CHAPTER XII

EARLY WORK ON THE GREAT LAKES

IT WAS A BEAUTIFUL REGION UNMARKED BY THE HAND OF MAN IN THOSE DAYS--THE LONG TRAIL TO OSWEGO--THE FIRST YANKEE WAR-SHIP ON FRESH WATER--THE BRITISH GET AHEAD OF US ON LAKE ONTARIO--GOOD WORK OF “THE OLD SOW” AT SACKETT’S HARBOR--A DASH INTO KINGSTON HARBOR--THE STORY OF THE BRILLIANT WORK BY WHICH JESSE D. ELLIOTT WON A SWORD AND THE ADMIRATION OF THE NATION.

The student of American naval history who with weary toil reads through the proceedings of the Congress for the year 1813, finds two paragraphs marked “approved January 29,” that, because of the matters to which they refer, stir him as not many other paragraphs of all the printed proceedings of that legislative body from its first gathering down to the present day are able to do. They are brief--the first contains sixteen printed lines, and the last only seven. But in the first, gold medals are awarded to Hull, of the _Constitution_, Decatur, of the _United States_, and Jones, of the _Wasp_, for the astounding results they achieved in their combats with the _Guerrière_, the _Macedonian_, and the _Frolic_. And in the second the President of the United States “is requested to present to Lieutenant Elliott, of the Navy of the United States, an elegant sword, with suitable emblems and devices, in testimony of the just sense entertained by Congress of his gallantry and good conduct in boarding and capturing the British brigs _Detroit_ and _Caledonia_, while anchored under the protection of Fort Erie.”

[Illustration: _From a lithograph at the Navy Department, Washington._]

It was no small honor to have one’s name mentioned in connection with Hull, Decatur, and Jones, but a few months later (July 13, 1813) Elliott’s name once more appears in an act of Congress, this time in connection with that of Lawrence. Lawrence and his men get $25,000 for the destruction of the _Peacock_; Elliott “and his officers and companions” get $12,000 for the destruction of the _Detroit_.

The fight in which Lieutenant Jesse D. Elliott won these honors, if compared gun for gun and man for man with the battles of the great naval heroes with whom his name was mentioned, was but small and unimportant. They fought with well-manned, fully equipped ships on the high seas; he in row-boats on a fresh-water lake in the backwoods, and armed with borrowed weapons. But when considered in its proper light--when considered in its influence upon the Americans and on the enemy, and especially when considered in its influence as the forerunner of the great fresh-water battles where Perry and Macdonough won glory, this was a most important conflict; for it fired the hearts of the Yankee frontiersmen at a time when such disasters as the surrender of Detroit to the British had made some kind of encouragement most needful.

But before recounting the stirring events of the night when this Yankee seaman earned his first honors, it is important to recount, as briefly as may be, how it happened that Elliott, a salt-sea sailor, was found on a fresh-water sea in the backwoods.

It is a delight to the student who loves nature to think of the American frontier as it was in the days of 1812. For in those days the forest stretched away from Maine along the swift St. Lawrence and the green waters of the Great Lakes to end at the prairies of the far West. It was a country as God made it and almost unmarred by the bungling hand of man. The moose and the red deer, the wild turkey and the partridge, roamed undisturbed at will, and the settlers who had gathered at widely separated points must needs provide bounties on wolf and panther and wild-cat scalps to protect their cattle and sheep, their ducks and chickens. To go to the St. Lawrence River the traveller found it most convenient to go up the Hudson to the head of navigation, and then, after carrying his burden overland to Lake George, proceed by the way of Lake Champlain. To the east of this there was no highway through the vast forest. To the west lay the Adirondacks. To reach the Great Lakes the traveller must needs leave the Hudson for the Mohawk, and travel up its winding course in the shoal-draft scows called batteaux that were pushed along by poles, just as the Big Sandy and Tug Rivers in the Kentucky mountains are navigated at this day. At Little Falls was a portage where the Indians and the Dutch used to compete for the privilege of carrying goods around the broken water, and thereafter the route as far as where Rome now stands was usually unimpeded. This place reached, another portage must be made to Wood Creek, that flowed toward Lake Ontario, and so at last the traveller saw from the bluffs of Oswego the wide water before him. There were, indeed, roads along these routes--trails, properly speaking, over which one could drive a wagon in the dry months of summer and early fall, and a sled after the snow came in winter. In the wet seasons these trails were practically impassable.

Nevertheless, when the Congress discussed schemes for resenting British aggression, the invasion of Canada was always mentioned first of all!

[Illustration: Sackett’s Harbor, 1814.]

