Indians, dispirited, sue for Peace. Separate Action of General Cocke and his Command.
murmurs were heard among the suffering soldiers, but their general's words and ex
ample kept them within the bounds of obedience. He was ever cheerful, and shared
with his soldiers in all their privations, eating, like them, the acorns found in the for
est, to sustain life. It was a very critical period in the campaign, but it was passed
in safety and honor to all concerned.
The severe chastisement administered upon the Creeks at Tallasehatche and Tal-
ladega had an immediate and powerful effect upon the spirit and temper of the sav
ages, and promised a speedy termination of the war. That desired end was post
poned by an unfortunate circumstance growing out of the ever-dangerous fact of a
divided command in the campaign. There was an existing jealousy between the
East and West Tennessee troops ; and, notwithstanding Jackson was the senior offi
cer, and properly commander-in-chief of the campaign against the Creeks, General
Cocke maintained, up to the time in question, a separate and independent command,
and attempted to operate against the hostile Indians at first even without consulta
tion with General Jackson. This produced trouble, as we shall observe presently..
Many of the warriors who fought at Talladega were from the Hillabee towns on
the Tallapoosa River, in the present Cherokee County, Alabama. Those who escaped
to the mountains on that dreadful morning were so thoroughly convinced of the futil
ity and danger of making farther resistance to the Tennesseeans, that they resolved
to sue for peace and reconciliation. For this purpose they sent Robert Grayson, an
aged Scotchman and old resident among them, to make peaceful propositions to Gen
eral Jackson at Fort Strother. Jackson cordially responded to the proposition, but
at the same time told the messenger, in firm language, that he had come to chastise
those who had committed gross wrongs toward the white people and friendly Indians
in the Creek country, and that he must have full evidence of the sincerity of peace
professions before he would consent to stay his hand. " The prisoners and property
which they have taken from us and the friendly Creeks," he said, " must be returned ;
the instigators of the war and the murderers of our citizens must be surrendered ;
the latter must and will be made to feel the force of our resentment. Long shall they
remember Fort Minis in bitterness and tears. Upon those who are disposed to re
main friendly I neither wish nor intend to make war."
Grayson hastened back with the conciliatory message. It was never delivered, for
destruction had fallen upon the Hillabee people while the messenger was away on
his errand. That destruction came from the East Tennesseeans under Generals Cocke
and White, who had come down in a separate column, and encamped on the bank of
the Coosa, seventy miles above Fort Strother, late in October. There Cocke, with
the main body, awaited supplies and built a fort, which he named Armstrong, in hon
or of the then Secretary of War. It was in the present Cherokee County, Alabama,
not far westward of the Georgia line. But the supplies came not. The continued
low water in the Tennessee would not allow the contractor to fulfill his promises.
Famine stared the little army in the face. Cocke was sorely perplexed. He knew
that Jackson, who depended upon the same source of supplies, must be as much em
barrassed as himself by lack of food. What shall be done ? was a very serious ques
tion that needed an immediate answer. Jackson had called for a junction of the
armies. Shall we go forward and increase the dangers of famine by having a com
bined army of five thousand men in the wilderness ? was another pertinent and im
portant question. A council of officers w'as held. The question, Shall we follow
Jackson ? was decided in the negative by unanimous vote. Shall we cross the Coosa
and proceed to the Creek settlements on the Tallapoosa ? was a second question, and
it was unanimously decided in the affirmative. General White was then within a
day's march of Jackson's camp, and Cocke sent an order for him to return immediate
ly to Fort Armstrong. " It is the unanimous wish of the officers and men also," he
said. " If we follow General Jackson's army," he continued, " we must suffer for
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
General Cocke falls upon a Hillabee Town. Massacre of its People. Exasperation of the Indians.
supplies ; nor can we expect to gain a victory. Let us, then, take a direction in which
we can share some of the dangers and glories of the field." This message, and the
note from General Jackson, already mentioned, urging him to hasten to the protec
tion of Fort Strother, reached White at the same time. He considered his obedience
due first to his immediate superior, General Cocke, and he marched his half-starved
brigade back to Fort Armstrong.
General Cocke, too remote from General Jackson to act in concert with him, was,
consequently and unfortunately, ignorant of the peaceful mood of the Hillabee peo
ple. He had been informed that one of the most energetic of the Creek leaders (Bill
Scott, who commanded the Indians at Talladega), was among them, filled with the
hellish purpose of massacring every white person and friendly Creek in all that re
gion. He accordingly dispatched General White, with some mounted men and a
band of Cherokee allies, to attack the Hillabee town. White took only three days'
rations with him, and marched with great rapidity tOAvard the principal village of
the Hillabee, on the border between the present Talladega and Randolph Counties,
Alabama, full a hundred miles from Fort Armstrong. He spread desolation in his
path. Ockfuske and Genalga, two deserted towns, one of thirty and the other of
ninety houses, were laid in ashes, and at dawn on the morning of the 18th of Novem
ber — the very day when Grayson left Jackson's camp — White appeared before the
chief village. The inhabitants were unsuspicious of danger, and made no resistance;
and yet White, for the purpose of inspiring terror in the minds of the Creek nation,
fell furiously upon the non-resistants, and murdered no less than sixty warriors before
his hand was stayed. Then, with two hundred and fifty widows and orphans as pris
oners in his train, he returned to Fort Armstrong, without a drop of a Tennesseean's
blood being shed.
The inhabitants of the other Hillabee towns, ignorant of any other commander than
General Jackson, regarded this massacre as the most foul perfidy on his part, and
were intensely exasperated. They felt that their humble petition for peace had been
cruelly responded to only by the sword and bullet, and thenceforth they carried on
hostilities with the most malignant feelings and fearful energy.
Jackson's anger against General Cocke \^as equally hot. In the absence of correct
information, he regarded him as a rival, willfully withholding supplies, and seeking
glory on his own account. This was unjust, and the irate commander was convinced
of the fact in the course of two or three weeks, when, in a friendly letter, he invited
the East Tennesseean to join him with his army at Fort Strother on the 12th of De
cember. Cocke cheerfully complied, and was there on the appointed day, having in
the mean time scoured the Cherokee country for provisions, and caused a considera
ble quantity of supplies to be hauled from the Tennessee to the Coosa for the use of
the combined army. He found that of Jackson greatly demoralized. Disappointed,
starving, inactive, the troops at Fort Strother were dreadfully homesick, and filled
with a mutinous spirit. This the courage and tact of the commander controlled, but
with great difficulty. The militia, on one occasion, prepared to go back to the set
tlements. They started in a body, when the yet faithful volunteers, with Jackson at
their head, stood in their path. Then the volunteers attempted to leave the camp
and go home — the very men to whose fortunes their leader had so tenaciously ad
hered at Natchez the year before — when the militia, with Jackson at their head, stood
in the path of the new mutineers. At length almost the entire army of West Ten
nessee, despairing of relief, determined to abandon the expedition and go home.
Some of the militia actually started, and the volunteers were about to follow. The
general had no sufficient force to restrain them, and he was compelled to rely upon
himself alone. He mounted his horse, seized a musket with his right hand, while the
disabled arm was yet in a sling, and, placing himself in front of the malcontents, with
the weapon resting upon his horse's neck, he declared that he would shoot the first
768 PICTOKIAL PIELD-BOOK
Mutineers checked. The Creek Country invaded from Georgia. Battle of Auttose.
man who should take a step in advance. Amazed at his boldness, they gazed at him
in silence. Fortunately, at that moment, Coffee and two companies of faithful mount
ed men came up, and the mutineers, after consultation, agreed to return to duty. Yet
discontent was not allayed, and Jackson finally allowed all volunteers so disposed to
return to their homes, and he organized a force out of other materials. Could he
have had sufficient supplies after the battle at Talladega, and been met by immediate
concert of action by the East Tennessee troops, he might have ended the war within
a fortnight. It was protracted for months ; and for ten long and weary weeks he
was compelled to lie in idleness at Fort Strother, suffering the vexations which grew
out of positive demonstrations of discontent.
In the mean time the Creek country was invaded from another quarter. The cry
for help had filled the ears of the Georgians, and late in November, Brigadier General
John Floyd, at the head of nine hundred and fifty militia of that state, and four hund
red friendly Indians, guided by Mordecai, a Jew trader, entered the region of the
hostiles from the east. He crossed the Chattahoochee into the present Russell Coun-
« isis t^r' Alabama, on tne 24th of November,a and pushed westward toward the Tal-
lapoosa, where he was informed a large number of hostile Indians had collect
ed in the village of Auttose, on the " holy ground," on which the prophets had taught
the Indians to believe no white man could set foot and live. This town was on the
left bank of the Tallapoosa, about twenty miles above its confluence with the Coosa,
at the mouth of the Calebee Creek. Floyd encamped within a few miles of it on the
evening of the 28th, and at an hour past midnight marched to the attack. At dawn
he was before the town with his troops arranged for battle in three columns. The
right was composed of Colonel Booth's battalion ; the left of Colonel Watson's ; and
the centre of the rifle companies of Captains Adams and Merriweather, the latter
commanded by Lieutenant Hendon. The artillery, under Captain Thomas, was post
ed in front of the right column. The friendly Indians were led by William M'ln-
tosh,1 a half-blood, and a chief called The Mad Dog's Son.
Floyd intended to surround the town, but the morning light revealed the fact that
there were two villages in front of the invading column, and that it was necessary
to change at once the disposition of the fo'rces. This was skillfully done. One town
was below the other, a hundred rods apart. To the lower one three companies of" in
fantry, Merriweather's rifles, and two troops of dragoons, under Irwin and Steele,
were sent, while the remainder of the troops marched upon the upper town. Imme
diately after the attack commenced the battle became general. The Indians ap
peared at all points, and fought gallantly for a while, when the booming of heavy ar
tillery, and a furious bayonet charge, so terrified them that they fell back and sought
shelter in the out-houses, thickets, and copses in the rear of the towns. Overpowering
numbers pushed them hard, and they at length fled to cane-covered caves cut in the
bluffs of tne river. Their dwellings, about four hundred in number, some of them
commodious and containing valuable articles, were fired and destroyed, and the poor
smitten and dismayed savages were hunted and butchered with a fiendish barbarity
which ought to have made the cheeks of the actors burn with the blushes of shame.
It was estimated that full two hundred Indians were murdered. Floyd lost eleven
killed and fifty-four wounded.2 The loss of the friendly Indians, who held back at
the beginning, but fought bravely toward the last, is not mentioned in the official re
ports.
i William M'Intosh was the chief of the Coweta tribe of the Creek nation. He was the son of a Scotchman hy a Creek
woman. He was conspicuous in the memorable battle at Horse-shoe Bend in March, 1814. In 1823 he lost cast with
his people because of his having evidently been bribed to make a certain treaty for the giving up of Creek terri
tory. He and an adherent were afterward shot as they attempted to escape from M'Intosh's dwelling, which some ex
asperated Indians had fired. His residence was on the Chattahoochee. See Drake's Book of the Indians, eleventh edi
tion, page 391.
a General Floyd's dispatch to Major General Pinckney, the commander-in-chief of the Southern Department, Decem
ber 4, 1813 ; Pickett's History of Alabama, ii., 300.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 769
Claiborne ordered into the Creek Country. Expedition under Captain Dale. Scene on the Alabama.
. ,— — — — . — .
In the space of seven days Floyd had marched one hundred and twenty miles and
committed the massacre. He was now sixty miles from a deposit of provisions, and
his rations were nearly exhausted ; so, after burying his dead and preparing litters for
his wounded, he hastened back to Fort Mitchell, on the Chattahoochee. On his de
parture, and when a mile eastward of the ruined towns, his rear was attacked by
some desperate survivors of Auttose, who were dispersed after receiving a few volleys.
While these events were transpiring in the upper country of the Creeks, stirring
scenes were witnessed in the present Clarke County, in the forks of the Tombigbee
and Alabama, and vicinity. The Indians, under the direct influence of Weathersford
and the British and Spanish officers, were very active and sanguinary in that region,
and General Flournoy, who had kept General Claiborne on the defensive, was at last
aroused to a sense of the necessity of offensive measures. Accordingly, on the 12th
of October, he ordered that officer to advance with his army into the heart of the
Creek country for the purpose of defending the citizens while gathering their crops
yet in the field ; " to drive the enemy from the frontiers ; to follow them up to their
contiguous towns, and to kill, burn, and destroy all their negroes, horses, cattle, and
other property that could not conveniently be brought to the depots." This san
guinary order was justified by the Georgia general, by the conduct of Great Britain,
and the acts of her Indian allies.
Claiborne instantly obeyed. He crossed the Tombigbee from St. Stephen's, and
scoured the country on its eastern side in all directions with his detachments, meeting
and dispersing bands of Indians here and there, but without bringing them to battle
any where. In the mean time Captain Sam Dale, who had recovered from his wounds,
was preparing for active operations. He had held Fort Madison ; and, on the return
of Colonel Carson to that post early in November, he had obtained his leave to go
out and drive the small bands of marauding savages from the frontier. He was
joined by a detachment of thirty of Captain Jones's Mississippi Volunteers, under
Lieutenant Montgomery, and forty Clarke County militia, having for his lieutenant
Gerrard W. Creagh, who was attached to his company in the battle of Burnt Corn
Creek. They marched southeasterly to a ferry, where Cffisar, a free negro of the par
ty, had two canoes concealed. In these the party crossed the river, and on a frosty
night, with very thin clothing, they lodged in a cane-brake. At dawna . November 12,
they marched up the river, the boats in charge of five picked men each,
and keeping abreast of the party on shore. Some Indians were soon encountered on
land and water, and, after a brisk skirmish, the dusky foe fled up the stream out of
sight. Dale's party were then separated, some following the trail on the east side
of the river, and others following that on the west side. At half past ten they reached
Randon's Landing,1 where they found evidences of Indians near. Directly a large
canoe, made from the trunk of an immense cypress-tree, came floating down the
stream, bearing eleven naked and hideously-painted savages. They were about to
land at a cane-brake, when Dale, calling his men to follow, dashed for the spot to con
test their landing. They shot two of the Indians, and the others backed the great
canoe out into deep water, three of the Indians swimming on the side not exposed to
the bullets, and the remainder lying flat on its bottom.
A stirring scene now ensued. One of the warriors in the water called out to
^
Weathersford, who was in the neighborhood, for help. Dale stopped his voice by
putting a bullet in his brain, when the great canoe, deprived of the guidance of the
three Indians in the stream, who had been killed, floated sluggishly down with the
current. Dale ordered six men on the eastern bank to fetch the boats for the pur-
1 On the bluff above this landing Fort Claiborne was afterward built, on or near the site of the village of Claibome, in
Monroe County, Alabama. The picture on page 770, Randon's (now Claiborne) Landing, is from a sketch by the Author,
made from the deck of a steamer in April, 1SG6. The covered way is for cotton-bales and other things to slide down
from the summit of the bluff, two hundred feet, to the margin of the river, whence merchandise and agricultural products
are taken on board of steamers. Here was the scene of the canoe fight recorded in the text.
3C
770
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
A terrible Encounter in Canoes.
Dale's hand-to-hand Fight.
He wins the Victory.
pose of attacking the Indians
in their huge craft. As they
approached and looked into
it, one of them screamed,
"Live Indians, by God!
Back water, boys ! back wa
ter!" and they went back
to the place of embarkation
faster than they came. Dale
was exasperated by their
cowardice, and quickly or
dered Caesar to bring a ca
noe. He jumped into it, fol
lowed by Jeremiah Austill
and James Smith. It would
hold no more safely. Caesar
paddled it within forty yards
of the craft of the savages,
when Dale and his compan
ions rose to pour a volley
into the great canoe. Each
gun missed fire. Water had
spoiled the priming. A mo
ment afterward and the two
vessels were side by side,
when the stalwart Dale, or
dering Caesar to hold them
together, clubbed his mus
ket, and, placing one foot in
his own canoe and the other
in that of the enemy, com
menced a furious contest. Austill and Smith joined in the fray with clubbed mus
kets, but Caesar could not hold the boats together, the current was so strong. They
parted, leaving Dale alone in the canoe of the savages, one of whom lay wounded in
the stern, and four others, strong and fierce, confronted him as he stood defiantly in
the middle of the great canoe.1 Two warriors lay dead at his feet.
At the instant when Dale planted himself in the middle of the great canoe, the sav
age nearest to him directed a terrible blow at his head, which the soldier parried skill
fully with the barrel of his gun, and, as quick as lightning, slew his assailant with his
bayonet. The next one instantly sprang forward, when a bullet from Austin's rifle,
sent from the boat that was drifting a few yards off, pierced his heart, and he fell in
the bottom of the canoe. The third then made for Dale with his tomahawk, when he
too fell, pierced by the brave captain's bayonet. The last warrior was Tar-cha-chee,
a noted wrestler of powerful frame. He and Dale were old acquaintances. As the
savage's keen glance met that of Dale, he shook himself, gave the horrid war-whoop,
and then cried out, " Big Sam, I am a man — I am coming — come on !" He then bound
ed over his dead companions with a terrific yell, and directed a furious blow at the
head of Dale with his clubbed rifle. Dale dodged it, but it fell upon and dislocated
his shoulder. At the same moment Dale darted his bayonet into the body of the In
dian, who exclaimed, as he tried to escape, " Tar-cha-chee is a man ! He is not afraid
to die !" Dale then turned to the wounded warrior, who had been snapping his piece
1 It was dug out of a huge cypress-tree. It was between thirty and forty feet long, four feet deep, and three feet
abeam. It had been used for the special purpose of transporting corn.
RANDOM'S OR CLAIBOKNE LANDING.
OF THE WAE OF 1812. 771
Fame of the " Cauoe Fight." Construction of Fort Claiborne at Randon's Landing. Anstill and Dale.
at him during the whole conflict, and was now defiantly exclaiming " I am a warrior !
I am not afraid to die !" and pinned him to the canoe with his bayonet. " He fol
lowed his ten comrades to the land of spirits," said the rugged Indian fighter after
ward.1
Thus resulted, after a struggle of about ten minutes, one of the most remarkable of
naval and personal combats on record. Just as it ended, Dale's men came running
to the bank, and shouted " Weathersford is coming !" He immediately crossed with
his whole party, and made his way with them safely to Fort Madison. The fame of
this exploit made Dale a hero of history, and the " canoe fight" is yet a theme for ro
mance and song among the common people in the Southwest.2
At about this time Claiborne pushed across Clai'ke County to the Alabama for the
purpose of establishing a deposit for supplies at Randon's Landing,3 awaiting there the
arrival of Georgia and Tennessee troops, and to act as much as possible on the de
fensive, as circumstances might require. He marched with three hundred volunteers,
some dragoons and militia, and a band of Choctaw Indians under General Pushama-
taha and Chief Mushullatubba. He crossed the Alabama on the 1 7th of November
and encamped, and there he was joined on the 28th by the Third Regiment of national
troops, under Colonel Gilbert C. Russell, from Mount Vernon. There Claiborne con
structed a strong stockade two hundred feet square, with three block-houses and a
half-moon battery that commanded the rear. It was intended as a deposit of provis
ions for the Tennessee troops above. It was completed before the close of Novem
ber, when it received the name of Fort Claiborne, in honor of the commander. On
its site, as we have observed, stands Claiborne, the capital of Monroe County, Alaba
ma. From that point early in December Claiborne apprised General Jackson and
Governor Blount of the establishment of this depot, and also of the arrival of more
English vessels in Pensacola Bay, with many soldiers and Indian supplies. He said
he " wished to God that he was authorized to take that sink of iniquity [Pensacola],
the depot of Tories and instigators of disturbances on the Southern frontier."*
Claiborne now determined to penetrate the Creek country toward its heart, and
share with Jackson and Coffee the honors of bringing the savages into subjection/'
1 Pickett's History of Alabama, ii., 309. Claiborne's Life and Times of General Sam Dale, page 121. When Claiborne
wrote in 1SGO, Jeremiah Austill, one of Dale's companions, was a highly-esteemed commission merchant in Mobile, and
he was still living when the writer of these pages visited that city in the spring of 1806. He had been a state senator
of that district. All of the circumstances of the canoe fight here given were verified before the Alabama Legislature in
1821. Austill is a native of Pendleton District, South Carolina, where he was born on the 10th 01 August, 1794, and was
only nineteen years of age at the time of the canoe fight. He is a son of Captain Evans Austill, already mentioned as
one who remained with Dale in Fort Madison. He afterward became colonel of the militia, and is represented as a
powerful man physically. James Smith, his companion in the canoe with Caesar, was a native of Georgia, and was then
twenty-five years of age. He was a daring frontier man, and died in East Mississippi several years ago. He and Ans
till tried hard to bring their canoe into the fight in aid of Dale, but the current prevented. " Their guns had become
useless, and their only paddle had been broken," said Dale. " Two braver fellows," he continued, " never lived. Aus
tin's first shot saved my life."
2 Samuel Dale was a remarkable man. He was of Irish extraction, and was born in Rockbridge County, Virginia, in
1772. His father removed with his family to Glade Hollow, on the Clinch River, in 1775, and in 1784 emigrated to the
vicinity of Greensburg, Georgia. Not long afterward Dale and his wife died, leaving eight children, Samuel being the
eldest. He took part in movements for keeping in check the hostilities of the Creek Indians in the time of Washing
ton's administration. He became a famous borderer and Indian fighter, and afterward a trader among the Creeks and
Cherokees. He was also a guide to parties emigrating to the Mississippi Territory from Georgia. During the war
with the Creeks now under consideration, he was very active and efficient. He received the commission of brevet brig
adier general. After the war he settled at Dale's Ferry, on the Alabama, and engaged in merchandising. In 1816 he
was a member of the Convention called to divide the Mississippi Territory, and the following year he was a delegate to
the first General Assembly of the Territory of Alabama— the eastern portion of Mississippi. He served several terms
in the Legislature of Alabama, and in 1824 he was on a committee of the body appointed to escort Lafayette to the cap
ital of the state. He was engaged much in public life until his death, which occurred at his residence in Daleville, Lau-
derdale County, Mississippi, on the 24th of May, 1841, when he was in the seventieth year of his age.
3 See note 1, page 769. This was named from its owner, who perished in Fort Mims. It \v*as in the county whence
the hostile Indians procured most of their supplies. * Pickett's Alabama, ii., page 320.
5 This enterprise was deemed so hazardous that a memorial against it was signed by nine captains, eight lieutenants,
and five ensisns of the Mississippi Volunteers in behalf of themselves and their men. They urged the feeble condition
of the men, lack of provisions, clothing, blankets, and shoes, the inclemency of the weather, and the want of trans
portation through a country where there was not even a hunter's trail. Yet they expressed their willingness to fol
low the general if he should resolve to proceed. He did so resolve, and they cheerfully followed. "Not a murmur
was heard; not a complaint was made," said General Claiborne afterward. "Subordination to their officers marked
772 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Claiborne traverses the Creek Country. Battle of Econochaca. Escape of Weathersford.
On the 12th of December he left Fort Claiborne with a little army about one thou
sand strong, and marched in a northeasterly direction toward the present Lowndes
County, Alabama. His force consisted of a, detachment of Colonel Russell's regulars ;
Major Cassell's battalion of horse ; a battalion of militia under Major Benjamin Smoot,
of which Patrick May was adjutant, and Dale and Heard captains ; the twelve months'
Mississippi Volunteers under Colonel Carson ; and one hundred and fifty Choctaws un
der General Pushamataha. After marching eighty miles he halted, and built a sta
tion for provisions, which he called Fort Deposit. It was in the present Butler Coun
ty, Alabama. When this was completed, he pushed on nearly thirty miles farther
through a pathless wilderness, with as little baggage and provisions as possible, and
approached Econochaca, or Holy Ground, which was situated upon a bluff on the left
bank of the Alabama, just below the present Powell's Ferry, in Lowndes County. The
village had been built in an obscure place by Weathersford a few months before, and
dedicated by the Shawnoese prophets whom Tecumtha had left to inflame the Creeks
as a place of refuge for the wounded and dispersed in battle, fugitives from their
homes, and women and children. No path or trail led to it, and the prophets assured
their dupes that the ground on which Econochaca, like that of Auttose, stood, was so
holy that no white man could tread upon it and live. There these savage priests per
formed horrid incantations, and in the square in the centre of the town the most dread
ful cruelties had been already perpetrated. White prisoners, and Creeks friendly to
them, had been burned to death there by the directions of those ministers of the Evil
Spirit.
Claiborne was before Econochaca in battle order on the morning of the 23d of De
cember. a It was pretty strongly guarded in the Indian manner, and the in
mates had no suspicion of danger. The prophets were busy with their incan
tations, and at that very hour a number of friendly half-bloods of both sexes were in
the square, surrounded by resinous wood, ready to be consumed !
The troops advanced in three columns, with mounted men under Captains Lester
and Wells acting as reserves. The right column was commanded by Colonel Carson,
and consisted of twelve-months' volunteers ; the centre was composed of & detach
ment of the Third Regiment United States Infantry, and some mounted riflemen un
der Lieutenant Colonel Russell ; and the left of militia, and some Choctaws under
Major Smoot. Their duty was difficult, for the town was almost surrounded by
swamps and deep ravines, and the Indians, regal-ding the place as holy, and having
property there of great value, were prepared to fight desperately. They had, on the
approach of the invadei's, conveyed their women and children to safe places in the
thick forests of what is now known as the Dutch Bend of Autauga County, and they
had no hinderances to a vigorous defense.
The three columns closed upon the town by a simultaneous movement. Carson's
came in sight of it at noon, and was furiously attacked. It resisted the assault with
great spirit, and before those of Russell and Smoot could get fairly into the fight, the
dismayed Indians broke and fled. A larger portion of them escaped, owing to the
failure of Major Cassell to occupy the bank of the Alabama, westward of the town,
with his battalion of horse. They fled in droves along the bank of the river, and by
swimming arid the use of canoes, escaped to the other side, and joined their families
in the Autauga forests. Weathersford, when he found himself deserted by his war
riors, fled swiftly on a fine gray horse for the salvation of his own life. He was hotly
pursued to a perpendicular bluff flanked by ravines, when his powerful steed made
a mighty bound from it, and horse and rider disappeared beneath the water. They
immediately rose, Weathersford grasping his horse's mane with one hand, and his
their every act, and no suffering could seduce them from their duty. Their patience was equal to their courage." Most
of them were young men accustomed to the comforts and luxuries of life. Among them were Gerard W. Brandon and
Abraham N. Scott, both afterward governors of the state.— Claiborne's Life of Dale, page 138.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 773
Destruction of Econochaca. Dissolution of the Armies in the Creek Country. Gathering of new Volunteers.
rifle with the other. He regained his saddle in a moment, and the noble animal bore
him safely to the Autauga shore.1
General Claiborne laid Econochaca in ashes after it was plundered by the Choc-
taws. At least two hundred houses were destroyed and thirty Indians killed. The
loss of the assailants amounted to only one killed and six wounded. After spending
a day and two nights in the vicinity, completing the work of destruction and disper
sion, and suffering much from wet and cold, the little army turned southward, and
on the 29tha reached Fort Claiborne. They had suffered much on the » December,
way, the officers and men alike subsisting chiefly on boiled acorns until
they reached Fort Deposit.
The term of Carson's Mississippi Volunteers and cavalry had now expired, and
they were mustered out of the service. By this process the little army of volunteers
and militia melted away, and on the 23d of January General Claiborne was com
pelled, in writing to the Secretary of War from Mount Vernon, to say that he had
only sixty men left, and their time would soon expire. Colonel Russell and his reg
ulars garrisoned Fort Claiborne, and did what they could in furnishing supplies to
the Tennessee troops above ; at the same time they made some unimportant raids in
the Indian country, but without accomplishing any great results.
Let us now observe the movements of Jackson in the region of the Coosa and Tal-
lapoosa Rivers. We left him at Fort Strother, comparatively inactive because of a
lack of supplies and the discontents of his troops. Nor was this all. The terms of
enlistment of most of his men were near expiration, and he saw before him, in the
temper of his troops, the inevitable disintegration of his army at the moment when
their services were most needed. He was urged by his chief, General Pinckney, to
hold all the posts in his possession, for it was of vital importance to deprive the Brit
ish of these new Indian allies. The skies at that moment appeared lowering. Seven
sail of British vessels, with troops and two bomb-ships, were off Pensacola. New
Orleans was menaced, and Mobile was in imminent danger. St. Augustine would
doubtless be soon occupied by a British force, with the consent of the treacherous
Spaniards ; and in every direction clouds seemed gathering, portentous of dismal
events in the southwest.
Thus closed the year 1814, while Jackson, with his army substantially disbanded,
was looking anxiously toward Tennessee for another. He had written most stirring
appeals for men and food, and the patriotic Governor Blount was doing all in his
power to provide both. General Cocke had gone back to East Tennessee with or
ders to raise fifteen hundred men and rejoin Jackson in the Creek country; and a
band of Cherokee Indians were garrisoning Fort Armstrong, on the upper waters of
the Coosa. Jackson himself was continually in ^motion. Almost alone he traversed
the wilderness between the Coosa and Tennessee, backward and forward, in endeav
ors to hasten onward supplies for the new army. At length the advance of that
army began to appear. Fii-st came two (mostly mounted) regiments to Fort Strother,
commanded by Colonels Perkins and Higgins, numbering about nine hundred men,
who had been enlisted for only sixty days. They were raw recruits, yet Jackson de
termined to put them in motion toward the banded enemy immediately. That en
emy, recovered somewhat from the late disasters, was showing an aggressive disposi
tion which must be checked; and accordingly, on the 15th of January,5 b 1814
Jackson led his new troops across the Coosa to the latB battle-field at
Talladega, where he was joinedc by two hundred Cherokee and Creek In
dians, and Chief Jim Fife. He had brought with him an artillery company who had
remained at Fort Strother when the other troops left, and a six-pounder. His whole
force, exclusive of the Indians, was nine hundred and thirty. With these he made a
raid (" excursion" the general called it) toward the Tallapoosa, preceded by two com-
i Pickett's History of Alabama, ii., 324.
774 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Jackson on the War-path again. Battle of Emucfau. Bravery of the Creeks.
panies of spies. He was accompanied by General Coffee, whose men had all deserted
him but about forty, who now followed as volunteers. He reached the Hillabee
Creek, on the eastern line of the present Talladega County, on the 20th, and encamped
that night at Enotochopco, in the southern part of Randolph County. On the follow-
» January 21, ing morning* he pushed forward toward Emucfau, twelve miles distant,
on the bend of the Tallapoosa, and toward evening, when near Emucfau
Creek, fell upon a much-beaten trail, which indicated the proximity of a large force
of Indians. Jackson thought it prudent to halt and reconnoitre. He disposed his
troops in a hollow square, doubled his sentinels, sent out spies, and in every way took
measures to meet an attack during the night. Toward midnight the savages were
observed prowling about, and at the same time the general was informed that a large
body of Indians were encamped within three miles of him, some engaged in a war-
dance, and others removing the women and children. An immediate attack seemed
impending, and Jackson, fully prepared, calmly awaited it.
6 Januar 22 ^e n^nt wore away, and the dawn approached, when, at six o'clock,1*
the Indians fell suddenly and with great fury upon the left flank of Jack
son's camp, occupied by the troops under Colonel Higgins. General Coffee was with
them, and, under his direction, assisted by Colonel Sitler, the adjutant general, and
Colonel Carroll, the inspector general, these new recruits fought gallantly, and kept
the assailants in check. At dawn, when the whole field might be seen, they were re-
enforced by Captain Ferrill's company of infantry, and the whole body were led to a
vigorous charge upon the savages by General Coffee, supported by Colonels Higgins
and Carroll, and the friendly Indians. The savages were discomfited and dispersed,
and fled, hotly pursued by the Tennesseeans, with much slaughter, for full two miles.
Inspirited by this success, Jackson immediately detached General Coffee, with four
hundred men and the whole body of the Indians, to destroy the encampment of the
foe at Emucfau. It was found to be too strongly fortified to be taken without artil
lery, so Coffee marched back for the purpose of guarding the cannon on its way to
a position to bear upon the town. This retrograde movement encouraged the In
dians, and a strong party of them fell upon the right of Jackson's encampment. ' Cof
fee at once asked and obtained leave to lead two hundred men to the support of that
wing, and to fall upon the left of the foe, while the friendly Indians should fall upon
their right flank at the same moment. By some mistake only fifty-four men followed
Coffee. The gallant general fell upon the Indians with these, and Jackson ordered
two hundred of the friendly Indians to co-operate with him by attacking the right
flank of the savages. " This order was promptly obeyed," said Jackson in his report,
" and on the moment of its execution what I expected was realized. The enemy had
intended the attack on the right as a feint, and, expecting to direct my attention
thither, meant' to attack me again, and with their main force, on the left flank, which
they had hoped to find weakened and in disorder. They were disappointed." The
general, with wise discretion, had not only ordered his left to remain firm, but had
repaired thither himself, and directed a part of the reserves, under Captain Ferrill, to
hasten to its support. In this way the whole main body met the advancing enemy.
They gave the foe two or three volleys, and then charged them vigorously with the
bayonet. The Indians broke, and fled in confusion, hotly pursued some distance ;
and the friendly Indians, unable to withstand the temptation, left their post on the
right flank and joined in the chase, all the while pouring a harassing fire upon the
fugitives.
General Coffee in the mean time was struggling manfully against the assailants on
the right of the encampment. The desertion of his Indian supporters placed him in
a critical situation, for the odds were greatly against him. He was soon relieved by
the return from the chase of Jim Fife and a hundred of his warriors, who were imme
diately summoned to his support. The aid was timely. Coffee and his little party
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 775
Jackson's retrograde Movement. Battle on Enotochopco Creek. A severe Contest.
charged the savages vigorously, who, dispirited by the flight of their main body, gave
way, and ran for their lives in every direction, many of them falling before the de
structive weapons of the pursuers. The victory, in the form of a repulse, was com
plete, but it had been won at the cost of a severe wound in his body by General Cof
fee, and the loss of his aid-de-camp, Colonel A. Donelson, and two or three others.
Several of the privates were also wounded.
Jackson was astonished at the courage and bravery of the Creeks, and thought it
prudent to abandon any farther attempts to destroy the encampment at Emucfau.
His movement was simply a raid, with the twofold object of striking a quick and de
structive blow at the enemy, and to make a diversion in favor of General Floyd, then
in the vicinity of the Chattahoochee. He therefore determined to return to Fort
Strother.
At ten o'clock on the morning of the 23d the retrograde march, commenced, and
the little army reached Enotochopco Creek before sunset, and there planted a forti
fied camp for the night. Great vigilance was exercised, and no serious molestation
was observed during the darkness. Well rested, the troops moved forward early the
next morning. The savages, who had interpreted this movement as a flight, had fol
lowed stealthily, and, just as the advanced guard and part of the flank columns, with
the wounded, had crossed the creek,a they appeared suddenly in force on aj^^y^
their rear. The firing of an alarm-gun brought them to a halt, when Jack
son immediately changed front, and prepared to meet the foe in good battle order.
He placed Colonel Carroll at the head of the centre column of the rear-guard, its right
commanded by Colonel Perkins, and its left by Colonel Stump. He chose his own
ground for battle, and expected to have entirely cut off the enemy by wheeling the
right and left columns on their pivots, recrossing the creek above and below, and fall
ing in upon their flanks and rear. To Jackson's great astonishment, his troops, who
had behaved so well at Emucfau, now failed; and when the word was given for Car
roll to halt and form, and a few guns had been fired, the right and left columns of the
rear-guard precipitately gave way and made a disastrous retreat. They drew along
with them a greater part of the centre column, leaving not more than twenty-five
men to support Carroll. These maintained the ground gallantly, and order was soon
restored. The battle was now sustained by only this handful of the rear-guard under
Captain Quarles, the artillery company under Lieutenant Robert Armstrong, and
Captain Russell's company of spies. The solitary 6-pounder that composed the heavy
ordnance of the expedition was dragged to the top of a hill in the midst of a galling
fire from ten times the number of the Tennesseeans engaged, when they poured upon
the foe a storm of grape-shot that sent them yelling with affright in every direction.1
They were pursued more than two miles by Colonels Carroll and Higgins, and Cap
tains Elliott and Pipkin. The venerable Judge Cocke, then sixty-five years of age,
was in the engagement, and joined in the pursuit with all the ardor of youth. The
slaughter among the Indians was heavy, Avhile that among the Tennesseeans was
comparatively light. The exact number of casualties among the latter was not re
corded. Captain Hamilton, from East Tennessee, was killed, and Lieutenants Robert
Armstrong, Bird Evans, Hiram Bradford, and Jacob M'Givock, and Captain Quarles,
were wounded. Evans and Quarles soon afterward died. In the two engagements,
Emucfau and Enotochopco, Jackson's entire loss was twenty killed and seventy-five
1 The gallantry of two young men in this engagement deserves a record. These were Constantine Perkins and Craven
Jackson. The former was a graduate of Cumberland (Tennessee) College, was with Jackson at the hattle of Talladega,
and was one of the few who refused to desert him at Fort Strother. In the hurry and confusion in separating the can
non from the limber, the rammer and picker of the piece were left behind. In the midst of the shower of bullets from
the Indians, Jackson coolly pulled out his iron ramrod from his musket and used it as a picker, primed with a cartridge
from his side, and fired the cannon. Perkins then slipped off his bayonet, used his musket for a rammer, and drove
down the cartridge for another discharge. These two brave young men kept the field-piece working, and drove the
savages to the deep forest. Armstrong lay wounded near by, aud called out to those around the piece, "My brave fel
lows, some of you may fall, but you must save the cannon 1"
776 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Jackson at Fort Strother. Battle on the Calebee River. The Georgians retire to their Frontier.
wounded. The loss of the enemy was not accurately ascertained. One hundred and
eighty-nine of their warriors were found dead.1
• January 28, Jackson made his way back to Fort Strother* after an absence of twelve
days, not perfectly satisfied with the results of his raid, yet he presented
it to the public in the best aspect possible. His force was almost double that of the
Indians, for at that time the larger proportion of them were below, watching the
movements of Floyd and his Georgians, while a considerable force were strongly for
tifying the Horseshoe, and other places, preparatory to a desperate defensive war.
His expedition, however, had been useful, and General Pinckney, in a letter to the
War Department,1* said, " Without the personal firmness, popularity, and
exertions of that officer, the Indian War on the part of Tennessee would
have been abandoned, at least for a time."
We will leave Jackson at Fort Strother a feAV moments while we consider the
movements of Floyd below. We left that officer at Fort Mitchell, on the Chatta-
hoochee.
Floyd reposed more than six weeks awaiting supplies, and during that time recov
ered of his wound received at Auttose. Then he marched toward Toockabatcha, on
the Tallapoosa, with over twelve hundred Georgia volunteers, a company of cavalry,
and four hundred friendly Indians. He established communicating posts on the way,
and at length, on the night of the 26th of January, encamped on the Calebee or Chal-
libee River, on the high land bordering the swamp of that name, in Macon County,
Alabama, fifty miles west of Fort Mitchell. The camp was carefully watched, but in
the gloom, more than an hour before the dawn of the following morning, a band of
Creeks, who had stealthily assembled in the swamp during the night, shot the sen
tinels, and pounced like fierce tigers on Floyd's front and flank. The attack was sud
den, yet not unprepared for, and the savages were gallantly opposed, in the front, by
the artillery under Captain Jett Thomas, riflemen commanded by Captain William
E. Adams, and a picket-guard led by Captain John Broadnax.
The foe rushed desperately up within thirty yards of the cannon, and smote the
troops severely. Broadnax and his party were cut off" from their companions for a
while, but with the aid of the half-blood chief Timpoochy Barnard, leader of some
Uchees, they cut their way through the encircling savages. Most of the other In
dians took shelter in the camp, and were scai'cely felt in the battle, which was con
tested fiercely in the darkness, which was rendered more intense by the umbrageous
branches of the heavy pine forest in which they were fighting. When daylight
came, and Floyd was enabled to survey the field of action, the contest was soon end
ed. The general ordered the right wing of his little army, composed of the battalions
commanded by Majors Booth, Cleveland, Watson, and Freeman, and a troop of cav
alry under Captain Duke Hamilton, to chai-ge on the foe. The Indians were dismayed
by the glittering bayonets, and fled in great terror. The infantry pursued, and the
cavalry joined in the exciting chase, followed by the friendly Indians and Meri weath
er's and Ford's riflemen. They were chased through the swamp, and many of the fu
gitives were slain. They left thirty-seven dead in the pathway of their flight. The
Georgians lost seventeen killed and one hundi'ed and thirty-two wounded, and the
friendly Indians had five men killed and fifteen wounded. Colonel Newman, a gal
lant officer, was wounded by three bullets and disabled, at the beginning of the
action.
Floyd's wounded were so many, and the hostile Indians in his vicinity were so nu
merous, and might be speedily re-enforced, that he prudently concluded not to pene
trate the country farther, but to fall back to the Chattahoochee. On the day of the
battle he retired to Fort Hull, one of his newly-erected stockades, and on the following
day the Indians occupied the late battle-field. Leaving a small garrison at Fort
i General Jackson's official Letter to General Pinckney, January 29, 1814.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 777
Bast Tenneseeeans on their Way to the Creek Country. The Choctaw Allies in Arras. Preparation of the Creeks.
Hull, the general continued his retrograde movement to Fort Mitchell, where his
men were honorably discharged, their term of service having expired. No other ex
pedition against the Creeks was organized in Georgia.
Let us now return to Jackson at Fort Strother.
On his return from his twelve days' " excursion" or raid to the Tallapoosa, Jackson
set his few militia that remained to constructing flat-boats in which to bring supplies
down the Coosa, and to transport them to regions below, Avhere materials for his new
army were rapidly approaching from Tennessee. He discharged the troops who had
been Avith him on the late expedition, their term of service being about ready to ex
pire. They left for home full of admiration of and enthusiasm for their general, and
their return gave a new impetus to volunteering. At the beginning of February
two thousand troops from East Tennessee were in the shadows of Lookout Mountain,
pressing on toward the Coosa, and at about the same time as many more West Ten-
nesseeans arrived at Huntsville.
Intelligence of these approaching troops filled Jackson's heart with gladness. His
joy was increased by the arrival on the 6th, at Fort Strother, of Colonel Williams and
the Thirty-ninth Regiment of the United States Army, six hundred strong, who had
been induced to hasten to the relief of Jackson by the late Honorable Hugh L. White,
of East Tennessee. Very soon afterward a part of Coffee's brigade of mounted men
came into Fort Strother, and also a troop of East Tennessee dragoons. The Choctaw
Indians now openly espoused the caiise of the United States ; and before the close
of February Jackson found himself at the head of an army of five thousand men,
lacking nothing to enable them to sweep the whole Creek country with the besom
of destruction but adequate supplies of food. Great exertions were put forth suc
cessfully to that end, and at the middle of March every thing was in readiness for a
forward movement.
The hostile Creeks were aware of the formidable preparations for their subjugation,
and were, at the same time, taking measures to avert, if possible, the impending blow.
They had suffered severely at the hands of Jackson, Floyd, and Claiborne, and had
already begun to have such premonitions of national disaster that they determined
to concentrate their forces, and rest their fortunes upon the cast of the die of a single
battle with the foe. For this purpose the warriors of the Hillabee, Ockfuske, Eufau-
lahache, New Youka, Oakchoie, Hickory Ground, and Fish-pond towns had gathered
in the bend of the Tallapoosa, in the northeast part of Tallapoosa County, Alabama,
called Tohopeka, or the Horseshoe, the river there assuming the shape of that object,
forming a peninsula of about one hundred acres. By the aid of white men from Pen-
sacola, and some hostile half-bloods, they built a very strong breastwork of logs across
the neck of the peninsula, and pierced it with two rows of port-holes arranged in such
manner as to expose the assailants to a cross-fire from within. Back of this breast
work was a mass of logs and brush ; and at the bottom of the peninsula, near the
river, was a village of log huts, where hundreds of canoes were moored at the banks
of the stream, so that the garrison might have the means of escape if hard pushed. A
greater portion of the peninsula was covered with forest. The Indians had an am
ple supply of food for a long siege. Their number was about twelve hundred, one
fourth being women and children. There the Indians determined to defend them
selves to the last extremity. They regarded their breastwork as impregnable, and
were inspirited by recent events at Emuckfau (about four miles distant) and Enoto-
chopco.
When Jackson was informed by some friendly Indians of the gathering of the
Creeks at the Horseshoe, he resolved to march thither immediately and strike an ex
terminating blow. He sent his stores down the Coosa in flat-boats, in charge of Col
onel Williams and his regiment of regulars, and leaving a garrison of four hundred
and fifty men in Fort Strother, under Colonel Steele, he commenced his march with
778
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Seat of the Creek War in Upper Alabama.
N N E ) 5 S , £T \| E
the remainder of his army toward the Tallapoosa on the 16th of March,* the
only musical instrument to cheer them on the way "being a solitary drum. The
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 779
Jackson marches upon the Savages at the Horseshoe. A desperate Battle there. Bravery of both Parties.
journey was slowly performed, for much of the way a road had to be cut through
the woods. On the 21st they were at the mouth of Cedar Creek, where they were
joined by the supply-boats the next day, arid there Fort Williams was built to keep
open the communication with Fort Strother. Then Jackson pushed on eastward, and
early on the morning of the 27th halted within a few miles of the breastworks at the
Horseshoe, and sent out parties to reconnoitre. His army now numbered about two
thousand effective men.
Jackson's spies informed him of the position of the Indians, and he at once compre
hended the folly which had permitted them to assemble in a pen, as if offering facili
ties for him to carry out his threat of extermination. He sent General Coffee, with
all the mounted men and friendly Indians, to cross the river about two miles below
the Bend, and take position on the bank opposite the village and boats. When, by
signal, he was certified of the execution of his order, he went forward with the main
body of his army toward the peninsula, and planted two field-pieces upon a little hill
within eighty yards of the nearest point of the fortifications on the neck. At a little
past ten o'clock these opened fire on the works, under the direction of Captain Brad
ford, chief engineer, but without seriously affecting the wall. As the small balls were
buried in the logs and earth, the Indians set up a shout of derision, and the general
was fairly defied.
Simultaneously with the attack on the Indians' breastworks, some of the Cherokees
with Coffee swam across the river, seized the canoes, paddled back in them, and full
two hundred men were at once conveyed over the stream, and, under the direction
of Colonel Morgan and Captain Russell, set the little town on fire, and moved against
the enemy in the rear of their works. The smoke from the burning huts assured
Jackson that all was going on well in that quarter, but the slackening of the assail
ants' musketry gave evidence that they were too few to dislodge the savages, and
were probably in peril. The general at once determined to storm the breastworks
which he had been battering for full two hours with cannon-balls almost in vain.
The Thirty-ninth United States Infantry, under Colonel Williams, formed the van of
the storming party. They were well supported by General James Doherty's East
Tennessee brigade under Colonel Bunch, and the whole assailing party behaved most
gallantly. They pressed steadily forward in the face of a deadly storm of bullets and
arrows, and maintained for some time a hand-to-hand fight at the port-holes. This
desperate conflict lasted several minutes, when Major L. P. Montgomery leaped upon
the breastwork, and called upon his men to follow. They did so, and at the same
moment he fell dead with a bullet in his head. Ensign Sam Houston, a gallant youth
at his side, was severely wounded in the thigh at the same time by a barbed arrow,
but he leaped boldly down among the savages, and called upon his companions to fol
low. They did so, and fought like tigers. Very soon the dexterous use of the bay
onet caused the Indians to break, and flee in wild confusion to the woods and thick
ets. They had fought bravely under great disadvantages, and believing that torture
awaited the captive, not one would suffer himself to be taken, or asked for quarter.
Some attempted to escape by swimming across the river, but were shot by the uner
ring bullets of the Tennesseeans. Others secreted themselves in thicket's, and were
driven out and slain ; and a considerable number took refuge under the river bluffs,
where they were covered by a part of the breastworks and felled trees. To the lat
ter Jackson sent word that their lives should be spared if they would surrender. The
summons was answered by a volley that sent the messenger (an interpreter) back
bleeding from severe wounds. A cannon was then brought to bear upon the strong
hold, but it made little effect. Then the general called for volunteers to storm it,
and the wounded Ensign Houston1 was the first to step out. While reconnoitring
1 This was the afterward soldier and statesman, General Sam Houston, one of the bravest of the leaders in the Texas
Revolution, first President of the independent Republic of Texas, and for many years a member of the National Legit-
780
PICTOKIAL FIELD-BOOK
The Creeks defeated at the Battle of the Horseshoe.
NOTE.— The above plan of the battle of Cholocco Litabixee, or the Horseshoe, is arranged from one in Pickett's His
tory of Alabama. A shows the position of the hill from which Jackson's cannon played upon the breastworks. C C C
represent the position of Coffee's command.
the position above, he received from the concealed savages two bullets in his shoul
der, and he was borne helpless away. Others lost their lives in attempts to dislodge
the foe. It was conceded that the place was impregnable to missiles, so the torch
was applied, and the savages, as they rushed wildly from the crackling furnace, were
shot down without mercy by the exasperated riflemen. The carnage continued until
late in the evening, and when it was ended five hundred and fifty-seven Creek war
riors lay dead on the little peninsula. Of the thousand who went into the battle in
the morning not more than two hundred were alive, and many of these were severely
wounded.1 Jackson's loss was thirty-two killed and ninety-nine wounded. The Cher-
okees lost eighteen killed and thirty-six wounded. Among the slain were Major Mont
gomery2 and Lieutenants Moulton and Somerville. The spoils of victory were over
lature of the United States. He was a remarkable man. He was born in Rockbridge County, Virginia, on the 2d of
March, 1703, and, while yet a child, he went with his widowed mother to Tennessee. He spent several years with the
Cherokee Indians, and became enamored with their roving, restless life. He enlisted in the army in 1S13, and at the
close of the war had reached the position of lieutenant. Then he studied law at Nashville, and there commenced his
long political life. In 1823 he was elected to Congress, and continued in that body until 1827, when he became Governor
of Tennessee. Before the expiration of his term he resigned, and took up his abode among the Cherokees in Arkan
sas, where he befriended them much in their intercourse with dishonest agents of the Government. He became com-
mander-in-chief of the little army of revolutionists in Texas, which achieved its independence in 1836. He was twice
elected president of that republic, and when Texas was annexed to the United States he was sent as her representative
to the Senate, where he remained until just before the breaking out of the great Civil War, when he was Governor of
Texas. He died in November, 18G3, aged seventy years.
1 Pickett relates (History of Alabama, ii., 343) that many suffered long from grievous wounds. "Manowa," he says,
"one of the bravest chiefs that ever lived, was literally shot to pieces. He fought as long as he could. He saved him
self by jumping into the river where the water was four feet deep. He held to a root, and thus kept himself beneath
the waves, breathing through the long joint of a cane, one end of which he held in his mouth, while the other end came
above the surface of the water. When night set in, the brave Manowa rose from his watery bed, and made his way to
the forest, bleeding from many wounds. Many years after the war we conversed with the chief, and learned from him
the particulars of his remarkable escape. His face, limbs, and body, at the time we conversed with him, were marked
with scars of many horrible wounds."
2 Lemuel Purnell Montgomery was born in Wythe County, Virginia, in 1786, and was distantly related to the hero of
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 781
Jackson retires from the Fields of Conflict. The subdued Indians sue for Peace. Weathersford in Jackson's Tent.
three hundred widows and orphans who were made prisoners. The blow was appall
ing, and fatal to the dignity and power of the Creek nation.
On the morning after the battlea at the Horseshoe Jackson commenced . March 28,
a retrograde march toward Fort Williams, carrying his wounded with him
on litters, and leaving the bodies of most of his dead beneath the waters of the Coosa,
safe from desecration by savage hands. They were five days on the way. and during
as many more they rested there. They encountered some hostile Indians on the
march, but they generally fled at their approach. The spirit of the proud Creeks was
broken, and they had no heart to make a defensive stand any where.
From Fort Williams Jackson pushed on toward the Hickory Ground of the Creeks,
at the confluence of the Coosa and Tallapoosa Rivers, over a country flooded by spring
rains and swollen streams, and halted at the head of the peninsula, where the rivers
approach each other within six hundred yards before uniting four miles below. There,
on the sight of Fort Toulouse, erected by Governor Bienville a hundred years before,
he built a stockade, cleaned out and deepened the old French entrance, and raised the
national standard over a fortification named, in his honor, Fort Jackson. Thither dep
utation after deputation of humiliated Creek chiefs made their way to sue for pardon
and peace in behalf of themselves and their people. They were received with court
esy, yet with sternness. " Give proof of your submission," said the general, " substan
tially by going and staying above Fort Williams, where you will be treated with, and
the final demands of my Government will be made known to you. But you must
first bring in Weathersford, the cruel leader of the attack on Fort Minis, who on no
account can be forgiven." They cheerfully complied ; but little did Jackson know
the true character of Weathersford, or the plasticity of his own nature at that time.
Weathersford did not wait to be caught and dragged like a felon to the feet of
the leader of the pale faces. He was a stranger to fear, and sagacious in plans. He
saw clearly the flight of hope for his nation, at the Horseshoe, and resolved to sub
mit. Mounting his fine gray horse, with whom he leaped from the bluff at the Holy
Ground,1 he rode to Jackson's camp. He arrived just at sunset.b The gen
eral was alone in his tent, when the chief entered it, drew himself up to his
full height, and, folding his arms, said, " I am Weathersford, the chief who command
ed at Fort Minis. I have nothing to request for myself. You can kill me if you de
sire. I have come to beg you to send for the women and children of the war-party,
who are now starving in the woods. Their fields and cribs have been destroyed by
your people, who have driven them to the woods without an ear of corn. I hope
that you will send out parties who will conduct them safely here, in order that they
may be fed. I exerted myself in vain to prevent the .javaacre of the women and
children at Fort Minis.2 I have come now to ask peace for my people, but not for
myself."3 Jackson expressed astonishment that one so guilty should dare to appear
in his presence and ask for peace and protection. " I am in your power ; do with me
as you please," the chief haughtily replied. " I am a soldier. I have done the white
people all the harm I could. I have fought them, and fought them bravely; and if I
had an army I would yet fight, and contend to the last. But I have none. My people
are all gone. I can now do no more than weep over the misfortunes of my nation."
the same name who fell at Quebec at the close of 17T5. His family settled originally in North Carolina, and were Scotch-
Irish. In early life the major became a resident of East Tennessee, near Knoxville. He studied law, and became a
rival of the eminent Felix Grundy. He was a daring horseman, and full of soldierly qualities. President Madison ap
pointed him major of the Thirty-ninth Regiment, and he fell at their head when storming the breastworks at the
Horseshoe, as we have observed in the text. Jackson wept over his body like a child, and exclaimed, " I have lost the
flower of my army !" He was buried near where he fell, and in long after years the citizens of Tallapoosa County hon
ored his memory by exhuming his remains, and burying them with military ceremonies at the capital of the county.
The County of Montgomery and the political capital of the State of Alabama were named in honor of this brave sol
dier.— Pickett. i See page 772. 2 See an account of his exertions on page 756.
3 Weathersford's appeal for the women and children was kindly responded to, and not only to the women and chil
dren, but to the remnant of the nation succor was given. For a considerable part of the ensuing summer, five thousand
Creek Indians drew rations from the public stores. But for this aid a large number of them must have perished by
starvation.
782 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Weathersford's manly Talk. Jackson admires and releases him. The Creek Nation ruined.
Here was a man after Jackson's own heart. A patriot who loved his people, had
fought to protect the land of his birth from the invader, and now fearlessly expressed
his patriotism in the presence of one who had power over his life. Jackson imme
diately informed him that submission and the acceptance of a home beyond the Mis
sissippi for his nation was the only wise policy for him to pursue. He added, " If,
however, you desire to continue the war, and feel prepared to meet the consequences,
you may depart in peace, and unite yourself with the war-party, if you choose."
Half scornfully, half sorrowfully, Weathersford replied, " I may well be addressed in
such language now. There was a time when I had a choice and could have an
swered you ; I have none now — even hope is ended. Once I could animate my war
riors to battle, but can not animate the dead. My warriors can no longer hear my
voice. Their bones are at Talladega, Tallasehatche, Emucfau, Econochopco, and To-
hopeka. I have not surrendered myself thoughtlessly. While there was a chance
for success I never left my post nor supplicated peace. But my people are gone, and
I now ask it for my nation, not for myself. On the miseries and misfortunes brought
upon my country I look back with deepest sorrow, and wish to avert still greater
calamities. If I had been left to contend with the Georgia army, I would have raised
my corn on one bank of the river and fought them on the other. But your people
have destroyed my nation. You are a brave man ; I rely upon your generosity.
You will exact no terms of a conquered people but such as they should agree to.
Whatever they may be, it would now be folly and madness to oppose. If they are
opposed, you will find me among the sternest enforcers of obedience. Those who
would still hold out can be influenced only by a mean spirit of revenge, and to this
they must not and shall not sacrifice the last remnant of their country. You have
told our nation where we might go and be safe. This is good talk, and they ought
to listen to it. They shall listen to it."1
Thus spoke the truly noble Weathersford for his nation. Words of honor respond
ed to words of honor, and Weathersford was allowed to go freely to the forest to
search for his scattered followers and counsel peace. But there was no safety for
him in that region, for the relatives of those massacred at .Fort Mims sought to kill
him. He fled, and remained away until the end of the war, when he returned, and
became a respected citizen of Alabama.2
General Pinckney arrived at Fort Jackson on the 20th of April with troops from
North and South Carolina. Informed of the general submission of the Creeks, and
considering the war virtually at an end, he directed the West Tennesseeans to march
home, and four hundred of General Doherty's brigade to garrison Fort Williams.
The order to the West T .^j^sseeans was so gladly and promptly obeyed that Avithin
• April 21, two hours after its utterance* they were in motion up the Coosa. They
pushed forward with great celerity, crossed the Tennessee River, and at
Fayetteville were discharged. There Jackson bade them farewell in a stirring ad
dress, and then hastened to his own home at the "Hermitage," near Nashville, and
indulged a short time in needed repose.
Here we will leave the consideration of the fearfully-smitten Creeks for the pres
ent, with the remark that they showed themselves to be a brave people, and, on many
accounts, deserving of the respect of mankind.
1 Drake's Hook of the Indians, eleventh edition, page 390.
2 Weathersford settled upon a farm in Monroe County, Alabama, well supplied with negro slaves, where he maintain
ed the character of an honest man. Soon after his return he married, and General Sam Dale, frequently mentioned in
this chapter, was his groomsman. His birth-place was the Hickory Ground, but he could not live there. He said that
his old comrades, the hostile Creeks, ate his cattle from starvation , the peace-party ate them from revenge ; and the
sqnatters because he was " a damned Red-skin ;" so, he said, " I have come to live among gentlemen."— See Life of Gen
eral Sam Dale, page 129. Weathersford died from the effects of fatigue produced by a desperate bear-hunt in 1826.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 783
Civil Affairs in 1813. Political Composition of Congress. Commissioners to treat for Peace appointed.
CHAPTER XXXV.
" Farewell Peace ! Another crisis
Calls us to ' the last appeal,'
Made when monarchs and their vices
Leave no argument but steel.
Let not all the world united
Rob us of one sacred right :
Every patriot heart's delighted
In his country's cause to tight."— OLD SONG.
T is proper here, before resuming a narrative of military events
in the North, to take a brief survey of civil affairs in 1813.
In conformity to a law passed in February21 pre- "February 26,
ceding the inauguration of Mr. Madison, the Thir- 1813-
teenth Congress assembled on the 24th of May, when Henry
Clay was chosen Speaker of the House of Representatives. In
that body ardent young men like Cheves, Calhoun, Lowndes,
Grundy, and Troup had become leaders. Quincy had declined
a re-election, but the extreme Federalists were well represented
by the venerable patriots of the Revolution, Timothy Pickering and Egbert Benson.
There was a strong administration working party in both houses, and the President
felt well supported, notwithstanding there had been decided gains for the peace-
party in New England at the spring elections. But in New York, where the Feder
alists were expecting a triumph, they had been defeated, and New Jersey, and Penn
sylvania, and all of the slave-labor states, and their children in the Mississippi Val
ley, were decided friends of the administration.
With his message the President sent into Congress a letter from the Emperor of
Russia offering his mediation. The President stated that it had been accepted by
the government; that commissioners had been appointed to conclude a treaty of
peace with persons clothed with like powers on the part of the British government,
and that two of the American commissioners (Albert Gallatin and James A. Bayard)
had already departed for St. Petersburg, there to meet John Quincy Adams, a third
commissioner. While the President expressed a hope that a speedy peace might be
the result, he conjured Congress to shape legislation as if the object might be ob
tained only by a vigorous prosecution of the war. He called attention, in a special
manner, to the national finances, which were not in a promising condition, and laid
before Congress an estimate of expenses for the year 1813, to the amount of about
thirty million dollars.1
The subject of an increase of internal revenue and of direct taxation had been agi
tated a little, but was deferred until after the Presidential election. Now the admin
istration party felt strong enough to try these measures. Bills for the imposition of
taxes and excise were adopted, and a new loan was authorized. No effort was spared
for providing adequate means for the vigorous prosecution of the war, and only in
New England was a voice of serious opposition heard. Governor Strong, of Massa
chusetts, denounced the war as cruel and unjust, and urged the Legislature to adopt
measures for bringing about a speedy peace. The two houses being in political ac
cord with the governor, they agreed to a remonstrance, in which they, too, declared
1 The civil list for the year, $900,000 ; payment of principal and interest on the national debt, $10,510,000 ; and for the
War and Navy Departments, $1T,S20,000; making a total of $29,230,000.
784 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The War Policy denounced. Illicit Traffic considered. Recent Events auspicious. The Peace Party.
the farther prosecution of the war to be impolitic and unjust, and implored Congress
to adopt measures for arresting it. They declared that they were influenced only by
a sense of duty to the Constitution and the country, and appealed to God as a wit
ness of the rectitude of their intentions. This remonstrance was presented to the
• June 19, House of Representatives* by Timothy Pickering. It was courteously re-
1813. ceived on account of that venerable man, when it was laid on the table, and
there remained during the rest of the session, but excited much remark and severe
condemnation throughout the country.1
During the session effectual measures were taken for stopping a traffic carried on
extensively by American merchant vessels, disguised as neutrals, with the British
West India Islands and ports of Spain under licenses issued by the British govern
ment, by which they gave aid and comfort to the enemy, and injured their country.
Congress also considered the charges of cruel and unusual conduct on the part of the
British in making war, and a committee was appointed, with the eminent Nathaniel
Macon, of North Caroliona, as chairman, to gather information on the subject. Their
report, now on file at the national capital, is a melancholy picture of wrongs and out
rages, especially in the Northwest where savages were employed, and on the Vir
ginia coast.2
The special business of Congress at this early session was the providing of means
for prosecuting the war vigorously. This was accomplished before the close of July,
and that body adjourned on the 2d of Augustb to reassemble on the 6th of
December. Before that meeting very important events had occurred, which
have already been recorded in these pages, such as Harrison's campaign for the recov
ery of Michigan; Perry's victory on Lake Erie; Chauncey's operations on Lake On
tario ; victories on the ocean ; Wilkinson's unfortunate campaign on the St. Lawrence
border ; and Jackson's operations in the Creek country. England had refused to ac
cept the mediation of Russia on the terms proposed, and peace seemed more remote
than ever ; and the National Legislature perceived that the honor, prosperity, and per
haps the very existence of the republic depended upon a vigorous prosecution of the
wai\ This conviction was forcing itself upon every thoughtful mind even in New
England, and the opposition of magistrates and law-makers was severely condemned
as unpatriotic and shameful. The nation was involved in a war with a powerful,
truculent, and haughty foe, and every right-minded man felt that it was the duty of
every good citizen to lay aside his political prejudices, and to do all in his power to
extricate his country from its serious trouble by first vanquishing the enemy with
vigorous blows, and then treating with him as an equal for an honorable peace. Yet
the peace-party was powerful and active in New England, and endeavored to con
vince the people of that section that the administration was a tyrant intent upon
their injury. They pointed to the sad fact of the interference with their commerce,
navigation, and fisheries ; and the people were reminded that for years the Govern
ment, under the guidance of Virginia politicians, had been controlled by the planting
interest in the slave-labor states by whom the war had been kindled. They justly
complained that the statesmen of the free-labor states, and especially of New En
gland, had been proscribed, and denied a share in the management of public affairs,
1 Compare this action of the Massachusetts Legislature with a statement of its doings recorded in note 1, page 705.
2 See page 683.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
785
A revolutionary Proposition.
Condition of the Country.
A new Embargo Act.
and that the national government had left them wholly unprotected while war was
at their doors, their coasts blockaded, and their sea-port towns exposed to instant de
struction. In view of these undeniable facts, some of the popular leaders suggested
the propriety of the New England States taking care of themselves, irrespective of
the national welfare, by concluding a separate peace with Great Britain, and allow
ing the states beyond and south of the Hudson River to fight as long as they pleased.
This revolutionary proposition did not find favor among patriotic men.
Such was the general aspect of public affairs when Congress met in December.
The tone of the President's message to that body was hopeful and even joyous, for
the late achievements of the national power gave promises of great good. Financial
matters were quite as favorable as when Congress adjourned in August. Abundant
harvests had rewarded the labors of the husbandman. The people were becoming
more an& more a unit in opinion concerning the righteousness of the war on the part
of the Government, and its beneficial effects in developing the internal resources of
the country ; also in demonstrating the ability of a free government to protect itself
against a powerful foe. " The war," said the President in his message, " is illustrating
the capacity and the destiny of the United States to be a great, a flourishing, and a
powerful nation, worthy of the friendship which it is disposed to cultivate with all
others, and authorized by its own example to require from all an observance of the
laws of justice and reciprocity."
In a confidential message* the President recommended the passage of * December 9,
an Embargo Act to prevent supplies being furnished to the enemy from
American ports by unpatriotic men, and the introduction of British manufactures in
professedly neutral vessels. Such traffic was extensively carried on, especially in
New England, where the magistrates were often willingly lenient toward violators
of restrictive laws already in operation. A bill, in accordance with the President's
suggestions, was passed by both houses of Congress on the I7th,b the pro
visions of which were excessively stringent. It was provided that the act
should remain in force until the 1st of January, 1815, unless hostilities should sooner
b December.
cease.1
1 It prohibited, under severe penalties, the exportation, or an attempt at exportation, by land or water, of any goods,
produce, specie, or live-stock ; and, to guard as fully as possible against evasions, even the coast-trade was so entirely
prohibited that it became necessary to pass an act afterward to prevent the crews of coasters, intercepted by the em
bargo when away from home, to employ their empty vessels as vehicles for their return to port. This provision bore
very severely on the towns of the New England sea-board, for many of them depended on the coasting vessels for fuel,
and other necessary articles. Their supply was suddenly stopped by it in the heart of winter. No transportation was
allowed even on inland waters excepting by the special permission of the President. Wide latitude was given to cus
tom-house officials and cruisers in the
seizure of suspected goods ; and fisher
men were not allowed to go out with
out giving bonds not to violate the Em
bargo Act. "The effect of the meas
ure," said the Rational Intelligencer of
December 23, "will be to curtail our en
emies of necessary supplies precisely to
the amount of our exports, except the
very small proportion of them which
found their way to the ports of France.
It can essentially injure no honest man
— no man who would disdain to afford
aid and comfort to the enemies of his
country. . . . Speculators, knaves, and
traitors shall no longer enrich them
selves at the expense of the' commu
nity."
A spirited caricature of the effect of
this Embargo Act was designed and en
graved by Dr. Alexander Anderson [see
note 1, page 78T] for David Longwdrth,
a highly -esteemed publisher of New
York. It will be recollected that a for
mer embargo, during Jefferson's administration [see page 162], was called by the Opposition, or Federalist party, " a ter
rapin policy." That idea is embodied in the caricature before us, in which the Embargo Act of 1813 is personified by a
3D
786 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Napoleon humbled. Rumors of Peace. Repeal of the Embargo Act.
Very soon after the promulgation of the Embargo Act, intelligence came from Eu
rope which caused a change in the views of the administration concerning the neces
sity for the measure. An English flag of truce schooner arrived at Annapolis, Mary
land, at the close of December, with the news of great disasters to Napoleon in the
field. His triumphant march toward the German Ocean and the Baltic had been
checked in a great battle at Leipsic, and he had been compelled to fall back across
the Rhine with his magnificent army sadly shattered. Thoughtful men supposed the
hour of the conqueror's downfall to be near, and reasonably concluded that such an
event would allow the British government to withdraw its soldiers from the Con
tinent and send them hither. The schooner also brought official assurance to our
government that the British Cabinet was willing to treat for peace, and accept the
mediation of Russia upon certain conditions. In his letter to Secretary Monroe com
municating this fact, Lord Castlereagh was careful to say that his government was
willing to treat with that of the United States " upon principles of perfect reciprocity
not inconsistent with the established maxims of public law1 and with the maritime
rights of the British empire" The Prince Regent, in his speech at the opening of
Parliament, had used similar language on the subject.2 He was willing to treat di
rectly with the United States government through commissioners, but was unwilling
to "accept the interposition of any friendly power in the question which formed the
principal object of dispute between the two states." Notwithstanding it was evident
that the British government did not mean to recede a line from its assumptions con
cerning the right of search and impressment, and proposed the opening of negotia
tions at London, or at some point on the Continent near Great Britain, the Presi
dent, sincerely desiring peace on honorable terms, acceded to the proposition of the
prince, and nominated Henry Clay and Jonathan Russell as additional commission
ers ; and the five,3 by the concurrent action of the Senate in January,21 were
duly commissioned to treat for peace, at Gottenburg, with British represent
atives.4
This movement toward peace, and the prospect of a general pacification of Europe,
made the Opposition clamorous for a repeal of the Embargo Act. These considera
tions, and a desire to increase the revenue by impost duties so as to fully sustain the
public credit, caused the President to recommendb such repeal. That rec-
b January 19.
ommendation was hailed with great delight throughout the country, and
an act of Congress for the repeal of the measure became a law on the 14th of April
huge terrapin, who seizes a violator of the law by the seat of his breeches. It was aimed at the New England people,
who, it was alleged, were continually supplying the British cruisers with provisions, and thereby saving their coast from
that devastation to which those of the Delaware and Chesapeake Bays had been subjected, and also putting money in
their pockets by the infamous traffic. A British vessel of war is seen in the distance, with a boat, on the arrival of the
knave with a barrel of flour, marked " superfine." The Embargo terrapin seizes him, and the fellow cries out, " Oh !
this cursed O-grab-me !" the word embargo spelled backward, making these words. The government official, who has
charge of the arresting terrapin, calls out in high glee, " Damn it, how he nicks 'em." One claw of the terrapin is upon
a "license," such as the British authorities gave to professed neutrals. The designer and engraver of this caricature
is yet (close of 18G7) engaged in the practice of the art of engraving on wood at the age of almost ninety-three years.
The copy of the caricature, seen on the preceding page on a reduced scale, was redrawn and engraved by him at the
age of eighty-eight years. i See note 1, page 84.
2 In this speech the Prince Regent said : " I am happy to inform yon that the measures adopted by the United States
for the conquest of Canada have been frustrated by the valor of his majesty's troops, and by the zeal and loyalty of his
American subjects." It was a singular coincidence that in the London Courier, November 4, 1813, in which this speech
was printed, was an account of the signal victory of Perry, and the capture of the entire British fleet on Lake Erie,
which was immediately followed by the conquest of all Canada west of the Grand River, an event that had already hap
pened when that paper was printed. In the same issue of the paper was Lord Castlereagh's letter to Monroe propos
ing negotiations for peace.
3 Albert Gallatin, James A. Bayard, John Quincy Adams, Jonathan Russell, and Henry Clay.
4 Clay and Russell sailed on their mission from New York on the 23d of February, in the ship John Adams, which had
been fitted out as a cartel. They were instructed to insist upon a cessation, on the part of the British, of the degrad
ing practices of search and impressment of seamen. "Our flag," said the instructions, "must protect the crew, or the
United States can not consider themselves an independent nation." And to remove all pretexts on the part of
Great Britain for evading this demand, the President expressed a willingness to exclude all British seamen, and all na
tives of Great Britain, excepting the few already naturalized, from American vessels. Thus armed with righteous weap
ons, the envoys went forth on their-errand of peace.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
787
Provisions for the Increase of the Army.
The Navy neglected.
" Death of the Embargo."
following. This was claimed to be a victory for the Federalists — an evidence that
the wisdom of the peace-party was perceived by the people and Congress.1
The providing of recruits for the army and its permanent increase was really the
most important business of the session of Congress whose doings we are now consid
ering. Expectations concerning the increase of the army had not been realized.
Sixty-one thousand men was the intended number of the regular force : at the begin
ning of 1814 it was but a trifle more than half that number. Something must be
done speedily, or the cause would be lost. Short enlistments, as usual, had proved
disastrous, and provision was made for engaging men for five years. Volunteers
were to be accepted for a less term. Liberal bounties were to be offered ; and power
was given to the President to call out the militia of the country for six instead of
three months, if he should consider it necessary. Provision was made for a large in
crease of the navy by a bill passed by the lower house, but it was lost in the Senate,
where only an appropriation of five hundred thousand dollars was authorized for the
construction of a steam frigate, or floating battery, for harbor defense, suggested by
Robert Fulton. The subject of finance occupied much of the time of the session ;2
1 The claim was not valid. There had, indeed, been many violent, threatening, unpatriotic words spoken through
out New England against the government, more especially in Massachusetts, where the extremest doctrines of state
sovereignty, on which the rebels in 1SGO-'61 founded their claims to the right of secession, were iterated and reiterated
a thousand times. Even open defiance had been hurled in the face of the national government, and menaces of dis
union had been uttered daily ; yet there was a war-party in New England altogether too powerful and restraining to
cause the President to be affected by any apprehensions of secession or serious obstructions to the machinery of the na
tional government. This was more eloquently proclaimed by acts than words. Notwithstanding the unpopularity of
the war in that region, and especially in Massachusetts, that state furnished, during the year 1S14, over fourteen thousand
recruits, to whom two millions of dollars in bounties were paid. Indeed, Massachusetts furnished more recruits than
any single state, and lukewarm New England more than all the hot slave states, who were ever clamorous for war, put
together.
The " Death of the Embargo" was celebrated in verses published in the Federal Republican newspaper of Georgetown,
in the District of Columbia. These were reproduced iu the New York Evening Post, with an illustration designed by
John Wesley Jarvis, the painter, and drawn and engraved on wood by Dr. Anderson. The picture was redrawn and
engraved by Dr. Anderson, on a reduced scale, for this work, after a lapse pf exactly fifty years. The lines which it il
lustrates are as follows :
TEBBAPIK'S ADDBESS.
" Reflect, my friend, as you pass by,
As you are now, so once was I :
As / am now, so you may be —
Laid on your back to die like me !
I was, indeed, true sailor born ;
To quit my friend in death I scorn.
Once Jemmy seemed to be my friend,
But basely brought me to my end !
Of head bereft, and light, and breath,
I hold Fidelity in death :
For ' Sailors' Rights' I still will tug ;
And Madison to death I'll hug,
For his perfidious zeal displayed
For 'Sailors' Rights and for Free Trade.'
This small atonement I will have—
I'll Ing down Jemmy to the grave.
Then trade and commerce shall be free,
And sailors have their liberty.
Of head bereft, and light, and breath,
The Terrapin, still true in death,
Will punish Jemmy's perfidy- l)EA,m Qf TUE TEEKApINj OK TUE EiIBABGO.
Leave trade and brother sailors free 1
PASSENGEE'S REPLY.
" Yes, Terrapin, bereft of breath,
We see thee faithful still in death.
Stick to 't^' Free Trade and Sailors' Rights.'
Hug Jemmy — press him — hold him — bite.
Never mind thy head— thou'lt live without it;
Spunk will preserve thy life — don't doubt it.
Down to the grave, t' atone for sin,
Jemmy must go with Terrapin.
"Banks of Goose Creek, City of Washington, 15th April, 1814."
2 A bill, authorizing a loan not exceeding twenty-five millions of dollars in amount, was offered in the House on the
Oth of February. The debates on the subject took a very wide range, and the cause, origin, conduct, and probable re
sults of the war were freely and sometimes acrimoniously discussed. Much that was said, especially by the Opposition,
was irrelevant. The bill finally passed both houses of Congress by a large majority, and became a law by the approval
of the President on the 25th of March. Theii commenced among the leaders of the peace-party, or more ultra Federal-
Bear him but off, and we shall see
Commerce restored and sailors free !
Hug, Terrapin, with all thy might —
Now for ' Free Trade and Sailors' Right.'
Stick to him, Terrapin ! to thee the nation
Now eager looks— then die for her salvation.
"FLOBCAT RESPCBLICA.
788
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Proceedings concerning Prisoners of War.
Retaliatory Measures.
Prisoners held as Hostages.
and that concerning the exchange of prisoners became a very interesting topic. Dif
ficulties, as we have observed, in regard to such exchange, appeared at the beginning
of hostilities, caused by the British refusing to consider the Irishmen captured at
Queenston as prisoners of war, claiming them to be British subjects. These were
sent to England to be tried for treason. Scott then told the British authorities at
Quebec that he should lay the matter before his government, and that an equal num
ber of British prisoners should be held as hostages for their lives and freedom. He did
so, and Congress, early in 1813, vested the President with the power of retaliation.1
ists, a factious and at times treasonable efforts to destroy the public credit, and to so paralyze the sinews of war as to
compel the government to make peace on any terms which the enemy might dictate. Of these efforts and their results
I shall hereafter write.
1 See page 409. Scott was faithful to his promise. As adjutant general and chief of Dearborn's staff, he selected
from the prisoners captured by himself at Fort George [see page 599] twenty-three men as hostages for the unfortunate
Irishmen sent over the sea. These were placed in close confinement, to await the action of the British government,
and to be treated accordingly. Sir George Prevost immediately communicated this fact to the home government, and
at the same time addressed a note to our government through General Dearborn. The latter was so negligent that it
was three mouths before his letter reached Washington. Of this Sir George complained, and had even commenced
sending prisoners to Halifax because of his inability to keep the large number which had accumulated on his hands in
Canada while waiting a reply from our government. This neglect caused distress and inconvenience to the prisoners
in Canada. They complained of their long detention, and Prevost gave them proof that Dearborn alone was to blame.
a A 1 19 Then General Winder, who was captured at Stony Creek [see page 604], wrote to the Secretary of War"
if 13 ' on tne subject. After expressing a hope that Prevost would be promptly answered, he said, " But such
unaccountable neglect or omission in answering the communications of Sir George has already taken
place on the part of General Dearborn that I feel fearful that the same fatality may also attend that last communica
tion." Winder's letter stirred the government to action, for already, as we have observed, prisoners had been sent to
b August 9 Halifax from Canada,6 and Sir George Prevost threatened to send a large number to England. The
whole business concerning the exchange of prisoners was placed in charge of General J. Mason, commis
sary general of prisoners, under the direction of the Sec
retary of State. That officer at once dispatched the now
[1867] veuerable Colonel Charles K.Gardner to Canada
as agent for the prisoners, empowered by the proper au
thorities to negotiate their exchange.
While these movements were in progress, an order for
retaliation came to Sir George Prevost from the Prince
Eegent, through Earl Bathurst, Secretary of State. It was
c jgjp promulgated at Montreal on the 27th of October0
bj^a proclamation from the baronet, in which
he stated that he was commanded " forthwith to put in
close confinement forty-six American officers and non-commissioned officers, to be held as hostages for the safe keep
ing of the twenty-three British soldiers stated to have been put in close confinement by order of the American govern
ment." He was also instructed to apprise General Dearborn that " if any of the said British soldiers shall suffer death
by reason that the soldiers now under confinement in England have been found guilty, and that the known law, not
only of Great Britain, but of every independent state under similar circumstances, has been in consequence executed,
he has been instructed to select out of the American officers and non-commissioned officers put into confinement as
many as double the number of British soldiers who shall have been so unwarrantably put to death, and cause such offi
cers and non-commissioned officers to suffer death immediately." He farther stated that he was commanded to de
clare that instructions had been sent to the British commanders on land and sea " to prosecute the war with unmiti
gated severity against all cities, towns, and villages belonging to the United States," if, after a reasonable time from this
proclamation, the American government should " not be deterred
// fl/^ s //~ / from putting to death any of the soldiers who now are, or who may
^sf (if /fy/)/\/^Oe /M\^T/\ " > hereafter be kept as hostages for the purpose stated."
(f) * I/ ' ri/fi~!*-~*~s / — Prevost obeyed orders, and imprisoned forty-six American offi
cers in Beauport jail, near Quebec. Among these was Major C. Van
De Venter (afterward chief clerk in the War Department), who was
captured with General Winder. He and two room companions es
caped, and had almost reached the State of Maine, when they were
captured and taken back. Under the humane care of General
Glasgow, these and the other prisoners were well treated, but
chafed under the long detention while the two governments
were menacing the prisoners of each with peril. Madison re-
d N ember 17 8P°n(ied to tne order of the Prince Regent
by directing"1 the imprisonment of a like
number of British officers. This fact was communicated to
Prevost at Montreal by Colonel Macomb, who had been sent-
for the purpose by General Wilkinson under a flag of truce.
Wilkinson assured the baronet that the American government
intended to adhere strictly to the principles and purposes avowed in relation to the twenty-three Irishmen sent to En
gland ; whereupon Prevost, by a general order by Adjutant General Baynes, on the 12th of December, directed all Amer
ican officers, without distinction of rank, then prisoners in his department, to be placed in close confinement. Hitherto
Generals Winchester, Chandler, and Winder had been allowed a wide parole around Beauport ; now they were com
manded not to go beyond the premises of their respective boarding-houses in that village, which lies on the St. Law
rence, in full view of Quebec.*
* Letter of General Winder to the Secretary of War.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 789
Campaign on the Northern Frontier. Proposed Expedition to the Upper Lakes. Preparations on Lake Champlain.
Let us now consider the military events of 1814, which occurred more in accord
ance with the necessities of developing exigencies as the seasons passed on than with
that of any well-digested plans excepting as to the Northern frontiers. It had been
agreed in cabinet council that an expedition under Colonel Croghan, the hero of Fort
Stephenson, with the co-operation of Commodore Sinclair, should proceed against the
British on the upper lakes, and attempt the recovery of Mackinaw and St. Joseph's,
which were lost at the beginning of the war.1 An army, under Major General Brown,
was to be collected on the desolated Niagara frontier of sufficient strength to seize
the Canadian peninsula between Lakes Ontario and Erie, while General Jzard, in com
mand in the Lake Champlain region, should cut the connection on the St. Lawrence
between Montreal and Kingston.
It was at the close of March a when the campaign was opened on the North
ern frontier by the incompetent General Wilkinson, who, we have observed,
took post with a part of the Army of the North, at Plattsburg, when the cantonment
at French Mills was broken up.2
There were indications that efforts would be made in the spring by the British in
Canada to gain possession of Lake Champlain, penetrate the State of New York to
the valley of the Hudson, and attempt, by a movement similar to the one unsuccess
fully put in operation by Burgoyne in 1777, to separate the New England common
wealths (where, they foolishly supposed, an overwhelming majority of the people
were their friends) from the rest of the Union. To meet and frustrate such efforts
countervailing measures were adopted. Vessels of war were constructed at the mouth
of the Onion River, in Vermont, under the superintendence of Captain Macdonough ;
and General Wilkinson sent Captain Totten, of the Engineers, to select a site for a
strong battery at or near Rouse's Point for the purpose of keeping the little British
squadron, then lying at St. John's, on the Sorel, within the limits of Canada. Before
this work could be accomplished, the breaking up of the ice in the streams earlier
than common changed the aspect of affairs materially. Intelligence reached Wilkin
son that a British force of twenty-five hundred men was about to be concentrated
These retaliatory measures were relaxed toward spring.1" At the middle of January Sir George Prevost al- b „.. .
lowed General Winder to go home on parole, with a promise not to reveal any thing of obvious disadvantage
to the British, and to return to Quebec by the 15th of March. The general took that occasion to communicate freely
in person with his government on the subject of an exchange of prisoners. He deprecated the retaliatory measures,
and through his influence the Senate, first on the 2d of February and then on the 9th of March, by resolution, requested
the President to cause to be laid before them such information as he might possess concerning the subject of prisoners
and retaliatory measures, and "of the cases, with their circumstances, in which any civilized nation had punished its
native subjects taken in arms against, and for which punishment retaliation had been inflicted by the nation in whose
service they had been taken." Also, " on what grounds, and under what circumstances, Great Britain has refused to
discharge native citizens of the United States impressed into her service ; and what has been her conduct toward Amer
ican seamen on board her ships of war at and since the commencement of the present war with the United States."
This was a task of no ordinary labor ; and the Secretary of State, to whom the resolutions were referred, remarked, iu
a report which he submitted on the 14th of April, that a full answer from him on the subject of retaliation would require
more extensive research into the history and jurisprudence of Europe than proper attention to his official duties would
allow before the close of the session— an event then just at hand. He gave reasons, however, in justification of the
course of the United States in the matter so satisfactory that a bill was introduced similar to the one at the last session
of the Twelfth Congress giving the President full powers to retaliate. For reasons then presented, it did c A „ lg
not become a law. Four days after the presentation of this report Congess adjourned.0
General Winder promptly returned to Quebec at the middle of March, bearing to Sir George Prevost from Mr. Mon
roe, Secretary of State, a letter, dated the 9th of March, in which a mutual exchange of prisoners was solicited. Gen
eral Winder was clothed with full powers to negotiate for such exchange. Prevost met the proposition with a friend
ly spirit, and appointed Colonel Baynes, his adjutant general, a commissioner for the purpose. The negotiation was
commenced, but temporarily suspended, when, in a letter to General Winder, dated the 22d of March, Mr. Monroe posi
tively prohibited any consent to the release of the twenty-three British prisoners who were held as hostages for the
Irishmen sent to England eighteen months before, unless it should be stipulated that they, too, should be released.
The negotiation was resumed, and on the 15th of April Winder and Baynes signed articles of a convention for the
mutual release of all prisoners of war, hostages or others, except the twenty-three Queenston prisoners, the twenty-
three Fort George prisoners held by the Americans in retaliation, and the forty-six American officers who were held
for the last-named twenty-three. The mutual release took place on the 15th of May. Soon after that, Mr. Beasley,
agent for the American government in England, sent word that no proceedings had ever been instituted against the
Queenston prisoners, and that they were restored to the condition of ordinary prisoners of war. The hostages on both
sides were immediately released, and early in July a cartel for the exchange of prisoners was ratified and executed.
Thus ended a controversy unwarrantably begun by Great Britain, and which had produced much suffering. The just
position taken by our government was firmly maintained. » See page 270. 2 See page 687.
790
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Wilkinson crosses the Canada Border.
The British at La Colle Mill.
Positions of the opposing Forces.
at La Colic Mill, on La Colle Creek, a small tributary of the Sorel, three or four miles
below Rouse's Point.
For the purpose of preparing for a march on Montreal, and to confront the expect
ed force at La Colle, Wilkinson advanced his little army to Champlain, and on the
30th of March* crossed the Canada border, and pressed on toward La Colle.
* 1Q14
It was composed of about four thousand effective men. Five miles from Cham-
plain, at a hamlet called Odelltown, the army stopped for refreshments ; and, on re
suming their march, they encountered the enemy's pickets, and drove them back. At
about three o'clock in the afternoon they came in sight of La Colle Mill, a heavy stone
structure, with walls eighteen inches in thickness, and its windows barricaded with
heavy timbers, through which were loop-holes for muskets. It stood on the south
ern bank of La Colle Creek, at the end of a bridge. On the opposite bank was a
block-house and a strong barn, and around them were intrenchments. For two hund
red yards southward from the mill, and half that distance northward from the block
house, was cleared land, surrounded by a thick primeval forest which covered the
country in every direction. The flat ground was half inundated by melting snows,
and the highway was so obstructed by the enemy with felled trees and other hinder-
ances that the Americans were compelled to diverge some distance to the right of it.
PHERSOfTS BATv . _ ' , r-SB ,, T O*^>\Xv49?^j^' TP%^\HY'vt
MC.&O.Y ^ =an e-Ge/>J-«M;r^ o f^ ^ -•«£?. 5 o V
The advance of Wilkinson's army was commanded by Colonel Isaac Clark and
Major (at that time lieutenant colonel by brevet) Benjamin Forsyth. These were
followed by Captain M'Pherson, with two pieces of artillery, covered by the brigades
of Generals Smith and Bissell. General Alexander Macomb commanded the reserves
under Colonels Melancthon Smith and George M'Feely. Clark and Forsyth, with
portions of their commands, crossed La Colle Creek some distance above the mill, fol
lowed by Colonel Miller's regiment of six hundred men, and took post in the rear of
the enemy to cut off his retreat.
At this time the British garrison at the mill consisted of only about two hundred
men, chiefly regulars, under Major Hancock, of the British Thirteenth. Re-enforce
ments were on the way, and it was important for Wilkinson to dislodge the enemy
at the mill before their arrival. Macomb endeavored to send forward an 1 8-pound
cannon to breach the walls, but failed on account of the softness of the ground.
Hoping to perform the same service with M'Pherson's heavy guns, which consisted
of a 12-pound cannon and a 5^-inch mortar, these were placed in battery at the dis-
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
791
Wilkinson attacks the British Garrison. The Latter re-enforced. The Americans repulsed. The Battle-ground.
tance of two hundred and fifty yards from the mill. They opened fire upon that
citadel, but their missiles were harmless. They were responded to by Congreve
rockets ; and the whole American line, being in open fields, was exposed to the gall
ing fire of the enemy. M'Pherson was wounded under the chin, but fought on until
his thigh-bone was broken by a musket ball, when he was carried to the rear. Lieu
tenant Larrabee, his next in command, was shot through the lungs, and Lieutenant
Sheldon kept up the fire with great gallantry. The conduct of these officers was so
conspicuous as to attract the admiration and comment of their brethren in arms.
While this contest was waging, two flank companies of the British Thirteenth, un
der Captains Ellard and Holgate, arrived from Isle aux Noix, seven miles distant,
and gave much strength to the beleaguered garrison. Major Hancock now determ
ined to storm the American battery, and gave orders for an immediate and vigorous
sortie by the two companies just arrived. They made several desperate charges, and
were as often repulsed by the infantry supports of the artillery under Smith and Bis-
sell. They were finally driven back across the bridge, and compelled to take refuge
in the block-house on the northerly side of the stream. There they were soon joined
by some Canadian Grenadiers and Voltigeurs from Burtonville, only two miles dis
tant. These joined the companies of Ellard and Holgate in another sortie more des
perate than the first, which, after a severe struggle, was repulsed by the covering
brigades, and the cannonade and bombardment went on. They made no impression,
however, upon the walls of the mill. The garrison had been augmented by re-en
forcements to almost a thousand men, and, after a contest ol two hours, Wilkinson
withdrew, having lost thirteen killed, one hundred and twenty-eight wounded, and
thirteen missing. The enemy lost eleven killed, two officers and forty-four men
wounded, and four missing.
I visited the scene of this conflict on a pleasant evening toward the close of
July,a 1860. I had been to French Mills (Fort Covington) in the morning,
and had arrived at Rouse's Point, as before observed (page 665), toward
evening. In a light wagon, behind a fleet horse, I rode from the village to La Colle
Mill in time to make a sketch of the scene — the bridge, and the block-house, then part
LA COLLE .MILL AM) BLOOK-HOU6E.
of a dwelling, the property of Mr. William Bowman — and to obtain from that gentle
man so exact a description of the form and size of the old mill, which had been de-
792 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Graves of the Slain in the Battle. End of Wilkinson's military Career. Brown ordered to the Niagara Frontier.
molished only two years before, as to enable me, by observing the relative position
of its ruins to the bridge, to reproduce the likeness of it given in the picture on the
preceding page. Mr. Bowman accompanied me to the Ferry-road, opened by himself,
a little southward of the bridge, where, about thirty rods southeast from the highway,
might be seen the mounds which cover the remains of the slain in the battle there.
Those of the Americans were buried on the right side of the road, and those of the
British on the left side, about twenty feet from each other. Only one grave was
made for the dead of each nation.
At twilight I passed through La Colle village and Odelltown, the road running
through a level, well-cultivated region, which was covered by forest at the time of
the war. I spent the night. at an indifferent inn at Rouse's Point village, and on the
following morning journeyed to Champlain and Plattsburg. Of this journey I shall
hereafter write.
With the discreditable affair at La Colle Mill the military career of General Wil
kinson was closed. By an order from the War Department, issued a week previous
» March 24, to that affair,a he was relieved of the command of the army in the Depart
ment of the North, and his conduct while in command of that district was
subsequently committed to the scrutiny of a court-martial. He proved that during
the most important operations of the disastrous campaign, which ended at French
Mills, the War Department, in the person of Minister Armstrong and Adjutant Gen
eral Walbach, was on the Northern frontier, and that he acted under the Secretary's
immediate instructions ; that the failure of Hampton to meet him at St. Regis1 justi
fied his abandonment of an attack on Montreal ; and that his encampment and stay
at, and departure from French Mills, was in accordance with the views of the Secre
tary of War. These proofs being positive, Wilkinson was acquitted, and the public
placed the chief blame, whei-e it seemed to properly belong, on the War Department.
Like Harrison, who had felt the baleful effects of the administration of that depart
ment, Wilkinson threw up his commission in disgust.
Many official changes were necessary. Dearborn was in retirement on account of
ill health ; Hampton had left the service in disgrace ; and Winchester, Chandler, and
Winder were still prisoners of war in the hands of the enemy in Canada. On the
24th of January Brigadier Generals Brown and Izard were commissioned major gen
erals ; and Colonels Macomb, T. A. Smith, Bissell, Scott, Gaines, and Ripley were ap
pointed brigadiers. On the retirement of Wilkinson, Brown became chief commander
in the Northern Department.
General Brown, as we have seen, left French Mills with a division of the army for
Sackett's Harbor at about the middle of February.2 He arrived there on the 24th,
after a rather pleasant march for that season of the year. There he received a letter
from the Secretary of War, dated on the 28th,b informing him that Colonel
Scott, who was a candidate for a brigadiership, had been ordered, with the
accomplished Major Wood, of the Engineers, to the Niagara frontier. "The truth
is," Armstrong said, " public opinion .will not tolerate us in permitting the enemy
to keep quiet possession of Fort Niagara. Another motive is the effect which may
be expected from the appearance of a large corps on the Niagara in restraining the
enemy's enterprises to the westward." After expressing doubts concerning the abil
ity of the force under Scott to recapture Fort Niagara, the Secretary, " by command
of the President," as he said, directed Brown to convey, with the least possible delay,
the brigades which he brought from French Mills to Batavia, where " other and more
detailed orders" would await him.3 On the same day, by another dispatch, the Sec
retary directed Brown to cross the ice at the foot of the lake, and attack the enemy
at Kingston, if, on consultation with Chauncey, it should be considered practicable.
i See page 654. 2 gee pa<re 65T.
3 MS. Letter of Secretary Armstrong to General Brown, February 28, 1813.— General Brown's Letter-book.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 793
Brown moving toward the Niagara. Ridiculous Orders from the War Department. Public Property in Danger.
In that event he was directed to use the instructions in the first letter of that date
as a mask.
The two commanders considered the force of four thousand men at the Harbor in
sufficient for the capture of Kingston under the circumstances ; and, mistaking the
real intentions of the government, which was to make the movement on Kingston
the main object, and that toward Niagara a/emtf, Brown put his troops in motion to
ward the latter at the middle of March. They numbered about two thousand, con
sisting of the Ninth, Eleventh, Twenty-first, and Twenty-fifth Regiments of Infantry,
the Third Regiment of Artillery, and Captain Towson's company of the Second Ar
tillery.1 These troops had reached Salina, in Onondaga County, and Brown was
at Geneva, when General Gaines thought he discovered his commander's mistake.
Brown acquiesced in his opinion, and resolved to retrace his steps. He hastened back
to Sackett's Harbor " the most unhappy man alive."2 There Chauncey " and other
confidential men" convinced him that his first interpretation of the Secretary's in
struction was correct. " Happy again," he hastened back to his troops, and resumed
the march westward. At the close of the month they arrived at Batavia, where
they remained about four weeks, when they moved toward Buffalo. In the mean
time Armstrong had written a soothing letter to the perturbed Brown, saying, " You
have mistaken my meaning If you hazard any thing by this mistake, correct
it promptly by returning to your post. If, on the other hand, you left the Hai'bor
with a competent force for its defense, go on and prosper. Good consequences are
sometimes the result of mistakes."3
While at Batavia and vicinity Brown was made very uneasy by alarming letters
from Chauncey, and also from General Gaines, who had been placed in command at
Sackett's Harbor. The British were in motion at Kingston early in April, the ice
having broken up, and there were indications of another attack on the Harbor. With
this impression, and feeling the responsibility laid upon him by the grant of discre
tionary power given him by the Secretary of War, Brown hastened back to that post,
leaving General Scott in command of the troops on the Niagara frontier during his
absence. Observation soon taught him that an attack on the Harbor was " more to
be desired than feared,"4 and that the real point of danger was Oswego, at the mouth
of the Oswego River. At the Great Falls of that stream, twelve miles from the lake,
where the village of Fulton now stands, a large quantity of naval stores had been col
lected during the autumn and winter for vessels on the stocks at Sackett's Harbor.
These wTould be very important objects for the British to possess or destroy ; and, ex
cepting the partly-finished vessels at Sackett's Harbor, they formed the most attract
ive prize for Sir James Yeo, the British commander on Lake Ontario. For the pro
tection of this property, Lieutenant Colonel Mitchell, with a battalion of light artil
lery, was sent to garrison the fort at Oswego.
At the beginning of May Sir James Yeo sailed out of Kingston Harbor with an ef
fective force of cruising vessels. Chauncey was not quite ready for him. Both par
ties, one at Kingston and the other at Sackett's Harbor, had been bending all their
energies during the preceding winter in making preparations for securing the com
mand of Lake Ontario, an object considered so important by the two governments
J MS. Letter to Colonel E. Jenkins, March 12, 1S14. 2 MS. Letter to the Secretary of War, March 24, 1S14.
3 MS. Letter, March 20, 1814. It must be confessed that many of the orders issued from Washington at this time were
exceedingly perplexing to the officers in the field. A great portion of the frontier was yet in a wilderness state, and
the topography and geography of the country was very imperfectly known. In a letter before me from the venerable
John R. Kellogg, of Allegan, Michigan, dated 15th March, 1SC4, some amusing anecdotes bearing upon this subject are
given. He says that he heard Captain (afterward Commodore) Woolsey relate to Channcey and other officers, in the
old two-story wood tavern at Oswego, the fact that he had received the following order from Washington : "Take the
Lady of the Lake and proceed to Onondaga, and take in, at Nicholas Mickle's Furnace, a load of ball and shot, and pro
ceed at once to Buffalo." In other words, go over Oswego Falls, then up the Oswego and Seneca Rivers to Onondaga
Lake to Salina or Syracuse, and then two miles south of that city by land, where the furnace was situated, and, return
ing to Oswego, proceed to the Niagara, and up and over Niagara Falls to Buffalo !
* MS. Letter to the Secretary of War, April 25, 1814.
794
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The Navy on Lake Ontario.
Naval Stores.
The British Squadron leaves Sackett's Harbor.
CHAtTNCEY'S UI8MANTLEU FLAG-BUIP BUPEEIOK.
that they withdrew officers and seamen from the ocean to assist in the lake service.
The American government also added twenty-five per cent, to the pay of those en
gaged in that service.
In February Henry Eckford1 had laid the keel of three vessels, one a frigate de
signed to carry fifty guns, and two brigs of five hundred tons each, to carry twenty-
two guns. Deserters who came in reported heavy vessels in great forwardness at
Kingston ; and Chauncey, who returned
from the national capital at the close of
February, ordered the size of the frigate
to be increased so as to carry sixty-six
guns. The brigs, named respectively Jef
ferson and Jones, were ready for service,
except their full armament, at the close of
April ; and the frigate, which was named
The Superior, was launched on the 2d of
May, just eighty days after her keel was
laid !2 But the naval stores and heavy
guns designed for her were yet at Oswego
Falls, to. which point they had been car
ried by tedious transportation from Al
bany up the Mohawk, and through Wood
Creek and Oneida Lake into the Oswego
River, the roads across the country from Utica to Sackett's Harbor being impassable
with heavy ordnance. They were kept at the Falls for security from the enemy, un
til schoolers employed by Captain Woolsey for the purpose could be loaded and dis
patched singly from Oswego.
The ice, as we have remarked, broke up eailier than usual, and the British made
attempts to destroy the large frigate at the Harbor. On the night of the 25th of
April, Lieutenant Dudley, while out with two guard-boats, discovered three others
in Black River Bay. Not answering his hail, he fired. They fled. On searching,
six bai-rels of gunpowder were found, each containing a fuse, and slung in pairs by a
rope in a way that a swimmer might convey them under a ship's bottom for the pur
pose of explosion. A few days afterward the British squadron was seen in sailing
trim at Kingston ; and on the 4th of May Lieutenant Gregory, in the Lady of the
Lake, saw six sail of the enemy leave Kingston Harbor and move toward Amherst
Bay. This was the squadron of Sir James Yeo, bearing a little more than one thou
sand land troops, under Lieutenant General Sir George Gordon Drummond. The
active cruising force of Sir James consisted of eight vessels, ranging from 12 to 62
guns, making in the aggregate 222 pieces of ordnance, besides several gun-boats and
other small craft, whose armament, added to the others, gave to the British much su
periority in the weight of metal.
When Sir James sailed his squadron was so much superior in strength to the one
that Chauncey could then put to sea that the latter prudently remained in Sackett's
Harbor, and the enemy moved unimpeded against Oswego on the morning of the 5th
of May. His vessels were seen at reveille from that port, and preparations Avere speed
ily made to dispute his landing. The village, standing on the west side of the har-
1 See page 615.
* On the 1st of June the American squadron consisted of the following vessels :
Superior, 66, Lieutenant Elton, Chauncey's flag-ship ; Pike, 28, Captain Crane ; Mohawk, 42, Captain Jones ; Madison,
24, Captain Trenchard ; Je/erson, 22, Captain Ridgeley ; Jones, 22, Captain Woolsey ; Sylph, 14, Captain Elliott ; Oneida,
18, Lieutenant Commandant Brown ; and Lady of the Lake, 2, Lieutenant Mix, a look-out vessel. Besides these were
several gun-boats and other small craft, among the best known of which were the Governor Tompkins, 6, Midshipman
.Elliott; Pert, 3, Lieutenant Adams; Conquest, 2, Lieutenant Wells ; Fair American, 2, Lieutenant Wolcott Chauncey;
Ontario, 2, Sailing-master Stevens; Asp, 2, Lieutenant Jones; Hamilton,S, Growler, 5; Julia, 2; Elizabeth, 1 ; and bomb-
vessel May. The aggregate numher of guns was 2S2.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
795
The Defenses aud Defenders of Oswego.
Attack on Fort Ontario.
Lauding of British Troops.
SIB JAMES LUCAS YEO.
bor formed by the mouth of the Oswego
River, contained less than five hundred
inhabitants. Upon a bluff on the north
side of the river was old Fort Ontario,
partly built in colonial times, spacious,
but not strong. It then mounted only
six old guns, three of which were almost
useless because they had lost their trun
nions. The garrison consisted of Mitch
ell's battalion of less than three hundred
men. The schooner Growler, having on
board Captain Woolsey and Lieutenant
Pearce, of the Navy, was in the river for
the purpose of conveying guns and naval
stores to the Harbor. To prevent her
falling into the hands of the enemy she
was sunk, and a part of her crew under
Lieutenant Pearce joined Mitchell, who
had sent out messengers to arouse and
bring in the neighboring militia.
O O O
Mitchell had too few troops for the defense of both the village and the fort, so he
ordered all the tents in store there to be pitched near the town, while with his whole
force he took position at the fort. The deception had the desired effect. To the en
emy the military array seemed much stronger on the side of the village than at the
fort, and the British proceeded to assail the latter position. Leaving the absolutely
defenseless village unmolested, the British troops, in fifteen large boats, covered by
the gun-boats and small armed vessels, moved toward the shore, near the fort, early
in the afternoon, while the cannon on the larger vessels opened fire on the fort. Mean
while Captain James A. Boyle and Lieutenant Thomas C. Legate had been sent down
to the shore with an old iron 1 2-pounder, and as soon as the enemy's boats were within
proper distance they opened on them with deadly effect. Some of the boats were
badly injured ; some were abandoned, and all of the remainder hastily retired to the
ships. Just then a heavy breeze sprung up, and the entire squadron put to sea.
Drummond, in a general order, stated that he did not intend to attack on that day.
He was only feeling the position and strength of the Americans.
On the morning of the 6th the fleet again appeared off Oswego, and the larger ves
sels immediately opened a heavy fire on the fort. The Magnet, took station in front
of the village, and the Star and Charwett were towed in near the mouth of the river
for the purpose of covering the spot selected for the landing of troops. Under this
shield were landed the flank companies of De Watteville's regiment, under Captain
De Bersey ; a light company of the Glengary Regiment, under Captain M'Millan ; a
battalion of marines xinder Lieutenant Colonel Malcolm ; and two hundred seamen,
armed with pikes, under Captain Mulcaster. The whole force, about twelve hundred
in number, was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Fischer. A reserve of troops was
left on the vessels.
The enemy effected a landing early in the afternoon, and were compelled to ascend
a long, steep hill in the face of a heavy fire of the Americans in the fort, and of a
small body of the militia, who had been hastily summoned, and were concealed in a
wood.1 These, however, fled when the enemy had secured a footing on the shore.
Finding it impossible to defend the fort with so few men, Mitchell left the works, and
met the invaders in fair fight, covered only by woods. With the companies of Cap
tains Romeyn andMelvin, he gallantly moved forward and attacked the front of the
1 The British landed near whye the City Hospital now stands, and the battle was just in the rear of it.
796
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The British capture Oswego. The Fort dismantled and Barracks burned. Conduct of Yeo and Drummond.
ATTACK ON OSWEGO.— (From an old Print.)
enemy, while the remainder of his command, under Captains M'Intyre and Pierce of
the heavy artillery, annoyed them prodigiously on the flank. By desperate fight
ing the enemy was kept in check for a long time, but overwhelming numbers finally
compelled Mitchell to fall back. The British took possession of the fort and all the
works and stores in the vicinity. Mitchell retired up the river to a position where
he might protect the naval stores should the enemy attempt to penetrate to the
Falls in search of them.
In this gallant but hopeless defense the Americans lost the brave Lieutenant Blaney,
and five killed, thirty-eight wounded, and twenty-five missing. The British lost nine
teen killed and seventy-five wounded. Among the latter were Captain Mulcaster,
of the Princess Charlotte, severely, and Captain Popham, of the Montreal, slightly.
At five o'clock on the morning of the 7th the invaders withdrew, after having em
barked the guns and few stores found there, dismantled the fort, and burned the bar
racks. They also raised and carried away the Growler and two sunken boats ; and,
under circumstances not at all creditable to Sir James Yeo as an officer and gentle
man, several citizens, who had been promised protection and exemption from all mo
lestation, were abducted and borne away by the squadron. Among these was the aft
erward eminent merchant of Oswegp,
Honorable Alvin Bronson, who was then
the public store-keeper, and who is still
(1867) a resident of that place.1 After
the capture of the post, and while Yeo
was personally superintending the load
ing of his boats with salt and public stores, that officer applied to Mr. Bronson for
pilots to conduct the boats out to the squadron. When he replied that all the men
had left the place, and that he had none under his control, Sir James angrily growled
out, with an oath, " Go yourself, and if you get the boat aground I'll shoot you."
The gallant and gentlemanly Colonel Harvey, who was standing on the bank above,
' His clerk, Carlos Colton, then a boy, was taken with him. Mr. C. was clerk of the County of Monroe, Michigan, in
1S55.
OF THE WAK OF 1812. 797
Firmness of Store-keeper Bronson. His Captivity and Release. Survivors of the War in Oswego.
called out to Sir James, " That, sir, is the public store-keeper, and may be useful to
us." Sir James called Mr. Bronson back, and said, " You are my prisoner, and I shall
expect you to inform me what stores have recently been forwarded for the army and
navy, what remains in the rear of the post, and what, if any, are secreted in its neigh
borhood. " My books and papers," replied Mr. Bronson, have been removed for safe
ty, and I can not, therefore, give you the desired information ; nor would it be proper
for me to do so if I could." Sir James threatened to take him off with him if he
withheld the coveted information. " I am ready to go, sir," was Mr. Bronson's calm
reply. This was followed by an order to Captain O'Connor to take him on board
the flag-ship Prince Regent. At midnight the naval and military officers came on
board the Regent. Among them was General Sir George Gordon Drummond, who
lavished upon the captive store-keeper such coarse and vulgar abuse that Colonel
Harvey, as soon as an opportunity was afforded, apologized for the brutality of his
superior officers, of whom he was evidently ashamed.1 Mr. Bronson was confined a
short time in the guard-house at Kingston, and again taken to the squadron when it
proceeded to the blockade of Sackett's Harbor. He was well treated, and associated
familiarly with the subordinate officers. He was soon afterward released.
Among the survivors of the war, besides Mr. Bronson, whom I had the pleasure
of meeting in Oswego, were the late Henry Eagle and Matthew M'Nair ; the ven
erable bookseller James Sloan;
the lively but aged light-house
keeper Jacob M. Jacobs ; and the
late Abram D. Hugunin. Mr.
Eagle was a Prussian by birth,
and possessed a fine figure when
more than threescore and ten
years of age. He learned the bus
iness of a ship-carpenter of a Scotchman on the border of the Baltic Sea, and worked
his passage to America as such. He was the constructor of the Oneida at Oswego
in 1808, and he accompanied Eckford to the frontier in 1812-'13. He became pur
ser at the Navy Yard at Sackett's Harbor, where he was very active. He gave me
many interesting particulars concerning the building of the New Orleans. Five
hundred and fifty-three men were employed on her. Thj timber for her masts was
cut near Watertown, in Jefferson County, and the cost of their transportation to the
Harbor was one hundred and sixty dollars apiece. They were afterward used in the
construction of the ship-house.
Mr. M'Nair, a Scotchman, was government commissary at Oswego, and had a store
house there and at the Falls. At
the time of the British attack he
had twelve hundred barrels of
bread and other provisions in
store at Oswego, and a quantity
of whisky.2 These became spoils for the enemy. Mr. Jacobs had been a companion in
cruises with Commodore Rodgers, and went to Lake Ontario in 1812 with a midship
man's warrant. Although, when I last saw him [1864], he was eighty-eight years of
age, his complexion was so fresh and his step so elastic that he appeared like a man
less than sixty years old. Mr. Sloan was Macdonough's clerk on the Saratoga at
1 Colonel Harvey was as generous as he was brave. He was governor of Nova Scotia in 1839 when General Scott was
sent by his government to settle the dispute concerning the boundary-line between that country and the State of Maine
either by arms or negotiation. Scott and Harvey were adjutant generals in their respective armies on the Niagara
frontier, and at that time formed an intimacy which ripened into friendship. On going to the capital of Maine, Scott
opened a friendly correspondence with Governor Harvey, which resulted in an amicable settlement of a difficulty which
threatened to involve the United States and Great Britain in war.
2 Mr. M'Nair died at Oswego on the 31st of March, 1SG2, at the age of eighty-eight years. He had resided in Oswego
sixty years.
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The British return to Kingston. Sackett's Harbor blockaded. Woolsey's Expedition.
the time of the battle of Plattsburg in the autumn of 1814. Mr. Hugunin, who died
at Oswego in February, 1860, had lived in that place since 1805. He was in the mil
itary service when Oswego was captured in 1814, and was made a prisoner.
The conduct of Lieutenant Colonel Mitchell in his defense of Oswego received the
commendation of his superiors. His prudence and gallantry secured the large amount
of ordnance and naval stores at the Falls,1 and the British derived very little advan
tage from their attack. With their small booty they returned to Kingston, and Os
wego was not again attacked during the war. The dilapidated fort was repaired, the
garrison strengthened, and the enemy was defied. For many years that fort has been
a strong and admirably-appointed fortress, but without a garrison, and in charge of a
sergeant. Its situation and appearance, as seen from the lantern of the light-house, is
given in the little engraving below from a sketch made in 1855. The place where
the British landed is seen at the point on the extreme left of the picture.
FOKT AT OSWEGO IN 1855.
The British troops were landed at Kingston, and the vessels were thoroughly over
hauled, during the succeeding fortnight. On the 19th the renovated squadron again
weighed anchor, and, a few hours afterward, drove Chauncey's look-out, Lady of the
Lake, into Sackett's Harbor, and established a strict blockade of that port, to the
great discomfort of the American commander, who was making untiring efforts to
get his squadron, and especially the Superior, ready for sea. Heavy guns and cables
destined for her were yet at the Oswego Falls. The roads were in such condition
that they could not be taken to the Harbor by land, and the blockade made a voyage
thither by water extremelj^perilous. But something must be done, or Sir James Yeo
would roam over Ontario unrestricted lord of the lake. The ever-active and gallant
Woolsey was sufficient for the occasion. He declared his willingness to attempt car
rying the ordnance and naval stores to Stony Creek, three miles from Sackett's Har
bor, where they might be carried across a narrow portage to Henderson Harbor, and
reach Chauncey in safety. The commodore gave Woolsey permission to attempt the
perilous adventure, and before the close of May he had a large number of the heavy
guns sent over the Falls in scows, preparatory to an embarkation when the vigilance
of the blockading squadron should be relaxed.
At sunset on the 28th of May Woolsey was at Oswego with nineteen btfats heav
ily laden with twenty-two long 32-pounders, ten 24's, three 42-pound carronades, and
twelve cables. One of the latter, destined for the Superior, was an immense rope.
The flotilla went out of the harbor at dusk, and bore Major Appling and one hundred
and thirty riflemen under his command. About the same number of Oneida Indians
were engaged to meet the flotilla at the mouth of Big Salmon River, near the present
village of Port Ontario, and traverse the shore abreast of it, to assist in the event of
an attack by the British gun-boats.
Woolsey found it unsafe to attempt to reach Stony Creek, for the blockaders were
1 The public store-houses at the Falls (now Fulton) were on the east side of the river, a little above the Cascades.
The surrounding land belonged to the government. When I visited the spot in 1854, the land belonged to Timothy
Pratt, Esq., a large land-holder at the Falls. The stores were demolished after the war, and not a vestige of them now
remains.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
799
Woolsey's Force cm Big Sandy Creek.
The confident British in Pursuit.
Preparations to receive Them.
vigilant, so he determined to run up Big Sandy Creek, within a few miles of the Har
bor, and debark the precious treasures there. The night was very dark, and there
was little danger of discovery under its friendly shadows. By dint of hard rowing,
all the boats reached the Big Salmon at dawn excepting one which had fallen out of
the line during the night. It was bewildered in the fog, and was captured by the
British at sunrise the next morning. The Oneidas were there, and flotilla and In
dians moved on toward the Big Sandy, where they all arrived at noon.a Sir . May 20,
James, meanwThile, had gained information of the flotilla from the crew of
the lost boat. He immediately sent out two gun-boats, commanded respectively by
Captain Popham, of the Montreal, and Captain Spilsbury, also of the Royal Navy, ac
companied by three cutters and a gig, to intercept them. They cruised all day in
vain, but at evening learned that Woolsey and his boats had gone up the Big Sandy.
Confident of their ability to capture the whole flotilla, and ignorant of the presence
of Major Appling and his riflemen, or of the Indians, the British cruisers lay off the
mouth of the creek all night, and entered it early in the morning. In the door of a
fisherman's house (yet standing when I visited the spot in 1860) Popham saw a wom
an, and ordered her to have breakfast ready for himself and officers when they should
return. She knew how well Woolsey was prepared to receive his pursuers, and said,
significantly, " You'll find breakfast ready up the creek." The British passed on in
jolly mood up the creek, but soon became very serious.
1M.ACE OF BATTLE AT SANDY CI1EEK.1
For two miles or more the Big Sandy winds through a marshy plain, and empties
into the lake through a ridge of sand dunes cast up by the winds and waves of Onta
rio. That plain is now barren of timber, but at the time we are considering the
stream was fringed with trees and shrubbery. In these, about forty rods below a
bend in the creek, seen in the engraving, and half a mile below where the flotilla was
moored, Major Appling ambushed his riflemen and the Indians. At the same time, £
squadron of cavalry under Captain Harris, and a company of light artillery under
Captain Melvin, with two 6-pound field-pieces and some infantry, about three hund
red in all, whom General Gaines had sent down from Sackett's Harbor, were stationed
near Woolsey's boats.
The confident and jolly Britons approached with little caution, and when they came
! This view is from the bridge, about one hundred and fifty rods above the point where the engagement took place.
The stream is about eight rods wide, and the portion of it seen in the foreground was the position of the flotilla. The
light strip seen in the extreme distance is Lake Ontario, and the irregular shore-Hue shows the sand dunes spoken of.
The fisherman's bouse alluded to is seen between two of them, toward the extreme left of the picture.
800
PICTOKIAL FIELD-BOOK
Battle on Big Sandy Creek. The British defeated and captured. John Otis. The great Cable for the Superior.
in sight of the flotilla they commenced hurling solid shot upon it, but with slight ef
fect. At the same time strong flanking parties were landed, and marched up each
side of the stream, their way made clear, as they supposed, by discharges of grape
and canister shot into the bushes from the gun-boats. These dispersed the cowardly
Indians, but the gallant young Appling's sharp-shooters were undisturbed.1
It was now ten o'clock. When the invaders reached a point within rifle range of
the ambuscade, Appling's men opened destructive volleys upon them, and occasional
shot came thundering from Melvin's2 field-pieces, stationed on the bank, near the pres
ent bridge. So furious and unexpected was the assault on front, flank, and rear, that
the British surrendered within ten minutes after the first gun was fired in response to
their own. They had lost Midshipman Hoare and seventeen men killed, and at least
fifty men dangerously wounded. The Americans lost one rifleman and one Indian
warrior wounded, but not a single life. They gained the British squadron,3 with of
ficers and men as prisoners, in number about one hundred and seventy. A negro on
one of the gun-boats, who had been ordered to throw the cannon and small-arms over
board in case of danger, did so when the fight was ended. The Americans called on
him to desist or they would shoot him. He paid no attention to them, and, with a
sense of duty, had cast overboard one cannon and many muskets, when he fell dead,
pierced by twelve bullets.
The wounded British were taken to the house of John Otis, yet standing,4 and still
occupied by the then owner when I visited the spot in
» July 20, I860. It was the second house above the
i860. bridge. Otis, a venerable man when I saw
him, gave Woolsey the first notice of the. presence of
pursuers. He had been out upon the lake since mid
night, watching for the enemy, and, discovering them
at early dawn making for the mouth of the creek, he
hastened up the stream with the information. He
pointed out to me the place, near a large chestnut-tree
in a lot adjoining his garden, where the British dead
were buried. He took care of many of the wounded
for more than a fortnight, for which service and expenses his country rewarded him
after a lapse of forty-three years. In 1857 Congress voted him a little more than
nine hundred dollars ; but one of those harpies known as lobby agents, who know how
to approach legislators of easy virtue, took one half of it as compensation for his serv
ices in procuring the " appropriation."
The cannon and cables were landed safely from the flotilla, and transported by land
sixteen miles to the Harbor. The great cable for the Superior had occupied, in pon
derous coils, one of the boats of ten tons burden. The cable was twenty-two inches
in circumference, and weighed nine thousand six hundred pounds. No vehicle could
be found to convey it over the country to the Harbor; and, after a delay of a week,
1 Daniel Appling was born in Columbia County, Georgia, in 178T, and entered the army as second lieutenant of rifle
men in 1808. He was promoted to captain in the spring of 1812, and major of the First Rifle Corps in April, 1S14. For
his gallant conduct at Sandy Creek he was breveted lieutenant colonel in August. He was breveted colonel for distin
guished services at Plattsburg in September following. He was retained on the peace establishment in 1815, but re-
sigued-in June the following year. He died at Montgomery, Alabama, in March, 1817, at the age of only thirty years.
2 George W. Melvin was a native of Georgia. He entered the military service as second lieutenant of artillery at the
close of 1808. In August, 1812, he was commissioned captain. He was retained on the peace establishment, and re
signed in August, 1820.
3 One of the boats mounted a GS-pound carronade ; one
a long 32-pounder; one a long 24; one two long 12's, and
another two small brass howitzers.
* Dr. Alfred Ely, who was an assistant of Surgeon Amasa
Trowbridge, was at Sandy Creek, and attended the wound
ed British at the house of Mr. Otis. I had the pleasure of
meeting him at the inauguration of the statue of Perry, at
Cleveland, in September, 1860. He is now (1867) a resident
of Oberliu, Ohio.
OTIS'S HOUSE, SANDY CHEEK.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
801
cms
Carrying the great Cable to Sackett's Harbor. Visit to the Sandy Creek Kegion. Survivors of the War met there.
men belonging to the militia regiment of Colonel Allen Clark, who had hastened to the
creek on hearing the din of battle, volunteered to carry it on their shoulders. About
two hundred men were selected for the labor. They left the Big Sandy at noon, and
arrived at the Harbor toward the evening of the next day. They carried it a mile
at a time without resting. Their shoulders were terribly bruised and chafed by the
great rope. They were received by loud cheers and martial music. A barrel of
whisky was rolled out and tapped for their refreshment, and each man received two
dollars extra pay. In less than a fortnight from the time of the battle all the cannon
and naval stores were at Sackett's Harbor.a But many difficulties had to »juneio,
be overcome, and the fleet was not ready to leave the Harbor on a cruise 1814>
until the 1st of August.
It was a sultry morning in July when I visited the theatre of events just described.
I arrived at Little Sandy Creek Village on the previous evening, and there met Har-
mon Ehle, a sprightly little man, now (1867)
eighty-seven years of age, who was one of the
two hundred who carried the great cable to
Sackett's Harbor. From him I learned most of the facts concerning it just related.
I spent the evening very pleasantly with him. For forty-nine years he had lived
there, and had seen the country transformed from a wilderness to the pleasant abode
of civilized man.1 The night succeeding our interview was tempestuous. At dawn
a heavy thunder-shower drenched that whole region ; yet at an early hour I started
in a light wagon for Sackett's Harbor, on the road that would lead to the battle
ground on the Big Sandy. When within about a mile of
it, we saw standing at a rustic gate, resting upon crutches,
a venerable man of seventy-five years, with palsied legs,
beard of a fortnight's growth, a slouched felt hat on his
head, and a blue linen sack covering all that we could see
of him. It was Jehaziel Howard, a native of Vermont, an
old seaman of the lake, who was with Woolsey at the time
of the battle of the Big Sandy. He had been with him
since early in the war, and was with Chauncey at the tak
ing of Fort George.2 He saw the negro shot on the Brit
ish gun-boat in the Big Sandy, and assisted in taking the
British wounded to Otis's. Bidding him good-morning,
we rode to the bridge, where I made the sketch on page
799. There we spent half an hour with Mr. Otis, and then
rode on to Ellisburg, where we breakfasted between nine
O J
and ten o'clock. Meanwhile very heavy clouds were gath
ering in the west, and we had ridden only two or three
miles from the village, through the " garden of Jeflerson
County," when a thunder-storm burst upon us with great
fury. We took refuge in a tavern by the way-side, and
arrived at Sackett's Harbor at little past meridian, in pleasant sunshine, as already
mentioned.3
Let us now leave the more easterly shores of Lake Ontario, and consider events on
the Niagara frontier, where the broom of destruction during the year 1813 had swept
away almost every thing worth contending for excepting territory. But Canada was
to be conquered by one party and defended by the other, if possible, and the posses
sion of the Ontario and Erie peninsula was of vast importance to the contestants.
For that possession the military movements we are about to consider were com
menced.
JEIIAZIEL HOWAED.
1 In February, 1861, Congress granted Mr. Ehle a pension of $15 a month during his natural life.
a See page 599. 3 See page 615.
3E
802
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The Army on the Niagara Frontier.
Its Composition.
Red Jacket and his Medal.
We left a portion of the Army of the North on its march from Batavia to Buffalo,
under the command of Brigadier General Scott, while Major General Brown, the com-
mander-in-chief, hastened back to menaced Sackett's Harbor. That post and others
on Lake Ontario were soon considered safe from attack, and, with the bulk of his
army, Brown stood on the east bank of the Niagara River at the close of June, 1814.
He made Buffalo his head-quarters, and on the 1st of July he found himself at the
head of a military force strong enough, in his judgment, to carry out the orders and
wishes of the War Department by invading Canada. His army consisted of two
brigades of infantry, commanded respectively by Generals Scott and Ripley, and to
each of these was attached an efficient train of artillery, commanded by Captain
Nathan Towson and Major Jacob Hindman, and a small squadron of cavalry under
Captain Samuel D. Harris. These troops were well equipped and highly disciplined.1
They were the regulars. There was also a brigade of miscellaneous troops, composed
of five hundred Pennsylvania Volunteers ; six hundred New York Volunteers, of
whom one hundred were mounted; and between five and six hundred Indian warri
ors, embracing almost the entire military force of the Six Nations then remaining in
the United States. These had been aroused to action by the stirring eloquence of
the then venerable Red Jacket, the great Seneca orator, chief, and sachem,2 whose in-
1 General Scott had taken special pains to discipline these troops thoroughly. General Jesup (then major), in a man
uscript "Memoir of the Campaign on the Niagara" now before me, says that " he [Jesup] began, under the orders of
General Scott, a course of instruction, and kept his command [Twenty-fifth Infantry] under arms from seven to ten hours
a day. A similar course was pursued by the chiefs of other corps. The consequence was, that when we took the field
in July our corps manoeuvred in action and under the fire of the enemy's artillery with the accuracy of parade."
2 Sa-go-ye-wat-ha, or Red Jacket, was born about the year 1750 where the city of Buffalo now stands, that being the
chief residence of the leaders of the Seneca tribe of the Six Nations. He was a swift-footed, fluent-tongued being.
During the Devolution he, in common with his tribe, took part with the British and Tories. His business was more in
the way of arousing his people to action by his eloquence than the performance of great actions himself. Indeed, Brant
spoke very disparagingly of him, and called him a traitor and dishonest man ; and he was charged with having been
found in a place of safety cutting up a cow belonging to another Indian (which he had killed) while Sullivan was march
ing through the Seneca country in 1779, fighting the warriors whom Red Jacket had aroused by his eloquence. He first
appears conspicuous in history at the treaty of Fort Stanwix (now Rome, New York) in 1784, when, by certain conces
sions of territory by the Six Nations, those of the tribes who had not emigrated to Canada were brought under the pro
tection of the government of the United States. It was on that occasion that Red Jacket's fame as a great orator was
established. Two years afterward he was prominent at a council held at the mouth of the Detroit River ; and in all the
disputes between the white people and Indians respecting land-titles in Western New York Red Jacket was ever the
eloquent defender of the rights of his race. His paganism never yielded to the influence of Christianity, and he was the
most inveterate enemy to all missionary efforts among the Senecas. Under his leadership the Senecas became the al
lies of the Americans against the British in the War of 1812, and in the battle of Chippewa in the summer of 1814 he be
haved well as a soldier, although he seems to have been constitutionally timid, and always braver in council than in
the field. For many years he was the head chief of the Senecas. The influence of Christianity and the civilization that
affected his people disturbed the latter years of his life, and he was made more unhappy by the intemperate use of in
toxicating liquors. So great and disgusting became his excesses that in 1827 he was formally deposed by an act in
writing signed by twenty-six of the leading men of the Seuecas. This blow was severe. He went to the National cap
ital for redress, and he returned to his people with such evidences of reform that he was reinstated. But he soon be
came an imbecile, and in a journey to the Atlantic sea-board he permitted himself to be exhibited for money. How his
proud spirit in its vigor would have scorned
such degradation ! He died on the 20th of
January, 1830, at the age of almost eighty
years. His remains were buried in the
church-yard of the Seneca mission, three or
four miles from Buffalo, and over his grave
Henry Placide, the comedian, furnished with
funds by a subscription which he set on
foot among the actors connected with the
Buffalo theatre, placed a slab of marble
in 1839, upon which were engraven these
words: " SAOOYEWATHA (He -keeps- them -
awake), Red Jacket : chief of the Wolf Tribe
of the Senecas ; the friend and protector of
the people. Died January 20, 1830, aged
seventy-eight years."
Toward the close of the Revolution a Brit
ish officer gave the young chief a richly-em
broidered scarlet jacket, from the wearing
of which he derived his English name. In
his later years he wore, with pride, a large
medal, which was presented to him by Pres
ident Washington in 1792 on the conclusion
of a treaty of peace and amity between the
BED JACKET'S MEDAL.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
803
The Volunteers and Indians.
Chief Engineer M'Ree.
Fort Erie and the Invasion of Canada.
BED JACKET.
fluence among his people had been very
great since the close of the Revolution, in
which he took a part, not, however, very
much to his credit as a soldier.
The volunteers and Indians were under
the chief command of General Peter B.
Porter, who was then quarter-master gen
eral of the New York Militia, and, as we
have seen, was not only an eloquent ad
vocate of the war in Congress1 before it
was commenced, but a ready and patriotic
actor in its more stirring and dangerous
scenes in the field. The accomplished Ma
jor William M'Ree, of North Carolina, was
the chief engineer in Brown's army,2 and
he was assisted
by the equally
accomplished
and gallant Ma
jor Eleazer D.
Wood, with
whom we have
become well acquainted while following General Harri
son in his campaign in the far Northwest.
On the Canada shore, at the foot of Lake Erie, nearly
opposite Buffalo, stood Fort Erie, then garrisoned by one
hundred and seventy men, mostly of the One Hundredth
Regiment, under the command of Major Buck, of the Brit
ish army. It was the most serious impediment in the way ,
of our invasion of Canada in that quarter ; but when, on
the 1st of July, Brown received orders from the Secretary
of War to cross the river, capture Fort Erie, and march on
Chippewa, at the mouth of Chippewa Creek, where
some fortifications had been thrown up, menace
Fort George, and, if assured of the co-operation
•of Chauncey's fleet, and its capability of with- -
United States and the Six Nations after the Eevolution. It is made of silver, with a heavy rim, and is five inches iu
width, and nearly seven inches in length. The devices upon it were engraved, it is said, by the eminent David Kitten-
house, the philosopher, who, as a jeweler in his younger days, had acquired some facility in the use of the burin. It will
be observed that the painter of the above portrait did not correctly draw the device on the medal which is given in the
engraving on the preceding page from a photograph. The medal is now [186T] in the possession of Brevet Brigadier
General Parker, of General Grant's staff, chief Sachem of the Six Nations. I saw it in his possession at. City Point in
1S64. Red Jacket's children being all dead at the time of his death, this insignia of leadership passed out of the pos
session of his immediate family. The stricken chief regarded the death of his eleven children as a punishment for his
drunkenness. The late venerable Mr. Hosmer, of Avon, Livingston County, told the writer in 1855 that on one occasion
a lady at his table with Red Jacket, who did not know of his bereavement, inquired after his children. The old chief,
with deep sadness, replied with unsurpassed eloquence, "Red Jacket was once a great man and in favor with the Great
Spirit. He was a lofty pine among the smaller trees of the forest. But, after years of glory, he degraded himself by
drinking the fire-water of the white man. The Great Spirit has looked down upon him in his anger, and his lightning
has stripped the pine of its branches." 1 See page 212.
3 William M'Ree was born in Wilmington, North Carolina, on the 13th of December, 1TS7. lie was of Irish descent.
His father was an active officer in onr old War for Independence, and this son was educated at the Military Academy
at West Point. He entered the corps of Engineers in 1805, and was commissioned a major, and assigned to the duty of
chief engineer of the Northern Army in 1813. He was conspicuous in the events on the Northern and Niagara frontier
during the war, at the close of which his government sent him on a tour of military inspection in Europe. After serv
ing on a commission of engineers to determine upon a system of fortifications for the United States, he retired from the
army in 1819. He became United States surveyor general, and was almost continually in public employment until his
death, which occurred at St. Louis. Missouri, in May, 1833. He was never married. The silhouette from which the above
engraving was made is the only likeness of him extant. I am indebted for its use to his nephew, Griffith J. M'Ree, of
Wilmington.
804 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Plan of the new Invasion of Canada. General Ripley. American Troops cross the Niagara. Major Gardner.
standing that of Sir James Yeo, to seize and fortify Burlington Heights, at the head of
Lake Ontario, he did not hesitate a moment to set about its execution. If these results
could be obtained, the Americans would not only hold the peninsula in their grasp,
but might proceed leisurely to the conquest and occupation of all Upper Canada.
In obedience to his instructions, General Brown issued orders on the 2d of July for
his troops to cross the Niagara River from Black Rock. Accompanied by Generals
Scott and Porter, he made a reconnaissance of Fort Erie and the upper part of the Ni
agara, and concerted a plan of attack. His means of transportation were few. The
arrangements for embarking and debarking were made with the brigadiers and the
senior engineers, M'Ree and Wood. General Scott was to cross with one division
through a difficult pass in the Black Rock Rapids, and land about a mile below Fort
Erie, and at the same time General Ripley was to cross from Buifalo, and land at the
same distance above the fort. This was to be accomplished by the dawn of the 3d,
and the fort was to be immediately invested. The boats that conveyed these divi
sions were to return immediately to Black Rock, and transport the residue of the
army, ordnance, and munitions of war to the Canada shore.1
Toward the evening of the 2d, when the arrangements were all completed, General
Ripley expressed a desire for a change. He believed that his division would have to
bear the brunt of battle should the enemy oppose the crossing, and he asked for a
larger number of troops. He complained that he could not cross with sufficient force
to promise success ; and when General Brown, who knew that delay would be peril
ous, endeavored to convince him that his force would be adequate, and assured him
that no change could then be made in the arrangement, Ripley was angry, and ten
dered his resignation. It was not accepted, and the movement went on.
General Scott crossed the river while it was yet dark on the morning of the 3d,
with the Ninth, Eleventh, part of the Twenty-second, and the Twenty-fifth Regi
ments, and a corps of artillery under Major Hindman, and landed below Fort Erie
unmolested. His movements were so prompt that in less than two hours after he
embarked, his brigade was formed on the Canada shore. General Brown, with his
suite, consisting of his adjutant general (the now venerable Colonel Charles K. Gard
ner, of Washington City2), Major Jones, the assistant adjutant general, Majors M'Ree
and Wood, of the Engineers, and Captains Austin and Spencei-, his aids-de-camp, pre
pared to follow in a small boat. He would have landed on the Canada shore as early
as the rear of Scott's division did, had not Ripley been tardy in his obedience of or
ders. It was broad daylight before that officer's brigade was embarked. Brown
was disappointed. He pushed across the river, leaving orders for Ripley to follow'
as soon as possible, and join Scott, who by that time had formed his troops on the
Canadian beach.
1 In his general orders announcing the contemplated invasion General Brown prescribed stringent rules for his troops
in the treatment of the inhabitants and their property. All found in arms were to be treated as enemies, and all oth
ers as friends. Private property was to be held sacred, and public property, when seized, was to be disposed of by the
commanding general. He prescribed the punishment of death for all plunderers.
2 Charles K. Gardner was born in Morris County, New Jersey, in 1787, and in 1701 removed with his parents to New-
burg, on the Hudson, where he finished his education. He was a student of medicine with Dr. Hosack, in New York,
when he received the appointment of ensign in the old Sixth Regiment of Infantry in 1SOS. In the following year,
while on duty at Oswego, he was appointed adjutant of his regiment. He served as such at various points, and at Baton
Rouge, Louisiana, General Wade Hampton appointed him his brigade inspector. In July, 1812, he was appointed cap
tain of the Third Artillery, and in the following month General Armstrong, then in command at New York, made him
his brigade inspector. In March, 1813, he was in charge of the adjutant general's office at Washington as assistant, but
was soon afterward promoted to major of the Twenty-fifth Infantry, and ordered to the Northern frontier at Sackett's
Harbor. He was in the battle of Chrysler's Field. In the following spring he accompanied General Brown's division
first from French Mills to Sackett's Harbor, and then to Buffalo, and in April received the appointment of adjutant gen
eral, with the rank of colonel. For distinguished services on the Niagara frontier he was breveted lieutenant colonel,
but, being then colonel, he declined it. In May, 181C, he was recommissioned adjutant general of the Army of the North,
and in ISIS he married and resigned. In 1822-'3 he edited the New York Patriot, and was appointed corresponding
clerk in the Post-office Department. In 1829 he became assistant postmaster general. He became auditor of the treas
ury for the Post-office Department in 1836, and was afterward postmaster at Washington City, and surveyor general of
Oregon. Colonel Gardner is now (18G7) a resident of Washington City. He is the author of a Compend of Infantry Tac
tics, and a very comprehensive Dictionary of the Army.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
805
Fort Erie captured by the Americans.
Re-enforcements for it sent too late.
General RiaTl.
Brown ordered Scott to push for
ward a battalion nearer the fort, to
observe the movements of the garri
son. This battalion, consisting of light
troops and a few Indians, were under
the command of Major Jesup, of the
Twenty-fifth. They drove in the ene
my's pickets ; and so favorable to suc
cess was every appearance, that Brown
resolved to invest the fort with Scott's
brigade, without waiting for the land
ing of Ripley's. Taking with him a
corps just formed by Major Gardner,
he pushed into the woods, in the rear
of the fort, where he seized a resident,
and compelled him to act as guide.
He then directed Gardner to press for
ward through the forest to the lake
shore above the fort, extend his left so
as to connect with Jesup's command,
and in that manner inclose the post.
This movement was accomplished be
fore Ripley, at a late hour, crossed the
river with the Nineteenth, Twenty-
first, and Twenty-third Regiments, and met at the landing the adjutant general with
orders for his brigade to take the investing position in connection with Scott's forces.
This was promptly done.
