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CHAPTER XI.

CAMPAIGN OF 1814.

MILITARY LEGISLATION.

During the war of 1812, the legislation in regard to the Regular Army shows a marked advance in wisdom over the Revolutionary enactments relating to the Continentals. From the beginning, Congress showed its appreciation of the value of long periods of service, and although it erred in fixing the term of enlistment at one year for the 20 regiments created by the act of January 29, 1813, it corrected this mistake by subsequently authorizing the President to extend the term to five years, a step which prevented repeated dispersals of the only force we could rely upon.

The necessity for hastening enlistments prompted another appeal to the country. On the 27th of January, 1814, the law was modified so as to offer $124 to each man enlisting for five years, in lieu of the $16 bounty and three months' pay previously allowed, a measure which more than tripled the cash secured upon enlistment."

Under the provisions of this act $2,012,439.33 was paid out in bounties between January 27 and October 26, and 13,898 recruits were obtained between the 1st of February and the 1st of October, the number available on the 1st of April, two days after the repulse at La Colle Mill, being only 3,337.'

Although Congress did not act until it was too late for the men enlisting to be of service during the ensuing campaign, the failure of this scheme of recruitment was more especially due to that feature of our system which, by tolerating two kinds of troops, encourages citizens and townships to offer greater bounties to the militia than the Government is willing or able to pay to recruits for the Regular Army.

Nothing could be more explicit than the Secretary of War's statement to the Military Committee that "many of the militia detached for six months have given a greater sum for substitutes than the bounty allowed by the United States for a recruit to serve for the

war."

Three regiments of rifles, enlisted for five years or during the war, were added to the Army on the 10th of February, and on the 30th of March, three regiments of artillery were formed into a corps of 12 battalions, the regiment of light artillery retaining its individual organiza

aThree months' pay of a private amounted to but $24.

American State Papers, vol. 1, p. 519.

C Report to the Senate Military Committee of October 26. American State Papers, vol. 1, p. 519.

tion. The latter act also reduced the light dragoons from two regiments to one. As reorganized by this and former laws, the Army, in March, 1814, consisted of 44 regiments of infantry, the corps of artillery (12 battalions), 1 regiment of light artillery, 1 regiment of dragoons, 4 regiments of rifles, the Corps of Engineers, the Rangers, and Sea Fencibles.

Although the paper aggregate reached 62,773, an increase of more than 5,000 over the previous year, despite the actual tripling of the bounty, the strength of the Army in September was but 38,186 men. In December the grant in land, due after the soldier's discharge, was doubled, making it 320 acres; yet, notwithstanding this encouragement, the Army dwindled away until it was only 33,424 strong in February, 1815. This falling off was largely due to desertion, which, as was the case during the Revolution, every increase of the bounty seemed to stimulate.

The figures just given are but another proof that voluntary enlistments, even when aided by extravagant bounties, can not be depended upon in a war of any duration. Forced to devise various schemes for raising men, the Government, in this instance, was only able to avoid a draft by the speedy termination of the war.

a

Although not adopted, two of the plans submitted in October, 1814, by the Secretary of War to the chairman of the Senate Military Committee recognized the principle of drafting, then known as "conscription." The first plan formed all free male citizens between the ages of 18 and 45 into classes of 100 each, each class to supply four men for the war and to replace them in case of casualty. If the class failed to supply the four men, a draft was to be made in the entire class, permission being given to the drafted men to furnish substitutes. The second plan proposed to divide the militia into three classes, embracing, respectively, men between the ages of 18 and 25, 25 and 32, and 32 and 45, the President being authorized to call out any class for the period of two years. The third plan exempted every five men from militia service who would furnish one soldier to serve for the war. This plan was not thought judicious, lest it should interfere with recruiting by reason of the large bounties that might be given by the rich. The fourth plan, to be adopted in case the three others were rejected, was to adhere to the existing system of raising troops, granting each recruit 100 acres of land for each year the war lasted, in addition to the 100 acres allowed by law.

Not yet prepared to exercise its sovereign powers to the fullest extent, Congress, as we have already seen, increased the bounty in land to 320 acres.

Happily the conclusion of peace prevented a recourse to the draft, which must have followed as the next war measure.

MILITARY OPERATIONS ON THE NIAGARA FRONTIER.

The regular troops at Buffalo passed the winter and spring of 1814 in drilling and improving their discipline. Appreciating the importance of this vital work, brigade commanders like Scott, personally taught their officers the elements of squad drill, so that they in turn might more thoroughly instruct the men.

