their naval affairs. This force was divided amongst the vessels, and, of course, assisted most materially in teaching the more undisciplined part of the crews their duty, and the Commodore was soon enabled to chase every British vessel into port, and thus become master of Lake Ontario. Between October 1812 and April 1813, Commodore Chauncey directed his attention and energies to prepare a fleet to co-operate with General Dearborn, in the combined attack we have already mentioned as in preparation, and by the 25th April, with a fleet of ten vessels, he announced his readiness for action. We will, however, leave him for the present, prepared for sea, and return to Colonel Proctor, whom we left in the west, watching General Harrison's move ments. pance in the various accounts. James, in describing it, relates: "No effect was produced, beyond killing one, and wounding seven of General Harrison's men." Major Richardson, who was present, says: "It was impossible to have artillery better served; every ball that was fired sunk into the roof of the magazine, scattering the earth to a considerable distance, and burying many of the workmen in its bed, from whence we could distinctly perceive the survivors dragging forth the bodies of their slaughtered comrades." Whatever the precise amount of loss experienced by the Americans, at all events General Harrison was desirous of ending it, and of dislodging a troublesome enemy, whose presence interfered most materially with his plans. He was the more inclined to this step as a reinforcement of twelve hundred Kentuckians under General Clay had just arrived. This body was ordered by Gen. Harrison to After a brief glance at the operations in this quarter, we will proceed to take up in order the attack on York, that on Niagara, and follow, also, the fate of Sir George Pre-attack the British redoubts on one side of the vost's expedition against Sackett's harbour. river, while he should make a sortie from the By this arrangement the reader will have fort on the other. placed before him, nearly in order of date, the various movements, military and naval, of the first six months of 1813, and will be enabled to judge of the formidable difficulties against which the British commander had to contend. After Gen. Winchester's defeat, and when sufficient time had been Expedition to the Miami, and attack on afforded to General Harthe American defences. rison to enable him to recover from his panic, he directed his attention to the construction of works, to serve as a sort of point d'appui. Gen. Proctor, anxious to frustrate his intentions, and desirous of striking a decisive blow in this quarter, prepared for an expedition to accomplish these designs. General Harrison's plan was a good one, had it been well carried out, and he had certainly troops enough to have executed any design he might have formed. The overwhelming force under General Clay easily succeeded in forcing the British line on one side, but advancing too far, and failing in forming a junction with the sallying party under Col. Miller, which had by this time carried the battery, they were attacked by Gen. Proctor, and nearly all captured or killed. Col. Miller's party were then in turn attacked by Proctor, and the battery retaken: the Americans making good their retreat to Fort Meigs. Ingersol observes, “thus another reverse was the result of rash confidence and discipline, and the insensibility of inexperienced He embarked, therefore, on the 23rd April, troops to the vital importance of implicit at Amherstburg, with five hundred and twenty obedience; perhaps, too, on this, as on many regulars, four hundred and sixty militia, and other occasions, to the want of that energetic about fifteen hundred Indians, accompanied control by a commander, without which even by two gun-boats and some artillery. The discipline and obedience fail." Ingersol's conseason was wet, and, as is usually the case at cluding remark on this affair is too curious to this period, the heavy roads presented very be omitted. "HITHERTO WAR HAD BEEN CONformidable obstacles to the transportation of FINED TO THE SORRY ENDEAVOUR TO DEFEND THE heavy artillery. By the first of May, however, coUNTRY FROM INVASION, WHILE ITS NUMERICAL his preparations were concluded, and a heavy AND PHYSICAL POWER, IF WELL DIRECTED, was fire was opened on the enemy's works. As ABLE TO HAVE MAde itself felt IN LARGE CONto the effect of this fire there is a great discre-QUESTS OF EXTENSIVE FOREIGN TERRITORIES.” There is something particularly absurd in of their nature, forced the British guard, and this sentence: from the very commencement selecting their victims, commenced the work of the war,a series of aggressive demonstrations of blood. In vain did the harrassed and had been made by the Americans. Elizabeth, indignant escort attempt to save them from Queenston, Erie and Amherstburg had been the fury of their destroyers; the phrenzy of successively the point of attack; the main these wretches knew no bounds, and an old object of these movements had been the and excellent soldier of the name of Russell, occupation of the rich peninsula which of the 41st, was shot through the heart while forms the western portion of Upper Canada, endeavoring to wrest a victim from the grasp Gen. Harrison's present works were in further- of his assailant. Forty of these unhappy men ance of a combined attack to be made for the acquisition of this coveted territory; yet forsooth we are told that hitherto with Americans the war had been defensive. This very war, denounced in Congress as an unjust attempt to acquire territory which the Union neither wanted, nor had the means to hold; against the prosecution of which, the Eastern States had made so determined a stand as to refuse the quota of militia required from them. The repeated failures