tained the action upwards of two hours within canister distance, until every gun was rendered useless, and the greater part of her crew either killed or wounded. Finding she could no longer annoy the enemy, I left her in charge of Lieut. Yarnall, who, I was convinced from the bravery already displayed by him, would do what would comport with the honor of the flag. At half past two, the wind springing up, Capt. Elliot was enabled to bring his vessel, the Niagara, gallantly into close action; I immediately went on board of her, when he anticipated my wish by volunteering to bring the schooners which had been kept astern by the lightness of the wind, into close action. It was with unspeakable pain that I saw soon after I got on board the Niagara, the flag of the Lawrence come down, although I was perfectly sensible that she had been defended to the last, and that to have continued to make a show of resistance would have been a wanton sacrifice of the re 1 mains of her brave crew, But the enemy was not able to take possession of her, and circumstances soon permitted her flag again to be hoisted. At 45 minutes past two, the signal was made for close action.' The Niagara, being very little injured, I determined to pass through the enemy's lines, bore up and passed ahead of their two ships and a brig, giving a raking fire to them from the starboard guns, and to a large schooner, and sloop, from the larboard side, at half pistol-shot distance. The smaller vessels at this time having got within grape and canister distance, under the direction of Capt. Elliot, and keeping up a well directed fire, the 2 ships, a brig, and a schooner, surrendered, a schooner and sloop making a vain attempt to escape. Those officers and men who were immediately under my observation evinced the greatest gallantry, and I have no doubt that all others conducted themselves as became American officers and seamen. Lieut. Yarnall, first of the Lawrence, although several times wounded, refused to quit the deck. I have the honor to enclose you a statement of the relative force of the squadrons. The Capt. and first Lieut. of the Queen Charlotte, and first Lieut. of the Detroit were killed Capt. Barclay, senior officer, and the commander of the Lady Prevost, severely wounded. The commander of the Hunter and Chippeway slightly wounded. Their loss in killed and wounded I have not been able to ascertain; it must, however, have been very great. Very respectfully, &c. O. H. PERRY. U. S. Sch. Ariel, Put-in-bay, Sept. 13, 1813. SIR-I have caused the prisoners taken on the 10th inst. to be landed at Sandusky, and have requested Gen. Harrison to have them marched to Chilicothe, and there wait until your pleasure shall be known respecting them. The Lawrence has been so entirely cut up, it is absolutely necessary she should go into a safe harbor; I have therefore directed Lieut. Yarnall to proceed to Erie in her, with the wounded of the fleet, and dismantle and get her over the bar as soon as possible. The two ships in a heavy sea this day at anchor lost their masts, being much injured in the action. I shall haul them into the inner bay at this place and moor them for the present. The Detroit is a remarkably fine ship, sails well. and is very strongly built. The Queen Charlotte is a much superior vessel to what has been represented. The Lady Prevost is a large fine schooner. Force of the American squadron. Lawrence 20 guns-Niagara 20-Caledonia 3-Ariel 4— Scorpion 2-Somers 4-Trippe 1-Tigress 1-Porcupine 1-total 56 guns. Force of the British squadron. Detroit 21 guns-Queen Charlotte 18-Lady Prevost 14Hunter 10-Little Belt 3-Chippeway 3-total 69 guns. The exact number of the enemy's force has not been ascertained, but I have good reason to believe that it exceeded ours by nearly 100 men. I have the honor to be, &c. AMERICAN LOSS, O. H. PERRY. Killed 27-wounded 96. British loss not known. CAPTURE OF MALDEN. H. Q. Amherstburg, Sept. 23, 1813. SIR-I have the honor to inform you that I landed the army under my command about 3 miles below this place at 3 o'clock this evening, without opposition, and took posses-sion of the town in an hour after. Gen Proctor has retreated to Sandwich with his regular troops and Indians, having previously burned the fort, navy yard, barracks, and public store houses; the two latter were very extensive, covering several acres of ground. I will pursue the enemy to-morrow, although there is no probability of my overtaking him, as he has upwards of one thousand horses, and we have not one in the army. I shall think myself fortunate to be able to collect a sufficiency to mount the Gen. officers. It is supposed here that Gen. Proctor intends to establish himself upon the river French, forty miles from Malden. I have the honor to be, &c. WILLIAM H. HARRISON, HARRISON'S VICTORY. Gen. Harrison to the Secretary of War. SIR-In my letter from Sandwich of the 23d ultimo, I did myself the honor to inform you, that I was preparing to pursue the enemy the following day. From various causes, however I was unable to put the troops in motion until the morning of the 2d inst. and then to take with me only about one hundred and forty of the regular troops, Johnson's mounted regiment, and such of Governor Shelby's volunteers as were fit for a rapid march, the whole amounting to about three thousand five hundred men. Gen. M'Arthur (with about 700 effectives), the protecting