@ American State Papers, Military Affairs, vol. 1, p. 515.

Pending preparation for renewing hostilities, the British flag still floated over the walls of Fort Niagara. Keenly alive to this national indignity, our army crossed the Niagara in July, took Fort Erie, gained the victory of Chippewa, fought the drawn battle of Lundy's Lane, fell back on Fort Erie where it was invested, raised the siege by a successful sortie, returned to the American shore after demolishing the fort, and went into winter quarters."

Although the failure of this invasion must be admitted, the splendid conduct of our army fairly entitled it to the highest praise. Composed largely of regulars who had seen service in the field, and led by Brown, Scott, and Ripley, the troops proved that American soldiers, thoroughly trained and ably commanded, were equal, if not superior, to the veteran troops of England.

At the battle of Lundy's Lane our losses, out of about 3,000 men in action, were: Regulars killed and wounded, 691; volunteers, 57; total, 748.

The British force engaged, including 1,200 militia and 500 Indians, was 5,000; their losses were 878.

The losses on both sides in this the most hotly contested battle of the war of 1812, did not reach 25 per cent.

In our late civil war a veteran regiment that lost less than 25 per cent would scarcely have considered itself seriously engaged.

MILITARY OPERATIONS ON THE NORTHERN FRONTIER.

The first invasion of Canada in 1814 was planned from the northern frontier.

On the 30th of March, Wilkinson, with nearly 4,000 regulars, crossed the boundary and attacked La Colle Mill, but being repulsed with a loss of 154 killed and wounded, he fell back on Plattsburg.

The order for this movement, dated March 29, reveals this general's opinion of the troops under his command.

*

*

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Let every

The army will enter Canada to-morrow to meet the enemy. officer and every man take the resolution to return victorious or not at all; for with double the force of the enemy this army must not give ground.

In each platoon, he added, "a tried sergeant will form a supernumerary rank and will instantly put to death any man who gives back.” The following day, without putting the courage of his soldiers to a severe test, the commander suffered himself to be checked by 180 men stationed in a stone mill, and shortly after retired from the Army.

On the 29th of August his successor, General Izard, in obedience to orders from the Secretary of War, marched from Plattsburg at the head of nearly 4,000 men for Sackett's Harbor.

This detachment of the main army at the moment the enemy was preparing to advance up Lake Champlain, reduced our military strength at Plattsburg to 1,500 effectives.

In this official report General Macomb states:

I had commanded a fine brigade which was broken up to form the division of Major-General Izard, ordered to the westward. Being senior officer he left me in

a After the siege was raised our army was increased to nearly 6,000 men under General Izard, who had arrived from Plattsburg. This commander, although a regular officer of more than usual experience, lacked the self-confidence to avail himself of his superior numbers, and therefore withdrew unmolested between the 1st and 5th of November.

Wilkinson's Memoirs, vol. 3, Appendix No. XI.

command; and, except the four companies of the Sixth Regiment, I had not an organized battalion among those remaining; the garrison was composed of convalescents, and the recruits of the new regiments--all in the greatest confusion, as well as the ordnance and stores, and the works in no state of defense."

The discomfiture of this force, subsequently augmented by militia and volunteers to 3,500 men, was only averted by the interposition of the navy.

On the 11th of September the governor-general at the head of an army of 11,000 veterans, mostly from the Spanish Peninsula, had begun an attack, when the total destruction of his fleet by Commodore McDonough broke his line of communications and immediately compelled him to return to Canada.

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In this combined victory of Plattsburg our losses on land were 99 killed and wounded. The loss of the British was 187 killed and wounded, 55 missing, and more than 800 prisoners, chiefly deserters. The influence of McDonough's victory in compelling the British to retreat is fully explained by Sir George Prevost in his official report: Scarcely had His Majesty's troops forced a passage across the Saranac and ascended the height on which stand the enemy's works when I had the extreme mortification to hear the shout of victory from the enemy's works, in consequence of the British flag being lowered on board the Confiance and Linnet, and to see our gunboats seeking their safety in flight. This unlooked-for event deprived me of the cooperation of the fleet, without which the further prosecution of the service was become impracticable. I did not hesitate to arrest the course of the troops advancing to the attack, because the most complete success would have been unavailing, and the possession of the enemy's works offered no advantage to compensate for the loss we must have sustained in acquiring possession of them.