No time was lost in crossing the ordnance and selecting positions for batteries un
der the direction of Chief Engineer M'Ree. A long 1 8-pound cannon was mounted
and ready for action upon an eminence called Snake Hill, when Brown demanded the
surrender of the fort, giving the commander, Major Buck, two hours for considera
tion. Very soon afterward a white flag came out, and was received by Major Jesup ;
the fort, which was in a very weak condition, was surrendered ; and at six o'clock in
the evening the British soldiers, almost two hundred in number, including seven offi
cers, marched out and stacked their arms, became prisoners of war, were sent across
the river, and posted immediately for the Hudson. During the morning the British
had fired cannon from the fort, which killed four Americans, and wounded two or
three others. When the pickets were driven in the British had one man killed.
These were all the casualties attendant upon the capture of Fort Erie.
Prompt measures were taken to secure the advantage gained by the capture of
Fort Erie. Had Ripley's desire for delay prevailed, the prize would not have been
won, for the British commander on the frontier, Gen
eral Riall,1 had been apprised of the danger impend
ing over the fort, and at eight o'clock that morning
had sent forward five companies of the Royal Scots
to re-enforce it. In front of Chippewa they were met and checked by intelligence of
the surrender of the fort. General Riall then determined to make an immediate at
tack on the Americans, but was induced to forbear by the assurance that the Eighth
Regiment was hourly expected from York, now Toronto. He agreed to postpone the
attack until the next morning.
1 History is almost silent concerning the character of General Riall. A contemporary, who served under him at the
time we are now considering, speaks of him as a gallant man, but possessed of very little military skill; who had "at
tained his rank by the purchase of all purchasable grades." He was from Tipperary, in Ireland, a little less than mid
dle age, and a man of fortune.
806 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Sfott moves down the Niagara. Preparations for Battle at Street's Creek. Origin of the " Cadet's Gray."
To confront and drive back this force of British regulars, Scott was sent toward
Chippewa with his brigade, accompanied by Captain Towson's artillery corps, on the
morning of the 4th. It was late in the afternoon before the second brigade, under
Ripley, and Hindman's artillery, were prepared to move. Scott marched down the
Canada shore of the Ni
agara River to a posi
tion on a plain behind
Street's Creek, opposite
the lower end of Navy
Island, and little more
than a mile above Chip
pewa. On the way he
met a considerable Brit
ish force under Lieu
tenant Colonel Pearson,
and, after a sharp skirm-
STEEET'S CKEEK UKIDGE.' ••,-,-, i
ish, he drove them be
yond Street's Creek. In fact, the march, for sixteen miles, according to Jesup, was
" a continual skirmish,"2 chiefly with the British One Hundredth Regiment, under the
Marquis of Tweeddale, who were driven to their intrenchments beyond the Chippewa.
Believing Scott's troops to be only " Buffalo militia," the marquis could account for
their bravery only by the fact of its being the anniversary of American Independence,
which gave them patriotic inspiration and courage. He was undeceived on the fol
lowing day.3 On the plain between Street's Creek and the Chippewa River, Captain
Turner Crooker, of the Ninth, with a detachment of light infantry, received and re
pulsed a detachment of the Nineteenth British Dragoons. Finding the enemy strong
ly posted beyond the Chippewa, General Scott called in his light troops, and took a
position behind Street's Creek, where he encamped for the night. At about midnight
the main body of Brown's army, embracing Ripley's brigade, a field and battery tram,
and Major Hindman's artillery corps, came up, accompanied by the commanding gen
eral. With only the small creek between them, the belligerent armies slumbered that
hot July night.
The morning of the 5th of July dawned gloriously. The positions of the two ar
mies were simple. On the east was the Niagara River, along the margin of which
was a road. On the west was a heavy wood, and between the parties coming in from
the woods were two streams, namely, Street's and Chippewa Creeks, the latter, some
times called the Welland Creek, being the larger in volume.4 Below the Chippewa,
and about two miles from Scott's camp, was that of Riall. On one side of it was a
block-house, and on the other was a heavy battery. At the mouth of the Chippewa,
on the south side, some fortifications had been thrown up to cover the bridge, called
a tete-de-pont (or head of the bridge) battery, whose ruins are still (1867) visible.
A little farther up the river the British had a small navy yard and some barracks.
1 This is a view of the bridge at the mouth of Street's Creek looking up the Niagara, from a sketch made by the au
thor in the summer of I860. On the extreme right is seen a chimney, which composes the remains of the house of Mr.
Street, from whom the stream derives its name. In the distance, on the left, is seen Grand Island.
2 Jesup's MS. Memoir, etc.
3 General Scott explained to the writer the cause of the marquis's mistake. While at Buffalo Scott wrote to the quar
termaster for a supply of new clothing for his regulars. Word soon came back that blue Cloth, such as was used in the
army, conld not be obtained, owing to the stringency of the blockade and the embargo, and the lack of manufactures in
the country, but that there was a sufficient quantity of gray cloth (now known as " Cadet's Gray") in Philadelphia.
Scott ordered it to be made up for his soldiers, and in these new gray suits they marched down the Niagara on Canada
soil. Believing them to be only militia, Riall regarded them with contempt when preparing for battle on the 5th. Be
cause of the victory, won chiefly by them, at Chippewa on the 5th, and in honor of Scott and his troops, that style of
cloth was adopted at the Military Academy at West Point as the uniform of the cadets. It has been used ever since,
and is known to be the best color for field service.
* The Chippewa is navigable with small boats for about forty miles. It is obstructed, however, by its connection
with the Welland Canal, about nine miles from its mouth.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
807
Scott re-enforced.
British light Troops and Indians dislodged by Porter.
Captaiu Joseph Treat.
REMAINS OP TETE-DE-POUT BATTEBY.1
At about noon of the 5th Scott was joined by three hundred Pennsylvania Volun
teers, and about four hundred Indians under Captain Pollard and the famous Red
Jacket. The whole were commanded by General Porter, who had been accompanied
from Black Rock by Majors Wood and Jones, of Brown's staff. The British were re-
enforced during the night by the expected Eighth, or King's Regiment, from York or
Toronto, and small parties went out from their line at dawn on the beautiful plain
between the Chippewa and Street's Creek — a plain then bounded on the west, three
fourths of a mile from the river, by a dense wood. For several hours the belligerents
were feeling each other, the pickets and scouts of each keeping up a desultory fire all
the morning.2 Finally the American pickets on the extreme left of Scott's line be
came so annoyed by a heavy body of British light troops and Indians in the woods,
that at four o'clock in the afternoon General Porter was sent with his corps to dis
lodge them. He was successful. The enemy fled in affright toward Chippewa, dread
fully smitten by the pursuers. There Porter found himself within a few yards of the
entire British force advancing in battle order.
In this affair, up to the meeting of the British in force, the Indians behaved well.
They were in the woods, on the left of Porter's column, with Red Jacket on their ex
tremity in the forest. Porter, with Captain Pollard, the Indian leader, took post in
the edge of the woods, between the pale and dusky soldiers. The Indians, led by
1 The engraving represents the remains of this battery when I visited the spot and sketched them in the summer of
1860. In the front, between the two figures and the mounds, are seen the waters of the feeder of the Welland Canal.
On the left is the mouth of Chippewa Creek, and beyond, the Niagara River at the head of the Great Rapids. Beyond
that is the New York shore ; and to the left, looking by the head of Goat Island, is seen Niagara Falls Village. Over
the most westerly point of the remains of tete-de-pont battery, on the New York shore, is seen the residence of Colo
nel Peter Augustus Porter, son of the general, who accompanied me at that time. This gentleman lost his life while at
the head of his regiment fighting for the republic in the Battle of the Wilderness, Virginia, in 1SC4.
2 It was during these movements early in the morning that Captain Treat, in command of a picket-guard of forty men
and a patrol often, " retired disgracefully, leaving a wounded man on the ground," as General Brown said in his re
port. For this alleged offense, Brown ordered Treat, on the spot, to retire from the army ; and, in his report of the af
fair, he advised the dismissal of the captain and one of his lieutenants from the service. "This punishment" says
Brown, in a manuscript "Memorandum of Occurrences, etc., connected with the Campaign of Niagara," " though severe,
was just, and at the moment indispensable. It had the happiest effect upon the army."
This affair gave rise to much feeling in and out of the army. Captain Treat was a most valuable officer, and had
been highly esteemed by General Brown. On the day after his disgrace he called on General Brown and demanded a
court-martial. It was finally granted, after long and tedious delays,
but the result was not reached until the 8th of May, 1815, when the
court declared, "After mature deliberation on the testimony deduced,
the court find the accused, Captain Joseph Treat, not guilty of the
charge or specification preferred against him, and do honorably acquit .. - -
him." This finding of the court was approved by Major General Brown »/ I ^^^^ ^-c
at Sackett's Harbor on the 3d of July following. At about the same
time Captain Treat published a vindication "against the atrocious
calumny," which was dedicated to President Madison. It contains a report of the proceedings of the court-martial, and
occupies sixty-two pages. The vindication of his character as a soldier was triumphant.
Captain Treat was the son of one of the earliest settlers on the Penobscot, in Maine. He entered the army as captain
of the Twenty-first Regiment of Infantry in the spring of 1812. With his company, recruited chiefly at Bangor, hejoined
the Northern Army. On the day of his disgrace on Chippewa Plain he volunteered to fight as a private ; and such was
the confidence of Major Vose, of the Twenty-first Regiment, in Captain Treat, that he requested him to take command
of a platoon in the fight. He declined, but fought bravely in the ranks. He became brigadier general of militia in his
native state in 1820, and the memory of General Treat is cherished with the most cordial respect. N
808
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Poster's Troops and the Indians retreat. Scott advances to meet the British. Composition of the British Force.
their war-chiefs, were allowed to conduct their share of the battle as they pleased ;
and, when the enemy had delivered his fire, they rushed forward with horrid yells,
spreading consternation in the ranks of the foe, and making fearful havoc with toma
hawk and scalping-knife. They fought desperately, hand-to-hand in many instances,
and in every way they won the applause of their commanding general. But the tide
of fortune soon changed. The heavy line of the foe, after an exchange of two or three
rounds of musketry, charged Porter's troops with the bayonet furiously. Hearing
nothing of General Scott, and finding no support against an overwhelming force near,
Porter gave an order to retreat and form on the left of Scott's brigade, beyond Street's
Creek. The retreat became a tumultuous rout.
Riall, it seems, had intended to fall upon the American camp with his whole force,
and for that purpose he had led it across Chippewa Creek. There Porter had con
fronted it, as we have observed. General Brown was on the extreme left, watching
Porter's movements at this time, and, seeing an immense cloud of dust in the direc
tion of Chippewa, at once comprehended its meaning. He correctly supposed the
whole force of the enemy to be advancing, and at once dispatched Colonel Gardner
with an order to General Ripley to put in motion the Twenty-first Regiment of In
fantry and Biddle's
Battery. He also or
dered Captain Ritch
ie, with his artillery
company, to follow
him to the plain,
where he properly
posted him, and then
rode to the quarters
of General Scott to
direct him to cross
Street's Creek at once
with his whole bri
gade and Towson's
artillery to meet the
advancing foe. He
found Scott almost
ready, with his horse
before his tent, to lead his brigade over for the purpose of drilling them on the plain.
He did not believe the enemy to be so near in force, but, like a true soldier, he obeyed
the order promptly, rather captiously remarking that he would march and drill his
brigade, but did not believe he would find three hundred of the enemy there.2 Just
then Porter's flight was observed. It uncovered Scott's left, and exposed it to great
peril ; but Ripley had been ordered to advance cautiously through the woods, under
the direction of Colonel Gardner, and produce a diversion in Scott's favor by falling
on the rear of the British right.
General Riall's advancing army was composed of the One Hundredth Regiment,
commanded by the Marquis of Tweeddale ; the First, or Royal Scots, under Lieuten
ant Colonel Gordon ; a portion of the Eighth, or King's Regiment, under Major Evans ;
a detachment of the Royal Artillery, under Captain Macconnoehie ; and also of the
i This is a view of the bridge over Street's Creek, looking down the Niagara Eiver. Across the Niagara, in the ex
treme distance, immediately to the right of the figures on the bridge, is seen Schlosser Landing, and, nearer, the foot
of Navy Island. The house beyond the willow-tree, on the left, is on a portion of the battle-ground, and belonged,
when I was there, to Mr. William Gray. It was the scene of a tragedy during the troubles in Canada in 1837 and 1838.
Some miscreants came over from Navy Island one night (among them the scoundrel Lett, who destroyed Brock's Mon
ument), and, after enticing a Mr. Edgworth Usher, who was at this house, to come to the door, shot him through the
side-lights as he was seen approaching with a candle in his hand.
a General Brown's MS. Memoir of Events in the Niagara Campaign.
STBEET'B OBEEK BBIDGE, LOOKING NORTH. '
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
809
Beginning of the Battle of Chippewa.
Charge of the Eleventh Regiment.
Nathan Towson.
Royal Nineteenth Dragoons,-under Major Lisle ; a regiment of Lincoln militia, under
Lieutenant Colonel Dixon, and a body of Indians. These were supported by a heavy
battery of nine pieces. He advanced from his intrenchments at Chippewa in three
columns, his vanguard being composed of light companies of the Royal Scots and of
the One Hundredth Regiments, and the Second Regiment of Lincoln militia. These
were commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Pearson. On his right, in the edge of the
woods, were about three hundred Indian warriors. It was these, with the vanguard,
who fell upon Porter. On the road that skirts the Niagara River, Riall placed two
light 24-pounders and a 5|-inch howitzer.
Scott in the mean time had crossed Street's Creek over the bridge with the great
est coolness, in the face of a heavy cannonade from the enemy's full battery within
point-blank range, and formed in battle order with the Ninth and part of the Twenty-
second Regiment, under Major Leavenworth, covered by Towson's artillery, on the
extreme right, the Eleventh Regiment, under Major M'Neil (Colonel Campbell, its
commander, having received a severe wound in the knee), in the centre, and the
Twenty-fifth Regiment, commanded by Major Jesup, on the extreme left. In this
movement Scott was greatly aided by Towson,1 whose artillery, placed near the
bridge, kept the enemy at bay, and at times caused him to slacken his cannonade.
When Porter's corps came flying in confusion from the enemy's right, they were
partially checked by Captain Harris's cavalry behind a ravine fronting Brown's camp,
and Jesup, by an oblique movement, covered Scott's left, while Ripley was making un
availing efforts to gain the position to which he was ordered by Brown. Jesup was
joined by Porter and his staff, and some of the more courageous volunteers, and as
the conflict became general, the major engaged and held in check the enemy's right
wing. The battle raged with fury along the entire line of both armies. Several times
the British line was broken, and then closed up again ; and it often exposed as many
flanks as it had regiments in the field. This unskillful manoeuvring had been ob
served by Scott, who had advanced, halted, and fired
alternately, until he was within eighty paces of his foe.
Observing a gap in his lines which made a new flank,
he ordered a quick movement in that direction by
M'Neil's Eleventh Regiment. He shouted with a voice
that was heard above the din of battle, " The enemy
say that we ai*e good at long shot, but can not stand
the cold iron ! I call upon the Eleventh instantly to
give the lie to that slander ! Charge /"2 This move
ment was immediately made, with the most decisive
effect. A similar charge was made by Leavenworth,
1 Nathan Towson was one of the most useful officers of the army at this
time. He was born in Maryland in 1784, and was appointed captain in the
Second Regiment of Artillery in March, 1812. He aided Lieutenant Elliott,
of the navy, as we have seen (page 386), in capturing the Caledonia at Fort
Erie in October of that year, and for his gallant conduct there he was brevet
ed a major. In repelling the attack of the British on Fort George, Upper
Canada, in July, 1813, he was wounded. He greatly distinguished himself un
der Brown as an artillery officer, and was breveted lieutenant colonel for his
good conduct in the battle of Chippewa. He performed equally distinguished
service at Niagara and Fort Erie. In the latter a bastion was named in his
honor, after the Americans took possession of it, early in July, 1814. He was
retained in the service at the close of the war, and was made paymaster gen
eral in 1819. In 1834 he was breveted brigadier general ; and for his distin
guished services in the Mexican War he was breveted major general in March,
1849. He died in Washington City on the 20th of July, 1854, at the age of seven
ty years. His remains lie interred on a pleasant slope in Oak Hill Cemetery,
Georgetown, District of Columbia, by the side of those of his wife, and over
them is a beautiful white marble monument on which is the following simple
inscription: "NATHAN TOWSON, Brevet Major General and Paymaster Gen
eral, United States Army. SOPHIA TOWSON, wife of Nathan Towson."
3 Mansfield's Life of Scottj page 107. GENERAL TOWSON'S GBAVE.
810
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
M 'Neil's flank Movement.
The British routed.
The Losses of the Combatants,
who held an oblique position on the
American right. At the same time Tow-
son's battery poured in an oblique fire
of murderous canister-shot, after silenc
ing the enemy's most effective battery
by blowing up an ammunition-wagon;
and presently the whole left and centre
of the British broke and fled in confu
sion. That effective flank movement by
M'Neil was the one, there can be no
doubt, which gave the victory to the
Americans. "He deserved," said Gen
eral Scott in his report, " every thing
which conspicuous skill and gallantry
can win from a grateful country." He
was soon afterward breveted a lieuten
ant colonel " for his intrepid behavior on
the 5th day of July, in the battle of
Chippewa."
At this time Jesup, hotly pressed by
the British right, and finding his men
falling thickly ai-ound him, ordered his
soldiers to " support arms and advance !"
In the face of a deadly and destructive
fire this order was obeyed, and a more
secure position was gained, when Jesup
opened such a terrific fire on the enemy
that they broke and fled toward their in-
trenchments beyond the Chippewa. Cap
tain Ketchum, with one of the light com
panies of the Twenty-fifth, hotly pur
sued the fugitives, and halted only when
within half musket -shot of Chippewa
Bridge, where they received some dam
age from the tete-de-pont battery. They
captured many prisoners. The British
did not cease their flight until they
were fairly behind their breastworks be
low Chippewa Creek, and taken up the
planks of the bridge. The plain was
strewn with the dead and the dying of
both nations. The American loss dur-
NOTE.— The above map indicates the movements of the ing the morning skirmishing and in the
^Tps,int?eTbattleofc!!ippewa- A H show the position of evening battle on that long, hot July
M'Neil and Leavenworth when they made the final charge. » ' J,
a, a, a, the point to which Porter drove the British and In- day, was Sixty-One killed, tWO hundred
dians (see page SOT). 6, street's barn. and fifty -five wounded, and nineteen
missing. The British lost two hundred and thirty-six killed, three hundred and
twenty-two wounded, and forty-six missing.1 The horrors of the battle-field were
* The American musketry was very effective. Over each ball, in loading, the Americans placed three buckshot, which
scattered and did severe execution. The British lost largely in officers. A member of the Marquis of Tweeddale's One
Hundredth Regiment afterward stated that two officers of that regiment were killed and twenty wounded. Among the
latter was the marquis himself. Fourteen of the British were made prisoners. These, added to the prisoners captured
at Fort Erie two days before, made the number 151. The writer above alluded to says that the American officers were
seen on the field freely exposing themselves in front of their men. " As to General Rial!, as soon as his line fled, he
•^Dl/
D ^
POHTERy
WITH HIS-
REGULARS _
^'•» V
T 'V CAP. TREAT
GUARD, JULY 4TH.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 811
Bravery of Adjutant O'Conner. The British Position at Chippewa. The Americans fall back. Indians disheartened.
mitigated by a gentle shower, that came like an angel of mercy at the close of the
conflict to cool the throbbing temples and moisten the feverish lips of the wounded.
At the close of the battle on the plain, when Scott was about to commence a vig
orous pursuit of the enemy, Porter was ordered forward to his support with two
hundred Pennsylvania militia who had been left in camp as reserves. These took
post on Scott's left, where they awaited the arrival of Ripley's brigade, which had
not reached the field in time to participate in the action. The gallant Adjutant O'Con
nor1 dashed forward alone to reconnoitre the enemy's position. He saw them tear
ing up Chippewa Bridge, and comprehended the situation at a glance. Having satis
fied himself, he wheeled his horse and galloped back to the lines, followed by several
bullets from the men at the bridge, which did no harm. Scott pressed forward, and
at a point of woods came into an open field in full view of the enemy. The guns at
the ttte-de-pont battery and at the British camp opened upon them, the corps of Por
ter receiving the first discharge. Just then a building near the bridge, touched by a
British torch, burst into flame ; and at the same moment a thunder-gust, followed by
gentle rain, went skurrying up the river, filling the air with blinding clouds of dust.
The commanding general resolved to bring up all his ordnance, and force the enemy's
position by a direct attack, when Major Wood, of the Engineers, and Captain Austin,
the general's aid, who had been forward and made observations, assured him that the
position of the enemy was too strong to be easily moved. This report, and the ad
vice of Scott and Wood, caused the general to issue an order for a retrograde move
ment. The victorious little army marched slowly back through mud where deep
dust had lain only an hour before, and at sunset reached their encampment behind
Street's Creek. On that eventful night Chippewa Plains were deserted, and the two
armies occupied the same relative position which they did at dawn. In the morn
ing General Brown had assured General Porter that not a British regular would be
seen on the south side of the Chippewa that day, and in this belief Scott had shared.2
But they had been there, left a sanguinary record, and were gone ; and the stars look
ed down that night on a scene of repose, tranquil and profound, where the horrid de
tonations of fierce conflict had been heard, and the smoke of battle had obscured the
light of the evening sun.
There was joy in the American camp that night. A decisive battle had been fought
by small numbers,3 and gallantly won by the Americans. The chief glory properly
belonged to General Scott, whose brigade was the principal instrument in the achieve
ment.4 It was very important in its results — more important, perhaps, than any pre
ceding battle of the war. The Indian allies of the British were disheartened. Their
disaffection, begun at the Thames, was now made complete. Nearly all of the sav-
rode up straight to the enemy's line, as if to court death ; but, as is usual in such cases, he failed to find it, while his
fashionable and well-dressed aid-de-camp, obliged to accompany him in what he must have thought not a very agreea
ble enterprise, was seriously wounded in the thigh."— See The Spirit of our Times, Montreal, March 16, 1S61.
Among the American officers who were wounded was Colonel Campbell, and Captains King, Read, and Harrison.
The first-named fell, as we have seen, at the very beginning of the action. Captain Harrison had his leg shot off by a
cannon-ball, but heroically refused to allow a man to be taken from the ranks to bear him off until the British retreat
ed. Lieutenants Palmer, Barron, De Witt, Patchin, and Brimhall were also wounded.
1 John Michael O'Connor was a native of New York. He was commissioned first lieutenant in the Third Artillery in
March, 1S12. He was soon afterward appointed regimental quartermaster, and in the spring of 1813 was promoted to
captain. On the 20th of June, 1S14, he was appointed assistant adjutant general, under Gardner, on General Brown's
staff, and held that office at the time of the battle of Chippewa. He was retained in the army at the close of the war,
and left it in 1S21. In 1824 he translated for the Military Academy at West Point Guy de Vernon's Science of War and
Fortifications.
2 Manuscript Narrative of the Battles of Chippewa and Niagara, by General Porter. General Brown expressed this
belief to General Porter while the latter was marching from Black Rock to Scott's encampment. He informed Porter
that the British militia and Indians were annoying his pickets very much, and when proposing to that officer to em
ploy his Indians in driving the former from the woods he promised him ample support, and gave him the assurance
that no regulars would be seen.— See Stone's Life of Red Jacket, page 257.
3 According to the most careful estimates, the whole number of troops actually engaged in the battle did not exceed
3000, namely, 1300 Americans and 1700 British.
* "Brigadier General Scott," said Brown, in his report to the Secretary of War on the 7th of July, "is entitled to the
highest praise our country can bestow ; to him more than any other man I am indebted for the victory of the 5th of
July. His brigade has covered itself with glory The family of General Scott were conspicuous in the field— Lieu-
812
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The People inspirited.
Recruiting active.
Sketches of subordinate Officers.
ages, who had been a terror to all in every district in the West in which military
movements occurred, now left the British army and returned to their homes. The
victory also gave a needed impetus to enlistments. It created great joy throughout
the country. The people were amazingly inspirited, and recruiting became so active
that almost any number of men might have been added to the army for another cam
paign. This victory also won more genuine respect for the Americans from the ene
my than had ever been accorded before ; and among the peevish expressions of mor-
tenant Smith, of the Sixth Infantry, major of brigade,* and Lieutenants Wortht and Watts, t his aids. From General
Ripley and his brigade I received every assistance that I gave them an opportunity of rendering." He gave equally
warm praise to General Porter and his command, and all the other officers and troops. Of Gardner and Jones, § of his
own military family, he made particular mention, and said, " I shall have occasion again to speak to you."
* Gerard D. Smith, who was made adjutant in 1813, was now Scott's brigade major, having been appointed in March.
He was a native of New York. He had been promoted to captain in June, but his commission had not yet been made
known to General Brown. In the battle of Niagara he so distinguished himself that he was breveted a major. He was
wounded there, with his chief. He was retained in the army at the peace, but resigned in 1819.
t William Jenkins Worth was a native of Columbia County, New
York, and died a major general by brevet in the army of the United
States. He entered the army as first lieutenant, and was aid-de
camp to Major General Lewis in 1813. In March, 1814, he became
aid to Brigadier General Scott, and was breveted captain for his
gallant services in the battle of Chippewa. For his distinguished
conduct in the battle of Niagara, twenty days later, he was breveted
a major. In that battle he was severely wounded. He was com
missioned a captain the next month, and was retained in the service at the close of the war. In 1842 he was breveted
brigadier for his valuable services in Florida, having previously attained to the rank of full colonel of the Eighth In
fantry. He commanded with distinction during the Seminole War ; and for his gallant con
duct at Monterey, in Mexico, he was breveted a major general. In March, 1847, the Con
gress of the United States voted him a sword for his meritorious conduct there. His ca
reer in Mexico was highly honorable to him and his country. It was he who received the
message from the authorities of the city of Mexico, on the night of the 13th of September,
r-T^ 1848, offering to surrender the capital. He died at
his head-quarters at San Antonio, Texas, on the
7th of May, 1849. Nine years afterward, a monu
ment, composed of Quincy granite, fifty-one feet
f= fff in height, on which is inscribed the names of the
several battles in which he had been engaged, was
erected in the city of New York, at the junction
of Broadway and Fifth Avenue. Anthony Street,
in the same city, was named Worth Street at
about the same time, in honor of the hero.
t George Watts, who was a native of New York,
greatly distinguished himself on this occasion.
In a letter to General Brown, written ten days
after the battle, General Scott spoke in the high
est terms of Worth and Watts. " They both ren
dered essential services," he said, " at critical mo
ments, by assisting the commandant of corps in
forming the troops under circumstances which
precluded the voice from being heard. Their conduct has been handsomely
acknowledged by the officers of the line, who have joined in requesting that it
might be particularly noticed." Young Watts was breveted first lieutenant for
his good behavior on that occasion. He belonged to the First Light Dragoons,
of which he was third lieutenant. In Brown's sortie from Fort Erie, a few
weeks later, he distinguished himself. He was retained in the army as first
lieutenant of infantry in 1815, but resigned the following year. A fine portrait
of him is in the possession of General J. Watts Depeyster, of Tivoli, New York.
§ Roger Jones was a native of Virginia. On the southern border of the
Congressional Burying-ground at Washington City, overlooking the eastern
branch of the Potomac, is a beautiful clouded Italian marble monument, erect
ed to his memory, upon which is inscribed the following brief history of his
life : " Born in Westmoreland County, Virginia ; died at Washington on the
15th day of July, 1852, in the 64th year of his age. He entered the service of
his country as a lieutenant of marines in 1809, and was appointed captain of
artillery at the commencement of the war with Great Britain, and served with
honor 43 years. He was twice breveted for distinguished gallantry and con
duct on the field of battle— at Chippewa and the sortie at Fort Erie. A brave soldier and a good man."
For his services at Chippewa Jones was breveted a major, and at Fort Erie lieutenant colonel. He was retained in
the army, and was made aid-de-camp to General Brown in June, 1815. He was appointed adjutant general, with the
rank of colonel, in 1818, and in 1824 was breveted colonel for ten years' faithful service. -In June, 1832, he was breveted
a brigadier general, and relinquished his rank in line in 1835. He engaged in the Mexican War, and for his services
there was breveted major general in March, 1849.
On the west side of Jones's monument are the names of the battles in which he was engaged in the War of 1812,
namely, Fort George, Stony Creek, Chippewa, Niagara, and Fort Erie sortie. On the east side of the obelisk is sculp
tured, in high relief, a straight sword, garlanded by laurel and olive leaves.
WORTH S MONUMENT.
JONES'S MONUMENT.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 813
Brown expects the Co-operation of Chauncey. Preparations to cross the Chippewa. Tardiness of General Ripley.
tification which it elicited from English writers and speakers were found honorable
acknowledgments of the prowess and genius of American soldiers.1
It was late in the evening after the battlea before the wounded of both ar- » juiy 5,
mies could be taken care of.2 The dead remained unburied all night, but early 18U-
on the morrow they were sought for over the open battle-field and in the woods, and
committed to the earth with great respect. Much of the 6th and 7thb was oc-
• k July
cupied in this business, while General Brown was impatient to advance, for he
expected the arrival of Chauncey at the mouth of the Niagara River to co-operate
with him. He was satisfied that the passage of the Chippewa Bridge in the face of
the intrenched enemy would be too hazardous to warrant the undertaking, and, in
formed that an interior route for Queenston would lie through a heavy forest, almost
impassable because of a lack of roads and paths, he sent a small reconnoitring party
in search of a place to cross the Chippewa not far above the camp of the enemy.
An inhabitant informed them that an old and deserted timber road, seen at the rear
of Street's house, led by a circuitous route to the Chippewa, at the mouth of Lyon's
Creek, about a mile above the British camp. Early on the morning of the 7th,c
General Brown, accompanied by General Porter and Colonel M'Ree, the senior
engineer, went out to explore it, and were satisfied that it might soon be made pass
able for artillery. A heavy detail was sent out for the purpose, and before evening
the way from Street's to Lyon's Creek was ready for the contemplated movement.
Anxious to diffuse the right spirit of emulation throughout his army, General Scott
resolved to send Ripley in advance, as he was not able to participate in the fatigues
and honors of the battle on the 5th, while Scott, who had already won laurels, should
keep the left of the enemy at Chippewa Bridge in check. Ripley was accordingly
ordered to lead his own brigade and that of Porter, with two companies of artillery -
under Hindman, to the extreme right of the enemy, cross the Chippewa at the mouth
of Lyon's Creek, and fall upon his flank. This order did not suit General Ripley, and
he hesitated in obe
dience. The day was
rapidly wearing away,
and General Brown,
impressed with the im
portance of a prompt
movement, rode to the
front and took com
mand in person. The
materials for the con
struction of a tempo
rary bridge over the
rv, . MOUTH OP LYON'S CBEEK IN I860.
Chippewa were soon
on its southern bank, and Hindman posted his artillery on a rise of ground so as to
cover the field of operations.3
Riall in the mean time had discovered Brown's movement, and perceived his own
peril involved in it ; and while a few troops, with some field-pieces, that were sent up
1 "The important fact is," said an English writer quoted by Mansfield, "that we have now got an enemy who fights
as bravely as ourselves. For some time the Americans cut no figure on land. They have now proved to us that they
only wanted time to acquire a little discipline. They have now proved to us what they are made of; that they are the
same sort of men as those who captured whole armies under Burgoyne and Cornwallis ; that they are neither to be
frightened nor silenced."
3 Among the British officers who were wounded was the present [1867] Sir James Wilson, governor of Chelsea Hospi
tal. He received five wounds in the battle of Chippewa. He has been over sixty years in the British military service.
3 When I visited the spot in 1860, the rise of ground on which Hindman placed his guns was occupied by the steam
saw-mill of Mr. Barnabas Crane, whose smoke-stack is seen in the above picture rising like a steeple above the trees
of an intervening orchard. Lyon's Creek, a small stream named after the first settler there, is seen in the foreground,
making its way through a boggy swale, and the Chippewa beyond the two trees. This is about a mile from the mouth
of Chippewa Creek.
\
814 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Passage of the Chippewa. Riall re-enforced. Brown advances toward Fort George.
to oppose the passage of the Chippewa by the Americans, were performing that duty,
he broke camp and fled with his whole army to Queenston. Brown's opponents, aft
er a brief cannonade, retired, the bridge-building was abandoned, and Ripley's brigade
was marched down the Chippewa and formed a junction with Scott's, which had ad
vanced to the southern margin of the stream. The British had destroyed the Chip
pewa Bridge, but by the use of boats both brigades and some of the artillery crossed
•July, the stream before the morning of the 8th. a On that day the whole American
isH. force under Brown, excepting Porter's brigade, which was left to guard the
baggage and rebuild Chippewa Bridge, pursued the flying enemy down the Niagara
River. They encamped at Queenston on the 10th,b and toward the evening
of that day Porter, who had been re-enforced by some New York Volunteers,
came into camp with the baggage from Chippewa. Riall had retired on the approach
of Brown, thrown part of his troops into Forts George and lately-constructed Missis-
sauga, and established his head-quarters at Twenty-mile Creek. Brown resolved to
wait at Queenston for the arrival of Chauncey, for he could draw no supplies from
the Genesee or Sodus without the fleet. The government had assured him of its co
operation, and the 10th of July was the day appointed for its arrival. The general
anxiously watched from the heights of Queenston for its approach, and hour after
hour he spent in expectation of seeing its white sails on the waters of Ontario, which
were only seven miles distant. But word soon came that Chauncey was sick, and his
fleet blockaded in Sackett's Harbor. Expected re-enforcements were also detained
there.
Riall in the mean time had marched with fifteen hundred men for Burlington
Heights, at the head of Ontario, leaving some veteran soldiers of the Forty-first and
Eighth Regiments, and seamen and marines from two of Yeo's vessels in the Niagara
River, to garrison the forts. Riall expected to be re-enforced at Burlington, and was
agreeably surprised by meeting the One Hundred and Third, and the flank companies
of the One Hundred and Fourth Regiment on the way. He turned back, took posi
tion at Fifteen-mile Creek (only thirteen miles from Brown's camp), and there watched
the movements of his foe.
At that time General Brown was contemplating an advance upon Fort George.
On the 14th he called a council of officers to consider the matter. A majority were
in favor of attacking Riall that very night, before he should receive re-enforcements;
while the minority, coinciding with the wishes of the commanding general, advised
an immediate investment of Fort George, notwithstanding there was no competent
siege-train with the army, nor provision made for the safe transportation of supplies
from Buffalo.1 In the mean time foraging and reconnoitring parties were out contin
ually. One of the latter, composed of the venerable John Swift, of the New York
militia, and one hundred arid twenty volunteers, advanced toward Fort George to ob
tain information. They captured a picket-guard of 'five men near an outpost of the
fort,c and Swift was conducting them back to head-quarters, when one of
them, who had begged and obtained quarter, murdered the general by shoot
ing him through the breast. The discharge of this gun brought out fifty or sixty of
the enemy. Terribly wounded as he was, the brave Swift, who had served his coun
try in the field during the entire War of the Revolution, formed his men, and ad
vanced at their head to attack the foe. He fell, exhausted. The enemy were driven
back to Fort George, and the dying general was conveyed to Queenston.2 "After
serving his country seven years in the War of the Revolution," said General Porter
in his brigade order the next day, " he again stepped forward as a volunteer to give
1 According to Wilkinson (Memoirs, i., 669 and 6T1), Brown's engineers (M'Ree and Wood), and Generals Ripley and
Porter, advised an immediate attack on Riall, while General Scott and Adjutant General Gardner advised an invest
ment of Fort George. Major Hindman declined to give any opinion.
2 General Porter's Brigade Orders, dated Queenston, July 13, 1864. General Swift was a brother of the late General
Joseph G. Swift, the accomplished engineer officer in the War of 1812.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 815
St. David's Village burnt. Fort George approached. Brown falls back to Chippewa.
the aid of his experience in support of the violated rights of his country ; and never
was that country called on to lament the loss of a firmer patriot or braver man."
A few days after this sad occurrence, Colonel Stone, of the New York militia, while
out on a foraging expedition, wantonly burned the little village or hamlet of St. Da
vid's, a short distance from Queenston ; and similar unwarrantable acts caused great
exasperation against the Americans. General Brown promptly dismissed Stone from
the service as a punishment for his crime, in accordance with the sentence of a court-
martial.1
While Brown's council of officers were debating, word came of the retrograde
movement of Riall to Fifteen-mile Creek, but no intelligence was received of his re-
enforcements. Brown evidently did not believe that any were near, for on the pre
ceding daya he wrote to Chauncey, saying, " All accounts agree that the > jnly 18(
force of the enemy in Kingston is very light. Meet me on the lake-shore 1814-
north of Fort George with your fleet, and we will be able, I have no doubt, to settle
a plan of operations that will break the power of the enemy in Upper Canada, and
that in the course of a short time I doubt not my ability to meet the enemy
in the field, and to march in any direction over his country, your fleet carrying for
me the necessary supplies. We can threaten Forts George and Niagara, and carry
Burlington Heights and York, and proceed directly to Kingston and carry that place.
For God's sake let me see you. Sir James will not fight."
With such opinions and expectations General Brown prepared to invest Fort
George. Generals Porter and Ripley were ordered to reconnoitre the position of the
enemy, one along the river, and the other in the interior, by way of St. David's ; and
on the 20th the military works at Queenston were blown up, and the whole army
left that post and advanced toward Fort George. There Brown was apprised of
the arrival of Riall's re-enforcements, when he withdrew, and occupied his old posi
tion at Queenston on the 22d.
On the morning of the 23d Brown received a letter from General Gaines at Sack-
ett's Harbor apprising him of the sickness of Chauncey, the blockade of the fleet, and
the peril to be apprehended to re-enforcements that might be sent by water in small
vessels hugging the coast. Abandoning all hope of co-operation by the fleet, or the
speedy reception of re-enforcements, the general changed his plan of operations, and
at once ordered a retreat to the Chippewa, there to be governed by circumstances.
He expected by this retreat to draw Riall on to the Niagara again, or, failing in this,
to draw a small supply of provisions from Schlosser, on the opposite shore, disencum
ber his army of all baggage which could possibly be dispensed with, march against
Riall by way of Queenston, and fight him wherever he might be found. The army
reached the Chippewa on the 24th, encamped on the south side of it, on the battle
ground of the 5th, and prepared to make the 25th a day of rest. On the night of the
24th, General Scott, ever anxious for duty and ambitious of renown, requested leave
to lead his brigade* immediately in a search for Riall, not doubting his ability to win
victory for his troops, glory for himself, and renown for the army. He repeated the
request on the morning of the 25th, and was vexed because General Brown would
not consent to divide his army.2 He had an opportunity to try his powers and skill
in combat with the enemy sooner than he expected, and in that trial he won fadeless
laurels. The story is told in the following chapter.
1 " The militia have burnt several private dwelling-houses," wrote the gallant Major Daniel M'Farland, of the Twenty-
third Infantry, who was killed a few days afterward at Niagara Falls, "and on the 19th burnt the village of St. David's,
consisting of about thirty or forty houses. This was done within three miles of the camp I never witnessed
such a scene ; and had not the commanding officer, Colonel Stone, been disgraced and sent out of the army, I should
have resigned my commission."
» General Brown's manuscript Memorandum of Occurrences of the Campaign on the Niagara Frontier.
816 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Rumors of an Advance of the British. They appear in Force at Lundy's Lane. Their Advance unsuspected.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
" O'er Huron's wave the sun was low,
The weary soldier watch'd the bow
Fast fading from the cloud below ^
The dashing of Niagara.
And while the phantom chain'd his sight,
Ah ! little thought he of the flght—
The horrors of the dreamless night,
That posted on so rapidly."— OLD SONG.
jEAUTIFUL to the senses was the morning of the 25th of July,
1814, on the banks of the Niagara River — a day memorable in
the annals of the Republic. It was serene and sultry. Not a
cloud appeared in the heavens, nor a flake of mist on the wa
ters. The fatigued American army lay reposing upon the field
of its late victory, with the village of Chippewa in front, and
had enjoyed half a day of needed rest, when a courier came in
haste with intelligence from Colonel Philetus Swift at Lewis-
ton that the enemy were in considerable force at Queenston and on the Heights ;
that five vessels of Yeo's fleet had arrived during the night ; and that a number of
boats were in sight moving up the river. A few minutes afterward another courier
arrived from Captain Denman, of the quartermaster's department, with a report that
the enemy, a thousand strong, were landing at Lewiston, and that the American bag
gage and stores at Schlosser were doubtless in imminent danger of capture.
These rumors were true only in part. Vessels had arrived in the river, boats had
ascended it, and a considerable British force was occupying Queenston. Lieutenant
General Sir George Gordon Drummond had arrived with re-enforcements from Kings
ton, composed in part of some of Wellington's veterans, and landed at Fort Niagara,
and in boats many of them had gone up and disembarked at Queenston. In the
mean time the troops under Riall had been put in motion. Loyal Canadians had
early informed him of the retreat of the Americans to Chippewa ; and at near mid
night of the 24th he sent forward a column under Lieutenant Colonel Pearson, com
posed of a regiment of the ever-active Glengary militia, commanded by Lieutenant
Colonel Battersby ; the incorporated and sedentary militia, under Lieutenant Colonels
Robinson (late chief justice of Canada) and Parry; detachments from the Royal Ar
tillery, with two 24-pounders, three 6-pounders, and a howitzer ; and the One Hund
red and Fourth Infantry, under Lieutenant Colonel Drummond, and a troop of the
Nineteenth Light Dragoons. Pearson moved forward with celerity, and at seven
o'clock on the morning of the 25th took position on an eminence in and near Lundy's
Lane, a public highway leading directly westward into the heart of the peninsula
and the head of the lake from the road along the river from Chippewa to Queenston.
The position was a short distance from the great cataract of Niagara, and a com
manding one.
Of Pearson's movement Brown seems to have had no intelligence, and his efforts
to counteract the supposed invasion at Lewiston were rather tardily begun. He
heard of the invasion at noon, but it was quite late in the afternoon before he ordered
a forward movement of any of his troops. At two o'clock Major Jesup, who had
crossed Chippewa Bridge, brought him word from Lieutenant Colonel Leavenworth,1
1 Henry Leavenworth was born in Connecticut, December 10, 1783, and was made captain in the Twenty-fifth Regi
ment United States Infantry in April, 1812. He was promoted to major in the Ninth Infantry in August, 1813. For
OF THE WAR OF 1812 817
Scott ordered to march on Fort George. The Widow Wilson's Story. Scott suddenly confronted by the British.
the officer of the day, that a considerable body of the enemy had been seen at Niag
ara Falls, not more than two miles distant ;J but so impressed was the general with
the idea that the enemy were after his supplies at Schlosser that he would not be
lieve that more than a few light troops on a reconnoissance were in front. Conceiv
ing the best plan for recalling the foe would be a menace of the forts at the mouth
of the Niagara River, he ordered General Scott to march rapidly upon them with his
brigade, Towson's artillery, and all the cavalry and mounted men at command. This
order was issued between four and five o'clock in the afternoon,a and with- > Juiy 25,
in twenty minutes afterward the impatient Scott had all his troops in mo- 1814>
tion. He crossed Chippewa Bridge between five and six o'clock, and pushed on to
ward the great cataract, fully impressed with the belief that a large force of the en
emy was on the other side of the river, and not directly before him. His battalion
commanders were Lieutenant Colonel Leavenworth, Major M'Neil, Colonel Brady,
and Major Jesup. Towson was with his artillery, and Captains Harris and Pentland
commanded the mounted men. The whole force numbered full twelve hundred
persons.
A widow named Wilson lived in a pleasant white house at the great Falls, near
Table Rock; and when the vanguard of Scott's command came in sight of her dwell
ing they discovered a number of British officers there, who mounted their horses and
rode hastily away after surveying the approaching column of Americans with their
glasses.2 The widow, with the skill of a diplomat, assured Major Wood, of the En
gineers, who were in the van, that she extremely regretted their tardiness, as they
might have captured General Riall and his staff, wrhom they had seen riding off. She
also assured them, with more truthfulness, that eight hundred regulars, full three
hundred militia, and two pieces of artillery were just below a small strip of woods
near. Scott, who had come up with his staff and heard her story, did not believe it.
Had not the British army been beaten on the 5th ? And was there not in the pos
session of the commander-in-chief positive information that a large part of that army
had been thrown across the Niagara at Lewiston ? He believed that only a remnant
of it was in his front, and he resolved to obey his instructions to " march rapidly on
the forts." He sent a message to his general by Lieutenant Douglass, to inform him
of the appearance of the enemy, and then dashed gallantly into the woods to dis
perse the foe. What was his astonishment on finding the story of the widow literally
true ! Riall had been re-enforced, and there he was, with a larger number of troops
than Scott had encountered twenty days earlier, drawn up in battle order in Lundy's
Lane — a highway, as we have observed, running from the Niagara River to the head
of Lake Ontario. His position was one of extreme peril. To stand still would be
fatal ; to retreat would be very hazardous. The latter movement might jeopard
ize the whole army by the creation of a panic, especially among the reserves under
Ripley, who were not in the former battle. There was no time for reflection, for a
heavy fire of musketry and cannon had been opened upon him. From that wonder
ful wealth of resource, at the moment of great need, which always distinguished him,
Scott drew immediate inspiration, and resolved to fight the overwhelming number of
the enemy, and impress Riall with the conviction that the whole American army was
at hand.
his bravery at Chippewa he was breveted lieutenant colonel, and for his distinguished services at the battle of Niagara
Falls he was breveted colonel. He was retained in the army, and made lieutenant colonel of the Fifth Infantry in Feb
ruary, 1818. He performed able service in the wilderness westward of the Mississippi, far up the Missouri, and a fort
in that region bears his name. In July, 1824, he was breveted brigadier general for ten years' service, and the follow
ing year he was made full colonel. He died near the Cross Timbers, on the False Washita River, July 21, 1834.
1 Jesup's Manuscript Memoir, etc.
2 Within three or four days the British had erected beacons in this vicinity in order to give alarms. These were con
structed under the direction of Lieutenant Colonel Myers, an officer who was made prisoner at Fort George the year
before, and afterward exchanged. Writing to Captain James Cummings (now of Chippewa) on the 21st of July, he said,
" The best place at Wilson's is on the cleared point, near the paling of Wilson's garden, and not far from the head cf
the path that goes down to the Table Rock." — Autograph Letter.
3 F
818
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Junction of British Forces.
Their Line of Battle.
Scott attacked.
The British flanked.
Trusting to rumor instead of actual observation through scouts, Brown was wholly
uninformed, or at least misinformed, concerning the movements of the British. Not
a soldier of that army had been sent across the Niagara at Lewiston. Every man
left fit for service since the late battle was with Riall preparing for this advance
movement. On the night of the 24th Lieutenant General Sir George Gordon Drum-
mond, as we have observed, had arrived at the mouth of the Niagara River in the
British fleet from Kingston. He brought eight hundred men with him, and sent
Lieutenant Tucker, with about five hundred of them and a body of Indians, to dis
perse or capture a small American force at Lewiston. This movement gave rise to
the report of invasion. Drummond had apprised Riall of his intentions ; and these
officers, with their respective commands, had formed a junction on the Niagara with
out discovery by General Brown. These united forces, not less than four thousand
five hundred strong, with the exception of a portion of the re-enforcements, were con
fronted by Scott and his " twice six hundred men," with two field-pieces. When,
forty minutes before sunset, the battle began, the line that opened fire on Scott was
full eighteen hundred in number, well-posted on the slope and brow of an eminence
over which Lundy's Lane passed.
The enemy's line was a little inclined to a crescent form, the wings being thrown
forward of the artillery in the centre. Its left rested on the Queenston Road, and
extended over the hill,
on the brow of which
was planted a battery
of seven guns, nearly in
the rear of the Meth
odist church on Lun
dy's Lane, and not far
south of the house of
Mr. Fraleigh when I
visited the spot in 1 860.
Into the bowl of this
crescent Scott sudden
ly found himself ad
vancing with his little
force, within canister-
shot distance of a
greatly superior army
and powerful field-bat
tery. His quick eye
instantly discovered a
blank space between the British extreme left and the river of two hundred yards,
covered with brushwood. He saw the advantage it afforded, and directed Major Jes-
up to creep cautiously behind the bushes in the twilight, with his command, and at
tempt to turn the enemy's left flank. Jesup obeyed with alacrity. In the mean time
Scott was hotly engaged with the British veterans, some of them from Wellington's
army, while the battery on the hill poured destruction upon his men. Towson, with
his little field-pieces right gallantly handled, could make but a feeble impression.
Brady, and Leavenworth, and M'Neil managed their battalions with skill, and fought
bi-avely themselves ; not, however, with the expectation of conquering the enemy, but
only of keeping him in check until the reserves should come up. This was done, and
more. There they stood, the brave Ninth, Eleventh, and Twentieth, mere skeletons
of regiments, hurried into battle without warning or preparation, while Jesup's Twen
ty-fifth, unaided, was battling manfully and successfully with more than a thousand
of the enemy to gain possession of the Queenston Road.
VIEW AT LUNDY'S LANE IN 1SCO.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 819
Capture of General Riall. Brown advances from Chippewa. He orders a formidable Battery to be taken.
The sun went down, the twilight closed, and the darkness of night, relieved by a
waning moon, enveloped the combatants. Jesup had gallantly turned the British
left, gained his rear, kept approaching re-enforcements of Drummond in check, and
secured many prisoners. Among the latter was General Riall, several officers of his
staff, and one of General Drummond's aids, Captain Loring. Their capture was an
accident. One of Riall's aids saw one of Jesup's flanking parties, commanded by
Captain Ketchum, and, mistaking them for a company of their own troops, called out,
" Make room there, men, for General Riall !" Captain Ketchum immediately replied,
" Ay, ay, sir !" allowed the aid to pass by, and then directed a portion of his own
men, with fixed bayonets, to surround the general and his officers, seize the bridles
of their horses, and make them prisoners. Riall was astonished, but made no resist
ance. He was, indeed, quite badly wounded. Ketchum delivered him to General
Scott in person, who ordered him to be taken to the rear, and every attention to be
given to his comfort. Jesup, perceiving that his own position was not tenable, gal
lantly charged back through the British line, and took his place in that of the Amer
icans.
It was now nine o'clock in the evening. The British right, which made a furious
assault, had been driven back by General Scott with a heavy loss ; their left had been
turned and cut off by Jesup's bold movement, and their centre, on the ridge, support
ed by the artillery, alone remained firm. The most of Drummond's re-enforcements
had come up, and the remainder were only a short distance off, and pressing forward.
Let us leave the battle-field a moment and turn back to Chippewa. We have seen
that a messenger had been sent to apprise General Brown of the presence of the en
emy. This messenger was immediately followed by another (Major Jones), who bore
the startling intelligence that the whole British army was within two miles, and that
General Scott had attacked them to keep them in check. Already the cannonade
and musket-firing had been heard in the camp, and General Brown had ordered Gen
eral Ripley, with his brigade and all the artillery reserve, to press forward to the sup
port of Scott. Mounting his horse, and leaving Adjutant General Gardner to see that
his orders were promptly executed, he rode forward, and met Major Jones near the
Falls with the exciting message from Scott. Brown ordered Jones to continue his
journey to the camp with directions for Porter and his volunteers to follow Ripley as
speedily as possible.
On his arrival upon the battle-field, accompanied by Major Wood, General Brown
sought and obtained correct information of the situation of affairs from General Scott
himself. By this time Jesup had accomplished his bold operations on the enemy's
left, and Ripley's brigade was near. Convinced that the men in action were greatly
exhausted, and knowing that they had suffered sevei'ely, the commanding general de
termined to form and interpose a new line with the fresh troops, disengage Gener
al Scott, and hold his brigade in reserve for rest. Orders to this effect were given
to General Ripley, and the second brigade advanced in the pale moonlight on the
Queenston Road toward the enemy's left. It was now perceived that the key of the
enemy's position was their battery on the hill, and Colonel M'Ree assured General
Brown that he could not hope for success until that height was carried and the can
non taken. General Brown instantly turned to the gallant Colonel Miller (now of
the Twenty-first, and former leader of the Fourth in the campaigns under Hull and
Harrison) and said, " Colonel, take your regiment, storm that work, and take it."
" I'll try, sir," responded Miller, promptly, and immediately moved forward to the
perilous task.1 At that moment the First Regiment, under Lieutenant Colonel
— _ , - — «• ,
1 "Who gave this order to Miller?" has been an unsettled question. A late writer on this battle says, "I am con
strained to believe, on the testimony of Colonel Miller himself, as well as that of Captain M'Donald, that the idea on which
was based the assault was General Ripley's ; that he ordered its execution ; and that the troops had moved to execute
it before General Brown knew any thing about the matter." I have before me an autograph letter of General Miller,
written to his wife three days after the battle from Fort Erie, in which he says, "Major M'Ree, the chief engineer, told
820
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Colonel Miller captures a British Battery.
The Way it was done.
Sketches of Miller and Nicholas.
Nicholas,1 which had arrived that day,
and was attached to neither of the bri
gades, and which had been ordered to
draw the fire of the enemy and direct
his attention from Miller's movement,
gave way. Miller paid no attention to
that disaster, but moved steadily for
ward up the hill with less than three
hundred men, mostly concealed by an
old rail fence, along which was a growth
of thick, low shrubbery. They approach
ed undiscovered to a point within two
rods of the battery, where the gunners
were seen with their lighted matches
waiting for the word to fire. In whis
pers Miller ordered his men to rest their
pieces across the fence, take good aim,
and shoot the gunners. This was prompt
ly done, and not a man was left to apply
the matches. Miller and his men fol
lowed the volley with a shout, and, rush
ing forward, were in the very centre of
the park of artillery before the enemy
had a chance to resist. A British line,
formed for the protection of the cannon,
wei-e lying near in a strong position, and immediately opened a most destructive en
filading fire, which slew many of the gallant Miller's men. They then attempted to
charge with their bayonets, but the Americans returned their fire so warmly that
they were kept in check. Hand-to-hand the combatants fought for. some time, and
so closely that the blaze of their guns crossed. The British were finally pushed back,
General Brown he could do no good until that height was carried, and those cannon taken or driven from their posi
tion. It was then night, but moonlight. General Brown turned to me and said, ' Colonel Miller, take your regiment
and storm that work, and take it.' " General Brown, in his Manuscript Memorandum, etc., says, " The commanding
general rode to Colonel Miller, and ordered him to charge and carry the enemy's artillery with the bayonet. He re
plied, in a tone of good-humor, that he would try to execute the order." See, also, Silliman's Gallop among American
Scenery. This positive testimony of the chief actors settles the question. It was General Brown, and not General Kip-
ley, who gave the order. Miller's modest response, " I'll try, sir," is one of the sayings which Americans delight to re
member, and History loves to repeat.
James Miller was born in Peterborough, New Hampshire, on the 25th of April, 1776, and was thirty-eight years of age
at this time. He was educated for the bar, but in 1808 he entered the United States Army as major of the Fourth Reg
iment of Infantry. In 1810 he was made lieutenant colonel, and, as we have already observed in this work, performed
gallant services under Harrison in the campaign that ended at the battle of Tippecanoe. In August, 1812, he was bre
veted as colonel for his distinguished services near Detroit, which we have already recorded ; and in May the following
year he commenced an equally distinguished series of services on the Niagara frontier in the Sixth Regiment. In
March, 1814, he was promoted to full colonel of the Twenty-first Regiment, and accompanied General Brown, in the
brigade of General Ripley, in the invasion of Canada in July. He fought gallantly at the battles of Chippewa and Ni
agara Falls, and also at Fort Erie ; and for his services in capturing the battery in Lundy's*Lane, and general good con
duct on the Niagara frontier, he was breveted a brigadier general, and received from Congress a gold medal, with suit
able emblems and devices, delineated in the engraving on the opposite page. General Miller resigned his commission
in the army in 1819, when he was appointed governor of Arkansas Territory. He held that office until March, 1825,
when he was appointed collector of the port of Salem, Massachusetts, which position he held twenty-four years, or un
til 1840, when he was prostrated by paralysis. He had a second stroke of paralysis on the morning of the 4th of July,
1851, and died on the 7th at the age of seventy-five years. He was then living at Temple, New Hampshire, where part
of his family still reside.
The gold medal presented by Congress is the size delineated on the following page. On one side is a bust of Gen
eral Miller, with his name and title, and the words "I'LL TRY." On the other, a battle scene on a slope and eminence
as at Lundy's Lane. Troops are seen advancing in the distance. Over the scene are the words " RESOLUTION OP CON
GRESS, NOVEMBER 8, 1814." Below, the word^j "BATTLES OF CHUTEWA, JULY 5, 1814; NIAGARA, JULY 25, 1814; ERIE, SEP
TEMBER 17, 1814."
1 Robert Carter Nicholas, of Kentucky, entered the army as captain of the Seventh Infantry in 1S08. He became a
major in 1810, and lieutenant colonel of the First Infantry in August, 1812. After the battle of Niagara he was pro
moted to colonel of the Nineteenth (September, 1814), and was retained at the peace. He resigned in 1810, and in 1821
became United States Indian Agent for the Chickasaws.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
821
Composition of the British Battery. Appreciation of Miller's Exploit. The Eleventh Regiment and Major M'Nei!.
BATTLES OP CHIPPEWA.
OUUV 5 . 18 14-.
NIAGARA -JULY 25. lill-t
ERIE SEP. 17. 1814
and compelled to abandon their whole artillery, ammunition-wagons, and every thing-
else. Seven splendid brass cannon remained with Miller, one of which was a 24-
pounder with eight horses, some of them killed. Twice the British attempted to ex
pel Miller from the height, but were repulsed, when Ripley, with the First and Twen
ty-third Regiments, came gallantly to his aid. At that moment the last of Drum-
mond's re-enforcements, which had been rapidly advancing from Queenston under
Colonel Scott, nearly fifteen hundred in all, came up, when the enemy rallied, and
made a fourth unsuccessful attempt to drive the victors from the heights and regain
their battery.1
The exploit of Miller elicited universal ad
miration. The American officers declared
that it was one of the most desperate and
gallant acts ever known. " It was the
most desperate thing we ever saw or heard
of," said the British officers, who were made
prisoners. The moment that General Brown
met Miller afterward, he said, " You have
immortalized yourself! My dear fellow,
my heart ached for you when I gave you
the order, but I knew that it was the only
thing that would save us."2
Meanwhile the first brigade, command
ed by General Scott, had maintained its po
sition with the greatest pertinacity under
terrible assaults and destructive blows.
The gallant Eleventh Regiment lost its
commander, Major John M'Neil, by severe
wounds,3 and all of its captains. Its am
munition became spent, and as a regiment
1 Autograph Letter of General Miller to his Wife from Fort Erie, July 28, 1814. 2 Miller's Autograph Letter.
3 John M'Neil was born in New Hampshire in 1784. He very early evinced a taste for military life. At the age
of seventeen years he was an ensign, and soon afterward a captain of a grenadier company in his native state, which
was remarkable for its physical vigor. His youth and early manhood were spent in rural labors and sports. In March,
1812, he entered the army as captain of the Eleventh Infantry, and in August the next year he was promoted to major.
For his gallant conduct at Chippewa, where he commanded his regiment, he was breveted lieutenant colonel, and for
similar conduct in the battle of Niagara he was breveted colonel. In that battle he behaved with the greatest gallant
ry. When the Twenty-second Regiment broke and was about to flee in disorder, M'Neil spurred his horse in front of
them, and, with his tremendous voice uttering persuasions and threats, he succeeded in rallying them and leading them
Into action. His horse was killed under him, and he was wounded in both legs by canister-shot. A six-ounce ball
passed through and shattered his right knee, and nearly carried away the limb. But he continued to fight until, be-
MAJOR JOHN M'MUL.
822
PICT01UAL FIELD-BOOK
A desperate Struggle in Darkness.
Both Parties re-enforced.
Sketches of Colonels Brady and Jesup.
it retired from the field, its more gallant spirits rallying around the flags of the
Ninth and Twenty-second as volunteers. Very soon Colonel Brady, of the Twenty-
second, was severely wounded,1 with several of his subordinates. Its ammunition
became exhausted, and it, too, dissolved, and its remnant clung to the banner of the
Ninth, commanded by the brave Lieutenant Colonel Leavenworth, as volunteers.
This was now the only regiment remaining of the first brigade, and it fought with a
courage that partook of the character of desperation. The three skeleton regiments
were consolidated, and contended fearfully in the darkness. Finally Scott ordered
them to charge, and they were moving gallantly forward for that purpose when the
taking of the battery turned the current, and the order was countermanded. They
took their old position at the foot of the slope, ready for any emergency.
It was now about half past ten o'clock at night. The troops were enveloped in
thick darkness, for the smoke of battle, untouched by the slightest breeze, hung like
a thick curtain between them and the pale light of the
moon. Around the tattered colors of the Eleventh the
shattered fragments of the first brigade were rallied,
commanded by the officers of the Ninth who remained
unhurt. The Twenty-fifth, under Jesup,2 with their reg
imental banner pierced with scores of bullet-holes re
ceived at Chippewa and in this engagement, reposed a
moment after their victory on the river side of the
Queenston Road, where the village of Drummondsville
now stands, while the second brigade, skillfully handled
by Ripley, bore the brunt of the battle in the fierce con
tention for the battery on the height. Yet the others
were by no means idle. Every corps was engaged in
the desperate struggle, which had continued for more
than two hours, the way of the combatants lighted only
by fitful gleams of the moon darting through the murky
battle-clouds, and the lurid flashes of exploding powder.
Both parties were re-enforced during the struggle ; the British by Colonel Scott's
coming faint from loss of blood, he was carried off the field, a cripple for life, and his iron constitution shattered. He
was retained in the army at its reduction as major of the Fifth Infantry, and served upon the Western frontier. He was
breveted brigadier general in 1824, and in 1826 promoted to the rank of full colonel. He was appointed an Indian com
missioner in 1829. In 1830 he resigned his commission, and was appointed by President Jackson surveyor of the port
of Boston, which office he held until his death at Washington City, on the 23d of February, 1850. He married a half-
sister of Franklin Pierce, the fourteenth President of the United States. He was a powerful man, standing six feet
six inches in his stockings.
1 Hugh Brady was a Pennsylvanian by birth, and was born in Northumberland County in 1768. He entered the
army as ensign in 1792, and served in the Northwest under General Wayne. He was captain of the Fourth Infantry in
1799, and was out of service from June, 1800, until July, 1812, when he was commissioned colonel of the Twenty-second
Infantry. He was distinguished at both Chippewa and Niagara Falls. He was retained in 1815, and in 1S22 was bre
veted a brigadier general. He was in the war with Mexico, and for meritorious conduct there, at the age of eighty
years, he was breveted major general. He died at Detroit oil the 15th of April, 1851, aged eighty-three years.
2 Thomas Sidney Jesup was a native of Virginia, and was born in 1788. He entered the army as second lieutenant
of infantry in May, 1808. He was General Hull's brigade major in the campaign of 1812, in which he was also acting
adjutant general. He was promoted to captain in January, 1813, and major of the Nineteenth Infantry in April follow
ing. Early in 1814 he was transferred to the Twenty-fifth— a regiment which he had raised mostly by his own exer
tions in Hartford, Connecticut, and its vicinity. For his gallant conduct at Chippewa he was breveted lieutenant col
onel, and for like distinguished conduct in the battle of Niagara, where he was wounded, he was breveted colonel. He
was retained in the army in 1815, and was made lieutenant colonel of the Third Infantry in 1S17. The following year
he was made adjutant general, with the rank of colonel, and shortly afterward quartermaster general, with the rank of
brigadier general. In May, 1828, he was breveted major general for ten years' faithful service. In 1836 he was appoint
ed to the command of the army in the Creek Nation, and the same year succeeded General Call in command of the
army in Florida. He was active during the war with the Seminole Indians, and was wounded in one of the battles. He
was succeeded by Colonel Zachary Taylor, and retired to the duties of the quartermaster general's department, in the
performance of which he continued until his death at Washington City, at the age of seventy-two years, on the 10th
of June, 1860.
3 This picture of the tattered banner and its broken staff of the Twenty-fifth Eegiment, as it appeared on the day aft
er the battle of Niagara Falls, is from a drawing made then, belonging to the Rochester Light Guard, and hanging in
their armory in the spring of 1852, when a careful copy was kindly sent to me by Mr. Jeremiah Watts, one of the mem
bers of the Guard. The flag was white silk, with a yellow fringe, and the words "TiiE TWENTY-FIFTH REGIMENT OF
U. S. INFANTBY" were inscribed upon a blue ribbon, with gilt scrolls at each end.
THE FLAO OF TIIE TWENTY-FIFTH.3
OF THE WAE OF 1812.
823
Generals Brown and Scott wounded. The Troops fall back to Chippewa. Injurious Tardiness of General Ripley.
command, as we have seen, and
the Americans by a part of Por
ter's brigade, which took post on
Ripley's left, and participated in
the closing events of the battle.
The enemy was beaten off by
sheer hard blows given by the
muscle of indomitable Persever
ance, but at the expense of pre
cious blood. Generals Brown
and Scott were severely wound
ed and borne from the field, and
the active command devolved
on General Ripley, the senior
officer on duty.1
When the absolute repulse of
the enemy was manifest, and
General Brown observed great
numbers of stragglers in all di
rections from the broken regi
ments, he ordered the new com
mander to fall back with the
troops to Chippewa, there reor
ganize the shattered battalions,
give them a little rest and re
freshments, and return to the
field of conflict by daydawn, so
as to secure the fruits of victory
by holding the ground and se
curing the captured cannon,
which, on account of a lack of
horses, harness, or drag-ropes,
could not be removed at once. Ripley had not moved from Chippewa when the day
dawned, and Brown, disappointed and angered by his tardiness, ordered his own staff
to go to the commanders of corps and direct them to be promptly prepared to march.
It was sunrise before the army crossed the Chippewa, and they were halted by Rip-
ley at the Bridgewater Mills, a mile from the battle-ground, where he was informed
that the enemy was again in possession of the heights of Lundy's Lane and his can
non, had been re-enforced, and was too strong to be attacked by a less force than the
entire army of the Niagara with any promise of success. With this information Rip-
ley returned to head-quarters. The commanding general wras irritated. He resolved
not to trust the brigadier with the command of the army any longer than necessity
required ; and he dispatched a courier to Sackett's Harbor with an order for General
1 The gallant Major M'Farland was mortally wounded while fighting at the head of his battalion of the Twenty-
third Regiment. Daniel M'Farland was a Pennsylvanian, and entered the army as captain in the Twenty-second In
fantry in March, 1812. In August, 1813, he was promoted to major in the Twenty-third, and was killed in the battle of
Niagara Falls.
Captains Biddle and Ritchie, of the artillery, were both wounded in that battle early in the action, and the brunt of
the artillery service fell on Towson. Thomas Biddle, Junior, was a gallant officer from Pennsylvania. He entered the
army as captain of infantry in the spring of 1812, but joined the Second Artillery soon afterward. He was distinguished
in the capture of Fort George, and also at Stony Creek in May and June, 1813. In September he was brigade major un
der General Williams. He was slightly wounded at Niagara, and for gallant service at Fort Erie afterward he was bre
veted a major. There he was again wounded. In December following he was aid-de-camp to General Izard. He re
mained in the army some years, and was finally killed in a duel at St. Louis, Missouri, August 29, 1831.
John Ritchie, who was also in this battle, was a Virginian. He entered the army in the spring of 1812 as captain in
the Second Artillery. Although severely wounded in the battle of Niagara Falls, he stuck to his gun, and was killed,
lie had declared that he would never leave his piece, and, true to that declaration, he fell by it, covered with wounds.
824 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Circumstances of the Battle of Niagara. Number of Troops engaged in it. The Victory claimed by both Parties.
Gaines to come and take the temporary leadership of the Niagara forces.1 Ripley's
delay had doubtless deprived the Americans of all the substantial advantages of vic
tory, for the enemy was allowed to return, reoccupy the field of battle, and retake
the captured cannon, excepting one beautiful brass 6-pounder, which was presented
to Colonel Miller's regiment on the spot. This they bore away with them as a pre
cious trophy of their prowess. The remainder were retaken by the British a few
hours afterward.2
Thus ended the sanguinary BATTLE OF NIAGARA FALLS, sometimes called Lundy's
Lane, and sometimes Bridgewater? It has few parallels in history in its wealth of
gallant deeds. It was fought wholly in the shadows of a summer evening between
sunset and midnight. To the eye and ear of a distant spectator it must have been a
sublime experience. Above was a serene sky, a placid moon in its wane, and innu
merable stars — a vision of Beauty and Peace ; below was the sulphurous smoke of
battle, like a dense thunder-cloud on the horizon, out of which came the quick flashes
of lightning and the bellowing of the echoes of its voice — a vision of Horror and
Strife. Musket, rocket, and cannon cracking, hissing, and booming ; and the clashof
sabre and bayonet, with the cries of human voices, made a horrid din that commin
gled with the awful, solemn roar of the great cataract hard by, whose muffled thun
der-tones rolled on, on, forever, in infinite grandeur when the puny drum had ceased
to beat, and silence had settled upon the ' field of carnage. There the dead were
buried, and the mighty diapason of the flood was their requiem.
According to the most careful estimates, the number of troops engaged in the bat
tle of Niagara Falls was a little over seven thousand, the British having about four
thousand five hundred, and the Americans a little less than two thousand six hund
red. Both parties lost heavily. The Americans had one hundred and seventy-one
killed, five hundred and seventy-one wounded, and one hundred and ten missing —
a total of eight hundred and fifty-two. The British lost eighty-four killed, five hund
red and fifty-nine wounded, one hundred and ninety-three missing, and forty-two pris
oners — a total of eight hundred and seventy-eight. A large proportion of those taken
by Jesup on the British left, and by Miller on the height, escaped during the night.
Both parties claimed a victory, the Americans because they drove the enemy from
the field and captured his cannon, and the British because their foe did not retain the
field and the cannon he had won. While the American people rejoiced over the af
fair as a genuine triumph, as it undoubtedly was, as a victory in battle, the governor
general of Canada was right in complimenting his troops for their steadiness and
valor ; and the Prince Regent did a proper thing when he gave permission to one of
the regiments to wear the word NIAGARA upon their caps.
Major General Brown was twice severely wounded, yet he kept the saddle until
the victory was won. First a musket-ball passed through his right thigh ; and a few
1 General Brown's Manuscript Memoir, etc. He says, "General Brown entertained no doubt of the intelligence or
bravery of General Ripley," but his conduct on the morning of the 26th was such that " his confidence in him as a com
mander was sensibly diminished. The general believed that he dreaded responsibility more than danger. In short,
that he had a greater share of physical than moral courage."
2 Miller's Autograph Letter to his Wife, July 28. Brown's Memorandum, etc., and his Official Report to the Secretary
of War, dated "Buffalo, August, 1814." In that report the commanding general spoke in the higTiest terms of all his
officers and troops. He particularly mentioned the gallant services of Scott, Porter, Jesup, Towson, Hindman, Biddle,
Ritchie, Gardner, his adjutant general, M'Ree and Wood, his engineers, his aids-de-camp Austin and Spencer, and Lieu
tenant Randolph, of the Twentieth Regiment, " whose courage was conspicuous." "The staff of Generals Ripley and
Porter," he said, "discovered great zeal and attention to duty."
3 The battle was fought within sight and hearing of the great Falls of Niagara, and should bear that dignified name.
It was so called in one of the first published accounts of it. "The battle of NIAGARA," said the Albany Argus at the
beginning of August, " commands, like the achievements of our naval heroes, the admiration of all classes of the Amer
ican people, a few excepted." The hottest of the contest having occurred in the struggle for the battery in Lundy's
Lane caused the battle to be called after the name of that road. About a mile above the field of battle, on the banks of
the Niagara, were mills called The Bridgewater Mills. A person attached to the American army, but not in the battle,
wrote while it was in progress to some friend in the interior of New York, saying that a great battle was then raging
near the Bridgewater Mills. This letter was published extensively, and the conflict was called the Battle of Bridgewater.
It was so announced in Niles's Register, August 13, 1S14.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 825
Officers wounded in the Battle of Niagara. Scott proceeds to Washington. Honors conferred upon him.
minutes afterward the gallant Captain Spencer, his aid-de-camp, received a mortal
wound.1 Then came a ball of some kind which struck Brown in the side, not lacer
ating, but severely contusing it. Both hurts were so severe that the general felt
doubtful of his ability to keep his seat, and so informed Major Wood, his confidential
friend. That brave officer, deeply engaged in the battle, exclaimed, " Never mind,
my dear general, you are winning the greatest battle ever gained for your country !"
The enemy were soon repulsed, and the general, supported by Captain Austin, his
only remaining aid, moved from the field, leaving the command, as we have seen, with
General Ripley. Brown rapidly recovered, and was able to resume the command of
the army of the Niagara early in September.
General Scott was wounded by a bullet that entered his left shoulder while he was
conversing with Major Jesup on the extreme right. He had been exposed to death
on every part of the field, and had two horses shot under him. He was spared until
the last struggle of the battle, when his aid, Lieutenant Worth, and Brigade Major
Smith, were very severely wounded. His own hurt was so great that he could no
longer remain on the field, and he was borne first to the Chippewa camp, then to Buf
falo, and finally to Williamsville, a hamlet in the east part of the present town of
Java, Wyoming County, New York. At the latter place he found the wounded
General Riall well-cared for.
Scott suffered intensely, and for a month his recovery was considered doubtful.
He was finally removed to the house of a friend (Mr. Brisbane) in Batavia, where kind
nursing made his convalescence rapid. At length, when able to bear the motions of
a litter, he was carried on the shoulders of gentlemen of the country from town to
town, to the house of a friend (Mr. Nicholas) in Geneva, where he remained until he
was able to resume his journey, when he went to Philadelphia, and placed himself in
charge of the eminent Doctors Physic and Chapman, of that city. He was every
wrhere received with demonstrations of the warmest respect and admiration for his
personal achievements, and as the representative of the now glorious army of the Ni
agara.2 From Philadelphia he passed on to Baltimore early in September, then
threatened by the British, who had just destroyed the public buildings of the na
tional capital; and on the 16th of October he was so far recovered as to be able to
take command of the Tenth Military District, whose head-quarters were at Washing
ton City. Honors were conferred upon him by public bodies in many places. The
Congress of the United States, by a resolution on the 8th of November, 1814, voted
him the thanks of the nation, and requested the President to have a gold medal, with
suitable devices, struck in his honor, and presented to him.3 The Legislatures of
1 Ambrose Spencer, of New York, was commissioned a first lieutenant in the Twenty-ninth Infantry in April, 1813,
and promoted to captain in February, 1814. He had been made aid to General Brown in August, 1S14, and remained in
his family until his death. He was greatly distinguished in the battle of Niagara Falls. General Brown relates, in his
Manuscript Memoir, etc., already cited, that when the last heavy re-enforcements of the British were coming up in the
dim moonlight, and he was watching them with intense interest, Captain Spencer suddenly put spurs to his horse, and
rode directly to the front of the advancing foe. Then, turning to the enemy's right, he inquired, in a firm, strong
voice, "What regiment is that ?" He was promptly answered, " The Royal Scots, sir." " Halt ! Royal Scots," he re
plied, and they obeyed. With this information he returned to his general, and soon afterward received a wound which
caused his death, at Fort Erie, on the 5th of August. General Drummond had sent a message to Brown asking an ex
change of their aids. Spencer was mortally wounded, but Loring was well. Affection for his aid caused Brown to de
part from the usages of war, and he complied. On the very day that Spencer was brought to Fort Erie he died, and
Captain Loring was sent back to his general.
3 It was the annual Commencement at the College of New Jersey, at Princeton, when General Scott arrived there on his
way to Philadelphia. The faculty of the college invited him to attend the ceremonies at the church. He was carried
thither on a litter, pale and emaciated from suffering, and was placed upon the stage among the professors and invited
guests. He was greeted by both sexes with the greatest enthusiasm. The orator of the day was the now deceased
brother of Bishop M'llvaine, of Ohio, and his subject happened to be " The public duties of a good citizen in peace and
war" — an appropriate one for the occasion ; and toward its close he turned to Scott and pronounced a most touching
eulogy of his conduct. This compliment was followed by the conferring upon the wounded hero the honorary degree
of Master of Arts. With grateful heart Scott passed on, and was met, when approaching Philadelphia, by Governor
Snyder and a division of militia.— See Mansfield's Life of Scott, Chapter XI.
3 Our engraving on the following page is a representation of the medal, a trifle smaller than the original. On one
fide is a bust of General Scott, with his name. On the other side, surrounded by a wreath, composed of palm and olive
leaves entwining a snake, emblem of youth and immortality, are the words "RESOLUTION OF CONGBESS, NOVEMBER 8,
826
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Medal awarded to Scott.
Other Gifts.
Biographical Sketch.
Appointed Brevet Lieutenant General.
5DVEMHEB if* AS** .
1TLEES Of CffiPPEWA
* February 12,
1816.
b February,
1816.
c 1815.
GOLD MEDAL AWARDED TO GENERAL 8OOTT.
Virginia" and New Yorkb thanked him, and each voted him an elegant
sword.1 The Society of the Cincinnati, founded by Washington and his
companions in arms, elected him an honorary member,0 and many towns
and counties were named in his honor in the course of time. He was
breveted a major general; and for almost fifty years longer he served his country
actively in its military operations, ten of them as general-in-chief. When, in the au
tumn of 1861, the great Civil War assumed immense proportions, the Nestor of the
republic, feeling the disabilities of increasing physical infirmities, retired from act
ive service, bearing the commission given him a few years before of lieutenant gen
eral.2
1814. BATTLES OF OHIPPEWA, JULY 5, 1814 ; NIAGARA, JULY 25, 1814." This medal was not presented until about the
close of Mr. Monroe's administration (February 26, 1825), when the President, in the presence of his cabinet, handed it
to him with a brief address. Many years afterward, while it was in the City Bank for safe keeping, the safe of that cor
poration was entered one night by robbers. They carried off $250,000, but left the medal. Several years afterward, one
of the rogues, when on trial for another offense, said that " when he took the money from the City Bank he saw and
well knew the value of the medal, but scorned to take from the soldier what had been given by the gratitude of his
country." The profile of General Scott on the medal is said to be the best likeness extant of the hero at the time he
won the honor.
1 The New York sword was presented to General Scott by Governor Tompkins in the City Hall, New York, on "Evac
uation Day" (November 25), 1816. The Virginia sword was not presented until 1825, when it was bestowed by Govern
or Pleasants. It was an elegant weapon, with suitable devices on the scabbard, hilt, and blade. On one side of the
blade is seen Scott, just as Miller had carried the Lundy's Lane battery, mounting a charger, another having been torn
in pieces under him. Below this is an eagle between two scrolls, bearing the names and dates of his two battles. On
the opposite side of the blade are the words " Presented by the Commonwealth of Virginia to General Wiufield Scott,
12th February, 1816 ;" and below this the arms of Virginia.
a Wiufield Scott was born in Petersburg, Virginia, on the 13th of June, 1TS6. He was left an orphan in his boyhood,
and was educated, under the care of-frieuds, at William and Mary College. He chose the law for a profession, but soon
changed it for that of arms. He entered the United States Army as
a captain of light artillery in 1808, and was stationed at Baton Rouge,
Louisiana, under General Wilkinson. He had some difficulty with
that officer, and during a temporary suspension from duty returned to
. . _ his profession in his native state. He rejoined the army, and, aslieu-
/ tenant colonel, went to the Canada frontier in 1812. His career there
" until the close of the battle of Niagara Falls has been delineated in
the text of this work. As we have observed, he took command of
the Tenth Military District, with his head-quarters at Washington City, late in the autumn of 1814, when he held the
commission of major general by brevet. His wound was very severe. It was in the left shoulder, and his arm was left
partially disabled. He was offered and declined a place in the cabinet as Secretary of War. After assisting in the re
duction of the army to a peace establishment, he was sent to Europe in a military and diplomatic capacity, where he
met some of the most distinguished of Napoleon's generals. He compiled some useful military text-books, and was in
active service wherever there was a speck of war until that with Mexico broke out, in which he was chief actor on the
part of the United States. He was then general-iu-chief of the armies of the United States, with the rank of major gen
eral. For his distinguished services in that war he received many civic honors. In 1852 he was an unsuccessful can
didate for the Presidency of the United States. In 1855 the brevet rank of lieutenant general was revived and confer
red upon him. When the great Civil War broke out he was found, unlike a great proportion of the officers of the reg
ular army who were born in the Slave-labor states, a powerful supporter of his government, and by his skill and cour
age secured the peaceful inauguration of Mr. Lincoln as President of the United States at a time when the national
capital and the life of the chief magistrate elect were menaced by banded rebels. He retired from active service in the
autumn of 1861, and died at West Point, on the Hudson, May 29, 1866.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 827
Visit to the Niagara Frontier. Colonel Cumminge. Battle-ground of Niagara at Lundy's Lane.
I visited the theatre of events described in this and a part of the preceding chap
ter in the summer of 1860. I was at Niagara Falls, as already observed (page 412),
on the evening of the 16th of August. On the following morning, accompanied by
Peter A. Porter, Esq., son of General Peter B. Porter (and conveyed in his carriage),
I crossed the Niagara on the great Suspension Bridge, and rode up to the Chippewa
battle-ground. We went over the great chasm at about ten o'clock, and halted at
Chippewa Village, where we were joined by Colonel James Cummings, a venerable
Canadian, seventy-two years of age, who was an aid to General Riall in the battle of
the 5th of July, 1814.1 He seemed as vigorous as most men at sixty, and we were
fortunate in having the company of so good a cicerone, for he was familiar with ev
ery place and event of that battle. He owns a part of the land whereon it was
fought ; has resided near there for more than fifty years, and is full of reminiscences
of the past. He cherishes, as a precious heir-loom for his family, the cocked hat and
plume which he wore when he was fighting for his king and country.
After viewing the different portions of the battle-ground at Street's Creek and Chip
pewa Plains, and making the sketches printed on pages 806, "7, and '8,2 we returned
to the village, where I made a drawing of the remains of the tete-de-pont battery,3 not
far from the mansion of Colonel Cummings. There we partook of some refreshments,
and, accompanied by the colonel, rode up to the mouth of Lyon's Creek, where the
Americans prepared to cross the Chippewa and flank the British, causing Riall, as
we have observed,4 to hasten back to Queenston. On returning to Chippewa we
spent an hour with Colonel Cummings and his family, and then left with enduring
recollections of time spent pleasantly and profitably We rode slowly by the great
cataract, observing the site of the Widow Wilson's house, near Table Rock, the stu
pendous falls, and the grand flood as it rushes in wild and resistless energy toward
the great bend in the river at the seething whirlpool.
At Drummondville, a pleasant little town of about five hundred inhabitants, skirt
ing the highway from Chippewa to Queenston, we turned into Lundy's Lane, and
rode to the top of the hill on which stood the British battery captured by Miller. It
is a pleasant spot, and sufficiently elevated to command extensive views of the coun
try in Canada and New York. On the crown of the hill was the dwelling of Mr. Fra-
leigh and a Methodist church ; and on the slope toward Drummondville was a small
cemetery, a view of which may be seen on page 818. A little to the left of the large
tree in that picture was the site of the British battery taken by Miller. Near the mid
dle of that cemetery was the grave and monument of Lieutenant Colonel Bisshogp, de
lineated on page 628 ; and on its western margin, close by the fence, was the grave of
Captain Abraham F. Hull, who appears somewhat conspicuously in the narrative of
the surrender of Detroit by his father, General William Hull, in the summer of 1812.
On the spot where he fell, gallantly fighting in the battle of Niagara, the brother
officers of Captain Hull erected a wooden slab, with a suitable inscription, to mark
the spot ;5 and in after years his friends erected the one of marble, which, with an
1 Colonel Cummings is yet (1S67) living at Chippewa, at the age of eighty years. He entered the military service as
lieutenant of a volunteer flank company in 1812, and was stationed on the spot where the battle of Chippewa was fought
two years later. He was promoted to the cavalry, but
was soon called to Fort George by General Brock, and
appointed deputy quartermaster general of militia, with
the rank of captain. He was in the battle at Stony
Creek, the taking of Boerstler at the Beaver Dams, and
was the one who received Colonel Chapin's sword when he surrendered there. He was with Lieutenant Colonel Bis-
shopp at the taking of Black Rock, and was near him when he fell. He was in several skirmishes, and participated in
the battles of Chippewa and Niagara as aid to General Riall. He was an active officer, and between these battles had
charge of the establishing of beacons between Chippewa and Queenston, under the direction of Lieutenant Colonel
Christopher Myers. These beacons were made by setting up a pole, from which was suspended an iron basket filled
with resinous bark.
2 Nothing of Samuel Street's house was left but the chimney, as delineated on page 806. His orchard, on the south
side of the stream, which was young at the time of the battle, now appeared venerable, but vigorous.
3 See page SOT. * See page 813.
5 The cut on the following page represents the board slab which I found near the grave of Captain Hull, on which
828
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Observatory at Lundy's Lane.
Objects seen from it.
Daring Feats at the Niagara Suspension Bridge.
inscription, now (1867) stands at the head of his grave, seen near the fence in the pic
ture on page 818.1
Fronting on Lundy's Lane, a little northwestward of the position of the British
battery, was an observatory, made of timbers, and latticed. It was one hundred and
thirty feet in height, and was ascended on the interior by one hundred and twenty-
five steps. We climbed wearily to the top, and were richly rewarded for the toil by
a magnificent panoramic view of the surrounding country, including in the vision, by
the aid of a telescope, the statue of Brock on its lofty pedestal on the Heights of
Queenston. Westward we looked far over the Canadian peninsula to the broken
country around the Beaver Dam region, and eastward as far over the cultivated lands
of the State of New York, while at our feet was the great cataract, which gave a
tremor to the pile of timber work on which we stood, and formed a conception in
the mind of the amazing power of that mighty pouring flood. An elderly man, who
acted as guide to the surrounding scenery as seen from the observatory, ascended
with us, and, in monotonous tone, began his well-learned task of repeating the record
of historical events there. We only wanted to know the exact locality of certain in
cidents of the battle, and, after four times preventing him going farther in his tedi
ous details than the words " In the year one thousand eight hundred and fourteen,"
we obtained what we wished, and descended. We climbed into the little cemetery,
and I sketched the tomb of Bisshopp and the view on page 818, and at the same
time Mr. Porter made a neat pencil drawing
for me of a small house in Drummondville,
which was used as a hospital after the battle,
as seen from Bisshopp's grave. It is copied
in the annexed engraving.
On returning to the Suspension Bridge to
recross the river, we observed large crowds
of people on both banks, above and below the
aerial highway, who had come to see the peril
ous feats of Blondin and a rival upon slack ropes stretched across the river from
bank to bank. They were both performing at the same time, cheered on by their re
spective friends, one above and the other below the bridge. Beneath these daring
acrobats was the foaming river, rushing down hill to the great whirlpool at the rate
of thirty miles an hour. It was an unpleasant spectacle, for a sense of fearful danger
oppressed the mind of the beholder. We rode slowly across the bridge, viewing
the foolish and yet heroic performances of both young men, and arrived at Niagara
Falls village in time for a late dinner. Toward evening I rode down to Queenston,
behind a blind horse, to make the visits on the Canadian peninsula described in pre
ceding chapters.2
Let us now resume the narrative of events in which the Army of the Niagara was
engaged in the summer and early autumn of 1814.
General Ripley's tardiness, if not absolute disobedience, as we have observed, left
the battle-field of Niagara, so gloriously won by the Americans, in the possession of
was the following inscription : " This was erected by his brother officers to mark the spot
where Captain Hull, U. S. Army, fell in the memorable action at Lundy's Lane, 25th July, 1814,
gallantly leading his men to the charge."
1 This is a plain stone, two and a half feet in height, which bears the following inscription :
"Here lies the body of Abraham Hull, captain in the Ninth Regiment U. S. Infantry, who fell
near this spot in the battle of Bridgewater [see note 3, page 824], July 25, 1814, aged twenty-
eight years."
Captain Abraham Fuller Hull entered the army as captain in the Ninth Infantry on the 14th
of April, 1S12, and was with his father during the march of the army from Dayton to Detroit.
He was made aid-de-camp to his father in May, 1812, and served as such until the surrender in
August. When he again assumed his place in the line, he took command of his old company
in the Ninth, under Major Leavenworth. He was an excellent officer, and his loss was much
lamented. 2 See page 41'2.
HOSPITAL NEAR LUNDY 8 LANE.
WOODEN SLAB.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 829
Rlpiey attempts to abandon Canada. Brown's Indignation. He orders the Army to Port Erie.
the foe on the morning of the 26th of July. At that time Generals Brown and Scott,
Major Jesup, and other wounded officers, were placed in boats for conveyance to Buf
falo, and they departed with the expectation that Ripley would hold the strong po
sition at Chippewa until the arrival of re-enforcements. The commanding general
had scarcely disappeared behind Navy Island in his upward voyage when Ripley
ordered the destruction of the military works and bridge, and some of his own stores
at Chippewa, and made a precipitate flight with the whole army to the Black Rock
Ferry, a short distance below Fort Erie. His intention was to lead the whole army
across the river, and utterly abandon Canada. This design would have been accom
plished had not the firmness of the principal officers, by a vehement opposition, pre
vented. Ripley crossed the river to Black Rock, where Brown lay, to get from him
an order for the army to pass over ; but that indignant commander not only refused,
but treated the brigadier with scorn.1 Ripley returned, and, by order of General
Brown, he led the army to a good position, just above Fort Erie, along the lake shore,
encamped it there, and proceeded to strengthen the old works, and to construct new
and more extensive ones preparatory to an expected siege.2 General Porter, at about
the same time, issued a stirring appeal to his fellow-citizens, asking for four thousand
volunteers.
The labor at Fort Erie for that purpose was commenced with great zeal and en
ergy by the engineers, and from the 27th of July until the 2d of August the troops
were employed in the business day and night, casting up intrenchmcnts, constructing
redoubts, making traverses, and preparing abatis. Fortunately for the Americans,
Drummond did not know their real weakness, and he remained quietly at Lundy's
Lane and vicinity, resting his men and receiving re-enforcements for two or three
days. Finally, on the 29th, having been re-enforced by about eleven hundred men
of General De Watteville's brigade, he prepared to push forward and invest Fort
Erie.
At this time Fort Erie was an indifferent affair, small and weak, standing on a
plain about twelve or fifteen feet above Lake Erie, at its foot. Efforts to strengthen
it having been made ever since it was captured at the beginning of July, it was be
ginning to assume a formidable appearance. On the extreme right of the American
encampment, and near the lake shore, a strong stone work had been erected, and two
guns mounted on it, en barbette, or on the top without embrasures. It was called the
Douglass Battery, in honor of Lieutenant David B. Douglass, of the Engineer corps,
under whose superintendence it was built. From the left of this battery to the right
of the old fort continuous earthworks were thrown up, seven feet in height, with a
i "While the wounded," says Major Jesnp, "were moving by water to Buffalo, the army abandoned its strong posi
tion behind the Chippewa, and, after destroying a part of its stores, fell back, or, rather, fled to the ferry opposite Black
Rock, but a short distance below Fort Erie ; and General Ripley, but for the opposition made by M'Ree, Wood, Tow-
son, Porter, and other officers, would have crossed to the American shore. Had the enemy availed himself of this blun
der, not a man of our army could have escaped The American general could have maintained his position [at
Chippewa], and have held General Drummond in check during the remainder of the campaign."— Jesup's Manuscript
Memoir of the Niagara Campaign.
Early on the morning of the 27th the commanding general at Black Rock "was advised that the army had fallen back
in haste, and was then near him on the opposite side of the strait. This movement was unexpected, and greatly af
fected the general. General Ripley intended to have proceeded with the army immediately to the American side of
the strait, but the honorable stand taken by the officers whom he consulted induced him to shrink from this intention.
Majors M'Ree, Wood, and Towson, as well as General Porter, deserve particular honor for their high-minded conduct
on this occasion. General Ripley left the army, and came to General Brown with a hope of obtaining an order for him
to cross with the forces. No proposition could have been more surprising to the major general ; and perhaps, at this
interview, he treated General Ripley with unjustifiable indignation and scorn."— General Brown's Manuscript ifemo-
ranjlum of Occurrences connected with the Campaigns of Xiagara.
* When General Ripley left General Brown's chamber and went below, he remarked to persons there that he would
not be responsible for the army if it remained in Canada, and insisted that a written order should be given him. When
informed of this, Brown sent to Ripley the following note :
"Head-quarters, Buffalo, 27th July, 1S14.
" SIK,— All the sick and wounded, and the surplus baggage, will be immediately removed to this .place. Those men
who are sound and able to fight will encamp at Fort Erie, so as to defend that post, and, at the same time, hold the ferry
below until the wounded, sick, and surplus baggage have crossed. You will send Major Wood or Major M'Ree to me
immediately."— General Brown's Manuscript Letter-book.
830 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Fort Erie and its Revetments. The British attack Black Rock. Incidents of the Movement.
ditch in front and slight aba
tis y and from the left of the
fort, and in a line nearly paral
lel with the lake shore, strong
parapet breastworks were
commenced, with two ditches
and abatis in front. At the
southwestern extremity of
this line of works, on a natural
KEMAINS OP DOUGLASS'S BATTEKY AND KOKT EBIE.' , , ,, , 0 , TT-,,
sand-mound called Snake Hill,
a sort of bastion, twenty feet in height, was cast up, five guns mounted on it, and
named Towson's Battery, in honor of the gallant artillery captain in whose charge it
was placed. From this battery to the lake shore, near which lay at anchor the three
armed schooners Porcupine, Somers, and Ohio, was a line of abatis, thus completing
the inclosure of the American camp, with defenses on land and water, within an area
of about fifteen acres. All of these works, excepting old Fort Erie, were incomplete
when, on the 2d of August, it was discovered that the British army was approach
ing. They moved steadily onward in considerable force, drove in the American pick
ets, and in the woods, two miles from Fort Erie proper, formed a camp, and com
menced casting up double and irregular lines of intrenchments, and constructing bat
teries in front at points from which an effectual fire might be poured upon the Amer
ican works.
Drummond perceived the importance of capturing the American batteries at Black
Rock, and seizing or destroying the armed schooners in the lake, before proceeding
to the business of besieging Fort Erie ; and before dawn on the morning of the 3d
of August, he sent over Lieutenant Colonel Tucker with a detachment of the Forty-
first Regiment, in nine boats, to attack the batteries. They landed about half a mile
below Shogeoquady Creek, where they found themselves unexpectedly confronted
by a band of riflemen, two hundred and forty in number, and a small number of mi
litia and volunteers, under Major Morgan. That officer had been intrusted with the
defense of Buffalo. He had perceived the advance of the British on the 2d, and be
lieving their intention to be to feign an attack on Fort Erie, but really to attempt
the capture of Buffalo and the public stores there, and the release of General Riall,
he had hastened to Black Rock, destroyed the bridge over the creek, and during the
night had thrown up a breastwork of logs.
Morgan's movement was timely and fortunate. When the British commenced an
attack at dawn, and a party moved forward to repair the bridge, the Americans of
fered very little resistance until the foe were within full and easy range of their
rifles, when they poured upon them such destructive volleys that the invaders recoiled.
In the mean time Drummond sent over re-enforcements, which swelled the number
of Tucker's troops to about twelve hundred. With these he attempted a flank move
ment, but was gallantly met at the fords of the creek by a small party under Lieu
tenants Ryan, Smith, and Armstrong, who disputed their passage with success. Aft
er a severe contest the British fell back, withdrew to Squaw Island, and with all pos
sible dispatch recrossed the Niagara and joined in the investment of Fort Erie. The
British lost a considerable number, of which no official record seems to have been
given. The Americans lost two private soldiers killed, and Captain Hamilton, Lieu
tenants Wadsworth and M'Intosh, and five private soldiers wounded.
While Tucker was busy in the invasion at Black Rock, Drummond opened fire
with some 24-pounders in front of Fort Erie; but from that time until the 7th can-
1 This little sketch shows the general appearance of the remains when I visited the spot in the summer of 1860. In
the front, on the extreme right, are the crumbled walls of Douglass's Battery, and in the extreme distance those of Port
Erie. Intermediately are seen the mounds of the intrenchments which connected the old fort with Towson's Battery.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
831
Preparations for Battle.
General Gaines takes Command of the Army.
A Eeconnoissance and its Effects.
nonading was seldom heard. Both parties were laboring intensely in preparing for
the impending battle, Drummond in constructing works for a siege and assault, and
Ripley in preparations for a defense. On that day most of the new works about
Fort Erie were completed. Towson's and Douglass's batteries were in readiness for
action. The parapeted breastworks from Fort Erie to Towson's Battery were com
pleted ; two ditches were dug in front of them, and abatis were laid in continuous
line from Douglass's Battery around the front of the fort and breastworks to Tow-
son's, and from thence to the lake shore. Between Towson's and the old fort two
other batteries had been constructed. One, mounting two guns, was placed in com
mand of Captain Biddle, and the other, also two guns, was put in charge of Lieuten
ant Fontaine. The dragoons, infantry, riflemen, and volunteers were encamped be
tween the southwestern ramparts and the water; and the artillery, under Major
Hindman, were stationed in the old fort.1
General Gaines2 arrived at the camp at Fort
•August, Erie on the 5th,a and was welcomed
with delight by the little army. He
immediately assumed the chief command, and
his presence inspired them with confidence and
courage. General Ripley, who had labored
faithfully in preparations for defense, yet not
without gloomy forebodings, resumed the com
mand of his brigade, and perfect good feeling
prevailed.
Gaines soon made himself acquainted with
the condition and position of his force, and on
the morning of the 6thb he sent out
° August. -.i-. IT -i -i •
Major Morgan and his riflemen (who
had been called over from Buffalo) to recon
noitre the enemy, and, if possible, draw him out
from his intrenchments. Morgan soon encoun
tered some of the British light troops, and at
tacked and drove them back to their lines ; and
for two hours he mano3uvred in
a way calculated to draw the
main body out, but without suc
cess. He returned to the camp
with a loss of five men killed and
four wounded.
This reconnoissance was followed by the British, early on the morning of the
. vJ,c hurling a tremendous storm of round shot upon the American works
from five of their heavy cannon. This drew from the assailed a severe
response from all their heavy guns that could be brought to bear on the enemy,
and from that day until the 13th the siege went slowly and steadily on, the garri
son, on all occasions, behaving most gallantly. Having on that morning completed
1 See map on page 839.
3 Edmund Pendleton Gaines was born in Culpepper County, Virginia, on the 20th of March, 1777. At the close of the
Kevolution his father returned to North Carolina, where he had resided, and there the son toiled on a small farm. When
he was about thirteen years of age the family emigrated to Tennessee, and at the age of eighteen young Gaines was
elected a lieutenant of a rifle company. He entered the United States Army as an ensign in January, 1809. He re-
. mained in the army six years, and thfen became collector of the port of Mobile. He was promoted to captain in the
army, and in that capacity was placed in command of Fort Stoddart, and was active in the arrest of Burr (see page 1ST).
He was commissioned a major in 1812, and rose through the various grades to brigadier general in March, 1814. He
was breveted a major general for his.gallant conduct at Fort Erie, where he was wounded. Congress rewarded him
with thanks and a gold medal. He was retained in 1815. He was active in the Southern Indian country, particularly
in the Seminole War. He died at New Orleans on the 6th of June, 1849, at the age of seventy-two years. The signa
ture here given is from a letter to Judge Hugh L. White, dated "Fort Erie, Upper Canada, August 24, 1S14.
832 PICTOEIAL FIELD-BOOK
Attack on Fort Erie. Preparations to receive an Assault. Situation of the American Troops. Secret Order.
the mounting of all his heavy ordnance, Drummond commenced a cannonade, bom
bardment, and rocketeering, which was continued throughout the day, and renewed
on the morning of the 14th. It ceased at seven o'clock in the evening, when very
little impression had been made on the American defenses.
Gaines was convinced that Drummond intended to resort to a direct assault should
his cannonading prove ineffectual, and, with this impression, he kept the garrison con
tinually on the alert. Men were detailed for night service in such manner that part
were resting and part were under arms continually. The guns in the batteries had
been charged afresh several evenings in succession with a variety of shot ; dark lan
terns were kept burning, and linstocks ready for firing were near every cannon. The
engineers and the commanding officer watched every movement with the eyes of ex
perts, and they agreed in the belief that an assault would be made on the night of the
14th. On that evening Gaines visited and inspected every part of the works, gave
explicit directions to every officer, and words of encouragement to the men ; and En
gineers M'Ree and Wood examined every part of the intrenchments most carefully.
In the mean time, while the garrison were on evening parade, a shell came screaming
across the space between the hostile camps, fell within the American lines, and lodged
in an almost empty magazine, which was blown up with a tremendous report. The
enemy huzzaed long and loud, supposing they had destroyed one of Gaines's chief
magazines. Hoping to profit by the confusion and loss, they prepared at once to as
sail the American works. Their gun-flints were removed from their muskets, scaling-
ladders were collected, and the arrangements of the columns for attack were carefully
made in accordance with a secret order1 issued by Drummond, and special secret in
structions given to Lieutenant Colonels Scott, Fischer, and Drummond.
At that time the Americans were situated as follows : Small, unfinished Fort Erie,
with a 24, 18, and 12 -pounder, forming the northeast angle of the intrenched camp,
was under the command of Captain Williams, with Major Trimble's Nineteenth Reg
iment of Infantry. The Douglass Battery, with an 18 and 6 pounder, and forming the
southeast angle, was commanded by Lieutenant Douglass, whose own name it bore.
On the left, forming the southwest angle, was Towson's Redoubt Battery, on the little
1 Three copies were made of this secret order by Lieutenant Colonel Harvey, Drummond's assistant adjutant genera),
for the use respectively of Lieutenant Colonel Drummond, Lieutenant Colonel Fischer, and Colonel Scott. A copy of
the one given to Drummond is before me. It is in the handwriting of Harvey, and was found on the body of Drum
mond after his death, with another paper mentioned in the subjoined paragraph in a letter of General Gaines to Judge
Hugh L. White, of Tennessee, the original of which is also before me. It is dated at Fort Erie, August 24, 1814. Gen
eral Gaines says: "The inclosed papers, numbers one and two, were in the pockets of Colonel Drummoud. The ball
that killed him passed through the latter, and a bayonet through the former. I send them to you as trophies, and curi
osities which I wish preserved." The paper number one, through which the bayonet was thrust, was the secret order
above mentioned. Number two is a rough topographical pencil-sketch of Fort Erie, the position of the British works,
that of the three vessels on the lake, and the relative position of Buffalo and Black Rock. Through this the fatal bul
let went, and left a fracture in each of its four folds, around which the blood-stain may be still seen, having the appear
ance of sepia in color. These interesting mementoes of the sanguinary field of Erie are in the possession of Samuel
Jaudon, Esq., of New York, a relative of Judge White by marriage, to whose courtesy I am indebted for their use.
In the secret order is the following paragraph, of which I have made a fac-simile: "The lieutenant %eneral most
strongly recommends a free use of the bayonet." The bayonet that wounded Drummond passed through the paragraph
immediately above this, and left a fracture in the paper about an inch in length and half an inch in width. In the se
cret order the parole was "Steel," and the countersign "Twenty."
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 833
Fort Erie Garrison expecting an Attack. The Fort assailed. The British repulsed.
eminence called Snake Hill ; and the two two-gun batteries in front, already men
tioned, were in charge of Captains Biddle and Fanning, the latter outranking Fon
taine. The whole of the artillery was in charge of Major Hindman. Parts of the
Ninth, Eleventh, and Twenty-fifth Regiments (the remnants of Scott's veteran bri
gade) were posted on the right, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Aspinwall.
General Ripley's brigade, consisting of the Twenty-first and Twenty-third, was post
ed on the left, and General Porter's brigade of New York and Pennsylvania Volun
teers, wTith the riflemen, occupied the centre.
An ominous silence prevailed in both camps at midnight of the 14th. It was the
lull before the bursting forth of the tempest in its fury. It was not the silence of
inactivity on the part of the British ; on the contrary, there was uncommon but cau
tious stirring within their lines. In the American camp alone, where, as the night
wore away, a doubt of immediate danger and the effects of great fatigue were wooing
the garrison to slumber, did the quiet of rest prevail. It was soon broken. At two
o'clock in the morning an alarm came from a picket-guard of one hundred men, com
manded by Lieutenant Belknap, of the Twenty-third Infantry, who were posted in
the direction of the enemy's camp to watch their movements. The duties of this
picket were important and perilous, but were intrusted to good hands. Belknap
managed the aifair with skill and bravery.1 The sky was overhung with clouds.
Sound, not sight, gave intelligence of the approach of the enemy. Belknap fired an
alarm, and then fell steadily back to camp. The enemy came dashing on in the
gloom, full fifteen hundred strong, under Lieutenant Colonel Fischer, and charged fu
riously upon Towson's Battery and the abatis on the extreme left, between that work
and the lake shore. They expected to find the Americans asleep, but were mistaken.
Colonel Miller's brave Twenty-first Regiment, then in charge of Major Wood, of the
Engineers, was behind the abatis, and Towson's artillerists, gallantly supported on
the right by the Twenty-third Regiment, were on the alert. At a signal, Towson's
long 24-pounders sent forth such a continuous stream of flame from the summit of
Snake Hill that the foe called it the "Yankee Light-house." At the same instant a
bright flame beamed forth from the line of the Twenty-first, and sent a brilliant illu
mination high and far, and revealed the position of the enemy to the garrison. It
was as evanescent as the light of the Roman candle of the pyrotechnic, and in a few
moments heaviest gloom settled upon the scene, relieved only by the flashes of the
cannon and musketry.
While one assailing column was endeavoring by the use of ladders to scale Tow-
son's embankment, the other, failing to penetrate the abatis, waded in the shallow
water of the lake under cover of darkness, and attempted to charge the Twenty-first
in the rear. But both columns failed. After a desperate struggle, they were re
pulsed and fell back. Five times they came gallantly to the attack, and were- as
often driven away. Finally, having suffered great loss, chiefly from the destructive
effects of grape and canister shot, they abandoned the enterprise.
Almost simultaneously with this movement on the extreme left, an assault was
i William Goldsmith Belknap was born in Newburg, Orange County, New York, on the 14th of September, 1T94. He
entered the army as third lieutenant in the Twenty-third Regiment of United States Infantry in the spring of 1814, and
in the following autumn was in Wilkinson's expedition down the St. Lawrence. He followed the fortunes of General
Brown, and was with him on the Niagara frontier in 1814. His services at Fort Erie, where he was severely wounded,
received the warm commendations of his superior officers.* He was retained in the army at the peace as first lieuten
ant in the Second Regiment, Colonel Brady. At the reduction of the army in 1S21 he was transferred to the Third, and
the following year was promoted to captain. He was promoted to major in 1842, and, having been active and useful in
the Seminole War in Florida, he was breveted lieutenant colonel. He was with General Taylor in Texas and Mexico,
and in the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma he gallantly commanded a brigade. During the remainder of
the service he was Taylor's inspector general. For his gallant conduct at the battle of Buena Vista he was breveted
brigadier general. He was with General Taylor in all his battles. From December, 1848, to May, 1851, General Bel
knap was in command of Fort Gibson, in the Cherokee nation, and his memory is cherished with gratitude by that peo
ple He died near Preston, Texas, on the 10th of November, 1851.
* In a letter to Major Belknap in 1S41 (kindly placed in my hands by a daughter of that gallant officer), Brigadier Gen
eral Towson gave most interesting details of the operations of the picket and the attack of the enemy.
3 G
834 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The British move upon the Fort. The Battle of Fort Erie. The British in a Bastion.
made on the right by five hundred infantry and artillery, with a reserve of Indians,
composing the centre and left columns of the enemy, under Lieutenant Colonels Drum-
mond and Scott. They advanced rapidly, under a blaze of fire from cannon and mus
ketry — Drummond toward old Fort Erie, which the mortified British had determined
to recover at all hazards, and Scott toward the Douglass Battery and the connecting
intrenchments. The latter were received by the veteran Ninth, under the command
of Captain Foster, and Captains Broughton and Harding's companies of New York
and Pennsylvania Volunteers, aided by a 6-pounder between Douglass Battery and
the lake shore, managed by Major M'Ree, the chief engineer. The enemy was soon re
pulsed in this quarter ; but the centre, led by Lieutenant Colonel Drummond, was not
long kept in check. It approached every assailable point of the fort at once. They
brought scaling-ladders, and, with the greatest coolness and bravery, attempted to
force an entrance over the walls. Captain Williams, and Lieutenants Macdonough
and Watmough, in the fort, met them gallantly, and twice repulsed them. Then
Drummond, taking advantage of the covering of a thick pall of gunpowder smoke
which hung low, went silently around the ditch, and with scaling-ladders ascended to
the parapet with great celerity, and gained a secure footing there with one hundred
of the Royal Artillery before any effectual opposition could be made. Already the
exasperated Drummond, goaded almost to madness by the murderous repulses which
he had endured, had given orders to show no mercy to the " damned Yankees,"1 and
had actually stationed a body of painted savages near, with instructions to rush into
the fort when the regulars should get possession of it, and assist in the general mas
sacre.2 Finding himself now in actual possession of a part of the fort, he instantly
directed his men to charge upon the garrison with pike and bayonet, and to " show
no mercy." Most of the American officers and many of the men received deadly
wounds. Among the former was Lieutenant Macdonough. He was severely hurt,
and demanded quarter. It was refused by Lieutenant Colonel Drummond. The lieu
tenant then seized a handspike, and boldly defended himself until he was shot down
with a pistol by the monster who had refused him mercy, and who often reiterated
the order, " Give the damned Yankees no quarter !" He soon met his deserved fate,
for he was shot through the heart, was severely bayoneted, and fell dead by the side
of his own victim.3
The battle now raged with increased fury on the right, while on the left the enemy
was repulsed at every point and put to flight. Thence, and from the centre, Gaines
promptly ordered re-enforcements. They were quickly sent by Ripley and Porter,
while Captain Fanning kept up a spirited cannonading on the enemy, now to be seen
approaching the fort, for the day had dawned. The enemy still held the bastion, in
spite of all efforts to dislodge them. Hindman and Trimble had failed in their at
tempts to drive them out, when Captain Birdsall, of the Fourth Rifle Regiment,
rushed in through the gateway, and with some infantry charged the foe. They were
repulsed, and the captain was severely wounded. Then a detachment from the Elev
enth, Nineteenth, and Twenty-second Infantry, under Captain Foster, of the Eleventh,
was inti'oduced into the interior bastion for the purpose of charging the enemy. The
movement was gallantly made — Foster was accompanied by Major Hall, the assist
ant inspector general — but, owing to the narrowness of the passage, it failed. It was
often repeated, and as often checked ; yet these attacks greatly diminished the num
ber of combatants in the bastion. A more furious charge was about to be made,
when, says an eye-witness, " Every sound was hushed by the sense of an unnatural
1 "I several times heard," says General Gaines in his report to the Secretary of War, "and many of our officers
heard, orders given ' to give the damiied Yankee rascals no quarter /' "
2 Statement of " A Veteran of 1812, in Porter's Corps," who was a participant in the fight, writing from Troy, New
York. See Old Soldiers' Advocate, Cleveland, Ohio, October, 1S59. Alluding to the capture of Lieutenant Fontaine, of
the artillery, who fell among the Indians, and was kindly treated by them, General Gaines in his report said, " It would
seem, then, that these savages had not joined in the resolution to give no quarter."
3 General Gaiues's official Dispatch to the Secretary of War.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 835
A Bastion, with the British, blown up. The Actors in the Matter. An American marauding Party.
tremor beneath our feet, like the first heave of an earthquake. Almost at the same
instant the centre of the bastion burst up with a terrific explosion, and a jet of flame,
mingled with fragments of timber, earth, stone, and bodies of men, rose to the height
of one or two hundred feet in the air, and fell in a shower of ruins to a great distance
all around."1
This explosion, so destructive and appalling, was almost the final and decisive blow
to the British in the contest.2 It was followed immediately by a galling cannonade,
opened by Biddle and Fanning, and in a few moments the British broke and fled to
their intrenchments, leaving on the field two hundred and twenty-one killed, one
hundred and seventy-four wounded, and one hundred and eighty-six prisoners. Some
of their slightly wounded were borne away. The loss of the Americans was seven
teen killed, fifty-six wounded, and eleven missing. Among the officers lost were Cap
tain Williams and Lieutenant Macdonongh, killed ; Lieutenant Watmough, severely
wounded, and Lieutenant Fontaine, who was blown into the ranks of the Indians
when the bastion exploded, but was not severely hurt. These were of the artillery,
and were all injured in defending the bastion. Captain Biddle, of the artillery, had
been previously injured, and Watmough had also received a contusion. Of the in
fantry officers injured were Captain Birdsall, Lieutenants Bushnell and Brown, and
Ensign Cisna, wounded in defending the fort, and Lieutenant Belknap, wounded in
defending the picket-guard which he commanded.
General Gaines called the affair a " handsome victory," not merely a defense and a
repul^,3 and in this opinion the impartial historian must agree. He spoke in high
est terms of all his officers and men, and particularly of the good conduct of Generals
Ripley and Porter, Captain Towson, and Majors Hindman, M'Ree, and Wood. The
intelligence of the event was received with great joy throughout the country; and
for his gallant conduct and valuable services at this time, and in the second siege of
Fort Erie, which soon followed, General Gaines received substantial honors. On the
14th of September he was breveted a major general, and on the 3d of November the
President approved of the action of the national Congress in voting him the thanks
of the nation and ordering a gold medal, with suitable devices (see next page), to be
struck and presented to him. The three great states of New York, Virginia, and
Tennessee each rewarded him with resolutions and an elegant sword.
There were drawbacks upon the joy and the honors of the victory besides those
of the loss of life in the conflict, for two of the three schooners that lay at anchor off"
the fort, as we have observed, wrere captured by the enemy, and on the day succeed
ing the victory a marauding party brought dishonor upon the American name at
Port Talbot, on the Canada shore. The schooners Ohio and Somers were captured
on the night of the 12th of August by Captain Dobbs, of the Royal Navy, and sev
enty-five men in nine boats. They were taken down the river halfway to Chippewa
and secured, but the Porcupine beat off her assailants.4 The marauders referred to
1 Manuscript Reminiscences of Major (then Lieutenant) Douglass, quoted by Dawson in his Battles of the United States
by Sea and Land, ii., 3CS.
2 "The cause of this explosion," says an eye-witness (one of Porter's men), "has never been officially explained. His
tory ascribes it to accident ; and perhaps it would not be proper for me to state what I learned at the time. Even if it
was design, I think the end justified the means. It was that mysterious explosion which, through Providence, saved
our gallant little army from the horrors of a general massacre."
The venerable Jabez Fisk, now (1S67) living near Adrian, Michigan, who was in the fight, is not so reticent concern
ing the explosion. In a letter to me, dated May 20, 1SC3, he writes : " Three or four hundred of the enemy had got into
the bastion. At this time an American officer came running up, and said, 'General Gaines, the bastion is full. I can
blow them all to hell in a minute !' They both passed back through a stone building, and in a short time the bastion
and the British were high in the air. General Gaines soon returned, swinging his hat, and shouting ' Hurrah for Little
York !' " This was iu allusion to the blowing up of the British magazine at Little York, where General Pike was killed.
See page 5SO.
3 Letter of General Gaines to the Secretary of War, August 26, 1S14. " It is due," he said, " to the brave men I have
the honor to command that I should say that the affair was to the enemy a sore beating and a defeat; and it was to us a
handsome victory."
4 In this affair the Americans lost one seaman killed, and three officers and four seamen wounded. The enemy lost
two seamen killed and four wounded. The Porcupine sailed for Erie.
830
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Honors to General Gaines.
Cannonade of Fort Erie.
Brown resumes Command of the Army.
GENERAL GAINES'S MEDAL.1
were a party of one hundred Americans and Indians, who landed at Port Talbot on
the night of the 16th, and robbed about fifty families of valuable property, such as
horses, household furniture, and wearing apparel, and several respectable citizens
were carried oif as prisoners of war ; one of them, Mr. Barn well, was a member of the
Canadian Assembly. As a dutiful historian I record the affair, but with ^ame.
Happily, such conduct on the part of the Americans was so rare that these pages
have not been often stained by the recital.
Both parties at Fort Erie immediately prepared for another struggle, and during
the remainder of August and until the middle of September each received and cre
ated strength by the arrival of re-enforcements and completing of their respective
defenses. The Americans had by that time mounted twenty-seven heavy guns, and
had over three thousand men behind them. Drummond also received re-enforce
ments a few days after his defeat on the 15th, and from some new batteries he opened
a cannonade and bombardment of Fort Erie with the design of compelling the Amer
icans to evacuate it. Almost daily, until the close of August, he threw hot shot,
shells, and rockets into the fort, and annoyed the garrison much ; and finally, on the
28th, a shell fell through the roof of Gaines's quarters, destroyed his writing-desk,
and, exploding at his feet, injured him so severely that he was compelled to relinquish
his command and retire to Buffalo.
When General Brown, then at Batavia, heard of this accident, he became exceed
ingly uneasy, and with shattered health and unhealed wounds he hastened to Buf
falo, and on the 2d of September crossed over to Fort Erie. He found the garrison
in charge of Colonel James Miller, whose rank was not sufficient for the position.
Unable to remain himself with safety, he at once issued an order for General Ripley,
the senior officer, to take command ; and, returning to Buffalo, he established there
the head-quarters of the Army of the Niagara, of which he now resumed control.
Some of his officers followed him directly, and gave him such assurance of the unpop
ularity of Ripley with the army, and the dangers therefrom to be apprehended, that,
though weak and suffering much, he returned to Fort Erie, and assumed the com
mand in person.
The fort was still closely invested, and Brown perceived that peril was impend-
1 On one side of the medal is the bust, name, and title of General Gaines, and on the other a figure of Victory stand
ing on a shield, under which is a flag and a halbert. She holds a palm branch in one hand, and with the other is plac
ing a laurel wreath on the end of a cannon which is standing upright, its muzzle downward. Around it is a scroll,
inscribed "ERIE." On one trunnion rests British colors, and from the other is suspended a broadsword. By the side
of the cannon lies a howitzer, helmet, and balls. Behind the cannon is seen a halbei't. Around the whole are the
words "RESOLUTION OF OO.NQRKBS, NOVE.MHER 8, 1SU; and below, "BATTLE OF EKIE, AUGUST 15, 1814."
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 837
British Works and Fort Erie. Brown determines on a Sortie. Preparations for it.
ing. The British camp was in a field encircled by woods, two miles from their
works, beyond the fange of shot and shell from the fort or Black Rock. The army
was divided into three brigades of from twelve to fifteen hundred men each ; and
one of these, daily relieved by another, was constantly at the works, with artillery.
These works had now been advanced to within four or five hundred yards of the old
fort, and at that distance two batteries had already been completed, and a third, from
which almost certain destruction might be hurled, was nearly finished. Brown saw
this impending danger, and took measures to avert it. Circumstances were favor
able. Heavy and continuous rains had flooded the country for several days. Drum-
mond's camp was on low, marshy ground ; and stragglers from it, who had been
picked up by the American pickets and deserters, informed Brown that the British
force was so much weakened by typhoid fever that the lieutenant general was con
templating a removal of the camp to some healthier position. So broken was his
powrer by camp sickness that for several days he had been unable to make an offensive
movement.
Now was Brown's golden opportunity, and he improved it. A sortie was planned,
and the time appointed for its execution the morning of the 17th of September. He
resolved, as he said, " to storm the batteries, destroy the cannon, and roughly handle
the brigade upon duty before those in reserve [at the camp] could be brought into
action."1 His preparations were made with great secrecy. He knew the hazards of
the enterprise, and desired the full co-operation of his officers. He sounded their opin
ions as well as he might without fully disclosing his designs. They were not in con
sonance with his own ; and he made his preparations in a manner to conceal his in
tentions from the army until all should be in readiness, for he determined to attempt
the bold design as soon as Porter should join him with his militia re-enforcements.2
These came, two thousand strong, and on the morning of the 17th the commanding
general explained his plans to General Ripley (his second in command), his adjutant
general, and engineers. All evinced a desire for hearty co-operation excepting Gen
eral Ripley, who considered the enterprise a hopeless one, and desired to have noth
ing to do with it.3
Toward noon Brown's sallying troops were in motion in the friendly and fortunate
obscurity of a thick fog. They were separated into three corps. One, under General
Porter, and composed of his Volunteers, under the immediate command of Major Gen
eral Davis, of the New York militia : detachments from the First and Fourth Rifle
Regiments, under Colonel Gibson ; detachments from the Twenty-first and Twenty-
third Infantiy, and a few dismounted dragoons acting as infantry, under Major Wood,
of the Engineers, was directed to move from the extreme left of the American camp,
by a circuitous route, through the woods (which had been stealthily marked and pre
pared by Lieutenants Riddle and Frazer), of the Fifteenth Infantry, to within pistol-
shot distance of the enemy's right wing, and attack the British right flank. The sec
ond division, composed of fragments of the Ninth, Eleventh, and Nineteenth Regi-
1 General Brown's Letter to the Secretary of War, September 29, 1814.
2 The council of officers was held on the 9th. Major Jesup, then recovering from his wounds, was at Buffalo, and
was invited to participate in the conference. The lake was so rough that he did not get over until after the meeting
had broken up. "General Brown," says Jesup in his manuscript Memoir, etc., "was evidently much disappointed at
the result of the council. In the course of the evening he expressed himself with great warmth in regard to his disap
pointment, and in relation to some of the officers who had been present at the council. But he added, in a manner pe
culiarly emphatic, ' We must keep our own counsels ; the impression must be made that we are done with the affair ;
but, as sure as there is a, God in heaven, the enemy shall be attacked in his works, and beaten too, as soon as all the volunteers
shall have passed over!'" "From this time," says the manuscript Memorandum already quoted, "the major general
acted and spoke as though he relied for safety on the defense of his camp ; and, to confirm this opinion in the army, he
took measures to floor the tents, and in every way to improve the condition of his forces in quarters, as if they were to
remain stationary for a long time." He sent spies, as deserters, to the British camp to give information of these move
ments in the American camp ; and so adroitly was the whole affair managed, that a spy was sent on the day of the sor
tie, at the very hour when the American forces moved, and was received by the British without suspicion.
3 "General Ripley contented himself with saying that the enterprise was a hopeless one, and he should be well sat
isfied to escape from the disgrace which, in his judgment, would fall upon all engaged in it."— Brown's Manuscript Mem
orandum, etc.
838
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Brilliant Success of General Porter.
Death of valuable Officers.
Biographical Sketch of Porter.
raents (the first commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Aspinwall, and the last by Major
Trimble), under James Miller (who had been breveted a brigadier general three days
before for his gallantry in the battle of Niagara Falls), was ordered to move from the.,
rio-ht by way of a ravine between Fort Erie and the enemy's batteries, and attack the
British centre. The remainder of the Twenty-first Regiment, commanded by General
Ripley, was posted as a reserve near the
fort, and out of sight of the enemy's
works.
General Porter1 and his command
moved from the encampment at noon,
and, following Lieutenants Riddle and
Frazer through the woods, reached a
position within a few rods of the Brit
ish right wing at a quarter before three
o'clock, before their movement was even
suspected by the enemy. An assault
was immediately commenced. It was a
complete surprise, and the startled en
emy on that flank fell back and left the
Americans in possession of the ground.
The batteries Nos. 3 and 4 were imme
diately stormed, and, after a close and
fierce contest for about thirty minutes,
both were carried. This triumph was
followed by the capture of the block-house
in the rear of No. 3. The garrison were
made prisoners, the cannon and carriages
were destroyed, and the magazine blown up. Porter's victory was complete, but it
was obtained at a fearful cost. His three principal leaders, namely, General Davis,
Colonel Gibson, and Lieutenant Colonel Wood, all fell mortally wounded ; and the
commands of the two latter officers devolved respectively on Lieutenant Colonel
M'Donald and Major Brooks.
i Peter Bnel Porter was born in Salisbury, Connecticut, on the 14th of August, 1T73. He was graduated at Yale Col
lege with high honors, studied law, and entered upon its practice in his native town. He removed to Western New
York in 1795, was elected to Congress in 180S, and in that body, aa we have observed (page 212), he became prominent
as a supporter of the administration, and conspicuous as a member of the Committee on Foreign Relations when
the country was approaching a war with England. His residence was at Black Rock, near Buffalo, on the Niagara
River, when the war broke out, and he at once engaged in the military service of his country. He was appointed by
Governor Tompkins Major General of New York Volunteers in July, 1813, and in that capacity he performed signal
service for his country during that and the succeeding year, as our record in the text attests. In 1815 he was again
elected to Congress, and was appointed a commissioner to
run the boundary-line between the United States and Can
ada. He remained in public life much of the time until
1829, when, having served a year in J. Q. Adams's Cabinet
as Secretary of War, he left government employment for
the quiet of private life. He possessed large estates on
the Niagara frontier, and the wealth accumulated thereby
is now enjoyed by his descendants. His name and serv
ices are identified with the growth and prosperity of West
ern New York. He died at his residence at Niagara Palls
on the 20th of March, 18-14, in the seventy-first year of his
age. His remains rest in a quiet cemetery there, under a
beautiful monument, on which is the following inscription :
"PETER BUEL PORTER, a pioneer in Western New York;
a statesman eminent in the annals of the nation and the
state : a general in the armies of America, defending in
the field what he had maintained in the council. Born in
Salisbury, Connecticut, August 14, 1773. Died at Niagara
Falls, March 20, 1844, known and mourned throughout that
extensive region which he had been among the foremost
to explore and to defend." I am indebted to the pencil
of his son, the late Colonel Peter Augustus Porter, for
the accompanying sketch of the monument. PORTER'S TOMB.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
839
Plan of Siege and Defense of Fort Erie.
Triumph of Miller and Upham.
EXPLANATION OF THE ABOVE MAP.— A, old Fort Erie : a, a, demi-bastions ; 6, a ravelin, and c, c, block-houses. These
were all built by the British previous to its capture at the beginning of July, d, d, bastions built by the Americans dur
ing the siege ; e, e, a redoubt built for the security of the demi-bastions, a, a.
B, the American camp, secured on the right by the line rj, the Douglass Battery, i, and Fort Erie ; on the left, and in
front, by the lines/,/,/, and batteries on the extreme right and left of them. That on the right, immediately under the
letter L in the words LEVEL PLAIN, is Towson's ; h, h, etc., camp traverses ; n, main traverse ; o, magazine traverse, cov
ering also the head-quarters of General Gaines ; p, hospital traverse ; 7, grand parade and provost-guard traverse ; r,
General Brown's head-quarters ; s, a drain ; t, road from Chippewa up the lake.
C, the encampment of Volunteers outside of the intrenchments, who joined the army a few days before the sortie.
D, D, the British works. 1, 2, 3, their first, second, and third battery, r, the route of Porter, with the left column, to
attack the British right flank on the 17th ; x, the ravine, and route of Miller's command.
I am indebted to the late Chief Engineer General Joseph G. Totten for the manuscript map of which this is a copy.
In the mean time, General Miller, aided by the gallant Lieutenant Colonel Upham,
had executed his orders well. He penetrated between the British first and second bat
teries, and, by the aid of Porter's successful operations, carried them both, and block-
840
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Result of the Sortie at Fort Erie.
The Hopes of the British blasted.
The American People inspirited.
houses in the rear. One was abandoned before the assailants reached it. Within
forty minutes after the attack commenced by Porter and Miller, four batteries, two
block-houses, and the whole line of British intrenchments were in the possession of,
the Americans. Just after the explosion of the magazine, and at near the close of
the action, General Ripley was ordered up with his little band of reserves, and while
engaged in observations he received such a severe and dangerous wound in the neck
that he fell to the ground. His aid, Lieutenant Kirby, caused him to be removed to
the fort, and the command of the reserves was given to Lieutenant Colonel Upham.
Notwithstanding Drummond sent strong re-enforcements from his camp to the
imperiled British line of action, the object of the sortie was fully accomplished. The
British advanced works were captured and destroyed, and Fort Erie was saved, with
Buffalo and the public stores on that frontier, and possibly all Western New York.1
In this memorable sortie the Americans lost almost eighty killed, and more than
four hundred wounded and missing. The loss of the British in killed, wounded, and
missing was about five hundred, exclusive of three hundred and eighty-five who were
made prisoners. " Thus," said General Brown, in his letter to the Secretary of Wai-
twelve days afterward, " one thousand regulars, and an equal portion of militia, in
one hour of close action, blasted the hopes of the enemy, destroyed the fruits of fifty
days' labor, and diminished his effective force one thousand men at least."
The " hopes of the enemy" were indeed " blasted ;" and, after hastily collecting
his scattered forces, Drummond broke up his encampment on the night of the 21st,
and retired to Riall's old and partially demolished intrenchments behind Chippewa
Creek. So sudden and precipitate was his flight that he abandoned some of his
stores in front of Fort Erie, and destroyed others at Frenchman's Creek, on the line
of his retreat. It has been said, in praise of British courage and pugnacity, that they
" never know when they are whipped," and such seems to have been the case in the
present instance, for General L. De Watteville, writing in the camp two days after
the action, spoke of the " repulse of the Americans at every point ;"2 and General
Drummond, in a later dispatch, also spoke of a "repulse of an American army of five
thousand men by an inconsiderable number of British troops."3
This victory, following so soon those at Chippewa and Niagara Falls, and occur
ring so nearly simultaneously with the glorious one on land and water at Plattsburg,
and the expulsion of the enemy from before Baltimore, diffused unusual joy through
out the country, and dispelled, in a measure, the gloom which had overspread the whole
land because of the capture of the national
capital by the British less than a month before.4
General Brown, in his official report of the
affair,a gave a generous list of » September 29,
heroes, with allusions to their
gallant deeds,5 and the loyal public hastened
1 Major Jesnp, in his MS. Memoir, etc., says: "The sortie
from Fort Erie was by far the most splendid achievement of
the campaign, whether we consider the boldness of the concep
tion, the excellence of the plan, or the ability of the execution.
No event in military history, on the same scale, has ever sur
passed it. The whole credit is due to General Brown. The
writer was in a situation to know that the conception, plan, and
execution were all his own."
2 L. De Watteville to General Drummond, September 19, 1814.
3 Thomson's Historical Sketches of the late War, page 32T.
* See Chapter XXXIX.
5 General Brown spoke in terms of warm eulogy of his en
gineers M'Ree and Wood. "No two officers of the grade," he
said, " could have contributed more to the safety and honor of
this army. Wood, brave, generous, and enterprising, died as
he had lived, without a feeling but for the honor of his country
and glory of her arms. His iwme and example, will live to guide
the soldier in the path of duty so long as true heroism is held
WOOD'S MOJJCMEMT.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
841
Honors awarded to General Brown. The Freedom of the City of New York conferred on him. The Certificate, etc.
to honor them individually and collectively. The national Congress, by a resolu
tion, approved by the President of the Republic on the 3d of November,11
.awarded the thanks of the nation and a gold medal, with suitable devices, to
each of the general officers.1 To General Brown, of whom it has been truthfully said
GENERAL BROWN'S MEDAL.
that " no enterprise undertaken by him ever failed,"2 the Corporation of the City of
New York gave him the honorary privilege of the fi-eedom of the city in a gold box;3
in estimation." The general not only admired Wood as a soldier, but loved him as a friend ; and he caused a hand
some marble monument to be erected at West Point (see opposite page) in his memory, with the following inscription
upon it :
North Side: "To the memory of Lieutenant Colonel E. D.WOOD, of the corps of Engineers, who fell while leading
a charge at the sortie of Fort Erie, Upper Canada, 17th September, 1814, in the thirty-first year of his age." West Side :
" He was exemplary as a Christian, and distinguished as a soldier." Sorith Side: "A pupil of this institution, he died
an honor to his country." East Side: " This memorial was erected by his friend and commander, Major General Jacob
Brown."
On the uneven north slope of West Point, near the Laboratory Buildings, this monument is seen, upon a grassy knoll,
shooting up from a cluster of dark evergreen trees.
1 On one side of the commanding general's medal is the bust and name of Major General Brown. On the other the
Roman fasces, indicative of the Union, the top encircled with a laurel wreath, from which are suspended three tablets
bearing the inscriptions CUIPPEWA, NIAGARA, and EEIE, surrounded by three stands of British colors. Below is seen a
mortar, cannon-balls, and bomb-shells, and in front of all is the American eagle with wings outspread as if about to soar.
Below these are the names and dates of the above battles.
3 See Memoirs of the Generals and Commodores, and other Commanders, etc., of the American Army and Navy, by Thomas
Wyatt, A.M., page 133.
3 The certificate of that freedom and the gold box with
which it was presented are in the possession of his widow,
yet (1807) living. The box, delineated in the engraving, is
of fine gold, elliptical in form, three inches in length, two
and a half in width, and three fourths of an inch in depth.
On the under side of the lid is the following inscription :
"The Corporation of the City of New York to Major Gen
eral Jacob Brown, in testimony of the high sense they enter
tain of his valor and skill in defeating the British forces, su
perior in number, at the battles of Chippewa and Bridgewa-
ter, on the 5th and 25th of July, 1814."
The following is a copy of the certificate, or diploma (en
tirely executed with a pen), giving General Brown the free
dom of the city of New York. At the head is a fancy design
of the battle of Chippewa, and then the words :
"To all to whom these presents shall come, De Witt Clin
ton, Esq., Mayor, and the Aldermen of the City of New York,
send greeting: At a meeting of the Common Council, held
at the Common Council Chamber in the City Hall of the City
of New York, the following resolutions were unanimously
agreed to :
" 'Whereas the Corporation* of the city entertains the most
lively sense of the late brilliant achievements of General Jacob Brown on the Niagara frontier, considering them as
* Here is inserted a device of a spread eagle in the middle ; an ancient war-chariot on the right ; cannon, flag, and
drum on the left.
GENERAL UROWN'fi GOLD BOX.
842
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Medal awarded to Generals Porter and Ripley by Congress.
Ripley honored by Gifts from several States.
not long after the National Congress voted him a medal. An elegant sword was
also presented to him by Daniel D. Tompkins, governor of the State of New York, in
the name of that commonwealth. J
To Generals Porter2 and Ripley,3 as well as to Scott, Gaines, and Miller, as we have
already observed, the National Congress awarded the thanks of the nation, and a gift
of a gold medal to each ; and to Ripley the States of New
York, Massachusetts, South Carolina, and Georgia each
gave expression of approbation, and visible honorary to
kens of their appreciation of his services. The spirits of all the general officers in
BATTLES OF CHIP
~JULY 5. I8K.
NIAGARA JULY 25. 181
RIE SEP 17.181
GENERAL PORTER S MEDAL.
proud evidences of the skill and intrepidity of the hero of Chippewa and his brave companions in arms, and affording
ample proof of the superior valor of our hardy farmers over the veteran legions of the enemy,
"'Resolved, That, as a tribute of respect to a gallant officer* and his intrepid associates, who have added such lustre
to our arms, the freedom of the city of New York be presented to General Jacob Brown, that his portrait be obtained
and placed in the gallery of portraits belonging to this city,t and that the thanks of this Corporation be tendered to the
officers and men under his command.'
" Know ye that Jacob Brown, Esquire, is admitted and allowed a freeman and a citizen of the said city, to have, to
hold, to use, and enjoy the freedom of the city, together with all the benefits, privileges,
franchises, and immunities whatsoever granted or belonging tor the said city.
" By order of the Mayor and Aldermen.
"In testimony whereof the said Mayor and Aldermen have caused the seal of the said city
to be hereunto affixed.
" (Witness), DE WITT CLINTON, Esquire, Mayor, the fourth day of February, in the year
of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifteen, and of the Independence and Sover
eignty of the United States the 3t)th.
" J. MORTON, Clerk."
1 The following inscription is upon the scabbard :
"Presented by his Excellency Daniel D. Tompkins, Governor of the State of New York, pursuant to resolutions of the
Senate and Assembly of the said state, as a testimony of gratitude, to Major General Jacob Brown, for his eminent
services, and as a memorial of the repeated victories obtained by him over the enemies of his country." On the other
side, "Major General Jacob Brown, U. S. Army."
2 On one side of Porter's medal is his bust in profile, name, and title, and on the other the figure of Victory, stand
ing, holding in one hand a palm branch and wreath, and in the other three little flags, on which are the names respect
ively of cmrpEWA, NIAGARA, and ERIE. Sitting near, the Muse of History is recording the events. Around are the
words "RESOLUTION OF CONGRESS, NOVEMBER 8, 1814," and below the names and dates of the three battles.
3 On one side of Ripley's medal is his bust, name, and title in profile, and on the other a figure of Victory holding up
a tablet among the branches of a palm-tree, inscribed with the words OIIIPPEWA, NIAGARA, and ERIE. In her right
hand, which is hanging by her side, are seen a trumpet and a laurel wreath, and around the whole and below, the same
inscriptions as upon Porter's medal.
Eleazer Wheelock Ripley was born in Hanover, New Hampshire, in 1782, and was a grandson of the Rev. Dr. Whee-
lock (whose name he bore), the founder of Dartmouth College. He was a lineal descendant of Miles Standish. He was
* Here is a monument with memorial urn. On one side a woman with a wreath, about to crown it; on the other a
woman on one knee inscribing on the monument, and back of her a tent,
t This portrait, a copy of which may be seen on page COS, is in the Governor's Room in the City Hall, New York.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
843
Bat few of the Army of the Niagara now alive.
Two remarkable Survivors.
How they were wounded.
GENERAL RIPLEY'S MEDAL.
the Army of Niagara at that time, and of nearly all of the subordinate officers, have
passed away from earth, but their memories are cherished with honor and affection.
