and all the concerns consequent of such a battle that I have not been able to forward this despatch at as early an hour as I could have wished. I shall soon forward you another despatch in which I shall endeavor to point out to you the conduct of some most gallant and deserving officers. But I cannot in justice close this without impressing the very great obligation I am under to Brigadier-General Wadsworth, Colonel Van Rensselaer, Colonel Scott, Lieutenant-Colonels Chrystie and Fenwick and Captain Gibson. Many others have also behaved most gallantly. As I have reason to believe that many of our troops fled to the woods with the hope of crossing the river, I have not been able to learn the probable number of killed, wounded and prisoners. The slaughter of our troops must have been very considerable and the enemy have suffered severely. General Brock is among their slain, and his Aid-deCamp mortally wounded. I have the honor to be yours, &c., &c., Maj.-Gen. Dearborn. Stephen Van Rensselaer, Maj.-Gen. The following is the report of the Officer commanding the detachment (the present Colonel Wool) which obtained possession of the battery, by ascending the concealed fisherman's path, in the early part of the day. From Captain Wool to Colonel Van Rensselaer. Buffalo, Oct. 23, 1812. Dear Sir, I have the honor to communicate to you the circumstances attending the storming of Queenstown battery on the 13th inst.; with those which happened previously you are already well acquainted. In pursuance of your order, we proceeded round the point and ascended the rocks, which brought us partly in rear of the battery. We took it without much resistance. I immediately formed the troops in rear of the battery, and fronting the village, when I observed General Brock with his troops formed, consisting of four companies of the 49th Regiment, and a few militia, marching for our left flank. I immediately detached a party of 150 men, to take possession of the heights above Queenstown bat tery and to hold General Brock in check; but in consequence of his superior force they retreated. I sent a reinforcement; notwithstanding which the enemy drove us to the edge of the bank, when with the greatest exertions we brought the troops to a stand, and I ordered the Officers to bring their men to a charge as soon as the ammunition was expended, which was executed with some confusion, and in a few moments the enemy retreated. We pursued them to the edge of the heights, when Col. Macdonell had his horse shot from under him, and was himself mortally wounded. In the interim, General Brock, in attempting to rally his forces, was killed, when the enemy dispersed in every direction. As soon as it was practicable, I formed the troops in a line on the heights fronting the village, and immediately detached flanking parties, which consisted of Captain Machesney, of the 6th Regiment, Lieutenant Smith, and Ensign Grosvenor with a small detachment of riflemen, who had that moment arrived; at the same time, I ordered Lieutenant Gansevoort and Lieutenant Randolph, with a detachment of artillery, to drill out an 18-pounder which had been previously spiked, and if possible to bring it to bear upon the village. The wounded and prisoners I ordered to be collected, and sent to the guard-house. About this time, which was about three or four o'clock in the afternoon, Lieutenant-Col. Chrystie arrived, and took the command. He ordered me across the river to get my wounds dressed. I remained a short time. Our flanking parties had been driven in by the Indians but General Wadsworth and other Officers arriving, we had a short skirmish with them, and they retreated, and I crossed the river. The Officers engaged in storming the battery, were Captains Wool and Ogilvie; Lieutenants Kearney, Hugunin, Carr, and Sammons, of the 43rd Regiment; Lieutenant Gansevoort and Randolph of the Light Artillery, and Major Lush of the Militia. I recommend to your particular notice Lieuts. Randolph, Carr, and Kearney, for their brave conduct exhibited during the whole of the action. I have the honor to be, Your most obedient humble Servant Colonel Van Rensselaer. VII THE BATTLE OF FRENCHTOWN Towards the close of the autumn, General Winchester, having established himself at that point of the Miami, whither General Tupper had, on the occasion of Major Muir's retreat from Fort Wayne, been ordered to dislodge us; and thrown up on the right bank of the river a strong fortification to which, in compliment to the Governor of the State of Ohio, the name of Fort Meigs had been given, a detachment, consisting of about 50 men under the command of Major Reynolds of the Essex Militia, with a three-pounder, and 200 Indians were sent to Frenchtown' on the River Raisin, distant eighteen miles from Amherstburg, to watch his movements. Here this little party continued unmolested until the afternoon of the 18th of January, 1813, when Colonel Lewis, who had been detached from General Winchester's division, with an advanced guard of nearly 800 men