The power of a governor to embarrass military operations in time. of actual invasion, when by the Constitution the Government has the only undoubted and justifiable right to call out the militia, was illustrated by the action of the governor of Vermont in the year 1814. According to Ingersoll:

The governor, Martin Chittenden, was an adherent of Governor Strong and his doctrines. On the 1st of September, wher the British army began its advance to Plattsburg, and General Macomb sent an express, earnestly calling on Governor Chittenden for aid, not to invade Canada, but defend Vermont, he, then at Burlington, the State capital, resolved to do nothing but go home to his residence at Jericho and there disgracefully wait events. On the 4th of September, Macomb, by another express, renewed his instances, informing the governor that the enemy had that day marched to attack Plattsburg. An officer of the militia, General Newell, tendered his brigade to the governor, to repair to Plattsburg, or anywhere else, to oppose the enemy, to which the governor's cold-blooded answer was, that he had no authority to order the militia to leave the State. On the 6th of September the cannonade, then begun, was distinctly audible at Burlington, and at Governor Chittenden's residence at Jericho. But housed and recreant there, the chief magistrate still held off, when the people, on their own spontaneous motion, in numbers crossed the lake and, following the cannonade, hurried to Plattsburg, without distinction of party, to tender their services for their country. The reports at Jericho then were that the enemy had forced his way over the Saranac, and Macomb, in imminent peril, was in great distress for reenforcements.

On Sunday, the 11th, when it was apprehended that Plattsburg had fallen, the governor was careful to say that he had neither ordered nor advised the volunteers to go there. He stood skulking behind constitutional demurrer and unmanly pretext

a Fay's American War, p. 241.

James's Military Occurrences, between Great Britain and the United States, vol. 2, p. 206.

CA. G. O.

James's Military Occurrences, between Great Britain and the United States, vol. 2, p. 223, and official report, 446.

James's Military Occurrences, between Great Britain and the United States, vol. 2, p. 463.

till the whole region was in a ferment of exultation, not only that the enemy was defeated and driven back to Canada, but that Vermont volunteers, under General Strong strictly and emphatically volunteers, for they had neither orders nor countenance from the commander in chief, had bravely resisted the attack at Plattsburg, shared in the pursuit to Chazy, and shared too in the plentiful spoils captured at every stage of hostile flight."

The retreat of the British from Lake Champlain, followed a little more than a month later by the withdrawal of our Army from Fort Erie, terminated all schemes of invasion and counter-invasion along the Canadian frontier.

THE CAPTURE OF WASHINGTON.

No better example can be given of the mismanagement of this war, than the measures adopted by the President and his Cabinet for the defense of the Capital in 1814.

Although a British fleet, with about 3,000 troops on board, had been hovering along the shores of the Chesapeake for nearly a year, it was not until June that the attention of the Administration was first turned to the danger that confronted the capital. It was then found by the Secretary of War that the regular troops in the Fifth Military District, embracing the States of Maryland and Virginia, numbered but 2,208 men. These troops, composed to a large extent of recruits, were dispersed at various points along the Cheseapeake, from Baltimore to Norfolk, and were therefore incapable of speedy concentration.

June 7, the President presented this exhibit of the troops to the Cabinet, but it neither suggested any action nor excited any alarm.

The downfall of Napoleon having made it possible for Great Britain to reenforce her troops in America, the President convened the Cabinet on the 1st of July, and submitted the proposition to call out 2,000 or 3,000 militia to be stationed near the capital; while from 10,000 to 12,000 troops from Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia, were to be held in readiness to march at a moment's notice.

From the report of the committee of the House of Representatives "appointed to inquire into the causes of the success of the enemy in his recent enterprises against this metropolis (Washington)," it appears that "the measures suggested were approved by the heads of the Departments; or, in other words, it does not appear that any dissent was expressed."

July 2, the Tenth Military District was created, consisting of the State of Maryland, the District of Columbia, and that part of Virginia lying between the Rappahannock and the Potomac.

The command of the new District was devolved upon General Winder, whose selection, according to the statement of the Secretary of War, was based "not on the ground of distinguished professional service or knowledge," but simply on a presumption that, "being a native of Maryland and a relative of the governor, Brigadier Winder would be useful in mitigating the opposition to the war, and in giving an increased efficiency to national measures within the limits of the State."

@ Ingersoll's Second War, vol. 2, p. 133.

American State Papers, vol. 1, p. 524.

Armstrong's Notices of the War of 1812, vol. 2, p. 140.

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