"

historians upon the subject. Mr. Thomson says: "The enemy took possession of the fort and barracks, but for the little booty which he obtained, consisting of a few barrels of provisions and whiskey, he paid much more than an equivalent." Doctor Smith declares, that we captured nothing but "a naked fort." Mr. O'Connor, however, is candid enough to admit, that eight pieces of cannon, and some stores, worth about 100 dollars, fell into the enemy's hands." On the other hand, an American writer from Onondago, values the public property, destroyed or taken away by the British, at" about 40000 dollars." It was highly creditable to the troops, marines, and seamen, that, although the loading of the prizes with the ordnance and other captured property, necessarily detained them in the town for one whole night,, not a murmur of complaint, that we can find, has been uttered against them. Every thing being accomplished by four o'clock on the morning of the 7th, the ships and other vessels got. under weigh, and departed from Oswego.

A serious business, in which a party of British officers and seamen, on the 30th of May, impelled by their usual gallantry, pursued a flotilla of American boats, up a narrow creek,

* Sketches of the War, p. 263.

+ History of the United States, Vol. III. p. 308. History of the War, p. 221.

till they got ambushed and outnumbered, and were, at last, compelled, after sustaining a heavy loss in killed and wounded, to surrender, will be found detailed in our naval volume.

An occurrence on the shores of Lake-Erie now requires our notice. Long-Point in the district of London is notoriously one of the most fertile spots in Upper Canada. The ample supply of wheat and other bread-corn which it afforded during the war, rendered the preservation of its resources by one party, and their destruction by the other, a matter of equal importance. On another account, also, was Long-Point a post that ought to be guarded. It was only a day's march thence to Burlington, the grand depôt of the British army upon the Niagara line; and the enemy's entire command of Lake-Erie gave him the facility of bringing troops towards, and landing them upon, the Canadian shore, unseen and unopposed. Lieutenant-general Drummond, therefore, did right in detaching to the village of Dover on Long-Point, early in March, a troop of the 19th light dragoons, under major Lisle. There being no barracks or public buildings at the place, major Lisle and his men took possession of some private buildings, and, among them, of the dwelling-house, saw-mill, and dis tillery, of Robert Nichol, esquire, a lieutenantcolonel and quarter-master-general of the Cana

* James's Nav. Occur. p. 398.

dian militia, and then absent from home on service.

The British capture of Buffaloe and Black Rock, and the dreaded attack upon Erie, where the fleet lay, had occasioned, since early in the year, the assemblage of a force of regulars at the latter place. Aware of the small detachment stationed at Long-Point, colonel Campbell, of the19th United States' infantry,with 500 troops,+ landed there from Erie, on the 15th of May. The dragoons and the few militia that happened to be at Dover, retired; and the Americans instantly "destroyed the flour-mills, distilleries, and all the houses occupied by the soldiers, as well as many others belonging to the peaceable inhabitants of the village."† Mr. Thomson proceeds in his account thus: "A squadron of British dragoons, stationed at that place, fled at the approach of colonel Campbell's detachment; and abandoned the women and children, who experienced humane treatment from the Americans. Colonel Campbell undertook the expedition without orders; and, as his conduct was generally reprobated, a court of inquiry was instituted, to examine into his proceedings, of which general Scott was president. This court declared, that the destruction of the mills

And who proved himself, during the whole of the war, an active, intelligent, and highly useful officer.

+ Sketches of the War, p. 268.

and distilleries was according to the usages of war, but that, in burning the houses of the inha bitants, colonel Campbell had greatly erred. This error they attributed to the recollection of the scenes of the Raisin and the Miami, in the western territories, to the army of which colonel Campbell was at that time attached, and of the recent devastation of the Niagara frontier.”*

Admitting the destruction of the buildings which had been occupied by the dragoons, to have been a sanctioned military measure, was it only an "error" in the American commander, to have burnt the houses" belonging to the peaceable inhabitants of the village"? The court did not lessen its dignity in allowing itself to be swayed by the fabricated stuff in every newspaper known to be friendly to the war;" nor in forgetting what it was that had caused "the recent devastation on the Niagara frontier," so painful to the sensitive" recollection" of the American colonel? The date of this indulgent court of inquiry does not appear; but, referring to the public letter, in which Mr. Munroe, at a day long subsequent, reminds us, that colonel Campbell's" conduct was subjected to a military tribunal," we can readily conceive, that the court sat for no other purpose than to excuse him, and to exculpate the American government, for the commission of an act, which, * Sketches of the War, p. 268.

generally repro

as Mr. Thomson says, was so bated." This editor is not satisfied with having, as he supposes, freed colonel Campbell from blame: in order to enable him to expatiate upon that sickening subject, American humanity, he must reproach us. To high-minded Americans it could not fail to appear as a very dastardly act, for 70 or 80 dragoons to retreat before 500 infantry. The British having, however, "abandoned the women and children," we shall now present a specimen of the "humane treatment," which the latter "experienced from the Americans." Not only did colonel Campbell, and his 500 regulars, lay waste as much of the surrounding country as came within their reach, and pilfer and earry off as much private property as was easily portable, but they set fire to the whole of the little village of Dover, comprizing the following 46 buildings: one saw-mill, one tanhouse, three distilleries, six stores, 13 barns, three grist-mills, and 19 dwelling-houses; thus utterly ruining 25" peaceable" families. Yet was all this no more than an "error" on the part of the American commander by whose orders it had been perpetrated.