And of all the rank and file of that army, whose existence as an organization ended
soon after the siege and defense of Fort Erie, very few remain among us, and these
are men " with the snow that never melts" upon their heads. Fifty-three years or
more have elapsed since they were there in arms for their country.1
Major General George Izard, who was in command on Lake Champlain, having, as
educated at Dartmouth, and was graduated in the year 1800. He adopted law as a profession, and in 180T was elected
a member of the Massachusetts Legislature, he being a resident of Winslow, in that state. He succeeded the late Judge
Story as its speaker. He entered the army as lieutenant colonel of infantry in March, 1812. He rose to brigadier gen
eral in the spring of 1814, and was breveted major general for his gallant conduct in the battle of Niagara. He was
severely wounded at Fort Erie, when he was removed to Buffalo. For three months his life was despaired of. He was
a brave, skillful, and patriotic soldier. He did not do himself or his country justice on the Niagara frontier owing to
a very serious misunderstanding between himself and General Brown, which became an open quarrel after the war.
General Ripley was retained in the army at its reduction, but resigned in 1820. He became a resident of Louisiana, and
represented that state in Congress. He died at West Feliciana on the 2d of March, 1S39, at the age of fifty-seven years.
1 There are two survivors of that army yet (18C7) living with whom I have had correspondence, who are worthy of no
tice here because of their remarkable escapes from death, having been wounded so desperately that no hope could have
been entertained of their recovery. Yet for over fifty years since they have lived as useful members of society. I refer
to Robert White, of Morrisson, Whiteside County, Illinois, and Jabez Fisk, mentioned in note 2, page 835, living near
Adrian, Michigan. The former had both arms shot off above the elbows, and the latter was shot through the neck and
cast upon a brush-heap as a dead man. White was wounded on the evening of the 15th of August, Fisk during the sor
tie on the 17th of September. "Just at twilight," says White, in a letter to a friend (Lorenzo D.Johnson), "as my arms
were extended in the act of lifting a vessel on the fire, a 24-pounder came booming over the ramparts and struck off
both my arms above my elbows ! The blow struck me so numb that at first I did not know what had happened, and
the dust and ashes raised by the force of the ball so filled my face that I could not see. My left arm, as I was subse
quently informed, was carried from my body some two rods, and struck a man in his back with such force as nearly
brought him to the ground. This same shot took off the right arm of another soldier standing not far from me, and,
passing on to the other side of the encampment, killed three men ! It was the most destructive shot of any that the
enemy sent into our works."
Fisk, who was with General Porter, says in a letter to me in May, 1SG3, " Immediately after attacking the block-house
General Porter was taken prisoner. The companies of Captains Harding [in which Fisk was] and Hall rushed forward
and retook him. In this manoeuvre I was shot through the neck. The ball passed between the windpipe and the gul
let, cutting both. Passing obliquely, it came out near the backbone. I fell as if dead. All appeared dark as midnight.
I was conscious, but thought I was dead and in the other world. I was thrown on a brush-heap, and should have found
a final resting-place in a mud-hole near by had not Solomon Westbrook, a member of our company, discovered and
taken me to the fort."*
* When the surgeons dressed Mr. Fisk's -wounds they had no idea that he would survive until morning ; but he rap
idly recovered. He was taken to the general hospital at Williamsville, and then to Batavia, where he was discharged,
and, weak and penniless, started for his home in Tioga County, New York. He worked and begged his way. He was
afterward pensioned, and received bounty-land. On the latter he settled, and now owns it. He was born in Franklin
County, Massachusetts, and is the son of a Revolutionary soldier. His family moved to Albany in 1802, and soon aft
erward settled in Tioga County. There he enlisted in Captain Harding's company, under General Porter. He was
with the Army of the Niagara during the entire campaign of 1814 until he was wounded. He was present when Gen
eral Swift was shot at Fort George, and assisted in carrying him back to Queenston. " Every member of Captain Hard-
ing's company is in heaven," Mr. Fisk writes in a letter to me in May, 1863, "excepting Solomon Westbrook and my
self." He visited Mr. Westbrook, in the State of New York, in 1SG2. They had not met since the latter bore young
Fisk from the battle-field. Mr. Fisk is now nearly eighty years of age, and is full of vigor of body and mind.
844
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Robert White, an armless Soldier.
General Izard sends Troops to the Niagara Frontier.
1814.
he believed, a competent force to protect that frontier, moved toward Sackett's Har
bor early in Septembei', under the direction of the Secretary of War, with about four
thousand troops, either to divert the British from their evident purpose of heavily
re-enforcing Drummond, by menacing Kingston and the St. Lawrence communica
tion with Montreal, or moving on to the aid of General Brown. At the Harbor he
received a letter from the latter, dated the 10th of September,* stating the ef
fective force on the Niagara frontier to be not much more than two thousand
men, and urging him to move on with his troops and form a junction with the Army
of the Niagara at Buffalo. Porter, he said, would probably raise three thousand vol
unteer recruits ; but, said he, " I will not conceal from you that I consider the fate
of this army very doubtful unless speedy relief is afforded."
Izard's division arrived at Sackett's Harbor on the very day of the successful sor
tie at Fort Erie,b and at the same time he received a dispatch from Gen
eral Macomb giving an inspiriting account of the repulse of the British
from Plattsburg. He at once resolved to move westward, and on th& 2.1st he em
barked on Chauncey's fleet twenty-five hundred infantry, at the same time directing
his mounted and dismounted dragoons and light artillery to move by land by way
of Onondao-a.
b September 17.
White was then about twenty years of age. His wounds
were dressed by the late Dr. Simon Hunt,* of Rochester,
New York, and a week afterward he was taken to Buffalo
and placed in the care of Jeremiah Johnson, who was then
in charge of the hospital at that place. That kind-hearted
gentleman nursed him tenderly and became his benefac
tor, and he was chiefly instrumental in procuring for the
maimed young soldier a generous life-pension of four hund
red and eighty dollars a year. After the war he settled in
Vermont and married the widowed daughter of Mr. John-
.son (whose young husband was killed at Fort Erie), who
is still (1867) his excellent companion. They are the pa
rents of a large family, all of whom are useful members
of society in the West. Three of their sons are eminent
ministers of the Gospel.
Mr. White contrived an apparatus, composed of a pen
fixed in a triangular piece of wood, by which, holding it
between his teeth, he was soon enabled to write not only
with facility, but with remarkable clearness. His penman
ship failed in excellence only when he lost his teeth. I
give below a fac-simile of a part of a note written to me in
March, 1800, and a part of a letter written twenty years be
fore, to which he alludes. He has always worn tin arms and
hands, so that, with long-sleeved coats, a stranger would
not detect his mutilation. The engraving was made from
a daguerreotype kindly procured for me by L. D. Johnson,
Esq., of Washington City, son of the benefactor of Mr.
White already mentioned.
FAC-SIMILE OF WHITE'S WRITING IN 1840 AND 1SGO.
* Doctor Hunt was a pioneer settler at Rochester, where he lived fifty-three years as a practicing physician. He died
on the 12th of April, 1864, in the seventy-ninth year of his age.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
845
Izard takes Command of the Army of the Niagara. He assumes the offensive. Bissell's Victory at Lyon's Creek.
Izard and his infantry reached the Genesee River on the 21st, where they dis
embarked the next day. They could
not commence their march until the
24th, when they moved slowly, it being
wilderness most of the way, and heavy
rains were falling. They finally arrived
at Lewiston on the 5th of October ; and
so unexpected was their appearance to
the enemy that, if they could have pro
cured boats, they might have surprised
and captured a British battalion at
Queenston. On that evening Izard was
visited by Generals Brown and Porter.
His design was to attack Fort Niagara,
but it was agreed to form a junction of
the two armies southward of Chippewa.
Izard moved up to Black Rock, crossed
there on the 10th and llth, and en
camped two miles north of Fort Erie.
Ranking General Brown, he assumed
chief command of the combined forces,
and the latter retired to his old post at
Sackett's Harbor.
General Izard was soon in command
of almost eight thousand troops, and prepared to march upon Drummond. Leaving
Lieutenant Colonel Hindman and a sufficient garrison to hold Fort Erie, he moved
with his army toward Chippewa, and vainly endeavored to draw the enemy out. He
was informed that there was a considerable quantity of grain belonging to the Brit
ish at Cook's Mill, on Lyon's Creek, and on the morning of the 1 8th of October he
sent General Bissell, with about nine hundred of his own brigade, a company of rifle
men under Captain Irvine, and a squadron of dragoons commanded by Captain An-
spaugh, with instructions to capture or destroy it. They reached the vicinity of
the mill that night, and encamped. Two companies, under Captain Dorman and Lieu
tenant Horrel, with Irvine's riflemen, were sent across the creek as pickets for the se
curity of the main body, and Lieutenant Gassaway,1 at the head of a small party, was
posted still more in advance, on the Chippewa Road. At midnight a detachment of
Glengary infantry attacked these pickets, and were repulsed ; and early in the morn
ing Colonel Murray, with detachments from three regular regiments, the Glengary
infantry, some dragoons and rocketeers, and a field-piece, renewed the attack. For
fifteen minutes these gallant few of Bissell's men maintained their ground, when his
main body came up to their support. Colonel Pinckney, with his Fifth Regiment,
was ordered to turn the right flank of the enemy, and cut off his field-piece, while
Major Barnard advanced in front with instructions to make free use of the bayonet.
These orders were quickly and effectively carried into execution, and, after some very
sharp fighting by both parties, the British fell back in confusion and fled, leaving their
killed and many of their wounded in the field, with a few prisoners. The fugitives
were pursued some distance, when Bissell called back his men. The British fled to
the main carnp at Chippewa, and the Americans destroyed about two hundred bush
els of wheat at the mill. The loss of the former was not exactly ascertained, but
is supposed to have been about one hundred and fifty in killed, wounded, and prison
ers. The Americans lost twelve killed, fifty-four wounded, including five officers, and
one man made prisoner. Satisfied that he could not withstand the increased power
1 John Gassaway was a native of Maryland, and served with honor during the whole war.
846
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Canada abandoned by the Americans. Port Erie blown up. Disposition of the Troops. Commodore Champlin.
of the Arrny of Niagara, physically and morally, Drummond now fell back to Fort
George and Burlington Heights.1
General Izard clearly perceived that farther offensive operations on the peninsula
so late in the season would be imprudent, and perhaps extremely perilous to his
army. He fell back from Street's Creek to the Black Rock Ferry. Soon afterward
the whole army crossed to the American side and abandoned Canada. General Win
der, who had lately arrived from Baltimore, led General Brown's infantry to Sack-
ett's Harbor. About a thousand men were sent to Greenbush, opposite Albany, on
the Hudson ; some of the troops commenced the erection of huts for winter quarters,
and the remainder, excepting the Seventeenth and Nineteenth Regiments under Gen
eral Miller, who went to Erie, were cantoned in that vicinity.2 Knowing Fort Erie
to be of little service, Izard, after consulting Major Totten, of the Engineers, and oth
ers, caused it to be mined, and on the 5th of November it was blown up and laid in
ruins. So it has remained until now.3
RUINS OF FOKT EKIE, I860.
I was at Fort Erie and other distinguished places near, and in Buffalo, a day or two
before I visited the battle-grounds of Chippewa and Niagara in August, 1860. It was
my good fortune to have the company, on that occasion, of the venerable and war-
scarred soldier of 1812, Captain (now Commodore) Stephen Champlin, of the United
States Navy, whose gallant exploits on Lake Erie with the brave Perry have been
already recorded in this work.4 When he learned my errand he seemed to forget his
painful wound, unhealed since he received it in the naval service in 1814, and, order-
1 General Izard's Official Correspondence, page 104 ; General Bissell's Report to General Izard, October 22, 1814 ; Iz-
ard's General Order, October 23, 1S14.
2 To cover and protect the stores at Batavia, Major Helms was stationed there with a battalion of dismounted dra
goons. Lieutenant Colonel Eustis, with a battalion of light artillery, was stationed at Williamsville to guard the ex
tensive hospital there. Colonel Ball's squadron of dragoons were stationed on the Genesee River, near the village of
Avon, for the convenience of forage ; and the whole of the remaining infantry were cantoned on the margin of the wa
ter between Buffalo and Black Rock.— Izard's Letter to the Secretary of War, November 20, 1814.
3 Our engraving shows the appearance of the ruins of Fort Erie from Towson's Battery on the southwestern angle,
looking toward Buffalo, which is seen in the extreme distance toward the right. The water in the foreground is in the
ditch. This was its appearance when I visited the spot in I860. The main portion of the ruins, seen toward the right,
with windows, is that of the mess-house built by the British. This was not fortified by them, but was intrenched by the
Americans. On the left is seen the ruins of the magazine, between which and the mess-house a portion of Buffalo ap
pears. Just back of Towson's Battery, a part of which is seen in the foreground on the left, Lieutenant Colonel Drum
mond and others were buried.
* See Chapter XXIV., and his portrait and biography on page 523.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
847
FOKT ERIE MILLS, FOKT EK1E.
Visit to Fort Erie and historic Places in and near Buffalo. Veterans of the War in that City. Forest Lawn Cemetery.
ing his light carriage, he took me to every place of interest to the historian, the stu
dent, and the stranger.
We first rode to Fort Erie, crossing the head of the swift-flowing Niagara River from
the Frontier Mills at the old Black Rock Ferry to the village of Fort Erie, which was
once called Waterloo. The ruins of the fort are some distance up the Canada shore
from the village. On our way we passed old Fort Erie Mill, on the margin of the
foot of the lake, which
stood there during the
war, as many scars and
ball-holes still in its clap
boards fully attest. On
the left of the mill, delin
eated in the engraving,
across the river, upon a
high bank, is seen Fort
Porter, and in the ex
treme distance on the
right is seen the wharf
of the Buffalo and Lake
Huron Railway Company. On our right, as we passed on to the fort, an elevated
ridge was pointed out, on which the British batteries were erected for the siege of
Fort Erie. No. 1 (see map on page 839), nearest the fort, was on property belonging
to Captain Murray, of the Royal Navy, and No. 2 on the premises of Mr. Thompson.
I did not ascertain on whose land were the mounds of No. 3. The ruins of all were
quite prominent.
We spent about two hours in the hot sun on the site of Fort Erie and the battles,
examining the theatre of scenes described in this chapter, and sketching some of the
ruins ; and, returning to Black Rock, we visited the site of the old navy yard,1 a lit
tle way up Shogeoquady Creek, and called on the venerable James Sloan, the last sur
vivor of the captors of the Caledo
nia and Adams in the autumn of
1812.2 He was then past seventy-
one years of age. From his lips we
heard an interesting narrative of some of the events of that daring enterprise, illus
trative of the courage, fortitude, and skill of the actors.
Leaving Mr. Sloan, we rode to the office of Dr. Trowbridge, of whom I have already
spoken as a physician in Buffalo when the British destroyed it. He was seventy-five
years of age, yet vigorous in mind and body. He gave us some interesting particu
lars of his own experience, and the bravery of the widow St. John. His son accom
panied us to the room of the City Councils, where we saw the portrait of Mrs. Mer
rill (Miss Ransom), who was the first white child born in Western New York, on the
domain of the Holland Land Purchase. At a late hour we returned, heated and
weary, to the delightful residence of Captain Champlin, in the midst of gardens, and
dined. There I saw the elegant straight sword presented to the hero,3 and the rich
ly-carved easy-chair made of the wood of the Lawrence, Perry's flag-ship, delineated
on page 542.
On the following morninga I rode out with Captain Champlin to a beau- * August ic,
tiful depository of the dead in the suburbs of Buffalo, called Forest Lawn
Cemetery. The ground is pleasantly undulating, is much covered with trees of the
primeval forest, and is really a delightful resort during the heats of summer for those
1 See page 385. 2 See page 386.
3 The following is the inscription on one side of the blade of the sword : " STEPHEN CHAMPLIN, ACTING SAILING MAS
TER, LAKE ERIE, IOTH SEPTEMBER, 1813." On the other side, " ALTIUS IUUNT QCE AD SCMNA NrruNTER."
848
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Soldiers' Mo uiment.
Other Monuments, and Inscriptions on them.
SOLDIEKS MONUMENT.
who are not saddened by the sight of graves.
There, in an elevated open space, within
ground one hundred feet square, slightly in
closed, stands a fine monument of marble,
twenty-two feet in height, which was erected
by the corporate authorities of Buffalo in the
autumn of 1852 in commemoration of several
officers of the United States Army who were
engaged in the War of 1812; also of a cele
brated Indian chief, and to mark the spot
where the remains of over one thousand per
sons, which were removed from the city, lie
buried.1 Near the monument (and seen in the
foreground on the right) is a tomb of brick,
bearing a recumbent slab of mai-ble, over the
grave of Captain Williams, who lost his life at
Fort Erie. The inscription on it is historical
and briefly biographical.2 Southward of this
is a handsomely-carved slab, lying on the ground, placed there in commemoration of
a Connecticut soldier killed in the battle of Niagara.3 Northeasterly of the monu
ment is another slab, over the grave of Captain Wattles ;4 and south of it is another
over the grave of Captain Dox.5
Not far from this public monument, on a gentle, shaded slope, is the grave of Gen
eral Bennet Riley, who was a soldier in the War of 1812, and was distinguished in
the Seminole War and the contest with Mexico. Over it is a handsome marble mon
ument, bearing a brief inscription.6 Near this, in the cool shadows of the trees, we
1 The following are the inscriptions on the monument : West Side. — " In memory of Major Lodowick Morgan,* Captain
Alexander Williams, Captain Joseph Kenney, Captain Simeon D. Wattles, Captain Myndert M. Dox, and Sergeant Tay-
]or,t officers of the United States Army, who were engaged in the'War of 1812." North Side.—" Farmer's Brother,
Chief of the Seneca Nation of Indians.'" South Side.— "The remains of 1158 persons are buried in this lot, all of which
were removed from the old burial-ground on the west side of Delaware Street, between Church and Eagle Streets, in
the city of Buffalo." East Side. — "Erected October, 1852, by the Common Council of the City of Buffalo— Hiram Bar
ton, Mayor."
2 The following is a copy of the inscription : " Sacred to the memory of Captain Alexander John Williams, of the
Twenty-first Regiment United States Artillery, son of General Jonathan! and Marianne Williams, of the city of Phila
delphia, who was killed in the night attack by the British on Fort Erie, August 14-15, 1814. In the midst of the con
flict, a lighted port-fire in front of the enemy enabled them to direct their fire with great precision upon his company.
He sprang forward, cut it off with his sword, and fell mortally wounded by a musket-ball. He sacrificed himself to
save his men. Born October 10, 1790. Died August 15, 1S14. Fratri Dilecto."
3 His name is on the monument. The following inscription is on the slab : "Memorial tribute to Joseph Kinney, of
Norwich, Connecticut, senior captain in the Twenty-fifth Regiment United States Army, shot through the breast at the
battle of Bridgewater, July 25, 1814. To the friendship of George Coit, Esq., his relatives are indebted for his burial at
this place. Erected by a brother, July, 1829.
* His name is on the monument. The following is the inscription on the slab : "In memory of Captain Simeon D.
Wattles, of the United States Army, who was killed in the memorable sortie of Fort Erie on the 17th of September,
1814, M. 33 years. As a Christian, he was pious and exemplary ; as a Soldier, brave and magnanimous ; as a Citizen,
benevolent and sincere." Below this was a verse of poetry, but it was too much effaced to be deciphered.
5 His name is on the monument. The following is the inscription on the slab : " The grave of Myndert M. Dox, late
captain in the Thirteenth Regiment United States Army, son of Peter and Cathalina Dox, of Albany. Born January 6,
1790. Died September S, 1830, in the forty-first year of his age."
6 The following is the inscription : "Major General Benuet Riley, United States Army. Died June 9, 1853, in the
sixty-sixth year of his age."
General Riley was a native of Maryland, and entered the army as ensign in a rifle corps in January, 1813. He re-
* Lodowick Morgan was a native of Maryland, and entered the army as second lieutenant in a rifle corps in May, 180S.
He was promoted to captatn in July, 1S11, and to major in January, 1814. He was a very efficient officer, and received
the highest praise for his conduct in repelling the British invasion near Black Rock on the 3d of August, 1S14, already
mentioned in the text. He was killed, as we have seen, in a skirmish before Fort Erie on the 12th of the same month.
t The graves of all of these, excepting Morgan and the sergeant, as observed in the text, are marked by inscribed slabs.
t Ho-na-ye-wuo, or Farmer's Brother, was a conspicuous contemporary of Cornplanter and Red Jacket. He was es
teemed as one of the noblest of his race. He was a warrior on principle and practice, spurning every art of civilized
life. He was probably born about the year 1730. He was in the battle with Braddock in 1755, and during his whole
life he was a foremost chief among the Senecas. He was eloquent in speech, and brave on the war-path. He died in
the autumn of 1814.
§ He was long at the head of the Engineer Department of the United States Army, and was one of the founders of
the Military Academy at West Point. See page 235. He stiperintended the construction of many fortifications.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
849
Expedition of Captain Holmes into Canada.
Battle at the Longwoods.
Lost Posts to be recaptured.
GENEKAL ElI.Ev's MONUMENT,
BUFFALO.
1814.
lingered some time, when a thunder-peal from the direction
of Lake Erie warned us of the approach of a summer shower.
We rode back to the city delighted with the morning's ex
perience, and between two and three o'clock I left for Niag
ara Falls in a railway coach, where I arrived, as before ob
served, in the midst of a heavy thunder-storm.
While the events we have been relating were occurring on
the Niagara frontier, others of great importance were occur
ring in other portions of the wide field of action, especially
on Lake Champlain, and on and near the sea-coasts. Before
we proceed to a consideration of these, let us take a hasty
glance at movements in the Northwest, which closed active
military operations in the region of the upper lakes.
For many weeks after Harrison's victory on the Thames
nothing of great importance occurred in that region. The
most stirring event was an expedition under Captain Holmes,
a gallant and greatly beloved young officer, sent out by Lieu
tenant Colonel Butler in February,a where he was in
temporary command at Detroit. It consisted of one
hundred and sixty men, including artillerists, with two 6-pounders, and its object
was the capture of Fort Talbot, a British outpost a hundred miles down Lake Erie
from Detroit. Difficulties caused Holmes to change his destination, and he proceed
ed to attack another outpost at Delaware, on the River Thames. In that movement,
too, he was foiled by the watchfulness and strategy of the foe, who lured him from
his expected prey. Finally they came to blows toward the evening of the 3d of
March,b at a place called the Longwoods, in Canada, where they fought more
than an hour, and then each gladly withdrew under cover of the night-shad
ows. In this affair the Americans lost seven men in killed and wounded, while the
enemy's loss, including the Indians, was much greater.1 The expedition was fruitless
of good to any body.2
In former chapters we have a record of the capture of Fort St. Joseph and the post
and island of Michillimackinack, or Mackinaw, by the British, immediately preceding
(and partly inducing) the fall of Detroit in the summer of 1812. 3 The latter post,
with all Michigan, as we have observed,4 was recovered from the British in 1813. For
the better security of these acquisitions against British and Indian incursions, Gen
eral M'Arthur, the commandant of the Eighth Military District, caused works to be
erected at the foot of Lake Huron, or head of the Straits or River St. Clair. It was
called Fort Gratiot, in honor of the engineer of that name who superintended its con
struction.
The Americans were not contented with the recovery of Michigan only, but de
termined to recapture Mackinaw and St. Joseph. The latter was the key to the vast
traffic in furs with the Indians of the Northwest, and the British, knowing its im
portance in its commercial and political relations to their American possessions, as
resolutely resolved to hold it. Accordingly Lieutenant Colonel M'Douall was sen!
thither with a considerable body of troops (regulars and Canadian militia) and sea-
mained in the army, and in 1828 was breveted a major for ten years' faithful service. He was breveted a colonel for
good conduct in Florida, brigadier general for his bravery at Cerro Gordo, and major general for his gallant conduct at
Contreras. He was made military commander of the Department of Upper California, and was ex officio governor in
1849 and 1850. 1 Captain Holmes's Dispatch to Lieutenant Colonel Butler, March 10, 1814.
2 A similar expedition had been sent out by Butler a short time before. Butler was informed that a considerable
number of regulars, Canadians, and Indians were collected on the River Thames, not far from Chatham. He sent Cap
tain Lee with a party of mounted men to reconnoitre, and, if feasible, to attack and disperse them. Lee gained the rear
of the enemy unobserved, fell upon them, and scattered them in all directions. He took several of them prisoners.
Among them was Colonel Babie (pronounced Bawbee), whose house, we have observed, was the head-quarters of Gener
al Hull, and yet standing in the village of Windsor, opposite Detroit. See page 262. Colonel Babie had been a leader
of Indians in the invasion of the Niagara frontier at the close of 1S13. 3 See Chapter XIV. * See pnge 567.
3H
850 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Expedition to the Upper Lakes. Operations at the Saut St. Marie. Battle on Mackinaw Island.
men accompanied by twenty-four bateaux laden with ordnance. There he found a
large body of Indians waiting to join him as allies.
The Americans planned a land and naval expedition to the upper lakes ; and so
early as April, when M'Douall
j^ J
{2 /W /? went to Mackinaw, Commander
Arthur St. Clair was placed in
charge of a little squadron for the
purpose, consisting of the Niagara, Caledonia, St. Lawrence, /Scorpion, and Tigress, all
familiar names in connection with Commodore Perry on Lake Erie. A land force,
under Lieutenant Colonel Croghan, the gallant defender of Fort Stephenson, was pre
pared to accompany the squadron.
Owing to differences of opinion in Madison's Cabinet, the expedition was not in
readiness until the close of June. It left Detroit at the beginning of July. Croghan
had five hundred regular troops and two hundred and fifty militia; and on the ar
rival of the expedition at Fort Gratiot on the 12th he was joined by the garrison of
that post, composed of a regiment of Ohio Volunteers, under Colonel William Cot-
greave. Captain Gratiot also joined the expedition. They sailed for Matchadach
Bay to attack a newly-established British post there. A lack of good pilots for the
dangerous channels among islands, rocks, and shoals leading to it, and the perpetual
fogs that lay upon the water, caused them to abandon the undertaking after a week's
trial, and the squadron sailed for St. Joseph, in the direction of Lake Superior. It
anchored before it on the 20th. The post was abandoned, and the fort was commit
ted to the flames. This accomplished, Major Holmes, of the Thirty-second Infantry,
and Lieutenant Turner, of the Navy, were sent with some troops and cannon to de
stroy the establishment of the British Northwest Company at the Saut St. Marie, or
Falls of St. Mary. That company had been from the beginning, because of its vital
interest in maintaining the British ascendency among the Indian tribes, with whom
its profitable traffic was carried on, the most inveterate and active enemy of the
Americans. Its agents had been the most effective emissaries of the British author
ities in inciting the Indians to make war on the Americans ; and, in every way, it
merited severe chastisement at the hands of those whose friends had suffered from
the knife and hatchet of the cruel savages.
ajulyi Holmes arrived at St. Mary's on the 21st.a John Johnson, a renegade mag-
18W- istrate from Michigan, and an Indian trader, who was the agent of the North
west Company at that place, apprised of his approach, fled with a considerable amount
of property, after setting on fire the company's vessel above the Rapids. She was
saved by the Americans,1 but every thing valuable on shore that could not be carried
away was destroyed. Holmes then returned to St. Joseph, when the whole expedi
tion started for Mackinaw, where it arrived on the 26th.b It was soon ascer
tained that the enemy there were very strong in position and numbers, and
the propriety of an immediate attack was a question between Croghan and St. Clair.
The post could not be carried by storm, nor could the guns of the vessels easily do
much damage to the works, they were so elevated. It was finally decided that Cro
ghan should land with his troops on the back or western part of the island, under cov
er of the guns of the ships, and attempt to attack the works in the rear. This was
done at Dowsman's farm on the 4th of August, without much molestation, but Cro
ghan had not advanced far before he was confronted by the garrison under M'Douall,
who were strongly supported by Indians in the thick woods. M'Douall poured a
storm of shot and shell from a battery of guns upon the invaders, when the savages
fell upon them. A sharp conflict ensued, carried on chiefly on the part of the enemy
by the Indians under Thomas, a brave chief of the Fallsovine tribe, when Croghan
i They endeavored to bring this vessel away with them, but she bilged while passing down the Rapids, and was then
destroyed.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 851
Blockade of Mackinaw. Capture of the blockading Vessels. Commander Champlin wounded.
was compelled to fall back and flee to the shipping, with the loss of the much-be
loved Major Holmes, who was killed, and Captains Van Horn and Desha, and Lieuten
ant Jackson, who were severely wounded. He also lost twelve private soldiers killed,
fifty-two wounded, and two missing. The loss of the enemy is unknown.
Croghan and St. Clair abandoned the attempt to take Mackinaw ; and as they were
about to depart, they heard of the successful expedition of Lieutenant Colonel M'Kay,
who, with nearly seven hundred men, mostly Indians, had gone down the Wisconsin
River and taken from the Americans the post at Prairie du Chien, at the mouth of
that stream.a Yet they were not disheartened, and resolved not to return a juiyrr,
to Detroit empty-handed of all success. They proceeded to the mouth of 1814>
the Nautawassaga River, assailed and destroyed a block-house three miles up from
its mouth, and hoped to capture the schooner Nancy, belonging to the Northwest
Company, and a quantity of valuable furs. They failed. The furs had been taken
to a place of safety, and the schooner was burnt by order of Lieutenant Worseley,
who was in command of the block-house.
Very soon after this the squadron sailed for Detroit, with the exception of the
Tigress, Captain Champlin, and Scorpion, Captain Turner, which were left to block
ade the Nautawassaga, it being the only route by which provisions and other sup
plies might be sent to Mackinaw. They cruised about for some time, effectually cut
ting off supplies from Mackinaw, and threatening the garrison with starvation. Their
useful career in that business was suddenly closed early in September, when they
were both captured by a party of British and Indians, sent out in five boats (one
mounting a long 6, and another a 3 pounder) from Mackinaw to raise the blockade,
under the general command of Lieutenant Bulger, his second being Lieutenant Worse-
ley. They fell first upon the Tigress, off St. Joseph's, when her consort was under
stood to be fifteen miles away. She was at anchor near the shore. The attack was
made at nine o'clock in the evening of the 3d of September. It was intensely dark,
and they were within fifty yards of the Tigress when discovered. The assailants
were warmly received, but in five minutes the vessel was boarded and carried by
overwhelming numbers, her force being only thirty men, exclusive of officers, and
that of the assailants about one hundred. " The defense of this vessel," said Bulger,
in his report of the affair, " did credit to her officers, who were all severely wound
ed."1 Her officers and crew were sent prisoners of war to Mackinaw the next morn
ing.2
Bulger and his men remained on board the Tigress. Her position was unchanged,
and her pennant was kept flying. On the 5th the Scorpion was seen approaching.
Bulger ordered his men to hide. The unsuspecting vessel came within two miles,
and anchored for the night. At dawn the next morningb the Tigress b
ran down alongside of her, and then the enemy, starting from his con
cealment, rushed on board, and in a few minutes the British flag was floating over
her. The loss on each side in these captures was slight. Vessels and prisoners were
taken to Mackinaw, and their arrival produced great joy there. So exhausted were
the supplies of the garrison that starvation would have compelled a surrender in less,
than a fortnight. These captures were announced with a great flourish by the Brit
ish authorities ; and Adjutant General Baynes actually stated, in a general order,
that the vessels "had crews of three hundred men each !" He only exaggerated five
hundred and seventy in stating the aggregate of the crews of the two schooners.
Croghan and St. Clafr reached Detroit, on their return, late in August, and for a
while no military movement was undertaken in that region. At length General
1 Lieutenant Bulger to Lieutenant Colonel M'Douall, September 7, 1814. Captain Champlin had his thigh-bone shat
tered by a ball in that fight, and he has not only been a cripple ever since, but a painful sufferer from a seldom-healed
wound. In the year 1863 several pieces of bone were taken from his thigh.
2 Champliu's Report to Lieutenant Turner, commanding.
852
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
M' Arthur's Raid in Canada.
Affright of the Canadians.
Skirmishes.
M'Arthur's Return.
M' Arthur made a terrifying raid into Canada. He had been ordered to raise mount
ed men for the purpose of chastising the Indians around Lake Michigan, and on the
9th of October he had arrived at Detroit with about seven hundred mounted men
from Kentucky and Ohio, accompanied by Major Charles S. Todd as adjutant gen
eral. The critical situation of the American army under General Brown, at Fort
Erie, at that time induced M' Arthur first to make a diversion in favor of that general.
Accordingly, late in the month, he left Detroit with seven hundred and fifty men and
five field-pieces, and, to mislead the enemy, passed up Lake and River St. Clair toward
Lake Huron. On the morning of the 26th he suddenly crossed the St. Clair River
into Canada, pushed on to the thriving Baldoon settlement of Scotch families, and
then made his way as rapidly as possible to the Moravian Towns, on the scene of Har
rison's exploits a year before, spreading great alarm in his path. On the 4th of No
vember he entered the village of Oxford. He came unheralded, and the inhabitants
were greatly terrified. He disarmed and paroled the militia, and threatened instant
destruction to the property of any one who should give notice to any British post of
his coming. Two men did so, and their houses were laid in ashes. On the follow
ing day he pushed on to Burford, where the militia were casting up intrenchments.
They fled at his approach, and the whole country was filled with alarm. Fear mag
nified the estimate of his number, and the story went before him that he had two
thousand men in his train.
Burlington, at the head of Lake Ontario, was M'Arthur's destination. On he
pressed from Burford, but when he arrived on the bank of the Grand River, at Brant-
ford, he found his passage of that considerable stream disputed by a large force of
the Six Nations who resided near, with militia and dragoons. He was informed that
Major Muir was not far distant, in a dangerous defile on the road to Burlington, with
a considerable force of regulars and Indians, and some cannon. M( Arthur concluded
it would not be prudent to attempt to go farther eastward, so he turned down the
Long Point Road, and proceeded to attack some militia, who had a fortified camp
at Malcolm's Mill, on the Grand River. They fled at his approach, and in his pur
suit of them M' Arthur killed and .wounded seven, and took one hundred and thirty-
one prisoners. His own loss was only one killed and six wounded. The mill was
burned, with all the property in it. This accomplished, the invaders pushed on to
Dover, destroying several mills on the way, which were making flour for Drum-
mond's army. There he was informed of the evacuation of Canada by Izard, and
of a web of perils that were gathering around ; so he turned his face westward, and
hastened toward Detroit, by way of St. Thomas and the Thames, pursued some dis
tance by eleven hundred British regulars. He arrived at Sandwich on the 17th of
November, and there discharged his brave band.
M'Arthur's raid was one of the boldest operations of the war. For almost four
weeks he had skurried hundreds of miles through the enemy's country, spreading
alarm every where, and keeping the militia from Drummond's ranks ; destroying
property here and there that might be useful to the enemy, and then returning to
OF THE AVAR OF 1812.
853
M'Arthur's Bravery and Generosity.
the place of departure with the loss of only one life P He was generous as well as
bold ; and he publicly acknowledged that much of his success was due " to the mili
tary talents, activity, and intelligence of Major Todd," his adjutant general, who yet
[1867] lives in his native Kentucky, in the vigor of a green old age.
i M'Afee's History of the late War in the Western Country, page 446.
GENEBAL WLNFIEl.!) SCOTT J-N 1860.
854
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
General Izard in Command iu Northern New York. Napoleon's Fortunes change. Washington Benevolent Societies.
CHAPTER XXXVH.
" Hail to the day which, in splendor returning,
Lights us to conquest and glory again !
Time, hold that year ! Still the war-torch was burning,
And threw its red ray on the waves of Champlain.
Roused by the spirit that conquered for Perry,
Dauntless Macdonough advanced to the fray ;
Instant the glory that brightened Lake Erie
Burst on Champlain with the splendor of day.
Loud swells the cannon's roar
On Plattsburg's bloody shore,
Britons retreat from the tempest of war,
Prevost deserts the field,
While the gallant ships yield ;
Victory ! glory, Columbians, huzza 1"
OLD SONG — ERIE AND CHAMFLAIN.
[ROM the Niagara frontier and the portion of the Army of the
North engaged there we will now turn to the consideration of
the events upon Lake Champlain and its vicinity during the
year 1814, where the other portion of that army was in active
service. "We have already taken a brief glance at military op
erations in that quarter to the close of the campaign of the pre
vious year, when General Wilkinson, relieved of command, re
tired from the army, and General Hampton, another incompe
tent, also left the service for his country's good.1 His lieutenant, General George
» May 4, Izard, of South Carolina, was soon afterwarda placed in command of the right
814- wing of the Army of the North, with a competent staff,2 and made his head
quarters at Plattsburg.
Since the opening of the campaign in the spring a great change had occurred in
the aspect of foreign affairs — a change which made a deep impression on the Ameri
can mind in its contemplations of the war. We have already alluded to the disasters
of Napoleon at Leipsic in the autumn of 1813. Notwithstanding brilliant achieve
ments on his part after that, the Allied Powers finally pushed him back, and not only
confined him to the soil of France, but hemmed him and his army almost within the
walls of Paris. There was no chance for his escape. On the 31st of March, 1814,
the Emperor of Russia and the Duke of Wellington entered the city as conquerors,
and on the llth of May Napoleon abdicated the throne of France and retired to the
island of Elba.3 His downfall was hailed with great joy, not only in Europe, but by
the great Federal party in the United States,4 who considered his ruin as the most
1 See page 657.
s Brigadier General Winder, jnst exchanged, was appointed his chief of staff; Alexander Macomb and Thomas A.
Smith were his brigadier generals ; William Gumming was adjutant general, and Major Joseph G. Totten was chief
engineer.
3 The fickle populace of Paris received the conquerors of Napoleon with acclamations of joy, and the French Senate,
lately Napoleon's pliant instrument, now declared that, by arbitrary acts and violations of the Constitution, he had for
feited his right to the throne.
4 The Washington Benevolent Societies* (Federalist associations) had made Napoleon's disasters the subject of orations
* These Washington Benevolent Societies originated in Philadelphia very soon after the declaration of war in the
summer of 1812. They were political organizations, with attractive social and benevolent features. The first organ
ization was fully completed on the 22d of February, 1813, under the title of the Washington Benevolent Society of
Pennsylvania, and each member was required to sign the Constitution and the following declaration : "We, each of us,
do hereby declare that we are firmly attached to the Constitution of the United States and to that of Pennsylvania ; to
the principles of a free republican government, and to those which regulated the public conduct of GEOBGE WASUINO-
TON ; that we will, each of us, to the best of our ability, and so far as may be consistent with our religious principles
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 855
The Downfall of Napoleon celebrated. English Troops released for Service in America.
damaging blow that could be given to their political opponents and the war party.
Pulpits, presses, public meetings, and social entertainments were pressed into the serv
ice as proclaimers of their satisfaction, notwithstanding it was evident that the release
thereby of a large British army from service on the Continent would enable the com
mon enemy to send an overwhelming force across the Atlantic that might crush the
American armies, and possibly reduce the states to British provinces. Their hopes
and the limit of their wishes doubtless were that the changed aspect of foreign af
fairs, and the consciousness of the great peril that might reasonably be apprehended,
would cause the administration to seek peace on any terms. They were mistaken, as
the sequel will show.
The retirement of Napoleon to Elba did release from Continental service a large
body of English troops, and several thousands of them were immediately dispatched
to Canada to re-enforce the little army there. They were sent from the Garonne, in
Spain, and many of them were Wellington's veterans, hardy and skillful. They ar
rived at Quebec late in July and in August,a and were rapidly pushed up to
Montreal. In the mean time, the forces under Prevost, the Governor of Cana
da and general-in-chief, had been very busy in preparations for an invasion of New
York, and the little flotilla in the Richelieu, or Sorel River, had been greatly aug
mented in numbers and strength during the winter and spring.b b 1814-
On the 9th of Mayc General Izard was informed that the enemy were in mo- c is*4-
tion below. Captain Pring, of the Royal Navy, was moving up the Sorel in the brig
Linnet as his flag-ship, accompanied by five armed sloops and thirteen row-galleys.
On the following day he anchored his flotilla behind Providence Island, in Lake Cham-
plain, where he remained until the 13th,d preparing for an attack on the Amer
ican flotilla, then nearly ready for sea at Vergennes, in Vermont, at the head
of the navigation of Otter Creek.1 Captain Macdonough, who was in command of
the little squadron, was apprised of this movement, and sent Lieutenant Cassin, with
a party of seamen, to re-enforce Captain Thornton, who had been ordered from Bur
lington with a detachment of light artillery to man a battery of seven 12-pounders
and toasts on the anniversary of Washington's birthday (22d of February, 1814) ; and in Albany, where the Dutch ele
ment was very predominant in the population, the emancipation of Holland from his thrall was celebrated. Relig
ious services were held in the Dutch church on the occasion, and a sermon was preached by the pastor, Rev. Dr. Brad
ford. These were followed by a dinner at the Eagle Inn. General Stephen Van Rensselaer presided, assisted by John
H.Wendell as vice-president. Several songs were sung, and toasts given, in Dutch.
In June and July following, the downfall of Napoleon was celebrated in several of the commercial cities of the United
States. In Boston and New York it was celebrated by religious ceremonies and public dinners. In New York the
dinner was in the Washington Hotel, then the principal public house in the city, which stood on the site of Stewart's
marble store, on Broadway, between Chambers and Reade Streets. It was on the 29th of June. Three hundred gen
tlemen sat down to the table. Rufns King presided. The vice-presidents were Generals Nicholas Fish, Ebenezer Ste
vens, Mr. Clarkson, John B. Coles, and Cornelius J. Bogart. All the foreign consuls but the French were present.
Richard Stockton, of New Jersey, gave as a toast : " Louis XVIII., King of France and Navarre, heir-at-law to Ameri
can gratitude."
On the 4th of July the event was celebrated by religious services and public dinners. Rev. Timothy Dwight, Presi
dent of Yale College, presided at a dinner at Butler's Hotel, in Hartford, where one hundred gentlemen were assembled
at table. Among the toasts were the following:
" The Minority in Congress. — Had they appealed to patriots they would have been heard."
" The Administration. — Prodigal enough, but too proud to return."
" The Royal Family of France. — Our friends in adversity, we rejoice at their prosperity."
" The Democratic Party of America.— If not satisfied with their own country, they may seek an asylum in the island
of Elba."
1 The flotilla then at Vergennes consisted of the following vessels : 1 ship of 26 guns, 1 schooner of 20 guns, 2 sloops
of 8, 6 row-galleys of 2, and 4 gun-boats of 1 each.
respectively, preserve the rights and liberties of our country against all foreign and domestic violence, fraud, and usur
pation ; and that, as members of the Washington Benevolent Society, we will in all things comply with its regulations,
support its principles, and enforce its views."
The funds of the society were used for the purposes of charity among its members and their families, and for other
purposes which might be prescribed. They had anniversary dinners on the birthday of Washington. Such econ
omy was used that all the members might afford to participate in the festivities. The cost of the dinner to each, with
a bountiful supply of beer and choice ardent spirits, was seventy-five cents. They built Washington Hall, on the west
side of Third Street, between Walnut and Spruce Streets. It was dedicated with religious ceremonies, led by Bishop
White, in the autumn of 1816. These associations rapidly multiplied throughout the country during the war, but dis
appeared with the demise of the old Federalist party. •
856
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Skirmish at Otter Cieek, Vermont.
The British repulsed.
Struggle for the Control of Lake Champlain.
on sea-carriages at the mouth of the creek.
Governor Chittenden also ordered out a
brigade of Vermont militia to oppose the
threatened invasion ; and when, on the
morning of the 1 4th, eight of Pring's gal
leys and a bomb-sloop anchored off the
mouth of the creek, they found ample
preparations for their reception. A brisk
fire was opened from the battery. It was
answered from the water, and for more
than an hour a cannonade was kept up,
when the British vessels were driven off.
They then entered the Bouquet River for
the purpose of destroying flour at the falls
of that stream. On their return they were
compelled to run the gauntlet of a shower
of bullets from some, militia who had has
tily assembled. Many of the British were
killed and wounded. Foiled and disheart
ened, Pring returned to Isle aux Noix
a wiser man, for he had learned that
even in Vermont, whose governor was
^ a zealous member of the " Peace Par
ty," the people were ready to fight the
common enemy any where. A few days afterward Macdonough sailed out of the
creek with his flotilla, and anchored it in Cumberland Bay, off Plattsburg.
Both parties now prepared for a struggle for supremacy on Lake Champlain. The
British, as we have observed, had adopted in a degree the plan of Burgoyne for sep
arating New England from the rest of the Union, while the Americans were as de
termined to resist the meditated invasion at the very threshold, and defend the lake
region and the valley of the upper Hudson at the gates of Canada. Both parties
were also re-enforced during the remainder of May, and General Izard caused a bat
tery of four 18-pounders to be planted on Cumberland Head instead of at Rouse's
Point, at the entrance to the Sorel River, as directed by the Secretary of War,1 and
urged by Major Totten, his chief engineer.
At the middle of June Izard disposed his troops for a movement into Canada. He
sent Brigadier General Thomas A. Smith, with a light brigade of about fourteen hund
red men, to occupy the village of Champlain,2 five miles below the Canada line. Col
onel Pearce, of the Sixteenth, was at Chazy with about eight hundred men composed
of consolidated regiments, and about twelve hundred men occupied the cantonment
at Plattsburg, on the peninsula between the lake and the Saranac, the works on Cum
berland Head,, and a position at Dead Creek, about two miles below Plattsburg.
Macdonough, with his flotilla, was below Cumberland Head, watching the little Brit
ish squadron, which lay at the Isle aux Tetes. The British had thirty-six hundred
troops at La Colle ; Meuron's Swiss regiment, a thousand strong, was at L'Acadie, and
two brigades of artillery and three hundred cavalry were at Chambly, making a total
of five thousand five hundred and fifty men. There was also a reserve of two thou
sand regulars at Montreal.
There was feverishness among the people and the soldiery along the Canada bor
der, which was frequently manifested. The armed belligerents were eager for a trial
1 Letter of the Secretary of War, May 25, 1814, in Izard's Official Correspondence, page 23.
2 This brigade was composed of the Fourth and Tenth Regiments consolidated, and commanded by Colonel Purdy,
the Twelfth, under Major Morgan, Lieutenant Colonel Forsyte's riflemen, and a company of artillery under Captain
Branch.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
857
Invasion of Canada.
Death of Forsyth.
Vengeance.
Preparations to meet an Invasion from Canada.
of prowess. Finally, on the 22d of June, Lieutenant Colonel Forsyth, the accom
plished partisan commander, with seventy riflemen, crossed the frontier line, and at a
little hamlet northwesterly from Rouse's Point, called Odell Town, he was attacked
by two hundred of the enemy's light troops. Forsyth beat them off, and retired in
good order to Champlain with the loss of one man killed and five wounded. A few
days afterward he was again sent in that direction for the purpose of drawing the
enemy across the lines. He formed an ambuscade, and then sent a few men forward
as a decoy. They were soon met, and immediately fell back, followed by Captain
Mahew and one hundred and fifty Canadians and Indians. When the pursuers were
near the ambuscade, Forsyth stepped upon a log to watch the movement, when he
was shot through the breast by an Indian. His men immediately arose, and poured
such a deadly fire upon the foe that they retreated in wild confusion, leaving seven
teen of their dead upon the
field.
Forsyth was greatly be
loved by his followers. Hot
ly incensed because of the
employment of savages by
the British, they resolved to
avenge the death of their
own leader by taking the
life of the leader of the In
dians. A few days after
ward some of them crossed
the line and shot Mahew,
that leader. He was taken
to the house of Judge Moore,
in Champlain,1 where he died
about a week afterward.2
Skirmishing along the bor
der was a frequent occurrence, but no movement of importance took place until the
close of July, when General Macomb's brigade, composed of the Sixth, Thirteenth,
Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Twenty-ninth Regiments, embarked in boats at Cumberland
» July 31, Heada for Chazy Landing, at the mouth of Chazy Creek. On the same day
1814 General Bissell's brigade, composed of the Fifth,
Fourteenth, Thirtieth, Thirty-first, Thirty-fourth, and For
ty-fifth Regiments, started for Chazy Village by land.
Two hundred effective men and a corps of invalids of
Macomb's brigade were left to complete the wrorks on
Cumberland Head, and a fatigue party four hundred
strong, taken from Bissell's brigade, was left in command
of Colonel Fenwick to complete three redoubts on the peninsula between the lake
and the Saranac River at Plattsburg. There were now four thousand five hundred
effective men at Champlain, within five miles of the Canada border. But these were
few compared to the numbers of the enemy, which were constantly augmenting.
During the months of July and August not less than fifteen thousand troops, chiefly^
veterans from "Wellington's armies, as we have observed, arrived at Montreal. Only
one brigade was sent westward, and the remainder were kept in reserve for the con
templated invasion of New York, in such overwhelming force as to overbear all op-
i This house, the residence of the late Judge Pliny Moore, is a fine old mansion on a pleasant shaded slope in the vil
lage of Champlain, not far from the banks of the Big Chazy, just north of the bridge, in the village. It was the head
quarters of the British commander whenever that village was occupied by him ; and Dearborn, Wilkinson, and Izard
were in turn sojourners under its roof. This is from a sketch made by the author in 1860. It was then the residence
of Pliny, son of Judge Moore. 2 Palmer's History of Lake Champlain, page 184.
JUDGE MOORE 6 UOCSE.
858
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Prevost commanding in Person.
Alarming Order from the War Department.
Izard's Protest.
position. These newly-arrived troops were encamped in the level country between
Laprairie on the St. Lawrence, and Chambly on the Sorel.
Very soon after the advance of the Americans to Chazy and Champlain, Sir George
Prevost1 arrived at the Isle
aux JVoix, where he had
concentrated a considerable
body of veterans, and took
chief command in person ;
and strong detachments of seamen were sent from Quebec, by order of Sir James L.
Yeo, to strengthen the naval power at the sam.e place. It was evident that a speedy
invasion of Northern New York was in contemplation ; and yet, with full informa
tion on the subject, the American government, as if fearful of a conquest of Canada
whenever a spirited general was in command near assailable points,2 ordered Izard
at that critical moment, when danger was never more apparent, to march a larger
portion of his force westward to co-operate with the Army of Niagara. It was an
open invitation to invasion ; and the army and people, expecting a great battle soon
at the foot of Lake Champlain, and hoping for a decisive victory, were astonished by
the order. The disappointed Izard could scarcely restrain his indignation. On the
llth of August he wrote: "I will make the movement you direct, if possible; but I
shall do it with the apprehension of risking the force under my command, and with
the certainty that every thing in this vicinity but the lately erected works at Platts-
burg and Cumberland Head wTill, in less
than three days after my departure, be
in the possession of the enemy. He is in
force superior to mine in my front ; he
daily threatens an attack on my position
at Champlain ; we are all in hourly ex
pectation of a serious conflict. . . . Let
me not be supposed to hesitate about ex
ecuting any project which the govern
ment I have the honor to serve think
proper to direct. My little army will do
its duty."3
Izard continued to protest against the
movement as unwise and perilous,4 but,
like a true soldier, he made preparations
for it as speedily as his limited transpor
tation would allow. He set about four
thousand men in motion by the way of
the head of Lake George, Schenectady,
and the Mohawk Valley,5 and, as we
have observed, arrived with them
at Sackett's Harbor at the middle of
the month, and immediately started
a portion of them by land and wa-
1 George Prevost was born in the city of New York on the 10th of May, 1T6T. His father was a native of Geneva,
Switzerland. His mother was a Dutch woman. He was created an English baronet in 1805.
2 See note 3 on page 259. 3 izard's Official Correspondence, page 65.
* On the 20th of August Izard wrote to the Secretary of War : " I must not be responsible for the consequences of
abandoning my present strong position. I will obey orders and execute them as well as I know how. Major General
Brisbane commands at Odell Town. He is said to have between five and six thousand men with him. At Chambly are
said to be about four thousand."
5 This route was chosen because the upper route by Chateaugay and Ogdensburg would be altogether too perilous. He
submitted the question of route to his officers, who decided unanimously to go by the way of Schenectady.— See Izard's
Official Correspondence, page 73.
OF THE WAK OF 1812.
859
The Militia called ont.
Concentration of Troops near Plattsburg.
The British invading Force.
September 17,
1814.
tera for the Niagara front
ier.1 He left all his sick
and convalescents, and about twelve
hundred effective men, to garrison Platt's
Point, as the peninsula was called, and
Cumberland Head. In obedience to
an order of the War Department, he
made a requisition upon Major General
Mooers, the commander of the militia in
that district, for the assembling, without
delay, of one regiment of infantry and
one troop of light dragoons at the vil
lage of Chazy, riflemen to be accepted
as infantry. Brigadier General Alexan
der Macomb was left in chief command,
with his head-quarters at Plattsburg.
Immediately after General Izard left, <
Macomb concentrated all his troops at
Plattsburg, and worked vigorously in
preparations for de
fense. He had, at the
close of August, about
three thousand five
hundred troops under
his control,2 but they
were in a weak condition, for there was only one organized battalion among them, and
full fourteen hundred of them were invalids and non-combatants. The garrisons at
the different points were composed of convalescents and new recruits ; the condition
of the ordnance and stores was chaotic, and the defensive works were all unfinished.
On the day when Izard left his camp at Champlain,b General Brisbane b August 29.
advanced from Odell Town, and occu
pied that village and its vicinity ; and
on the 3d of September full fourteen
thousand British troops were gathered
there, under the general command of
Sir George Prevost, assisted by General
De Rottenburg as his second. There he
avowed his intention to take and hold
possession of the country as far down as
Ticonderoga; and he issued orders and
proclamations inviting the people to cast
off their allegiance to their government,
and to furnish him with supplies. On
the following day they moved forward
to Chazy Village ; and on the 5th they
encamped near Sampson's, now (186^) oc-
bAMPSOVS.
1 See page 844.
a These troops were composed of detachments of the regiments that had left, amounting to 70 in number; Captain
Leonard's company of li£rht artillery, 100 ; Captain M'Glassin's company of the Fifteenth Regiment, 50 ; the Sixth,
Twenty-ninth, Thirtieth, Thirty-third, and Thirty-fourth Regiments, 1771 ; Captain Sproull's detachment of the Thir
teenth Regiment, 200 ; sick and invalids, SOS ; two companies of artillery under Captain Alexander Brooks ; and about
200 infantry on board the fleet serving as marines.
3 This is a view of the Sampson House looking north toward Chazy, which is six miles distant. It is brick, and
when I sketched it in 1SGO it was still a tavern, and kept by Mr. Harvey Bromley. The old barn, just as it was in 1814,
is seen just beyond the house.
860
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Indications of an Advance of the British Army.
Position of American Works at Plattsborg.
cupied as a tavern, about eight miles from Plattsburg. Captain Pring, with the
British squadron, moved at the same time, anchored off Isle la Motte, and on the west
side of that island erected a battery of three long 18-pounders to cover the landing
of supplies for Prevost's troops. Macomb, at the same time, was straining every
muscle at his command in preparations for defense, for the impressment of trains by
the British at Champlain and Chazy, and loading wagons with heavy baggage, indi
cated a speedy advance upon Plattsburg. By great exertions (the soldiers working
day and night), the redoubts and block-houses were completed and manned before
the enemy appeared before them, for he made short and cautious marches. These
were on the high level peninsula between the Sarariac and the lake, gently sloping
toward the latter. The redoubts were on a curved line across the neck of the penin
sula, and were named respectively Forts Brown, Moreau,1 and Scott. The first-
named stood on the bank of the river, at its head, about halfway between the lower
bridge at the village and near its mouth, and the upper bridge, a mile higher up, on
the road leading to the Salmon River. Fort Moreau, the principal work, was half
way between the river and the lake, fifty rods eastward of Fort Brown ; and Fort
Scott was near the bank of the lake. Northward of it were store-houses and a hos
pital. Between the lower bridge, and some distance above Fort Brown, the right
bank of the Saranac is steep, and from fifty to sixty feet in height ; and about sixty
rods above the lower bridge it is cleft by a deep ravine that extends from the river
almost to the lake. Near this ravine a block-house was built, and on the point near
Foquet's Hotel, overlooking the modern steam-boat landing, was another block-house.
At the mouth of the river, a short distance from the lower bridge, stood (and yet
stands) a stone mill, which served an excellent defensive purpose.
To create a spirit of emulation and zeal among the troops, General Macomb di-
1 Port Moreau was named by Izard in honor of a celebrated French general of that name, whom Bonaparte exiled
from France because of his supposed complicity with Pichegru and others in a conspiracy against the newly-created
emperor. He remained in the United States nine years. The Emperor Alexander invited him to Russia, and while en
gaged in his military service, near Dresden, a cannon-ball from Napoleon's guard broke both his legs, from the eftects
of which he died. Macomb gave the names of Brown and Scott to the other two redoubts, in honor of those two offi
cers, whose gallantry on the Niagara frontier had won his admiration.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
861
Occupants of the Plattsburg Forts.
Position of the Troops.
The British advance on Plattsburg.
Added them into detachments, declaring in orders that each detachment was the gar
rison of its own work, and bound to finish it and defend it to the last extremity.
Colonel Melancthon Smith,1 with the Sixth and Twenty-ninth Regiments, was placed
in command of Fort Moreau. Fort Brown was intrusted to Lieutenant Colonel
Storrs, with detachments of the Thirtieth and Thirty-first Regiments ; and Major
Vinson, with the Thirty-third and Thirty-fourth Regiments, garrisoned Fort Scott.
Captain Smith, of the Rifles, with a part of his company and the convalescents, occu
pied the block-house near the ravine ; and Lieutenant Fowler, with a detachment of
artilleVy, held the block-house on the Point. The light artillery, under Captain Leon
ard, were ordered to annoy the enemy whenever and wherever an opportunity should
offer. The main body of Macomb's array lay within the triangular portion of the
peninsula formed by the ravine, the river, and the lake.
When the British advanced to Chazy, Macomb ordered Captain Sproull to take a
position near Dead Creek Bridge, on the lake road, with two hundred of the Thir
teenth Regiment2 and two field-pieces, while Lieutenant Colonel Appling, the hero
of Sandy Creek, was sent farther in advance, with a little more than a hundred rifle
men, and a troop of New York Cavalry under Captain Stafford and Lieutenant M.
M. Standish. Their business was to watch and annoy the enemy, and obstruct his
march by felling trees in the road. It was their appearance that caused his halt at
Sampson's. General Mooers had called for the entire militia force of his district to
repel the invasion, and Macomb made an earnest appeal for troops to Governor Chit-
tenden, of Vermont.
On the evening of the 4th Mooers had seven hundred men under his command, and
with them, by order of Macomb, he advanced a few miles northward on the Beek-
mantown Road, on an errand similar to that of Sproull and Appling. He was in
structed to watch the enemy, skirmish with his vanguard, break up the bridges, and
obstruct the roads with felled trees. He went forward on the morning of the 5th,
and bivouacked that night near the stone church in Beekmanto.\vn.
On the morning of the 6th the British army, full fourteen thousand strong, mostly
veteran troops, marched upon Plattsburg in two columns from their encampment
near Sampson's, the right crossing over to the Beekmantown Road, and the left fol
lowing the lake shore that led to Dead Creek Bridge. General Edward Baynes was
the adjutant general, and Sir Sidney Beckwith, who was conspicuous at Hampton
and in Hampton Roads the previous year,3 was quartermaster general. The right
column was composed of General Powers's brigade, supported by four companies
of light infantry and a half brigade under Ma
jor General Robinson. The left was composed
of General Brisbane's brigade, and was led by
' Melancthon Smith was commissioned a major of the Twenty-
ninth lufantry on the 20th of February, 1813, and was promoted
to colonel on the 12th of April following. He left the army at
the close of the war, and died at Plattsburg on the 18th of Au
gust, 1818. In the eastern extremity of the old burial-ground at
Plattsburg I found his grave in I860, and at the head of it an elab
orately-wrought tombstone, of blue limestone, on which is the
following inscription : "To the memory of Colonel MELANCTHON
SMITH, who died August IS, 1818, aged 38 years. As a testimony
of respect for his virtue*, and to mark the spot where rests the
ashes of an excellent Father, this stone is erected by his son RICH-
BILL. United with many masculine virtues, he had a tear for pity,
and a hand open as day for melting charity."
2 This was always a" famous regiment. We first met portions
of it following the gallant Captain Wool up Queenston Heights.
See page 397. At this time [1867] only three of its officers sur
vive, namely, Major General Wool, Dr. M'Call (then surgeon's
mate, and now superintendent of the Lunatic Asylum at Utica),
and Captain Myers, mentioned in the note on page 654.
3 See page 683.
862
PICTOKIAL FIELD-BOOK
Major Wool sent to meet the British.
A Skirmish at Beekmantown.
Engagement on Culver's Hill.
him in person. The whole were under the immediate command of Major General
De Rottenburg.
Macomb was informed of this movement being in contemplation on the evening of
the 5th, and prepared to meet it. The gallant Major John E. Wool, ever ready for
a daring enterprise, volunteered to lead some regulars to support the militia and op
pose the advance of the foe. At about the time in the early morning of the 6th
when the British broke camp at Sampson's, Wool moved from Plattsburg with two
hundred and fifty regular infantry and thirty volunteers, with orders to set the mi
litia an example of firm
ness. This was done.
He reached Beekman
town before the enemy
appeared, and took po
sition near the residence
of Ira Ho we. There the
first collision occurred.
The enemy came march
ing on rapidly, anticipa
ting no resistance, when
they were suddenly
checked by a heavy vol
ley of musketry from
Wool's little corps. The
militia broke and fled
toward Plattsburg, but
the regulars stood firm.
The enemy was in over
whelming numbers, feut Wool moved slowly back toward Culver's Hill, disputing
the way inch by inch in desperate skirmishing. On that hill, a short distance below
Beekmantown, he made a stand, and as the British advance ascended the slope, fill
ing the entire road, he made another gallant attack upon them. Some of the militia
had been rallied, and were in position behind the stone wall that bounded the road.2
The enemy's advance was driven back upon the main body, and their leader, Lieu
tenant Colonel Willington, of the Third Regiment of Buffs, and Ensign Chapman of
the same regiment, were killed.3 Captain Westropp, of the Fifty-eighth, was severe
ly wounded. Captain Partridge, of the Essex militia, and several other Americans,
were killed. The fight was severe, but very short. The heavy column of the enemy
came pressing steadily onward with irresistible force, filling the entire roadway. At
the same time Wool discovered a formidable movement to turn his flank and gain
his rear, when he again fell back in order to Halsey's Corners, within a mile and a half
of Plattsburg Bridge. There he was joined at about eight o'clock in the morning
by Captain Leonard with two pieces of artillery. These were immediately placed in
battery at an angle in the road. They were masked by Wool's infantry and a small
body of militia, and as the enemy came steadily on in heavy mass, Leonard opened
upon them, and his balls cut fearful lanes through their ranks.
Three times that battery hurled its deadly missiles through the lines of the foe,
yet it did not check them. The British bugles sounded, and the men, throwing away
their knapsacks, rushed forward at double quick to charge with the bayonet. Leon
ard was compelled to fly toward the village. He carried his guns with him, turning
1 This house was the residence of Mr. Joel Smith when I visited Beekmantown in I860. It was used as a hospital,
with others, after the skirmish there and at Culver's Hill.
2 This heavy stone wall, built by some Vermonters before the war, was yet standing when I rode over Culver's Hill
in the summer of 1860.
3 To Samuel Terry, who was living at Peru, Clinton County, New York, is awarded the fame of having shot Willington.
1KA UOWJi'S, BEEKMANTOWN.1
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
863
Loss of the British.
They press on to Plattsburg.
Fight in and near the Village.
Stone-mill Citadel.
I8AAO C. PLAIT'S RESIDENCE.2
them occasionally upon the pursuing foe, and, crossing the Saranac at the lower
bridge, he planted them in battery on a gentle eminence in the road, near the stone
mill, to cover the crossing of the rest of the Americans if they should find it neces
sary to retreat. In the affair at Halsey's Corners several of the British were killed.
Amono; them was Lieu-
O
tenant Kingsbury, of the
Third Buffs, who was mor
tally wounded, and tak
en into the farm-house of
the now (1867) venerable
Isaac C. Platt, Esquire,
near by, where he soon
afterward died.1
The more rapid march
of the British right col
umn imperiled the de
tachments of Appling and
Sproul, who were await
ing the approach of the
left. Macomb perceived
this, and ordered them to
fall back toward Plattsburg, and attack the enemy's flank. They did so, and their
riflemen galled the foe severely. They reached the lower bridge just in time to avoid
being cut off by the British right, and to cross it with Wool's retiring troops. When
all were safely over, the bridge was torn up in the face of a heavy fire from the head
of the enemy's right, which had reached the little village. The militia in the mean
time had fled across the upper bridge, and destroyed that in the same way. The
British left column soon afterward appeared. It crossed the Dead Creek Bridge, and,
while making its way along the beach of Plattsburg Bay to unite with the right, it
was severely harassed by an enfilading fire from some of Macdonough's galleys which
had been sent to the head of the bay for the purpose. A heavy blow came on, and
Macdonough sent Midshipman Silas Duncan in a gig to order the galleys to return
to the fleet. His boat was fired upon by the enemy, and he was severely wounded,
but he delivered the order and escaped with his life.
The British were checked at the village by the destruction of the lower bridge,
whose timbers were used in the construction of a breastwork for the infantry. They
took position in some store-houses near the Saranac. Upon these Captain Brooks
hurled some hot shot, and burned out the enemy. Their light troops endeavored
during the day to force a passage of the Saranac, but were each time repulsed by the
guards at the bridge and a small company known as Aiken's Volunteers, of Platts
burg, who were stationed in the stone mill (see engraving next page) already men
tioned. These young men had been out on the Beekmantown Road in the morning
and behaved gallantly, and they garrisoned that mill-citadel most admirably.3 In
the mean time a division of the British had pressed toward the upper bridge, where
General Mooers and his militia, as we have observed, crossed the bridge, tore it up,
1 Palmer's Hiatory of Lake Champlain, page 192. Statement to the author by Mr. Platt in 1860.
2 This was the appearance of Mr. Plait's house in 1860. The main building is of brick. The immense butternut-
tree near the house was a fine bearing tree at the time of the battle, and two bullet scars upon its trunk were pointed
out to me. We shall notice this house and its owner hereafter.
3 The following are the names of these young men, or rather lads, for none of them were old enough to be legally
called into the military service : Martin J. Aiken, Azariah C. Flagg, Ira Wood, Gustavus A. Bird, James Trowbridge,
Hazen Mooers. Henry K. Averill, St. John B. L. Skinner, Frederick P. Allen, Hiram Walworth, Ethan Everest, Amos
Soper, James Patten, Bartimens Brooks, Smith Bateman, Melancthon W. Travis, and Flavius Williams. They were
highly praised by Macomb for their gallantry, and he promised that each of them should receive a rifle. This promise
Congress redeemed in 1S26 by ordering a rifle to be presented to each member of that little volunteer company. Sev
eral of these lads afterward became distinguished men.
864
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The British checked at the Bridge in Plattsburg.
Preparations for Battle on Land and Water.
OLD BTONE MILL.2
and used its timbers for
a breastwork. The en
emy made extraordina
ry efforts to force a pas
sage there, but Mooers
and his men stood firm,
and kept them at bay.
Finding the passage of
the stream impossible
under the circumstan
ces, Preyost ordered his
troops to encamp upon
an elevated ridge about
a mile back from the
river, and upon the high
ground north of the
village. He made his
head - quarters at Al
len's farm-house on the
ridge,1 and gave orders
for vigorous prepara
tions for attack. Not
withstanding he was at
the head of overwhelm
ing numbers, the events
of that daya convinced him that the task before him Avas not a light one.
He had lost, in killed and wounded, since the dawn, over two hundred
men, while the loss of the Americans did not exceed forty-five.3
Prevost employed the time between the 7th and llth in bringing up his battering
trains and supplies, and in erecting several works that might command the river, the
bay, and the American forts and block-houses on the peninsula.4 The Americans in
the mean time were not idle. They labored without ceasing in strengthening their
works. They removed their sick and wounded to Crab Island, two miles distant, in
the lake, and there erected a two 6-pound gun battery, and manned it with convales
cents.
While these preparations were under way on land, the belligerents were making
ready for a combat on the water. A greater portion of the British flotilla, under
Captain Pring, had advanced, as we have seen, to Isle la Motte, where they were
joinedb by the remainder of the squadron and Captain George Downie,
of the Royal Navy, late of the Montreal on Lake Ontario. Macdonough,
at the same time, had the American squadron at anchor in Plattsburg Bay, and calm
ly awaited the approach of his enemy.
For almost five days the seamen waited for a general movement of the landsmen,
which was to be a signal on the part of the British for the weighing of anchors and
1 This was a large two-storied frame house, nearly square, and stood on the site of the residence of John H. Sauborn,
Esquire, in I860, when I visited Plattsburg. It was on a little hill west of the village. General Robinson made his
head-quarters at the house of the Honorable William Bailey, not far distant. Judge Bailey (mentioned in the note on
page 650) took refuge, with his family, in the house of Dr. Man (mentioned in the same note), some distance from Platts
burg. Judge Bailey married the daughter of Zephaniah Platt, a patentee of Plattsburg, and was the father of Admiral
Bailey, of our navy, who performed gallant service iu the battle of Forts Jackson and Philip, below New Orleans, in the
spring of 1862.
2 This was the appearance of the old stone mill when the writer sketched it in 1860 from the gallery of the United
States Hotel. On the left is seen a portion of Plattsburg Bay, and Cumberland Head in the distance.
3 Palmer's History of Lake Champlain, page 194.
4 These consisted of three block-houses erected at points within range of the American works ; a battery on the lake
shore, just north of the mouth of the Saranac -, another on the steep bank above the mill-pond ; a third near the burial-
ground ; and one for rocketeers on a hill opposite Fort Brown.
September 6,
1814.
b September 8.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
805
Brave Exploit of Captain M'Glassin. A British Battery captured. British land and naval Forces in Motion.
VIEW UP TUB 8AKA.NAO, FKOM 1'OKT BROWN.1
preparing ships for action, and during that time no military operation of great im
portance occurred. There were some minor movements worthy of notice. One of
them, on the part of the Americans, was a bold one. On the night of the 9th there
was tempestuous weather. There was lightning, and rain, and wind, and thick dark
ness. The British had been seen at sunset busily engaged in the erection of the
rocket battery opposite Fort Brown. Captain M'Glassin, who was described to me
as a " little beardless Scotchman" anxious to distinguish himself, asked General Ma-
comb to allow him to lead fifty men that night to an attack on the builders. Ma-
comb complied, and M'Glassin, who had arisen from a sick-bed, sallied out in the
gloom with his men, from whose gun-locks the flints were removed, crossed the Sar-
anac about half way between Fort Brown and the upper bridge, and, unobserved,
reached the foot of the hill on which the battery was rising. There he divided his
men into two parties. One went to the rear of the battery by a circuitous route,
and, when all was ready, he shouted " Charge ! men, charge ! upon the front and
rear !" His men rushed forward with frightful yells. The British, believing over
whelming numbers were upon them, fled precipitately to their main body. The work
was taken, the guns were spiked, and M'Glassin returned without the loss of a single
man. Over three hundred veteran troops had been surprised and frightened into
flight by only fifty men, and Sir George Prevost was much mortified.
The morning of the llth dawned brightly, and at an early hour in the forenoon the
British land and naval forces were in motion for a combined attack on the Americans.
Prevost had arranged the movement with Downie. It was agreed that when the Brit
ish squadron should be seen approaching Cumberland Head, the advance of the army,
under Major General Robinson, should press forward, force the fords of the Saranac,
climb the steep banks, and with ladders escalade the American works on the penin
sula, while the several batteries around Plattsburg village should open a brisk fire.
Between seven and eight o'clock the squadron was seen advancing, and at eight it
rounded Cumberland Head. It consisted of the frigate Con/lance, 38, Downie's flag
ship ; the brig Linnet, 16, Captain Pring; the sloops Chub, Lieutenant M'Ghee, and
Finch? Lieutenant Hicks, carrying 1 1 guns each ; and twelve gun-boats, manned by
1 This view is from the mounds of Fort Brown, looking up the Saranac. The buildings in the extreme distance are
at the upper bridge, where Mooers's militia were stationed. M'Glassin forded the Saranac at the point indicated by the
drift-wood lodged in the stream. He crossed the little narrow plain where the cattle are seen, and up the slope to the
right.
3 These were the Eagle and Growler, captured from the Americans on Lake Champlain by the British, who changed
their names to Chub and Finch.
31
866 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The Force and Position of the hostile Fleets. Macdonough implores divine Aid. Beginning of the Battle.
about forty-five men each. Eight of them, carried' 2 guns, and four of them 1 gun
each. At that moment Macdonough's squadron lay in Cumberland or Plattsburg
Bay, on a line north from Crab Island, and almost parallel with the shore, at an aver
age distance of two miles from it. On the extreme left, and at the head of the line,
were two galleys at anchor, and next to them lay the brig Eagle, 26, Captain Henley,
just within the point of Cumberland Head. Next south of her was the Saratoga, 26,
Macdonough's flag-ship ; and the next in line was the schooner Ticonderoga, 17, Lieu
tenant Cassin. Next southward in the line lay the Preble, Lieutenant Charles Budd,
armed with 7 guns.1 This vessel lay so near the shoal extending northeast from
Crab Island, that it was impossible for the enemy to turn that end of the line. In
the rear of these larger vessels were ten gun-boats or galleys, six of them mounting
one long 24-pounder and one 18-pound Columbiad each, and the other four carrying
each a 12-pounder. These were so arranged as to fill up the openings between the
larger vessels in the line, making the order of battle in two lines, about forty rods
apart. The larger vessels were at anchor, while the gun-boats were kept in position
by the use of oars.2
The American line of battle had been formed with great skill by the young com
mander, reference being had to the conformation of the land. It extended completely
across the entrance to Plattsburg Bay from Crab Island to Cumberland Head, and
the enemy, rounding the latter, was compelled to approach the American squadron
with his bows on, giving the latter a great advantage at the beginning.3 The first
vessel that made its appearance was a sloop, which, it is said, carried a company of
amateurs, who kept out of the action that ensued. It was immediately followed by
the Finch, which led the van of the British squadron, and made for the right of the
American line, in the direction of the Preble, near Crab Island. At the same time
the Chub moved toward the head or left of the Americans, near Cumberland Head,
keeping well to the windward of the Eagle, to support the Linnet in a direct attack
on that vessel, while the gun-boats coming up in order, their commanders received
from Commodore Downie final instructions for action. He then attempted to lay the
Confiance athwart the Saratoga, while the Finch and the gun-boats should attack
the Ticonderoga and Preble. He was baffled by shifting winds, and was compelled
to anchor his vessel within two cables' length of its antagonist.
Macdonough, in the mean time, had thoroughly prepai-ed to receive the enemy.
When his vessels were cleared for action, springs placed on his cables, and all was in
readiness, he knelt upon the deck of the Saratoga, near one of its heaviest guns, with
his officers and men around him, and, in few words, asked Almighty God for aid, and
committed the issue into his hands.4 He arose with assured courage, and as the en
emy came bearing down upon him, his vessels sprang their broadsides to bear, and
the Eagle opened the action by hurling the first shot. It discharged in quick suc
cession its four long 1 8-pounders in broadside. This was followed by the fire of a
long 24-pounder on the Saratoga, which the young and gallant commodore had sight
ed himself. The ball entered the outer hawse-hole of the Confiance, the enemy's flag
ship, and went crashing through every obstacle the entire length of her deck, killing
' The Saratoga was built at Vergennes in the spring of 1S14. The Ticonderoga was in course of construction for a
steam-boat when she was taken for the public service by Macdonough and converted into a sloop-of-war. The Eagle
was also built at Vergennes in the summer of 1814. So rapid was her construction that she was launched in nineteen
days after her keel was cut in the woods. She joined the squadron early in August.
2 The American force consisted of one ship, one brig, one schooner, one sloop, and ten gun-boats, carrying 86 gnns
in all, and manned by 882 men. The British had one frigate, one brig, two sloops, and twelve gun-boats, carrying In
all 95 guns, and manned by a little more than 1000 men. The metal of each was unusually heavy. That of the Amer
icans was as follows : Fourteen long 24'?, six 42's, twenty-nine 32's, twelve long IS's, twelve long 12's, seven long 9*8,
and six 18-pound Columbiads. The British had thirty-one long 24's, seven IS's, sixteen 12's, five 6's, twelve 32-pound
carronades, six 24's, seventeen IS's, and one 18-pound Columbiad. 3 See Map on page 871.
* At a public dinner given to Macdonough at Plattsbnrg a few days after the battle, the following toast was offered
after he hnd left the table : " The pious and brave Mardonough— the professor of the religion of the Redeemer— prepar
ing for action, he called on God, who forsook him not in the hour of danger : may he not be forgotten by his country."
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
Cock crowing on Macdonough's Flag-ship. Fight between the Flag-ships. The Battle general.
several men on its way, and demolishing the wheel. The Linnet, as she was passing
to attack the Eagle, gave the Saratoga a broadside, but without serious effect. One
of her shots demolished a hen-coop on the Saratoga, in which was a young game
cock which some of the seamen had lately brought on board. The released fowl,
startled by the noise of cannon, flew upon a gun-slide, and, clapping his wings, crow
ed lustily and defiantly. The sailors cheered, and the incident, appearing to them as
ominous of victory for the Americans, strengthened the courage of all.1
The Confiance made no reply to the Saratoga's savage 24-pounder until she had
secured a desirable position, notwithstanding the entire American line had become
engaged in the combat. When ready, she exhibited a sheet of flame. Her entire
larboard broadside guns, consisting of sixteen 24-pounders, double-shotted, leveled
point-blank range, coolly sighted, and favored by still water, were discharged at one
time. The effect was terrible. The Saratoga shivered from round-top to hull as
with an ague, and forty of her people, or almost one fifth of her complement, were
disabled. But the stunning blow was felt only for a moment. Almost immediately
Macdonough resumed the conflict, and the fire of the Saratoga was steady, and gal
lantly conducted. Among her lost was her first lieutenant, Peter Gamble, who was
on his knees sighting a bow-gun, when a shot entered the port, split the quoin, drove
a part of it against his breast, and laid him dead without breaking the skin. Fifteen
minutes afterward an American ball struck the muzzle of a 24-pounder on board the
Confiance, dismounted it, sending it bodily inboard against the groin of Commodore
Downie, killing him also without breaking the skin.2
The battle had now become general, steady, and active between the larger vessels.
The Chub, while manoeuvring near the head of the American line, received a broad
side from the gallant Henley,3 of the Eagle, which so crippled her that she drifted
helplessly, and, after receiving a shot from the Saratoga, she struck, and was taken
possession of by Mr. Platt, one of the midshipmen of that vessel,4 who had her towed
1 Statement to the author by Commodore Samuel L. Breese, who was commander of the gun-boat NetUy in the ac
tion,* and James Sloan, of Oswego, who, as we have observed [page T97], was Macdonough's clerk, and was a witness
to the affair. He says that some of the sailors were fond of cock-fighting. This particular bird, owned on shore, had
been a formidable antagonist, and, by "hook or by crook," they had obtained possession of him.
The following allusion to this event is contained in a rhyming "Epistle of Brother Jonathan to Johnny Bull, said to
have been written at near the close of 1814:
" O, Johnny Bull, my joe, John,
Behold on Lake Champlain,
With more than equal force, John,
You tried your fist again ;
But the cock saw how 'twas going,
And cried ' Cock-a-doodle-doo,'
And Macdonough was victorious,
O, Johnny Bull, my joe !"
2 Cooper's Naval History of the United States, ii., 434.
3 Eobert Henley was born in James City County, Virginia, on the 5th of January, 1783. He was educated at William
and Mary College. He obtained a midshipman's warrant in 1799, and made his first cruise with Commodore Trux-
tun in the Constellation. He showed much gallantry in several engagements, especially with La Vengeance (see page
104), when Truxtun said, "That stripling is destined to be a brave officer." He was appointed to the command of
the Eagle, in the spring of 1814, and after the battle of Plattsburg in September, his commander, Macdonough, said, in
his official report : " To Captain Robert Henley, of the brig Eagle, much is to be ascribed ; his courage was conspicu
ous, and I most earnestly recommend him as worthy of the highest trust and confidence." The National Congress
thanked him, and gave him a gold medal.t He was also promoted to captain. He died at Charleston, South Carolina,
in the year 1829.
4 The late Commodore Charles T. Platt, who died at Newburg, New York, on the 12th of December, I860. He was a
native of Plattsbnrg, and a gallant officer. He entered the navy as midshipman in 1812 on Lake Champlain. During
the battle here recorded he passed three times through the line of the enemy's fire in an open boat carrying orders. He
was promoted to lieutenant, and accompanied Commodore Porter to the West Indies in 1822, in command of the schoon-
* Samuel L. Breese is a native of New York. He entered the navy as midshipman in December, 1810. He was pro
moted to lieutenant in the spring of 1816 ; to commander in December, 1S35 ; to captain in September, 1841 ; and to
rear admiral in 1862. He is on the retired list, and is now (1867) lisht-honse inspector.
t The picture on the next page is a representation of Henley's medal. On one side is a bust of Captain Henley in pro
file, with the legend, " BOB. HENLEY, EAGLE PREFECT. PALMA. VIRTU. PER ^TERNIT FI.ORIBIT." On the reverse is a repre
sentation of a fleet en<ra<rert before a town (Plattsburg), enveloped in smoke. Several small boats are seen on the
lake. Legend—" UNO LATERE PEECUSSO. ALTEBUM. SUPEBAVIT." Exergue—" ISTEE CLASS. AMERI. EX UBIT. DIE xi. SEPT.,
MDCCOXIIII."
868
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Capture of the Finch.
British Gun-boats in Action.
Gold Medals awarded by Congress.
HENLEY'S MEDAL.
into Plattsburg Bay, and anchored near the mouth of the Saranac. She had suffered
very severely. Almost half of her people were killed or wounded. An hour later
the Finch was driven from her position by the Ticonderoga, commanded by the in
trepid Lieutenant Cassin; and, being badly injured, drifted upon Crab Island shoal
OASSIN'S MEDAL.
of rocks, and grounded. The invalid corps on the island brought their little two-gun
battery to bear on her, when she struck, and surrendered to this small band of con
valescents.1
The British gun-boats now entered vigorously into the action, and soon compelled
the Preble, Lieutenant Budd, to cut her cables and flee to a safer place near the shore,
where she anchored, and was of no farther service in the fight. This success embold
ened the British galleys, and they made a combined and furious attack on the Ticon-
deroga, fourteen in number, with an average of fifty men in each.2 Cassin walked the
taffrail in a storm of grape and canister shot, watching the movements of the assail-
er Beagle. In this war against the pirates Platt distinguished himself. He was attached to the steam frigate Fulton
when she blew up, and was severely injured. His last service was in command of the Navy Yard at Memphis.
i That inaccurate historian, Sir Archibald Alison, in his History of England, in writing of this event, remarks, " The
Flinch, a British brig, grounded out of shot, and did not engage 1" Again, he speaks of her getting on rocks, and not
being able to engage in the action. Her commander, Captain Pring, in his official report, says truly that she struck on
a reef of rocks to the eastward of Crab Island, about the middle of the engagement, which prevented her rendering such
assistance, etc., etc. Alison, with these facts before him, calls a sloop-of-war with eleven guns and forty men a brig, and
keeps her from action altogether ! 2 Statement to the author by Admiral Pauldiiig.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
869
Victory doubtful.
The Flag-ships disabled.
Surrender of the Confiance.
Casein and Paulding.
ants, and directing effective discharges of musket-balls and other light missiles, which
kept the enemy at bay.1 Several times they were within a few feet of the sides of
the Ticonderoga with the intention of boarding her. They behaved with the utmost
gallantry, but with equal gallantry the Americans repulsed them. The Ticonderoga
maintained her position, and covered her extremity of the line to the last, winning
from the commodore and all beholders unqualified praise for her commander and
people.2
While the fortunes of the day were thus fluctuating at the lower end of the line,
the Americans were suffering at the other extremity. The Eagle lost the springs of
her cable, and became exposed to the combined fire of the Linnet and Confiance.
Henley at once dropped her between and a little astern of the Saratoga and Ticon
deroga, and, anchoring her there, opened his larboard guns afresh on the Confiance
and the British galleys. But the Saratoga was left exposed to the whole fire of the
Linnet, which sprang her broadsides in such a manner as to rake the bows of her an
tagonist.
Very soon the two flag-ships became disabled. The Saratoga had not a single
serviceable starboard gun left, and was silent. The Confiance was not much better
off. Now was the moment for Macdonough to exhibit his splendid seamanship. He
did so, quickly and effectively. With the aid of Philip Bruin, his skillful sailing-mas
ter, he wound the ship, by means of a stream anchor and hawsers, so that he brought
the guns of his larboard quarter to bear on the Confiance, which had vainly endeav
ored to imitate the movement. Under the direction of Acting Lieutenant Lavallette,
these poured such a destructive fire on the British flag-ship that she soon surren
dered. The Saratoga's fire was then directed upon the Linnet, and in the course of
1 Stephen Cassin, son of Commodore John Cassin, of the navy, was born in Philadelphia on the 16th of February,
1783. He entered the navy as a midshipman in the year 1800, and was in the Philadelphia with Decatur in the Mediter
ranean. He was active, and behaved bravely in the naval operatioJI in that quarter from 1801 to 1804^'5. He was ap
pointed to the command of the Ticonderoga in the spring of 1814, and Macdonough, in his official report of the battle
off Plattsburg, in September of that year, said, "The Ticonderoga, Lieutenant Commandant Stephen Cassin, gallantly
sustained her full share of the action." For his good conduct on that occasion Cassin was promoted to a post cap
taincy, and received from Congress a vote of thanks and a gold medal. The latter is delineated in the engraving on the
opposite page. On one side is a bust of Cassin in profile, with the legend "STEP. CASSIN TIOONDEROGA PREFECT. QU/E
BEGIO IN TEKBIS NOB. NGN PLENA LAB." On the reverse is the same design, legend, and exergue as on that of Captain
Henley.
2 Among the brave spirits on board the Ticonderoga was Midshipman Hiram Paulding, now (1867) a rear admiral. He
was then a lad not seventeen years of age, but, for want of
officers, he was placed in command of a division of eight
guns. When the British galleys approached it was discov
ered that the matches for firing the cannon were useless.
Young Paulding saw no resource but the flash of a pistol,
and with his own hand he thus fired the guns of his sec
tion during a combat of more than two hours ; and in the
interval of the cannon-firing, when the enemy were with
in pistol - shot, he discharged his weapon against them.
These facts I had from the lips of the late Commodore
Tattnall.
Hiram Panlding, a son of one of the captors of AndriS,
was born in Westchester County, New York, on the llth
of December, 179T. His first service in the navy was as a
midshipman, at thirteen years of age, on Lake Ontario, in
1812. During the remainder of the war he was confined to
Lake Champlain. In 1815 he accompanied Decatur in the
Constellation frigate to the Mediterranean. He was pro
moted to lieutenant, and served under Bainbridge and
Downes. He was on shore for some time in 1821 engaged
in study preparatory to a more useful career in the navy.
He accompanied Porter in his expedition against the West
India pirates, and from that time until 1865, he was in active,
arduous, and most useful service, afloat and ashore, as sub
ordinate and commander, having been promoted to captain
in 1843. He took an active interest in the suppression of the
rebellion that broke out in the Slave-labor states in 1861,
and in 1862 (when the annexed portrait was drawn) was pro
moted to rear admiral. He was the first American com
mander who received a full admiral's salute. It was given
by a French frigate lying in New York Harbor, August 1,
1862, on the occasion of the admiral's visit to that vessel.
870
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Surrender of the British Fleet.
Escape of the British Galleys.
Spectators of the Battle.
fifteen minutes she too struck her colors. The British galleys in the mean time had
been driven by the Ticonderoga half a mile in the rear of their stately associates, and
they lay scattered, and giving feeble aid to them. Seeing the colors of the larger
vessels go down, they too dropped their ensigns, and at a little past noon not one of
the sixteen national flags which were so proudly floating over the British squadron
when it rounded Cumberland Head could be seen.
Finding they were not likely to be pursued, the galleys bent their sweeps with en
ergy and escaped down the lake, followed by a store-sloop which had been lying
during the battle near the point of Cumberland Head on which the light-house now
stands. The American vessels were too much crippled to follow, and were, moreover,
VIEW AT T1IE LIGHT-HOUSE ON OUMBEBLAND HEAD.1
engaged in the humane business of saving the survivors of the Confiance and the
Linnet, which were reported to be in a sinking condition.2 " I could only look at the
enemy's galleys going oflf in a shattered condition," Macdonough wrote to the Secre-
• September is, tary of War,a " for there was not a mast in either squadron that could
stand to make sail on ; the lower rigging, being nearly all shot away,
hurig down as if it had just been placed over the mast-heads." "Our masts, yards,
and sails were so shattered," wrote Midshipman Lee, of the Confiance, who was
wounded in the action, " that one looked like so many bunches of matches and the
other like a bundle of rags."3
For two hours and twenty minutes this severe naval battle raged, while the thun
der' of cannon, the hiss of rockets, the scream of bombs, and the rattle of musketry
were heard on the shore. It was a sublime sight, and was beheld by hundreds of
spectators on the headlands of the Vermont shore, who greeted the victory with
shouts.4 It was a battle characterized by a vigor and destructiveness not excelled
1 This view is from the light-house on Cumberland Head, and includes the theatre of the battle of Lake Champlain.
The island in the centre of the picture is Crab Island, and the one nearer the left is Valcour Island, near which Bene
dict Arnold's famous naval battle was fought in 17T6. The hills in the distance are the lofty Adirondack Mountains.
2 This is the accepted reason for the flight of the gun-boats. Cooper says that, after the surrender, a cannon on board
the Confiance was accidentally discharged, and in the direction of Cumberland Head. Up to that time, he says, the
British galleys appeared to have been waiting to be taken possession of. They regarded this gun as a signal for es
cape, and they acted accordingly. Macdonough made a signal for hi? gun-boats to follow, but they were recalled to the
relief of the Linnet and Confiance. 3 Letter to his brother, December 14, 1814. * Anaiectic Magazine, vii., 214.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
871
Victory for the Americans complete.
Macdonough's Announcement of it.
Casualties.
PLAN OP THE NAVAL ACTION ON LAKE CIIAMPLAIN.1
by any during the war, indeed seldom equaled any where or at any time.2 The vic
tory for- the Americans was complete and substantial; and from the Saratoga, half
an hour after the Linnet struck and the galleys fled, Macdonough sent the following
dispatch ashore in a gig, to be forwarded to the Secretary of the Navy :
" SIR, — The Almighty has been pleased to grant us a signal victory on Lake Cham-
plain in the capture of one frigate, one brig, and two sloops of war of the enemy."
Two days afterward he sent Lieutenant Commanding Cassin to the Secretary of the
Navy with a more detailed yet brief account of the battle, in which he stated that
the Saratoga had fifty round shot in her hull, and the Confiance one hundred and five.
He added, "The Saratoga was twice set on fire by hot shot from the enemy's ship."3
Very few officers or men on the Saratoga and Confiance were uninjured. Indeed,
the same might be said of those of the other large vessels of both parties. Macdon
ough was twice prostrated upon the deck, and his venerable sailing-master, Peter
Brum, had his clothes nearly torn off" by a splinter while winding the ship.* Acting*
1 This map was compiled from a large one in the Engineer Department, Washington City, and a rough pen-and-ink
sketch made at the time of the battle by the late Chancellor R. H. Walworth, then Macomb's adjutant general. The
coast lines are from the report of the Coast Survey.
2 " The havoc on both sides was dreadful," Midshipman William Lee wrote. " I don't think there are more than-flve
of our men, out of three hundred, but what are killed or wounded. Never was a shower of hail so thick as the shot
whistling about our ears. Were you to see my jacket, waistcoat, and trowsers, you would be astonished to know how
I escaped as I di3, for they are literally torn all to rags with shot and splinters ; the upper part of my hat was also shot
away. There is one of the marines who was in the Trafalgar action with Lord Nelson, who says it was a mere flea-bite
in comparison with this."— Letter to his Brother, December 14, 1814. Midshipman Lee rose to the rank of lieutenant,
and died "on the 24th of February, 1S17, at the Telegraph, West Square."— O'Byrne's Xaval Biography.
Mr. James Sloane, of Oswego, informed me that, a few days before the battle, he gave one of the seamen a very nice
glazed hat. After the battle was over the sailor came to him with the hat in his hand, having a semicircular cut in the
side and crown made by a cannon-shot while it was on his head. "Look here, Mr. Sloane," said the sailor, "how the
damned John Bulls have spoiled my hat." He did not seem to reflect for a moment how nearly the cannon-ball came
to spoiling his head.
3 On page S72 is a fac-simile of this paragraph of the dispatch, copied from the original in the archives of the Navy
Department, Washington City. When the Confiance was captured she was found to have ovens for heating,shot. There
were no others in any vessel on the lake.
4 Macdonough sighted a favorite gun much of the time during the action. While doing so at one time, bending his
body, a shot cut the spanker-boom in two, and it fell upon his back with such force as to prostrate him senseless on the
deck. The cry went through the ship that the commodore was killed. He soon recovered and resumed his station.
A few minutes afterward a shot drove the head of the captain of his favorite gun in upon him, and knocked him ; ense-
less into the scuppers, when his death was again announced ; but he speedily recovered. Mr. Brum had a splinter
872
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Casualties on the Ships.
Macdonough's Reception of the captive British Officers.
FAO-8IMILE OF A PAKT OF MACDONOTTOH's DISPATCH.
Lieutenant Lavallette had a shot-box, on which he was standing, driven from un
der him by a ball, and was knocked down by the flying head of one of the seamen.1
Lieutenant Gamble, as we have seen,
was killed at the beginning of the action.
Lieutenant Stansbury suddenly disap
peared from the bulwarks, and two days
afterward his body, cut in two, rose to
the surface. Joseph Smith, first lieuten
ant of the Eagle, received a severe wound,
but returned to his quarters during the
action.2 The British officers suffered se
verely. Commodore Downie, Captain
Anderson, of the Marines, Midshipman
Gunn, of the Confiance, and Lieutenant
Paul and Boatswain Jackson, of the Lin
net, were also killed, and many others
were wounded. The wife of the steward
of the Confiance was also killed.3 The
entire loss . of the Americans was one
hundred and ten, of whom fifty-two were
•^•*^_ •/
killed. The total British loss was
more than two hundred.4
Macdonough received the offi
cers of the captured vessels with
great courtesy of manner and
speech. When they offered him
their swords, he instantly replied,
" Gentlemen, your gallant conduct makes you worthy to wear your weapons ; return
them to their scabbards." They did so, and they all walked the deck of the victori-
driven so near his body as to strip off his clothes and prostrate him senseless. He soon gained his feet, and, making
an apron of his handkerchief, continued his labors. See Cooper's Naval History, ii., 444, note.
1 Elie A. P. Lavallette is a native of Virginia. He entered the naval service as sailing-master a week after the decla
ration of war in June, 1812. He was acting lieutenant in the battle of Lake Champlain, and received a commission as
full lieutenant at the middle of December following as a slight reward for his gallant conduct. In March, 1831, he was
promoted to commander, and in 1862 to rear admiral. He is now (1867) on the retired list and awaiting orders.
» Joseph Smith, now (1867) rear admiral on the retired list, has been chief of the Bureau of Yards and Docks for sev
eral years. He is a native of Massachusetts, and entered the navy as midshipman in January, 1809. When he was about
to go to Lake Champlain he had an order to get a clerk. He found Sloane (already mentioned) in a bookstore in Bos
ton, and persuaded him to go with him. Smith behaved most gallantly on the Eagle in the battle of Lake Champlain.
He had been appointed lieutenant in July, 1813. He was promoted to commander in 1827, and to captain in 1837. He
was created rear admiral in 1862,
3 Letter in Niles's Weekly Register, vii., 43. Mr. Sloane informed me that, while she was stooping in the act of binding
up the wounded leg of one of the men, a cannon-ball came through the side of the ship, carried away both of her breasts,
and, driving her across the vessel, killed her instantly.
* Macdonough's official Letter to the Secretary of the Navy, September 13, 1814 ; Letter of Captain Pring to Sir James
L. Yeo, September 12, 1814 ; Cooper's Naval History, ii., 430 to 441, inclusive : Palmer's History of Lake Champlain, pages
197 to 203, inclusive.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
873
End of the Battle of Lake Champlain. Movements of the land Troops. The British cross the Saranac River.
ous Saratoga, American and English officers, more in the character of friends than of
enemies. Lieutenant Lavallette, who had taken formal possession of the Con/lance,
was soon directed to prepare the prisoners for Crab Island, and before sunset all was
quiet on the lake. Thus ended the famous BATTLE OF LAKE CHAMPLAIN. The Brit
ish vessels were taken to Whitehall, at the head of the lake, and scuttled. The /Sara
toga shared the same fate afterward. I saw the remains of this vessel and the Con-
fiance there as late as 1850.
We have observed that while the roar of the battle-storm was heard on the water,
its thunders were bellowing over the land. According to arrangement, when the
pennants of the British fleet were seen over Cumberland Head, a part of the British-
land force, under Major General Robinson, moved in three columns to force their way
across the Saranac at the site of the two bridges, and a ford at Pike's cantonment,
three miles from the mouth of the stream, and carry the American works by storm.1
When the first gun was fired on the lake, the British land batteries were opened, and,
under cover of the shot and shell which they hurled toward the American works,
BATTLE OF PLATTSBURG. (Prom an old print.)3
their three assailing columns moved. At the lower bridge they were repulsed by the
guards, block-houses, and artillery of the forts, served by Captains Brooks, Richards,
and Smith, and Lieutenants Mountfort, Smyth, and Cromwell. At the upper bridge
the riflemen and pickets, under Captain Grosvenor and Lieutenants Hamilton and
Riley, aided by some militia, successfully disputed their passage. They were a little
more successful at the upper ford, where the Clinton and Essex militia, under Major
General Mooers and Brigadier General Wright, were stationed. After being driven
back several times with considerable loss, some companies of the British pushed
across the stream, then shallow and rapid, firing briskly by platoons as they advanced,
but doing very little harm.3 The militia fell back. They were soon joined by a
large detachment of Vermont Volunteers, and a party of artillery with a field-piece,
under Lieutenant Sumter.
The flying companies were now rallied, and drawn up in battle array to meet the
pursuing foe, when Walworth, one of Mooers's aids,4 came dashing up, his horse
1 These troops consisted of "light infantry companies, 3d battalion Twenty-seventh and Seventy-sixth Regiments,
and Major General Powers's brigade, consisting of the 3d, 5th, and 1st battalion of the Twenty-seventh and Fifty-eighth
Regiments."— Sir George Prevost to Earl Bathurst, September 11, 1814.
2 This view is from the right bank of the Saranac, at its mouth. Toward the left is the three-storied stone mill, and
in the distance Fort Brown. A portion of the lower bridge, from which the planks were torn up, is seen. Some of
the British are attempting to ford the stream. The court-house is seen on fire. The church observed in the picture
was saved, and survived until September, 1867, when it perished in a great conflagration in the village.
3 Participants in the fight told Mr. Palmer, the historian of Lake Champlain, that most of the enemy's bullets struck
the trees above them "at least fifteen feet from the ground."
4 Reuben H. Walworth was born in Bozrah, Connecticut, October 26, 1789. His parents removed to Hoosick, New
York, where his early years were spent. He received only a common school education, and at the age of seventeen
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
British Troops recalled.
Their Leader alarmed.
Uprising of the People.
TIIE SABAJSAO AT TIliE's CANTONMENT.
flecked with its own foam, and gave them
the joyful intelligence that the British
fleet had just surrendered. These glad
tidings were greeted with three hearty
cheers. At the same moment they ob
served the pursuers with their backs turn
ed, and making their way in haste toward
the Saranac. Sir George Prevost, who al
ways played the coward when near dan
ger, according to British historians, had
become terribly alarmed, and recalled
these vigorous and only successful troops.
He had experienced " the extreme .morti
fication," he said, " to hear the shout of
victory from the American works" when
the fleet surrendered on the lake. They
had been loud and mighty cheers, iterated
and reiterated by corps after corps, as the eye and ear caught knowledge of the vic
tory ; and Sir George wisely saw, as he said, that " farther prosecution of the service
was become impracticable." He had assumed the position of co-operator with the
fleet rather than principal, leaving to Downie the brunt of the service, but ready to
receive and wear the garlands of honor which might be won. Seeing the British
flags humbled on all their ships, and their gun-boats fleeing, he resolved to fall back
toward the Canada border, and halt until he should ascertain the use the Americans
intended to make of their naval ascendency just acquired on Lake Champlain.1 It
was a wise determination. Notwithstanding his number was overwhelming,2 Pre-
O O /
vost was really in peril. He might have crushed Macomb and captured the post at
Plattsburg, but it would have been at the expense of many lives without obtaining
:my permanent advantage. The British had lost the lake absolutely, and without
any fair promise of its recovery ; and the militia of all that region were thoroughly
aroused, and were rapidly gathering. Governor Chittenden, of Vermont, had issued
a patriotic address at the beginning of the invasion, calling upon the militia of his
state to hasten to the aid of their brethren across the lake. It had been heartily re
sponded to, and at the close of the memorable day of the battle not less than twenty-
five hundred Green Mountain boys were on the Saranac, under Major General Strong.
The militia of Washington and Warren counties were also streaming toward Platts
burg at the call of General Mooers, and re-enforcements of regulars were on their
way. Prevost's army would very soon have been equaled in numerical strength, and
perhaps surrounded and supplies from Canada cut off. He perceived these dangers
when the navy was lost, and the moment the forces under General Robinson returned
to camp, he made preparations to abandon the siege, notwithstanding General Bris
bane offered to cross the Saranac in force and carry the American works in twenty
minutes. The fire from his batteries were kept up until sunset, and Fort Brown, un
der the immediate command of Lieutenant Mountfort,3 sent back responses with great
commenced the study of law. He settled in Plattsburg for its practice, and in 1811 was appointed a Master in Chan
cery. He was the favorite aid of General Mooers, of whose division the late Colonel David B. M'Neil was Inspector
General. He was a member of Congress twelve consecutive years. He became a judge ; and in 1828 he was appointed
Chancellor, then the highest judicial office in the state. He held it twenty years. After he left office he resided at Sar
atoga Springs until his death late in 18CT. He was long identified with the leading religious and benevolent move
ments of his day.
1 Sir George Prevost to Earl Bathurst, September 11, 1814.
* The Rritixh had 14,000 troops and the Americans 4700 on the eventful day of the battle. The firmer consisted of
Robinson's brigade, 3700 ; Powers'*, 3600 ; Brisbane's, 3100 ; light troops, 2800, composed ofMeuron's Swiss regiment,
Canadian chasseurs, voltigeurs, and frontier light infantry ; a troop of light dragoons, 300 ; Royal Artillery, 400 ; rock
eteers, sappers and miners, 100. The Americans had 1500 regulars, commanded by leaders of various ranks ; 2500 Ver
mont Volunteers, under Major General Strong ; and 700 Clinton and Essex militia.
3 John Mountfort was born in Boston in November, 1790, and was the son of a patriot of the Revolution. He en
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
875
Flight of the British from Plattsburg
Cause of their great Haste.
They re-enter Canada.
ETTIN'S OF FOKT
spirit.1 So excel
lent was the fir
ing that the Brit
ish believed that
French artiller
ists were employ
ed by the Ameri
cans.
"When night fell
Prevost caused
his cannon to be withdrawn from the batteries. At nine o'clock in the evenin^ he
t?
sent them Canada-ward, with all the baggage for which he could find transportation,
and at two o'clock in the morning of the 12th the entire army fled with a precipita
tion wholly unaccountable at the time.3 The sick and wounded, and a vast amount
of munitions of war, were left behind ; and the foe reached Chazy, eight miles dis
tant, before the Americans were apprised of the movement. Light troops, volun
teers, and militia, under General Mooers,* at once started in pursuit. They made a
few prisoners, but heavy rains compelled them to relinquish the chase. Prevost halt
ed and encamped at Champlain, and on the 24th left the territory of the United States,
and retired to Montreal with the main army. Thus ended the BATTLE OF PLATTS
BURG and the second invasion of New York. Many of the Bi'itish deserted, and the
loss of Sir George after he crossed the frontier line, in killed, wounded, missing, and
tered the army as second lieutenant of the Third Artillery in March, 1812, and was promoted
to first lieutenant in May, 1S13. This was won by his gallantry at York, where, in conse
quence of the absence of his superior officer, he commanded his company. He assisted in the
capture of Fort George. After that he and his company acted as marines in Chauncey's fleet,
volunteering for the service. He accompanied Wilkinson down the St. Lawrence, and be
haved so gallantly at Plattsburg that he won the promotion to captain. He was major of ar
tillery in the Florida War, under General Gaines, and afterward was the commander of sev
eral forts in succession. He left the army in 1638, and in 1851, just as he was about to leave
for Europe with his family, he died. His death occurred on the 22d of October. While I was
in Boston in the autumn of I860, his brother, George Mountfort, Esq., showed me a gunner's
quadrant, still smeared with gunpowder and blood, which the gallant officer took from un
der the slain soldiers in one of the British redoubts at Plattsburg. The engraving is a repre
sentative of it. It is a graduated quadrant of six-inch radius, attached to a rule a little more
than twenty-three inches in length, and all made of brass. It has a plumb-line and bob. The
quadrant is applied either by the longer branch to the face of the piece, or this branch is run
into the bore parallel with the axis. It was in the original oaken case in which it w,as car
ried by the gunners of the Royal Artillery.
Mountfort was always cool. A fellow-soldier (Robert Keith, of Boston), in a communica
tion before me, has related an example. During the battle, he says, he saw a small bomb
shell fall at the feet of the gallant lieutenant, -when he caught it, threw it over the parapet,
and said, "Don't be alarmed, boys, it is nothing but a humbug."
1 During the hostilities at Plattsburg. from the 6th until the evening of the llth, scarcely a
building in the village escaped injury of some sort. Many houses were completely riddled.
Nine dwellings, thirteen stores and shops, and the court-house and jail, were burned. Some
of these were destroyed when the enemy were burned out by Brooks's hot shot, as mentioned
on page 863.
2 These mounds are on the banks of the Saranac. Plattsburg is seen in the distance
across the river.
3 The late Reverend Eleazer Williams (see page 377), who was in the military service of the United States at Platts
burg as commander of the Secret Corps of Observation, informed me that Sir George, naturally timid, was intensely
alarmed by a clever trick arranged by Williams. Colonel Fassett, of Vermont, came over from Burlington on Friday
before the battle, and assured Macomb that the Vermont militia would cross the lake to aid him in spite of Governor
Chittenden. Williams suggested to the general after Fassett left that a letter from that officer, declaring that a heavy
body of the militia were about to cross the lake, sent so as to fall into the hands of Prevost, would have a salutary ef
fect. Macomb directed Williams to carry out the plan. He went over to Burlington, and received from Fassett a let
ter to Macomb, in which he said that Chittenden was marching with ten thousand men for St. Albans ; that five thou
sand more were marching from St. Lawrence County ; and that four thousand from Washington County were in mo
tion. This letter was placed in the hands of a shrewd Irish woman on Cumberland Head, who took it to Prevost. The
alarmed baronet immediately ordered the flight spoken of in the text, and at a little past midnight his whole army was
on the wing. The trick played upon Hull at Detroit (see note 1, page 285) was repeated npon Prevost with equal success.
* Benjamin Mooers was a soldier of the Revolution. He was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, in 1761, and entered
the military service in 1775, at the age of fifteen years. He was commissioned first an ensign, and then first lieutenant,
and was an active officer during all the later years of the Revolution. When summoned to the field in 1814 he was fif
ty-six years of age, and living in quietude on the borders of Plattsburg Bay. He obeyed the summons with alacrity,
and performed his duties nobly. He died at his residence on Cumberland Head on the 2Sth of February, 1838, at the
876
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Rejoicings because of the Victory at Plattsburg. Public Dinner given to Macdonough. Song, " Siege of Plattsburg."
deserters, did not fall much short of two thousand, according to careful estimates
made at the time. The American loss was less than one hundred and fifty. Only
one commissioned officer, Lieutenant George W. Runk, was mortally wounded. He
died the next day.
The events on land and water at Plattsburg on the llth of September, 1814, pro
duced a thrill of intense joy throughout the country, and with delight the people
read the stirring General Orders in which, on the 14th of September, Macomb an
nounced the result to his little army.1 Spontaneous honors and praises were given
by the people to him and Macdonough conjointly.2 Bonfires and illuminations blazed
in almost every city and village in the land, and the recent disaster at the national
capital was almost unthought of for the moment. Legislative resolves, artillery, ora
tory, and song3 were pressed into the service of rendering homage to the two heroes
and their men. The newspapers teemed with eulogies, and at all public gatherings
and entertainments their names and deeds were mentioned with applause. Governor
age of seventy-seven years. His remains are in the Plattsburg burying-ground ; and at the
head of the grave, near the entrance to the cemetery, is a handsomely-wrought commemora
tive slab of marble with the following inscription : "In memory of General BENJAMIN Moo-
EE8, who died February 28, 1838, aged seventy-seven years. He served as lieutenant and adju
tant in the Revolutionary War. He commanded the militia at the battle of Plattsburg, Sep
tember 11, 1814. He was the first settler in this county, and for thirty years county treasurer.
He repeatedly represented this section of country in the Assembly and Senate of the State,
and discharged the important duties which devolved upon him as a citizen, as a soldier, and
a Christian, with fidelity to his country and integrity to his God."
1 After alluding to the designs of Prevost, he said " he brought with him a powerful army
and flotilla— an army amounting to fourteen thousand men, completely equipped, and accom
panied by a numerous train of artillery, and all the engines of war— men who had conquered
iu France, Spain, Portugal, the Indies, and in various other parts of the globe, and led by the
most experienced generals of the British army. A flotilla, also superior to ours in vessels,
men, and guns, had determined at once to crush us both by land and water." He then spoke
of the boastings of the governor general, and his attempts to seduce the Americans from their
allegiance, and then gave a concise history of the battle and the precipitate flight of the
enemy.
2 A few days after the battle, the
citizens of Plattsburg, who had re
turned to their homes, resolved, in
public meeting, to give a public
dinner to Commodore Macdon
ough. A committee, of which Hen
ry De Lord was chairman, waited
upon the hero on board his ship with an invitation. It was
accepted, and on Tuesday, the 23d instant, at three o'clock
P.M., the commodore, with Generals Macomb and Mooers,
and other officers of the army and navy, who were invited
guests, and a number of citizens, sat down to a bountiful din
ner at the United States Hotel, kept by Thomas Green, and yet
standing in 1860, between the stone mill and the bridge over
the Saranac, in Plattsburg. General Macomb's band furnish
ed the music on the occasion. Peter Sailley, Esq., presided.
Seventeen regular toasts were drank. The distinguished
guests, as they retired, were toasted ; and one was given in
respectful silence to "The memory of Commodore Downie,
our brave enemy." The fallen brave of Macdonough's fleet
were also remembered in the regular toasts. " Much credit,"
says a writer who was present, "is due to Mr. Green for the
excellent dinner which he provided for the occasion, it being
generally conceded to be the best that was ever given in
Plattsburg." A full report of the proceedings was published in a hand-bill, a copy of which is before me.
This is a view of the United States Hotel at Plattsburg as it appeared in 1S14. The clap-boards on the visible gable
exhibited the perforations of bullets from British muskets on the left bank of the Saranac when J saw it in 1860. On
the right is seen Plattsburg Bay, and Cumberland Head in the distance.
3 The victories of Macdonough and Macomb were the subject of one of the most popular songs written and sung dur
ing the war. It was written by Micajah Hawkins for the proprietor of a theatre in Albany, and sung by him in the
character of a negro sailor. Governor Tompkins was present when it was first sung. Hawkins gained great applause
and a prize by his performance. He was afterward a grocer in Catharine Street, New York. The following is a copy
of the famous ballad :
SIEGE OF PLATTSBURG.
Tune— Boyne Water.
"Backside Albany stan' Lake Champlain, On Lake Champlain Uncle Sam set he boat,
Little pond half full o' water : An' Massa Macdonough he sail 'em ;
Plat-te-burg dar too, close 'pon de main ; While Gineral Macomb make Plat-te-burg he home
Town small— he grow bigger, do', herearter. Wid de army, whose courage nebber fail 'em.
GENERAL MOOERS 8
GRAVE.
UNITED STATES I1OTEL.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
Honors to General Macomb.
Biographical Sketch of him.
His Monument.
Tompkins, in the name of the State of New York, presented General Macomb with a
superb sword. De Witt Clinton, Mayor of New York, presented him, in the name
of the Corporation, the " freedom of the city" in a gold box similar in character to the
one given to General Brown j1 and he was requested by the same body to sit for his
portrait, to be placed in the gallery of distinguished men. Congress gave him the
thanks of the nation, and voted him a gold medal.2 He was commissioned by the
President major general by brevet. When he returned to his family at Belleville,
New Jersey, the village was illuminated, and he was received with the most gratify
ing tokens of respect. " Never, on the return of any hero to the peaceful bosom of
his family," said the New York Evening Post, an opposition paper, " was evinced so
universal a sense of sincere joy and heartfelt satisfaction."
But Massa Macdonough knock he boat in he head,
Break he heart, break he shin, 'tove he caff in,
An' Gineral Macomb start ole Probose home —
To't me soul den I muss die a laffln'.
'Probose scare so he lef all behine,
Powder, ball, cannon, tea-pot, an' kittle ;
Some say he cotch a cole— trouble in he mine
'Cause he eat so much raw an' cole vittle.
Uncle Sam berry sorry, to be sure, for he pain,
Wish he nuss heself up well an' hearty,
For Gineral Macomb and Mas^a 'Donough home
When he notion for anudder tea-party 1"
"On 'lebenth day Sep-tem-ber,
In eighteen hun'red and fourteen,
Gubbernor Probose and he British soj-er
Come to Plat-te-burg a tea-party courtin' ;
An' he boat come too, arter Uncle Sam boat.
Massa 'Donough, he look sharp out de winder ;
Den Gineral Macomb (ah ! he always a-home)
Cotch fire too, sirs, like a tinder.
" Bang ! bang ! bang ! den de cannons 'gin to roar,
In Plat-te-burg and all 'bout dat quarter ;
Gubbernor Probose try he ban' 'pon de shore,
While he boat take he luck 'pon de water ;
1 See page 617.
2 A representation of this medal is given on the next page. On one side is a bust of Macomb in profile, with his
name and title. On the reverse a battle on land, in sight of a large town, troops crossing a bridge, and war-vessels
fighting on a lake. Above this scene are the words "RESOLUTION OF CONGBESS, NOV. 3, 1814." The exergue — "BATTLE
OF PLATTSBUBG, SEPT. 11, 1814."
Alexander Macomb was the son of a fur merchant of Detroit, who married one of the highly respectable family of Na
varre. Their son was born in Detroit on the 3d of April, 1782. He became a resident of New York in infancy, and was
educated in NewVersey. He was a member of the "New York Rangers," a volunteer corps raised in 1779, when war
with Prance was expected. General North, of the Revolution, placed him on his staff. He became permanently at
tached to the army as a dragoon, and was very useful. He was with Wilkinson in the Southwest, and, being after
ward attached to a corps of engineers as first lieutenant, he was sent to West Point, where he compiled a treatise on
martial law. He became captain in 1805, and was ordered to superintend the erection of fortifications on the frontiers.
He was promoted to major in 1S08, and when the
war commenced in 1812 he was placed in command
of an artillery corps. We have already met him sev
eral times in the course of this narrative of the war.
His crowning achievement was at Plattsburg. After
the war he was stationed at Detroit. He was made
chief engineer in 1821, and removed to Washington.
He remained in that bureau until 1835, when, on the
death of General Jacob Brown, he was promoted to
general - in - chief of the army of the United States.
He died at Washington City on the 25th of June,
1841, aged fifty-nine years. He was buried with mil
itary honors in the Congressional Burying-ground
at Washington, and over his grave now stands a
beautiful white marble monument bearing the fol
lowing inscriptions :
West Side. — " ALEXANDER MACOMB, Major General
Commanding-in-chief United States Army. Died at
Washington, the seat of government, 25th June,
1841."
East Side. — " It were but small tribute to his mem
ory to say that, in youth and manhood, he served his
country in the profession in which he died, during a
period of more than forty years, without stain or
blemish upon his escutcheon."
South Side.— "The honors conferred on him by
President Madison, received on the field of victory
for distinguished and gallant conduct in defeating
the enemy at Plattsburg, and the thanks of Congress,
bestowed with a medal commemorative of this tri
umph of the arms of the Republic, attest the high
estimate of his gallantry and meritorious services."
On the west side, over his name, is an olive wreath ; MAOOMB'B MOSTMENT.
on the south side an hour-glass with wings, and a
scythe ; on the east side a simple cross, and on the north side a serpent and butterfly.
In the above sketch, the little monument to Commodore Patterson is seen in an iron railing. Over one corner of it,
in the distance, is seen William Wirt's monument, and between it and Macomb's is seen that of Commodore Chauncey.
878
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Honors and Gifts to Macdonough.
Medals presented by Congress to the Commanders.
MACOMB'S MEDAL.
Macdonough, too, was nobly honored. The State of New York gave him two thou
sand acres of land. The State of Vermont purchased two hundred acres on Cumber
land Head and presented it to him. It was on the borders of Cumberland, or Platts-
burg Bay, and the farm-house upon it overlooked the scene of his gallant exploits.
The cities of New York and Albany each gave the hero a valuable lot of land.
" Thus," said Macdonough to a friend, while tears stood in his eyes, " in one month,
from a poor lieutenant I became a rich man." Congress gave him the thanks of the
nation, and with his brave commanders, Henley and Cassin, voted him a gold medal,
with suitable devices and inscriptions.1
MACDONOUGIl's MEDAL.
i See page 868. The above is a representation of the medal given to Macdonough. On one side is a bust of the
hero in profile, with the legend " THO. MACDONOUGH, STAGNO OJJAMPLAIU OLAS. KEG. BRIT. SUPEEAVIT." The reverse bears
the same device and inscriptions as those of Henley and Cassin, given on page 868.
Thomas Macdonough was born in the county of New Castle, Delaware, on the 23d of December, 1783. His father was
a physician, and a major in the Continental army. Thomas entered the navy as midshipman in 1798. He was with
Decatur in the Mediterranean, where he behaved with great gallantry, especially in the affair of the Philadelphia. See
page 120. His spirit was shown in the harbor of Gibraltar on one occasion. He was then first lieutenant of the Siren.
Near her lay an American merchant brig. A boat from a British man-of-war went alongside of her, and its crew seized
a seaman who was claimed as a British subject. Macdonough saw it. His commander was absent. He instantly
armed and manned his gig and gave chase. He overhauled the boat under the guns of the British frigate, released him,
and took him back to the merchant vessel. The British captain, in great rage, appeared on the Siren, and inquired of
Macdonough how he dared to take a man from his boat. " He was under the protection of my country's flag, and it
was my duty," was the reply. With warm oaths the captain swore he would lay his frigate alongside and sink the
Siren. "While she swims you shall not have the man !" said Macdonousrh. "You'll repent of your rashness, young
man," rejoined the Englishman. " Suppose I had been in that boat, would you have dared to commit such an act?"
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
879
The Cost of Prevost's Expedition.
Effect of the Victory at Plattsburg.
Graves of British Officers.
MAOlHOiOUGIl's FARM-HOUSE ON CUMBERLAND HEAD,
The result of the battle
of Plattsburg was deeply
mortifying to the Brit
ish. The Canadian news
papers offered many jere
miads, and Sir George
Prevost was censured in
unmeasured terms for his
incompetency and coward
ice. It was estimated that
he left behind him in his
flight munitions and stores
worth almost one hundred thousand pounds sterling, and that his fruitless expedition
cost at least five hundred thousand pounds, or two million five hundred thousand dol
lars. It was disheartening to the enemy, and was a powerful instrumentality in the
speedy restoration of peace. Prevost abandoned all idea of renewing the attempt at
invasion, and retired to Quebec. He was soon afterward dismissed and dishonored
by his government, and he did not long survive the anxiety it occasioned and his ef
forts to get home to England and vindi
cate his character.
Three days after the battle, when it was
ascertained that the British were making
their way toward the St. Lawrence, Gener
al Macomb discharged the New York and
Vermont militia, and the solemn rites of
burial were accorded to the dead of both
nations. Fifteen officers, including Com
modore Downie, were laid in the Platts
burg Burying-ground, and a neat marble
slab, with the name of the commemorated
cut upon it, was placed at the head of each
grave. On each side of Downie's grave a
pine-tree was planted. These were noble in
stature when I made the annexed sketch,
but one has since disappeared. A few
years ago a near relation of the British
commander laid a recumbent marble slab,
suitably inscribed, upon brick walls, over
his remains.2 Around it are the graves of
DOWNIE'S GRAVED t^e o^er officers.
" I should have made the attempt, sir !" " What ! would you interfere if /were to impress men from that brig?" "You
have only to try it, sir," was Macdonotigh's cool reply. He did not try it.
Macdonough was sent to Lake Champlain when the War of 1812 broke out There he won unfading laurels, as we
find recorded in the text. From the close of the war his health gave way, yet he lived for more than ten yean
tooth of consumption undermining the citadel of his life. On the 10th of November, 1825, he died in Middletown, Con
necticut, where he married his wife, the excellent Miss Shaler, and who had died only a few months before. He was
only forty-two years of age. His portrait on page 856 is from the one painted from life by John \V esley Jams for the
Corporation of the City of New York, and now occupies a place in the Governor's Room.
1 This picture is from the title-page of the twelfth volume of the Analytic Magazine. On page 88 is some poor verse
intended as an accompaniment, In the distance is seen the mouth of the Saranac and the village of Plattsburg.
Cumberland Head at that time was the Plattsbnrg port of entry, and the leading men of that section resided on
pleasant promontory. Among them was General Melancthon Woolsey (whose house is yet standing), General M ers,
Peter Sailley, Major Adams, and others,
2 The following is a copy of the inscription : " Sacred to the memory of GEOEGE DOWNIE, Esq., a post captain in the
Royal British Navy, who gloriously fell on board his B. M. S. the Confiance while leading the vessels under his command
to the attack of the American flotilla at anchor in Cumberland Bay, off Plattsburg, on the llth of September, 1814.
" To mark the spot where the remains of a gallant officer and sincere friend were honorably interred, this stone I
been erected by his affectionate sister-in-law, MABY DOWNIE, 1851."
s In the above picture Downie's tomb is seen between the trees. The head-stones of the other officers are seen
880
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Visit to historical Places in Northern New York.
Journey to Plattsburg.
Graves of slain Officers.
I visited the theatre of the British invasion of Northern New York, and points of
interest at Plattsburg and in the vicinity, in August, 1860. I have already men
tioned the passing of a night at Rouse's Point1 Village after visiting La Colle Mill,
and journeying on the next morning toward Plattsburg.2 I went to Champlaiu,
five miles south of the Canada border, by railway, and there strolled over the place
of Dearborn and Wilkinson's encampments on the hill eastward of the railway sta
tion, then (1860) the land of Francis Nye. I also went to the site of Izard's encamp
ment, on rising ground south of the village, and of his battery on the brow of a hill,
then (1860) the property of Noadiah Moore. After sketching the mansion of Judge
Moore, which was used for officers' quarters by both parties,3 1 left for Plattsburg in
a light wagon, accompanied by a very intelligent elderly gentleman of Champlain,4
whose name I regret I can not now recall. He was familiar with the whole region,
and the events and localities which make it notable.
VIEW IN JiEEKMANTOWN.
, We passed through Chazy, upon the Little Chazy River. Just before reaching it,
we saw at his house Captain Hiram Ferris, an old lake pilot, who gave us some of his
reminiscences of adventure as commander of a sloop in which Vermont militia were
taken across the lake to Plattsburg before the battle. We rode on to Sampson's,
6.
L— • J"'
Jl.
2.
grouped around it. The annexed diagram shows the position of each
°^ tne graves, indicated by numerals as follows: 1. Commodore Dow-
nie ; 2. Boatswain Charles Jackson ; 3. Lieutenant William Gunn ; 4.
Lieutenant William Paril ; 5. Captain Alexander Anderson, of the Ma
rines ; 6. Captain John Purchase. These were of the British Navy,
except Purchase, who was of the British Army. 7. Pilot Joseph Bar-
ron ; 8. Lieutenant Peter Gamble ; 9. Lieutenant John 'Stansbury ; 10.
Sailing-master Rogers Carter; 11. Midshipman James M. Baldwin.
These were of the American Navy. 12. Lieutenant George W. Runk,
of the American Army ; 13. Colonel Willington ; 14. Lieutenant John
Chapman, of the British Army. A, A, the pine-trees.
I am indebted to Captain J. Van Cleve for the diagram. It was
made by him in 185C. He has omitted the grave of Lieutenant R.
Kingsbury, of the British Army. It is near No. 12 in the diagram.
1 Named from Jacques Rouse, a French Canadian, who settled there
in 1783. a See page 792.
3 See engraving on page 857.
* Champlain is a lively post-village of less than two thousand inhab
itants, on the Chazy River, or Creek, and contains fine water power.
It is the southern terminus of the Northern Railroad from Ogdensburg,
and from it most of the lumber brought down on that road is shipped.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
881
Ride through Beekmantown and over Culver's Hill.
The Seat of War in Northern New York.
1814.
and dined there ;J and
a mile southward of
the tavern, the place
of the British encamp
ment from the 5th to
the 6th of Septem-
bera was point
ed out to us, on
the farm ofMr. Phelps.
We soon afterward
turned westward to
ward Beekmantown,2
and in that little vil
lage, and upon Cul
ver's Hill southward
of it, we spent about
two hours. I sketch
ed the house of Ira
Howe3 in the upper
part of the village;
and in the delightful
shadow of grand old
elms, which were flour
ishing trees in the time
of the war, I made the
sketch on the preced
ing page, on the left
of which is seen the
stone meeting-house,
built by the Method
ists in 1 830, and in the
distance the road pass
ing over Culver's Hill, on which Wool fought his second battle with the invaders
5 See sketch of the house on page 859.
2 Named in honor of William Beekman, to whom, with twenty-nine others, the township was granted in the spring
of 1769. a See page 862.
3K
882
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Battle-ground on Culver's Hill.
Arrival at Plattsburg.
Visit to Cumberland Head.
September,
1814.
on the morning of the 6th.a A little south of the church (at a spot indi
cated by the two figures), we were shown a spring, by the side of the
road, near which Colonel Willington was buried ; and directly in front of Francis
Culver's house, on Culver's Hill, a flat rock was pointed out as the spot where Wil
lington fell.1 It is said that the stains of his blood were upon it a long time. There,
too, we saw the moss-covered stone fence, built before the war, which formed an ad
mirable shelter for the American militia during the fight on the hill.2
Plattsburg was now eight miles distant, and the long summer day was passing
away. We rode on, without stopping, by Halsey's Corners, where Leonard made a
stand with his cannon,3 and at near sunset entered Plattsburg. I became the guest
of a kinsman (Philander C. Moore), and passed a part of the evening profitably with
P. S. Palmer, Esq., the historian of Lake Champlain.
At an early hour the next morning, accompanied by my kinsman, I went out to
visit the historical localities in and about Plattsburg; and just at twilight, after a
day of incessant labor, we returned, having fully accomplished the object of my er
rand. We first rode up to the site of Pike's cantonment (where the British forced a
passage of the Saranac), crossing the river at the upper bridge, and traversing a rough
road most of the way for about two miles. The cantonment was on a low, narrow
plain at the foot of rapids in the river, which are seen in the little sketch on page 874.
We returned on the lake road by the United States military station, visiting the re-
^_ mains of Forts Moreau, Brown,
and Scott, and sketching the old
store-houses on the margin of
the lake, which were erected in
1813 for the use of the Ameri
can troops. We rode back to
the village, and, after sketching
the stone mill4 and the United
States Hotel,5 we crossed the
Saranac, and made our way
along the lake shore road toward Cumberland Head. Soon after crossing Dead Creek
Bridge over the sluggish stream, and among sand dunes drifted by southerly winds
from the bay shore, we passed
the site of Macdonough's farm
house,6 on a rise of ground at
the left of the road, a mile and a
half from the light-house. The
place of the cellar was marked
by a luxuriant growth of weeds
and bushes. Near there we
met a farmer on his way to
Plattsburg, who, to our mutual
surprise, proved to be Mr. J. J.
Mosher, who was my school
master when I was a boy twelve
years of age. It was an agree
able meeting. He turned back,
accompanied us to various pla
ces of interest on the Head
BTOKE-IIOUSES.
lie naS a lainij, and. en-
GKNEKAL, MOOERB'S HOUSE, CUMBERLAND HEAD.
1 See page 862.
s The old Culver mansion, built of wood, was on the site of the present brick mansion of Samuel Andrews, on the
southern slope of the hill. 3 See page 862. * See page 864. 5 See page 8T6. 6 See page ST9.
OF THE WAK OF 1812. 883
Residences of Mooers and Woolsey. Remains of " Wilkinson's Folly." Mr. Platt and his Reminiscences.
tertained us with an excellent dinner and
pleasant intercourse with his family.
Taking the inner road to the light-house
on the extreme point of the Head, we pass
ed the pleasantly situated old mansion of
General Mooers (page 882), where he lived
many years, and where he died. It over
looks the bay and the lake. We visited
and sketched the light-house, and from its
lofty gallery obtained a fine panoramic
view of the entire theatre of the naval
battle near.1 Passing along the lake side
of the Head, in full view of Grand Island
and the Green Mountains, we came, at the
distance of a mile from the light-house, to
the residence of General Woolsey, father
of the active commander on Lake Ontario. Near it was Colonel Durand's, the dep
uty collector (when this was the place of the Plattsburg port of entry), which was
the custom-house; and between Woolsey's and the light-house is the dwelling of Mr.
Mosher. It was a tavern during the war, and in front of it was the landing-place of
the troops brought over by Captain Ferris. When the British galleys were escaping
down the lake, and were passing this tavern, several men were sitting on its porch.
One of them called out to the fugitives in derision, when a British marine fired a mus
ket-ball at the group. It passed just over their heads, and through a door, which
Mr. Mosher preserves as a memento of the incident.
About three fourths of a mile from the light-house, on the farm of J. T. Hagar, we
saw the prominent remains of the ramparts and ditch of a large redoubt cast up by
Hampton, and which received the name of " Wilkinson's Folly." It is about forty
rods from the lake, on high ground, and on the shore in front of it was a water bat
tery. Its ramparts were of earth and stone. From its top Ave had a fine view of the
surrounding country, and we lingered some time in the shadow of a tree that over
hung one of its bastions. The day was now far spent, and we turned back toward
Plattsburg, where we arrived at dusk, well satisfied with our day's excursion.
On the following morning I visited the venerable Isaac C. Platt, then in his eight
ieth year, whose residence is on the Beekmantown road, not far from Halsey's Cor-
nei'S. He was living there at the time of the British invasion, and took his family
over to Middlebury, in Vermont. On his return the skirmish had occurred at Hal
sey's Corners. He found his house in possession of the enemy, and used as a sort of
hospital.2 He asked and obtained from General Brisbane protection for himself and
his property. That ofiicer gave him a general parole of honor to go where he pleased.
When the British fled they left about forty horses in his fields, and these he consid
ered a fair equivalent for hay and other property which they had appropriated to
their own use. The British behaved very honorably, he said, generally paying for
whatever they procured from the inhabitants. During a delightful interview of an
hour with the humorous octogenarian, he related many stirring incidents of the inva
sion, which limited space will not allow me to record. He still [1867] lives in the
enjoyment of good health.
Leaving Mr. Platt's, we passed a huge old butternut-tree between his house and
Halsey's Corners, its trunk terribly scarred by the passage of one of Leonard's can
non-balls completely through it. It stands as a memento of the affair at that point.
We passed on to the burial-ground, and visited and sketched the freestone memorials
of Downie and the slain, already mentioned; of Colonel Melancthon Smith; and of
1 See page 8TO. * See page 8G3.
884 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The Grave of Miss Davidson. A Shot in Macomb's Head-quarters. Chauucey kept from active Service.
General Benjamin Mooers.1 There, too, I found the grave of the wonderfully preco
cious child-poet, Lucretia Maria Davidson, who was the author of a volume entitled
Amir Khan, and other JPoems,2 and yet she died before she was seventeen years of
age. A neat white marble monument marks the resting-place of her remains, and
bears those beautiful lines written by William Cullen Bryant on the occasion of her
burial :
" In the cold moist earth we laid her when the forest cast its leaf,
And we wept that one so lovely should have a lot BO brief;
Yet not unmeet it was that one, like that young friend of ours,
So gentle and so beautiful, should perish with the flowers."
In the course of the day I called on General A. C. Moore, whose fine mansion, not
far from the old stone mill, was the head-quarters of General Macomb before the bat
tle. In the hall, near the foot of the staircase,
and protruding from the upper edge of the wains
coting, was a 24-pound iron ball, which British
cannon hurled across the Saranac. It had come
crashing through the house, and lodged there.
With good taste and patriotic feeling, it had been
left undisturbed. It was painted black and var
nished, and on it, in white letters, were the words
September 11, 1814.
Toward evening of the same day I embarked
at Plattsburg in a steamer for Whitehall, and on
the following evening I was at my home on the
Hudson.
BALL IN MOORE'S HOUSE, PLATTSBtTRG. -__.. . 1 J3 • l , .£> T> JT.' f
With the flight of Prevost and his army from
Lake Champlain ended all military movements of importance on the Northern front
ier. Hostilities soon afterward ceased on the Niagara frontier, as we have observed ;
and during the entire season, Chauncey, one of the most vigilant and active of naval
commanders, had been compelled by circumstances to remain almost inactive at Sack-
ett's Harbor a greater part of the time. He was blockaded by a British squadron
until early in June, when the completion of the armament of the Superior made Sir
James Yeo prudently withdraw his blockading vessels. And when the Mohawk,
» June 11, which was launched* in thirty-four working days after her keel was laid, was
ISM. prepared for sea, and the movements on the Niagara frontier with which
Chauncey was to co-operate had commenced, that commander was prostrated by
severe illness at the Harbor. His re-enforcements came tardily, while the enemy was
increasing his strength in vessels, arms, and men. It was the last of July before the
squadron was ready for sea.
Meanwhile Chauncey had set in motion minor operations. Supplies for the Brit
ish were continually ascending the St. Lawrence in small boats. He resolved to at
tempt the capture of some of them, and sent Lieutenant (late Rear Admiral) Fran
cis H. Gregory,3 with Sailing-masters Vaughan and Dixon, in three gigs, for that pur-
1 About a rod north of General Mooers's grave is that of Samuel Norcross, who, with two other unarmed citizens,
met three British soldiers on the retreat on the morning of the 12th, and simultaneously sprang upon them and seized
their guns. A desperate struggle ensued. His antagonist wrenched the gun from Norcross, and with it shot him, kill
ing him almost instantly. This occurred not far from the place where his body was buried.
2 This volume was published in 1S29, and contained a biographical sketch of the author by Professor Samuel F. B.
Morse. She was born in September, 1S08 ; was educated at Mrs. Willard's seminary in Troy, and died in August, 1829.
She was very beautiful.
3 Francis II. Gregory was born at Norwalk, Connecticut, on the 9th of October, 1T89. He entered the merchant serv
ice in 1802, and the navy as a midshipman in 1809 in the Revenge, commanded by Lieutenant O. H. Perry. He was pro
moted to acting master in 1811, and in the spring of 1812 he was placed under Chauucey's command on Lake Ontario.
In that service he performed many gallant exploits as acting lieutenant, for his skill and bravery were so conspicuous
that he was employed in the most dangerous and difficult service. In August, 1814, he was captured and sent to En
gland a prisoner of war, and was kept there until the close of the contest ; not in close confinement, but on wide parole
in Devonshire, where the "vivacious little Yankee" was a great favorite with the ladies, and graced many a festal occa
sion. In 1825 Lieutenant Gregory commanded the Brandywine when she conveyed Lafayette to this country ; and in
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
885
Exploits of Lieutenant Gregory.
Channcey's Squadron leaves Sackett's Harbor.
Its Composition.
pose at the middle of June. They lay in
ambush among the Thousand Islands, be
low Alexandria Bay, on the 19th. They
were discovered, and a British gun-boat
sent to attack them. They did not wait
for her approach, but boldly dashed upon
and captured her. She was the Slack
Snake, Captain Landon, carrying an 18-
pound carronade and eighteen men, chiefly
Royal Marines. Gregory returned to the
Harbor with his prisoners, but was com
pelled to destroy the Black Snake to pre
vent her recapture. For this gallant serv
ice the National Congress, thirty years
» May 4, afterward,* gave Gregory and his
1S34- companions three thousand dol
lars.1 Ten days afterward, Gregory and
the same assistants started in two gigs for
Nicholas Island, seven miles fromPresque
Isle, on the Canada coast, to intercept
some transports expected to pass there for
York and Fort George. They did not
come ; so, finding his presence was known
to the British authorities, Gregory landed
at Presque Isle, burned a schooner pierced
for fourteen guns and nearly ready to be
launched, and a building containing her
stores, crossed the lake, and reached Sack
ett's Harbor on the 6th of Julyb
without the loss of a man.
Chauncey was carried on board the Su
perior in a convalescent state on the 31st
of July, and on that day his squadron left
the Harbor. It consisted of the flag-ship
Superior, 62, Lieutenant Elton ; Pike, 28,
Captain Crane, Chauncey's second in com
mand;2 Mohawk, 42, Captain Jones; Mad
ison, 24, Captain Trenchard ; Jefferson,
22, Captain Ridgeley ; Jones, 22, Captain
\Yoolsey; Sylph, 14, Captain Elliott;
Oneida, 16, Lieut. Commanding Brown;-
and the look-out boat Lady of the Lake.
