Cu. XI.] ATTACKS ON NORTHERN SEA COAST. The British pushed forward their regular approaches, while the Americans assiduously labored to complete their defences. General Brown, having recovered from his wounds, reassumed the command at Fort Erie, on the 2d of September; and frequent skirmishes occurred, without any material advantage to either side. On the 17th of September, a brilliant sortie was made against the enemy's batteries, which he had been busily occupied in erecting for a number of days, quite near to the fort; and after an hour's vigorous fighting, the ob1814. jects of the sortie were accomplished, and the Americans returned to the fort in good order, with many trophies of victory. The enemy's works were carried, the labors of six or seven weeks destroyed, the cannon spiked, and a thousand men placed hors de combat. General Brown's official report speaks in glowing terms of the gallantry of both officers and men. On the night of the 21st, General Drummond broke up his camp and retired to his entrenchments behind the Chippewa. The northern sea coast, which had thus far experienced little molestation from the enemy, became the object of attack early in the spring. On the 7th of April, a body of sailors and marines, to the number of two hundred, ascending the Connecticut River, landed at Pettipaug Point, about six miles above 239 a body of militia, aided by some marines and sailors, under Captain Jones and Lieutenant Biddle, from the neighboring American squadron, endeavored to cut them off from retreat, but unsuccessfully. Some $200,000 worth of shipping was destroyed on this occasion. 1814. About this time, the coasting trade was almost destroyed by a British pri vateer, the Liverpool Packet, which cruised in Long Island Sound. Commodore Lewis sailed with a detachment of thirteen gunboats, and succeeded in chasing her off. Proceeding to Saybrook, on his arrival there he found upwards of fifty vessels bound eastward, but afraid to venture out. The commodore undertook to convoy them, and sailed for that purpose on the 25th of April. Lewis, with his gunboats, gallantly put himself between the coasting vessels and a British frigate and sloop of war. The coasters escaped to New London, and Lewis at tacked the English vessels to considerable effect. The harbors of New York, New London and Boston continued to be blockaded, and the whole coast was exposed to incursions of the enemy. Commodore Hardy, as we have before men * * Ingersoll (vol. ii., p. 55) devotes a page or two to the subject of the "blue lights treason," as he phrases it, which the reader may examine, not without profit. Commodore Decatur, who was shut up in the harbor of New London, was very anxious to get out, in the Saybrook, and destroyed the shipping winter of 1813, but as often as he attempted it, blue they found there: thence, proceeding to Brockway's Ferry, they did the same; and, remained there, amusing themselves, unapprehensive of attack, for twenty-four hours. In the mean time, light signals, he averred, were displayed at the harbor's mouth, and the blockading squadron put on the alert. Decatur's official letter of the 20th of December, was brought up in the House of Representatives in Janu ary, 1814, but no result came of the movement. The vituperative expression, "blue light federalist," took its rise from this quarter 1814. tioned, (p. 192) endeavored to prevent outrage upon private property and defenceless villages, but occasionally his orders were not obeyed. Wareham, Scituate, Booth's Bay, and other places, suffered from the cupidity and violence of the enemy. On the 11th of July, Hardy, with eight ships and two thousand men, made a descent on Moose Island, in Passamaquoddy Bay, and having taken possession of Eastport, situated on that island, declared all the islands and towns in the bay to appertain to his Britannic majesty, and required the inhabitants to appear within seven days and take the oath of allegiance. About two-thirds of the inhabitants submitted to this indignity, in the hope of benefit from their submission; but to no purpose. Eastport was soon after strongly fortified, and remained in the possession of the British until the conclusion of the war; but they found extreme difficulty in subsisting their troops, and desertions were so frequent that the officers were often compelled to perform the duties of sentinels. On the 9th of August, Commodore Hardy sailed with a part of his squadron, for the purpose of attacking Stonington. The appearance of this force before the town excited much alarm, which was increased by a message from Hardy directing them to remove the women and children, as he was about to reduce the town to ashes. Although the means of defence were small, the inhabitants of Stonington determined to make an effort to repel the enemy. Bravely did the volunteers man the battery, and resist the attempt of the British to land from their boats, an attempt which was made in the evening, under cover of a heavy fire from the ships. Purposing to renew the attack next day, the enemy kept up a steady discharge of cannon until midnight. On the morning of the 10th, at dawn, one of the enemy's vessels approached within pistol shot of the battery, and the barges advanced in still greater numbers than the day before: these were again gallantly repulsed, and the vessel was driven from her anchorage. The squad ron then renewed the bombardment of the town, but without effect; and on the 12th, the commodore thought proper to retire. The inhabitants of Stonington received, as they deserved, much praise for their resolute defence of their hearths and homes. On the 1st of September, a squadron of over twenty British vessels entered the mouth of the Penobscot, and took possession of Castine and Bel- 1814. fast. They destroyed all the vessels which they found there, garri soned the former place, and thence proceeded against other places in the vi cinity. All the country east of the Penobscot River, which Great Britain had formerly contended was the true St. Croix, was at the same time claimed as British territory; and, could she have made good her claim, it would have been very valuable to