CHAPTER XV

THE WAR ON LAKE ONTARIO

THE CAPTURE OF YORK (TORONTO) BY THE AMERICANS--A VICTORY AT THE MOUTH OF THE NIAGARA RIVER--BRITISH ACCOUNT OF THE ATTACK ON SACKETT’S HARBOR--TALES OF THE PRUDENCE OF SIR JAMES YEO AND COMMODORE CHAUNCEY--THE AMERICANS DID SOMEWHAT BETTER THAN THE BRITISH, BUT MISSED A GREAT OPPORTUNITY--SMALL AFFAIRS ON LAKE CHAMPLAIN DURING THE SUMMER OF 1813.

While Perry was laboring at Erie to get his squadron ready, the Americans on Lake Ontario, as has been intimated in what was said about the capture of Fort George, were by no means idle. Plans were laid for an assault on Toronto--then called York--to be followed by the attack on Fort George at the mouth of Niagara River, and after that, Kingston, the British naval station across from Sackett’s Harbor, was to be assaulted. A force of 8,300 men was collected for this purpose at Sackett’s Harbor in the spring of 1813, of whom 1,300 were sailors from the squadron of Commodore Chauncey. The soldiers were under General Dearborn, assisted by General Zebulon M. Pike. On April 22, 1813, 1,700 soldiers were embarked on the fourteen ships under Chauncey, the flag-ship being the _Madison_, commanded by Lieutenant Elliott, who was afterward to go to aid Perry.

[Illustration: _Map of_

NIAGARA RIVER]

The squadron sailed on the 25th, and after a stormy, sea-sick passage, appeared off Toronto on the 27th, and the troops were landed under command of Pike, Dearborn being too sick to go ashore. Pike was a famous explorer in his day, and the famous Peak of Colorado perpetuates his memory. As the boats were going ashore he observed that the leaders were hesitating under fire from the British, and jumping into a boat, he was quickly at the head of the procession and effected a landing. The chief work of the navy here was to bombard the works within reach, and the woods where a lot of Indians were in cover, but it is worth telling that, as the American troops were advancing, Pike ordered a bugler to sound a charge, and that the wild notes of this instrument so terrified the red men that they fled with a horrified yell in dismay--leaving the Yankees to advance to the tune of “Yankee Doodle” unmolested by them. And to this must be added the fact that a magazine in a block-house that the enemy despaired of holding was blown up, and fifty-two Americans were killed and one hundred and eighty wounded. As it happened, forty of the British also lost their lives by the explosion. Pike was among the mortally wounded, but he had the satisfaction of dying with the flag of the enemy under his head. A large quantity of naval and military stores were taken here, besides two hundred and ninety prisoners.

[Illustration: The Death of General Pike.

_From an old wood-cut._]

It is a pleasure to add that in spite of the antagonisms that grew out of a war which the Americans were compelled to wage to protect their seamen on the high seas, there is no city in the British domain where Yankees are more cordially received than at Toronto.

[Illustration: The Niagara River and Scenes from the War of 1812.

_From an engraving in Hinton’s History of the United States._]

From Toronto the American squadron went to the head of the lake, arriving on May 11th. Here the attack on Fort George, just inside the mouth of Niagara River, was planned, and on the morning of May 27, 1813, the troops embarked before daylight to make the assault. It is recorded that a heavy fog prevailed until after sunrise, when it suddenly cleared away, revealing the squadron with flat-boats and row-boats, covered with men, afloat on the dimpling waters. A fresh breeze enabled the vessels to take their designated places with ease. Three were stationed to care for a battery on the point. Two more were placed to attack a fort near the landing-place at Two Mile Creek, and three more were anchored close in at the landing to cover the troops. The battery at the landing was bombarded so skilfully that it was silenced, and then the boats loaded with troops, under the management of Perry, quickly reached the shore, when the troops, led by Winfield Scott, who lived to become the head of the regular army, made an effectual landing. But that was only a beginning. Three times the gallant Scott was repulsed by the superior numbers of the enemy that met him as he charged up the slope before him, but after twenty minutes of hard fighting, during which the ships raked the enemy with their great guns, the enemy broke and fled. Then the Americans dashed at Fort George itself. The enemy succeeded in blowing up one of their magazines, but the Americans extinguished the burning trains leading to two smaller ones, and Scott, with his own hands, hauled down the British flag.

[Illustration: Isaac Chauncey.

_From an engraving by Edwin of the portrait by Wood._]

But while Chauncey was at the head of the lake, the British at Kingston learned that Sackett’s Harbor had been left with only a small force to defend it, and, to quote a British account of what they did in consequence, “Sir George Prevost now allowed himself to be persuaded to embark seven hundred and fifty troops on board the squadron for the purpose of making an attack on Sackett’s Harbor; but to mar the successful issue of the plan, he resolved to head the troops himself.”