They appeared off the mouth of the Niag
ara River (then in possession of the Brit
ish) on the 5th of August.0 Leav-
c 1814
ing the Jefferson, Sylph, and Onei
da to blockade some British vessels in the
1820 he commanded the G4-gun ship sent to the Greeks from New York. He was promoted to commander in 1828, and
was in active service afloat until 1852, when he was placed in charge of the Boston Navy Yard. When the Rebellion
broke out he was anxious to enter into active service,-but he was more usefully employed as general superintendent of
the construction of the iron-clad or armored vessels engaged in the Civil War. He was promoted to the rank of rear
admiral in 18G2, and died in Brooklyn, October 4, 1866, at the age of seventy-seven years. Few men hold a more worthy
place on the records of our navy. * Hough's History of Jefferson County, page 515.
2 Mr. Crane was one of Channcey's most intimate friends and active commanders. He was born in Elizabethtown,
New Jersey, on the 1st of February, 1784, and was a son of General William Crane, who was one of Montgomery's army,
and made a prisoner in Quebec. He entered the navy in 1T99 as midshipman, and was in active service in, the Mediter-
886
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Chauncey tries to draw out Yeo.
A heavy British Ship on the Lake.
Americans prepare to match her.
river, Chauncey crossed the lake with the remainder of the squadron, looked into
. August 9, York, and then sailed for Kingston,1 where, with four of his vessels, he
blockaded the squadron of Sir James Yeo for six weeks. He vainly tried
to draw him out for combat j1 and in the mean time, as we have seen, he conveyed
a part of Izard's troops to the Genesee River.2 During this blockade, Lieutenant
Gregory, while reconnoitring, was captured.
At the close of September it was ascertained that the St. Lawrence, pierced for one
hundred and twelve guns, which had been all the season in preparation at Kingston,
was ready for sea. Chauncey prudently raised the blockade, retired to Sackett's
Harbor, and prepared for attack. On the 15th of October the St. Lawrence sailed,
bearing Sir James Yeo and more than a thousand men.3 She was accompanied by
four ships, two brigs, and a schooner, and from that time the baronet, with his great
ship, was lord of the lake. The Americans resolved to match the St. Lawrence before
the opening of the lake the following spring, and the keels of two first-class frigates
were speedily laid — one at Sackett's Harbor, to be called the Neio Orleans, and an
other at Storrs's Harbor, farther up the bay, to be called the Chippewa. Of the for
mer we have already taken notice on page 616. These vessels were partly finished,
when the proclamation of peace caused work upon them to cease, as well as all far
ther hostilities in that quarter.
Yeo did not venture to attack Chauncey4 in Sackett's Harbor; but so imminent
ranean early in the present century. He was promoted to lieutenant in 1803, and
rose to the rank of captain in 1804. He was in command of the Nautilus when
she was captured (see page 436), and after his exchange was in continual service
on Lake Ontario. He was in the service of his government, afloat and ashore, un
til his death, when he was chief of the Bureau of Ordnance and Hydrography.
Commodore Crane was buried with naval honors in the Congressional Burying-
ground hi Washington City, and over his remains is a fine white marble monu
ment with the following inscriptions:
West Side. — "Sacred to the memory of WILLIAM MONTGOMERY CKANE, a captain
in the navy, who was born in Elizabethtown, New Jersey, on the 1st of February,
1784, and died at Washington on the ISth of March, 1846." South Side.—1- En
dowed with uncommon judgment, skill, and ability, he was conspicuous amongst
the most distinguished of his professional compeers." East Side.— "The manly
qualities which he on all occasions exhibited endeared him to his associates, and
forty-seven years of arduous service proved his devotion to his country." North
Side. — "In the war with France, with the Barbary Powers, and with England, he
was actively engaged, and with undiminishecl reputation."
1 The fact that Sir James Yeo, after boasting of his desire to meet Chauncey's
5 fleet, and his look-outs often feigning a design to encounter the Lady of the Lake,
Chauncey's gallant little scout, caused many squibs. Among others was a short
poem entitled " The Courteous Knight, or the Flying Gallant." After stating that a
British knight (Sir James) of high reputation had jilted an American lady who had
already made some noise in the world (Lady of the Lake), the poet said :
"He fled like a truant; the lady in vain
Her ogling and glances employed :
She aimed at his heart, and she aimed at his brain,
And she vowed from pursuing she ne'er would refrain—
The knight was most sadly annoyed.
At length from love's fervor the recreant got clear,
And may have for a season some rest ;
But if this fair lady he ever comes near,
For breaking his promise he'll pay very dear,
The price gallant Chauncey knows best."
See epigraph at the head of Chapter XXIX. a See page 884.
3 Soon after the St. Lawrence sailed, Mr. M'Gowan, a midshipman, accompanied by William Johnston, the " Hero of
the Thousand Islands" (see page 662), went with a torpedo to Kingston Harbor to blow her up. Her departure foiled
the enterprise. See Cooper's \aval History, ii., 423.
* Isaac Chauncey was a native of Fairfield County, Connecticut, and was born in 17T3. He went to sea early in life
from the port of New York, and was master of a vessel at the age of nineteen years. He made several successful voy
ages to the East Indies in vessels belonging to John Jacob Astor, and in 1798 he entered the navy of the United States
with a lieutenant's commission under Truxtun. He behaved gallantly in the Mediterranean, and for his good conduct
there Congress presented him with an elegant sword. He was promoted to commandant in 1804, and in 1806 he re
ceived the commission of captain. He was appointed to the command of the embryo navy on the Lakes at the begin
ning of the War of 1812, and by his gallant and judicious conduct there he won imperishable fame. He commanded a
equadnyi in the Mediterranean after the war. He returned to the United States in 1818, and was soon afterward called
to the post of navy commissioner at Washington City. He was afterward commander of the naval station at Brook
lyn, but was appointed navy commissioner again in 1833, which office he held until his death, when he was president
CKAKE'S MONUMENT.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
887
Chauncey calls for Militia.
Washington Irving's Rebuke.
Close of Hostilities on the Northern Frontier.
seemed the danger, when it was known
that the &t. Lawrence was ready for sea,
that a request was made by the com
manding officer at that post, of Govern
or Tompkins, to send thither some mili
tia re-enforcements, the entire military
strength which had been left there by
Izard being some artillery under Lieu
tenant Colonel Mitchell, and two battal
ions of infantry, commanded respect
ively by Majors Malcolm and Brevoort.
The governor at once sent his aid, Col
onel Washington Irving,1 with orders
for the commandant at the Harbor to
make such requisition on the militia as
he should think best. The result was
that General Collins called out the en
tire body of the militia of Herkimer,
Oneida, Lewis, and Jefferson counties,
and at the close of October the mili
tary force at Sackett's Harbor was
about six thousand. When the lake
closed, and all apprehensions of an
attack by the British subsided, the
militia were disbanded, and the war was closed on the Canada frontier.
of the board. He died at Washington City on the 27th of January, 1840, at
the age of about sixty-five years. He was interred with appropriate honors
in the Congressional Burying-ground, upon the elope overlooking the East
Branch of the Potomac, and over his grave stands a superb monument made
of white clouded marble. On the pedestal, in relief, is the name CHAUNOEY.
On another part are the names of several of his family. On the east side is
the following inscription : " ISAAC CHAITSCEY, United States Navy, died in
this city January 27th, 1840, while President of the Board of Navy Commis
sioners, aged sixtj'-seven years." The monument is about eighteen feet in
height. Upon the obelisk is a wreath of laurel and a sword, cut in relief.
1 This was the beloved Washington Irving, one of the purest of the planet
ary lights of American literature. Mr. Irving was at that time editor of the
Analectic Magazine, for which he had furnished some brilliant biographies of
the heroes of the war. Naturally peaceful and retiring, he felt no special am
bition to become a conspicuous actor ; yet his soul was full of patriotic flame.
It was increased intensely by a circumstance which occurred on a Hudson
River steam-boat late in August, 1814, when the news of the capture and de
struction of the national capital was filling all loyal men with sadness. His
biographer thus relates the story : " It was night, and the passengers had be
taken themselves to their settees to rest, when a person came on board at
Poughkeepsie with the news of the inglorious triumph, and proceeded, in the
darkness of the cabin, to relate the particulars : the destruction of the Presi
dent's House, the Treasury, War, and Navy OfBces, the Capitol, the Depository
of the National Library and Public Records. There was a momentary pause
after the speaker had ceased, when some paltry spirit lifted his head from a
settee, and, in a tone of complacent disdain, 'wondered what Jimmy Madison
would say now ?' ' Sir,' said Mr. Irving, glad of an escape to his swelling in
dignation, 'do you seize on such a disaster only for a sneer? Let me tell
you, sir, it is not now a question about Jimmy Madison or Johnny Armstrong.
The pride and honor of the nation are wounded ; the country is insulted and
disgraced by this barbarous success, and every loyal citizen would feel the ig
nominy, and be earnest to avenge it.' 'I could not see the fellow,' said Mr.
Irving, but I let fly at him in the dark.' "—The Life and Letters of Washington
Irving, by his nephew, Pierre M. Irving, i., 311. The fellow was cowed into
silence. He was a prototype of a small class which obtained the name of Cop
perheads during the late Civil War, to whom the loyal men of the nation ad
ministered a similar rebuke.
Mr. Irving's feelings were so much stirred by the incident that, on his arrival in New York, he offered his services to
Governor Tompkins as his aid. They were accepted, and he became his excellency's aid and secretary, with the rank
of colonel. His name first appears attached to a general order dated September 2, 1814. He remained on the'govern-
or's staff until the close of the war, a few months afterward.
OHAUKCBY'S MONUMENT.
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
A trying Time for New England. The Blockade of New London. Commodore Lewis in Long Island Sound.
CHAPTER XXXVHL
"Then, warriors on shore, be brave,
Your wives and homes defend ;
Those precions boons be true to save,
And hearts and sinews bend.
Oh, think upon your fathers' fame,
For glory marked the way ;
And this foe aimed the blow,
But victory crowned the day.
Then emulate the deeds of yore,
Let victory crown the day."— OLD SONG.
ENGLAND experienced very little actual war within its bor
ders, yet it felt its pressure heavily in the paralysis of its peculiar
industries, the continual drain upon its wealth of men and money,
and the wasting excitement caused by constantly impending men
aces and a sense of insecurity. From the spring of 1813 until the
close of the contest, British squadrons were hovering along its
coasts, and, in connection with the Embargo Acts, were double-
barring its sea-ports against commerce, and threatening the de
struction of its maritime cities and villages.
The year 1814 was a specially trying one for New England. The British govern
ment, as we have observed, had determined and prepared, at the beginning of that
year, to make the campaign a vigorous, sharp, and decisive one on land and sea.
Hitherto the more northerly coasts of the United States had been very little molest
ed by the enemy excepting by threatenings, for Commodore Hardy's blockade of
New London and its vicinity had been so mild that it was practically little more than
a jailor's custody of two prisoners — Decatur's vessels — above that town. Now a sys
tem of petty invasions commenced, and were followed by more serious operations.
The blockade of New London was kept up in 1814, and as early as April a party
of British seamen and marines, in several small vessels (each armed with a 9 or 1 2
pounder), under the command of Lieutenant Coote, of the Royal Navy, went up the
• April 8, Connecticut River in the evening, and at four o'clock the next morninga land-
L814- ed on Pautopaug Point, seven miles from the Sound, spiked the heavy guns
found there, and destroyed twenty-two vessels, valued at one hundred and sixty thou
sand dollars. At ten o'clock they went down the river two or three miles to Brock-
way's Ferry, where they indulged in similar incendiary sport. In the mean time a
body of militia, with some marines and sailors from Decatur's vessels in the Thames,
under Captain Jones and Lieutenant Biddle, gathered on the shore and endeavored
to cut off their retreat, but, under cover of darkness that night, and with the silence
of muffled oars, they escaped.
At about this time Commodore Lewis made his appearance in the Sound with thir
teen American gun-boats for the protection of the coast-trade against the Liverpool
Packet privateer, which was cruising very mischievously all along the Connecticut
shore. She fled eastward at Lewis's approach, and when he reached Saybrook he
found more than fifty vessels there, afraid to weigh anchor for fear of this corsair.
Lewis told them to follow his flotilla, and he would endeavor to convoy them safely
to New London. The entire fleet sailed on the 25th,b and durino- the after-
A. Dril
noon Lewis had a sharp engagement with a British frigate, sloop, and tender.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 889
Lewis attacks the Blockaders. Amphibious Warfare on the New England Coast. New Bedford and Fair Haven.
The merchant fleet entered the Thames in safety, and Lewis, inspirited by his suc
cess, determined to attack the blockading squadron with his gun-boats. He began
by hurling hot shot, which set the British vessels on fire. He soon disabled the sloop,
which, with the frigate, had attacked him while convoying the coasting vessels. He
so maimed the frigate that she was on the point of surrendering, when night set in
and the fire of the gun-boats ceased. It was excessively dark, and at dawn Lewis
saw the enemy in the far distance towing away the wounded vessel. He was about
to pursue, when several other frigates made their appearance, and he prudently aban
doned the design.
Early in June the enemy commenced depredations on the coasts of Massachusetts.
On the 13th a detachment of two hundred men, in six. barges, were sent from the Su
perb and Nimrod, then lying in Buzzard's Bay, to destroy the shipping at Wareham,
a village at the head of the bay. The elevated rocky neck at the mouth of the Nar
rows concealed the approach of the barges, and the inhabitants were taken by sur
prise. The enemy fired a ship, brig, and several schooners and sloops. The ship was
partially saved, and so also was a cotton factory, which was set on fire by a Congreve
rocket. The estimated value of the loss was $40,000. Quite a number of the lead
ing inhabitants were seized and carried away as hostages, so as to prevent the mili
tia from firing on the vessels. These were released when the ships arrived at their
anchorage. Similar destruction was inflicted at Scituate and smaller places. Some
times the militia would meet the marauders and drive them away, but in most cases
the blow would be struck before a foil could be raised to avert it.
On the 16th of June the Bulwark, 74, Captain Milne, carrying about ninety guns,
anchored off the mouth of Saco River, in Maine, and her commander sent one hund
red and fifty armed men, in five large boats, to destroy property on the Neck belong
ing to Captain Thomas Cutts. That gentleman met them with a white flag, and pro
posed a money commutation. The matter was referred to Captain Milne, who soon
afterward came ashore in his gig. He assured Cutts that he had positive orders to
destroy, and could not spare. The torch was then applied, and two vessels (one fin
ished, the other on the stocks), valued at $15,000, were destroyed, and another one
taken away, which the owner afterward ransomed for $6000. They also plundered
Mr. Cutts's store of goods to the amount of $2000.*
At about the same time the Nimrod and La Hague were blockading New Bedford
and Fair Haven, little villages on each bank of the Acushnet River, an inlet from
Buzzard's Bay. They lay in Tarpaulin Cove, watching vigilantly the privateer Yan
kee, belonging to De Wolfe, of Bristol, Rhode Island, the great slave-merchant. This
vessel, and all others of her class, were unwelcome to the New Bedford people, who
were Federalists, but right welcome to those of Fair Haven, who were Democrats —
a difference of opinion which led to the separation of the two towns. The Fai-r Haven
people cherished all privateers and other enemies of the British, and had, moreover,
a fort on their Point, built in the time of the threatened war with France in 1798 on
the site of a battery of the Revolution. It now had about a dozen iron cannon on its
ramparts, and was guarded by a small garrison under Lieutenant Selleck Osborne,
the poet.2 Of course, the British blockaders did not like the Fair Haven folk, and
one dark night they planned an attack on the fort and the destruction of the village.
Every thing was ready long before daylight, and the Nimrod was to be the executor
of the plan. Just then the tin horn of a solitary mail-carrier was heard, and the clat
ter of his horse's feet as he galloped across the Acushnet bridge and causeway sound-
1 History of Saco and Biddeford, by George Folsom, page 309.
a Selleck Osborne was a native of Connecticut, and a printer by trade. He printed a paper in Litchfield about the
year 1806. He was afterward an editor in Wilmington, Delaware. He was commissioned first lieutenant of light dra
goons in July, 1SOS, and made captain in 1811. His company was disbanded in May, 1S14, and he was acting as lieuten
ant in garrison at Fair Haven. He went to Lnke Champlain, and was engaged in the battle of Plattsburg. In 1823 he
published a volume of poems. He died in Philadelphia on the 1st of October, 1S26.
890 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Sea-port Towns of New England blockaded. Appearance of Hardy's Squadron. The British capture Eastport.
ed loudly upon the night air. The horn was mistaken for the braying of a trumpet
sounding an advance, and the rattle of hoofs was interpreted as the forerunner of the
approach of a large American force. The Nimrod hastened to withdraw to a safe
distance from the fort, and New Bedford and Fair Haven were spared the notoriety
of a battle. The fort and its iron cannon yet (1867) remain, monuments of the wis
dom of ample preparation for evil.
Other places were menaced, and some were attacked. Formidable squadrons were
kept before New York, New London, and Boston. Eastport and Castine fell into the
hands of the British, and Stonington became the theatre of a most distressing bom
bardment. All along the eastern coast, from the Connecticut to the St. Croix, the
enemy carried on this kind of warfare, in most cases marauding on private property
in a manner which degraded the actors in the eyes of all honorable men to the level
of mere freebooters. The more respectable portion of British writers condemned the
policy, for it was damaging to the British interest. Hitherto lukewarm New En
gland now became intensely heated with indignation against the common enemy, and
burned with a war-fever which made the peace party in that region exceedingly cir
cumspect.
A more serious invasion of the New England coast now occurred. Early in July
-July 5, Sir Thomas M. Hardy sailed secretly from Halifax1 with a considerable force
S14' for land and sea service. His squadron consisted of the Ramillies, 74, his
flag-ship ; the sloop Martin, brig Borer, the Bream, the bomb-ship Terror, and several
transports with troops, under Colonel Thomas Pilkington. The squadron entered
Passamaquoddy Bay on the llth, and anchored off Fort Sullivan at Eastport,1 which
was then in command of Major Perley Putnam, of Salem,2 with a garrison of fifty
men and six pieces of artillery. The baronet demanded an instant surrender of the
post, giving the commander only five minutes for consideration. Putnam promptly
refused compliance, but, on account of the vehement importunities of the alarmed in
habitants, who were indisposed to resist, he yielded his own judgment, and gave up
the post on condition that while the British should take possession of all public prop
erty, private property should be respected. When this agreement was signed, a thou
sand armed men, with women and children, a battalion of artillery, and fifty or sixty
pieces of cannon, were landed on the main, and formal possession was taken of the
fort, the town of Eastport, and all the islands and villages in and around Passama
quoddy Bay. Declaration was made that these were in permanent possession of the
British,3 and the inhabitants were called upon to take an oath of allegiance within
seven days, or leave the territory.4 Two thirds of them complied. The custom
house was opened under British officials;5 trade was resumed; the fortifications
around Eastport were completed, and sixty pieces of cannon were mounted ; and an
arsenal was established. Several vessels, and goods valued at three hundred thou
sand dollars, accumulated there to be smuggled into the United States, were made
prizes of by the British. The enemy held quiet possession of that region until the
close of the war.
Having established British rule at Eastport, and left eight hundred troops to hold
1 Eastport is on Moose Island, in Passamaquoddy Bay, which the British claimed as belonging to New Brunswick
under the treaty of 1TS3.
2 After the declaration of war in June, 1812, the United States kept a garrison at Fort Sullivan. At first there were
two militia companies, from General Blake's brigade on the Penobscot, under the command of Major Ulmer. The
United States afterward took possession, and substituted regular troops for militia. In the autumn of 1813 Major Put
nam was appointed to the command there.
3 It was declared that "the object of the British government was to obtain possession of the islands of Passamaqnod-
dy Bay, in consequence of their being considered within their boundary-line."— Letter from Lieutenant Colonel J. Fitz-
herbert to General Brewer, of the Washington County Militia, July 12, 1814.
* A " royal proclamation" to this effect was made by Commodore Hardy on the 14th, in which notice was given that
" all persons at present on the island are to appear before us on Saturday next, at ten o'clock in the forenoon, on the
ground near the school-house [at Eastport], to declare their intentions," etc.
» They took all the public property from the custom-house, and vainly endeavored to compel the collector to sign un
finished treasury notes of the value of $9000. He refused, saying " hanging will be no compulsion."
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
891
Tne British Squadron off Portsmouth.
Vigilance of General Montgomery.
Attack on Boston expected.
the conquered region, Hardy sailed west
ward with his squadron, spreading alarm
along the coast. Preparations for his re
ception were made every where. Vigilant
eyes were watching, and strong arms were
waiting for the appearance of the foe at
Portsmouth, where little Fort Sumner was
manned. The energetic General Montgom
ery,1 of New Hampshire, ordered every
tenth man of his brigade to repair to Ports
mouth for its defense, and there he com
manded in person. Little Fort Lilly, at
Gloucester, was armed. Fort Pickering,
near Salem, and Fort Sewall, at Marble-
head, were strengthened and garrisoned.
Fort Warren, on Governor's Island, and
Fort Independence, on Castle Island, in
Boston Harbor, were put in readiness for
action, and well garrisoned by Massachu
setts militia.
An attack npon
the important city
of Boston was con
fidently expected
after intelligence
o
was received of the
bombardment of
August 9,
1814.
FOET PICKEKING.2
Stonington,a which we shall presently consider. It was the capital of New
England, and the moral effect of its capture or destruction would be great.
It was a place for the construction of American war-vessels, which the enemy feared
more than armies. On this account its destruction was desirable. It was also a
wealthy town, and offered a rich harvest for plunderers. It was well known, too,
that it was almost defenseless, for it was not until the descent of the enemy upon
Eastport, and his hostile operations elsewhere, had aroused the authorities of Massa-
1 John Montgomery was born in Massachusetts in 1769, and was a relative of General Montgomery who was killed
at Quebec. He became a spirited and successful merchant, and when the War of 1812 broke out he had just sent a heavy
consignment of goods abroad, which were totally lost to him. At that time he was a brigadier general of New Hamp
shire militia. He was a Federalist in politics, but when his country was in danger he gave the government his support.
When Portsmouth was threatened by the British squadron, he took command in person at that place, and there he re
mained until the danger disappeared.
General Montgomery married a daughter of General Henry Knox, of the Revolution, by whom he had six children,
all daughters. He died at Haverhill, New Hampshire, on the 29th of February, 1825, at the age of fifty-six years. I am
indebted to his daughter, Mrs. Samuel Bachelder, of Cambridge, for the above portrait.
2 This view is from the slope back of the fort, looking seaward. On the extreme left, in the distance, is seen Beverly.
A little to the right, Misery Island. Still farther toward the right, Baker's Island light-house. On the extreme right is
Marblehead Point.
892 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Alarm in Boston. Preparations for the Defense of the City. Citizens at Work on Fortifications.
chusetts from their dreams of peace that any important preparations were made to
repel an attack.1 The people had seen the blockading squadrons from the tops of
their houses, and trembled for the safety of the town, but it was not until the close
of August that any energetic measures were taken by the leading men of the city
•August so, toward providing for its defense. Thena a public meeting was called to
consider the matter ; and a committee, consisting of Harrison Gray Otis,
James Lloyd, Thomas H. Perkins, and others, were appointed to wait on the govern
or, and present to him an address on the defenseless state of the city. They assured
him that the people were ready to co-operate in any way for the security of the cap
ital and the state.
Governor Strong, whose opposition to the war was intense, listened to this appeal,
and at once instituted measures for the defense of the whole line of the coast of Mas
sachusetts and of the District of Maine, its dependent. The high ground on Noddle's
Island (now East Boston), known as Camp Hill,2 was chosen for the site of a new and
heavy fort, and it was resolved to place its erection under the supervision of Laommi
Baldwin, a graduate of Harvard College, as engineer. He issued his first official no
tice on the 10th of September, when he asked for tools and volunteers to work on
the fortification. The response was patriotic. Large numbers of the inhabitants
might be seen, day after day, toiling like common laborers with pickaxe, spade, shov
el, and barrow. Every class of citizens was represented. " I remember," says an
eye-witness, " the venerable Rev. Dr. Lathrop, with the deacons and elders of his
church, each shouldering his shovel and doing yeoman's service in digging, shovel
ing, and carrying sods in wheelbarrows."3 The volunteers were soon numbered by
hundreds. A regular system of employment was adopted, confusion was avoided,
and the work went on rapidly.4 The fort was completed at the close of October.
On the 26th of that month it was formally named, in honor of Governor Strong, Fort
Strong, Lieutenant Governor Phillips officiating as the chief actor in the ceremonies.
The flag was hoisted amid the roar of artillery from Noddle's Island, North Battery,
and India Whai'f, and on the 29th the Selectmen of Boston announced that " the im
portant post of Fort Strong was completed," to the great joy of the people.5 Hap
pily, it was never needed.6 A battery of heavy guns was placed on Dorchester
Heights (South Boston), and other defenses were prepared on prominent points at
Roxbury and Cambridge.
When Commodore Hardy left Eastport he rejoined the blockading squadron off*
New London. He was not long inactive. He was charged with a part of the duty
b isw enj°me<i in the terrible order of Admiral Cochrane, to destroy the coast towns
and ravage the country, and on the 9th of August1* he appeared off the bor-
1 The demonstrations near Saybrook and in Buzzard's Bay had caused some alarm in Boston early in the summer;
and on the ICth of June the governor and council appointed the Honorable David Cobb, John Brooks, and Timothy
Pickering commissioners for the defense of the sea-coast.
a On the crown of present Webster Street, East Boston, near Belmont Square. The fort was between the square and
brow of the hill, near the dwelling of Mr. Lamson in 1860.
3 Funeral sermon at the burial of Dr. Lathrop, by his successor, Eeverend Dr. Parkman.
* A superintendent was appointed, who entered in a register the names of the inhabitants who offered their services.
The laborers were classified, and particular days assigned for particular classes. The newspapers of that period were
filled with accounts of the patriotic ardor of the people of all classes. Notices like the following appeared : " Twenty-
five mechanics from each ward in this town will labor on the fortifications on Noddle's Island. This day (September
14) to embark from the ferry ways at half past six o'clock."— Sentinel, September 14. "Dealers in dry goods and in
hardware to meet the next Thursday (20th) to do a day's work on Fort Strong," the name which it had already been
determined to give the new fortification. Other industrial pursuits, trades, and professions, as well as military and
civil organizations, were continually represented on the work. Citizens also came from the interior. The Boston Ga
zette of October 3 has the following paragraph : " Fort Strong progresses rapidly. On Saturday the citizens of Concord
and Lincoln, to the number of two hundred, performed labor on it ; the punctuality of the patriotic husbandmen de
served the highest praise of their fellow-citizens of the metropolis. The volunteers from wards 1, 3, and 4, together
with others, amounted yesterday to five hundred." * Sumner's History of East Boston, page 415.
6 Governor Strong had called an extraordinary session of the Legislature on the 5th of October, and in his short mes
sage to that body, after giving the General Government a blow, he said : " But, though we may be convinced that the
war in its commencement was unnecessary and unjust," etc., "and though, in a war thus commenced, we may have de
clined to afford our voluntary aid to offensive measures, yet I presume there will be no doubts of our rights to defend
our dwellings and possessions against any hostile attack by which their destruction is menaced."
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 893
The British Squadron off Stouington. Surrender of the Town demanded and refused. It is bombarded.
ough of Stonington, in Connecticut, for that purpose, with the JKamillies, 74, Pactolus,
44, bomb-ship Terror, the brig Dispatch, 22, and barges and launches. He anchored
his little squadron within two miles of the town at four o'clock in the afternoon, a
mile and a half being the nearest f)oint to the village which the depth of water would
allow the flag-ship to approach. He then sent a flag of truce ashore, bearing to the
selectmen of the town the following message, dated half past five o'clock P.M. : " Not
wishing to destroy the unoffending inhabitants residing in the town of Stonington,
one hour is granted them from the receipt of this to remove out of the town."1 "Will
a flag be received from us in return?" inquired the magistrates of the bearer of
Hardy's letter. " No arrangements can be made," was the reply ; and in answer to
a question whether it was the commodore's intention to destroy the town, they were
assured that it was, and that it would be done effectually. Satisfied that no accom
modation could be effected, the magistrates returned the following answer: "We
shall defend the place to the last extremity ; should it be destroyed, we will perish
in its ruins !"
The inhabitants were now in a state of great consternation. The sick and infirm,
the women and children — all who were incapable of bearing arms, left the village,
and the most valuable articles were immediately removed or concealed. A few mi
litia under Lieutenant Hough were stationed on the point of the narrow peninsula on
which Stonington stands, to watch the enemy and give notice of his nearer approach ;
a precaution adopted none too soon, for toward sunset they reported the Terror mov
ing nearer the town by warping, accompanied by barges and launches each carrying
a carronade. At eight o'clock the bomb-ship commenced throwing shell from a 13
and a 15 inch mortar, and the launches hurled rockets. This assault, grand in appear
ance but terrible in fact, was kept up until midnight, when it ceased, and it was as
certained that no life had been lost, and no serious damage inflicted on the shore.
In the mean time an express had been sent to General Gushing, the United States
commander of the district, who regarded the movement as a feint to cover a real at
tack on Fort Griswold, at Groton, and an attempt to seize Decatur's frigates in the
Thames above New London. He made corresponding arrangements with General
Williams, the commander of the militia of the district. A regiment was ordered to
Stonington ; another to the head of the Mystic, to oppose the landing of the enemy
there ; a company of artillery and one of infantry were sent to a point on the Thames
above the frigates ; and another company of artillery and a regiment of infantry wTere
ordered to re-enforce the garrison of Fort Trumbull, for the protection of New Lon
don. These prompt dispositions of troops disconcerted the enemy's movements to
ward the Thames, if he ever had a design of making any.
During the bombardment on the evening of the 9th, some bold spirits at Stoning
ton took measures for opposing the landing of the enemy. The only ordnance in the
place consisted of two 18, one 6, and one 4 pound cannon. They dragged the 6 and
one 18 pounder down to the extreme point of the peninsula, cast up some breastworks,
and placed them in battery there. The other 1 8-pounder was left in a slight battery
on the southwest point, near where the present breakwater leaves the shore. By the
streaming light of the rockets they watched the approach of the enemy, reserving
their fire until the barges and a launch came in a line near the southeast point of the
peninsula, when they opened upon them with serious effect. The guns, loaded with
solid balls, were double shotted, and these so shattered the enemy's vessels that the
little flotilla retreated in confusion toward the larger warriors. From midnight until
dawn quiet prevailed, and during that time considerable numbers of militia and vol
unteers assembled in the neighborhood.
At daylight on the morning of the 10th the frigate Pactolus and brig Dispatch
were seen making their way up nearer the town, and at the same time the barges and
1 This was received by two magistrates, and Lieutenant Hough of the militia.
894
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Bombardment of Stonington.
Captain Holmes and his Gun.
His Flag nailed to its Staff.
a launch had approached the eastern side of the peninsula, out of reach of the battery,
and commenced throwing rockets. A number of volunteers, with muskets and the
4-pounder, immediately crossed the peninsula to oppose an expected landing of the
enemy, but they could effect little. The Dispatch came beating up, the Terror hurled
her shells, and the rocketeers of the barges were industrious. The Pactolus ground
ed too far distant to hurt or to be hurt, and she was not engaged in the fight that
ensued. So severe was the bombardment of the Terror that the mi
litia and volunteers who had assembled dared not enter the town.
Most of the missiles went over the borough, but some of them went
crashing through the village. One of them, called a carcass,1 unex-
ploded, may still (1867) be seen on a granite post on the corner of Main
and Harmony Streets, in Stonington. It weighs two hundred and fif
teen pounds.2
At about six o'clock in the morning some bold volunteers came over
from Mystic, among whom was the now (1867) venerable Captain Jer
emiah Holmes, who had been a prisoner in a British war-ship some
years before, and had learned the art of gunnery well. He and his
companions made their way to the battery on the point, when Holmes
took charge of the old 18-pounder. At that moment the Dispatch was making her
last tack preparatory to anchoring. Holmes sighted the gun, which was double-shot
ted with solid round balls, and at a favorable moment gave the word to fire. Both
shots struck the hull of the brig. She at once cast anchor, with springs on her cable,
and opened fire with 24-pound shot. The Terror sent shells in quick succession, while
Holmes and his companions kept the old iron cannon busy. The fight was now fairly
opened, and it continued briskly for about an hour, when Holmes's ammunition gave
out, and the borough was searched in vain for more. At eight o'clock he ceased fir
ing; and to prevent the great gun, which they could not drag away, being turned
upon the town by the enemy, he had it spiked.
Stonington was now wholly defenseless, for the militia were at a respectful distance
from danger. It was at the mercy of the invaders, and
a timid citizen, who was at the battery, proposed a for
mal surrender by lowering the color that was floating
over their heads. " No !" shouted Captain Holmes,
indignantly, " that flag shall never come down while I
am alive !" And it did not, in submission to the foe.
When the wind died away, and it hung drooping by
the side of the staff", the brave captain held out the flag
on the point of a bayonet that the British might see it,
and while in that position several shots passed through
it. To prevent its being struck by some coward,
Holmes held a companion (J. Dean Gallup) upon his
shoulders while the latter nailed it to the staff. It was
completely riddled by the British balls fired at the battery. I saw it in Stonington
in the autumn of 1 860, and the above engraving is a correct sketch of its appearance.
The old cannon was not long silent. Six kegs of powder, taken from the privateer
Halka, and belonging to Thomas Swan, had been concealed by sea-weed behind a
1 These carcasses were generally made of iron hoops, canvas, and cord, of oblong shape, and filled with combusti
bles for burning towns and ships. This one is of cast-iron, and was one of the missiles filled with fetid substances, and
called "stink-pots."
2 Their weight varied from sixteen to two hundred and sixteen pounds. One of the carcasses was set on fire, and
burned with a flame ten feet in height and emitting a horrible stench. Some of the rockets were sharp-pointed, others
not, and all were made of thick sheet-iron, with a fuse. The rocket (which is still in use in modified form) contains in
its cylindrical case a composition of nitre, charcoal, and sulphur, proportioned so as to burn slower than gunpowder.
The head is either a solid shot, shell, or spherical case-shot. It has a guide-stick attached, like the common rocket in
pyrotechnic displays. •
STONINGTON FLAG.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 895
Captain Holmes reopens lire on the British. A Deputation sent to Hardy. The Result. Parting Shots.
rock. Their hiding-place was revealed by a lad, and at about nine o'clock the pow
der was placed in care of Captain Holmes. The cannon was dragged by oxen to
the blacksmith-shop of Mr. Cobb, the spiking taken out, and then it was drawn back
again to the little redoubt and placed in position. To the astonishment of the Brit
ish, it reopened fire vigorously. The gun was always double-shotted, and so telling
were its missiles that by noon the Dispatch was so much injured that she slipped
her cables and hauled off to a place of safety. The Terror kept throwing shells until
night, but she was out of reach of the little battery.
During the day quite a number of militia assembled at Stonington, and General
Isham took chief command. Order was soon restored, and many of the inhabitants,
somewhat reassured, came back to their homes. During the afternoon, a deputation,
consisting of Colonel Williams and William Lord, went with a flag to the Ramillies
as bearers of a note from the authorities of the borough (signed Amos Denison, bur
gess, and William Lord, magistrate), in which Hardy was informed that all unoffend
ing inhabitants had left the village, and asked what was to be the fate of the place.
They gave him assurances that no torpedoes had been fitted out from that port, and
that none should be in the future ; and he agreed to cease hostilities and spare the
town on condition that they should send on board the flag-ship, by eight o'clock
the next morning, Mrs. Stewart, a resident of New London, and Avife of James Stew
art, the late British consul at that place, who was then in the squadron. The depu
tation returned, and the Ramillies and Pactolus took station within cannon-shot of
the village to await an answer, Hardy having threatened, in the event of noncompli-
ance with his demand, to lay the village in ruins.
At eight o'clock on the morning of the llth, the authorities, under the direction of
General Isham, sent a message to Commodore Hardy,1 saying (what he already knew)
that the borough of Stonington had no power to comply with the requisition. " I
will wait till twelve o'clock to-day," said Hardy, " and if the lady shall not be on
board my ship at that hour I shall renew the assault on the town."
At three o'clock the Terror resumed the bombardment, and threw shells until even
ing. A sufficient military force had now arrived to prevent the landing of the ene
my, but they could do his shipping no harm.
The night of the llth was an anxious one for the inhabitants of Stonington. There
was an ominous quietude on the water. It was broken at sunrise,* when . August 12,
the Terror opened her mortars again. The Ramillies and Pactolus warped
up near the town, and at eight o'clock opened fire. At this time an order was given
by General Isham for the cannon on the Point to be removed to the north end of the
town, where it was supposed the enemy would attempt to land. About twenty of
the Norwich artillery, under Lieutenant Lathrop, volunteered to perform that peril
ous service. They did so without the slightest accident.
In the mean time the Ramillies and Pactolus had given three tremendous broad
sides with spiteful vigor, which proved to be a parting salute, and quite harmless.
They then withdrew, but the Terror kept up a bombardment until past noon. At
four o'clock the assailants all withdrew, and the little squadron anchored far away
toward Fisher's Island.2
During this whole series of assaults not a single life was lost. One person was
mortally wounded,3 and five or six slightly. Among the latter was Lieutenant
i It was signed Isaac Williams, William Lord, Alexander G. Smith, magistrates ; John Smith, warden ; George Hub-
bard, Amos Denison, burgesses.
= Perkins's History, etc., of the last War ; Reverend Frederick Denison's paper on the Bombardment of Stonington, in
The Mystic Pioneer; Oral statements to me by Captain Jeremiah Holmes; Report of General Gushing.
3 This was Frederick Denison, from Mystic Bridge, a highly-respected young man, nineteen years of age, who was
in the battery with Captain Holmes. While outside of the battery relighting the match-rope with which to fire the old
cannon, he was struck by a ball from the Dispatch, which shattered his knee. He lingered in pain many weeks, and
then died. Over |fs grave was placed a stone with the following inscription: "If thy country's freedom is dear te
thee, contemplate here congenial virtue. His life was ehort, but its sacrifice deserves a grateful recollection. His
896
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
THE OOUB HOUSE.
Effects of the Bombardment at Stonington. The Numbers engaged in the Affair. The Impoteucy of the Attack.
Hough. About forty buildings were more or less in
jured, and two or three were nearly ruined. The rock
ets and shells set several of them on fire, but the flames
were extinguished. Among the four houses then on the
Point, only one remained unaltered when I visited the
spot in 1860. This was known as the"Cobb House."
It was ancient in form, covered on the sides with shin
gles instead of clap-boards, and presenting many a scar
of wounds received during the bombardment. It stood
on Water Street, not far from the site of the battery,
and was owned in 1814 by Elkanah Cobb. Of my visit
at Stonington and in its vicinity in the autumn of
1860 I shall write presently.
The repulse of the British at Stonington was one of the most gallant affairs of the
war, and the spirit there shown by the few who conducted the defense caused Hardy
and his commanders to avoid all farther attempts to capture or destroy Connecticut
sea-port towns. The assailing squadron had about fifteen hundred men, while the
number actually engaged in driving them away did not exceed twenty.1 It was
computed that the British hurled no less than fifty tons of metal on to the little pen
insula during the three days.2 The loss to the British was twenty lives, over fifty
wounded, and the expenditure of ten thousand pounds sterling. The affair spread a
feeling of joy throughout the whole country, and the result was a deep mortifica
tion of British pride. The impotence of the attack was the point of many a squib
and epigram.3
Hardy's easy conquest at Eastport and its vicinity encouraged the British to at
tempt the seizure of the whole country lying between Passamaquoddy Bay and the
body moulders beneath this stone, but his spirit has fled to the seat of immor
tality.
"There the brave youth, with love of virtue fired,
Who gallantly in his country's cause expired,
Shall know he conquered."
In 1856 the State of Connecticut caused a handsome marble monument, eight
een feet in height, to be erected over his grave in the cemetery at Mystic, on
which are the following inscriptions :
Eastern Side: "Frederick Denison, died Nov. 1, 1814, aged 19. He was mor
tally wounded by a shot from the enemy's brig-of-war Dispatch while acting as
a volunteer in the defense of Stonington against the attack of the British squad
ron, August 10, 1814." Northern Side: "Erected by the State of Connecticut,
1856, that the deed of patriotic devotion may be handed down to other genera
tions, inspiring them with fidelity to our liberties, and prompting them to such
sacrifices as shall win their country's meed." Southern Side: " His life was his
legacy, and his country his heir." The tablet with the earlier inscription was
lying near this monument.
Young Denison was born in Stonington township on the 27th of December,
1795. He heard the roar and saw the smoke of battle from Mystic on the morning of the 10th, and, borrowing a gnu,
he crossed the river in a canoe, stopped a moment to speak with his sick father at the homestead, and hastened to the
post of danger, where he received his death-blow.
1 The following are the names which have been preserved of the most prominent of the defenders of Stonington :
Jeremiah Holmes, George Fellows, Simeon Haley, Amos Denison, J. Deane Gallup, Isaac Miner, Isaac Denison, Hora
tio Williams, Jeremiah Haley, Asa Lee, William Lord, Nathaniel Clift, Ebenezer Denison, Frederick Denison, Pot
ter, John Miner.
2 About fifteen tons were picked up by the inhabitants of Stonington, and sold to the United States government.
The following advertisement appeared in a New York paper on the 19th of November following:
" Just received, and offered for sale, about THREE TONS of BOUND SHOT, consisting of 6, 9, 12, 18, 24, and 32 pounds, very
handsome, being a small proportion which were fired from his Britannic majesty's ships on the unoffending inhabitants
of Stouington in the recent brilliant attack on that place. Likewise a few carcases, in good order, weighing about 200
pounds each. Apply to S. TBUMHUI.!., 41 Peck Slip."
3 The occasion was the theme of one of the most popular ballads of the time, written by Philip Freneau, the bard of
the Revolution, in which the impotence of the attack was set forth in the following verses :
" The bombardiers, with bomb and ball, They dashed away— and, pray, what then ?
Soon made a farmer's barrack fall, That was not'taking Stonington.
And did a cow-house sadly maul „ „
That stood a mile from Stomngton. But not a 8he]1 of a]1 th;y threW)
" They killed a goose, they killed a hen, Though every house was full i*view,
Three hogs they wounded in a pen— Could burn a house in Stonington."
KMT'
DENISON'S MONUMENT.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
897
A British land and naval Expedition leaves Halifax.
It appears off Castine, at the Mouth of tte Penobscot.
Penobscot River. For this purpose a
British fleet, consisting of the Bulwark,
Dragon, and Spencer, 74 guns each ; the
frigates Bacchante (late from the Med
iterranean) and Tenedos ; sloops-of-war
Sylph and Peruvian / and schooner Pic-
tan, with ten transports, sailed from
Halifax on the 26th of August, 1814.1
The latter bore almost four thousand
troops, under the command of Lieuten
ant General Sir John Cope Sherbrooke,
governor of Nova Scotia, assisted by
Major General Gerard Gosselin and Col
onel Douglass. The fleet was in com
mand of Rear Admiral Edward Griffith.
It was the intention of Sherbrooke
and Griffith when they sailed to stop
and take possession of Machias ; but on
» August, the 30tha they learned from the
1814 commander of the brig Rifle
man, with whom they fell in, that the
United States corvette John
Adams, 24, Captain Morris, had
gone up the Penobscot, so they
hastened to the mouth of that riv
er to blockade her. Passing up
the Green Island channel, they ar
rived in the fine harbor of Castine,
off Cape Bigaduce,2 on which the
pleasant village of Castine now
lies, on the morning of the 1 st of
September. Lieutenant "Lewis, of
the United States Army, with about forty men, was occupying a half-moon
redoubt
HALF-MOON BEDOUUT. — FORT PORTER.3
which the Americans had erected in 1808. That redoubt, whose embankments were
1 The troops consisted of the 1st company of Royal Artillery; two rifle companies of the 7th battalion of the Sixtieth
Regiment ; detachments from the Twenty-ninth, Sixty-second, and Ninety-eighth Regiments— the whole divided into
two brigades.
- This is a corruption and diminutive of MajaMguaduce, the Indian name of the peninsula, which the Baron Castine,
of whom I shall presently write, wrote Marche-biguitus, the u in the last syllable being pronounced long. It is on the
east side of Penobscot Bay, in full view of the ocean.
3 The engraving is a view of the remains of the Half-moon Redoubt as it appeared when I visited the spot in the au
tumn of 1860, looking southward. On the extreme left, in the distance, are Noddle's Island, Cape Rozier, and Hook's
Inland. Directly over the redoubt is seen the ocean ; on the right, the main, with a portion of the Camden Mountains.
A little to the right of the redoubt is seen a small beacon at the entrance to the Marche-bigaduce, or Castine Creek.
This redoubt was to command that entrance.
898
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Flight of Americans from Castine. The John Adams up the Penobscot River. The British go np that Stream.
very conspicuous on the edge of the water southward of the village when the writer
was there in 1860, was armed with four 24-pounders and two field-pieces. Lieuten
ant Colonel Nichols, of the Royal Engineers, who had been sent in a small schooner
to reconnoitre, sent a summons^to Lewis, at sunrise, to surrender. Lewis saw that
resistance would be vain, so he resolved to flee. He gave Nichols a volley from his
24-pounders, then spiked them, blew Tip the redoubt, and, with the field-pieces, he and
the garrison fled over the high peninsula to its neck, and escaped up the Penobscot.
Colonel Douglass immediately landed from the fleet at the back of the peninsula
with a detachment of Royal Artillery and two companies of riflemen, and took quiet
possession of Castine, and with it the control of Penobscot Bay. The number of
troops landed was about six hundred. Governor Sherbrooke made the house of
Judge Nelson his head-quarters, and the court-house and other suitable buildings
were occupied as barracks for the soldiers. A number of women also were landed.1
The John Adams had just arrived from a successful cruise, and on entering Penob
scot Bay in thick weather had struck a rock and received so much injury that it was
found necessary to lay her down for repairs. She was taken as far out of harm's way
as possible. It was with great difficulty that she was kept afloat until she reached
Hampden, a few miles below Bangor, when she was moored at Crosby's Wharf, with
several feet of water in her hold. Some of her crew were disabled by scurvy, and
she was almost helpless. This condition and position of the Adams was made known
to Sherbrooke on landing at Castine, and he and Griffith immediately detached a land
and naval force to seize or destroy that vessel, and treat the inhabitants of the towns
on the Penobscot as circumstances might seem 4,o require. The expedition consisted
of the Sylph and Peruvian, a small schooner as a
1/J 0fStSL^t/) ten<^er> the transport brig Harmony, and nine
launches, commanded by Captain Robert Barrie,
of the Royal Navy (commander of the Dragon,
74), who acted as commodore. The land forces,
seven hundred strong, were under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Henry John,
assisted by Major Riddle. The expedition sailed in the afternoon of the day of the
• September i, arrival at Castine,a and, passing Buckston at twilight, anchored for the
ISM. night in Marsh Bay. In the mean time Sherbrooke and Griffith had is
sued a joint proclamation, assuring the inhabitants of their intention to take posses
sion of the country between the Penobscot and Passamaquoddy, and offering them
protection on condition of acquiescence. All persons taken in arms were to be pun
ished, and those who should supply the
British with provisions should be paid
and protected.
There was no disposition among the in
habitants along the Penobscot to submit
quietly unless absolutely compelled to.
On the day when the expedition sailed
up the river, information of the fact was
conveyed by express to Captain Morris,
at Castine, and he at once sent word
to Brigadier General John Blake, at his
home in Brewer, opposite Bangor, asking
him to call out the militia immediately.
Blake mounted his horse, and late in
the afternoon was at Bangor, issuing or
ders for the assembling of the brigade of GBNEKAT. BLAKE'S RESIDENCE.
1 On the 1st and 5th of September Sherbrooke and Griffith issued joint proclamations assuring the inhabitants ample
protection and quietude if they should conduct themselves peaceably.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 899
The John Adams at Hampden. Preparations there to oppose the British. Gathering of the Militia.
the tenth Massachusetts division, of which he was commander, and the same evening
he rode down to Hampden. There he found Captain Morris engaged in preparations
for defense. He had dismantled the John Adams, dragged her heavy guns to the
summit of the high right bank of the Soadabscook, fifty rods from the wharf, and
placed them in battery there, so as to command the river approaches from below.
On the following morning Blake held a consultation with Morris, and citizens of
Bangor and Hampden, on the best methods of defense, but opinions were so various
that no specific determination was arrived at. Morris had not much confidence in
the militia, and declined any immediate co-operation with them. He approved of a
proposition to meet the foe at his landing-place, wherever that might be, and ex-
pessed his resolution to destroy the Adams should the militia retreat.
On the morning of the 2d, Belfast, on the western side of Penobscot Bay, was taken
possession of by General Gosselin, at the head of six hundred troops, without resist
ance ; and, at the same time, the expedition under Barrie and John, after landing a
detachment from the Sixtieth and Ninety-eighth Regiments at Frankfort, at the head
of Marsh Bay, proceeded up the river. The detachment marched up the western
side of the Penobscot unmolested, and the little squadron arrived at Bald Hill Cove,
near Hampton, at five o'clock in the evening. The troops and about eighty marines
were landed, and bivouacked there during the night in the midst of a drenching rain
storm.
During the 2d, about six hundred raw militia, who had never seen any thing more
like war than their own annual parade, assembled at Hampden, and General Blake
posted them in an admirable position on the brow of the hill, where the residence of
Mr. James A. Swett was standing when I visited Hampden in 1860. He had been
joined by Lieutenant Lewis and forty regulars who fled from Castine. The artillery
company of Blake's brigade, commanded by Captain Hammond, was there with two
brass 3-pounders ; and an iron 18-pound carronade from Morris's vessel was placed in
battery in the highway near the meeting-house, in charge of Mr. Bent, of the artillery.
Many of the militia were without weapons and ammunition, and these were supplied,
as far as possible, by Captain Morris. Such was Blake's position on the dark and
gloomy morning of the 3d.
Morris in the mean time had mounted nine short 18-pounders from the Adams upon
his redoubt on the high bank over Crosby's Wharf, and placed the battery in charge
OKOBBY'S WHARF.'
of Lieutenant Wadsworth, the first of the Adams, assisted by Lieutenants Madison
and Purser. With the remainder of his guns he took position in person on the wharf,
with about two hundred seamen and marines and twenty invalids, prepared to defend
his crippled ship to the last extremity.
1 This is a view of Crosby's Wharf from the mouth of the Soadabscook Creek, north side, looking south. The place
where the Adams lay is indicated by the vessel at the end of the wharf. Hampden is seen in the distance over the
wharf. Toward the right is Crosby's old store-house, and the cleared spot to the right and above it is the place where
Morris's battery was planted. It is the property of the Honorable Hannibal Hamlin, late [1864] Vice-President of the
United States. Another store-house, like the one seen in the picture, stood on the end of the wharf, and was burnt
when the John Adams was destroyed.
900
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The British arrive at Hampden.
Panic arid Plight of the Militia.
The British march on Bangor.
The whole region of the Penobscot was enveloped in a dense fog on the morning
of the 3d. The British at Bald Hill Cove had been joined by the detachment who
landed at Frankfort, and at five o'clock all were in motion toward Hampden. They
moved cautiously in the mist, with a vanguard of riflemen. On the flanks were de
tachments of marines and sailors, with a 6-pound cannon, a 6^-inch howitzer, and a
rocket apparatus. The British vessels moved slowly up the river at the same time,
within supporting distance.
Blake had dispatched two flank companies to watch and annoy the approaching
enemy. Between seven and eight o'clock they reported them crossing the little
stream that divides Hampden Corners from Hampden, and ascending the hill to at
tack the Americans. The fog was so thick that no enemy could be seen, but Blake
pointed his 18-pounder in the direction of the foe, and with his field-pieces blazed
away with considerable effect, as was afterward ascertained. Pie had resolved to re
serve his musket-firing \intil the enemy should be near enough to be seriously hurt,
but the ordeal of waiting, without breastworks in front, was too severe for the un
tried militia. The enemy suddenly advanced at a " double-quick," firing volleys in
rapid succession. The militia, panic-stricken, broke and fled in every direction, leav
ing Blake and his officers alone. Lieutenant Wadsworth, at Morris's upper battery,
perceived the disaster in its full extent, and communicated the fact to his chief on
the wharf. Morris knew the impending danger. His rear and flank were exposed,
and he saw no other way for salvation than flight. He ordered Wadsworth to spike
his guns, and with his men retreat across the bridge over the Soadabscook while it
was yet open, for that stream was fordable only at low water, and the tide was ris
ing. Wadsworth did so, his rear gal
lantly covered by Lieutenant Watson
with some marines. The John Adams
was fired at the same time, the guns
on the wharf were spiked, and the men
under the immediate command of Mor
ris retreated across the Soadabscook
bridge. Their commander was the last
man to leave the wharf. Before he
could reach the bridge the enemy were
on the bank above him. He dashed
across the stream, arm-pit deep, under
a galling musket-firing from the Brit
ish, unhurt, and, joining his friends on
the other side, retreated, with Blake,
his officers, and a bare remnant of his
command, to Bangor. From there Mor
ris soon made his way to Portland over
land.
The British took possession of Hamp
den without farther resistance, and a
part of their force, about five hundred
strong, with their vessels, pushed on
toward Bangor. They met a flag of
truce a mile from the town, with a
message from the magistrates asking
terms of capitulation. No other was
i Charles Morris was born in Woodstock, Connecticut, on the 26th of July, 1T84. He was one of the most useful men
in the American Navy. He entered the service as midshipman in July, 1799, and from that day until his death, a pe
riod of fifty-seven years, his furloughs and absences from active duty amounted only to two years. He was distin
guished in the Mediterranean during the wars with the Barbary powers ; and as a volunteer with Decatur in the de-
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
901
Plundering at Bangor.
Destruction of Vessels.
Outrages at Hampden.
Commodore Morris.
promised excepting respect for private property. They entered the village at about
ten o'clock,a when Commodore Barrie gave notice that, if required, sup
plies should be cheerfully sent in, the inhabitants should be unharmed
in persons and property. This assurance was scarcely uttered before Barrie gave
tacit license to his sailors to plunder as much as they pleased ; and almost every
store on the western side of the Kenduskeag Creek, which there enters the Penobscot,
was robbed of all valuable property. Colonel John, on the contrary, did all in his
power to protect the inhabitants.
The British remained at Bangor thirty-one hours, during which time they were
quartered on the inhabitants, and compelled them not only to bring in and surrender
all their arms, military stores, and public property of every kind — even a few dollars
in the post-office — but to report themselves prisoners of war for parole, with the
agreement that they would not take up arms against the British. They compelled
General Blake to come to Bangor, surrender himself as a prisoner, and sign the same
parole. One hundred and ninety citizens were thus bound to keep themselves from
hostilities. When this work was accomplished, the selectmen were required to give
a bond, in the penal sum of $30,000, as a guaranty for the delivery of vessels on the
stocks at Bangor to the commander at Castine by the end of October. The speedy
appearance of peace canceled this bond.
Having finished their work, and despoiled the inhabitants of property valued at
$23,000, and destroyed several vessels,1 the marauders left Bangor, and spent the 5th
in similar employment at Hampden. There the soldiers and sailors, unrebuked by
Barrie, performed scenes which had been enacted at Havre de Grace under the eye
of Cockburn. They committed the most wanton acts of destruction. The village
meeting-house (now the town-house — see engraving, next page) was desolated. They
tore up the Bible and Psalm-books, and demolished the pulpit and pews. They de
stroyed cattle and hogs as at Havre de Grace. They carried away much private
property, and compelled the selectmen to sign a bond for $12,000 as a guaranty for
the delivery of vessels at Hampden to the commander at Castine.2 This bond shared
structiou of the Philadelphia, he was the first on her
deck. He was a lieutenant when the War of 1812 broke
out, and was the executive officer of the Constitution at
the time of her escape from a British squadron (see page
439), and her capture of the Guerriere. In that action
he was shot through the body by a musket-ball. He
was promoted to post captain in September, 1813, for
special services, and took command of the John Adams
sloop-of-war. The following year, as we have seen in
the text, he was compelled to destroy his vessel. The
war closed soon afterward, and he was employed in im
portant services. He was captain of the Brandywine
when she conveyed La Fayette back to France in 1825,
and he afterward commanded squadrons on the Brazil
and Mediterranean stations. His last cruise was in the
Delaware in 1S44, after which he was almost continually
at the head of one of the bureaus in the Navy Depart
ment at Washington. At the time of his death, which
occurred at Washington on the 2Tth of January, 1856,
he was chief of the Bureau of Hydrography and Repairs.
No man in the navy ever stood higher in the estimation
of his countrymen for wisdom and integrity. He was v
buried, with appropriate honors, upon a beautiful wood
ed slope in Oak Hill Cemetery, near Georgetown, in the
District of Columbia, and over his grave is a beautiful
white marble monument, delineated in the engraving,
with this simple inscription on its western side, under
an anchor enwreathed : " COM. CHARLES MOEEIS. BOEN
JULY 26, 1784. DIED JANUARY 2T, 1856."
1 The number of vessels burned was fourteen, and six
were carried away. The entire property destroyed or
carried away from Bangor was valued at $46,000. — Wil
liamson's History of Maine, ii., 648, note *.
' History of Acadie, Penobscot Bay and River, etc., by Joseph Whipple, 1S16 ; MS. History of thz British Operations on
the Penobscot, by the late William D. Williamson, author of a Hiatory of the State of Maine.
COMMODORE MORRIS'S MONUMENT.
902
PICTOKIAL FIELD-BOOK
Loss of Property at Hampden.
General Blake censured, but acquitted.
Castine in* the Revolution.
OLD MEETING-HOUSE (NOW XOWN-ilOUBE), IIAMPDEN.2
the fate of the one given at
Bangor. The total loss of
property at Hampden, exclu
sive of a valuable cargo of
brandy, wine, oil, and silk
which they found on board
the schooner Commodore
Decatur, was estimated at
$44,000.!
The indignant sufferers
charged a greater portion of
their misfortunes to the feeble resistance made by General Blake at Hampden. His
tardiness ; his non-compliance with the wishes of Morris and others to attack the en
emy at their landing-place ; his neglect to throw up breastworks on the ridge at
Hampden, and other evidence of inefficiency, were regarded as crimes ; and he was
charged with cowardice, and even treason. The clamor against him was vehement
for some time. He was hung, shot, and burned in effigy ;3 and for a while his per
sonal safety was not considered secure in some districts. The public indignation
finally cooled, and sober judgment, on considering the crude materials of his little
force, acquitted him of every other fault but a lack of competent military ability and
experience for the extraordinary occasion. A court of inquiry investigated his con
duct, and acquitted him of censure or suspicion.*
On the 12th of September Sherbrooke and Griffith, with most of the troops and a
greater part of the fleet, left Penobscot Bay, and, after capturing Machias,5 returned
to Halifax. General Gerard Gosselin, a gentleman in manners and a brave soldier,
was left in command at Castine, and immediately prepared to maintain his position
by thoroughly repairing the fortifications there. Old Fort George, in the centre of
the peninsula, which was built by the British in 1779,6 was repaired, fraised, and
i In the midst of the rapine a committee waited on Barrie, and told him that the people expected at his hands the
common safeguards of humanity, if nothing more, when the brutal officer replied, " I have none for you. My business
is to burn, sink, and destroy. Your town is taken by storm, and by the rules of war we ought both to lay your village
in ashes and put its inhabitants to the sword. But I will spare your lives, though I doii't mean to spare your houses."
— Williamson's History of Maine, ii., 646.
= This is a view of the old meeting-house, now used as a town-house, as it appeared in the autumn of 1960. On the
left is seen the old hearse-house, and in the distance is seen the dwelling of Mr. Swett, mentioned on page 899 as the
position of General Blake when attacked by the British on the morning of the 3d of September.
3 A small building was yet standing in Hampden when I was there in 1860,
in which the effigy of General Blake was made. It was a cabinet-maker's shop,
the property of George C. Reed, standing about ninety rods from the town-
house. In one corner of it I saw a post into which a cannon-ball entered dur
ing the action, and was still lodged. In the shop was a rude candelabra, used
on the occasion of exhibiting the effigy. That shop is one of the scarred relics
of the fight, and is represented in the annexed engraving.
4 Williamson's History of Maine, ii., 649.
5 Machias is on the west branch of the Machias River, and capital of Wash
ington County, Maine. At the time we are considering, the fort at that place
was garrisoned by fifty United States troops and ten militia, under the com
mand of Captain Leonard. When the British appeared, and it was evident that
the fort could not be held, it was blown up, and the garrison retreated to the
block-house near. They were forced to fly from that, and escaped.
6 In 1TT9, the British, under General Francis M'Lean, took possession of the
peninsula of Bigaduce [s«e note 2, page 897], and commenced the erection of
a fort on the high central part of the land. The people of Massachusetts resolved to expel them, for they were on
their territory, Maine being then a dependent of the Old Bay State. They sent a fleet of nineteen armed vessels and
twenty-four transports, with almost four thousand men. Commodore Saltonstall was the naval commander, and Gen
eral Lovell led the troops. M'Lean was informed of this expedition four days before its arrival in Penobscot Bay,. and
prepared to receive the Americans. They arrived on the 25th of July, and landed on the 28th. They at once com
menced a siege of the fort, and continued it until the 13th of August, when Lovell was informed of the arrival of Sir
George Collier with a heavy naval force. He immediately re-embarked his troops on the transports, and had the flo
tilla drawn up in crescent form across the Penobscot, to dispute the passage until the troops in the boats could flee up
the river. Collier sailed boldly in, chased the Americans up the river, destroyed all their vessels, and compelled them
to find their way home through the wilderness. The British then completed the fort, which they named George, in hon
or of the king.
The Twenty-ninth British Regiment, that was at the taking of Castine, was the same that was stationed at Boston
REED'S SHOP.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
903
New military Works at Castine.
An Oath of Allegiance exacted.
Popularity of General Gosselin.
KEMAINS OF FOKT GEORGE.
armed. The half -moon re
doubt was rebuilt. In vari
ous parts of the peninsula new
works were thrown up ;J and
through the Neck, from
Hatch's Cove to Perkins's
Back Cove, a canal was cut.
General Gosselin issued a
"October 31, proclamation,a by
which he directed
all the male inhabitants be
tween the Penobscot and the
boundary-line of New Bruns
wick, above sixteen years of
age, to take an oath of alle
giance to his majesty,2 and
also of neutrality. By the
latter they agreed that they
would peaceably and quietly
demean and conduct themselves while in that territory ; that they would not carry
arms, harbor Brit
ish deserters, nor
give intelligence to
^^^ the king's enemies
" /f VI ^^^// during the current
£S \^£^yj war3 The gdect
men of different
towns were authorized to administer these oaths of allegiance and neutrality; and
the permanent occupation of the country by the British was quietly accepted by the
inhabitants as an inevitable necessity.
General Gosselin made himself very popular at Castine. The officers were quar
tered in private houses, and paid fairly for all they received from the inhabitants.4
The soldiers were housed in the court-house and public school building. The barn
of Mr. Hook, the collector of the port,5 was converted into a theatre, and play-act
ors from Halifax afforded much amusement. Had these new-comers been friends in
stead of enemies, the inhabitants of Castine would have enjoyed their visit, notwith
standing the citizens suffered many inconveniences. It was not very long. Peace
was proclaimed early in 1815, and on the 25th of Aprilb the British sailed out b
of Penobscot Bay.6 The event was celebrated by the people with festivities
at the time of the "massacre" there in 1770. The celebrated Sir John Moore, whose burial was the subject of Wolfe's
immortal poem, commencing
"Not a gun was heard, nor a funeral note," etc.,
was an ensign in this regiment, and, in a letter to a friend, said that the first time he ever heard an enemy's gun was
at Castine on the occasion in question. He then commanded a picket.
1 The following defensive works garnished the peninsula at the close of the year : Fort George ; batteries Sherbrooke,
Gosselin, Penobscot, Griffith, Fnrieuse, Castine, and United States ; a redoubt called Fort Anne ; little batteries on North
aud West Points, and a block-house. Battery Castine was old Fort Castine, now in the village, and Battery United
States was the half-moon redoubt blown up by Lewis. It was originally called Fort Porter, it having been construct
ed by an officer of that name in 1808.
2 The following was the form of the oath of allegiance, copied from an original, in manuscript, before me :
"I, A. B., do swear that I will be faithful, and bear true allegiance to his majesty King George the Third. So help
me God."
3 The seal and signature of General Gosselin above given I copied from his proclamation in manuscript.
4 See note 1, page 904.
5 Mr. Hook had the good fortune to escape from Castine with the public papers before the British landed.
6 History o/ Acadie, Penobxcot Bay and River, by Joseph Whipple, 1816; History of the State of Maine, by William D.
Williams, in two volumes, 1832 ; MS. Narrative of the War in Maine, placed in the author's hands by the Hon. Joseph
Williamson, of Belfast ; Oral and written statements to the author by Dr. John Mason and the widow of the Rev. Wil-
904
PI.CTOHIAL FIELD-BOOK
Departure of the British from Penobscot Bay.
Visit to historic Places on the New England Coast.
and rejoicings. Within a few days aft
erward not an armed enemy remained
westward of the St. Croix River and
Passamaquoddy Bay. Peace, joy, tran
quillity, and prosperity came with the
birds and blossoms in the spring of 1815 ;
and from that day until now no foreign
enemy has ever appeared on our coast
with hostile intentions, and probably
never will.1
I visited most of the places mentioned
in this chapter in the month of Novem
ber, 1860. Leaving New York in the
afternoon of the 16th, I arrived in Bos
ton at midnight, and spent three days
there visiting men and places associated
with the War of 1812, in company with
//, a friend ,2 to whom I had been indebted
'// MEMENTO OF THE BRITISH AT CASTINE. n . i • -l • • r ' 1-1
for kind attentions and information while
seeking materials for my Pictorial Field-book of the Revolution twelve years before.
In East Boston3 we visited Mr. Samuel Dillaway, who was a soldier and a priva-
teersman in the war. He was captured on board the privateer Sine qua non, put
into a prison-ship at Gibraltar, sent to England, and finally exchanged. He informed
us that the authorities in charge of the exchange of prisoners, and sending them in
cartel ships to America, generally subjected their victims to as much annoyance as
possible. They were in the habit of sending prisoners whose homes were in the
Northern States to some Southern port, and those from Southern States to Northern
ports. This produced exasperation, and in many instances the prisoners rose and
took possession of the ship. That was the case when Mr. Dillaway came in the brig
Shakespeare. The captain was ordered to a Southern port. The prisoners took pos
session of the ship and sailed her into Boston.
We went to the site of Fort Strong, in East Boston,4 saw some of its remaining
mounds, and then started to visit Fort Warren, on Governor's Island, which became
famous as a prison for political offenders during the late Civil War. The sea was
too rough for a skiff, and we contented ourselves with gazing at the venerable fort
ress from the highest part of East Boston. We turned, and in a two-wheeled chaise
rode over to Charlestown, dined with Mr. Frothingham, the accomplished author of
The Siege of Hoston,5 who then lived in the shadow of Bunker's Hill Monument, on
Monument Square, and with him visited Mr. Byron, one of the last survivors of the
crew of the frigate Constitution. He was a Baltimorean and a musician. He en
tered the land service, but, preferring the sea, became a fifer on board the Constitu
tion, and was made a " minute-man ;" that is to say, one ready to fight at a mo
ment's warning. As such he fought gallantly in the actions of that vessel, and was
highly commended by his superiors. Mr. Byron was lively and fluent in conversa-
• tion, and entertained us for an hour with grave and humorous narratives of his expe
rience in the service. He has passed away since my visit.
Ham Mason, of Bangor ; Major Crosby and Mrs. Stetson, of Hampden ; Dr. Joseph L. Stevens and Samuel T. Noyes, of
Castine, and Judge Williams, of Belfast.
i A curious memento of the British at Castine was yet in existence when I visited that place in I860. It was an out
line of the British flag above that of the American flag, and the words "Yankee Doodle upset," cut by Lieutenant El
liot, of the British Army, with a diamond on a window-pane in the house of Mrs. Whitney, where some of the officers
were quartered. That pane of glass was the only one in the sash at the time of my visit that was not badly cracked.
The above engraving is a fac-simile of the diamond-etching, slightly reduced. 2 Frederick Kidder, Esq.
3 Noddle's Island. It contained 25,000 inhabitants in 18(50. * Page 892.
5 History of the Siege of Boston, etc., by Richard Frothingham, Jan.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
905
Navy Yard at Charlestown.
The Figure-head of the Constitution.
The Place of her Construction.
' 1834.
BILLET-HEAD.
At Charlestown we visited the national dock-yard, and at
the head of the dry-dock saw upon a post, over a lamp, the
billet-head which the Constitution had borne during her bat
tles in the War of 181 2.1 It was the one which Commodore
Elliott removed in 1834 while she was lyyig at that station,
and put in its place a bust of General Jackson, then President
of the United States. The substitution of that image for the
old billet-head which had braved the storms of battle and the
seas during the War of 1812 was considered an unpatriotic
act, and was vehemently denounced by the Opposition as a
partisan outrage. Elliott was assailed in newspapers, hand
bills,2 and speeches, and was threatened with violence in
anonymous letters if he did not remove the obnoxious effi
gy. He disregarded all complaints ; so, one night, early in
July,a during a fearful storm of wind, lightning, and
rain, a daring young man from New York went out to
the ship in a skiff, sawed off the head of the image, and car
ried it to Boston. Great efforts were made to discover the
mutilator of a government vessel, but in vain. The excite
ment died away, and at near the close of Jackson's adminis
tration the iconoclast went to Washington City, called on the
President, frankly acknowledged his exploit, and assured him that it was only a
" young man's dare-devil adventure." He amused more than angered the. President,
who told him he should not be harmed.3
In the museum of the Navy Yard at Charlestown wre saw a beautiful alabaster
model of the monument erected to the memory of Lieutenant Allen, at Hudson, New
York. Under it, in a glass-case, were a lock of Allen's hair, and the bullet which
caused his death. We found little else of interest connected with the history of the
War of 1812, and, after a brief visit to Bunker's Hill Monument, returned to Boston.
On the following day the writer went out to Salem by railway, sixteen miles from
Boston, and visited Fort Pickering, Marblehead, and other points of interest, in com
pany with a citizen of Salem. It was a cold November morning, and with difficulty
the pencil was used in sketching the exterior of Fort Pickering, seen on page 891, and
the view of the interior (see next page), drawn while standing on the southern ram
parts of the fortification, looking northward toward Beverly. This fort was built in
1798, and named in honor of the eminent Timothy Pickering, who was born in that
town, and whose remains lie buried in its soil. It was an irregular work, occupied
about an acre of ground, and commanded the .harbor and the entrance to the North
1 The original figure-head of the Constitution was a bust of Hercules. It was shot away in the Tripolitan war [see
Chapter VI], and its place supplied with the billet-head delineated in the engraving.
2 One of these, posted about the streets of Boston, was headed, "FREEMEN, AWAKE! OK THE CONSTITUTION WILL
SINK! !" It then went on to say that the President had issued orders "for a colossal figure of his royal self, in Roman
costume, to be placed as a ficure-head on OLD IRONSIDES." It appealed to the most excitable people and passions to
"save the ship" by the cry of "all hands on deck." It asked the citizens to assemble at Faneuil Hall to take action
against the outrage. "North Enders !" it exclaimed, " shall this Boston-built ship be thus disgraced without remon
strance ? Let this wooden (/orf-this old Roman, builded at the expense of three hundred dollars of the people's money,
be presented to the office-holders, who glory in such worship, but, for God's sake, SAVE THE SHIP from this foul disgrace."
It was signed "A NORTH ENDER."
The Constitution was built where Constitution Wharf now is, at what was called, even before the Revolution, The
North End— that is, of Boston. It was the place for ship-building, and from the Revolution until the War of 1812 it was
the focus of great political power. Samuel Adams was born in that section of the town, and always had great influence
with the people there. The caulkers were a numerous class, and with these Adams held many secret meetings when the
revolutionary movements were going on from 1T64 to 1T74. These were known as the " Caiilkers' meetings," where
revolutionary measures were proposed and perfected. From this fact has come the word caucus in our political nomen- '
clature— the private gathering of politicians to arrange for a political campaign. It is said that these caulkers of
Adams's time were mostly descendants of the Huguenots.
3 Oral statement to the author by the adventurer. He is yet (18CT) living— a small, fearless, shrewd, energetic busi
ness man, with a character above reproach in private life. Upon his address card he yet has the device of a hand-saw,
and the words of Csesar— " I came, I saw, I conquered," in allusion to the exploit of his earlier days.
906
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Forts Pickering and Lee.
Salem Harbor and its Surroundings.
Situation of Marblehead.
1-OKT 1'IOKERING, NEAR SALEM, IN I860.
and South Rivers, as the es
tuaries are called which em
brace the peninsula. Its em
bankments, composed of earth
and stone, excepting the brick
wall in the rear (see picture
on page 891), were about
eight feet in height, and well
preserved. The officers' quar
ters (seen on the right), built
of brick, and shaded by balm
of Gilead trees, were well pre
served. There the keeper,
Sergeant Reuben Cahoon, re-
o
sided. He was seventy-one
years of age when I was there.
He was a soldier on the North
ern frontier in 1812, and yet
carried a ball in his leg which he received at the battle of Plattsburg. His wife was
his only companion.
Not far from Fort Picker
ing we passed the remains of
Fort Lee, near the house of
Mr. Welch, at the western end
of the causeway leading to
Winter Island. It was an ir
regular work, built at the be
ginning of the War of 1812,
and occupied a very com
manding position, especially
as the guardian of Beverly
Harbor. It also commanded
Salem Harbor, in a degree.
From its mounds, now eight
or ten feet in height, we ob
tained fine views of Salem,
Beverly, and the whole outer
harbor. The water which it
was chiefly designed to watch
over and protect was the estuary called Bass Rivei-. It extends up to Danvers, or
Old Salem Village,1 and was the one spanned by the famous " Leslie Bridge"2 of the
Revolution.
Returning to Salem, we rode out to Marblehead. After passing a fine avenue skirt
ed with lofty elms, we crossed the Forest River, near the Forest City Mills, and, as
cending the gentle slope of Marblehead promontory, soon came to the village lying
at the head of a bay in which there is a good harbor. The village is situated among
rocks, and the street lines are so irregular in some places that it appears as if the
houses might have dropped from the clouds, and the ways among them had been laid
out afterward. It was quite natural for the celebrated Whitefield, on entering the
1 At Danvers Governor Endicott and his associates made the first settlement in 1628. There was the scene of "Salem
Witchcraft," and there the famous General Israel Putnam was born. A pear-tree planted by Governor Endicott yet
(1867) bears fruit. It was planted at about the time the Stnyvesant pear-tree in the city of New York, that died in
1S66, was brought from Holland. a See Lossing's Field-book of the Revolution, ii., 374, note 2.
REMAINS OF FOKT UEE, 6ALEM.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
907
Port Sewall and its Keeper.
A Family of Soldiers.
Marblehead during the Revolution.
town, and seeing no verdure as indicative of soil, to inquire, " Pray, where do they
bury their dead?"1 It was inhabited chiefly because of its advantages and con
venience as a fishing port, a character which it has always borne.2 Its trade was
almost wholly destroyed during the Revolution,3 but it revived soon afterward.
MAKULEIIEAD HA.KBOK.4
The harbor of Marblehead is quite spacious, with many rocky islands at its en
trance. On the high promon
tory near the village was Fort
Sewall, built in the year 1800,
and rebuilt early in the War C|
of 1812. When I visited it 1 ^
Mrs. Maria T. Perkins was the M * ?fr
United States Agent in charge
of the property there, having
been a resident of Fort Sewall
since 1835. She was an ener
getic woman, and with the
greatest courtesy she received
and entertained us. On the
floor of one of her rooms wras
a carpet of which she was just
ly proud. It was made en
tirely of the clothes of her fa
ther (Sergeant Stephen Twist,
of the Continental Army) and her two brothers, worn by them during the War of
1812. They were ever afterward in the military service of the United States up
to 1857.6 She was engaged in piecing it during twrenty years. The carpet was
woven by Mrs. Perkins and her daughter, in Fort Sewall, a few months before my
visit, and took a premium at a Fair in Boston.
On returning to Salem I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Benjamin F. Browne, a
native of that place, who entered the naval service as surgeon's mate in the privateer
Alfred, in September, 1812, when he was only nineteen years of age. While in the
schooner Frolic, in the West Indies, he was captured, taken to Barbadoes, sent to En-
1 Barber's Historical Collections of Massachusetts, page 201, note.
2 A hundred years ago there were between thirty and forty ships, scows, and topsail-schooners owned in Marblehead,
and engaged in foreign trade; and in 1770 it contained a greater number of inhabitants than any town in Massachu
setts excepting Boston.
3 The inhabitants were very patriotic. In 1774, when the port of Boston was closed by order of Parliament, the in
habitants offered the use of their harbor to the Boston merchants. They also furnished an entire regiment, fully offi
cered, for the Continental Army. Elbridge Gerry, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, was born at
Marblehead.
* This sketch was made from the gravelly beach. On the left is seen Fort Sewall, and on the extreme right, in the
T>™v»f T^T.rrt*./! *Vi<i luff onrl ovfonrlllirr VmhinH T^i^rfr fiowall ic coon T.r*«'oll Tclanrl
FORT 8KVVALL.3
• i nis sKetrn was mane irom tne graveny oeacn. un uio leit, is KKKU run, oewaii, aim on me exirem(
distance, Marblehead Point. Toward the left, and extending behind Fort Sewall, is seen Lowell Island.
5 In this view, from the entrance to the fort, with back to the harbor, is seen the row of bomb-proof ca
arched windows and doors. Above them is seen the officers' quarters, built of brick, in which Mrs. Perki
6 The aggregate time of military service by her father and two brothers was about one hundred years.
isemate.a, with
•kins resided.
908
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
A Survivor of the Dartmoor Prison. Return to Boston from Salem. Journey to Boston and Voyage to Castine.
gland, and confined six months in the
notorious Dartmoor prison, of which I
shall write hereafter. The cartel ship
Anne, in which he was sent home, was
ordered to Norfolk. Most of the pris
oners were from New England and
New York. They seized the ship, and
sailed into New York in June, 1815.
Dr. Browne was in the Dartmoor pris
on at the time of the massacre there,
and published an interesting sketch of
it in the Democratic Review, 1845.1
The prisoners were chiefly privateers-
men, and a very large proportion of
them were from New England. He
furnished me with a list of the names
of more than one hundred survivors
known to be living in the vicinity of
Salem at the time of my visit.
In the evening I had an interview
with Mr. William Leavitt, a teacher of
navigation at Salem, who was living
there during the war, and saw the Con
stitution chased into Marblehead by the
British frigates Junon and Tenedos, early in April, 1814. Mr. Leavitt was a careful
investigator and chronicler ; and he furnished me with a most interesting list of all
the privateers fitted out at Salem during the war, and of the names, armament, ton
nage, commanders, etc., of all the prizes taken by them during that period.
I passed the night at Salem, returned to Boston the next day, and toward evening
departed on a visit to the theatre of the stirring historic scenes on the Penobscot Bay
and River, in Maine, in the year 1814. I traveled on the Eastern Railway to Port
land, one hundred and seven miles, where I embarked for Belfast, at ten o'clock in the
evening, in the steamer Daniel Webster. It was a rough and stormy night on the
Atlantic, but we made the voyage of one hundred and thirty miles in good time.
When we entered Penobscot Bay at dawn, the storm-clouds had passed away, and
the sun shone out brilliantly when we landed at Belfast between seven and eight
» November 19, o'clock in the morning. a Soon after breakfast I sailed in the little pack
et Spy (formerly a Boston pilot-boat), with raking masts and schooner-
rigged, for Castine, on the eastern side of Penobscot Bay. A stiff breeze had sprung
up from the northwest, and before it we ran across the bay, thirteen miles, in little
more than an hour. It was an exhilarating voyage. We entered the picturesque
harbor of Castine at eleven o'clock, and, after a pleasant and profitable interview with
Dr. Joseph L. Stevens and Samuel T. Noyes, Esq. (the former a physician and the lat
ter a ship-builder of Castine),! rambled over the interesting peninsula with an intel
ligent lad who was familiar with the historical localities. A portion of the peninsula
is high, rocky, and covered with evergreens> while its southwestern slope is wet and
spongy, bare, and abounding in juniper bushes. The village of Castine is beautifully
situated on a slope overlooking several picturesque islands. It is said to be the
wealthiest town in Maine in proportion to its size, and is the seat of customs of the
Penobscot district.2
1 Dr. Browne was a member of the Massachusetts Legislature in 1S31, and of the State Senate in 1843. He was in the
enjoyment of remarkable health, having never been sick in his life.
3 Castiue is a pleasant town of about fifteen hundred inhabitants, whose principal business is fishing and ship-build-
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
909
Mementos of the War at Castiue.
Fort George and View from it.
Remains of Fort Castiue.
We first visited Fort George,1 the principal military work on the peninsula, which
lies northwestward of the town. A sketch of a portion of the ruins from the south
bastion is given on page 903, in which one of the casemates is seen. In that bastion
was the bomb-proof magazine. That, and all of the casemates, excepting the one de
lineated, built of brick and stone, had been carried away for building purposes. The
fort was a quadrangle, with bastions at each angle. The ditch was dug down to the
flat rock, about six feet deep. The banks were about
eighteen feet in height from the bottom of the ditch
when I visited it, and were covered with a hard sward.
Near the fort lay a 24-pound iron cannon — a relic of
the War of 1812 — on a decayed carriage, which the
citizens on some occasion had dragged up from the
old half-moon redoubt (Fort Porter) on the shore,
where two of the same kind yet lay.
The view from the banks of Fort George is very interesting at every point. The
little picture gives an outline of the scenery around the head of Penobscot Bay, look-
VIEW FEOM FOBT GEORGE.
ing northwestward from the fort. On the extreme right is the entrance to the canal
across Castine Neck, cut by the British. This canal was about twelve feet in width
and eighty rods in length, and made Castine, or Bigaduce peninsula, an island. It
is now crossed by a bridge. Between the promontory seen beyond Brigadier Island
ing. It derives its name from the Baron de Castin, a French nobleman, who established a residence there in 1667,
married the daughter of Modockawando, a Penobscot Indian chief, built a fort, and opened a profitable trade with the
natives, among whom he introduced Christianity in the form of the Roman Catholic Church, and gained the greatest
influence over them. The baron lived there thirty years, and then returned to France, leaving his domain in possession
of his half-blood son, Castin the Younger, who was a man of some education. When the country fell into the control
of the English, after the fall of Louisburg in 1745, the Castiue family abandoned it, and it became permanently settled
by the English in 1760.
Castin was a foe to the New Englanders. He taught the Indians around him the use of fire-arms, and he frequently
co-operated with them in their attacks on the frontier New England settlements. The penalty for these sins of the fa
ther was unrighteously visited upon the son, who was really a friend to the English. In 1721 he was secured and car
ried to Boston, and there kept a prisoner for several months. The ruins of Castiu's fort, now (1S67) in the suburbs of
REMAINS OP FORT OASTINE.
the village of Castine, on the property of Mr. George Webb, are nearly obliterated. Indeed, the mounds now seen are
the remains of the embankments cast up in 1812 on those of the ancient fort. In the above view are seen the remains
of the fort, Castine River, and the islands in front of the village, with the high head of a peninsula. The highest points
are called the Caterpillar and Hackett's Hills. The little island with the evergreens, between the two vessels on the
right, is Noddle's. 1 On the land of the heirs of Captain Joseph Perkins, near the residence of Charles Abbott.Esq.
910
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Remains of Fortifications near Oastine.
Voyage up the Penobscot.
Historical Localities.
REMAINS OF FOKT GRIFFITH. 1
(then the property of David Sears, of Boston), near the centre of the picture, is seen
the mouth of the Penobscot River. On the extreme left, over the cedar-covered point
of land called Banks's Head, is seen Belfast, thirteen miles distant.
From Fort George we went
down the northwestern slope
toward the Neck to the re
mains of Fort Griffith, one of
the larger redoubts built by
the British, and named in
honor of the English admiral.
It was intended to guard the
Neck. There was another,
called Fort Gosselin in honor
of the general, just above the
present bridge over the canal. After sketching the remains of Fort Griffith, we visit
ed those of two or three others, and then hastened back to Castine, and embarked in
the Spy for Belfast. It was toward evening, and the light wind was directly ahead.
The voyage was long and tedious, and it was almost eight o'clock before I was ad
mitted to the comforts of a warm supper at our destined haven, where I had the
pleasure of meeting Judge Joseph Williamson, son of the historian of Maine, and to
whom I am indebted for valuable information.
On the morning of the 21st I left Belfast for Hampden on the steamer Sanford,
Captain C. B. Sanford, which plied between Boston and Barigor. The voyage up the
Penobscot — the winding, picturesque Penobscot — was a delightful one, and was made
particularly instructive to
me by Captain Sanford, who
kindly pointed out every
place and object of interest
on the way. Fourteen miles
from Belfast we passed Fort
Point, a bluff with a light
house upon it.2
Opposite Bucksport, on the
rugged hills, the solid mason
ry of a stupendous fortifica
tion, called Fort Knox, in process of erection, was seen, with the small village of Pros
pect nestled near. A little above we passed Indian Point, made famous as the site
of a conflict between the savages and Captain Church, the decapitator of the slain
King Philip. Farther on we entered Marsh Bay, in which the British invading squad
ron lay one night on their way toward Hampden.3 It is an expansion of the Penob
scot, and at its head lies the pretty little village of Frankfort. Westward rises the
Musquito Mountain, a huge mass of granite, where, it seems, quarrying might be car
ried on for a thousand years. In Frankfort, M'Glathry's store-house was pointed out
as the recipient of a British cannon-ball when the invaders landed there in Septem
ber, 1814 ;4 and about a mile above the landing my attention was called to a thick
Norway pine, the only one in that region, which bears the name of " The Bacon
Tree." It is a round, compact tree, its short trunk composed apparently of a group
of smaller ones, and the limbs so near the ground that it is difficult to get under it.
1 On the left is seen Banks's Head, on which were batteries. One was named Furieuse, as it was armed with cannon
taken from a French vessel of that name, by the English. On the right is Brigadier Island and mouth of the Penobscot.
2 For the protection of the Penobscot River, Governor Pownall caused a fort to be built on this point in 1795. He
made an expedition from Boston for the purpose with three hundred and thirty-three men. It was completed in July
at a cost of nearly £5000. It was named Fort Pownall. Some remains of it may yet be seen. It was garrisoned until
the Revolution, when it was betrayed into the hands of the British by a Tory commander. 3 Page 898. * Page 899.
FORT POINT.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
911
The Bacon Tree.
A Visit to Hampden.
Journey to Bangor.
THE BACON TREE.
I had a good view of it through a telescope, by which I
was enabled to make the annexed sketch. It derived its
name from the circumstance that when the British land
ed, a citizen of Frankfort, having a large quantity of ba
con, carried it to this tree, and hung the pieces in the
branches to conceal them from the foe. The measure
was successful. The British passed along the road a short
distance from the tree without observing its savory fruit,
and the man saved his bacon. In a cove off Oak Point,
two or three miles above Frankfort, we saw the ribs of
the Warren, one of the Massachusetts vessels destroyed
by the British when they took Castine in 1779.1
We landed at Hampden at an early hour, and I went
immediately in search of the historical localities of that pleasant town. I called on
the venerable Mrs. Stetson with a letter of introduction from a friend in Boston. She
was then eighty-seven years of age, and lived in a fine old mansion in the Upper
Town, not far from the Soadabscook. Her husband was one of the citizens who was
confined as a prisoner on board the Decatur.2 She gave me a most vivid description
of events in Hampden at the time of the invasion ; and she furnished me with such
directions that, with the aid of a young man whom I had engaged to take me to
Bangor in a light wagon, I experienced no difficulty in finding all I had come to see.
I went down the winding road to the mouth of the Soadabscook, and sketched Cros
by's Wharf,3 climbed to the place of Morris's hill battery, and visited the meeting
(now town) house and the site of Blake's brief encounter with the invaders near the
Lower Town. When these pleasant tasks were accomplished, we dined at the hotel,
near which I saw a small building, with a little weather-beaten sign-board over the
door, that was innocent of all paint excepting the black letters which composed the
name of HANNIBAL HAMLIN. It was the law office4 of that distinguished United
States Senator, who a few weeks before had been elected Vice-President of the Re
public.
At three o'clock in the afternoon I left Hampden for Bangor, following the road
which the British traveled in their march to that place.5 I spent the remainder of
the afternoon in ram
bling about that fine
inland city of the pic
turesque State of
Maine, and was sur
prised by the great
number of schooners
that lay in the Penob-
scot and in the mouth
of the Kenduskeag.
There were no less
than two hundred and
thirty. It was the
VIEW AT TliE MOUTH OF THE KENDIJSKEAG.
Note 6, page 902.
» Page 902.
, .
3 Crosby's Wharf (see picture on page 899) was erected by General John Crosby, one of the early settlers, who came
from Woelwich in 1775. He entered into commercial business there, and carried on an extensive trade with Europe
and the West Indies. He was a friend and correspondent of Washington during the Revolution. General Crosby died
at Hampden in May, 1843, at the age of eighty-six years. For a more minute account of Hampden and its people, see
Coolidge and Mansfield's History and Description of Sew England— Maine.
* Mr. Hamlin settled in Hampden as a lawyer in the year 1S32.
s Bangor is a fine city of about seventeen thousand inhabitants. It is a port of entry and a great lumber depot. I
about thirty miles from the month of the Penobscot, and was .originally called Kenduskeag, from the Indian name of
the stream that there enters the river.
912
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Baugor.
Henry Van Meter and his History.
From Bangor to New Bedford.
time for these vessels, engaged in the lumber-trade, to lay up for the winter, and
they were rapidly filling the stream below the bridge.
I remained in Bangor two days, and spent a greater part of the time in the com
pany and under the hospitable roof of
Dr. John Mason. With him I visited
places of interest about Bangor ; rode
over to Brewer, and sketched the resi
dence of General Blake,1 and spent some
time in the humble dwelling of Henry
Van Meter, a remarkable black man,
then ninety-five years of age. He was
a slave to Governor Nelson, of Virginia,
during the Revolution, became a sea
man in long after years, and was one
of the crew of the privateer Lawrence
which sailed from Baltimore in 1814.2
He was captured, sent to Plymouth, and
confined in the Dartmoor Prison, where
he saw the massacre in the spring of
1815. Van Meter's history, as he re
lated it to me, was an eventful one.3
His mind seemed clear, and his body not
very feeble ; and when I had finished
the annexed sketch of him, he
wrote his name, with my pencil,
under it, as well as he could with
out glasses.
I left Bangor on the morning of the 23d,a and, traveling by railway,
reached Boston the same evening. A few days afterward, just at twi
light, I arrived at New Bedford,4 spent the evening with Dr. Charles L. Swasey, and
made arrangements for a ride the next morning to the old fort near Fair Haven,
across the Acushnet, spoken of on page 889 as having been saved from an attack by
the British on a dark night in 1814 by the blast of a postman's tin-horn and the clat
ter of his horse's hoofs, which frightened them away. A heavy storm of wind and
rain arose during the night ; nevertheless we made the journey, and at ten o'clock
November,
1800.
1 About a mile and a half above Bangor, on the same side of the Penohscot, was the residence of General Joseph
Treat. See note 2, page 807. = Sec page 1006.
3 Henry remembered seeing Washington many times. When Governor Nelson's estate was sold after the war to
pay his debts, Henry became the property of a planter beyond the Blue Ridge, on the extreme frontier. He was dis
contented, and wished to leave, notwithstanding his master was kind. He wished Henry to marry one of his slave
girls, and raise children foi> him, offering, if he would do so, to order in his will that he should be made a free man at
his death. " I didn't like the gals," said Henry, " and didn't want to ' wait for dead men's shoes.' So master sold me
to a man near Lexington, in Kentucky, and there was only one log house in that town when I went there." He was
soon sold to one of those vile men engaged in the slave-trading business, who treated him shamefully. Henry mount
ed one of his master's horses one night, and fled to the Kentucky River, where he turned him loose, and told him to go
home if he had a mind to, as he didn't wish to steal him. Some benevolent white people helped him on to the Ohio,
and at Cincinnati, then a collection of houses around Port Washington, he took the name of Van Meter, borne by some
of the family of his kind master of the Shenandoah Valley.
Henry became a servant of an officer in St. Clair's army, and served in the company, in the Northwest, with that com
mander and General Wayne. After the peace in 1T95, he was living in Chillicothe, and came East with some English
men with horses, by way of Wheeling, to Philadelphia. In the latter city some Quakers sent him to school, and he learned
to read and write. When the war broke out he shipped as a common sailor in the privateer Lawrence, having previ
ously been to Europe several times in the same capacity, and when cast into Dartmoor he held a prize ticket which was
worth, when he got home, one thousand dollars. He let a captain have it as security for sixteen dollars. The man died
of yellow fever in the South, and Henry never recovered his ticket.
* The half-shire town of Bristol County, Massachusetts, on the west side of the Acushnet River, an arm of Buzzard's
Bay. It is beautifully situated upon rising ground, and is the child of the whale-fishery, that, and other branches con
nected with it, having been from the beginning the chief business of the inhabitants. During the Revolution it was a
great resort for privateers. A force of four thousand men, under General Grey, fell upon it, and destroyed buildings,
wharves, vessels, and merchandise to the amount of more than $320,000.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
913
The Port at Fair Haven.
Captain Lemuel Akin.
Providence.
New London.
Stonington.
rode into the parade of the ruined fortress as far as the rocks would allow. The re
mains of the fort were upon a very rough cape opposite New Bedford, and a mile be
low the Acushnet Bridge and causeway. It was called Fort Phoenix, and was little
more than an 8 or 10 gun battery, whose walls were of hewn stone and earth. Sev
eral of the iron cannon (24-pounders) with which it was armed were lying within it,
never having been removed since they were placed there in 1812.
The storm was beating so furiously as it came driving in from the sea that our horse
became very restive;
so the kind Doctor
stood out in the blind
ing tempest, and held
him in quietude while,
under the cover of the
little carriage, I made
the annexed sketch of
the interior of the fort
with all possible, dis
patch.1 Then we re
turned to Fair Haven
village, and rode out to
the residence of Cap
tain Lemuel Akin, an
exceedingly intelli
gent and well-read gen
tleman, whose home
had been on the sea
during a large portion
of his long life.2 For
the good cheer with which he welcomed us, and for much valuable information which
he gave me then, and afterward in letters, I feel grateful. While at his house the
storm abated somewhat. We rode back to New Bedford, and in the afternoon I
traveled by railway to Providence, Rhode Island, where I passed Thanksgiving Day
most profitably with Dr. Usher Parsons, the surgeon of the Lawrence, Perry's flag
ship at the time of the battle of Lake Erie, whose name and record of services are
familiar to the readers of this volume. From this last survivor of Perry's commis
sioned officers I received much valuable and minute information concerning the army
and navy on the Niagara frontier and on Lake Erie.3 Dr. Parsons is still (1867) liv
ing, in the enjoyment of excellent health of body and mind.
Early on the morning of the 29tha I left Providence for New London, » November,
on the Thames, fifty miles westward, where I spent the day, as already re
corded in the latter part of Chapter XXX. of this work. At sunset I left for Ston
ington, a few miles eastward, and became the guest of Dr. George E. Palmer, whose
house bears evidence of the cannonade in 1814. On the following morning, accom
panied by Dr. Palmer, I visited places of interest about Stonington, among others the
old arsenal at the upper end of Main Street, in which were two or three cannon. It
1 Between the walls of the fort and the wooden building more in the foreground is seen Ceres Island, with the city
of New Bedford beyond. Since my visit the fort has been revived. " For five months," Dr. Swasey wrote to me in
September, 1861 (six months after the great Civil War had begun), " the old fort has been thoroughly repaired, and gar
risoned by the Home Guard of New Bedford and Fair Haven. How little did you or I dream of the events and neces
sities which have brought about this change, as we stood on that old place that day when you sketched the fort ! How
mild and gentle was even that storm that beat on our unsheltered heads compared with the tempest of war that has
since burst over our beloved land !"
2 Mr. Akin was engaged in the merchant service. He was captured off the Carolina coast by the British frigate
Severn, taken to Amelia Island, and sent from there to Bermuda, where he was exchanged. Captain Akin died in 1867,
at the age of seventy-five years. 5 See Chapter XXV.
3M
KKMAINS OF 1'OKT PUIKNIX, FAIE HAVEN.
914
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The Hero of Stonington and his Wife.
The Elm Grove Cemetery.
The Denison Family.
ARSENAL AT BTONINGTON.
ward, the joyful news
of peace came, and the
men of Stonington and
Mystic were celebra
ting the event at a
public dinner, Mrs.
Holmes, justly consid
ering her sex entitled
to recognition in the
public demonstrations
of delight, procured
some powder, and,with
the aid of other young-
women, loaded and
fired, with her own
hands, a heavy cannon,
in joyful commemora
tion of the great event.
She bears the distinc
tion of having fired the
first salute in that re
gion as a voice of wel
come to Peace.
While at Mystic we
was a brick building, somewhat altered since the war,
when the door was in the centre where the arch is seen.
Toward noon we rode over to Mystic, to visit the ven
erable hero, Captain Holmes, who performed so conspic
uous a part in the defense of Stonington, as already re
lated in this chapter. We found him and his aged wife
in the enjoyment of good health of mind and body,
and such is still their condition.11 . December,
Mrs. Holmes is a small woman, and retains
many marks of the beauty of her earlier years. She
was as energetic and patriotic as her husband, and
did all a woman could do at the trying time when
Stonington was attacked. When, several months after-
DENIBON'S OKAVB, MYSTIC.
visited the beautiful Elm Grove Cemetery, in which, as
we have observed in note on page 896, the State of Con
necticut erected a monument to the memory of Freder
ick Denison, who lost his life in defense of Stonington.
Near that monument was one (delineated in the annexed
engraving) in commemoration of the first of his family
~- who resided in that vicinity ;J and near it (seen to the
left of the monument in the picture) was the first tomb
stone erected in the town of Stoninsrton.2 It is of dark
1 Upon it is the following inscription: "GEORGE DENISON, a first settler in Stonington, and founder of the Denison
family. Died Oct. 23d, 1694, aged 74 years. This stone is erected by his descendants in 1855. Ann B., his wife, died
Sept. 26, 1712, aged 97 years."
3 It bears the following inscription: "Here lyes ye body of Ann Denison, who died Sept..ye 26th, 1712, aged 97
years." This stone is about twenty inches In height. The modern monument is of granite, fifteen feet in height.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 915
Baron de Steuben's Gold Box. The faithful Daughter. * Return Home.
slate, with the cherub on the arched upper part, which was a fashionable ornament a
hundred and fifty years ago.
We returned to Stonington toward sunset, and called on the Rev. Mr. Weston, of
the Protestant Episcopal Church, where wre saw the beautiful gold box in which the
freedom of the city of New York was publicly presented to the Baron de Steuben by
the hands of his old friend and aid-de-camp, General North. Around its edge was
the following inscription: "Presented by the Corporation of the City of New York,
with the freedom of the City." On the lid are the arms of the city, engraved by
Maverick. We also saw, in the course of the evening, the famous Stonington flag,
delineated on page 894, bearing sixteen stars, the then number of States in the
Union. It is bunting, about six yards in length and three yards and a half in width.
It was in the possession of Captain Francis Amy, of Stonington.
During that evening I heard many relations of stirring incidents connected with
the attack on Stonington. I will repeat only one, a touching narrative of a dying
mother and her faithful daughter. The mother (Mrs. Hall) was a poor woman, liv
ing in the old barracks near the " Cobb House" (page 896), in the last stages of con
sumption, and exposed to the British balls when they were hurled upon the town.
The people had fled in terror, and none but Huldah, the daughter of the dying wom
an, remained. She was faithful. Sometimes, when the balls came crashing through
the building, she would fly to the cellar, and sometimes to the garret, and then im
mediately return to the bedside of her mother. At length two or three soldiers
rushed into the building, and bore the poor woman away on her bed to the burying-
ground near the present Watawanuc1 Institute, by the railway, where they thought
she would be safe. Just as they had laid her on the greensward, a bomb-shell struck
near and exploded, by which a deep trench was scooped from the earth. The shock
was too much for the poor woman, and she expired. In the grave dug by the shell
she was hastily buried, and then the faithful Huldah hurried away to a place of great
er safety.
At a late hour in the evening I bade adieu to Dr. Palmer and his excellent family,
rode over to New London, and then embarked in a stanch steamer for New York,
where we arrived the next morning at the beginning of the first snow-storm of the
season. I had seen snow but once before since my departure from the city, and that
was on the summits of the lofty Katahdin mountains of Maine, while viewing them
from the hills around Bangor at a distance of almost a hundred miles in the far north
east. •
So ended a delightful and instructive visit to the eastern coast district of New En
gland, where I gleaned much valuable materials for History, and enjoyed open-hand
ed hospitality that can never be forgotten by the recipient.
i Watawanuc was the Indian name for the site of Stonington.
916 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The National Capital in Peril. Events suggesting Danger. Strange Apathy of the Government.
CHAPTER XXXIX.
" A veteran host, by veterans led,
With Ross and Cockburn at their head,
They came— they saw— they burned — and fled !
They left our Congress naked walls-
Farewell to towers and capitols 1
To lofty roofs and splendid halls !
To conquer armies in the field
Was, once, the surest method held
To make a hostile country yield.
The warfare now the invaders make
Must surely keep us all awake,
Or life is lost for freedom's sake.
PHILIP FEENEAU.
HILE the events recorded in the preceding chapter were occurring
on the New England coast, others of a more important character
in the vicinity of Chesapeake Bay were attracting public atten
tion. We have already observed how audaciously the British op
erated along the shores of the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays
during the year 1813, continually menacing not only the smaller
coast villages, but the larger cities. The national capital itself,
situated at the head of the navigation of the Potomac, was in peril at times, and yet
the government seemed to have been paralyzed by a strange delusion — a conviction
that the British would never attempt to penetrate the country so far as the city of
Washington, and that the archives of the nation were safe there. Tokens of danger
were not wanting. First came intelligence, late in January, that four thousand Brit
ish troops destined for the United States had landed at Bermuda. This was followed
by the appearance of Admiral Cockburn, the marauder, in Lynnhaven Bay, on the 1st
of March, with a 74 line-of-battle ship, two frigates, and a brig, and who commenced
at once the practice of his wicked amphibious warfare. At the close of April a ves
sel from Europe brought the startling news of the downfall of Napoleon ; and soon
afterward came the announcement of his abdication and retirement to Elba, and the
probable release of a large British force that might be sent to America.
For several months previous to the advent of Cockburn, thoughtful men had called
the attention of the President and his constitutional advisers to the exposed state of
the entire District of Columbia, and especially the capital, and to the importance of
adopting vigorous measures for its defense.1 The President appears to have feared
danger, but his cabinet were unmoved. Even when the foe was so near that the
booming of his cannon could almost be heard, they could not be impressed with a
sense of impending danger; and on the 14th of May the government organ (National
Intelligencer2} said : " We have no idea of the enemy attempting to reach the vicin
ity of the capital ; and if he does, we have no doubt he will meet such a reception as
1 So early as the middle of July, the previous year, when ^ — N
among the people of the District of Columbia and the mem- ^-^ |MM , f
bers of Congress for the defense of the capital.
» This paper is still (1867) published at Washington City, and, until recently, by Gales and Seaton, the proprietors
in 1S14.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
917
A Dearth of Troops for the Defense of Washington. The Government alarmed. The President's Plan for Defense.
he had a sample of at Craney Island. The enemy knows better than to trust him
self abreast of or on this side of Fort Washington." This idle boast and the govern
ment apathy were terribly rebuked a little more than three months afterward by
British arms and British torches. At that very time hostile marauders were in the
waters of the Potomac, and their leaders, employing competent spies, had made them
selves perfectly acquainted with the condition of the country, and of military affairs
around Washington.
June came, and yet there was strange apathy in official circles, and very little prep
aration for defense. In the entire Fifth Military District, of which the District of
Columbia was a part, there were only two thousand one hundred and fifty-four effect
ive enlisted men, of whom one half were at Norfolk, one quarter at Baltimore, *id
the remaining quarter divided between An
napolis, Fort Washington, and St. Mary's.
There were, besides, only a company of ma
rines in the barracks at Washington, and a
company of artillery at Fort Washington
(late Fort Warburton), on the Potomac,
twelve miles below the capital. Five hund
red recruits for the regular army from North
Carolina, under Lieutenant Colonel Clinch,1
who had been in camp near Washington for
the purpose of drill and exercise, were al
lowed to leave for the Northern frontier
quite late in June, when the public mind
was filled with alarm because of the men
aces of the enemy.
At length the government was aroused to
a sense of danger and responsibility by in
telligence that a number of the largest class
of transports had been fitted out at Ports
mouth, England, "as well as all troop-ships in
that port," for the purpose, it was believed,
of going to Bordeaux and taking on board
there the most effective of Wellington's reg
iments and conveying them to the United States. This was confirmed at near the
close of June by the arrival at New York of a cartel froiri Bermuda, which brought
intelligence that she left at that port " a fleet of transports, with a large force, bound
to some port in the United States, probably the Potomac." Official intelligence of
this fact reached the government on the 26th, and on the 1st of July the President
called a cabinet council and laid before them a well-considered plan of defense against
threatened invasion, which had been suggested, if not actually prepared, by General
William H. Winder, who had lately been exchanged, and had returned from Canada.2
It contemplated the establishment of a camp of regular troops, two or three thousand
strong, somewhere between the Eastern Branch of the Potomac and the Patuxent
Rivers, in Maryland, and the concentration of ten thousand militia in the vicinity of
Washington City.
i Duncan L. Clinch was one of the most meritorious officers in the United States service. He was a native of North
Carolina, and'entered the army as first lieutenant of infantry in 1SOS, and was soon made regimental paymaster. He
was promoted to captain in 1810, and lieutenant colonel in August, 1813. At the close of the war he was retained in the
army, and was promoted to colonel in 1819. In 1829 he was breveted brigadier general for ten years' meritorious serv
ices. He was an efficient officer in the war with the Seminoles in 1S35 and 1S36. He resigned in September, 1836.
From 1843 to 1846 he was a representative in Congress from Georgia. He died at Macon, Georgia, on the 28th of Octo
ber, 1849. He was a brave soldier and noble-hearted man. I am indebted to his daughter, the wife of General Kobert
Anderson, of Fort Sumter fame, for the above portrait.
« Letter to the Secretary of War, June 30, 1814, in Winder's Letter-book.
918
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Preparations for defending the Capital. General Winder in military Command. The States called on for Troops.
The Cabinet approved the Presi
dent's plan.1 A new military district,
entitled the Tenth, was formed, com
prising Maryland, the District of Co
lumbia, and the portions of Eastern
Virginia lying between the Potomac
and Rappahannock Rivers. Brigadier
General Winder2 was appointed to the
command of it, and the government
made a requisition upon the several
States for militia to the aggregate of
ninety-three thousand men, who were
to be organized at home and held in
readiness.3 The District of Columbia
and the State of Maryland were called
upon to furnish their respective quo
tas immediately, the former being two
thousand men and the latter six thou
sand. Pennsylvania was directed to
send five thousand and Virginia two
thousand to the militia rendezvous at
once. The naval defenses were in
trusted to Commodore Barney, a vet
eran commander, who was in the Patuxent with a small flotilla of gun-boats.
In official orders there appeared an army of fifteen thousand militia for the defense
of Washington, and General Winder was envied as the fortunate commander of a
larger force than had yet appeared in the field. But that army remained hidden in
1 The Secretary of War could not be made to believe, even as late as August, when the enemy was almost at the door
of the capital, that Washington City was his object. " What the devil will they do here ?" was his question to one who
expressed a belief that the capital was in danger. "No, no ; Baltimore is the place, sir ; that is of so much more con
sequence."— Statement of General Van Ness before a Committee of Inquiry. In his Notices of the War of 1812, the Secre
tary says that the attack on Washington was an after-thought of Admiral Cochrane when he had caused the destruction
of Barney's flotilla. Cochrane, in a letter to the Board of Admiralty in September, says that the presence of a flotilla
at the head of the Patuxent gave him a " pretext for ascending that river," while " the ultimate destination of the com
bined force was Washington, should it be found that the attempt might be made with any prospect of success." And at
the beginning of August, a letter, written by some one on compulsory duty in the British fleet in the Chesapeake, dated
July 27th, was placed in Winder's hands, and submitted to the Secretary of War, in which the intentions of the enemy
to rush to the capital were fully revealed. "The manner in which they intend doing it is," said the writer, "to take
advantage of a fair wind in ascending the Patuxent, and, after having ascended it a certain distance, to land their men
at once and to make all possible dispatch to the capital, batter it down, and then return to their vessels immediately.
In doing this there is calculated to be employed upward of seven thousand men."— Winder Papers.
On the contrary, Mr. Gleig, the now (1867) venerable chaplain general of the British Army, who accompanied the in
vaders, says that the destruction of Barney's flotilla was the sole object of the passage up the Patuxent, and that the
capture and destruction of Washington was suggested by Cockburn, the marauder, when that work was accomplished.
2 William H. Winder was born in Somerset County, Maryland, on the 18th of February, 1775. His ancestors were
among the earliest settlers in that state, and were influential men. He was graduated at the University of Pennsylva
nia, studied law, and entered upon its practice. He went to Nashville, Tennessee, to settle, but found so little encour
agement that he returned to his native state. At the age of twenty-three he was elected a member of the Maryland
Legislature. In 1802 he took up his residence in Baltimore, and soon stood in the foremost rank at the bar in that city,
where his rivals and friends were William Pinkney, Luther Martin, and men of that character. In March, 1812, he
received the commission of lieutenant colonel of infantry, and was promoted to colonel in July following, and with
troops from his state performed eminent service on the Niagara frontier. He was commissioned a brigadier in March,
1843, and in June following he was captured at Stony Creek, in Canada, and held as a prisoner of war until the spring
of 1814. In May of that year he was appointed adjutant and inspector general, and at the beginning of July he was as
signed to the command of the Tenth Military District. He was active in efforts to defend Washington City, and after
ward Baltimore. After the retirement of the British he was ordered to the Northern frontier. He left the army in
1815, and returned to the practice of his profession with a ruined constitution. He was twice elected state senator. His
health finally gave way, and he died in Baltimore on the 24th of May, 1824, at the age of forty-eight years. He was
Grand Master of the Masonic Order in Maryland. No private citizen was ever before or since honored with such a fu
neral as his ; and the pen of William Wirt indited a most eloquent eulogy of his character.
3 The requisition upon the several States was as follows : New Hampshire, 3500 ; Massachusetts, 10,000 ; Rhode Isl
and, 500; Connecticut, 3000; New York, 13,500; New Jersey, 5000; Pennsylvania, 14,000; Delaware, 1000; Maryland,
6000; Virginia, 12,000 ; North Carolina, 7000 ; South Carolina, 5000 ; Georgia, 3500 ; Kentucky, 5500 ; Tennessee, 2500 ;
Louisiana, 1000 ; Mississippi Territory, 500. Of this force 8400 were to be artillery, and the remainder infantry.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 919
Tardiness of the Secretary of War. Apathy of the People. Winder's Advice and Warnings.
official paragraphs, and only a small portion of it confronted the invader, for he came
before the States on whom the government had made a requisition for militia had
moved in the matter. There was extraordinary tardiness every where, and indica
tions of the most fatal official apathy or weakness. The Governor of Maryland, re
siding within an easy day's ride of the War Office, did not receive a copy of that req
uisition until six days after it was ordered ; and the Governor of Pennsylvania did
not receive his until ten days afterward. And it was not until the day when the
British appeared in heavy force in Chesapeake Bay (July 12, 1814) that the Secretary
of War placed a copy of it in the hands of General Winder, and then it was accom
panied by a cautious order directing him, in the event of an invasion, to call for a
part or the whole quota required of Maryland, but to " be careful to avoid unneces
sary calls, and to apportion the call to the exigency."1 Five days afterward another
order from the War Department reached him, which gave him authority to draw, in
addition to the Maryland quota, two thousand men from Virginia and five thousand
from Pennsylvania, and assuring him that the whole of the militia of the District
of Columbia, amounting to about two thousand, were kept in a disposable state, and
subject to his orders.
General Winder had comprehended the difficulties of the situation from the begin
ning. As early as the 9th of July, before he had received notice of his appointment
to the command, he wrote a letter to the Secretary of War, full of sound advice,
wholesome warning, and sagacious predictions, but that functionary never deigned
to reply to it.2 He issued orders in accordance with his own judgment alone, and
with an apparent obliviousness to, stern facts — orders which implied the organization
and readiness of the troops mentioned when there was not a shadow of such force in
existence. The Governor of Maryland (Levin Winder), after issuing drafts for three
thousand men, found that scarcely so many hundreds could be collected ; and the
Governor of Pennsylvania informed the Secretary of War that, in consequence of the
defect of the militia laws of that commonwealth, the executive had no power to en
force the draft.
General Winder entered upon his duties with alacrity, under the inspiration of se
ductive promises by the government ; and, notwithstanding he was soon made to
feel that he was the victim of official incompetency, he was untiring in his exertions
to make the defense of the District a certainty. He visited every part of the region
to be defended, inspecting every fortification under his command, and reconnoitring
every position thought to be favorable for the defense of the capital.3 He was in
daily communication with the government, giving information, sounding notes of
alarm, and making wise suggestions. " The door of Washington" (meaning Annapo
lis), he wrote on the 16th of July, "is wide open, and can not be shut with the few
troops under my command." Fort Madison there was utterly defenseless, and too
unhealthful for a garrison to occupy it. He warned the government that its heavy
armament might be easily seized by the invaders, and turned upon the town and Fort
Severn with fatal effect.4 He begged in vain for efforts to save that post, and made
stirring appeals to the people to come forward for the defense of the state. Yet, not
withstanding the danger that threatened, and his great personal popularity, height
ened by good deeds on the Northern frontier, Winder was compelled to report on the
1st of August that he had actually in camp only one thousand regulars, and about
1 The Secretary of War, as we have seen, did not believe that the British would attempt to penetrate to Washington ;
and on the day when he gave this cautions order, the National Intelligencer (the government organ) said, " It is not prob
able they will be required to be embodied unless the enemy should attempt to execute his threats of invasion."
2 Autograph Letter, Winder Papers ; Report of an Investigating Committee of Congress.
3 It is related that a farmer living near Bladensburg, who having, with some of his neighbors, followed some direc
tions for deep plowing given in a book, struck the gravel below his soil, and allowed all his manure to leach through
and thus ruin his land, saw General Winder one day, when the British were near, with a map in his hand, inspecting
that region. " He'll be whipped," said the farmer. " Why t" asked a by-stander. " Because he's going to book-fight
ing the British, as we have been book-farming, and got whipped." * Autograph Letter.
920 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The British appear in Chesapeake Bay. Barney's Flotilla. General Winder's Calls for Troops.
four thousand militia enrolled, a larger proportion of them yet to be collected. The
government had neglected to call for cavalry and riflemen, very important branches
of the service.
While these feeble efforts were in operation the enemy appeared in strong force.
On the 16th of August the small British squadron in the Chesapeake was re-enforced
by a fleet of twenty-one vessels under Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane, the senior
commander on the American station. These were soon joined by another under
Commodore Sir Charles Malcolm. These vessels bore several thousand land troops
commanded by General Ross, an Irish officer, and one of Wellington's most active
leaders. Washington and Baltimore appear to have been chosen objects of attack
simultaneously. A part of the British naval force, under Captain Gordon, went up
the Potomac, and another portion, under Sir Peter Parker, went up the Chesapeake
toward Baltimore.
At that time Commodore Barney, with a flotilla of thirteen armed barges and the
schooner Scorpion, with an aggregate of about five hundred men, was in the Patux-
ent River. His vessels had been chased out of the Chesapeake, and blockaded in St.
Leonard's Bay. Of this confinement
they were relieved by some artillery
under Colonel Henry Carbery,1 with
which he drove away the Loire, the
blockading frigate, when the released
flotilla went up the Patuxent, first to Benedict, and then to Nottingham, that it might
be within co-operating distance of both Washington and Baltimore. Seeing this, the
British determined to capture or destroy it, and on the 18th of August a force of a
little more than five thousand men, composed of regulars, marines, and negroes,2 went
up the Patuxent, and landed at Benedict with three cannon under cover of an armed
brig. Most of the other large British vessels were below, some of them aground, and
all too heavy to ascend the comparatively shallow stream.
Barney, then at Nottingham,3 promptly informed the Navy Department of this
movement, and of a boast of the British admiral that he would destroy the American
flotilla, and dine in Washington the following Sunday. General Winder, by direction
of the War Department, immediately ordered General Samuel Smith's division (the
Third) of the Maryland militia into actual service. He also called upon General John
•August is, P. Van Ness,a com
mander of the militia
of the District of Columbia, for
two brigades, to be encamped S/fl "'. I—-
near Alexandria ; and he sent a
circular letter13 to all
the brigadiers of the Maryland militia, asking for volunteers to the amount
of one half of their respective commands. By his orders, his adjutant general, Hite,
issued a stirring appeal to the citizens to come forward, " without regard to sacri
fices and privations," in defense of the national capital. Winder also asked General
Strieker, of Baltimore, to send to Washington his volunteer regiments of infantry and
his rifle battalion. These calls for volunteers were approved by the Secretary of
War, who enjoined Winder so to word the requisition as "to guard against interfer
ing with the legal draft."4
1 Henry Carbery was a captain in the American Navy in 1T92, and resigned in 1T94. He entered the military serv
ice in Maryland in the spring of 1813 as colonel. He died on the 26th of May, 1822.
2 These "disciplined negroes" had been forced by threats, and bribed by promises of freedom, to enter the British
service.
3 Barney had been very active with his flotilla in opposing the marauding expeditions of the British. On the 9th of
July he wrote from Nottingham to a friend, saying, "Six times in one month I have beat the enemy, always increasing
in their force, so that I believe they are tired of me. They now lie at the mouth of the Patuxent."— Autograph Letter.
* Autograph Letter, Winder Papers.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 921
Gathering of Troops. The British in the Patuxent. Destruction of Barney's Flotilla.
The veteran patriot, General Smith, promptly responded to the call of the govern
ment. He at once issued a division order,a in which he gave notice of the a August 19,
invasion, and directed the whole of General Stansbury's brigade (the ™u-
. — '*' Third) to be held in readiness
^ ~^ " for active service, adding, "The
third brigade is now under the
pay of the United States, in its
service, and subject to the Ar
ticles of War."1 That corps General Smith declared to be "the finest set of men he
ever saw."2 They paraded at four o'clock the same day, and on the following morn
ing General Stansbury3 left Baltimore for Washington with thirteen hundred of his
corps. Another force, un
der Lieutenant Colonel
Joseph Sterett, consisting
of the Fifth Regiment
of Baltimore Volunteers,
Major Pinkney's4 rifle
battalion, and the artil
lery companies of Cap
tains Myers and Magrti-
der, left Baltimore on the evening of the 20th, and joined Stansbury on the evening
of the 23d. With wise precaution, General Smith orderedb the eleventh
brigade and Colonel Moore's cavalry to hold themselves in readiness to
march to Baltimore at a moment's warning, for it seemed probable that the enemy
would strike at both cities simultaneously. They were ordered to Baltimore on
the 23d.
The British in the mean time had moved up the Patuxent from Benedict, the land
troops being accompanied by a flotilla of launches and barges that kept abreast of
them. The naval forces were under the command of the notorious marauder, Cock-
burn. They reached Lower Marlborough on the 21st, when Barney's flotilla, then in
charge of Lieutenant Frazier and a sufficient number of men to destroy it if neces
sary, moved up to Pig Point, where some of the vessels grounded in the shallow wa
ter. Barney had landed with four hundred seamen and pushed on toward Winder's
head-quarters, then at the Wood Yard, on the road between Upper Marlborough and
Washington, and twelve miles from the latter, where he had established a slightly-
intrenched camp. Frazier was instructed to destroy the flotilla at Pig Point rather
than allow it to fall into the hands of the foe. This order was obeyed, and the flotil
la was blown up on the morning of the 22d, when the enemy moved up from Notting
ham in forty barges, and commenced firing upon it with cannon and rockets.5 They
found only the ruins of Barney's vessels at Pig Point. Their land force pressed for
ward to Upper Marlborough, whence a road led directly to Washington City, and
there encamped, leaving Cockburn and the British flotilla at Pig Point.
Now let us see what forces were at the disposal of General Winder for the defense
of Washington. There were two small brigades of District troops. One of these
comprised the militia and volunteers of Washington and Georgetown, arranged in
two regiments under Colonels Magruder and Brent, and was commanded by General
Walter Smith, of Georgetown. Attached to the brigade were two companies of light
1 General Smith's MS. Order-book. I am indebted to the kind courtesy of General John Spear Smith, of Baltimore,
son of General Samuel Smith, and his aid-de-camp in 1814, for the use of his father's military papers of this period.
2 Autograph Letter to General Winder.
3 Tobias E. Stansbury lived to the great age of ninety-three years. He was an active public man from the commence
ment of the Revolution almost to the time of his death, which occurred in Baltimore County, Maryland, on the 25th of
October, 1849. He was repeatedly a member of the Maryland Legislature, and was Speaker of its House of Delegates.
He always enjoyed the perfect confidence of his fellow-citizens. * See sketch of William Pinkney on page 148.
* Barney's autograph Letter to the Investigating Committee, October 30, 1814.
922
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The Forces gathered for the Defense of Washington and Baltimore.
artillery, commanded respectively by Ma
jor George Peter, of the regular army,
and Captain Benjamin Burch, a soldier
of the Revolution. There were also two
rifle companies under Captains Doughty
and Stull. This brigade numbered, on
the morning of the 21st of August, one thousand and seventy men. The second bri
gade was commanded by General Robert Young, and numbered five hundred men.
It comprised a company of artillery led by Captain Marsteller. It was chiefly em
ployed in defending the approaches to Fort Washington,
about twelve miles below the capital. Brigadier Gen
eral West, of Prince George's County, had troops on the
lootout toward the Potomac.
The troops from Baltimore comprised a greater portion of the brigade of General
Stansbury, formed in two regiments under Lieutenant Colonels Ragan and Schutz,
thirteen hundred and fifty in number ; and the Fifth Regiment, under Colonel Ster-
ett, with artillery and- riflemen already mentioned, the latter under the celebrated
William Pinkney. The whole force from Baltimore was about two thousand two
hundred, commanded by General Stansbury as chief. Besides these there were vari
ous detachments of Maryland militia, under the
respective command of Colonels W. D. Beall (of
the Revolution) and Hood, Lieutenant Colonel
Kramer, and Majors Waring and Maynard — in all
less than twelve hundred. There was also a regi
ment of Virginia militia under Colonel George Mi
nor, six hundred strong, with one hundred cavalry. The regular army contributed
three hundred men from the Twelfth, Thirty-sixth,
and Thirty-eighth Regiments, under Lieutenant
Colonel William Scott. To these must be added
the sailors of Barney's flotilla, four hundred, and
one hundred and twenty marines from the navy
yard at Washington, furnished with two 18-pound-
ers and three 12-pounders. There were also
various small companies of volunteer cav
alry from the District, Maryland, and Vir
ginia, under Lieutenant Colonel Tilghman,
and Majors O. H. Williams and Charles Ster-
ett, three hundred in number, and a squad
ron of United States dragoons commanded
by Major Laval. The whole force was about seven thousand strong, of whom nine
hundred were enlisted men. The cavalry did not exceed four hundred in number.
The little army had twenty-six pieces of cannon, of which twenty were only 6-pound-
ers. This force, if concentrated, would have been competent to roll back the inva
sion had the commanding officer been untrammeled by the interference of the Presi
dent and his Cabinet. •
Winder's vigilance was sleepless after the appearance of the invaders in the Pa-
tuxent. He was actively employed with the cavalry in reconnoitring ; and on the
morning of the 22d he ordered Lieutenant Colonel Scott's command, Laval's cavalry,
Major Peter's artillery, and the rifle company of Stull, and another under Captain
Davidson, acting as riflemen, with several field-pieces, numbering about eight hundred
men, to proceed immediately to Nottingham, where the enemy had encamped during
the night just passed, and reconnoitre and harass them. The remainder of Winder's
force in hand was directed to follow in their support. The general himself, accompa-
\
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 923
The British move on Washington. Alarming Note from Secretary Monroe. Removal of the Public Records.
nied by his limited staff, proceeded in advance of the troops, and soon discovered the
enemy moving up the river. He was convinced that an encounter with that over
whelming force would be perilous, and he ordered Scott and Peter to fall back to the
"Wood Yard and wait for him. The main body of the troops, under General W.
Smith, had arrived in the mean time within two miles of the advance ; and the whole
American force, then within five miles of the invaders, including Barney's men and
marines from the "Washington Navy Yard, numbered about twenty-five hundred, fair
ly armed with muskets and rifles, and five pieces of heavy artillery.
On arriving at the junction of the roads leading respectively to Marlborough and
the Wood Yard, General Ross, who led the British column in person, turned into the
latter with the seeming intention of pushing on toward Washington. He was in
duced to do so by Cockburn, who thirsted for plunder, and who argued that the pres
tige which the British would acquire by the capture of the metropolis of the republic
would be of immense advantage to the cause, and that no doubt the government, to
save the city, would make a liberal offer of money, a circumstance that would greatly
increase the marauder's amount of prize-money. After proceeding a short distance,
Ross changed his course and proceeded toward Marlborough. ' Winder deemed it pru
dent to avoid an encounter, and in the afternoon he retreated toward the capital, and •
encamped at a place called Long Old Battalion Fields, about eight miles from the
city, where he might be within easy striking distance of Bladensburg, the bridges
over the East Branch of the Potomac, and the road leading to Fort Washington.1
Colonel James Monroe, the Secretary of State, who had been several days with
Winder reconnoitring the enemy, and watching all military movements, believed that
Washington was in great peril, for he well knew the weakness of the American forces.
While Ross was yet advancing, and before he retraced his steps and went toward
Marlborough, Monroe sent the following dispatch to the President :
" The enemy are advanced six miles on the road to the Wood Yard, and our troops
are retiring. Our troops were on the march to meet them, but in too small a body
to engage. General Winder proposes to retire till he can collect them in a body.
The enemy are in full march to Washington. Have the materials prepared to de
stroy the bridges. J- MONROE.
" P.S. — You had better remove the records."2
This message produced the wildest excitement in the national capital, then a strag
gling town of between eight and nine thousand inhabitants, and caused a sudden and
confused exodus of all the timid and helpless ones who were able to leave.
Winder's situation was an unenviable one. With a comparatively strong foe on
his front, ready to fall upon him or the capital he was expected to defend, he had
only about twenty-five hundred armed and effective men in camp, and many of these
had been from their homes only three or four days. They were undisciplined and
untried, and surrounded and influenced by a crowd of excited civilians, to whose
" officious but well-intended information and advice" the general was compelled to
listen. In addition to this intrusion and interference of common men, he was embar-
i See Map on page 929.
a Mr. S. Pleasanton, then employed in the office of the Secretary of State, made immediate arrangements for the re
moval of the books and papers of the State Department, He had linen bags made in which they were placed, and
then conveyed in carts across the Chain Bridge, over the Potomac, two miles above Georgetown, to the grist-mill of
Ed^ar Patterson, in Virginia. Considering them unsafe there, Mr. Pleasanton had them conveyed to Leesburg, thirty-
five' miles from Washington, where they were locked up in an unoccupied house, and the keys given to the Rev. Mr.
Littlejohn, who had been one of the collectors of the internal revenue. Thus the precious documents of the Revolu
tionary period and other valuable papers now in the Office of the Rolls at Washington City were saved from destruction.
— Autograph Letter of S. Pleasanton to General Winder, August 7, 1848. Mr. Pleasanton, in his account of this trans
action, 'lays : " While engaged in the passage-way of the buildings with the papers, the Department of State being on
one side, and the War Department on the other side of the passage, General Armstrong, then Secretary of War, on his
way to his own room, stopped a short time, and observed to me that he thought we were under unnecessary alarm, as
he did not think the British were serious in their intentions of coming to Washington." To this belief the Secretary
adhered until they were iii full march upon the capital.
924
PICTOKIAL FIELD-BOOK
Preparations for Battle.
Disposition of Troops.
Battle-line formed near Bladensburg.
rassed by the presence and suggestions of the President and his Cabinet ministers,
the most of them utterly ignorant of military affairs. Better would it have been for
Winder and the country if these civilians, from the President down, had kept away
from the camp and the field, and prudently preserved silence.
The fatigued little army at Long Old Fields had reposed but a short time when, at
two o'clock in the morning (August 23), a timid sentinel gave a false alarm, and they
were summoned to their feet in battle order. They were soon dismissed, and slept
on their arms until dawn. At sunrise they were ordered to strike their tents, load
the baggage wagons, and have every thing in readiness to move within an hour.
When every thing was prepared for marching they were reviewed by President Mad
ison. In the mean time Winder had ascertained from scouts that the British were
resting quietly in their camp at Upper Marlborough, and he resolved to concentrate
all the troops within his reach at some point between his present camp and that of
the enemy. He accordingly sent orders to General Stansbury, at Bladensburg, to
inarch with his own and Lieutenant Colonel Sterett's troops, arid take position in the
road within seven miles of Marlborough. The same order was sent to Lieutenant
Colonel Beall, supposed to be then approaching with his corps from Annapolis. A
detachment from General Walter Smith's brigade, under Major Peter, composed of
the same companies as the detachment sent forward the day before, was ordered to
move from camp in the same direction and for the same purpose — to approach as
near the enemy as possible without incurring too much risk, and annoy him whether
in motion or at rest. General Winder himself, accompanied by a troop of Laval's
cavalry, started for Bladensburg at noon for the purpose of holding a conference with
General Stansbury. When within four or five miles of that place, he was overtaken
by Major M'Kenney with intelligence that Major Peter had met and skirmished with
the vanguard of the advancing enemy, two or three miles from Marlborough, on the
road toward the Wood Yard, had been driven back toward the Old Fields, and that
General Smith had sent off the baggage toward Washington across the Eastern
Branch, and had drawn up his own troops and Barney's seamen in battle order to
await an attack from the foe. Winder immediately sent orders to Stansbury, now
moving forward, to fall back toward Bladensburg, take the best position possible with
his own and Sterett's troops in front of that village, and resist the enemy if attacked.
If driven, he was to re
treat toward the cap
ital. He then hasten
ed back to the Old
Fields, where he found
Smith and Barney well
posted. Stansbury's
force took position in
an orchard (near a mill
yet standing near Bla
densburg) on a gentle
eminence, and there,
behind a slight breast
work, he placed six
heavy guns in position
to command the pass
into the town and the
bridge south westward
of it. About one hun
dred yards in the rear
.MILL NEAR ULAlJENBliCKQ IN ISlil.1
1 This is a sketch of the old mill made near the close of 1861. Bladensburg and the bridge are seen in the distance.
OF THE WAK OF 1812. 925
Advance of the British. Eetreat of the Americans. Winder invites the Government to a Council.
of this position, in the small dwelling on Tournecliffe's farm, the surgeons of the com
mand were placed, to receive and take care of the wounded soldiers.1
General Ross rested at Upper Marlborough until after noon of the 23d, when, being
joined by Cockburn and his seamen and marines, he moved forward at two o'clock,
and, as we have observed, encountered and drove back Major Peter and his command.
He then pressed steadily on unmolested to the junction of the roads leading respect
ively to Washington City and the Alexandria Ferry, on the Potomac River, not fat
above Fort Washington. There they halted. The Americans were puzzled. Some
believed that an attack on Fort Washington in the rear, simultaneously with an as
sault by the British fleet in front, was contemplated ; but more, and among these
General Winder and Colonel Monroe, believed the national capital to be the prize
sought to be won. Impressed with this conviction, Winder issued orders toward
sunset for the troops to retire across the Eastern Branch Bridge and take position on
the borders of the city, where greater facility would be afforded for assisting General
Young, who was covering Fort Washington with a small force, and for drawing to
himself Stansbury and Sterett if the enemy should advance rapidly upon the capital.
Late at night the troops, greatly wearied and dispirited, encamped within the limits
of the city. " Thus," said General Smith, " terminated the four days of service of the
troops of this District. They had been under arms, with but little intermission, the
whole of the time, both night and day ; had traveled, during their different marches
in advance and retreat, a considerable tract of country, exposed to the burning heat
of a sultry sun by day, and many of them to the cold dews of the night, uncover
ed. They had in this period drawn but two rations, the requisition therefor in the
first instance being but partially complied with, and it being afterward almost im
possible to procure the means of transportation, the wagons employed by our quar
termaster for that purpose being constantly impressed by the government agents
for the purpose of removing the public records when the enemy's approach was
known, and some of them thus seized while proceeding to take in provisions for the
army."
The night of the 23d of August was marked by great excitement in the National
capital. The President and his Cabinet indulged in no slumbers, for Ross, the invad
er, was bivouacked at Melwood, near the Long Old Fields, about ten miles from the
city, and Winder's troops, worn down and dispirited, were fugitives before him. La
val's horsemen were exhausted, and Stansbury's troops at Bladensburg were too
wearied with long marching to do much fighting without some repose. What the
morning would reveal no one could tell, and the dark hours were passed in great
anxiety by the troops and people. The Secretary of State was in his saddle half
the night ; and at midnight he had visited the head-quarters of Stansbury, acquaint
ed him with the relative positions of Winder and Ross, and advised him to fall in the
rear of the latter. Fortunately the military leader did not follow the advice of the
civilian.
Winder's head-quarters were at Combs's, near the Eastern Branch Bridge, and at
dawn the President and several of his Cabinet ministers were there.2 Before their
arrival, General Winder (who was greatly fatigued in body and mind, and had re
ceived a severe injury from a fall during the night) had sent a note to the Secretary
of War, expressing a desire to have the counsel of that officer and of the government.
This was a mistake. He had had too much of that bane to success already, and it
was now administered too liberally for the good reputation of himself and his coun
try. These government officers were so officious as well as fickle— fickle, because im
pulse, and not judgment, guided them— that the general's thoughts and plans were
i I have before me a very interesting narrative in manuscript of the events of the battle, which came tinder the ob
servation of Dr. Samuel B. Martin, one of the surgeons stationed at Tonrnecliffe's house, where he was made a prisoner
at the close of the battle 2 Secretaries of War, Navy, and Treasury, and the Attorney General.
926 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The British advance on Bladensbnrg. The Field of Action. The Secretary of War and General Winder.
interfered with at a moment when one mind should control all movements, and that
mind be free to act untrammeled and unbiased.1
While Winder and the government were in council, Ross moved toward Bladens-
burg. Laval's scouts first brought intelligence of the fact to head-quarters. They
were soon followed by an express from Stansbury, giving positive information that
the British were marching in that direction, with the view, no doubt, of crushing the
little force of Baltimoreaus near the Bladensburg Mill. Up to that moment the coun
cil believed that Ross would move on Fort Washington, or on the city by the very
bridge near which they were in consultation. This delusive idea now vanished, and
government, general, and troops all moved off toward the point of danger. Winder
had now under his command at Washington and Bladensburg five thousand one
^hundred effective men. The force of the enemy was about the same.
It was ten o'clock in the morning when Winder ordered General W. Smith, with
the whole of his troops, to hasten toward Bladensburg. Barney was soon afterward
ordered to move with his five hundred men, and the Secretary of State, who had seen
some military service in the Revolution, was requested by the President and General
Winder to hasten to Stansbury and assist him in properly posting his troops. Mr.
Monroe was immediately followed by General Winder and his staff The Secretary
of War then followed ; and lastly the President and Attorney General, accompanied
by some friends, all on horseback, rode on toward the expected theatre of battle.2
Stansbury seems not to have been well pleased with the aid of the Secretary of State,
for he afterward intimated that " somebody," without consulting him, changed and
deranged his order of battle. That " somebody" was Colonel Monroe, as we shall
presently observe.
Let us for a moment take a glance at the theatre on which the opposing forces were
soon to meet face to face. It was the slopes and plain around Bladensburg, then a
little straggling village at the head of small-craft navigation on the Eastern Branch
of the Potomac, up which for four miles vessels of largest class might ride. The vil
lage is about six miles from Washington by the old post-road from that city to Bal
timore. Another road from Georgetown joined the Washington Road at an acute
angle a few yards from the bridge less than a hundred feet long, that spanned the
stream at Bladensburg. Above the bridge the creek was every where fordable.
In the triangular field formed by the two roads just mentioned, and near the mill,
General Stansbury's command was posted on the morning of the 24th. On the brow
of a little eminence in that field, three hundred and fifty yards from the Bladensburg
Bridge, between a large barn3 and the Washington Road, a barbette earth-work had
been thrown up for the use of heavy cannon. Behind this work were the artillery
companies from Baltimore, under Captains Myers and Magruder, one hundred and
fifty strong, with six 6-pounders. These were too small for the high embankment,
and embrasures were cut so that they might command the bridge and both roads.