of this place and the sick was committed. Gen. Cass's brigade, and the corps of Lieut. Col. Ball, were left at Sandwich, with orders to follow me as soon as the men received their knapsacks and blankets, which had been left on an island in Lake Erie. Το The unavoidable delay at Sandwich was attended with no disadvantage to us. Gen. Proctor had posted himself at Dalson's on the right bank of the Thames (or Trench) fifty six miles from this place, where I was informed he intended to fortify and wait to receive me, He must have believed, however, that I had no disposition to follow him, or that he had secured my continuance here, by the reports that were circulated that the Indians would attack and destroy this place upon the advance of the army; as he neglected to commence the breaking up the bridges until the night of the 2d inst. On that night our army reached the river, which is twenty-five miles from Sandwich, and is one of 4 streams crossing our route, over all of which are bridges, and being deep and muddy, are unfordable for a considerable distance into the country-the bridge here was found entire, and in the morning I proceeded with Johnson's regiment to save if possible the others. At the second bridge over a branch of the river Thames, we were fortunate enough to capture a Lieut. of dragoons and eleven privates, who had been sent by Gen. Proctor to destroy them. From the prisoners I learned that the third bridge was broken up and that the enemy had no certain information of our advance. The bridge having been imperfectly destroyed, was soon repaired and the army encamped at Drake's farm, four miles below Dalson's. The river Thames, along the banks of which our route lay, is a fine deep stream, navigable for vessels of considerable burden, after the passage of the bar at its mouth, over which, there is six and a half feet water. The baggage of the army was brought from Detroit in boats protected by three gun-boats, which Com. Perry had furnished for the purpose, as well as to cover the passage of the army over the Thames itself, or the mouths of its tributary streams; the banks being low and the country generally open (prairies) as high as Dalson's, these vessels were well calculated for that purpose. Above Dalson's however, the character of the river and adjacent country is considerably changed.---The former, though still deep, is very narrow and its banks high and woody. The Com modore and myself therefore agreed upon the propriety of leavingthe boats under a guard of one hundred and fifty infantry, and I determined to trust to fortune and the bravery of my troops to effect the passage of the river. Below a place called Chatham and 4 miles above Dalson's is the third unfordable branch of the Thames; the bridge over its mouth had been taken up by the Indians, as well as that at M'Gregor's Mills, one mile above-several hundred of the Indians remained to dispute our passage, and upon the arrival of the advanced guard, commenced a heavy fire from the opposite bank of the creek as well as that of the river. Believing that the whole force of the enemy was there, I halted the army, formed in order of battle, and brought up our two six-pounders to cover the party that were ordered to repair the bridge-a few shot from those pieces, soon drove off the Indians and enabled us, in two hours to repair the bridge and cross the troops. Col. Johnson's mounted regiment being upon the right of the army, had seized upon the remains of the bridge at the mills under a heavy fire from the Indians. Our loss on this occasion, was two killed and three or four wounded, that of the enemy was ascertained to be considerably greater. A house near the bridge containing a very considerable number of muskets had been set on fire-but it was extinguished by our troops and the arms saved. At the first farm above the bridge, we found one of the enemy's vessels on fire, loaded with arms and ordnance stores, and learned that they were a few miles ahead of us, still on the right bank of the river with the great body of the Indians. Bowles' farm, four miles from the bridge we halted for the night, found two other vessels and a large destillery filled with ordnance and other valuable stores to an immense amount in flames-it was impossible to put out the fire-two twenty-four-pounders with their carriages were taken and a large quantity of ball and shells of various sizes. The army was put in motion early on the morning of the 5th; I pushed on in advance with the mounted regiment and requested Gov. Shelby to follow as expeditiously as possible with the infantry; the Governor's zeal and that of his men ena< bled them to keep up with the cavalry, and by 9 o'clock, we were at Arnold's Mills, having taken in the course of the morning two gun-boats and several batteaux loaded with provisions and ammunition. At A rapid at the river at Arnold's mills affords the only fording to be met with for a considerable distance, but, upon examination, it was found too deep for the infantry. Having, however, fortunately taken two or three boats and some Indian canoes on the spot, and obliged the horsemen to take a foot-man behind each, the whole were safely crossed by 12 o'clock. Eight miles from the crossing we passed a farm, where a part of the British troops had encamped the night before, under the cominand of Col. Warburton: The detachment with Gen. Proctor had arrived |