her interests, as being the most convenient route between Canada and Nova Scotia. And thus, as was reproachfully said, "without a blow struck, Massachusetts passed under the British yoke; and so re mained, without the least resistance, till restored at the peace. It was the Cn. XI] PREVOST MARCHES AGAINST PLATTSBURG. only part of the United States under undisputed British dominion." Part of the force employed in this expedition, ascended the river in pursuit of the United States frigate, John Adams, Captain Morris, which had taken refuge at Hampden, on the Penobscot, when chased by the British squadron. They succeeded in driving away the militia who had been summoned to defend the ship, and the vessel was burnt after the conflict. Preparations were thus made for the setting out of a great expedition, which had been arranged for the purpose of retaliating upon the Americans the invasion of Canada. Plattsburg was at this time almost wholly denuded of troops, who had been ordered (p. 238) to join the expedition under General Brown. Sir George Prevost, on the other hand, had received such reinforcements from the British army abroad, that he had under his command, at this time, not fewer than from twelve to fourteen thousand men. Nine or ten thousand of these, 1814. all of them veterans in arms, with a formidable train of artillery, and commanders of equal experience and skill, were collected on the frontier of Lower Canada. The naval part of the expedition, however, which, as all former attempts had showed, was of first importance for success, by no means corresponded in fitness and extent with these military preparations. A frigate, a brig, two sloops, and twelve gunboats, badly equipped, and manned for the most part with soldiers and militia, commanded too by an officer with whom the few sailors in the flotilla were unac quainted, composed the force on which VOL. III.-31 241 Prevost relied for co-operation and support in crushing his American opponents, and invading New York.* On the 3d of September, this formidable army took possession of the village of Champlain, and, from the proclamations and the impressments of wagons and teams in this vicinity, it was soon discovered that the immediate object of attack was Plattsburg. General Macomb lost no time in placing the works in a state of defence. In order to create emulation and zeal among the officers and men, they were divided into detachments, and stationed in the several forts; and the general declared, in his orders, that each detachment was the garrison of its own work, and bound to defend it to the last extremity. At the same time, he called on General Mooers, of the New York militia, and with him adopted measures for calling them out en masse. General Mooers, having collected about seven hundred militia, advanced, on the 4th, seven miles on the Beekmantown road, to watch the motions of the enemy and skirmish with them as they approached, and at the same. time to obstruct the road by breaking down the bridges and felling trees. The rifle corps, under Colonel Appling, on the lake road, fell back as 1814. far as Dead Creek, having done *Such is the British account: American authorities, on the other hand, claim that the enemy's force was superior to that of the Americans; the British numbering ninety-five guns and a thousand men, while the Americans had only eighty-six guns and eight hundred and twenty men. the river, and occupying an extent of nearly three miles, their left resting on the lake about a mile north of the vil lage. From the 6th of September until the morning of the 11th, an almost continual skirmishing was kept up between the enemy's pickets and our militia stationed on the river; and in the mean time, both armies were busily engaged; ours in strengthening the works of the forts, and that of the enemy in erecting batteries, collecting ladders, bringing up his heavy ordnance, and making other preparations for attacking the fort. The New York and Vermont militia, who had come in in large num bers, behaved with excellent spirit, and were at work day and night cheerfully, in strengthening the defences and harassing the invaders. the British advanced to within a few miles of Colonel Appling's position, but finding it too strong to attack, they halted, and caused a road to be made west into the Beekmantown road. By this opening the light brigade under General Powers advanced, and on the morning of the 6th, about seven o'clock, attacked the militia, under General Mooers, and a small detachment of regulars under Major Wool, about seven miles from Plattsburg. After the first fire, a considerable part of the militia broke and fled in every direction. A few, however, manfully stood their ground, and, with the small corps of Major Wool, bravely contested the field against five times their number, falling back gradually, until they reached the south bank of the Saranac, where they were able to maintain their position against the onslaughts of the enemy. Colonel Appling's rifle corps, and the detachment under Captain Sprowl, re-sault on the American fortifications untired from their position at Dead Creek, in time to join the militia just before entering the American works, which they did in good order, keeping up a brisk fire until they got under cover. Plattsburg is situated on the north side of the small river Saranac, near its entrance into Lake Champlain; the American works were on the southern side, directly opposite. As the village was no longer tenable, General Macomb directed the bridge over the Saranac to be destroyed, and the planks were made to serve for erecting breastworks, behind which our troops were able to hinder effectually the advance of the enemy. The British encamped on the ridge west of the town, their right near The British commanders, though pos sessing so large a force, delayed the as til the arrival of their flotilla, intending 1814. M'Donough, on his part, with a cour age far from usual among naval men of that day, gathered his officers and crew together early in the morning, and, being himself a member of the Episcopal Church, offered up, fervently and sol emnly, the impressive prayers and sup |