On May 27th, the day when the Americans were taking Fort George at the head of the lake, the British squadron with a fair wind sailed across to Sackett’s Harbor, arriving at noon, when the fleet hove to and prepared to send the troops on shore. Then “Sir George hesitated, looked at the place, mistook trees for troops and block-houses for batteries, and ordered the expedition to put back.”

Meantime, however, some Indians had made a dash ashore with canoes and captured a squad of American soldiers, whom they carried off to the British squadron. So Sir George tried again, and on the 29th made a landing. The Americans were outnumbered and at first fled. A new ship called the _General Pike_, a ship called the _Duke of Gloucester_, captured at Toronto, and a barrack containing all the stores captured at the same time, were fired. Then the Americans came back to fight, “the British retired to their vessels, and the Americans, as soon as they could credit their senses, hastened to stop the conflagration.” The _Duke of Gloucester_ and the stores, however, were burned. The above quotations are from “Military Occurrences between Great Britain and the United States.”

[Illustration: CAPT^N. SIR JAMES LUCAS YEO.KN^T.]

Soon after his victory at Fort George, Chauncey returned to Sackett’s Harbor. In the meantime Captain Sir James L. Yeo had been placed in command of the British naval forces on Lake Ontario. Yeo, in the frigate _Southampton_, had captured the little American twelve-gun brig _Vixen_ in the West Indies, on November 22, 1812, but had lost both his ship and his prize by running ashore on Concepcion Island in the Bahama group. He had also sent a challenge to Captain Porter of the _Essex_, as follows:

“Sir James Yeo presents his compliments to Captain Porter, of the American frigate _Essex_, and would be glad to have a _tête-à-tête_, anywhere between the capes of Delaware and Havana, where he would have the pleasure to break his sword over his damned head and put him down forward in irons.”

It was Sir James who brought Sir George Prevost to Sackett’s Harbor and carried him back again. Before Chauncey got back to Sackett’s Harbor, Sir James was able to add a new ship, the _Wolfe_, a twenty-four-gun sloop-of-war, to his squadron, and this made his force afloat superior to that of the Americans. Following the failure at Sackett’s Harbor he went cruising, captured two American supply-schooners, and landed at Sodus Point, where he got six hundred barrels of flour. This was in June. During that month the Americans captured a British supply-schooner, and thereafter nothing was done until near the end of July.

On July 21st the new American twenty-eight-gun ship _Pike_ was ready to sail, and a schooner, the _Sylph_, had also been added to the squadron at Sackett’s Harbor. With his whole force, Commodore Chauncey sailed to the Niagara River, took on Scott and some regulars, and made another assault on Toronto, where they destroyed eleven transports, burned the barracks and carried off five cannon, a lot of flour, and some ammunition. Returning to Niagara, Lieutenant Elliott and a hundred men were sent to join Perry. This was done on August 3d. On August 7, 1813, while the Americans lay at anchor at Niagara, Yeo’s squadron appeared. The American squadron at this time numbered thirteen vessels, of which three were built for men-of-war and had bulwarks to protect the men at the guns from the grape-shot and musketry of the enemy. The rest were schooners without bulwarks--merchant-schooners that had had guns mounted on them. The Americans had 965 men on board, and their guns threw 1,390 pounds of metal at a broadside, of which long guns threw 800 pounds.

Yeo had only six vessels, but these were all men-of-war and had high, thick bulwarks. They were manned by not less than seven hundred and seventy men, and their guns threw 1,374 pounds of metal, all but one hundred and eighty being from short guns. Obviously at long range in fine weather the Americans would have the advantage of force, while at short range all but three of the Yankee vessels would be wellnigh useless; and in rough weather the Yankee schooners would be wholly useless.

On the 7th the squadrons jockeyed for place. At 1 o’clock next morning a squall overturned the two American schooners _Hamilton_ and _Scourge_ because their big guns made them top-heavy. This reduced the American weight of metal thrown to one hundred and forty-four pounds less than the British. For two days more the two commanders jockeyed for place, and it is obvious that if either had had the spirit of Perry when he said “To windward or to leeward they shall fight to-day,” the fight would have taken place. All the next day still (August 10, 1813) the two squadrons filled and backed, but at 7 o’clock at night they got together, the British to windward in a single column, the Yankees in the lee in two columns, the big ships being in the lee line. Chauncey hoped that Yeo would try to close on the schooners, and that they could then slip through between the big ones and beat around to rake the enemy when engaged with the regular American men-of-war.

At 11 o’clock the American schooners opened fire at long range. Fifteen minutes later the British knight replied and “the action became general and harmless.”