Major Pinkney's riflemen were on the right of the battery, near the junction of the
1 It appears from contemporaneous testimony that, at the interview at Winder's head-quarters that morning, it was
resolved by the President to give the supreme control of military affairs to the Secretary of War, but that in a short
time the President changed his mind, who told the Secretary that "the military functionaries should be left to the dis
charge of their own duties on their own responsibilities."— s'ee General Armstrong's account of the matter in his Notices
of the War of 1S12. The now (1S67) venerable Jacob Barker, of New Orleans, who was at the seat of government at this
time, in an interesting narrative of these events, says : " The President left Washington at about 9 A.M. [August 24], in
great haste, to recall General Armstrong, who had preceded him about an hour with the President's order to supersede
General Winder in the defense of the capital, and reaching the ground a few minutes before the fight began, said to
General Armstrong, ' It is too late to make any change. Come with me, and leave the defense with the military au
thorities, where it belongs.' "—Letter to Mr. Carroll, February 8, 1S4S, in reply to one from that gentleman in the New
York Herald, December 1, 1S4T. General Armstrong was offended, and, as he says in his narrative, "now became, of
course, a mere spectator of the combat."
3 Richard Rush, then Attorney General, says that the President informed him, when they were riding ont toward
Bladensburg, that one motive that caused his going to the field was to be on hand to give the requisite sanction to the
claims to superior command of General Armstrong.
3 This barn, on the Georgetown Road, was yet standing in 1SG1. A small drawing of it is seen in the corner of the
smaller section of the map on page 929.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
927
Arrangements for Battle near Bladensbnrg.
TILE BBLDGE AT BLADE>
roads, and concealed
by the shrubbery on
the low ground near
the river. Two com
panies of militia, un
der Captains Ducker
and Gorsuch, acting as
riflemen, were station
ed in the rear of the
left of the battery,
near the barn and the
Georgetown Road.
About fifty yards in
the rear of Pinkney's
riflemen was Sterett's
Fifth Regiment of
Baltimore Volunteers,
while the regiments
of Ragan and Schutz
were drawn up en eche
lon? their right rest
ing on the left of Ducker's and Gorsuch's companies, and commanding the George
town Road. The cavalry, about three hundred and eighty in all, were placed some
what in the rear, on the extreme left, and seem not to have taken any part in the bat
tle that ensued.
This, all things considered, seems to have been a judicious arrangement ; but Colo
nel Monroe, without consulting General Stansbury, and in face of the enemy, then on
the other side of the Eastern Branch, proceeded to change it, by moving the Balti
more regiments of Sterett, Ragan" and Schutz a quarter of a mile in the rear of the
artillery and riflemen, their right resting on the Washington Road. This formed a
second line in full view of the enemy,
within reach of his Congreve rockets, en
tirely uncovered, and so far from the first
line as not to be able to give it immedi
ate support in case of an attack. This
was a blunder that proved disastrous,
but it was made too late to be corrected,
the enemy was so near.
General Winder in the mean time had
arrived on the field, and posted a third
and rear line on the crown of the hills,
near the residence of the late John C.
Rives, proprietor of the Washington
Globe, about a mile from the Bladens-
burg Bridge. This line embraced a reg
iment of Maryland militia, under Colonel
RESIDENCE OF THE LATE JOHN C. BIVE6.3
> This view is from the right bank of the Eastern Branch, on the road leading to Washington.
J See note 4, page 652.
» This mansion stands between the Baltimore and Washington Railway and the turnpike leading from Washington
to Bladensbure. It is about four miles from the national capital. Mr. Rives, who died there on Sunday, the Iflth of
April, 1S64, at the age of sixty-nine years, was one of the founders of the Washington Globe, the official organ of Presi
dent Jackson. His partner in the establishment of that paper, Mr. Blair, survives him. Mr. Blair was the editor of the
Globe, and Mr. Rives was the business manager. The latter was the publisher of the Globe at the time of his death. He
was a noble and generous citizen. For a long time during the great Civil War he gave from his private purse about
$1000 a month to the families of the volunteer soldiers in the District of Columbia.
928
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Order of Battle near Bladensburg.
Advance of the British.
Dueling-ground at Bladensburg.
Beall, which had just arrived from Annapolis, and was posted on the extreme right ;
Barney's flotilla-men, who formed the centre on the Washington Road, with two 18-
pounders planted in the highway a few yards from the site of Rives's barn, a portion
of the seamen acting as artillerists ; and Colonel Magruder's District militia, regulai's
under Lieutenant Colonel Scott, and Peter's battery, who formed the left. About
five hundred yards in front of this position the road descends into a gentle ravine,
which was then, as now, crossed by a small bridge (Tournecliffe's), on the north of
which it widens into a little grassy level, and formed the dueling-ground where De-
DUELLNG'GBOCND NEAK BLADENSBtTRG.1
catur and others lost their lives. Overlooking it, about one hundred and fifty yards
from the road, is an abrupt bluff, on which the companies of Captains Stull and Da
vidson were posted
in position to com
mand that high
way. L i e u t e n-
ant Colonel Scott,
with his regulars, Colonel Brent, with the Second Regiment of General Smith's bri
gade, and Major Waring, with the battalion of Maryland militia, were posted in the
rear of Major Peter's battery. Magruder was immediately on the left of Barney's
men, his right resting on the Washington Road ; and Colonel Kramer, with a small
detachment, was thrown forward of Colonel Beall.
Such was the disposition of Winder's little army when, at noon, the enemy were
seen descending the hills beyond Bladensburg, and pressing on toward the bridge.
At half past twelve they were in the town, and came within range of the heavy guns
i This is a view of Tournecliffe's Bridge and the Dueling-ground from the north side of the road from Washington
to Bladensburg. The place where Decatur and Barren fought was on the low ground by the creek, seen immediately
over the two figures in the picture, nearest the left of it. These officers fought with pistols on the 22d of March, 1820,
when Decatur was mortally wounded, and died in the arms of his distracted wife at Kalorama, near Georgetown, the
same night, at the early age of forty years. The event is elsewhere mentioned in this volume. Here, also, a duel was
fought by Jonathan Cilley, of Maine, and W. J. Graves, of Kentucky (both members of Congress), on the 24th of Febru
ary, 1S38. They fought with rifles at eighty yards' distance. Cilley was mortally wounded at the third fire. The higher
ground seen toward the right of the picture is the place where Captains Davidson and Stull were posted.
Other duels have been fought on this ground. The first was in 1814, when one of the parties (Edward Hopkins) was
killed. The next was in 1819, by A. T. Mason and John M'Carty. Mason was killed. Decatur and Barron fought there
the next year. In 1822, Midshipman Locke, and Gibson, Chief Clerk of the Treasury Department, fought there. Gibson
was shot. Key and Sherborn fought there in 1833, when Key was killed. The duel of Graves and Cilley, as we have
seen, was in 1838. There was a duel there in 1845, when a lawyer named Jones killed Dr. Johnson. Hoole and Dallas
exchanged shots there in 1850 or 1851.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
929
Battle-ground at Bladeneburg.
of the first American line.1 The British commenced hurling rockets at the exposed
Americans, and attempted to throw a heavy force across the bridge, but were driven
back by their antagonists' cannon, and forced to take shelter in the village and be
hind Lowndes's Hill, in the rear of it,2 Again, after due preparation, they advanced
in double-quick time ; and, when the bridge was crowded with them, the artillery of
See NOTE on page 943.
2 Ross made the house of Mr. Lowndes his head-quarters oil that day.
8N
930
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Battle near Bladensburg.
Gallant and effective Stand by Commodore Barney.
Winder's first and second lines opened upon them with terrible effect, sweeping down
a whole company. The concealed riflemen, under Pinkney, also poured deadly" vol
leys into their exposed ranks ; but the British, continually re-enforced, pushed gal
lantly forward, some over the bridge, and some fording the stream above it, and fell
so heavily upon the first and unsupported line of the Americans that it was com
pelled to fall back upon the second. A company, whose commander is unnamed in
the reports of the battle, were so panic-stricken that they fled after the first fire, leav
ing their guns to fall into the hands of the enemy.
The first British brigade were now over the stream, and, elated by their success,
did not wait for the second. They threw away their knapsacks and haversacks, and
pushed up the hill to attack the American second line in the face of an annoying fire
from Captain Burch's artillery. They weakened their force by stretching out so as
to form a front equal to that of their antagonists. It was a blunder which Winder
quickly perceived and took advantage of. He was then at the head of Sterett's reg
iment. With this and some of Stansbury's militia, who behaved gallantly, he not
only checked the enemy's advance, but, at the point of the bayonet, pressed their at
tenuated line so strongly that it fell back to the thickets on the brink of the river,
near the bridge, where it maintained its position most obstinately until re-enforced
by the second brigade. Thus strengthened, it again pressed forward, and soon turned
the left flank of the Americans, and at the same time sent a flight of hissing rockets
over and very near the centre and right of Stansbury's line. The frightened regi
ments of Schutz and Ragan broke, and fled in the wildest confusion. Winder tried
to rally them, but in vain. Sterett's corps
maintained their ground gallantly until
the enemy had gained both their flanks,
when Winder ordered them and the sup
porting artillery to retire up the hill.
They, foo, became alarmed, and the re
treat, covered by riflemen, was soon a
disorderly flight.
The first and second line of the Amer
icans having been dispersed, the British,
flushed with success, pushed forward to
attack the third. Peter's artillery an
noyed, but did not check them ; and the
left, under the gallant Colonel Thornton,
soon confronted Barney, in .the centre,
who maintained his position like a genu
ine hero, as he was. His 18-pounders en
filaded the Washington Road, and with
them he swept the highway with such
terrible effect that the enemy filed off
into a field, and attempted to turn Bar
ney's right flank. There they were met
by three 12-pounders and marines, under
Captains Miller and Sevier, and were
badly cut up. They were driven back
to the ravine already mentioned as the
dueling-ground, leaving several of their
wounded officers in the hands of the
Americans. Colonel Thornton, who brave
ly led the attacking column, was severely
wounded, and General Ross had his horse shot under him.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
931
Barney wounded, made Prisoner, and paroled.
Biographical Sketch of Barney.
The flight of Stansbury's
troops left Barney unsupported
in that direction, while a heavy
column was hurled against Beall
and his militia, on the right, with
such force as to disperse them.
The British light troops soon
gained position on each flank,
and Barney himself was severely
wounded near a living fountain
of water on the estate of the late
Mr. Rives, which is still known
as Barney's Spring.1 When it
became evident that Minor's Vir
ginia troops could not arrive in
time to aid the gallant flotilla-
men, who were obstinately main
taining their position against
fearful odds, and that farther re
sistance would be useless, Win
der ordered a general retreat.
The commodore, too severely
hurt to be moved, became a pris
oner of war,2 but was immediate
ly paroled by General Ross, and
sent to Bladensburg after his
wound was dressed by a British
surgeon.3 There he was joined
by his wife and son, and his own surgeon, and on the 27th wTas conveyed to
at Elkridge, in Maryland. The great body of the Americans who were
1 The picture is a view at "Barney's Spring" when I visited and sketched it in December, 1SGO. It is a little south
of the road leading between Washington and Bladensburg, and about two hundred yards southwest from the mansion
of the late Mr. Rives. Barney's battery was in the road near by ; and the stumps of two cedar-trees, a short distance
from the site of the battery, indicate the spot where the commodore's horse, which was shot under him, was buried.
2 Joshua Barney was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on the 6th of July, 1759. He went to sea when a small boy, and at the
age of fourteen years was second mate of a vessel, and at sixteen was commander. After many adventures abroad, he
arrived in the Chesapeake in October, 1775. The following June he was appoint
ed a lieutenant in the United States Navy, and was the first to unfurl the Amer
ican flag in Maryland. He was a very active officer during the whole war. He
brought the first news of peace with Great Britain, on the 12th of March, 1783.
Continuing in service, he was one of the six commanders appointed under the
act of 1793, but he declined the honor. He went to France with Monroe, and was
the bearer of the American flag to the National Convention. He entered the
French service in command of two fine frigates. He resigned his French com
mission-in 1802, and returned home. He again entered the naval service of the
United States in 1812, and distinguished himself during the war that ensued. He
died of a bilious fever at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, on the 1st of December, 1818,
at the age of fifty-nine years. His remains were interred in the burying-ground
of the First Presbyterian Church at Pittsburg, and over them a plain white mar
ble slab was laid by his widow. They were removed to the Alleghany Cemetery
on the 12th of May, 1848, where they repose in the shadow of thrifty young trees,
without a record there on wood or stone. The bullet which finally caused the
death of Commodore Barney was never extracted during his lifetime. In obe
dience to his orders, it was sought for after his death, and found. It is preserved
in a disc of brass, with an inscription, in the archives of the Navy Department
at Washington City. The annexed engraving is a representation, the exact size,
of the bullet, the disc, and the inscription. The portrait of Barney on the oppo-
' site pacre was painted by Joseph Wood, of Washington City, in 1818.
3 Dr/Martin, in his MS. Reminiscences, already mentioned, says that when he and other prisoners were going up the
hill toward where Barney fell, they met a litter with the wounded commodore on it. He desired his guard to halt, and
call the prisoners to him. The leader called out to them, " Coom over here, Yankees, to see your coonthryman, Barney ;
he looks like a spread aigle, Yankees !" The prisoners shook hands with the brave old commodore, who gave them
words of cheer.
VIEW AT BASKET'S SPRING.
his farm
not dis-
932
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Close of the Battle of Bladensburg. The British march on Washington. An Excuse for burning the City wanted.
persed retreated toward Montgomery Court-house, in Maryland, leaving the battle
field in full possession of the enemy, and their way to the national capital unobstruct
ed except by the burning of the two bridges over the Eastern Branch of the Poto
mac.1 The Americans lost twenty-six killed and fifty-one wounded. The British
loss was manifold greater. According to one of their officers who was in the battle,
and yet living (Mr. Gleig, Chaplain General of the British Army), it was " upward
of five hundred killed and wounded," among them " several officers of rank and dis
tinction." The battle commenced at about noon, and ended at four o'clock.
Up to this time the conduct of the British had been in accordance with the rules
of modern warfare. Now they abandoned them, and on entering the national capi
tal they performed deeds worthy only of barbarians. In a proclamation issued by
the President on the 1st of September he submitted the following indictment : " They
wantonly destroyed the public edifices, having no relation in their structure to oper
ations of war, nor used at the time for military annoyance ; some of these edifices
being also costly monuments of taste and of the arts, and others depositories of the
public archives, not only precious to the nation as the memorials of its origin and its
early transactions, but interesting to all nations as contributions to the general stock
of historical instruction and political science." Let us briefly examine the testimony
of history.
When Ross was assured of complete victory, he halted his army a short time on
the field of battle, and then, with the fresh Third Brigade, which had not been in the
j;_ _ _.__ n conflict, he crossed the East-'
ern Branch Bridge. Assured
of the retreat of the Americans
beyond Georgetown, Ross left
the main body a mile and a
half from the Capitol, and en
tered the town, then contain
ing about nine hundred build
ings. He came to destroy the
public property there. It was
an errand, it is said, not at all
coincident with his taste or habits, and what was done by him appears to have been
performed as humanely as the orders of his superiors would allow.2 When, on his
arrival in the Chesapeake, he had been ^nformed by Admiral Cochrane that he (the
admiral) had been urged by Sir George Prevost, the Governor General of Canada
(who was not satisfied with the terrible devastation of the Niagara frontier at the
close of 181 3),3 to retaliate in kind upon the Americans for the destruction of the gov-
ernmentbuildings at York4 and the village of Newark,5 he demurred, saying that they
1 The lower bridge, near the navy yard, had been left in charge of Captain Creighton, with orders to destroy it on the
approach of the enemy. It was fired at four o'clock in the afternoon.
2 Hoping to spare the town, Ross had sent an agent to negotiate for a pecuniary ransom. There was no competent
authority to meet his agent, and if there was, the proposition would, as the President afterward said, have been treated
with contempt. 3 gee page 634. 4 See page 028.
5 See page 632. Evidently ashamed of the barbarism committed by British hands, Vice Admiral Cochrane attempted
to palliate it by a pitiful trick. After the destruction of the capital, and the invaders were safely back on their vessels
in the Patuxent, Cochrane wrote a letter to Secretary Monroe, in which he said to him, "Having been called upon by
the Governor General of the Canadas to aid him in carrying into effect measures of retaliation against the inhabitants
of the United States for the wanton destruction committed by their army in Upper Canada, it has become imperiously
my duty, conformably with the governor general's application, to issue to the naval force under my command an order
to destroy and lay waste such towns and districts upon the coast as may be found assailable." Cochrane then expressed
a hope that the "conduct of the executive of the United States would authorize him in staying such proceedings, by
making reparation to the suffering inhabitants of Upper Canada," etc. This letter was antedated August 18, or six days
before the battle of Bladensburg, so as to appear like a humane suggestion, in the non-compliance with which might be
found an excuse for the destruction of the national capital. It did not reach Mr. Monroe until the morning of the 31st
of August, a week after Washington was devastated, when that officer, in a dignified reply, reminded the vice admiral
that the wanton destruction by the British of Frenchtown, Frederick, Georgetown, and Havre de Grace, and the out
rages at Hampton by the same people, had occurred long before the destruction of Newark.
TUB CAPITOL IN 1814, FROM PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE.
933
The British enter Washington.
Cockburn in his Element.
Destruction of the Public Buildings.
had carried on the war on the Peninsula and in France with a very different spirit,
and that he could not sanction the destruction of public or private property, with the
exception of military structures and warlike stores.1 " It was not," says one of Ross's
surviving aids, Sir Duncan M'Dougall, in a letter to the author in 1861, " until he was
warmly pressed that he consented to destroy the Capitol and President's house, for
the purpose of preventing a repetition of the uncivilized proceedings of the troops of
the United States." Fortunately for Ross's sensibility there was a titled incendiary
at hand in the person of Admiral Sir George Cockburn, who delighted in such inhu
man work, and who literally became his torch-bearer.
The bulk of the invaders, having crossed the Eastern Branch, halted upon the plain
between the Capitol and the site of the Congressional Burying-ground, when General
Ross, accompanied by Cockburn and a guard of two hundred men, rode into the city
at eight o'clock in the evening. They were fired upon from behind the house of Rob
ert Sewall, near the Capitol, by a single musket, and the horse on which the general
was riding was killed. Mr. Sewall's house was immediately destroyed. The same
fate awaited the materials in the office of the National Intelligencer, the government
organ, whose strictures on the brutality of Cockburn had filled that marauder with
hot anger.2 These, and some houses on Capitol Hill, a large rope-walk, and a tavern,
comprised the bulk of private property destroyed, thanks to the restraining power of
General Ross. Several houses and stores were also plundered. The unfinished Cap
itol, in which was the library of Congress, the President's house, a mile distant, the
Treasury buildings, the Arsenal, and barracks for almost three thousand troops, were
soon in flames, whose light was plainly seen in Baltimore, about forty miles north
ward. In the course of a few hours nothing of the superb Capitol and the Presiden
tial mansion was left but their smoke-blackened walls.3 Of the public buildings only
the Patent-office was saved.
All the glory that the British had won on the battle-field was lost in this barbarian
REMAINS OF TIIE CAPITOL AFTEB TUE FIKE.
conflagration. " Willingly," said the London Statesman newspaper, " would we
throw a veil of oblivion over our transactions at Washington. The Cossacks spared
Paris, but we spared not the capital of America." The British Annual Register for
1814 denounced the proceedings as " a return to the times of barbarism." It can not
be concealed," the writer continued, " that the extent of devastation practiced by the
victors brought a heavy censure upon the British character, not only in America, but
i Dr. Martin (see note 1, page 925) says : " General Ross was the perfect model of the Irish gentleman, of easy.and
beautiful manners, humane and brave, and dignified in his deportment to all. He was beloved by all his officers, and
his prisoners had no reason to regret falling into such hands."
* Cockburn was about to apply the torch, when he was prevailed upon by the women of adjoining residences not to
do so, as it would endanger their dwellings. He caused all the type and other printing materials to be thrown into the
street, the printing-presses to be destroyed, and the library, containing several hundred volumes, to be burned. He as
sisted in this work with his own hands. His companions in the business were some sailors and soldiers.
3 These buildings were fired under the direct superintendence of Lieutenant George Pratt, the second of the Sea-liorse,
who was shot in the gun-boat battle on Lake Borgne, near New Orleans, a few months afterward.
934
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The Barbarities of the British condemned by their Countrymen. The Navy Yard destroyed. The Long Bridge burnt
REMAINS OF TI1E PRESIDENT S HOUSE AFTER TI1E FIRE.
on the Continent of Europe." Continental writers and speakers condemned the act
in unmeasured terms ; and yet the government of England, which has seldom repre
sented the sentiments of the people, caused the Tower guns to be fired in honor of
Ross's victory ; thanked the actors through Parliament ; decreed a monument to that
general in Westminster Abbey at his death ; and, making additions to his armorial
bearings, authorized his descendants forever to style themselves " Ross of Bladens-
burg !"»
While the public buildings in Washington were in flames, the national shipping,
stores, and other property were blazing at the navy yard; also the great bridge
over the Potomac, from Washington City to the Virginia shore. Commodore Thomas
Tingey was in command of the
navy yard, and, before the bat
tle, had received orders to set
fire to the public property there
in the event of the British gain
ing a victory, so as to prevent
its falling into the hands of the invaders. Tingey delayed the execution of the order
for four hours after the contingency had occurred. When, at l|alf past eight in the
evening, he was informed that the enemy was encamped within the city limits, near
the Capitol, he applied the torch, and property valued at about a million of dollars
was destroyed. The schooner Lynx was saved, and most of the metallic work at the
navy yard remained but little injured.2 The fine naval monument, delineated on
page 124, was somewhat mutilated, but whether accidentally at the time of the con
flagration, or wantonly by the British, who went there the next day to complete the
destructive work, is an unsettled question.3 At the same time, the Long Bridge over
the Potomac was fired at both ends. The Americans on the Virginia side thought
a large body of British troops were about to pass over, and fired that end to foil
them, while the British on the city side, perceiving, as they thought, a large body of
Americans about to cross over from the Virginia side, fired the Maryland end of the
bridge. The value of the entire amount of property destroyed at Washington by the
i The London Times, then, as now, the exponent of the principles of the ruling classes in England, and the bitter foe
of the American people, gloried over the destruction of the public buildings, and the expulsion of the President and
Cabinet from the capital, and indulged iu exulting prophecies of the speedy disappearance of the great republic in the
West. "That ill-organized association," said the Times, "is on the eve of dissolution, and the world is speedily to be
delivered of the mischievous example of the existence of a government founded on democratic rebellion." In long after
years, when Cockburn died at the age of eighty-two, the Times lauded him chiefly for his marauding exploits in this
country, and his " splendid achievement" in firing our national capital.
' Letter of Commodore Tingey to the Secretary of the Navy, August 2T, 1814. The officers and other persons at the
navy yard fled in boats to Alexandria.
3 On the day after the entrance of the British into Washington (August 20), a party of two hundred of them were
sent to finish the work of destruction at the navy yard. A large quantity of powder, shot, and shell had been thrown
into a well. A British artilleryman accidentally dropped a match into it, when a terrible explosion occurred, and com
municated fire to a small magazine of powder near by. That also exploded. Earth, stones, bricks, shot, shells, etc.,
were thrown into the air, and. falling among the invaders, killed twelve men, and wounded more than thirty others.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
935
Flight of the President and his Cabinet.
Mrs. Madison's Patriotism.
Jacob Barker at the President's House.
British and Americans was estimated at about two million dollars. The walls of
the Capitol and President's house stood firm, and were used in rebuilding.
President Madison, and other civil offi
cers who went out to see the fight and
give such assistance as they might, re
mained on the field until Barney fell, when
they fled to the city as fast as swift-footed
horses could carry them, and were among
the first to announce the startling intelli
gence that the British, victorious, were
probably marching on the town.1 Mrs.
Madison2 had already been apprised of the
danger. When the flight of Congreve
rockets caused the panic-stricken militia to
fly, the President sent messengers to in
form her that the defeat of the Americans
and the capture of the city seemed to be
promised, and to advise her to fly to a
place of safety. These messengers reached
her between two and three o'clock. Mrs.
Madison ordered her carriage, and sent
away in a wagon silver plate and other
valuables, to be deposited in the Bank of
Maryland. She anxiously waited for her husband, and in the mean time took meas
ures for preserving the full-length portrait of Washington, painted by Stuart, which
hung in the presidential mansion.3 Finding the process of unscrewing the frame
from the wall too tedious for the exigency, she had it broken in pieces, and the pic
ture removed with the " stretcher," or light frame on which the canvas was nailed.
This she did with her own hands. Just as she had accomplished so much, two gen
tlemen from New* York, one of whom was th.e now (1867) venerable New Orleans
banker, Jacob Barker,4 entered the room. The picture was lying on the floor. The
sounds of approaching troops were heard. They might be the invaders, who would
be delighted by the possession of so notable a captive as the beautiful wife of the
President. It was time for her to fly. " Save that picture," she said to Mr. Barker
and Mr. R. G. L. De Peyster, his companion — " save that picture, if possible ; if not
possible, destroy it : under no circumstances allow it to fall into the hands of the
1 The Opposition press and speakers were merry over the flight of the President and his Cabinet from the battle-field.
A New York paper said : "Should some Walter Scott in the next century write a poem, and call it Madison, or the Bat
tle <of Bladensburg, we would suggest the following lines for the conclusion, to be put into the mouth of his hero :
" ' Fly, Monroe, fly ! run, Armstrong, run !
Were the last words of Madison.' "
2 Dolly Payne was the maiden name of Mrs. Madison. She was the daughter of Quaker parents, residents of Vir
ginia, and was born on the 20th of May, 1767, while her mother was visiting some friends in North Carolina. Her fa
ther manumitted his slaves, and made Philadelphia his residence. There Dolly married a young lawyer named Todd,
who was also a Quaker. He died, leaving her a young widow with an infant son ; and in 1794 she married Mr. Madi
son, then a distinguished member of Congress, and Montpellier, in Virginia, became their home. She adorned every
station in life in which she was placed. She died in July, 1850, at the age of eighty-three years, having survived her
husband fourteen years.
3 Mrs. Madison wrote to her sister at intervals. At three o'clock she wrote: "Mr. Madison comes not. May God
protect him ! Two messengers, covered with dust, come to bid me fly, but I wait for him Our kind friend, Mr.
Carroll, has come to hasten my departure, and is in a very bad humor with me because I insist on waiting until the
large picture of General Washington is secured, and it requires to be unscrewed from the wall."
* Jacob Barker is one of the remarkable men of this country. He was born in Maine on the 17th of December, 1779.
His mother was a Quaker, and he has been a member of that Society through life. He entered early into mercantile
life, and became largely interested in commerce as an extensive ship-owner. He was a firm and efficient supporter of
the administration during the war, and aided the government largely in its financial operations. He was an intimate
family friend of President Madison. He became extensively engaged in banking, and his long and active life has been
a scene of many vicissitudes for him. He is now (1867), at the age of eighty-nine years, engaged in banking in the city
of New Orleans.
936
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The Declaration of Independence saved. Original Object of this British Invasion. Their Fears of the aroused People.
British." Then, snatching up the pre
cious parchment on which was written
the Declaration of Independence and
the autographs of the signers, which
she had resolved to save also, she hast
ened to the carriage with her sister
(Mrs. Cutts) and her husband, and two
servants, and was borne away to a place
of safety beyond the Potomac.1
Just as Barker and De Peyster had
taken the picture from the stretcher
and rolled it up, a portion of the flying
American army came up, and halted in
front of the President's house. Some
refreshments were given to them, when
they marched on toward Montgomery
Court-house, the appointed place of
rendezvous for the broken army, fol
lowed by those gentlemen with the pic
ture. They left it in charge
of a farmer in whose house
they lodged that night, and
a few weeks afterward Mr.
Barker restored the portrait
to Mrs. Madison.2 It now
har-gs upon the wall in the Blue Room of the Presidential mansion.
It was not the design of the British to hold the territory which they had, unex
pectedly to themselves, acquired. Indeed, the whole movement up the Chesapeake
was originally intended as a feint — a menace of Baltimore and Washington, to en
gage the attention of the government and people, and to draw in that direction the
military force of the country, while the far more important measure of invading Lou
isiana with a formidable force, and taking possession of the Mississippi Valley, should
be matured and executed. Accordingly, when Winder's forces were defeated and
routed, the President and his Cabinet driven from the national capital, and the pub
lic buildings were destroyed, the invaders retreated precipitately, evidently in fear
of a reactive blow. While the British Cabinet, judging from metropolitan influence
in European countries, were disposed to believe that, with the loss of their capital,
the Americans would consider all gone, and would yield in despair to their victors,
those conquerors, on the spot, saw too well the danger to be apprehended from the
spirit of a people aroused to greater exertions, and with more united energy, because
of that very misfortune.
i The flight of the President from the battle-field, and of Mrs. Madison from the Presidential mansion, formed the
subject of many squibs for the Opposition. Among others was a witty parody on John Gilpirfa Ride, only one stanza
of which I can now recall. It is descriptive of Mrs. Madison's directions for the flight of the family, where she says to
the President :
" Sister Cutts, and Cutts and I,
And Cutts's children three,
Shall in the coach— and you shall ride
On horseback after we."
According to letters among General Winder's papers, the President and his Cabinet fled to different places. On the
26th, the day after the British withdrew from Washington, the President, with General Mason, the Commissary of Pris
oners, and Richard Rush, the Attorney General, was at Brookville, in Maryland : the Secretary of the Navy was with
the President's family in London County, Virginia : and the Secretary of War and Secretary of the Treasury were at
Frederick, in Maryland, on the Monocacy River. As soon as the President was certified of the flight of the invaders to
their ships, he summoned his Cabinet to a reunion at Washington. The President, with the Secretary of State, arrived
there on the 28th. The reunion took place on the 29th.— Autograph Letters of Monroe and Armstrong, August 26 and
2"> 1814. a Oral statement of Mr. Barker to the author at New Orleans in April, 1861.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
93^
British retreat from Washington.
An Account by an Eye-witness.
Effect of the Invasion.
Impressed with a sense of this danger,
Ross and Cochrane moved away with
their forces with great secrecy on the
night of the 25th of August, after order
ing every inhabitant of Washington to
remain within doors from sunset till sun
rise, on pain of death, and increasing their
camp-fires, so as to deceive the Ameri
cans. It was immediately after the pas
sage of a terrific tempest of wind, light
ning, and rain, during which houses were
unroofed and trees were uprooted. Soft
ly these victors stole away in the gloom.
" No man spoke above his breath," says
one of the British officers who was pres
ent. " Our very steps were planted
lightly, and we cleared the town without
exciting observation."1 At midnight,
just as the moon arose and cast a pale
light over the scenes, they passed the
battle-field and Bladensbur^, leaving
O ' O
their dead unburied, and full ninety of
their wounded to the humanity of Com
modore Barney and his men. It was hu
miliating to the British troops thus to steal away in the dark from the field of their
conquest. They moved sullenly onward, so wearied with fatigue and loss of sleep
that, when the columns halted for a few minutes, the roads would be filled with sleep
ing soldiers. At seven o'clock in the morning, finding themselves but little annoyed
by pursuers, they halted for rest and refreshments for several hours. At noon they
moved forward, encamped at Marlborough, and, marching leisurely, reached Benedict
on the 29th, where they embarked on the transports the next day.a2
The loss of the battle at Bladensburg and of the national capital filled
the American people with mortification, and produced the most intense excitement
throughout the country.3 Crimination and recrimination kindled widespread ano-er
that burned intensely while the actors lived. The public were disposed toehold the
Secretary of "War responsible for the misfortune, because of his alleged obstinacy and
inefficiency, and on the 3d of September he left the Cabinet, and retired to private
1 Rev. George R. Gleig, now (1S07) chaplain general of the British Army. He entered the army at an early age, was
in the Peninsular War with Wellington, and served as a subaltern in America at Baltimore, and Washington, and New
Orleans. He was severely wounded in the battle of Bladensburg. He has published two works on these campaigns,
one entitled The Subaltern in America, and the other Campaigns of Washington and Xcw Orleans. To these books, writ
ten with great candor, I am indebted for much information concerning the movements of the British in these cam
paigns. Mr. Gleig has been an industrious book-maker. After the war in this country he took orders, and was chap
lain of Chelsea Hospital for some time. He was made chaplain general to the forces in 1S46. A fine lithographed por
trait of him, from which the above picture was copied, and his signature, I received from him through the hands of a
gentleman residing in London.
2 The chief authorities consulted in the preparation of the narrative of the capture of Washington are the official
reports of the commanders; Wilkinson's Memoirs; Armstrong's Notices of the War of 1812; files of the National In
telligencer ; Niles's Register ; Ingraham's Sketch of the Events which preceded the Capture of Washington ; Ingersoll's
historical Sketch of the Second War, etc. ; Williams's History of the Invasion and Capture of Washington ; the MS.
Papers of General Winder and Commodore Barney ; Gleig's Campaign of Washington, etc. ; Statements of Survivors,
etc., etc.
3 Intelligence of the disaster reached Cincinnati on the 6th of September. General Harrison was there. Forgetful
of the ill treatment which he had received from those in power, and anxious to save his country, he at once addressed
a letter to the Governors of Ohio and Kentucky, to 'whom appeals had never been made in vain, suggesting the propri
ety of sending a volunteer force of dragoons and mounted riflemen to the aid of the people on the sea-board. Move
ments for that purpose were set on foot, when the repulse of the British at Baltimore, and their abandonment of expe
ditions (if ever conceived) against Philadelphia and New York, rendered farther operations in the West unnecessary.—
Autograph Letter of General Harrison to Governor Shelby, September 6, 1314.
Au(rnst 30
938 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Who was to blame for the Defeat at Bladeusburg. Slavery the Culprit. Fort Washington.
life.1 The government gladly attempted to fix the odium upon the militia of Mary
land and the District of Columbia, who were easily panic-stricken, and who, on being
driven from the field, fled in disorder to their homes ; and General Winder received
a full share of blame, how worthily let the preceding narrative determine. Only Bar
ney and his seamen were praised. Historians, puzzled by contemporaneous quarrels,
have generally agreed in condemning both the government and the militia — the for
mer for imbecility, and the latter for cowardice. A culprit more culpable than either
may be discovered by close research. The late Alvan Stewart, in a letter to Dr.
Bailey on the 30th of August, 1845, gives us a clew to the identity of the criminal.
He says: "General Smith,2 of Georgetown, District of Columbia, told me in 1818,
while passing over this very ground [between Bladensburg and the national capital],
in a journey I was taking to Washington City, that he commanded a brigade in the
fleeing army of ours, and that the secret of our disgraceful flight was, that a story had
been circulated through the District and adjacent counties of the two states, that
on that day the slaves were to rise and assert their liberty,3 and that each man more
feared the enemy he had left behind, in the shape of a slave in his own house or plan
tation, than he did any thing else.* The officers and soldiers had their minds distract
ed with the possibility of this insurrection," said General Smith, " and therefore fled
to their homes before an inferior force, and left Washington to the mercy of its cap
tors."5 Barney's men, having no such fears, fought gallantly and persistently. May
we not look for the chief cause of the disaster at Bladensburg, and the loss of the na
tional capital in 1814, to the slave system, which has cursed every thing upon which
the blight of its influence has fallen ?
While Cochrane and Ross were making their way toward Washington, a portion
of the British fleet, consisting of two frigates of thirty-six and thirty-eight guns, two
rocket-ships of eighteen guns each, two bomb-vessels of eight guns each, and one
schooner of two guns, sailed up the Potomac River, under Commodore Gordon, of the
/Sea-horse, to co-operate with them. The only obstruction to the passage of the fleet
on which the Americans might place the least reliance was Fort Washington (late
Warburton), on the Maryland side of the Potomac, about twelve miles below the Na
tional capital. It was a feeble fortress, but capable of being made strong. So early
as May, 1813, a deputation from Alexandria, Georgetown, and Washington waited
upon the Secretary of War, and represented the importance of strengthening that
post. An engineer (Colonel Decius Wads-
wortn) was sent *° examine it. He re-
ported in favor of additional works in the
rear, while he believed that the armament
of the fort, and its elevated situation, would enable a well-managed garrison to re
pulse any number of ships of war that might attempt to pass up the river. Nothing
more was done. In July, 1814, when a British fleet and army were in the Chesa
peake, the authorities of Alexandria again called the attention of the Secretary of
War to the feeble condition of Fort Washington. The Secretary did not believe the
enemy would push for the capital, and nothing was done. The Alexandrians appealed
1 On the 29th of August President Madison informed General Armstrong that there was a high degree of excitement
against him among the militia of the District, and that an officer of a corps had given notice that he would no longer
obey any order coming through the then Secretary of War. He told Armstrong that he must so far yield to public
clamor as to permit some other person to perform the duties of his office in relation to the defense of the District. Arm
strong would not consent to a division of his duties, and resigned. In his letter of resignation, and in a subsequent
paper, he offered a vindication of his conduct. In the year 1830 General Armstrong published a still more elaborate
vindication, in two small volumes, entitled Notices of the War of 1812.
2 General Walter Smith. See page 922.
3 On several occasions during the war the British had offered liberty to the slaves if the latter would join them, and
on one occasion, as we have seen (page 690), preparations were made, on that account, for a general insurrection in
South Carolina.
4 See the testimony of John Eandolph on this point in a speech on the floor of Congress in the year 1811. See
page 214.
* Writings and Speeches of Alvan Stewart on Slavery, edited by his son-in-law, Luther R. Marsh, page 372.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
939
Fort Washington neglected.
It is deserted and blown up.
British Ships pass up the Potomac.
July 25,
1814.
to General Winder, who, in a letter to the Secretary of War,a recommended
the strengthening of the post. Three of the banks of Alexandria offered to
loan the government fifty thousand dollars foj- the construction of more defenses for
the District. The money was accepted, but nothing was done to Fort Washington.
When the battle of Bladensburg occurred, and the seat of government was left to the
mercy of the invaders, Fort Washington was as feebly armed as ever, and its gar
rison consisted of only about eighty men, under Captain Samuel T. Dyson, who had
received orders from General Winder to be very watchful, and, in the event of its be
ing approached by the enemy on land, to blow up the fortification and retreat across
the river.
The British squadron appeared before Fort Washington on the 27th of August,
FORT WASHINGTON.1
three days after the capture of the capital. Captain Dyson either misunderstood
General Winder's order, or was influenced by mortal feai%, for he blew up and aban
doned the fort without firing a gun.2 No doubt the BVitish fleet could have been
kept below by the heavy cannon of the fort. Dyson chose not to try the experiment,
and for his injui'ious conduct he was dismissed from the service.
The British squadron now had nothing to fear, and without hinderance it sailed on,
and was anchored off Alexandria on the evening of the 28th. On the morning of the
29th it assumed a hostile attitude a hundred yards from the wharves, and was well
prepared to lay every building in the town in ashes. The citizens had done what
they could to protect their city.3 The able-bodied men and their heavy guns had
been called to the defense of Washington City, and only exempts and a few others,
not more than one hundred in all, were left. When the squadron came they had no
effective means to oppose the intruders, and the citizens sent a deputation to Com
modore Gordon to ask upon what terms he would consent to spare the town. He
replied that all naval stores and ordnance ; all the shipping and its furniture ; mer
chandise of every description in the city, or which had been carried out of it to a
place of safety ; and refreshments of every kind, must be immediately given up to
him. Also that the vessels which had been scuttled to save them from destruction
must be raised, and delivered up to him. " Do all this," he said, " and the town of
Alexandria, with the exception of public works, shall be spared, and the inhabitants
1 This is a view of Fort Washington from the rear, looking across the Potomac to the Virginia shore, as it appeared
in November, 1861. It is on the Maryland shore, about three miles higher up the river than Mount Vernon.
2 In a letter to the Secretary of War, dated "Camp at Macon's Island, August 29, 1S14," Captain Dyson excused his
conduct by saying he had been informed that the enemy had been re-enforced at Benedict by six thousand men, and
were marching on Fort Washington to co-operate with the fleet. This was a false rumor. He acted too precipitately
to find out the truth, but not until it was too late to be useful.
3 At about the time when the British fleet appeared in the Potomac, General Winder received from an unknown hand
a sketch of a simple torpedo for blowing up vessels, with a description of its construction and use. The engraving of
it on the next page is a fac-simile of the original pen-and-ink sketch found among the Winder papers. General Winder
believed it was from General Guy, of Alexandria, who had conversed with him on the subject previously.
The torpedo's construction and use were described as follows : Ascertain the depth of the channel in which a row of
torpedoes are to be placed, and cut trees three feet in diameter of such length as will allow ships to pass over them
when they stand perpendicular. Bore them out with a pump auger, the hole being large enough for a 12-pouud ball.
940
PICTOKIAL FIELD-BOOK
Alexandria plundered.
Preparations to intercept the British Vessels in the Potomac.
A Torpedo.
shall remain unmolested. These were harsh and humiliating terms, and the inhabit
ants were allowed only one hour for consideration. They were powerless, and were
compelled to submit. The merchandise, that had been carried from the town and the
sunken vessels could not be given up to the invader, so he contented himself by burn
ing one vessel and loading several others, chiefly with flour, cotton, and tobacco.
With these in charge, the squadron weighed anchor and sailed down the Potomac.1
On hearing of the surrender of Alexandria, the government determined to annoy,
and, if possible, capture or destroy the British squadron in its descent of the Potomac.
The Maryland and District militia could not be rallied in time, so the Secretary of the
Navy sent an express to Commodore Rodgers, at Baltimore,2 for him to hasten to the
Potomac with as large a number of seamen as he could collect. These were placed
under the command of Commodores Rodgers, Perry, Porter, and Creighton.3 Armed
boats and fire-ships were soon prepared, and the seamen, in conjunction with the Vir
ginia militia, gave the enemy a great deal of trouble. Batteries were erected on the
river bank at the " White House," a short distance below Mount Vernon, and on In
dian Head, both commanding points on the Virginia side of the stream. Musketeers
were stationed on the thickly-wooded shores. Cannon were taken by District Volun
teers, and placed in battery with all possible dispatch, and for several days from the
1st of September they kept the British war and plunder vessels from descend
ing the river. Meanwhile the batteries and the militia were strengthened by
accessions of guns sent down from Washington and men from the neighboring coun
try, and at times .there was heavy fighting. Finally the war vessels, ten in number,
with an aggregate of one hundred and seventy-three guns, brought their concentrated
1814.
Then fill the place
with hot tallow, so
that it will thorough-
ly enter the pores of
the wood, and make
it impervious to wa
ter. Then bore it
out again, and put in
powder in flannel
cartridges. Over the
powder place two
balls, and then pour
in melted tallow
again, so as to com
pletely inclose the
powder. Over the
balls put a wad of
oakum, also covered at top with tallow. Before putting in the powder, a hole
must be made in the log, and a wire inserted so as to penetrate the cartridge, and
the hole then made water-tight. This wire was to extend to the shore. It was
to be a conductor of an electric spark to the powder. To secure the trees from
bursting with the powder explosion, they were to be hooped. The following are
the directions for the working of the torpedo, given by the projector:
1, a tree on the shore, serving as a mark by day, and having a lantern hanging
upon it by night. 2, position of a sentinel, who views an object on the water be
tween himself and the tree 1 through a fixed tube. 3, another tree, with a lantern
at night. 4, 5, C, 7, 8, other sentinels on the shore, who look through fixed tubes
upon tree number 3, their vision crossing that of sentinel number 2 at different
positions. The circles in the channel of the river show the position of five tree torpedoes. Thus stationed, the differ
ent seutinels would all see a vessel, as it crossed their vision between them and free 3, at different points. When the
sentinel at 4, 5, 6, 7, or 8 sees an object on his line of vision, he will immediately pull a cord to convey information of
the fact to number 2, and if, at the same time, that object covers the vision of the sentinel on line 1 and 2, the vessel
must be over one of the torpedoes. Then number 2, having in charge the electric wire, will communicate the spark to
the powder of the torpedo.
1 The loss sustained by the Alexandrians by the surrender of the city consisted of three ships, three brigs, several
small bay and river craft, 16,000 pounds of flour^ 1000 hogsheads of tobacco, 150 bales of cotton, and $5000 worth of wines
and segars.
2 Commodore Eodgers was at Philadelphia when the British captured Washington. As early as the 26th he had re
ceived an order from the Secretary of the Navy to hasten to Washington with all the force under his command. He
started with four hundred seamen and fifty marines armed with muskets, and four pieces of artillery (12-pounders), but
before he reached Baltimore he heard of the fall of the capital. At Baltimore he awaited farther orders.— Rodgers to
Winder — Autograph Letter among the Winder Papers.
3 Perry and Porter were in Baltimore at the time, and accompanied Eodgers to Washington. The former was in com
mand of the frigate Java, recently launched at Baltimore.
FAC-SIMII.E OF DRAWING OF
TORPEDO.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 941
British Ships pass American Batteries and escape. Visit to the Battle-ground at Bladeusburg. Oak Hill Cemetery.
power to bear upon Porter's battery at the " White House" and its supports, and
drove all away. Perry's battery at Indian Head received like attention. His guns
were skillfully managed by Lieutenant (late Commodore) George C. Read ;J but
Perry, like Porter, overwhelmed by a vastly superior force, was compelled to retire,
and allow the enemy, with his plunder, to pass on to Chesapeake Bay.2
Thus ended the invasion which resulted in the capture of Washington City, the de
struction of its public buildings and navy yard, the surrender and plunder of Alexan
dria, and the profound regret and humiliation of the American people.3
I visited the theatre of many of the events described in this chapter, in the years
1860 and 1861. At the close of the former year I was in Washington City, on my
way southward to go over the region of the Creek War in Alabama4 from the Ten
nessee River to the Gulf of Mexico, and to view the grounds of conflict in the vicin
ity of New Orleans. I was met there by a letter from a distinguished South Caro
lina author, informing me that on a certain day a Convention would declare that
state seceded from the Union,5 and advising me to defer my visit on account of the
excitement and confusion that must inevitably follow such revolutionary action. On
the day after receiving this letter, a and while conversing with the ven- . December 20,
erable General Cass (who had lately left Mr. Buchanan's Cabinet in dis- 185°-
gust) at his own house, a messenger brought to him the startling intelligence of the
passage of the Ordinance of Secession by the South Carolina Conven-
** December 20
tion of politicians.1* I shall never forget the extreme sadness of counte
nance, voice, and words of the eminent statesman after that announcement. " I
hoped," he said, " to leave to my children, as an inheritance from patriotic men, a
united, prosperous, and happy country ; but all is over ! This is but the beginning
of the end!"
The political firmament was so cloudy that I concluded to defer my visit to the
Gulf region until a more propitious time, and so I spent a week among the public
records in the Departments at Washington, and in visiting the battle-ground at Bla-
densburg. I had the good fortune to go over that field of strife with the late John
C. Rives, whose residence, we have observed,6 was near the place where Barney fought
and fell. Being his guest for a day, we spent nearly the whole time in exploring the
battle-ground, and making the sketches on preceding pages. Not long afterward the
great Civil War broke out, and it was a year after the visit now considered before I
was again in the National capital in the prosecution of this work, when it was filled
with soldiery and all the paraphernalia of war. Accompanied by a young kins
woman, I then visited localities of interest connected with the War of 1812 in and
around Washington City, at Baltimore, North Point, Havre de Grace, and other
places.
It was a bright day in November0 when we rode over to Oak Hill Ceme-
c Iftfil
tery, near Georgetown, to visit the graves of General Towson and Commodore
Morris. It was a beautiful spot. The burial-places were spread over the slopes of a
broad ravine that went down to Piney Branch Creek, where the gentle murmur of a
small cascade was heard. The ground was covered with stately oaks, and among
them stood many commemorative monuments. I sketched those of Towson and Mor-
1 Commodore Read died at Philadelphia, where he was Governor of the Naval Asylum, in August, 1863.
2 On the 5th of September twenty-six sail passed Point Lookout, and at four o'clock on the afternoon of the 9th
twenty-one ships, six brigs, and three smaller vessels were seen beating up the Chesapeake.— Autograph Letters from
Thomas Swann, at Point Lookout, among the Winder Papers.
3 The slight resistance offered to the invaders during their operations in the space of twelve days excited great sur
prise, alarm, and indignation. They had been performed in the midst of a population most interested in the events,
and capable of furnishing at least 20,000 able-bodied men for the defense of their homes and the National capital. The
national honor required an investigation, and early in the next session of Congress a committee for that purpose was
appointed by the House of Representatives. Their report exculpated the President and General Winder, but left Con
gress and the people to form their own judgment from the facts presented. * See Chapters XXIII and XXIV.
* The writer was William Gilmore Simms. His letter was dated December 13, 1860. " In ten days more," he wrote,
" South Carolina will have certainly seceded ; and in reasonable interval after this event, if the forts in our harbor are
not surrendered to the state, they will be taken." 6 See page 927.
942
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Kalorama.
Barlow's Vault.
The Death of Decatur.
Van Rensselaer's Letter.
ris,1 and a small uninscribed stone, with a cross upon it,
near the latter, and then we rode back, crossed Piney
Creek, and, a mile from Georgetown, entered a pleasant
lane shaded with oaks, that led to the beautiful mansion
of Kalorama, on the brow of a hill, which was once the
residence of the eminent Joel Barlow.2 At the time of
our visit it was used as a hospital for soldiers sick with
small-pox and measles. Before it was a gentle wooded
THE UNKNOWN.
slope, at the foot of which
was a circular plain of ten
or twelve acres, then beat
en hard by the tread of
troops, for it had been
made a camp-ground. On
the edge of this plain,
overlooking a steep slope
covered with oaks, was
the family vault of Mr.
Barlow,3 in which the
KALOEAJIA.
BAKU) W '8 VACLT.
body of Commodore Decatur was laid on the 24th of
March, 1820, two days after he fell in a duel with Commodore Barron, near Bladens-
burg.4 It was followed to this tomb by a vast concourse of people, and was placed
in it with military honors.5
We returned to Washington just as the stars were appearing. Early the next day
we rode out to the Congressional Burial-ground, which lies party upon a plain, and
1 A picture of Towson's appears on page 809, and Morris's on page 901. 2 See page 94.
3 On each side of the entrance door to the vault was a white marble slab, suitably inscribed. Commencing on one, and
running across to the other, are the words " Sacred to the repose of the dead and the meditation of the living." On the
left-hand slab we read: "Joel Barlow, Patriot, Poet, and Philosopher, lies buried at Zarowitch, Poland, where he died,
26th December, 1812, aged fifty-seven years."
" Judith Baldwin Barlow, his wife, died 29th of May, 1818, aged sixty-two."
"Abraham Baldwin, her brother, died a senator in Congress from Georgia, 4th of March, 180T, aged fifty-two years.
His memory needs no marble ; his country is his monument ; the Constitution his greatest work." Mr. Baldwin was
a member from Georgia of the Convention that framed the National Constitution in 1787. On the right-hand side are
inscriptions commemorative of the Bomford family.
* General Solomon Van Rensselaer, then in Washington City, wrote as follows to Mrs. Van Kensselaer :
"Washington, March 20, 1820.
"DEAB HARRIET,— I have only time, after writing to several, to say that an affair of honor took place this morning
between Commodores Decatur and Barron, in which both fell at the first fire. The ball entered Decatur's body two
inches above the hip, and lodged against the opposite side. I just came from his house. He yet lives, but will never
see another sun. Barron's wound is severe, but not dangerous. The ball struck the upper part of his hip, and turned
to the rear. He is ruined in public estimation. The excitement is very great."
On the following day Van Rensselaer wrote of his death, and said : " His poor wife (they have no children) is dis
tressed beyond expression. She would suffer no one to be in her room, and, strange to say, she did not see him until
after his death." General Van Rensselaer was misinformed, for she was present when he died. Mrs. Decatur survived
her husband about forty years. She died at Georgetown, in the District of Columbia, in 1SCO.
5 Decatur's remains were taken from his late residence in Washington City at four o'clock in the afternoon, and borne
to Kalorama by the following officers: Commodores Tingey, Macdouough, Rodgers, and Porter, Captains Cassin, Bal-
lard, and Chauucey, Generals Brown and Jesup, and Lieutenant M'Pherson. The funeral was attended by nearly all
the public functionaries in Washington, American and foreign, and a" great number of citizens. While the procession
was moving, minute-guns were fired at the navy yard.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
943
The Congressional Burying-ground.
A Visit to Fort Washington.
Departure from the National Capital.
CENOTAPH.
partly upon an uneven slope toward the Anacostia, or East
ern Branch of the Potomac. It contains many beautiful
monuments, and also monotonous rows of small marble cen
otaphs erected to the memory of members of Congress who
died while representatives
t of districts, but who were
not buried there. Among the
most elaborately wrought of
the fine monuments is that
of Elbridge Gerry, who died
suddenly while he was Vice-President of the United
States.1 It is of white marble, about thirteen feet in
height, with a neat iron railing around it.2 After
sketching this monument and those of several other
distinguished public servants, we returned to the
city, and passed the evening pleasantly with Colonel
C. S. Todd, one of General Harrison's staff in the
War of 1812, already mentioned,3 and the late ven
erable \Elisha Whittlesey, Comptroller of the Nation
al Treasury, who was also an active participant in
the Second War for Independence.4
Having procured a special letter of permission
from General M'Clellan, we stai'ted for old Fort
Washington, twelve miles down the Potomac, on
the following morning, accompanied by Mr. Samuel
Yorke At Lee, Librarian of the Treasury Depart
ment. Beyond the Potomac, from Arlington Heights
to Alexandria and below, we saw the white tents of
At Fort Washington, which stands upon the high
bank of the Potomac, on the Maryland side, at the mouth of the Piscataway Creek,
we were courteously received by Major Haskin, the commander of the garrison ; and
while making the sketch seen on page 939, we heard the heavy guns of the Confeder
ates, who then blockaded the Potomac. It was twilight when we returned to Wash
ington City. At an early hour the next morning we crossed the Long Bridge into
Virginia, made a journey of almost twenty miles among camps and forts in the vicin
ity of the National capital, and returned to Washington at dusk. On Monday morn
ing we departed for Baltimore, to visit places of historic interest there and in its
vicinity.
1 Mr. Gerry was boarding at the house of Mrs. Wilson, and was on his way from there to the Capitol when the death-
summons came to him in the street. At his funeral his body was taken from Mrs. Wilson's to the hall of the House
of Representatives in charge of a committee of arrangements. From there it was conveyed to the Congressional Bury
ing-ground by Messrs. Tallmadge, Macon, Brower, Sevier, Wright, Findley, Nelson, and Brigham, chosen pall-bearers,
followed by all the public functionaries in Washington, domestic and foreign.
2 Mr. Gerry was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and had ever been conspicuous in public life.
The following is a copy of the inscription on his monument : East Side—" The tomb of ELBRIDGE GEEKY, Vice-President
of the United States, who died suddenly in this city, on his way to the Capitol as President of the Senate, November 23d,
1814, aged seventy, thus fulfilling his own memorable injunction, 'It is the duty of every citizen, though he may have
but one day to live, to devote that day to the good of his country.' " West Side—" Erected by order of the Congress
of the United States, 1823." 3 See page 548. * See page 341.
NOTE.— In the smaller section of the map on page 929 are figures which indicate the position of certain troops, as fol
lows: 5, Second Regiment, of Smith's brigade; 6,M^Jor Peter's battery; 7, Major Waring's battalion; 8, Scott's regu
lars ; 9, companies of Stull and Davidson ; 10, Ragan's regiment ; 11, Schntz's ; 12, Fifth Baltimore Regiment ; 13,
Btirch's artillery ; 16, militia and riflemen ; IT, Baltimore artillery ; 20, the British.
GERRY'S MONUMENT.
various military encampments.
944
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The British in Chesapeake Bay.
An Attack on St. Michael's.
CHAPTER XL.
" The gen'ral gave orders for the troops to march clown,
To meet the proud Ross, and to check his ambition ;
To inform him we have decreed in our town
That here he can't enter without our permission.
And if life he regards, he will not press too hard,
For Baltimore freemen are ever prepared
To check the presumptuous, whoever they be,
That may rashly attempt to evade our decree." — OLD SONG.
ALTIMORE was menaced while Washington was assailed. In
deed, the whole coast of the Chesapeake Bay, from its mouth to
the Patapsco, was continually harassed by the invaders during
August and September, 1.814. "Whenever a favorable oppor
tunity presented itself," wrote a British officer who participated
in the capture of Washington, " parties landed, plundered or de
stroyed the government stores, and brought oif all the shipping
which could be reached. In a word," he says, with great candor,
" the hostilities carried on in the Chesapeake resembled the expeditions of the an
cient Danes against Great Britain rather than a modern war between civilized na
tions." He added, " But these hasty excursions, though generally successful, were
not always performed without loss to the invaders."1 We will here record two
events in proof of the truth of the last observation, in which the courage and spirit
of the Maryland militia were very conspicuous.
Among other places on the Chesapeake which received special attention from the
British was the little village of St. Michael's, in Talbot County, on the eastern shore
of the bay. It was founded by ship-builders, and was famous as the place where
most of the swift-sailing privateers, called " Baltimore clippers," were constructed.
At the time in question seven of these were on the sto'cks there. Cockburn, the ma
rauder, determined to destroy them, the ship-yards, and the town. Intimation of his
intentions had been received at the village, and the veteran General Derry Benson,
commander of the militia of Talbot County, prepared to receive them. He construct
ed two batteries, one at the entrance to the harbor or creek, mounting three 6-pound-
ers and one long 9-pounder, and the other on an eminence in front of the town, armed
with two 6-pounders.
Two companies from Easton, and two or three from the adjacent country, were
called to the defense of St. Michael's, numbering in the aggregate about three hun
dred souls. They were in readiness for some time, waiting for the invaders. They
appeared early in August,a in a small squadron, that entered Eastern Bay be-,
tween the Talbot County main and Kent Island. Between midnight and the
dawn of the llth, while the darkness was intensified by thick clouds, they made their
way in eleven barges (each armed with a 6-pound field-piece), with oars muffled, so
secretly that the booming of their cannon was the first intimation the Americans re
ceived of their near presence. The Marylanders were a little surprised, yet they be
haved most gallantly. They returned the fire with spirit from the lower battery.
The 9-pounder was in charge of Captain William Dodson, of St. Michael's, and did
terrible execution. He had literally crammed it with grape and canister shot, and
i Campaigns of Washington and New Orleans, by the Eev. G. R. Gleig. See page 937.
1814.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 945
The Defense of St. Michael's. Exploits of Sir Peter Parker. Infamous Conduct of Admiral Cockburn.
being well acquainted with every foot of the locality, he knew precisely, by sounds,
where to fire most effectively in the gloom. The invaders, under cover of their heavy
guns, had landed in a compact body for the purpose of storming the batteries, and
when Dodson opened his great gun upon them, a wide swathe was cut through their
line. Nineteen of the British were killed, and many were wounded. The Ameri
cans, finding themselves outnumbered, fled to the upper battery, whose guns, worked
by Captains Vickers and Auld, kept up a continuous fire on the foe. The fight con
tinued until daylight, when the British fled to their boats and abandoned the enter
prise. They had spiked the guns in the lower battery, and this was the principal
loss sustained by the. Americans.1 St. Michael's and its ship-yards were saved by the
gallantry of a few spirited militia, and no attempt to enter its harbor was ever after
ward made by a British armed vessel. It is yet a flourishing town of about eight
hundred people, surrounded by fertile land and deep estuaries of the Chesapeake.
Soon after the expulsion of the invaders from St. Michael's, Sir Peter Parker, of the
Royal Navy, appeared in the Upper Chesapeake for the purpose of patrolling its wa
ters and blockading the harbor of Baltimore with two vessels under his command,
while Cochrane, and Ross, and Cockburn were penetrating the country to Washing
ton. His flag-ship was the frigate Menelaiis, 38, and his deportment was so haughty,
and his acts, under the direction of his superior, Cockburn, were so cruel,2 that the
Americans became greatly exasperated. He frequently sent parties ashore to plun
der and destroy private as well as public property, and he swept domestic commerce
from the bay. He boasted to his superiors that during the month of his blockading
service not a single American boat crossed the waters of the Chesapeake.
On the fall of Washington Sir Peter was ordered to proceed down the bay. "I
must first have a frolic with the Yankees," he said.3 Accordingly, on the night of
the 30th of August,* after a jolly dinner with his officers, and indulgence in
drinking and dancing, he proceeded to engage in the sport. He had been in
formed that a body of Maryland militia were encamped at Moorfields, near the George
town Cross Roads, on the eastern shore of Maryland (not far from Chestertown), and
he prepared to surprise them. They were less than two hundred in number, under
the vigilant Colonel Read, who was fully apprised of the movement.
The Menelaus ran into one of the numerous estuaries, and at eleven o'clock at night
landed a force of seamen and marines, armed with muskets, pikes, and cutlasses.
1 Communications to the author by Messrs. Dr. Goldsborough, M. Spencer, and William H. Groome, of Easton.Mary-
land, in March, 1860.
2 A British officer, who served with Cockburn and Parker, published some spicy sketches of his experience in ma
rauding expeditions along the shores of the Chesapeake. He relates one, commanded by Cockbum in person, with
Parker and General Ross as " amateurs," as he expresses it. The object was, he says, " to destroy a factory village,
which was not only the abode of innocent labor, but likewise the resort of some few militiamen guilty of the unnatural
sin of defending their own county." Their approach being known, all but women and children had fled from the town.
"We therefore," he says, "most valiantly set fire to the unprotected property, notwithstanding the tears of the wom
en, and, like a parcel of savages, as we were, we danced round the wreck of ruin." The excuse was the necessity of re
taliation for the destruction of Newark, in Canada. See pages C34 and 932. " Every house," he continues, "which we
could by ingenuity vote into the residence of a military man, was burned." He then gives an account of scenes at a
dwelling-house near the beach which they surrounded. "Like midnight murderers," he says, "we cautiously ap
proached the house. The door was open, and we unceremoniously intruded ourselves upon three young ladies sitting
quietly at tea. Sir George Cockburn, Sir Peter Parker, and myself entered the room rather suddenly, and a simultane
ous scream was our welcome." Sir George, he said, was austere, but Sir Peter "was the handsomest man in the navy,"
and to the latter the ladies appealed. Cockburn told them that he knew their father to be an American officer— a col
onel of militia, and that his duty being to burn their house, he gave them ten minutes for removing what they most de
sired to save. The young women, on their knees, begged the admiral to spare their house. "The youngest, a girl of
sixteen, and lovely beyond the general beauty of those parts, threw herself at Sir Peter's feet, and prayed him to inter
fere. The tears started from his eyes in a moment, and I was so bewildered at the afflicting scene that I appeared to
see through a thick mist." Cockburn was unmoved, with his watch on the table, measuring the fleeting minutes. The
other girls were in tears, and asking for mercy. Sir Peter had opened his lips to plead for them, when the brutal Cock-
burn stopped him, and ordered men to bring the fire-balls. "Never shall I forget the despair of that moment. Poor
' Sir Peter wept like a child, while the girl clung to his knees and impeded his retreat. The admiral walked out with
his usual haughty stride, followed by the two elder girls, who vainly implored him to countermand the order. In a mo
ment the house was in flames. " We retreated from the scene of ruin, leaving the three daughters gazing at the work
of destruction, which made the innocent houseless and the affluent beggars By the light of that house we em
barked and returned on board. It was a scene which impressed itself upon my heart, and which my memory and my
hand unwillingly recall and publish." 3 Niles's Weeklij Register, vii., 11.
3 O
946
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Kepulse of the British.
Death of Sir Peter Parker.
The British Fleet in the Chesapeake.
The moon was shining brightly. Stealth
ily they moved forward, and fell furi
ously upon the Marylanders, who were
in battle order to receive them. A fierce
conflict of an hour ensued, when the in
vaders, repulsed, fled back to their frig
ate, leaviner thirteen dead and three
O
wounded on the field. Among those
mortally hurt was the gallant Sir Peter,
a brave and generous Irishman, descend
ed from Archbishop Parker and Admiral
Byron, and then only twenty-eight years
of age. He was at the head of his men,
cheering them on, when a musket-ball
cut the main artery in his thigh. " They
have hit me, Pearce," he said to his first
lieutenant, "but it is nothing ; push onr
my brave boys, and follow me !" He
attempted to cheer, but his voice failed
him. He fell in the arms of Pearce, and
before he could be conveyed to the frig
ate or receive surgical aid he bled to
death.1 The invaders fled to their ship,
and the Menelaus sailed down the bay.
Sir Peter's body was preserved in spirits and sent to England, and on the 14th of
May, 1815, it was deposited in the family vault in St. Margaret's Church, West
minster.2
Let us now observe the movements of the British army and navy, under General
Ross and Admiral Cochrane, after the flight of the former from the smoking ruins of
Washington City.
We left the invaders re-embarked on their vessels in the Patuxent. They re
mained there several days to rest, recruit, and make provision for their wounded.
These were placed on board vessels, and sent, some to Halifax and others to England,
and by the Iphigenia dispatches were sent to the home government. Preparations
were made in the mean time for other offensive operations. At daybreak on the
6th of September the whole fleet weighed anchor, and stood toward the Chesapeake
with a fair wind. Down that bay they sailed, and on the morning of the 7th entered
the Potomac. For two days they moved up that stream to assist Gordon in his
operations against Fort Washington and Alexandria. Hearing of his success, they
» September 9, turned,a hastened back to the Chesapeake, and stood for the mouth of
the Patapsco,b spreading terror along the entire coasts of the bay. The
" September 10. peOpje fle(j from t}iejr <}wenings an(j the villages with their most valued
property that might be carried away, and at every light-house and signal-station
alarm guns were fired. On Sunday, the llth, they entered the Patapsco with fifty
1 Dallas's Biographical Memoir of Sir Peter Parker, Bart.
2 Sir Peter Parker was a son of Admiral Christopher Parker, and first cousin of the eminent poet, Lord Byron. He
inherited from his father a love of the naval service, and from his mother much personal beauty. He was educated at
Westminster School, and entered the navy at the age of thirteen years, with his grandfather, Sir Peter Parker, who com
manded the British fleet at Charleston in the summer of 1776. He rose rapidly in his profession under Lord Nelson,
Earl St. Vincent, and others, and in 1810 he was made commander of the Menelaus, a new ship, in which he performed
gallant service. He accompanied Admiral Malcolm to Bermuda in the spring of 1814, and with him went with his
frigate to the Chesapeake, where, as the text relates, he lost his life. 'His body was first conveyed to Bermuda, and
there received the honors of a public funeral. It was afterward conveyed in the same vessel (the Hebrus) to England,
and was again buried with a public funeral. Lord Byron wrote a poetic eulogy of Sir Peter. His friend, and one of the
chief mourners at his funeral, wrote a touching Biographical Memoir of him, dedicated to his wife, from which the
above portrait, from a painting by Hoppner, of the Royal Academy, was copied.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
947
Baltimore threatened.
Exasperation against it.
General Samuel Smith.
sail of vessels, bearing at least six thousand fighting men, for the purpose of attack
ing Baltimore. The victorious Ross, elated by his good fortune, had boasted that he
would make that fine city of forty thousand inhabitants (one fifth negroes) his win
ter quarters.
Baltimore stands on the Patapsco River, ten miles from the Chesapeake. The har
bor is entered by a narrow strait, commanded by Fort M'Henry, which stood there
at the time we are considering. The growth of the city had been extremely rapid,
In 1814 it was the third in population,
and fourth in wealth and commerce, in
the United States.
Intelligence of the capture of Wash
ington created intense excitement in
Baltimore. It was believed that the
victorious Ross would fall upon it im
mediately, either by land or water; and
the veteran soldier of the Revolution,
General Samuel Smith,1 renewed his ex
ertions for the defense of the city, and
Annapolis, the political capital of Mary
land. That vigilant officer had been
active ever since the first appearance
of danger in the spring of 1813, when a
British squadron appeared in the Ches
apeake. It was well known that the
enemy felt great exasperation toward
the Baltimoreans because they had sent
out so many swift " clipper-built" ves
sels and expert seamen to smite terri
bly the commerce of Great Britain on
the high seas. " It is a doomed town,"
declared Vice-admiral Warren. " The
American navy must be annihilated,"
said a London paper; his arsenals and
dock -yards must be consumed, and
1 Samuel Smith was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, July 27, 1752. His education, commenced at Carlisle,
was completed at an academy at Elkton, in Maryland, after his father made Baltimore his place of residence. He was
in his father's counting-house five years, and then, in 1772, sailed for Havre in one of his father's vessels as supercargo.
Having traveled extensively in Europe, he returned home to tind his countrymen in the midst of the excitements of
the opening of the Revolutionary hostilities. The battles of Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill had been fought.
Fired with patriotic zeal, he sought to serve
his country in the army, and in January,177G,
obtained a captain's commission in Colonel
Smallwood's regiment. He was soon after
ward promoted to the rank of major, and
early in 1777 he received a lieutenant colo
nel's commission. In that capacity he served
with distinction in the battles of Brandy wine
and Fort Mifflin, suffered at Valley Forge,
and participated in the action on the plains
of Moumouth. For his gallantry at Fort
Mifflin, Congress voted him thanks and a
sword. At the close of the war he was ap
pointed a brigadier general of militia, and
commanded the Maryland quota of troops
in the " Whisky Insurrection" in Pennsylva
nia. He served as major general in the War
of 1S12, and commanded the troops assembled
for the defense of Baltimore in 1814. At that
period he was spending much of his time at
his e'egmit country-seat of Montebelln, north
of Baltimore, which is yet (1S07) standing. During a riot in Baltimore in 1S36, when the civil power was inadequate to
MONTtliELLO.
948 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Preparations for the Defense of Baltimore in 1813 and 1814. Patriotism of the Citizens.
the truculent inhabitants of Baltimore must be tamed with the weapons which shook
the wooden turrets of Copenhagen."
So early as the 13th of April, 1813, the City Councils of Baltimore appropriated
twenty thousand dollars to be used for the defense of the city, under the direction of
the mayor, Edward Johnson, and seven other citizens, who were named as a Com
mittee of Supply.1 The governor of the State (Levin Winder) also called an extra
ordinary session of the Legislature, to meet at Annapolis on the third Monday in
May. Meanwhile a rumor reached the city that the enemy were approaching, and
within a few hours at least five thousand armed men were found in their proper
places, and several companies of militia from the country came pouring into Balti
more. Several persons were arrested as traitors and spies. These demonstrations
of preparation and power undoubtedly saved the city from assault at that time.
Very soon afterward, Strieker's brigade, and other military bodies in the city, full
five thousand strong, with forty pieces of artillery, were reviewed. At the beginning
of June a battery was erected at Fort M'Henry for the marine artillery of Baltimore
one hundred and sixty in number, under Captain George Stiles, and composed of mas
ters and master's-mates of vessels there. It was armed with 42-pounders.2
In September51 the British fleet went to sea, and Baltimore enjoyed a season
of repose. The blockaders, as we have observed, reappeared in the Chesa
peake in the spring of 1814, and all the summer and early autumn infested its wa
ters, during which time occurred the destructive invasion recorded in the preceding
chapter, when every thing that could be done by vigilant men for the safety of Bal
timore was accomplished. A Committee of Vigilance and Safety, of which Mayor
Johnson was Chairman, and Theodore Bland was secretary, co-operated unceasingly
with General Smith and the military. On the 27th of August, three days after the
capture of Washington, that committee called upon the citizens to organize into
working parties, and to contribute implements of labor for the purpose of increasing
the strength of the city defenses. The city was divided into four sections, and the
people of each labored alternately on the fortifications. The exempts from military
service and free colored men were required to assemble for labor, with provisions for
a day, at Hempstead Hill (equally well known as Loudenslager's Hill), on Sunday,
the 28th of September ; at Myer Garden on Monday ; at Washington Square on Tues
day ; and at the intersection of Eutaw and Market Streets on Wednesday. Each
portion, comprising a section, was under the command of appointed superintendents.
The response of the citizens in men and money was quick, cordial, and ample ; and
volunteers to work on the fortifications came from Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Vir
ginia. By the 10th of September General Winder was in Baltimore, with all the forces
of the Tenth Military District at his command.
The principal fortifications constructed by the people consisted of a long line on
Hempstead, or Loudenslager's Hill, now the site of Patterson Park. At proper dis
tances several semicircular batteries were constructed, well mounted with cannon and
quell the violence of the mob, the aged general, then eighty-four years old, appeared in the streets with the United
States flag, placed himself at the head of peaceful citizens, and very soon restored order arid tranquillity. In the au
tumn of that year he was elected mayor of the city, which office he held until his death on the 22d of April, 1839, at the
age of eighty-seven years. General Smith was elected a representative in Congress in 1793, and served until 1803. He
was again elected in 1S1G, and served six years longer. He was also a member of the United States Senate for a period
of twenty-three years. The portrait on the preceding page is from a painting in possession of his son, General John
Spear Smith, who was his volunteer aid-de-camp during the defense of Baltimore in 1814. It was painted by Gilbert
Stuart when the general was about forty-five years of age. He is in the uniform of a major general of that day (1T97),
and shows the Order of the Cincinnati suspended from a button-hole.
1 These were James Mosher, Luke Tiernau, Henry Payson, Dr. J. C. White, James A. Buchannan, Samuel Sterett, and
Thorndike Chase.
2 This corps was celebrated for its gallantry. Dr. Martin (see note 1, page 925) says, in his MS. Reminiscences before
me, that when he was atBladensburg, the British officers, who were expecting re-enforcements for Winder from Balti
more, "were particularly anxious about the marine artillery— the material of which it was composed, the weight of
metal, number of men, etc. I exaggerated the condition of its ability to do effective service," he said, "and I confident
ly believe that, had they been part of our force at Bladensburg, we would have succeeded in driving back the enemy, if
not in capturing the whole force, for I never saw men so completely exhausted as were the foe."
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
949
Fortifications at Baltimore.
Troops for Defense, and their Disposition.
ably manned, some of them by volunteer artillery companies of Baltimore, but chiefly
by men-of-war's men, about twelve hundred in number, under the general command
of Commodore Rodgers. The spaces between these batteries were filled with mili
tia. One of the larger of these bastions, known as Rodgers's Bastion, may now (1867)
BOIMUEM's BASTION. J
be seen, well preserved, on the harbor side of Patterson Park, and overlooking Fort
M'Henry and the region about it. Four of the smaller batteries on this line were in
charge of officers of the Guerriere and Erie, the former then lying in Baltimore Har
bor.2
A brigade of Virginia Volunteers and of regular troops, including a corps of cav
alry under Captain Bird, were placed under the command of General Winder ; the
City Brigade of Baltimore was commanded by General Strieker ; and the general
management of the entire military force destined for the defense of the city was in
trusted to General Smith. Fort M'Henry was garrisoned by about one thousand
men, volunteers and regulars, commanded by Major George Armistead. To the right
of it, guarding the shores of the Patapsco, on the Ferry Branch, from the landing of
troops who might endeavor to assail the city in the rear, were two redoubts, named
respectively Fort Covington, and City, or Babcock Battery. The former was manned
by a detachment of seamen under Lieutenant Newcomb, and the latter — a 6-gun bat
tery — by another detachment from Barney's flotilla under Sailing-master John A.
Webster. In the rear of these, upon high ground, at the end of Light Street, near the
present Fort Avenue, was an unfinished circular redoubt for seven guns, in charge of
Lieutenant George Budd. On Lazaretto Point, across the entrance channel to Bal
timore Harbor, opposite Fort M'Henry, was also a small battery, in charge of Lieu
tenant Rutter, of the flotilla. To these several batteries, and to Fort M'Henry, the
citizens of Baltimore looked most confidently for defense.3
Such were the most important preparations for the reception of the enemy, when,
on Sunday evening, the llth of September, they were seen at the mouth of the Pa-
1 This view is from one side of the bastion, looking toward the harbor. On the point on the right is seen Fort
M'Henry. The point opposite is Lazaretto Point.
2 These were Lieutenant Gamble, the first of the Guerriere, Midshipman Field, Sailing-master Ramage, and Midship
man Salter, of the same vessel, and Sailing-master De la Roche, of the Erie.
3 Letter of Commodore Rodgers. to the Secretary of the Navy, September 28,1814; Letter of Sailing-master (now Cap
tain) John A. Webster to Brantz Mayer, Esq., July 22, 1853.
950
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The British land at North Point. Preparations for advancing on Baltimore. General Strieker sent to oppose them.
tapsco, in strong force, preparing to land at North Point, twelve miles from Balti
more by water, and fifteen miles by land. Off that point the fleet anchored that
evening. The night was a delightful one. The air was balmy, and the full moon
shone brightly in a cloudless sky. The earth was refreshed by the falling of a heavy
dew. The fleet lay two miles from the shore. Brief repose was given to its people,
» September 12, for, at two o'clock in the morning,a the boats of every ship were low
ered, and then the land troops and seamen went to the shore, under cover
of several gun-brigs anchored within a cable's'length of the beach. The boats went
in divisions, and the leading one of each was armed with a carronade ready for action.
At about seven o'clock in the morning, General Ross and Admiral Cockburn were
on shore, with a force nine thousand strong, composed of five thousand land troops,
two thousand marines, and two thousand seamen, led by Captain E. Crofton. They
were furnished with cooked provisions sufficient for three days. Each combatant
bore eighty rounds of ammunition, and carried as "little baggage as possible, for they
were to march rapidly and take Baltimore by surprise, where Ross had boasted that
he should eat his Sunday dinner. At the same time, a frigate was sent to try the
depth and take the soundings of the channel leading to Baltimore, as the navy, under
the immediate command of Captain Nourse, of Cockburn's flag-ship Severn, was to
co-operate with the army. Intelligence of these movements produced great alarm in
Baltimore. A large number of families, with portable articles of value, were sent into
the interior of the country, and every inn, for almost a hundred miles northward of
the city, was crowded with the refugees.
When it was known that the British fleet was anchor
ed off North Point, General Smith, wTho had about nine
thousand troops under his command, sent General Striek
er1 with three thousand two hundred in that direction
to watch the movements of the enemy and act as circum
stances might warrant. He left the city toward even
ing, and just before sunset reached a meeting-house (yet
stand-
METIIODIST MEETING-HOUSE.
ing) almost seven miles from the
town, near the junction of the roads
leading respectively to North Point
and Bear Creek. Meanwhile Major
Randall, of the Maryland militia, had
been sent with a light corps from
General Stansbury's brigade, and
the Pennsylvania Volunteers, to the
mouth of Bear Creek, to co-operate
with Strieker, and to check the de
barkation of the enemy, should it be
attempted at that point.
Strieker's little army rested until
morning at the meeting-house, not
far from what was then called Long
Log Lane (now the road to North
Point), with the exception of a de
tachment of one hundred and forty
horsemen under Lieutenant Colonel
Biays, who were ordered forward,
three miles, to Gorsuch's farm, and
i The above portrait of General Strieker is from a painting in the possession of the Maryland Historical Society. Gen
eral Strieker died in Baltimore on the 23d of June, 1825.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 951
Position of the American Troops. Disposition of the British Troops. Preliminary Skirmish.
one hundred and fifty riflemen under Captain Dyer, who were directed to take posi
tion at a blacksmith's shop one mile in the rear of the cavalry. So they remained
until the morning of the 12th, when information was received from the vedettes that
the enemy had landed at North Point, when Strieker immediately sent back his bag
gage under a strong guard, and disposed his troops for battle in three lines, stretch
ing from a branch of Bear Creek on his right, to a swamp on the margin of a branch
of Back River on his left. The several corps were posted as follows : the Fifth Bal
timore Regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Sterett, five hundred and fifty strong, were
placed on the right, extending from Long Log Lane to a branch of Bear Creek ; the
Twenty-seventh Maryland Regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Long, numbering the same,
were on the left of the Fifth, extending from the Lane to the swamp ; and the Union
Artillerymen of Baltimore, seventy-five in number, with six 4-pounders, under Cap
tain Montgomery, then Attorney General of the State, were in the Lane. The Thirty-
ninth Regiment, four hundred and" fifty men, under Lieutenant Colonel Fowler, were
posted three hundred yards in the rear of the Twenty-seventh and parallel with it ;
and on the right of the Thirty-ninth, at the same distance in the rear of the P^ifth,
were the Fifty-first Regiment, under Lieutenant Colonel Amey. These formed the
second line. About half a mile in the rear of this line, near the site of the present
(1867) Battle-ground House, was a reserve corps, consisting of the Sixth Regiment
(six hundred and twenty men), under Lieutenant Colonel M'Donald. Thus judicious
ly posted, Strieker awaited the approach of Ross.
The British general disposed his troops as at Bladensburg. A corps composed of
the light companies of the Fourth, Twenty-first, and Forty-fourth Regiments, the en
tire Eighty-fifth, a battalion of" disciplined negroes," and a company of marines, num
bering in the aggregate about eleven hundred men, under Major Jones, were sent in
advance. These were followed by six field-pieces and two howitzers drawn by horses ;
and the whole formed the first brigade. The second brigade, under Colonel Brooke,
was composed of the Fourth and Forty-fourth Regiments, about fourteen hundred
strong, and was followed by more than a thousand sailors led by Captain Crofton.
The rear, or third brigade, consisted of the Twenty-first Regiment, and a battalion of
marines, numbering in all about fourteen hundred and fifty men, under Colonel Pat
terson. At the same time, the fleet moved toward Baltimore to attack Fort M'Henry.
Feeling confident of success, Ross and Cockburn rode gayly forward at the head
of the troops for about an hour, when they halted at Gorsuch's farm, and spent an
other hour in resting and careless carousing. The American riflemen in the advance
had fallen back in the mean time, with the impression that the British were landing
on Back River or Bear Creek to cut them off, and they were placed on the right of
Strieker's front line. When the general was informed of the exact position of the
invaders, he sent forward to attack them the companies of Captains Levering and
Howard from Sterett's Fifth, one hundred and fifty in number, under Major Richard
K Heath, and Asquith's and a few other riflemen, numbering about seventy, with a
small piece of artillery and some cavalry under Lieutenant Stiles. They met the
British advancing, and a skirmish ensued near the house occupied, when the writer
visited the spot in 1861, by Samuel C. Cole as a store and dwelling, seven and a half
miles from Baltimore,'and about seven from the landing-place of the British. Ross
was mortally wounded by one of two young men, natives of Maryland, belonging to
Asquith's rifle corps, and who had both fought in the battle at Bladensburg. Their
names were Daniel Wells and Henry C. M'Comas. They w^re concealed in a hollow,
and fired the fatal shot when Ross appeared upon a little knoll near them. That
commander died in the arms of his favorite aid, the now (1867) venerable Sir Duncan
M'Dougall, of London,1 before his bearers reached the boats at North Point. " He
i Sir Duncan M'Dougall, K.C.F., son of Patrick M'Dougall, Esq., of Argyleshire, Scotland, was born in 1789. He en
tered the army in 1804, and served in several regiments, and on the staff in Portugal, Spain, France, America, Cape of
952
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Death of General Ross.
Advance of the British.
A spirited Battle.
lived only long enough," says Gleig," to
name his wife, and to commend his fam
ily to the protection of his country." In
this skirmish Heath's horse was shot
under him, and several Americans were
killed or wounded. Among the slain
were the two young men whose bullets
brought Ross to the earth.1 The ad
vancing British far outnumbered
Heath's detachment, and he ordered
them to fall back. Finding the com
panies of Levering and Howard too fa
tigued to engage efficiently in the im
pending battle, Strieker ordered them
to the rear to attach themselves to the
reserve.
On the fall of Ross the command of
the British troops devolved on Colonel
A. Brooke, of the Forty-fourth Regi
ment, and under his direction the entire
invading force pressed
vigorously forward. At
about two o'clock in the
afternoon they came
within cannon - shot of
the American line, and
were immediately formed in battle order. Their first brigade, supported by the For
ty-fourth Regiment, the seamen and marines, menaced the entire front of the Amer
icans, and commenced the action by opening a brisk discharge of cannon and rockets
upon them. The British Twenty-first remained in column as a reserve; and the
Fourth made a circuitous march to turn the left flank of the Americans, against which
also artillerists and rocketeers directed their missiles, and were replied to by Captain
Montgomery's cannon. General Strieker instantly comprehended the meaning of the
flank movement and artillery attack, and brought up the Thirty-ninth Regiment,
with two field-pieces, to its support in a line with the Twenty-seventh, which was
behaving most gallantly. He also ordered the Fifty-first, under Colonel Amey, to
form in line at right angles with the first line, with its right resting on the left of
the Thirty-ninth. This movement was productive of some confusion, but Strieker's
staff soon brought out order. The battle was continued with great spirit on both
sides, in the mean time, with Victory coquetting first with one and then with the
other, and the armies swaying backward and forward with mutual pressure.
When the contest had been carried on for about two hours the enemy's right col
umn fell upon and endeavored to turn the American left. The Fifty-first were sud
denly struck with dismay, and, after firing a volley at random, broke, and fled in
wild disorder, producing a like effect in the second battalion of the Thirty-ninth.
Good Hope, and West Indies. He has the distinction .of having received into his arms two eminent British generals
when they fell in battle, namely, General Ross, killed near Baltimore, and General Pakenham, slain near New Orleans.
.He commanded the Seventy-ninth ftighlanders for several years. His son and heir, Colonel Patrick Leonard M'Dou-
gall, is commandant of the Royal Stall College. The family is descended, in a direct line, from Somerled, the Prince of
the western coast of Argyleshire, and famous "Lord of the Isles." The above portrait of the gallant soldier is from a
carte de visite likeness, sent to me at my request by Sir Duncan in the summer of 1861.
1 The remains of these young men were veinterred in a vault in Ashland Square on the 12th of September, 1858, with
civic and military honors. The mayor of the city, Thomas Swann, made some remarks, and was followed by Hon. John
C. Le Grand, who pronounced an oration. A dirge was executed by the East Baltimore band, and before the remains
were laid in the vault, over which a monument is to be erected, the Law Greys fired a volley over them.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
953
Picture of the Battle of North Point.
All eiForts to rally the fugitives were vain. But the remainder of the Thirty-ninth
954
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Retreat of the Americans.
The British Fleet approaches Baltimore.
Preparations to attack Fort M 'Henry.
and the gallant Twenty-seventh (whose tattered bat
tle-flag, now in the possession of its bearer in the fight,
Captain Lester, of Baltimore, attests the severity of
their conflict) bravely maintained their position. Fi
nally, at about four o'clock, when the superior force of
the enemy could no longer be kept in check, General
Strieker ordered a retreat upon his reserved corps.
This movement was performed in good order. Some
of the wounded and two field-pieces were abandoned.
Strieker reformed his brigade, and then fell back to
ward the city as far as Worthington's Mill, about half
a mile in advance of the intrenchments cast up by the
citizens. There he was joined by General Winder, with
General Douglass's Virginia Brigade and Captain
Bird's United States Dragoons, who took post on his ^^^-^^^^^^^ J^~^9 — ^
left. The British bivouacked on the battle-field that
night, after calling in some pursuers and collecting the stragglers.
While these movements were in operation on the land, the British fleet was pre
paring to perform a conspicuous part in the drama. Frigates, schooners, sloops, and
bomb-ketches had entered the Patapsco early in the morning of the 12th, while Ross
was moving from North Point, and anchored off Fort M'Henry (then about one half
its present dimensions), beyond the reach of its guns, near the present Fort Carroll.
BATTLE-FLAG OF THE TWENTY-SEVENTH
KEGIMENT.1
FOKT M'HENRY IN 1801.
During the day and evening the bomb and rocket vessels were so posted as to act
upon 'the fortifications on the hill, commanded by Rodgers, as well as on Fort
M'Henry, while the frigates were stationed farther outward, the water being so shal
low that they could not approach nearer the city than four or five miles, nor the fort
within two and a half miles. The Americans had already sunk some vessels, as we
have observed, in the narrow channel at Fort M'Henry, which prevented any passage
by the ships of the enemy.2 During the night of the 12th the fleet made full prepa
rations for an attack on the fort and hill intrenchments on the morning of the 1 3th,
when Brooke was to move on Baltimore with the British land force from the battle
field of the day before. The fleet prepared for action consisted of sixteen heavy ves
sels, five of them bomb-ships.
Fort M'Henry was commanded by a brave soldier, and defended by gallant com-
1 This little picture represents the tattered battle-flag of the Jefferson Blues, Twenty-seventh Regiment of the Mary
land Militia, who fought gallantly on the 12th of September, 1814. It was in the possession of Captain John Lester, of
Baltimore, when I made a sketch of it in 1862. He has presented it to the Maryland Historical Society. It is blue silk,
with the designs in gold. Its width is four feet six inches. It is quite tattered. The black spots represent the forms
of cannon-ball holes made during the battle. On scrolls are the words Jefferson Blues and Nvn sibi aedpatria.
2 General Smith, on the recommendation of Commodore Rodgers, caused twenty-four vessels then lying in the harbor
to be sunk in the narrow channel between Fort M'Henry and Lazaretto Point. These were afterward raised at the ex
pense of the United States. The aggregate amount of money paid to the owners afterward was about $100,000.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
955
The Defenders of Fort M 'Henry.
Bombardment of the Fort.
Its effective Reply.
panions. The latter were composed of one company of United States Artillery, un
der Captain Evans ; two companies of Sea-fencibles, under Captains Bunbury and Ad-
dison ; two companies of volunteers from the city, named respectively the " Washing
ton Artillery" and the " Baltimore Independent Artillerists," the former commanded
by Captain John Berry, and the latter by Lieutenant Commanding Charles Penning-
ton ; the " Baltimore Fencibles," a fine company of volunteer artillerists led by Judge
Joseph H. Nichol- ^
son; a detachment (j ,?
of Barney's flotil- //^^ ^
la-men, command- //
ed by Lieutenant
Redman ; and de
tachments of regulars, in all six hundred men, furnished by General Winder from the
/ s-\ Twelfth, Fourteenth, Thirty -sixth, and Thirty -eighth Regi-
<— 4S ^"ly- p. * ments, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Stewart and
V^ c^^VvJC/ Major Lane. The regular artillerists under Captain Evans,
and the volunteers under Captain Nicholson, manned the bastions in the Star Fort.
The commands of Bunbury, Addison, Redman, Berry, and Pennington were stationed
in the lower works ; and the infantry, under Stewart and Lane, were placed in the
outer ditch, to meet the enemy at his landing, if he should attempt it.
The bomb-vessels opened a heavy
fire upon the American works at sun
rise on Tuesday morning, the 13th, at
about seven o'clock, at a distance of
two miles, and kept up a well-directed
bombardment until three o'clock in the
afternoon. Armistead immediately
opened the batteries of Fort M'Henry
upon them, and kept up a brisk fire
for some time from his guns and mor
tars, when, to his great chagrin, he
found that his missiles fell short, and
were harmless. The garrison was ex
posed to a tremendous shower of shells
for several hours without power to in
flict injury in turn, or even to check
the fury of the assault ; yet they kept
at their posts, and endured the trial
with cool courage and great fortitude.
At length a bomb-shell dis
mounted one of the 24-pound-
ers in the southwest bastion,
under the immediate command
of Captain Nicholson, killing
his second lieutenant (Clag-
gett), and wounding several of
his men. The confusion in the
fort produced by this accident was observed by Cochrane, who commanded the fleet,
and, hoping to profit by it, he ordered three of his bomb-vessels to move up nearer
the fort in order to increase the effectiveness of their guns. This movement delight
ed Armistead. His turn for inflicting injury had come, and he quickly took advan
tage of it. He ordered a general cannonade and bombardment from every part of
the fort ; and so severe was his punishment of the venturesome intruders, that within
956 .PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Attempt to seize Fort Coviugton. The Invaders driven off. End of the Bombardment.
half an hour they fell back to their old anchorage. The rocket-vessel Erebus was so
much injured that they were compelled to send a division of small boats to tow her
beyond the range of Armistead's guns to save her from destruction. The garrison
gave three cheers, and the firing ceased.
After resuming their former stations the vessels kept up a more furious bombard
ment than before, with slight intermissions, until past midnight, when it was discov
ered that the enemy had thrown a considerable force up the Patapsco to the right of
the fort, and between it and the city, under cover of the darkness, for the purpose of
capturing Fort Covington, commanded by Lieutenant Newcomb, of the United States
Navy, and the City Battery, in charge of the gallant sailing-master of Barney's flotil
la, and assaulting Fort M'Henry in the rear. For this service twelve hundred and
fifty picked men were sent in barges, with scaling-ladders and other implements for
storming the fort. For the purpose of examining the shores, when near Covington
they threw up some small rockets. These gave the alarm, and Fort M'Henry, as well
as the two redoubts on the Patapsco, opened a heavy fire upon the invaders. It was
kept up for nearly two hours, when the enemy were driven away. The concussion
was tremendous. The houses in the city were shaken to their very foundations.
Hodgers's men in Fort Covington worked their guns with great effect, but to the
continuous and skillful cannonade kept up by Webster with his six-gun battery,
nearer the shore, Major Armistead said he was " persuaded the country was much in
debted for the final repulse of the enemy." It is not too much to say, I think, that
Captain Webster's gallant conduct on that occasion, which frustrated the plans of
the British boat expedition, saved Fort M'Henry and Baltimore. Two of the enemy's
vessels were sunk, and a large number of his men were slain. Sailing-master (after
ward Captain) Webster yet (1867) lives, at the age of eighty years, to enjoy the re
spect -and gratitude of his countrymen. He was in active service until the year
1852.
The bombardment from the vessels was continued until seven o'clock on the morn
ing of the 14th, when it ceased entirely.1 The night had been passed in the greatest
anxiety by the inhabitants of Baltimore, for in the maintenance of Fort M'Henry was
their chief hope for the safety of the city. An incident
^hich occurred at that time gave birth to one of the most
popular of our national songs, the Star-spangled Banner?
J in which that anxiety is graphically expressed. It was
"^^^^ written by Francis S. Key, who was a resident of George
town, in the District of Columbia, and then a volunteer in the light artillery com
manded by Major Peter.3
» The bombardment of Fort M'Henry lasted twenty-five hours, with two slight intermissions, and it was estimated
by Armistead that during that time from 1500 to 1800 shells were thrown by the enemy. A few of them fell short, but
a greater number burst over the fort, throwing their fragments among the garrison. About 400 shells fell within the
works, some of them, afterward dug up, weighing 210 and 220 pounds. " Wonderful as it may appear," said the com
mander in his report, " our loss amounts only to four men killed and twenty-four wounded. The latter will all recov
er." The wife of a soldier, while conversing with her husband before the tents outside of the fort, was cut in two by a
cannon-ball. A shell fell into the magazine, but did not explode.
2 The fac-simile of the original manuscript of the first stanza of the "Star-spangled Banner," given on the opposite
page, was first published, by permission of its owner (Mrs. Howard), daughter of the author, in "Autograph Leaves of
our Country's Authors," a volume edited by John P. Kennedy and Alexander Bliss for the Baltimore Sanitary Fair, 1SG4.
3 On the return of the British to their vessels after the capture of Washington City, they carried with them Dr.
Beanes, an influential citizen and well-known physician of Upper Marlborough. His friends begged for his release,
but Cockburn refused to give him up, and sent him on board the flag-ship of Admiral Cochrane. Mr. Key, well known
for his affability of manner, was solicited to go to Cochrane as a pleader for the release of the doctor. He consented.
The President granted him permission, and, in company with the late General J. S. Skinner, he went in the cartel-ship
Minden, under a flag of truce. They found the British fleet at the month of the Potomac, preparing to attack Baltimore.
Cochrane agreed to release Beanes, but refused to let him or his friends return then. They were placed on board the
Surprise, where they were courteously treated. The fleet sailed up to the Patapsco, where they were transferred to their
own vessel, but with a guard of marines to prevent their landing and communicating information to their countrymen.
The Minden was anchored in sight of Fort M'Henry, and from her deck the three friends saw the bombardment of that
fortress which soon ensued. It ceased, as we have observed in the text, soon after midnight. Having no communica
tion with the shore, these anxious Americans did not know whether the fort had surrendered or not. They awaited
the dawn with the greatest solicitude. In the dim light of the opening morning they saw through their glasses that
OF THE WAK OF 1812.
957
The Star-spangled Banner.
Simultaneously with the movement of the fleet toward Fort M'Henry, on the morn-
" our flag was still there !" To their great joy, they soon learned that the attack on Baltimore had failed, that Rose was
killed, and that the British were re-embarking. When the fleet was ready to sail, Key nnd his friends were released,
and returned to the city.
It was during the excitement of the bombardment, and when pacing the deck of the Minden with intense anxiety be
tween midnight and dawn, that Key composed that gong—" The Star-spangled Banner"— which immortalized him, and
whose first stanza expressed the feelings of thousands of eye-witnesses of the scene :
958 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The British move toward Baltimore. Arrangements for an Assault on the Defenses of the City.
ing of the 13th, was that of the land forces of the British from their smouldering
camp-fires on the battle-field, until they arrived at the brow of the slope on which lay
Surrey Farm (now the valuable estate of Mrs. Jane Dungan),then the fine residence
of Colonel Sterett,1 of the Fifth Maryland Regiment, who was busily engaged in cast
ing up intrenchments on Loudenslager's Hill, about two miles distant, between them
and Baltimore. There they halted to reconnoitre, and Colonel Brooke made his head
quarters at the old farm-house of Mr. Ernest, farther in the rear. They were in sight
of the American intrenchments, behind which were the brigades of Stansbury and
Foreman ; the Pennsylvania Volunteers, under Colonels Cobeau and Findlay ; the
marines, under Rodgers ; the Baltimore Artillery, under Colonel Harris ; and the
Marine Artillery, under Captain Stiles, who had spent the night under arms, expect
ing a vigorous pursuit and attack by the British.
The enemy manoeuvred a good deal in the morning toward the left of the American
works, and at one time seemed disposed to move upon them by the York and liar-
ford Roads ; but they were baffled by countervailing movements on the part of Gen
erals Winder and Strieker. At noon they concentrated in front, and moved to within
a mile of the intrenchments, when they made arrangements for an assault that even
ing. Perceiving this, General Smith ordered Winder and Strieker to move to the
right of the enemy, and, in the event of their making an attack, to fall upon their
flank and reai\ Brooke was cautious and watchful, and clearly saw the peril of his
proposed undertaking. He was also aware that the bombardment of Fort M'Henry
from morning until evening had produced very little effect upon that work, and that
the vessels could not run by it because of the obstructions in the channel. Instead
of opening a battle, he sought and obtained a conference with Admiral Cochrane dur
ing the evening. The result of the interview was the conclusion that the effort of
0 o •
"O say ! can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming ?
i And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there :
O say ! does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?"
The rude substance of the song was written on the back of a letter which Key happened to have in his pocket, and
he wrote it out in full ou the night after his arrival in Baltimore. On the following morning he read it to his uncle,
Judge Nicholson, one of the gallant defenders of the fort, and asked his opinion of it. The judge was so pleased with
it that he took it to the printing-office of Captain Benjamin Edes, on the corner of Baltimore and Gay Streets, and di
rected copies of it to be struck off in hand-bill form. Edes was then on duty with the gallant Twenty-seventh Regi
ment, and his apprentice, Samuel Sands, who, I believe, is yet living in Baltimore, set up the song in type, printed it,
and distributed it among the citizens.* It was first sung in a restaurant in Baltimore, next door to the Holiday Street
Theatre, by Charles Durang, to an assemblage of the patriotic defenders of the city, and after that, nightly at the thea
tre. It created intense enthusiasm, and was every where sung in public and in private.
"The Star-spangled Banner" itself, the old garrison flag that waved over Port M'Henry during that bombardment,
is still in existence. I saw it at the house of Christopher Hughes Armistead (a son of the gallant defender of the fort)
in Baltimore during the late Civil War. It had eleven holes in it, made there by the shot of the British during the
bombardment.
1 When the British discovered that they were in actual possession, for a day, of the mansion of one of the officers of
the American army then confronting them, they made its contents the object of their special attention. The family
had fled that morning, leaving the house in charge of only the colored butler and cook. Some British officers took
possession of it. In the cellar was found a large quantity of choice wine. It was freely used, and what was not con
sumed on the premises was carried away as lawful plunder. Wax-candles, bedding, and other things were also carried
away, and all the bureau-drawers were broken open in a search for valuables. Among other things prized by the fam
ily which the plunderers seized was the Order of the Cincinnati that had belonged to the deceased father of Mrs. Ster
ett. Finally, after keeping the cookJbusy, and faring sumptuously, and when they were about to depart, the following
good-natured but impudent note was written and left on the sideboard :
"Captains Brown, Wilcox, and M'Namara, of the Fifty-third Regiment, Royal Marines, have received every thing
they could desire at this house, notwithstanding it was received at the hands of the butler, and in the absence of the
colonel." I saw the original of this note in I860, in the possession of a daughter of Colonel Sterett, the wife of J. M.
Ilollius, then a captain in the United States Navy. It was written on a piece of paper on one side of which an epitaph
for the tomb-stone of Mrs. Sterett's father had been prepared.
* The words of the song were inclosed in an elliptical border composed of the common type ornaments of that day.
Around that border, and a little distance from it, on a line of the same form, are the words " Bombardment of Fort
M'Henry." The letters of these words are wide apart, and each one is surrounded by a circle of stars. Around the
four edges of the hand-bill is a heavy border of common type ornaments. Below the song, within the ellipse, are the
words " Written by Francis S. Key, of Georgetown, D. C."
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 959
The British fall back and return to their Ships. Effect of the Repulse of the Invaders. The British Programme.
the combined forces to capture Baltimore was already a failure, and that prudence
demanded an immediate relinquishment of the enterprise. Brooke hastened back to
camp. The rain, which commenced dropping twenty-four hours before, was yet fall
ing copiously, and the night was very dark. In the midst of the gloom, at three
o'clock in the morning of the 14th, while the ships kept up the bombardment to di
vert, the attention of thefAmericans, the British stole off to North Point, and fled in
boats to the fleet. The latter also withdrew at an early hour, and Baltimore was
saved.
When, at dawn, the retreat of the British was discovered, General Winder, with
the Virginia brigade, Captain Bird's dragoons, Major Randall's light corps, and all
the cavalry, were immediately detailed in pursuit. But the troops were so exhaust
ed by continued watching and working after the battle and retreat, having been un
der arms during three days and three nights, a portion of the time drenched by rain,
that it was found impossible to accomplish any thing of moment beyond the picking
up of a few stragglers of the enemy. The troops were taken on board the fleet on
the evening of the 14th, and on the following morning the entire land and naval ar
mament of the enemy went down the bay, crestfallen and badly punished. In the
battle of the 12th they had lost their general, a lieutenant, and thirty-seven men
killed, and eleven officers and two hundred and forty men wounded. The Americans
lost twenty-four men killed, one hundred and thirty-nine wounded, fifty prisoners,
and two field-pieces. In the attack on the forts by the shipping the British lost not
a man killed or wounded, while the Americans lost four men killed and twenty-four
wounded, as we have before observed, chiefly by the explosion of the shell that dis
mounted Nicholson's 24-pounder.
The successful defense of Baltimore was hailed with great delight throughout the
country, and trembling Philadelphia and New York breathed freer. It was a very
humiliating blow to the British, for great confidence of success was felt throughout
the realm. After the capture of Washington, that of Baltimore seemed but holiday
sport ; and so well assured of Ross's success there was the Governor General of Can
ada, that the proposed public rejoicings at Montreal because of the capture of Wash
ington were postponed, so that they might celebrate that of Baltimore at the same
time ! In England no one seemed to doubt that an army from Canada would meet
that of Ross on the Susquehanna or the Schuylkill as conquerors of the country, and
that- Baltimore would be their base for future operations. "In the diplomatic circles
it is rumored," said a London paper as early as the 17th of June, " that our naval and
military commanders on the American station have no power to conclude any armis
tice- or suspension of arms. They carry with them certain terms," the supercilious
writer continued, " which will be offered to the American government at the point
of the bayonet. There is reason to believe that America will be left in a much worse
situation, as a naval and commercial power, than she was at the commencement of
the war."
This programme, so delightsome to British arrogance and British commercial greed,
was not carried out. On the very day when Ross and his army anchored off North
Point,a Sir George Prevost, the Governor General of Canada, and his . September n.
army, making their way toward the Susquehanna, were so smitten at
the very beginning of their march — within the sound of cannon-booming of the Can
ada line — that they fled back toward the St.LaAvrence in wild disorder.1 Instead of
mourning as captives, the Americans were jubilant as victors.
The prowess of Colonel Armistead and his little band in defending Fort M'Henry
was a theme for praise upon every lip. The grateful citizens of Baltimore presented
him with a costly and appropriate testimonial of their appreciation of his services in
the shape of an elegant silver vase, in the form and of the size of the largest bomb-
i See page 875.
960
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Honors to Colonel Armistead.
Tokens of public Gratitude.
The Armistead Family.
shell thrown into the fort
by the British ; also goblets
and salver of the same ma
terial.1 These are in the
possession of his son, who,
as* we have observed, lias
the old " Star-spangled Ban
ner," and also a sword voted
to him by the State of Vir
ginia.2 After his death a
tine marble monument was
erected to his memory, on
which the following words
were written with a pen of
steel: " Colonel GEOEGE AR
MISTEAD, in honor of whom
this monument is erected,
THE AKMISTEAl) TASK.
was the gallant defender of Fort M'Henry
during the bombardment of the British fleet,
13th September, 1814. He died, universally
esteemed and regretted, on the 25th of April,
1818, aged thirty-nine years."3
The grateful citizens \vere not contented
with bestowing praises upon their defenders,
so they devised a memorial as perpetual and
enduring as marble could make it. In the
~
now gi-eat city of Baltimore, containing (1867)
full two hundred and forty thousand souls,
may be seen a noble monument designed by
Maximilian Godefroy, and wrought in white
marble. It was erected in 1815, at a cost of
sixty thousand dollars, in commemoration of
those who, on the 13th and 14th of Septem-
ARMISTEAD'S MONUMENT.
i The vase was made to answer the purpose of a punch-bowl. The ladle is in the form of a shrapnel shell. The body
rests upon four eagles with outspread wings. Upon one side is an engraving, surrounded by military trophies, repre
senting the bombardment of Fort M'Henry. Upon the other side is the following inscription : "Presented by a num
ber of the citizens of Baltimore to Lieutenant Colonel George Armistead, for his gallant and successful defense of Fort
M'Henry during the bombardment by a large British force on the 12th and 13th of September, 1814, when upward of
1500 shells were thrown, 400 of which fell within the area of the fort, and some of them of the diameter of this vase."
I am indebted to the kind courtesy of Mr. C. Hughes Armistead for the photograph of the vase and surroundings from
which the above picture was engraved.
' That sword was presented to his son, C. Hughes Armistead, and bears the following inscription : " The State of Vir
ginia to Colonel George Armistead, U. S. A. Honor to the brave. Presented by the State of Virginia to the son of Col
onel George Armistead, late of the Army of the United States, as an evidence of the high esteem and admiration enter
tained by his native state of the courage and soldierlike conduct of Colonel Armistead in the cannonade of Fort George
by Niagara, and in the gallant defense of Fort M'Henry, September 14, 1814."
3 George Armistead was born at New Market, Caroline County, Virginia, on the 10th of April, 1780, and was related
to several of the most distinguished families in that state. He entered the army as second lieutenant in 1709. He was
appointed assistant military agent at Fort Niagara in 1S02, and as
sistant paymaster in 1806. He rose to the rank of major of the
Third Artillery in 1813, and was distinguished at the capture of Fort
George, in May, 1813, where his brother, William Keith Armistead,
as chief engineer on the Niagara, was conspicuous in the bombard
ment of Fort Niagara in November, 1812. For his gallantry at Fort George, the subject of this notice was breveted
lieutenant colonel. He had five brothers in the army during the War of 1812, three in the regular service and two in
the militia. Lieutenant Colonel Armistead served much among the Indians previous to his marriage with a sister of
the eminent Christopher Hughes, in 1810. While in command of Fort M'Henry, after the war, a number of chiefs visit
ed him, and partook of refreshments out of the silver bomb-shell.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
961
Battle Monument in Baltimore.
A Visit to Baltimore.
Services of a valued Friend.
ber, 1814, fell on the field
and in the fort. The en
graving depicts it as it ap
peared, with its surround
ings, in the autumn of 1861,
when the writer sketched
it from the steps of Bar-
num's Hotel.
I visited the theatre of
scenes described in the few
preceding pages in Novem
ber, 1861, on my return
homeward from Washing
ton, mentioned on page
943. On arriving at the
Eutaw House, Baltimore,
in the evening, I had the
good fortune to meet an
esteemed friend, Brantz
Mayer, Esq., a resident of
that city, and perfectly fa
miliar with the men, events,
and localities we have just
been considering. To his
kind courtesy I am indebt
ed for much valuable infor
mation, and for facilities for
BATTLE MONUMENT.1
Armistead was in command of Fort M'Henry when the war broke out, and held it until its close. His gallant defense
of that position is made more conspicuous from the fact that he, and he alone, knew that the magazine was not bomb
proof when the foe approached. He dared not reveal the fact, for fear his men might refuse to remain in the fort. With
these enormous chances against him, he faithfully sustained that siege, and won a victory and a name. The sense of
responsibility, and the tax upon his nervous system during that bombardment, left him with a disease of the heart, and
three years and a half afterward, or on the 25th of April, 1818, he expired, at the age of thirty-eight years. Colonel Ar
mistead was buried with military honors. There was an immense funeral procession, civil and military, and during the
ceremonies artillerists fired minute-guns on Federal Hill. It was said to have been the largest procession that had ever
been seen in Baltimore. The likeness of Lieutenant Colonel Armistead on page 955 is from a miuiature in possession
of his daughter, Mrs. Mary Bradford, of Westchester, Pennsylvania, to whom I am indebted for much minute and valu
able information.
1 The monument represents a cenotaph surmounted by a short column, and rests upon a plinth, or terrace, of the
same material, forty feet square and four feet high. At each angle is placed a cannon erect, having a ball apparently
issuing from its mouth. Between the cannon are continuous rows of spear-shaped railing, and eight heavy supporting
fasces, all of iron. Outside of all is a chain guard. The lower part of the monument is of Egyptian form and ornament
ation, composed of eighteen layers of stone, the then number of the states of the republic. At each of four angles of the
surmounting cornice is a massive griffin, wrought of marble. The column represents a huge fasces, symbolical of the
Union, the rods of which are bound by a fillet, on which, in bronze letters, are the names of the honored dead, whose
brave conduct strengthened the bands of that Union. Wreaths of laurel and cypress, emblems of glory and mourning,
bind the top of the great fasces ; and between them, in bronze letters, are the names of the following officers who per
ished on the occasion :
JAMES LOWEY DONALDSON, Adjutant Twenty-seventh Regiment ; GKEGOKIUB ANDEEE, Lieutenant First Rifle Battal
ion ; LEVI CLAGGETT, Third Lieiitenant Nicholson's Artillerists. On the fillet are the following names of the slain non
commissioned officers and privates : John Clemm, T. V. Beaston, S. Hanbert, John Jephson, T. Wallace, J. H. Marriot
of John, E. Marriot, Wm. Ways, J. Armstrong, J. Richardson, Benj. Pond, Clement Cox, Cecilius Belt, John Garrett, H.
G. M'Comas, Win. M'Clellan,"john C. Bird, M. Desk, Daniel Wells, Jun., John R. Cop, Benj. Neal, C. Reynolds, D. How
ard, Uriah Prosser, A. Randall, R. H. Cooksey, J. Gregg, J. Evans, A. Maas, G. Jenkins, W. Alexander, C. Fallier, T.
Burneston, J. Dunn, P. Byard, J. Craig.
On the lower part of the fasces are two basso-relievos, one representing the battle of North Point and the death of
General Ross, and the other a battery of Fort M'Henry at the moment of the bombardment. On the east and west
fronts are lachrymal urns, emblematic of regre£ and sorrow. On the south part of the square base of the fasces, below
the basso-relievos, is the following inscription in bronze letters : " Battle of North Point, 12th September, A.D. 1814, and
of the independence of the United States the thirty-ninth." On the north front, corresponding to this, is the following :
" Bombardment of Fort M'Henry, 13th September, A.D. 1S14, and of the independence of the United States the thirty-
ninth." That base and fasces together form a column thirty-nine feet in height, to show that the events commemorated
occurred in the thirty-ninth year of the independence of the republic. The whole monument, including the exquisitely-
wronsht female figure, representing the City of Baltimore, that surmounts it, rises to the heisrht of almost fifty-three
feet. Upon the head of that figure is a mural crown, the emblem of a city. In one hand she holds an antique rudder,
3P
962
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
A Visit to Patterson Park and other historical Localities.
The City Spring.
acquiring more. His introduction was a key to the treasures of the Maryland His
torical Society. He accompanied me to many places of interest in the city and its
vicinity, among others Patterson Park and Rodgers's Battery. There we met the
venerable John M'Lean, the keeper of the park, who was then seventy-eight years of
age. He was a member of Captain Benjamin Ringgold's company in the battle of
North Point. After listening with pleasure to his reminiscences, we returned to the
city, where I was introduced to General John Spear Smith, a son of the chief com
mander in the defense of Baltimore, and his volunteer aid on that occasion. General
Smith subsequently placed in my hands his father's military papers of that period,
which I freely used in the preparation of the foregoing narrative.
We went to the pleasant inclosure of the City Spring, to see the monument erected
T11E CITY SPRING AND AKMISTEAD'S MONUMENT.1
there to the memory of Colonel Armistead (delineated on page 900), but found it re
moved, and the embattled edifice around it, seen beyond the figures in the above pic
ture, nearly demolished. Nor could we find any clew to it. On leaving that shaded
spot, where so many Baltimoreans have promenaded during the heats of summer, I
was introduced to Captain John Lester, a veteran soldier, seventy-one years of age,
who (then an ensign) was the color-bearer of the gallant Twenty-seventh Maryland
Regiment in the battle of North Point. He seemed quite too young to claim the
patriarchal honors of thi-eescore and ten years. I found in his possession the tattered
flag of the Twenty-seventh (delineated on page 954), whose wounds were received
while it was borne in his hands forty-seven years before. Twenty-seven years after-
symbolic of navigation, and in the other a crown of laurel; while, with a graceful inclination of the head, she looks in
the direction of the theatre of conflict. At her feet, on her right, is an eagle, and near it a bomb-shell, commemorative
of the bombardment. This monument, in its conception and execution^ is worthy of the great events commemorated.
A few years ago, a thin volume was published in Baltimore entitled The Citizen Soldiers at North Point and Fort Ml Henry,
September 12 and 13, 1814. It contains the names of all the men, officers and privates, who were on duty at that time,
and is dedicated to "Major General Samuel Smith, the Hero of two Wars."
1 This is a view of the City Spring and its surroundings taken from Saratoga Street a short time before the monu
ment was removed. That monument was placed in a recess of the building with battlements, seen toward the left of
the picture, with an iron railing in front. The City Spring is under the temple-shaped pavilion in the foreground, which
is yet (1SG7) standing, I believe, with the same lantern hanging beneath its dome.
OF THE WAR OF ] 8 1 2.
963
The Color-bearer of the Twenty-seventh Regiment.
Visit to North Point Battle-ground.
'1841.
warda he bore the same flag at
the head of about thirty surviv
ors of the Twenty-seventh, who were
in the funeral procession at the burial
of President Harrison, the distinguish-
7 O
ed soldier of the Second War for Inde
pendence.
Captain Lester accompanied my
traveling companion and myself to
the North Point battle-ground on the
"November, morning of the 20th.b .The
air was very chilling, but
in a covered carriage, with fleet horses
and a good postillion, we made the
journey comfortably and quickly to
the battle-ground, seven miles from
the city. On our way, as we approach
ed Long Log Lane, I sketched the
Methodist meeting-house, which was
used for a hospital after the battle, and
where General Strieker biv
ouacked on the night of the
« September, Hthc. A short dis
tance from it, on the
corner, where a road leads to
Hancock's Pavilion, on Bear
Creek, was a place of refreshment called the Battle-ground House. In a field adjoin
ing it we saw a rough-hewn block of granite, with a square hollow in it, which was
pointed out as the corner-stone of a monument which it is proposed to erect on the
field of strife. This was on the right of Long Log Lane going out. On the opposite
side of the lane (which is now the highway to North Point) was the scene of the
heaviest of the battle, which was then an open oak wood, as delineated in the accom
panying picture of the battle-ground, drawn a few days after the conflict by Thomas
NOBTil POINT BATTLE-GROUND.1
Ruckle, who was in the fight. The view is from the site of the Battle-ground House.
The stately oaks which then shaded the ground have disappeared, and it is covered
by a new and smaller growth, and in some places by a tangled undergrowth.
We rode on to the house of Richard Brady (occupied at the time of our visit by
1 In this view, copied from Ruckle's picture in the Maryland Historical Society, Long Log Lane is seen over the
equestrian figures toward the right, and on the extreme right the head of Bear Creek. The conflict occurred within
the spaces included in the picture.
964
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Monument where Ross fell.
A Visit to Fort M 'Henry.
Samuel Cole), in front of which General Ross received his death-wound, as related on
page 951. Near that spot, by the side of the road, the soldiers, commanded by Cap
tain Benjamin C. Howard on that occasion, and known as the First Mechanical Vol
unteers, erected a monument, about eight feet in height, partly in commemoration
MONUMENT WHEBE BOSS FELL.
of the action, but specifically, as the inscription declares,1 "as a tribute of respect for
the memory of their gallant brother" in arms, Aquila Randall, who fell there. The
view in the engraving was sketched from Mr. Cole's house, in which is seen, toward
the left, the venerable oak-tree under which Ross was laid for a few minutes by Cap
tain M'Dougall, and in the centre, over the horseman, a part of Bear Creek. Ross
was shot on the gentle rise of ground in the road a few rods eastward of the monu
ment.
We returned to Baltimore at a little past noon, turning off from the direct road to
visit the homestead of Colonel Sterett, mentioned on page 958. The mansion was
upon a beautiful terraced slope along the old Philadelphia Road. We did not stop
in the city, but riding through it to Fort Avenue, which traverses the length of Fell's
Point to Fort M'Henry, we passed along that fine stone road a full mile, to the en
trance-gate to the outer grounds of the fort. A pass from General Duryee, then in
command at Baltimore, opened the portals. We were kindly received by the courte
ous Colonel (afterward General) W.Morris, the commandant (since dead), and were
allowed to visit every part of the venerated fortification. After making the sketch
on page 954, we returned, stopping on the way to make a drawing of the circular
seven-gun battery mentioned on page 949, and to find the sites of Fort Covington
and the City Battery, which was commanded by the gallant Webster. These were
1 The following are the inscriptions on the monument: North Side: "Sacred to the memory of AQUILA RANDALL,
who died in bravely defending his country and his home on the memorable 12th of September, 1814, aged 24 years."
East Side: "In the skirmish which occurred at this spot between the advanced party under Major Richard K. Heath,
of the 5th Regt. M. M., and the front of the British column, Major General Ross, the commander of the British forces,
received his mortal wound." WestSide: "The First Mechanical Volunteers, commanded by Captain Benjamin C.How
ard, in the 5th Regt. M. M., have erected this monument as a tribute of their respect for the memory of their gallant
brother." South Side: " How beautiful is Death when earned by Virtue."
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
965
The Circular Battery and its Outlook.
New York and Philadelphia relieved.
Philadelphia Troops.
REMAINS OF T1IE CIRCULAR BATTEEY.
situated on the river bank, below the circular battery, and nearly half a mile distant.
Webster's battery was on a line with it, in the direction of the river, and Fort Cov-
ington was about five hundred yards farther up the stream. The circulaV battery
was at the end of Light Street, that skirts Federal Hill, on which, at the time of my
visit, were heavy earth-works, in charge of Duryee's Zouaves, thrown up as a protec
tion to Fort M'Henry against land attacks by insurgents. The mounds of the old
circular battery were six or eight feet high in some places. It was in a commanding
position. Our view, taken from within it, compi-ises the entire theatre of the opera
tions of the British boat expedition on that eventful night. We are looking toward
Chesapeake Bay. On the left is seen Fort M'Henry, and in the extreme distance, ap
pearing like a speck near the mouth of the Patapsco, is Fort Carroll.
On the following morninga I made a careful drawing of the Battle • November 21,
Monument, delineated on page 960. We afterward spent several hours
in the rooms of the Historical Society, and in the afternoon called on Mr. Armistead,
where we were kindly shown the old garrison flag, tattered and faded — the identical
Star-spangled Banner on which Key and his companions so anxiously gazed " at the
twilight's last gleaming." On the same evening we left Baltimore for Havre de
Grace, where, as we have observed on page 943, we passed the night and the follow
ing day.
We have remarked that when the British were driven away from Baltimore, the
trembling citizens of Philadelphia and New York breathed freer. Both felt them
selves seriously menaced by the heavy British force in the Chesapeake, and both had
made such vigorous preparations for attack that the enemy did not deem it prudent
to attempt it. Indeed, it was not their intention to do so at that time, and they
sailed away to the Bermudas to join in the more important work of invading Lou
isiana.
When, as we have already observed, the depredations of Cockburn on the shores
of the Delaware, in the spring of 1813, were made known at Philadelphia, an intense
martial spirit was aroused in that city, and along the shores of the Delaware River
and Bay. At the beginning of the war that spirit was almost dormant. The fine
corps known as the M'Pherson Blues*- had been disbanded twelve years before the
declaration of war, and another, called Sheets Legion, was no more. Only three or
four volunteer companies of any note then existed in Philadelphia, the oldest of which,
a company of cavalry, was called the First, or old City Troop, Captain Charles Ross,
which was formed in the autumn of 1774, and did good service in the Revolution
under Captain Morris. They formed a body-guard for General Washington when
he traveled from Philadelphia to New York in 1775 to take command of the army
at Cambridge. These, with Captain Rush's old Philadelphia Blues, and Captain
Fottevall's Independent Volunteers, both large companies, composed the most of the
i See page 111.
966 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The Volunteer Companies of Philadelphia. Protection for Duponts' Powder-mills. Captain James Page.
uniformed militia of that vicinity. During the summer of 1812
a new uniform company was formed, called the State Fencibles,
which, like the City Troop, is still an prganized corps, and until a
few years ago was led by Captain James Page, who was elected
its commander in June, 1818. * The original manuscript, contain
ing the call for the formation of this company, is before me, having
been kindly placed in my hands by the veteran Captain Page, of
Philadelphia, who was a private in that company during the War
of 1812. The first name on the list is that of one of Philadelphia's
most honored sons, Hon. Joseph R. Ingersoll, and the third is that
of the late Colonel Clement C. Biddle. The latter, who was the
originator of the company, was chosen captain, and the former first
lieutenant. Captain Page is yet (1867) a vigorous man, nearly
eighty years of age, and to him I am indebted for much valuable
information concerning military affairs in and around Philadelphia
during the war.2
When the news of the presence of the British in the Delaware
reached Philadelphia, great alarm was felt because of the defense- 8TATE ^NCI
less state of the city. Fort Mifflin, just below, its only defense on the water, was gar
risoned by only eleven recruits, under Captain James N. Barker. Something must be
done immediately to strengthen that post. James M. Porter, Secretary of the " Young
Men's Democratic Society" of Philadelphia, a young lawyer, called a meeting on the
20th of March at Sti'atton's Tavern. It was fully attended, and about seventy young
men who were present formed a volunteer company for artillery service on that very
evening. They organized by the election of officers the next day, with the name of
The Junior Artillerists. They at once tendered their services to General Bloomfield,
the commander of the district, to re-enforce the garrison at Fort Mifflin. They were
accepted, and within three days after they were organized they marched to Fort
Mifflin, under Captain Fisler, each with a cockade in his hat, and wearing a coat with
bright buttons, accompanied by Captain Mitchell's volunteer corps of eighty men,
dressed in blue and buff, and known as the Independent Blues. The latter, with the
Independent Volunteers, and a newly -organized company called the Washington
Guards, Captain Raguet — the first new company of infantry formed in Philadelphia
at that time — left the city for the State of Delaware on the afternoon of the 12th of
May, under the command of Colonel Lewis Rush. They proceeded to Staunton,
about six miles beyond Wilmington, and near that place formed a camp at a spot se
lected by General Bloomfield.
At about that time it was rumored that Duponts' powder-mills at Wilmington
were about to be attacked. Colonel Rush disposed his troops in that vicinity so as
to protect them, and there they remained until the invaders left the neighboring wa
ters. The inhabitants of Delaware, in the mean time, had raised several volunteer
companies ; and the names of the Duponts, Rodney, Young, Van Dyke, Warren, Wil-
1 Captain Page was commander of the First Company. When, in April, 1SG1, the President of the United States
called for seventy-five thousand troops to put down the great insurrection of the slaveholders against the government,
the Pencibles offered themselves as volunteers, and were mustered into the service of the United States, and formed a
part of the Eighteenth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers. They served the full term of three months, when they were
mustered out of the service, and honorably discharged. Many of them afterward entered the service as volunteers in
different corps. The Pennsylvania militia law of May, 1S64, dissolved the organization, and the State Fencibk*, after an
honorable career of more than half a century, passed into History as an extinct military association. The last captain
was John Miller. Among the brave men of the corps who went into the War for the Union, Captain Hesser, made
colonel of the Seventy-second Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, deserves honorable mention. He fell at the head
of his regiment, at Orange Court-house, Virginia, in November, 1863.
2 In 1S59 former members of the State Fencibles presented to Captain Page a sword, on which is the following in
scription : " Presented to Captain James Page by retired members of the State Fencibles, as a token of their esteem
for him as a citizen and soldier, and of their appreciation of his services as commanding officer of that corps for a pe
riod of forty years. Philadelphia, December 29, 1859."
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 967
Organization of Troops. Camp Dnpont. Camp at Marcus's Hook.
son, Leonard, and others, are held in grateful remembrance to this day as prominent
actors in the business of state defense.
On the receipt of the requisition for troops from the War Department early in July,
1814, Governor Snyder, of Pennsylvania, caused a general order to be issued for the
mustering of the militia and the raising of volunteers, in which several military com
panies of Philadelphia, and elsewhere in the state, who had offered their services to
the government in the summer of 1812, were named as accepted volunteers, and as
forming a part of the quota of the state.1 Recruiting went briskly on, and it was
greatly promoted by intelligence of the capture of Washington toward the close of
August. Volunteers flocked to the standard of General Bloomfield in great num
bers.2 Kennet Square, in Chester County, thirty-six miles southwest from Philadel
phia, was the designated place of rendezvous, and there, at the close of August, a
camp was formed, under the direction of Captain C. W. Hunter, and named Camp
Bloomfield. On the 7th of September, Lieutenant Colonel Clemson, of the United
States Army, assumed the command, and on the 14th he was succeeded by Brigadier
General Thomas Cadwalader. The troops were brigaded, and the corps was called
The Advanced Light Guard.3 Captain Ross, with his First City Troop, took post on
Mount Bull, a height overlooking the Chesapeake, thirteen miles below Elkton, to
watch the approach of the enemy, and held communication with the camp and Phila
delphia by a line of vedettes.
The brigade changed its position several times, but was continually in the vicinity
of Wilmington. The last one that it occupied was called Camp Dupont, about three
miles west of Wilmington, where it remained until the 30th of November, when, all
danger seeming to be distant, the troops were marched back to Philadelphia, and
there disbanded on the 3d of January, 1815.4
In the mean time a body of almost ten thousand men was assembled near Marcus's
Hook, on the Delaware, twenty miles below Philadelphia, which was at first organ
ized by Adjutant General William Duane, under the command of Major General Isaac
Worrall. It was composed of Pennsylvania militia and volunteers. Its rendezvous
was called Camp Gaines, in honor of General E. P. Gaines, who succeeded Bloomfield
in the command of the Department, in September. This camp was broken up on the
5th of December, 1814. Besides these, several companies were organized in the city
and county of Philadelphia who did not take the field.5 When Gaines left for New
Orleans in December, General Cadwalader6 succeeded him as chief of the Fourth
Military Department.
While the volunteers were hastening to the camps to be enrolled as soldiers, the
inhabitants of Philadelphia were vigorously making preparations for the defense of
i These were the Harrisburg Volunteers, Captain Thomas Walker; State Fencibles, Captain i C. C Bid die ; three rifle
companies, commanded respectively by Captains Andrew Mitchell, Nicholas Beckwith, and Samuel Dunn; Benevolent
Blues. Henry Reed ; and Light Dragoons, James Noble.
' " The very flower of the yonth and best hopes of the nation," wrote an eye-witness-" citizens of every rank and
profession, and of every political name, were there commingled in the ranks, united in a common cause for the defense
of their conntry, and exhibiting to the monarchs of Europe the glorious spectacle of practical equality. -Author of A
Short Sketch of the Military Operations on the Delaware during the late War, etc. I
' The brigade staff consisted of the following officers: Thomas Cadwalader, brigadier general ; John Hare Powell,
brigade major, in place of Hunter, promoted ; Richard M'Call and John G. Biddle, aids-xle-camp ; Henry Sergeant, as-
Total 3504
* Among the gallant officers at Camp Dnpont was Captain John Ross Mifflin, of the Washington Guards He was .
nephew of Captain Ross, and died, unmarried, in Philadelphia in 1825. He wrote a series of interesting leters from
Camp Dupont, copies of some of which were kindly placed in my hands by Miss Elizabeth Mifflin, of Philadelphia.
These give a lively picture of camp life there.
* A Short Sketch of Military Operations on the Delaware during the late War, pages 3 to 29 inclusive.
6 Son of General John Cadwalader, of the Continental Army. He was born on the 23th of October, 1T.O. He waa
admitted to the bar in Philadelphia in 1S01. He studied military science intently, and entered the service as captain in
1812. He rose to the rank of brigadier general in 1814. After the war he became major general of Pennsylvania mill,
tia. He assisted in forming a system of cavalry tactics in 1826. He died on the 26th of October, 1S4L
968 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Public Meeting in Philadelphia. Committee of Defense. Citizens construct Fortifications.
the city. When intelligence of the capture of Washington reached them, a public
meeting was held, and a committee of defense was appointed, with ample powers to
adopt such measures as the exigency seemed to require.1 "They determined," says
Mr. Wescott,2 " that, for the safety of the city, field fortifications should be thrown
up in the most eligible situations on the western side of the town, and where an at
tack might be expected. A fort was planned near Gray's Ferry, on the west side of
the Schuylkill River, at the junction of the Gray's Ferry and Darby Roads; also a
redoubt opposite Hamilton's Grove, another upon the Lancaster Road, and a third
upon the site of an old British redoubt on the southern side of the hill at Fairmount,
which would command the bridge at Market Street and the roads leading to it.
" To construct these works required much labor, and, under the circumstances, they
could not have been built without the voluntary assistance of the citizens. A hearty
enthusiasm was shown in the service. Companies, societies, and the artificers of the
different trades organized themselves for the purpose. Day after day these parties
assembled, and left the city at from five to six o'clock in the morning, and, with knap
sacks or handkerchiefs containing a supply of food, marched out to the fortifications
to a day of toilsome labor at an occupation to which but few of them were accus
tomed. Labor commenced on the 3d of September, and from that time until about
the 1st of October, when the field-works were finished, the toil was participated in
by parties having the following numbers : House carpenters, 62 ; victualers, 400 ; the
Tammany Society, 400 ; painters, 70 ; hatters and brickmakers, 300 ; Philadelphia Be
nevolent Society and Fourth Washington Guard, 160; Rev. Mr. Staughton and the
members of his church, 60; printers, 200 ; crew of the Wasp, 140; watchmakers, sil
versmiths, and jewelers (on Monday, September 11), 400 ; cabinet-makers and joiners,
300 ; Washington Association, 70 ; True Republican Society, 70 ; teachers, 30 ; friend
ly aliens, 500 ; Freemasons, grand and subordinate lodges, 510 ; Washington Benev
olent Society, 500 ; Sons of Erin, citizens of the United States, 2200 ; Tammany Soci
ety, second day, 130; friendly aliens, second day, 150 ; German societies, 540 ; colored
men, 650 ; citizens of Germantown, 400 ; Scotchmen, 100 ; Sons of Erin, second day,
350. The colored people also gave a second day to the work. Small bodies, not
enumerated, including beneficial societies and social clubs, participated. The physi
cians and artists of the city also labored at the works. When the fortifications were
completed, it was found that about fifteen thousand persons had labored on them. In
lieu of work, many who were unable or unwilling to assist in that manner gave money.
The collections from this source amounted to about six thousand dollars.
" Arriving at the fortifications, the citizens, having been previously divided into
companies, were put to work. At ten o'clock the drum beat for ' grog,' when liquor
sufficient for each company was dealt out by its captain. At twelve o'clock the drum
1 The public meeting was held in the State House Yard, on the 26th of August, 1814. Thomas M'Kean was chair
man, and Joseph Reed was secretary. A committee, of which Jared Ingersoll was chairman, was appointed "to con
sider and report what measures ought, in their opinion, to be adopted for protection and defense." They reported
resolutions, the first of which nominated a number of gentlemen as a committee of defense, for the purpose of organiz
ing the citizens of Philadelphia, and of the northern and southern districts, for defense, with power to appoint commit
tees under them, correspond with the state and general governments, make arrangements for supplies, fix on places of
rendezvous, etc. This committee consisted of the following named persons : For the city of Philadelphia— Charles
Biddle, Thomas Leiper, Thomas Cadwalader, Gen. John Steel, George Latimer, John Barker, Henry Hawkins, Liberty
Browne, Charles Ross, Manuel Eyre, John Connelly, Condy Raguet, Wm. M'Faden, John Sergeant, John Geyer (Mayor),
and Joseph Reed. For the Northern Liberties and Penn Township— Colonel Jonathan Williams, John Goodman, Dan
iel Groves, John Barclay, John Naglee, Thomas Snyder, J. W. Norris, Michael Lieb, Jacob Huff, and James Whitehead.
For the district of Southwark and townships of Moyamensing and Passyunk — James Josiah, R. M 'Mullen, John Thomp
son, E. Ferguson, James Ronaldson, P. Miercken, R. Palmer, and P. Pitts.
These citizens met on the day of their appointment, at the State House, where they were organized into a committee
of defense, with Charles Biddle as chairman, and John Goodman as secretary. The labors of the committee were very
useful and important. The organization was continued until the IGth of August, 1815, when, at the eighty-second meet
ing, their labors ceased. The minutes of the committee, carefully kept by Mr. Goodman, and giving the details of their
proceedings,, were published in 1SG7 as the eighth volume of the Memoirs of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, accom
panied by brief biographical notices of the members of the committee.
2 History of the City of Philadelphia from 16S2 to 1854, by Thompson Wescott, Esq. This history was in manuscript
when Mr. Wescott kindly allowed me to copy the matter quoted in the text.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 969
New York stirred up. Committee of Defense. Patriotic Action of the Citizens.
beat for dinner, when more ' grog' was furnished. This was also the case at three and
at five o'clock in the afternoon. At six the drum beat the retreat, when it was sug
gested in General Orders, ' For the honor of the cause we are engaged in, freemen to
live or die, it is hoped that every man will retire sober.'' "
So did Philadelphians prepare for the invader. Happily the enemy did not come,
and their beautiful city was spared the horrors of war.
New York was likewise fearfully excited by apprehensions of danger during the
summer and autumn of 1814. Like Philadelphia and Boston, its defenses were few
and weak at that critical moment. The appearance of the powerful British force in
the Chesapeake aroused the citizens to a sense of their immediate danger, and they
soon put forth mighty efforts in preparations to repel the invader. The mayor of the
city, De Witt Clinton, issued, through the medium of the City Council, a stirring ad
dress to the people on the 2d of August, in which he set forth the importance of New
York to the enemy on account of its wealth and geographical position, which in
creased its liabilities to attack. He recommended the militia to hold themselves in
readiness for duty, and called upon the citizens to offer their personal services and
means cheerfully to the United States officers in command there, to aid in the com
pletion of the unfinished fortifications around the city.
In response to the mayor's appeal, a large meeting of citizens was held in the City
Hall Park, on Tuesday, the 9th of August,1 when a Committee of Defense, chosen from
the Common Council, was appointed,2 clothed with ample powers to direct the ef
forts of the inhabitants in the business of protection. On the same morning the offi
cers of General Mapes's brigade, to the number of two hundred, gave the first prac
tical response to the mayor's appeal by crossing the East River from Beekman's Slip,
and, with Captain Andrew Bremmer's artillery, marching to the lines traced out for
the fortifications on the heights around Brooklyn by General Swift, and taking pick
axes, and shovels, and every other appropriate implement at hand, breaking ground at
eight o'clock, and working lustily all day. They were followed the next morning by
as many carpenters and cabinet-makers ; and only four days after the meeting in the
Park, the Committee of Defense announced11 that three thousand persons a ^ ^ ^
were at work on the fortifications. They also reported the receipt of
large sums of money ; and on the same day it was announced that " two hundred
journeymen printers, one thousand Sons of Erin, thirty pilots, seventy men from the
Asbury (African) Church, with one hundred and fifty other colored men, two hundred
weavers, and many heads of manufacturing establishments," were at work on the
lines. Two days afterward the city newspapers were suspended, that all hands might
work on the fortifications; and on the 20th of August five hundred men "left on the
Jersey steam-boat for Harlem Heights," to work on intrenchments there ; and, at the
same time, fifteen hundred " patriotic Sons of Erin" crossed the ferry to Brooklyn for
the same purpose. Two days afterward nearly one thousand colored people crossed
the Catharine Ferry to work on the fortifications between Fort Greene and Gowanus
Creek ; and on the 25th the Washington Benevolent Society, an organization opposed
to the war, inspired with zeal for the common cause, went over in a body, with their
banner bearing the portrait of Washington— the largest number belonging to one
society that had crossed over at one time. On the same day the butchers went to
the lines to labor, bearing the flag, on which was the figure of an ox prepared for
slaughter, which had been used by them in the great " Federal Procession" in honor
of the ratification of the National Constitution in 1789. Masonic and other societies
went in bodies to the patriotic task ; and school-teachers and pupils went together
to give their aid. Little boys, too small to handle a spade or pickaxe, carried earth on
1 The call was signed by Henry Rutger and Oliver Wolcott. The chief organ of the Opposition— the Evening Post—
denounced it, and asked, " Has it not a squinting toward the charter election ?"
