JACOB BROWN. MAJOR GENERAL JACOB BROWN, the | says the contemporary biographical defender of the New York frontier in notice in the "Analectical Magazine," the war of 1812, like his predecessor, General Greene, of the war of the Revolution, was of Quaker parentage, a proof that the coolness of temper and resoluteness of mind generated by the principles of the sect, are not unfriendly, spite of pacific professions, to military employments. Your calm, earnest man, when he is once roused by a great cause an inferior one is not likely to agitate him—and brought into the field, is apt to be a brave and persistent warrior. General Jacob Brown proved himself a man of this mettle, one upon whom the country could rely in a season of danger and difficulty, who turned a series of disasters into victories, and national depression into exalt ation. He was born in the Revolutionary era, 1775, in Bucks County, Pennsylva nia, a few miles below Trenton, on the Delaware. His father, Samuel Brown, fourth in descent from one of the earliest English settlers on the Delaware, pursued there the life of a respectable farmer, giving his son such advantages of education as his position at that time afforded, and bringing him up with the Quaker views and habits of the family. "His early education," published when he had achieved distinction, "was such as the youth of the sect commonly receive; accurate and useful so far as it went, without aspiring to elegant literature, or mere specu lative science: but his mind was natu rally too active and inquisitive to rest content with these humble rudiments, and by seizing upon every opportunity of improvement, in the course of his very diversified life, he has gradually acquired a large fund of various and well-digested knowledge." The youth undoubtedly showed some preference for learning, over the usual employments of the farm, which might have afforded him occupation, for we hear of his being engaged at eighteen as the teacher of a respectable Quaker school at Crosswicks, in his native State. This, however, he left on becoming of age, to proceed to Ohio, where he followed the business of a surveyor of the public lands-a calling, even at that comparatively recent period in the West, not unfavorable to the development of his resources and expe rience in the field, preparatory to mili tary service. Indeed, a good general must always have something of the eye of a practical surveyor. From this residence at Cincinnati, Brown returned to the seaboard to engage again in the profession of a teacher at New York, where he had charge of the public school of the society of Friends. To this responsible task he devoted himself for a short time with great energy, acquiring reputation and improving his mind by new studies, and observations of city life. Like many of those who engage in this pursuit, he was led to the study of the law, which he commenced, and which might have engrossed the remainder of his life had he not been diverted by a scheme of land speculation on the borders of Lake Ontario, in the vicinity of Sackett's Harbor, in Jefferson County. He removed thither in 1799, built the first house in what is now the flourishing town of Brownville, which was called after him, shared in the spirit of enterprise and speculation which was then directed to the frontier, became a man of consequence in the new district, and acquired wealth as settlers came to purchase his lands. "As the country continued to improve," in the words of the biography already cited, "Brown rose with it in importance and public estimation. He was appointed a county court judge, and became a leading man in all the public business of that part of the country. He now gradually threw off the dress and manners of his sect, and on a change which took place in the organization of the militia, was appointed to the command of a regi ment; and not long after, promoted to the rank of brigadier general. In this situation, which gave him military rank without affording him much opportu nity for acquiring military knowledge, the late war found him, and when the first detachment of the western militia of New York was ordered into the service of the United States, General Brown was designated by Governor Tompkins to the command of a brigade, and intrusted with the general care of the northern frontier. He applied himself, with his usual diligence and activity, to the discharge of these new and important duties; doubtless, at first, with no further views of military life than the natural and laudable desire of filling the station in which he was placed, for a short term of service, with credit and usefulness." He was in this first campaign called into the field to repel the assault of the British upon Ogdensburg in Oc tober, 1812. The attack was made by a force of seven hundred and fifty men, who attempted a landing under cover of the fire from the opposite batteries, within easy range, of Prescott. As the enemy approached the shore, they were repulsed by a battery of two guns, and the small arms of the militia, the defence being under the direction of General Brown. The engagement lasted about an hour, when it ended with the retreat of the British, who, unable to effect a landing, suffered a loss of three killed and four wounded, while the only injury the defenders received was some slight damage done to the buildings on the shore.1 The campaign of the following spring opened with the movements of Commodore Chauncey, with the command 'Dawson's Battles of the United States, II. 138. of General Dearborn on the upper end of the lake, directed against York. That mutilated and unimproved victory which cost the country the life of one of the most gallant officers of the service, General Pike, was succeeded by the conquest of Fort George-a considerable effort, which left the depot of military supplies and the ship-yards at Sackett's Harbor comparatively undefended. The British, who were in strength at Kingston, on the opposite shore of the lake, with a considerable naval force under the command of Sir James Lucas Yeo, and a large body of regulars led by Governor General Sir George Prevost, determined to make an attack upon this place, whither Chauncey had transported the stores captured at York. Accordingly, simultaneously almost with the capture of Fort George, the very day after that event, the 28th May, 1813, they appeared with an imposing squadron of nine vessels, carrying a force of at least nine hundred men, mostly veterans. Sir James Yeo and Sir George Prevost were severally in command. To meet them at Sackett's Harbor there was a garrison of some eight hundred men, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Backus, of the light dragoons. A party of Albany volunteers was also present, and the militia of the county around came in to the number of five hundred. The command of the whole would naturally have devolved upon Col. Backus; but General Dearborn, who directed the campaign, had, before leaving for his operations at York, requested General Brown, in case of an invasion, to take charge of the defence. The latter would willingly have left this duty to the regular officer, but being also urged by him he accepted it. Very little was done the first day by Sir George Prevost. Indeed, moved by some irresolute impulse, he appeared to be about to withdraw the squadron, and did thus lose an important advantage of