suddenly fell upon them, and notwithstanding a very gallant resistance, in the course of which, efficient service was rendered by the three-pounder under Bombardier Kitson of the Royal Artillery, aided simply by a few militia acting as gunners, compelled them to retire across some intermediate open ground to a wood, distant nearly a mile from their original position. Here the enemy were kept in check not only by the fire from the three-pounder, but by a Frenchtown, now the city of Monroe, was so called because a number of French families settled upon the banks of the river, and built their houses near together, as was usual with this nationality. The stream was called Sturgeon river by the Indians, because that fish was found there in large numbers, but Riviere aux Raisins by the French, because, it is said, grapes grew in abundance on its banks. running fusillade from the Militia, and Indians, chiefly of the Pottawattomi tribe. After the conflict had continued at this point upwards of half an hour, Major Reynolds,' finding himself closely pressed by very superior numbers, gave up the contest, the Americans suffering him to effect his retreat without further interruption. In this little affair the British loss was I Militia man and 3 Indians killed. That of the enemy was much more severe, they themselves admitting 12 killed and 55 wounded. Colonel Lewis having established himself in the position, sent immediate notice of his success to General Winchester, who quitting Fort Meigs with the main body of his army, pushed forward with all expedition, and effected a junction with Colonel Lewis on the 20th. The account of the repulse of Major Reynolds having reached Amherstburg in the course of the night of the 18th, Colonel Procter, with a promptness and decision which it is to be regretted had not marked his subsequent operations, resolved on an instant advance upon the captured position, before the enemy could have time to fortify it. Accordingly the whole disposable force of the garrison was ordered upon this service, and early on the 19th, leaving a handful of men to occupy the fort, he crossed the Detroit river opposite Amherstburg, with at Major Ebenezer Reynolds, the commander of the Essex Militia, was the son of a Commissary officer to the British troops Fort Detroit when it was a British possession. In the autumn of 1812 he occupied Frenchtown with two companies of militia, but on the advance of Col. Lewis with a superior force was obliged to retire. He took part in all the engagements of the Right Division. From Sept. 10th, 1833, till the 7th of August, 1837, Major Reynolds was Sheriff of the Western District. His brother, Robert Reynolds, Deputy Assistant-Commissary-General, followed the fortunes of the army of the Right Division, and escaped when that army was defeated at Moraviantown on Oct. 5th, 1813. He was born in Detroit in 1781, and lived to an advanced age on his farm on the banks of the Detroit near Amherstburg. His narrative of the events of the war is given by Coffin in "1812; The War and its Moral," p. 195. a body of 500 troops and militia, 800 Indians under the Chief Roundhead, (Tecumseh being absent collecting reinforcements) and 3 three-pounders. The different vessels being laid up for the season, parts of their crews were ordered to serve with the artillery, and the two companies of the Newfoundland Fencibles attached to the brigade. No sight could be more beautiful than the departure of this little army from Amherstburg. It was the depth of winter; and the river at the point we crossed being four miles in breadth, the deep rumbling noise of the guns prolonging their reverberations like the roar of distant thunder, as they moved along the ice, mingled with the wild cries of the Indians, seemed to threaten some convulsion of nature; while the appearance of the troops winding along the road, now lost behind some cliff of rugged ice, now emerging into view, their polished arms glittering in the sunbeams, gave an air of romantic grandeur to the scene. On the night of the 21st, we halted and bivouacked in the open air, about five miles from the enemy's position, with no other protection from the cold than our great coats, and the fires which were kindled at our feet. Two hours before dawn, and we were again upon the advance to the River Raisin, and on the 22nd, before daybreak, came within sight of the enemy, occupying the position lately held by Major Reynolds. Such was their security and negligence that they had not thrown out a single picket, and our line was actually half formed within musket shot of their defences, before they were aware even of our presence. The conduct of Colonel Procter on this occasion has ever been a matter of astonishment to me, and on no one principle that I am aware of, can it be satisfactorily accounted for. The Americans were lying in their beds undressed and unarmed, and a prompt and forward movement of the line, either would have enabled us to have taken them with the bayonet at advantage, or to |