of this war we now find put forth as the struggle of a brave, but undisciplined militia, to repel invasion!! The facts of the war should have prevented Ingersol from setting up so very ridiculous and untenable a position. had already fallen beneath the steel of the infuriated party, when Tecumseh, apprised of what was doing, rode up at full speed, and raising his tomahawk, threatened to destroy the first man who resisted his injunction to desist. Even on those lawless people, to whom the language of coercion had hitherto been unknown, the threats and tone of the exasperated chieftain produced an instantaneous effect, and they retired at once humiliated and confounded." "Never did Tecumseh shine more truly himself than on this occasion; and nought of the savage could be distinguished save the color and the garb. Ever merciful and magnanimous as he was ardent and courageous, the voice of the suppliant seldom reached him in The defeat of the Americans was very com- vain; and although war was his idol, the eleplete, but Richardson shows that scenes far less ment in which he lived, his heart was formed satisfactory now occurred. Major R. writes, to glow with all the nobler and more generous "the victory obtained at the Miami was such impulses of the warrior; nor was his high as to reflect credit on every branch of the character less esteemed by ourselves than service; but the satisfaction arising from the reverenced by the various tribes over which, conviction was deeply embittered by an act in his quality of brother to the Prophet, he inof cruelty, which, as the writer of an impartial variably presided. In any other country, and memoir, it becomes my painful duty to record. governing any other men, Tecumseh would In the heat of the action a strong corps of the have been a hero; at the head of this uncivenemy, who had thrown down their arms, and ilized and untractable people he was a savage; surrendered themselves prisoners of war, were but a savage such as Civilization herself might immediately despatched, under an escort of not blush to acknowledge for her child. Confifty men, for the purpose of being embarked stantly opposed to the encroachments of the in the gun-boats, where it was presumed they Americans for a series of years previous to would be safe from the attacks of the Indians. their rupture with England, he had combated This measure, however, although dictated by their armies on the banks of the Wabash with the purest humanity, and apparently offer- success, and given their leaders proof of a skill ing the most probable means of security, and judgment in defence of his native soil proved one of fatal import to several of the which would not have disgraced the earlier prisoners. On gaining our encampment, then stages of military science in Europe. General entirely deserted by the troops, they were Harrison himself, a commander with whom he assailed by a few cowardly and treacherous had often disputed the palm of victory, with the Indians, who had borne no share in the action, generous candor of the soldier, subsequently yet who now, guided by the savage instinct ascribed to him virtues as man, and abilities as a warrior, commanding at once the atten- by American officials for every Indian scalp. tion and admiration of his enemies." "The survivors of this melancholy catastrophe were immediately conveyed on board the gun boats moored in the river; and every precaution having been taken to prevent a renewal of the scene, the escorting party proceeded to the interment of the victims, to whom the rites of sepulture were afforded even before those of our own men who had fallen in the action. Colonel Dudley, second in command of General Clay's division, was among the number of the slain." In place of so unjustly condemning the British as participators and instigators in such cruel scenes, Americans should have asked, have we not had meted to us the cup of tribulation and misery so unsparingly measured out by ourselves to our red brethren. General Proctor de serted by the Indians After the action General Proctor ascertained the impossibility of restraining the Indians from pursuing their established custom of returning home to secure the booty they had acquired. A great part of the militia also represented the absolute necessity that existed for them to return to short Canadian season for preparing their crops. General Proctor, therefore, found himself compelled to embark his guns and stores, raise the siege of Fort Meigs, and return to Amherstburg. We will begin our next chapter with the account of this embarkation to be found in General Proctor's letters to Sir G. Prevost. Every one must deplore this transaction, and regret that proper measures had not been adopted to insure protection to the captives; most unhappily, too, it afforded an opportunity their homes so as to take advantage of the to American writers to indulge still more freely in the strain of bitter invective already so common, and they were now enabled to color with some shadow of truth, the numerous appeals made against the British for acting in concert with the Indians. We do not pretend to palliate this inhuman massacre; but still, it must be borne in mind that the Indians far outnumbered their allies, and that they were smarting under the sense of a long series of injuries inflicted on them by the Americans. They had never experienced mercy at the hand of their enemies, the lesson of moderation and mercy had never been taught them, and at this precise time, a reward had been offered Col. Proctor's embarkation return of the force, of all ranks and services, including Commissariat officers, &c., on this expedition, gives five hundred and twenty two regulars, and four hundred and sixty-one militia. His loss of killed, wounded and missing was estimated at one hundred and one. |