Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

ed savage vengeance in case they persisted in their defence his arts prevailed; the whole detachment laid down their arms, and submitted as prisoners of war.

Here opened the second volume of the massacre of Fort William Henry, (upon Lake George,) in the old French war. Genaral Proctor violated his engagements; gave up the prisoners to an indiscriminate savage massacre, as well as cruel savage tortures; and the wounded were consumed, the next day, to the number of sixty, in the general conflagration of the village.

[ocr errors]

To attempt to paint the horrors of this whole scene, would exceed the powers of my pen; language would shrink from the task; humanity stand appalled at the recital; and even Britannia herself would blush at the deed.

General Harrison, upon the first intelligence of the defeat and massacre on the Raisin, constructed hastily a stockade upon the Miami of the Lake, for the protection of his troops, which he called Fort Meigs. General Proctor followed up his victory; advanced to meet General Harrison, and invested him in Fort Meigs. General Proctor commenced his attack upon this fort with desperate fury, which continued for several days; but General Clay and Colonel Dudley advanced to the relief of the fort, at the head of a strong body of regulars, and volunteers; the latter engaged the enemy, supported by a sortie from the fort, and drove them from the field; but fell into an ambush, in his unguarded pursuit of the enemy, and suffered severely in the loss of his whole party.

General Clay, in co-operation with the garrison, succeeded in raising the siege, and dispersing the enemy, and thus Fort Meigs was relieved, after a siege of thirteen days.

[blocks in formation]

These gloomy and distressing scenes of the forest, served as so many shades to the brilliant scenes of the ocean, where the American flag continued to wave victorious.

On the 24th of February, 1813, Captain Lawrence in the Hornet of 16 guns, fell in with, and captured his Britanic Majesty's brig Peacock, of 18 guns, after an action of 15 minutes. The Peacock went down at the close of the action, with her brave Captain Peake, and the rest of her killed; but the 33 wounded were all saved. The Hornet had one killed, four wounded, and lost three sunk in the prize.

In April, Capt. Lawrence returned to port, and was promoted to the command of the Chesapeak, then lying at Boston, in a state of repair, and many of her crew had been discharged. When the Chesapeak was ready for sea, the British frigate Shannon, with the Tenedos, appeared off the harbor of Boston, and invited the Chesapeak to the contest; Capt. Lawrence promptly obeyed the invitation; completed the compliment of his crew, by vol unteers, and put to sea, June 1st. The Shannon manoeuvered for the combat, and the ships were soon in action, and along side; a short and desperate conflict ensued; Capt. Lawrence was wounded early in the action; but kept his station, until the fatal ball pierced his body, and he was carried below, when he exclaimed-" Don't give up the ship." Capt. Broke seized this eventful moment; boarded the Chesapeak, and carried her, after a sharp and desperate conflict, in which all her officers were killed or wounded; and seventy of her crew were killed, and eighty wounded.

The Shannon had twenty-three killed and fifty-six wounded. The Shannon sailed for Halifax with her prize, where Capt Lawrence and Lt. Ludlow were honourably interred, with the honors of war.

About the same time the United States' frigate Argus, Capt. Allen, sailed for France with the American minister, and from thence on a cruize in the British Channel, where her successes led the British government to dispatch several frigates to check her depredations. The Argus fell in with one of these frigates, (the Pelican,) and after a sharp and desperate action of 47 minutes, was taken and carried into port. Capt. Allen fell at the first broad-side; his lieutenant soon after, and his wheel being shot away, the ship became a wreck, yet she maintained a brave and obstinate conflict until all resistance became ineffectual; then surrendered.

The loss upon both sides was nearly equal.

About this time Commodore Porter doubled Cape Horn, and commenced a most successful cruize upon the British commerce in the great Pacific, captured several armed vessels, and destroyed the British whale fishery in those seas.

In the month of August, the skirmishing commenced upon Lake Ontario, with various success; the Creek and Choctaw Indians began their depredations with success; and the British fleet, under Sir J. B. Warren, blockaded the ports south of the Chesapeak Bay.

On the 3d of September, the United States' brig Enterprize of 16 guns, Capt. Burrows, fell in with and captured his Britanic Majesty's brig Boxer of 18 guns, Capt. Blythe, after an action of 45 minutes; the Enterprize lost 9; the Boxer 45; both captains fell in the action.

On the 26th, Commodore Rodgers arrived in port after a long cruize, in which he explored the Atlantic, circumnavigated the British Isles, and had but one conflict, in which he captured the Highflyer, off the American coast, being one of the tenders of Sir J. B. Warren's fleet.

The limits of this work will not permit me to pursue this brilliant scene of naval war, and shew in detail the capture of his Britanic Majesty's frigates Cyane and Le

vant, by the United States' frigate Constitution, in a desperate action; of his Britanic Majesty's frigate Penguin, of 32 guns, by the Hornet; of his Britanic Majesty's brig Epervier, of 18 guns, by the United States' sloop of war Peacock; of his Britanic Majesty's sloop of war Reindeer, by the United States' sloop of war Wasp; or of his Britanic Majesty's brigs Lettice and Bon Accord, and sloop of war Avon, by the Wasp; the last of which sunk in the action.

These captures were the result of close actions, in sharp and desperate conflicts; many of these prizes were stripped of every spar, and several so cut to pieces as to become unmanageable, and were burnt at sea; others sunk in the action, or immediately after.

CHAPTER XXIV.

GENERAL OPERATIONS AGAINST CANADA.

GENERAL Dearborne, who had succeeded Gen. Smyth in the command, commenced operations at the opening of the campaign of 1813, to carry the war into Canada. He accordingly detached Gen. Pike with 2000 men, to make a descent upon the town of York, and seize on the naval and military stores, as well as the vessels then on the stocks.

Gen. Pike embarked his troops on the 25th of April, crossed over the lake, and executed his commission promptly. When the enemy were driven from their several redoubts, and Gen. Pike had halted his troops to give them a moment's repose, he was astonished by the explosion of a terrible magazine, which overwhelmed his troops with a shower of stones, timber, &c. and killed and wounded more than 200 men. The fire of the soldiers soon recovered this surprise, and they rallied again to the charge under the tune of Yankee-Doodle, and their brave general animated their courage, as he lay expiring under a severe contusion from the awful explosion, with a charge to his brave troops to revenge the death of their general."

66

Colonel Pease led on the troops to the conquest of York without further opposition, and the town surrendered by capitulation.

It is recorded of York, "that a human scull was found in the hall of the assembly, placed over the mace of the speak

er."

General Dearborne did not attempt to hold possession of York; but when he had secured the stores and prisoners, he abandoned the place,

On the 22d of May, the general embarked his army on board his transports, and proceeded against the British

« ZurückWeiter »