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This fact is scarcely noticed by the American editors; although the smallest of these three vessels, when captured from us a short time previous,* was, with the utmost gravity, styled, -"His Britannic majesty's schooner Chippeway." The British loss on this occasion, including that of the royal Scots already given, amounted to 31 killed, 72 wounded, and nine missing. The American loss does not appear; except where general Hall states, that "many valuables were lost. Owing to the nimbleness of the American militia, and the contiguity of the woods, only 130 prisoners were made; among whom was the notorious colonel, or doctor Chapin. Major-general Hall himself, with nearly 300 of the most pursy of his soldiers, brought up at the Eleven-mile Creek, about three miles from Buffaloe.

The nine missing of our troops were some careless fellows who had strayed to the margin of the village, and were captured on the 1st of January, by an American scouting party, headed by a captain Stone. Two officers of this detachment were surprised, while on horseback, by a patrole of the 19th light dragoons, and one, "lieutenant Totman, of the Canadian volunteers," was shot. Mr. Thomson declars, that

James's Naval Occurrences, p. 286.

+ Nav. Hist. of the United States, Vol. II. p. 242. + App. No. 7.

lieutenants Riddle and Totman" would have given themselves up, but for the treatment which other prisoners on the Niagara had recently received."* These American editors are never at a loss. The fact is, Mr. Totman was like his friend Mr. Wilcocks, an Irishman, and an inhabitant of Upper Canada, where he had resided many years. With a halter thus before his eyes, he had a much more powerful inducement than is alleged by Mr. Thomson, for not delivering himself up to the British.

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Mr. Thomson is very loud in his complaints against the "timid militia,” assembled at Buffaloe and Black Rock. Nor is he so without reason; for, in proof of the numerous population in and around those villages, we find it stated by a writer from Batavia, under date of December the 23d, that 5000 men could be assembled in 24 hours: nay, Mr. O'Connor himself fixes the number of sufferers, by the confiagration, alone, at " 12000 persons."† Nor does this number include such as resided even a short distance beyond the narrow slip of land, which was the scene of the British incursion. It was not a week after the pusillanimous behaviour of the American militia upon this frontier, that Mr. Wright, member of congress for Maryland, in a speech which was to prove, that the ariny of

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*Sketches of the War, p. 192.

+ Hist. of the War, p. 164,

the United States had "been marvellously successful," said thus: "There was no evidence against the courage or conduct of our army; which had displayed, not Roman but American valor so conspicuous, indeed, had been the courage displayed, by both our army and navy, that he hoped whoever should hereafter speak of Roman valor, on this floor, would be considered as speaking of the second degree, and not of the first."* As far as any thing appears on the minutes of this day's debates, Mr. Wright's language caused no unusual sensation in the house.

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After the American Niagara frontier had thus suffered a just retribution for the conduct of the American government along the shores of Upper Canada, the British troops, under majorgeneral Rial, evacuated the whole of the territory of the United States, except Fort-Niagara, at which a small garrison was stationed; and the centre-division of the army of Upper Canada, consisting now of about 2500 rank and file, retired into peaceable winter-quarters at FortNiagara, St. David's, Burlington Heights, and York. Mr. O'Connor, after declaring that our proceedings had been marked "with the ferocity of the tiger, and the all-desolating ruin of the locust," adds: "On the 4th of January the robbers retired into their own woods; not daring

* Proceedings of Congress, January 6, 1814.

to wait the chastisement that was preparing for them." He next furnishes us with a piece of useful information." The enemy," says he,

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having declared their conduct on the Niagara frontier to have been committed in retaliation

for excesses said to have been committed by the American armies in Canada, the censure, or rather indignation, of the suffering inhabitants was turned against general M Clure, who had the command. The general, previous to retiring from command, published an address to the public, in justification of his own conduct, in which he seems to have been pretty successful."* His success did not, at all events, reach to the security of his person; for he was compelled, for a long while, to have a strong guard of regular troops stationed before his door, in order to restrain the justly enraged population from treating him as he deserved.

In the harbor at Erie,† distant 91 miles from Buffaloe, were lying the ships, brigs, and larger schooners of the American fleet; nor could they seek safety upon the lake, on account of the ice that surrounded them. The Americans, having good reason to fear an attack upon, had, by collecting troops and cutting away the ice from the sides of the vessels, made every arrangement for the security of, this important depôt. After the incompetency of the American militia to * History of the War, p. 164. + See p. 49.

defend the post, had, however, been so well proved, we presume it was the known unbearable state of the ice, and not any special orders from Quebec, that restrained major-general Rial from attempting to carry into effect so desirable an object.

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Having now brought to a close the campaign of 1813, against the British provinces; we will borrow an American editor's remarks upon the subject. Though," says Mr. Thomson, "the American arms had attained a high degree of reputation, no one advantage was obtained, to atone for the blood and treasure which had already been exhausted. The capital of Upper Canada had been taken. It was scarcely captured, before it was abandoned. The bulwark of the province, Fort-George, had been gal lantly carried; but an inferior force was suffered to escape, after being beaten; and the conquerors were soon after confined to the works of the garrison, and closely invested upwards of six months. The long contemplated attack upon Montreal was frustrated: Kingston still remained a safe and advantageous harbor, in the hands of the enemy; and a fortress,* which might have been long, and obstinately, and effectually defended, was yielded, with scarcely a struggle, and under circumstances mysterious in the extreme, to the retaliating invaders of the * Fort-Niagara.

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