To operate against Canada effectually it was necessary to have a naval force on the great fresh-water lakes of Erie and Ontario. When the British ship _Leopard_ attacked the _Chesapeake_ in order to impress upon American minds that once an American citizen was impressed into the British Navy he must remain there until the British Government saw fit to release him, the American Congress was stirred so far as to order a war-brig built on Lake Ontario. She was begun at Oswego in 1808, and launched as the _Oneida_ in 1809, under the command of Lieutenant Melancthon Woolsey, U. S. N. During this year also Sackett’s Harbor was chosen as a naval station, and some military companies were stationed there. Arsenals were established by New York State in Champion Village and at Watertown, both not far from Sackett’s Harbor. And thereafter the embargo acts of one kind and another gave sufficient excuse to the people of that region to make very lively times, both afloat and ashore, until, in 1812, the war came.

In fact war began here before it was declared at Washington. The British merchant-schooner _Lord Nelson_ was found in American waters and captured by the _Oneida_ on May 12th. She was condemned for violating the Embargo Act. In June the British merchant-schooner _Niagara_ was taken and sold for violating the revenue laws. These seizures were revenged after the war began by an energetic Canadian named Jones, who organized a party and captured two of a fleet of eight American merchant-schooners trying to flee from Ogdensburg to Sackett’s Harbor. The two were burned.

Meantime, it should be said that while the American shores were sparsely settled, the Canadian side of the waters was very well settled, Kingston being the chief naval and military post. And while the Americans were building one slow brig to prepare for the inevitable war, the British had built and armed a squadron of six vessels that included the _Royal George_, of twenty-two guns, _Prince Regent_, of sixteen guns, _Earl of Moira_, of fourteen guns, and three smaller ones carrying fourteen, twelve, and four guns--in all eighty-four guns. These were commanded by a Commodore Earle. It is worth noting here that the British historians all speak of these vessels and their crews as Canadians as distinguished from the British, and that the Canadian seamen are everywhere denounced as cowards, just as the Yankee seamen were. However, the distinction between “colonists” and the “British” is made by English writers to this day.

[Illustration: SCENE OF Naval Operations on LAKE ONTARIO, 1812-’13.]

Commodore Earle decided in July to capture the _Oneida_, that was lying in Sackett’s Harbor, and destroy the little fort there. Rumors of his coming having reached the station, Woolsey, who still commanded the _Oneida_, prepared to fight in spite of the overwhelming odds against him. A long thirty-two had been sent up from the coast for the _Oneida_ some time before, but it had proved too heavy for her, and it had therefore been allowed to lie half-buried in the mud on the shore of the bay, where, because it lay comfortably in the mud, it was known as “The Old Sow.” This was placed in the fort on the bluff overlooking the channel into the harbor, with a couple of sixes and a couple of nines beside it. Next, the _Oneida_ was moored outside of Navy Point where she could rake the channel, and then nothing more could be done but fight it out as best they might.

On the morning of July 19, 1812, the British squadron appeared. It was “a lovely Sabbath morning,” with a head-wind for the British, who came beating up past Horse Island. By 8 o’clock they were within range and a lake mariner, Captain William Vaughan, let drive with “The Old Sow” at the _Royal George_. He didn’t have the range that time and the British laughed and jeered loudly. On their getting nearer, however, the firing from the shore began to tell. The _Royal George_ caught one shot below the water-line and one higher up in the hull. The _Prince Regent_ and the _Earl of Moira_ were struck. The shot from the ships all fell on the beach, save one that landed in the yard of the old Sacket mansion, where Sergeant Spies picked it up, and carrying it to Captain Vaughan, he said:

“I have been playing ball with the red coats and have caught ’em out. See if the British can catch back again.”

Captain Vaughan loaded the ball into the old gun. At that moment the _Royal George_ was wearing around to fire a broadside and was stern on to the fort. Taking careful aim Captain Vaughan fired, and the shot “struck her stern, raked her completely, sent splinters as high as her mizzen topsail-yard, killed fourteen men and wounded eighteen.” So said a deserter. The British never published an account of their losses that day, and the story is probably true, because Commodore Earle hauled off while a Yankee band played “Yankee Doodle,” and the first battle of Sackett’s Harbor was ended. “Nothing animate or inanimate on shore had been injured in the least.”

The next attack was on the six schooners at Ogdensburg, that had escaped the valiant Jones, of Canada. The British sent two vessels, one of fourteen and one of ten guns, to Prescott, opposite Ogdensburg. The Americans sent an Oswego-built schooner called the _Julia_, armed with a long thirty-two and two long sixes, and manned with thirty men, to convoy these schooners to Sackett’s Harbor. A big, open boat with some sharpshooters went along. This squadron of two, mounting three guns, “encountered and actually beat off, without losing a man,” the two British ships that mounted twenty-four guns between them. The words quoted are from James, the British historian, and his figures are given as to the armament. It is therefore altogether probable that the two beaten Britishers carried at least ten more guns than the figures given.