2 The committee consisted of Nicholas Fish, Gideon Tucker, Peter Mesier, George^uckmaster, and J. Nitchie.
970
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Neighbors assist New York.
Gathering of Troops in and around the City.
" The Patriotic Diggers."
shingles, and so added their mites in rearing the breastworks. It was a scene like
that of cairn-building in the olden time. The infection spread, and every day citi
zens from neighboring towns on Long Island,1 on the Hudson, and from New Jersey,
proffered their services. Nor were the nights undisturbed by the sound of the patri
otic toil. On that of the 31st of August it is recorded that full six hundred men
went over to Brooklyn, and worked " by the light of the moon."
Intelligence of the capture of Washington City reached New York on the 27th of
August, three days after that sad occurrence. The zeal and patriotism of the citi
zens were increased there
by. In General Orders,
Daniel D. Tompkins, gov
ernor of the State of New
York, who had been untir
ing in his exertions for the
public good from the be
ginning of the Avar, called on the inhabitants to send arms of every description to the
State Arsenal, Avhere all fit for service Avould be paid for. The call was promptly
answered. He also ordered the organization of a battalion of Sea Fencibles, to be
commanded by Captain James T. Leonard ; and expressed a desire to enroll volun
teers for one or two months' service. Already nearly four thousand militia had
come down the Hudson in sloops ; and Commodore Decatur had been assigned to
the command of the naval force in the harbor of New York, with orders to co-op
erate with the military in defense of the city. On the 1st of September the gov
ernor issued a proclamation for an extraordinary session of the Legislature of the
State, to commence on the 27th of that month.
On the 31st of August there was a grand military review in the city of NCAV York,
Avhen about six thousand men were under arms. On the 2d of September the militia
were mustered into actual service, when
the division of General Ebenezer Stevens /^ „
was transferred to the command of Major C. ^S// £/?**/y fif/l^ ^/f^C^\j
General Morgan Lewis. Cadwallader D.
Colden Avas appointed to the command of
all the uniformed militia companies of the
city and county, and every thing pertain
ing to the military Avas put upon the war footing of actual service. The citizens con
tinued their zealous labors on the military woi-ks all through September and in Octo
ber, and made the lines of fortifications around NCAV York truly formidable.2
1 On the 17th of August, the people of Bushwick, Long Island, led by theRev.Mr.Bassett, repaired to Fort Swift (erect
ed on the old redoubt of the Revolution on Cobble Hill) to labor on that work. The venerable pastor of the flock that
followed him opened the operations with prayer, and he remained with them throughout the day, encouraging them
and distributing refreshments among them.
2 These displays of patriotism inspired Samuel Woodworth, an American poet of considerable eminence, and then the
editor and publisher of a weekly record of events entitled The War, to write a very popular ballad called Tlie Patriotic
Diggers, of which the following is a copy :
'Johnny Bull, beware,
Keep at proper distance,
Else we'll make you stare
At our firm resistance ;
Let alone the lads
Who are freedom tasting,
Recollect our dads
Gave you once a basting.
Pickaxe, shovel, spade,
Crowbar, hoe, and barrow,
Better not invade,
Yankees have the marrow.
' To protect our rights
'Gainst your flints and triggers,
See on Brooklyn Heights
Our patriotic diggers ;
Men of every age,
Color, rank, profession,
Ardently engage,
Labor in succession.
Pickaxe, etc.
1 Grandeur leaves her towers,
Poverty her hovel,
Here to join their powers
With the hoe and shovel.
Here the merchant toils
With the patriot sawyer,
There the laborer smiles,
Near him sweats the lawyer.
Pickaxe, etc.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
971
General Swift's Report of the Fortifications around New York.
Earlier than the movements of the public authorities and inhabitants of New York
and Philadelphia for the defense of their cities, recorded in the preceding pages, the
"Here the mason builds
Freedom's shrine of glory,
While the painter gilds
The immortal story.
Blacksmiths catch the flame,
Grocers feel the spirit,
' Printers share the fame,
And record their merit.
Pickaxe, etc.
" Scholars leave their schools
With their patriot teachers ,
Farmers seize their tools,
Headed by their preachers.
How they break the soil !
Brewers, butchers, bakers ;
Here the doctors toil,
There the undertakers.
Pickaxe, etc.
"Bright Apollo's sons
Leave their pipe and tabor,
'Mid the roar of guns
Join the martial labor ;
Round the embattled plain
In sweet concord rally,
And in freedom's strain
Sing the foe's finale 1
Pickaxe, etc.
Plumbers, founders, dyers,
Tiumen, turners, shavers,
Sweepers, clerks, and criers,
Jewelers, engravers,
Clothiers, drapers, players,
Cartmen, hatters, tailors,
Gangers, sealers, weighers,
Carpenters and sailors.
Pickaxe, etc.
" Better not invade ;
Recollect the spirit
Which our dads displayed,
And their sons inherit.
If you still advance,
Friendly caution slighting,
You may get, by chance,
A bellyful of fighting.
Pickaxe, shovel, spade,
Crowbar, hoe, and barrow,
Better not invade,
Yankees have the marrow.
The most authentic account of the fortifications thrown up around New York in the summer and autumn of 1814 may
be found in the report of General Joseph Swift, Chief Engineer (see page 638), to the Common Council Committee of
Defense, made at the close of the year 1S14. I have compiled the following statements from the original manuscript
of that report, with its maps, and landscape and topographical drawings, which are now before me.
The city of New York might be approached by an enemy by way of Sandy Hook and the Narrows, Long Island Sound
and the East River, and across Long Island. To guard against invasion by either one of these approaches, and to be
prepared at all points, old fortifications, built during the Revolution, or when war with France seemed inevitable in 17£8
and 1790, were strengthened and new ones were erected. The commanding situations near the dangerous passage in
the East River known as Hell Gate, at the mouth of the Harlem River, were occupied by batteries, some of which were
covered by towers. The heights overlooking Harlem Plains, and those around Brooklyn, on Long Island, were also
covered with military works, within which necessary magazines and barracks were erected. The position of these va
rious works, and those around and in the harbor of New York, may be seen at a glance by reference to the map on the
iiext page.
In the rear of Brooklyn works were erected which completely isolated the town. On the high ground overlooking
the Wallabout and the navy yard was Fort Greene, mounting twenty-three heavy cannon, and between it and Gowanus
Creek, which ran through a low morass, Redoubts Cummings and Masonic, Washington Battery and Fort Firemen were
erected. These were
united by lines of in-
trenchments. In each
of these redoubts, as
well as at the salient
angles of the intrench-
ments, twelve -pound
ers were placed. The
intervals between them
did not exceed half
grape-shot distance of
guns of that capacity.
On a small eminence on
the margin of Gowanus
FORT STEVENS AND MILL KOCK."
Creek, on the right flank of these lines, was a little redoubt, open in the rear, cal-
J cnlated for three heavy guns, to defend the mill-dam and bridge. On a com
manding conical hill forming a part of Brooklyn Heights, and nearly on the site
of Fort Stirling of the Revolution, was a strong redoubt called Fort Swift; and
another, named Fort Lawrence, was constructed at the southwestern extremity
of the heights, and overlooking Gowanus Bay and Governor's Island.
On Haliett's Point, Long Island, near Hell Gate, was quite an extensive work
called Fort Stevens, in honor of General Ebenezer Stevens, who had been in
command of the troops in and around New York. On Lawrence's Hill, in the
rear, and commanding an extensive view, was a tower. In front of it, in the
middle of the East River, at the mouth of the Harlem River, stood (and yet
stands) Mill Rock. On this a very strong block-house and a powerful battery
were erected. On the shore of York Island, opposite, at a place known as Rhine-
lander's Point (Horn's Hook in the Revolution), not far above the present Asto-
TOWEE AT IIAT.LETT'S POINT.
* This is a view from the tower on Lawrence's Hill, back of Fort Stevens, and looking up the Harlem River. Directly
over the fort is seen the block-house on Mill Rock. Over the island on the left is seen Rhinelander's Point. At the
extreme right is Hell Gate.
972
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Fortifications around New York.
subject of harbor defenses had occupied much of the public attention in sea-coast
ria Ferry, was a redoubt to cover the Hell Gate passage. These works, in the aggregate, were of sufficient capacity to
mount thirty large cannon, besides mortars, so arranged that half of them might be concentrated at one time upon any
object in the river. At Benson's, nearly on a line with the present Second Avenue, was a redoubt to guard a mill-dam
and fording-place on the Harlem Creek, which empties into the Harlem River near by. Intrenchments extended back
to another short creek, where they were flanked by a battery. At the head of Harlem Creek commenced a parapet and
ditch, running to Fort Clinton (delineated on the next page), which was situated on an elevated rock at M'Gowan's
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
973
General Swift's Report.
towns, especially in the fast-growing commercial city of New York. Among the sci-
Paes, now called Mount St.
Vincent, in the northeastern
part of the Central Park. Con
nected with Fort Clinton, and
extending like a bridge over
M'Gowan's Pass, were a block
house and Nutter's Battery (a
sketch of which is given on
the following page), the whole
joined to and commanded by
Fort Fish (a view of the inte
rior of which, with Harlem in
the distance, will also be found
on the following page), on an
other eminence westward of
the pass, on which five heavy
cannon were planted. This
pass, on the old Kingsbridge
Road (between the present
Fifth and Sixth Avenues and
One Hundred and Fifth and
One Hundred and Eighth
Streets), was a very important
point, and great efforts were
used to make it a Thermopylae
FOKT CLINTON AT M 'GO WAN'S PASS.
to any foe that might attempt to go
through.
Immediately west of Fort Fish, and
at the foot of the works, was a deep,
rough, wooded valley, which is now
within the Central Park, and pre
served in all its original rudeness.
On the opposite side of this valley
was a range of wooded and rocky
heights, of difficult ascent excepting
in one place, and there for only the
lightest troops. On these heights,
extending to Manhattanville, several
block -houses were erected, mostly
of stone, within supporting distance
from each other. These extended
from near M'Gowan's Pass almost
to the Bloomingdale Road. The
one nearest that road, and overlook
ing Manhattanville, was called Fort
Laight. All of them had heavy guns
mounted en barbette, that is, on the
top, without embrasures.
From Fort Laight ran a line of in-
trenchments westwardly across the
Bloomingdale Road, which ended on
the high, precipitous bank of the
Hudson. Here, near the then resi
dence of Viscount Courtenay (after
ward the Earl of Dev
on), was a strong stone
tower (see picture on
page 975) which com
manded Manhattan
ville, and from which
was a fine view of the
Palisades of the Hud
son, and of the river al
most to the Highlands.
Such were the fortifica
tions described in Gen
eral Swift's report,* at
the conclusion of which
he said :
"The works compre
hended in the foregoing
FORT CLINTON AND HARLEM CREEK.
General Swift's aid-de-camp, Lieutenant Gadsden, of the United States Engineers, superintended the erection of the
works at Brooklvn, assisted by Messrs. Nicholls and Mercein. Major Horn superintended those in the vicinity of Har
lem The survey* maps, and small views presented in the report were furnished by Captain (late Professor in Colum
bia College, New York) Renwick, of General Mapes's brigade, aided by Lieutenants Gadsden, Craig, Turner, De Russy,
Kemble, and Oothout. The larger views were drawn by Mr. Holland.
974
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Fortifications around New York.
A proposed Revolving Battery.
entific men of that day, John Stevens and Robert Fulton appear most conspicuous in
proposing plans for that purpose. Earlier than this (in 1807), Abraham Bloodgood,
of Albany, suggested the construction of a floating revolving battery, not unlike, in
its essential character, the turret of Captain Ericsson's Monitor of 1862. ! In March,
description have been chiefly con
structed by the labor of the citizens
of the city of New York, Long Isl
and, and of the neighboring towns
near the North Eiver, and in New
Jersey, all classes volunteering daily
working-parties of from five to fif
teen hundred men. The fortifica
tions are testimonials of patriotic
zeal, honorable to the citizens and
to the active and assiduous Commit
tee of Defense."
Besides these works there were
old Fort George, at the foot of Broad
way; the North Battery (given be
low), at the foot of Hubert Street ;
and a partly finished work near the
foot of the present Twenty -third
Street, called Fort Gansevoort. At
Princes Bay, Staten Island, a tower
was erected to command the only
secure anchorage for the shipping
and safe landing-place of a foe. For
tifications were commenced on the
wvYi^/
WOKKS AT M'GOWAN'S PASS.
Staten Island Shore at the Narrows, and near there a brigade
of two thousand militia from the Hudson River counties were
stationed from August to December, 1814. On Governor's Isl
and, very near the city, were Forts Jay and Castle Williams. Of
all these works only those on Governor's Island remain, ex
cepting one of the block-houses near M'Gowan's Pass, in the
upper part of the Central Park, between Seventh and Eighth
Avenues, at One Hundred and Fifth Street, overlooking Har
lem Plains. Its massive walls are well preserved, as may be
seen from the drawing of it given on page 975. The mounds
of Forts Fish and Clinton, at M'Gowan's Pass, were also well
preserved as late as 1800, when, from the north, they presented
the appearance given in the engraving on the opposite page. JSOBTH UATTERY.
VIEW FKOM FORT FISH, LOOKING TOWARD HAKLEM.
1 In a volume containing the proceedings of the Society for the Promotion of Useful Arts in the State of yew York, pub
lished at Albany in 180T, is the following account of Mr. Bloodgood's plan, reference being had to accompanying draw
ings : "The model of this battery was exhibited to the society with a verbal description only. The annexed plate
shows an exact profile of its body, the shape of which, as seen above, is circular. It is to be connected at the centre of
its bottom with a strong keel, in such a manner that, while the keel is held by cables and anchors in one position, the
battery is made to turn round on its centre. This motion may be given to it either by the tide acting on float-boards at
tached to the body of the battery, by sails raised on its exterior parts, or by manual application. In this last way it may
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
975
Description of proposed Revolving Battery.
A proposed iron-clad Vessel.
Remains of a Block-house.
1814, Thomas Gregg, of Pennsylvania, obtained a patent for a proposed iron-clad
be effected by men in the hold
drawing on a lever fastened to a
post fixed to the keel and rising
through a well-hole in the centre
of the battery. The strength of
horses might perhaps be applied
to the game purpose. The cables
by which the keel is held are to
be entirely under water, and thus
secure from an enemy's shot.
The advantages of such a battery
would be — 1. Its rotary motion
would bring all its cannon to bear
successively, as fast as they could
be loaded, on objects in any direc
tion. 2. Its circular form would
cause every shot that might strike
it not near the centre to glance.
3. Its motion, as well as its want
of parts on which grapplings
might be fastened, would render
boarding almost impossible. 4.
The steadiness with which it
would lie on the water would ren
der its fire more certain than that
of a ship. 5. The guns would be
more easily worked than is com
mon, as they would not require
any lateral movement. 6. The
OOURTENAY S AND THE HUDSON TOWER.
REMAINS OF BLOCK-HOUSE OVERLOOKING IIABLEM PLAINS IN lS60.t
men would be completely sheltered from the fire of the
elevated parts of an enemy's ship. 7. The battery might
be made so strong as to be impenetrable to common shot,
etc."
* The house in which Viscount Conrtenay, son of the
Earl of Devon, lived was built by the elder Doctor Post,
of New York, and named Clermont. There Joseph Bona
parte resided for a while. It is now (1867) known as
Jones's Claremont Hotel, and is a place of great resort in
fine weather for pleasure-seekers who frequent the Bloom-
ingdale and Kingsbridge Roads. The appearance of the
mansion has been entirely changed by additions.
t This sketch shows the character of the rocky heights
on which the line of block-houses was built. In the dis
tance is seen the " High Bridge," or Croton Aqueduct,
over Harlem River. The walls of the block-house are
twelve or fifteen feet in height, and four feet in thick
ness.
} The remains of Fort Clinton are seen on the left
.M'GOWAN'B PASS IN
976
PICTOKIAL FIELD-BOOK
Iron-clad Gun-boat.
A Floating Battery authorized by Congress.
Launch of the Battery.
steam vessel of war, resembling in figure vessels used during our late great Civil
War. Drawings of it may be seen in the Patent-office, with full specifications.1
Our little sketch below was copied from one of these drawings.
At about the same time a committee of citizens examined a plan of a floating bat
tery submitted by Robert Fulton, and approved by such tried naval officers as Cap
tains Decatur, Jones, Evans, Biddle, Perry, Warrington, and Lewis. It -was to be in
the form of a steam-ship of peculiar construction, that might move at the rate of four
miles an hour, and furnished, in addition to its regular arnlament, with submarine
guns. The committee memorialized Congress on the subject, and asked the Secre
tary of the Navy to give it his official favor. It was objected that a discussion in
Congress would reveal the matter to the enemy, and also that the President was not
authorized to make an appropriation without the special authority of law. To meet
these objections, the committee agreed to have the vessel constructed at their own
expense and risk, provided assurances should be given that the government, which
alone could employ her, would receive and pay for her when her utility should be
demonstrated. It was estimated that she would cost nearly as much as a first-class
frigate, or about three hundred and twenty thousand dollars. The liberal offer was
a March, accepted, and Congress authorized the President11 to have one or more float-
1814. jng batteries built, under the supervision of the Coast and Harbor Defense
Committee.2 They appointed
Mr. Fulton the engineer, and
Adam and Noah Brown the
architects. The keel was laid
at the ship-yard at Corlear's
Hook, in the city of New York,
on the 20th of June, 1814, and
she was launched at 9 o'clock
in the morning of the 29th of October following, in the presence of a vast assemblage
of people. The scene was described as very exciting. It wras a bright autumnal
day. Fleets of vessels and crowds of spectators might be seen on every hand ; and
she went into the water amid the roar of cannon and the shouts of a multitude full
twenty thousand in number.3 Her engines were, put on board, and her machinery
1 The following is a portion of the specifi
cation :
" The boat is framed on an angle of about
eighteen degrees all round the vessel, when
the top timbers elevate the balls, and the
lower ones direct them under her. The top
deck, which glances the ball, may be hung
on a mass of hinges near the ports. Said
deck is supported by knees and cross-timbers
on the lower sides, so that it may be sprung
with powder, if required (when boarded by
the enemy), to a perpendicular, when the said
deck will be checked by stays, while the pow
er of powder will be exhausted in the open
air, and then fall or spring to the centre of
the deck again. The aforesaid deck will run
up and down with the angle, which may be
coppered or laid with iron. The gun-deck
may be bored at pleasure, to give room, if required, as the men and guns are under said deck. The power is applied
between her keels, where there is a concave formed to receive them from the bow to the stern, except a small distance
in each end, forming an eddy. The power may be reversed to propel her either way. Said power is connected to up
right levers to make horizontal strokes alternately. The elevation of her timbers and gearing will be proportioned by
her keel and tonnage."
2 That committee consisted of General Dearborn, then commanding the district, Colonel Henry Rutgers, Oliver -Wol-
cott, Samuel L. Mitchell, and Thomas Morris.
3 The New York Evening Post published an account of the launching of this vessel, and gave the following as her
dimensions and capacity for armament: "She measures one hundred and forty-five feet on deck, and fifty-five feet
breadth of beam, draws only eight feet of water, mounts thirty 32-pound carronades, and two columbiads of one hun
dred pounds each. She is to be commanded by Captain Porter." It may be added that it was a structure resting upon
two boats and keels, separated from end to end by a channel fifteen feet wide and sixty-six feet long. One boat con-
IKOJf-CLAD VESSEL IN 1814.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
977
Steam-ship or Floating Battery, Fulton the First.
Extravagant Stories concerning her.
tested, in the month of May following,* when Fulton was no more, he having
died in February.1 She made a trial trip to the ocean and back, fifty-three
miles, on the 4th of July, at the rate of about six miles an hour by her engines alone.
In September she made another voyage to the sea, with her whole armament on
board, at the rate of five and a half miles an hour against wind and tide. The vessel
was named FULTOX THE FIRST.
At the close of 1814 active war had ceased in the Northern States. Its chief thea
tre of operations was in Louisiana and on the ocean, to which we will now turn our
attention.
tained the boiler for generating steam, which was made of copper. The machinery occupied the other boat. The wa
ter-wheel (A) revolved in the space between them. The main or gnn-deck supported the ar
mament, and was protected by a parapet four feet ten inches thick, of solid timber, pierced by
embrasures. Through twenty-five port-holes were as many 32-pounders, intended to fire red-hot
shot, which could be heated with great safety and convenience. Her upper, or spar-deck, upon
which many hundred men might parade, was encompassed with a bulwark, for safety. She was
rigged with two stout masts, each of which supported a large lateen yard and sails. She had two
bowsprits and jibs, and four rudders, one at each extremity of each boat, so that she might be
steered with either end foremost. Her machinery was calculated for an additional engine,
which might discharge an immense column of water, which it was intended to throw upon the
decks and through the port-holes of an enemy, and thereby deluge her armament and ammu
nition. — See Colden's Life of Robert Fulton, page 229.
The most extravagant stories concerning this monster of the deep went forth at about the
time of her being launched. In a treatise on steam-vessels, published in Scotland soon after
ward, the author said : " Her length is 300 feet ; breadth, 200 feet ; thickness of her sides, 13
feet, of alternate oak plank and corkwood ; carries 44 guns, four of which are 100-pounders ; can
discharge 100 gallons of boiling water in a few minutes, and by mechanics brandishes 300 cutlasses with the utmost
regularity over her gunwales ; works, also, an equal number of pikes of great length, darting them from her sides with
prodigious force, and withdrawing them every quarter of a minute." J See page 242.
3Q
SECTION OF THE FLOAT
ING BATTERY.
FU1/1UN TilE FIEST.
978 PICTOKIAL FIELD-BOOK
New Vessels for the American Navy. The Adams runs the Blockade. Her Escape from Danger.
CHAPTER XLI.
"We had sailed out a letter of marque,
Fourteen guns and forty-five men,
And a costly freight our gallant barque
Was bearing home again.
We had ranged the seas the whole summer tide,
Crossed the main and returned once more ;
And our sails were spread, and from the mast-head
The look-out saw the distant shore.
A sail ! a sail on our weather-bow !
Hand over hand ten knots an hour ;
Now God defend it ever should end
That we should fall in the foeman's power."1 — CAEOLLNE F. OENE.
iTJR story of the operations of the American Navy during the year 1813
closed with the cruise of the President, under Commodore Rodgers,
and her bold dash through the British blockading squadron off Sandy
Hook into the harbor of New York, at the middle of February, 1814,
when the broad pennant of Commodore Decatur was unfurled over
her deck.
The Guerriere, 44, the first frigate built by the United States gov
ernment on the sea-board since 1804, was launched at Philadelphia on
the 20th of June, 1814, in the presence of fifty thousand persons, and
was placed under the command of Commodore Rodgers. On the 20th
of July, the Independence, 74, was launched at Charlestown, amid the roar of cannon
and the shouts of a great multitude. She was placed in charge of Commodore Bain-
bridge. The Independence was a two-decker, the first that had ever been built for
the service of the. United States.2 The keels of two others were laid, but they were
not put afloat until the war had ceased. The Java, 44, was launched at Baltimore
on the 1st of August, while twenty thousand people were looking on. She was placed
under the command of Commodore Perry. Several new sloops of war were made
ready for sea during the summer of 1814 ; and the Adams, 28, had been cut down to
a sloop and lengthened the previous autumn at Washington, and armed with the
same number of guns, but on a single deck.
On the night of the 18th of January, 1814, the Adams, Captain Charles Morris,
passed the blockading squadron in Lynnhaven Bay, put to sea, and ran off to the
northeast to cross the track of the British West India merchantmen. She made a
few prizes. On the 25th of March she captured the Indiaman Woodbridge, and, while
taking possession of her, observed twenty-five merchant vessels, with two ships of
war, bearing down upon her with a fair wind. Morris abandoned his prize, and gave
the Adams wings for flight from danger. She escaped, sailed down the coast, and
entered the harbor of Savannah for supplies in the month of April. On the 5th of
May she sailed for the Manilla Reef to watch for the Jamaica convoy. The fleet
passed her in the night. She gave chase in the morning, gained upon the fugitives,
but was kept at bay by two vessels of war.
The Adams now stood to the northward, and on the 3d of July was off the Irish
coast, where she was chased by British frigates at different times, but always escaped.
1 From a spirited poem, in manuscript, written by Miss Orne, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, entitled "The Letter of
Marque."
2 The America, of the same class, was presented to the French government while she was yet on the stocks.
OF THE WAK OF 1812.
979
Destruction of the Adams.
Cruise of the Wasp.
She captures the Reindeer.
The weather was cold, damp, and foggy for nearly two months, because the ocean
was dotted with icebergs floating down from circumpolar waters. Her crew sick
ened, and Captain Morris determined to
go into port. He entered the Penobscot
River, in a somewhat disabled condition,
on the afternoon of the 17th of August,
and made his way with the Adams to
Hampden, far up the river, where he was
soon afterward compelled to destroy his
vessel to prevent its falling into the hands
of the British, as we have already ob
served.1
Captain Johnston Blakeley left the har
bor of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on
the 1st of May, 1814, in command of the
new sloop-of-war Wasp, 18, and soon ap
peared in the chops of the British Chan
nel. There he spread terror among the
merchant ships and the people of the sea
port towns, and revived painful recollec
tions of the exploits of the Argus.2 On
the morning of the 28th of June, wThile
some distance at sea, the Wasp was chased
by two vessels. These were joined by a
third at ten o'clock, when the foremost
one showed English colors. After a good
deal of manoeuvring until a little past three o'clock in the afternoon, when the foe
was within sixty yards of the Wasp and on her weather-quarter, the former opened
fire with a 12-pound carronade, and gave four heavy discharges of round and grape
shot before her antagonist could bring one of her guns to bear. At about half past
three the Wasp opened fire, and in a few minutes the action became very severe.
Several times the men of the stranger attempted to board the Wasp, but were re
pulsed. Her crew finally boarded the stranger, and at the end of twenty-eight min
utes after the combat commenced the latter was a prize to the Wasp. The van
quished vessel was the British sloop-of-war fieindeer, Captain William Manners. She
was terribly shattered. Her people had fought bravely, and her captain and purser
(Barton), and twenty-three others, were killed, and forty-two were wounded. The
Wasp was hulled six times, but was not very seriously damaged. Her loss was five
men killed and twenty-two wounded. She was every way the superior of the Rein
deer. She was new, mounted twenty 32-pound carronades and two long guns, and
her complement was one hundred and seventy-three men. That of the Reindeer was
only one hundred and eighteen. Blakeley put some of his wounded prisoners on a
neutral vessel, and with the remainder sailed for L'Orient, where he arrived on the
8th of July. He had burned the wrecked Reindeer. For his gallant conduct on this
occasion Congress voted him a gold medal.3
Blakeley left L'Orient on another cruise in the Wasp on the 27th of August. On
the evening of the 1st of September he discovered four sail ahead, two on the lar
board and two on the starboard bow of the Wasp. He bore down upon them, and
at almost half past nine in the evening be Avas so near one of them that he opened
• See pa<re 899 * See page 715-
3 On one side of the medal is a bust of Captain Blakeley in profile, with the words around it " JOHNSTON BLAKELEY
EEIP VJED AM NAV WASP iwx." On the other side is represented a naval action, with the legend "EIIETT! BIS vic-
TOB. PATBIA TPA TE LUGET PLAUDITO." BeloW, " INTER WASP NAV. AMEBI. ET EE1NDEEE NAV. ANQ. DIE XXVIII.
MDCCOX1V."
980
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Combat between the Wasp and Avon. Loss of the Wasp and all on board. Blakeley and Warrington.
INTER WASP NAV. AMERI.
ET REINDEER.
DIE XXVm JUNTOS
MDCCCXW.
BI.AKELEY 8 MEDAL.
fire upon her with a 12-pound carronade. The shot was promptly returned. The
night was intensely dai-k, the wind was blowing freshly, and the vessels were run
ning at the rate of ten knots an hour. After the exchange of shots, the commanders
of both vessels hailed; and soon afterward the Wasp opened a broadside upon her
antagonist. A severe engagement ensued. Thirty minutes later the fire of the
stranger ceased. " Have you surrendered ?" inquired Blakeley. He was answered
by a few shots, when he gave his foe another broadside, followed by the same ques
tion. It was answered in the affirmative, when a boat was lowered from the Wasp,
with an officer to take possession of the prize. Just then another vessel appeared
astern, rapidly approaching ; then another, and another. Blakeley felt compelled to
abandon his prize, so nearly in his possession. He could not ascertain the name or
power of his antagonist, but believed her to be one of the largest brigs in the British
Navy. It was afterward ascertained that it was the Avon, 18, Captain Arbuthnot,
and that the vessel that first came to her aid was the Castilian, 18. The Avon was
so much shattered in the conflict that she sunk almost immediately. The survivors
of her people were rescued by their friends in the other vessels.
The Wasp continued her cruise, capturing several prizes. Among others, she took
the Atlanta, near the Azores, on the 21st of September. The prize was so valuable
that Blakeley sent her home in command of Midshipman (late Commodore) David
Geisinger.1 She arrived safely at Savannah on the 4th of November. On the 9th
of October the Wasp was spoken by the Swedish bark Adonis, making her way to
ward the Spanish Main. On that occasion two officers of the Essex (Acting Lieuten
ant M'Kniglit and Master's-mate Lyman), who were passengers in the Adonis, left
her for the Wasp. This was the last that was ever heard of that vessel and of those
t>n board of her at that time. She and all her people perished in some unknown way
in the solitudes of the sea.2
In March, 1814, the Peacock, 18, Captain Warrington,3 sailed on a cruise from New
1 Commodore Geisinger died at his residence in Philadelphia on Saturday, the 10th of March, I860, at the age of about
seventy years. He was among the oldest officers of the navy. His commission as captain was dated May 24, 183S.
For several years he was stationed at the Naval Asylum in Philadelphia.
2 Johnston Blakeley was a native of Ireland, where he was born in the month of October, 1781. His father emigrated
to the United States with his family in 1783, and settled in Charleston, South Carolina, and afterward made Wilming
ton, in North Carolina, his home. He sent Johnston, his only surviving son, to New York to be educated. He finished
his education at Chapel Hill, in North Carolina. He entered the navy as a midshipman in the year 1800. He served
with faithfulness, and rose to the rank of captain. In 1814 he was appointed to the command of the Wasp, in which, as
we have observed in the text, he perished toward the close of that year, when he was only thirty-three years of age.
3 Lewis Warrington was born at Williamsburg, in Virginia, on the 3d of November, 1782. He was educated at Wil
liam and Mary College in that state. He entered the naval service as midshipman in January, 1800, and made his first
cruise with Captain Barren in the Chesapeake. He was promoted to lieutenant in 1807, and to master commandant on
the 24th of July, 1813. This was the office which he held, by commission, when he started on the cruise in the Peacock.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
981
Fight between the Peacock and Epervier,
Capture of the latter.
Her Escape from Recapture.
0Z
York. She went down the coast, and
was off the shores of Florida for some
time without encountering any conspic
uous adventures. Finally, on the 29th
of April, Warrington discovered three
sail to the windward, under convoy of
an armed brig of large dimensions. The
merchantmen were an English briff, and
O O 3
a Russian and a Spanish ship. The two
war vessels made for each other> and
very soon a close and severe battle com
menced. The Peacock was so badly
wounded in the rigging by a broadside
from her antagonist, which proved to be
the Epervier, 1 8, Captain Wales, that she
was compelled to fight " running large,"
as the phrase is. She could not manoeu
vre much, and the contest became one
of gunnery. The Peacock won the game
at the end of forty minutes after it be
gan, when the Epervier struck her col
ors. She was extensively injured. No
less than forty-five round shot had struck
her hull, and twenty-two of her men were slain or disabled. The hull of the Pea
cock was scarcely bruised, and within an hour after the conclusion of the combat
she was in perfect fighting order. Not a round shot had touched her hull, and not
a man on board of her was killed. Only two men were wounded.
The Peacock was the heavier of the two vessels, fully manned, and in stanch order.
The Epervier was also fully manned. She was a valuable prize. The vessel sold for
fifty-five thousand dollars, and on board of her were found one hundred and eighteen
thousand dollars in specie. She was so rich, and the waters of the Southern coast
was then so much infested by British cruisers, that Warrington determined to con
voy her into Savannah. He placed J. B. Nicholson, his first lieutenant, on board of
her, and on the evening of the day of the capture started for port. On the following
day, when abreast Amelia Island, on the coast of Florida, they encountered two Brit
ish frigates. Arrangements were at once made to send the prize into St. Mary's,
and to haul to the southward with the Peacock. By this means the fi-igates were
separated, and the one in chase of the Peacock was led off the coast, and lost sight
of her intended victim on the 1st of September. The Epervier, while veering along
the coast toward Savannah, fell in with the other frigate. The water was shoal in
which the prize vessel ran. The boats of the frigate were lowered, filled with armed
men, and sent in chase of the Epervier, which moved slowly before a very light wind.
The boats gained upon her, and her position became critical, for Nicholson had only
sixteen officers and men with him. He employed a stratagem successfully. Using
the trumpet, as if his vessel was full of men, he summoned them, in a loud voice, to
prepare to fire a broadside. The men in the boats heard the order, and fled. Had
they known the real state of affairs, they might have captured the Epervier in less
than five minutes with little loss. She escaped, and reached Savannah on the 1st of
May. The Peacock entered the same port on the 4th.
Because of his success, he was promoted to captain in November, 1814. He had served with distinction under Decatur
and others. He was a very active and useful officer during the whole of the second War for Independence, and subse
quently performed much important service afloat and ashore. For many years he was a member of the Board of Navy
Commissioners ; and in September, 1842, he was appointed chief of the Bureau of Ordnance and Hydrography, which
office he he!d at the time of his death. That event occurred at Washington City on the 12th of October, 1851.
982
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Barney's Flotilla in Chesapeake Bay.
It is blockaded.
Fight with the Blockaders.
The capture of the Epervier produced much exultation throughout the country.
The name of Warrington was upon every lip in phrases of honor, and the Congress
of the United States ordered a gold medal to be struck and presented to him because
of this exploit.1
ESfTEB-PEACOCJC U-AV. AMRT
JtNTG.
WAKEI:NGTO>!'S MEDAL.
Soon after her return to Savannah the Peacock went on another cruise, and entered
the Bay of Biscay and the waters on the coast of Portugal. She captured fourteen
merchantmen, but had no engagement with a ship of war. She returned to New
York at the end of October.
We have alluded to Barney's operations with a flotilla in the Chesapeake in the
summer of 1814. The brave and active veteran left the Patuxent on the 1st of June,
with the Scorpion as his flag-ship, two gun-boats, and several large barges, in chase
of two British schooners. By the vigorous use of sweeps he was fast overhauling
the fugitives, when a large ship was seen at the southward. The wind commenced
blowing freshly, and the great vessel, being to windward, was seen bearing down upon
the flotilla. Barney signaled the return of his boats, and all fled back to the Patux
ent, followed for a while by the huge enemy, a two-decker, which anchored at the
mouth of the river. On the 6th of June this ship was joined by two others, and Bar
ney's flotilla was thoroughly blockaded. On the 8th, the ship of the line, a brig, two
schooners, and fifteen barges sailed up the Patuxent with a fair wind, and Barney
moved to St. Leonard's Creek, two miles farther up, and there, in battle order, await
ed their approach. The heavier British vessels anchored at the mouth of the creek,
and the barges advanced, led by a rocket-boat. Barney, with thirteen barges, ad
vanced to meet them, when they retreated. The movement was repeated in the aft-
» June 9, ernoon. Twenty-four hours afterward* the enemy sent twenty barges up
1814- the creek, which, after a sharp skirmish, fled back to the protection of the
large armed vessels. On the llth, twenty-one barges, and two schooners in tow, re
newed the attack, when, after receiving a more sevei-e punishment than at any time
before, they were again compelled to fly, with considerable loss.
Barney now caused some small earth-works to be thrown up on the shore to pro
tect his flotilla. These were placed in the command of Captain Miller, of the Marine
Corps, and a considerable force of militia, under Colonel Decius Wadsworth, of the
Ordnance Corps. The combined force attempted to end the blockade on the 26th.
A raking shot ripped a plank from the bottom of the lai'ge British ship,2 and she was
1 On one side of the medal is a bust in profile of Captain Warrington, and the words " i.tmovioua WAKRINGTON DUX
NAVAOS AMRI." On the other side is a representation of a naval battle, and around it the legend "PEO PATEIA PAEA-
TTJB ATJT VINCEEE AUT MOKI." Below, " INTEB PEACOCK NAV. AMKI. ET EPEEVIEE NAT. ANO. DIE XXIX MABCU MDOCCXIV."
2 This was either the Severn or the Loire.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 983
Reappearance of the Constitution. She is chased into Marblehead Harbor. Again puts to Sea.
compelled to run on a sand-bank to avoid sinking. The engagement continued about
two hours, during which time Barney lost thirteen men in killed and wounded. The
blockade was effectually raised, for the enemy prudently dropped down the Patux-
ent. Barney and his flotilla remained in that river until about the middle of Au
gust, when the British commenced those operations which resulted in the destruc
tion of his vessels by order of its commander,1 and the capture of Washington City,
as recorded in a preceding chapter.
Now the gallant Constitution, 44, again appears on the scene of strife. When
Bainb ridge relinquished the command of her in 1813 she was thoroughly repaired.
A greater portion of her crew were sent to the Lakes, and when she was ready for
sea a new one was entered, and she was placed under the command of Captain Charles
Stewart. She left Boston Harbor for a cruise on the 30th of December, 1813, and for
seventeen days did not see a sail. She was on the coast of Surinam at the beginning
of February, and on the 14th of that month she captured the British war schooner
Picton, 16, together with a letter-of-marque which was under her convoy. Return
ing northward through the West India Islands, she chaseda the British a February 18,
frigate La Pique, 36, Captain Maitland, off Porto Rico. Night coming
on, that vessel escaped through the Mona Channel. The Constitution continued her
way homeward, and early in the morning of Sunday, the 3d of April, when off Cape
Anne, discovered two large sail to the southeast standing for her, and nearing her
rapidly with a fair breeze. They were two British frigates of great weight, the Ju-
non and La Nymphe. Boston Harbor was her destination, but she was compelled
to seek safety in that of Marblehead. By great exertions, superior skill in manage
ment, and lightening her of much of her burden, Stewart succeeded in reaching the
harbor of Marblehead in safety. The situation of the Constitution was still one of
great peril. An express was immediately sent to Commodore Bainbridge, at Boston,
who proceeded with all the force at his command to her relief. Several companies
of militia, artillery, and infantry hastened to Marblehead. The pursuers kept at a
respectful distance, and the Constitution was soon afterward safely anchored in the
harbor of Salem, from whence she sailed in due time to Boston, where she remained
until near the close of the year.
At the close of December,13 the Constitution, still commanded by Captain b lgu
Stewart, put to sea. She went to the Bay of Biscay by way of Bermuda and
Madeira, and then cruised some time farther southward off Lisbon. While in sight
of the Portuguese capital, Stewart observed a large ship seaward, and immediately
gave chase. Stopping to capture and secure a prize, he lost sight of her. She was
the Elizabeth, 74, on her way to the port of Lisbon. On her arrival there her com
mander was informed of the presence of the Constitution on the coast, and he went
out at once in search of her. He was unsuccessful.
Stewart sailed farther southward toAvard Cape St. Vincent, and on the 20th of Feb
ruary, 1815, he discovered a strange sail and made chase. At about two o'clock in
the afternoon a second vessel appeared farther to the leeward. Both were ships, and
evidently in company. Toward evening one signaled the other, and they drew to
gether. The Constitution still kept up the chase, and crowded all sail to get the near
est of the two under her guns before night should set in. At near sunset she fired a
few shots, but they fell short. Stewart found he was slowly gaining on the fugitives,
and cleared the Constitution for action. At six, being within range, he showed his
colors, when the two strangers flung out the British flag.
The position of the three vessels now became very interesting. The Constitution
shot by, and the three ships were so ranged that they formed the points of an equi
lateral triangle, Stewart's vessel to windward of the other two. In this advantageous
position tt\Q Constitution commenced the action, the three vessels keeping up an un-
i See page 921.
984 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Battle between the Constitution and British Vessels Cyane and Levant. The Constitution captures both.
ceasing and terrific fire for about fifteen minutes, when that of the enemy slackened.
An immense volume of heavy smoke hung over the combatants, admitting only an
occasional gleam of moonlight. The Constitution also became silent ; and as the
cloud of smoke rolled sullenly away as a very light breeze sprung up, Stewart per
ceived the leading ship of the enemy to be under the lee-beam of his own vessel,
while the sternmost was luffing up as if with the intention of tacking, and ci'ossing
the stern of the Constitution. The latter delivered a broadside into the ship abreast
of her, and then, by a skillful management of the sails, backed swiftly astern, com
pelling the foe to fill again to avoid being raked.
The leading ship now attempted to tack so as to cross the bow of the Constitution.
For some time both vessels manoauvred admirably, pouring heavy shot into each
other whenever opportunity offered, when, at a quarter before seven, the British ves
sel fired a gun to leeward and struck her flag. Lieutenant Hoffman was sent to take
possession of her. She was the frigate Cyane, 36, Captain Falcoln, manned by a crew
of one hundred and eighty men.
Stewart now looked after the Cyane*s consort, which had been forced out of the
combat by the crippled condition of her running gear, and to avoid damage from the
Constitution's heavy cannonading. She was ignorant of the fate of her consort.
About an hour after the action had ceased, having repaired damages, she bore up,
and met the Constitution coming down in search of her. They crossed on opposite
tacks, each delivering a broadside as they did so. For a time there was a brisk run
ning fight, the Constitution chasing, and her bow guns sending shot that ripped up
the planks of her antagonist. The latter was soon overpowered, and at ten o'clock
at night she fired a gun to leeward and surrendered. Lieutenant (now Admiral) W. B.
Shubrick was sent to take possession of her. She was found to be the Levant, 18,
Captain Douglass.
The Constitution at this time was equipped with fifty-two guns, and her comple
ment of men and boys was about four hundred and seventy. The Cyane was a
frigate-built ship, mounting twenty 32-pound carronades on her gun-deck, and ten
1 8:pound carronades, with two chase-guns, on her quarter-deck and forecastle, making
thirty-four in all. Her complement of men was one hundred and eighty-five. The
Levant was a new ship, mounting eighteen 32-pound carronades, a shifting 18 on her
top-gallant forecastle, and two chase-guns, making twenty-one in all. Her regular
complement was one hundred and thirty souls. Both vessels had additional numbers
on board, going to the Western Islands to bring away a ship that was being built
there. The loss of the Constitution in this gallant action was three killed and twelve
wounded. That of the enemy, in the two vessels, was estimated at seventy-seven
killed and wounded.
The Constitution was so little damaged that in three hours after her last conflict
she was again ready for action. She had been engaged for three hours with her an
tagonists, but the actual fighting had not occupied more than forty-five minutes. She
had not a single officer hurt. It was a most gallant fight in that moonlit sea by the
three vessels ; and the commanders of all received, as they deserved to, the highest
praise.
Placing Lieutenant Hoffman on the Cyane, and Lieutenant Ballard on the Levant,
as commanders, Captain Stewart proceeded with the Constitution and her prizes to
Porto Praya, the capital of Santiago, one of the Cape de Verde Islands, where he ar
rived on the 10th of March, 1815. On the following day, while Lieutenant Shubrick
was walking the quarter-deck, he heard one of the prisoners, a midshipman, exclaim,
" There's a large ship in the offing !" One of the English captains severely repri
manded him in a low tone. Shubrick's vigilance was aroused. The ocean was cov
ered with a thick fog resting low on the water. Above it, in thick luminous mist, he
saw the sails of a large ship, set portward. He immediately reported to Stewart,
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 935
The Constitution escapes from three British Frigates. Fate of her Prizes. Honors to Commodore Stewart.
who was below. That officer coolly replied that it was probably an English frigate,
and directed Shubrick to return to the deck, call all hands, and get ready to go out
and attack her. Shubrick did so, when he discovered the sails of two other vessels
above the fog-bank, and they were evidently those of men-of-war. Again he reported
to Captain Stewart, when that officer, perfectly unmoved by what he knew to be im
minent peril to his vessel, immediately ordered the cables of the Constitution to be
cut and signals made for the prizes to follow. He well knew that the English would
have no respect for the neutrality of that port, and that he was too feeble to cope
with three heavy men of war ; and within fifteen minutes
after the first ship had been seen, the Constitution was mak
ing her way out of the roads of Porto Praya, followed by
the two prizes. They were chased by the strangers, which
were the British frigates Leander-, 50, Sir George Collier;
Newcastle, 50, Lord George Stuart ; and Acasta, 40, Captain
Kerr. They pressed hard upon the fugitives. The Cyane
was falling astern, and must soon become a prey to her pur
suers. Stewart signaled for her to tack. Hoffman prompt
ly obeyed, and she was soon lost to view in the fog, under
cover of which she escaped, and reached New York on the
BILLET-HEAD. 10th Of April.1
The three ships continued to chase the Constitution, and finally the Newcastle began
to fire her chase-guns, but without effect. Meanwhile the Levant had fallen far in the
rear, and Stewart signaled for her commander to tack. Ballard obeyed, when the
three British ships, abandoning the chase of the Constitution, pursued him. He ran
the Levant back to port, and at four o'clock in the afternoon anchored her within one
hundred and fifty yards of the shore, under the shelter of what he supposed to be 'at
least a neutral battery of thirty or forty guns. He was mistaken. The English pris
oners, one hundred and twenty in number, whom Stewart had landed there on parole
before the British squadron hove in sight, regardless of the neutral character of the
port (Portuguese), took possession of the -battery and opened it upon the Levant. Sh"e
received the fire of her pursuers at the same time, and was compelled to strike her
colors. She was sent to Barbadoes in charge of Lieutenant Jellicoe, formerly of the
Cyane.
With these exploits, performed after peace had been proclaimed in the United
States, ended the career of " Old Ironsides," as the Constitution was called, in the
War of 1812. Stewart landed many of his prisoners at Maranham, in Brazil ; and at
Porto Rico he heard of the proclamation of peace. He immediately sailed home
ward, and arrived in New York at the middle of May, bringing with him the intel
ligence of the capture of the Cyane and Levant. The arrival of the Constitution
was hailed with delight. The Common Council of New York gave him the freedom
of the city in a gold box,2 and tendered to him and his officers the hospitalities of
the city at a public dinner. The Legislature of Pennsylvania gave him thanks in
the name of the state, and voted him a gold-hilted sword; and the Congress of the
United States voted him and his brave men the thanks of the nation, and directed a
gold medal, commemorative of the capture of the Cyane and Levant, to be struck
and presented to him. His exploits and that of his ship became the theme for ora
tory and song, and from that day to this the people of the United States have held
that vessel in peculiar reverence. She was always fortunate in having skillful com
manders, and brave and intelligent men. Her crews were principally men of New
England. From the time of the Tripolitan War until she left off cruising and be
came a school-ship, she always ranked as a " lucky vessel."
1 The billet-head of the Cyane, finely carved, is preserved at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. It is abont three feet six
inches in height, and has the representation of a dragon carved upon it. » See note 3, page 841.
986
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Admiral Stewart.
His Home in New Jersey.
Biographical Sketch.
STEWART'S MEDAL.1
COMMODORE STEWAET's RESIDENCE.
The gallant commander of the
Constitution at the close of the war,
who was then a veteran in the serv
ice, still (1867) survives, and is oft
en called affectionately by the name
given to his vessel — " Old Iron
sides." He lives in retirement, with
a sufficiency of this world's goods,
in an unostentatious dwelling on
the banks of the Delaware, at Bor-
dentown, New Jersey, around which
are delightful grounds attached to
the mansion.2
In the summer of 1814, Commo
dore Decatur, who had been endur-
1 The above picture represents the medal, full size. On one side is a bust of Stewart, with the words around it " CA-
ROLTJS STEWART NAvis AMER. CONSTITUTION DUX." On the other side a representation of the capture of the Cyane and
Levant, and the words " UNA VICTORIAM ERIPUIT RATtiius BINIS." Below, "INTER OONSTITU.
JiAV. AMERI. ET LEVANT ET CYANE NAV. ANG. DIE XX FEBH. MDOOOXV."
2 The writer visited Admiral Stewart at his pleasant home, near Bordentown, in the summer
of 1SG3, in company with Dr. Peterson, his neighbor and friend. I was then on my return from
the then fresh battle-field at Gettysburg. At that time he was eighty-six years of age, a firm
and compactly-knit man, about five feet nine inches in height, and possessed of great bodily
and mental vigor. His narrative of adventures on sea and land in the service of his country
far more than sixty years were full of romance of the most stirring character. He showed us
a plain sword, the blade of which was presented to him by the King of Spain in 1804 because
of his services, while in command of the Experiment, in the West Indies, in saving from destruc
tion about sixty persons, many of them women, who were flying from insurgent blacks of St.
Domingo. He could not constitutionally receive a sword from a foreign potentate, but he might
a blade for his defense. He had it plainly mounted, and wore it on the occasion of the combat
with the Cijane and Levant. During that contest the guard was carried away by a cannon-ball
that grazed the commander's side. The blacksmith of the Constitution constructed a rude
guard, and it still remains. He also showed us a dirk, a foot long, with a handle made of a
rhinoceros tooth, which was in the hands of the Turk with whom Decatur engaged in mortal
struggle on the deck of the Philadelphia in the harbor of Tripoli, mentioned on page 122.
Charles Stewart was born in Philadelphia on the 22d of July, 1776. His parents were natives
of Ireland. His father, who was a mariner in the merchant service, came to America at an
early age. Charles was the youngest of eight children, and lost his father before he was two
years of age. He entered the merchant service on the ocean at the age of thirteen years as a
cabin-boy, and rose gradually to the office of captain. In March, 1798, he was commissioned a
lieutenant in the Navy of the United States, and made his first cruise under Commodore Bar
ney. In 1SOO he was appointed to the command of the armed schooner Experiment. At the
beginning of the autumn of that year he fought and captured the French schooner Two Friends,
after an action often minutes, without incurring loss on his part. From that time the career
of Lieutenant Stewart was a most honorable one to himself and the navy of his country. He
was conspicuous in the war with Tripoli, and was greatly beloved by the brave Decatur for his
STEWART'S SWORD.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
987
Decatur's Squadron.
He puts to Sea in the President.
The President chased.
ing inaction for a long time on account of the blockade of his vessels in the Thames
above New London, was transferred to the command of the President, 44, which
Rodgers had left for the new ship Ckterriere. Captain Biddle, commander of the
Hornet, which had been long engaged in protecting the United States and the Mace
donian in the Thames, was finally ordered to join Decatur, and, with joyous alacrity,
he obeyed. He soon found an opportunity to avoid the blockading squadron, and in
November he joined Decatur with his ship at New York, when that commander's
squadron, assembled there, consisted of the President (the flag-ship) ; Peacock, 18,
Captain Warrington ; Hornet, 1 8, Captain Biddle ; and Tom Bowline, store-ship.
Decatur had been engaged all the summer and autumn in the vicinity of New
York, watching for the approach of the enemy, who were ravaging the country in
the vicinity of the Chesapeake Bay. Ignorant of the real destination of the British
when they left those waters, the government detained Decatur so long as there were
any apprehensions of an attack on New York. He finally received an order to pre
pare for a cruise in the East Indies, to spread havoc among the British shipping in
that remote quarter of the world. He was ready at the middle of January,a »1815.
and on the night of the 14thb the President dropped down to Sandy Hook, b January,
leaving the other vessels at their anchorage near Staten Island. She grounded on
the bar in the darkness of the night, but was floated off by the rising tide in time to
clear the coast and the British blockading squadron before morning.
There had been a heavy gale on the 1 4th, and Decatur, believing that the block-
aders had been driven by it to the leeward, kept the President close along the Long
Island shore for about fiVe hours, when he sailed boldly out to sea in a southeasterly
by easterly direction. Two hours after changing his course he discovered by the
starlight a sti'ange sail ahead, and within gun-shot distance. Two others soon made
their appearance, and at dawn the President was chased by four ships of war, two on
her quarters and two astern. These were the Endymion, 40 ; Pomone, 38 ; Tenedos,
services there, and his generous friendship ever afterward. In the month of May, 1804, he was promoted to the
rank of master commandant, and to that of captain in 1806. During that and the following year he was employed
in superintending the construction of gun-boats. In
1812 he was appointed to the command of the frigate
Constitution. He was with her in Hampton Roads
in February, 1813, where, by skillful management, he
eluded the enemy, and took his ship safely to Norfolk.
In June following he was appointed to the command
of the Constitution, and in her performed the gallant
services recorded in the text. After the war he was
placed in command (1816) of the Franklin, 74, and con
veyed the Hon. Richard Rush, American minister, to
England. Until very recently he has been employed,
afloat or ashore, in the naval service of his country, and
on all occasions evincing eminent executive ability
and statesmanlike views. The annexed portrait of the
venerable admiral is from a photograph taken in 1S64.
Admiral Stewart is the only surviving officer in the
civil or military service of the United States who holds
a commission dated in the last century. He is a most
interesting link between the fathers of the Revolution
and the patriots and heroes of our day. Our visit with
him in his pleasant home was far too short for our own
inclination, and we reluctantly parted with one so fa
mous in our annals, and so fluent in speech in the re
cital of the events of his wonderful experience. We
bade the hale old admiral farewell with feelings coin
cident with those of an anonymous poet, who wrote,
"Oh, oft may you meet with brave Stewart,
The tar with" the free and the true heart;
A bright welcome smile, and a soul free from guile,
You'll find in the hero, Charles Stewart.
A commander both generous and brave, too,
Who risked his life others to save, too ;
And thousands that roam by his neat Jersey
home
Bless the kin d heart of gallant Charles Stewart."
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Battle between the President and Endymion.
Capture of the President.
38 ; and Majestic, razee, of the blockading
squadixm, which had been blown off the coast
by the gale, and were now returning to the
cruising-ground off Sandy Hook.
The chase continued during the morning,
with a light and baffling wind, and the Presi
dent, deeply laden with stores for a long cruise,
soon found the Endymion, Captain Hope, the
nearest vessel, rapidly overtaking her. Deca-
tur at once gave orders for lightening his own
ship for the purpose of increasing her speed.
It availed but little. At three o'clock in the
afternoon the Endymion came down with a
fresh breeze, which the President did not feel,
and opened her bow-guns upon the fugitive.
The President promptly returned the fire in
an effort to damage the spars and rigging of
her pursuer, but without effect. Her shot
moved feebly and fell short, as if propelled by
weak powder. On came the En-
dymion, and at five o'clock she
gained a position in which she
terribly a'nnoyed her antagonist.
The President could not bring a gun to bear upon the foe, and was lacerated by every
shot of her pursuer. It was evident that the Endymion was endeavoring to secure
a victory by gradually crippling the President, and reducing her to an unmanageable
wreck.
Decatur quickly penetrated the design of his enemy, and prepared to frustrate it
by boldly running down upon the Endymion, carrying her by a hand-to-hand fight,
and, abandoning his own vessel, seize his antagonist as a prize, and in her run away
from the other pursuers. But the commander of the Endymion was as wary as he
was skillful, and was not to be caught in that manner. He accommodated the move
ments of his own ship to those of his antagonist, until at length they were brought
abeam of each other, and both opened tremendous broadsides. Every attempt of
Decatur to lay the President alongside the Endymion was foiled by Captain Hope,
who adroitly kept his ship a quarter of a mile from his antagonist.
Decatur now determined to dismantle the Endymion. The two frigates kept run
ning dead before the wind, head and head, each discharging heavy broadsides upon
the other for two hours and a half, when the Endymion, having most of her sails cut
from the yards, fell astern. The President, no doubt, could have compelled her ad
versary to strike her colors in a few minutes, but just at that moment the other ves
sels in chase were seen b.y the dim starlight to be approaching. They had been joined
by the Dispatch. The President therefore kept on her course in efforts to escape.
In this she failed. The pursuers closed upon her. At 1 1 o'clock the Pomone got on
the weather-bow of the President, and gave her a damaging broadside. The Tenedos
was coming up and closing on her quarter, and the Majestic and Dispatch were with
in gun-shot distance astern. They all fell upon her with energy. Farther resistance
would have been useless. The President struck her colors, and Decatur surrendered
his sword to Captain Hayes, of the Majestic, which was the first vessel that came
alongside of the vanquished frigate.
In the chase and running fight the President lost twenty-four men killed and fifty-
six wounded. Among the slain were her first, fourth, and fifth lieutenants, Messrs.
Babbitt, Hamilton, and Howell. The Endymion had eleven killed and fourteen
OF THE WAE OF 1812.
989
The rest of Decatur's Squadron puts to Sea.
Biographical Sketch of Decatur.
wounded. It was found that her hull had been struck by many balls which did not
penetrate, and this fact confirmed the impressions of Decatur at the beginning of the
contest that the powder was inferior.
After the action, the President, accompanied by the Endymion, sailed for Bermuda.
Both vessels were dismasted in a gale before reaching port. Decatur wrote an offi
cial account for the Secretary of War on board of the Endymion on the 1 8th. He
was soon after paroled, and returned to New York at the beginning of March. A
court of inquiry was convened, and he and all of his officers, tried for losing their ship,
were honorably acquitted. It was proven, and was admitted by the English, that
the President was captured by the squadron, and not by a single vessel.1 And when
the details of the combat became known, the heroism of Decatur and his men pro
duced the most profound sensation. Language was too feeble to express the admi
ration of the American people.2
On the 22d of Januarya the Peacock, Hornet, and Tom Bowline followed the
President to sea. Their commanders were ignorant of her fate. They passed
the bar at daylight, regardless of the blockading squadron, and passed out upon the
broad ocean unmolested. Each made its way, sometimes alone and sometimes con
sorting with another, for the port of Tristan d'Acunha, the principal of a group of
islands in the South Atlantic, in latitude 3*7° S., and longitude 12° W. from Washing
ton. That was the place of rendezvous designated by Decatur. The Peacock and
1815.
1 The force of the President was thirty-two long 24-pounders, one 24-pound howitzer, twenty 42-pound carronades,
and five small pieces in her tops. The Endymion mounted twenty-six long 24-ponnders, twenty-two 32-pounders, one
12-pound carronade, and one long IS. The Majestic rated 5C guns ; the Tenedos, 38 ; the Pomone, 38. That of the Dis
patch is unknown.
2 We have noticed on pages 457 and 45S the honors showered upon Decatur on another occasion, when Congress voted
him a gold medal. Stephen Decatur was born in Worcester County, Maryland, on the 5th of January, 1779. He en
tered the navy as a midshipman in the frigate United States, Commodore Barry. In 1801 he was promoted to lieutenant,
and sailed in the Essex, then of Commodore Dale's squadron, to the Mediterranean Sea. On account of an affray with
a British officer at Malta, he was suspended, and returned home. An investigation proved him to have been blameless,
and he was appointed to the command of the Argus, of Treble's squadron, then lying hefore Tripoli. His services in
that field of duty have been noticed in the text. On his return to America he was appointed to superintend the build
ing of gun-boats, and finally succeeded Barron in com
mand of the frigate Chesapeake. His services during the
Second War for Independence have been recorded in the
text. After the peace with England he was sent to the
Mediterranean with a squadron to chastise the Alge-
rines, and his vigorous action there caused the discon
tinuance of the practice of paying tribute to the Barbary
powers, not only by the United States, but by the pow
ers of Western Europe. On his return home he was ap
pointed one of the Board of Naval Commissioners, and
resided at Kalorama, near Georgetown (see page 942),
nntil his death in March, 1820. He was mortally wound
ed in a duel with Commodore Barron, fought near Bla-
densburg (see page 92S) on the 20th of that month, and
died at Kalorama the same evening. His remains were
laid in the family vault of Joel Barlow, where they re
mained until 1S46, when they were reinterred, with ap
propriate ceremonies, in the burial-ground of St. Peter's
Church, Philadelphia, by the side of those of his father
and family, and over them a beautiful monument, de
picted in the annexed engraving, was erected, bearing
the following inscriptions :
North Side: "Stephen Decatur, born January 5, 1779.
Entered the navy of the United States as midshipman
April 30, 1793. Became lieutenant June 3, 1799. Made
captain for distinguished merit, passing over the rank
of commander, February 16, 1S04. Died March 22, 1820."
East Side: "Devoted to his country by a patriot father,
he cherished in his heart, and sustained by his intrepid
actions, the inspiring sentiment, 'Our country, right or
wrong.' A nation gave him in return its applause and
gratitude." South Side: "The gallant officer whose
prompt and active Valor, always on the watch, was DEOATUK'S'MOXUMEM.
guided by a Wisdom and supported by a Firmness which
never tired. Whose exploits in arms reflected the daring features of Romance and Chivalry." West Side: "A name
brilliant from a series of heroic deeds on the coast of Barbary, and illustrious by achievements against more disciplined
enemies ; the pride of the Navy, the glory of the Republic."
990
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Battle between the Hornet and Penguin.
Tom Bowline arrived there together at
the middle of March, and were driven
away by a storm. The Hornet, Captain
Biddle, entered the port on the 23d, and
was about to cast her anchor, when a
strange sail was discovered to the wind
ward. Captain Biddle immediately
spread the sails of the Hornet, and went
seaward to reconnoitre. The stranger
soon came running down before the
wind, and at a quarter before two o'clock
in the afternoon approached the Hornet
within musket-shot distance, displayed
English colors, and fired a gun. The
Hornet accepted the challenge, and for
about fifteen minutes a sharp cannonade
was kept up. The fire of the Hornet
was so severe that her antagonist ran
down for the purpose of boarding her.
The vessels became entangled, and a
good opportunity was offered to the
stranger to accomplish her purpose.
But her first lieutenant could not in
duce his men to follow him. Biddle's men, on the contrary, were eager to rush into
the British ship for a hand-to-hand fight. His advantage lay with his guns, and he
would not allow his people to leave the ship. His broadsides raked the foe terribly,
and very soon an officer on board the stranger called out that she had surrendered.
Firing ceased, and Captain Biddle sprang upon the taffrail to inquire whether his an
tagonist had actually surrendered, when two British marines fii'ed at him. One bul
let wounded him severely in the neck. The assassins were instantly slain by bullets
fired from the Hornet. She immediately wore round, after being disentangled from
her foe by a lurch given by the sea, and was preparing to fire another broadside,
when at least twenty men appeared on her antagonist throwing up their hands and
asking for quarter. It was difficult to restrain the indignant Americans, who wanted
to avenge the injury done to their commander. It was done, however. The van
quished vessel, after a contest of twenty-three minutes, struck her colors. She was
the brig Penguin, 18, Captain Dickenson, which had been fitted and manned express
ly to encounter the privateer Young Wasp, a more powerful vessel than herself. She
mounted nineteen carriage-guns, besides guns on her tops, and her size and weight of
metal was the same as that of the Hornet. Her complement of men was one hun
dred and thirty-two.
The Hornet lost one man killed and ten wounded. Among the latter were Cap
tain Biddle, Lieutenant (afterward Commodore) Conner, and eight men. Not a
round shot marred the hull of the Hornet, but her rigging was much cut, while the
Penguin was terribly riddled. Her foremast and bowsprit were shot away, and her
mainmast was so much shattered that it could not be secured for farther use.
Among her slain were her commander and boatswain. After taking from her all
that was valuable, Captain Biddle scuttled her on the morning of the 25th, and she
went to the bottom of the deep South Atlantic Ocean.
The conflict between the Hornet and Penguin was regarded by naval men as one of
the most creditable actions of the war, and the American people testified their appre
ciation of the services of Captain Biddle by the bestowal of special honors upon him.1
1 James Biddle was born in Philadelphia on the ISth of February, 1T83. He was educated at the University of Perm-
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
991
Honors to Captain Biddle.
Biographical Sketch.
When he arrived in New York a public dinner was given him in that city. Citizens
of his native town, Philadelphia, presented to him a beautiful service of silver plate j1
and the Congress of the United States, in the name of the Republic, gave him thanks,
and ordered a gold medal to be struck in commemoration of the victory, and pre^
sented to him.
OIT TRISTA5T D'ACTOiJIA,
JtfARCH XXIIt
MDCCCXV:
BIDDLE'S MEDAL.'
On the same day,a and a few hours after the action with the Penguin, . March 23,
Captain Biddle discovered another sail in sight. It proved to be the Pea- 1815-
cock, having the Tom Bowline in company. He converted the latter into a cartel
ship, and sent her to Rio de Janeiro with his prisoners. They then continued on
their course, after remaining in Tristan d'Acunha the length of time appointed by
Decatur (until the 13th of April), and, in the mean time, they had intelligence that
the President was probably captured.
While sailing onward toward the Indian Seas on the morning of the 27th of April,
Captain Warring-ton, of the Peacock, signaled to Captain Biddle that a strange ves
sel was seen in the distance. Both sloops started in chase with a light wind, and
before evening they had rapidly gained on the stranger. She was yet in sight in the
morning. The Peacock was two leagues ahead of the Hornet between two and three
o'clock in the afternoon,1* and at that time began to show some caution in
b April 28.
her movements. It was soon discovered that the stranger was a heavy
line-of-battle ship and an enemy, and that she was about to give chase. The Pea-
sylvania. He and his brother Edward entered the navy in 1800 as midshipmen in the frigate President. James made
a cruise in the Mediterranean under Captain Murray, and afterward under Bainbridge. His conduct while in those
waters, and especially at Tripoli, was distinguished by great courage and nautical skill. He was a prisoner among the
semi-barbarians of that region for nineteen months. On his return in 1S05 he was promoted to a lieutenancy, and was
in active service most of the time until the war broke out in 1812, when he sailed in the Wasp, Captain Jones, in which
he acquired special honor in the fight of that vessel with the Frolic. Soon after that affair Lieutenant Biddle was pro
moted to master commandant, and assigned to the command of the Hornet. With her he gained new laurels, as record
ed in the text. On his return to the United States in the summer of 1815 he was promoted to post captain. He con
tinued in active service until his death. His special services were important. In 1817 he took possession of Oregon
Territory ; in 1826 he signed a commercial treaty with Turkey ; from 1838 to 1842 he was Governor of the Naval Asylum,
Philadelphia ; and in 1845, while in command of a squadron in the East Indies, he exchanged the ratifications of the first
American treaty with China. He was at Japan, and, crossing the Pacific, he engaged in some of the scenes in the war
with Mexico on the coast of California. He returned here in March, 1848, and died at Philadelphia on the 1st of Oc
tober following. The portrait of Commodore Biddle on the opposite page was copied from one in the possession of
the Navy Department at Washington. •
1 He had already received from his townsmen and friends a beautiful testimonial of their esteem the previous year.
See page 453.
2 The above picture represents the medal, the exact size. On one side is a bust of Captain Biddle, and the words
"THE CONGRESS OF THE TT. s. TO CAPT. JAMES KIDDLE FOR HIS GALLANTRY, GOOD CONDUCT, AND SERVICES." On the other
side is represented a naval action, with the Peak of Tristan d'Acunha in sight beyond the smoke. Around this are the
Words " CAPTURE OF THE BRITISH BEIG PENGUIN BY THE V. 8. SHIP HORNET. BelOW, " OFF TRI8TAU D'ACUICIA, MARCH XXIII.
MDCCCXV."
992 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Cruise of the Hornet and Peacock. The War over. The American Navy at the close of the War.
cock and the Hornet spread their sails for flight. The latter was more particularly
in peril, as she was a slower sailer than her consort. The huge Englishman was gain
ing upon her. Biddle began to lighten her, and the chase became intensely interest
ing during the entire night of the 28th and early morning of the 29th. At dawn the
enemy was within gun-shot distance of the Hornet on her lee quarter. At seven
o'clock English colors and a rear admiral's flag was displayed by the stranger, and
she commenced firing. On sped the Hornet, casting overboard shot, anchors, cables,
spars, boats, many heavy articles on deck and below, and all of her guns but one.
At noon the pursuer was within a mile of her, and again commenced firing, three of
the balls striking the Hornet. Still on she sped, her gallant commander having re
solved to save his ship at all hazards. He did so. By consummate seamanship and
prudence, he soon took the Hornet out of harm's way, and with her single gun, and
without .boat or anchor, she made her way to New York, where she arrived on the
9th of June. Biddle's skill in saving his vessel elicited the unbounded praise of his
countrymen. It was afterward ascertained that the pursuer of the Hornet was the
Cornwallis, 74, on her way to the East Indies, and bearing the flag of an officer in
that service.
Warrington continued his cruise in the Peacock, and on the 30th of June,a
a IglR
when off Anjer, in the Straits of Sunda, between Borneo and Sumatra, he fell
in with the East India Company's cruiser Nautilus, 14, Lieutenant Charles Boyce.
Broadsides were exchanged, when the Nautilus struck her colors. She had lost six
men killed and eight wounded. The Peacock lost none. This event occurred a few
days after the period set by the treaty of peace for the cessation of hostilities. "War
ring ton was ignorant of any such treaty, but, being informed of its ratification on the
next day, he gave up the Nautilus, and did every thing in his power to alleviate the
sufferings of her wounded people. He then returned home, bearing the honor of hav
ing fired the last shot in the Second War for Independence. The combat between
the Hornet and Penguin was the last regular naval battle, the affair between the Pea
cock and Nautilus being only a rencounter.
When the Peacock reached America, every cruiser, public and private, that had
been out against the British had returned to port, and the war was over. " The
navy," says Cooper, " came out of this struggle with a vast increase of reputation.
The brilliant style in which the ships had been carried into action, the steadiness and
rapidity with which they had been handled, and the fatal accuracy of their fire on
nearly every occasion, produced a new era in naval warfare. Most of the frigate ac
tions had been as soon decided as circumstances would at all allow ; and in no in
stance was it found necessary to keep up the fire of a sloop of war an hour when
singly engaged. Most of the combats of the latter, indeed, were decided in about
half that time. The execution done in these short conflicts was often equal to that
made by the largest vessels of Europe in general actions, and in some of them the
slain and wounded comprised a very large proportion of the crews. It is not easy to
say in which nation this unlooked-for result created the most surprise The
ablest and bravest captains of the English fleet were ready to admit that a new pow
er was about to appear on the ocean, and that it was not improbable the battle for
the mastery of the seas would have to be fought over again."1
It now remains for us only to consider the principal exploits of the American pri
vateers, whose services appear in most admirable conspicuousness at every period of
the war, from the month after it was proclaimed until some time after peace was as
sured by solemn treaty. Although privateering is nothing less than legalized piracy,
it has ever been sanctioned by the laws of nations since such codes were first estab
lished, and the foremost of the American statesmen at the period we are considering
advocated it as a just and expedient measure for a nation so feeble as ours in mari-
i Naval History of the United States, ii., 4T9.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 993
Privateers commissioned. The first Cruisers of that Class. Privateering approved.
time strength when contending with one so powerful as Great Britain.1 So regard
ing it, Congress, in the act declaring war, sanctioned it, by authorizing the President
to " issue to private-armed vessels of the United States commissions, or letters of
marque and reprisal," as they were termed, in such manner as he should think proper.
The President was not tardy in
issuing such commissions under a
specific act of Congress passed on
> 1812
soon swift-sailing brio-s and
o o
schooners, and armed pilot-boats,
were out upon the high seas in
search of plunder from the com
mon enemy. Of these the clip
per-built schooner represented in
the engraving was the favorite.
The most noted of these were
built at Baltimore. They gener
ally carried from six to ten guns,
with a single long gun, called
" Long Tom," mounted on a swiv-
d- .1 _ mi CLU'l'EB-iJUILT PKIVATEEB bCUOONKK.
in the centre. 1 hey were usu
ally manned with fifty persons, besides officers, all armed with muskets, cutlasses, and
boarding-pikes, commanded to " burn, sink, and destroy" the property of an enemy
wherever it might be found, either on the high seas or in British ports.
Ltfo the port of Salem, Massachusetts, which became famous as the home of priva
teers during the contest, the first prize captured on the ocean after the declaration
of war was taken. On the 10th of July the private-armed schooner Fame, Captain
Webb, took into that harbor two British ships, one laden with timber and the other
with tar. On the same day the privateer Dash, Captain Carroway, of Baltimore, en
tered Hampton Roads and captured the British government schooner Whiting, Lieu
tenant Maxey, who was bearing dispatches from London to Washington.
On the 14th of July, a stanch privateer of Gloucester, Massachusetts, named the
Madison, fell in with a British transport ship from Halifax bound to St. John's. She
had been under convoy of the Indian, a British sloop of war, which had just given
chase to the Potty and Dolphin, two American privateers. The Madison pounced
on and captured the transport, which, with the cargo, was valued at $50,000. She
was sent into Gloucester. On the following day the Indian, after chasing the Polly
for some time, manned her launch and several boats, and sent them to capture the
fugitive. The Polly turned, and resisted so gallantly that she caused the launch to
strike her colors. By this time the Indian was almost within gun-shot, when the
Polly took to her sweeps and escaped. The Madison soon afterward captured a Brit
ish ship of twelve guns, name not given, and the brig Eliza, of six guns.
On the 18th of July the letter of marque schooner Falcon, of Baltimore,, armed
i Immediately after the declaration of war, Thomas Jefferson wrote on the subject (July 4, 1812), and after asking
"What is war?" answered, "It is eimply a contest between nations of trying which can do the other the most harm."
Again he asked and answered as follows : "Who carries on the war? Armies are formed and navies manned by indi
viduals. What produces peace ? The distress of individuals. What difference to the sufferer is it that his property is
taken by a national or private-armed vessel ? Did our merchants, who have lost 917 vessels by British captures, feel any
gratification that most of them were taken by bis majesty's men-of-war ? Were the spoils less rigidly enforced by a 74-
gun ship than by a privateer of four guns, and were not all equally condemned ? .... In the United States every pos
sible encouragement should be given to privateering in time of war with a commercial nation. We have tens of thou
sands of seamen that without it would be destitute of the means of support, and useless to their country. Our national
ships are too few in number to give employment to one twentieth part of them, or retaliate the acts of the enemy. By
licensing private-armed vessels, the whole naval force of the nation is truly brought to bear on the foe ; and while the
contest lasts, that it may have the speedier termination, let every individual contribute his mite, in the best way he can,
to distress and harass the enemy, and compel him to peace." So argued Mr. Jefferson, the founder of the Democratic
party, then administering the national government, and which was a unit in favor of war with Great Britain.
3R
994 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Effects of American Privateering. Cruise of the Rossie.
with four guns and sixteen men, fought the British cutter Hero, five guns and fifty-
five men, on the coast of France, for two hours and a half, and drove her off. On the
following day the Falcon was attacked by a British privateer of six guns and forty
men. She resisted for an hour and a half, when, her captain having been killed and
several of her crew wounded, she struck her colors, and was taken into a Guernsey
port. The first prize that arrived at Baltimore was a British schooner laden with a
cargo of sugar, valued at $18,000. She was captured by the Dolphin. This was on
the 26th of July. A little more than a month had elapsed since the declaration of
war, yet within that time such displays of American valor had been made on the sea
that the British began to feel some respect for their new foe on that element. Dur
ing the month of July more than fifty vessels were taken from the British by Amer
ican privateers, and taken into the harbors of the United States.
Toward the middle of July seven privateers sailed from Baltimore on a cruise.
One of them was the swift clipper-built schooner Rossie, fourteen guns and one hun
dred and twenty men, commanded by the veteran Commodore Barney. His manu
script journal of that and a second cruise lies before me, and bears evidence that it
was one of the most exciting voyages on record. He sailed from Baltimore on the 12th
of July,a and cruised along the eastern coast of the United States for forty-five
days without entering port. He was almost daily capturing English vessels,
chasing and being chased, and informing all American vessels that fell in his way of
the beginning of war.
Nine days after he left Baltimore15 Barney fell in with the brig Nymph,
of Newburyport, and seized her for violating the Non-importation Act. On
the following day the Rossie was chased by a British frigate, which hurled twenty-
five shots after her, but without effect. The Rossie outsailed the frigate, an/i es-
c July so. caped. Six days afterward0 she was chased by another frigate, and again
outsailed the pursuer. On the following day Barney took and burned the
* August i. snip Princess Royal, and the day following*1 took and manned the ship
Kitty. On the 2d of August he took and burned the brigs Fame and Devonshire,
and schooner Squid / and on the same day he captured the brig Two Brothers, put
on board of her sixty of his prisoners, and ordered her as a cartel to St. John's, New
Brunswick, to effect an exchange for as many American prisoners. Barney sent his
compliments to Admiral Sawyer, the British
commander on the Halifax station, desired him
to treat the prisoners well, and assured him,
very coolly, that he should soon send him an
other shipload of captives for exchange. On
the next day he took and sunk the brig Henry, and schooners Race-horse and Hali
fax, captured and manned the brig William, and added forty prisoners to the num
ber on board the Two Brothers. On the 9th of August he captured the ship Jenny,
of twelve guns, after a brief action ; and on the following day he seized the brig Re
becca, of Saco, from London, for a breach of the non-importation law. On the 28th
he seized the Euphrates, of New Bedford, for the same reason ; and on the 30th he
ran into Narraganset Bay, and anchored off Newport. During his cruise of forty-
five days he seized and captured fourteen vessels, nine of which he destroyed. Their
aggregate capacity amounted to two thousand nine hundred and fourteen tons, and
they were manned by one hundred and sixty-six men. The estimated value of his
prizes was $1,289,000.
Barney remained in Newport until the 7th of September,6 when the Rossie
started on another cruise. On the 9th she was chased by three British ships
of war, but by superior speed she soon left them out of sight. On the 12th she was
chased by an English frigate for six hours, when she, too, was left so far
' ScDtcnibcr 16
, behind that she gave up the pursuit. Four days afterwardf she fell in
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
995
Cruise of the Rossie. First Prize in Baltimore.
Cruise of the Globe.
with and captured the British armed packet Princess Amelia. They had a severe
engagement for almost an hour, at pistol-shot distance most of the time. Mr. Long,
Barney's first lieutenant, was severely wounded; and six of the crew were injured^
but not so badly. The Princess Amelia lost her captain, sailing-master, and one sea
man killed ; and the master's mate and six seamen were wounded. The Rossie suf
fered in her rigging and sails, but not in her hull, while the Princess Amelia was ter
ribly cut up in all.
Barney had just secured his prize when he fell in, on the same day,a .September 12
with three ships and an armed brig. From the latter the Rossie re- 1S12-
ceived an eighteen-pound shot through her quarter, which wounded a man and lodged
in the pump. She dogged the three vessels for four days in hopes of seeing them
separated, and thus affording an opportunity to pounce on one of them. They kept
together, and he gave up the game. On the 23d he spoke the privateer Globe, Cap
tain Murphy, of Baltimore, and the two went in search of the three ships, but could
not find them. On the 8th of October, while they were sailing together, they cap
tured the British schooner Jubilee, and sent her into port. On the 22d Barney seized
the ship Merrimack for a violation of law. She was laden with a valuable cargo.
On the 10th of !STovemberb he returned to Baltimore. The result of his two
cruises in the Rossie since he left that city was 3698 tons of shipping, valued
at $1,500,000, and two hundred and seventeen prisoners.
The Dolphin, of Baltimore, Captain Stafford, was a successful privateer. She car
ried twelve guns and one hundred men. The first prize sent into Baltimore after the
declaration of war was hers, as we have observed on the opposite page ; and other
ports received her captives. She entered Salem, Massachusetts, on the 23d of July,
after a cruise of twenty days, during which time she had taken six vessels without
receiving the least injury. She was repeatedly chased by British cruisers, but al
ways outsailed them. Captain Stafford was remarkable for kindness of manner to
ward his prisoners. Such was its power, that on several occasions, when he was com
pelled to use sweeps to escape from the English men-of-war, they volunteered to man
them.
The privateer Globe, of Baltimore, Captain Murphy, carrying eight guns and about
eighty men, went to sea on the 24th of July in company with the letter of marque
Cora. On the 31st of that month she chased a vessel about three hours, when she
was within gun-shot, and commenced firing. The fugitive hoisted British colors, and
returned the shots from her stern-chasers, consisting of two long 9-pounders. The
Globe could only bring a long nine amidships to bear during an action of about forty
minutes, for it was blowing very fresh, and the enemy crowded all sail. The Globe
finally gained on her, and commenced firing broadsides. Her antagonist returned
broadside for broadside, until the Globe, getting within musket-shot distance, fired
deadly volleys of bullets. After a brisk engagement of an hour and a half at close
quarters, the British vessel struck her colors. She proved to be the English letter of
marque Boyd, from New Providence for Liverpool, mounting ten guns. No person
was injured on either ship. The Boytfs boats were destroyed, and she suffered much
in hull and rigging. The Globe suffered in sails and rigging, but was able, after send
ing her prize to Philadelphia, to proceed on her cruise. On the 14th of August she
captured a British schooner of four guns, laden with mahogany ; and, a few days aft
erward, she arrived at Hampton Roads, accompanied by a large British ship carry
ing twenty-two guns, richly laden, and bound for Glasgow, which she captured not
far from the Bermudas. Having secured her prize in port, the Globe started immedi
ately on another cruise.1
i While cruising off the coast of Portugal, the Globe had a severe engagement with an Algerine sloop of war, which
lasted three hours, at half gun-shot distance. The Algerine shot high. The Globe received no less than eighty-two
shot through her sails, but had not a man killed, and only two wounded. It was a drawn battle.
996 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Cruises of the Highflyer, Yankee, and Shadow.
The Highflyer, Captain Gavit, of Baltimore, was another successful cruiser on pri
vate account. She was armed with eight guns, and manned by one hundred men.
She left Baltimore early in July, and on the 26th captured the British schooner Har
riet, in ballast, but with $8000 in specie on board. On the 19th of August, while in
the Gulf of Mexico, Captain Gavit discovered the Jamaica fleet of merchantmen, and
gave chase. He soon observed that they were convoyed by a British frigate. That
vessel gave chase to the Highflyer. The latter outsailed her, and on the 21st pounced
xipon the Diana, one of the fleet, and captured her. She was of three hundred and
fifty tons burden, and laden with a valuable cargo of rum, sugar, coffee, etc. Gavit
took out her crew, and sent her as a prize to the United States. On the following
day the Highflyer fell in with and engaged two other British vessels at half gun-shot
distance, giving them about sixty shot. The breeze was too stiff" to allow safety in
boarding them, and so he hauled off and left them. These were the Jamaica, of Liv
erpool, and the Mary Ann, of London, the former carrying seven guns and twenty-
one men, and the latter twelve guns and eighteen men. On the 23d the Highflyer
fell upon the vessels again, the wind having moderated. Her people, after a severe
cannonading and musket firing from both sides, boarded the Jamaica, and captured
her. The Mary Ann struck her colors at the same time. During the action Captain
Gavit was shot through his right arm by a musket-ball, and one of his seamen was
wounded in the cheek. These were the only casualties, excepting the damage (which
was considerable) done to the sails and rigging of the Highflyer. Her antagonists
were severely bruised. Several of their seamen were wounded. Both ships were
richly laden with the products of the West Indies.
On the 1st of August, the privateer Yankee, carrying ten guns, while cruising off
the coast of Nova Scotia, fell in with the letter of marque Royal Bounty, also carry
ing ten guns. She was a fine vessel of six hundred and fifty-eight tons, and manned
by twenty-five men. The Yankee had the advantage of wind, and, bearing down
upon the weather quarter of the Royal Bounty, gave her a division broadside, which
made her quake in every fibre. Making a quick movement, she gave her an entire
broadside, which was returned with spirit. ,The mariners of the Yankee were most
ly sharp-shooters, and their execution was terribly galling. At the same time the
ship was well managed, and her great guns were making havoc with her enemy's
sails and rigging. The Royal Bounty's helmsman was killed, and she became so un
manageable that, after fighting an hour, she was compelled to surrender. She was
terribly wounded. All her boats were stove, and no less than one hundred and fifty
round shot of various kinds went through her rigging and sails, or lodged in her hull
and spars.
The schooner Shadow, Captain Taylor, of Philadelphia, had a severe encounter with
the British letter of marque May, Captain Affleck, from Liverpool bound to St. Lucia,
carrying fourteen guns and fifty men. At noon on the 4th of August the Shadow
discovered the May, and gave chase. It continued until almost smiset, when an ac
tion was fought. At six o'clock, when the vessels were within gun-shot of each oth
er, the May commenced firing from her stern guns. The action commenced at seven,
and at half past seven the May hoisted a light in her mizzen rigging. The Shadow
then hailed her, and Captain Taylor ordered her to send her papers on board of his ves
sel that he might examine them. This was only partially complied with. Taylor im
mediately sent a boat's crew to the May with a demand for the instant surrender of
all her papers. The British captain refused. He sent a note to this effect to Captain
Taylor, stated the character and force of his vessel, and informed him that a change
of ministry had taken place in England, and that the Orders in Council had been re
scinded. Again Captain Taylor demanded Affleck's papers, and again they were re
fused. At half past eight o'clock the action was renewed. The night was squally
and dark. The vessels kept near each other, occasionally exchanging shots, and in
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 997
Salem and Baltimore Privateers.
the morning early they commenced a severe fight. Captain Taylor was shot through
the head and instantly killed, and the Shadow was so much damaged that she with
drew, and by superior sailing escaped, and returned to Philadelphia.
On the 3d of August, the schooner Atlas, Captain David Maffit, attacked two Brit
ish armed ships at the same time. After an engagement of about an hour the smaller
vessel of the foe surrendered, and the fire of the Atlas was wholly directed upon the
larger one. Suddenly the smaller one, notwithstanding her colors were down, again
opened her fire ; but the Atlas soon silenced her, and in less than an hour and a half
from the time of the attack both vessels were captured. They proved to be the ship
Pursuit, sixteen guns and a complement of thirty-five men, and the ship Planter,
twelve guns and fifteen men. They were both stored with valuable cargoes from
Surinam, and bound to London. They were sent to the United States. The Atlas
was badly damaged in the contest.
At about this time the privateer John, Captain Benjamin Crowninshield, of Salem,
returned to that port after a cruise of three weeks, during which time she made
eleven captures. All along the coasts of the United States and the West Indies the
American privateers were now exceedingly active. None were more so than the
Paul Jones, Captain Hazard, of New York. Within a very short space of time she
captured fourteen vessels near the island of Porto Rico, some of them of considerable
value ; and she obtained a crowning glory by the capture, early in August, of the
British ship Hassan, fourteen guns and twenty men, sailing from Gibraltar for Ha
vana with wines and dry goods valued at $200,000. This was accomplished after a
contest of only half an hour.
One of the boldest of the privateersmen was Captain Thomas Boyle, of Baltimore,
who sailed the Comet, of fourteen guns and one hundred and twenty men. One of
his earliest exploits in the Comet was the capture, in August, 1812, of the British ship
Hopeicett, carrying fourteen guns and twenty-five men. She was bound from Surinam
for London with a cargo valued, with the ship, at $150,000. The two vessels had an
obstinate combat, but the Comet was the victor. The prize was sent into Baltimore.
Of the Comet and her captain we shall have more to say hereafter.
Another active and successful Baltimore privateer was the Nonsuch, Captain Leve-
ley, armed with twelve guns, and carrying about one hundred men. She was one of
the' famous " Baltimore clippers." On the 27th of September, when cruising near the
island of Martinique, she fell in with a British ship mounting sixteen guns, with
about two hundred troops on board, and a schooner mounting six 4-pounders, and
manned with a crew of about fifty or sixty men. The Nonsuch ran in between the
two vessels, within pistol-shot of each, and commenced a hot contest which lasted
three hours and twenty minutes. It was a fierce fight. The guns of the Nonsuch
(carronades) became much heated by continual firing. Their bolts and breachmgs
were carried away, and they were all dismounted. Captain Leveley now deter
mined to board his antagonists; but the damage done to the rigging of the Nonsuch
so disabled her that he was not able to bring her alongside for the purpose. In con
sequence of this disability the two vessels escaped, but not without severe punish
ment The larger ship was much damaged in hull and rigging, and lost twenty-three
of her men killed and wounded. The schooner was also much damaged.1 The per
formance of the Nonsuch was called, by the journals of the day, " gallant, but un
profitable conduct." The British spoke of the attack upon them as " exceedingly
brave " Several persons of distinction in these ships were injured.
The privateer Saratoga, of New York, Captain Riker, armed with eighteen guns
and one hundred and forty men, was a successful cruiser. In the autumn of 1
captured the ship Quebec, sixteen guns, from Jamaica, with a cargo valued at $300,000.
In December following she had a desperate fight off Laguira, Venezuela. It was on
i Lo-book onhe^^ATqnoted in The War, i., 92 ; and Niles'B Register, iii., 172.
998 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Privateering to the close of 1812. Captain Shaler's Letter. The Comet, of Baltimore
the llth of that month, and she was then in command of Captain Charles W. Woos-
ter. She entered the port of Laguira the 10th, but was wai'ned off, the authorities be
ing neutrals. Going out of the bay, she captured a vessel with goods worth $20,000,
• December ii, anfi a* nine in the morning on the following day,a after the clearing up
of the fog, she fell in with the brig Rachel, from Greenock, Scotland,
which mounted twelve guns and carried sixty men. They were in sight of the town,
and almost the entire population, from the beggar to the commander, turned out to
see the conflict from the house-tops. The combat was quick and furious. It result
ed in victory for the Saratoga, whose loss was only one man slightly wounded. The
Rachel suffered much. The second mate was the only officer alive after the action.1
Such is a brief record of some of the most prominent events in the history of
American privateering, from the declaration of war in June, 1812, until the close of
the year. The record is of a small portion of the swarm of private-armed vessels
which were out at the beginning of 1813. These were harassing British commerce
in all directions, and affording powerful and timely aid to the little navy of the re
public. The business was recognized as legitimate, useful, and practically patriotic.
Merchants and other citizens of the highest respectability engaged in it,2 and Con
gress passed laws to encourage it by the allowance of liberal privileges, making pro
visions for pensions for those engaged in the service, and for the families of those
who might be lost on board private-armed vessels, etc.
The history of American privateering in 1813 opens with a letter from Captain
Shaler,3 of the schooner Governor Tompkins, which was armed with fourteen car-
ronades and one " Long Tom," and manned by about a hundred and forty men. She
was built in New York, and was first commanded by Captain Skinner. Shaler wrote
on the 1st of January that on the 25th of December he chased three British vessels,
which appeared to be two ships and a brig. The larger he 'took to be a transport,
and ran down to attack her, when he found himself within a quarter of a mile of a
large frigate, which had been completely masked. He boldly opened fire upon her,
and received a terrible response. Of course he could not sustain a contest with
such overwhelming odds, so he spread his sails to fly. He was successful. " Thanks
to her heels," he said, " and the exertions of my brave officers and crew, I still have
the command of her." He got out all his sweeps, threw overboard all the lumber
on his decks, and about two thousand pounds of shot from the after-hold, and at half
past five o'clock in the evening had the pleasure of seeing his pursuer far behind,
heaving about. The Tompkins lost two men killed and six wounded. One of the
former, a black man named Johnson, " ought to be registered on the book of fame,"
Captain Shaler wrote, " and remembered with reverence as long as bravery is con
sidered a virtue. A 24-pound shot struck him in the hip, and took away all the
lower part of his body. In this state the poor brave fellow lay on the deck, and sev
eral times exclaimed to his shipmates, " Fire away, boys ; neber haul de color down !"
The other man killed was also colored, and was wounded in a similar manner. " Sev
eral times," says Shaler, " he requested to be thrown overboard, saying he was only
in the way of the others. While America has such sailors she has little to fear from
the tyrants of the ocean."
We have already spoken of the Comet, of Baltimore, and her brave commander,
Captain Boyle. She sailed from that port late in December, 1812, passed through
the British blockading squadron on a dark night, and went on a cruise toward the
1 Letter from Laguira, quoted in Coggeshall's History of the American Privateers, etc., page 70.
2 Washington and other patriots were speculators in the profits of privateering during the Revolution. In a letter
before me, written to John Parke Custis, and dated at Whitemarsh, November 14, 177T, in answer to one from that
gentleman on the subject of a sale of a portion of a privateer ship, Washington said : " It is perfectly agreeable, too,
that Colonel Baylor should share part of the privateer. I have spoken to him on the subject. I shall therefore con
sider myself as possessing one fourth of your full share, and that yourself, Baylor, Lund Washington, and I are equally
concerned in the share you at first held." — MS. Letter.
3 Quoted by Coggeshall in his History of the American Privateers, page 140.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 999
Cruise of the Comet. Her wonderful Career. The Chasseur.
coast of Brazil. On the 9th of January, 1813, she was off the harbor of Pernambuco,
and Boyle was informed by a coaster that some British vessels were about to sail
from that port. The Comet watched until the 14th, when, at a little past noon, four
sail appeared. Boyle waited until they were well clear of the land, and then gave
chase. The Comet was a swift clipper, and soon overhauled them ; and at seven in
the evening, having prepared for action, she hoisted her colors, and made for the
larger of the four vessels, which proved to be a Portuguese brig, mounting twenty
heavy guns (32-pounders), and manned by one hundred and sixty-five men. She was
convoying three English merchant ships laden with wheat, and warned Captain Boyle
not to molest them. To this injunction Boyle replied that his commission authorized
him to capture them if he could, and that the Portuguese warrior had no right to in
terfere.
All the vessels were now crowding sail with a stiffening breeze. The Comet shot
past the others, when Boyle summoned the Englishmen to heave to, with a threat
that if they did not he would open a broadside upon them. The Portuguese gave
chase to the Comet. The latter tacked, came alongside of the merchantmen at half
past eight o'clock in the evening, and so distributed a heavy fire that she wounded
all three. The Portuguese suffered severely in the contest which followed, for the
quick movements of the clipper gave the latter great advantages of position. The
combat continued until an hour past midnight, when the moon went down, and the
night became dark and squally. In the mean time the merchantmen had surrendered,
and one of them was taken possession of by Boyle. At dawn, the Portuguese brig,
with the other two English vessels, fled for Pernambuco, while the Comet and her
prize, the Bowes, proceeded homeward. Boyle soon afterward captured the Scotch
ship Adelphi, and outsailed the famous British frigate Surprise, that gave chase.
On the 6th of February the Comet captured, first, the brig Alexis, of Greenock, and
soon afterward an armed brig .which formed part of a convoy for nine merchantmen
from Demerara. At the same time another man-of-war, called the Swaggerer, ap
peared. Boyle was anxious to get his prizes off, and he amused the brig until that
desired end was accomplished. In the mean time he added the Dominica, a Liver
pool packet, to his list of prizes. When these were fairly on their way he turned his
heels upon the Swaggerer, and soon outsailed his pursuer. At three o'clock in the
afternoon he captured the schooner Jane, and before sunset he lost sight of the Swag
gerer entirely.
Soon after this encounter Boyle turned his face homeward, and on the way met
and fought a terrible battle for eight hours with the British ship Jlibernia, eight hun
dred tons, twenty-two guns, and a full complement of men. The Comet lost three
killed and sixteen wounded. The Jlibernia lost eight killed and thirteen wounded.
The Comet put into Porto Rico for repairs, and the Hibernia into St. Thomas. Both
were much injured. The Comet arrived at Baltimore on the 17th of March.
Boyle was not long on land. His next cruise was in the beautiful Chasseur, a pri
vateer brig, elegant in model, and formidable in men and arms. She was the fleetest
of all vessels, and the story of her cruises is a tale of romance of the most exciting
kind. She seemed as ubiquitous as the " Phantom Ship." Sometimes she was in the
West Indies ; then on the coasts of Spain, Portugal, and France ; and then in the
Irish and British Channels, spreading the wildest alarm among England's commercial
marine. So much was she feared in the West Indies and the islands of the Carib
bean Sea, that the merchants there implored Admiral Dunham to send them "at least
a heavy sloop of war" to protect their property. The admiral immediately sent them
the frigate Uarrossa, which the fleet Chasseur delighted to tease.
1he°Cha8Sffur captured eighty vessels, of which thirty-two were of equal force with
herself, and eighteen her superior. Many of the prizes were of great value. Three
of them alone were valued at $400,000. She seemed to sweep over the seas with im-
1000 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Boyle's Proclamation of Blockade. Cruises of the Dolphin, Saratoga, Lottery, and Yankee.
punity, and was as impudent as he was bold. On one occasion, while in the British
Channel, he issued a proclamation, as a burlesque on those of Admirals Warren and
Cochrane concerning the blockade of the ports of the United States, in which he de
clared " all the ports, harbors, bays, creeks, rivers, inlets, outlets, islands, and sea-coast
of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in a state of rigorous blockade."
He assured the world that he possessed a sufficient force (the Chasseur) to compel
obedience. This proclamation he caused to be sent in a cartel to London, with a re
quest to have it posted up at Lloyd's Coffee-house !
We have already noticed some of the earlier operations of the Dolphin, Captain
Stafford. On the 25th of January, 1813, she fell in with a large ship and a brig off
Cape St. Vincent, and, as was common with the more daring American privateers, en
gaged them both. After a severe fight they were captured, and sent to the United
States. They were richly laden, and were valuable prizes. The wounded Captain
Brigham, of the British ship (Hebe, 16), thought his capture "extronary." He did
" not expect to find a damned Yankee privateer in that part of the world !" and when
assured by Stafford that they would appear in the Thames by-and-by, his eyes dilat
ed with mute wonder. Stafford's kind good-nature won Brigham's heart ; and in a
card, published on his arrival in Boston in February, he thanked the commander of
the Dolphin and his associates for their attentions, saying, " Should the fortune of
war ever throw Captain Stafford or any of his crew into the hands of the British, it
is sincerely hoped he will meet a similar treatment."1
We again find the Saratoga, Captain Woolsey, on her destructive errand in Febru
ary, 1813. On the 9th of that month she captured the Lord Nelson, of six hundred
tons, and one of the finest vessels in the British merchant service. She was sent into
New Orleans. At about the same time the Saratoga captured the British packet
Morgiana, eighteen guns. The Saratoga had just been chased by a British frigate,
and had been compelled, in order to lighten her to increase her speed, to throw over
board twelve of her guns. She had only four to attack the Morgiana with. Her
armory was replenished with several of the fine brass pieces of the captive, and the
prize was sent to Newport with her captain. The kindness of the prize-master was
so conspicuous that the captain of the Morgiana thanked him in the Newport news
papers.
On the 15th of February a the letter of marque Lottery, of Baltimore, armed
with six guns and manned by thirty-five men, had a desperate fight in Chesa
peake Bay with nine British barges containing two hundred and forty men. She
fought them an hour and a half, during which time it was believed that more of the
foe were killed than the number of the whole crew of the letter of marque. At length
Captain Southcote, commander of the schooner, was severely wounded, and the ene
my, in overwhelming numbers, boarded the vessel, hauled down the colors, and made
her a prize.
At about this time we find the privateer Yankee, whose exploits we have already
observed, entering the harbor of Newport after a cruise of one hundred and fifty
days, during Avhich time she had scoured the whole western coast of Africa, taken
eight prizes, made one hundred and ninety-six prisoners, and secured as trophies
sixty-two cannon, five hundred muskets, and property worth almost $300,000.
The merchants of New York fitted out no less than twenty-six fast-sailing priva
teers and letters of marque within a hundred and twenty days after the declaration
of war, carrying almost two hundred pieces of artillery, and manned by over two
thousand seamen. Among the most noted of these privateers was a moderate-sized
schooner, mounting a Long Tom 42-pounder, and eighteen carronades.2 Her comple
ment w'as one hundred and forty men, and her first commander was Captain Barnard.
1 History of American Privateers and Letters of Marque, by George Coggeshall, page 129.
2 See table of New York privateers in Niles's Register, iii., 120.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 1001
Cruises of the General Armstrong, Xed, aud Scourge. Valuable Prizes taken by the Yankee.
Early in March, 1813, the General Armstrong was in command of Guy R. Cham-
plin, and cruising off the Surinam River, on the coast of South America. Early in
the morning of the llth she gave chase to the Coquette, a British sloop of war mount
ing twenty-seven guns, and manned by one hundred and twenty-one men and boys.
Between nine and ten o'clock the vessels were within gun-shot, and commenced a
brisk engagement. Convinced by observation that his antagonist was a British let
ter of marque, Champlin and his men agreed to board her, and for this purpose they
ran the Armstrong down upon her, when, too late to retreat, they discovered her to
be a much heavier vessel than they imagined. The two vessels poured heavy shot
into each other, and for a while the fight was fierce and obstinate, within pistol-shot
distance for almost an hour. The Armstrong was severely injured, and her captain
received a ball in his shoulder, but continued some time on duty after the wound was
dressed, and from the cabin gave orders until his vessel was fairly out of the clutches
of the enemy. By the vigorous use of sweeps the Armstrong escaped, under a heavy
fire from the Coquette. For his gallant conduct on this occasion, and his skill in sav
ing his vessel, the stockholders, at a meeting held at Tammany Hall on the 14th of
April, presented Captain Champlin an elegant sword, and voted thanks to his com
panions in the combat. We shall meet the Armstrong hereafter.
The Ned, Captain Dawson, a New York letter of marque, arrived at that port ten
days after the SAVord-presentation to Champlin, and brought with her the British let
ter of marque Malvina, of Aberdeen, mounting ten guns. The Ned captured her
after an action of almost an hour. Her captain was killed, and in the combat the
Ned had seven men badly wounded. The Malvina was laden with wine from the
Mediterranean, and was a valuable prize.
Another successful privateer, owned in New York, was the Scourge, Captain Nicoll.
She mounted fifteen guns, and sailed from port in April, 1813, for a long cruise in
European waters, and was frequently in consort with the Rattlesnake, of Philadelphia,
Captain David Maffit. This commander went into the business at the beginning of
the war, with the Atlas, and continued its pursuit until the close of the contest in
1815. The Rattlesnake was a fast-sailing brig of fourteen guns.
Captain Nicoll was often absent from the Scourge while on the coast of Norway,
because he found it more profitable to remain on shore and attend to the sale of
prizes brought or sent in, Avhile his first officer skillfully commanded her in cruises.
The Scourge made a large number of captures on the coast of Norway, and these
were nearly all sent into Drontheim and disposed of there. The aggregate tonnage
of prizes then and there disposed of, captured by the Scourge and Rattlesnake, was
4500. The trophies Avere sixty guns. On her homeAvard passage from Norway the
Scourge made several captures. She arrived at Cape Cod in May, 1814, having been
absent little more than a year. During her cruise she had made four hundred and
twenty prisoners. Her deeds made her name an appropriate one, for she scourged
British commerce most severely.
The Yankee, already mentioned, left Newport on a cruise on the 23d of May, 1813.
A month afterward, when off the coast of Ireland, she captured the British cutter
sloop Earl Camden, valued at $10,000. Eight days afterwarda she cap- Bjune30
tured the brig Elizabeth, valued at $40,000, and the brig Watson, laden with
cotton, valued at $70,000. On the 2d of July she took the brig Mariner, with a cargo
valued at $YO,000. All of these prizes, Avorth in the aggregate about $200,000, Avere
sent to French ports for adjudication and sale. The Avork was accomplished in the
space of about six weeks. The Yankee returned to Providence, Rhode Island, on
the 19th of August, without having lost a man during the cruise either killed or
Avounded.
The records of privateering during the summer of 1813 present one dark chapter
in the deed of a desperate Avretch named Johnson, who commanded the Teaser, a lit-
1002 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Destruction of the Teaser. . Capture of the Eagle. Cruise of the Decatur.
tie two-gun vessel, that went out from New York with fifty men. When that vessel
was captured by one of Admiral Warren's fleet, Johnson was released on his parole.
Soon afterward, without waiting to be exchanged, he entered as first lieutenant on
board another privateer named the Young Teaser, Captain Dawson. In June, 1813,
she was closely pursued by an English man-of-war. She was likely to be overtaken,
and Johnson knew that death would be his fate should he be caught. Dawson called
his officers aft in consultation, and while they were deliberating on the subject one
of the sailors called out to the captain that Lieutenant Johnson had just gone into
the cabin with a blazing fire-brand. The next instant the Teaser was blown into
fragments. Only six of all her people escaped destruction. The captain, Johnson,
and all the others, had perished in a moment.
Toward midsummer, 1813, an affair occurred off Sandy Hook, New York, which
created a great sensation. It properly belongs to the history of privateering. Com
modore Lewis was then in command of a flotilla of gun-boats on that station, and
the British man-of-war Poictiers, 74, was cruising in those waters. She had for ten
der the sloop Eagle, and on the 5th of July Lewis sent out a little fishing-smack
named Yankee, which he borrowed at Fly Market, in New York, to capture this ten
der by stratagem. With a calf, a sheep, and a goose secured on deck, and between
thirty and forty well-armed men below, the smack stood out for sea with only three
men in sight, in fishermen's garb, as if going to the fishing-banks. The Eagle gave
chase, overhauled her, and, seeing live-stock on board, ordered her to go to the com
modore. The watchword " Lawrence" was then given, when the armed men rushed
to the deck, and delivered a volley of musketry which sent the crew of the Eagle be
low in dismay. Sailing-master Percival, who commanded the expedition, ordered the
firing to cease, when one of the Eagle's company came up and struck her colors. The
surprise was so complete that her heavy brass howitzer, loaded with canister-shot,
remained undischarged. Her crew consisted of her commander, a midshipman, and
eleven seamen. The two former and a marine were slain. The Eagle and prisoners
were taken to the city in view of thousands of the inhabitants, who were on the Bat
tery celebrating the anniversary of the National Independence.1 They were received
with shouts, salvos of artillery, the waving of hats and handkerchiefs, and the ring
ing of bells.
A month after the capture of the Eagle, the privateer schooner Commodore Deca
tur, Captain Diron, of Charleston, South Carolina, carrying seven guns and a little
over a hundred men, had a desperate encounter with the British war schooner Do
minica, Lieutenant Barrette, carrying sixteen guns and eighty-eight men. The De
catur was cruising in the track of the West India traders on their return to England,
and on the morning of the 5th of Augusta gave chase to a ship and a schoon
er. At about one o'clock in the afternoon they were so near each other that
the schooner fired a shot at the Decatur. The latter was immediately prepared for
action, not with heavy guns alone, but with implements for boarding. Diron intend
ed to run down near his adversary, discharge all his guns, great and small, and then
board her under cover of the smoke. This was not immediately accomplished, for
the Dominica was on the alert, and manoeuvred so as to give the Decatur some dam
aging broadsides. Twice her crew attempted to board her antagonist, but failed,
and the contest was kept up with cannon and musketry. Finally, at about half past
three o'clock, the Decatur forced her bowsprit over the stern of the Dominica, and
her jib-boom penetrated the Englishman's mainsail. In face of a murderous fire of
musketry, the Decatur's men, led by First Prize-master Safifth and Quartermaster
Wasborn, rushed from her bow along the bowsprit, boarded the enemy, and engaged
in a most sanguinary fight, hand-to-hand, with swords, pistols, and small-arms. Both
parties fought with the greatest courage and determination. The decks were co\f-
i It fell on Sunday in 1813, and the event was celebrated on Monday, the 5th.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 1003
Cruise of the David Porter, Globe, and Harptj.
ered with the dead and wounded. The colors of the Dominica were hauled down
by the boarders, and she became the Decalitres prize. The Dominica lost sixty-five
killed and wounded. Among the former were the captain, sailing-master, and purser.
The Decatur lost twenty killed and wounded. Diron started with his prize for Charles
ton, and on the following day captured the London Trader, bound from Surinam to
London with a valuable cargo. She reached Charleston in safety with both prizes.1
In the autumn of 181 3, Captain George Coggeshall, whose History of the American
Privateers has been alluded to, commanded the letter of marque schooner David Por
ter, of New York. Late in October she was lying at Providence, Rhode Island, where
the President, Commodore Rodgers, was blockaded. In a thick snow-storm on the
14th of November, and under the cover of night, the Porter passed the blockading
squadron and put to sea. She reached Charleston, her destined port, in safety, where
she was freighted for France with Sea Island cotton, and sailed for " Bordeaux, or a
port in France," on the 20th of December. In the Bay of Biscay she encountered a
terrible and damaging gale, but weathered it, and on the 20th of January entered the
port of La Teste. Coggeshall sent his vessel home in charge of his first officer, and
remained in France some time. The Porter captured several prizes on her way to the
United States.
We have noticed the arrival at Hampton Roads, with a large British ship as a
prize, the privateer Globe, of Baltimore, and her departure on another cruise.2 She
was successful in the capture of prizes, but did not meet with any fair tests of her
sailing qualities, or the valor and skill of her men, until November, 1813. On the 1st
of that month, while cruising oif the coast of Madeira, she fell in and exchanged shots
with a large armed brig, but considered it prudent to keep at a respectful distance
from her. She then proceeded to the offing of Funchal, where, on the 2d, she chased
two vessels in vain, for night came on dark and squally, and she lost sight of them.
On the 3d the Globe again chased two vessels, and at eleven o'clock were so near that
B
the larger of the fugitives opened her stern guns on her pursuer. A severe action
ensued, when, at noon, the crew of the Globe attempted to board her adversary.
They failed. Their vessel was much damaged, and while in this condition the other
vessel came up and gave the Globe a terrible raking fire, which almost disabled her.
Yet they fought on at close quarters, and at half past three o'clock the larger vessel
was compelled to strike her colors. The other one poured in broadside after broad
side within half pistol-shot distance. The Globe was reduced to an almost sinking
condition, yet she managed to give her second antagonist such blows that she, too,
struck her colors. She then hauled to windward to take possession of the first prize,
when that vessel hoisted her colors and gave the Globe a tremendous broadside. She
was compelled to haul off for repairs, and the two vessels, believed to be severely in
jured, sailed slowly away. They were packet brigs, one mounting eighteen and the
other sixteen cannon, mostly brass. The Globe lost eight men killed and fifteen
wounded in this desperate encounter.
During the first eight or nine months of the year 1814, although the American pri
vate-armed ships were active and successful, there seems not to have been any per
formance by them that deserves the name of a naval action. This monotony of
quiet business was broken in September, when the privateer Harpy fell in with the
British packet Princess Elizabeth, and captured her after a shdtt but sharp conflict.
The Elizabeth was armed with ten guns, and manned by thirty-eight men. She had
on board a Turkish embassador for England, an aid-de-camp to a British general, a
lieutenant of a 74 line of battle ship, and $10,000 in specie. This specie, with sev
eral pipes of wine and some of the cannon, were transferred to the Harpy.
mainder of her armament was thrown overboard, and the ship was ransomed
$2000, when she was allowed to proceed on her voyage.
» Coggeshall's History of American Privateers, page 1T2.
1004
PICTOKIAL FIELD-BOOK
The Career of the General Armstrong.
How New Orleans was saved.
The most desperate and famous combat recorded in the history of privateering
during the war was that maintained by the General Armstrong, of New York, Cap
tain Samuel C. Reid (whose earlier exploits we have already noticed), in the harbor
of Fayal, one of the Azores islands of that name belonging to Portugal. It occurred
on the 26th of September, 1814. While she lay there at anchor, in a neutral port,
she was attacked by a large British squadron under the command of Commodore
Lloyd. The attacking vessels consisted of the flag-ship Plantagenet, 74 ; the frigate
Rota, 44, Captain Somerville ; and the brig Carnation, 1 8, Captain Bentham, each
with a full complement of men. The Armstrong carried only seven guns and ninety
men, including her officers.
In flagrant violation of the laws and usages of neutrality, Lloyd sent in, at eight
• September 26, o'clock in the evening,a four large and well-armed launches, manned by
about forty men each. At that time Reid, suspecting danger, -was
warping his vessel under the guns of the castle. The moon was shining brightly.
These and the privateer opened fire almost simultaneously, and the launches were
driven off with heavy loss. The first lieutenant of the Armstrong was wounded, and
one man was killed.
Another attack was made at midnight with fourteen launches and about five hun
dred men. A terrible conflict ensued, which lasted forty minutes. The enemy were
repulsed with a loss of one hundred and twenty killed, and one hundred and thirty
wounded. At daybreak a third attack was made by the brig of war Carnation, She
opened heavily, but was very soon so cut up by the rapidly-delivered and well-di
rected shots of the Armstrong that she hastily withdrew. The privateer was also
much damaged. It was evident that she could not maintain another assault of equal
severity, so Captain Reid, who had cool
ly given orders from his quarter-deck
during the attacks, directed her to be
scuttled, to prevent her falling into the
hands of the enemy. She was then aban
doned, when the British boarded her and
set her on fire. It is a curious fact that,
while the British lost over three hundred
in killed and wounded during ten hours,
the Americans lost but two killed and
seven wounded.1
In addition to the glory won by the
bravery of this resistance to the British
squadron, Captain Reid and his gallant
men deserve the just credit of having
thereby saved the city of New Orleans
from capture. This squadron was part
of the expedition then gathering at Ja
maica for the purpose of seizing New
Orleans, and the object of their attack
on the Armstrong was to capture her,
and make her a useftd auxiliary in the
work. She so crippled her assailants
that they did not reach Jamaica until full ten days later than the expedition expected
1 For a detailed account of this affair, see American State Papers, xiv., Naval Affairs, page 493, and Coggeshall's His
tory of the American Privateers, page 370. The Portuguese government demanded and received from that of England
an apology for this violation of neutrality ; also restitution for the destruction of Portuguese property at Fayal during
the action. That government also demanded satisfaction and indemnification for the destruction of the American ves
sel in their neutral port. This England refused, and from that day to this the owners of the privateer and their heirs
have never been able to procure indemnification for their losses either from England or Portugal, or from their own
government.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 1Q05
Honors to Captain Reid. The American Flag. Cruise of the Prince de Neufch&tel.
to sail from there. That expedition waited for Commodore Lloyd ; and when it final
ly approached New Orleans,* General Jackson was hastening to make . December 6,
competent arrangements for its defense. Had the fleet arrived ten days 18W-
sooner, that city would have been an easy prey to the British, for it was utterly de
fenseless until that general's arrival with his troops.
The defense made by the Armstrong, and the circumstances of the attack, pro
duced a great sensation throughout the United States. Captain Reid was justly
praised as one of the most daring of American naval commanders, and he received
various honors in abundance. The State of New York gave him thanks and a sword,
and he was every where received with the greatest enthusiasm on his return to the
United States.1
The New Yorkers sent out a splendid vessel of seventeen guns and one hundred
and fifty men, called the Prince de Neufchdtel, in command of Captain Ordronaux.
She was a very fortunate privateer. During a single cruise she was chased by no
less than seventeen armed British vessels, and escaped them all ; and she brought to
the United States goods valued at $300,000, with much specie. On the llth of Oc
tober, 1814, she encountered five armed boats from the British frigate Endymlon off
Nantucket. The Neufchdtel was then very light handed, having, when the fierce bat
tle that ensued commenced, only thirty-six men at quarters. Early in the forenoon
the engagement began. The boats were arranged for the assault one on each side,
one on each bow, and one under the stern. Within the space of twenty minutes the
assailants cried for quarter. It was granted. One of the boats had gone to the bot
tom with forty-one out of forty-three of her crew. The whole number of men in the
five boats was one hundred and eleven, a larger portion of whom were killed, wound
ed, or made prisoners. The privateer lost seven killed and twenty-four wounded.
She returned to Boston on the 15th of October. The Neufchdtel was afterward cap
tured and sent to England.
At this time the terror inspired by the doings of the American privateers was in
tense. The British began to seriously contemplate the probabilities of the complete
destruction of their commerce. Fear magnified the numbers, powers, and exploits of
1 On his return to the United States Captain Reid landed at Savannah, and made his way north by land. At Rich
mond he was invited to a public dinner by members of the Virginia Legislature, at which were seated the governor,
members of his council, judges of the Supreme Court, and other distinguished men. It was the first opportunity the
Virginians had enjoyed of paying their personal respects to a hero of the war, and they did it with enthusiasm. The
speaker of the House of Burgesses presided, and William Wirt was vice-president. When Captain Reid retired, the
chairman gave as a sentiment, " Captain Reid— his valor has shed a blaze of renown upon the character of oar seamen,
and won for himself a laurel of eternal bloom."
On the 7th of April, 1815, the Legislature of New York voted the thanks of the state and a sword to Captain Reid. At
Tammany Hall, in New York, he was presented, in the name of the citizens, with a handsome service of plate.
Samuel Chester Reid was born at Norwich, Connecticut, on the 25th of August, 1783. He went to sea at the age of
eleven years, and was captured by a French privateer and taken to Guadaloupe. He was a midshipman with Commo
dore Truxtun. The occasion in his public life which gave him most fame was this defense of the General Armstrong
at Fayal. After the War of 1812 Captain Reid was appointed a sailing-master in the United States Navy, and held that
office until his death. He was port-warden at New York for some time, and a weigher of customs. He was about be
ing made collector of the customs there, in place of Swartwout, by Secretary Duane, when that officer was removed by
President Jackson. He invented and erected the signal telegraphs at the Battery and the Narrows, and is also distin
guished as the designer of the present arrangement of the stripes and stars on our national standard.* Captain Reid
was simple in his habits and manners, upright in conduct, and honest in all his ways. He was the chosen social com
panion of many of the best and most distinguished American citizens, and his memory is sweetest to those who knew
him best. He died in the city of New York on the 28th of January, 1861. His funeral took place at Trinity Church, and
was largely attended. His remains were escorted to their last resting-place in Greenwood Cemetery by the marines
of the navy yard at Brooklyn.
* Onr flag originally bore thirteen stars and thirteen stripes. As new states came in, the number of the stars and
stripes was correspondingly increased, pursuant to an act of Congress passed in 1794. This was found to be impracti
cable ; for, as the states increased, the width of the stripes had to be lessened. Besides, there was nothing in the device
to recall the original confederacy of thirteen states. To return to the use of only thirteen stars and stripes would be
inappropriate, because the device would give no hint of the growth of the republic. Captain Reid proposed to retain
the original thirteen xtripes as a memento of the original Union, and to add a new star whenever a new state was ad
mitted, as indicative of the growth of the states. This suggestion was adopted. A flag with this new arrangement was
first raised over the Hall of Representatives at Washington on the 4th of April, ISIS, at two o'clock in the afternoon.
At that time the Senate Chamber and Hall of Representatives of the Capitol were separated, the centre of the building
not being completed. Resolutions of thanks to Captain Reid " for having designed and formed the present flag of the
United States" were offered in Congress.
1006 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Effect of American Privateering on British Commerce. Cruise of the Saucy Jack and Kemp.
the privateers. Meetings of merchants were held to remonstrate against their depre
dations. It was asserted that one of these " sea-devils" was rarely captured, and that
they impudently bid defiance alike to English privateers and stately seventy-fours.
Insurance was refused on most vessels, and on some the premium was as high as thir
ty-three per cent. "Thirteen guineas for one hundred pounds," said a London jour
nal, " was paid to insure vessels across the Irish Channel ! Such a thing never hap
pened, we believe, before." The Board of Admiralty and the Prince Regent were
petitioned for aid in checking these depredations; and the government was com
pelled, because of the state of public feeling, to give assurances (which they had no
power to support) that ample measures should be taken for the protection of British
commerce.
We have referred to the impudence, as well as boldness, of the American priva
teers. A small one belonging to Charleston, mounting six carriage guns and a Long
Tom, appropriately named Saucy Jack, affords an illustration. She was every where,
and, being clipper-built and skillfully managed, was too fleet for the English cruisers.
On one occasion, when cruising off the west end of St. Domingo, she chased two ves
sels. It was on the 31st of October, 1814, at midnight; and when near enough, at
one in the morning, she fired upon them. On coining up, it was ascertained that one
of them carried sixteen, and the other eighteen guns. Nothing daunted by this dis
covery, she boarded one of them at seven in the morning, when it was found that she
was full of men, and a war vessel. The boarders fled back to the Saucy Jack, and
the little privateer made haste to get away. The two ships chased her, pouring
grape and musket-balls upon her, but within an hour she was out of reach of even
their great guns. She lost eight men killed and fifteen wounded. Her chief antag
onist was the British bomb-ship Volcano, with the transport Golden Fleece. One of
the lieutenants and two of the men of the Volcano were killed and two were wound
ed. On Sunday, the 1st of May, the Saucy Jack captured the fine English ship Pel-
ham, carrying ten guns and thirty-eight men. She was bound from London for a
"West India port, and had a cargo valued at $80,000.
The schooner Kemp, of Baltimore, was a very successful privateer. She was com
manded by Captain Jacobs. At the close of November, 1814, she sailed on a cruise
in the West Indies from Wilmington, North Carolina. On the 1st of December she
chased a squadron of eight merchant ships in the Gulf Stream under convoy of a frig
ate. The frigate, in turn, gave chase, but the Kemp dodged her in the darkness of
the ensuing night, and the next morning again gave chase to the merchantmen. At
noon the following daya she found them drawn up in battle line, and at
a DftC6mu6r 3
two o'clock they bore down upon the privateer, each giving her some
shots as they passed. She reserved her fire until, by a skillful movement, she broke
through the line, and discharged her whole armament into the enemy. This pro
duced the greatest confusion, and within an hour and a half four of the eight vessels
were the prizes of the Kemp. She would have taken the whole of them, but she had
not men enough to man them. The other four proceeded on their voyage. The con
voy frigate all this time was absent, vainly looking for the saucy privateer ! These
prizes, which gave an aggregate of forty-six cannon and one hundred and thirty-four
men, were all sent into Charleston. It was a profitable cruise of only six days. The
Monmouth privateer, of Baltimore, at about the same time Avas dealing destruction
to British commerce off Newfoundland. She had a desperate encounter with an En
glish transport ship with over three hundred troops on board. Her superior speed
saved her from capture. Another successful Baltimore privateer was the Lawrence,
of eighteen guns and one hundred and eleven men. During a single cruise, which
terminated at New York on the 25th of January, 1815, a month before the proclama
tion of peace, she captured thirteen vessels. She took one hundred and six prisoners,
and the aggregate amount of tonnage seized by her was over three thousand tons.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 1007
Cruise of the Macdorutwjh and Amelia. Close of the War. The American Privateers and their Doings.
One of the original crew of the Lawrence was a colored man named Henry Van Me
ter, mentioned on page 912.
The Macdonough, of Rhode Island, had a severe fight with a British ship, whose
name is not recorded, on the 31st of January, 1815. The action commenced at mus
ket-shot distance at half past two o'clock in the afternoon. The tremendous musket-
fire of the enemy caused the people of the Macdonough to suspect her of being a
troop-ship. Such proved to be the case. She had at least three hundred soldiers on
board besides her crew. The Macdonough suffered terribly in sails, and rigging, and
loss of men, for her antagonist, in addition to the overwhelming number of men, car
ried eighteen 9-pounders. She succeeded in escaping from the British vessel, and
reached Savannah on the 7th of March.
The war ended early in 1815, but it was some time after the proclamation of peace
had been promulgated before all of the fifty privateers then at sea were apprised of
it, and many captures were made after the joyful event had occurred. One of the
latest arrivals of successful privateers was that of the Amelia, of Baltimore, in April,
1815. She had a full cargo of valuable goods. During her cruise she had captured
ten British vessels. Some she destroyed, others she sent into port, and one she gave
up as a cartel for her prisoners. She carried only six guns and seventy-five men.
The vessels she captured amounted in the aggregate to about two thousand three
hundred tons, and her prisoners numbered one hundred and twelve. Her trophies
in arms were thirty-two cannon and many muskets. She was frequently chased by
English cruisers, but her fleetness allowed her to escape.
In this outline sketch of American privateering1 during the Second War for Inde
pendence, notice has been taken of only the most prominent of the vessels which ac
tually sustained a conflict of arms on the ocean of sufficient importance to entitle the
act to the name of a naval engagement. The record shows the wonderful boldness
and skill of American seamen, mostly untaught in the art of naval warfare, and the
general character of the privateering service. Nothing more has been attempted.
The full history of the service as it lies, much of it ungarnished, in the newspapers
of the day. and the manuscript log-books of the commanders, exhibits marvelous ac
tions and results.
After the first six months of the war the bulk of naval conflicts was carried on
upon the ocean, on the part of the Americans, by private-armed vessels, which "took,
burned, and destroyed" about sixteen hundred British merchantmen, of all classes, in
the space of three years and nine months, while the number of American merchant
vessels destroyed during the same period did not vary much from^ue hundred. The
American merchant marine was much smaller than that of the British, and, owing
to embargo acts and apprehensions of war several months before it was actually de
clared, a large proportion of it was in port. When war was declared many vessels
were taken far up navigable rivers for security against British cruisers and maraud
ing soldiers, while others were dismantled in safe places.
The American private-armed vessels which caused such disasters to British com
merce numbered two hundred and fifty.2 Of these, forty-six were letters of marque,
and the remainder were privateers. Of the whole number, one hundred and eighty-
four were sent out from the four ports of Baltimore, New York, Salem, and Boston
alone. The aggregate number sent out from Philadelphia, Portsmouth (N. H.), and
Charleston was thirty-five. Large fortunes were secured by many of the owners,
and some of them are enjoyed by their descendants at the present day.
1 The materials for this sketch have been gathered from official documents, the newspapers of the day, Coggeshall's
History of American Privateers, and personal and written communications to the author.
2 This was 115 less than were commissioned while there were difficulties with France in the years 1798 and 1799.
The number of private-armed vessels then commissioned was 365. Their tonnage was 66,991. Number of guns, 2723 ;
and of men, 6847.
1008
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
A Peace Faction.
Boston the Centre of illicit Trade.
The Government as a Borrower.
CHAPTER XLH.
"Brave sonscof the West, the blood in your veins
At danger's approach waited not for persuaders ;
You rushed from your mountains, your hills, and your plains,
And followed your streams to repel the invaders."
OLD SONG.
ET us now take a glance at some prominent civil affairs during
the year 1814, before proceeding to consider the great and de
cisive military events in the vicinity of New Orleans with which
the war on the land closed.
From the beginning of the contest, as we have seen, there was
an active and influential body in the Federal party known as the Peace Faction, many
of whom were selfish and unpatriotic politicians, and who, by their endeavors to
thwart the government in its efforts to provide means for carrying on the war,
brought discredit upon the great and patriotic party to which they belonged, and
deeply injured their country. These politicians were chiefly confined to New En
gland, whose commercial interests had been ruined by the war, and Boston was their
head-quarters. Embargo acts had closed all American ports against the legal admis
sion of goods from abroad, and. these could only be obtained through contraband
trade. Such trade was carried on extensively at the New England capital, where, as
we have seen, the magistrates were not zealous in the maintenance of the restrictive
laws. Smuggling became almost respectable in the eyes of many because of its prev
alence,1 and foreign goods, shut out from other sea-ports, found their way there.
Many valuable British prizes were taken into that port, and upon Boston the mer
chants of other cities became dependent for a supply of foreign goods. For these
they paid partly in bills of the banks of the Middle and Southern States, and partly
in their own promissory notes. By this means Boston became a financial autocrat,
having in its hands despotic power to control the money affairs of the country. This
fact suggested to the leaders of the Peace Faction in New England a scheme for crip
pling the government financially, and thereby compelling it to abandon the struggle
with Great Britain with dishonor. They were quick to act upon the suggestion and
to put the scheme into operation.
From the beginning of the war the government was compelled to ask for loans, and
the Peace Faction made such persistent opposition, for the purpose of embarrassing
the administration, that in every case a bonus was paid for all sums borrowed. In
January, 1813, a loan of $16,000,000 was authorized. It was obtained principally from
individuals at the rate of $88 for a certificate of stock for $100, by which lenders re
ceived $2,100,377 as a bonus on that small loan. In August the same year a further
loan of $7,500,000 was authorized ; and in March, 1814, a loan of $25,000,000 was au
thorized. This was the darkest hour of the war, and then it was that the Peace Fac
tion at political meetings, through the press, and even from the pulpit, cast every
obstacle in the way of the government. That opposition now assumed the form of
1 One of the most eminent members of the Federal party (Harrison Gray Otis) charged the administration and the
war with the authorship of that "monstrous depreciation of morals" and "execrable course of smuggling and fraud","
and said that a class of citizens, "encouraged by the just odium against the war, sneer at the restraints of conscience,
Vuigh at perjury, mock at legal restraints, and acquire ill-gotten wealth at the expense of public morals, and of the more
sober, conscientious part of the community."
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 1009
The Weakness of the Government a Reason for rejoicing. The public Credit assailed.
virtual treason. The government was weak and in great need, and its internal ene
mies knew it, and in proportion to its wants they became bolder and more outspoken.
Their denunciations of the government, and those who dared to lend it a helping
hand, were violent and effective. By inflammatory and threatening publications and
personal menaces, they intimidated many capitalists.1 The result was, that only
$11,400,000 of the proposed loan were raised in the spring of 1814, and this by pay
ing a bonus of $2,852,000, terms so disastrous that only one more attempt was made
to borrow money during the war, the deficiency being made up by the issue of treas
ury notes to the amount of $18,452,000. Over this failure of the government these
unpatriotic men rejoiced. One of them, writing from Boston in February, 1815, said,
exultingly, " This day $20,000 six per cent, stock was put up at auction, $5000 of
which only was sold for want of bidders, and that at forty per cent, under par. As
for the former war loan, it would be considered little short of an insult to offer it in
the market, it being a very serious question who is to father the child in case of na
tional difficulties" The last expression referred to the hopes of the conspirators that
a dissolution of the Union would be brought about by the body known in history as
the Hartford Convention, which had adjourned, to meet again if necessary — a body
of men inspired by motives and actions too lofty to be comprehended by the vulgar
politicians who were the leaders of the Peace Faction of that day.
But these machinations failed to produce the full effect desired. Patriotic men in
New England of the Opposition party subscribed to the loan ; and in the Middle
States they did so openly and liberally, to the disgust of the Peace Faction, who now
resorted to a more reprehensible scheme for embarrassing the government. We have
observed that, for reasons named, Boston became the centre of financial power. These
men determined to use that power to embarrass the administration, and they did it
in this wise : The banks in the Middle and Southern States were the principal sub
scribers to the loan, and measures were adopted to drain them of their specie, and
thus produce an utter inability to pay their subscriptions. Some of the Boston banks
became parties to the scheme. The notes of those in New York and cities farther
south held by these banks were transmitted to them, with demands for specie, and at
the same time drafts were drawn on the New York banks for the balances due the
i "Will Federalists subscribe to the loan? Will they lend money to our national rulers?" a leading Boston paper
significantly asked. "It is impossible, first, because of the principle, and, secondly, because of principal and interest.
If they lend money now, they make themselves parties to the violation of the Constitution, the cruelly oppressive
measures in relation to commerce, and to all the crimes which have occurred in the field and in the cabinet. . . . Any
Federalist who lends money to the government will be called infamous .'" The people were then adroitly warned that
money loaned to the government would not be safe. "How, where, and when," asked this disloyal newspaper, " are
the government to get money to pay interest ?" Then, in language almost the same as that of a distinguished leader
of a Peace Faction of our day, a threat of future repudiation was thrown out, to create distrust in the government se
curities. " Who can tell," said the writer above alluded to, " whether future rulers may think the debt contracted under
such circumstances, and by men who lend money to help out measures which they have toudly and constantly condemned,
ought to be paid f"
Another newspaper said of the Boston merchants : "They will lend the government money to retrace their steps, but
none to persevere in their present course. Let every highwayman find his own pistols." And a doctor of divinity
shouted from the pulpit at Byfield : " If the rich men continue to furnish money, war will continue till the mountains
are melted with blood— till every field in America is white with the bones of the people;" while another said, "Let
no man who wishes to continue the war by active means, by vote or lending money, dare to prostrate himself at the
altar on the fast-day, for such are actually as much partakers in the war as the soldier who thrusts his bayonet, and the
judgment of God will await them."
These extracts give but a faint idea of the violence of the leaders of that faction. Many capitalists were intimidated,
and were afraid tcTnegotiate for the loan openly, a fact which brokers at that time have placed on record. Gilbert and
Dean advertised that the " names of all subscribers shall be known only to the undersigned." Another made it known
that "the name of every applicant shall, at his request, be known only to the subscriber." Another assured the people
that he had made arrangements " for perfect secrecy in the transaction of his business."
These advertisements excited the venom of the Peace party exceedingly, and they poured abuse upon the subscribers
and the o-OVeriiment together. "Money," said one of the most prominent among them, with great bitterness, " is such
a drug (the surest signs of the former prosperity and present insecurity of trade), that men, against their consciences,
their honor, their duty, their professions and promises, are willing to lend it secretly to support the very measures which
are both intended and calculated for their ruin." Another said, "How degraded must our government be even in her
own eyes when they resort to such tricks to obtain money, which a common Jew broker would be ashamed of. They
must be well acquainted with the fabric of the men who are to loan them money when they offer that if they will have
the goodness to do it their names shall not be exposed to the world."
3S
1010 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Conduct of Boston Bankers. Effects of the Conspiracy against the public Credit.
Boston corporations, to the amount, in the course of a few months, of about $8,000,000.
The New York bankers were compelled to draw largely on those of Philadelphia, and
the latter on those of Baltimore, and so on. A panic was created. No one could
predict the result. Confidence was shaken. Wagons were seen, loaded with specie,
leaving bank doors with the precious freight, going from city to city, to find its way
finally into the vaults of those of Massachusetts.1 The banks thus drained were com
pelled to curtail their discounts. Commercial derangement and bankruptcies ensued.
Subscribers to the loan were unable to comply with their promises, and, so uncertain
was the future to the minds of many who intended to subscribe, that they hesitated.
The effect of the conspiracy against the public credit was potent and ruinous, and for
a while it was thought impossible for the government to sustain its army and navy.
The banks out of New England were compelled to suspend specie payments, and the
effect upon the paper currency of the country was most disastrous.2
Nor was this all. To make the blow against the public credit still more effectual,
the conspirators made arrangements with agents of the government authorities of
Lower Canada whereby a very large amount of British government bills, drawn on
Quebec, were transmitted to New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, and offered on
such advantageous terms to capitalists as induced them to purchase.3 By this means
an immense amount of gold was transmitted to Canada, placed beyond the reach of
the government of the United States, and put into the hands of the enemy, to give
succor to the war they were waging against the independence of the republic. Had
the conspirators fully succeeded, the national armies must have been disbanded, and
the country reduced to a dependency of Great Britain.
It was during the despondency incident to the gloomy aspect of financial affairs,
the capture of Washington and the destruction of the public buildings and archives,
the utter prostration of business, the certainty that a very lai'ge British force would
be speedily sent to our shores, and the neglect and discourtesy with which the Brit
ish government had treated the American ministers sent to Europe to negotiate a
treaty of peace, that a convention of representatives of the Opposition party in New
i When, in deference to public opinion, the Boston bankers attempted to explain their movement in this matter, they
made the specious plea of their right to the balances due them from other banks. This was not satisfactory. Matthew
Carey, one of the ablest publicists of the day, says that the demand was made at a season of the year when freight on
the specie, on account of the bad state of the roads, was from twenty to thirty per cent, more than it would have been
had they waited a few weeks. That they could have waited without detriment to any interest is made manifest by
the following statement of the condition of the banks in Massachusetts in January, 1814, just before the movement was
made:
Specie. Notes in Circulation.
Massachusetts Bank $2,114,164 $682,708
Union 65T,T95 283,225
Boston 1,182,572 369,903
State 659,066 509,000
New England 284,456 161,170
Mechanics' 47,391 44,595
$4,945,444 $2,000,601
^ By this statement it appears that they had in their vaults about $250 in specie for every $100 of their notes in circula
tion : " a state of things," says Carey, " probably unparalleled in the history of banking from the days of the Lombards
to the present time."
1 The injurious effects upon the paper currency of the country may be seen by the following price current, published
on the 7th of February, 1815 :
Below Par. Below Par.
All the banks in New York State, Philadelphia City Banks 24 per cent
Hudson and Orange excepted... 19 to 20 per cent. Baltimore Banks 30 "
HudsonBank 20 " Treasury Notes 24 to 25 "
Orange Bank.. 24 " United States six per cents 30 "
3 These transactions with the public were made so boldly that advertisements like the following appeared in the
Boston papers :
"1 bill for £800 ) British Government Bills,
1 do- 250 ( Forsaleby
1 do- 203 ( CHARLES W. GREEN,
£1,253 ) No. 14 India Wharf."
So great was the drain caused by the transmission of gold to Canada, and the demand for specie to pay for smuggled
goods brought from Canada and Nova Scotia, that the specie in the Massachusetts banks was reduced in the course of
six months nearly $3,500,000— the amount being $5,468,604 on the 1st of July, 1814, and only $1,999,368 on the 1st of Jan-
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
1011
Cabinet Changes.
New financial Measures proposed.
Revival of the public Credit.
England, to consider public affairs, was conceived, not by the factious politicians we
have just noticed, but by thoughtful and earnest patriots of the Federal party.
After the invasion of Washington there were some changes in President Madison's
Cabinet. Mr. Monroe continued in the office of Secretary of State, and was Acting
Secretary of War after the close of Septem-
ber, 1814, when Mr. Armstrong had resigned.1
George W. Campbell, of Tennessee, the Secre-
tary of the Treasury, was succeeded by Alex
ander J. Dallas — a man of courage, energy, and decision — early in Octo- . October 6,
ber.a The new secretary entered upon his duties with a determination to
revive the public credit, if possible, and he did it. The prospect was unpromising.