At 11.30 all the American schooners but the _Growler_ and _Julia_ squared away and passed to the lee of the big Americans. The two tacked up ahead of the British squadron. But the British did not come down. On the contrary, Yeo tacked after the two schooners and got them in spite of a brilliant dash that they made to run through his line. When too late, Chauncey tried to beat up to help his two schooners, but he couldn’t beat fast enough to overtake Sir James Yeo. The next day the two squadrons were in sight of each other, the British knight being to windward, but he did not go hunting Yankee war-ships down wind nor did Chauncey crowd sail to beat up. That night the wind grew so heavy that two of the schooners had run to shelter and Chauncey with his seven remaining vessels went to Sackett’s Harbor, reprovisioned his vessels and came back again. The British had had the best of it, but Chauncey was by no means crushed.

From August 13th until September 10th the two bold commodores chased the wind, each very much surprised and disgusted that the other kept out of the way “though so much superior in force.”

On the day after Perry’s victory the two squadrons did have a brush at long range in a light breeze. It was a good day for the Yankee schooners, and Sir James, by his own confession, sailed away after a few shots had been fired. The Americans lost nothing. The British lost four killed and seven wounded. Then on the 28th there was another fight. It was on a very good day for a battle. The Americans made the attack and came down handsomely on the enemy, who received them warmly. The three leading American vessels were the new ship _Pike_ and the _Tompkins_ and _Asp_, the last being in tow of the _Pike_. The _Madison_ and the _Sylph_ had each a little schooner in tow and so were kept so far astern that they never got into the battle. The three leaders fired away bravely, the _Pike_ taking the _Wolfe_, Yeo’s flag-ship, as her special target. The Yankee _Tompkins_ lost her foremast but the _Pike_ shot away the maintop-mast and mainyard of the _Wolfe_ and killed so many men that Sir James squared away and made all sail to escape from the three Yankee ships, the remainder of the American fleet never getting within range. The Americans lost five in killed and wounded. The British did not publish the reports of their losses.

Having chased the British into Burlington Bay, Commodore Chauncey missed the one great opportunity of his lifetime. Burlington Bay was undefended. Had he sailed boldly in after the demoralized British, there was every hope of a triumph as complete as that of Perry on Lake Erie. But Chauncey did not sail in. He said he was afraid it would come on to blow and he would be caught on a lee shore. That he was afraid of something is undisputed. Chauncey, however, did now have command of the lake and a few days later retook the _Julia_ and the _Growler_ that Yeo had captured at the head of the lake, and took also the British schooners _Mary_, _Drummond_, and _Lady Gore_. These five were transporting troops along the lake-shore. Yeo got his warships into Kingston and Chauncey kept them there.

On the whole, the British had undisputed control of Lake Ontario during forty-eight days. There was a sort of a contest for the control lasting sixty-nine days, and the Americans held undisputed control for one hundred and seven days of the open season of 1813. The British captured the two schooners _Growler_ and _Julia_. The Americans retook these, captured a ten-gun brig at Toronto (the _Gloucester_), and burned a twenty-four-gun ship almost completed. They also destroyed army and navy supplies and other public property far in excess of the damage the British inflicted upon the Americans.

[Illustration: Buffalo, N. Y., Burned by the British, December 30, 1813.

_From an old wood-cut._]

There was also a small fight on Lake Champlain during the summer of 1813. The American naval force there was under Lieutenant Thomas Macdonough, whose name first appears in American history in the story of the Tripolitan war. Macdonough had two small sloops called the _Growler_ and the _Eagle_. On June 3d he sent them, under Lieutenant Smith, to the north end of the lake after three British gun-boats. The gun-boats fled down the Sorel River, the outlet of the lake. Smith bravely, but foolishly, followed them, and so got into a trap, for a strong British land force came to help the gun-boats, and pelted the American decks with musketry. The Americans had only carronades, while the gun-boats had long twenty-fours. So the British kept out of range of the Yankee short guns and kept up a fire from the long twenty-fours until the _Eagle_ had a plank knocked off under water, when she sank instantly. The _Growler_ had her main boom and forestay shot away, and grounded. The British captured both and obtained for a time the mastery of that lake. The Americans in this fight had one man killed and nineteen wounded, who, with ninety-two unhurt men, fell into the British hands.

On July 31st Colonel J. Murray, with 1,000 British troops, aided by the captured sloops and the three gun-boats, assaulted Plattsburg and marched thence to Saranac. All the public stores at both places were burned and then Murray retreated.

How Lieutenant Thomas Macdonough not only prevented any further incursions of that kind, but retrieved all the losses he had sustained and shifted the account to the other side--how he fought and whipped a superior force of the enemy, while a clarion-voiced rooster flapped its wings and crowed for victory in the shot-frayed rigging--will be told in the next volume.

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