[Illustration: Captain Woolsey.

_From a painting at the Naval Academy, Annapolis._]

Thus Commander Woolsey added five small schooners to his fleet; later in the autumn he added four more. Meantime, Commodore Isaac Chauncey was appointed to command the forces on the Great Lakes; he brought a gang of ship-carpenters to Sackett’s Harbor, and one hundred experienced officers and seamen, besides guns, etc. The Commodore arrived on October 6th. On November 26th he launched a ship built of timber that stood in the forest when he arrived, and she was able to carry twenty-four short thirty-twos. And that was neither the first nor the last time that Yankee carpenters showed the world how to build a ship in a hurry.

But while the carpenters worked, the Commodore went afloat with the _Oneida_ and six armed schooners on October 8th. And then there was a fight over at Kingston. Finding the _Royal George_ out at the False Duck Islands the Commodore chased her into Kingston Harbor, and then at 3 o’clock he decided to run in and see what sort of defences the port had. Two of his schooners were off chasing merchantmen, but the remaining four, carrying a long thirty-two each, went in ahead of the _Oneida_. One, the _Pert_, had the misfortune to burst her big gun. Her commander, Sailing-master Arundel, was badly hurt and four others slightly. Arundel refused to leave the deck, but by accident fell overboard and was drowned. The other schooners kept up a brisk fire on the five batteries about the harbor, while the _Oneida_, which carried only sixteen short twenty-fours, holding her fire, ranged up beside the _Royal George_ and then gave it to her. In twenty minutes the British had had enough of it, and chopping their rope cables they ran their ship to the shore where the water was so shoal that the holes in her hull couldn’t sink her and a big body of troops could defend her. Then finding the shore batteries too heavy and the wind rising against his course out of the harbor, Chauncey retreated. The _Royal George_ had been well beaten and the schooner _Simeo_ sunk. And thereafter four schooners sufficed to blockade the port of Kingston until the ice relieved them of the task.

The expedition under General Wilkinson that left Sackett’s Harbor at the beginning of October, 1813, to attack Montreal, is worth a paragraph, because it shows how utterly futile it usually was and is to give a sailor’s work to a landsman. Everything was ready on October 4th, but the order to start was not issued until the 12th, and the order was not obeyed until the 17th. When they did finally get away the huge flotilla of boats was not only overloaded, but the start was made at night when one of the long, fierce storms of the region was coming on. Fifteen large boats were lost that night, while every soul afloat endured the greatest hardships from wind and sleet. After waiting along-shore and among the islands for the storm to end, the expedition pushed on and reached Grenadier Island on the 20th. They went on eventually, beginning on the 29th, but the delays had given the enemy every opportunity to gather to oppose the expedition. They passed Prescott on the night of the 6th, but they came to grief when on the 11th they met the enemy at Chrysler’s farm, below Williamsburg. Instead of capturing Montreal they built winter-quarters on Salmon River.

[Illustration: Wilkinson’s Flotilla.

_From an old wood-cut._]

Along with Commodore Chauncey came Lieutenant Jesse D. Elliott. He had the confidence of the Commodore and was at once sent forward to Buffalo, where he was “to purchase any number of merchant vessels or boats that might be converted into vessels of war or gun-boats” and, further, “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.”

In those days Black Rock was a village about two miles from Buffalo on the road toward Niagara Falls, Main Street being then, as now, the chief thoroughfare of Buffalo, while Black Rock was a settlement at the head of Niagara River. It was at Black Rock that Elliott decided to establish the navy-yard. At first thought this might seem to have been a hazardous undertaking, because almost directly across the river was a strong British post--Fort Erie, which is now chiefly celebrated for having a fine beach, where Buffalo people go when overheated, as New York people go to Coney Island. However, if the British might be expected to try crossing to interfere with Elliott’s ship-building, it was also possible for Elliott to keep a good watch on British movements; and this he did.

[Illustration: Detroit in 1815.]

So it happened that when two brigs came down the lake from Detroit and anchored under the guns of Fort Erie on October 8, 1812, Elliott learned the fact instantly. One of these brigs was of Yankee build. She was new and almost ready for service at Detroit, when that post fell into the hands of the British, and was at once taken into their service and called the _Detroit_ to commemorate their taking of the town. The other brig was called the _Caledonia_. She was the property of a British fur-buying company and had come from the upper lakes (although the Americans did not know it at the time) loaded with fine furs to the value of $200,000. What Elliott did know, when he saw the two brigs, was that those two vessels were just what he wanted for use on the lake, and that it would be very much better for the American cause to go over and take them than to buy and build a score. And this he determined to do.