Campbell's report of the condition of the Treasury immediately preceding his resig
nation was a deplorable picture of the national finances. So great was the general
distrust that, when an attempt was made to borrow $6,000,000,b there were b August,
not bids for one half the amount ; and so great were the government needs,
that, in order to procure $2,500,000, the secretary had been compelled to issue
stock to the amount of $4,266,000. There were $8,000,000 treasury notes outstand
ing, one half of which would fall due the
next year. The entire amount to be paid
within the fiscal year was not less than
$25,000,000, while the new revenues, al
ready provided for, including new taxes,
could not be expected to produce above
$8,000,000, owing to the total destruction
of commerce. Yet Dallas was not dis
mayed, nor even discouraged. He pro
posed methods which startled Congress
and the people. The crisis demanded im
mediate and effective measures, so he pro
posed new and increased taxes ; and, as a
means for furnishing a circulating medium
and immediate resources in the way of
loans, he recommended the establishment
of a national bank, the government to be a
large and controlling stockholder, and the
bank to be compelled to loan to the gov
ernment $30,000,000.2 Congress consider
ed the propositions favorably; and such
was the confidence which the character and
i John Armstrong was born at Carlisle, in Pennsylvania, on the 25th of November, 1758. He was a student at Prince
ton College when the old War for Independence broke out, when he joined the army, and soon became a member of the
staff of General Mercer. He was afterward on the staff of General Gates, and was for a while adjutant general of the
Southern Army under that leader. He remained with that officer until the close of the war. Young Armstrong was
the author of the celebrated Aew'&wrgr Addresses just at the close of hostilities. While their tendency was most danger
ous to the public welfare, Washington bore testimony to the patriotic motives of the writer. Armstrong was Secretary
of State of Pennsylvania. After marrying the sister of Chancellor Livingston, of New York, he settled on the Hudson,
in that State, near Red Hook, where he resided until his death on the 1st of April, 1833. He was United States senator
in the year 1800, and in 1804 President Jefferson appointed him minister to France, where he performed his duties with
ability. He was appointed brigadier general when the war broke out in 1S12, and the following year he was called
to the office of Secretary of War, which he reluctantly accepted. When he retired from that post he left public life
forever.
= Dallas's proposition contemplated a national bank with a capital of $50,000,000, one tenth in specie and the remain
der in government stocks; the government to subscribe two fifths of the capital, and to have the appointment of the
president and a third of the directors, and power also to authorize the suspension of specie payments. A bill charter
ing a national bank was passed in 1815, but was vetoed by the President of the United States. Finally, in April, 1816,
an^act incorporating a national bank became a law. This was the famous United States Bank, whose existence termi
nated in 1836.
Alexander J. Dallas was born in the island of Jamaica in 1759. His father was a Scotchman, and an eminent physi
cian there. This son was educated at Edinburg and Westminster. After the death of his father he settled in Philadel-
1012 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Measures for increasing the Army. Peace apparently remote. Discontents in New England.
immediate acts of Dallas inspired, that the loan vainly attempted to be made in Au
gust was favorably negotiated in October ; and treasury notes, which then " none but
necessitous creditors, or contractors in distress, or commissaries, quartermasters,. and
navy agents, acting as it were officially, seemed willing to accept," were, early in Jan
uary following, sold at par, with the interest added.
Mr. Monroe, as acting Secretary of War, proposed vigorous measures for giving
strength to the army. Volunteering had ceased, and he proposed to raise, by con
scription or draft, sufficient men to make the existing army number nearly sixty-three
thousand, and to provide forty thousand men as a regular force, to be locally em
ployed in the defense of the frontiers and the sea-coast. Bills for this purpose were
« October 27, introduced in Congress ;a and this and other war measures were more fa
vorably received than usual, because of the waning prospects of peace
with Great Britain excepting on terms humiliating to the United States. Negotia
tions for peace were then in progress at Ghent, in Belgium ; but the unfair demands
and denials of Great Britain, through her commissioners, gave very little promise of
satisfactory results. That haughty power would not consent to make peace except
ing on very humiliating terms for the Americans ; and yet there were those who
could not value national independence, nor comprehend their duty to posterity, who
thought that peace would be cheaply purchased even on such terms. While the
Legislature of New York called them " extravagant and disgraceful," and that of
Virginia spoke of those terms as " arrogant and insulting," the New England Legis
latures had no word of condemnation.
The proposition to raise a large force by conscription brought matters to a crisis
in New England. In some of the other states the matter of local defenses had been
left almost wholly to the discretion of the respective governors. But the President,
made suspicious of the loyalty of New England because of the injurious action of the
Peace Faction, insisted upon the exclusive control of all military movements there.
Because the Massachusetts militia had not been placed under General Dearborn's or
ders, the Secretary of State, in an official letter to Governor Strong, refused to pay
the expenses of defending Massachusetts from the common enemy. Similar action
for similar cause had occm-red in the case of Connecticut, and a clamor was instantly
raised that New England was abandoned to the^enemy by the National Government.
A joint committee of the Massachusetts Legislature made a report on the state of
public affairs, which contained a covert threat of independent action on the part of the
people of that section, saying that, in the position in which that state stood, no choice
was left it between submission to the enemy, which was not to be thought of, and
the appropriation to her own defense of those revenues derived from the people, but
which the General Government had hitherto thought proper to expend elsewhere.
The committee recommended a conference of sympathizing states to consider the pro
priety of adopting " some mode of defense suited to the circumstances and exigencies
of those states," and to consult upon a radical reform in the National Constitution.
The administration minority protested against this action, and denounced it as a
disguised movement to prepare the way for a dissolution of the Union. Their pro
test was of no avail. The report of the committee was adopted by a vote of three to
one, and the Legislature addressed a circular letter to the governors of the other New
England States, inviting the appointment of delegates, to meet in Convention at an
early day, it said, " to deliberate upon the dangers to which the states in the east
ern section of the Union are exposed by the course of the war, and which there is
too much reason to believe will thicken round them in its progress ; and to devise,
if practicable, means of security and defense which may be consistent with the pres-
phia in 1783, and studied law. He was fond of literary pursuits, and at one time edited the Columbian Magazine. In 1801
President Jefferson appointed him United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. In October, 1814,
he was appointed Secretary of the Treasury, and in March, 1815, assumed the additional duties of Secretary of War. In
November, 1816, he resigned, and returned to the practice of his profession. He died on the 16th of January, 1817.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 1013
A Convention called at Hartford. Composition of the Convention. Its proposed Work.
ervation of their resources from total ruin, and adapted to their local situation, mu
tual relations and habits, and not repugnant to their obligations as members of the
Union." They also proposed a consideration of some amendments to the Constitu
tion on the subject of slave representation, that might secure to the New England
States equal advantages with others.
The proposition of the Massachusetts Legislature was acceded to, and on Thursday
morning, the 15th of December, 1814, a Convention, composed of twenty-six delegates,
representing Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Ver
mont, assembled at Hartford, in Connecticut, then a town of four thousand inhabit
ants, and organized by the appointment of George Cabot, of Boston, as president of
that body, and Theodore D wight as secretary.1
The sessions of the Convention continued three weeks, and were held with closed
doors. The movement had created much alarm at the seat of government, especially
because at about that time the Legislature of Massachusetts appropriated a million
dollars toward the support of ten thousand men to relieve the militia in service, and
to be, like that militia, exclusively under state control. All sorts of wild rumors and
suggestions were put afloat, and the
government found it convenient to
have Major (afterward General) T. S.
Jesup at Hartford, with his regiment,
at the opening of the Convention,
nominally for the purpose of recruit
ing for the regular- army, but really under instructions, no doubt, to watch the move
ments of the supposed traitorous conclave.
On the second day of the session, a committee, appointed for the purpose, submit
ted a series of topics proper for the consideration of the Convention, which were as
follows : " The powers claimed by the Executive of the United States, to determine
conclusively in respect to calling out the militia of the states into the service of the
United States ; and the dividing of the United States into military districts, with an
officer of the army in each thereof, with discretionary authority from the executive
of the United States to call for the militia, to be under the command of such officer.
The refusal of the executive of the United States to supply or pay the militia of cer
tain states, called out for their defense, on the grounds of their not having been called
out under the authority of the United States, or not having been, by the Executive
of the state, put under the command of the commander over the military district.
The failure of the government of the United States to supply and pay the militia of
the states, by them admitted to have been in the United States service. The report
of the Secretary of War to Congress on filling the ranks of the army, together with
a bill or act on that subject. A bill before Congress providing for classifying and
drafting the militia. The expenditure of the revenue of the nation in offensive oper
ations on the neighboring provinces of the enemy. The failure of the government of
the United States to provide for the common defense, and the consequent obligations,
necessity, and burdens devolved on the separate states to defend themselves, together
with the mode, and the ways and means in their power for accomplishing the object."
Such was the work which the Convention, at the outset, proposed for itself.
On the 20th of December a committee was appointed to " report a general project
of such measures" as might be proper for the Convention to adopt ; and, four days
afterward, they adopted a report that it would be expedient for the Convention to
i The following are the names of the delegates: George Cabot, Nathan Dane, William Prescott, Harrison Gray Otis,
Timothy Bi^elow, Joshua Thomas, Samuel Sumner Wilde, Joseph Lyman, Stephen Longfellow, Jr., Daniel Waldo, Ho-
dijah Bayliel, and George Bliss, from Massachusetts; Chauncey Goodrich, John Treadwell, James Hillhouse, Zephaniah
Swift, Nathaniel Smith, Calvin Goddard, and Roger Minot Sherman, from Connecticut; Daniel Lyman, Samuel Ward,
Edward Manton, and Benjamin Hazard, from Rhode Island; Benjamin West, and Mills Olcott, from Sew Hampshire;
and William Hall, Jr., from Vermont.
1014
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Signatures of the Members of the Hartford Convention.
Proposed Amendments to the Constitution.
prepare a general statement of
the unconstitutional attempts of
the executive government of the
United States to infringe upon
the rights of the individual states
in regard to the military, etc. ;
and to recommend to the Legis
latures of the states the adoption
of the most effectual and decisive
measures to protect the militia
and the states from the usurpa
tions contained in those proceed
ings. Also to prepare a state
ment concerning the general sub
ject of state defenses, and a rec
ommendation that an application
be made to the national govern
ment for an arrangement with
'$• r the states by which they would
' /y be allowed to retain a portion of
/jfc ^^^-7^^^^ the taxes levied by Con-
£/' *•"" / gress, to be devoted to
the expenses of self-de-
FAO-SIMILE OF THE SIGNATURES TO TUB REPORT OF TUB HARTFORD CONVENTION. ., m-l
fense, et cetera. They
also proposed amendments to the Constitution.1
1 They proposed, by amendments to the Constitution, to accomplish the following results : 1. The restriction of the
power of Congress to declare and make war. 2. A restraint of the exercise of unlimited power by Congress to make
new states and admit them into the Union. 3. A restraint of the powers of Congress in laying embargoes and restric
tions on commerce. 4. A stipulation that a President of the United States shall not be elected from the same state two
consecutive terms. 5. That the same person shall not be elected President a second time. C. That alterations be made
concerning slave representation and taxation.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
1015
Adjournment of the Hartford Convention.
Suspicions respecting its Work.
The Substance of that Work.
The labors of the Hartford Convention ended on the 4th of January, 1816, with a
report and resolutions, signed by the delegates present, to be laid before the Legisla
tures of the respective states represented in the Convention. The report and resolu
tions were adopted as expressions of the sentiments of the Convention.1 On the fol
lowing morning,a at nine o'clock, after prayer by the Rev. Dr. Strong, the . January 5,
Convention adjourned, but with the impression on the part of the mem
bers that circumstances might compel it to reassemble. For that reason the seal of
secrecy was not removed from the proceedings. This gave wide scope for conjecture
concerning them, some declaring that they were patriotic, and others that they were
treasonable in the extreme. Because the members of that Convention were of the
political party to which the Peace Faction belonged, they incurred much odium.
They and the party became the target at which the shafts of sharpest wit, as well as
bitter denunciations, were hurled ; and at the next election in Massachusetts, the ad
ministration, or Democratic
party, issued a hand-bill, with
a wood-cut indicative of the
character of the opposing par
ties, a copy of which, on a re
duced scale, is given in the
annexed cut.
He who will take pains to in
quire, without prejudice, will
be satisfied that the twenty-
six eminent men who com
posed the Hartford Conven
tion were as wise, as loyal,
and as patriotic as the aver
age of the legislators and pol
iticians of that day or since. They represented the conservative sentiment of discon
tented New England during a season of great trial.2
i The report, moderate but firm, able in construction, and forcible though heretical in arguments and conclusions,
was immediately published, and extensively circulated throughout the country. It was read with the greatest avidity.
It disappointed the expectations of the radical Federalists and the suspicious Democrats. The few disunionigts of New
England found in it no promises of a separation, and the administration party perceived in it no signs of sedition or
treason. It presented a concise view of the current and past policy of the government, and summed up the sentiments
of the Convention in the following resolutions, which were recommended for adoption to the state Legislatures:
"Resolved, That it be and hereby is recommended to the Legislatures of the several states represented in this Conven
tion to adopt all such measures as may be necessary effectually to protect the citizens of said states from the operation
and effects of all acts which have been or may be passed by the Congress of the United States, which shall contain pro
visions subjecting the militia or other citizens to forcible drafts, conscriptions, or impressments not authorized by the
Constitution of the United States.
"Resolved That it be and hereby is recommended to the said Legislatures to authorize an immediate and earnest ap
plication to be made to the government of the United States, requesting their consent to some arrangement whereby
the said states may, separately or in concert, be empowered to assume upon themselves the defense of their territory
against the enemy; and a reasonable portion of the taxes collected within said states may be paid into the respective
treasuries thereof, and appropriated to the payment of the balance due said states, and to the future defense of the same.
The amount so paid into the said treasuries to be credited, and the disbursements made as aforesaid to be charged, to
has
the
the
That'it be and it hereby is recommended to the Legislatures of the aforesaid states to pass laws (where it
, ,
governor of either of the other states, to employ the whole of such detachments or corps as well as the regular force
ereof as may be required, and can be spared consistently with the safety of the state, in as-
repel any invasion thereof which shall be made or attempted by the public
eDTheyre' were other resolutions, but they referred to amendments of the Constitution already alluded to. The most that
ea™ sa?d agafnst th re 1 ions jusl quoted is, that they abandon the doctrine of a consolidated nation formed by
'he ratiSion of the Constitution by the people, for which the Washingtonian Federalists so strenuously contended
and are deeply tinged with the fatal heresy of state supremacy, or, at least, state independence, which has produced
T Se6 »uthoMBnindebred to the kindness of Messrs. E. B. and E. C. Kellogg, of Hartford, Connecticut, for a careful
copy of the signatures of the members of the Convention, printed on the opposite page, precisely as they are attached
1016 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Sketches of the Members of the Hartford Convention.
While the country was agitated by the political events just recorded, and the peo
ple were despondent because of the seeming remoteness of peace and the gloomy as
pect of public affairs in general, other events of great importance, and having a most
powerful influence in the direction of peace, were occurring on the southwestern bor
ders of the republic. Let us consider them.
We have seen how the Creek Indians in Alabama were led into war, and thereby
to the ruin of their nation, by white enemies of the republic and the influence of Te-
to the address and resolutions. The following brief notices of those members, compiled from sketches made by Mr.
Dwight, the secretary of the Convention, will give the reader some idea of the dignity of that body :
George Cabot, the president of the Convention, was a descendant of one of the discoverers of the American conti
nent of that name. He was a warm Whig during the Revolutionary struggle, and, soon after the adoption of the Na
tional Constitution, was chosen a senator in Congress by the Legislature of Massachusetts. He was a pure-hearted,
lofty-minded citizen, a sound statesman, and a man beloved by all who knew him.
Nathan Dane was a lawyer of eminence, and was also a Whig in the days of the Revolution. He was a representa
tive of Massachusetts in Congress during the Confederation, and was specially noticed for his services in procuring the
insertion of a provision in the famous Ordinance of 1787, establishing territorial governments over the Territories north
west of the Ohio, which forever excluded slavery from those regions. He was universally esteemed for his wisdom and
integrity.
William Prescott was a son of the distinguished Colonel Prescott, of the Revolution, who was conspicuous in the bat
tle of Bunker Hill. He was an able lawyer, first in Salem, and then in Boston. He served with distinction in both
branches of the Massachusetts Legislature.
Harrison Gray Otis was a native of Boston, and member of the family of that name distinguished in the Revolution.
He was a lawyer by profession, and served the public in the Massachusetts Legislature and in the National Congress.
He was an eloquent speaker, and as a public man, as well as a private citizen, he was very popular.
Timothy Bigelow was a lawyer, and for several years was speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives.
Joshua Thomas was judge of Probate in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, and was a man of unblemished reputation
in public and private life.
y Joseph Lyman was a lawyer, and for several years held the office of sheriff of his county.
George Bliss was an eminent lawyer, and distinguished for his learning, industry, and integrity. He was several
times a member of the Massachusetts Legislature.
Daniel Waldo was a resident of Worcester, where he established himself in early life as a merchant. He was a state
senator, but would seldom consent to an election to office.
Samuel Sumner Wilde was a lawyer, and was raised to a seat on the bench of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts.
Hodijah Baylies was an officer in the Continental Army, in which position he served with reputation. He was for
many years judge of Probate in the county in which he lived, and was distinguished for sound understanding, fine tal
ents, and unimpeachable integrity.
Stephen Longfellow, Jr., was a lawyer of eminence in Portland, Maine, where he stood at the head of his profession.
He was a representative in Congress.
Chauncey Goodrich was an eminent lawyer, and was for many years a member of the Legislature of Connecticut in
both of its branches. He was also a member of both houses of Congress, and lieutenant governor of Connecticut. His
reputation was very exalted as a pure statesman and useful citizen.
John Treadwell was in public stations in Connecticut a greater part of his life, where he was a member of both legis
lative branches of the government, was a long time a judge of the Court of Common Pleas, and was both lieutenant
governor and governor of the state. He was a Whig in the Revolution, and a politician of the Washington school.
James Hillhouse was a man of eminent ability, and widely known. He was a lawyer of celebrity, served as a mem
ber of the Legislature of Connecticut, and was for more than twenty years either a senator or representative in Con
gress. He fought bravely for his country in the old War for Independence, and was always active, energetic, and pub
lic-spirited.
Zephaniah Swift was a distinguished lawyer. He served as speaker of the Connecticut Assembly, and was a member
of Congress, a judge, and for a number of years chief justice of the Supreme Court of Connecticut.
Nathaniel Smith was an extraordinary man. He was a lawyer by profession, and for many years was considered as
one of the most distinguished members of his profession in Connecticut. He was a member of Congress, and a judge
of the Supreme Court of Connecticut. His whole life was marked by purity of morals and love of country.
Calvin Goddard was a native of Massachusetts, but studied and practiced law in Connecticut, and became a distin
guished citizen of that state. He arose to great eminence in his profession, and was in Congress four years. He was
repeatedly elected a member of the General Assembly, and was appointed a judge of the Supreme Court of that state.
Roger Miuot Sherman was another distinguished lawyer of Connecticut, and was for a long time connected with the
government of that state. He was a man of highest reputation as the possessor of the qualities of a good citizen.
Daniel Lyman was a soldier of the Revolution, and rose to the rank of major in the Continental Army. After the
peace he settled as a lawyer in Rhode Island, where he became distinguished for talents and integrity. He was chief
justice of the Supreme Court of that state.
Samuel Ward was a son of Governor Ward, of Rhode Island, and at the age of eighteen years was a captain in the
Continental Army. He was with Arnold in his expedition to Quebec in 1775. At that city he was made a prisoner.
Before the close of the war he rose to the rank of colonel. He was elected a member of the Convention held at Annap
olis, in Maryland, in 1786, which was the inception of the Convention which framed the National Constitution.
Benjamin Hazard was a native of Rhode Island, and a lawyer, in which profession he was eminent. He served for
many years in the Legislature of his state.
Edward Manton was a native of Rhode Island, and rarely mingled in the political discussions of his day. He was a
man of sterling worth in every relation in life.
Benjamin West was a native of New Hampshire, and a lawyer by profession, in which he had a good reputation.
Mills Olcott was a native of New Hampshire, and a son of Chief Justice Olcott, of that state. He was a lawyer by
profession.
William Hall, Jr., was a native of Vermont. His business was that of a merchant, and he was frequently a member
of the State Legislature. He was universally esteemed and respected by all good men.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
1017
General Jackson recalled into active Service.
His Vigilance.
Hostile Movements at Pensacola.
cumtha, the Indian al
ly of the British ;' and
we left General Jack-
• April, son»a who had
1814. been the chief
instrument in the de
struction of that na
tion, resting at "The
Hermitage," his man
sion and estate, a few
miles from Nashville,
in Tennessee. From
that pleasant retreat
he was soon recalled
to active duty, having
been appointed a ma
jor general in the
army of the United
S t a t e s,b and
commander of
April.
THE UEKMITAGE" IN 1861. 2
the Seventh Military District, with his head-quarters at Mobile, which post the Amer
icans had taken possession of as early as April, 1812,3 when the Spaniards retired to
Pensacola. Jackson was instructed to stop on his way to Mobile to make a defini
tive treaty with the remnant of the Creek nation, which he did at Fort Jackson4 on
the 14th of August.0
Jackson's vigilance was sleepless. It was in marked contrast with the slum
bering apathy or indifference at the War Department. He was promptly informed
of what was occurring not only in his own department, but in the whole region
around him, for he had trusty spies, pale and dusky, every where. He had observed
with indignation and alarm that the authorities at Pensacola, with usual Spanish du
plicity, while professing neutrality, were in practical alliance with the British and In
dians. Of this the government was promptly informed ; but Jackson received no
responses to his warnings. He continued to receive evidences of gathering danger
at Pensacola, and finally, late in August, the mask of Spanish neutrality was removed,.
Nine British ships of war then lay at anchor in the harbor there. Marines were land
ed from them and allowed to encamp on the shore. Their commander, Lieutenant
Colonel Edward Nichols, was made a welcome guest of the Spanish governor, and
the British flag was unfurled over one of the forts. Indian runners were sent on
swift errands among the neighboring Creek and Seminole Indians to invite them to
Pensacola, there to be enrolled in the service of the British crown. The response to
their call was the speedy gathering of almost a thousand savages at that Spanish post,
where they received arms and ammunition in abundance from the British officers.
Then went forth a general order from Nichols to his soldiers, followed soon afterward
by a proclamation to the inhabitants of Louisiana and Kentucky, both of which re
vealed hostile intentions. To his troops Nichols spoke of their being called upon " to'
perform long and tedious marches through wildernesses, swamps, and water-courses,"
and he exhorted them to conciliate their Indian allies, and to " never give them just
cause for offense." In his proclamations he addressed the most inflammatory appeals
to the prejudices of the French and the discontents of the Kentuckians, which a seem
ing neglect by their government and the arts of politicians had engendered.5 In fact,
~ See Chapter XXXIII.
2 This was the appearance of The Hermitage when the writer visited and sketched it in the spring of 1861.
3 See page 742. 4 See PaSe T82-
• The British counted largely upon the passive acquiescence, if not actual assistance, of the French and Spanish in-
1018 PICTOKIAL FIELD-BOOK
Outlaws at Barataria Bay. Their Leader. Invitation to join the British Navy.
Nichols, with a strange imprudence, seemed to take particular pains to proclaim that
the land and naval forces at Pensacola were only the van of far more formidable ones
composing an expedition for the seizure of New Orleans and the subjugation of
Louisiana.
There was another revelation of impending danger made to the Americans at this
time, and this, with the proceedings at Pensacola, aroused the people of the South
west, and the civil and military authorities, to the greatest vigilance and speedy prep
arations to meet an invasion. This was an attempt on the part of the British to ob
tain the aid of a community of outlaws on the borders of the Gulf. These were pri-
vateersmen and smugglers, whose head-quarters were on a low island called Grand
Terre, six miles in length and one and a half in breadth, which lies at the entrance to
Barataria Lake or Bay, from the Gulf of Mexico, little less than sixty miles southwest
from New Orleans in a direct line. From that island there is a water communica
tion for small vessels through lakes and bayous to within a mile of the Mississippi
River, just above New Orleans. Toward the Gulf is a fine beach, and to it inhabit
ants of the " Crescent City" resort during the heats of the summer months. The bay
forms a sheltered harbor, in which the privateers of the Baratarians (as the smug
glers were called) and those associated with them lay securely from the besom of the
" Norther" that sweeps occasionally over the Gulf, and also from the cannon of ships
of war, for the bay was inaccessible to such ponderous and bulky craft as were then
used. The community of marauders there formed a regularly organized association,
at the head of which was Jean Lafitte, a shrewd Frenchman and blacksmith from
Bordeaux, and late resident of New Orleans. He had caused a battery of heavy guns
to be pointed seaward for the protection of his company ; and there might be seen at
all times shrewd and cautious men from New Orleans, having " honorable mention"
in that community, purchasing at cheap rates for profitable sales the rich booty of
the sea-robbers, and thereby laying broadly the foundations of the fortunes of many
a wealthy family living in the Southwest when the Civil War broke out in 1861.
Lafitte became known in history, romance, and song as the " Pirate of the Gulf," of
whom Byron erroneously said he
" Left a corsair's name to other times,
Linked with one virtue and a thousand crimes."
He was not a corsair in the meaning of the law of nations ; and his crimes, such as
they were, were not against humanity, but were violations of the revenue and neu
trality laws of the United States. " I may have evaded the payment of duties at the
custom-house, but I have never ceased to be a good citizen," said Lafitte, on one oc
casion ; and then, with the usual plea of a culprit, he added, " All the offenses I have
ever committed have been forced upon me by certain vices in the laws."
The fact that the United States government had, by legal proceedings, made the
Baratarians outlaws, and, as a natural consequence, it was supposed, the bitter ene
mies of that government, caused the British to seek an alliance with them, not doubt-
"1814 *n=> ^a* ^ wou^ gladly be afforded. Accordingly, on the 1st of September,"1
the British sloop of war Sophia, Captain Lockyer, sailed from Pensacola with
dispatches for Jean Lafitte, among which was an invitation from Lieutenant Colonel
Nichols, already mentioned, inviting that leader and his band to enter the British
service, and a letter from Captain W. H. Percy, a son of Lord Beverly, the command
er of the British squadron at Pensacola, in which Lafitte's fears were appealed to.1
Lafitte took the offered documents, and was assured by Lockyer that his vessels and
habitants of Louisiana, who had been opposed to the rule of the United States government, and also upon the aid of the
slaves, whose freedom was to be proclaimed when the British should obtain a sure foothold on the borders of the Mis
sissippi Eiver or the Gulf of Mexico.
1 The package contained, besides these two letters, Nichols's proclamation to the inhabitants of Louisiana, and a
copy of Captain Percy's orders to Captain Lockyer, in which the latter was directed, if successful in his mission, to
" concert measures for the annoyance of the enemy, having an eye to the juncture of the small armed vessels" of the
Baratarians with those of the British "for the capture of Mobile," etc.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
1019
A Leader of Smugglers turns Patriot.
Jackson perceives Mischief.
Mobile and its Defenses.
WILLIAM O. C. OLAIIiOENE.
men would be received into the honorable
service of the Royal Navy. These docu
ments Lafitte sent to William C. C. Clai-
borne, then governor of Louisiana, with a
letter, saying, " Though proscribed in my
adopted country, I will never miss an occa
sion of serving her, or of proving that she
has never ceased to be near to me."1
Before these revelations were made, Jack
son's sagacity and forecast, when consider
ing rumors and positive information that
reached him from time to time, had made
him suspicious that such hostile movements
were in preparation ; and, while a handful
of men were trampling upon the national
capital, he was planning a scheme for crush
ing at one blow the triple alliance of Brit
ish, Spanish, and Indians at Pensacola, and
ending the war in the Southwest. Now,
with positive testimony of danger before
him (copies of the documents furnished by
Lafitte having been sent to him), he resolved to act promptly, without the advice or
sanction of his government.2 He squarely accused Manrequez, the Spanish governor
at Pensacola, with bad faith, when a spicy correspondence ensued. This Jackson
ended by saying to the governor, " In future I beg you to withhold your insulting
charges against my government for one more inclined to listen to slander than I am ;
nor consider me any more a diplomatic character unless so proclaimed from the mouth
of my cannon." Then he sent his adjutant general, Colonel Robert Butler, into Ten
nessee to beat up for volunteers, with a determination to give tangible shape to the
threat contained in the last clause of his letter. In a very short time no less than
two thousand of the sturdy young men of Tennessee were ready for the field.
Meanwhile, hostilities had actually commenced in that quarter. When Jackson
reached Mobile, late in August, he was satisfied that an attempt would be made to
seize that post as soon as the great expedition of which he had rumors should be pre
pared to move. Mobile was then only a little village of wooden houses, with not a
thousand inhabitants, with no defenses against artillery, and scarcely sufficient to
withstand an attack from the rifles of Indians. At the entrance to Mobile Bay, thirty
miles from the village,was Fort Bowyer (now Fort Morgan), occupying the extremity
of a narrow sand cape on the eastern side of that entrance, and commanding the en
tire channel between it and Dauphin Island. It was a small work, semicircular in
form toward the channel, and of redan shape on the land side. It was weak, being
without bomb-proofs, and mounting only twenty guns, and all but two of these were
12-pounders and less. And yet this was the chief defense of Mobile ; for, the enemy
once inside of the bay, there would be no hope for holding the post with the troops
then at hand. So, when Jackson perceived, early in September, that a speedy move-'
ment against Mobile from Pensacola was probable, he threw into Fort Bowyer one
hundred and thirty of the Second regular infantry, under Major William Lawrence,
1 Lafltte had amassed a large fortune by his lawless pursuits, and perceived the danger that menaced his trade, his
possessions, and his liberty. "Already his brother, who had been his chief agent in New Orleans, was iu prison for his
offenses, and the authorities of the United States were preparing to strike a withering blow at Barataria. Lafltte, will
ing to save himself and his possessions, and preferring to be called a patriot rather than a pirate, asked the British mes
sengers to allow him a few days for consideration. When Lockyer departed Lafltte sent the documents up to New Or
leans, as mentioned in the text.
= An order was actually issued from the War Department authorizing Jackson to seize Pensacola, but it did not reach
him until six months afterward, when the war had ceased.
1020
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Tort Bowyer garrisoned and strengthened.
A British Squadron threatens it.
Preparations for Attack.
one of the most gallant officers in the
service. At the same time, he sent
orders for Colonel Butler to call out
the enrolled Tennessee Volunteers,
and have them led immediately to
Mobile.
Major Lawrence made vigorous
preparations to resist the enemy by
strengthening the fort as much as pos
sible, and providing against attacks
upon it from cannon that might be
planted upon sand-hills near, which
commanded it. These preparations
were not completed when, on the
morning of the 12th of September,
Lieutenant Colonel Nichols appeared
on the peninsula, in rear of the fort,
with one hundred and thirty marines
and six hundred Indians, the latter
led by Captain Woodbine, who had
been attempting to drill them at Pen-
sacola. Toward evening four British
vessels of war hove in sight, and an
chored within six miles of Mobile
Point. These were the Hermes, 22 ;
Sophia, 1 8 ; Caron, 20 ; and Anacon
da, 1 8, the whole under Captain Per
cy, the commander of the squadron
of nine vessels in Pensacola Bay, al
ready mentioned, of which these were
a part. In the presence of these, for
midable forces, the little garrison slept
upon their arms that night.
On the following morning Nichols reconnoitred the fort from behind the sand-hills
in its rear, and, dragging a howitzer to a sheltered position within seven hundred
yards of the work, threw some shells and a solid shot upon it without much effect.
Responses from Major Lawrence were equally harmless ; but when, later in the day,
Percy's men attempted to cast up intrenchments, Lawrence's guns quickly dispersed
them. Meanwhile several light boats, engaged in sounding the channel nearest the
fort, were dispersed in the same way.
8 September 14, The succeeding daya was similarly employed ; but easily on the morn
ing of the 15th it was evident to the garrison that an assault was about
to be made from land and water. The forenoon wore away, while a stiff breeze was
blowing, and when it slackened to a slight one from the southeast, toward noon, the
* ships stood out to sea. They tacked at two o'clock, and bearing down upon the fort
in order of " line ahead," the Hermes (Percy's flag-ship) leading, took position for at
tack. The Hermes and Sophia lay nearly abreast the northwest face of the fort,
while the Caron and Anaconda were more distant. Lawrence then called a council
of officers, when it was detennined to resist to the last, and not to surrender, if finally
compelled to, unless ijpon the conditions that officers and privates should retain their
arms and private property, be protected from the savages, and be treated as prison-
1 This is from the portrait of General Jackson in the City Hall, New York, which was painted by order of the Com
mon Council for the city by John Vanderlyn, in 1819, when Jackson was fifty-two years of age.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
1021
Attack on Fort Bowyer.
The British repulsed.
Effect of the Repulse.
ers of war. This being their resolution, the words " Don't give up the fort'''' were
adopted as the signal for the day.1
The Hermes drew nearer the fort, and when within range of its guns the two 24-
pounders were opened upon her without much effect. She made a*faint reply, and
anchored within musket range of the work, while the other three vessels formed in
battle line under a heavy fire. It was now half past four in the afternoon. The four
vessels simultaneously opened fire, and the engagement became general and fierce,
for broadside after broadside was fired upon the fort by the ships, while the circular
battery was working fearfully upon the assailants. Meanwhile Captain Woodbine
opened fire from a howitzer and a 12-pounder from behind a sand dune seven hun
dred yards from the opposite side of the fort. The battle raged until half past five,
when the flag of the Hermes was shot away, and Lawrence ceased firing to ascertain
whether she had surrendered. This humane act was followed by a broadside from
the Caron, and the fight was renewed with redoubled vigor. Very soon the cable of
the Hermes was severed by a shot, and she floated away with the current, her head
toward the fort, and her decks swept of men and every thing else by a raking fire.
Then the flag-staff of the fort was shot away and the ensign fell, when the ships, con
trary to the humane example of the garrison, redoubled their fire. At the same time,
Woodbine, supposing the garrison had surrendered, approached with his Indians,
when they were driven back in great terror by a storm of grape-shot. Both sailors
and marines found the garrison in full vigor, and only a few minutes after the flag
fell it was seen floating over the
fort at the end of a sponge-staff
to which Major Lawrence had
nailed it.
The attacking vessels, batter
ed and in peril, soon withdrew,
excepting the helpless Hermes,
which grounded upon a sand
bank, when Percy fired and
abandoned her. At almost mid
night the magazine of the Her
mes exploded. So ended, in a
repulse of the British, the attack
on Fort Bowyer, upon which
ninety-two pieces of artillery
had been brought to bear, and'
over thirteen hundred men had
been arrayed against a garrison of one hundred and thirty. The latter lost only
eight men, one half of whom were killed. The assailants lost two hundred and thir
ty-two men, of whom the unusual proportion of one hundred and sixty-two were
killed.
The result of the strife at Mobile Point was very mortifying to the British. It
was wholly unexpected. Percy had declared that he should allow the garrison only
twenty minutes to capitulate. That garrison— that handful of men— had beaten off
his ships and his co-operating land force with ease. The repulse was fatal to the
prestige of the British name among the Indians, and a large portion of them deserted
their allies and sought safety from the wrath of Jackson, whom they feared, by con
cealment in the interior of their broad country. The result was most gratifying
to the Americans, and gave an impetus to volunteering for the defense of New Or-
ATTACtC
FT,
i Latour says that the officers of the garrison took an oath not to recede from this determination in any case nor on
any pretext, and that in the event of the death of one of them all the others should adhere to it.-Histoncal Memoir
of the War in West Florida and Louisia>M, by Major A. La Carriere Latour.
1022 PICTOEIAL FIELD-BOOK
Reception of the British at Pensacola. Jackson marches on that Place. Violation of a Flag of Truce.
leans. Jackson wrote a commendatory letter to Major Lawrence, and that officer
received one also from Edward Livingston, chairman of the Defense Committee of
New Orleans, assuring him of the joy and gratitude felt by the inhabitants of that
city when they lieard of his gallant defense of Fort Bowyer. At the same time it
was resolved to present to Major Lawrence an elegant sword in the name of the cit
izens of New Orleans.1
When the discomfited British returned to Pensacola they were publicly received
as friends and allies. This circumstance, the attack on Fort Bowyer, and the revela
tions just made concerning an attempt by the British to engage a band of outlaws to
assist them in an attempt to captui*e New Orleans, which we shall consider presently,
kindled the hottest indignation in the minds of Jackson and the inhabitants of the
» September 21, Southwest. The general issued* a fiery proclamation to the inhabitants
of Louisiana as a counterblast to that of Nichols, in which he set forth
the conduct of the British and the perfidy of the Spaniards, calling them to arouse in
defense of their threatened country. He also put forth an address on the same day
to the free colored people of Louisiana, inviting them to unite with the rest of their
fellow-citizens in defending their common country from invaders. The people were
already much excited by the threatening aspect of affairs, and these appeals aroused
them to vigorous action.
Jackson had determined to march on Pensacola as soon as the Tennessee Volunteers
should arrive, and break up that rendezvous of the enemies of the republic. The
time for such movement was looked for with great impatience. It was even weeks
remote, for it was the beginning of November before Jackson had his forces on hand
for the purpose. These were assembled at Fort Montgomery, due north from Pensa
cola, four thousand strong,2 and marched for the doomed fort on the 3d,b
b November. .... .
some Mississippi dragoons in advance. The whole army encamped within
two miles of Pensacola on the evening of the 6th, when Jackson sent Major Pierre
with a flag of truce to the governor, with an assurance that the expedition was not
to make war upon a neutral power, nor to injure the town, but to deprive the ene
mies of the republic of a place of refuge. He was instructed, also, to demand the
surrender of the forts. But when the flag approached it was fired upon by a 12-
pounder at Fort St. Michael, which was garrisoned by the British, and over which
the Spanish and British flags had been conjointly waving until the day before. When
Pierre reported these facts, Jackson sent a Spanish prisoner, whom he had captured
on the way, to the governor, with a message demanding an explanation. Manrequez
denied all knowledge of the outrage, and gave an assurance that if another flag should
be sent it would be respected. Pierre went again at midnight, and submitted to the
governor a proposal from Jackson that American garrisons should be admitted into
Forts St. Michael and Barancas until the Spanish government could procure a suf
ficient force to enable it to maintain its neutrality against violations of it by the
British, who had possessed themselves of the fortresses, notwithstanding the alleged
remonstrances and protests of the Spanish governor ; also that the American troops
should be withdrawn as soon as such a respectable force should arrive.
Jackson's proposition was rejected by the governor after consultation with his
chief officers. The consequence was, that, before dawn, troops were marching upon
Pensacola, three thousand in number,3 for Jackson had resolved to have no farther
1 William Lawrence was a native of Maryland. He entered the service as second lieutenant of infantry in June, 1801.
He was adjutant in 1807, captain in 1810, major in April, 1S14, and was breveted lieutenant colonel for his gallant serv
ices at Fort Bowyer. He was made full lieutenant colonel in 1818, and in 1824 was breveted colonel for ten years' faith
ful services. He was made full colonel in 1828, and resigned in July, 1831.
2 These consisted of about one thousand regulars, composed of the Third, Thirty-ninth, and Forty-fourth Infantry,
the Tennessee Volunteers, and a battalion of volunteer dragoons from the Mississippi Territory.
3 The right of the column consisted of Tennessee Volunteers, under General Coffee ; the centre, of the Thirty-third
and Forty-fourth regulars, under Major Woodruff; and the left, of the Tennessee militia and Choctaw Indians, under
Majors Blue and Kennedy, with a battalion of Mississippi dragoons commanded by Major Hinds.
OF THE WAK OF 1812. 1023
The Americans in Pensacola. Flight of the British and Indians. New Orleans aroused.
parley with the authorities. They took a direction, under the mask of some mount
ed men, to avoid the fire of Fort St. Michael and the ships in the harbor. Their
course lay along the beach, toward the east part of the town, but the sand was so
heavy that they could not drag the cannon through it. Then the centre of the col
umn was ordered to charge into the town. This was gallantly done, and in the prin
cipal street they were met by a two-gun battery, which opened upon them with balls
and grape-shot, while a shower of musketry was poured upon them from the gardens
and houses. Captain Laval and his company charged the battery and captured it,
when the frightened governor appeared with a white flag, and made promises to
comply with any terms Jackson might propose if he would spare the town. An in
stant surrender of all the forts was demanded and promised, and after some delay
this was done. But Fort Barancas, six miles distant, and commanding the harbor, in
which the British ships lay (the most important of all the fortifications), was yet in
the hands of the enemy. This Jackson determined to march suddenly upon the next
morning, and, seizing it, turn its guns on the British ships, and capture or greatly in
jure them before they could escape. But before morning the fort was abandoned
and blown up, and the British squadron had left the port, bearing away Lieutenant
Colonel Nichols, Captain Woodbine, and a considerable number of Indians, with the
Spanish commandant of the fort, and its garrison of about four hundred men.
Jackson suspected that the British, who had so suddenly left Pensacola, had re
turned to make another attempt against Mobile while he was absent, so he immedi
ately withdrew, and hastened with his troops in the same direction by way of Fort
Montgomery, leaving Manrequez indignant because of the flight of his British friends,
and the Indians deeply impressed with a feeling that it would be very imprudent to
again defy the wrath of Andrew Jackson. That leader had, by this expedition, ac
complished three important results, namely, the expulsion of the British from Pen
sacola ; the scattering of the Indians through the forests, alarmed and dejected ;
and the punishment of the Spaniards for much perfidy. He was denounced by the
Opposition, and was not fully sustained by his government, in thus invading the ter
ritory of a neutral without orders ; but the people of the West and South, and the
Democratic newspapers, applauded his act, which the circumstances of the case
seemed to justify.
Jackson reached Mobile on the llth of November,* where he found mes- ^^
sages urging him to hasten to the defense of New Orleans. The revelations
made by Lafitte had not been accepted as true by the government officials ; but the
people believed them, and held a large meeting, in consequence, at the St. Louis Ex
change, in New Orleans, on the 16th of September. They were eloquently addressed
by the late Edward Livingston, then a leading citizen of Louisiana, who urged the
inhabitants to make immediate preparations to repel the contemplated invasion.
They appointed a Committee of Safety,1 composed of the most distinguished citizens
of New Orleans, with Livingston as chairman, who sent forth a stirring address to
the people. Governor Claiborne, who, like Livingston, believed the statements of
Lafitte, sent copies of the British papers to General Jackson, then at Mobile. Then
it was that the latter issued his vigorous counter-proclamation, and proceeded to the
prosecution of measures for breaking up the nest of enemies at Pensacola, as just re
corded.
Jackson departed for New Orleans on the 21st of November, and arrived there on
the 2d of December, making his head-quarters at what is now 86 (formerly 104)
Royal Street (see engraving on next page). He found the city utterly defenseless,
and the councils of the people distracted by petty factions. The patriotic Governor
Claiborne had called the Legislature together as early as the 5th of October. The
i This committee consisted of Edward Livingston, Pierre Foncher, Dussan de la Croix, Benjamin Morgan, George Og-
den, Dominique Bouligny, J. A. Destrehan, John Blanqne, and Augustine Macarte.
1024
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The Weakness of New Orleans.
Jackson's Arrival hailed with Joy.
Approach of the Invaders.
members were divided into several factions, and
there was neither union, nor harmony, nor confi
dence to be found. The people, alarmed and dis
trustful, complained of the Legislature ; that body,
in turn, complained of the governor ; and Claiborne
complained of both the Legislature and the people.
Money and credit were equally wanting, and arms
and ammunition were very scarce. There was no
effective naval force in the adjacent waters ; and
only two small militia regiments, and a weak bat
talion of uniformed volunteers, commanded by Ma
jor Plauche, a gallant Creole, constituted the mil
itary force of the
city.1 The store
houses were filled
with valuable mer
chandise, and it
would be natural
JACKSON'S CITY UEAD-QUAETEKS.
MAJOR I'LAFOIIE.
for the owners to prefer the surrender
of the city at once to a seemingly in
vincible foe, to incurring the risk of
the destruction of their property by a
resistance that should invite a fiery
bombardment. In every aspect the
situation was most gloomy when Jack
son arrived, worn down with sickness,
fatigue, and anxiety. His advent was
hailed with great joy by the citizens,
for he was regarded as a host in him
self; and the cry of " Jackson's come !
Jackson's come !" went like an electric
spark in eager words from lip to lip,
giving hope to the desponding, courage
to the timid, and confidence to the patriotic.
Jackson did not rest for a moment. He organized the feeble military force in the
city ; took measures for obstructing the large bayous, whose waters formed convenient
communications between the Mississippi near New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico,
and proceeded to inspect and strengthen the fortifications in the vicinity and to erect
new ones. Fort St. Philip, below the city, was the object of his special care, for on
that he mainly relied for preventing the passage of the river by the vessels of the
invaders.
The expected enemy soon appeared. The army that captured Washington and
was repulsed at Baltimore had left the Chesapeake toward the middle of October,
three thousand strong, and sailed away for the West Indies in the fleets of Admirals
Cochrane and Malcolm. These were soon joined by over four thousand troops under
General Keane, a gallant young Irish officer, who had sailed from Plymouth in Sep
tember. The combined forces were assembled in Negril Bay, Jamaica, and in over
fifty vessels of all sizes more than seven thousand land troops were borne across the
Gulf of Mexico in the direction of New Orleans. They left Negril Bay on the 26th
of November, and first saw the northern shore of the Gulf, off the Chandeleur Islands,
i This battalion numbered three hundred and eighty-five men, and was composed of the companies named respect
ively Hulans, or foot dragoons, under Captain St. Genre ; Francs, Captain Hudry ; Louisiana Blues, Captain Mauusel
White ; and Chasseurs, Captain Guibert.
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 1025
The British deceived. Preparations to receive the Invaders. The British prepare for a Fight on Lake Borgne.
between the mouth of the Mississippi and Lake Borgne, in the midst of a furious
storm, on the 9th of December. Music, dancing, theatrical performances, and hilarity
of every kind had been indulged in during the passage of the Gulf, for every man felt
confident that an easy conquest of Louisiana awaited them. The wives of many offi-
cers accompanied them, and were filled with the most delightful anticipations of
pleasure in the beautiful New World before them.
The British supposed the Americans to be profoundly ignorant of their expedition.
They anchored the fleet in the deep channel between Ship and Gat Islands, near the
entrance to Lake Borgne, and prepared small vessels for the transportation of troops
over the shallow waters of that region with great expedition, hoping to surprise and
capture New Orleans before their presence should be fairly suspected. They were
disappointed. The revelations of Lafitte had made officers and people vigilant ; and
early in December, Commander Daniel T. Patterson,1 then commanding the naval sta
tion at New Orleans, was warned by a letter from Pensacola of the approach of a
powerful British land and naval armament. That vigilant officer immediately sent
out five gun-boats, a tender, and a dispatch-boat toward the passes of Mariana and
Christian, as scouts to watch for the enemy. They were commanded by Lieutenant
(late Commodore) Thomas Ap Catesby Jones, who sent two gun-boats, under the re
spective commands of Lieutenant M'Keever and Sailing-master Ulrick, to Dauphin
Island, at the entrance to Mobile Bay, to catch the first intelligence of the foe. They
discovered the great fleet on the 10th of December, and hastened to report the fact to
Lieutenant Jones. Patterson had ordered that officer to take such position as would
enable him, in the event of the enemy making their way into Lake Borgne, to cut off
their barges and prevent the landing of troops. If Jones should be hard pressed, he
was to fall back to the mud fort of Petites Coquilles, near the mouth of the Rigolets,
between Lakes Borgne and Pontchartrain, and shelter his vessels under its guns.
When, on the afternoon of the 10th, the fog that succeeded the storm had cleared
away, and the British fleet were in full view, Jones made for the Pass Christian with
his little flotilla, where he anchored, and waited the approach of the invaders. He
was discovered by the enemy on the 13th, much to their astonishment. It was evi
dent that the Americans were acquainted with the intentions of the British, and had
made preparations to meet them. Cochrane immediately gave orders for a change
in the plan of operations. It would not do to attempt the landing of troops while
American gun-boats were patrolling the waters of Lake Borgne. So he prepared a
flotilla of almost sixty barges, the most of them carrying a carronade in the bow and
an ample number of armed volunteers from the fleet, and sent them, in command of
Captain Lockyer, to capture or destroy the American vessels. These were observed
by Jones at four o'clock in the afternoon, when, in obedience to orders, he proceeded
w'ith his flotilla toward the Rigolets. A calm, and adverse water currents would not
allow him to pass the channel between Point Clear of the main and Malheureux Isl
and, and there he anchored at two o'clock on the morning of the 14th. Jones's flag
ship was a little sloop of eighty tons, and the other ves
sels of his tiny squadron were commanded respectively
by Sailing-masters Ferris and Ulrick, and Lieutenants
M'Keever and Speddon. The total number of men was
one hundred and eighty-two, and of guns twenty-three.
i Daniel T. Patterson was born in the State of New York, and entered the
navy as a midshipman in 1800, under Commodore Bainbndge and was with
that officer as a captive in Tripoli. He was promoted to lieutenant in 1807,
and to master commandant in 1813. After his <££U"£^££££
Orleans he was promoted to captain, in February, 1815. From 1828 to 1
served as navy commissioner, and from 1832 to 1835 commanded -yqnaclron
in the Mediterranean. He died while in command of the navy yard at Wash
ington on the 15th of August, 1839, and was buried in the Congressional Buiy- PATTEBSON 8 MONUMENT.
ing-ground near that city, where a small, neat monument marks his grave.
o -L
1026
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Battle of Barges and Gun-boats.
Capture of the American Flotilla.
Preparations to attack New Orleans.
With a cool morning breeze, the British barges, containing twelve hundred men,
bore down upon Jones's flotilla, while the tender, Alligator , was in the distance, vainly
endeavoring to join the Americans. The barges, with six oars on each side, formed
a long, straight line, and in that order swept rapidly forward, while Jones reserved his
fire until they were within close range. Then M'Keever hurled a 3 2-pound ball over
the water, and a shower of grape-shot, which broke the British line and made great
confusion. But the invaders pushed forward, and at half past eleven o'clock the en
gagement became general and desperate. At one time Jones's boat was attacked by
no less than^ fifteen barges. The Alligator was captured early, and, by the force of
GUNBOATS
DEC.14TH.1814.
overwhelming numbers, the British, after a combat of almost an hour, gained a com
plete victory. It was at the cost of several of their barges, that were shattered and
sunk, and about three hundred men killed and wounded. The Americans lost only
six men killed and thirty-five wounded. Among the latter were Lieutenants Jones,
M'Keever, Parker, and Speddon. The British commander (Lockyer) was severely
wounded ; so also was Lieutenant Pratt, who, under the direction of Cockburn, had
fired the, national buildings of Washington City a little more than a hundred days
before.
The capture of the American gun-boats gave the British complete control of Lake
Borgne, and the lighter transports, filled with troops, immediately entered' it. Ship
after ship got aground, until at length the troops were all placed in small boats and
conveyed about thirty miles to the Isle des Pois (or Pea Island), at the mouth of the
Pearl River, and that desert spot was made the place of general rendezvous. There
they landed between the 16th and 20th of December,- and there General Keane organ
ized his army for future operations.
Cochrane had been informed by some former Spanish residents of New Orleans
that at the northwestern extremity of Lake Borgne there was a bayou (Bienvenu)
navigable for large barges to within a short distance of the Mississippi River, just
below New Orleans. He sent a party to explore it. They followed this bayou, and
a canal across Villere's plantation, to a point half a mile from the Mississippi and nine
miles below the city, and, hastening back, reported that the transportation of troops
through that bayou was feasible. Vigorous measures were immediately adopted for
an advance upon New Orleans, where the British troops were assured that wealth and
ease awaited them. They were encouraged by ex-officials of the old Spanish govern
ment of Louisiana, who went to the British camp from New Orleans and represented
Jackson as an ignorant tyrant, detested by the people, and void of any efficient means
for defending the city.
Jackson was informed of the capture of the American gun-boats early on the 15th,
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
1027
Jackson's Preparations for Defense.
A grand Review.
Disposition of Troops.
when returning from a tour of observation in the direction of the River Chef Men-
teur, northeastward of the city. He at once perceived the importance of securing
the passage of the Chef Menteur Road, that crosses the plain of Gentilly in that di
rection from the city to the strait between Lakes Borgne and Pontchartrain, and he
ordered Major Lacoste, with his mililia battalion of colored men and the dragoons of
Feliciana, to proceed at once with two pieces of artillery, take post at the confluence
of Bayou Sauvage and the River Chef Menteur, guard the road, cast up a redoubt at
its terminus, and watch and oppose the enemy. He also proceeded to fortify and
strengthen every point of approach to the city ; sent messengers to Generals Coffee,
Carroll, and Thomas, urging them to hasten to New Orleans with their commands as
quickly as possible, and forwarded a dispatch to General Winchester, in command at
Mobile, directing him to be on the alert. Then he appointed the 18th of December
for a grand review of all the remaining troops in New Orleans, in front of the old
Cathedral of St. Louis, in the Place d'Armes (now Jackson Square), one of the yet re
maining relics of the Spanish dominion in Louisiana. It was a memorable day in
T1IE OLD SPAN18II CATI1EDKAL A>'1> (iOVERNMEJiT UOUSE.1
New Orleans. The whole population were out to witness the spectacle. The impend
ing danger was great, while the military force was small and weak. Strength and
resolution were communicated to it by stirring sentences from the lips of Jackson,
and a thrilling and eloquent appeal which was read by his aid-de-camp, Edward Liv
ingston.2 The enthusiasm of the soldiers and citizens was intense ; and Jackson, tak
ing advantage of that state of public feeling, silenced the distracting voices of faction
by declaring martial law and the suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas
corpus.
"When the review was over, Major Plauche was sent with his battalion to the
Bayou St. John, northward of the city; and at its mouth, on Lake Pontchartrain,
Major Hughes was in command of Fort St. John. The Baratarians, on the urgent
solicitation of their chief, Lafitte, were accepted as volunteers, mustered into the
i This is from a sketch made by the author in April, 1861, from Jackson Square. The Government House is seen on
tbs Frhvird Livineeton was born on the Livingston manor, on the Hudson, in 1764. He was graduated at Princeton
College in 1781, and was admitted to the bar in 1785. He was elected to a seat in Congress in 1794, to which he was re-
elected until 1S01 when President Jefferson appointed him United States District Attorney for New York. He made
New Orleans his residence. He was the author of the penal code of Louisiana, adopted in 1824 He was again in Con-
gress in 1S»3 and in the National Senate in 1829. He was appointed Amencan mimster to the French Court m 1833.
He died at his residence in Duchess County, New York, on the 23d of May, 1837.
1028
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Temper of the People.
The British approach the Mississippi.
They capture a Picket-guard.
FOKT ST. JOHN IN 1801.
ranks, and drilled to the per
formance of important serv
ices, under the command of
Captains Dominique You, Be-
luche, Songis, Lagaud, and
Colson, at Forts Petites Co-
quilles, St. Philip, and St.
John. The people cheerful
ly submitted to martial law ;
and, in the languages of En
gland, France, and Spain, the
streets were made to resound
with "Yankee Doodle," the
" Marseillaise Hymn," and
the " Chant du Depart." The
women were as enthusiastic
as the men, and at windows,
on balconies, in the streets,
and public squares, they applauded the passing soldiers by waving of scarfs and
handkerchiefs and uttering cheering words. Martial music was continually heard,
and New Orleans appeared more like a military camp than a quiet mart of commerce.
Business was mostly suspended, and the Legislature passed a law for prolonging the
term of payment on all contracts until the first of the ensuing May. Military rule
was complete. Able-bodied men of every age, color, and nationality, excepting Brit
ish, were pressed into the service ; suspicious persons were sent out of the city, and
no one was allowed to pass the chain of sentinels around it without a proper official
permission.
While these preparations for the reception of the invaders were in progress, the
British were making unceasing efforts to press forward and take New Orleans by
surprise. They had determined to make use of the Bayou Bienvenu and Villere's
Canal for the purpose ; but with all their exertions, and after pressing the captured
gun-boats into the service, they could not muster vessels enough fitted to navigate
that bayou to carry more than one thii'd of the army. Keane felt so confident of
success, even with a small part of his force, that he could not brook farther delay ;
and on the morning of the 22d of December — a rainy, chilly, cheerless morning — a
flotilla filled with troops set out, the advance, comprising eighteen hundred men,
commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Thornton, who had been wounded at Bladensburg.
These were accompanied by General Keane and his staff and other important officers,
and were followed by the remainder. Admiral Cochrane was in a schooner, at a prop
er distance to watch and direct the squadron. All clay and all night they were out
upon the lake in open boats. A clear sky and biting frost came at sunset, and the
wet clothing of the soldiers was stiffened into iciness by the cold night air. Their
discomforts ended "in a measure at dawn, when they reached the Fisherman's Village
(inhabited by Spaniards and Portuguese, who were spies and traitors), at the mouth
of the Bayou Bienvenu. They were only twelve miles from New Orleans, and not a
soul in that city suspected their approach.
Yet there were vigilant eyes, wide open, watching the invaders. At the head of
the Bayoii Bienvenu was the plantation of General Villere, the commander of the
first division of Louisiana militia. Jackson had instructed his son, Major Gabriel
Villere, to watch that bayou with a competent picket-guard. He did so, faithfully ;
but when the British landed at Fisherman's Village they captured the most of them.
It proved to be a fortunate circumstance, for these men so magnified the number of
Jackson's troops, and the strength of the defenses around New Orleans, that they
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 1029
The British at Villere's. Jackson warned of Danger. The Response to his Call for Troops.
moved cautiously, and failed to surprise the vigilant hero in the city. They moved
slowly up the bayou ; but when they reached Villere's Canal the active Thornton
pushed forward with a detachment, surrounded the mansion of the plantation, which
is in sight of the Mississippi, and succeeded in capturing Major Villere. He soon es-
VILLEBE'S MANSION.'
caped, fled to the house of his neighbor, the gallant Colonel De la Ronde, and in a
boat they hastened across the Mississippi. There, at the stables of M. De la Croix,
one of the Committee of Public Safety of New Orleans, they procured fleet horses,
and with that gentleman rode swiftly up the levee on the right bank of the river, and
crossed again at New Orleans to warn Jackson of the approach of the foe. Augustus
Rousseau, an active young Creole, who had been sent by Captain Ducros, was already
there. He had reached Jackson's head-quarters in Royal Street with the startling
intelligence at about one o'clock, and a few minutes afterward Major Villere and his
party entered. " Gentlemen," said Jackson to the officers and citizens around him,
" the British are below ; we must fight them to-night !" He then ordered three dis
charges of cannon to give the alarm, and sent marching orders to several of the mil
itary commanders.
Jackson's call upon Coffee, Carroll, and others- had been quickly responded to.
Coffee came speedily over the long and tedious route from Fort Jackson, on the Ala
bama River, to Baton Rouge, and was now encamped, with his brigade of mounted
riflemen, on Avart's plantation, five miles above New Orleans. The active young
Carroll, who had left Nashville in November with Tennessee militia, arrived in flat-
boats and barges at about the same time, and brought into camp a regiment of young,
brave, well-armed, but inexperienced soldiers, expert in the use of the rifle, and eager
for battle. They landed on the 22d of December, and were hailed by Jackson with
great joy. A troop of horse, under the dashing young Hinds, raised in Louisiana,
came at about the same time.
When, in the afternoon of the 23d, Jackson issued his marching orders, Coffee's bri
gade was five miles above the city ; Plauche's battalion was at Bayou St. John, two
miles distant ; the Louisiana militia and half of Lacoste's colored battalion were three
miles oif, on the Gentilly Road ; and the regulars (Forty-fourth) under Colonel Ross,
i This is from a sketch made by the author in April, 1801. The buildings seen in the distance, beyond the avenue of
trees, were the sugar-works of the plantation.
1030
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Jackson moves against the Invaders. Their Camp broken up by the Carolina. American Troops hasten to the Scene.
with Colonel M'Rea's artillery, a little more than eight hundred strong, were at Fort
St. Charles, on the site of the present United States Branch Mint in New Orleans,
and in the city barracks. Within an hour after Jackson was informed that the in
vaders were on the direct road to the city, along the river, and only nine miles dis
tant, these troops were all in motion under special orders. Carroll and his Tennes-
seeans were dispatched to the upper branch of the Bayou Bienvenu ; farther up the
Gentilly Road Governor Claiborne was stationed with the Louisiana militia ; and
Coffee's brigade, Plauche's and D'Aquin's battalions, Hinds's dragoons, the New Or
leans Rifles, under Captain Beale, and a few Choctaw Indians, commanded by Captain
Jugeat, were ordered to rendezvous at Montreuil's plantation, and hasten to Canal
Rodriguez, six miles below the city, and there prepare to advance upon the foe.
Commodore Patterson was directed to proceed down the Mississippi to the flank of
the British at Villere's with such ai'med vessels as might be in readiness. Such was
the scanty force with which Jackson proceeded to fight a foe of unknown numbers
and strength.
While Jackson was assembling his troops, the invaders were making ready to march
on New Orleans that night and take it by surprise. They sent forward a negro to
distribute a proclamation, signed by General Keane and Admiral Cochrane, printed
in French and Spanish, which read thus :
" Loitisianians ! remain quietly in your homes; your slaves shall be preserved to
you, and your property respected. We make war only against Americans."
The British were bivouacked on the highest part of Villere's plantation, at the side
of the levee and on the plain ; and in the court between Villere's house (in which
Keane and some of his officers made their head-quarters) and his sugar-works1 they
had mounted several cannon. They were in fine spirits. Full one half of the invad
ing troops had been brought to the banks of the Mississippi, only nine miles from
New Orleans, without firing a gun after capturing Jones's flotilla, and they believed
their near approach to be wholly unknown, and not even suspected, in the city. They
were soon undeceived.
i At seven o'clock in the evening, the schooner Carolina, the only vessel in readiness
jat New Orleans, commanded by Captain Henley, dropped down the river, and an
chored off Villere's, within musket-shot
distance of the centre of the British
camp. At half past seven she opened
a tremendous fire from her batteries,
and in the course of ten minutes killed
or wounded at least a hundred men.
The British extinguished their camp-
fires, and poured upon the Carolina a
shower of bullets and Congreve rock
ets, but with no serious effect. In less
than half an hour the schooner drove
the enemy from their camp, and pro
duced great confusion among them.
The American troops in the mean time,
startled by the concerted signal of the
Carolina's cannonade, were moving on,
guided by Colonel De la Ronde, who
was a volunteer with Beale's riflemen,
ahd Major Villere, who accompanied
the commander -in -chief. The right,
under Jackson, was composed of the
DENNIS BE I,A RONDE.
1 See note and picture on page 1029.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
1031
The British Alarmed and Confused.
A Night Battle.
regulars, Plauche's and D'Aquin's brigades, M'Rea's artillery, and some marines, and
moved down the road along the levee ; while the left, under Coffee, composed of his
brigade, Hinds's dragoons, and Beale's rifles, skirted the edge of a cypress swamp for
the purpose of endeavoring to cut off the communications of the invaders with Lake
Borgne. Such was the simple plan of the battle, on the part of the Americans, on
the night of the 23d of December, 1814.
The alarm and confusion in the British camp, caused by the attack of the Carolina,
had scarcely been checked when they were startled by the crack of musketry in the
direction of their outposts. Keane now gave full credence to the tales of his prison
ers about the large number of troops — "more than twelve thousand" — in New
Orleans, and gave the dashing Thornton full liberty to do as he liked. Thornton at
once led a detachment, composed of the Eighty-fifth and Ninety-fifth Regiments, to
the support of the pickets, and directed the Fourth, five hundred strong, to take post
on Villere's Canal, near head-quarters, to keep open the communication with Lake
Borgne. Thornton and his detachment were soon met by a resolute column under
the immediate command of Jackson. He had made the Canal Rodriguez, which con
nected the Mississippi with the cypress swamp, his base of operations. He advanced
with about fifteen hundred men and two pieces of artillery, perfectly covered with
the gloom of night. Lieutenant M'Clelland, at the head of a company of the Seventh,
filing through De la Ronde's gate, advanced to the boundary of Lacoste's plantation,
where, under the direction of Colonel Piatt, the quartermaster general, he encoun
tered and attacked the British pickets, who were posted in a ditch behind a fence,
and drove them back. These were speedily re-enforced, and a brisk engagement en
sued, in which Piatt received a wound, and M'Clelland and a sergeant were killed.
In the mean time the artillerists advanced up the Levee Road with the marines,
when the British made a desperate attempt to seize their guns. There wras a fierce
struggle. Jackson saw it, and hastening to the spot, in the midst of a shower of bul
lets, he shouted, " Save the guns, my boys, at any sacrifice !" They did so, when the
Seventh Regiment, commanded by Major Pierre, advanced, and, being joined by the
Forty-fourth, the engagement became general between them and Thornton's detach
ment. Plauche and D'Aquin soon joined their comrades, and the tide of success
turned in favor of the Americans. The British, hard pressed, fell sullenly back to
their original line unmolested, for the prudent Ross, commanding the regulars, would
not allow a pursuit. Had it been permitted, it would have resulted, as was after
ward discovered, most disastrously for the invaders. This conflict occurred not far
from De la Ronde's garden.
General Coffee in the mean time had advanced to the back of De la Ronde's plan
tation, where his riflemen were dismount
ed, and their horses placed in charge of a
hundred men at the canal that separated
De la Ronde's from Lacoste's farm, the
latter now the property of D. and E. Vil-
lere. The ground was too much cut up
with ditches to allow successful cavalry
movements, and Major Hinds and his men
remained at one of them, near the middle
of Lacoste's. Coffee's division extended
its front as much as possible, and moved
in silence, while Beale and his riflemen
stole around the enemy's extreme left, on
Villere's plantation, and by a sudden move
ment penetrated almost to the very heart
of the British camp, killing several, and
l^A.OOSTE'8 MANSION.
1032
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The British fall back to shelter.
Strength of the Combatants.
Sir De Lacy Evans.
making others prisoners. By a blunder, made in consequence of the darkness, a num
ber of Beale's men were captured. In the mean time, Thornton, with the Eighty-
fifth, fell heavily on Coffee's line, and for some time a battle raged fiercely, not in
regular order, but in detachments, squads, and often duels. In the darkness friends
fought each other, supposing each to be a foe. The Tennesseeans and British rifle
men were almost equally expert as sharp-shooters ; but the short weapons of the En-
lish were not so efficient as the long ones of the American backwoodsmen. The Ten
nesseeans also used long knives and tomahawks vigorously. At last the British fell
back, and took shelter behind the levee, more willing to incur the danger of shots
from the Carolina than bullets from the rifles of the Tennesseeans.1
AFFAIR BELOW
NEW ORLEANS. ^fcj* / *
•"- >.23rd.1814 *
AMERICANS
BRITISH ••
1 The loss of the Americans in the affair on the night
of the 23d of December was twenty-four killed, one hun
dred and fifteen wounded, and seventy-four prisoners ;
in all, two hundred and thirteen. Among the killed was
the brave Lieutenant Colonel Lauclerdale, of Coffee's bri
gade of mounted riflemen. The British loss was about
four hundred men. According to the most careful esti
mates, the number of Americans engaged in the battle
was about eighteen hundred, while that of the invaders,
including the re-enforcements that came during the en
gagement, was about twenty-five hundred. The Caro
lina gave the Americans a great advantage, and made
the effective power about equal to that of the foe.
One of the distinguished British officers wounded in
this engagement, and who yet (1S67) survives, was Sir
De Lacy Evans. He was also wounded in the battle
nearer New Orleans, which occurred a little more than
a fortnight later. Sir De Lacy was born in Ireland in
1T87. He entered the British Army in the East Indies
as ensign, and served there from 1807 to 1810 in the war
against Ameer Khan. He also served with distinction
in Spain. In 1814 he became brevet lieutenant colonel
of a West India regiment, and was with General Boss in
the battle of Bladensburg, where he had two horses shot
under him. He led the column into Washington City.
He was active also in the movement on Baltimore. Aft
er his second wound before New Orleans he was sent
home, and was afterward with Wellington at Quatre
Bras. When the Crimean War broke out he was ap
pointed lieutenant general, and commanded the second
division of the British Army. He greatly distinguished
himself in that war. For his services there he received
the Grand Cross of the Bath, and Louis Napoleon made him grand officer of the Legion of Honor.
SIR DE I.ACY EVANS.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
1033
The Americans Withdraw.
A Skirmish on Jumonville's Plantation.
A Memento of the Battle.
During the engagement the second division of the British arrived from Bayou Bien-
venu, and were in the thickest of the fight with Coffee for a while ; but the fear of
being cut off from communication with the lake and their ships made the enemy too
cautious and timid to achieve what their superior numbers qualified them to perform.
They kept within the lines of their camp, and by concentration presented a strong
front. Jackson perceived that in the darkness, intensified by a fog that suddenly
appeared, he could not follow up his victory with safety, so he led the right division
back to the main entrance to De la Ronde's plantation, while Coffee encamped near
De la Ronde's garden.1
It was about half past nine when the conflict ceased, and at half past eleven, when
all was becoming quiet in the respective camps, musket-firing was heard in the direc
tion of Jumonville's plantation, below Villere's. It was caused by the advance of
some Louisiana drafted militia, stationed at a sharp bend of the Mississippi called the
English Turn, under General David Morgan, who had insisted upon being led against
the enemy when they heard the guns of the Carolina early in the evening. They
met some British pickets at Jumonville's, exchanged shots with them, encamped there
for the night, and at dawn returned to their post at the English Turn.
i In the room of the Historical Society of Tennessee, in the Capitol at Nashville, may be seen an interesting memento
of the battle on the night of the 23d of December, 1814. It is a tattered flag that was borne through that battle by a
company from Shelbyville, Tennessee, commanded by Captain James Moore. It was presented to that company by the
women of Bedford County. It is of silk, of the pattern of the national flag, on which was painted a gray eagle bearing
a national shield, and a ribbon inscribed LIBERTY AND INDEPENDENCE. Its appearance when the writer made a sketch
of it in the spring of 1SC1 is indicated in the picture below.
V
1034
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Jackson's Work not yet done.
He casts up a Line of Defenses.
The Levee cut.
CHAPTER XLIIL
"America's glory, which dazzled the world
When the toils of our sires had achieved independence,
Was brightened when Jackson her banners unfurled
To protect the dear boon for their grateful descendants —
When the conquerors of Spain
Crossed the boisterous main,
Boldly threat'ning to rivet our fetters again ;
But a happy new year for Columbia begun
When our Jackson secured what our Washington won."
SAMUEL WOODWOETH.
" White-wingedPeace, the dove from heaven's portal,
Brought with its olive-branch a song immortal,
That filled all hearts with melody supernal,
While yet was heard the battle din infernal."
ROMPTNESS and vigor marked the whole conduct of General
Jackson at the critical moment we are considering. By his ad
vance to meet the invaders he had saved New Orleans fi-om cap
ture, and Louisiana and the Mississippi Valley from conquest.
The whole country blessed him for the act. But his full task
was not accomplished, and he knew it. A host of veteran sol
diers, fresh from the battle-fields of Continental Europe, were be
fore him, and they were not likely to relinquish the footing they
had gained on Amer
ican soil without a
desperate struggle, so
he prepared for it.
Leaving the regulars
and some dragoons
at De la Ronde's to
watch the enemy, he
fell back with the re
mainder of his army
to Rodriguez's Canal,
and set his soldiers to
work casting up in-
trenchments along its
line from the river to
the cypress swamp.
All day they plied the
implements of labor
with the greatest vig
or. At sunset a breast
work three feet in height appeared along the entire line of Jackson's army ; and the
soldiers spent that Christmas eve in much hilarity, for the events of the previous
evening had given them the confidence of veterans. In the mean time, Latour, the
chief engineer, had cut the levee in front of Chalmette's plantation, so as to flood the
plain between the two armies, and two 6-pounders were placed in battery at the
i This is from a sketch made by the author in April, 1861.
DE LA KONDE'S MANSION.'
OF THE WAR OF 1812. IQ35
Effect of cutting the Levee. A gloomy Day. Arrival of General Pakenham. Destruction of the Carolina.
levee to command the road. The river was so low that the overflow was of little
account. Behind these intrenchments, of which each worker was proud, Jackson's
little army spent the Christmas day of 1814 in preparations for a determined defense
of New Orleans and their common country.1 On the same day General Morgan re
ceived orders to evacuate the post at English Turn, place his cannon and a hundred
men in Fort St. Leon, and take position with the remainder on Flood's plantation,
opposite Jackson's camp, on the right bank of the Mississippi. The cutting of the
levee at Chalmette's and Jumonville's helped the enemy more than it did the Amer
icans, for it caused the almost dry canals and bayous to be filled with sufficient water
to allow the British to bring up their heavy artillery. Had the Mississippi been full,
the invaders would have been placed on an island.
That Christmas day dawned gloomily for the invaders. The events of . December,
the 23da had greatly depi'essed their spirits, and the soldiers had lost con
fidence in Keane, their commander. The sky was clouded, the ground was wet, and
the atmosphere was chilly, and shadowing disappointment was seen in every face.
The gloom was suddenly dispelled by an event which gave great joy to the whole
army. It was the arrival at camp on that gloomy morning of Lieutenant General
Sir Edward Pakenham, the "Hero of Salamanca," then only thirty-eight years of
age, who came to assume the chief command of the invading army. He was a true
soldier and an honorable man ; and the charge (which might be justly brought against
some of the subordinate commanders in that army) that he offered his soldiers, as a
reward for their services, in the event of their capturing New Orleans, "the beauty
and booty" of the city, is doubtless wholly untrue, for his character was the very op
posite of the infamous Cockburn's. There is proof on record that some of the officers
made calculations of personal profit from the spoils that New Orleans would afford.
Pakenham came fresh from Europe, with the prestige of eminent success as a com
mander, and his advent at Villere's mansion2 was hailed with delight by officers and
soldiers. He, too, was delighted when he perused the list of the regiments which he
was to command, for those troops, excepting the Ninety-third and the colored regi
ments, had fought all through the war on the Spanish Peninsula.
While Jackson was intrenching, the British were not idle. They were employed,
day and night, -in preparing a heavy battery that should command the Carolina. It
was completed on the morning of the 27th, and at seven o'clock a heavy fire was
opened from it upon the little schooner from several twelve and eighteen pounders,
and a howitzer. They hurled hot shot, which fired the Carolina, when her crew aban
doned her, and she blew up with a tremendous explosion. The schooner Louisiana,
commanded by Lieutenant Thompson, had come down to aid her, and was in great
peril. She was the only armed vessel in the river remaining to the Americans. By
great exertions she was towed beyond the sphere of danger, and was saved to play
a gallant part in events the following day. She was on the opposite side of the riv
er, anchored nearly abreast of the American camp.
The destruction of the Carolina gave fresh confidence to the invaders, and Paken
ham issued orders for his whole army, then eight thousand strong, to move forward
and carry the American intrenchments by storm. He had arranged that army into
two columns. One was commanded by General Keane, and the other by General
Gibbs, a good and experienced soldier, who came with Pakenham as his second in
command. Toward evening the entire force moved forward, driving in the American
pickets and outposts, and at twilight they halted on the plantations of Bienvenu and
Chalmette, within a few hundred yards of the American lines. There a part sought
repose, while others commenced the construction of batteries near the river. Sleep
was denied them, for all night long Hinds's troopers and other active Americans an-
i The common impression that Jackson's breastworks were constructed chiefly of cotton bales is an erroneons one.
A few were used at the end next the river, but they were not useful, and were rejected. * See page 1029.
1036
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Seat of War iu Louisiana and Florida.
noyed their flanks and rear with quick, sharp attacks, which the British denounced as
" barbarian warfare."
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
1037
Jackson prepared to receive the British.
They advance to an Attack.
A severe Battle.
Jackson, in the mean time, had been preparing to receive them. He was aware
of the arrival of Pa-
kenham, and expected
vigorous warfare from
him. His head-quar
ters were at the spa
cious chateau of M.
* Macarte, a wealthy
Creole, and from its
wide gallery and a
dormer window, seen
in the accompanying
picture, aided by a tel
escope, he had a full
view of the whole field
of operations. From
that chateau, which is
yet standing, he sent
forth his orders. They
were numerous and
prompt ; for that night MAOARTE'S, JACKSON'S HEAU-QUARTEBS. l
of the 27th of December, when a flushed foe in his immediate front was ready to
pounce with tiger-like fierceness upon him at dawn, was an exceedingly busy one for
the commander-in-chief. He had caused Chalmette's buildings to be blown up when
the enemy advanced, that the sweep of his artillery might not be obstructed, and he
had called to the line some Louisiana militia from the rear. He also planted heavy
guns ; and by the time that the couchant foe was ready for his murderous leap, Jack
son had four thousand men and twenty pieces of artillery to receive him, while the
Louisiana was in position to use her cannon with signal effect in co-operation with
the great guns on land.
The 28th dawned brightly, and as soon as the light fog of early morning had passed
away a battle began. The enemy approached in two columns. Gibbs led the right,
which kept near the great swamp, throwing out a skirmish line to meet those of the
left column, commanded by Keane, who kept close to the river, with artillery in his
front. There was also a party of skirmishers and light infantry detailed from Gibbs's
command, under Colonel Robert Rennie, a very active officer, who was ordered to turn
the American left flank and gain the rear of their camp. Pakenham and his staff
rode nearly in the centre of the line. At this moment Jackson saw, with great satis
faction, a band of rough-looking armed men coming down the road from the direction
of the city. They were Baratarians, under You and Beluche, who had run all the
way from Fort St. John. They were immediately placed in charge of one of the 24-
pounders, and performed excellent service. They were followed by the escaped crew
of the Carolina, under Lieutenants Norris and Crawley, who were placed in the line
as managers of a howitzer on the right.
The British under Keane advanced in solid column, in the face of a galling fire of
musketry, when they were suddenly checked by the opening of some of Jackson's
heavy guns and the batteries of the Louisiana, which swept their line obliquely with
terrible effect. More than eight hundred shots were hurled from her guns with dead
ly power. One of them killed and wounded fifteen men. At the same time the Brit
ish rocketeers were busy, but their missiles did very little damage, and the Americans
soon became too familiar with their harmless noise to be much affected by them.
For a short time Keane's men endured the terrible storm that was thinning their
1 This is from a sketch made by the author in April, 1861.
1038 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The British vanquished atid repulsed. They hold a Council of War. The American Lines of Defense.
ranks, when the maintenance of their position became mere fool-hardiness, and they
were ordered to seek shelter in the little canals. Away they ran, pell-mell, to these
places of refuge, and in mud and water almost waist-deep they " leaned forward," as
one of their companions wrote, " concealing themselves in the rushes which grew on
the banks of the canal." It was a humiliating position for " Wellington's veterans"
in the face of a few rough backwoodsmen, as they regarded Jackson's troops. Their
batteries were half destroyed, and were abandoned, and the shattered column, thor
oughly repulsed, fell back to a shelter behind the ruins of Chalmette's buildings and
the perfect ones of Bienvenu.
Gibbs in the mean time was actively engaged on the British right. The gallant
Rennie dashed into the edge of the swamp to flank the American left, and, driving in
the pickets, approached within a hundred yards of the line behind which lay Car
roll and his Tennesseeans. The movement was observed by Carroll, who sent Cjolo-
nel Henderson, with two hundred Tennesseeans, to gain Rennie's rear and cut him
oif from the main body. Advancing too far, Henderson encountered a large British
force, and he and five of his m.en were killed, and several were wounded. The re
mainder reti'aced their steps. Rennie was then pressing Carroll's left very severely,
when Gibbs, observing the fierceness of the fight on the part of Keane's column, or
dered the dashing colonel to fall back on the main line. Rennie reluctantly obeyed,
and was compelled to be an idle spectator of Keane's disaster. At length Paken-
ham ordered a general retrograde movement, and he retired to his head-quarters at Vil-
lere's deeply mortified by the failure of his plans, of whose success he had not allowed
himself to doubt. In this repulse the Louisiana, which was stationed near the right
bank of the Mississippi, played the most efficient part, and lost but one man killed.
The loss of the Americans was nine killed and eight wounded. The British loss was
about one hundred and fifty.
Pakenham called a council of war, when it was resolved to bring forward heavy
siege-guns from the navy before making another serious attempt to carry Jackson's
lines. The British established their hospital on Jumonville's plantation, next below
Villere's, and prepared for heavy work. The experience of the 28th had given Pa
kenham a test of the spirit of his opposers, and he was convinced that the task before
him was not only difficult, but dangerous, and that the very salvation of his army de
pended upon cautious movements, courage, and perseverance.
Jackson was busy at the same time strengthening his position at Rodriguez's Ca
nal, over which not a single British soldier had passed except as a prisoner. He
placed two 12-pounders on his extreme left, near the swamp, in charge of General
Garrigue Flauzac, a veteran French soldier who had volunteered ; and also a six and
an eighteen pounder under Colonel Perry. His line of intrenchments was extended
into the swamp, so as to prevent a flank movement. He ordered a line of similar
structure to be established on the opposite side of the Mississippi ; and Commander
Patterson, pleased with the effects of the guns of the Louisiana from the same side,
established a battery behind the levee on Jourdan's plantation, which he armed with
heavy guns from the schooner, and manned with sailors enlisted or pressed into the
service in New Orleans. It commanded the front of Jackson's lines, and soon com
pelled the British to abandon Chalmette's plantation and fall back to the line be
tween Bienvenu's and De la Ronde's. A brick-kiln on the bank opposite New Or
leans was converted into a square battery, which was armed with two heavy guns
that commanded the city and the river road, and placed in charge of Captain Henley,
of the Carolina. At Jackson's head-quarters, at Macarte's, was a company of young
men from the best families in the city, under Captain Ogden, who constituted his
body-guard, and were subservient to his immediate orders alone. These were posted
in Macarte's garden. There^was incessant activity every where among all his troops,
for his own spirit was infused into them. The Tennessee riflemen, in particular, de-
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
1039
Redoubts secretly constructed by the British. A heavy Fire from them. Jackson driven from his Head-quarters.
CHALMETTE'S PLANTATION. '
lighted in going on " hunts," as they called theirs— that is to say, expeditions alone,
to pick off sentinels and annoy the enemy. This was carried to such an extent on
Jackson's exfreme left that the British dared not post sentinels very near the swamp.
They contented themselves with throwing up a strong redoubt in that direction,
which Captain You and Lieutenant Crawley continually battered with heavy shot
from their cannon. The enemy persevered, and at the close of the month had several
great guns mounted on the redoubt.
On the 31st the guns of the new redoubt opened vigorously on Jackson's left ; and
that night the whole British army moved rapidly forward, took position within a few
hundred yards of the American lines, and in the gloom commenced vigorous work
with pickaxe and spade. They had brought up heavy siege-guns from the lake, and
all night long that army labored in the construction of redoubts for them, under the
superintendence of Colonel Sir John Burgoyne, with the intention of making an im
mediate effort to break the American line. Before dawn they had completed three sol
id demi-lunettes, or half-moon batteries, right, centre, and left, six hundred yards from
the American lines, at nearly equal distances apart. They were constructed of earth,
hogsheads of sugar, and every thing that might produce resistance ; and upon them
were placed thirty pieces of heavy ordnance, manned by picked g\mners of the fleet,
who had served under Nelson, Collingwood, and St. Vincent.
These works were hidden by a heavy fog on the morning of the 1st of January, which
hung thickly over the belligerent armies until after eight o'clock. When it was lifted
by a gentle breeze the British opened a brisk fire, not doubting that in a few minutes
the contemptible intrenchments of the Americans would be scattered to the winds,
and that the army, placed in battle order for the purpose, would find it an easy mat
ter to rush forward and take them. Every moment their cannonade and bombard
ment became heavier, and the rocketeers sent an incessant shower of their fiery mis
siles into the American lines. Jackson's head-quarters at Macarte's was a special tar
get. In the course of ten minutes more than a hundred balls, shells, and rockets
struck the building, and compelled the commander-in-chief and his staff to evacuate
it. The marks of that furious assault may be seen in all parts of the house to
this day.a
1 This is from a sketch made by the author in April, I860, from the foot of the shaft of the unfinished monument,
near Jackson's head-quarters and line of intrenchments. This shows the principal field on which the battles in De
cember and January, 1815, were fought. The plain is a dead level. In the distance is seen the line of the swamp
which flanked both armies.
1040
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Topography of the Battle-field.
Reply of the Americans to the British Attack.
Jackson, in the mean time, had opened his heavy guns on the assailants. The can
nonade was led off by the gallant and imperturbable Humphrey on the left, followed
by the fierce You and his Baratarians — Crawley, Norris, Spotts, and the veteran Gar-
rigue. The American artillery thundered along their whole line, to the amazement
of the British, who wondered how they got their guns and gunners. Pakenham soon
saw that he had underrated the strength and skill of his adversary ; and Cochrane,
whose gallant tars were at the guns, did every thing in his power to encourage them.
The conflict became terrible. Batteries on the Levee fought with Patterson on the
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 1041
The British again vanquished and repulsed. New Arrangements for Attack. The British re-enforced.
opposite side ; and in them were kept in readiness red-hot shot for the destruction of
the Louisiana, if she should come within range of the guns. Pakenham also sent a
detachment of infantry to attempt the turning of the American left, in the swamp ;
but they were driven back in terror by Coffee's Tennesseeans ; so only the battle of
the batteries went on.
Toward noon the fire of the British visibly slackened, while that of the Americans
was unceasing. The demi-lunes of the foe were crushed and broken. The sugar
hogsheads had been converted into splinters, and their contents, mingling with the
moist earth, soon lost their volume. The guns not dismounted were careened, and
were worked with great difficulty ; and by the time their voices ceased altogether
the batteries on the Levee were nearly demolished. The invaders abandoned their
works at meridian, and fled in inglorious haste, helter-skelter, to the ditches, in search
of safety ; and, under cover of the ensuing night, they crawled sullenly back to their
camp, dragging with them over the spongy ground a part of their heavy cannon, and
leaving five of them a spoil for the Americans. Their disappointment and chagrin
were intense, and it was equally shared by officers and men. Their New-Year's Day
wTas a far gloomier one than that of Christmas. They had been without food or sleep
for nearly sixty hours. They all cast themselves down on the damp ground, too
wearied for thought, and their troubles were soon ended for the time by deep slum
ber. Pakenham was in his old quarters at Villere's, which he had left in the morn
ing with the confident expectation of sleeping in New Orleans that night as a con
queror.1 In the American camp there was great joy that night. It was intensified
in the morning by the arrival of Brigadier General John Adair with intelligence of
the near approach of more than two thousand drafted militia from Kentucky, under
Major General John Thomas. They arrived in the city on the 4th of January, and
seven hundred of them were sent to the front under Adair.
Pakenham was disheartened, but he by no means despaired of success. He conceived
the bold and hazardous plan of carrying Jackson's lines on both sides of the river by
storm. Those on the right bank had been strengthened, but were feebly manned,
and were under the chief command of General Morgan. Pakenham resolved to send
over fifteen hundred infantry, with some artillery, and, under the cover of night, at-
' tack Morgan, carry the works, occupy them, and, from batteries there, enfilade Jack
son's line, while the main army should be engaged in storming it. The transportation
of these men to the other side of the river was confided to Admiral Cochrane, who,
in opposition to the opinions and wishes of the army officers, set the wearied soldiers
and sailors to work widening, and deepening, and prolonging to the Mississippi, Vil
lere's Canal, for the purpose of bringing over boats from the Bayou Bienvenu, instead
of dragging them on rollers as they had heavier cannon. The labor was completed
on the 7th, when the army was in fine spirits because of the arrival, the day before,
of a considerable body of re-enforcements under Major General John Lambert, a
young officer of Wellington's army, who had sailed from England toward the close
of October. Pakenham's own regiment (Seventh Fusileers) was among them ; and
the army that confronted Jackson now consisted of ten thousand of the finest sol
diers in the world. These were divided into three brigades, and placed under the
respective commands of Generals Lambert, Gibbs, and Keane.
Pakenham's plan of operations for the new attack was simple. Colonel Thornton
was to cross the Mississippi on the night of the Yth with the Eighty-fifth and one
i The forlorn condition of these troops, as a body, was such that Jackson was at a loss to determine whether their
Dre«ence should be considered fortunate or unfortunate for the cause. They had come with the erroneous belief that an
ample supply of arms and clothing would be furnished them at New Orleans, and a large number of them were sadly defi
cient in these Of the seven hundred sent to the front, only five hundred had weapons of any kind. The commisera
tion of the citizens was excited, and by an appropriation by the Legislature and the liberal gifts of the citizens the sum
of sixteen thousand dollars was speedily raised, with which goods were purchased and placed in the willing hands of
the women of New Orleans Within a week these were converted by them into blankets, garments, and bedding. The
men constituted excellent raw material for soldiers, and they were very soon prepared for efficient service.
3 U
1042
PICTOKIAL FIELD-BOOK
The British Plan of Attack.
The American Line of Intrenchments.
Disposition of Forces on it.
West India regiment, marines and sailors, and a corps of rocketeers, and fall upon the
Americans before the dawn. The sound of his guns was to be the signal for General
Gibbs, with the Forty-fourth, Twenty-first, and Fourth regiments, to storm the Amer
ican left ; while General Keane, with the Ninety-third, Ninety-fifth, and two light
companies of the Seventh and Forty-third, with some West India troops, should
threaten the American right sufficient to draw their fire, and then rush upon them
with the bayonet. Meanwhile the two British batteries near the Levee, which the
Americans destroyed on the 1st, were to be rebuilt, well mounted, and employed in
assailing the American right during Keane's operations. Keane's advance corps
were furnished with fascines to fill the ditches, and scaling ladders to mount the em
bankments. Such was the substance of Pakenham's General Order issued on the 7th
of January, 1815.
Jackson penetrated Pakenham's design on the 6th, and prepared to meet and frus
trate it. His line of de-
-• i '^MM^BUI1111 ilh -._._ fense, extending, as we
have observed, from
the Mississippi to an
impassable cypress
swamp, a mile and a
half in length, along
the line of the half-
choked Rodriguez's
Canal, was very irreg
ular. In some places
it was thin, in others
thick; in some places
the banks were high, in
others very low. They
had been cast up, not by
the soldiery alone, nor
by the slaves, but by
the hands of civilians
from the city, includ
ing merchants and their clerks, lawyers and physicians and their students, and many
young men who never before had turned a spadeful of earth. Along this line artil
lery was judiciously placed. On the edge of the river a redoubt was thrown up and
mounted with cannon, so as to enfilade the ditch in front of the American lines. Be
sides this there were eight batteries, placed at proper distances from each other, com
posed of thirteen guns carrying from six to thirty-two pound balls, a howitzer, and
a carronade. Across the river was Patterson's marine battery for auxiliary service
in the defense of this line, mounting nine guns ; and the Louisiana was prepared to
perform a part, if possible, in the drama about to open.
Jackson's infantry were disposed as follows : Lieutenant Ross, with a company of
Pierre's Seventh Regiment, guarded the redoubt on the extreme right, in which tents
were pitched. Between Humphrey's battery and the river, on the right, Beale's
New Orleans riflemen were stationed. From their left the Seventh Regiment ex
tended so as to cover another battery, and connected with a part of Plauche's2 bat
talion and the colored corps under Colonel Lacoste, which filled the interval between
i This is a view of the choked canal at the wood that skirts the levee, sketched by the author in April, 1861. There
is a lane, near the end of which stands the unfinished monument to be erected in commemoration of the battles here
fought and the victory won by the Americans. The partly-finished shaft is seen on the left. It is made entirely of
marble from Westchester County, New York, and is to be one hundred and fifty feet in height. It is erected by the
State of Louisiana.
3 Jean B. Plauche was a native of New Orleans, and was born there when it was a Spanish colony. He was a French
Creole, and through life bore the character of one of the most esteemed citizens of New Orleans. After the war he re-
REMAIN8 OF BODHIGUEZ'8 CANAL.1
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
1043
Character of the American Troops.
Interior Lines of Defense.
The Tombs of Plauche and You.
Batteries Nos. 3 and 4 (see map on page 1040), the guns of the latter being covered by
D'Aquin's free men of color. Next to D'Aquin was the Forty-fourth Regiment, which
extended to the rear of Battery No. 5. The remainder of the line (full two thirds of
its entire length) was covered by the commands of Carroll1 and Coffee.2 The former
had been re-enforced that day (7th) by a thousand Kentuckians under General Adair,
and with him, on the right of Battery No. 7, were fifty marines under Lieutenant
Bellevue. Coffee, with five hundred men, held the extreme left of the line, on the
edge of the swamp, where his men were compelled to stand in the water, and to sleep
on floating logs which they lashed to the trees. Captain Ogden, with cavalry (Jack
son's body-guard), was at head-quarters, yet at Macarte's chateau ; and on De Lerey's
plantation, in the rear of it, Hinds was stationed with one hundred and fifty mounted
men. Near Pierna's Canal a regiment of Louisiana militia, under Colonel Young,
were encamped as reserves.
Jackson's whole force on the New Orleans side of the river on the 7th was about
five thousand in number, and of these only two thousand two hundred were at his
line. Only eight hundred of the latter were regulars, and most of them were new
recruits commanded by young officers. His army was formed in two divisions, the
right commanded by Colonel Ross, acting as brigadier, and the left by Generals Car
roll and Coffee, the former as major general and the latter as brigadier general. A
mile and a half in the rear of his main line another intrenchment had been thrown
up, behind which the weaker members of his army were stationed with pickaxes and
spades. This line was prepared for a rallying-point in the event of disaster following
the impending conflict. Jackson also established a third line at the lower edge of
the city. General Morgan, on the opposite side of the river, prepared to defend his
lines with only eight hundred men, all militia, and indifferently armed. On his left
were two 6-pounders, in charge of Adjutant Nixon, of the Louisiana militia, and a 12-
pounder under Lieutenant Philibert, of the navy. Patterson's battery, in Morgan's
sumed his vocation as merchant. He generally declined public
offices, yet he was .induced to take that of Lieutenant Governor
of Louisiana. He died in January, 1860, and in an elegant tem
ple - shaped tomb in St. Louis Cemetery in New Orleans his
remains rest The annexed picture of the tomb is from a sketch
made by the author in April, 1S61. It is built of white marble,
with black inscription tablets in front. On one of these is the
following : " General J. B. PLAUCHE, ne a la Nouvelle Orleans le
28 Janvier, 1785, de-cede le 2 Janvier, I860. En 1S14-'15 major com
mandant le bataillon d'Orleans. En 1850 lieutenant gouverneur
de Petat de Lonisiane. Homme vertueux, bon p6re et bon ci-
toyen, il a bien merite de sa patrie et legue a sa famille uu nom
honorable."
In the same ceme
tery, and not far from
thetombofthePlan-
§§j|si* -. ch6 family, was that
of Dominique You,
mentioned in these
pages as a noble de
fender of New Or
leans. On his tomb,
made of brick and
stuccoed, the writer
found the following
inscription written PLAUCHE'S TOMB.
on a clouded marble
slab : " DOMINIQUE You. Intrepide gnerrier sur la terre et sur Ponde, il put
dans cent combats signaler sa valeur ; et ce nouveau Bayard, saus reproche
et sans penr, aurait pu, sans trembler, voir s'ecrouler le monde."
i William Carroll was born in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, in 1778. In 1813 he
became inspector general of the Tennessee Militia and Volunteers under Jackson. He was commissioned a colonel,
and served with distinction in the war with the Creek Indians. He left the service at the close of the war. He was
Governor of Tennessee from 1821 to 1827, and from 1830 to 1835. He died on the 22d of March, 1844.
2 John Coffee was a native of Nottaway County, Virginia, and entered the military service under Jackson in 1812. He
was active with him in the Creek War, and in the attack on Pensacola in the autumn of 1814. He was distinguished in
the battles near New Orleans. In March, 1817, he was appointed surveyor of public lands. He died near Florence, in
Alabama, on the 7th of July, 1S44.
DOMINIQUE YOU'8 TOMB.
1044
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Position of the Army on the 7th of January.
A Message from Patterson.
Jackson calls his Staff to Action.
rear, could render him no service, for its guns were turned so as to command the
plain of Chalmette, in front of Jackson's line.
Such was the strength and position of the two armies on the night of the memora
ble 7th of January, 1815, preparatory to the great conflict on the following day.
It was not until the afternoon of the 7th that Jackson could determine with any
certainty whether the enemy would first attack his own or Morgan's line. Then,
from the gallery of head-quarters, with his telescope, he could see such preparations
by the foe as convinced him that his own line would first feel the shock of battle ;
and when the darkness of night fell he could distinctly hear the sounds of labor in
reconstructing the British batteries which the Americans had destroyed. His pick
ets and sentinels were strengthened, and sleepless vigilance marked a large portion
of the troops behind his intrenchments that night. The Chief lay down to rest on a
sofa, after a day of great fatigue, surrounded by his aids, and was slumbering sweet
ly when, at a little past midnight, he was awakened by an aid of Commander Pat
terson (Mr. R. D. Shepherd), who had been sent to inform the general that there
seemed to be positive indications in the British camp that Morgan was to be first at
tacked, and that he needed more troops to maintain his position. "Hurry back," said
Jackson, " and tell General Morgan that he is mistaken. The main attack will be on
this side. He must maintain his position at all hazards." Then, looking at his watch,
he spoke aloud to his aids, " Gentlemen, we have slept long enough. Arise ! for the
enemy will be upon us in a few minutes. I must go and see General Coffee." One
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 1045
Thornton crosses the River to attack Morgan. Advance of the British Line. Opening of Battle.
of his first orders was for General Adair1 to send over five hundred Kentuckians to
re-enforce Morgan.
Let us observe the movements in the British camp on that memorable night.
According to the plan already mentioned, Colonel Thornton proceeded to cross the
Mississippi for the purpose of attacking Morgan. He marched to the levee, at the
end of the newly-cut canal in extension of Villere's, and there waited with the great
est impatience the arrival of the boats that were to carry him and his troops over.
The banks of the ditch had caved in in some places, and the falling of the water in
the river had made that of the canal so shallow that the sailors were compelled to
drag the boats through thick mud in many places. It was three o'clock in the morn
ing before even a sufficient number of vessels to convey one half of the detachment
had arrived. Farther delay would be fatal to the enterprise ; so, with Pakenham's
sanction, Thornton dismissed half of his force, embarked the remainder, and crossed
the river in a flotilla commanded by Captain Roberts, of the Royal Navy. Ignorant
of the fact that the Mississippi was flowing with a quiet, powerful current, at the rate
of five miles an hour, and making no provisions for this obstacle to a quick and direct
passage, they were landed, after great fatigue, at least a mile and a half below their
intended point of debarkation. Before they had all left the boats the day dawned,
and the roar of cannon was heard on the plain of Chalmette.
Pakenham and his officers had passed an almost sleepless night, and at the time
when Jackson aroused his slumbering staff the divisions of Gibbs and Keane were
called up, formed into line, and advanced to within four hundred and fifty yards of
the American intrenchments. Lambert's division was left behind as a reserve. There
stood the British soldiers in the darkness and the chilly morning air, enveloped in a
thick fog, and anxiously listening for the booming of Thornton's guns in his attack
on Morgan. He was yet battling with the current of the Mississippi. Tediously the
minutes and the hours passed, and yet that signal-gun remained silent.
Day dawned and the mist began to disperse, and as the dull red line of the British
host was dimly seen in the early morning light through the veil of moisture, Lieuten
ant Spotts, of Battery No. 7, opened one of his heavy guns upon it. It was the sig
nal for battle. As the fog rolled away the British line was seen stretching two thirds
across the plain of Chalmette. From its extreme left and right rockets shot high in
air, and, like a dissolving view, that red line almost disappeared as it was broken into
columns by companies.
Gibbs now advanced obliquely toward the wooded swamp, with the Forty-fourth
in front, followed by the Twenty-first and Fourth, terribly pelted by the storm that
came from Batteries Nos. 6, 7, and 8, and vainly sought shelter behind a bulging pro
jection of the swamp into the plain. These batteries poured round and grape shot
incessantly into Gibbs's line, making lanes through it, and producing some confusion.
This was heightened by the fact that the Forty-fourth, with whom had been intrust
ed fascines and scaling-ladders, had advanced without them. To wait for these to be
brought up was impossible in the focus of that cannonade. So Gibbs ordered them
forward, the Twenty-first and Fourth in solid and compact column, covered in front
by blazing rockets and cheered by their own loud huzzas. Whole platoons were
prostrated, when their places were instantly filled by others, and the column pressed
on, without pause or recoil, toward the batteries on the left, and the long and weaker
line covered by the Tennesseeans and Kentuckians.
By this time all the American batteries, including Patterson's on the right bank
of the Thames and in 1S14 was bdgad r general of Kentucky militia. He left the service at the close of the war. He
was Governo^ of ^eStuc^ from IS to 1824, and representative in Congress from 1831 to 1833. He died at Harrods-
burg, Kentucky, on the 19th of May, 1840.
1046 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Battle of New Orleans.
of the river, were in full play. Yet steadily on marched Wellington's veterans, step
ping firmly over the dead bodies of their slain comrades until they had reached a
point within two hundred yards of the American line, behind which, concealed from
the view of the invaders, lay the Tennesseeans and Kentuckians four ranks deep.
Suddenly the clear voice of General Carroll rang out, Fire ! His Tennesseeans arose
from cover, and, each man taking sure aim, delivered a most destructive volley on
the foe, their bullets cutting down scores of the gallant British soldiery. The storm
ceased not for a moment ; for when the Tennesseeans had fired they fell back, and the
Kentuckians took their places, and so the four ranks, one after another, participated
in the conflict. At the same time round, grape, and chain shot went crashing through
the ranks of the British, making awful gaps, and appalling the stoutest hearts. The
line began to waver, and would have broken but for the cool courage and untiring
energy of the officers, and the inspiriting cry, " Here comes the Forty-fourth with the
fascines and ladders !"
A detachment of the Forty-fourth had indeed come with scaling implements, and
Pakenham at their head, who encouraged them by stirring words and bold deeds for
a few minutes, when his bridle-arm was made powerless by a bullet, and his horse was
shot under him. He at once mounted the black Creole pony of his favorite aid, the
now (1 867) venerable Sir Duncan M'Dougall, of London.1 Other officers fell, until there
were not enough to command, and the column began to break up into detachments,
a greater part of them falling back to the shelter of the projecting swamp. There
they were rallied, and, throwing away their knapsacks, they rushed forward to scale
and carry the works in front of Carroll and his sharp-shooters. At the same time,
Keane, contrary to instructions, but with zealous concern for the cause, wheeled his
column into line and led a portion of it to the assistance of the right wing. They
were terribly scourged by the enfilading fire of the American batteries as they strode
across the plain. Among them was the Ninety-third Regiment, composed of nine
hundred sinewy Highlanders, who had won victories on many a field in Continental
Europe, and were now unmoved by the storm that poured in such fury upon them.
Their presence and example encouraged the broken column of the right, which, with
these Highlanders, rushed into the very heart of the tempest from Carroll's rifles,
having Gibbs on their right and Pakenham on their left. In a few minutes the right
arm of the latter was disabled by a bullet, and as he was riding to the rear on the
led pony, shouting huzzas to the troops, there came a terrible crashing of round and
grape shot through the ranks, that scattered dead men all around him. One of the
balls passed through the general's thigh, killed his horse, and brought both to the
ground. Pakenham was caught in the arms of his faithful aid, Captain M'Dougall,
f who had performed a similar service for General Ross when he fell, mortally wound
ed, near Baltimore a few months before.2 The commander was conveyed to the rear
in a dying condition, and placed under a venerable live-oak tree, which disappeared
only a few years ago. There he soon expired in the arms of M'Dougall.
General Gibbs was also mortally wounded, and died the next day ; and Keane was
so severely shot through the neck that he was compelled to leave the field. The
command was then assumed by Major Wilkinson, the officer of highest grade left in
the saddle. Under his leadership the broken battalions endeavored to scale the
breastworks. They were repulsed, and Wilkinson fell on the parapet mortally
' wounded. His discomfited men fell back, and all of the assailants withdrew in wild
confusion. Of the gallant nine hundred Highlanders, with twenty-five officers, of the
Ninety-third Regiment who went into the fight, only one hundred and thirty men
and nine officers could be mustered at its close. The Twenty-first Regiment lost five
hundred men, and every company came out of the terrible conflict a mere skeleton in
numbers.
i See page 952. 2 See page 951.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
1047
Battle of New Orleans.
= 3-- iJniff ~ •- ••!'••••» ^ •'• iK''- ; '
While this sanguinary work was in progress on the British right, a more successful
movement, for a time, was made by them on their left. Keane's whole division moved
when he led the Highlanders to the right. Nearly a thousand men, under the active
1048
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Colonel Rennie, composed of the Ninety-fifth Rifles, companies of the Seventh, Nine
ty-third, and Forty-third Infantry, and some West India troops, had pushed rapidly
forward near the river in two columns, one on the road, and the other nearer the
water, under shelter of the levee, and, driving in the American pickets, succeeded in
taking possession of the unfinished redoubt on Jackson's extreme right. They drove
out the Americans, but they did not hold it long. The invaders on the road were
terribly smitten by Humphrey's batteries and the Seventh Regiment, and were kept
in check. At the same time Rennie led the column along the water's edge, where
they were greatly annoyed by Patterson's battery, and, with several other officers,
scaled the parapet of the American redoubt. The New Orleans Rifles, under Beale,
now poured upon these officers and the inmates of the redoubt such a terrible fire that
nearly every man was killed or mortally wounded. Rennie had just exclaimed
" Hurrah, boys, the day is ours !" when he fell to rise no more.
This attacking column also fell back in great disorder under cover of the levee,
and, like those on the British right, sought shelter in the plantation ditches from the
terrible storm that came from Jackson's lines. General Lambert, with his reserves,
had come forward on hearing of the disasters to Pakenham, Gibbs, and Keane ; but
he was in time only to cover the retreat of the battered and flying columns, and not
to retrieve the fortunes of the day. The fire of the mus
ketry had ceased by half after eight in the morning, but
the artillery kept up their fire until about two o'clock in
the afternoon. It is worthy of note that, from the flight
of the first signal rocket of the British to the close of the
contest, the New Orleans Band (stationed near the centre
of the line, and not far from the spot where the monument
now stands, and where the American standard was kept
flying during the struggle), played incessantly, cheering
the troops with national and military airs. The British,
on the contrary, had no other musical instrument than a
bugle, and as their columns advanced no drum was heard
in their lines, nor even the stirring tones of the trumpet.
From their first landing at the Fisherman's Village, the
experience of that army had been almost unbroken drear
iness.1
Let us now turn our attention to the movements on the
right bank of the Mississippi.
We left Colonel Thornton and his men just debarked,
after battling with the current of the Mississippi for some
time. Morgan had sent forward his advance of less than
three hundred men (one third of whom were Arnaud's
Louisiana militia) under Major Tessier, and the remain
der, fatigued and poorly-armed Kentuckians under Colonel Davis, chosen from those
sent over on the 7th by General Adair, were directed to take position on Mahew's
Canal, about a mile in advance of Morgan's line, near which it was supposed the Brit
ish would land. The line which this small force was expected to hold extended from
the river to the swamp, a distance of a mile, and required at least a thousand men
and several pieces of artillery to give it respectable strength. Davis's troops were
placed on the left, resting on the levee, and Tessier's were on their right, extending
1 Latour says it was reported that there were divisions in the councils of the British officers concerning the point of
attack, and that Admiral Cochrane, with a feeling of contempt for the American militia, declared he would undertake
to storm Jackson's lines with two thousand sailors, armed only with swords and pistols. This confidence in the invin
cibility of the British on this occasion contributed largely to their disaster.
2 This monument, between the site of Jackson's lines and his head-quarters (Macart6's), was unfinished when the
writer visited the spot in April, 1861. Work upon it had then ceased. The stones had been laid to the height of about
seventy feet. See note 1, page 1042.
MONUMENT.2
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 1049
Battle of New Orleans. Its Results.
to the swamp. Both watched vigilantly for signs of the coming of the invaders.
Their vigilance was vain, for Thornton landed a mile below them under cover of
three gun-boats under the command of Captain Roberts.
Pushing rapidly up the road, Thornton encountered Morgan's advance, when he
divided his superior force, sending a part to attack Tessier, while with the remainder,
and aided by Roberts's carronades, he assailed Davis. Both commands were soon
put to flight, and fell back in confusion on Morgan's line. Tessier's men could not
gain the road, and many of them took refuge in the swamps, where they suffered
much for several hours.
When Thornton gained the open fields in front of Morgan's line he extended his
force, and with the sailors in column on the road, and the marines placed as a reserve,
he advanced upon the American works under cover of a flight of rockets, and with
the aid of Captain Roberts's carronades. As the sailors rushed forward they were
met by volleys of grape-shot from Philibert which made them recoil. Seeing this,
Thornton dashed forward with the Eighty-fifth, and, handling the men with great
skill and celerity, soon put the Kentuckians to flight, who ran in wil'd confusion, and
could not be rallied. Following up this advantage, Thornton soon drove the Louisi-
anians from the iriti'enchments, and gained possession of Morgan's line after that gen
eral had spiked his cannon and cast them into the river. He next made for Patter
son's battery, three hundred yards in the rear. Its guns, which had been playing ef
fectually on the British in front of Jackson's lines, were now trailed on the nearer foe
on the river road. But Patterson, thi-eatened by a flank movement, was compelled
to give way ; so he spiked his guns, and fled on board the Louisiana, while his sail
ors assisted in getting her into the stream, out of the reach of the enemy.
A large number of the troops were rallied and formed on the bank of the Boisger-
vais Canal, and prepared to make a stand there. But the British did not advance
beyond Patterson's battery. There Thornton was informed of the terrible disasters
on the opposite side of the river, and soon afterward received orders from General
Lambert to rejoin the main army. Jackson, in the mean time having heard of Mor
gan's disaster, sent over General Humbert (a gallant Frenchman who was acting as
a volunteer) with four hundred men to re-enforce him. Their services were not
needed. Thornton had withdrawn, and at twilight re-embarked his troops. That
night the Americans repossessed their works, and before morning Patterson had re
stored his battery in a better position, and announced the fact to Jackson at dawn
by discharges of heavy cannon at the British outposts at Bienvenu's.1
After the conflict had ceased, Jackson, accompanied by his staff", passed slowly
along his whole line, addressing words of congratulation and praise to the officers
and men every where. Then the band struck up " Hail, Columbia," and cheer after
cheer for the hero went up from every part of the line. These were echoed from the
lips of excited citizens who had been watching the battle at a distance with the
greatest anxiety. Then the soldiers, after partaking of some refreshments, turned to
the performance of the sad duty of caring for the wounded and the bodies of the
dead, which thickly strewed the plain of Chalmette for a quarter of a mile back from
the front of Jackson's lines. These were the maimed and slain of the British army.
No less than twenty-six hundred were lost to the enemy in that terrible battle, of
whom seven hundred were killed, fourteen hundred were wounded, and five hundred
were made prisoners. The Americans lost only eight killed and thirteen wounded !
The history of human warfare presents no parallel to this disparity in loss. The
Americans were thoroughly protected by their breastworks, while the British fought
in front of them on an open level plain. ^^
i The loss of the British on this occasion, in killed and wounded, was a little more than one hundred. The Ameri
cans lost one man killed and five wounded. On that side of the Mississippi the British acquired their sole trophy dur-
w their efforts to capture New Orleans. It was a small flag, and now [1867] hangs conspicuously among other war
trophies in Whitehall, London, with the inscription, " Taken at the battle of New Orleans, January 8, 1S15."
1050
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
The Burial of the Dead.
Disposition of the Bodies of the slain British Officers.
After the battle General Lambert sent a flag of truce asking: for an armistice in
order to bury his dead. Jackson granted it on the condition that it should not be
extended to operations on the right bank of the river. The result of this exception
was, as we have observed, the immediate withdrawal of Thornton from Morgan's
line. On the following morning detachments from both armies were drawn up three
hundred yards in front of the American lines, when the dead bodies between that
point and the intrenchments were carried and delivered to the British by the Ken-
tuckians and Tennesseeans on the very scaling-ladders left by the enemy when driv
en back. The British then carried their dead to a designated spot on Bienvenu's
plantation which had been marked out as the cemetery of " the Army of Louisiana."
There they were buried, and to this day that consecrated " God's Acre" has never
been disturbed. It is distinguished in the landscape by a grove of small cypress-
trees, and is a spot regarded with superstitious awe by the negroes in that neighbor
hood. The wounded, who were
made prisoners, were carefully con
veyed to New Orleans, where they
were placed in the barracks, and
tenderly cared for by the citizens.
The bodies of the dead British
officers were carried to Villere's,
the head-quarters, in whose garden
some of them were buried by torch
light that night with solemn cere
monies. Those of Pakenham,Gibbs,
Rennie, and one or two other offi
cers, were disemboweled, placed in
casks of rum, and sent to their
friends in England. Their viscera
were buried beneath a stately pe
can-tree, which, with another quite
as stately, seen in the annexed
sketch, was yet standing in vigor
ous health on the lawn a few yards
from Villere's house when the writ
er sketched the two in April, 1861.
It is said to be a notable fact that
this tree, fruitful before its branches
were made to overshadow the re-
The tree nearest the figure of the
PECAN-TREES.
mains of the invaders, has been barren ever since,
man is the historic one.
While the armies were burying their dead on the field of strife, a portion of the
British were seeking to secure the free navigation of the Mississippi below New Or
leans for themselves by capturing Fort St. Philip, at a bend of the stream seventy or
eighty miles below the city in a direct line, and which was considered by both par
ties as the key of Louisiana. It contained at that time a garrison of three hundred
and sixty-six men, under Major Overton,1 of the Rifle corps, and the crew of a gun
boat which had been warped into the bayou at its side. On the morning of the 9th,
at about the time when disposition was being made of the British dead in front of
Jackson's lines, a little squadron of five hostile vessels appeared near the fort. They
consisted of a sloop of war, a gun-brig, and a schooner (Herald, Sophia, and Tender),
1 Walter H. Overton, of Tennessee, entered the army in 1808, and was commissioned a major in February, 1814. For
his gallantry iu defending Fort St. Philip he was breveted lieutenant colonel. He resigned in 1816. He was a member
of Congress from Louisiana from 1829 to 1831.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
1051
Attack on Fort St. Philip.
Capture of Fort Bowyer.
Jackson's Army enters New Orleans.
and two bomb vessels. They anchored out of range of the heavy guns of the fort,
the bomb vessels with their broadsides toward St. Philip. At three o'clock in the
afternoon they opened fire, and, finding they had the range of the fort, continued the
bombardment, with little interruption, until daybreak of the 18th, casting more than
a thousand shells, with the expenditure of twenty thousand pounds of powder, besides
many round and grape shot. For nine days the Americans were in their battery (five
days without shelter), exposed to cold rain part of the time. The proceeds of this
expenditure secured by the British consisted of two Americans killed and seven
wounded. The assailants withdrew on the 18th without gaining either the fort,
spoils, or glory.1
February 9,
1815.
On the 18th of January, in accordance with an arrangement made the previous
day, a general exchange of prisoners took place; and on the 19th the British, under
Lambert, were wholly withdrawn from the Mississippi, having stolen noiselessly away
under cover of darkness the previous night. They reached Lake Borgne at dawn on
the 19th, but they were yet sixty miles from their fleet, exposed to quite keen wintry
air, and considerably annoyed by mounted men under Colonel De la Ronde, who hung
upon their rear. There they remained until the 27th, when they embarked, and two
days afterward reached the fleet in the deep water between Cat and Ship Islands.
The vigilant Jackson, in the mean time, had made such disposition of his forces as to
guard every approach to the city, for he thought the foiled enemy, enraged by disap
pointment, might attempt to strike a sudden blow at some other quarter.
When the British departed from the vicinity of New Orleans they proceeded to
invest Fort Bowyer,a yet in command of Major Lawrence.2 They be
sieged it for nearly two days, when the gallant Lawrence was compelled
to surrenderb to a superior force. Mobile was then at the mercy of the b February 12.
foe ; but their farther conquests were arrested by news of peace, brought directly to
General Lambert by a ship sent from England for the purpose.
On the 21st of January, Jackson, with the main body of his army, entered New Or
leans. They were met in the suburbs by almost the entire population of all ages and
sexes, who greeted the victors as their saviors ; and they entered the town in tri
umphal procession, with far more honest pride than ever swelled the bosoms of vic
torious conquerors or emperors of other centuries of time.3
i The chief sources from which the materials for the account of the battles near New Orleans were drawn were the of
ficial reports of the officers engaged in them ; Latour's Memoir of the War in West Florida and Louisiaita; Judge Walk
er's Jackson and New Orleam; the several histories of the War of 1812; and numerous statements to the author, oral
and written, by actors in the scenes. 2 See page 1021.
3 Two days afterward' New Orleans was the theatre of a most imposing spectacle. At the request of c Jan 23
Jackson the Abbe Du Bourg, Apostolic Prefect for Louisiana, appointed that a day for the public offer-
in" of thanks to Almighty God for his interposition in behalf of the American people and nationality. The dawn was
1052
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Honors accorded to Jackson and his Troops.
The news of the gallant defense of New Orleans produced a thrill of intense joy
throughout the land. State Legislatures and other public bodies thanked the hero
who commanded the victorious little army. A small medal was struck and exten
sively circulated among the people. Congress voted him the thanks of the nation,
and ordered a commemorative gold medal to be given him.
GOLD MEDAL PRESENTED TO JACKSON.1
greeted by the booming of cannon.
It was a bright, and beautiful winter
morning on the verge of the tropics.
The religious ceremonies were to be
held in the old Spanish Cathedral,
which was decorated with evergreens
for the occasion.
In the centre of the public square,
in front of the Cathedral, where the
equestrian statue of Jackson now
stands, was erected a temporary tri
umphal arch, supported by six Corin
thian columns, and festooned with
flowers and evergreens. Beneath the
arch stood two beautiful little girls,
each upon a pedestal, and holding in
her hand a civic crown of laurel. Near
them stood two damsels, one person
ifying Liberty and the other Justice.
From the arch to the church, arranged
in two rows, stood beautiful girls, all
dressed in white, and each covered
with a blue gauze veil and bearing a
silver star on her brow. These per
sonified the several States and Terri
tories of the Union. Each carried a
flag with the name of the state which
she represented, upon it. Each also
carried a small basket trimmed with
blue ribbon and filled with flowers ;
and behind each was a lance stuck in
the ground bearing a shield on which
was inscribed the name and legend
of the state or territory which she
represented. These were linked by STATUE OF JACKSON IN FRONT OF THE CATHEDRAL.
evergreen festoons that extended from the arch to the door of the Cathedral.
At the appointed time, General Jackson, accompanied by the officers of his staff, passed through the gate of the Grand
Square fronting the river, amid the roar of artillery, and was conducted between lines of Blanche's New Orleans battal-
ion of Creoles (which extended from thegate to the chu^h) to the raised floor of the arch. As he stepped upon it the
1 On one side of the medal is a profile of the bust of Jackson, and on the other a figure of Victory seated, supporting
a tablet before her with her left hand, in which is also a laurel wreath. She is making a record of the triumph on the
Sth of January. She has written the word "Orleans," when she is interrupted by another figure, personating Peace,
who holds an olive-branch in her right hand. With her left she points to the tablet, as if directing Victory to record
the peace which had already been agreed upon by the belligerents. Victory is in the act of listening. The inscriptions
on the medal are simple—" MAJOR GENERAL ANDREW JACKSON. BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS, JANUARY 8, 1S15. RESOLUTION
OF CONGRESS, FEBRUARY 27, 1S15."
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
1053
Rumors of Peace disregarded.
Martial Law and military Discipline continued.
Although no one sup
posed the British would
return, Jackson, like a
true soldier, did not re
lax his vigilance and dis
cipline. Martial law was
rigorously maintained
after rumors of peace
reached New Orleans
through seemingly relia
ble sources. He did not
feel bound to be govern
ed by rumors. He retain
ed all the troops; kept up
the regular discipline of
the camp; made drafts
and bills of exchange on
his government as usual
for funds to prosecute
hostilities (a fac-simile of
one of which is given in
the annexed engraving),
and in eveiy way acted
as if war was in full ca
reer. Finally a messen
ger arrived from Wash-
» March 6, ingtona with
1815< an official an
nouncement of peace.
Jackson was then in
volved in a contention
with the civil authori
ties. This culminated in
great public excitement.1
It soon ended, and on the
30th of March the "Hero
of Xe w Orleans," as Jack
son was ever afterward
called, departed from
that city for his humble
home in Tennessee, a losr
/ o
house in the forest.
I visited the theatre
of war around New Or
leans, with a young kins-
two little girls leaned gently forward and placed the laurel crown upon his head. At the same moment a charming
Creole girl (Miss Kerr), as the representative of Louisiana, stepped forward, and with modesty supreme in voice and
manner addressed a few congratulatory words to the chief, eloquent with expressions of the most profound gratitude.
To these words Jackson made a brief reply, and then passed on toward the church, his pathway etrewn with flowers by
the sweet representatives of the states.
At the Cathedral entrance the honored hero was met by the Abbe Du Bonrg in his pontifical robes, and supported by
a college of priests in their sacerdotal garments. The abbe addressed the general with eloquent and patriotic discourse,
after which the chief was conducted to a conspicuous seat near the great altar, when the Te Denm Laudamus was chant
ed by the choir and people. When the imposing pageant was over, the general retired to his quarters to resume the
stern duties of a soldier; and that night the city of New Orleans blazed with a general illumination.
1 The story of Jackson's difficulties with the civil authorities may be told in a few words. In the Legislature of Lou-
1054
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Jackson's Obedience to Civil Law.
Scene in the old Court-house.
Biographical Sketch of Jackson.
woman as a traveling companion, in the month of April, 1861. We left New York
on the 28th of March for Baltimore, from which city we passed over the Baltimore
and Ohio Railway to Parkersburg, in Virginia, on the Ohio River, stopping over
night at Harper's Ferry, where, three weeks later, the torch of civil war, then just
lighted, made sad devastation. We crossed the Ohio River at Parkersburg, and
journeyed by railway to Cincinnati. There we again crossed that stream to Cov-
isiana was a powerful faction personally opposed to Jackson— so powerful that, when the officers and troops were
thanked by that body on the 2d of February, the name of their chief leader was omitted. This conduct highly incensed
the people. Their indignation was intensified by a seditious publication, put forth by one of the members of the Leg
islature, which was calculated to produce disaffection in the army. This was a public matter, and Jackson felt bound to
notice it. He ordered the
arrest of the author, and ^^~\ s>
his trial by martial law. " s~>.^~^
Judge Dominic A. Hall,
of the Supreme Court of
the United States, issued
a writ of habeas corpus
in favor of the offender.
Jackson considered this
a violation of martial law,
and ordered the arrest of
the judge and his expul
sion beyond the limits of
the city. The judge, in
turn, when the military
law was revoked on the
13th of March, in consequence of the official proclamation of peace, required Jackson to appear before him and show
cause why he should not be
punished for contempt of court.
He cheerfully obeyed the sum
mons, and entered the crowded
court-room in the old Spanish-
built court-house, 269 Royal
Street, in citizen's dress. He
had almost reached the bar be
fore he was recognized, when
he was greeted with huzzas by
a thousand voices. The judge
was alarmed, and hesitated.
Jackson stepped upon a bench,
procured silence, and then,
turning to the trembling judge,
said, " There is no danger he: e
— there shall be none. The
same hand that protected this
city from outrage against the
invaders of the country will
shield and protect this court,
or perish in the effort. Proceed
with your sentence." With
quivering lips the judge pro-
nouncecPhim guilty of con
tempt of court, and fined him a
thousand dollars. The act was
greeted by a storm of hisses.
Jackson immediately drew a
check for the amount, handed
it to the marshal, and then made his way for the court-house door. The excitement of the people was intense. They
lifted Jackson upon their shoulders, bore him to the street, and then the immense crowd sent up a shout that blanched
the cheeks of Judge Hall, and gave evidence of the unbounded popularity of the heroic soldier who was so prompt in
his obedience to the mandates of the civil law. He was placed in a carriage, from which the people released the horses
and dragged it themselves to Maspero's house, where he addressed the populace, urging them to show their apprecia
tion of the blessings of liberty and free government by a willing submission to the authorities of their country. In the
mean time a thousand dollars had been collected by voluntary subscriptions and placed to his credit in a bank. Jack
son politely refused to accept it, and begged his friends to distribute it among the relatives of those who had fallen in
a 1843. the late battles. Nearly thirty years afterward Congress refunded" the sum, with interest, amounting in all to
two thousand seven hundred dollars.
Andrew Jackson was born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, on the 15th of March, 1TCT. He was designed by
his mother for the Christian ministry, but his studies were interrupted by the old War for Independence, whose tumults
were loud in the region where the boy resided, his home then being in the northern part of South Carolina. He went
into the service a mere lad, and was made a prisoner in 1781. His mother, his only surviving parent, died at that time,
and he was left alone. He studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1786. He settled in Tennessee, and at Nash
ville, which he made his home in 1790, he was married to an excellent woman. In 1795 he assisted in forming a State
Constitution for Tennessee. He was the first-elected Congressman from that state, and represented it in the Senate of
the United States in 1797. He was soon appointed judge of the Supreme Court of Tennessee, and for many years he
THE OLD COUET-UOUSE.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
1055
Journey from Baltimore to Lexington, in Kentucky.
'Ashland."
Clay's Monument.
Jackson's Tomb.
insfton, and traveled southward through
o • * o
a beautiful region of Kentucky to Lexing
ton, where we tarried a day and a night.
We rode out to Ashland, the residence of
Henry Clay, a short distance from the
town, for the purpose of seeing the dwell
ing-place of that eminent man for many
years before his death, and tendering our
respects to his venerable widow, then re
siding there. We were met by disap
pointment. The venerated mansion had
been demolished by a son of the states
man (James B. Clay), and upon its site
stood a pretentious brick dwelling — so
pretentious that persons living long dis
tances from it went to see it. Mrs. Clay
was too feeble to receive strangers,1 and after a brief interview with the proprietor
of the estate we turned with sadness from the shadows
of the grand old trees under which the former master
delighted to loiter in his retirement from public life. It
is to be regretted that his son did not comply with the
desires of the people of Kentucky that the mansion at
Ashland should belong to that state, and be preserved
as a perpetual memorial of her honored son.
We returned to Lexington, and rode out to the pub
lic cemetery wherein lie the remains of Henry Clay and
his family, and where, on the verge of a plain, stands a
beautiful monument (a sketch of which is given on the
next page) erected to the memory of the statesman.
BOUI.EY'S GKAVE.Z
JACKSON'S TO.MIJ.
was chief military commander in that
section. His services in the War of
1S12 are recorded in this volume. He
remained in the service some time
after the war. In 1821 he was ap
pointed Governor of the Territory of
Florida, and in 18'24he was an unsuc
cessful candidate for president of the
Republic. He was elected to that of
fice in 1S28, and served two consecu
tive terms. In 1837 he retired from
public life forever, and passed the re
mainder of his days at the "Hermit
age" (see page 1016), where he died
on the 8th of June, 1845. Beneath the
roof of a little temple-like structure
in the garden of the "Hermitage"
rested the remains of General Jack
son, by the side of those of his wife,
when the author visited the place in
the spring of 1861.
1 Mrs. Lucretia Hart Clay was the
daughter of Colonel Hart, of Lexing
ton, and sister of Captain Hart, who
was killed at Frenchtowu (see page
359), on the Raisin River. Mrs. Clay
had eleven children, of whom only
three now (186T) survive. She died
at the residence of her son, John M.,
near Lexington, on the evening of
the 6th of April, 1864, at the age of
eighty-three years.
2 The slab bears these few words :
" General THOMAS BODLET. Born 4th
July, 1TT2. Died llth June, 1833."
1056
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Frankfort and its Cemetery.
Graves of Daniel Boone and his Wife.
CLAY'S MONUMENT. 1
His body was laid by the
side of the remains of his
mother, in the western part
of the cemetery; and not far
from them were the grave
and modest little monument
of General Thomas Bodley
(see preceding page), who
was the deputy quartermas
ter general to the Kentucky
Volunteers under General
Harrison in 1813, with the
rank of major.
From Lexington we jour
neyed by railway through
the rich " blue-grass region"
to Frankfort, the capital of
the state. It is on the Ken
tucky River, and is the cen
tre of a theatre of romantic
events in the early history
of Kentucky, in which Dan
iel Boone and his compan
ions were so conspicuous.
There we were favored with the company and kind offices of General Leslie Combs,
whose gallant services in the War of 1812 are recorded in this volume. With him
we visited the Frankfort Cemetery, on the high right bank of the Kentucky River, a
short distance from
the city, where, side
by side, under the
shadows of magnifi
cent sycamore - trees
that stood there when
the pioneers were
fighting the Indians,
were the graves of
Daniel Boone and his
wife, with nothing to
mark their place of
sepulchre but little
mounds covered with
green grass and wild
flowers of the woods.2
Not far from these
humble graves we
found the fine monu
ment erected to the
memory of Colonel Richard M. Johnson, delineated on page 496 ; and in its vicinity
GEAVE8 OF DANIEL BOONE AND HIS WIFE.
1 This monument is of white marble. It is composed of an Egyptian cenotaph, upon which stands a Corinthian cap
ital bearing a statue of the statesman.
* These graves were near the steep bank of the river, which the Indians in Boone's time called Kain-tuck-ee. The
bank was here about one hundred and fifty feet in height. Near the graves and covering a slope were stumps, stones,
shrubbery, and vines, purposely left with rude aspect as appropriate to the resting-place of the remains of the pioneer.
The tall shaft seen beyoud the trees in the picture is that of the Soldiers' Monument given on the next page.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
1057
Louisville and Nashville.
A Visit to the Hermitage.
Dr. Felix Robertson.
stands a lofty and elegant white
marble shaft, upon a rich pedes
tal, and with more elaborated sur-
mountings, that was erected by the
State of Kentucky in commemora
tion of its deceased soldiers who
had served in any war.1 "We spent
much of the day in that "city of
the dead," and on the following
morning went by railway to Louis
ville, at the " Falls of the Ohio," so
often spoken of by the early voya
gers on that stream. Thence we
traveled by the same means to
Nashville, on the Cumberland Riv
er, where we spent the Sabbath,
and on Monday rode out to the
" Hermitage," the home of Andrew
Jackson,2 about twelve miles from
the city. It was a spacious brick
mansion, built in 1835, after the
earlier one was burned. There we
were hospitably entertained by
Mrs. Jackson, wife of the adopt
ed son of the President, who per
mitted me to copy from the origi
nal the portrait of General Coifee
seen on page 759. There we saw
two of the general's old house-serv
ants — Aaron and Hannah — the for
mer nearly eighty, and the latter
almost seventy years of age. Hannah went with us to the tomb of the patriot in*
the garden, where I made the sketch seen on page 1055. She gave us many inter
esting incidents of the latter days of her old master, and pointed to two thrifty wil
lows near the tomb which she saw him plant with his own hand a few evenings after
his wife was buried there.
On our return to Nashville toward evening, I passed an hour with the late venera
ble Dr. Felix Robertson, a portrait of whom is given on the next page, whose resem
blance to Jackson was very remarkable. He was the son of General James Robert
son (see page 747), and was the first white child born on the site of Nashville, his
mother then being in the little log fort there. On the following morning we departed
by railroad for New Orleans, going by way of Decatur, in Northern Alabama, then
westward to Grand Junction, and then southward to the " Crescent City." We ar
rived in New Orleans at noon on the llth of April, took rooms at the St. Charles,
and remained there nearly a week, visiting places of historic interest in and around
the city, and gathering materials, by the use of pen and pencil, for the narrative of
the events of the war there, given in this and the preceding chapter. For much in
formation, and for facilities for acquiring more, I am greatly indebted to the kindness
i This monument stands upon a mound. Upon the bands which are seen embracing the square shaft are the names
of battles, and beneath each are the names of soldiers who fell in those battles. The shaft is a single piece of marble.
Upon a tablet on the south front of the pedestal is a group in relief, composed of two feminine figures, one on each side
of an altar. One, with an open book in her hand, represents History ; the other, with a short Roman sword and olive
wreath, represents Victory. The other hands of the two figures are employed in holding a wreath over the altar. At
each corner of the top of the pedestal is an eagle. The shaft is surmounted with a figure of Fame, with arms extended,
and holding a wreath in each hand. a See page 1017.
3X
KENTCCKV SOLDIERS' MONUMENT.
1058
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Historical Places in New Orleans.
One of Jackson's Life-guardsmen.
A Visit to the Battle-ground.
of Judge Walker, author of Jackson and
N~ew Orleans / the late General H. W.
Palfrey, who was a participant in the
battle ; and especially to Alfred Hen-
ner, Esq. (a leading lawyer in New Or
leans), who was one of Jackson's mount
ed life-guard, and was engaged in active
and perilous duty on the memorable 8th
of January, 1815. * It was chiefly under
the direction of Mr. Henner that we
found the various localities of interest
in the city and its suburbs.
» April 12, On the morning after our ar-
is6i. rival* we rode down to the
battle-ground in a pleasant bai'ouche.
General Palfrey had made arrangements
to accompany us, but on that morning
news had arrived of the attack of insur
gents on Fort Sumter, in Charleston
Harbor, and he was too busy
with public matters to go
with us. That outbreak of
the Great Rebellion ab-
sorbed all minds. Our driver had been over
ALFRED IIENXER.
Lacoste5 and De la Ronde,6 we returned to
the battle-ground often, and was a com
petent guide, so we rode down alone
along the Levee, the water in the brim
ful Mississippi being quite four feet
higher than our roadway, with only
twenty-five feet thickness of earth be
tween us and the flood. It was a
clear and very warm day. The gar
dens were full of blooming roses, and
the orange hedges around them were
, _ ,
bright with the golden fruit. We
were kindly entertained by Madame
Macarte, at Jackspn's head:quarters,2
and we found a cordial welcome at
the Villere mansion by the family of
the grandson of Governor Villere,
where we were regaled with orange
sherbet and the delicious elfe, or Japan
plum, trees of which, full of the fruit,
formed a grove near the house.3 Aft
er making drawings of that mansion,
the pecan-trees,4 and the dwellings of
Macarte's", and while seated on the base
1 Captain Ogden was the commander of the Life-guard. The officers alone were uniformed. Mr. Henner was one of
only three survivors of that guard at the time of my visit, the other two being Ex-Governor Henry Johnson and James
Hopkins. He became a resident of New Orleans in 1S09, when the city contained about 14,000 inhabitants. He was
there in 1801, having been sent by his father on a flat-boat with the first bales of cotton ever taken to that city. He
placed them in the Jesuits' warehouse, on the site of the St. Charles Hotel, above Canal Street. It was in the fields out
side of the palisades, which then occupied the line of the present broad Canal Street. 2 See page 1037.
3 See page 1029. This fruit grows in clusters like cherries, on trees about the size of cherry-trees, and averages the
size given in the engraving at the head of the opposite page. Some are larger. When ripe it is of a yellow color, and
is filled with a bountiful supply of delicious acid juice.
* See page 1050. 5 see page 1031. 6 See page 1084.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
1059
en by Insurgents.
Uprising of the People.
Negotiations for Pe
JAl'AN PLTJM.
May 1,
1861.
of the monument there,1 at a little past two
o'clock, sketching the plain of Chalmette,2 we
heard some discharges of cannon at the city.
" Fort Sumter is doubtless gone," I said to my
companion. So it was. The news had reached
the city at that hour, and these cannon were
expressing the joy of the secessionists of New
Orleans. On our return we found the city alive
with excitement ; and during our stay there a
few days longer, and on our journey northward
to the Ohio River, we saw the uprising of the
insurgents in the slave-labor states at'the be
ginning of the Civil War. After crossing the
Ohio River and journeying eastward through
Ohio State, over the Alleghany Mountains, and
through Pennsylvania and New Jersey to New
York,* we saw the more marvelous uprising of the loyal people, with a de
termination to suppress the rebellion. The whole country, whether on the
mountain tops or in the valleys, seemed iridescent, for the national flag, with its
red, white, and blue," was every where seen.3
We have observed that, very soon after the battle of the 8th of January, 1815, near
New Orleans, rumors reached that city that peace had been concluded between the
5tates and Great Britain, and that an official notification of such action was
spe( lily given to General Jackson. It was a consummation ardently desired by the
Americans.' They had taken up arms
most reluctantly, after the gravest prov
ocations, and only in defense of the in
dependence of the nation. From the be
ginning of the war they were anxious
for a reconciliation with Great Britain
on honorable terms; and we have ob
served (page 470) with what eagerness
the President, at an early period of the
war, acted upon a proposition for the
mediation of the Emperor of Russia to
that end, by appointing James A. Bay
ard and Albert Gallatin commissioners
to act with John Quincy Adams,4 then
American embassador at St. Petersburg,
in negotiating a treaty of peace. The
British government refused to treat un
der the mediation of Russia, but offered
to open negotiations in London, or in
Gottenburg, in Sweden. The President
accepted the proposition, and chose the
1 See page 1048. 2 See page 1039. 3 See Lossing's Pictorial Field-book of the Civil War, Chapter XIV., volume i.
* John Qnincy Adams was born at the homestead of his family at Qnincy, Massachusetts, on the llth of July, 1767.
When only eleven years of age he accompanied his father to Europe, and was much in the society of diplomatists and
other distinguished men. He received much of his education abroad, and when only fourteen years of age he was the
private secretary of Mr. Dana, United States minister at St. Petersburg. He was graduated at Harvard University in
July, 1787, and studied law and entered upon its practice in Boston. He took an active part in politics. In 1794 Wash
ington appointed him resident minister in the Netherlands. He afterward held the same office in Portugal and Prus
sia. He returned to Boston in 1801, and was elected to a seat in the Massachusetts Senate. He was sent to the Na
tional Senate in 1803. In 1809 he was sent as minister to the Russian court, where he was a great favorite with the
Emperor Alexander. He was at the head of the American commissioners in the negotiation of the treaty of peace
at Ghent in 1814, and in 1815 he was appointed minister to the British court. He was appointed Secretary of State in
1060
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Peace Commissioners.
Negotiations opened at Ghent.
Adams, Bayard, Clay, and Gallatin.
JAMES A. BAYAEU.
latter place for the meeting. The ancient
city of Ghent, in Southern Netherlands
(now in Belgium), was afterward substi
tuted.1 There the American commission
ers assembled in the summer of 1814.