position into which his fleet had been brought. The success of his Indian allies, however, in cutting off several boats of an American party making for the fort at the entrance to the harbor, reassured him, and early the next morning he resumed his appa rently interrupted purpose. Landing his entire forces, they were at first met by a body of militia stationed by General Brown to receive them behind a bank of gravel. The latter, after their first discharge of their muskets, fled be fore the advancing veterans. General Brown rallied a portion of them, but was compelled in this first instance to retire. The Albany volunteers did good service, however, and the regulars, with the guns of Fort Tompkins, did such execution that they decided the fate of the day and compelled the assailants to retreat with a considerable loss of officers and men. The American loss was also severe, and included Lieutenant Colonel Backus, of the first regi ment of Light Dragoons, who fell at the head of his troops in the moment of victory. Unhappily, in the early part of the engagement an alarm from the first successes of the enemy had led to the destruction of the stores and setting fire to a ship on the stocks, nearly ready to be launched. The conflagration, however, was checked, on the re treat of the enemy. This success established the military reputation of General Brown, and led to his appointment to a commission in the regular army, with the same rank which he held in the militia, as brigadier general. He was employed in the movement of the following November, of Wilkinson, in conducting a portion of that general's command down the St. Lawrence in the magnificently planned, but unhappily prosecuted expedition against Montreal. He was familiar with this portion of the river, and performed his part of the work with credit, successfully resisting, with his brigade, at French Creek, the vessels of the enemy sent to oppose the American advance. He was not, however, at the subsequent engagement at Chrystler's Farm. The whole affair was shortly after abandoned by Wilkinson, and the army went into winter quarters on the border of New York, at French Mills. the enemy. Early in July, the army was set in motion, the river crossed to the British territory, Fort Erie taken, and the advance made toward Chip pewa, the scene of the engagement on the fifth. At the outset of this battle, General Brown was in the wood, on the left of the American position, directing the movements of General Porter, who had been engaged during the day in skirmishing with the British militia and Indians. About four o'clock in the afternoon, he perceived the main body of the enemy to be advancing, and communicating the fact to General Scott, with the remark, "you will have a fight," hastened to bring up the division in the rear. Before his dispositions were completed, and without the aid of his flanking manoeuvre, the fortune of the day was decided on the plain by the chivalric brigade of Scott. This brilliant success undoubtedly gave vigor to the succeeding severely The campaign of the following year, contested action, at Niagara, on the 1814, was destined to retrieve the dis- twenty-fifth. It was the object of Genasters of the preceding. Brigadier eral Brown, in this expedition, to gain General Brown was created a Major possession of the river, and advance General, and assigned the command on by the aid of Commodore Chauncey's the Niagara frontier, which became the fleet to the conquest of Burlington scene of some of the most brilliant Heights, at the head of Lake Ontario. engagements of the whole war. It was Thus far the project was successfully under General Brown's command, it carried out. General Brown, anxious will be remembered, that General Scott to proceed, pushed his forces forward, so greatly distinguished himself at expecting to meet the enemy behind Chippewa, and at Niagara or Lundy's the Chippewa, when it was found they Lane. Scott joined General Brown as had retreated to the lake. The Ame he was conducting the army from rican army then advanced to QueensFrench Mills to Buffalo, where a camp town, and encamped at that place, of instruction was formed, which added while the British general, Riall, reingreatly to the efficiency of the troops forced Fort George, and its companion, in the succeeding engagements with Fort Mississaga, and strengthened by additional troops, took position at Fif teen Mile Creek, about thirteen miles from the American quarters. Upon this the question was discussed of attacking Fort George, and a movement was made in that direction, when a retrograde march was resolved upon to draw the enemy from his strong position. General Brown, consequently, retreated beyond the Chippewa. This was his situation on the twenty-fourth. He was followed by the British, but not exactly in the manner he anticipated. They, meanwhile, had received important reinforcements, brought by Lieutenant General Sir Gordon Drummond, from Kingston, on the lake, and were in pursuit of their enemy. Singularly enough, the American commander-in-chief was ignorant of the arrival of this new force, and of the march of the army at all. What intelligence he had was entirely false. It was received on the afternoon of the twenty-fifth, to the purport that the British had crossed from Queenstown to Lewiston, on the American side, with the intention of cutting off the supplies from Buffalo. So General Brown resolved to expedite his intended return, and sent Scott rapidly back to effect a diversion by threatening the forts at the mouth of the river. The latter started immediately, and had proceeded only two miles when he came up with the advance of the British army. He was under the impression that they were manoeuvering to protect the flank movement on the American side; and he also perceived that they were largely reinforced. He had come upon them unexpectedly; retreat was not easy; it appeared the safer course to begin the attack. The enemy was well posted, but Scott's dispositions of his force were well made, and he had more than maintained the fortune of the evening when General Brown arrived on the field with the reserve. Relieving General Scott's bri gade, he interposed the fresh troops of General Ripley's regiments, and ordered a charge upon the enemy's artillery, which were advantageously posted on a height. The position was gallantly carried by Colonel Miller, when the British, continually reinforced from their rear, attempted to regain the artillery. Both Scott and Brown were severely wounded in repelling these assaults, but the Americans remained in posses sion of the field; and General Ripley, who was left in command, brought them before morning to the encampment at Chippewa. The next day the army moved to Fort Erie, and intrenched itself strongly at that post. The enemy made his appearance a week after, on the third of August, and opened his first battery on the seventh. On the night of the fourteenth an attack was expected, and the works, which had been well planned, with the aid of Lieutenant David B. Douglas, of the engineer corps, were prepared for the assault. It was made before daylight of the next morning, with great fury, and was met with equal resolution. The enemy were repulsed by the main batteries, but gained possession of one of the bastions, from which they were fatally dislodged by its explosion. They retired fron |