As good fortune had it, a detachment of seamen that included an ensign and forty-seven men and petty officers arrived at Black Rock on the evening of the day when the brigs reached Fort Erie. These men were unarmed, but Elliott was not without resource. At that time Winfield Scott, of whom every school-boy has read, was a lieutenant-colonel in command of troops at Black Rock, and to him Elliott applied for arms and men with success. It is not uninteresting to note that when application was made to the militia for arms for the expedition across the river the order to obtain them read: “all the pistols, swords, and sabres, you can borrow _at the risk of the lenders_.” Enough owners of weapons willing to lend without making a claim on the Government in case of loss were found, and the arms provided for the sailors. A company of fifty soldiers under Captain Towson volunteered to help. Two big boats were prepared in Shajackuda Creek, that empties into the Niagara below Black Rock, and at midnight one hundred and twenty-four men, all told, embarked.

Let it be kept in mind that the _Detroit_ was a well-built war-brig, fully armed and manned, that the _Caledonia_ was well manned by the hardy lake seamen accustomed to dealing with the savage Indians of the far West, and that both vessels were anchored under the guns of a strong military post, full of experienced men. There were three batteries of great guns in place, besides field artillery that could be brought to bear in a few minutes. To cut out these two vessels was a task but little less hazardous than the attack which Decatur made on the frigate _Philadelphia_ in the harbor of Tripoli.

One needs to see the mighty sweep of the Niagara River past Black Rock to appreciate the task of the seamen under Elliott who had to row the boats up stream from the creek and across to the Canadian shores.

[Illustration:

1. Buffalo. 2. Fort Erie. 3. Black Rock. 4. British batteries. 5. Sailors’ barracks. 6. Artillery encampment. 7. Squaw Island. 8. Strawberry Island. 9. Detroit aground. 10. Caledonia ashore. 11. Navy-yard. 12. British artillery. 13. Point of embarkation.

Capture of the British Brigs _Detroit_ and _Caledonia_, October 12, 1812.

_From a wood-cut prepared under the supervision of Lieutenant Jesse D. Elliott himself._]

They embarked at midnight, and at 1 o’clock found themselves in the current of the Niagara. For two hours thereafter they pulled with steady stroke, and then as the anchor-watch on the _Detroit_ was noting the hour of 3, a pistol-shot from a big boat that suddenly loomed alongside, roused the crew from their over-strong feeling of security. A volley of musketry followed and then over the rail tumbled fifty men, led by Lieutenant Elliott, and the _Detroit_ was in American hands. The surprise of the _Detroit_ was completely successful. A minute or two later the other boat, under Sailing-master Watts, was beside the _Caledonia_. Her more watchful crew were up and ready to greet these men with a volley, but the attack was resistless and “in less than ten minutes I had the prisoners all seized, the top-sails sheeted home, and the vessels under weigh.” So wrote Lieutenant Elliott.

But though under sail the wind was too light to carry the brigs against the current, and they could not reach the lake as they wished to do. The British batteries opened a hot fire. Elliott replied with the guns of the _Detroit_ as long as the ammunition lasted, while striving at the same time to get her across to the American side. “For ten minutes she went blindly down the current,” while the steady flashing of cannon afloat and ashore illuminated the night, and people ran to and fro on both sides of the river shouting and cheering. And then the _Detroit_ grounded on Squaw Island, opposite what is now the foot of Albany Street, Buffalo. The Americans landed their prisoners, forty-six in number, below the island, but before they could return some British regulars had crossed over and captured the _Detroit_. The Yankees, with a six-pounder field-piece on Squaw Island, drove them away, and Winfield Scott and some troops took possession. But she was still within reach of the British long guns, and during the remainder of the night and all the next day she was under fire. Then the British brought a war vessel, the _Lady Prevost_, to cover them while they were to take her off, and so the Americans fired and destroyed her.

Meantime Elliott had carried the _Caledonia_ clear of all, and she was the first member of the fleet that enabled the gallant Perry to write, “We have met the enemy and they are ours.”

As already said, the fight, considered beside the salt-sea battles, was only a trifling skirmish, but two British ships were captured, the percentage of damage done to the British power afloat on Lake Erie was tremendous, and as an example of dashing bravery the feat thrilled the whole American nation. Not less marked was its effect upon the British, for General Sir Isaac Brock, who commanded in that department, wrote:

“The event is particularly unfortunate and may reduce us to incalculable distress. The enemy is making every exertion to gain a naval superiority on both lakes, which, if they accomplish it, I do not see how we can possibly retain the country.”

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