These consisted of John Quincy Adams,
James A. Bayard,2 Henry Clay,3 Jonathan
Rnssell, and Albert Gallatin.4 There they
were joined* by the British com- . Auguste,
missioners, Lord Gambier, Henry
Goulburn, and William Adams ; and Chris
topher Hughes, Jr., one of the most at
tractive of men in social life, and a diplo
mat without a rival, who was then our
charge d'affaires at Stockholm, was ap
pointed secretary to the American com
missioners.
Negotiations were speedily opened, when
a wide difference in the views of the com
missioners of the respective nations threat-
181T, in which office he remained until he took the chair of President of the United States in 1825. In 1831 he was elect
ed a member of the National House of Representatives, which position he held by re-election until his death, which oc
curred in the Speaker's Room at the Capitol on the 22d of February, 1848, in the eighty-first year of his age. His last
words were, " This is the end of earth." His remains were buried on the family estate at Quincy. In the accompany
ing picture are representations of the birthplace, the later residence, and the tomb of John Quincy Adams.
1 Ghent is the capital of the province of East Flanders, in Belgium ; is situated at the confluence of the Scheldt and
Lys, and is one of the most interesting localities in the ancient Netherlands.
2 James A. Bayard was born in Philadelphia on the 26th of July, 1767. He was graduated at Princeton in 1784, be
came a lawyer of eminence, and took a seat in Congress in 1797, to which he had been elected by the Federalists. He
held that position until 1804, when he was elected to the National Senate, in which he became a leader. He was op
posed to the War of 1812, but cheerfully acquiesced in the action of the majority. After assisting in the negotiation of
the treaty of peace he went to Paris, where he became seriously ill. When he arrived in England, on his way home, he
was met with the commission of minister to Russia, He declined the honor, hastened home, and five days after his ar
rival (August 6, 1815) he died.
3 Henry Clay (see page 211) was born near Hanover Court-house, in Virginia, on the 12th of April, 1777. He was edu
cated in inferior district schools. He began the study of the law at the age of nineteen years, and at the age of twenty
he was admitted to its practice. He went over the mountains into Kentucky, and settled at Lexington in 1799. With
a display of remarkable talents, he entered upon the practice of his profession, and as a politician, with vigor. At that
early period he worked for measures for the emancipation of the slaves, and through life was an advocate of the abolition
of slavery in some form. He was chosen a member of the Kentucky Legislature in 1803, and was sent to the National
Senate in 1806. He entered the House of Representatives as a member in 1811, and almost immediately afterward was
elected its speaker. He remained in Congress, as a member of one branch or the other of that body (with the excep
tion of four years, when he was John Quincy Adams's Secretary of State, and a brief retirement thereafter), until his
death, which occurred at Washington City on the 29th of June, 1852.
4 Albert Gallatin was born on the 29th of January, 1761, in the city of Geneva, Switzerland. He was graduated at the
University of Geneva in 1779, came to America in 1780, and entered the military service in Maine. After the Revolu
tion he was a tutor in Harvard College for a while, and finally settled in Western Pennsylvania. He was a member of
the Convention to revise the Constitution of that state in 1789, and was elected to the State Legislature. He was chosen
a member of the National Senate in 1793, but, being ineligible, he was elected a member of the other house, and became
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
1061
Delay in the Negotiations. Sympathies of the People of Ghent with the Americans. The Treaty concluded.
ened the most formidable obstructions to agreement. At times it seemed as if the
ffort to negotiate a treaty would be fruitless. The discussions continued several
VIEW OF T1IE CITY OF GHENT, FROM T1IE SCHELDT.
months. The leading citizens of Ghent (whose sympathies were with the Ameri
cans1) took great interest in the matter, and mingled their rejoicings with the com
missioners when their work was ended.2 That result was reached on the 24th of
December, 1814, when a treaty was signed by the respective commissioners.3 It was
immediately transmitted to London by the hands of Mr. Baker, secretary to Lord
the Republican leader of it. Jefferson appointed him Secretary of the Treasury in 1801, which office he held until 1813,
when he was sent to St. Petersburg as a commissioner to treat for peace. His communications from Europe on public
affairs at that time were mostly written in cipher, composed of numbers, of which (copied from one of them in the State
Department at Washington) a fac-simile is here given from a letter dated at London, June 13, 1814. Each number rep-
/07S. 7o 5-.
IOQL+- DoZ.
resents a word or sentence, perfectly intelligible to a person with a key. Mr. Gallatin assisted in negotiating the treaty
at Ghent. He remained in Europe, and from 1S16 until 1823 he was our resident minister at the French court, and was
employed in other diplomatic services. He declined offices of high honor at home, and remained abroad until 1828,
when he returned to the United States, and fixed his residence in the city of New York, where he engaged in the busi
ness of banking. He took an active part in literary pursuits, and at the time of his death, which occurred at Astoria,
Long Island, on the 12th of August, 1849, he was President of the New York Historical Society.
1 On the 27th of October, 1814, the Academy of Sciences and Fine Arts at Ghent invited the American commissioners
to attend their exercises, when they were all elected honorary members of the Academy. A sumptuous dinner was giv
en, at which the Intendant, or chief magistrate of Ghent, offered the following sentiment :
"Our distinguished guests and fellow-members, the American ministers — may they succeed in making an honorable
peace to secure the liberty and independence of their country." The band then played " Hail, Columbia." The British
commissioners were not present.
2 After the treaty was concluded the American commissioners gave a dinner to the British commissioners, at which
Count H. Von Steinhuyse, the Intendant of the Department, was a guest. Sentiments of mutual friendship were offered.
A few days afterward the Intendant gave an entertainment to the commissioners of both nations.
3 On the next two pages is a fac-simile of the last paragraph of the treaty, with the signatures of the respective com
missioners, and representations of the seals set opposite their names. These were carefully copied by the writer from
the original in the Department of State at Washington City. The impressions of all the aeals on the red wax were im
perfect, as the engravings represent them.
1062
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Signatures and Seals to the Treaty of Peace.
Gambler, and Mr. Carroll, one of the secretaries of the American commissioners.
OF THE WAE OF 181?.
1063
Ratification of the Treaty of Peace.
Arrival of the News in New York and Washington.
There it was ratified on the 28th of the same month by the Prince Regent, and then
sent to America by the same messen
gers. They sailed in the British sloop
of war Favorite on the 2d of January,
1815. She arrived at New York on
the evening of Saturday, the llth of
February. Mr. Hughes left Ghent with
a copy of the treaty at the same time
the other messengers did, proceeded to
the Texel, and there embarked for the
Chesapeake in the schooner Transit.
She arrived at Annapolis two days aft
er the Favorite reached New York,
and Mr. Hughes1 was at Washington
City with his copy of the treaty before
the ratified copy arrived there.
News of the arrival of the Favorite
soon spread over the city. The glad
tidings of peace which she brought
were wholly unexpected, and produced
the most intense satisfaction. No one
inquired what were the terms of the
treaty; it was enough to know that
peace had been secured. The streets
1 Mr. Hughes is represented as a man of very attractive personal appearance, exceedingly active in body and mind,
and more widely known personally during his long residence in Europe than almost any other man. A writer, in speak-
1064 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Rejoicings because of Peace. How the News was spread over the Country. Rejoicings in Great Britain.
were soon filled with people, and a placard issued from one of the newspaper offices1
and thrown out of the window, was eagerly caught up and read by the multitude,
who made the night air vocal with huzzas. Cannon thundered, bells rang, and bon
fires and illuminations lighted up the city until after midnight. Expresses were sent
in various directions with the glad news.2 The newspapers were filled on Monday
a February is, morninga with shipping advertisements and commercial announcements
of every kind. Government stocks advanced,3 and coin and merchan
dise rapidly declined.4 There was joy all over the land, and especially along the
whole maritime frontier. Banquets and illuminations marked the public satisfaction
in towns and cities.5 There were also great rejoicings in the Canadas because of the
deliverance of the provinces from the terrors of invasion by which they had been dis
turbed for almost three years ; and the British government, appreciating the loyalty
of the inhabitants of those provinces, as manifested in their gallant defense of their
territory during the war, caused a medal to be struck in testimony of its gratitude.6
There was rejoicing also in Great Britain because of peace, especially among the
manufacturing and mercantile classes, for it promised returning prosperity ; and a
medal was struck in commemoration of the great event, which bore upon one side
the words, " TREATY OP PEACE AND AMITY BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND THE UNITED
STATES OF AMERICA, SIGNED AT GHENT DECEMBER 24, 1814," and upon the other a fem-
ing of him said, "He is the best known man in the world, from New York to Kamtschatka," and was remarkable for
"saying more wise things, strange things, droll things, than ever tongue uttered or mind conceived." His personal
popularity made him a most skillful diplomat. He obtained a knowledge of the most profound state secrets, John
Qniucy Adams said, "by no improper acts, and at no cost of secret service money, but by the art of making friends by
his social qualities wherever he goes." — Adams's speech in Congress, September 4, 1841. Mr. Hughes was a native of
Baltimore, and was a brother-in-law of Colonel Armistead, the gallant defender of Fort M'Henry. He died in Baltimore
on the 18th of September, 1849.
1 It was issued from the office of the Mercantile Advertiser, on a slip of paper five by six inches in size, and was posted
and scattered all over the city. The following is a copy of one of these placards, in the possession of John B. Moreau,
Esq., of New York City :
" New York, Saturday Evening, 9 o'clock, February 11, 1815.
"PEACE.
" The great and joyful news of PEACE between the United States and Great Britain reached this city this evening by
the British sloop of war Favorite, the Hon. J. U. Mowatt, Esq., commander, in forty-two days from Plymouth.
"Henry Carroll, Esq., Secretary of the American Legation at Ghent, is the welcome bearer of the treaty, which was
signed at Ghent on the 24th December by the respective commissioners, and ratified by the British government on the
2Sth December. Mr. Baker, late Secretary to the British Legation at Washington, has also arrived in the sloop of war
with a copy of the treaty ratified by the British government."
2 Mr. Goodhue, an eminent merchant, sent an express at his own expense ($225) to Boston in thirty-six hours, which
scattered the glad tidings along the way. Jacob Barker (see page 936) sent an express in like manner to Governor
Tompkins at Albany in twenty-four hours. Mr. Carroll, on his way to Washington with a copy of the treaty, gave the
first news of peace to Philadelphia. Hughes had already gladdened Baltimore with the tidings.
3 Six per cents rose from 76 to 86, and treasury notes from 92 to 98.
* Coin, which was twenty-two per cent, premium, fell to two per cent, in the course of forty-eight hours. Within the
same time sugar fell from $26 per cwt. to $12.50 ; tea from $2.25 per Ib. to $1 ; tin from $80 a box to $25. These are
mentioned, among scores of articles, as specimens of the sudden effect of the news on commercial values.
5 Philadelphia was the first to illuminate. It took place on Wednesday evening, the 15th of February. Robert Whar-
ton, the mayor, in his proclamation concerning it, suggested that, as the religious principles of the Quakers would not
permit them to illuminate, the police should see to it that they should be protected " in their peaceful rights." The
mayor directed all the lights to be extinguished at ten o'clock. On that occasion brilliant lights were exhibited from
the top of a shot-tower one hundred and sixty feet in height. The illumination in New York took place on the 22d of
February. On the evening of the 16th of March a "superb ball," as the newspapers of the day said, was given at Wash
ington Hall, the dancing-room of which was sixty by eighty feet in size. The "number of ladies and gentle'meu was
six hundred." The room was so arranged as to present the appearance of a beautiful pavilion, or temple, with eighteen
pillars, on each of which was the name of a state. It was called the Temple of Concord. On one side of the room, un
der a canopy composed of flags, was the Bower of Peace, surrounded with orange and lemon trees covered with fruit.
The Evening Post of the 21st of March said of the scene in the hall, " It was a picture of female beauty, fashion, and ele
gance not to be surpassed in any city in the Union." Among the most active women at this entertainment were those
who composed the managers of the Association for the Relief of the Soldiers in the Field, formed in 1814. These con
sisted of Mrs. General Lewis, Mrs. William Few, Mrs. David Gelston, Mrs. Philip Livingston, Mrs. Colonel Laight, Mrs.
Thomas Morris, Mrs. Marinus Willet, Mrs. William Ross, Mrs. Nathan Sanford, Mrs. Daniel Smith, Mrs. L. Bradish, Miss
M. Bleecker, Miss H. Lewis, and Miss H. E. G. Bradish.
6 The device on one side of the medal is emblematic of the United States and Canada. On one side of a river and
lake (St. Lawrence and the Lakes) is the eagle, representing the sovereignty of the republic, threatening to fly over into
Canada, whose emblem is the beaver. There the British lion couchant is seen, emblematic of the protecting sovereignty
of Great Britain. The device on the other side explains itself. The medal was made by Thomas Wyon" Jr., a young
engraver, then only twenty-three years of age. He died in 1S1T, at the age of twenty-five years, when he was at the head
of his profession. Copies of the three medals here mentioned are in the rare numismatic collection of Chas. I. Bnshnell,
Esq., of New York, to whose courtesy I am indebted for the privilege of having two of them engraved for this work.
OF THE WAR OF 1812.
1065
Medals and Pictures in Commemoration of Peace.
Ratification of the Treaty by the United States Senate.
MEDAL OF GBATITUDE.
inine figure standing on the segment of a globe, bearing the cornucopia of plenty,
and holding in one hand the olive-branch of peace. Partly encircling the figure were
the words, " ON THE EARTH PEACE, GOOD-WILL TO MEN." Another medal commemo
rative of the treaty was struck, on one side of which was a feminine figure standing
upon a shell in the midst of the ocean, with the olive-branch in one hand and rays
of light emanating from the other. Partly inclosing the figure were the words,
" PEACE SPREADS HER INFLUENCE O5ER THE ATLANTIC SHORE." On the Other side WaS
a dove surrounded with light, and descending toward a wreath of palm leaves in
closing the words " CONCORD BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND AMERICA." A fine alle
gorical picture was painted and engraved in this country commemorative of the war
and the treaty of peace, a copy of which is given on the next page.1
The treaty of peace was ratified by the unanimous vote of the Senate of the United
States on the 17th of February, 1815, and it was promulgated the next day by proc
lamation of President Madison. It did not, as the text of the treaty given in the
Appendix shows, secure to the Americans that immunity from Search and Impress
ment for which they went to war, and for this reason it was pointed to exultingly by
the Opposition as a proof of the wisdom of their prophecies, the patriotism of their
1 This picture, entitled The Peace of Ghent, 1814, and Triumph of America, was drawn by William Planton and en
graved by Chataiguier. It was published by P. Price, Jr., Philadelphia. The design is thus described: "Minerva rep
resents the wisdom of the United States, Mercury their commerce, Hercules their force. Minerva, dictates their condi
tions of peace, which Mercury presents to Britannia, and Hercules forces her to accept them. On the shield of Minerva,
are the names of those who signed the treaty ; on the obelisk, those of the braves. On the other side America passes in
triumph through the arch on her way to the Temple of Peace. She is attended by Victory, and followed by a numerous
traiii. Several trophies are seen, and in the background are the ruins of the Capitol." Below the picture, in a circle
composed of links, on each of which is the name of a state, is the following inscription : " Under the presidency of Mad
ison. Monroe, Secretary of State."
1066
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Allegorical Picture of the Treaty of Peace and Triumph of America.
course, and the truth of their declarations that the war was a failure — " waged to no
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 1067
Effects of the Treaty. Position of the Republic at the Close of the War. Readjustment of National Affairs.
end."1 It by no means secured all that the Administration hoped for ; yet, in addi
tion to the boon of peace, it gave to the Americans advantages to be derived from a
final settlement of boundaries and the exclusive right to the navigation of the Missis
sippi River, while it took from them the important privilege, which the mariners of
New England had always enjoyed, of catching and curing fish on the shores of the
Gulf of St. Lawrence.2 It also secured, in the interest of our common humanity, the
co-operation of the two nations in efforts to suppress the inhuman and un-Christian
traffic in slaves.
But far more important to this country and the world than the security of inci
dental advantages was the establishment, by the war, of the positive and permanent
independence of the United States, and with it a guarantee to the posterities, of the
perpetuation and groAvth of free institutions. Great Britain had been taught, by the
lessons of the wrar, that the young republic, the offspring of her oppressions,3 growing
more lusty every hour, would no longer tolerate an insult, or suffer its sovereignty to
be questioned without resenting the offense ; and she was compelled to sign a bond,
as it were, to keep the peace, in the form of an acknowledgment that she had, in that
republic, a formidable rival for the supremacy of the seas, which she was bound to
respect. Her aristocracy, as a rule, and the public writers in their interest, remained,
as before, the bitter enemies of the Republic. They condemned the treaty because it
yielded too much to what they were pleased to call the " insolent Yankees,"4 and
omitted no opportunity to disparage and libel the American people and the American
Republic. It was, perhaps, a natural exhibition of the weakness and selfishness of hu
man nature. That Republic, with its free institutions and equality in acknowledged
citizenship, was and is a perpetual menace against the existence of privileged classes,
and a silent but potential champion of the rights of man enunciated in its prime po
litical creed, that " all men are created equal." Hence it is that the privileged class
es of the Old World are its natural enemies, and are willing to disparage its institu
tions and people in the estimation of the toiling millions who are struggling for the
light and air of a better human existence.
When the treaty of peace was ratified, the government of the United States took
measures immediately for the adjustment of national affairs in accordance with the
new order of things. An appropriation was made for rebuilding the public edifices.5
Plans were considered for the maintenance of the public credit and the extinguish
ment of the national debt, then amounting, in round numbers, to $120,000,000. The
1 The Opposition newspapers contained some well-pointed epigrams, keen satires, and genuine wit, aimed at the
friends of the war, and in illustration of the shortcomings of the treaty; and there was also an abundance of coarse
abuse poured out, through the same channels, upon the Administration. The usually dignified Eveimy; Post had some
severe criticisms, and justified the following stanza in its New Year's Address, printed a few weeks before:
" Your commerce is wantonly'lost,
Your treasures are wasted and gone ;
You've fought to no end, but with millions of cost,
And for rivers of blood you've nothing to boast
But credit and nation undone."
2 The treaty provided for the appointment of commissioners, and such were the final results of their labors.
3 Half a century before (1TG5), when Charles Townshend, in an eloquent speech in the British House of Commons,
spoke of the "ungrateful Americans" as "children planted by our care," Colonel Barre, in an indignant reply, exclaim
ed, "They planted by your care! No! your oppression planted them in America ; they fled from your tyranny to a
then uncultivated and inhospitable wilderness, exposed to all the hardships to which hnman nature is liable."
* The London Public Advertiser, at that period, furnished many illustrations of the feeling against the treaty. The
following will suffice :
" AlWEKTISEMEN'TS EXTRAORDINARY.
"Wanted.— The spirit which animated the conduct of Elizabeth, Oliver, and William,
"Lost.— All idea of national dignity and honor.
"Found —That every insignificant state may insult THAT which used to call herself MISTKMS or THE SEAS.
s The value of the public buildings destroyed was estimated as follows: The Capitol, original cost, alterations, etc.,
$787 163 28- President's house, including all costs, $334,334; public offices, Treasury, State, War, and Navy, $9,613.82;
makin^ a total of $1 915 111 The walls of the Capitol and of the President's house (see pages 933 and 934) remained
Ptron"°and only needed 'repairs. It was estimated that $460,000 would restore them to their condition before the fire.
No estimate was made of the value of the public library that was burned. The estimated cost of rebuilding the navy
yard was $62,370. The value of property destroyed at that establishment was estimated at $669,174.04, of which $417,745.
51 was movable property. See page 934.
1068
PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK
Reduction of the Army.
The Navy.
Privateers.
Captives released.
Dartmoor Prisoners.
army was placed on a peace footing, and was reduced to 10,000 men, by which reduc
tion about 1800 officers were compelled to leave the service. The navy was left
where it stood, with an additional appropriation, for its gradual increase, of $200,000
annually for three years. The national vessels and privateers were drawn from the
ocean as speedily as possible,1 and prisoners in the hands of both parties were released
as quickly as proper arrangements could be made for their enlargement.
In connection with the release of captives, a circumstance occurred at a depot for
prisoners in England which caused great exasperation on the part of the American
people. That depot was situated on Dartmoor, a desolate region in Devonshire,
where it was constructed in 1809 for the confinement of French prisoners of war. It
comprised thirty acres, inclosed within double walls, with seven distinct prison-
houses, with inclosures. At the time of the ratification of the treaty of peace, there
were about six thousand American prisoners there, including twenty-five hundred
impressed American seamen, who had refused to fight in the British Navy against
their countrymen, and were there when the war broke out in 1812. Some had been
there ten or eleven years. The place was in charge of Captain T. G. Shortland, with
a military guard. That officer was charged with much unfeeling conduct toward
the prisoners, accounts of which reached America, from time to time, and produced
great irritation in the public mind.
There was much delay in the release of the Dartmoor prisoners. It was nearly
three months after the treaty of peace had been signed before they were permitted
a March 20, to know the fact. From that timea they were in daily expectation of re-
1815- lease. Delay caused uneasiness and impatience, and there was evidently
a disposition to attempt an escape. Symptoms of insubordination appeared on the
4th of April, when the prisoners demanded bread instead of hard biscuit, and refused
to receive the latter. On the evening of the 6th,b so reluctantly did the pris
oners obey orders to retire to their quarters, that, when some of them, with
1 April.
BAKTMOOU PRISON IN 1815.2
1 The whole number of British vessels of every class captured by Americans during the war was estimated at 1T50.
An official British return stated that, during the same time, British ships had captured and destroyed 1683 American
vessels of every class, manned by upward of 18,000 seamen. See page 100T.
2 This is a careful copy of an engraving attached to a Journal of a Young Man of Massachusetts, late a Surgeon on
board an American Privateer, who was a prisoner there at the time of the massacre, and an eye-witness of much of
OF THE WAR OF 1812. 1Q69
Sad Event at the Dartmoor Prisons. Prosperity of the Republic. Its Relations to the Nations.
the appearance of mutinous intentions, not only refused to retire, but passed beyond
the prescribed limits of their confinement, they were fired upon, by orders of Captain
Shortland, for the purpose of intimidating all. This firing was followed up by the
soldiers without the shadow of an excuse, according to an impartial report made by
a commission appointed to investigate the matter.1 Five prisoners were killed and
thirty-three were wounded. The act of the soldiers was regarded by the Americans
as a wanton massacre ; and when the British authorities pronounced the act "justifi
able homicide," the hottest indignation was excited. But Time, the great healer, has
interposed its balm, and the event appears in history as one of the inevitable cruel
ties of ever-cruel war.
At the close of the SECOND WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE, the events of which are re
corded in this volume, our Republic had achieved, as we have observed, the most im
portant of all its triumphs, and was still wealthy with the fruits of a wonderful prog
ress in the space of twenty-five years since its nativity.2 It then started afresh upon
a grand career of prosperity, with marvelous resources developed and undeveloped —
known and unknown. The rulers and privileged classes in other lands persisted in
calling it an experiment, and were ever prophesying the failure of the republican prin
ciple in government, of which it was a notable example. Recent events have silenced
all cavil, and dispelled all doubts on that point.
Fifty years after the close of its last struggle for independence, our Republic
emerged* from the fiery furnace of a Civil War unparalleled in proportions
and operations hitherto, purified and strengthened by the ordeal. The most
skeptical observer of that trial and its results can no longer consider our Govern
ment an experiment. It is a demonstration. Its history is an affirmative answer
to the question whether republican institiitions have elements of vitality and power
sufficient for the demands of every exigency of national life. Henceforth it will
stand before the nations a trusted oracle for the guidance and encouragement of all
aspirants in other lands for the privileges of free thought and action.
what he recorded. The following is a description of the picture: A. Surgeon's House; B. Captain Shortland's Quar
ters ; C. Hospital ; D. Barracks ; E. Cachot, or Black-hole ; F, F, F. Guard-houses ; G, G. Store-houses. The Arabic
numerals refer to the numbers of the prisons as they were alluded to in narratives and official documents. The out
ward of the two encircling walls of stone (of which the prisons were built) was a mile in circumference. The inner wall
was used as a military walk for the sentinels. Within this wall were iron palisades, ten feet in height. The guard was
composed of a Itytle more than two thousand well-disciplined militia, and two companies of Royal Artillery. The pic
ture not only gives a bird's-eye view of the post, but the position of the guards at the time they fired, and of the killed
where they fell.
1 The American commissioners to negotiate the treaty of peace, then in London, appointed the late Charles King,
president of Columbia College (then a young man, who was on a visit to England), a commissioner on the part of the
Americans, and the British authorities appointed Francis Seymour Larpent to act with him.
2 John Bristed, in his admirable work on The Resources of the United States, published in ISIS, gives the following sum
mary of the real and personal capital, and the income of the people of the Republic, at about the time of the close of the
lReal Property.— Public lands, 500,000,000 acres, at $2 an acre, $1,000,000,000 ; cultivated lands, 300,000,000 acres, at $10
an acre $3,000,'oOO,000 ; dwelling-houses of all kinds, $1,000,000,000. Total of real property, $5,000,000,000.
Personal Property.— Capital to the holders of government stocks, who were American citizens, $100,000,000; banking
stocks $100,000,000 ; slaves, 1,500,000, at $150 each, $225,000,000 ; shipping of all kinds, $225,000,000 ; money, farming
stock and utensils, manufactures, household furniture and plate, carriages, and every other species of personal proper
ty not above enumerated, $1,550,000,000. Total of personal property, $2,200,000,000. Grand total of American capital,
in real 'and personal property, $7,200,000,000.
APPENDIX,
TREATY OF PEACE AND AMITY
BETWEEN HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY AND THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
His Britannic Majesty and the United States of America, desirous of terminating the war which has unhappily sub
sisted between the two countries, and of restoring, upon principles of perfect reciprocity, peace, friendship, and gooc
understanding between them, have for that purpose appointed their respective Plenipotentiaries — that is to say: His
Britannic Majesty, on his part, has appointd the Right Honorable James Lord Gambier, late Admiral of the White,
now Admiral of the Red squadron of His Majesty's Fleet, Henry Goulburn, Esq., a member of the Imperial Parliament,
and Under Secretary of State, and William Adams, Esq., Doctor of Civil Laws ; and the President of the United States,
by and with the advice and consent of the Senate thereof, has appointed John Quincy Adams, James A. Bayard, Henry
Clay, Jonathan Russell, and Albert Gallatin, citizens of the United States — who, after a reciprocal communication of
their respective full powers, have agreed upon the following Articles :
ARTICLE THE FIBST.
There shall be a firm and universal peace between His Britannic Majesty and the United States, and between their
respective countries, territories, cities, towns, and people, of every degree, without exception of places or persons. All
hostilities, both by sea and land, shall cease as soon as this treaty shall have been ratified by both parties, as hereinafter
mentioned. All territory, places, and possessions whatsoever, taken by either party from the other during the war, or
which may be taken after the signing of this treaty, excepting only the islands hereinafter mentioned, shall be restored
without delay, and without causing any destruction or carrying away any of the artillery or other public property orig
inally captured in said forts or places, and which shall remain therein upon the exchange of the ratifications of this
treaty, or any slaves or other private property. And all archives, records, deeds, and papers, either of a public nature or
belonging to private persons, which in the course of the war may have fallen into the hands of the officers of either
party, shall be, as far as may be practicable, forthwith restored and delivered to the proper authorities and persons to
whom they respectively belong. Such of the islands in the Bay of Passamaquoddy as are claimed by both parties shall
remain in the possession of the party in whose occupation they may be at the time of the exchange of the ratifications
of this treaty until the decision respecting the title to the said islands shall have been made in conformity with the fourth
article of this treaty. No disposition made by this treaty as to such possession of the islands and territories claimed by
both parties shall in any manner whatever be construed to affect the right of either.
ARTICLE THE SECOND.
Immediately after the ratifications of this treaty by both parties, as hereinafter mentioned, orders shall be sent to the
armies, squadrons, officers, subjects, and citizens of the two powers to cease from all hostilities. And to prevent all
causes of complaint which might arise on account of the prizes which may be taken at sea after the said ratifications
of this treaty, it is reciprocally agreed that all vessels and effects which may be taken after the space of twelve days
from the said ratifications, upon all parts of the coast of North America, from the latitude of twenty-three degrees north
to the latitude of fifty degrees north, and as far eastward in the Atlantic Ocean as the thirty-sixth degree of west longitude
from the meridian of Greenwich, shall be restored on each side ; that the time shall be thirty days in all other parts of
the Atlantic Ocean north of the equinoctial line or equator, and the same time for the British and Irish Channels, for
the Gulf of Mexico, and all parts of the West Indies ; forty days for the North Seas, for the Baltic, and for all parts of the
Mediterranean ; sixty days for the Atlantic Ocean south of the equator as far as the latitude of the Cape of Good Hope :
ninety days for every part of the world south of the equator; and one hundred and twenty days for all other parts of
the world, without exception.
ARTICLE THE TRIED.
All prisoners of war taken on either side, as well by land as by sea, shall be restored as soon as practicable after the
ratifications of this treaty, as hereinafter mentioned, on their paying the debts which they may have contracted during
their captivity. The two contracting parties respectively engage to discharge, in specie, the advances which may have
been made by the other for the sustenance and maintenance of such prisoners.
ARTICLE THE FOTJBTII.
Whereas it was stipulated by the second article in the treaty of peace of one thousand seven hundred and eighty-three,
between His Britannic Majesty and the United States of America, that the boundary of the United States should compre
hend all islands within twenty leagues of any part of the shores of the United States, and lying between lines to be
drawn due east from the points where the aforesaid boundaries, between Nova Scotia on the one part and East Florida
on the other, shall respectively touch the Bay of Fnndy and the Atlantic Ocean, excepting such islands as now are or
heretofore have been within the limits of Nova Scotia ; and whereas the several islands in the Bay of Passamaquoddy,
which is part of the Bay of Fundy, and the island of Grand Menan, in the said Bay of Fundy, are claimed by the United
States as being comprehended within their aforesaid boundaries, which said islands are claimed as belonging to His
Britannic Majesty, as having been at the time of and previous to the aforesaid treaty of one thousand seven hundred
and eighty-three within the limits of the province of Nova Scotia : In order, therefore, finally to decide upon these claims,
it is agreed that they shall be referred to two Commissioners, to be appointed in the following manner, viz. : One
10^2 APPENDIX.
Commissioner shall be appointed by His Britannic Majesty, and one by the President of the United States, by and with
the advice and consent of the Senate thereof; and the said two Commissioners so appointed shall be sworn impartially
to examine and decide upon the said claims according to such evidence as shall be laid before them on the part of His
Britannic Majesty and of the United States respectively. The said Commissioners shall meet at St. Andrew's, in the
Province of New Brunswick, and shall have power to adjourn to such other place or places as they shall think fit. The
said Commissioners shall, by a declaration or report under their hands and seals, decide to which of the two contracting
parties the several islands aforesaid do respectively belong, in conformity with the true intent of the said treaty of
peace of one thousand seven hundred and eighty-three. And if the said Commissioners shall agree in their decision,
both parties shall consider such decision as final and conclusive. It is farther agreed, that in the event of the two Com
missioners differing upon all or any of the matters so referred to them, or in the event of both or either of the said
Commissioners refusing or declining, or willfully omitting to act as such, they shall make, jointly or separately, a report
or reports, as well to the government of His Britannic Majesty as to that of the United States, stating in detail the points
on which they differ, and the grounds upon which their respective opinions have been formed, or the grounds upon
which they, or either of them, have so refused, declined, or omitted to act. And His Britannic Majesty and the Govern
ment of the United States hereby agree to refer the report or reports of the said Commissioners to some friendly sover
eign or state, to be then named for that purpose, and who shall be requested to decide on the differences which may be
stated in the said report or reports, or upon the report of one Commissioner, together with the grounds upon which the
other Commissioner shall have refused, declined, or omitted to act, as the case may be. And if the Commissioner so
refusing, declining, or omitting to act shall also willfully omit to state the grounds upon which he has so done, in such
manner that the said statement may be referred to such friendly sovereign or state, together with the report of such
other Commissioner, then such sovereign or state shall decide ex parte upon the said report alone. And His Britannic
Majesty and the Government of the United States engage to consider the decision of such friendly sovereign or state
to be final and conclusive on all the matters so referred.
ABTIOLE THE FIFTH.
Whereas neither that point of the highlands lying due north from the source of the River St. Croix, and designated
in the former treaty of peace between the two powers as the northwest angle of Nova Scotia, nor the northwestern-
most head of Connecticut River has yet been ascertained ; and whereas that part of the boundary-line between the
dominions of the two powers which extends from the source of the River St. Croix directly north to the above-men
tioned northwest angle of Nova Scotia, thence along the said highlands which divide those rivers that empty themselves
into the River St. Lawrence from those which fall into the Atlantic Ocean to the northwesternmost head of Connecticut
River, thence down along the middle of that river to the forty-fifth degree of north latitude, thence by a line due west
on said latitude until it strikes the River Iroquois or Cataragny, has not yet been surveyed, it is agreed that for these
several purposes two Commissioners shall be appointed, sworn, and authorized to act exactly in the manner directed
with respect to those mentioned in the next preceding article, unless otherwise specified in the present article. The
said Commissioners shall meet at St. Andrew's, in the Province of New Brunswick, and shall have power to adjourn
to such other place or places as they shall think fit. The said Commissioners shall have power to ascertain and deter
mine the points above mentioned, in conformity with the provisions of the said treaty of peace of one thousand seven
hundred and eighty-three, and shall cause the boundary aforesaid, from the source of the River St. Croix to the River
Iroquois or Cataraguy, to be surveyed and marked, according to the said provisions. The said Commissioners shall
make a map of the said boundary, and annex to it a declaration, under their hands and seals, certifying it to be the true
map of the said boundary, and particularizing the latitude and longitude of the northwest angle of Nova Scotia, of the
uorthwesternmost head of Connecticut River, and of such other points of the said boundary as they may deem proper.
And both parties agree to consider such map and declaration as finally and conclusively fixing the said boundary. And
in the event of the said two Commissioners differing, or both or either of them refusing, declining, or willfully omitting
to act, such reports, declarations, or statements shall be made by them, or either of them, and such reference to a friendly
sovereign or state shall be made, in all respects, as in the latter part of the fourth article is contained, and in as full a
manner as if the same was herein repeated.
ARTICLE THE SIXTH.
Whereas by the former treaty of peace that portion of the boundary of the United States from the point where the
forty-fifth degree of north latitude strikes the River Iroquois or Cataraguy to Lake Superior was declared to be "along
the middle of said river into Lake Ontario, through the middle of said lake until it strikes the communication by water
between that lake and Lake Erie, thence along the middle of said communication into Lake Erie, through the middle of
said lake until it arrives at the water communication into Lake Huron, thence through the" middle of said lake to the
water communication between that lake and Lake Superior ;" and whereas doubts have arisen what was the middle of
the said river, lakes, and water communications, and whether certain islands lying in the same were within the domin
ions of His Britannic Majesty or of the United States: In order, therefore, finally to decide these doubts, they shall be
referred to two Commissioners, to be appointed, sworn, and authorized to act exactly in the manner directed with re
spect to those mentioned in the next preceding article, unless otherwise specified in this present article. The said
Commissioners shall meet, in the first instance, at Albany, in the State of New York, and shall have power to adjourn
to such other place or places as they shall think fit. The said Commissioners shall, by a report or declaration under
their hands and seals, designate the boundary through the said river, lakes, and water communications, and decide to
which of the two contracting parties the several islands lying within the said river, lakes, and water communications
do respectively belong, in conformity with the true intent of the said treaty of one thousand seven hundred and eighty-
three. And both parties agree to consider such designation and decision as final and conclusive. And in the event of
the said two Commissioners differing, or both or either of them refusing, declining, or willfully omitting to act, such
reports, declarations, or statements shall be made by them, or either of them, and such reference to a friendly sovereign
or state shall be made, in all respects, as in the latter part of the fourth article is contained, and in as full a manner as
if the same was herein repeated.
AKTIOXE THE SEVENTH.
It is farther agreed that the said two last-mentioned Commissioners, after they shall have executed the duties as
signed to them in the preceding article, shall be, and they are hereby authorized, upon their oaths, impartially to fix and
determine, according to the true intent of the said treaty of peace of one thousand seven hundred and eighty-three, that
part of the boundary between the dominions of the two powers which extends from the water communication between
Lake Huron and Lake Superior to the most northwestern point of the Lake of the Woods, to decide to which of the two
parties the several islands lying in the lakes, water communications, and rivers forming the said boundary do respect
ively belong, in conformity with the true intent of the said treaty of peace of one thousand seven hundred and eighty-
three, and to cause such parts of the said boundary as require it to be surveyed and marked. The said Commissioners
shall, by a report or declaration under their hands and seals, designate the boundary aforesaid, state their decision on the
APPENDIX. 1073
points thus referred to them, and particularize the latitude and longitude of the most northwestern point of the Lake of
the Woods, and of such other parts of the said boundary as they may deem proper. And both parties agree to consider
such designation and decision as final and conclusive. And in the event of the said two Commissioners differing, or
both or either of them refusing, declining, or willfully omitting to act, such reports, declarations, or statements shall
be made by them, or either of them, and such reference to a friendly sovereign or state shall be made, in all respects,
as in the latter part of the fourth article is contained, and in as full a manner as if the same >was herein repeated.
AETICLE THE EIGHTH.
The several boards of two Commissioners mentioned in the four preceding articles shall respectively have power to
appoint a secretary, and to employ such surveyors, or other persons, as they shall judge necessary. Duplicates of all
their respective reports, declarations, statements, and decisions, and of their accounts, and of the journal of their pro
ceedings, shall be delivered by them to the agents of His Britannic Majesty and to the agents of the United States, who
may be respectively appointed and authorized to manage the business on behalf of their respective governments. The
said Commissioners shall be respectively paid in such manner as shall be agreed between the two contracting parties,
such agreement being to be settled at the time of the exchange of the ratification of this treaty. And all other ex
penses attending the said Commissioners shall be defrayed equally by the two parties. And in the case of death, sick
ness, resignation, or necessary absence, the place of every such Commissioner respectively shall be supplied in the same
manner as such Commissioner was first appointed, and the new Commissioner shall take the same oath or affirmatlpn,
and do the same duties. It is farther agreed between the two contracting parties that in case any of the islands men
tioned in any of the preceding articles which were in the possession of one oi the parties prior to the commencement of
the present war between the two countries should, by the decision of any of the boards of Commissioners aforesaid, or of
the sovereign or state so referred to, as in the four next preceding articles contained, fall within the dominions of the
other party, all grants of land made previous to the commencement of the war by the party having had such possession
shall be as valid as if such island or islands had by such decision or decisions been adjudged to be within the domin
ions of the party having had such possession.
ARTICLE THE NINTH.
The United States of America engage to put an end, immediately after the ratification of the present treaty, to hostili
ties with all the tribes or nations of Indians with whom they may be at war at the time of such ratification, and forth
with to restore to such tribes or nations respectively all the possessions, rights, and privileges which they may have
enjoyed or been entitled to in 1811, previous to such hostilities : Provided always, that such tribes or nations shall agree
to desist from all hostilities against the United States of America, their citizens and subjects, upon the ratification of
the present treaty being notified to such tribes or nations, and shall so desist accordingly. And His Britannic Majesty
engages, on his part, to put an end, immediately after the ratification of the present treaty, to hostilities with all the
tribes or nations of Indians with whom he may be at war at the time of such ratification, and forthwith to restore to
such tribes or nations respectively all the possessions, rights, and privileges which they may have enjoyed or been en
titled to in 1S11, previous to such hostilities : Provided always, that such tribes or nations shall agree to desist from all
hostilities against His Britannic Majesty and his subjects upon the ratification of the present treaty being notified to
such tribes or nations, and shall so desist accordingly.
ARTICLE THE TENTH.
Whereas the traffic in slaves is irreconcilable with the principles of humanity and justice, and whereas both His
Majesty and the United States are desirous of continuing their efforts to promote its entire abolition, it is hereby agreed
that both the contracting parties shall use their best endeavors to accomplish so desirable an object,
AETICLE THE ELEVENTH.
This treaty, when the same shall have been ratified on both sides, without alteration by either of the contracting
parties, and the ratifications mutually exchanged, shall be binding on both parties, and the ratifications shall be ex
changed at Washington in the space of four months from this day, or sooner if practicable.
In faith whereof, we, the respective plenipotentiaries, have signed this treaty, and have hereunto affixed our seals.
Done in triplicate, at Ghent, the twenty-fourth (24th) day of December, one thousand eight hundred and fourteen.
[L.S.] GAMBIER.
[L.S.] HENBT GOTTLBITRN.
[L.S.] WILLIAM ADAMS.
[L.S.] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.
[L.S.] J. A. BAYAKD.
[L.S.] H. CLAY.
[L.S.] JONATHAN RUSSELL.
[L.S.] ALBERT GALLATIN.
3 Y
INDEX.
Academy, Military, West Point, 235.
ADAIR, JOHN, 130 ; sketch of, 544, 1041, 1045.
Adams and Liberty, origin of, 9T.
ADAMS, JOHN, Minister Plenipotentiary to England, 19, 24;
elected Vice-President, 33 ; diners from Jefferson, 68 ; his
opinions on government, 70 ; proposed as second Presi-
own party, 106; traits of character of, 106; dismisses Pick
ering and M'Henry from his cabinet, 108.
ADAMS, JOHN QCINCY, becomes a Democrat, 1C1 ; votes for
the embargo, 162, 783, 780 ; sketch of, 1059 ; peace com
missioner, 1060.
ADAMS, WILLIAM E., 776.
Adena, visit to, 568 ; description of, 569.
Administration, war against, 151.
Africa, Northern, march across, 125.
Affairs, Civil, in 1813, 783.
AKIN, LEMUEL, Captain, 913.
Alabama, General Coffee in, 759.
Albany, reception of the first captured flag there, 376,
ALBERT, PHILIP, 761.
Alexandria, plundering of, 940.
Algiers, Dey of, tribute to, 91 ; he is humbled, 118.
Algiers, difficulties with, 89; lets corsairs loose on United
States commerce, 89 ; pride and avarice of the dey, 90 ;
captives, release of, 91.
Allegiance, attempt to seduce the soldiers from their, 658.
ALLEN, WILLIAM HENRY, commander of the Aryus, 714;
death of, 716 ; monument to, 716 ; sketch of, 716.
ALLEN, HOBATIO, engineer, 213.
ALMY, THOMAS C., sketch of, 529.
Amelia, privateer, cruise of, 1007.
American Seamen, British impressment of, 85, 142, 144, 247.
American Commerce, effects of difficulties with Algiers, 89 ;
effect of Milan decree on, 154.
Americans, their indignation against the French Directory,
96 ; their prowess respected, 699.
American Ships, seizure of, 153.
American Waters, British cruisers in, 154 ; British vessels
ordered to leave, 159.
American Harbors, preparations to defend, 159.
American Privateering, effects of, 994 ; effect on British com
merce, 1006.
America, the prosperity of her commerce, 130 ; the only
neutral power, 152.
Amherstburrj, vicinity of, 299 ; Harrison's army at, 547.
ANDERSON, ALEXANDER, engraver, 785.
ANDERSON, ROBERT, 680.
ANGUS, SAMUEL, Lieutenant, 428.
Annapolis, Convention at, 26 ; naval monument at, 124.
APPLING, DANIEL, sketch of, 800.
ARCHER, SAMUEL B., sketch of, 602.
Argiis goes to France, 715 ; her destruction of property
there, 715; her combat with the Pelican, 715; surrender
of, 716.
Ariel, the pilot of the, 538.
ARMISTEAD, GEORGE, General, 955 ; honors to, 960 ; sketch
of, 960.
Armistice, 1812, 247 ; effects of, 383.
ARMSTRONG, JOHN, American minister to France, 162; Sec
retary of War, 472 ; interferes with Harrison's plans, 475 ;
his treatment of Harrison, 563 ; his interview with Wil
kinson, 630 ; visits the frontier, 632 ; at Sackett's Harbor,
638 ; sketch of, 1011.
ARMSTRONG, ROBERT, Lieutenant, death of, 7i5.
Army (British) in Canada, 234; indications of advance of,
Army (United States), augmentation of, 217; volunteers for,
321- difficulties of transportation of, 339; divisions in
Northwest, 340; on the Niagara frontier, 383; officers
killed and wounded of, 395; measures for strengthening
the, 467 ; character of the chief leaders of, 655 ; provision
for the increase of, 787; reduction of, 1068.
ARSDALE, JOHN VAN, 17.
ARTOIS, COUNT D', 60.
Asp, capture of, 714.
Assembly, National, of France, 60.
AUSTILL, JEREMIAH, 761; fights with Dale, iiO; sketch of,
771.
Auttose, battle of, 768.
BABIE, FRANCIS, Colonel, 262.
BACKUS, ELECTUS, sketch of, 611.
Bacon Tree, 911.
BAILEY, DIXON, 755.
BAINBRIDGE, W., Commodore, goes to Algiers, 117: com
mands the squadron, 458 ; sketch of, 459 ; honors to, 462 ;
medal to, 463 ; a search for, 722.
BALL, Colonel, his fight with Indians, 500.
Baltimore, riot in, 243 ; menaced by the British, 944 ; prep
arations for the defense of, 948; fortifications at, 941);
Battle Monument in, 961 ; a visit to, 961.
BANCROFT, GEORGE, oration by, 540.
Banrjor, British march on, 900 ; destruction of vessels, 901 •
plundering at, 901 ; journey to, 911.
Banking Capital of United States, 65.
Barataria Ban, outlaws at, 101S.
llarbary Coast, abandonment of, 119.
Barbary Powers, tribute to the, 116 ; they are humbled, 125.
BARING, ALEXANDEB, 164 ; his Inquiry, and its effect, 169.
BARKER, JACOB, sketch of, 938. »
BARLOW, JOEL, 94 ; sent minister to France, 225 ; action on
Milan and Berlin decrees, 245; residence of, 942.
BARNEY, JOSHUA, Commodore, flotilla of, 920; destruction
of, 9-21; gallant defense of Washington, 930; wounded
and taken prisoner, 931 ; sketch of, 931 ; in the Chesa
peake, 982.
BARRIE, ROBERT, commander of the Harmony, 898.
BARRON, JAMES, Commodore, in Mediterranean, 124; com
mands the Chesapeake, 156, 157 ; sketch of, 159 ; hia pun
ishment, 159 ; daughter of, 688 ; duel of, 942.
BARRON, JOSEPH, mission of, 191.
BARRY, JOHN, commander of frigate United States, 101.
Batavia, Veterans of the War of 1812 there, 570.
Battery, proposed revolving, 974.
Battle, first of the war, 264.
Baton Rouye, 738.
Hostile, destruction of, 61.
BAYARD, JAMES A., 783, 786; peace commissioner, 1060;
sketch of, 1060.
BAYLIES, HODHAH, 1016.
Bayonne Decree, 170.
BEALL, REAZIN, sketch of, 343.
BEASLEY, DANIEL, Major, 752.
Beaver Dams, flight of the British to, 600; expedition
against, 620 ; battle of, 620 ; a visit to the battle-ground
of, 683.
BECKWITII, GENERAL SIR SIDNEY, 676 ; head-quarters of, 683.
Beekmantown, skirmish at, 861, 862; ride through, 881.
BELKNAP, WILLIAM GOLDSMITH, Major, sketch of, 838.
BELDCIIE, 1037.
Belvidere, chase of the, 435. •
BENEDICT, J. B., Colonel, ordered to guard the frontier, 367.
BENTON, THOMAS H., 742.
BERESFORD, J. P., captain of the Poictiers, 451.
BERKELEY, BISHOP, 34.
Berlin Decree, issue of, 150, 152 ; revocation of, 179 ; unre-
pealed, 225.
BIDDLE, JAMES S., U. S. N., 453 ; captain of Hornet, 990 ; hon
ors to, 991 ; sketch of, 991 ; medal to, 991.
BIDDLE, THOMAS, Captain, wounded, 823.
BIGELOW, THOMAS, 1016.
Big Sandy Creek, Woolsey at, 799 ; British in pursuit, 799 ;
battle at, 800; the British defeated, 800.
BINCIIAM, A. B., commander of the Little Belt, 184.
BIRD, JAMES, execution of, 543.
BISSELL, D., appointed brigadier general, 792 ; victory at
Lyon's Creek, 845, 857.
BIBSIIOPP, CECIL, 428 ; death of, 628.
BLACK HOOF, Shawuoese chief, 545.
Black Rock, residence of Peter B. Porter, 426 ; attacked by
the British, 426; expedition against, 627; repulse of the
British, 627 ; the British at, 635 ; bad conduct of the mili
tia at, 636 ; battle near, 636 ; Americans repulsed, 637 ;
destruction of, 657 : British attack, 830.
Bladensburg, battle-line formed near, 924; the field of ac
tion, 926; arrangements for battle near, 927; dueling-
ground of, 928 ; battle of, 930 ; defeat of, 937 ; visit to bat
tle-ground of, 941.
BLAKE, GENERAL, much censured, 902.
BLAKELEY, JOHNSTON, Captain, commander of the Wasp,
979 ; sketch of, 980.
BLENNERHASSETT, HARMAN, his home, 136.
1076
INDEX.
BI.IBB, GEORGE, 1016.
Blockade of the European coast, 151 ; paper, 151 ; proclama
tion of, 1000.
Block-house erected in 1812, GOT.
BLONDIN at Niagara, 828.
Bloody Run, tight of, 301 ; origin of the name, 301.
BLOOMFIELD, JOSEPH, Brigadier General, 039.
BLUE JACKET, chief of the Shawnoese, 46, 47.
BLYTUE, SAMUEL, commander of the Boxer, 71T ; death and
funeral of, 718.
BCERSTLER, CHAELES G., sketch of, 620 ; his command cap
tured, 621.
BONAPARTE, NAPOLEON, victories in Italy, 93 ; victories of,
on the Danube, 95; made first consul, 100; makes friend
of George III., 113 ; his achievements, 112 ; his influence
in Europe, 112 ; his insolence toward the English, 126 ;
declared consul for life, 126 ; proclaimed emperor, 128 ;
Berlin Decree, 129 ; gives England a naval rival, 133 ; sells
Louisiana, 133 ; seizes Hanover, 151 ; adheres to Conti
nental System, 152 ; Milan Decree, 154 ; in Spain, 170 ;
Armstrong letter, 178 ; seizes American vessels, 179 ; his
march toward Moscow, 233 ; in Spain, 465 ; invades Rus
sia, 470 ; disasters in Russia, 471 ; humbled, 786 ; abdi
cates the throne, 854 ; retires to Elba, 855.
BOONE, DANIEL, grave of, 1056.
Jjorgne, Lake, British prepare to fight at, 1025.
Borodino, battle of, 465.
notion, reception of Hull, 445; expected attack, 891 ; alarm
in, 892; preparations for defense, 892; journey to, 908;
privateers from, 997 ; the centre of illicit trade, 1008 ;
bankers of, 1010.
BOSWELL, WILLIAM E., Colonel, in command of the boats,
487.
BOUCUETTE, JOSEPH, his account of Sackett's Harbor, C14.
Bowyer, Fort, attack on, 1021.
BOYD, JOHN P., Colonel, 194.
BOYLE, JAMES A., Captain, 795.
BRADY, HUGH, Colonel, sketch of, 822.
Brantford, town of, 420 ; departure for, 625.
BRANT, JOHN, sketch of, 401 ; tomb of the family of, 424
BREEBE, SAMUEL L., Commodore, statement of, 867.
.British officials, interference of, 51 ; hostile intentions of,
52 ; alliance with Indians, 52 ; humbled, 55 ; holding pos
session of Western military posts, 59 ; government, dis
courtesy of, 63 ; Orders in Council, 84; armed neutrality,
84 ; interference of, 89 ; outrages of, on American flag,
102; merchants, their jealousy, 138; their perfidy defend
ed by English writers, 139 ; cruisers, depredations of, 140,
141 ; refuse to listen to remonstrance, 145 ; ministry,
change of, 149 ; cruisers in American waters, 154 ; ships,
deserters from, 155 ; their surrender refused, 156-158 ; ves
sels ordered to leave American waters, 159 ; government,
reparation demanded of, 160 ; provinces, enlistments in,
245 ; government, haughty assumption of, 247 ; letters of
marque and reprisal, 248 ; officers in Canada, 259 ; their
employment of Indians, 271 ; force of, 279 ; defeat of,
at Maguaga, 280 ; commanders purchase scalps, 310 ;
ashamed to call Indians their allies, 359; vessels, seizure
of, on Lake Ontario, 367 ; their violation of neutrality,
370 ; squadron at Halifax, 436 ; Indians cross the Mau-
mee, 483 ; effects of the battle of Lake Erie on the, 536 ;
they fly to Beaver Dams and Burlington Heights, 600 ;
they destroy their own property, 601 ; at La Colle, repulse
of, 640 ; number and position of, 650 ; they resolve on vig
orous war, 667 ; strengthen their blockading force, 675 ;
at La Colle, 790 ; battle of the Chippewa, 810 ; at Lundy's
Lane, 816 ; their line of Uattle, 818 ; repulsed at Otter
Creek, 856 ; at Champlain, 859 ; Beekmautown, their loss
at, 863; lose command of Lake Champlain, 874: officers,
graves of, 879 ; capture Eastport, 890 ; leave Penobscot
ay, 903, 904; move on Washington, 923; advance on
Bladensburg, 925 ; they want an excuse to burn Wash
ington, 932 ; enter Washington and destroy public build
ings, 933; their barbarities condemned by their country
men, 934; invasion, original object of, 936; retreat from
Washington, 937 ; appear before Fort Washington, 939 ;
in Chesapeake Bay. 944, 946 ; repulse of, at Baltimore,
946; land at North Point, 950; fleet of, approaches Balti
more, 954, 958, 959 ; repulsed at Fort Bowyer, 1021 ; arrive
at New Orleans, 1025 ; defeated there, 1049.
BROADNAX, JOHN, 776.
BROCK, General, energy and vigilance of, 273, 274; before
the Canadian Legislature, 275; influence of, 275; procla
mation of, 275; proceeds to Fort Maiden, 283 ; pecuniary
aid for, 283 ; knighted, 292 ; offers amnesty to Indians,
284 ; at Fort George, 397 ; hastens toward Queeuston,
398; attacks Wool, 390; death of, 398; funeral honors to,
405, 406 ; his monument, 414 ; the place where he fell, 416.
Brockville and its vicinity, 576.
BROKE, PHILIP BOWES VERB, captain of the Shannon, 705;
gallantry of, 707 ; sketch of, 709 ; honors to, 710.
BRONSON, ALVIN, his captivity and release, 797.
BROOKS, JOHN, Lieutenant, sketch of, 5'25.
BROUGHAM, HENRY, M.P., 169.
BROUSE, PETER, survivor of the battle of Chrysler's Farm,
666.
Brown, Fort, Ruins of, 875.
BEOWN, JACOB, General, 607 ; his position, 608 ; assumes
command at Sackett's Harbor, 60S; a visit to the widow
of, 617 ; his residence at Brownsville, 618 ; carries flotilla
past Prescott in the night, 650 ; invades Canada, 651 ; be
comes general-in-chief, 792 ; moves toward Niagara, 793 ;
expects the co-operation of Chauncey, 813 ; advances to
Fort George, 814 ; falls back to Chippewa, 815 ; wounded,
823 ; indignation of, 829 ; orders the army to Lake Erie,
829 ; resumes command of the army, 836 ; determines to
make a sortie, 837 ; honors awarded to, 841 ; the freedom
of the city of New York conferred on, 841 ; medal award
ed by Congress, 841.
BEOWN, RicuAED, Captain, 762.
BEOWN, SAMUEL R., 532.
BROWNE, BENJAMIN F., survivor of Dartmoor Prison, 908.
BRUSH, Captain, escort sent for, 285.
BRYANT, WILLIAM CULLEN, writes on the Embargo, 164 ; his
ode, 232.
BUCK-ONG-A-HELAB, chief of the Delawares, 46, 47.
BUDD, GEORGE, 711.
Buffalo in 1812, 379 ; heavy force there, 427 ; New York mi
litia at, 635 ; destruction of, 637 ; survivors of 1812 there,
847.
Bunker Hill Monument, visit to, 804.
BURHECK, II., Colonel, sketch of, 694.
BUEGOYNE, SIR JOHN, 1039.
BUEKE, EDMUND, reflections of, on the French Revolution,
69.
Burlington Heights, flight of the British to, 600 ; expedition
to, 628.
Burnt Corn Creek, battle of, 749.
BURR, AARON, Vice-President, 108 ; his duel with Hamilton,
135 ; his scheme for his own profit, 136 ; deceives Jackson
and Adair, 136 ; is suspected of treason, 137 ; his arrest
and trial, 137 ; his exile, 137 ; acquittal of, 162.
BURROWS, WILLIAM, commander of the Enterprise, 717 ;
sketch of, 718 ; funeral of, 719 ; medal awarded to, 719.
BYRON, SIR RICHARD, captain of the Helvidera, 435.
Cabinet, changes in, 472, 1011.
CAUOT, GEORGE, 1016.
Cadet's Gray, origin of, 806.
CAHOON, REUBEN, survivor of 1812, 906.
Calabee River, battle at the, 776.
CALDWELL, SAMUEL, sketch of, 552.
Caledonia, the affair of, 386, 387.
CALHOUN, JOHN C., sketch of, 215 ; his reply to Randolph,
216 ; his report on the causes of the war, 226 ; in Com
mittee on Foreign Relations, 468.
Campaign, the plan of, 251.
CAMPBELL, GEORGE W., of Tennessee, 1011.
CAMPBELL, HUGH G., Commodore, 740.
CAMPBELL, JAMES, 664.
CAMPBELL, JOHN B., his expedition to the Mississiniwa,
346; attack on his camp, 347; distressing retreat to
Greenville, 347. •
Canada, people very unhappy about war, 244 ; address to
the Legislature of, 244 ; British officers in, 259 ; impa
tience of United States army to invade, 260 ; flrst inva
sion of, 262; symptoms of disloyalty in, 275; boundary-
line of, 379 ; second attempt to invade, 393 ; opposition
to invaders, 395 ; third invasion, 427, 429 ; invasion aban
doned, 431 ; arrangement for fourth invasion of, 544 ; re
bellion in, 582; an American steamer seized for the benefit
of the rebels, 583 ; siege of a garrisoned wind-mill, 583 ;
fate of captured patriots, 584 ; plans for a fifth invasion
of, 585, 803, 804; abandoned by the Americans, 846; ex
pedition of Captain Holmes into, 849, 857, 875.
CANNING, GEORGE, 151 ; British minister of Foreign Affairs,
158 ; his offensive letter to the American minister, 171.
Canoe Fight, the, 769, 770, 771.
CARAMALLI, HAMET, alliance with, 125.
CARDEN, JOHN S., captain of the Macedonian, sketch of, 455,
456.
Carleton Island, a visit to, remains of fortifications, 659 ; in
teresting relics, 660.
Carmagnole sung in New York, 81.
Carolina, Northwestern, revolt of, 24.
Carolina, destruction of the, 1035.
Caroline, destruction of the, 380.
CAKR, ROBERT, sketch of, 640.
Cascade Creek, block-house near, 511.
CABS, LEWIS, Colonel, 26->, 263, 264; writes energetic letter
to the government, 282 ; crosses the Rouge, 285 ; goes to
Washington, 292; his statement of the surrender of De
troit, 293 ; sketch of, 293 ; appointed military governor
of Michigan, 559.
CABSIN, STEPHEN, commander of the Ticonderoga, 886 ; re
ceives medal, 868 ; sketch of, 869.
Castalian Springs, a ride to, 505 ; appearance of, 506.
Castine, flight of Americans from, 898; during the Revolu
tion, 902 ; new military works at, 903 ; voyage to, 908 ;
mementoes of war at, 909 ; remains of fortifications near,
910.
CASTLEREAGH, Lord, Secretary of Foreign Affairs, 233.
Clialmette, plantation of, battle near, 1037 ; British repulsed,
1038.
CUAMPAGNY, M. DE, French minister of Foreign Affairs, 153,
178, 179.
I N D E X.
1077
Champlain, Lake, preparations on, 789 ; struggle for the
control of, 856 ; battle of, 860, 867, 870 ; American victory
complete, 871 ; end of the battle of, 873.
CHAMPLIN, STEPHEN, Commodore, sketch of, 523, 846, 851.
CHANDLER, Jonx, General, sketch of, 003 ; capture of, 004.
CHANNING, WILLIAM ELLERY, discourse of, 232.
CHAPMAN, JOHN, survivor of the battle of Lake Erie, 527.
Charlestown, navy yard at, 905.
Chasseur privateer, cruise of the, 999.
Chatham, American troops at, 549 ; visit to, 561.
CHAUNCEY, ISAAC, created commander-in-chief of the navy
on the lakes, 370 ; his first cruise, 371 ; captures three
merchant vessels, 372; and Perry, relations of, 514; on
Lake Ontario, 585 ; sails for Sackett's Harbor, 601 ; tries
to engage Sir James Yeo, 643 ; the British commander
avoids a conflict, 643 ; sickness of, 815 ; kept from active
service, 884 ; his squadron leaves Sackett's Harbor, 885 ;
tries to draw out Yeo, 880 ; sketch of, 880 ; calls for mili
tia, 887.
Chesapeake, United States frigate, watched by the British
squadron, 156 ; she is boarded, 157 ; fired into by the Leo
pard, 157 ; surrender of the, 158 ; cruise of the, 701 ; Law
rence in command of the, 701 ; condition of the, 704; fight
with the Shannon, 705 ; capture of the, 707.
Chesapeake Bay, blockade of, 667 ; British appear in, 920 ;
blockade of, 982 ; stirring scenes in, 714.
Chicago, journey from, 297 ; its name, settlement, and posi
tion, 302 ; garrison at, 303 ; order for the evacuation of,
305 ; massacre at, survivors, 311 ; block-house at, 312 •
great growth of, 312, 313.
Chickasaws, 747.
Chillicothe, destruction of, 41 ; description of, 567.
Chippewa, Fort, doomed to destruction, 601.
Chippewa, battle of the, 809; charge of the Eleventh Regi
ment at, 810 ; British position at, 811 ; the Americans fall
back, 811 ; sketches of subordinate officers at the, 812. 813,
814, 823.
Choctaws, 747; pacification of the, 752; the allies of the, 762,
777.
CHRISTY, WILLIAM, sketch of, 483.
Chrifsler's Farm, preparations for battle at, 651 ; position
of the British at, 652 ; battle of, 053 ; visit to the battle
ground of, 666.
CHRYBTIE, JOHN, Colonel, 392 ; he takes Wool's place, 401.
CHUBOH, DANIEL W., Adjutant, encounters the enemy near
Toussaint Island, 373 ; sketch of, 578.
Cincinnati in 1S12, 476 ; a visit to, 569.
Circleville, 567.
CLAIHORNE, F, L., Major, in the Creek country, 750; his
anxiety about the settlers, 752 ; sends Kennedy to Fort
Minis, 757; ordered to the Creek country, 769; deter
mines to penetrate it, 771 ; traverses Creek country, 772.
Claiborne, Fort, construction of, 771.
CLARK, ISAAC, 790.
CLAY, GREEN, General, brigade of, 476 ; moves down the
Maumee, 485 ; his encounter with the Indians, 487.
CLAY, HENRY, appointed to fill the vacant seat of General
John Adair, 161 ; chosen speaker, 210 ; advocates war,
223 ; opposition to J. Quincy, 466 ; second time chosen
speaker, 783, 786 ; tomb of, 1055 ; monument to, 1056 ;
peace commissioner, 1060; sketch of, 1060.
CLAY, LDCRETIA HART, sketch of, 1058.
Clayton, visit to, 004.
Cleveland, Ohio troops welcomed to, 342 ; journey to, 536.
CLINCH, DUNCAN L., sketch of, 917.
CLINTON, DE WITT, 226 ; mayor of New York, 842.
CLINTON, GEORGE, Vice-President, 169 ; nominated for Vice-
President, 225 ; his death and tomb, 226.
COCHRANE, SIR ALEXANDER, commander of the British
squadron, 920.
O
in the Potomac and on the coast of North Carolina, 689 ;
anchors off Ocracoke Inlet, 6S9 ; on the coast of Georgia,
Hillabee town, 707 ; massacre of its people, 767.
COFFEE, JOHN, in Northern Alabama, 759 ; sketch of, 1043.
COLES, J. A., 653.
Colonists, British, supposed republican proclivities of, 214.
Columbus, city of, 566.
COMRS, LESLIE, sufferings of, 350 ; commissioned captain of
spies, 480 ; sketch of, 480 ; his voyage down the Maumee,
481 ; is attacked by Indians, 481.
Comet, privateer, cruise of, 998, 999.
Commerce, cotton king of, 175.
Commissioners, Peace, list of, 471.
Committee, report of, on Foreign Relations, 212, 213, 463.
Confederation, Articles of, 19, 25 ; ratified by the several
states, 33.
Confiance, capture of the, 869.
arranges the executive uepartm
firm nominations, 99 ; action on the death of Washing
ton, 110; Non-importation Act passed, 148; enlarges
army and navy, 167 ; endeavors to find supplies for the
war, 230; awards vote of thanks to Elliott, 388 ; author
izes retaliation, 409 ; awards gold medal to Hull, 446 ;
awards gold medal to Captain Jones, 452 ; to Decatnr,
458 ; to Bainbridge, 463 ; silver medals to his officers, 463 ;
plan proposed for increasing the army, 465; awards gold
medal to Croghau, 504; to Elliott, 535; to Perry, 535; to
Harrison, 557 ; to Lawrence, 700 ; silver medals to his offi
cers, 700; to Burrows and M'Call, 71!i ; political position
of, 1813, 7S3 ; finds means to prosecute the war, 784, 787 ;
gold medal awarded to James Miller, 820 ; to Scott, 826 :
to Gaines, 835 ; to Brown, 841 ; to Porter and Ripley, 842 ;
to Henley and Cassin, 868 ; to Macomb, 878 ; to Macdon-
ough, 878 ; authorizes a floating battery, 976 ; gold medal
to Biddle, 991 ; to Stewart, 9S5 ; to Jackson, 1052.
Congressional Burning-ground, 943.
Connecticut, governor of, refuses to comply with the call for
troops, 243 ; charter of, 340 ; blockade of the coast of,
694 ; local militia of, 094.
Constellation captures L'lnsurgente, 103.
Constitution, L7nited States, ratification of, 33 ; amendments
of, 59 ; proposed amendments of, 1014.
Constitution, a, granted to the French people, 67.
Constitution, frigate, 101 ; named "Old Ironsides," 437 ; cruise
of, 437 ; escape from the Guerriere, 438 ; second crui.-e
of, 443 ; fight with the Guerriere, 443 ; cruise on the coast
of Brazil, 457 ; battle with the Java, 400 ; arrival at Bos
ton, 461 ; figure-head of the, 905 ; chased into Marble-
head Bay, 983 ; battle with Cijane and Levant — she cap
tures both, 984.
Convention, Hartford, 1013-1015 ; sketches of members of
the, 1016.
Convention to propose making Maine into a state, 24 ; con
stitutional, and members of, 27-33.
Coosa River, cries for help from the banks of, 760 ; Jackson
at, 763.
Council, Orders in, United States vessels excluded from
West Indian ports, 23; modification of the, 170; main
tained, 179 ; unrepealed, 225 ; conditional revocation of
the, 246.
Council, Grand, of Indians, 51.
COVINGTON, LEONARD, General, death and burial of, 656.
Covington, Fort, visit to, 664 ; veteran soldiers at, 665 ; at
tempt to seize, 956.
CRAIG, SIR JAMES, governor general of Canada, 220.
CRANE, WILLIAM MONTGOMERY, commander of the Pike, 885 ;
monument to, 886.
Craney Island, landing of the British, 078 ; a sharp conflict,
079 ; British driven Back, 680 ; visit to, 685 ; fortifications
on, 686.
CRAWFORD, W. H., minister to France, 714.
Crawfordsville, 198.
CREAGH, GKRRAHD W., 769.
Credit, public, efforts for the establishment of, 64 ; it is as
sailed, 1(MI9.
Creeks, their position, 747 ; civil war, 74S ; bravery of the,
774-777 ; defeated at the battle of the Horseshoe, 780 ;
ruined, 782.
Ci-i'fk Country, settlers in, 750; distress in, 758; affairs in,
761 ; invaded from Georgia, 768-773.
CRITTENDEN, JOHN J., sketch of, 544.
CROGHAN, G., Major, his instructions, 499 ; disobeys orders,
500 ; his report to Harrison, 504 ; medal presented to,
505 ; reaches Detroit, 857.
CRUTCHFIELD, STAPLETON, Major, 680, 681, 682; sends dis
patch to Governor Barbour, 683; takes possession of
Hampton, 688.
Culver's Hill, engagement at, 862 ; ride over, 881 ; battle
ground of, 882.
Cumberland Head, light-house at, 870 ; visit to, 882.
CCMMINGS, JAMES, Colonel, 827.
Currency, paper, 20 ; decimal, adopted, 05 ; paper, in France,
74.
CUYLER, W. HOWE, sketch of, 387.
DACRES, JAMES RICHARD, surrenders to Hull, 444.
DALE, RICHARD, Commodore, in the Mediterranean, US;
monument to, 119.
DALE, SAMUEL, courage and honor of, 761 ; prepares for act
ive operations, 767 ; wins a victory, 770; sketch of, 771.
DALLAS, A. J., sketch of, 1011.
DANA, SAMUEL W., 162.
DANK, NATHAN, 1016.
Danish fleet destroyed at Copenhagen, 113.
Dartmoor, prison of, 1068 ; outrages on prisoners there, 1069.
David Porter, privateer, crnise of, 1003.
DAVIDSON, JOHN, 928.
DAVIDSON, LUORF.TIA MABIA, child poet, grave of, 884.
DAVIEBS, Major, gallantry of, 204; death of, 205; life and
character of, 207.
DAVIS, General, mortally wounded, 838.
DAVIS, 8. B., Colonel, 069.
DAURMAN, Captain, 270.
Da>/ton and Sandusky, country between, 254.
DEARBORN, HENEY, General, appointed commander-in-chief,
249; residence of, 250 ; signs armistice, 293; instructed to
make demonstrations on the frontier, 381 ; on Lake On-
1078
tariq, 5S6 ; at Fort Niagara, 597 ; expedition against the
British at Beaver Dams, 620 ; is succeeded by Wilkinson,
G29 ; moves into Canada, 637 ; end of expedition, 641.
Debt of United States, 1781, 20 ; 1S15, 1067.
Decatur, privateer, cruise of, 1002.
DECATUR, STEPHEN, Commodore, captures Le Croyable, 101 :
gallantry of, 121 ; commander of the United States, 455,
456 ; victory of, 457 ; gold medal given to, 458 ; attempts
to run the blockade of New York, 691 ; finds a place of
safety, 692 ; endeavors to get to sea, 095 ; goes to sea in
the President, 987 ; sketch of, 989 ; duel and death of, 942.
De Cou, falls of, 623.
Decrees, French, proposed revocation of, 178.
DE LA RONDE, Colonel, 1030.
Delaware Bay, patriotism on the shores of, 668 ; blockade
of, 667.
Delawares, expedition against the, 34G.
Democrats, their tactics, 107 ; their confidence in Jefferson,
161 ; chief leaders of, 162.
DENISON, FREDERICK, wounded, 895.
DE ROTTENBDRG, Major General, 590.
DE SALABERRY, A., 639.
DESHA, JOSEPH, sketch of, 552.
Detroit in 1812, 260 ; sites of fortifications in, 261 ; British
before, 282; preparations for attacking, 284; demand for
surrender of, 286; bombardment of, 2S7, 288; surrender
of, 289 ; effects of the surrender, 290, 291 ; disposal of the
prisoners, 291 ; British occupation of, 292 ; a Sunday in,
297 ; besieged by Pontiac, 301 ; citizens of, 302 ; surren
der of, 745; expedition leaves, 850.
DITTRICK, JAMES, veteran of 1812, 624.
DOBBINS, DANIEL, sketch of, 509.
DODGE, RICHARD, Brigadier General, arrives at Watertown,
New York, 373.
Dolphin, privateer, cruise of, 1000.
DONELSON, A., Colonel, 775.
Dorothea, Danish brig, destruction of, 240.
DORSET, Duke of, 19.
DOUGLASS, DAVID B., Lieutenant, 829, 831.
DOWNES, JOHN, sketch of, 725 ; at Valparaiso, 726.
DRDMMOND, GEOBGK GORDON, Lieutenant General, 816, SIS,
819, 830.
DUDLEY, William, 486.
Dupont, Camp, 967.
DYSON, Captain, blows up Fort Washington, 939.
EAGLE, HENRY, 797.
Eastport captured by the British, 1814, 890.
ECKFOHD, HENRY, sketch of, 615.
Econochaca in ashes, 773.
EIILE, HARMON, survivor of 1812, 801.
EI.DRIDGE, JOSEPH C., 626.
Election, Presidential, 464.
Electors, method of choosing, 10S.
Elizabethtown, 577.
ELKSWATAWA, Indian prophet, 18S; his vision, 189; his
treachery, 203 : disgrace of, 206.
ELLIOTT, JESSE D., Captain, sent to Lake Erie, 371, 3S5; co
operation of military with, 3S5 ; sketch of, 387 ; re-en
forcements under, 515 ; strange conduct of, 525; meeting
with Perry, 528 ; medal awarded to, 535.
ELLSWORTH, OLIVER, 58.
Elm Grove, cemetery of, 914.
Ehmvood, cemetery of, 301.
ELY, ALFRED, Doctor, 800.
Embargo, the, passed in Congress, 162 ; effects of, 163 ; par
ty spirit aroused by, 163 ; violations of, 164, 165 ; de
nounced, 166 ; infractions of 172 ; war proclaimed as the
alternative to, 174; repealed, 175; proposed, 222; pas
sage of, 223 ; supplementary, 224 ; opposition to, 224 ; a
new act of, 785 ; repealed, 786, 787.
EMOTT, JAMKS, 217.
E'lMicfait, battle of, 774.
England refuses to be just, 180 ; a regency in, 233 ; displays
all her energy, 575.
Enotocliopco Creek, battle on, 775.
Ensign, British, pulled down, 17.
Enterprise, the, cruise of, 717 ; her conflict with the Boxer —
death of the two commanders, 717 ; last cruise of, 720.
Erie, Fort, doomed to destruction, 601 ; captured by Amer
icans, 805 ; army ordered to, 829 ; an attack on, 832, 833 ;
battle of, 834, 835, 836, 837, 840 ; blown up, 846 ; visit to, 847.
Erie, Lake, Perry ordered to, 509 ; battle of, 522 ; first shot
fired by Americans, 523 : close of the battle of, 525, 526,
527, 529 ; sad cftcct of the battle of, 532 ; exultation of the
Americans, 534 ; chief vessels on, 542, 543.
Erie, village of, 510, 512 ; menaced, 514, 515 ; historic places
at, 537.
ERSKINE, DAVID MONTAGUE, British minister, 175, 176 ; his
arrangements repudiated by his government, 177 ; makes
arrangements for renewed trade, 177; recalled, 177 ; bio
graphical sketch of, 177.
Essex, cruise of the, she captures the Alert, 439, 440; cap
tures the Nocton, 721, 722; sails for the Pacific, 723; ar
rives at Valparaiso, 723, 724; captures the Georgiana and
other whalers, 725 ; captures the Beringapatam, 72C ; she
is crippled, 732 ; surrender of the, 733.
Europe against France, 72.
EVANS, SIR DE LACY, sketch of, 1032.
Fair Haven, 889 ; fort at, 913.
Fallen Timbers, battle of, 54.
Fantome, flag-ship, 670.
Fast-day, proclamation of, 231, 232.
FAULKNER, JAMES, sketch of, 678.
Federalists and Republicans, 72 ; trouble among the, 1(16 ;
policy of the, 216 ; patriotism of the, 217.
Finch, capture of the, 868.
Fire, Greek, 613.
FISK, JAKEZ, survivor of the battle of Niagara, 843.
Flay, first British, taken, 376.
FLAUJEAC, GARRIGUE, General, 1038.
Fleet, Jamaica merchant, chase of, 436 ; British, ships of,
667 ; first appearance of, 667 ; enters Hampton Roads,
676 ; about New York, 691 ; surrender of, on Lake Cham-
plain, 870.
FLEMING, BENJAMIN, 538.
Florida, East, insurrection in, 740, 741 ; West, claimed by
the United States, 739.
Flotilla, American, capture of, 1026.
FLOURNOY, THOMAS, sketch of, 748.
FLOYD, JOHN, Brigadier General, at the battle of Auttose,
168 ; at Fort Strother, 777.
Forest Lawn, cemetery of, 847 ; soldiers' monuments, 848.
FORREST, DULANEY, 520; sketch of, 531.
FORSYTII, BENJAMIN, Major, 370 ; expedition of, 372 ; opens
jails in Elizabethtown, 577, 790 ; death of, 857.
Fortifications, British frontier, 234.
Forts, Bowyer, 1019 ; capture of, 1051 ; Brown, 865, 882 ; Cas-
tine, 903; Clinton, 973 ; Coviugton, 95G ; Dearborn, 303,
311 ; Defiance, 328 ; remains of, 332, 333 ; Erie, 803 ; Fish,
974; George, 909; Gratiot, 849; Griswold, 893 ; Jackson,
1029 ; Lee, 906 ; Mackinaw, 268, 269 ; M 'Henry, 670, 947,
954, 955 ; Madison, 761 ; Moreau, 860, 882 ; Necessity, 257 ;
Phoenix, 913; Pickering, 905; Pierce, 755; Pike, 617;
Plattsbnrg, 861 ; St. Philip, attack on, 105J ; Sewall, 907;
Scott, 882 ; Stepheuson, 497 ; Stone Mill, 863 ; Strong, 892 ;
Tompkius, 607 ; Toronto, 587, 588 ; Trumbtill, 696 ; Wash
ington, 688, 925, 939 ; Warburton, 6SS ; Wayne, 56 ; Wel
lington. 584.
FOSTER, AUGUSTUS J., envoy extraordinary to the United
States, 180.
FOUOIIKT, M., French minister, S3.
Fox, CHARLES JAMES, premier of England, 128, 149.
France, friendship of, 59 ; revolutionary movements in, GO ;
anarchy in, 73 ; paper currency in, 74 ; National Conven
tion established, 75; overthrow of the monarchy, 75; re
action, 83 ; the Directory offended, 91 ; difficulties with
the United States, 92 ; her acquisition of Spain, 93 ; her
arms successful, 95 ; preparations for war with, 96 ; a
minister appointed to, 99 ; three envoys sent, 100 ; secret
designs of, 132, 138 ; her change of policy, 153, 163, 180.
FRANCIS, JOSIAH, 754.
FRANKLIN, BENJAMIN, 19, 27.
FRASER, WILLIAM, G04.
Fremont, journey to, 506.
French Creek, American camp at, 649.
French Mills, American army at, 655 ; sufferings at, 657 ;
visit to, 664.
Frenchtown threatened, 351 ; its suffering inhabitants, 352 ;
battle and massacre of, 352 ; arrival of re-enforcements,
353 ; fearful night at, 357 ; in I860, 360 ; captured, 670.
Frigates, building of, 91.
Frolic, surrender' of the, 450.
Frontier, Northern, close of hostilities on the, 1S14, 887.
Fruit Hill, visit to, 568.
FULTON, ROBERT, suggests a new system of naval warfare,
236 : sketch of, 242.
Fulton the First, floating battery, 977.
GAINES, EDMUND P., General, 546 : demands the surrender
of Mobile, 740; appointed brigadier general, 792 ; atSack-
ett's Harbor, 815 ; takes command of the army, 831 ;
sketch of, 831; made major general, 835; gold medal
awarded to, 835; calls the battle of Lake Erie a "hand
some victory," 835.
GALLATIN, ALBERT, Secretary of the Treasury, 221, 7S3, 786 ;
peace commissioner, 10GO ; sketch of, 1060.
GALUSHA, JONAS, governor of Vermont, 639.
Gananoqui, spoils taken at, 373.
GARDINIEB, BARENT, 162 ; duel of, 164.
GARDNER, CHARLES K., Major, sketch of, 804.
GARDNER, J. M., 675.
General Armstrong, privateer, cruise and career of, 1001, 1004.
GENET, Citizen, arrival in Charleston, 77 ; reception, 79 ;
privateers commissioned by, 79 ; interview with Wash
ington, SO; rebuked by Jefferson, 81 ; attempts to create
a rebellion, 82 ; recalled to France, S3 ; sketch of, S3.
GEORGE III., friendly with Bonaparte, 113.
GEORGE IV., Piince Regent, 233.
George, Fort, General Brock at, 397 ; a visit to, 418 ; expedi
tion against, 596; cannonade between Fort Niagara and,
597 ; capture of, 599 ; invested by the British, 622 ; it is
abandoned, 632, 815.
Georgia, Cockburn on the coast of, 691 ; her troops return
to their frontier, 776.
INDEX.
1079
Oeorr/iana, prize-ship, 725.
GEBRY, ELBBIDGE, nominated for Vice-Presidem,464; birth
place of, 907 ; monument to, 943.
Gerry-mander, history of the, 211.
Ghent, treaty of, 1060.
GIBBS, General, 1037 ; death of, 1047.
GIBBON, J., 403.
GIBSON, Colonel, mortally wounded, 833.
GLEGO, J. B., aid to General Brock, 283.
GI.EIG, GEORGE R., sketch of, 937.
Globe, privateer, cruise of the, 995, 1003.
GODDARD, CALVIN, 1016.
GOODRIOH, CHAUNCEY, 1016.
Grand River, departure for, 419 ; mission-house at, 421.
GEATIOT, C., engineer, 474.
Great Britain refuses to send minister to the United States,
24 ; attempt to gain justice from, 62 ; strong feeling
against, 90 ; triumphant, 113 ; declares war against
France, 126 ; effects of the declaration, 128 ; makes in
sulting proposition for tribute, 165 ; her emissaries at
work, 18S ; acknowledged naval supremacy of, 433.
GEEGOEY, FRANCIS H., sketch of, 884 ; exploits of, 885.
GBIFFITH, EDWARD, Rear Admiral, 897.
GORDON, Captain, 159.
GOSBEI.IN, GEEAED, General, 902 ; popularity of, 903.
Government of the United States, newly organized, 53 ; its pol
icy indicated, 58 ; puts forth vigorous efforts for suprem
acy on the Lakes, 370 ; strange apathy of, 916 ; calls for
troops from different states, 918.
Guard, National, formation of, 61 ; demoralization of, 67.
Guerriere, the, impresses residents of Maine, 181,437; fight
with the Constitution, 443 ; destruction of, 445.
Gun-boat, iron-clad, 1814, 976.
Hail Columbia, song, history of, 97.
Halifax, British squadron at, 436 ; British expedition leaves,
897.
HALL, A., Major General, 635.
HALL, WILLIAM, Colonel, 742.
HALL, WILLIAM, Jr., in Hartford Convention, 1016.
HAMILTON, ALEXANDER, 25, 29 ; Secretary of the Treasury,
59 ; protests against temporizing with the national hon
or, 64; his financial scheme assailed, 65; considers the
English government a model of excellence, 65 ; his feud
with Jefferson, 71 ; acting general-in-chief, 98; condemns
secession, 134 ; his death, 135.
HAMILTON, PAUL, Secretary of the Navy, sends cipher al
phabet to Chauncey, 370.
Hamilton, village of, 420; visit to, 625.
HAMLIN, HANNIBAL, Vice-President of United States, 911.
HAMPTOV, W., General, haughtiness of, 030; inglorious re
treat of, 648; bad conduct of, 054; censured, 655; disobe
dience of orders, 656 ; the army is relieved of his pres
ence, 657.
Hampton Roads, defenses at, 668 ; skirmish in, 676 ; Amer
icans at, 670 ; landing of the British near, 681 ; a severe
skirmish, 682 ; Americans driven from, 683 ; a visit to,
687 ; destruction during the Civil War, 688 ; preparations
to oppose the British, 899 ; the John Adams at, 899 ; Brit
ish arrive at, 900 ; outrages at, 901 ; loss of property at,
902 ; visit to, 911.
HAMTEAMCK, Major, 40, 56.
HANOKS, Lieutenant, 270.
HAEDY, SIB THOMAS M., commander of the British squad
ron, 691 ; allows no vessels to pass, 693 ; appears on the
New England coast, 890 ; leaves Eastport, 892.
HAEMAR, JOSEPH, General, 41 ; his defeat, 43.
Harpt/, privateer, cruise of the, 1003.
Harrison, Fort, building of, 195 ; siege of, 317 ; Indians driv
en from, 318.
HARBISON, MBS. ANNA, wife of Gen. Harrison, a visit to, 570.
HARRISON, WILLIAM HENRY, General, joins the army, 50;
governor of Indiana Territory— his wise administration,
187; denounces the Indian Prophet, 190 ; concludes treaty
with the Indian tribes, 190 ; speech of, 192 ; calls for vol
untary aid, 194 ; march to the Wabash, 195, 200 ; his en
campment on the Tippecanoe battle-ground, 202 ; his
camp furiously attacked. 204 ; victor at Tippecanoe, 205,
208 • active in building block-houses, 321 ; goes to Ken
tucky, 321 ; made brigadier general, 322, 323; marches to
ward Piqua, 323 ; his influence, 324 ; his army in the wil
derness, 325 ; calls a council of officers, 325, 326 ; orders
Jennings to escort duty, 328; his campaign arranged,
329 • makes unrent appeals for supplies, 329 ; expedition
ao-ainst the Indians, 332 ; in Central Ohio, 332 ; sufferings
and difficulties of, 348 ; his army, 349 ; at Upper Sandus-
ky 351 • unjustly censured, 363 : his army at Maumee
Rapids, 364, 473 ; at Cincinnati, 475 ; precautions of, 478 ;
his note to General Clay, 479 ; his addresses, 482 ; his de
fense of Fort Meigs, 484 ; his plans developed, 485 ; or
ders a sortie, 487 ; "his head-quarters, 494 ; council of war,
499 • his character assailed and vindicated, 006 ; visits
Perry's ship, 516, 543, 544; at Amherstburg, 547; his ar-
rano-ements for the battle of the Thames, 552 ; gold medal
awarded to, 557; appoints Cass governor of Michigan,
559- effects of the victories of, 559; brief outline of his
career, 562; leaves the army, 503; sketch of, 572; tomb
of, 573.
HABBOWBY, Ear! of, Lord President of the Council, 233.
HART, NATHANIEL G. T., death and sketch of, 359.
Hartfonl, Convention at, 1013, 1015, 1016.
Hartley's Point, 546.
HEALD, Mrs. Captain, great bravery of, 309, 310.
HEOKEWELDER, JOHANNA MARIA, 37.
HECKEWELDER, REV. JOHN, pioneer, 36.
HENLEY, ROBERT, commander of the Eagle, 675 ; sketch of,
807 ; receives medal from Congress, 868.
HENNEB, ALFRED, 1058.
/HENRY, JOHN, his mission to New England, 220 ; his corre
spondence, 221 ; his disclosures, 222 ; sketch of, 222. >
Hiuhflyer, privateer, capture of the, 735 ; cruise of the, 996.
Hillabee Town, massacre at, 767.
HILLHOCSE, JAMES, 1016.
HINDMAN, JACOB, 802, 804, 835.
HOLDUP, THOMAS, sketch of, 328.
Holland issues a decree like the Milan Decree,'l54.
HOLLINS, GEOBGE N., sketch of, 619.
HOLMES, ANNA B., 914.
HOLMES, JEEEMIAH, Captain, his expedition into Canada,
849 ; returns to St. Joseph, 850 ; nails his flag to the mast,
894; reopens fire on the British, 895; the hero of Ston-
iugton, 914.
HOPE, JANE A., daughter of Commodore Barren, 668.
HOPKINS, SAMUEL G., his expedition against the Indians,
335 ; his expedition to the WTabash, 336 ; close of the mil
itary career of, 337.
Horizon, the, American ship, stranded on the French coast,
153.
Hornet, the, challenges a British vessel, 459 ; her contest
with the Peacock, 698; her fight with the Penguin, 990;
cruise of, 992.
Horsehoe, battle of the, 779.
HOUSTON, SAMUEL, wounded, 779 ; sketch of, 799.
HOWAED, JF.HAZIEL, 801.
HULL, ABEAHAM F., Captain, grave of, 827.
HULL, ISAAC, commander of the Constitution, 441 ; sketch
of, 442 ; his coolness, 443 ; his reception in Boston, 444 ;
gives up the command of the Constitution, 448 ; presented
with a gold medal, 446.
! HULL, WILLIAM, his invasion of Canada, 251 ; made briga
dier general, 252; takes command of Ohio troops, 255;
marches toward Detroit, 257 ; hears of declaration of war,
258 ; capture of his baggage, 258 ; his army at Detroit,
259 ; determines to invade Canada, 200 ; head-quarters of,
262 ; a reconnoissance toward Maiden, 263 ; fall of Mack
inaw, 272 ; mutinous spirit of his army, 272 ; loud com
plaints against, 277 ; disposition to deprive him of his
command, 282 ; surrenders Detroit— a prisoner, and tak
en to Fort George, 291 ; his arrival at Montreal, 293 ; cap
tivity of, 294 ; pardoned by the President, 295.
HUNTEE, GEOBGE H., Major, 669.
HUNTEE, JAMES, sketch of, 502.
Hymn, Revolutionary, 690.
Impressments, arguments against, 145.
Independence, Declaration of, 26 ; engrossed copy of, saved
by Mrs. Madison, 936.
Indiana Territory, the, 187.
Indians, councils of, 39 ; beset with British emissaries, 45 ;
confederacy, efforts to form one, 46 ; alliance with the
reports concerning, 257 ; their employment by the Brit
ish, 271; scouts, 279; conference with Brock, 283; signs
of trouble with, 304 ; treaty with, 306 ; intention to mas
sacre the whites, 307 ; treachery of, 308 ; massacre in
Scott County, 314 ; at Miami Village, 316, 318, 319 ; towns,
destruction of, 325 ; they are generally hostile, 334, 348 ;
chief of the Six Nations, 410; costumes and weapons of,
421, 422, 425 ; Western, massacre by, 626 ; murders by,
637; hostilities of, 752 ; leaders of, 754 ; rewarded for mur
der by the British, 757 ; destruction of, at Talladega, 765 •
they sue for peace, 766, 781.
Insuryente, the, captured by the Constellation, 103.
Insurrection in the Wyoming Valley, 24.
Insurrection, Whisky, quelled, 88.
Intrepid, the, 122; her destruction, 123.
Invasion, effects of, 937.
IEVINO, WASHINGTON, his prediction, 536 ; rebuke by, 887.
IZARD, GEOBGE, Major General, 792, 843 ; sends troops to
the Niagara frontier, 844; takes command, 845, 854, 855,
858 ; leaves his camp at Champlaiu, 859.
JACKSON, ANDREW, commander of the Tennessee militia,
136, 742, 743 ; at Natchez, 742 ; returns to Nashville, 744;
— petflniarytroubles of, 744 ; offers his services to the gov
ernment, 758; in the field, 759; marches to the Coosa,
760; his army threatened with famine, 761, 762, 763;
adopts an Indian orphan, 763; goes to the relief of Tal
ladega, 764, 766 ; continually in motion, 773, 774 ; aston
ished at the bravery of the Creeks, 775 ; at Fort Strother,
775, 776, 777 ; at the Horseshoe, 779, 781 ; releases Weath-
1080
INDEX.
ersford, 782 ; recalled to active service, 1017 ; goes to Mo
bile, 1019 ; marches to Pensacola, 1022 ; goes to New Or
leans, 1023, 1024; prepares for defense, 1027, 1030; at work
below New Orleans, 1034, 1037 ; driven from his head
quarters, 1039 ; battle of New Orleans, 1042 ; calls his staff
into action, 1045 ; enters New Orleans with his army,
1051 ; receives gold medal, 1052 ; sketch of, 1054 ; tomb
of, 1055.
JAOKSON, CKAVEN, 775.
JACKSON, FRANCIS J., English minister, 177 ; his miscon
duct, 178.
JACKSON, WILLIAM, secretary of the Convention, 26.
Jacobin Club, formation of, 67.
Jacobins, French, fall of, 86.
Java, wreck and capture of, 460.
JAY, JOHN, special minister to England, 85 ; treaty with
Great Britain, 86.
JEFFERSON, THOMAS, Secretary of Foreign Affairs, 59 ; re
ception in New York, 66, 68 ; disgust and alarm of, 70 ;
feud with Hamilton, 71 ; rebukes Genet, 81, 82 ; elected
President, 108, 114; foreshadows his policy, 115 ; his pop
ularity, 115; his views on the retrocession of Louisiana,
131; honors Burr, 135; dissatisfaction at the acquittal of
Burr, 162; signs the embargo, 162; makes provision for
strengthening the army and navy, 167 ; compared with
New England disuuionists, 173.
JESUP, TIIOMAS SIDNEY, Colonel, sketch of, 822, 1013.
JF.TT, THOMAS, 776.
John Attains, frigate, capture of, 386; ascends the Penob-
scot, 898 ; at Hampden, 899 ; runs the blockade, 978 ; de
struction of, 979.
JOHNSON, G. H. M., Indian chief, 420, 421 ; sketch of, 422.
JOHNSON, KICHARD M., 162; issues address calling for
mounted volunteers, 323, 329 ; his proposed campaign,
494,495; sketch of, 495 ; at Fort Stephenson, 497; at Mo
ravian Town, 551 ; crosses Detroit River, 548 ; great gal
lantry at the battle of the Thames, 556 ; wounded and
conveyed homeward, 557.
JOHNSON, WILLIAM, his exploits among the Thousand Isl
ands, 662 ; his heroic daughter, 663.
JOHNSTON, JOHN, a visit to, 253, 316, 324.
JONES, JACOB, captain of the Wasp, sketch of, 449 ; honors
to— receives gold medal, 452.
JONES, THOMAS AP CATESBY, 1025.
JONES, ROGER, 812.
Judiciary of United States, arrangement of, 59.
JUMONVILLE, plantation of, skirmish on, 1033.
Kalorama, 942.
Kemp, privateer, cruise of, 1006.
Kentucky frontier threatened, 45 ;• her wealth and patriot
ism, 335 ; sufferings of her soldiers, 337, 1057.
Kentuckmns, war cry of, 360 ; vengeance of, 546.
KERR, WILLIAM JOHN, 620.
KEY, FRANCIS S., author of " Star-spangled Banner," 956.
KEY, PHILIP BARTON, 162.
KING, RUFUS, American minister to England, 143.
Kingston, operations near, 372 ; the British return to, 798.
KINZIE, JOHN, attacked by Indians, 304, 305, 306 ; ledVes the
fort, 308 ; allowed to return to his house, 310 ; sketch of,
311.
KINZIE, JOHN H., Mrs., 312.
KNAGGS, JAMES, 362, 363.
KNOX, HENRY, Secretary of War, 59.
La Colle Mitts, repulse of the British at, 640, 665 ; British at,
790 ; battle-ground at, 791 ; British troops at, 856.
La Coste, plantation of, battle at, 1031.
LAFAYETTE, Marquis de, 60, 61; at Maubeuge, 73 ; before the
National Assembly, 74 ; imprisoned, 75.
LAFITTE, JEAN, 1018, 1019.
Lakes, Upper, proposed expedition to, 789, 850.
LA SALLE, Marquis de, 60.
LAUGHTON, JOHN B., 298.
LAVALETTE, E. A. F., sketch of, 872.
Lawrence, flag-ship, 513 ; scenes on board of, 525, 52C ; sur
render of, 528.
LAWRENCE, JAMES, captain of Hornet, 698 ; honors to, 700 ;
gold medal to, 700; in command of the Chesapeake, 701;
last official letter of, 702 ; challenged by Broke, 703 ; ac
cepts, 704 ; mortally wounded, 706 ; his last words, 706 ;
sketch of, 708; respect to the remains of, 711; monument
to, 713.
LAWRENOE, WILLIAM, 1019 ; sketch of, 1022.
Laws, alien and sedition, 107.
League, contemplated dissolution of, 24.
LEAVENWORTH, HENRY, Colonel, 809 ; sketch of, 816.
Le CroyabU, capture of, 101.
LEE, Mrs., hospitality of, 418.
LEGATE, THOMAS C., Lieutenant, 795.
LE READX, BENJAMIN, 539.
LESTER, JOHN, Captain, 963.
LEWIS, EI.ISHA, veteran of 1812, 674.
LEWIS, MORGAN, 970.
LEWIS, WILLIAM, sketch of, 359 ; in Long Island Sound, 888,
889.
Lewistan Heights, Lovett at, 407; view from Heights, 413;
village of, 413 ; railway at, 595 ; savage atrocities near, 04:;.
LITTLE TURTLE, Chief of the Miamis, 46, 47; counsels peace,
53 ; grave of, 315.
Little York, expedition against, 586.
LIVERPOOL, LORD, 151.
LIVINGSTON, EDWARD, appointed to superintend the pur
chase of Louisiana, 132 ; sketch of, 1027.
Loans, Government, 1008.
LOGAN, JOHN, Captain, services and death of, 345.
LONGFELLOW, SAMUEL, Jr., 1016.
Long Island, 888.
Long Woods, battle at the, 849.
LORD'S PRAYER written in Indian, 423.
Lottery, privateer, cruise of, 1000.
Louisiana, purchase of, 132, 133 ; transfer of, 134 ; insurrec
tionary movement in, 738 ; admission of, 740.
Louisiana, man-of-war, 1037.
Louis XVI., 60 ; execution of, 76.
LOVETT, JOHN, sketch of, 407.
LUDLOW, AUGUSTUS C., respect for the remains of, 711.
Lundy's Lane, 828.
LYMAN, DANIEL, 1016.
LYMAN, JOSEPH, 1016.
Lynn Haven, bay of, 669.
Lyon's Creek, victory at, 845.
MACARTE, M., 1037.
Macdonough, privateer, cruise of, 1007.
MACDONOUGU, THOMAS, Lieutenant, 641 ; commander of the
Saratoga, 866 ; his announcement of victory, 871 ; his re
ception of British captives, 872; medal to, 878; sketch of,
878.
Macedonian, capture of, 455 ; at New York, 456.
Mackinack, expedition against, 270.
Mackinaw, Americans determine to capture, 849.
Mackinaw Island, battle at, 850; blockade of, 851 ; surrender
of, 271.
MAOOMB, ALEXANDER, 790 ; appointed brigadier general,
792, 859 ; medal awarded to, 878 ; sword presented to, 877 '
sketch of, 877.
MACON, NATHANIEL, 784.
Madison Barracks, 616.
Madison, Fort, attack on, 319.
MADISON, GEORGE, sent to Quebec, sketch of, 359.
MADISON, JAMES, 29 ; leader of the House of Representa
tives, 58 ; Secretary of State, 151 ; elected President, 169 ;
as a politician, 173 ; takes presidential chair, 175 ; pro
claims that trade can be renewed, 176; proclaims the
revocation of the French Decrees, 179 ; feeble war trump
of, 211; anxious to avoid war, 212 ; recommends an em
bargo, 219 ; his message, 221 ; renominated for the Presi
dency, 225 ; his accusatory message, 226 ; proclaims war,
228 ; instructs Mr. Monroe to try and make peace, 245 ;
listens to Hull's advice, 251 ; re-elected, 465; reviews the
troops, 924 ; flight of, 935.
MADISON, Mrs. JAMES, patriotism of, 935.
Maguaga, battle of, 280 ; battle-ground of, 281.
Maiden, expedition against, 473.
Malone, journey to, 664.
MANTON, EDWABD, 1016.
Marblehead, 906.
Marcus Hook, camp at, 967.
MARCY, WILLIAM L., takes first British flag, 376.
MARIE ANTOINETTE, Queen of France, 37.
Marque and reprisal, letters of, 248.
Marquesas Islands, arrival of the Essex at, 727 ; civil war in,
728.
MARSHALL, Secretary, writes to Rufus King, 144.
MASON, J., General, 788.
Massachusetts, Governor of, refuses to comply with requisi
tion for troops, 243.
Massacre, Indian, 268; of whites, 304 ; at Fort Mims, 757.
Maumee Rapids, fiirht with Indians at, 343 ; fortified camp
at, 474 ; British and Indians cross the, 483, 490, 491.
MAURY, JOHN, 727.
M'ARTHUR, DUNCAN, 265, 266, 267; goes to relieve Miller,
281; crosses the Rouge, 285; fails to communicate with
Hull, 290 ; his raid into Canada, 852 ; bravery and gener
osity of, 853.
M'CALL, EDWARD RUTLEDGE, gallantry of, 718 ; medal
awarded to, 719.
M'DOUALL, Lieutenant Colonel, 849.
M'DOUGALL, SIR DUNCAN, sketch of, 951.
M'FARLAND mortally wounded, 823.
M'FEELY, GEORGE, Commander, 426.
M'GILLIVRAY, ALEXANDER, sketch of, 754.
M'GLASSIN, Captain, brave exploit of, 865.
M'Gowan's Pass, works at, 974.
McGregor's Mill, skirmish at, 550.
M'llcnn/, Fort, a visit to, 964.
M'lNTosH, WILLIAM, sketch of, 768.
M'KEE, Colonel, punishment of, 54.
M'KENZIE, WILLIAM LYON, 594.
M'LANI:, ALLAN, revolutionary veteran, 668.
M'NAiR, MATTHEW, death of, 797.
M'NEIL, JOHN, Major, 809; flank movement of, 810, 817, 818,
,819 ; sketch of, 821.
M'NiTT, SAMUEL, gallantry of, 611 ; sketch of, 611.
M'NuTT, JONATHAN, revolutionary veteran, 668.
INDEX.
1081
M'QuEEN, march of, 749.
M'REE, Chief Engineer, sketch of, 803, 804, 835.
MKIGS, Governor of Ohio, 252 ; collects troops, 321.
Meigs, Fort, 477 : expedition against, 478, 482 ; new battery
opened on, 484 ; Americans defeated and made prison
ers, 486 ; sortie from, 488, 496, 498 ; remains of, 492 ; visit
to, 493.
MELVIN, GEORGE W., sketch of, 800.
MEBRITT, W. EL, Captain, at Stony Creek, 602 ; statement
of, 626.
Miami, Fort, devastations around, 54 ; built, 316 ; massacre
of prisoners at, 489 ; remains of, 491.
Miamis, expedition against, 346.
Michir/an, British occupation of, 292.
Michillimackinack, 267.
Milan Decree, 154 ; revocation of, 179.
Military Leaders, men to be chosen as, 249.
Militia of New York, bad conduct of, 402.
MILLER, JAMEB, Lieutenant Colonel, 200; his men, 278;
sketch of, 820 ; gold medal awarded to, 820 ; triumph of,
839.
Minis, Fort, 751 ; crowded with refugees, 753 ; false confi
dence of the commander of, 754; sudden appearance of
Indians, 755; massacre in, 756; number of the slain, 757.
MIMS, SAMUEL, house of, 750.
Mississaga, Fort, 419.
Mississippi River, events near, 334; British approach, 1028 ;
the levee cut, 1034 ; effect of, 1035.
Mobile, J40; expedition against, 741; surrender of, by the
Spaniards, 742 ; threatened, 759 ; its defenses, 1019.
Mohaick, village of, 423.
MONROE, JAMES, Minister to France, 86 ; recalled, 92 ; as
sists in the purchase of Louisiana, 132, 155 ; demands rep
aration from England, 160 ; at the head of the War De
partment, 349 ; Secretary of State, 923, 926, 1012.
MONTGOMERY, JOHN, General, sketch of, 891. •
MONTGOMERY, L. P., 779 ; sketch of, 780.
MOOERS, BENJAMIN, Major General, 859 ; in command at
Beekmantown, 861 ; sketch of, 875 ; grave of, 876; resi
dence of, 883.
MOORE, THOMAS, poet, 561.
Moravian Town, 561.
MORGAN, DANIEL, General, 1033.
MORGAN, LOTH>\VICK, sketch of, 848.
Morocco, settlement of difficulties with, 120.
MORRIS, CHARLES, Commodore, sketch of, 900 ; monument
to, 901.
MORKIS, GoirvERTiEUR, goes to London — interview with the
Duke of Leeds, 62 ; recalled, 85.
MORSE, SAMUEL F. B., inventor, 213.
MOUNTFORT, JOHN, sketch of, 874.
MULCASTER, W. H., 610.
MURAT, JOAOHIM, occupies Madrid, 170.
MURRAY, J., Colonel, C34 ; raid of, 642.
MYERS, MORDECAI, Captain, gallantry of, 646 ; sketch of, 654.
Nashville, return of Tennessee troops to, 744.
Nautilus, capture of, 436.
Naval engagements, 103.
Naval service, reorganization of, 155.
Naval warfare between France and the United States, 100.
NAVARRE, PETER, sketch of, 490.
Navy, British, very cautious in approaching the coast, 693 ;
fleet at Halifax," 234, 436.
Navy, United States, first steps towards its creation, 90 ;
powerful opposition to, 90 ; Secretary of, instructions to,
102 ; increase of, 103 ; reduced, 116, 168 ; gunboats ridi
culed, 168; unsuccessful attempt to increase, 218; repulse
British squadron on Lake Ontario, 369 ; commanders of,
371- measures for strengthening the, 467; stations of
men-of-war of, 434, 435; British contempt for, 433; weak
ness of, 721 : ships of, 721 ; neglected, 787 ; on Lake On
tario 794- list of ships, 794; new vessels for, 978; at the
close of the war, 992, 1068.
Navy Yard, Charlestown, Mass., 905; at Washington, de
struction of, 934.
NEALE, B. J., Lieutenant, 678.
Ned, privateer, cruise of, 1001.
NELSON, LOUD, victor of Trafalgar, 152.
Neutral nations, tribute exacted from, 165.
Neutrality violated by the British, 375.
Newark, Ohio, ancient relics at, 564 ; Canada, burning of,
632 ; sufferings of the inhabitants of, 633.
New Bedford, 889 ; visit to, 912.
New England, politicians of, propose secession, 134 ; dis-
unioni'sts in, 172 ; state sovereignty proposed in, 173 ; in
1814, 888; warfare on the coast of, 889; sea-port towns
blockaded, 890; visit to, 904; discontents in, 1012.
Few Hampshire, armed mob surround Legislature of, 24.
New Jersey, Legislature of, 243.
\ew London, blockade of, 691 ; torpedo off of, 693 ; ceme
tery at, 696; harbor of, 696; old court-house of, 69 1 ;
blockade of, 888.
\ew Orleans, United States frigate, 616.
New Orleans, 1004 ; defenseless, 1023 ; preparations to at-
" tack 1025; battle of gun-boats near, 1026; American hues
of defense at, 103S; battle of, 1040, 1049 ; battle-ground of,
visit to, 1058.
Newspapers, war of the, 71.
New York, State Legislature of, support national govern
ment, 243 ; enforces revenue laws, 365 ; City, reception of
Hull, 440 ; blockaded, 675 ; funeral solemnities to Law
rence in, 713 ; relieved, 945 ; great excitement in, 969 ;
assisted by its neighbors, 970; fortifications round, 974.
Niagara, battle of, 824, 825.
Niagara, Fort, account of, 408 ; bombardment of, 426, 427,
597 ; surrender of, 633 ; massacre at, 634.
Niagara Frontier, 381, 391, 512, 619; raids on, 626, 631 ; deso
lation of, 634, 802 ; a visit to, 827.
Niagara River, events at the mouth of, 408, 428 ; the Amer
ican squadron off of, 597, 598, 804.
Niagara, settlement of, 380 ; arrival at, 412 ; suspension
bridge at, 413, 828.
NICHOLAS, ROBERT CARTER, sketch of, 820.
Nooaheevah, capital of the Marquesas, 728.
NOON, DARBY, Captain, ride of, 292.
Norfolk, defenses of, 668, 677; attempt to seize the navy
yard at, 680 ; a visit to, 684 ; British consul at, 685.
North Send, settlement at, 571.
North Carolina, coast of, Cockburn on, 689.
North Point, battle of, 952, 953 ; battle-ground of, visit to,
963.
Oak Hill Cemetery, 941.
O'CONNOR, JOHN MICHAEL, bravery of, 811.
Ocracoke Inlet, Cockburn off of, 689.
Ogdensburg, attack on, 374, 577, 578 ; surrender of Ameri
cans at, 579, 581 ; a visit to, 582, 584.
Ohio, settlement of, 37 ; adopts a State Constitution, 130 ;
military preparations in, 137; organization of troops of,
252; a journey to, 563 ; an early settler in, 573.
OLCOTT, MILES, 1016.
OLIVER, W., Major, carries news of re-enforcements to Fort
Wayne, 314.
Oneida, 367.
O'NEIL, JOHN 671; his sword and dwelling, 673.
Onondaga, village of, 423.
Ontario, Fort, attack on, 795.
Ontario, Lake, 365 ; active operations on, 379, 413; passage
across, 595, 642 ; capture of American vessels on, 644 ; the
navy on, 794.
OSHORNE, SELLECK, sketch of, 889.
OSCEOLA, grave of, 690.
OSGOOD, SAMUEL, Postmaster General, 59.
OSIIAWAHNAU, Indian Chief, 552.
Osii'egatcliie, Fort, 373.
Oswego, British fleet at, 606 ; the defense and defenders of,
795 ; capture of, 796 ; survivors of the war at, 797.
OTIS, HARRISON GRAY, IOCS, 1016.
OTIS, JOHN, 800.
Otter Creek, skirmish at, 856.
OVERTON, WALTER H., sketch of, 1050.
PACKET, JOHN H., sketch of, 523.
PAGE, JAMES, Captain, 966.
PAINE, THOMAS, 69; "Rights of Man," effects of, 71 ; vis
its France, 76 ; writes abusive letter to Washington,
92.
PAKENHAM, SIR EDWARD, arrival at New Orleans, 1035; calls
Council of War, 1038, 1041 ; death of, 1046.
Paris, excitement in, 60.
Paris, town of, 420.
PARKEE, SIR PETER, exploits of, 945; sketch of, 946.
Parliament, British, passes act in favor of neutrals, 165 ,
Canadian, house of, adorned with scalps, 591.
PARSONS, USHER, sketch of, 517 ; address by, 540.
Parties, war and anti-war, 148.
PATTERSON, DANIEL T., sketch of, 1025.
Patterson Park, a visit to, 962.
PAULDING, HIRAM, sketch of, 869.
Peace, Treaty of, IS ; neglect to comply with conditions of,
19; negotiated with Indian tribes, 36; secured, 57; Party,
organization of, 230 ; negotiations, 248 ; commissioners
to treat for, 471, 783 ; party for, 784 ; rumors of, 786 ; pro
claimed in the United States, 985 ; Faction, 1008 ; Treaty
of, 1059; commissioners of, 1060; Treaty of, concluded,
1061; rejoicings for, 1064, 1065 ; ratification of, 1065.
Peacock (English), 699.
Peacock (U. S.), her fight with Epervter, 981 ; cruise of, 992.
PEARCE, CROMWELL, 590.
Peel Island, 661.
Pennsylvania, Legislature of, supports national govern
ment, 243 ; votes sword to Com. Stewart, 986.
Penobscot, voyage up the, 910.
Pensacola, march of M'Queen from, 749; hostile movements
at, 1017 ; reception of British at, 1022 ; Americans in,
1023.
People, exhaustion of the, 24.
PERKINS, CONSTANTINE, 775.
PERKINS, MARIA T., keeper of Fort Sewall, 907.
PERKINS, SIMON, General, sketch of, 339, 349.
PERRY, O. H., arrival at Erie, 509, 511 ; hastens to Chauncey,
512; lack of men, 513; relations to Chnuncey, 514; recon-
noissance by, 517 ; prepares for battle, 518 ; his final in
structions, 519 ; sketch of, 521 ; relative position of the
two squadrons, 522 ; abandons the Lawrence, 526 ; meet-
1082
INDEX.
ing with Elliott, 528 ; breaks British line, 529 ; his victory
complete, 529, 530 ; surrender of British officers to, 531 ;
importance of his victory, 533; honors awarded to, 535;
medal to, 535 ; statue to, 539 ; his prisoners, 542 ; with
Harrison at Erie, 543 ; his squadron in the Thames, 549 ;
effect of the victories of, 559 ; gallantry of, 598.
Philadelphia, frigate, capture of, 120 ; destruction of, 121.
Philadelphia, reception of Hull, 446 ; presents O'Neil with
sword, CT3 ; relieved, 965 ; public meeting in, 968 ; fortifi
cations at, 968.
PICKERING, TIMOTHY, Secretary of State, 143, 784.
PICQUET, FRANCIS, sketch of, 579.
PIKK, ZEBULON MONTGOMERY, pioneer, sketch of, 586, 587;
death of, 5S9 ; last moments of, 591 ; monument to, 616.
PINCKNEY, CHARLES CoTESwoRTii, appointed minister to
Prance, 92 ; utters the memorable sentence, " Millions
for defense, uot one cent for tribute," 95.
PINOKNEY, THOMAS, British minister, 64; appointed second
in command, 249.
PINKNEY, WILLIAM, Minister to England, 147, 149, 155; de
mands reparation from England, 160, 171.
PITT, WILLIAM, 21, 22.
PLATT, CHARLES T., Commodore, sketch of, 867.
PLATT, ISAAC C., residence of, 863 ; visit to, 883.
Plattxburt/, position of the American works at, 860; British
advance ou, 861, 863, 864, 875 ; victory at, 876, 879, 8SO.
PLAUCHE, JEAN B., Major, 10'24; sketch of, 1042.
Poictiers, frigate, J. B. Beresford captain of, 451.
Policy, gun-boat, 155.
POLLY, JOHN, Captain, veteran of 1812, 379.
PONTIAC, Ottawa chief, 268, 301.
PORTER, DAVID, commander of Essex, 721 ; searches for
Baiubridge, 722, 723; in command of a squadron, 725, 726;
sails for Marquesas, 727, 728; battle with the natives, 729 ;
at Valparaiso, 730, 731 ; hauls down his flag, 733 ; honors
to, 734 ; death and monument, 734.
PORTEU, PETER B., residence of, 426 ; commands New York
Volunteers, 427 ; harmless duel with Smyth, 432 ; hurries
to Black Rock, 627, 807,808; sketch of, 838 ; receives gold
medal, 842.
Portsmouth, British squadron off, 891.
POST, JOHN FREDERICK, REV., pioneer, 36.
Potomac River, Cockbnrn in, 689.
Powder Mills, Dupouts', 966.
PREBLE, EDWARD, Commodore, appointed to the command
of the Mediterranean Squadron, 120; medal to, 123;
sketch of, 123.
PRESOOTT, WILLIAM H., 1016.
Prescntt, visit to, 5S2.
President, frigate, 181 ; on a cruise, 182 ; conflict with Little
Belt, 184 ; cruise of, 454 ; runs the blockade, 737 ; capture
of, 9SS.
Presque Isk, 491 ; the harbor of, 510.
PREVOST, SIR GEORGE, Governor General of Canada, 245,
273 ; arrives at Prescott, 577 ; disgraceful retreat of, 612,
613 ; allows prisoners to return on parole, 789 ; orders
troops to Plattsburg, 864 ; arrives at Isle aux Noix, 858 ;
cost of the expedition of, 879.
PRICE, RICHARD, 69.
Prince de Seufchatel, privateer, cruise of, 1005.
PRINCE REGENT, Manifesto of, 469.
Pringle House, 674.
Privateering at the close of the war, 998.
Privateers ordered to leave American waters, 81 ; injury of,
to British commerce, 214 ; commissioned, 993, 1068.
Proclamation concerning British seamen, 160 ; of renewed
trade, 176.
PROCTOR, HENRY, Colonel, prepares to invade the Maumee
Valley, 477 ; calls savages to Maiden, 478 ; disheartened,
4SS ; flight of British and Indians, 489, 495 ; before Fort
Stephenson, 501 ; fears of, 546 ; flight of, 553 ; a disgrace
to the British army, 355 ; escape off 555 ; rebuked and de
spised, 557; his punishment considered too mild, 558;
remnant of his array, 558 ; death of, 558.
Protest, signers of, 229.
PUSHA.MATAHA, Choctaw chief, 762.
Put-in-Bay, islands around, 516.
PUTNAM, RUFUS, founds Marietta, 36.
Qucenston, appearance of the country, 147, 390 ; skirmish
near, 395; lauding of Americans at, 395; battle of, 404,
412 ; village of, 413.
Queenston Heights, landing at the fort of, 394; capture of,
399 ; battle of, 403 • Brock's monument at, 414, 415.
QUINCY, JOSIAH, 162; prophecy of, 163 ; denounces the whole
policy of Great Britain as fallacious, 166 ; denounces the
War Party, 174 ; reasons for his course, 217 ; opposition
of, 228; called "Josiah the First," 228; denounces the
policy of the War Party, 465, 466.
Railway, the first traveler on a, 213.
Raisin River, re-enforcements and supplies at, 276 ; march
toward, 279 ; distress on, 342.
RANDOLPH, EDMUND, 27 ; suggests a national government,
28 ; attorney general, 59.
RANDOLPH, JOHN, one of the six secessionists, 148 ; on slav
ery, 214 ; scolds the Democrats, 215 ; sketch of, 215 ; im
plores the House to act with caution, 223, 938.
Recovery, Fort, battle of, 52.
RED JACKET, Indian chief, sketch of, 802.
REGNIER, French minister of justice, 153.
REID, SAMUEL C., captain of the General Armstrong, 1004
sketch of, 1005.
RENNIE, ROUERT, Colonel, 1037 ; death of, 1048.
Representatives, House of — imports and exports, 58 ; secret
session, 227.
Republic, an attempt to destroy the, 220 ; prosperity of, 1069.
Revolutions, French and American contrasted, 81.
REYNOLDS, ROBERT, veteran British officer, 300.
Rhode Island, Governor of, refuses to comply with requisi
tions for troops, 243.
RIALL, P., 805; re-enforced, 814 ; capture of, 819 ; wounded,
825.
RICHARDVILLE, Indian chief— birthplace of, 44.
RICHIE, JOHN, 823.
Richmond, scene of Burr's trial, 137.
RILEY, BENNET, 848.
RIPLEY, ELEAZER W., appointed brigadier general, 792, 804;
tardiness of, 813, 823 ; attempts to abandon Canada, 829 ;
highly spoken of, 835, 837; received gold medal and other
testimonials, 842 ; sketch of, 842.
ROBERTS, Captain, 270.
ROBERTSON, FELIX, Dr., 1057.
ROBERTSON, JAMES, General, sketch of, 747.
ROBINSON, JOHN BEVERLY, Canadian chief justice, 594.
Rock Island, a visit to, 661.
RODGEKS, GEORGE W., Commodore, burial-place of, 696.
RODGEKS, J., Commodore, sketch of, 185; takes command
of the President, 181 , he is assailed, 1S6; squadron of, 435;
services to his country, 736; honors to, 737; unsuccessful
cruise of, 735 ; captures the Highflyer, 735.
ROSE, H. G., special envoy to the United States, 161.
Ross, General, death of, 952 ; monument where he fell, 964.
Ross, JAMES, survivor of War of 1812, 592.
Rossie, privateer, cruise of; 994.
Rouse's Point, journey to, 665.
RUSSELL, JONATHAN, minister to England, 224, 786 ; peace
commissioner, 1060.
RUSSELL, WILLIAM, Colonel— expedition against the In
dians, 336.
Russia invaded by Napoleon, 470 ; proposes to mediate, 470 ;
Emperor of, enters Paris, 854.
Sackett's Harbor, 370 ; British designs upon, 607; Brown as
sumes command, 60S ; an alarm, 609 ; chase and capture
of American vessels at, 610; destruction of public stores,
611 ; militia assembled, 612 ; its defenses, 614 ; a visit to,
615 ; blockade of, 798 ; the cable at, 801.
Salem, funeral solemnities of Lawrence at, 712 ; its harbor,
906 ; privateers from, 997.
SANDERS, J., captain of Junon, 676.
Sandusky, a visit to, 505, 506.
Sandy Creek, a visit to survivors of the war there, SOI.
Saranac River, British troops at, 873.
Saratoga, flag-ship—battle of Lake Champlain, 866.
Saratoga, privateer, cruise of, 1000.
SARGENT, WINTHROP, 38.
Saucy Jack, privateer, cruise of, 1006.
Sault St. Marie, 850.
Schlosser, Fort, remains of, 380.
Scioto, Valley of, 566.
SCOTT, WINFIELD, Lieutenant General, 45; arrives at Fort
Schlosser, 393 ; at Lewiston, 394 ; at Queenston, 400 ;
his harangue to his troops, 402 ; at Niagara, 404, 405 ; his
bold protection of fellow-prisoners, 409 ; marches to Sack
ett's Harbor, 631 ; appointed brigadier general, 792 :
moves down the Niagara River, 806; re-enforced, 807;
advances to meet the British, 808 ; ordered to Fort George,
817, 818, 819 ; wounded, 823 ; goes to Washington, 8-25 ;
medal awarded to, 826 , appointed lieutenant general, 826.
Scourge, privateer, cruise of, 1001.
SCUDDER, JOHN, 692.
Search, the right of, asserted, 143.
SECORD, LAURA, saves British troops, 621.
Shadow, privateer, cruise of, 996.
Shannon, 438, 703 ; fight with Chesapeake, 705.
SHAYS, DANIEL, rebellion of, 24.
SUEAFFE, R. H., approach of British under, 401, 402; sketch
of, 405 ; escape of, 590.
SHEFFIELD, LORD, pamphlet of, 23.
SHELBURNE, Earl of, 21.
SHELBY, ISAAC, Governor of Kentucky, 322 ; his appeal to
Kentucky, 334; at Moravian Town, 544, 551 ; he is pre
sented with a sword, 545.
SHERBROOKE, SIR JOHN COPE, 897.
SHERMAN, ROGER MINOT, 1016.
SIIIPP, EDMUND, Jr., sketch of, 501.
SHOLES, STANTON, sketch of, 541.
SUORTLAND, Captain, commandant of Dartmoor Prison.,
1069.
SHUBRICK, WILLIAM BRANFORD, sketch of, 676.
SIDMOUTH, LORD, Secretary of State, 233.
Signals, method of, 182, 183.
SIMS, Lieutenant, treachery and cowardice of, 392.
SKIPWITH, FULWAR, 740.
Slave, a, his freedom purchased by his wife, 687.
INDEX.
1083
Slaves, secret organization among, 690.
SLOAN, JAMES, survivor of 1812, 847.
SMITH, GERAED D., sketch of, 812.
SMITII, JOSEPH, sketch of, 872.
SMITH, MELANOTHON, sketch of, 861.
SMITH, NATHANIEL, 1016.
SMITH, SAMUEL, sketch of, 947.
SMITH, THOMAS A., Brigadier General, 792, 856.
SMOOT, BENJAMIN, Colonel, 772.
SMYTH, ALEXANDER, General, bad conduct of, 389, 390 ; suc
ceeds Van Rensselaer, 410 ; he is ridiculed, 411, 427; in-
competency and treachery of, 430; his council of officers,
431 ; harmless duel with Porter, 432.
Societies, Democratic, SO, 88 ; Washington Benevolent, 854.
Sodus Bay, the British at, 605, 606.
South Carolina — no battle fought on her soil, 689; secession
of, 941.
Spain, 62; dislikes purchase of Louisiana, 134 ; issues de
cree like Milan Decree, 154 ; resists Joseph Bonaparte,
170.
SPARKS, JARED, LL.D., 672.
SPENCER, AMBROSE, mortally wounded, 825.
STANSBERKY, TOBIAS B., General, 921.
States, League of, 20 ; their quotas of troops, 918.
" Star-spangled Banner," when and where composed, 056.
St. Catherine's, 420 ; a visit to, 623.
ST. CLAIR, ARTHUR, 47 ; battle with Indians, 48 ; defeat of,
49 ; resignation of, 50, 851.
St. David's Village, burning of, 815.
St. Joseph's, Americans determine to capture, 849.
St. Lawrence (British), 886.
St. Lawrence, fight on the, 370 ; British expedition on, 374,
576 ; a day on the, 582 ; the American flotilla descends
the, 654; perilous voyage on, 660 ; Rapids, passage of the,
665 ; storm on the, 666.
St. Mary's, 328.
St. Michael's, defense of, 945.
St. Regis captured by Americans, 374, 375; a visit to, 377, 378.
Stephenson, Fort, to be attacked, 499 ; summoned to surren
der, 501 ; besieged, 502 ; storming of, 503 ; site of, 507.
STEUBEN, BARON, gold box of, 915.
STEVENS, EBENEZER, 970.
STEWART, CHAELES, captain of Constitution, 983; honors to,
985 ; sword and medal to, 986 ; sketch of, 986.
STOCKTON, THOMAS, sketch of, 599.
STONE, Colonel, dismissed from the service, 815.
Stonington, bombardment of, 891 ; British squadron off, 893 ;
bombardment of, 894, 895, 896 ; ancient name of, 915.
Stony Creek, Americans at, 602, 603 ; battle of, 603, 604, 605 ;
a visit to, 625.
STORY, JOSEPH, 175.
Street's Creek, preparations for battle at, 806.
STRONG, Governor of Massachusetts, denounces the war,
783.
Ktrother, Fort, peril of, 764, 767 ; Jackson at, 776.
SWIFT, J. G., sketch of, 638.
SWIFT, General, his report of New York fortifications, 971.
SWIFT, ZEPHANIAH, 1016.
SYMMES, JOHN CLEVES, 36 ; sketch of, 573.
Symmes's City, 571.
Talladega, battle of, 765.
Tallapoosa, raid to the, 777.
Tallasehatche, battle of, "63.
TALLEYRAND thinks of conciliation, 99.
TAEBELL, JOSEPH, 675.
Tarontee, the affair of, 264.
TATTNALL, JOSIAH, Commodore, sketch of, 615; gallantry
of, 680.
TAYLOR, ROBERT BERNARD, sketch of, 677.
TAYLOR, WILLIAM VIGERON, sketch of, 520.
TAYLOR, Z ACIIARY, commander at Fort Harrison, 317 ; char
acter and services of, 318 ; sketch of, 319.
Teaser, privateer, destruction of, 1002.
TEOUMTIIA, Indian chief, 188 ; his craft, 189 ; his project for
a confederation, 190; goes to Vinceunes, 192 ; alarm of,
193; his influence against Americans, 257; his conference
with Brock, 283 ; his intention to reduce Fort Wagner,
313; on the Mississiniwa, 347; at Fort Maiden, 477; his re
buke of Proctor, 489; his plan for capturing Fort Meigs, 498;
his chief lieutenant, 551; death of, 555 ; his pistol, 560.
Telegram, first, 213.
Tennessee— its troops prepare for war, 742 ; its troops on
the Mississippi, 743, 758, 777.
Terre Haute, 197.
TERRY, SAMUEL, 862.
Text of the Treaty of Peace, 1071.
Thames River, British and Indians fly toward, 547 ; Perry's
squadron on the, 548, 549 ; battle of the, 553, 554 ; a jour
ney to the, 559 ; a visit to the battle-field, 560, 561.
THEOBALD, SAMUEL, sketch of, 556.
THOMAS, JOHN, Major General, 1041.
THOMAS, JOSHUA, 1016.
Tilsit, the Peace of, 153.
TINGEY, THOMAS, commander of navy yard, Washington,
D C 934
Tippecanoe, battle-ground of, 200,202; battle of, 205; bat
tle-ground of, in I860, 209.
TODD, CHAELES SCOTT, aid-de-camp to Harrison, sketch of,
547, 555, 852.
Toledo, description of, 493 ; journey to, 508.
TOMPKINS, DANIEL D., Governor of New York, 639, 970.
TOO-TUMA-STUBBLE, Indian chief, 747.
Toronto, a journey to — veteran of 1812, 592 ; old fort, remains
of, 593.
Torpedo, its use, 228, 239 ; in New York harbor, 241 ; alarm
of the British at, 693 ; in the Potomac, 940.
TOTTEN, JOSEPH G., 403.
TOWSON, NATHAN, sketch of, 809.
Trafalgar, battle of, 552.
Traffic, illicit, considered, 784.
Transports, British, capture of, 645.
TRANT, JAMES, 644.
TREADWELL, JOHN, 1016.
Treasury, United States, 114.
TREAT, JOSEPH, Captain, sketch of, 807.
Treaty, Jay's, with Great Britain, violent opposition to,
87 ; between Great Britain and the United States in 1814
agreed to, 150 ; signatures of signers of, 1063.
Tripoli blockaded, 119, 121, 122 ; floating mine in the harbor
of, 122 ; its explosion, 122 ; peace with, 125.
TEOLLOPE, Mrs., at Cincinnati, 41.
Troops, want of, 917.
TROTTER, GBORGE, Lieutenant Colonel, 552.
TRUXTUN, commander of Constellation, 103 ; his fight with
the French frigate La Vengeance, 104; welcomed at home
— honored by Congress, 105.
TUNIS, Bey of, 118.
TUPPER, Colonel, conduct of, 332, 343.
TURKEY FOOT, Indian Chief, death of, 55.
United States, 19, 24 ; difficulties with Great Britain, 24 ; bit
ter feeling of, 84; difficulties with France, 92; prepares
for war with France, 98 ; government of the, 102 ; her
thrift, 138 ; her foreign relations, 140 ; merchants present
memorials to Congress, 140, 141, 145; her friendly propo
sitions unheeded, ISO ; indignation of the people, 185 ;
coast defenses of, 235, 236, 237 ; at peace with the world,
234; power broken, 913 ; the people aroused, 320; charges
against the government of the, 469 ; prepares for a vigor
ous prosecution of the war, 576 ; Peace Party hails down
fall of Napoleon with delight, S54; flag of the, 1005.
United States, frigate, 454, 455 ; imprisoned in the Thames,
695.
UPHAM, Lieutenant Colonel, triumph of, 839.
Valparaiso, the Essex arrives there, 723 ; friendliness of the
Chilians, 724; incidents in the harbor of, 731.
VAN DE VENTER, CHRISTOPHER, sketch of, 604, 788.
VAN HORNE, THOMAS B., defeat of, 276.
VAN METER, HENRY, 912.
VAN NESS, -JOHN P., General, 920.
VAN RENSSELAER, SOLOMON, General, transferred from
Queenston to Albany, 407 ; sketch of, 408 ; letter of, 942.
VAN RENSSELAER, STEPHEN, General, appointed command-
er-in-chief, 381 ; diplomacy of, 3S3 ; sketch of, 383 ; calls
for re-enforcements, 384 ; proposal to invade Canada, 384 ;
prepares to attack Queenstown, 390; renews the attempt
to mvade Canada, 392; wounded, 396; resignation of,
410.
VANSITTART, Chancellor of the Exchequer, 233.
VARNUM, JOSEPH B., Speaker of the House, 210.
VAUGHAN, WILLIAM, Captain, sketch of, 368; fights with the
Royal George, 368, 369.
VEAZY, Colonel, 674.
Victoria, medal of, 666.
VILLERE, GABRIEL, Major, 102S ; British at mansion cf, If.SX
Vincennes, return of the army to, 206.
VINCENT, General, 601 ; narrow escape of, 604.
Virginia, Fort, 617.
Virginia, Southwestern, sympathizes with revolt, 24 ; West
ern frontier of, threatened, 45 ; secession of, proposed,
87 ; Capes of, 669.
Virginians, honor Burr for his duel with Hamilton, 135.
Volunteers, call for, response to, 252 ; a call for, 475.
VROOMAN, SOLOMON, 417. »
WADSWORTH, DECIUS, Colonel, 938.
WADBWORTH, ELIJAH, General, sketch of, 340 ; energy of,
342 400.
WALBACH, Adjutant General, 653.
WALDO, DANIEL, 1016.
WALES, PRINCE OF, visit of, 417.
WALK-IN-THE- WATER, Indian Chief, 279.
WALWORTH, REUBEN H., sketch of, 873.
Wa-pagh-ko-netta, Indian village, 345.
WARD, AARON, 640.
WARD, SAMUEL, 1016.
WARREN, JOHN B., Admiral, 667, 679; thanks Captain Broke,
709.
WARRINGTON, LEWIS, sketch of, 980; commander of the
Peacock, 980.
Washington, city of, in great peril, 916 ; great want of troops,
917; preparations to defend, 918; General Winder in
command at, 918 ; removal of the public records of, 923 :
British retreat from, 937.
1084
INDEX.
Washington, Fort, a visit to, 943.
WASHINGTON, GEORGE, proposed a confederation of a com
mercial nature, 25 ; chosen president of the Convention,
26 ; elected President, 33 ; expression of indignation of,
49 ; kindness to St. Clair, 50 ; appoints his cabinet, 51) ;
approves Hamilton's financial scheme, 65; wisdom and
prudence of, 73; difficulties with France, 77; his procla
mation of neutrality, 78 ; his interview with Genet, 80 ;
attempt to intimidate, 87 ; calm and faithful, 88 ; issues
proclamation, 88 ; recommends a navy, 90 ; attacks on
character of, 92 , close of administration of, 92 ; appoint
ed commander-in-chief, 98; death of, 109; action of Con
gress on death of, 110 ; medal in honor of, 111 ; sketch
of person and character of, 111 ; picture of, saved by Mrs.
Madison, 935.
War, preparations for, 216, 231 ; predicted, 223 ; declaration
of, 228 ; action against, 243 ; officers of, 250 ; first blood
shed in the, 267 ; survivors of the, 361, 416, 539 ; prisoners
of, 403 ; first shot fired afloat, 435 ; vigorous prosecution
of, 576; British resolve on, 667; Department of, 793 ; Sec
retary of, 919 ; end of, 992, 1007.
Wasp, cruise of the, 449 ; fight with the Frolic, 450 ; captures
the Reindeer, 979 ; combat with the Avon, 980 ; loss of the,
with all on board, 980.
Watawanuc, ancient name of Stonington, 915.
Watertown, N. Y., arsenal established there, 366; visit to,
617.
WATTS, GEOKGE, 812.
WAYNE, ANTHONY, General, appointed commander, 50;
visits the Indian country, 51 ; battle of Fort Recovery, 52;
expedition down the Maumee, 53 ; makes offer of peace,
53 ; battle of Fallen Timbers, 54, 198.
Wayne, Fort, battle near, 42 ; designs against, 313 ; attack
on, 314; siege of, 315; built, 316; relief, 325.
WEATHERSFORD, WILLIAM, 754; deserted by his warriors,
772 ; visits Jackson, 781, 782 ; sketch of, 782.
WEBSTER, DANIEL, 232.
WELLINGTON, Duke of, head of the English army, 233 ; en
ters Paris, 854.
WELLS, Captain, death of, 309.
WELLS, SAMUEL, Colonel, sent to Elk Hart River, 325;
marches for Frenchtown, 353.
WELLS, LESTER, 772.
WEST, BENJAMIN, 1016.
WHITE, ROBERT, survivor of the battle of Niagara, 843.
WUITLOOK, AMBROSE, Major, 199.
WHITTLEBEY, ELISHA, sketch of, 341, 943.
WILDE, SAMUEL SUMNER, 1016.
Wilderness, the army in the, 256 ; transportation in, 349.-
WILKINSON, JAMES, General, 538 ; succeeds General Dear
born, 629; his interview with Armstrong, 630; atSackett'e
Harbor, 630 ; concentrates his forces, C38 ; his expedition
leaves Sackett's Harbor, 646 ; on the St. Lawrence, 648,
649 ; holds council of officers, 650, 651 ; leaves New Or
leans, 741; considered incompetent, 789; crosses the Can
ada border, 790 ; attacks British garrison, 791 ; end of
military career of, 792.
WILLIAMS, EI.EAZAR, the Lost Prince, 377, 875.
WILLIAMS, JONATHAN, sketch of, 235.
Wilmington, powder-mills at, 966.
WINCHESTER, JAMES, General, arriwl of at Fort Wayne,
326 ; march of through the wilderness, 326 ; at Fort Defi
ance, 328 ; his troops in a deplorable condition, 330 ; mis
understandings with brother officers, 331 ; re-enforce
ments for, 343 ; attempts to relieve Tupper, 344 ; sends
troops to Frenchtown, 351 ; arrival of relief party for, 352 ;
head-quarters of, 353; lack of vigilance of, 354; taken
prisoner, 356 ; sent to Quebec, 359.
Winchester, Fort, remains of, 333.
WINDER, WILLIAM H., General, capture of, 604, 854; put in
command in Washington, 918 ; sketch of, 918, 919 ; calls
for troops, 920 ; the forces at his command, 921 ; invites
the government to a council, 925.
WOOD, Lieutenant Colonel, mortally wounded, 838.
WOOL, JOHN E., General, wounded, 396 ; takes command,
396 ; sketch of, 397; sent to meet the British, 862.
WOOLSEY, commander of the Oneida, 367 ; prepares for fight
on Lake Ontario, 367 ; purchases vessels for the navy,
371 ; expedition of, 798, 799.
WORTH, WILLIAM JENKINS, General, 812.
WORTHINGTON, THOMAS, sketch of, 568.
WYLLYS, Major, 42.
Wyoming Valley, refugees from, 625.
Yankee, privateer, cruise of,1000 ; takes valuable prizes,1001.
"Yankee DoodU,"\vhen played in derision, 369.
YABNALL, JOHN J., sketch of, 524.
YEO, SIR JAMES, challenges Captain Porter, 440 ; commands
British squadron, 609 ; sails from Kingston, 793 ; conduct
of, 796 ; sends troops to Quebec, 858 ; does not venture to
attack Chauncey, 886.
York, descent on, 628; battle at, 589; surrender of, 590;
abandoned by the Americans, 591.
YORK, JOSEPH, bravery of, 580 ; sketch of, 580.
YORK, Mrs. JOSEPH, bravery and patriotism of, 580.
You, DOMINIQUE, 1037 ; tomb of, 1043.
YOUNG, GUILFORD DUDLEY, gallant exploit of, 374, 375;
sketch of, 376.
THE END.
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